Good afternoon.

I'm Cindy Darling, the mayor of City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 special meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.

This special meeting is called for the purpose of holding a closed session related to the following a conference with legal counsel on existing litigation and a conference with legal council on anticipated litigation.

Does any member of the public wish to comment on a closed session item?

Seeing no one, the city council will reconvene in closed session.

Thank you very much.

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.

And that, my folks, is the last airing of that particular one, and I want to thank my co-star.

Diana who goes through that one for me.

I'll try again.

Good evening.

I am Cindy Darling, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 concurrent meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council and the Walnut Creek Joint Powers Financing Authority.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republican.

One nation under individual liberty.

City Clerk Susie Martinez, please call a roll.

Councilmember DeVini.

Here.

Councilmember Francois.

Here.

Councilmember Silva.

Here.

Mayor Pro Temwell.

Mayor Darling.

Here.

All right.

And now we are excited to have a presentation from our community college district.

I invite Chancellor Mojda.

And I always blow your nest.

To step forward and join us at the lectern and let us know what's happening besides the DVC basketball game tonight.

Well, there is so much happening at Diablo Valley College and the Contra Costa Community College District.

Thank you so much, Mayor and City Council members for providing an opportunity for the Contra Costa Community College District to present the state of our district.

Again, my name is Mojda Merizada.

I have the pleasure of serving as Chancellor to the Contra Costa Community College District.

And I am here with the amazing Diablo Valley College president who will introduce herself.

Good evening.

Thank you for this opportunity.

I'm Monica Shahal, president at DBC.

We're going to have more introductions of people that you may know as we go through this presentation.

So a little bit of a background and facts about the Contra Costa Community College District.

Well, you'll note that we were actually voted into existence, I'll call it, back in December of 1948.

At that time, there were about 250,000 residents in Contra Costa County.

We were the first countywide junior college that came into existence in the state of California.

Last year we had the honor of celebrating our 75th anniversary here, and at a time where we are considerably higher in terms of our county population, close to 1.2 million.

Today we serve approximately 50,000 students across our three colleges and two centers.

So you are familiar with Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill.

We also have a center, actually, I'll say a campus in San Ramon.

Los Medanos College in the East County supports residents in the city of Pittsburgh with our campus and presence there, as well as our newest location in the city of Brentwood.

And then in West County is Contra Costa College, and actually our very first community college.

With it within the system of community colleges in the state of California.

There are 116 community colleges in the state of California.

Approximately 2.1 million students in California are being served in the community college system.

We are the largest system of higher education in the entire nation, and quite proud of that.

And you can see that we are governed by five amazing elected officials, one of whom is here with us today.

Ms.

Diana Honig is the vice president of our governing board.

And uh Trustee Honeg actually serves the Walnut Creek area.

So a representative that very specifically serves Walnut Creek and what we call ward two.

We also have a student trustee that is on our governing board that serves on the governing board, is elected by students and rotates on an annual basis across our three colleges.

And a little bit of kind of who we serve from a demographic profile.

So what we've done with a blue bar is provided information on the county population as of the 2020 census, and then our student population.

We serve an incredibly diverse group of students across our three colleges.

These are the district wide numbers.

I'm going to turn it over to President Shahal who will share a little bit more in terms of specifics about Diablo Valley College.

And I'm so sorry we don't have the scores for the basketball game, but it seems like we might have some folks that can bring us up to speed on that a little bit later as well.

All right.

So we are quite reflective at Diablo Valley College of our larger community population.

And so you'll see that the two and three perhaps largest populations of students on our campus reflect the larger community membership as well.

And then what we offer across the district are a range of transfer as well as work directly to work certificates.

We offer more than 220 associate degrees and more than 330 certificates.

And so we serve students who are transferring to four years.

We also, of course, serve the students who are going directly to work.

And so there are a variety of options available to all of our students.

We have 81 transfer pathways across the districts that provide guaranteed admission into CSUs.

We're working on growing that number to even more.

We have career training and industry recognized credentials, and we like to meet our students where they are and anticipate their needs, and so we have lots of flexible options.

We have in-person, we have online, we have some weekend, we have night courses.

So we try and recognize that our students are coming to us from all walks of life, that we are the path to higher ed, and so their needs are very different, and we're trying to meet them where they are.

Among the services, the range of services that we offer because we want to provide for the whole student, and you know they come to the school for classes, but we certainly provide in lots of other ways.

And so we offer free tuition, and so a little more than 22,000 students received free tuition last year.

We also have multiple classes with free or low-cost textbooks, and if you recall when you were in college and the cost of those textbooks, so we're our faculty are doing what they can to reduce the cost, and so that's been wonderful.

We have wellness centers to meet the basic needs of all of our students, and so food pantries, which have been used extensively this year or this semester, mental health services, and also technology loans.

So for students who need access to Wi-Fi or to laptops, we provide all of that.

We have three foundations that serve all three colleges across the district and have raised more than 3.2 million dollars since 2020.

We offer scholarships, emergency funds and any kind of program support that our students can need so that we can provide help provide for them so they can obtain the certification or transfer that they need to then come back to the community and provide and serve the community.

We are open access institution, and students come to us at various points in their lives.

They come to us while they're in high school taking classes through dual enrollment programs or simply walk over to our campus from across the street if they can.

But they're part of early college programs, they're part of dual enrollment programs.

We have adult learners who come to us who may leave to join the workforce and then come back to us for advanced degrees, and we have community members coming to our campus to take a range of courses.

And again, we meet students where they are and provide for their needs.

We have students who are transferring to four years, whether it's public or private.

We have a range of options there, and then of course, we provide for the workforce and are constantly looking for new ways to serve those who are going directly into the workforce.

Diablo Valley has, as you may already know, a tremendous reputation for transfer, and so we are looking for ways to expand the the workforce programs as well.

We do all of this work in conjunction with workforce boards as well as with community partners.

Uh oh.

Did I do that?

Okay.

Do you need me to wait or can I continue?

Okay.

So we we work with workforce boards and community partners to ensure that we are understanding the needs of the community and that we are providing for the community through through the programs that we offer, both in and out of the classroom.

In fact, this afternoon I I spent with the Diablo Valley Tech.

Reporting in progress.

Diablo Valley Tech Initiative, which is a group of wonderful individuals working to expand jobs in technology, and so looking at ways in which we can partner with them to support the efforts that are underway there.

So we're checking to see which oh, still working on.

So we're looking for ways to partner with with the community so that we can provide services that are that are going to help the community.

Thank you, wonderful.

So those partnerships with community and workforce boards are essential to what we do.

A look at some of the areas that we serve and a look at some of the schools and how many of the graduating students from each of those schools is coming to each of the three colleges of the district.

And you'll see Los Lomas, Northgate, and Ignacio Valley, specific to this area, and the number of graduating students that are coming to Diablo Valley College.

Oh, five seconds.

Oh, sorry.

Okay.

We have lots of local students coming our way.

No.

All right.

And I think I'm turning it back over to you.

Or did I skip one?

We just skipped.

Oh, we won.

Sorry.

Very important.

51% of CSU graduates and 29% of UC graduates began at community colleges.

Both Chancellor Medizata and I also began at the community college.

I took classes at my local community college when I was in high school, went on to spend a year full time at that college before I transferred to UC Davis.

And so we know that wonderful pathways and doors are opened up to students who come to us and then move on, whether it's to work or to transfer.

These are some of the the most popular institutions that we transfer to, and I know for Diablo Valley specifically, Cal is a top destination, and that is one of the places that most of our students end up at.

So thank you.

I'll just share.

I am a proud alum of Diablo Valley College, so I like to say that I started at DVC and never left, and that is the truth.

So we wanted to share with you a little bit about our fiscal health.

So you'll see that we have an annual budget of approximately 267 million dollars and are required to maintain really two months of operating expenses as our reserve.

You can see those dollar amounts.

Really what we want to share with you is we do a lot for frankly very little, and ensure that we are fiscally stable and provide the best resources and operations as we possibly can.

And this particular slide provides information on our economic impact.

So just two years ago, we enlisted in the services of an organization that does economic impact analysis across the nation and beyond.

And in so doing, these are some of the findings that they came up with.

So that you can see our impact is about 2.3 billion dollars annually of added income to Contra Costa County, which is equivalent to approximately 23,752 jobs.

And we're a great investment.

So for every dollar that students invest in their education, they get about eight dollars and forty cents back.

You can see what the taxpayers receive, they double their money, and society um uh really receives um gains about $14.40 based on their investment.

And you'll see why that investment um pays off because we are very frugal, so um you can you uh this particular chart provides information on how um the dollar amount for which we are funded per full-time equivalent student, um, and it provides a comparison between the community college system, um, this the UC uh CSUs and our K-12 uh colleagues.

Um certainly we recognize that public education is not necessarily well funded in general, um but you can see we are uh trailing behind fairly considerably in comparison to other institutions, and we still do so by serving 100% of students who apply and choose to come to us.

I also want to mention that these dollars specifically are directed towards in-classroom instruction and wraparound support services.

They do not, we are not provided resources for other things like our facilities, which you'll hear more about in just a moment, and here we are.

You, our amazing taxpayers have actually funded the major facilities improvements that you have seen across our three colleges.

So the most recent bond measure, um, measure E was passed in 2014.

That particular bond measure is approximately 90% spent at this moment.

Um and given that it is approximately 90% spent, we wanted to share with you the particular photo that um was here, um, is our um our beautiful art facility.

Um so if you have not had an opportunity to come and visit our campus and the and the beautiful new spaces that you have provided for our students to be educated in.

This um particular photo is of one of the most recent facilities that we opened up and did the ribbon cutting on.

And uh the next one um actually shows um one of our facilities that's probably in a little bit of um needs a little bit of help.

So this is um in our liberal arts uh building.

Um this particular um uh uh building is uh well over 50 years old and certainly has continued opportunities for improvement.

Um just to share with you that our goal is to ensure that we provide flexible spaces for our students as education evolves, and uh we certainly know how much our our universe has evolved and continues to evolve more most recently, and why it is imperative that we continue to invest in education and our facilities that educate.

And to that, I'm gonna keep going.

Um we wanted to share with you that we are our uh governing board is currently reviewing facilities plans for um each of our colleges, which were completed um in uh 2024.

Actually, uh June of 2024, our governing board uh reviewed and approved our most recent facilities plans with a prioritized projects.

Uh and um we are at this very moment seeking community input.

Um so there are um there is actually surveys that are being conducted at this moment to assess kind of how our community feels about a potential future bond, and should one be coming our way, we certainly hope that the uh city of Walnut Creek is aware of that.

So, with that, we're gonna end and see if you have any questions or comments, including scores.

Any update on the background?

No, no, no update on the basketball.

I did want to say thank you for coming to talk tonight.

Um my husband is a proud graduate of Contracross Community College, and my daughter used DBC to great effect when she was entering her graduate school program to become a nurse.

She had a few classes she was missing, and rather than have to go back to school, she could do it while she was working and get ready to go into her nursing program.

So we really appreciate that.

Other questions that anybody has?

Not questions, but uh on on top of that.

So my son who had gone to UNR for his first year wasn't crazy about that, didn't know where he wanted to transfer to.

Went to DVC, COVID hit.

Yes, but he ended up graduating uh from DVC and then able to transfer to Cal State Long Beach.

So the system works.

I've seen time and time again.

So many students that I talked to.

I've uh just had great experiences there.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Councilmember DeFinity?

Well, since it's been alluded to.

Uh DVC is playing uh San Jose Community College tonight in men's basketball.

My uh son is uh sophomore there and he's uh playing on the team, and they're not winning right now, but I will give you the score.

We'll get him in the second half.

It's got three.

But thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Councilmember Francois.

Yes, thank you for being here.

My personal connection is my wife is an instructor at DBC, so we have a close connection, and I've attended some of the scholarship ceremonies and been really moved uh by the work your foundation is doing there.

And then we also had the opportunity to see uh Daniel James Brown speak, and I think Percival Everett was just so kudos to you for hosting really high name uh well-known authors in our local community on the facilities planning piece.

Are I'm just curious about, and I know that you're just going through the process and considering the bond and and that all makes sense.

Is are there, would there be any thought to kind of alternatives?

Uh, you know, obviously remote learning is a thing, but also are is higher ed looking at kind of moving towards more of a corporate office environment for classroom space, or is it still more traditional campus environment?

A combination thereof, I would I would say, and certainly uh Dr.

Chahal can uh add to that.

Um today um we offer a considerable number of our courses uh obviously via remote instruction.

Um what we find is that uh for some particular subjects, uh, frankly, you know, a lot of our um social sciences and what have you, students are um feeling connected when uh taking those classes in a remote fashion.

However, our um math, um, science, engineering, the technology classes, as well as a lot of our career technical education classes, um, require a lot more of that hands-on opportunity and the direct uh interaction with faculty.

Uh, and so um less often do we see students choose to enroll in those classes uh remotely.

We certainly offer nearly every kind of class in a remote fashion.

Um, students obviously they they enroll um and we ensure that we provide the kind of class that they are most interested in.

Much more nowadays, back to being in a face-to-face sort of fashion.

And learning happens in a different way when they are with others in a learning environment.

Yeah, of course.

Thank you for the being here this evening and for the presentation, but more importantly, thank you for the work that you're doing for our youth and the transition that you offer, the ability for um those who aren't ready for higher higher education yet, can get there, and also the way you're working to provide for the technical skills.

So kudos.

And the last thank you, of course, is that I know our Chamber of Commerce and others in the business community here have reached out and talked about customer service and the need for that, and you guys have stepped up mightily in helping them be fit that need, and it's great.

Thank you.

Bob Linshide is our best friend as well, and works very closely with us.

You have our strategic plan, the district wide strategic plan before you as well.

Um, and um thank you.

Uh actually, we got a considerable amount of community feedback that resulted in the goals and strategies that are identified here, and I want to thank you for that also.

All right.

Thank you guys so much.

We appreciate you.

All right, moving along, next on the agenda is the consent calendar, and I am gonna pull two I beat you all to it.

Um does anybody else want to pull any other item for discussion?

I'd like to pull two L and two E.

Oops, I wrote the L in the E so they look exactly alike.

Anything else?

Alright.

Is there anybody here that would like to address the council on to A, B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, and M.

Elemental P.

All right.

And we'll bring it back up here for a motion.

So remind me, pulled two I and two F.

Two I to L and to E are pulled.

So it's A through D.

Got it.

Move to adopt the following items from the consent calendar to A through D, F, G, H, J, Hey, and M.

I'll second that.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi.

Mayor Darling.

Hi.

Councilmember Divini.

Hi.

Councilmember Francois.

Hi.

And Mayor Protemble.

All right.

You want to start with two E?

We'll go alphabetically and make this easier.

Oh, it's Craig.

Okay.

I knew somebody would pull that one.

Yeah, my my question is in regards to the concealed carry weapons permits that we're we're now issuing in Walnut Creek.

Hello.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So I guess this was something that the the um the permits were being issued by the county.

Now they're being issued by the city.

And uh just reading it, it makes me wonder, you know, like how how many concealed carry weapon permits are we issuing?

How many uh folks in the community do we think might be carrying?

Um who generally I know pretty much anyone I think can apply, but who do we generally see ourselves like issuing these two?

Is it more um like retired law enforcement and like private detective type?

I don't know, or is it just more of the the general population?

Um and then uh I've got a few other questions.

Yeah.

Of course, uh councilman uh happy to Lieutenant Olson with the Walnut Creek Police Department.

So typically uh we've always been uh an entity that is that should uh be uh issuing concealed weapons permits, but the sheriff's office has been uh kind enough to do it for many, many years for us.

Um there's over the last 10 years or so there was some changes in law and changes in uh case law that made the ability to get a concealed carry weapon permit uh a little bit easier in California.

So because of that entities have been seeing more and more people applying.

Um and so with that the sheriff's office uh has kind of been passing on the responsibility back to the the cities and the chiefs of police.

So um in my uh when when we were told that we were gonna be taking this back over, I reached out to the sheriff's office, and they said that around a hundred applications in about a 12-month period for residents of the city of Walnut Creek is kind of where we're at right now.

Um, and that's for new applications, renewal applications, or modifications.

So that doesn't mean that there's a hundred individuals uh applying for new permits every year.

That's that includes renewals and all that kind of stuff.

So I think we could we would anticipate around a hundred would be my guess for for every year.

And it makes me you know curious.

I don't know if these types of statistics are available, but do you have a sense of like generally who's applying for these?

Is it just the population at large or is it heavily like certain groups or yeah, it's kind of just the population at large.

Um I think there are some some people that uh that have that work in maybe more sensitive.

I'll pause.

Uh maybe more.

I don't know, do I step back or okay?

Um some people might be uh working in more sensitive types of jobs that they they feel that they may may need one more, and some people just may want one for their own personal protection.

Uh that's partially what we kind of find out in uh a background process and interview process.

Uh there's a extensive training that they have to go through uh to to be able to get a concealed carry weapon permit.

So um those are those are all things that we would kind of figure out.

Thank you.

Does anybody else have any questions on this?

Thank you very much.

So a hundred per year.

Are those all in the city of Almond Creek and the county is still issuing permits for those who live in unincorporated walnut creek?

Correct, yeah.

So those are the those are the ones the statistics they had for people that live within city limits.

Great.

Thank you.

Councilmember Francois.

Thank you, Lieutenant.

So can just stepping back too and reminding I I don't own a weapon, but for those who do kind of what the rules are uh in terms of open carry versus concealed carry and the permitting process.

Yeah, so open carry is is is not allowed, you're you're not allowed to just openly carry a firearm in California.

Um, but with a concealed carry permit, you would be able to carry, but you would have to keep it uh out of public view, basically.

So under your clothing or in a purse or a bag or something like that.

Um you would also need to have uh make sure that it's uh you know locked in your home like like the city of Walnut Creek already has an ordinance for.

Um there's a lot of gun safety that would uh training that would go along with getting a permit, but the permitting process would include uh an application through uh it's a California DOJ form that they would fill out.

Uh we would need to prove that they are a legal resident of the city of Walnut Creek.

Um there would be a background process, a reference uh check, um uh like I said, a a training through an through an outside entity that's uh approved by by the city um by the police department.

So there's there's a lot of steps that go in uh fingerprinting process.

So there's a lot of steps that go in into getting the permit.

Is it all one permit or before you purchase a weapon you have to get a separate license from the state and go through?

No, so before purchasing a weapon is separate from concealed carry.

So concealed carry means that you can carry it out in the public.

Um you can carry it concealed in your in your vehicle.

Um just owning a firearm in your own home, there's a whole separate process for that, which would be like a 10-day waiting period and all that kind of stuff.

And you mentioned our safe uh firearm storage.

Maybe maybe because for the benefit of the public, remind them about what what that entails and requires uh in terms of home storage.

Yeah, so when when you're at home, you're you're required to uh keep your your personal firearms locked, unloaded in either a safe or with a locking device that can make it inoperable uh when when in when in your home.

Um there are laws that um there are state laws that would pertain to care uh leaving your gun in a car.

You could actually be held liable if uh if your gun was stolen from your car without it being locked up properly, and the city of Walnut Creek has our own municipal code for in in somebody's home if it's not locked up properly.

Terrific, thank you very much.

Of course.

Thank you very much.

Any other questions on this issue?

Thank you so much, Lieutenant.

Um does any member of the public wish to come forward and ask anything about two or say anything about two E seeing no one, I will bring it back up here to the council for consideration of potential motion.

Move to approve second, roll call, please, Mayor Tem welcome.

Hi.

Councilmember Francois?

Councilmember Devini.

Councilmember Silva, hi, Mayor Darling.

Okay, so the next one is two I and I just pulled this because we're spending fifty-one million dollars on something that we have been planning for about forever and a half.

And I just wanted to say thanks to all the staff.

I know this was a tremendous effort getting through the contracting process, making sure that we had contractors who met our qualifications, making sure the bids were responsive, and making sure that um we had a project.

And yay.

So that was all I wanted to do.

Does anybody else have any comments on two eye?

I think this is really exciting.

It's probably once in a generation that you get to make a reinvestment in your community like this, and I think it's going to pay dividends for this community for years to come.

And I'm I'm really excited to have been on the council and to be able to see this through.

Yeah, it takes uh about a hundred steps to get through the process, and I think we're still probably somewhere in the middle in there, but this is a great step to be able to get behind us.

And I would concur, I've been on the council for 19 years, and it feels like I've been working with the community on this for 22.

Okay.

Um thank you to staff for all of your work in putting the um bidding process together for the diligence that you had in it, and also for the diligence of the engineering staff, the architectural staff, because you estimate a big project like this, and then you keep your fingers crossed while they're opening the bids, and we had good results, so thank you to everyone, and we look forward to hearing more about this project in the coming months.

With that, um, does anybody wish to address the council on two I and with that I will move to approve two I think?

Roll call, please.

Mayor Darling.

Yay, yeah.

Councilmember Silva.

Yes, Councilmember Davin, Councilmember Francois.

Yes.

Mayor Pro Temwal.

I'm carries.

Okay, on to the second yay.

The second yay, which is still a bit yay, is the uh Lesser and Hoffman stage replacements.

I um think I need staff to come up here.

I just want to acknowledge that uh this project uh replacing stages at two of the larger theaters in in the Leisher Center, uh, came in on time and under budget and was being done while several different productions were going on in the Lesser Center, which is quite remarkable.

So, what what is the saying?

You're trying to learn how to fly an airplane while you're actually flying it.

I think that you guys pulled it off, and I want to thank staff for that and acknowledge it, and just in time for a lot of fun and exciting productions uh this holiday season at the Leisher Center.

So thank you.

Anyone else?

Um, does any member of the public wish to applaud us for 2L?

I'll bring it back up here for a motion.

I will move to approve item two L.

Okay.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Francois, Councilmember Silva, aye.

Councilmember Davin, Mayor Pro Tim Wilk, Mayor Darling.

Aye.

Motion carries.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, guys, staff for all of this.

Uh, next on the agenda is public communication.

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

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

We may request clarification or refer the item to staff.

Consistent with section 9.5 of the city council handbook, 30 minutes will be allocated at this time for public communication for items not on the agenda.

Additional time for public communication for items not on the agenda will be provided at the end of the meeting as necessary.

We have had several written comments already submitted that have been posted to the city's website for public review and are not in are included in the meeting record, but will not be separately read into the record.

At this time, I note the time is 6 39, and so we will go till 7 09 with public comment and take the rest at the end of the meeting.

If anybody would like to address the council for public comment, please step forward and you'll each have your two minutes.

Hello, my name is Sushay Nandrike.

Um, I'm a student at Northgate High School.

Um I'm a sophomore, and for my sophomore, if I could change the world project, um I chose student transportation because it's uh it's a problem I face like every day.

And I know a lot of other students who also face that problem.

So um to understand this problem, I surveyed over 200 of Northgate students about like how they get to school.

Um, and my results were pretty clear, I think.

Um nine out of ten students come to Northgate by car, and among those who are driven by their parents, um, more than half of them are like the only student in the car, which means every day we have hundreds of single occupancy cars coming in, and the road to Northgate is a single lane road.

So it creates a lot of backup and a lot of congestion around the whole Northgate area and extends that further into Walnut Creek.

Commute times were also pretty significant with uh 63% of students taking more than 10 minutes to get to school, and nearly a third taking more than 20.

And a lot of students do live close, but due to all this traffic, the commute times are greatly increasing.

My most striking finding was that over 90% of students said that traffic is their biggest challenge, which is basically every student who comes by car essentially has the same traffic problem every day.

And so I asked these students if they would consider a bus or a shuttle system, and more than 60% showed interest, and the most important factors for them were cost, um, reliable schedule, um, convenient pickup times, and stops close to their neighborhood.

Um so that shows like if if this was designed well, there would be a lot of demand and it would really help support families and decrease this problem.

Um, so my ask is I would greatly appreciate if the city would work with me, um, the school district, and then also like any relevant transportation providers um to explore like the feasibility of having this system along the routes to Northgate High School.

Um it would like lower emissions, reduce all the congestion, um, decrease stress for a lot of families, and then also possibly help students get on on time to school easier.

Um, sorry.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Um, do you guys have any comments about like next steps or suggestions?

As I said, we take public comment in.

Um, if you want to talk to somebody, Smitar Boardman, our city engineer is here, and she does a lot of work around Safe Roots to school, and she can she can provide you some update on what we're already doing, and we've heard your comments and um are we'll look into the issue that you raise.

Okay, thank you so much.

Oh, did you want to say something?

I just wanted to to commend you.

You're a very good public speaker.

I don't I didn't see you look at your notes once, and you made a very compelling case.

Maybe a future lawyer at the podium there, but but thank you for coming and sending not only sending the comment but coming here and speaking to it very well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that's Smodar back there.

She would love to talk to you.

Thank you so much.

Is there anybody else for public comment?

No, you're good.

Good.

Good job.

Anyone else?

All right.

With that, we will close the pop the public comment period.

Um, and bring it back up here.

Is there any um I looked down for Steve Madison?

I forgot.

Uh city attorney, is there anything to report out of the closed sessions?

There is no report out of closed sessions.

All right.

City manager, any report?

I do not have an update this evening, Mayor.

All right, that brings us back up here to the council ourselves for um our updates on things that we are doing.

Um who wants to go first?

Just a couple of quick updates.

I did attend the Northern California conference for the Citrus Cities International.

I attended with the president of the club.

There were probably 15 cities represented there, all of whom had some form of sister city organization.

And we heard updates on youth programs and on also how to increase the um attractiveness of adult related programming.

The um thank you, Mayor, for what you did for Veterans Day.

It was a lovely program.

And uh the recent um ABAG administrative committee meeting discussed the we've received a lot of input on the environmental documents related to um plan Bay Area 2050 plus.

It seems that there's a lot of misunderstanding on some of the information in the reports, but the hearings will continue in December.

Um we saw the women in black this last weekend.

You have until the 23rd to see it.

It is an incredible production and really reflects at just a the improvements in what's going on at the Leisure Center.

So I encourage everybody, you can get tickets at Leisure S LesherArts.org.

And I'll finally mentioned that we did have discussion about the upcoming rates that we're we'll be presenting for Recycle Smart, which will go into effect in March 1st of 2026 through February 28th of 2027.

But Councilmember Francois may have something else to add on that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

We'll turn it to Councilmember Francois and see if he wants to talk recycling.

I actually don't not tonight.

So it was a very uh moving veterans day ceremony.

Thank you for leading us all in that and uh enjoy seeing a lot of familiar faces there.

And thank you to the Walnut Creek concert band for doing such a great job always and you know very nicely commemorating our veterans.

As your liaison to Walnut Creek downtown I can report back that Octoberfest was a success.

We've got some revenues higher than uh previous years and high attendance a lot of people coming to downtown for that event in late uh September the the board of Walnut Creek downtown is working on their vision plan and it's still a little bit of a work in progress but certainly centers around pillars of financial stability marketing and elevating the downtown brand increasing and strengthening partnerships along with beautification and public art.

So I think there's a lot of opportunities for us to partner with Walnut Creek downtown on on all of those items.

And then we'll note that the holiday tree lighting is this Friday is that the 21st that is okay this Friday the 21st at 5 30 just across the street in Civic Park and at the same time after you see the tree being lit you can don your ice skates and Walnut Creek on ice will be starting its 20th year that night as well and run through the holidays until January and that's my report.

Thank you.

I'll go ahead and go next um speaking of sister cities the kids from Keda City are here this week and they were at City Hall today and we got to have a great discussion a couple of the kids their their English skills are just amazing.

There's a couple of the girls got up and did a presentation to me about what they hope to learn by their uh work here by their visit here in the city.

So that was really a lot of fun.

I got to help lead a public art walking tour if you have not been on one of these they are fabulous and you can see you know all kinds of different art and hear the story behind it and you get a chance to see some of the art in a new and different way.

So thank you very much for the Joseph the docent uh Jill dresser to um for leading that one.

If you guys have not caught it the mayor's video where I work with Officer Adamson talking about e-bikes is out on social media and hopefully that message is getting out there.

My daughter said she saw it up in Sacramento.

She's like mom you're a star.

Not really but um I did want to give a congratulations we had the best of Walnut Creek awards last night with the chamber and there was a lot of great competition and a lot of great winners and it was a fun event.

I'm hoping we'll see that one come back again.

I also let's see what else the last thing I want to talk about is as your representative on MCE we have been talking about electricity supply and demand in California and one of the things we got to do on Monday is go see the independent system operator.

And so you can just imagine this is a building out in the outskirts of Sacramento and up on the wall they have an operating center where there are huge screens all the way around and it's the entire electric grid for California and they show it minute by minute balancing in all the different ways it needs to balance and the the chart, right dead center in the room is how many watts or kilowatts they're they're off from balancing supply and demand.

And it was amazing what those people can do because you can't store electricity in the lines.

Whatever you put in, somebody has to use.

And it was amazing the fine gradient that they had on that.

But the best thing about it all, it was a rainy Monday in November, and 41% of the power going to California on that rainy Monday in November was solar or wind or some hybrid between the two.

And that was just really great to see.

They did tell me that you know how sometimes when our traffic folks let you go down to the traffic center, they'll let you push a button.

They wouldn't even let me in the room.

And they definitely weren't gonna let me know any button.

They said we're behind glass.

They said don't tap on the wall.

The operators don't like that.

So I didn't do that.

Mayor Pro Temp.

Uh yeah, just a short report on mine.

Uh I was with the mayor at uh at Concord High School where there was a open house by the building and trades uh union, really being able to show what it's like to take a trade path rather than an academic path.

It was interesting actually.

Uh, here we had the presentation from the Contra Costa School District or the um the community college district here.

And of course, when when kids are in high school, not all of them want to go in an academic path.

And so this was a great way to be able to show parents and students.

Here's a number of different trades, and there was a viable trade path that students can do, and this was in conjunction with Mount Diablo School District and hosted at uh Concord High School.

So we had a lot of dignitaries there, state superintendent Tony Thurman was there, our uh our um Mount Delbo school district uh um superintendent.

Oh my gosh.

Dr.

Dr.

Clark, thank you.

Thank you, Sharice Count in the audience uh was there as well, and uh a lot of elected officials from the Contra Cost County area.

So just great to see that kind of involvement and outreach and just letting parents know what's possible out there.

That's my report.

Thank you.

Councilmember DeFini.

Yes, good evening.

Well, going last I have a few duplicates.

Um also attended the the um best of Walnut Creek that was hosted at the uh Leisher Center, and that was a very nice event, and I do look forward to going that again next year.

I also think it's great, it just um really highlights so many businesses in Walnut Creek, and people were really enthusiastic about winning, and so was it was a lot of fun to see.

Um also attended the uh Veterans Day um ceremony at the Leisure, and I want to echo uh council member uh Francois's um sentiments that um kudos to um Mayor Um Darling for your sharing of your your um grandfather, right?

Yeah, story, and that was uh very moving.

So thank you for that.

Um also attended uh founders and funders, uh, which is an event that was put on out in the shade lands to host um potential founders of businesses and then potential funders of those businesses in Walnut Creek, and it was it was sort of tech oriented, um focused on tech and health care, and it was I think the second year doing it, and it was really well attended.

So that's exciting to see.

I think that's exciting to see for our business future and and uh for shadows as well.

That wraps up.

All right, thank you very much.

Um, next on the agenda is a public hearing for the consideration of the resolutions of the City Council of the City of Walnut Creek and the Walnut Creek Joint Powers Financing Authority authorizing the issuance of lease revenue bonds to fund a portion of the Aquatic and Community Center at Heather Farm Park Project, yay.

And I invite staff forward to provide the presentation.

Good evening, Mayor Darling, Mayor Pro Tem Wilk, and members of council.

I'm Kirsten LeCath, administrative services director, and tonight I am joined by Craig Hill from NHA Advisors who's joining us remotely, as well as Chris Lynch from Jones Hall, our bond council.

And tonight we're going to be presenting to you the lease revenue bond financing approval for the Heather Farm Aquatic and Community Center project.

So, first we're going to talk a little bit about uh touch on where we were and how um we've gotten here so far with the previous actions.

We're then gonna talk about the project bid results as well as the funding sources.

Then we'll talk about the credit rating and that process and what the city's credit rating is that we were just recently issued by SP.

Then we'll be looking at the financing documents, next steps, and then the recommended actions.

So back on September 16th, we essentially presented a bond financing 101 and we covered the funding strategies as well as the lease revenue bond obligations.

Then we were here in October, and the City Council and the parking authority formed the Walnut Creek Joint Powers Financing Authority or the JPA.

And this council also adopted a resolution for the intent for reimbursement.

And then we're here this evening to talk about the approval of the lease revenue bonds by city council and also by the JPA Board of Directors.

So you as you heard earlier on the item this evening, the um contract was awarded for construction to Lathrop construction at the end they had the lowest bid at 51.6 million.

And we had eight pre-qualified bidders.

We only received responses from four.

So next I want to touch on the project costs and the funding sources.

So for our project costs, the total is $75.8 million.

And this includes in phase two the construction contract that was just awarded, as well as the contract contingency.

We've previously identified funding sources for this project in the general fund was 1.9 million.

In the facilities reserve, it was seven million in measure O reserve 11.9 million, and then we're here tonight to talk about the bond financing of 55 million, which gets us to our 75.8 million.

The column to the right indicates what has been obligated to date, so that has been either spent or committed under contract.

So both the general fund and facilities reserve have been fully obligated, and then 2 million of our measure O reserve has been obligated to date for a total of 10.9 million.

So as you can see in the table, the term for this bond financing would be approximately seven and a half years, and that is intentional in order to align with the expiration of measure O in 2033.

We are estimating a rate right now about 2.59% for net proceeds to the project of 55 million.

That would put our estimated annual debt service at about 7.7 million.

And as you recall, our measure O set aside for debt service has been 9 million.

Additionally, the initial leased properties for this financing would be the Leisher Center, City Hall, and the Corporation Yard.

And next I will turn it over to Craig from NHA.

Yes, good evening.

Can everybody hear me?

Yes.

Great.

Well, I want to start by commending staff doing a great job representing the city through this credit rating process we did with Standard and Poor's.

As you can see, we met on the 5th.

We just found out or late last week that Standard Imports gave you effectively two ratings.

The rating on this particular transaction, because it is a general fund credit, subject to your budget, is a double A plus.

That puts you in the top category for the state of California cities.

There's only, I think, about 20 public agencies in California that maintain a rating that high.

So you should be very proud of the fact that you are one of the elite from a credit perspective.

They also did give you what we call an indicative credit rating, which of triple A, which again is as high as it gets, and that would be for any future debt that the city might ask the voters to support through a general obligation bond, as was stated earlier with the community college.

You know, they have bonds outstanding that were uh voter approved.

Um, should the city of Wilnut Creek go out and ask the voters to support some kind of a general obligation bond.

Uh, we could expect that it would be in the triple A category.

So again, congratulations, all great news.

Um, we couldn't have uh got anything higher than that.

And as you can see on the right, some of the highlights they really did like the the diversified tax base that the city maintains.

Uh, you have shown time and time again through council strong financial performance and approving budgets and maintaining reserve levels, and um you've really managed your long-term liabilities uh better than I think a lot of other public agencies.

So those are some of the highlights that came out of the credit rating.

Next slide.

I'll turn it over to Chris.

As we've talked about at previous meetings, this will be structured as a lease financing.

So the documents involved will be a site lease where the city will lease the three assets that were described earlier to the joint powers financing authority that will lease pursuant to the lease agreement back to the city.

The city's lease of payment payments will be assigned to the bond trustee pursuant to an assignment agreement.

The indenture of trust will be entered into between the joint powers authority and the bond trustee, and will provide for the terms of the bonds and the payment of the bonds.

The marketing of the bonds will start with printing or posting the preliminary official statement, which is the disclosure document that describes the material terms of the bonds.

Uh, and I'll talk about that on the next slide.

Um, concurrently with the posting of the preliminary official statement, a notice of intention to sell and a notice of sale bonds will be posted.

The notice of attention will describe the date and time at which potential owners of the bonds can bid to purchase the bonds.

It will also and the notice of sale will set forth the terms of the bonds and the terms of the competitive sale.

The bonds will be awarded to the purchaser that proposes the lowest true interest cost.

The final document is a continuing disclosure certificate, and the city will undertake on an ongoing basis to provide information of the type included in the preliminary official statement on an annual basis, and also to provide notice of certain events such as changes in ratings, uh bond defaults, and things like that.

As I mentioned, the preliminary official statement will be distributed to potential investors.

We've talked before about the fact that this is a disclosure document where the city is obligated to provide all material information about the bonds, which includes the terms of the bonds, and then uh also the key things that affect the city's ability to pay debt service on the bonds.

So the section called 2025 bonds describes the terms.

Security for the bonds in this case will consist of the city's lease payments, and it also will describe the fact that the city's lease payments are available are payable from any available sources of funds, which in this case primarily consists of monies in the general fund, and also includes uh is intended to include the measure O revenues most specifically.

There's a section called city financial information in the preliminary official statement, and that describes the key financial metrics uh of the revenues available to pay the lease payments.

So it's the city's general fund revenues, primarily sales tax, including measure o and property taxes, the two largest uh revenue sources.

It describes expenses that the general fund pays.

It describes key liabilities such as pension, for example.

The city doesn't have outstanding bonds, so that's not an issue.

Um it also describes uh the uh budget process in the city and historical budgets, and then it also attaches the audit of financial statements for fiscal year 23-24.

Um the bond owner's risk section talks about key risks to the city's revenues and expenditures, things that might cause revenues to go down, such as property tax reassessments or declines in sales tax revenues, including as a result of changes in the way people purchase uh things in in the city of Walnut Creek, and also things such as natural disasters, seismic risk, uh climate change, uh, drought, things like that.

And finally, tax matters, as we've talked about, the city has done it uh has done a good job of structuring the sources of revenue for the project, including equity and taxes and bond proceeds, with the fact that there will be certain amounts of of private use, and have we've determined that the city will be able to comply with federal tax law based on those uh revenues uh and costs.

I'm actually gonna skip this slide because uh Kirsten's gonna cover it.

The next steps after this should the city decide after holding the public hearing to approve the issuance of the bonds and if the joint powers authority similarly issues the bonds then the next step would be that the preliminary official statement would be posted this week.

The city at that time will you're authorizing members of staff to execute a certificate confirming that the preliminary official statement includes all material information.

On December 3rd the competitive sale for the bonds will be held at that time interest rates, principal amounts costs of issuance will be locked in and then there'll be about a two week process at which our firm puts together closing certificates opinions finalizes legal documents and then the closing will be on December 17th and that's the date on which the $55 million dollars of construction funds will be placed into the the improvement fund held by the bond trustee for future requisitions.

Yes, thank you so in summary what we're asking of you this evening is to for the city council to adopt a resolution approving issuance and sale of lease revenue bonds approving related documents and directing related actions and adopt a resolution creating the Heather Farm Aquatic and community center bond fund and appropriating funds and then asking of the JPA board to adopt a resolution authorizing the issuance of the sale of lease revenue bonds adopting a debt management policy and approving related documents and directing related actions and with that we are available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you and thank you to all of you who have been walking us through this diligently over the last three meetings I really appreciate the care that you've put into this questions for Kirsten or the bond council.

Councilmember Silva thank you very much and I will reiterate and echo the mayor's words of thank you for all of the work that you spent with all five of us trying to help us understand what this all means which is really important and really exciting quick question is all right so that the December 3rd is when the sale of the bonds will occur and that's when they will lock in the amounts it seems like we've got a certain we've got a lot of in open values in these documents related to the value of the bonds is that when they get inserted and they become the final final that's exactly right so on the on the 3rd of December you'll receive these bids you'll evaluate them you'll pick the lowest true interest cost and at that point the city will it will reward the bonds to that winning investor and at that point we prepare legal documents that include the the interest rates the maturity dates the principal amounts the net proceeds and those will be signed over two week period of us preparing them and circulating them internally to get them signed and then on December 17th that's when everything's final.

Okay party on December 16th the um it's uh seven and a half years to align with the maturity of the receipts of the proceeds of measure oh does that mean it's semi annual payments so does that mean 15 payments roughly the equal amount yes okay I just wanted to make sure I was because there are blank forms in these documents and so I just wanted to make sure I was understanding it correctly.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Councilmember Francois?

So yes, thank you.

Following up on one of uh Councilmember Silva's questions and on December 2nd or December 3rd and I I had asked a series of questions and thank you to Kirsten for answering most of them.

The one I'm still trying to get a better sense on is this uh this notion of a uh discount versus a premium investor and the difference in bond financing as a result of that.

That's right.

So the key thing to understand is there's certain things that are driving your financing.

The first is you are requesting fifty-five million dollars of net proceeds.

The second is you are gonna award the sale to the pro bidder that provides the lowest true interest cost.

You're also gonna have a fixed maturity date of seven and a half years.

Um those are the things you care about.

Are you gonna pay the lowest true interest cost?

Are you gonna get the amount of net proceeds you want, and are you gonna have the bonds mature at the concurrently with the availability of measure o revenues?

Other than that, you don't care how a particular bidder chooses to structure their bid.

There are two types of uh ways a bidder could uh structure their bid.

One would be a premium bond, and Craig would do a much better job if he was still online to describe this, but a premium bond means that they will pay more than the principal amount of the bonds to receive those bonds.

If it's a discount bond, they will they will pay a purchase price that is lower than the principal amount of the bonds.

The yield on the bonds is impacted by whether they're paying more or less, but the bottom line is you're still only gonna pay award the bidder that pays the lowest true interest cost.

So you're indifferent whether they choose to pay a premium or a discount and ha whether they choose a premium or discount is reflective of the market for the bonds on that day as they perceive it as to who the who to whom they're planning to sell those bonds after they purchase them.

But but it results in a a potential a different borrowing amount for us, depending on whether it's discount or premium.

That's right.

If they offer a premium, you can have a lower principal amount to still generate $55 million of net proceeds.

If they propose a discount, in other words, they pay less than the principal amount, then you have to have a higher principal amount in order to generate the $55 million of net proceeds.

But again, you're indifferent as long as we're selecting the lowest true interest cost.

Okay.

Thank you.

Sure.

That's got to be one heck of a spreadsheet.

Uh yeah, just a general one, and this may be more for the city manager, but there's been residents who have written in stating that we shouldn't go into debt by issuing a bond.

So what is the downside if we don't issue a bond?

Yeah, Britt.

Presumably the other option would be uh assuming that those folks want to see the project move forward.

We'll start with that, but uh if that's the case, the other option would be what's called a pay-go approach where we would continue to save the measure O money that comes in year in year over year, and then save enough money to eventually pay for the project in whole and not have to issue any bonds.

Now, given that, you know, we have upwards of about 9 million a year, we would need at least six years of savings, assuming no inflation in order to build the project.

Question would be is what does inflation do?

What happens in the construction market?

Would we ever save enough to catch up to the cost of the project?

Another way to think about this is it's very comparable to folks buying a home.

You know, most folks well, vast majority of folks don't have entire amount of cash on hand to purchase a home outright.

They take a loan and pay it over time after putting down a down payment, and that's virtually what we're doing here.

But instead of taking a 30 or 15 year mortgage, we're taking a seven and a half year mortgage.

Great.

So uh people are paying their taxes into measure O.

We're gonna see the benefit of that much sooner than we would be if we tried to save for the next seven, ten, whatever years.

Yeah, there's a potential it actually costs less given where inflation is headed to do the project sooner.

We actually had very favorable bid climate.

The project uh came in a little lower than was estimated for the bids.

That might not be the case six, seven years from now if you're able to save that money and the upside to the community is this project will be done much sooner than if we're waiting six, seven or eight years to be begin construction.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Definitely.

Okay.

I have beaten myself up and have no more questions to you guys on this one.

So I will go ahead and open this up for public comment then.

Anybody wish to?

Oh, and open the public hearing, open the public hearing and open the public hearing for public comment.

Anyone anyone?

Anyone.

Seeing no, one, it's okay to close the public hearing.

We'll go ahead and close public hearing and bring it back up here to the council for any additional questions or considerations or comments.

Who wants to start?

I will uh thank you, staff and our consultants and the community for supporting Measure O.

This is uh I think you know, and certainly our predecessors and current council members that helped us achieve the double A plus and triple A rating, so I think we're um I do think for all the reasons the city manager mentioned that the inflation and the increased uh construction costs and not having a facility for six or seven years or maybe ever if we were to forego that that to me doesn't seem like it's consistent with um what we told the voters when we went out with measure o and we're uh I think we were in a favorable bid climate, and um I'm looking I think this is the right approach in terms of financing and I'm looking forward to seeing this move forward as quickly as possible.

Thank you.

Council Marsova.

Thank you very much, and thank you again to staff, all of your work on this and to the community who came together three years ago and helped us approve measure O, which is giving us the funds to be able to do this and so many other special projects for the city.

I agree this is the way to finance it.

First and foremost, besides the fact that it's fiscally actually very prudent because at an estimated two and a half percent interest that is much lower than what could likely occur in the future, and the bid climate was excellent as well, but also because the Clark Swim Center is over 50 years old and it's wearing out.

And so if we were to wait and just save and save and save, we could actually not only, we might have nothing to show for it halfway through that wait period, and so we're also avoiding the risk of loss of the use of services.

So thank you.

I look forward to supporting this.

I agree with my colleagues, and as I mentioned during our consent calendar, many small steps to get to completion.

This is another one of those small steps.

Actually, this is a big step, but it's an important step, and I look forward to supporting it as well.

Councilmember DeFinny.

Yeah, I echo uh previous statements, and I I think this is the smartest, the most um responsible way to go about financing the project, and it was interesting to go through the process and see how municipal bonds are issued and um uh it seems like the right way to go, so I definitely approve of this.

Yeah, and I want to echo the same thanks that everybody here on council has for our past councils, our treasurer, our staff who have helped us get to this credit rating.

I'm gonna thank the Measure O committee, all the people that walked and knocked, all the people that supported that campaign, and the three co-chairs who will be joining us next week to celebrate the the soccer fields.

Um but I also want to thank the Aquatics Foundation.

We have always asked our partners to chip in on projects, and the Aquatics Foundation has signed an MOU with us that commits to fundraising as part of this project.

I reached out to them to let them know that we were considering the bonds tonight, and they gave me a quick update.

They have made significant progress, they're ready to make their first payment on under the MOU, and they're very excited that we're able to move forward with this.

And this is another reason why it's important for us to move forward with the bonds rather than do a pay as you go approach because that MOU basically gives us a certain time frame that they felt they needed to um break ground, and we are going to be able to live up to that commitment to the Aquatics Foundation here.

Um I also want to thank all the staff and everybody that has worked on this.

This is a first time that I think many of us have been through this, and you have helped us as council understand what we are doing and get through it, and I really appreciate that.

And I'm really looking forward to, you know, my kids grew up swimming at Clark Swim Center.

They grew up doing the little workshop classes over at the community center, and it was such an important part of growing up in Walnut Creek.

And I am really proud of our community because we said we don't want to just be a place where you live.

We want to be a place where you can live well.

You can learn things, you can do things, you can swim in the summer, you can we can send kids to the Olympics with our aquatic aqua nuts program and other programs.

And I just really appreciate the support of the entire city, and I am prepared to support this.

And so now can you put back up what we're doing?

I will move that.

Um do we need to do these one at a time or all together?

Do the city council.

Okay.

My recommendation would be adopt each resolution separately.

Okay.

We will do that.

So my first motion is as the mayor of the city council, a resolution approving the issuance and sale of lease revenue bonds in the aggregate principal amount not to exceed 60,000 by the Walnut Creek Joint Powers Financing Authority to provide financing for public improvements to be owned and operated by the city and approving related documents and directing related action.

I'll second.

Roll call.

Yeah, let's go.

Mayor Darling.

Real briefly, if I may just take it for the record, it's 60 million at 60,000.

Oh, 60 million.

Sorry.

I was doing so good.

Mayor Darling.

Hi.

Hi.

Councilmember Davin.

Hi.

Councilmember Francois.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi.

I could tell I'd said something wrong because there was whispering coming from down there.

Does somebody else want to take the honors on the second one?

Sure, I'll take the second.

Uh I'd like to make the motion of a resolution creating the new Heather Farm Aquatic and Community Center Bond Fund, appropriating $55 million in the Heather Farm Aquatic and Community Center Bond Fund and $9,877,000 from the Measure O Aquatic and Community Center Reserve to transfer to the Heather Farm Aquatic and Community Center Reserve and appropriating funds in the measure O fund for the lease payments estimated at $7,700,000 per year.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Mayor Pro Tem Wilk.

Hi.

Councilmember David.

Council Member Francois.

Hi.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi, Mayor Darling.

Aye.

You guys want to be the joint powers authority?

Sure.

I move that we adopt the resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of lease revenue bonds to provide financing for public improvements to be owned and operated by the city of Walnut Creek, adopting a debt management policy and approving related documents and directing related actions.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi.

Councilmember Francois.

Mayor Protonwell.

Hi.

Mayor Darling.

Yay.

Does anybody need a break or we must look through?

I must be able to.

What's that?

I know it was one item up.

Okay.

Next on the agenda is a public hearing for the consideration of adoption of the ordinance amending Title IX of the Walnut Creek Municipal Code for the adoption of the 2025 building California Building Standards Code with amendment.

And I invite staff forward to make a presentation.

All righty.

Take it away.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor and the council member.

I'm Frank Kong, Chief of Beauty Office for the City.

Do you need no one before as a council meeting?

An ordinance was introduced to adopt the 2025 California Building Standard Code.

It's basically the following 11 code.

Today is a public hearing for its adoption.

The amendment, the ordinance include the three structural amendments and the sixth flood plan amendments.

All these amendments are substantially the same as those currently in effect.

So therefore, we're in compliance with the AB 11 was adopted in 1983 aiming to prevent I mean, prove or prevent uh the promote sorry the energy efficiency by requiring the homeowner to voluntarily disclose the status of their homes energy efficiency measures during the time of the sale to the potential buyers.

However, the modern real estate practices, particularly the routine use of the home inspection, has made this warranty disclosure ordinance unnecessary.

So fire uh protection district in our county introduced the two ordinance, ordinance of 2514 and 2515 to adopt 2025 California Fire Code and the 2025 Wii Code.

And these both ordinance were adopted today, this morning.

And per the House and Safety Code, as a member city, we have must ratify this both ordinance in our in order to make sure the fire coat amendment and the weak code amendment can become effective in our city.

So staff recommended council to ratify Control Casa County Fire Protection District.

And the same time adopted this ordinance amending the title nine of our Wana Creek Municipal Code to adopt the 2025 California Building Standard Codes with the proposed amendment.

So this concluded my presentation, and uh I once forgot to introduce our fire marshal, uh you know, Chief uh Chris Backman here attending our meeting here.

So uh Chief Backerman and then myself will be happy to answer questions you might have.

Thank you very much.

Um questions on the building code.

I think what since this is the second time we're you know everybody good, all right.

Um we'll bring it back to um we'll go ahead and open up the public hearing and um look to see if anybody wants to provide public comment on this item.

Wow, this is fast.

Um we're all good.

We'll go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back up here for comments or motion.

I move to ratify the CCC fire protection district ordinances 2025 14 and 2025-15 and adopt the ordinance amending Title IX of the Walnut Creek Municipal Code to adopt the 2025 California Building Standards Code with amendments.

Okay, roll call, please.

Council Member Francois.

Hi.

Council Mr.

Hi.

Councilmember Devini.

Hi.

Hi.

Mayor Darling.

Hi.

All right.

And that brings us to the end of our business meeting.

And tonight, before we adjourn tonight's meeting, um, we are adjourning in the memory of Gwen Regalia, who just recently passed away.

Um, and I'd like to take a moment to honor the extraordinary legacy of Gwen Regalia.

She served our community for 30 years with terms on both the Walnut Creek School District Board and the Walnut Creek City Council, including five terms as mayor.

Uh tonight we adjourn this meeting in her honor and with deep gratitude for her vision, her service, and her unwavering commitment to the people of Walnut Creek.

When we have our ceremonial meeting in December where we change the mayor, we will do much more.

We will invite the family and former mayors to come celebrate her life and her legacy.

But tonight we just wanted to adjourn in her honor and in her memory for all that she did for all of us for all those years.

Anybody else like to I'll have comments in a couple of weeks, but uh we all knew Gwen and of course any that uh just some of us that were on commissions knew her when she was on city council going back twenty years, and uh she'll be missed.

She Walmer Walnut Creek today is due in large part to the service that Gwen Regalia had, and that shouldn't be forgotten.

Yes.

Yeah, I agree.

I I didn't have the honor of serving with Gwen, but I certainly considered her uh mentor, and um she's just such a graceful, lovely, intelligent, uh dynamic person, and her whole family has given so much to making this this community what it is, and not only Walnut Creek, but the larger Contra Costa community with her and Ed's service on the Kennedy King Scholarship Board.

And so um she was a neat lady, and she was fun to to talk to and learn from, and she will be missed.

When I saw the email last night, I cried.

Gwen was on the council for the first two years that I was on council, and she was instrumental in encouraging me to run for city council.

She mentored in a way that was amazing.

In her last year on council, she said to me, Well, we need to go, I need to go to the mayor's conference, and I need to go to the uh the Cal Cities meetings, but I don't want to drive, and I need you to drive for me.

And it was her way of getting me there and getting me engaged and getting me introduced, and so I credit her with so much.

But she was active in other things as well sister cities, the Kennedy King College Scholarship Fund.

She was president of ABAG.

She was on the Calcock board, and we'll hear more about her, but her legacy live will live on forever, and so will her husband Edmunds, and so it's um it's with deep sadness, but I know she's making that difference in heaven.

Yes.

She is, I'm sure, organizing them, and she has a way of looking at you and letting you know what she wants you to do.

And so we will look forward to celebrating with her family and everybody else in December.

But we just wanted to take a moment tonight to remember her.

And with that, we adjourn in Gwen's honor.

Thank you.