Good afternoon.

I'm Kevin Wilk, mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 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 conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation.

Under California law, public comments at special meetings are limited to subjects on the agenda only, and therefore public comments will be received at this time for the item previously mentioned.

After an opportunity for public comment, hold your horses there, the city council will reconvene for the closed session discussion.

And seeing no public comment or public, we'll adjourn for now and go to our closed session.

I'm Kevin Wilk, 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 the 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 communications for items not on the agenda.

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

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

Wait your turn, and then when you approach the lector, please state your name and 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's website for public review and are included in the meeting record, but will not be separately read into the record.

I'm so happy we have that video, and I don't have to speak for 10 minutes in a row.

All right.

Well, well good evening.

I'm Kevin Wilk, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.

And if you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Council Member Darling.

I'm here.

Councilmember Devini.

Here.

Councilmember Silva.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Francois.

Here.

Mayor Welk.

Here.

Alright.

First item of business is a proclamation for American Heart Month.

And I invite Narissa Ichon with the American Heart Association to come forward and accept the proclamation.

You can just come to the desk.

Hi there.

I hear it's okay.

Perfect.

Alright, and uh so this is a pro as I mentioned, proclamation for American Heart Month.

And we know that the that whereas there's more than 350,000 people experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital each year, and about 70% happen at home.

Only about one in ten survive, and more than 23,000 children under the age of 18 experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital each year in the United States, and almost 40% of these are sports related.

And without going into all of the different details here, but like Kevin Wilk, the mayor of the city of Walnut Creek on behalf of the Walnut Creek City Council to hereby proclaim the month of February American Heart Month.

And I'm going to bring this up there, and then if you'd like to say a few words.

I'm from the American Heart Association Bay Areas team.

We're just really proud to accept this proclamation, especially in recognition of February as American Heart Month.

We're really proud to have supported the City of Walnut Creek's 2021 tobacco retail license ordinance and to have hosted our annual East Bay Heart Walk just across the street at Civit Park for multiple years.

In this second century of impact, we're continuing to expand our nation of lifesavers and spreading the powerful message that until first responders arrive, you are the first responder.

So as a Walnut Creek resident, we are really encouraging other fellow Walnut Creek residents to learn CPR and know to call 911 when uh in the event of a cardiac emergency.

So thank you again.

We gratefully accept this proclamation and thanks to the city of Walnut Creek for its continued support of our work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And if you'd like to come up with a picture, okay.

Well, the little man from the closet comes and takes a picture too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, this here I just want to have been doing it.

Thanks for what you do.

Yeah.

That would do it to stay in a lot.

That's the worst.

It does, it does hold on.

No.

That's a really modern policy.

Next, we have the oath of office for two new commissioners, one on Board of Appeals alternate, Trent Newhouse Newhousel, and Transportation Commissioner Eduardo Guerrero.

And I invite City Clerk Susie Martinez to administer the oath of office to our newest commissioners.

Okay, if you could please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

Against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

That I take this obligation freely.

And that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter.

Congratulations.

Yeah, before you head back to your seats.

Before you get back to your seats, um if you eat either of you would like to say a few words just about who you are and uh why you're excited about the role and uh and you are excited, we're excited.

I'm excited.

Thank you for having me.

Um my name's Trent New Hasel, and um I live and work in Walnut Creek uh for 20 years.

Um, and I think I look forward to to serving uh and providing whatever I can do to support Wanna Creek and the council.

So thanks for having me.

Thank you, and welcome aboard.

Thanks.

Good evening.

Honorable mayor, council members, city staff, and members of the community.

I'm grateful of the opportunity to serve as a transportation commissioner for our city.

Uh my background, I spent my career in public service, uh 30 years in the United States Marine Corps, and I'm in my 23rd year uh serving in the fire service.

I've worked in complex high risk environments where planning coordination and accountability matter.

And so I see transportation the same way.

Streets, transit, and mobility aren't abstract concepts, they affect safety, access, equity, economic opportunity, and quality of life for our residents each and every day.

So I don't think I have all the answers, but I do bring a commitment to preparation, integrity, and service.

I look forward to learning from this body, engaging with the public, and doing my part to help our city move forward literally and figuratively.

Thank you.

Thank thank you, Edward.

I was I was on the Transportation Commission for eight years prior to City Council, and what I found out is that people in Walnut Creek, they have an opinion about transportation.

You will find that out.

Thank you very much.

All right, next on the agenda is the consent calendar.

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

No.

No.

Does any member of staff wish to pull an item for discussion?

Nope.

Does any member of the public wish to comment on an item on the consent calendar?

And as a reminder, each speaker will have two minutes to make their remarks.

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

And for the cons.

Jan, you're up.

I can't believe no one from the podium there's uh joining me.

Jan Warren, I live in the woodlands, last 40 years.

Um I just wanted to highlight uh E approval of appropriation and transfer of a thousand oh, a million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of recycle smart diversion incentive funds for the capital projects.

Um is that the right one?

Uh having to do with uh redoing the park, the disability park.

Okay.

Uh I'm thrilled that it's getting done.

Um I'd like us to highlight somewhere in our magazine or something.

This is good stuff that's coming, even though I rates going up, people need to know all the good things that are happening and why and where the money's coming from.

And I'm just curious, do y'all know if what we're gonna pull up the little pieces that are all crumbling and have the holes like potholes.

Is there another reuse for those by chance?

Or uh where we could keep keep uh mixing it with something else and using it longer.

I'd be curious to know, of course.

Um anyhow, I'm just um thrilled and happy to uh look forward.

I don't know what the timeline is, but I've been looking forward for that getting redone because the whole region loves it.

So thanks.

Great.

Thank you, Chan.

All right.

Seeing no other speakers, I'll ask the council if anyone would like to make a motion with regard to the consent calendar or regarding an item that was.

I'll move to approve items to ABCDE.

Second.

You have a motion and a second.

Uh Susie, could you call the roll, please?

Councilmember Darling.

Hi, Mayor Pro Tem Francois.

Hi.

Councilmember Devini.

Hi.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi, Mayor Well.

Hi.

All right, we are just rolling through this.

Next, next on the agenda is public communications.

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

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

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

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

At this time, I'll note that the time is 6.13, and we'll take public comments on items not on the agenda until approximately 6 43, and then the remainder of any such comments at the end of the open session portion of the meeting.

So at this time, time to come forward.

And if you uh if people just want to line up along the side window there, uh and you'll have up to two minutes.

Good evening, Mayor Wilk, City Council and staff.

My name is Ellen Osmondson.

I'm the founder of Mount Diablo Village, which is a nonprofit organization for seniors.

And I'm passing along this brochure to you to so that you'll have a little bit better understanding about our organization.

A year ago I came here to speak before you to introduce our organization to you.

And at that time, City Council member Francois asked if we had a website.

And now we do.

And we have a website, we have our brochure, we have our regular newsletter, and we've been doing some great activities with our senior members.

As the term senior, no, a silver tsunami is on the news, meaning the aging population is growing very fast, and I believe that our organization is very timely to provide vibrancy to the aging community when they still can enjoy their time, enjoy uh making friends, and we provide a safe environment for them to do some lightweight activities like walking and getting to know or reconnecting with the downtown Warner Creek.

We have a lot of different events and programs.

We have the Good Morning Warner Creek walk, we have the smell of the roses walk, and uh and we have Monday muffin Mondays.

So we just gather together and eat muffins on Monday mornings.

And so uh our senior members or potential members seem to like that, and uh I'm very happy to uh announce that we are accepting members and volunteers, and we are having our membership and volunteer drive on February 25th.

Uh it's a Wednesday evening, four to six.

If you have time, just come stop by and check us out.

And this is our QR code.

We even have that.

Okay.

Thank you.

Ellen, quick thank you.

Thanks for the website link to just a quick question.

You mentioned the event.

Where will it be?

Well, it's gonna be at uh blood Unitarian Universalist Church at 55 Atley Lane in Warner Creek.

Okay, and the date again is on February 25th as a Wednesday, 4 to 6.

Four to six.

And we'll have vendors and service providers on site to answer questions, and we'll we'll also serve light refreshments.

Excellent.

Keep up the good work, thank you.

Thank you.

I just wanted to say on behalf of a couple family friends who have joined your village at a time where they were struggling because one of them can no longer drive her car.

She really appreciates all the work you guys have done to help her rebuild community.

Well, thank you.

That's what we do.

Thank you.

And Ellen, having been to a few events myself that you've invited me to, uh, it's just terrific.

I see the level of uh of people that are participating and the enthusiasm, and it really is something that helps to bring the community together, especially as people we have an aging community, and uh and it's great for them to have an opportunity to get together where there may not be something that is organized otherwise.

Yes, yes.

And I I also would like to say that we are a big connector because we are reconnecting the seniors to where they belong.

And uh, you know, downtown walk is very well uh appreciated by people who walk around and we actually we stop at places that was picked by the Wanna Creek Downtown Business Association, and so we'll visit some local businesses that do business in the morning.

So we sample the coffees, we sample the snacks, and so we have uh we start the morning, you know, with positive energy and um just built in Dauphin.

Muffins and snacks in my big snacks.

I'm a big sampler.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Good evening.

My name is Elizabeth Silva, and I'm a resident of Walnut Creek and a parent of a second grader at Bancroft Elementary in the two-way dual immersion program.

I moved to Walnut Creek two years ago, specifically to be in boundary for the Bancroft Elementary dual immersion program.

Last Wednesday on January 28th, Mount Diablo Unified School District announced that it would immediately phase out the dual immersion program at Bancroft Elementary in Walnut Creek and move the program to Woodside Elementary in Concord, beginning in kindergarten starting this fall.

The announcement came just days before the kindergarten enrollment is set to open, and it was made without any advanced notice or meaningful engagement with the school community and the families most impacted.

As you may know, Bancroft Elementary's dual immersion program has been incredibly successful, and it's the only two-way dual immersion program in the city of Walnut Creek.

Families are deeply deeply concerned that this decision was made in violation of California's local control and accountability plan requirements.

State law requires district to engage parents, educators, and community members in a meaningful way, and to consult with families on high-need student populations, including English learners, making major programmatic decisions according to the education code.

To date, families have not been provided with any prior consultation or opportunity for input before the decision was finalized, and the decision was finalized effective immediately.

We haven't been provided with any data or rationale used to justify the relocation.

And as a result, families are now facing enrollment uncertainty.

Sibling separation because grades one through five will remain at Baancroft while kindergarten will be moved to Woodside.

And we respectfully ask you to we respectfully ask you to help us urge Mount Diablo Unified School District to pause the immediate phasing out of the program.

Request the district engage families in transparent and meaningful public process moving forward.

Thank you.

Okay.

And we have a few other people supporting us here.

Um we ask that there be no applause during the business meeting.

We appreciate the sentiment behind it, but uh you hope you understand.

Okay.

Good evening, council members and members of the public.

My name's Jessica Lee, and I'm a dedicated Walnut Creek resident committed to our city's vibrant future.

I'm a mother of a second grade student at Bancroft Elementary and an incoming kindergartner at Bancroft Elementary.

He's currently in TK at Bancroft.

I'm also a public health service officer and I am a public health servant.

So I've been um in the federal government for over 18 years.

Um eight years ago, I relocated here to care for my aging parents, drawn to Bancroft's tight-knit community and exceptional dual language program, a beacon for families like mine.

On a single-income household, we endured a grueling three years on the wait list for after school care, planning every step with unwavering patience.

Just in acceptance, just as acceptance arrived, our light at the end of the tunnel, MDUSD yanked it away, dismissing our efforts with a mere six months notice, insisting it's enough time.

They overlooked our reality.

Families stretched spin financially, juggling rising costs while prioritizing our children's stability.

This abrupt change inflicts undue stress, disrupts education, and erodes the trust we've built in Walnut Creek's promise.

Imagine the rippling effect.

Working parents sidelined, kids uprooted, opportunities lost.

Council members, as stewards of our community, I implore you, advocate fiercely for MDUSD for an extended timeline and sustained program support.

Protect the families who've chosen Walnut Creek for its excellence.

Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much.

Um I don't think we have any questions, but after we have public comment, one of the council members may have a comment to make or thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hi, Chan Warren.

One of the reasons I come down here is to find out things like this that I didn't know anything about, even though I also live in Walnut Creek.

And my kids are grown, so it's hard to keep up with what's going on in schools, but this just hits me the wrong way.

I I feel for the parents, you know, you gotta have timelines and a way to participate for more transparency.

I'm sure the school has their reasons, but it ought to be an open process, and I would support anything you can do to engage with the school district to, you know, have more conversation before they uproot people's lives.

Thank you, Jan.

Do you have any more public comment?

One more, okay.

Hi.

My name is Jessica Keltman.

I'm a Bancroft parent as well.

Um, I'm also a journalist who's been covering education for the past 15 years.

I've seen a lot of moves uh by schools and school districts, and I'm concerned with what's going on here.

I believe that what is happening is that MDUSD has a very much a struggling slash failing school in Oak Grove Middle.

And they have tried and failed to fix it with an IB program.

IB programs are great when done well.

Fantastic.

I would be sending my kid there too.

But they did the wrong, they chose the wrong place to do it.

They didn't support the students adequately.

They threw struggling students performing below grade level into advanced academic rigor, which isn't setting kids up for success.

I think what they're trying to do now is get more affluent families tracked from Woodside to Grove to try to gain the system because more affluent families have more affluent have higher test scores, which will then fix on paper the problems, but not really serve the students.

I'm concerned with this line of problem solving.

I have seen it.

I've traveled the country, I've seen dozens, if not a hundred different schools in different states.

I've seen this kind of problem solving, but I've also seen when people buckle down and they really put the work in.

Massive changes can happen in education.

So I'm concerned with this problem solving because I think it just creates more problems and it sends more people who care about public education into the private system, which really isn't solving anything short-term or long term.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, everybody.

My name is Lucilla Ishu.

I'm a parent of two students at Bancroft dual immersion program.

They are in third grade and first grade.

I have an incoming kinder one.

Um devastated to hear that my kinder can join Bancroft, but in the monolingual program.

She's not gonna be able to take and apply to the same program that my other kids are going through right now.

The options that I'm given is enroll her at Woodside.

As a working parent, I cannot do that.

I cannot take two kids to one school and a third one to a different one.

I can I I juggle, I try to do my best.

That's impossible.

The other option is to enroll my youngest in the dual immersion program at Woodside and transfer the two eldest one to the monolingual program at Woodside.

So none of the options we are given is gonna provide me an answer.

We don't know the reasons.

We ask MS um Monteablo Unified School District just to explain us to work with us.

Maybe they have like value reasons, but we need to plan accordingly.

Maybe the plan is great.

I honestly don't know, but the implementation is important.

They cannot affect the families as they are affecting us.

So I really ask you to please advocate for this.

No matter the outcome, I think that we as a bankrupt community deserve the right to have voice and to participate in this decision making.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, my name is Donald Paul Shivel.

Back in 2012.

I lived there for six years.

But back in 2012, I felt at work.

Um and crushed my upper body.

My chest was fractured, collarbone, shoulder, shoulder blades, massive taut soft tissue damage, and almost ruptured my heart.

What happened was when I filed the work comp claim, uh I went in, got CT scans, MRIs, went in my first work comp uh appointment, they confiscated all my imaging, and then all my injuries were covered up.

Uh they ran me for a year, and then uh I threatened legal action.

Uh Dr.

Paul Nottingham uh was a spine surgeon, he's the one that committed the fraud, defrauded the state and the Fed helping uh Professor David J.

Chadsuti of Traveler's Insurance Corporation.

He's the one that came down, he's the ex VP of two global corporations, took over my work comp case, my my injuries are so bad.

So what happened was instead of fixing me, they threatened me into a neck surgery saying nothing will get fixed until I go in and let them operate on my neck.

So out of the rest, I said, Okay, you know, fix me.

I just wanted to get fixed and go back to work.

I'm raising my son, I'm a single parent.

And uh, you know, even though I'm an ex-felon or whatever, you know, it does not a human being, right?

Uh I wouldn't even jaywalk.

I'm a single dad raising my son.

Okay, so I got pictures of my family back then.

I worked out in the gym.

Well, Daniel Dokik.

Uh I worked out in the gym with he was in there all the time with us.

I knew him.

I tried to report this, but here's what happened.

They threatened me into a surgery.

The surgery is supposed to take an hour, hour and a half.

Finish up in 10 seconds.

Pardon?

Finish up in 10 seconds.

Uh surgery.

Well, anyway, I got a dozen implants in my head here, here, here, wires running down here.

I got magnets sticking my chest.

And they ran me through the MK Ultra program.

I'm trying to get I tried to get in here to file police reports, boom, get out.

They surround me with SWAT.

Okay.

Um, thank you.

It sounds like you need to meet with the police department.

Um I'm gonna ask that if you go in the back room right now with the uh they told me don't come down here.

Okay, well, you'll be able to meet with our captain Slater who can get any kind of discussion with you, he's right in the back right now.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you very much.

Any uh uh any other public comment right now.

Okay, then I'll close the public comment if we have any council members that would like to ask any questions or public comment on any of the topics that were brought up.

Yeah, I was just uh definitely um concerned about the issue you've raised at Bancroft, and I I assume that you've met or reached out to your school board uh representatives and are there they've weighed in on this to some extent.

We have you have a reason uh you want to come up to the diaspora.

Thank you for the question.

Um we have a petition that basically says what I what I said earlier and requests for an immediate pause and community engagement.

Um we have a hundred and seventeen signatures so far.

So far, it's only been four days from the Bancroft community.

We have sent that to the superintendent and also to um every board member.

Um and we have gotten a response from the superintendent that just appreciates us for our comments, but um doesn't invite us to a meeting or say that any changes will happen.

That's where things stand.

So I have a question to our city manager.

Are we aware that this has been occurring?

Are we aware of the topic itself?

This is the first I've heard of it.

Okay.

First I've heard of it as well.

And I appreciate you coming.

Obviously, you're familiar that uh the Mount Diablo School District operates as its own special district and their own jurisdiction, but obviously, assuming you live in Walnut Creek, you're all Walnut Creek residents, so appreciate you speaking and making your concerns held.

We do have uh one of our staff members that has public education as their um as staff for that, right?

Um, could we at least do some background work and find out from our staff member to connect with the superintendent's office just to get an understanding of what's going on and then report out to city council?

Yes, we can take a look into it.

Great.

Appreciate you coming down here and at least bringing this up.

I'm not sure how much we can do with the Mount Diablo School District, but at least we can understand what's going on.

Okay, thank you.

And I love the sign.

That was a good sign, and you did a great job holding it up.

All right, so that uh ends public communications.

You are more than happy to stay for the rest of the meeting, but I understand also if you have to go and go to bed.

I get that as well.

So next we have council member and staff announcements, reports and activities or requests.

Ask the city attorney if you have any closed session announcements.

Uh there are no reportable actions from closed session this evening.

Thank you.

City manager, if you have any reports.

Yeah, good evening, Dan Buckshai City Manager.

I do have a couple updates.

Um related to League of California Cities Policy Committee.

I attended the governance transparency labor relations committee meeting.

I'm a member of that policy committee.

And there were updates on artificial intelligence and potential impacts to cities or other organizations.

There's a presentation by City of San Jose.

Good news is is we've been tracking very closely what San Jose is is reviewing and putting out for policy consideration, and we're generally in alignment with some of the best practices at this point in time.

One of the other matters that was discussed, you may recall there was legislation passed this last year, SB 770, which effectively amends the Brown Act will require, at least for Walnut Creek and others to allow for remote participation beginning July 1st, amongst other things.

It appears there may be further amendments to that bill uh to possibly include additional translation requirements placed upon cities, but that's somewhat speculative at this point, but that's being discussed in Sacramento.

So there may be more discussion about that bill or related bills going forward.

Uh one of the other updates I wanted to provide is that on January 21st, Contra Costa County Office of Emergency Services hosted a meeting and training with all 19 cities.

We had six representatives there from Walnut Creek.

Most of the other cities had a comparable number of folks.

You can imagine it was a rather large gathering, but it was very helpful training.

It's the first time in a number of years that all 19 cities in the county have gotten together to work through some coordination issues, and there is additional training planned in the coming months through the county in coordination with the other cities.

And then lastly, I wanted to provide an update uh to your council and for members of the public if they're not aware.

On January 20th, the County Board of Supervisors voted to consider placing a.625% sales tax with a five-year sunset on the June 3rd primary ballot.

They directed staff to bring back the appropriate documents for the County Board of Supervisors to formally vote on that matter on February 17th.

Uh it was a unanimous vote by the board to move forward.

I anticipate it would be unanimous on February 17th to place it on the ballot.

The intent is to backfill a significant portion of the roughly 200 to 300 million dollars of reductions that will occur over the next few years related to the federal bill HR one, which provides funding for the expanded Medi-Cal and other social service programs that are funded by the federal government.

So likely more information to follow on that before too long.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

And next we have council member assignments and various activities and upcoming events on AD 1234 activities.

Who would like to start?

Oh, yeah, all voluntary.

Thank you very much, former mayor for pointing at me.

A few things, thank you.

Um I'll start with Recycle Smart, which is the joint powers authority or the partnership that we have with five other local jurisdictions for the garbage recycling and organic services.

And we are going into the next rate year will start March 1, and we have recently approved the rate increase.

Walnut Creek's rates for the monthly service will go up by 6%, primarily as I mentioned previously, to cover the cost, the increasing cost of the service as well as the increasing number of services that were required to deliver under state law.

However, the good news is Walnut Creek's rates, monthly rates are the lowest of the 19 cities in Contra Costa and the cities in the Tri-Valley.

So we are doing something right.

And so thank you on that.

I would also like to mention that a year from this coming March, we will go into a new contract period for franchise agreement, and some of the services will be changing, and it would be good if we could schedule a presentation by Recycle Smart Leadership team on what's different and what's changed because otherwise we Matt Francois and I would be sitting here with the slide deck going through it ourselves, and so they're able to answer the questions.

So that might be good to have toward later in the year.

Um I too and so does the mayor serve on a policy committee for the League of California Cities, and we had our meetings about 10 days ago, and I'm serving this year on the revenue and taxation policy committee, and we had a robust discussion about sales tax trends and allocations.

Evidently it was rather heated arguments in the hallways afterward.

Um but I think it the first really important part of it was really to talk about the trends in sales tax.

While sales tax is going up, if it's percentage of or compared to the personal income, it's actually trending downward because so many of the things that we buy in California are what we spend our incomes on are actually non-taxable rent, mortgages, homeowners insurance, fire insurance, all of that, as well as services and um streaming services.

If we go home tonight and we decide to watch Netflix, we're not paying sales tax on that.

So all of those things are the way we have trended in our buying patterns, as well as in downtime economic times with unemployment rates.

There are that there's less and less discretionary spending.

So that's affecting our revenue streams across the board.

Then at the same time, the buying patterns, the more people buying online, it's changed the way the sales tax is actually allocated.

The this issue is going to the board of directors in three weeks, the meeting, to decide what position we'll take from a policy perspective, but um and it should be a very interesting and heated conversation at that, and I will report more in March.

Is that the Cal Cities Board of Directors?

Cal Cities Board of Directors.

Um, Walnut Creek Sister Cities Board meeting last night.

I will report that planning is well underway for the um visit of the delegations of youth from Italy and Hungary, and they will be the Italian team will be arriving on Thursday, March 26th for a week, and the Hungarian team group of students will be arriving Friday, March 27th, and they'll stay through the following week.

And the welcome reception will be Monday, March 30th.

And so mark your calendars for that.

There also plans are well underway for the recruiting of the next year's class, the 20026-2027 class of students from Walnut Creek.

They will select probably a dozen to go to Nochetto, Italy, and a dozen for Sheo Folk Hungary, and they will be selected.

They've expected about 85 people last night, 85 families at the orientation meeting, and they will probably select everyone by early May so that the plans can be well underway.

And finally, I will mention that Community Service Day registration for community service day will start on February 17th, and it's slated for April 18th, the Saturday.

It's a morning, and it involves 42 projects across the city.

And for the first time ever, all of our schools are all of our public schools in Walnut Creek have a project or two.

So we're delighted with what's about to happen and mark your calendars for the 18th.

Thank you very much, Mayor.

Alright, thanks.

Well, your next informer.

Okay, I can't look at anybody now.

Um a couple things.

Um the chamber of commerce board has not met since we last did, but there are a couple things coming up that are chamber activities.

Uh February 25th, starring the mayor, Walnut Creek, State of the City, will be held, and then on March 3rd, the women's conference will come back to the Leisher Center, and that's always a great chance.

So hurry up and sign up for those two things with the chamber.

Um I did all of us got a chance to meet Chris Farrow, our new um arts and recreation director, and that was really fun because she comes from Stockton, which is where I grew up.

So go Vikings.

Um and then the other things that I d have done over this time period really go back to MCE and electric rate setting.

Uh we are working towards our budget for the year, our fiscal year starts April 1st.

We are looking at our rate structure and trying to figure out we are dropping rates for the year because we haven't increased them for the last three years, and we are seeing a decrease in energy supply costs, which is a great thing to have.

Last year was very challenging.

We are looking at a couple different levels of rate reduction, and that will be counterbalanced against some of the charges from PGE.

We're trying to balance those out because we recognize how much those utility costs affect people's bottom lines.

We don't have consensus yet on what we're going to do, but I will be reporting out at future meetings and um stand by.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Let's go over to uh Councilmember David.

Well, thank you, Mayor.

But I have nothing to report this week.

All right.

Mayor Pro Tim.

Okay.

Well, thank you, Mayor.

Uh let's see.

I attended the as a liaison to Rossmore.

I attended their board meeting last week.

Night the last time I was the liaison was during the pandemic.

So we were doing things differently then, and it was nice to be there in person and see everyone.

They had a good crowd.

They I gave them an update on the council priorities, which of course are public safety, parks and recreation facilities, environmental sustainability, economic development, and my personal favorite, the general plan update.

And they were most interested in uh the feedback I received uh on the public safety priority, wanting to know about our staffing levels, curious about uh where we are on those levels, and thanks to the chief, I was able to provide them some current information.

They're also interested in uh traffic enforcement uh generally and in and around uh the Rossmore area.

So good good first meeting with them and gave them a it was nice to to make that connection.

Also serve on the recycle smart board with council member Silva.

She did a fantastic job of giving the update, and I concur with her recommendation.

Uh those franchise agreements the executive director of recycle smart and staff will be doing three-dimensional chess and you know multi-sheets uh excel spreadsheets in terms of there's five different contractors and different services, and it I think it would be helpful to get that information out at the appropriate time because the contracts don't take place until next, don't go into effect until next March.

We've already signed them and we have them lined up, but I it it's generally good news.

I think our our community is getting more service, more bang for the buck in terms of additional pickups, and especially in the multifamily sector, which Walnut Creek has a very robust uh multifamily development housing here, and that a lot of the services that single family residents get in terms of battery pickup or extra uh uh green service and things like that, or or reuse and uh recycle days, that's going to be extended to the multifamily as well.

So it's it's it's all good things, and I think having kind of a comprehensive update on that will will be good.

Uh let's see.

I am planning on attending, I don't know if you are as well, the Joy Bound event this Saturday from 10 to 3.

It's Unleash the Love Festival.

It's an adopt a thon and fun that will be from 10 to 3 here in Walnut Creek at Joybound out in Shade Lands or 2890 Mitchell Drive.

And hopefully I won't come back with a new pet, but I might.

So and then finally, I wanted to mention that uh the Leisher speaker series is hosting uh former Montana Senator John Tester and former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman uh at next Tuesday night the 10th at 7.30 is kick off of the speaker series for 2026.

So if you don't have a ticket, try to get one.

I think it should be a really interesting uh interesting to hear from both of them and see how uh bipartisanship works in action.

That's my report.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

And actually, those uh they're not really debates, but the the back and forth between uh two different parties, they're always very congenial.

I always get a lot out of them.

It's it's fascinating to hear where hey, people on two sides can come together and there's common ground areas, and I think we all hope that we can move forward in that respect.

I will not unfortunately be at the Joy Bound event on uh Saturday.

I'm sure you'll do a fantastic job representing the city.

Unfortunately, I have to be in LA for memorial that day, so um, but I will be thinking of you at Joey Bound.

Uh most of my last couple of weeks were involved with conferences.

The one was Cal Cities in Sacramento, which also you heard council member Silva uh had gone to as well.

It uh the conference was for mayors and city leaders.

It's always great to collaborate with fellow leaders and sharing best practices, especially when it comes to housing and transportation.

So we had probably 250 council members and mayors and city leaders from throughout the state that were there, and then that back right on to the policy committee that I am a member of, which is the environmental quality policy committee.

So I want to talk about quickly about the top priorities.

I know that there's a lot of people that are very interested in sustainability in the city.

Uh so the priorities are strengthened climate change resilience and natural disaster preparedness, supporting local efforts to prepare and prevent wildfire and other disasters, ensuring access to insurance.

That's a big one, of course.

Uh, energy and utilities and supporting policies that encourage the use of solar and wind generation to produce hydrogen and other renewable energy sources, waste and wastewater solutions, and that's a key priority this year to talk about within the environmental quality committee, sequel reform, always a favorite, and uh then bioplastics and recyclables, which is something that has the last couple of years really started to gain prominence.

So those are going to be the things that we really discuss this year.

If we make recommendations, they are then brought to the Cal City's board of directors to vote on see if we take uh sides on those to be able to lobby to the uh state legislators.

And then last week I was in frigid Washington, DC, where it was about eight degrees each day for the U.S.

Conference of Mayors.

And this is great.

We're able to share feedback from all over the country on what's working, what's not.

Lots of discussion on housing needs and concerns of federal overreach on immigration.

No surprise there.

Uh, in fact, even Jacob Fry, the mayor of Minneapolis was the highlight, and he had support of every one of the 300 mayors that were there.

He'd flown in, gave about a 20 minute discussion of what was going on, hounded by the press afterwards?

Then he he flew on out.

But we all face the same challenges in cities, mayors, everything from aging infrastructure and rising costs to affordable housing, mental health needs, homelessness, and public safety.

So lots of discussions on that and on how AI can be a tool for more efficient solutions while improving residents' lives.

So a terrific conference.

First time I had a chance to go to it five years ago when I was mayor.

Of course, it was COVID and uh they did not have the conference of mayors, and I certainly wasn't there.

So I encourage that we participate in this every year when given the opportunity.

That's my update.

So I guess that's that.

We'll move on now to our consideration item, which is the selection of applicants to be interviewed for consideration for 2026 commission appointments.

And I'm going to invite Susie Martinez to um explain the selection process, and then I'll make a couple of recommendations we move forward after we hear public comment.

Okay, good evening.

So this scheduled recruitment process, we had nine openings, one opening each on the arts commission, iron horse corridor advisory committee, and board of appeals, and two openings each on the design review commission, uh park recreation and open space commission and transportation commission.

Included in the agenda packet is a listing of all 47 qualified candidates.

And additionally, the city council has received the full applications for review.

At this point in time, it's council standard practice to ballot and select who you would like to interview at your next meeting on February 17th.

In the past, council has a standard of interviewing three candidates per opening.

So I have prepared ballots.

So if you would like to ballot at this time or provide other direction to me, the choices are to interview all, interview a select few, or direct the city clerk to open uh to go back and reopen recruitment.

Or a hybrid alternative alternative.

Additionally, we'll proceed with scheduling group interviews on February 17th, unless other direction is provided.

Great.

Thank you, Susie.

So first let me ask the uh my colleagues, do you have any questions of Susie at this time?

You can ask questions later, but do at this time do we have any?

No.

Okay.

So I don't have any questions.

I'll make a comment in a minute, but I'm first gonna open this up to public communications and ask if anybody from the public would like to step forward and speak regarding this particular issue.

Yeah, no.

All right.

So I'll close public comment.

And um as we as we look at these openings, and we can see that a couple of them we've have two openings.

Since we have so many applicants and and certainly more than a handful for three of them, arts transportation and pros.

I'd recommend that uh for the interview process that we interview all five iron horse corridor advisory committee applicants during our interview process.

Interview all four board of appeal applicants.

Again, these are just for one opening for each of these, and then interview the one design review applicant who's an architect and dis and look at discussing options for maybe bringing on uh additional recruitment for landscape architect or even reaching out to our current commissioner who's a landscape architect to extend her term, and then for the the arts transportation and park recreation open space, applicants move to ballot for those.

Any questions, comments, other thoughts?

How many uh ballots or how many um would you like from each group or what were you thinking from transportation and pros?

So from those, what we like to do is when the ballots come out, uh I think we're saying select our uh is it select our do we stack rank them?

Or do we just like select our you would say select top five.

Top five?

So right, so selecting the top five, and then what we would do is ideally interview at least three people for each opening.

In other words, there would be six, but six interviewees for the two openings for transportation and pros, and three interviewees for the one opening for arts.

So those would be two separate panels of interviews that we would do for transportation and pros.

May I suggest then we we pick six off of our list if we're going for six?

I mean ultimately, usually if we end up having five, we're going to end up with there will be a stack rank that's there.

And the the challenge if we end up picking six or or even seven is you could end up having so many that are in the top seven or eight that it's difficult to then whittle them down.

I usually with five we've ended up with a good amount that we've had um there seems to be a separation at that point between the six that we're interviewing and the others.

There's just so many good candidates.

I know there are a lot of and I will say we do have a wealth of good candidates.

Uh we're very fortunate for that.

Uh going through the uh the applications.

I think I probably am not alone when I said that oh my gosh, how are we just going to choose one or two of these?

There are some that there were half a dozen or more of really good candidates.

So thank you all for applying.

And uh great job on the on city clerk and getting the outreach on this.

It was truly phenomenal.

I don't think we've ever seen 47 applicants before for so it's it's terrific.

So um I have a question for uh Susie.

Uh there's an applicant on there that um has served two uh terms and were uh is applying for a third.

What was our that we did we have a discussion about that?

Um, so in some cases, there are a couple a couple of instances where people have been asked to apply again for a third term.

The reason being that if there has been a lot of turnover in one of the commissions and we're looking at a very, very new commission, the consistency of having somebody that's got some endemic history and and knowledge there of what's been going on can sometimes be oftentimes be very helpful to the consistency of a commission from time to time.

You don't end up with five people that have served less than a year.

And we have that I guess precedent going back, we've done that before.

This is not actually we never even used to have term limits going back.

And so it's fairly recent that we're doing this, but more if if we see that there is uh challenges in being able to get either one good recruits or again, just wanting to maintain the consistency that we have.

Like a great example is in the park recreation open space.

We've got the biggest project on being undertaken with the Heather Farm Swimming Community Center that the Walnut Creek is ever undertaken, and to have all brand new pro uh park recreation and open space commissioners, or maybe all within the last year would be a challenge in being able to have that consistency from where it was voted to approve to through to completion.

And then there's uh someone applying for transportation that I thought was just going for reelection.

Um, these um, re-election or reappointment.

Or reappointment isn't isn't Jared already on the oh he's turned out as well.

Okay, I didn't see that on the the written transcript.

So he's turned out as well, he's same exact, yeah.

So mention as before.

Can I check Mayor?

Because I was assuming when I was looking at this for the two candidates that it would be a reappointment beyond the normal term limits, we have the option of putting them down as one of the people that we would interview, or are you recommending we just automatically include them in the interview list?

Uh well, I would recommend that we automatically interview them, but that's up to the council if if you if you agree with that, then that's what we would do.

If you would prefer to vote on that, then we can do that too.

So what we would do is vote, because in each case we have one returning potential returning up front pros and one for transportation.

We would just consider those two as interviewees.

Right.

And then vote for five additional.

Yeah, yes.

Okay.

Sure.

That would actually be.

I like that because it gives us more votes.

Okay, terrific.

Uh and does everybody agree with the first three in just interviewing all the applicants for design review, board of appeals, and iron Horse.

We just need a bigger vote.

There you go.

All right.

Well, we'll set up an extra chair at the desk.

Uh, okay, well, then uh let's take this one step at a time.

Um we'll start we'll first do just the uh motion that interviewing the five iron horse corridor advisory committee applicants, the four Board of Appeal applicants, and the one design review applicant, and then we will reach out to a current commissioner or continue to extend recruitment for design review applicant.

Second.

We have a motion the second.

Mayor welcome.

Hi.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi, Councilmember Darling.

Hi, Councilmember Devini.

Hi.

Yes.

All right.

So now we'll move on to the balloting for Arts Transportation and Pros.

So at the top of each um ballot is the commission name, so that you don't get them mixed up and then passing um out three ballots.

And uh Mayor Wilk, just to again to clarify, arts has one opening.

And uh transportation and pros both have two.

Are we are we intending to interview the same number of people for arts as we are for transportation and pros?

No, because since those have two openings, we'd be interviewing six people.

We'll still vote for five for arts, but we're only going to interview three.

Unless that's our goal to interview three.

So we're voting for five.

Correct.

We are just gonna vote the head capital.

Okay.

We could do we're voting for all.

Or just arts.

I think we go for all.

Like, yeah, yeah.

If we do if we do arts first, though, they can be tabulating while we're doing the rest.

May I make a suggestion?

There you go.

Okay.

So we'll vote for arts first so they can be tablating while we're working on the rest.

Sorry.

Yes, I never put my name on the stuff when I was voting as a kid.

Do you have ours?

Do you have a parts?

Do you have arts?

Well, which one do you want us to do second?

Let's do pros pros second.

So before they announce the results, should we set up a threshold for minimum number of votes to be considered in the in the queue or is it just ranked choice voting?

Well, why don't we see where we land right?

I wanted to ask that question before we heard it, because otherwise that biases the answer, perhaps.

Is the discussion that we might wind up with a bunch of say ones or like a bunch of twos, and how do we break that tie?

Well, I mean, you vote again is how we break that tie.

Okay.

Right.

But so are we saying that you have to have at least two like three for example, three votes to be able to and then if we don't have enough for the then we go back to it.

Um okay, well, let's look at this.

The motion that is uh council member Silva said that it um suggests that you have to have at least three votes to be able to move on to interview process.

Um and if we don't and if we have a situation where we don't have enough interviewees then, then we do another vote on that particular category.

If we introduce that, you have to have at least three.

And we had to then revote, would we only be revoting on the ones that got votes?

Or how what would we do with that information?

And that is a good question.

You know, I I think let's do this.

Let's read off the votes and then we'll determine where we go from there.

On the theory that it always kind of works out.

Right, right.

And we usually have this conversation having been here a few times.

Um, and if it becomes something where there's too many people that would be in buying for a fifth or a sixth spot, we can talk about that then.

Right.

I saw that.

We're gonna project them on this.

I think that's what we're starting with hearts.

We'll go into this one.

I signed up for a more afternoon, we're running out of the various.

I've had about the question.

The crowd is nervous in anticipation.

Sort of finding growing up there is kind of fun to run through your hometown in areas that you know you wouldn't normally go job again and just have all the streets open, sort of fun.

Okay.

This is the uh arts commission.

So for the arts commission, we are looking at three.

I'm sorry, we're talking about one opening, right?

That's correct.

One opening.

And we've got uh one with five and three with four and one with three.

Uh so do move to interview number one, two, three, and four.

Second.

Okay.

Uh take a roll.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi.

Mayor Welcome.

Council Member Darling.

Hi.

Councilmember Davin.

Mayor Pro Tem Francois.

Okay.

So one down.

So it always works out.

Oh, we haven't seen the next one.

I can kind of see over there.

Okay.

Okay.

So this is the prose commission on um listed on the right-hand side are those candidates with the most votes.

And those four candidates received three or higher.

We have nine additional candidates who received one or two votes.

And uh who had the who had the two vote?

How many had the two votes?

How many have two votes?

One, two, three.

Yeah, because we have two to interview or two candidates.

Right.

Five had two votes.

Can I suggest we vote on those five and win o' the herd?

Yes, that's what I would suggest.

No.

No, I would suggest two.

So let's um.

If uh and who are those five?

Okay, so the five receiving two votes.

And CR Tanya, don't we need our ballots back anyway?

Yep.

So we have to mark it on our ballots.

So if we get the ballots back first, yes.

Sorry.

Sorry.

And maybe on the screen, if you're able to do that, Helena, if you can maybe highlight those those five names, or are we able to see them right there?

No.

Highlight the five names that we're voting on.

Thank you.

Okay.

And then why don't we vote for three of those?

Or two of the that's just over two of the five.

One, two, three, five, six, six, six.

There are six that received two votes.

Okay.

Okay.

So we'll vote for two out of those six.

We're we're only trying to get two more people.

We already have four set.

We're looking for two more.

We'll vote for two out of the six that had that have received two votes.

And who are those six?

Those six are on the screen.

Highlighted in yellow.

Okay.

So vote for two of these people.

I guess we'll hope to get two.

We haven't helped.

And you go back to the other one.

We could turn it on.

I really want to raise that sound.

So we'll be able to do that sometimes.

Okay, I just wanted to do that.

So we would still have to do this.

But once you go to things on the way to have a good one, okay.

So for the pros commission, looking at line six.

Yes.

Oh, all right.

For lines five and six.

So we so all right.

So we have seven.

Move to interview numbers one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Second.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi.

Mayor Welk.

Hi.

Council number Darling.

Hi.

Council number Divini.

Hi.

Mayor Proton Francois.

Hi.

And then lastly lastly.

Okay.

So these are for two positions.

And uh that's the six.

Move to interview the six.

Second.

I don't know if you want to touch.

Mayor Proton Francois.

Hi.

Mayor Welk.

Hi.

Council Member Darling.

I Councilmember Divini.

Hi.

Council Member Silva.

Aye.

Motion carries.

We should hold on to these until after the end of the way.

Right.

Yeah.

So we'll recycle your application back.

Okay.

Well, uh, we now have our set commission interviews.

That brings us to the end of the meeting.

And we are now adjourned until the meeting of February seventeenth.