Walnut Creek and welcome to the Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 special meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.

This special meeting is called for the purpose of interviewing commission candidates.

Under California law, public comments and special meetings are limited to subjects on the agenda only.

Therefore, public comments will be received at this time related to interviews of commission candidates.

After an opportunity for public comment, the city council will conduct the commission interviews.

Commission interviews will not be video recorded but can be viewed in person.

And I think that's it.

So we're going to adjourn now and go to our interviews.

Okay.

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 lectern, 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.

All right, good evening.

I'm Kevin Wilk, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.

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

Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and Judy Republic for which it stands.

Individual liberty and the justice for all.

And City Clerk Susie Martinez, would you please call the roll?

Councilmember Darling.

Here.

Councilmember DeVinny.

Here.

Councilmember Silva.

Here.

Mayor Protein Francois.

Here.

Mayor Welk.

Here.

All right.

For our first item, I would like to invite members of the African American Friends Club of Rossmoor, including Mary Taylor and Debbie Thomas, program manager with A3 Behavioral Health Crisis Services of Contra Costa Health, and come forward to accept the proclamation.

The proclamation for everybody here is going to be the Black History Month and African American Mental Health Awareness Week and the A3 Crisis Response Program update.

And I'm going to join you tonight.

So we have a proclamation here, and I'm so glad I'm going to extend here.

And uh so, whereas during Black History Month, we celebrate the many achievements and contributions made by Black Americans in our economic, cultural, spiritual, and political development.

Black History Month grew out of the 1926 establishment of Negro History Week by Carter Woodson and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

The observance of Black History Month calls our attention to the continued need to battle racism and build a society that lives up to its democratic ideals.

And the City of Walnut Creek is proud to honor and celebrate the contributions of black history black Americans in our community who have indelibly shaped our history.

And whereas, according to the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, some mental illnesses are more prevalent in the black American community as compared to other groups in the United States.

Mental health and substance use issues and the devastating impact of COVID-19 are among the leading causes of health challenges for Black Americans in our region.

And the City of Walnut Creek is committed to empowering black American residents by promoting the benefits of mental health services through education, advocacy, policy development, raising awareness, and decreasing the stigma surrounding mental health.

And whereas the City of Walnut Creek collaborates with local government agencies and community-based organizations to support the innovative A3 mobile crisis response housed in Contra Costa Health Services to expand resources enhancing mental health in the Black American American community, and the City of Walnut Creek supports and encourages the efforts made to create the Miles Hall Community Crisis Hub as an easily accessible regional contact center for people experiencing a mental health crisis.

The City of Walnut Creek supports efforts for local organization to honor those who are who are or have been suffering from mental illness and supports efforts to strengthen families and their role in sharing history and shaping the future of our black residents.

What I like to do is if you both have a few words that you would like to say, please do, and then we'll take a picture.

You know me, I always have words to say.

So on behalf of the African American and Friends Club of Rosemore, and there's three others here, we would like to thank you gratefully thank you for this proclamation.

Thank you.

It's an honor to receive this award and to share this recognition with Mary Taylor.

I would like to dedicate the award to the community of Contra Costa County, the many allies of health services, community-based organizations, partnerships with all of the other first responders, police, fire, emergency medical services, and the individuals and families who are struggling.

What we do at A3 is truly a collective effort.

As tonight's joint recognition highlights the importance of Black history and elevates awareness around mental health within the Black community, it brings me back to my own personal story and connection to the cause.

When as a young adult, still in the first years of college, my little brother Byron would experience his first psychotic break, leading to a long journey and eventual diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Our family then faced similar challenges that are still very present in the Black community today.

There is still the need to increase access to culturally competent providers, more provisions are needed for open dialogue and promoting self-care to rise above barriers to treatment.

Which leads me to the brief update on A3, where timely and appropriate mental and behavioral health crisis services are provided to anyone anywhere at any time in Contra Costa County.

So in Contra Costa County, our 1.2 million residents who live here, one in six people will experience a mental health challenge.

It is the third most reason for an ambulance call, and 6,500 visits are made annually to psych emergency services.

This is what the team looks like.

We are made up of RNs, mental health clinicians, mental health specialists, peer support specialists, level one interventionists, and substance use disorder counselors.

Sometimes that crisis services also involves violence, and in those cases, we will ask the local law enforcement jurisdiction to co-respond with us.

These are some of the numbers from our countywide efforts in 2025, where in 2025 we received 20,255 calls, 12,418 of those were related to crisis, and there were over 5100 field visits that we made out in the community.

Most of the calls come from the individuals themselves or the family or friend or community member calling about their loved one or someone that they care about.

Law enforcement represent about a quarter of the calls.

And these are our stats for Walnut Creek in 2025.

1,125 calls of those 1,125 calls, 702 of them were related to crisis, and 256 field visits were made here in Walnut Creek in 2025.

And this data just gives us a snapshot of what the last quarter of 2025 looked like.

And let's uh let's do a picture of all of us.

Don't go far.

No, don't go.

We're good on the picture.

We're doing a picture of all of us.

Yes, I've got enough.

Okay.

So this is really graduate former family of the hospital.

And here we have Annette who worked ADP in the tax division.

And then on the hand, we have Len Smith, who was an educator.

Thank you so much.

Right.

Next, we have a presentation from the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation, and I invite Jim King with the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation to present to the council.

Good evening, Council members.

Thank you very much for this opportunity.

Very briefly, a little background, the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation was established in 2015, and we've been working with the council since then.

We have a memorandum of understanding to assist in raising funds for the new Aquatic Center as part of the new community aquatic center that's uh about to break ground tomorrow.

And uh uh hope several of you will be able to uh join.

In uh this process, we have agreed to raise, we the uh foundation agreed to raise three million dollars toward the cost and cons of the construction of the aquatic center.

Excuse me.

And as per the MOU memorandum of understanding, we uh uh initially have now forwarded our first installment payment on that of a hundred thousand dollars, and so I'm here symbolically with a check.

Well there we go.

Uh actually I think it was a cashier's check that came in a few days ago, but uh this is our symbolic check, and it's uh I want to note it's on erasable uh so that the next check can also be we can use it again for the next one.

Can we fill in the amounts that we want?

Up to three million, mayor well.

So I think we wanted a brief photo opportunity.

Absolutely, thank you.

This well, actually, let me ask a question with this the groundbreaking tomorrow is the largest project in Walnut Creek's history.

So it's a big deal, seven seventy seventy seven million dollars of the for a new community center and swimming center.

So we're very excited about that.

And I just want to say thanks on behalf of the whole council to the Aquatics Foundation.

I know we have worked together vigorously at times, but with diligence to bring this forward and you guys have been there and I really appreciate you guys um signing the MOU and living up to the that and um bringing us our check.

Thank you.

We've actually uh raised uh a little over 900,000 dollars in cash and pledges so far in one year, and we are in discussions for another one point eight million, which would bring us to two point seven or ninety percent of our three million dollar commitment.

So we feel very good about our efforts so far, but we're not done.

We take all contributions, small, large, and in between.

Uh and so I want to thank council members who have contributed to the plan as well.

If somebody were to look for a way to make the contribution, who would they where would they go?

All they have to do is go to our website WCAquatics dot org and uh there's plenty of information there on how to donate uh uh the little drop down tabs there are ways to donate cash credit uh securities um appreciated property uh if people have specific questions they could be directed to me I'm chairman of the fundraising committee uh but we have a number of other people who could answer questions as well thank you yeah wonderful thing well let's let's do a photo op yeah okay all right next on the agenda is the consent calendar does any council member wish to pull any item for discussion two F and two H 2F and H and does any member of staff wish to pull an item for discussion Does any member of the public wish to comment on an item on the consent calendar 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 not be separately read into the record.

So this is for just the consent calendar not public communication for items not on the agenda not yet so do we have a move to approve items two A through E and two G.

Second we have a motion to second Susie could you call the role please Mayor Protain Francois.

Council member Silva aye council member darling mayor welcome motion carries all right uh okay if uh council member divinity would like to uh brief questions the first one's on the bike uh trail improvement uh two F and uh I should direct my question to okay yeah so Mike.

Hi there.

So my question is on the written on the written um statement of the improvement it says that we're gonna extend class four protected bikeway from South Main to Capwell.

Yes and on the um diagram it shows that same that we're going from South California to Capwell just for the sake of clarity um I was wondering which which one we're doing are we going all the way to South to um South California it's got this diagram that has the the three spots that extend from California to Capwell is that is that the intention or is it just from South Main?

Um we're actually going to the underpass oh all the way to the underpass all the way to the underpass yes okay and that's that's with the the class four or just some sort of bike trail to the underpass um at the underpass it is not a class four um however the class four is to California okay yes okay well thanks for the clarity yeah if you'd like to make a motion uh I make a motion to um yeah, to approve uh item two F authorizing uh Transportation uh development act article three grant funds from MTC to construct the new avenue Improvement project.

I'll second.

Motion to second.

Susie, could you call the rule, please?

Council member Divini.

Hi.

Council member darling.

Hi.

Council member Silva.

Hi.

Mayor Pro Tem Francois.

Hi.

Mayor Well.

Hi.

Motion carries.

2G.

Uh 2H.

Or to H.

2H, yeah.

My question for 2H is that it looks like we procured about like 3 million for the project.

But it was significantly under the cost.

And so the question was do we want to keep the funds in CP 010131 or return them into source?

And I I was wondering why we were gonna keep them in that fund versus returning them to source since it was like well over a million dollars, and we what were the pros and cons to that?

Uh so the reason that we're significantly under is because there was a shade lens maintenance fund, so we used a lot of that money.

As far as returning to source, we're using it.

Our plans are to use that for YVR paving.

So when that job uh you know goes out, we'll have the money set aside already for you know when we do the overlay, the big YVR project.

So we'll have that money ready for that.

So we already we've already identified an area that we can use the funds for.

Correct.

All right, thank you.

Thanks.

So I'll make the motion to um pass item two H the Wiggit Lane Rehabilitation Project as complete.

Second.

Oh, well, I asked on all of them.

Oh, you asked previously.

Uh, we have a motion and a second.

Susie, could you call the roll, please?

Councilmember Devine.

Aye.

Mayor Pro Tem Francois.

Hi.

Council Member Darling.

Aye.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi.

Mayor Wilk.

Hi.

Motion carries.

All right.

Mayor, if I could uh city clerk, could you just verify?

Did we have the lettering correct on that?

I thought we might have initially pulled G, not H.

Maybe we misspoke on the lettering.

I just want to make sure that all items were approved and we didn't it in verdict.

We approved two A through E and G, and then two F and H were pulled.

Okay.

Okay, we're good.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

Next on the agenda is public communications.

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

Under the Brown Act, the council cannot act on items raised during public communications, but may 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 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 628, and we'll take public comments on items not on the agenda until approximately 658, and then the remainder of any such comments at the end of the open session portion of the meeting.

If you can please step up, I give your name and city of residence, and you'll have two minutes.

Great.

Thank you.

My name is Elizabeth Silva.

I'm a resident of Walnut Creek, and I'm a parent of for at Bancroft Elementary in Walnut Creek.

Um we had a group here.

You may recall at the last meeting to share that Mount Diablo Unified School District announced less than 10 days before kindergarten enrollment opened that our beloved Spanish immersion program would be immediately phased out.

Thank you so much for the support that you all showed, and especially uh to cat city council member member Craig DeVinny.

We really really appreciate your support.

Um we're here to give you an update and to ask for further support.

Uh the district has not adequately responded to our concerns, and the immediate phase out is still moving forward.

Our walnut creek school board member Brian Lawrence has been engaged and he's been supportive.

We understand the decision was made by the district and that there was no uh school board oversight.

Uh the district leadership confirmed that they did not do any outreach to Baancroft elementary families before announcing the decision.

They did not consult with key committees, which is required, and the district had no projected impact analysis or studies to share.

Uh so it does really seem like this was a rush decision.

It was not thought through.

Um, and the reasons that they're giving do not add up.

Uh, for my family, it feels like we're being asked to make an impossible choice between choosing our local walnut creek school for our son to attend where our daughter currently attends and is enrolled, you know, and being able to walk to school or choosing for him to be able to learn to read and write in his heritage language.

We moved to Walnut Creek specifically and purchased a house close to the school for this Spanish dual immersion program.

Many other families did as well.

And now Mount Diablo Unified School District is taking that away from us immediately without any any involvement of our community.

We have more than 400 signatures on a petition that we have signed asking for this pause.

Numerous union complaints have been filed through the proper channels, but they take 60 days to review.

And meanwhile, kindergarten registration is opened.

So we really want to ask the council for additional support.

If you can put a resolution, vote on a resolution to ask Mount Diablo to please pause this or send an official letter from the city council.

We would really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, good evening.

I'm a much shorter than Elizabeth.

My name is Jessica Lee, and I am a Bancroft parent as well.

And just building on what Elizabeth has said, we've heard that the district says that this alignment is about long-term planning, but we heard it described as a phased transition that won't affect current students.

But as parents were struggling to connect that explanation to what actually happened.

Long-term planning doesn't usually come with less than two weeks notice before enrollment.

A phase transition doesn't usually mean that the kindergarten pipeline ends immediately.

And saying current students aren't affected feels hard to reconcile when TK students who are already part of the Bancroft community are being told they have to leave if they want the same opportunities their sibling has.

We understand that this change can be necessary, but when the explanations and the impact don't line up, it creates confusion and erodes trust.

That's why we are asking for a pause, not to block progress, but to make the process match the values of this district that it says it stands up for.

Please, we need your help.

Please help us reconcile this and make the district take a pause and engage the community and do it the correct way.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hi, Mayor.

And to the council members, thank you so much for your time.

My name is Jorge Silva, and I'm also a parent at Bancroft.

My daughter and my son are right here.

What is happening with us is, as my wife said, it's a it's an impossible decision.

We either continue with our community, with our friends, with our kids' friends, with their families, so that my kids learn the culture, the language that we speak sometimes at home that we're trying to do, or we split them and we take them to a different school.

And we take them to a longer community, we separate them with their friends with their with our community.

Um this decision uh from the from the board or from the from the district, have rattled a lot of members of the city.

We have 400 signatories right now in this petition to stop, but the effects are just starting.

We have seen people that not even go to Bancroft saying that this these kind of decisions with 10 days before enrollment are not well done, are not thought through.

Um we have started looking into the reasons that the district is gave us uh for this termination, and they're not adding up.

We're asking for a pause.

We're asking to review the data to include us in the in the process and to not rip this really, really successful program uh that you guys have that we have here in Walnut Creek.

We moved to Walnut Creek for this program.

We choose we looked at different districts.

We bought a house close to this school so that our kids can walk to school, can have that ability to create a community.

And with 10 days, the 10th century in advance, the district is pulling and ripping that away.

Please help us.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker.

Good evening, everyone.

Um my name is Anna Maria.

I'm also a parent of a second grader at Bancroft.

I also have a three-year-old who we were hoping would participate in this program, just like his sister.

Um my background, I was born and raised in Colombia.

I moved to the US.

Uh I mean half my life at this point, and I feel like I've been successful.

Thank you to being able to be bilingual.

Not only I can keep ties to my home country, but I can develop new community, new career here in the US.

And it was a challenging journey for me, and we have great programs like this one at Bancroft, which will allow anyone who's in the program to have a more straight path forward to these type of opportunities.

They can be bilingual, and it's not just the language, but it's both uh cultural, creating immersions and everything that the program has successfully offered to date.

Um as someone who works in data-driven environments.

I believe that decisions of this magnitude must be backed by transparent and credible data.

The data that we have been presented by the district has not really appeared to have clear rational or comprehensive evidence that the program is that the program is underperforming.

In fact, the data that we've reviewed suggests the program has actually been successful.

We've been uh doing a lot of deep dives into the data, and we can see that the picture that is being painted, unfortunately doesn't match with some of other data sources.

So you can play with the data in many different ways, but the way we've seen the data that's backing up this decision does not seem to add up.

Um finally, just equity requires transparency, inclusion requires meaningful engagement and trust requires data integrity.

I respectfully urge you to help us and use your voice to encourage a transparent review and ensure that this huge decision that affects hundreds of families now and into the future is paused.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, city council members.

My name is Melanie Gagliotti, and I have two students currently enrolled in the Bancroft Dual Emergent Program.

I also had a plan for my youngest daughter to begin in the 27-28 school year.

Um under that plan, my daughters would have spent at least four years learning and growing side by side with this sudden change.

That opportunity has been taken away from our family and many other families in the Bancroft community.

Also, if this transition is too quick, there is a risk of destabilizing the entire dual language program all together.

Um we are asking the Mount About Unified School District to pause the phase out of the Bancroft program.

We are not resisting change, we are asking for a pause, time for transparency, meaningful community engagement, and thoughtful collaboration to find a solution that works for all families that are directly affected by this.

Our petition has already gathered more than 400 signatures and continues to grow, showing how much our community cares about this program and its outcome.

We're here tonight as a community asking for your support in making our voices louder and stronger.

We are grateful for council member Craig DeVinny's email to superintendent advocating on our behalf, and we understand that the final decision does not rest with this city council, but we believe that your recommendation to the superintendent will not go unheard.

Um and if you could please help us, uh thank you for your time and for standing with our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Lena.

Hi, my name is Lena Tuckle.

I have a little brother, and I'm enrolled in the Bancroft program from a second grader.

My brother my pants wanted in all my brother.

And Bancroft, but since they're moving the program, they can and Spanish is really important to me.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Nice job there.

Mm-hmm.

You'll be on TV later.

You can watch it.

That was great.

Hello, my name is Barbara Guinness.

I've been a resident of Walnut Creek since 1996.

City staff presented an e-bike safety action plan to the mayor and city council in October 2025.

Staff stated they developed an action plan that integrates education enforcement and created partnerships.

Regarding these partnerships, the city staff specifically mentioned others, say stating that staff understands there are many other groups that are going to be impacted by increase of e-bike use.

And staff will continue to grow partnerships, foster relationships.

They deal with e-bikes on the sidewalks, the streets, the parks, and the open spaces on a daily basis.

We all know everyone is busy, including city staff.

Takes time and effort for community members to attend meetings, review and send comments and questions to the city.

However, with these original questions and comments sent way back in October 2025, in four email attempts to attain a response from city staff, and hearing all the talk about building partnerships with stakeholders, building relationships, there's still no response from the city.

This causes citizens to surmise their thoughts, comments, questions might be considered trivial and unimportant.

Considering there is no response to community questions comments, perhaps the e-bike safety action plan should be retitled with the name e-bike safety in action plan.

I have I'm done with that, but I have a couple uh couple seconds left, so I just want to thank uh Mayor Wilk, uh Dr.

DeVinny, uh Chief Hibbs in the back, also for their presence and words at the news conference regarding the e-bike accountability act.

Um we all know it's a problem, e-bike safety and uh Walnut Creek, and we really appreciate you being there.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you, Barbara.

Next speaker.

Good evening.

Um, I should have probably gone one speaker before, but um I'm back with the Bancroft group.

I want to thank the city council for all of your support so far.

My name is Salman Soharwerty.

Um, my son is in first grade in the Spanish program at Bancroft.

I have a daughter who will be TK eligible in the upcoming year.

Um, when the Mount Diablo School District announced this huge change, and in all of our subsequent meetings with them, the biggest question from parents was why this program is successful, it's thriving.

What pro what problem is the district intending to solve with this?

Who asked for this change?

Here's what they've told us.

The Bancroft Elementary to Foothill Middle and Northgate High School pipeline is too crowded.

They want to move students to the Woodside Elementary, Oak Grove Middle, Ignacio Valley High School Pipeline, and they want to start with kindergartners.

I'm sure that concern will sound familiar to many here today.

When the North got when the Northgate CAPS group attempted to carve out their own district, it was struck down by the state over equity and discrimination concerns.

By attempting to extricate a diverse student body from the same schools, this attempt will also likely ultimately fail.

But in the meantime, this will cause chaos for many Walnut Creek families.

I'm appealing to the parents here.

Let's be clear.

With this decision, Walnut Creek kindergartners will be separated from their siblings.

At a time when the majority of California school kids are Latino, Walnut Creek is losing its only Spanish language program.

I actually live in the Walnut Creek School District.

Like many other families in the Walnut Creek School District, I chose to apply for an interdistrict transfer to Bancroft so that my children would have the opportunity to learn Spanish.

The early elementary years are the most critical time for language development.

That opportunity is a pillar of Bancroft's excellence.

We're here tonight because Walnut Creek families still need your voice.

We respectfully ask you to issue a resolution calling on the Mount Diablo School District to pause this change.

If Mount Diablo wants its actions to survive legal challenges, it must follow legal procedures.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi everybody.

I'm Jimena.

I am a resident waterwalk creek.

I uh I have five kids, two of them in Fort Hill and three of them in Bancroft Elementary.

The my youngest is in GK regular.

And for us, it's so uh we started the program seven years ago, and the program is amazing.

Um really we don't understand why the J3 decide to transfer the program.

We want transparency.

Uh I uh as a family, we need to choose if we want to keep going with the dual that for us is so important, not only academically, it's an amazing program for a lot of things, and really, and the other hands we need to transfer my youngest to another school separated with my kids.

Uh honestly, please help us to pause or stop this the district decision that we are not involved, and we don't understand the reason.

Thank you so much for the time.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good evening, City Council, city staff, members of the public.

My name is Carol Chinaj, and I'm a field representative for the assembly member Anna Marie Avila Ferrias of District 15.

I just wanted to inform you all that she will be hosting a housing town hall in partnership with the City of Martinez and the city council.

Uh it'll be an interactive town hall.

There'll be live polling and keynote speakers as well as group discussions.

This event will take place on Thursday, March 12th from 7 pm to 9 pm at the Martinez City Hall.

I have some fires here if you're all interested.

We'd love to see you there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for coming down.

Dear Walnut Creek City Council and Mayor.

First of all, I want to thank you.

Six months back.

Uh, we at Open Governance Initiative came here and spoke about it.

And uh Mayor had given a very good uh reasoning why it should be the fragmented information need to be at one place.

And we need journalism to cover all the city meetings and what is happening at the city since then uh in the last uh four or five months.

Uh we have been uh we have turned our open governance initiative into a news, and we are having much bigger hits uh than uh local news right now.

And I want to thank you especially for giving that idea.

It really helped us.

Since then, like uh we have gone to multiple city councils and seen uh so many different issues uh that uh that are common across different cities, and uh I have been I've decided to run for state assembly district 16 and uh I would love to have your support and anybody who would like to communicate with me and uh let me know their priorities, especially from the city council.

I would love to know your priorities.

I would be waiting after the meeting to talk to you.

Thank you very much.

Sure.

Come on up.

Sorry, hi everybody.

My name is Lucilla.

I'm actually not a resident of Walnut Creek.

I live in Martinez, but I chose to take my kids to Bancroft.

I'm a Bancroft parent.

And I have three kids.

Two of them are currently attending third grade and first grade dual immersion program.

My youngest, she's five years old.

She's gonna start kinder in August.

So the decision directly affects us.

Now I have to choose between two different schools.

But I'm here to express that I chose to drive 20 minutes, 20 minutes each day, one way to take my kids to Bancroft is because of how that's represent how important the program is for us and how important the program you have in your city.

It's such important that we don't care.

My husband and I, we both work and we tag team in order to attend the school.

We follow the path to file a complaint form.

That's what the we have to do.

Um but they have 60 days to revisit it and to give us a solution, a response.

And if we don't like it, then we have to appeal it.

Now, if we have to wait for that to happen, we're gonna be in May, and that's too late for us.

Uh we cannot wait that much.

We are talking to the board members who are sending emails, sending petitions and so on.

But I wanna share this with you because this is how important uh for us, and that's why it's so important for us that you support us.

Even if we follow the administrative path, uh, we are not gonna make it on time without the help of the city board members.

Just wanted to share that with you.

Thank you very much.

Do you have anybody else for public comment?

All right, seeing nobody else will then close public comment, bring it back to council.

Uh, do we have any questions from uh for staff from what we've heard on any of the issues that were brought up?

Councilmember Silva.

Um, thank you very much, and thank you to all of you to raise your concerns to us.

The challenges are that we need to be transparent as well, and our rules don't particularly allow us to take up a new item without informing the public in advance.

But I do want to ask the city manager and the city attorney what we have done in terms of reaching out to the school district, and if we've received any response in t in that term, and is there any things, Mr.

City Attorney, that we could do tonight without it having been agendized already?

Uh first off, uh, you know, we gathered information relative to the situation, and it's generally as the speakers noted.

Uh the district is moving forward.

I think as we all discussed during the last council meeting when the speakers came forward as the first any of us had heard about this, so uh we were not notified, not necessarily that we were legally required to do so, but it seems as if the noticing was was short and somewhat limited.

Uh it is accurate as my understanding that uh there is another Mount Diablo Unified School District Board meeting on February 25th.

Uh I would recommend you continue doing what you're doing in terms of making your voices heard.

And I do believe that kindergarten enrollment in TK ends on February 27th.

So the deadline is close uh in terms of uh being able to effectuate this change.

So not a lot of new information to share beyond what you've heard already.

It's it's generally accurate in terms of the assessment of the situation.

We did not receive additional details as to why other than what some of what you heard this evening already.

So there's a board meeting next week, the 25th.

That is correct.

I don't know that this is necessarily agendized.

It's my understanding the school district is proceeding with this and implementing it, but obviously there's an opportunity for public comment and an opportunity to ask that it be agendized.

I don't know that it necessarily would be, but that is an avenue.

And are we legally allowed to have any conversation about this, Mr.

City Attorney?

Um, this is not an item on the council's agenda tonight, and so if the council wanted to have a discussion about it, you would need to direct us to add an item to uh subsequent agenda.

Um the Brown Act does allow the council to take comments for items not on the agenda, but as indicated by the mayor in his comments, uh the council is not allowed to take action on those.

Um, specifically the speakers have asked for a resolution that would not be authorized this evening.

Um, if individual council members or anyone wish to write a letter, you're able to do that in your individual capacity as council members.

So no so for my from my understanding, not as an official city letter that would come out from us, but we could do so individually if we so choose, correct?

So we also individually could reach out to each of the five members of the Mount Diablo Unified School District Board encouraging them to put it on their agenda for next week, including in an emergency, they can follow the rules.

Yes that same set of rules to get it on their agenda.

Right.

The the council could do that it just wouldn't be a formal action of the council right as well as the superintendent they that we could reach out to.

Okay.

Alright so um yes.

Yeah so I I commend the the Walnut Creek residents for for speaking up and making your voices heard and you're I think doing all the right things and it sounds like we can continue to engage individually but not as a group tonight.

Right.

And again as we've mentioned before of course this is does reside within the Mount Diablo school district but I think most of us do know some people that are there and we can ask some questions and uh additional clarification and also they make sure that they are listening to the residents as well.

Again that's not something that would be officially done from the city but individually if we so choose.

Can I you're not able to say anything now but if you would like to write to any or all of us you certainly maybe it I understood thank you thank you so much and thank you for being here and some of you passed your bedtime so really appreciate you being here as well.

Mayor welcome one other suggestion would be that they reach out to their assembly member who has a representative sitting in the audience tonight.

That's that's a good point.

So there is uh there are a couple of assembly members that represent Walnut Creek.

One is assembly member Rebecca Bauer Cahan there's also assembly member Anna Marie Ferrius so there's they can help out as well including state senator Tim Grayson who has an office in Walnut Creek.

So all of these people can be advocates for you as well.

I actually think these are already 1200 so it's uh communication works we'll just say that uh to the public at large.

I too just wanted to thank all of you for coming tonight it it uh there's a program that I wasn't aware of uh before two weeks ago and it sounds like a real special one obviously very deep felt and it's had a meaningful impact.

So I think we all share the concern if there's going to be a change like this it should be done in a public forum where public input is considered and I'll just leave it at that agreed and typically with enough time to act.

All right that ends public comment um we'll move on with the agenda now and appreciate everybody who has made comment tonight.

Next is council member and staff announcements reports on activities or requests.

Turn it over to uh the city attorney if uh any closed session announcements um madam uh mr mayor there are no closed session announcements so we did not have a closed session today and no announcements from prior meetings.

Okay city manager I do not have an update this evening mayor all right so now we have city council member reports on a activities AB 1234 assignments of various activities and why don't we start with council member city darling all right thank you very much um I did manage my husband and I went out with the cleanup crew picking up trash that weirdly satisfying thing but I did want to know number of friends of mine always say when is the next one?

So February 21st Rudgear park and ride at eight o'clock on a Saturday morning and they will provide all the gear you need and you will have a weirdly satisfying experience and our on-ramps and off ramps will be much cleaner.

I joined all most of my fellow council members at um the neighborhood reception for um our new police chief and Ryan did a great job he smiled he took pictures with everybody and it was a a great chance for the community to ask you and I heard from several people they were really glad to get a little time with you.

You and I did the Verde ribbon cutting which was really a lot of fun it's a new restaurant or new um olive oil and um then olive oil tasting olive oil and tasting on Main Street and that was really fun.

Um, one of my favorite commissions, don't tell them all, but youth commission is my favorite, and I got to talk to them and um it was great fun, like it always is.

It's something that is really a special part of our city government, and I love the ideas and the way they look at the world.

And I got to share with them, you know, when I was about their age is when the shootings at Kent State were and talked to them about how they process kind of what's going on in the world.

They're at to a point where they start to understand what's going on around them and care about it.

And I just really quite enthused with that group.

Um the last thing I want to talk about is um on MCE.

We are we have gone through an extensive process of workshops and budget prep.

We will be looking at uh potential for a rate reduction this Thursday night, and then we will move to adopt the budget next month.

Um, and this is in the face of the headwinds of PGE putting additional costs on to the members who are enrolled in MCE.

Uh they have a retroactive rate increase they um got the CPUC to agree to, so they are collecting this year additional money from all of the community choice aggregate customers for both 25 and 26.

So we're looking for ways to make that more affordable for our citizens throughout Contra Costa County who are MCE customers.

We are also looking at uh extension of a program called MCE CARES, which we had at the end of COVID, which provided additional funding for families at the very low end of the economic scale.

Those are the families that uh you know a $20 rated rate change affects them.

So we're looking at ways to make it work for our families, and um I'll have uh another update next month on it, so thank you.

Alright, Councilmember Silva.

Thank you very much, and thank you to all of you who are here this evening.

Um a few things to report in the last few weeks.

Um I attended the first board meeting of the year for the Diablo Regional Arts Association, and it was uh really nice to hear about all of their plans from their consultant on their branding and outreach and improvements, and also there are some programs and performances at the Lesher Center for the Arts that I want to highlight over the coming weeks.

Um, this Friday evening, the 20th is Annika Steyer, who is from SNL fame, but also she was a Broadway performer in Wicked.

She was Alphabet, so there are tickets available on Saturday night.

SF Jazz will be presenting the jazz um vocalist Adeline Renoir.

I think that would be how I'd pronounce her name.

It's French.

And then Saturday the 28th, the two-time Grammy nominated mariachi band Mariachi Herencia de Himaico will be performing, and then in the middle of March on the 13th and the 14th, back by Popular Demand will be the um production of college notes, which brings um acapella groups from universities around the country to perform here at the Leisure Center for the Arts.

Tickets for all of those productions and others are available online at Lesher ArtsCenter.org.

And um I would also like to mention that the Association of Bay Area governments at their administrative committee meeting last Thursday.

We got an update on or Friday, we got an update on the comments that were received regarding the draft environmental impact reports for Plan Bear Area 2050.

And they explained that most of the comments involved confusion about the population estimates that were being used.

What's interesting is that the state uses numbers that are very short term and duration, eight year swaths at a time, and plan Bay Area 2050 is really looking out to what the population could be and both and jobs and housing needs in 2055.

So there are differences in the numbers just because of short term versus long term, but also the sources of the numbers are different as well.

So that was good to get that explanation.

I will mention that community service day is Saturday, April 18th.

There are about 40 projects, and the city has some in parks and some in the theater, etc.

And all of the schools are involved.

Registration is open, and if you go to the city website on the home page, and you'll see a banner that's circling through there, you can click on it, and we already have 10 people signed up, and it only opened secretly over the weekend, which is good.

And so thank you all, and thank you to the community.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Uh Councilmember Silva, and uh I think I'll actually I'll just go next as long as I'm in line here.

Uh as we heard uh there was the meet and greet for police chief Hibbs, great community turnout for that.

The Mayor Pro Tem and I had the mayor and chair quarterly meeting for all of our commissions, which is always a great opportunity to hear from the different commissions of what's going on, and it really helps to extend uh what's happening in the city through our commissions to have the chairs also tell their commissions and uh help to amplify what's happening in the city to everybody.

Uh there was a press conference that uh assemblymember Rebecca Bauer Cahan had.

We we heard about this a bit fr during public communication, but it's on e-bike safety uh legislation and accountability, and we have received more emails in the council over the last year regarding e-bike safety and speeding and going wrong ways and too fast on the trails and any other topic, period over the last year.

And so this legislation, which essentially is requiring anybody that has a class two or three e-bike has to register it, have have a license, and that way there can be accountability, and they can be if they're seen, then they can be reported, and it's not just oh it was a green bike that there is actually a license.

So uh I gave introductory remarks, council member Davinny was there, also gave remarks, uh, not just from a council member perspective, but from a doctor perspective of what he's seen in the emergency room, and uh and members of the bike community as well.

So great to see that.

Got some good media coverage on there, and I look forward to seeing how this legislation makes its way through.

Uh lastly, today's the Chinese New Year, and Lunar New Year is today, and it's the year of the horse and gung hei fat joy.

And uh Count you want to go Mayor Pro Tem.

I thought I was next to France.

All right, there we go.

Go for it.

Mayor did a great job in terms of talking about the commission chair and vice chair meetings, and just to highlight a few items that stood out to me.

The arts commission mentioned that with the inclement weather and rain, nor normally they do public art walking tours from the spring through late fall.

But this year they'll be adding in a public art walking tour of the library.

We didn't get an exact date, but it will be held in March.

If you go on to their on the arts website, you'll be able to sign up for it.

So it's an indoor activity, and you can see all the great art that's right across the street in the downtown library.

And then our transportation commissioners uh shared about the shared mobility hub, which is essentially high speed bus service down the 680 corridor from Martinez to San Ramon, and that the Walnut Creek Bart Station will be a landing place for that service.

So this will help take I think a lot of cars off the road and will be a good thing for our larger community.

And then the following day after that meeting, I attended the um unleash the love adopt a thon event at Joybound, and that was great.

I'll just say drive driving in to Shade Lens, uh, you know, thanks to the PBID and the chamber and the city's efforts are really paying off.

But there was a there was a lot of activity happening there on a Saturday morning with a farmers market with the Joybound event and just Calicraft and just a lot of good things happening there.

So I think our efforts are definitely uh bearing fruit, but it was nice to get it was nice to connect with some of the folks at Joybound, learn about all the great work they're doing, uh, getting a tour of the facilities and seeing their surgery clinic, how they partner uh service animals with former uh vet, and then also it was amazed by they have uh over 800 volunteers, have a paid staff of like 140, but 800 dedicated volunteers that really make the place run.

So that was a fun thing to do.

And then I just wanted to give a shout out to our public works team.

I saw them busy at work today in my neighborhood checking the storm drains, and I know they're doing that throughout the city.

So Rich Payne and his crew, thank you for doing that.

And uh, you can go on the city website and find out where the sandbag locations are.

But know that we're uh being proactive and trying to stay ahead of these storms that are uh battering us right now.

That's my update.

Nice, thank you.

Uh, Councilmember Davinny.

Yeah, so um uh regional transportation update um from uh TransPAC.

Uh they gave us an update on the Innovate uh 680 project.

Uh it's basically six projects uh which consists of shared mobility hubs extending the express lane uh north from uh Lavorna up to Martinez.

Um part-time transit they're exploring, uh buses on the shoulder, and uh advanced technology implementing metering systems and such, all to work on improving uh traffic flow along the 680.

Uh the the phase that they're currently working on is um improving the interchange between four and six eighty.

It's going to involve a number of uh widening projects as well as overpasses, some over waterways.

Um, the waterways can only be worked on when it's dry, so that will extend the project out a little bit.

It's uh estimated to be completed in 2029.

Um I had the uh opportunity with I believe Mayor Wilk and uh Councilmember Silva to attend the mayor's conference uh where we uh recognize Black History Month in Richmond.

Um I had a sit down with our new arts and rec uh director, Chris Farrow, and uh learned that not only did she grow up down the street from my wife, but we went to the same high school, small world.

And uh also participated in the uh press release uh as mentioned by Mayor Wilk.

Covered that very well.

Um I would just say that personally I found that to be a very rewarding experience because it's probably the first issue that I've seen that's come up while I've been on the council that has arisen in the community and you know made its way up to the legislature.

They listened, now they're passing now they're they're passing laws to or working on passing laws to change that.

So it's really watching that process take place from from its infancy, and so um being a part of that was was a very rewarding experience.

So hopefully that that legislation passes.

Uh thank you all.

All right, next item on the agenda is our consideration item of the update on 2025-2026 city council priorities.

And I invite the assistant city manager Charles Ching to come forward to provide the presentation.

Mayor, member city council, good evening.

Charles Ching, I'm the assistant city manager.

And tonight's staff will be providing city council with updates on the five adopted strategic priorities that city council adopted uh in February of 2025 for calendar years, calendar years 25 and 26.

So the five council priorities that were adopted is on your screen, and the staff that will be presenting updates on these priorities are just specific leads.

So for economic development and downtime by downtown vitality, the updates will be provided by Mike Neiman, your economic development manager for environmental sustainability and climate action.

It will be Candace Rankin Mumbi, your sustainability manager for general plan update.

It will be Erica Vandenbrand, your community development director.

Park and rec facilities will be Rich Payne, your public works director, and public safety and social wellness will be presented by your chief Ryan Hibbs.

Uh so with that as part of this presentation, we will be stopping for questions every um for each strategic priority.

And so you'll be able to ask questions after each section.

So with that, I'll hand it off to Mike Neiman, your economic development manager.

Good evening, mayor, council, members of the public.

And the economic development strategy for the city continues to focus on uh making the economy diverse and resilient.

We're focused on business attraction, retention, uh streamlining permitting.

I will focus on downtown as the unique uh place and the epicenter for the community, uh flexible zoning, uh focus on creation and the traction of higher paying jobs, tracking progress, and forming partnerships.

And we do this through the four Strategic Council objectives that we'll go through and will highlight our accomplishments and each since the last time that we presented this to you last fall.

So the first objective is building a resilient, inclusive, and diverse economy.

We have conducted a mayor visit.

The last one was in the fall to Madsen, one of our newest large office tenants that we're very happy to have attracted from Oakland last year.

But we do a lot more than just that one mayor visits, and we are on track to do four more as we do every year.

But in addition, our staff does a lot of less formal business retention visits, and the cultivating relationships with businesses large and small is really the bread and butter of economic development.

We also conducted outreach to technology startups.

That is one of the focus industries in the local economy.

One of the efforts was through the collaboration with the chamber on the funders and founders event.

The last one and second one that was held last year was in November in Shade Lands with another one being planned later in this year.

We also co-hosted a Meet the Funders event, and that was done through a partnership with Diablo Valley Tech Initiative, DVTI, and that was an event that we held here in the end of January on the third floor.

And that also facilitated a conversation between some of the local tech startups and some of the funders, and brought a community together to Walnut Creek.

And we also conducted meetings with Kaiser and with John Muir as we continue learning about their growth needs, understanding their strategies, and seeing ways that we can support them through policy.

Here's a photo of the DVTI event that I mentioned earlier.

The second objective is creation of business-friendly environment.

I'm excited to share with you that last about three months ago, we kicked off a lien process that was done through a consultant partnership on public innovation, PPI, and we had since had uh workshops and a lot of work and effort has been invested with city staff.

And you could see a picture here, and I love this picture because this is the city's economic development team.

And this was the participation at the kickoff, and this includes not just economic development division, which is a staff of two, but also planning, building, engineering staff, all of which are involved and committed in enhancing customer service.

One of the most exciting things that has come out of it so far is what was called the customer voice, where we have interviewed and heard from some of the prominent business owners and who were really encouraged to share some of their feedback with us that is being incorporated to improve the permitting process going forward.

There's also a development services dashboard that's being developed through prototype, and that will be forthcoming later in this year.

Our staff continues to serve as a single point of contact, and that is done for strategic projects with permitting as well as for outdoor dining, and we continue looking at ways to enhance that experience for some of our customers through this lean process.

And we continue engaging property and business owners and brokers as we continue building relationships, seeking feedback, looking for various ways that the city's economic development efforts could be enhanced.

The third objective is enhancing the downtown experience and tourism attraction.

I want to thank this council again for adopting a outdoor dining grant program last year and extending it through March of this year.

This program has been successful in creating six new pods in downtown to date.

We're still working with several more in the pipeline, who we encourage to move forward.

And the beauty of this program is through a $10,000 grant where we're able to leverage a lot of private funding, upwards of 40,000 per grant, which really enhances the experience and feel in downtown, especially as summer comes and we'll see some of these newly developed pods being heavily utilized.

And really creating what's the most unique about our downtown is enhancing that quality of life that's that's hard to describe, yet it's very experiential in nature.

Here are some of the photos of the newly developed pods that we're really excited to share with you.

And lastly, the fourth objective is promotion of the city's brand and telling stories about the quality of life that this community is known for.

We completed an annual community snapshot, and that's an annual data that I'll share with you in a second.

We're also developing an interactive uh performance indicator dashboard that will be a more enhanced look and provide the opportunity at looking at various data sources where you could look backwards and and look at various um performance indicators over time.

We'll also continue operating the city's website as well as the LinkedIn platform that is that has more of a business focus in mind.

Uh we nominated two local businesses for the upcoming East Bay Economic Development Alliance Innovation Awards that's coming up in March, and I am happy to announce that one of them were cautiously optimistic that they will win because they're the only one in their respective category as a fingers crossed.

And we're also updating the city's economic development action plan.

As you know, it's a two-year document, and we had one for the last two years through 24-25.

Uh, we're making marginal changes for the 26-27 action plan, and we're starting to roll out uh public input before we bring this item forward to you in the next few months or so.

So I mentioned the community snapshot.

You could see it here.

Uh, some of the things to highlight is population has increased slightly and we have exceeded the 70,000 population threshold.

Our daytime population continues to be much higher than population, which shows that we have the most people here during uh the daytime and a lot of employees that come in town uh during the day, and then our average household incomes also continue increasing up to 191,000.

And you can see on the right side that our industry clusters continue to be in professional and financial services.

We have a number of health care of engineering firms, and you could see other sales and business and financial services.

And you could see that the business license activity has continued growing.

Uh, and the last number is 2024 because there's a little bit of a lag, but you can certainly see that over the last six years it has increasingly gone up.

Um, I also wanted to share some of the vacancies with you, and generally good news in retail.

You could see that by the end of 2025, uh, certainly downtown vacancies have reduced relative to the year before.

There was a shorter term increase in the neighborhood shopping center vacancies, and that's because of two large vacancies that we have had in the end of 2025, Steinmart and Macaula's predominantly.

And you could see that on average, citywide vacancies and retail have reduced despite the uh slight increase statewide on a much broader basis.

On the office side, though, uh, as you may know, office continues to underperform broadly as the return to work space has highly not been determined the future of and various companies are still looking at different ways to consolidate.

So we'll continue to see that although we have had some successes as I mentioned earlier with we're able to attract Madison as well as Five Star Bank has come um to to occupy some of the larger office leases.

Office continues to be a challenge uh and some of the other leases are smaller in nature as many companies are consolidating.

They're looking for different uh shared options for different uh part-time in office workspace which affects us and that affects our retail boost particularly with the downtown crowd uh that we have experienced during lunch uh prior to COVID.

So you could see here that office vacancies have been slightly higher over the last uh year relative to the end of 2024 and we'll continue looking at different strategies to enhance those going forward and looking at clusters that we can enhance that will occupy more office space in in the city.

And lastly uh this is an example of the design for the data dashboard that we're currently developing and that will be forthcoming and and live on our website um towards the summer of this year and will be a resource to residents to businesses and to prospective businesses as we are becoming increasingly um because we live in the data heavy environment they will just add and enhance the data ability that we'll already have on our website and with that I will pause for questions.

Thank you very much Mike.

Does Council have any questions on economic development strategy?

Yes.

Council Member DeVini Yeah um downtown right where we've got the uh outdoor dining spaces and the the comments that I hear from the community is it's always like more or more you know so we love that broad you know many residents love that the Broadway uh road is closed we love this outdoor dining um I know we've looked at this before but um are there gonna be is there gonna be opportunity to look at it again to do strategic road closures downtown or perhaps to re-explore the idea of making Maine and locust both one way roads to sort of open up more more walkable space and more kind of outdoor accessible space for for folks downtown.

I can speak to that uh many of those ideas you mentioned those had been vetted a few years ago coming out of COVID and there was feedback provided by council if it's the council's desire to revisit that at some point we certainly could uh in terms of road closures there was a lot of mixed feedback on closing some of the streets downtown some liked it some really did not because they were worried about uh put traffic and car traffic uh to their businesses there was a lot of mixed feedback um that said it could be r revisited at some point if that's uh the interest of the council as I recall actually one of the issues was uh increased traffic uh by 10 to 15 minutes during commute times and that was one of the things that was overriding as well but something to you know always keep on an idea.

So I was just going to say we're starting a general plan update process and I think conversations like that are really appropriate in that framework.

Not in a shotgun approach but a really a long range approach because um California and Broadway are designed to carry the extra traffic and they may not be at the ability to carry much more if Maine and locust turn into one way streets.

So you have to look at a 25 year outlook I think on that so general plan process would be perfect time to do that.

Yeah no excellent then the other the other more of a comment uh so again, something from someone in the community, and it seemed like, oh, it seems like a a great idea.

When you drive into Walnut Creek and you get off the Diablo exit and you're going under those underpasses before you kind of emerge onto Diablo and head to head to downtown.

That's not the most slightly area of the city.

There's you know chain link and some some garbage that I'm here.

I heard some got picked up, so that's excellent.

But I was wondering if there's an opportunity in that space to sort of have a you know welcome to Walnut Creek, as we see we've seen in some cities something like maybe overhead or some beautification project for that area, that entrance into sort of like the the tunnel into downtown Walnut Creek.

Yeah, absolutely.

I know that we have a lot of uh logos for Walnut Creek at a lot of entrances, but certainly as we'll look into branding, and that's part of the new action plan that I mentioned earlier.

That's something that could be looked at as part of the enhanced branding strategy.

Thank you.

I think just to add on to that point, even something relatively simple, like where we do have those monument signs where you're coming to town on South Main, and during the holidays, they're decorated.

I yeah, it's a nice touch.

I mean, I think there could be a way to be more inviting and welcoming through kind of relatively simple things to what we already have.

Um, question.

No question.

I just want to say thanks.

Last year when I was mayor, you guys answered every silly question that I brought you in.

I really appreciate and the number of people that called and said where is my blah blah blah.

I really appreciated that you guys were able to find all the blah blah blahs.

Uh appreciate the thoroughness, Mike, and uh a good update on the economic development part.

Thanks very much.

Thank you.

I appreciate your comments, and next I would like to invite Candice to tell us about sustainability.

Um, good evening, mayor, council members.

My name is Candace Rankin Mumby.

I'm the city sustainability manager, and tonight I'll be providing an update on the environmental sustainability and climate action priority.

This action really focuses on implementing the city sustainability action plan, which was adopted by the City Council in the summer of 2023.

So tonight I'm just gonna give a brief highlight on a few areas that we're working on in the interest of time, but I'm happy to go in more detail during the questions.

So first, the biggest update we've had since we were last doing priority updates in September is that we came to you in November to adopt the gas-powered leaf floor ban, which will be implemented starting April first.

So it's just a couple months away.

So since that time we've been working internally to make sure that we're prepared for the processes from the staff side, and then we're also working very heavily on community outreach on this topic.

So we shared information on our website, on social media, and at in-person events, and we're continuing to work on different ways to get the word out.

Uh, staff is working on developing a video right now, and hot off the prices today.

We have two new flyers that are translated into both English and Spanish.

One of them is just a general update flyer, and one is really targeted at landscapers so that residents can take that flyer and share it with someone who might work on their property to make sure they would be able to implement the policy properly.

Those are both available today on our website on Walnut Creek CA.gov slash sleep blowers, along with a bunch of other resources.

And if you're here in the room today, there's also some copies in the back that you're welcome to take with you on the way out.

Lastly, on this topic, we were asked when we were here in November to come back with an update on rebates that might be available for the transition to Leaf Floors.

At the time, staff weren't aware of any um that were available in the area, but actually since then, one has become available in the Bay Area through the Bay Area Air District, formerly Back Mud.

However, right now it's in a pilot form.

It only launched in December, and it's currently only available in 18 zip codes of the hundreds of zip codes in Bay Air District.

Uh the it's for commercial rebates, and that's where the business would have to be headquartered.

So we've been communicating with bad staff.

So no, I don't know if it's bad or B A D now, but their staff to tell them our interest in trying to expand it into areas where cities have taken leadership and policies to ban.

So we're continuing to see what updates we can get on that, and we'll update the website and our interest list.

More information becomes available.

There's a potential since it is very mobile business that the current structure might apply to some businesses that do work out here.

So we're also trying to get the word out about that just in case.

Next, we'll provide an update on our EV or electric vehicle efforts.

So staff are finalizing an EV strategic plan to really go into more detail about our own fleet transition and then the transition of our chargers for the public for both operation maintenance and expansion of them.

That is something that we've been working on for a while now.

We're putting the final touches on, and we're hoping to have that back to you this spring to be reviewed the final draft of that.

But while we're continuing to update that policy, we're still implementing the goals that we have.

So one update here is that we came late last year with some funding requests through PGE to help assist to put in some chargers for our fleet at a secondary corp yard at Heather Farm.

And this will be our first level three fast charger.

So we're excited about that opportunity that's moving forward, and it will be a new experience that we'll hopefully learn a lot from through that process.

And then the last update on here is that last year the city was recognized with a gold level recognition from Charging Smart, which is a Department of Energy national program that recognizes cities and communities that are doing their part to implement best practices around advancing EV charger implementation in the community.

So we were honored to be recognized with that, and we're looking forward to continuing to implement best practices when we have our new plan come out.

Excuse me.

A big focus of our staff this year so far has been looking at how to implement again another Bay Area Air District program, which will be limiting the sale of gas-powered water heaters for residential and commercial small commercial properties starting in 2027.

This is sometimes referred to as Rule 9-6.

The details of exactly how this is going to be implemented is still being finalized by the Air District.

So we're following that very closely, figuring out how we can play our part to implement it.

But we've also cities across the Bay Area have recognized this will be a really big change for our communities.

So we've come together in a working group that's uh focusing on several different areas of how we can coordinate and better you know scale across the Bay Area to make it clearer for both residents but also for installers and manufacturers and retailers that will have to implement this new policy.

So we've been participating most directly in the outreach subgroup, and the hope there is that we'll have more coordinated messaging across the whole Bay Area.

We'll be able to benefit from the work that all the other subgroups are doing as well.

The outreach subgroup, one example, this image on the slide is was developed by San Mateo County.

They did a lot of research on positive messaging that you know talks about benefits you can get from all electric and makes it fun and engaging.

So you might get to see more messaging like that that we could benefit from here as well.

And then the last area that I just wanted to update is a little bit more broad and general.

It's on the communication efforts that the division is doing, kind of going off of what we were just talking about.

So communication is super an outreach super important for our sustainability goals.

Everything that we do in the plan to meet our goals, we really need the community to come along with us.

Everything we talked about this evening, leaf blowers, EVs, you know, all electric homes.

We need residents to take actions and make changes in their lives so that we can meet our climate reduction goals, and so we want to make sure that the community knows about the benefits of all these changes and also the resources that are available to help them make those transitions.

So, in recognition of that in our sustainability action plan, a quarter of the actions are actually outreach specific, and so that's a big area of focus for us.

So I just on the slide here, there's a list of some of the topics that we've been working on doing outreach about recently.

So everything that we talked about tonight, including some transportation, food and water topics, and we continue to do that through some of the digital channels that we talked about earlier.

Our sustainability web pages on our website got 17,000 views in 2025, and we have a sustainability focused newsletter that has two and a half thousand subscribers, and almost half of those open the newsletter every week.

Those are really targeted though, you know, to folks who are already engaging with the city or have some level of interest in sustainability.

So we really appreciate our opportunities to get out in the community in person and have talk with a broader audience, and the weather outside today might not reflect it, but we are just around the corner from our spring and summer outreach season.

So our staff are actively working on finding the opportunities for what we can do in the community and the messaging we have for that.

We're always looking for new opportunities for events that we might not already be connected to.

So that I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you, Candace.

Um, thank you for all you do, Candace.

Um, on the EV charging side, I know we've seen a fair number of people talking about maintenance of the chargers.

Are we um kind of a coordinated effort to make sure that as we add new chargers?

I know that the technology is evolving quickly, and they probably keeping them up just working is hard, but what what are we doing in that space?

Yes, so maintenance of the chargers is a known issue for both parsing and a lot of other cities that are managing their own chargers.

And uh I know we have Rich Payne here who can expand after this, but that is gonna be a big topic in this EV strategic plan that we're working on, and there's a lot of different pieces between the technology, the funding, and how to have a good quality network at the size it is now before we we look to expand it.

So and that's fine.

If it's part if I when I saw the strategic plan, I okay.

If it's in there, that's good.

Right, yes, yeah.

Do you want to add anything to that?

Yes, Councilmember Silva.

Oh, and I'm gonna ask another question, which is it would be very helpful to know where people can find the locations of public available EV chargers, and if that's part of the strategic plan, good on you.

Yes, we will be outlining that in there.

We do have a um on our website and the sustainability pages a link to a map of the public chargers as well as information on where our city owned chargers are, but we can always highlight that information more.

Maybe think through with the communications and outreach team.

Where do you put inform where do you put the where do people look for something like that?

They may not look under the word sustainability, they might look under chargers or something like that.

So that's part of the problem.

And mayor, but I think your question was largely asked, was it Council Member Darling on maintenance?

I think we're good on the charger maintenance and sake of time.

I know we have some deadlines here.

Okay, good.

Any other questions?

Just a comment?

Yeah, not a question but a comment.

Um, I I'm um very appreciative for the work that that you do.

Um, I wanted to let you know that your um your work is also very well appreciated and recognized um from the public.

I get a lot of comments about the good work you're doing, so thank you for that.

Um I also was very impressed with the the website on reviewing it just recently, sort of brainstorming on different sustainable ideas.

And some of the comments I got seems like they're very in line with what you're talking about, trying to get the word out because uh some feedback I've gotten is that they don't always see where the things are on our website or you know, 2,500 job, but like how do we grow that?

So I'm so happy to hear that that's what you're working on.

And one of the suggestions I got was that when on the website, you know, maybe putting sustainability in an area that's not inside of government because it's not intuitive.

But thanks.

Yeah, right now you can access our pages and there's a lot of details on you know how you find things in the website, how you get to it, and our communication staff are definitely the experts on that.

You can either get to it through the government um path.

There's also a path under the I want to learn more about, and then there's clean energy incentives.

So the goal there is to hope to catch folks who are looking for how to save money, but we could definitely work on on burying that more.

So we're good.

Thank you very much, Kim.

Thank you very much.

And I'll pass it over to Erica Vandebrand for our general plan update.

Thank you.

Good evening, um, Mayor, Council members of the community, America Van and Brand Community Development Director.

So this is going to be the biggest non-update update that you can imagine because in just a little bit next month, you'll be re-having an item before you for the update to approve um a consultant contract.

But so what we have been doing, the safety element that started um prior to COVID, and then it uh had a little bit of an interim period, and then we took the safety element up again after we were done with the housing element.

Currently it is out for review and um with a deadline of the 11th of March and then looking to go to Planning Commission in March and then tentatively come to council in April.

It is also one of the biggest um or lowest lifts because much much of the lift has already been done previously because um the outreach had occurred prior to COVID, but then subsequent to that there was the local hazard mitigation plan, and then you just heard about the sustainability action plan, which cover a lot of the same areas of geological and seismic hazards, flood hazards, and um hazardous materials.

And ironically, in the late um, you know, sort of the glacial movement of our physical geological space, things don't change so rapidly in just a couple of years, so that much of the existing basis for a safety element remains.

So it has a strong foundation.

For those of you that are missing your Olympic um, you know, highlights, we have one tonight.

Um we're off to the races, and we're um just past the starting date.

We have um we issued a request for proposals, those responses were received and evaluated, and that the pre-council approval for the contracting process is underway and with a recommendation coming to council scheduled for the March 17th council meeting, and there you can you will have an opportunity to quiz to your heart's content, um, both staff and um the proposed consultant.

What um I can share with you is that the you know we will already have had the safety element well underway.

We have the housing element done.

Um it's not gonna come back until what 2020 and end of 2028-2029, and then we have a very strong foundation in our existing general plan.

Um, and the primary focus um for the general plan update is going to be the community outreach, finding new ideas, new desires for the next 20, 25 years, and as well as the land uses transportation and transportation system um and economic vitality to put those pieces together to serve as the foundation.

So, with that if you have any questions, I'm here to help answer them.

Thank you, Erica.

Mayor Purdue.

Thank you.

Thanks, Erica.

Uh, that was a good update.

Um, how many proposals do we receive for the general plan update?

We receive three from um highly qualified, so three of them and all were highly qualified as the consultants in doing this work.

And is the idea that it would be the same consultant that would do the general plan update that will do the CEQA document for the general plan?

Um, yes, they have teams of the best of the best they put together.

Okay.

And then just if you can, I know it's not it's related, but it's not on the agenda on the housing element.

We'll we'll be receiving an update on our numbers from last year at some point this spring.

That too is coming imminently, and um we'll be giving you um a very intense update um in uh March because we um you need to uh approve it so we can send the annual um progress report on um to the state.

Is it more active than the previous year?

About the same level of activity.

Yes, it's um I feel like I'm giving you the trailer um to you know coming events, but um yes, there has been, you know, there have been more activity.

Um are we knocking it out of the park yet?

Not yet, but we're working on it.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Erica.

Appreciate that.

Look forward to uh going through the process on this.

Thank you very much.

And so we have the highly effective and knowledgeable um Rich Payne coming next.

Highly effective and knowledgeable.

It's both.

That's a lot of pressure.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um good evening, um, mayor, members of the council.

Uh, my name's Rich Payne.

I'm the public works director.

Tonight I'll give you an update on the parks and recreation facilities and summarize all the projects that uh are in this summer that you see in that summary.

Oh, see, I already started off great.

So I talked about this, and I'll t I'll touch on all of these objectives as I work through this.

So first of all, um we've made a lot of progress on the different priorities, specifically and our existing park and facility improvements and those uh projects that you've identified as being uh some of the top projects in our CIP.

The first one is the playground upgrade at Civic Park and also Walden.

Uh there's been extensive outreach to the public.

We've had pop-ups downtown and in different uh city venues to receive feedback on the design uh um and uh and and different features that the uh public wants in their parks and we landed on a really good design.

I know uh um staff has spent extensive time um on this and um unfortunately when you start a projects like this we only have enough funding to focus on civic park and so um that doesn't uh you know um sort of ignore all the work that has been done in Walden.

Uh but uh Walden will probably go on the C in the back into the CIP until we have funding available.

So our goal is to start that um this next month, and that should be done this this spring.

In terms of uh the projects that are completed, the ballfield lighting project at Tice Valley Park has been uh a success.

Um some you know uh not to mention just the lighting, but there's cool features like being able to program it remotely, um, and so that's really save some staff time.

The synthetic uh turf project is also complete, and actually with all the rain, we'd still be able to uh play on that field.

So uh mission accomplished.

Um, and then if you've been at uh Arbolato and Red Gear Parks, those uh those amenities look great, the basketball court and the tenants um very colorful and uh and really a nice addition to those parks.

Next here, uh I'm happy to give an update on this project.

Um this is really uh things have been moving forward in this on the new aquatics and community center.

We've made you know the phase one uh went as planned, and uh in fact you accepted it tonight.

Um, and there's uh, you know, if you've been out there, this rain has really helped fill the both the pond and the natural lake.

Um you know it's it's uh if you look at the natural environment out there, um the plants are coming along.

Uh the new newly uh the the plants and also the wildlife.

It's it's really a thriving area, so another success that phase one.

Um I know as part of the uh community service day.

Um council member Francois was telling me that he's signed up for replanting trees out there.

So we're looking at probably a good 50 trees, so there's a lot of work out there uh to be done.

Phase two is in uh is moving forward, excited tomorrow is uh groundbreaking.

So hopefully we'll see you all there.

Um and uh, you know, they're currently, as you go out there, the the construction fence is up.

Uh uh the trees have been cut down.

We had a uh milestone that we needed to meet with regard to nesting and stuff.

So um that is uh that that um we've received a lot of feedback from the public, but I assure the public that uh we have twice as many trees going back in as being removed.

So um, but sometimes uh this is uh the result of progress and uh to make room for this project.

Um right currently uh they're doing the abatement and also some other work, so as we you'll see uh the result of some of that when we're out there.

So again, we talked about that.

Oh, jumped ahead there.

Um uh along that same line is uh parking the uh pedestrian and bike friendly development throughout the city.

That's moving forward.

A lot of these projects are in design.

Uh specifically the trail crossing enhancement, though, is uh gonna begin construction this uh this next month, and so that'll start, and that involves uh just making uh these crosswalks um at all the pedestrian um pathways uh more uh safe for the public and so that's a great um improvement.

Um in terms of the bike facilities, those are currently in design, and uh we are planning.

Well, hopefully, if all goes well, those uh we'll be can start construction in 2027.

Um and then also our pedestrian walkways, all of these projects are in design except for the Walker Avenue, which is um uh getting close to uh beginning construction this uh this spring, so and then uh also part of the priority is the um and it's been discussed tonight on what uh the next steps will be for the existing clerk pool.

Um as directed by council and uh and shared with uh you a few months ago.

Um the public outreach will begin late this year in the fall, and uh we'll get uh feedback from the community on what they would like to see in that space.

And so we're excited to see what uh what our next steps will be once we've done demolished uh the clerk pool.

So that that will be phase three, and that work will probably start um after phase two is complete, and we make that move from the pool from the old pool to the new pool.

But at least the design phase uh we'll be well ahead of the game and and know exactly what we want to do with that space.

And with that, I have open to questions.

Thanks, Rich.

Exciting, exciting stuff.

Yeah, right.

Most visible visible things going on in Wall of Creek.

Absolutely.

Uh any questions?

A question?

Thank you so much for the update, and I've been really enjoyed reading all of the pages about all of the great things that are going on in parks and rec and the bike and pedestrian facilities as well.

On the bike and pedestrian facilities, is it possible?

And I spoke to the city manager a little bit about this this morning, to get a more dedicated time on our agenda so that we can hear which ones we're doing because you get asked about it all the time, and I'm afraid it's not always easy to remember.

Oh, it's a long list.

I any time we get to brag about what we're doing and tell uh you give you more information.

That's certainly something that we can uh put in the future.

An update, so to speak.

Future updates, absolutely, yes.

So as we heard the groundbreakings tomorrow at four o'clock at Heather Farm, the public is invited and hope to see you there.

All right.

And toes are gonna be in the water in 2027.

With that, I'll turn the time over to our chief.

Thank you, Rich.

Evening city council members, uh Ryan Hibbs, Chief of Police, and I'm here to provide an update on public safety priority.

So as a reminder, uh, the within the priority of public safety, we identified six strategic objectives to accomplish this goal.

They were to maintain an effective and innovative police department.

Chief, could you just speak up a little bit just to make sure everybody can hear you okay?

How's that?

Perfect.

Okay, that's much better.

How's that?

Perfect.

All right.

Uh as a reminder, they were to maintain an effective and innovative police department.

Continue proactive response to crime trends, coordinate joint agency response to homelessness and mental health challenges, develop crime prevention partnerships and programs, improve traffic, transit, pedestrian and bicycle safety, enhance community and uh regional disaster preparation.

So, strategic objective number one, the last update I mentioned we were testing AI applications for report writing.

We're continuing to do that with different vendors now to try to find the one that's most suitable for us.

Uh we're also evaluating additional AI tools for dispatch.

Um we have received word that we've been awarded one million dollars to put toward our body worn camera upgrade, which is welcome news.

Um, not sure when that's gonna be funded, but um it should be funded soon.

And then we started an evaluation of all of our technology across the police department to ensure that we're most efficient, as efficient we as we can be.

Um, if we can save some money along that along the way, certainly that's a benefit, but we're really looking to condense some of the overlapping technology that we that we have and uh to become more efficient in our service to the community.

And then with respect to social media, um we've got an additional 10,000 followers across all of our social media platforms in 2025.

We're pleased with that.

Uh we're more pleased with the fact that we've doubled our engagement.

So we look to continue to grow that with our crime prevention specialist and social media team.

As far as uh automated licensed plate reader cameras, so in August we installed and implemented flock cameras.

That was a new and upgraded camera system.

Um since that time, we've had over 8 million plate reads uh since integration in August of 2025 of those.

Now, to give some context there, most of those are commuters and repeat reads.

But um in the last I want to say 30 days, is that right, Captain Slater?

We've had 31 alerts for stolen vehicles, 12 of which were for vehicles involved in other criminal uh felony criminal activity, and over 7,000 stolen plates were read.

So in continuing proactive response to crime trends, really this is based around technology and information sharing.

So we now use a lot of the same systems as some of our allied agencies, which has made uh information sharing that much easier between departments and um the good news is that I I'm gonna knock on some wood here.

We didn't really note any crime trends uh over the last half of 2025.

Um, but usually two typical crime trends we see during the the holiday season are residential burglaries and downtown robberies.

We saw four residential burglaries in the month of December, which was a significant drop from the previous year, and then uh we had three robberies in uh in December of 25, one of which was actually uh just a meetup uh not downtown.

So it was it was that was a planned meetup to sell some personal property that uh that our robbers or our suspects planned to rob our victim.

Uh regionally catalytic confeder catalytic converter thefts are up again, but again, I'm gonna knock on some wood.

Uh we're not seeing that in our city.

So uh we are continuing to develop information with our allied agencies to make sure that that doesn't come here, and if it does, that we can we can respond to it.

And then overall our crime rate dropped 20% uh from 2024 to 2025 uh and we had a historic low in January.

We're we're still gathering those numbers, but we had a historic low uh from the month or from the uh from January of 2025.

In coordinating joint agency responses to homelessness and mental health challenges.

Uh, we continue to collaborate with city and community partners in response to issues arising from homelessness core uh continues to work in Walnut Creek five days a week.

Um they on average contact approximately 30 unhoused individuals per month.

Um a lot of those are repeat clients, so to speak, and their goal is really to get folks into housing, but sometimes that just simply takes time.

And then we're continuing to to work with the Trinity Center as well.

Our calls for service regarding the unhoused went from 282 calls in 2024 to 317 in 2025, due to changes in legislation that allowed for encampment cleanup.

I am pleased to announce that we don't have any known encampments within our jurisdiction, though.

So uh Councilmember Davinia, I know you had asked, and I'm happy to provide you more data uh as we get it.

But uh right now there aren't any homeless encampments in the city of Walnut Creek.

We saw the presentation from A3 earlier.

This is a big number.

So our um we've this is this is what the co-response model is for.

So since A3's inception, we've had a 40% drop in police response to people suffering from mental health crises.

But their response, A3's response to people in crisis in Walnut Creek has increased 47% from 2024 to 2025, which is a a big number, probably due to the fact that they've increased their staffing.

Um they've been uh really good in working with us to ensure that the co-response model is working, but our uh response to people in mental health crisis continues to drop.

So that's a 40% drop since A3's inception in Walnut Creek.

However, um from 24 to 25, we had another 20% drop.

So this is the model is working, in other words, and and we're we're happy to continue collaborating with them.

Uh in developing crime prevention partnerships and programs, I am pleased to announce that we've branded our crime-free business program.

I did give uh a brief teaser to this crime-free business program that we've set up in our in our last update.

We've re we've branded that Walnut Creek Business Watch.

So we hosted the first webinar to announce the program in December, and the program launch event is February 24th from 9 a.m.

to 10:30 a.m.

right here in the council chamber.

So we did receive good attendance on the webinar in December.

We're hoping to get even better attendance in February for the launch event.

And the purpose of Walnut Creek Business Watch is to build a strong partnership between local businesses and the police department to provide a direct access to resources, including safety tips and crime prevention strategies, enhance the consumer and business uh experience, and to establish open lines of communication.

I will note that this program is in partnership with Walnut Creek Downtown and the Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce, and it is free to attend.

So for strategic objective number five, uh improving traffic transit pedestrian bicycle safety.

The biggest sort of announcement here is that over the last half of 2025, we uh conducted high visibility enforcement for the second half of the year, and those overtime assignments the uh the operations were mostly overtime assignments, so basically an officer wasn't beholden to calls for service.

They this was their mission was was simple traffic enforcement.

This initiative resulted in a nearly uh 40% increase of both stops and citations issued and a 23% decrease uh in total reported collisions from 2024 to 2025.

And now on everybody's favorite topic, e-bikes.

Uh we've taken an essentially an educational approach to e-bike safety.

Uh, we did host an e-bike education webinar in November, which was directed at high school students and uh and their parents to alert them about the rules surrounding e-bikes, specifically uh regarding the use of specific classes of e-bikes and the proper safety equipment.

We conducted another e-bike present safety presentation in December, this one aimed at middle school parents, their middle school students and their parents.

And then during the last update, I mentioned an enforcement operation in August of 25, which uh resulted in nine stops of e-bike riders, which were all under the age of 16, I believe.

Um so those riders were stopped, they were educated, their parents were contacted and educated as well.

We did issue one citation for an e-motorcycle writer for essentially riding without a license, and then we towed that e-motorcycle.

More of those operations are planned for later this year.

We're aiming for one per quarter.

Onto DUIs.

Uh, we conducted two DOI checkpoints with allied agencies in the second half of 2025, along with several DUI and traffic enforcement operations.

So essentially monitoring and controlling downtown and making traffic stops of uh suspected impaired drivers, which resulted in 13 DUI arrests.

Continuing on it, strategic protective number five.

Uh, we did apply for an office of traffic safety grant as uh I mentioned during the last council meeting.

Um we'll know probably closer to June, is that correct, Captain Slater?

Uh we'll we'll know if it's if if we've been accepted if it'll be awarded and if we if if if it's awarded, it will be funded in October of 2026.

And the goal there is to conduct more high visibility traffic enforcement with the the aim to drive down traffic collisions.

Uh the traffic safety working group is comprised of two traffic commissioners and representatives from the police department, public works and traffic engineering.

They meet once per quarter to discuss uh engineering and traffic issues, and then we have a new protocol to notify traffic engineering of serious and fatal collisions.

So quarterly meetings to ensure alignment and provide updates on project and outreach there.

Strategic objective number six, which is to enhance community and regional disaster preparation and uh resiliency.

Biggest piece here is that we're on the uh we're participating in ongoing citywide facilitated emergency operations center trainings, and we do have one upcoming in, I believe it's April, uh, which will include practical scenarios.

So every city department uh is included there, those are facilitated, and the scenarios are uh very interactive, I'll put it that way.

And then uh big news is we have a police department lieutenant that is now assigned to manage our cert team.

So that is Lieutenant Mike Watson.

We have had some challenges in identifying uh uh uh uh member of CERT to act as a leader there in a liaison with the police department, but uh we are continuing to work to find that person and identify them.

And then not in the slide deck, but shameless plug.

Uh police department's annual report is coming this summer.

With that, I'm happy to take any questions.

A lot of information, thank you, Chief.

Telling me uh do we have any questions for our police chief Hibbs?

Yes, be important.

Thanks, Chief.

Uh great report and congratulations to you and the whole department on very noticeable results in terms of drops in crime.

We appreciate that very much.

Um the traffic patrols, uh, I noticed that it was you had the high enforcement late last year uh and used some overtime.

Do you do you feel like you have what you need in terms of the staffing levels or what what can we expect in terms of additional traffic safety patrols?

It's a great question.

So we did roll back uh overtime, as everyone knows, um, but we are well staffed on patrol to be able to handle additional traffic duties.

So um outside of responding to calls for service and outside of responding to beat responsibilities, uh, part of our mission overall is traffic enforcement and safety.

Excellent.

And then in terms of the license plate readers, I know we've heard from some of our other Bay Area communities.

Uh just want your information and assurances that this information is stays within Walnut Creek and maybe our software provider and can't be used by federal agencies or others for unauthorized purposes.

That is correct.

So uh to assure not only the council but the public, uh, we conduct regular audits of our settings to make sure that we are not sharing with uh federal agencies, I'll say that.

Um we're actually bound by state law and our department policy uh from sharing information with federal agencies.

So if we don't if there's an issue with our settings, where we could actually be in violation of that.

So we take that very seriously.

Okay.

And that's a state law that we have to complete.

That is state law and it's and it's our city and department policy, yes.

Excellent.

How many licensed readers do we have in the city?

Oh goodness.

Uh thirty-one.

Thirty-one.

Well, and and you know, I I do understand there's a big concern around uh big brother and technology related to personal information, and what I'd like to assure the public is that those eight million plus license plate reads are confirmed by human eyes before they reach a police officer, and then we confirm with the entering agency.

So if another agency were to enter a stolen license plate or a stolen vehicle or a crime vehicle into the California stolen vehicle database, let's say.

Uh it's incumbent upon us to confirm that that vehicle remains out for for one that the license plate read is actually correct, that it is on the vehicle as described in the uh registration hit, and that the vehicle is still outstanding and still wanted uh for a crime before we initiate a traffic stop.

So there are a number of different steps that we take to ensure that we're a stopping the right person and B that we're stopping the right person for the right reason.

Thank you, Chief.

And Councilmember David.

Yes, thank you for the report.

Um my question is also about the license plate readers.

Um, that seemed like there's a lot of data, and it was something like 150 or something stolen cars were were noticed.

How difficult is it you get the information off of the license plate reader, but then the you know the car has to go out and apprehend them.

Is it um is that a is that challenging, or how do you address the delay there and where's the car gone after you've identified it in that spot?

Well, it's not a significant delay, so it it just depends on where our officers are positioned.

If you know, let's say we get an alert, I'll just use a main thoroughfare, say Ignatia Valley Road, anywhere on Ignatius Valley Road.

When the alert is sent out, it's the plate is given, the direction of travel is given, and the location is given.

So if we have an officer that can respond to check the area for that that car after everything's been confirmed, then um, you know, because we can confirm that information while the officer is en route as well.

So it isn't it isn't, we're not going to delay our response just to confirm the information.

We can confirm the information while we're in route.

So the the delay there isn't really significant.

Um it's really just depending on location time of day, want, that type of thing.

So, you know, to broadly to answer that question, I'll say it's it's not that difficult, but at five o'clock on you know a Thursday afternoon with commute traffic, it could be significantly more difficult than it would be on say at say 3 a.m.

on a you know Sunday morning.

And so that was sort of a lead-in question for the next one, which is the role for drones.

You know, we saw what happened in San Ramon with the the uh break-ins there and the drones led to the apprehension of the criminals.

Um, are we uh do we feel we have a robust drone program and it would seem to me like something like a license plate reader might be easier to send a drone and follow the car until you you know can get a vehicle there and and I see increasing role for for drones.

Do you do you also see that or do you feel the program is fairly well uh funded as far as drones go at this point?

Or what what are your thoughts on that one?

Well, we could always use more drones.

I mean, it at this point, there are a lot of agencies that are working toward drone as a first responder program.

That is uh one of our goals eventually to get to that.

We do have pieces of that program in place.

We do not have a full-time drone as a first responder program.

Um but uh to answer your question, yes, I do see that that is really the future of policing and and uh there are a number of reasons behind that it's safer for everyone involved.

Um the the ability to get video while you're responding, and to get sort of an eye in the sky prior to a police officer responding in person, all are very helpful.

Um the caveat is that we can't use drones for general surveillance, so we have to have a purpose behind it.

So uh a good sort of example of our usage of drones was our e-bike uh traffic enforcement operation.

If an e-bike rider took off on us, we were able to get a drone in the air and follow them to uh you know wherever they ended up going and and meeting them there, which is obviously very helpful.

Um it's it's a much preferable alternative to chasing them in along city streets and you know, obviously it's a it's a you know chasing any sort of uh violator is a danger to public safety depending on the time of day and and you know it we have to weigh that out with what the offense is and what the want is and all of that.

So uh relating to answer your question uh yes, we have enough now.

We are all uh obviously going to work toward more of a uh not I'm not gonna I'm not gonna tease out a drone as a first responder program in this moment right now, but that is the ultimate goal is to get to that point.

All right.

Well, thank you, Chief.

I think that brings us to the end of each of the sections.

So I'll bring our assistant city manager back up.

Hey, Chief.

And before I wrap up, I wanted to give City Council um a few more updates on things that don't necessarily fall within the five strategic priorities of the city.

First of all, the city was awarded a distinguished budget presentation award from GFOA for our fiscal year 26-27 budget book.

Um this award there is given to states and and local agencies who adopt a budget that is not only used as a um uh a planning tool, but it's also being used as an effective communication tool as well.

So kudos to the work uh done by our administrative services department on that.

Um I also want to announce that the city is um issuing its first annual report after a several year hiatus.

Um this will be a look back on the city's accomplishments for 2025, and that's expected to be out uh late February, early March of this year.

Um also I wanna share that um back in November of 25, we um we graduated our second cohort of uh Citizens Institute since uh since the pandemic.

Uh it was a great program, great success.

We had tremendous uh interest in in participation in the program.

So we'll we we will be coming back to um for our third cohort uh in the fall of 2026.

And then lastly, um November of 2025.

We graduated our second cohort for our uh Apex group, which is the Achieving Peak Employee and Customer Experience.

This is our um city run employee group where we look uh look at um you know educational experience and project uh projects for our for our employees um so we've uh launched the 2026 program and so we're looking forward to uh to a good uh program this year, then a couple of items that it will be coming to city council.

Um we are currently in the process of doing our comprehensive fee study.

Um that's been several months in the making.

We are getting close to the finish line.

We're hoping to bring that to city council for review comment and adoption uh in May of this year.

Uh we are also bringing our fiscal year 2027 budget update to city council.

There are several finance commission uh finance committee meetings that will happen, but I think the two biggest milestones for city council will be this uh in March.

We will be bringing back bringing recommendations to city council and then final adoption of these recommendations in June of this year.

Um, as part of the budget process, we are also updating our uh 10-year financial forecast.

Uh we do this every two years.

Uh we will be doing this in-house this year, and we hope to bring this to City Council late this year or early 2027.

And then finally, I think City Council has noticed the missing bricks in front of City Hall.

Um there's been some much needed repair that needs to be done in the front facade of the building.

So we will be um working on that, and that will include some work here in the council chambers as well.

We're hoping to start that work late 2026 and to early 2027.

And finally, this is the last slide.

Um, a couple of updates on major projects.

The Mitchell Town Home Project went to was approved by Planning Commission on February 12th.

The EIR was certified and the design of the project was approved.

The new Porsche dealership on North Main Street was approved by planning commission at the same planning commission meeting, um, but that will need to come to City Council for final approval because that includes a rezone of the property.

And so that will come to City Council on March 3rd.

And then finally, the uh much awaited restoration hardware project will be going to design review committee tomorrow.

So fingers crossed.

And that concludes our presentation.

Well, thank you.

Uh appreciate that, Charles, and everybody on the team and the staff uh with all of your presentations.

Um we need to accept this, and that requires a motion.

Move to accept.

Mayor Mayor, yeah.

I'm sorry, public.

You're right.

You're public comment.

If anybody has any public comment uh to make on this uh these strategy update, uh please come to the dais.

Okay, seeing none, now yes.

Move to accept.

Move to accept.

We have a motion, second.

Uh Susan, can you call the roll, please?

Council Member Darling.

Hi, Councilmember Silva.

Hi, Council Member Divine.

Hi.

Mayor Well.

Hi.

All right.

Now, we have next on the agenda is the continuation of the interviews of Commission candidates and action appointments.

Uh this is upstairs.

We had part one earlier before our open meeting.

Public comments will be received at this time for the that particular item.

After an opportunity for public comment, the city council will conduct the commission interviews.

Commission interviews will not be video recorded but can be viewed in person.

If anybody has any public comment for that, please come forward now.

Seeing none, we'll go upstairs.

And meeting adjourned.