The 330 p. m. meeting of the Bakersfield City Council
is now in session. Good afternoon. It's my pleasure to
call to order the 330 Regular City Council meeting of
July 15th, 2026. Madam Clerk, please call the Raw. Mayor
Go Here. Vice Mayor Core. Here. Council Member Aryas. Here.
Council Member Gonzalez. Council Member Weir. Here. Council Member Smith.
I am here. Council Member Coman. Here. And Council Member
Bashar Tash. Here. Thank you. In keeping with Council's Resolution,
the Public Statements portion is divided into two periods. There's
a period for items listed on the meeting agenda and
items not on the meeting agenda. Additionally, pursuant to changes
in state law, the City Council will now accept public
statements via phone access and in person. And to all
of you who are here today, thank you so much
for your willingness to be flexible. We know anytime there's
a new system, but we will all agree, I hope,
to give each other grace as we work through this
system that ultimately we hope will be better for all
involved. So thank you all for navigating whatever you had
to do out there. Unexpectedly, and we'll just move forward
together. Does that sound good? Nod your head. Hopefully, yes.
Statements for items listed on this afternoon's agenda are given
a two - minute time limit, 10 minutes for participants
by phone in 10 minutes for persons in - person
participants. 20 minutes total. Statements regarding.
Items not listed on the agenda are also given a
two - minute time lap, 10 minutes for participants by
phone, and 10 minutes for in - person participants. If
you have written comments that are longer than your verbal
statement, give them to the clerk who will give copies
to the council. If you're here to make a public
statement, please register using the kiosk at the back of
the chambers where you entered staff will be there to
help if you're needing that. And yes, that you select
whether you're here to speak on an item listed on
this afternoon's agenda or in a matter not on the
agenda. Speakers who do not identify specific agenda item will
be presumed speakers for the non - agenda portion. Those
speakers will be called during their non - agenda portion
of the meeting. Everyone in attendance is in person or
by phone is expected to adhere to the rules of
decorum established by Resolution of the City Council. They'll uto
to abide by the city's Robicorum, including any disruptive behavior
that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and
efficient meeting prevents the City Council from conducting the business
of the city. Consider this a first warning to everyone
participating that conduct that Disrupts the meeting may result in
expulsion and or the Chambers being cleared. Behavioral Disrupts a
meeting includes repetitive statements shouting, hate speech, interrupting staff or
presenters during the meeting speaking out of turn outbursts from
the audience. In telephonic participants are expected to adhere to
the same rules of decorum as those attending here in
person. Madam Clerk, do we have any public speakers regarding
items not listed on the agenda? We'll start with the
phone comments if you, any of those. We have. Not
ready to see any. Requests to speak by phone. We
do have two speakers in person. The first speaker is
Eddie Lane. Thank you. Good
afternoon. I'm Eddie Lane with the CR Club. Thank you
for committing 500, 000 dollars. To purchase and plant trees.
You listened to the voices of the community. This was
not a staff recommendation. Unlike the over 1 million dollars
is in current contracts for tree trimming and removal. Up
to 725 trees removed. Our July 6th recommendations endorsed by
Belting Healthy Communities and Leadership Council for Accountability and Justice
and their emails attached. Um, are one. For accountability and
public confidence. That the dollars are well spent that this
500, 000 dollars be designated in a separate account, an
urban greening capital expenditure account with monthly reporting of funds
spent. Two, a community - based plan be developed through
special meetings of the city safe and healthy neighborhoods committee,
preferably in community settings such as friendship house. Uh, we
need you, sorry to say this, please understand. We need
you horses. This is an analogy to listen directly to
the public regarding the use of these funds. The initial
staff idea presented last week was to purchase in Plant
900 Trees using this 500, 000 dollars That's over 500
dollars per tree. Bakersfield can do better. That's putting the
cart before the horse. The public needs to be offering
suggestions directly to you. Then you can provide the size
and color and structure of the cart for city -
staff to best use this 500, 000 dollars. We have
a model. The model is the current River Parkway. Decades
ago, volunteers planted hundreds of trees along the parkway, which
are being enjoyed today. We have time. Today's July 15th.
We can develop a time, a plan by October 15th,
one additional request today. I would request a report from
2025 - 26 of funds used for tree planting. Thank
you for this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lane.
Madam Clerk, next speaker please. The next speaker is
Raw Contrarius.
Welcome. Please introduce yourself a moment. Oh sure. I'm having
a hard time hearing, but I have two minutes to
say something. That's okay. We're just, uh, we just need
one minute. If you just want to sit down right
there, we need our City Clerk to come back. Just
sit right in the front seat. Oh. You can just
sit there just one minute. Please, thank you. That's not
a problem. We understand.
The next Speaker is Ral Contreras. Mr. Contreras. You may
speak now. Go ahead. Yes, welcome. Yeah, I'm calling
about, I'm here for. What the police call classify as
a two day stage live band event. It happens every
Friday and Saturday night starting at 2. 30 in the
morning and going till 6 a. m. for the past
year. I have. My complaints. They have fireworks. There's no
license for the bar. There's no, I really basically just
coming in front of you trying to bring it to
your attention. I don't know how to stop it other
than I know they're applying for a conditional use from
it. Possibly a zone variance to do this legal party
that starts. Every Friday and Saturday for the past year.
I've lived there for eight months. Every time I called,
they show up. And they, uh, do nothing. They just
say, take it up with the City Council. And like
I said, here's my list of all the days for
years where they will not do nothing to fire department.
Won't respond. They have no business permit. They have no
ABC license. It's got a bar with bar stools right
in the front window. And it starts every Friday and
Saturday night. Thank you, Mr. Contreras. Uh, Mr. Clegg, is
there someone who can assist him and just getting the
information and then we'll follow up with you. So if
you, where would you like him to go to get
connected with somebody? Oh, it's pretty good. Please take his
gentleman. Mr. Contreras, that young man right there will help
you and will take your information. Thank you. Madam Senator
Clerk, do we have any other speakers.
Welcome. Please introduce yourself. Thank you so much. Um, good
afternoon, Council and Mayor. My name is Abby Power. I'm
a policy advocate with leadership council for Justice and Accountability.
Um, we're in support of the request in the Sierra
Club to conduct community listening sessions and include community input
in the creation of a plan to allocate the 500,
000 dollars, which is available for tree planting. Members should
be involved as a tree canopy is something that impacts
the everyday life and wellbeing of maker sale residence. We
suggest that multiple meetings be held to gather community input
during times which are accessible for many residents. For example,
a 12 p. m. meeting in a 6 p. m.
meeting and that the location of these meetings, um, be
held in community centers or schools near the communities that
are lacking tree canopy. And the options to participate virtually
should also be available. Um, secondly, I would like to
comment on the, um, availability of the general plan. And
we would like to request that the city extend the
comment deadline for the general plan, the general plan was
released on, um, July 7th without notification until this past
Monday, July 13th. So we would like to ask that
the city extend the common deadline so that residents are
able to participate in commenting on the general plan and
also release translations of the general plan in both Spanish
and Punjabi to ensure that all Baker said residents have
the opportunity to comment on and rebuilt the plan. And
thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Thank you,
Ms. Power. And. Do we have any other speakers. Marigo,
that was the final speaker for non - agenda items.
Thank you. Next item, please. Agenda item public statements. Do
we have any agenda item public statements? Madam Clerk. Margot,
we have not received any requests to speak by phone
or in person for agenda items. Thank you. Next item,
please. Closed session item 5A public employee performance evaluation, City
Manager. Motion closer close motion to adjourn to close session.
We're juntoclistician. And for the record Council Member Gonzalez is
here, he arrived at 337.
Reconvening the 330 City Council meeting, Vice Mayor, Action on
closed session item, City Managers evaluation is not concluded and
will be continued to the August 5th meeting. Thank you.
Thank you. And with that, we stand a journ at
513. Thank you all for being here. We have a
five o'clock meeting that's gonna take just a few minutes,
but we're gonna do a technology switch out. We'll do
the five o'clock meeting, we'll do the 515 meeting. But
five is very fast.