You can download the agenda for this meeting at www.
bakersfield City. us. Preceding over this evening's meeting, the Honorable
Mayor Karen K. go. Good evening. It's my pleasure to
call it to order the 515 Regular City Council meeting
of August 26, 2026. Madam Clerk, please call the role.
Here. Council Member Arias. Here. Council Member Gonzalez. Here. Council
Member Weir. Council Member Smith. I'm here. Council Member Coeman.
Here. Council Member back here, Tash. Here. Thank you and
welcome to all of you. Thank you, the Civic Pro.
To not interpreter, time elects the interpreter come forward and
very quickly let the audience know that equipment is available
in Spanish.
Hola, muy buenas tardes a todos. Bienvenidos a esta reunión
el día de hoy. El día de hoy vamos a
tener interpretación simultánea a través de la reunión para acceder
a la interpretación si tenemos el equipo justo atrás de
la sala para quien aún no ha recibido equipo. Cuando
usted tenga venir a acompañarle. Thank you. Statements portion of
the meeting you'll need to pre - register at the
kiosks in the backstaff is there ready to assist you
if needed. And before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge
that PurSTAF's recommendation, Public Hearing Item 8A. That's the vesting
tentative track map appeal. We'll be open and continue to
the September 16th. While the today we inheld September 16th
meeting. Tonight we have the pleasure of having
Father Jimmy Milan, who's Vicker at St. Joseph Catholic Church
to offer the invocation. Thank you, Father, so much for
your service to our community. I know your church is
actively involved in food drives and outreach. And you just
recently performed the Westfield Beauty Money. Jen Michelle Antonio Donnie,
who is a senior at Garthus Memorial High School will
lead us in the pledge. Michelle is a Ford Dimension
Dream Builder and she's here with her mentor and advisor
Peggy. Michelle has a 4. 8 GPA.
Wow. She's National Honor His Country Trust Soccer and Tennis.
She's founder and president of the on - campus club
got the dot. She's president of C. S. F. President
of Helping Hands. Student Council President and Vice President of
the Bass Club. She's the leader of the Healthy Committee
and the Inrect Club. Link Glut Cancer Money Sampas Leadership
Program. Michelle, what an incredible person you are and we're
just so proud to have you in our community. Father,
would you all please stand now. Let us gather for
prayer.
Almighty God. We give you thanks for the blessing of
the wrist of the gifts them and there is and
bless them as they work for the common good.
Bless the people of Bakers Field, especially our families, our
children. Those who are most struggling at this time may
our city of Bakersfield continue to grow in prosperity, peace,
and goodwill. Guide all who participate in this meeting today
at their deliberations may bear good fruit for our community.
Pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United
States of America. And to the Republic for which it
stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice
for all. Thank you. And Michelle, would you like to
officially introduce your advisor.
And you all make you. And Director of the Ford
Dream Builders and Dimension Program, which I'm very excited to
be a part of. And yeah, I look forward to
getting to know her more throughout the course of the
year. Thank you so much. Thank you, Michelle. Father, thank
you so much.
Here a few guidelines to help our meeting run smoothly.
We request that you turn up. Applause is allowed during
the presentations portion of the meeting only, but not during
other portions of the meeting. Everyone in attendance or by
phone is expected to adhere to the rules of decorum
established by Resolution of the City Council. Failure to abide
by the city's rules of decorum, including any disruptive behavior
that INT meeting business first warning to everyone participating that
conduct, that disrupts this meeting may result in expulsion and
or the chambers being cleared. Behavior that disrupts the meeting
includes repetitive statements, shouting, hate speech, interrupting staff or presenters
during the meeting, speaking out of turn outbursts, or exposed
attending Madam Clext item, please.
Presentations item 4A, proclamation to Leslie Bloomquist and Mary Stanley
of Baby Cafe, Monica De Los Santos of Clinica Serra
Vista, WIC, Marissa Reyanoso Ortiz, and Katie Reynoldso of the
Corn Breastfeeding Month August 2026.
Thank you. Strengthening breastfeeding support and Resources promotes healthier beginnings
for Children and families and contributes to the health and
well - being of our community. It's my honor to
read this proclamation. Whereas August is recognized nationally as national
breastfeeding meeting, mother, families, and communities. And whereas breastfeeding provides
infants with essential nutrition and protection contributing to healthy growth
and development while also benefiting the health of mothers. And
whereas organizations and professionals throughout Bakersfield and Kern County, including
baby Cafe Bakersville, Gradidiac on Ebres, families with breastfeeding education,
support, resources, and services. And whereas the city of Bakersfield
is committed to supporting children and families within our community.
Now therefore I, Karen Gomir, the city of Bakersfield. Do
you hereby proclaim August 2026 as National Presidents to Rest
Beating Education, support, and Resources. It's data this 26 -
day of August. It's my honor to build a present
this proclamation.
Good evening, Mayor Council members and staff. My name is
Marissa Reynoso and I'm the original breastfeeding community. National Breastfeeding
Month reminds us of the important role breastfeeding plays in
supporting the health and well - being of both mothers
and babies.
The American Academy of Pediatric recommends breastfeeding exclusively for the
first six months and continuing breastfeeding alongside solid foods through
age two and beyond. It is also a time to
recognize the often fishing life. Their dedication, perseverance, and love
to be celebrated and supported. Today I'm honored to stand
alongside our partners from Clinica Sierra Vista. Baby Cafe and
the Corneet County Breastfeeding Coalition as we work together to
support and power and advocate for breastfeeding families throughout Bakersfield.
Thank you again for your recognition.
Oh, my name is Reva. I'm an IBCLC and the
co - chair for the current county breastfeeding coalition. Our
coalition brings together Community Partners to provide breastfeeding education, lactation
support, resources, outreach events, and advocacy through compassionate support and
collaboration, re - enreast feeding world breastfeed theme is rise,
strengthen with works. So together we're strengthening families, educating and
creating healthier beginnings for all of Kern County. And I'm
going to pass it over to Mary.
Good evening, everybody. My name is Mary's. My name is
a baby Cafe. We are a nonprofit 501C organization providing
cost - free, professional breastfeeding support to our community and
beyond. It is imperative that we recognize breastfeeding as a
biological norm. And create an environmental culture
that makes it easier for others to breastfeed in public
breastfeedings to multiple, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, who,
which is the World Health Organization, recommend exclusive breastfeeding for
six months and continued breastfeeding for two years as complementary
foods are added. And you just heard that. Increasing breastfeeding
rates is a Public Health issue.
The more babe communists have recognizing August, 2026 is world
breastfeeding month. And improving this proclamation. And I'm going to
introduce, I think it's Monica. Is that right? There we
go. Thank you. You're welcome.
My name is Monica DeLosandra. The first thing you breastfeeding
is healthier Future by improving outcomes for babies and parents
alike. When we promote, protect and support breastfeeding, we strengthen
not only individual families, but our entire community. Together, we
are investing in the health, well - being and success
of future generations. Thank you.
Thank. You so much.
Madam Clerk, next item, please. Preset 4B2
- Jason Guerrero, President and Claudia Guerrero, Vice President of
Gigi, the Warrior, declaring Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in Bakersfield
during September 2026. Colleagues Childhood Cancer is one of the
leading causes of death for children in the United States.
Each year nearly 16, 000 children between birth and 19
years of eight are diets, sir. No cancer cancer. It's
my honor to read this proclamation.
Whereas cancer knows no boundaries affecting all ethnic and socioeconomic
groups. And whereas increase awareness and research will help educate
the Public on early diagnosis and provide readily accessible clinical
care to patients in need. And whereas dedicated health professional
agent cancer, but there's children deserve the chance to dream
big, discover new interests and live to their absolute potential
while fighting the disease. Now therefore, I, Karen Gomer, the
City of Bakersfield, do hereby proclaim September, 2026 as childhood
cancer awareness month in our city and urge all residents
of fighting to August. Been through some, sorry, you've been
through some challenging times with Gigi and all. And so
inviting you now to offer some. Thank you so much
for your support.
Good evening, Mayor Go, members of the city, Community Leader,
Fronts, and everyone else who's here at her cancer. And
to every your justice cancer. For our family childhood cancer
isn't just a cause. It's our story. On February 14th
of 2019, our world changed when our daughter, Gio, was
diagnosed with leukemia.
Gigi spent two and a half years going through intense
treatment. There were difficult days, scary days, and days where
we simply had to take things one day at a
time. But the words like her can to watch her
move forward. I also know that her story. Is only
one. Their children currently fight in cancer, family sitting in
a hospital room and parents praying for the same outcome
that we were blessed to receive. That is why
our awareness matters. September gives us an opportunity to make
Chagart cancer visible to wear gold to talk about it
to some appointments childhood candidate also represent. GG is leaving
is living proof that there can be a life after
Chahedher diagnosis.
Her journey has inspired our family to turn experience into
a purpose and to continue advocating for the Children and
Families affected by cancer. So this September, I ask everyone
to go gold with this, not just for Juju, but
for every child fighting and every.
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 and in person.
Statements for items listed on tonight's agenda are given a
two - minute time limit, 10 minutes for participants by
phone. The consent calendar as a whole constitutes one agenda
item. Statements regarding items not listed on the agenda are
given a two - minute time limit.
10 minutes for participants by phone and 10 minutes for
in - person participants 20 minutes total. If you have
written comments that are longer than your verbal statement, give
them to the clerk who will give copies to the
council. Kia available to select whether you're here to speak
on an item listed on tonight'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 and will be called during the non
- agenda portion of the meeting.
If you're here on consent calendar public hearing item 7A8A
now is not the time to speak. You will be
given an opportunity to speak when those items are called
later in the meeting. Madam Clerk, do we have any
public speakers for items not listed on the agenda. Marigo.
We have received. Four requests. To speak by. Phone.
And 21 requests to speak currently connected. We Alejandra Sia.
And as you can tell by that number of speakers,
uh, we're going to run out of time. So I
would ask that you make your comments succinctly and we'll
try to get in as many people as possible. Also,
this is only our third time using this new system.
And so if we have a few challenges, we're just
going to give each other grace. And I hope you'll
do that also. First speaker.
Member. My name is Ali Hadrath with building healthy community.
S current. We've spent years working alongside residents to cause
biggest fields, including any spaker field to build healthier, senior
neighborhood. We're here semantic that it was the city succeed
in creating a general plan that for every part of
making so not just the fear. We agree with the
data and partners that leadership council share. The city map
shows a nice expensive gap of up to 20 years.
Between east and. West basics. That's how those exactly why
this general PN update is our best chance to get
legal strike. With them. So base this process takes success.
We support the standalone environmental justice. Elements. We believe putting
these goals in a dedicated aging element gift to city,
a better path. To address these long study health camp.
And finally, we also agree on the need for BILEGO
DD works. Breaking technical documents into real Spanish language. Conversations
help us continue building trust and gain real feedback. Thank
you for your time. Thank you, Ms. Garcia. Next speaker.
Ariel. Dyer. Ms Dyer.
Hi. Everyone. My name is Ariel. Dyer. I am a
li. And co - founder of. Anti - capitalist. Pearclub.
When I attended June City Council meetings to address concern
about the lack of transparency, oversight and Public Input regarding
the city's contract, the surveillance technology that cities have by
the debt of space and healthy neighborhoods committee meeting. Since
then, that committee has been twice. But has yet approached
the topic of flock. Meanwhile, we've been addressing it. We
hosted a town hall last Wednesday and over 50 people
showed up to learn more about this technology and to
share their own concerns. City Council members mayor, vice mayor
staff and civic chill police department were notably absent from
this generative and informative discussion. In fact, instead of engaging
in direct dialogue with us, BPD has been busy at
our community. And in some cases has given them information
that directly contradicts that they have told us. BPD allegedly
has a policy requiring officers to include case numbers and
FOC database queries. And yet, the laws we received show
many entries that lack supposedly required information. According to Lieutenant
Backbeat, the Department regularly ought to state a big churches.
But when we submitted a CPRA request, we were told
this is. The Public deserves transparency, a chality, and a
voice as to what the Bakersfield Police Department and the
city uses to monitor us. In our town hall last
week, screws that constituents want their voices heard. Will you
listen. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dyer. Next Speaker, please.
Just a reminder. Applause is not allowed other than during
the presentations portion. We know that you're passionate, but we
just ask that you be respectful. Thank you. Madam Clerk,
next speaker, please. Council Member Gonzalez. Thank you, Mayor. Uh,
Mr. Clegg, if I can, I'm going to make a
referral tonight that we reach out to Miss Dyer and
have a conversation. I believe I made a referral. Over
a year ago regarding the use of lock systems and
the protocols. That should be established. Um, I think it's
important that we address this concern with our community members
and have this conversation with them. I am sorry, Mr.
I wasn't aware of this community meeting. Um, and, uh,
I'm sorry, I missed it. But, uh, would hope that
the city manager can have a conversation with, uh, these
community members. Thanks. Thank you, Councillor Memphis. Madam City Attorney
Next Speaker, please. Marigo, we're moving on to the in
- person speaker's next. The first speaker is Denise Gary
Pandal. Very, Pandal, thank you
very much. Um, I appreciate the opportunity to be here.
Thank you. And I want to raise the issue of
the rule of law resolution. I'm asking tonight that it
be brought before you on the agenda. And there be
an up and down vote. What is it concern. The
Resolution, the rule of law Resolution for the Public who
doesn't know.
Has to do with the issue of sanctuary city state.
Very concerned that you're hiding behind, I believe, political considerations
as opposed to not putting it on the agenda and
having an up and down vote. I remind all of
you that you are elected to be representatives within a
constitutional republic. And therefore have a duty under the supremacy
clause. The supremacy clause makes clear. That federal law and
constitutional law Trump or take precedent under local or state
law.
Therefore, since you all took an oath to uphold the
Constitution, you're holding a constitutional trust as an office holder.
Futection and safety of every individual in the community and
their property, first enforced most. It's part of our declaration
of independence. It's part of what our founding fathers said
in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote that we
are all given an alienable rights and among these are
the right to, this is two, our Constitution. And it's
a critical. That you put the rule of law. Thank
you, Ms. Garrett Penny, of the agenda and have an
up or down vote. Thank you. If not, you should
design. Next speaker, please. Natalie Santa Maria.
Welcome, listen to these yourself. Good afternoon. Um, my name
is Nathalie Santamaría. I am a promotora and I'm here.
I'm representation of my organization visioni compromiso.
I'm here to talk about the general plan and to
make, uh, two requests of and create with to do
Community Forums so that we can allow Community members, especially
those that are monolingual in Spanish to understand what the
general plan is. The draft was being proposed and have
an opportunity to have some input. Um, again, we're willing
to work with the city. I know we've been very
successful in the past. So I hope that this leads
to speakers evocated. I know it's included some environmental justices
included in the quality of life. However, um, link to
SB, Senate Bill 1000, we are asking that environmental justice
chapter standalone be created. There's a lot of this advantages
as you've read between the east and the West average
to the decisions that have been made. So again, we
look forward to continuing the conversation and that collaboration with
the cities so that we can create this forums. And
we can also look to a way of having an
environmental justice chapter standalone for this general plan. Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Maria. Madam Clerk, next speaker, please.
Welcome, please turn to dish yourself.
Thank you. Good evening Mayor and City Council members. My
name is Abby Power. I work with leadership council for
justice and accountability. And the comments I'm sharing tonight reflect
feedback from Community members. All of your support. What I
wanted to show is a map of disadvantaged communities in
Bakersfield. If you look at that map, you'll see that
almost all of e - speakers - field communities are
designated as disadvantage. According to Colin Virus Green, many of
these Communities also face a pollution burden that is higher
than 90 percent of all census tracks in the state.
You'll also see that there are very few disadvantaged communities
on the West side of the city. This map displays
what many of you already know pollution. This health outcomes
and lower life expectancy. According to a map in the
city's existing conditions report, the majority of residents of e
- speakers field have a life expectancy that's between 57
to 78 years, which compares to a life expectancy for
residents of West Bakersfield that is on average between 78
to 97 years, which is a huge difference. SB 1000
requires that the general plan consolicy plan which states maintains
many of the plans EJ policies, but this is not
a dedicated EJ element. And EJ policies are not woven
throughout all other chapters. It did. The general plan also
does not take enough meaningful action to reduce the unique
and compounded health risks faced by disadvantaged communities, which SB
1000 requires. So we're asking the city to show a
commitment to reversing the harm of previous playing decisions CISES
LEM also language workshops as participation and feedback is crucial
to creating policies that address the needs of disadvantaged communities,
which is a requirement of SB 1000. Soley publishing a
technical document on the website does not do enough to
facilitate resident input and it has not been published in
any language other than English. Thank you. Thank you, Ms.
Powell. Madam Clerkneck, speaker, please.
Rod. Geiss. Oh, thank you. Uh, good evening City Council.
Um, after July 15th, my name is Rod Geiss, G
- U - I - C - E - Made
call and back forum. In response at the August 5th
meeting, I was proud to submit a resolution by Dr.
Angelo Frazier to designate Bakersfield a rule of lost city.
And I urge the council to act on it. Unfortunately,
there's been no action. And this is, uh, this is
a little disappointing. And
I don't know where sanctuary city policies stand or proposals
to answer is your opportunity to produce something tangible. It
avoids the waste of time, money, and resources that a
truth act for them would incur. It mitigates the accelerating
cost of sustaining a growing population of foreign nationals.
A rule of law city, Resolution would also show that
we honor our veterans who fought to provide citizens, California
opposed sanctuary city policies such as Santa Clarita, Corona, Huntington
Beach, and more, as well as cities in Texas, Florida,
and Iowa. America is a nation of law, and most
citizens agree to support, defend, and abbail. This is your
opportunity to show the citizens that you stand with us.
President Ages, one more of you to please stand and
champion the rule of law city resolution. We the people
are not going away. Thank you for your service to
our community. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Geiss. Next speaker,
please. Reverend Dr. Angel Frazier.
My name is Reverend Frazier. Thank you, council member Zach,
for your previous actions regarding the Pudding or Tabling of
the Sanctuary Policy. We are the same when I play
basketball in Germany. It was a GNU, that's the GNU.
And it means enough is enough. Current and former city
and state elected officials have confirmed to me or resume
law Resolution can help prevent that sanctuary city proposal from
ever returning. Have we moved so far away from the
fundamental principles of our Constitution that we can no longer
stomach the idea of the rule of law.
The Constitution and your oath of offers must guide less.
I am the agenda for an up and down vote.
Thank you for your consideration. Thank you, Reverend Frazier. Next
speaker, please. Andrade Capolino.
When us, my name, I'm a resident of Southwest Bakersfield
Ward VIN with Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability, among
other organizations. Social Advocate and Proud Daughter and Granddaughter of
Immigrants. I'm here tonight to speak to you about the
Bakersville General Plan. Something I love about this city is
the joy we have in coming together in community.
The countless, the way we have full cities, view things
that instantly come to mind, trees, fresh air, walkable areas,
and places together in community. That is the vision I
have for Bakersfield.
Clean air is a right, not something earned. The disproportioned
rates of pollution and the disadvantaged areas of Bakersfield is
a deep concern. And to be taken seriously. Environment Concernant,
heart lung cancer, and more.
The general plan must include actions to appropriately zone the
city and reduce harmful pollutants as outlined in SB 1000.
As B - 1000 is the law requiring that the
general plan in cities with disadvantaged communities aimed to reduce
harmful pollutants associated with health risks. I ask the city
to commit Justice LM's opponent in the way to reverse
the harm in disadvantaged communities.
I was here a few weeks ago with the ask
to actively engage with the Community. I thank you for
extending the date for Community Comment. However, at this time
we are still waiting for Spanish and Pujambee translations and
active Community Workshops and Engagement. It is also a requirement
of the plan to be transparent and include Community Feedback
or Health and the Ends can. Thank you. Thank you,
Ms. Andrade Capolino. Council Member Gonzalez. Thank you Mayor. Thank
you so much for your comments tonight. And I just
want to thank all of the Community members who have
joined us this evening to talk about the general plan
and to offer up some of your ideas. I need
to do some research on some of this. But I
do want to say a couple of things tonight so
that they may make copies. I think we do have
copies. Perfect. Uh, because I would like to review that
map and respect the fact that you prepared that for
us. And I think the Full Council should be able
to review that. Thank you so much. The other thing
is, um, I do think that, uh, we ought to
prepare documents in multiple languages. We can ensure bilingual or
in some cases trilingual so that we can reach out
and have meaningful conversations with many of our stakeholders. But
as somebody who's been working in East Bakersfield and trying
to revitalize the east side for 20 years now, uh,
you know, this is a big passion of mine and
something that's dear to my heart and would like to
see many more in this process. Speaker, please. Klaus Valenti.
Welcome, please interduce yourself.
You guys address concern all over the city. I'm not
necessarily anti - please, but with my experience growing up
in Bakersfield, I do not trust the information and mass
surveillance will be used ethically by our law enforcement and
officials. We're already seeing examples of nationwide of law enforcement
using Inflation recorded by flock cameras to track and stock
personal contacts.
And I don't know how I can attention of their
books right for privacy. Statements such as you're fine if
you have nothing to hide or as long as you
aren't doing anything wrong, you'll be fine. Are not encouraging
when our government is actively changing what is considered wrong
and unacceptable.
And in regard to our officials and law enforcement saying
flock cameras have helped them solve vehicle related crimes. Hearing
this is not encouraging. They can't do this of AI.
I'm not necessarily anti - police. I do appreciate seeing
if our officials and law enforcement could develop a spine
against float cameras moving forward. Thank you. Thank you Mr.
Filanti. Next speaker please. Maria Stahlcup.
Welcome, please turn to Deduce Yourself. Good evening. My name
is Maria Stalkup. I'm here to talk about flock cameras.
I have lived in Bakerfield for almost 20 years as
a private citizen. And I believe that still means something.
I am a private person. I raise both of my
sons here, worked here and kept to myself for these
20 years. This is the first time I've ever been
to a city council meeting, but I felt compelled to
be here issue. I've ever been arrested in Grounds. Be
surveilled by flock cameras. When I drive around, I see
endless amounts of Cyber Junk cluttering our street corners and
parking lots until recently I thought that I was the
only one who didn't understand why these were here. That
is until I started reading about flock. It turns out
that people all over the country are wondering the same
things that I am. Where did these cameras come from
and why? And growing numbers, members of the Public are
rejecting this technology come to City Council. Other and many
now neighborhood of Northwest Bakersfield from our neighborhood app. My
truck was stolen 41 days ago from the parking lot
at Home Depot on Rosedal Highway. I failed a report
immediately and my truck still has not been located just
saying these flock cameras are not all that great. The
flock cameras aren't really going to help normal people. They're
to protect businesses and sell your location data. These flock
cameras are BS at the lawsuit benefit stand for makes
me think we are a bunch of sheep that need
to be herded. These are the quotes that I've received
from this app. Overall our community members do not seem
to understand what flock cameras are for. Why would they?
They were put into place without prior approval and no
oversight or voting on the matter. At the very least,
why is the search data not being audited by the
city? How are we to trust our most core until
this surveillance like this. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Stoker.
Madam Clerk. Next speaker, please. Brandon Bane.
Talk about fluff. Since 2024 1550 cases of Misuse of
Flock cameras have been noted state countrywide by law enforcement
and on law enforcement visuals mainly used to stock X
- Partners, current partners and just random individuals.
In 2025, Johnson Howling shares roughly 6, 000 networks. To
locate a woman who is trying to get legal health
care and an abortion and another state world health that
is illegal. But that is legal. These cameras are invasions
of privacies. They are down their harassment.
Many of us feel like we are being constantly harassed.
Like we're being German Franklin of their safety either. And
I ask you, please do review. And honestly end our
contract with flock and to remove these cameras. As soon
as possible. Please and thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bain.
And Madam City clerk. Our final speaker.
Well, please introduce yourself. Good evening. My name is Jason
Cipriano. Yesterday, August 25th at Norris Middle School Dismissal, Officer
Chrisman ID 119 cited me for parking behind a line
of other parents while picking up my son.
Before she even spoke to me, drivers who saw parking
enforcement arrived began erratically accelerating through the parking lot full
of fairs complaining the ticket, but that's not what her
about. I'm asking for written answer from the city manager
and the police chief on whether BakerShield Police Department has
a policy governing parking enforcement during active school dismissal while
children are walking between vehicles. Because yesterday, the way that
enforcement was being conducted didn't make dismissal any safer. It
caused panic drivers to accelerate through what should have been,
what it should. Damn it. Thank you. Thank you Mr.
Chapurano.
And so this ends this portion of our meeting. This
is the allotted time. You're welcome. For those of you
who didn't get a chance to speak to come back
at other meetings, to write to us, but thank you
for being here to participate. Metal clerk, do we have
any public speakers regarding items that listed consent KINIS item
10A? That's the Interfund Loan or New Business Item 11A
Clean City Special Project Funds. Now is the time to
speak. And the clerk will call for Speakers, but we're
going to, it was 11A and I didn't tell them
it was 11A. Okay, thank you. So go ahead and
sit down. We're going to let, for those of you
who'd like to write just for the City cleric, if
you heard Mr. Ologas, it's for 11A. Margot, we have
received. 12 requests to speak on the Consent Calendar one
by phone and 11 in person. And then we've received
four requests to speak. I apologize. Five requests to speak.
On new business I at 11 person. The first, it
looks like the individual who signed up to speak by
phone has not connected. We will start with the in
- person speakers. For the consent calendar. The first speaker
is Karina. Funez.
Welcome, please introduce yourself. Good evening, honorable members of the
Bakershield City Council. My name is Karina Funes and I
am the policy manager at Blues Zone's Project Bakers Field.
On behalf of Blue Zone's Project BakerSield, I want to
express our sincere appreciation to the city of Bakersfield for
taking this important step. Towards creating healthier, safer, and more
welcoming parks for our community by moving towards Smoke Free
Parks. We are great friendship and for the collaboration with
manager's office office and our city council members.
Creating smokery parks is an important investment in the health
and well - being of Bakersfield residents. Families and visitors,
and we are excited to see our city take this
step. In 2024, Blues Zone's Project Bakersfield began conducting tobacco
letter cleanups at Parks throughout Bakersfield. Unfortunately, we found tobacco
litter at every park we visit adult park around the
most litter around benches, picnic tables, and in parking lots.
Because of what we have seen firsthand through these cleanups,
we do have one small recommendation that we believe could
help strengthen the policy and insurance intent is clear. We
respectfully ask that parking lotsby explicitly included in the language
or that including BeChange to Intections Open to however we
want to emphasize that this recommendation comes from a place
of support for the policy and appreciation for the Worth
the City has already done. We are very excited about
the direction the city is taking and are grateful to
see Bakers - Living towards healthier, smoke - free public
places. We look forward to continuing to work alongside the
city to make bakery a healthier, safer Community where we
can all Burgess.
Mayor Gus Crystal. I work into backup - prevention education.
I advise a youth coalition that advocates against tobacco and
serve as a member of the tobacco - free coalition
of Kern County. I want to be transparent about that
connection, but tonight I also want to speak from personal
experience as a mom and as a family who spends
a lot of time in Bakersfield Parks. I've been a
mom for over 10 years and our family uses part
of spending at Bakersfield Parks. I don't smoke, but my
children can still encounter second - hand smoke and tobacco
product waste when we are enjoying these spaces. Um, the
issue is especially personal to me because a few years
ago my daughter stood here in this very room as
an underage young person who purchased a vape.
She came here and advocated for stronger tobacco retail retail.
It would be proud that worked by making sidewalks athletic
fields, playgrounds, recreational areas and Public Buildings within Park's Smoke
Free. I also
asked the council to consider including parking lots and other
areas associated with these facilities to not leave the policy
open for interpretation. We see a lot of smoking and
tobacco litter in those areas as well. Please also consider
ClearSignage and cessation range and people that meet your families
can enjoy public spaces without exposure to smoke. And tobacco
was, if we can spend hours at a restaurant or
sports arena without smoking, I believe we can do the
same at our parks. Thank you for taking this important
step towards healthier cleaner parks for Bakersful Families and Future
Generations. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Burgess and all the
best to you as you go to UC Davis, young
lady. Next secret place.
Welcome, police introduce yourself. Perfect. Uh, good evening Marico and
City Council and City staff. My name is Bernardo
Ochoa and Ph. I'm here tonight as a chair of
the tobacco - free coalition of Kerrn County. I think
the basilism, which could prohibit smoking in all areas of
Public Parks. This has surely been a collaborative effort involving
our community, multiple agencies across current County. And our coalition
partners who care deeply about the places, our families gather
in play. Some of our first conversations regarding the need
for Smoke Free Parks took place with Council Member Eric
Arius. And thus safe and healthy
network. We sincerely, we encourage to see our community voices
reflected in today's propose amendments and reflecting cities ongoing commitment
creating a healthier, safer, and clear Bakersfield. So our children's
seniors and families are free from exposure to secondhand smoke.
We strongly support this proposed amendment. Changes our community.
We are proud to stand alongside the city of Bakersfield
as a longstanding partner in this worked. Did theback go
- free coalition of Kern County is committed to supporting
the Public Education, social media outreach and Community Awareness efforts.
Thank you for your leadership, your partnership, and your commitment
to making Bakersfield a healthy. Thank you, Mr. Careful. Get
it out to the council. Madam Clerk, next speaker, please.
The TCA. Levano.
This is for our council. Welcome. Buenas
tardes, mayor, consult. Mi nombre es Leticia Loevano, tengo un
negocio en el 601 Avenue Avenue. Ah, estoy aquí.
Por su unión a ser lunes hubo disparos en nuestra
cuadra. Mi oficina en el 600 Junior Avenue fue impactado
el caso, se le llamó a la policía el caso
de la Policía de Deckers, y es el 26168, 760.
Se llamó a la policía, van a entre las 10
pies del 901 Junior Avenue en la histórica union Avenue,
una ruta 99. Los
miembros, los mismos 300 pies que caminan, clientes, niños, a
diario. No estamos en contra de ayudar, estamos para proteger
nuestra cuadra. SolicitoNNONCIA horas, los siete días de la semana.
Dos, el protocolo de respuesta rápida. Tres, no acampar, merodear
a 500 pies.
Cuatro, una junta de seguridad antes aprobada. Por favor, aquí
está el expediente que yo sometí el día de ayer,
se agregue. Es todo. Muchas gracias. Thank you. And now
interpreter, please. Y puede ponerse los audífonos para escuchar.
Good evening, council. My name is Leticia Lovano, and I
have a business on 600 union Avenue. I am Heat
because of the Punitch 90 union. On Sunday, evening, heading
into Monday, there were gunfires on our blog. My office
at 600UN Avenue was HIIT. It was impacted. And we
did call Bakersfield Police Department. The case number is 26
- 168760.
Department. IEM and Fidel. This I am here to state
that this was at 300 feet from 901 Avenue. The
Historic Union Avenue on Route 99.
The same 300 feet that customers and Children walk every
day, we are not against helping Avenue 24 - 7.
24 hours a day, seven days a week. Two, I
asked for rapid response protocol. Three, no camping or loitering
within 500 feet.
And for a Public Safety Meeting before approval. That I
did PM, you also add annex E to the file
that I did submit yesterday. Thank you. Thank you, Ms.
LaVano.
Council Republic Gonzalez. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you Ms.
LeMo for coming today and speaking to us. Thank you
for your phone call also a few days ago foundations,
guys. Definitely think there needs to be a zero tolerance
on union Avenue. Um, we were heading the right direction.
Uh, we had BPD code enforcement. Um, and many others
out on union. And we did some proactive work to
address some of those issues. Um, but I think that
was over a year ago. And I think we need
to do, he is a shoe for, it's taken us
a long time to get to this state. It's going
to take us a while to get out of it.
But we need to start this work. Um, and I'm
encouraged by some of the investment. Uh, I know it's
a little solace to you right now given the immediate
issues. Um, but there is some private investment also in
the area. We're working with some, um, private developers, resources
of a PODO overstate the possibilities here. But we have
been working on things on the, in the background to
try to improve the condition of union avenue. Um, but
I, a hundred percent agree with you. We ought to
get, um, aggressive in this area. And I want to
make a referral tonight to the City Manager that we
bring together safety for Smevius, maybe even the Park Rangers
in some respects. Uh, that we bring them together so
that we can develop a proactive and consistent strategy to
address these issues on union Avenue. And then the last
thing is there are residents. There are business owners. There
are people in the community who really care about union.
There are families who live in and around union avenue.
Billy Avenue somewhat, uh, you know, second tier to the
rest of the city. We have to reject that notion.
And we ought to bring our community members together, business
owners, property owners, family members, residents. Let's come together and
have that safety meeting that Ms. LeBuno has recommended.
And let's have a conversation about what we can do
this. All, so thank you for being here tonight. Thank
you Madam Clerk. Next speaker, please. Denis. Gary Pandal.
Came up. It's been a mistake made by the City
clerk's office with respect to. The minutes. And it clearly
pointed out that I supported a sanctuary city status. And
that was brought to my attention the other day. And
I just wanted to make sure that the record was
corrected.
And I wanted to make it clear to the public
as I've stated before that it's a section, it's a
violation of the supremacy clause in article six of the
Constitution. And basically in light of the fact that there's
been over tens of thousands of murders, just murders alone,
not counting human trafficking. Fentanyl, uh, drugs being brought into
the country cartels.
Fraud, really integration based on the law. Um, aside from
that, I pointed out for the record during that last
meeting we had on August 5th.
That the good people in Washington, D. C. had made
an effort to provide everyone who broke the law and
entered the country illegally to have 2, 000 back to
their... This will make justice and the Department of Transportation
that those federal grants would be withheld and that other
monies would be withheld from those cities in any state
in the union that embraced a sanctuary city. I also
made clear that it was disrespectful to the people of
this country who came here lawfully. In the record city,
Clarence, thank you City Clerk. Next speaker, please.
Margo, I just want to note that we're allowing the
additional 10 minutes since we had no phone speakers connected.
And just encourage all of you to be a succinct
as possible. Hello again.
Um, Natalie Santamaría with Visión y Compromiso. And this amendment
to prohibit smoking in part. I am here also as
part of the tobacco - free coalition, which you all
know that most of you know that we've been working
for many years, along with other organizations to pass several
Resolutions. So I'm here to thank you. I know we
presented and also on behalf of the promotors that they
couldn't continue in that forward to looking at how enforcement
is going to look. Um, some signage too. And the
parts will be very helpful. And, um, some education and
also including parking lots. Again, we're looking forward to collaborating
on that education when something new arises right in our
community. And we want to be as proactive as possible
with green education in the parts, as you all know,
she has a passion for that. So again, thank you.
And looking forward to working with you all. Thank you,
Ms. Central Mario. Medal clerk, we have additional speakers. Ricardo
Del Hoyo.
I'm a proud resident of Ward One. Shout out to
Councilwoman Arias. Um, good afternoon to Mayor Go and Council
members. Before I get into agenda item 6D point two,
I'd like to take a moment and think the city
council for extending the Public Remarks period for the 2045
general Plan Update.
However, after on the general, that's measurable change and action
plans. I too hope all communities can rise together, especially
underserved communities. You see, I grew up in Bakersfield. I
attended local schools. I graduated from Cal State Bakersfield. And
although much has changed, some areas and some statistics have
not changed. Nathan, one period with lack of infrastructure. This
has been the case since I grew up. And continues
to be true today. I
applaud the Resolution on approving the Application for the Climate
Bond grants fund. Yes, we need more trees in downtown,
but we also need more trees outside the downtown corridor
of Ward 2. And you passed Brendage Avenue past 58,
pass Bill Terrace to truly amplify and beautify the Chester
to South Chest Recorridor with trees, greenery, and green pedestrian
corridors. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Del
Hoyo. Madam Clerk, next speaker, please.
Welcome. Please, Center introduce yourself. Hi, hello. My name is
Lawrence Lacido Jr. I am a proud member of the
Cholon Indian Nation. And I'm also here representing with tobacco
- free current and my place of occupancy, Beckers Little
American Health Project. Uh, we are here in support of
the Spokebree Parks and the Ordinance that is going out.
Uh, we do... Area's a Native American tobacco is a
very spiritual and traditional medicine for us. So we do
want to make the distinction between traditional tobacco and commercial
tobacco commercialized tobacco, which is the heavily processed industrialized version
of it versus traditional spiritual tobacco, which we use in
medicine, which we use as gift. So next speakers. Josie
Sarulo.
Please for to douce yourself. Councilmember
Jose 600. And Letitia has run a successful business there
for over seven years. She pays taxes. Employees locals, and
wants to stay. But the constant business interruption. From the
chronic offenders is forcing her at other tenants to close
their doors. Sight
neighborhoods. Our areas already hurting from high crime, open drug
use, vandalism, fights, threats to store workers, open sex, threats
to customers, loitering, constant storefront trouble. The list goes on
and on.
The city cannot just fix housing for one group. Natural
job, or they will leave. And this will cause more
empty buildings in the area where half of the stores
are already shut down. True compassion requires balance. If you
move a high risk group here, you must protect us.
We demand that the conditional use permit for the 24
- 7 security guard looping our streets and alleys within
a four block radius. Second. Install high definition cameras that
link right to the police. Third,
gift security and police immediate power to remove trouble bankers.
Fourth, get businesses, owners, fast. You spring your competence without
securing our businesses first. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rivel.
Next speaker, please, Madam Clerk. Guadalupe Silva.
The next person, please. Magnus, lightborn.
Well, completion to do yourself. Thank you. Good evening, Marigold
City Council members. My name is Magnus Lightborn, representing
Ripple Fiber, California. I'm here with our chief legal officer,
Josh Lauren. I just wanted to miss heist to the,
uh, we'd like to do it in the most innovasive
manner as most non - invasive manner as possible. And
I look forward to working with you guys. And thank
you for your cooperation. Thank you, Mr. Thiper. Madam Clerknick,
Speaker, please.
Mayor, the next four speakers are in person. Regarding item
11A. The first speaker is Abby Power.
So this is on the Clean City special. I'd like
to give my. Clerk, could you call the next speaker,
please? Thank you. Neuras, Torres.
Gracias por escuchar nuestras inquietudes y tomar en cuenta las
necesidades de nuestra comunidad. Valoramos su atención y esperamos seguir
trabajando juntos para mejorar nuestra ciudad. También queremos solicitar su
apoyo para que los ayude a realizar una investigación sobre
unas personas que inquietan, que vive abandona una arma. Me
gustaría programar una cita para discutir los detalles. Muchas gracias.
Thank you and interpret your police.
Good afternoon. My name is Nodis Torres. Thank you to
our council member Arias for listening to our concerns. We
want to talk about communa in our better our community.
We also want to ask for your support to be
able to do an investigation regarding some people who are
concerning our communities. There is a man who lives in
a lot that has been abandoned by the Community who
has a weapon. And I would like to establish a
meeting so that we can go over the. Miss. Thank
you, Noodis, for everything that you do for your community.
It was a pleasure just a little bit more than
a week ago. Being
out there in your neck of the woods, getting to
walk the community and see all of the many challenges
that you all are navigating. And so my heart goes
out to you and I just want you to know
that we certainly hear you. And we want to do
right where your advocate for help to reconvene, I'll call
it a task force address. Addressing some of the neighborhood
level challenges in Southeast Bakersfield that we get some police
department, the city attorney's office together to meet with Nuries
to talk about some of the safety challenges there. Thank
you. Thank you, Ken Speaker, please.
Welcome, please introduce yourself. Hello, my name is Johnny Olagas.
Check the timer. I was here for something else. Actually,
flock and 11A.
One of the issues with the dump site out there
were to find these individuals that were dumping the trash.
I am now trying to be solution - based. And
one of my proposals is instead of finding these individuals
that dump the trash, how about we open the wood
site for accepting trash. So the wood site, they open,
I believe it's Tuesday through Saturday. From 8 a. m.
to 3. 30. My brother actually called me on Monday.
He was going to take some wood from his house,
some tree trimmings or whatever. And he couldn't get to
the wood side. He called me. He's like on Monday.
He goes, hey, is the woodside open? I said, no,
it's not. And so he's like, I don't want to
go to Beena, the linefill, right? Which you guys, I
don't know if you know Orbina is. And so what
ended up happening was my brother turned around, went back
home. Right? And he wasted his gas. And as we
know, gas is really expensive right now. So my account,
you know, I'm going to ask Zach. If you can
please look into this because we have a lot of
trees in our area, a ton of trees, uh, we're
about to go into that season where I will probably
take two trailers full of trees. Of just my art
is just a ton. So I was Zach to look
into that. Um, but I will ask, you know, I
will tell Eric, you know, as far as the, uh,
when. The camera suggests, I think that's just a terrible
idea. I think we should provide solutions and look at
why people can't take the trash or their tree trimmings.
Let's be more proactive about it. And as a community
members, um, I work in the trash industry. So that's
how, you know, so anyway, the other thing is sanctuary
city. Let's do it. You guys suck. Thank you Mr.
Lagus and next speaker, please. Go. That was our final
speaker. Thank you. Next item, please. Yeah. Yeah. Um, we
need a break at this point, I think. So let's
take a break for 10 minutes. And we'll be back
for more City Business.
Let's start gathering together and if we could have staff
in the back just help to close the doors please.
It's close enough to 10 minutes.
Council Member Common. We're ready to start.
Let's all sit down please so we can continue the
meeting at 647. And Madam Clerk Would you please read
the next item. Consent calendar. A staff memorandum was provided
transmitting correct admits for item 6A1. Item 6F3 transmitting correspondence
item 6F 15 correcting the item title and also pleased
that it one contains a staff recommendation to adopt resolutions
approving salaries and benefits for specified units. Thank you and
we've had a request by Council Member Smith to poll
6C4. Is that just number two Councilmember. Okay. Thank you.
And I don't see any other requests for items to
be poll Council Member Gonzalez. Motion to approve consent calendar
with the exception of 6C4. You have a motion please
cast your votes.
With council member We're voting no and vice mayor corps
absent Thank you and Council Member Smith now 6C4. Thank
you mayor this is the item that addresses the smoking
in Public Parks and I think that's a good thing
to move away from smoking in Public Parks, but reading
the original Ordinance I also noticed that it also prohibits
bicycles and unicycles and I think that all of our
children have ridden bicycles and parks and that we should
since we are kind of cleaning this ordinance up that
we can go ahead and allow bicycle unit hike hearts
So make that change to this cleanup ordinance. Thank you.
Thank you. You have a motion please catch you. Oh
Councilmember Arias. Thanks Mayor really quickly
just wanted to thank the advocates for their work on
this item They brought it back to safe and healthy
neighborhoods not too long ago made a wonderful presentation And
I just think this signifies the continued work to make
sure Thank you so much. We explicitly call out that
our parks are also smoke - free zones I have
not had a chance to look through the entire document
itself But I would like to make that ask that
we make that explicit. Thank you. So you have a
motion to approve six C4. You have emotionally sketch your
votes.
The motion is approved with council member We're voting no
and vice mayor corps absent. Thank you next item, please.
Consent calendar Public hearings Item 7A Public hearing to consider
the Planning Commission's approval of General Plan Amendment and zone
change number 23 - 0560 And it's proposed mitigated negative
declaration. Item 7B Public hearing to consider planning commission's approval
of General Plan Amendment Zone Change number 25 - 0
negative declaration. Thank you. It's time for the consent calendar
Public hearings as the clerk said the purpose of this
section is to vote on all the items listed under
consent calendar hearings in one motion without further comment If
anyone would like to speak on any of the hearing
items Listed the item must be removed from the portion
of this agenda If an item is removed it will
be placed at the end of the regular Public hearings
portion of the agenda. So at this time I will
open consent calendar public hearing item 7A B is there
any one of the audience who would like to request
that a hearing item be removed from the consent calendar
If so, please come forward This isn't the time to
take testimony only remove the matter from the consent calendar
hearing. Mayor Go we did receive a request to remove
item 7A. From the consent calendar Public hearings. Thank you.
And then does any council member wish to remove any
other item.
Right so at this time consent calendar Public hearing items.
Mayor I'll make a motion to adopt Consent calendar Public
hearing item 7b. You have a motion. Please cast your
votes.
Council Member Thank. Hearings item 8A Public Hearing Public Appeal
hearing of Planning Commission's approval of vesting tentative tract map
number 7451 phased. MAntosh and associates representing Diamond Farming Company
is proposing to subdivide 40. 77 acres into 313 single
- family residential lots 1 Multi - use trail lot
and 1 Park lot R2. single located Generally southeast of
En Santa Fe way. Sierra Club appealed the Planning Commission
decision Developer Tom D. from RFG Properties Inc. requested the
Public Appeal hearing Be Opened and continued to September 16
2026 since they are negotiating a settlement with the appellate
Sierra Club. I'm sorry did we skip 7A. We'll come
back to that at the end of the hearings. So
for the Public hearings each side will be allowed 20
minutes It's 20 minutes for all speakers per side 10
minutes for in - person speakers 10 minutes for Speakers
by phone It's important that you identify yourself Make your
statements succinctly so others may speak If there's testimony on
both sides Each side will be allowed to 10 -
minute rebuttal There's clock on the TV screens behind me
which indicates 20 minutes When you're called on please identify
yourself You may ask questions during your statement But they
won't be addressed until the Public hearing is closed If
you written Comets that are longer than your verbal statement
Give them to the clerk and she'll provide copies to
the council Please be courteous to others who wish to
speak. So at this time Public hearing item 8A is
open Before we begin I'd like to acknowledge that staff
recommends that we open and continue this Public hearing to
the September 16 2026 City Council meeting pending negotiations of
the settlement while the Public can still make Public comments
today We encourage you to wait until the item is
heard on September 16 Madam Clerk Do we have any
speakers in opposition or in favor of this item? Mayor
Go we have not received any request to speak in
opposition or in favor of this item either by phone
or in person. Thank you Next item please. Don't we
need a motion to continue? Oh yes We do need
a motion to continue I would like to make that
Council Member Smith made a motion to continue this item
You have a motion Please cast your votes.
The item is approved with Vice Mayor Corps absent. Thank
you. Madam Clerk next item please.
Item 7A. Public hearing to consider the Planning Commission's Approval
of General Plan Amendment and Zone Change Number 23 -
0560 and its proposed Mitigated negative declaration. And Clerk What
about 8B. Oh Somebody made a mistake. Alright there is
no AP. Alright we're on to 7A Council members Smith.
Are you the one who pulled it initially? Nobody else
did. City Manager colleg. Uh Mayor and Council our Development
Services Director Phil Burns can just give a quick summary
of this Um pending any questions Um... In response to
those that wanted to have this item and discuss separately.
Council Members Uh we have in front of us is
General Plan Amendment 230560. Property owner HEG Investments LLC Project
description is the General Plan Amendment Zone Change for 24.
86 Acres The Project intends to develop 6. 36 acres
commercial LAN on the northern person of the property and
a project intends to develop 18. 5 acres as multifamily
residential on the southern portion of the parcel. Conceptual plans
have been submitted for commercial portion But no development planted
slowing ash Revenge CECO document is an MND. Planning Commission
approved this project until I 16th No speakers in favor
or opposition at that hearing stack recommends the project has
been found consistent with your general plan policies and city
zoning ordinances requirements for these reasons city staff recommends approval
of the General Plan Amendment and zone change for Project
23.
So at this time Public item 7A is open. Madam
Clerk Do we have any requests to speak on this
item. Mayor Go we've received one request to speak in
opposition to staff's recommendation. And go ahead and call that
speaker. You said draw Osby. Is that person in person
or was that supposed to be on the phone. May
I go with the request was for in - person.
Thank you and I don't see that she is present
here. My assumption Mary GoFame is that it may have
been another item Uh... Besides this item that was made
perhaps Mislabeled. Okay Thank you. So. Does anybody want to
make a motion on this item Council Member Smith I'll
make the motion to approve. You have a motion on
7A Please catch your votes. The hearing is closed now
You have a motion.
Coming from somewhere steps So if you tend to that.
S a. Game. Yes Did you already vote.
The item is approved with Vice Mayor Corps absent. Thank
you. Next item please.
Item 10A. Interfund loan to complete the acquisition of 1430
and 1440 Truxton Avenue pursuant to council approved purchase agreement.
Thank you Sorry Margo There was a blue memo prepared
for this item. Uh transmitting data mission.
As we jump into this item I will remind your
council that this was before you in March of this
year earlier. Your City Council approved a purchase and a
lease and purchase and sale agreement Uh... Contingent on a
due diligence period Uh... For this site. Um... We'll walk
through the background again on this because it is a
large decision A large item. Uh... But in quick summary
Uh this project really was initiated out of an effort
to save our operating dollars to gain efficiencies. And to
Focus on a long - term solution. Uh... Aed that
we had that was Uh... Our operations.
I'm. Having Ike in this advance.
Thank you Mr. Marcus. So again This goes all the
way back to 2021 We did we were in a
mode where we were in the process of hiring 100
police officers as well as some support staff and the
police Department We had significant space challenges Did a space
at identified Space needs But also we did not have
the capacity at the time to address those with expensive
new build projects. And so we were in a position
where we needed to lease office space to house our
growing police Department. We also did citywide office - based
assessments in 23 and 24 Uh... But we have been
leasing space in a building that is outside of our
downtown core since 20 to 1 Those lease payments Uh
have been escalating up towards last year It was 900,
000 dollars And next year we anticipated would be over
a million dollars. For those lease payments. At the time
there was limited suitable office space in the downtown core
But yeah the council at the time approved that move
Uh out of the urgency that we had But gave
direction to try and look for long - term space
back in the downtown core at some point in the
future. So there were multiple properties test 24 5 to
think about those long - term needs. Uhm we found
that the truckston tower became a realistic option in 2025
and started Uh, the process of doing the analysis and
approaching the property owners And again There's a unique opportunity
that this move will offer us significant savings. While addressing
that long - term space needs into the future Uh,
just in summary There is an immediate savings of 350,
000 dollars a year of our operating dollars. Uh after
the payment for our internal Umd loan That would represent
a savings of more than a million dollars a year
Uh... After the 12 - year term of that loan.
This is just to orient again Uh, council and Community
to where this location is It is the taller tower
portion as well is that Uh... Orange color They're labeled
11, and the parking garage behind it Significant parking space
Uh... To the advantage of the tenets of the building,
the city And ultimately our parking enterprise Uh... That will
make that parking available in the evenings to customers downtown
to expand our enterprise beyond our current parking garage.
Uh, this is mostly for the Public Record to just
reflect the space and where we're going to initi space
for moving into floors of office space and one floor
Uh the ground floor for some training space Uh... And
that is already subject to the least agreement as approved
by council But as we move forward with purchase Uh,
then we would still occupy that space But it is
122, 000 square foot Um... building... That allows us to
have many other tenants that help to pay for the
net operating costs of that building. And that gets us
to the rationale again It gives us the opportunity.
Um... Manage our timing costs on our space needs... While
getting a long - term solution We don't need to
occupy the entire space Uh... We can slowly over time
as our Community grows And we have additional Um... Needs
to serve our community to potentially occupy additional space But
we don't have to... And having those... Uh... Revenues come
in to help again with our net operating cost is
a huge advantage Uh... And in particular it was the
very expensive least Uh... Payments... Uh... That we're able to
eliminate Consolidate staffional efficiencies Uh... Again, and it is in
the heart of downtown and positioned very close to City
Hall Uh... That allows us to continue Uh... Move forward
in working closely together as City team And would just
note lastly that... We were able to... Have a favorable
Uh... Purchase price... Given some of our market purchasing the
praise and long - term tenants.
We completed our due diligence period at the end of
July We saw no red flags There are not any
facility issues that aren't beyond what we would consider regular
maintenance Uh... We did through the process identify some of
those maintenance needs that are gonna come up in the
next 5 to 10 years And that's important Small 4
Consideration for our maintenance costs in the first year Because
we do anticipate needing to do some maintenance in year
1 The we already had a 425, 000 dollar deposit
on this property that would go towards the purchase price.
Um... And... We were underway in the planning process that
we had the choice that we were just moving to
other least costs that were facing at the other location.
So again in short summary Uh after our due diligence
Staff is recommending that we move forward Because there are
no issues that suggest that we shouldn't acquire the building.
A few more... I think just valuable Reflections on why
we move for the same tenants You see that there
on the screen Uh... There are a variety of different
tenants and varying lease agreements But several of those are
also long - term tenants We do have about 21
percent vacancy The average vacancy for office space in downtown
is closer to 6 percent City - wide It's closer
to 8 percent And so we think there's work we
can go due to acquire additional tenants Uh... That would
help us continue to offset our operating costs The performer
that's before your council does not include assumptions of additional
Revenues from those leases Where he took a conservative approach
And it's based on current plus 1 That's based on
a notable letter of interest that has been... Issued Uh...
Occupy that space And so any additional space that gets
leased Only helps improve RENET Operating... Again, achieves 1, 000
dollars EVs are year. But also very importantly It preserves
a very important Uh, building in the core corridor for
trucks and... And... Preserves our economic activity downtown. Uh... And
again that phased City expansion as needed. These are numbers
that were provided in the administrative report And these are
the numbers where I'm giving you again our least pain
Ever in this coming YON Our total payments Uh... Against
this Enrefund loan would be 636, 000 dollars Which is
why I'm saying the million minus the 366 That's your
350 I rounded down 350, 000 dollars in savings every
year And those payments that were making from our capital
Um... Improvement Program each year... Free up the operating dollars
on the police side And they go towards the acquisition
of this long - term asset And so instead of
throwing money away to a lease that didn't result in
any long - term asset ThisNOW does. Um... Put us
in a position. To have acquired this long - term
asset. Lastly I noted earlier Um... That we had space
that we could continue to lease These are just some
square foot estimates And some conservative... Uh... Estimated least revenues
that could come from those additional spaces And as you'll
know that would significantly again Increase that revenue And notably
decrease the amount of capital dollars that would need to
go towards debt service each year And we feel that.
Several years into this... Um... Our Inner Fund loan That
we're likely to be in a position Where the full
debt service is being paid by the net operating revenues
from the building. There are act front of us Uh,
there is the option to move Uh... With purpose and
to close by the end of this month. And that
would represent a significant savings 800, 000 dollars And I
don't see any reason not to move now Um... If
we chose to... Exercise our purchase option at a later
date. Uh... The price would change notably. And our deposit
again has... Uh... Already... Uh... Where passed our due diligence
period Deposit has gone hard And we would not get
that deposit back if we don't move forward Um... And
again Significant savings with the early exercise option That's... That
we're recommending in front of you. This is a lot
of numbers But we wanted to be transparent and demonstrate
What our debt service payments look like. Again This is
a 2. 5 percent interest loan over 12 years. At
this time We're using some of our Capitol Facility about
2. 5 million dollars in total And we're gonna pay
that back Uh... over the next five years to make
sure that that is restored. Um... And I probably should
have done this at the Out set I apologize I
did not. As a recommendation to use an inner Fund
loan What this means What we're doing is we have
reserves in our equipment Fund. That we're gonna borrow against
or borrowing against our own reserved dollars. But it's at
a 2. 5 percent interest rate because we don't want
to lose value that our reserves would have gained Had
they been invested in the market And so we always
invest our reserves And... This represents a five - year
average Of what our reserve interest income has been. And
that 2. 5 percent is a fair way to make
sure that we're not losing money in our reserves By
making this enterfund loan. Uh, some might question Why do
we choose this particular way of financing? Um... It's far
more cost - effective than going out and trying to
loan or bond in the private markets Because you have
to pay higher interest rates You also have to pay
transactional costs. Um... And it's endoscope. Uh... At 12 million
dollars It's in the scope that our interfund reserves can
handle Uh... We can't do larger projects that might be...
Tens of millions or 100 million dollars. But we have
a reserve Uh... That is over 100 million dollars in
our equipment Fund And we have a 54 million dollar
unrestricted reserve in the equipment Fund And so this is
about the right size for us to do A very
meaningful project That's gonna save us a lot of money
And a short timeframe Still make that... Equipment Fund whole
again. So that is our recommendation For review The City
Council A 12. 1 Million Dollar Interfund loan. That we
were appropriate those to our Capitol Outlet Fund and appropriate
the remaining 2 million from the Capitol Facility Reserve to
our capital Outlawe Fund Uh... It's a total of 2.
5 towards this Project from the Capitol LA Fund The
other 425 is the Deposit that we already made. And
with that I'm happy to answer any questions.
General fund and several of our other funds, but they
have to be protected only for the use of purchase
of equipment. But again, as a healthy reserve sits over
there, it's an opportunity to borrow against that from ourselves.
But because it is dedicated to a specific purpose, it
does have to be paid back with interest. So when
we say that we're saving money, we are saving money
because today we are spending money on a current lease
agreement for space that we need for big so police
department. And we pay a million dollars annually. And where
did those funds come from? Thank you, Council Member. That
is coming out of the general fund. The savings that
we're achieving is going to be to the general fund.
So we will, because we have to pay ourselves back
in these additional, these other funds, we will be saving
350, 000 dollars a year. And then in the 13th
year, then, we will be saving a million dollars at
least because these lease agreements, they don't get cheaper over
time. You know, just like my rent. It's only gotten
more expensive. You know, the lease agreement will likely be
even more expensive in the future. Is that right? That
is correct. It's a conservative savings of a million dollars
a year. It will only increase over the life of
this loan payback. So over the next 12 years, we'll
be paying 12 million dollars if we choose not to
pursue this correct. The other thing is the thing I
really like about this project is that it occupies a
building that currently has a 21 percent vacancy rate. You
mentioned the current 21 percent vacancy rate. Is that including
the anticipated use from basal police department and city. Yes.
When police occupies it, there will still be 21 percent
vacancy. Got it. But we are already having conversations with
potential tenants in anticipation of the city's purchase. Is that
right? Absolutely. And it has been actively marketed. I think
it's fair to know that. But also we feel that
as the city enters the building as the owner and
as an attendant, who look at that and make some
considerations, but we also think some potential tenants would see
that as an attractive relationship. We'll leverage all of our
relationships that we have as well to make sure that
we can fill that space as much as possible. Great.
Second to last point. Parking is a huge benefit because
parking is limited in downtown. And it is one of
the most controversial issues in downtown Bakers given its scarcity.
How much does it cost to build a parking structure.
I think Council Member Mayor and Council to build a
parking structure depends a little bit on the size, of
course. But a parking structure that would be 300 plus
stalls is a 323 stall parking garage. Could be easily
50 million dollars. 50 million dollars to build a new
structure. Correct. Yeah. That's not going to happen anytime soon.
At least with the city of Bakersville, given our current
condition. So I think this is a good move even
for that. And then my last point is. Tonight we're
also considering an item related to a vacant property that
is seen many code violations. And we know all too
well in this city what happens when buildings remain underutilized
or even vacant. And it becomes a huge liability to
the city because we have to expend resources by way
of code enforcement, police department, fire department, uh, and also
becomes just a nuisance to the surrounding community. There are
a lot of negative externalities related to some of these
buildings. Uh, then unfortunately are in the urban corps. There's
just a higher concentration. Um, and the thing that I've
always worried about is to see this building, um, fall,
uh, fall into disrepair and to see many of the
tenants leave as a result. And, um, and then the
whoever the future owner is seeing them not really caring
for this property, um, and it becoming a major liability
for all of us in this community. And so I
think this is a really big win for not only
the city of Bakersfield from a business perspective, but also
for downtown and for the future of downtown Bakersfield. So,
uh, I'm going to make a motion tonight that we
prove this. Thanks. Thank you. Council Member Bashir Tash.
So we have to borrow, we have to be interested
on the money that we borrow from one account, Randy.
That's like a, that's a mandatory thing. Good evening. Council
member, that is really a best practice. So what we
did is we built this inner fund loan policy based
on other comparable cities. And it really is because it's
an enterprise fund. It really is the property approach. Those
funds are really belonging to the equipment fund. And so
we want to really return those dollars with what they
would have earned if they would have had to remain
in an investment fund. So that's really a best practice.
Cool. Thank you. That's, I promise you, Rayni, I want
to ask you any more questions. That was the only
one. So the, the freezing in vocabulary behind the conversation
that I just listened to was a little bit bothersome
to me because it's not our money. It's taxpayer money.
We're going to, we're going to pay interest. On tax.
We're going to pay interest with taxpayer money on taxpayer
money. For something, uh, just that just, I mean, that
makes me sick to my stomach. We're going to pay
interest on taxpayer money because we're not making money by
investing it. That just sounds so backwards to me. We're
going to take more money from the people. To pay
for the money we already took from the people. That
doesn't make sense to me. Um, this is going to
be so much more costly. It's a 1974 building. Every
year that goes by in my life and I'm not
even a building. I break down and cost more. I
can only imagine what the floor space of this, that
parking structure looks like. I think it would be very
cheap to have parking. If we twe it all down
and had a gravel a lot with striped lines, like,
you know, the current county fair would cost maybe half
a million dollars. But this is going to cost so
much money. And in a time when we're listening to
people that have businesses on union that are getting shot
up and we can't do anything to help with that.
Or we're trying to create jailbed space, but we're moving
real slow. I don't understand how we can allocate money
to anything outside of fixing the problem that is plugging
business owners that are coming here on a Wednesday night
to speak and begging for help. Uh, I just, I
don't support this. I think it's going to cost us
so much more money. I don't understand how we're going
to pay interest on taxpayer money by taking more money
from the taxpayers. Um, but those are my comments. Council
Member Coleman. Thank you, Mayor. So I wanted to
address two things. I wanted first address this inner fun
transfer. Because there's, there's people been out there talking about,
uh, how it's some kind of accounting trick or we're
doing something shady. The inner fund, first of all, that
inner fund that we're going to borrow the money for,
that's the equipment fund. Can you please tell me where
that money in the equipment fund. Comes from. Yeah, I
think you council remember. Coleman. The equipment fund, by the
way, is principally vehicles, although there are a few other
large value pieces of equipment that we include in the
equipment fund, but we're not talking about equipment like shovels
and rakes. This is high dollar value equipment. And so
that equipment, um, fund is funded by almost all of
our funds. So some of it comes from the general
fund. Some of it comes from our other enterprise funds.
But because they're coming from other enterprise funds, let's say
it comes from the water fund. Those are protected dollars,
rate payers may, you know, paid those dollars. And so,
uh, that's why we feel it is appropriate to pay
back the interest on that loan because it is a
best accounting practice to account for each of these funds.
Distinctly and openly. And I think I'll read a little
bit into your question as well, Councillor McCominay, which I
think is a good question. In our annual financial reporting
documents, we report on each of these funds independently. They
are accounted for separately independently. And those dollars are collected
from each of the other funds to buy all the
equipment we need across all of the funds. Um, but
again, uh, that is one of our funds that, of
course, it represents the value of all of that equipment.
And so we, if we had multiple large pieces of
equipment that went, you know, out. And we had to
replace those. That's where our reserves come in. But we
have a fairly healthy reserve by comparison there. And so
it is available for the inner fund loan, but it
needs to all be a documented and accounted for very
clearly that these are separate dollars. Okay. So, uh, so
first of all, this is not new to the city
of Bakersfield. That is. We've done it before. That is
correct. We have, cause I remember in the, uh, redevelopment
days, we did that. From time to time to make
some of the mill creek projects and that kind of
thing work. Uh, has all that bad money been repaid,
you know. It has, I think, as it relates to
the redevelopment fund, of course, there's, you know, when the
state shut that down, the lots of complications, uh, but,
but of the city's interfund loans, yes. All of that
has been repayback. Okay. So this is something that's, uh,
recognized, and I did a little bit of my own
research on this. I just kind of wanted to make
a comment about this because, uh, there have been people
out there saying that this is, this are accounting tricks.
And this is recognized by the California state controllers office.
And they have very strict rules on, on this, uh.
It is common for municipalities to use inner fund borrowing.
That is correct. It is very common. And also the
government finance officers association has a set of guidelines that
govern this as well as the state of California. Okay.
And then can you tell me what the balance is
and the equipment fund right now? The equipment fund balance.
Let me pull it up. Plus reminder. It's about 120
million dollars and unrestricted is about 54 million dollars. So
we're going to be taking you out of the unrestricted
amount, correct? Correct. And so what will the balance be
after we borrow the money. Sorry, Councilmember. We'll have to
Mr. McKegan, you have it off the top of your
head, feel free. I do have it. 50, you say
it's 54 million. We're going to borrow 12. So 42.
Simple man. I could have done that other look at
my notes. Oh, there's somebody to call an account. I
guess my, my, my question then becomes, uh, we're still
going to have 40 million dollars in an account. Are
we going to need this 12 million dollars that were
borrowed any time soon? We do not believe we do.
In fact, we did some analysis and we have, uh,
have a very high level of confidence that we'll be
able to back any equipment purchases that we need to
over the full 12 years of this loan repayment with
the unrestricted balance that remains. Okay. Uh, I think I
made my point about the inner fund loan in our
fun borrowing. It's been done. We've cities of Bakersfield has
done it. Frequently in the past. Other communities, uh, California.
And outside of California, uh, use this practice to finance
deals. Um, it's a good way to do it because
you don't have to go out in the market. And
you mentioned that you would have to pay broker fees
for somebody to put a bond out and that kind
of thing. And then you would probably have a higher
interest rate. So I like the inner fund borrowing as
a tool. I like the fact that we're not talking,
putting it out there for 30 years. We're going to
pay it back in 12 years. And frankly, if you're
going to have some operating gains, then you might be
able to pay that down sooner. Uh, but I did
want to talk about the deal itself. Because in my
history of things, I've done, I've done these kind of
real estate analysis for, uh, for investment groups. And we've
gone and assessed a property to make a buyer, no
buy recommendation. And so, uh, to me, this is not
a spectacular real estate deal. You know, yeah, we'd like
to be buying it for less. But it's a solid
deal. And it's a defendable deal. And, uh, it pencils.
Uh, even without making any assumptions about being able to
knock that 21 percent big C factor down. Uh, in
the bank. And we have an appraisal. That supports a
value above the purchase price. Correct. That is correct. Okay.
There was some concern about the, uh, the high cost
of utilities, but there's been some progress on that, correct?
Yeah, I think accounts, member. That's a good question. That
is also correct. There have been some energy efficiency measures
to switch to LED lights throughout the building. But we,
there are a couple additional energy efficiency projects that we
think we could invest into further lower the energy costs.
And I guess I wanted to make a point. We're
not buying a vacant building for us to use all
the space. So it has some preset income coming in.
From these rentals. You correct? That's correct. One point of
now rental beliesing. Yeah. 1. 4 million dollars in annual
lease income. It's significant. Which is not, is that include
the money worst bending for the lease or not? It
does not. All right. So, so this, uh, repayment can
be largely paid out of either the R least savings
or the money we earned from the billing. It can
council member for just for a sake of clarity and
transparency. There's, the other building operating expenses as you noted
the utilities and some of the maintenance and the management.
But the, the total net operating costs, um, plus the
savings from our lease, uh, elimination at the other building
is that 350, 000 dollars net savings that does come
to the city and that net operating savings helps to
pay down our, our debt service. All right. Thank you.
Um. The other point I wanted to make about is
that, uh, a lot is made about, you know, the
cost of the building. But. Municipalities typically hold these things
for 50 years or more. And when you start to
do, you know, time value and money calculations, which brand,
you can probably figure out it's a little beyond me,
but, uh, it makes that those investments a lot more
reasonable. But then we get down to, so for me,
when I, when I analyze it, I analyze first, does
it make financial sense? And to me, uh, the purchase
price, uh, the money we're going to save from lease
payments that we're currently paying other people, uh, the money
that we're going to potentially earn from, uh, rents and
parking and whatever else is there to take advantage of.
Makes that a good, a good deal for me. It's
a pencil. It pencils. It's like a good financial deal.
Then the question becomes, why should you buy it? And
then the strategic intrinsic issues that I think are real
important. And, uh, that is the location of this property
being, uh, in the, I mean, that's. The key one
there. It's on a very critical corner in our downtowns
across from the superior court. It's catty corner from City
Hall. It's in a strategic, excellent location. It gives, uh,
the city control not only that corner. Uh, but it
also gives us control 300 and some parking spaces, which
we desperately need in the downtown. It gives us a
little bit of flexibility for the city. Um, I don't
think it's our intention to take it all for us.
But it gives us the ability to scale up and
down as we have other needs. This building we're in
right now is getting pretty close to the end of
its useful life. At some point, it's going to need
to be remodeled or rebuilt or something. And it would
give us an opportunity to relocate functions that we do
here during that period of time, something for future city
councils to worry about, but it'll be a resource that
they can use. At that time. And the other thing
I was encouraged by was that in my research, I
learned that other governmental and public entities have been purchasing
property downtown. It is downtown Billy. Rather than leasing them.
And that's a critical distinction is that businesses just being
in the downtown is great. But are they leasing or
are they only these buildings? And these government agencies, uh,
the current county, superintendent schools has 1675 Chester Avenue 1200
truckston avenue, which is the old church. And the county
occurring in CAPK have 1318th street. So, uh, that's encouraging
to me when this, when these agencies are buying property
downtown, it signals, uh, faith, uh, in those neighborhoods. So,
um. So anyway, I'll get back to my point. I
think it's a fair financial deal. And it's a good
overall purchase for the city. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember
Common. Council Member Weir.
I'm a little confused here. On page nine that you
have here. It shows that.
On page nine, can you explain to me what in
the world leave savings from California Avenue space a million
dollars. That's a savings that we're achieving by not leasing
the other space or the police department has had office
space on California Avenue. Okay. So that. You're seeing we're
getting more money now. We're not having that million dollar
expense any longer. But those folks have to go somewhere.
We're going to have an expense. I mean, that building's
going to cost money. If I may, Councilmember, we're just
to clarify. That is not the training academy. I'm not.
A training account. To me. I'm just trying to figure
out. If a million dollars in here is money a
one - time deal. We're not, we're not going to
get that every 12 months. We're not going to get
savings from, from, um, California avenue space. So Council Mayor,
we're the police department is leasing on an annual basis
numerous office spaces in an office building on California Avenue.
So that is an annual expense that we're going to
get that savings every year going forward. But I thought
you were stopping that. Correct. By stopping that lease and
moving them instead into this building, we moved that million
dollars to those lease payments that are just gone each
year and into the value of acquiring this building, the
Bank of America building. Because those same dollars are paying
into repayment of that loan essentially to acquire that building.
Okay. But the way this reads is, you know, it's
projected net operating income is the minus 206, 000. Right.
Correct. Then there's a savings. So we don't have to
pay them lease anymore. So as many dollars there. Correct.
Okay. And then it comes down. And then the next
year, we're not going to have savings from that. We
will. How will we. Because it's an annual payment to
the other building. We'll have to pay a million every
year. Every year it's another million dollars to that other
building. Okay.
Okay. Maybe I'm confused. We're buying a building and we
already have a building. We don't own the other building.
We're just leasing it. I know. And that's what's confusing
me. We were releasing it. Boom. The lease is over.
Now we're on our own. It's a million dollars. Okay.
So we have that savings. But that doesn't continue on.
We don't get a mean, 12 million dollars for 12
years. I suppose if I could put it a different
way, Councilmember, we're, if we stayed at the other building,
we would pay a million dollars every year. What I'm
trying to say is. For one, the first year you're
going to get a million dollars because you're not paying
that. You're not paying that at all. Correct. The next
year you're going to say that you're going to pay
that. You're not going to pay it again. Or you're
going to bed again. We're not going to pay it.
Okay. So. We're not going to have a million dollars
in here as income. We're not going to have that
the next year. I'm doing my best council member, but,
uh, I would just reiterate that is an ongoing savings
every year.
It's ongoing same. That doesn't make any sense. Doesn't make
any sense whatsoever we're going to pay this off and
pay a million box. We're not going to, we're not
going to get that money on million dollars every year.
So and then we're going to take that money. Do
whatever we want to, but it's not going to be
a savings of a million dollars every year. It's a
one shot deal. One year deal.
Again, I feel like I've answered this question best I
can. It isn't annual savings. Okay. Well, maybe in yours,
but in the real world. You get one million dollars.
The next year you don't get a million dollars. You
have to pay it. In the whole thing is just
ridiculous. Council membersmith. Thank you
Mayor. I think the city beggars field has been fiscally
responsible over the years. With various city councils. And I
think that this purchase is very similar to what past
city councils have done. Our existing planning building department are
in a building that we purchased. That was already built.
City hall north. Is a building that we purchased that
was. Already built. And it's been 20 some years since
we bought that building. Do you, I know you weren't
here, but do you know any details on that. Mr.
Helen has done some of that homework. I believe it
was purchased in 1993 for 13 million dollars. I thought
it was early 2000 or 2000s. Okay. How that compares.
Yeah, I did some research. So in 2005, it was
purchased for 13 million. 13. So 21 years ago 21
years ago, it's half the size. And we paid 13
million. And so we're getting 21 years later. We're getting
twice the building. For the same amount of money. Correct.
Seems like a good deal to me. Ownership to me
is always better than leasing. I mean, leasing. As was
stated goes on forever. In 12 years from now, we
would continue to pay that million, probably me and two,
million three by then. And instead of paying that out
as lease payments, we now own the building. And that
may and two, main three can go to hire more
police. So I think it's a great deal. And I
appreciate. Staff working on it. And I'm in favor of
it. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Arias. Thank you,
Mayor. Um, thank you to staff for all the work
that they've done on this, uh, I think it's a
great opportunity. I just have a couple of comments, but
I would like to ask whomever was a part of
the team who kind of did the walkthroughs and did
the due diligence work, taking the tours, uh, taking a
look at all of the deferred maintenance. If I could
ask you to come to the mic. Would love to,
to learn more about what that deferred maintenance, um, investigation
looked like, uh, what were the findings. Looks like it's
just me. So, uh, we actually received direction in closed
session to have, um, external vendors come in and look
at all of the, everything. Uh, and we did, we
used, um, we used several vendors to look at elevator's
roof, windows, all of our systems. Plumbing electrical. I believe
we had 11 different vendors come through and look through
the building between end of March, uh, all the way
up until July. There were some, some concerns that we
saw coming through the building, because as was stated, it's
a 50 year old building, right? So there's going to
be some things that do need to be fixed, but
nothing that wasn't, uh, that was a red flag as
city manager, Claire said nothing that couldn't be fixed over
the next, uh, five years, 10 years that we could
schedule in regular CIPs over time. So, um, some of
the things that, uh, we said, Hey, these, these are
really big fixes. Uh, we did go back to the
seller. Uh, during that period of time between, uh, July
and coming back to council. And we had some more
negotiations to say, Hey, these are some very large items.
We would like you to come down on price because
those are going to be heavy costs. Uh, for us,
uh, that we need to consider over the next five
years, 10 years. Uh, and so we did get a
deduct and we showed that in the presentation, um, today.
So partly we feel that those ongoing maintenance things we
can solve over the next, uh, five years. We have
an excellent property manager. So the property manager is mill
Atkinson's MD Atkinson's group. They had been property manager there
for, I don't know, as long as anyone can remember,
they know that building, uh, really well. And we've already
started to work with them to try to address some
of the immediate things that we can get done before
we move in. So, um, hopefully it answers your question.
I would just add two quick items as Mr. Helen
pointed out. It's been professionally managed over the years. And
so they've had a robust maintenance schedule. They've kept up
on the regular maintenance. They have about a half million
dollars a year in just maintenance costs. That's, you know,
typically, um, expended, you know, keeping up on things. And
when we talk about things that, you know, repairs we
know will need to happen in the next five to
10 years. There aren't deferred things that have fallen behind.
They're just the useful life of the elevators. We know
is going to be, you know, up at a certain
point. But that's, that's the price of owning and building
is you're going to have to, every once in a
while, replace a roof every once in a while, we're
replacing elevator. And nothing is beyond its regular life cycle.
We just know in the next five to 10, we're
going to have some of those replacements to make. And
I'll just point out that it was just last summer
that we had to replace, uh, several elevators in city
all north. This is standard practice for owning any asset
or building. Um, so I appreciate that. I know that
there were some out in the community that had questions
about due diligence and the deferred maintenance. So I appreciate
you stepping in, Gary, to share that with us. Um.
I would just like to make a comment that, you
know. We have a responsibility to a certain degree to
make sure that, uh, we are, uh, ensuring that these
properties, especially these larger buildings, uh, do not lay vacant
for very long. In 2009, I'm reminded that, uh, it
was, uh, previous council that stepped up, um, when the
Padre Hotel fell short by almost 2 million dollars, uh,
during their construction and renovation project, a multimillion dollar project,
uh, they had tapped out all other financing, uh, mechanisms.
And they had, nobody to look to other than the
city of Bakersfield. And the city Bakersfield and the council
at that time stepped up and, uh, borrowed money from
the federal government to actually make good on that shortfall
for the property owner. Um, and so I shared that
because this is not something new to this council. This
is not something new to this administration for the city
of Bakersville. This is something that, you know, previous councils
have done to get creative, to innovate, um, and to
continue to fight for downtown Bakersfield. So, uh, with that,
I'm happy to join my colleagues in supporting this item
tonight. Thank you, Council Member Aryas. I don't see any
additional request to speak. So you have a motion by
Council Member Gonzalez to support staff's recommendation. Please catch your
votes. The motion is approved with council
members. We're in Bashirtash voting no and vice marcor absent.
Thank you. And next item, please. New business item 11A
contingency funds for clean city special project, 500, 000 dollars
for cleanup of a major illegal dumping site consisting of
50 acres located in the southeast south of Brook Street,
east of Hail Street and adjacent to East Plans Avenue.
Mr. Clegg. Thank you, Mayor and Council, Mr. Gary Helen.
We'll present this item. All right. Um, so Council Arm
Gonzalez talked briefly about this. There are several very large
chronic nuisance properties in the city. Um, we have a
clean city's team that focuses on many of those chronic
nuisance properties. Clean cities. Not only focuses on properties that
are of major issue, but also, you know, in our
right away and other areas. But, uh, this has been
one that they are code enforcement, a rapid response, all
of the teams have been focusing on over the last
several years. In fact, um, to date, I don't know
the exact number, but I know we've had multiple rounds
of cleanup from our code enforcement team of this site.
And as you will see through the presentation, it's just
band - aids over at bowl hole. They're making small
dents and trying to do some cleanup here. But, uh,
the scale and the condition of the site is getting
to a point where it's becoming a real health and
safety risk. And so that's why we're before you, uh,
tonight. Um, the other thing I want to add is
there, the images you're seeing are because of our excellent
drones, uh, the talk about cameras and drones. I mean,
I'm a believer in technology. So I believe that let's
use it if we have it. Our water department has
some incredible drones because they need them, uh, to monitor
and manage our water facilities. So they've helped us out
taking some still shots of some of the most difficult
areas. I will say the majority of this, uh, debris
is probably construction debris is what I would call it,
whether it's, um, I don't think we'd have, we have
too much, uh, wood debris. There was a comment about
the wood debris out there. There are some wood debris
out there, but mostly construction. You'll see. Uh, chunks, massive
chunks of asphalt. Massive chunks of concrete. So instead of
going to the dump, they use the site. You'll see.
Palettes. You'll see drywall. You'll see a boat. You'll see,
uh, abandoned cars. You'll see abandoned trailers. So it's, um,
again, one of our, one of our largest efforts. And
it's been difficult for the private property to defend it.
And we'll talk a little bit more about, um, our
work with the private property owner. And, uh, and he's
here tonight. Representatives are here tonight as well. I think
another major issue on this site is there are a
large number of people living there. This is where they
call home some of these drone images you'll see where
they've created these, um, tents and shanties and, and villages,
uh, which that's a very unsafe place to, to call,
uh, a place of, of home there. So part of
this cleanup is a coordinated effort, uh, with making sure
that homeless resources are brought out there. So these people
can, can be moved off. On the appropriate way. Just
a little bit on clean cities. There's probably seven departments
that are hands - on in this effort. So I
think it's probably the largest multi - department effort that
we've got in the city. Uh, I'm proud of those
teams. I know we did a larger presentation to council
previously on what's going on there. But that image to
the right, um, is, uh, really probably the most, um,
inhabited part of that area. And it's right in the
heart of, of, uh, some of the parcels. And we'll,
we'll zoom out to some of the, some of the
maps. But these teams work very well together. I will
say the coordination is excellent. Uh, impact team or BPD
team is working well with, uh, rapid response. They have
co - response teams that work hand in hand and
solid waste, um, is right there with them. Again, we've
got a river water department that helps us park rangers
or helping. And then we've got our outside partners. With,
um, other vendors that come and help on private jobs.
And then obviously a property owners. So this is the
effort that we're asking to undertake with some of these
funds that we're asking to come out of contingencies. Obviously
we need to remove the debris and, and help remove
the homeless, um, we need to make sure that we're
continuing to take appropriate steps and appropriate measures. Obviously the,
this is going to happen over time. This is not
going to happen tomorrow. We're not going to run out
there and do this. Um, if approved, but it'll take
some time to tee some of this stuff up. Um,
and then lastly, uh, the biggest problem is people can
just drive in here and I'll show you some of
the, the sections of the maps where this is why
construction debris is on this site is because people just
drive their trucks in and, and unload here. And so
we've got to pinch those off and put barriers there
in some of these locations. And we've got kind of
a plan and a map that, that outlines. Up. So
this is that some of those maps. So to, to
share a little bit of where this is. So this
is, we're calling it our East plan site because it's
basically as far east as you can go on plans
before you get to the, uh, treatment plant too, um,
it's right next to hail. Hell street and brook street.
It's just east of cottonwood or South MLK. And some
of these barriers that we've been able to track down
is actually through our code through our public works department
has done a killer job of finding about a hundred
sticks of KRO, which is about 2000 feet. We would
need to procure that with some of this money. That
we're asking to be set aside, uh, we've worked with,
um, the property owner and they have agreed to put
in some gates. Um, at some of these difficult points,
uh, there's already some berms there. So if you're saying,
why aren't we just putting the whole thing with electrified
fence and K rail, we just don't have that much
money. But some of the berms provide a barrier. The
other site that's just south of this isn't really not
saying this is an area that needs to be cleaned
up, but it's an access almost like a highway to
get to this dumping site. And so this is a
little further south. It's south of Brooklyn. You can see
goes dead ends right into the middle of this site.
But we've identified K rail and barriers and gates. Part
of having gates there, you may be asking that question
because fire, uh, fire does need to get into this
site. And so it'll, they'll have knocks boxes on it.
So fires the only one can access it if they
need to put out fires. They're in the middle of
this site. Uh, they'll be able to, um, access it
again, fire was a part of this team to help
us identify appropriate, uh, locations. So this
is the funding and the plan. Um, we're asking for
500, 000 dollars. To make a really big dent in
this health and safety, um, area. This is a referral
from council member RAS to set aside some money and
contingency funds. And, um, really to partner with the property
owner, um, the key point as part of this is
whatever resources we're spending, we are going to lean the
property owner. Uh, we've told property under this, this is
part of what we do is ultimately, if there's a
transaction and they sell those lanes are paid off. And
so we do recoup our money when there's a transaction
that's a part of this. So, um, there's one piece
of property that's an outside area owner. And then the
rest of the, uh, property is, is owned by Mr.
Sarah. So, um, some of these liens, you know, if
transacted on, could be repaid, which is, which is a
good thing for us. To recoup some of this investment.
Uh, obviously there needs to be ongoing enforcement after this.
And so that again is a part of the plan
for this, this major site. Able to answer any questions.
Thank you, Mr. Helen. Mr. Clegg, do you have any
further comments? Thank you, Mayor. I do not. Thank you.
And, uh, Madam City clerk for the record council member
where has left, he loved it eight PM. Council Member
Aryas. Thank you, Mayor. Um, thank you, Gary, for the
presentation and thanks for, we call Gary, our quarterback or
our head coach, uh, for all of the major master
planning and development that's happening out in MLK Boulevard. And
he's just been amazing with every, uh, punch that has
thrown our way. Gary's ready for it. So, uh, definitely
appreciate you, Gary. Last Tuesday, uh, I was out at
this property. Went there around 730. Nuries, who was here
earlier today, uh, made comment about some other issues that
we're having in the neighborhood walked it with me and
actually organized a good group of about 12 different residents.
And imagine this, you walk behind your property into what
should be your backyard. And you've got mountains of debris,
uh, concrete, uh, just spread everywhere. You've got homeless encampments
all around. In fact, there was about, you know, six
or so dogs, uh, that were trying to chase the
softer property. Um, and as we walked deeper into, uh,
this, uh, essentially dump site, uh, we were actually getting
yelled at by some of the individuals who were homeless.
And requesting that we get off of their property. Can
you imagine that. As a property owner, if your house
is just a rocks throw away. From where you're at.
Uh, that was the reality, uh, for so many of
these individuals, uh, later that evening, uh, there was actually
a vehicle, uh, that drove up, right beside us. Uh,
they waived right past us. Um, and they, I thought
that they were going to pull into their backyard, uh,
instead they pulled into one of the homeless enchantments. So
there are vehicles in use. There are vehicles that are
out of use that have been dumped on this site,
uh, it's, it's out of control. Um, and there are
certainly other hotspots in ward one and in Southeast Bakersfield.
Nothing quite like this. Um, and so I would just
ask that this, uh, council take this into serious consideration
that, you know, this is not just an investment on
this particular property, but actually I see this as an
opportunity for us to, uh, procure some of the materials
and equipment that we're going to be able to need
to prevent future dumping, because we know that as soon
as we block off this particular 40 acres, uh, folks
are going to go somewhere else. And so I hope
that we have our teams ready as soon as we
bait this. We're going to have to prepare for, um,
where folks are going to go next in order to
dump. I might also add, uh, that also towards the
end of last Tuesday as we were, um, getting ready
to finish the conversation. There was a, uh, clearly a
company vehicle who had just gotten done dumping. Just a
few moments before we were able to actually see them
do get caught in the act. So, um, it's an
ongoing problem. Um, I think that, uh, there are certainly
some things that we could do better on the enforcement
side of the problem. I'm grateful to chief Stradden. We
had a great conversation about some of the ways that
we can tackle from an enforcement standpoint, but certainly in
order to move projects forward, I'm going to see growth
out in Southeast Bakersfield. This is going to be one
of the essential steps in order to make that happen.
So with that, I would like to move approval of
this item. And looking forward to any questions or comments
for my colleague. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Aryas. Council
Member Beshir Tash. Is this city property or is this
owned by a private person slash company. It is private
property. And why is the city spending the rest of
the taxpayer money on to help one person in his
property. Council member, I think that's a good question. Typically
when we have large appetites like this that pose a
public health and safety risk will do code enforcement action
abate the property and then assess the costs to that
property that we're taxpayer costs to later be recovered. So
I have like 10 acres down by Cal State LA,
just vacant land. As soon as the grass gets over
like a certain height, I get a letter in the
mail threatening thousands of dollars that they're going to cut,
put a lean on my property and take my property
away. If you're just thinking about all the mom and
pops that are closing doors, just got notice of a
grocery circle is in my ward because of this, I
don't understand why we're spending. We're going to spend a
half a million dollars to clean up. Um, with all
due respect, I mean, if you buy a peace property,
you should take care of it. I would hate to
call the city if someone's dog pooped to my front
yard and made the city come pick it up. Am
I, am I missing something? Was this, what are we
doing? Why are we on the hook for this? I
don't understand. Again, council member three different thoughts. One, this
is at the council discretion whether or not to allocate
additional dollars to go and, uh, pursue this abatement. We
don't have the money in our budget to do an
abatement of this size proactively to then assess it against
the property. And so, uh, this would front load that.
But that's subject to the purview of the council. Number
two, uh, we have, to some of your points, we've
done, um, much of the same things you mentioned. We've
sent letters. We've done code enforcement, you know, actions on
this property. But they're at a certain point there is
a public good need to do some of these large
abatements to ensure that, you know, these type of conditions
don't continue. But, and I've sort of already mentioned it.
But lastly, uh, ultimately it is the property owners responsibility.
We're stepping in for the public good to make that
happen more quickly. And again, try to recover those costs
later. So this is a hundred percent. The owner's responsibility
to do. That is correct. Might I just add, I
think there is an enforcement aspect that I think, uh,
that it is appropriate for us to, um, to aid
in and assist in, but it is the property owner
responsibility. Yeah. I mean, I, I definitely feel because, you
know, we deal with, I mean, they go out and
if they arrest every homeless person there, they're going to
be in and out of laredo the same day. And
we're going to be dealing with the same problem. But
that's despite, that's besides the point because every other business
owner that gets terrorized by these people that we seem
to not be able to deal with, uh, because we
don't have the money to deal with them, um, they
have to pay to fix their businesses. That lady who
got her business window shot out probably had to pay
for her window to be repaired. This sets such a
dangerous. Precedence as a council for the rest of the
city. I mean, that's, this scares me. I mean, I
could only imagine what would come down the dupe when
any other business. I mean, I spend 360, 000 dollars
a year in private security to deal with this kind
of stuff. It would. I have nothing else to say.
I mean, I'm just, I'm kind of shocked.
Membersmith. Thank you, Mayor. So I want to explore the
lean idea a little bit. So you said there will
be a lien on the property. Yeah. I mean. Mr.
Burns can probably speak to it. Codenforce been on a
regular basis brings their liens to council. And I think
monthly. Yeah. That's what I was going to say every
time we've got them 40 millions, thousand bucks a piece.
That's every councilman significant. So it's very similar situation. We
do it all the time. We go out and we
clean up property and we put a lien on it.
That's correct. But I mean, this obviously is much more
substantial. We big one. So. This is future development property.
Yes. And so if they come in with a final
map, I mean, I'm trying to visualize how this lean
is paid back is that as you sell a house,
as you record maps, is it all one shot? But
how do we really visualize how it's getting paid off.
The liens get placed on the actual how it would
roll to some subdivision? I'm not sure how that would
play out. Um. You know. This is kind of a
typical process of a good enforcement case. If you think
about like our demo on Chester Avenue, same thing. Very,
very sizable wague seeds our budget funds to do an
action. So, um, I guess I see this like similar
to others, large cleanups that we have. Um, not exactly
sure how a track map would impact funding or if
that would, uh. Have to ask a title person how
that would work out. Well, I mean, do we, the
question is, do we expect it to be paid back
all at once or as it's parceled out. We typically,
uh, our liens are not paid back all at once.
And often they're part of a payback pool. That just
get, you know, that comes in in smaller increments over
time. Well, I mean, typically it's random lots here everywhere.
But if this is one, so then anyway, food thought,
as, as it gets subdivided, how are we going to
work through that. Um, but the point is, is it
will get paid back. It's developed. And it's got a
lot better chance of being developed if it's cleaned up.
The access, you mentioned there's berms. I mean, it looks
like from the picture, yeah, I could just drive my
dump truck on plans road, but there is, I didn't
see a picture. Yeah. We, we didn't show pictures. So
there are berms all along those other access. Yeah. So
you, uh, I think the significant berms on the very
east side, you can see that there's that road. So
adjacent. If you, if we zoomed out a little bit,
you'll see that we have our farm, one of our
farm. Right to the east. Just to the east. So
you see that, that road, that's it on that side.
And then on plans, there's also a burn. Oh, okay.
So the K rail is so that. All along plans
is difficult access because of the berm. It's just the
roads that go through that we need to. The section
that's in that northwest corner is where people are entering
now. You can drive along the very western edge. Down
and then loop down. Or you can just, uh, get
in immediately. And then head over on the east side.
So. Is there existing signings? I mean. That is part
of. What's going to be added in part of its
education. If it looks like a dump, it must be
a dump and I go take my stuff there. You
know, I mean. If there's no signing saying, you know,
the real dump is at this other location. We can
certainly add that to the project that's easy to post
signs. Uh, we did just, um, a few weeks ago
got the no trespassing. And so we'll be installing those
trespass passing signs with this project as well. Great. Well,
I think it's a good investment. We're going to get
paid back and we clean up the neighborhood. And move
it forward just like we do. All the other property
abatements that we see. It's just a different scale. So.
Good work. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Smith. And city
clerk Councilmember where his returned and he returned at 809.
Council Member Gonzalez. Thank you, Mayor. Um, okay. So I
appreciate in the presentation. You said the cleanup alone will
not solve the problem because that had been on my
mind for a few days now. Um, the last thing
I want us to do is try to bait the
property only to see this problem continue. Um, and, and
have us, you know, back here again, trying to resolve
this issue. Um, I just need to clarify. I thought
I heard there's two properties. That are problematic. Or. All
town go back. Between this map. And so there's actually
five parcels that are in between these two maps. So
there's two parcels on this map. There's the northern parcel
that is adjacent to each plans. And then if Brooke
kept going, you'd see that there's that parcel that's just,
um, above Brooke. And as we go to this, so
this is just south of that, uh, Brook Street. So
between Brooke and White and between white and it's the
end of that map. Um, those are, there are three
more parcels in that section there. Okay. So with all
those five parcels, how many unique different property owners are
there? I believe there's two owners. Yeah. Two unique owners.
Okay. And one owner has been responsive or have they
have both been responsible. So one owner is here tonight
at this meeting and a one owner is been very
difficult to, uh, be engaged with. And so this 500,
000 is to address all parcels. All five parcels. It's
to address. All five parcels related to being able to
get into this site more to make it impenetrable. And
then the majority of the cleanup is here on the,
on these two parcels. That's where the majority of where
the homeless are living where most of the dumping has
occurred. There is some dumping on these two parcels, but
the lion's share of what the team has assessed and
some of the, uh, bids that we're starting, not bids,
uh, evaluation that we've gotten from some of the teams.
It's in this, these two parcels is the word most
of the dumping's medicuring. Okay. Got it. Okay. Because, you
know, typically when we have chronic nuisance properties, the reason
why they're chronic nuisance properties is because the property owner
has been unresponsive for extended period of time code enforcement
has done a great job trying to address the issue,
trying to cite the property owner much to Mr. Beshurtashi's
point with his experience and properties in LA. Code of
forcement does that, but still the property owner remains unresponsive
does not do anything with the property. And so it
leaves the city with no other choice, but to take
some sort of action. Because without that action, there's such
a negative impact to the surrounding neighborhood, to the poor
residents like Mr. Aryes'constituent. And they end up having to
pay that negative externality. By being impacted by all of
these things that happen on this property. So ultimately the
city has to respond through code enforcement. The issue here
is that the cost to mitigate, to address this problem,
far exceeds the code enforcement's budget to address these issues.
And that's why this item is coming today. This is
not unique to the city. I mean, city does this
stuff all the time. But what is unique is the
dollar amount for this particular property. And I think that's
the, that's the challenge that I'm trying to kind of
wrap around in my head because I'm not sure. Just
as a policy matter. I'm not quite sure
as a policy matter given the fact that we have
a responsive property owner, um, how we should best proceed.
You know, one of the ideas that we've initiated a
few years ago that I think is one of the
best ideas for the city of Bakersfield is this receivership
program is allowing for us to bring in the courts
to help us take, make some action on these properties.
And we've done some good work in my ward. And
actually throughout the city now, because of that tool, uh,
to address some of these chronic nuisance properties. But here,
um, that's not the case. Let me ask you a
couple more questions before I throw out some ideas. One
is, um, have we spent some time observing the rate
at which the construction debris has accumulated the property. Um,
I think, you know, code, code monitors this property. And
they would be the best, um, answer that. Um, I,
I know in the last four years that we've been
talking about this property, um, it has ebbed and flowed
because of code has taken certain actions to reduce some
of that construction debris. And then it just comes right
back. And I don't know the, how fast it comes
back and the frequency. And when are the peaks and
valleys of that? I'm not sure. But we can, we
can research that. It would be helpful to know because
I mean, pretty nasty photos. It's awful looking. But is
that after a year? Is it after a week? Is
it after a month? It would be helpful to know
really the severity of the issue. Because there are some
other steps that weren't listed here that I think we
ought to take. Number one is, you know, we invested
significantly. This council has invested in bulky waste cleanups. Uh,
in doing mobile cleanups and mobile pick are, what do
we call it? Mobile pickup mobile locations drop off. Thank
you. Thank you. Uh, but you know, again, part of
our clean city initiative, uh, we have more services now
available to residents than I think ever. We need to,
I like Mr. Logi's comment. We need to be more
proactive in our effort to do outreach to these, um,
construction companies. And also, um, I would like us to,
perhaps has already been done, but I would like us
to spend some more time. On site. Either through private
security, existing private security contract or by staff, uh, to,
to monitor those, uh, bad actors and to, in real
time, provide them some education of what the appropriate process
is that this, in fact, is not a dumping site
to Mr. Smith's comment earlier. But the last thing I
think is that. This really is about economic development. This
really ultimately, what we want to do here is not
just clean up the site. If we zoom out from
a city council perspective, what we really want to see.
And we really want to see with all of these
chronic nuisance properties. Is a better and higher use of
that property. What we want to see on this particular
property, all these parcels are new construction, new homes, housing
development. We want to see, um, families living on these
properties. Ultimately that is the solution. So the question now
in my mind is how do we get there. How
do we get to that development. Obviously this particular. Problem
is a real burden, a barrier to, uh, to see
that property developed. And so from my lens, I don't
see this as a response to a nuisance. In the
way of code forcement. I really see this as an
economic development tool. So similar to what we do with,
um, tax increment financing, for example. Where again, there is
a president set. Where we may offer a certain incentive
to a developer. Because we know that over the course
of the. Project that their revenue generated by a better
use through property tax increases will allow the city to
actually recoup those funds in the future. That's the way
I kind of take a look at this project. And
so I understand there may not be, you know, I
know that there may not be a TIFF mechanism for
this particular development, this particular use. I know that is
it, the EIFDs. Typically are related to. Public infrastructure investments
and specifically for affordable housing. Um, so I'm not sure
the good mechanism yet that the state has provided, uh,
four cities. But I think that through that lens, I
can see us pursuing this strategy. You know, again, for
the purposes of economic development. So yeah, I'll support it.
Thanks. Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez. Council Member Coleman. Thank
you, Mayor. So I have similar policy matter concerns about
this. First of all, is this the same property that
the more partners were here about last meeting where they
had spent money and then, you know what I'm talking
about. Yeah. Let me go there. That's, that's the property
that they. Okay. So they already spent money cleaning this
up. And then the offenders went and dumped more stuff
on there. Correct. All right. So is there a breakdown?
I don't, maybe you showed it to me. Maybe I
missed it. Is there a breakdown. Of, uh, how does
500, 000 dollars. Is going to be spent? Did I
see that in there? Did I miss that? No. Um,
I think there's, uh, kind of multi pronged approach. Uh,
we don't have like a line item budget in this
presentation. But based on the teams recommendation, obviously barriers will
be of a cost, um, it's we have an excess
of 200 trucks, truckloads of, uh, how, how many trucks
have to go to the dump to put this where
it, where it belongs. So that's really the majority of
the cost. I mean, the barriers are some cost. Uh,
getting the, the, uh, heavy machinery out there. To, to
move, you know, the massive piles around. But, uh, it's
equipment trucks and manpower to get stuff done. So, so
one of the things I struggle with here is that,
and I appreciate the more a partners and their diligence
on this part, this parcel, uh, and the things they're
doing on the east side of town. But, um, you
know, at a time when, you know, I get beat
up every time I see Richard Chapman from Economic Development
Corporation because he's on me about the call cut, uh,
buildings that have burnt over there are just piles of
rubble and we can't seem to get those cleaned up.
Uh, we don't have money in our budget for us
to do it. And so, you know, but now we're,
we're looking for half a million dollars to clean up.
You know, some other plays. And so that's, that's what
I get into that policy, that policy question. If we
do it once, we got to do it everywhere. And,
you know, where do we draw the line? How do
we make that. How do we make that case. And
so I'm struggling a little bit. Uh, with this one.
Any of you talk about, uh, prevention besides these barriers
like, uh, you're going to start having the police helicopter
fly over it, you know, whenever they're around or whatever.
I don't know. Uh, to start trying to do some
enforcement. So in, in our, uh, secure column there, we
talk about bringing in some, before this develops bringing in
some temp lighting, uh, obviously what was talked about was
maybe some onsite surveillance having some extra security out there.
We, we would not be using any of our dollars
to do this. This would be, uh, private, uh, property
owner would need to need to do some of these
things. We, we would just want to make sure there's,
it's impenetrable from a barrier standpoint. Um, and then they
would need to do some investment of lighting on site
private, uh, surveillance. I think the one thing I would
add to what Gary had shared was that, um, we
have discussed, uh, the, you know, as the concept of
changing a little bit how we do a legal dumping
enforcement has come up. Can we put some cameras up?
Can we do some, some additional illegal dumping enforcement. That
has been contemplated for this site and just, you know,
I know you were saying it tongue in cheek council
member, but I have to clarify for the public record.
We do not have a police helicopter. All right. Um,
so yeah, so. You know, I see the need, but
I'm hesitant to support this. Not that I don't want
us to do this, but I'd like to have a
more comprehensive understanding of what are policies going to be
about these. And I, I know it's not just the
call cut. There's other ones around too. I mean, we
could dump a couple million bucks on these things. Pretty
quickly. And so two things. One is things like K
rail and those kinds of things. Uh, we ought to
have if we need to have it, is there some
other means by which we can buy those and have
them to where we use them on different projects. Uh,
but I'd like to have, uh, maybe more robust conversation
about what we're going to do about all these sites
around. And then, you know, we can all think of
two or three off the top of our head. And
what the city's approach is going to be to those.
Because I don't want to dump a 500, 000 dollar
lean on guys property, uh, that we may, you know,
we may see it. But, you know, if you have
it out of town investor, they don't land that he,
you know, his father bought him before him. I don't
know the case exactly, but he might not care. So
we might be, you know, uh, 10, 20 years before
that property's ever developed. So, uh, I don't know. I
just, I just, I'm struggling with this right now. If
I may, Council member, um, just as we developed our
economic development strategic plan, this council asked us to also
develop a rubric set of criteria for making decisions about
economic development incentives. There could be an opportunity to also,
we have a chronic nuisance program that the staff actually
spends a lot of time ranking properties that our chronic
nuisances under certain set of criteria. Uh, another, you know,
potential, you know, thought from the council going forward is
for staff to develop. A set of criteria. Um, that
could be used as a framework for making decisions about,
um, these very unique large chronic nuisance properties. It would
be, in my mind, it would actually be fairly similar
to the economic development, um, incentive criteria. And we have
a few different tools in the tool belt. You know,
we do have the abatement process. We're working on a
lien forgiveness policy that would be available in instances where
it's creating, uh, you've got a new ownership. And you're
going to generate, you know, new economic activity. Do you
look at those liens? And so, um, just food for
thought for the council that could be a future action
for staff is to develop a set of criteria that
council could use in making these kind of decisions. Because
there are rare number of times where we would suggest,
Hey, let's use, you know, additional dollars to address, you
know, a significant issue. But to some of the points
that have been noted tonight, there are times where you're
going to create opportunities, um, and address problems, um, that
come to the good of the community ultimately, um, and
there's probably ways that we could, um, measure that in
a reasonable framework. One other idea just to add to,
uh, C manager, KLEG is also in kind of the
economic development, uh, mindset, having the property owner have some
sort of commitment. And I, what I'm hearing you say
is maybe we want to see this developed in five
to 10 years. Maybe they have some sort of, well,
if we invest 500, 000 that there needs to be
some sort of additional commitment out of them that we
see this property develop. You know, and in some sort
of criteria that aligns to what city manager was talking
about with the economic development framework. Yeah. I don't know
if I know the answers to those questions. I think
I'm imposing the question more than answering them. So, uh,
you know, from my money, I'd like to see us
have a further discussion about that. Uh, I, in support
of it, I will make one comment, uh, the council
took a very, very conservative approach. To preparing this year's
budget. And we purposely didn't act on some CIP. We
decided to pull that. In and wait till mid -
year to see how our numbers are going to work
out before we committed any of that. So, you know,
we had made some reservations money set aside. For these
kind of project. I just like to know. I have
a better understanding of what our policy is. So we
don't have to have these to conversations when these things
come up that we know what we're going to do.
Uh, we know what we're capable of doing what we're
not going to do. So. I guess I'm going to
have to think about if I would make a motion
or anything. I don't know. That's all the questions I
have, Mary. Thank you, Councilmember Council Member Aryas. Thank you,
Mayor. I just, I just want to share that. I
appreciate the honest thinking and scrutiny of this allocation. I,
too, share some of those concerns, uh, because I agree,
you know, particularly in Council Member Gonzalez's district in mind,
we have numerous of these properties. Um, and so I
know that I can't come back for a second time,
uh, when the, uh, 40 acre lot with the similar
problem. Um, and so I think this is a unique
opportunity. But I also want to make sure that we're
also not losing side of the fact that this is
a compounding problem, not just for future economic development, but
it's, it's an immediate public safety issue. Um, that the
trash, it's not on the screen anymore, but the debris
stretches all the way back to our spreading fields and
connects and abuts immediately, you know, an entire section of
R1 residential homes. Uh, so there are many community members,
Nuries along with her neighbors who are very concerned that,
uh, when, not if, but when another fire breaks out,
that that fire may actually pose an immediate threat and
harm to their property. And so, um, as Council Member
Gonzalez mentioned, we just don't have the funds and the
budget today to abate this project. Um, and so we
need an additional allocation, uh, like the one tonight in
order to be able to, uh, abate this property. I'll
share that just a couple of weeks ago, um, from
my count, it was the fourth fire in the span
of, of about three months. Uh, that fourth fire, uh,
was the largest that I've seen on the property. But
it actually saddled, uh, two of the parcels. So, uh,
you know. Some of the investors had control and oversight
over part of it. But the larger part of it
in chunk was on the property of the property owner
who we cannot get in contact with. And so even
if we were to ask the investor to, uh, abate
their side, the more than 50 percent that we could
not, um, get under control. So just, just wanted to
share that and share that I appreciate the concerning actually
would like to ask what the appropriate committee would be
for us to make a referral that committee take a
look at, you know, what is that threshold for council
to consider, uh, a level of investment and attention, frankly,
like this. Council Mary. At first blush, but we could
also always come back and, and revisit that. But I
actually think probably safe and healthy neighborhoods makes the most
sense. Okay. Then with that, I'll make that referral tonight.
Thank you. Council Member Smith. Thank you, Mayor. The referral
does not apply to this. That's a separate referral. Is
that what I'm hearing. I'm just thinking that. I am
correct in the developer, the one of the landowners is
here. Is that correct? And that we've talked about. How
it gets paid back or if it gets paid back
over time or how we can. Work through that. And
perhaps it would be a good idea to continue and
have conversations. With the developer and come back at another
meeting. So I'm not going to make that motion because.
It's inward one. And so I'll let him think about
that. But that would be something that I think perhaps
we could address some of the concerns that other council
members are having fine solutions. If I may council member
Smith and the spirit of trying to help address some
of the questions and concerns as well. I think, uh,
if, if we were to take just a little bit
more time, we could potentially refine numbers for what are
the costs of the securing versus the abatement. And the
signage versus the abatement. And also what would be the
costs for the abatement of the northern portion. So just,
just for some additional clarity, what you see on the
page on the screen right now, there's a northern portion
that is the separate property owner in the southern portion.
Um, that has, you know, is I may be slightly
off on this either in the process of acquisition or
has been acquired by other, you know, property owners. They
have it. Okay. It has been acquired by other property
owners. We could potentially try and also, um. Separate out
what the costs may be for abatement of the non
- responsive versus the responsive. That might help look at
those dollars more specifically. And then I think it's also
worth noting. I'll just take a moment to clarify this,
that the ownership of the larger section to the south.
That's fairly recent ownership. They've come into that ownership in
more recent years. And cleaned it up. And then the
ownership, if you go back to the other one, Gary,
thank you. The southern portion of this property very recently
acquired. And so, you know, we're not, I would think
it's, it's worth noting that we're not talking about the
same actors over multiple years. This is a new owner
who's trying to be responsible. And, um, and in a
spirit of, um, the long - term solution, we're looking
at ways to help secure the site and force the
site. But then also address the abatement costs to the
cost of the property, if that helps. But there may
be ways for us to, again, in summary, refine the
numbers that would help give clarity and potentially options for
how to spend those dollars and maybe work on some
of the other, you know, questions that have been raised
at the same time. Thank you. Council Member Gonzalez. Thank
you, Mayor. I just wanted to make a referral that
we pursue the receivership process for those parcels under the
ownership of the Unresponsive owner. Um, because even if we
do see development on these sites, um, those existing parcels,
um, will remain a nuisance and a problem for the
community moving forward. So if it makes sense, um, I
would like us to at least consider or explore that
option for that property. Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez. Council
Member Aryes. Thank you, Mayor. Given the feedback from some
of my colleagues and also given that we are approaching
9 p. m. I would like to withdraw my motion.
I'm going to introduce a new motion to bring this
item back at the next council meeting. Thank you. Thank
you any other request to speak. Seeing none, you have
a motion. Please cast your votes.
The motion is approved with council member Bashir Tash voting
no. And vice marcor absent. Thank you. And now next
item, please. Counsel and mayor statements. Can you clear the
screen so I can see with there. Any comes to
me or bash your tash. Can we get a presentation
on municipal code and the standards that we are supposed
to, I heard Councilman Gonzalez talking about some of the
things that we can do. Um, I just, I'd like
a presentation and then some, some thoughts on how we
can put more teeth in it. Uh, to hold people
accountable and taking properties that are just kind of destroying
and not just commercial residential. I mean, we need to,
just something. I want to know what our policy is
and some ideas on how we can actually hold people
accountable so that we're not, uh, wasting taxpayer money for
clarity council merit. Needs chronic nuisance properties? Uh, yeah, I
would even chronic newsome properties. I don't know what our
standards are for, even front yards. If there's a grass
levels and cars parked in, I'm sure they're just, I
get constituent. We need something that's got teeth, real teeth,
uh, that's that. For real. Second, um, can we begin
to look at the adoption of the, um, best practices
toolkit for homelessness and addiction. For treatment first policy that
just came out and was published. I think I received
a copy of it. Carlos, the director of the mission.
It's just, it's fantastic. It's what, uh, all sides used
to work on to actually get in front of this
issue that we've gone away from the last two decades
that is really created this, this problem, uh, and so
I think that that would be incredible to get done.
Um, we need to figure out how we can start
rolling out the adoption of that instead of continuing to
waste millions of dollars on, uh, what's not working. Uh,
that's it. Thank you. Council member Gonzalez. Thank you, Mayor.
Uh, you know, after the recent events, um, over the
weekend and the tragedy, uh, there has been a lot
of questions about youth violence and gain related shootings, uh,
and homicides. And I think it would be worthwhile for
this council within a council meeting to have a workshop
related to some of our violence intervention work. Uh, so
that the community can have a fuller understanding of some
of the work that, uh, we're already engaged in because
the ideas out there, um, a lot of great, um,
great conversations, um, but I think it would be helpful
for us to at least establish a baseline of what,
what's already taking place within the city of Bakersfield along
with many other community partners. Thank you, Council Member Bringonzale.
Let's Council Member Aryas. Thank you, Mayor. I'll just share
that that's a wonderful idea given all of. Interest in
this topic, but also, uh, just the communities outpouring of
support and concern rather about, you know, safety in our
community. I also just would love to add on some
of the investments this council has made into the partnerships,
uh, between BPD and our school resource officers, um, and
placing those at particular sites of interest. There's so many
different things that we have done to, you know, make
our community safer, but also in partnership with some of
our key partners, like our school districts. And so we'd
love to make sure that we're taking full stock of
all of that. Um, all of that worked. Mr. Claig,
did you have some things? Thank you, Mayor. I just
would appreciate the opportunity. Just reflect very briefly a couple
of overarching thoughts on this topic because it is, um,
a large conversation that's going on in the community right
now. I would first say that, you know, any act
of violence, any tragedy, uh, loss of life is so
unfortunate. Um, and we are very sad and by the
incident that occurred last week. I think it's also important
to reflect. That Bakersfield from a gun violence perspective. Has
not been as safe as it has been the last
two years in more than a decade. The efforts that
have been underway have made incredible progress. Every incident matters
and we want to make sure that we stop every
incident we can and that we respond to every incident.
But because of the efforts of, uh, the Bakersville Police
Department, our office of violence intervention and prevention, our community
- based organizations. We saw more than a 70 percent
reduction and homicides and shootings from 2021 through 2024. We
saw a very slight plateauing and uptick of last year.
If you reflect in 2021, we had 60 homicides, 17
of those were gang violence related. And in 2025, we
had 33 homicides, three of those were gang violence related.
In 2026, we've had only 10 homicides. One, the one
last week was gang violence related. It is remarkable the
reduction in gang violence. I would argue that our community,
I may gun violent standpoint has become very safe. And
again, every incident that concerns our community that is different
than that is important to us. Uh, but, uh, the
gains have been significant and we're going to continue to
make those gains and work hard on this topic, but
there's lots of work that's been happening. And, uh, I
will express, you know, just some concern that as we
were rallying partners in 2021 to do this work for
many of the young people and our disadvantaged neighborhoods who
were experiencing, um, these incidents at a too high of
a rate, we didn't have the same community impetus at
the time. We were welcome any energy that is created
from these type of incidents. But we've rolled up our
sleeves and been doing this work for a long time.
And we've seen really big results and we'll take the
opportunity to make that even bigger. I would note, uh,
our overall crime also significantly down, but we're very frustrated
about the chronic low level quality of life crimes that
continue to plague our community. That is issue number one
for your counsel. You've made that issue number one for
our staff to address. But our gun violence issues have
been dramatically different. And it's fortunate that these are isolated
instances today. Thank you, Mr. Clegg. Councilmember Coleman. Thank you,
Mayor. I wanted to reach out to Angel of Fraser.
You've been sitting here. Dr. Angelo Fraser. I've been sitting
here all night. And I appreciate that. Unfortunately, Johnny Olaghi
made some remarks as he exited. Which were, for those
people that don't know, Mr. Logge, uh, that can be
offensive. Some of his comments. So. Uh, I apologize that
we didn't react. I know you wanted to be able
to respond to him. And we didn't give him an
opportunity to do that. And so I apologize for not
understand what you were telling me at that time. So.
Thank you for sitting through this whole thing. I hope
you learned something. And, uh. That's all I have to
say about that. So thank you. I don't see any
other requests. So we stand adjourn at 851.