[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[9:02] This television broadcast is brought to you by the local cable companies, the county of Kern and the City of Bakersfield.
[9:10] You can watch the rebroadcast of this meeting Saturday at 7 p.m. Sunday at 10 a.m.
[9:15] In the following Wednesday at 7 p.m. You can download the agenda for this meeting at www.bacersfieldcity.us.
[9:25] to us, presiding over this evening's meeting,
[9:28] the Honorable Mayor Karen K. Go.
[9:34] Good evening. It's my pleasure to call to order the 515
[9:37] regular City Council meeting of August 26th,
[9:41] 26th. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
[9:44] Here.
[9:47] Council Member Aria?
[9:48] Here.
[9:49] Council Member Gonzalez?
[9:50] Here.
[9:51] Council Member Weer?
[9:52] Here.
[9:53] Council Member Smith?
[9:54] I'm here.
[9:55] Council Member Comin?
[10:00] Thank you, and welcome to all of you.
[10:02] Thank you so much for engaging in the civic process.
[10:05] Tonight, we have an interpreter for Spanish speakers,
[10:08] and at this time, I'd like to ask the interpreter to come forward,
[10:11] and very quickly, let the audience know that equipment is available in Spanish.
[10:20] Hola, muy buenas tardes a todos bienvenidos a esta reunión el día de hoy.
[10:23] El día de hoy vamos a tener interpretación simultánea a través de la reunión.
[10:41] Thank you, and if you're here to speak during the public statements portion of the meeting, you'll need to pre-register the key asks in the back staff is there ready to assist you if needed.
[10:51] And before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge that per staff's recommendation, public hearing
[10:57] item 8A. That's the vesting tentative track map appeal. We'll be open and continue to
[11:04] the September 16th, 2026 City Council meeting. While the public can still make comments
[11:10] today, we encourage you to wait until that item is heard at our September 16th meeting.
[11:17] Tonight, we have the pleasure of having Father Jimmy Melon, who's vicar at St. Joseph's
[11:24] Catholic Church to offer the invocation.
[11:26] Thank you, Father.
[11:27] So much for your service to our community.
[11:29] I know your church is actively involved in food drives and outreach.
[11:34] And you just recently performed a wedding of our chair of the Keep Bakersville Beautiful
[11:40] Committee.
[11:40] That was a beautiful ceremony.
[11:42] Following the invocation, Michelle Anton Giovanni, who is a senior at Garza's Memorial High School,
[11:48] will lead us in the pledge.
[11:50] Michelle is a Ford dimension dream builder.
[11:53] She's here with her mentor and advisor Peggy.
[11:58] Michelle has a 4.8 GPA.
[12:03] She's national honor society member, who is participated in five varsity sports over the last four years,
[12:11] including golf, cross country, track, lacrosse, soccer, and tennis.
[12:16] She's founder and president of the Uncampus Club, got the dot.
[12:20] She's president of CSF, president of helping hands, student council president, and vice-president
[12:27] of the Bass Club.
[12:28] She's a leader of the Healthy Light Committee and the Interact Club, link crew leader, Italian
[12:35] club leader, blood cancer, United Junior Leadership Board.
[12:40] She'll be asking you for money soon, and the got-to-dot off-campus leadership program.
[12:46] The show went an incredible person you are, and we're just so proud to have you in our
[12:51] community.
[12:52] Father, would you often stand now?
[12:59] Let us gather for prayer.
[13:02] Almighty God, we give you thanks for the blessing of this community of Bakersfield, and for
[13:07] the men and women who have accepted the responsibility of serving its people.
[13:10] Grant our city counsel the gift of wisdom and their decisions, assist them in their service and bless them as they work for the common good.
[13:18] Bless the people of Baker's field, especially our families, our children.
[13:22] Those who are most struggling at this time may or city of Baker's field continue to grow in prosperity, peace and goodwill.
[13:30] Guide all to participate in this meeting today that their deliberations may bear good fruit for our community.
[13:35] We ask this to Christ our Lord, amen.
[13:45] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands
[13:54] One nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
[14:01] Thank you.
[14:01] Michelle would you like to officially introduce your advisor and you all may be seated.
[14:06] Just introduce who that person is with you.
[14:10] Okay, so to my left is this is Peggy Rivera, she is the mentor and director of the Ford Dream Builders and Dimension Program, which I'm very excited to be a part of.
[14:22] And yeah, I look forward to getting to know her more throughout the course of the year.
[14:26] Thank you so much. Thank you Michelle, father. Thank you so much.
[14:31] Here a few guidelines to help our meeting runs smoothly.
[14:34] We request that you turn off your phones, please be courteous in the use of cameras and videos.
[14:39] For safety reasons and as a courtesy to others, no signs are allowed in the council chamber or in the lobby.
[14:46] A clause is allowed during the presentation's portion of the meeting only, but not during other portions of the meeting.
[14:54] Everyone in attendance in person or by phone is expected to adhere to the rules of decorum.
[14:59] You
[15:00] Establish by Resolution of the City Council. Failure to abide by the city's rules of decorum, including any disruptive
[15:06] behavior that interferes with our ability to have an orderly and efficient meeting prevents
[15:11] the city council from conducting the business of the city. Consider this a first warning to everyone
[15:17] participating that conduct that disrupts this meeting may result in expulsion and or the chambers
[15:23] being cleared. The favor that disrupts the meeting includes repetitive statements, shouting,
[15:31] hate speech, interrupting staff or presenters during the meeting, speaking out of turn,
[15:37] outbursts from the audience. Telephonic participants are expected to adhere to the same rules
[15:42] today, as those attending here in person. Madam Clerk, next item please.
[15:51] Please, presentations item for a proclamation to Leslie Bloomquist and Mary Stanley of Baby Cafe, Monica Delos Santos of Clinical Serivista, WIC, Marissa Reinoso Ortiz and KT Reinoso of Community Action Partnership of Kern, WIC and Terriva Porter of the Kern County Breast Feeding Coalition, declaring National Breast Feeding Month in Bakersfield during August 26.
[16:19] 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.
[16:31] It's my honor to read this proclamation. Whereas August is recognized nationally as national breastfeeding month and observance that raises awareness of the importance of breastfeeding and the benefits to infants, mothers, families and communities.
[16:48] And whereas breastfeeding provides infants with essential nutrition and protection, contributing
[16:54] to healthy growth and development, while also benefiting the health of mothers and whereas
[17:00] organizations and professionals throughout Bakersfield and Kern County, including baby
[17:06] cup-aid Bakersfield, clinic SCR, this WIC, community action partnership of Kern WIC and
[17:13] Kern County breastfeeding coalition worked year round to connect families with breastfeeding
[17:19] education, support, resources, and services. And whereas the City of Bakersfield is committed
[17:26] to supporting children and families within our community. Now, therefore, I, Karen Gomez,
[17:31] the City of Bakersfield, do hereby proclaim August 2026 as National breastfeeding month
[17:39] in our city and encourage all our residents, community organizations, health care providers, and
[17:45] families to recognize the importance of breastfeeding education, support, and resources.
[17:51] It's data, this 26-day of August. It's my honor to be able to present this proclamation.
[18:03] Good evening, Mayor, council members, and staff. My name is Marissa Reno, so, and I'm the
[18:08] WIC program administrator with CAPKM. Thank you for recognizing national breastfeeding
[18:12] and for joining us in celebrating the benefits of breastfeeding for mothers, babies, families, and our community.
[18:19] National breastfeeding month reminds us of the important role breastfeeding plays in supporting the health
[18:25] and well-being of both mothers and babies. The American Academy of Pediatric recommends breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months
[18:32] and continuing breastfeeding alongside solid foods through age two and beyond.
[18:37] It is also a time to recognize the incredible efforts of mothers who often through sleepless nights and busy days remain committed to nourishing their babies and giving them the healthiest possible start in life.
[18:50] Their dedication, perseverance and love deserve to be celebrated and supported.
[18:55] Today, I am honored to stand alongside our partners from Clinica, Sierra Vista, Baby Cafe,
[19:01] and the Kernan County breastfeeding coalition as we work together to support and power
[19:05] and advocate for breastfeeding families throughout Baker's field.
[19:09] Thank you again for your recognition and commitment to the health of our community.
[19:13] At this time, I would like to invite Reva to share a few remarks.
[19:18] Thank you, Marissa.
[19:20] So, my name is Reva.
[19:21] and IBCLC and the co-chair for the current county breastfeeding coalition. Our coalition brings
[19:27] together community partners to provide breastfeeding education, lactation support, resources,
[19:33] outreach events, and advocacy. Through compassionate support and collaboration, we empower
[19:39] parents to reach their breastfeeding goals while promoting the message that breastfeeding is natural
[19:44] and important.
[19:47] This world, this 2026 world breastfeeding month theme is rise, strengthen with works.
[19:54] Together we're strengthening families, educating and creating healthier beginnings for
[19:58] all of Kern County, and I'm going to pass it over to Mary.
[20:06] Good evening, everybody.
[20:08] My name is Mary Stanley, my name is Mary Stanley, I'm speaking to you on behalf of Baby
[20:18] We are a non-profit 501C organization providing cost-free professional breastfeeding support to our community and beyond.
[20:30] It is imperative that we recognize breastfeeding is a biological norm and create an environmental culture that makes it easier for mothers to breastfeed in public, breastfeed their babies in public and have access to breastfeeding support is needed.
[20:46] Multiple health care organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics,
[20:52] who, which is the World Health Organization, recommend exclusive breastfeeding for six months
[20:57] and continue breastfeeding for two years as complementary foods are added, and you just heard that.
[21:04] Increasing breastfeeding rates is a public health issue.
[21:08] The more babies that are breastfed and the longer they feed at breast, they healthier the community.
[21:13] is there are many, many health care benefits
[21:16] to both mothers and babies.
[21:18] Thank you for your consideration of recognizing August,
[21:22] 2026, this world breastfeeding month,
[21:25] and improving this proclamation.
[21:30] And I'm going to introduce, I think it's Monica.
[21:33] Is that right?
[21:34] Okay, there we go.
[21:36] Thank you, man.
[21:37] You're welcome.
[21:40] My name is Monica de Los Santos.
[21:42] I am the breastfeeding coordinator
[21:43] with Clonica Seravista.
[21:44] Breastfeeding is one of the first and most powerful gifts the parent can give their child.
[21:48] In current county breastfeeding support helps families build a healthier future by improving outcomes for babies and parents alike.
[21:55] When we promote, protect and support breastfeeding, we strengthen not only individual families, but our entire community.
[22:02] Together, we are investing in the health, well-being, and success of future generations.
[22:07] Thank you.
[22:32] 1,
[22:44] 2, 3,
[23:10] then we'll clear it next item, please.
[23:15] Presentations item 4, B, Proclamation 2,
[23:20] Jacell Guerrero, President and Claudia Guerrero, Vice President of GG, the Warrior, declaring childhood cancer
[23:28] awareness month in Bakersfield during September 2026. Colleagues childhood cancers, one of the leading
[23:36] causes of death for children in the United States. Each year, nearly 16,000 children
[23:42] between birth and 19 years of age are diagnosed with cancer. Every three minutes, a family
[23:50] hears the devastating words that their child has been diagnosed with cancer. It's my honor
[23:55] to read this proclamation. Whereas cancer knows no boundaries affecting all ethnic and social
[24:01] economic groups and whereas increase awareness and research will help educate the public on early
[24:07] diagnosis and provide readily accessible clinical care to patients in need and whereas dedicated
[24:14] health professional agencies and organizations have made it their mission to help children
[24:19] with cancer and provide educational emotional and financial support to their families and whereas
[24:25] Children deserve the chance to dream big, discover new interests, and live to their absolute potential
[24:32] while fighting the disease.
[24:34] Now, therefore, I, Karen Gomez, the City of Bakersfield, do hereby proclaim September
[24:39] 2026 as childhood cancer awareness month in our city and urge all residents to join the
[24:46] city in reaffirming our commitment to fighting childhood cancer, dated this 26 day of August.
[24:54] Judy, I know you've been through some, sorry, I mean, you've been through some challenging
[24:59] times with, with, Judy and all, and so inviting you now to office them.
[25:07] Thank you so much for your support.
[25:11] Good evening Mayor, go members of the city, community leader, friends, and everyone else who's
[25:15] here today.
[25:17] Thank you, Mayor, go for recognized in September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
[25:21] This parking lot means so much to our family and to every family who has heard the words,
[25:25] your child has cancer. For our family, childhood cancer isn't just a cause, it's our story.
[25:31] On February 14th of 2019, our world changed when our daughter Gigi was diagnosed with leukemia.
[25:36] Gigi spent two and a half years going through intense treatment. There were difficult days, scary days,
[25:41] and days where we simply had to take things one day at a time. But through it all, Gigi showed us
[25:47] what strength, courage and faith looks like. Today I am very grateful to say that Gigi is a childhood
[25:52] cancer survivor. As proud as I am to watch your move forward, I also know that her story is only
[26:00] one. Their children currently fighting cancer, family sitting in a hospital room, and parents
[26:06] praying for the same outcome that we were blessed to receive. That is why our awareness matters.
[26:11] September gives us an opportunity to make childhood cancer visible, to work gold, to talk about it,
[26:16] to support research, and to support the families and most importantly to make sure these children
[26:21] are never forgotten.
[26:22] Gold represents childhood cancer awareness,
[26:25] but to me it also represents hope.
[26:27] DJ is living proof that there can be a life
[26:30] after childhood diagnosis.
[26:32] Her journey has inspired our family
[26:34] to turn experience into a purpose
[26:36] and to continue advocating for the children
[26:38] and families affected by cancer.
[26:40] So this September, I ask everyone to go gold with us
[26:43] not just for every child fighting,
[26:46] every survivor and every family
[26:47] who has walked the journey.
[26:49] Thank you.
[26:50] Thank you so much for using your voice, Fiji's voice, and we're proud of presenting.
[27:51] We're now moving on to public statements.
[27:53] In keeping with Council's resolution, the public statements portion is divided into two
[27:57] periods.
[27:58] There's a period for items listed on the meeting agenda, and items not on the meeting agenda.
[28:03] Additionally, pursuant to changes in state law, the City Council will now accept public
[28:08] statements via phone and in person.
[28:11] Statements for items listed on tonight's agenda are given a two-minute time limit, 10 minutes
[28:16] for participants by phone, and 10 minutes for person in-person participants, 20 minutes total per agenda item.
[28:26] The consent calendar is a whole constitutes one agenda item.
[28:30] Statements regarding items not listed on the agenda are given a two-minute time limit,
[28:35] 10 minutes for participants by phone, and 10 minutes for in-person participants, 20 minutes total.
[28:41] If you have written comments that are longer than your verbal statement, give them to the clerk who
[28:45] give copies to the council. If you're here to make a public statement, please register using
[28:50] the kiosk in the back of the chambers where you entered staff or available to assist if needed.
[28:56] We ask that you select whether you're here to speak in an item listed on tonight's agenda
[29:00] or in a matter not on the agenda. Speakers who do not identify specific agenda item will be
[29:06] presumed speakers for the non-agenda portion and will be called during the non-agenda portion
[29:10] the meeting. If you're here on consent calendar, public hearing item 7A or 7B or public hearing
[29:19] item 8A, that's the diamond farming company on vesting tentative track map appeal. Now is
[29:27] not the time to speak. You will be given an opportunity to speak when those items are called
[29:32] later in the meeting. Mental clerk, do we have any public speakers for items not listed on the agenda?
[29:39] Margo, we have received four requests to speak by phone, and 21 requests to speak in person.
[29:49] We will take the phone speakers first. There are only two by phone currently connected.
[29:55] The first speaker will be Alejandra Garcia.
[29:58] And as you can tell by that
[30:00] At number of speakers, we're going to run out of time, so I would ask that you make your comments
[30:07] succinctly, and we'll try to get in as many people as possible. Also, this is only our third
[30:12] time using this new system, and so if we have a few challenges, we're just going to give
[30:16] each other a great sign, and I hope you'll do that also. Madam Clerk, first speaker, please.
[30:39] to cost baby sales, including any baby sales to build out here,
[30:45] save your neighborhood.
[30:47] We're here tonight because we want the setting to succeed in creating a general
[30:51] plan that works for every part of the baby, so not just the people.
[30:56] We agree with the data
[31:01] that's pretty natural
[31:04] to 20 years each
[31:15] week.
[31:15] To make this possible,
[31:19] it stands as long as
[31:37] it technicals up in a
[31:43] self-continuous
[31:45] Thank you for your time.
[31:49] Thank you.
[31:49] Thank you, Ms. Garcia.
[31:50] Next speaker, please.
[31:51] Madam Clerk.
[31:55] Dyer.
[31:59] The star.
[32:14] Diary.
[32:14] Diary.
[32:14] Diary.
[32:15] Diary.
[32:15] Diary.
[32:17] Diary.
[32:17] Diary.
[32:17] Diary.
[32:18] Diary.
[32:30] Diary.
[32:31] Since then, that committee has been being twice, but has yet to approach the topic of
[32:36] block.
[32:37] Meanwhile, we need to address things.
[32:39] We also need to count all that one day and over 50 people showed up to learn more about
[32:43] this technology and to share their own concerns.
[32:47] City Council member may have five mayors staff and the big so-called
[32:50] department were notably absent from this generative and informative discussion.
[32:55] In fact, instead of engaging in direct dialogue with us,
[32:58] BPD has been busy taking shots that are concerned in the media.
[33:02] And in some cases, it has given them information
[33:03] that directly contradicts what they have told us.
[33:07] BPD allegedly has a call to be requiring officers
[33:09] to include case numbers and false database queries.
[33:13] And yet, the long we've received,
[33:16] show many entities that lack
[33:17] to closely do the required information.
[33:20] According to this kind of happy,
[33:21] the Department regularly audited database purchase.
[33:24] But when we submitted a CPRA request,
[33:26] we were told that no such audit was that the public deserves transparency, accountability, and
[33:32] a voice as to what the biggest building police department and the city uses to monitor us.
[33:38] In our town hall after we freeze like constituents, one of their voices heard. Will you live in?
[33:43] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dyer. Next speaker, please just a reminder, applause is not allowed
[33:50] other than during the presentation's portion. We know that you're passionate, but we just asked
[33:55] that you be respectful. Thank you.
[33:57] Madam Clerk, next speaker, please.
[34:00] Council member Gonzalez.
[34:01] Thank you, Mayor.
[34:02] Mr. Cleg, if I can't, I want to make a
[34:05] full night that we reach out to Ms. Dyer,
[34:08] and have a conversation.
[34:10] I believe I made a referral over a year ago regarding
[34:15] the use of lock systems and the protocols.
[34:21] The should be established.
[34:23] I think it's important that we address this concern with our community members and have this conversation with them.
[34:30] I am sorry Mr. I didn't I wasn't aware of this community meeting and I'm sorry I missed it but
[34:36] would hope that the city manager can have a conversation with these community members.
[34:42] Thanks.
[34:43] Thank you. Can some of you can sell us Madam City Attorney next speaker please.
[34:50] Mayor, go, we're moving on to the in-person speakers next.
[34:55] The first speaker is Denise, Gary Pandel.
[35:05] Good evening.
[35:07] Denise, Gary Pandel, thank you very much.
[35:10] I appreciate the opportunity to be here.
[35:12] Thank you.
[35:13] I want to raise the issue of the rule of law resolution.
[35:17] I'm asking tonight that it be brought before you on the agenda
[35:22] and there be an up and down vote.
[35:25] what is it concerned? The resolution, the rule of law resolution for the public who doesn't know,
[35:32] has to do with the issue of sanctuary city status. I think it's very concerning
[35:39] that you're hiding behind, I believe, political considerations, as opposed to not putting it on
[35:46] the agenda and having an up and down vote. I remind all of you that you are elected to be
[35:52] representatives within a constitutional republic, and therefore have the duty under the rule
[35:59] of law to respect and honor the constitutional clause in Article 6 that goes to the
[36:08] supremacy clause.
[36:09] The supremacy clause makes clear that federal law and constitutional law Trump or take
[36:16] preceded under local or state law.
[36:19] Therefore, since you all took an oath to uphold the Constitution,
[36:25] you're holding a constitutional trust as an office holder.
[36:30] And that constitutional trust means that you have a responsibility
[36:36] above all else to put the protection and safety
[36:41] of every individual in the community, and their property, first and
[36:47] foremost, is part of our declaration of independence, is part of what our
[36:51] founding father said in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote, that we are
[36:56] all given in a human rights and among these are the right to life, and
[37:01] liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which actually refers to the
[37:05] to virtue. So this is part of what's woven into our constitution and it's a critical that
[37:13] you put the rule of law on the agenda and have an upper down vote. Thank you. If not,
[37:20] Thank you.
[37:22] Next speaker, please.
[37:42] Welcome, please introduce yourself. Good afternoon. My name is Natalie Santamaria. I am a promotora, and I'm here on
[37:53] representation of my organization, Bicianic and Promiso. I'm here to talk about the general plan and to make
[38:00] a two-request. One is that in support of inviting the city-of-acre show to collaborate with the
[38:07] coalition that's being formed to do community forums so that we can allow community members
[38:13] especially those that are monolingo and Spanish to understand what the general plan is,
[38:18] the draft was being proposed and have an opportunity to have some input. Again, we're willing to
[38:24] to work with the city. I know we've been very successful in the past, so I hope that this
[38:29] leads to that collaboration and having creating those spaces especially in East Baker's show.
[38:34] With that, I will also like to request that an environmental justice chapter be allocated.
[38:41] I know it's included some environmental justice, it's included in the quality of life.
[38:46] However, linked to SP, Senate Bill 1,000, we are asking that an environmental justice chapter stand
[38:54] alone be created.
[38:56] There's a lot of this advantages as you've read between the East and the West and the
[39:04] along with Valley Fever and a lot of that is due to the infrastructure and historical decisions
[39:11] that have been made.
[39:12] So again, we look forward to continuing the conversation and the collaboration with the
[39:17] cities so that we can create this forums and we can also look to a way of having an
[39:22] environmental justice chapter stand along for this general plan.
[39:25] Thank you.
[39:25] Thank you, Ms. Santa Maria.
[39:27] A clear next speaker, please.
[39:52] Thank you, good evening Mayor and city council members.
[39:54] My name is Abby Power.
[39:55] I work a leadership council for justice and accountability.
[39:58] And the comments I'm sharing tonight reflect feedback from community members
[40:01] and fellow organizations.
[40:02] I would just like to ask those who are supporting our comments to please stand
[40:05] so that the city council can see all of your support.
[40:09] And so what I wanted to show is a map of disadvantaged communities in Baker's field.
[40:14] If you look at that map, you'll see that almost all of East Baker's fields
[40:16] communities are designated as disadvantaged. According to coronavirus screen, many of these communities
[40:21] also face a pollution burden that is higher than 90% of all census tracks in the state.
[40:25] You'll also see that there are very few disadvantaged communities on the west side of the city.
[40:29] This map displays what many of you already know that the city's lower income communities
[40:33] and communities of color face a disproportionate pollution burden in Bakersfield.
[40:37] But what is the reality of facing a pollution burden this high?
[40:40] It contributes to worse health outcomes and lower life expectancy.
[40:42] According to a map in the city's existing conditions report, the majority of residents of East
[40:47] Bakersfield have a life expectancy that's between 57 to 78 years, which compares to a
[40:53] life expectancy for residents of West Bakersfield that is on average between 78 to 97 years,
[40:59] which is a huge difference.
[41:00] As we 1000 requires that the general plan contains an environmental justice element or policies
[41:05] integrated throughout all other elements.
[41:07] The city's current general plan does neither, it includes a quality of life chapter, which states
[41:12] it contains many of the planned EJ policies, but this is not a dedicated EJ element and
[41:16] EJ policies are not woven throughout all other chapters.
[41:20] The general plan also does not take enough meaningful action to reduce the unique and compounded
[41:25] health risks faced by disadvantaged communities, which SB 1000 requires.
[41:29] So, we are asking the city to show a commitment to reversing the harm of previous planning decisions
[41:33] by creating a standalone environmental justice element that thoroughly addresses all components
[41:37] of SB 1000.
[41:38] We would also like the city to conduct bilingual community workshops as participation and feedback is crucial to creating policies that address the needs of disadvantaged communities, which is a requirement of SV1000.
[41:51] Soly 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.
[41:58] Thank you, Ms. Parr.
[42:00] Then, click next speaker, please.
[42:19] Rod.
[42:20] Guys?
[42:24] Thank you.
[42:25] Oh, thank you.
[42:27] Good evening, City Council.
[42:29] After July 15, my name is Rod.
[42:31] Guys, G-U-I-C-E out of in Southwest Bakersfield,
[42:34] and a resident, so proud to be here.
[42:37] After July 15, City Council meeting,
[42:39] three council members made calls for sanctuary city policy,
[42:43] and a truth act for them.
[42:45] In response, at the August 5 meeting,
[42:47] I was proud to submit a resolution by Dr. Andrew O'Fraiser to designate Baker's field
[42:52] a rule of law city. And I urge the Council to act on it. Unfortunately, there's been no
[42:58] action. And this is this is a little disappointing. And I don't know where sanctuary city policies
[43:04] stand or proposals stand, and then they might come back. So I'm here today to urge the Council
[43:10] to introduce the rule of law city resolution. Adopting this resolution is your opportunity
[43:17] to produce something tangible. It avoids the waste of time money and resources that a truth
[43:22] that forum would incur. It mitigates the accelerating cost of sustaining a growing population
[43:28] of foreign nationals. A rule of law city resolution would also show that we honor our veterans
[43:34] who fought to provide what we have, that we honor everyone who legally became citizens,
[43:40] that we uphold federal law, and that we align with other California cities who had the courage
[43:46] to oppose sanctuary city policy, such as Santa Clarita, Corona, Huntington Beach, and more,
[43:52] as well as cities in Texas, Florida, and Iowa. America is a nation of law, and most citizens
[43:59] agree to support, defend, and obey the law. This is your opportunity to show the citizens
[44:04] that you stand with us. President Harry Truman said progress occurs when courageous,
[44:10] skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better. This is the opportunity.
[44:15] I urge one or more of you to please stand and champion the Rule of Law City Resolution.
[44:22] We, the people, are not going away.
[44:24] Thank you for your service to our community.
[44:26] Thank you.
[44:27] Thank you, Mr. Guys.
[44:28] Next speaker, please.
[44:31] Reverend Dr. Angel Frazier.
[44:39] Welcome.
[44:40] Thank you.
[44:41] My understanding that you all have a copy of the rule of law.
[44:44] Mayor City Council members.
[44:46] Thank you.
[44:47] My name is Reverend Angela Frazier.
[44:49] Thank you, Council members, Zach, for your previous actions regarding the putting or
[44:55] tabling of the Sanctuary policy.
[44:59] We're to say it when I play.
[45:00] Hey basketball and Germany, it was a good news. And it means enough is enough. Current and former city and state elected officials
[45:09] have confirmed that a table issue may be reconsidered or resurrected later. Adopting a rule of law resolution can help prevent that sanctuary city proposal from ever returning.
[45:23] have we moved so far away from the fundamental principles of our Constitution that we can no
[45:30] longer stomach the idea of the rule of law. The Constitution and your oath of offers must
[45:38] guide your action anything less undermines them both. I ask the City Council to place the rule of
[45:48] on the agenda for an up-and-down vote.
[45:53] Thank you for your consideration.
[45:56] Thank you, Reverend Frazier.
[45:57] Next speaker, please.
[46:04] Lytian Andrade Kapilino.
[46:11] Welcome.
[46:12] Thank you.
[46:13] When I start with this mayor, go and city council members.
[46:16] My name is Lytian Andrade Kapilino.
[46:18] I'm a resident of Southwest Bakersfield, Ward 6.
[46:21] volunteer with leadership council for justice and accountability among other organizations,
[46:27] social advocate and proud daughter and granddaughter of immigrants. I'm here tonight
[46:32] to speak to you about the Bakersville General Plan. Something I love about this city
[46:36] is the joy we have in coming together in community. The countless events around the
[46:41] city, the way we show up to support each other and the hope we have for a healthier
[46:45] and more beautiful Bakersfield. When we think of beautiful cities, there are a few
[46:50] things that instantly come to mind, trees, fresh air,
[46:54] walkable areas and places together in community.
[46:57] That is the vision I have for Bakersfield.
[47:00] Clean air is a right, not something earned.
[47:03] The disproportionate rates of pollution
[47:05] in the disadvantaged areas of Bakersfield
[47:07] is the deep concern and to be taken seriously.
[47:11] Environmental and respiratory concerns
[47:13] are leaders of health issues in Bakersfield.
[47:17] Air pollutants lead to health issues
[47:18] such as pneumonia, asthma, heart disease, lung cancer, and more.
[47:23] The general plan must include actions to appropriately zone the city and reduce harmful
[47:29] pollutants as outlined in SB 1000.
[47:32] SB 1000 is the law requiring that the general plan in cities with disadvantaged communities
[47:37] in to reduce harmful pollutants associated with health risks.
[47:40] I ask the city to commit to including a standalone environmental justice element in the
[47:44] general plan that thoroughly and clearly addresses the components of SB 1000 as has been done by
[47:50] other cities leading the way to reverse the harm and disadvantaged communities. I was here a few
[47:55] weeks ago with the asked to actively engage with the community. I thank you for extending the
[48:00] date for community comment. However, at this time we are still waiting for Spanish and Pujompy translations
[48:05] and active community workshops and engagement. It is also a requirement of the plan to be transparent
[48:11] an include community feedback. I ask that the bilingual workshops are held in the disadvantaged
[48:16] communities around Bakersville so that all residents can provide feedback and actively
[48:20] participate. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Andrade Keppelino.
[48:23] Council member Gonzalez.
[48:24] Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much for your comments tonight. And I just want to thank
[48:28] all of the community members who have joined us this evening to talk about the general plan
[48:34] to offer up some of your ideas. I need to do some research on some of this. But I do want
[48:41] say a couple things. One is there was a map that was presented tonight and we did not
[48:46] get an opportunity to review that map. So if you will please bring it to the city
[48:50] clerks so that they may make copies. I think we do have copies perfect because I would
[48:55] like to review that map and respect the fact that you prepared that for us and I
[49:00] think the full council should be able to review that. Thank you so much. The other
[49:04] thing is I do think that we ought to prepare documents in multiple languages, including Spanish
[49:13] and Punjabi.
[49:14] And so I hope that we can work towards that goal and ensure that future outreach meetings
[49:20] are bilingual or in some cases, trilingual so that we can reach out and have meaningful conversations
[49:28] with many of our stakeholders.
[49:29] But as somebody who's been working in East Baker's field,
[49:32] I'm trying to revitalize the East side for 20 years now,
[49:37] you know, this is a big passion of mine,
[49:39] and something that's dear to my heart,
[49:41] and would like to see many more East Baker-Slow residents
[49:44] and families participate in this process
[49:45] as we look towards the future of our city.
[49:48] Thank you.
[49:48] Thank you, councilmember.
[49:50] Madam Clerk, next speaker, please.
[49:53] House, Valenti,
[50:11] welcome, please introduce yourself.
[50:13] Hello, my name is Klaus Flaney. Nice to see you guys.
[50:19] I wanted to address concerns I had with the Falk cameras at all over the city.
[50:29] I'm not necessarily anti-pleased, but with my experience growing up in Biggestfield,
[50:32] I do not trust the information and master relance will be used ethically by our law enforcement and officials.
[50:37] We're already seeing an example of nationwide of law enforcement using information recorded by Falk cameras,
[50:42] to track and stock personal contacts,
[50:44] and I don't know how I can trust Baker's field
[50:47] to be any different than the other examples.
[50:50] Those in favor of the FWC,
[50:52] cameras claim it to be an extension of their patrolling,
[50:54] but it does so at the expense of the public's right for privacy.
[50:57] Statements such as you're fine if you're not having
[50:58] nothing to hide or as long as you aren't doing anything wrong,
[51:01] you'll be fine or not encouraging when our government
[51:03] is actively changing what is considered wrong and unacceptable.
[51:07] And in regard to our officials and law enforcement
[51:10] and saying flood cameras have helped them solve the
[51:12] equivalent of crimes hearing this is not encouraging statements
[51:15] like this make our enforcement sound incompetent and they can't
[51:19] do the job without the use of master valence that are being pushed
[51:21] on us or the use of AI.
[51:24] Once again, I'm not necessarily anti-police but I do appreciate seeing if
[51:28] our officials and law enforcement could develop is fine against
[51:30] flood cameras moving forward.
[51:32] Thank you.
[51:41] Thank you, Mr.
[51:58] Well, please introduce yourself.
[52:00] Good evening.
[52:00] My name is Maria Stalkup.
[52:02] I'm here to talk about Float cameras.
[52:04] I've lived in Bakerfield for almost 20 years,
[52:06] as a private citizen, and I believe that still means something.
[52:10] I am a private person.
[52:11] I raised both of my sons here.
[52:13] Worked here and kept to myself for these 20 years.
[52:15] This is the first time I've ever been to a city council meeting,
[52:18] but I felt compelled to be here because of this issue.
[52:20] I've never been arrested, and I have a clean background.
[52:23] So why must I be surveilled by Float cameras?
[52:25] When I drive around I see endless amounts of cyber junk cluttering in our street corners and parking lot.
[52:30] I thought that I was the only one who didn't understand why these were here. That isn't 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?
[52:43] In growing numbers, members of the public are rejecting the technology. Some are taking the time to come to city council meetings like this one. Some are meeting to discuss with one another and many are discussing it online. Here are some quotes from people within my own neighborhood of Northwest Bakersfield from our neighborhood app.
[52:58] My truck was stolen 41 days ago from the parking lot, home depot and rose to highway, I failed to report immediately and my truck still has not been located just saying these flat cameras are not all that great.
[53:08] The flat cameras aren't really going to help normal people, they're to protect businesses and sell your location data.
[53:14] These flat cameras are BS. These are looking for expired registrations.
[53:19] I think that the lawsuits will come from this will cost us far more than the benefit from them.
[53:24] What does Flock stand for makes me think we are a bunch of sheep that need to be herded?
[53:28] These are the quotes that I've received from this app.
[53:32] Overall, our community members do not seem to understand what Flock cameras are for.
[53:36] Why would they?
[53:37] They were put into place without prior approval and no oversight or voting on the matter.
[53:41] At the very least, why is the search data not being audited by the city?
[53:45] How are we to trust our local law enforcement with the information they are collecting when we have one of the most corrupt?
[53:50] And it is documented police forces in the country.
[53:52] And until this corruption is brought under control, we cannot justify mass surveillance like this.
[53:59] Thank you.
[54:00] Thank you, Mr. Stalkov.
[54:01] Madam Clerk.
[54:03] Next speaker, please.
[54:07] Brandon Bane.
[54:19] Please introduce yourself.
[54:20] Hello, I'm Brandon Bane.
[54:21] I'm here to talk about Float Cameras in the City of Big Soul.
[54:26] Since 2024, 155, 150 cases of misuse of Float Cameras have been noted.
[54:33] You state countrywide by law enforcement and non law enforcement individuals mainly use the stock expartners current partners and just random individuals
[54:46] In 2025 Johnson Johnson County Sheriff's Department Texas used
[55:02] Roughly
[55:03] care in an abortion and in another state where health that is illegal. But that is legal.
[55:09] These cameras are invasions of privacy. They are down their harassment. Many of us feel like we
[55:17] are being constantly harassed. We feel like we're being surveilled. In the words of Benjamin Franklin,
[55:23] those who are willing to sell a little bit of their freedom for a little bit of safety deserve
[55:29] and I ask you please to review and honestly end our contract with Flock and to remove these cameras as soon as possible.
[55:37] Please and thank you.
[55:39] Thank you Mr. Payne.
[55:41] And Madam City Clerk, our final speaker.
[55:49] Jason Sipriano.
[55:58] Welcome.
[55:59] Please introduce yourself.
[56:00] Good evening.
[56:01] My name is Jason Sipriano.
[56:02] Yesterday August 25th at Norris Middle School dismissal,
[56:05] officer, Chrisman, ID-1199, cited me for parking behind a line of other parents,
[56:12] while picking up my son. Before she even spoke to me, drivers who saw
[56:16] parking enforcement arrive began erratically accelerating through the parking
[56:19] full of children and effort to get away from her. I followed an internal
[56:24] fairs complaint, and I'm contesting the ticket, but that's not what I'm here
[56:27] about. I'm asking for a written answer from the city manager and the police
[56:30] chief on whether Bakersville Police Department has a policy governing parking
[56:34] enforcement during active school, this missile
[56:37] while children are walking between vehicles.
[56:39] Because yesterday, the way that enforcement was being
[56:41] conducted didn't make this missile any safer.
[56:44] It caused panic drivers to accelerate through
[56:47] which should have through an area full of children.
[56:50] And it also turned, but it should have been a normal
[56:52] parent pick up into a police matter.
[56:54] That's what I'm asking the city to examine.
[56:57] Thank you.
[56:58] Thank you, Mr. Tupurana.
[57:00] And so this ends this portion of our meeting.
[57:04] this is the allotted time you're welcome for those of you who didn't get a chance to speak
[57:08] to come back at other meetings to write to us, but thank you for being here to participate
[57:14] in medical clerk.
[57:15] Do we have any public speakers regarding items listed on tonight's agenda?
[57:22] And if you're here to speak on items listed under consent calendar item six deferred business
[57:27] item 10A, that's the interfund loan or new business item 11A, clean city special project
[57:34] Funds now is the time to speak and the clerical call for speech.
[57:40] I was 11 A and I didn't tell them it was 11 A.
[57:44] Thank you. So go ahead and sit down.
[57:46] For those of you who would like to leave at this point this would be the right time to leave.
[57:53] And so we'll just give our guests a moment to leave.
[57:57] And then just for the city clerk, if you heard Mr.
[58:00] or a logist, it's for 11A.
[58:07] Mayor Go, we have received 12 requests to speak
[58:12] on the consent calendar, one by phone, and 11 in person.
[58:16] And then we've received four requests to speak.
[58:21] I apologize five requests to speak on new business item,
[58:26] 11A, one by phone, and three in person.
[58:30] The first, it looks like the individual who signed up
[58:33] speak by phone has not connected, we will start with the in-person speakers, or the consent calendar.
[58:43] The first speaker is Karina Funes.
[59:03] Well, please introduce yourself.
[59:05] Good evening, honorable mayor, and members of the Bakersville City Council.
[59:09] My name is Karina Funes, and I am the Policy Manager at Blue Zones Project Bakersfield.
[59:13] On behalf of Blue Zones Project Bakersfield, I want to express our sincere appreciation to
[59:17] city of Bakersfield for taking this important step towards creating healthier, safer, and
[59:22] more welcoming parks for our community by moving towards smoke free parks. We are grateful for
[59:27] the city's leadership and for the collaboration with the city manager's office, city attorney's
[59:31] office and our city council members. Creating smoke free parks is an important investment in the
[59:36] health and well-being of Bakersfield residents, families and visitors and we are excited to see our
[59:41] city take this step. In 2024, Bluesons Project Bakersfield began conducting tobacco litter
[59:47] parked throughout Bakersfield.
[59:49] Unfortunately, we found tobacco litter at every park we visited
[59:52] and observed adults smoking in front of children.
[59:55] There is not a single park across any of the seven
[59:58] wars that was immune to tobacco litter.
[1:00:00] We frequently found the most litter around ventures, picnic tables, and parking lots.
[1:00:06] 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 ensure its intent is clear.
[1:00:14] We respectfully ask that parking lots be explicitly included in the language, or that including be changed to including but not limited to.
[1:00:23] This would help ensure that smoke free protections apply consistently throughout our parks and that areas such as parking lots are not unintentionally left open to interpretation.
[1:00:32] However, we want to emphasize that this recommendation comes from a place of support for the policy and appreciation for the work the city has already done.
[1:00:41] We are very excited about the direction the city is taking and are grateful to see Baker's moving towards healthier smoke free public places.
[1:00:46] We look forward to continuing to work alongside the City to make Bakers with a healthier, safer community where we can all live longer better.
[1:00:54] Thank you.
[1:00:54] Thank you, Ms. Punez.
[1:00:56] Madam Clerk, next speaker, please.
[1:01:02] Crystal Burgess.
[1:01:26] Welcome, please introduce yourself.
[1:01:28] Good evening, Mayor Go, council members, and city staff.
[1:01:31] My name is Crystal Burgess.
[1:01:32] I work in tobacco prevention education.
[1:01:34] I advise a youth coalition that advocates against tobacco and serve as a member of the tobacco free coalition of current county.
[1:01:41] 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.
[1:01:51] I've been a mom for over 10 years, and our family uses parks for birthdays, tea ball, walks, community events, and just spending time together.
[1:01:58] I actually have more than 500 pictures of our family at Bakersfield Parks. I don't smoke, but my children can still encounter secondhand smoke and tobacco product waste when we're enjoying these spaces.
[1:02:10] 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 the vape.
[1:02:19] She came here and advocated for a stronger tobacco retail protection protections and we are grateful that the city ultimately passed the tobacco retail license.
[1:02:27] She leaves for UC Davis next week and I know she would be proud to see your hometown continue that work by making sidewalks athletic fields playgrounds recreational areas and public buildings within parks smoke free.
[1:02:38] I also ask the Council to consider including parking lots and other areas associated with these facilities to not leave the policy open for interpretation.
[1:02:46] We see a lot of smoking and tobacco litter in those areas as well.
[1:02:49] Please also consider clear signage and cessation resources for residents.
[1:02:55] So it residents understand the change and people who notice tobacco products where they can find support.
[1:03:00] This isn't about judging people who smoke, it's about making sure families can enjoy public spaces without exposure to smoke.
[1:03:06] And to back away, if we can spend hours at a restaurant or sports arena without smoking, I believe we can do the same at our parks.
[1:03:11] Thank you for taking this important step towards health and your cleaner parks for Bakersville families and future generations.
[1:03:17] Thank you.
[1:03:17] Thank you.
[1:03:18] Thank you, Ms. Berges.
[1:03:18] And all the best to you as you go to UC Davis, young lady.
[1:03:24] Next speaker, please.
[1:03:27] Bernardo Ochoa.
[1:03:44] Please introduce yourself.
[1:03:46] Good evening, Mariko, city council and city staff.
[1:03:50] I'm here tonight as a chair of the Tobacco Freak Coalition of Current County.
[1:03:55] On behalf of our coalition, I would like to sincerely thank the Bakerfield City Council
[1:03:59] in the City Stafford considering this amendment to Section 125650, which could prohibit smoking
[1:04:05] in all areas of public parks. This has surely been a collaborative effort involving our community,
[1:04:11] multiple agencies across Current County, and our coalition partners who care deeply about the places
[1:04:16] our families gather in play. Some of our first conversations regarding the need for
[1:04:21] smoke-free parks take place with council member Eric Arias. As a long-time supporter of
[1:04:28] our work, coalition does, there are conversations at the safe and healthy neighborhood
[1:04:33] committee. We sincerely thank you. We are, we encourage to see our community voices reflected
[1:04:42] today's proposed amendments and reflecting cities ongoing commitment creating a healthier,
[1:04:47] safer, and clear bakers field. So our children, seniors, and families are free from exposure
[1:04:52] to second-hand smoke. We strongly support this proposed amendments. Education and awareness are essential
[1:05:00] to successful implementation and signage can help ensure that these changes are understood and
[1:05:05] and a brace by our community.
[1:05:08] We are proud to stand alongside the City of Bakersfield
[1:05:11] as a longstanding partner in this work.
[1:05:13] The tobacco free coalition of current county
[1:05:15] is committed to supporting the public education,
[1:05:19] social media outreach, and community awareness efforts.
[1:05:22] Thank you for your leadership, your partnership,
[1:05:25] and your commitment to making biggest field
[1:05:28] a healthier, beautiful community.
[1:05:30] Thank you for your time.
[1:05:30] Thank you, Mr. Chowa.
[1:05:31] And I'd love to want to hear for the council.
[1:05:34] Thank you, and our City Clerk will get that and get it out to the council.
[1:05:39] But a clerk next speaker, please.
[1:06:33] Union, the North of the Domingo,
[1:06:38] to manage the Lune,
[1:06:39] so you can disparate in our team.
[1:06:42] My office in the 60s,
[1:06:44] Junior Avenue,
[1:06:45] Queen Pactado,
[1:06:47] the House,
[1:06:48] we call it the Police.
[1:06:50] The House of the Police,
[1:06:52] the House of the Police,
[1:06:52] the Vickers, and the V26,
[1:06:53] one, six, eight,
[1:06:55] seven, six, zero.
[1:06:57] We call it the Police
[1:06:59] to respond tomorrow.
[1:07:03] Mircoles, entre las diez de la mañana, las cinco.
[1:07:07] Hoy, eso es a trescientos pies del novescientos uno,
[1:07:12] y unio en la abenio, en la histórica, y unio,
[1:07:15] abenio en la ruta noventa y nueve.
[1:07:19] Los miembros, los mismos trescientos pies que caminan clientes niños
[1:07:24] a diario, no estamos en contra de la ayuda de ayudar,
[1:07:28] estamos por para protegernos.
[1:07:31] ¿Solicito? Una tolerancia 0 tolerancia en union hábine, 24 horas, los 7 días de la semana. 2, el protocolo de respuesta rápida.
[1:07:48] 3, no a campar, me rodear, aquí en tus pies,
[1:07:53] 4, una junta de seguridad antes aprobada.
[1:07:57] Pavor, aquí está el expediente que yo sometía el día de ayer
[1:08:02] a las 3.48, por favor, estoy voy a entregar que se agregue
[1:08:08] el anexo e al expediente que entreguía el día de ayer,
[1:08:11] es todo, muchas gracias.
[1:08:13] Gracias, y ahora en Topritoro, ¿sí?
[1:08:19] ¿Y por qué no se nos lo salí?
[1:08:49] de Navinu was hit.
[1:08:51] It was impacted.
[1:08:53] And we did call Bacresville Police Department.
[1:08:56] The case number is 26-168-760.
[1:09:02] We did call the police department,
[1:09:04] and they will respond to tomorrow.
[1:09:08] Wednesday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
[1:09:12] Today,
[1:09:15] I am here to say that this was at 300 free from 901,
[1:09:19] y un día de la serie de posibilidad de la serie de monta y un día de las personas que
[1:09:29] siempre hay que ver.
[1:09:30] Hay una nueva vida, y una vida, y una vida, y una vida.
[1:09:33] Así que, hay que ver todo el tiempo, y la que es muy interesante.
[1:09:36] Así que, hay que ver todo el tiempo, y como yo me voy a ir a estar en la escuela
[1:09:41] y la semana de la semana, y la semana de los días de 24 horas.
[1:09:45] 24 hrs. de 7 días a la week.
[1:09:49] 2, I asked for rapid response protocol.
[1:09:53] 3, note camping or loitering within 500 feet.
[1:09:58] 4, a public safety meeting before approval.
[1:10:04] Please, I do have my file here that I did submit yesterday at 348 p.m.
[1:10:09] Gracias Carolina,
[1:10:10] and I ask that you also
[1:10:13] add annexE to the photo
[1:10:16] that I did submit yesterday thank
[1:10:18] you.
[1:10:19] Thank you miss Laf Final
[1:10:23] el
[1:10:24] gentlemen.
[1:10:24] ¿Qué puedo decir?
[1:10:25] thank you.
[1:10:26] and thank you miss Laf Final
[1:10:27] Tell some American sauce.
[1:10:29] Thank you Mayor.
[1:10:30] And thank you miss Laf Final
[1:10:40] Mientras he tenido un poco de idea,
[1:10:42] incluso creo que esta es una de las noches de 0.000 tonas en el Unión Áveno.
[1:10:46] Hay que dejar en la righto de la reacción.
[1:10:49] Tenemos BPD, selfo,
[1:10:51] el 31 de un tiempo sale.
[1:10:52] No había que hacer un poco de trabajo de donación.
[1:10:58] Y a quienes hubo algo para que han unido,
[1:11:00] pero creo que es un poco de un poco de un tiempo de un poco de un poco de un poco de un poco de un poco de un poco de un poco de un poco de un poco de un poco de un poco de un poco de un poco.
[1:11:06] es algo.
[1:11:07] Bueno, lo que es, más que es, es que el rabía, es que la ingenuidad de un sepan en el
[1:11:12] de decades.
[1:11:13] It's taking us a poco de tiempo a ver a esto, es que es que te hace
[1:11:17] un poco de tiempo a ver.
[1:11:18] Pero, sí, no puedes mirar este trabajo.
[1:11:20] Y yo creo que me quieres por un momento en el
[1:11:22] investimiento.
[1:11:23] Yo creo que es un poco más que es la forma de
[1:11:26] darle a un proceso en el área de
[1:11:31] que estamos trabajando con algunos
[1:11:33] privados,
[1:11:34] los developers,
[1:11:35] para hacer
[1:11:36] los nuevos
[1:11:37] los movimientos,
[1:11:38] para hacer
[1:11:39] incluso
[1:11:40] de mayor
[1:11:41] super-market,
[1:11:42] no es lo que
[1:11:42] no es lo que
[1:11:43] hay,
[1:11:43] no es lo que
[1:11:44] de las
[1:11:44] las posibilidades,
[1:11:46] pero
[1:11:46] tenemos que
[1:11:47] hacer
[1:11:47] las cosas
[1:11:48] en el background,
[1:11:49] para hacer
[1:11:50] a través de
[1:11:51] la condición
[1:11:52] de Unir Avenue.
[1:11:54] Pero
[1:11:55] 100% de關a
[1:11:56] con usted,
[1:11:56] y
[1:11:57] vamos a
[1:11:57] ir a más
[1:11:58] agresiva
[1:11:59] en
[1:11:59] en este
[1:11:59] este área.
[1:11:59] área.
[1:12:00] Y también quiero hablar de la descripción de la gente que nos ha llamado de la gente que se llama
[1:12:03] que es un gran
[1:12:06] que es el responsable de public safety,
[1:12:09] el largo de la cordura,
[1:12:10] incluido BPD, code enforcement,
[1:12:12] y otros, que no es obvio,
[1:12:14] pero también en los carreros,
[1:12:16] en sus respensos,
[1:12:18] que usamos juntos
[1:12:19] de que podemos developos proáctiva
[1:12:21] y consistente de traduir
[1:12:23] a los judicires de las ciudadanas.
[1:12:25] Y la lastima es,
[1:12:26] que son residentes,
[1:12:27] son business owners,
[1:12:28] que son people en la comunidad,
[1:12:30] que son muy bien,
[1:12:31] que son familias,
[1:12:33] que están en la reunión de Navidad,
[1:12:35] Who deserves safe neighborhoods.
[1:12:37] And it's really unfortunate that there's this perception
[1:12:41] that unen Avenue is somewhat, you know,
[1:12:46] second tier to the rest of the city.
[1:12:49] We have to reject that notion.
[1:12:51] And we ought to bring our community members together,
[1:12:54] business owners, property owners, family members,
[1:12:59] Let's come together and have that safety meeting.
[1:13:01] The Missilevano has recommended.
[1:13:02] Y vamos a hacer una conversación sobre qué podemos hacer
[1:13:05] colectivamente para hacer este particular cordo
[1:13:09] y mucho más de ello, para todos los partidos.
[1:13:14] So, thank you for being good at night.
[1:13:16] Thank you, Madam Clerk.
[1:13:17] Next speaker, please.
[1:13:34] Welcome, please introduce yourself.
[1:13:36] Denise Gary Pandell.
[1:13:37] Just real quick, the reason why I came up
[1:13:39] to speak on this issue, with respect to the minutes,
[1:13:42] is because there was a mistake made
[1:13:44] con la bicicleta, con respecto a las minas.
[1:13:49] Y, de que, claro, fue apuntado a que se ha apuntado,
[1:13:52] se ha apuntado a Sanctuary City Status,
[1:13:54] y que que se ha apuntado en el día de hoy,
[1:13:56] y que se ha apuntado a hacer que el recordo era correcto,
[1:14:00] y que se ha apuntado a hacer que se ha apuntado a la publica,
[1:14:03] como se ha apuntado antes,
[1:14:05] y que es el Sanctuary City Status,
[1:14:08] es el violación de 18,
[1:14:11] con el 1132, con el federal Code.
[1:14:14] Es también un bale de violación de la Suprema y Clause y Article 6 de Constitución,
[1:14:21] y en un poco de la gente que fue bastante de 100, de 1000 de mertars,
[1:14:26] es la de nocaína y tráfica,
[1:14:29] netano,
[1:14:30] jugas de la contiguidad de la tarea de cartelos,
[1:14:35] un poco de crema,
[1:14:37] un poco de crema,
[1:14:38] un poco de crema,
[1:14:40] es realmente inappropriate para la de la seguridad
[1:14:42] de la publica para la alecualización de la Lama.
[1:14:48] Aside from that,
[1:14:50] I pointed out for the record,
[1:14:52] during that last meeting we had on August 5th,
[1:14:56] that the good people in Washington, D.C. had.
[1:15:00] And I made an effort to provide everyone who broke the law and entered the country illegally to have $2,500 plus a free ticket back to their country of origin. And I made that clear. And I also made clear the federal grounds by the Department of 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 saying that,
[1:15:30] sure a city. I also made clear that it was just respectful to the people of this country who came here
[1:15:36] lawfully. So thank you, Ms. Garrett. You're welcome. Thank you for coming with the record.
[1:15:41] The correction has already been made. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
[1:15:44] City Clerk reached out to you and informed you. Thank you very much. Thank you, City Clerk.
[1:15:48] Next speaker, please.
[1:16:01] Mayor, go. I just want to note that we're allowing the additional 10 minutes
[1:16:04] since we had no phone speakers connected?
[1:16:09] Yes, go ahead for today.
[1:16:11] Natalie Santa Maria.
[1:16:25] And just encourage all of you to be as succinct as possible.
[1:16:30] Hello, again,
[1:16:33] Natalie Santa Maria with visionic compromiso.
[1:16:37] And my comment is in regard to your amendment to section 12.56.050.
[1:16:43] Thank you for this amendment to prohibit smoking in parks.
[1:16:49] I am here also as part of the Tobacco Free Coalition, which you all know that most of
[1:16:55] you know that we've been working for many years along with other organizations to pass several
[1:17:01] solutions. So I'm here to thank you. I know we presented and also behalf of the promotoras
[1:17:06] that went to the last safe and healthy neighborhood. Some of them are here.
[1:17:10] Some of them work connected through phone, but I guess they couldn't just figure out the system.
[1:17:14] But again, thinking you in that effort, we're looking forward to looking at how enforcement is going to look.
[1:17:20] Some signage to in the parks will be very helpful and some education, and also including parking lots.
[1:17:30] Again, we're looking forward to collaborating on that education, something new arises, right in our community, and we want to be as proactive as possible.
[1:17:38] and also want to mention that Hamat here with Grimfield walking group which you all know
[1:17:43] it's also looking forward to collaborating with that education in the parts that you all
[1:17:49] know she has a passion for that. So again, thank you and looking forward to working with you all.
[1:17:55] Thank you, Ms. Santa Maria.
[1:17:57] Madam Clerk, we have additional speakers.
[1:18:01] Ricardo del Hoyo.
[1:18:14] Welcome, please introduce yourself.
[1:18:15] My name is Ricardo de Hoya and I'm a proud resident of Ward 1, shout out to Council
[1:18:21] Minarias, good afternoon to Mayor Go and Council members.
[1:18:25] Before I get into agenda item 60.2, I'd like to take a moment and think the City Council
[1:18:31] for extending the public or March period for the 25 general plan update.
[1:18:37] However, after a careful review of the proposal on the general plan update, something seems
[1:18:43] to be missing, and that's measurable change and action plans.
[1:18:49] I too hope all communities can rise together,
[1:18:52] especially underserved communities.
[1:18:55] You see, I grew up in Bakersfield.
[1:18:56] I attended local schools.
[1:18:58] I graduated from Calcy Bakersfield,
[1:19:00] and although much has changed,
[1:19:04] some areas and some statistics have not changed.
[1:19:08] Neighborhoods in Southeast Bakersfield
[1:19:10] have less than 1% tree canopy shade,
[1:19:13] areas with severe heat exposure and lackluster infrastructure.
[1:19:18] This has been the case since I grew up and continues to be true today.
[1:19:23] I applaud the resolution on approving application for the Climate Bond Grants Fund.
[1:19:29] Yes, we need more trees in downtown, but we also need more trees outside the downtown corridor of Ward 2.
[1:19:37] I ask to revisit the listed area for this grant application and extend, extend, coverage,
[1:19:45] past California Avenue, past Brunnage Avenue, past 58, past Bill Terrace, to truly amplify and
[1:19:54] beautify the Chester to South Chester corridor with trees, greenery, and green pedestrian
[1:20:00] corridors.
[1:20:02] Thank you for your time.
[1:20:03] Thank you, Mr. Jelphoyol.
[1:20:05] I'm a clerk.
[1:20:06] Next week of please.
[1:20:10] Lawrence, Salcito.
[1:20:18] Welcome.
[1:20:18] Please introduce yourself.
[1:20:20] Hi.
[1:20:20] Hello.
[1:20:21] My name is Lawrence Salcito.
[1:20:22] Junior.
[1:20:22] I am a proud member of the Chalone Indian Nation.
[1:20:24] And I'm also here representing with tobacco free current.
[1:20:27] And my place of
[1:20:29] alcancey,
[1:20:30] Beckerson Americany,
[1:20:30] health project.
[1:20:32] We are here in support of the
[1:20:34] Smoke Free Parks and the
[1:20:36] ordinance that's going out.
[1:20:37] We do, I'm very thankful for customer artists for hearing this at the 16 healthy neighborhoods
[1:20:44] committee, especially as a Native American tobacco is a very spiritual and traditional medicine
[1:20:52] for us.
[1:20:53] So we do want to make the distinction between traditional tobacco and commercial tobacco,
[1:20:57] commercialized tobacco, which is the heavily processed industrialized version of it versus
[1:21:03] the traditional spiritual tobacco, which we use in medicine, which we use as gifts in which
[1:21:10] we use in prayer.
[1:21:11] So, please make that consideration when moving forward with these more free parks.
[1:21:15] Thank you.
[1:21:16] Thank you, Mr. Salcito.
[1:21:18] I'm going to click next speaker, please.
[1:21:24] Josie, Sarulo?
[1:21:37] Welcome, please introduce yourself.
[1:21:39] Cancel members, here, our cry.
[1:21:42] My name is Josie Sarulo.
[1:21:44] My family owns a strip mall at 600 Union Avenue and Laticia has run a successful business there for over seven years.
[1:21:54] She pays taxes, employers locals, and wants to stay.
[1:22:00] But the constant business interruption from the chronic offenders is forcing her at other tenants to close their doors.
[1:22:09] The plans for this project offers an onsite fence, but a fence does nothing for the neighborhood
[1:22:16] businesses within a four-block radius.
[1:22:20] Our area is already hurting from high crime.
[1:22:23] Open drug use, vandalism, fights, threats to store workers, open sex.
[1:22:30] Threats the customers, loitering, constant storefront trouble. The list goes on and on. The city cannot just fix housing for one group of people while causing financial burden for the local businesses that pay taxes and provide local jobs or they will leave. And this will cause more empty buildings in the area where half of the stores are already shut down.
[1:23:00] true compassion requires balance. If you move a high risk group here, you must protect us.
[1:23:09] We demand that the conditional use permit legally forced the developer to do eight things
[1:23:17] for the life of this project. First, pay for 24-7 security guard, looping our streets and
[1:23:25] with an affordable block radius. Second, install high definition cameras that link right to the
[1:23:33] police. Third, give security and police immediate power to remove trouble bankers. Fourth,
[1:23:40] give businesses owners fast-trust pass for them to get you time is up. Please bring your
[1:23:45] comments to a close. Do one more sentence. Do not approve this project without securing our
[1:23:52] this is first. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Correl.
[1:23:56] Next speaker, please, Madam Clerk.
[1:24:01] Guadalupe, Sylva.
[1:24:12] Miss Sylva? Guadalupe?
[1:24:19] Doesn't look like she's here.
[1:24:20] Would you just go on to the next person, please?
[1:24:23] Magnus, light bar.
[1:24:31] Welcome, please introduce yourself.
[1:24:32] Thank you.
[1:24:33] Good evening, I'm Mayor Go.
[1:24:34] City Council members.
[1:24:36] My name is Magnus, light bar.
[1:24:37] Representing Ripple, Fibre, California.
[1:24:39] I'm here with our chief legal officer, Joshua Ornion.
[1:24:42] I just wanted to let you guys know we look forward to working with you.
[1:24:45] to bring this high speed fiber optic in a net service to the underserved areas of the city.
[1:24:51] And we'd like to do it in the most innovative manner as most non-invasive manner as possible.
[1:24:56] And I look forward to working with you guys and thank you for your cooperation.
[1:25:00] Thank you Mr. Leiper.
[1:25:02] Madam Clerk, next speaker please.
[1:25:23] Mayors and next four speakers are in person regarding item 11A.
[1:25:29] The first speaker is Abby Power.
[1:25:40] So, this is on the Clean Cities Special Project Facts.
[1:25:43] It was possible.
[1:25:44] So sorry, I would like to give my time to the residents who are here to speak on this.
[1:25:47] I was just supporting.
[1:25:48] So I'd like to go to the residents first.
[1:25:52] Well, Claire, can you call the next speaker, please?
[1:25:54] Thank you.
[1:25:56] Nures Torres.
[1:26:17] Well, thank you.
[1:26:18] Well, thank you.
[1:26:20] Well, thank you.
[1:26:22] escuchar nuestras inquietudes y tomar en cuenta las necesidades de nuestra comunidad valoramos
[1:26:30] su atención y esperamos seguir trabajando juntos para mejorar nuestra ciudad. También
[1:26:37] queremos solicitar su apoyo para que los ayuden a realizar una investigación sobre unas
[1:26:45] people who are inquitando nuestro vecindario hay un hombre que vive en elote que está abandonado
[1:26:54] por el vecindario con una arma me gustaría programar una cita para discutir los detalles.
[1:27:01] Muchas gracias.
[1:27:18] an issue that we have been having in the community.
[1:27:21] We've greatly value your attention in our efforts
[1:27:24] to be what a better community.
[1:27:27] We also want to ask for your support
[1:27:30] to be able to do an investigation regarding some people
[1:27:34] who are concerning our communities.
[1:27:36] There is a man who lives in a lot that has been abandoned
[1:27:39] by the community who has a weapon.
[1:27:42] And I would like to establish a meeting
[1:27:44] so that we can go over the details.
[1:27:48] Thank you.
[1:27:50] Thank you, Ms. Torres, and Councilmember Arias.
[1:27:53] Thank you, Mayor.
[1:27:54] I just want to say thank you to Ms. Torres.
[1:27:55] Thank you, Nudis, for everything that you do,
[1:27:58] for your community.
[1:27:59] I was a pleasure just a little more than a week ago
[1:28:02] being out there in your neck of the woods,
[1:28:05] getting to walk the community and see
[1:28:07] all of the many challenges that you all are navigating.
[1:28:09] And so my heart goes out to and I just want you to know
[1:28:13] that we certainly hear you and we want to do right by the community, but we couldn't do that
[1:28:18] without you.
[1:28:19] So thank you for your advocacy and I want to like to ask, actually, our city attorney, if
[1:28:25] I could get your help to reconvene our, I'll call it a task force addressing some of the
[1:28:33] neighborhood level challenges and so at these Bakersfield that we get a bigger police
[1:28:38] Department in the city of attorney's office together to meet with
[1:28:41] no worries to talk about some of the safety challenges there.
[1:28:46] Thank you.
[1:28:47] Thank you, Councillor Babor.
[1:28:48] Are yes.
[1:28:49] Then I'll clear next speaker, please.
[1:28:51] Johnny, a log is.
[1:29:01] Welcome, please introduce yourself.
[1:29:04] Hello, my name is Johnny Ologas.
[1:29:06] Take the timer.
[1:29:08] I was here for something else.
[1:29:11] I actually flock and 11A.
[1:29:13] One of the issues with the dump site that was out in, I believe it's word one if I'm correct,
[1:29:22] is I heard that they were trying to put cameras out there to find these individuals that were dumping the trash.
[1:29:30] I am now trying to be solution-based, and one of my proposals is instead of finding these individuals that dump the trash.
[1:29:39] How about we open the wood site for accepting trash?
[1:29:44] So the wood site, I believe it's Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3.30.
[1:29:52] My brother actually called me on Monday. He was going to take some wood from his house,
[1:29:57] some tree trimmings or whatever, and he couldn't get to the wood.
[1:30:00] He's like on Monday. He says, is the wood side open? I said, no, it's not. And so he's like, I don't want to go to
[1:30:07] Bina, the line fill, right? Which you guys, I don't know if you know where Bina is. And so what ended up happening was my brother turned around when back home, right?
[1:30:16] 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.
[1:30:28] We're about to go into that season where I will probably take two trailers full of trees
[1:30:33] of just my art is just a ton.
[1:30:36] So I will ask Zach to look into that.
[1:30:40] But I will ask, you know, I will tell Eric, you know, as far as the camera suggests, I think
[1:30:46] that's just a terrible idea.
[1:30:47] I think we should provide solutions and look at why people can't take the trash or their
[1:30:52] tree trimmings.
[1:30:53] Let's be more proactive about it and ask the community members, I work in the trash industry
[1:30:58] So that's how, you know, so anyway, the other thing is sanctuary city, let's do it. You guys suck.
[1:31:06] Thank you so much. Next speaker please.
[1:31:13] Go, that was our final speaker.
[1:31:15] Thank you.
[1:31:16] Next item, please.
[1:31:19] Yeah.
[1:31:22] We need a break at this point, I think.
[1:31:25] So let's take a break for 10 minutes.
[1:31:28] And we'll be back for more city business.
[1:40:09] Let's start gathering together, and if we could have staff in the back, just help to close the doors, please.
[1:40:15] It's close and up to 10 minutes.
[1:40:26] Townsend Member Coleman, we're ready to start.
[1:40:43] Let's all sit down, please, so we can continue the meeting at 647.
[1:40:48] Madam Clerk, would you please read the next item?
[1:40:53] Concert calendar.
[1:40:55] A staff member and a member was provided transmitting corrected minutes for item 6A1, item 6F3, transmitting correspondence.
[1:41:03] item 6f15 correcting the item title and also please note that item 6E1 contains a staff recommendation
[1:41:12] to adopt resolutions approving salaries and benefits for specified units.
[1:41:18] Thank you.
[1:41:18] And we've had a request by council member Smith to pull 6C4 and is that just number 2 council member?
[1:41:28] That is correct.
[1:41:29] Okay.
[1:41:29] Thank you.
[1:41:30] And I don't see any other requests for items to be pulled Council member for themselves.
[1:41:36] Motion to approve consent calendar with the exception of 6C4.
[1:41:42] The motion please catch your votes.
[1:42:10] The item is approved with the Council member we are voting no and Vice Mayor CORE absent.
[1:42:15] Thank you and Council member Smith.
[1:42:17] Now 6C4.
[1:42:19] Thank you, Mayor. This is the item that addresses the smoking in public parks, and I think
[1:42:27] that's a good thing to move away from smoking in public parks, but reading the original
[1:42:33] ordinance, I also noticed that it also prohibits bicycles and unicycles, and I think that
[1:42:40] all of our children have ridden bicycles in parks, and that we should, since we are kind of
[1:42:46] this ordinance up that we can go ahead and allow bicycles and
[1:42:50] motorcycles in parks. So I would make that change to this cleanup
[1:42:56] ordinance. Thank you. Thank you, you have a motion please touch it. Oh,
[1:43:01] Council member, are yes. Thanks, Mayor. Really quickly. I just wanted to thank the
[1:43:04] advocates for their work on this item. They brought it back to safe and healthy
[1:43:07] neighborhoods. Not too long ago, it made a wonderful presentation. And I just
[1:43:12] this signifies the continued work to make sure that we're creating these community spaces that are
[1:43:18] smoke free for our children. So thank you so much for the work on this. I also want to take
[1:43:22] their recommendation that we explicitly call out that our parks are also smoke free zones.
[1:43:29] I have not had a chance to look through the entire document itself, but I would like to make
[1:43:34] ask that we make that explicit. Thank you.
[1:43:38] It's so you have a motion to approve six C4.
[1:43:43] You have a motion to discuss your votes.
[1:44:05] The motion is approved with Council Member Weere,
[1:44:07] voting no and Vice Mayor Corps absent.
[1:44:10] Thank you. Next item, please.
[1:44:22] Consent calendar public hearings.
[1:44:24] Item 7A. Public hearing to consider the planning commission's approval of general
[1:44:28] amendment and zone change number 23 dash 0, 5, 6, 0, and it's proposed mitigated negative declaration.
[1:44:39] Item 7B, public hearing to consider planning commissions approval of general plan amendment, zone change number 25 dash 0, 0, 0, 0, 8, and it's proposed mitigated negative declaration.
[1:44:53] Thank you. It's time for the consent calendar public hearings as the clerk said. The purpose of this section is to
[1:45:00] Out 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 hearing portion of the agenda.
[1:45:20] So, at this time, I will open consent calendar public hearing item seven A, B. Is there any one of the
[1:45:29] audience who would like to request that a hearing item be removed from the consent calendar?
[1:45:33] If so, please come forward. This isn't the time to take testimony. Only remove the matter from the consent calendar hearing.
[1:45:41] Mayor Go, we did receive a request to remove item 7A from the consent calendar public hearings.
[1:45:50] Thank you, and then does any council member wish to remove any other item?
[1:46:03] Right, so at this time consent calendar public hearing item 7B is now closed and do we have a motion on that?
[1:46:18] Mayor, I'll make a motion to adopt consent calendar public hearing items 7B.
[1:46:25] You have a motion? Please, test your votes.
[1:46:41] The item is approved with Council Member Core absent.
[1:46:46] Thank you, next item, please.
[1:46:54] Hereings item 8A, public hearing, public appeal hearing of planning commissions approval,
[1:46:59] of vesting tentative track map number 7451 phased.
[1:47:04] Macintosh and Associates representing Diamond Farming Company
[1:47:07] is proposing to submit sub-divided 40.77 acres
[1:47:11] into 313 single-family residential lots.
[1:47:15] One multi-use trail lot and one parking lot
[1:47:18] in the R2 small lot single unit dwelling zone
[1:47:21] located generally southeast of all of Drive and Santa Fe Way.
[1:47:26] Sierra Club appealed the planning commission decision,
[1:47:28] developer Tom D from RFG properties ink requested the public appeal hearing be opened and
[1:47:35] continue to September 16th, 2026 since they are negotiating a settlement with the appellate
[1:47:41] Sierra Club.
[1:47:43] I'm sorry, did we skip seven A?
[1:47:46] We'll come back to that at the end of the hearings.
[1:47:51] So for the public hearings each side will be allowed 20 minutes.
[1:47:55] It's 20 minutes for all speakers per side, 10 minutes for in-person speakers, 10 minutes for speakers by phone.
[1:48:01] It's important that you identify yourself, make your statements, simply so others may speak.
[1:48:07] If there's testimony on both sides, each side will be allowed a 10 minute rebuttal.
[1:48:11] There's clock on the TV screens behind me, which indicates 20 minutes when you're called on, please identify yourself.
[1:48:17] You may ask questions during your statement, but they won't be addressed until the public hearing is closed.
[1:48:22] If you're written comments 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.
[1:48:32] So at this time, public hearing item eight A is open. Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge that staff recommends that we open and continue this public hearing to the September 16th, 2026 City Council meeting pending negotiations of the settlement.
[1:48:49] While the public can still make public comments today, we encourage you to wait until the item is heard on September 16th.
[1:48:56] Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers in opposition or in favor of this item?
[1:49:03] Mayor, go.
[1:49:04] We have not received any requests to speak in opposition or in favor of this item either by phone or in person.
[1:49:12] Thank you.
[1:49:13] Next item, please.
[1:49:18] Yes, we do need a motion to continue.
[1:49:21] I would like to make that move.
[1:49:22] Councilmember Smith made a motion to continue this item.
[1:49:26] You have a motion, please cast your votes.
[1:49:37] The item is approved with Vice Mayor Cor.
[1:49:40] Absent.
[1:49:41] Thank you.
[1:49:42] Panel Clerk next item, please.
[1:49:52] Item 7A.
[1:49:54] Public hearing to consider the planning commissions.
[1:49:57] Approval of general plan amendment and zone change number.
[1:50:00] of 23-056-0, and as proposed, mitigated negative declaration.
[1:50:09] And click what about A-B.
[1:50:16] Somebody made mistakes.
[1:50:18] All right, there is no A-B.
[1:50:19] All right, we're on to 7-A Council Member Smith.
[1:50:25] Are you the one who pulled it initially?
[1:50:27] No, somebody else did.
[1:50:29] City manager, click.
[1:50:30] Mayor and Council are a developer.
[1:50:32] Mr. Director Phil Burns can just give a quick summary of this pending any questions and your
[1:50:39] response to those that wanted to have this item discussed separately.
[1:50:45] Welcome to members.
[1:50:47] What we have in front of us is General Pline Amendment 230560, a property owner, ATG, investment
[1:50:53] LLC, Projectscription, and General Pline Amendment Zone change for 24.8, 8.6 acres, the project
[1:51:00] It continues to develop 6.36 acres commercial land on a northern person in the property, and a project
[1:51:06] continues to develop 18.5 acres as a multi-family residential and a southern person in the
[1:51:10] parcel.
[1:51:11] Conceptual development plans have been submitted for a commercial person, but no development plans
[1:51:15] have been submitted for the residential portion at this time.
[1:51:18] So, located in the southwest corner of Tafht Highway, Ash Road, in Ward 7.
[1:51:23] and the CECO document is in M&D.
[1:51:26] Plan and Commission are approved of this project
[1:51:28] onto like 16th, no speakers in favor or opposition
[1:51:31] at that hearing.
[1:51:33] Stack recommends the project is been found
[1:51:35] consistent with general plan policies and city zoning
[1:51:37] ordinances requirements for these
[1:51:39] reasons city staff recommends approval
[1:51:41] for the general plan amendment and zoning change
[1:51:43] for project 23, 0, 560.
[1:51:46] Thank you.
[1:52:00] Copy.
[1:52:34] So, at this time, public item 7A is open.
[1:52:43] Then, clerk, do we have any requests to speak on this item?
[1:52:48] Mayor, go. We've received one request to speak in opposition to staff's recommendation.
[1:52:55] And go ahead and call that speaker. Use a draw, ask me.
[1:53:03] Is that person in person or was that specific on the phone?
[1:53:07] there go the request was for in person. Thank you. And I don't see that she is present here.
[1:53:14] My assumption, Mary, if I may, is that it may have been another item besides this item that was
[1:53:22] made perhaps mislabeled. Okay. Thank you.
[1:53:27] And so, does anybody want to make a motion on this item? Council members?
[1:53:32] I'll make the motion to approve.
[1:53:36] You have a motion on seven A, please,
[1:53:38] catch your votes.
[1:53:42] Out, the hearing is closed.
[1:53:44] Now, you have a motion.
[1:53:56] There's some interesting music coming from somewhere,
[1:53:59] a staff, so if you want to attend to that.
[1:54:01] That was
[1:54:06] good.
[1:54:09] Yes, did you already vote?
[1:54:19] The item is approved with Vice Mayor Cor.
[1:54:22] Absent.
[1:54:24] Thank you.
[1:54:29] Next item, please.
[1:54:41] Item 10 A.
[1:54:43] Interfund loan to complete the acquisition of 1430 and 1440 trucks in Avenue, pursuant to Council approved purchase agreement.
[1:54:52] Thank you.
[1:54:53] Sorry, Margot.
[1:54:54] There was a blue memo prepared for this item.
[1:54:58] Transmitting an updated resolution.
[1:55:02] Thank you, Madam City Clerk, Mr. Cleg.
[1:55:05] Thank you, Marin Council.
[1:55:06] As we jump into this item, I would remind your council that this was before you in March of this year earlier.
[1:55:13] Your city council approved a purchase and a lease and a purchase and sale agreement
[1:55:22] Contentioned on a due diligence period for this site
[1:55:27] We'll walk through the background again on this because it is a large decision in large item
[1:55:33] But in quick summary
[1:55:35] This project really was initiated out of an effort to
[1:55:40] Save our operating dollars to gain efficiencies
[1:55:43] And to focus on a long-term solution to a need that we had that was costing us more dollars than made cents for our operations.
[1:56:01] Be clerk and have an hard time making this advance.
[1:56:13] Thank you, Mr. Marcus.
[1:56:16] So again, this goes all the way back to 2021.
[1:56:18] We did, we were in a mode where we were in the process of hiring 100 police officers,
[1:56:24] as well as some support staff in the police department.
[1:56:27] We had significant space challenges.
[1:56:30] We did a space planning study,
[1:56:33] had identified future space needs,
[1:56:36] but also we did not have the capacity at the time
[1:56:40] to address those with the expense of new build projects.
[1:56:44] And so we were in a position where we needed
[1:56:47] to lease office space to house our growing police department.
[1:56:51] And we also did citywide office space assessments in 23 and 24, but we have been leasing space in a building that is outside of our downtown core since 2021 and those lease payments have been escalating up towards last year, it was $900,000 and next year we anticipated to be over a million dollars for those lease payments.
[1:57:15] At the time, there was limited suitable office space in the downtown core, but the council
[1:57:21] a lot of the time approved that move out of the urgency that we had, but gave direction
[1:57:27] to try and look for a long-term space back in the downtown core at some point in the future.
[1:57:34] So, there were multiple properties that were assessed in 2024 and 2025 to think about those
[1:57:44] And Tower became a realistic option in 2025 and started the process of doing the analysis and
[1:57:52] approaching the property owners.
[1:57:54] And again, there's a unique opportunity that this move will offer a significant savings,
[1:58:01] while addressing that long-term space needs into the future.
[1:58:05] Just in summary, there is an immediate savings of $350,000 a year of our operating dollars.
[1:58:12] And after the payment for our internal fund loan that would represent a savings of more than a million dollars a year after the 12-year term of that loan.
[1:58:26] This is just an orient, again, a council and community to where the location is.
[1:58:30] is the taller tower portion as well as that orange color, they're labeled 11 and the parking
[1:58:38] garage behind it, significant parking space to the advantage of the tenants of the building,
[1:58:43] the city, and ultimately our parking enterprise that will make that parking available in the evenings
[1:58:50] to customers downtown and to expand our enterprise beyond our current parking garage.
[1:58:57] This is mostly for the public record to just reflect the space and where we're going to initially occupy space for the police department, so we're moving the police department into three floors of office space and one floor, the ground floor for some training space, and that is already subject to the lease agreement as approved by Council, but as we move forward with purchase.
[1:59:23] Then we would still occupy that space, but it is 122,000 square foot building that allows us to have many other tenants that help to pay for the net operating cost of that building.
[1:59:37] And that gets us to the rationale. Again, it gives us an opportunity to manage our timing and our costs and our space needs while getting a long-term solution.
[1:59:49] we don't need to occupy the entire space. We can slowly over time as our community grows and we have additional needs to serve our country.
[2:00:00] Community to potentially occupy additional space, but we don't have to. And having those lease revenues
[2:00:07] come in to help, again, with our operating costs as a huge advantage. And in particular, it was
[2:00:14] the very expensive least payments that we're able to eliminate and consolidate staff, and it also
[2:00:22] improve our operational efficiencies. Again, note the number of parking spaces is significant
[2:00:29] and it is in the heart of downtown and positioned very close to City Hall that allows us to
[2:00:36] continue to move forward and work in closely together as City Team. And we just note
[2:00:43] Lastly, we were able to have a favorable purchase price given some of our market timing and that the value, which we're purchasing, this is significantly below the appraised value, and again has multiple long-term tenants.
[2:01:04] We completed our due diligence period at the end of July.
[2:01:08] We saw no red flags.
[2:01:10] There are not any facility issues that aren't beyond what we would consider regular maintenance.
[2:01:17] We did through the process identify some of those maintenance needs that are going to come
[2:01:21] up in the next five to ten years and that's important and valuable.
[2:01:24] There are a couple of smaller issues that were agreed to be addressed before a close on
[2:01:31] property as well as some consideration for our maintenance costs in the first year because we do anticipate
[2:01:38] needing to do some maintenance in year one. We already had a $425,000 deposit on this property that
[2:01:47] would go towards the purchase price and we are underway in the planning process to move the police
[2:01:56] department in as we had, you know, made the choice that we would either lease or purchase
[2:02:01] moving forward just to get out of the other lease costs that we're facing at the other
[2:02:05] location.
[2:02:07] So again, in short, summary after our due diligence staff is recommending that we move forward
[2:02:13] because there are new issues that suggest that we shouldn't acquire the building.
[2:02:21] A few more, I think just valuable reflections on why we feel this is such a move for the
[2:02:28] the existing tenants have a very stable rental income stream.
[2:02:33] You see that there on the screen.
[2:02:36] There are a variety of different tenants and varying lease agreements,
[2:02:41] but several of those are also long-term tenants.
[2:02:44] We do have about 21% vacancy, the average vacancy for office space
[2:02:48] and downtown is closer to 6% citywide.
[2:02:51] It's closer to 8%.
[2:02:53] And so we think there's work we can go do to acquire additional tenants that would help
[2:02:59] us continue to offset our operating costs, the performance that's before your council
[2:03:03] does not include assumptions of additional revenues from those leases.
[2:03:08] We took a conservative approach and it's based on current plus one that's based on a notable
[2:03:15] letter of interest that has been issued to occupy that space.
[2:03:21] And so any additional space that gets least only helps improve our net operating, which already
[2:03:27] again achieves that $350,000 savings per year.
[2:03:32] But also very importantly, the preserve is a very important building in the core corridor
[2:03:39] for trucks and preserves our economic activity downtown.
[2:03:45] And again that phased city expansion as needed.
[2:03:50] These are numbers that were provided in the administrative report, and these are the numbers
[2:03:54] where I'm giving you, again, our lease payments, we're going to be over a million dollars a year
[2:03:59] in this coming year, our total payments for debt service against this interfund loan would be $636,000,
[2:04:11] which is why I'm saying that the million minus the $366, that's your $350,000 down, $350,000
[2:04:19] in savings every year and those payments that we're making from our capital improvement program
[2:04:28] each year, free up the operating dollars on the police side and they go towards the acquisition
[2:04:34] of this long-term asset. So instead of growing money away to a lease that didn't result in any
[2:04:40] long-term asset, this now does put us in a position to have acquired this long-term asset.
[2:04:50] Lastly, I noted earlier that we had space that we could continue to lease,
[2:04:57] these are just some square foot estimates, and some conservative estimated lease revenues
[2:05:04] that could come from those additional spaces, and as you'll note, that would significantly,
[2:05:09] again, increase that revenue and notably decrease the amount of capital dollars that would need to go
[2:05:17] towards net service each year, and we feel that several years into this payback of our
[2:05:26] inner fund loan, or likely to be in a position where the full debt service is being paid
[2:05:30] by the net operating revenues from the building.
[2:05:37] There are actually still two options in front of us.
[2:05:40] There is the option to move with purpose and to close by the end of this month, and that
[2:05:47] would represent a significant savings, $100,000, and I don't see any reason not to move
[2:05:52] now, if we chose to exercise our purchase option at a later date, the price would change
[2:06:00] notably, and our deposit, again, has already, where past our due diligence period, the deposit
[2:06:09] has gone hard, and we would not get that deposit back if we don't move forward, and, again,
[2:06:15] significant savings with the early exercise option that we're recommending in front of you.
[2:06:22] This is a lot of numbers, but we wanted to be transparent and demonstrate what our
[2:06:27] debt service payments look like. Again, this is a 2.5% interest loan over 12 years. At the
[2:06:36] same time, we're using some of our capital facility reserve, about $2.5 million in total,
[2:06:41] And we're going to pay that back over the next five years to make sure that that is restored.
[2:06:48] And I probably should have done this at the outset, I apologize it did not.
[2:06:52] As a recommendation to use an Interfund loan, what this means what we're doing is we have reserves in our equipment fund that we're going to borrow against or borrowing against our own reserve dollars.
[2:07:03] But it's at a 2.5% interest rate because we don't want to lose a 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% is a fair way to make sure that we're not losing much.
[2:07:30] In our reserves by making this enter fund loan. Some might question why do we choose this particular way of financing?
[2:07:40] 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.
[2:07:50] you also have to pay transactional costs, and it's in the scope at $12 million.
[2:07:58] It's in the scope that our Interfund reserves can handle.
[2:08:03] We can't do larger projects that might be tens of millions or $100 million, but we have
[2:08:09] a reserve that is over $100 million in our equipment fund, and we have a $54 million
[2:08:16] are unrestricted reserve in the equipment fund.
[2:08:18] And so this is about the right size for us
[2:08:21] to do a very meaningful project that's
[2:08:23] going to save us a lot of money and a short time frame
[2:08:27] still make that equipment fund whole again.
[2:08:32] So that is our recommendation from you, the City Council,
[2:08:35] a $12.1 million fund loan that we
[2:08:38] would appropriate those to our capital outlifund and appropriate
[2:08:41] the remaining two million from the capital facility reserve
[2:08:44] to our capital outlay fund, it's a total of 2.5
[2:08:48] towards this project from the capital outlay fund.
[2:08:51] The other 425 is the deposit that we already made.
[2:08:55] And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.
[2:08:57] Thank you, Mr. Klig.
[2:08:58] Council member Gonzalez.
[2:09:00] Thank you, Mayor.
[2:09:00] Thank you, Mr. Klig for the presentation.
[2:09:02] We've got a lot of conversation about this.
[2:09:04] I just want to, for the sake of,
[2:09:05] over the benefit of the public, ask a few questions.
[2:09:09] And then I wanted to ask a couple of questions
[2:09:11] for my benefit. Number one is, you know, we talk a lot about inner funds, but that may be
[2:09:18] jargon for, you know, my constituents and people in the community. What I think what we're doing
[2:09:25] is correct me from wrong, but we're borrowing from ourselves in the sense that, you know, we have a
[2:09:31] general fund which most people refer to as the city budget and most folks when they come to
[2:09:38] Council, and they talk about their priorities for the city.
[2:09:42] We'll be typically referencing the general fund.
[2:09:46] This is where most of our sales tax property tax revenue goes into, is where we earn,
[2:09:51] how we spend money.
[2:09:53] But we also have additional funds, additional separate funds that are not co-mingled,
[2:10:00] that
[2:10:00] are, in fact, separate.
[2:10:03] And these funds include the City Equipment Internal Service Fund, the Capital Outlay Fund.
[2:10:10] And what we're doing is we're borrowing from those particular funds that can only be used for certain purposes.
[2:10:16] Am I right so far?
[2:10:18] Yeah, that's correct.
[2:10:19] Councilmember, and I would just reflect really quickly.
[2:10:22] You are correct.
[2:10:23] We're borrowing from ourselves.
[2:10:25] The Equipment Fund is a dedicated fund that is separate from the general fund,
[2:10:30] correct and the dollars that go into that equipment fund actually come from the general fund
[2:10:36] and several of our other funds, but they have to be protected only for the use of purchase
[2:10:40] of equipment, but again, as a healthy reserve sits over there, it's an opportunity to bar
[2:10:46] against that from ourselves, but because it is dedicated to a purpose, it does have to be paid
[2:10:53] back with interest.
[2:10:54] So when we say that we're saving money, we are saving money because today, we're
[2:11:00] We are spending money on a current lease agreement for space that we need for big, so police
[2:11:05] department.
[2:11:06] And we pay a million dollars annually.
[2:11:09] And where do those funds come from?
[2:11:11] I think you guys might remember that is coming out of the general fund, the savings that we're
[2:11:15] achieving is going to be to the general fund.
[2:11:17] So we will, because we have to pay ourselves back in these additional, these other funds,
[2:11:24] We will be saving $350,000 a year and then in the 13th year then we will be saving
[2:11:31] a million dollars at least because these lease agreements, they don't get cheaper over time,
[2:11:38] you know, just like my rent.
[2:11:41] It's only got more expensive.
[2:11:43] The lease agreement will likely be even more expensive in the future.
[2:11:48] Is that right?
[2:11:48] That is correct.
[2:11:49] It's a conservative savings of a million dollars a year, it will only increase over the life of this loan payback.
[2:11:56] So over the next 12 years, we'll be paying $12 million if we choose not to pursue this.
[2:12:03] That is correct.
[2:12:04] The other thing is, the thing I really like about this project is that it occupies a building that currently has a 21% vacancy rate.
[2:12:15] You mentioned there's a current 21% begger's rate is that including the anticipated use from
[2:12:22] Bagel Police Department in city
[2:12:24] Yes, we
[2:12:27] When police occupies it will there will still be 21% vacancy got it, but we all already
[2:12:34] Having conversations with potential tenants in anticipation of the city's purchases. Is that right?
[2:12:40] Absolutely and and it has been actively marketed. I think it's fair to know that
[2:12:45] but also we feel that as the city enters,
[2:12:49] the building, as the owner, and as an attendant,
[2:12:53] there may be some tenants who look at that
[2:12:57] and make some considerations,
[2:12:58] but we also think some potential tenants
[2:12:59] would see that as an attractive relationship.
[2:13:03] We'll leverage all of our relationships
[2:13:05] that we have as well to make sure
[2:13:07] that we can fill that space as much as possible.
[2:13:10] Great.
[2:13:11] Six to the last point, parking is a huge benefit
[2:13:14] because parking is limited in downtown. And it is one of the most controversial issues in
[2:13:21] downtown Biggs. Given its scarcity, how much does it cost to build a parking structure?
[2:13:28] I think you can count to remember American Council to build a parking structure depends a little bit
[2:13:32] on the size of course. But a parking structure that would be 300 plus stalls is a 323 stall parking
[2:13:40] could be easily $50 million dollars.
[2:13:43] It built.
[2:13:44] $50 million dollars to build a new structure.
[2:13:47] Yeah, that's not going to happen any time soon.
[2:13:49] At least with the city of Vegas,
[2:13:50] we'll give an R current condition.
[2:13:52] So I think this is a good move even for that.
[2:13:55] And then my last point is,
[2:13:58] tonight we're also considering an item related to a vacant property
[2:14:02] that has seen many code violations.
[2:14:07] And we know all too well in this city.
[2:14:09] what happens when buildings remain underutilized or even vacant.
[2:14:14] And it becomes a huge liability to the city because we have to expend resources by
[2:14:20] way of code enforcement, police department, fire department, and else becomes just a nuisance
[2:14:27] to the surrounding community.
[2:14:29] There are a lot of negative externalities related to some of these buildings that unfortunately
[2:14:34] are in the urban court, there's just a higher concentration.
[2:14:38] And the thing that I've always worried about is to see this building fall into disrepair
[2:14:48] and to see many of the tenants leave as a result.
[2:14:53] And then the whoever the future owner is seeing them not really caring for this property.
[2:15:00] And it becoming the 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 Bakersville, from a business perspective, but also for downtown and for the future of downtown Bakersville. So I'm going to make a motion tonight that we approve this. Thanks.
[2:15:22] Thank you.
[2:15:23] Councilmember Bessier-Tosh.
[2:15:33] I don't.
[2:15:35] We have to borrow.
[2:15:37] We have to be interested in money that we borrow from money count, Randy.
[2:15:42] That's like a, that's a mandatory thing.
[2:15:49] Good evening.
[2:15:51] Councilmember.
[2:15:52] That is really a best practice.
[2:15:53] So what we did is we built this interfund loan policy based on other comparable cities.
[2:15:58] And it really is, because it's an enterprise fund,
[2:16:03] it really is the property approach.
[2:16:05] Those funds are really belonging to the Equipment Fund.
[2:16:09] And so we want to really return those dollars
[2:16:12] with what they would have earned
[2:16:14] if they would have had to remain in an investment fund.
[2:16:16] So that's really best practice.
[2:16:18] Thank you.
[2:16:19] That's, I promise you, right now,
[2:16:20] I want to ask you any more question.
[2:16:21] That was the only one.
[2:16:27] So the freezing and vocabulary behind the conversation that I just listened to was a little
[2:16:33] bit bothersome to me because it's not our money, it's taxpayer money. We're going to pay
[2:16:38] interest on tax. We're going to pay interest with taxpayer money on tax payer money for
[2:16:47] something. I just, I mean, that makes me sick to my stomach. We're going to pay interest
[2:16:53] on taxpayer money because we're not making money by investing it, that just sounds so
[2:16:59] backwards to me. We're going to take more money from the people to pay for the money we already
[2:17:04] took from the people. I don't know, that doesn't make sense to me. This is going to be so much
[2:17:11] more costly. It's in 1974 building every year that goes by in my life and I'm not even a building.
[2:17:16] I break down and cost more. I can only imagine what the floor space to this, that parking
[2:17:21] structure looks like. I think it would be very cheap to have parking if we
[2:17:25] tore it all down and had a gravel lot with the strike lines. Like, you know,
[2:17:28] the current county fair, it would cost maybe half a million dollars, but this is
[2:17:32] going to cost so much money. And in a time when we're listening to people that have
[2:17:39] businesses on union that are getting shot up and we can't do anything to help with
[2:17:43] that or trying to create gel bed space, but we're moving real slow. I don't
[2:17:48] understand how we can allocate money to anything outside of fixing the problem that is
[2:17:53] plugging business owners that are coming here on a Wednesday night to speak and begging
[2:17:57] for help. I don't support this. I think it's going to cost so much more money. I don't understand
[2:18:04] how we're going to pay interest on tax payer money by taking more money from the taxpayers,
[2:18:10] but that's those are my comments.
[2:18:12] Council
[2:18:15] Member Coleman.
[2:18:20] Thank you, Mayor.
[2:18:23] So I wanted to address two things.
[2:18:28] I wanted to first address this inner fund transfer.
[2:18:32] Because there's people out there talking about how it's some kind of accounting trick
[2:18:39] or we're doing something shady.
[2:18:45] The inner fund, first of all, that inner fund that we're going to borrow the money for,
[2:18:51] that's the equipment fund.
[2:18:55] Can you please tell me where that money in the equipment fund comes from?
[2:19:01] Yeah, I think it comes around the moment.
[2:19:03] The equipment fund, by the way, is principally vehicles, although there are a few other large
[2:19:09] value pieces of equipment that we include in the equipment fund, but we're not talking about equipment
[2:19:13] like shovels and rakes. This is high dollar value equipment. And so that equipment fund is funded
[2:19:22] by almost all of our funds. So some of it comes from the general fund. Some of it comes from
[2:19:29] our other enterprise funds. But because they're coming from other enterprise funds, let's say
[2:19:39] dollars. And so that's why we feel it is appropriate to pay back the interest on that loan
[2:19:45] because it is a best accounting practice to account for each of these funds distinctly and openly.
[2:19:52] And I think I'll read a little bit into your question as well. Council Member Komenai,
[2:19:56] which I think is a good question. In our annual financial reporting documents, we report on each of
[2:20:09] And those dollars are collected from each of the other funds to buy all the equipment we need across all of the funds.
[2:20:16] But again, that is one of our funds that, of course, it represents the value of all of that equipment.
[2:20:24] And so if we had multiple large pieces of equipment that went out and we had to replace those, that's where our reserves come in.
[2:20:33] but we have a fairly healthy reserve by comparison there and so it is available for the
[2:20:38] Interfund loan but it needs to all be documented and accounted for very clearly these
[2:20:44] your separate dollars.
[2:20:50] Okay so first of all this is not new to the city of Baker's field.
[2:20:56] That is. All right we've done it before. That is correct we have.
[2:21:01] Because I remember in the redevelopment days, we did that from time to time to make some
[2:21:11] of the mill Creek projects and that kind of thing work.
[2:21:16] As all that may have been repaid, you know?
[2:21:19] It has, I think, as it relates to the redevelopment fund, of course, there's, you know, when
[2:21:25] state shut that down, there were lots of complications, but of the city's
[2:21:31] interfund loans, yes, all that has been repaid back.
[2:21:35] So this is something that's a recognized, and I
[2:21:40] deal a little bit of my own research on this.
[2:21:42] I just kind of wanted to make a comment about this, because there
[2:21:47] have been people out there saying that this is a county
[2:21:51] districts and this is recognized by the California state controllers office and they have
[2:21:58] a very strict rules on on this.
[2:22:05] It's is common for municipalities to use in her fund borrowing.
[2:22:11] That is correct. It is very common and also the government finance officers association has a set of
[2:22:16] guidelines that govern this as well as the state of California.
[2:22:20] Okay, and can you tell me what the balance is in the equipment fund right now?
[2:22:24] The equipment fund balance, let me pull that up.
[2:22:26] I mean plus or minus, it's...
[2:22:30] It's about $120 million, and unrestricted is about $54 million.
[2:22:37] So we're going to be taking you out of the unrestricted amount, correct?
[2:22:41] As well as the balance be after we borrow the money.
[2:22:45] Sorry, council member.
[2:22:46] Sorry, if Mr. McKee can you have it off the top of your head, you're so free. I do have it.
[2:22:54] Well, it's 50, you say it's 54 million, we're going to bar 12.
[2:22:57] It's a 40 point.
[2:22:59] It's a simple matter.
[2:23:00] I can't even look at my notes.
[2:23:05] I guess my question then becomes we're still going to have $40 million in a count.
[2:23:14] Are we going to need this $12 million that we're borrowing any time soon?
[2:23:18] We do not believe we do.
[2:23:20] In fact, we did some analysis and we have a very high level of confidence that we'll be able
[2:23:26] back any equipment purchases that we need to over the full 12 years of this loan repayment
[2:23:33] with the unrestricted balance that remains.
[2:23:38] I think I made my point about the Interfund loan, Interfund borrowing, it's been done.
[2:23:47] We've just cities that the Pickersfield has done frequently in the past, other communities
[2:23:53] use California and outside of California use this practice to finance deals. It's a good way
[2:24:02] to do it because you don't have to go out in the market and you mentioned that you would
[2:24:08] have to pay broker fees for somebody to put a bond out in that kind of thing and then you
[2:24:13] would probably have a higher interest rate. So I like the Interfund borrowing as a tool. I like
[2:24:20] fact that we're not talking to putting it out there for 30 years we're going to pay it back in
[2:24:26] 12 years and frankly if you're going to have some operating gains then you might be able to
[2:24:34] pay that down sooner. But I didn't want to talk about the deal itself because in my history of
[2:24:42] things I've done, I've done these kind of real estate analysis for for investment groups and we
[2:24:48] on assessed the property to make a buyer's buy or no buy recommendation.
[2:24:56] And so to me, this is not a spectacular real-state deal.
[2:25:03] You know, yeah, we'd like to be buying it for less, but it's a solid deal, and it's a
[2:25:18] any assumptions about being able to knock that 21% basically factor down to 6% that's just
[2:25:25] going to be money in the bank.
[2:25:28] We have an appraisal that supports a value above the purchase price correct?
[2:25:34] That is correct.
[2:25:38] There was some concern about the high cost of utilities, but there's been some progress
[2:25:44] on that correct.
[2:25:45] Yeah, I think you can't remember this good question that is also correct that there have been
[2:25:49] some energy efficiency measures to switch to LED lights throughout the building,
[2:25:55] but there are a couple additional energy efficiency projects that we think we could invest
[2:25:59] into further lower the energy costs.
[2:26:06] I guess I want to make a point.
[2:26:08] We're not buying a vacant building for us to use all the space.
[2:26:11] So, it has some pre-set income coming in from these rentals, correct?
[2:26:17] That's correct.
[2:26:18] One point.
[2:26:19] And I rent all the leasing.
[2:26:20] Yeah, $1.4 million in annual lease income, that's significant.
[2:26:26] Which is not, is that included the money worse than for the lease or not?
[2:26:31] It does not.
[2:26:32] All right.
[2:26:33] So, this repayment can be largely paid out of either the our lease savings or the money
[2:26:40] we earned from the building.
[2:26:41] It can count some member for just for sake of clarity and transparency.
[2:26:45] There's other building operating expenses that you noted, the utilities and some of the maintenance and the management.
[2:26:53] But the total net operating costs plus the savings from our lease elimination at the other building is that $350,000 net savings that does come to the city and
[2:27:09] And that net operating savings helps to pay down our debt service.
[2:27:14] All right.
[2:27:14] Thank you.
[2:27:18] The other point I wanted to make about is that a lot is made about the cost of the building,
[2:27:29] but municipalities typically hold these things for 50 years or more.
[2:27:35] And when you start to do time value of money calculations, it's for a brand you probably
[2:27:40] figure out.
[2:27:40] be on me, but it makes that those investments a lot more reasonable.
[2:27:49] But then we get down to,
[2:27:51] so for me, when I analyze it, I analyze first does it make financial sense. And to me,
[2:28:00] the purchase price, the money money we're going to save from least payments that we're currently
[2:28:07] paying other people, the money that we're going to potentially earn from rents and parking
[2:28:15] and whatever else is there to take advantage of makes that a good deal for me.
[2:28:26] It's a fancy advanceals, it's a good financial deal.
[2:28:29] Then the question becomes why should you buy it, and then there's some other strategic
[2:28:35] And intrinsic issues that I think are real important, and that is the location of this property being in the, I mean, that's, the key one there, it's on a very critical corner in our downtown.
[2:28:51] across from the Superior Court. It's a county corner from the City Hall.
[2:28:58] It's in a strategic excellent location. It gives the city control
[2:29:04] down to that corner, but it also gives us control 300 and some parking spaces,
[2:29:10] which we desperately need them downtown.
[2:29:18] It gives us a little bit of flexibility
[2:29:20] for the city, 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.
[2:29:33] This building we're in right now is getting pretty close to the end of this useful life.
[2:29:38] At some point it's going to need to be remodeled or rebuilt or something and it would give us an opportunity to relocate
[2:29:47] function 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.
[2:30:00] And the other thing I was encouraged by was that in my research, I learned that other governmental and public entities
[2:30:09] that have been purchasing property downtown, and these downtown buildings, rather than leasing them.
[2:30:15] And that's a critical distinction. Is that businesses just being in the downtown is great, but are they leasing or are they owning these buildings?
[2:30:24] and these government agencies, the current County Superintendent of Schools, has 1675,
[2:30:32] Chester Avenue, 1200 trucks to the avenue, which is the old church, and the county of
[2:30:37] current in Cape K have 1318th Street. So that's encouraging to me when these agencies
[2:30:45] are buying property downtown, it signals a faith in those neighborhoods.
[2:30:53] So, anyway,
[2:30:58] I'll get back to my point because I think it's a fair financial deal and it's a good overall purchase for the city.
[2:31:07] Thank you.
[2:31:07] Thank you.
[2:31:08] Thank you, Councillor Mayer.
[2:31:18] I'm a little confused here.
[2:31:21] On page nine that you have here, it shows that
[2:31:34] on page nine, can you explain to me?
[2:31:37] What in the world leave savings from California Avenue's base a million dollars?
[2:31:45] That's a savings that we're achieving by not
[2:31:49] leasing the other space where the police department has had office based on California Avenue.
[2:31:57] Okay, so that
[2:32:00] You're seeing we're getting more money. Yeah, we're we're not having that million dollar expense any longer
[2:32:08] But those folks have to go somewhere.
[2:32:14] We're going to have an expense.
[2:32:16] I mean, that building's going to cost money.
[2:32:19] If I may count somewhere, we're just to clarify.
[2:32:22] That is not the training academy.
[2:32:25] I'm not, I'm not a training academy.
[2:32:28] I'm just trying to figure out if a million dollars in here is money, a one-time deal.
[2:32:37] We're not going to get that every, every 12 months, we're not going to get savings from
[2:32:46] California Avenue space. So, Councillor Mayerware, the police department is leasing
[2:32:52] on an annual basis, numerous office spaces, and an office building on California Avenue.
[2:32:58] So, that is an annual expense that we're going to get that savings every year going forward.
[2:33:04] But I thought you were stopping that.
[2:33:07] Correct.
[2:33:08] By stopping that lease and moving them instead into this building, we've moved that million
[2:33:15] dollars to those lease payments that are just gone each year and into the value of acquiring
[2:33:25] this building, the Bank of America building, because those same dollars were paying into
[2:33:31] the repayment of that loan, essentially, to acquire that building.
[2:33:37] Okay, but the way this reads is, you know, it's projected,
[2:33:42] net offering income is, is the minus 206,000.
[2:33:47] Right? Correct.
[2:33:49] Then there's the savings of, so we don't have to pay,
[2:33:53] then lease anymore, so it's made dollars there.
[2:33:58] Correct. Okay, and then it comes down.
[2:34:00] And then the next year, we're not gonna have savings from that.
[2:34:04] We will.
[2:34:09] How will we?
[2:34:10] Because it's an annual payment to the other building.
[2:34:15] We'll have to pay a million every year, every year,
[2:34:17] it's another million dollars to the other building.
[2:34:29] We'll make, okay, maybe I'm confused.
[2:34:33] We're buying a building and we already have a building.
[2:34:36] We don't, we don't own the other building.
[2:34:39] We're just, Lisa.
[2:34:39] I know, and that's what's confusing me.
[2:34:42] We're releasing it, boom, the lease is over, now we're on our own.
[2:34:49] It's a million dollars.
[2:34:52] Okay.
[2:34:53] So we have that savings, but that doesn't continue on.
[2:34:58] We don't get a million dollars for 12 years
[2:35:02] while this tries to pay itself out.
[2:35:05] I suppose if I could put it a different way, councilmember,
[2:35:08] where if we stayed at the other building,
[2:35:11] We would pay a million dollars a year.
[2:35:18] One of them trying to say is, for one, the first year you're going to get a million dollars
[2:35:23] because you're not paying that. You're not paying that.
[2:35:27] Correct.
[2:35:28] The next year, you're going to say that you're going to pay that.
[2:35:32] You're not going to pay it again or you're going to pay it again.
[2:35:34] We're not going to pay it.
[2:35:36] Okay, so we're not going to have, we have a million dollars in here's income.
[2:35:43] We're not going to have that the next year.
[2:35:49] I'm doing my best counts remember, but I would just reiterate that is an ongoing savings
[2:35:56] every year.
[2:36:07] It's ongoing savings.
[2:36:13] That doesn't make any sense.
[2:36:16] Does it make any sense whatsoever?
[2:36:18] We're going to pay this off and pay a million bucks.
[2:36:21] We're not going to get that money on million dollars every year.
[2:36:28] So, and then we're going to take that money and we're going to do whatever we want to, but it's not going to be a savings of a million dollars every year.
[2:36:38] It's a one-shot deal, one-year deal.
[2:36:49] Again, I feel like I've answered this question best I can.
[2:36:52] It isn't annual savings.
[2:36:55] Okay. Well, maybe in years, but in the real world, you get one million dollars.
[2:37:02] the next year you don't get a million dollars. You have to pay it. And the whole thing is just ridiculous.
[2:37:16] That's an over-spit.
[2:37:20] Thank you, Mayor.
[2:37:25] I think the City of Vegas field has been fiscally responsible.
[2:37:30] Bull over the years with various city councils. And I think that this purchase is very similar to what past city councils have done, are 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.
[2:37:58] And it's been 20 some years since we bought that building.
[2:38:01] I know you weren't here, but do you know any details on that?
[2:38:06] Mr. Helen has done some of that homework.
[2:38:08] Believe it was purchased in 1993 for $13 million.
[2:38:12] I thought it was early $2,000.
[2:38:14] Or is it $1,000?
[2:38:15] Okay.
[2:38:16] How that compares?
[2:38:18] I did.
[2:38:18] I did some research.
[2:38:19] So in 2005, it was purchased for $13 million.
[2:38:24] So 21 years ago.
[2:38:25] 21 years ago, it's half the size.
[2:38:27] 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.
[2:38:38] Correct.
[2:38:39] Seems like a good deal to me.
[2:38:43] Ownership to me is always better than leasing.
[2:38:47] I mean, leasing as state goes on forever in 12 years from now,
[2:38:54] We would continue to pay that million, probably million, two million, three by then.
[2:39:01] And instead of paying that out as lease payments, we now own the building, and that
[2:39:08] million, two million, three can go to higher and more police.
[2:39:14] So I think it's a great deal, and I appreciate staff working on it, and I'm in favor of it.
[2:39:21] Thank you.
[2:39:22] Thank you.
[2:39:24] Yes. Thank you Mayor. Thank you to staff for all the work that they've done on this item.
[2:39:29] I think it's a great opportunity. I just have a couple of comments, but I would like to ask
[2:39:35] who whoever was a part of the team who kind of did the walkthroughs and did the due diligence
[2:39:41] work, taking the tours, taking a look at all of the deferred maintenance. If I could ask you to
[2:39:48] come to the mic, would love to learn more about what that deferred
[2:39:52] mean is investigation looked like, what were the findings?
[2:39:59] It's just me.
[2:40:02] So we actually received direction and closed session to have external vendors
[2:40:10] come in and look at all of the everything.
[2:40:14] And we did, we used several vendors to look at elevators, 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 all the way up until July.
[2:40:41] There were some concerns that we saw coming through the building because as was stated, it's a 50-year-old building, right?
[2:40:50] So there's going to be some things that do need to be fixed, but nothing that wasn't that was a red flag as City Manager clerks had.
[2:40:59] Nothing that couldn't be fixed over the next five years, ten years, that we could schedule in regular CIPs over time.
[2:41:07] So some of the things that we said,
[2:41:13] hey, these are really big fixes.
[2:41:16] We did go back to the seller during that period of time
[2:41:21] between July and coming back to Council.
[2:41:24] And we had some more negotiations to say,
[2:41:28] hey, these are some very large items.
[2:41:30] We would like you to come down on price
[2:41:32] because those are going to be heavy costs for us
[2:41:35] that we need to consider over the next five years, 10 years, and so we did get a deduct and we
[2:41:41] showed that in the presentation today. So, partly we feel that those ongoing maintenance things
[2:41:50] we can solve over the next five years. We have an excellent property manager, so the property manager
[2:41:57] is Mel Atkinson's MD Atkinson's group.
[2:42:02] They had been property manager there for,
[2:42:05] I don't know as long as anyone can remember,
[2:42:07] they know that building really well.
[2:42:10] And we've already started to work with them
[2:42:13] to try to address some of the immediate things
[2:42:16] that we can get done before we move in.
[2:42:19] So I'm going to add a quick answer to your question.
[2:42:21] I was just at two quick items as Mr. Allen pointed out,
[2:42:25] but it's been professionally managed over the years,
[2:42:28] and so they've had a robust maintenance schedule.
[2:42:30] They've kept up on the regular maintenance,
[2:42:33] about a half a million dollars a year in just maintenance costs
[2:42:38] that's typically expended, keep it up on things.
[2:42:43] And when we talk about things that repairs we know
[2:42:46] will need to happen in the next five to 10 years,
[2:42:48] they aren't deferred things that have fallen behind.
[2:42:51] They're just the useful life of the elevators.
[2:42:53] we know is going to be up at a certain point, but that's the price of owning a building
[2:42:59] as you're going to have to, every once in a while, replace it roof, every once
[2:43:02] in a more, replace it in elevator, and nothing is beyond its regular life cycle.
[2:43:07] We just know in the next five to ten we're going to have some of those replacements to make.
[2:43:12] I'll just point out that it was just last summer that we had to replace several elevators
[2:43:18] in city all north as a standard practice for owning any asset or building.
[2:43:24] So I appreciate that, I know that there was some out in the community that had questions
[2:43:28] about due diligence and the deferred maintenance, so I appreciate you stepping in, Gary,
[2:43:33] to share that with us.
[2:43:36] I would just like to make a comment that we have a responsibility to a certain degree to
[2:43:43] make sure that we are ensuring that these properties, especially these larger buildings, do not
[2:43:54] lay vacant for very long.
[2:43:57] In 2009, I'm reminded that it was a previous council that stepped up when the Padre Hotel
[2:44:06] fell short by almost $2 million during their construction and renovation project, a multimillion
[2:44:13] dollar project. They tapped out all other financing mechanisms and they had nobody to look
[2:44:21] to other than the city of Bakerstil and the city of Bakerstil in the council at that time
[2:44:26] stepped up and borrowed money from the federal government to actually make good on that short
[2:44:32] fall for the property owner. And so I shared that because this is not something new to this council
[2:44:39] So this is not something new to this administration for the city of Bakersfield.
[2:44:42] This is something that, you know, previous Councils have done to get creative, to innovate and to continue to fight for downtown Bakersfield.
[2:44:51] So, with that, I'm happy to join my colleagues in supporting this item tonight.
[2:44:56] Thank you, Council Mayor Oarius.
[2:44:57] I don't see any additional requests to speak.
[2:45:00] So you have a motion by Council Member Gonzalez to support staff's recommendation. Please catch your votes.
[2:45:14] The motion is approved with Council Members Weir and Bashir Tashvoting No and Vice-Mercor absent.
[2:45:20] Thank you. Next item, please.
[2:45:24] New Business Item 11A, contingency funds for clean city special project, $500,000 for clean up of a major illegal dumping site, consisting of 50 acres located in the southeast,
[2:45:36] South of Brook Street, East of Hale Street, and adjacent to East Plans Avenue.
[2:45:43] Mr. Clark.
[2:45:44] Thank you, Mayor.
[2:45:44] Council.
[2:45:45] Mr. Gary Howell and we'll present this item.
[2:45:49] All right.
[2:45:51] So Council members all talk briefly about this.
[2:45:55] There are several very large chronic nuisance properties in the city.
[2:46:00] We have a clean city's team that focuses on many of those chronic nuisance properties.
[2:46:06] basically sees not only focuses on properties that are of major issue, but also, you know, in
[2:46:13] our right way and in other areas, but this has been one that they are codenforcement or rapid
[2:46:21] response. All of the teams have been focusing on over the last several years. In fact, today,
[2:46:30] I don't know the exact number, but I know we've had multiple rounds of cleanup from our codenforcement
[2:46:36] team of this site. And as you will see through the presentation, it's just band-dades over a
[2:46:43] bullhole. They're making small dents and trying to do some cleanup here, but the scale and the
[2:46:50] condition of the site is getting to a point where it's becoming a real help and safety risk.
[2:46:56] So that's what we're before you tonight. The other thing I want to add is their images you're
[2:47:05] are because of our excellent drones.
[2:47:09] There's been some talk about cameras and drones.
[2:47:12] I mean, I'm a believer in technology,
[2:47:14] so I believe let's use it if we have it.
[2:47:16] Our water department has some incredible drones
[2:47:18] because they need them to monitor and manage our water facilities.
[2:47:23] So they've helped us out taking some still shots
[2:47:26] of some of the most difficult areas.
[2:47:30] I will say the majority of this debris
[2:47:33] is probably construction debris is what I would call it, whether it's I don't
[2:47:40] think we'd have we have too much wood debris there was a comment about there's
[2:47:45] a lot of wood debris out there there there's some wood debris out there but mostly
[2:47:50] construction you'll see chunks massive chunks of asphalt, massive chunks of
[2:47:57] So instead of going to the dump, they use the site, you'll see pallets, you'll see drywall,
[2:48:05] you'll see a boat, you'll see abandoned cars, you'll see abandoned trailers.
[2:48:12] So it's, again, one of our, one of our largest efforts.
[2:48:17] And it's been difficult for the private property to defend it.
[2:48:22] and we'll talk a little bit more about our work with the private property owner, and he's here tonight.
[2:48:29] If you represent his or here tonight as well, I think another major issue on this site is there are a large number of people living there.
[2:48:38] This is where they call home. Some of these drone images, you'll see where they've created these tents and shanties and
[2:48:47] and villages, which that's a very unsafe place to to call your place of home there. So
[2:48:57] part of this cleanup is a coordinated effort with making sure that homeless resources are
[2:49:04] brought out there so these people can can be moved off on the appropriate way.
[2:49:14] Just a little bit on clean cities. There's probably seven departments that are
[2:49:19] and zone in this effort. So I think it's probably the largest multi-department effort that
[2:49:27] we've got in the city. I'm proud of those teams. I know we did a larger presentation to
[2:49:33] Council previously on what's going on there. But that image to the right is really probably
[2:49:41] the most inhabited part of that area. And it's right in the heart of some of the parcels and
[2:49:49] We'll zoom out to some of the maps, but these teams work very well together.
[2:49:54] I will say the coordination is excellent, impact team or BPD team is working well with rapid
[2:50:01] response.
[2:50:02] They have co-response teams that work hand in hand and solid waste is right there with them.
[2:50:07] Again, we've got a river, water department that helps us park rangers or helping and then we've
[2:50:15] outside partners with other vendors that come and help on private jobs and then obviously
[2:50:22] of property owners. So this is the effort that we're asking to undertake with some
[2:50:32] of these funds that we're asking to come out of contingencies. Obviously we need to remove
[2:50:37] the debris and help remove the homeless. We need to make sure that we're continuing to take
[2:50:44] appropriate steps and appropriate measures. Obviously, this is going to happen over time,
[2:50:50] this is not going to happen tomorrow. We're not going to run out there and do this if approved,
[2:50:56] but it'll take some time to tease some of this stuff up. And then lastly, the biggest problem
[2:51:03] is people can just drive in here and we'll I'll show you some of the sections of the maps where
[2:51:09] this is why construction debris is on this side, it's because people just drive their trucks in
[2:51:14] and unload here. And so we've got to pinch those off and put barriers there in some
[2:51:19] of these locations and we've got kind of a plan and a map that outlines. So this is that
[2:51:28] some of those maps, so to share a little bit of where this is. So this is we're calling it
[2:51:34] our East Plan site because it's basically as far east as you can go on plans before you get to
[2:51:40] treatment plant too. It's right next to Hale, Hale Street, and Brook Street. It's just east of
[2:51:50] Cottonwood or South MLK. And some of these barriers that we've been able to track down is actually through
[2:51:59] our code through our public worship apartment, has that a killer job of finding about 100 sticks of
[2:52:06] which is about 2000 feet. We would need to procure that with some of this money that we're
[2:52:12] asking to be set aside. We've worked with the property owner and they have agreed to put in
[2:52:19] some gates at some of these difficult points. There's already some berms there so if you're saying
[2:52:25] we just put in the whole thing, you know, with electrified Fencing K-Rail.
[2:52:30] We just don't have that much money, but some of the berms provide a barrier.
[2:52:36] The other site that's just south of this isn't really not saying this is an area that needs
[2:52:42] to be cleaned up, but it's an access, almost like a highway to get to this dumping site.
[2:52:48] And so this is a little further south. It's south of Brook, white lane. You can see it goes dead ends
[2:52:56] right into the middle of this site.
[2:52:58] But we've identified K-ray on barriers and gates.
[2:53:02] Part of having gates there, you may be asking that question.
[2:53:06] Because fire does need to get into this site.
[2:53:10] And so they'll have noxboxes on it.
[2:53:13] So fires only one can access it if they need to put out fires
[2:53:16] or in the middle of this site.
[2:53:18] They'll be able to access it.
[2:53:20] Again, fire was a part of this team to help us identify
[2:53:24] appropriate locations. So this is the funding and the plan. We're asking for $500,000 of
[2:53:34] CAP contingency funds to make a really big dent in this health and safety area. This is a
[2:53:43] referral from council number RAS to set aside some money and contingency funds and really to partner
[2:53:50] with the property owner. The key point as part of this is whatever resources we're spending,
[2:53:59] we are going to lean the property owner. We've told property owner this, this is part of what we do,
[2:54:05] is ultimately if there's a transaction in a cell, those lanes are paid off. And so we do
[2:54:11] recoup our money when there's a transaction that's a part of this. So there's one piece of property
[2:54:19] that's an outside area owner.
[2:54:21] And then the rest of the property is owned by Mr. Serra.
[2:54:26] So some of these lanes, you know,
[2:54:29] have transacted on could be repaid, which is a good thing
[2:54:34] for us to recoup some of this investment.
[2:54:37] Obviously, there needs to be ongoing enforcement after this.
[2:54:41] And so that again is a part of the plan for this major site.
[2:54:49] Thank you, Mr. Helen. Mr. Clerk, do you have any further comments?
[2:54:53] Thank you, Mayor. I do not.
[2:54:54] Thank you and Madam City Clerk for the record. Council member, where has left.
[2:55:00] He's up to eight. PM.
[2:55:03] Council member, Areas.
[2:55:05] Thank you, Mayor.
[2:55:07] Thank you, Gary, for the presentation and thanks.
[2:55:09] We call Gary our quarterback or our head coach for all of the major master planning
[2:55:14] and development that's happening out in MLK Boulevard,
[2:55:16] and he's just been amazing with every punch
[2:55:21] that has thrown our way, Gary's, Gary's ready for it.
[2:55:25] So definitely appreciate you, Gary.
[2:55:29] Last Tuesday, I was out at this property,
[2:55:33] went there around 730, Nuri's, who was here earlier today,
[2:55:39] made comment about some other issues that were having in the neighborhood,
[2:55:41] Walked it with me and actually organized a good group of about 12 different residents.
[2:55:49] And imagine this, you walk behind your property into what should be your backyard.
[2:55:55] And you've got mountains of debris, concrete, just spread everywhere.
[2:56:01] You've got homeless encampments all around.
[2:56:05] In fact, there was about six or so dogs that were trying to chase this off the property.
[2:56:10] And as we walked deeper into this essentially dump site, we were actually getting yelled at by some of the individuals who were homeless and requesting that we get off of their property.
[2:56:29] Can you imagine that as a property owner, if your house is just a rocks throw away from where
[2:56:37] you're at?
[2:56:38] That was the reality for so many of these individuals later that evening there was actually
[2:56:44] a vehicle that drove up right beside us, they waved right past us and they thought that
[2:56:52] they were going to pull into their backyard instead they pulled into one of the homeless
[2:56:56] So there are vehicles in use, there are vehicles that are out of use that have been dumped
[2:57:02] on the site.
[2:57:04] It's out of control.
[2:57:06] And there are certainly other hotspots in Ward 1 and in Southeast Bakersfield.
[2:57:12] Nothing quite like this.
[2:57:15] And so I would just ask that this Council will take this into serious consideration that this is not just an
[2:57:23] investment on this particular property.
[2:57:25] But actually, I see this as an opportunity for us
[2:57:29] to procure some of the materials and equipment
[2:57:31] that we're going to be able to need to prevent future dumping.
[2:57:35] Because we know that as soon as we block off,
[2:57:38] this particular 40 acres, folks are going to go somewhere else.
[2:57:43] And so I hope that we have our team
[2:57:45] who's ready as soon as we bait this,
[2:57:47] we're going to have to prepare for where folks
[2:57:51] are going to go next in order to dump.
[2:57:53] I might also add that also towards the end of last Tuesday,
[2:57:58] as we were getting ready to finish the conversation,
[2:58:02] there was a clearly a company vehicle
[2:58:05] who had just gotten done dumping just a few moments
[2:58:10] before we were able to actually see them do get caught in the act.
[2:58:14] So it's an ongoing problem.
[2:58:18] I think that there are certainly some things
[2:58:19] that we could do better on the enforcement side of the problem.
[2:58:25] I'm grateful to Chief Stratton, who we had a great conversation about some of the ways
[2:58:30] that we can tackle from an enforcement standpoint, but certainly in order to move projects
[2:58:38] forward and to see growth in Southeast Bakersfield, that this is going to be one of the
[2:58:44] essential steps in order to make that happen.
[2:58:47] So with that, I would like to move approval of this item.
[2:58:51] And look forward to any questions or comments for my colleague.
[2:58:54] Thank you.
[2:58:54] Thank you.
[2:58:55] Thank you, Commissioner Ares, Council Member Beeschier, Cash.
[2:59:02] Is this city property or is this owned by a private person, slash company?
[2:59:09] It is private property.
[2:59:11] It is private property.
[2:59:11] Why is city spending the rest of the taxpayer money to help one person in his property?
[2:59:17] he doesn't remember.
[2:59:18] I think that's a good question.
[2:59:20] Typically, when we have large abatements like this that pose a public health and safety risk,
[2:59:27] we'll do code enforcement action, abate the property, and then assess the costs to that property
[2:59:34] that were taxpayer costs to later be recovered.
[2:59:37] So I have 10 acres down by Cal State LA, just vacant land.
[2:59:41] As soon as the grass gets over like a certain height, I get a letter in the mail threatening
[2:59:45] thousands of dollars that they're going to cut to lean on my property and take my property
[2:59:49] Anyway, if I don't, I just think of all the mom-and-bops that are closing doors, just
[2:59:54] got notice of a grocery store closing in my ward because of this, I don't understand
[2:59:57] why we're spending, we're going to spend a half a million dollars of clean.
[3:00:00] Now, with all the respect, I mean, if you buy a piece of property, you should take care of it. I would hate to call the city if someone's dog group to my friend yard and made the city come pick it up. Am I missing something? Was this, 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.
[3:00:30] to pursue this abatement.
[3:00:32] We don't have the money in our budget to do an abatement of this size proactively to then assess it against the property.
[3:00:40] And so this would front load that, but that's going to subject to the purview of the council.
[3:00:45] Number two, we have a two to some of your points.
[3:00:51] We've done much of the same things you mentioned.
[3:00:55] We've sent letters.
[3:00:55] we've done code enforcement, you know, actions on this property, but there, at a certain point,
[3:01:02] there is a public good need to do some of these large statements to ensure that, you know,
[3:01:08] these type of conditions don't continue. But, and I've sort of already mentioned it, but
[3:01:12] lastly, ultimately, it is the property owner's responsibility. We're stepping in for the public
[3:01:19] good to make that happen more quickly. And again, try to recover those costs later.
[3:01:25] So, this is 100% the owners responsibility to do, that is correct.
[3:01:30] Might I just add I think there is an enforcement aspect that I think that is appropriate
[3:01:36] for us to aid in and assist in, but it is the property under responsibility.
[3:01:43] Yeah.
[3:01:43] I mean, I definitely feel because, you know, we deal with, I mean, they go out and if they arrest
[3:01:48] every homeless person there, they're going to be in and out of Lerado the same day and
[3:01:51] we're going to be dealing with the same problem, but that's the spikes, that's the size
[3:01:54] a point because every other business owner that gets terrorized by these people that we seem
[3:01:58] to not be able to deal with because we don't have the money to deal with them.
[3:02:02] They have to pay to fix their businesses.
[3:02:04] That lady who got her business window shot out probably had to pay for her window to be
[3:02:07] repaired.
[3:02:09] This sets such a dangerous precedent as a council for the rest of the city.
[3:02:15] I mean, that's this scares me.
[3:02:18] I mean, I could only imagine what would come down the tube when any other business.
[3:02:21] I mean, I spend $360,000 a year on private security to deal with this kind of stuff, it would...
[3:02:33] I have nothing else to say, I mean, I'm just, I'm kind of shocked.
[3:02:46] Councilmember Smith.
[3:02:49] Thank you, Mayor.
[3:02:51] So, I want to explore the lane idea a little bit.
[3:02:55] So, you said there will be a lane on the property.
[3:03:01] This burns can probably speak to it.
[3:03:04] Code enforcement on a regular basis brings their
[3:03:09] leans to council and I think month after I was going to say
[3:03:12] on my every time we've got them 40.
[3:03:14] That's right.
[3:03:15] That's right.
[3:03:16] That's right.
[3:03:17] This would be counseling.
[3:03:18] So it's very similar situation.
[3:03:21] We do it all the time.
[3:03:22] We go out and we clean up property and we put a lean on.
[3:03:25] That's correct.
[3:03:27] But I mean, this obviously is much more substantial.
[3:03:31] 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 it 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?
[3:04:04] Councilman Smith, it the leans get placed on the tax roll, how it would roll to some
[3:04:11] subdivision. I'm not sure how that would play out.
[3:04:18] This is kind of a typical process
[3:04:19] of a good enforcement case. If you think about like our demo on just traveling, same thing,
[3:04:25] very, very sizable, way exceeds our budget funds to do an action. So I guess I see this
[3:04:35] similar to to others, large cleanups that we have, not exactly sure how a track map would
[3:04:44] impact funding or if that would, it had to have a title person how that would work out.
[3:04:52] Well I mean, the question is, do I expect it to be payback all a once or as it's parceled
[3:05:01] We typically, our leans are not paid back all at once and often they're part of a payback
[3:05:08] pool that just gets, you know, that comes in in smaller increments over time.
[3:05:13] Well, I mean typically it's, yeah, random lots here, they're everywhere, but if this is
[3:05:18] one, so then, and we food thought as it gets subdivided, how are we going to work through
[3:05:26] But the point is, is it will get paid back
[3:05:33] if it's developed and it's got a lot better
[3:05:37] chance of being developed if it's cleaned up.
[3:05:42] The access you mentioned there's berms, I mean it looks like from the picture, yeah, I could
[3:05:47] just drive my dump truck on plans road, but there is, I didn't see a picture, yeah, we didn't
[3:05:55] show pictures.
[3:05:56] So there are berms all along those other access.
[3:06:01] Yes, so you, I think there's significant berms on the very east side.
[3:06:08] You can see that there's that road.
[3:06:10] So adjacent, if we zoomed out a little bit, you'll see that we have our farm, one of our
[3:06:16] farm.
[3:06:16] Right to the east.
[3:06:18] So you see that that road, there's a berm there that's on that side, and then on
[3:06:23] plans there's also a berm.
[3:06:24] Okay, so the K-Rail is so that all-long plans is difficult to access because of the burn.
[3:06:35] Yeah, just the roads that go through that we need to.
[3:06:39] The section that's in that northwest corner is where people are entering now.
[3:06:46] You can drive along the very western edge down and then loop down
[3:06:51] or you can just get in immediately and then head over on the east side.
[3:06:59] So, is there existing signage?
[3:07:02] I mean, that is part of, because what's going to be added in it is part of its education.
[3:07:10] If it looks like a dump, it must be a dump, and I go take my stuff there,
[3:07:16] if there's no
[3:07:17] signing saying, you know, the real dump is at this other location.
[3:07:23] We can certainly add that to the project that's easy to post signs.
[3:07:28] We did just a few weeks.
[3:07:30] Weeks ago got the no trespassing and so we'll be installing those no trespassing signs with this project as well.
[3:07:38] 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 statements that we see is just a different scale. Good work. Thank you.
[3:07:57] Thank you, Council Member Smith, and City Clerk, Council Member, where has returned and he retorted 809.
[3:08:06] Council Member Gonzalez.
[3:08:08] Thank you, Mayor.
[3:08:09] Okay, so I appreciate in the presentation.
[3:08:11] You said the cleanup alone will not solve the problem because that had been on my mind for a few days now.
[3:08:18] The last thing I want us to do is try to bait the property only to see this problem continue and have us, you know, back here again trying to resolve this issue.
[3:08:26] I'm just going to clarify, I thought I heard there's two properties that are problematic
[3:08:33] or between this map and so there's actually five parcels that are between these two
[3:08:43] maps. So there's two parcels on this map. There's the northern parcel that is adjacent
[3:08:50] he's plans, and then if Brook kept going, you'd see that there's the parcel that's just above
[3:08:58] Brook, and then as we go to this, so this is just south of that Brook Street, so between
[3:09:05] Brook and White and between White and the end of that map, those are there are three more
[3:09:13] parcels in that section there. Okay, so with all those five parcels, how many unique,
[3:09:19] different property owners are there. I believe there's two owners. Yeah, two unique owners. Okay and
[3:09:26] and one owner has been responsible or have they both been responsible? So one owner is here tonight
[3:09:31] at this meeting and one owner has been very difficult to engage with. And so this 500,000 is to
[3:09:41] address all parcels, all five parcels. It's to address all five parcels related to being able
[3:09:51] to get into the site, to more to make it impenetrable. And then the majority of the cleanup
[3:09:57] is here on these two parcels. That's where the majority of, where the homeless living were
[3:10:04] most of the dumping has occurred.
[3:10:06] There is some dumping on these two parcels,
[3:10:11] but the lion's share of what the team has assessed
[3:10:15] and some of the bids that we're starting not bids,
[3:10:20] but evaluation that we've gotten from some of the teams,
[3:10:24] it's in these two parcels,
[3:10:26] which is where it most of the dumping's been occurring.
[3:10:28] Okay, got it.
[3:10:29] Okay, because typically when we have chronic nuisance properties,
[3:10:32] The reason why their chronic nuisance properties is because the property owner has been
[3:10:40] unresponsive for extended period of time.
[3:10:43] Code enforcement has done a great job trying to address the issue, trying to cite the
[3:10:48] property owner much to Mr. Tash's point with his experience in properties in NLA.
[3:10:56] Code enforcement does that, but still, the property owner remains unresponsive, does not
[3:11:01] do anything with the property and so it leaves the city with no other choice but to take some sort
[3:11:07] of action. Because without that action, there's such a negative impact to the surrounding
[3:11:14] neighborhood, to the poor residents like Mr. Arya's constituent and they end up having to pay
[3:11:22] that negative externality by being impacted by all of these things that happen on this property.
[3:11:29] So ultimately, the city has to respond through code enforcement.
[3:11:34] The issue here is that the cost to mitigate to address this problem, far exceeds the
[3:11:43] code enforcement's budget to address these issues.
[3:11:47] And that's why this item is coming today.
[3:11:50] This is not unique to the city.
[3:11:52] I mean, the city does this stuff all the time, but what is unique is the dollar amount for
[3:11:57] particular property. And I think that's the challenge that I'm trying to
[3:12:02] wrap around in my head because I'm not sure,
[3:12:08] just as a policy matter,
[3:12:16] I'm not
[3:12:17] quite sure as a policy matter, given the fact that we have a responsive
[3:12:21] property owner, how we should best proceed. You know, one of the ideas
[3:12:28] that we've initiated a few years ago that I think
[3:12:34] was one of the best ideas for the city of Bakerfield
[3:12:37] is this receivership program is allowing for us to bring in the courts to help us
[3:12:43] take and make some action on these properties. And we've done some good work in my
[3:12:47] award and actually throughout the city now because of that tool to address some of these
[3:12:51] chronic nuisance properties. But here that's not the case. Let me ask you a couple more
[3:12:57] questions before I throw out some ideas.
[3:13:00] One is, have we spent some time observing the rate
[3:13:05] at which the construction debris has accumulated the property?
[3:13:13] I think code monitors this property,
[3:13:20] and they would be the best person to answer that.
[3:13:25] I know in the last four years that we've been talking about this property, it has evident flow of
[3:13:33] because of code has taken certain actions to reduce some of that construction debris, and then it just comes right back.
[3:13:41] And I don't know how fast it comes back and the frequency and when are the peaks and valleys of that, I'm not sure, but we can research that.
[3:13:51] It would be helpful to know because, I mean, the pretty nasty photos, it's awful looking.
[3:13:57] But, you know, is that after a year, is that after a week, is that after a month, it would
[3:14:03] be helpful to know really the severity of the issue, because, you know, there are some other
[3:14:09] steps that have weren't listed here that I think we ought to take.
[3:14:12] Number one is, you know, we invested significantly.
[3:14:15] this council has invested in bulky waste clean-ups and doing mobile clean-ups and mobile pick
[3:14:23] are what do we call it mobile pick up mobile location drop off drop off thank you thank you
[3:14:29] but you know again part of our clean city initiative we have more services now available to
[3:14:36] as an instance, I think, ever, we need to, I like, you know, Mr.
[3:14:43] Lagi's comment, we need to be more proactive in our effort to do outreach to these construction
[3:14:51] companies.
[3:14:52] And also, I would like us to, in-profits has already been done, but I would like us to
[3:14:59] spin.
[3:15:00] And some more time on-site, either through private security, existing private security contract, or by-staff, to monitor
[3:15:12] those bad actors, and to, in real time, provide them some education of what the appropriate process is.
[3:15:22] That this, in fact, is not dumping site to Mr. Smith's comment earlier.
[3:15:31] But the last thing I think is that this really is about economic development.
[3:15:38] This is really ultimately what we want to do here is not just clean up the site.
[3:15:42] If we zoom out from a city council perspective, but we really want to see, and we really
[3:15:48] want to see with all of these chronic news properties is a better and higher use of that property.
[3:15:55] What we want to see on this particular property, all these parcels, are new construction,
[3:16:03] you know, new homes, housing development, we want to see, you know, families living on
[3:16:07] these properties.
[3:16:08] Ultimately, that is the solution.
[3:16:12] So the question now, my mind is, how do we get there?
[3:16:14] How do we get to that development?
[3:16:16] Obviously, this particular problem is a real burden barrier to to see that property developed.
[3:16:30] And so from my lens, I don't see this as a response to a nuisance in the way of code enforcement.
[3:16:37] I really see this as an economic development tool.
[3:16:41] So similar to what we do with tax increment financing, for example,
[3:16:45] 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 the revenue generated by a better use through property tax increases will allow the city to actually recoup those funds in the future.
[3:17:14] That's the way I kind of take a look at this project.
[3:17:17] And so I understand there may not be, you know,
[3:17:21] I know that there may not be a TIFF mechanism for this particular
[3:17:25] development, this particular use.
[3:17:28] I know that the, what is it?
[3:17:30] The EIFDs typically are related to public infrastructure
[3:17:35] investments and specifically for affordable housing.
[3:17:39] So, I'm not sure there's a good mechanism yet that the state has provided for cities, but I think that through that lens I can see us pursuing this strategy, you know, again for the purposes of economic development.
[3:18:00] So, yeah, I'll support it. Thanks.
[3:18:03] Thank you, consumer with Gonzales, consumer with Coleman.
[3:18:11] Thank you, Mayor.
[3:18:12] So, I have similar policy matter concerns about this.
[3:18:22] First of all, this is the same property that the more partners were here about last meeting
[3:18:31] where they had spent money and then you know what I'm talking about?
[3:18:38] Yeah, let me go there.
[3:18:40] That's the property of the.
[3:18:42] Okay, so they already spent money cleaning this up, and then the offenders went and dumped more stuff on there.
[3:18:51] All right, so is there a breakdown?
[3:18:55] I don't, maybe you showed it to me, maybe I missed it.
[3:18:58] Is there a breakdown of how this $500,000 is going to be spent?
[3:19:05] Did I see that in there?
[3:19:06] Did I miss that?
[3:19:07] No.
[3:19:09] I think there's a kind of multi-pronged approach.
[3:19:15] We don't have a line item budget in this presentation,
[3:19:20] but based on the teams recommendation,
[3:19:22] obviously barriers will be of a cost.
[3:19:27] We have an access of 200 trucks,
[3:19:32] truckloads of how many trucks have to go to the dump
[3:19:35] to put this where it belonged.
[3:19:37] So, that's really the majority of the cost, I mean, the barriers or some cost getting the heavy machinery out there to move, you know, the massive piles around, but it's equipment, trucks, and manpower to get stuff done.
[3:19:56] So one of the things I struggle with here is that, and I appreciate the more partners
[3:20:04] in their diligence on this parcel and the things they're doing on the East Side Town,
[3:20:13] but at the time when I get beat up every time I see Richard Chapman from economic development
[3:20:20] corporation because he's on me about the call-cut buildings that it burnt over there
[3:20:26] and just piles of rubble and we can't seem to get those cleaned up. We don't have
[3:20:32] money in our budget for us to do it and so you know but now we're looking for half
[3:20:38] a million dollars to clean up you know some other place and so that's where I get into
[3:20:45] that policy question. If we do it once, we have to do it everywhere. Where do we draw
[3:20:52] a lot? How do we make that case? So I'm struggling a little bit with this one. Any
[3:21:04] you can talk about prevention, be size these barriers like you're going to start having
[3:21:11] Please helicopter fly over it, you know, whenever they're around or whatever, I don't know.
[3:21:18] To start trying to do some affordable.
[3:21:21] So in our secure column there, we talk about bringing in some,
[3:21:27] but before this develops bringing in some temp lighting, obviously,
[3:21:33] we'll just talk about it was maybe some on-site surveillance, having some extra security out there.
[3:21:38] We would not be using any of our dollars to do this.
[3:21:41] This would be private property owner would need to do some of these things.
[3:21:48] We would just want to make sure there's, it's impenetrable from a barrier standpoint and then they would need to do some investment of lighting on site private surveillance.
[3:22:03] I think the one thing I would add to what Gary had shared was that we have discussed
[3:22:09] the, you know, as the concept of changing a little bit how we do legal dumping enforcement
[3:22:18] has come up, can we put some cameras up, can we do some additional illegal dumping enforcement
[3:22:25] that has been contemplated for this site and just, you know, I-
[3:22:30] I know you're saying a tongue-in-cheat council member, but I have to clarify for the public record. We do not have a police helicopter.
[3:22:41] 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 our policy is going to be about.
[3:23:00] And I know it's not just the call cut, there's other ones around too, and we can dump
[3:23:07] a couple million bucks in these things pretty quickly.
[3:23:11] And so two things, one is things like K-Rail and those kind of things we ought to have.
[3:23:18] If we need to have it, is there some other means by which we can buy those and have them
[3:23:25] where we use them a different project, but I'd like to have, I think that maybe a more robust
[3:23:36] conversation about what we're going to do by all these sites around, and there's several
[3:23:41] of them.
[3:23:42] You know, we can all think of two or three off top of our head, and I know what the city's
[3:23:47] approach is going to be to those, because I don't want to dump a $500,000 lean on it.
[3:23:52] guys property that we may, you know, we may see it, but you know, if you have a dollar
[3:24:00] town investor that owns the land that, you know, he is father bought it before him. I don't know
[3:24:06] the case exactly, but, you know, he might not care. So we might be, you know, 10, 20 years before that
[3:24:15] problems that were developed. So, I don't know. I just, I just, I'm stumbling over this right now.
[3:24:21] If I may, Councilmember, just as we developed our economic development strategic plan,
[3:24:31] this Council asks us to also develop a rubric set of criteria for making decisions about economic development
[3:24:37] incentives. There could be an opportunity to also we have a chronic nuisance program that the staff
[3:24:45] actually spends a lot of time ranking properties at our chronic nuisance is under a certain
[3:24:51] set of criteria. Another, you know, potential, you know, thought from the Council going forward
[3:24:58] is to first have to develop a set of criteria that could be used as a framework for making decisions
[3:25:06] about these very unique large chronic nuisance properties.
[3:25:10] It would be, in my mind, it would actually be fairly similar
[3:25:12] to the economic development incentive criteria.
[3:25:16] And we have a few different tools in the tool belt.
[3:25:18] We do have the abatement process.
[3:25:20] We're working on a lean forgiveness policy
[3:25:25] that would be available in instances where it's creating.
[3:25:30] You've got a new ownership and you're going to generate
[3:25:34] new economic activity, do you look at those leans and so just food for a thought for the
[3:25:41] council that could be a future action for staff as to develop a certain criteria that council
[3:25:45] could use in making these kind of decisions because there are rare number of times where we
[3:25:53] would suggest, hey let's use additional dollars to address a significant issue but to some of
[3:26:04] create opportunities and address problems that come to the good of the community ultimately and there are ways that we could measure that in a reasonable framework.
[3:26:20] One other idea just to add to see Manager CLEG is also in kind of the economic development
[3:26:30] mindset, having the property owner have some sort of commitment.
[3:26:36] And what I'm hearing you say is maybe we want to see this developed in five to 10 years.
[3:26:42] Maybe they have some sort of what if we invest 500,000 that there needs
[3:26:47] be some sort of additional commitment out of them that we see this property develop, you know,
[3:26:54] and some sort of criteria that aligns to what CMander was talking about with the economic
[3:27:01] government framework.
[3:27:03] Yeah, I don't know if I know the answers to those questions.
[3:27:06] I think I'm imposing the question right more than answering them so for my money I'd like
[3:27:12] see us have a further discussion about that.
[3:27:17] In support of it, I will make one comment that the council took a very, very conservative
[3:27:25] approach to preparing this year's budget.
[3:27:28] And we purposely didn't act on some CIP, we decided to pull that and wait till mid-year to
[3:27:45] see how our numbers are going to work out before we committed any of that.
[3:27:49] So we had made some reservations,
[3:27:55] some contingency money, set aside for these kind of project
[3:27:58] I just like to know, I have a better understanding of what our policy is.
[3:28:03] So we don't have to have these conversations when these things come up that we know what
[3:28:08] we're going to do, we know what we're capable of doing, what we're not going to do.
[3:28:15] So I guess I'm going to have to think about if I would make a motion or anything.
[3:28:20] I don't know.
[3:28:21] That's all the questions I have.
[3:28:22] Thank you.
[3:28:23] Thank you.
[3:28:23] Thank you, Mayor.
[3:28:26] I just want to share that I appreciate the honest, you know, thinking and scrutiny of this
[3:28:33] allocation.
[3:28:34] I, too, share some of those concerns because I agree, you know, particularly in Council
[3:28:40] Member Gonzalez's district in mind, we have numerous of these properties and so I know that
[3:28:47] I can't come back for a second time when there's another, you know, 40-acre lot with
[3:28:53] similar problem, and so I think this is a unique opportunity, but I also want to make sure
[3:29:01] that we're also not losing sight of the fact that this is a compounding problem, not just
[3:29:07] for future economic development, but it's an immediate public safety issue, that the trash
[3:29:15] it's not on the screen anymore, but the debris stretches all the way back to our spreading
[3:29:20] fields and connects and abuts immediately, you know, an entire section of our one residential
[3:29:27] homes.
[3:29:28] So there are many community members, newaries, along with her neighbors, who are very concerned
[3:29:35] that when, not if, but when another fire breaks out, that fire may actually pose an immediate
[3:29:42] threat in harm to their property.
[3:29:44] And so, as Kaspar McGunzallas mentioned, we just don't have the funds in the budget today to
[3:29:51] debate this project.
[3:29:53] And so we need an additional allocation, like the one tonight in order to be able to debate.
[3:30:00] I'll share that just a couple of weeks ago from my count, it was the fourth fire in the span of
[3:30:09] about three months that fourth fire was the largest that I've seen on the property, but it actually
[3:30:29] The larger part of it in chunk was on the property of the property owner who we cannot get in contact with.
[3:30:37] And so even if we were to ask the investor to bait their side, they're still more than 50% that we could not get under control.
[3:30:49] So just wanted to share that and share that I appreciate that the concern and actually would like to ask what the appropriate committee would be for us to make a referral
[3:30:59] that committee take a look at, you know, what is that threshold for council to consider
[3:31:06] a level of investment and attention, frankly, like this?
[3:31:12] Councillor Morarius,
[3:31:16] at first blush, but we could also always come back and revisit that,
[3:31:21] but I actually think probably safe and healthy neighborhoods makes the most sense.
[3:31:26] Okay, then with that, I'll make that referral tonight.
[3:31:30] Thank you.
[3:31:32] Councilmember Smith.
[3:31:37] Thank you, Mayor.
[3:31:38] The referral does not apply to this.
[3:31:42] That's a separate referral that I'm hearing.
[3:31:49] I'm just thinking that I am correct in the developer.
[3:31:56] The one of the landowners is here.
[3:31:59] is that correct? And that we've talked about how I guess payback or if I guess payback over time or
[3:32:07] how we work through that and perhaps it would be a good idea to continue and have conversations
[3:32:21] with a developer and come back in another meeting. So I'm not going to make that motion because
[3:32:30] just in more than one, and so I'll let him think about that, but that would be something
[3:32:38] that I think perhaps we could address some of the concerns that other council members
[3:32:45] are having and find solutions.
[3:32:51] If I may, council members Smith, in the spirit of trying to help address some of the questions
[3:32:58] concerns as well. I think if if we were to take just a little bit more time we could potentially
[3:33:06] refine numbers for what are the costs of the securing versus the abatement and what is
[3:33:13] and the signage versus the abatement and also what would be the costs for the abatement of
[3:33:18] the northern portion. So just for just for some additional clarity what you see on the page
[3:33:23] on screen right now. There's a northern portion that is the separate property owner and the southern
[3:33:29] portion that has, you know, is I maybe slightly off on this, either in the process of acquisition
[3:33:38] or has been acquired by other property owners. They have it. Okay, has been acquired by other
[3:33:46] We could potentially try and also separate out what the costs may be for a
[3:33:53] abatement of the non-responsive versus the responsive that might help look at
[3:33:58] those dollars more specifically.
[3:34:00] And then I think it's also worth noting I'll just take a moment to clarify this
[3:34:04] that the ownership of the larger section to the south, that's fairly recent
[3:34:09] ownership.
[3:34:10] They've come into that ownership in more recent years and cleaned it up.
[3:34:15] And then the ownership, but if you go back together, one, Gary, thank you.
[3:34:19] The southern portion of this property, very recently acquired, and so, you know, I think
[3:34:25] it's worth noting that we're not talking about the same actors over multiple years.
[3:34:32] This is a new owner who's trying to be responsible and in a spirit of the long-term solution,
[3:34:39] And we're looking at ways to help secure the site and force the site, but then also address
[3:34:45] the abatement costs to the cost of the property if that helps.
[3:34:48] But there may be ways for us to, again, in summary, refine the numbers that would help give
[3:34:57] clarity and potentially options for how to spend those dollars and maybe work on some
[3:35:02] of the other questions that have been raised at the same time.
[3:35:06] Thank you.
[3:35:09] Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to make a referral that we pursue the
[3:35:14] receivership process for those parcels under the ownership of the
[3:35:18] unresponsive owner, because even if we do see development on these sites,
[3:35:27] those existing parcels remain a nuisance and a problem for the community
[3:35:34] moving forward. So if it, if it makes sense, I would like us to at least consider or explore
[3:35:42] that option for that property. Thank you, Council member. We can sell this, Council member.
[3:35:47] Are yes. Thank you, Mayor. Given the feedback from some of my colleagues and also given that we
[3:35:55] are approaching 9pm, I would like to withdraw my motion. I mean, introduce a new motion to bring this
[3:36:03] item back at the next council meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Any other request to speak? Seeing none. You have a motion. Please catch your votes.
[3:36:26] The motion is approved with Council Member Bashir Tashvori no and vice mayor core absent.
[3:36:31] Thank you and now. Next item please. Council and mayor statements.
[3:36:42] Here's the screen so I can see with our any council member Bashir Tash.
[3:36:47] Can we get a presentation on municipal code and the standards that we are supposed to?
[3:36:53] I heard Councilman Gonzalez talking about some of the things that we can do.
[3:36:56] I'd like a presentation and then some thoughts on how we can put more teeth in it to
[3:37:02] hold people accountable and taking properties that are just kind of destroying.
[3:37:06] And not just commercial residential.
[3:37:08] I mean we need to just something.
[3:37:11] I want to know what our policy is and some ideas on how we can actually hold people accountable
[3:37:15] So that we're not wasting taxpayer money for clarity counts of merit, nuisance product chronic nuisance properties.
[3:37:23] I would even chronic nuisance properties.
[3:37:25] I don't know what our standards are for even front yards.
[3:37:28] If there's grass levels and cars park.
[3:37:30] I'm sure there's just, I get, we need something that's got teeth, real teeth. That's that, that's that, for first or for all. Second, can we begin to look at the adoption of the best practices, best practices toolkit for homelessness and addiction for treatment. First policy that just came out was published. I think I received the copy of it, Carlos, the director of the mission, it's just, it's fantastic.
[3:37:57] It's what 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 almost this problem.
[3:38:07] And so I think that that would be incredible to get done.
[3:38:11] We need to figure out how we can start rolling out the adoption of that instead of continuing to waste millions of dollars on what's not working.
[3:38:19] That's it.
[3:38:22] Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez.
[3:38:23] I think, you know, after the recent events over the weekend and the tragedy, there has
[3:38:33] been a lot of questions about youth violence and gain related shootings and homicides.
[3:38:38] And I think it would be worthwhile for this council to within a council meeting to have
[3:38:45] a workshop related to some of our violence intervention work, so that the community can have
[3:38:51] a fuller understanding of some of the work that we're already engaged in because there's a lot
[3:38:56] of ideas out there, a lot of great conversations, but I think it would be helpful for us to
[3:39:03] at least establish a baseline of what's already taking place within the city of Bakersfield
[3:39:08] along with many other community partners.
[3:39:13] Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez. Council Member
[3:39:15] Thank you, Mayor. I'll just share that that's a wonderful idea given all of the interest in this topic, but also just the communities outpouring of support and and concern rather about safety in our community. I also just would love to add on some of the investments this council has made into the partnerships between BPD and our school resource officers.
[3:39:45] and placing those at particular sites of interest.
[3:39:50] There's so many different things that we have done to 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.
[3:40:04] All of that worked.
[3:40:05] Mr. Clay, did you have anything?
[3:40:07] Thank you, Mayor.
[3:40:08] I just would appreciate the opportunity to reflect very briefly a couple of overarching thoughts
[3:40:14] on this topic because it is a large conversation that's going on in the community right now.
[3:40:23] I would first say that any act of violence, any tragedy, loss of life is so unfortunate.
[3:40:33] And we are very saddened by the incident that occurred last week.
[3:40:39] I think it's also important to reflect that Bakersfield,
[3:40:44] from a gun violence perspective, has not been as safe as it has been
[3:40:48] the last two years in more than a decade.
[3:40:52] The efforts that have been underway have made incredible progress
[3:40:55] every incident matters and we want to make sure that we stop every incident we can
[3:41:01] And that we respond to every incident, but because of the efforts of the Bakersville Police Department,
[3:41:09] our Office of Violence and Prevention and Prevention, our community-based organizations,
[3:41:14] we saw more than a 70% reduction in homicides and shootings from 2021 through 2024.
[3:41:20] We saw a very slight plateauing in uptake of last year.
[3:41:24] If you reflect in 2021, we had 60 homicides, 17 of those were gang violence related.
[3:41:33] And in 2025, we had 33 homicides, 3 of those were gang violence related.
[3:41:40] In 2026, we had only 10 homicides, 1, the one last week was gang violence related.
[3:41:47] It is remarkable the reduction in gang violence.
[3:41:51] I would argue that our community would make gun violence standpoint as become very safe.
[3:41:58] And again, every incident that concerns our community that is different than that is important
[3:42:05] to us.
[3:42:07] But the gains have been significant and we're going to continue to make those gains and work
[3:42:11] hard on this topic, but there's lots of work that's been happening.
[3:42:14] and I will express just some concern that as we were rallying partners in 2021 to do this work
[3:42:25] for many of the young people in our disadvantaged neighborhoods who are experiencing these incidents
[3:42:33] at a too high of a rate, we didn't have the same community impetus at the time. We will welcome
[3:42:41] any energy that is created from these type of incidents, but we've rolled up our sleeves and been
[3:42:46] doing this work for a long time, and we've seen really big results, and we'll take the opportunity
[3:42:51] to make that even bigger. I would note our overall crime also significantly down, but we're very
[3:42:58] frustrated about the chronic low-level quality of life crimes that can be taken into play or community.
[3:43:04] That is issue number one for your counsel. You've made that issue number one for staff to address,
[3:43:09] But our gun violence issues have been dramatically different and it's fortunate that these are isolated instances today
[3:43:17] Thank you, Mr. Cleg
[3:43:20] Council member Coleman
[3:43:22] Thank you, Mayor
[3:43:23] I wanted to reach out to Angela Frazier has been sitting here. Dr. Angela Frazier has been sitting here all night
[3:43:33] and
[3:43:34] I appreciate that
[3:43:38] Unfortunately, Johnny of Logge made some remarks as the exited, which were, you know, for those
[3:43:47] people that don't know Mr. Logge, that can be offensive of some of his comments.
[3:43:54] So I apologize that we didn't react. I know you wanted to be able to respond to him and
[3:44:01] we didn't give him an opportunity to do that. And so I apologize for not understanding what
[3:44:06] to tell me at that time. So thank you for sitting through this whole thing. I hope you learned
[3:44:11] something and that's all I have to say about that. So thank you.
[3:44:18] I don't see any other requests, so we stand adjourned at 8.51.