[0:50] >>> good evening, everyone,
[0:52] and welcome to the regular session of
[0:53] the martinez
[0:55] city council. It is wednesday, december
[0:56] 10, and
[0:59] it is 7:03 p.m. Please join me
[1:01] for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance
[1:02] to the flag
[1:04] of the united states of america and to the republic
[1:09] for which it stands one nation under god
[1:10] indivisible with liberty and justice for
[1:12] all.
[1:20] >> clerk, please call
[1:22] the roll.
[1:23] >> mayor brianne zorn? >>
[1:24] present.
[1:25] >> vice
[1:26] mayor jay howard?
[1:27] >> present. >> councilmember
[1:28] greg young is currently absent?
[1:29] >>
[1:30] he is en route.
[1:31] >> I've
[1:32] been informed
[1:34] he's en route. Councilmember satinder
[1:38] malhi?
[1:40] >> present. >>
[1:41] councilmember debbie mckillop?
[1:42] >>
[1:43] present.
[1:44] >> wonderful. Thank you so
[1:45] much. All right. Tonight, we have
[1:46] a fairly light agenda, so we
[1:48] do
[1:49] not have any presentations scheduled,
[1:51] so we're going to go straight
[1:53] into public comment. I did not receive
[1:53] any public comment cards, but
[1:55] if there is anyone in council chambers
[1:56] this evening that would
[1:58] like to speak on any item, now is
[1:59] the time, and you're
[2:02] welcomed to
[2:05] come up to
[2:08] the microphone. Come on up.
[2:11] >> good evening. Sorry about my ugly
[2:15] sweater today. We had a
[2:18] holiday party at my workplace.
[2:21] let's see. Well, while I'm here
[2:23] today, I was kind of curious, based
[2:24] on the agenda,
[2:26] whether this would be the shortest
[2:26] council meeting of martinez
[2:28] history, so we'll see what happens,
[2:29] but I'm
[2:32] not going to hope matters. I
[2:35] guess one thing on my mind is --oh,
[2:36] I
[2:37] might as well take my three minutes
[2:38] to talk about my favorite
[2:40] topic, which is housing, as we near
[2:41] the end of the
[2:44] year, get ready to
[2:47] enter 2026. Obviously you guys are
[2:48] still grappling with
[2:50] issues around the unhoused. We all
[2:54] know that. It's been a long-term challenge. And
[2:57] I think, you know, the solutions
[3:00] to that issue are complicated. But one
[3:00] thing
[3:02] we should all be striving to do is
[3:03] prevent
[3:05] more people from
[3:07] becoming unhoused because we know
[3:09] that once you become
[3:10] unhoused, the challenges become deeper. And
[3:12] we
[3:14] know because of our housing crisis,
[3:15] there are a
[3:16] lot of people on the edge in our community
[3:18] and communities up and down the
[3:20] state, and really throughout the country. And
[3:22] so, you know,
[3:24] we're trying to make progress on this
[3:25] on
[3:26] our housing element. But the issue
[3:27] with affordable housing is still not
[3:28] the priority
[3:31] I think it should be for this
[3:32] city and this council. And the reason
[3:33] it should be a top priority because
[3:35] it is such a hard issue, it's such
[3:38] a complicated issue, and that's why it
[3:41] should be a bigger focus than say
[3:45] your plans for the marina. I
[3:48] really hope that like as
[3:51] we go through 2026, one thing we could see
[3:54] happen as hopefully some more housing
[3:55] developments
[3:58] come down the pike, is that
[4:01] instead of
[4:02] this kind of incremental approach,
[4:04] where we have
[4:06] a few affordable units here, a few there,
[4:07] the bare
[4:09] minimum of the 20%, to qualify
[4:12] for the state bonuses
[4:15] or what have you. That we really
[4:17] try to find affordable housing developer
[4:18] out there. There
[4:20] are, and there are ones that have
[4:21] done
[4:24] big projects that are in the bay
[4:28] area. And really set a goal of having an
[4:31] all affordable project
[4:33] in martinez. We need an all-affordable,
[4:36] 100% affordable low income, very low income
[4:37] project
[4:40] to really make a dent in
[4:41] this problem. Other cities have done
[4:42] it, whether they wanted
[4:44] to or had to be dragged along. It
[4:45] can be done. And
[4:48] I think if we make it
[4:50] a top priority, it can be done. This
[4:51] is how
[4:54] we're going to stop more
[4:56] people from sliding into homelessness. There's
[4:57] a great mpr
[5:00] interview I heard on the way over
[5:01] from
[5:03] a homeless strategy expert with decades
[5:07] of experience on
[5:08] fresh air. Wrote a book called "placeless." I hope you
[5:10] take the
[5:13] time to listen to
[5:15] the 40-minute interview because
[5:18] he disspills a lot
[5:21] of
[5:22] myths about homelessness. Thank you.
[5:23] >> thanks.
[5:24] >> all right, is there anyone in the
[5:25] audience that would like to speak
[5:27] on public
[5:29] comment right now?
[5:30] >> for those attending virtually,
[5:31] if
[5:34] you'd like to make a comment,
[5:36] please use the raise hand feature. I
[5:37] have no hands.
[5:38] >>
[5:40] all right, let's move
[5:43] on to the consent
[5:46] calendar. So we have --staff has requested
[5:47] that I pull item six, and I'd also
[5:48] like to
[5:51] pull item seven for the rest of the councilmembers,
[5:54] any other items you'd like
[5:56] to pull from the consent calendar,
[6:00] one through seven? None, all right. Let's
[6:03] go ahead --yeah, they're both common, I'll treat
[6:04] them at the same time. I'll go ahead
[6:07] and go to public comment
[6:09] for items one through five. Anyone
[6:10] in council chambers who would
[6:13] like to make any comments on
[6:15] that? All right. How about in the
[6:16] virtual audience?
[6:17] >>
[6:19] please
[6:21] use the
[6:24] raise
[6:26] hand feature. I have no hands.
[6:27] >> all right. I'm
[6:28] going to
[6:30] go ahead and take the comments and
[6:31] then
[6:32] we'll vote at the end. Item six, mike,
[6:33] would you like to speak
[6:35] to that item, please?
[6:36] >> yes, thank
[6:37] you. On item six,
[6:40] I just wanted to mention that
[6:43] after we
[6:46] had published the agenda, staff caught
[6:47] a
[6:48] missed cross reference to another
[6:49] section. It's on page
[6:52] 14 of the policy section, 9.5, and
[6:54] a couple of places in that
[6:55] introductory paragraph, where it says
[6:57] formal bidding would otherwise be required
[6:58] under
[7:00] this policy, but an exception is
[7:02] being applied under section. It says
[7:03] 9.3.1. It actually
[7:06] should be 9.4,
[7:07] which is immediately the proceeding section. Then
[7:09] the next sentence
[7:11] later says the documentation must include
[7:13] reference to the specific
[7:16] section
[7:19] category listed in section, and had
[7:20] 10.4, it should 9.4. We wanted to make everyone
[7:22] aware of that, made the corrections, and
[7:23] with
[7:24] adoption, we'll make that clean up. So
[7:27] it was a late catch, but we didn't
[7:27] want to republish the whole
[7:29] agenda because of a minor typo we
[7:30] had in that section.
[7:31] >>
[7:33] right. Thank you so much. Appreciate
[7:34] it. Okay,
[7:36] item seven, I just requested to pull that
[7:38] because this is the request that came out
[7:39] of the council comments
[7:42] at the end of the
[7:45] last meeting, requesting $2,000 to be donated. $1,000
[7:49] to food bank of contra costa
[7:52] and solano, and then $1,000 to loaves
[7:53] and fishes. Thank you
[7:54] for putting that on the consent calendar. I
[7:55] just
[7:56] wanted to clarify, the expectation of
[7:58] this was to help out during the holiday
[8:00] season, and I just wanted to ask what the
[8:00] process would be for getting the checks
[8:04] in the hands
[8:05] of those two organizations.
[8:06] >> yes. So
[8:07] starting tomorrow morning, I'm
[8:09] going to contact those organizations,
[8:11] and just -- typically what finance
[8:13] likes to see
[8:15] is an invoicing of the city to complete
[8:16] the transaction. I'll
[8:20] tell them what this
[8:22] is for. These organizations we supported sometimes
[8:23] through our community grant process,
[8:25] and even in those situations where
[8:26] council approved a
[8:28] donation or a grant of some sort. They
[8:29] send
[8:31] over just a very simple request or
[8:34] invoice type of form for $1,000 each, and then
[8:36] we'll work to expedite the checks
[8:39] for those two parties.
[8:40] >> okay, if
[8:41] you
[8:42] could communicate out to the council when
[8:43] that's going out, that would
[8:44] be appreciated.
[8:45] >> absolutely, will
[8:46] do.
[8:47] >> any other
[8:49] comments from council
[8:50] on six or seven? No? Okay. All right, so
[8:53] I'll bring that
[8:55] up to public comment for items six or
[8:56] seven. Any comments on
[8:58] that part of the consent calendar? All
[8:59] right,
[9:00] how about the virtual audience? Any
[9:02] comments on
[9:03] consent calendar items six or seven?
[9:04] >>
[9:07] please
[9:09] use the raise hand feature. I have
[9:10] no hands.
[9:11] >>
[9:12] all right, I'll bring it back to council
[9:13] for a
[9:14] motion for all items, please.
[9:15] >> I'd
[9:16] like to make a
[9:19] motion that we pass consent calendar items
[9:22] one through seven. Is
[9:23] that correct?
[9:24] >> correct. >> second. >>
[9:25] all in favor --
[9:27] actually, roll call vote, please?
[9:28] >> mayor
[9:29] brianne zorn?
[9:30] >> yes. >> vice
[9:32] mayor jay
[9:35] howard?
[9:36] >> yes. >> councilmember
[9:38] satinder malhi?
[9:39] >>
[9:40] yes.
[9:40] >> councilmember debbie mckillop? >>
[9:41] aye.
[9:42] >> and councilmember greg is currently
[9:43] absent for this
[9:44] vote. Motion passes, all ayes.
[9:45] >>
[9:46] great, thank you. All right, we are
[9:47] going
[9:48] to be racing to see if we can get the meeting
[9:49] done before greg is
[9:51] able to get here. [ laughter ] it's
[9:52] the direction
[9:53] this is going. So general business
[9:55] items, there is none
[9:56] on the calendar this evening. Public
[9:58] hearing items,
[10:00] there's none on the agenda. Next item
[10:05] is comments from the chief
[10:08] of police.
[10:09] >> for chief white. I
[10:11] have no updates at this time.
[10:12] >>
[10:14] thank you. Does anyone have
[10:16] any questions for captain sal? No. All
[10:18] right, next, city manager comments and
[10:19] updates.
[10:20] >> the next
[10:21] two fridays, so this upcoming friday,
[10:24] december 12, and then the subsequent
[10:25] friday, december 19, which are
[10:27] the last two fridays that will be
[10:28] open
[10:30] to the public of this calendar year. We
[10:31] are
[10:34] going to have city hall open, and
[10:37] all the counters open with the exception
[10:38] of the building permit
[10:40] counter for the reason the department
[10:41] has asked to
[10:42] have those two afternoons dedicated
[10:44] for staff to
[10:46] really focus on the backlog of building permits
[10:49] that
[10:51] they have in the que already. We'll
[10:53] have some signage posted to allow
[10:55] people to know
[10:56] those particular windows, just friday afternoon,
[10:58] 1:00 to 4:30 p.m., the
[11:00] building permit counter will be closed
[11:01] because they are desperately trying
[11:04] to get through the backlog of people that
[11:05] already have,
[11:08] that are already in the queue, waiting for
[11:09] their building applications to be
[11:11] processed. So just want to
[11:14] give an update on that.
[11:15] >> and can
[11:17] you just also speak to the schedule
[11:18] for
[11:20] city hall in general for
[11:20] the holidays?
[11:21] >> sure, sure. City
[11:22] hall
[11:25] is going to be
[11:28] closed from essentially noon on christmas
[11:31] eve, december 24, and all
[11:34] the way through until friday, january
[11:36] 2. What I have to figure out too is a
[11:37] lot of
[11:40] people are largely going to still
[11:41] be out
[11:44] until monday, january 5, and take
[11:46] a vacation day on that friday. So
[11:47] we'll have to check with staff to
[11:50] see who will actually be here. I
[11:51] expect it will be not anywhere near
[11:53] a full
[11:54] crew on that first friday, january
[11:55] 2, but city
[11:58] hall is scheduled to be
[12:01] open that friday.
[12:02] >> hold on one second. Oh,
[12:04] hi. I'm just going to pull
[12:07] up the january 2 as a friday,
[12:10] and then how about the
[12:14] 26th will not be closed?
[12:15] >> the entire
[12:16] time from
[12:17] half day, so noon on christmas eve, all
[12:18] the
[12:20] way through until january
[12:22] 2.
[12:23] >> okay, great. Thank you. All
[12:24] right. Any questions
[12:26] for
[12:28] our city manager
[12:30] this evening? All right. Seeing none,
[12:31] our
[12:34] next item is appointments to commissions and/or
[12:37] agencies. This is adopting a
[12:39] resolution to appoint our vice mayor
[12:40] for next year. Will you
[12:43] be speaking to this item?
[12:44] >> I
[12:47] was going to defer to
[12:49] you since it's your appointment.
[12:50] >>
[12:51] absolutely. So every
[12:53] year about this time, we appoint
[12:55] the next person in line, the next
[12:56] councilmember in line to
[12:59] be the vice mayor. I am recommending
[13:00] that we appoint councilmember satinder malhi
[13:02] as vice mayor
[13:04] from december 11 through december
[13:05] 9. Does
[13:08] anyone have any
[13:11] questions or comments on
[13:12] this item? All right. I'm going to
[13:14] open this up. Any
[13:17] public comment on
[13:20] this item? How about in the virtual audience,
[13:21] please?
[13:22] >>
[13:24] please
[13:27] use the raise hand feature. I
[13:29] have no hands.
[13:30] >> all right. Then
[13:31] back to
[13:33] my
[13:35] colleagues for
[13:38] a motion, please.
[13:39] >>
[13:41] I move that
[13:44] we
[13:45] appoint councilmember malhi to vice mayor,
[13:49] effective december --
[13:50] >> 11. >> december
[13:51] 11.
[13:53] >> I will gladly
[13:54] second that.
[13:55] >> all right, roll call
[13:56] vote, please?
[13:57] >>
[13:58] mayor brianne zorn?
[13:59] >>
[14:00] yes.
[14:01] >> vice mayor jay
[14:03] howard for the last
[14:07] motion?
[14:07] >> yes. >> councilmember satinder malhi? >>
[14:11] yes. [ laughter ]
[14:14] >>
[14:17] I was becoming concerned.
[14:18] >>
[14:19] councilmember greg young?
[14:20] >> yes. >>
[14:21] councilmember
[14:22] debbie mckillop?
[14:23] >> aye. >> motion
[14:24] passes. All ayes.
[14:25] >> congratulations. >>
[14:27] congratulations.
[14:28] >> yeah, congratulations, satinder
[14:29] malhi.
[14:30] >> satinder malhi. >> thank
[14:31] you. Thank you, colleagues.
[14:32] >> so
[14:33] I very much
[14:35] appreciate having the rotating vice
[14:36] mayors, so every --
[14:38] every year we -- whenever there is
[14:39] a
[14:41] number two required for a meeting
[14:41] or whatever, I was
[14:43] trying to engage the vice mayor. And
[14:44] as everybody
[14:46] knows, a quorum is three people on
[14:47] council, so it is
[14:48] really helpful to have a default council
[14:50] member that I can go to. So
[14:53] the vice mayor, I
[14:54] look forward to working with councilmember
[15:00] malhi for this upcoming year
[15:02] for all the activities I'm sure will
[15:03] come our way. Next,
[15:04] subcommittee and outside agency reports. We only
[15:06] have one on the
[15:09] agenda, the franchise and public infrastructure
[15:10] from november 24. Would any of
[15:12] you all like
[15:14] to report out on that?
[15:15] >> yes. So
[15:16] we discussed maintaining a tree board,
[15:17] a department having a community
[15:19] tree ordinance, spending at least
[15:20] $2 per
[15:23] capita on urban forestry,
[15:25] and celebrating arbor day. In my notes
[15:26] from that
[15:29] day, we spoke
[15:33] about a budget of $193,000. And that
[15:36] we were very
[15:39] excited about next year's arbor day. We
[15:40] would
[15:42] like to invite the girl scouts, the
[15:45] sea scouts, the boy scouts, junior high
[15:46] and
[15:47] college park high
[15:49] school to participate in the arbor
[15:50] day. And that
[15:53] I had assurances from staff that we
[15:54] would
[15:56] have bubblers on
[15:59] all of the new trees. That's
[16:02] about it.
[16:03] >>
[16:05] all right, excellent. Any
[16:07] other subcommittee report outs that
[16:09] we may not
[16:11] have listed or any outside agency
[16:12] report outs that
[16:15] anyone would
[16:20] like to report out on? No? Councilmember
[16:21] malhi, I know
[16:23] that you attended a meeting for
[16:26] me a few weeks ago. I didn't --I didn't
[16:27] ask
[16:28] for a report out, but is there anything
[16:29] that
[16:31] you would like to share this evening? I'm
[16:32] not sure if
[16:34] any decisions were made that evening
[16:35] that
[16:37] you wanted to share?
[16:38] >> no, madam
[16:40] mayor,
[16:42] there were no
[16:44] decisions. There was an extensive discussion
[16:45] on
[16:46] various items on the agenda. More
[16:48] having
[16:51] to do with
[16:53] process than actual substance. I would
[16:55] submit, but I believe those issues
[16:56] will hopefully be dealt
[16:58] with at future meetings, but nothing
[16:59] substantive to report
[17:02] out. Thank you.
[17:03] >> great, thank you. All right,
[17:05] well, in that
[17:08] thing, the only thing to update
[17:11] is updates from city council. Councilmember
[17:13] malhi, do you
[17:15] want to stay off mute, and
[17:18] you can start?
[17:19] >> yes, thank you very
[17:21] much, colleagues, for placing your trust
[17:25] in me and for the vice mayor
[17:27] appointment. I'm very
[17:29] humbled and honored. As I mentioned
[17:32] now, our former vice mayor, howard,
[17:38] with great power comes great responsibility. So
[17:39] I just
[17:42] wanted to follow in his
[17:44] footsteps, and follow the great example
[17:49] that he paved for me, so
[17:54] thank you very much. I wanted to very
[17:55] quickly
[17:57] let you know, I recently had the opportunity
[17:58] to
[18:01] --oh, did I freeze?
[18:01] >> yes, but
[18:03] we can
[18:04] still hear you. Go ahead.
[18:05] >> I did want
[18:09] to just share that I had
[18:12] an opportunity to
[18:13] address the view homeowners association board,
[18:15] which is
[18:16] a residential neighborhood located
[18:18] off of sweetwater drive
[18:20] it in district three. So I wanted
[18:22] to thank them
[18:24] for inviting me, providing me the opportunity
[18:25] to
[18:26] provide some timely city updates,
[18:27] along with some district updates. But
[18:28] I
[18:30] also wanted to give a special shout
[18:31] out
[18:33] to sergeant king with the martinez
[18:34] police department
[18:36] who also joined me at that
[18:39] meeting, providing a
[18:41] very informative presentation on some traffic
[18:42] safety mitigation efforts
[18:44] that are taking place in and around
[18:45] the area of sweetwater
[18:48] drive, which
[18:49] I think was very well received by members of
[18:51] the board, so
[18:55] thank you, sergeant king. And then
[18:57] lastly, just wanted to give a special
[18:58] shout to our parks
[19:01] and rec staff
[19:03] and all the community volunteers and
[19:04] staff out there
[19:07] who helped make
[19:09] for another fantastic holiday parade. So thank
[19:12] you all.
[19:13] >> yeah, that
[19:15] was a very fun parade. So vice
[19:16] mayor howard for another couple of
[19:18] hours, would you
[19:20] like to be the next report?
[19:21] >> sure,
[19:24] sure, sure. It's been an honor
[19:27] to be the vice mayor. And looking
[19:28] forward to
[19:31] next year with vice
[19:32] mayor malhi taking over. I did want
[19:34] to mention that
[19:37] we did a check
[19:39] presentation this evening, and the
[19:40] hometown hero mural is going
[19:42] to be off and running. After
[19:44] speaking to the artist, I would like
[19:45] to invite
[19:47] everybody and their children, specifically to
[19:48] come
[19:51] down and help out. It is 220 feet,
[19:53] so there would be a lot to do. They
[19:54] will
[19:56] do some wall preps first. Everybody
[19:57] is excited
[20:01] to get things going and get
[20:02] that mural off and running. I did
[20:07] get a lot of rave
[20:08] reviews about the christmas parade, although
[20:10] I wasn't able
[20:13] to attend. I heard
[20:15] it was
[20:18] magical, so that's wonderful.
[20:19] >> do
[20:21] you have any updates?
[20:22] >> I
[20:24] just wanted to
[20:25] echo the comments about a wonderful parade
[20:27] last
[20:30] week, and I just wanted to
[20:34] thank the staff for all
[20:37] of your
[20:40] support. Also, I want to recognize
[20:43] staff and
[20:45] been seeing the new trees going up
[20:46] in
[20:48] the community, and that is
[20:51] just so cool and exciting. And so
[20:54] thank you all
[20:57] for your efforts in
[21:00] bringing all of
[21:03] our trees and getting those planted. The
[21:04] last
[21:05] piece is --and I may have mentioned
[21:07] it at the last meeting,
[21:10] but we're
[21:13] in the holiday season, and unfortunately
[21:16] this is a season of frauds
[21:19] and scams, so just making
[21:21] sure people are staying vigilant as
[21:21] we
[21:24] do a lot
[21:26] of holiday shopping online and virtual,
[21:27] just to be
[21:30] careful. This is kind of bleeding
[21:31] into my day
[21:33] job, but it's --it's a
[21:36] huge issue with fraud and scams, so check
[21:40] and verify,
[21:43] check
[21:45] and verify because it's pretty serious. It
[21:46] also
[21:49] really impacts our elder and senior
[21:52] communities. So let's just stay vigilant, protect
[21:53] your
[21:54] information, know the sites that you're
[21:54] going to and just making
[21:57] sure you're protecting all of your
[21:58] data,
[22:00] so that's all
[22:03] I've got.
[22:04] >> thank you. >> well, first
[22:06] off, I just wanted to thank the city
[22:07] staff as
[22:09] others have for
[22:11] the amazing light parade, the children's light
[22:14] parade was amazing. We had a new
[22:16] route, so that was fun. There were
[22:19] so many people downtown, taking advantage
[22:20] of the new vantage points
[22:23] on both sides of
[22:25] the road. I guess we went down ward
[22:26] and came
[22:28] up main. There were a lot of people. It's a
[22:28] lot of work to
[22:29] do that, so I want to thank everyone
[22:30] and for all the people that came out and
[22:31] celebrated
[22:32] and were a part of the parade. A lot
[22:34] of our community came out and
[22:35] celebrated together for the holidays,
[22:37] so thank you to
[22:40] all the people
[22:42] that donated their time, their energy,
[22:43] financial, candy, all that
[22:47] to make it
[22:49] a wonderful event for our children. And then also,
[22:50] I
[22:52] wanted to thank the carpenters as
[22:56] jay said earlier tonight, the
[22:59] carpenters and local 152 donated
[23:01] $20,000 to the joe dimaggio hometown
[23:03] hero organization to do the mural downtown. And
[23:04] so
[23:06] that was quite a contribution, and
[23:07] I'm
[23:09] really grateful for their donation. The
[23:10] artist was
[23:13] there, as well as members of the
[23:16] organization, so it was a
[23:20] really nice brutal ceremony and $20,000 goes
[23:21] a
[23:22] long way, so that was a great donation. So
[23:23] thank you
[23:26] to them for
[23:28] all their support. And then want to
[23:29] congratulate satinder
[23:31] for, you know, stepping up to be vice
[23:32] mayor for the year. I look
[23:33] forward to seeing all the fun things
[23:34] you're going to do because next
[23:37] year
[23:38] is a special year. It's 105th anniversary, so
[23:40] a lot of things in
[23:43] stored for that. So looking
[23:46] forward for all
[23:47] those adventures. And then lastly,
[23:49] there's a santa beer crawl
[23:50] this saturday, so beware, there will
[23:53] be lots of santas out there roaming
[23:55] the streets. A lot of drunk santas
[23:56] out there. So
[23:58] if you want to partake in that, have
[23:59] fun. If you just want to
[24:01] go down there and check out all the crazy
[24:02] santas, you
[24:05] can do that too. So do a little
[24:08] shopping and remember parking is free. So
[24:08] you
[24:10] can go down and park and do
[24:11] some shopping for the holidays. That's it.
[24:15] >> thank you. That's a great reminder
[24:16] about the santa crawl. All
[24:19] right, so I
[24:21] have a couple of items. Today, city
[24:22] manager and I took a tour
[24:25] of the boys and girls club. They had
[24:29] a merger with some other clubs,
[24:30] a couple of months ago now, and so
[24:32] we got an opportunity to meet
[24:34] some of the new leadership. And so now
[24:35] the club spans about 100
[24:37] miles to the south bay, which is really,
[24:38] really great. We
[24:41] had a really great tour,
[24:43] so that was excellent. Thank you again
[24:44] for
[24:45] the holiday frolic. I have gotten
[24:46] nothing, but positive feedback about
[24:48] the new route, so I just wanted to request
[24:49] that
[24:51] we go ahead and stick with that for
[24:52] next year. I think
[24:53] that's one of those things that when
[24:55] we do it again next year, you'll see
[24:58] it there is probably even a few less people
[25:00] on main and
[25:01] more people on ward. I think it's
[25:02] going to work out great, yeah.
[25:03] >>
[25:04] can I just
[25:05] add to that one piece of feedback
[25:06] that the
[25:08] team told me was the campbell theater was
[25:09] operating
[25:11] during the parade. And so there was,
[25:13] in case you hear anything. We noted,
[25:14] and
[25:15] they're actually going to be attending
[25:16] next week for their
[25:17] routine visit, so they might bring
[25:19] it up there, but it's noted for
[25:22] next year to just make sure we
[25:24] coordinate with them.
[25:25] >> okay, great. I
[25:26] appreciate that. So I think
[25:28] people had provided me feedback
[25:29] that they didn't totally believe that
[25:31] ward was actually a part of the parade. Then
[25:33] when they
[25:35] saw it was going down, people were
[25:36] kind of migrating over. But that said,
[25:38] I think it
[25:41] would be a great opportunity for next year
[25:42] to expand
[25:43] the holiday frolic back to have a
[25:44] few holiday frolic activities
[25:47] before the parade, as we've done
[25:49] in years past. That's something
[25:51] that's really important to me. Wanted
[25:52] to formally
[25:54] make that request. I think that having
[25:55] holiday frolic activity in the plaza
[25:58] is even more supported now that we would
[26:01] have a
[26:04] parade route
[26:09] around both sides. Let's see. I
[26:11] have one additional request. I appreciate
[26:12] jay mentioning
[26:13] the trees. I appreciate you mentioning
[26:15] the trees. We are going
[26:18] to be working quite a
[26:20] bit next year on finishing up the
[26:22] 150th tree plantings, then doing media
[26:23] improvements. I think we're going
[26:26] to find in a handful of
[26:28] months that the cal trans operated
[26:29] off
[26:31] ramps off the freeway, very much are
[26:32] going
[26:33] to be eyesores because everything that
[26:35] we've touched looks great. So I
[26:38] would like to request that we
[26:40] look into getting an encroachment
[26:42] appointment from cal trans
[26:44] to make some improvements to our offramps, if cal trans
[26:45] isn't
[26:47] going to do it by us asking, I think
[26:48] we
[26:50] can get an encroachment permit. I'll
[26:51] follow up
[26:54] with maybe joe, mike, see if
[26:56] we can get something going
[26:58] with them for next year. And then
[27:01] lastly in addition to the santa crawl
[27:02] on saturday,
[27:05] we have our lighted boat parade on friday,
[27:07] and there is a lighted bike parade
[27:08] as well. If you've
[27:10] got kids that would like to decorate
[27:11] their bikes
[27:15] and ride around town, you can meet in the
[27:16] afternoon, and they will be doing
[27:17] that. They are actually taking their bike
[27:21] parade down to the marina, so it
[27:24] corresponds
[27:26] to the boat parade. There will be
[27:27] both kayaks and canoes,
[27:28] as well as fully operational boats
[27:29] that
[27:32] have slips in the marina that will all
[27:33] be participating. Come down and check
[27:35] it out from our new beautiful
[27:36] fishing pier. We'll also have the
[27:38] jazz band from
[27:39] the martinez junior high performing,
[27:41] and then there
[27:43] will be hot chocolate that donations will
[27:45] help contribute to the band, and santa
[27:48] will also be there to visit. So
[27:50] we've got a nice event going on friday
[27:51] afternoon. I
[27:53] encourage everyone to join us. All
[27:55] right, that's everything from me. Anyone
[27:57] else on staff have
[28:00] any final announcements that didn't get
[28:01] covered this evening? None? All right. So
[28:02] with that, our next
[28:03] meeting is actually next week. Normally
[28:05] we meet
[28:06] every other week. I want to remind
[28:08] everyone, it will be
[28:11] on the 17th. I anticipate
[28:14] it being a rather long meeting,
[28:16] opposite to this evening. So in that
[28:17] case, this
[28:20] meeting is now adjourned. Thank you.