Good evening.
Thank you all for your patience.
Welcome back.
We are now calling to order our regular meeting of the Martinez
City Council.
Can everyone hear me?
Do we have an echo?
We do have an echo.
I'm going to continue talking, but if IT can address that,
I would appreciate it.
It is August 5, 2026.
Again, apologies for some of the technical delays.
It is 7:14 PM.
Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance--
To the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Clerk, please call the roll?
Council Member Jay Howard.
Present.
Council Member Greg Young.
Present.
Council Member Debbie McKillop.
Present.
Vice Mayor Satinder Malhi.
Present.
Mayor Brianne Zorn.
Present.
All right, let's move straight into presentations.
We have new staff introductions and some internal promotions.
So, City Manager.
Thank you, Mayor.
Yes, we're very excited today.
We have multiple staff across multiple departments
that are being recognized either as a new staff member
or as a recently promoted staff member.
So we'll start with community and recreation services,
and I'll turn it over to Debbie Hernandez, our recreation
manager.
Good evening, Council.
Tonight, I wanted to introduce you to our new recreation staff,
starting with Amber Curley, who is our aquatics coordinator.
She started in November, and this is her first summer.
So we really baptized her into this season.
She's doing a phenomenal job.
She comes from Concord in their Aquatics program.
And she's a mom to three cats.
She really wanted to make sure you all knew that.
Very important.
Next, we have Briana Stanley.
She's also a coordinator also coming from Concord.
So we stole them from the city.
And as she started in June, she works with Gina
at the Senior Center.
Her fun fact is that she is a fraternal twin.
And then Kalie Cambra.
She was our recreation coordinator,
overseeing sports, events, and camps.
And we promoted her to supervisor in May.
And she's doing a great job, being very
tested, especially for the summer,
but I'm really happy with her progress
and what she brings to the table.
Her fun fact is that she is a Disney aficionado.
So if you have any questions, come to her.
Thank you.
All right, our Interim Finance director, Andrea Miller,
had a personal engagement that she had to attend to tonight.
So I'll kick us off with the Finance Department.
Courtney Butler is our senior accountant.
Our revenue accountant works with Water.
And as many other things within our Finance Department,
Courtney has been with us almost five years
and, effective July 1, was promoted to senior accountant.
So kudos to her.
Fun fact, she used to live in Hawaii,
which is a fun place to visit.
So kudos to Courtney.
And congratulations on your promotion.
Thank you.
Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.
I have the privilege to introduce new Finance Department
staff.
I have Noemi Rivera.
She's a new account technician I.
She comes from Contra Costa County.
She comes to us through the CC Works program.
She loves listening to music and being outdoors with her family.
And she's been with us about a month,
and she's doing really great.
Zalma Gallardo, she's an account technician I as well.
She was hired in June '26, so just a little over two months.
She loves playing guitar and has been
playing since she was a kid.
And she also is doing fantastic.
And they are both great assets to us.
Thank you.
Thanks, Courtney.
Now we'll turn it over to Joe Enke,
our public works director for the Public Works Department.
Good evening.
For those of you who don't know, Brandon Manzano
has been with the city for over five years.
He's our resident superstar down at the yard.
He's Mr. Can Do Jumps on Everything.
The team down at the yard adores him,
as does everybody at City Hall and all his clients.
So Brandon got a well-deserved promotion
from the street supervisor to assistant public works
superintendent, giving Joey Becker some much needed support
at the senior level.
Fun fact, he's been studying martial arts for over 22 years.
Another promotion jumped to the end is Edd Tank.
He was one of those that-- it was one of the cleanup
positions at the budget.
He was a water meter repair technician.
In addition to working in the Water Department,
his real strength has been managing our parking meters,
downloading and collecting all the data,
coordinating with IPS there, our parking service provider,
and just been just on top of everything
related to parking in the downtown.
So a much deserved cleanup to the job he has actually
been performing.
Fun fact, he's an amateur photographer and a World War II
historian.
And I was jokingly always calling him
Mr. Edd, which he nails and says, well,
how's it going, Wilbur?
[LAUGHS] And then a new hire is John Lompa.
He actually lives here in Martinez,
grew up in Alhambra Valley.
And he started July 20.
So you'll see him in the downtown.
He works, I think, Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
7:00 to 3:30 and then I believe Tuesday or Thursday,
a shorter day until early afternoon.
Great guy.
He's a certified US mail design analyst.
He worked in a print shop.
His family had a print shop for a number of years.
And then the other fact is that he types
at over 80 words a minute.
So yeah, we're glad to see John, as is
I'm sure the downtown merchants and business community is.
Thank you.
I'm so glad to hear that that position has been filled.
We've been talking about that for a while.
So that's a really big deal for those of us up here on the dais.
So thank you, Joe.
Good evening, Mayor, members of the council,
members of the public.
I'd like to invite up our newest sergeant, Sean Angoco,
as well as our new officers who are going to be sworn in.
Sean joined the department in 2018 as a police officer.
He came to us by way of the community college district,
where he worked as a police officer.
He established himself as a leader within the department
and was promoted to the position of police corporal, which
he fill-- or he filled for several years.
He also served as the president of the Martinez Police Officers
Association.
And we were very proud to be able to promote him
to the position of police Sergeant.
If you know Sean, he has a lot of fun facts,
but one fun fact is that he enjoys
volunteering at the Contra Costa County Animal Shelter.
At this time, I'll call up Captain Alldritt,
who will introduce our newest officers.
Council, Mayor, it's my very high honor
to introduce you to our four newest officers.
We'll start with Officer Jose Fernandez here on the end.
He was sworn in on July 10 after graduating from the Contra Costa
County Training Center.
Fun fact front and center is our most recent retiree,
who is also his stepfather, retired Detective Sergeant
Schnabel.
And really, really excited to have Jose on the team.
He'll be seeing his mom up here shortly.
If you get a chance to meet her, you'll
really enjoy that opportunity.
On the end, next to Sergeant Angoco, is Mark Johnson.
We're really excited to get Mark.
And he was sworn in on July 9, 2026.
Coincidentally, he went through the Police Academy
with Officer Tyler Baddoo and a Contra Costa County native.
And we were very excited to get him.
And a fun fact is he played collegiate basketball.
Next slide, please.
Nicolas Silvani.
Nicolas, I guess they can look at the picture
and figure out who you are.
He also graduated the academy and was sworn
in on July 10 of this year.
Fun fact, he is a crane operator--
or was a crane operator and carpenter.
He grew up in the Concord-Clayton area
and was recruited by Sergeant Rodney Brinser.
So we're excited to have him on board.
And last but not least, we all know him, Tyler Woolf, formerly
of the City of Martinez Corp Yard and Public Works
Department.
Just graduated the academy and was sworn in on July 10.
And I just told you this fun fact, but born and raised here.
And we could not be more proud of these young gentlemen.
As I told others, we can train you to be a police officer,
but we can't train you to be a good person.
And these are four really good people, so we're excited.
So before we get to the most important part of swearing them
in, I did want to recognize a few people.
We have some retirees.
Retiring in the back, we have our lady posse group.
Thank you.
They support us through all the different holidays and so forth.
I also want to recognize we have numerous of our graveyard team
that you probably don't see that often,
but they make sure the city is patrolled all night long
and consistently.
And they're a very hard-working group
who isn't always seen in the public light.
So thank them.
I think Mariette right there is my executive assistant.
She helps keep the police department running,
but again, a person you don't see that often.
You just see the results of everything that she gets done.
And I also want to thank all the family that's come to support.
None of us can do this job without your support,
so thank you for being here.
It's a proud moment for all of them.
And then I also want to recognize
Officer Aguirre, who just got done with the field training
program.
So congratulations.
So at this time, I'll call up the city clerk,
who will administer the oath of office.
And immediately afterwards, your family that
will come up to pin your badges, they
can come up right after she administers the oath.
Great.
Good evening.
Gentlemen, if you could please raise your right hand
and repeat after me.
I-- state your name--
do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend
the Constitution of the United States
and the Constitution of the state of California
against all enemies, foreign and domestic,
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same,
that I take this obligation freely
without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion,
and that I will well and faithfully discharge
the duties of the office of which I'm about to enter.
All right.
Congratulations.
At this time, if you're going to pin the badge, please come up,
and we'll hand you the badge.
Did you get the picture?
Yeah.
OK.
I don't want to interrupt these pictures.
Can you guys come down on first?
And then--
So while they're doing all this important stuff,
for those that are curious, the newest officers
are finishing their in-house training,
which is about a month.
Once they're done with that, they'll
be sent out to their shifts, where they'll work
alongside experienced officers.
So you see multiple officers and police cars.
There are a lot more officers and calls for services
because they're actively in the training program.
That takes about four to five months.
It's an intensive process for them and also,
too, for the field training officers who
are responsible for taking them from this stage
all the way to being a solo police officer that
can patrol on their own.
OK, 1, 2.
At this time, the family of the officers,
if you want to come out this way,
we'll meet you out in the front and go over
to the police department.
Thank you.
Thank you to everyone coming to support your family members.
All right, well, while their families are shuffling out,
I'm going to proceed with the presentations.
Our next one is a proclamation about National Night Out.
We had National Night Out yesterday evening.
And we, the whole council, came, and we read the proclamation.
Is there anyone here this evening
intending on receiving it tonight?
No?
OK, great.
Moving on, our next presentation is Caltrans.
Who will be giving that presentation?
They're on the virtual.
Oh, I see.
Have they been promoted?
Oh, OK.
Oh, there we go.
Hi.
Sorry.
There was a bit of a delay.
Thank you, Council Members of Martinez,
for having us here and letting us
present for our closure that's coming up.
My name is Sabrina Martinez.
I am the PIO for Solano County.
Denise Harding is also here, and she's the Contra Costa PIO.
I will share my screen to get the presentation started.
All right, so as I mentioned, I-80 Westbound Carquinez Bridge
will be rehabilitated.
This is going to be a full weekend closure from August 21
to the 24th.
The closure will be going all the way
from 780 all the way down to the base of the bridge at Crockett.
The project need.
Basically, the asphalt has seen it's--
it's shown its age, basically.
And we need to rehabilitate it and get rid of all the cracks
and make a smoother ride and prevent any further wear
and tear.
As I mentioned, the purpose of this
is to preserve the life of the deck.
And it's for safety and enhanced travel.
For the scope of the project, we will be doing the top first inch
of the asphalt, and it will be replaced with Trinidad Lake
Asphalt. And the bridge deck is about 3,500 feet.
All four lanes will be done during this weekend.
And also, 1,550 tons of asphalt will be put down.
I should mention, since this is going all the way up to 780,
maintenance will also be taking advantage of the closure,
and they will be doing any maintenance work, everything
from tree trimming to repairs, graffiti removal, and also
garbage removal, throughout that section that is closed.
The schedule starts August 21 at 10:00 PM,
and this will go through until Monday, August 24 at 3:00 AM.
There will be no emergency vehicle access.
Police and fire have been notified.
And the pedestrian and bike path will be closed.
You may have seen some posts up also
for a single-lane closure this weekend,
starting Friday night all the way to Saturday night.
This is, again, just a single lane and the shoulder.
They are doing a test strip in preparation for this closure.
For this, the bike and pedestrian path will be open.
The need for a full closure.
Basically, it's recommended for the safety
of the workers and public, and also due
to the need of this specific asphalt needing to be
at a 70 degrees or higher.
So at night, they will be grinding that full bridge.
And then in the daytime, once temperatures are reached,
they will lay down the pavement.
As I mentioned, this is all for safety and efficiency
and because daytime is best for this asphalt.
What we're doing for outreach, there
will be regional changeable message signs,
along with portable message signs
displaying the closure dates and encouraging people
to take our detours.
And we're doing outreach, which I'll
get into in the next couple of slides.
So Vallejo will see closures of their ramps.
And as I mentioned, no emergency vehicle
access or pedestrian bike path.
Our local detour is going to be from 780 all the way
to 680 and onto State Route 4.
And then for regional, we are going to message
that people coming down from Sacramento come down from 680
and take on 4.
We have also done further outreach to Napa
with their transportation authority,
letting people know that 37 going--
if you're going towards San Francisco,
to take 37 towards the Golden Gate Bridge
to get to San Francisco.
And another message we can also use is that it will take longer,
but I-5 is another route people can
take to get to San Francisco.
Like I mentioned, there'll be this deployment
of the changeable message signs two weeks prior
to the closure, displaying the dates and times of the closure.
During the closure, it will display the detours.
Outreach, as I mentioned, is city council meetings.
We do have a media buy that will go all the way up to Reno.
We do know that I-80 is a big thoroughfare for weekend travel,
especially during the summer, and we
want to make sure to get everyone notified.
We have also reached out to our counterparts
in District 3 and 2, and they have
been sharing our social media posts and traffic advisories.
Our website is live also.
You can go to our Caltrans web page,
and you can get any updates there as well.
As I mentioned, the web page, Carquinez Bridge on Caltrans,
it is live right now.
Our hotline, if you have any questions,
you can call that 510-286-0319.
During the closure, we will be checking this regularly
and answering any questions or concerns that may come up.
For Caltrans, if you need to reach anyone,
there's Bart Ney, our office chief,
DeNise Harding for Contra Costa, and myself for Solano.
Legislative Affairs, we have Gene Calderon and Erik Aguilar.
And I do want to thank you for your time.
Are there any questions or comments?
Thank you for the presentation.
I think we have one comment from Vice Mayor Malhi.
Thank you very much, Sabrina, for the presentation.
It was very helpful.
Obviously, very much appreciate anything
that Caltrans can do to help improve our road infrastructure.
Just very quickly, I did want to follow up
on a conversation I had with one of your colleagues,
who provided a presentation here to us on a separate item--
I believe it was in June before we took our summer recess--
and that is with respect to the cleanliness, or lack thereof,
of our freeway on-ramps and off-ramps and along the center
mediums of the freeway.
6, 80, and 4 are the two major highways that traverse our city.
And I couldn't help but note that the diversions that you
had referenced in your presentation, these folks
are going to be driving by some pretty stretches of road
where there is, quite frankly, an embarrassing amount of trash
on the side of the roads.
And I pointed this out to one of your colleagues in June.
We had received some correspondence
that it would be addressed, but I just drove around
over the weekend, and I have to say,
I haven't seen very much in the way of improvement.
And so I was just wondering if you
could speak to that in terms of, what
is the game plan to get these portions of the road cleared up?
In particular, if you come off the Benicia Bridge
and you're coming into town, on the right side
there, before Arthur Road, I mean,
there's a tremendous amount of garbage there,
likewise on our on-ramps and off-ramps here along Highway 4.
And even Highway 4--
I challenge you all drive between Martinez and Hercules
and look in the center--
it's a garbage dump.
It's embarrassing.
And I'm sorry, but we can and need to do better.
These are the gateways into our communities.
And we always want to put our best foot forward.
But we really need those of you at the state level
to please help us.
If I had the ability to go out there and assemble
a team of volunteers to go clean it up,
I would, but it's not in our jurisdiction.
And so I'm just asking if you could please pass that message
along to your higher-ups that we very much would appreciate
getting those areas cleaned up.
And if we can be helpful in some way-- we have citizens here
who have indicated to us they would like to help.
But again, that's not within our purview.
But just know that we stand willing and ready to help you
all out.
So that's all I wanted to say.
Thank you, Mayor, for indulging me.
And I appreciate anything you all can do on that front
as well.
Thank you.
No, I totally hear you.
I do have some info, not specifically
for garbage removal, but we do have encampment information.
We have one on 680 Grayson Creek at Marsh Drive being
removed, actually, August 3.
And 680 Central Avenue at Pacheco,
it should have been started today also with 680 Berry Drive.
As far as litter removal, I will pass this on.
And I believe Denise is on here, too.
And hopefully, we can pass it to Maintenance
to see if they can get a schedule down to do cleaning.
Since you brought up encampment, I would just--
I think we should probably move on because that's not the topic
tonight.
We have a lot of things on the agenda.
Yeah.
All right.
Thank you.
I'll follow up with you all offline.
Thank you.
Sounds good.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sabrina, for the presentation.
We appreciate the heads-up.
And thank you for all the ads that you're putting out.
And we'll make sure to communicate this out
to our community as well.
Thank you for your--
Question.
Please.
Oh, sorry.
Could you repeat the hotline number?
Oh, sure.
Let me grab that for you.
It is 510-286-0319.
Very good.
Thank you.
Yep, no problem.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
All right, let's move on to the next item, public comment.
I received two public comment cards,
so we'll start with them as a reminder.
Anyone who's available to speak on any item
not on tonight's agenda, you'll have three minutes.
If you didn't give me a public comment card
and you'd like to speak, just raise your hand
when these two are done.
And then once we've spoken with everyone in the room,
we'll move on to the virtual audience.
So our first commenter is Richard Anderson.
Hmm, looks like the clock started.
I made a request to the city building inspector
that he tell me what structures that he claimed
were on my property that required a permit.
He actually refused to return my phone calls.
Some time ago, I welcomed the community economic development
director and asked for assistance.
I was ignored.
I asked the chief building official to obey 105.3.1--
it's a California law--
and he did not respond.
I appeared before the council and city manager
with a polite request, and I was ignored.
I made a second appearance suggesting
if there was a fee to get information,
I was willing to pay for such.
I was ignored.
I appeared a third time after reviewing the city fee schedule
and could not find a fee to get information.
So I offered $1,000 in cash to be placed in the general account
to get a letter from the city building inspector identifying
these structures in my rear yard that required a permit.
I appeared a fourth time asking again, I was ignored.
This is my fifth appearance.
As a result of my third appearance,
the city manager caused the city attorney
to notify me that I would be referred to the district
attorney for bribery.
The city attorney made it clear that my offer
to pay to get information was not bribery,
but the city manager insisted that would happen.
So I got that letter.
The $1,000 offer for information is still available,
and I can easily increase it if necessary.
I sent recently a certified letter to building inspector
demanding he identified the structures.
He refused to do that.
It is secrecy that destroys trust.
After five appearances, the city manager appears to want secrecy.
It's arrogance that destroys trust.
It's censorship that destroys trust.
An interesting thought, as I seek no money from anyone--
I don't want to file any lawsuit or just
get involved in that type of nonsense--
we can resolve this issue, but that requires communication.
Well, I shall be at the next city council
meeting and every city council meeting
until I am provided a written document identifying
the structures which require a permit.
I don't have any alternative.
But I really think that we can resolve this issue,
but that requires communication.
Thank you very much.
All right, next up, Tony Jetland.
Hello, everyone.
Chief White.
As some of you know, a couple of weeks
ago, I was out doing my night fly.
And about 10 o'clock, I was just wrapping up,
and Martinez PD came by, very polite, very gentle, and said,
hey, everybody has to go home.
Everybody has to leave at 10 o'clock at the marina.
I'm going, I've never been shooed out of there
at 10 o'clock for flying kites.
Nothing against the PD.
I know they're doing their job.
A lot of respect.
But when you got people out on the pier fishing 24 hours a day,
7 days a week, 365 days a year--
I've been flying down there after dark for forever.
And it says I have to get a permit.
How much is that going to cost me?
Do I need a permit every time I need to go fly a kite at night?
I'm looking for help, just looking for little guidance
on how I can continue to do something
I've been doing for a long time without causing attention
to the PD.
Any suggestions?
Any help?
We can connect with you afterwards, but are you sure
it's Martinez PD and not East Bay Regional Parks Police, sir?
I know it's Martinez PD.
OK, we'll check it out because I'm not aware of a permit.
Because this guy was incredibly apologetic and very empathetic,
so I knew he was a Martinez PD.
We'll connect after.
When I looked through the passenger side window
into the car, I said, as I'm just packing my stuff up,
he goes--
I was just packing my kites up.
He goes, oh, you're the kite man?
Yeah.
So it's like it had to be Martinez PD.
But anyways, please help.
That sounds like the police will reach out to you
and discuss more.
Thank you for your comment.
Hopefully, in a nice way, they'll reach out.
OK, thank you.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the Council Chambers
this evening that would like to speak?
All right, seeing none, how about on the virtual audience
this evening?
For those attending virtually, if you'd
like to make a comment for a non-agendized item,
please use the Raise Hand feature.
I have no hands.
OK.
Thank you so much.
All right, let's move on to the consent calendar.
One second.
Let me pull up the-- there it is.
OK, so the consent calendar this evening
is comprised of items 4 through 12.
And I understand that Staff would like to pull item 10.
So would anyone else on council like
to pull any other item besides item 10?
No?
OK.
In that case, I would like to open these items up
to public comment.
Does anyone have any public comment on the consent calendar,
excluding item 10 that we'll talk about a little bit longer?
No?
All right.
All right, back to council for a motion.
Please.
Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to pass the consent calendar
items 1 through 9 and 11 and 12.
Second.
All in favor, please say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes, all ayes.
Great.
Thank you so much.
OK, so, Steph, would you like to speak on item 10 for me, please?
Do you want me to lead off that with asking my questions,
or do you have those?
Perhaps I can start on the bid protest component,
and then Staff can answer other questions if that works.
So Staff did receive a bid protest
from the second lowest bidder, MFS Construction,
which raised a concern that one of the subcontractors
for the K&S Mechanical subcontracted
lowest bidder, W.E. Lyons Construction,
did not have a contractor's license.
The bid protest was received timely on July 29.
Staff received a response from the lowest bidder on July 31
and assessed both of them.
And the city engineer reviewed it,
in consultation with myself and the city manager,
and determined to recommend to the council
to reject the bid protest because the contractor's
license of K&S Mechanical was retroactively reinstated such
that at all relevant times, K&S Mechanical has
a valid contractor's license.
The temporary suspension that had been cited in the bid
protest applied during a period when their contractor's bond
had expired, but as noted in the materials
that they themselves sent, once the CSLB, Contractor State
License Board, processed the revised bid bond for the revised
bond for K&S Mechanical, that reinstatement
is retroactive back to the effective date
of that bond, which covered the period at issue.
Staff independently verified that K&S Mechanical does
have a active state contractor's license,
and the same for the other subs listed as well.
So with that, I'll look to the engineer to confirm,
but Staff would recommend that the city council reject the bid
protest.
And I believe there's some other questions
that the city engineer would go through as well that
were raised by the council.
Do you want me to read the questions,
and then you can answer them?
OK, so I would like to know who the subs are.
Are they union?
What is being self-performed by non-union GCs?
What is the planned start date for this project?
What is the planned completion date?
Is this fully funded by the city?
Is there a guarantee that the bridge will permanently
be open once the scope of work is completed?
How long is the warranty on workmanship?
Is this entire project under prevailing wage
certified payroll?
Also, who does the certified payroll?
Why was the council not informed ahead of time
that we would have a non-union GC running
this high-dollar project?
Was Gordon Ball, a union contractor
that originally did the work, contacted about
doing this project?
And why was union GCs contacted about bidding--
no, excuse me, was there union GCs contacted
about bidding on this project?
I did send these questions ahead of time
to staff to give them plenty of time to respond.
Sure.
So let me start at the top.
Who are the subs?
W.E. Lyons has five listed subs, starting with EnPro Elevator.
And they are a union contractor.
Coastal Mountain Electric was their electrical subcontractor.
They are non-union.
MDC Low Voltage Systems is working
on their security cameras.
They are union with the IBEW.
Securetech Fence Systems doing the secure fencing
on the second deck.
They are also a union, and they're the Laborers Union.
KNS Mechanical is doing the HVAC and some of the sheet metal,
and they are non-union.
The GC, or W.E. Lyons, is performing just under $228,000
of the work, of the $549,000 union-based contract.
Planned start date is September 1,
pending execution of the contract
and getting everybody on board.
Planned completion date is by the end of the year,
and that depends on--
We don't anticipate problems, but there
are some shop drawing submittals for the fencing
and some of the other material.
And there is approximately an eight-week lead time
on some of the fencing material.
But we're still planning on the end of the year completion.
This project is fully funded by the city.
And yes, we're using local measured J dollars.
That's part of the countywide sales
tax for transportation-related projects.
Is there a guarantee that the bridge
will be permanently open once this scope of work is completed?
Yes, we're coordinating with both the Amtrak and Capitol
Corridor on some of their ongoing security improvements
and camera work at the station.
And also, we've been working--
Joey Becker has been working very closely
with the state elevator inspectors and Otis Elevator
to get and keep the elevator on the north side up to date
and in service.
Is the entire project under prevailing wage
certified payroll?
Yes, it is.
Almost all city projects, Public Works projects
are subject to prevailing wage.
And just a side note on that, we do have a consultant on board
that specializes in review of certified payrolls certified
by the State Department of Industrial Relations for that--
--that information and where we can get it.
Yeah.
Kim Flynn-- I don't know her exact--
I think it's Labor Compliance something.
But I'll send that information.
Thank you.
Why were we not informed that we would
have a non-union GC running this high-dollar project?
Currently, we have no requirement
for union contractors.
Prevailing wage is the one requirement
that we do have for all of these.
Was Gordon Ball contacted about this project?
They were not contacted directly by my staff,
but they would have the same access as anyone
else to the bid documents and the plan
rooms where it was advertised.
And just a side note, additionally, Gordon Ball
would have probably had very limited work
on the job themselves primarily because they
are a heavy general engineering contractor.
So it's primarily the elevator and some of the security
fencing, and that would be generally a subcontractor
scope of work.
Were there any union general contractors contracted
about this bidding?
Again, we advertised both here locally
to comply with the local posting,
but more broader outreach is we used an online plan room.
And they automatically distributed to all the bid rooms
and plan rooms throughout--
actually, some are actually across the country.
There's one in Southern California.
But all the ones in the Greater Bay Area and North
Bay and even Central Valley receive
notices of projects bidding.
And then they ping them, and they
scan it to see if there's anything that was
of interest for them to bid on.
So I think that answers the questions you posed.
Just a couple more.
So the elevator, we've had a lot of problems
getting those elevators up and running in the past.
Is that the issue?
So the issue has been primarily vandalism.
Because we gave the vandals access to that roof
line, and they were able to go through and terrorize the heat
pumps.
So there's various things the elevators have been just
directly related to, either prying open the elevator doors
or accessing the mechanical rooms that serve the elevators.
So they've disrupted some of the control
components of the elevator.
They've gone in and jammed the doors.
They've done a variety of things to the elevators on both.
The new one that was ready for service a couple of years ago,
it's been repaired probably four times since.
It's been sitting idle.
We have been able to secure the mechanical rooms and so forth.
I think we've eliminated the break-ins into those.
And then on the existing train station,
again, it suffered both vandalism,
but when we actually went back in to put it back into service,
all the components had become basically obsolete.
And so they were not repairable or replaceable.
And there's been enough significant code changes
in the requirements that we had to restore
a lot of the control cabinets.
There's actually a new cooler in there
to keep some of the components at a proper temperature.
And then there's some hardening and some physical improvements
to the elevator.
One significant improvement that is contained in this
is that both elevators will actually
have a camera inside the car so that if somebody
enters and do things they shouldn't, they're
able to be monitored.
And who monitors that?
So that one would have a feed to the PD dispatch.
Some of the other on-site cameras
are monitored by the Amtrak.
So help me out with this, Chief.
If this happens again and they break into the elevator car,
are we going to be able to do something about it?
Yeah.
I mean, the intention of the cameras
are to certainly help within that.
I think part of the problem there was that the facility was
never fully open, so it was ripe for somebody
to meander their way in there or hang out there
over a longer period of time and cause damage,
and nobody else is noticing it.
The hope is that once it's open and it's
active and being utilized regularly and, of course,
monitored, that we wouldn't have those issues.
So I think we'll be in a better situation.
And certainly, we'd have evidence
if we needed to prosecute.
But more importantly, beyond prosecution,
we want to be aware before the damage happen.
And unfortunately, before, because of where it's situated,
we may not know for days, weeks later that there
was that type of damage.
Right, right.
And help me with this.
Didn't we pass an ordinance about the transportation
and that we put some teeth to that?
Yes, that's true.
So there are additional remedies that we have to clear people out
of there if they decide to set up camp or whatnot there
on that overcrossing area, as well as, in the ultimate case,
to remove people for periods of time
if they violate rules within that area.
I also think, too, that the hardening
that's going on up there will have a positive impact.
You talked about the condenser units up there.
That area was, frankly, just way too open,
so this will be better.
So there's a good hope that by the end of the year,
not only will you be able to get it open,
but we'll be able to keep it open
because I know the whole council is excited about that.
Yes.
And beyond what the city is doing,
the Amtrak camera upgrades are very comprehensive.
They're putting a ton of cameras out there.
Very good.
And they have people monitoring them where?
Their setup is a little bit different,
so I can't speak to exactly how it works.
I don't think it's as real time as ours.
But they do have the ability to access them.
And I believe, too, they're putting a call station,
I think, on the crossing, if I remember correctly the plan.
They expanded.
Originally, their project stopped at the crossing.
And based upon the input of council
and then Staff working back and forth with Amtrak,
we got them to expand their project
to encompass the walkway.
Yeah.
So you're pretty satisfied with the hardening?
Yes, and I think having it open where people regularly
are utilizing that.
When you have closed spaces, you're
naturally going to have problems with people
finding their way in there and then creating
problems versus an active area.
It tends to discourage that just on its own.
Very good.
Thank you.
Thank you, Jay, for all the questions.
Anyone have any other follow-up questions?
I thank Joe for all of his responses.
And I just wanted to be clear.
Several of the questions were regarding union work,
and I wanted to acknowledge that last year, our PLA expired.
And we have been requesting periodically
from the previous participants of the PLA
to come back to the table to discuss
so we can get a PLA back on the books for the city of Martinez.
But it did expire last year, and so there is no PLA currently,
which is what Joe was talking about.
However, if there had been a PLA in effect,
our PLA applied to projects that are over a million dollars.
And I believe this was a $500,000 some odd project.
So even if we had the PLA in effect,
it would not have triggered.
So I just wanted to make sure that that's clear
because there were a lot of questions and a lot of answers,
but I feel like that's the crux of the matter.
So any other questions or comments?
And just to further underscore the point,
the majority of the subcontractors
are, in fact, union on this project.
Correct?
That's correct.
OK, thank you very much.
And personally, the city manager can
attest this has been my pet project that I
have been bothering Staff on every three months
since I became mayor.
So I'm really happy to see this moving forward.
And I think this will be a really great add because it
has been added and taken away and added
and taken away multiple times in the past eight years.
So I will be very happy when it is open and when it stays open.
OK, with that, any public comment on this particular item
regarding the pedestrian bridge?
No?
OK, anyone in the virtual audience?
Please use the Raise Hand feature.
I have no hands.
All right, a motion, please.
Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution
of the City Council of the City of Martinez accepting the bid
of W.E. Lyons Construction as the lowest responsible
and responsive bidder and rejecting the bid protest filed
by MFS Construction, authorizing the city manager to execute
a contract and any change orders until completion of the proposed
intermodal elevator and security improvements,
project number C6012, in accordance with the approved
plans and specifications, and amount not to exceed $631,822,
which does include the contract of $549,410 and a 15%
contingency fee of $82,412.
Second.
All in favor, please say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes, all ayes.
Great.
Thank you.
All right, let's move on to general business,
item 13, adopting a resolution approving five Sesquicentennial
Utility Box Art Project designs.
All right, so good evening, Mayor Zorn and City Council.
My name is Carrie Rivers, and I'm
a management analyst in the city's Community and Economic
Development Department.
Tonight, I'll be presenting the Sesquicentennial Utility Box Art
Project design selection for your review
and possible approval.
So let's begin with some background.
The city Public Art Policy was adopted in 2022
and established a collaborative process between Staff
and the Parks, Recreation, Marina and Cultural Commission,
now known as Parks, Recreation, Marina, and Arts
Commission, or PRMAC, for the development
of a city-initiated public art project or program.
The city's Utility Box Beautification Pilot Project,
which launched in 2019 prior to the adoption of the Public Art
Policy, transformed seven city-owned utility boxes
into vibrant public art installations
and helped create the foundation for the sesquicentennial Utility
Box Art Project.
In early January 2026, the Public Art Review Committee,
which consists of city staff from different departments
and divisions, met to discuss a possible expansion of the pilot
project and identify five utility box locations.
On February 17, 2026, Staff presented the Sesquicentennial
Utility Box Art Project to the PRMAC,
who reviewed and supported the proposed commemorative expansion
of the pilot project in celebration of the city's 150th
anniversary of incorporation.
The Sesquicentennial Utility Box Art Project
incorporates the citywide theme, past, present, future, together,
includes five city-owned utility boxes, also known
as traffic signal cabinets, maintains artist stipends
as included in the pilot project,
expanded participation to community members 18
years of age and younger with guardian authorization,
and included a new online community voting process.
The call for artists was released on March 2
and closed on May 3, 2026.
The city received 31 design submissions from 22 applicants.
Submissions were first reviewed by the Public Art Review
Committee and then by the PRMAC.
And all designs were recommended for inclusion
in the online community voting process.
Voting ran from June 1 to July 20 through PollUnit,
with 3,844 votes received from 1,342 devices.
The five designs with the most votes
were selected for the city council's consideration
this evening.
Staff considered applicants' location,
preferences, vote counts, and surrounding context
to finalize the installation location recommendations.
And now I'll present the five recommended
designs identified through the community voting process.
And please note that you can view all 31 design submissions
and application summaries in attachment B of the Staff
Report.
So design number one is titled Roots of Tomorrow
and was created by applicant Roman Nunez.
Roots of Tomorrow received the highest number of votes, 338.
And Staff recommends installation
on utility box number 4, which is located at Alhambra
Avenue and Walnut Avenue.
Design number two is titled Native Amphibians, Reptiles,
and Plants of Martinez and was created by applicant Jacqueline
Rajerison.
The design received the second highest number of votes, 267.
And Staff recommends installation
on utility box number 2, which is located at Morello
Avenue and Muir Road.
Design number three is titled Alhambra Hills Forever
and was created by applicant Teryn Brown.
This design received the third highest number of votes, 257.
And Staff recommends installation
on utility box number 5, which is located at Alhambra
Avenue and Rockridge Drive.
Design number four is titled Sun Shines in Us
and was created by applicant Megan Godino.
Sun Shines in Us received the fourth highest number
of votes, 238.
And Staff recommends installation
on utility box number 1, which is located at Morello
Avenue and Morello Park Drive.
And finally, design number five is titled Flying Kites
and was created by applicant Sophia Leighton.
Flying Kites received the highest number--
or the fifth highest number of votes, 227.
And Staff recommends installation
on utility box number 3, which is located
at Center Avenue and Muir Road.
Upon city council acceptance, Staff
will work with the selected applicants
to complete agreements, coordinate installation
with the vinyl wrap vendor, and distribute artist stipends
to the selected applicants, with a tentative completion
for fall 2026.
The Sesquicentennial Art Project is anticipated to cost $15,000.
And the budget is intended to cover the costs associated
with printing and installing the vinyl wraps
and then the artist stipends of $750 per selected utility box
design.
And staff time with managing the program
is covered by the general fund.
This project aligns with the city's four-year strategic plan,
specifically goal E, strategy 3, to plan and execute a citywide
150th anniversary celebration that honors Martinez's history,
fosters community pride, and strengthens civic and cultural
connections.
So the recommendation is to adopt a resolution
approving the five sesquicentennial utility box
designs and locations and authorizing the city manager
to execute agreements with the selected applicants in a form
approved by the city attorney.
Thank you.
And now for any comments or questions.
Great.
Thank you.
I was so happy with the caliber of art
that we received this year.
I was really, really excited.
And I want to thank Staff for managing the public voting
process.
I thought that was even more fun than the way we did it
the first time when we were doing it through the Parks
and Rec Commission.
So this was a really cool way of doing it.
I did have one question for you.
What will be the process moving forward?
Are each of the artists, once they're selected,
asked to recreate their drawings in order to put them
into the vinyl format?
How does that work?
Yes, so we will have--
and I'll note that in the application,
it allows for preliminary drawings pretty close to what
the final products would be, but there can be some modifications.
The process will be for the vinyl wrap vendor
to provide specific requirements.
And we'll be working closely with the artist and the vinyl
wrap vendor to then transfer it into the format
that they need to then print the designs.
So the designs are not final, so we
could provide a little bit of input
now that we could provide back to the artist for a few items.
I had two comments, if I may.
The first one was that I think the second to last item,
it would be great to see the representation
of the sesquicentennial logo and John Muir
drawing be at the same level of detail
as the rest of the poppies that were on that design.
I believe that was Megan Godino's design.
And I think the poppies are super detailed
and would be great if we could elevate the other drawings that
are there.
They look like sketches, and I suspect
that is going to be changed anyway when you get the final.
And then my other comment, the ones
that had the turkey vulture and the cow on it,
the cow is softer, has ground, looks
a little bit more realistic.
The turkey vulture is just a fairly harsh design.
If we could provide feedback to the artist
to maybe provide a branch or sky or something
to soften that to more resemble the cow,
I think that would be a good tweak for that
before it goes final.
So I think those are my two comments.
Does anybody have any questions about this process for staff?
I just have a comment.
I think it's great we're giving them a stipend.
I think that's wonderful.
And I like all the artwork.
I'm really impressed, like the mayor
was saying, with the quality and the level of artwork.
I think it's wonderful.
That's all I got.
I was just going to ask very quickly,
so the boxes themselves, what was
the criteria that was used to select the specific locations?
It seems like a lot of them are north of Highway 4,
or am I mistaken?
So the design-- or the selection of the utility boxes, the intent
was to try and expand.
So we have existing painted utility boxes, some of which
are concentrated along Alhambra and within the Downtown.
So with the locations that were selected,
it was trying to find ones in different areas of the city.
So that's the primary process.
And then we were focused on the city-owned traffic signal
cabinets.
OK.
And to add a little bit to that, when
we went through the process of selecting the locations,
in addition to looking at where the existing utility boxes were,
that was a matter that was brought before the PRMAC,
as well as the city council for determination.
As Carrie indicated, we worked to spread them out.
We tried to get at least one box in each council district.
We came close, given where existing traffic signals
are located.
Yeah, thank you for the presentation
and for sharing with us the final recipients of the utility
box award.
I just want to also thank all the other artists out there
that submitted their work.
There was over 30 submissions, and they're all
just unique in their own way.
And there's some others that would be pretty
strong runner-ups to the five.
So I hope that in the future, if there's other,
which there will be, other utility box
projects, that they submit their artwork again for round three
because this is round two.
And I'm also glad to hear that the artists are
able to work with the city on any tweaks
or any little, small changes that might be needed in any
of these renderings so that they can be more adequately placed
on the utility box or any small changes that
may be of a request.
So I appreciate their working with the city to do that.
And look forward to seeing them out there on the street.
Thank you.
So no, I was just curious.
I know there are traffic signal boxes,
and they're usually about the size of the podium there.
Are there other boxes that are going
to be covered in this artwork?
I know, for example, underneath the power
lines where they have a relay, there's boxes the same size.
Are those on the list as well for next year?
Do we know?
So there are some limitations--
and Joe may be able to speak to this as well--
on which ones can be painted.
So the traffic signal box-- or cabinets
actually belong to the cities.
A lot of the other ones are PG&E service cabinets,
and we're not allowed to adorn their cabinets.
So it limits the locations where we could--
Yeah, that cuts out a lot of them.
So that being said, I know they're
in different varying conditions as far as the paint on there.
Are you guys planning on doing any prep work
before those skins go on?
Because I imagine there's some that are really rusted
that might need a little help.
So the vinyl wrap vendor will complete a site assessment
before the final dimensions are provided.
But generally, the utility boxes,
these ones for this round, do not have much rust on them.
I know in the pilot round, there were some that were pretty
rusty, but for the most part, these aren't.
But we'll get feedback from the vinyl wrap vendor
if that's necessary.
And how many of those boxes have been identified overall?
Do we just have a count for this year,
or do we know how many there are in the city throughout?
I don't have that number on me right now,
but we should have a general count
because when the pilot project was first developed,
I know that there was an assessment done
of the city-owned traffic signal cabinets.
So we should be able to get an updated count
and if there's any changes to that list.
I'd be curious to know.
Thank you.
And just to piggyback on that, for future art where--
the ones that didn't get the top votes,
will they be in the running for new locations for utility boxes,
or would the process start over again?
I think that the process would potentially start over.
I mean, we definitely are going to maintain the artist list so
that we can contact them if and when future rounds are released.
And that may be something where we can
explore if there was a design.
Yeah, only, I mean, there were some,
I thought, great designs that didn't make it in the top five.
So if there was a opportunity for those folks to resubmit,
the ones that didn't make it, just thought I'd bring that up.
But great job.
Thank you.
And just to piggyback on that, I know
that we've had some organizations, like Friends
of Alhambra Creek, that were interested in sponsoring,
but their offer of sponsoring a box
came after we'd already started the process.
We already had what the protocol would be.
We already had what the theme would be.
And so I think this is exciting, that this has proven it works
and that, hopefully, the next time around,
we can work more closely with that organization.
And maybe they can help select some of the themes that are more
Alhambra Creek specific.
And they can fund a couple of the boxes
to expand it to even more people.
So I think that's great.
Any last comments?
I was just curious on just some of our private utility
providers, like Comcast and AT&T.
Do they have a mechanism by which they allow
their boxes to be painted?
I was just curious.
Anybody know?
I need to clarify.
I've spoken with my colleague in Engineering
about some of the options for AT&T or Comcast.
So I think that there might be some options there,
but I need to clarify that.
I'm just thinking, for some of the runner-ups,
if there's opportunities elsewhere,
it might be worth engaging in that conversation with them
to see if that might at all be a possibility down the road.
I think one of the challenges that we
have is going to be funding associated with this project.
So related to the previous discussion,
when we potentially have a cultural facilities
and public art fee, there might be more opportunities
to fund some of these additional improvements.
But I would say to that, we can certainly also look to folks
at Comcast and AT&T to see if they
might be willing to help underwrite such an effort.
So I don't think that they support
a lot of different community initiatives.
I don't see why this couldn't be thrown into the possible mix.
So just something to think about.
And there's lots of community outreach groups,
like the Kiwanians or the Rotarians,
that might want to bankroll that.
Throwing it out there.
Great.
All right, public comment.
Anyone in the room this evening like
to make any comments on this item?
All right, how about virtual audience?
Please use the Raise Hand feature.
I have no hands.
All right, back to council for a motion.
I don't have any other comments.
Actually, I'm going to make the motion this time because I'm
excited about this project.
Let's see.
It's this one.
Yeah.
I'd like to move that we adopt the resolution approving
the five sesquicentennial-- oh, my goodness, Sesquicentennial
Utility Box Art Project designs and locations
and authorizing the city manager to execute agreements
with the selected applicants in a form approved by the city
attorney.
And, Mayor, that includes the minor tweaks as
mentioned as well.
Oh, including the minor tweaks as mentioned.
Thank you.
I'll second.
All in favor, please say aye.
Aye.
Wonderful.
Thank you.
All right, wonderful.
Thank you for the presentation.
Are you staying up for the next item as well?
OK.
Next item is adopt a resolution approving a second mural design
modification on the Universal Sports Academy Complex.
Yes, thank you.
So good evening, Mayor Zorn and City Council.
Again, my name is Carrie Rivers, a management analyst
in the Community and Economic Development Department.
And I'll be presenting on the proposed Joe DiMaggio Hometown
Hero Project Mural Modification Number 2.
The Joe DiMaggio Hometown Hero Project Mural initiative
began with a public art application in January 2024.
The proposal was for a mural on the south-facing wall
of the Universal Sports Academy Complex,
located at 330 Ferry Street.
After review by the Public Art Review Committee and Parks,
Recreation, Marina, and Cultural Commission,
the PRMCC recommended approval to the city council.
In July 2024, the city council adopted resolution number
117-24, authorizing the city manager to execute a memorandum
of understanding with the applicant and artist,
which was fully executed in March 2025.
In July 2025, the applicant contacted
Staff to provide an update on their fundraising process
and requested approval to modify the design
to extend it onto the east-facing wall
to acknowledge sponsors.
The city council then adopted resolution number 25-126,
authorizing addendum number 1 to the MOU,
which was executed in January 2026.
Additionally, the project applied for
and received a $500 Community Groups Funding Program grant
award and entered into an Art Commission Agreement
in December 2025, as required for public art funded
by the city.
And the Community Groups Funding Program is a city grant program.
Shortly after the addendum and Art Commission Agreement
were executed, the artist began the mural installation, which
then concluded in May 2026.
The primary mural design on the south-facing wall
features Martinez's attractions and prominent figures, including
Joe DiMaggio and John Muir.
The original design and final installation are shown here.
As noted earlier, the first approved design modification
extended the mural onto the east-facing wall,
highlighting sponsors.
And the installed modification is visible on this slide.
During installation, there was strong community interest
in participating through a public painting activity.
To build on this and support the city's
sesquicentennial celebration, the artist,
in coordination with the mayor, proposed a second design
modification.
This would extend the mural onto the second and third panels
of the east-facing wall on the lower portion,
with community members invited to paint portions
during the Sesquicentennial Festival on August 29.
The modification is funded with $2,000 from sponsorships
of the Sesquicentennial Festival.
And here is the originally proposed second design
modification, which depicts animals, vegetation, and text,
SMALL TOWN, BIG HEART.
It was to be refined to include acknowledgment
of the city's sesquicentennial.
The mural extension will incorporate the same color
palette as the primary mural design
and is also designed in a way that could later
be further integrated into the primary mural
and expanded on the east-facing wall at the city's discretion
and should additional funding be identified.
And today, the artist submitted an updated design
incorporating the city's sesquicentennial acknowledgment.
So that is this slide here.
It wasn't in the staff report, but this
is the new updated design that incorporates
the acknowledgment of the 150.
So upon city council acceptance, Staff
will work with the artist and the Joe DiMaggio Hometown Hero
Project to complete MOU addendum number 2 and Art Commission
Agreement addendum number 1, coordinate the painting
and community activation event at the Sesquicentennial Festival
and distribute payment to the artist.
The applicant is funding the primary mural and sponsor panel,
estimated at $90,000, through donations and the $500 city
grant.
The second modification is funded with $2,000 through
sponsorship of the Sesquicentennial Festival.
And this project aligns with the city's four-year strategic plan,
goal E, strategy 3, executing the 150th celebration that
honors Martinez's history, fosters community pride,
and strengthens civic and cultural connections.
So the recommendation is to adopt a resolution approving
a second mural design modification,
extending the mural on the east-facing wall
of the Universal Sports Academy Complex,
located at 330 Ferry Street, and authorizing the city manager
to execute a second addendum to the memorandum of understanding
and first addendum to the Art Commission
Agreement between the city, artist Tim
Hon, and nonprofit organization Joe DiMaggio Hometown Hero
Project in a form approved by the city attorney.
Thank you.
And now for any comments or questions.
Thank you very much.
And I appreciate that the artist provided an updated drawing.
I know when I read it the first time,
the original verbiage on that design
was a little disconnected from the hometown hero mural.
So I feel like this is a little better because it more connects
with the day that we're inviting kids to come and paint
the wall with him.
So I appreciate that alternative.
Does anyone have any comments that they would like
to provide on this alternative?
Debbie, do you want to--
Sure.
I honestly don't know if I totally
embrace the design of what was presented,
to be perfectly honest.
I feel like the existing mural wraps around,
and we put a lot of time and energy
into making sure that it was consistent
and that all the colors went together.
And it was a lot of symbolism.
And I feel like a lot of thought really
went into the creation of the Joe DiMaggio Hometown Hero
Mural.
And like other murals that we've supported and sponsored,
I feel like this is rushed.
And I'm not sure I love what it's representing completely.
Maybe I just don't see the full vision.
I just see a little piece at the bottom of the building,
and I don't see it connecting to the original one.
I just feel it's a little displaced.
That's just my immediate thought.
So, I don't know, maybe we can--
I don't know.
I'm just one voice, and there's four other voices.
But it just seems like it could do something a little different
than what is represented.
Just to be clear, I mean, I heard in the statement
that the color scheme is going to match.
So it's going to be the--
whatever colors you call it, blue, green, yellow?
Yeah, so the artist said that they
would use the same colors that were used for the primary mural.
So it can be any number of those colors,
but it'll be just consistent with that.
So just so I'm super clear and we say this out loud,
this is for the kids or the people of the sesquicentennial
to work on?
Yeah, so it'll be open to volunteers of all ages,
so it can be kids.
The artist will be there to help provide guidance.
They would outline the design elements,
and then community members can participate
in painting within the lines.
I guess what's thrown me off is that what I'm looking at
is pink and red.
And so are they talking about the--
help me understand what I'm looking at here.
So that design, it's just the outlines.
It is only what is shown--
The lower part?
Yes.
It's just going to be the lower portion
of that second and third panel.
It's currently in a sketched design right now,
but they would fill in the colors
consistent with the primary mural.
And so the upper part is not going to be painted at all?
It's going to be the original--
what color are we calling that?
Yeah, so it would remain the existing color on the exterior--
Industrial building color, right?
And then this bottom part is going
to be outlined and detailed in the green?
So it's just going to be on the lower part,
or the whole wall is going to be the matching colors?
Just the lower portion, but the design right
now is just the outline there.
So it's not only going to be the outlines.
It will be filled in with colors, but just that lower
portion.
OK.
OK, well, I want to hear what the rest of my council members
and mayor have to say about it.
But I know from being down there when
we were doing the original one that there was so much joy.
And I gotta admit, man, I did my eyeball.
And Tim and I had a blast laying it out together,
and it was super fun.
And so I'm excited for that.
I think it'll be a big hit for the sesquicentennial,
but I want to make sure everybody else is on board.
Yeah, I'm not seeing it.
It feels a bit disconnected.
And then based on what was said, if the bottom half is going
to be this green-yellow and then the top half
is going to remain the same, it's just not flowing for me.
And maybe I'm missing it, but, yeah, it
seems a little disconnected.
I mean, I can visually see Joe and John and Martinez
and then going around on this side,
and then there, it's just like, whoa, this is different.
And then I'm also assuming the artist
is going to be doing some touch-up
on that bottom half where youth and folks are
going to be painting?
There's going to be some supervision so it is consistent
and flowing and folks staying within the lines?
Yes.
OK.
Let me be positive about this because I
can see that we have some hesitation on the council.
So as Jay mentioned, during the first round of this mural,
a lot of younger kids got an opportunity to paint.
And it was the expectation of the muralist,
but not of the children, that the final mural
would paint over all of the stuff that people painted.
So there was some people that were
very concerned and upset that their child's painting got
painted over.
And the Hometown Hero Project wanted to address it,
and they wanted to give kids the opportunity
to paint part of the mural that would stay that way forever
so the kids could always come back and see their art.
And we, as part of the Sesquicentennial Festival
Planning Committee, thought that that would be a really great day
to give kids the opportunity.
So to address the height of it, it's only as high
as children can paint because we don't want kids
going up on ladders and painting the whole wall.
That's how Tim and the Illuminaries
painted the original mural, on multi-story ladders.
They won't be doing that.
And he'll be outlining the drawing that
was supported by members of-- at least the board of the Hometown
Hero Project.
And then the kids can come.
And he'll give them the paint, and they can paint this outline
like a coloring book celebrating the sesquicentennial.
And then they will have an opportunity
to come back and enjoy the art that they have made.
And there may be touch-ups, Jay, but it was my understanding
that that was not really the intention.
The intention isn't to cover over.
The intention is to let kids paint it.
So I just want to make sure that that's clear
that this is supposed to be a very positive,
kid-friendly painting exercise.
But I see your concern about it not being similar.
It does have a slightly different theme
so that it can address the new people that
were to be drawing on it.
So--
Also, one thing that's important to remember,
that if you go back to the original primary one,
I mean, if you're down there, you
can still see some of the stuff that the kids did.
I mean, there is a lot of stuff that's--
let's see.
What's the word I'm looking for--
etched that you can still see, just for a point of reference,
just so you know.
As you walk by there, you can see some of the grind,
but it did get mostly covered up.
I believe the artist is in the virtual audience
and may have some additional comments or context
that would be helpful perhaps to our discussion.
So I'm going to reserve comment until I hear from him, if that's
OK, at the appropriate time.
I'm not sure.
I think he's just on right now.
I don't know who else is on, but when we
call for the virtual audience.
Michael, Carrie, do you know if anyone from the Hometown Hero
Project is on the call this evening?
I'm not sure if the Hometown Hero Project is on the call,
but the artist is on the call.
Yeah, OK.
Yeah, I have one more comment.
I just want to bear in mind where this is located.
Are you going to go over the train tracks to the marina?
This is going to be something that
will be very prominently displayed as well.
So just thinking about the location
of where this is being placed in context
of the content of the mural.
Can I disagree on the prominence of it?
It's tucked in behind the train, so no one
will see it unless they walk into that little park.
So I have another suggestion, just to throw something out
to keep it positive because I don't want to be negative.
Years back, when we had the Beavers in town
and it was a huge thing, the kids
participated by making tiles.
They all did their own unique little tile.
And I'm not sure how they were preserved exactly,
but they were placed on our bridges and our overpasses
where the Beavers resided at one point.
And that's another option because they
can each be very creative in their own way
as maybe another substitute for if this isn't going
to go the way people think.
The tiles can be placed somewhere in the future,
and it would give kids an opportunity, at the 150th,
to create something unique, something that they enjoy,
and something that represents Martinez to them.
It's another alternative.
Well, it encompasses art, but it would be on a tile
that we can choose where these tiles would
be placed in the city.
It's another art-type activity that
might be something different, then
we can find a prominent place to put these.
Like at St. Catherines with their tiles?
Yeah, and the Beaver tiles are over the bridge down at 611.
Yes, well, 611 or the Old Bertolli's Restaurant.
They're in there as well.
Yeah, that was my question.
Were we dead set on this, or were
there alternatives or options?
Here's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to open this up to public comment,
give everyone an opportunity to speak.
And like you said, the artist is on.
So he's in the virtual audience.
So if he'd like to provide any comment, he can.
Is there anyone in the room this evening
that would like to provide comment on this item?
How about in the virtual audience?
Is there anyone who'd like to provide comment?
For those attending virtually, please
use the Raise Hand feature.
To start, we do have Tim.
I'll ask him to unmute.
Hey, everybody.
Yeah, so just to comment on that space,
yeah, the main purpose here is--
Jay was out there, and he hit it the nail on the head.
A lot of the parents that brought their kids out,
they were saying how good of a time they had doing it.
And this is really about the process of bringing
the community and the kids in.
It's not about the finality of, what are we producing?
It's the joy that's produced while they're doing it.
The wall that we're doing is-- it's a throwaway wall.
No one sees that.
It's behind the train.
And actually, that space is highly underutilized.
I spent months there painting another mural.
Nannies and grandmas are bringing their kids there
all day long.
And it looks terrible back there.
There's trash always back there.
That wall gets graffitied up.
So whether we put this mural up there or not, it's whatever,
but we should put something there.
It's a beautiful space that could be a park.
It's like, what other town has a real train as a playground?
Nobody.
So it doesn't need to match the mural because--
I mean, it's going to match the mural in color,
but it's a different experience back there.
When you walk back there behind the train,
you can't see the other mural.
Now, obviously, it doesn't connect to the sponsor wall,
but we're leaving space if we get money to do that.
But it is a hard wall to get to.
You need a real big lift, $2,000 lift,
just to get back there to do it.
And we can do that one day.
But I would just urge everyone to think about--
the kids are going to love it.
It's a perfect location for the event.
People are going to be walking back and forth through there.
And the kids will be able to see that space for a long time.
So--
Thanks, Tim.
Any other comments?
Sorry.
I have no other hands.
OK.
All right, well, let's bring this back to council.
I did want to make two comments.
I know that I spoke with the head of the Hometown Hero
Project, and he was supportive of it.
And I believe Staff indicated that the Universal Sports
Academy folks had expressed support.
Is that true?
So when the artist proposed the design that's
before the city council this evening,
Carrie Rivers and myself reached out
to Bob Cellini with the Hometown Heroes Project
and had a conversation with him, as he
was one of the main people who was spearheading
the original mural.
Carrie also reached out to Universal Sports Complex,
who currently has a lease with that building.
And both of those individuals expressed support
for the project.
So I guess my question is, what would it
take for us to have a consistent color theme on that?
If everybody's sold on this and we're
going to do the bottom half, and then
I gotta look at the top half that's mauve and light pink,
and everything else is consistent?
So if this is what folks want to do,
can we at least make that whole wall consistent in color,
whether we do anything at the top or not?
Again, maybe I'm looking at it-- but if the SMALL TOWN, BIG HEART
is going to be the same colors as the sponsor wall,
then we're just going to have this mauve pink upper half.
So can we just consistently paint it?
That would look a lot better.
That's for sure.
So I can't give an answer on this this evening,
but one thing to put out there is
I believe that Universal Sports Academy is
thinking about painting the building
in the not-too-distant future.
We could reach out and have conversations with them
to find out what their timing is for painting
the remainder of the building and ensure
that, at least for these two panels,
there's coordination on a color alternative to what the existing
building color is to address the concern that we're
hearing from council.
I think the challenge that we will
have with the limited funding that's available
and the cost associated with renting ladders
and/or lifts to get to the height
that this building is, that's not
viable for the artist for this scope of work at this time,
but there's potentially other paths to address that issue.
Lest we just ask that Tim paints the whole building.
I mean--
Oh, yeah.
Can I make a alternative proposal?
Can we continue this item-- we have some pretty major items
later in the agenda.
Can we continue this item to our next meeting?
We're talking about the sesquicentennial on the 29th.
It will get very tight, but I think that we might--
I feel like there's too many open-ended questions,
and we don't have consensus.
I think continuing the conversation,
I'm not sure we're going to come to a resolution.
How do people feel about continuing this
to the next meeting?
OK.
I'll support continuing it, but I'd
like to have some other suggestions because if the mural
isn't going to be something that we're going to proceed with,
I'd like to have some other artwork type of activity
suggestions, like the tiles that we had for the Beaver Festival--
kids got to paint their own tiles-- or some other type
of art project that can be then put together
later at another location.
So they still have the ability to do artwork,
but it may not be designated in a specific spot yet.
I think that's a fair request.
So, Staff, would you mind coming back
at the next meeting with a few alternatives?
And maybe you can work with the Hometown Hero Project
to also identify a couple of potential improvements
for color and consistency with the rest of the building.
Great.
Thank you.
All right, there is no vote.
We'll just move on on that.
Let's move on to the next item.
Adopt a resolution supporting the nomination
of several census tracts for designation
as opportunity zones.
Brandon.
Thank you, Mayor Zorn and members of the City Council.
I'm Senior Planner Brandon Northart
here this evening to present information
related to the Opportunity Zones 2.0 program.
So I'll get into exactly what opportunity zones are
in the next couple of slides, but I just
really quickly want to cover some
of the history of the program and set the stage
for tonight's decision.
So the Opportunity Zones Program was
established by the federal government in 2017.
The original program is close to sunsetting,
so a new round of Opportunity Zones, or Opportunity Zones 2.0,
was established with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill
Act on July 4, 2025.
In summary, the program encourages
reinvestment of capital gains into economically distressed
census tracts.
Economically distressed census tracts
are tracts where median family income is
below 70% of the metropolitan average
or where there is poverty rate of 20% or greater,
plus some additional formulas.
The four shaded tracts that you see on the map
here are all of those that fall within that category
within Martinez.
So what do opportunity zones actually do?
So in short, they allow for the creation
of what's called a qualified opportunity fund that can
be used within a census tract.
Once a fund has been created, it allows
investors to reinvest their capital gains into the fund
and defer or completely waive any associated taxes that
would be owed after a certain amount of time,
usually about 5 to 10 years.
And as a reminder, capital gains are the profit
that an investor realizes once they sell stocks or property
and are usually subject to some form of taxation.
So essentially, in summary, the program
allows investors who want to be patient
avoid paying those taxes.
It also allows them to invest in other projects
and potentially realize even greater gains.
The fund can then be used on new real estate construction,
rehabilitation of vacant or underutilized properties,
equity investments and operating businesses,
infrastructure and energy-related projects,
among many others.
And for clarity, this all happens
through the private market.
These funds do not provide any monies to the city directly.
It also does not guarantee that investment will occur.
So covering how opportunity zones are actually selected.
So just because a census tract is
in that economically distressed category
I mentioned doesn't actually make it
qualify as an opportunity zone.
The first step actually requires that local jurisdictions,
like the city of Martinez, express interest
to the state first of those eligible census tracts.
The deadline to do so is actually on July 20, 2026,
so a couple weeks ago.
Unfortunately, this whole process
happened so quickly that Staff wasn't
able to seek guidance from the city council prior to this date
because we were all on the July recess.
So as such, we took the liberty of submitting interest
to the state for all four of the eligible tracts.
And the state does not really have any selection criteria
specifically but has mentioned there
are some important guidelines and factors in their decision
making, including the availability
of shovel-ready project sites, the number of housing element
opportunity sites, whether there's already committed
public investment, if there's an existing or planned tax
increment financing district, the potential
to advance certain strategic job sectors,
and the overall potential to attract public and private
investment opportunities.
And in addition, they'll take into consideration
public comments that will be received during a public comment
period that actually started on August 3
and ends on August 28 of this year.
Based on these factors, the state
will then nominate 25% of all eligible census tracts.
Since California has 2,469 eligible census tracts,
there can only be a maximum of 618 nominated tracts.
Once these 618 tracts are determined,
the governor will then forward them
to the US Department of the Treasury for formal selection
and designation by the feds.
Once approved, the opportunity zones
will become effective and eligible
for creation of those qualified opportunity funds on January 1,
2027.
So how exactly do these opportunity zones
result in projects?
So the project has been successful to a certain extent,
depending on where and what for.
So estimates differ, but a conservative estimate
is that since 2017, opportunity zones across the United States
have generated $43 billion of equity across the US.
And I have actually seen this number as high as $100 billion,
but it's hard to confirm because so many of these transactions
happen through the private market.
Approximately 3/4 of all opportunity zones have seen some
form of investment.
And housing growth in opportunity zones
has more than doubled since designation.
Specifically for California, there's
been an estimated $5 billion of investment,
with most of it being directed towards residential, mixed-use,
and commercial projects in major metropolitan areas.
Contra Costa County, Antioch, Concord, Pittsburgh,
and Richmond also have existing opportunity zones
through the first iteration of the program.
I did reach out to the city of Concord, who
have a couple of opportunity zones from the first round,
but they weren't aware of any qualified opportunity
funds being established or utilized since implementation.
And you can see there's lots of examples of projects,
but here's just one example that was
provided to us in some informational projects of--
this was an affordable housing project
that utilized one of the funds to secure investment,
and this one was based in LA.
So bringing it back to Martinez and why we're here,
as I previously mentioned, Martinez
has four eligible census tracts that qualify as economically
distressed.
We're allowed to submit interest to the state
for as many or as few of these tracts as we'd like,
but we need to establish an order of priority.
As I mentioned, we submitted interest for all four
of the tracks and took the liberty
of establishing the order of priority shown here
on this table and in the map.
Our number one priority was the waterfront tract,
where we sited the potential waterfront marina
project being a major catalyst for development,
as well as having 30 housing element opportunity
sites and the location of our core downtown
commercial district.
The second was the Alhambra Avenue corridor,
which has 45 housing element sites, the potential
for the adult education redevelopment project,
the county hospital, and other major commercial corridor
for the city.
Third was the area just south and east of Downtown,
which has eight housing element sites, several county
administrative facilities, the Martinez Unified School District
offices, and industrial areas.
And finally, the last one was the industrial area
of Howe Road and the refinery, which has 10 housing element
sites, industrial areas, and a large portion
of MRC's facilities.
So some of these tracts do also overlap
with unincorporated Contra Costa County,
which are the areas that are shaded
but outside of the yellow boundary, which is our city.
As such, we've been coordinating with the county
on these nominations to ensure consistency,
aligned priority, and coordination
for letters of support.
So on August 3, so this past Monday,
the state actually released a preliminary list
of their proposed nominations.
This list so far has only included the waterfront,
which I think is still a positive
because at least there's one that we have a good chance at.
The other three eligible tracts were not nominated
or have not been included.
That being said, this is not their official nomination
or recommendation, and the list is still subject to change.
Cities may elect to remove themselves from consideration,
change order of priority.
There's also the consideration the state might take,
such as public comments and other letters of support,
that may sway their direction.
And the state is now, like I mentioned,
accepting public comments and, more importantly, letters
of support from stakeholders in the census tracts.
And that ends on August 28.
So with all that being said, staff are seeking feedback
on the following.
First, does the city council support Staff's submission
to the state to have interest in all four
of the eligible census tracts, or should we withdraw interest
for any of them?
Second, is the order of preference
that we've created acceptable, or should it be changed?
So again, as I mentioned, these things have already technically
been submitted to the state, but we still
have the opportunity to provide a public comment
letter of recommendation to the state saying
we would like to change or withdraw nominations, so on.
So once we confirm your direction,
Staff is going to continue working
with the county as necessary.
We'll forward any letters of support,
as well as any adopted resolutions, to the state.
We'll continue working with the city's lobbyists
and soliciting letters of support
from the federal, state, regional, community,
local, business, education, transportation,
economic development, and community partners
and submit those letters of recommendation and letters
of support by August 28.
And then we'll continue monitoring the state and federal
designation process and report back to the city council
as additional information becomes available.
And before I read the recommendation,
I just want to reiterate one more time
that Staff views that the opportunity zone designation is
just one component of a broader economic development strategy.
These funds, again, don't provide direct funds
to the city.
And they do not necessarily guarantee
that investment will occur.
It won't be a silver bullet.
It's just going to be another tool in our tool belt
to potentially create another stream of economic investment
in the city.
So with that being said, Staff's recommendation this evening is
to adopt resolution supporting the nomination of census
tracts-- bear with me--
06013316000, 06013318000, 06013317000,
and 06013320001 for designation as opportunity zones under
the Federal Opportunity Zones 2.0 program and direct Staff
to forward the city council's affirmed support for the census
tract nominations to the California Governor's Office
of Business and Economic Development, GO-Biz,
and continue advocacy efforts throughout
the state's evaluation and public comment process.
And with that, I am happy to answer any questions
that you might have.
I have one starter question.
I felt that all four of these proposals were very valid.
And if the state has only, in the draft recommendation,
included the priority one, the marina,
is there any negatives to us leaving all four in?
Do we need to put all of our efforts into the marina?
Because I like the last two, and I
think industrial support is something we should do,
but it's clearly not the frontrunners.
So my take on this is that, one, the Marina is probably the most
important and has been listed as a potential selection
by the state.
The state is only able to select 25% of the eligible tracts.
My read on the situation is that cities are not
going to have all or many of their tracts selected.
And based on the 25% figure, if we have four and one of them
is selected, that aligns.
Again, we can reprioritize if you
think that's necessary in terms of the four
that we've put them in order as.
However, my sense is I don't know how much the state will
change based on their initial analysis of all
of the eligible census tracts.
So--
I'd like to add something to that.
I think what's also important is, again, as Brandon mentioned,
this is a long-term strategy.
And opportunity zones are for a 10-year period,
so there will be a future round of opportunity zones.
So there is always the possibility,
by submitting nominations now, even if they're not included,
it may set us up for success with future rounds
as well as something that we've tried to do previously
and potentially having a better standing.
Yeah.
And Michael mentioned something I neglected to include
in my presentation that these are basically a 10-year rolling
basis, where opportunity zone will be eligible for that fund
for 10 years, where the next round will begin in 10 years.
And that designation will lose itself or have
to be renominated again.
Thank you for both of those answers.
So the waterfront is our shortest-term project.
So I think it's great that it's number one,
and I think it's great that the state has already allowed
it to go on to the next level.
The next item number 2 is the housing opportunity sites
with the Adult Education Center, which is currently
cued up by the school district for,
what, 2031, which is within the next couple of years.
So I think that's important.
I don't have a super good handle on number 3.
Number 4 has EUV Tech listed.
And as a sitting member of the GZ,
thank you, Alyson, for joining us from Contra Costa County.
These are the kinds of things that the city of Martinez
needs to get out there and to advocate for some of our census
tracts that would be excellent for industrial innovation
and clean energy transition, all of that.
So I think it would behoove us to, if not include both, include
and keep at least one of those census tracts.
So if Staff would like to make an argument for one
or the other-- or both is also fine--
I'm not super excited about dropping the last three.
Just to clarify, we did nominate and submit
interest for all four.
We have filed and submitted the forms and everything.
So at that point, it really is up to the state
to say yes or no to any of those census tracts, which they have
preliminarily said yes to waterfront
and no to the other three.
OK, cool.
Go ahead, Debbie.
So I think the first question the mayor had--
or maybe I thought she had was, there is no penalty for us
to have all four submitted?
And we submitted all four.
Correct.
If the state picks one, that's great.
The other three are just still in the background.
And perhaps over the next 10 years,
there could be a selection made.
But we're not hindered in any way by keeping all four there.
So I don't see any reason why we would take any out,
unless there's a penalty.
I mean, let's keep all.
Let's go for it.
Yeah, and I think that was exactly Staff's thinking
as well.
There really isn't any downside to nominating.
And I think that's why the state asked for a list of preference,
because if they had to make a judgment call,
they would rely on the city's judgment in that.
I would like to align my comments with Council Member
McKillop.
I just feel there's no harm putting all of them in.
OK, it's great.
They clearly like one right now.
But you said it's not a done deal just yet.
So if we can get more, great, that's icing on the cake.
But at least we got one in there, which is great.
I would say that this is going to go before GO-Biz.
Is that right?
GO-Biz is the deciding entity, right?
Correct.
So GO-Biz and the Department of Finance are working together.
And they are the ones who do the preliminary--
who cut down the list to the 25%.
They'll forward them to the governor, who will then
forward them to the feds.
OK, so having worked professionally
as staff in the Legislature for many years,
I can tell you that this is the exact type of thing where
a city needs to go and engage with our legislative offices
so that they can make the case for our city.
That is what they are there for.
So don't rely on just the lobbyist.
Pick up the phone.
And we're happy to do it too.
We have relationships with them, too, so tell us.
If we need to do it, we will do it.
But that's how you get it done.
All right?
Duly noted.
So that's the way I look at it.
Don't just leave it to chance.
You got to be strategic.
If this is a priority, that's how
it gets done because I can guarantee you
the other cities who are out there that
are hoping to make that short list,
that's exactly what they're doing.
So that's how it's done.
All right?
So are you offering to call?
Because then I think we should--
I will do it.
Yeah, I think we should all call.
We should all call.
Yeah, we've got folks in our backyard
here that we should be calling.
And the end question or follow-up to that in terms of,
what's the timing?
Because again, the current governor is gone in four months.
And so we're going to have a new governor in January.
So just want to understand that dynamic and the impact
it can have.
Yeah, so the proposed timeline is here.
And based on my experience so far,
the state has been setting goals as time has gone on.
They haven't provided a lot of hard and fast timelines.
In fact, the date for the submittals, July 20,
was actually moved up.
It was supposed to be July 24.
So a lot of it has been moving targets at this point.
But based on everything that I've seen,
the governors have until approximately beginning or end
of October to submit to the feds.
That's the piece.
So this is something that will be done
under the current governor?
Because equally, there's stuff that could probably just
be pushed out to whoever the next person is.
OK, thank you.
And I would definitely support what the other council
member has said.
Thank you.
In addition to reaching out to our legislators, what
other things would be really great for us
to solicit or to provide or produce
to put us in a better position?
What other key documents or studies, reports?
What is it that can better position us to be
selected as one of the 25%?
Yeah.
So again, there wasn't any specific selection criteria
or scoring rubric provided by the state.
My understanding is it's basically
up to their own discretion.
So maybe diving a little bit more
into the actual formal process, really,
all it takes to submit to the interest list
was a form, an online form.
And the form basically is what census tract and a couple
write-ups describing potential investment that the city is
providing into those census tracts, which we include things
like in the CIP, other known projects happening
in the area, the number of housing element sites,
known projects that may happen, such as the waterfront marina
project.
All of those things were provided in our write-ups.
And that's really all that they ask for.
Once that is completed, that's all
that they're using for that preliminary selection.
Really, at this point, now is just letters of recommendation.
And that is what Staff has been working on
since we submitted those forms, is
we have been coordinating in with the lobbyist
and several other stakeholders to secure
those letters of support from local businesses, decision
makers, economic development organizations.
We've been reaching out to all of them.
And to add to that, besides working with our lobbyists
and relying on council members to connect
with elected officials and staff that works at the state,
the biggest thing that the state is looking for
is that there will be investment within those census tracts.
So we've identified some of the major corporations that
may have plans for expansion or improvements.
We'll be doing targeted outreach with focused letters
from each of those individuals.
EUV Tech, one of them as an example that was referenced.
Representative from MRC is here this evening.
That's another potential partner that we could
get letters of support as well.
The only other thing that I will add that was specifically
mentioned in several of the presentations that I attended
is the state is also highly favorable to census tracts that
have planned or existing tax increment financing districts.
I'm not really super in the urban economics field,
but my understanding is that that is something
that they looked very favorably to as well.
Is there a write-up or blurb that
could be produced if we wanted to give one of these legislators
or potential influencers, hey, we're
competing for an opportunity zone,
here are the facts, blah, blah, blah, boom?
There are paragraphs or something, quick and easy.
Yep.
So staff have been drafting-- sorry.
I need it by Sunday.
Yeah.
Staff have been working on a draft letter of support
to provide to organizations upon their request.
So that's what we have been providing to people.
There's also the blurb that we wrote
as a part of the submittal, but that
is more specific to the form and request that GO-Biz created.
So I'd be happy to provide that draft letter of support.
If council could get that, I think that would be great.
We can give you a draft letter, and we
can give you speaking points to make it easier for you.
That'd be awesome.
I think there's a sense of urgency for Sunday
just because we have meetings or events
with different congressmen.
Got it.
And on that list, in addition to speaking points and everything,
the list of people to call, I don't
know if you said that, but all of the people who
might vote on this, it would be really helpful to make sure
we all know who everybody's calling.
Otherwise, we'll just be picking the phone
to call the people that we know.
Right, right.
And even more important, are we getting a direct line,
or are we getting third-tier staff members?
Not that it's still not helpful, but--
Staff will maintain between now and the public comment deadline
an up-to-date list of information for outreach
that we're conducting and what we hear back
from each council member.
And we will make sure that the city manager has access
to up-to-date information in that space
and can provide updates to you as appropriate.
Thank you.
I'm going to open this up to a public comment on this item,
I think.
Anyone here this evening who'd like to speak on this item?
Great.
Hello.
Good evening.
My name is Sarah Baird.
I'm the executive director of Downtown Martinez & Co.
I've had an opportunity to briefly speak about it
with a few Staff members.
Obviously, this is a good thing, downtown/marina waterfront.
I don't know if you can answer questions.
You probably can't.
But I see that slash.
So as Downtown Martinez, I have to ask about it.
Obviously, we would support it, and we
would write letters of support.
But I can also extend working with the property
owners, the local businesses, the local community,
and we can get something going.
So I wanted to offer that and extend that tonight.
That's it.
Thank you.
Anybody else?
Alyson, come on up.
Sorry.
My name is Alyson Escarzaga, and I'm
representing the Contra Costa County Department
of Conservation Development.
And I'm just commenting to express my strong support
for the ongoing collaboration and coordination
between the county and the city of Martinez
regarding the nomination of the three census tracts that overlap
with both jurisdictions.
The County Board of Supervisors has authorized and approved
county staff to submit these overlapping census
tracts for nomination.
And throughout this process, we have worked closely
with city of Martinez staff, including Michael Cass
and Brandon Northart, to ensure a unified and effective
submission.
Additionally, our teams have coordinated
to secure letters of support for these nominations,
further demonstrating our shared commitment.
And the county will be submitting
letters of support for those nominations
under the public comment process.
So on behalf of the county, I'd respectfully
encourage the council to adopt the resolution supporting
the nomination of the census tracts for the opportunity zone
designation.
The partnership will help to maximize
the benefits and opportunities for both the city
and the unincorporated areas of Contra Costa County.
Thank you for your consideration.
Thank you.
And just really quickly, Michael, the three census tracts
that overlap are all the ones that you have on the map, right,
the ones that cross over the city boundaries?
Correct.
And as the description, the same between what
the county submitted and what we were submitting?
Very similar.
OK, great.
There are slightly different things
that each organization emphasized
as part of their application because it
uncovers different land.
And the nominations were very limited in space,
but generally speaking, they are focused on the same priorities.
Could potentially the state give us the opportunity zone
for the waterfront census tract and then give the county
two other ones?
It's not given to an agency.
It's assigned to a census tract.
So if a census tract is provided the designation
and it is a census tract that includes
both the county and the city, it will benefit both.
OK, great.
Thank you for clarifying.
And, Alyson, thank you for bringing that up
because I didn't realize that that happened.
So great.
Any other comments?
Was that a-- no?
OK.
It was a fly.
OK, all right, Brandon, did you have any other comments?
I'm going to open this up to virtual audience.
The only thing I just wanted to add
is the county also has about 18 eligible census
tracts, so they have many that they're pursuing.
That's all I wanted to add.
Great.
Thank you.
How about the virtual audience?
Anyone like to provide comment on this item?
Please use the Raise Hand feature.
I have no hands.
OK, great.
I'll bring it back to council.
Any final comments or anyone like to make a motion?
Note that these are four separate resolutions.
Do we need to vote on them separately, or can we--
One motion would be sufficient to capture all four resolutions.
Great.
Thank you.
Can I ask a quick question before we--
Yeah, go ahead.
So, Michael, does our--
so is the designation that was selected or somewhat selected--
does that overlap with one of the county submissions?
I wasn't sure because I think you said three of them
overlap, but I wasn't sure if the one that was selected
overlaps--
This one does not, I don't believe.
Oh, it does not?
OK.
But the other three do?
OK.
OK, thank you.
Thank you for asking.
Any comments?
Anyone want to make a motion for all three resolutions together?
I'll make the motion.
I'd like to adopt resolution supporting the nomination
of census tracts 06013316000, 06013318000, 06013317000--
You can just say as recommended by staff.
As recommended by staff.
Second.
All in favor, please say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes, all ayes.
Thank you.
I'm sorry.
I would have said something, but I wasn't sure.
I couldn't remember if he read the whole thing or not.
That's fine.
All right, let's see.
It is 9:24.
How about we take a five-minute break?
Let me just read through the agenda really quickly.
So the only thing that we have left is one public hearing.
So if everyone is amenable, we'll come back,
we'll finish that, and we'll be able to wrap up
the whole agenda this evening.
Sound good?
All right, five minutes.
We'll be back at 9:30.
Nice.
--hearing if everyone can take their seats, please.
I just froze.
All right, our last item this evening,
conduct a public hearing to introduce and waive
the reading of an ordinance on entertainment zones.
Welcome to the podium for your first presentation this evening.
And we can't wait to hear it.
Thank you.
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Salmana Shah, associate planner
here in the Planning Division.
And today, I will be talking about entertainment zones.
An entertainment zone is an area authorized and created
by ordinance where alcoholic beverages can be purchased
from participating storefronts located within the established
entertainment zone with valid ABC licenses
and consumed off-site on public property.
The intent of establishing an entertainment zone
is to encourage residents, employees, and visitors
to stay longer within an area, move between businesses,
support local restaurants and retailers,
and participate in community events.
An example of how an entertainment zone would work
would be that let's say a group of friends
is meeting at First Fridays.
If a friend wants a beer, they can grab a beer from Five Sons.
Another friend wants a wine, so they can grab a wine
from William Welch Wines.
A third friend wants to grab a cocktail from Brix & Craft.
And they can all get grab their drinks
and gather together where the event is occurring
and enjoy a live performance together.
So to provide some policy context,
the state passed SB 76, which authorized the city and county
of San Francisco to create entertainment zones
effective January 1, 2024.
The state then expanded this authority
to allow other cities and jurisdictions
throughout California to opt in and create entertainment
zones if they wish to do so effective January 1, 2025.
The benefits and purpose of entertainment zones
are to help revitalize the city's commercial spaces
through safe and vibrant events.
In other cities, entertainment zones
have been a proven tool to attract tourism, support
local businesses, and foster economic growth.
An entertainment zone can be activated
for a variety of events, such as signature events or other events
proposed by the city of Martinez,
the Chamber of Commerce, and/or Downtown Martinez & Co.
I've provided some example programming
that could be associated with an entertainment zone
activation, which could include performances
by musical bands, comedy shows, farmers markets, night
markets, and cultural festivals, among many others.
There are a number of other cities
that have already established entertainment zones,
and they're on the screen.
We have spoken with a number of these jurisdictions,
including the city of Long Beach, Reading,
the city of Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Monica,
and Walnut Creek.
There are also a number of other cities that
are looking at establishing entertainment zones,
such as the city of Berkeley and Oakland.
From our conversations with other cities,
we have received overwhelmingly positive feedback.
They've noted that there's been a larger
turnout for a lot of events that they previously held.
They've noted that it amplifies activity within that space.
It creates a flexible event-ready space or zone
within wherever they've established the entertainment
zone.
One thing that some of the cities that we spoke to noted
was that establishing an entertainment zone
has helped reduce crime.
So the city of Santa Monica said that crime levels
reduced or remained stable, even on surrounding blocks.
They didn't increase because of the entertainment zone.
And the city of San Francisco stated
that the entertainment zone has reduced crime,
even when the entertainment zone is not in operation.
Other cities also provided us with some best practices
that we've incorporated into our own entertainment zone program.
So this includes requiring a safety and security plan
to be submitted as part of an entertainment zone event,
requiring wristbands to help identify participants
who are over 21, and standardized cups
to ensure that there's some consistency
throughout the entertainment zone.
And so PD can effectively identify
people who are participating in the entertainment zone.
A lot of cities have limited who can activate the entertainment
zone and have limited this to either a designated lead
organization or one or more community organizations.
Some cities, like Santa Monica, offer training for entertainment
zone participating businesses, but a lot of the community
groups also offer training for businesses
that are participating in the entertainment zone,
so not necessarily always the city.
Sometimes the organizations that are leading the entertainment
zone will do so as well.
And then we've asked them for feedback
on potential issues or changes.
All of the cities that we spoke to just recommended
a robust marketing campaign to ensure that people who intend
to participate in the entertainment zone are aware
of the rules, are aware of what businesses are participating,
what the boundaries of the entertainment zone are,
and where they can essentially have the to-go drinks.
So we've done a great amount of outreach
to help develop this program.
As I've mentioned, we've spoken extensively
to other jurisdictions.
We've attended entertainment zone events.
We've met with a variety of stakeholders,
both internal and external, such as Downtown Martinez
and the Chamber of Commerce.
We've reached out to businesses both via a business roundtable
on Zoom and also in person.
We've reached out to downtown businesses.
And we've done our standard notification process,
standard public hearing notice process as well,
to get people informed of the entertainment zone ordinance.
Now I'll talk about the program that we're proposing
for the city of Martinez.
And I'll start off by mentioning that our entertainment zone as
proposed would be activated only during an approved special event
within the boundaries that are established by ordinance.
So on the screen, I've provided a map of our proposed
entertainment zone boundaries.
This is generally the boundaries of events
that are held within the downtown,
with some modifications per suggestions from the police
department, a recommendation from the police department.
We are limiting who can activate the entertainment
zone at this time.
We're limiting it to Downtown Martinez & Co., the Martinez
Chamber of Commerce, and the city.
Businesses who are eligible to participate in the entertainment
zone must have a storefront located
within the entertainment zone as consistent with state law.
So the state restricts who can participate in the entertainment
zone to storefronts located within there.
And then there's a number of license types
that are permitted to participate,
but, for example, off-sale licensees
can't participate in an entertainment zone.
Businesses who wish to participate
must send a notification to the ABC, the California Department
of Alcohol Beverage Control, every year about their intent
to participate.
And then event organizers would be
required to provide proof of insurance to the city
during the special event permit process.
The city must be listed as additional insured.
So there are number of state requirements.
I mentioned a couple, but the state
requires a number of things.
Beverages cannot be delivered to consumers,
so consumers must go to the storefront,
purchase their beverage in the approved standardized cup,
and consume that within the boundaries of the entertainment
zone and special events.
Businesses can only serve drinks to go
during the hours of the event as permitted by the special event
permit.
And businesses can only serve drinks to go during the hours
that they're authorized to serve alcoholic beverages by the ABC.
So if an event is going until 10:00 PM but a business is only
authorized to sell by the ABC until 8:00 PM,
they can't serve drinks to go after that time.
The state requires non-metal, non-glass containers.
It doesn't specify whether or not those have to be branded,
but the city would approve which containers
are being used through our special event permit process.
There has to be some age verification
methods so that participants can be readily identified.
Actually, all of the cities that I talked to use
wristbands as a best practice.
And we're required to do a biannual review
and then provide the results of that to the ABC.
So that would be city council, city departments,
such as the police department, community recreation services.
I just have a question for you.
You mentioned about a business that sells alcohol till 8
o'clock, but the event goes till 10:00.
They couldn't sell alcohol between 8:00 and 10:00.
What happens if there's a business that sells alcohol till
2:00 in the morning, but the event closes at 10:00?
What happens in that situation?
They can only sell alcoholic beverages
to go until the end of the entertainment zone event.
So they could continue to sell beverages within their premises,
but they can't sell beverages to go.
OK, got it.
Thanks.
So the city has our own requirements.
So we would require anyone wishing
to activate an entertainment zone to apply
for a special event permit approved
by the Recreation and Community Services Division.
We would require a safety and security
plan approved by the police department
and a management plan approved by city council.
So I'll get into some of the more important details.
And a lot of these are derived from other cities' best
practices and recommendations from the police department.
We've had extensive discussions with the police department,
and internally as well, about what would work for our city.
There is a lot of flexibility within our program
because every event is different.
Every event has a different turnout,
has different programming.
So the city staff does review every single special event
permit.
And the same would go for entertainment zones.
Each event is different and so would
be subject to different regulations.
Some events might require more security.
Some might require less security because they're smaller.
So it really just depends on the event.
So we're requiring signage at the entertainment zone
boundaries and at participating businesses.
Businesses located within the entertainment zone that
aren't necessarily participating in selling alcoholic beverages
have the discretion whether or not
patrons can enter their store with open containers.
They can utilize signage on their doors that says,
you can't enter with entertainment zone drinks.
Street closure is not necessary for an entertainment zone event.
Just how it is currently for special events,
street closure isn't always necessary.
And we do require a waste-- sorry, a waste diversion plan.
And I also want to just point out
that waste at entertainment zone events
and also at special events in general
is the responsibility of the event organizer.
So we would require waste diversion plan.
And that responsibility is also on the event organizer
to ensure that the area is cleaned up during the event
and also after the event.
Can I ask-- oh, I have a question
on the slide when you're done.
OK.
So businesses that are participating
in the entertainment zone event will
continue to bear responsibility to prevent overserving.
Outside drinks are absolutely not allowed.
And this is why we have standardized cups and wristbands
as part of the program.
So we are proposing the maximum hours that an entertainment zone
event could occur in, and that would be 10:00 AM to about
midnight.
But every event is different, like I said,
and this just is enabling a bit of flexibility.
Not every event is going to start at 10:00 and end
at midnight.
But we have a number of events, so we can just
think of when those events are generally held, usually
within this time frame.
So I think you had a question.
Yeah.
Really quickly, it said until midnight.
And I don't remember any special events we've ever had that have
gone past 10:00.
And our quiet zone-- or, sorry, our quiet hours normally
start about then.
Can you clarify?
Do we have the ability to have special events outside with
noise after 10:00 PM?
No.
So we do have a noise ordinance that regulates that issue.
There is the ability for an exception to be granted.
However, you do have the discretion
to direct Staff to specify an end time of 10 o'clock
if that's what you would prefer.
Confirmed with our recreation manager
that that currently is the latest
event that we have currently.
Is until midnight or till 10:00?
10 o'clock.
Yeah, OK.
I don't think that I want to make that recommendation right
now.
I just wanted to clarify.
So the way that it works right now is if you wanted to go past
10:00, you have to get an exception.
So we already have a process in place for that.
I'm thinking of the Martini Shake-Off is probably a good
example that I'm pretty sure goes past 10:00.
But it would be outside of the entertainment zone,
so it doesn't necessarily apply.
And then the other question, you've
mentioned the standardized cups and wristbands
a couple of times.
And can you please remind me who's
responsible for the cost of those two items?
It's the event organizer.
So the participants, the businesses
that will be selling to-go drinks
will be provided those items before entertainment zone event?
So that's for the event organizer and the businesses
to work out amongst themselves.
So maybe the event organizer may provide it to the businesses,
or they may sell it to the businesses.
And there also are sponsorship opportunities
on the cups that potentially offset some of those costs.
So I have a question about the time again.
If a business wanted to have music,
say, inside till midnight, would that
be something evaluated differently
than-- obviously, they're not going to have music outside loud
till midnight.
So they still need to adhere to the city's noise ordinance.
And a lot is going to dictate, how loud the music would play
and who their immediate neighbors are, common walls.
Particularly if there's residential units
in the same building, it could still be problematic
and still potentially could violate the city's noise
ordinance.
However, saying that, entertainment zone
is focused on things happening outside,
so that would be a separate matter.
As part of our entertainment zone program,
we've established a management plan
for the downtown entertainment zone,
which is the entertainment zone that we're proposing tonight.
So the downtown entertainment zone management plan
sets out the rules and operational guidelines
for the entertainment zones, while the ordinance establishes
the entertainment zone.
The management plan has a lot more detail,
and that was provided as an attachment.
But it has a lot more detail as to waste management guidance,
approved containers, what the process is, special event
provisions, and safety and security requirements,
amongst many other things.
Participating businesses will receive a copy of the management
plan from event organizers.
So we had an Economic Development Subcommittee,
I believe, in June.
And the Economic Development Subcommittee
supported the proposed entertainment zone regulations
and provided Staff with recommendations
and a few minor changes that we've
incorporated into the proposal that we've
brought before you today.
We've also received a number of letters of support
from different entities, so Downtown Martinez & Co.,
Brix & Craft, Busywork, and Antiques
on Main, which are all downtown businesses that
would be affected by the entertainment zone.
And these were in support of the entertainment zone.
So we've done a number of things.
We're currently on step 7, which is bring the draft ordinance
and management plan to the city council for approval.
And the next step would be to partner with Downtown Martinez
& Co. and the Chamber to host a launch event in the Downtown
if approved.
This ordinance aligns with the strategic plan goal
E, strategy 1, which is to maintain a safe, clean,
and active downtown to ensure an enjoyable and welcoming
experience for all.
So Staff is recommending that the city council conducts
a public hearing to introduce and waive
the reading of an ordinance adding Chapter 8.53
entertainment zones to the Martinez Municipal Code
to establish entertainment zones within the city
and provide direction to staff regarding the downtown
entertainment zone management plan.
Thank you.
And I am available for any questions.
Thanks, Salmana.
Appreciate it.
Anyone have any questions for her this evening?
Jay, go ahead.
I was just thinking maybe it's a good idea
if we hear from one of the stakeholders.
Do you want to comment on this?
Is that OK?
Should we just open up public comment
and let the public speak, and then we'll come back to council?
Sound good?
All right, Sarah, go ahead.
[AUDIO OUT]
We fully support it, obviously.
So yes, we ultimately completely support it.
Michael and the team and Salmana have
done such a wonderful job of researching and including me
and our program in that process, which is helpful.
It feels like we're partnering together on it.
And I think it will address a lot of things.
A lot of our events stem around the zombie crawl and some
of those that were known for.
Those are all put together to create a reason
to move around downtown and explore,
not necessarily to get drunk, but drinks are a part of it.
But it is definitely intended to bring foot traffic downtown
attracted by the actual event, but then
the layout of that event is to create them going and exploring
businesses that they might not have ever been to or even known
that we have in Downtown Martinez.
So we have time and time again heard from our member businesses
that when they interact with these events in special ways,
so they find ways to connect with those new people,
they might not necessarily be spending
money that day of the event, but they come back.
And so what we ask our members to do is constantly
talk and check in and temperature
check with your customers of, how did you find us?
Why are you here?
And then we ask continuously throughout the year
the return on the investment of participating in those events,
and we find it very high.
So what this does is it creates an opportunity for us
to do it without necessarily putting that work or big lift
on the retail businesses.
They will still get that added benefit of us moving people
around the entire downtown district,
but not having to serve and become bartenders and do
all of the things that happen in a traditional crawl.
So what it does is it also brings in our food and bar
because they primarily benefit from all of our events,
but they don't actually do the lift.
And I don't mean that as anything negative,
but they just benefit from these events and the hard work
of the retail because everybody goes for food and drink,
before, after, and in between.
Every one of the restaurants and bars
are busy and benefit from every single event we do.
The retail shops don't have that same thing.
So this is a really great experience for our members
to enjoy the benefits of new foot traffic and consistent foot
traffic but not have to become bartenders and restaurants.
And then our bars and restaurants
can take care of that for us.
And then they also have an opportunity
to meet our visitors where they're at,
which is walking outside on our sidewalks
because we don't necessarily have
to close the streets, exploring new places
and businesses and music downtown,
but still getting their food and beverage sales for the day.
So that's how we see it, is that it's almost
flipping and making it easier on our member businesses
to benefit from new foot traffic.
So that's one of the best things that I support about it.
But, yeah, I mean, I think endless possibility.
There's endless opportunities to partner
with other organizations, the Chamber, Parks and Rec.
Just the pros list is just-- we're always like, oh,
that's another pro.
So I we haven't found a lot of cons, so we're in full support.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the room tonight
who'd like to provide input on this item?
Is there anyone in the virtual audience
that would like to provide input on this item?
Please use the Raise Hand feature.
I have no hands.
All right, back to council for comments or questions.
I just wanted to say, as somebody
who was on the Economic Development
Subcommittee alongside Jay, I very much appreciate
all the staff and stakeholder engagement on this.
As I shared then and I'll share here, I'm supportive of this.
The fact that we have buy-in from our local businesses
but more importantly, from our police department, I think,
gives me the confidence that we should move forward with this.
My only question i-- and I can't remember
because I believe we discussed this at the subcommittee.
So I'm looking to Michael or other staff here.
Is there a way that we can get an interim report
of some kind brought back to us to let
us know, is this working the way that we intended it to,
or do we need to tweak it?
Is that something that can be woven into this process somehow?
If not coming to the full council,
could it potentially come to the subcommittee
for some type of oversight, a check, if you will?
So yes, there is an opportunity for that.
So there's actually two opportunities
that I think are important to speak to.
The first is per the state regulations
and codified in the proposal before the council this evening
includes a review every two years.
That's intended as an internal review
with the various departments that are affected
as part of this process.
Secondarily, as discussed at the Economic Development
Subcommittee, the Economic Development Subcommittee,
at least once a year, has an annual check-in meeting
with both the Chamber of Commerce
and Downtown Martinez & Co. usually at the same meeting.
And so there's opportunities through that discussion
to get direct feedback in terms of how the program is working
and potential ability for making recommendations
for changes down the line.
Great.
Thank you so much.
Any final comments or questions?
Yeah.
I just want to say, I'm super excited about this entertainment
zone idea, and I can't wait for it to get started.
I like that it doesn't require street closures all the time
because that's the thing that's always been problematic
at the end of the night.
So street closures are a thing for me
because the traffic circling is tough.
So I'm excited to hear that.
I think this is going to be great for all
of the events, particularly the Downtown Martinez events.
It makes it a streamlined process,
easier for the businesses, and to organize and to create
these opportunities for people to come down and celebrate
Downtown Martinez all different ways.
I'm really excited about it.
I'm supportive, and I'm going to vote yes.
I do have a question about the time because I know it goes
to 11:59.
And I'm just curious, what would be happening--
I looked at some of the comparisons,
and some of them stop at 10:00, 11:00, 12:00.
What type of activities are going between, say,
10:00 and 12:00?
What kind of event would be taking place?
I'm just curious.
So we've established the guidelines
to be flexible, so it depends on the event.
Every event is different.
And then city staff has discretion
to approve or not approve an event
or ask event applicants to modify their time.
So I don't think we've developed that with something
specifically in mind, just more to have a broader range.
And then applicants can propose whatever time
within that time frame.
All right, well, sounds good.
Somewhere between 10:00 and midnight,
there'll be activity going on.
Got it.
OK.
Yeah, I'm not seeing that happen very often.
Anything else?
Just the midnight just scares me a little, but I'm good.
So to reiterate the question I asked a few minutes ago,
you cannot stay out till midnight without a exception.
But you heard that part, right?
OK, good.
You're good.
Yeah.
I think the exception is the most important part.
OK.
Yeah, nobody wants to work in the middle of the night.
I think part of the process, too, is, as indicated,
most events end no later than 10 o'clock.
But we don't want to be in a situation where an event goes
to 10:05 and then there's a violation of our ordinance
and management plan because of a technicality.
But understand the general direction of the council
that you don't want disturbing events happening late
into the evening.
All the time.
Right.
Got it.
Does this include city council meetings?
It's 10 o'clock?
[LAUGHTER]
I agree.
Disturbing late night meetings.
We will move on quickly.
Is this an entertainment zone?
This is not an entertainment zone.
Thank you very much for all this information.
The street closures we've had in the past when we had live music,
people were restricted to only be
able to partake in just one or two businesses
for drinks and food.
And so only a few people benefited from it.
And then we also had the additional problem
that people were then bringing their own drinks.
So we are now solving multiple problems at once.
So I really like this solution.
I want to remind everybody, if you do have members
of the public that are asking about public drinking,
the rule is you cannot bring alcohol from outside
the entertainment zone.
So we are both enforcing the existing rules
and facilitating making our special events more
accessible to people and inviting more.
So I think this is a great solution to all
of our little tweaks that we've been
trying to make to our street closures
and live music over the past--
how many years now?
Five years.
We make minor tweaks every year, and I
think this is a really great solution.
So thank you very much.
I support 100%.
And if nobody makes a motion quickly, I will do it.
Do you have any more comments?
I'm happy.
This is good.
We're all happy?
Who wants to make a motion then, please?
I'll make a motion.
Debbie's doing it.
I haven't made one.
Hold on.
Let me get my--
OK, I move to Staff's recommendation.
Second.
All in favor, please say aye.
Aye.
Wonderful.
Thank you.
Congratulations to us all.
We passed it.
Remind me, what day will this go into effect?
Or do we have to wait?
So it comes back for a second reading and approval
of the management plan at the next meeting on the 19th.
And then the ordinance takes 30 days to go into effect.
And upon that time, we can submit the regulations
and the management plan to ABC for ultimate approval
and then start the process working with Sarah, Aaron,
and businesses to submit the appropriate documentation.
So no earlier than October?
Correct.
So will it make to the zombie beer crawl?
We'll be in time for that.
We've been having conversations with Sarah about an activation
event for this year.
We are still finalizing those details.
Part of it is to allow sufficient time
for implementation.
So it likely is it might be a little bit later than the event
that you're saying.
Yeah, totally makes sense because, again, back
to the-- we don't want to make a commitment to something
that then requires a few additional steps from ABC.
So for us, it will not be ready to go until late September.
And then we have to go through the other steps.
OK.
Thank you very much.
What did you say?
So Debbie's just going to start listing off events
that Sarah does.
All right, next up, our next item
is emerging issues and future agenda items.
As a reminder, the Staff Report is attached.
So anything that you've mentioned in the past
is tracked on that document.
Does anyone have any new agenda items
they would like to request or make a comment about?
Jay.
Thank you.
So just to keep it real simple, we
need to bring to council the entryway sign
repair on marina vista.
And I need everybody's buy-in on that to bring it to agenda.
You have mine.
Thank you.
Anybody else?
Mike, is it already on an upcoming agenda?
I was under the impression that you were planning on bringing it
back to us regardless.
We could.
We wanted to start here and have this conversation.
And then Staff was already working
on some additional updates and revisions to the sign.
This is before it got hit by the house
that we were going to bring it back to have that discussion.
Got hit by that house.
It was a revised style.
I wish it was taken out by the house.
We're tired.
We're laughing.
Yeah, we're compiling the information now and we could
come back hopefully as early as the 19th,
we'll, have to work with staff to confirm.
So it's going to be on the agenda?
We don't need to--
Because he was strong arming us.
So it's going to be on the agenda.
So it will be on the agenda if not the 19th in the first week
of September to discuss.
Yes, he did ask that we start here.
Yes, this is the appropriate method
that we've established for if council members want to bring
forward items for consideration
And a verbal from us.
Jay, you have my support.
I have your support?
Excellent.
Yes, Jay.
Thank you.
You have my have my support with one slight addition,
I would like for the issue of lack of lighting around
the newly installed entryway, the monument
signs to be included as part of that.
Because I think there's some connectivity there.
Yes, that's electrical--
We invested in those signs as well.
And they are not lit up.
We already are working on the one issue.
Can I recommend that they would come as separate issues
but understand that they're both important?
That way we can get a more timely direction on at least one
of the issues.
I actually support Satinder's comment
that I would like to treat them together
because I think the reason we are where we are
is because this project went forward on its own,
outside of a full discussion by council.
So I would prefer that it come as a group proposal.
I want to caveat with we've already
acknowledged that we want to establish permanent lighting
on the monument entryway signs, and what
we did to accommodate a council interest was
put temporary solar lighting--
They don't work.
--and we figured that they probably
wouldn't be that effective.
And there were concerns they might get stolen.
But we did that and that was my direction
to staff that they install those.
That's not meant to be a permanent fix.
But there's significant work regarding the wiring
and analysis of that.
So if we want to have a basic conversation about level
of illumination and things like that.
But I know in talking with Joe, we
were hoping to fold some of that work
into phase II of the median project, which is already
beginning.
I think it's important also that I support the vice mayor,
that we're not just talking about lighting.
We want landscaping, quality of life stuff there as well.
That's also in phase II of a separate project.
So that is going to come upcoming, anyway
that's through the subcommittee first.
I know I'm sounding repetitive, but I want
and I will keep pounding on the table because I 100%
know that, initially on this lighting thing on the entryway,
I asked that the Vacaville entryway
sign be taken as guidance.
And I'll go back if you want, and I'll
look it up in these meetings that are recorded.
I know for a fact that I brought that up multiple times.
And in that, I would really hope that that was taken as guidance
and that somebody would reach out to the city of Vacaville.
And we had a discussion about this the other day,
that we don't have to reinvent this wheel.
All we gotta do is reach out to them and get all their specs.
I'm not saying, we have to make it exactly the same,
but their level of visibility and the big thing
for a street sign that is lit, that the lumens have to match.
And what we have now is we have two lights
that have been replaced on either side.
And I really, really appreciate that both of them
are now working.
But then you have a little historic sign up here.
And the good thing about that, and I'm trying to be positive,
is that those letters are lit.
They're not halo lit.
Those lit are--
Channel lighting.
Thank you.
Right.
And then you go down to the other lighting
and that somehow got approved that have halo lighting.
And then with the open background,
with the crisscross on the historic thing,
you cannot see those until you are almost right on top of them.
And council member McCaleb and I realized
that the very first day that we went out there and took
pictures and it was so disappointing.
I really want to ask that somebody
is doing quality control other than the city council,
and I'm not trying to peg anybody.
But I'd like somebody to take the lead
on each one of these projects that we do together.
And they say, I'm going to look at this after we have it done
before, preferably, but also after it's done, and not
just at daytime, at night time because what we hear about
is from the citizens of Martinez.
And they are there, around the clock.
And they're like, what is this?
And then we have to answer for it.
And it's very frustrating.
We'll definitely come back with options
to improve the lighting including channel lighting.
And we'll see.
And also that'll be the first opportunity
we've had with the full council to have that discussion
and then get direction and hopefully
have a good plan from there.
What we could do with the lighting,
as far as the monument signs, we could touch on,
maybe some different options.
I mean, it is going to come back to the subcommittee
in really September 3 as part of the other project.
Sure.
Even if it's coming back with the plant pellets in the phase
II, I think we're OK.
Yeah, that's already coming.
So if you lump all these things in have an enormous item,
that's--
OK, I think Jay's point has been made.
It's coming back to council in either the next
or the following meeting.
So tender's comment has been received.
And I think even though we would like it to be at the same time,
and it might be, it's definitely going to be part of the phase
II medium project.
And everybody's going to have a chance--
So we'll get a chance to talk about lighting regardless.
We want that outcome as well, for sure.
So cool.
Thank you.
All right.
So are there any other emerging issues
that we'd like to add to the list for this evening?
I just want to reiterate my request
for the revenue and expense reports for the sports courts.
And I really want to see those in detail.
What I keep getting is yeah, we got it, yeah, we got it.
But I'm not seeing anything.
So again, with this, and this is the second time I brought this
up, I want to make sure we know that we
are interested in a deep dive accounting and advice on how
to increase our profit sharing.
And I want to see these reports.
And also we have to realize that there
is a huge amount of traffic down there.
At least one of the courts I don't know about both of them,
but at least one of them is charging per person
to get in there.
So I want to make sure we get all of the revenue
streams on this expense and revenue report, please.
And that is on the emerging issues list already.
Your request is noted, and it does
say initial, information provided in June
with the expectation that additional information will
be provided.
Debbie, did you have a follow-up?
So a couple of years ago, maybe we
had a discussion about annexation.
We looked at the Pacheco corridor and Alhambra Valley
area, and I would like to have an update
on the potential about moving forward with the annexation
potential for the Humber Valley, because that was
the one that we had discussed.
So it's sort of an update on the potential for that
and what that might look like moving forward.
And then one other comment, I'm not sure
if it's an emerging issue, but it's an ongoing issue.
And I know I've spoke with the city manager
about this in the past, but there's a huge Bocce Federation
here in Martinez, and they play almost every night
except for Sunday.
And I'm down there on Fridays and other nights too,
and I am getting constant comments
about the excessive smoking, smoking cigarettes, smoking
marijuana, and it's impacting the children that are there.
The people are there, they have medical conditions and things
like that.
I have personally spoken to some of the people who have been
smoking and asked them to stop.
Some of them are very kind, some of them are very rude.
I've talked to the commissioner of bocce.
He's approached people multiple times
and it's either going to be compliance or completely
rude and disrespectful.
I know last year the city manager
had gone down and surveyed the area for signage
to make sure that people are aware of there was no smoking.
And I think new signs were put up last season.
Correct, new signs were put up, a very prominent signs, but it's
still ongoing and there is no smoking down there at all,
period.
People should not be smoking anything.
So I'm hoping that maybe we can do something
to improve this, maybe through some sort of awareness program
or working with the Bocce Federation
so that they know the rules so that we can clear this up.
I don't see this in other events and activities that we have.
Downtown Martinez has a lot of events and activities
that pull in hundreds of people, and you
don't see them smoking and causing
problems with other residents that
don't enjoy having smoke in their face during bocce games.
So perhaps we can look at that and take a little stronger
approach to try to prevent this from going on,
because we've done a lot of compliance and it's not working.
So that's it.
I think we are at the end of the agenda.
Let's see.
Make sure we're at-- yeah, city manager comments and updates.
All right.
I want to lead off with some recognition for Kat,
our city clerk just received her certified municipal clerk
designation.
So three plus years in the making,
and that's really the preeminent certification
that a city clerk can get.
That's a lot of time and effort.
So kudos to her.
That's a big time accomplishment.
So we've got a couple of department updates, too.
And so we'll start with chief of police.
Thank you for everybody who came out for National Night
Out, both visits to the neighborhoods
and of course, the signature event,
which lots of positive comments, both from people
who live in Martinez, but other people who are now coming here
as a destination event.
So that was a great experience.
By update regarding the alcohol selling establishments,
we did do the outreach and particularly regarding
the ongoing sales to individuals that are found habitually drunk.
We are seeing some good results from that,
including one individual who relocated from outside
of downtown because they cannot get their alcohol.
In fact, they went outside the city.
Regarding downtown security, we did end the contract
with the current provider.
They were unable to satisfactorily fill
the position.
We did meet with Downtown Martinez & Co the board
and are looking at options going forward.
And lastly, as you may know, I've
served on the 901 advisory board as a governor appointee.
I'm having my last meeting this month
and I'll be all done with that.
So thank you to the council for allowing me to do that.
That was, I think, almost five years of doing that.
So with that, it concludes my report.
Can I ask a question?
Sure.
How extensive were we with getting the--
what are we calling that about--
Our list?
Yes.
We went to each of the known establishments,
primarily in this downtown area.
And what was the response?
Were they pretty receptive to it or was it negative?
Yeah, so far, it's been positive.
And I think it was a good educational opportunity
that frankly, it's not clear that they knew exactly
those various regulations.
And how many people are on the list?
I don't have the exact number, but there's a handful.
I think there's maybe six or so.
But one of the primary ones, without naming them,
it would be somebody you probably all
have heard about from complaints downtown, so.
And there's also active criminal prosecution
with that individual.
Very good.
Thank you.
Next we have Nick who's going to give us
an update on our GoMartinez app and the progress so far.
Nick is our chief innovation officer,
if you haven't met him before.
Good evening, Mayor and council members.
Nick Wilson, your chief innovation officer
here for city of Martinez.
I want to thank you guys for the time
to let me give you a quick update on our Citizen Request
Manager or CRM, also known GoMartinez app.
So thank you, Kat.
So a couple quick points on that.
The goal of this solution or this system
was to replace our previous service request
form that we had posted on the city of Martinez's website.
The GoMartinez app was one of the projects
that we sought to implement with the strategic plan,
and it aligns with the plan goal A number 9.
The GoMartinez app actually does emphasize
the values of modernization as well as transparency
and open communication.
And so first slide I have up for you
guys is just a couple of nice metrics
that we have had since tomorrow will
be actually our official 30 days since we've launched the app.
So within those 30 days, we have actually
had 621 apps downloaded to the public.
So that's going to be the various citizens downloading it
on their Android devices or Apple devices.
We have had 118 residents register with the application
itself.
We have had a total of 160 requests submitted since we've
gone live on July 6.
And our top request are on the fourth bullet point right there.
Key one is sidewalks.
We've had 26 requests for that.
Roadways has been 13.
Dumping and trash has been 11.
And overgrown vegetation has been six requests.
On top of that, we have some additional metrics.
Again, the primary goal of the app
was to focus on our public works corp yard.
Since then, with some of the requests,
we've actually had to expand to some of the other departments.
We're still ironing out the initial workflows
on how those will get resolved, but I
did want to emphasize the initial goal, which was
with our corp yard department.
So public works corp yard, we have had
142 requests submitted to them.
Out of those 142, 90 of those have
been closed within the first 24 hours, 12
within the 1 to 3 days, 21 within the 4 to 7.
And we only have currently four requests outstanding past
the 7-day mark.
As of last night, when I pulled the metrics,
we have currently 15 open requests for public works.
Engineering has been getting a good amount of those requests
as well.
Just because something does start in the public works corp
yard realm, it does eventually bleed over into engineering
where it does need to have additional follow up.
So engineering has had a total of 16 requests.
They've done-actually an amazing job on those closing
50% of those in under the 15 day mark,
and they currently have eight open.
We do also have some that have also facilitated into our code
enforcement department.
Currently there's two open in that department.
They have not resolved those yet.
On top of that, the other stats that I haven't put on here
is we do also send out surveys with each of these requests
once the issue has been resolved.
So out of the 160 requests, we've sent out 86 surveys.
We actually got 13 responses on those surveys.
Out of those 13, 8 were rated as superior service.
Outstanding service, quick responses closed same day.
We've had four registered as good service
and one registered as poor.
For this slide, I actually want to give a quick shout out
to our public information officer, Eve Kearney.
Do an amazing job putting together our social media
and newsletter posting.
On screen, we have the QR code where the public can register
for the GoMartinez app.
I would also like to give a shout out
to our council members, who also assisted
in spreading the GoMartinez app on their social media
and among the public interactions.
And with that, I would like to thank you guys for your time.
Thank you.
I would love for a report out in either 90 days or six months,
whichever one makes the most sense.
These kinds of trackers are spectacular in the beginning.
And then it starts to accumulate dust or slightly uncompleted
projects off to the side, and they just sit there.
So you'll end up with this really great amount of projects
you complete, and then a bunch of junk
that just fills up the inbox.
And so I'd love to report out 90 days, six months, something
like that, just to get a feedback from staff.
So maybe we could have someone in public works
who's managing this to give us that feedback.
Let us know how it's going and whether or not the way
that we're submitting the requests is working.
That would be great.
Absolutely.
We can definitely follow up with that.
And I do apologize.
I do want to give one other quick shout out
to Joe Inky and the corp yard team,
which we could not have done this without that collaboration
and group effort.
Thank you so much.
Great report.
Thank you.
All right.
And the last update is going to be from Eve.
She's got the August event schedule for us.
Good evening, council.
So a lot of great events still coming up in August.
We did have a great National Night out last night,
but still more to look forward to.
So very quickly, we have first Friday coming up this Friday.
We also have open air market on Sunday,
the Downtown Martinez car show and also the Martinez Yacht Club
will be having a car show later this month, art in the Park,
which is a great Martinez favorite.
Everyone looks forward to that.
That'll be on August 16.
And then finally, coming up, the moment
we've all been waiting for is the sesquicentennial festival
on August 29.
So that is going to be down at the Martinez Waterfront.
The event will be from 11 AM to 7 PM,
and then we're going to have the beer fest in partnership.
They'll be actually from 1 PM to 6 PM at Waterfront Park
as like the mega ultimate beer garden as part of our event.
So really looking forward to that.
There's so much for our community to do at this event.
We really wanted to make this a celebration of our community
and for our community.
So other than food and drink, all activities
that are going to be at the event are free to the public.
So anyone who comes can enjoy it,
and really trying to make sure that everyone feels welcome
and it's a party for them too.
So we're going to be having a climbing wall.
We're having kayak rentals, rowboat races, foam parties,
just water tag, all of these different things
that people can enjoy for free.
And just like a birthday party where
you get a free piece of cake, we are also
going to be giving a free dessert to everyone who comes.
So all attendees get a free dessert on the city.
So just looking forward to a really great day of community,
and we're putting it together with a lot
of local organizations and really
appreciate everyone's pitching in to make this a great day.
So any questions?
But yeah, lots to look forward to.
Thanks, Eve.
One thing I wanted to make sure that the council was aware of
is the parking situation for the event
because as it gets closer and closer,
there'll be more and more advertising
and there'll be lots and lots of people coming.
So there are three parking places.
One will be behind the county building
where there's hundreds plus parking spaces,
and there will be a shuttle running.
The other parking lot for cars will
be down at the waterfront, the area I consider the boat trailer
parking.
That'll have several hundred parking spaces.
And then the parking lot immediately adjacent
to the bocce courts will be for bicycles and folks that
are arriving that way, and for Ubers and Lyfts and things
like that.
So I just wanted to let us know so when people ask us,
we can tell them which way to go and the shuttles will
be running throughout the day.
Will there be parking designated for council?
There will be parking designated for volunteers.
So--
We count.
--I expect all of you will have a designated parking
spot in that way.
Yeah, perfect.
Thanks.
Good answer.
Eve, thank you.
Thank you.
Anything else, Mike?
No, that's it, mayor.
OK, great.
Any outside agency report outs?
The answer is no.
Great.
Really?
Ooh.
OK, go ahead.
Just real quick.
On July 9, we had a Chamber of Commerce meeting.
They talked about upcoming events and activities,
new membership, and focus on the Martini gala, which is up
and coming soon.
That's it.
September 12.
Any other agency reports?
No.
Great.
All right, let's do comments and announcements.
Debbie, you want to start?
Do you still have your microphone on?
Yeah.
Just real quick.
I want to have a shout out to the corp yard.
People who took care of a couple of accidents.
As we all know, the sign, the Martinez sign got hit.
And they repaired that as best they could.
But there was an accident at the Senior Center
that took out the ramp.
And within hours, they had reconstructed the ramp
at the Senior Center.
So that a lot of our seniors need
the ramp to access the Senior Center because they
can't maneuver the stairs.
So I thought that was amazing.
So shout out to the corp yard for repairing the damages
that we had and making sure the Senior Center's operational.
So yay.
That's it.
Thank you very much.
And yes, I'd like to align my comments
and say thank you to the corp yard
for a job well done on that.
Also shout out to everyone that made National Night
out such a success last night.
So thank you very much to Martinez Police, all
the first responders, community organizations, the volunteer
staff.
Thank you very much.
Job well done all around.
Actually, I also wanted to shout out the residents of the Diablo
View neighborhood.
They held a little gathering last night, as I believe.
Muir Oaks also had a gathering.
And so I want to thank the residents for having me.
That was really great.
Congrats to the sturgeon.
Yes.
Right, Pecos league champs that they get that.
Not yet?
Soon to be, hopefully.
Yeah.
There you go.
That's what I meant to say.
That's what I meant to say, yes.
So we're so proud of them.
So wishing them all the best here in the final stretch.
And last but not least, on behalf of the Council, Kat,
we wanted to congratulate you as well
on your recent certification.
We know what a tremendous accomplishment that was.
And so we just have a small token
of our appreciation for everything that you do.
So congratulations.
All right.
Really quickly just to pile on about the sturgeon.
So Jay was super stoked.
He and Eve were at the game last week
when they won the two out of three in San Rafael.
And so we were playing it by ear every day
because nobody knew exactly who they were going to play
and who was going to win and where they were going to go.
So literally, this morning they left in vans caravanning
and they caravan to Denver because they
didn't know if they were going to go to Garden City, Kansas,
or they're going to go to Roswell, New Mexico.
And they figure if they made it halfway to the country,
then they could either go North or go South.
So I think they're going North or East or whatever.
They're going to Kansas, I don't know.
So the point of the story is they're in the finals
and they'll be playing Friday and Saturday.
And if they don't win the first two, then again on Sunday,
Five Suns will be having a watch party for them
on Friday at a minimum.
And so because they're going to be in Garden City, Kansas,
time zone is such that the 6 PM game starts at PM Pacific time.
So if anyone would like to have happy hour at Five Suns,
I'll be streaming the game on their TVs
and you can watch it and cheer them on.
All right.
Ditto to what you all have said.
Congratulations, sturgeons.
Thanks for all the support and everybody
showing up last night at National Night out.
Thanks for corp yard and all the troubleshooting
you all did this weekend.
For all you football fans, preseason kicks off tomorrow
with the Hall of Fame game.
So we're getting into football season,
getting into a great time of the year.
So that's all I got.
Yeah, congratulations to the sturgeon.
And I just want to piggyback on what everybody said.
It was super exciting.
I was not at the game.
I felt I was at the Yacht Club for the big celebration,
and that was a lot of fun.
And I think one of the wonderful things about this whole season
is they dedicated it to Glen Monroe.
And that was so touching because she was such a force
to be reckoned with.
And Eve and her wonderful kids get all the credit
because they were the ones at the game.
I was just on the sidelines.
And let's see.
What else did we want to cover?
I really want to thank everybody for their participation
at the National Night Out.
It was so fun.
And I have to lift up my local 152 carpenters.
They had the award winning chili out there.
That was good chili.
I hope you all had some.
It was amazing.
And the vibe there.
I think we gotta lift up because it was so wonderful how
it brought everybody together.
And I really want to thank Pete and everybody
who was involved in that.
They brought in-- what was the name of the band?
The Eagles Cover band.
Midnight Flyer.
They were so good.
It was wonderful.
And then all the community events, all the people out there
and everybody mingling around.
We had the Congressman there, the assembly member was there.
And so it was just a wonderful event all the way through.
I was exhausted by the time I got home.
And I can't wait for next year.
I would also just like to give a shout out to council member
Howard, Mayor Zorn and all the people
that joined us at the Downtown community cleanup
a couple of weeks ago.
That was fun.
Yeah.
So these two actually put on their waders
and got down into the creek.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
And we have the photos to prove it.
So almost 400 pounds of trash were collected.
Probably our most successful cleanup event yet.
And so, I mean, it was a team effort.
We had a great turnout.
Almost over 2 dozen volunteers showed up,
students, folks from the friends of Alhambra Creek.
But oh my gosh, what a wonderful event that was.
So yeah, love to see that energy.
To piggyback on that, there may or may not
have been some beaver sighting.
We had a tree and it was nibbled and you can still
see it from the Starbucks.
If you look down, you can see where it fell over.
I don't know, there's rumors.
There's rumors.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, we shall see.
We shall see.
Thank you all very much for a long meeting.
We covered a lot of things.
Thanks for letting us get through everything.
This meeting is now adjourned to our regular scheduled
meeting on August 19.
Have a great night.