[0:01] Law.

[0:02] Present.

[0:03] Obelinsky.

[0:04] Here.

[0:05] Chess.

[0:05] Here.

[0:07] Sokotsch.

[0:07] Is absent.

[0:09] No act.

[0:10] We'll be remote.

[0:11] And then Iribarne.

[0:13] Here.

[0:13] Thank you.

[0:16] Okay.

[0:18] That was, okay.

[0:18] So item four, closed session report.

[0:21] There was no closed sessions this evening to report upon.

[0:26] And by the way, before we get into presentations tonight, I just want to let everybody know

[0:29] item 10.1 which you see on the agenda in the ordinance amendment is continued to November

[0:35] 20, I'm sorry November 17, November 17 meeting date. So no action and no public comment will

[0:42] be taken tonight upon that matter. We do not have a full council and so when we have the

[0:47] full council back here on November 17, we will address the item and take public comment at that

[0:53] time. Okay. Mr. Mayor, if I may, right here. Oh, city manager or city attorney? City attorney. Yeah,

[1:01] that I wouldn't want to be the manager. Mayor no act or needs to acknowledge that she's remote

[1:08] and why. Yeah. Okay. I kind of missed that one. Okay. So that that one right there, Mayor

[1:13] Aubrey, that's called the mess up. So we're going to start over here. Okay. So you know,

[1:18] All right. So, as I was supposed to do during the call of order, I wanted to mention that

[1:25] Mayor Noak is on Zoom and we invite her to explain her remote participation. Mayor?

[1:32] Yes, I'm asking to participate remotely under AB 2449 due to care of a loved one and I have

[1:44] No one else in the room here over the age of 18 or actually nobody at all.

[1:50] Okay. Thank you.

[1:52] So may I have a motion to allow no acts to participate remotely under the just

[1:55] cost provision of AB 2449.

[1:57] I will still move.

[1:59] Okay, we have a motion from Council Member Obolensky.

[2:04] Is there a second?

[2:04] Second.

[2:05] We have a second from Council Member La.

[2:08] Ask for the, can we get the roll call please?

[2:12] Adam Clark.

[2:13] La?

[2:14] Yes.

[2:14] Obolensky?

[2:15] Yes.

[2:15] Yes. Yes. Motion carries. Okay, thank you. All right. Well, thank you, City Attorney,

[2:26] for directing me to act aware of what we were supposed to be. Okay, item five is presentations.

[2:35] But first, I would like to acknowledge our Mayor for the day, Aubrey Irribarn. Yeah,

[2:46] Wow! Couldn't be Smith. She couldn't be Smith. Audrey Irrubon, 11 years old, fifth grader at Bajala Elementary School.

[2:55] We had lunch or dinner, I should say, with mom and dad. She is awesome.

[3:02] In fact, I think she should be up here one day.

[3:05] And so we'll talk more about her later on, but first I just want a couple of just quick things I'd like to hear to explain.

[3:13] because it's so cool she loves math which okay reading which is good that'd be

[3:21] good for this job as well but tell us about your interest in silks okay well I

[3:27] do something called silks which is like a ribbon hanging from the ceiling that you

[3:32] do like you climb on it and do flips and do tricks on it yeah so it's like

[3:41] freakishly strong to do this. So I was super impressed. And before we move on to the next

[3:47] item, would you like to introduce your parents who are in the audience?

[3:52] Yeah. That's my mom right there in the front with the purple phone. And then that's, yeah.

[3:58] Sparkly. Sparkly phone.

[4:00] And then that's my dad in the back. What's his name?

[4:03] His name is Brandon.

[4:05] Brandon. And you don't have your, do you have any siblings to you?

[4:09] not here but I have my siblings Braxton and Chloe and I'm the oldest you're the

[4:15] oldest same here all right okay so we well again we'll talk more about you

[4:22] later but let's go to let's go to item 5.2 proclamation designing November 25

[4:28] 2025 as homeless awareness month okay all right I'd like to invite Alex

[4:36] Calhoun, the Diversity Commission liaison to the podium to receive the proclamation.

[4:41] Whereas

[4:51] month of November is Homeless Awareness Month in the United States,

[4:55] it's time to build awareness of the issue of homeless and of the individual's children

[5:00] and families experiencing homeless and whereas part of our city's continued efforts to welcome,

[5:07] empower, educate, and respect every unique member of the community includes an important

[5:15] act of supporting those who are currently unhoused and whereas homeless in our community in our

[5:23] community has fortunately decreased by 26% over the last year and whereas this great this great

[5:31] step in our direction and yet there is always a support compassion and empathy where we strive

[5:37] and provide those who are unhoused in pleasant hill and in our county and whereas losing losing

[5:43] at house means losing a home, community, friends, routines, and as well a sense of stability and

[5:49] safety and whereas while trying to survive on the streets on house people can be exposed to

[5:55] countless dangers and increase the likelihood of substance abuse in early parenthood,

[6:03] impulsivity, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and various vulnerabilities and whereas

[6:12] in this November we want to remind residents of Pleasant Hill support the

[6:17] unhoused and our city are able with as you were able with resources

[6:21] volunteering or simple gesture of kindness. Now therefore I is actually

[6:28] asked Vice Mayor of Pleasant Hill on behalf of Mayor Nowak. Nowak and City

[6:35] Council do hereby proclaim November 2025 as Homeless Awareness Month. Thank

[6:41] Thank you. Thank you very much. In the City of Pleasant Hill and encourage all citizens to view homeless individuals not as stigmas of society, but as members of our community.

[6:55] Nicely done. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Irobarne, Mayor Nowak, and Vice Mayor Chas, members of the City Council. Alex Calfin here tonight on behalf of the Diverse City Commission.

[7:11] I don't have much time to talk here, but I do want to point out a couple of things.

[7:16] Last year, about 180,000 individuals were homeless.

[7:22] That is about one-third of the national total.

[7:27] And so the good news is the numbers seem to be going down in Contra Costa County.

[7:32] But I do want to caution and just point out that there are many folks out there

[7:37] with one crisis will find themselves either back in the street or homeless.

[7:45] So I think what you're doing tonight is extremely important.

[7:48] You are recognizing November as a homeless awareness month,

[7:53] and this is an issue that the community should feel strongly and passionately about,

[7:59] and we should come together and try to address it the best way we can.

[8:04] in some cases homelessness is not just about poverty and there are multiple

[8:10] issues at play as it was just pointed out by our mayor and so again on behalf

[8:16] of the Diversity Commission thank you for your commitment in addressing this

[8:21] issue. Thank you very much. Do you want to come up and take that? I'm coming. I'm

[8:26] going to see you.

[8:37] I'm very honored with you.

[9:44] Traffic Safety and Commission

[9:46] We'd like to invite Rich Davies, Chair of the Traffic Safety Commission, into the podium

[9:50] to give a presentation.

[10:53] The Commission comprises of city staff from the Police Department, Engineering and Planning

[10:57] Department and Citizen Members and the four Citizen Members are shown here on the slide

[11:04] and they are behind me here.

[11:07] Throw bricks at me if I make a mistake.

[11:11] I'm not going to read through the report, I'm going to talk to you about it.

[11:14] So,

[11:21] the purpose of the report is to document the key activities of the Traffic Safety Commission.

[11:27] This will not only monitor the progress towards the goal of significant reductions in road-based

[11:33] accidents in Pleasant Hill, but also to describe the current and future steps being taken

[11:39] to get there.

[11:42] In Pleasant Hill, we have significant areas where traffic safety is an issue.

[11:47] to. Examples are schools, colleges and universities where at specific times of day there is intense

[11:56] transportation activity.

[12:00] There are areas of high economic tenancy such as downtown and

[12:04] Conflict Cost of Boulevard and these are notorious for being accident prone because

[12:11] there's so much activity on both sides of these roads and there is always the need to

[12:19] cross these particular elements. And Contra Costa, of course, is an arterial road and multifunctional.

[12:28] Then we have major intersections and numerous trail crossings of the highways in Pleasant Hill.

[12:35] And in fact, all areas where movement conflict between individual user groups

[12:41] in the transport system becomes a problem.

[12:46] There are all sorts of different types of journeys

[12:49] in the city of Pleasant Hill. There are those that begin and end in Pleasant Hill. There

[12:54] are those that begin outside and end in Pleasant Hill and those that start in Pleasant Hill

[12:59] and end outside. Then, of course, we also have through trips that actually go right

[13:04] through the city. And an example of this of a route used is Taylor Boulevard, where

[13:10] where it conveniently cuts off the corner between the Highway 24 and the I680.

[13:17] So if that intersection gets heavily congested, there is a temptation to use routes like Taylor

[13:23] Boulevard to cut out the time.

[13:27] So this is constantly the sort of thing we are facing and the problems all the time.

[13:37] So, I'm just going to briefly describe all the different sections in the report.

[13:45] Section 2 is our news items and events and news items such as new assembly and state

[13:54] bills that may affect traffic safety and events such as the National Night Out and

[14:03] Mike family festival at which the Traffic Safety Commission appeared at both these events

[14:09] during this year.

[14:12] In sections 3 we cover accident records and I will return to that on the next

[14:17] slide in more detail.

[14:21] Section 4 is a record of all the issues that are raised by the public

[14:26] during the year. This is an essential part of our work. The public assists the Traffic

[14:33] Safety Commission immensely by reporting their concerns and observations to us and we encourage

[14:41] them to present this information to us. The TSC here acts as a link between the community

[14:48] and the City and the City Council.

[14:52] We do acknowledge, however, that it's not always

[14:54] convenient for everyone to attend our meetings, but this can be done via on

[15:00] Ysgolwyddiol wedi bod yn gweithio'r ysgolwyddiol ar gyfer y TSC.

[15:06] I have noted at the side that the city staff, including the police department and the engineering

[15:13] department, in my experience have always been very responsive to these items that are raised.

[15:20] Their record is extremely impressive with their prompt actions.

[15:24] 5,

[15:28] yw'r projekty yn y rhan o'r anod, a 6, yw'r anod o'r anod o'r anod o'r anod o'r anod.

[15:39] Felly, mae'n gweithio, mae'n gweithio, yn y costa bwyllfa, a'r anod o'r anod o'r anod,

[15:47] ..braes ychydigad am ddiwedd eraill yma.

[15:52] Y sector sixth maen nhw ymgynghoriad yma diwedd anhygoel..

[15:56] ..y cefnig o'r anhygoel.

[15:58] Y sector seventh maen nhw ymgynghoriad yna'r eu ddweudiau newid yma yma.

[16:03] Roedd yma y ddiwedd yr yma yn y gael o'r ffordd jydydd.

[16:09] Yma'r ysgrifennu'r rydw i'r gynllun yma mae'r gilydd y cymysgau..

[16:14] ..egor siad, i gilydd a maen nhw.

[16:16] Dit

[16:27] y sidau yn posibl five years worth of data collision between 2020 and 2024.

[16:35] This shows total injury and fatal collisions.

[16:40] We intend to update this every year to measure our progress.

[16:45] It should be noted, that this does not include the I680 freeway through Pleasant Hill.

[16:52] There are lots of ways of presenting this sort of data, which in our opinion this was the simplest

[17:00] and the best and the most understandable. It's interesting to know perhaps that the injury

[17:07] collisions represent about 25 to 30% of all collisions, and those and the fatal collisions

[17:14] of course take our greatest attention.

[17:19] There's no doubt that there's been traffic growth in

[17:22] arniad a gyfnod dwylo'r byw, ond oes cymdeithiau a psychologically changed a lot of things in traffic,

[17:29] changed the patterns during the day, established peak hours which used to be

[17:35] approximately six until nine in the morning and three till seven in the afternoon have completely

[17:40] changed. Also, the days of the week have changed in their traffic content. It used to be

[17:49] that week days were all fairly consistent, now they are completely different because people travel to work on different days and at different times of the day.

[18:00] And the weekend has also become much more congested at certain times today as well.

[18:05] All of this combines to make it a greater issue for us to tackle all these problems that are coming from these different changing patterns.

[18:19] Majesty's Department allocates a prime contribution to each donation.

[18:29] This is extremely useful for us because when we know the FXMI's, the cause of the accident

[18:36] or more data like this which explains it, it makes it easier to address the issues

[18:44] that are being presented.

[18:47] The most frequent ones are driving at unsafe speeds, driving too closely, driver in attention and distraction, and I'm sure there's no surprises in there for anybody, but what this points to is driver behaviour as being a key issue, and there's lots of things you can do with infrastructure and with ordinance,

[19:12] o'r llwyfod drwyfodol yn ymddiolol, ac mae'r ddweud yn ymddiol yw'n gweld ar y sgol,

[19:18] ac mae'r cyfnod yn cyflawni.

[19:18] Felly mae'r cyfnod yn gweithio'r ffordd.

[19:22] Mae'r cyflos o'r cyfnod o'r llwyfod ac mae'n mynd i'n ddigon o'r rwalkfod o'r byd yn llywodol

[19:29] i gyd-degon o'r cyfrifiadau i gyd-degon.

[19:33] Mae'r cyflos o'r cyfrifiadau o'r cyflos o'r cyflos o'r cyfrifiadau i'r gyrdd ynw i.

[19:52] We always need to be flexible here because things occur from a day-to-day basis that may内

[19:59] jump to the fronts of the priorities depending on their seriousness.

[20:04] An example is our current concern, the management of travel by e-bikes, and e-scooters.

[20:12] We explored both these forms of travel for their role in reducing unnecessary cars.

[20:17] yn gyntafol yn Llyfrgell Hyl ac yn ystod o gwybod o gwybod cyfnodol i'r cyfnodol o'r Llyfrgell Hyl,

[20:25] ond rydych chi yn gweithio i ddod yn ei gweithio.

[20:30] Mae Llyfrgell Hyl yn y ddweud bod yn cydweithio gydag o'r ddweud i ddechrau mewn dros ymhyngwyr.

[20:34] here and they are part of a regional action group on this and they are frequently educating

[20:42] people through publications in Outlook to get everybody on board with making sure we are

[20:48] taking the greatest steps for preventative action

[20:57] not included in the report but something

[21:01] worth mentioning is the safe streets for all study that is just starting.

[21:10] Gweithio'n llyfr y cysylltu Cymru, support ar gyfer y Lywodraeth.

[21:16] Mae helau cyntaf yn cynhyrch yn oedd y ddysgolol cyfarig ac y Comision Cysylltu'r Cysylltu'r Sgol

[21:24] yn cael ei bod yn ei bod yn unig.

[21:26] Z Caesfer yn gweithio, mae'r cyfrifwyr o gyfliad ar gyfer y Comision Cysylltu Cysylltu'r Sgol

[21:32] yn gwyntio'r cyfrifwyr ac Mae CSC yn gweithio'n gweithio.

[21:38] Oes o'r llyfyd y mae'n rwyntcoi'r cymdeithas, mae'r anuel i'r ysgol yw ddiwedd CPC yn ddylog.

[21:48] Ieithaf, nid o cofnidio'r тыfiau i gyffrifes y gweithio'n adeiladau oherwydd y dywedd cysylltau'n meddwl i'r gwybodaeth.

[21:55] Ieithaf, mae'r cysyllt CPC yn gallu ychydig o'r cyfathlethyniol ym mhwyddiad i'r cyflwyniad?

[22:01] Yn y gweithio, mae'n defnyddio ar y cyfatri ac i ymgwyrnydd cyfathlethyniol.

[22:07] Finally, I want to thank all of the TSC members, I've saved three of which are here, the supporting city staff and the public for all their contributions because they are our eyes and ears. No one can be everywhere and this is a great source of information so we encourage this to be used as much as possible because together we will make Pleasant Hill a safer place to travel for everyone.

[22:36] Thank you. I can take questions if you have any.

[22:41] Thank you, Chair Davies, for your report today. We really appreciate it.

[22:45] Colleagues, not really a discussion item tonight, but any questions for the chair?

[22:53] I want to thank you and all your colleagues for all the work that you do looking at the map.

[22:58] I can see the majority of accidents, fatalities are up along Contra Costa Boulevard and Monument Corridor.

[23:06] I'm glad, and thank you all for your continued focus in that area of what I'm noticing is it's difficult to travel along the Monument Quarter to get from the trail into downtown.

[23:20] I know that there's a plan and you guys are looking into it on a regular basis, so I really thank you for that.

[23:24] Also Oak Park Boulevard to be able to get from the trail across one of those areas needs to be a focus because people from our neighborhoods on the other side of the highway can't get to downtown or can't get into Pleasant Hill safely.

[23:36] Just ysgol, rwy'n meddwl. Rwy'n meddwl fy nghylchon a phryliau gyflaidon i quadraedd y blynyddiant i hefydlun oedd yn Gweithlwn Cymru gysig oherwydd yn hollbarth o SNH.

[23:47] Rydyn ni'n gallu rydych chi i fyfydig sy'n mynd i'wllai yn ôl yn Fythdoedd.

[23:52] Rwy'n meddwl bod erdw i'n meddwl cyfryddio ar bobl.

[23:56] Rydyn ni'n gallu gael, rydyn ni'n meddwl i dweud â chyfridd y gall Wath Skyllt.

[24:01] I'm glad to see some of the grant projects coming up, so thank you guys for all you do. Appreciate it.

[24:10] Thank you for your presentation and all the work that you do. I think it's really important that we have this information, including the data, to show that there are more collisions and things that are happening in the data.

[24:23] Ac yr hyn o'n gael y cyd-doedd, rydyn ni'n mynd i'r ysgrifennu bod ydych chi'n gyfrifethau a'r llunau a'r brwyllfa'i argyflwyno cynny.

[24:31] A mae'n cael y dyfodol, yn y cyfrifethau sydd o'r gymhiliadau byw 43, yn ddefnyddio cyfrifethau maen nhw'n gael ei fan hynny o'r gyfrifethau sydd o'r cyfrifethau sydd o'r lleifeneddau.

[24:42] y fflexibility to even lower the speeds in that area of 15 miles per hour, which is appropriate, depending upon on the high injury area.

[24:51] Have we thought about assessing, like lowering the speed in that area, is the TSC thinking about, you know, possibilities in that specific area or higher collision?

[25:03] In addition to that, we are actively looking for localized funding to offer match.

[25:10] marketing match is California's nutrition incentive program to incentivise those on nutrition assistance to purchase from farmer's markets, where they can nurture relationships with growers and eat fresh healthy produce.

[25:30] The match that's given. So just to kind of explain how this works.

[25:35] ond y cyfrifio'r cyfnod ar hyn o'r holl ar y marwyr o'r holl, mae'n mynd i arlyw.

[25:42] Felly, roedd y cyfrifio ymlaen, roedd y gwerthoedd ymlaen o'r cyfrifio.

[25:50] Felly, cyfrifio yn y bobl o'r holl, ac roeddwn ni'n gweithio ar gyfer,

[25:55] roeddwn ni'n gyfrifio'r holl yn gwneud, ac dyna'r helygonau hynny o'r hynny o'r olywiau.

[26:04] they want to debit from their snap card. Just for clarity, snap goes by several different names,

[26:11] so it can be kind of confusing and I think that vernacular is really important for understanding.

[26:17] So it's no longer called food snaps, we can retire that altogether. It's often called

[26:24] EBT and that stands for electronic benefits transfer and that's actually just what

[26:29] they call the card. How the money comes off the card, so we can retire that

[26:34] also. The national program is known as SNAP, and we're hearing that a lot in the news right now.

[26:42] CalFresh is California's administration of the SNAP program. I like the sound of CalFresh because

[26:49] it's got the word fresh in it, but I've been using SNAP more universally because that's kind of

[26:55] what everybody knows it as. So just for some clarity on that. So customers bring their

[27:00] Mae'r snap card to the market information booth, we swipe it, we give them tokens in any amount they choose.

[27:05] Each token is worth $1 and they spend that in the marketplace only on eligible products.

[27:11] So part of our role as a retailer, our responsibility is to educate our vendors,

[27:15] our farmers on what foods are eligible and which ones are not.

[27:19] Common examples are grocery items.

[27:22] So hummus, bread, honey, vegetables, fruits, all of those sorts of things, cheese, meat.

[27:29] The match, what that allows, when a market has grant funds, they can, for matching, if a customer, say, takes out $10 on their snap card, we have the power to give them an additional $10 in match, giving that customer now $20 to use at the farmer's market.

[27:48] The match is only for fruits and vegetables, so it's a little bit different. It's a different color token.

[27:56] And so the win-win here is that that goes right back into the pockets of the farmers.

[28:02] I'm highly concerned about the SNAP program not being funded, and I'm very impressed with our county and our state for the efforts to mobilize to meet the need.

[28:13] I really fills my heart to see so many people jumping into action so quickly.

[28:19] So, we will definitely be incorporating both SNAP and market match once funding

[28:27] is identified to offer at the Ploets and Health Farmers market.

[28:32] Thank you for that.

[28:33] I think it's so important.

[28:34] As you mentioned, the extra revenue does go back to help the farmers themselves as well.

[28:38] iawn, mae'r rhai gynhyrchu ymdweithio'r $, a'r cyfrannu'r cyfrannu a'r cyfrannu'r cyfrannu.

[28:44] So rydyn ni wedi bod yn ymdweithio ar hyn, a rywbeth yma fel y cyfrannu'r cyfrannu'n amser,

[28:49] ond, y gwaith y snaffau a'r cyfrannu, yn ymdweithio'n gyfrannu'n cyfrannu, dyna'r cyfrannu'n cyfrannu'n cyfrannu'n cyfrannu ymdweithio.

[28:58] A dyna ymdweithio'n cyfrannu o'r cyfrannu yn ymdweithio.

[29:08] ymdweud cydwyr yw gyfnodd yn ymdweud yma, ac yw hwnnw'n gyfnodd y ffocwyr sydd, yw'n gweithio'r ymdweud.

[29:14] Yn y mod i'r gweithio ar fynd i'w cofnodd, rwy'n gweithio'n gyfnodd yn ymdweud sydd gyfnodd yn ei maes,

[29:21] ac rwyf i'n gwneud i gweithio'r gwneud i'r websiteau, ac rwyf i'n gwneud i'w gweithio'r gweithio'u gwneud,

[29:26] a bod efallai'n gwneud i'r gweithio'u ddau i'r cyfr�au ac yr llythau.

[29:30] i'r amgylchedd o'r rhwyf yn enghreiffa arnaeth, ac mae'n adnedd i'n ddweud o'r mawr.

[29:36] Rydym yn bwysig eu cefnodol i'r mawr. Doeddwn i'n ffordd wedi bod yn dda i'n cyd-a-ddylanthu.

[29:43] Mae'n meddwl i'r oldith yma ac mae gennym y type mawr i'n ymweld i'r hynny i'r lleol yn rhan o hynod ydym i'r

[29:49] sylfa yn meddwlol. Mae'n meddwl i'n meddwl i'n meddwl i'r rhan o myfydol i'r buson,

[29:54] a'r holl fath.

[30:01] As our greater effort to promote the market, SNAP will be included in those outreach efforts

[30:10] as well as we present at school PTAs and in other areas in the community with the community

[30:15] center and other things that we have planned, SNAP will be on that list.

[30:19] Great. Thank you so much. That was going to be my follow-up question on outreach and

[30:22] how people would know that they can utilize these benefits at the markets. And so if

[30:28] If you need additional outreach help, please let us know as well as there's other commissions

[30:32] like the Civic Action Commission, Diversity Commission, things like that as well that

[30:36] we can help with distributing that information out.

[30:39] That's great support.

[30:41] We're excited about that.

[30:42] Thank you.

[30:43] Any other questions?

[30:45] Bill?

[30:45] Do you have any other questions?

[30:46] No, I'm asking you, Bill.

[30:48] Yeah.

[30:48] Any other questions?

[30:49] Okay.

[30:50] Council Member Obolowski.

[30:52] Thank you, Vice Mayor Chaston.

[30:54] And thank you for coming.

[30:55] Sure.

[30:55] I'm glad to hear about the market match.

[30:57] Just to piggyback on that,

[30:59] Bell is a member of Lions and I am of Rotary.

[31:02] So please give us your cards so we can have you come present

[31:04] because there's might be some funding available

[31:06] for that market match through local people

[31:09] in those clubs as well here.

[31:11] Thank you.

[31:11] The question I had for you was,

[31:13] I see on the map here,

[31:15] there's a community outreach and a city outreach.

[31:18] Yeah.

[31:18] So would that be for,

[31:20] how will those spaces be utilized?

[31:23] Sure.

[31:23] So, as I mentioned in my statement, Contra Costa Certified Farmers' Markets, actually

[31:30] the Pleasant Hill Farmers' Market, which was our first, was started by Master Gardening

[31:35] students from DDC.

[31:37] So it's part of our mission to give back to nonprofits and community organizations.

[31:42] So we provide at least one free booth space to community organizations every week at both

[31:49] of the markets that we operate, and that's a tradition that we would carry on through

[31:53] the Pleasant Hill Farmers Market. We have an application process, so just like vendors

[31:58] and farmers, nonprofits, we just call them community organizations, do have to apply.

[32:05] We have some restrictions. We don't allow fundraising per se. It's really for outreach.

[32:11] And so we just book those on an as-available basis. And we have a variety of outreach

[32:21] Outreach booths, everything from the Mountain Shadow Film Society to the SIRS, Sons and

[32:28] Retirement Group.

[32:30] So that's the kind of outreach that we would be planning for the community space.

[32:36] At the Walnut Creek Farmers Market, we've had a history of City Council coming to

[32:42] the Farmers Market.

[32:43] And I wanted to, that's why I put that block on there, that stall on there, because

[32:48] I wanted to extend that invitation to the Pleasant Hill City Council to have a booth

[32:52] space to conduct outreach on a rotating basis, but it could also be used for city planning

[33:01] or other outreach initiatives that are going on.

[33:06] We find that the farmer's market is a very informal and relaxed way for citizens to

[33:13] engage in civic government not everyone feels comfortable accessing or

[33:21] understands how to access civic government and so we we think that

[33:27] having a booth at the market would be beneficial both for building community

[33:31] as well as for the city council so we wanted to invite you to participate in

[33:36] that booth if that's something you wanted to do. Perfect thank you that

[33:38] that's what I was clarifying because I've gone to the Walnut Creek

[33:42] Marcus, both of them, and also to Martinez and I saw that it was exciting.

[33:47] One other thing I was going to ask about is I'm not seeing a freedom of speech area on

[33:51] here.

[33:52] Are you going to incorporate that at some point for folks who want to show up to for

[33:57] any type of freedom of speech type of situations?

[34:00] That's a really interesting question.

[34:03] CCCFM has never provided free speech space per se.

[34:10] We, you know, have, we tried to keep the space open to everyone and everyone.

[34:18] I like to say everybody eats, so, you know, our focus is not on politics.

[34:23] So for example, even though we have a city council booth, it's not used for campaigning

[34:29] or anything of that sort.

[34:31] It's really-

[34:31] Thanks for that clarification.

[34:32] Yeah, yeah.

[34:33] And so, you know, our, our thing, our line of thinking is that we hold markets in city

[34:44] streets typically all of our markets are ran in city streets and freedom of speech exists.

[34:49] We don't provide a specific space for it.

[34:53] Yeah, thank you.

[34:54] I just wanted to excuse me.

[34:55] Give me a moment.

[34:56] Thank you for that clarification.

[34:57] The last question I had for you or last statement is when in speaking to my neighbors a lot of the concern they had was

[35:05] the cost of food. So I'm glad to hear about the market match.

[35:10] Are we going to have different types of vendors like there's obviously there's organic vendors, there's standard vendors.

[35:16] Is there going to be a different variety of foods to hit all different price points within the community?

[35:20] Yeah. I certainly hope so. You know, once approved by the city, that will be our first

[35:27] task is to seek applicants. We have a large membership to pull from ourselves, but we're

[35:32] also interested in bringing some new vendors to Pleasant Hill that people can't access

[35:37] in such close proximity. I mean, we are very fortunate in the state of California to

[35:41] have so much agriculture. There's so much that is grown. And just to kind of go

[35:47] back on what I was saying earlier about vernacular being so important. When we say we're a certified

[35:52] farmers market, I want to, if I may, just take a moment to explain because that kind

[35:57] of piggybacks on to your question. Certified farmers markets means that anyone who's growing

[36:03] an agricultural item, excuse me, anyone who is selling an agricultural item at

[36:08] the farmers market, grew it in California and it's being sold by the person who

[36:14] grew it. So that's what certified farmers market means. And so our thinking is that we

[36:24] pull from Contra Costa County first. So in order to be a certified farmers market, it

[36:29] has to be grown in California. And these farmers drive. I mean, we have people that come from

[36:35] South of Fresno. It's pretty incredible. And sometimes you need that diversity or

[36:41] we wouldn't have any avocados and everybody loves avocado toast. But we will be looking to Contra Costa

[36:49] County first and working with our local Contra Costa County Ag Department to find those farmers

[36:55] that are close to home as well to add to the market. But yes, we're definitely going to have the

[37:05] plan is to have both conventional and organic. The nature of organic typically makes it more

[37:10] expensive. And organic certification is a complicated costly process for a lot of farmers.

[37:17] So we have lots of different farmers. We just added a farm to our Walnut Creek market

[37:23] who grows an incredible amount of diversity on just like one acre of land. So there's

[37:29] a lot of innovative things that are happening and our objective is to bring a variety to

[37:34] suit all needs.

[37:36] Thank you so much. I'm done, Zach.

[37:38] Thank you.

[37:38] Yeah, I think you had a question. I was just gonna comment. We have a free speech podium at the Trilani area

[37:45] Just wanting to mention that. Oh in that space. There is a free speech area. That's all

[37:50] We'll have to look into that. I'm not a hundred percent sure about that, but we'll figure that out

[37:55] I'm not that's that's not something that

[37:58] We will cross that bridge when we need to I'm sure

[38:02] Any questions from our mayor?

[38:06] No, actually a lot of the questions have been already answered. I'm just thrilled to have

[38:11] the farmers market back. I really enjoyed going to it in the many years that it was there.

[38:18] I think one of the issues was, as the lack of attendance, fewer vendors showed up. And

[38:25] so I think it's beneficial for everyone here to make sure we get the word out to

[38:30] everyone about the farmers market and really encourage people to attend. I'm

[38:36] glad to hear about your outreach because I think that will be super important. I

[38:41] know a lot of people in town are always looking for great fresh produce so that's

[38:46] super important but all those other items are also make a farmers market just

[38:51] super. And just to comment on the Walnut Creek I know the city council

[38:56] members that attend on a rotational basis really enjoy it. They usually

[39:00] post something on Facebook at a time to say, hey, it's my turn at the farmer's market

[39:05] this weekend.

[39:05] Come down and see me, and, you know, we should just think about doing that as well.

[39:11] And then you mentioned other people to reach out to.

[39:15] Certainly our public information officer, Jeff Gillette, getting information out and

[39:19] they outlook and everything will be really beneficial to get the whole community.

[39:24] So thank you, Stacey, for working on this, and we really appreciate it and look forward

[39:30] to the first Farmers Market.

[39:33] Thank you, Mayor.

[39:34] And it really, to make a successful Farmers Market, it's a recipe that needs good ingredients,

[39:43] right?

[39:43] So, you know, we feel confident that we're bringing the expertise.

[39:47] We're certainly hopeful that the community will bring the attendance and we're excited

[39:54] to have the city support.

[40:01] Thank you, Stacey.

[40:03] Thank you.

[40:03] Seeing if we don't have any other questions, I'd like to thank you for being here.

[40:09] I'd like to see if we have any public comment cards on this matter.

[40:12] There are no public comment cards.

[40:14] Okay.

[40:14] Seeing that there's no public comment, I'll close on this item and bring this

[40:19] back to discussion or to make a motion. I do have one discussion item. Anybody else have

[40:25] one? So, no? Okay. Just rather than a question, I wanted to just really thank you for being

[40:33] here today. This is a long time coming. I think we talked about it in 2018. We lost

[40:41] our farmers market. I'm really enthusiastic about and I like the measured organized plan

[40:49] to implement this. And I wasn't at first, I'll be honest, but I'm okay with this being in downtown

[40:58] for this reason. When we first started talking about this, there was no night market and there

[41:04] was no farmers market. And we had looked at trying to get something in the north. This was

[41:09] back when Matt, former council member, Mayor Ren and I were on the economic development

[41:15] committee. And we really kind of, we were kind of hoping that this might be in the north

[41:20] end of town. And, you know, in talking with the group, you know, Contra Costa certified

[41:27] farmers market, you know, they just, they had a good plan and they, and a good, and

[41:33] just, it made us feel a little bit more comfortable, like, if we're going to bring

[41:36] it back that this was going to be and they felt like pretty strongly that this was going

[41:40] to be the right place to do that as a result of that once that was you know once we kind

[41:45] of you know and you know we didn't have it 100% obviously finalized but at least we kind

[41:50] of we were hoping that we could have it someplace downtown that kind of opened up our thinking

[41:54] to like well what could we do in the north north end of town and so with that that's

[41:59] when you know that that opportunity with the night market opened up so I think it's

[42:04] really great because we're going to have two different types, completely different experiences,

[42:09] but really great community events, very different. Different times of the day,

[42:14] ones in the morning, ones at night. I just think that this is really a win-win for our city and

[42:20] I'm really, really excited about it. And so I just wanted to state that before we go to a vote.

[42:27] Any other things my colleagues want to add before I ask for a motion?

[42:35] I'm happy to move the item. Okay, we have a motion by Mayor Nowak, a second by Council

[42:43] Member Law. Madam Clerk, roll call vote please. Law? Yes. Obelinsky? Yes. Sheths? Yes. Nowak?

[42:52] Yes. Motion carries. Okay. Thank you very much. And I'm going to call an audible for

[43:03] for this before we move on to item 10.4 as you might recall back during when we

[43:13] talked about the when we talked about the Consent Calendar one of the items

[43:19] was to approve appointment recommendations for the County Connection

[43:23] Advisory Committee the Diablo Vista Water System Advisory Board Diversity

[43:27] Commission and yes the Traffic Safety Commission and that traffic safety

[43:33] committee that that person that we recommended and was approved was Richard Davies. Richard,

[43:38] you're still here in the audience, so congratulations. I'm kind of putting you on the spot. Would you

[43:43] like to come up and say a few words? I just want to make sure to acknowledge that, you know,

[43:48] so you don't have to come back in two weeks at another meeting. I just wanted you to congratulate

[43:52] you as we approved the recommendation. So if you want to come up, it's up to you.

[43:58] You're fine. Okay. It's okay. It was good information. It was good information. Congratulations. Thank

[44:05] you again for your service. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

[44:11] Thank you for indulging me on

[44:13] calling that audible there. And thank you for sticking around. Okay. Let's move on to

[44:22] Item 10.4, which I need to get, hold on. Well, hold on. I got to get this. Hold on here.

[44:31] This is the American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA funds update. This is an informational only presentation.

[44:38] Mr. Eric Chung, thank you for being here.

[44:41] Good evening to the mayor and to the city council. Eric Chung, CFO for the city of Pleasant Hill.

[44:46] Just a very brief presentation.

[44:48] It's hard to believe it's been about four and a half years since the federal government

[44:52] approved American Rescue Fund Act funds back in March of 2021, about 1.9 trillion dollars.

[45:00] Local municipalities received about $130 billion of those funds. The city of Pleasant Hill received

[45:09] $8.3 million. We had

[45:14] to allocate the $8.3 million by December 31, 2024. The city council has

[45:23] done that. We need to spend the remaining funds by December 31, 2026. There are still a few

[45:29] remaining open projects that we have on the list. What the Sea Council did in the previous

[45:35] or last December was to allocate and appropriate the remaining funds to the general services

[45:41] category. We obligate about 20 officers and 10 public works employees for that purpose.

[45:49] We've got about 1.2 million left to spend. The main projects, and we're going to touch

[45:54] on a couple of these items later in the agenda, is the City Hall of Plon Fountain,

[45:58] the digital documentation project. And then later, that will be done later next year is

[46:04] the backup generator project for about half a million dollars.

[46:09] Again, the City Council

[46:11] through the last several years has worked on multiple projects from the very beginning,

[46:15] the Gregor and Storm Dream project for about $1.5 million dollars to really a lot of the

[46:20] improvements that are in City Council chambers today to allow us to broadcast and to zoom

[46:24] and to do a lot of the things that we can do that we could not do literally four years ago.

[46:30] That is really the end of the presentation. I'll take any questions or comments that you may have.

[46:36] Okay. Any questions from colleagues on the dyes?

[46:40] Mary Nock, any questions on your end?

[46:44] Oh, no. Okay.

[46:45] I've been through this 20 times.

[46:48] You brought this forward. I guess my question is you brought this went through the budget.

[46:51] Yeah. Thank you.

[46:52] I don't have any questions, so do we have any public comment, do we have any speaker cards

[46:59] on this item?

[47:00] There are no public comment cards.

[47:01] Okay.

[47:02] Seeing as we'll close the public comment on this item, do we have any comments?

[47:06] This isn't, there's no council action on this, is there any comments from my colleagues

[47:11] here?

[47:11] Okay.

[47:12] Eric, thank you.

[47:13] Thank you.

[47:13] Appreciate it.

[47:17] Okay.

[47:17] So we're going to move on to item 10.5.

[47:20] to approve the resolution to authorize reallocation of the ARPA funds from the City Hall Pond and

[47:29] Fountain Rehabilitation Project. And this is to the government services program category

[47:39] and transfer an equivalent amount of general fund monies to the City Hall Pond and Fountain

[47:44] Rehabilitation Project. And James, you've probably been here for five minutes while

[47:49] I stumbled through that, so thank you for being at the podium.

[47:54] Good evening, Mayor Noak, Vice Mayor Schess and Council members. We thank you to Eric

[48:01] for teaming me up with the conversation about the general services category. So, as we know,

[48:08] the City Hall Pound and Fountain Rehabilitation Project was a funded project in the 2429

[48:15] CIP.

[48:18] It had $870,000 worth of the ARPA funds that was allocated by our council to this

[48:25] project.

[48:28] As you know, the item before you tonight is to authorize the reallocation of

[48:32] that money from the Pond and Fountain project to the government services category and also

[48:39] authorize an equivalent amount of general fund money back to the project so that

[48:43] we can construct the project. So just a little bit of background, you know, the fountain

[48:50] was built when City Hall was built. It was never a aquatic feature. It was a water feature.

[48:58] There were no fish. There were no turtles. There was nothing in the pond to support

[49:02] aquatic life from aeration to biofilters. It was strictly just a pretty water feature

[49:09] and staff at that time used to clean the pond and the fountain, you know, with chemicals.

[49:15] The water source is a well that's located on City Hall property.

[49:21] It's not potable water that's funding this.

[49:23] And the water is very hard filled with a bunch of chemicals that over the years clogs

[49:28] up the piping, leaves a residue on the tile, but also for the tile for the fountain

[49:35] was eating away at the grout on the tile.

[49:37] And if you look at this picture, that picture was taken in 2010 for the top three tiers of the tile, you can actually see them turning color, turning brown,

[49:46] because at that time we had quite a robust aquatic life system growing in the pond, and we were really no longer able to clean it.

[49:54] So between the gunk that just kind of jumped up on the tiles, but also the chemicals that were in the water just started eating away at the tiles.

[50:01] That picture was actually taken in 2010.

[50:05] So just for a little history, way back in the day, way, way back before 2010, we used to be able to drain the water in the pond to the storm drain system.

[50:17] With all the new environmental laws that is no longer possible, you can't just dump the dirty pond water down into the storm drain.

[50:23] There's all sorts of processes that we have to go through and it's quite expensive.

[50:27] So, in 2010, our city council at that time had the desire to drain the pond, clean the

[50:35] pond.

[50:36] So, seriously, way back in the day, late 90s, early 2000s, they used to just dump the pond

[50:41] to the storm drain, clean out all the gunk on the bottom, fill it back up, throw the

[50:45] fish back in, and it would be relatively clean again, right, with all the new environmental

[50:49] laws.

[50:50] In 2010, when we put this project out, and it was strictly a maintenance project,

[50:54] We drain the pond, we clean the pond, we clean the piping as best we could because it's all underground under the sidewalk.

[51:02] We bought some new skimmers and some new spray heads, cracked ceiling, we did some liner repair.

[51:07] And at that time there was a thought by the council that, oh, we should probably do something to support the fish.

[51:11] So we put in a biological filtration system at the bottom of the big pond and we put in a small aeration system to help support the aquatic life.

[51:20] At that time, just to do that limited amount of work to clean the pond, the total project

[51:26] cost was about $275,000 in 2010.

[51:30] At the same time, we wanted to look into redoing the tile for the fountain because it was really

[51:36] starting to deteriorate.

[51:37] We went out with a separate bid.

[51:39] It wasn't one project.

[51:41] And the total project cost came in at $360,000 in 2010.

[51:46] At that time, we still had the redevelopment funds.

[51:49] funds. We had about $100,000 worth of redevelopment funds for the project. The City Council at

[51:54] that time decided that we couldn't support that project. We didn't have the funds, so

[51:57] we didn't do anything with the fountain. We just left it the way it, you know, cleaned

[52:03] it as best we can and left it the way it is.

[52:05] So now, I mean, these shots are pictures of the lake with the water. You can see

[52:11] the small pond, bottom left, the bigger lake at the top. And I put that picture

[52:16] the walkway there because in 2010 we did not have any plans to redo the walkway from the main

[52:22] parking lots all the way up to the City Hall building. You can see that the water is dirty,

[52:28] it's discolored. I mean there's really just no way for us to clean it unless we completely empty the

[52:32] pond and do it again. We don't have anybody but staff maintaining the pond right now.

[52:38] So the average annual cost, I mean I just threw that number up there based on things

[52:43] that we did in the last year. We typically have a three-man crew one day a month with

[52:47] the VAC truck, you know, sucking out as much of the muck, standing in the pond with the

[52:52] VAC truck, like sucking out as much of the muck out of the bottom as we can. And right

[52:56] about now, we have just one man working eight hours.

[53:01] So I know you know this. We've talked about this before. A unique feature of this

[53:06] pond fountain is that the energy from the fountain supports the HVAC for the community

[53:12] room. And so when the water in the pond is dirty and it gucks up the filters, if you've

[53:17] ever been in the community rooms where it's hot, that's why, because HVAC is not functioning

[53:23] properly because the whole thing is tied together.

[53:26] And then an added additional cost that we've been maintaining now is the tiles that

[53:30] you can see on the lower right-hand side. They were put in when City Hall was built.

[53:34] They're cracked. They're broken. We can't buy them anymore. We can't get the colors anymore. The grout is gone

[53:40] They're they're not ADA compliant. They're trip hazards

[53:42] And so on top of the water and the dirty features in the fountain

[53:47] We also have to replace the sidewalk all the way along to City Hall

[53:53] I'm sorry, let me just go back for a second other things that happened this year

[53:56] We had to rebuild all the motors in the pump house and we also had to get a new VFD for the well pump

[54:02] The, currently the water softening system that was put in in 2010 is no longer working.

[54:09] This picture here was actually taken in 2010.

[54:13] I'd love to say it was taken in 2025, but this is what the tile looked like at the time

[54:18] in 2010 when we drained the pond.

[54:21] So you know that we went out to bid with the pond and fountain project in 2024.

[54:28] Council awarded it in December of 2024.

[54:31] At that time, there was $2.968 million to complete the construction cost of the pond.

[54:38] There was 870,000 ARPA funds that were approved.

[54:42] And we've spent on the design and other things about $230,000 to date, leaving $639,532

[54:50] that we would like to reallocate to the General Services Fund so we don't lose it.

[54:55] with the equivalent money coming back to the project from the General Fund because it's

[55:02] an important project. We need to fix the walkway. I mean, the water is dirty. Kids play there.

[55:09] We have events there that the kids are touching the water. So, overall, you may recall that

[55:17] this is the concept that we voted, well, the council voted in. The COI are going

[55:22] be relocated to the small pond. So if you look at the top of the screen, that is going to be

[55:27] still a koi pond. And all the fish and the turtles are going to go to the koi pond.

[55:31] It's going to be completely separate now. We're going to isolate it from the big pond,

[55:35] what I'm calling the lake, I guess now, by that land bridge that's between the City

[55:39] Council Chamber Building and the koi pond. You'll actually be able to walk between the

[55:43] fountain area and the small pond. The large lake area will be a chlorinated

[55:48] pond area, nice clean water, very attractive for the events that we have on the lawn. But

[55:54] everybody loves our fish and turtles, including me. I'm a huge fan of the turtles. And so they

[55:59] will be relocated in the koi pond. They will be separated by two completely different

[56:05] mechanical systems. One to do the chlorinated system and one to do the koi pond. And the

[56:11] belief is that containing the koi in the smaller pond will make it with full aquatic

[56:15] systems for them. Air Raiders, a way to clean the pond that we don't have to drain it down to

[56:20] dead zero before we fill it back, will lower the overall maintenance costs. It is the intent of this

[56:27] project to hire an outside company to maintain all the equipment for us not rely on staff to

[56:33] be maintaining the new mechanical equipment. So one thing that we've moved forward with

[56:38] to get this project moving is we've separated the HVAC system from the project. We've

[56:45] hired a company to come in and put in a new HVA system for the community center so that

[56:51] the work will be completed when we hopefully start the PON projects.

[56:56] So you know, the staff recommendation right now is the ARPA funds can only be reallocated

[57:01] to an approved program or project. As you know, Eric just chatted about this. The

[57:05] Government Services Fund was obligated for ARPA funds in December of 2024. So it's

[57:11] appropriate to ask to move that 639 to the Government Services Fund, but we are asking

[57:17] that those equal funds be transferred back to the General Fund so that we can complete

[57:21] the project.

[57:35] Well, I had a question for Anne because, you know, this did go through the Budget Committee.

[57:40] Oh, I did.

[57:40] I apologize for not saying that.

[57:42] The Budget Committee did see this on October 6th.

[57:44] Yes.

[57:44] And so I wanted to, I think part of the request was also trying to understand

[57:49] and what would be the ongoing maintenance costs

[57:52] for this new pond now that we're going to,

[57:55] if we were to move forward with the process?

[57:58] So the ongoing maintenance costs over the long term,

[58:01] I mean, there'll be the initial startup cost,

[58:02] we're gonna hire an outside firm

[58:03] to manage the two pump systems, right?

[58:08] And so there would still be limited staff time,

[58:11] you know, plucking things out of the water,

[58:13] skimming the pond and things like that.

[58:14] But 90% of the maintenance costs

[58:16] would be handled by that outside company.

[58:18] I don't know what that number is because we don't actually have it built yet, but the belief from the design engineer in this project is overall it will go down because we will have a functioning system that we're not just always chasing, right?

[58:32] Right now staff is just chasing problems. Hey, and the heat's not working in the community room. Hey, and it's freezing in the community room.

[58:42] The pond is dirty. There's not going to be this constant need to have three men out there with the vac truck sucking muck out of the bottom of the pond.

[58:49] Yeah. I hear you on that. But it sounds like there's a separate HVAC system that will be separate from the pond, which you mentioned earlier.

[58:56] Well, there's currently an HVAC system that we pay Honeywell to maintain. So we had obligated $125,000 of capital funds to this project.

[59:05] When the project was approved, we just moved that $125,000 out to have Honeywell go ahead

[59:11] and complete the HVAC work upfront.

[59:14] The thought in doing that is if the HVAC work is already done, then we can build the

[59:20] project, phase the, I had to use the word phase, stage the project.

[59:26] If the HVAC is not connected to the fountain, we can actually separate the two ponds, put

[59:33] all the fish in the small pond.

[59:34] I'm sorry, put all the fish in the big pond, do the small pond, do the land bridge, fix

[59:39] all the tile because it'll be okay that the fountain is not working.

[59:42] We can completely shut the fountain off.

[59:44] And then when that site is done, we'll move the fish over and work on the big pond.

[59:49] That's not possible to do if we don't separate the HVAC out now because the fountain would

[59:55] have to be continuously running to give HVAC to those buildings.

[59:58] Thanks.

[1:00:00] I asked a quick question. What is the cost for the HVAC system right now? Is it the $125,000

[1:00:05] that you mentioned? So if we were to, let's just say, not approve $639,000, but just the

[1:00:13] HVAC system, which would be $125,000 from the $639,000. Is that correct?

[1:00:19] No. No. Sorry. The project's funded right now by the, originally was overall funded

[1:00:25] by the 870 from the ARPA funds, 125,000 for the HVAC came from our capital fund.

[1:00:32] Okay.

[1:00:32] Then the sidewalk funds and ADA funds for all the sidewalk and all of that that's happening.

[1:00:37] So the 125 is independent of the 639 that we're asking to move over.

[1:00:41] Okay, got it.

[1:00:42] Thank you.

[1:00:43] And, you know, I don't have a question for Ann, but maybe if we can have a discussion

[1:00:48] after on it.

[1:00:49] I would appreciate it.

[1:00:50] Thank you.

[1:00:50] Thank you for that.

[1:00:54] Yeah, just one quick question.

[1:00:55] And so after this is finished, or after we discuss everything, what would be the time

[1:01:03] frame for potentially an RFP going out?

[1:01:05] Is this going to happen this year or next year?

[1:01:07] Yes.

[1:01:07] We've been given the go ahead to go out with the bid set.

[1:01:12] And so we just got the HBAC guy moving ahead of time because that was one thing we could

[1:01:16] pull out of the project that wasn't part of the PON project.

[1:01:19] But we anticipate being out to bid.

[1:01:21] We want to be under construction by September, by the end of September.

[1:01:24] after the last summer concert.

[1:01:26] September, okay.

[1:01:27] And one last question.

[1:01:28] So the HVAC that's currently running by the fountain,

[1:01:31] this is like a geothermal type scenario or how,

[1:01:34] I mean, it's being cooled by the water?

[1:01:37] Yes.

[1:01:37] Okay, so you would be then putting

[1:01:40] in a standard like heat pump system?

[1:01:42] Yes. Okay.

[1:01:43] Yes, it'll be independent of the fountain.

[1:01:45] Okay. Completely.

[1:01:47] And that's actually part of the reason why it's not

[1:01:48] always functioning because the water is dirty.

[1:01:50] Right. Okay.

[1:01:51] That's why I just want a clarification.

[1:01:52] Thank you.

[1:01:55] Mayor Noak, do you have any questions?

[1:01:58] No, I just want to clarify that we're not actually approving the project here. The project

[1:02:04] has already been approved and it's just where the funds are going to be coming from. Because

[1:02:09] we might not expend these funds in the next year, that's why the money has to be used

[1:02:15] in government services otherwise we lose it under the ARPA system. So the money

[1:02:21] is going to go to government services and then the what was in the general fund that would have

[1:02:27] normally paid for those government services is going to go into to the fund in order to pay for

[1:02:32] this project. So it's not it's not approving this project it's just moving the funds so that we

[1:02:38] don't lose it as part of the ARPA. That's correct right Anne? Yes that's correct the city

[1:02:42] council already approved this project on December 2nd 2024.

[1:02:48] So it's just moving the funds

[1:02:50] around so that it can be so we don't lose the ARPA funds. That's the point

[1:02:57] of tonight is to be able to authorize to move the funds and the ARPA into

[1:03:02] government services so it can be used before the time expires at the end of

[1:03:07] 2026 and the similar funds and the general fund that otherwise would be used

[1:03:12] for those expenses will be going into the construction fund to be able to use

[1:03:15] be paid for this project. Yeah. Thank you for that.

[1:03:23] Okay. Seeing no other questions, I don't

[1:03:25] have any questions of right now. Thank you. I appreciate your time. I will

[1:03:31] public comment. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So do we have any public comment, Madam Clerk on this?

[1:03:35] There are no public comment cards. Okay. Thank you. So closing public comment.

[1:03:40] bring this back to the dais for comment or discussion.

[1:03:47] May I?

[1:03:48] So this was brought to the Budget Committee and so I wanted to move it here so that we

[1:03:54] could have a discussion on the project.

[1:03:56] I understand that we're reallocating the funds so that we don't lose the ARPA funds to our

[1:04:01] government services, which definitely makes sense.

[1:04:03] But now that we have freed up those dollars, we have General Fund, which is $639,000,

[1:04:09] that we don't have to necessarily allocate fully to the bond. What I would like to propose

[1:04:13] is maybe phasing the project because there are other expenses or unforeseeable expenses

[1:04:19] that the city may have. And at this point in time, we don't know what the ongoing maintenance

[1:04:24] cost is going to be to have this new bond. I understand that this project has already

[1:04:29] been approved. That's not on the agenda. Yes, it is. It's a part of...

[1:04:35] There's only the moving on the funds is on the agenda. There's nothing about the project itself. It's just moving the funds

[1:04:42] Right, but also reallocating it to the pond

[1:04:46] That's part of it

[1:04:48] You're just moving the funds from one to the construction fund. You're not actually allocating it differently

[1:04:55] You're just you're moving the general fund to the construction fund

[1:04:58] Right, so what I'm what I would like for us to have a discussion on is really on the fact that we are I

[1:05:04] I would like to approve moving the funds to the government services, but pause on the

[1:05:13] phase of the pause at this point in time.

[1:05:15] Well, I don't think that.

[1:05:17] I mean, I think that's a whole different discussion for a whole, that's a whole another item

[1:05:21] as I see it, that, I mean, tonight the item is simply, as we've been talking about,

[1:05:28] it's just simply just move the money.

[1:05:30] I think any other further discussions about the project, which I would say is already approved,

[1:05:36] I think would have to be brought up at another time.

[1:05:39] But this is just, as I understand it, is just an exercise in moving money for now.

[1:05:44] So, for now, that's how I understand it, for this agenda item.

[1:05:50] So, as far as pausing anything, I think that's a discussion for another...

[1:05:55] I mean if once we get further down the road on this is when I think we would get we would potentially entertain something like that

[1:06:02] But for now, I mean the literal the literal agenda item is to move this money really to another thing

[1:06:09] Well, it's it's also okay the time

[1:06:12] Go ahead

[1:06:13] Good mayor. Sorry the time to discuss that would be when an RFP comes back as

[1:06:19] to an amount that the this

[1:06:22] project will cost. And we would have to approve those costs for that RFP at that point in

[1:06:28] time. That would be the time to discuss that. This is moving funds. This isn't the project

[1:06:35] itself. So when the RFP will go out and it comes back, that's when we'll be discussing

[1:06:41] whether we're okay with the proposal or whether it needs to be changed or adjusted.

[1:06:46] And by then we would have maintenance costs, right? Is part of that? So we would have

[1:06:51] of, I think, a more well-rounded idea with an RFP of what the project would cost.

[1:06:56] Well, may I also include, I think, you know, an RFP going out for the PON project would

[1:07:01] also be additional costs to the city, including staff time.

[1:07:04] And so I'm just asking if we would really think about how we would move forward on

[1:07:12] the PON project itself, if there are opportunities to phase that.

[1:07:16] I'm not saying I'm not approving moving the ARPA funds to the government services.

[1:07:19] is I think that is the right thing to do. But issuing an RFP and moving forward, we

[1:07:24] already have the design phase already in place. And there are other expenses that we do need

[1:07:29] to, you know, for unforeseeable circumstances that we may need to allocate funds to.

[1:07:34] I don't think that's a bad conversation to have. That's just not for tonight. That's

[1:07:40] just not for tonight. For tonight, it's to approve the authorization to move the

[1:07:44] funds to another account. And I think to what Mayor Nowak was saying earlier,

[1:07:48] when we get those when we get that RFP then I think we break it down I think we

[1:07:53] break it down right now we're just putting money into the into the thing

[1:07:56] and that's can we get clarification from from city attorney on on this

[1:07:59] discussion thank you

[1:08:03] yeah no that's correct that's that's a very good way

[1:08:07] of stating it it's not that the conversation shouldn't be had

[1:08:11] necessarily it's just that it's not on the agendas for tonight okay so city

[1:08:17] Attorney, can you please clarify what we are moving for this motion in particular for

[1:08:23] the adopting of the resolution for this?

[1:08:26] Just what is in the title, Authorizing Appropriation of American Rescue Plan Act funds to fund

[1:08:34] to authorize the reallocation of American Rescue Plan Act ARPA funds from the City Hall

[1:08:42] Pond and Fountain Rehabilitation Project number 1-24 to the government services program category

[1:08:48] and transfer an equivalent amount of general fund moneys to the City Hall Pond and Fountain

[1:08:52] Rehabilitation Project.

[1:08:54] So that's it.

[1:08:55] And transfer an equivalent amount of general fund moneys to the City Hall Pond and Fountain

[1:09:02] Project.

[1:09:03] That's the fund part of the motion.

[1:09:06] That is what is on the agenda for tonight.

[1:09:09] That is the resolution.

[1:09:10] Right.

[1:09:11] So that's what I'm trying to bring to light here. There is a transfer of the funds to the project. And so what I'm proposing is for us to really kind of think about whether or not we want to transfer the general fund monies to the city hall pod the second

[1:09:27] portion of that there is in my mind there is no project consideration unless we do this.

[1:09:32] And we've already approved we've already we've already approved this.

[1:09:36] It's a fund. It's not the project itself. It's the fund. The expenditure of that fund

[1:09:43] will later on be approved when we get an RFP. So it's going into the city hall.

[1:09:48] So you're asking to add something into the project fund.

[1:09:52] Sorry, Mayor. You're asking us to add something to the item, which is not here in the thing.

[1:09:57] What I'm asking is to modify the resolution to approve the resolution to authorize

[1:10:03] the Reallocation of American Rescue Plan Act funds from the City Hall Pond and Fountain

[1:10:09] Rehabilitation Project to the Government Services Program category and not transfer any equivalent

[1:10:16] amount of general fund monies to the City Hall Pond and Fountain Project.

[1:10:22] Well, I mean, we're basically taking, so what we're doing is we're saying we're

[1:10:28] taking the ARPA funds, putting in our government services, but then now the General Fund

[1:10:33] is going to continue to fund this project. I'm basically asking if there's

[1:10:36] opportunity for us to phase the PON project rather than putting a total

[1:10:41] 639,000 at this point in time as a discussion for us on council.

[1:10:46] I think you're hamstringing the project by phasing it when we haven't even

[1:10:50] gotten an RFP from the construction people. I think I would want to put

[1:10:56] the money in the right bucket to have that discussion, but first have the

[1:11:01] the experts, the construction people come back and even tell us if that's possible.

[1:11:05] I hear you. So to me, I think we're hamstringing ourselves

[1:11:09] by modifying what's on the item, which is simply a movement of money.

[1:11:17] Well, I hear you on that, but what about the fact that if the HVAC system has already

[1:11:21] been completed and we already had the design phase, we have expenses that we may need to

[1:11:27] for unenforceable circumstances. That fund, if we're already now allocating it to the pond,

[1:11:34] we won't be able to say, hey, we want to use those funds for something else because we've

[1:11:39] already approved this resolution. Right. But I think if there was some kind of crisis,

[1:11:43] if there was some kind of crisis, whatever it might be, staff would come back to us

[1:11:48] and we would be able to move money if we needed to, right?

[1:11:50] So remember that we have a $15 million reserve, we have a $15 million reserve for unforeseen

[1:11:58] circumstances.

[1:12:00] So that $15 million there is there for that purpose.

[1:12:05] About close to $2 million is for the 115 trust, but the remaining is for unforeseen circumstances.

[1:12:12] So I don't think we need to preserve 600,000 from this PON project for unforeseen circumstances

[1:12:20] when we have 15 million in a reserve for that purpose.

[1:12:25] Mr. Vice Mayor, if I may ask a question.

[1:12:27] Yes, City Manager Binder-Nagel.

[1:12:28] The question before the council tonight is the transfer of funds from one bucket to

[1:12:33] yours, your worst home, one bucket to another.

[1:12:36] And then to transfer an equivalent amount back, it's a swapping of funds, if you

[1:12:39] will.

[1:12:40] That's the question before the council.

[1:12:42] It's not a matter of debating the merits of the project. It's a matter of making a swap between funds

[1:12:46] And that's the end of the question. I would I would offer if there are three votes to do that

[1:12:50] You move forward if there are not you don't

[1:12:53] You don't amend the motion you simply respond to I think as it's been presented you are in favor or you're not

[1:12:59] I think that's the question before the council

[1:13:01] Okay, thank you. I'll make the motion to approve

[1:13:04] Okay, we have a we have a motion from Mayor Noah. Do we have a second? I will second that motion, okay?

[1:13:09] Okay. We have a second from Council Member Obolinski.

[1:13:12] Good.

[1:13:13] City Clerk, parole call please.

[1:13:15] Law?

[1:13:16] Yes, to approve the resolution to, you know,

[1:13:19] move the government services program category transfer of funds

[1:13:23] to our, you know, our ARPA funds.

[1:13:26] Sorry, let me say that again.

[1:13:27] Yes, to approve the resolution to authorize the reallocation

[1:13:32] of the ARPA funds from the City Hall upon

[1:13:34] to the government services program.

[1:13:37] But I still don't necessarily agree with transferring of the equivalent amount of the general funds to the PON.

[1:13:45] That's a tough number of lives here.

[1:13:46] Is it yes or no?

[1:13:47] Is it a yes or no vote?

[1:13:48] Or an abstain?

[1:13:49] Yes, I did say yes.

[1:13:50] And then I just added my comment to it.

[1:13:52] Sorry.

[1:13:52] So that's just a comment.

[1:13:54] That's not trying to vote yes on part of it.

[1:13:56] No on part of it.

[1:13:57] No, it's yes.

[1:13:57] So you're voting it yes and then turn?

[1:13:59] Yes, but I'm explaining my comment there.

[1:14:01] Thank you.

[1:14:02] Okay.

[1:14:03] Obelinsky?

[1:14:04] Yes.

[1:14:05] Yes.

[1:14:06] Yes.

[1:14:07] NOAC?

[1:14:08] Yes.

[1:14:09] Motion carries.

[1:14:11] Okay.

[1:14:11] Thank you.

[1:14:12] Thank you, Anne.

[1:14:13] Let's move on to 10.6.

[1:14:17] Yes, 10.6.

[1:14:18] I thought it was 10.7.

[1:14:19] It was 10.6.

[1:14:20] We're adopting the resolution authorizing the appropriation of ARPA funds to fund

[1:14:25] additional digitization services and indexing of city archives and authorizing city manager

[1:14:30] to execute the first contract amendment for professional service agreement with BMI Imaging

[1:14:35] Incorporated and linking our Chief Technology Officers here to present. Thank you.

[1:14:44] Just waiting for my presentation. Do you need anything?

[1:14:48] Oh, I'm just seeing it. I know a guy.

[1:14:56] Thank you. Sue, can you see it?

[1:15:00] Oh, not yet. I need to be able to see this. Do you have any people moving or jumping up

[1:15:04] and down? No, not currently.

[1:15:11] Good evening, Mayor Nolak, Vice Mayor Chess and Council members.

[1:15:17] My name is Lane King. I'm the Chief Technology Officer for the City, and I am here to give

[1:15:24] a brief update on the city's digitization project along with requesting additional funds for

[1:15:34] the project.

[1:15:37] So, a 2025 update. Just a brief history. The City Council approved resolution

[1:15:43] In November of 2023, the agreement in the resolution was to allocate 336,568 for BMI

[1:15:56] imaging to digitize an estimated 2 million sheets of documents and approximately 114,000

[1:16:04] sheets of architectural plans in the city's archives.

[1:16:11] The project was funded using $350,000 of ARPA funds, and so because the agreement was only

[1:16:22] for 336,000, and actually 350,000 was allocated for it, we have 13,432 that's remaining in

[1:16:33] the allocation that has not been used and is available.

[1:16:35] level. So here's a picture of what it used to look like in the city archives for the

[1:16:44] building division. Now, after some work, we have digitized all of those plans. And then

[1:16:51] also here a picture of some of the planning documents in the planning division.

[1:17:04] And now

[1:17:05] complete with the project. And when you're trying to estimate, you know, approximately

[1:17:12] 2 million sheets of paper and 100 plus thousand sheets of plans, we're not going to hit the

[1:17:20] mark exactly. So after 85 percent of the project is completed, we now know that we need an

[1:17:28] additional about $51,000 to complete the rest of the 15 percent of the project.

[1:17:33] The breakdown is listed there, so it's between HR, engineering, and building.

[1:17:45] So, originally stated, we have the 13,000 that's left from the original allocation.

[1:17:51] And then if you kind of looked at one of the little lines from the Chief Finance Officer in his presentation,

[1:18:00] There was about 21,559 left over from the Planning Division's ADU Consulting Services project.

[1:18:12] And the city planner was, you know, really wondering how to use those funds.

[1:18:19] And I gladly took one for the team and stepped in and said, I'll take it off your hands.

[1:18:23] And so instead of losing those funds, we will use those funds to complete the digitization

[1:18:30] project along with supplementing about $16,000 from the IT budget, which will get us to the

[1:18:39] $51,000 that is needed.

[1:18:43] So the resolution before you today is to authorize the city manager to approve an amendment

[1:18:50] event with BMI for an additional $51,000 and to reappropriate the $21,559 from the planning

[1:19:00] division to this project.

[1:19:03] And then also the Budget Committee was able to review this proposal on October 6th and

[1:19:12] has recommended for City Council's approval.

[1:19:16] And that concludes my presentation. And if there's any questions, I will welcome them.

[1:19:21] All right. Thank you. Thank you, Lynn.

[1:19:23] Questions? You know what? Let's go with Andre first.

[1:19:26] We've been going with Bell all night first. Let's go with you. Do you have any questions?

[1:19:31] No questions, Vice Mayor Chaston.

[1:19:32] Okay.

[1:19:33] Well, let's shut that down.

[1:19:35] Bell, do you have any questions?

[1:19:37] Council Member La.

[1:19:37] I just have a comment.

[1:19:39] So we did-

[1:19:40] But no questions.

[1:19:40] We did hear this at the budget committee.

[1:19:43] No, I have a comment.

[1:19:44] No comment is after technically is after public comment go ahead. I already asked all the questions at the budget committee

[1:19:51] Okay, okay mayor. No act. Do we have any questions?

[1:19:55] No, I don't okay except I wanted to see some moving parts on this

[1:20:05] Madam clerk do we have any public comment on this there no public okay, we're gonna close public comment council member

[1:20:12] your comment. Yes. So I think it really makes sense for us to allocate the funds. There's

[1:20:17] another reason why in the Budget Committee we approved it to move forward. And it makes

[1:20:20] sense that, you know, the unallocated or remaining funds from the ADU project should be used

[1:20:26] towards this. I've seen other municipalities already complete their digitization project

[1:20:30] and IT is even putting a portion of their budget in it. And so I think it makes sense

[1:20:35] for us to move forward with this.

[1:20:40] I'm, she said it. I'm in agreement with that

[1:20:45] as well. Well looking at your 85% done you're asking for reallocating $50,000 you know from

[1:20:51] a business standpoint you know if you're within 10% that's pretty normal so I'm glad that

[1:20:55] they came in with a bid they're within 10% of what the actual cost is going to be so

[1:20:59] I'm good with that.

[1:21:02] Okay well saying no further comment I will entertain a motion.

[1:21:07] motion. I will move. Oh, I get to comment. Motion to do what? Do you have a comment? I

[1:21:16] thought we were all done with comment. I'm just kidding. You're punchy. I get it. It's

[1:21:21] late back there. I am. It's midnight. It's 12 30 here at night. So I'm 30. Yeah. Thank

[1:21:29] you, Mayor. Okay. So who was the motion from? It was from councilmember law. I'll take

[1:21:33] the second and councilmember obeliskie will have a second. Madame clerk roll call

[1:21:36] please. Law. Yes. Obelinsky. Yes. Chess. Yes. No act. Yes. Motion carries.

[1:21:47] Okay. Being

[1:21:49] that there is no further business, we move to item 11, which is adjournment. So that

[1:21:55] means that this meeting is adjourned to our regular City Council meeting scheduled for

[1:21:58] Monday November 17. Thank you and good night.

City Council

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