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We'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. City

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clerk, can we ready? Yes, we're ready. Super good evening

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and welcome to tonight's regular meeting of the Rindy City

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Council Tuesday, September 1st. We'll begin by calling to order

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doing roll call. Okay, note for the record that all

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council members are present. Thank you. I would also note

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that we just came out of closed session and have

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nothing to report. We'll begin by adopting the agenda. Are

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there any changes to the agenda? Mayor and council members,

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we have no proposed changes to the agenda. Did I?

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I'm so sorry. We'll begin with a Pledge of Allegiance.

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Please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the

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United States of America. And to the Republic for waged

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stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice

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for all. Thank you. Thank you for the reminder. Now

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we will move to adopt the agenda with no changes.

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I will move to adopt and wonder if we have

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a second. All in favor? Aye. Right, and with that,

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we have several items for the good of the city

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tonight. We'll begin with an introduction of our new city

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clerk, Joelle Fockler. Good evening, honored mayor members of the

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city council. I am pleased to have with us tonight,

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Joelle Faulkler, who will become our new city clerk. She

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has joined us as of yesterday. Joel brings more than

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20 years of experience. And the last 12 years in

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the city of Concord as their city clerk. She is

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actively involved in the city clerks association in California. She

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serves as a coach and coordinator for the contracosta county

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leadership program. And we are thrilled to have her. There

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will be a few weeks of transition with her and

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Sherry. As we bid a fond farewell to Sherry at

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our next meeting on September 15th, we will host a

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public reception for her. Well, at the meeting, we'll celebrate

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her service. And then after the meeting at around 8.

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30, we'll have a public reception for sherry service. Uh,

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we are so thrilled to have Joel. So it's just

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an experienced city clerk with us as the next city

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clerk of the city of Arinda. Thank you. So, Joel,

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do you want to say anything.

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For hiring me? And I look forward to working with

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you at the council and the citizens and the staff

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of Arinda. So thank you. Thank you. My gosp. If

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anyone has any questions or comments, uh, from the council.

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Just welcome. And just welcome. We're very happy to have

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you join us. I have already heard from a couple

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conquered city council members that they're very upset to see

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you leave and that we really lucked out. Um, and,

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and that is not to say that we won't share

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a way so much. So, so welcome. I would agree.

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Welcome. And you have some very big high heels to

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fill. We welcome you. With that, we'll move on to

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item E2, which is a proclamation recognizing September as ovarian

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cancer awareness month. And this is one that we've had,

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uh, actually several requests, uh, to do a proclamation and

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to, uh, have a few people come and talk about.

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It's a very important issue. Um, and I'm really glad

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we're doing it. I'll begin with our proclamation and then

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invite anyone who'd like to speak. Whereas a very in

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cancer is a serious disease that affects thousands of women

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and their families each year and early detection and timely

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treatment can improve outcomes. And whereas ovarian cancer can be

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difficult to detect in its early stages because it symptoms

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can be subtle and easily mistaken for other conditions. And

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whereas increasing public awareness of the signs and symptoms of

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ovarian cancer. Understanding the risk factors and encouraging individuals to

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discuss concerns with their healthcare providers are important steps in

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the fight against the disease. And whereas a variant cancer

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awareness month provides an opportunity to honors those whose lives

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have been affected by a variant cancer. Remember those we

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have lost and recognize the courage of survivors and those

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currently facing the disease. And whereas communities play an important

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role in supporting patients and their families, promoting education and

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awareness and to educate and encouraging continued research toward improved

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prevention, early detection treatment and ultimately a cure for a

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variant cancer. And whereas the city of a render recognizes

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the importance of bringing greater attention to a variant cancer

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and encourages residents to learn about the disease, recognize potential

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symptoms and support efforts to raise awareness and advance research.

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Whereas I, Brandon Mayor of Arenda, do you hearby proclaim

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September 2026 as a variant cancer awareness month in the

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city of Arinda and encourage all residents to join and

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raising awareness, supporting those affected honoring survivors, remembering loved ones

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lost and advancing the goal of a future free of

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a variant cancer. Um, and with that, I'll see if

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anybody would like to speak, um, from the public. And

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then we'll see if any council members have comments. Please

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confirm.

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A spirit. Um, master operation

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honoring recognizing September is a very cancer awareness month. Um,

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thank you so much for recognizing it. Um, and for

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giving me the opportunity to be here tonight, it truly

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means a lot to me personally. Um, I'm in ovarian

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cancer survivor and advocate. And I've learned firsthand how important

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awareness is. Ovarian cancer is often called the disease that

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whispers or silent killer. Because its symptoms can be vague

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and easily overlooked too many women are diagnosed at an

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advanced stage, um, as I was at stage four, when

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the disease is much more difficult to treat. My hope

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is at bringing more tension to ovarian cancer. It's symptoms

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risk factors and the importance of listening to your body.

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We can help women recognize the signs earlier and ultimately

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save lives. Thank you for using the voice of this

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community to shine a light on this important issue. I'm

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deeply grateful for this proclamation and for your support of

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ovarian cancer awareness. Actually, Ms. McLaughlin, I'd love to, Ms.

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McLaughlin, if you can come back, I wanted to go

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ahead and give you the proclamation.

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Thank you, official wildly. Thank you for us.

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Uh, and I would just ask if anybody else from

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the public or the council had anything to say on

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the, uh, on that item. Thank you, Mayor, for the

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proclamation. And thank you, um, Elizabeth for sharing your story.

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Just say as an all female city council, one of

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the few, I think it's particularly important that we note

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this, um, horrible disease that we've all known people who

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have died from. And as Ms. McLaughlin said, it's a,

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it's a whisper and it's hard to detect. And so

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bringing that awareness is especially important. So thank you. Couldn't

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agree more. I think everybody, uh, everybody here knows or

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has known someone who has dealt with that particular disease.

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So it's, uh, it's near to our hearts and thank

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you. Um, and if the, uh, we will move to

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item E3, uh, which is a proclamation recognizing September as

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Hispanic heritage month. Uh, I will, uh, go ahead and

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read the proclamation first. Okay. Um, whereas Hispanic heritage month

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is celebrated annually from September 15th through October 15th to

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recognize an honor the rich histories, cultures, traditions and contributions

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of Hispanic and Latino Americans. And whereas the observance begins

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on September 15th commemorating the independence anniversaries of Costa Rica,

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El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, followed by the independent

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celebrations of Mexico and Chile. And whereas Hispanic and Latino

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communities have made significant contributions to the cultural civic, economic

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educational and social life of the United States. And have

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helped shape the diverse character of our nation. And whereas

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the city of Arinda values the many cultures, traditions, experience,

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and perspectives that enrich our community and recognizes the diversity

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strengthens our city and promotes greater understanding among our residents.

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And whereas the history of Arinda is deeply connected to

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California's Mexican heritage. As the area now known as Arinda,

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was once located within four Mexican land grants. And in

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the 1920s, EI devaga, Lavega. Thank you. I knew the

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council, none of that, developed a renta village and gave

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it streets Spanish names, many of which remained part of

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a Rindy's landscape and community today. And whereas Hispanic heritage

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month provides an opportunity for all residents to celebrate the

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accomplishments and contributions of Hispanic and Latino - Americans learn

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about their history and traditions and recognize the important role

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they continue to play in our community and throughout the

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nation. Now therefore I, Brandon Iverson mayor of City of

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Rinda. Do hereby proclaim September 15th through October 15th. As

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Hispanic Heritage Month in the city of Arinda and encourage

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all residents to join and celebrating the rich heritage, history,

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culture, and many contributions of Hispanic and Latino - Americans.

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And I don't think we have anyone to receive it

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tonight. But would ask if anybody has anything to add.

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I did like the one I have to compliment our

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city clerk for finding the Arinda history, uh, blurb on

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that. I thought that was a little extra fun. Um,

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with that, we will move on to item E4. The

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county connection presentation by Bill Churchill, the general manager of

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county connection.

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I think it's working. Well, good evening. And thank you

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for the invitation. I really do appreciate the opportunity to

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share a little bit about county connection. And, um, really

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how we're connected and how we serve the city. Um,

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again, as you said, my name is Bill Churchill. I'm

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the general manager of county connection. Believe it or not,

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I have been working for the authority now for 30

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years. So I've been around for quite some time in

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a variety of positions. And I brought with me a

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couple of staff members I'd like to recognize, uh, Ruby

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Horta is my assistant general manager and Kyle, our manager

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of grants, who is also doing a lot of work

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in public affairs. And so anytime I'm meeting with legislators,

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I tend to drag him along as well now. So

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they're here to make sure that I answer correctly because,

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you know, they get a little nervous. I'm like, get

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off base. So with that, I'd like to go to

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the next slide, please. Oh, am I doing it?

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I thought it was a mic. So I just kind

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of wanted to break this up into three little parts.

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Um, one to talk maybe a little bit about the

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past, move into the, into the present and then kind

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of give a sense of where I think things are

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going both for county connection and the potential impacts to,

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um, city of Orinda as well. So, um, and it's

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not working, but oh well. The slide on the far

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right is supposed to be cycling through all the cities

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of the member jurisdictions. So it's not working, but that's

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all right. Um, I can describe it. It's important to

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let you know that county connection is a joint powers

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authority made up of 10 cities and the unincorporated, uh,

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components of contracost county all within central contracosta county. For

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those of you that may not know and forgive me

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if you do were bounded by the city of Martinez

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to the north, uh, the city of San Ramon to

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the south, of course the west is represented by a

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rinda and Maraga and the east conquered in Clayton. So

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that represents about 200 square miles and a lot of

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service as you can imagine. And there's a metaphor here

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that isn't really presenting itself well. I apologize. But really

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we're all a bunch of different puzzle pieces that all

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fit together. And doing these types of things is an

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opportunity to really share our common vision and goals and

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amplify each other's work. Because at the end of the

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day, we are a component of you and we're here

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to serve you. And I think that's the most important

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part of the message for me with this particular slide.

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Public transit, you can't have a discussion about public transit

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without talking about writership. It just seems to be where

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we have to go. So of course I have to

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have a slide on that. But it really kind of

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want to start with not today. I want to move

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backwards a few years. So through the pandemic, as you

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can imagine, we lost a tremendous amount of ridership. I

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think through the years, we've recovered actually quite well. But

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what's interesting is our writership patterns are not the same

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as they used to be pre - pandemic. So today

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our weekend writership is about 81 percent of what pre

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- pandemic writership was. But as you look at the

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chart, you can see Saturday was 118 percent today. And

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Sunday is 129 percent. Not on this chart are youth

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writership is 128 percent of pre - pandemic. And I

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know that's very important to the city of Arinda. The

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one area that has not really recovered is our commuters.

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We are still hovering at about 45 percent of pre

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- pandemic numbers. It just is not coming back. So

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how does county connections stack up? I think sometimes it's

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important to think about, um, where do we sit within

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the scheme of things in the Bay Area? So as

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an example, BART is hovering at about 51 percent of

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pre - pandemic numbers. Our neighbors laughter and tri -

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delta are hovering around 61 percent AC transits doing a

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little bit better. They're at 76 percent and munies at

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78 percent. And each year represents growth. I think county

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connection is doing quite well. When you add up the

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weekend service, the weekday service plus our youth rides, we're

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00:27:45,799 --> 00:27:48,759
hovering at about 86 percent. So within the scheme of

239
00:27:48,799 --> 00:27:53,559
things, it's not bad. Certainly not where, um, I want

240
00:27:53,559 --> 00:27:59,119
us to be, but, um, it's not bad, I think.

241
00:28:02,723 --> 00:28:07,022
I like to show just every time I go to

242
00:28:07,043 --> 00:28:09,582
visit a city, at least show you the routes that

243
00:28:09,923 --> 00:28:13,102
affect you and where you're at. So on the left,

244
00:28:13,102 --> 00:28:16,942
you have the route six. That's our general, um, core

245
00:28:17,283 --> 00:28:20,782
weekday writership. And then of course on the right is

246
00:28:20,782 --> 00:28:25,982
an overlay of the school trippers and the school routes.

247
00:28:25,982 --> 00:28:29,742
So the one thing that's interesting about this, and it's

248
00:28:29,742 --> 00:28:34,382
very hard to completely dissect writership a hundred percent because

249
00:28:34,403 --> 00:28:39,662
our routes cross borders, you're seeing Lafayette and Maraga on

250
00:28:39,683 --> 00:28:44,622
this map as well. And so it's a blend. Certainly

251
00:28:44,883 --> 00:28:49,342
for the whole Lamarinda area. And we really work kind

252
00:28:49,342 --> 00:28:52,222
of in a unified way across the whole Lamar into

253
00:28:52,243 --> 00:28:58,962
area. So what are we doing? What are we moving

254
00:28:59,623 --> 00:29:04,722
in areinda? So the route six is moving 91, 000

255
00:29:04,903 --> 00:29:08,402
passengers a year in your city. And if you look

256
00:29:08,442 --> 00:29:12,482
at the row below that, this is what's really fascinating.

257
00:29:12,482 --> 00:29:16,802
Those are the school routes. The route 606, 625 and

258
00:29:16,802 --> 00:29:21,042
626 are all school routes. You add them up. It's

259
00:29:21,042 --> 00:29:25,202
almost an equal amount of school writer school children writers

260
00:29:25,863 --> 00:29:28,722
as we do on the regular route. There isn't another

261
00:29:28,823 --> 00:29:32,562
city in the county connection service area that is like

262
00:29:32,602 --> 00:29:36,642
this. This is very unique about the city of Rinda.

263
00:29:38,152 --> 00:29:41,411
And to sort of amplify that maybe a little bit.

264
00:29:41,411 --> 00:29:44,291
It's very near and dear to my heart as all

265
00:29:44,291 --> 00:29:47,971
three of my children used BART and county connection to

266
00:29:48,011 --> 00:29:51,811
go to Miramonty. And I really think that experience has

267
00:29:51,851 --> 00:29:55,811
made them lifelong writers as well. And they are all

268
00:29:55,811 --> 00:30:01,091
three adults at this point. So, um, really important to

269
00:30:01,112 --> 00:30:05,411
the city of Orinda, very important that county connection is

270
00:30:05,411 --> 00:30:09,571
really focused on that aspect and providing and focusing on

271
00:30:09,752 --> 00:30:17,505
school ridership for your city. So what does this mean?

272
00:30:17,505 --> 00:30:19,905
And, and this part is kind of interesting because I

273
00:30:19,905 --> 00:30:23,745
think as public transit operators, we don't focus on this,

274
00:30:23,745 --> 00:30:25,745
but we've been trying to think about it more and

275
00:30:25,745 --> 00:30:29,025
more because it really is important not to just focus

276
00:30:29,206 --> 00:30:32,385
on the writers, which is always in the back of

277
00:30:32,425 --> 00:30:35,905
our mind. But to the folks that are not necessarily

278
00:30:36,326 --> 00:30:40,305
on my board of directors or my staff or other

279
00:30:40,806 --> 00:30:44,465
colleagues with mine in the industry, um, what is important

280
00:30:44,646 --> 00:30:48,025
is, what does that mean to their daily lives? So

281
00:30:49,206 --> 00:30:53,345
our services and a Rinda are removing 700 cars a

282
00:30:53,385 --> 00:30:58,705
day from your roads, which really also represents 3. 25

283
00:30:59,046 --> 00:31:03,905
metric tons of CO2 avoided. So there is an impact.

284
00:31:03,905 --> 00:31:07,425
Now there's an interesting thing about this slide. I've been

285
00:31:07,446 --> 00:31:09,985
sharing this more and more in different venues that I

286
00:31:09,985 --> 00:31:13,105
go to. And believe it or not, in some of

287
00:31:13,105 --> 00:31:17,985
the communities I go to folks just really aren't impressed.

288
00:31:17,985 --> 00:31:21,185
So I want to put this in a real world

289
00:31:21,606 --> 00:31:25,505
position for you here in the city of Arinda. Unfortunately

290
00:31:26,326 --> 00:31:29,025
we have an actual test case that shows how important

291
00:31:29,366 --> 00:31:34,066
it really is. Unfortunately, I don't remember the year. I

292
00:31:34,066 --> 00:31:38,506
want to say it was 2017 or 16. Um, my

293
00:31:38,607 --> 00:31:42,266
board member Amy, worth might remember that more than I

294
00:31:42,306 --> 00:31:47,466
do. But one day the schools gave both the Lamarinda

295
00:31:47,487 --> 00:31:51,286
school bus program and county connection, the wrong calendar. And

296
00:31:51,286 --> 00:31:54,826
so we woke up thinking it was a nonschool day.

297
00:31:54,826 --> 00:31:58,586
So we didn't provide service. Neither did the Lamaran to

298
00:31:58,626 --> 00:32:03,066
school bus program. So what did that mean? What happened?

299
00:32:03,066 --> 00:32:08,266
Well, it resulted in a traffic jam that was unbelievable.

300
00:32:08,266 --> 00:32:12,186
It lasted fortify hours. You could not move through the

301
00:32:12,226 --> 00:32:16,826
city of Arinda. And the traffic was packed on Camino

302
00:32:16,866 --> 00:32:21,015
Pablo about five or six miles up the road. And

303
00:32:21,036 --> 00:32:24,695
I had Amy on the phone screaming at me. What

304
00:32:24,695 --> 00:32:28,295
in the world is going on? Um, it, it was

305
00:32:28,295 --> 00:32:31,495
not a good morning, but we and the Lamer into

306
00:32:31,516 --> 00:32:34,455
school bus program reacted quickly. And we were able to

307
00:32:34,476 --> 00:32:38,755
put the buses back into effect in the afternoon. And

308
00:32:38,755 --> 00:32:42,375
you didn't have that same traffic jam in the afternoon.

309
00:32:42,375 --> 00:32:46,855
The point is it doesn't take very many cars in

310
00:32:46,895 --> 00:32:49,895
a system or removed from a system from having an

311
00:32:50,076 --> 00:32:54,435
outsized impact. Another area where we often see it. And

312
00:32:54,435 --> 00:32:57,135
I use this as an example all the time. If

313
00:32:57,135 --> 00:33:00,135
you're traveling to Los Angeles in your car and you

314
00:33:00,135 --> 00:33:02,775
get behind that car that decides to pass a truck

315
00:33:03,516 --> 00:33:06,375
at 56 miles an hour while that truck is doing

316
00:33:06,796 --> 00:33:10,855
55. And it takes forever to get around that tribe.

317
00:33:10,855 --> 00:33:13,735
By the time you've gotten past that truck, you have

318
00:33:13,996 --> 00:33:17,535
a mile or two miles of traffic behind you. It

319
00:33:17,535 --> 00:33:20,375
only takes one or two cars and you're impacting the

320
00:33:20,375 --> 00:33:22,375
system as a whole. So I think it's really important

321
00:33:23,356 --> 00:33:28,535
that we understand that having public transit has a profound

322
00:33:28,636 --> 00:33:34,179
impact to the communities we serve. Okay. The other thing

323
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:37,459
I really think it's important to remind, and I'm sure

324
00:33:37,499 --> 00:33:41,219
you all know it, but I like to remind everybody,

325
00:33:41,219 --> 00:33:46,339
county connection is also the paratransit provider for central contrasty

326
00:33:46,339 --> 00:33:51,219
county. And that is providing the service to the individuals

327
00:33:51,259 --> 00:33:54,659
that are not capable of writing fixed route buses due

328
00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:59,779
to their disability, whatever that might be. In Arenda, we're

329
00:33:59,779 --> 00:34:05,699
moving about 8, 400 passengers a year. Um, 5, 800

330
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:09,699
are on our standard link paratransi service. But this is

331
00:34:09,739 --> 00:34:14,099
an interesting fact, 2, 500 of them are using what's

332
00:34:14,099 --> 00:34:17,539
called our one seat ride. Now not everybody probably is

333
00:34:17,720 --> 00:34:22,179
aware of that. In the world of public transit and

334
00:34:22,179 --> 00:34:26,739
you're providing paratransit service, somebody who's disabled and needs a

335
00:34:26,779 --> 00:34:31,379
trip to maybe a dialysis unit. We'll call county connection

336
00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:36,419
and book that trip. Sometimes though, your insurance requires you

337
00:34:36,459 --> 00:34:40,179
to go to a dialysis unit that's not in your

338
00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:44,659
public transit service provider area. That means we would take

339
00:34:44,699 --> 00:34:48,659
you to the border of that transit agency. Then you

340
00:34:48,659 --> 00:34:53,059
have to transfer to another bus to complete the trip.

341
00:34:53,059 --> 00:34:55,139
And then the same thing happens in reverse. It's not

342
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:59,859
great customer service. In fact, there are some individuals that

343
00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:02,819
have to take three part and even four part trips

344
00:35:03,240 --> 00:35:08,019
to complete their medical trips. So when COVID hit county

345
00:35:08,059 --> 00:35:14,179
connection worked together with three other transit partners, Wes cat,

346
00:35:14,179 --> 00:35:19,859
tried Delta and laughter to create one large global area.

347
00:35:19,859 --> 00:35:24,179
And in across all four of those transit agencies, wherever

348
00:35:24,179 --> 00:35:28,225
you begin and end, you're on one vehicle. That's what

349
00:35:28,265 --> 00:35:31,985
the one seat ride is for us. And 2, 500

350
00:35:32,646 --> 00:35:35,585
rides come out of the city of Orinda. When I

351
00:35:35,585 --> 00:35:38,785
look at where they're going, it's the city of Pinol.

352
00:35:38,785 --> 00:35:41,345
It's pleasant in. Believe it or not, people are coming

353
00:35:41,846 --> 00:35:46,625
from here to Antioch. Not sure why. Um, but it's

354
00:35:46,665 --> 00:35:49,665
important for you to understand that that is a component

355
00:35:49,686 --> 00:35:53,325
of the writers in your community. The other thing that

356
00:35:53,365 --> 00:35:57,005
I think is important to let you know, the paratransit

357
00:35:57,005 --> 00:36:00,685
side of our house also supports what I call social

358
00:36:01,106 --> 00:36:05,145
paratransit programs, one of which is the Lamarinda spirit. And

359
00:36:05,186 --> 00:36:07,925
we, we support them in a host of ways. We

360
00:36:07,925 --> 00:36:09,965
allow them to use our software. If they need to

361
00:36:10,005 --> 00:36:14,365
use it for scheduling, probably the most profound ways during

362
00:36:14,386 --> 00:36:18,605
COVID, they were incapable of finding drivers to complete their

363
00:36:18,626 --> 00:36:23,405
trips. So during the COVID year, we just ran their

364
00:36:23,405 --> 00:36:26,845
trips for them and just did it. And then when,

365
00:36:26,866 --> 00:36:29,645
when they recovered and we came out of COVID, they

366
00:36:29,645 --> 00:36:32,925
went right back into providing their own services. So again,

367
00:36:33,186 --> 00:36:38,285
I'm trying to demonstrate how we are a support to,

368
00:36:38,285 --> 00:36:43,426
Orinda and the different programs within your city. There are

369
00:36:43,466 --> 00:36:45,506
two other topics that I think are really important to

370
00:36:45,546 --> 00:36:48,386
touch. I wanted to give you a little bit about

371
00:36:48,647 --> 00:36:52,226
this youth ride free program that we've done. Again, youth

372
00:36:52,226 --> 00:36:53,986
seems to be a theme here in the city of

373
00:36:54,087 --> 00:36:57,586
Arinda. And then also give you a sense of where

374
00:36:57,607 --> 00:37:01,666
does county connection fit within emergency preparedness. And then where

375
00:37:01,706 --> 00:37:06,267
does that intersect with the city of a Rinda. I'll

376
00:37:06,307 --> 00:37:11,892
begin with the youth ride free pilot. So again, trying

377
00:37:11,913 --> 00:37:15,092
to find ways to get more of our youth into

378
00:37:15,193 --> 00:37:18,532
county connection has really been something that is very important

379
00:37:18,793 --> 00:37:22,372
to staff. And it's for a couple of reasons. One,

380
00:37:22,412 --> 00:37:25,712
there's just a benefit to society as a whole. But

381
00:37:25,712 --> 00:37:29,172
secondly, and I think about my own children who became

382
00:37:29,593 --> 00:37:33,092
lifelong transit users wherever they are. This is how you

383
00:37:33,833 --> 00:37:40,452
create and train that lifelong transit user. So in 2025,

384
00:37:40,452 --> 00:37:43,972
we created the youth ride free just for the summer

385
00:37:43,993 --> 00:37:48,532
months. And that's just June and July. And the idea

386
00:37:48,713 --> 00:37:52,292
was to remove barriers for the youth to ride public

387
00:37:52,313 --> 00:37:56,772
transit. So there isn't a pass. There isn't a fair.

388
00:37:56,772 --> 00:37:59,372
They don't have to say anything or prove anything. If

389
00:37:59,372 --> 00:38:01,972
you're 18 or under, you just get on and ride

390
00:38:01,993 --> 00:38:04,772
and it doesn't matter where you are within the county

391
00:38:04,772 --> 00:38:08,212
connection service area. The thing that was stunning about that

392
00:38:08,393 --> 00:38:15,012
program from 2024 to 2025, we saw a 1600 percent

393
00:38:15,113 --> 00:38:21,092
increase in youth writership. We were shocked. It, it far

394
00:38:21,132 --> 00:38:25,332
exceeded our expectations. So we did it again in 2025

395
00:38:25,913 --> 00:38:29,252
this last summer. And even this last summer, we saw

396
00:38:29,513 --> 00:38:33,332
a 15. 6 percent increase over last summer. So that's

397
00:38:33,353 --> 00:38:37,572
on top of that 1600 percent increase So this program

398
00:38:37,833 --> 00:38:43,252
has been wildly successful. Staff is currently working on how

399
00:38:43,252 --> 00:38:47,812
can we extend this program into the school year, even

400
00:38:47,833 --> 00:38:50,532
more importantly, is our way we can make this program

401
00:38:51,353 --> 00:38:55,092
permanent and year round. Toward that end, we're in talks

402
00:38:55,092 --> 00:38:57,732
with two CTA looking to see if there is an

403
00:38:57,772 --> 00:39:01,332
opportunity to maybe include it into the TEP and fund

404
00:39:01,353 --> 00:39:04,052
youth writership for the next 30 years. That would be

405
00:39:04,153 --> 00:39:06,692
a dream. I think it would have a profound impact

406
00:39:07,833 --> 00:39:10,692
not only on the service area across all the cities

407
00:39:10,793 --> 00:39:17,487
we serve, but certainly in the city of Orinda. I'd

408
00:39:17,487 --> 00:39:19,727
like to move on and talk a little bit more

409
00:39:19,908 --> 00:39:26,127
specifically about, um, emergency preparedness. Couple of things here that

410
00:39:26,308 --> 00:39:29,967
are important to be aware of number one county connection

411
00:39:30,628 --> 00:39:34,287
actually serves on the county's EOC. We actually have a

412
00:39:34,788 --> 00:39:38,687
seat in the county EOC. And so if there is

413
00:39:38,708 --> 00:39:42,127
a major emergency anywhere within the county or even beyond

414
00:39:42,628 --> 00:39:45,967
because we are called for mutual aid by MTC to

415
00:39:46,148 --> 00:39:49,327
help the Bay Area as a whole in the case

416
00:39:49,508 --> 00:39:54,687
there is an emergency. However, outside of that and more

417
00:39:54,687 --> 00:39:59,247
specifically county connection does provide more focus support for the

418
00:39:59,287 --> 00:40:04,332
members, um, in our JPA. We have done that with

419
00:40:04,833 --> 00:40:08,412
a Rinda quite extensively. Going back in time, one of

420
00:40:08,412 --> 00:40:11,372
the first ones that I can remember, you may recall,

421
00:40:11,372 --> 00:40:14,172
I think it was in the winter of 2017. There

422
00:40:14,172 --> 00:40:18,732
was a sinkhole by the bridge on minor road. County

423
00:40:18,732 --> 00:40:21,932
connection had to redesign and rework all of our routes

424
00:40:22,193 --> 00:40:26,092
that serve the youth up there, getting them to OIS,

425
00:40:26,132 --> 00:40:30,812
Miramani and back. It was profoundly important for us that

426
00:40:30,913 --> 00:40:33,532
we were part of the solution, not part of the

427
00:40:33,553 --> 00:40:37,372
problem. And so my staff worked with your staff for

428
00:40:37,473 --> 00:40:40,092
quite a long time and making sure that that program

429
00:40:40,433 --> 00:40:44,157
was a success. A little bit later, um, coming up

430
00:40:44,197 --> 00:40:48,317
on last year, county connection staff also worked with a

431
00:40:48,338 --> 00:40:53,357
Rinda staff in developing an evacuation plan and routes for

432
00:40:53,858 --> 00:40:57,877
sleepy hollow elementary. It's up in a remote area, as

433
00:40:57,877 --> 00:41:01,997
you well know. It's difficult to get to. And it

434
00:41:01,997 --> 00:41:04,477
was really important to the city of a renda to

435
00:41:04,477 --> 00:41:07,497
make sure that there was a plan in place. And

436
00:41:07,497 --> 00:41:11,517
so we actually brought 40 foot buses and drove them

437
00:41:11,618 --> 00:41:14,157
all over up in the hills, making sure that we've

438
00:41:14,338 --> 00:41:18,717
plotted out all the best routes, have them documented just

439
00:41:18,757 --> 00:41:22,397
in case something like that is actually needed. So we

440
00:41:22,437 --> 00:41:24,157
do put a lot of thought and a lot of

441
00:41:24,197 --> 00:41:32,320
effort into that. There's nothing like actually performing though, um,

442
00:41:33,161 --> 00:41:36,260
a mitigation to some emergency for being prepared for the

443
00:41:36,281 --> 00:41:40,180
bigger one. And so I like to bring this example

444
00:41:40,281 --> 00:41:45,940
out. County connection actually performs on average about 12 bus

445
00:41:45,961 --> 00:41:49,460
bridges for part a year. Now sometimes they are planned

446
00:41:50,041 --> 00:41:55,300
for maintenance and improvements, but more often than not, they're

447
00:41:55,300 --> 00:41:58,180
an emergency. The system is going down. A tree falls

448
00:41:58,180 --> 00:42:01,780
on it. Electricity goes out. You name it. There's a

449
00:42:01,881 --> 00:42:05,540
derailment. There are dozens of reasons of why this happens.

450
00:42:05,540 --> 00:42:10,260
And then county connection has to immediately deploy plan, figure

451
00:42:10,260 --> 00:42:13,380
out the routes and figure out which stations we're connecting

452
00:42:13,561 --> 00:42:20,596
to, to move those part passengers. This is been really,

453
00:42:20,596 --> 00:42:23,556
in a way, a phenomenal experience. It keeps us prepared

454
00:42:24,297 --> 00:42:27,596
in the event that there is actually an emergency. We

455
00:42:27,657 --> 00:42:33,796
now have all through every single year multiple times figuring

456
00:42:33,817 --> 00:42:36,356
out how to peel buses off of existing routes to

457
00:42:36,457 --> 00:42:40,596
deploy them very quickly. And we can do pretty large,

458
00:42:40,596 --> 00:42:44,196
um, disasters. Here's an example that I go back to

459
00:42:44,537 --> 00:42:48,256
in 2014. I think it was December 30th. There was

460
00:42:48,256 --> 00:42:51,876
a Bart derailment at Concord Bart on Friday afternoon at

461
00:42:52,137 --> 00:42:56,396
505. Nothing could be worse in terms of time of

462
00:42:56,396 --> 00:43:02,716
day, which day and where within a few minutes, there

463
00:43:02,716 --> 00:43:07,276
were about 8, 000 people milling around Pleasant Hill Bart.

464
00:43:07,276 --> 00:43:10,396
We immediately deployed a Bart bus bridge. We had to

465
00:43:10,396 --> 00:43:13,196
get them on down the line to conquered North Concord

466
00:43:14,337 --> 00:43:19,265
and Pittsburgh Baypoint. And we peeled off buses off of

467
00:43:19,286 --> 00:43:22,705
existing routes that were adjacent to that area. And we

468
00:43:22,705 --> 00:43:25,585
were able to respond in less than 15 minutes and

469
00:43:25,625 --> 00:43:30,225
get passengers moving. Of course, more trains kept coming in,

470
00:43:30,225 --> 00:43:34,425
discouraging more passengers. It very quickly overwhelmed our system. I

471
00:43:34,425 --> 00:43:38,625
think I devoted 29 buses to that bus bridge at

472
00:43:38,625 --> 00:43:41,905
the end of the day. I called in AC transit,

473
00:43:41,905 --> 00:43:45,085
tried it. And we even use our paratransi buses. And

474
00:43:45,126 --> 00:43:49,505
we ran all night long moving passengers to mitigate that

475
00:43:50,006 --> 00:43:52,705
emergency. So we really do have a lot of experience.

476
00:43:54,289 --> 00:43:57,148
And we really feel in our hearts that is a

477
00:43:57,148 --> 00:44:01,868
very important role that we must play in supporting our

478
00:44:02,369 --> 00:44:12,308
members. Okay. Moving on to something entirely different. Um. We

479
00:44:12,409 --> 00:44:15,668
really believe that we are here as a support to

480
00:44:15,708 --> 00:44:19,748
our member jurisdictions. And this is more of a reminder

481
00:44:20,169 --> 00:44:24,148
as you are working on different street projects, potential new

482
00:44:24,329 --> 00:44:29,428
developments moving forward. Um, whatever it might be, we're here

483
00:44:29,428 --> 00:44:33,188
to be supportive and helpful. We can respond in very

484
00:44:33,188 --> 00:44:36,628
creative ways to ensure that we're not getting in your

485
00:44:36,668 --> 00:44:40,148
way and want you to know that we're a partner

486
00:44:40,249 --> 00:44:43,068
in the projects that you have and we want to

487
00:44:43,068 --> 00:44:47,028
help you meet your goals. To that end, the sooner

488
00:44:47,049 --> 00:44:49,828
you let us know about what you have, the better

489
00:44:49,849 --> 00:44:52,068
we're able to help you out and then make sure

490
00:44:52,068 --> 00:44:55,268
that we don't get in your way. Our 40 foot

491
00:44:55,268 --> 00:44:58,068
buses do take up a lot of room and they

492
00:44:58,068 --> 00:45:00,308
can get in the way. And we have with other

493
00:45:00,649 --> 00:45:04,548
member jurisdictions. We haven't interinda. We have a great relationship

494
00:45:05,129 --> 00:45:07,919
and I want to thank you for that. I put

495
00:45:07,940 --> 00:45:11,119
one more bullet up there only because it seems like

496
00:45:11,460 --> 00:45:15,119
every jurisdiction I go to and address this question comes

497
00:45:15,159 --> 00:45:20,282
up. So I'm just being preemptive. Um, as you know,

498
00:45:20,623 --> 00:45:24,362
the state now has a lot of news zoning rules.

499
00:45:24,362 --> 00:45:29,722
And if you have 15 minute service or better, then

500
00:45:29,722 --> 00:45:33,882
generates a whole host of new, um, issues that the

501
00:45:33,882 --> 00:45:36,602
city has to deal with. We don't have that service

502
00:45:36,642 --> 00:45:39,642
here. You don't have to worry about it. I just

503
00:45:39,642 --> 00:45:42,522
figured I'd, I, I'd answer the question before you ever

504
00:45:42,562 --> 00:45:49,354
even asked it. And then finally, and perhaps most importantly,

505
00:45:49,354 --> 00:45:51,434
I did want to spend a few minutes talking about

506
00:45:51,455 --> 00:45:55,274
the Connect Bay area Act. As I am sure you

507
00:45:55,455 --> 00:45:59,194
all are aware, many of the regional transit operators in

508
00:45:59,194 --> 00:46:02,714
the Bay Area are facing a rather profound fiscal cliff.

509
00:46:04,533 --> 00:46:10,072
County connection is also, um, facing some fiscal struggles. We

510
00:46:10,072 --> 00:46:19,552
have a six million dollar deficit 367 million dollar deficit.

511
00:46:24,213 --> 00:46:28,432
But our six million dollar deficit does result in our

512
00:46:28,613 --> 00:46:33,792
having to take, um, steps to mitigate. So in April

513
00:46:34,373 --> 00:46:39,152
of this year, our board did adopt an alternative service

514
00:46:39,152 --> 00:46:42,432
plan that will reduce our service provided to all the

515
00:46:42,472 --> 00:46:47,472
communities we serve by 22 percent. So it is important

516
00:46:47,813 --> 00:46:54,752
to know and understand that without another influx of revenue,

517
00:46:54,752 --> 00:46:58,152
uh, the, the transit agencies within the Bay Area, we

518
00:46:58,152 --> 00:47:02,592
will be reducing our service. Each one of the providers

519
00:47:02,693 --> 00:47:06,992
that I just talked about, BART, Muni Caltrain, AC transit,

520
00:47:06,992 --> 00:47:10,112
they all have alternative service plans that will result in

521
00:47:10,293 --> 00:47:16,352
significant service reductions. Um, if this particular measure were to

522
00:47:16,392 --> 00:47:20,992
pass, it would represent the greatest influx of revenue county

523
00:47:20,992 --> 00:47:24,192
connection is seen in over 30 years. And certainly would

524
00:47:24,213 --> 00:47:27,952
prevent the planned service reductions that we have in place

525
00:47:28,053 --> 00:47:33,917
today. I know that was quick. It was really difficult

526
00:47:34,018 --> 00:47:38,157
to figure what to talk about and what had to

527
00:47:38,157 --> 00:47:41,277
go to the editing floor. But I do think you

528
00:47:41,317 --> 00:47:43,437
for the opportunity to give you a little bit of

529
00:47:43,458 --> 00:47:46,797
a snapshot of what's going on in our house and

530
00:47:46,818 --> 00:47:49,277
how we impact you. And I am happy to answer

531
00:47:49,458 --> 00:47:54,296
any questions you might have for me. Thank you. Um,

532
00:47:54,477 --> 00:47:56,696
I think we'll start with council questions. We might see

533
00:47:56,736 --> 00:47:58,536
if the, I don't have any speaker cards who might,

534
00:47:58,536 --> 00:48:00,536
um, then see if the public wants to speak and

535
00:48:00,536 --> 00:48:02,916
then bring it back for any final comments questions. Um,

536
00:48:03,197 --> 00:48:11,249
would anyone like to start. Thank you so much for

537
00:48:11,289 --> 00:48:15,089
that presentation. Um, I think with the regional transit measure

538
00:48:15,990 --> 00:48:22,509
approaching its real interest to our residents. And, you know,

539
00:48:22,509 --> 00:48:28,449
the critical infrastructure that transportation provides and understanding how county

540
00:48:28,449 --> 00:48:31,729
connection fits into that, um, with BART and areinda is

541
00:48:31,729 --> 00:48:34,529
really helpful. Um, I had a couple of questions about

542
00:48:34,710 --> 00:48:38,369
one of the slides that you showed us about route

543
00:48:38,390 --> 00:48:44,689
six showed us the 91, 000, uh, something, uh, plus.

544
00:48:46,635 --> 00:48:49,414
Individuals. Yes. So is that I just want to make

545
00:48:49,414 --> 00:48:53,856
sure I understood it. Is the 91, 000, does that

546
00:48:54,757 --> 00:48:58,336
in addition to the number of trips in addition to

547
00:48:58,517 --> 00:49:03,296
all the students or are the students so that is

548
00:49:03,336 --> 00:49:06,976
just for the route six, which is the primary fixed

549
00:49:06,976 --> 00:49:10,896
route service that goes through your community. Then look at

550
00:49:10,896 --> 00:49:13,616
the line. So it's each route. And then I gave

551
00:49:13,656 --> 00:49:17,216
the writership. So for example, you can see how important

552
00:49:17,717 --> 00:49:21,616
OIS in Miramani is and the, and the massive volume

553
00:49:21,797 --> 00:49:24,576
of kids that we take to those two schools. Okay.

554
00:49:25,077 --> 00:49:28,016
That makes sense. And then in that case, that's what

555
00:49:28,016 --> 00:49:29,376
I thought you were saying, but I just wanted to

556
00:49:29,416 --> 00:49:31,456
clarify in that case, can you tell us a little

557
00:49:31,456 --> 00:49:35,216
bit about you've told us about, you know, um, of

558
00:49:35,216 --> 00:49:40,607
course, the pair of transit. Um, which is separate, but

559
00:49:40,607 --> 00:49:43,507
who, who are the writers on route six in a

560
00:49:43,507 --> 00:49:46,467
Rinda or, or on route six? So the routes? The

561
00:49:46,467 --> 00:49:49,667
demographics. I just think it's, it's helpful to me when

562
00:49:49,667 --> 00:49:51,827
people say, what is counting connection due to be able

563
00:49:51,827 --> 00:49:55,027
to talk about who rides it as well? So the

564
00:49:55,288 --> 00:49:59,587
route six is a mix. And it's neat when you

565
00:49:59,587 --> 00:50:02,707
look at it because you can almost segment it out.

566
00:50:04,223 --> 00:50:09,562
And see different demographics. For example, you can see down

567
00:50:09,823 --> 00:50:12,202
in Maraga, there's that little spur that goes out to

568
00:50:12,383 --> 00:50:16,122
St. Mary's. So there is a fairly hefty number of

569
00:50:16,463 --> 00:50:19,962
college students that are coming into Lafayette Bart getting onto

570
00:50:20,002 --> 00:50:22,922
the six and then using it to go to college.

571
00:50:23,023 --> 00:50:25,882
There are still quite a few students actually on the

572
00:50:26,143 --> 00:50:29,482
route six. Um, in addition to what you saw on

573
00:50:29,583 --> 00:50:34,682
those, um, school routes, because there isn't the same dedicated

574
00:50:34,783 --> 00:50:41,322
school route to, um, Kempalindo. So the route six goes

575
00:50:41,343 --> 00:50:44,922
right adjacent to that high school. And so it tends

576
00:50:44,962 --> 00:50:48,682
to attract quite a few students on that as well.

577
00:50:48,682 --> 00:50:53,242
We do get a fairly significant commute group that's going

578
00:50:53,423 --> 00:50:58,682
from eroga towards a rindebart. So that's a different mix.

579
00:50:58,682 --> 00:51:03,562
All these people, um, they don't sometimes necessarily intersect because

580
00:51:03,663 --> 00:51:06,442
a bus can leave lafayette art. Go to st mary's

581
00:51:06,623 --> 00:51:09,242
drop off all the students. Plus, you know, they've dropped

582
00:51:09,263 --> 00:51:11,802
them off to Campbellindo by then. They've gotten to St.

583
00:51:11,842 --> 00:51:15,242
Mary's. Then they come around that horn, if you will,

584
00:51:15,242 --> 00:51:17,802
at that corner in Maraga. And they're, the bus is

585
00:51:17,802 --> 00:51:20,742
nearly empty. And then you start picking up commuters. And

586
00:51:20,783 --> 00:51:23,002
those commuters are on their way up to a Rinde

587
00:51:23,023 --> 00:51:26,387
bar. When the bus returns from a Rindabart, and this

588
00:51:26,408 --> 00:51:30,547
is interesting, you will see individuals that have come in

589
00:51:30,587 --> 00:51:35,827
from conquered. And they are, um, service workers that are

590
00:51:35,827 --> 00:51:39,987
going out to homes to clean homes. And so it

591
00:51:40,168 --> 00:51:44,707
really is an interesting mix of individuals that are on

592
00:51:44,707 --> 00:51:48,707
it. I'm not sure that there's, um, any one specific

593
00:51:49,048 --> 00:51:58,896
overwhelming demographic. Maybe my staff would know. On there. We

594
00:51:58,917 --> 00:52:08,776
want to make a state. We can let it's a

595
00:52:08,776 --> 00:52:12,464
real interesting mix. I don't know if that helps. Yeah.

596
00:52:12,504 --> 00:52:15,504
No, I think that it is very interesting and helpful

597
00:52:15,504 --> 00:52:20,439
to know. Thank you. Uh, thank you very much. I

598
00:52:20,500 --> 00:52:23,279
really enjoyed that. It's really is important to know how

599
00:52:23,300 --> 00:52:26,779
well you're connecting with, um, Bart and other things. Um,

600
00:52:27,860 --> 00:52:32,799
I know anecdotally family uses, uh, county connection from Moraga

601
00:52:32,839 --> 00:52:37,199
to Rinde Bart. And they talk about how timely everything

602
00:52:37,380 --> 00:52:41,679
is and how reliable it is, um, and I was

603
00:52:41,679 --> 00:52:43,679
just wondering if that's just their experience or do you

604
00:52:43,679 --> 00:52:47,839
have, um, information about their data, supporting that as well,

605
00:52:47,839 --> 00:52:51,039
that timeliness is really a critical mark for you as

606
00:52:51,039 --> 00:52:55,839
well. So, you know, again, thinking about what to present

607
00:52:55,860 --> 00:52:59,919
to the, I get to ask you guys questions. Such

608
00:52:59,919 --> 00:53:02,119
a depth and breadth of things I could bring. I

609
00:53:02,119 --> 00:53:03,919
could go on for days and then you'd really hate

610
00:53:03,959 --> 00:53:08,639
me and want me out. So, um, timeliness is profoundly

611
00:53:08,679 --> 00:53:14,319
important, especially not leaving a stop early. We call that

612
00:53:14,359 --> 00:53:17,199
one of the seven deadly sins. Because if you leave

613
00:53:17,380 --> 00:53:19,919
a stop early and then somebody walks up to it

614
00:53:19,919 --> 00:53:22,479
and they're looking at their schedule and they're thinking the

615
00:53:22,519 --> 00:53:25,599
bus is going to come and it never does that,

616
00:53:25,620 --> 00:53:31,599
that actually completely, even on a psychological level, undermines your

617
00:53:31,639 --> 00:53:35,119
ability to rely on the service. So on time performance

618
00:53:35,140 --> 00:53:39,359
is profoundly important. We invest a lot of money in

619
00:53:39,359 --> 00:53:43,439
the past in the technology on the buses. So every,

620
00:53:43,439 --> 00:53:48,079
in fact, county connection was the second, um, public transit

621
00:53:48,119 --> 00:53:56,039
agency in the United States to be mid 90s. So

622
00:53:57,140 --> 00:54:01,599
doing that allows the dispatchers to know where any given

623
00:54:01,700 --> 00:54:05,839
bus is at any given time. And, and then they

624
00:54:06,020 --> 00:54:09,119
can see, uh - oh, that bus is running down.

625
00:54:09,119 --> 00:54:11,199
They're a little behind schedule. They can communicate with them

626
00:54:11,220 --> 00:54:15,999
directly and get them back on. So it is profoundly

627
00:54:16,020 --> 00:54:18,959
important thing for us. The other thing, and you mentioned

628
00:54:18,999 --> 00:54:22,879
this, and I didn't mention this earlier, our connection to

629
00:54:22,919 --> 00:54:26,959
the regional system is also rather significant. I think we

630
00:54:26,980 --> 00:54:31,039
have one route, one particular trip in one route that

631
00:54:31,140 --> 00:54:38,239
does not touch bark. and are connected to the BART

632
00:54:38,239 --> 00:54:42,639
stations. So that is providing, you know, our communities at

633
00:54:42,639 --> 00:54:45,039
flexibility to get to the regional system and get out

634
00:54:45,460 --> 00:54:47,439
of our city and go somewhere else in the Bay

635
00:54:47,439 --> 00:54:52,516
Area if they need to. Can I just make a

636
00:54:52,556 --> 00:54:54,356
comment on the timeliness? For those of you that don't

637
00:54:54,377 --> 00:54:58,836
live with transit nerds, uh, your Apple phone, everybody's Apple

638
00:54:58,876 --> 00:55:01,936
phone, when you're going somewhere, you use the, you know,

639
00:55:01,936 --> 00:55:06,196
the car, walk, transit. It will tell you how to

640
00:55:06,236 --> 00:55:09,396
get, you know, what bus to take to the BART

641
00:55:09,396 --> 00:55:11,556
or whatever other train you're taking. It will tell you

642
00:55:11,577 --> 00:55:15,476
exactly where the bus stop is, what minute it's arriving,

643
00:55:15,476 --> 00:55:18,436
even if it's off schedule, what side of the street

644
00:55:18,436 --> 00:55:20,356
it's on. You can go to a strange city and

645
00:55:20,356 --> 00:55:23,636
get around by bus. So when buses run on time

646
00:55:24,537 --> 00:55:27,716
and your phone tells you exactly when to take it,

647
00:55:27,716 --> 00:55:31,636
it takes so many of those obstacles to ridership out.

648
00:55:31,636 --> 00:55:34,116
And so I just want to compliment, y'all, it's great

649
00:55:34,156 --> 00:55:37,502
fun. If you haven't tried it. Other questions, I'm sorry

650
00:55:37,502 --> 00:55:39,422
to jump in with that, but it's exciting when you

651
00:55:39,422 --> 00:55:45,203
do it. I was just going to ask about the,

652
00:55:45,203 --> 00:55:50,163
um, buses themselves. I know sometimes they get very crowded,

653
00:55:50,163 --> 00:55:54,003
um, particularly the youth roots, the OIS and Marymani roots,

654
00:55:54,003 --> 00:55:57,363
um, I assume you're limited only by the number of

655
00:55:57,384 --> 00:56:00,323
people you can fit in or do writers have to

656
00:56:00,363 --> 00:56:04,163
actually sit in seats like on the school bus? No.

657
00:56:04,163 --> 00:56:08,963
In a school bus and this is under federal law.

658
00:56:08,963 --> 00:56:12,963
They cannot stand. They must sit in public transit standing

659
00:56:13,144 --> 00:56:19,603
is allowed. And so yes, to Miramani and OIS, it's

660
00:56:19,624 --> 00:56:24,323
not uncommon to see 57, even 60 passengers on, on

661
00:56:24,323 --> 00:56:27,043
a single bus. So we do, we really do PAC

662
00:56:27,083 --> 00:56:30,403
them in. In certain areas, there are areas in Concord

663
00:56:31,144 --> 00:56:34,243
conquered probably generates the most ridership in the entire service

664
00:56:34,243 --> 00:56:40,606
area. They are just absolutely jam - packed. And is

665
00:56:40,646 --> 00:56:43,966
there any move towards electric buses? I know it's a

666
00:56:43,966 --> 00:56:48,046
bit of an issue with goals. So county connection is

667
00:56:48,046 --> 00:56:51,406
an early adopter. We are one of the first transit

668
00:56:51,427 --> 00:56:58,206
agencies. We have eight electric buses. They are inductively charged.

669
00:56:58,206 --> 00:57:02,126
That means they don't get plugged in. You drive the

670
00:57:02,147 --> 00:57:05,166
bus over a plate and kind of like your toothbrush

671
00:57:05,427 --> 00:57:08,766
and the cradle. It charges the bus. It is the

672
00:57:09,187 --> 00:57:12,766
first fleet of inductively charged transit buses in the United

673
00:57:12,947 --> 00:57:17,051
States. And we deployed them here. So. I would say

674
00:57:17,232 --> 00:57:19,851
it was a successful project, but we have gone through

675
00:57:20,112 --> 00:57:22,811
a lot of pain in learning how to work with

676
00:57:23,072 --> 00:57:26,891
zero emission technology. And while I think it is a

677
00:57:26,912 --> 00:57:31,411
perfect application in a small vehicle, in a car, it

678
00:57:31,411 --> 00:57:34,971
has not yet been perfected in a heavy duty vehicle.

679
00:57:34,971 --> 00:57:38,731
And they are still working on it. Um, we do

680
00:57:38,912 --> 00:57:41,851
still believe that that will be the long - term

681
00:57:41,872 --> 00:57:46,731
future. But the bus manufacturers just aren't there. To give

682
00:57:46,731 --> 00:57:50,891
you an idea, I get about 400 miles to the

683
00:57:50,992 --> 00:57:55,051
range of, of a standard diesel bus. And an electric

684
00:57:55,091 --> 00:58:00,251
bus, you might get 150 160 miles. When we put

685
00:58:00,352 --> 00:58:02,971
a bus out on the road, it will go out

686
00:58:03,232 --> 00:58:05,291
at five in the morning. It may not come back

687
00:58:05,552 --> 00:58:09,931
until 1130 at night. And so we can often travel

688
00:58:10,912 --> 00:58:14,971
well over 200 miles. And so over 50 percent of

689
00:58:15,152 --> 00:58:18,571
the trips that we have out in the field cannot

690
00:58:18,571 --> 00:58:22,171
be done with current electric bus technology. So it's a

691
00:58:22,171 --> 00:58:25,691
challenge for us in figuring that out, not just for

692
00:58:25,712 --> 00:58:28,251
us, the industry as a whole. And we have a

693
00:58:28,432 --> 00:58:31,771
mandate by the state of California called the ICT regulation

694
00:58:32,512 --> 00:58:35,451
to start converting all of our vehicles to zero emission

695
00:58:35,491 --> 00:58:38,731
vehicles. But the technology is not a hundred percent there

696
00:58:40,272 --> 00:58:43,851
because we're early adopters. We have an exemption and we

697
00:58:43,851 --> 00:58:47,171
do not have to start purchasing more. At least right

698
00:58:47,171 --> 00:58:56,187
now until 2029. Thank you. Oh, so I talk a

699
00:58:56,187 --> 00:59:03,198
lot about diesel. We actually don't burn diesel. So, um,

700
00:59:03,399 --> 00:59:07,138
it's, it's called, um, renewable diesel, but it's really a

701
00:59:07,178 --> 00:59:12,478
misnomer. It is a nonpetroleum non - carbon fuel. And

702
00:59:12,519 --> 00:59:16,418
it's made up of vegetable and animal renderings. Uh, the

703
00:59:16,458 --> 00:59:19,378
thing about that, that's really important is it's a mission

704
00:59:19,479 --> 00:59:23,778
profile is much lower than even the cleanest diesel out

705
00:59:23,778 --> 00:59:27,938
there. The other thing I didn't mention, county connection has

706
00:59:27,959 --> 00:59:33,298
the largest supply of this diesel fuel in contracosta county

707
00:59:33,399 --> 00:59:37,378
outside of a refinery. We do that because again, we're

708
00:59:37,378 --> 00:59:40,818
part of that emergency preparedness. And so if there is

709
00:59:40,839 --> 00:59:45,218
a massive or a major, um, disaster, and we start

710
00:59:45,258 --> 00:59:48,898
running out of diesel for our fire engines, or it

711
00:59:48,898 --> 00:59:52,338
might be other large equipment like bulldozers, county connection is

712
00:59:52,378 --> 00:59:56,978
the designated fuel source for all the fire departments within

713
00:59:57,079 --> 01:00:00,896
contracosta to go to to get that fuel. Now I'm

714
01:00:00,936 --> 01:00:05,516
really piecemealing things together. Um, I have one question, you

715
01:00:05,516 --> 01:00:07,776
know, when you look at the map that you serve

716
01:00:07,776 --> 01:00:10,416
in a renda, our biggest problem is that a topographical

717
01:00:10,597 --> 01:00:13,136
map looks very different. And your routes look like a

718
01:00:13,176 --> 01:00:16,496
valley floor with all the homes, not anywhere near the

719
01:00:16,517 --> 01:00:20,016
bus stops. Um, and our biggest problem with getting ridership

720
01:00:20,056 --> 01:00:23,616
on bard and commuters and getting traffic under control is

721
01:00:23,616 --> 01:00:27,376
that, you know, last mile or last four blocks straight

722
01:00:27,416 --> 01:00:30,736
up a hill gap. Uh, is there anything in terms

723
01:00:30,736 --> 01:00:34,576
of, uh, you know, shuttles bus sizes, anything that can

724
01:00:34,616 --> 01:00:39,901
be done to broaden the reach of your routes. Yes.

725
01:00:39,901 --> 01:00:42,601
And it is something that we have thought a lot

726
01:00:42,601 --> 01:00:45,501
about. And we spent quite a bit of time experimenting

727
01:00:45,602 --> 01:00:50,941
with this in other member jurisdictions. We do have and

728
01:00:50,981 --> 01:00:55,341
have experimented with microtransit. So we did a microtransit program

729
01:00:55,762 --> 01:00:59,741
in the city Martinez. We have a partnership with Lyft

730
01:00:59,762 --> 01:01:04,381
and Uber in San Ramon. We also have a microtransit

731
01:01:04,421 --> 01:01:08,701
program to a particular community in Danville. These are things

732
01:01:08,802 --> 01:01:11,501
that we are of course willing to explore. We've got

733
01:01:11,501 --> 01:01:14,461
quite a bit of knowledge. There's a little bit of

734
01:01:14,642 --> 01:01:18,221
danger with microtransit that you got to be careful. Because

735
01:01:18,221 --> 01:01:21,501
as it expands and becomes super popular, you can only

736
01:01:21,602 --> 01:01:24,061
add a few people to that vehicle and then suddenly

737
01:01:24,162 --> 01:01:26,701
you have to add another vehicle. That means you're adding

738
01:01:26,802 --> 01:01:29,901
another driver. And then that's where the money comes in.

739
01:01:29,901 --> 01:01:36,861
So we are interested in exploring microtransit opportunities. In particular,

740
01:01:36,861 --> 01:01:41,661
the Maraga and Rinda area given right now the condition

741
01:01:41,661 --> 01:01:45,741
that we're in with a six million dollar deficit. We're

742
01:01:45,741 --> 01:01:47,501
not in a position to be able to look at

743
01:01:47,762 --> 01:01:54,158
expansion. We're currently looking at contraction. So I don't know

744
01:01:54,158 --> 01:01:56,958
if that helps. At least that lets you know where

745
01:01:57,699 --> 01:02:01,598
you understand Tim Hale at CCTA is always talking about,

746
01:02:01,598 --> 01:02:05,898
you know, uh, thinking down the chess board about, uh,

747
01:02:06,179 --> 01:02:09,918
transportation technologies in ways that we can innovate. And I

748
01:02:09,918 --> 01:02:12,398
didn't know where county connection was thinking. It's role might

749
01:02:12,398 --> 01:02:15,678
be. But I know, Ohrenda really has an adoption constraint

750
01:02:15,859 --> 01:02:18,078
with the fact that you've got a walk up a

751
01:02:18,118 --> 01:02:21,278
big hill to pretty much any home, uh, in our

752
01:02:21,278 --> 01:02:24,398
city. But the, the student program is amazing. And I,

753
01:02:24,398 --> 01:02:26,318
uh, just can't say enough good things. And I'm glad

754
01:02:26,358 --> 01:02:28,478
Amy worth is here because the, the fact that the

755
01:02:28,518 --> 01:02:31,278
buses go to the library, the library's open late for

756
01:02:31,318 --> 01:02:34,318
working parents. It is a Godsend that the kids can

757
01:02:34,318 --> 01:02:36,398
get where they need to go. And the parents don't

758
01:02:36,438 --> 01:02:39,546
need to be. Driving them around at three o'clock. So

759
01:02:39,546 --> 01:02:44,167
that's, uh, huge kudos to your whole program. I really

760
01:02:44,207 --> 01:02:46,807
appreciate those comments. And I also appreciate the comments about

761
01:02:47,468 --> 01:02:51,927
the discussions with Tim Hale. We tend to be a

762
01:02:51,967 --> 01:02:56,967
very forward thinking creatively deployed service, especially as I look

763
01:02:56,967 --> 01:03:00,327
at my colleagues. We did work with Tim Hill at

764
01:03:00,367 --> 01:03:06,727
two CTA. We deployed a autonomous microtransit program in the

765
01:03:06,748 --> 01:03:10,287
city of Martinez. It is now this sounds, this is

766
01:03:10,287 --> 01:03:15,047
another misnomer in contrast county. It's not legal to have

767
01:03:15,708 --> 01:03:18,967
an autonomous vehicle without somebody behind the wheel. So we

768
01:03:19,007 --> 01:03:22,967
had to deploy somebody behind that wheel on our autonomous

769
01:03:22,988 --> 01:03:26,887
shuttle experiment, but we were the, we are the only

770
01:03:27,388 --> 01:03:30,807
transit agency in the United States that did that with,

771
01:03:30,807 --> 01:03:36,887
um, labor in a union. So, you know, we were

772
01:03:36,927 --> 01:03:42,087
experimenting. We're experimenting with autonomous vehicles. We're experimenting with microtransit.

773
01:03:42,087 --> 01:03:45,047
We're trying to anticipate what the needs of our communities

774
01:03:45,047 --> 01:03:48,087
are into the future and make sure that we're right

775
01:03:48,127 --> 01:03:52,487
sizing what we, what we provide. And I don't think

776
01:03:52,588 --> 01:03:55,447
it's always going to, we'll never be static. It's always

777
01:03:55,628 --> 01:04:00,247
going to be a mix of different vehicle types, styles,

778
01:04:00,247 --> 01:04:04,513
and even powertrains. Thank you. Are there any other questions?

779
01:04:04,513 --> 01:04:09,713
I've been sort of jumping in here. Just spoke about

780
01:04:09,713 --> 01:04:15,053
the interconnectedness of, um, county connection and BART. Right. And

781
01:04:15,894 --> 01:04:19,233
so as we're looking at the regional transportation measure, because

782
01:04:19,233 --> 01:04:21,953
you said that there's an alternate service plan that the

783
01:04:21,974 --> 01:04:27,313
board adopted that talked about 22 percent cuts, county connection.

784
01:04:27,313 --> 01:04:30,513
But given, you know, we've, we've also all got a

785
01:04:30,513 --> 01:04:36,513
presentation from BART and heard about, um, and the range

786
01:04:36,513 --> 01:04:39,553
of, of things that could happen if, if the measure

787
01:04:39,593 --> 01:04:44,813
doesn't succeed. What, what really are we looking at, um,

788
01:04:44,854 --> 01:04:48,033
in a Rinda for, you know, just can you talk

789
01:04:48,054 --> 01:04:50,273
a little bit about that? Because I do get a

790
01:04:50,273 --> 01:04:51,793
lot of questions about it. And I want to be

791
01:04:51,793 --> 01:04:57,437
able to, to respond with as much knowledge available. Really

792
01:04:57,458 --> 01:05:01,357
challenging the answer to that. It's the future is opaque.

793
01:05:01,357 --> 01:05:05,357
We don't know. But let's assume the measure does not

794
01:05:05,458 --> 01:05:09,837
pass. Um, of course you all have seen that one

795
01:05:09,858 --> 01:05:14,237
of Bart's initial plans was to eliminate the areindibart station.

796
01:05:14,904 --> 01:05:18,083
The Rindo Bart station is profoundly important on a number

797
01:05:18,083 --> 01:05:21,763
of levels. Number one, that is the major collection center

798
01:05:21,784 --> 01:05:25,683
that we use for getting students to OIS and marimani.

799
01:05:28,563 --> 01:05:33,102
Secondly, it is the big transfer point for our paratransit

800
01:05:33,142 --> 01:05:37,565
writers between all the small East Bay writers. And, um,

801
01:05:38,086 --> 01:05:41,385
East Bay pair transit. Wow. That, that sounded strange. So

802
01:05:41,686 --> 01:05:46,225
the county connection Try Delta laughed a writers. The transfer

803
01:05:46,326 --> 01:05:52,065
point into Oakland Berkeley, Fremont, what that inner East Bay,

804
01:05:52,065 --> 01:05:56,545
it's a renda bar. So it is a pivotal thing.

805
01:05:56,545 --> 01:05:59,505
And I think if we don't pass, there needs to

806
01:05:59,505 --> 01:06:03,905
be a lot of work advocating to prevent the closure

807
01:06:04,406 --> 01:06:07,985
of a Rinder bart. I think it is more important

808
01:06:08,246 --> 01:06:12,705
to move that upstream, if that makes sense. For county

809
01:06:12,705 --> 01:06:16,705
connection with our plan that we've already put into place,

810
01:06:16,705 --> 01:06:19,505
one of the things that staff was looking at because

811
01:06:19,686 --> 01:06:22,305
it was an easy way to save money. It's more

812
01:06:22,406 --> 01:06:27,665
expensive hour to provide those school bus services than it

813
01:06:27,665 --> 01:06:30,945
is to provide the core route. Part of that is

814
01:06:31,126 --> 01:06:35,665
because you're bringing service in just for a short period

815
01:06:35,846 --> 01:06:38,465
of time. You're taking it out. And then you're bringing

816
01:06:38,486 --> 01:06:41,825
it back again in the afternoon. That's why school bus

817
01:06:41,926 --> 01:06:45,745
service is so expensive. Their bus is cost the same.

818
01:06:45,745 --> 01:06:49,105
They can only hire part - time operators because they

819
01:06:49,105 --> 01:06:52,465
can only provide so many hours of service. We actually

820
01:06:52,726 --> 01:06:56,945
proposed removing school bus service because we could move, remove

821
01:06:56,985 --> 01:06:59,905
less service to get to the financial dollars that we

822
01:06:59,945 --> 01:07:04,792
needed. Our board was not going to have anything to

823
01:07:04,792 --> 01:07:12,792
do with that. So the school services in the city

824
01:07:12,792 --> 01:07:15,912
of Orinda. It's more focused on the core service on

825
01:07:15,912 --> 01:07:20,552
the route six. So when we move through these hard

826
01:07:20,653 --> 01:07:25,592
times and maybe the current 22 percent plan isn't going

827
01:07:25,592 --> 01:07:28,792
to be the right level, we will not change that

828
01:07:29,213 --> 01:07:33,752
without working very closely with our member jurisdictions to know

829
01:07:33,773 --> 01:07:36,872
and understand what's important to you to be sure that

830
01:07:36,893 --> 01:07:40,872
we are characterizing that in the best way possible for

831
01:07:41,693 --> 01:07:44,552
your city. So we've already kind of been there a

832
01:07:44,552 --> 01:07:49,512
little bit. You're representative Amy prevented any cuts to service

833
01:07:49,533 --> 01:07:54,121
in that 22 percent service plan. Does that help? It

834
01:07:54,121 --> 01:07:56,521
does. Yeah. And I mean, I think what you've painted

835
01:07:56,702 --> 01:08:00,441
is a real web of interconnectedness throughout our whole transit

836
01:08:00,441 --> 01:08:05,794
system, right? That our residents rely on. So in the

837
01:08:05,834 --> 01:08:10,594
llama region, as a region, right? We are all interconnected.

838
01:08:10,594 --> 01:08:13,794
Bart really can't survive without us. Um, all the small

839
01:08:13,815 --> 01:08:17,154
operators collectively are bringing just in the East Bay alone

840
01:08:17,975 --> 01:08:21,794
about six million writers to Bart a year. That represents

841
01:08:21,895 --> 01:08:25,394
a huge volume of revenue for them. If that were

842
01:08:25,495 --> 01:08:28,594
to disappear and go away, Bart's whole would be just

843
01:08:28,775 --> 01:08:32,914
that much greater. So we are interdependent on each other

844
01:08:33,655 --> 01:08:36,914
and the system has to work kind of ink. It's

845
01:08:36,954 --> 01:08:41,474
a carpet or a fabric of mobility, if you will.

846
01:08:41,474 --> 01:08:44,434
When you think about it, the, the, the bus operators,

847
01:08:44,434 --> 01:08:48,834
the rail operators, we connect Amtrak to BART A strain

848
01:08:49,335 --> 01:08:52,754
to BART. It's all one big woven fabric. And I

849
01:08:52,754 --> 01:08:58,434
think everything has its place, including the microtransits, the Wemos

850
01:08:58,455 --> 01:09:01,374
that we don't control. The Uber and the Lyft, you

851
01:09:01,374 --> 01:09:05,714
need all those various pieces and components working together to

852
01:09:05,754 --> 01:09:09,613
make the whole system work effectively. Right. And demand increases

853
01:09:09,653 --> 01:09:14,835
on one if one piece is. Thank you. You either

854
01:09:15,016 --> 01:09:20,206
comments or questions. Please. Well, I just really want to

855
01:09:20,206 --> 01:09:23,766
thank you for being here. I think what you're sharing,

856
01:09:23,766 --> 01:09:27,286
I hope can be effectively communicated in the next couple

857
01:09:27,387 --> 01:09:31,046
of months because what you, what counting connection means to,

858
01:09:31,046 --> 01:09:34,806
are Rinda is profound. And I'm glad, um, that you

859
01:09:34,846 --> 01:09:37,606
were able to share that tonight. I'm also very happy

860
01:09:37,787 --> 01:09:41,606
that I get to work with all of you and

861
01:09:41,627 --> 01:09:44,946
your staff a little more than my colleagues do. And

862
01:09:44,946 --> 01:09:47,446
that I'm a little over informed. Um, so I didn't

863
01:09:47,486 --> 01:09:50,566
have as many questions, but I, I do think it's

864
01:09:50,606 --> 01:09:53,366
so important what you're doing for our community. And I

865
01:09:53,366 --> 01:09:55,606
just really want to thank you and the staff for

866
01:09:55,646 --> 01:09:59,606
coming tonight to share that because, um, we often, it's

867
01:09:59,606 --> 01:10:02,486
easy for a community to forget about things, especially if

868
01:10:02,526 --> 01:10:05,926
you're not the immediate user. So I think, uh, you

869
01:10:05,926 --> 01:10:09,366
know, we have a lot of community members that really,

870
01:10:09,366 --> 01:10:14,326
um, would appreciate knowing how much, um, you know, you're

871
01:10:14,326 --> 01:10:18,326
contributing to our, our families, our kids. I think it's

872
01:10:18,347 --> 01:10:20,166
really important. So I just really want to thank you

873
01:10:20,206 --> 01:10:24,868
for being here. Thank you. I, I appreciate the comments.

874
01:10:24,868 --> 01:10:27,588
And I have so enjoyed working with you, really looking

875
01:10:27,609 --> 01:10:31,588
forward to strengthening our partnership as we move forward. There's

876
01:10:31,609 --> 01:10:35,588
a lot of opportunities. I think despite, you know, the,

877
01:10:35,609 --> 01:10:38,128
the little bit of opaqueness that we have in the

878
01:10:38,128 --> 01:10:40,788
future, I have high hopes that things are going to

879
01:10:40,969 --> 01:10:44,708
work well. And then that just really catapults us into

880
01:10:44,809 --> 01:10:47,348
being able to work together in the future and even

881
01:10:47,388 --> 01:10:52,140
stronger ways. So thank you. And thank you. Uh, Vice

882
01:10:52,140 --> 01:10:53,580
Mayor G said pretty much everything I was going to

883
01:10:53,620 --> 01:10:56,220
say. It's the traffic is back going into the city,

884
01:10:56,220 --> 01:11:00,380
getting around Orinda. And I'm so glad people can hear

885
01:11:00,401 --> 01:11:03,100
and understand what a vital part of our cities functioning

886
01:11:03,121 --> 01:11:05,180
county connection is. And I hope we hear from you

887
01:11:05,281 --> 01:11:07,420
not just when you're on the ballot, but from time

888
01:11:07,460 --> 01:11:10,860
to time, because this was incredibly informative. Thank you. Thank

889
01:11:10,860 --> 01:11:15,235
you for your time. Thank you for your invitation. Oh,

890
01:11:15,275 --> 01:11:17,155
I'm sorry. Is there any public comment? This was a

891
01:11:17,155 --> 01:11:21,092
big topic. All right. Seeing none. Um, I think we

892
01:11:22,153 --> 01:11:28,431
commented a lot. So thank you. Um, and that we

893
01:11:28,431 --> 01:11:30,191
have just now finished items for the good of the

894
01:11:30,191 --> 01:11:33,157
city. And we will move on to public forum. I

895
01:11:33,157 --> 01:11:35,437
don't have any speaker cards for public forums. So I

896
01:11:35,437 --> 01:11:37,917
would ask if there's, uh, anyone in the audience who

897
01:11:38,018 --> 01:11:40,637
would like to speak, um, or anyone on Zoom tonight.

898
01:11:42,379 --> 01:11:44,978
We have five members of the public on Zoom, but

899
01:11:44,978 --> 01:11:47,965
no one has raised their hand. Okay, I'll give it

900
01:11:47,965 --> 01:11:49,529
just a moment. Uh, and it looks like no one

901
01:11:49,569 --> 01:11:52,249
for public forum. So we'll move on to council member

902
01:11:52,289 --> 01:11:55,289
reports, uh, followed by city managers report. Um, I think

903
01:11:55,390 --> 01:11:59,798
I'll start this direction with council member Riley. Cold calling

904
01:11:59,838 --> 01:12:09,352
you. Yep. Okay. So I can go get, you know

905
01:12:09,352 --> 01:12:14,205
what? I'm okay. I'm okay. Um. Last week, I think

906
01:12:14,205 --> 01:12:19,345
it was, uh, went to recycle smart monthly meeting. And

907
01:12:19,345 --> 01:12:23,325
there was a big, uh, there every month there's a

908
01:12:23,325 --> 01:12:26,725
lot about implementing the new franchise agreement, which starts in

909
01:12:26,765 --> 01:12:30,925
March. And just as an overview, there are going to

910
01:12:30,925 --> 01:12:33,285
be more routes. It sounds like we were just talking

911
01:12:33,285 --> 01:12:36,405
about buses, but now we're on garbage trucks. More routes,

912
01:12:36,445 --> 01:12:41,845
more drivers, more trucks, more training. Um, and they're going

913
01:12:41,845 --> 01:12:47,845
to change the routes. And we are expecting 20, 000

914
01:12:48,026 --> 01:12:50,565
households to get a new route. So any one of

915
01:12:50,565 --> 01:12:53,425
us could get a new route and they'll be, um,

916
01:12:53,866 --> 01:12:56,725
figuring that out and letting us know, um, with plenty

917
01:12:56,765 --> 01:13:00,999
of notice, I hope. Um, the other big thing, darling,

918
01:13:00,999 --> 01:13:04,119
I was going to mention was the, um, uh, November

919
01:13:04,159 --> 01:13:06,599
one. They're going to start charging for the first time.

920
01:13:06,639 --> 01:13:08,599
It's always been in the contract, but it's the first

921
01:13:08,599 --> 01:13:13,399
time they're going to charge for your black can being,

922
01:13:13,399 --> 01:13:18,119
uh, extensively overflowing. If it's just, you know, like this

923
01:13:18,119 --> 01:13:23,799
much over jar above that seam, if it's just open

924
01:13:23,799 --> 01:13:26,339
a little, they're going to turn a blind eye. But

925
01:13:26,339 --> 01:13:30,519
if it's a huge black bag that's sitting on top,

926
01:13:30,519 --> 01:13:33,959
they'll take a picture from the truck. And then they'll

927
01:13:33,980 --> 01:13:38,316
charge you 10 dollars. Every time you do that. Um,

928
01:13:38,517 --> 01:13:40,736
and for the next month or two, you'll get a

929
01:13:40,776 --> 01:13:44,914
warning and then starting November one, you'll be charged. That's

930
01:13:44,954 --> 01:13:48,954
the news from recycle smart. So don't do that. If

931
01:13:48,954 --> 01:13:52,674
you, if you don't want to, um, um, put it

932
01:13:52,674 --> 01:13:56,354
on top if you want to instead put it next

933
01:13:56,354 --> 01:14:00,354
to the can. That's fine. That is also 10 dollars.

934
01:14:00,354 --> 01:14:01,794
So it's the same thing if you try to cram

935
01:14:01,794 --> 01:14:03,474
it in or you just put it next to it.

936
01:14:05,975 --> 01:14:08,434
Okay. And then we, uh, a lot of kind of

937
01:14:08,455 --> 01:14:11,074
I went to the two by two school committee deal

938
01:14:11,175 --> 01:14:15,154
the other night. And we had updates on the Ivy

939
01:14:15,175 --> 01:14:21,714
drive situation. Uh, how all that's flowing from SIVA and

940
01:14:21,895 --> 01:14:29,554
Linda. And we heard from Officer Taya who and other

941
01:14:29,554 --> 01:14:32,994
officers who have had a higher presence in the area.

942
01:14:32,994 --> 01:14:35,554
They pulled people over and talked to him about taking

943
01:14:35,655 --> 01:14:41,769
the illegal left turn, giving them warnings. Um. And I

944
01:14:41,769 --> 01:14:43,529
don't know if they actually have ticketed at anyone yet,

945
01:14:43,529 --> 01:14:45,669
but I don't think they met that, mentioned that, but

946
01:14:45,669 --> 01:14:48,089
they are trying to educate people about it. And it

947
01:14:48,089 --> 01:14:52,089
seems like, uh, a lot of people still are learning.

948
01:14:52,129 --> 01:14:54,809
They think that timing of the lights is doing a

949
01:14:54,809 --> 01:14:59,849
good job, except that the problem at the Del Rey

950
01:15:00,190 --> 01:15:04,169
area, that that is still impacted, um, the solutions don't

951
01:15:04,590 --> 01:15:07,049
seem to be, uh, there. And I think we're just

952
01:15:07,089 --> 01:15:12,489
probably always going to have something little challenging. Maybe we'll

953
01:15:12,489 --> 01:15:15,129
keep making small tweaks, but we're always going to have

954
01:15:15,470 --> 01:15:19,689
some problems somewhere that kids walking to Del Rey still

955
01:15:19,870 --> 01:15:22,089
seem to be a problem. The lights are a problem

956
01:15:22,270 --> 01:15:25,529
there. Just, that's life driving to school. And you should

957
01:15:25,529 --> 01:15:28,969
be taking your bus, right? Um, what else did we

958
01:15:28,969 --> 01:15:38,008
talk about. We heard about the summer construction at Wagner

959
01:15:38,109 --> 01:15:42,808
and Sleepy and OIS. Those three schools were closed all

960
01:15:42,848 --> 01:15:46,168
summer and they finished up all the construction that involved

961
01:15:46,349 --> 01:15:51,928
new ceilings, new windows, new paint. And so they're using

962
01:15:52,189 --> 01:15:56,679
up all of the bond money. With those three places.

963
01:15:58,002 --> 01:16:00,829
That's all I can remember. Anything else popping up. Thank

964
01:16:00,829 --> 01:16:06,189
you covered most of it just a real. Oh yeah.

965
01:16:06,189 --> 01:16:08,349
The big parent night thing. Yeah. You want to go

966
01:16:08,389 --> 01:16:13,182
do that. So there's going to be, um, a parent

967
01:16:13,203 --> 01:16:20,721
education night. And on October 15th, and they're also going

968
01:16:20,721 --> 01:16:24,321
to talk a lot about, you know, e - bikes

969
01:16:24,361 --> 01:16:28,161
and e - bike safety and officer Talia seems to

970
01:16:28,161 --> 01:16:33,201
be very well received by our schools. And, um, had

971
01:16:33,241 --> 01:16:36,481
a real presence there. There's the, and, and they were

972
01:16:36,481 --> 01:16:40,241
really appreciative of all the enforcement too and having, having

973
01:16:40,422 --> 01:16:43,281
a strong presence of our local police. So I think

974
01:16:43,281 --> 01:16:46,241
our community policing, the way we're doing it is, is

975
01:16:46,241 --> 01:16:53,037
really sitting well with our schools. Um. And with the

976
01:16:53,077 --> 01:16:55,037
signal timing, the one thing that stuck out in my

977
01:16:55,037 --> 01:16:57,837
mind was there was, there was a lot of concern

978
01:16:57,877 --> 01:17:06,477
about how going from IV onto crossing Morag away to

979
01:17:06,517 --> 01:17:10,477
get to Mirmani in the morning. That traffic signal was

980
01:17:11,298 --> 01:17:14,077
as taking a very long time. And we explained that

981
01:17:14,258 --> 01:17:17,197
was intentional because we were really trying to direct traffic

982
01:17:17,858 --> 01:17:20,237
along Morag away. And so we had a pretty long

983
01:17:20,418 --> 01:17:23,757
discussion about that. Um, I'm only going to mention this

984
01:17:23,938 --> 01:17:25,837
cause we had gotten, you know, there was, there was

985
01:17:25,837 --> 01:17:29,517
some discussion about, well, if we changed the timing of

986
01:17:29,538 --> 01:17:33,677
the no left turn to start at 7 30, would

987
01:17:33,677 --> 01:17:35,837
that solve the problem for the teachers and the superintendent

988
01:17:35,938 --> 01:17:38,317
thought no. That wouldn't solve the problem because they don't

989
01:17:38,338 --> 01:17:41,677
usually get there till after 730. So, and I only

990
01:17:41,717 --> 01:17:44,077
mentioned that cause I know we, we see that in

991
01:17:44,258 --> 01:17:47,437
comments from time to time, right. Do we it's currently

992
01:17:47,538 --> 01:17:49,997
no left turn from seven, eight. If it moved to

993
01:17:50,018 --> 01:17:52,557
being 730 to eight, would that solve the problem for

994
01:17:52,578 --> 01:17:55,597
teachers who want to go left? Um, but that continues

995
01:17:55,597 --> 01:17:59,597
to be something that, you know, that would not have

996
01:17:59,637 --> 01:18:02,617
solved the problem. Was it feedback from the superintendent? And

997
01:18:02,617 --> 01:18:04,477
the only other thing I have in my notes is

998
01:18:04,517 --> 01:18:07,997
that we, um, there was a discussion about field maintenance

999
01:18:08,098 --> 01:18:10,157
and we are getting a new, we're bidding out for

1000
01:18:10,258 --> 01:18:16,030
a new maintenance contractor, um, on that. Um, and then.

1001
01:18:17,028 --> 01:18:19,607
I think that was it. We're going to, there'll be

1002
01:18:20,068 --> 01:18:22,447
a and we're working, I think to get any crossing

1003
01:18:22,487 --> 01:18:26,927
guard, um, which they've requested at the meeting. So there

1004
01:18:26,927 --> 01:18:29,218
we go. Yes. I want to do questions. Uh, Krossing

1005
01:18:29,258 --> 01:18:31,358
guard for, uh, an additional one at one of the

1006
01:18:31,358 --> 01:18:34,818
elementaries are adding to OAS to OI. OIS. I think

1007
01:18:34,919 --> 01:18:38,418
our. Yes. So they will be paying for fully paying

1008
01:18:38,458 --> 01:18:42,782
for crossing guard at OAS. That's great. Um, I would

1009
01:18:42,803 --> 01:18:46,142
love to learn, uh, what you guys heard at the

1010
01:18:46,163 --> 01:18:48,142
two by two. Is there some sort of staff report

1011
01:18:48,142 --> 01:18:49,342
that I could just read or should I just follow

1012
01:18:49,382 --> 01:18:51,082
up directly for maybe a one - on - one

1013
01:18:51,082 --> 01:18:54,206
with somebody who's closer to the topic. Maybe you can

1014
01:18:54,206 --> 01:18:58,846
talk to me more about it. Sorry. I look forward

1015
01:18:58,846 --> 01:19:01,326
to it. Yeah. It's just, it's such a hot topic.

1016
01:19:01,326 --> 01:19:03,566
And I think such a live one. So I look

1017
01:19:03,566 --> 01:19:06,686
forward to that. Thank you. Our next meeting is in

1018
01:19:06,947 --> 01:19:09,806
November and we expect to be talking about the fields

1019
01:19:09,827 --> 01:19:12,126
and get more of an update on the nature area.

1020
01:19:12,126 --> 01:19:18,535
That wonderful. Wonderful. Um, thank you. Rich topics. Um, let's

1021
01:19:18,575 --> 01:19:21,415
see. Why don't you keep going, Council Member Markhani? I

1022
01:19:21,415 --> 01:19:23,529
think I. That's sort of the only thing that I

1023
01:19:24,430 --> 01:19:29,568
think Council Member Riley talked about it. Oh, hey, great.

1024
01:19:29,568 --> 01:19:34,155
Councilmember Huxley anything. So, um, we had a first meeting

1025
01:19:34,155 --> 01:19:38,395
of the Lambert school bus transportation authority for the start

1026
01:19:38,435 --> 01:19:42,155
of school and the buses are all rolling. There were

1027
01:19:42,195 --> 01:19:46,535
some issues with the paving project and the buses, um,

1028
01:19:46,576 --> 01:19:49,275
so in the future, we're going to either need to

1029
01:19:49,315 --> 01:19:52,235
try to get the paving projects done before school starts,

1030
01:19:52,235 --> 01:19:55,835
which would be ideal or better communication with the bus

1031
01:19:55,936 --> 01:20:00,155
company so that, um, the paving doesn't stop the buses

1032
01:20:00,195 --> 01:20:02,955
from picking up students in the morning or bringing them

1033
01:20:02,995 --> 01:20:05,275
home in the afternoon. So there were a few glitches

1034
01:20:05,315 --> 01:20:07,835
there, but I think those have been overcome and our

1035
01:20:07,875 --> 01:20:10,795
city manager came up with some great solutions very promptly

1036
01:20:11,376 --> 01:20:16,612
to help, um, alleviate that situation. Uh, good news. The

1037
01:20:16,612 --> 01:20:21,732
LSBTA approved an additional route for wilder students, uh, that

1038
01:20:21,772 --> 01:20:25,652
will start next year, not this year, because the students,

1039
01:20:25,652 --> 01:20:29,652
uh, Wilder who want to go to OIS. And so

1040
01:20:29,753 --> 01:20:33,652
that will be its own route. Right. So that will

1041
01:20:33,652 --> 01:20:36,372
be one more bus for the Rinda area, which is

1042
01:20:36,372 --> 01:20:39,732
great. Um, because we have such high demand and are

1043
01:20:39,732 --> 01:20:42,852
Rinda for the buses. And then the final piece of

1044
01:20:42,892 --> 01:20:46,292
news is they elected me as president of LSBTA this

1045
01:20:46,332 --> 01:20:50,282
next year. So just wanted to share that. Congratulations. Um,

1046
01:20:50,322 --> 01:20:52,522
one question. Did the, do they have a problem with

1047
01:20:52,703 --> 01:20:55,322
route selling out or does it seem that the demand

1048
01:20:55,362 --> 01:20:57,562
supply is in good balance? No, they do have a

1049
01:20:57,562 --> 01:21:01,002
problem with route selling out particularly the routes from, for

1050
01:21:01,023 --> 01:21:02,922
instance, sleepy hell to OIS. You have to get on

1051
01:21:02,922 --> 01:21:06,362
that right away when it comes out and becomes available.

1052
01:21:06,362 --> 01:21:08,922
But they are, you know, always working to balance and

1053
01:21:08,962 --> 01:21:11,322
make sure that they can get as many students on

1054
01:21:11,322 --> 01:21:16,522
the buses. The buses are running very much a capacity.

1055
01:21:16,522 --> 01:21:21,332
So, um, there's, there's demand for the buses. But Jim,

1056
01:21:21,332 --> 01:21:23,972
uh, and wilders up, that's two buses going to three

1057
01:21:24,012 --> 01:21:26,284
now, right? Not is it one best going to two

1058
01:21:26,305 --> 01:21:28,604
or two bus is going to three. It will be

1059
01:21:29,105 --> 01:21:32,364
two buses, but right now it's only one bus. Oh,

1060
01:21:32,364 --> 01:21:35,399
got it. Thank you. Um, and I, the only thing

1061
01:21:35,399 --> 01:21:37,399
I had to add, um, is that are in the

1062
01:21:37,439 --> 01:21:42,739
book celebrated its 50th anniversary, uh, on August 22nd. And

1063
01:21:42,780 --> 01:21:45,879
between that and meeting the Lord's owners at the Chamber

1064
01:21:45,879 --> 01:21:48,519
of Commerce event, I was, uh, just blown away at

1065
01:21:48,540 --> 01:21:51,559
our small business owners and the incredible community we have

1066
01:21:53,100 --> 01:21:55,559
within our local businesses, uh, and it was just a

1067
01:21:55,559 --> 01:21:58,119
really fun reminder of what a great, uh, treasure around

1068
01:21:58,159 --> 01:22:01,439
a books is, uh, and if the council members, I

1069
01:22:01,439 --> 01:22:03,479
will turn it to the city manager. Oh, I'm sorry.

1070
01:22:04,174 --> 01:22:06,633
Vice me, is there anything else? I'm sorry. No, I,

1071
01:22:06,734 --> 01:22:10,313
I'm double checked. I haven't been at any meetings since

1072
01:22:10,414 --> 01:22:17,692
our last council meeting. Honorable may remember the council. I

1073
01:22:17,692 --> 01:22:21,012
think that you are all aware, but, um, SP 922

1074
01:22:21,052 --> 01:22:23,812
was signed by the governor. And that's the preservation of

1075
01:22:23,852 --> 01:22:28,452
the road maintenance fee, uh, for local jurisdictions. So we're

1076
01:22:28,492 --> 01:22:31,189
very happy about that. We have a concert coming up

1077
01:22:31,370 --> 01:22:34,309
this Thursday night. The mixed nuts band is playing from

1078
01:22:34,570 --> 01:22:37,649
six to eight here at the community center in the

1079
01:22:37,649 --> 01:22:41,109
food trucks will also be present for that. I received

1080
01:22:41,130 --> 01:22:44,789
notification from Arinda Community Foundation that they are out looking

1081
01:22:44,829 --> 01:22:47,349
for their citizen of the year and applications are due

1082
01:22:47,349 --> 01:22:51,349
on October 1st. So, um, members of the community, please

1083
01:22:51,349 --> 01:22:55,249
visit the Arinda Community Foundation website and submit your, uh,

1084
01:22:55,370 --> 01:22:58,909
application or nomination for that citizen of the year. We

1085
01:22:59,210 --> 01:23:03,029
had our Hallo Rinda works last Thursday night and it

1086
01:23:03,029 --> 01:23:06,869
was our partners night and we had East Bay mud

1087
01:23:07,290 --> 01:23:11,749
present central sand and republic at the, and apparently it

1088
01:23:11,749 --> 01:23:15,989
was the highest rated event by our member so far.

1089
01:23:15,989 --> 01:23:20,469
So, uh, over public safety, people care more about the

1090
01:23:20,490 --> 01:23:24,389
water and the sewer. And Joe from ETH met is

1091
01:23:24,389 --> 01:23:26,149
here and he was there and said it was a

1092
01:23:26,189 --> 01:23:29,509
great outing for the residents to see everything that goes

1093
01:23:29,549 --> 01:23:32,469
on underneath the ground and behind the scenes, uh, to

1094
01:23:32,509 --> 01:23:35,509
bring water and sewer services and garbage services to people's

1095
01:23:35,549 --> 01:23:39,269
homes. So with that, I will stop there. Thank you.

1096
01:23:41,215 --> 01:23:44,634
The only thing I just want to mention that I

1097
01:23:44,674 --> 01:23:47,766
forgot the safe at scales event. Is going to be

1098
01:23:47,947 --> 01:23:51,446
on October 29th. So everyone put that on your calendar.

1099
01:23:52,563 --> 01:23:56,142
It is going to have a screening of the film

1100
01:23:56,323 --> 01:24:02,762
weathered at the Arrenda Theater, followed by panel discussion. Um,

1101
01:24:03,523 --> 01:24:08,302
that will include Senator Grayson that will include the director

1102
01:24:08,403 --> 01:24:13,002
of the film and the city is a sponsor, um,

1103
01:24:13,203 --> 01:24:15,422
and is involved with that. And the mayor will be

1104
01:24:15,422 --> 01:24:18,222
making introductory comments. I would say only that the average

1105
01:24:18,323 --> 01:24:21,342
person doesn't know what weathered or safe at scale means.

1106
01:24:21,342 --> 01:24:25,262
So if you can just provide a quick. Yeah. It's

1107
01:24:25,363 --> 01:24:29,662
a film. No, it is sort of a takeaway from,

1108
01:24:29,662 --> 01:24:34,382
and stories from the LA wildfires. And, um, the safe

1109
01:24:34,422 --> 01:24:37,402
at scale is just the name of the program, um,

1110
01:24:37,443 --> 01:24:41,742
for that night. And it the idea is that we

1111
01:24:42,163 --> 01:24:45,502
don't act alone when it comes to keeping our community

1112
01:24:45,523 --> 01:24:50,062
safe from wildfire. We must act collectively. And only at

1113
01:24:50,062 --> 01:24:52,419
scale, are we truly safe? So. I think that's some

1114
01:24:52,419 --> 01:24:54,059
of the messaging, but it sounds like it's going to

1115
01:24:54,120 --> 01:24:58,168
be a pretty thoughtful discussion. Yeah. Thank you very much.

1116
01:24:58,168 --> 01:25:00,888
I'll ask if the public comment, um, on any of

1117
01:25:00,888 --> 01:25:05,648
the counselor city manager reports. Not on Zoom, not in

1118
01:25:05,648 --> 01:25:08,368
here. We will move on. I know this has been

1119
01:25:08,368 --> 01:25:11,088
a really long warmup act. I appreciate everybody who's waiting

1120
01:25:11,128 --> 01:25:13,328
for the main event, uh, we will move on to

1121
01:25:13,328 --> 01:25:17,208
the consent calendar. I would ask the city manager. I

1122
01:25:17,208 --> 01:25:20,688
know there were one or two requests to pull items

1123
01:25:20,688 --> 01:25:23,008
from the consent calendar was that I, I too and

1124
01:25:23,008 --> 01:25:25,088
I three only. Yeah. There was a request to pull

1125
01:25:25,189 --> 01:25:26,928
I three. But I remember the public who was not

1126
01:25:27,029 --> 01:25:29,728
present this evening. So I think that choice is up

1127
01:25:29,728 --> 01:25:31,248
to you whether or not you wish to pull that

1128
01:25:31,269 --> 01:25:34,528
for discussion, uh, and then I believe the other one

1129
01:25:35,749 --> 01:25:41,888
was just maybe a quick report on, um, I five,

1130
01:25:41,888 --> 01:25:45,488
which is the East Bay mud, uh, road closure projects.

1131
01:25:48,200 --> 01:25:51,121
Was there another one? Did I missed. I just don't

1132
01:25:51,121 --> 01:25:54,161
remember without going back through the, um, the comments from

1133
01:25:54,161 --> 01:25:56,801
the public, but was I three requested to be pulled

1134
01:25:56,822 --> 01:25:59,481
by anybody? Or it was requested by a member of

1135
01:25:59,481 --> 01:26:01,841
the public who is currently not present at the meeting

1136
01:26:02,342 --> 01:26:05,841
understood. Okay. Um, on that, can I ask the city

1137
01:26:05,881 --> 01:26:09,761
clerk? We have five people on, um, zoomed. Does anybody

1138
01:26:09,801 --> 01:26:12,481
on the Zoom want to speak on any consent calendar

1139
01:26:12,521 --> 01:26:20,631
item. Nobody's raising their hand. Thank you. Uh, city attorney,

1140
01:26:20,631 --> 01:26:23,431
I would love a clarification if somebody makes a written

1141
01:26:23,452 --> 01:26:26,311
request for items to be pulled, but is not here.

1142
01:26:26,311 --> 01:26:30,384
What are the rules on that. All right. So we

1143
01:26:30,424 --> 01:26:33,424
actually updated this rule not that long ago as I

1144
01:26:33,424 --> 01:26:38,464
recall. I'm reading from 3. 3. 2 in your policies

1145
01:26:38,504 --> 01:26:42,879
and procedures manual. So, uh, items on the consent calendar,

1146
01:26:42,879 --> 01:26:45,199
those at the city manager determines are not likely to

1147
01:26:45,220 --> 01:26:48,479
require council discussion, but of course at the meeting, any

1148
01:26:48,580 --> 01:26:51,759
council member who'd like to can pull an item for

1149
01:26:51,759 --> 01:26:55,279
discussion. And then additionally, if any member of the public

1150
01:26:55,380 --> 01:26:58,479
wishes to speak on an item, it will be pulled

1151
01:26:58,479 --> 01:27:02,799
from the consent calendar. Uh, and that once it's pulled,

1152
01:27:02,839 --> 01:27:05,119
the item gets taken up at any time later on

1153
01:27:05,119 --> 01:27:08,959
the agenda. And the reason for the rule that the

1154
01:27:08,999 --> 01:27:11,039
member of the public can pull an item is so

1155
01:27:11,039 --> 01:27:13,919
that they can exercise their right under the brown act

1156
01:27:14,740 --> 01:27:18,368
to speak on any item on the agenda. Thank you

1157
01:27:18,389 --> 01:27:21,168
very much. Uh, with that, I would like to pull

1158
01:27:21,509 --> 01:27:24,368
item I5. That was my request. Just ask a question

1159
01:27:24,408 --> 01:27:27,102
or two. Does anybody else want to pull any items.

1160
01:27:28,736 --> 01:27:31,995
Yeah. I, I would actually like to pull I three.

1161
01:27:31,995 --> 01:27:34,315
I three. So we can comment and I three is

1162
01:27:34,315 --> 01:27:37,915
the same. Okay. So, uh, I will then move that

1163
01:27:37,936 --> 01:27:43,515
we adopt consent calendar items, um, I won, I, two,

1164
01:27:43,515 --> 01:27:47,619
and I four. Do I have a second. Second. All

1165
01:27:47,659 --> 01:27:50,579
in favor. Aye. And with that, uh, we'll go to

1166
01:27:50,680 --> 01:27:54,179
item I three and I will just ask the council

1167
01:27:54,179 --> 01:27:55,919
members who wanted to pull that if they have, uh,

1168
01:27:55,960 --> 01:27:59,560
questions or comments. Uh, one thing that I do the

1169
01:27:59,560 --> 01:28:02,040
reason I wanted to pull it was I, I know

1170
01:28:02,040 --> 01:28:04,840
that there is a fair amount of confusion within the

1171
01:28:04,861 --> 01:28:09,080
community. And I, I received a lot of commentary about

1172
01:28:09,581 --> 01:28:13,800
the sidewalk vendors. And I, I myself over the years

1173
01:28:14,061 --> 01:28:18,120
have been troubled occasionally by some of the situations that

1174
01:28:18,160 --> 01:28:21,320
we've had, um, but I think it's really important for

1175
01:28:21,341 --> 01:28:25,720
our community to understand, um, that what we are acting

1176
01:28:25,741 --> 01:28:28,900
on here and what we are doing is bringing, um,

1177
01:28:29,741 --> 01:28:33,880
bringing ourselves in better compliance with state law and also

1178
01:28:33,901 --> 01:28:39,320
giving ourselves the best opportunity, um, to control, um, this

1179
01:28:39,341 --> 01:28:42,360
issue in our community. But I think the most important

1180
01:28:42,461 --> 01:28:45,240
thing I wanted to be sure to say is that

1181
01:28:45,821 --> 01:28:53,080
we cannot outright ban sidewalk vendors. And that's because of

1182
01:28:53,501 --> 01:28:57,320
state law. It's not, it's not because, um, there might

1183
01:28:57,320 --> 01:29:01,720
not be interest potentially in our own community, but we

1184
01:29:01,720 --> 01:29:05,320
cannot just outright do that. And I, I received a

1185
01:29:05,320 --> 01:29:07,880
lot of commentary about that. So I think it's important

1186
01:29:08,061 --> 01:29:13,000
to make sure that the community understands that the root

1187
01:29:13,040 --> 01:29:15,880
of what this is all about, um, emanates from state

1188
01:29:16,061 --> 01:29:21,024
laws. And if I might, I would just add a

1189
01:29:21,045 --> 01:29:25,424
question I have regarding food safety in sidewalk vendors because

1190
01:29:25,445 --> 01:29:29,424
the one sidewalk vendor I've seen recently was a taco

1191
01:29:30,485 --> 01:29:35,344
stand on the corner near Safeway at night, uh, with

1192
01:29:35,525 --> 01:29:40,304
lights, but I don't understand, um, how that works with

1193
01:29:40,565 --> 01:29:47,264
the contrast food ordinances and what we should do or

1194
01:29:47,285 --> 01:29:50,624
what questions we can ask, you know, if we see

1195
01:29:50,664 --> 01:29:53,904
that or what the city can do to, um, make

1196
01:29:53,904 --> 01:29:57,744
sure that, that vendors and compliance. So I just had

1197
01:29:57,784 --> 01:30:01,084
some questions about that. Thank you. And since I see,

1198
01:30:01,084 --> 01:30:04,579
uh, Cole at the podium, can you help us? Yes.

1199
01:30:04,579 --> 01:30:08,819
So, uh, this ordinance would require that, um, they obtain

1200
01:30:09,000 --> 01:30:13,059
all health and safety, uh, licenses and permits that are

1201
01:30:13,099 --> 01:30:18,659
required from contracostic county, um, we are limited in the,

1202
01:30:18,659 --> 01:30:21,859
uh, penalties that we can assess for that. So we're

1203
01:30:21,880 --> 01:30:27,299
only allowed to do, um, fines, uh, the schedule finds

1204
01:30:27,400 --> 01:30:29,459
that's mandated by the state and it has to be

1205
01:30:29,499 --> 01:30:35,619
proportionate to the, um, violation. Um, and you need to

1206
01:30:35,640 --> 01:30:40,179
have four violations in a one year period before we

1207
01:30:40,219 --> 01:30:45,479
could revoke your permit to be a sidewalk vendor. Um,

1208
01:30:45,479 --> 01:30:49,685
so that is what this ordinance does. And just to

1209
01:30:49,685 --> 01:30:51,045
add on to that, I think if part of the

1210
01:30:51,306 --> 01:30:54,805
question is what do we, what does a person do?

1211
01:30:54,805 --> 01:30:59,605
They could certainly ask to see someone's licensing information, perhaps

1212
01:30:59,605 --> 01:31:02,245
from the county environmental health or from the health department.

1213
01:31:02,722 --> 01:31:05,101
I mean, I think they can request that and they

1214
01:31:05,101 --> 01:31:09,181
could request if they've got their registration with the city,

1215
01:31:09,181 --> 01:31:11,981
um, cause I think we're, our ordinance would require that

1216
01:31:12,002 --> 01:31:15,661
they'd be registered with the city. In a case where

1217
01:31:15,701 --> 01:31:17,821
no one produces that and they would like to report

1218
01:31:17,842 --> 01:31:21,021
them. You can, if it's during the day, we would

1219
01:31:21,061 --> 01:31:23,101
call the public works department. They would go out there

1220
01:31:23,682 --> 01:31:27,021
and enforce, uh, after hours, I would suggest you call

1221
01:31:27,362 --> 01:31:32,507
the non - emergency line. Thank you. It's very helpful.

1222
01:31:32,507 --> 01:31:35,372
Thank you. Uh, any other questions, especially while we've got

1223
01:31:35,873 --> 01:31:39,132
coal up here, uh, to clarify anything, please. Um, as

1224
01:31:39,233 --> 01:31:42,492
a practical matter, can you, uh, help me, um, picture

1225
01:31:42,993 --> 01:31:50,332
where, what sidewalks could take on a sidewalk vendor, given

1226
01:31:50,332 --> 01:31:54,388
that there's got to be four foot. Clearance on the

1227
01:31:54,409 --> 01:31:58,218
sidewalk for people to pass by. So it's a lot

1228
01:31:58,499 --> 01:32:02,318
of sidewalks. Um, I don't have a great answer for

1229
01:32:02,358 --> 01:32:05,278
you because we didn't sort of do an analysis to

1230
01:32:05,379 --> 01:32:08,638
see on like a GIS map or something where exactly

1231
01:32:08,819 --> 01:32:11,838
they would be present. Um, but without that, I would,

1232
01:32:11,838 --> 01:32:14,798
I would say it's most sidewalks. One thing that we,

1233
01:32:14,798 --> 01:32:18,278
um, did do. Okay. What about the village side? I

1234
01:32:18,278 --> 01:32:19,678
don't mean to cut you off, but just that whole

1235
01:32:19,699 --> 01:32:22,718
village side, those sidewalks are narrow. There's no way you

1236
01:32:22,718 --> 01:32:26,247
can have a truck and four feet. Yeah. So they

1237
01:32:26,268 --> 01:32:29,767
have to have that four feet. So it's a case

1238
01:32:29,807 --> 01:32:33,527
by case basis. Right. So if we receive notice that

1239
01:32:33,788 --> 01:32:36,807
someone is breaking that and we'd go out there with

1240
01:32:36,908 --> 01:32:39,047
our measuring tape and see whether or not they have

1241
01:32:39,228 --> 01:32:42,687
those four feet, um, if they do, they're good. If

1242
01:32:42,687 --> 01:32:45,447
not, um, they wouldn't be in compliance. I know as

1243
01:32:45,447 --> 01:32:48,647
you get farther down on the village side, the sidewalks

1244
01:32:48,647 --> 01:32:52,967
seem to get wider. Um, so it varies throughout the

1245
01:32:53,007 --> 01:32:59,704
city. They're typically wider at intersections. So you could recently

1246
01:32:59,805 --> 01:33:01,784
try to see people probably if they were to do

1247
01:33:02,125 --> 01:33:04,584
setup, they would try to go closer to those intersections

1248
01:33:05,405 --> 01:33:09,624
for variety of reasons traffic in the, um, width of

1249
01:33:09,624 --> 01:33:14,584
the sidewalks. And, and if a business, um, has outdoor

1250
01:33:14,624 --> 01:33:19,318
seating. On the sidewalk and has permission. And a vendor

1251
01:33:19,358 --> 01:33:20,958
wants to use that space. They're going to need to

1252
01:33:20,958 --> 01:33:27,834
have space for, they can't override the outdoor seating. That

1253
01:33:27,935 --> 01:33:29,914
exists. And then you need room for a vendor and

1254
01:33:29,914 --> 01:33:32,389
you need room for four feet to walk. I might

1255
01:33:32,429 --> 01:33:34,989
be able to help with that one. Unless cold, do

1256
01:33:34,989 --> 01:33:39,062
you have already answer. Go, go for it. Um, so

1257
01:33:40,283 --> 01:33:43,462
if there's outdoor seating at present, I believe is it

1258
01:33:43,462 --> 01:33:48,565
occurring on private property. Not on the sidewalk. So, uh,

1259
01:33:49,966 --> 01:33:53,305
private property owner does not need to allow one of

1260
01:33:53,305 --> 01:33:56,585
these vendors to operate on their private property. We're only

1261
01:33:56,585 --> 01:33:59,676
talking about the public right of way here. The other

1262
01:33:59,716 --> 01:34:02,796
thing I wanted to point out is that right now,

1263
01:34:02,796 --> 01:34:07,036
because we don't have a compliant ordinance. We don't have

1264
01:34:07,377 --> 01:34:11,116
any regulation of sidewalk vending. So adopting this ordinance will

1265
01:34:11,137 --> 01:34:13,676
give us something we don't currently have, which is the

1266
01:34:13,697 --> 01:34:17,756
ability to enforce rules at all. Um, we are not

1267
01:34:18,817 --> 01:34:24,756
through this ordinance inviting or encouraging sidewalk vending, kind of

1268
01:34:24,756 --> 01:34:31,892
instead setting up real rules for it. I'm sorry. Any

1269
01:34:31,913 --> 01:34:35,160
other comments or questions on this item. By the way,

1270
01:34:35,160 --> 01:34:38,040
those are very helpful questions. I really appreciate those of

1271
01:34:38,040 --> 01:34:40,440
you who, um, pulled it and had given this some

1272
01:34:40,440 --> 01:34:44,200
additional thought. With that, I'll see if we have a

1273
01:34:44,200 --> 01:34:49,256
motion to approve I3. So moved. Second. All in favor.

1274
01:34:49,891 --> 01:34:53,390
Aye. Uh, thank you. And we'll go to item I

1275
01:34:53,811 --> 01:34:56,750
five. Uh, I don't know if others had questions. Um,

1276
01:34:57,331 --> 01:34:59,930
I just wanted to understand and thank you, Siva, for

1277
01:34:59,930 --> 01:35:03,790
coming forward. Um, because there have been, um, some problems

1278
01:35:03,971 --> 01:35:07,950
with some of the paving projects and streets getting closed.

1279
01:35:07,950 --> 01:35:11,790
I had a hard time understanding from the provided materials,

1280
01:35:11,790 --> 01:35:16,950
um, just an assurance that people could, you know, get

1281
01:35:16,950 --> 01:35:20,270
their buses, the trash service, uh, that the detours would

1282
01:35:20,270 --> 01:35:22,910
be sufficient when the work is being done. And I

1283
01:35:22,950 --> 01:35:25,230
was hoping you could just give us a quick common

1284
01:35:25,251 --> 01:35:30,030
sense, uh, explanation that if it's a total closure of

1285
01:35:30,030 --> 01:35:32,670
the road, people will be able to work with it.

1286
01:35:35,773 --> 01:35:39,112
Yeah. Absolutely. Uh, good evening. Madam Mayor and Council members.

1287
01:35:39,112 --> 01:35:42,232
Um, so this particular item is, um, pretty similar to

1288
01:35:42,272 --> 01:35:44,952
some of the previous road closures we have approved for

1289
01:35:45,213 --> 01:35:47,672
East Bay mode. It's slightly different from the paving project

1290
01:35:47,773 --> 01:35:51,192
issues we've been discussing. Um, I'll touch that in a

1291
01:35:51,192 --> 01:35:54,872
second. Uh, but generally the conditions associated with, um, any

1292
01:35:54,893 --> 01:35:58,232
of our road closure permit is that they maintain those

1293
01:35:58,333 --> 01:36:05,012
regular services, which includes garbage pickup, um, school bus, um,

1294
01:36:05,293 --> 01:36:07,592
services. And they also have to be prepared to all

1295
01:36:07,592 --> 01:36:10,632
of emergency services at any given time. So generally what

1296
01:36:10,893 --> 01:36:13,672
he's been mad does is they have like steel plates

1297
01:36:13,933 --> 01:36:16,152
in their vehicle. And if there is a need where

1298
01:36:16,192 --> 01:36:18,552
an emergence vehicle need to access through that location, they'll

1299
01:36:18,592 --> 01:36:20,932
drop the plate and let them go through there. Uh,

1300
01:36:21,053 --> 01:36:23,272
in the odd situation, there is no way for the

1301
01:36:23,293 --> 01:36:26,152
vehicle to pass through. Um, they have done this a

1302
01:36:26,152 --> 01:36:29,992
few different projects now all the way through minor road

1303
01:36:30,333 --> 01:36:33,512
and coming out sobrant area. They're just finishing up on,

1304
01:36:33,512 --> 01:36:36,712
uh, the coming of Sobrante phase one project and the

1305
01:36:36,752 --> 01:36:38,872
phase two was done before that. So it's like a

1306
01:36:38,912 --> 01:36:41,592
consistent thing he's been has been doing. We have a

1307
01:36:41,592 --> 01:36:45,192
pretty good relationship with their construction team and their outreach

1308
01:36:45,232 --> 01:36:49,192
team, which Joe's here transferring questions. We have, um, and

1309
01:36:49,213 --> 01:36:51,112
I would say in general, they've been very good with

1310
01:36:51,152 --> 01:36:53,992
working with us and trying to get all those coordinated.

1311
01:36:53,992 --> 01:36:57,012
And I maintain it. Um, one good example is, um,

1312
01:36:57,293 --> 01:37:01,152
although they have, um, construction time allowance on caminos of

1313
01:37:01,152 --> 01:37:04,232
brand day between eight to four 30, I believe they

1314
01:37:04,232 --> 01:37:07,432
generally don't implement the closure till nine o'clock. We can

1315
01:37:07,432 --> 01:37:09,592
consider of all these other services that needs to get

1316
01:37:09,632 --> 01:37:12,232
through. And they're trying to work within the nine to

1317
01:37:12,272 --> 01:37:14,752
three window, which is what we generally acquire. Ask of

1318
01:37:14,752 --> 01:37:18,552
them to do. Uh, which unfortunately extends the construction duration

1319
01:37:18,733 --> 01:37:21,512
in some instances. And we kind of work with them

1320
01:37:21,773 --> 01:37:24,392
in trying to get all that sorted out. In the

1321
01:37:24,413 --> 01:37:27,272
pairing project, the same conditions applied, uh, we had a

1322
01:37:27,272 --> 01:37:31,352
new contractor on board, uh, who, uh, is a subcontractor,

1323
01:37:31,352 --> 01:37:33,592
not really the prime contractor. The prime contractor has some

1324
01:37:33,592 --> 01:37:37,592
work done some work for us last year. And we,

1325
01:37:37,632 --> 01:37:39,752
they did a pretty good job last year. And we

1326
01:37:39,752 --> 01:37:42,312
thought their portion of the work was done very well.

1327
01:37:42,312 --> 01:37:45,032
Um, assuming we all may have noticed Moraga, we got

1328
01:37:45,072 --> 01:37:47,272
paid between El Camino Muraga all the way to Ivy

1329
01:37:47,373 --> 01:37:50,452
drive. We didn't have any much issues with that. And

1330
01:37:50,813 --> 01:37:53,432
they did the noticing and they maintained the road closure

1331
01:37:53,472 --> 01:37:58,792
restrictions. Unfortunately the subcontractor, um, doing quite follow all that.

1332
01:37:58,792 --> 01:38:00,712
And it took us a minute to catch up to

1333
01:38:00,712 --> 01:38:03,432
them and, uh, put them on notice. So we are

1334
01:38:03,432 --> 01:38:05,512
currently working with them trying to get all that resolved

1335
01:38:05,533 --> 01:38:08,792
and getting them on board and understanding the requirements and

1336
01:38:08,832 --> 01:38:11,192
having to meet all those while we are also working

1337
01:38:11,293 --> 01:38:15,432
with some of the impacted residences and some of the,

1338
01:38:15,432 --> 01:38:18,072
um, some vehicles got damaged because they had to drive

1339
01:38:18,112 --> 01:38:21,412
over with pavement because they were not properly notified, for

1340
01:38:21,412 --> 01:38:23,992
example. So we are having somebody come to service their

1341
01:38:24,013 --> 01:38:26,872
vehicles and try to address all those concerns. Uh, that

1342
01:38:26,893 --> 01:38:31,352
said, um, it doesn't deviate promo general permit requirement. This

1343
01:38:31,373 --> 01:38:34,392
is, I would consider this as a one off situation.

1344
01:38:34,392 --> 01:38:36,792
Um, we do paving projects the year in and year

1345
01:38:36,813 --> 01:38:41,112
out and for the most part we, you know, there's

1346
01:38:41,112 --> 01:38:44,312
always one or two minor issues, nothing of this nature,

1347
01:38:44,312 --> 01:38:47,032
at least in the last few years. So, um, we'll

1348
01:38:47,032 --> 01:38:49,352
continue to work with that and improve and add some

1349
01:38:49,352 --> 01:38:52,472
more conditions and be more proactive in getting them on

1350
01:38:52,512 --> 01:38:55,512
board and making sure they understand how things get done.

1351
01:38:55,512 --> 01:38:57,672
Uh, that all said, I think in general, is bemhard

1352
01:38:57,672 --> 01:38:59,592
has done a pretty good job. And this portion of

1353
01:38:59,592 --> 01:39:02,312
the project is close to Del Rey elementary. And as

1354
01:39:02,312 --> 01:39:05,192
you can see in the later part of the package,

1355
01:39:05,373 --> 01:39:08,312
they are actually not implementing the entire road closure in

1356
01:39:08,413 --> 01:39:12,232
one stretch. It's only blocked by block, so to speak.

1357
01:39:12,232 --> 01:39:14,452
So the D2s are going to be very short. And

1358
01:39:14,452 --> 01:39:17,112
those folks who are living in that street. For this

1359
01:39:17,152 --> 01:39:19,752
type of project, because it's not, uh, the entire width

1360
01:39:19,752 --> 01:39:21,992
of the roadway, it's primarily the trench width of the

1361
01:39:21,992 --> 01:39:24,472
trench that's in the middle of the roadway. They will

1362
01:39:24,472 --> 01:39:27,032
still be able to work with the homeowners to allow

1363
01:39:27,213 --> 01:39:30,072
them access through their property. So they won't be restricted

1364
01:39:30,173 --> 01:39:33,912
access. There might be a few minute delays. For those

1365
01:39:33,912 --> 01:39:35,912
who are living in those streets, but, um, like I

1366
01:39:35,912 --> 01:39:37,992
said, they've done a pretty good job in the past

1367
01:39:38,013 --> 01:39:41,992
of notifying everybody and keeping us posted in what's going

1368
01:39:41,992 --> 01:39:44,874
on in the field. So. Really appreciate that. I saw

1369
01:39:44,895 --> 01:39:47,274
730 in the morning and I saw total closure and

1370
01:39:47,314 --> 01:39:50,794
I just, I really appreciate the explanation. Um, are there

1371
01:39:50,794 --> 01:39:53,754
any questions? Yeah. I'm glad you actually. I'm glad you

1372
01:39:53,935 --> 01:39:57,194
pulled this and asked this question because one thing I've

1373
01:39:57,234 --> 01:40:00,454
always wondered is do we, I will just tell you

1374
01:40:00,575 --> 01:40:02,714
like prior to being on the council, one of my

1375
01:40:02,714 --> 01:40:05,514
pet peeves is it would be like an important school

1376
01:40:05,615 --> 01:40:09,274
day, like graduation. And they're still a road closure. Do

1377
01:40:09,295 --> 01:40:12,394
I have a coordinate with the schools around this stuff?

1378
01:40:12,495 --> 01:40:14,954
Um, so that like, I mean, is it possible to

1379
01:40:14,954 --> 01:40:18,794
get the calendar and just make just on these critical

1380
01:40:18,975 --> 01:40:25,589
days to, yeah. Finals. And I mean, I know there

1381
01:40:25,589 --> 01:40:28,149
was something, but there are really a handful of days

1382
01:40:28,250 --> 01:40:35,049
where, you know, where you've got. Major events. And because

1383
01:40:35,049 --> 01:40:37,609
we have that one thoroughfare or because, you know, for

1384
01:40:37,649 --> 01:40:40,409
example, back to school night at Del Rey, like if

1385
01:40:40,409 --> 01:40:43,049
we can just make sure that we don't, I mean,

1386
01:40:43,070 --> 01:40:45,129
this will be over by three, you're saying. So it

1387
01:40:45,129 --> 01:40:48,685
wouldn't be impacted. But, you know, the situations like that,

1388
01:40:48,685 --> 01:40:51,805
that's a very thing. We do coordinate with the school

1389
01:40:51,845 --> 01:40:55,325
district, but not necessarily in that context. Uh, generally because

1390
01:40:55,365 --> 01:40:57,965
it has not come up, uh, most of the workovers

1391
01:40:58,005 --> 01:41:00,925
are outside of what school events are. Uh, but definitely

1392
01:41:01,106 --> 01:41:02,925
we look at the calendar. We are happy to share

1393
01:41:02,946 --> 01:41:05,565
that and, uh, we can check with the school district

1394
01:41:05,586 --> 01:41:08,445
if there are any events that happen during the daytime,

1395
01:41:08,445 --> 01:41:10,125
uh, like a game or something like that that we

1396
01:41:10,125 --> 01:41:12,685
need to coordinate should be easy enough to coordinate that.

1397
01:41:12,685 --> 01:41:14,605
I'll make another. Siva, I think Joe's right behind you

1398
01:41:14,946 --> 01:41:18,716
maybe wants to add a comment to that. Thank you,

1399
01:41:18,716 --> 01:41:22,376
Siva. Uh, thank you counsel and council member Malkani. Um,

1400
01:41:22,376 --> 01:41:24,716
so just to add to that, um, we did do

1401
01:41:24,817 --> 01:41:28,536
a community meeting for the, uh, La Cresta cluster, uh,

1402
01:41:28,577 --> 01:41:32,156
pipeline project on Thursday of last week. We did hear

1403
01:41:32,156 --> 01:41:35,116
about Del Rey. Um, we've reached out to Del Rey.

1404
01:41:35,116 --> 01:41:36,956
We're getting their school calendar just to make sure that

1405
01:41:36,956 --> 01:41:40,636
there's no impacts to pick up, uh, as SIVA explained

1406
01:41:41,057 --> 01:41:44,076
the hours kind of, uh, won't impact the nighttime activities,

1407
01:41:44,076 --> 01:41:45,836
but we're making sure that we're working with Del Rey.

1408
01:41:46,184 --> 01:41:49,666
Thank you so much for doing that. Yeah. Thank you.

1409
01:41:51,675 --> 01:41:54,454
I will say that when East Beymoud was working in

1410
01:41:54,454 --> 01:41:59,094
my neighborhood, the people were very professional. They knocked on

1411
01:41:59,134 --> 01:42:00,934
our doors and made sure we had our cars out

1412
01:42:01,035 --> 01:42:03,654
if we needed to because our small street is pretty

1413
01:42:03,654 --> 01:42:05,654
much impassable with the trench. I mean, I was very

1414
01:42:05,835 --> 01:42:10,134
impressed in general with the quality of customer service and

1415
01:42:10,134 --> 01:42:13,334
the care and concern that, uh, the contractor took to

1416
01:42:13,334 --> 01:42:17,094
make sure to inform all the homeowners, um, so I'm

1417
01:42:17,195 --> 01:42:20,694
relatively confident that that same care will be taken in

1418
01:42:20,694 --> 01:42:24,600
this neighborhood. And move forward. They must have known you

1419
01:42:24,640 --> 01:42:27,880
were city council member. I was going to say this

1420
01:42:27,920 --> 01:42:30,280
one project that went badly. I've heard all about the

1421
01:42:30,320 --> 01:42:33,080
one that went badly. So hearing the, that the standard

1422
01:42:33,101 --> 01:42:35,960
is such a high standard and the proactive communication is

1423
01:42:35,960 --> 01:42:40,816
wonderful. Thank you. Um, with that, if we don't have

1424
01:42:40,856 --> 01:42:44,736
any more common, uh, any public comment other than Joe.

1425
01:42:44,736 --> 01:42:47,074
Thank you very much. Do we have a motion to

1426
01:42:47,114 --> 01:42:51,973
approve I five. I move, we approve I five second.

1427
01:42:51,973 --> 01:42:57,313
All in favor. Aye. And now Idem J one, uh,

1428
01:42:57,434 --> 01:43:01,653
the annual development agreement compliance review for the wilder project.

1429
01:43:01,653 --> 01:43:04,613
Looks like we have, um, Ms. Palmer, I believe to

1430
01:43:04,613 --> 01:43:10,278
present for us. Yes. Right. This presentation is basically going

1431
01:43:10,278 --> 01:43:12,278
to summarize the information that was in the staff report.

1432
01:43:17,363 --> 01:43:23,091
Okay. So this slide shows the annual review process. So.

1433
01:43:24,572 --> 01:43:26,691
All right. You want me to jump in here. All

1434
01:43:26,691 --> 01:43:30,311
right. So, um, this process is similar to what we

1435
01:43:30,812 --> 01:43:33,831
used at the prior meeting for land use appeal. Because

1436
01:43:33,831 --> 01:43:37,271
again, this is quasi adjudicative and it's important that we

1437
01:43:37,772 --> 01:43:41,991
protect due process at such meetings. Uh, we have called

1438
01:43:42,012 --> 01:43:46,151
this item and we're now reviewing the procedure, which is

1439
01:43:46,191 --> 01:43:50,631
number two. Number three, once I'm done reviewing the procedure,

1440
01:43:50,631 --> 01:43:52,551
I'll return to the council and ask you to reveal

1441
01:43:53,052 --> 01:43:56,291
any ex party communications that you might have had, uh,

1442
01:43:56,972 --> 01:43:59,911
if those communications are reflected in the packet already, it's

1443
01:43:59,932 --> 01:44:04,231
fine to say that they are. The idea being all

1444
01:44:04,412 --> 01:44:07,191
the information that you've received relevant to this item should

1445
01:44:07,231 --> 01:44:11,591
be before all of you. And the public and the

1446
01:44:11,612 --> 01:44:16,152
applicant, uh, or the developer rather. We will then go

1447
01:44:16,192 --> 01:44:21,272
to number five, which, uh, staff report. And number six

1448
01:44:21,773 --> 01:44:26,152
questions for staff. And then, uh, the developer OG LLC

1449
01:44:26,173 --> 01:44:29,512
will be permitted 15 minutes to make presentation. I believe

1450
01:44:29,533 --> 01:44:34,472
they are going to be appearing by Zoom tonight. Then

1451
01:44:34,573 --> 01:44:38,952
questions of counsel of the developer. Then the public number

1452
01:44:38,992 --> 01:44:42,431
nine will be given three minutes per speaker. Uh, and

1453
01:44:42,471 --> 01:44:46,111
again, council can ask questions of individual members of the

1454
01:44:46,151 --> 01:44:50,511
public. Then the developer were given up to five minutes.

1455
01:44:50,511 --> 01:44:54,351
If they like to do rebuttal, then the parent public

1456
01:44:54,372 --> 01:44:56,431
hearing will be closed and the item will come back

1457
01:44:56,431 --> 01:45:01,272
to the council for deliberation of stash recommendation. So our

1458
01:45:01,272 --> 01:45:04,632
return to you with the ex party communication now. Thank

1459
01:45:04,632 --> 01:45:06,712
you. And I think we'll go this way starting with

1460
01:45:06,752 --> 01:45:09,752
council member hocks say to please disclose any exparthei communications

1461
01:45:09,752 --> 01:45:19,226
on the matter. None. The public comments we received. I've

1462
01:45:19,226 --> 01:45:23,175
had no expart day communication. None and none for me

1463
01:45:23,215 --> 01:45:25,095
either. So with that, I believe we will go to

1464
01:45:25,196 --> 01:45:27,975
the staff report place. All right. So now we are

1465
01:45:27,996 --> 01:45:33,292
on step five. Okay. So on November 15th of 1994,

1466
01:45:33,292 --> 01:45:36,092
the city council entered into a development agreement with Pacific

1467
01:45:36,132 --> 01:45:39,292
new wave corporation, setting forth the terms related to the

1468
01:45:39,313 --> 01:45:42,092
development of the gateway valley, which is now referred to

1469
01:45:42,113 --> 01:45:46,092
as the wilder development. And two years later, the arinda

1470
01:45:46,092 --> 01:45:49,612
gateway OG property owners LLC, which I will refer to

1471
01:45:49,633 --> 01:45:53,132
as OGLLC, acquired the property. And they are bound by

1472
01:45:53,172 --> 01:45:55,852
the terms of the original agreement and its nine subsequent

1473
01:45:55,892 --> 01:45:58,812
amendments. And some of those key amendments are included on

1474
01:45:58,852 --> 01:46:06,421
the slide here. So tonight we're reviewing OG LLC's compliance

1475
01:46:06,461 --> 01:46:10,021
with the remaining obligations under the development agreement and related

1476
01:46:10,042 --> 01:46:14,741
approvals, including financial obligations, insurance, and noncompliance with obligations under

1477
01:46:14,922 --> 01:46:21,590
resource agency permits. OG LLC has financial obligations to reimburse

1478
01:46:21,590 --> 01:46:25,910
the city for costs associated with the implementation annual monitoring

1479
01:46:26,411 --> 01:46:29,270
and other activities related to the development agreement and the

1480
01:46:29,310 --> 01:46:33,190
project. They also have funds on deposit for subdivision improvement

1481
01:46:33,211 --> 01:46:37,822
agreement and sidewalk agreement. So at 5, 000 for sidewalk,

1482
01:46:37,822 --> 01:46:41,022
OG LLC has provided 30, 000 as a security for

1483
01:46:41,043 --> 01:46:44,302
the six sidewalks to be constructed. Uh, the deposit will

1484
01:46:44,302 --> 01:46:48,362
be eligible for release once each sidewalk is completed. And

1485
01:46:48,362 --> 01:46:53,228
OG LLC is concurrent with our other obligations. Based on

1486
01:46:53,449 --> 01:46:55,668
a site review conducted by the director of public works

1487
01:46:55,689 --> 01:46:58,468
and engineering on June 8th, five of the six locations

1488
01:46:58,508 --> 01:47:02,453
are complete. The developer is also obligated to maintain a

1489
01:47:02,453 --> 01:47:05,973
minimum deposit of 100, 000 in a deposit account retained

1490
01:47:05,973 --> 01:47:10,213
by the city. And OG LLC has provided both the

1491
01:47:10,213 --> 01:47:13,333
above mentioned deposits and soaring compliance with these financial applications

1492
01:47:13,354 --> 01:47:19,324
to the city. In addition to the previous deposits mentioned,

1493
01:47:19,425 --> 01:47:22,364
the city of Arinda holds a separate tree deposit in

1494
01:47:22,364 --> 01:47:26,284
the amount of 72, 000 made in 2009. OG LLC

1495
01:47:26,324 --> 01:47:29,164
and the city have entered into agreement dated April 7th,

1496
01:47:29,164 --> 01:47:32,284
2026 stating that the city will retain and may use

1497
01:47:32,385 --> 01:47:36,604
these funds as needed to pay any defaulted or pass

1498
01:47:36,604 --> 01:47:38,284
- to - property taxes for any of the open

1499
01:47:38,305 --> 01:47:41,778
space properties. To pay any currently due non - defaulted

1500
01:47:41,818 --> 01:47:45,138
property taxes for any of the open space properties to

1501
01:47:45,178 --> 01:47:47,778
pay any future property taxes assessed on any of the

1502
01:47:47,959 --> 01:47:50,498
open space properties before they are transferred to the GAD

1503
01:47:51,079 --> 01:47:53,538
and to replenish the required amount on the deposit with

1504
01:47:53,559 --> 01:47:57,778
the city reimbursement of city costs related to processing entitlements

1505
01:47:58,199 --> 01:48:00,898
and other approvals or actions for the wilder project in

1506
01:48:00,938 --> 01:48:04,418
Gateway Valley. And if necessary, to amend the subdivision improvement

1507
01:48:04,458 --> 01:48:08,738
agreement, reimbursement agreement and sidewalk agreement. And a portion of

1508
01:48:08,839 --> 01:48:11,378
the tree deposit was used this summer for fuel mitigation

1509
01:48:11,418 --> 01:48:18,738
work per written authorization by OGLC. Right. Section 5. 2

1510
01:48:18,738 --> 01:48:22,018
of the development agreement requires OG LLZ to maintain liability

1511
01:48:22,199 --> 01:48:26,738
insurance, ensuring against bodily injury property damage and personal injury

1512
01:48:26,759 --> 01:48:30,578
liability arising out of OG LLC's activities under the DA

1513
01:48:30,919 --> 01:48:33,778
with a combined single liability limit of not less than

1514
01:48:34,039 --> 01:48:36,818
1 million per currents. At the time of the writing

1515
01:48:36,858 --> 01:48:39,938
of this report, OGLC had not provided the city with

1516
01:48:40,039 --> 01:48:44,658
insurance certificates documenting compliance with this requirement. Yesterday they provided

1517
01:48:44,839 --> 01:48:49,138
an insurance declaration, uh, which is included as late correspondence.

1518
01:48:49,138 --> 01:48:52,178
And that may bring them further into compliance. However, staff

1519
01:48:52,199 --> 01:48:58,530
has not had time to fully review. Under the DA,

1520
01:48:58,530 --> 01:49:01,170
OG LLC is obligated to comply with all the requirements

1521
01:49:01,191 --> 01:49:05,490
and permits obtained from the California Department Official Wildlife, which

1522
01:49:05,511 --> 01:49:10,551
I will use CDFW, uh, and other resource agencies. So

1523
01:49:10,892 --> 01:49:15,671
CDFW recently sent letters to OG LLC describing various permit

1524
01:49:15,692 --> 01:49:20,311
compliance issues and directing OG LLC to come into compliance.

1525
01:49:20,311 --> 01:49:23,031
So as such, OG LLC's failure to comply with the

1526
01:49:23,052 --> 01:49:26,951
requirements described in CDFW's letters is also a violation of

1527
01:49:26,951 --> 01:49:33,555
the DA. CDFW's July 3rd, 2026 letter request that OG

1528
01:49:33,595 --> 01:49:37,795
LLC provide funding and implementation plan by August 2nd, 2026

1529
01:49:38,216 --> 01:49:41,635
that clearly and concisely documents how OG LLC will fund

1530
01:49:41,736 --> 01:49:46,715
and complete the outstanding obligations by December 30th, 2026. In

1531
01:49:46,715 --> 01:49:50,755
a letter dated August 6th, 2026, CDFW provided additional background

1532
01:49:50,776 --> 01:49:54,675
information and granted OG LLC and extension to September 1st,

1533
01:49:54,675 --> 01:49:58,595
2026, uh, to provide a funding and implementation plan that

1534
01:49:58,635 --> 01:50:02,115
clearly and concisely documents how OG LLC will fund and

1535
01:50:02,136 --> 01:50:06,995
complete the secured obligations by December 30th, 2026. So staff

1536
01:50:06,995 --> 01:50:10,035
suggests OG LLC be directed to keep the city apprised

1537
01:50:10,075 --> 01:50:12,115
of its efforts to come into compliance with the requirements

1538
01:50:12,296 --> 01:50:19,246
described in CDFW's letters. The developer is currently, is current

1539
01:50:19,286 --> 01:50:21,966
on their financial obligations. However, they have not complied with

1540
01:50:21,987 --> 01:50:25,086
obligations under resource agency permits. And we have not yet

1541
01:50:25,126 --> 01:50:29,246
confirmed compliance with insurance obligations. So as such, staff recommends

1542
01:50:29,286 --> 01:50:32,446
that the city council adopt the proposed resolution number 65

1543
01:50:32,547 --> 01:50:35,966
- 26, finding that OG LLC has not complied in

1544
01:50:35,987 --> 01:50:45,228
good faith with the DA and related. Is there anything

1545
01:50:45,228 --> 01:50:47,868
further? That's, I think that's a conclusion of the report.

1546
01:50:47,868 --> 01:50:51,468
I think what's recommended in the resolution is that we

1547
01:50:51,508 --> 01:50:54,268
give them 30 days to comply with the insurance requirement.

1548
01:50:55,374 --> 01:50:58,473
Uh, and we can spend some time evaluating what they

1549
01:50:58,574 --> 01:51:04,233
submitted initial reviews suggest it is not compliant and that

1550
01:51:04,233 --> 01:51:06,073
we need to continue to work with them to get

1551
01:51:06,113 --> 01:51:11,217
a compliant insurance. Documentation from them. Uh, thank you. Was

1552
01:51:11,257 --> 01:51:15,737
there something in the additional correspondence with the insurance? I

1553
01:51:15,737 --> 01:51:18,257
don't recall seeing that. And maybe I miss. They did.

1554
01:51:18,257 --> 01:51:22,097
It is in the late correspondence. There's basically a declaration

1555
01:51:22,598 --> 01:51:25,697
sheet that we included in the correspondence. Yesterday they gave

1556
01:51:25,878 --> 01:51:30,177
us approximately 70 pages of policy document. Uh, I say.

1557
01:51:30,177 --> 01:51:34,977
Okay. We've included in that to avoid photocopying all 70

1558
01:51:34,998 --> 01:51:39,057
pages. It's just given you the two page, uh, summary.

1559
01:51:39,097 --> 01:51:42,497
I can, um, so like I said, it was received

1560
01:51:42,518 --> 01:51:44,977
yesterday. So we haven't had time to do a complete

1561
01:51:44,998 --> 01:51:48,017
review, but the review I have done indicates to me

1562
01:51:48,057 --> 01:51:51,377
that they remain out of compliance with the insurance requirements

1563
01:51:51,638 --> 01:51:56,497
in the development agreement. Um, there's, I think, a strong

1564
01:51:56,537 --> 01:51:58,977
possibility that there was a gap in coverage and we

1565
01:51:58,977 --> 01:52:04,337
need a continuous coverage, of course. And the references in

1566
01:52:04,337 --> 01:52:08,897
the materials we've received to premises liability associated with seven

1567
01:52:08,918 --> 01:52:13,697
paintbrush lane. That of course is the former sales office,

1568
01:52:13,697 --> 01:52:15,777
I believe. I do not think that property is still

1569
01:52:15,777 --> 01:52:19,377
owned by the developer. So we need to deal with

1570
01:52:19,377 --> 01:52:23,937
that. Um, there are many, many exclusions in the insurance

1571
01:52:23,977 --> 01:52:27,537
documentation we received that are inconsistent with the requirements and

1572
01:52:27,537 --> 01:52:31,057
the development agreement. So, um, I agree we need more

1573
01:52:31,097 --> 01:52:34,737
time to review it, but I also believe that staff's

1574
01:52:34,737 --> 01:52:38,897
recommendation stands. The materials we have do not indicate compliance

1575
01:52:38,937 --> 01:52:43,292
with the insurance requirement. It's very helpful. Thank you. And

1576
01:52:43,292 --> 01:52:48,429
then I'll see what other questions people have. I have

1577
01:52:48,690 --> 01:52:51,529
one regarding this extension that was given to them, uh,

1578
01:52:51,650 --> 01:52:56,029
for September one, which is today. Have they, uh, provided

1579
01:52:56,069 --> 01:52:59,549
you with any additional information. So in the late correspondence

1580
01:52:59,589 --> 01:53:04,509
packet this evening is a letter that today was delivered

1581
01:53:04,610 --> 01:53:08,749
by the developer to the California Department Official Wildlife. It's

1582
01:53:08,749 --> 01:53:11,469
a two page letter and it has a spreadsheet attached.

1583
01:53:11,946 --> 01:53:15,685
And it's available to the council to review. I would

1584
01:53:15,685 --> 01:53:19,845
say the summary is that, uh, they remain out of

1585
01:53:19,845 --> 01:53:27,605
compliance with the CDFWs, uh, permit, uh, they are going

1586
01:53:27,605 --> 01:53:31,365
to, I guess, continue to have conversations with CDFW about

1587
01:53:31,466 --> 01:53:35,365
how to resolve that. Uh, including, uh, potentially calling the

1588
01:53:35,466 --> 01:53:41,585
bond. So what are the next steps, does the CDFW

1589
01:53:41,766 --> 01:53:45,105
have to review that additional information? What's their decision process

1590
01:53:45,606 --> 01:53:49,819
for calling the bond. Uh, that's a great question. And,

1591
01:53:49,819 --> 01:53:53,899
uh, I'm not completely clear on what their internal decision

1592
01:53:54,000 --> 01:53:56,139
- making process is going to be. But I am

1593
01:53:56,400 --> 01:53:59,259
in regular communication with their attorney and we are encouraging

1594
01:53:59,440 --> 01:54:04,779
them to go down that path. Of course, it's their

1595
01:54:04,819 --> 01:54:10,379
bond and they're the lead enforcement agency here. We do

1596
01:54:10,400 --> 01:54:14,619
have a GAD board meeting scheduled for two weeks from

1597
01:54:14,640 --> 01:54:18,539
tonight where we will have, uh, an update for you,

1598
01:54:18,539 --> 01:54:21,259
uh, about those DAOs of the transfers of the open

1599
01:54:21,299 --> 01:54:24,459
space properties. And if I have more information, I mean,

1600
01:54:24,800 --> 01:54:27,659
they, I'm sure have barely had chance to open the

1601
01:54:27,699 --> 01:54:30,059
letter, let alone process it. But if I can learn

1602
01:54:30,080 --> 01:54:32,939
more between now and the 15th, I will, uh, report

1603
01:54:32,979 --> 01:54:36,726
back. Thank you. Just for the members of the public

1604
01:54:37,067 --> 01:54:39,526
that are interested that GAD meeting will be at six

1605
01:54:39,566 --> 01:54:44,372
o'clock. Could you just clarify for people who aren't, uh,

1606
01:54:44,493 --> 01:54:49,112
as conversion between tonight's review of the development agreement and

1607
01:54:49,213 --> 01:54:52,792
the September 15, 6 p. m. GAD meeting. Can you

1608
01:54:52,832 --> 01:54:56,792
just conceptually explain how those relate? Yes. So the city

1609
01:54:56,832 --> 01:54:59,272
of Ribinda has for a long time now had this

1610
01:54:59,293 --> 01:55:04,212
development agreement in place for Wilder. And it remains, uh,

1611
01:55:04,733 --> 01:55:09,432
operative. But of course, most of the development is complete.

1612
01:55:09,432 --> 01:55:12,792
But every year until it is closed out or until

1613
01:55:12,973 --> 01:55:15,512
the development agreement expires, we will be needing to have

1614
01:55:15,613 --> 01:55:19,912
these compliance checks. So that's what tonight is about the

1615
01:55:19,952 --> 01:55:23,368
city council is the one that holds that hearing. The

1616
01:55:23,469 --> 01:55:27,688
geologic hazard abatement district, the GAD is the slated future

1617
01:55:27,728 --> 01:55:30,948
property owner for some of these open space properties. And

1618
01:55:30,948 --> 01:55:34,888
so with your GAD hats on, you will be receiving

1619
01:55:35,069 --> 01:55:37,608
an update on the status of that transfer in two

1620
01:55:37,608 --> 01:55:42,650
weeks. Thank you. Are there, um, are there any other

1621
01:55:42,650 --> 01:55:52,103
questions for staff. I have one. Finding. Finding them

1622
01:55:52,764 --> 01:55:58,663
in compliance with financial obligations in no way. Does that

1623
01:55:58,684 --> 01:56:08,374
excuse their obligation? I mean, does that excuse. The

1624
01:56:08,555 --> 01:56:11,254
claim? I guess I'm having, I'm having a little trouble

1625
01:56:12,155 --> 01:56:17,680
reconciling that conclusion with the fact that. There's all these

1626
01:56:17,861 --> 01:56:23,680
financial commitments that were at least arguably left are still

1627
01:56:23,680 --> 01:56:27,600
sitting on the table and we're using other funds right

1628
01:56:27,781 --> 01:56:32,142
through agreement. To pay the default property taxes. And, you

1629
01:56:32,142 --> 01:56:33,682
know, we're using the tree deposit. I mean, I read

1630
01:56:33,703 --> 01:56:36,624
through everything. You know, and I saw the letter from

1631
01:56:36,725 --> 01:56:45,765
the city. To them, right, that asserts that I think

1632
01:56:45,805 --> 01:56:52,671
it was. The, sorry, this was the, um. Asserting that.

1633
01:56:55,502 --> 01:56:58,121
We still have the right, even though we're using this,

1634
01:56:58,121 --> 01:57:00,681
we're still reserving the right that you always, this fund.

1635
01:57:00,681 --> 01:57:03,881
So that's where I'm having a, can you explain that

1636
01:57:03,921 --> 01:57:07,481
a little bit in terms of the, I can try

1637
01:57:07,481 --> 01:57:09,801
to help with that. Maybe Selena can't as well. Hey.

1638
01:57:09,841 --> 01:57:13,721
So I think I'm a little less familiar with some

1639
01:57:13,721 --> 01:57:16,121
of this stuff than. So Staff and I were listing

1640
01:57:16,161 --> 01:57:20,127
in the staff report. The, the things we check for

1641
01:57:20,228 --> 01:57:23,167
compliance with each year. So we know, for example, that

1642
01:57:23,167 --> 01:57:26,287
they have completed the art and garden center. So we

1643
01:57:26,287 --> 01:57:28,727
don't report that to you because we've already, that's in

1644
01:57:28,727 --> 01:57:32,287
the past. The things that remain live are that they

1645
01:57:32,327 --> 01:57:35,167
need to keep on deposit with us sufficient funds for

1646
01:57:35,188 --> 01:57:38,047
us to be able to continue this oversight role that

1647
01:57:38,047 --> 01:57:41,327
we have. And so you know, pointed out in the

1648
01:57:41,367 --> 01:57:44,267
staff report that indeed they do. They do have, uh,

1649
01:57:44,388 --> 01:57:49,536
the required financial deposit with us. And then she's detailed

1650
01:57:49,717 --> 01:57:52,176
all of the, right. Okay. Right. Right. And then the

1651
01:57:52,176 --> 01:57:54,656
insurance is another important requirement. And that one they have

1652
01:57:54,677 --> 01:58:00,312
not. Shown us evidence of compliance. So staff's recommending a

1653
01:58:00,352 --> 01:58:04,872
finding of noncompliance there. And then since last year we

1654
01:58:04,912 --> 01:58:08,472
had this new development, which is the CDFW has sent

1655
01:58:08,653 --> 01:58:11,672
out this notice to the developer saying that they have

1656
01:58:11,773 --> 01:58:17,332
failed to meet their obligations. Because those permit obligations, uh,

1657
01:58:18,413 --> 01:58:21,192
are related, I would say to the development agreement, because

1658
01:58:21,192 --> 01:58:22,952
the development agreement requires them to comply with all their

1659
01:58:22,992 --> 01:58:26,612
permits. I think it is also a development agreement, um,

1660
01:58:27,133 --> 01:58:30,472
noncompliance issue. And so that's why we've listed that for

1661
01:58:30,472 --> 01:58:40,002
you this year. Okay. So. An agreement to

1662
01:58:40,183 --> 01:58:44,642
repurposely amounts of the tree deposit and the additional funds

1663
01:58:44,682 --> 01:58:49,042
to meet that 100, 000 requirement is, is sufficient. That

1664
01:58:49,042 --> 01:58:52,482
does make them compliant financially. And I think is contractually

1665
01:58:52,663 --> 01:58:58,485
they have satisfied what the DA states. Thank you. Um,

1666
01:58:58,525 --> 01:59:01,525
I had one of their question. There was a late

1667
01:59:01,525 --> 01:59:06,885
correspondence from a dancelaughter regarding trails. Um, I realized that

1668
01:59:06,925 --> 01:59:09,685
what we're here to do is to narrow issues and

1669
01:59:09,685 --> 01:59:14,085
not broaden issues. However, I've always been very interested in

1670
01:59:15,146 --> 01:59:19,765
the original promise of Wilder, um, of open space and

1671
01:59:19,786 --> 01:59:23,765
dedicated park and all of that. And the reality, which

1672
01:59:23,765 --> 01:59:28,245
is that the trails that are there are really minimal

1673
01:59:28,826 --> 01:59:31,285
and not that great and not connected to all the

1674
01:59:31,386 --> 01:59:35,525
nearby systems. So I thought this letter was, uh, important

1675
01:59:35,706 --> 01:59:38,645
and well timed because it is true that the more

1676
01:59:38,685 --> 01:59:43,045
we just, you know, deal with it mañana, we might

1677
01:59:43,306 --> 01:59:46,765
miss an opportunity, but I, but it seems like, so

1678
01:59:46,765 --> 01:59:50,645
I asked the question neither the development agreement itself, that

1679
01:59:50,645 --> 01:59:55,605
doesn't seem to create that obligation. But the GADS lands

1680
01:59:55,626 --> 01:59:58,565
are not really the subject matter. It's more the question

1681
01:59:58,605 --> 02:00:03,008
of the conversations we have. When the land is deeded

1682
02:00:03,008 --> 02:00:08,768
over to the various, um, park agencies and conservation agencies.

1683
02:00:08,768 --> 02:00:13,168
Can you help us understand if there is a point

1684
02:00:13,509 --> 02:00:21,456
in time where those are appropriate conversations to have. Um.

1685
02:00:22,633 --> 02:00:26,992
I don't have full information about the trail system, but

1686
02:00:26,992 --> 02:00:30,052
my understanding is that that was a very carefully planned

1687
02:00:31,273 --> 02:00:33,572
thing, right? That you would be able to walk from

1688
02:00:33,993 --> 02:00:40,212
wilder up to sibly, for example. And those connections are

1689
02:00:40,233 --> 02:00:43,892
part of what the developer and the future East Bay

1690
02:00:43,932 --> 02:00:48,291
Parks owner will have for the public. If the request

1691
02:00:48,331 --> 02:00:52,531
is to expand that network, that will likely require additional

1692
02:00:52,632 --> 02:00:57,731
permitting additional interaction with CDFW because the trails as they

1693
02:00:57,771 --> 02:01:01,891
exist today are the ones that are authorized out there.

1694
02:01:03,592 --> 02:01:07,331
My understanding is the Red Hawk staging area, maybe Red

1695
02:01:07,331 --> 02:01:10,611
Hog Table staging area was deemed in feasible because I

1696
02:01:10,611 --> 02:01:13,891
was there for that DA amendment when they said it

1697
02:01:13,891 --> 02:01:15,491
can't be done. So we're letting it go. You're not

1698
02:01:15,491 --> 02:01:18,851
missing anything. But it just seems like the original promise

1699
02:01:18,891 --> 02:01:23,411
of connectivity and well - signed well - maintained trails.

1700
02:01:23,411 --> 02:01:26,955
It's not that great. And so I'm just curious if

1701
02:01:26,976 --> 02:01:31,835
we have just by attrition lost the original vision, which

1702
02:01:31,835 --> 02:01:35,515
is kind of what this letter says, or if the

1703
02:01:35,515 --> 02:01:39,195
original vision was kind of misunderstood as being better than

1704
02:01:39,376 --> 02:01:41,515
it was. I mean, I'm not looking to broaden. I

1705
02:01:41,515 --> 02:01:43,755
just, I have, I have felt the same thing that

1706
02:01:43,936 --> 02:01:47,675
this letter writer has expressed, which is this has fallen

1707
02:01:47,856 --> 02:01:50,075
way short of what we all thought it would look

1708
02:01:50,075 --> 02:01:55,717
like when it became Parkland. Okay. I don't know the

1709
02:01:55,757 --> 02:01:57,717
answer to that as we sit here, but we can

1710
02:01:57,757 --> 02:02:01,057
look into the historical documents and figure out what, um,

1711
02:02:02,618 --> 02:02:05,237
I know there was a trail plan, right? And I

1712
02:02:05,237 --> 02:02:07,477
don't know if that matches what's in the real world

1713
02:02:07,738 --> 02:02:11,797
today. Whether, I mean, certainly the future property owners could

1714
02:02:11,978 --> 02:02:15,445
sign things better. Right. If the, if that's the issue.

1715
02:02:15,445 --> 02:02:18,325
But if the issue is that the trail network itself

1716
02:02:18,506 --> 02:02:23,925
is insufficient, um, that is a, that's a bigger conversation

1717
02:02:24,026 --> 02:02:31,327
than our development agreement, compliance review. So can I ask

1718
02:02:31,428 --> 02:02:33,807
a follow - up question of that? So what I'm

1719
02:02:33,847 --> 02:02:38,687
just looking at the public comment and the, the resident

1720
02:02:39,348 --> 02:02:44,127
is, is asking that any, I guess, future finding or

1721
02:02:44,167 --> 02:02:47,327
current finding of good faith compliance be conditioned on documented

1722
02:02:47,367 --> 02:02:53,167
progress towards this public access framework, right? Towards the trail.

1723
02:02:53,167 --> 02:02:59,209
And it, it. It seemed to me that. That felt

1724
02:02:59,390 --> 02:03:01,849
incongruous and I'm not quite sure why. And maybe you

1725
02:03:01,849 --> 02:03:06,656
can help explain that. And, and, and if not now,

1726
02:03:06,656 --> 02:03:10,306
if, if. Reviewing the trail network is not tied to

1727
02:03:10,407 --> 02:03:18,130
a compliance finding, then what is it tied to. Where

1728
02:03:18,231 --> 02:03:22,530
does that fit in in terms of wilder? Right. And

1729
02:03:22,530 --> 02:03:27,970
again, I apologize for having somewhat naive state question there,

1730
02:03:27,970 --> 02:03:31,010
but I, I also didn't understand that. It's certainly the

1731
02:03:31,010 --> 02:03:34,370
case that the art and garden center respite area that

1732
02:03:34,410 --> 02:03:39,230
was originally planned for that, you know, the site, the

1733
02:03:39,230 --> 02:03:43,010
red hawk site. That was removed in the last development

1734
02:03:43,031 --> 02:03:48,560
agreement amendment. I don't know whether any trails were removed,

1735
02:03:48,560 --> 02:03:52,320
however. I think it was just that site so that

1736
02:03:52,981 --> 02:03:56,500
the trails might still be part of the plan. I

1737
02:03:56,841 --> 02:03:59,540
have, until I read this, I had not, I had

1738
02:03:59,540 --> 02:04:02,340
not heard an allegation of noncompliance with the DA based

1739
02:04:02,340 --> 02:04:05,940
on trails. So it's not something that, um, I have

1740
02:04:06,201 --> 02:04:08,100
any, I don't have an opinion one way or the

1741
02:04:08,100 --> 02:04:11,200
other, but we can certainly look into it. I'd like

1742
02:04:11,200 --> 02:04:13,840
to formally ask that we, uh, just as a follow

1743
02:04:13,880 --> 02:04:19,680
- up item, uh, find out what the original plan

1744
02:04:20,101 --> 02:04:24,000
versus where we are today looks like because it does

1745
02:04:24,021 --> 02:04:27,280
feel like a missed opportunity. And again, I've just, it's

1746
02:04:27,320 --> 02:04:32,160
not exactly the GAD's territory. It's not exactly a noncompliance

1747
02:04:32,200 --> 02:04:34,960
issue, but there may be an opportunity to do something

1748
02:04:35,301 --> 02:04:39,120
that's constructive. Um, so it would just be nice if

1749
02:04:39,221 --> 02:04:42,541
we could understand that. As we are spending all this

1750
02:04:42,581 --> 02:04:45,981
attention on wilder matters right now. So, and I do

1751
02:04:46,021 --> 02:04:49,021
appreciate that that's not what we're here to do tonight.

1752
02:04:49,021 --> 02:04:52,461
Uh, but it was a well timed question to ask.

1753
02:04:52,461 --> 02:04:56,273
And thank you for that. Um, any other questions? I

1754
02:04:56,273 --> 02:04:58,876
would agree with that, Mayor. Thank you. Any other questions.

1755
02:04:59,755 --> 02:05:01,894
Okay. With that, I believe the next step is to

1756
02:05:01,894 --> 02:05:05,334
turn it over to the applicant. Um, and as a

1757
02:05:05,334 --> 02:05:06,934
reminder to the applicant to please let us know how

1758
02:05:06,974 --> 02:05:09,734
many minutes they would like to reserve for rebuttal before

1759
02:05:09,774 --> 02:05:17,846
they begin. Can you hear me? Can you hear me?

1760
02:05:18,855 --> 02:05:23,608
Yes. Okay. Yeah. This is Chris Jeledge. From a reni

1761
02:05:23,629 --> 02:05:27,208
gateway LLC. Um, I just have a couple of comments

1762
02:05:27,389 --> 02:05:33,368
to make time that you wanted to reserve. Oh, I

1763
02:05:33,368 --> 02:05:37,503
don't need much. Yeah. It might be three minutes. I

1764
02:05:37,503 --> 02:05:39,103
mean, I won't take much time. And then I can

1765
02:05:39,143 --> 02:05:43,183
answer questions too, but I mean, from either turn up

1766
02:05:43,183 --> 02:05:48,126
your volume or speak up a little bit. See how

1767
02:05:48,166 --> 02:05:52,231
I do that. Can you hear me. Yeah. Is that

1768
02:05:52,231 --> 02:06:00,476
better. Okay. Thank you. Is that better? Okay. Anyway, I'll

1769
02:06:00,516 --> 02:06:02,876
need three minutes, but I mean, just a couple of

1770
02:06:02,977 --> 02:06:11,349
big pictures things. You know, we've worked. With the city,

1771
02:06:11,349 --> 02:06:14,229
you know, all these years and tried to deliver a

1772
02:06:14,330 --> 02:06:19,189
high quality project. And I think Arinda Wilder is. And,

1773
02:06:19,189 --> 02:06:21,909
you know, but what's happened with this project that's taken

1774
02:06:22,010 --> 02:06:26,389
so long for us is the developer to try to

1775
02:06:26,429 --> 02:06:30,229
manage out of these obligations that you were naming off.

1776
02:06:30,828 --> 02:06:36,247
And I don't think people really realize the overhead click

1777
02:06:36,668 --> 02:06:40,327
that happens when things get delayed. And I'm not blaming

1778
02:06:40,508 --> 02:06:44,407
anybody on the delays. I mean, then, but it was

1779
02:06:44,447 --> 02:06:47,527
very punitive to our group. I mean, punitive to the

1780
02:06:47,527 --> 02:06:52,257
point where it closed our company down. And it's been

1781
02:06:52,518 --> 02:06:54,817
five years that my partner who was in charge of

1782
02:06:54,817 --> 02:06:58,540
this project, Scott Goldie had passed away. And we're still

1783
02:06:58,641 --> 02:07:02,380
stuck. And I think the solutions that will take some

1784
02:07:02,401 --> 02:07:04,300
work to go ahead and figure out a way to

1785
02:07:05,041 --> 02:07:09,371
get property turned back over to the GAD. Have it

1786
02:07:09,371 --> 02:07:12,171
protected through the God. I think there's ways to work

1787
02:07:12,211 --> 02:07:17,451
with CDFW, um, to get them what they want. And,

1788
02:07:17,451 --> 02:07:19,371
um, just because it's taken so long too, just a

1789
02:07:19,371 --> 02:07:22,311
couple of those ideas that we've sent back to, you

1790
02:07:22,311 --> 02:07:26,971
know, the different groups, that letter that you refer to,

1791
02:07:26,971 --> 02:07:29,751
we sent back out discussing the fact that, you know,

1792
02:07:29,792 --> 02:07:32,651
the money that's been paid into God, you know, we

1793
02:07:32,651 --> 02:07:36,695
initially funded that. We had all of those responsibilities for

1794
02:07:36,716 --> 02:07:40,150
all these years. Um, your team in the last few

1795
02:07:40,171 --> 02:07:43,270
years has been really helpful in working with us using

1796
02:07:43,310 --> 02:07:47,974
our deposits. You know, working with God to figure out

1797
02:07:48,315 --> 02:07:51,574
the Lucians on some of these things. But the at

1798
02:07:51,574 --> 02:07:54,694
least five million dollars that's been stockpiled in that CAD.

1799
02:07:57,139 --> 02:08:00,158
And, you know, we're, we're asking for help and just

1800
02:08:00,158 --> 02:08:01,678
saying, Hey, could you take a look at some of

1801
02:08:01,678 --> 02:08:05,358
these alternatives for us, which would be, you know, using

1802
02:08:05,398 --> 02:08:08,078
some of that money that was collected for all these

1803
02:08:08,118 --> 02:08:12,758
years. What we were doing that maintenance was CDFW, we

1804
02:08:12,758 --> 02:08:17,449
funded endowments. You know, 17 years ago. And that money

1805
02:08:17,550 --> 02:08:21,749
has been an account collecting and accruing interest. And, you

1806
02:08:21,749 --> 02:08:23,449
know, the couple of things that they've asked us to

1807
02:08:23,449 --> 02:08:26,569
do that originally didn't take, that they still said that

1808
02:08:26,609 --> 02:08:29,838
they would like to see. There's things like that, that,

1809
02:08:29,838 --> 02:08:32,878
um, from our standpoint, we would love to figure out

1810
02:08:32,899 --> 02:08:35,198
a way to work with them and just with some

1811
02:08:35,198 --> 02:08:37,832
of these overages that are there. To be able to

1812
02:08:37,832 --> 02:08:41,719
get them what they need. And for us to move

1813
02:08:41,759 --> 02:08:46,199
on, cause I mean, it literally has this project we

1814
02:08:46,199 --> 02:08:49,436
had no idea. When we stepped into the shoes here

1815
02:08:49,857 --> 02:08:51,896
that on the end, it was going to, you know,

1816
02:08:52,257 --> 02:08:55,895
be what it is. And again, I'm not blaming anybody.

1817
02:08:57,943 --> 02:09:00,222
And it just, you know, things have taken longer. But

1818
02:09:00,222 --> 02:09:03,282
when the delay by an agency or somebody's change their

1819
02:09:03,322 --> 02:09:08,360
mind at the agency level, it's punitive to us. And,

1820
02:09:08,360 --> 02:09:09,720
you know, we, we bore the brunt of that as

1821
02:09:09,720 --> 02:09:11,120
long as we could. And we just can't bear it

1822
02:09:11,120 --> 02:09:15,585
anymore. And so, um, we're looking at these other creative

1823
02:09:15,625 --> 02:09:18,545
alternatives with the money that has been sitting in these

1824
02:09:18,726 --> 02:09:22,465
counts for all these years and asking for some creative

1825
02:09:22,505 --> 02:09:25,116
solutions and to be able to use that. Um, to

1826
02:09:25,116 --> 02:09:29,036
get these final items, you know, hopefully opt the tick

1827
02:09:29,036 --> 02:09:37,072
list. That's all that I had. I just. Okay. Um,

1828
02:09:37,173 --> 02:09:39,632
I would begin by asking if there are any council

1829
02:09:39,632 --> 02:09:45,873
member questions for the applicant. Uh, no questions at this

1830
02:09:45,873 --> 02:09:47,953
time. There might be after rebuttals. So we'll turn it

1831
02:09:47,953 --> 02:09:51,553
over to public comment. Uh, I've got three speaker cards

1832
02:09:51,734 --> 02:09:53,313
and then we'll see if there are other comments after

1833
02:09:53,334 --> 02:09:57,393
that. We'll start with Bob Finch. And after that John

1834
02:09:57,414 --> 02:10:01,848
Xanther. And Mark asked people we heard. And I would

1835
02:10:01,869 --> 02:10:04,568
remind the speakers to please limit comments to three minutes.

1836
02:10:04,568 --> 02:10:04,728
Thank you.

1837
02:10:38,823 --> 02:10:43,522
When it comes to the relationship of Wilder and OG,

1838
02:10:43,522 --> 02:10:47,342
it's been a history of, um, vagueness and smoke and

1839
02:10:47,342 --> 02:10:54,432
mirrors. Going back to a prior meeting just like this,

1840
02:10:54,432 --> 02:10:58,672
we heard the prior city manager, not the current one,

1841
02:10:58,672 --> 02:11:02,592
tell us that in the annual review that the city

1842
02:11:02,632 --> 02:11:05,872
was working with OG to renegotiate some of these obligations.

1843
02:11:06,516 --> 02:11:10,875
And when I asked my question, which was, Oh, and

1844
02:11:10,875 --> 02:11:13,855
then he said, Oh, gee has been released from some

1845
02:11:13,956 --> 02:11:19,835
obligations. And I asked, um, which obligations are those? And

1846
02:11:19,835 --> 02:11:25,761
the answer was I don't know. And that typifies the

1847
02:11:25,782 --> 02:11:29,281
smoke and mirrors we've been living in all this time.

1848
02:11:29,281 --> 02:11:33,481
Uh, so now is the time for some clarity. We

1849
02:11:33,481 --> 02:11:38,241
would like to know what is the quantification of the

1850
02:11:38,342 --> 02:11:43,164
obligations to the city that remain outstanding. We want to

1851
02:11:43,164 --> 02:11:48,164
know what, uh, that figure, how that figure relates to

1852
02:11:48,345 --> 02:11:52,484
the bond that's sitting out there that Mr. Jellich mentioned

1853
02:11:53,465 --> 02:11:58,665
that's almost six million dollars. And more than all of

1854
02:11:58,665 --> 02:12:02,345
that, today is the day that they had to respond

1855
02:12:02,366 --> 02:12:08,105
to the CDFW. And just before this meeting, I had

1856
02:12:08,126 --> 02:12:10,985
access to that letter and saw it. And it really

1857
02:12:11,006 --> 02:12:17,385
was relatively ridiculous. First point was in the letter it

1858
02:12:17,425 --> 02:12:22,345
is stated that over the years and through right now,

1859
02:12:22,345 --> 02:12:25,385
they have continued to maintain the project. I don't think

1860
02:12:25,406 --> 02:12:29,225
they've done anything to maintain the project. They'd been missing

1861
02:12:29,486 --> 02:12:33,705
in action. They've been missing in action for wild or

1862
02:12:33,745 --> 02:12:38,025
two. We're assuming OG and there are regular meetings with

1863
02:12:38,126 --> 02:12:40,345
a judge that they have not even sent their lawyer

1864
02:12:40,766 --> 02:12:45,913
to. We have been totally ignored. And so we've been

1865
02:12:45,934 --> 02:12:48,713
waiting for this day, September 1st to find out what

1866
02:12:48,734 --> 02:12:53,357
the deal is. At this point. The demand letter was

1867
02:12:53,397 --> 02:12:56,377
given to them. They asked for an extension. They got

1868
02:12:56,418 --> 02:12:59,357
an extension, not the one they wanted. When it ended

1869
02:12:59,458 --> 02:13:03,997
today. And we still don't know where we are. Because

1870
02:13:03,997 --> 02:13:06,077
when you look at the letter, what they're saying is

1871
02:13:06,658 --> 02:13:12,717
they were, these public agencies, GAD, um, Epnied East Bay

1872
02:13:12,738 --> 02:13:17,584
Parks. And I think they're what they're saying is it's

1873
02:13:17,624 --> 02:13:22,437
their problem. They, they want to fix these properties up

1874
02:13:22,477 --> 02:13:26,597
so they can take title. Meanwhile, it's a big mess.

1875
02:13:26,597 --> 02:13:30,597
All of this obligations, all of the properties around us,

1876
02:13:30,597 --> 02:13:34,037
there's nobody who is responsible. And so the time has

1877
02:13:34,077 --> 02:13:36,917
come to release the bond, which the demand that it

1878
02:13:36,917 --> 02:13:38,677
was supposed to do. And I have to ask you,

1879
02:13:38,677 --> 02:13:41,077
Rip, please. Thank you. And provide funds so that these

1880
02:13:41,098 --> 02:13:43,797
agencies can do the job that OG was supposed to

1881
02:13:43,797 --> 02:13:49,144
do. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next John Xenther, please.

1882
02:13:53,739 --> 02:13:56,678
Madam Mayor Council, my name is John Zettner. I'm a

1883
02:13:56,718 --> 02:13:59,958
resident at 67 Lost Valley Drive, which is at the

1884
02:13:59,979 --> 02:14:03,586
south end of Lost Valley. I'm also a plant ecologist.

1885
02:14:03,586 --> 02:14:06,946
I've run a small environmental consulting firm for more than

1886
02:14:07,047 --> 02:14:12,546
40 years. So very conversant with conservation easements. Mitigation programs.

1887
02:14:12,807 --> 02:14:16,306
Fire control plans, et cetera. So, um, I'm here mostly

1888
02:14:16,306 --> 02:14:19,186
to talk about the Western Open space. First, I'd really

1889
02:14:19,186 --> 02:14:22,197
like to thank Selena. For all the help she's given

1890
02:14:22,197 --> 02:14:26,437
me. Also clients and friends, Steve Abs from David on

1891
02:14:26,538 --> 02:14:30,757
homes were evolved at Wilder. Um, Frankie Melbourne, Rome at

1892
02:14:30,757 --> 02:14:34,837
the core, Katie Hart at regional waterboard. So basically my

1893
02:14:34,858 --> 02:14:38,677
concern is that the Western open space has been essentially

1894
02:14:38,938 --> 02:14:42,917
unmanaged for the last two years without fuel mitigation. I

1895
02:14:42,938 --> 02:14:46,197
saw swing on your slide that there was some statement

1896
02:14:46,538 --> 02:14:49,557
that had been fuel mitigation done out there this summer,

1897
02:14:49,557 --> 02:14:51,877
nothing in the Western open space. I pretty much guarantee

1898
02:14:51,917 --> 02:14:55,957
it. So in that time, because the lack of grazing,

1899
02:14:55,957 --> 02:14:58,197
the landscape is gone from a non - native annual

1900
02:14:58,218 --> 02:15:01,317
grassland, which is not good from a fire control standpoint

1901
02:15:02,218 --> 02:15:05,797
to a dominance by coyote bush and non - native

1902
02:15:06,058 --> 02:15:10,597
forbes and perennials, which are extremely hazards from fire standpoint.

1903
02:15:10,778 --> 02:15:13,985
CDFW notes this in their letter, by the way. I

1904
02:15:14,025 --> 02:15:16,045
want you to think about the tubs fire, which you

1905
02:15:16,045 --> 02:15:18,225
may have heard about, which was in San Rosa, which

1906
02:15:18,225 --> 02:15:21,505
burned down the coffee park neighborhood. Think that's interesting about

1907
02:15:21,526 --> 02:15:25,025
the Bennett Valley Tubs fire. Is that valley is oriented

1908
02:15:25,366 --> 02:15:28,305
the same way as the valley that comes into lost

1909
02:15:28,326 --> 02:15:32,876
valley in Orinda. Tubbs fire started late at night. Burned

1910
02:15:32,916 --> 02:15:35,036
in the coffee park neighborhood early in the morning around

1911
02:15:35,217 --> 02:15:40,088
514. It covered three miles an hour. From the top

1912
02:15:40,088 --> 02:15:42,488
of the ridge of the Western open space to the

1913
02:15:42,528 --> 02:15:45,288
PGNE plant, which is at the south end of Lost

1914
02:15:45,288 --> 02:15:49,845
Valley, is less than a mile. 0. 9 miles. That's

1915
02:15:50,346 --> 02:15:53,300
20 minutes. At the same speed that the Bennett Valley

1916
02:15:53,340 --> 02:15:58,003
fire went through. Given the critical character of that landscape

1917
02:15:58,024 --> 02:16:00,563
at this point and the speed with which a fire

1918
02:16:00,584 --> 02:16:04,123
would move into and then cut off lost valley. If

1919
02:16:04,123 --> 02:16:07,523
that PGNE plant starts on fire, leaving no exit out

1920
02:16:07,523 --> 02:16:10,083
of Lost Valley whatsoever. I would like you to take

1921
02:16:10,104 --> 02:16:14,723
a couple of actions. First, I urge you to urge

1922
02:16:14,984 --> 02:16:19,752
CDFW to call in their surety now. Rather than the

1923
02:16:19,752 --> 02:16:24,872
current resolution, which is keep us informed, CDFW, great staff

1924
02:16:25,053 --> 02:16:27,432
and the way that process works, by the way, is

1925
02:16:27,613 --> 02:16:31,112
the local biologist, the area environmental scientists will confer with

1926
02:16:31,213 --> 02:16:33,832
the warden. They will then talk to their boss of

1927
02:16:33,832 --> 02:16:36,472
the environmental services section. That then goes up to the

1928
02:16:36,472 --> 02:16:39,260
regional manager. He or she will make the decision about

1929
02:16:39,361 --> 02:16:42,940
pulling the bond. They won't be talking with staff attorneys

1930
02:16:42,940 --> 02:16:45,980
as well at the same time. That can happen very

1931
02:16:46,001 --> 02:16:49,660
quickly at CDFW. And that's the reason why regional waterboard

1932
02:16:49,921 --> 02:16:54,300
and core engineers are having CDFW take the lead on

1933
02:16:54,340 --> 02:16:59,497
the lack of action by the developer. Second, wildlife heritage.

1934
02:16:59,518 --> 02:17:01,497
So you are at a time. Okay. Thank you. And

1935
02:17:01,497 --> 02:17:03,897
I'm sorry it's three minutes and I really would love

1936
02:17:03,937 --> 02:17:05,497
to hear more. So if you might follow up in

1937
02:17:05,497 --> 02:17:08,057
writing, if you want to, um, finish with your comments.

1938
02:17:08,057 --> 02:17:12,769
Sounds like plan. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. Please

1939
02:17:12,809 --> 02:17:18,151
go ahead. Good evening. Mayor, members city council. My name

1940
02:17:18,151 --> 02:17:20,871
is Mark Ashby. I'm a resident and homeowner and wilder.

1941
02:17:21,162 --> 02:17:23,541
I'm here to urge the council to adopt the resolution

1942
02:17:24,122 --> 02:17:28,501
6526 finding OGLC is not complied in good faith with

1943
02:17:28,602 --> 02:17:32,781
the wilder development agreement. This is the right finding. In

1944
02:17:32,781 --> 02:17:36,501
my view long overdue, I want to first express appreciation

1945
02:17:36,501 --> 02:17:41,541
to the city manager, the city attorney's office, the GAD.

1946
02:17:41,541 --> 02:17:44,181
And to NGO for their collaborative work to hold OG

1947
02:17:44,282 --> 02:17:48,501
LLC accountable. The joint agency efforts that produced tonight's staff

1948
02:17:48,501 --> 02:17:51,781
recommendation reflects meaningful progress on behalf of our community and

1949
02:17:51,821 --> 02:17:55,701
the open space. Just minutes before this meeting, we received

1950
02:17:55,802 --> 02:18:00,661
OG LLC's written response that's included in tonight's packet. OG

1951
02:18:00,682 --> 02:18:04,981
LLC claims that only approximately 97, 000 dollars in bond

1952
02:18:05,021 --> 02:18:09,885
obligations remain outstanding. This contradicts CDFW's July 3rd and August

1953
02:18:09,986 --> 02:18:14,203
6 letters. Which document approximately 2 million dollars in outstanding

1954
02:18:14,224 --> 02:18:21,243
secured obligations, including unauthorized trail remediation, habitat mitigation, credit purchases,

1955
02:18:21,344 --> 02:18:27,243
infrastructure improvements, removal of coyote brush, um, and outstanding tax

1956
02:18:27,504 --> 02:18:32,224
delinquencies. I urge the council to focus on CDFW's independent

1957
02:18:32,224 --> 02:18:36,773
assessment of what remains outstanding. I also note that OGLC

1958
02:18:36,954 --> 02:18:40,533
is proposing choose endowment funds and GAAD assessment balances to

1959
02:18:40,573 --> 02:18:45,813
cover its remaining obligations. This would shift OG's legal responsibilities

1960
02:18:45,853 --> 02:18:48,373
onto the city. And while the residents who fund the

1961
02:18:48,373 --> 02:18:52,853
GAD through their assessments, precisely outcome that the surety bond

1962
02:18:52,853 --> 02:18:58,449
was established to prevent. While OG has belatedly obtained liability

1963
02:18:58,470 --> 02:19:00,369
insurance, although we're not sure if it really meets the

1964
02:19:00,409 --> 02:19:04,849
requirements, just weeks before the hearing, the last minute compliance

1965
02:19:04,889 --> 02:19:07,889
should not obscure the many serious outstanding obligations on the

1966
02:19:07,910 --> 02:19:13,575
open space parcels that remain unresolved. If the council adopts

1967
02:19:13,615 --> 02:19:17,455
the noncompliance finding tonight, as recommended by your staff, I

1968
02:19:17,455 --> 02:19:22,455
would ask the council directly formally notify CDFW of that

1969
02:19:22,796 --> 02:19:26,695
finding. So CDFW has the full picture of OG's failures

1970
02:19:26,735 --> 02:19:31,335
to evaluate, uh, to complete their submission and make its

1971
02:19:31,375 --> 02:19:35,353
endorsement and enforcement decision on the bond. Many of us

1972
02:19:35,374 --> 02:19:37,833
chose to make wilder our home because of the surrounding

1973
02:19:37,873 --> 02:19:40,873
protected open space. It was a central promise in the

1974
02:19:40,894 --> 02:19:45,414
development of wilder. OG's failure to meet its obligations has

1975
02:19:45,454 --> 02:19:48,374
prevented GAD East Bay Parks and EB mud from assuming

1976
02:19:48,555 --> 02:19:51,734
ownership and managing these lands as envisioned in the original

1977
02:19:51,755 --> 02:19:57,334
development agreement. Leaving them unmanaged and increasingly degraded. We ask

1978
02:19:57,595 --> 02:20:00,534
the council to hold OG to the commitments that brought

1979
02:20:00,534 --> 02:20:03,654
us here so these lands can finally be transferred to

1980
02:20:03,654 --> 02:20:05,974
the agencies that will care for them as they were

1981
02:20:05,974 --> 02:20:10,454
promised. As wilder homeowners, we strongly support the staff recommendation.

1982
02:20:10,454 --> 02:20:15,277
Please adopt this resolution. Thank you. Thank you very much.

1983
02:20:15,378 --> 02:20:17,197
Those are all the speaker cards I have. I would

1984
02:20:17,237 --> 02:20:19,277
ask if theone else from the public who'd like to

1985
02:20:19,698 --> 02:20:22,877
speak on this topic, uh, and seeing no one in

1986
02:20:22,877 --> 02:20:25,277
person, I would ask if we have any Zoom participants.

1987
02:20:27,369 --> 02:20:30,148
No one is raising their hand. Okay. Great. Uh, with

1988
02:20:30,188 --> 02:20:32,388
that, I would ask if the applicant would like to

1989
02:20:32,428 --> 02:20:39,615
use their three minutes of rebuttal. Yeah. I think I've

1990
02:20:39,655 --> 02:20:43,582
said everything I needed to say. Thank you. Thank you.

1991
02:20:43,923 --> 02:20:48,942
Um, before we, uh, close the public portion of the

1992
02:20:48,963 --> 02:20:51,422
hearing, are there any final questions for the applicant or

1993
02:20:51,443 --> 02:20:55,563
the speakers. Uh, seeing none, we will close the public

1994
02:20:55,664 --> 02:20:57,643
portion of the hearing and bring it up for discussion

1995
02:20:58,144 --> 02:21:00,843
and decision, uh, would anyone like to lead us off.

1996
02:21:04,491 --> 02:21:07,190
I think it's relatively clear that we should follow the

1997
02:21:07,230 --> 02:21:11,830
staff recommendations and adopt the resolution as presented to us.

1998
02:21:11,830 --> 02:21:16,390
And encourage, uh, to move forward with notifying the CDFW

1999
02:21:17,131 --> 02:21:20,972
of the noncompliance issues. And moving forward on calling the

2000
02:21:21,012 --> 02:21:27,851
bond. I would agree with that. And I think it's

2001
02:21:27,851 --> 02:21:31,531
certainly very clear tonight that, um, that they remain in

2002
02:21:31,571 --> 02:21:36,251
noncompliance. And, um, I know that's really our, uh, mission

2003
02:21:36,352 --> 02:21:39,131
tonight, but clearly there's been a lot of other really

2004
02:21:39,392 --> 02:21:43,931
key issues raised tonight, um, hopefully between our GAD meeting

2005
02:21:43,931 --> 02:21:48,411
and some further, uh, meetings, um, we will get more

2006
02:21:48,672 --> 02:21:51,931
informed about because certainly there is a lot of area

2007
02:21:51,952 --> 02:21:55,771
of concern out there. And, um, I know, um, that

2008
02:21:56,032 --> 02:21:59,371
the people in Wilder and the surrounding areas and the

2009
02:21:59,371 --> 02:22:02,971
city deserves, you know, resolution on these items. So, but

2010
02:22:02,992 --> 02:22:08,488
certainly I'm supportive of tonight's resolution. Thank you. Anyone else.

2011
02:22:10,831 --> 02:22:16,700
I agree. And second, the vice mayors. Comments about other

2012
02:22:16,700 --> 02:22:20,300
issues that were brought up. I'd like to see us

2013
02:22:20,340 --> 02:22:23,660
push forward to the extent we can in an appropriate

2014
02:22:23,700 --> 02:22:27,433
way on some of those other issues. I agree. And

2015
02:22:27,433 --> 02:22:29,693
I, uh, with my fellow council members and as a

2016
02:22:29,693 --> 02:22:32,013
former land developer, I'm as a sympathetic as anyone you're

2017
02:22:32,013 --> 02:22:34,493
going to find. Oh, I'm sorry, Council Member Riley. Yeah.

2018
02:22:34,493 --> 02:22:36,933
I'm sorry. Please. Um, but you can go first. I

2019
02:22:36,933 --> 02:22:38,813
don't care. I'll do my little spiel just because I

2020
02:22:38,813 --> 02:22:41,013
was in the spiel. Uh, no, you're not going to

2021
02:22:41,074 --> 02:22:44,573
find a person more understanding of what happens when a

2022
02:22:44,834 --> 02:22:49,133
very large project runs out of money. Right. There's not

2023
02:22:49,714 --> 02:22:52,813
a rich guy out there who's hiding money. Right. The

2024
02:22:52,994 --> 02:22:56,413
money's gone. I believe that. And time is the enemy.

2025
02:22:56,413 --> 02:22:58,813
The points about caring cost and dealing with agencies is

2026
02:22:59,314 --> 02:23:04,813
extraordinarily difficult because the agencies cannot be rushed and their

2027
02:23:04,813 --> 02:23:06,573
conclusions are what they are. And I think we're fortunate

2028
02:23:06,613 --> 02:23:09,773
in this situation that there's a bond. So we're not

2029
02:23:09,874 --> 02:23:14,333
just, you know, getting mad about something there is a

2030
02:23:14,373 --> 02:23:16,253
bond and there are facts. And I think there are

2031
02:23:16,354 --> 02:23:19,853
known things that need to be done. There are actual

2032
02:23:19,874 --> 02:23:23,853
factual costs. So this, this whole question about whether what

2033
02:23:23,874 --> 02:23:27,133
needs to be done for the title to transfer are

2034
02:23:27,154 --> 02:23:29,453
a few small things or two million dollars worth of

2035
02:23:29,474 --> 02:23:32,813
work is not something we need to decide the facts

2036
02:23:32,853 --> 02:23:34,093
are what they are. And we've got the right people

2037
02:23:34,274 --> 02:23:36,893
in charge. So, um, I support that. I just wanted

2038
02:23:36,914 --> 02:23:40,493
to, uh, not get too distracted by the question of

2039
02:23:40,754 --> 02:23:43,053
what the remaining work is. I think we've got the

2040
02:23:43,093 --> 02:23:46,554
right people to implement. And I'm sorry for cutting you

2041
02:23:46,554 --> 02:23:49,514
off. Perfectly. All right. Um, I agree. I think we

2042
02:23:49,554 --> 02:23:52,854
should, um, move forward. Maybe yesterday we should have, but

2043
02:23:52,854 --> 02:23:55,014
I'm glad we were going to do it tonight. Um,

2044
02:23:56,175 --> 02:23:58,774
I think I also want to just add that, uh,

2045
02:23:58,774 --> 02:24:02,474
we have a, uh, we can thank our city manager

2046
02:24:02,495 --> 02:24:05,994
for all these creative solutions that we have seen with

2047
02:24:06,015 --> 02:24:11,114
the trees and the deposits and the, uh, the taxes.

2048
02:24:11,114 --> 02:24:12,534
And we're in good hands to figure out a few

2049
02:24:12,534 --> 02:24:16,028
more creative solutions. I think, um, going forward. Thank you.

2050
02:24:19,061 --> 02:24:21,200
Can I just say a couple of things? First, I

2051
02:24:21,541 --> 02:24:23,680
want to say a lot of the credit goes to

2052
02:24:23,680 --> 02:24:26,240
our city attorney as well. We have been working behind

2053
02:24:26,421 --> 02:24:28,960
the scenes. We've been in keeping in contact with the

2054
02:24:29,221 --> 02:24:34,200
wilder community. We've been working closely with God staff. We

2055
02:24:34,341 --> 02:24:37,804
want to solve this. I do not want this to

2056
02:24:37,844 --> 02:24:42,284
go on very much longer. It sounds like CDFW feels

2057
02:24:42,305 --> 02:24:46,044
the same way now. Uh, and our hope is that

2058
02:24:46,065 --> 02:24:49,324
we can find a solution. And I think everybody has

2059
02:24:49,345 --> 02:24:52,124
the same objective as to get those properties into the

2060
02:24:52,164 --> 02:24:55,884
public agency's hands as quickly as possible. So that proper

2061
02:24:56,145 --> 02:24:59,884
land management can occur. Uh, I think that's the general

2062
02:25:00,145 --> 02:25:03,084
feedback I wanted to provide to you. Well, we're always

2063
02:25:03,084 --> 02:25:06,364
looking and working towards creative solutions to do that. We

2064
02:25:06,385 --> 02:25:10,444
don't know the timing for what this bond process might

2065
02:25:10,484 --> 02:25:13,564
look like. Uh, so we are looking at all creative

2066
02:25:13,604 --> 02:25:16,764
options to see how we can advance that as quickly

2067
02:25:16,865 --> 02:25:21,084
as possible, uh, so that is ongoing. And you will

2068
02:25:21,084 --> 02:25:23,644
have more discussion as the GAD board at the September

2069
02:25:23,825 --> 02:25:27,084
15th meeting at six o'clock. And then lastly, I just

2070
02:25:27,124 --> 02:25:30,284
want to thank Selena Palmer, our planner. This is her

2071
02:25:30,385 --> 02:25:34,204
last meeting with the city of Arinda. She is leaving

2072
02:25:34,225 --> 02:25:38,204
us. She's received a job opportunity in the city of

2073
02:25:38,385 --> 02:25:42,315
Concord. We took one. They took one. So this is

2074
02:25:42,416 --> 02:25:44,315
Selena's last meeting. I just want to thank her so

2075
02:25:44,315 --> 02:25:47,515
much. She's been just a stellar planner and has grown

2076
02:25:47,555 --> 02:25:49,955
so much here in her role and is going to

2077
02:25:50,016 --> 02:25:57,538
do great things for the city of Concord. Thank you.

2078
02:25:57,538 --> 02:25:59,058
I don't think I have anything to add other than

2079
02:25:59,239 --> 02:26:01,538
real appreciation for all the creativity. And I hope the

2080
02:26:01,559 --> 02:26:06,578
developer hears the good faith and constructive efforts and works

2081
02:26:06,599 --> 02:26:08,958
with us to get this title moved over. It's the

2082
02:26:08,958 --> 02:26:11,538
best for everybody. And I think the, is there a

2083
02:26:11,538 --> 02:26:13,618
motion we need to do to, uh, adopt the findings

2084
02:26:13,658 --> 02:26:20,197
of noncompliance. The recommendation is to adapt resolution 65 -

2085
02:26:20,538 --> 02:26:24,677
26. Thank you. Do I have a motion. I'll move.

2086
02:26:24,677 --> 02:26:29,969
We adopt resolution 65 - 26. Thank you. Second. With

2087
02:26:29,969 --> 02:26:33,489
that all in favor. Aye. Thank you very much. Um,

2088
02:26:33,590 --> 02:26:39,942
and I've now lost my Jedi. With that, we'll go

2089
02:26:39,942 --> 02:26:43,542
to item K1. I think that's right. Yeah. Item K1

2090
02:26:43,643 --> 02:26:47,622
purchasing agent authority for contracts and purchases. Uh, and also

2091
02:26:47,883 --> 02:26:50,582
thank you very much, Selena. We've really enjoyed working with

2092
02:26:50,582 --> 02:26:56,954
you. Yeah. Thank you. Happy trails. Um, and it looks

2093
02:26:56,954 --> 02:27:01,922
like Cole is going to. Present on K one. Yes.

2094
02:27:01,922 --> 02:27:07,842
Uh, thank you Mayor, council members. Um, so tonight on

2095
02:27:07,882 --> 02:27:11,482
this item, we're literally looking at two things. One, we

2096
02:27:11,543 --> 02:27:17,842
have an issue with, um, purchasing, uh, code language that

2097
02:27:17,943 --> 02:27:20,942
we're trying to clean up a little bit here. And

2098
02:27:20,942 --> 02:27:25,282
then the other is an increase in the purchasing threshold,

2099
02:27:25,282 --> 02:27:27,922
which we're recommending. Um, so to go back to the

2100
02:27:27,943 --> 02:27:33,442
first one, right now our purchasing ordinance says that council

2101
02:27:33,442 --> 02:27:41,842
must approve all purchases or agreements exceeding 60, 000 dollars.

2102
02:27:41,842 --> 02:27:45,602
So that's led us to this strange gray area where

2103
02:27:45,623 --> 02:27:49,202
we have to ask the question, well, if we didn't

2104
02:27:49,223 --> 02:27:52,802
agreement with this organization five years ago for 20, 000

2105
02:27:53,383 --> 02:27:57,282
and we do one this year for 50, 000 is

2106
02:27:57,282 --> 02:28:00,442
that 70, 000 cumulative do we now need to go

2107
02:28:00,442 --> 02:28:04,271
to council for that. Um, and so we would like

2108
02:28:04,372 --> 02:28:10,391
to address that, um, by instituting an annual threshold. So

2109
02:28:10,852 --> 02:28:14,031
it would be the city manager. I can approve all

2110
02:28:14,372 --> 02:28:18,591
contracts under X amount within a one year period. This

2111
02:28:18,612 --> 02:28:21,871
is a pretty typical procedure. And you'll find this in

2112
02:28:21,892 --> 02:28:25,471
a lot of cities around the Bay Area. Uh, in

2113
02:28:25,511 --> 02:28:29,691
addition to that, we also want to further define, um,

2114
02:28:29,812 --> 02:28:34,831
what the same or substantially similar services are. So another

2115
02:28:35,172 --> 02:28:38,831
question that comes up is if we contract with an

2116
02:28:38,932 --> 02:28:44,031
organization for fencing work and it's 30, 000 dollars and

2117
02:28:44,031 --> 02:28:48,191
then we contract them for sidewalk work. And that's 50,

2118
02:28:48,212 --> 02:28:53,031
000 dollars. Should we consider those as one item. Or

2119
02:28:53,031 --> 02:28:55,911
should we consider them as separate agreements? If they're one,

2120
02:28:55,911 --> 02:28:58,631
they need to go to council if they're separate. The

2121
02:28:58,631 --> 02:29:00,871
city manager would be able to do each one. This

2122
02:29:01,052 --> 02:29:06,471
cleans that up by providing, uh, a more defined, well,

2123
02:29:06,511 --> 02:29:09,351
just a better detailed definition of what the same or

2124
02:29:09,391 --> 02:29:13,511
substantially similar or different services is. So we have an

2125
02:29:13,551 --> 02:29:16,471
understanding of how to operate moving forward and which agreements

2126
02:29:16,572 --> 02:29:19,431
we bring to you and which ones we can execute,

2127
02:29:19,431 --> 02:29:23,831
administratively. So that is the kind of cloud cleanup part

2128
02:29:23,831 --> 02:29:27,191
of it. Um, the other part, because we are touching

2129
02:29:27,292 --> 02:29:30,871
this part of the code. Generally, whenever we touch one

2130
02:29:30,911 --> 02:29:32,631
part of the code, we try to see if there's

2131
02:29:32,671 --> 02:29:34,951
any other issues or any other things that we should

2132
02:29:35,052 --> 02:29:37,111
address. That way we can do it all at one

2133
02:29:37,111 --> 02:29:42,631
time. Is the purchasing threshold? So the purchasing threshold came

2134
02:29:42,652 --> 02:29:46,391
to you folks in 2021 was the last time it

2135
02:29:46,391 --> 02:29:49,911
was increased from 25, 000 to 60, 000, which is

2136
02:29:49,951 --> 02:29:53,351
what it is now. At the time, the reasoning for

2137
02:29:53,532 --> 02:29:55,911
bringing it up to 60, 000 was to put it

2138
02:29:56,012 --> 02:29:59,511
in line with, uh, statute. We all refer to as

2139
02:29:59,772 --> 02:30:03,111
Kupka. This is the state's rules for what they can

2140
02:30:03,151 --> 02:30:07,751
do administratively, uh, what we can do administratively in related

2141
02:30:07,751 --> 02:30:11,591
to public works. Um, contracts and things like that. So

2142
02:30:12,812 --> 02:30:16,391
since that time Cupca has increased their threshold up to

2143
02:30:16,492 --> 02:30:22,071
75, 000 dollars And that's largely just an inflationary increase.

2144
02:30:22,071 --> 02:30:26,791
So they said the 60, 000 in 2019 a couple

2145
02:30:26,791 --> 02:30:29,271
of years before we matched them. And since that time

2146
02:30:29,692 --> 02:30:33,271
inflation has increased so that the threshold now should be

2147
02:30:33,311 --> 02:30:38,711
about 75, 000 dollars We're recommending an increase in alignment

2148
02:30:38,812 --> 02:30:44,012
with that inflationary increase and what's in CAPCA. And just

2149
02:30:44,052 --> 02:30:48,892
for some context, changing it from 60 to 75, 000

2150
02:30:48,913 --> 02:30:51,692
dollars last year That would have been the difference of

2151
02:30:52,113 --> 02:30:54,972
five contracts whether or not they come to city council

2152
02:30:55,793 --> 02:30:58,252
or two percent of overall spending in the city of

2153
02:30:58,353 --> 02:31:02,572
Arinda. So really not a substantial change in the number

2154
02:31:02,572 --> 02:31:07,482
of agreements that you guys would see. You would still

2155
02:31:08,623 --> 02:31:18,042
be responsible for approving about the city of Orenda either

2156
02:31:18,042 --> 02:31:21,082
through the budget process or an individual contracts when they

2157
02:31:21,122 --> 02:31:24,805
come up. Um, and this would also put us in

2158
02:31:24,826 --> 02:31:28,485
alignment with a lot of other neighboring cities right now

2159
02:31:29,066 --> 02:31:31,765
We're about in the middle. We would still be about

2160
02:31:31,946 --> 02:31:34,405
in the middle. We would have the same purchasing authority

2161
02:31:34,445 --> 02:31:40,245
for the city manager as Martinez, Maraga and Pittsburgh. That

2162
02:31:40,245 --> 02:31:44,325
concludes the staff presentation on this item Uh, we are

2163
02:31:44,325 --> 02:31:48,005
looking for some policy direction on whether or not to

2164
02:31:48,045 --> 02:31:51,205
move forward with these changes. If so, we'll bring them

2165
02:31:51,205 --> 02:31:53,525
to you in the form of an ordinance at a

2166
02:31:53,525 --> 02:31:59,645
later meeting. Question.

2167
02:32:03,982 --> 02:32:09,241
Will the new definitions change pretty much how we practice

2168
02:32:09,822 --> 02:32:12,953
how we do business. Are we because you've had to

2169
02:32:12,993 --> 02:32:15,993
interpret the existing code and so we have a certain

2170
02:32:16,094 --> 02:32:18,873
practice based upon your interpretations and when you now clearly

2171
02:32:19,214 --> 02:32:22,073
define one of these words in terms is anything really

2172
02:32:22,254 --> 02:32:25,193
going to change So I mean you're going to feel

2173
02:32:25,233 --> 02:32:28,313
more confident making a decision whether or not how to

2174
02:32:28,313 --> 02:32:29,993
move forward and it'll be clear for you But it's

2175
02:32:30,033 --> 02:32:33,200
the actual end result going to be much different. I

2176
02:32:33,200 --> 02:32:37,120
don't think you'll see much of a change what the

2177
02:32:37,120 --> 02:32:41,200
trouble has been for us is that there's been Um,

2178
02:32:41,861 --> 02:32:45,520
times where we've interpreted one way and times were weird

2179
02:32:45,520 --> 02:32:48,720
interpreted it differently And of course that changes as staff

2180
02:32:48,760 --> 02:32:53,120
members change historically throughout the organization Some people were time

2181
02:32:53,160 --> 02:32:55,520
with see things one way other people see it a

2182
02:32:55,520 --> 02:32:58,800
different way Um, this would help us to feel like

2183
02:32:59,061 --> 02:33:02,640
we're operating on solid ground Um, and it would also

2184
02:33:03,461 --> 02:33:05,840
ensure us that we don't have to every time we

2185
02:33:06,581 --> 02:33:08,880
Uh, uh, contract with an agency We don't have to

2186
02:33:09,141 --> 02:33:12,080
scour through our records to see what did we contract

2187
02:33:12,120 --> 02:33:15,360
with them 10 years ago? Should we count that contract

2188
02:33:15,461 --> 02:33:17,760
as part of this or not? So this would give

2189
02:33:17,800 --> 02:33:21,760
us the assurance that we can move forward Uh, with

2190
02:33:21,781 --> 02:33:24,080
a lot of the same practices that we've been doing

2191
02:33:24,181 --> 02:33:27,440
now Uh, but be sure that we're in alignment with

2192
02:33:27,861 --> 02:33:34,304
the intent of the city council. One question Um, I

2193
02:33:34,344 --> 02:33:36,864
might have misunderstood I thought you said some cities may

2194
02:33:36,904 --> 02:33:41,104
be Moraga just have a referred a cupca standard rather

2195
02:33:41,205 --> 02:33:44,784
than changing the number from time to time We're saying

2196
02:33:44,885 --> 02:33:47,824
we're just going to go to 75 and not just

2197
02:33:47,864 --> 02:33:50,704
have a benchmark to cupca Is that correct? That's correct

2198
02:33:51,125 --> 02:33:54,763
And why did you choose that approach. Well we chose

2199
02:33:55,024 --> 02:33:58,043
that approach because we felt like council might want to

2200
02:33:58,144 --> 02:34:02,123
see the issue the next time Uh, we ask for

2201
02:34:02,144 --> 02:34:05,323
an increase Of course you can give us policy direction

2202
02:34:05,344 --> 02:34:09,003
tonight to say just set it to that threshold And

2203
02:34:09,003 --> 02:34:13,803
then it would increase as Kapka increases naturally Um, you

2204
02:34:13,803 --> 02:34:15,963
know the advantage of that would be that it would

2205
02:34:15,963 --> 02:34:19,083
just move with inflation But again, that cupca limit is

2206
02:34:19,104 --> 02:34:22,923
set by the state legislature on an intermittent basis as

2207
02:34:22,923 --> 02:34:28,123
well So right now they change it with inflation when

2208
02:34:28,144 --> 02:34:32,123
they choose to They could change their practice at any

2209
02:34:32,163 --> 02:34:35,323
time Um, and so then you would be tied to

2210
02:34:35,584 --> 02:34:38,443
whatever the state legislature decides to do with that number.

2211
02:34:40,811 --> 02:34:44,235
Thank you any other questions. That I'll see if anyone

2212
02:34:44,256 --> 02:34:53,611
has comments. I just want to say that I want

2213
02:34:53,611 --> 02:34:58,171
to commend coal or lindef for the staff report Which

2214
02:34:58,211 --> 02:35:03,211
was I literally was going through reading it initially and

2215
02:35:03,232 --> 02:35:06,011
thinking Oh, I wonder how many contracts this applies to

2216
02:35:07,152 --> 02:35:09,291
and what percentage it is And then I saw your

2217
02:35:09,392 --> 02:35:11,271
chart and the answers were right there So it was

2218
02:35:11,271 --> 02:35:17,611
one of the really just best prepared staff or I

2219
02:35:17,611 --> 02:35:19,771
mean it was very good So thank you And that's

2220
02:35:19,771 --> 02:35:23,531
why I Policy wise I think it makes sense And

2221
02:35:23,552 --> 02:35:27,771
I think it makes sense to the recommendation is squarely

2222
02:35:28,992 --> 02:35:35,092
It's eminently reasonable to me given the comparable cities. But

2223
02:35:35,273 --> 02:35:39,447
benchmarking it to Koepka is an interesting concept. Yeah, I

2224
02:35:39,668 --> 02:35:45,327
agree that this is a good policy adjustment And I

2225
02:35:45,327 --> 02:35:48,607
really appreciate staff sorting through this and getting it straightened

2226
02:35:48,647 --> 02:35:51,727
out because I do appreciate what you said call that

2227
02:35:51,748 --> 02:35:54,047
this is going to make it easier for the staff

2228
02:35:54,228 --> 02:35:57,887
over time Um, and I think that's a good thing

2229
02:35:58,308 --> 02:36:01,407
and it's good to be consistent I would prefer not

2230
02:36:01,428 --> 02:36:05,167
to just tie it to some state standard that changes

2231
02:36:05,588 --> 02:36:08,847
Um, I think having the number makes it easier to

2232
02:36:08,868 --> 02:36:11,967
understand for everyone And I don't think it's a huge

2233
02:36:12,788 --> 02:36:16,527
burden on us to amended again in the future So,

2234
02:36:16,527 --> 02:36:21,528
but I'm certainly supportive of taking the action tonight. And

2235
02:36:21,629 --> 02:36:24,325
anyone else. No, I agree I think this makes a

2236
02:36:24,325 --> 02:36:26,805
lot of sense I think the staff's reasoning is very

2237
02:36:26,826 --> 02:36:29,685
clear And I think we should just move forward with

2238
02:36:29,706 --> 02:36:35,443
it. Great Yeah, the reason I liked benchmarking was just

2239
02:36:35,443 --> 02:36:37,123
because then you can set it and forget it And

2240
02:36:37,123 --> 02:36:39,043
it doesn't need to come back on the agenda at

2241
02:36:39,083 --> 02:36:42,083
all But, uh, as long as it's easy for you

2242
02:36:42,083 --> 02:36:43,763
guys to, cause I would imagine the next time it

2243
02:36:43,763 --> 02:36:46,403
would be more of a consent item to be I

2244
02:36:46,403 --> 02:36:50,243
would hope you could bring in inflation adjustment as a...

2245
02:36:50,424 --> 02:36:53,123
consent item because you're not also cleaning up statutory language

2246
02:36:53,624 --> 02:36:54,963
But I thought it was the only one who was

2247
02:36:55,224 --> 02:36:57,923
going to compliment how fabulous the staff report was Uh,

2248
02:36:58,344 --> 02:37:00,483
it was a great staff report So thank you And

2249
02:37:00,483 --> 02:37:05,123
I support the recommendation asset force Uh, with no changes.

2250
02:37:05,918 --> 02:37:10,123
Uh, do we have a motion. It's just The policy

2251
02:37:10,163 --> 02:37:14,283
item It's just a direction If the consensus is to

2252
02:37:14,323 --> 02:37:16,283
bring it back as we propose It will come back

2253
02:37:16,384 --> 02:37:24,063
as an ordinance for your consideration. Okay. This isn't a

2254
02:37:24,063 --> 02:37:29,503
question that necessarily pertains to us But like Richmond I

2255
02:37:29,524 --> 02:37:37,562
don't know how they conduct business. That's challenging Even down

2256
02:37:37,602 --> 02:37:46,411
villa 20, 000 challenging. Yeah. On the other hand I

2257
02:37:46,432 --> 02:37:50,694
wonder what Narup is buying. When Cole showed me that

2258
02:37:50,694 --> 02:37:54,214
number for Lafayette I said Can you double check that?

2259
02:37:55,435 --> 02:37:59,654
Um, thank you That consensus direction on that And with

2260
02:37:59,654 --> 02:38:01,654
that I'll ask if there are any matters initiated tonight

2261
02:38:01,835 --> 02:38:07,521
for item L. Seeing none I believe we are adjourned.

2262
02:38:10,562 --> 02:38:12,861
Thank you Andrew, welcome again We're excited to have you.