Welcome to the Bakersfield City Council
meeting. This television broadcast is
brought to you by the local cable
companies, the county of Kerna, and the
city of Bakersfield. You can watch the
rebroadcast of this meeting Saturday at
700 p.m., Sunday at a.m., and the
following Wednesday at 7 p.m. You can
download the agenda for this meeting at
us. Preciding over this evening's
meeting, the Honorable Mayor Karen K.
Go.
>> Good evening. It's my pleasure to call
to order the regular city council
meeting of June 20th, 2026. Madame
Clerk, please call the role.
>> Mayor Go,
>> here.
>> Vice Mayor Core
>> here.
>> Council member Aas.
>> Council member Gonzalez
>> here.
>> Council member Weir
>> here.
>> Council member Smith.
Council member Kman
>> here
>> and council member Bashas
>> here.
>> Thank you. Welcome to all of you. Thank
you for engaging in tonight's civic
process. We have a group of city hall
summer interns here from the Bakersville
youth jobs program. The park and mobile
recreation interns. Can you just wave at
us? Welcome and thank you for serving.
you've been uh they'll serve uh here at
our parks and recreation group,
recreation and parks group and it's
always wonderful to have our interns
here. We had the pleasure tonight of
having pastor James Ranger who's the
lead pastor at New Life Church to offer
the invocation. Pastor is an author and
a musician, a very fine musician and his
whole family is extremely musical and um
very well known. Uh, thank you so much
for New Life's Church facilitating food
drives, emergency assistance programs,
and helping feed thousands of families
in our area. And thank you for all the
Christian-based courses, the support
groups, the counseling for individuals
and families who are facing the
challenges of addiction and life
struggles and challenges. And thank you
for your service to our community. And
then tonight, following the invocation,
Alexander Mariel, city intern at the
finance department, will lead us in the
pledge. Alexander is participating in
the city hall summer internship program,
which is the 8-week summer program that
provides high school students with
hands-on experience in local government.
He's a recent grad of Liberty High
School, was a member of We the People
that advanced to the state competition.
Congratulations on that. participated in
FFA where he developed leadership skills
through showing livestock and uh
agricultural education and this fall
Alexander will attend BC majoring in
agricultural business with dual
enrollment in the pre-law program. He
looks forward to combining his com his
passions for agriculture leadership and
public service. Thank you so much. Would
you all please stand for the invocation
and the pledge? Pastor,
>> let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, tonight we pause
at the beginning of this meeting to
acknowledge our need for your wisdom,
for your guidance, and for your grace.
We thank you, King of Heaven, for the
city of Bakersville, for the families
who live here, the businesses that serve
here, the communities of faith and
organizations that care here, and the
leaders who carry the responsibility of
making decisions for the good of our
community. We pray for our mayor, Mayor
Go, our city council members, our city
staff, our first responders, and all who
serve the people of Bakersfield. Give
them wisdom beyond their own
understanding, patience in difficult
conversations, courage to do what is
right and compassion for every person
affected by the decisions made in this
room. May tonight's meeting be marked by
humility and clarity and respect and a
sincere desire to seek the common good.
Help us to remember that behind every
policy, every budget item, every
discussion, and every vote are people,
families, neighborhoods, children,
seniors, workers, and future
generations. Lord Jesus Christ, protect
our city. Strengthen our unity. Help us
to be a community where justice, peace,
opportunity, and kindness grow. We
commit this meeting to you, to your
care, and ask for your blessing over all
that is said and that is done. In the
name of our sovereign king of heaven, we
pray in Christ's name. Amen.
>> Thank you, pastor.
>> Please join me for the flag salute.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
Thank you. And you may be seated.
Here are a few guidelines to help our
meeting run smoothly. We request that
you turn off your phones. Please be
courteous in the use of cameras and
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courtesy to others. No signs are allowed
in the council chamber or in the lobby.
Applause is allowed during the
presentations portion of the meeting
only but not during other portions of
the meeting. Consider this a first
warning to everyone in attendance that
conduct that disrupts this meeting may
result in expulsion and or the chambers
being cleared. Behavior that disrupts
the meeting includes repetitive
statements, shouting, hate speech,
interrupting staff or presenters during
the meeting, speaking out of turn,
outbursts from the audience, and
surpassing the twominut time limit.
Madame clerk,
next item, please. Presentations. Item
4, A, proclamation to Darren Budac,
director, and Keith Howell, assistant
director of recreation and parks
department for the city of Bakersfield,
declaring July 2026 as National
Recreation Parks Month in Bakersfield.
Well, welcome
colleagues. Quality parks and recreation
are cited as one of the top three
reasons that businesses site in
relocation decisions. We know it's very
very important to people wherever they
live. The uh Department of Recreations
and Parks provides spaces for social
connections and interactions. We are so
grateful for that. in Bakersville. You
are responsible for
69
>> 68
>> 68 soon to be 69 parks, four public
pools, 10 spray parks, two sport
complexes, and two skate parks, several
golf courses, pickle ball and volleyball
courts galore, and one very large
amphitheater. And today, it is my
pleasure to read this proclamation.
Whereas recreational programs and parks
are fundamental in establishing and
maintaining our community's quality of
life, providing citizens opportunities
to participate in activities that
improve physical and mental health. And
whereas these spaces contribute
significantly to our economic and
environmental well-being, supporting
local businesses, growing tourism, and
increasing property values. And whereas
recreation provides invaluable
alternatives for adults and youth,
fostering social bonds and creative
inclusive friendly spaces that promote
lifelong learning and community
belonging. Now therefore, I, Karen Go,
mayor of the city of Bakersfield, do
hereby proclaim July 2026
as recreation and parks month in our
city and urge all residents to enjoy the
social, physical, mental, and
environmental benefits derived from the
city's parks, streetscapes, and
programs. It's my pleasure to be able to
present this to you, Darren Bud,
director. Come on up and offer some
comments.
Uh, thank you, Mayor Councel. Um, as the
mayor said, I first I want to say I
accept this on behalf of my staff. We
have literally hundreds of people, and
we have some of them out here tonight
who are who go out there each and every
day and do amazing job from the
maintenance to the recreation to our
aquatics program. So, our staff does a
phenomenal job making sure we offer
these programs and these facilities to
the best of our ability. uh they they go
out there um literally seven days a week
from our park rangers to our park
maintenance and stuff and do an amazing
job. And one thing that we always tell
our staff is you really need to get out
there and see how people enjoy these
facilities cuz they are literally
life-changing from our programs to our
parks and stuff. So we we consider
oursel an essential part of the
community and look forward to providing
this service each and every day. Thank
you.
>> Thank you. Give it up for our
>> Thank you.
MADAM CLERK, next item, please.
>> Public statements.
Thank you,
Madam Clerk. Do we have any public
statements tonight? I'm going to read
Mayor Go. We've received 16 public
speaker cards for non-aggenda public
statements.
>> Thank you. In keeping with council's
resolution, the public statements
portion is divided into two periods.
There's a period for items listed on the
agenda and for items not on the meeting
agenda. Statements for items listed on
tonight's agenda are given a twominut
time limit, 20 minutes total per agenda
item. The consent calendar as a whole
constitutes one agenda item. Statements
regarding items not listed on the agenda
are given a two-minute time limit, 20
minutes total. If you have written
comments that are longer than your
verbal statement, give them to the clerk
who will give copies to the council. If
you're here to make a public statement,
please fill out a public speaker card.
Give your completed card to the clerk
actually put it in that tray. We ask
that you mark whether you're here to
speak on an item listed on tonight's
agenda or in a matter not on the agenda.
Speakers who do not identify a specific
agenda item will be presumed speakers
for the nonaggenda portion and will be
called during the non-aggenda portion of
the meeting. If you're here on public
hearing item 8A, that is the appeal on
Ward 5 radio tower. Now is not the time
to speak. You'll be given an opportunity
to speak when those when that item is
called later in the meeting. Madame
Clerk, do you have any public speakers
uh now for items not listed on the
agenda?
>> Mayor Go, we've received 16 public
speaker cards for items not listed on
tonight's agenda. The first three
speakers are Steve Miles, followed by
Natisha T. Johnson, followed by JC
Medina.
Welcome. Please introduce yourself.
>> Good afternoon, mayor, council members.
I'm here uh this evening representing
Honorflight Kern County uh through a
series of events meeting uh a earlier
council member Chris Palmer I believe.
Um I reached out to him for a
fundraising opportunity for Honorflight.
basically we don't fly if we don't fund
raise and the previous um district
supervisor in my area had donated in the
past. So I reached out to Chris and
Chris agreed to donate and then a couple
days later I ran into Eric um out in
town in front of the Woolworths and we
were just chatting and uh Eric stated
that if Chris would increase his
donation, Eric would match. and Eric
stepped up and he matched and uh Chris's
donation was $1,500
and um Eric matched that. And um what
I'd like to uh see tonight uh and just
to give you a little bit of background
on Honorflight, we are 100% volunteer.
No one in our organization gets paid for
anything that we do. So every penny that
is donated to us goes directly to
sending veterans to Washington DC. I see
a couple smiling faces here. I I I
remember Andre. Uh so with that said, uh
and being that uh I'm the chair for
fundraising and on the board of
directors, I reached out to Eric and I'd
like to see if Eric would have anything
to add to this comment tonight.
>> Yeah, thank you so much for coming out
and thank you for all that you do for
our veterans. I I myself grew up in a
family uh full of veterans who have
served this uh country and so just want
to say thank you for everything that you
do. um and to the entire team because
it's a collective effort uh that it
takes in order to get everybody over to
to Washington DC. So, uh Supervisor
Parlier and I are known to be a little
bit competitive with one another. So, uh
super excited to put that to good use
and to be able to contribute um just a
little bit to the work that you all do
and would like to invite my colleagues
to to join me in making sure that we can
get some more veterans out to DC. Thank
you.
>> That's that's quite a challenge for the
staff.
>> Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker,
please.
>> Thank you,
>> T. Johnson, followed by JC Medina.
>> Welcome. Please introduce yourself.
>> Thank you. Good evening, Mayor. Uh, city
council members, um, Christy Clay, city
manager. My name is Natisha Johnson. I
am the executive director of the
Bakersville College Launchpad and I
wanted to take a moment during this
public comment to provide a brief update
and most importantly express my sincere
gratitude.
When the city partnered with Bakersville
College Launchpad to invest in
entrepreneurship, it was an innovative
and somewhat unorthodox approach.
Community colleges are not traditionally
known for leading economic development
in this way, but together we've
demonstrated that this model works.
Since 2023, Launchpad has provided over
4,000 touch points to support. This
includes over 700 womenowned businesses,
400 Hispanic owned businesses, 400
blackowned businesses, 41 Asian-owned,
and 39 veteranowned businesses.
Together, we have awarded over 181
grants investing in nearly 1.5 million
directly into Bakersville's small
business community.
Beyond grant funding, our work helps
entrepreneurs build legitimate and
sustainable businesses by assisting them
with business licenses, home occupancy
permits, regulatory compliance and
technical assistance needed to succeed.
As these businesses grow, they create
jobs, strengthen neighborhoods, and
generate additional revenue for the city
of Bakersfield. As we prepare to sunset
this grant October of 2026, I wanted to
extend my heartfelt appreciation to city
manager Christian Kle, council member
Andre Gonzalez, and everyone on council
for believing in this partnership. Mr.
Kle, your vision and willingness to
think differently has empowered more
than a thousand entrepreneurs,
strengthened families, created
opportunity, and left a lasting impact
on our community. Thank you for your
leadership and all that you do. And to
the council, thank you for your
continued support for investing in the
small businesses that make Bakersville
stronger. Thank you.
>> Thank you, M. Johnson. Look, you timed
your speech to exactly two minutes. Good
job. And for uh we have a number of
speakers as uh the clerk mentioned, we
have 16 people who want to speak within
20 minutes. So uh just encourage all of
you to make your statement succinctly.
Next speaker please.
>> JC Medina followed by Giana Muscarino
followed by Jocopilla.
>> Welcome.
>> Hello. Hello city council. My name is JC
Medina. I am currently 17 years old and
I have lived in Bakersfield for all my
life in which a consistent flow of water
in the Kern River sounds unimaginable. I
commend the city council's effort in
allowing the Kern River to continue
flowing as it encourages us in embracing
our community and preserving the nature
in which we call home. However, this
effort in keeping the Kern River flowing
is not everlasting. As on July 31st,
2026, the continuous flow in the Kern
River will be diverted. For many
residents of Bakersfield, the Kern River
is viewed as a safe space and a source
for food like cold water trout. After
consulting with groups such as Brack the
current and Sierra Club, it is evident
that both the younger and older
generation are focusing on one issue,
keeping this consistent flow into the
river channel. With all of us
experiencing temperatures up to 108°,
the community needs a place where they
can safely communicate and enjoy their
time. We want a river that our future
children can enjoy, where it's utter
utter beauty and spread of growth along
the grass and ecosystem inspire them to
continue our efforts in preserving what
we have. We want a place where they can
play, relax, and create new memories
with members of the community. We are
asking for our city council to to be
working to keep water in the river for
as long as possible. The community trudy
truly cares about this river. So, on
behalf of Bring Back the Kern, we invite
all members of the council and anyone
interested to join us on July 2nd, 2026
at p.m. in Yok Park for our Sunsets
on the River event where families and
members of the community are able to
still enjoy the river and create new
memories. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Medina. Next speaker,
please.
>> Giana Mascarino, followed by Joe Joe Cap
Brambilla, followed by Steven
Montgomery. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you.
Good evening, mayor and members of city
council. My name is Giana Mascarino and
I'm a recent Stockdale High School
graduate and the founder of Stockdale
Environmental Club. I've lived in
Bakersfield my entire life and like so
many others, I've grown up knowing that
the Curran River is an important part of
our city's history and identity. First,
I want to thank you for your efforts
you've already made to keep the water
flowing in the river. And I encourage
everyone who hasn't visited recently to
go see it for themselves. The river
belongs to all of us. And when water is
flowing, it becomes a place where people
can gather, connect, and take pride in
our community. It brings people together
in a way that few places can. When it's
dry, however, it sends a message that
this important part of our city is not
being valued. As someone who's lived
here my whole life, I want future
generations to experience the Kern River
as I hope they always will. A living,
flowing river that reflects the beauty
of our city. They deserve the chance to
make memories there just as families are
beginning to do again today. I
respectfully ask you to make decisions
that keep the water flowing in the Kern
River for as long as possible. We all
want a community that we can be proud of
and the Kern River is a big part of
that. Please continue doing everything
you can to preserve this incredible
resource.
I would also like to invite city council
and the public to come to bring back the
kern's sunset on the river on July 2nd
at at Yokitz Park, an event
dedicated to celebrating and bringing
awareness to the importance of the Kern
River. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Miss Mascarino. Next speaker,
please.
Joe, Joe Cup, Brambilla followed by
Steven Montgomery, followed by Max
Pacera.
Sorry, I'm a little bit nervous.
>> Welcome.
>> So, I have paperwork here to show what
I'm going to talk about. Um, I I have
dyslexia, so I'm a terrible reader, so
I'm just going to speak from the heart.
Go ahead. Um, so I am a mom and I'm
facing mom issues and I'm here to bring
awareness to an issue that I faced
myself and it's lack of a kid zone in
the courthouse and I'm asking you guys
all if you guys could uh on I I know
that this is in your guys's jurisdiction
that it's Kern County, but you guys have
a say on it. Um, and you guys can
endorse it and that's what I'm asking
for today.
Um, thank you for your time and I'm
sorry I'm just really nervous. It's my
first time.
>> That's okay. We get nervous and it's
fine. Uh, we all get nervous, but thank
you for sharing with us and we can pass
that information on.
>> Thank you.
>> Next speaker, please.
>> Steven Montgomery followed by Max Bera
followed by Tina Lie.
>> Welcome,
>> Mayor Go, members of council. Good
evening. I'm Steven Montgomery, the
chair of the Kerna chapter CR club and
active with the K uh bring back to Kerna
a sub a committee of the uh Ker Parkway
Foundation. Critics of a flowing urban
flowing urban Kern River had decried
what they call a our desire for
aesthetics as they posed themselves as
the adults in the room. While those of
us who advocate for a flowing current
are looked at as somewhat naive,
uninformed dogooders seeking to add an
impractical element to our community.
They view our reasoning as a trivial u
as trivial for restoring a flowing
flowing urban Kern River. There are
several important reasons beyond what is
um admittedly aesthetic an aesthetic
attractive option of having a real Kern
River versus a dry dry riverbed. But
with little time to cover these reasons,
I'll keep it short. Carbon
sequestration. There's been a recent
focus on on using expensive and
questionable technology when sitting
right in front of us is an option for
getting help from nature herself. Carbon
sequestration is what trees and other
green foliage do. A flowing Kern River
through town would sustain the natural
riparian habitat along with the river
route. Never mind how attractive a
riparian habitat is to the area. It
would contribute to needed uh carbon
sequestration and uh along with its u
appearance that is part and parcel to
our very real issue of our par air of
our poor air quality. Whether or not we
have what it ranks as the dirtiest air
in the nation is indisputably dirty and
harmful to breathe. A riparian corridor
through town would contribute to it in a
positive way toward cleaner air and that
right there would should uh be an an
important consideration to answer those
who would prefer diverting the river
upstream for their economic advantage.
Additionally, a river with water in it
is accompanied by the foliage of a of a
riparian habitat along the routes also
has the natural cooling effect on the
area. Something those of us who live
here can well appreciate here in hot
Bakersfield.
Meanwhile, what we see uh big money
interests fighting those efforts of what
is so much about uh wise use as they
call it. It's actually about preferred
use. That is the great greatest
financial
>> the selected few.
>> Mr. Montgomery, your time is up. Can you
bring your comments to a close, please?
>> Okay. City staff and leaders should
consider the advantages of having a real
Kern River in town and facilitate its
routing through town to perk pounds perk
ponds at the other end where it
contribute to replenish our unfed
underfed and overdrawn water table.
Thank you. Next speaker please.
>> Max Pacera followed by Tina Lai followed
by Anchelau.
>> Welcome.
>> Welcome. Thank you. Um good evening,
Mayor Go, members of the Bakersville
City Council. Bakersville is a beautiful
city, but there's another side of
Bakersville that is too often
overlooked.
In late
2023, Pacifica's company,
Pacifica's Company, the Moore Partners,
and Sunrise Global Development made a
significant investment and long-term
commitment to help transition East
Bakersfield and Southeast Bakersfield.
But before we could begin building our
new communities, we first had to address
a serious problem that had plagued the
area for many, many years. that is
illegal dumping. What we found was very
alarming. Hundreds of acres were
littered with abandoned vehicles,
construction debris, broken concrete,
discarded furniture, illegal dumping,
uh, and visible homeless encamp
encampments, conditions that would not
be accepted in any other part of of
Bakersfield. Rather than waiting for
someone else to act, we took the
responsibility. Rather than waiting for
someone else to act,
we took that responsibility and over a
seven month period, we cleaned up and
res and restored more than 100 acres of
land at our own expense. Thousands of
pounds of debris were removed and for a
brief period, we thought visible uh
change was possible. This here here is a
brief video showing the current
conditions in southeast Bakersfield.
As you take a look at all the slides
here, you
I'm just um disappointed
uh in and what is what has happened
here. We spent over $100,000 uh dollars
just to clean up back in 2004. 7 7
months later or uh uh 2024 7 months
later it came back with a vengeance.
This is not acceptable. Illegal dumping
uh illegal dumping has returned. No
neighborhood in Bakersville should be
treated as a dumping ground and no
family
should have to to live right next to
illegal dumping and debris. the
conditions you have seen would not be
accepted in any other area in the city
of Bakersfield.
>> Thank you, Mr. Bera. Can you bring your
comments to a close, please?
>> So, thank you, mayor. So, we ask for
your partnership, your leadership, and
your commitment in addressing this
growing problem and ensuring that
Southeast Bakersfield receive the same
attention and respect as in other parts
of our community. Thank you, Mayor.
>> Thank you, Mr. Pacero. Next speaker,
please.
>> Tina Lie, followed by Anchilau, followed
by Eddie Lane.
>> Good evening, mayor, council members,
and city staff. My name is Tina Lee. We
are the land developer group for the
Doro High School area. For the last few
years, we have invested over 11 millions
in the southeast part of Bakersville.
Every year, the carrying cost is over
half a mill. We are spending over a
hundred,000 to clean up the area last
year. However, all the trust came back.
So, we need your help. We need the
city's help. We cannot do it alone. We
really appreciate the city of
Bakersville helping us all your support
in the past, but together that only if
we do it together, we can bring a lot of
nice and affordable homes in this area.
So we're just here to ask for help for
the city to help us clean up the trash
or maybe give them ticket when people
are illegal dumping or maybe I don't
know give them citation or something
discourage them dumping over there and
also a lot of people are camping there.
It's not safe. We should have uh police
enforcement help us to
evict those people or or help them to
get into housing. So this is our asking
and we have really appreciate for the
city of Bakersfield. Thank you.
>> Thank you Miss L council member Aries.
>> Thank you mayor and thank you uh Maxer
and thank you Tina for everything that
you have done for the city of
Bakersfield but specifically uh for
Southeast Bakersfield. Um I'm often
reminded uh you know that there are many
amenities. There are many uh retail
stores, commercial stores, many homes uh
that we see on the west side of the 99
that we frankly just do not see on the
east side of the 99. And the reality is
it's it's difficult and challenging to
develop. Um, and I think this is one
case in point where uh we are running
into a roadblock that continues to
persist uh that is preventing us from
being able to see uh so some of those in
real time uh some of those changes that
are coming uh to Southeast Bakersfield
and specifically to the MLK corridor. Um
and so I just want to say thank you for
your continued uh uh commitment to
Southeast Bakersville, to MLK Boulevard.
Uh $11 million is no drop in the bucket.
Uh so thank you to Tina and all of your
partners for seeing the opportunity in
Southeast Bakersfield. Uh but more than
that, thank you for also investing in in
cleaning up and making sure that this
entire corridor is, you know, primed,
looks good, and is ready for
construction. U so I would argue that
you all have done your part, and I think
that it's our turn uh to also do our
part and help out um in a couple of
different ways. And so, uh, with that, I
actually want to, uh, make a
three-pronged referral tonight. Uh, the
the first is that, uh, we work with the
Bakersville Police Department to step up
our enforcement, um, efforts out along
the corridor. Um, we have the laws on
the books as it relates to illegal
dumping, as it relates to trespassing,
and I think we could be doing more,
particularly with newer technology, uh,
that we've invested in to make sure that
we are holding those bad actors
accountable. Uh the the second uh that
wasn't mentioned tonight uh but uh was
shared yesterday in conversation is that
uh Max Tina and team are preparing to
add some significant signage on many of
their larger parcels uh to deter folks
from uh trespassing and and illegal
dumping. So, I would like to ask uh for
their team to connect with our city
attorney to make sure that we have the
proper codes on the books out there on
that signage to ensure that folks are
aware um that they will be held
accountable if in fact they're find
found violating the law. The the last uh
piece is that uh we actually work with
the city manager's office to identify
some funding uh to be able to help and
assist this team uh in abating a lot of
the illegal dumping and debris that we
find. Um oftent times if we don't
address the problem quickly uh it will
quickly grow. Um if one person sees that
there's already a pile of trash, the
second person may also dump their trash
there. And so I would like to ask that
we look for um some funding to be able
to help assist on an ongoing basis in
abating uh those properties. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Arus.
>> Madam Clerk, next speaker, please.
>> Anchaler, followed by Eddie Lane,
followed by Jesse Bowman.
>> Welcome.
>> Yes. So good evening everyone. So my
name is Ana. I'm a professor at CSUB
department of biology and I'm also a
member of the Sierra Club. Um
Bakersfield has a lot of problems as we
already heard. I am here to talk about
the trees. So I hope you all read the
letters that Eddie Lane submitted
regarding the city's budget update
especially when it comes to the future
of tree maintenance and tree planting.
So today I'd like to point out that the
current tree plan together with its
appendix H that was initiated by CSUB
and which received 175 signatures back
in November 2024
should not just be adopted but turned
into a policy or or or resolution that
is enforcable. We just talked about
enforcement being important with the
dumping. We also need enforcement for um
tree related um issues.
We have many policies and ordinances in
our city, but what are they worth when
they are not enforced and not
enforcable?
Next, I'd like to state that the tree
advisory group is working on an update
of the street trees municipal code 1240
that is lacking details such as the
protection of mature trees and has very
few specific goals or objectives and
those that are included such as
replacing dead trees within a certain
time frame are not enforced as we have
witnessed in the past without
consequences. This has to change if our
common goal is to increase Bakersfield's
tree canopy cover.
We have support from the Bakersfield
community shown by more than 600
signatures on our petition on change.org
that was shared last month, last council
meeting, but it never made it into the
minutes for some reason. I have copies
of the issue if you weren't able
petition that we put out and I updated
it today. Um lastly, my students and I
we have continued the tree inventory for
the city having started with Martin
Luther King Park and we will uh do
Jefferson Park next. We start in the
fall of 2026 also together with
Bakersville College with Professor Aoyo
um professor Ronaldo Aoyo who is a
licensed arborist. So we will be
professional about it. Thank you.
>> It's a topic.
Thank you, Sar. Next speaker, please,
>> Eddie Lane. Followed by Jesse Bowman,
followed by Eric Mora.
>> My name is Eddie Lane with Sierra Club.
Good evening. Thank you, Vice Mayor
Core, for taking seriously the
suggestions that have been made again
and again from the community regarding
increasing the city of Bakersfield's
tree canopy. The young voices of
15-year-old Valentina and 19-year-old
Carter two weeks ago told us why trees
need to be protected and valued. They
represent the future of this community.
We're asking today, what we're asking
today reflects their hopes. To follow up
on the referrals two weeks ago in
yesterday's letter, we made specific
requests which were asking be referred
to the city manager's office. The first
one, this is a repeat, is a city adopt
the MIG central city and tree plan,
including appendix H by a council
resolution. The importance of this
request was made crystal clear when Dr.
Aoyo, head of the forestry department,
Bakersfield College at the last TAG
meeting asked, "What is the tree plan
for the city?" There was no response.
TAG has no roadmap. That's why we need
appendix H adopted as a resolution.
Uh and what we're asking for is that and
and in in section 8 it says that the
purpose of the advisory committee tag is
to regularly support the implementation
and overall success of the plan. Well,
the plan was never approved. Again, TAG
has no roadmap. Other recommendations,
amend the current tree trimming and
removal contracts to include the
standards. We've talked about that a
lot. place photos on the city's website
so that the uh uh the city those uh who
are interested in city in trees can have
a chance to comment before they are
removed. Uh provide monthly reports.
This is so important. You need monthly
reports of trees trimmed, removed,
purchased, and planted and establish a
tree trimming cycle consistent with the
standards. Mr. Kle's already said he
would do that and develop a plant a tree
program. So, there's a lot in the
agenda, but we're anxious to see
progress. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Next speaker, please.
>> Jesse Bowman.
>> Going city council.
>> Um, I'm here representing uh Max and his
team with Tina. I'm the contractor
that's been out there for the Deloro
project and we did all the cleanup and
we were probably 95%
completed and um as the sewer line came
in, we kind of moved off the project and
now it's doubled and um they they spent
about 100,000 with our equipment out
there and our guys out there uh moving
that trash and um we're getting ready to
move back in out there. This lift
station's almost done. And when we
blockade this property, the first 100
acres out of 400 acres I think they got
out there. Um,
all the stuff, all that dumping zone,
yeah, you won't be able to get in
besides the fire department, but they're
just going to want to move across the
street. So, it would be nice if they had
someone patrolling it because they're
they're willing to develop a whole new
side of Bakersfield and cleaning up a
town that's a part of town that's
probably been forgotten about for the
last 30 years. So, thank you guys.
>> Thank you. Next speaker, please.
>> Eric Mora.
Well, make it short and we have 17
seconds left. Um, thanks mayor, city
staff, city council. My name is Eric
Mora with the Mora Partners and I'm here
with Max and Tina Lie. We are the group
behind the development by Deloro. I'm
also a real estate broker in town. We
spend a lot of time on the west side
bringing investors and showing the
beauty beautiful side of town. We always
kind of skip the MLK quarter because
it's so ugly with dump and trash. So, we
just ask for your support. uh continue
support in our southeast area and let us
bring some more investment into the
area. Thanks uh Councilman Aras for your
support. Appreciate you guys. Thank you.
>> Thank you. And we have run out of time
for this section. Just moving on. Madame
clerk, what do we have for the next um
Mayor Go? We have received 11 speaker
cards regarding deferred business item
10A. Would you please call them please?
>> The first three speakers, Jennifer
Haratani, Michelle Peters, followed by
Robert Miller.
>> Welcome.
>> Hi. Good evening, Madame Mayor and
Council members. We are grateful to the
city of Bakersfield for allocating
$100,000 in funding for mobile spay and
neuter services last year and we would
like to provide a progress update
demonstrating the impact of this
investment and the importance of
continued funding in the upcoming fiscal
year. Since November 25, we have
completed 15 clinic days utilizing
$71,250
of the allocated funds. As agreed, each
clinic day was co-sponsored by Strength
of Shadow Dog Rescue as well as
additional community partners,
maximizing the reach of every dollar.
Through this collaboration, we
successfully completed a total of 1,596
surgeries for residents and their pets
across all seven wards of the city of
Bakersfield at an average cost to the
city of $44.64
per animal, a highly efficient return on
investment. With the remaining $28,750,
we are on track to continue at this pace
through approximately midepptember 2026,
further expanding access to these
critical services. We respectfully urge
you to consider the demonstrated value
and success of this program and vote
through a path to continue funding.
Research research shows that it takes
approximately 5 years of consistent
targeted high volume spay and neuter
efforts to see measurable reductions in
shelter intake and euthanasia rates.
While our entire program has funded and
completed 13,913
surgeries in just two and a half years,
we are already seeing a stabilization in
intake numbers at local shelters, a
meaningful early indicator that this
approach is working. Without this
intervention, those animals and their
potential offspring would have
significantly compounded the existing
overpopulation crisis. the impact on our
community, shelters, and city resources
across multiple departments would be far
greater than what we are experiencing
today. We are commit committed to
continuing this work and building on the
process already made. Please let us know
if there's any additional information we
can provide to support your
decision-making as you consider
continued funding for this program.
Thank you again for your leadership and
support of this critical initiative.
>> Thank you. Next speaker, please.
>> Michelle Peters, followed by Robert
Miller, followed by Michael Bailey.
>> Welcome.
>> Good evening, mayor and council members.
I want to speak to you as a volunteer
with Current Safe Animal Coalition. One
who walks neighborhoods doortodoor,
passing out flyers and helping families
actually find and use our lowcost mobile
spayneuter services. I also work to get
this information into the school system
and community spaces so it reaches the
people who need it most. And what I see
out there is simple. The need is real
and the demand is out there. But access
and awareness are what make or break
whether these services succeed. This
funding for mobile lowcost spayneuter
isn't just a budget item. It's
prevention. It's the difference between
a managed community and an overwhelmed
one. Every surgery funded is fewer
unwanted litters, fewer straight intake
calls, and fewer animals entering an
already stretched system. And here's the
part I think matters most. This only
works if we stay consistent. We cannot
promote a service and then let it just
fade away. We cannot ask residents to do
their part and then reduce the very
tools they need to follow through. In
the neighborhoods like Canvas, people
are willing. They want to do the right
thing. And what they need is reliable
access and a city that stays committed
long enough to make the impact real. So,
this isn't just about spending money.
It's about protecting an investment that
is already working and making sure it
actually reaches its full potential. Our
community cannot afford to step back
from this now as we will pay more for it
later financially and in outcomes. So I
please urge you to approve this funding
for lowcost mobile spayneuter.
>> Thank you. Next speaker please
>> Robert Miller followed by Michael Bailey
followed by Eddie Lane.
Welcome.
>> Good evening uh mayor and council
members. My name is Robbie Miller and
I'm the founder of SOS Dog Rescue. I'm
here today to ask the city of
Bakersville to continue the investment
in lowcost mobile spay and neuter
services. Every day in our community, we
are seeing the consequences of too many
animals and not enough homes. Shelters
are full, rescues are full, fosters,
homes are exhausted.
Animals are being abandoned, born on the
streets, and suffering in our
neighborhoods. We need to stop the
suffering before it starts. The reality
is that we cannot adopt our way out of
this problem. We cannot rescue our way
out of this problem. We have to prevent
it. Many families want to do the right
thing. But veterary costs can be
difficult to to afford. Mobile lowcost
spay and neuter programs remove those
barriers by bringing services directly
into the neighborhoods that need it the
most. Every surgery prevents future
litters. Every litter prevented means
fewer animals entering the shelter,
fewer animals abandoned, fewer taxpayer
dollars spent dealing with the
consequences later. When we talk about
animals, suffering, we often focus on
shelters. But suffering begins long
before animals reach the shelter. It
happens when unwanted litters are born
with nowhere to go. It happens when
animals live on the street, are hit by
cars, or become sick, or continue
reproducing. Prevention is the most
humane and costeffective solution
available. This investment is not is not
simply about animals. It's about
supporting families, protecting
neighborhoods, reducing shelter
populations, and making Bakersfield a
healthier and safer community. I asked
the city of Bakersville to continue
funding lowcost mobile spay and neuter
services because preventing suffering is
far less expensive than trying to solve
the crisis after it's already existed.
Thank you for your time and
consideration.
>> Thank you, Mr. Miller. Next speaker,
please.
>> Michael Bailey, followed by Eddie Lane,
followed by Michael Turnup Seed.
>> Welcome.
>> Hello, um, city council and mayor go. Uh
my name is Michael Bailey and I'm a
resident in Ward 6 and I am deeply
concerned about the usage both current
and uh perspective of advanced
surveillance um cameras in our community
in general um as well as with the Flock
cameras which are currently in use in
particular. Uh while Flock has an
extremely questionable history with a
well doumented um past of poor cyber
security practices, illegal and
unauthorized access by individuals and
by federal law enforcement and deceptive
commercial practices. It is my
conviction, the conviction of many that
merely switching to a different
contractor for these um cameras and
these services can never address the
concerns of myself or your other
constituents. Specifically, any
surveillance system implemented would
face insurmountable issues with both
both consent and safety. With regards to
consent, a 2025 bipartisan survey showed
that fewer than 30% of Americans believe
it is acceptable for the US government
to monitor the activity of US citizens.
Less than 21% of Americans believe it
was acceptable for the US government to
monitor public social media posts. And I
would challenge anyone in this
government to tell me with a straight
face that a majority of their
constituents would desire 247 tracking
of their moments accessible without a
warrant. With regards to safety, just
two days ago, the NSA, the most
sophisticated cyber warfare organization
on the planet, announced that
Anthropic's latest AI model was able to
breach its entire system in a matter of
hours. And I would seriously question
the wisdom of trusting a camera vendor
um to guarantee the security of their
data in the current era um in the age we
live in with massive data breaches
enabled by AI tools. I would urge the
council and mayor to halt any um further
usage of these cameras um and to
seriously reevaluate the um contract
that we have with Flock. To close, a
quote from Benjamin Franklin. Those who
would give up essential liberty to
purchase a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety.
>> Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Next speaker,
please.
>> Eddie Lane, followed by Michael Turnup
Seed, followed by Ariel Dyer.
>> Welcome.
>> Well, I'm back. I didn't realize these
were quite together like this. I'm Eddie
Lane. I'm still Eddie Lane with the
Sierra Club. More trees. More trees.
More trees. That's our request.
Respectfully, a budget which removes up
to 725 trees and trims thousands of
trees, as we've done for many years,
does not prioritize additions to our
extremely low tree canopy. We're asking
for a change of direction, prioritizing
the planting of trees. We're asking that
$500,000
from the existing budget be reallocated
to plant trees. More than 500 well 600
600 Bakersville residents signed RCR
Club petition calling for better care
and protection of the city's trees. The
proposed budget as it relates to trees
is the de facto response to the
petition. The response zero funding for
planting trees and the use of ANSIA
standards is critically important. Those
standards specify the trees should be
trimmed and planted when they are
dormant. In Bakersfield, that would be
November through February with planting
continuing through March. The city is
not following those standards with when
its contractors trim thousands of trees
in August and September and then plant
trees in April and May, some during
periods of excessive heat. Where are the
arborists involved in such
decision-making? I was raised on a
20acre farm in Reedley. My father didn't
need to be an arborist to follow common
sense with regard to planting and
trimming when trees are dormant. Also
for budget purposes, trees need to be
treated as capital assets according to
the government code such as fleet
vehicles and road infrastructure. In
fact, the lifespan of most trees far
exceeds vehicles. Now, the city treats
trees as discret discretionary expense
funding from whatever's left over. This
is a policy choice, not an accounting
requirement. Uh the urban forest needs
to have trees treated that way. Again,
we urge the city council to reallocate
500,000 from trimming and removal to the
planting of trees. Thank you again for
this opportunity.
>> Thank you, Mr. Lane. Council member
Gonzalez.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Lane,
for your comments. Um, I couldn't agree
with you more. We need more trees. More
trees. More trees. Uh, I have been a fan
of trees since all my life. Actually, I
think I shared the story before. My my
my parents when I was born, they planted
a tree and they did so for all of my
five siblings. So there's a whole
there's a whole six trees in this world
be that were planted when we were born
and I thought that was very special. So
trees have always had a very special
sentimental part of my life and I
couldn't agree with you more. I've been
volunteer of the tree foundation. Um
been advocating for years for more
trees. Um likewise so many of my my
colleagues. So I appreciate all the
advocacy from the community. Um, I did
want to point out though, since 2022,
our city has planted over 4,268
trees. I think that's important for the
community because that that's that's our
public dollars that we've invested to
enhancing our tree canopy. We received a
transformative climate communities grant
uh from the state which has allowed us
to play uh plant over 80 trees in just
one park alone in l park uh which has
been transformative for that park and
certainly provided a lot of um relief uh
for many of the uh residents who enjoy
that park every day and actually in this
year's budget uh and uh Mr. Mr. Kle, if
you if you will fact check me here, but
I believe there's an allocation of
$275,000
uh to plant another $960 trees.
>> Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez, for
the question. Actually, there's there's
$75,000 in the operating budget. Okay.
>> And then there was the $200,000 as an
optional additional project which would
total the 275.
>> Perfect. So, and that that's contingent
upon our discretion at this DAS.
Perfect. and 960 trees is more or less
the
>> that's the number of additional trees
that could be planted with those funds
beyond the 1,200 trees that have already
been planted this year.
>> And and then there was a question about
the tree plan and the fact that because
there was no resolution coupled with
that plan that it wasn't operational. Is
that
that's concerning if that is true? I
mean, I think it was the council's
intent that once we adopted a tree plan
to actually implement that plan.
>> Yeah, thank you, Council Member
Gonzalez. There's several aspects to
this response. I would say an
overarching approach. Uh, yes, we're
moving forward with you implementation
of the plan. I would also point to just
some of our recent conversations that
you know the the some of the first
elements of policy development were to
go to the tree advisory group and talk
about things like the tree pallet and
the standards and we have been adopting
those. Uh I think that it is fair to uh
consider what aspects of policy are
reasonable to include by resol by
resolution or ordinance consistent with
what's typically typical to put into a
resolution or ordinance versus those
things are typical to be internal
policies. Uh but absolutely we're doing
a lot of work policy work that's uh
implementing that plan. We're also um
moving forward with many plantings uh
that you know not to belabor the the
conversation about where to plant. Is it
based on inventory? Is it based on need?
Um at this point we've received that
council direction to go based on need
and and we're going out and and and
planting trees uh in areas of need and
also contemplating how to um best um get
trees in those areas as I described at
our last meeting that that there are
limited medians and rights of way. So
we're looking at other programs that can
help plant trees in those areas of need.
And so um we we are moving forward uh uh
in I would say in an overarching
approach with uh the tree plan. I think
it's a question of um taking it in
chunks.
>> Yeah. And that's a great point. I mean I
think we're talking about this in the
context of the fiscy year budget, a
budget that has to be adopted tonight.
Um, but in fact, the city has performed
pretty well at receiving state and
federal grants uh on projects that will
include a net gain of additional trees
throughout the city. That is correct,
council member. Because of limited
resources, we're looking for as many
opportunities to use those grant funds
and include them in other projects. And
actually I appreciate sort of your your
your line of questioning because the
park's master plan is designed to be a
10 to 20 year master plan in the big
picture and of course we need to
prioritize and we need to make progress
uh on specific action steps but you know
we are moving forward. We're making
progress.
>> Great. Thank you so much.
>> Thank you Mr. Kle. Uh Mr. Lane mentioned
the trimming of trees sometimes off
cycle and I know that was in the letter
that was sent. Is
public safety an item that would take
precedence over being offcycle? Could
that be a a reason why sometimes trees
are
trimmed off cycle?
>> Yeah, thank you, Mayor Go. Uh the answer
is yes. We actually received one of
those requests today, as a matter of
fact, um uh for
a a situation that, you know, did have a
safety challenge and issue. Again, we uh
starting last year, we have made a
commitment to have our routine trimming
only happen within the window that's
been recommended by the tree advisory
group. Uh where we're addressing other
trees. It's either because they're
covering a stop sign, they're um a
dangerous limb, they're dead, or they're
diseased. Like, we're only addressing
um problematic complaint-based trees in
the non-trimming season. Thank you,
Council Member Coleman. Uh,
>> thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to
clarify because, uh, Council Member
Gonzalez mentioned how many trees we
planted, but and and how much we have
budgeted, but I don't even think that
includes the 170 trees we approved in
the H Street corridor improvement.
Correct.
>> That is correct.
>> Right. So, that's an additional 170
trees. So,
>> thank you, Madam City Clerk. Next
speaker, please.
Michael Turnips Seed, followed by Ariel
Dyer, followed by Jason COPER.
>> Give the council program to follow here.
>> Mayor, members of the council,
>> I am Michael Turnup, seat. I represent
the Kern County Taxpayers Association.
I'm here to make a few comments about
the budget you're going to be adopting
later. This budget does not tell the
public whether it's structurally
balanced or not.
It's the single most important number in
the book and the public can't find it.
This budget does not fix the cost curve.
We have trimmed
but we have not reformed. This budget
does not address subsidies that has been
autopilot for over 30 years. The
consolidated maintenance district not
has not raised its assessment since
1996.
Every year since then, general fund has
covered a larger and larger part of park
and median maintenance in one part of
town, now close to $4 million a year.
The budget rolls forward for the 31st
year with no plan to change it.
This budget does not fund the single
largest liability, which as we've talked
about many times is wastewater.
We are paying for it one year at a time
with no long-term plan before this
council or the public.
And this budget does not answer your own
city manager's warning that our business
sales tax needs to double or triple for
the city to survive. There is a
diagnosis in process. There is no growth
strategy to meet it.
This council needs to commit to
publishing a one-page general fund
condition statement. Revenue, spending,
surplus or or no surplus, and ending
reserve at the front of every budget.
Commit to the commit to a funded
multi-year wastewater plan that the
public can see and understand. And
finally, commit to the reopening of the
CMD before it consumes another decade of
general fund dollars. Thank you very
much.
>> Thank you, Mr. Turnup. Next speaker,
please.
>> Ariel Dyer, followed by Jason Cper,
followed by Terry Maxwell.
>> Welcome.
>> Hi, everybody. Uh my name is Ariel Dyer
and um I'm here to talk once again about
surveillance technology in the city. Um
last time we were here the city of
Bakersfield said we don't share
surveillance data with ICE.
Here's the problem with that. We don't
currently have a way of knowing that. Um
let me clarify why that is. So, taking
the police department and the city at
your word, um, setting aside the
notorious lack of oversight and
accessing this sort of technology, which
we've seen nationally, um, assuming the
premise that we do not share data with
ICE, this only covers BPD's settings and
usage of our footage. Um, if our data
sits in Flock's National Network, and
that's not a hypothetical if, it does
sit in Flock's national network,
thousands of other police agencies can
search it. uh so can flock uh the which
not only is uh having the hardware,
firmware and software that we use to
surveil but it also uh hosts the data on
their servers.
Our individual whereabouts can reach ICE
without BPD ever choosing to share them.
Uh this was found in Bend, Oregon, for
instance. Of course at this point in
time those responsible for this
technologies operation in our city
aren't looking for such common misuse.
when we requested data under the
California Public Records Act, BPD
claimed that no annual audit reports
exist. So in short, you hold the most
personally invasive privacy
disrespecting information in your hands
and you lack the ability or even the
inclination to safeguard it currently. I
can't think of a rational reason for
that uncritical adoption and maintenance
of a technology that I don't think
anyone should have access to. uh the
anti- capitalist computer club. We
believe that in abolishing the use and
sharing of surveillance tech by
government and private entities, but we
also believe in transparency and
communication, neither of which have
been afforded Bakersfield residents. So,
we're asking the city to stop funding a
surveillance state that we have not
agreed to. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you, Mr. Dyer. Next speaker,
please.
Jason Cper followed by Terry Maxwell
followed by
>> Oh, go ahead. Sorry.
>> Just asking all of you to be a succinct
as possible in that we have a number of
speakers who still would like to speak.
Go ahead. Welcome.
>> Good evening. As was said, my name is
Jason COPER. On June 10th, I was here
and I told all of you about the 133
flock cameras watching this city and the
1.4 4 million rows of license plate data
that BPD handed over to me. Tonight, you
fund the next phase, the real time
information center or Arctic. An Arctic
fuses surveillance feeds into one
searchable map. The flock cameras,
decommissioned city, CCTV, dispatch
records, 911, gunshot detection, and
drones, all in front of any officer at
one screen.
BPD's own flock system lists two outside
uh companies as active API users. The
first is first two, the product that
lets an officer click a building and
pull the names, ages, and phone numbers
of the people inside. The second is
Paragrin built by Palanteer alumna. For
those of you not familiar, Palanteer
builds the software ICE uses to track
people for deportation.
Flock runs a national network of roughly
7,000 agencies. California law bars
sharing plate data with federal
agencies. Reporting this year shows that
well, it's happening anyway. I filed a
public records request yesterday asking
the city for every integration feeding
this Arctic and every agency that can
pull from it. You were funding a fusion
center while the people paying for it
cannot see who feeds it, who searches
it, or who outside Bakersfield can pull
from it.
Hold the Arctic funding until BPD
publishes every integration and every
data sharing partner. Put hearings and
annual audits in writing before another
dollar moves. The cameras went up
without our input. Do not fund the
machine that wires them together the
same way. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Kasper.
Terry Maxwell followed by Ramona Pajoka.
Welcome.
>> My name is Terry Maxwell. You know, I'm
always shocked at how little this
council really really wants to hear from
the the U public. 20 minutes for public
comments on non-aggenda items and 20
minutes for gen. I thought you guys were
here to listen to us. That's just
shocking and disgraceful.
319 beds at your navigation center over
on Brendage Lane. They're proudly
telling you that they've had actually
617 people move on to permanent housing.
You're spending $8 million a year on
that. That means for those 619 people or
17 people, you have spent 77 $78,000 a
piece. But let's put it more in context.
If let's say over that that six-year
period you had on average 200 people
every night that means you you had
450,000
people through that navigation center
and only 619 of them 617 of them have
gone on to any sort of permanent
housing. Have you figured out that it's
really not working yet? That you're
spending a lot of money. You're wasting
money on this?
Um there's no report on the follow-up
success whether those 617
are continuing to be in permanent
housing. Um you're getting more
homelessness every year than less. And
through that navigation center, you're
making it awfully easy for people to go
ahead and continue to be homeless
because they can go and be there and do
anything they want, come back the next
day and just completely repeat it time
and time again. I was going to make some
comments on H Street. I wish that we
would have had an opportunity to comment
after the staff talked about it because,
you know, you could have solved this
real easy on 8th Street. All you had to
do was put no left turn signs at every
intersection.
You have no idea what what accidents
were being caused. You have no idea in
the context for Mr. Aras what exactly
happened. Did did the person that hit
your friend, did they get charged with
anything? All of it was out of context.
I want to compliment though
Councilman Weir for his consistency.
When we talked about the widening of
24th Street, he voted to widen it.
Although the council member who's not
here tonight voted to widen 24th Street
yet narrow a street. Very inconsistent.
>> Thank you, Mr. Maxwell. Next speaker,
please. Ramona Poga.
>> Good evening. My first time here. Sorry.
Um, I just wanted to talk to
>> Can you just lower the mic a little,
please?
>> Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh, I just
wanted to talk about the flock cameras.
I wanted to ask city hall to halt any
further expansion and cancel the flock
camera contract. I want to publish
camera locations and usage logs and
would like to require you to hold public
hearings before approving any further
surveillance tech or if you do any
contract renewals. We want to make sure
there's no more tech for surveillance
without voter approval and annual
audits. Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you. Next speaker, please.
>> Christy Trotter.
>> Hi. Good evening. Thank you.
Um, again, my name is Christy Tarter. I
am I'm a city resident and I'm just here
to ask you to all lot money for the
mobile spay and neuter. We all know we
have way too many dogs and cats and
that's super obvious driving around and
going to any shelter. The only way to
tackle the problem is prevention and
obviously spay and neuter is the best
prevention out there. So I think it's
definitely worth investing as much as
you can into the prevention of the
problem rather than the aftermath of the
problem. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Miss Tarter. Next speaker,
please. Rosa Lopez.
Welcome. Good evening. Um, my name is
Rosa Lopez and I'm here to reiterate my
call that you you reimagine a public
budget process that centers the people.
As you see tonight, people are
interested in participating and
influencing how our tax dollars are
allocated. We are asking you to invest
um in programs and services that address
the root cause of social issues and
improve the quality of life for everyone
regardless of our zip code. Our tax
dollars should support proven
community-based strategies to address uh
this public safety challenges. The
Bakersville Police Department has become
a default for all social issues.
However, evidence suggests that simply
increasing police budget does not
necessarily prevent crime or improve
public safety. True public safety is
achieved through strong communities,
accessible services, meaningful
opportunities, and public trust that
strengthen social connections and create
safer communities. I urge you to in um
expand and preserve the Bakersville
urban forest, including efforts
championed by organization such as the
Sierra Club and the Arbor Day
Foundation. Trees provide shade, reduce
extreme heat, improve air quality,
enhance public safety, uh public health,
and make neighbors uh neighborhoods more
attractive and safe. I also urge you to
um really schedule a community a space
where people can really talk about the
concerns and issues of community being
surveiled through flock technologies.
Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lopez. Madam
clerk, do we have any other speakers for
this portion?
>> Margo, that was our final speaker for
this portion.
>> Thank you. And I know we have a lot of
items uh to address tonight and so let's
take a 10-minute break. 10-minut break
and we'll come back.
Okay, let's continue. Madam clerk, next
item, please.
>> Consent calendar items
6A through 6J for approval. Mayor,
please note that item 6E1 contains a
staff recommendation to adopt
resolutions approving salaries and
benefits for specified units.
>> Thank you. And so we have a request
tonight to have these items pulled. 6E1
6 F1
6H5
6 J2
6 J3 and those are requests from council
member Weir and then council member
Basher Tosh also asked for 6J2 and 6 J3
to be pulled. Additionally, council
council member Basher would like 6J5
pulled.
>> Motion to approve consent calendar items
6A through 6J for approval with the
exception of 6E1 6 F1 6H5
6 J2 6 J3 and 6J5.
You have a motion. Please cast your
votes.
motion is approved
with council member Smith absent.
>> Thank you. And now we're going to take a
motion on 6E1,
6F1, and 6H5.
Council member uh Vice Mayor.
>> Motion to approve
consent calendar item 6E1.
>> Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay, you do want to
talk. Okay, Council Member Weir does
want to talk. I thought you didn't.
Okay, go ahead.
>> Thank you, Mayor. I'm sorry. This is a
little confused up here. Um,
you know, it's um
it's kind of it's it's kind of strange
right now. Um, we're just finishing up
with our water uh
ex explorations
and ways to um
treat our our sanit our
our waste water.
And we've got something in place now
that we can we can use.
And if it stays this way through
fruition,
it will be a $1 billion
project.
It will cost us a billion dollars.
That is um that's a lot of money.
And when I when I look at tonight's
budget that we're going to uh vote on
eventually,
I I looked and I saw that, you know, in
in
1970
maybe 7
um two or three,
our our budget was about a half was
about 600 million bucks.
And if we continue going the way we are
going right now
with the budget that we have right now,
this is basically a billion dollar
budget
for one year.
That is
that's unfathomable.
There's no way
that we can survive with that kind of
spending.
It is
a point
and unless we get a handle on this,
unless we stop the spending and we start
using our uh
our people wisely
and put them in a position where they
can be successful.
What are we going to do? Cuz next year's
budget's going to come
and it's still going to be
almost impossible.
And up here, what I hear is, well, you
know, it's been a tough year.
It It's been It's been a hard year, and
we had to we had to sacrifice. I don't
think we sacrificed a whole lot.
I mean, if we're going to have what's a
billion dollar budget this year,
that that is that is ridiculous.
And there's no way that we should be
spending money to come up with a billion
dollar budget.
And with that,
I'll make a motion to approve 6E1 6F1.
>> You do want to approve them.
>> Pardon me.
>> I thought you wanted to vote against
them.
>> I am. Okay.
>> But you can
>> No, go ahead.
>> You don't want to approve them?
>> No.
>> Okay. Then you can make a motion to not
approve or
>> How about if the vice mayor makes a
motion?
>> Motion to approve consent calendar items
6E1, 6F2,
and sorry 6 F1 and 6H5.
>> You have a motion. Please cast your
votes.
motion is approved with council members
Weir and Basherach voting no and council
members Smith absent.
>> Thank you. And now we'll separately
consider 6J2. Council member Basher and
we're ask for that to be pulled. Council
member Basher.
Yeah. I just uh when I was looking at
those, both of those are consulting
companies. I was just thinking in light
of where our budget is and and um I felt
like we have staff that do those that
facilitate those roles and it was kind
of, you know, an extra icing uh for
that. And I don't think the year this is
the year of extra icing. I just don't
see a need for um uh those additional
agreements for us to continue on. I
think it might be uh not I think it
might be. I think it's uh wasteful from
my perspective at this point in time
with our budget the way it is. Uh so I I
requested those get pulled.
>> Council member Basher. So, uh, that
would be 6J2, 6J3, and 6J5.
>> 6J5. 6J5 I wanted it pulled because
that's such an a massive agreement that
we've made with Trans West. Um, and
what do they do? And I'm not asking for
you to answer that question. I just feel
like if you're a company, you're getting
taxpayer money and you're providing a
service, you should be giving check-ins
or reporting what your company does for
taxpayers, especially because it's so
much money. Uh, that was my request on
that. So
>> would you like all three of those
considered together as one vote or
separately?
>> Uh I would if I could get 6J5
uh deferred to a later meeting until
those questions get answered what they
trans west is actually providing if we
can get some of someone from the uh two
separate motions. Uh but yeah 6J2 and
6J3 would be together and 6J5 would be
uh I would like to defer that to another
meeting.
>> Okay. Vice Mayor
>> 6J2 and 6J3. Council member Coleman.
>> Thank you, Mayor. I'm sorry to
interrupt. Um I I just want to be clear
on what the motion is going to be. Are
we going to defer those to them or we're
trying to deny those
>> right now? I believe the motion is going
to be on 6J2 and 6J3.
Vice Mayor, are you going to make a
motion to approve them?
just those two and then we'll consider
6J5
separately.
>> Okay. Okay. So I I I just wanted to say
on that one particular one 6J2 I don't
have anything to say about 6J3 but uh
the work that is proposed in that
whether it's a contractor or whether
however we do it I think it's important
work uh because we really need to have a
better understanding how we attract uh
people and businesses to Bakersfield.
you know, we have this problem in
recruiting uh at uh higher levels,
people not wanting to come to
Bakersfield. So, uh but I'll just wait
for the motion and we'll see how it
shakes out. So, thank you, Mayor and
Tarant.
>> Council member Gonzalez.
>> Yeah, I want to say I appreciate Council
Member Bash's analogy of, you know,
icing and what is actually cake, what is
actually necessary versus what are some
uh luxuries that we can't afford at this
moment. And um and and I think we all
need to be sensitive to that. Um but I I
I wonder though in the context of what
Mr. Turnup Seed um lifted up just
moments ago with the need to grow and
diversify our our regional economy in
order for us to support the not only
grow in population, making sure there's
good jobs, but also making sure that the
city can sustain itself and still
deliver city services. And I think by
the way, Mr. We are mentioned that you
know the budget has continued to grow
since the 60s and I think our city has
grown. I mean our city has grown I think
doubled in size over the last 25 to 30
years. Uh and so with more population
with more land area there are more needs
and there are more services that are
required and so um clearly uh that means
the additional uh expenditures. And so
the the hope is though the hope is that
revenue
uh increases in tandem that we have
sales tax revenue that's generated by
new economic development that we're
selling goods and services outside of
our region and bringing in new tax
dollars inside. That's that's what a
good city should be looking towards. And
I uh my impression when I read this
contract was that that is in fact what
we're looking towards. for being
strategic at looking at what new
industries we can bring in to um and to
this community. And so I wanted to ask
though if someone from uh staff can can
come down and and just describe to us
what is the value added here on this
particular contract and how is this
different from the work that is
performed by city staff day in and day
out.
>> Thank you council member Gonzalez. We'll
ask Jason Kater to speak a little bit to
some of the specifics, but high level I
would just reflect that as we have
transitioned our economic development
efforts in this last 6 to 12 months to
be very focused and have a very small
team that uh of city staff, but then
relies on uh we we think more economical
contract relationships to do additional
work that's either not our our uh
highest level of expertise or even
frankly
we can do it more cost effectively by
contract than by you know having those
city employees that also carry you know
some of those administrative overhead
costs. A and in big picture what we
recognize that we need to play a
different role in um representing
ourselves at a broader effort outside of
our region to bring large capital into
our region. And there are individuals
who that is their you know area of
expertise and they and they have you
know many contacts and then and and um
and as well as we need to be able to
paint a picture uh for our community.
Many communities will have what they
would consider an economic devel profile
or perspectus and the city of
Biggerville has never developed one of
those. We've done a pretty darn good job
without one of still attracting um uh
new development. Uh but this is an
opportunity to take it to another level
but I'll let Mr. Kater add anything to
that.
Good evening, mayor of city council to
city manager's comments. Uh that is
correct. This contract tonight is a
one-year contract. We're looking at some
um capacity and structural and strategy
analysis for how do we go after uh
attracting investment into our region.
And so the company we're proposing to
work with tonight has representatives
across North America, Europe, and they
actually just expanded into Kenya. And
so they do this uh for clients across
North America, looking at their region,
helping them through that global
network, and really helping them expand
and position themselves in that
attraction market. So, we're looking at
this for sort of a one-year contract to
help us kind of refine that process and
also build our staff's capacity so that
we're in these networks prepared to also
expand on our abilities to go out and
leverage these networks for expansion.
>> Thank you, Mr. Ker. Anything else,
Council Member Gonzalez? Vice Mayor,
>> thank you for that and thank you for
elaborating. Um, I had some of the same
questions and was hoping we'd receive
that same information that Council
Member Gonzalez um asked. So, in your
initial conversations with this
particular firm, what have they shared
would be fitting industries or even in
your expert opinion, um, what are we
looking to add or amplify or elevate in
terms of our industrial profile as a
city? um and and how do they plug in to
provide that? What are the what have
those initial conversations have been or
what can we look to expect?
>> Yeah, Vice Mayor Cord, thank you for
that. So, they're going to look to us to
see what our um industries are that
we're targeting. So, know as the council
adopted 5 years ago, the economic
development strategic plan we identified
manufacturing, logistics, energy, both
traditional and renewable um and
business services, our target
industries. Uh they'll look at our
profile. They'll look at our workforce
and they'll also really give us insights
into where investment trends are
heading. They have a team that runs data
research on uh foreign direct investment
as well as domestic direct investment.
So they'll really get into the weeds of
where is the money going. They have a
team and a network that's expanded
across the continent. So they'll also
have those relationships to see who's
actually looking to make the investments
that are aligned with our region. But
we'll start with our region and what we
have and they'll use their systems and
their networks to look for what their
opportunities are. Where are those
trends heading both domestically and
globally
>> in terms of foreign direct investment
>> right like what do they what do they
share as to like where are those trends
heading
>> we haven't had too much deep dive on
that at this point I think you know part
of the discussion at like select USA um
our government is prioritizing a tech um
certain spaces of energy manufacturing
so those are kind of the trends that
we'll probably be looking at but to your
question vice mayor we're happy to bring
back more of a report. Uh that's kind of
the detail we're going to be working
into um as we move forward with this
this service.
>> Great. Thank you. Thank you, Council
Member Basher Tash.
>> Yeah, I I uh I appreciate Mr. Kedar.
Thank you for sharing those information
and and I definitely see value in that.
My my point that I'm trying to make and
and my hope that my colleagues will
understand is that we had a very wealthy
investor in East Bakersville talking
about they're spending thousand hundreds
of thousands of dollars every year to
clean up an area to invest in our
community and we're going to spend
$200,000 on trying to get those people
to come here instead of answering the
call. Why would I want to spend my money
in this community when it looks like if
there's trash in an area and I have to
if I have to fight homeless people to do
my business, why would I do business
here? That's how you attract business
people. I mean, it's just common sense.
you you could offer someone the world,
but if they don't see a return on their
investment because they're going to be
paying to deal with transients and
damage and all kinds of stuff in our
community and all the neighbors in in
our community, they're not going to do
it. And so my point is, I think that our
200 grand would go a lot further by
helping out this area of Del Oro, making
sure that trash isn't getting dumped and
camps aren't getting built much more
than it would be trying to get a company
to come in and hopefully they have a
nice pair of rosecolored goggles and
they can see past all the trash and
damage in our community and a lack of
infrastructure. That's the only point
I'm trying to make.
Thank you. Motion
>> motion to approve items 6J2 and 63. You
have a motion. Please cast your votes.
Motion is approved with council members
Weir and Basher Tash voting no and
council member Smith absent.
>> Thank you. And now 6J5. Council member
Basher, would you like to make a motion
on that? Yeah, I would just like to make
a motion to defer that or refer that
back to staff for a better reporter to
give opportunity for the company to come
speak to what they actually do and the
services they're providing. Um maybe
some data, some real data how it
benefits to continue to get taxpayer
money.
>> Yeah, the council member, we welcome
that opportunity. Just a a point of
clarity. Are you um specifically asking
for them to come and give a presentation
to the council? Do you want a written
report in front of council, in front of
a committee?
>> To be honest, I would take an email. I
like to read. I would do my homework. Uh
yeah.
>> Yeah. Happy to do that.
>> Shared with shared with everybody
though.
>> Yeah. Yeah. We can send it to the full
council. Uh Trans West provides us
monthly reports and they meet once a
week with Lieutenant Anderberg to
understand how to deploy them for
community vitality as a force multiplier
um in support of uh the police
department. Uh but we're happy to
provide that information and report.
>> I need some clarity as to whether or not
the motion includes approvement approve
approval of the agreement.
>> Okay, good.
>> Right. You have a motion. Please cast
your votes.
This is to continue. Yes, to defer.
Get more information.
We'll vote on it at another time and
after staff brings it back.
>> Should it say staff recommends approval
of the amendment?
>> Madam city attorney
I if I understand council member Basher
Tash's motion it's we're removing this
item and we are deferring it to a later
point the amendment of the agreement.
So you are making a motion to not
approve uh the amendment. It's going to
come back at a later point in time.
>> Just that on our technology it says that
staff is recommending approval
>> of the item.
>> So the I the language here is different
than what the motion is. So what does a
yes vote mean? What does a no vote mean?
That clarity would be helpful. A yes
vote means a yes vote to council member
Basher Tash's motion means that you are
not approving any money tonight to go to
Trans West.
The whole item is going to come back to
you at a later time.
>> Any other questions on this? All right,
please cast your votes.
>> Motion is approved with Council Member
Smith absent.
>> Thank you. And now next item, please.
Hearings. Item 8A, public appeal hearing
to consider planning commission's
approval of director's review 25-00002
and modification number 25-00007
and its notice of exemption from the
California Environmental Quality Act.
Scout Services requested a director's
review and approval number 25-00002
to installation of a lattis tower to
accommodate the city's public safety
radio system and related installation of
new equipment, shelter, and generator
equipment and zone modification number
25-00007
to permit a tow tower height of 150 ft
and located within 300 ft of
residentially zoned property located at
1,00 Bueno Vista Road. Bo Kunig
submitted an appeal to the planning
commission's approval.
>> Thank you. So for this public hearing
item, each side will be allowed 15
minutes. It's 15 minutes for all
speakers per side. So it's important
that you identify yourself. Make your
statement succinctly so others may
speak. Also, please note that we have a
court reporter present that will be
transcribing the hearing item. and
therefore it's important that you speak
slowly and clearly so that we can have
an accurate record. We'll hear
statements from those opposed to the
staff's recommendation first. Then we'll
hear from those who would like to speak
in favor of the staff recommendation. If
there is testimony on both sides, each
side will be allowed a fiveminute
rebuttal. There's a clock on the TV
screens behind me which indicates 15
minutes. Please step to the microphone,
identify yourself. After 14 minutes, a
yellow light will come on. At the end of
15 minutes, a red light will flash
indicating your time is up. Quickly end
your statement. You may ask questions
during your statement, but they won't be
addressed until the public hearing is
closed. If you have written comments
that are longer than your verbal
statement, give them to the clerk.
She'll provide copies to the council,
and we ask that you be courteous to
others who wish to speak.
Mr. Kle. Thank you, mayor and council.
Staff from development services and
staff from technology services will walk
through details in a presentation on
this item. Before they get into those
details, if I could over summarize uh
this issue and and may provide some
summarization at the end of the the
presentations as well. Uh we understand
uh much of the feedback we've received
around this topic. uh we've um taken
this matter up very thoughtfully to try
and uh mitigate you know any um impacts
that are possible. Um at the end of the
day uh we developed a proposal that has
this the least impact to the uh least
amount of people that is possible while
still accomplishing a very important
public safety goal. And at the end of
the day, we have a very important public
safety radio system that we need to uh
perform and function to benefit our
community. And again, like we'll walk
through each of the the the details of
the concerns that have been raised, but
what it boils down to is needing to meet
that public safety need with the the
least amount of impacts possible. So,
I'll turn it over to Mr. Burns.
>> Thank you, uh, honorable mayor, council
members. Um, just want to get to why are
we here tonight? Uh what this is is a
appeal of a zone modification to allow a
tower height he height from a allowed 65
ft to 150 ft in R3 zone on a 5.26 acre
site at 1000 Buav Vista Road. To give
you a little background, uh back on
November 13th, there was a planning
director's hearing which opposition um
showed up at the at the hearing. And
anytime we have opposition and a
planning director's hearing, they're
automatically pushed to planning
commission. Um so then a hearing was
scheduled for February 5th, 2026. Uh
that project uh the the project was
agendaized. However, before the hearing
uh staff recognized that there was an
issue, so was sent back to staff and
then on February 19th uh planning
commission approved the director's uh
review of this particular zone mod which
was then appealed on February 27th by
Mr. Kunik. Uh so we're here tonight to
uh review the the project. Uh, Miss
Katie Reid with Tech Services will
provide a U presentation and then I
believe she has Motorola will provide a
followup for the staff's presentation.
>> Welcome. And yes, lower the mic, please.
There was a young mother up here who
talked about being nervous, and I've
done this a few times, and I'm still
nervous, so she has nothing to be uh
ashamed of. Definitely.
>> Can you talk into the mic a little bit
more, please? Thank you.
>> So, uh, good evening, Mayor and Council.
Katie Reid, assistant director of
technology services. Um, and I will be
presenting the city's position on this
item this evening. Since Mr. Burns
already provided some background
information on the project, I'll just
briefly walk through the timeline and
then address the appellent's concerns.
And I know it's been a long evening, so
I will try to be as brief as possible,
but there's a lot to get to.
So very quickly uh from the beginning
technology services has taken a measured
and thoughtful approach to this project.
In 2015 we hired a consultant to come in
and do an assessment of our public
safety radio system and quickly learned
that our system our city had outgrown
the systems reach and that the equipment
was quickly aging in u outside of its
lifespan.
Over the next several years, they were
spent on internal discussions and
research. City and the county, who was
in a similar situation, worked together
with Federal Engineering, a leading
public safety communications consulting
firm, um
to develop and release a request for
qualifications and then later a request
for proposal. After a lengthy review
process, Motorola Solutions Incorporated
was awarded the contract. And in 2023,
council approved amendment number
2023-137
for an initial cost of $27 million to
replace our radio system.
The site at 1000 Buav Vista Road uh was
chosen because the city already owns the
site and historically it has housed a
communication tower. Uh the current
existing 80oot tower was installed in
2003 replacing a tower that was already
in existence when the city took over
that site.
Um, and that was a replacement just as
this proposed 150 foot tower is a
replacement of the current 80 foot
tower. The site is secured by chain link
and barbed wire and a block wall, making
it an optimal site for site prep and
cost savings.
Now I will say Motorola originally
assessed the existing tower for
suitability but found it does not
provide the height necessary to give
adequate coverage to the area. Uh, a new
tower at 150 ft installed approximately
50 ft from the existing location will
provide the additional height necessary
for reliable communications. Now, as
well as allowing for potential building
and vegetation growth to maintain the
99.999%
reliability rating required for public
safety.
That's particularly in the northwest of
town where
perhaps Chief Stratton can speak to. We
have already had issues with officer
safety and poor communications.
Now, in terms of the appeal received, I
want to address the appellants's concern
and provide responses for each.
So, concern number one, health concerns
for school children and neighborhood
residents.
I always do this.
So,
I think sometimes it's hard to
understand that we're not just city
residents are city employees. We are
city residents. I myself, I live in the
northeast. My daughter graduated from
Highland High School. We just as the
constituents who come and speak to your
council want healthy, vibrant
neighborhoods just as much as anybody
else. Which is why technology services
brought in experts in the field to help
partner with us on this project.
All telecommunication systems are
required to pass federal communication
commissions or FCC regulations for radio
frequency emissions or RF emissions. To
ensure the safety of our neighborhoods
and that this site meets those
regulations, the city engaged an
independent third-party
uh firm to provide an emissions
assessment of the site based on the
planned equipment.
At this time, I would like to invite
Brady Weston up to discuss the
assessment and how this site does meet
the FCC standards. Brady is the
project's systems engineer and he has 16
years experience in the public safety
communications industry. Brady.
All right. All right.
>> Good evening. Thank you, Katie. And good
evening, uh, mayor and council members.
Um, my name is Brady Weston. I'm the
system engineer, uh, for the project.
I've worked for Motorola for 16 years.
Um, built many systems in in California
and and various parts of the country in
the West. Um, I've been asked to address
the safety concerns of the RF site and
the emission assessment report that the
city uh, performed. Um,
so the headline of that report is that
the proposed 150 ft tower,
the maximum ground level exposure sits
at 0.1%
of the federal limit.
Among other things, the federal limit is
designed to safeguard all general
populations
as well as meet your public safety
reliability concerns.
So, a water is um so I call it a water,
but it's the the Buenav Vista site. So,
our project calls it a water. It's just
it's it's our name for that site. But
the the site at Bueno Vista is an
essential node to the city's public
safety radio system. The 150 foot height
is strictly required to clear
environmental obstacles like mature
trees growing in the area, giving us
clear line of sight to adjacent towers
in the city of Bakersfield.
There are six other sites in the network
that that guarantee that our police,
fire, and medical teams have continuous
uninterrupted radio coverage throughout
Bakersfield during the life critical
emergencies that happen daily.
So the FCC is the governing body of all
RF standards and emissions from the
phones we have in our pockets to the
radio towers that are installed. They
regulate all of the benchmarks that
enforce the their limits. Um, in their
terms, the general population benchmark
enforces a mandatory 50-fold safety
margin below any measurable tissue
heating effects. This standard assumes
continuous 247 lifetime exposure and is
explicitly designed to protect the most
vulnerable demographics, including
children. Under the Telecommunications
Act of 1996,
local governments are expressly
prohibited from regulating the placement
of wireless facilities on the basis of R
RF environmental effects provided the
facility complies with FCC regulations.
Now for any citizen wish wishing to
research these standards independently,
the FCC maintains an open RF safety FAQ
portal maintained by the office of
engineering and technology. This site
translates complex physics into plain
English answers.
Now, anyone wishing to further research
the topic can go to this website and
click many of the questions that I'm
going to answer here today.
All right. Concerning the the project,
so engineering as mitigation. So, in RF
engineering, height acts as the primary
mitigation for RF exposure.
Essentially moving our antennas from the
previously planned 80 foot tower up to
150 ft creates significant vertical
separation from the public.
The graph that you see here displays
that energy dens density decreases
dramatically with distance. As this
curve demonstrates, the drop in RF
energy is exponential.
Raising the antenna from 80 feet to 150
feet vertical radius reduces that energy
level at ground level.
Furthermore, public safety antennas are
highly directional. Their aim reach
their aim is to the um horizon. Those
main loes that you see coming off the
antenna are specifically selected so
that the coverage reaches as far as
possible to areas that do not currently
have coverage.
Now
the area right below the the tower we
sometimes call it or cone it the cone of
silence.
In reality, there is signal there, but
it's much less than the outstanding
areas because of the signal level that
is concentrated on the horizon to
provide the the radio coverage that
these public safety officers need in
remote areas.
Now, the report specifically, if you've
already looked at it, has three numbers
on it. The very first one is what are
the readings at ground level, tree
level, and right directly in front of
the antennas on the tower. So
specifically the 0.01%
is 10,000 times
below the limit of the FCC mandate.
Now the antenna level um right at the
dish height at 150 ft does have large
emissions. However, that's only
concerning someone that would be
standing right in front of it at 150 ft,
which is inaccessible
to the general public.
Now, in pure numbers, the FCC limit is
300 microwatts per centime squared and
our projected project is 0.3 microwatts
per centime squared at the ground level.
So again, That's 110,000th
below the limit of the SEC required.
Now, let's contextualize this.
A cell phone produces 63% of the limit.
Microwave oven at 2 ft is 2%. A Wi-Fi
router in your home at 1 ft is 0.8%.
And our tower at ground level is 0.01%.
significantly less than common household
products.
Now, there are a few scientific exhibits
in the
in the in the in the claims. Um,
we assessed these exhibits and regarding
the the cited animal studies,
hold on, I'm I'm a little ahead of
myself. Yeah. So, the first two
exhibits,
we've reviewed them and the exhibits
submitted by the appealant. Every study
cited involves exposure scenarios
different from the 150 ft tower. The
appealant cites literature regarding
children's thinner skulls being
vulnerable to RF absorption. However,
those cited studies discuss handheld
devices like phones used close to the
body. These arguments when actual ex
these arguments do not apply when actual
explos exposure at ground level is near
zero%.
Now, the last scientific exhibits
regarding cited animal studies, the
national toxicity
toxicology program subjected rats to
whole body saturation in chambers. The
lead scientist of those studies stated
quote unquote, "These exposures cannot
be compared directly to the exposure
that humans experience."
And then finally, Dr. Mayo's study
evaluated a high exposure group
receiving approximately 10 microwatts
per square centimeter. Our facility
ground emissions are roughly 1,000 times
lower than that use case.
I'll hand over the remainder of the time
to Katie to address the remaining
concerns.
Thank you, Brady. We'll go through these
next slides hopefully relatively
quickly. So, the second concern in the
appeal was inadequate notice of affected
residents and violation of due process.
The Bakersfield Municipal Code section
17.64-050A 64-
0.050A
outlines noticing requirements, but it
does not qualify what those noticing
requirements are based on project size
or type. The city did comply with all
notice requirements as outlined in this
section of the municipal code.
Concern number three, constructive
taking and diminuation of property
values. Simply approving this project
does not constitute constructive taking.
Whether a tower will diminish
neighborhood property values as
subjective and speculative and there is
no evidence provided to establish
otherwise.
Number four, failure to make required
findings.
The purpose of the whole purpose of the
municipal code is to allow for
non-standard projects such as this that
do not fit neatly into the ordinances.
Uh the city properly applied these
principles um for the zone modification
which went through an application review
process.
Concern five improper squa exemptions.
Uh this project is exempt from SQA uh
because the tower is a replacement tower
for what exists in the same site as the
existing tower with substantially the
same purpose and use.
Therefore, the project is exempt.
And the final concern, failure to
consider alternative sites. From the
start of the project, the plan was
always to use existing sites where
possible as shifting to new site
locations will increase costs and
delays.
However, after the planning commission
at the behest of the city, Motorola did
conduct a preliminary review of
potential alternate sites. As previously
stated, reuse of the existing tower is
not feasible at its height uh as it will
not provide the reliable coverage.
And while the park at Riverwalk was
identified as a val viable solution,
uh there are concerns regarding the
location.
It's widely recognized that the Park at
Riverwalk and the adjacent Kern River
Parkway Trail are very high value um
jewels of the city uh for amenities,
excuse me. Uh both facilities are highly
utilized by residents and visitors alike
and are considered important community
assets. The potential of having the
tower located at the park would require
careful consideration of potential
impacts on public access, recreational
opportunities, and the overall user
experience.
Given the public location of the tower
at this location, there would be
additional costs for security measures
such as chain link fencing with razor
wire and security camera installations.
Should this council direct staff to
relocate the tower, there would be
impacts to both the project uh costs and
the timelines. There are estimates
estimates provided here that are
preliminary. Uh the amendment that we
would have to bring back to council
would provide more detailed scope.
Ultimately,
uh we cannot sustain long-term delays
without the risk of degregation to our
current radio system.
Um, the current system is outdated.
Sourcing replacement parts is difficult.
Historically, we have had to purchase
used parts from other cities or resorted
to eBay. Um, police chief Strat Stratton
uh can attest to issues we have already
had in the Northwest um regarding public
officer safety. that was bandated with a
temporary tower, but that is not a
full-time solution. Um, and finally, we
are reaching the end of life of our
long-term lease uh through Chevron who
would like to have our equipment taken
off of the tower. If we have to take our
equipment off of their tower before this
new system is in place, we will lose
significant coverage uh on the north
side of the city.
So, with that, I'd like to thank the
mayor and council for listening to our
presentation. Um, I know it's already
been a long night and um this is one
more thing on your list.
staff is available for questions. Uh, as
is our project management firm and um
our
>> Thank you, Miss Reed. We'll have to go
to the public first. Thank you, Miss
Reed. Thank you, Mr. Weston. And I'll
throw it back to uh city manager Kle.
>> Very briefly, Mayor and Council. So, I
just wanted to reiterate that the
procedural or process uh considerations
or concerns that had been raised have
all been addressed and we took very
seriously the the concerns raised about
health. But as was laid out very
clearly, the emissions exposure is
almost zero, particularly compared to
cell phones, which are 63% of the daily
limit of emissions that one should
receive. um this tower for our families
and children in particular does not pose
a threat. Their cell phones do. Uh and
ultimately we recognize that there are
some aesthetic considerations with this
project. I think that's really what it
boils down to. Uh but it's about um uh
again providing a public safety critical
need and limiting the aesthetic uh um
impositions to as little as possible
which this site does above all other
sites. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Kle. I've received four
cards uh public speaker request cards
and I just want to confirm that they're
all in opposition before I open the
hearing. Are is anybody who submitted a
card in favor? Okay. So, at this time,
public hearing item 8A is open. Is there
anyone who would like to speak in
opposition to staff's recommendation?
This would be the time to come. So, uh,
city manager, I mean, city clerk, please
call the first speaker.
Jim Foreman.
Mr. Foreman
doesn't appear to be here. Would you
call the next one, please?
Bo K.
>> City clerk, would you able to would you
read those? My copy is very hard to
read.
>> Mark Maryfield and Kristen Zabin.
Before
I begin, I'd like to provide the a copy
of the appeal to city madam clerk in the
event she needs to refer to any
I also
would you please speak into the
microphone because we have a court
reporter here.
>> I also wasn't aware that I couldn't
present photos um
without submitting it electronically to
the um the systems, but I do have photos
that I would like to share with uh the
city council members if I can.
>> Are you able to put those on the other
screen, madam city
clerk? The projector.
We don't have a projector.
We'll pass them around.
>> I can leave them leave them here.
>> Um,
sorry, I didn't know the clock was
already starting.
Um,
good evening, uh, Mayor Go and members
of the city council. My name is Bo Koig.
I live at 10922 Rossland Lane. I am one
of the six noticed residents that are
within the 300 ft radius of this new
proposed tower. Um
my appeal is at pages uh 1387 through
1518 of tonight's packet. Um I want to
be very clear up front. I fully support
the modernization of Bakersfield's
public safety radio system. What I'm
asking you to do tonight is enforce the
city's own ordinance and the CEQA,
neither of which permits approval of the
project at this location on the record
that staff has put in front of you.
Before I get into the CQA argument,
um, one of the main
consensus we all have here tonight is to
further the investment and prosperity of
our city. And I think everybody here is
on board with that. This project is a
nearly a $30 million project with
approximately seven of these towers
going up around the county. It's a
significant investment and it's
something that we would want to get a
return on investment with. Um the
current tower was in place what
approximately maybe 30 years ago. Um the
area was not densely populated. We've
grown west significantly since then and
the technology has become outdated which
needs replacement. So when we're about
to put up a new tower which is
purportedly
multiple millions of dollars, we want to
make sure that we are going to get a
future return on investment over the
decades to come. We don't know what
technology is going to come down the
road, but we do know that that school is
potentially never going to move. Those
homes right there, the residential
community is not going to move. These
things are all stationary, but what does
move is technology and return on
investment over time. In other words, we
don't want to be limited on things we
might come across 10 or 15 years from
now if laws change
and decide that these things can't be
near a school or but we've got towers um
around the around California and and
around the world where people are moving
them away from schools with minimum
setbacks of 1300 ft based upon safety
concerns, fall falling concerns, all
sorts of environmental concerns. Uh the
proposed
movement to an area with the commercial
infrastructure that's reportedly there
at the park would be a much more return
on investment for the community and
probably alleviate the concerns of the
community that are in the immediate
section of where it is proposed to be
right now. Um,
with that said, I do want to talk about
SQA.
At page 1363 of the packet, staff
invokes SQA guidelines section 15302,
the class 2 categorical exemption for
replacement or reconstruction of
existing structure with substantially
the same purpose and capacity. However,
several pages earlier on 1358,
the same staff report tells you this new
system new system will eventually
provide coverage across Kern County.
That's significantly different than the
system that is there right now.
That is materially a larger purpose and
capacity than the existing on-site
facility. Just by definition, a 150 foot
lattice tower with a new generator, new
equipment shelter, and countywide reach
is not a replacement of what there is
there today. It's a new tower. It's a
new commercial infrastructure going in.
staff sites DNE verse county of Santa
Clarita, but DNE only allows component
level monetization while overall purpose
and capacity stay the same. Staff's own
description on page 1358 takes this
project outside of DNA. Um,
even if council were to include the
stretch class 2, they still have the
unusual circumstances exception in the
squa guidelines of 15300.2C,
which forecloses it under Berkeley Hills
preservation versus city of Berkeley.
All I would have to show is a fair
argument that unusual circumstances may
produce a significant effect in 150 foot
tower
130 ft from residential zoned properties
and immediately adjacent to Ronald
Reagan Elementary School which is in my
opinion about 350 ft away from the tower
because it's in my backyard. Half of my
backyard is Ronald Reagan's school. The
other half becomes the canal and where
the water tower is uh currently at. Um
but from a residentially zoned property
and immediately adjacent Toronto regen
school, it's a textbook unusual
circumstance.
In addition, we have aesthetics and fall
zone safety issues. There is a visual
dominance over the homes and schools as
well as structural failure and risk near
children.
Before this council adopts SQA exemption
finding, I would ask you recommend to
staff for an initial study or in the
alternative continue this hearing so
that the record can be completed with a
fair argument evidence in my exhibits A
through O beginning at page 1387.
Uh my next point that I would like to
take
I'm going to run out of time. There's so
much to address here and um with the
notice period it is important. Um my
notice argument cites uh BMC section
1764-050A
the 10-day mailing to property owners
within 300 ft. That subsection A is a
notice protocol for director review
decisions
made by the planning director. This is
not what this hearing is today. The the
planning commission appeal hearing on a
referred director review item and a
zoning modification. The notice protocol
applies here is subsection B. It's not
A. It's a different subsection.
And this is specifically a broader
section. Subsection B requires in
addition to the 300 ft mailing, three
things staff has not shown on the record
to you. Um B3
mailed or delivered notice to each local
agency expected to provide essential
facilities or ser services to the
project that include Panama Buav Vista
Union School District because they
provide school. It's an a public agency
that provides schooling um which
operates Ronald Reagan and it's
immediately adjacent to the tower. We
also have B5 which publication at at
least one newspaper of general
circulation in the city at least 10 days
prior to the hearing. I don't see that
that was done in the record.
B6 mailed notice to every person who has
filed a written request for notice with
the planning director. I'm not sure if
anybody did that or not, but I don't see
that addressed. and B7, which I know has
not been done. Uh any any signs, there
are no signs posted on the property
indicating the date, time, and place of
this hearing. I don't see the record
where a photo has been submitted with
the declaration. And if we're missing
any one of these items under subsection
B, notice fails. In essence, we wouldn't
even withstand a RIP because we'd come
right back here on the very same issue
because proper notice wasn't given to
the community.
Um
the findings on page 1368,
they're all conclusy that will not
survive a writ review. Uh the draft
resolution at page 1367-69
recites BMC sections
uh 1764060B
um finding in conclusion reform. Uh that
modification will not be materially
detrimental and that the necessary
and it's not inconsistent with general
plan in the code. The California Supreme
Court in Topena versus County of Los
Angeles requires that findings bridge
the analytical gap between evidence and
conclusions. Reciting the conclusions is
not making a finding
on this site. What record evidence
supports a finding that a tower more
than twice the 65 ft height limit in BMC
175903B2
and cited
and cited 130 ft from residentially
zoned property where the baseline
standard is 300 ft. We are 2/3
approximately 2/3 closer than the
baseline to residential properties. Um
it is
and that's not materially detrimental.
Uh on page 1361, staff acknowledges that
the tower is approximately 132 ft from
residential zoned property. There is no
analysis of why this departure from two
substantive standards is not
detrimental.
Um,
the alternative site analysis was post
hawk and rests on the city's own pure
choices. We're talking about a potential
$300,000 assessment to move this a few
hundred yards over to the park on a
nearly $30 million
funding that was to put this entire
project together. We're talking $300,000
is almost maybe 1%
and it would solve a lot of the issues
and that is a very small investment for
the city to take in order to preserve
their re ROI and have this in an area
that would have growth in the future and
potentially not be limited should laws
change with these things related schools
in the future.
Um,
I'm going to go ahead and and just
ask uh three things. Um, I'm going to
skip over some of the other stuff
because I need to leave time for my um
fellow colleagues. Uh, six
homes were noticed. We have
four of those people here. out of the
six, one of the homes, the individual I
think just moved in. I couldn't even get
in contact with them. They're not there
um on a regular basis. And the other
individual um had to leave early tonight
for his children. He didn't know it was
going to take this long. Um but I would
ask to do three things tonight in order
of preference. grant the appeal and
direct staff to relocate the tower to a
non-residential parcel, most likely
Riverwalk, and prepare the appropriate
CQA review. Remand the planning
commission direction to um prepare an
initial study under CQA, conduct a
genuine alternative site analysis, and
make findings tied to the record under
Topanga. and three, continue this
hearing for proof of the record that the
city has complied with full sections of
notice protocol and for a fair argument
evidence in my appeal to be addressed.
Um, I have submitted some pictures to
you of what this will potentially look
like. I don't see it constructed yet,
but it it's a massive thing to put in
somebody's backyard and right near the
school. Um, thank you for your time.
>> Thank you, Mr. Kick. Would you please
give your written comments to the city
clerk? And we do have copies uh for the
record of the photos that you submitted.
We have a minute and 30 seconds. Is
there somebody that you would wish on
your team to speak?
>> Hello, my name is Mark Maryfield. I am
also uh one of the neighbors that has to
live next to this thing. Um the earlier
comments that I heard earlier um in
support of this really boils my blood
when they say there's no known you know
hurt of your property value but they
come right back to it and talk about how
the crown jewel of this park that that
they don't want to disrupt the crown
jewel of the park by moving this just
absolutely makes no freaking sense to me
whatsoever. That's just that's just
completely
whatever. I won't say it. But we have to
think about our kids. Yes, there's we've
got all this data here, but what happens
when we find out in 5 10 years, whatever
that, oh yeah, well, yeah, we have an in
uptick in in autism because these kids
or their kids have more autism or their
the the cancer is increased. These are
all things that we we we think we're
safe, but we hear every day that some
type of rule changes like, "Oh, now this
causes cancer. We didn't know that 5
years ago. This was all okay." What
happens when we go down this road and we
figure out, "Oh, yeah. This was a bad
idea. Can you sleep with that?" I can't.
>> Thank you, Mr. Maryfield. Miss Don,
>> we're down to 12 seconds. I'll make it
quick. Good evening. Thank you so much.
My name is Kristen Zabin. I'm here
tonight as a concerned parent whose
children will be attending Ronald Reagan
and Ronald Reagan Elementary. And
frankly, I'm frustrated that we are
having this conversation. If this
proposed 150 ft RF Tower is completely
harmless, then why do so many
communities such as Lakeway Texas,
Conro, Texas, Brookfield, Connecticut,
North Haven, Connecticut, just to name a
few, require setbacks from schools? Why
are parents across the country raising
concerns? And why are we being asked to
accept the unknowns when it comes to our
children? We are told this tower meets
current standards, but standards change
respectfully. Science evolves. There was
a time when people were told certain
products and practices were safe only to
learn that later years later they
weren't. The reality is that once the
damage is done, it is too late to take
it back. Our children are not guinea
pigs. They are not a research project.
They are not a revenue source. And at
this time, I truly believe there is not
enough evidence or research to show that
the rays do not cause long-term harm. A
school should be a place for learning,
playing, and growing, not a place where
we gamble on long-term exposure because
someone says the risk is probably low.
What makes this more frustrating is that
there appears to be a reasonable
alternative. There is a location in
Riverwalk which we've spoken about which
is approximately the same distance from
the police station and serves um instead
of placing a 100 foot power uh tower so
closely to our school environment
especially now learning that the exact
original location of the current tower
won't be used anyways which from what
Katie had said will not make this exempt
if there is any another viable option
that removes this controversy and puts
distance between the tower and our
children why are we not pursuing it the
areas in Texas and Connecticut that I
mentioned earlier require setbacks not
because they're anti-technology, but
because they are there was a reasonable
alternative location. This is not about
this is isn't about being
anti-technology. It's about using common
sense and putting our children first.
So, I'm asking strongly that you
reconsider the location of this tower.
Thank you.
>> Thank you, Miss Saven. And at this
point, I think we're going to need a
break before we continue. Um, Madam City
attorney,
>> uh, Mayor, would you like to hear the
people in support first before you take
a break?
>> Yes. I didn't get any requests ear. Oh,
there are. Uh, yes. Okay, we do have
people in support. So, before we take
the break,
Fire Chief
Albertson.
Good evening, Honorable Mayor and City
Council. I appreciate the opportunity to
speak on this. Uh, I just prepared a
short statement. Uh the Bakersfield uh
Bakersfield Fire Department radio
communication systems is one of the most
critical pieces of public safety
infrastructure supporting emergency
response throughout the city. Every 911
call whether medical emergency structure
fire, traffic collision, hazardous
materials incident or rescue depends on
reliable communications between
dispatchers, firefighters, incident
commanders and partnering agencies. When
firefighters enter a burning building or
operate at a complex emergency scene,
radio communications becomes their
lifeline. Personnel must be able to
communicate changing conditions, request
resources, report emergencies, and
coordinate operations in real time. Any
loss of communication can place
firefighters and the public at
significant risk. The city's radio
system also provides the foundation for
coordination with Bakersfield Police
Department, Kern County Fire Department,
Hall Ambulance, and numerous local,
state, and federal agencies during
largecale incidents and disasters.
Reliable communications ensures all
responding agencies can work together
effectively under a unified command
structure. As Bakersfield continues to
grow, maintaining and improving radio
coverage remains essential. Existing
infrastructure must be modernized to
address aging equipment, improve system
reliability, and provide redundancy
during emergencies, and enhance coverage
in areas where communication challenges
exist. These improvements help ensure
emergency responders can communicate
clearly and consistently throughout the
community, invest in radio communication
systems, and invest in firefighter
safety, emergency response
effectiveness, and public safety. Uh it
helps ensure that when residents call
911, the personnel responding to their
emergency have communication tools
necessary to protect lives and property.
Simply,
radio communications are not a
convenience. They are a missionritical
life safety systems, reliable
communication allows firefighters to do
their job safely, coordinate effective
during emergencies, and provide levels
of service our community expects and
deserves. I'm happy to answer any
questions. Uh, I don't know much about
the technical specs on it, but if you
had guys have any questions, happy to
answer that.
>> We'll come back to that. Thank you,
Chief Albertson. Is there anyone else
who would like to speak in support of
staff's recommendation,
Chief Strutton?
>> Good evening, Mayor and and council
members. Uh, similar to Chief Albertson,
I just want to extend the police
department support of this radio
project. Public safety relies on
communication. Each of our officers
every day utilize the radios to serve
the people of our community. We need the
radio communications to be able to
communicate with the fire department as
well as allied agencies. Um, as our
infrastructure is is aging and as our
city is continuing to grow, there's been
a variety of instances, some that I've
personally experienced where we're
trying to get out radio communications
and we don't have the ability to be able
to communicate. Um, Miss Reed referenced
incidents that we've had of very violent
incidents where our officers have
actually been shot and not been able to
relay critical information about a
person who's actively shooting in a
neighborhood to responding officers. So,
we've definitely uh this is something
that that absolutely impacts public
safety and we're in support of of seeing
this this radio system project move
forward. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Chief Streutton. Anyone else
who'd like to speak in support of
Steph's recommendation?
Seeing none, before we go on the break,
we now have an opportunity for rebuttal.
So there's a fivem minute rebuttal.
Would anybody like to speak in
opposition as a rebuttal?
>> Is that Yolanda?
>> Welcome. Hello
u mayor and member of city council. I
totally agree with my neighborhood. What
he said that you know that we have is
like the my concern is like it would be
affect directly impact to our home and
then it will be affect to our student
and family and neighborhood you know the
property value and generator noise you
know and also location environment and
the review and all the main thing is our
concerns like for health safety and you
know the environment for everyone so I
we are totally agree with the all our
neighborhood you know the way they
So we are not agree with this project
for that. Thank you.
>> Thank you miss.
>> Yeah. Thank you for your time and
consultation. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Anyone else speaking uh to
rebut in opposition?
>> Is my
>> Mr. Kunik.
>> Thank you.
>> Go ahead and identify yourself just for
the record.
>> Bo Ko. Thank you. Uh the notes that I
provided to you guys, are those going to
be part of the AR, the administrative
record?
>> Madam City Attorney,
>> I'm seeing a yes nodded by Madame Clerk,
but
>> everything that you submitted is part of
the record. Yes.
>> Okay. Um I just I want to point out that
I'm I'm in agreeance. The the project's
great. Uh we're not nobody here's that I
can see is opposing
the new towers going up around the city.
I think what we're here is saying let's
move this one to a more utilized spot
that's better for everyone. It's better
for the city. It's better for the
children. It's better for the
residential community.
And I have a feeling if this goes back
out noticed properly, you will get a
more influx of people with opinions and
opposition for this. And I think that's
what we're really after. What does what
does Bakersfield want? And I think we
all want the same thing. I I just think
that this particular location
is not the solution. And I'm sorry that
they started this a long time ago, but
they just brought it to our attention at
the 11th hour. And so if they are going
to piggy back off of, well, we're so far
along in the process, that's not our
fault. We had no idea this was going in.
we could have given our opinion much
sooner and we could have put all the
resources and save money into possibly a
better spot. And so, um, we
we strongly oppose the the location. Um,
if you guys do have a chance to drive
out there, this thing will
just massively
be seen over trees by twofold. And I
think they're even trying to take out
the trees that are around the current
spot that are fully grown, which is even
gonna make this thing even more visible.
Here we are planting trees throughout
the entire city and they're taking them
out where it's actually hiding the
aesthetic
um monster per per se. Um but no matter
what trees uh we do put in, they won't
come up to the height of this thing. and
this thing will never fit in where it's
proposed to go. Um,
with that said, I I thank you for your
time.
>> Thank you, Mr. Kick. Anyone else wishing
to rebut in opposition to staff's
recommendation?
Seeing none, is there anyone who wishes
to rebut in support of staff's
recommendation?
Seeing none, I'll close the public
hearing and return it to council for
comment and action after our break. So,
let's take 10 minutes now. Thank you.
So, the public hearing has been closed
and now we are returning it to council
for comment and action. Council member
Coleman, this is in your ward.
>> Wrong button. Sorry. Thank you. Uh thank
you, Mayor. Um I I have a couple of
questions uh for staff on this.
Um
this is more of an abstract question.
who specifies these uh communication
systems that require 150 foot towers?
I mean uh you know we're doing satellite
now with a little thing on your antenna
or on your roof of your house and you
can talk to anybody in the world. So why
do we still do 150 foot towers?
>> Uh thank you council member May or
council members. Uh those specifications
are uh engineered by the Land Mobile
radio company that we contracted with
which would be Motorola Solutions
Incorporated based off of uh distance
from one tower to the next. Um bandwidth
of uh the radios and area of coverage.
Um so essentially it is a uh system that
would be owned in uh part with the city
part with county working holistically
together uh providing countywide
communications and that's how LAN mobile
radio works rather than satellite radio
for your phone or uh cellular
communications where you have smaller
towers on the side of the buildings and
so forth. But if you want maybe specific
answers, I don't know if Okay.
So to address your question directly, um
in the bid process, there there was a
bid spec put together that Motorola
responded to and it has specific um
requirements for us to to cover certain
geographical areas. So just based on
physics, um we needed certain height at
at certain strategic areas in the city.
We started with, you know, existing
sites to reduce costs and things like
that. So, um, it's it's mainly math. You
you put an antenna at a certain height,
you have free space loss from from A to
B, and you try to put a number of sites
that cover um in this case, it's the
city of Bakersfield city limits. So, we
got a map that said, "Hey, we want a
coverage. We want reliable coverage in
95% of your service area." And so that
dictated our studies to say how many
sites do you need? How high do these
each of these sites uh need to be to
meet those those requirements? And so
that's why uh the design came back, hey,
you need 150T tower at at this location.
You need a different height at at
different locations based on on
topography. And that's where the design
came together and proposed to to the
city and the county. Um and that's
that's how we got here. Was there like a
ma a master plan that was submitted to
the city that that because I don't
remember. I was on the planning
commission before this and council for a
little while. Was there a a master plan
that said, "Hey, we're going to put
antennas here. We're going to add
antenna there. Replas was there a
master?" And this might be for staff. I
don't know.
>> Again, thank you. Great question. Uh
there's not specifically a master plan
after we awarded the contract. Uh what
happens next is the detailed design
review where they look at potential
sites and um in fact some of the sites
we've had to relocate because they they
weren't feasible early on. And as was
suggested earlier uh we tried to reuse
sites that we already had facilities on.
Uh we figured that was pass a path of
lease resistance as well as um we have
good coverage there but uh initially
there isn't any grandmaster plan of
knowing what sites and where we're going
to put equipment. It kind of evolves
over time as you go through the detailed
design review. Once that was completed
then we started to go into the
construction phase which brought us to
this point.
Yeah. Can can somebody talk about the
uh the the appellant brought up a a
concern about some communities are
putting those antennas
uh 1,200 ft away from schools and
residential housing? Can you comment on
that at all?
>> Uh I I'm not aware of those studies, so
I I couldn't effectively comment on
that.
Council moment just to just you know to
reflect real quickly from the collective
staff uh again uh we uh have
been aware of some of those standards in
other communities but don't have any
data that substantiates a particular
reason to adopt those standards.
Uh, can staff comment on the uh appeal,
not appeal, the uh notice process for
that we've used for this uh this
project. Uh
I'm assuming it's on appeal from a
planning commission. So, was there was
there proper notice? How was that done?
Could you maybe talk about the whole
appeal? Not the whole appeal, but the
whole notice process at the different
stages.
Uh, Council Member Coleman, uh, there
was a notice placed in the Bayville,
California, uh, prior to the 10 days to
this hearing for this for this appeal to
city council. Also, the notice within
that the the residents within the 300 ft
um were notice per municipal code.
>> Sure. Same same thing. Uh prior to um
the original
hearing for the uh director's review, uh
there were notices sent out um for the
tower 300 ft from the property. Uh just
keep in mind there is a canal that
separates this property from the
residence. So when you look at the
boundary, those would that would be a um
spear or around that property and those
would be the notice uh impacted or
affected property owners and those uh
residents were given notice for each
step in the process.
Uh this would be prior to the um
uh November 13th hearing. There would
been the first notice and uh the
appellant obviously got notice. he
showed up to the the um to that hearing.
Um same for the uh February 19th
planning commission hearing and then
again for tonight's hearing.
>> Okay. And is signage required for this?
>> Council Coleman. Signage is not required
for this type of of a uh action. This is
a zoning modification. it it would be
required for ACUP
zone change or or a large larger type of
um zoning uh project.
>> Okay. And then uh I I want to go back to
this issue of why not River Lake Park.
And so um
I'm not clear on where that would go in
Riverl Park. I mean, you saw a little
dot on the map, but was there ever
really any serious consideration of uh
where we would put it in River Lake Park
and how it would look and that kind of
thing?
>> Uh, yeah. And I'm going to um
I'm going to look to our construction
manager on this one. The tower would be
behind, I believe, what is Sprouts and
Bevmo in between the commercial
buildings and the um Kern River Parkway
Trail. Uh and then uh then just east of
the amphitheater
you see here. I don't know Gary if you
have more of a precise description.
Yeah, there's a maintenance facility
behind the retail facility.
>> Please talk into the mic.
>> Oh, sorry. Thank you.
>> There's a maintenance facility behind
that retail facility where that the pin
is. So, it would be shared in in that in
that area to the east of the
amphitheater.
And you talked about a uh
project delay of eight months. Can you
talk a little bit more about what the
impact with it would be of that 8-month
delay?
>> Um the well the impacts would be that
our our system will continue to degrade.
Um
we have a lease with Chevron right now.
they have graciously extended that lease
for us with the expectation that we
would be live at the end of 2027.
Um so that because they want to have
that tower and building that we uh the
building that we are in for our our
batteries and everything to be
demolished. So, um, they've already
extended that once for us, uh, about a
year. And so, uh, the goal is to be off
of our existing system by the end of
2027.
>> See, I'm I'm really confused because we
talk about building this on property the
the city owns, but we don't own the
building that's there.
>> That particular um tower is owned by
Chevron. The building is owned by
Chevron. That is the lease. That is a
different site than this. Um there are
multiple sites. Currently there are 10
sites on our radio system. Um and that
is one of the 10 sites that run our
current system. The new system will have
six sites covering just the city of
Bakersfield. I believe the the appellant
um said that it's going to cover county.
These sites will not cover county. Uh it
is just a small part phase one of a
larger project, but this site these
sites will only cover the city of
Bakersville.
>> All right. I I'm I'm confused about
that, but I don't think that's really
relevant to this discussion so much. But
um you know, personally, I I'd like to
see some more work done on uh an
alternative site, Riverlakes. uh maybe
you know some kind of uh
renderings and you know what the
feasibility of moving that in Riverlakes
Park. I I mean I don't I'm not keen on
putting it in the middle of the park,
you know, necessarily. I don't want to
put it in the amphitheater. Uh but if
there's some place along there, you
know, in the parking lot behind Sprouts,
I don't know uh how that would look. And
I think that I would like to be able to
drive by there and take a look at it
myself and maybe some of the other
council members would like to uh
consider it as well. So, uh, I' I'd like
to make a recommendation that we, uh,
uh, uh, postpone this for staff to, uh,
maybe come back with some more
information about putting it in, uh,
Riverlakes Park, a more better budget
because I think it'll cost more than
$300,000 to move it over there, be
honest with you. But, if that's truly
the number, I'd like to see that. Um I I
I I think it just requires more
investigation before we uh often put in
there. I don't know that an 8-month
delay.
Yeah. The the Chevron thing. What are
they going to do? Are they going to tear
it down if we don't move out by 27?
They're going to tear all their stuff
off the off the antenna.
>> Um I that we would have to reach out to
them. We would we would rely on our uh
property manager. I think we'd rely on
the relationship with Chevron and uh get
some extension at time to meet our
needs. Um so that would be that would be
my recommendation.
>> Council member Coleman, are you
referring to the park at Riverwalk?
>> Yeah, talking to me that whatever it is
behind the the building. But am I
calling something else? I always do
that. I always call it Riverwalk River
Lakes and Yeah. Okay. So behind Sprouts,
whatever that is right there.
>> Uh yeah. Uh, so that that would be my my
my recommendation. So,
>> Madam City attorney, would you like to
make some comments?
>> Yes. Uh, Mayor, Council Member Coleman,
if you could uh refer it to a specific
date, uh, that would be beneficial. I'm
looking at my calendar and I think, uh,
to give staff until August the 5th um,
would help. There's only one meeting in
July, July 15th. Uh, but if you could
continue it to a specific date, that
would be beneficial.
Is it
>> is August 5th substantial enough for
staff to be able to res reply uh
knowledgeably? Knowledgeably, is that a
word?
>> Yeah.
>> Yes. Yes. Council member
>> I'm sorry.
>> Yes.
>> I think the answer is yes.
>> Okay. I'm sorry.
>> Okay. I can't I can't look and listen at
the same time. So
>> So a motion to a motion to continue for
council direction and action to August
the 5th is the motion by council member
Coleman.
>> Yes. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Gonzalez.
>> Uh, thank you, mayor. So, the question
then for staff to answer is the
alternative site and whether or not
that's actually viable. Correct.
>> Mayor, Council Member Gonzalez, that I
think would be one component of it. I'd
like to look at the packet that was
submitted by the appellent and make sure
that all of those um all of those um
issues are properly addressed for the
council and the community.
>> Okay. And anything else you think is
relevant?
>> Yeah. Well, one of the requests I had
was um um someone provided us uh
renderings of the actual 150 foot tower
and it looked really disproportionate to
uh the 80ft tower and I just wondered if
staff might be able to provide um some
renderings to council so that we can get
a better sense of what the actual visual
impact is. uh
>> to scale I would
>> to scale. Thank you.
>> And in relation to the existing
structure
>> I I
>> Mr. Clark
>> Yes, we can do that.
>> Thank you.
>> Okay, great. And uh you know I just want
to say someone asked the question about
concerns for children's safety and can
we sleep at night with with that uh and
my answer is no. I I can't um you know
there is there are many nights where I
am sleepless thinking about this p the
safety of our public and our community
and our neighborhoods and there are many
issues that impact the safety of our
community. Um and in fact that's why we
are making such an investment. That's
why this system is so important is so
that we can enhance public safety for
all of our constituents throughout the
community. Um, you know, I reflect on
9/11 and one of the issues in in that
horrible tragedy was that our radio
systems for first responders were
failing and many of our first responders
were not able to communicate with one
another. Um, and so I just I really uh
shudder at the thought to think about an
incident in Bakersfield, God forbid, um,
but a real uh crisis where all of our
first responders are asked to protect
our community, to protect our children
and families, and where our
infrastructure, our technology is not
reliable and is undermining the ability
to, uh, deliver uh, quality public
services. And so, um, I I think we need
to move on this, uh, post haste. We need
to figure this out. Um, and and, uh, I I
respect Council Member Kleman's, um,
request to, um,
defer this to August 5th, and I'll
support that. But I do believe that the
council needs to make need needs to make
a decision um, as quickly as possible.
Thanks.
>> Thank you, Vice Mayor.
Thank you, mayor, and thank you, Council
Member Coleman, for the additional
questions. I had the same question as
Council Member Gonzalez. When this item
comes back, can we see um some uh
renderings that would show
kind of comparing current to proposed,
no matter the location, no matter if
it's Riverwalk or in this proposed
location, those would be very helpful to
see as visuals. Um, and if the tower
will look exactly as is now, like
structurally, aesthetically, um, colors,
that sort of thing, like what can we
have that rendering mimic as closely as
possible what this new tower could look
like? Um, there was a question about,
well, Council Member Coleman asked uh
how site evaluation works. Um, I think
what's helpful usually is these are the
sites that were eliminated. They didn't
work. Uh, I understand that this is a
current site and we're just moving it
slightly, but if there was something
beyond even the Riverwalk site, um, if
that was a part of the conversation,
since we're not, uh, privy to that, it
would be helpful just to see that in a
list form. Um,
there was a comment made about trees
being taken out to put this new tower
in. Is that true or is that something
that can be answered? that that is
accurate at the current proposed
location although there are be other
tree mi planting mitigations for that.
>> Okay.
Um there it was mentioned that this uh
one of the asks was that this be placed
in a non-residential
parcel.
Um, is it is this considered a
residential parcel or is it I I thought
it was a Chevron property or
Mr. Burns,
>> Council Cer, this is a residential zone
uh property uh has a land use of public
facilities.
>> Okay, public facilities. Okay, thank
you. Those are all my questions.
>> Thank you. I don't see any other
requests. So, you have a motion to
continue the item to August 5th for
council direction and action. Please
cast your votes.
Motion is approved with Council Member
Smith absent.
>> Thank you. And next item, please.
Council and mayor statements. Oh, I
apologize. I went a little too far.
Mayor,
fiscal year 2026 27 city budget.
>> Before we get into this, if there's
anyone in the public who wishes not to
stay for this, although you are
welcomed, uh this would be a good time
to leave, but not staff.
>> You guys come
Right. You can go shake hands outside if
you're a if you'd like to do that.
And with the last person out, just
please close the door.
Mr. Click.
>> Thank you, Mayor and Council. I do
recommend that we address the budget
tonight as uh our last item. Um this
item again, as a quick reminder, uh we
have had uh multiple workshops on our
budget this year. We had our first
workshop actually in March of this year
through April. We had our town hall
meetings and our uh public safety vital
services tax oversight committee
meetings. We had two uh long workshops
with your council in May and then first
reading of this uh budget item at your
last council meeting. And so this is
just for the public record to reflect
again the total uh recommended uh
proposed budget is $926 million for this
coming year.
I would reflect that the the
conversation at our last uh meeting uh
was that there was uh several comments
around some of those optional additional
capital improvement items that uh the
direction coming out of the final budget
workshop was uh to create a contingency
for future consideration of optional
capital improvement projects. Uh I
sensed council uh interest in uh
reviewing some of those options at this
meeting. And so for example, the spay
and neuter services as well as the urban
canopy expansion were two items that
were on your optional list that aren't
um appropriated currently in the
proposed budget, but uh your council
could uh include in budget motion
tonight uh to make some adjustments uh
from this list of optional. This is the
general fund optional items. And then
there were also some optional items that
were in the PSVS capital fund. And those
two funds combined were just short of $5
million. Uh but um your council again
does not need to take action on all of
that. In fact, I think it was wise to uh
make a determination to put some of that
in a contingency for future
consideration. But if there's a few of
those items tonight, those u those could
be included, but it would again require
a specific motion. And then the other
item that was a particular point of
discussion was uh whether or not uh to
put the fire rescue back into the budget
as it currently is proposed in front of
you uh for adoption does not include the
fire rescue. With that, I'm happy to
answer any questions on your budget.
>> Thank you, Mr. Kle. Council
member Arius.
>> Thank you, Mayor. I'll I'll try to be
brief. Um I know we've talked about this
a number of times, but just always uh
want to, you know, take a step back and
reflect on the process and just want to
give kudos to staff uh for, you know,
putting this together in a rather tough
financial economic uh year. Um it hasn't
been easy. Um there have been many tough
decisions that have had to have been
made uh throughout the process and even
long before the adoption of this budget.
Time times are tough. You know, families
feel it. Neighborhoods are feeling it.
Uh we at the city uh too are feeling it.
And I think that uh you know I just want
to give kudos to Randy uh you know city
manager Kle uh for uh getting creative
and figuring out ways to be able to
continue to deliver on the services for
the community. So uh thank you. Um also
want to give kudos to uh both my
colleagues and staff for hosting several
town halls throughout the community. Um
I think it's a step in the right
direction to try and garner feedback. Um
there are always room there's always
room to improve uh those processes and I
think we could have done perhaps a
better job at uh doing that outreach.
But I think the fact that we are
starting to um engage the the public uh
in in community spaces that uh are in
their neighborhoods I think is is a
meaningful step in the right direction.
Um,
with regard to uh the budget and
specifically the capital outlay uh
projects,
uh I I just had two points of
clarification when it comes to uh I
believe it's slide four, the PSVS fund
capital outlay projects. Uh there are
two line items that are really important
to uh my district and I'm looking for
them now. Maybe it's not there actually
but the pari account
>> that council member Arius if I may the
pari account is it part of the
recommended cip so it's not in the the
additional list
>> okay okay so pari is already in there
and then sorry it was the citywide
traffic calming improvements I just
wanted to clarify that um that is in
addition to a set aside that's already
baked into the budget. Is that correct?
>> I appreciate the question, council
member, uh because it's important
clarification. We have some dollars that
we've carried forward from a prior
fiscal year, but there are not other
capital outlay dollars baked in for
citywide traffic calming. No, there it
is not in the the proposed budget.
>> It is not in the proposed budget. Okay.
And then the park access improvements, I
think that's where I was a little bit
confused. That is separate and distinct
from pari.
>> It is. And I would reflect that um we've
we've made access improvements, meaning
uh we've improved sidewalks and and um
parking lots uh to make our parks more
accessible to the the broader public. Um
but we've been able to do two rounds of
that. And so I think it's appropriate
that this was on a an optional list for
this coming year that it could help
again just make it easier to get into
our parks. But, uh, we've made a lot of
other progress and our our, um, most our
areas that had the most access needs
have been addressed. Got it. Okay. I
appreciate those responses. Um,
I think generally speaking, this is a a
well balanced budget. I just wanted to
um add that I think it'd be important
for us to make the additional 100,000 uh
based on conversation um for the spay
and neuter neuter services. We know that
we could always do more on that front.
Um and I'm excited to support that
addition to the uh recommended budget.
Um the second piece is um I know that
you have made a recommendation of
$200,000 in addition uh for tree
planting and urban canopy expansion. I
think based on the feedback that we've
heard um over the past several months um
is that you know we could we could be
doing certainly more. So I would ask
that we actually increase that to um a
half a million dollars at 500,000.
And I know um that you know per per
council member Gonzalez's referral um
several months ago, I I would agree with
him that we really do need to figure out
a way to be able to fund the fire rescue
um and save that from um a potential
cut. And so my my preference I'm curious
to know what my colleagues think, but my
preference would be to utilize the
contingency funds um for this fiscal
year. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Arius. Council
member Basher.
>> Um I really the the last meeting uh
Councilman Gonzalez who actually brought
up a good point about holding off just
in light of our budget being the way it
is and really holding off on a lot of
this stuff and I really appreciated
that. I think that it took us a year uh
to to realize the spot we were in. Um I
think that last year we made it uh we
did that being said I know that last
year we made an agreement to um to fund
the spay and neuter services. Um, but
that that saves the taxpayers so much
money. It really does. And people don't
realize having litters abandoned and and
wild animals all over our streets in our
community is very expensive to clean up
and maintain. And they've done uh a
really good service uh to our community.
And so I I appreciate that. I think that
saves us money on here. Um, I think that
there are other other grant
opportunities for areas of Bakersville
that the city doesn't own property that
need major trees to be put into them
that we could pursue. I don't know if it
necessarily needs to come from the
general fund, but I I was in agreement
when you, Andre, uh, Mr. Gonzalez,
sorry, when you brought that up last
time that I think we we definitely hold
off and and um you know, we we we hold
it tight, but I definitely think that we
save money where we can and and and
helping our uh animals to be fixed and
not continue to overpop populate and
create even more budget expenses for us
down the road.
>> Thank you, Council Member Masher.
Council member Gonzalez.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Uh just to provide
some context here, you know, I reading
the news, there are many many cities in
in the state of California and in across
the country that are facing huge
significant deficits and are having to
as a result lay off employees. And so
the fact that this council uh is not in
that particular situation this year,
that's a good thing. Uh yes, budgets are
tight. Yes, we had to make significant
cuts, but I think it's important for us
not to be stuck in a Bakersville bubble
and understand the uh economic uh
realities of um of the state and the
country and realize what many of our
other u
colleagues up and down the state are
facing, the the real tough challenges
they're facing in this current fiscal
year, in this upcoming fiscal year. Um
uh but I I do think it's wise for us to
um to hold off on uh making decisions
related to many of our capital projects.
Thank you, Council Member Basher, for
those comments. Um uh and obviously
there are some more pressing issues that
I think uh we ought to address. I mean,
number one,
uh, this fire rescue, this fire rescue
speaks to public safety, uh, and, uh, we
know, we heard from the chief at the
last council meeting the the number of
calls for service and and how this h
allows for our fire department to add
capacity and to address critical life
safety issues that many of our families
and community members are experiencing
every day. Uh I think it is uh
short-sighted for us to make this cut
and I I do believe that we ought to
preserve it in this budget and so um I
I'm going to continue to press for that
and I appreciate council member uh Aas's
uh recommendation to use contingency
funds. I think that's why we have those
dollars and we ought to pursue that uh
that expenditure for this year. But also
uh we need to look for additional uh
revenue sources and I know that there
are uh services that our fire department
uh can provide where where many other
departments throughout the state are
providing and are able to recoup some of
those costs and some of those
expenditures. Mr. Kle, would you care to
kind of describe some of those uh
services? Council Mayor Gonzalez, Mayor
and Council, uh you will also remember
that a couple years ago we implemented a
new uh recovery fee that was related to
fire services for vehicle accidents.
That is one example and and we did start
to pursue that to to build up our our
ability to do cost recovery. Um there
are a couple of other examples like
that. Some cities have other uh cost
recovery fees for uh um falls and
individuals who are being requested to
be picked up from falls. Um from some
actually have even uh some structure
fire recovery fees. Um uh there are new
there are a number of you know those
type of sort of user fees or cost
recovery fees. In addition, uh there are
an increasing number of municipalities
that are starting to look at changing
the service delivery model for um
medical services uh and fire services a
as a whole. Um historically, fire
departments were built for fire
suppression principally. uh as we've
been able to make advancements in
building codes and and um education and
prevention, uh a larger percentage of
our calls for service or medical aid
calls and not structure fire calls. And
so some cities are looking at how do you
adjust your service delivery model to
include um some dedicated resources for
those medical calls, but also seek cost
recovery from some of those medical
calls. you know, even including uh some
medical services rendered or uh
transport for for um individuals who who
need to, you know, go to care uh
facilities, hospitals uh that have been
transported by municipalities. And
currently, uh we're in an environment
where um sometimes
uh there isn't the greatest efficiency
in our service delivery model. And it's
a it's a large consideration to take a
look at that. Uh but that that is
another area beyond just cost recovery
fees that we could charge to look at um
our our our total cost recovery model to
include both those aspects.
>> Okay, great. I appreciate that and I
don't want to continue this conversation
tonight, but I do want to make a
referral um that we uh continue to
analyze uh this topic particularly as it
relates to medical transport and um and
as it relates to calls that we are
already responding to medical aid calls
um and look towards a a more
comprehensive model so we can number one
better deliver services to our
constituents and then also number two
that we can sustain these services over
time. Um, and so thank thank you for
that. Um, I I also agree with the spay
and neuter stuff. I mean, the the crisis
is a stubborn one in this region. It's
gone on for far too long. There are many
people who have been on the front lines
of this issue rescuing animals for years
now. Um, and my I have the utmost
respect for everyone who's out there
every day. Um and and I I think that
this is um the least that we can do. Um
probably the most we can afford right
now, but certainly we we we could do
more. And I'm I'm glad that the city
adopted a spayneuter ordinance a few
years ago, but certainly um it doesn't
mean much if people can't afford to
actually spay neuter their animals. So
we we need to make sure that we can
include this in in the budget. Let me
ask you a question, Mr. Kle. So these
options here then where where how do we
actually fund these options?
>> Thank you, council member. As I noted
earlier, we we have um
around $13 million in capital outlay in
total, capital outlay and capital uh
improvement program dollars. We've
allocated um portions of those to
recommended projects that are already
included in the CI recommended CIP, but
there's about just just less than $5
million of capital outlay that has not
been
>> got it
>> designated. And so my recommendation
would be that if you're going to
designate a couple of these items that
come from that contingency of of just
less than $5 million from capital outlay
that we set aside.
>> All right. Well, just for the sake of
getting the ball rolling and getting us
towards action, um I'd like to propose
adoption of the fiscal year budget with
the inclusion of the spayneuter services
and also um the rescue apparatus.
>> Thank you. And moving on to council
member Coleman.
>> Uh thank you, mayor. Um
uh this is to Mr. Kle. Um, can you talk
a little bit about what we've done in
terms of expense reduction in this last
kind of refresh our mind on that matter?
>> It's a great point, Council Member
Coleman, and I should have reflected on
that in my summary earlier that you in
order to bring you this balanced budget.
uh we uh reduced uh departmental
operational spending at just under $10
million. We also had several million
dollars of citywide, you know, budget
adjustments or reductions that we
started actually at midy year of last
year. Um uh uh excuse me, sorry, midy
year of this year. Um and then uh also
brought forward the that 5% operational
reduction from all of our departments.
And so, um, your your budget, you know,
is about $13 million of reductions, but
we also saw $20 million of cost
escalations for non-discretionary
expenses. Um, that um um you know, as
one of the reasons that we needed to to
go through that exercise. And so, um, as
another reminder, we shared with your
council a year ago that we, we saw this,
uh, this trend coming that, you know, we
were, uh, spending some of our fund
balance, one-time uh, balance to balance
the budget. And that over a five-year
period, we would need to reduce that
reliance on one-time monies for ongoing
expenses to ensure that we, you know,
can have a a structurally balanced
budget. And so we did complete our first
year uh of that reductions and we
anticipate next year doing that again.
And so um for better or worse um you
know this year uh we we eliminated the
73 positions. as we had the hiring
freeze this last year. Uh, and I will
agree with Council Member Gonzalez's
comments that it's it was wise to
forecast that 5-year forecast and see
where we were headed and create a plan
that gives us the time to make those
restructurings wisely and find some
efficiencies and innovations along the
way as well as some of those just, you
know, hard decisions of restructuring.
uh and and stay ahead of that issue as
opposed to finding ourselves in just a
really bad spot where there's, you know,
even harder layoffs. So, uh with uh um
those reductions, uh we we did um bring
you that balanced budget that again, you
know, continues to focus on higher
priorities and um uh minimizing the
service level impacts to our our also
community priorities. But we did have to
make those reductions.
>> Okay. Thank you. So, what you said is
that you reduced expenses by $13
million, but but our overall cost
escalated by $20 million.
>> That is correct.
>> So, there's a $7 million spread there.
>> That is correct. Although, we did have
some some revenue increase as well, but
it did it didn't make up for, you know,
the full 20 million. And I maybe Mr.
McKean can remind me, but our revenue
increase was around $5 million.
Good evening, council. Randy McKe,
finance director. So, the general fund
revenue actually increased after our
updated numbers was closer to $8
million, but
um
to say that's going to continue on into
next year is is is a challenge. So, um,
but yeah, it was it initially projected
out at five, but it moved up to eight
when we got updated sales tax revenue.
>> All right. So, if our expenses,
if if we made 13 million in cuts, but
our our other costs escalated 20
million, that's 7 million, but you have
8 million more revenue. So, we're still
ahead a million dollars.
>> Okay.
I would not get after is is how these
changes that uh council member Gonzalez
and council member Aras propose how it
affects uh the b you know the overall
budget and it looks like it adds about a
million6 to the budget but we're ahead a
million bucks so
>> so does that mean
>> yeah I I think that
>> that bad
>> that might not that be be over simple
simplifying it a little bit because we
we did project certain we when we
enumerated costs to council, we looked
at about $20 million. It was specific
items, pensions, salaries, insurance,
those types of things, equipment cost,
those but that wasn't the only
increases. It was really So I what I
would it better for me to do is actually
give you a full analysis with an actual
of of a comparison of what the final
budget looks like with the revenues and
expenditures. And we we don't have that
prepared, but we can I can give that to
council just to show you.
>> I don't need the exact numbers,
>> but but beyond to your question, I'm
sorry to interrupt you, but to your
question, the $1.6 million
would have to come at a contingency. Uh
and so and if those are going to be
ongoing costs, specifically the rescue
costs are an ongoing cost, it it it begs
the question of what's the next round
going to look like. And so
>> that's the point I was trying to get to
is that uh uh you know we can justify
these things but you know it sounds like
we made a good start this year uh with
reducing expenses and trying to get
control of some of these things and we
took the lowhanging fruit and just
didn't fill some positions and we made
it all work. But in order to meet that
long-term goal we're going to have to
start making tougher decisions going
forward. So if it's not these things,
then what things are we willing to give
up in the future? You know, council
member Weir talked about, you know, the
growing budget that we need to stop
spending.
And u you know, to some degree that's
true and we're trying to do that. I
mean, we're cutting expenses here, but
we're spending it over there. So, uh,
the only thing I'll ask council members
is if we're not going to cut these
things, then what things are we going to
cut? Because you you heard people come
in here today. They talked about the,
you know, the uh the animals,
uh, the trees, the water, you know. So,
it's there just all these things that
people want and and it's our duty to to
provide those to the degree we can, but
we have this relatively
flat revenues with increasing expenses.
So, we need to keep making uh expense
making cuts in the future. I'm looking
at Michael Turnupy's note here that he
brought us and he's dead on on about all
these except maybe the uh the first one
about the uh uh the first one. I don't
know. I'm not going to get into it.
you know that the fact that
the budget doesn't uh
address some of these important things
that we've been talking about and we I
think we know this uh but we need to
continue to work on these items. So, u
I I guess in order to be succinct and
and move on,
uh I would say that we're going to need
to have some more aggressive
conversations this year as council about
what things we're willing to cut and the
department heads are really going to
have to dig deep and uh you know, and
really think about how we deliver the
services we deliver. what services that
are better done by other people and how
we can uh how we can cut expenses. So, I
don't think I have anything else. Thank
you, Mayor.
>> Thank you, Council Member Coleman, Vice
Mayor. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you
to my C council colleagues for your
input, but most importantly, thank you
to our residents and our constituents
for coming out week after week through
the budget process and being actively
involved and avidly participating. Um, I
also wanted to thank the folks that are
advocating for spay and neuter services.
Uh, my dog will often come to council
meetings with me and, uh, she goes, uh,
to a doggy daycare that is near where
you all provide services and the line
that, um, forms before you all are even
open is really incredible to see. Um,
and it just goes to show that our
community uh is sorely missing this
service and uh where where government
can't fully meet the community uh
organizations as yourself do and it
brings us along. So, thank you for
calling us into this process. Um, and it
truly helps. And, um, you know, for the
first time, uh, in in I think my
conscious adult life of being involved
in budgeting processes, uh, city manager
and I had conversations about how do we
take city hall to the public? And so, we
had budget hearings and meetings in each
uh, ward. Uh, but we can, of course, do
better. We want uh, the public to be
involved and give us input early on. Um,
and even just two weeks ago, we received
really uh fruitful and informative
feedback. And while our budgeting
process can improve, while where we're
spending money, investing money, uh can
come closer to how our residents would
like it to be spent, um we do count on
you all to uh bring us along and and and
call us in in the ways that you have so
that we can meet you um and bring city
hall to you. That is our job as the
stewards of the city. And um while uh
all spend expenditures and all spending
is not perfect uh and we'd like to
invest much more in beautifying our
city, keeping our residents housed uh
and making sure that the city is a place
where people live and thrive and don't
just survive um and that is the goal of
this dis and we approach it in different
ways and I think that's the beauty of a
democracy. Um and and while we are the
stewards of this city, uh you know, the
council works for the people and so our
budget should reflect that. Our budget
should reflect uh spending that meets
people's needs. Um and uh I'm taking
into account the recommendations from my
council colleagues as well. And um and
our job is to make sure that we can
provide transparency, integrity, and and
steadfast support to our residents
through the services that we fund. Um,
and uh, you know, for for our advocates
who have stuck around for as long as we
have and have been here every week. Um,
I want I want to thank our advocates who
are making sure that we literally plant
seeds for the the future for tomorrow.
Um, we may not see the fruits of those
trees, but at some point many years from
now, someone's going to say, "I'm really
glad that they came to every single city
council meeting and that their council
was responsive and investing." Um, and
people will ask, when did the city of
Bakersville change from feeling 135
degrees on a sidewalk to maybe feeling
95 degrees? And even that's a huge
difference. Um, planting trees is truly
a quality of life issue. It's a public
health issue. It is a social determinant
of our health. And uh as so many folks
have pointed out, uh that investment
being made in parts of our city where
maybe a percentage is hard to imagine,
but like parts of Ward 1, on W 7, W 2,
even uh even less than 1% is covered in
trees. And so we've got a lot of work to
do there. And I'm glad we can start with
this budget cycle.
And um with that uh I I know council
member Gonzalez uh made a motion. And I
want to uh complete that motion uh
today. And as uh the city of bud as the
city of Bakersfield passes its 2026 2027
budget, I'd like to make a motion to add
uh 500 making our total investment in
the tree planting and urban canopy
expansion uh to total out to 500,000 a
half a million investment. Uh as well as
to our spayneuter services um 100,000
and to our uh rescue fire rescue
apparatus $900,000. Um, so my motion is
to pass our 2026 2027 budget uh with
those three additions.
Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Any
other requests for comment?
Seeing none, you have a motion. Please
cast your votes.
screen.
>> Um,
>> tech services. Council member Wear's
screen.
>> Mayor, I can do a roll call.
>> That would be good.
>> Vice Mayor Core. Yes.
>> Council member Aras.
>> I
>> council member Gonzalez.
>> Yes.
>> Council member Weir.
>> No.
>> Council member Smith is absent. Council
member Kman.
>> Yes.
>> Council member Bashertosh.
>> Yes.
>> Motion is approved with Council Member
Weir voting no and Council Member Smith
absent.
>> Thank you. And I just want to thank SOS
Dog Rescue Robbie Miller. Thank you so
much for your investment this past year
that helped move us along. And uh to all
of you with uh our animal advocates,
thank you so much. And our to our tree
people also. Uh
we're not quite finished yet. Oh, he has
to go. Okay. Um
>> next item, please.
>> Getting an MRI at for the record.
All right. Off my broken foot.
Feel better. Council member Basher Dash.
>> Godspeed.
>> Council and Mayor St.
>> . Wow.
>> All right. Uh request for Council Member
Gonzalez.
>> Thank you, Mayor. I'll be quick. Um
earlier tonight, we heard from a mother
uh with big hopes for her children and
for all children and for all mothers in
our community. Miss Bramble, thank you
so much uh for being here tonight. and
she uh for the for the benefit of the
public provided a sample resolution for
this council to consider and I just I
read it during the break and I I thought
it was wonderfully written and uh I
thought it was very thoughtful and I
think it's it's an incredible resource
an important resource for all of our
families and so I will be happy to make
the referral tonight that we consider
this uh resolution at a future upcoming
council meeting. Thank you so much for
being here.
>> Thank you. Any other requests?
We're about to celebrate our nation's
250th birthday and we have celebrations
coming up at the park at Riverwalk on
July 3rd and I will have a proclamation
celebrating that uh milestone event. And
seeing no other request to speak, we're
adjourned at .
