1 SPECIAL MEETING OF THE
CONCORD CITY COUNCIL
CONCORD SENIOR CENTER
2727 PARKSIDE CIRCLE
CONCORD, CALIFORNIA
SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2022
The Concord City Council met in a special meeting at the Concord Senior Center located at 2727 Parkside Circle, at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 2, 2022, with Mayor Aliano presiding.
Minutes follow in abbreviated form per Resolution 3361 and Council Minutes of September 26, 1966.
ROLL CALL
COUNCILMEMBERS PRESENT: Edi Birsan; Laura Hoffmeister; Tim McGallian; Carlyn Obringer; Dominic Aliano
STAFF PRESENT: Valerie Barone, City Manager; Susanne Brown, City Attorney; Justin Ezell, Assistant City Manager; Joelle
Fockler, City Clerk; Karan Reid, Director of Finance; Will Tarbox, Director of Public Works; Kevin Marstall,
Director of Community Development; Guy Bjerke,
Director of Community Reuse Planning; Steve Voorhies,
Director of Parks and Recreation; Greg Taylor, Director of Information Technology; Mark Bustillos, Chief of
Police; Jasmin Loi, Director of Human Resources;
Jennifer Ortega, Community Relations Manager; Marie
Suvansin, Economic Development Manager; James
Nakayama, Police Captain; Craig Blythe Administrative
Services Manager; Wendy McAuley, Executive Assistant
WHO ADDRESSED THE COUNCIL: Joe Higby, Concord Police Officers Association; Laura Nakamura, Concord; Mariah Lauritzen, Concord
ANNUAL WORKSHOP ON CITY COUNCIL PRIORITIES
City Manager Valerie Barone and Mayor Aliano provided introductions and introduced workshop facilitator Patrick Ibarra, Mejorando Group. Mr. Ibarra reviewed the workshop agenda and meeting outline.
Director of Human Resources Jasmin Loi, Chief of Police Mark Bustillos, and Director of Public Works William Tarbox reported on staffing challenges.
Following questions from the City Council, Mayor Aliano opened a public comment period on the presentation on staffing challenges.
Joe Higby, Concord Police Officers Association, stated that there was a crisis in police staffing and agreed with opening negotiations for the benefit of hiring.
Laura Nakamura, Concord, spoke of using red light runner technology saving manpower and in support of opening negotiations for the benefit of hiring.
Mayor Aliano closed the public comment period.
Mayor Aliano recessed the meeting at 11:03 a.m. The meeting resumed at 11:13 a.m.
Economic Development Manager Marie Suvansin presented an Economic Development Update.
City Council Minutes April 2, 2022
2 Following questions from the City Council, Mayor Aliano opened a public comment period, and upon receiving no public comment, closed the public comment period.
Mayor Aliano recessed the meeting at 12:10 p.m. The meeting resumed at 12:30 p.m.
Assistant City Manager Ezell reviewed past year’s achievements, then City Manager Barone presented the existing work program using flip charts and Mr. Ibarra facilitated conversation on existing goals and possible Tier 1 priorities.
Mayor Aliano opened a public comment period.
Mariah Lauritzen, Concord, proposed that Concord become a 15-Minute City. A 15- Minute City is a residential urban concept in which most daily necessities can be accomplished by either walking or cycling from residents’ homes.
Laura Nakamura, Concord, spoke of the need to ask equity questions and requested that a Racial Equity Committee be formed.
City Manager Barone informed Council and the public as to the reasons why GARE assessments were not and will not be conducted by staff.
Mayor Aliano closed the public comment period.
The City Council participated in a dot voting exercise to determine the Tier 1 priorities.
Following discussion, the Council defined the following Tier 1 and Tier 2 priorities for the organization:
Tier 1 Priorities
Staffing: Filling the many open positions across all departments so that we can continue to provide essential services that the community expects and deserves. The Council expressed a grave concern with the vacancies, current and expected, within the police department and the public works department – two critical departments in supporting quality of life within our community.
Homelessness: Creating, adopting and beginning to implement a strategic plan to address our homelessness crisis. A work program for this effort will be proposed to Council in the fall of this year. The work will be funded, in part, by the $2.4 million of one-time funds that Council set aside to support homelessness response.
Development of the former Concord Naval Weapons Station: Taking the next steps on this multi-decade project includes working with the Concord First Partners team on the next set of approvals. The first step of which is agreement and approval of a term sheet; followed by development of a specific plan, a disposition and development agreement, and an Environmental Impact Report.
Objective Design Standards: In response to recent State legislation intended to stimulate housing production, the City cannot apply subjective design standards when considering multi-family housing development projects. To retain local control over the design of such projects, Council prioritized the creation of objective design standards. The goal is to continue Concord’s tradition of high-quality design.
Council also identified a “Tier 2” priority, which is something that is identified as important to Council but not at the same level of importance as the Tier 1 priorities.
City Council Minutes April 2, 2022
3 Tier 2 Priority
LPR Camera Deployment: Purchase and deployment of License Plate Recognition (LPR) cameras throughout the city to assist in identifying vehicles of interest in support of solving crimes more efficiently. It is a “service multiplier” that will enable the use of technology to assist our police department with public safety.
ADJOURNMENT
By order of the Mayor, the meeting was adjourned at 2:15 p.m. /s/
DOMINIC A. ALIANO
MAYOR
/s/
JOELLE FOCKLER, MMC
CITY CLERK