09/30/2025 City Council Minutes Page 1 of 5
MINUTES OF THE DAVIS CITY COUNCIL
Meeting of September 30, 2025
The City Council of the City of Davis met in regular meeting session beginning at 6:32 p.m. in the Community Chambers, 23 Russell Boulevard, Davis, California. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Bapu Vaitla.
Roll Call: Councilmembers Present: Josh Chapman, Linda Deos, Donna Neville, Glo- ria Partida, Bapu Vaitla
Councilmembers Absent: None
Other Officers Present: City Manager Daryel Dunston, City Attorney Inder Khalsa, City Clerk Zoe Mirabile
Approval of
Agenda
L. Deos moved, seconded by D. Neville, to approve the agenda. Motion passed unanimously.
City Manager
Announce-
ments
City Manager Daryel Dunston: October 5—Davis Neighbors Night Out event. Highlight summer recreation program Campamento Alegre, five days of educational and recreation activities at Davis Migrant Center.
City Council
Announce-
ments and Li-
aison Reports
None
Public Com-
ments
• Dorte Jensen: Should have police officer or Police Chief in attend- ance at City Council meetings to provide feeling of stability and rule of law.
• Alan Hirsch: Should be inspecting trees in new developments to en- sure they are planted according to city code.
• Tatiana: Personal experience with a fire in March 2025. • Connor Gorman: Support city and county entering into settlement agreements to receive compensation from opioid crisis in order to ad- dress and mitigate issue. Funds should be used to address Davis impacts. Consent calendar item Transportation Commission Tasks— support, ties into public safety as a broader issue.
Consent Cal-
endar
On-Call Engineering Services Agreement Task Order Amendment and Geotechnical Inspection Services Agreement Task Order Amendment for the Bretton Woods Development
Approve Resolution No. 25 -143 - Authorizing the City Manager to Exe- cute Task Order No. 24.3 with WSP, Inc. and Task Order 2.2 with Terra- con Consultants, Inc. for Bretton Woods Construction Management and Inspection Services and Geotechnical Inspection Services 09/30/2025 City Council Minutes Page 2 of 5
On-Call Engineering Services Agreement Task Order Amendment for the Chiles Ranch Development
Approve Resolution No. 25 -144 - Authorizing the City Manager to Exe- cute Task Order No. 40.1 with WSP, Inc. for Chiles Ranch Construction Management and Inspection Services
On-Call Engineering Services Agreement Task Order Amendment for the Davis Center Project 5th and G Street Contamination Site Approve Resolution No. 25 -145 - Authorizing the City Manager to Exe- cute Amendment No. 3 to Task Order 14 With Kennedy Jenks for Ser- vices Related to Fifth and G Street Davis Center Project
Amendment No. 1 to Bill Credit Agreement Regarding Power Generation and Crediting with Clean Energy Assets LLC Which Memorializes a Credit to the City
Approve Resolution No. 25 -146 - Authorizing the City Manager to Exe- cute Amendment No. 1 to Bill Credit Agreement with Clean Energy As- sets LLC
Independent Police Auditor Annual Evaluation and Contract Renewal
1. Receive the Police Accountability Commission’s 2024 annual evalu- ation of the Independent Police Auditor.
2. Approve Resolution No. 25-147 - Authorizing the City Manager to Ex- ecute the 2025-28 Contract with The OIR Group to Extend the Term for Independent Police Auditor Services
Transportation Commission Action Item: Proposed Tasks Request Approve Commission request to focus on the following tasks:
1. Traffic Safety Around Schools / Safe Routes to School
2. Intelligent Transportation Systems
3. Speed Hump Policy
Commission Minutes:
1. Human Relations Commission Meetings of June 26 and August 28, 2025
2. Planning Commission Meeting of June 11, 2025
Informational
J. Chapman moved, seconded by D. Neville, to approve the consent cal- endar. Motion passed unanimously.
Policy Con-
siderations in
Relation to
Community Development Director Sherri Metzker: Seeking Council input and direction on infrastructure master plans and impact fees, and climate / energy use and production. Peripheral projects and necessary improve- ments are not included in current plans or adopted fees. Alternatives to 09/30/2025 City Council Minutes Page 3 of 5
Peripheral
Projects
consider: 1) Citywide fee update, 2) Focused fee update – staff recom- mendation, and 3) Ad hoc approach, pay fair share or pay total cost with reimbursement. Climate Action & Adaptation Plan (CAAP) envisions partnership with Valley Clean Energy (VCE) to spur investment in renew- able energy programs. However, VCE is not a solar provider and does not have plans to become one. CAAP proposes to develop a microgrid program and work with VCE to identify locations and strategies, develop action plan. Options to consider: 1) Defer creation – staff recommenda- tion, 2) Require creation, staff develop incentives on ad hoc basis , and 3) Stop processing peripheral projects until General Plan and implemen- tation documents are updated.
Public comments:
• Lorenzo Kristoff: Oppose staff recommendation and all options under climate/energy use and production. Should affirm need for local elec- tricity resources to provide resilient affordable energy. Consider tar- geted municipal electric utility for greenfield deployment. • Ari Halberstadt: Oppose staff recommendation microgrid , will m iss opportunity to create greenfield municipal utility. City should explore creation to provide electricity within developments, conduct feasibility study.
• Brian Foster, C unningham Engineering, Village Farms Davis: Con- cern regarding scope of work of infrastructure option. Local Traffic Analyses already exist and list of improvements and trips already de- fined, although cost of improvements hasn’t been developed. • Clarke Morrison, Village Farms legal counsel: Open to participating in costs of traffic study and fees if able to review scope of work. Need to discuss further. Not open to paying for entire city. • Alan Pryor: Oppose imposition of microgrid requirement on peripheral project. Infrastructure can cost up to $75 million. No guidance on how benefits of microgrid will apply to individual homeowners, not equita- ble. Too many variables about cost, sizing, and allocation. • Katie Delehendrich, Greg Francis, Daniel Stein, Chris Cleming and unnamed individuals: Any action must not delay peripheral projects.
Consider discussing topics during General Plan development. • David Massey, Francisco Jimenez: Need more housing in Davis. • Sabrina Teller: Village Farms CEQA counsel. Support staff recom- mendation to defer microgrid concept until General Plan update. Con- cept arose in a citywide plan, should not be added to only 1 or 2 pro- jects. Happy to work with staff to require future phases to opt into a microgrid if it is ready to go in the future. Draft EIR for project has already been circulated. Microgrid concept was not analyzed. • John Johnston: Support not processing applications until after G en- eral Plan update. Consider single Measure J vote, bring all projects into city limit and simplify approval process. Should put wires under- ground even if microgrid is not fully developed. Save time and cost. 09/30/2025 City Council Minutes Page 4 of 5
• Ning Wan: Support equitable solutions
• John Decker and Nino Mendez , Alta CA Regional Center, Willow- grove affordable housing developer: Support moving forward with processing Willowgrove. Project will offer integrative employment op- portunities for people with disabilities.
• Ron Glick: Should have discussed this during EIR scoping. Future is in battery storage and resiliency.
• Vanessa Erracarte , Willowgrove outreach coordinator: Project has lofty goals for affordability, sustainability. Ready to release draft EIR, intend for November 2026 ballot.
• Bree Mobias, Willowgrove land use counsel : Support staff recom- mendation for alternative 2 traffic study and impact fees , contribute fair share. Scope of work —expected, c onsultant will use existing counts/data. Already studied creation of microgrid for project. • Tom McKellmott, Willow grove solar energy consultant : Solar and clean energy will be dominant form of energy in next decade. Have analyzed potential, solar generation could potentially offset approxi- mately 60% of load, but issues exist and will not contribute to afford- ability of housing.
• Mark Huising: Opportunity to provide clean affordable energy. Gen- erating and storing local energy can offset significant future costs.
Oppose deferring until after General Plan update.
• Sandy Whitcombe, Village Farms applicant: City previously re- quested fair share payment for fee study , applicant agreed to it with the understanding there would have time to evaluate scope and price.
Should not burden developers with cost of study if not able to provide certainty that projects will be built, study should be post-election. • Connor Gorman: Support microgrids. Defer until after broad based community discussion if possible to implement microgrid in new de- velopments.
• Justine Ceneary, Nora, Heather Jones, Sarah Kinosh, Cristina Best, Joshua Kristeu, and Elsa and Will Siegar : Support Willowgrove pro- ject.
• Krista Hoffman and unnamed individual: Support Village Farms pro- ject, must not slow down project and add more requirements.
City Council recessed at 8:00 p.m. and reconvened at 8:06 p.m.
J. Chapman moved, seconded by D. Neville, to direct staff to prepare a fee program focused on only the Village Farms Davis and Willowgrove projects and cover the issues identified by the Local Traffic Analyses prepared for those projects. Motion passed unanimously.
Councilmember feedback on climate/energy use and production:
G. Partida: Oppose option 1. Align with CAAP as much as possible. 09/30/2025 City Council Minutes Page 5 of 5
B. Vaitla: Staff to come up with ideas and reasonable asks based on CAAP actions, feasible by developer and city priority. Develop set of op- tions for council workshop on November 4. CEQA requires mitigation of emissions; if city has offset instrument available and city can rece ive funds, should be preferred.
I. Khalsa: EIR requires developer to either buy offsets or there are other options to choose from. Occurs before certificate of occupancy for each phase.
L. Deos: Important to look at resiliency issue in broader discussions.
No action that will result in recirculation of EIR.
D. Neville: No delay or recirculation . Return to council with reasonable features that can be required . If develop local municipal utility in future, Development Agreement should require connections if up and running before certificate of occupancy.
J. Chapman: Interested in deeper dive into microgrids. No delays to pro- jects.
D. Dunston: Staff clarification—Council does not support a microgrid re- quirement. Staff will look at CAAP and consider options that can be in- cluded in Development Agreement for Council deliberation, provided that nothing will trigger EIR recirculation or cause a deviation from current timeline.
AB 1234 Re-
porting
None
Long Range
Calendar
D. Dunston: December 2 meeting—Village Farms P ublic Hearing, two councilmembers out of country. Request to move public hearing to De- cember 16. Council consensus.
D. Dunston: Request from councilmember for p re-discussion about af- fordable housing on October 21 before November 4 Village Farms work- shop. Council consensus.
Public comment:
• Rochelle Swanson: Make sure developers are in town when council discussion occurs.
Adjournment Meeting was adjourned at 8:48 p.m.
Zoe Mirabile
City Clerk