City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 1 of 25 March 7, 2025 7 City of Lafayette
City Council Minutes
Lafayette City Offices March 7, 2025
675 Mount Diablo Boulevard, Suite 240, Lafayette, California 9:00 a.m.
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City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 25 March 7, 2025
1. CALL TO ORDER – 9:00 A.M.
Mayor Candell called the Special City Council meeting to order at 9:00 a.m.
2. ROLL CALL
Present: City Council: Mayor Candell, Vice Mayor Anduri; Councilmembers Cervantes, Dawson, and McCormick
Absent: None
Staff Present: Niroop Srivatsa, City Manager; Tracy Robinson, Administrative Services Director; Suzanne Iarla, Communications Manager; Andy Comly, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator; Mala Subramanian, City Attorney
Disclosure and/or Take Action
3. Disclosure and/or Take Action on Remote Participation due to Just Cause or Emergency Circumstances Pursuant to AB 2449 (Gov. Code section 54953(f).)
4. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
ACTION: It was M/S/C (Anduri/Dawson) to adopt the agenda. Vote: 5-0 (Ayes: Candell, Anduri, Cervantes, Dawson, and McCormick; Noes: None).
5. PUBLIC COMMENTS (For Items not on the Agenda)
There were no public comments.
6. INTRODUCTIONS
Nadine Levin, Consultant
Introductions, Review of agenda and desired outcomes
Recommendation: Receive and File.
Nadine Levin, Consultant, introduced herself, gave an overview of the agenda for the day, and desired outcomes. She then asked the Council what it wanted the City to look like in 2035 and what, if anything, needs to change for that to become a reality.
Councilmember McCormick voiced his desire to see the Mt. Diablo corridor become vibrant with wellplanned housing and businesses, no more traffic than there is today, with biking and pedestrian access, and for the corridor to be walkable.
Vice Mayor Anduri voiced his desire for a well-designed and art-filled downtown with vibrant small businesses, an abundance of surprises on every block, a renovated Park Theatre and a renovated Plaza District, strong support for seniors who want to stay in their homes, elegant low-rise building along Mt.
Diablo Boulevard with pedestrian/bike paths, transit so downtown residents can get to school, go to appointments without getting in their cars, additional playing fields at the west end of town, and preserved open space.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 25 March 7, 2025 Mayor Candell echoed Vice Mayor Anduri’s desires and said what needs to change is the need for local control, imagining the downtown with many bikes and pedestrians without any more land, removal of some of the driving lanes for road diets with the ability to also open up the roads, and evaluating the need for evacuation route to ensure the safety of residents.
Councilmember Cervantes voiced his desire for a vibrant downtown with active life along the whole corridor from one end to the other, an expanded downtown for a real core, a real City Hall in the downtown, ensuring safe, vibrant and healthy neighborhoods, ensuring the City has well-planned evacuation routes while mitigating risks for fire. This will involve review of financing options for funding and renewal of Measure H while ensuring a healthy balance sheet.
Councilmember Dawson voiced her desire for a vibrant downtown that is easily accessible, safe neighborhoods and safety for the entire City, more civic engagement with residents, planning for how they get there, less traffic and better flows, maintaining fiscal sustainability for the long-term, and considering something larger than Measure H that allows the City to afford infrastructure resources.
Ms. Levin shared that all Councilmembers are on the same page and work well together, have done well on most of 2024/25 priorities, areas of interest raised for objective design standards, succession planning, loss of senior staff, sizes and composition of commissions and committees and looking at how they operate, how best to work with the community on large development proposals that will come forward, building the role of the City to help marginalized people, the process to get more residents engaged, and how to fund maintenance of City infrastructure.
7. GENERAL UPDATE
Niroop Srivatsa, City Manager
Update on City Council Priorities, and current staffing Recommendation: Receive and File
City Manager Srivatsa referred to the staff report which includes an update on priorities.
The first priority: Fiscal Sustainability was the biggest lift, and the City now has additional funds they will start receiving in April. She hoped for direction on where the Council would like those monies allocated, remembering that when going to the voters, the City said the money would be spent on funding existing programs to keep them on-going. She encouraged the Council to review all existing programs and see what additional resources could be allocated to those programs.
There is an important issue which is that the City’s assets are growing and our ability to fund maintaining them is not enough. They need to take a hard look at funding maintenance for the long-term, which Ms.
Robinson will address further.
For the second priority, which is Emergency Preparedness, last year the City completed its first brush clearance with Con Fire. They hope to do the same again this year. The last few years were spent adding wildfire cameras, the batteries, the emergency trailer, and the ability to charge signals during PSPS events.
This year, staff will be focusing on the community outreach and training staff. We need all staff members trained as disaster workers, as there are specific roles in an EOC . Mr. Comly has begun surveying staff on their experience and will start scheduling training, as well as tabletop exercises. Later in the year, they hope to have Lamorinda, and the schools and others involved. Additional funds could be spent here based on the Council’s direction.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 25 March 7, 2025 The third priority began as Mt. Diablo Corridor Plan, and staff has not delivered as much as they would like to. Last year, the Council looked at this priority in terms of specific tasks and updates on these tasks are included in the staff report. Slow progress is being made. Ideally, we would have at least one or two staff planners or a planner and engineer assigned to this task, as well as a good consultant and it would be a one- to two-year program. She did not think existing staff could take on this additional load.
This leads to staffing. The City currently has seven positions open. Four of them were frozen last year and the City is advertising for the two Analysts. What is needed as soon as possible is a Human Resources Analyst to do on-board training, which Ms. Robinson is working on. The City lost an Accounting Technician last year and is hiring for that position. Two senior staff members left for promotional opportunities. The Assistant Planning Director is becoming the Planning Director of Moraga, and our Finance Manager will be going to San Ramon as Finance Director. These are important positions to fill.
When it comes to the Planning Department, the department will be short-staffed until December due to medical leave. The Terraces project will likely start grading this year. There are a couple of large residential pre-applications submitted-- one on the Walgreen’s site and one in Corporate Terrace, and there is another application behind the Crosses of Lafayette. Lafayette Lane is proposing cottages, and there is also the Oak Hill project. The City will be hiring at least two senior contract planners. It takes a while to train and supervise contractors, so giving them something substantial will be difficult.
Councilmember McCormick asked for, and City Manager Srivatsa provided the status of the application process for these positions.
Vice Mayor Anduri asked and confirmed funding is in the budget for the Senior Engineer position. Ms.
Srivatsa added that the four frozen positions have been budgeted as well as the Account Technician, the Assistant Planning Director, and the Finance Manager.
Councilmember McCormick asked and confirmed that contract positions are higher in cost than hiring employees. Ms. Srivatsa noted that Council priorities impact certain departments more than others, which she described and said she provided a list of additional priorities departments have taken on. She then provided an overview of employees who live in and outside of the County, some living as far as Antioch, Brentwood, San Pablo, Sacramento and San Jose.
Regarding tenure, 33% of regular employees have been here over 15 years. 48% have been here less than 4 years. Staff retention is an important consideration, understanding the City is not under CalPERS and, because of its size, there is only so much that can be done.
Councilmember McCormick asked if the internship program can be expanded. Ms. Srivatsa said the City is always looking for interns and when they do get them, they are welcomed. Some of our past interns have been promoted to full-time positions and they are valuable in what they are able to do.
Councilmember McCormick then asked and confirmed that most recruitment firms hire Director level positions.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 25 March 7, 2025 Councilmember Cervantes said he heard from other cities they are having difficulty recruiting talent and asked if the public sector space is now less attractive. Ms. Srivatsa said she spoke with fellow City Managers, and they are all experiencing some level of that problem. She thinks the planners and engineers who come in have a different mindset than when she started out with more importance on work/life balance. They also want to take jobs where they can feel a sense of purpose and make a difference.
Councilmember Cervantes confirmed the other challenges are the lack of CalPERS and the fact that the City has fewer employees that work hard. Ms. Robinson said this might be part of it, but she has been with the City for almost 25 years and the City has never had CalPERS, and the job market was also a lot steadier in the past. She thinks part of it is a change in attitude and where people used to take jobs and just kept it for a long time, but now younger employees are working but look to move on. She also sees a lot of job hopping now in attempts to get pay increases.
Mayor Candell opened the public comment period.
CHERYL MACDONALD asked and confirmed this meeting is the goal-setting workshop.
8. MAINTENANCE
Tracy Robinson, Administrative Services Director
Financial Analysis for Long Term Maintenance of City-owned infrastructure Recommendation: Receive and File.
Ms. Robinson said when the Council discussed the final budget in January, she brought up that given there would be an infusion from Measure H there would potentially be money in the General Fund Reserve that was over the target. There is a lot of infrastructure the City has accumulated over the years. The City has sinking funds which have not been increased over the years for inflation and the Council and staff has not really done a “deep dive.” It was surprising when going to all Department Managers to provide a list of infrastructure by department, which is significant to maintain. Staff has listed this, and she has contacted two capital planning consultants who do this type of work who will look at all infrastructure and provide a plan over the next 10 and 20 years.
She received one quote back for Phase 1 which would be for all buildings, parks, and trails and expects another quote to come in today which should be similar in cost. Phase 2 would be things like streetlights, traffic lights, and pathways so this is not included. They already have a program for the roads which is separate and does not need to be included. It is a big project and was not sure it will be completed in time for the budget adoption, but they want the work to be done well and thoroughly.
Ms. Srivatsa added that there are a couple of buildings not in the best condition; the Community Center roof and HVAC system and the Police Department roofing. Not only does the Police building needs improvement, but because the building is small, they are also running out of space.
Mayor Candell asked if the City can focus on the ones they know will be the big ones and have them start to finish on those. Ms. Robinson agreed the most important ones will be the buildings and the most expensive. Once she sees the other quote and choose a consultant, she will have them focus on the buildings first.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 6 of 25 March 7, 2025 Councilmember Dawson referred to hard assets and asked if they consider personnel a soft asset. She also cited the City’s website as an asset, as well as other media assets which take staff time, hosting, and maintenance.
Ms. Robinson confirmed the website is on the list and the HR Analyst position’s will work on this prime objective to understand what employees are looking for, as well as the website which she and Ms. Iarla have been looking to update. The City pays approximately $10,000/year for hosting and maintenance of the website. A new website may have some updated notification capabilities, AI features, additional search capabilities, and on-line forms which would cost approximately $27,000/year with potential increases every year.
Vice Mayor Anduri asked that before updating the City’s website he suggested looking at the uniformity across the website for a brand, similar font use, and other uniformity measures.
Councilmember McCormick said he would like to be involved if this occurs because of his background.
Ms. Robinson asked Councilmembers to alert staff if they see websites they like or dislike of other cities, but again, it is a huge task to convert forms because they must ensure the back-end data can feed into the City’s current systems.
Councilmember Dawson asked if there were people in the community to act as interns. Ms. Robinson stated this would be a volunteer job. Per State law, cities must pay interns but if they had a volunteer they can get a lot done but they could come and go and get busy and not necessarily be able to finish what they started.
Councilmember McCormick referred to maintenance and the sinking funds which were not indexed to the CPI, and he thinks this should be a policy. Ms. Robinson agreed.
Councilmember Cervantes questioned sinking funds and how staff manages their balances and needs, which Ms. Robinson explained an example of the Library sinking fund where the City put away $200,000.
For the police station, it just was a number that staff thought would be reasonable over time given what they knew, but there was not any deep analysis.
Councilmember Cervantes likened this to the Community Center improvements/repairs and said it is almost like CIP funds.
Ms. Robinson agreed and said the Director has done a lot of work on what that might cost, and it might be better to demolish and rebuild it; however, that is a lot of money up front which the City does not have and would need to consider. Reserve money might be used to catch up, but every time anything new is built, even if the City gets a grant or has park funds, they need to put money away.
Vice Mayor Anduri asked how many cities have a comprehensive sinking fund system. Ms. Robinson said she thinks there are cities with large infrastructure, but she was unsure.
Vice Mayor Anduri said his concern is that when the City puts money away and gets a return on it, it is way below their market return. So, they should look at the same time at how they can ladder it so it can garner CD rates or investment rates for the money that will not be spent.
Mayor Candell asked and confirmed that the City does not necessarily have to go to the voters for bonds.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 7 of 25 March 7, 2025 Ms. Robinson said if the City is not asking voters to pay for it through a property tax or sales tax, the Council could use its collateral, which is the land where they would obligate the General Fund to pay for it, and interest rates may or may not be good.
Councilmember Cervantes commented that a G.O. Bond would not be used given lack of voter support, and he thinks reserves should be used that build up over time for deferred maintenance unless there is cash on hand.
Mayor Candell opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
Ms. Levin turned to the next slide for the Council to discuss its current adopted priorities and status, identify any new priorities that need to be discussed, seek clarification on new priorities, and discuss and arrive at consensus of the top priorities. There has been change in priorities and status and this may change how the Council looks at these goals. Because the Council is ahead of schedule, she recommended a 5-minute break.
BREAK
The Council took at brief break and reconvened at 10:18 a.m. to begin the discussion on setting priorities.
9. SETTING PRIORITIES
Mayor Candell, Vice Mayor Anduri and Councilmembers Cervantes, Dawson and McCormick Setting Priorities for FY 25-26
Recommendation: Identify priorities, seek consensus and discuss next steps.
Ms. Levin presented the priorities developed last year and asked for thoughts about the first priority to Develop a Fiscal Sustainability Plan for Short-Term and Long-Term Needs.
Vice Mayor Anduri thanked Stella Wotherspoon and Matt Pease who were the Co-Chairs of the Fiscal Sustainability Subcommittee, as well as staff. He thinks the discussion at the beginning of the meeting has demonstrated the need to keep this on the priority list, as well as owing it to the public who voted for additional monies.
Mayor Candell agreed and said they must start looking at Measure H right now as far as short- and longterm needs.
Councilmember Cervantes agreed and said this was number one on his list of the work done on the priorities when he was running for Council. He thinks there is still a lot of work to be done, noting there is a citizen input structure in this and now that the City has a revenue stream, and the Council needs to identify what to do with all of it. He also thinks seven years will go by fast and they need to be thinking about what happens at the end of those seven years. He questioned whether they could extend the measure, getting a big box contributor like Costco, which he thinks would not be likely, or change the Bradley-Burns sales tax allocation which had previously not worked. He thinks they should not wait seven years and should adapt during a five-year horizon.
Mayor Candell and Councilmember Dawson and McCormick echoed his comments.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 8 of 25 March 7, 2025 Ms. Levin questioned if short-term goals would go away or not. She asked if the horizon for Measure H mid- or long-term.
Councilmember McCormick said the measure passed which solved the short-term crisis. Now, the Council can look at the long-term, so he views this focusing on the City’s long-term stability.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he has a different view and said it is not so much short- and long-term now, but what they do for the next year. The reason is because there is still a lot of uncertainty. Establishing an oversight committee needs to be done and he thinks the Council should consider additional sources of revenue because this was mentioned during the last year. An important part of that is the sales tax issue and trying to get more of the sales tax revenue which he thinks should be added on their “to do” list. He thinks they should consider efficiency issues but would leave that to staff as a priority from the Council, and that the City Manager work with each staff member to ensure services being provided are provided in the most efficient way. He would not recommend going out for an outside consultant for that.
Then, he thinks what they are doing in the next year is putting themselves in the position to consider next steps. First, they will find out how much revenue the City will receive from the one-half cent sales tax.
Second, they need to look at possibilities of increased revenue and the likelihood of lowering expenses so they can increase efficiencies. They then need to look at what they will need to do to increase expenses to carry out their top priorities or to respond to outside pressure such as inflation. They also need to determine sinking fund amounts as well as amounts loaded upfront, which they do not know right now.
Councilmember Dawson said in the current environment they may lose some grant funds.
Vice Mayor Anduri agreed and said it is a year of uncertainty. The Council should see where they are as a result of things happening at the federal level, and next year they can look more long-term.
Mayor Candell agreed with this moving forward and noted the Council has discussed this, as well.
Councilmembers McCormick and Cervantes both agreed.
Ms. Srivatsa referred to the title of the goal which states, “Develop a fiscal sustainability plan to meet tasks deliverable” but what she is hearing the Council say is there are many tasks to do. The City had a deliverable which was Measure H, but the next year will be the series of things they do. So, she asked and confirmed the goal should be reworded. Ms. Levin said they can revisit these as other tasks may come up.
Councilmember Cervantes thinks it would be good to have a handle on what they are on the hook for the maintenance program. If that was in place or a roadmap as to where they are going to be in the 5- to 10- year horizon and a plan they develop with respect to the near-term infrastructure needs under the General Fund to keep their infrastructure going.
Mayor Candell said they will understand their tax revenue and look for new revenue sources, and Ms.
Srivatsa suggested fleshing out the tasks so the Council can confirm them.
Ms. Levin said things have changed from a year ago and she asked how the Council is thinking about this in terms of priorities.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 9 of 25 March 7, 2025 Mayor Candell agreed this is a top priority and number one this year. She reported on the well-attended Springhill HOA meeting on Tuesday where they focused on wildfire and evacuation, and the message was clear. People must get their properties ready, themselves ready, neighbors ready and leave their neighborhood, which is a good message and a reality check. There is also a U-Tube video by the LA Times that was the breakdown of what happened at the Palisades fire in real time. The Chief asked people to watch is to view what did and did not work well, and it awakened everybody’s senses to prepare them for what may happen, which was very compelling.
Councilmember McCormick said he thinks there is a lot of value in being where the people are. He wondered if the format could be accommodated for the six or seven neighborhood areas as people would rather attend once versus six times. Specific streets and evacuation routes were discussed for Springhill which was important for neighbors.
Ms. Srivatsa said it would be dependent on available resources.
Councilmember Dawson said they heard at the Mayors’ Conference that Orinda had a huge Town Hall well attended, and Moraga is coming up. She believes Lafayette should hold one to ensure people know.
Ms. Srivatsa stated she can work with Mr. Comly and Con Fire on this.
Ms. Levin said the Council talked about public information and Town Hall is a good vehicle. She asked for other thoughts as a goal in looking at tasks or outcomes.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he thinks this is multi-faceted and it should be re-titled to “Address threat of wildfire and its ramifications.” There are many things they had on their list from last night for good reason they did not get to, but they should look at it again. In addressing one, they talked about looking at implications of wildfire and doing something different for land planning and evacuation. They also talked about getting ahead of the curve for the City’s next RHNA cycle and starting to work now to do whatever they can do to make people aware of the impact of being in a high fire zone and whether they should be building more homes.
At the last Council meeting, the Council talked about going in with Moraga and Orinda with Townsend and looking at legislation. What he would rather do, given the new wildfire maps, is that Lafayette went from having 46% of Lafayette in fire zones to now having 72% in fire zones. The “very high” category went down, but the number of acres increased. This is an incredible number and, while he has not done the math for Moraga or Orinda, their numbers are probably higher than Lafayette.
Therefore, he thinks there is some real benefit in joining together with Moraga and Orinda in hiring consultants to work with the Council on a legislative or a legal approach to do what they can to ensure there is a recognition Lafayette needs to be treated differently.
He considers Lafayette to be a pro-housing Council, and they are not doing this on a NIMBY basis, but for public safety purposes. They cannot support another eight years of 2,000 more units in Lafayette. It does not work from an evacuation standpoint, is putting too many people in the path of danger, and he suggested teaming up with Moraga and Orinda and get an understanding that some places in California should be treated differently than others because of the fire danger they face.
Councilmember McCormick agreed with getting ahead on the RHNA curve and doing everything they can and thinks the City could use the fire safety lens as the mechanism for doing that.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 10 of 25 March 7, 2025 Councilmember Dawson noted that they were trying to appeal the numbers and were not successful.
Councilmember McCormick asked what can they do to get in front of the RHNA training and understand what is happening. Even without fires, 2,000 more units in town does not make sense and using the fire risk lens and coordinating with Moraga and Orinda is a great idea, but there are also other reasons.
Councilmember Dawson supported the legislative route given the question on the methodology was being pushed along.
Mayor Candell said ABAG comes up with a gross number and then it is divided amongst cities. ABAG said they were not going to be putting housing numbers in high fire zones and then they gave them all the BART lots which was in a very high fire zone. Then, when the City called them on it they said they would go back and change their own rules.
Councilmember Cervantes said in two years there would be a different administration in the Governor’s office,so he thinks if it is a longer-term game to get engaged in that process. Whether it is HCD or the new administration, his concern is two years from now the LA fires will be in the past. Vice Mayor Anduri said the time to do this is now in this current cycle.
Mayor Candell opened the public comment period.
STELLA WOTHERSPOON said she thinks the City would really be in good shape if it analyzed its own data.
Relying on the State to define the conditions she thinks is a compromise for the City. There might be some avenues where the City could engage an analytical consulting group to take a look at the infrastructure, the road network given evacuation concerns because it lacks connectivity. There is one path out from so many neighborhoods, and this could be quantified by an engineering firm come up with a value that would be able to compare it to Concord or Pleasant Hill. So, this is something the City could do in this time period, and also as a complement to the high fire severity maps. She has a concern about them, and they are a model applied primarily to wildlands in the State responsibility areas which are not urbanized. The City has this wildland urban interface throughout most of Lafayette and what seems to be missing is the fuel load, which is a major component.
In the SRA model it is the trees, brush, and things that burn. She did not know for certain that houses have been incorporated in the model for the LRAs. Houses are effectively fuels and more flammable than wildland wood. So, this is a concern and getting some professional advice about that component is important for this public comment period.
Mayor Candell asked if there were any experts to help, and Ms. Wotherspoon said Don Walklett would be an expert. Councilmember Dawson said this goes back to priority one; funding for all of this. But she agrees that local data is always better. She also brought up putting information about PG&E lines in the City’s Safety Element and she would like a deeper dive into local data without the maintenance plans.
There are still uncovered lines in some neighborhoods in town, so it would be important to know their locations.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 11 of 25 March 7, 2025 Ms. Srivatsa said if this is tied to the next RHNA cycle, the City will start getting the methodology and numbers around 2028/29. The bill submission deadline has passed for this year, so anything they want legislators to do will be for next year. She asked what the Council wants staff to do in this upcoming year under this priority and suggested starting doing the groundwork.
Vice Mayor Anduri said the Council needs to start the groundwork now for any legislation next year, understanding they missed it for this year.
Ms. Srivatsa asked what the groundwork would include.
Vice Mayor Anduri said coordinating with Moraga and Orinda would be great, but it will be a bit cumbersome. He does not know whether the people should be lawyers, lobbyists, or who it is that needs to advise the City on this because he does not know how the entire RHNA process works, whether it involves talking to the Attorney General who may have a different view of how wildfires impact planning than HCD has, but it is not working in the City’s favor. It seems like reading the materials that came with maps that a lot of is based on ember cast and how far they will go. So, one issue they should discuss is whether to challenge the maps. His house under the old maps was in a very high fire severity zone and now it is not.
Mayor Candell said that is the push back. The insurance companies are not “buying it.” Vice Mayor Anduri said this is one of the implications on the list—whether there is anything they can do with respect to insurance.
Councilmember McCormick said he is unclear as to what Con Fire is responsible for, what the City is responsible for, whether residents do the work themselves and ask Con Fire to pay for it, as their responsibility is to protect residents from fire. This is why residents pay a significant amount of money in property taxes every year for fire safety, and he questioned why they are not doing the work and asked if people could request it.
Vice Mayor Anduri said when he listens to the Con Fire presentation, it is always what the City should do, and he did not think they had a detailed discussion with Con Fire talking about shaded fuel breaks.
Ms. Srivatsa stated Fire Marshal Bachman is attending the meeting on March 24th to provide an update with the focus on the fire maps and he can answer questions. There is a Con Fire Subcommittee of the Council of the Mayor and Vice Mayor. Staff could schedule a meeting with the Mayor and Vice Mayor and Chief Broschard and Chief McAllister to talk about specifics and responsibilities.
Ms. Levin asked what the Council would want to know to be able to say certain things are those that need to be done.
Councilmembers noted the City has its Emergency Preparedness Commission who can provide a list of tasks needed for residents, Firewise that seem more reactive, but has identified that Con Fire has one engine for every 15,000 residents and they rely on mutual resources, and Councilmembers supported a meeting with the Mayor, Vice Mayor, Chief Broschard and Chief McAllister.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 12 of 25 March 7, 2025 Ms. Srivatsa noted that CCTA has a scope of work which includes Lamorinda, timing, proposed evacuation routes and, while it is a countywide exercise, they will also focus on sub-regions and the City has been pushing for Lamorinda to be studied as a specific sub-region. Right now, CCTA is looking for consulting firms to do this big task. Once they have people on board then each part of the scope of work will be fleshed out. Also, staff will be serving on the Steering and Technical Committees. She advised that this is a project that will take time.
Councilmember Cervantes asked and confirmed that Genesys will be used, and they are also looking at this as part of traffic. CCTA has something called traffic zones or TAZs so they will look at that tool as well.
She also said staff had a conversation with CCTA given the fear that Lamorinda was being ignored. She believes the end product will be useful to each city.
Vice Mayor Anduri noted this item has been on the priorities list for the last four years. They do need to plan evacuation routes, but he wondered if the timing on the routes and determining how that should impact land use policies is what he is concerned with.
Ms. Srivatsa agreed to look at the scope of work and follow-up. If the CCTA is already looking at evacuation timing , doing another study may be repetitious and they may end up with conflicts. If it completely ignores that, this would be a different case. Locally what neighborhoods and cities can do is look for alternate means of egress ; for example, through Briones from Springhill Road. Some are fire roads, and Mayor Candell said identifying these would be very helpful for neighborhoods to consider.
Ms. Levin clarified that the Council is talking about goals for next fiscal year and some are time sensitive.
She asked and confirmed the following:
• The Public Town Hall information is not in the current fiscal year. • The planning RHNA issues/process should begin this fiscal year, with the City Manager flushing it out a bit.
• Utility safety is in the Safety Element now which needs to be implemented as well as consider a Council liaison to ensure people have communications during an outage (Councilmember Dawson volunteered).
• Con Fire’s roles and responsibilities for City residents and ideas from the Emergency Preparedness Commission and, thereafter, the Mayor and Vice Mayor will meet with the Fire Chiefs on tasks. • Immediate talks by Council liaisons with EBMUD about their Reservoir capacity as to where they would get power to pump water and whether their capacity, hydrants, and whether power is based on fighting one or two residential fires or more. • Hold a Con Fire Town Hall with utilities, with each making a presentation focused on what they are doing for emergency preparedness in Lafayette.
• Focus on community education, public engagement, and clearing vegetation which continues with communications.
• Vice Mayor Anduri stressed brush clearing on all City property and working with all agencies within the City limits to clear vegetation on their properties. • Participating in the CCTA Countywide Evacuation Plan and she confirmed this continues and the City is waiting on the information.
• Work with Con Fire and other partner agencies to find ways to reduce or suppress the risk of wildfires which continues and obtain clarification on roles and responsibilities. • Work with legislators and other relevant parties to ensure wildfire risk is considered by the State for RHNA.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 13 of 25 March 7, 2025 • Develop objective standards for wildfire risk to apply when making land use planning decisions.
Ms. Srivatsa said this is a challenging deliverable and Vice Mayor Anduri said they cannot do this until more is known about evacuation. He said he feels very uneasy about any land use decisions that involve putting more homes in areas that do not have strong evacuation routes.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he thinks the City should have standards where, if a wildfire comes from Briones, the City can determine whether there is enough time to get people out. The City should study that, have numbers, and this is what they would talk with the State about if it is a big problem.
Ms. Srivatsa asked what happens then if the State opposes such standards. Vice Mayor Anduri said the numbers may show the City that they should not be proactive in developing more ADUs in certain areas because he would not want to look back 10 years and realize the City did nothing to improve infrastructure so residents could evacuate or otherwise provide fire safety.
Councilmember Cervantes questioned whether ADUs should be allowed in high fire severity zones. He asked if there is any potential mitigation which might be the way to handle them to offset the risk.
Councilmember Dawson said it is up to the resident as to the risk they want to take. All the City can do and is charged to do is to reduce hazards as much as possible.
Ms. Levin said objective standards are on the task list, and Ms. Srivatsa will check the scope of the Countywide evacuation study and to report back as to the timing. When it is completed, it will provide the information to develop standards if need be.
Vice Mayor Anduri noted this is dependent on CCTA to acknowledge that.
Ms. Levin commented that the last item for the current fiscal year is, “Work with utilities and communication partners as outlined in the Safety Element” and she confirmed this continues.
Councilmember Cervantes agreed with EBMUD, but he did not recall the Safety Element talking about things like adequate water storage. They talked about the aqueduct and the Reservoir but that was it.
Mayor Candell said there may be things worded globally enough to address water storage.
Ms. Levin turned to the Mt. Diablo Downtown Enhancement Plan. There are a variety of reasons not a lot has been done in this area. The question is what occurs moving forward.
Ms. Srivatsa said there are tasks underway and recommended they continue. The first are Objective Design Standards. Second, the City has started discussions with the DeSilva Group on an outline of what they want to build on their 10 acres. The City has also met with them on a potential open space and playfield and discussed the City’s expectations for that area. The intent is to handle the project under a Development Agreement.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 14 of 25 March 7, 2025 The Council has considered Campana as being exempt surplus. She would recommend sometime this year the Council talk about the vision for the Park Theater Plaza Way Overlay and whether the rear parking lot is still salvageable in certain areas because there is tremendous potential even if they do not get all of the parking. They can get more of the parking to support some vibrant businesses along Plaza Way. There is a high interest in bringing eating establishments along Plaza Way, a bakery is opening up, possibly a tapas wine bar, and others, but there are restrictions on the number of eating establishments because of the lack of parking.
Staff will come back to the Council when something has taken shape to ask what the Council wants to do with the overlay. Retailers are not doing as well as eateries. She thinks when established, the restaurant/retail mix was at a 60/40 ratio because restaurants require more parking. The overlay and what to do with Campana are items she would like direction on.
Mayor Candell opened the public comment period.
CHERYL MACDONALD stated parking is definitely a huge issue not only for customers but for employees, and this is not only in the downtown but all the way to the east end. There are businesses there fighting for parking. With more and more housing going in, she is worried about parking there. The one property she worries about is down the road from Gazebo Park; the Kosich Building. If the City ends up developing more into the Gazebo lot, she worries about properties that would be out of compliance with parking.
She asked if they will be grandfathered in, so they do not pay the price for having to pay for parking.
Mayor Candell clarified for the Council and Ms. MacDonald that the property that lowered its price to $1 million is where Vino is; the McNeil property which is now a bakery. It was on the market which the City did not purchase.
Ms. Srivatsa identified other ongoing tasks - plan for parks, creeks, pathways and other amenities. PTR is still working with the Two Parks Collaborative. The Council has considered purchasing the Sterling Cleaners lot. No work has been done on a plan for multi-modality, BART plan for housing, updating the zoning code to consider commercial uses, Safeway/Whole Foods, and making Mt. Diablo a great street.
Vice Mayor Anduri said he would like to encourage the Council to do and spend whatever it takes to develop a plan for multi-modality in the next year. It could be that the answer is that the City has too much concrete and cannot change it, but he would like to start with someone to come in with experience that have done it and just have them look at Lafayette.
Councilmember Dawson agreed with Ms. MacDonald that parking is an issue and will continue to get worse as developments are built. She knows the City is doing a parking study, but the City will still need to figure out how to accommodate parking for additional housing units.
Councilmember McCormick agreed that if the City is going to be encouraging more development of retail and more people downtown, the City needs to consider parking, but people will not be able to park in front of where they are going.
Mayor Candell thinks a parking study is a great idea and thinks there should be some guidelines or things they know about Lafayette to think about and what their vision and trajectory is.
Ms. Srivatsa said setting expectations will be important, and this task will begin at the start of 2026.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 15 of 25 March 7, 2025 Vice Mayor Anduri said he was intrigued with two planners and one engineering position.
Ms. Srivatsa clarified it would be a senior planner and a senior transportation person as a team. This is a big project, and they need dedicated staff time to do this. The City needs to manage its resources, but also they may have to drop things they are doing now.
Vice Mayor Anduri asked and confirmed a consultant will be hired as well, but staff does most of the work in the beginning, oversight and also most of the critiques.
Ms. Levin said the Council discussed the parking study and to consider how to make Mt. Diablo Boulevard a great street which is broader.
Ms. Srivatsa commented that everything they do must go towards making Mt. Diablo a great street and Vice Mayor Anduri agreed and said the first thing to do is the multi-modality study. Councilmember McCormick asked how the process would work.
Vice Mayor Anduri said there are many things they can do to make the downtown better, but the key thing he thinks is to figure out how, if the City is going to have 1,500 more units, what will be done with cars. The goal is to make it easier for residents of new corridor housing to carry out activities without use of a car so residents need at most one car per household. This is the critical item.
Ms. Srivatsa said this would not be a DSP update, but it would be an urban design exercise looking at the street. Vice Mayor Anduri said it would be a first step and then they would go to the DSP update, but the DSP is not on the priority list for next year.
Ms. Levin said she heard that the Council will look at the design guidelines, then when coming into 2026, doing the multi-modality work.
Ms. Srivatsa said the tasks already underway that will continue are specific action items such as 949 Moraga Road, a development agreement, the Plaza Way Overlay, etc.
Vice Mayor Anduri said for example, 350 more units for DeSilva will be at that end of town, and this will impact multi-mobility in the downtown. The City will work on that before getting the overview, but this will impact a lot. When talking about ARPA funds, they cannot make outdoor dining permanent because they do not know what they will do with the street. Even with the West Reach project, the 2017 plan called for parking spaces along there to become bio-retention areas or green spaces. He asked if they do that now because they may need a dedicated bike or other lane for the 350 units at DeSilva to get downtown without using a car.
Mayor Candell said there is the East Bay Aqueduct, and Ms. Srivatsa said staff has already begun working on a request from Congressman DeSaulnier, assuming the City will get federal funding in the next cycle.
Staff started packaging the information and will be ready to go.
Councilmember Dawson referred to the RFP for 949 Moraga housing and asked why this is included. Ms.
Srivatsa said it is in the Housing Element as a program, but because of Sunflower Hill’s request the RFP is not needed. She recommended “Facilitate development of 949 Moraga as an affordable housing site.” City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 16 of 25 March 7, 2025 STELLA WOTHERSPOON referred to the Aqueduct grant written to MTC and said now there is a federal effort. She asked if both were in play.
Ms. Srivatsa said she believes the City did not get the MTC grant, and people want shovel-ready projects.
The City needs to design the trail because there are so many trail crossings and grade problems which is expensive. Given the City’s staffing conditions, unless mandated, the City will not do the BART lot plan for housing in the upcoming fiscal year or update the zoning code, or plan for Safeway/Whole Foods.
Councilmembers agreed.
Vice Mayor Anduri asked what that does do with what the City already discussed with BART.
Ms. Srivatsa said it is a Housing Element program, and she needs to check with Mr. Wolff on the status. It depends on where BART puts it in their implementation plan. This task will not be removed from the priorities list until the questions are answered.
Ms. Levin then referred to new goals and new priorities and asked for feedback and Councilmembers suggested the following:
• Succession planning, recruitment, staffing, training, and retention. • Increase resident engagement and signups for Weekly Round Up and Community Warning System.
• Review Boards and Commissions and staff will bring something back about GPAC’s status, consider reducing TransCirc Commission down to five members, and include Bylaws of each. • Making City streets safer which is under number 3 through the multi-modal corridor study, which can be deferred to 2026/27.
Other categories that do not necessarily rise to priorities include the following:
• Support addressing marginalized individuals and communities. • Working to fulfill collaboration with Lamorinda Village to provide services to seniors.
Ms. Levin said the priorities essentially remain the same as discussed, and she asked about the order.
Councilmembers can state they can say these are not prioritized in order, given funding is needed, and all agreed with 1) Wildfire; 2) Mt. Diablo Corridor Plan; and 3) Fiscal sustainability. The Council agreed to return after lunch and review and discuss what is listed on tasks.
WORKING LUNCH
Ms. Levin returned to the previous discussion items on the three new priorities of wildfire, Mt. Diablo Corridor Plan, and fiscal sustainability. She confirmed with Councilmembers to remove the “short-term and long-term” from fiscal sustainability.
Ms. Levin asked for clarification and confirmed the Council wants to look at mid- and long-term items now and start analyzing them, what needs are going to be, what it looks like. She also referred to looking for additional sources of revenue and identifying them.
Vice Mayor Anduri referred to Measure H and put number one as “Establish the City Oversight Committee”.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 17 of 25 March 7, 2025 Ms. Levin said this will be the current year, and asked and confirmed the date certain for completion will be close to June and almost flowing into the next fiscal year. Then, “Begin to look at mid- and long-term needs and possibilities to work on.”
Councilmember Cervantes explained there is only a seven-year life for Measure H and so the question is what is the horizon up to that point and what is needed after that. He wondered what they should be looking at in terms of what they should be recovering with respect to sinking funds and reserve funds.
Vice Mayor Anduri said anything beyond next year, he thinks they save until later. What they are looking at next year are things they for sure need to do and they are not looking beyond that until next year.
Mayor Candell likened it to fact-finding, so they have information they need to do the long-term plan, and this year supports getting all that information.
Vice Mayor Anduri said what they need to do next year is consider additional sources of revenue including the 1% sales tax.
Ms. Srivatsa said the City Manager’s group has come up with a proposal for sales tax reallocation and the recommendation is for a 50/50 split between cities with distribution centers and the res. Not all sales tax revenues will go to the place where the purchase is made. The earliest this could go to the ballot would be 2028 because first it must be taken to all cities in California. Then, there would be a five-year phasing in period.
Vice Mayor Anduri asked and confirmed it is in the Legislative Plan, and the Council may want to include this in their plan.
Ms. Levin referred to the issue of looking for efficiencies and she asked what this looks like.
Vice Mayor Anduri said this is asking the City Manager to make this a priority for the City Manager group next year for efficiencies in staffing and productivity and carrying out the necessary services as efficiently as possible. Councilmember agreed.
Ms. Levin referred to the loss of grant funding and possibility of federal uncertainty. She asked where that fits in.
Councilmember Dawson said they need to be aware and watch it, with backup plans, or prioritizing what happens if the City loses funding.
Ms. Levin asked about the sinking fund on the City assets and confirmed that fits in this as well. She then referred to wildfire and she heard as number one was a Town Hall. Second was land planning including RHNA which Vice Mayor Anduri said this includes work with legislators and the question is whether they want to reach out to Moraga and Orinda and combine efforts rather than just Lafayette.
Ms. Srivatsa asked and confirmed the City would wait for the CCTA study.
Vice Mayor Anduri said beyond legislating it could be lobbying with State legislators, working with the AG’s office, and with HCD and ABAG which Councilmember Dawson said it could be done by Townsend Public Affairs.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 18 of 25 March 7, 2025 Ms. Srivatsa confirmed that the first task is to determine if Moraga and Orinda are interested in joining them. The reason is that Lamorinda is in the fire zone, and they need to lobby for recognition that they are, and development must be regulated based on this designation, including the RHNA numbers.
Vice Mayor Anduri said it may be a law firm has the expertise to do it, and Ms. Srivatsa said staff needs to flesh this out a bit and return to the Council.
Ms. Levin then referred to utility safety in the Safety Element (work by Councilmember Dawson) and then the Council brought up the whole issue of backup in communication systems. She questioned what they do with fire safety.
Mayor Candell asked if they should do a deep dive as soon as possible.
Stella Wotherspoon commented that there will be presentation about realities of working with Con Fire, but she was looking at their description of how they put together these zones, and she recommended taking this to the Emergency Services Commission, and then asking the Con Fire why is there no fuel model for the urbanized area when they are created the red, orange, and yellow colors.
Ms. Levin said another item is, what is EBMUD’s role which came up, and Mayor Candell said the Council needs to find out what their capacities are, as well as all utilities.
Vice Mayor Anduri asked if there is anything including insurance, and Ms. Levin stated it is in the parking lot and it can be moved and rephrased as a task.
Vice Mayor Anduri suggested “Explore what the City can do to improve availability of insurance for its residents.”
Councilmember McCormick noted it is in the Work Plan but not called out, and Councilmembers agreed to leave as is.
Ms. Srivatsa said the objective design standards are underway. What they are keeping in Priority 3 are to prepare objective design standards, develop a plan for multi-modality starting January 2026, DeSilva, 949 Moraga Road rephrased to “Facilitate the development of an affordable housing project on 949 Moraga Road, Plaza Way Overlay Update, Plan for parks, creeks, pathways, and always is the awareness to make Mt. Diablo a great street. What is dropped is BART lot plan for housing if it is not on the calendar for completion, and this depends on when the City is required to do that; Safeway/Whole Foods and updating the zoning code.
Council would like staff to return at a regular meeting with reports on (1) GPAC status, (2) the hybrid meetings and (3) considering reducing TransCirc Commission down to five members and providing bylaws from other committees and commissions and which ones require residency requirements.
Mayor Candell opened the public comment period.
CHERYL MACDONALD said with the downtown and the fire items, she asked to add for the future the need for the ladder truck fire station.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 19 of 25 March 7, 2025 Councilmembers believed it should be included in the downtown and wildfire items for a ladder truck, which has been discussed in the past.
10. ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST
A. Niroop Srivatsa, City Manager
Discussion on fire maps, state and federal funding, engaging the community Recommendation: Discussion and direct, if appropriate.
Fire Maps: City Manager Srivatsa said Andy Comly, Suzanne Iarla and Arly Cassidy have been the team working on getting answers, posting things on the website, and Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Andy Comly gave a PowerPoint presentation.
Mr. Comly summarized what the maps mean, stating the way the model is set up is there is a wildland fire model that is used and that has been around for awhile which is a proven model based on 20 years’ worth of fire data and information, and it looks a lot at slope and vegetation, and then what has happened in the State for similar kinds of slope and vegetation. It looks at climate or weather, as well, and merges those two together to come up with a rating of what that is.
The non-wildland is basically the interface to the wildland which is based primarily on what gets transferred out of the wildland area into the urban areas, such as embers or brands, quantity and dispersal or how far it travels. The model itself only starts with a buffer zone right up against the wildland that has the same classification as what the wildland area was.
Then, they basically do a calculation of what happens before and then in the box of their calculation to figure out a sum of numbers of how many embers travel how far and a few features about the nonwildland area to come up with a number. They basically think of it as pixels in different areas they have, and they add up pixels and figure out the average across all of them. They use that to determine the very high, high, and moderate level calculations in the non-wildland area.
He then displayed before and after pictures of what they had in the fire model up until a couple of weeks ago. They have a very high concentration particularly north of the highway of very high fire risk and some just west of the Reservoir, as well. He then pointed to the very high fire zone with a little piece just on the Orinda side, and all the rest of the City of Lafayette has become high or moderate.
Ms. Srivatsa pointed out that while the City adopted the very high fire severity map, the old maps also included moderate. It was not that the rest of Lafayette was nothing. Mr. Comly said all of the numbers he has seen coming out of the old map are only the very high numbers.
Mr. Comly said there is a small piece in the northwest corner and everything that was classified as very high before has now been downgraded. For Lafayette, they went from 4,400 acres classified in the old very high to only 41 acres now. So, there is a huge drop given it was apples and oranges the way it had been calculated previously. There are 7,000 acres total in Lafayette that is moderate or higher. The previous map had high and moderate, but they did not publish any of the numbers of acres they had in the high area.
Councilmember McCormick said unfortunately that was very misleading because it looks like the overall acreage went down. Mr. Comly agreed and said they really did not know how much acreage was there, but from his perspective, the City has been downgraded in terms of what the fire risk is for Lafayette.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 20 of 25 March 7, 2025 Mr. Comly said on the flipside of this, Orinda and Moraga both went up significantly to very high fire danger, so while it might not be Lafayette, the risk is pretty close to the City. Prevailing winds and fires tend to come either from the north and northeast, so it is usually unlikely for it to be blown into their area. When they get the dry winds, they are much wetter from the ocean side.
He then displayed all of the requirements that must be met. It is the State responsibility area and the local responsibility areas. In moderate levels, the City has to adopt the new map model which Con Fire will be doing. When getting into high, you start adding building code and other hazards as well and for very high, you must do everything. It is interesting to note there are a lot more requirements on the State area than what they have put on the local area here too.
Councilmember Cervantes said anyone that says for high or moderate defensible space, he asked if this is Zone Zero.
Mr. Comly said Zone Zero is coming up more around the end of the year and he thinks it is the whole model. Zone Zero is the one that people might start ee start to be very strict on enforcing, and they will see when it comes out. He expects Con Fire will be the one that sets the ordinances for defensible space.
Once that is done, then the City must look at that and follow guidelines.
Councilmember Dawson stated the CPUC has their Tier 2 and 3 threats because of the fire risk of their infrastructure causing fires. She asked if this has been incorporated into this because Briones is all Tier 3 because of all the transmission lines there.
Ms. Iarla said staff can look into this because on the Cal Fire page, they talk about why their maps are different than the CPUC maps, and Mr. Comly agreed.
Councilmember Cervantes said under the State responsibility areas, he asked if they changed CEQA and Mr. Comly believed Arly Cassidy might be able to answer that.
Ms. Srivatsa noted that when Con Fire did the fire breaks the reason it took so long to start is because they had to address CEQA for them, given they were working in SRA areas, and she believes CEQA will apply when working but not within the local areas except in very high fire zones.
Mr. Comly concluded his presentation on the changes, and said on the website is a FAQ with topics listed and a paragraph which also have links to other sites, including a link to the actual model they use which is a multi-page document. One of the things it gets linked to is the Contra Costa Fire Department web page and they provide additional information and before and after maps. The fire hazard zones are open for public comments available where the public can provide comments which Con Fire will review and consider, as well. The City links to that page as well so people can provide comments.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 21 of 25 March 7, 2025 Lastly, both the City and Con Fire link back to Cal Fire Bureau of Forestry, which mostly has videos and information on how this model came about and things on fire safety, as well. In terms of schedule, the maps came out on February 24th. It is open for public comment to Con Fire throughout March or into early April. Fire Marshal Bachman is scheduled for a City Council presentation on March 24th and around the end of March/early April they believe Con Fire will hold an open session for public comment where everybody can get together. There is a 120-day window from the time the maps were released until Con Fire has to formally accept those models and also provide a copy of their ordinance up to the Bureau of Forestry for review which is June 24th as the deadline.
Regarding defensible space and Zone Zero, there will be rules around Zone Zero, but he does not know what those are yet and he has heard it would be the end of the year and there is no set date.
Ms. Srivatsa added that the team has been sending the Fire Chief questions and regarding the question of whether the maps can be changed, Con Fire has said they are not planning on making any recommendations to increase severity zones without proper and appropriate methodology and data.
They will accept all comments and send them to the State.
Mr. Comly said when looking into the law further, there is a discussion of having substantial evidence around it which basically is that it will need to stand up in court and it cannot be someone wanting their house more protected so please increase their number.
Councilmember McCormick said it is almost intentional that you cannot put in your own data and say because of these four things, they want to be higher severity because the methodology used is a different mode. Vice Mayor Anduri said also if someone does not know what their substantial evidence is, they do not have any idea of what a resident’s substantial evidence is. Mr. Comly said they know they used vegetation and slope over, but they do not have the actual maps.
Mayor Candell said it only models fires coming from wildland and she asked if there is any other source.
Mr. Comly referred to a previous slide and presented a model, stating they determine vegetation type and fuel models here to come up with the wildland class which is their starting point and then they look at brand load which is how many embers come their way, so it is slope and urban vegetation cover which is basically tree cover and not buildings, and they are assuming this is all started in the wildland areas.
Vice Mayor Anduri said when it states, “worst case fire and weather,” he asked if there is a way to know what wind level they are using.
Mr. Comly said they have part of their model of how they figured that out based on slopes, valleys and things like that. The reason they use worst-case because today it is 18% humidity, but tomorrow it is 5%.
They do not do that. They take the worst or 5% humidity.
Vice Mayor Anduri noted it is getting windier, and he asked how they determine what the wind factor is.
Mr. Comly said he was unsure, stating they came up with information based on the information they had throughout the State.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 22 of 25 March 7, 2025 Councilmember Dawson said the City just changed its tree ordinance to accommodate this and also has recommendations for tree species. They still have a good amount of canopy cover throughout the town, and they wanted to be sure people could do what they needed to do but at the same time not necessarily clear cut the town. She asked if there are findings from Southern California and she wondered how the City might see that information.
Mr. Comly said there is information on structures, but it is what you would expect. A wood-sided house with a cedar shake roof will not last but some of the more non-wood siding that homes have may, but all of this information about fire-proofing your house came out of the fact of embers coming in soffit vents and other factors.
Councilmember Dawson asked who is collecting this data, and Vice Mayor Anduri asked if Cal Cities going to be involved with this, and Ms. Srivatsa said she was not sure but could follow-up.
Mr. Comly said LA is the hot topic for them now because it is new and it was big, but there are many lessons learned for years such as the Paradise fire, Napa and Sonoma, and so there is a lot of history and information.
Ms. Srivatsa said public comments can be made to Con Fire and they have a public portal where people can sign up and submit a comment. If the City were to submit a comment it would be to Con Fire and Con Fire would submit it to Cal Fire. She said if the Council would like to comment, it is up to the Council. They believe the bar to change zones is very high and with the limited time they have it may be impossible.
Mayor Candell agreed, but they can submit some of the questions raised, and she would be in favor of submitting something. Ms. Srivatsa suggested it be after the March 24th meeting after hearing from Con Fire and possibly at the next meeting in April.
Mr. Comly agreed to talk internally with the City Manager on some of the items and questions.
Mayor Candell said some of the questions were why no fuel models for urban structures, and the Tier 3 levels for CPUC because there are gas pipelines in Briones and why this is not included.
Mr. Comly said some of that falls into EBRPD, who owns all of that, and he was not sure of their plans.
They learned the other night they have their own wildfire crew that get out with shovels and stay out in the woods to solve the problems. He also knows they were redoing a lot of the pipelines over the years, as well.
Councilmember Dawson noted it is electrical transmission and gas, and she was trying to follow-up with PG&E as to gas leaks because gas companies have smaller gas leaks, and they prioritize which ones have to be on transmission lines and on distribution lines. She is trying to get those lists, so this might be added to the questions on interactions with agencies on fire.
Mr. Comly said the challenge for the City is they have a group of people who have done modeling for years on top of this with a depth of information so he was not sure how far they would get.
Lastly, Mr. Comly agreed to send his PowerPoint presentation to Councilmembers.
Mayor Candell opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 23 of 25 March 7, 2025 Federal Funding: City Manager said we do not know what will happen with funding. Congressman DeSaulnier’s office is keeping us informed.
Vice Mayor Anduri referred to the federal funding list and asked and confirmed that the fund money will come directly to the City. He also asked if they are looking at federal funding that goes to other entities but then flows to them.
Ms. Srivatsa said they have not as of yet. She does not have that information, and it will take some time to figure that out. The only sub-regional funding she added was the Smart Signal project. It could be much more than this, and at the liaisons meeting, the non-profits talked about the lack of funding from Medicaid. Las Trampas will be impacted.
Mayor Candell said she and Ms. Srivatsa reached out to the Community Foundation because they have all non-profit contacts. Congressman DeSaulnier’s office was asking who was being impacted and CFL will do the outreach for that.
Community Engagement: Ms. Iarla said Ms. Srivatsa asked her to pull together some information about what the City does in terms of community engagement. There is a spectrum of communications cities can inform all the way through having residents highly engaged and coming up with solutions for themselves in their neighborhoods. So, when the City tells the community something that already happened and there is no longer an opportunity to comment on it versus when they have a Board or Committee develop a plan there is a wide spectrum of community engagement such as for the Age-Friendly plan, community workshops, stakeholder meetings, so some of that is informing, educating people, bucket, and more of a back-and-forth dialogue.
In terms of prints they have the Vistas newsletter, the Parks and Recreation Department’s recreation activities guide, and they have sent out project-specific postcards. For digital outreach their website is the digital hub. They try to link back to there that is a repository for information. They send out the Weekly Round Up, almost 10,000 emails and have about 60% open right now, which is great. Almost Daily Briefing is about 1,200 subscribers and the open rate is in the high 50%. Recreation sends out an e-newsletter, but she does not have statistics for their information, as well as Senior Services, and Plan Lafayette has been doing email blasts out to folks for the Housing Element Update and GPAC’s work.
In terms of being on social media, the City has a main Facebook account which she manages. Police has a departmental account, as well as Parks. The Community Center has their own, as well as the Youth Commission. On Instagram, there is the City, the Police, Parks, and Youth Advisory Commission accounts.
For Twitter, there is a City, Police, and Parks accounts. So, for the City on Facebook, they have almost 2,000 followers, but if those people are not engaging with the City they are not necessarily seeing all posts.
What she posts on the Facebook page is Council Agenda Summary linked to the Weekly Round Up, special messages, roadwork, events, community meetings, and they also share partner messages.
For Instagram, the City has just over 2,000 followers and similar postings with agenda summaries, the link to the Weekly Round Up. There is more emphasis from the Public Art Committee with art events, exhibits, calls, and they are starting a new way to highlight Lafayette artists with the #LoveLafayetteArtists so they are a bit heavier in the arts world on Instagram and they share partner messages there.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 24 of 25 March 7, 2025 On Twitter, the City has about 1,400 followers and typically just link to the Weekly Round Up which includes a summary of the Council agenda, and they share partner messages minimally. So, it is the least active of the three. They have a U-Tube channel which primarily is used to broadcast hybrid meetings.
They did a series of videos about the leaf blower ban and others.
The City is on LinkedIn, and they do not have as many followers there, but it is a shows Lafayette is a great place to be, a great place to work for a recruitment type of tool. On NextDoor.com, it says their service area has about 20,000 members and they have about 9,000 claimed households. She would say when the city posts something on Nextdoor.com, 300 to 800 people see it and it is the Council agenda summary, the link to the Weekly Round Up, special messages, large community meetings, and they can geo-target neighborhoods.
Councilmember McCormick asked if staff receives comments from NextDoor.com, and Ms. Iarla said they have comments turned off on NextDoor.com. She said if someone wanted to comment they cannot comment on the City’s post. They could share the post, and the other conversation is private. As a public agency, they do not see the neighbor chats or vice versa. They do have comment on Facebook and on Mondays, they have a post for “Ask Us Anything.” They are trying to collect comments and questions, which works well. They do not have high engagement on Instagram or on Facebook, and Twitter they get comments every now and then.
She also posts the Weekly Round Up on the Patch and they do not provide statistics on how many people see that. The Police Department uses Nixle, and they also have an app run by GoGo and they are primarily pushing that for code enforcement complaints, Public Works Maintenance Requests, and as the way to access the a.m. radio station on-line.
Councilmembers asked and confirmed there are links to Experience Lafayette, which has a business directory, and that staff has not been tracking analytics.
Mayor Candell opened the public comment period.
CHERYL MACDONALD said the City has a brand new EBRPD Director, Linda DeSchambault, and she wondered if she could be invited to the March 24 or April meeting in regard to EBRPD and fire topics, and she applauded the engagement work the City has been doing.
11. WRAP-UP
A. Nadine Levin, Consultant
Wrap-up and next steps
Recommendation: Discuss and direct staff.
Ms. Levin asked for take-aways from the Council from today, and what could have been different or helpful in terms of today’s workshop.
Councilmember McCormick said the priorities they had last year were good and they are continuing to move forward on those. He was pleased with the prioritization which he thinks is correct. He thinks conversation is good, but it is important to write down things which might be helpful.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 25 of 25 March 7, 2025 Vice Mayor Anduri agreed with writing things down. He thinks this was a very productive day. Regarding things that could have been different, he is marking down the Multi-Mobility study on his calendar.
Mayor Candell said things went great, and thinks the Council gets along well and they have a lot of shared priorities which really shows. She did not have any comments on anything that could have been different.
Councilmember Dawson said she thinks the meeting was great, very productive, great discussions, and she liked that they have been on this path, and they can go deeper. She is looking forward to the work ahead and they will be rolling up their sleeves and engaging stakeholders and partners. She did not have any comments of things that could have gone different.
Councilmember Cervantes said his impression from outside looking in is that the Council works well together as a citizen. It is interesting being in the room where it happens, and he is impressed with how respectful and collegial this group is.
He thinks the back and forth and dialogue is very positive. The Council is focused on what is it that makes the City better and is very respectful to staff, so he thinks it was a great session. For him, with some materials in the packet, he only had a chance to skim through some articles, so a few more days’ lead time might be more helpful.
Mayor Candell and Councilmembers recognized staff for their hard work.
Ms. Srivatsa said she and staff members appreciate the Council’s support which is evident.
Mayor Candell opened the public comment period, and there were no speakers.
12. ADJOURNMENT – 2:07 p.m.
APPROVED:
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Susan Candell, Mayor
ATTEST:
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Joanne Robbins, City Clerk