Apr 14, 2026 - 06:30 PM

>> Good evening and welcome to the regular meeting of the Joint Meeting of the Oakley City Council the Oakley City Council at acting as a successor agency to the Oakley Redevelopment Agency, the Oakley Public Financing Authority. This meeting is called to order. At 6:30 p.m. Will the clerk please call roll call? [roll call] Item 1.2 positive lesions. Sara Jones wood please come up here and assist us with the Pledge of Allegiance. 12 year old Sara Jones is a creative and innovative sixth grader at Delta Vista Middle School he loves to make others laughs, a natural debater and student leader Sara has earned numerous accolades including a certificate of recognition from the City Council leadership, a math award, and an honorable status. Being hand-selected by principal Yurich as a representative of Delta Vista is a highlight of his journey of supporting a loving family including his sister, a 12 year old stepbrother, and a courageous mom and grandmother that are both survived breast cancer. And the classroom Sara thrives on reading writing, while outside of school he is focus shifts to his passion of sports video games and swimming. A dedicated soccer player since the age of six Sara celebrates a recent league championship with the Cobras, in Oakley based team. He's driven by a strong faith, of Jesus Christ Sara is committed to committed God and making a difference in the world regardless of the profession and journey he pursues. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Item 1.3. Delta update. And we'll have our resident Delta expert from Oakley come up, Roger. Roger Mammon: Good evening Mayor Henderson and city Council. Thank you for the opportunity to update you on events going on on our Delta. Back on February 12th, Assembly member Rhodesia ransom out of Stockton formally submitted a request to audit the Department of Water Resources and the conveyance project. The request was submitted to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee however the request was postponed till later this year. The purpose of the audit is to examine the financial analysis, funding plan and project given that DWR does not have authority to issue bonds to finance the project. Prior Capitularies in the 2016 audit, 700 million has already been spent over the last 15 years on multiple iterations of the project and it's estimated that $1 million may have been spent for the project permit Y d has not provided a complete historical water use record within its permit condition, y long standing water right issues have not remained unresolved. Y the agency is relying on incomplete data records ending in 2015 to model the future product. And its cost and operations. In March, a lawsuit was filed by the San Francisco Bay Keeper Center for Biological Diversity friends of the River and other non-government organizations against the Trump administration for violating the Endangered Species Act as a peer regulation and plans to increase water exports from an already compromised delta. The Delta Stewardship Council for very heard public comments on DW s certificate of compliance with the Delta Plan for the Delta Conveyance project. It is an appeals process and the Delta Stewardship Council must determine if the certificate of compliance complies with all the aspects of the Delta plan including the cold eco goals and protections of the Delta. Their decision at the time of the meeting was going to be forthcoming and I learned just before coming here that they will be issuing their decision on their April 23rd 24th meeting. On March 24th, the state, California State Park sent California Coastal Commission held a free Freshwater aquatic invasive species prevention workshop, it covered impacts of aquatic invasive species have on our environment recreation and economy of the Delta. Cover muscle diesel muscle Golden mussels floating and submerged aquatic weeds and the management and control methods being used. There will be a second meeting for a free saltwater and Freshwater invasive species prevention and virtual workshop scheduled for May 14th at 9 a.m. Advance registration is required it is its own meeting. And I do have the Zoom link here and I'll give it to Kim. Water infrastructure under strain. The main canal transporting waters south of the Delta is breaking down in places due to overpumping groundwater which is causing land subsidence. A 2025 Department of Water Resource study found that without actions subsidence could reduce state water project delivery capacity by 87% by 2043. Threatening water supplies for 27 million people. Millions of dollars required to repair the damage to the existing infrastructure, a reality that may avert attention from the Delta Tunnel to more immediate failures in the system. A coalition calls on policymakers to reject vice Chair Nydia Ramos appointment to the state Water Resources Control Board, a coalition of environmental advocates submitted a letter to the California State Rules Committee opposing the reappointment of Doreen D Donnell to the state Water Resources Control Board. The coalition argues that the board is abandoned key regulatory responsibility to their vice chairs tenure allowing unchecked ecological decline of the Delta and failing to protect the communities that depend on the waterway. The coalition members say that under the Adamos leadership the board is prioritized large agricultural and urban water interests while native fish populations decline in the Arctic Community bear the consequences. -- our community bears the consequences. The California Water Board issued a draft decision for the widely opposed sites Reservoir project, the administrative office of the State Water Resources Control issue had draft water rate decision for the proposed sites reservoir project (Indistinct) tribes fishing groups and environmental organizations about the project's environmental impact high cost and limited benefits. The conditions proposed in the draft include annual diversions of the Sacramento River of 986,000 acre feet that is roughly the equivalent of two Lake Folsom Lakes. The requirement is to align the proposed water right with the planning process underway for the Delta watershed. Operate IT divisions to sell these to protect fishes. Estimated cost for the 1.5 million acre foot off site reservoir is estimated at 6.2 to $6.8 billion. The California water Impact Networks said there is no business for storing water for delivery to Big water contracts on the river system that is already over subscribed and needs more flow to sustain fish population and ecological qualities. Sites is located near Mmaxwell in the heat of the valley and safely would take cold water out of the Sacramento River, it would stand in that lake warming up, can be released into the Sacramento River increasing its temperature which is a recipe for bacteria parasites and fatal for salmon. Tribes and environmental groups criticized the legislative Office of purport. Updated Bay Delta plan a report from the California Legislative Analyst's Office is growing strong criticism from a board of coalition of Environmental organization tribes arguing that the state Water Resources Control Board proposed update to the Water Quality Control plan for San Francisco Bay and San Joaquin Delta falls short providing lawmakers with a fair and, unfair and complete exception of options. Coalition members argue that the report assumes approval of voluntary agreements and fail to serve as a balanced neutral delegation of the regulatory alternatives and grounded enforceable water quality standards. The volunteer agreements would allow water agencies to self-report compliance with minimal oversight, coalition reader for the criticized report's framing of an environmental flow claiming it is misnomer for unimpaired flows and that flows, those flows are necessary for ecosystem health it should be a established forceful regulatory standards not negotiated by purchase -- or purchased by water users. SB 872 unifies support of northern and Southern California legislators. And environmental groups and water -- to protect the state's primary water resources the bill addresses two major threats to California's water supply. Aging Delta levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin and sinking canals in the state Water project many Delta levees are at risk of failure raising the threat of catastrophic flooding and ecosystem damage while sinking land is jeopardizing the state water project's canal and reliable water districts SB 872 would dedicate 300 million annually to repair the Delta levees and reinforce the state water project canals. U.S. Representative Jared Huffman condemned the Department of Interior's proposal to spend $40 million in taxpayer fund the Planning and pre-construction activities to raise Shasta Dam calling it an unlawful waste of destructive boondoggle. Raising Chesterton is illegal in the California Wild River act which protects the McCloud River the proposal would also be, has been blocked by the state courts opposed by the California Attorney General and rejected by Congress in the past. Coalition urges lawmakers to reject bills threatening water oversight. A coalition of tribes environmental advocates submitted a letter to the California Assembly Committee of Water Parks and Wildlife opposing a b e 2215 the bill which seeks to extend the Department of Water's reaches resources and water rights permit for the State water project in Del 2085. It is being criticized by bypassing, existing regulatory processes managed by the State Water Resources Control Board. The bill would set an extremely dangerous precedent (Indistinct) programs that restore the Delta protecting our waterway communities that depend on them require maintain rigorous standards for all water right holders. Granting exceptions overwrite existing processes creates a system that favors powerful users at the expense of ecosystem and community health. Rider term support for the Delta panel is dropping in Kern County. A financial support for the controversial Delta conveyance project has been eroding among current county agricultural water district over the past year and lost another significant chunk when the wider reach Maricopa Water Storage District opted to recently cut its contributions by nearly 97%. From $5.6 million to 146,000. For other large state water project contractors internal also considering lowering their participation levels in the DWP is trying to firm up agreements and collect $300 million from contractors for preparing, for the planning and design phase of the $20 billion project. $20 billion is a projection of cost for the Delta Advanced Project six years ago and hasn't increased while everything else has. The California Water Impact Authority analyzed the total cost of the project and they estimated to be between 60 billion and $100 billion. I learned just the other day that Russo's Marina will no longer be hosting Black Bass tournaments. And that's because I guess owners are getting old. And they don't want to get up at 3 a.m. In the morning on weekends. And I also understand one of their ramps is starting to sink. And teens like most of the (Indistinct) held in the Delta now will either be in the (Indistinct) or out of Stockton. Thank you any questions? >> Any questions Wiseman Meadows? >> Thank you for that Roger would we be able to get a copy? Thank you. Thank you Roger. Item 1.4. I have the water district update Dan Muroff. General manager. Dan Muelrath: Good evening Henderson and members of the council. Thank you assistance new manager Navarro for hosting this evening. Tonight's water hear about water today we're going to talk about water locally and what it means for the water district and also what it means for our joint constituents that we serve here in Oakley. So I'm happy to give our annual update to the council tonight. Just as a quick overview of the items will be discussing tonight we'll take a look at water supply as an overview, more granular than what Roger was talking about statewide but we do have some overlap there. We also will talk about the water demand, locally here trends have been over time. And then talk about impacts to state regulations. Some of them have been on the books for a little bit and then there's relatively newer one that has impacts to nonresidential customers here in town. Talk about the value of water, talk about the projects that we implement capital improvement projects and then also some customer tools that we have to help customers keep their bills down. Gonna put that slide deck together was middle of last week before the assistance came through. Historically low snowfall and snowpack if anybody watched the nightly news all DWR reports they go out with their, essentially it's like a piece of PVC pipe to go stick in the snow they should have already got grass sprouting. No snow anywhere to be seen. So that's kind of what it looks like in the Sierras. That does have impacts on what it looks like for reservoirs that do feed us the reservoir that we're most impacted by is actually the Shasta Reservoir which currently sitting at about 100% of normal for this time of year. But we're anticipating is that as the demands start picking up and they do have to start release now the reservoir they're not going to get that long term trickle of snowpack that would normally melt off and may June July. That filling of the reservoir is going to stop very soon. And that's the water that we count on to come down from the Sacramento River part of the Central Valley project which then is ultimately diverted by Contra Costa Water District our wholesaler. Right now we're not expecting any impacts from that as far as any supply reductions, that's TBD but through the summer we're not expecting that we'll be looking at something into fall to winter if again a late start to rainfall. Then this day might start ratcheting up requirements on what we'll be looking at but as always we recommend that all of our customers just be efficient and eliminate waste that's the best way to save on your water bill. Again locally those vaqueros 92% of capacity very good starting point at the start of the kind of heat up in the irrigation season. And then also our local groundwater aquifer setting at a full balance right now. And that's another in places in any given year we get 12 to about 20% of our local water supply from the groundwater aquifer. On the flip side of it remember our economics class we got supply we got demand. On the demand side we do have over the last two decades is that our water demands per connection or per household or per business is going down it's been going down to about 40% over the last 20 years. And we have the same amount of pipes in the ground same amount of pumps, we have thousands more customers that just means there's higher pressures on prices per connection. More than 60% of our costs are fixed within the system we have to replace the pipes we have to replace the plumbing. We have to have the same amount of staff to go and source the pipes the mains the meters backflows etc. Another driver behind that decline is not just that plumbing codes change at the state level so you can no longer buy five gallon per flush toilets you can only get them 1.28 gallon per flush or lower clothes washers are more efficient. It's also the state mandate, so state has mandates out to water districts and water purveyors within California, essentially limiting how much in aggregate we're supposed to be selling to residential customers but if you look at it for indoor standpoint like these metrics do here, 47 gallons per capita per day is the current metric. Moving to 42 gallons per capita per day in 2030. And again just reiterating these are in aggregate, there's different reasons why certain households may have higher water use than others come we're not looking to go to each individual customer or managing everything on an aggregate basis right now so far today that's been a successful strategy we have to work with the state every year and we're still on track and have been on track and meeting these requirements. Then on the outdoor, this is just the data points just want to make sure that we're monitoring to the aggregate again but just thinking about locations that if we're to manage with the states looking for it's a maximum of about 9000 gallons per month for a residence in peak summer. And that's about what our average customer uses right now we have some over that and some below that so that average is working out just right for us. And again these are all statewide standards. It's not just here in the water district all the local agencies on all 400 water agencies throughout the state have these similar metrics that we're having to manage to. And just to give anybody on the council or anybody that's watching the slide deck tonight just to idea of where you would go to try to get these savings, obviously with this pie chart that shows average residential water usage. You really want to be looking at outdoor. That's about 60% of the water usage in outdoor and again just to let council know, our constituents know we do have resources and tools you can call us email us, we can help set the irrigation controllers get smart irrigation controllers that will adjust themselves based on whether you just want the community to know that we're here as a resource. So we talked about residential and how the states do regulations their. Flip a little bit and look over at the nonresidential side. And there's a lot of text on the slide but in general A 1572 is about prohibition of nonfunctional turf. And so I've got two different definitions of nonfunctional turf one is showing their. And it says lawns that serve no recreational or community purpose. And again that's a government commercial institute common areas within HOA. And so what they're really after is not irrigating with this with potable water you can do alternative water sources but just not the standard potable water that we serve from our meters. Another definition is just looking at something if the lawn is purely there for ornamental and not regular use for recreational or public gatherings is another way to look at it. So just really a simple example that we're looking at there, for the top one is obviously functional turf that's just showing a sports field obviously people are on it playing their. It can be a park it doesn't just have to be a dedicated sports field those are functional uses where people gather sit on it play on it. The other picture that's there is nonfunctional it's a turf firm that would go around industrial complex or commercial complex come up pictures actually not from here but it looks very reminiscent to what's over at the daily shopping Center by Caroline. They knew about this legislation coming down and they actually were over here in front of this trying to update their landscaping their. So kudos to them on following this stuff and getting ahead of it. Just looking at compliance deadlines because this does impact government agencies cities counties special districts, is that there's a compliance point of January 1st of 2027 that's looking at the public agencies. And we have been in talks with city management with the public works manager trying to get a resource there are some state funds out there for grants to help do any conversions that need to be done. Right now we have not gotten through the identifying phase of what's out there within your portfolio. And again we're not making a full decision of what's functional and nonfunctional come out we're trying to improve the state regulations but we are not the turf police out there. And then next year, the year after that 2028 is commercial industrial inter-institutional and one more year after that is h o s. So right now we're really focusing on what we're calling the audit or the inspection portion of the public facilities and we're moving on to the CII and moving on to HOA after so we can work with those customers as well. So talking about the value of water, this chart is not meant to pick water district or bill against other locations it's just a pulse check looking at what other agencies pay or other customers pay for their average water bill. Everybody has their own story within their water system. Some people use more groundwater than surface water some people have less lower water quality some have higher water quality some districts are older some are newer so everybody's got their own story. As opposed to looking at it and finding ourselves in the middle come out middle to low end of some of the local agencies. And so what is the actual water bill paid for that's the value part of it the water is the cheaper part it's everything else that gets the water to everybody and gets their clean safely reliably. So we've adopted a $35 million five year CIP plan we adopt projects year by year but we have a five year plan we're ramping up with. And within that we're doing upgrades to our treatment distribution systems. One it's going to be starting hopefully late summer to fall it's going to be the 5 million gallon seal reservoir if you're going out look up the hill to any art direction we've got two reservoirs up there one used to be seismically retrofitted above grade below grade foundation. So this one hits right there for resiliency, mitigating natural disasters. Or also finishing the electrification of our LED trucks that should happen in our fiscal year 2627 be our third year of doing vehicle replacements. And as most of you know if you're trying to redo your fleet, to meet the advanced fleet rule which is up in the air of where that's not going to land it's being challenged over it's going to land. Under the current process in our medium and heavy duty vehicles we switched them all over to diesel if they weren't already. And then also switching them over, switch them over to renewable diesel so it helps with your carbon offsets and then also on site fueling station that we'll be looking to build this upcoming fiscal year 2627 that not only helps us have more diesel on site but it also helps in case of emergency we have our own fuel supply there and aren't relying on global gas stations that typically do not have generators to back them up. We're also going to be doing treatment plans water treatment plans. Where we upgrade so we continue to do their come out one of the big ones just got wrapped up was the conversion from chlorine gas to liquid and so that's been a huge upgrade that's happened there. General safety promise for the community I know Contra Costa Water District has probably talked to you about that before as well. We're looking at additional groundwater well and then also doing well treatments so taking that groundwater which is usually plentiful but it's hard. And running it through reverse osmosis to generate better water than we would even get out of our surface water treatment plants. So we do hear that from our customers from time to time the water is hard and so anytime we are looking out new water supply moving forward trying to figure out how to produce the hard and how to make it better as we move forward with this projects. And lastly there on the five year again this is a snapshot this is not all inclusive. Is making sure that all of our pumping and treatment facilities are all 100% treatment and backed up. That's great for public safety shower cutoffs emergency earthquakes and etc. We can continue as long as the water can get out the delta that we can continue to treat it pump it and get it to our customers. So looking at the results of that one thing we always like to highlight is that it's a water district is one of the only if not the only in the state that's on this 100 year replacement cycle for our assets. These are in the ground assets above the great assets. Most agencies are 200 year 300 year cycles which infrastructure in the ground doesn't last that long. You look at pipe in the ground it's 80 to 90 years come out your valves are changed every 35 to 50 years and all of ours fits within that we call it 100 year cycle but everything has a expected life sign we have it budgeted to replace within its lifespan before catastrophic failure. So that's something that doesn't necessarily show up in the rates when you look at a water bill. That's what we're doing behind the scenes for the community. Also on track to be carbon neutral by the end of 2027. That's an internal target that we've set 18 years ahead of the state target. Like I mentioned 100% power supply backup. Long term water supply reliability. Both treatment plant upgrades for the surface water and also additional groundwater wells. And then the reduction in environmental vulnerabilities such as earthquakes is our main environmental vulnerability around here. And just a couple pictures of some recent projects probably remember our emergency operations center we got that open about a year ago. Just across the street over by Ironhorse there. It's a great facility operated out of Delta's seismic standards we can operate out of there even after earthquakes. A picture of our fleet with the new signage on it and then also some upgrades at our Glen Park well which was safety because it's lighting and also led so it's reducing the energy consumption out there. So now what we have for our customers come up we have a new website that we put up a couple months ago. And part of the website when we moved to a new platform was also changing to a.gov as our state mandate with the public agencies if you weren't already.gov had to go.gov. So we're now at diablo.gov can go to the old.org it'll redirect you here. Great resources there for anybody looking for information rebates etc. We also every year launch a different campaign and so this year we have the trust the Tap campaign and so you'll see that the city generously worked with those on the sideboard out here so it shows up there you probably see it when you drive in drive out. But again it's our way to engage with our customers a chance to win bill credits chance for them to get educated on different resources we have in the district. And also different ways they can protect the long term water quality. We've had PFAs campaigns we have microplastic campaigns so it's just our way of engaging and putting the choice in our customer's hands as well. And then last slide before any questions here. Engagement recently which is every year but we engage with the global elementary schools and teacher once too they fix up fix the leak week and that's something they can do with their students in class participants will do a pizza party for them. So imagine third grade is going home being detectives trying to find leaks around the house and report back that's a fun little assignment. The middle one there is our customer portal. That's one I mentioned earlier when you look at that pie chart that showed all the different uses of water and I think leaks were 6 or 7%. They can go on customers can go on to the portal they can log in set up thresholds look for leak alerts, get auto leak alerts and if that sounds too complicated just call us or email us and we'll walk you through it get people signed up. It can be high bill threshold you don't want to spend over $100 a month notify me when I'm getting close. We have all different ways that you can set thresholds. And last of all is our bill assistance program for certain qualifying income individuals Kamal we do have up to a 50% discount on these service charge trying to keep that in mind. And helping our customers where we can. That is it. Thank you. >> Questions? >> Council member Williams. >> I have a couple for you. Okay so you talked about, I know you guys used to have a program you maybe still do. About converting lawns to more, do you have any measurements on that program like how successful it's been? And Further, could we maybe direct some collaborations between the city and you right because I've asked for us to update our design standards so it seems to me that we would have an easy win by making the design standards from new builds. Be more friendly. So sort of a two part question do you have any data to support how successful that program has been? Dan Muelrath: I don't have the specific data we have probably 20 to 30 locations to go through in a given year. Because it is quite an endeavor to go through you got to change it out change the rebate money afterwards. But it is a chance that even for customers that don't go through it we still get to get out there on site educate them about how to reduce their water use even on their tooth if they do decide to keep it and so we can win either direction. But it is a great program it's our long gardening program information's on the website as well. And also I will get you the metrics just so you know. And then the second part we do have some existing collaboration with the city on kind of the land use water overlaps since there is the statewide model water efficient landscape ordinance there is already statewide structure in place of what can and can't go in new installations. So you won't see any new turf going in on new residential homes come out would make sense for it to go in as the pain take it out but yes we're definitely working there. You can talk to your city manager about how we can incorporate some stuff potentially into the new library within your own internal design. So just educational outreach efforts. >> Cool okay and then one other question. You mentioned that you is down by 40% but the cost for maintenance and stuff Com-a it's all still the same the infrastructure is still there and I'm sure those costs are going up just like everything else. So how are you rectifying that? Are you making those two things work? Is it just the rate increases or what's the mechanism to make sure that you're profitable or breaking even at least? Not profitable. I didn't mean profitable. Dan Muelrath: So yeah we operate essentially as a nonprofit in the government isn't she anything that is left on the bottom goes to reserves and part of $35 million of capital projects we're doing come out we typically carry reserves for at least one year of capital we carry reserves for emergency response so that we can fund stuff without having to wait for FEMA so we don't set it on a ton of reserves. In general (Indistinct) a little bit but when we look at the overall picture is the reason we've kind of been staying kind of flat lined the total water sales because of the new connections. So new connections are kind of keeping that at a net zero as far as the come out we're not declining total on water supply but then again costs are going up costs are going up. Chemicals go up 50% during the pandemic and not come back down infrastructure went up came down a little bit but not much. And so we look to be efficient where we can within our organization come out part of it is within the carbon neutrality savings not spending as much on gas. And such. There are a few prices for all those electric vehicles we don't have the swings and fuel prices. More tied to PGE and our solar rates were generating our own solar. So we have like all those things but ultimately through the day there is a cost just can't be efficiency the way. And so that's we do rate studies every five years and we did our notice last year and so I do believe this year the board hasn't find this year because the schedule the ability to adjust will be looking at around 5 to $6 per month increase this year of the full amount went through. >> That just reminded me of one more thing because you said new connections. Do you guys have a sense of which connections are the most, the ones that make the most sense for you? Is it single family homes is it commercial is it, what's the connections or it's just a number? Dan Muelrath: Ultimately it's just a number because when we do the studies we segregate them to commercial properties have their own cost basis on their own revenue collection and residential saying. So even if we had much more commercial customers it still wouldn't necessarily benefit the residential customers and vice versa because we have the segregated. Yep. >> Council member for. >> Yes my one frustration I have is that during the winter months my bill runs about 7 or $8 a month for usage. And my service fee is $28. And every time I look at that I get there and I'm hoping we're moving. But in the same hand even in the summer months it might run away and weigh up to 12 or $1415 a month. So basically what I'm trying to say is my usage I've really worked on getting it down. And now my base one is pretty low to start out with and you're going to ask for another 40%? Decrease on top of that? I mean I don't know. Should we wall off a bathroom or, what solution do you see in this one we've already cut back so far come on I get my laundry done and the dog gets water and the dishes get washed. How are you going to handle that? You can only take away so much water and then you just cut it off to no usage and still have service fee. So how are we going to live with that? Dan Muelrath: That's a good point that you're bringing up Council Member Fuller is that when the state puts out the conservation numbers which then we end up working with, it's not on top of what you've already done. So a member like yourself that's already likely down in that below 42 gallons per capita per day and or below 9000 calories gallons in the peak there's no additional request. For customers like that. Even when going to droughts that's a common question we get from customers is I've already done everything that's been asked how can I do more? And a lot of times there's nothing more that a customer can do, in that ultra low balance per capita. It's us working with the other customers that haven't done it yet but have more discretionary water use. We like to give some comfort that no we're not asking those that already add that real low baseline to do more. Oh we're not saying the state move that direction either they used to in their messaging they would blanket do 10% to 20%, they've been getting the message back from the water reach that message doesn't work because people have been doing this since really since the 70s if they've been slowly moving along with it. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I done 1.5 will receive update from Bart director Mark Foley. Mark Foley: Members of the City Council good evening I am Mark Foley. District two representative on the Board of Directors. So Henry Bart recently, I encourage you to jump on board. The new Bart as we are calling it, really has a lot of improvements that we've seen over the last several years. New fare gates are in. Which not only have increased our revenue, but have decreased the number of corrective maintenance work orders we've had to do in the system. In fact it's close to 1000 hours that have been reduced in corrective work that we've had to do because of individuals in the system that maybe don't respect the system. We've changed our deployment strategy for our police force and that has resulted in a 41% drop in crime from 24 to 25. So we're on the right track there and certainly the fare gates have helped do that as well. But we've doubled the cleaning crews that are in our system and that has resulted in almost nine out of ten riders saying they're satisfied with what they're seeing in Bart today so 89% is a pretty good number. The highest for us in more than a decade. But it doesn't stop there. Tap and ride last December, we rolled it out to the entire Bay area but back in September Bart started doing tap and ride so you can use your mobile device, your ATM card, your credit card, tourists coming into San Francisco don't have to buy a clipper card. They can simply tap in jump on board and get into the system. That is becoming a large segment within our actual usage as folks are transitioning away from the Clipper (Indistinct). Improved lighting. Folks want to feel safe when they're riding transit especially in the evening. And so we're working on improving LED lighting throughout our stations and escalator repair in San Francisco specifically, 23 of our 40 escalators have been replaced and those are the most used escalators in the system. You will notice if you've been in some of our city stations like in Labedera there's now coverings on top of the escalators so we're trying to protect them from the elements but also at the end of day we can close those so they don't become housing for unhoused individuals. But it also doesn't stop there. We'd love our Bart community and our Bart transit enthusiast. Last month we had Sketchfest, we actually had comedians doing the routines on a moving train in the system. We had Valentine, Valentine Valentine speed dating on Bart. So we always try to encourage folks to really embrace the Bart. Let's glow our anime festival in Warm Springs had over a thousand attendees so we're really trying to lean into sort of the branding of Bart and just welcoming folks on board. Clipper start if you're not aware of that program that is a discounted 50% off of fares and it's focused on income so if you're less than 200% of federal poverty level you're eligible for this. Unlike the other discounts that we offer which are focused around access or if you're a youth or a senior. So really trying to get the others segment of the population. And lastly our big sync twice a year we make schedule changes so we work with folks like Rashidi Barnes at Tri-delta or church at County Connection to work on changes that we're making to our schedule so that they can adjust with their schedules and our common riders and passengers don't have to wait too long for a bus or a train. So that's all the good stuff. Now I turn to the more challenging stuff. The Bay area still has the highest adoption of remote work in the country. And it's reflected in the occupancy and commercial buildings in San Francisco and Oakland in San Jose. But also in ridership. In fact most of our riders have returned Kumar we can see that from our Clipper data. But they're only going in the office 1 or 2 days a week. So they're really just not engaging with Bart the way they used to. Because of their employment needs. We are currently exhausting the remaining of our emergency funds from COVID to run the existing service that we have. So starting in July, we will be begin running a deficit of somewhere between 350 to $300 million per year. For our operating expenses. And as you can see from the chart pre-pandemic we counted on around 71% of our operating revenue directly from our fares. That is down to 30%. This next year. 32%. So as we kind of move forward it's inching up but it's nowhere near where it needs to be. In fact ridership would need to double for us just to be close to where we were six years ago. But I will say the good news, March was our highest ridership month since the pandemic. It was also the high ridership week and day which I happen to be on board when we went to the Giants opening day. That was our highest day since the pandemic. Followed closely by the Super Bowl. That was our second highest day. So again riders are coming back, they're just not utilizing Bart the way they did in the past. So trying to figure out how we balance ridership, revenue fare increases cost controls, it's part of the solution but we really need long term sustainable revenue. To look at how we fund public transit. So we kind of looked internally at what we're doing and when you compare us to other agencies, we have one of the lowest operating costs per passenger buyout in the country. Our rates grow below inflation so when we do a rate increase which we do every two years we actually look at what the cost of living and end up taking half a percent off of that. So we're actually increasing a little bit lower than inflation. But as it says here only 40% of our operating costs go directly with the service we provide. So as an example during COVID, we reduced service by 40%, we only saved 12%. On our budget. Similar to the update you just heard from Dan and Water there's a lot of fixed costs with running a railroad whether or not one train or 50 trains run on a track, you still have to maintain it. So what are we focused on now? Well besides the customer experience and bringing back ridership. As you are aware connect Bay area is moving forward with the ballot measure. It's a five county measure that will have half cent increase including San Mateo and Santa Clara counties which are not part of the Bart district. But we do service them. This is likely going to be a citizens initiative, it would provide us with around $310 million so that's still exists in the neighborhood of 50 to $70 million short in our annual operating needs. So we're going to have to focus on how we close that gap through efficiencies, rate increases, whatever it is that we can find the opportunity to reduce cost and increase revenue. I will say that one change that was made 63 was specifically identifying Delta Transit in county connection as recipients for some of this money. Previously they were going to be part of whatever was left over, there won't be any leftover. So it was in my opinion a great thing that we're able to get that included in the legislation because again, we do rely on each other for ridership needs. And I just wanted to take a moment about the state loans some of you have heard that the governor included a state loan in the budget. And so hey Mark why aren't your problems fixed? Well the state loan is really a bridge between when a revenue measure will pass and when that revenue would start to come into the agency. So that might take three 4 or 5 months. During that time come on we like to continue operating service. So the loan would only be taken if a measure passed and it would only be used to essentially bridge that gap between the end of this calendar year and when we start seeing that revenue. But if it didn't pass, if there wasn't additional operating revenue, we would not apply for any of these loan funds because we'd have no way to pay them back. And it's just not financially responsible for us to take out a loan that we know we won't be able to repay. So we tasked staff with coming up with two budgets for us. For this July. Essentially focusing all of our successes bring us a budget that is as balanced as it can be, still $96 million short of balance. So we are taking a short term loan that we will pay back to balance us through the end of this calendar year. But the reality is beyond December of 2026, that's when there's a lot of (Indistinct) so we asked staff to come back with a plan B. What happens if there is no additional operating revenue? Either from a ballot measure or from state assistance or whatever it is? What would we have to do. So we gave them direction back in February to approach this we adopted this in late February. And they came back with how do we address that $376 million deficit with cuts and service, increases in parking and fares, layoffs, reduction in support services and one time cost saving measures that we can take. This is not sustainable. This is an opportunity for us to get through and see what sort of the new world looks like in the beginning of calendar 2027. So what would happen if a ballot measure were to fail? The day after we are scheduled to meet with our labor partners to discuss implementation of the first round of layoffs, which would be 600 employees. Reduction in service to 9 p.m. During the week. We did not touch weekend service because we actually make money on the weekends Saturday and Sunday service come up evenings after 9 p.m. We lose money. So we're going to have to shut at 9 p.m. Based on that. If you've looked at one of these maps before you know that there's a five line map so we have to go to three line service which would mean someone going from say Richmond to the airport would have to change trains at downtown Oakland. So we would have to eliminate some of those customer efficient lines to really address the needs that we have Budgetarily. And head raise yellow line during the week every ten minutes while you're going to work and coming home, that'll go to 30 minutes. Have to increase fares by 30%. And then we look at cutting in areas where we can save some additional funds for Non-service Non-customer facing aspects of this. So if that does not help close the budget gap and there is no additional revenue. Six months later FY 28 in July of 2027 we'd have to look at potentially a 70% reduction in service, which essentially is the same 9 p.m. Closure etc. But we would have to start looking at potentially closing stations. As you probably heard staff came back with a recommendations for a round of ten station closures in January and then an additional five in July. We're actually able to tell staff that wasn't going to work. And that got shifted so at this point that is a concept, there's no stations that have been identified in anything that we've adopted. And the full board will make a decision about if we need to make some changes like closing stations, which stations would they be? That'll be a decision at the board level. Additionally, we could make closing a segment of track. If you don't have to run trains through an area you can essentially shutter that segment of the line and save the money for maintaining those assets. The challenge is if you close say a Pittsburgh Center, and you leave Antioch open, you still have to maintain a track. But if you close both Pittsburgh and Antioch that entire segment can be turned off if you will. Not what I expected when I wanted to run for the board, I was trying to make some positive change and this feels like a little bit of selfish choice here. But not something I'm looking forward to but something I know I have to do as an elected board member. This would also mean an additional 600 layoffs. So that's about 30% of our staff, our 1200 employees. Will be laid off. The problem becomes what if that isn't enough to safely run the system or legally run the system? If we can't perform the necessary inspections, the trackwork we need to do, then we honestly have to look at what is the system's future and can we operate it safely? So that is to be determined. Where we go with this. But it is something that we have to think about in planning for our future. And with that I am happy to answer any questions you might have. >> Any questions? >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Oh no we got questions. >> Council Member Shaw. >> So I know there was talks of the station's closure and that has now been put to the board and I just want to, say that we out in Oakley have been paying our tax for Bart for a long time with no Bart and if that becomes a reality we lose these stations in East Cameron and beyond are we still going to be on the hook for paying Bart taxes as residents in four weeks County? Mark Foley: Yes. >> I was afraid of that but I don't find that to be totally fair those of us in the newer neighborhoods are left side of our tax bill is much higher than the right side of our tax bill so it's something that if this is come out it's going to be an uphill battle if taxes are a nasty word here in Oakley and there's a lot of people looking for them. So I would just say that hopefully these meetings for us aren't the only conversations that you're having because it's going to be a tough sell. Mark Foley: Understood and you're not the only (Indistinct) >> Council member Williams. >> I'm so sorry you know me. I can fully appreciate the very tough situation. I feel like that conversation about closing the line was directly towards conversations that we've had and I get it it's just, I mean Council Member Shaw tried to steal my thunder here when I talked about, I mean I know all I've heard from is people who have said they've been paying the Bart for 40 years. We don't have jobs in Oakley. And I know the yellow line has been the most stable and the most consistent and it's because we have residents who depend on it. We have to give a shout out to Assembly member Lori Wilson for making sure that Tri Delta got that funding. Should this pass I mean that's the problem is that it's not just Bart but is the problem right? I mean how a Ford does not have the infrastructure to support this so I guess, I mean you're just one of I think there's what eight people on the board? Is that seven people? Mark Foley: Nine members of the board three (Indistinct) (Indistinct) >> I feel like each county is going to get sort of the short end of the stick I think what people need to realize is that tri Delta transit has to open because we were supposed to be serviced by AC transit and we again were too far out not as populated as where it was needed so it didn't happen so I think I just have a lot of concerns about that. I know there's a lot of people who are out here like advocating for it and stuff but I would also just love to talk further about if we could try to get that town hall set up so that we can have a conversation because I wish this room was packed with people because it doesn't matter if you're a bar right or not this will impact you. If you have to go on for or if you have to leave your house for anything really. So I would encourage you to come on I know you have a really tight timeline because of the election and stuff. So I would just encourage like let's try and all work together to get that set up because I think this is super important that people realize you don't have to be a writer to do it. I was going to shout out the high ridership and Bart is amazing compared to what it used to be I mean I never had any issues really with it I mean I definitely come off my stop was the one where somebody's neck got at MacArthur. So I didn't love that because it was when I was using it but it's been so much improved and I think that that's more of that message has to get out there and I understand you guys are trying to run and do PR and all of that stuff but I think the more you invite people in to see how much it's changed it's going to make a huge difference because you can read any post and people say it's awful it's terrible and it's nothing. Like that. I mean I would have several problems letting my kids take get places now where that wouldn't be the case I mean I was definitely writing it younger than them. But I wouldn't have let that before and it's made a huge -- so I think if we just keep sending that message because this is a really scary impact to East County specifically. Mark Foley: Thank you I appreciate the feedback and the support and I am working with staff on town halls that was something we talked about at the workshop and how we can better educate folks throughout our districts. So definitely plan on and hope to collaborate on that. So thank you. >> Vice Mayor Muns. >> Thank you Director Foley I'm glad I don't walk in your shoes right now. I understand the predicament. And I also understand the sentiment from East Coast Canada County. We paid for Bart for many many years and we didn't even get real Bart. And I understand if some stations have to be closed but if all three are closed in East Contra Costa County I would say don't come back asking for money from us. Because there's no way you're going to get a vote. I mean you know that. So keep that in mind if we're having to go in that direction. Thank you. Mark Foley: Understood and based on staff's plan I would have no stations in my district. It would be a director with no stations as would -- right as would Melissa Hernandez. They would have closed all three of her primary stations so not a future I'm looking forward to and I'm trying to avoid. But I appreciate the feedback. Thank you. >> Thank you for your update tonight. Mark Foley: I appreciate it have a good evening. >> Item two public comment at this time the public comments will be heard on items that are not on the agenda. I have a couple online and a couple speaker cards if you wish to speak Com-a please complete a blue speaker card they are located in lobby and submitted to the county to the City Clerk, the timeline for speaking will be three minutes will be monitored by the timer in front of my seat. When one minute is remaining the timer will beep. Please refrain from applauding cheering booing so everybody can be heard tonight. Do the online speaker first. Marsh Perez. Kevin Kendall. Asadiq. >> Hello Council and mayor. Thank you for having this forum. Just some interesting things I think people ought to look at like on the Marsh Creek thing I was walking the other day, the East Bay Regional Park Trail is caving in badly. I saw some kids playing around it. It's caved in underneath. So there's some safety tape I think put up more needs to be done because people are crawling up and down that. I know it's basically doo doo recharge area that's there. There's also been beaver activity. The other thing too is there's mosquito traps set up and I saw some kids getting near those. They're all over their big white cards, trying to get Zika and all the other things right now. I would like to tell parents keep an eye on your kid around those don't let them play with them because this is like a really important thing right now. You got to keep track of what's going on with that. The other thing is we're going to have a meeting at our Bass Club next month that's going to have a carbon capture speaker. That's going to talk about where the Antioch power plant was. Where they want to pump basically waste underneath our river which will with the Northwest wind come right into Oakley because it's right over by the bridge. If it should ever rupture and do anything funny. I think that's something of concern so we will have a speaker I think it would be great be able to come and listen at the sun that's really literally right next to our. I think that would be a wonderful thing for people to educate themselves on what's trying to be passed in the name of tax breaks. For certain people. I think that's something that really needs to be understood better and needs to be fought quite frankly. That's the other thing, the other thing is I got a lot of friends in San Diego, a friend of mine caught San Benito off of Half Moon Bay. Especially busy especially this time of year they're supposed to be big El Nino this year called the Godzilla El Nino and the water is going to be exceptionally hot this year. So it's going to be interesting to see what it does with our weather pattern here. It's already affecting fish. Shouldn't be here right now catching more Bonito than salmon now because of it. Because the upwellings are bad and so it's pretty interesting we just need to water in San Diego already. So that's comes down to water again keeping things cool like Roger mentioned we need to fight for the water in our river to keep it cool. >> Thank you. >> That was my last speaker. We'll move to item three Council member comments? see none. Will move to item four consent calendar anything anyone wants removed? 4.1. >> Remove the remainder. >> Second. >> Call for a roll call vote. [Members voting yes] >> That motion carries 5 to 0. >> Item 4.1. >> Yes the same as before we're improving we're now identifying what Mr. McMurray had additional comments about the city that he wanted to do but were still not getting to where we want, I'll be frank that the hybrid thing frightens me also. Because that means the city manager can look at the minutes and put in what he wants to put and remove what he wants to remove. And that has not worked so well at least in ugly that I've seen. -- in Oakley that I've seen. So we need more complete minutes and I vote no on this item. >> I move approval 4.1. >> Second. >> We have a first and a second roll call vote please. [Members voting] >> The motion passes four >> Item five public hearings we have none tonight item six review the calendar item 6.1 adopt urgent ordinance imposing a temporary moratorium prohibiting the processing or approval of a new data center land use application within the city to allow time to evaluate the public health and environmental impacts and enhance the future and appropriate regulations concerning the same. Staff report will be by our City Attorney Mr. Cole. >> Thank you mayor mayor members of the Council this item is brought at your request following a hearing last month in which you considered a land use application that at one point had a data center element attached to it but that was removed. At the end of that meeting during request for future agenda items Council members requested that we bring an item to impose a moratorium on data centers, that is before you we have drafted in urgency ordinance. I do want to note that a 4/5 vote is required so for review will be required to approve this item. The purpose of the item is to address what I think many people would acknowledge data centers require a lot of power, they require a lot of water, they can have intensive land use impacts. You did hear a lot of comments at your meeting in March that were directed to the data center component of that project, there were certainly some opposition to the other industrial uses but as I recall the vast majority of the comments he received were directed to data centers and they raised a lot of -- members of the public raised a lot of concerns and so I think what I interpreted from your comments at the end of that meeting is you wanted to have a mechanism to consider to put a pause on data centers and that's what's before you tonight. Procedurally we can only impose this urgency ordinance for 45 days. The way these ordinances work, there's a section in the planning and zoning law that essentially gives you a two year window. To put a moratorium there's a whole host of legal and constitutional concepts that have gone into this statute the statute has been litigated in the idea is that we can take a pause, we can put in place regulations consider regulations, and then have a more detailed set of regulations that will allow you to address the unique issue of data centers before you get any further applications or you have to make a further decision regarding an application. But procedurally tonight all we can do is have a 45 day ordinance. We will bring back, if you approve this tonight, we will bring back to you at your second meeting in May an extension that will allow you to extend up to one year from tonight. So essentially ten months and 15 days. And then at the one year mark you can extend for one more year. But the idea is that in those two years you will be developing and will have developed some resolution of how to deal with the issue. I do want to make clear that this is not something you simply do to do. This is something you do to give yourself a pause and so tonight you're simply -- if the pleasure of 4/5 of the Council ceased to approve this then we will need to start moving forward with some way to address this issue. I think if the pleasure of the Council tonight is to approve this moratorium, it would be helpful to staff to receive some direction from you as to how you'd like to develop this ordinance. What I would suggest is we can do what we do already with general plan amendments which is we have a workshop with the Planning Commission we have a workshop before the Council. And then with that input staff and I can work on an ordinance to bring to you within, I don't want -- I don't want to limit myself I don't think we'll need two years. I think we can have this done this year. But that would