Latest news with #BakersfieldCityCouncil
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
City Council approves grant for neurotech startup
The Bakersfield City Council approved a $250,000 grant for a United Kingdom-based neuroscience startup that local educators and business leaders hope will bring high-paying, skilled jobs to the area. Since last year, BIOS Health has been looking to open its first office in the United States and the company's founder, Emil Hewage, said he's been looking at Bakersfield as a place to put down roots. BIOS uses AI-enhanced neural scanning to help develop medicines and is looking at Bakersfield to start running clinical trials. The city's $250,000 grant, drawn from the city's Public Safety and Vital Services funding, would help the company set up a clinical and commercial hub. "Our vision for Bakersfield was to work to build capability here where we could bring at least one groundbreaking clinical trial to this town with our supply chain by 2027," Hewage said Wednesday. "That's a long journey, but a single clinical trial can bring over $100 million of economic impact by one trial alone. To be specific, we're pioneering new medications in epilepsy, new breakthroughs in cardiovascular medicine, respiratory issues, and autoimmune conditions, which are all huge indications in this region." The company is providing $1.5 million in equipment and is partnering with Cal State Bakersfield to develop trained workers. "We hit the jackpot with Emil and BIOS," said Kristen Watson, chief of staff to CSUB President Vernon B. Harper Jr. "He understands the innovative spirit that Bakersfield has been built on," Watson said. "Through BIOS and through this precision medicine hub, we have the opportunity to turn health care, which has been an internal business entity here for Bakersfield, into a traded sector, which is foundational to economic prosperity and economic development." BIOS has already been working with local companies and investors, and is hoping to expand its local operations. The company has offices in Cambridge, United Kingdom and Montréal, Canada. The City Council approved the agreement unanimously. In other business, the City Council approved the purchase of security cameras for all of the city's parks not totaling more than $300,000. The council also approved a $550,000 grant for the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Bakersfield to upgrades its bathrooms and kitchen for its center serving homeless people.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Proposed city budget sparks debate on use of PSVS money
A presentation over the city's proposed budget turned into a debate about the use of Measure N funds Wednesday, as Bakersfield City Council members alternately decried or defended how the city spends the tax dollars. Council members were presented with a proposed budget of $850.2 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year, a $46.4 million reduction from the previous year. City Manager Christian Clegg attributed the reduction to minimal or no growth in tax revenues amid a larger economic slowdown. The proposed budget includes a $5 million reduction in operations and hiring freezes for most vacant positions for the first quarter of the fiscal year. 'The city has taken a much closer look at discretionary operational expenses with many departments reducing those budget line items with the understanding that more challenging financial circumstances lie ahead,' Clegg wrote in his introduction to the proposed budget. But the city's budget was only balanced using a $12 million allocation from the city's Public Safety and Vital Services fund, a 1% sales tax narrowly approved by voters in 2017 as Measure N. That was never the intended purpose of the money, according to Ward 3 Councilman Ken Weir, who said voters approved the measure with the understanding that the funds would be put toward new expenditures with a focus on public safety. 'Voters approved PSVS on the condition that we would not spend money that has already been on our books; it would be allocated to new things,' Weir said. 'The public was told we won't use the money for the expenses in the original general fund.' Ward 6 Councilman Zack Bashirtash was similarly critical of how PSVS funds were being spent, particularly on services for the homeless. "I don't believe that homelessness has gotten better or stayed the same. In my opinion, it's getting worse," Bashirtash said, noting the substantial amount of money the city provides to homeless service organizations. "We're talking about giving millions of dollars to organizations that have already received tens of millions of dollars," Bashirtash said. Clegg and other council members defended use of the funds, arguing the city had been able to shelter hundreds more people a year and has moved more than 400 into permanent housing. Ward 2 Councilman Andrae Gonzales noted PSVS funding had allowed the city to hire roughly 80 police officers and make several other improvements across the city. "When we approached the voters with Measure N, it was to preserve and enhance vital services," Gonzales said. "We had experienced two decades worth of cut after cut, cutting core services to the bare bone." Ward 1 Councilman Eric Arias listed several projects in his district funded by PSVS money and pointed to programs created by the funding he said increased quality of life. "I can't talk enough about how great the park rangers have been for our community, keeping our parks safe," Arias said. Arias noted that the city had seen a 57% reduction in homicides and a 60% reduction in shootings, which officials attributed to the work of a city-funded intervention program. Still, Weir and Bashirtash maintained the city's PSVS money was being ill-spent. "We know what the solution is for criminals, but we're spending money on not the solution," Bashirtash said. "At what point in time are we going to stop feeding the problem and actually start feeding the solution so that taxpayers are getting what they're paying for taxes?" Weir said calling the budget balanced by using PSVS dollars was misleading. "This year we've used $12 million of money that we should not have used," Weir said. "Now, I'm not going to argue about who spent what or anything else. I'm telling you we did a disservice to the people of this community, and we owe them $12 million." The city's budget will be formally introduced at the council's next meeting June 11. The city's fiscal year starts July 1.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
City officials say sewer rate protest letters must follow state guidelines
City officials are notifying Bakersfield residents that letters protesting a controversial proposal to increase sewer rate must follow certain requirements under state law. Residents are organizing against the proposal but some information circulating in online forums is incorrect, city officials said. They are warning that only protest letters with the appropriate information will be accepted. City officials said they've received a number of emails regarding the rate increase but that state law requires certain steps for official submissions. "It needs to have a wet signature," said Evette Roldan, the city's wastewater manager, referring to a handwritten signature. "You can't have a photocopy, can't email it in, can't be an electronic submission. That sort of thing," Roldan said. "Coming to the council meeting, just speaking at the council meeting doesn't count as a protest." Letters notifying residents of the proposed increase were sent out April 11 under a state law known as Proposition 218 that requires jurisdictions to notify constituents. Under Prop. 218, if a jurisdiction receives protest letters from more than 50% of the impacted residents, the increase can't be enacted. In order to qualify as an official protest, letters must include an original or "wet" signature, the property address, the property parcel number and the name of the property owner. Protests for multiple properties owned by a single person can be included in one letter, but they must include the address and parcel number of each property. Letters do not have to state a reason for the opposition. Address parcel numbers can be found using the Assessor Property Search function on the Kern County Record Assessor's office website at Because letters must be signed in-person by the property owner, letters must either be hand-delivered to the clerk's office or sent by mail. Emailed copies of protest letters, including photos of signed letters, are not acceptable, nor are electronic signatures. Letters may be submitted to the city clerk at Bakersfield City Council meetings. Any such letters must be submitted to the city clerk before the end of the public hearing scheduled for May 28. Bakersfield residents are looking at a more than 300% increase in their sewer rates, raising the annual fee for a single-family home from $239 to $950. The increase is needed to cover what the city says is as much as $600 million in emergency upgrades, including a new treatment plant to replace the city's aging Plant 2 on Planz Road, originally built in 1958. The city council voted to send Prop. 218 notices after long deliberation at their March 26 meeting. The vote was split 3-2 with two members absent. If the city does not receive the requisite number of Prop. 218 protest letters, the proposed increase will still have to pass a vote of the city council. "Right now, it's basically out to vote in the public," Roldan said of the protest process. "If we receive 50% official, majority protests, it basically takes it away from the council. People (will) have spoken and they voted it down," Roldan said. "Absent the majority, it's a council vote." Angered by such a large increase so suddenly, several residents have expressed further frustration that instructions for submitting an official protest aren't clearer. "It doesn't say anything about whether it has to be handwritten or typed or whatnot. And the other thing is, it doesn't have a link to how to find your parcel number," said Johnny Olaguez, a resident who's trying to organize opposition to the increase. An unsuccessful candidate for the Ward 6 council seat last year, Olaguez posted a flier to social media calling on residents to attend the council's Wednesday meeting to give public comment on the increase. Olaguez said he plans to be there with pens and a stack of template letters to help people fill out their protests. "To have me jump through all these hoops to have to oppose this. I'm very knowledgeable and I know computers," Olaguez said. "But when you talk about, you know, grandma who's 80 years old living on fixed income. If you're going to have to go down to Kern County get her parcel number, write a letter, sign it, drop it off. That just seems like a little bit too much work."
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
City moves forward with proposed sewer, water rate increases
Notices will be sent to thousands of Bakersfield residents next month informing them of the process by which they can protest a massive increase in water and sewer rates proposed by the city. Faced with significant costs to update water and sewer infrastructure, city officials have proposed increasing water rates by 50% over five years and sewer rates by nearly 300%. If approved, the rate changes would go into effect July 1. The increase would impact roughly 166,000 people, or 50,000 households, said city spokesman Joe Conroy, and 106,200 parcels will be sent notices regarding the sewer increase. Water rate notices are expected to go out April 25 and sewer notices April 11. The city's water system serves about 40% of Bakersfield's population, with the remainder served by CalWater or smaller water providers. After extensive debate Wednesday evening, the Bakersfield City Council voted to send notices to customers regarding the rate increase as required under Proposition 218. Proposition 218 is a 1996 law that requires local governments to receive voter approval for tax increases and says that a public hearing must be held within 45 of notices being issued. If more than 50% of voters object to a rate increase, it can't be adopted. Following motions approved Wednesday, protest hearings on the water rates will be held at the council's meeting at 5:15 p.m. May 28, and June 11 for the sewer rates. Written protests can be submitted to the City Clerk's Office during regular business hours through the dates of the hearings. The rate increases had been recommended by the city's Water Board, consisting of councilmembers Manpreet Kaur, Bob Smith and Andrae Gonzales, at a meeting earlier this month. The council spent more than an hour debating each item Wednesday, and ultimately voted to move ahead with rate increases. The decisions weren't unanimous. Ward 1 Councilman Eric Arias was the only member to vote against sending notices for the water increase and both he and Ward 2 Councilman Andrae Gonzales voted against sending notices for the sewer increase. Ward 4's Ken Weir and Ward 7's Manpreet Kaur were both absent. Ward 5 Councilman Larry Koman put forward a motion that would have returned the water rate proposal to a consultant for reevaluation, a process city staff said would take at least six months. That motion failed to pass with only Koman and Arias voting in favor. Council members and staff repeatedly said the decision to raise rates was not easy, but noted Bakersfield ratepayers pay significantly less than other comparable cities. Furthermore, a series of state-mandated water quality and conservation measures will require the city to make significant upgrades to its infrastructure in coming years. City staff developed a 10-year master plan to bring the city into compliance, said Kristina Budak, director of water resources, adding that the proposed increase would keep the city's financial reserves healthy. "This allows us to stay above our target reserve," Budak said. "(It) ensures that we have a healthy fund moving forward to address any concerns or issues that are not identified in our 10-year plan." City Manager Christian Clegg said there is a structural imbalance. "We're spending more than we're bringing in every year," Clegg said. "And in the next two years, we will spend all of our savings down. And by fiscal year (2028), we won't have enough money to pay for operations." Council members acknowledged the impact on residents, but also said if the city waited, the cost of improvements would rise. "The other consideration is it only gets more expensive the longer that we wait," Gonzales said. "So the capital expenditures only, it doesn't get less expensive, it gets more expensive to actually construct some of these projects, and, again, we can defer it, but we will be paying more in the future." But if the city moves ahead with its sewer rate increase, it's going to be too late for Kern County to hold its own Proposition 218 hearings by July 1 for the 600 or so county residents impacted by the change. That means without approval from its residents for a rate increase, Kern County will have to make up the difference out of its own funds for a year. "I can't put that fee on the county people because I would also have to do my own Proposition 218 (hearings) and allow them the voice to protest out of that fee as well," said Joshua Champlin, director of Kern County Public Works. Speaking to The Californian, Champlin said he wouldn't be able to get that done before July 1, meaning the increase on the county side wouldn't be reflected until the next fiscal year. About 600 customers in an area of unincorporated Kern County receive city sewer services under an agreement between the two governments. "It says in the agreement that the county shall pay the current city rate for all of its users. So it doesn't, it doesn't say there's any allowance for this in our agreement," Champlin said. "It doesn't say we can pay less if our people don't pay it. It just says the county shall pay them at the same rate that the city charges their people." The issue has come up before but in lower amounts, Champlin said, but because of the size of the increase he estimated the county would have to make up more than $400,000 in costs. Champlin commented on the increase at Wednesday's meeting, where he asked the council to put off the item so it could be discussed further between the city and county. But the city is on the same deadline to get the increase on its own tax rolls before July 1, the start of the fiscal year. In voting against sending out the notices, Arias said there were large cuts being planned at the federal level that will impact families in the coming year, and that the timing of the increase troubled him. "We have to do everything that we can at the local level to help folks literally survive and fight for the next day," Arias said. "It's very clear that we need to update the sewer plant. I just don't know that now is the time."
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bakersfield Councilman Ken Weir on absence due to health issues
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Ward 3 Bakersfield City Council member Ken Weir hasn't attended a single council meeting in 2025. The last city meeting the councilman attended was on December 18. So, it begs the question…where is Ken Weir? 'You've always supported me and I've tried my way to support you too and the lessons that you've brought I won't forget them,' said Ken Weir, at his last meeting. 'But, I will miss you.' Those were the last words Weir said at a city council meeting. He was sending former councilmembers Patti Gray and Bruce Freeman off to retirement. It has been 71 days since Weir's last appearance at a city council meeting. Weir has served as a Bakersfield city councilmember since 2006. He ran for Assembly District 32 in November, losing to Vince Fong, even though Fong left the seat and urged supporters to vote for Weir. 2 charged in 2020 fatal attempted robbery Weir's absence on city council has been noticed. I found his business, Weir and Associates, and went there. A worker told me they haven't seen him in weeks. After multiple calls to Weir and city officials, no one said where he was or even if he was okay. 2 hours before newstime, Cathy Abernathy, KGET's Republican Political analyst, confirmed Weir has had serious medical issues dating back to October. He had surgery on his eye and has serious thyroid issues. He has been back and forth from Bakersfield and Los Angeles seeing doctors. He said that his condition is getting better and is planning to be back at regular city council meetings in March. An east Bakersfield MMA fighter also announced he plans to run for Ward 3 city council. JC 'The leg lock Monster' Llamas plans to run for city council in 2026. He said that something needs to change and wants to make that change. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
