2026-08-26 - City Council

Summary

Built from the official minutes only; no video or transcript on file. The minutes are a scan with some garbled passages, and a few pages are missing.

Two sessions (3:30 p.m. and 5:15 p.m.) after the noon special meeting; Vice Mayor Kaur absent. Adjourned 8:51 p.m.
3:30 session: public statements on a lower-income family pilot program, Rule of Law and sanctuary city, and a Youth Commission appointment; closed session on a personnel matter and on existing litigation in Kern County Superior Court (Case BCV-24-104377), 3:44 to 5:02 p.m.
5:15 session: proclamations for National Breastfeeding Month (August 2026) and Childhood Cancer Awareness Month (September 2026); public statements on the General Plan Update, Flock cameras, Rule of Law and sanctuary city, and school parking policy near the police department.
Consent items: Magnet Forensics GrayKey software (up to $195,000); Community Action Partnership of Kern agreements for $231,048 in CDBG solar funds for the Friendship House Community Center and $647,656 in HHAP-4 funds for the Ramkabir project; fiber cut guarantee with Ripple Fiber California; Tract 6850 Phase 2 final map; contract amendments including Unified Field Services (to about $5 million), Cen-Cal Construction (to about $11.87 million), a Friant-Kern Canal Multi-Use Path change order (to about $16.5 million) and a Centennial Corridor change order (to about $28.18 million); climate bond Urban Greening grant application; first reading of a Fire Code and CUPA ordinance; adoption of ordinance 5223.
Hearing items: Taft Highway General Plan Amendment (adopted on Smith's motion, Kaur absent); Calloway Drive zone change (first reading); the Sierra Club appeal hearing for Tract Map 7451 was opened at 6:55 p.m.