My Endorsement of Kim Trupiano for Clayton City Council

As I prepare to conclude my service on the Clayton City Council, I am proud to endorse the reelection of Kim Trupiano for City Council.  Kim demonstrate qualities that matter in local government: experience, sound judgment, and a genuine commitment to the people of Clayton.

I have had the opportunity to serve alongside Kim and see firsthand how she approaches the job. She is one of the hardest-working Councilmembers I have ever seen.  Kim does her homework, asks questions, follows issues through, and does not give up when a problem is difficult. She is tenacious in addressing resident concerns and consistently keeps the people of Clayton at the forefront of her decision-making.

We have worked together on some of the City's most difficult issues, including the Housing Element, the Geological Hazard Abatement District, the library refresh, and the City's response to the Civil Grand Jury report.  What stands out most is her persistence. Kim does not simply identify a problem and move on. She stays with it, pushes for answers, and works to get it resolved. That work ethic, combined with her experience and commitment to residents, has earned my trust and my vote.

Clayton needs Councilmembers who have the necessary experience to guide policy making decisions, will do the work, ask hard questions, and listen to residents.  I have seen Kim do that firsthand and that is why I am proud to endorse Kim Trupiano for Clayton City Council.

My 9.15.26 Meeting Summary

Last night, the Council discussed one signficant item - restructuring of a loan to Diamond Terrace.

The Council approved an amendment to the City’s loan with Diamond Terrace to support the continued financial stability of an 86-unit senior housing development, including 81 income-restricted units, while improving the City’s ability to recover the full outstanding loan balance. The amendment replaces a large near term balloon payment with annual payments through 2040.  In addition, the loan amendment eliminates a provision in the original agreement that would have forgiven $500,000 of principal and the end of the loan term.

Quantitatively, the City will receive the full principal ($2.2266 million) currently owed, rather than forgiving $500,000 under the original agreement. The new schedule provides $150,000 annually through 2039 and a final $126,600 payment in 2040. Qualitatively, the restructuring reduces the risk that a large repayment requirement could create financial distress for the property, while helping preserve affordable senior housing in Clayton. The original loan was itself part of the City’s affordable housing program, and City records confirm that Diamond Terrace has historically been financed through non-interest-bearing redevelopment housing loans.

Upcoming Meeting 9.15.26

At our next meeting, we will be discussing one signficant item:

- We will consider a proposed amendment to the City’s loan with Diamond Terrace, an affordable senior housing development. The amendment would restructure the remaining $2.23 million balance by eliminating the 2030 balloon payment and extending repayment through 2040, while preserving the City’s security interest and requiring full repayment of principal.

If you have any thoughts on the above, please let me know.

My 9.1.26 Meeting Summary

On Tuesday, the Council approved several Municipal Code updates. These include eliminating the business license tax on single-family rentals and ADUs, clarifying false alarm fees, updating the recreational vehicle definition, modernizing park sound rules, and revising intersection sightline standards to better address pedestrian visibility and vegetation.

We also created a separate Special Event Permit process for events that affect streets or traffic. Lower-impact temporary uses will remain under the existing Temporary Use Permit process. The changes are mainly intended to make the code clearer and better reflect how the City operates today.

- We discussed traffic safety on Mitchell Canyon Rd. near Mt. Diablo Elementary.  Current municipal code restricts commercial motor vehicles exceeding GVW of five tons to operate only between the hours of 7am and 10pm each day.  This has been an issue that I was interested in for several years, however it has taken time to do the research necessary to determine what options were available to the City.  There are many things that can be done, but most of those require agreement or cooperation from outside entities whose interests may not be aligned with the City, or may be cost prohibitive, or both.

Given the high volume of commercial vehicle traffic on this road during school drop off areas, I suggested the Council discuss various ways we could enahnce pedestrian and vehicle safety.  Some ideas that were mentioned included the addition of sidewalks (this is already in flight for a small section), street widening, speed limit reduction, additional crosswalks, or actually restricting commerical vehicles.The City has discretion on what operating hours are allowed, and through ordinance, can modify the existing operating hours.  The Council formed an ad hoc committee to discuss the matter, and Councilmember Tillman and Vice Mayor Enea volunteered to serve on the ad hoc committee.

While a large influx of vehicles during a short window will always increase safety risk, there are definitely things the City could do to incrementally mitigate that risk.  One of those is restricting the time of operation of large commercial vehicles so as not to overlap with morning drop off in front of the elementary school.  I hope future Councils pursue this as it would be a quality of life improvement for our residents.

Upcoming Meeting 9.1.26

At our next meeting, we will be discussing several signficant items:

- We will do the 1st reading of the 7 ordinances that we discussed at our last meeting.  Due to administrative issues, those ordinances were not able to have their first reading.  We discussed each last time and continued each to this meeting.  Ordinances need two readings before they can take effect.  The first are typically done with public hearings, and the second reading is often done through the consent calendar at the following meeting.

- We will discuss options to address large commercial truck traffic near Mt. Diablo Elementary School.

If you have any thoughts or questions on the above, please let me know.

My Meeting Summary 8.18.26

At our meeting on Tuesday, we discussed several significant items:

- There were 7 items related to public hearings and updating ordinances.  Our ordinances do not have a regular refresh period, so over time they can get outdated based on language, or the way the City currently operates.  I will summarize all rather than describe each change.  All changes were reltatively minor focusing mostly on addressing language updates or operational updates. The Council agreed to eliminate the business license tax on single family rental dwelling units - these were primarily ADU rentals.  Last year the City collected seven payments for these types of items, and the administrative burden was not worth what we were receiving.  We updated ordinances to clarify false alarms for property, for what is considered a Recreational vehicle, for personal sound equipment in parks and other public spaces, updated titling within the oridnances to be more general, and we separated Special Event permitting practice from Temporary Use permits.

All of these public hearings were continued until the 9/1 meeting.

- We adopted a new standard for street signs.  There are several street signs in town that are worn or faded and need to be replaced.  Those will be replaced with the new standard.  As other signs need to be replaced, they will use th enew standard as well.  The new signs look similar, but are more reflective and easier to see, and cheaper to fabricate.

- We updated the job classification of the Community Development Technician to Community Development Specialist to better align with actual job duties.

- We designated Councilmember Diaz and Councilmember Tillman as the voting delegate and alternate, respectively, for the League of California Cities 2026 annual conference in September and provided guidance that the City is in favor of the resolution being discussed.  The resolution has to do with Cal Cities consdiering ways to promote local control over housing.

Upcoming Meeting 8.18.26

At our next meeting, we will be discussing several signficant items:

- There will be public hearings regarding 7 separate items all related to fees and permits.  These updates were based on the need to clarify language and simplify operations.

- We will discuss updating the City's standards for street name signs to be current with the current California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  The current look will remain, with updated materials for better visibiity at a lower cost.

- We will discuss a job reclassificaation of the Community Development Technician to Community Develop Specialist.

- We will discuss the designation of a voting delegate and alternate for the League of California Cities 2026 annual conference held from Septmber 23-25 in Anaheim, CA, and the City's position on the one general resolution being voted on.  The resolution asks Cal Cities to explore a constitutional, legislative, or ballot based strategy to restore greater local control over housing and land use decisions to cities, while preserving the State's authority over broad housing goals.

If you have any thoughts or quesetions on the above, please let me know.