January 8, 2019 Regular Meeting of Mountain View City Council

Video

Transcript

[00:00:03] Mayor Lenny Siegel: Good evening. Well, those people who are not already standing, please rise for the pledge of allegiance.

[00:00:18] Unknown Speaker: The Republic, for which it stands, One Nation.

[00:00:31] Mayor Lenny Siegel: We're going to start this evening with a presentation, the ceremonial oath of office for advisory board members. So will the newly appointed members of the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, Downtown Committee, Environmental Planning Commission, Human Relations Commission, Library Board, Parks and Recreation Commission, Performing Arts Committee, and Senior Advisory Committee, join the city clerk in front of the dais for the oath of office. And I must say, Mount View is blessed, with all these people who are willing to volunteer their time. Oh, I'm supposed to do the roll call. So she's already in charge. I'll count. All accounts members are present. Thank you. So if you're newly appointed to any of those bodies, please step forward. Congratulations.

[00:01:45] City Clerk: Hi, Mary. Do you solemnly swear or affirm? That I will support and defend. The Constitution of the United States... The Constitution of the State of California, against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance, that I will bear true faith and allegiance... to the Constitution of the United States, to the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of California, and the Constitution of the State of California, that I take this obligation freely, and I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation, or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge. The duties upon which I' the duties upon which I'm about to enter.

[00:02:42] Mayor Lenny Siegel: Thank you, thank you. Once again, congratulations from all of us, thank you so much for your service to the city of Mountain View. Item 4 is the consent calendar, which today only consists of approving meeting minutes. Is there any public comment on the consent calendar, seeing none? I'll take a motion.

[00:03:12] Councilmember Chris Clark: I move the consent calendar.

[00:03:15] Mayor Lenny Siegel: Motion by council member Clark, seconded by council member Abbe Koga, is there any discussion? Let's vote. Now we have oral communications. Oh, passes unanimously. I actually didn't even look. Next, we have Oral Communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any matter, not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic for one 3 minute period during this section. State law prohibits the council from acting on non agenda items. Who wishes to speak?

[00:03:56] Public Speaker: Uh, Mayor Siegel, vice mayor of Matterchech, honorable council members and wonderful city staff. I'm sorry to have picked such an auspicious night to actually bring something to you. But I just wanted to inform you or let you know, Sunday, the 6th, we had a terrible rain. I'm trying to bring up the slide here, but I'm not gonna delay you with that. There was a very bad pothole on El Camino Real, Northbound, just south of El Monte. I hit it really hard, lost a hubcap. It was on the side of the road. I called in to our police department, you know, informed what was going on. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything to do because it was a Caltrans thing. I came back an hour later when the rain stopped, I think I found 9 hubcaps. Uh, not mine, and 2 other guys were looking for their hubcaps. The following morning at 9 o'clock, around 9.30 a.m. There was a pile of, like, 11 hubcaps. So, I just wanted to raise that to you. I am not going to make any editorial comment about it. To wrap up, what? Okay, two minutes. Thank you. Thank you for serving to our new council members coming. Thank you for answering the call to serve. Hopefully, as the year progresses, and hopefully in however many hours you have left. Um, whatever, you know, we decisions we can bring to you, we'll bring you uh, civilly and, you know, politely and help you guys just be the best you can be and do the best you can do. Thank you.

[00:05:23] Mayor Lenny Siegel: Thank you very much. Next, please.

[00:05:37] John Inks: I'm, uh, John Inks, uh, showers drive. Most of you know that I was a candidate for city council in the last selection, unsuccessful candidate. I was in a campaign that, unfortunately, there was extensive campaign sign vandalism and theft of my science throughout the campaign. And over the months, as the campaign progressed, some people started installing security cameras around town. And one person who had, on Church Street, who actually had five signs stolen, eventually installed a camera in her front porch flight. And this is what she, this is what she recorded. I'm clicking on it, and so... This is part of my three minutes. Just started to be there. Oh. Okay. Let's continue on. Some of you have probably already seen this video. It shows a pic a person in a ball cap, a hoodie, sunglasses, going up, spray painting one of my signs, and stealing another sign. All right, so, when this was photo was showed to, uh, Mountain View Police, um, when this was showed to Mountain View, please, they immediately identified the suspect as, uh, Joe Lopez. They interviewed him, he was cited for a campaign sign, vandalism, and theft, arraigned in Superior Court on December 20th. You know, not to diminish the successful campaigns of the others in the campaign at all. Basically, I didn't do very well at all. But Joe Lopez smeared my campaign and trashed the hard work of my campaign supporters. Running around in the middle of the night in a clumsy, awkward disguise, spray painting and stealing signs. This is not the character of a community role model, but that of a radical hoodlum. All right? But Joe Lopez got caught. And it's kind of ironic that he still comes to meetings, and lectures people about their morals, when he doesn't even respect the property and free speech of others who he may actually disagree with. So, there's a pretrial hearing that's scheduled for January 20th. There's more to come regarding justice for Joe Lopez in connection with his campaign sign and vandalism theft crimes. Thank you.

[00:08:13] Mayor Lenny Siegel: Thank you. As you may recall, when the first signed vandalism was reported, all of the candidates and all the council members indicated our belief that this is unacceptable behavior. So we're very sorry that that happened in the campaign. Any other speakers?

[00:08:33] Jackie Cashin: Jackie Cashin, 2310 Rock Street. This was intended mostly for the new council members, but some of you will be continuing on. First of all, I hope you had a good holiday and time to recover from the last session where we discussed housing, but unfortunately, it's going to be housing Mountain View style round 2, since there is another building up for consideration in a few weeks. Two topics came up at the last meeting. One is the discussion of putting a moratorium on the destruction of affordable housing complexes. The other is looking at having a no net loss on any new construction. And the moratorium is a long and complicated discussion, but I think the known-net loss is something that we can at least bring up quickly. And something I hope that the council will address early on in its new session. As we've discussed, there will be a loss of units at both 2005 Rock Street and 2310 Rock Street. Now it's only 9 units in the overall picture of things that's not a whole lot. But at the same time, we're looking at just these buildings without thinking about the fact that Mountain View is 60% renters. There's dozens and dozens of apartment buildings in here, and some of them are older. Some of them are newer, maybe just on this side of not being rent controlled. And there's really no reason why the same developers who've come in to look at the older buildings can't come in and look at these newer buildings and say, hey, I'm going to give you $60000000 if you'll vacate your space so that I can build single family housing, condos, whatever it might be. Um, so the no net loss policy doesn't necessarily affect just people in units like mine. It could well be newer buildings. I mean, there's much more money in building as much as we do want ownership housing in the city and there's much more money in it for the developer. The typical apartment building may go from 200 apartment units to 120 ownership units. And then that kind of thing is just going backwards from where we need to go. So I think the concept of what we're going to do in terms of not just now. but in the future as more and more development proposals come before the city. How do we balance the goals of providing ownership housing, not having people forced to move the city, not necessarily just because they can't afford it anymore, but maybe they just can't find a place anymore because they're not enough places. So I hope this and as well as the moratorium are issues that the city council will address early so that we can have a good discussion about that because we really do need to have a long-term housing plan put into place for these kinds of things. Thank you.

[00:11:20] Mayor Lenny Siegel: Thank you very much. Are there any other speakers on oral communication? sir.

[00:11:25] Jen Fong: Hello. Hi. I'm Jen Fong. I have been in Mountain View for 11 years. So Happy New Year, everyone. And I heard that city council member only got $1000 per month seems a very low paid job and thank you very much for kind of being the volunteer. But although it's a low-paid job, I still want to remind that, you know, these your responsibilities to represent everyone in Mountain View, property owner, renter, rich person, per person, you know, longtime residence, immigrants, everyone. But you should not use this job to reflect your own interest or your personal belief. And the reason I talk about this is 3 months ago, there was a round discussion in Mountain View City Hall about a cannabis store in Mountain View. Even today, when I think about it, I still feel I'm shocked. In San Jose, there is 1000 feet buffer for after school. In Mountain View, the barfer is zero. Why? Why? Some of you, if not all, choose to 0 buffer. You want to be friends with the sound saving, can be a store owner and you don't care, Mountain View residence. If I remember correctly, that day, Most of the month of your relatives and note to the proposal. And the city council still decide to go with it. And I remember one of the council members, and I'm sorry, some of you will be disappointed, and out of the mountain reds and said, okay, we'll vote in November. I think both sides promise, keep that promise. So, as there's a new council member, a new council coming, I think one of the priority is to fix some of the mistakes, hype in the past a year or two. I'm now saying a lot of the decision will mistake, but some are a mistake. I think that's understandable. I also made mistakes. And if I find it, I try to fix it. And last is not directly related to Mountain View? So the same way, when Mountain View was discussed in cannabis, there was a similar discussion in Mil Peters. And Milpita City Council approved can be a star, like in the 1st meeting. And later on, it turned out to one of the council members has a deep interest in the business. And in the 2nd meeting, there's a 40 denied the proposal. Okay, thank you.

[00:14:21] Mayor Lenny Siegel: Thank you very much. Seeing no other speakers. There's no public hearing and there's no unfinished business, so we have new business, which includes... Oh, you wanted to speak under your own communications? Come forward, please.

[00:14:42] Thomson: Two, two, Thomson. I been here before during the canopy discussion, and today, I like to support that gentleman before me, to say, hey, we mountain view, we, we don't really need a canopy store. We prefer not to have any canopy store. And I also, um, went to the Milpita session and I actually witnessed how they turned front desk door down to zero. So it can be done. Thank you very much.

[00:15:13] Mayor Lenny Siegel: Thank you. Anybody else? So we then moved to new business, which includes recognition of the outgoing council members, swearing in of the new council members and election of the new mayor. We are taking public comment on all of those at one time. Does anybody wish to make a public comment on item eight? Saying none? We'll move on to item 8.one, which is recognition of council member and former mayor Rosenberg, Ken. We gave this to you last night and we'll present it to you again. Thank you. Congratulations and thank you for your service. There was a lot of words on that proclamation, so we're experiening you that.

[00:16:06] Councilmember Ken Rosenberg: Typically, I would add lib this, but I did write down some notes and forgive me for reading from them. But I want to get this right. And tonight marks a very interesting transition for me. For the first time in 17 years, I will not be on a board or on a group that is dedicated to the betterment, the improvement, and the advancement of Mountain View. Since 2002, I have dedicated my time away from my family and my work for those specific reasons. When I was campaigning five years ago, I was often asked, what mountain view might look like in five years. My response was simple, newer. And so it is. It is true that these past four years have brought many changes. One need only drive or bike around town to see it. There is so much construction, no matter where you go. It's exciting, really. What will be there? When the construction has ended. People always seem to be interested in the new. Which businesses is going to go into that space? What is the new restaurant choice we will have? What, a new movie theater? Awesome. I look back with pride and many of the votes that I have made to help facilitate these changes. I hope that you join me in welcoming our new businesses and our new residents. But along your drive or bike trip through town, you may also notice some things that aren't so positive. People living in cars and RVs. The issue of homelessness is far more complicated than I had ever previously imagined. Cities our size don't typically handle that issue at all. We tend to let the county and state deal with it. But it was when I gasped out loud a few years ago, right here on this dais. When a constituent speaking from the podium, announced that we had 30 homeless students attending our elementary schools, that I knew we had to do something. And do something we did. And I look back at our efforts, which will continue past tonight, as a legacy towards helping people and their dignity. Dignity. That's a word we hear a lot when discussing human rights. There have been a few times when I would say moments before we would take a vote. There are some votes that are better than others. Increasing minimum wage was one. Approving magical bridge playground was another. But at no time was that more true when we voted to make Mountain View a human rights city. Why is this important? Because human rights reflect the minimum standards for people to live with dignity? Human rights give the people the freedom to choose how they live, how they express themselves, and what kind of government they want to support among many other things. Human rights also guarantee people the means necessary to satisfy their basic needs such as food, housing, and education. So they can take full advantage of all opportunities. By guaranteeing life, liberty, equality, and security. Human rights protect people against abuse by those who are more powerful. Governments have the primary, but not sole responsibility for protecting and promoting human rights. It is a big deal, whether people choose to acknowledge it or not. That we have made that declaration. And I hope someone on the new council will champion the concept and never let the human rights flame grow dim. For it is the purpose of government to help people help themselves. I sincerely believe that most of the world's problems can be solved if only leaders and officials looked at the solutions from a human rights perspective. I have delivered the new and remaining council, as well as senior staff here in the city. Their own copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In it, I quoted De Saco Akita from Japan. He said, human rights, democracy, and peace are a single entity. When one disintegrates, they all disintegrate. And I inscribed it thusly, and I hope it resonates with those who now own the booklet. You are a protector of human rights. Tonight, I will add to the new council. Use your power wisely. Last night, Lenny said that city council stands at the intersection of government and the people, and how true that is. We are your representatives, and the job up here is not easy. I want to thank the amazing staff of this city. You make us look good by being consummate professionals, caring about the people who live and work here and the overall well being of this city. I have made some lasting friendships with staff members, and I will miss seeing you regularly. I have thanked them all individually prior to tonight, so I won't take up your time in doing that again, but I will single one person out. A quality city cannot run without a city manager of the highest qualities. Mountain View is blessed with Dan Rich, a city manager with integrity, intelligence, and ingenuity. A leader for the city who listens and cares deeply in the well being of everybody here. So thank you, Dan, for your countless hours you've spent with me tutoring me, placating me and guiding me. A member of the public recently came up to me and said that it was a treat to watch me evolve in public, in my public deliberations, and how I got comfortable in voting in my value system. to Alison, Ellen, and Lucas. I encourage you to think about that. Vote your values, not how peers want you to vote. More often than not, you will naturally be aligned. But on those rare occasions where you are breaking from the group, voting your values will help you sleep at night. There will always be a few members of the public who will take shots at you. In the paper or right here in council chambers. But if you stick to your values, you will consistently be guided with principle and purpose. Remember, there are always human beings on the other side of all of your votes. What you do will move the needle for them. I wish you the courage of your convictions. And to my colleagues who are staying up here, be bold and progressive. Mountain View has been a leader in so many area precisely for those reasons. Remember that your constituents are not only those who live in houses, help everybody live and thrive in dignity. Lastly, to my friends Pat and Lenny. I love you guys. I really do. I am also very sad that you lost the election. I'm sad because you were both caring, deliberative, and amazing public servants. You have amazing ideas and are passionate about improving the lives and environment for everyone. I really did think I would be the only one saying goodbye tonight, and it doesn't necessarily bring me comfort that I'm not. I'm going to go away for a short while and dream it all up again. My next endeavor will be global in scope. Thank you, Mountain View, for being the best city in the world. Thank you. Thank you for the honor of allowing me to represent you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[00:23:45] Mayor Lenny Siegel: So, Pat, I have a proclamation for you as well. All right. You received it last night. We read it last night. With all true. Thank you so much for your service.

[00:23:55] Pat Showalter: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, this is a time for some thank yous, a little philosophizing, and some advice to the new council. First, the thank yous. The first one is really to the staff. I think the city council gets most of the glory, but the truth is that the staff really does most of the work. And, um, we come up with a tremendous number of ideas, and they do, just a fantastic job of implementing them. And it's really important that we never forget that. Second, I want to thank my family. We talked about that last night. They've really been rocks throughout this four years. And I couldn't have done it without them. And I wouldn't have done it without them. And I'm so glad they took part in the journey. Third, I just want to thank my colleagues on the city council. And the ones that I served with previously. We spend so many hours together that you really do get to be kind of like brothers and sisters that, you know, you like some things about, and you just don't like other things at all. But largely, we have a, you know, a very strong camaraderie. And I truly am going to miss that. And I also developed that camaraderie on some of the boards I served on, particularly the cities association. It was really nice to have rod sinks, who was the president of the city's association last year, come to the party last night and introduce you, Lenny. And then, fourth, I want to thank my employer, my past employer. I retired about a little over a year ago, but I worked before that at the Santa Clara Valley Water District. And in order to do this job, I had to take off a lot of time. And there were potential conflicts of interest, and they had to adjust my duties so that they, we could work around those, and they were really willing to do that. And I just appreciate that so, um, so very much. So, I don't know if they're listening, but thank you, Santa Clara Valley Water District. Finally, I just really like to thank the people of Mountain View. Particularly the ones who take part in our government. All of you in this room do that. And thank you. It's really important to have you come and share your thoughts with us. It's really important to have you come and serve on advisory committees. It's important for you to email the city council and advisory committees before the meetings and share your thoughts. It's important to meet with us and share your expertise. So keep it up, because the complex problems that face this city are going to continue, and the new council is going to need your help. So, stay involved. Then the philosophizing. You know, from this viewpoint, you think about a lot of details and a lot of big picture stuff. And I wanted to just share four risks, four big risks that I think that the city needs to continually consider. Two are what I've called the perils of prosperity, not enough housing and terrible traffic. And we've really worked on those constantly over the last 4 years. And we've made some great headway. But there's a lot to be more to be done. So keep working on it. We haven't, like, unlike some of our neighboring communities, we have not buried our head in the sand, we have said that these problems, although we can't solve them alone. We will solve, we will do our part. And we will stand as an example for the region of what can be done. And I've been very proud to be part of that. We built over 2500 units in the last 4 years. That's really amazing. So I'm very, and then we've done planning for whole new neighborhoods in the North Bay Shore. So I look forward to, you know, watching that unfold. Then the other 2 risks that I think we need to consider are earthquakes and climate change. The name of our town is Mountain View, and you literally can see because of the mountains, 2 major fault regions from here. If you turn to the west, you'll be looking at the San Andreas Fault, along Santa Cruz Mountains. If you turn to the east, if you look along the edge of the Fremont Hills, you'll be looking at the Hayward Fault. Both are things we need to consider. We've got great building codes. That's important, but we need to always be vigilant. Everybody should have their emergency gets ready. And I hope that we'll make progress on those soft story buildings, because that's important. And then the other one is, if we face, if we face east, we're really looking at the bay. And sea level rise is going to be a big issue for this community. And one of the reasons I wanted to serve in the first place was because we had been forthright and hired a consulting firm to figure out what we needed to do to protect our shores, and we're working on that. But it's important that we keep doing that. And I've had the pleasure of serving you on a couple of boards, and I'm hoping I'll be able to continue on the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, where I'll be able to use my expertise as a civil engineer on that. So, Then advice to the new council. This is this is a fantastic job. It's a lot of fun, and it's a lot of work. One of the traditions that Mountain View has had for many, many decades. At least the sort of the 3.5 I've been part of this community, is we've conducted our civic business with a great deal of civility. Over the course of my career, I've had the privilege to work with a number of city councils. And I was initially shocked to find out that everybody doesn't do it that way. And the thing that's so important about conducting our business with civility is that it creates an atmosphere where people are willing to talk about ideas and share new thoughts because they know someone's not going to jump down their throats. And that really is valuable. That allows us to come up with and consider a whole range of ideas, and to include many, many people in our deliberations. And so, it creates an effectiveness that I think Mountain View should be really, really proud of. And if you look around at what we've been able to do as a community, and what some of our neighboring communities haven't been able to do, I think a lot of it is attributable to the fact that we behave ourselves civilly. And so I really just would urge you to maintain that tradition. It sounds a little ridiculous that it would matter, but it makes a big, big difference. Then my request to the new council is keep working on the housing. We need it. Keep working on the transportation, and please, please, let's get the Stevens Creek Trail completed to Mountain View High School. Thank you very much. Oh.

[00:31:57] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: We presented this proclamation to you last night, so, again, we're not gonna read it, but we have a little bonus for you tonight. Okay. We have an extra a plaque with a commemorative gavel for you.

[00:32:12] Mayor Lenny Siegel: Thank you very much. Thank you. Serving on this council for the past four years, and as mayor for the one year, has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Last night, I said that I had over the holidays, I wrote a 12 page summary of some of the things we did. I'm not going to read it. You can find it on the web. under proud of our accomplishments with my name. I'm going to touch on a few things. First is the council, since I've been on it, built on things that the council before us had started, creating Silicon Valley Clean Energy, the minimum wage, approving a steady stream of affordable housing projects while our neighbor to the Northwest had trouble doing any. During this these 4 years, the voters approved, rent control, providing protection to 13,500 households, against rent gouging, and 15,000 households against just cause eviction. Two of the projects I worked hardest and longest on were consummated this fall with the approval of a site for the Los Altos school district, in the San Antonio area, in the passage of the employer tax. Those were things I worked on for so long, it really taught me the lesson that persistence pays off. There are ongoing things. Pats mentioned them. We need to continue working. on the precise plans, implementing the North Bay Shore plan, implementing the East Wisman plan, developing one for Terabella, to provide housing near employment in commercial, on land that's previously been commercial. In transportation. There's the automated guideway and the transit center, things which we're working on. The new council will need to complete, or maybe it will be another new council. Some of these things are going to take so long. I've lived in Mountain View for 46 years, and I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to continue to speak out on local and national issues. As a community organizer, as someone in the audience, some of the things I want to continue to work on, will be, as I said, moving forward on the planning that we've been doing in the transportation, finding a large scale off street parking area for vehicle dwellers, converting the 1st 3 blocks of Castro Street into pedestrian malls. extending rent control to mobile homes. I'd like to see campaigns to see how many people in Mountain View we can get to buy and drive electric cars and put solar panels on their roofs. I'd like to see shared equity housing. So for middle income people to become 1st time home buyers in an area where it's virtually impossible without owning stock in a tech company. I began the year by saying that Mountain View is a regional leader. So when I pursue any of these things, one of the things I'm trying to do is to use our progress in Mountain View, whether it be on the minimum wage, on the employer tax, on building housing, as a way to bring our neighbors, up to speed with us. Mountain View has accomplished a lot in the last 4 years. We are going to accomplish more, even though some of us won't be on the council. And I implore all of the people here, all of our residents to continue to contribute. We're going to argue sometimes, some of these things are difficult, but working together, we can challenge the perils of prosperity and continue to see Mountain View as a great community. So it's with great pride, that I turn over the gavel to Lisa, congratulate you, I expect you to be the mayor. But right now, right now, you're going to chair the meeting, as the vice mayor, as the 3 of us step down. So congratulations. you. Yeah, we stepped down.

[00:37:32] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Okay, so thank you very much. At this point, our city clerk will administer the oath of office to the newly elected council members. And so, if um, Ellen May. Lucas Ramirez and Alison Hicks will join us here in the front. Our city clerk, Lisa Nutush, will administer the oath of office.

[00:39:53] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: So at this point, um, I'd like to invite the newly, ah, elected council members now. We can finally say that. Um, to give some remarks if they'd like to do so, so, starting with Council member Kamet.

[00:40:06] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Mayor Manachek. Good. Oh, bye, Samor. Sorry. Jumping. Jumping. Good evening. There are only 2 words that control express how I feel. which is, thank you. I'm so grateful for your presence here tonight. The story of my family started here in Mountain View over 70 years ago, and this is the next chapter of our family's story. My paternal grandparents who were field workers, met here in our city cutting flowers, and they made it their home. It's because of them that I'm able to grow up in this city. I spent the early years on our family's 10 acre flower growing nursery. And right here in our community. I learned the bedrock of my values. Hard work, civic engagement, and compassion. Historically, our city has been a middle class community of diverse socio economic backgrounds, which I hope to continue. Mountain View is a welcoming place. And I want it to continue to be so for all of its kids. Just like it was for me. In the coming years ahead. I truly look forward to working with my colleagues, neighbors and city staff, as well as all of you. in a collaborative and respectful manner. The tough issues, creating more housing, as well as opportunities for our unhoused, developing transportation infrastructure, and maintaining environmental sustainability and addressing climate change. are ones we face together. We must tackle them together. They are at the forefront as my mind, so that raising our children, our multi generational families, and aging in place are not a struggle in our community. We must also continue to help create rental and ownership opportunities for our moderate income households. Our diversity is what makes Mountain View a wonderful place. I am multiracial. My father's Japanese American, and my mother is Chinese and Puerto Rican. And so I speak a bit of Mandarin, Japanese, and Spanish. And I've learned that language, and the ability to communicate in an open and approachable manner is critical. I aim to take that into account for all the perspectives that our residents have, as well as my colleagues. Tonight, the dream of a nine year old girl comes true, to serve the community she calls home. Thank you for the honor of serving all of you. It is humbling to serve the community of my grandparents. I just wish they were alive to share in that with all of us. My family and all of you, the family of Mountain View. So, in every language I know, Arigato Gozimas. Thank you.

[00:43:20] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you, Council member Kameh. Council member Ramirez.

[00:43:24] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you to outgoing mayor, Siegel, and to council members, show Walter and Rosenberg for your service, and congratulations to council members, Kuma and Hicks, on your election. I look forward to serving with you and with the other members of the council. The candidate forms have conditioned me to speak briefly. So I will strive to do that. First, I would like to thank my family for your patience and intolerance over the past year. and to my employer and my team. similarly for stepping in when I was engaged with a number of other activities up here. As a council member can make in a test, it's no easy feat running for office and working. I'd also like to thank the members of my campaign team. I'm not sitting here because of any remarkable feet achieved single-handedly. It was truly a team effort. And if I, if you will permit me the opportunity to just name the members of the core team, Shamanello, my campaign manager, Emily Ramos, the deputy campaign manager, Mike Casper Zek, my treasurer, Marianne and Deb Hendrickson, who helped organize campaign events, Kevin Ball, who helped me with the website, and Alex Nunez, who helped me coordinate volunteers. I could not have been successful without you. And without the dozens of volunteers, who put in so much time into the effort. So thank you. I would like to make 3 requests. The 1st is, please don't be afraid to reach out to me. I'm accessible. I'd like to hear what you have to say, and I intend to work very closely with all of you. And that we may disagree. I want to hear what you have to say The 2nd is please be respectful in your speech and in your deeds. There were just in the next couple of months, we will be engaging in a number of activities that are likely to be challenging and divisive. And I think it's important, you know, as council member, former council member, show alter said, to maintain civility, even when we disagree, and especially when we disagree. And the final thing, the final thing I'd like to say is hold me accountable when I fail you. Thank you very much for the opportunity opportunity to speak, and thank you for the honor and privilege to serve.

[00:46:21] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you, Council member Ramirez. Council member Hicks.

[00:46:26] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Thank you, Vice Mayor Matachek. Um, I want to also start by thanking you thanking you all for coming out tonight. You could be home, apparently, watching a presidential speech. So thank you for opting to come here instead. I also wanted to thank the members of my family for being incredibly patient with me over the past, not the past year, like some of you have said, but the past maybe six months. And thank the members of my incredible team, as you may know, I didn't plan my run for years, I planned for, I don't know, whether it was four or six months ago, I decided to throw my hat in the ring. So I would not have won without an absolutely incredible team. I'm going to go thank you all quickly. There's Carol Whittaker, who can truly make anyone look good in a photograph, look at my website, if you want to, you should all hire her. Joyce Yin, who handled my signs, and is also an incredible transitoriented development expert in now gracing our environmental planning commission. Thank you. Lori Robinson, who took the great number of walksheets that you need to take to, she's spread them all over her house, so that we could walk and knock on as many doors of voters in Mountain View as possible. Robert Cox, who was our main voice of campaign expertise, and also handled our outreach to our very important mobile home community. Louise Katz, who trains people to knock on doors, and I also recommend her, if you're planning on running for office at any time. Dave Lewis, my always calm treasurer. Jerry Steach, who handled social media, Uh, Mary, uh, Mary Hodder, who handled ad strategy, and Maria Marakeen, who did, uh, website help. There were a lot of other canvassers and many... I want to, especially thank the many, many more people, throughout Mountain View, who opened their doors when I knocked on them, whether they were in their pajamas or their sweatpants, and shared with me, the things they cared about most about Mountain View, whether they were incredible problems or hopes for the future, as we grow. In addition, I want to thank the members, and I see some of them out in the audience, members of progressive action, who I won't name all of you, because I don't know which ones of you are here, and I don't want to embarrass some of you, and not others. But I want to thank you because we've worked together for years tackling some of the tougher justice issues in Mountain View. The main one that comes to mind is the minimum wage, which we raised to $15 an hour in Mountain View, with the help, I have to say, of with the help of Margaret Abbe Koga and later of Ken Rosenberg championing the issue. And then actually of every one of the council members, without accepting. And after that, we went from city to city around the county, raising the minimum wage, in most of the larger cities of Santa Clara County. in what I believe is one of the largest minimum wage hikes in the country. And the reason I bring that up tonight is that we are, as you all know, we're struggling with a number of other critical issues, ranging from affordable housing, homelessness, houselessness, climate change. And I think that's the model that we should adopt. We can spark solutions to problems here, but to truly solve these problems, we need to go and speak to every city in the county and outside the county, we really need to solve our problems regionally. So, with that, I'll circle back to, so thanking the group Progressive Action, and I'll also circle back and thank the group Livable Mountain View, which a group that I help found, but am no longer a part of. But I think that's the 2nd thing that I'd like us to make sure to address as council people, that we remember when we're tackling those huge global and regional problems, that, in the end, Mountain View is home to a lot of people. And we have to tens of thousands of people. And we have to make sure that as we grow, and as we tackle these problems, we keep Mountain View a truly great place to live. So thank you.

[00:51:19] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you, Council member Hicks. Next on the agenda is the election of the mayor and vice mayor for 2019. Are there any nominations? Council member of Akoga.

[00:51:34] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Vice Mayor, is with great pleasure that I actually nominate you. Lisa, I had a check for mayor for the city of Mountain View in 2019. A little bit about Lisa. Lisa is a 19 year resident of Mountain View and 1st got involved in the community through her neighborhood as the founding president of the Wagon Wheel neighborhood association. She went on to serve as president of the Association for Four Years. She was later appointed to the Environmental Planning Commission and served there for 7 years. Her professional background is in high tech in particular cybersecurity, which gives her the insight into our tech community that is such a big part of Mountain View. She was elected to city council in 2016. I was elected at the same time, and I've truly enjoyed working with Lisa on the council for the last 2 years. I found Lisa to be thoughtful, thorough, collaborative, and a great problem solver. She has served the city well as vice mayor. She cares deeply for our residents, our neighborhoods, in our community as a whole, and I know she will lead our city with distinction as mayor, and I'm proud to nominate her. Thank you.

[00:52:59] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: There's a second by...

[00:53:01] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes, I had the opportunity to, yes. So, Burp, how to get to speak, finally, so... Second emotion.

[00:53:13] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Do we use the system, or do we do by hand?

[00:53:17] City Clerk: Well, go ahead and do a roll call vote. Okay. Councilman Robbie Koga.

[00:53:20] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Aye.

[00:53:21] City Clerk: Council member Clark.

[00:53:22] Councilmember Chris Clark: Aye.

[00:53:22] City Clerk: Council member Kumay.

[00:53:24] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: I... Uh...

[00:53:25] City Clerk: Vice Mermatichek.

[00:53:28] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[00:53:31] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez.

[00:53:32] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[00:53:33] City Clerk: Council member Hicks?

[00:53:34] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I,

[00:53:35] City Clerk: Counselor McAllister.

[00:53:36] Councilmember John McAlister: And the final straw, yes.

[00:53:40] City Clerk: Thank you. Congratulations.

[00:53:42] Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Next is the election of a vice mayor. Are there any nominations? Council member Camet?

[00:54:01] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, I'm going to get this right. Mayor Mattachek this day. It is my honor to nominate council member Margaret Abe Koka for Vice Mayor. Margaret began her service to the city of Mountain View, beginning on the Human Relations Commission in 2000, and she chaired the commission in 2003. Margaret then served on the environmental planning commission from 2004 to 2006 and is an alumni of Leadership Mountain View, where she also served on the executive council, elected in 2016, Margaret has served our community as a council member for 10 years, and she's been able to develop a multitude of skills for, which I would like to nominate her for, and 3 reasons are her fiscal leadership. Her guidance as mayor of our city in 2000 Lot 9 led us through the Great Recession. process. She has been a champion of the city of Mountain View, at the regional level, as a member of numerous regional bodies and priorities. Margaret truly champions the most important issues in our community, including, as was mentioned, by council member Hicks, the minimum wage. I recommend her for vice mayor. Thank you.

[00:55:12] Unknown Speaker: Well, 2nd the number. Oh, never mind. You stole the show, John. Get to 2nd everything tonight.

[00:55:20] Mayor Lisa Matichak: So motion by council member Kame, segmented by council member McAllister, did you want to say anything?

[00:55:27] Councilmember John McAlister: You know, it's going to be a pleasure to see that we have, you know, this year of the equality, and we have four talented women that are going to be serving you, and it's going to be a privilege to work with all of you. And I look for your leadership.

[00:55:52] Mayor Lisa Matichak: So we can do a roll call vote?

[00:55:54] City Clerk: Council member Robbie Koga?

[00:55:55] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Aye.

[00:55:56] City Clerk: Council member Clark.

[00:55:57] Councilmember Chris Clark: Hi.

[00:55:57] City Clerk: Council member Kimei.

[00:55:58] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[00:55:59] City Clerk: Mayor Matachek?

[00:56:00] Mayor Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[00:56:00] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez?

[00:56:01] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[00:56:02] City Clerk: Council member Hicks?

[00:56:03] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes,

[00:56:03] City Clerk: Council member McAllister.

[00:56:05] Councilmember John McAlister: No, I always get the pleasure of saying yes at the end.

[00:56:07] City Clerk: Thank you very much. Congratulations.

[00:56:11] Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. funny.

[00:56:21] Mayor Lisa Matichak: So, before we move on to the next section of the agenda, I just want to say a few words. I want to thank my colleagues very much for supporting me for mayor. I really appreciate the trust and confidence that you've placed in me to do this role in 2019. Um, I'm really happy to see my family and my friends here. I think my family's taken up almost the entire 1st row. But it's great to have you all here. And speaking of thanks, I do want to thank the 3 outgoing council members who serve for the past 4 years. I can't spot any of them now, but I hope they are still here. As we all know, and as other people have mentioned, Being on council is really, really difficult. This is not an easy job at all. And I really appreciate the time and the energy that the 3 have put in over the past 4 years. So thank you very much. I wish I could find you. Welcome to the new council members, Ellen, Lucas, and Allison. I'm very much looking forward to working with you. I hope we can have a collegial relationship as we work through our goals and the issues that the city faces. as well as all the other topics that are going to come before us. For me, the past 2 years on council have been very productive, but also very challenging at times. You know, the 7 of us on council are individuals. We have our own perspectives. which sometimes they align and sometimes they don't. And each of us is just one of seven. to quote our city manager. And it takes 4 of us to get anything done. So, again, I'm looking very much forward to working with you in a very collegial approach to the next year. We do have a lot of work in process and that won't stop, but as I look to 2019, there are 3 areas where I look forward to working with you all to make serious progress. First, just given the current environment we're in, we need to be very proactive, when it comes to pushing back on federal and state efforts to preempt local control. Mountain View is an exceptionally strong city, as is mentioned before. You know, we have a great financial position, and we really do, as others have mentioned, have an absolutely outstanding staff. We are the leader in the Bay Area. in many, many areas, including housing. And where we really are very proactive in addressing issues. We even have some council members from other cities coming here telling us how great we are. It's kind of fun to hear. Second, we must work toward greater collaboration and consistency in the region. The issues that Mountain View's facing are not unique to the city of Mountain View, the other cities nearby, are facing the exact same challenges, and it's really good to have that regional consistency and regional solutions. So there's some issues, such as transportation that, you know, you absolutely have to have regional solutions. Um, but as has been mentioned, you know, it's good to have consistent high standards in areas such as the minimum wage and affordable housing, and it would be good if the others would step forward, um, and join us so that this was across the Bay Area. Third, and most important, we, the city council, need to address issues that residents have been asking us to address, especially in the area of quality of life. We know that residents want us to address the public health and safety issues that come with vehicles being used as primary living spaces. They want us to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety. They want us to preserve the character of downtown. They want us to address airplane noise. They want us to preserve heritage trees. And so much more that adds to the quality of life here in Mountain View. And I'd like to make significant progress on those quality of life issues in 2019. So as I step into this role, I will continue to give this everything I've got. I want everyone to know that I'm very open to your input. Um, anything from raising issues to offering suggestions or just general conversation. As I said, when I was sworn in 2 years ago. Um, I'm very accessible and I want to hear from you and I'm very open to what you have to say. And as I've said to the residents before, you're the experts on your neighborhoods. And so it's really good to hear from you on what issues you're facing and what solutions you think the city could take to address those issues. So again, don't hesitate to contact me. I do wanna hear from you. And thank you. So are there any, um, council, staff, or committee reports tonight? I'm guessing not. Is there a closed session report? No, there's not a closed session report this evening. So, um, we will adjourn this meeting to a reception in the city hall rotunda, which is on the first floor, in recognition of the outgoing city council members, as well as the newly elected council members, the new mayor, and the new vice mayor, and the newly appointed advisory board members. So there's a lot of people. And the next council meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 15th, 2019, at 4 p.m. in the Plaza Conference room, 500 Castro Street.

• ← Previous
• Next →