City Council Special Meeting - March 27, 2020

Video

Transcript

Segment 1

[00:11:03] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: It is 6:35 p.m. and could we start off with roll call please.

[00:11:11] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Clark?

[00:11:14] Councilmember Chris Clark: Here.

[00:11:15] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Hicks?

[00:11:17] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here.

[00:11:18] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Matichak?

[00:11:20] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Here.

[00:11:21] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember McAlister?

[00:11:23] Councilmember John McAlister: Right where I am.

[00:11:25] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Ramirez? Vice Mayor Kamei?

[00:11:32] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Here.

[00:11:33] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor Abe-Koga?

[00:11:35] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Here.

[00:11:36] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you.

[00:11:38] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you. So before we begin I just wanted to say a few remarks. I'd like to welcome and acknowledge my fellow council members online here this evening. Today is day 11 of the shelter in place order as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and as a result we've called an emergency meeting on this Friday night via teleconference to provide an update on the numerous activities and actions that have taken place over the last 10 days to respond to the concerns and needs of our community.

[00:12:17] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: This meeting is, I'm going to read, I think what I need to read, this special meeting will be conducted in accordance with the state of California executive order N-29-20 dated March 17th, 2020. All members of the city council will participate in the meeting by video conference with no physical meeting location. This meeting is being broadcast live at mountainview.legistar.com, on YouTube at mountainview.gov/youtube and on Comcast channel 26.

[00:12:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Members of the public have been strongly encouraged to submit public comment in advance of the meeting and emails received before 5:30 on March 27th have been forwarded to the city council. Emails received after 5:30 and prior to the mayor announcing that public comment is closed for each item will be read into the record by the city clerk at the meeting up to the time limit of two minutes. And all emails received will be entered into the record for the meeting. Members of the public who would like to provide comments to the council and are unable to send an email, please call, actually I guess time has passed so that was up to 5:30. And please identify the agenda item at the beginning of any of your messages if you can.

[00:13:44] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So with that, just a few more things I just wanted to say. I know that many people in our community are experiencing uncertainty and challenges in light of this pandemic. And I'd like to reiterate and emphasize that our city council and especially our city staff have been working around the clock to address as many of the issues raised as possible and as quickly as possible. Tonight we have agenda items that are responding to these issues. I'd like to thank city staff for working hard to implement so many initiatives to respond to the many needs identified and to ensure the health and safety of all Mountain View residents.

[00:14:21] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I'd also like to thank our colleagues in neighboring jurisdictions, our county, state and congressional elected officials, our nonprofits, and our private sector partners who we have been working with collaboratively to identify needs, resources, and services. We'll be hearing about and discussing some of these collaborations this evening. I wanted to especially acknowledge our Assemblymember Marc Berman, who called me last week to check in on our city, as well as Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, who I understood flew back to DC last night to vote on the coronavirus stimulus package that will hopefully bring relief to many of our community members. I would also like to thank our residents who have been coming together to check in on each other and help one another. It is by working together that we'll be able to get through these unprecedented times.

[00:15:09] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I did want to raise one concern that has come to light at the national level, which is the xenophobia and racism experienced by Asian Pacific Americans. Hundreds of racist and xenophobic incidents have been reported over the past week. And as a member of the Asian Pacific American community, I speak out to denounce such discrimination. I know our community values our diversity and I ask folks to please join me in standing up against hate. Again, together, united, we will be able to overcome these challenges. And our new created hashtag reads, we are #TogetherMV.

[00:15:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So thank you. With that, I'd like to move on to item 3, which is 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 and again I'm going to set the time to two minutes during this section. State law prohibits the council from acting on non-agenda items. Are there any public comments received?

[00:16:18] City Clerk Heather Glaser: No, there are no public comment on oral communications has been received after 5:30.

[00:16:24] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I'm sorry, your mic is not...

[00:16:26] City Clerk Heather Glaser: No, no comment was received after 5:30 regarding oral communications.

[00:16:30] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I'm not able to hear you.

[00:16:47] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Can you hear me, Margaret?

[00:16:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: We keep losing this audio.

[00:16:55] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Can you hear me?

[00:17:03] City Clerk Heather Glaser: So there is in communication in the chambers. But there were no oral comments.

[00:17:15] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: But there were no oral comments.

[00:17:18] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you.

[00:17:19] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Matichak. We will move on then to item four, unfinished business, item 4.1, the Together MV update and recommendations. And we have a staff presentation, looks like our city manager?

[00:17:46] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes. So there is a presentation and I believe that Roger will be pulling that up on the screen. So while he's doing that, I just wanted to say good evening to everyone. These are certainly unusual times. I know this is the first time that we've ever met on a Friday night and also through video conference. Someone described it to me as being like Halley's Comet, doesn't come around very often. So I appreciate your leadership and flexibility as we do things a little bit differently.

[00:18:25] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: First, I want to start off by acknowledging the hard work of staff over this past week to prepare tonight's agenda for your consideration. The team has been working day and night, seven days a week to devise creative programs and recommend solutions to the council in an effort to support our community during this evolving emergency. Staff enters the public sector to serve others and to make our communities a better place. And never before has this been on such full display as during the present crisis over the last week or so when I've had the pleasure to work with staff through developing these solutions.

[00:19:02] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So the agenda item before you tonight is intended to provide additional support measures for all sectors of our community. These recommended measures build upon the $500,000 rent relief program that council approved just last week in an effort to provide relief to community members. I'll begin the presentation by talking about the new programs and initiatives proposed for your consideration. And then I'll provide updates on other measures the city is working on. But before that, I want to explain the #TogetherMountainView a little bit further. The goal of the Together MV effort is to connect our community and provide a bridge through this crisis. Knowing that we are in difficult times now and knowing that there are hard times ahead of us and we are in this together. As part of this effort at the start of next week, an online donation portal will be live on the city's website where individuals and companies may donate funds to help with the efforts that we will be discussing this evening.

[00:20:02] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: First, I want to paint the picture of how quickly things have moved to get us from where we were just two weeks ago to today. So a little over two weeks, I declared a state of emergency for Mountain View. The local emergency was ratified by council last week on Tuesday, where you approved the half million dollar rent relief package. That same day, six Bay Area counties issued a shelter in place order and non-essential city services were paused, city facilities were closed, and most of our workforce began working remotely except for employees who provide essential services. Just over a week ago, Governor Newsom issued a shelter in place order for the entire state. And now tonight, just two weeks after the emergency was declared, we are discussing additional support measures beyond the rent relief program you approved last week.

[00:20:56] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So I also want to illustrate the city's priorities during this crisis. First, the city will continue to educate our community members about the importance of the shelter in place order and the importance of practicing social distancing. The city continues to provide essential services, police, fire, water, sewer, and other essential services that are still being performed at the highest standard. This is critical to maintain the health and safety of our community. We are also providing support and resources to the community, particularly to those most vulnerable. This includes the action council took last week and the recommendation before you this evening. Our priority is to provide frequent and transparent communications through a variety of efforts, including our website, social media, the community briefing, email blast, and through personal outreach.

[00:21:52] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Now moving to staff's program recommendations. The success of small businesses is important to the economy and contributes to the vitality of the Mountain View community. We know that the shelter in place order greatly reduced businesses' ability to maintain regular operations and it is greatly impacting revenue as well as employees. Some businesses have closed, or they have stayed open with reduced staff and customer access. Staff have been working closely, daily, with the Los Altos Community Foundation to devise a program to quickly disperse funding for small businesses in Mountain View. To date, $400,000 in private donations has been pledged to the fund, $350,000 of that for the grants and $50,000 to help businesses market themselves after the crisis. Staff recommends that the city appropriate up to $400,000 in funds from the general non-operating fund to support small business relief efforts. Staff are still working hard on this framework and it will be final within the next couple days. But it is envisioned that a maximum grant or loan amount could be set at $10,000. This means that a minimum of 80 Mountain View small businesses could potentially receive assistance. Additional donations to the Together Mountain View fund would increase the funding available and the number of businesses that could receive assistance.

[00:23:20] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: In addition to this, the city and non-profit partner MOVE have increased the number of hand washing stations and fixed and portable restrooms in the city. An additional portable restroom and hand washing station was placed at Rengstorff Park. Starting today, the restroom at Rengstorff Pool was opened in recognition of the public health crisis and it will remain open daily as they were previously to the closure. A temporary portable restroom and hand wash station is currently at Eagle Park and four temporary additional hand wash hygiene stations are downtown, including three in various locations at the Civic Center and one at the Transit Center. Mobile showers, washer and dryer services are provided through Dignity on Wheels and it continues to be offered and located at the Community Services Agency, CSA, on Tuesdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Staff is currently exploring additional times that Dignity on Wheels could operate. We've also been working with the County Public Health Department, Valley Homeless Healthcare Program, regarding the use of one of our downtown parking lots adjacent to Hope's Corner. It is expected that the mobile unit there would be open one day per week from 7:00 to 11:00 a.m. This program would provide triage healthcare services.

[00:24:39] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Lastly, staff proposes creation and funding of a temporary grocery gift card program. The emergency program would be managed by CSA, similar to others run by CSA, and would assist clients in need of food services who meet certain income requirements and are enrolled in CSA client services or safe parking. The program would provide gift cards in the amount of $25 per week to be used for food only to assist up to 100 clients. The staff recommendation is to appropriate $50,000 to cover the expanded hygiene efforts and an additional $50,000 for the food vouchers.

[00:25:20] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Next, on the safe parking topic, there are currently two city-controlled safe parking lots, Shoreline Lot B and the Evelyn lot, and two faith-based lots currently in operation. The city has also approved funding of safe parking services at the Palo Alto Housing site on Terra Bella Avenue. Preparation of this lot is currently underway. These sites provide safe parking spaces for a total of 75 to 95 vehicles. The council approved a pilot program to enter into a short-term lease with the county to operate the Shoreline lot 24/7. Now that we are in a significant public health crisis, there is an option to expand the safe parking pilot program to the Evelyn lot and the Terra Bella lot. Both the VTA, who owns the Evelyn lot, and Palo Alto Housing Corporation on the Terra Bella lot, are supportive of this option. The safe parking lots will comply with public health directives regarding social distancing, will provide hygiene services, case management, and wraparound services to meet the participants' needs. The extension of the existing pilot safe parking program would be funded through a match of city and county funds. The county budget request is expected to go to the Board of Supervisors in April and city staff is working on the details with county staff. Staff's recommendation is to approve the expanded pilot program for 24/7 safe parking at both Evelyn and Terra Bella lots and appropriate $100,000 towards these efforts.

[00:26:55] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Providing an update about our utility bill assistance. For the duration of the emergency and for a period of time thereafter, the city will not be shutting off water or garbage service for non-payment of utility bills. We are also deferring payments, we're waiving penalties and interest, and setting up payment plans. Staff is working on developing eligibility criteria and guidelines for implementing a utility bill assistance program. Criteria is expected to consist of documenting an adverse financial impact caused by the COVID-19 crisis, such as losing a job or reducing your work hours, and they must also meet specified household income limits. We expect to have this program ready within the next week and a half.

[00:27:48] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Now I'd like to turn to providing updates. Last week, as I mentioned, council approved a half a million towards a rent relief program to assist residents in Mountain View who may not be able to pay their rent. CSA has partnered with the city to distribute these funds. Their staff are working at full speed to intake and have received a significant volume of inquiries. The program went live just two days ago on Wednesday. And between Wednesday and 1:00 today, CSA has received over 600 requests for assistance. Nearly all the cases that have come in, around 98%, have been COVID-19 related, with job losses in the past week alone. Submitting an email to renthelp@csacares.org is the most effective and efficient way to reach CSA for intake as their phone lines have been overloaded and the voicemail is jammed.

[00:28:45] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: 8 to 10 CSA staff members are actively working through this voluminous caseload. Each case is reviewed, screened, and a determination is made what sort of rent assistance is most appropriate for that particular situation. The flexibility that the city has provided has been tremendously helpful due to different situ- and unique situations that they are seeing. Of the cases approved so far, the average amount of assistance is $2,400. At this rate, that is nearly $1.5 million in requests. Staff is currently evaluating options for using Community Development Block Grant funding as an additional funding source. These funds would be for 80% AMI households and below, so it would be strategically deployed with the below market rate funded portion of the half a million dollars.

[00:29:56] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: I also wanted to provide an update on mortgage relief for homeowners. So the city has little authority to require lenders to suspend mortgage payments or implement a moratorium on foreclosures. However, there are other relief efforts underway. The Federal Housing Administration has enacted an immediate foreclosure and eviction moratorium for single-family homeowners with FHA insured mortgages for the next 60 days. In addition, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will offer mortgage forbearance to multifamily property owners affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the condition that they suspend evictions for renters who can't pay rent due to the pandemic. The forbearance is available to all multifamily properties with a Fannie or Freddie backed mortgage and the eviction suspensions are in place for the duration of time a property owner remains in forbearance. This could provide relief to landlords who own multifamily rental properties and have tenants who are unable to pay their rent due to COVID-19. Staff also understands that a significant percentage of mortgages are backed by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, and there is anecdotal evidence that they back up to 90% of all mortgages.

[00:31:12] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: And I forgot to mention on the previous slide that an $11 million fund was set up countywide to assist folks who are in need very similar to the program that we set up in Mountain View. And that fund also went live this week and that funding of $11 million was depleted in less than three days. So as previously mentioned about that, the funds could be available for housing costs including mortgages, but it's likely that most of those funds will go to assist renters.

[00:31:51] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: In terms of other efforts underway that city staff are working on, the Community Services Department has been working to identify ways to provide child care options to first responders and other essential service workers. El Camino Hospital has partnered with the YMCA to provide a child care program for hospital workers. That program launched this past Monday and city staff is in communication with the YMCA to receive additional information related to their operations and associated challenges.

[00:32:22] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: The county is also ramping up hotel rentals available for vulnerable homeless residents and has already reached out to the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce. Several hotels, including several in Mountain View, have already responded to the county's request for proposal. City staff will be working with the chamber and county on this effort and we are also looking at options to provide hotel rooms for our own essential service workers who may be sick or need to quarantine away from their families. CSA is also working to gather needed resources and will begin operation of an updated senior nutrition program over the next week through a drive up distribution model similar to what other county programs have implemented. The chamber is also working with Avenidas to partner up with restaurants to bring meals to seniors.

[00:33:16] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: And I wanted to provide an update on one of the latest things that happened just today. The Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act, so it's being called the Cares Act, was signed into law by the president today. There are six main groups that will see the widest reaching impacts: individuals, small businesses, corporations, hospitals, a federal safety net, and there is also assistance for state and local governments. The package includes one-time payments to individuals, extra unemployment payments to individuals, additional healthcare funding resources, small business emergency grants for immediate operating costs, loans to small businesses to cover payroll or to pay rent, additional funding for food banks, and additional funding for Community Development Block Grants. As mentioned before, the CDBG block grants could be used to provide assistance, further assistance for our rent relief program.

[00:34:09] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Then I also wanted to just highlight the partnerships and collaboration that have been underway in the past two weeks alone. The city's key focus really has been working with our community partners to implement and devise these solutions for the benefit of our community. And as you can see, the close collaboration that's underway with all of our partners includes the County of Santa Clara, Supervisor Simitian, regional cities, of course CSA, MOVE, Hope's Corner, Palo Alto Housing Corporation, the Chamber of Commerce, Central Business Association, Los Altos Community Foundation, and our school districts. These are partnerships that have been instrumental to staff working through these different programs and devising solutions, and we're very thankful for their continued collaboration and support as we work on these items.

[00:35:15] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: And then I also wanted to mention that there is an opportunity for the public to get information on almost a daily basis. We know that communicating quickly and effectively is critical right now. And our strategic communications team is working hard to update the website daily, even hourly, to provide information through our social channels. So I wanted to make sure that the public knew that they could text MVCOVID to 22828 to receive the community briefing update and it will be sent right to your email.

[00:35:58] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: And that concludes my presentation. So in summary, I won't read through all of the recommendations, since I mentioned them already, but they're here on this slide for you to see. And I appreciate your leadership and support of this and I am open for questions or answers, or excuse me, open for questions and can give answers. We also have numerous staff on the call who are available to help me in answering any of the specific questions. Thank you.

[00:36:31] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you so much City Manager and I just want to acknowledge all of your hard work and leadership this past week, two weeks or however long you've been with us. It's just been really incredible to see how quickly you've pulled so much together and led our staff and working collaboratively with us on the council. So thank you. Welcome. Alright. So I'm gonna ask for public comment first on these items. Do we have any members of the public with comments?

[00:37:06] City Clerk Heather Glaser: I'm just confirming you can hear me?

[00:37:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes.

[00:37:09] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Great. We just have one comment that came in by voicemail. It was it came in in Spanish. So it was translated, and it was actually a question, just asking what the city is going to do regarding assistance for people without Social Security. The concern was that they will not qualify for government assistance due to the fact that they do not have a Social Security number. So that comment came in and it was actually forwarded to our community outreach coordinator who contacted to follow up to answer some of those questions. And that's the only comment I have.

[00:37:44] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you so much. With that then I will close public comment and we'll move to council members, if you'd like to speak please raise your, do the raise your raise hand button on the participants box and I see Councilmember McAlister. Try to unmute you. That work?

[00:38:11] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. This is going to be interesting how we go through this, but I had a couple of questions that were raised by the council questions, and I know things are moving at a fast pace and a lot of the projects will be vetted once the money is been allocated. But I just wanted to start off with my first question that when we were looking at the definition of small businesses in the staff report, it says while a small apartment complex is considered a small business, it's not a retail business. As we go through the small business assistance, how is a small, one, what is considered a small apartment complex, number of units, and do they qualify for all these other, um, small business entitlements that we're talking about now?

[00:39:10] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Would staff like to respond?

[00:39:18] Tiffany Chew, Business Development Specialist: Good evening. Tiffany Chew, Business Development Specialist. The intent of the small business assistance is to help with physical brick and mortar businesses in Mountain View versus apartment complexes. So we would like to help restaurants and retailers that have employees of less than 50 people per the Small Business Administration, that's how they define a small business. So we would like to focus on those types of businesses and a small apartment complex is not necessarily a retail business where the public can visit on a frequent basis.

[00:40:10] Councilmember John McAlister: My question specifically is reference, what is considered a small apartment complex? How many units?

[00:40:29] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yeah, I can see Tiffany, I didn't know if you were going to jump in with the answer to that. I am not sure what is considered a small apartment complex. So I think that the important thing here is that this program is being defined as we go. So I think the council has an option to determine what sort of businesses they want to support through the relief fund. So should the council determine that a small apartment complex or a sole proprietor business owner could be supported through this, then I think that's an option that council can can determine.

[00:41:12] Councilmember John McAlister: So if I wanted to as we go through here and get to the end I said I want to recommend that six units or less could be considered a small apartment complex, and would that be a definition that is industry accepted?

[00:41:30] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: I am not sure of the answer to that at this point, but that's certainly something that staff can look into and get back to you on that definition. Of six or less.

[00:41:40] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. So that was one of the questions. Also, in here there's on the staff question number two that says the budget has been dedi- okay referrals, this is for the motel voucher program. It says the specific budget that has been dedicated to the county money voucher program was not readily available from the county staff. So are we using that in conjunction with our money or when you say not readily available, when do they expect these dollars to be available?

[00:42:20] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So in terms of the hotel rooms for the vulnerable population, that is not part of the recommendation that's before you this evening. The $50,000 being recommended is for the food voucher program. And I believe at this point the county has issued an RFP for hotels to bid on providing hotel rooms and staff is still determining how much funding will go towards that. And I would ask Audrey if you have more information on that to speak to that piece of it.

[00:43:03] Councilmember John McAlister: Is Audrey gonna speak now?

[00:43:09] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour Ramberg: Hi. The county administers the programs for hotel vouchers and as the city manager indicated is already in contact with our Chamber of Commerce and hotels in Mountain View so they may apply to participate in that program. And we as staff can try to facilitate those connections so that more Mountain View hotels are providing that capacity for unsheltered folks needing emergency assistance, and also so that our Mountain View hotels have business, with many of them having vacancy rates of 50 to 100% right now. I did talk with the Chamber of Commerce about that today and they are prepared to play that role of facilitating that connection. In terms of city funding for those efforts, that's not something that we've prepared to bring to council at this point, but we are assessing what the need is and can come back to council with a recommendation at a point in the future if that's appropriate.

[00:44:20] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. And then on question five, I'll do that offline. It just says that some people can't move their motor mobile home that they're living in because they don't have keys and so hopefully staff is addressing that issue somewhere down the road. So if we're telling asking people to move into our safe parking but they're renting an RV and they don't have the keys, so are we working to address that issue to help get those people into a safe area?

[00:44:57] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour Ramberg: Yes, we are actively working on that.

Segment 2

[00:45:01] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Are there some other questions for now? Thank you.

[00:45:10] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I have Councilmember Hicks, then Matichak, then Vice Mayor, and oh, actually Kimberly Thomas, did you have a comment?

[00:45:22] Assistant City Manager Kimberly Thomas: No, thank you. I was going to respond to that question, but it's fine.

[00:45:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you. So go to Councilmember Hicks, then Matichak, then Vice Mayor. And then Councilmember Ramirez. So Hicks.

[00:45:36] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. Are you ready for me? Yes. So I'm trying to sort out in my mind the optimal use of the rent relief program versus the small business program. And one of, and kind of jumping off of Councilmember McAlister's question, the way I'm thinking about it is that our rent relief program gives uh monies directly to landlords. So isn't that... wouldn't that be considered a rent relief program, but also a landlord relief program? Thus making a separate program for brick and mortar businesses would make sense, if that's the way we thought about it. So I'm wondering if that's something that staff has discussed. That's my first question. I guess the first part of my question is, doesn't that rent relief money go directly to landlords?

[00:46:39] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes, the the rent relief money gets provided to landlords to pay for the rent um for whoever the the resident is that has applied for and is receiving the rent relief. So yes, um it does benefit both the renter in paying their rent and also the landlord in receiving the rent. Um so if that's what you mean by framing your question, yes it does benefit um both parties in that aspect.

[00:47:08] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. So that was, that was my question. And that kind of helps me sort out why we would need two separate programs. Um, and then my second question is uh also regarding something that Councilmember McAlister brought up in terms of assisting um uh people living in mobile homes, who uh or RVs, who cannot move their RVs. I I know that some cities have have uh rented out their own RVs for safe parking. I'm wondering if staff, and this may be something we visit down the road rather than immediately, but I'm wondering whether staff has ever looked into doing that so we could kind of transfer out of the situation where we have um where we have people renting uh renting RVs that are immobile to people. Is that something that people have have uh looked at in any way? Or are willing to look at in the future?

[00:48:14] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: I would ask the Assistant to the City Manager, Kimberly, would you like to address that piece of it? You're on mute. Mute. There you go.

[00:48:33] Assistant City Manager Kimberly Thomas: Uh good evening, Kimberly Thomas, Assistant to the City Manager. Uh yes, on that topic, the uh governor as of last Thursday is putting I believe it's a number over a thousand that are coming out throughout the state. That's gonna be coming down through the continuum of care which for us is through the county and the Office of Supportive Housing. Uh we don't have status yet on whether any of those units will be available, but it should align itself in accordance with the point in time count numbers and as you may recall, Mountain View was one of the cities that had a significant increase. So we are monitoring that. Uh we have not looked at it specifically as a direct cost on behalf of the city to purchase RVs.

[00:49:10] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. Okay. Thank you.

[00:49:13] Assistant City Manager Kimberly Thomas: You bet.

[00:49:16] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: All right. We'll move on to Councilmember Matichak.

[00:49:22] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Uh just one quick question, I'm sure staff has done a lot more than made it into the staff report because I know you've been working uh day and night on lots of different uh topics and lots of different uh areas. Um one of the suggestions we had was allowing some of our businesses to um have signage or something outside that would aid in the delivery or takeout of food. And I was wondering if we had looked at that already, like easing the rules a little bit, because um that's actually uh prohibited right now.

[00:50:02] Tiffany Chew: Uh we are coordinating internally about relaxing some rules to allow businesses to put signs out um the essential businesses that are still open.

[00:50:13] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: And what about also potentially allowing them to um like have the takeout food there, um you know, somebody would I guess meet them there in their car, but they would have the capability to not just have a sign but have a little bit of a transaction going on there?

[00:50:29] Tiffany Chew: Uh that is also possible depending on their location, um with uh particularly in the downtown, I think that it that is an option, um particularly with the alleyways and also um there's not many people in downtown right now so there's the ease of being able to pull up next to a restaurant and picking up the food. I know businesses are trying to accommodate customers as much as they can.

[00:50:52] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Mhm. Yep. Thank you.

[00:50:57] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you, Councilmember Matichak. We'll move on to Vice Mayor.

[00:51:03] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Hello. Um so my question is for uh the City Manager. So one of the things I know that we are actively doing is reaching out um to residents in um other languages. I was wondering if you could share a little bit and highlight a little bit more in terms of the outreach that's being done um related to our translation services.

[00:51:28] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes, I can do that. So um, thank you for the question, um, Vice Mayor Kamei. We are translating into Spanish, Chinese, and Russian all of the very, very critical um pieces of information that need to go out, excuse me, the COVID-19 information, we've translated the rent relief program information, we are actively working with community partners who serve as um members of the community that that speak Spanish, Russian, and Chinese. And we also have a multicultural outreach program coordinator who works um hand in hand with um people in the community that are um primarily um folks that speak other languages. And that is uh something that we're trying to do with more and more of our communications. We have resources online um that have been translated in other languages, and I know that Assistant to the City Manager Christina Gilmore um oversees this program and she may be able to provide um more insight on the other items that we're translating, but that is a key priority of ours, and we are making sure that we are translating as much as we can.

[00:52:45] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Christina, did you have any more? Okay, yes.

[00:52:50] Christina Gilmore: Sure, Christina Gilmore, Assistant to the City Manager. So yes, as um City Manager McCarthy mentioned, our our multiple multilingual community outreach team is working with um multiple people in the community, um our Chinese, Spanish, and Russian speaking um community members. Um many of our Spanish and Chinese members are on social media apps. Um so they are uh pushing out information on those apps, on WeChat, um and uh utilizing our ambassador program to help get the word out. So, um we've been fairly successful. One of the challenges is that um there are many people in the Spanish speaking community that have very limited literacy levels, so trying to identify community members um and neighbors who can help translate and provide context to much of the information that we're providing because it can be quite complex for some people. So, uh Nancy Ducos, who many of you know, is doing amazing work and um talking to people every day, holding Zoom conference calls, and conference uh other conference calls to make sure that people have the information that they need.

[00:54:03] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. As a as a follow-up on that, are we also doing um outreach to our small business owners, um maybe some of our landlords who are um um not native English speakers?

[00:54:22] Christina Gilmore: Uh I would refer to um to Tiffany to talk about small business. Um we haven't explicitly reached out to small business who are non-English speakers, um but perhaps many of the groups that we are reaching out to within those groups there are some small business owners. I don't know if there has been specific small business outreach to those people.

[00:54:44] Tiffany Chew: I can add. Yes, we will be out reaching out to small business owners next week. We're compiling as as much information as we can to reach out to them. We're working in partnership with the Chamber and the CBA, and when we need translation assistance we'll let Christina know.

[00:55:00] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you so much. Those are my questions. Thank you, Mayor.

[00:55:04] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Moving on to Councilmember Ramirez.

[00:55:08] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. Um I only have a couple of questions. The first is just to clarify. So so if there are private property owners who would like to host a safe parking lot, um despite um sort of many of uh you know, city services being shut down, they would still be able to go through that process and secure a permit. Is that true?

[00:55:39] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. So private property owners could obtain a safe parking permit under our ordinance, um if they're able to meet the zoning and operational requirements. It is allowed in commercial zones, industrial zones, and residential zones on sites used for churches, community centers, membership organization facilities, and public and private schools.

[00:56:07] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Sorry, just to be clear, so even during the shelter in place order, a private property owner would still be able to go through that permit process?

[00:56:17] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes.

[00:56:18] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay. Great. Um and then uh Councilmember Matichak, I think, referring to the same email, but we got an email, I think, from Sarah Asfoor with a lot of uh really good ideas for uh spurring economic development and assisting small businesses, um and I think Tiffany spoke to some of those ideas, but um are is staff evaluating a whole host of regulatory changes, some of which may come back to Council to to help small businesses beyond just the um the small business relief program, are are some of the ideas in that email being considered, and are you sort of convening with small business owners and um the Chamber to see what other kinds of things we could do to provide assistance?

[00:57:07] Tiffany Chew: Yes, we are exploring all options to support small businesses uh particularly during this uh time of shelter in place, but also long term uh once we get into a recovery mode, how do we how do we ensure small businesses are back to to their normal operations.

[00:57:25] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much, that's all I've got.

[00:57:28] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I'm going to jump in with one question before I go to the second round. Um I was reading, I can't remember if it's state or federal funding is going to come down and I thought I read that the County of Santa Clara is supposed to receive about 1.7 million in um funds for, I think it's for homelessness, but my um question is uh the funding that we are being asked to approve tonight, uh are there opportunities, has there been conversation yet with the county um as to how some of this might be reimbursed or um, I know you're asking for matching funds for instance, is there a way for the county to be able to um fund the entire amount in light of the funding that they're receiving from I think it's the federal, probably the federal government. Um so, if not upfront is there some opportunity for getting reimbursed down the road? Or has there been some discussion about that yet?

[00:58:34] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So I know that um, excuse me, I know that Assistant to the City Manager Kimberly Thomas has been in close coordination and conversations with the county and um in terms of the reimbursement process, I'm I'm unsure of whether the city would actually get reimbursed for those items. I think that it's definitely um something that we could talk about with them down the road. But at this point it is a matching um funding opportunity. And so um that would have to be something to explore further.

[00:59:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh Kimberly, did you have further comment? No? Okay. All right. Um okay. I guess I hope that we do um explore that. I I was just curious to know how this extra funding that's going to the counties is going to be disbursed throughout the county, and since we're doing some things on our own upfront, um which I think, you know, could qualify for county funding, I was just yeah, I would like to see that we try to pursue some reimbursement if we can. All right, thank you. So, second round I'm going to go to Councilmember McAlister.

[01:00:00] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Oh, you're on, you're on unmuted. You got to unmute, there you go.

[01:00:10] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Um the City Manager mentioned that 600 people follow, uh requested our rent relief funding. So I would like to follow up uh somebody can follow up with me to see actually how many of those 600 qualify to start giving us a a data. It's how many, how many have come in, so forth. If we could get that, that would be greatly appreciated as time goes along. Um also I was thinking about the small business and uh Councilmember Hicks maybe thinking about the the small uh apartment complex. So, we're looking at funding for mortgages, but some of these may not have money for immediate emergency replacement. And my question is, would then they be available to go to get a smaller, let's say a water heater blows out, or something, or there's something um mold is found in the property, or a roof absolutely to be replaced, something that's a necessity to maintain the livability of a property. Would they be able to get that funding, emergency funding through us? Definitely, if would that would they would that small business be able to qualify for that type of money through our small business uh rent...

[01:01:32] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So Councilmember McAlister, I think, you know, we have the ability to set the parameters of the grant, and if should that be something that the council wants to do, I think we could put that option in place. Um now I will say there are um as part of the federal stimulus package, there are uh avenues that I think small businesses, perhaps even landlords could pursue for certain improvements that may need to be made, or for certain funding that may be needed, um but I think, you know, the parameters of the program, if that's something that uh the council would decide, we could put that in place.

[01:02:15] Councilmember John McAlister: Well, my concern's mean that small businesses need the money now, and hopefully the City of Mountain View through our partners are able to provide resources much quicker than the county or the feds or the state. And so that's why I was saying even if something was let's say a loan, they would be able to get that immediately, or fairly quickly, because our uh process of evaluating should be much smaller and therefore we could react quicker. So, if I want it, so how would we get that if there's a majority of the council to put that in place, when do we start? Do we start, we ask tonight? Or once you start developing this program because I know you are still developing the program for the 400,000, I know you're still developing the program for for some other, these other ones, will we see a final program before it's implemented? Will the council have input on it?

[01:03:20] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: The program is expected to be implemented within the next week, um so I would ask for council direction on any of those um program specifics. The way that the program, as um Business Development Specialist Tiffany Chew mentioned, um the way it was imagined was that it would go toward small businesses um and those businesses who need immediate relief either to pay rent, um to pay bills, things of that nature. So it wasn't initially intended to be set up um for the purposes that you described, but should that be council's direction, then that's something that we would pursue as part of the program. Um but we are working on the program uh literally in the next few days. So uh I would ask council to provide direction tonight um should you want to put different parameters in place than than what has been described.

[01:04:19] Councilmember John McAlister: And if I would like to recommend the increase of this 400,000 by another 100,000, uh you would want that direction given tonight also? Or... Yeah, those are my questions for now, oh so but that answered the question, will you be, so any kind of directions for the small business, will we be able to tweak it once you get it uh finished up?

[01:04:50] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: I think that would be very difficult just because we're looking at trying to get the program started very quickly, almost like the rent relief program, we want to try and get the get the money in the hands of small businesses as soon as possible. So I think, you know, tweaking it, we could, you know, think about it as we go along, but I expect that we would have a similar situation happen where there's going to be a lot of demand from small businesses and the money and the funding will probably go very quickly. So I would ask Council if you have any specifics um or different directions than what staff has recommended, to discuss it and provide direction to staff this evening.

[01:05:31] Housing Director Wayne Chen: Uh Councilmember McAlister, this is uh Wayne Chen. Um to respond to your first question regarding the um caseload profile for the rent relief program, um as the City Manager mentioned, uh there is a caseload of 600 um uh folks. Uh a staff of eight to ten are working through it as quickly as possible. But the latest information that we received from the CSA staff is 98% of the caseload they've worked through qualify under the um rent relief program parameters.

[01:06:05] Councilmember John McAlister: Thanks Wayne. Was that just this week that 98% qualify?

[01:06:11] Housing Director Wayne Chen: Yeah, the the program just launched on Wednesday, and it's it's only been um two and a half days, but as of uh late yesterday it was a 98% um qualification rate based on what they received um as of late yesterday.

[01:06:28] Councilmember John McAlister: And to follow up on Councilmember Matichak of what we're doing for small businesses in the way of relaxing code enforcement, will that be a memo to us? Or how will we know what the city is doing to help small businesses on a small day-to-day activity?

[01:06:46] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes, we can we can look into all of those um ideas and suggestions and provide a memo back to the City Council on all of the things that we're looking into and all of the um regulations or code enforcement that we're um going to be either changing or relaxing a little bit. And I think that's the easiest way to do it is to just um come back to council with the work that staff has been able to do. And we're also working with the Chamber of Commerce um and the um Central Business Association on a bunch of ideas and we've received other ideas from business owners and I think all of those are things that we're exploring and working on and we can certainly come back to the Council with an update.

[01:07:30] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Thank you.

[01:07:35] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Any other council members wishing to speak? And if not, I'm happy to entertain a motion. Perhaps Councilmember McAlister would... Oh, sure, Councilmember Ramirez first.

[01:07:49] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Well, I I was going to move the staff recommendation. If Councilmember McAlister wanted to provide some other ideas, I'm happy to entertain them.

[01:08:04] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So is there a uh let's go to Councilmember McAlister, did you want to add to item one of the staff rec...?

[01:08:12] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, I would like to recommend that we increase it by $100,000 for small apartment complexes, and that they could use that for whatever potential needs or immediate needs. You know, we have to, there's two sides of the equation, the renters and the the landlords, and I'm just concerned that we want to make down the road, if anything occurs, that we want to make sure the landlords feel that they're being listened to. Um because I could see a scenario where if they have financial issues, then that's going to make it harder for us to house other uh tenants that have financial issues. And so we want to make sure that landlords are always willing to accept all levels of income and there's no discrimination whatsoever. So I'd like to see another $100,000 just sort of a um set aside uh uh to allow, you know, immediate re necessary necessary repairs or immediate whatever to help them make it through this uh this crisis.

[01:09:30] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh let me go to Councilmember Matichak.

[01:09:36] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Um so I I actually would like to see this part of the motion, and because it's a loan, um I think $100,000 is a good start. Um my concern is the smaller apartment complexes are tend to be the ones that are more affordable, and um one of the goals of everything we're doing here is to preserve the affordable housing stock in the city. And so if some of those folks need uh a helping hand, I think we should um absolutely consider doing that um and have funds available to do that. I don't think there's a guarantee that folks who are part of the rent relief program are the ones um in the complexes who might need some help. Um and so I I do view these as two separate programs, um and if somebody if a small apartment complex owner couldn't prove that their income was reduced because of COVID-19, then they wouldn't be eligible. And so we would weed out the ones whose renters are getting financial assistance uh to pay their rent, because then the complex owner would be receiving the rent. So I I'm absolutely supportive of that, um and I think I would define a small complex as one where there is not a property manager on site. I think there are rules about that, um and so that might be somewhere around like 15 or fewer units would be considered a small complex. But I'm very supportive of what Councilmember McAlister said.

[01:11:17] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Councilmember Clark.

[01:11:24] Councilmember Chris Clark: I um I think what I worry, I I just I don't like doing these things on the spot and making up programs. Um so while I like I I think I'm generally okay with the sentiment, like I I think we need to talk about how we would structure that extra 100,000. Like I think it should only be small landlords, it should be limited to I don't know, I think 15 units is a lot. Um and I think it and I think it should be structured as loan, like short-term low-interest loans. Um I don't think it should be sort of like relieving the tenants, but we're simply just replacing revenue stream. Um I think but I think the greatest need would be to to provide short-term low-interest loans that sort of cover the cover the um the drop in the um the revenue that they would receive. Um anyway, at a very high level I'm I'm supportive of the staff recommendation. I think the bulk of our efforts here should be to support um primarily retail, pri primarily job creators, right? So landlords with all due respect to landlords, they aren't really job creators, they're providing roofs over people's heads which is really important and we want to maintain the affordable housing stock there, but um I think if we're going to do something for for landlords, we should structure it like Councilmember um McAlister and Matichak said where it's a separate bucket of funds and and it should be on something that we sort of structure primarily as short-term low-interest loans to um cover those who aren't getting that um that rent revenue stream that they had before and that they can pay it back um you know once um once the sort of forgiveness of evictions is um is over. So, that's what I it's not that I wouldn't support that, I just think that we need to think through it is. I I'm not sure how far $100,000 is going to go, but um you know I'm I'm open to setting that aside and trying to come up with a program if we can, I just don't want that to hold up the rest of this package because I think the most important thing that we should be trying to do is to get um money into the hands of of retail businesses who I think are at most risk because they don't necessarily have an underlying asset like a like an apartment um complex owner um might.

[01:13:55] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Moving on to Councilmember Hicks.

[01:14:01] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, well my comment was I could have pulled my hand down, earlier I didn't know how to with this technology. My comment was essentially the same as Councilmember Clark's, that um that to me I think all brick-and-mortar, almost all brick-and-mortar businesses are experiencing a tremendous loss right now, and that the $400,000 is very little for that. I think the landlords may over time and and some of them may have to lower their rent, so I I guess I could only, I I'm supportive of an additional fund uh if it is targeted at at uh very small landlords and they do have to have proof that it's a a COVID-19 related um problem. Um but but my main focus, I think, I would hate to have it part of the four or five hundred thousand dollar fund and have the majority of it taken over by small landlords. I want to make sure that we do reserve the the 400,000 for the for the uh brick-and-mortar stores, because I think that those are the most impacted by the state.

[01:15:23] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh, Vice Mayor.

[01:15:30] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Uh sure. Um, so I I think that uh Councilmember Clark kind of summed up where I am. I'm interested, I think that if the motion could be to approve the staff recommendation and then to come back uh with more information for a separate fund, um, I think that that would be the way to go. Um, I think Councilmember Hicks brought up an important point about kind of commingling the funds and and how do we make sure that they're going to the necessary places, and so for myself, I think um, one I'd like to lean low, a little bit more information on just how many um uh, you know, people or units this could be, uh this could go to. Uh and then I think that can better inform the amount of funding that we do allocate. Um, so just wanted to to put that in and maybe we can include that into into the motion. Thank you.

[01:16:33] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I'm going to jump in before we go back to Councilmember Ramirez. So um I first want to express appreciation to staff for all your hard work on all this, and I know that I've been um, some of the conversations though, I I know how we've been trying to work quickly and and that's been my interest is to try to get these programs rolled out as quickly as possible. And um so I I hope we can sound like were on that track and so tonight we should try to wrap it up as much as possible. I appreciate um Councilmember McAlister and Councilmember Matichak's um comments and suggestions. Um I'm open to it. I, you know, I think in this um this discussion that's been going on um, and with the side item coming up next, um, there should be consideration to small mom-and-pop landlords who may have trouble um affording to rent a premise if what that could happen as a result of um if they do the moratorium that's actively in place countywide. So um I I think that there should be a a fund for for those um those landlords or property owners who might need some assistance with um picking things up. Um, my feeling is that though what we're talking about $400,000 tonight, but um in addition we have the 350,000 uh grant from the uh major corporation donor. So, $750,000, um I'm happy to do another 100. Um, we can put a cap on it. My thought is that um if it's a loan program, that funding will be um hopefully most likely will be um reimbursed to the city at some point, and so I actually would be even open to even more if it's a a loan program for small businesses including small property owners. So um that probably convolutes what where we're going, but I I just felt like doing something uh for this population of business owners, um as a loan program, and I'm open to um actually doing more if if uh folks think that would be helpful, uh again, because it's a loan that would be uh paid back to the city. Um with that, um I have City Manager.

[01:19:07] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Hi, I was on mute. Um, so I just wanted to clarify that we are exploring um with a microloan lender right now, so should council be interested in that, um I think that is something that we could possibly bring back to council um just through an update to you, um because that is an active conversations that we're having right now, and um I believe the microloan lender that we are talking to now, it is a 0% interest loan. Um there are other um microlenders that have a little bit higher interest rates, but because we're in these conversations right now, I think it's something that uh we could probably let council know about within a week.

[01:19:55] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So would you suggest setting aside including the funding tonight or um having you bring it back?

[01:20:05] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: I think it would be easier and also just for the sake of speed, um just because what we're talking about doing is within the next few days and in the next week, and um you know, we're not expected to meet until April 14th. Um, I think if you want to do it, I would put it in tonight, so that way staff has clear direction, and then we can also work on that with um the lender that we're talking to right now.

[01:20:34] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And my understanding with the microloans is that um whatever we set aside isn't necessarily the the amount that gets loaned out, that it could be, I don't know exactly how it works, but there could be leveraging of other funds for these businesses, is that correct?

[01:20:53] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes, that is how it works. Yes. So whether we put aside a hundred thousand tonight or something else, does that make a difference to you?

[01:21:04] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, I think it would be best to have an "up to" amount, um just because we may not actually need to spend that much if we can leverage other funds. Um so I think just giving some sort of parameter to staff is good. Um tonight, just so we know what the direction is, and that way we have some flexibility if we don't need to spend the full 100, um similar to the other recommendations that we're up to a certain amount, depending on the need.

[01:21:31] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to Councilmember Ramirez, then McAlister, then Hicks.

[01:21:38] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Mayor, so I um I agree with the Vice Mayor and Councilmembers Clark and Hicks that our primary focus I think should be job creators, retail, the restaurants that are struggling. Sort of like what the Vice Mayor identified earlier or at the last meeting, that it's a lot easier to keep um folks in their homes, to keep businesses running, than it is to, you know, address uh the costs of homelessness or to bring back uh a small business that has failed. So long-term restaurants would be my highest priority. I think setting out a separate fund small, though agreeing that these should be two separate programs, and I like the Vice Mayor's uh suggestion to maybe have staff vet this a little bit um and to return with a memo, um I 100,000 dollars doesn't strike me as a a lot of money, depending on the types of capital improvements that would get eligible. Um, and I don't really feel comfortable popping an appropriation without having a full understanding of how the program would work. So I my if assuming that's emotion and I would continue to make the motion, it would be move the staff recommendation and then ask that up this idea and return with a a memo and some options.

[01:23:04] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So is that is that your motion, Councilmember Ramirez?

[01:23:08] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[01:23:09] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Is there a second on that motion? You can just unmute yourself and speak if you'd like to second the motion.

[01:23:15] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: I'll second it.

[01:23:18] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, all right. Um for the discussion, Councilmember McAlister.

[01:23:25] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, uh, Mr. uh Councilmember Ramirez uh took a little bit of my uh motion, but yes, I think that we, you know, benchmark a hundred, set aside a hundred thousand to look at a separate program, as a loan for small apartment complexes. Um, Councilmember Hicks was talking about that we should be concentrating a lot of money on small business, and I agree wholeheartedly, but that, as we have this as a small little set-aside, um, they do, small businesses or small apartment complexes do hire plumbers to come in, they do hire gardeners, and so forth, and uh so this could be immediate relief for them again, quicker, but as a loan back, so yeah I support this uh you know, $100,000, and setting this up to look at how we can accommodate uh as many people as possible. Thank you.

[01:24:20] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So I'm going to ask Councilmember Ramirez, is that included in your motion?

[01:25:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you. Let's go to Councilmember Matichak.

[01:25:34] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Um so I I actually would like to see this part of the motion, and because it's a loan, um I think 100,000 is a good start. It might be that we need even more, but we would let staff come back to us with the details of the program that we're telling staff, yes, please go ahead, and put together the program, and they might come back and say you know what, actually it should be, you know, 400,000 dollars of loans. Um, and we can address it at that time. But to let them know we want to pursue this, so I I would be supportive of including that in the motion.

[01:26:19] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Councilmember McAlister.

[01:26:26] Councilmember John McAlister: Did Councilmember Ramirez make a motion or was he just commenting on it because...

[01:26:33] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: He made a motion, Vice Mayor seconded it, and it was to approve staff recommendation and include staff wrapping staff to come back with a proposal for a loan program for... well I would like to have everybody consider that the 100,000 is an earmark, it could be more, it could be less as Councilmember Matichak said. But the City Manager said, that if we want to go forward with this, we need to have some kind of a parameter, something a little bit of meat to this potential program. And if we're not meeting for another two or three weeks, um, it would be it could be detrimental to some people. We're not uh saying that we're going to spend it, but we're just you know, we're going to get some parameters on how we're doing it back. Councilmember Ramirez, you know, we're looking at the small business program right now, that the parameters are still being developed. So, you know, when you say you don't want to authorize money for a program till it's fully vetted, a lot of things that we're doing right now is that we are trying to get the the wheels moving and get programs in motion because it is a a quick-evolving world right now because we don't know how to respond. So, you know, earmarking 100,000 dollars and have staff come back I think is the most appropriate way and efficient way to get something uh potentially looked at so that if it does come up with a need we can do it. So, I I would recommend that uh if that's your motion then I would make a secondary or another motion to include the 100,000 dollars. So I'm asking which way you want to go on that, Mr. Ramirez?

[01:28:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh Councilmember Ramirez, do you want to respond to that?

[01:28:38] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um well I I'd be curious to hear what what other staff to say. I think my I'm almost uncomfortable with what appeared to be arbitrary figures. You know, I don't know what our budget is going to look like over the next few months, and um and whether 100,000 dollars is enough. You know, even if they're their loans, this this is a highly highly tight right now, and would have been nice to have a sense of some of the program details before we allocate funding, so that if you know if our numbers of account are supportive I I'll go with it but um I I would like to have staff flush it out a little bit more.

[01:29:28] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So, I'm going to chime in and again, I'm going to emphasize... Oops.

Segment 3

[01:30:00] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And, um, I, I, you know, staff has already been looking at that, so to simply add small property owners into the loan program to, you know, do the, you know, fix, like, the, the simple, um, improvements, like if the door needs to be fixed or whatnot, and, and, um, we can set similar parameters, like a, a, a $10,000, maybe that's what it is.

[01:30:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, but I think, and again, it's a $100,000 that I think, I believe, will be leveraged to be more through, if we can partner with a micro-lending, uh, agent, an organization.

[01:30:41] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, and then also, because it will be reimbursed back, paid back to the city, most likely, um, you know, I feel comfortable with that.

[01:30:49] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Frankly, all of these numbers, you know, to, from what I've been looking at, they, they're all rather, um, there's no science to them right now. We're just trying to do what we can as quickly as we can.

[01:31:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And, um, you know, some of, like, the, the rent relief, seeing it's already being expended. Um, so I, I, I think the key here is to try to give direction quickly, uh, tonight, if possible.

[01:31:18] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And so I would like to include, um, the $100,000, and if, uh, Councilmember Ramirez, if you don't want to include it in your motion, we can, I can entertain a motion after we vote on your motion.

[01:31:29] Councilmember John McAlister: I'd like to [unintelligible].

[01:31:35] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Councilmember Clark?

[01:31:40] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um, yeah, I was just gonna say, so I can't figure out where my head is, you're right. Um, that's hilarious.

[01:31:49] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um, so I was just going to say, we can either do a separate motion, Lucas, or we can, um, we can just authorize the inclusion of up to $100,000 for a program that staff develops.

[01:31:59] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um, if they, if they feel comfortable moving forward with it. And if they don't, they can always return to us and ask, you know, is this, is this program, you know, are these parameters appropriate?

[01:32:09] Councilmember Chris Clark: Because you're, you're right. I just want to acknowledge, you're right, $100,000 is pretty arbitrary. If you look at the staff questions, um, nine units and under is 378 units.

[01:32:19] Councilmember Chris Clark: Let's say, even only 1% of them apply for funding, that's $2,500 each, and that's, that's like not even one unit's rent in most cases per month.

[01:32:29] Councilmember Chris Clark: But, but who knows, maybe far fewer apply, or maybe you can leverage additional funds or others. But I would be okay just sort of authorizing the additional $100,000 in case there's a program that staff can develop that they're comfortable with.

[01:32:40] Councilmember Chris Clark: And if they can't, they can always return to us and ask for, if we're okay with the parameters of the program or if we want to appropriate more or less.

[01:32:50] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Councilmember. We'll go to Councilmember Ramirez.

[01:32:56] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I, so, um, I, I am comfortable including the authorization for up to 100,000. Um, I think, you know, the devil will be in the details, but, um, it sounds like, kind of a pilot kind of an idea.

[01:33:15] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And we'll see, um, you know, if there's, if there's a lot of demand, we can, you know, hopefully, uh, as you've indicated, it can be, be highly leveraged.

[01:33:24] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: But, um, uh, yeah, in the interest of some unity, I'm, I'm comfortable with the, with the $100,000, up to $100,000, uh, authorization.

[01:33:37] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you. Any other councilmembers wishing to speak? I don't see anyone in queue. So with that, I'll call the question on Councilmember Ramirez's motion, which is the staff recommendation and including the $100,000 for the, uh, small property owner loan program.

[01:33:55] City Clerk Heather Glaser: [unintelligible].

[01:33:59] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: [unintelligible].

[01:34:02] Councilmember Alison Hicks: No, I had had a comment for some time. Maybe my button wasn't working. Sorry, I didn't see it.

[01:34:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Sorry, I didn't see it. Did you like to comment now?

[01:34:10] Councilmember Alison Hicks: That's all right. Um, I'm, I'm just a little confused about, there's been some talk of additional 350,000 and, and I'm, I'm not sure which funds we're envisioning that getting attached to.

[01:34:28] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So the $350,000 is the Small Business Relief Fund grant that we've received from a outside donor. So what we are approving tonight, the additional 400,000, would be attached to the 350.

[01:34:46] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And, so that 750 altogether, am I understanding it right? And the 750 is allocated to, to what?

[01:34:59] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: To small business relief fund.

[01:35:02] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And some of that is going to, uh, brick-and-mortar and some to, uh, small properties, small apartments?

[01:35:11] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So we added the, the extra 100,000 for small, uh, small property owners. So a total would be $850,000.

[01:35:23] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I see. So that the, it would be 750 for brick-and-mortar and 100,000 for the, for the small apartment. Yes.

[01:35:36] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Councilmember Matichak.

[01:35:40] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Sorry. I just wanted to clarify because, um, folks were using different terms, that this is small apartment complex owners, um, and if we want to provide guidance, staff say it's, uh, nine or less, um, that's fine with me.

[01:36:00] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Would you like to add that to your motion, Councilmember Ramirez?

[01:36:05] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: That's fine. It's a good suggestion. Thank you.

[01:36:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. All right, any other comments? If not, I will call the question. All those in favor of the motion, please say, actually we'll call vote. We'll have the city clerk call the roll.

[01:36:20] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Yes. And, and actually, if I could just clarify the motion, so I just want to clarify that Councilmember Ramirez, as modified or amended his motion to be the staff recommendation plus the additional, um, authorization of an additional 100,000, um, for a program for small apartment complex owners of nine units or less. Is that correct?

[01:36:43] City Clerk Heather Glaser: And I'm sorry, I didn't catch just the seconder of agreed to the, to that as well. And the seconder is Vice Mayor.

[01:36:52] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you. Great. Uh, roll call vote please.

[01:36:56] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Clark?

[01:36:57] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yes.

[01:36:58] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Hicks?

[01:37:00] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[01:37:01] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Matichak?

[01:37:03] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[01:37:04] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember McAlister?

[01:37:06] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes.

[01:37:07] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Ramirez?

[01:37:09] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: [unintelligible] Yes.

[01:37:12] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mayor Abe-Koga, I'm sorry, Vice Mayor Kamei.

[01:37:16] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[01:37:18] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor Abe-Koga.

[01:37:19] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Aye.

[01:37:21] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you.

[01:37:22] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So, that motion carries, uh, 7-0. With an extension, thank you.

[01:37:33] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: We will move on to item 5, New Business. And 5.1, the Urgency Ordinance temporarily suspending evictions for nonpayment of rent by residential tenants impacted by COVID-19.

[01:37:48] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh, we have a staff presentation. Is it, uh, our City Attorney will you be starting us off?

[01:38:02] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Uh, sorry about that. Yes. I, I believe Kimbra might have wanted to, uh, say a few introductory comments, and then I'll give the detailed presentation.

[01:38:15] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes, I just, excuse me. I just wanted to briefly introduce this part of it. Um, so due to the rapidly evolving emergency and developments since your meeting last week on March 17th, um, Council requested a confidential memo on the topic of a potential urgency ordinance suspending evictions.

[01:38:36] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: And the COVID-19 emergency escalated further since then in the past week. And pursuant to my authority as Director of Emergency Services and consistent with my function as City Manager to place items on the Council agenda, I determined that it was prudent to bring this item forward for Council's consideration this evening.

[01:38:58] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Thank you, Kimbra. And as you all might know, this is a very rapidly evolving area with, uh, a new governor's order just having been issued today, which we, uh, analyzed quickly, and maybe I'll start with that, an update on that order, which was received today, issued today, and its impact on Council's consideration of an urgency ordinance.

[01:39:23] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Most significantly, that order does not prevent landlords from issuing eviction notices, but it instead focuses on giving tenants an extended period from five, the, the normal five days to 60 days, to respond to that eviction notice.

[01:39:44] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: So it's a very focused, uh, order, and long and short of it is the order today from the governor, taken in conjunction with the March 16th order from the governor, still allows cities to adopt ordinances which suspend COVID-19-related non-payment evictions.

[01:40:05] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: The parameters of any ordinance that you consider tonight also must be considered in conjunction with the County of Santa Clara's recent March 24th ordinance, which prohibits residential and commercial evictions as a result of a tenant suffering COVID-19 losses.

[01:40:23] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: The county ordinance, as you may know, covers all the cities in the county and the unincorporated areas. However, it still allows cities to adopt their own ordinances and to the extent they are more protective than the county's, the city's ordinance controls.

[01:40:39] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: And if the city ordinance is silent on an area of regulation, for example, commercial tenancies, the county's controls.

[01:40:51] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: I do need to make some clarifications and corrections about the staff report which you've all received based on this rapidly evolving area and also some frankly some of the challenges of presenting a recommendation in the ordinance with trying to avoid too many choices for council, uh, but still giving a sound recommendation that's both equitable to tenants and landlords.

[01:41:20] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: So the first area of, of clarification was, which was not addressed in the staff report, was the time period in which tenants must contact landlords to assert their inability to pay.

[01:41:33] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: The county ordinance is actually silent on this point, uh, and then the proposed ordinance that you have reviewed initially drafted that allowed 30 days for the tenants to notify landlords of their inability to pay.

[01:41:51] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Upon further review and receipt of more information and surveying other city ordinances, and also with a goal of providing more equitable consideration to landlords, uh, staff is now recommending that the period in which, uh, tenants must notify their landlords of the inability to pay, we're recommending that to be three days, which is analogous to the period that landlords provide tenants with regard to a three-day notice to pay or quit.

[01:42:30] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Uh, that is just a recommendation, but, uh, council could, uh, stay with the 30 days or shorten that down to three days, which is my revised recommendation for, for this part of the regulation.

[01:42:47] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Second, the city's ordinance as drafted requires tenants to pay back unpaid rent within 180 days of the May 31st expiration date of the ordinance, as opposed to 120 days in the county ordinance.

[01:43:03] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: The 180 days was initially recommended based on a broad survey of other cities. Uh, we looked at many ordinances, but upon further review, to be consistent with the majority of Santa Clara County jurisdictions and in an effort to provide a more reasonable payback period and equitable consideration for landlords, we're now recommending a 120-day payback period.

[01:43:30] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Uh, and I have for both of those areas that I just described, revised recommendations, and I would be able to read into the record if those changes, if the majority of the council is in favor of those.

[01:43:46] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: The remaining significant areas which the city ordinance differs from the county and is more protective is, and the main one which you're all aware of is, the city ordinance would apply to mobile homes and most importantly, mobile home lots or spaces, uh, because the county ordinance applies only to dwelling units and that definition does not include mobile home lots or spaces.

[01:44:14] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: The second area, which is a little more subtle but provides more, uh, remedies and, uh, protections, is the city ordinance offers a local Mountain View mediation program to resolve disputes over tenants asserting their rights under the ordinance, as well as code enforcement and administrative penalties, which are based in our Mountain View City Code, and that provides local mediation and enforcement.

[01:44:44] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: And just to conclude, five votes are required to pass an urgency ordinance per Charter Section 514. If passed, the ordinance goes into effect immediately.

[01:44:56] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Alternatives to adopting the ordinance would be to not adopt the ordinance or to adopt an ordinance with modified terms.

[01:45:05] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: I'm available tonight for questions, along with our Special Counsel Karen Tiedemann is on the Zoom, and also Wayne Chen in Community Development to answer any questions you might have.

[01:45:20] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, City Attorney, City Manager. Um, I'm going to start with public comments. City Clerk, do we have any public comments?

[01:45:36] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Yes, we received one comment by email. Um, it is from Pam Laner, and the message is, 'Please whatever you pass tonight be sure it is for a limited time of three months and to be revisited at that time. Thank you.'

[01:45:54] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. So with that, I will close public comments and open it up for councilmembers' questions. I don't see any, um, oh, actually, Councilmember Ramirez.

[01:46:12] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. So, um, I, I wish I had a little bit more time to sort of, uh, digest this, but can staff, uh, so it looks like we're looking at 120 days for the repayment period. Can staff share, uh, what that might look like?

[01:46:34] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So, um, what the enforcement mechanism would be and, uh, you know, if a tenant, for instance, is unable to make back the rent, you know, sort of, sort of how, how does this look like after 120 days? I guess is what I'm asking.

[01:46:56] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Well, it is a untested program and I know that we tried to think carefully of, uh, first making sure that there was adequate outreach to the rental and landlord community about the ordinance, and also that's, uh, a reason we put in the, um, mediation program to resolve potential disputes.

[01:47:21] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: But more than just disputes, that program was designed to facilitate landlords and tenants to perhaps work out a payment program.

[01:47:31] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Again, this hasn't been tested, but you raise a good point. Uh, there may be, uh, there may be situations where, uh, a tenant is struggling to pay a lump sum right on the 121st day. It is a good question, but I think we have efforts and I, I would ask Wayne perhaps, because he's kind of on the front lines with landlord-tenant issues, to maybe share some ideas that we had about about your question. So, Wayne, did you have some more thoughts on that?

[01:48:09] Housing Director Wayne Chen: Sure, thank, thank you, Krishan. I think just to kind of lay out a little bit of, um, framing for thinking through the policy choice.

[01:48:18] Housing Director Wayne Chen: So, a shorter period could allow, um, landlords to, um, receive repayments more quickly. A longer period, um, would spread out the repayment over a longer period of time. Perhaps that could make it a little bit easier for, um, tenants to, to be able to pay that amount over time.

[01:48:41] Housing Director Wayne Chen: Um, one, one question I think Councilmember Ramirez, you're, you're maybe suggesting is what happens if, um, if there's a shorter payback period, um, what that might do to a tenant's ability to pay, and might there be, um, impacts down the road, if I'm maybe understanding that, that, um, that comment correctly.

[01:49:03] Housing Director Wayne Chen: And so I think there could be a situation where, um, a shorter payback period, if the, the tenant isn't able to come up with the full amount at that period of time, the issue of non-payment maybe arises again.

[01:49:21] Housing Director Wayne Chen: I think one of the things that, um, we could do to implement this is through the mediation program and through coordination with landlords and tenants is, uh, even though there's 120-day payback period, in practical reality, there is still the ability for tenants and landlords to kind of work through a repayment plan.

[01:49:44] Housing Director Wayne Chen: So I think the idea is that the mediation program can assist with that. It might be 120 days, but, um, the facilitation could allow them to work together. And maybe it is a longer period of time because there is, there's a, a third party to facilitate that. Um, so I don't think there are as the City Attorney was saying, um, this is a new program, this is a very unique times.

[01:50:14] Housing Director Wayne Chen: And I think we'll have to see how things play out in reality, but we hope that with support to the mediation program, these types of issues can be resolved in a better way. Even if it were 120 days or 180 days, it's just kind of active working out at the relationship building through mediation.

[01:50:43] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Any other, further, Councilmember Ramirez, is that good?

[01:50:49] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um, yeah, that's all for now, thank you.

[01:50:53] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Councilmember Clark.

[01:50:57] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um, Krishan, is there a reason why, um, I know the county went with 120 days, um, I know you're now recommending 120 days. I was thinking when reading through this that it would make more sense to sort of match, um, Palo Alto where it's 120 days after the end of the emergency declarations, just because that's when people can go back to work hopefully and start earning income.

[01:51:19] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um, and up until then anyone who's furloughed isn't going to be earning income to be able to pay rent. So I was just, that's more of a comment, but I'm curious if you is there any reason why you would go with 120 calendar days versus 120 days from the end of the emergency declaration?

[01:51:37] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Uh, mainly to synchronize with the county. That was the main thinking, and the jurisdictions which followed that set their 120 days, I'm not speaking for Palo Alto of course, but tied it to the May 31st date of the county order. So that was most of our thinking.

[01:52:02] Councilmember Chris Clark: Got it. And then we could always, if we needed to, we could extend it, I assume.

[01:52:08] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: That's correct.

[01:52:12] Councilmember Chris Clark: Okay. So if we end up in this scenario for, you know, two more months and we're getting closer to the 120-day mark, we could just extend the, we could extend the period.

[01:52:23] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: That's correct.

[01:52:25] Councilmember Chris Clark: Okay, thanks.

[01:52:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Councilmember McAlister.

[01:52:32] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, I'd like to make a motion that we accept staff recommendation with the revised dates of three days of payment and extend the 120 days for City Attorney's recommendation.

[01:52:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Is there a second? Councilmember Clark.

[01:52:57] Councilmember Chris Clark: Uh, I'm not going to second it. I, um, I was actually going to suggest that we match, um, I have some issues with going with less than the governor's executive order today, which was seven days. Um, seven days' notice for a tenant versus three. And I don't know what, um, I mean maybe Krishan can opine, but I would, I would think that we would authorize the same seven-day notice period that the governor's executive order covered.

[01:53:30] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: That's actually a good question. I had that in my presentation, but I didn't want it to get too long. The governor's order from today, just to be clear, does not prevent landlords from issuing eviction notices. The city ordinance does.

[01:53:46] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: It's a little confusing, but the order from today only extends the response period from the normal five days to 60 days for tenants who have been served with eviction notices.

[01:54:00] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: And then within that framework, the tenant must inform the landlord within seven days of rent being due that they're not able to pay because of COVID-related reasons.

[01:54:12] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: That's, it's a subtle difference, but the order today doesn't address the same exact situation as the city ordinance before you. But that being said, if there is, if council supports, there is an allowance to make that a seven-day notice.

[01:56:01] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: And quite honestly that it's confidential, they could use it just in those two instances to support helping them from a financial perspective because now their tenant is not paying them.

[01:56:16] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Councilmember McAlister, I can't see you. Are you okay with that?

[01:56:22] Councilmember John McAlister: I'm just really like to hear if the City Attorney understands what you're asking.

[01:56:33] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yes, let me just repeat. First, that could be added to the ordinance. And I'm thinking of language to the effect of on page four at the incompletely sentence that ends in the word ordinance, accept such information may be used by the landlord in any action related to forbearance on a mortgage or to defer insurance premiums. We can add that language. Okay. That's right. Did you have any other friendly amendments?

[01:57:37] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Um, I do. Thank you for asking. Um, you know, the discussion that happened just a few minutes ago about, um, the 120 days to repay the rent that was not paid, um, I do like staff's recommendation to do 120 days that makes it consistent with the county as well as the commercial property owners who have 120 days.

[01:58:08] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Um, and I guess my hesitation here is I think it would be good to say that, um, there is a repayment schedule, um, unless the parties agree to something different. And they would always have that option. But I feel like I'd like to have some assurance that everyone knows that they have to repay this rent.

[01:58:34] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Or they have to pay the rent eventually, and that there is an expectation that it's paid in a timely fashion.

[01:58:43] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Um, I think, you know, in looking through this whole proposal, my goals are to have it as simple as we possibly can have it, and as, uh, consistent and not conflicting with other, uh, orders or rules that are out there, and also just to make it very clear. And I think adding something about, um, you know, the exact terms of any sort of repayment plan can be agreed to by the landlord and the tenant, but if one is not agreed to, then we have a default in there, something like it's paid in equal payments over, um, the, over, uh, the 120 days. I'm sorry, yeah.

[01:59:33] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Is that a friendly amendment to the motion?

[01:59:38] Councilmember John McAlister: So what you're asking for is to say that adding to I think it would be E on page four that after you say nothing herein prevents landlords and tenants from negotiating a longer repayment period for past due rent, and that those exact terms would be agreed to by the landlord and the tenant. But if they don't come to an agreement, then the default would be that the tenant makes four equal payments over the 120 days. Is the equal payment equally spaced?

[02:00:03] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Four equal payments the last four days.

[02:02:47] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: So I just recapped, your friendly amendment adding the sentence, exact terms of repayment may be agreed to between the landlord and tenant, however, in the event the landlord and tenant are unable to agree, tenant shall make four equal payments over the 120-day period. I think the equal payment equally spaced as opposed to four equal payments, the last four days.

[02:03:14] Councilmember John McAlister: Clarity's always good. Do you have any other friendly amendments?

[02:03:19] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Um, I think that is good. I kind of feel like I am trying to make this clear and I think it would be great if this was a unanimous vote tonight. Um, and so I do want to hear from others if they have other things that they would like to see changed in this, um, because again I would like this to be a unanimous vote if we can.

[02:03:48] Councilmember John McAlister: So, um, I would like also unanimous vote. And I also would like to say along with Councilmember Clark, that let's try to be consistent as much as possible with the county. I think it would be easier for all tenants throughout the Bay Area, Santa Clara County, to know that there's consistency. And so some of the major things, your amendments I don't think would be changing it changing that much. It just gives clarity. But the basic timeline terms are very important that we try to keep some continuity with that. So I'd be glad to hear what other council members have to say.

[02:04:26] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: We have some in queue, so I'll go to Councilmember Ramirez.

[02:04:32] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. So first, um, questions for the City Attorney. So I want to make sure I understand some of the friendly amendments. So what it sounds like is the city ordinance would impose an obligation to pay a portion of the back rent prior to the 120-day repayment period.

[02:05:00] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And that sounds inconsistent with the county ordinance which doesn't have that imposition. So it, because it strikes me as sort of less tenant friendly, the county ordinance would override any provision that would impose an obligation to pay some of the back rent prior to the expiration of that 120-day period. Is that, is that correct?

[02:05:34] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: That concept is generally, um, the concept of, of that is most important is the city ordinance can be more protective. And it also can't be in conflict with the county ordinance.

[02:06:00] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: I know that we actually reached out to Special Counsel Karen Tiedemann to actually sort that issue out. Is she able to, she can shed some light on the issue of imposing payment parameters that aren't spelled out in the letter and I may ask for Karen's help with our thoughts on this.

[02:06:26] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Reading from the county ordinance, and it just has a statement, the tenant shall pay all past rent within 120 days from the expiration of this ordinance. I don't read that as necessarily preventing something like a payment plan that was proposed by Councilmember Matichak. I'd like to hear Karen's thoughts on that. So I don't think it's necessarily in conflict with the county order.

[02:06:34] Karen Tiedemann: Good evening. Um, I do think it creates some confusion for tenants, and I think overall this county ordinance and other, you know, other towns in sort of general ways your ordinance is going to create confusion so the greater consistency might eliminate a level of confusion for tenants and landlords.

[02:06:54] Karen Tiedemann: The county ordinance does not talk about, uh, payments during the 120 days. It just says within that 120 days. So if your ordinance, if you changed it to require equal payments, um, conceivably could have tenants claiming they're entitled to the benefit of the county ordinance, landlords claiming they're entitled to the benefit of the city ordinance, and will create a bit of a muddle for both parties.

[02:07:28] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So, I think I, I, I, I appreciate the sentiment of the idea. I think what we're trying to provide is some assurance that the tenant is going to be able to make up the back rent.

[02:07:45] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I think that's very important because, as, as I think someone brought this up, a moratorium on evictions is not the same thing as a rent holiday, right, that you are still obligated to pay your rent.

[02:08:05] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And I think we need to be mindful of, of a scenario in which somebody who is incapable of making the back rent, you know, hits the expiration of the 120-day repayment period, fails to and is evicted.

[02:08:20] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I think that's part of what a rent relief program comes in. There are other things we could do to address that. Um, to be consistent with the county ordinance I'm disinclined to support an imposed repayment plan. I think I would rather focus on, um, strongly encouraging a voluntary repayment plan. I think that is important for both the landlord and the tenant. So, uh, so I, I wouldn't support a motion that included that imposed repayment plan. The other thing is, um, I don't want to, as, as Councilmember Clark indicated, I'm also not inclined to provide any less than seven days to provide notice to the landlord. I think one of the things I've heard um, and, and from, from constituents related to the rent relief program is that getting some of the documentation necessary can be challenging to qualify, uh, so things like a demonstration that you've lost income or your job due to COVID. Um, for people with, um, you know non-conventional jobs or, or if your employer goes out of business and is unresponsive, you know, getting that documentation to show a landlord can be difficult. So I think seven days is probably um, the minimum uh, I would, I would be supportive of. Any fewer than that I think is hard. And again, sort of the overriding consideration as the Vice Mayor had said in the last meeting, I don't want to leave folks with the feeling that this is just one more cliff edge that they can't see the bottom of, right. So seven days strikes me as enough time for, uh, a rental property owner to um, to make accommodations when they learn from a tenant that they're not going to pay back direct. Um, so, so seven days and then, and then a strong encouragement rather than an imposition of a repayment plan are sort of the parameters that I'm looking at.

[02:10:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I'm gonna jump in to respond or to clarify that. Um, I thought it was three days for noticing, but then extra time to present the verification of hardship. Is that incorrect? Did I read it incorrectly?

[02:11:00] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: It says it would be three days after the rent being due, and provide documentation at the same, same time line for both, so to speak. The notice and the documentation.

[02:11:24] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, all right. Thank you. We'll move on to Councilmember Clark.

[02:11:30] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah. So, eh, Krishan, so what does the county require in terms of that notice period or do they, are they not clear on it? I'm trying to figure out where most where most people land.

[02:11:43] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: It's actually one of the more confusing parts of the county order, and I'll actually just read it to you. The county ordinance requires landlords when serving notices of eviction to notify tenants of their rights under the ordinance. And of emergency services programs, but is silent as to when the tenant must notify the landlord of their inability to pay.

[02:12:13] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: So it is a very, a rather confusing way that the county has stated it. And they don't have a timeframe in which the tenant must provide the information or the notice you described.

[02:12:28] Councilmember Chris Clark: Okay.

[02:12:30] Councilmember Chris Clark: So I would say um I generally agree with Councilmember Ramirez. So I, I do appreciate the sentiment of trying to avoid situations where someone pays the entire back rent on day 119.

[02:12:43] Councilmember Chris Clark: But I care much more about not being the only city in the county that requires equal payments. Like I really want us to be consistent across the county and frankly some people might start working again on day 60 instead of day 30 and be trying to you know earn as much as they can to pay that back rent.

[02:13:05] Councilmember Chris Clark: And instead of having you know stable incomes over this period and being able to make equal stable payments over that 120 days. So I don't think we should be more prescriptive than the county on that. I'm fine with being very explicit that we're strongly encouraging that as the best path forward, then I'm fine with that, but I don't think we should be imposing arbitrary equal repayment plans that no other city or the county has done to my knowledge, haven't done that either. So I just want to be consistent, and then I agree, if there's a, if there if we're requiring people to provide notice and documentation and documentation that backs up that notice of their inability to pay, then I'd be more comfortable with seven days just because if you think about it, April 1st is coming up very shortly, people are probably gonna, I mean, there are still layoff notices going out in the next few days, and telling having people needing to give notice by next Friday after this is just going to take effect tonight, I think is, I just be much more comfortable giving people that same one week, that seven-day period that they probably read in the executive order even though it's confusing. Those are my comments.

[02:14:40] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Councilmember Matichak.

[02:14:44] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So, um, I just want to clarify that what I was suggesting, um, it was a default, um, to a specific payment plan, but nothing in the ordinance prevents anyone from coming to any other agreement they want.

Segment 4

[02:15:00] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: negotiating something different than that. Um, but I'm okay if we want to change it to um, something that is stronger about that they do need to come up with some sort of an agreement um, so that the landlord and the tenant uh understand um what the situation is and kind of what to expect.

[02:15:22] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I feel like during this time when everyone is struggling, um we might have different struggles but everybody is struggling, that good communication and setting expectations and having a good understanding of where we all are is helpful to both parties. Um and so I would like to say that they they do need to come up with some sort of an agreement but um there would be no default um in that case.

[02:15:56] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: And I'd also um like to suggest maybe we um give folks um more time to prepare the documentation and kind of divide this and go with the staff recommendation on, you have to let your landlord know within three days that you can't make the rent, but then maybe you have um two weeks, three weeks to provide the documentation um to show them why.

[02:16:27] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: But you know I think most people know and I think the general rule of thumb is at least when I was renting, um your rent is late within three days if you don't pay it, so I think people are already kind of used to that cadence. Um but then you give folks more time to provide the documentation. So um I guess my friendly amendments would be modified and it would be to um strengthen the language to say that uh the landlord and the tenant need to have some sort of an agreement on what the repayment schedule will be. Um and obviously they can still use the mediation services to do that. Um and that we leave it at the uh notification is three days but allow um 14 days, two weeks for documentation.

[02:17:24] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh Councilmember McAlister do you accept those amendments?

[02:17:30] Councilmember John McAlister: Um yes and no. So um the defining of the default I I'm glad that was taken off.

[02:17:40] Councilmember John McAlister: And in the sense of trying to get consistency throughout the area and try to minimize the different forms, I I'll go along with Councilmember Clark and and I think we should go with what the governor says so that we have uh people looking what clearly to answer. So I would go with the seven days and emphasize the stronger payment as Councilmember Lucas said uh regarding those. So uh...

[02:18:15] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: So is that seven days for notice and seven days for documentation?

[02:18:20] Councilmember John McAlister: Uh, it's seven days notice. So so that means within seven days they have to pay their money. And then uh what the, was there a specific timeline in the ordinance? I didn't... was it 14 days or uh City Attorney...

[02:18:40] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Just to clarify, um I think um what the issue is, you want to allow seven require a tenant to provide seven days notice that they can't pay the rent, and show documentation within that seven days, or I believe Councilmember Matichak was suggesting give them uh three days to uh tell the landlord I can't pay the rent, and then allow 14 days to get the supporting documentation together. I believe that's what what Councilmember Matichak was suggesting. So there's two kind of components of the notice. The I can't pay, and then here's the documentation that shows why.

[02:19:26] Councilmember John McAlister: But can that be done simultaneously though, right? You you could um separate it out.

[02:19:38] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I just want to ask, oh sorry, I just want to ask a question. I've been raising my hand during this discussion and the next one and it seems like it doesn't register.

[02:19:48] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah I'm not seeing your hand up.

[02:19:50] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah so I don't know I'll just raise my real hand. I've had my hand up for like 45 minutes.

[02:20:00] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Oh apologies. Yeah I haven't seen your icon go up. So I have Councilmember Clark next, and then I'll go to you Councilmember Hicks. But let's go back to Councilmember McAlister if you decided what your, what you want to include in your motion?

[02:20:14] Councilmember John McAlister: I want the motion to be the 120 days, 7 day notice, 14 days to ... parent's got a cat he has. Okay um... Um, 120 days, 7 day notice, 14 days from the first of the month to gather information. Is that what we were... Is that what's in there uh, City Attorney?

[02:20:42] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yes, it's not necessarily the first of the month, it it would be 7 days... To put your motion into a scenario, it would be uh, tenant has to notify the landlord within 7 days of their inability to pay the rent, and then they have 14 more days to provide the supporting documentation.

[02:21:04] Councilmember John McAlister: So that could take them up to... Okay, so the the um... okay the governor's bill it says the tenant notifies the landlord in writing before the rent is due, or within a reasonable period of time afterwards, not to exceed 7 days, that the tenant needs to delay all or some payment of rent because of the inability to pay. So, okay, they they just say... So it doesn't look like the governor's has a timeline on that.

[02:21:45] Councilmember Chris Clark: They they, yeah John, I was gonna jump in and say, if you read, you're looking at the same document I am. If you look at paragraph C, they say the tenant must retain verifiable documentation yada yada yada to support their assertion of their inability to pay due to COVID-19, the documentation must be provided to the landlord no later than the time of uh of the when they reach, basically when they pay the back due rent. So they have to provide all that documentation at the time they make their payment under the governor's order. And I was going to suggest we be consistent with that.

[02:22:18] Councilmember John McAlister: I I concur! That's what I was saying. Let's go back, try to extent, keep it simple. I know uh the Mayor wants to get uh consensus and uh Councilmember Matichak and I think the more consistent we are with higher uh agencies like state or the county will make it easier for everybody to get through this challenging times. And if not we can always come back and tweak it as we have done in the past. So um I think we'll just go with what, you know, the governor's statement, seven days and as worded.

[02:22:54] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So, is it... so the proof of hardship has to be turned in by the time you start or pay the deferred rents. Is that, does that... So then what if you um defer until the 119th day?

[02:23:24] Councilmember John McAlister: So do you just you just show proof at the 119th day? No, you you have to, you have to show proof on the third day. Every every third of the month you have to...

[02:23:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So from what I... but what I hear, what the governor's uh order says is that you show proof when you pay back the deferred rent. But if there's no installment plan or anything, then it could end up being on the 119th day that you pay and you also show proof. But what if your proof is not valid? For instance. Um so then the tenant would have had 119 days of not paying rent without a valid reason. Like that doesn't seem right to me. I think the proof should happen much sooner, so if notice is given on the 7th day, then it should be the 7th day or the 14th day. I'm fine with that, but I don't think it should be allowed to be deferred until the very end of the 120 day period.

[02:24:30] Councilmember John McAlister: No I agree with you, so so that's how you're interpreting the governor's statement or our ordinance?

[02:24:38] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: From the conversation we're having now, that's what, that's how I'm hearing it.

[02:24:44] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: If I could just jump in, I am reading from the governor's order and the Mayor is correct. Again, it is a confusing, slightly different situation than the ordinance before you because it deals with eviction notices that have already been served. The city ordinance would prevent those from even being served. So, with that being said, Councilmember Clark is correct that the general time frame uh concept is tenant tell landlords (under the most recent state order), tell them they can't pay rent within 7 days of when it's due, and then the Mayor is correct, supporting documentation may be provided to the landlord no later than the time upon payment of back due rent. So conceivably it could be on the 119th or 20th day. And uh that wouldn't uh, you know, that's a difference, and the concept that is in many of the ordinances we surveyed that have uh relatively short periods of time for both notice of inability to pay and supporting documentation.

[02:25:55] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So in light of that, then I would like to go back to the um 7 days notice, 14 days for proof, to make a friendly uh amendment to your motion.

[02:26:08] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: So is that 14 days from the 7 day notice or 14 days from the first of the month?

[02:26:15] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I um, I guess it would be an additional, I'd say an additional seven days from the time of notice.

[02:26:21] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, so total of 14, okay.

[02:26:24] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I'm sorry Councilmember uh Hicks.

[02:26:28] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah so, well now that this has evolved a little, I was not uh supportive of the the shorter amount of time. One of the things that I'm um trying to keep in the forefront of my mind is that one of the reasons that people may not be able to pay their rent is they may have COVID-19, or they, so I think we have to be, I think anything like three days to come up with proof, I want people to be able to, even if they have a mild case, to be able to stay home, they may have family members who are sick as well. We're encouraged if we have a mild illness not to go to the hospital. So I just want to keep in the forefront of our mind why people may not be paying their rent. Um and yeah, the 7 to 14 days sounds fine for me, the 3 days did not. And then I would also like to keep as consistent, but this seems to be the direction we're all moving in, as consistent with the um you know, county and state uh ordinances as possible. And do the 120 days. I'm I'm a little unclear about the uh kind of template payment plan. It seems like maybe we would be asking people to pay almost at the same time that they would be paying their rent. So I I prefer to stay away from that, from that from that from that particular plan.

[02:27:54] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So actually I believe we moved on from that, so we're at um 7 days notice, 14 days proof. I didn't ask uh the seconder Councilmember Matichak, are you uh comfortable with those changes or amendments?

[02:28:18] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Oh sorry, I guess I thought I unmuted me. Um yes I'm okay with that because actually that was um a later proposal I made that we just never acted on. So I'm I'm fine with it. Um but I think when John summarized his motion he forgot one thing and that was um to strengthen um section E on page four, um just saying that um they do have to come to an agreement on some sort of repayment schedule.

[02:28:54] Councilmember John McAlister: Well that's part of the mitigation, so that's already included. That they could come to mediation...

[02:29:02] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: No I don't think it is. Are you looking at... on page four talks...

[02:29:08] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Let me let me add, yes. Let me jump in. Councilmember Matichak was proposing to add a requirement at the end of section E that would say tenants and landlords must uh agree to a payment plan uh for the repayment of the past due rent.

[02:29:29] Councilmember John McAlister: Is that what everybody's suggesting, is that what I'm hearing?

[02:29:32] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, I thought that's what folks said that we wanted, we could strengthen it a little bit but not have a default. Um and that folks were okay with that.

[02:29:41] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Yeah. Just emphasizes that we expect fairness on both sides.

[02:29:49] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: To come to an agreement, it might not be fair to both sides, but it's an agreement. That's what we hope for. Okay. Yeah. Great. And moving on to Councilmember Ramirez.

[02:30:00] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thanks Madam Mayor, so if um, so for section E, if if we do require an agreement, what how would we enforce that and what would happen if no agreement is made?

[02:30:23] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: You know it would be uh, it is a new area, it'd be difficult to enforce other than, I mean one idea is to uh notify, you know, have the have the tenant and the landlord provide proof that they have come to an agreement. And then if not, uh um there are administrative penalties uh in the city code uh that that could apply. I also want to look to Karen to see if she has any ideas on enforcement, maybe, you know, Karen section six, maybe maybe there's you have an idea, Karen, about enforcement.

[02:31:13] Karen Tiedemann: Yeah, I mean I think it is a little bit of a challenge on enforcement because, you know, either party could just be difficult and you basically end up penalizing both parties. But maybe one option is to say that if the parties don't reach agreement um, they're required to go through the mediation services.

[02:31:38] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um my strong preference would be to keep it voluntary. I I think for if we're trying to keep this pretty, I don't know that we want the administrative burden of enforcing you know, agreements between landlords and and tenants, I think that would just looking at the the magnitude of the economic impact that it's just happening. I mean the city would have to figure out how to address many many tenancies or or circumstances where a tenant would not be able to make an agreement with the landlord. Every every tenant is gonna have their own unique agreement with the landlord, and if they can't come to an agreement, resolving that I think would be, would be fairly challenging. So my strong preference would be I don't mind stronger language, but I would prefer it's voluntary.

[02:32:40] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah so I was just going to say I I um, I appreciate this sentiment, I can't support anything that says thou shalt come to a repayment agreement um, because for two reasons. One is, well it's actually three reasons. One we'd be the only city that's doing that. Two, if we do that we have to come up with, we have to figure out all the parameters around that like how soon do they have to come up with a repayment plan, what happens if they don't come up with a repayment plan. Um, what if one of the parties is sick in the hospital and can't come up with a repayment plan. And then the third is um um that I think in this case when you, it creates confusion with the county order because the county we can be we can be more protective of tenants but not but not less, and I think that a requirement that forces a tenant to come to a repayment agreement with a landlord that isn't in the county order, in my interpretation could um, you know, if I were interpreting that I would say that that's less favorable to the tenant than the county order and the county order supersedes and it just creates confusion. So I would strongly, I would suggest that in E we say tenants and landlords should come up with a repayment plan and just make it very clear that one that's what we're encouraging, and two that is absolutely possible under this, um and just shy away from any requirement that is not a requirement in the county or any other city because then we have to come up with our own um sort of apparatus around that. But otherwise I'm supportive of the 7 days, the 14 days, I think we've all kind of worked out a compromise in a deal, I think as long as we're okay just saying that you should come up with a repayment plan, or we strongly encourage tenants and landlords to come up with a repayment plan then I'm fine with that, I just don't want to make it a requirement that we then have to create a whole apparatus around to support.

[02:34:35] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Go to, back to Mayor... wait. Vice Mayor.

[02:34:40] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Um so uh I appreciate all the conversation that we're having related to this topic. Um, you know, I think for for myself, having read the staff report I was comfortable with the 120 days including the mobile home parks, as well as the mediation. Um one of the things in our conversation that I think is important to highlight is kind of the unprecedented circumstance we're in with it being a pandemic. And I think Councilmember Hicks really kind of highlighted that, um in her comments in terms of, you know, uh we have extenuating circumstances where folks just might not be able to adhere to the regular type of notification processes because their family or themselves are affected in in some way that prohibits them. And so I really think when we're looking at this type of ordinance, we're really trying I think as much as possible to be clear with everybody, uh you know, whether they're the property owners or they're renters, um and I think that uh being consistent as has been mentioned is something I I do want to highlight, I think um a lot of the questions that I have received are about confusion and not being clear on what our city is compared to the state or the county. And so I think um mirroring it as much as possible really helps alleviate that when there are so many extenuating circumstances happening. So I don't feel um necessarily struck with the the enforcement issue, I I agree with Councilmember Clark that it should be, it could be a should or a shall. Um you know I think the most important thing is to keep people stably housed right now. Um and you know, hope hopeful that they would act in in good faith. So um, you know, I don't know if the motion maker is comfortable with that type of language, but if they are I'd be um happy to support that, um but anything that's stronger than that type of language I think kind of defeats the purpose of trying to do the urgency ordinance which is to try to protect people and make them feel like um amongst all the other things that they're worrying about they don't have to worry about their housing. Thank you.

[02:36:12] Councilmember John McAlister: Vice Mayor I just like to uh concur. You know we still want to be have empathy for everybody. We need to have a lot of empathy because we really don't know where we're going, we have a lot of new territory, and we want to be flexible as possible but we still want to give some guidelines to keep some kind of normalcy as we go forward. So um I think what what Councilmember Clark said is that we would uh make sure that the sentiment is somewhere down the line you're gonna you need to pay it, we'll take care of that, so um I would take uh, my motion would be the 7 days, we add a line in there around the top there on B, where Councilmember Matichak wanted to add some language there, go down, and then put in there on seven, E, that we strongly encourage the landlords and tenants... And if I can get a nod from either Lucas or Chris somewhere along the line, saying we strongly encourage that you come to a mutual agreement as soon as possible. Is that okay? Okay I got Chris giving me a... okay, I got Lucas giving me a thumbs up. So that would be the motion. And I got a smile from Vice Mayor.

[02:37:38] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Councilmember Matichak was the seconder and she is in queue, so I'm gonna go to her, and ask her if she accepts the...

[02:37:49] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah if that's what folks want to do um that's fine. Um I I am concerned about the smaller complexes where um if they have everyone in their complex not paying rent for a long period of time, we're gonna have some unintended consequences of this. So I think it um bolsters the action we took earlier tonight to say we need to look at having funds available for the small complex owners who find themselves in a situation like this uh whether it be a low interest, no interest loan. Um I think that program is going to be very important to complement this.

[02:38:35] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Um, I don't see anyone else in queue, so with that uh roll call vote, questions...

[02:38:44] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Just for the sake of clarity, I I would like to propose reading back the motion as I understand it. Uh, it would be to revise the staff recommendation and just to be clear, that would be changing section E on page 4 to change the date to 120 days, and then add a sentence at the end of section E as follows: 'Landlords and tenants are strongly encouraged to enter into a mutually agreeable repayment plan uh for the past due rent'. And then uh another change consistent with revised staff recommendation in section F below that, 120 days. And then uh going back to page 3, section C, for the time periods, uh in the one two three fourth line it would say, 'seven days after the rent becomes due', and then insert the phrase, 'within seven additional days provide documentation evidencing the loss of income'. And then one further check, a change to section C uh as follows, 'Any documentation provided by the tenant to the landlord shall be kept in confidence and' going to add, 'except for landlords use of such in any action related to forbearance, uh mortgage relief, or uh any insurance uh proceeds being paid'. Uh and then we can, we can fine-tune that language. Uh, and then, uh D... is that it... John did I, did I get anything?

[02:40:51] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Okay, just wanted to read that for the group, so that's how I understand the motion.

[02:40:58] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. And I have Councilmember Clark...

[02:41:00] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah I was just gonna suggest uh a minor tweak on the 7 and 14 days, um sorry the 7 and 7. Totally agree with 7 days from when the rent is due for the notice period, but if you do 7 days from when you give the notice to provide documentation you create an incentive for people to wait until the very last to wait until the 7th day to notify the landlord they're going to miss rent, because then they have um even longer to provide the documentation. So I think the easier way would just be 7, you know the notice is uh is no later than 7 days, and then the documentation is due no later than 14 days from when the rent was due. That way someone doesn't have an an incentive to just um wait until you know the the very the seventh day just so they have that extra um time period.

[02:41:56] Councilmember John McAlister: I, fine. That's what I thought I said, so yeah that's fine. All right. I I knew it was 14 days from the date, in our 7 days past it, so a total of 14, that's fine. Alright.

[02:42:10] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Okay, Councilmember, I I am okay with that.

[02:42:14] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Any other comments before we take a vote? If not I'll call the question and we'll take a roll call vote please.

[02:42:32] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Clark?

[02:42:34] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yes.

[02:42:35] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Hicks?

[02:42:37] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[02:42:38] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Matichak?

[02:42:39] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[02:42:40] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember McAlister?

[02:42:45] Councilmember John McAlister: You're muted... Sound like an operator. No, I think I'm glad to get this motion passed. I think it's going to at least people give a sense of direction and uh yes.

[02:43:02] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you. Councilmember Ramirez?

[02:43:05] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[02:43:06] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mayor Kamei?

[02:43:07] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[02:43:08] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor Abe-Koga?

[02:43:13] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Aye. Thank you. So motion carries 7-0 with those amendments.

[02:43:20] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you.

[02:43:21] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you very much everyone. Um this is actually adjournment. And we are adjourned at 9:09 PM. And uh next regular City Council meeting is currently scheduled to be held on Tuesday, April 14th, 2020 at 6:30 PM until unless there's further notice. So thank you all again for um joining in this evening and for bearing with us. And thank you to Roger and Lisa for uh getting the zoom all together for us to be able to hold the meeting. Appreciate it and thank you to all staff and have a good evening, have a good weekend and please stay safe.

[02:44:07] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Mayor, can I can I say something before we adjourn?

[02:44:10] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Sure.

[02:44:12] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Uh I just I think we lost him but I wanted to wish Councilmember McAlister a happy belated birthday. Uh I don't know if he can hear us, but I just wanted to to do that since we don't get to celebrate in person.

[02:44:30] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, unfortunately we don't have an ice cream cake this evening. But happy birthday to Councilmember McAlister if you're still around. Ah, there we are. Yay! Happy birthday! Thank you.

[02:44:40] Councilmember John McAlister: Yay! Happy birthday! Thank you. Yeah as I was telling everybody this is just what I wanted on my bucket list. To celebrate a birthday having a pandemic!

[02:44:53] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Oh hi Yogi!

[02:44:55] Councilmember John McAlister: Oh Yogi dog came by. Everybody else has their dog in there, I might as well bring Yogi into the picture. All right, well thank you for the meeting. Thank you all. Please take care. Stay safe. Bye.

[02:45:10] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: No, Yogi dog, yay! Yogi! Bye.

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