April 14, 2020 Joint Meeting of Mountain View City Council and Shoreline Regional Park Community

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Transcript

[00:07:06] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And uh, I'd like to make a few announcements. This meeting will be conducted in accordance with state of California executive order N 2920 dated March 17, 2020. All members of the city council are participating in this meeting by video conference with no physical meeting location. Members of the public wishing to observe the meeting live. They do so at mountain view.legistar.com. And on YouTube at mountain view dot gov, height slash YouTube and on Comcast channel 26. As noted on the meeting agenda, members of the public may provide oral public comments during the public comment period for an item by signing up at mountain view dot gov. Rash DC underscore speakers. Email and voicemail messages received by 5 PM today, we're forwarded to the city council. Email is received after 5 PM, and prior to the close of the public comment period for the agenda item will be read into the record by the city clerk, and any voicemail messages received will be played by the city click. All votes will be taken by roll call votes, and now I'd like to ask the city correct to proceed with roll call.

[00:08:25] City Clerk: Council member Clark?

[00:08:27] Councilmember Chris Clark: Here.

[00:08:28] City Clerk: Council member Hicks. Council member Mattachek. Council member McAllister. Council member Ramirez. Vice Mayor Camay. Mayor Abi Koga.

[00:08:47] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Here.

[00:08:48] City Clerk: Thank you.

[00:08:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. So we will move on to item 3, presentation, and we have item 3.one, approximation, recognizing National Volunteer Appreciation Week, which, um, I think is very appropriate in light of the situation that we are under. Um, I have. I am really, um, been, have been really quite overwhelmed and heartworm, heartworm, is that so hard, uh, by the outpouring of support, um, and, um, folks wanting to help out and volunteer, um, with various organizations, helping those, um, in need, um, and just helping your neighbors. And so, um, I think this is perfect that this week happens to be volunteer appreciation week. And so I would like to leave the proclamation. Whereas National Volunteer Appreciation Make was established in 1974 to celebrate the impact of volunteers in their respective communities inspire others to serve. And whereas the city of Mountain View is proud of the over 660 volunteers who serve the community with pride and commitment and help make Mountain View a great place to live, work, and raise a family. And whereas certain volunteers train in disaster response skills, bribery volunteers, stock shelves, and lead to children, do your whole farm dosens, teach people of all ages about the farm and aloni history. Benefits of learning arts assist attendees with finding their seats. Shoreline at Mountain View volunteers remove invasive leads, team center tutors, assist with homework and college prep, and senior center volunteers, great patrons, and support the technology room. And whereas the city of Mountain View has numerous community events that flies due to volunteer participation, and whereas the city of Mountain View recognizes and thanks to men, women, young adults and teens that have given more than 45,000 volunteer hours over the past year. And whereas during these unprecedented times, we express our sincere appreciation to the many volunteers who have emerged to support core services in our community. Now, therefore, I, Margaret Abikoza, mayor of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, take great pleasure in congratulating the volunteers of the city of Mountain View, and do hereby proclaim April 19th through April 28th, 2020 as National Volunteer Appreciation Week, and convey my sincere attitude and appreciation for the volunteers' commitment and dedication to the Mountain View community, signed and sealed the 14th day of April. One week early, but I would say, every day is a volunteer appreciation day, especially right now, so thank you to all of our volunteers in in our city. And with that, I would like to move on to item 3.2 um Tyson well, uh her segue and then into uh COVID-19 update by our city manager, Kimberly McCarthy and I just want to, um, again. I think we're all very appreciative of the amazing work that our city staff is doing. I'm really going above and beyond in um, providing assistance and relief efforts and I'm really, really very proud of what um, our city has been able to do in such a short amount of time and I want to thank our city manager for her leadership. And with that's, I'll hand it over to. This is the car, this is the car.

[00:12:27] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, city council members and everyone else on this call. Um, I have a brief presentation that, um, put, I put together that really, I wanted to inform not only the city council, but also the public, on quite a few of the efforts that we've been able to accomplish just in the last time since we've met. Um, so it has definitely been a very fast moving. Um situation with every day. We have new information and new changes, and as the mayor said, I think I feel um particularly grateful and proud of the work that our city staff is doing on a daily basis, 7 days a week, and um, really just rising to the occasion, and here to serve the community. And so, I think, um, you know, the other thing that, that I wanted to notice today marks one month, since we've been sheltering in place, and since, um, we closed our city facilities, and, um, it's remarkable when you think about it, um, I, I think most of us could say that time has both flown by and stood still at the same time. Um, I think depending on the hour. So, with that, um, I'm not sure if you can all see the presentation, um, on the screen, so, um, I would ask if that be pulled up if possible. Otherwise, Lisa, um, city clerk, uh, can they see the presentation? Okay, great. Thank you so much. Okay. So, um, you can go ahead and move to the next slide. So the side that I wanted to highlight 1st um, really talks about our citywide teams. So since this crisis has started, um, one of the core things that, um, we wanted to make sure that we do is create this, um, sense of past teamwork and collaboration to respond to the crisis. So there have been 5 um, teams or, uh, task forces, um, if you will, that have been formed to, um, through our community and really, uh, react to the crisis at hand. Um, as you all know, the strategic communications team has been working very hard to inform both the public, um, and our staff on all of the efforts that are underway, um, as well as really trying creating, um, dynamic content, um, that the community can can learn from and can also interact with our staff on, um, the employee re- redeployment team. Um, which is led by our assistant city manager, Audrey. Seymour Ramberg and our HR manager, Sue Rush. Um, this team is focused on um, getting employees that would not normally be working on certain um, departments or on certain paths or initiatives and redeploying them to other pressing um, crisis related tasks. So they've been working very hard, um, at shifting staff around and really looking at staff, skills and abilities so that they could work on um, other tasks that they might not normally do. Um, the other team we have, which is led by our specificity manager on community services, um, director is working on Cares Act, um, and legislation, uh, updates. So what this team is doing is making sure that they are tracking. Essentially, what the federal stimulus package means, not only the small businesses, but also workers and individuals. So the goal for this team is to compile the information in a way that's easily digestible, um, that we can put on our website, which a lot of the information is on our website, but also, um, for our staff who have a lot of questions about what it means to them and also our community members, um, in terms of if they're a small business or an employee or just an individual, what is available to them and what programs are out there, um, both at a federal and state level. Um, the other team, uh, the homelessness outreach team, this, this is not a new team. Um, this is a team that has worked been working in close collaboration for several years now, but has really ramped up efforts um, over the last 2 weeks and I have another slide that'll, um, talk about that a little bit further. Uh, but this team is led by our assistant to the city manager, Kimberly Thomas, and, um, they really are, um, kind of, I think the, the heroes, uh, staff heroes in terms of what they're working on now to help our most vulnerable population. Um, and this team I, I think is uh, very focused on creating new and innovative ways that we can help our more vulnerable population and also, you know, as I mentioned, things change on a daily basis, um, reacting to the needs that are, um, arising. And then the last team, the community assistance and small business outreach team. This is led by our library director, Tracy Gray, and this theme, which I'll talk about on the next slide, is focused on helping the community in terms of any questions they may have. So we've created essentially kind of a quasi call center, um, where people will be able to call into the Mountain View mainline and reach a staff person on the other end if they press 0 and it is our library and community services staff, um, that will be assisting the public with any questions. And they'll also be doing small business outreach, um, to businesses and making sure that businesses know about the programs and funding that's available to them. So these teams have been just working around the clock over the past few weeks on all of these initiatives and um, that, that will continue, um, as we move forward in this crisis. We can move to the next line and this is basically just um, a reiteration of what I said and I want to make sure that the public also is aware, uh, the, um, name line number, 650-903-6300, um, Preston 0 will get you to live staff help. You can also um stay on the call and press um whatever number is considerate with the uh department. If you know you need to reach a certain department, you can do that as well. Um, but as I said, this is really for community questions, uh, resources, any guidance on where to find things online. Um, staff here to help. Um, I also wanted to provide an update on our together Mountain View donation portal. So, um, it's very, um, heartening to see the generosity of our community. And, uh, I really think the sentiment of coming together and helping each other, helping our neighbors, um, It's really been tremendous. So you can see that the total amount we've received so far, and this is as of this morning, is $74,264 and it's almost equally split. Um, with donations between uh, the rent relief and the business relief program. And you can also see that this represents about 424 people that have donated, which is incredible, um, to think that that many people have, um, you know, donated. But as I said to their neighbors and several members of the community, Um, so this, I expect to grow further, and we're very happy that we've been able to do this to help these efforts. And I wanted to also give some data points on, um, the efforts that the, the team that I mentioned previously, the homeless outreach team and and the staff that are working with our community-based organizations and our faith-based partner on, and the county on all of our efforts, um, for homeless and unstable house, uh, residents. So, just really quickly, top level. Um, we've taken more than 50 actions in the past 2 weeks to help the homeless and unstable housed and this is an example in the past couple weeks alone. Um, we've added 15 portable restrooms and 18 wash stations, um, hand washing stations around um, citywide around the city. We've opened the aquatics in our restroom, um, police department staff, along with, um, Community services agency and other face-based organizations, passed out, hygiene kits, 4 on 45 hygiene kits, 300 disposable mask, 170 food gift cards over this last week. Um, we've also opened a safe parking lot on Wednesday. Our 24 hour shoreline safe parking lot was opened and the remaining Tuesday parking lot on, um, Evelyn and Tarabella will be open shortly. Um, we're also focusing on providing the mobile shower and laundry service, uh, working with Hope's corners to reopen their shower service. We're also providing solar cell chargers, um, Wi-Fi, um, hotspots are in the works, and we're also working with a number of community-based organizations on food distribution and meal delivery efforts. Um, there has been a significant effort underway um, to help our most vulnerable population. And so this slide, what I wanted to do was share with you the interactive crisis resources map that our communications team has developed. And this map is available on that website on the top, uh mountainview.gov slash COVID-19 homeless services map. And this map is updated daily of information changes, and you can go to the website, and actually see the locations where our safe blocks are, the portable restrooms and hand washing stations, different food resources, and also all of the free city Wi-Fi, um spots. So I wanted to highlight that as well. That is a new um, map that the crisis team has put together in the last few days. And the other thing I wanted to highlight was just the changing nature of our library. As people are staying at home, they're also using our library services more often. And the library has added 500 new e-books and the audiobooks. Um, bookster, digital magazines. Um, I believe it's around 30% 30 to 40% increase. And uh, the digital magazines that are, that are being read as compared to last year. We also launch the digital story time on Facebook Live this Friday, and then we're over a 1000 people, um, that have viewed that digital story time. There's also free access to the New York Times online um through library. Also, there's a wide variety of online learning resources for kids and children. Um a variety of education levels. And something else that, um, I think is really interesting that we have is, there is an app or I, I guess I should say a, um, website where you can learn how to speak up to 70 different languages and it's both top courses, um, through our library. And um, if you go on super libraries website, you'll see links for all of these items, but our library is absolutely here digitally, uh, to serve our residents, even though the library itself is closed. Then the other thing I wanted to mention is that our small business micro lawn program will be launching soon, and I wanted to ensure that uh, people have the ability to, um, know which resources that they needed to email to get on the interest list, the micro loan interest list, and that is, um, SM is COVID-19 help at mountain view dot gov. We also have an online survey right now on our website. that is live where we are asking for mountain view businesses to um help us understand or know more about what um the impacts have been to them specifically. And that link is through our, um, open town hall on the city's website. So if you go on the, um, business resources, portion of our webpage, it will lead you to that, um, survey, and then also just in the past couple days, the county has launched a hotline for small businesses and workers, where you can call 408, 092124, um, to find out about more resources that are available to small businesses and workers, um, so that would be, you know, federal resources and state resources. And then I also wanted to mention that the census is still underway, that it has been extended to October 31st. So we want to make sure that our community knows that even though we are in this crisis, uh, we are still, um, working through the census and making sure that our numbers count, uh, which is very important as we look at the federal funding, um, that not only local governments, but the state, um, has access to, and obviously just also making sure that, um, and that we count all of our community members. I just wanted to make sure that people know that that's been extended through October 31st. And then another item that I wanted to make sure that people know is that next Thursday on April 23rd at 4 o'clock, um, the mayor and I will be holding a virtual town hall for folks to be able to um, ask any questions um, or provide feedback to us on what's happening now. And more information will be coming out soon about this, but I wanted to make sure that, um, the city council and the public know to save the date for this. And lastly, this is just a reminder that you can text MV COVID 222828 and sign up to get the community briefing right to your email 3 times a week. So that has not changed and that is continuing for our community. Um, and that's really a summary of the efforts in just the last week or 2 and um, I'm open to any questions um, and I do plan on presenting an update. Um every week as we continue for the next few weeks. Thank you.

[00:27:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, city manager. Yeah, the question from council members, council member Ramirez.

[00:27:58] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, man. Um, just a couple of quick questions. So 1st thank you for the update and for the tremendous work that you've done. Appreciating the magnitude of the challenge. You know, your response and to this is remarkable. and I'm very, very, very, very, very, very, uh, council feels similar. Um, but I did want to just check, like, quickly. Do you have a time frame for when the VTA and Carabella state parking lots are expected to be open and operational?

[00:28:43] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: I know that staff is working on some of the contract details for that and I expect the lot to be open, hopefully in the next couple weeks. Um, I would ask assistant city manager, Audrey Seymour Ramberg, to weigh in if she has any more specific information on the date.

[00:28:58] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour: Not a more specific date, but I am signing contracts today, which means that we would be able to open as the, the answer set a minute, um, week or 2

[00:29:11] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. And then, um, we've gotten, uh, some correspondence about, um, making available, some additional public restrooms, including equal parts, and a few others. Um, and I know staff, um, made some accommodations that ring store, can, and shared, from your perspective, the, the, the feasibility of opening additional public restrooms and, and maybe some of the challenges. with doing so.

[00:29:42] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour: Sure, so, um, yes, we are aware of the questions about opening some of the public restrooms, and we have opened the ring store, um, restroom, as, as you noted. And at this point, this is a staff capacity issue. Um, right now, um, most of our staff are, um, sheltering in place, aside from our essential employees. And um, we do have a contract service that is helping us uh, with our janitorial needs. And this is something that our park staff are assessing right now. Um, but this is um, This is certainly, I think, a consideration that we have to take our, our capacity, our staffing capacity, as well as um, safety considerations, um, and consideration, and it's, it's also another reason why we've provided, um, just a, uh, large number of portable restrooms and hand washing stations throughout the city, um, and place them in areas where, uh, they were most needed, but at this point, um, our park staff is, is, Assessing that, um, but I do not have any answers, uh, firm answers on whether we will be able to open any further bathrooms at this point.

[00:31:00] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. And the funny question, um, I know staff has also been working to increase availability of hours, and even though there was some work done with the county and, uh, home first, I think, can provide an update on, um, progress related to additional.

[00:31:19] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour: Absolutely. Um, so we do continue to work with um, committee services agencies, CSA, on um, providing mobile shower and laundry services through our dignity on wheel service. And as you can imagine, digging on wheels is stretched very thin right now. They have a lot of requests in other places and so at this point, um, we are looking at, um, not being able to expand that service, but instead, we are working with Hope's Corner to reopen their shower service weekly, um, so that will be in addition to dignity on wheels, and we also continue to explore other shower services. So, even though it is a challenge, um, nevertheless, staff is still continuing to look at other options.

[00:32:14] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Council member McAllister. If you're you're on mute.

[00:32:26] Councilmember John McAlister: There we go. Go along with Lucas's question about showers, and you said, the concerns of staffing, um, are there any, we have, down by our exercise room at city hall, there's showers that are available that are shut down right now because there's a virus. I would suspect that they are taking care of by our channel foil service. What roadblocks do we have of opening up those showers, or what requirements that if the showers are open, do they have to have certain cleaning and disinfecting and so forth? So, answer that question, 1st of all, what's required if the showers open up, and then why can't we open up those showers right now if by the exercise that aren't being used at all?

[00:33:18] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour: So there are stricter cleaning requirements. Um, when you get into hygiene needs with showers, um, especially now with the spread of the virus, um, there are very strict janitorial, um, I guess, precautions and uh, thresholds. Um, there are um, uh, that I've heard, um, places that are operating shower service where each time someone goes in for the service, um, staff are going in with um, fully full protective gear and have to, um, clean and disinfect books before and after someone goes in before the next person um, goes in. Um, and then I would also ask our public works director, um, Don Cameron, to speak to that further. Um, but there are significant, um, considerations just in having the ability to clean those before and after they're used, um, by each individual, um, but, but I would ask, um, a public works director to speak to that further.

[00:34:23] Public Works Director Dawn Cameron: Oh, thank you. This is John Cameron, for the works director. Um yes that is true. We would have to set up a system, you know, we've been exploring to have the showers cleaned and just effective after each another use. And I'm aware that community services department working with, um, assistance and city manager can make comments if I'm investigating how to acquire such services and working through signatory, and we also think it's called, as well as providing such services. Uh 2 concerns, but trying to use our own showers here. One is building security. Um, again, if we're, you know, we would have to make sure somebody's here all the time watching what's going on because we're already into our building, and that's one issue, but the other issue you may not be aware of is, those locker rooms are a significant need of rehabilitation. It is in our CIP to start working on next year. We build through shower facilities. But they are in fair conditions. They have tiles falling off, and I don't think they're in a good state to start letting that you will probably keep them. Thank you.

[00:35:39] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay. Thank you. Um, I so appreciate everything that staff is doing. Um, it's a lot and I can imagine, um, a lot of effort has gone into this. So thank you very much for all that you've done. Um, I had asked a question and the council questions, but I think it's probably a better time to bring it up now and later. And that's the fund that the county has. Um, I asked how many people were able to take advantage of that fund, and it was a very small number. And I'm wondering, do we know any information on that county fund? Why is it that so few people from Mountain View have not been able to have been able to take advantage of it? Is it because they don't know about it or they didn't apply or they didn't qualify? Um, it, it seems like another resource for our residents and businesses that, um, really hasn't been leveraged. In terms of the county funds.

[00:36:43] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So that fund began with an $11000000 um, I guess, kind of state funding and the, the funding was depleted after 3 days. And I think the need was, uh, so enormous that they certainly are not and we're not able to, um, Take care of everyone who applied for any assistance. Um, there are significant fundraising efforts underway right now, and the goal for that fund is to raise $750000 um, county wide, and in terms of the mountain view, um, community members receiving that. Um, the data I do not believe has been uh, released with uh, much of a breakdown on um, who is receiving that. funding or where the folks are. Um, I think there is some very preliminary data which is the information that you're speaking to. Um, but that whole set of data has not yet been released, um, and I would ask our assistant city manager to add to that if she has any further information, but I believe at this point, it's just, um, finding out the data.

[00:37:59] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, I'd love to figure out a way that, um, especially if they're going to raise 75000000 that, um, our city can, um, receive more of that funding for our residents and businesses. Um, and I don't know how to go about doing that, but, um, that's a lot of resources that we should be able to leverage.

[00:38:20] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. I can chine in on that, um, so the Silicon Valley strong fund. I think that's what you're referring to, um, so initially, uh, we were all, all the cities were invited to participate. Um, but, um, there wasn't a lot of discussion as to how the sun would be dispersed throughout the region outside of San Jose. And so, um, a member of those has been, um, just sharing our concerns. My, just my perception as, as a friend is that, um, the friend, friend is, is going to, um, like the nonprofits, like Sacred Heart community services, which tends to be more San Jose based, um, and so the, the, uh, nonprofits outside of San Jose, I don't think has, has been able to access very many. funds. Um, so as a result, and I got some preliminary numbers actually, this afternoon, um, and it, it shows that, and this is actually not, I don't think this is how many have been assisted, but how many have applied, um, 4374 applications have been submitted, and just for reference like Mountain View, we had a 126 applicants. Uh Sunnyvale 141 in San Jose 32207. So um, but this isn't how many have been granted. I'm gonna assume they like it's a much lower number than the applications um and and some of us have expressed uh concern about this so uh we've been invited by the vice mayor of San Jose, Happy Jones, to participate in a working group, and we're gonna be um talking on Friday about some of these issues that have come up into, I think, his, his interest is that we try to work together um. more closely. Um, but to be frank, um, you know, we, we started our friend, um, really as the results of, um, interest in our community, um, wanting to back to our own, our specific community. And so I'm not really sure at this point how we're going to interface, um, because, you know, I would be, I were being asked to, like, get the word out, help with the fundraising, but, um, you know, I've been very close, and that my interest is, my priority is going to be not good. So, I'll let, I will keep you posted on what, um, transpires from that conversation that that's critical we are. Thank you.

[00:41:04] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: My priority is also Mountain View and so I want to make sure um that we either get our fair share of resources from that fund um or we just do this on our own. Thank you.

[00:41:18] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Uh, we have more questions. Mayor May.

[00:41:24] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you, um, I was gonna wait on this question, but since I see, um, on now, we're talking about it. I know that the Silicon Valley song is being administered by the So-called Island Community Foundation, which is here in Mountain View, and one of the, um, part of the fund is the nonprofit um, assistance ending. And so, um, I know that a couple of our Mountain View based on profit by applying for it. Uh, I don't know if you were going to speak to that when we talked about it later on in the agenda, Tom. Um, but I know that, you know, that there's been an engagement there from a couple different nonprofits, and I don't know if that's also been, as a funding source, since that capital or another check brought it up. thought it might be helpful just to ask.

[00:42:16] Tom: Uh, sure, we've engaged to, and I can go into CSA's fundraising around this and we've been probably doing the most aggressive fundraising that we've ever done around this. Uh, and I can give you a little bit of an update on that, and we uh, get to uh, 7.2, but uh, yes, we have been engaging Silicon Valley Community Foundation and others, and Margaret, I have plenty of input, input for you for your Friday meeting, if you'd like to connect before you go, because there, there has been a real concern about those of us on the uh, northern and southern parts of the county, uh, that the way that, uh, that initial, uh, $11000000 was put out there was really, I think, because they centralized it so much in San Jose, and that's not to take anything away from San Jose, and the needs that are in San Jose, uh, by any means, but, uh, because they centralized it rather than doing what they usually do, which is put it out to all of the EANs, the emergency assistance network agencies. Uh, I think that put people in the northern and southern and other parts of the county had a little bit more of a disadvantage because they may not have known who the, who, who, Sacred Heart community services was, or they may not have known, uh, about the more centralized aspect of things that was so out of the norm, because usually destination home funding goes to all of the EAS.

[00:43:38] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I was happy to chat with you, Tom. Thank you. Any other, uh, oh, I have one more hand, council number. Can you unmute yourself?

[00:44:01] Unknown Speaker: Okay, if I can. There. Now, you can hear me now? Okay, it was a 2 part button, sorry. Um, so I, I share the concerns that, uh, Council member Manachek brought up that, and, uh, my other concern is that the songs that we have set up that we'll talk about, uh, later in this meeting, I'm afraid won't need all the needs. So I'm, I'm very concerned that even if we weren't able to access those, those funds very well in the beginning, that we take steps in the future. In particular, maybe the people who've applied to the Mountain View specific funds, if funds run out, maybe we can pass that same cue of people onto uh Silicon Valley Strong. I would just, you know, it, it may be a matter of, of outreach and what our residents are familiar with, but if we can't serve all of those residents, I really would like to link into the larger county wide effort. Um, in part, because I think that's the way during, some people are not really set up to be social service agencies, so I think in pandemics like this, we really do have to make sure that we're, that we're taking advantage of what the county, the state and the federal government is doing and, and this is one case in which I think we should be very sure that we're doing that. Thank.

[00:45:33] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Any other questions or comments? Just want to reiterate, thank you, uh, to our city staff. It's been tremendous work and, and uh, we've been a, we've been a little comparison at our last city's association meeting and I, I'm confident in saying that I think our city has been, um, way more than those, cities our size and even those bigger than us, so, um, you know, I get a little competitive, but this is all about, um, helping those in me, so I'm very, um, appreciative and proud of our community. So thank you. All right. We will move on now to our consent calendar, item 4 These items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the council wishes to remove an item for discussion. The meeting of the full text of resolutions will be waived unless they count another request otherwise. Would any member of the council like to pull an item? I don't see any hands. Um, so we'll now go to any member of the public, on the line, like, with any members, like to provide comment on a consent calendar item. If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press 49 on your phone. The city clerk will start the timer and let you know when your time is up. I'm gonna check the attendees list to see. I don't see any hands up, uh, city. Do you have any public comments?

[00:47:12] City Clerk: I do not, uh, no emails and no voicemails, Mayor.

[00:47:15] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Thank you. In which case, I will now close public comments, and, sorry, did not need the rest of this. I will read this email, so, and this is, you know, to be from every item on the agenda, email, just used by 5 PM, reported, forwarded to city council. I just checked with the city park so okay um. We are good to go here, so, um, there's a motion, Councilman Clark, is that a notion?

[00:47:53] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah, so I'll move the consent calendar, which includes uh 4.2 adopt resolution approving the final map. So track number 10517, 2005 Rock Street, accepting dedication. Findings is required by the city code to be read entitled only for the reading wave. 4.3 adopt a resolution of an intention to vacate public easements at 355-365-401 and 415 East Middlefield Road to be read entitled only for the reading wave instead of a date for a public hearing to consider vacation for, to consider the vacation for May 5th, 2020. 4.4 adopt a resolution approving the final map of track number 10525 1915 Monicino Avenue accepting dedications and making findings as required by the city code to be read entire only for the ring wave and 4.8 adopt a resolution adopting a list of projects for funding received from Senate Bill one, the road repair and accountability act of 2017 during fiscal year, 2020, 2021 to be written title only for the reading wave.

[00:48:58] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you And counts on the Medicare.

[00:49:01] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: 2nd it.

[00:49:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Any other discussion on this? Motion for the consent calendar, motion by council member clerks, like in my council member check? I do not see any hand, so all those in favor, please say, oh, I guess we need to take a roll call vote.

[00:49:20] City Clerk: Correct, correct? Yes, thank you. Council member Clark?

[00:49:24] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah.

[00:49:24] City Clerk: Council member Hicks?

[00:49:26] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah.

[00:49:27] City Clerk: Council member Mattachek?

[00:49:29] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[00:49:29] City Clerk: Council member McAllister.

[00:49:31] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah.

[00:49:32] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez? Vice Mayor Kame?

[00:49:37] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes,

[00:49:37] City Clerk: Mayor Abbit Koga.

[00:49:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I,

[00:49:40] City Clerk: thank you. Motion carry 70.

[00:49:45] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. So now move on to item five, oral communication. This question of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic for up to 3 minutes during this section, state law prohibits the council from acting on non-assenda items. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on non-agenda items, if you are, um, attending, please, uh, raise your hand, um, using the button at the bottom? And let's see, let me make sure I read everything else, uh, the city collect will start the timer and let you know when your time is up, and uh, email is received by 5 PM, we're forwarded to the city council, and I see 3 members on the attendees. Uh, city clerk. Do you have any other members of the public wishing the state?

[00:50:46] City Clerk: Um, let's see, actually, mayor, if you'd like to start with those that are on the list. I can I can take a look at the list after.

[00:50:54] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. Thank you. And I will start, uh, and I will, let's see, a 4 now. So I'm gonna, uh, give everyone, uh, 3 minutes. And I will start with Charlotte Quinn.

[00:51:11] Charlotte Quinn: So do I just unmute? Hello? Um, so please use city employees as disaster service workers to enable all public restrooms to reopen and clean shower. I'm a city employee and a jurisdiction nearby. I worked at the DSW last week. It was super rewarding, honestly, to privilege because we're getting paid. We have an opportunity to make a significant positive impact on the community. We were coming up like, no, if I had stolen from a guy, like, we can clean stuff. So, and I'm working remotely and still able to work as a disaster service worker. One day, so there's plenty of stuff available, please, please reopen restrooms and clean our showers. Um, now you also need to immediately have anyone who's unhoused in hotels and vacant housing in motels. This is not only the most humane response to anyone experiencing housing. But it's also demand, it reduces demand on emergency services significantly, especially emergency rooms. My boyfriend is an ER and a nurse, uh, AR nurse in Oakland. They've taken imperfect, but at least some measures to have the unhoused, and it's significantly reduced the demand on the ER. It's enabled his hospital to remain on top of demand for services better than others. And this is really critical to the successive hospital. Not to mention, just the moral thing to do. Um, please, please, please, increase the number of safe parking locations, make them all 20, get, if you need staff, get disaster service workers, start hiring people to do these things, please. And please ensure that the police do not start penalizing those who are not wearing masks. Please make sure that they distribute masks instead. There's already been an increase in police brutality and community harassment against people who aren't wearing that stuff, not the country, obviously very difficult to pay them right now, and a lot of people, they can't make their own. We can't assume that everyone can make their own. And last thing I want to bring up is, the serve our mobile home predictions keep getting pushed off the city agenda, and you bring them back on. So important to be discussing, especially now, seeing a lot of people in mobile homes. lose income, and they're at risk of becoming unhoused as well. These disaster service workers. It's honestly wonderful. I'm so happy to be able to do it in Santa Clara. Please do an amount of view. Thank you.

[00:53:37] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I'm sorry it was needed. So we will now go on to Stephen Goldstein. Mr. Goldstein, are you? And you will hear me.

[00:53:48] Stephen Goldstein: Yes, you can hear me. Yes. Okay. First of all, I want to thank you city council for doing whatever you can regarding the certain circumstances. This set of circumstances is extremely difficult to deal with, and I understand it more, most probably do. However, at the same time, you know, now, you know, a situation that I have been trying to get people to understand for a long time. Harvard just recently introduced a study that says that as long as we don't have a vaccine. We are going to end up having to practice social distancing up until at least the year 2022. That means that we really now need to start talking about long term plans. And right now, of course, we are currently still working with short term uh, Band-Aid approaches. Uh, for example, uh, uh, all you have to do is listen to the news on any news channel about the fact that people were trying to say that we were going to start getting back to normal uh, in the beginning of May. No, that's not going to happen. It's not going to happen for a long time. We really do need to start addressing this wrong term. Uh, and the worst part about it is that we don't even have situational awareness because we do not have enough tests to perform a proper survey of food is infected and how long and uh, at the same time, we don't know exactly how long it takes for the cross infection situation to end. So all I'm saying is please. Uh, I hope you're starting to get to the point where you're starting to realize, we're going to have to start making decisions that are going to be for at least 6, 12, 8 PM down the road. And if we're start, don't start doing that soon, we're going to be in a lot of trouble. All of us. Thank you. And I'll, I'll give you back the rest of the time.

[00:55:42] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Next speaker I have is Alex Brown, welcome.

[00:55:51] Alex Brown: Hey, this is Alex Brown from the Mountain Gmail Alliance. I want to say that I understand it's a tough time right now and priorities have to shift, to address the ongoing crisis. I appreciate everything you're doing in the city to take care of our Mountain View residence. But I can't pass up this opportunity to ask why mobile home protections. You can push from your revised agenda. Our community has been asking for help for more than 5 years now, and it seems like we're brushed off anytime an opportunity to present itself. My neighbors were already vulnerable and struggling, and many of them are rappies no loss of income. It saddens me that the council is not committed to acting. It continues to defer. As far as community resources, like, nothing to showers. I feel like we should be working to find out any way we can do more and not explaining why we can't. Thank you.

[00:56:30] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. I now have. Lenny Siegel.

[00:56:39] Lenny Siegel: Can you hear me?

[00:56:40] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes.

[00:56:41] Lenny Siegel: Good evening. First, I want to thank the council and staff for making it possible for people to give live testimony. When we get to item 7.2. I think that will be important because a lot of us like to hear what staff presents and council asks before we give our comments to the council. So I really appreciate that. Secondly, I greatly appreciate the work that's been done by staff to provide services for what we call the homeless and unstable house. Uh, Mountain View, we have 100s of neighbors in Mountain View, who lost services because of the shutdown. They did not have access to the gyms where they took showers, they did not have access to public restrooms. did not have access to Wi-Fi at the library. So, I really appreciate what's been done. And I also appreciate the questions asked by council members earlier about how to make existing facilities open. Uh, we have a number of showers and restrooms in Mountain View, uh, that are plumbed, that are in places where there are parking lots. This includes schools, the shared gyms, uh, private gyms. These facilities exist. They are better than portable facilities. If we have portable facilities. We have to get them cleaned too. So please work with the private gyms, the schools, as well as with city facilities, like the swimming pools, to make showers available to people. We have people who are, I believe, working in our restaurants preparing food, uh, who are living in vehicles, and don't have access to showers. Again, I appreciate what's been done, but I hope we can do more, not just for those people, but to benefit the health and safety of our community. Thank you.

[00:58:28] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Well, I have, uh, Dusty Cardenas.

[00:58:36] Dusty Cardenas: Uh, yes, hello. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. Um, so, yes, I just wanted uh, uh, uh, related to the mobile home rent relief. Uh, I, I myself am a member of the mobile, Mountain View mobile home alliance, and I just want to bring, uh, to light the fact that we are receiving rent relief as part of the rent relief program. Um, but also at the same time, uh, we're considered renders under that program. Uh, but the, the, uh, The, uh, I'm sorry, the, uh, just the, the messed up part of it is that because even though we're part of that rent relief program, we are not considered renders under the mobile home, uh, under the rent, uh, the rent protection. So, uh, under regular law, you know, we're not considered renters, so we're not covered under rent control, but we are receiving the benefits of the rent relief. Uh, so I just wanted to bring that to light and also, uh, hope that the focus on that relief from a, uh, uh, park owners are, uh, is not lost and uh, we continue to keep that fight on. Thank you.

[00:59:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Are there any other members, attendees, wishing to speak? So please raise your hands? They don't see anyone. So, uh, city click, you have other members of the public.

[00:59:57] City Clerk: do not.

[00:59:57] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Well, thank you. So we will close all communication, and move on to item 6 public hearings, so we have none, so we'll go to 7, unfinished business, and we have 7.one, the amendment to Calpers contract for all employees, and this is a 2nd reading of the ordinance. So we have a staff presentation. Uh, Ms. Bamberg, assistance manager.

[01:00:31] City Staff: Okay, good evening, Mayor and Council, I'm sorry, it's okay. I found the human resources division. Um, tonight's item is the 2nd reading of an ordinance for the Cal Pers contract amendment. On January 28, 2020, the city council approved the resolution of detention and introduced an ordinance to amend the contract for all employees. Between the California public employees retirement system, Cal Pers, and the city of Mountain View. This contract amendment would allow for costume amounts paid for by employees to be credited to their individual Calpers account. Since the 1st reading, staff conducted a vote for all employees who are contributing into Calpur. 90% of eligible staff voted, um, and over 99% of the votes won favor of the contract amendment. Now, certified the results to Cal Perth and Calper has accepted the documentation to move forward to the final part of the contract amendment process. So after counsel passes the ordinance, the contract amendment will be effective 30 days later and be implemented beginning May 17, 2020. That can be my presentation. Thank you.

[01:01:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Are there any council members with questions? Please raise your hand. Of not? I will go to public comment, that any member of the public on the line might to provide comment on this item, if so, please stick today's hand button, and zoom or press star 9 on your phone. The city clerk will start the timer and let you know when your time is up. uh. And these I don't see any hands up here. Um, pretty quick. Have any public comments on your end?

[01:02:23] City Clerk: No, mayor. No emails. We did not receive a voicemail about this item and I don't have anyone in our list to speak.

[01:02:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Great. Thank you. Then I will close public comment and bring it back to council. I have council member McAllister.

[01:02:40] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes, I'd like to make a motion that we adopt an ordinance of the city council of the city of Mountain View, authorizing an amendment to the contract between the city council of the city of Mountain View and the board of administration of the California public employees retirement system, be read entitled only, further reading waves.

[01:03:00] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Is there a second? Is the council member Ramirez? Thank you. So, uh, we have a notion by council member McAllister 2nd by council member Ramirez. Any other discussion on this item? I don't see any hands. So, uh, all those in favor of the motion, all those.

[01:03:24] City Clerk: Actually, Mayor, I'll go ahead and proceed with roll call. A council member Clark?

[01:03:29] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah.

[01:03:30] City Clerk: Council member Hicks? Council member Mattachek?

[01:03:35] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes,

[01:03:35] City Clerk: Council member McAllister?

[01:03:37] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah.

[01:03:39] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez? Vice Mayor Kameh?

[01:03:43] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes,

[01:03:44] City Clerk: Mayor Abi Koga.

[01:03:46] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I thank you.

[01:03:48] City Clerk: Motion carries 70.

[01:03:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. So we'll move on to item 7.2. The appropriation of CBBG funds for COVID-19 rent relief program and we have a staff presentation. Is it Mr. Wong?

[01:04:05] Housing and Neighborhood Services Manager Tim Wong: Okay. Good evening. Let me go ahead and share my screen. With you for the PowerPoint presentation or Roger, you can help me out here. By chance. Uh. Apologies. Of any?

[01:04:30] Roger: Okay. Go ahead. You should be okay, Tim.

[01:04:34] Housing and Neighborhood Services Manager Tim Wong: Okay, thank you. So everyone see the screen? Okay, excellent. So, good evening. My name is Tim Wong. I am the housing and neighborhood services manager for the city of Mountain View, and this evening before the council is consideration to appropriate, uh, community development block rant funds for the city's COVID-19 retinal lease program. So, uh, before I big, my apologies. Go back. And so I will start discussing about the red relief program 1st and then I will talk about the CDBG fund. And so on March 17th, uh, 2020, the city council approved 500,000 for, um, rent for the rent relief program for residential tenants in response to the, the COVID 19 crisis, and the council, in addition, expressed support for additional funding, if necessary. And as part of the program, CSA is administering the rent relief program on behalf of the city, and they started accepting applications on March 25th, 2020. And from that time, they have increased their staff capacity for the program to meet the um, incredible demand for the rent relief program. Here are the basic program parameters that uh, CSA has been um, operating under. So the 1st and foremost, the overreaching parameters for the program included trying to, uh, help a broad range of tenants as many as possible while being able to serve tenants up to that, uh, make up to 120% AMI, and that the need for assistance must be, uh, impact from the COVID 19 pandemic. Uh, for eligibility, they had to meet one of 4 COVID related impacts, including uh, reduced wages, loss of employment, or if that household experience medical or childcare cost. And another eligible require, eligibility requirement was that they must be a household residing in Mountain View, in a Mountain View rental unit or room, that they could show a lease agreement, uh, documentation. But in addition, we also wanted to uh provide CFA staff a little flexibility. So there may be other situations where they would qualify on a case by case basis by the CSA staff. And initially, we're talking about uh, amount of assistance is a 2 month maximum, again, with some flexibility as determined by CFA staff, with uh, a maximum up to $3000 per month. And here is a summary of the activities, um, as of April 13th, 2020 for the program. There have been over 1400 inquiries or applications that have been submitted of those 1400, 726 uh applic- applicants have been contacted or are in the process of being, um, reviewed, and there are 680 other applications that CSA still needs to follow up with. And there have been a 160 household process, or who have received financial assistance, and on average, the financial assistance received is a little over $2000 and that $2000 was for, um, gap rent assistance, or in some instances, it covered the full amount. And right now, CFA is writing or mailing out 5 to 15 checks on a daily basis. And right now, they have been able to, um, make the process more efficient in which they are able to cut a check within a week of receiving an application. So, uh, somebody submits an application and within that week. Or within a week, the landlord will have a check for that rent relief. So, um, that's pretty pretty efficient in terms of turnaround time to get those funds out. So again, as of April 13th, there, uh, of the city's initial 500, 330, a little over 330,000 has been dispersed at this time. In addition, uh, here is a summary of the AMI breakdown of those 160 households who have received assistance. Um, as you can see, 61% of the households receiving assistance are, classes, uh, are defined as ELI or extremely low income. Sorry, 0 to 30% is class defined as extremely low income. And just for reference, um, a family of 4 to be, uh, defined as extreme low income, a family of 4 have to earn about 44,000 or less. Um, and over uh, 98% of all the recipients were, have earned either 80% AMI or below. So in this current program, the, the targeted goal of, um, protecting vulnerable populations, I think is being met in that this program is serving that population. And so, um, just wanted to provide that summary and potentially any additional requirements may, slow down some of that processing time, as mentioned, is currently about a week right now. And you had had that previous discussion about maybe what other jurisdictions are doing at this time. So this is a chart of what other cities have done in terms of providing for their own, um, rent relief program. And as you can see, Mountain View, clearly based on, if council approves tonight's funding appropriation, a little over $160000, which is substantially over other jurisdictions of this size. So, um, the discussion that the council previously had about what, uh, the city is doing for its residents is well warranted. You can see that also counties have been applying uh or or providing funds for their for their programs also. This is probably our most up to date information. There may be other cities who are in the process of considering, but this is kind of like a snapshot as of today. And I will now set way into the, um, potential CDBG funding, and this is just a brief overview. The city is part of the annual entitlement program where we see receive about 650,000 annually in community development. Grant. Apologize. I know we're supposed to spell things out, no acronyms. CDBG stands for community development, walk around. And of the annual allocation. Typically, the city is required to cap their public services at 15%. In other words, no more than 15% of the owl station can be sent for public services. And as part of it, we have to prepare an annual action plan, to HUD on an annual basis, which we will report to HUD. This is how we plan on spending an annual allocation for this particular year. And if the city decides to change an approved activity. Um, the city needs to go through what is known as a substantial amendment to, um, change the action plan. I bring this up because tonight, the city council will be considering, um, a substantial amendment to its current 2019 2020 action plan to be able to change that, the activity and to allocate, uh, CDBG funds towards the rent relief program. And generally, a majority of the funds must be used for capital projects, but as I will uh, explain a little bit further. Um, The Cares Act has provided some waivers for the city. Um, speaking of which, with the passage of the Care Act, in addition to providing, uh, $2200000000 in, in those funding, um, of that 2000000000 in CDBG funding. Um, it, it allowed a greater allocation of funding to public services. So we can go ahead and spend a large, uh, a much higher percentage, if not all of the CDBG allocation towards public services. And it also streamlines the allocation process. Generally, there's a, a 30 day review period, but in an effort to get funds out faster to the community. Um, they have, um, minimized it down to 5 days. And these, these allowances or waivers are applicable to any activity as long as the activity addresses, uh, the COVID-19 crisis. And you can see there are some examples, rent assistance, um, meals for seniors who are, uh, sheltering in place, and uh, temporary vouchers for hotel vouchers, for homeless persons are just some of the examples. And. Per the staff report, these are the original CDBG allocations, how, in which we would uh, staff proposes or recommend reallocating FY 201920 funds, um, prior CDBG prior year CDBG funds, and the Cares Act funds. As mentioned, uh, the Cares Act, uh, uh, provided $2000000000 in additional CDBG funds, which the city will be get obtaining approximately 348,000. Um, But as of yesterday, HUD provided additional uh program guidance, which changed some of our um, recommendations. Steph had been working closely with our HUD rep, and prior, uh, last week, the HUD rep had said that half allocations were eligible for COVID-19 crisis funding. However, again, as of yesterday, The HUD guidance stated that only uh FY 1920 and 2021 funds can be used for COVID 19 purposes. In other words, the, the, the removal of the 15% public service cap and the, the, the streamlining of the allocation process only applies to those fiscal year funds. So what staff did was, although, FY 2021 funds can be used for public services, um, what we have done is, we will use 2021 funds for the rent relief program, and we are recommending 351,000 of next year's allocation, and we will use the past allocation, the 350,000 from the. original proposal. We will use those funds to help backfill or fund the recommended projects for the 2021 projects. Um. In addition, staff still recommends to reallocating 2019, 20 funds and cares. And therefore, the, uh, because of yesterday's guidance, we had to revise our recommendation, um, based on the fact that, All these different allocation plots need to be placed under the substantial amendment for the 2019 2020 action plan. Therefore, staff recommend that the 435 from the 2019, 20 action plan, the 351,000 from the fiscal year 2021 CDBG allocation. And the allocation of 348,000 that will be provided through the CARZ Act. be approved by the council uh under this substantial amendment to the 2019 2020 action plan. And then secondly, to appropriate the aforementioned fund for the rent relief program. Um, That concludes staff presentation, and in addition, would like to introduce Tom Myers, executive director of CSA, and he would like to have a, uh, a few words.

[01:19:21] Executive Director Tom Myers: Uh, sure, thank you, Tim. Uh, yeah, just a couple of comments. I think Tim is absolutely, uh, right on when he showed that chart of what Mountain View is doing compared to other cities. Truly amazing. Uh, not just uh, uh, uh, for all of us to pat ourselves on the back, but uh, uh, I, I think I, I owe my staff a real debt of gratitude as well. We went from 3 staff members doing rental assistance to now. Now we have 14 CSA staff processing rental assistance, and that's one of the reasons why rental assistance is gone from a 2 to 3 week process down to a one week process. Uh, my staff are amazing people. And in fact, uh, other EAN agencies are using Mountain View, and what we're doing here as examples for them to go to their own cities and say, look at what Mountain Pew's doing and stepping up, and we can all be very proud of that, as well as the work of other other groups in the community, the faith-based groups and everyone else. Uh, I, I, I will uh, say this as well. Uh, we understand that the city is putting a lot of uh, money into this and CSA is probably engaging in the most aggressive fundraising we have ever engaged in. Uh because we realize that this is a big effort. I've, I've told the staff for years that we need to plan for when the next big earthquake happens. Well, this is the big one. It arrived. And uh, we are dealing with it in the breathtakingly, uh, intense amount of need that we're seeing, walk through the door. This economic displacement is not going to go away anytime soon. And that's why I think, uh, uh, recognizing that the way that the city has and the way that you all on council have, uh, is really a testament to uh, are, are looking at this. So, uh, I, I would like to, uh, thank you for that, and I'd like to thank, uh, uh, all the people that are involved in that. Uh, I do think, however, that we need to uh, uh, make sure that we are prepared. This is not going away anytime soon. Uh we're dealing with April rent right now. May rent will come due uh in in uh a few weeks. Uh, and uh, we uh, uh, we may uh, recognize that uh, uh, we are doing the best that we can. But, uh, the amount of need that is out there is absolutely, uh, breathtaking, uh, because we have seen an entire collapse of, of sectors of our economy. So, thank you.

[01:22:05] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Um, I'm assuming that's the end of your presentation, Mr. Wong.

[01:22:13] Housing and Neighborhood Services Manager Tim Wong: That is correct. Staff is available for any questions.

[01:22:18] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you. and I just want to, um, think, Tom, Mr. Nyers, for, um, being on this, uh, meeting the meeting as well as all of the amazing efforts that CSA has provided. Um, it's been a amazing, wonderful partner for the, to the city for many, many years and um, I really appreciate you and your entire stuff, stepping up and um, increasing efforts to, to get the aid out as quickly as possible, so thank you very much for that. Um I'll take questions from council members. Are there any questions? I have a counselor on the Calister.

[01:22:56] Councilmember John McAlister: Tom Myers. Thank you for coming. Appreciate your time. So, it says that it appears that our funding, uh, will barely, if, if, at best will cover April's rent. I know people are very stressed out. So, from your perspective, uh, certainty is is always good to have. So, the mental aspect of the unknown right now is probably stressing you and you're the people that you're helping. If the city was to come along and say, okay, we're gonna up our Annie, to try to cover, get, get into May. How would that affect you and affect the people that are need your services?

[01:23:42] Executive Director Tom Myers: I think it would take a lot of the, uh, concern, worry, and desperation, uh, out of the equation, uh, I think that's one of the worst things that can, uh, be out there is, uh, uh, you know, people are worried enough because they don't have income coming in, but to include the fact that, you know, they're trying to get their rent paid, and for all of our best efforts. We may be the best city in the Bay Area at doing this work right now. Uh, I think that uh, it still means that people are scared and they're worried and rightly so. I don't blame them for being concerned or worried at all. Uh, so I, I think that if the, if the city were to up, uh, and uh, and approve this as well as any other future funding, would be very welcome, very much needed. Uh, people are going to be worried, though, until we get our economy back uh, back in shape and people can start uh, uh, getting a paycheck. Uh, and the, the people I've talked to, uh, the clients that I've talked to, and I've spent time, uh, talking to clients because I want to make sure I know what's going on. You know, they, they are, you know, concerned families that may lose their house or their apartment. Uh, uh, or they, you know, one woman I was talking to is a massage therapist, a very, according to her, a very successful massage therapist was never able to have a problem paying her bills. Uh, and then, uh, you know, she lived very cheaply and was able to make ends meet. And then this happened and, you know, no one's going to get a massage right now. Uh, and the, the, uh, floor fell out from under her. So we hear lots of different stories from lots of different parts of the city. But the desperation is out there, and often it's quite hidden.

[01:25:23] Councilmember John McAlister: Well, if, if we, just, just get the ball rolling for, um, for me, for a million dollars, help get the ball rolling along with the various fundraising efforts that you do.

[01:25:36] Executive Director Tom Myers: Uh, yeah, I, I, I, you know, I obviously want to be careful what I say here. I will say that CSA is engaged in very aggressive fundraising. It's probably the most aggressive fundraising. I've ever been engaged with. And so we do not want to, uh, we we do not want to see, uh, this effort, uh, come up short. Uh, I've, I've did this year. I am the chair of the uh, uh, EAN executive directors and we've all shared stories about how this is impacting our agencies. And uh, we all know that this, we need to put it into overdrive on this. So a short answer, and I'm sorry, I'm getting overly long on this, John, our council member McAllister. Uh, I, I would, I would say that, uh, uh, yeah, if you, if you were to throw another 1000000 into it, that would be great, that would help get us through May. But I have a feeling that this is going to go on well beyond bank.

[01:26:31] Councilmember John McAlister: Thank you And for Tim, a question with the CBDG funding. So would you, are you, suggesting that the money that we get for 2021, when would we get those dollars?

[01:26:49] Tim: Um, we're still working with HUD to see when those actual dollars would be delivered, but in speaking with our HUD rep, if we do keep it in the 2019 substantial amendment, we would receive those $2021 sooner than later, but I don't have an exact timeline. We're still working with them.

[01:27:13] Councilmember John McAlister: So, the one flight, whatever money that we authorize tonight, would that be immediate use?

[01:27:23] Tim: Um, some of the funds from the 2019 would be immediate use, the Cares Act funding, we, staff has heard maybe in a few weeks, but that future day, the Cares Act funding is unknown and the 2021 funds are all.

[01:27:45] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. I have a council member Hicks.

[01:27:54] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, yep, um, kind of, maybe backing off what council member McAllister has said, and I should, I should back up and say this whole, um, this whole issue makes me very anxious. I, I, as, I'm sure it makes everyone very anxious because I want to, I, I want to provide Rantley leave, but I also see that the money is coming from our ability to provide future affordable housing. And one of the things that makes me anxious about that is that we may have some opportunities to, you know, purchase rocks and so forth as the economy changes. So I get, I get very nervous and I'm hoping to extend the funds, uh, used the funding that we have as, um, as efficiently as possible. So my question regarding that is, um, is what, so I have several questions. One is, what kind of screening you do, uh, this is a question for Mr. Myers, in terms of if people are able to access other programs, Um, I I hear that you're doing, you're paying the rent gap. Do you, do you ask people if they're getting unemployment or disability insurance as well? How does that figure in?

[01:29:12] Executive Director Tom Myers: Right now, because we're trying to be as quick as possible because people are already falling behind on the rent. We're asking them how much they can contribute to the rent, and that's been helpful, uh, because, uh, it's no longer just immediately cut a check for the entire rental amount. We, we actually are engaging with them uh, uh, on how much they are able to contribute to their own rent. Uh, and uh, in, in my only concern with that is that we are then uh, kicking uh, a problem further down the road because they may be able to contribute some to April's rent, but maybe kept making it a bigger issue for me. But right now, what we're doing in order to try and extend the funds as much as possible is we are asking them, what can they contribute? Uh, as far as getting into uh, other deep, more detailed uh, questions, I I would want to go back with my staff and and come back with answers on that, but I do know that we are getting into how much can they contribute and what is their situation?

[01:30:13] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And do you also, um, provide information about other programs they might apply for, you know, whether it's the unemployment or any other assistance that's available?

[01:30:25] Executive Director Tom Myers: Absolutely. In fact, one of the things that a lot of people, I think rental assistance is probably one of the most important services that CSA provides because it prevents homelessness, and that is, is so important. Any time someone's talking about homelessness prevention. They're talking about rental assistance, basically. And we've been doing it for 30 years. Uh, it's one of the most important programs we do. is also one of the least visible programs we do. And what we have is a whole number of buckets of rental assistance funds that we can go to. So not only are we serving the people that you're seeing in the charts today, we're serving other people and utilizing other rental assistance funds. My understanding is we've served utilized somewhere in the vicinity of another $30,000 from other funds, in rental assistance just for that. So if someone is more appropriate for a different rental assistance bucket, we can go to that, or if someone, uh, uh, has, uh, maybe needs to be referred to other services, we can do that too. That's why it's so important that they're talking to people who are a whole lot smarter on this stuff than me, the case managers at CSA, who know the services backwards and forwards and knows the system backwards and forwards. But we have about a dozen different rental assistance buckets that we can go to uh to assist folks. So there's not just the reliance on the city of Mountain View. Now, none of them are as big or as generous as the city of Mountain View right now. So that I will say, and most of them do not provide the same amount of flexibility as what we're dealing with with the city.

[01:31:58] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, good to hear. And then I have one last question, which is, um, as you, I imagine that the, um, that the, uh, property owners that you're writing the text too, that that public record, do you, do you see? I, I feel that, that, that may be an opportunity for fundraising and that it may be something you've already thought of, but if you hadn't, I thought I would throw it out there. Um, I feel that, and there's been some discussion of this on council already, that there are landlords of all different sizes in all different situations. And some of them may be hard hit by this. Others, um, as many people, you know, not just landlords, individual, small businesses, et cetera, are hard hit. There are other landlords that I think can whether this. You know, fairly easily, they're large landlords. I'm wondering if you're seeing many checks to them and that's an opportunity to ask them to contribute to the fund.

[01:32:58] Executive Director Tom Myers: It's an excellent point, and I'm not immune to asking anybody for money if, uh, uh, uh, so that's not a problem at all. I have not done the dig deep. It's required to go into that. I have noticed when I am actually. the person who actually signs the checks to go out the door. So, that's, uh, that's, I think, a very good policy to have right now, because it gives me the opportunity to actually flip the page and see the backup documentation that's there, and what I can, I, I can tell you just from, you know, right now, off the top of my head. I have seen very big, uh, apartment complexes are bigger than you would expect apartment complexes. Uh, I've also seen, you know, a check is being written to someone who is uh, renting a room out of a house and that has, and has been able to show rental agreement in that way. Uh, so it, it runs the gamut at this point. But yeah, I, I have no problem at all with talking to big landlords about uh contributing to this fund. Especially if they're getting a check from CSA uh to pay rep.

[01:34:02] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah, so my, my, my own opinion is that I, I would not feel, you know, I would not feel that I was safeguarding our tax money or our CDBG funding very well if, if we didn't make that request in some official way. Um, that, you know, this is money that should go to, it could go to affordable housing creation. Um, so I think we have, we need to extend it as much as possible and and have some sort of official app, um, or are, are more stable and larger landlords.

[01:34:38] Executive Director Tom Myers: But my only comment on that is that um, if it's an official ass, because it's taxpayer money, uh, that might be better to come from someone other than a nonprofit executive, uh, someone who actually has control over taxpayer money. That maybe.

[01:35:01] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. So move on to Counselor Medachek.

[01:35:06] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. And so I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Myers yesterday, and I very much appreciated the conversation and all that you shared with me. And more importantly, all that you're doing. Uh so thank you. Um, a couple other things that, um, We didn't talk about yesterday. I, I'm curious if you know, is there much awareness of the oratorium on evictions, among the folks who are coming to CSA for help?

[01:35:39] Executive Director Tom Myers: Uh, I have heard anecdotally that, uh, I have not heard a whole lot, uh, of landlords not abiding by it, and I think part of that may be because we have very strict uh, codes in this city around, uh, uh, what landlords need to do if they're planning to evict. I have heard from some of my, uh, partners at other, uh, who are the executive directors of other emergency assistance network agencies that some landlords, uh, either through uh, not knowing or understanding, or because they wanted to uh, find out if their tenants didn't know or understand the eviction moratorium have been uh, asking for rent uh, anyway, uh, or threatening with eviction anyway. I would not be surprised if that is happening. Uh, but I know that uh, the landlord, if, if a landlord wants to get a rental assistance check from CSA, that landlord needs to engage with the CSA case manager, and for the most part, most of the landlords are very good about wanting to engage because they want their rent. Uh, and so, uh, that that has not been a widespread problem here in, uh, in Mountain View. I do know that those, there are groups of people that are not covered by the eviction moratorium, uh, and those groups of people could be m- have much more extreme risk of that kind of thing. Uh, but uh, we, we actually, by engaging with the, uh, uh, uh, Hawans and with the landlord, have been able to uh, make sure that that, that is not a, a widespread problem here. I do understand, though, that it is more of a problem in other.

[01:37:15] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: So, um, having that Egyptian moratorium, does that, um, ease any of the anxiety among the folks who are coming to CSA?

[01:37:25] Executive Director Tom Myers: I think it does. I, I, I, I think if, if we did not have that eviction moratorium, and we got this money on March the 25th and April 1st was a few days later, it would have been chaos. It would have been absolutely, it would have been absolutely horrible. It's CSA. Uh, and uh, the eviction more attorney. I think when I was talking to folks about the eviction moratorium. That helped us. Uh, not because, you know, from any point of view other than the fact that it really helped us from having to deal with uh, an avalanche of desperation. Uh, I think that uh, that said, there's still a lot of nervousness, anxiousness and desperation out there. Uh, but the eviction moratorium, Absolutely, a necess- a necessary tool.

[01:38:12] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Right. Um, the other thing that we did talk about yesterday, but I thought it might benefit everyone to hear this. Um, I had asked you if there were any changes you would make to the parameters of the rental assistance program from the city. um would you change anything about the qualifications or the criteria?

[01:38:33] Executive Director Tom Myers: I think one of the most important things that, that we have from the city is a great deal of flexibility. Now, CSA does not create the priority. Now, the people who give us the buckets of money, and this is true of all buckets of money that we get for rental assistance, they create the rules. Uh, some say it's for 80% AMI. Some say it's only for less than 80% AMI. Uh, some, some, you know, say it can go for uh, several months. Some say it's one month and one month only. Uh, and so there's different parameters. The city staff, and I, all credit to Wayne and Tim, uh, were great. When we said we need flexibility in this, uh, uh, to be able to, like, if someone's renting a room, we need to be able to help that person who's renting a room, as long as they can show that they have an agreement with the landlord, uh, that they're paying the rent. Uh, if, uh, you know, if they need to show loss of wages because of COVID, it doesn't have to be an official unemployment form. Uh, and there are buckets that will require an official unemployment form. We're taking handwritten letters by someone's employer, as long as we can verify it and talk to the employer. Uh, uh, that we're, we're, we're taking those kinds of things. So, uh, I think that, uh, uh, I, I, I would not change the, the flexibility that's built into this system by any means. As far as if, if, people want to talk about priorities, uh, and changing the priorities, that, that would have to come from council, but I think that the, the way it's set up now is set up in a way that can help, uh, as many people as, as possible, uh, in the, in the fairest way possible.

[01:40:13] Unknown Speaker: Great, thank you. That's, um, all I had. Thank you.

[01:40:18] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, council member. We'll move on to vice mayor.

[01:40:24] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Um, so, uh, 1st I want to, uh, just want to thank, uh, for the thorough presentation. I think a lot of the information on those side, the questions we get emails about, or phone calls and texts about, so I think it's really helpful to just have aggregate that and put it all out there for everyone to see. So I really, really appreciate that. And then Tom, obviously, thank you for everything that you're doing. Um, and I just had a kind of quick follow-up question for you. Um, so I know that the city is not the only one providing mental relief fund. Is there a kind of, and, and please feel free to let us know if you can't share, but do you have a general idea of how much funding is going towards the rental relief for residents, and that will be right now, just kind of, uh, from all the different versus your, your, uh, study?

[01:41:19] Tom Myers: Well, we started, obviously in, in late March, uh, dealing with this. So I guess it was the 17th when, uh, the emergency was put into place and then people started losing their jobs very, very quickly right after that. Uh, and you see that we spent uh, uh, uh, 300,000 plus dollars of, of Mountain View money. Uh, I believe I saw a figure today that we've spent somewhere in the vicinity of about uh, a $1000 of other buckets, but uh, 3 of those buckets of money are, are, that we get are now depleted completely. So, uh, yeah, so, we're going to become much more dependent, if you will, if, excuse that word, on the mountain view funds moving forward, because those, those funds are, are, are depleted.

[01:42:11] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: And then one of the things we talked about was the flexibility that you're able to get from the city in terms of being able to, um, kind of fairly allocate all the funding. And so as we're thinking that the shelter in place might go longer. Um, You know, do, other thoughts that you have to share with us in terms of being able to help special salaries or what we, what other things we can do, um, to help make sure that we are doing the most important thing, which is keeping people have, right? I know a big mission of the EAN and you mentioned that you're kind of heading that group and I know that's the biggest thing and so maybe a little bit of like insider measures there that we can be helpful on.

[01:43:00] Tom Myers: Sure, I think ultimately it's going to take, we may need to ask for the eviction moratorium to be extended. Uh, that's down the road. I think we definitely are going to need to get more money in and what, that's why we've undertaken very aggressive fundraising at, at CSA. Uh, I'm reticent to uh, to start putting numbers out there of what we've raised so far and what we expect to raise and and so forth. Uh, I will tell you this, that uh, uh, we know that the city can't be responsible for all of this. Our other funders of, of rental assistance can't be responsible for all of this. And frankly, neither can CSA. Uh, you know, we, we have lots of different kinds of safety net services that we need to provide. Although right now it's basically food and rental assistance, and that's it. We've gone into emergency mode. Like I said, this is our big one. Uh, and those are the 2 things we're doing, and, and so when we see the people lined up for food and going all the way out around Jackson Park, as they were today, uh, lined up for food, uh, that's, that's another key priority. But rental assistance is one of our key priorities, and we are raising money, uh, whether it's through, uh, our own portals, through the together MV portal, and I am going to be talking, I guess, probably with uh, Mayor Abai Koga about this, uh, uh, later, is they're trying to make sure the county does not forget that there are people in other parts of the county besides San Jose.

[01:44:27] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Right, yes. I think absolutely a lot of checks out at that important point and I'm gonna make sure that we get that attention too. All right, well, thank you very much for the questions.

[01:44:36] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you. Hello Ramirez?

[01:44:42] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Reiterating, um, gratitude expressed by my colleagues. Thank you, Tom, and to your staff work, the work that you're doing to the responsibility, most of the, not new staff work, um, very quickly, uh, program. Uh, so we receive a council received, uh, correspondence, uh, recommending, uh, implementing some changes to prioritize, uh, recognizing that there's finite amounts of funding, um, and there are certain groups of folks who are likely to be in greater need, uh, those households that won't be eligible. federal uh, systems. Um And I understand that there are some operational trade-offs that we'll have to be aware of. So can you speak to, um, some of the challenges associated with, uh, implementing that kind of, uh, prioritization framework.

[01:45:41] Tom Myers: Right. Well, uh, CSA can't, can't, you know, that obviously is the council's prerogative, if you guys want to prioritize, uh, specific things. We can't automatically make new rules for the money you're giving us. Uh, so uh, if you guys want to prioritize uh, certain groups of people over others, uh, that's fine. Uh, what I will say is if you want the prioritization to happen up front, uh, that will elongate the process because we will then have to go through the entire queue to see who qualifies for that priority service and then move them up to the front of the queue. So that, that will elongate the process. Now, with an eviction moratorium, that may make the elongating the process possible. Uh, it probably will not alleviate the, the, the fear and the desperation that goes along with that. So, ultimately, if you wanted to throw in a particular priorities, Uh, like I said, certainly your prerogative. Uh but uh it will elongate the process. Uh, one thing that is possible is uh, for you to, to, to look at, uh, if there are other ways that priorities can be set that don't include having to go through the entire, uh, queue. And I'm not sure exactly what those are or how you could do that. But, uh, one thing that's happening right now is the checks are going out quick. Uh very quickly. In fact, quicker than I've ever seen rental assistants go out the door because we're all just kind of putting everything else on the back printer and working on this and food. Uh, but uh, if you uh, uh, but if you did want to set priorities, uh, there, there may be ways that wouldn't slow us down, and I don't know what those might be right off the top of my head, but, uh, yeah. I'm sorry, I hope that answered your question.

[01:47:31] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Uh, it, it, it did. I think we may discuss this after, um, on, uh, one of, so I appreciate how quickly you're able to responding, um, but it's in sheer volume of requests, uh, with, you know, 14 staff, uh, quickly, um, and I think we'll receive some correspondence of, um, challenge, and I want to, certain distance from you. Are there, are there things we can do to, uh, help DSA get back to folks more quickly? Are there, is there a volunteer program? Uh, where folks can just give folks, uh, on the list of call to say, but working on it, please stay patient. What are some things we can do to make sure that, um, maybe, folks may be increasingly desperate because they haven't yet heard back, or able to get some kind of response recognizing that, um, they work on it as, as what they do.

[01:48:38] Tom Myers: Sure, I, uh, you're breaking up a little bit in your audio, Lucas, so I'm not sure if, uh, I, I got this, but you're, you're asking about, uh, the speed at which we can get back to folks. I will tell you. Uh, we just had some staff from the city of Los Altos, join us uh, to do some volunteer works. One of them is a Spanish speaking receptionist who is uh working the phones. Uh, I, I, I know that uh, uh, she has been utilized to do more phone duty. Uh, I think that everyone has gotten some sort of automated, especially the ones that came through, uh, via email, have gotten an automated message saying, said, type, we're going to be in touch with you. At 1st we were saying we'll be in touch within 72 hours, obviously, when the queue grew to more than 8 or 900. It was obvious that was going to be blown out the window, uh, because we've just never been inundated with this kind of, uh, request for assistance. Uh, but, uh, but, uh, if people are on the list, uh, then, uh, they will get a call back, one thing that we could do, and I, I think that uh, uh, having heard this feedback that people want to hear more than just an automated email or whatever, is to get someone who can be proactive on the staff, and you and I talk about this, just, I think it was yesterday, about having someone who perhaps does not need to have visibility into the entire file because we are, Uh, we do have to function under HIPAA standards and we are, uh, which means with confidentiality is, is exceedingly important. Uh, but giving someone a phone call, who's uh, having a volunteer give a phone call, maybe something we can talk about. And in fact, after our conversation, I went ahead and brought it up with staff. Uh, so we may be able. get something going along those lines. Uh, but uh, if we get the phone call and people, uh, do know that they are in the staff. There's not a whole lot we can do beyond waiting for them to get to a case manager. Now, I will say this, if we've got 1400 in the queue, and we've already contacted over 760 of them, which means they're proceeding into case management at that point. That's, I think, uh a good sign. Considering how inundated we were originally. Even in my, I apologize for the, the quality of the, uh, speed here. doing the best I can.

[01:51:01] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And then the final question for, for city staff, uh, is, uh, one of the things that I think all of us are concerned about is, uh, demand is greater than the supply. There's mince need, and as many members of the council are about, we can't need it alone. Um, but I am concerned about on the other side of this. particularly, if there is an extension of the show, the show for, um, we have some kind of plan or has that been thinking about, uh, how we would respond if we find ourselves, um, you know, with a, with a fiction crisis, right? So many folks who have some amount of rent debt built up. Um, and, you know, the, the rent really program, you know, may not be fully, um, maybe oversubscribed. Or has that thought about some some kind of planning to put in place or a programmatic way of responding to that. Uh, what, what are some of the things that you've been thinking?

[01:52:08] Wayne Chen: Hi, this is Wayne Chen. So, uh, and then Timmy has some, uh, just to kind of jump in. I think we've been in, um, the mode of putting their heads down and running really quickly, um, on a variety of efforts. So, um, just kind of thinking through it a little bit. I don't know that there's a magic bullet, you know, I think if, um, certain factors come into place, for example, fundraising is successful. Um, may be flattened with a curve, may ease things up for a little bit. Um, if there is additional funding sources through together MV. Um, that would certainly help. Um, but, within the, the notion that the, um, uh, the addiction, uh, suspension, um, does provide a lot of stability, uh, we, we know there's an end date there, but certainly, that may be a policy, uh, that, that, that could be used. I, I think, um, having a little bit of, uh, mental kind of breeding space to process this is, of course, we're, still working actively on the displacement response strategy, you know, we're working on a couple of key things there, so perhaps, uh, we can take just a moment, looking through whether there is something to, um, be considered through that, that framework, um, but I don't, I don't have, necessarily sort of a magical answer there. Ideally, if various forces can come together to provide, um, more assistance. Um, there is, there are some policies that provide, um, a greater simple stability. Those would all help. And of course, um, you know, we are working very closely with Tom and his team, having at least weekly check-ins to understand, um, the caseload and the client profile, and so, there may be opportunities to take a look at it and see how the firms are being, um, spread out, and there could be potential tweaks there to kind of balance the trade-off between, serving a greater number of folks. um for providing the folks who are already concerned, with longer stability. So I think that's an ongoing dialogue as well.

[01:54:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you very much Um, before we go for a 2nd now, I want to add a few questions, but I'd like to ask, um, so, um, Mr. Myers, um, question, my 1st question, um, has to do with the other programs and services that you're providing, and um, those, uh, those funding, we're talking about CDBG funding, um, uh, the funding uh, that would qualify for funding from the, these funds, um, for COVID relief effort, and I've been thinking about, um, the other programs like, um, you know, uh, uh, you have your senior nutrition program, you know, I'm a fan, big fan of wheels on wheels. Um, so there are other programs that you provide um, and I know the relief effort is increased in those areas. And I guess my question was, um, where would you like the funding to go? Is it best to all go into rent relief or should we carve out some of the funding for some of the other programs? Um, mainly because I was thinking of, uh, trying to reach a broad, um, spectrum of folks and, um, you know, I think about seniors who may be, who may live in a home, um, that are, um, you know, we talk about assets, which in cash for, um, and I know you help folks like that for your other program, so, um, if you had a choice, or, um, well, I guess, yeah, like, I don't, I don't want to put sure that, but, but. I do, I mean, I do, but in that sense, because if you want to be mindful of the other services you provide.

[01:56:19] Tom Myers: Absolutely, and thank you for bringing that up, because I think that the fact of the matter is that, uh, uh, there are, uh, hidden pockets, uh, of need that are going on right now, uh, and we are not paying attention, and I, and I've said this in a letter to the, to our, our funders in the community not too long ago. If we have a blind spot right now, it's our seniors, it's the disabled and it's uh people with special needs. And there's no question about that. I will say this Thank you, thank you, thank you to the city of Mountain Pew for letting us use the senior center without you guys being there. Uh, the fact that we can get into the kitchen and make uh, make our senior lunches. Uh, and and we're keeping the place clean, I promise. Uh, it is absolutely amazing. And in fact, just today, we started that program up again. And just today we were giving out over a 100 meals. Uh, to seniors uh, in their car. giving it to them and they can take away or they could walk up and take it away as the neat as the case may be. You're absolutely right. There are there are other needs out there. We are really concentrating on rental assistance right now, and I would say that, uh, if, if you're getting to a point where you have to rob Peter to pay Paul. Uh, that's one of the reasons why CSA was very smart and we built up reserves over the years and I credit my board for helping me to do that. Uh, we can, we need to write this out, but we also need to make sure people don't become homeless. Because if you have people becoming homeless and you guys have probably heard this from not only me, but there are lots of other people. Once someone becomes, it's much cheaper to keep someone from becoming homeless than it is to try and bring them up out of homelessness and into housing. Uh, so our concentration right now is on that. Uh, uh, and I, and I think we need to. But you're absolutely right. There are other priorities, and once we get past this emergency, we're going to need to come back and reassess all of that. Because there are seniors out there that were delivering food to every day. There are seniors that are, we're delivering prescriptions to every day. There's uh, uh, all of that kind of stuff that CDBG funds also go to help. Okay? Pardon me?

[01:58:41] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you. Um, my next question, uh, so, uh, my part of my interest with this program was to get funding out as quickly as possible, uh, blowing that the, the federal package and whatnot, care is actually, um, moving along. Um, and I, I personally don't know where we are with that, but are you seeing clients who are starting to get those checks for the, the funds into their bank account?

[01:59:12] CSA Representative Tom: Uh April 15th is when they 1st initially said that those were going to be coming out. Uh, so we have not seen any visibility into that or I do not know about that. My, uh, I, I can check with my staff and get back with you on that. My understanding, though, was that no one was going to be getting a check until April 15. But I only know, I only know that through media report.

[01:59:34] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, I, I heard on the news that some folks we got them over the weekend, so...

[01:59:40] CSA Representative Tom: Okay. We got, our folks have,

[01:59:42] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: and then my final question is, um, I know use of, uh, Mountain View, South, South, South Hills, and has there been any, any, has there been any conversation with the other cities and their city councils about their city Fiji funds, um, coming to COVID relief and specifically rental relief?

[02:00:04] CSA Representative Tom: Funny you should ask that because it's now 825 at 9 o'clock there's an agenda item in the city of Los Altos. Uh, that, uh, I've got my board president standing by to, uh, go do that, but we've, yes, we've done a, an ask of the city of, I told you, we are in aggressive fundraising mode. We've done a, uh, an ask that's going to the city of Los Altos, uh, around this, well. Uh, so, uh, uh, yes, and that, that's tonight. But don't worry, we don't need to hurry this discussion because my boy president is there. So we're good.

[02:00:34] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Well, that'd help for us to be over there too. I'll get back to you on that.

[02:00:41] CSA Representative Tom: Yes. in there.

[02:00:43] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. I'm gonna move on now to Councilman McAllister.

[02:00:49] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, thank you, so I have a question for our city manager. That, uh, I mentioned something about doing additional funding for BSA. I was thinking about a 1000000 dollars. I know it's an arbitrary number, and I know Chris doesn't like arbitrary numbers, but it's a starting point, so, uh, it sounds like I could do something. So, would, would you be able to, um, if we gave you a direction to, explore other funding that we could supplement this? Would you be able to come back on the, you know, like in 2 weeks to sort of give us a sense that we could do this extra immediate funding to help in this, uh, higher, uh, than this crisis right now?

[02:01:31] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes, thank you, council member McAllister, um, that that would be the direction from the council. I think that we could be prepared. To bring something back for the 28th um on options. So I am working with our finance staff right now on assessing our um budget, this current fiscal year 1920 and and ongoing and um, food. update to council right now except for May 5th um but I think that we could be prepared to bring something back. Um, in terms of what that may look like on the 28th.

[02:02:07] Councilmember John McAlister: Thank you for that answer. I like to thank everybody, Tom and all. I like to make a motion.

[02:02:14] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I have other questions, though, and I need to go to the public.

[02:02:18] Councilmember John McAlister: Oh, that's true. Okay, so like when you get back, okay?

[02:02:21] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I will call on you later. All right, I'm commander.

[02:02:28] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: So, um, sorry, I was just going to echo that I'm interested in what uh, John McAllister just said, council member McAllister. Um, but I forgot we weren't to the point where we're making comments. Sorry about that, um, because I also would ask Tom to think about, um, if we did have more money. Um what do you want it to go 100% to rent relief for what you want any of it, even if it's a small amount to go to something else. Do you want an answer now or no? Just to think about, right?

[02:03:04] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes. Yes. When we get to the comments part of it, we can provide more directions. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Any other questions and council members? If not, I will open this up to public comments. Yeah. And don't need my little orb again. Uh, would any member of the public on the line, like, because I comment on this item, is so please, like, and button on zoom, or press star 9 on your phone, and um, the clerk will start the timer, I see right now, 5 hands up, um, do you have any, uh, so far, city clerk? I just wanted to check on finding time.

[02:03:52] City Clerk: Sure, I don't have any emails at this time, and it looks like from the list that I'm seeing, I'm seeing a couple of folks that signed up to speak, but are not on the call quite yet, I don't believe. So maybe we can check in after the initial comments are given.

[02:04:11] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. Great. Thank you. All right, then I will, um, go ahead and do 3 minutes, and we'll start with Charlotte Quinn. Let me unmute you.

[02:04:24] Charlotte Quinn: So, so I think that's the solution that's gonna address these concerns about keeping people housed, relieving desperation and not gutting affordable houses, the right moratorium. The city council can enact emergency price control on rent. The law foundation of Silicon Valley, city councils can enact COVID-19, land suspension under their emergency and police power. It's a valid and legal emergency particle. That relief is just landlord relief. The rental, notorium, emergency price control is going to free up this money to go to other critical, food, et cetera, and not get the essential housing process. Don't take money away from affordable houses. It's, I, I, it's going to exacerbate the wave of homelessness that mountain view is going to experience when landlords demand background, 1000s in background, when this eviction moratorium expires. It's gonna cause many more years of delay in critical housing supply. I work in construction, I work for a building department. I know multifamily housing projects take a super long time from start to finish. There are a lot of businesses taking financial hits right now. Why are landlords allowed to pass their business risks onto people most negatively affected by the spice of the people who are most vulnerable? Are the people who don't have land to act as collateral, or business to sell to avoid becoming home? Their financial toll is incomparably small to a resident using housing. Now, you can't guarantee that a business is going to be profitable and keep paying them. But none you can do is guarantee that many more of the citizens are going to be living in the streets and vehicles if they don't enact a rent moratorium. The city becomes a moral obligation to protect the citizen. And it's got an opportunity now to properly fight this crisis. And then label Mountain View to emerge strong with a rent moratorium. And please, don't rely on the federal government to help renters. So stimulus checks, they're allowed to be seized by banks and pay debts before people can even touch that money. They're not able to spend it on groceries. They're not able to spend it on rent. They're not able to spend it at all. It's just going immediately into paying that, that, that bank has. Um, we can't rely on the federal government. don't got affordable housing. If you guys own that, uh, emergency price controls, then all this money that has been generously given, that has been reallocated, can go so much further and help so many more people, not just help certain types of businesses, these land doors, um, make, meet their bottom line. Uh, that shouldn't be the priority of the city council. It's immoral for that to be the priority of the city council and to keep the CSA working to do something like that when they could be doing so much more. Uh, the small foundation is so called out, it's written out in a letter to San Jose. Is it accessible to look at how this is legal and visible? Thank you.

[02:07:15] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, next speaker, Alex Brown.

[02:07:23] Alex Brown: Alex Brown again. I'm very disappointed in the continued focus on landlords income streams over keeping people safe and healthy. Unrelief is only necessary because we haven't enacted a rent suspension. If any people who operate as landlords are struggling to feed themselves or necessary supplies to survive, we should help them as we would anyone else. Focusing on what amounts to a continued flow of revenue, distracts us from real issues that we could be addressing like the fight of those still lacking basic housing or tools to assist in personal safety. If we're using the handicap, our city's ability to develop affordable housing in the future, we should have to meet an exceedingly high bar. The money should not go towards the bottom lines of property management company. Thank you.

[02:08:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Also, Lisa, can you put a timer up on the screen? For, uh, public comment.

[02:08:09] City Clerk: Unfortunately, I'm not able to at this time.

[02:08:13] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Darn. Thank you. We'll go on to season Goldstein.

[02:08:22] Stephen Goldstein: Thank you very much. Uh, again, I'd like to say that, uh, I really appreciate what the CFA is doing no matter what, that they are, uh, an underappreciated resource, that, that's really interesting is, this is at least the, the least dangerous situation that we could possibly run into. They were talking about earthquake. Luckily, that wasn't an earthquake and that all the structures are still up and in operational. However, you, for example, what I'm working with now is that in my structure, Uh, we have 10 minutes, but only 4 uh, 6 of them are being occupied, 4 of them are, that have been subway to a group called Sis Living, and they are now completely vacant, and they're not going to be occupied for as long as this uh, crisis is, is in place. So it does to show how thoroughly the private housing sector manages things. However, the big thing I want is to discuss insists. When I saw on that report, only about 10 to 15% of the, the, uh, the applications, the rental, uh, assistance has actually been processed and done, and that, that's been the last, the last 2 weeks. Now, if this situation keeps continuing the way it's going, uh, the CSA is going to be always way, way behind in the process. And again, I'm not faulting him for it. This is a very large problem, but it needs to be done, whether the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, is they're going to have to understand that if it costs $330,000, it conserves 160 clients, and we've got 14,000, sorry, 1400, at the current level, that are in the process, you, you're gonna have to do a lot better m- number coaching here, and again, they're going to probably have to, uh, fork up maybe some, somewhere in the order at least 10 times. that particular amount that's already been paid out in the way of funding, and that may be per month, for as long as this whole process is in place. The really only solution, obviously, I think, financially feasible for the city literally is to effect, but A, uh, but it's been, like, you know, as a rent moratorium, or a rent fee, given the fact that the pair, uh, act, if someone does provide that anyone with a federally insured mortgage doesn't have to pay it. Uh, at this time, and not incurring any interest at this time either. And that was under the, and those are the provisions I was saying that under those circumstances, technically, you're not allowed to collect rent. At the, as long as you're getting a federally insured, uh, loan that deals with your, your housing product or your housing operation. So, to me, it just looks like what's really going on here is that, is, is a major cash grab going on, that these RAMOs are, are actually now not having to pay their mortgages, but they're demanding their rent payments, but they paid all time, and that's, that their mortgages are, 50% more than what they, or more, what their operational expenses are.

[02:11:27] City Clerk: Your time is back.

[02:11:28] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll move on to Lenny Siegel.

[02:11:35] Lenny Siegel: Good evening again. Uh, 1st and foremost, I would like to support the staff recommendation for the appropriation. I think it's an important step forward. There will need to be more at some point, but it's, it's good to see that happening. Secondly, I want to express my appreciation to staff and CSA in particular for the heroic work they're doing, trying to help people in our community. Uh, not just the rent and all the other services. And I was pleased to learn in the chart that was presented earlier, that, uh, that despite the fact that there's no means test, that the bulk of the money is going to extremely low income people and to low income people. So that's good news. However, I'm concerned about the long term situation, where after a few months, A lot of people all rent and have no way to pay it. The city of Mountain View and our private donors are probably not in a position to raise enough money to make up that gap. We're going to have to rely on the federal government and unemployment insurance to make people whole. There are a lot of steps in the right direction. A lot of people will get money and a lot of people won't. And I suggest that looking forward, are moving forward, that we base rent relief to some degree on the, on the amount of money that people are not getting from the federal government. But as though people, those people who are giving unemployment insurance and federal stipends, not be a priority over people who aren't qualified for that. So my suggestion tonight is you ask staff to come back with some sort of a, uh, options for how to set priorities going forward to make sure that the people who need the money most, After federal unemployment, after federal, um, unemployment, after federal stipends, are going to get them, you know, get the money. The city itself cannot afford to make everybody whole, and we should coordinate what CSA offers with what people are getting from the federal government. Again, thanks for doing this program. We just got to think ahead and prevent a train wreck, train wreck, uh in a few months. Thank you.

[02:13:58] City Clerk: Uh, and lastly, have Miguel Sanchez. Can you hear me?

[02:14:09] Miguel Sanchez: I'm here. I'm here. Thank you. I would like to offer some kind of underground commentary of how some of our most vulnerable communities and precedents are, are seeing stuff that's happening. Uh, 1st of all, in terms of the speed of the processing of the applications, I know that we have CSA doing it the best they can right now, but so far only 160 applications have been processed out of 400 uh, 1400. So that's a little bit over 10%. Even if we move as fast as 15 checks per per day as was quoted in the presentation, that still only gets us up to 400 applications by the end of April. So a 1000 people that contacted CSA will not have heard it, uh, will not have gotten a check by the end of April. So I think there's still a large bottleneck that needs to be addressed and and that faulty CSA for this, they're certainly increasing their staff. But I think we need to do something to to increase the processing speed for all of this applications. Um, 2nd is, we, there were comments from some of the council members about the rent moratorium. There is awareness of the remoratorium, but I want people to be aware that it does not 100% solve the issue because we're not condoning rent, right? they still they still owe it. So, for every month, that this emergency is in place, and for in the case where they do not get rent relief, their rent will go up 25% over the next 4 months that they have to cover that gapping rent. So, if we go through April without rent, we leave, and then we have 4 months, they have 25% that they have to save on additionally, uh, every month, if we're going to May, which is very likely 2 months. They're going to have to, the rent is practically going up 50%. If this goes on to 4 months. We're talking about their rent being increased by 100% so that they can save enough to cover the deficit rent. And this is under the circumstance, the perfect scenario where they go back to work, the sun, the Monday that our economy opens. Um, and lastly, uh, as a final comment, um, some of the other programs that might be available for help. There are many people in their community who, although they are paying taxes through a tax identification number, will not be eligible to receive any of the better relief funds. So the $1200 checks will not be, will not be arriving worse yet. In mix households where they have one person has a social security number, the other one uses the, the tax identification number. They will also not get the relief. So, um, there are many programs out there that many of our community are not going to be eligible for. Thank you.

[02:17:00] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Uh uh that. I don't see any other hands up, do we have any other public comments?

[02:17:11] City Clerk: Um, I don't have any additional members who signed up listed on the list of attendees, but I will just ask the telephone participant, if you're interested in providing comment on this item, if you would just press star 9 on your phone, and then anyone else who is participating, if they will use the raised hand feature. I'm not seeing anyone raise their hand. I don't have any emails or voicemails on this item. Thank you.

[02:17:37] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Well, actually, I do see hands raised by the collar. I don't have your name here, so, um, please go ahead and speak.

[02:17:51] Public Speaker: Oh, I was just curious uh, regarding the uh, the rent of system. Um is there a possibility to uh allocate the smaller amount so that more individuals could be covered. I think the, the, from the numbers that I saw, there's a possibility that the money will be quote unquote running out, or is that something that's already been taken care of, or the city will uh allocate additional funds if there's more people waiting uh in the queue, if you will. Hello? Hello? Hello? It's still on. Okay, okay, can you hear me? Yes. Yes, so my cover was, uh, is there any possibility to reallocate, um, the funding so that more applicants, uh, could receive assistance for the, for the rent, but at a small amount, assuming that there's not, uh, enough money for all those 1500 people that are actually in the queue.

[02:19:04] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, uh we can't answer right now, but we will um probably get an answer for that um when we get bring the item back to the council, but thank you. But any other members of the public wishing to speak? Last call. If not, I will close public comment and bring it back to the council. Can you hear me? Can you don't hear me? Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Council member. I am at a check.

[02:19:38] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I wanna follow up on a couple of comments from the public. Um, and they're both for Mr. Myers, so you and I specifically talked about, shouldn't we allocate a small amount per person, and I was pleased to hear that you were already implementing that, um, and maybe you want to talk, um, in response to that, as well as about how you're taking into consideration if people are getting funding from other sources.

[02:20:03] Tom Myers: Yes, we we actually started right away, we saw that we were going to be inundated with uh, need and not have enough funds. Uh, and so we immediately, uh, uh, uh, started, uh, asking folks if they could contribute anything, not, rather than just automatically insisting, uh, that they, uh, uh, that, or automatically cutting a check right away. So we did ask folks what they could contribute, and if that would be possible for them. Uh, when it comes to allocating a smaller amount, uh, uh, you do have to be careful because uh, if you do allocate a smaller amount. We use the analogy of giving someone half a parachute. Uh, and uh, so if, I, I don't have a, a problem with the idea of allocating a smaller amount, but what you have to do is then take into consideration what other sources are available for uh, uh, for that client. uh again, coming to a robbing theater to pay Paul sort of thing. But I think it's really, it really helped us to bring down um. the initial response uh from folks by immediately asking, can you help to contribute to this, and what amount can you help to contribute rather than just automatically, automatically saying, oh, this is your rent? We're going to pay that. It's like, okay, can you help contribute to this rent? And that actually ended up being very, very helpful. People, when they engage with case managers on this, uh, uh, in this process, part of that is also dealing with them in a more holistic way. And luckily, I don't think we've gotten away from that even in the way that we've speeded up the process. Uh, we, we still are engaging with them in a very holistic way and able to get them into other sorts of services. People who maybe never knew about CSA before coming to us for rental assistance. Well, maybe they find out that they also qualify for food, or that their grandparent can participate in the senior nutrition program, or whatever the case may be. Thank you. Thank you.

[02:22:09] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you. Council member McAllister next?

[02:22:16] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, so, uh, you know, I appreciate everything that I heard from the uh, community. But there's an old adage that our former city manager used to say is trust staff, and in this regards, I trust CSA and Tom Meyer completely. Welcome to Zoom. Enter.

[02:24:37] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Well, here you speak. Like to go to the others first. The Councilman Ramirez.

[02:24:45] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. Um... I think I neglected earlier to thank you also for your leadership with the other Mountain View fund. and the uh, update we received earlier, but it is very heartening to see uh, our community step up and every little bit helps, right? It's not going to solve the problem. But, um, you know, not a problem that anyone entity is able to take on solely. So, uh, all of this is, is, is going to be essential to meeting the, the man for assistance. Um, so I, uh, I, uh, hear council member of McAllister's motion. Um, I, uh, I agree with the staff recommendation, uh, and I'm interested in, um, I think, yeah, I don't want to put words in your mouth council member in the couch, one way of, of responding to where I think you're coming from, and where I've heard from other members to council is, uh, including in our, uh, in the motion, uh, direction to staff to continuously assess the need, not just for rent relief, but also for. some of the other programs that many households are taking advantage of, including grocery delivery and those kinds of things for seniors, folks who are disabled. You know, there are a number of different ways of seeing us say, any other organizations, um, are, are sort of, uh, responding to the needs and trying to meet it as best as they find. So, uh, no, I think, proving the staff recommendation, right? And then, uh, having staff, you know, work with CSA, monitor the needs, you know, we're able to, um, you know, get post-existence that they need, and then come back with, um, you know, appropriate, within our means, uh, additional, um, uh, recommendations for a general appropriate, emotion like that. The only other thing, um, is I'm, uh, I, I, some of the, I, the idea that we've heard from, from the public are good and well intentioned. But, um, the concern I have is, I don't want to slow down DSA's operation. I've gotten, I've heard, you know, anecdotally and gotten personally, too many, uh, phone calls and text messages from folks who are, um, very concerned because they haven't even heard back from CSA. I mean, not because of, of any sort of CSA, just from the, when this, um, immense, um, you know, immense many, many applications the way through. And I think if we were to, you know, sort of change the rules at the last minute. Um, then that could pose operational challenges now, further delay the response that many people are expecting. And then also, um, as, as Utah had had sort of shared it, you know, there are some fairness concerns, that somebody's thinking to you right now and they get bumped out because somebody in the new set of rules, a new organization, um, you know, gets, greater priority that could create some, some deal with a lot. We want to, we want to avoid that. So, um, all of that said, you know, I would be interested, you know, if staff hasn't already, you know, evaluating ways of making sure people don't fall through the cracks, um, that, you know, there is some local assistance available for, uh, folks who are not eligible for federal or state. I think that would be ideal. Um, I don't have a great way of, of, uh, a great solution right now, but I think that's something that we, we should be, uh, love, and as we continuously assess, um, this program and the need, you know, maybe there are recommendations down the road, that could help substantially address, um, the problems that the prioritization recommendations are trying to. Uh, so, sort of a staff recommendation, willing to consider uh, additional appropriations or at least have staff, some recommendations based on the assessment, um, and, uh, and, you know, if there's, there are other ideas, I'm, I'm more than interested in hearing them. Thank you.

[02:29:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Council member manager.

[02:29:30] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. So, um, I'm also supportive of the staff recommendation, and, um, I just want to clarify, um, we're not limited in terms of, well, I should say, we're somewhat limited, but, um, we don't just have to use, um, affordable housing fees for affordable housing. We have used general fund, uh, resources for affordable housing, and so, uh, I'm not too concerned about using the CDBG, um, and other monies for, uh, rent relief because this council has been very supportive as a previous council, uh, affordable housing. And I think if an opportunity comes along, we will figure out a way to support it, whether it be from our affordable housing funds or from other buckets of uh funding that we have. So I'm not too worried about that. Um. I think I am supportive of where council member McEllister appears to be heading with dressing staff to look at additional resources and um I would add that I think it would be great to get um Mr. Myers input on if we have additional resources. Would any of it go to something other than rent release? And obviously you don't have to answer that now because it's going to come back to us anyway. Um but I am interested in looking to see if we can find additional funding. Um, um, only the thing that I feel like maybe we should talk about, and I have mixed feelings about supporting it, but, um, you know, I think some folks were concerned about, um, are the most, uh, the folks who need the most help really getting the help, and based upon the numbers, yes. Um with 61% being extremely low income, receiving the rent release. So if folks wanted to make sure no one, um, that's in the, uh, that's making a little bit above the average AMI, um, was getting funding, then maybe we want to consider, um, saying, and I wouldn't say this is a change to the priorities, but it would be a change to the criteria, that you wouldn't necessarily be eligible if you make more than 80% AMI. Um, and I think we ought to have that conversation. It was only 2%. Um so I don't feel strongly one way or another about this, but if folks did, I think there's an opportunity to discuss that. And that's it.

[02:32:06] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Counselor Hicks.

[02:32:12] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, I do support the staff recommendation. I would be fine with um, staff coming back with further recommend- recommendations for the future, although I wouldn't want to, I would want to reconsider it at that time. I actually, you know, not allocated at this time. I'd like to see how it affects the rest of the budget. I act, and I would also, I'm also interested in what council member manager just raised about, uh, 80% and above not, you know, eliminating that category, although I also agree with it, that that's not a, uh, a very large element of this, so it's not that important. I would actually like, I may be in the minority on this, but I would actually like to see, um, come back with some kind of, uh, simple screening method. I do think that the majority of uh rent relief will come from things like the the tariffs act and unemployment and so forth. So I actually would like to see some screening for that. I feel that, you know, this may go on for months and months and I, I don't want to drain either all of our affordable housing funds or, or other funds, frankly, I think we have to look at it. So I am interested in whether there's a simple way to do that. Um, and I also am very interested in circling back and having a larger landlord who we may be writing checks to, um, funding the program rather than taking from our, our budget and affordable housing program. So that's a summary of where I'm at.

[02:34:03] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I'm going to chime in before we go emotions. So, um, thank you to staff for the staff report. Thank you, Mr. Myers, for um all of the insights you've provided. Um, I, I really think that, um, a lot of, it has happened in a very short amount of time, and I just want to, um, emphasize that, uh, for me, the interest here was speed, because I knew folks were in need of help now, uh, and then the, like, expectation was that there would be other, great resources coming later, and I think we've been able to achieve that, um. And so I support staff recommendation, um, I appreciate the comments about criteria and so forth, but I actually was, um, refer to DSA who has done this for 30 years, um, and they've done it successfully. You know, I, I, I appreciate public comment, but, um, we have the experts doing it, and um, the, the numbers that are showing in the data that we have so far, um, I think is, you know, proving that we are reaching the folks who need this assistance the most, and I think the best thing that we can do is to allow CSA as much flexibility as possible, um, and their, uh, judgment as to where the funds would be best, um, use. Um, so, I, I don't um, at this time, especially because, I guess I'm looking at it. I, I know this can last a while, um, but, I, I, I think in light of, there is an end, I, I tend to, again, be optimistic, uh, a little bit listening to the governor today, and I think we're, like, seeing, there is an end coming, and so this isn't gonna be around for, frankly, I don't think long enough for us to be tinkering with the criteria and whatnot. My, my interest really is to help people as quickly as possible, so the more criteria we put in and whatnot is just gonna slow down the process and you know, you, you can't have it those ways, right? So for me, um, experience is the most important thing and I think CSA is really achieving our goal of, of other goals of helping folks, um, who need the most help. So I'm fine with it. Um, I, I would entertain our councilman, um, uh, suggestion about maybe eliminating the highest, um, in my category, uh, since there isn't a lot of takers now, um. Um, so if we want to do that to sort of, shorten the list in that sense, um, you know, I would be open to that, as far as um, further funding, so I really, um, you know, I understand the need, um, I, I, I have some reservations about looking at dental fund money, and this is, um, you know, we have, we will be doing our budget. Uh, as the city manager mentioned, studying in May, but, um, there's the, you know, my, you know, where I come from on this, um, we are probably gonna go into a recession after this, and having been there before, I am very mindful of, you know, every dollar in our general fund and how that's going to be used, and I, you know, having been through a situation where we've had some make cuts. And we've affected people's lives in that way or programs that we've had to cut or even with our own employees who right now are working, you know, 247 around the clock on, um, in relief efforts. I just wanna be very careful about going into general fund money and um, you know, for the housing funds to me, this is what it's for. Yes, we have projects that we can fun, but um, you know, this is the immediate need, so I have always supported this. You know, that I'm sort of rent relief. Um, and I think, um, you know, frankly, those projects, we may, they may get reevaluated too, because it's gonna be a different scenario, such a different situation when we come out of this, and, you know, I don't know how the housing market's gonna be. I don't know how construction is going to be so um, you know, for me if it's for affordable housing, I'm okay using those funds. I'm fine looking at general fund money if there is a surplus, but, um, you know, I want to be mindful that we can balance our budget 1st um as we're required to do with a minimal as minimal cuts as we can avoid. So, I would be more comfortable seeing that our vegetarian area is 1st before looking into extending more general fund money into this. And I also want to say, you know, I do appreciate the community and what the community has done, but um, as much as there's a lot of need. There's also a lot of wealth in this, Silicon Valley, and I don't really think we've tapped into that, and I'm going to make it, you know, I've been. I've been on the phone. I've been, you know, dialing for dollars and everyone, you know, my, if anyone, all my colleagues are welcome to do that. I think that's what Mr. Myers was getting at. Yes, and so, and, you know, I look at that as part of my job, frankly, to go out and, and, you know, do some fundraising when it's needed for charities, so, but we can all participate in that way, but I do think that the community can probably come up with some more, whether it's some companies or, you know, or individuals or whatnot, so I thi- I would like to, you know, call upon. folks and make this a real joint effort before we start tapping into general funds and you know that that could end up um making it more difficult for us down the road. So um, that's where I stand in terms of looking for more funding. So I'm not completely against it, but I just want to look at our budget 1st to make sure we're okay. So now I have a few more hands up, so I'm going to go to council member clerks since he hasn't spoken yet.

[02:40:37] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah, so I largely agree. I support the staff recommendation. I think, um, I think, you know, if we wanna add a few criteria where we're, um, you know, it ends up on the application where you check a box, you know, did you receive a, um, you know, a federal stimulus check or not? Um, you know, have you, are you receiving unemployment or not? Things that, you know, you have information that you can use to evaluate, but you don't necessarily have to create red tape where you're going and actually verifying all that information. which you probably can't verify. Um, I would be open to that, but I wouldn't apply it retroactively to people already in the queue. It would be something that you would roll out as um part of your application process. Um, for the future, but like others, I don't want to create any additional red tape, and while I was initially, um, you know, um, sensitive to some of the concerns about how we ensured that the money, the funds are going to, you know, the folks with the greatest need, I think the data that we've seen so far shows that DSA is doing a very good job in, in doing that, and I don't really want to, um, create additional red tape and additional roadblocks, um, where if we're getting, by and large the results that we want. Um, and then I I share the mayor's concern about. I, I'm just am not interested in utilizing general fund money or this right now. Um, We, you know, with, at least not until we've seen the budget and and the forecast going forward. Um, I get that, you know, tonight, this is front and center, and this is really important, but, um, there are specific buckets of money for this that we should be using for it, and we should only touch general fund money for these sorts of things, if that is the absolute highest priority of the city, and that we know it will be going forward. frankly, we just don't know that yet. And there are other priorities that are probably going to come up in the next 6 to 12 months, um, besides venture assistance, and in charitable organizations, as a result of all this that we are not going to have specific buckets of money for, and that we may need to, we may decide the general fund money is appropriate for. We have to keep in mind that, heaven forbid other terrible things could happen. We could have a natural disaster, you know, during all of this, and um, I just want to make sure that we're cognizant that while we're talking tonight about a very important need in our community, it isn't going to be the only need in our community. And, um, and general fund money, especially is something that we need to, um, ensure that we're using in in the best way possible. And, um, by all means, use the buckets that are dedicated to certain things for those things, especially in a needy time like this. Um, But I, I just, um, I don't think this was the right time without having seen the budget to to be earmarking or talking about additional funds from, from the general fund for this particular thing.

[02:43:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Council member, McAllister.

[02:43:47] Councilmember John McAlister: Third time's the term, but uh, I appreciate all the feedback from all my, uh, council members. And what I, um, my thought of putting an item 3 on this particular deal was just to have the city manager explore looking for funds up to a $1000000 I never said that it had to be limited to general fund. If we don't start looking at the process of saying, okay, here's potential funding. May's going to roll around. ESA is going to be sitting there with going, guys, the cupboard's fair. They're going to be scrambling and we're going to put people's lives in jeopardy. And so all I'm asking is that we have the city managers look at it. Um, you know, we do have very healthy reserves. I know some of you mentioned that sometimes our reserves are a little too big. But we do have healthy reserve. And this particular crisis has never been seen before in Mountain View or in the United States since maybe since 1917. So when we're saying that we need to say, well, this or that, yes, we need to look down the road. Yes, we need to be somewhat conservative. But we have an immediate need to take care of the residents of Mountain View, that there really aren't that many options for them. If we look at, say, the state or the government, or the feds, to come along with their relief checks, that could be three, four a month away. These people need to know that they have a house, a roof over them, a place to stay, and that's what's very important, that sometimes we look at the physical, but we got to look at the mental aspects of what people are going through throughout. So, I know I would feel much more comfortable knowing that the city was proactive. So, looking for the funds, wherever they may be, and that when they came up at it on the 28th, that we could say, okay, with collaboration with CSA and Tom, I'm sure, he's heard quite a bit of uh, suggestions on how to move the money or so hard, but I do agree with the majority of my council that speed is important. And we need to take care of the people now, because we're just gonna kick the, the hand down the road, if we don't give them some assistance, and we will have funding coming down the road for other affordable housing projects, but today is immediate needs that we've never seen before. So, when I present either my motions. Please consider that as, it's a broad look, to have them look around, see what they can do. And hopefully if we've come out in, in the council says, yes, we need to start looking at appropriate money. It may make some of our large corporations feel a little built more like, Hey, you know, why don't you stepped up again? We better step up again, and we could start leading these other companies to say, look at mountains. Look at what they're doing. We better not be left behind. There was that one slide that showed what Mountain View was doing from wherever, compared to everybody else, and I thank the city manager for including that in there, that we are far exceeding any city, incomparable size. Our per capita contribution for this problem is huge. You look at the county, $2 million. You're looking at San Jose. We are making these people look like they are not really addressing the issue. So, every one of us should be very proud of what we're doing, and the residents of Mount View, step back. Listen to what we're doing, compare what we're doing to other cities, and say, wow, Mountain View for your size, you are incredible, and give us the benefit of the doubt to see what we can do to take care of our, under, you know, those people that don't have the resources. Somewhere down the road, Mountain View will come up with the resources. And so I have trust in my city manager, who I gather is in the same vein as, um, Kevin Duggan and Mike and Dan Rich about being conservative. So I know she's not going to be going out there and giving away money that we really don't need. But we have the resources to recoup much faster than anybody else does. And so for us to say a million dollars, that's not much for us, but it could be a lifeline to so many people out there that hopefully it will get us through that hump of May when we start really seeing other fundings coming in. So with that being said, I will go and make emotions that council, and that the boarding, I'm not exactly sure, but I'll read the slide. One council approval of sustainable, substantial, amendment for the 201920 action plan to provide funding for the COVID-19 rent relief program. A reallocate. of $435,000 from the 201920 action plan. B, allocate of $351,000 from the fiscal year 2021 CDBG. B, allocate of $348,702 amount of future CDBG funds, data available through the federal, stimulus, COVID-19 K relief and economic security act. 2 appropriate the aforementioned funds and 3 direct the city manager to explore fighting additional funding up to a $1000000 to be to be brought back to the council on the 28th floor discussion.

[02:49:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Is there a 2nd for that?

[02:49:31] Unknown Speaker: Um...

[02:49:35] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I'm sorry, I was in the queue at 2nd. Okay, I couldn't get my, uh, Utah, though.

[02:49:42] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, uh, did you have any other comments? Okay, please go ahead.

[02:49:48] Unknown Speaker: Um, so I do support the emotion, uh, that council member, McAllister maid. Um, I do want to ask the question if you wanted to add to that, um, should we say the maximum, um, in terms of eligibility is 80% AMI or not? Is that so? Do you want to read the business?

[02:50:10] Councilmember John McAlister: That we could go to, um, or CFA and say, um, they know the criteria. 2%, but 2%, Tom, how many individuals is that when we say 2%? Because we need to know how many people are we affecting?

[02:50:28] Tom Myers: Uh, honestly, I don't have an actual raw number for what that 2% represents, but I think if you did the math real quick. Uh um. It's not a large number by any means. Uh, but uh, I, I do think that uh, uh, just to let you know, most TSA services are uh, 80% AMI are left. Uh, the 120% AMI when when we were 1st approached about that. Uh, we thought that was great because that, that prints in Mountain View are can be very expensive. Uh, but uh, frankly, almost everything else we do is qualified on 80% AMI or less. So I don't know that it would be that big of a change if you wanted to make that change. Uh, it, it would uh, uh, obviously be up to you guys. I could get you raw numbers, but I know you want to take a vote on this right now. Uh, but uh, I could get you numbers by tomorrow. But, but, uh, the percentages 2%.

[02:51:32] Unknown Speaker: I'm fine, but that, um, again, I say we trust, yes, they, and their 30 years of experience, as the mayor mentioned that, they know what they're doing, so, that would probably give us more people that it would cover. Um, and then, um, I just want to, uh, quote our mayor, when we were, uh, talking about the North Bay Shore precise plan. Um, I believe she said to all those other cities out there, tag you're it. And I think that's very appropriate here as well. um as Councilman McAllister pointed out, if you look at that chart, Mountain View is right there at the top. Um, only one city has done more, but on a per capita basis. Um we are doing most of any city. And it's kind of frustrating that, um, the other cities are not stepping up, uh, to do as much as we are. Um, I'd sure like to see them do that. I mean, we're doing a lot, uh, but we need other cities to do their fair share. Gosh, it feels like we say that all the time. Um, but anyway, I am supportive of emotion, um, and I think I would also add, um, well, the city manager looks at, do we have, um, a way of allocating more funds to this up to a million. Um, I would ask CSA to come back with, and if we do have money, would they change the program that it would go to, would any go to anything other than rent relief? Um, cause like you said, council member, McAllister. I think CSA is the expert on this, and I trust, um, that they will come back with good information, I'm very pleased with how they've been implementing the program so far, um, I totally trust them. Thank you.

[02:53:30] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Any other uh, discussion on this item? I guess I do have a question um. United States, I just thought, like, mayor's gonna go up too, but um, I was gonna ask my question to the city manager. Um, we're excited to do our budget on May 5th and this item, the motion is to come back on April 28th. Um, are you comfortable with that or would it be easier if we discuss all of this and at the same time on this? And that's the city manager.

[02:54:07] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, thank you, mayor. So, in terms of timing, the May 5th update to council is going to be an update on our current fiscal year situation, so it won't be the, um, you know, full recommendation for the 2021 budget, which, which won't come in till June. Um, I think at this point, um, if we are just looking at identifying possible forces of funding, and what we have available. Um, I think it's doable by the 28th, but certainly if it's something that we want to actually think about in terms of, at the same time as the update, um, then May 5th could also be an option. Um, but one side of the point is that there is the moratorium in place. And so, um, something council members might want to think about is the fact that, um, whether we go on the 28th or the 5th, um, you know, folks will not be able to be evicted. Um, so there is that piece of it, um. The other side of the point is that I'm still working with staff to figure out um what the budget requests are and what our revenue um sources are right now and we do have uh different reserves yet and we do have um other surplus funding from prior years so I think there could be a way to identify other sources um but that is going to take some time amidst everything else going on right now so. Um, it is, I think it is doable to bring back on the 28th, but obviously more time is always um, better, just from a staff perspective.

[02:55:50] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So then I would ask the makers of the ocean, Counselor McAllister, are you intending on the 28th to take action on, um, allotting more funding or does this say come back and, uh, identify sources?

[02:56:08] Councilmember John McAlister: My desire was, if they came back on the 28th and being proactive, that will help see us, they be able to do their job better. Um, if we get the information on the 28th, I think we would, if we move it, made action on the 5th, that would be fine, but at least we would have the discussion, Council could ask all their questions before that time, and so that when we do came to the 5th, that we could be, it would be a quick, concise, of people among people to help just get this moving along. As we were saying before, we want to get the money to the people as soon as possible. So, I'm reluctant to go to May 5th, but I'd still like to, or delay any process that delays it, but I'd still like to see the mayor as a city manager bring us to the 28th, for discussion, and I hope city managers jump in. If we did tell you to bring it to the 28th, and then we have a major discussion about how the funds used, then would you be able to take that direction and incorporated into your May 5th uh staff report?

[02:57:17] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, Councilman McAllister, yes. We we could do that. That could be incorporated as part of the update because those funds would be spent this fiscal year. So that would be part of the 1920 update. That's doable.

[02:57:31] Councilmember John McAlister: So, mayor, do you feel more comfortable with that, but we still put in the concept of our overall budget. At least we are not delaying the process. Compromise there.

[02:57:43] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Well, I think, um, well, the, the city managers are clarified, but the, the, is there anything we were going to be voting on for the budget? Are there any adjustments that need to be made or, um, I was just taking this item, as one item?

[02:58:03] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yeah, so the update on the 5th is just that, it's an update to council on what the current fiscal year situation is. So, the intention is to bring you an update on the impact to the budget based on this crisis. Um, so, you know, we've all been hearing about the impact with other cities and staff is currently evaluating what our revenue impacts are. Um, we do have impacts to our sales tax and we have impacts to our transient occupancy tax, which is a hotel tax. Um, so we are assessing that at the same time, um, I have asked our department heads to uh, reevaluate their budget request. So all that is being taken into context of not only this this year, but next this year. So what is coming to you on the 5th requires no action other than to just accept the updates. Um, There will probably be some recommendations in there on how we want to think about the 2021 budget, um, and just some budget principles, um, which I don't think will be too different from what we've always done in Mountain View, um, which is to be fiscally prudent, and to make sure that we're taking care of the, um, fiscal health of the city, and that's certainly my responsibility and and what I want to. Um, but going back to the 5th, it is an update about what's happened so far. Um, and where we're at in light of this crisis. Um, in terms of the funding, um, should the council decide that they want to, uh, hear about options on the 28th, that would be something that we would just incorporate as part of the update, um, in terms of, you know, what has been spent so far, and what the impact the bottom line might be. Um, and that's really what's driving the update is, what our net operating balance will be at the end of this fiscal year.

[02:59:54] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Would be on the 5th, would you be able to take action? If council directed to take action on the 5th that could certainly be something that we bring at that, yes. So how would we do that? Could, if we, if we have the briefing on the 20 on the 28th. Then with, if, if we get to a consensus that the 28th is doable. Would we get a consensus then, and then you would bring it back as an action item? Uh, I, I don't see you being able to do something on an act, or would you just say the 5th as an action item?

[03:00:30] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yeah, I think just logistically from a workload perspective, I would prefer for staff to bring it back one time, especially because it's just a week in between meetings. Um, we have a really quick turnaround on the agenda, um, and the same staff working on this or obviously responding to the crisis. So, I would prefer for it to be on one day, um, if council decides that it's what you want to do. You could contemplate it on the 28th and act on the 28th, which means that that would be part of the update on the 5th, or we could just bring it on the 5th, um, and then you could take action at that time either. Um, but I would prefer for it to just be one time. I would rather not just discuss it on the 28th and then bring it back again for action. I would rather do it all at one time.

[03:01:20] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Whatever we have on the 28th. On our agenda.

[03:01:25] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yeah. I need to look at the test of agenda list to double check on the timing of that, but right now, um, and I would ask our city clerk to help me. She might have it more handy.

[03:01:47] City Clerk: I do. Yeah, let me take a look. I have the towel in front of me. Um, if you, if you want, um, the 28th, at least the one that was, um, a week ago at the, Shoreline at 101, um, like that overcrossing project, and that show design, um, some text amendments for, um, ADUs, and, um, and labor agreement.

[03:02:15] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Oh, I'm, I, I'm gonna make a plug for us to just do it on the 5th because when I would feel more comfortable seeing this item in the whole context of our budget, too, would be one time, so we just, we would only need to discuss it once, and 3 by May 5th, we might have some idea of how much longer the shelter in place is gonna be, um, because the current one, I believe, is ending on the 3rd. Um, so I would expect the governor or someone to be, um, updating us, um, sometime before then. Um, so in light of that, um, if the, that's where McAllister would be willing to take it up on the 5th then, um, I think that would be ideal.

[03:03:03] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, uh my 2nd Mr. Ramirez. Or was it? Madam Madichek. So, can we direct you to bring it back as an action item on the 5th?

[03:03:18] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes, the council decides to give that direction. Yes.

[03:03:23] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Does the 2nd still okay with the 5th? Who was the second? Was it Mr. Ramirez or?

[03:03:35] Unknown Speaker: Okay. Okay, then, yeah, I'm fine with that.

[03:03:39] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, so then my, I will, yeah. At the moment, number three would be that we direct the city manager to come with an action plan, to review allocating up to $1 million, depending on available resources.

[03:03:56] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. I have a vice mayor. Can I bring your hands up?

[03:04:00] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: I did. I had a question about what ended up happening with the AMI discussion and so if the motion maker could clarify what they meant.

[03:04:13] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, AI would be 80%. Okay. And then people gave it up to CSA to minister. They were saying, well, let me hear what you, what's your, what's your,

[03:04:28] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: okay, so, um, from my understanding in the, in the kind of dialogue, uh, that was related to AMI, it sounded like one of the great things about, um, not having any type of, um, priorities with, uh, the flexibility that came along with that, and being able to give that funding out. in a flexible and fair way. And my concern is that if we change the percent of AMI now doesn't allow to be as nimble and flexible as the shelter in place may continue. I think that the percentage of 2% um is pretty de minimus. Um, so I don't think that we need to be so prescriptive in terms of saying that it should, it shouldn't, you know, one of the things that you've talked about a lot, Kaplan, the kind of the missing middle, and, and those who who may fall into that, and if maybe household employment changes, they may fall into that category where they're just above the 80%, that they're not able to qualify anymore for rental assistance. And I think one of the biggest things that we're talking about are ways to make sure that people have. And so they're concerned that if we talk about 80% AMI are under, um, that we're not doing the goal, which is like to keep as many people houses as possible. And, um, that was, that was kind of my concern related to this, the AI percentages, so.

[03:06:08] Councilmember John McAlister: Uh, you made a point that I, I, I forgot that I should have not, people mentioned, we don't want to change the rules in the middle of the game. So, if I, if we would go with 80%, that would be for May, so that anybody that applied now would know that it's 120%, going into May, that, we, I think we might want to, look at all criteria, so let's see if they reevaluate it. If we were 80%, that would definitely have to be for me, not for April.

[03:06:42] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: One of the things that we can ask for is maybe a little bit more information in terms of, you know, uh, the next time that this comes forward at the person to counsel in terms of, you know, how many people that is or how many households that is. Um, I I think that would make me feel more comfortable in terms of, you know, uh, one of the things that we have kind of taken the place of, is, you know, becoming a safe thing along with CSA in terms of being able to provide that rental relief until we can, you know, collaborate a little bit more at the county in terms of broad funding and resources. Um, and so I just feel a little bit hesitant in making any changes until we kind of crush off those conversations. It sounds like the mayor's going to be having a discussion on Friday. And maybe, um, we can get a little bit more from, um, USA and, in terms of this, what that might mean, what that might really mean if we just do, um, 80% AMI and, and under.

[03:07:49] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, what if we incorporate the 80%? Say where it is, but have CSA, because hopefully they can come back. I think Tom would probably love to come back on May the 5th, hoping that there's a million dollars up to a million dollars for them, and they could give us an update, and that, to look and review the criteria based on an 80% and what the overall effect would be. That sound fair to you? I'm just gonna sum it up, vice mayor. If that, if that was amenable to you as motion maker, I'd, I'd be happy. You're right, that we shouldn't change the rules now, and I don't want to make Tom's job any harder than it is to say, well, we got 500 some still in the queue, to change the rules, so.

[03:08:43] Unknown Speaker: Yeah, um, so I guess I want to clarify, I think there's a difference between prioritization versus qualification. And I don't think any of us are saying that we want to prioritize anything because that will, um, require CSA, as Mr. Myers said, go through the entire queue to figure out, um, who meets the priorities. um that we set out. Um and I don't think any of us want to do that. But in terms of making, I view it as a very small tweak to say, um, you're eligibility for assistance, um, is 80% AMI or lower, or 120% AMI and lower, is not, um, a prioritization that is going to increase a workload on CFA. It's really just a qualification, not a prioritization. So, I'm fine if we want to say this doesn't start until May, um, but I don't view this as a major change, especially since only 2% of the people who've received funding so far are between 81 and 120. Thank you.

[03:10:04] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So, um, can I get a clarification then on the motion? So, are we changing the eligibility to 80% starting in May? Can you unmute yourself, Catherine McAllister?

[03:10:23] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: The motion is to review the parameters of 80% as it applies for the month of April, and moving forward, we will have that information to make a final determination. So what I'm asking for is that to look through the lens of 80. And see how that will be a true effect too. going forward. And Mr. Myers says, okay with that. And council member Metachek, you are the seconder, are you okay with that?

[03:11:01] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I'm fine with that.

[03:11:03] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, great. All right, so I think we have a motion. I, is everyone clear, I don't wanna, have to read the whole thing again, so.

[03:11:13] Unknown Speaker: It's pretty quick. Can I just clarify, and I just want to clarify the motion also for staff and ask staff to weigh in if there's anything that needs to be, um, included, uh, based on the revised um, recommendations? So what I have is the revised recommendations that Council member McAllister read from the last slide in the PowerPoint presentation, um, plus directing the city manager to explore funding of up to an additional $1000000 and bring it back on May 5th. And then this, the most recent, um, item regarding the eligibility of up to 80% AMI looking at that for April and bringing back that information as well on May 5th. I just want to confirm.

[03:11:59] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: No, it's looking at it for May. April is set. We're not changing the parameters from April. Just looking at it from me.

[03:12:07] Unknown Speaker: Okay, got it. But I think that he's gonna bring back data for April for us to consider it for May.

[03:12:15] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you. All right. Any other discussion? Everyone is there on the motion. Uh, we'll take a little call both, please.

[03:12:28] City Clerk: Council member, Clark.

[03:12:30] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yep.

[03:12:30] City Clerk: Council member Hicks.

[03:12:32] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yep,

[03:12:33] City Clerk: Council member Mattachek.

[03:12:35] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[03:12:36] City Clerk: Council member McAllister?

[03:12:38] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes, yes.

[03:12:39] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez? Vice Mayor Kameh, Mayor Abi Koga.

[03:12:46] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I, thank you. Great, Mission Pass is 7 0 and no pensions. Thank you very much. Um, do me want to take a short, I am 5 minute or break. Let's do that and we'll come back. At night. Well, let's say 945 and we have one item after that. I'll also go zoom bomb lift out coast. Do you have any update, Mr. Meyer? Hey Tom, now you have a challenge to them.

[03:06:31] (archive recording) Tom Myers: Back and forth as we speak. Apparently, they're just finishing their break and taking us up right now, so.

[03:06:36] (archive recording) Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So now you have them, you can say, hey, well, Mountain View is looking at another million. That's going to be a total of 2 million. Where did you guys stand, so? Hopefully we made your job easier. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. So we'll take a break and be back at 945. Thanks. Go ahead and resume to uh item 8 our new business. We have, um, 8.one public art approval for Mora Park and Pyramid Park, and that presentation, is that Ms. Chu? Yeah, great. Welcome.

[03:20:32] Tiffany Chu: Thank you. Let me share my screen with you. Uh, I, I can't show my screen.

[03:20:49] Unknown Speaker: Just one moment, Tiffany.

[03:20:51] Tiffany Chu: Okay, thank you. Okay. Can everybody see my presentation? Great. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and City Council, tonight we are discussing public art approval for Laura Parkinson Park. As a reminder, Mara Park on your left is a half acre park, right, located on Ortega Avenue at Morris Rice. Here in the Park, on the left, on your right. It's an almost 3 3rd park, located within the marketing distance of the ETA system, stationwide rail stuff. In October, 2019, City Council approved conceptual plans of More Park and Furmer Park and directed staff to work with the visual arts committee to provide recommendations on public arts. Council also directed staff to provide 2 public art options. Uh one% a budget of which is consistent with the council policy K 5 and a 2% of the construction budget option. More employment parts, public art selection began in November 2019, but the request for public, uh, proposal group for each park. The request encouraged artists to prepare functional public art within public art infrastructure, such as enters and like that. The city accepted proposal through mid-January, and received 10 artists, for more apart from 11 artists, for piano cards. Seven artists responded to both requests. In February of 2020, the VAC met and reviewed and burned for proposals based upon quality, stability, and functionality. The committee also requested additional information about design and functionality, since the top rankings are written, ask faster returns, and mark this information. Then, in March 2020. The DEC reviewed the additional information and provided provided by the top ranking artist and recommended Angelina Buckett for Maura Park and Adrian Littman for Pyramid Park. The VAC selected these 2 artists who diversify the type of public art in those parts. And now I will go into those options, starting with more parts. As mentioned, the recommended angel reducted. She's providing a curved mosaic bench with an orchist theme at the top recommended church for a one% public art um shown on the left. And a larger version of the same bench, but the 2% public, uh, art, such a option. The public art aligns with the parks or church, though. By going into the one%, there are 2 curved benches connected together with no big, based on all of the vertical surfaces, um, inspired by, with the metro too, inspired by orchard. The small bench costs $10,000 and it's within the one% special. Meanwhile, the 2% budget is a larger bench concept, the 3 coast benches connected together with 3 separate circular benches. This bench cost $20,000 as and is within the 2% budget option. Meanwhile, the Pyramid Park, the EAC recommend Adrian Littman sculptures for the park. But the one% budget is magic birds are sculpture, which is, and it goes to a local native birds, a metal section. The 3rd elements are kinetic and are activated by limbs. The sculpture costs $30,000 and within the one% purchase. Meanwhile, the 2% budget option has 2 Adrian Whitman still choose, the magic birds that was previously discussed, along with shoreline wonders. Shoreline Wonders is a sculpture that it's with a single penie column, with a burn owl sculpture and a red hawk coat, based on popular column. With decorated porcelain tiles showing native plants, phenomenon animals. The total budget for these 2 sculptures is $50,000 and is within the proposed budget. I've previously mentioned the visual arts committee selected Adrian Whitman for this piece to to have different types of popularity between the 2 parts. So, there are also for up changes that council could choose, the council selects um 2% option, the total public art budget for the 2 public arts would increase by $30,000. So, um, $40,000 to $70,000. It's important to note that the additional funding for more parts can be funded than the projects. Well, the proposed pyramid part budget can accept for additional funding. Uh, another option council can, can move forward with is not selecting either of the recommendations and directing staff to issue a new call for artists, at least forth alternative is to provide other production. And so tonight, there are 2 recommendations we are asking counsel to consider. One is to improve uh public art for more parks and to approve uh public art at present parks. Thank you.

[03:26:55] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. We'll go now to counselor comments, council member, or I'm sorry, counselor other questions, counselor of Ramirez.

[03:27:03] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor, just one quick question. So if the council uh, proceeds with the 2% alternative for pyramid park, would the, the art sculptures, the magic birds, and shoreline wonders, be placed together, or would they be at different, different areas of the park?

[03:27:26] Tiffany Chu: They would be placed in different areas of the park.

[03:27:31] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Council member McAllister.

[03:27:35] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, um, question, uh, sort of go along with, with the council member, uh, Ramirez said, could you go back to the diagram of the 2 parks and sort of, was there a consideration of where these sculptures would go in the park?

[03:27:52] Tiffany Chu: I, yes, there are considerations of where sculptures go within the park. If I, I have an exercise that I can show you. Um, so I'm assuming before you is uh, repairment part conceptual plans and uh, the red circles are some potential areas where the public are can do.

[03:28:15] Councilmember John McAlister: You know. Why did they go there, not, you know, I would think something like a template sculpture would, you know, be something that people would like to see along term and wade and a corner of infinity. So, please help me understand why those spots got picked.

[03:28:33] Tiffany Chu: Um, I believe staff looked at these locations, uh, from, from the perspective, uh, this is public, uh, that's going to be beat by the public, it, it wants to be, it should be placed in an area that's easily accessible. So, uh, for example, you can see on your, your last, uh, the 2 circles, uh, of, of where to be placed that also integrate the, uh, uh, the structural engineering of, of the piece that we can extend the sidewalk to announce of this next suicide block. So the construction uh consideration is taken into this into the consideration as well.

[03:29:12] Councilmember John McAlister: Would you be able to see it from the road? So you're driving by Infinity and wherever Infinity might eventually go across or pyramid? It looks to me that it looks like the, uh, the trees might hide it, so. Or, or did you see this visual art or just for the local community? If I can ask, about the intent of this part.

[03:29:44] Project Manager Greg Rodriguez: Uh, Greg Rodriguez here, project manager from public works. I can help answer that question. Can hear me? Okay. Um, Actually, there. There's going to be a fence, uh, a wrought iron fence basically a long-term way and infinity way along the sidewalk. Um, we could look at putting it at the corner. It would also probably be the monument fine at that corner of the pyramid way and then. Uh, we also looked at possibly the circle that you see in the center where the player is. Uh, but there's also going to be pergola, around the picnic areas, the left of the circle, and then the exercise equipment also has some ice. So, we have a couple of items in the park that will have height. Now these sculptures will also have a height. And it seems like there's just some competing, uh, things going on there that would get tracked from the sculptures that would look at a place where they would stand out more within the park. We could look at that corner again. If you'd like, uh, we were going to work with the artist to locate them in the park and also with the consultants that's running in the park.

[03:31:07] Councilmember John McAlister: Well, I mean, even if you put them along pyramid way, or not necessarily the corner, but I'm just, artists to be seen, and that's, I'm just trying to understand your radio thought process on that. And then the 2nd question is along with the house member Ramirez is, so the birds, the, uh, the owl and the bird, so there are 2, so we would end up with 3 sculptures, potentially in this park.

[03:31:32] Project Manager Greg Rodriguez: Uh, no, the 2nd sculpture is 11 column with 2 birds on top.

[03:31:41] Councilmember John McAlister: Well, okay, so the picture. Okay, then that's what I'm confused. I see a picture and I see 2 columns and 2 bases.

[03:31:50] Project Manager Greg Rodriguez: What, what is the, the front facing side and the other part, the other column, which makes them appear like it's 2 is the back station side. So it's, it's, like, he's showing because it, it's 2D perspective of it, um, the back and the, and the fun. So there's 2 columns, one base. Uh, let me just step back. So there is uh one column. So the, the aisle is facing forward and then the, the column in the back is where the.

[03:32:25] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, so there are 2 columns. Okay. And then where would the bench go in Morro Park?

[03:32:34] Tiffany Chu: Move over tomorrow, Park, so, uh, with Laura Park. These are the, uh, some potential location for the public guys.

[03:32:46] Councilmember John McAlister: Again, the thought why? Why would the art be a little more visible to the people on the street?

[03:32:58] Tiffany Chu: Right, do you want to take this question?

[03:33:00] City Staff: Yes, I was trying to unmeet there. Well, actually, these benches are somewhat low to the ground. They're they're 18 inches high. So, with the landscaping there, you wouldn't see much other than unless we put them up against the sidewalk. Um, so we're looking at locations where they can be utilized as benches. But also situate them so that, uh, they're kind of anti-skateboard. Well, proof, uh, so they don't get damaged while they're sitting out there. But there's, there's other areas we can look at in the park. These are just opportunities.

[03:33:41] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. And do we have the chairman of the visual arts committee where they have an opportunity to speak?

[03:33:52] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I know he's in, is, is attending the meeting, and he has his hands up, so I will call upon him during public comments.

[03:34:00] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay um. Okay, those are my questions. thank you

[03:34:06] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, council member, Meda check.

[03:34:09] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So, the layout of the park, um, that are being shown right now on our screen, are different in terms of the areas where art could be placed, than what was in the material presented, um, to prepare for this meeting. Um, so, have, which is, is this the most current that we're seeing now on the screen?

[03:34:39] Tiffany Chu: I, yes, I believe this is the most current that you've seen on the scene.

[03:34:46] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Because, um, in Pyramid Park, um, Council member McAllister's comments, um, about where the art could be placed, um, are much more consistent with the layout shown in attachment to, which I, I agree with. Um, I didn't look as much, Mar Park is also slightly different, but I think, uh, um, the comments he made about, um, I agree with. But, um, was there any discussion at the VAC about diversity and not just between the 2 parks? In terms of the artwork?

[03:35:30] City Staff: Uh, the VAC is interested in diversity uh, throughout the city. I think that's something that could be potentially just as public arts strategy. I think what's important to note here, that typically, we only see a call for artists for one project, and we actually had a separate call for ours for, um, to park. So, the VAC in their selection process was just trying to, in the direction that, that, had differentiate, differentiating art between the 2 parts.

[03:36:11] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, and was there any discussion about, um, what really is integrated, uh, art as opposed to freestanding art.

[03:36:22] City Staff: Yes, so, uh, as part of our call for artists, we did encourage our, I was to, clothes, benches, and other integrated type arts, um, with, I believe with Pyramid Park, um, there was quite a few bench proposals, um, but after evaluation from the VAC and also from staff perspective, um, VAC moved in the direction of the limit. Oh, this, when, exactly evaluate the, we look at it from the technical perspective, the structural engineering, um, durability, uh, the, the, looks at it from the quality of the public art.

[03:37:07] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay. Thanks.

[03:37:11] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, council member Hicks.

[03:37:17] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Sorry, takes me a moment to unmute. So, 1st um, my 1st question is, I'm sorry, my, um, the audio is better when I see you all in person than when I, I see you uh, on screen like this. So, I didn't quite catch what you said, piss me about, um, pyramid, uh, cannot support the budget out of, could you repeat that sentence? I didn't get it.

[03:37:46] City Staff: Sure. So, uh, both, so if counselor did your ex staff be a 2%, uh, option, both budget, can incorporate the 2% option, um, the Maura Park project can incorporate it through the contingency budget, and our pyramid park, which the budget hasn't been approved yet, but that can also be incorporated. In the same way.

[03:38:16] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Is that what you're saying? Oh okay. Thank you. I couldn't hear that before. Then, um, Second, in terms of the, there, there was a, a question about, um, functional or integrated art, is that, I'm hoping that's something that you ask, but that, I, I guess I don't remember totally what council direction was. I would like, I would personally like that to be asked, but I think it's limiting, um, in terms of both the quality of art and the, um, variety of art if we make that a mandate. I think we'll just end up with a bunch of benches, um, and maybe a couple bike racks, and, um, so I'm wondering, uh, how do you remember council direction? Was that something that was absolutely mandated every time or just something that, uh, nice to have?

[03:39:18] City Staff: This is, this is when council was reviewing the conceptual for both parks back last, last year in October and, and had, uh, that would be an option as part of the call farm, so we did encourage artists to, to take that, that route and we didn't mandate it, but we encourage them to submit proposals that they're integrated within the park. Um, as I previously mentioned, um, some of the artists did follow that, um, but ultimately it would be able to decided that the, um, the, um, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, and, and, were. And make part, felt that the Asian Lipman pieces were receipted for famous part. Um, I think what's important to mention is, is, yes, there are alternatives that council can choose tonight to do, um, if the recommendation is not. Um, if, if you're called not an agreement with the documentation.

[03:40:28] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, no, I mean, actually, the way you did it is the way I would prefer that you call for it but not make it, not mandated. Um, thank you.

[03:40:38] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Any other council members? the questions. Any, so I will open this up now to public comments, and... Any member of the public online would like to present to provide comments. I see 2 and then um, if anyone else would like to, please, uh, click the raise hand button on Zoom, or press uh, 9 on your phone, if you're calling in, and uh, the city clerk will keep calling, and I have 3 numbers. We'll start with a Jesse cup. Jesse.

[03:41:26] Jesse Cup: Uh, I just, uh, had to get permission and unmute myself. Can hear me?

[03:41:31] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes.

[03:41:33] Jesse Cup: Okay, great. Um, So, let's see, I guess I'll um, try to answer the question about the locations first. Um, we want to start by saying that this busy has set a lot of that into those um, potential locations, but you can definitely ask staff to examine alternative locations um, and look into that. Um, but the rationale behind those locations is that, um, we tend to believe that public art should be focused on being more accessible to pedestrians within the park, um, pedestrians and cyclists, within the park, and spend more time appreciating and interacting with the artwork than motorists, if you're in a vehicle, and you're just, um, kind of doing a drive by on the art, you're going to see it for maybe 30 seconds or. A minute, if you spec at a light, and then people in their cars, A, they opt in, we'll just ignore the artwork around them because they're focused on driving, focus on the road, or they, they like the art, but, you know, they're driving, again, and they, they have to move on and they can't spend that much time with it. So I feel like you just kind of get more thing for your buck when you have that art place at a more human scale and it's more focused on, um, pedestrians and cyclists, um, rather than motorists. Um, and about the functional art. Um, yeah, I like functional art, asking for functional art can be limiting. It's definitely something the basic can ask for, but. if we mandate it, we will likely see a significant drop in proposal. Um, I like, I like the way the current model is working where we leave that open as an option for the suggestion for the applicant. Uh, and then if the functional art is also the best at work, then we'll pick that. But if there is a, somewhat work, it was those, uh, stronger, and that, that the public will enjoy better, that's not a bench or a bike crack or something, then we'll both still vote for that over the functional work. And I'm open to more questions or elaboration.

[03:43:44] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Uh, we go on to our next, uh, public, public member, Alex Brown.

[03:43:55] Alex Brown: Hey again. Uh, I just wanted to express my disappointment that the pyramid park, uh, part isn't just an entire pyramid covering the whole park, as functional as a tomb, or a giant infinity pool. Uh, be ironic, but, actually, I, uh, I wanted to address the accommodate earlier about anti skateboard measures on the bench art. Uh, I don't, I would like to avoid any sort of hostile architecture or any kind of design that is intentionally made to exclude or limit use of public spaces. By people. Uh, I think that that tends to limit ideas, but also hurts more than just the intended uh, audience. Uh, also in terms of functional art. I, I like the idea of functional things in general, but I feel like we should respect art for art sake. And that oftentimes adding to the aesthetics of a space can be functional in that it enhances the experience for the people who are occupying that space and that it is not in itself and should be respected as such. Thank you.

[03:45:10] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, and we have a, a phone caller. I don't know your name. Excuse me, you are on?

[03:45:22] Public Speaker: Oh, hi. Hi, hi. So, um, I have a question regarding for the city council in terms of the uh, COVID-19 uh, urgent. I think I know the aspect of it is, this disease really impacts at this course of our seniors, and there are issues with senior skating groceries and food. So I think it would be really helpful for city council to consider allocating some fun. In that area. Uh, uh, on top of working with the rental assistance, up to your thing, groceries and food.

[03:45:52] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I'm sorry, we are actually talking about item 8.1 with the public art items. We've already closed comments on the release effort, so um, unless you have a comment about the public art, I'll, um, need to move on to the next speaker.

[03:46:09] Public Speaker: Okay. Thank you.

[03:46:11] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: All right. Are there any other members of the public wishing to speak on this items that you click?

[03:46:19] City Clerk: I have one email, mayor, that I'll read into the record here? Let's see. All right, this is from Malia Smith. Hello, I'm writing to express concern for proposed new agenda item 8.1 to spend a combined $40,000 on art for our parks when the money could be better used to benefit families impacted by COVID-19. Art can wait. Please do not approve use of funds for an expensive bench and sculpture. We could ask community artists to donate art instead. Thank you for your consideration, Malia. And that's the only email I have. Thank you.

[03:46:58] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. I have closed public comment now and bring it back to temple for discussion and a possible motion. Any council members wishing to start off? Don't see any hands raised. Is there? Oh, counselor McAllister.

[03:47:24] Councilmember John McAlister: I'll start to deal. First of all, I'd like to go... I'm a big, for born of public art. Everybody knows I've been pushing it for 8 years, and so, I'm glad to see that we actually learned that every public works project over a $10000 is supposed to incorporate public art, which was, it's good to see. But I, I like where, uh, council member matter check. once said, hey, let's get 2%. And I think, uh, starting that motion was a great, uh, tribute to the rest of the city. And it's to beautify and give people something to a moment to relax and look at. My concerns with, the art is fine. I like both, both where we're going. I agree with council member Hicks that, you know, art is art. I agreed with, uh, Alex Brown, where, you know, art for art sake. But, um, where, I think it needs to be positioned, where everybody can enjoy it. I mean, I'll, you go drive down the street and you can see a piece of art, and that gives you a moment of enjoyment, you don't have to sit there and contemplate it for a while, so. I'm much, I'm very concerned about where the proposed locations are going. I think it needs to be a little more visible for everybody to enjoy. I mean, what public art we do have, it's usually towards the street, but the way I see it in the pyramid park, program is hidden, and I don't think it should, if you're gonna have 2 sculptures, you can move it around a little bit. The bench, you're gonna have 4 elements of a bench for more park. Again, I think, adding a little bit, uh, of seeing that closer to the street, you can spread it around a little bit, so. Those are my concerns, that we need to review, where we're going to put stuff so that people can enjoy it. I mean, if you're on a bicycle, you're not going to go through a next player or go through a park, but you can still enjoy it walking through. So, I'd rather put some art where more people can see it and still enjoy it. That's my initial thoughts right now.

[03:49:55] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Oh, move on to counselor my Meditech.

[03:49:59] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So, I think I am agreeing with someone the comments that council member McAllister just made. Um, I actually, for pyramid park, prefer the locations, um, in the circle and at the corner that we're in the material that we were provided, versus what was shown tonight. Um, I, I did look at those and, um, appreciated that, um, those areas would be, I think, very visible, and especially the area that is in the middle of the, uh, play areas, that circle there. Um, so I think we need to go back to what was shown in attachment to for Pyramid Park. Um, I, I think I have a sort of a different definition, maybe of functional art. Um, I think the bench at Mora Park is functional art. But the art for pyramid park, um didn't seem very functional to me. It seemed more like cobbling together, a standalone piece with a bench. Um, and um, and I was looking for something more integrated, uh, like at the Mora Park, uh, bench. Um, but, uh, if folks are okay with that. I'm not gonna go the end of the earth here to change your mind. Um, I do think we need to look at diversity throughout the city and not just between 2 parks that happen to be looked at at the same time. Um, the art that is being recommended for pyramid park reminds me, um, at least one of the items reminds me of what we have already out at the, um, bay trail, um, at the end of San Antonio Road, where we have the, um, birds basically on poles, and, um, so I was looking for something that was more diverse than that. Um, so I'm, I'm not totally crazy about the selection, um, or Pyramid Park, but I'm fine with the one for Maura Park. And I definitely am supportive of the uh 2% option. Thank you.

[03:52:23] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. uh customer Ramirez.

[03:52:29] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um, so I, uh, I'm also supportive of the, the 2% alternative. Um, I think a lot of good concerns and ideas have come up and, um, you probably won't be resolved in the context of this item, um, during the public art strategy discussion, um, will have a very good opportunity to ensure a diversity of, uh, art work and, um, and maybe some uh, parameters on, type of art we want to see, maybe even where it would be located. Um, but I would, I would sort of reserve my comments from those aspects for, from that discussion. Um, I profess no expertise in visual heart health. Um, you know, and I'll leave the AC into staff to discern. best locations. I think you can make a compelling case for, for, for, for either from the chair. Um, so, I'm, you know, I'm really agonized on a location, but, although I do support alternatives for preach work, um, and, um, the emailer. You know, fortunately, the system, you know, this is a source of funding that would be able to, um, benefit, um, you know, as we were discussing previous items, uh, those who'll be impacted by COVID. So, um, you know, appreciating the nature of the funding source, um, the opportunity to, uh, fund the 2% alternatives within the existing question, comfortable proceeding for both.

[03:54:23] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And council number Hicks next. You're mute.

[03:54:43] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, can you hear me now?

[03:54:45] Unknown Speaker: Yes.

[03:54:46] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, sorry. It's a 2 step process for me and I didn't hit it the 2nd time. Um, so, I have problems thinking about the location because the uh, the pictures that we're seeing don't show height very well. So although, um, you know, I'm interested in some of the thing, locations that other council members have mentioned, I would like to, I think you get more of a feel for it when you're actually there, so I would like to make those maybe advisory and otherwise, um, keep, look, the location up to, kind of what we were saying earlier about trusting CSA, trusting the artist, to maybe take some advice from us, but also look around and see. How does it, how does location fit in terms of using the bench, um, and how does it fit in terms of heights of things that we can't see very well in the diagrams. And that's my only comment. Thank you.

[03:55:46] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Any other council members? Um, on that? Um, I'll just, add my comments, um, I support uh the 2%, uh, budget, um, and, um, I actually do agree with counselor Medachek, however, um, the, the mall park, the benches, I, I think, are great, um, but we do have a lot of birds. We have not only not the not only the ones in San Antonio um. Which counselor I mentioned, but even our fire station has the, um, the flaming geese of Rome where I forget. Italian city, but um, so I would um, actually be interested in seeing something different um, for that park. Um, so, if there's uh, interest in, in, revisiting uh, the art for more uh, um, sorry, pyramid, I'd be interested in that. Uh, Counselor Clark.

[03:56:52] Councilmember Chris Clark: Well, I'm also okay with the 2% um, and I'm fine with um, the proposal for, The Laura Park franchises. You know, I think that's functional, and I think it should be, um, sort of, um, in the middle and usable, um, by the folks who are, who are there because it is, is functional, and I understand the desire to have it a little bit more reasonable, um, Maybe to folks outside the park, but I think in that case, um, it's a functional album, and it should be generally where the, the AC recommended, um, for Pyramid Park. Um, Yeah, I think the, the elements that I, see is duplicative are, are sort of the optional elements that would come from, um, traditional 2%, um, as opposed to the, the, the primary sort of magic birds, art sculpture, which I also understand is, is sort of similar, but I don't think it's quite as similar as the, um, the column, um, columns that would come with a 2% so. Um, anyway, that's a long way thing. I'm sure of the 2%. Um, I count them over in my area of expertise. Um, my grandmother had an owl on the wall in a room in her house. I was absolutely terrified of it and refused to go into that room, so I'm biased. So, uh, uh, but, um, I, I, I, generally, you know, I, I would be fine recording the, the, the recommendation, the VAC, um, this is in my area of expertise, but if we do want to take it, it's from them, um, uh, I think it was council number 6, maybe, or the council member, um, speech just is maybe taking it under advisement, but, um, uh, actually, council member, looking at, um, during the height of, especially Pyramid Park, looking at the height of the developments and sort of facing a location, um, ultimately on, on how, um, the artists in the VAC, see that, and sort of delegating that decision to them might be okay with that. Thank you.

[03:59:05] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Just number Met a check.

[03:59:09] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So, um, um, make a motion that we approve the Angelina bucket, um, my bed bench for law park, project 17 dash 46, and the amount of 20,000, so that's the larger bench. And then, um, for Pyramid Park, my motion would be that we take a look at the other submissions for that park, um, to see if there's something other than birds that we could have there. Um, I don't necessarily want to go out to bid again, but I'd like to see if there's something other than birds of what was submitted. So, I would ask, the 2nd part of the motion would be that, um, the other submissions for Pyramid Park come back to us, um, so we can see if there's something I was in birds.

[04:00:05] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. So there's a motion. Is there a 2nd? Oh, I see vice mayor 2nd and do you want to speak through that vice mayor?

[04:00:20] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: No, I'm comfortable with the 2nd. Everyone's made their comments. I was going to, but the top of my magic later motion, I'm happy to 2nd it.

[04:00:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, great. Thank you. customer McAllister?

[04:00:32] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, is Jesse still on the line? I have a question for him.

[04:00:41] Unknown Speaker: Yes, he is. actually done.

[04:00:45] Councilmember John McAlister: What, hey, Jeff. So what did you see? And what made you, uh, made the VAC 50s particular pieces of art?

[04:00:55] Jesse: Okay. Um, so these are the top 2 boat getters from our list? Um, let me take a look at the next one. Uh, so the next option coming in 3rd place was a cowl bike rack. That's kind of a, kind of a metal arch, um, that you can just walk your bike to, and in the middle of that, there's a, a big 2D cow hanging. Um, And I thought that was cool. Some people had concerns that it was, um, I think, I think some, the AC members just didn't necessarily like, a cow, that could be changed to a different animal, and it was still the 3rd boat getter, so, you know, we liked it. We just didn't like it as much as we talked to you thing. Um, and that could probably be changed relatively easily to some other, um, animal or shape in the middle.

[04:01:55] Unknown Speaker: Um I'm sorry, I'm going to interrupt you. I, you know, it's hard for us to see, uh, know what, uh,

[04:02:02] Jesse: Yeah, sorry, maybe it's time to get this up on the screen. Yeah, let me show you, share my screen this weekend.

[04:02:09] Unknown Speaker: I thought, I have no bag of flights. I'm, I was actually going to ask if, um, counselor or matter check your motion. Is it to bring back all of the other options for? Do you want the VAC to pick an alternative um if you could, elaborate on your motion, that would be helpful.

[04:02:32] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: So, I had said, um, they come back to counsel for consideration, but, um, I'm also open to saying the DCO take our input from this meeting, and come back to us with an alternative to the, uh, prepare my work.

[04:02:50] Jesse: So, if I could just add, um, the, the pyramid card to the VAC, um, was, like both ends in the bucket and each end, so it was, uh, the selection process for the VAC actually could have been back and forth between the 2 parts, and, and, um, the, the cow that you see on, on the lower left hand side, that was the, uh that was the, that was, that came in 3rd for, for more parts, but for pyramid parts, it, um, what came in 3 was, um, another set of sculptures. Uh, this one, this one was uh, over the bed, um, this one is, is $50,000 that he was pre-made, and uh, it's just, it's a good time in, but, from the conversations to be, he had, um, these were already pre-fabricated and not necessarily, uh, original. Oh, yeah. Um. But I'm not sure if you could still hear me, but. Yeah, those those are just, um, existing sculptures, but I got my church mixed up early. I told you, the cow, that we got 2 parts we're dealing with, the little, um, but yeah, the number 3 for pyramid park. Um, we had some pretty existing sculptures the artist had, but, um, They were not designed for this park, where the other submissions were. Um, and we, when we can, we like to get site specific artwork, um, something that was actually made to fit in this particular place and and complement it and work with it. And it seemed like this, um, 3rd place artwork was just kind of like, hey, I was trying to get, has a bunch of sculptures around and he's trying to sell them and they don't necessarily, uh, fit with the theme of the park or, um, they're not made for it. And another concern that was raised with these was, um, about the safety of the sculptures. Um, I was a concern. If I remember it, that public works shared because they were designed as, um, climbing structures for children. Um, but they are not, um, I guess safety approved or made with, you know, they don't need all those qualifications from, from a legal point of view, so we would either have to put up a sign saying, don't climb this. Are you going to get hurt or do something like that? Um, make it inaccessible. would be kind of sad.

[04:05:30] Councilmember John McAlister: Hey, Jesse, I got a question on the magic bird. So that's a interact, um, that the wind would blow it around, or that the redo moving items?

[04:05:41] Jesse: Yeah, correct. That's right. Um, yeah, with the, the magic birds that is a kinetic swim through the wind moves it around. Um. And then the other sculpture, with the with the owl and the other bird on it. Yeah, that is that is one culture with a bench on the bottom. I know the picture's confusing everyone on the drive committee, but confused as well at 1st from that diagram, but it's trying to show front and back of the sculpture and there's actually 2 birds on top of a single pillar.

[04:06:17] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, so this question goes back to staff and, and Ray, you're still on the line. If the, the magic birds is supposed to have winds to make it interactive, fully, appreciated, by putting it in the trees, would you prevent the filter from actually doing what it was designed to do?

[04:06:40] Ray: Yeah, raise here, and, and yes, that, we would take that into consideration, then replace it. I,

[04:06:49] Councilmember John McAlister: I, I understand, so my comment on the motion is, uh, Maura Park's fine. I can see going with the magic birds, but I'd be open for discussion on the, uh, shoreline wonders. I like the fact that they, you know, maybe she could put something other than birds, but I like seeing something that's a wind mobile. It's a multipurpose piece of art. And maybe we could get the magic burden and some benches from the other lady to go over to pyramid parks so she could do 2 sites, the magic birds be one, so, um. Right now, I can't, I can't support the motion, because I'd like to see a little more. I sort of like one, but I could see part of the other one opening up. And again, I sort of like, uh, we have a, we have a committee. We appoint them, so we gotta give them the latitude to determine what's appropriate. And so those are my thoughts right now.

[04:07:53] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Excuse me, look at it, counselor.

[04:08:01] Unknown Speaker: Sorry, that was up from, um, uh, it was up from a question, but I, I think the question was answered, but I, I generally agree with Counselor McAllister. I just send the magic birds piece, but maybe there's some flexibility you bring back, um, You know under the 2% budget. Um, something different. Um, I was, um, I was personally surprised that there weren't more like pyramid elements, but maybe the VAC, but they were too boring. Um, or or something or maybe they just weren't original or specifically, but um, anyway, I'd, I'd be flexible in sort of what the 2nd um, piece of the pyramid park, like counter on the counter, but the, what the 2nd option for pyramid park would be, aside from just the magic group.

[04:08:50] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. So 2 council member Hicks?

[04:08:53] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, I think I'm gonna say exactly the opposite. So, I, I really appreciate looking at all the different options, but when I do look at them, uh, I, I feel like the VIC made the right decision, that the quality of the, and, and I do get the sort of repetitive bird, then, but I think the quality of the, um, the magic burn sculpture is higher than the other options. The 2nd choice. I didn't mind, but when I hear the problems, you know, that you might have to put up fine saying they'll climb on these and so forth, um, it leads me right back to what the VAC's choice was, so that's what I'm, and and the ones further down the line, I was, I was not that interested in. So, um, I I think that the VSC made the right choice.

[04:09:45] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Thank you, Johnson, Remember Ramirez?

[04:09:50] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. Um, question for staff or for Jesse. Is there any leeway? So just as he described the, uh, there was a bike rack that the cow could be some other animal or shape? Is there any flexibility to have different animals or, or some other complaints to, um, to the recommended artwork for pyramid parks, they have to be birds, or could it be something else?

[04:10:20] Jesse: It could be something else. It's the other animals as the artist is going to live with us.

[04:10:26] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay, and maybe as a friendly amendment, we can advance the 2nd or, you know, 3rd place artwork, uh, consideration, but to advance this as well, and then, uh, engage in the dialogue with the artist to see if there's a willingness to explore a different animal or sub. incorporate some other, um, features that would differentiate the sufficiently existing network. To be comfortable with that.

[04:11:00] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: So now that I've seen the other submissions? Um, I sort of agree with some of the comments council member Hicks made. I also like the 2nd choice, but I hear the concerns about safety. Um, so I, I really don't want to go out to bid again. So, um, I think we do need to work with what we've got here. Um, I would absolutely prefer something other than birds. Um, so were you suggesting that we go with, we work with the artist that did shoreline wonders to do something other than those birds?

[04:11:49] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: question to see if that's possible, then I don't know if we want to provide them. I don't want to array uh the full project, you know, while we viewer of the, for a small parent is.

[04:12:05] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, I think there's all kinds of other things it could be. I don't think it has to be animals. I think it could be, um, I don't know where the center of Silicon Valley here. There's all kinds of tech stuff that could go on that pole. Um, and uh, I guess I'll live with the, uh, the birds, in the other one, on covering up the names of these magic birds. Um, I really couldn't tell what some of the submissions were, um, on that other page. But it sounds like we're kind of coming around to these, um, and so yeah, I'll modify the motion. Um, I'll keep the 1st part of it the same, and the 2nd would be, we do go with the, Adrian Whitson, magic bird. And then we work with that artist to change what's on the top of the shoreline wonders. Um, but it would be a budget of, um, I guess we could do 2% because we don't really know what that might cost if we change the birds or something else. So 60,000, up to 60,000.

[04:13:23] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And the 2nd year, the motion agreed to this changes.

[04:13:28] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[04:13:45] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Do you have any comments? Unmute yourself.

[04:13:59] Unknown Speaker: Sorry. Um, No, I don't have an intercom. After all that.

[04:14:09] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, well, I, I, I support the notion, um, the modified notion. I, I think there are other things we could put on the, the tops and, um, it's not animals, we could probably come up with even plants or, or other, um, other shoreline wonders is what I was thinking. And, so, here, we also have the chickens that wind up, which is another type of bird, so, it would be nice to get away from, um, the bird thing on this one, so, um, that I, I can support that, and I have one more hand, jump, remember, McAllister.

[04:14:47] Councilmember John McAlister: Thank you for, uh, also a matter check for modifying. I can support the motion. You know, if we're gonna go back to the, the 2nd culture, does it have to be an animal or any? I mean, it could just be free form, it could be just, uh, you know, uh, an expression of design could be the, uh, a sculpture of some kind. Or it could be something pioneer type, but, um. If we're gonna change it, maybe we could expand the box of, let's say, it has to be a bird or an animal or anything. It just could be just a, uh, again, a sculpture that, that would celebrate the wind or something, the mountains. It could be a mountain sculpture. Mountain View, so. But I'll leave that up to the, uh, VAC, but, yeah, ice supports motion.

[04:15:40] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, I think I said it doesn't have to be, um, birds or something like that. I was suggesting even something to do with technology, um, which is not an animal, so I'm open to something on top or completely redesigning the thing itself.

[04:15:57] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Right. All right. Any other comments? Either discussion? If not, we'll take a low call vote, please.

[04:16:05] City Clerk: Council member Clark. Council member Hicks. Council member Mattachek. Yes, council member McAllister? Counselor member Ramirez. Vice Mayor Kameh? Yes, Mirabi Koga. Aye, thank you.

[04:16:26] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Listen, Carrie, seven, zero. Thank you very much. And then move on to item nine, council staff committee reports. Are there any council members, wishing to speak, discounts member Ramirez?

[04:16:44] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I'll I'll try and keep it very brief. Um, we, uh, received some correspondence about the, uh, um, what the term is the, uh, basically a, a history and signal that you wouldn't need, uh, no touch pedestrian signal. Um, I think, which was, um, an idea to, uh, you know, the spread of COVID. Uh, and I think there was also, I can't remember if this was part of the same letter, but that Rosen Valley Bicycle Coalition, uh, since some additional recommendations related to, um, Mexico, industry, and 60, and some other, um, options that that the city did mountain V and we want to explore, they need some reference to the Oakland or some other space. I wanted to see if staff had received those as well and whether we're looking at those kinds of, um, uh, opportunities or or technologies. So that's something that we can consider.

[04:17:45] Unknown Speaker: Yeah, so I can take that question. That did receive that letter and I have connected with public works director, Don Cameron. Looks like she dropped off the call. Um, they are looking into um, some of those suggestions. I will say for the stop lights that are, those that you don't have to press. They automatically change. Um, There are some, um, considerations with that. It's that's not an easy fee. It's not easy to do. Um, so they are just looking at the feasibility of that, along with some of the other suggestions, but at this point there's nothing concrete, um, that I have to bring back as a recommendation, but yes, they are looking into the suggestions.

[04:18:28] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. And then, um, do you, uh, does that have an update on when uh, the small uh, landlord relief program will be available? I've gotten some interest in that and I wanted to contacted me, you know, to the appropriate, um, you know, contact her over website.

[04:18:50] Unknown Speaker: Sure, yes. um. Hopefully, it will be rolled out next week. Um, we do have an email, but, um, people can send their interest to this email address and it's, uh, not on the top of my head right now. I did present it in my PowerPoint and one of the slides. that will be posted online. Um, it's also on our small business resource page, the email that folks can, um, send their information to if they want to get on the interest list. But hopefully next week it will be rolled out, um, fast and working on this daily with the Los Alpos Community Foundation and with Main Street launch. Um, they are the micro lender that we will be working with, um, so they're just figuring out all those program parameters and the contract fees. Um but we are expecting next week.

[04:19:40] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: McAllister.

[04:19:41] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, thanks. So I'm gonna get out of my soap opera about a smart city and the need to put infrastructure and for fiber and broadband. You know, today, this is a great example of everybody at home working on their computers and multiple families that we need. This is a necessity, after looking at what's taking place, that we could be looking at the future of Mountain View, it's, that people will be working from their homes, so they will need their access. Right now, there is a concern with the school district that there's an area around Castro school where people aren't able to get complete broadband. Or, and so the students are having trouble since they're studying at home. So who knows where the future of that's going to go. We've had people where there's 2 people in one home, trying to compete for the broadband and it's just not there. So, as we move forward, please start considering that infrastructure we build today for the future, that we will be prepared more than any other city to take care of the needs of our residents and for our businesses. It's an economic and a decision and and for their residents, to the quality of life. To council members that a check, that it is a quality of life being handled, to have easy access, and having the broadband with to do what you need to do, so in the future. So, this, uh, crisis does bring out opportunities to us to evaluate things, so, moving forward, so when Smart City comes up or things along those particular lines, I will be, um, camping it again, and I, and I appreciate you guys considering that looking at this, this whole crisis, for many different reasons, to look at what's best that we can do. So, those are some thoughts that I have for now, and again, I thank my council members for being so compassionate, and reaching out and taking care of the residents of Mount View, the staff, or hanging in there, and having, uh, the city manager, phone in one hand, the child in the other, and we're all doing that. And so it's, it's proud to be a council member of the city. Thank you.

[04:21:59] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Counselor, about a check.

[04:22:02] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: And just one thing, I attended the meeting at the Silicon Valley Regional Interopability Authority, which is the emergency communication system throughout the county. And, um, nothing majored to report, except the executive director, um, is planning on retiring. So if you know anybody who's interested in being the executive director, we're looking. That's it. Thanks.

[04:22:25] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Any other members? If not, um, I wanted to report out from the Suicon Valley clean energy board meeting we had last week. A few items. Uh, 1st one, um, every, uh, twice a year, a PG and E comes out with new rates, and um, it's around by May 1st is when, um, we get their rates, and then we have to decide what our rates are, um, in terms of the generation piece, and um, our, uh, our policy has been to be lower than PG and 8 by at least one%. Uh, we, uh, decided or, uh, voted to maintain a 4% discount compared to PG generation service rate, uh, despite their cost increases, uh, keeping the 4% discount to the customer will result in analyze savings of $180000 to the SCCE customer base. Still providing 100% carbon free energy. Uh number 2 we also um we out of the reserves that we are generating, we set aside $10000000 for programs to address customer relief and community resiliency in response to COVID-19. Uh, programs will provide assistance to financially vulnerable customers, so we're talking about, um, assistant, financial aid for, um, payments to for, um, their electricity bills, uh, workforce development and increased community resilience through a grant program to member agencies, uh, such as our city, if we're looking at, um, putting in some, uh, and seat projects um, within our city operations. Uh, uh, our staff will bring specific program to the board in May. And finally, uh, we approved a 15 year contract with Rabbit Fresh LLC, a large solar developer to provide 40 megawatts of solar photo bchaic supply with 8 megawatts of energy storage. This resource will serve approximately 3% of CCE customer demand. And that's all I have. Anyone else any staff members? If not, uh, was on to closed session report, for the attorney, do we have a closed session report?

[04:24:51] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yes, we do. Thank you, mayor. Uh, earlier this evening, the council met in closed session on item 2.2 to discuss the case Altman at all versus County of Santa Clara at all. That's case number 520 TB 02180 and the council authorized the city attorney to defend the case and enter into a joint defense agreement with other Santa Clara county defendants. And that is my announcement.

[04:25:22] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you very much. So we will now and adjourn to the next meeting. Uh, actually, is it? We adjourn at 1050 and uh we go the next city council meeting which is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, April 21st, 2020 at 5:15 PM. Thank you for everyone, for your patience, with the technology here, um, and please stay safe and healthy and we will see you next week. Good night.

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