November 10, 2020 Regular Meeting of Mountain View City Council

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Transcript

[00:00:21] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: A city council meeting and we are starting with a closed session this evening. Um, And I have my, Actually, well, city attorney, would you mind making the closed session announcement?

[00:00:33] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yes, thank you. Uh, The closed session is item 2.one. The city council will meet for a conference with real property negotiator, section 54956.8. The property is portion of 711 Calderon Avenue, APN 158 dash 04 dash 001. The agency negotiator is Angela Lamonica, real pro real property program administrator. The negotiating party, Julie Alice Whitman, and Carrie Thompson Weigel, trustees of the Weigel, Marital Trust, UTA, date April, 6, 1982. Under negotiation is priced in terms of payment, for the possible acquisition of real property. And are there any public comments for this item?

[00:01:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Right, and I'll make the announcement about public comment, as noted on the meeting agenda, members of the public may provide oral public comments by signing up at mountain view.gov slash CC underscore speakers or by phone by dialing 669-900-9128 and entering webinar ID 943-84357000. Any emails received by 430 p.m. Today, we're forwarded to the city council. Email is received after 430 will not be read during the meeting, but will be entered into the record for the meeting. When any member of the public, on the line might to provide public comment, and if so, please. Hit the blue hand at the bottom of your of the attendee box. Don't see anyone. Uh, so I will, and then if you were on the line, I'm sorry, you hit star 9, but I don't see anyone, so I will close public comment, and uh, we will now go into the closed session on the other Zoom line and we will be back here, um, for our regular session once we finish up. Thank you. We'll see you in a few minutes.

[00:02:32] (archive recording) Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: We are back. with our study session, and I'd like to call this moving to order at 508 PM. Uh, and my regular announcement is that this meeting will be conducted in accordance with state of California, executive order N 2920. We did 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 may do so at mountain view.legistar.com on YouTube at mountain view.gov 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 the item by signing up at mountainview.gov slash cc underscore speakers or by phone by dialing 669-900-9128 and entering women are ID 943-84357000. Any emails received by 430 today were forwarded to the city council. Emails received after 430 PM will not be read during the meeting, that will be entered into the record for the meeting, and I would like to ask the city clerk now to roll call, please.

[00:04:27] City Clerk: Council member Clark.

[00:04:28] Councilmember Chris Clark: Here.

[00:04:29] City Clerk: Council member Hicks.

[00:04:30] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here.

[00:04:31] City Clerk: Council member, Matt, check.

[00:04:33] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Here,

[00:04:33] City Clerk: council member McAllister.

[00:04:35] Councilmember John McAlister: I am here.

[00:04:37] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez.

[00:04:39] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[00:04:39] City Clerk: Bye, Samir Kameh. May I be Koga?

[00:04:44] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Here.

[00:04:44] City Clerk: Thank you.

[00:04:45] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. We are all present, and we will start our study session on item 3.one, Access MV, the comprehensive modal plan, and we have a staff presentation by our transportation manager. Rhea Lo, welcome, Rhea.

[00:05:02] Transportation Manager Rhea Lo: Thank you. Yeah, I'm just going to share my screen. Are you saying that?

[00:05:15] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yep, okay.

[00:05:19] Transportation Manager Rhea Lo: Okay, so as, as the mayor mentioned, I'm Maria Hutch Barrett Lowe, I'm the transportation manager, and this evening I'm going to be discussing Access MV, which is, uh, the name that we're giving to the comprehensive model plan. Um, So, um, a little bit of background. This project aims to consolidate more than 30 different existing uh city and regional plans um that apply to mountain view into a single coherent objective framework for prioritizing transportation corridors and the associated projects that go with them. The goal of this effort is not to identify new projects. But from the 100s of projects that we have in these different plans to figure out which ones we need to tackle first. Um, so, uh, more than a year ago, executed a contract, uh, consult and help on this work. And um, Since then, we have completed the shuttle study, which was also, you know, part of the comprehensive vital plan. So received input from BPAC, um, actually on 3 occasions, um, on the bikeway map update on, you know, the bike pedestrian analysis and uh, review of prioritization criteria. And we've also received input from the pub, at a virtual community meeting and also an on, an online, uh, survey which is still going. So this, um, this input had provided, the community has provided input on the work that we've done so far, which includes uh, the analysis of the pedestrian infrastructure and uh, quality of the city. Analysis of bicycle infrastructure, level of traffic stress within mountain view, transit stops and transit propensity score, traffic congestion, and congestion. All of this information has helped to, has led into an network wide analysis, where we've looked at the overlaps, different plans, inconsistencies, and also gaps, even though we're not, you know, we're not identifying new projects in this analysis, we did want to have a look at some of the gaps that arose from that. And all of this work also is presented in attachment one, if you want to read. And so that's kind of laid out here. We have the supplementary analysis on the right hand side there or the existing projects at the top. They feed through the network analysis. And then what we get from all of these. A list of prioritized projects and corridors within the city. Um, this all lays the groundwork for, um, uh, for developing a tool to prioritize, uh, the actual projects and and corridors within the city. Um, and so we've developed a framework that we'd like to get, a proposed framework that we'd like to get input from council on for, for this analysis. And this is kind of laid out in this table. So on the left-hand side other goals. These come from the general plan. So the community has indicated that equity, mobility, connectivity, safety and sustainability are key values within mountain view. And for each of those goals of, we have a number of criteria. And the general, um, The general goal of all of this is in terms of the criteria, is that we want to measure things that show the need for the different projects. So for example, under um, you know, the high injury network, being part of the high injury network, that shows a need for facilities. The role of the corridor or the project. So, for example, connection to destinations shows the role and agreement on projects. So in terms of the consistency items at the bottom, being on multiple plans, um, shows a level of agreement on those projects. Some of these criteria, I should mention, could actually have been placed in different under different goals. And so it's not so much about uh, how many uh, criteria there are for each of the goals. It's more about, you know, looking at all of the metrics taken together. So going through these, so at the top, we have equity. The metric that we used for serving disadvantage residents is Cal enviro screen. This is a statewide uh metric that is uh usually used for environmental issues looking at um uh looking at equity concerns and disproportionate impacts on low income and minority community. Secondly, uh, the transit propensity score. This was something that was discussed in relation to the shuttle study. Um, and then um, in terms of mobility, uh, mobility metrics, uh, we, we're using the modal priority as indicated in the general plan for, for each of the segments, um, and, uh, you know, bringing those all together, summing those together. And then looking at whether the facility accommodates multiple modes. In terms of connectivity, We've done a lot of GIS analysis for all of this. So, whether it connects to major destinations, whether it closes a gap in the network and the gaps we're defining in relation to the motor priority as it's outlined in the general plan. Um, and then for improving 1st and last mile uh, connection. So, Melody is in within a half mile of transit. And what kind of transit, it's within a half mile, then um, that's what the we're measuring for those items. And then improving the directness of roots. Uh, so we're using the density of 4 way intersections as a proxy for street connectivity, uh, which indicates. And then under safety. Um, the balances is looked at, you know, uh, uh, which facilities will be all ages and abilities when after, be the implemented plant um, network improvements, uh, uh, as I mentioned, uh, we've looked at uh, whether the, um, the project and the corridor is on the high injury network for the city, um, and that's high injury is relating to severe, and fatal traffic collisions. And then also whether uh, ability is on one of the suggested routes to school in terms of our safe routes to school programs. Uh, for sustainability, uh, we're proposing that, that, um, to look at vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse guests, um, emissions as, you know, uh, measure in relation to the projects, and then for each of the projects, you know, were they identified in multiple plans, and were they identified in the VTA, specifically? Sparier connection or across county bike corridor. Um, So before we apply all of all of this, um, this toolkit, more broadly, we wanted to try out uh, the framework on a corridor within the city. So we looked at California Street as by way of example. And specifically on the segment that goes from Renstorf Avenue to Castro Street. This street has 4 travel bus route, a ETA bus route, and class 2 bike lanes, and it's, it has a number of plans that are associated with the route, including the California square and shoreline, uh, complete streets feasibility study, which, uh, which proposed class for protected bikeways, um, and a possible road diet for segment. So when we ran the analysis for this segment and the associated projects, um, The score that we got was 106 out of a maximum of 134. Um, to me, that seems like a fairly high um, score, which I would expect given that this is, you know, a high priority corridor within the city. But we won't really know how it ranks in terms of the priorities until we rate all of the corridors within the city. Um, One thing that I would add that we've learned as a result of this process is, um, this 1st item of equity and use of the Cal Enviro score. Um, There have been, there are some issues with that, and I think part of it you can see over here. Um, we would have expected within Mountain View that it might score fairly high on this, on this item, and I think the fact that this is a statewide metric, um, It's possible that, you know, the, the highest score is less than 10. And so, one thing that we're considering is whether to potentially scale up, you know, the maximum amount so that it's still out of 10 for this item. Um, So before we go through, instead of scoring all of the uh, corridors within the city. We wanted to get, we want to make sure that we're getting going in the right direction and get your input on this front. And um, and then uh, once we finalized the criteria and the metrics, we would then apply it to all of the corridors within the city as outlined in this map here. And, um, we've broken some of the corridors up into multiple segments, um, our goal was to keep the segments to between a half mile and one man one mile with the exception of the trails, um, because it, it, that's kind of more meaningful segments in terms of how we might implement um, changes or projects. Um, and then from there, our plan is to develop a prioritized ranking of the associated projects, and then we'll go back to the community to again engage with them on the draft list of priority corridors, and we'd return to you in early 2021 with our draft report and the listing of priority corridors. At the same time, we're also working on updating cost estimates for a number of the projects from various plans. There are some that we know that are not really realistic, and so we're working on updating those, and we would pull all of this together, um, in order to prepare for the upcoming 5 capital improvement program. So the, the draft report, the cost estimates and everything, and then the list of priority corridors would all be considered as part of that process, along with the costs of the, Um, so my question for you is, um, really focused on whether we have, whether we've captured everything. Are we missing any important items that you think that we need to be including and are we heading in the right direction in terms of the key themes and goals, the criteria and metrics, and also the rates that are suggested by the scoring criteria. Thank you.

[00:17:01] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you Since this is a steady session, we're going to go to public comment 1st. So if you are in the attending box and would like to provide public comment, please raise your blue hand. Um, and if you are on the phone, please hit star 9, and let's see, see how many we have too so far. So let's just do our standard. Oh, my God. Let's get 2.5 minutes and we'll start with paying Lee if you can unmute yourself please.

[00:17:37] Paying Lee: Hello?

[00:17:37] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Hello, how are you?

[00:17:39] Paying Lee: Hi. Oh, so may I set the city clerk, um, uh, a presentation of images. I was wondering if I could use them, um, and have someone share that screen.

[00:17:52] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh, yes, I, well, ask the city clerk if she could do that. Thank you.

[00:17:59] City Clerk: Yes, just one moment. Um, Mary, I'm sharing my screen, I won't be able to display the timer, but I will keep a timer um, for 2.5 minutes.

[00:18:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you.

[00:18:09] City Clerk: And. Here we go.

[00:18:16] Paying Lee: Thank you. Okay, thanks so much, Lisa. So the images that you will be seeing throughout. It's like a 40 page, RPDF, is pretty much, um, A green transportation network that spreads, uh, a park like space with canopy and natural habitat. And I think as you start seeing more and more of the images, it kind of highlights, I think, a growing community vision. Anyway, I'm very excited about access MV. So thank you, council, via, other, um, city staff or working on this. So I think the overlapping challenges of COVID-19, wildfires, climate change crises, emphasize the need to focus on equitable public health and environmental sustainability. So in bringing together a comprehensive modal plan. I think there's an opportunity to reimagine and build a transportation network to increase green connectivity, encourage social experiences, and promote public health, so that we can inspire healthy living and active travel in our community. My hope and suggestion. Is that we incorporate design for green and complete streets. So installing green infrastructure throughout. Um, which can connect city goals as well as promote social equity, public health, and environmental sustainability. All these are interconnected concepts and I think it's important to consider that in advancing the health and well-being of current and future generations. So green streets, green complete streets with canopy, native landscaping, linear parks, I think are critical to city planning and human health. So, For example, large climate ready trees are effective in storm water management, sequestering carbon, mitigating extreme heat, enhancing biodiversity, providing habitat, and so on so forth. Tree line, greenways can provide active recreation spaces for all ages, boosting everyone's physical, mental, and social well-being. Also, growing research has shown that trees in a community have strong links to lower asthma rates, reduce hospital visits and improve mental health. So I think in exploring goals and priority metrics for the transportation network. Ultimately, I'm hoping we can include elements of greening and health throughout the plan. So this could look like promoting physical activity opportunities, ensuring alignment with community tree master plan, increasing access in green connectivity, to public services, and other publicly accessible green spaces. So as we continue through the images and the time left over, I think that just gives a glimpse of a vision for a green transportation network as not just for mobility, but accessibility in public health. Thank you.

[00:21:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Well, you will now go to Mary, d- radio. You can unmute yourself, please.

[00:21:10] Mary Dateo: Thank you. Good evening, city council. Um, I'm very excited about the uh, city's focus on building our bike and pedestrian uh, networks and I'm excited, um, that the, the, the study plan is is, uh, moving along. Um, key to accomplishing our purpose is uh, to make these networks not just functional, but uh, delightful as uh, paying with showing it some of the previous um, photos. So people are much more likely to walk or bike when there are green corners. Therefore, trees and greenways are key to the success of our new connected network and should be considered a foundational feature. For many cities, streets and streets, capes, make up roughly 13rd of the total land in the city. So this land is an opportunity to dress so many of our city goals, as staff is shown, in their presentation. So many of the city goals are included in there. By incorporating green streets principles, we can also accomplish even more of our city goals, which include increasing our urban canopy by 5% and adding more park space. So trees provide beauty. They filter air and water pollutants. They help manage storm water, reduce the urban heat island effect, and have been shown to have a positive impact on people's physical and mental health. So generally, tree canopy is found to be measurably sparser in lower income areas. With all the benefits of trees that we've been discussing, it's critical that all of our community can enjoy those benefits. Therefore, as we move to implement these biking pedestrian projects to add connectivity. Let's be careful to include trees and plantings. A network of urban greenways would enable all of our community to experience nature every day just by stepping outside. Thank you.

[00:23:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. We'll go to Robin L, if you can unmute yourself, please, and.

[00:23:09] Robin L: Hey there. There you go. Hello. Uh, thanks so much for letting me speak and thank you to the city and the city council for uh, talking about this and focusing on this. Um, I love what I'm seeing. I think it's really awesome that we're trying to think holistically about how, um, our community not only gets from point, uh, gets from point A to point B, but can get to point A from point A to point B safely. And I guess my, my, my one question or my one. Um, Yeah, I guess my one question is like, you know, given that now COVID has really made us all rethink, you know, how we live, how we work, what our city should be for, what our community is about, like, just how do we want when people are, say, you know, using these, um, new areas from to get from point A to point E. How do we, how do we want them to feel, you know, like, um, I think 11 of the bullet points was about like, allowing accessibility for children to go to school. And like, you know, it's, it would obviously be great if everything could be a park and they could just like walk through a park to get from point A to point B if we could just magically transport ourselves, um, through a park or through, you know, a forest. I think unless somebody has figured out how to conjure up lots of park space in the middle of mountain view, like that's just not going to happen. And so, I, I feel like the, this is kind, like, though this may be a transportation focused, um, you know, uh, Project, it's actually a way to really think more holistically about how we want people to feel when they, when they are being transported. And given that we just don't have, there's just a finite amount of space that we have. Um, what can we do to really maximize how, how people use that, right? Can it be also used as potentially park space or, you know, um, or something like that. And so I hope that we really consider like the house of this and just this is kind of a game of singles and doubles, not like grand slams in terms of like getting getting more space and figuring out like how we want to use it. So, anyway, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

[00:25:42] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. And we'll go to um, the phone number ending with 355. You could unmute yourself. To begin speaking. Let's see. Hello, you should be on.

[00:26:03] Gita Dov: Hello? Hmm. Had him put her on. There we go. Oh, there we go. Oh. Oh, hello. I'm trying to figure out if I'm unmuted.

[00:26:22] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: You are unmuted. Yes, welcome.

[00:26:25] Gita Dov: Thank you. Thank you ma'am. Um, thank you all. This is Gita Dov. I'm with the Sierra Club. And the sustainable land use committee. We did send in a letter but it's, they have just barely scooped in under the wire. So you may not have received it. I want to say that I'm very impressed with the comments by the past 3 speakers. Um, I I endorse everything that they have said. Given that this is a transportation focus. Um, I should trust them. I am very impressed with, always very impressed with the way Mountain View does, its transportation work, and particularly with this. One thing I would like to emphasize from a transportation focus, is that, as someone mentioned, uh, post COVID, we realized one major victory. This is something we have been trying for years and years and years to do. We've been trying to get people to walk and bike, rather than getting to their cars, and it took, the pandemic, to figure out what it is that makes people do it. What, what makes people do it is if the streets are very safe. If there are no cars or slow cars, and the whole slow, safe street movement, has been so successful. The cities are permanently making those streets, slow streets, terrorists have put in a network. Many other cities. Oakland is put in the network in our neighborhood. And this is something that this idea of a slow, safe, green, with green infrastructure and street trees, network, is what finally brings people out of their homes and onto the streets. I personally can intestive that. I learn to use the longboard at my age on one of these streets because you can just go down the center of the street. Um, so I would encourage us to rethink. The idea of complete streets. We were so excited in 2017 when it became state law. But now we need to think about it as the best priority street, and then auto priority street, as 2 separate things, 2 separate networks in our city. And I think that if, I, I love the work that's being done, but I think we need to overlay this, which is something new that we have just learned this year, and it's very powerful. And if we lay that on top of the network that we're looking at, I believe that we actually will get a mode share where people will actually start bicycling and walking. Thank you to wherever.

[00:29:12] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you so much. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak on this item? If you're in attendee box, please hit the blue hand. I don't see anyone else, so I will close public comment and bring it back to counsel for questions. We'll start with questions first. And council members with questions. You know, we all received a briefing on this. Um. I don't see any questions. So should we start off with the start with the, oh, here we go. Council member manage check.

[00:29:46] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Sorry, it always takes me a minute to switch back and forth here between the different views. Um, So can you remind me of the timing? For the update of the pedestrian master plan and the bicycle transportation plan. Or at least the current proposed timing.

[00:30:09] Maria: Don't do that one, do you want me to?

[00:30:12] Public Works Director Dawn Cameron: Um, you can go ahead and answer.

[00:30:14] Maria: So we have an update to the pedestrian master plan planned for next year. Um, And we plan to do it after rehiring um a vacant position in in my group in transportation planning. Um, and the following year we have, uh, we're planning on doing an update to the bicycle transportation plan.

[00:30:36] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: When you see next year, are you taking fiscal year or calendar year?

[00:30:42] Public Works Director Dawn Cameron: This is Don Cameron, Public Works director. We placed in the CIP for this fiscal year, the funding needed to do the pedestrian master plan. What Maria was referring to is that we may have the funding for it, but we don't have the staffing level to start it. So, We're thinking it won't get started till towards the end of this fiscal year or maybe even next fiscal year due to our staffing shortages. Uh, also, though, we put in the plans, CIP, the money necessary to update the bicycle transportation, I think it's a next fiscal years budget. I was going look that up. But the point is, that one was going to immediately follow the pedestrian master plan.

[00:31:24] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: So if we put those together and did them at the same time in order to like rationalize or reconcile them, um, or as one of the speakers said, um, you know, have streets that are prioritized for pedestrians and streets that are prioritized for bicyclists. Um, I don't know if you can answer this at this time, but um, would there be a possibility of doing them at the same time and what would the impact be to the timing?

[00:31:52] Public Works Director Dawn Cameron: Uh, so I, um, I mentioned that as a possibility to Rhea, and she was very excited about it. Thought it was a great idea. Uh, it probably wouldn't overly affect the timing because again, we can't start the pedestrian master plan for the next year and If we wanted to combine them both, we can do that. Our transportation section and our project manager, you know, would have the increased budget from having the budget for both the plans, but could approach it as a single planning effort. And there are a lot of advantages to that. And the council is interested in that. We would actually bring it forward as part of the 5 year CIP and show them being combined.

[00:32:37] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: So I'm definitely interested in having them combined. Um. Uh, when it comes to the, um, goals and the, like the scoring, um, one question I had was, Um, we've got here complete streets. The synergies between modes, and accommodating all modes, um, under the, um, plan policies. And yet, when I think about this more, It seems like, that's pretty hard to do in a lot of, um, places. So, sure, and like North Bashore and East Wisman, where we're doing like completely revamping those areas. Um, it's so much easier. But, Is this really realistic to do in many of the other areas of town?

[00:33:41] Public Works Director Dawn Cameron: Don Cameron, Public Works director. Um, To some extent, it is po- you know, we are expected every time we look at a roadway to see how we can accommodate all modes. We are we are expected to do that. That's complete streets policy. However, complete streets also recognizes that there are different ways to accommodate the modes and you can give different priorities to the streets. So for instance, you can have a street or a road. That is gonna give a higher priority for bicycling and maybe vehicle use. But adjacent or parallel to it might be one where you're going to put a lot more priority on pedestrian use. The point is, you still want on that street that is a, putting a higher priority on vehicle and bicycle use, you want a sidewalk or a place for the pedestrian. It's just, that's not where you're putting your focus, but you have a way for them to use the street. Our general plan takes the start at that, and we did include that map and that table on your council report, that shows that the general plan did classify and designate streets by categories, and then set the modal priorities. So the obvious one is they say freeways and expressways, the high priority are vehicles. But when you get down to uh, more of the neighborhood streets, I'd have to get the exact terminology, your residential streets, um, your residential collectors, your pedestrians, your bicycles or your high priority. And vehicles become a lower priority. And those are the guidelines that we're using, and Maria brought up the metrics and talked about, um, some of how we apply connectivity and mobility. We're basing it upon what the general plan said was the priority for that particular street or corridor.

[00:35:33] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay. Um. Let's see. Then on page 11 of the staff report. Um, Under consistency. If the plan improvements are identified in multiple plans. And I thought, hmm. Um. That just says to me that, um, maybe we have uh, so many plans that we should get it down to like one plan. So I kind of struggled with, um, should that be, um, criteria that we use in scoring something? Um, if really what we're trying to get to is one plan. Um, for the different modes, the priority, um, and, you know, where do we make the investments? So, what am I like missing about why we should keep that in?

[00:36:34] Maria: So I think that this one is really about the consistency between the plans and full of community support reflected through the community engagement that goes into each of those. And so that's, I think, what we were getting at in terms of this uh potential metric.

[00:36:53] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Would it, um, do you think it would, um, Not work if you took that out? Anything's up for grabs?

[00:37:04] Maria: Yeah, I mean, I think it would still work. We also have, um, The VTA plans, uh, this is, I think that the top one, I, I felt that it was a bit more multimodal, whereas the 2nd one of being in, uh, being a designated item in the VTA, uh, bike, uh, countywide bike plan, that was more bike oriented. So I was trying to look for something that was more multimodal.

[00:37:31] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, yeah, I didn't have any problem with the 2nd one. It was the 1st one because I thought, gosh, I'm not sure I want to reward something for him being in multiple plans when the goal is really to get to like one plan. Um, okay, so I think that is all my questions. Thanks very much.

[00:37:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you.

[00:37:52] Unknown Speaker: Thanks. Yeah, so this is one of those times where I have lots of comments and I'm trying to figure out which ones are comments and which ones are questions. So I think that most of them are comments and I'll go with. My question, I guess, is on Moffatt. I, in terms of the classifying streets, I really feel that we need to look at Moffatt more as in the same way as we do Castro Street, that, um, typically if you're trying to do, uh, transit oriented development, you look at all sides, you know, uh, any street that goes straight through a transit center, you look at both sides of it as developing as a walk, very walkable, very ped oriented. And I think we've been making a mistake by not, um, not considering it that way. And I, so I'm getting to my question. I understand that if we redid the precise plan there, then it would be reclassified, but my, here's my question. Can we reclassify it before that? Because I fear that we won't get around to doing the precise plan for a long time, and I see development happening, you know, piece by piece, and we're not getting the walkability out of it that I that I think, I mean, I cringe when I see developments there. Um, and I, you know, when I campaigned there, people said, yes, we'd like to have what Castro Street has. And, So my question is, is there, and we're just about possibly to have the underpass there where we will join those 2 areas much more. So my question is, is there a way of reclassifying it? ahead of redoing the precise plan or some way of not just saying, oh, well, we haven't done the precise plan yet, so therefore we can't make it more walkable. What's what would you say? And I'm saying trees and wider sidewalks and so forth.

[00:39:55] Unknown Speaker: I see. Um, So currently, um, Uh, Moffat, there's a number of different things. One thing is, it's a lot wider than the other portion of Castro. Um, and it has a designation in the general plan. Um, I understand that some of those designations were kind of cleaned up but more kind of administratively rather than actually a policy choice. So I think that that would, that would probably be a policy choice. I can let Dawn Wang in if she wants to say something wrong, but I, You know, be a policy choice if you change the type of classification. of the street itself.

[00:40:36] Dawn Wang: Well, 1st off, if I'm reading this right, the classification is a flexible street, if my color coding is correct. which does place a high priority on pedestrian. And and also a high slash medium priority on bicycle. So that already says that should, uh, uh, a potential improvement come along for that portion of Moffett Boulevard, or a major development come along that allows us to also change the, the funnage and and the streetscape. It would be geared towards, uh, pedestrian and bicycle, since they're noted as high priority here. After that, as reassess, there's flexibility that, as, you know, these, as opportunities come along, uh, you know, what is the best that we want to do in this location, we're not kind of tied into this, you can't do something because it's not exactly the classification in the general plan.

[00:41:38] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Mm-hmm. Okay, I think I hope then the flexible can flexible streaks also have. I think one of the main things is the tree canopy that makes Castro Street feel much more walkable than, um, there's multiple things, like you said, the width of the street as well. But I think the tree canopy is one of the things that makes a big difference when you walk down one street versus the other. So I'm wondering as fl. So I guess my question is, classified as a flexible street, can we still, you know, ask for that or do that as it develops or before it develops much?

[00:42:19] Dawn Wang: I think in a general, um, the city schools are to increase tree canopy everywhere, so, we would be looking to maximize that wherever possible, um, and of course, that is part of creating a really good pedestrian walkway. So I definitely think that's always open. Again, the limitations tend to be, how much right away do we have? and how much land is available to, to serve the modes that need to be served and and also provide all the other infrastructure we need, whether it's drainage. Or the Green Street uh treatments. So, we have to just find a way to pull them all together in the space that we have available.

[00:43:03] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, well, I don't want to bleed from question to comment. Um, I, you know, I do think what council member Matterchek started to bring up about not being able to do everything everywhere. My, what I would say is on that particular street, I really think the tree canopy is a top priority. But I guess I'm getting into comments, so I'll cut myself off.

[00:43:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Hey, any other questions? I had one that, um, I don't know if I can capture it accurately, but, um, a question about, um, what is our overall vision with this? Do we have a vision of like what we want to achieve with, um, this plan? And will there be that like narrative at the beginning of the comprehensive plan once it's completed about what our vision will be or is?

[00:44:00] Dawn Wang: So I think the vision is comes through from the general plan. So those issues of safety, sustainability, um as a whole. Um, And I think that the goal for this project though is to help us as staff know what to tackle 1st. Um, and to make sure that they're doing projects that are going to move the needle in achieving achieving that vision. So, um, at the moment, there's, there's 100s of projects that we can choose from, and it's difficult to, to know which ones will move the needle to help move mountain view towards whether it's, uh, you know, more sustainability or reduce greenhouse gases. Um, you know, better efficiency, um, or multimodal goals. So, um, that's that's what the goal is and the vision for this project.

[00:44:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So, um, if I recall, the general plan update. I remember the, I think it was the vision was to, um, was it, what we call it, villages, one of the, village centers, connected with each other. So, if I, I guess, extrapolate from that, it seems like connectivity is the top priority, would you say that's accurate?

[00:45:17] Dawn Wang: I, I'm not sure that I, I mean, I think connectivity is a very important goal, but I think that they all kind of go together.

[00:45:25] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Sure. Okay.

[00:45:28] Dawn Wang: However, what you will see is with the 4 different metrics involved with connectivity, it is being given, um, a bit of weight in this overall system.

[00:45:41] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you. Um, should we pull up the questions then for counsel to respond to, if you don't mind?

[00:45:52] Unknown Speaker: Living that up. And then we can, have, uh, counts numbers, share their thoughts.

[00:46:03] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh, so yes, council members, if you have any thoughts, if you just like want, if you can just go through the 3 bullets, that'd be great, and we'll start with council number hicks.

[00:46:17] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So my, most of my comments are going to be on the 1st question, are there any key themes or goals? Which should be considered? Um, I, I liked the goals. I do agree with a lot of the public comments. I think the, the element that seemed to be most missing to me is, and maybe there are some elements, some fleshing out more of the one of the goals in, is it table two, which is sustainability. I guess the kind of bullet point in the next column was reducing our carbon footprint. But I, I feel that the missing part, a big missing part of this picture is that people don't shift out of their cars and get into other modes unless it's comfortable, um, or pleasant, and that's not, I don't see that anywhere on this report. And I think many of the things that the speakers were talking about and that we've got an email on, uh, whether it was, um, Paying Lee or Mary Detail or, um, Sierra Club or, uh, MBCSP, send us a, an email as well, is, um, the kind, the kinds of things that that, uh, tend to make you walk, and those, that's the green infrastructure. Primarily tree canopy, but also the, the, um, you know, the planning strips and other things that, uh, trees can grow in well. And I think that from the studies I've read. People just really don't walk. You give them a skinny sidewalk full stop and people just really don't walk. So you really don't or not very much. They do in an emergency, but for people to walk more, walk to do errands, walk to school, um, you really need that full set of infrastructure and that's what I'm seeing missing in this report, even though I know we're going to do tree canopy. I don't see it showing up anywhere in the prioritization. And I also think that often you need, um, We need to often choose, is this street, emphasizing more that it's a bike route or more that it's a car route, because, uh, as you mentioned, we only have a certain space between, you know, in the public right of way, and we often can't fit all of those things. So, I also found that missing in the report saying, you know, not just the priority for the street, but which of those 3 is it? How do you fit all those things on there? Because I think if you try to do everything on one street, you do it poorly. Um, let me see if I had. I think those were my main comments. I also think that some people talked about adding a goal of healthy streets, and maybe that would be a way of emphasizing what I'm bringing up instead of just flushing out the sustainability goal a little more. Um, Also, I think that, uh, there's an equity element to what I'm saying because I think that often the lower income, uh, neighborhoods, uh, often our lower income neighborhoods are exactly the ones that are are missing that walkability, um, and bikeability, and there may be the opportunity to, um, you know, put some of our street. We think there's not enough room for some of these things, but maybe there's the opportunity to put some of our streets on a road diet and capture some extra space for, for some of those things. Um, Uh, let's see, somebody suggested expanding the sustainability goal to increase uh, tree canopy coverage by aligning it with the city's community tree master plan. And that's probably a good idea as well. So, thank you.

[00:50:23] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Go to accounts member McAllister? Yeah, mute yourself, Ms. Council member, McAllister. Camber, you lost one there.

[00:50:40] Councilmember John McAlister: Um, You know, I was, I like to think I was the driving force to get this comprehensive mold program because VTA was doing something like this and I kept going after VTA to say, hey, you have all these different uh, services that are playing transportation. Put them over and overlay and see what we come up with. And that's what this is what I hope to see and this is what I did see. The questions and the directions that a lot of people are taking surprised me, but uh, I'm very happily surprised that people are getting in more detail and saying this is, you know, hey, we should do this, we should do that. And they're all excellent ideas. But we needed to get a foundation, a focal point. And I think what the staff did is exactly what I had intended to take all the various layers of bikes, back pits, um, VTA, you know, I'm still pushing school districts in there. Uh, shuttle bus services, cattle trains, and overlay. And so you've got a plan of, here's what we got. And until you have this map of what we have. And you see the gaps. You can't start saying, well, let's do this, let's do that, but yada, yada, yada. And this is exactly what we needed to do to see what we can't, we have to do and see if there's duplication out there. And if we can go to a source that the city doesn't have to pay and say, hey, can you go do this or tweet this and whatever? So, It's perfect. I mean, this is what I want. I wish VTA did this. I mean, because it would just make life so much simpler. For going forward to say, okay, To me, one of the big things came out of this, which I brought, well, I was looking for. And I hope staff looks at is school morning traffic. And how do we get our kids our cars and onto bikes or whatever they get to traffic? Because school morning traffic is one of the biggest congestion to things that we have in Mountain View. It's one of the biggest greenhouse gas single events we have. You got people driving 2 blocks to drop their kid off at school and causing those. And now we have this game plan. We have this map where we can say, okay, folks, we can get these kids safely to school. We can get people from one point to the other. And I think this is doing it. So, All these other things that people are talking about will be folded in, but you couldn't fold them in until you had this particular layering of all the things that we're doing. One of the concerns I wish we, you know, we could look at because I'm over in quote a transit desert, Waverly Park. But I might want to go all the way over to uh, San Antonio into the uh, theater there and have dinner and so forth. And that's what I'm saying is, hey, let's figure out how we can get these kind of services. What do we have the get John over there or anybody in my little quote? Desert. Because of our land use. And nothing wrong with our land is over here. So, I'm very encouraged by this. I am very thankful for this. I am very kicked off that it took so long to get here, Dawn. And I wish we had this so because it's a great start to see what we can do. I don't think other cities have done something list to this degree so that we can really look into it. And we're going to have the bike ped people and all these groups are going to put in some great ideas and suggestions. And I look forward to seeing this. Over years, I know in the bike pit, I mean, the bike where, I mean, didn't we have, we had like a 10 year CIP program. There's so much to do. And this will help us focus on how to get that single quarter going instead of going, well, this goes this way, this goes this way. And we can look at the corners that where the people are and get them moving quickly. And so thank you for doing this. Um, thank the Mike Fuller for sticking with me when I kept saying, here's what I want. He goes, John, what do you want? He goes, oh, okay, now I finally get it. So, no, we'd have a whole new pretty much public works, but I think Dawn's going to take this and Rhea and the outspoken Damon. I mean, just can't keep him quiet and move forward with this and make it a great, great thing. And I think this is a step. And here comes that 2 words that I keep putting in there. Smart city transportation, moving body, screenhouse gases, everything is, it's just going to all tie together. So, I'm done. Drop the mic.

[00:55:25] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. All right. So we pick up the mic, we'll hand it over to council member Medachek.

[00:55:35] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. I'm not sure I want to follow that, but, uh, I have a couple of initial comments, um, So, um, I also was asking when I was 1st elected, if we had something like this, um, and, uh, so I'm glad we do have this now. I think it's very helpful. For me, there's some more steps, though, to be taken from this. And, um, you know, I, I think it would be really helpful to have, um, a visual that shows kind of what is, um, on page 8 of the staff report, which is the priority, priority mode, um, according to the general plan. And I'd like to make sure we've tested that to say, indeed, that still is what it should be. Um, based upon the um, all the work that was done to pull together all this information. Um, does that still make sense? It's been a while since we've looked at that. Lots have changed. Uh, lots has changed since we did the general plan. Um, I would also like to have the pedestrian master plan and the bicycle transportation plan combined and updated, um, because, um, I do think, Perhaps by doing them separately, we might have, um, projects that are in conflict with each other, because we have prioritized the same route for both modes. And, um, You know, we always have limited right of way. And I think we need to make sure that at least those 2 are coordinated, um, since, um, bicycling and walking around the city are really important. Um, as part of that or maybe separate from that, I would also like to see something that defines, um, what a good pedestrian, uh, route should look like. And council member Hicks was talking about this. Um, you know, we've defined in other places what the streetscape should be, but maybe we should have something that defines what the pedestrian environment should be. You know, how much tree canopy coverage should there be places where you could sit? Should there be public art? Um should it be straight? Should it be curvy? What's that environment to make it really pleasant that people want to come, um, you know, and get out of their cars and off their bike and walk. Um, I, you know, if that's possible, I'd like to see that as part of, um, the update or as a companion document to it. Um. So uh, getting to the questions. Um, the themes are goals and, Yeah, I guess I, Still have a little bit of, um, concern about, uh, mobility, the complete streets. I get what, you know, you said that. All modes are accommodated. It's not that all modes are optimized. Um, but, um, that doesn't necessarily jump out, uh, the way this is written. But I gather, you know, it's from the general plan. So, it is what it is. Um, the criteria. Um, I would, Either um, reduce the waiting of the corridor accommodates all modes. Um, You know, maybe 10 is too high for um the top score there. Maybe they could all be ratcheted down a little bit. Um, and then, um, as I said, I think I'd take out the, Planned improvements for this corridor are identified in multiple previous plans. And I don't think that's necessarily necessary. And then I, um, I commented on the change to the weight that I would suggest. Um, but I think for me the key is to consolidate the plans and then also have a separate or combined plan that talks about, um, as council member Hicks was referring to. What does a great pedestrian environment look like so that we know what the standards are for when we have those. Thanks.

[01:00:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Any other council members? I think we still need to hear from Vice Mayor, Council member Clark, Councilman Ramirez. Uh, let's see, Vice Mayor.

[01:00:22] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. So, did you want us to go through all the questions? I started getting a little confused if we were going question by question or you just want all of our feedback at once.

[01:00:32] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, yeah, I think it's pretty fluid. So if you okay, have common sense for the bullets. That great. If not, that's okay too. So.

[01:00:43] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. So, um, I want to think staff, the, uh, I think there's a lot of technical information coming from 31 different plans that you've tried to put a mountain view lens on top of, so I really appreciate it. I think when just look going through the bullets. I just do have a couple comments. So in terms of the other key themes where goal, I do want to echo council member, um, Hicks, um, and the public comment we received in terms of perhaps it's putting it under the sustainability, um, criteria or having a home for it in terms of kind of the health aspect and the and the green space and how does that also kind of play into these different mod that we're discussing. Um, and I, and I do agree that that kind of, That plays into the equity component. Um, in terms of the 2nd bullet in criteria and metrics. What I hope to see is as we're evaluating each of the different corridors. So I knew I know California Street was used as an example. I think it would be really helpful to add a column into which plan we're using, um, as part of that criteria. So I know it has like the, the, the topic and then it has, um, you know, kind of the metric and then it had a score. I think in terms of being able to fully comprehend the data and the information, a clearer story would be kind of putting in which plan that you're pulling from. Um, and telling that story, a lot of these documents are pretty dense. And I think also like the nomenclature that's used in these different plants may mean different things to different readers. And so I don't know if there's going to be an opportunity to kind of clarify what, um, for example, I think one of the terms disadvantaged residents. So I thought, oh, that might be, um, youth or it could be seniors. Well, they'll, you know, that wasn't, that's not how it's categorized by, you know, calumbiro. So I think just having a little bit clearer information there would be helpful. Um, You know, I don't really have preference in terms of visually how it looks as long as it's included. I think that that is really kind of an important part in understanding the variety of documents. Um, and then, you know, in terms of the weight suggested in the scoring. I think, um, I'm still fully trying to understand what a 5 out of 10 means what a 10 out of 10 means. Um, I really like their neat and and that's where I feel like kind of the clarity in terms of the data source, the plan, um, The terminology could be really helpful in understanding. you know, what those those scores are. Um, and I think those are kind of my initial comments. They think that overall, what I'm seeing is in the right direction. And I think what's really great is, um, council member Mattachek spoke about, if there's a way to consolidate the different reports and plans. I know staff is already hard at work on. I know she mentioned the pedestrian master plan. Um, you know, we spoke about vision zero. Um, you know, how do all of those, the work that's already done? Um, kind of help streamline the access MV efforts. Thank you.

[01:04:25] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. And Celson Robert Clark?

[01:04:29] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um, yeah, I don't I don't have a lot to add. Um, I would just say that, you know, I, I'm generally agreeable with the key things, the key uh, themes and goals. Um, and the prioritization of the corridors, um, and the, and the projects. Um, the criterion metrics, um, uh, as well as the weights of those were the things that I, um, dug into a little bit more of the weekend and, and, um, but then realized that overall, um, it, with, with the examples that you provided, they tend to roughly shake out the way that, um, I would have expected. So, um, I, um, I sort of backed away from, um, you know, suggesting, um, from additional tweaks to those because I think ultimately, um, I, I better understood sort of, where those were coming from and, and, and how they, how they actually resulted in some of the, the scores for the example you provided. So, um, I think overall, I'm, I'm comfortable with the approach and and the direction this is heading, you know, that we've been, um, you know, hoping to have something like this for a long time. So I'm glad it's progressing and, and I, um, if, um, if that appeals, it will work out, um, council member, Matt Attach, suggestion for, um, consolidating some of the work next year, um, especially since, you know, we want to coordinate these plans as much as possible, and if, um, staff is also on board with that, then I think that would be a good thing to, to strive for, if we can, once we have the staffing available.

[01:06:05] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Um, Council member, where is it, but I saw your hand up? Oh, there we are.

[01:06:13] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Oh, uh, thank you, Mayor. I saw that the vice mayor had her hand up and if she had some quick remarks, I don't mind having her go first.

[01:06:24] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I started, do you have some quick comics?

[01:06:27] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: I forgot. I just forgot 11, um, thing, which is, um, I thought that staff, uh, explanation of connectivity versus utilization was really helpful for me because when I was thinking about the different plans, I thought was their way to, you know, kind of highlight the utilization, um, of certain streets. And I just want to say as somebody who lives near, near Moffatt, I actually see people walking, biking, running, cycling all the time. So even though there may be corridors or areas where the infrastructure is not there, I do think that it's really important to, um, find a way to adequately measure how much it's used because even, you know, I think that there are people who use things out of necessity and as of, you know, that's what's available and I really think that needs to be part of this story versus just what's, what the infrastructure may be because people will use the best that they have that's available and I think that needs to be part of the story.

[01:07:41] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you. Counselor Ramirez, back to you.

[01:07:44] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, mayor. Um, I, uh, I think like council member Clark, I don't have too much to add. Um, I think uh, as a starting point, this is very good. I had shared with staff during the briefing that, when this, uh, priority had 1st come up, it felt kind of nebulous to me, and I'm, uh, really happy to see how, uh, how it's progressed over time, and, and I think this is a very, uh, useful and powerful tool that connects all of the plans that we have. And thinking about the, the public input that we've gotten and a lot of the recommendations, uh, from from the council. I think, um, it, what it says, what it suggests to me is we need to update our plans in order to help achieve a lot of these other really important objectives and, and the, the tool itself, you know, the scoring mechanism that helps us prioritize from among the projects, um, will, will evolve, and, and I think we'll start to respond to, to those, to those changes once the plans are updated. I, I think, you know, the, the goals and the criteria, the metrics, the weights are, are fine to start with, and if we find that, it's not working the way we expect to, we can, we can change them, you know, um, over time. Um, but it's a starting point, I think it's, it's good. Uh, the only other things that I, I hope we can sort of keep in mind. Um, Where we don't have plans. Uh, you know, to the extent this tool can be helpful in prioritizing other, uh, other objectives. I think I'd like to see some, some way of, of thinking about that. And the 2 examples that come to mind are, in the Parkman dedication ordinance amendments, we've talked about, um, we were exploring this, you know, dedication of land for for new trails, but we don't have a master plan for trails that connect destinations across the city. And so it's, it's, because there isn't that master plan. It's, it may not be immediately clear, you know, at when we have ad hoc development occur, how we get a trail connecting one destination to another. Um, and I think that's, uh, you know, until we come up with that plan, if we ever, if we ever do, I feel like it's, it's, gonna require a little bit more effort to think about, you know, what are the key destinations and how do we connect them over time, you know, as, uh, hopefully, you know, if that amendment is approved, we're able to acquire land for trails through redevelopment. Uh, and then the other example I was thinking about is the strategic, strategic acquisition of properties, and I think in other contexts, we've talked about um, connecting Ortega, and, you know, the, the more drive development area with Castro City and Ranksdorf Park. And uh, I don't know if there's a formal plan anywhere that says that we should connect those areas. Um, but I think it's, it's been, it's been a council goal for a long time. Um, and I would love to have this tool or something similar to it. way that relative merit or priority of that strategic acquisition against other projects that exist in approved plans. Um, because there may be other strategic acquisitions that we would want to make. But, you know, because it's not in an existing plan, it may not, you know, it may not get sort of moved up to the top because there isn't a score associated to it. Um, so those are some of the things that I think we can figure out over time. Um, and then the last point, uh, council member McAllister referenced it. I do think thinking about this in the context of land use, uh, is is actually really important. Um and even if we have no intention of changing, you know, the land use of to give a dairy of the city. Um, I think thinking about how the diversification of land use impacts the, the scoring of a given area is, is helpful as a gauge of, you know, if we made some tactical adjustments to the land use and say we get, we allow a little bit of commercial here, that might have the same impact as investing, you know, several $1000000 in some new transit infrastructure. And we may not want to make that decision right now, but over time, it may actually be a better idea to adjust the land use to help, you know, make our transportation goals and sustainability goals, uh, or to help implement that, you know, rather than spend a lot of money on new capital projects. Um, and again, you know, probably something that we can incorporate in this tool right now, but, uh, I think, I think that's something that I, I hope we, we keep in mind too, as we evaluate where, you know, where we want to invest, you know, the finite resources we have. Um, beyond that, I think it's a great start. I really appreciate staff's work on this and I think there are a lot of good ideas shared by the council and by the public. Thank you.

[01:12:56] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And I'll just add my comments.

[01:12:58] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So thank you to staff for putting this together, and thank you, council member McAllister, for your continued advocacy for us to do this, um, comprehensive plan. I think this is a great start. And yeah, if anything over my years. I've seen, um, you know, projects come, and then they go away for a while. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't. And I think, um, you know, this will be helpful for us to prioritize which ones are most important and, you know, have a, a plan in hand that we can keep working towards, um, and just start to complete some projects. Um, I know a lot of it is based on opportunity and where the funding comes from. But, I think this is a great roadmap that we're starting to create. So I appreciate that. Um, as others mentioned, in terms of other themes or goals, and I want to thank, um, Mary, DDO, and Ping, and um, Camilo, and Jason, I met with them, um, earlier, and they brought up the um, health element. And, uh, when I recall the general plan update, um, we actually, uh, put a health, well, it was thought about putting a health element in there, but then what we ended up doing was weaving health and wellness into the general aspects throughout the general plan update. And in a sense, maybe that, um, you know, it was good because I think that was the, you know, one of the priorities, but perhaps because it wasn't called out specifically, maybe that was somewhat forgotten. And so I appreciate that, um, that, um, the residents brought it up and, um, I would like to, um, I don't know how to do it necessarily, but if there is, we could create a category, um, to specifically bring up health as a, uh, priority. That would be of interest to me. Um, and, uh, in a, in conjunction with that, um, the green streets concept, um, could, uh, be tied in. Um, I appreciate the, that equity is in, included. Um, and I, I'm somewhat familiar with Envirus scan. I, we use it at the air district and um, there's been a lot of discussion about the, the, the, um, about enviro scan over the time I've been on the um, air district board and the, the question of its accuracy and I think um, staff's comments that um, like Mountain View in general may not score high anyway. Um, it may, um, Yeah, may not be very as reflective of what, um, you know, internally within Mountain View. So, I would, um, you know, definitely entertain other ways to, um, highlight equity even more, um, and be better reflective of what our communities, um, you know, specific, um, segments, uh, Let me try to say, so, but let me make sure that equity within the city is um highlighted or is emphasized. Um, other thoughts, I, I, I appreciate counseling our manager checks, comments about combining plans and would be supportive of that. And, um, also, I guess then, uh, I think it might have been council member, uh, checker kicks talking about prioritizing what mode is best on specific corridors. And, um, I think this ties into the vision. Um, I, I, I was trying to, um, yeah, think of, well, what is our vision? And it goes to this kind of what council number, McAllister was talking about, like, is there a way for, you know, a person, individual, to get to, Most, if not, all parts of the city. Um, and what are the best routes to do that by bike or by walking or by vehicle? And of course, prioritizing bike ped above vehicle. So I don't know if that can be called, you know, worked on some kind of general idea of, yeah, how can you get from point A to point B? Um, and what is the best mode to do that if you're on a bike or best corridor to do that if you're on a bike or walking. Um, and then. I, I, would think that, um, a lot of this is gonna be opportunity based. So, as uh, parcels redevelop, we'll be able to um, do more of these corridors. Um, but again, I think that having this uh, roadmap will be very helpful so that I'd like to just see. I know there's like projects and they've kind of in different stages and it would be great to be able to just start completing some and then launch something else after we've made some, we completed some projects. Um, thank you again for doing this. And I don't know, is that is that helpful? Do you need? Do you have any questions? Is that, um,

[01:18:18] Unknown Speaker: Yeah, this is helpful. Uh, so if I could summarize, because I think there's a couple areas where we could, uh, we would want to confirm that this is council's general direction. First off, you know, definitely heard support from several of you of, of combining the bike and pet plants in our next effort and, uh, we'll bring that forward as part of the 5 year CIP and and, and look at redoing what we were going to do to combine them both together. Um, in terms of criteria and goals and the weights, uh, you know, what we heard was a desire to see if we could add in a health element, healthy street, uh, consideration, uh, kind of eat of goal. There need to be a criteria so that that can be built into the scoring and the ranking. I, I, I heard 3 or 4 of you. And so I, I just want to put a qualifier on this. Our 1st step would be what could be the metric and do we have the data available because we can't score all these corridor segments against something if we don't have the data available. So, what staff would be charged with doing is, okay, we've heard what's important to you from a goal. We'll go and see if we can find an appropriate metric, a proxy, whatever it takes, and we actually have the data available, and then we build it into this scoring system. So, I just wanted acknowledgement that, you know, generally, that is something the council would like to see us pursue. Um, That's your hands on that or, yeah, hands be great, you know, just, uh, there's an interest in us. Okay, I see at least 5 so great. Um, uh, we heard a little bit about uh, equity adjustment just looking. Do we refine that criteria or and or find another one that we can use that better reflect some of our equity goals? In the city of Mountain View. I know we heard it from a couple people, but staff, we also acknowledge that we think we some refinement work. So, I don't think we, we need, do you hear more? I mean, we're prepared to do that unless anybody has any concerns about that. The other, and then we heard a lot of great information. We're going to take it all in and whether it works into the comprehensive modal plan or and or becomes guidance for us with this new combined bike pen plan or other planning. We will be taking it all in and working with it. I will mention that Councilman or Manachek made, uh, some specific, um, recommendations about reducing the number of points for the, on the all modes. Um, criteria and metric and removing giving points if it's in multiple plans. So, um, I didn't hear any other council members bring that up. So just would like a general sense to, you know, should we do we pursue this as council direction? Uh, once. No pans. Yep. Thank you. So I see 2 hands. Okay. Um, what we'll do again is now what we do is after we find this is we'll run all these quarter segments through this process. And you'll be able to see how they rank out and that might give you more comfort level as I heard it did for Councilman Clark with our example. Uh, that what you start seeing starts to make logical sense of what's coming out on top as the high priority quarters, and let's, we can just see how that that comes along.

[01:22:08] Councilmember Chris Clark: I think that would be great. Thank you.

[01:22:12] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh, account anything else? Cameron?

[01:22:16] Cameron: No, I think Steph, we have the direction we need.

[01:22:19] Unknown Speaker: I do have counselor, man, checks hand up.

[01:22:22] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, so, um, I lose my hand when it comes to the health and the, uh, green ways and stuff. But I didn't do that necessarily as criteria that we would use to score something. To me, it was more defining what we wanted something to look like. Um, as opposed to scoring something. I want to define what tree canopy we want. And, you know, what, how much, um, like native plants do we want and seating and all the things we saw in the slides. So I don't think anything would score very high right now. Maybe, maybe Castro. Um, to me it was more defining what we want. I don't know if anybody else felt that way. Kind of like we've defined, you know, um, what, uh, streets and routes should look like in North Bay Shore. I view this is the same thing. Thanks.

[01:23:21] Unknown Speaker: I wouldn't say, again, I appreciate that because we were, we, we've already been trying to figure out if there's even a metric we could apply or score this. If we can have that flexibility to think in those terms, that would be helpful.

[01:23:36] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah, I would agree with that. Um, I mean, I was thinking about just trying to go back to like the health element conversations we had with the general plan and even like access to, you know, healthy foods or, um, um, getting, you know, getting to locations that provide healthy foods, like could that be somehow incorporated as part of the criteria? But whether it's part of scoring or, because, you know, the what we want, um, in an ideal. situation. Um,

[01:24:07] Unknown Speaker: Yeah, that that might be more, that might be more clear. Okay. And council member Hicks?

[01:24:16] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah, I think it may be more of a council member, Matichuk said, uh, defining a little more what what we want, but I also think it it may be looking at, certainly it's not, if a street is a healthy street, it gets more points for being mortgaged on, that's certainly not the outcome we're looking for. I think it may be which streets are the opportunity for that, which the mayor said, like, are they a street that leads leads to, you know, a grocery, a healthy grocery store, but also is it a street that leads to a park, you know, because a part of would be better to walk to or bike to the park than drive to the park. So I guess I'm looking for opportunity streets. I'm not looking to give more points if the street is already healthy. I'm looking for opportunity streets to make the neighborhood more healthy. And it may also be a part of that, you know, separating the bike infrastructure to some degree from the walking infrastructure. You know, if you emphasize, can we make it a healthier street if, you know, we have a tree lined street with a better bike path and a block away, a tree lined street with a better walking path? Thank you

[01:25:35] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Is there anything else from council members? And staff? Do we have everything you need? All right. Great. Thank you. So, um, we'll close the study session item. And um, why don't we take a break? So, we could be back by, let's say, 645 for our regular session. Thank you.

[01:25:20] (archive recording) Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I'd like to call the meeting to order at 645 PM and uh, my usual announcement. This meeting will be conducted in accordance with state of California executive order in 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 may do so at mountain view.legister.com on YouTube at mountain view.gov slash YouTube and on Comcast channel 26. Is noted on the meeting agenda. Members of the public may provide oral public comments during the public comment period for the item by signing up at mountain view.gov slash cc underscore speakers or by phone by dialing 669-9009128 and entering webinar ID 943-84357000. Any emails received by 430 today were forwarded to the city council. Emails received after 4.30 p.m. will not be read during the meeting, but will be entered into the record for the meeting, and all votes will be taken by roll call vote. If you could all please join me, uh, with the pledge of allegiance. Hopefully see the bag in front of you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation, under God, individual, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. And if the city clerk could please take well call.

[01:41:52] City Clerk: All right, council member Clark.

[01:41:53] Councilmember Chris Clark: Here?

[01:41:54] City Clerk: Council member Hicks.

[01:41:55] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here,

[01:41:56] City Clerk: council member Mattachek.

[01:41:58] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Here,

[01:41:58] City Clerk: council member McAllister.

[01:42:01] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes.

[01:42:02] City Clerk: Council member council member Ramirez.

[01:42:05] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[01:42:06] City Clerk: Vice Mayor Kameh. Mayor Abby Koka.

[01:42:11] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Here.

[01:42:11] City Clerk: Thank you.

[01:42:12] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. All members are present and we will go on to item 3.one. Our COVID-19 update by our city manager, Kimra McCarthy. Welcome, Miss McCarthy.

[01:42:23] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you mayor. I'm going to share my screen. Okay. Well, tonight I'm here to present the latest um, COVID-19 update and an update on some of the uh, recent activities of the city and some of the things that are going on. So I'll dive right into starting with the numbers and talk a little bit about what's happening now in the county and also what, um, messaging that the county is giving us. So, uh, we start with the dashboards on top is the Santa Clara County dashboard of where we're at right now with the latest numbers in terms of the case count. Um, the number of deaths and hospitalizations. So one thing that I do want to point out, that you will have noticed over the last few weeks is that the new cases are now, at least as of, the ninth. So yesterday, there were 264 cases and on Sunday. We did get rather alarming news that there were 358 new COVID cases, reported on Sunday. So this is more than a doubling, where we were at just 2 weeks ago, and it actually, the number on Sunday is 2nd only to the record high of 385 new cases that were reported on July 15th. Um, in addition, the number of hospitalizations on Sunday, this weekend went up by nearly 10%. So what we're seeing happening is clearly just an increase in the numbers of people um, who are um, getting COVID and also just the number of community transition, transmission is increasing. For Mountain View, Currently we have 702 positive cases. And this is about an increase of 39 cases over the last couple weeks. And right now in Mountain View, we're averaging about 3.5 cases per day. Um, so I do want to note that just the cumulative number that you see on the left side of the screen, uh, the 26,747 cases county wide. This is an increase of over 2100 cases since the last updates. So, so things are progressing rapidly. Statewide, you can see that the number of cases now are at around 971, almost 972. 1000 and this is an increase of almost 72,000 cases in the last couple weeks alone. So essentially, what does this mean? And, um, the messaging from the county, it really is that these numbers indicate that, um, if we cannot keep our our case counts down, uh, which we are continuing to test a lot, but if we cannot keep the case counts down, we are very close to moving backwards into the tier that we were in uh, before. So we are still currently as of today. Um, the results come out every Tuesday when the state determines um, where the different counties are in the tiers. So we did remain in the orange tier. Um, as of today, but there were several counties across the state that moved backwards in a tier. Um, several counties that move from orange to red. And so some counties that moved backwards from red to purple. So we are seeing these numbers increase statewide. So in order for us to stay in that orange tier, we just need to be very vigilant, not only a mountain view, but countywide and just continue to do all of those things that we know we're supposed to be doing. So, wearing masks, practicing social distancing, staying outdoors as much as we can and making sure that we're frankly not going to events where there's going to be a lot of people, whether that's with friends or family or coworkers, um, this is really how they're seeing, the case counts increase. It's through people that we know. So right now the county is really just urging people to, um, adhere to those protocols so that we can stay in the orange tier, um, and particularly for our business community. This is very important as we all know. Our businesses are affected by the different activities that are allowed or not allowed to open. So if we go backwards in a tier. It means that more of our businesses and more of our activities will have to close. So, this does continue to be very important, especially as we move through the colder weather. Um, one of the other things I wanted to point out is that the county right now is discouraging and unnecessary travel. So, um, if you do have to travel for work or an emergency, they're asking to um, self quarantine. Um, I also want to provide a vaccine update. Many of you may have heard most recently, I believe yesterday that Pfizer is very close to showing 90% efficacy of the vaccine. But one of the things that um, we're learning about is that the vaccine is likely going to be given in 2 doses. So it will require people to show up twice, which is harder to do from a logistical standpoint. And also just takes more time. So whether it's the Pfizer vaccine or other companies that are close to actually finalizing the vaccine. It looks like any of those would be given into doses. They do also require ultra cold storage right now, which the county is capable of doing and is prepared for doing. Um, but not all of our medical facilities or hospitals are are ready um, for the vaccine, at least in terms of storing the vaccine and administering it at such high levels. So the piece, I think, that is a big takeaway from this is that when the vaccine is approved, the federal and state governments produce the guidelines for who will be able to get the vaccine first. So right now, it would be intended to be given to frontline workers, uh, our medical workers 1st and we are probably likely looking at, uh, mid mid-year, uh, next year to where it's actually spread out widespread for everyone. So it is going to take some time. for the vaccine to roll out and then we will have to just follow the rules, the federal and state rules as to who gets the vaccine 1st. Um, So it will be limited availability and um, it's probably going to be much like what's happened all over the rest of these months, which is we will learn things as we go. So I think the big takeaway is just that, um, there's still a lot of uncertainty in this. We don't know the timing of the vaccine. We don't know how many doses of the vaccine they're going to be able to dole out by each state. Um, so we will continue to monitor that development, but the biggest thing is just we need to stay vigilant in our county in order to stay in the orange tier. So we are going to really continue to make sure that our community knows that just wearing masks is one of the most key things to do to decrease transmission. And so you will continue to see us doing our mask up MB campaign. Um, and as you can see in the middle, our council members, at the latest public park opening at Wyandot Park, our newest park that was open. Everything we're doing, we are wearing our masks and practicing social distancing. In terms of testing, um, so far we have almost 10,000 tests that have been provided at city facilities since mid-summer. This is an increase of a little over 900 tests since the last report out. Um, there are still ongoing appointments available at El Camino Hospital Monday through Friday from 730 to 7. Uh, we do not uh, right now. have the testing available at our shoreline athletic field. So you may see that that's dropped off of this slide. So we are working with county leaders and and other folks to see if we might be able to get that up and running, but that was essentially a program that was supposed to be for a fixed amount of time. And we are still, like I said, trying to see what we can do to get that going. Uh, but we are still having the testing at our um, MB center for the performing arts. The next opportunity is on November 17th. And then we also have 2 more on December 1st and December 15th. Uh, folks can make their appointment at SCCfreeTest.org to sign up for those and I would just encourage everyone if they can um, to come and get tests because this is how we will still continue to stay in the orange tier, the more tests that we do, the better. So, um, please, I encourage you to go get tested at El Camino Hospital or come to one of our testing events. Our last event was the highest, um, test rate that we had. We were over, I believe, around 650 tests. So, um, please just take, take um, take the opportunity to get tested. Also, just a reminder that the county is still doing free flu shots at the fairgrounds every Saturday. This is drive up. Very simple, very easy from 9 AM to 4 PM at the county fairgrounds. Now pivoting to an update on some of our COVID-19 relief efforts and you will hear more about this in the next presentation, but our rent relief program now. Uh, we have expended almost $32 million. There's about $742,000 remaining. And uh, we still continue to see the average assistance check a little over $2000. And we've helped over a little over 1500 households with this program. I'm also really happy to report um a development for some of our small business efforts. So on the right side of the screen, you'll see a snapshot of our very 1st Mountain View business newsletter. So this just went out to businesses recently, and um, you can sign up for the business newsletter. Um, you can go to the city's website um, and our economic development. Um, page and find the link to that. And we also just launched yesterday, the relaunch of the small business resiliency program. So there's a little bit of changes from last time where now we are allowing up to 15,000 in the no interest loan, whereas before it was 7000 and we're really focusing on those businesses with 20 or fewer employees that have less than 2000000 and annual revenue. So we hope that this, uh, helps. We hope that this really helps um, the businesses, again, who can apply for um, more of the micro loan, and we have launched a lot of different communication, um, partnering with the chamber, uh, downtown business association. We're really just trying to get the word out about this. Then I am also really happy to report that we have another park opening Evondale Park. This Friday, November 13th, so we will be doing another virtual opening. The event will be at 3.15 p.m. and it will be shown live on the city's Facebook and then it will also be posted later on our YouTube channel and the park itself opens to the community at 4 o'clock on Friday. Then I do also have an update on our race equity and inclusion efforts. So the HRC is doing their virtual report out from the listening forums that they've held over the past month and a half . This will be held on November 18th, and we are encouraging our community members to register for this event. You can see the registration and the light blue on the screen. It's mountain view.gov slash 1118 REI. And what they're going to be doing at this report out is summarizing, uh, the themes that they've learned from the listening forums, and then there's also going to be an opportunity for small groups to go into breakout sessions and just uh, discuss the results and and share their uh, feedback. Then I also have an update about project home key. So, um, just as a recap, project, home key is uh, program that the uh, state released funds for different agencies across the state to apply for to do, uh, basically total rehab of either apartments or hotels or in our case in Mountain View. Um, we are actually using a um, site on Leghorn to construct uh, modular units that um, is going to be open for at least, I believe, over 300 um, residents that would be able to to live in these modular units and it is over a 100 doors. And you can see from the picture how the different doors look. So what we're going to be doing is holding 2 community meetings for the surrounding neighborhoods. Those are going to be this Thursday on November 12th. And one is going to be at 1230. The other is going to be at 6 o'clock. And you can go to mountain view.gov slash home key to learn more about the event or register. So I think the big thing about home key that we're really excited about is, um, it's another tool that we have aside from our safe parking lot programs where we're really going to be able to provide a stable and safe place, um, for our residents in mountain view, who may not have housing, um, to not only get services through our partner life moves, um, but also be on a path towards, um, hopefully getting more stable housing. Then every week I've been highlighting either staff or divisions who have really just been doing an amazing job over these last several months and tonight I want to highlight the amazing work from our whole information technology department. So they have really been the unsung heroes during this entire pandemic because what they have had to do behind the scenes to prop staff up and really pivot to helping staff over 400 staff work from home has been really amazing. So not only are they doing all of that work and making our employees have the ability to work from home. But they're also working on a lot of innovation and efficiency projects, including paperless permitting system, a different scheduling system for all of our city departments, um, a land management system for building division, a fleet management system, and a brand new work order management system. So, even amidst all of the things that they're doing for COVID and really having to help employees who are working from home. They are also doing a lot of these new innovative projects. So we're really proud of the work they're doing. And I also want to give a special thank you to our IT director, Roger Jensen, who's done a great job in helping us do these zoom meetings. Um, and working with our city clerk and and I think he is now the the Zoom wizard, um, and helping us get to the the place we're at now. So I want to thank Roger for that as well. And then lastly, just recognizing our city employees, many, many that you see here on the screen, for everything they've been doing throughout this whole pandemic. Um, not just the crisis work, but also just regular city business. So, um, just thank you to all of our staff who are just doing a great job hanging in there and and serving our residents. So that concludes my presentation and I'm open to any questions.

[01:59:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, city manager. Any questions from council members? I don't see any, I'll open. Oh, yes, council member Hicks.

[01:59:15] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Sorry, it's hard for me to bounce from screen to screen here with the different options. Um, I just several people have asked me and I don't know if you would know, Kimbra, about uh, testing for family coming in around Thanksgiving, whether you know the El Camino, whether I don't know that you would know this, whether it would be open on Thanksgiving Day itself, if people come in, and also what the turnaround time has been. You certainly don't want to come in, be tested on Wednesday or Thursday and get the results when you go home to wherever you came from. So you may not know the answer to that, but just in case you do, I have been asked several times. Um,

[01:59:55] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: thank you, council member Hicks, you're right. I don't know the answer about Thanksgiving. Oh, it sounds like the mayor may have an answer about that.

[02:00:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Oh, I'm sorry, not Thanksgiving, but turnaround time. My daughter went last week and got her results within a day.

[02:00:11] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yeah, I think right now most of the testing is around a day between one and 3 days for most of our testing, um, events, not just here in Mountain View, but most of the medical providers, but I will find out about Thanksgiving and, um, we'll we'll get back to the community on that.

[02:00:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you. Any other questions from council members? If not, I'll open this up for public comment. If you are in the 10 day box and would like to comment on the COVID update, please raise your blue hand or if you're on the phone, please press star 9. I don't see any hands up, so I'll close public comment and thank you very much for the update, city manager. We will go on to the next item, which is item 3.2. Um, an update on current programs and services by community services agency executive director Tom Myers, and welcome, Mr. Myers.

[02:01:11] Community Services Agency Executive Director Tom Myers: Great, thank you. Thank you for having me this evening. I am also going to be sharing a screen here. Uh, In just a moment. Here we go. And, uh, Well, there we go. All right. Uh, I was asked to provide a quick update and I was asked 2 things. brief and to not just spill out a bunch of stats of what we're doing now, but talk a little bit about some of the things that we're seeing and some of the things that we're trying to do to react to those things. So, uh, I will tell you as you may, uh, know, we have a wide variety of services that we provide at CSA. All of those are available to see on our website. And I'm more than happy to talk more deeply about any of those later on. My name, uh, number and email will be at the end of the presentation. But let me talk to you a little bit very quickly about some of the emerging and increasing community needs that we're seeing. One of the things that has my staff, absolutely frightened to death right now, is the eviction moratorium and the accumulating debt that is happening because of the, uh, lack of work and people, uh, unable to pay their rent. We know that tenants must pay at least 25%. We know that the moratorium ends on January 31st. Financial burdens are increasing and we know that evictions are going to ultimately follow. Unfortunately, right now, what we are working on is raising additional funds for rent relief and funds for financial assistance of all different kinds of financial assistance. The other thing that we know that is on our radar screen is measure C. We are awaiting word on how the city will be moving forward, but we know that at a moment's notice, We as a organization need to be ready to respond to it. We know that our V dwellers will need additional food and other assistance. CSA currently funds vehicle repairs to get clients and or vehicles into the safe parking program. But we know that if, uh, if uh, depending on how things roll out, uh, that we will be needing additional money for vehicle repairs that goes beyond uh, repairs to get people into safe parking. So that is another issue that is going to be uh, the awaiting us, uh, depending on how uh, measure C rolls out. And then as Kimber Alert alluded to the COVID search. Uh, numbers are increasing. The rest of the country is on fire, if you look at any of the maps that show what's happening, and we are, our borders don't close at the California state line. We know that those numbers are going to increase here inevitably. So, and we also know that the most vulnerable populations are the populations that are most at risk. What CSA is working on a couple of months ago, we started what we call the COVID rapid response team, but we're also getting together gift cards and financial assistance, things that will allow us to actually, rather than give things to our folks actually to give them financial assistance. It's harder to raise money for financial assistance, but it's extremely important. And let me tell you a little bit about this COVID rapid response team that's been around now for several weeks. We assist community members diagnosed with COVID. CSA staff member calls the household to assess their needs. English, Spanish, and Mandarin language staff are all available on this. We have staff that live locally, uh, that are a part of this uh, team, uh, uh, and we provide groceries, sanitation supplies, and uh, personal protective equipment, are dropped off at the home as soon as possible by staff, who are themselves in full PPE, as they go out to do this. We do this work 7 days a week. As soon as we get a call that there are issues. Uh, and uh, uh, we uh, make sure that food needs are met right away so that people can quarantine at home safely. Those in need are referred to other services at CSA and elsewhere, including things like rental assistance. And CSA is actively raising money from government and private sources right now, because this program will need to expand in the coming months, as Kimbra's report, as the city manager's report said beforehand. It's absolutely essential that we be prepared for the coming search. Other community needs that we are seeing, populations that are most at risk, economically our service sector and our gig economy workers. These are the folks that felt the immediate impact. Our undocumented residents, as you know, CSA, has served on our undocumented community from the very beginning, and we always have, and we always will. And, uh, we never ask who's undocumented or not, and we don't keep those statistics for public consumption, uh, for the safety of our our clients. But we do know that a sizable portion of our of our clients are undocumented, and those are folks that are going to be really hit hard. People who live in their car. I will, uh, bring up as I always do, I sound like a broken record that RVs get a lot of attention. But we actually have more homeless people, uh, uh, who are our clients that are living in cars than those that are living in RVs right now. Uh, and those that are living on a fixed income. And CSA is currently working on food and financial assistance around those issues. And other groups needing additional community support and advocates. And I often talk about the fact that there are pockets of folks in our community that do not have the strong voices out there talking about them, uh, seniors, uh, the LGBTQ community, uh, uh, that hardly ever gets talked about the fact that uh, even though we're only about 3 to 8% of the population who, who, depending on who you talk to, uh, we can account for upwards of 20 to 30% of the homeless population. And so that's an important thing. Homeless women. Oftentimes programs for homeless individuals are geared toward men and homeless women are often very vulnerable and seek safety. That's a community. Those who are unconnected to a school or a faith community or a community group, and those individuals that are facing isolation. And we're working very hard on food delivery programs for those communities. Uh, we've already talked a little bit about rental assistance. And so I won't bring this up. This is the Mountain View, city of Mountain View Rental Assistance program. Uh, we have other rental assistance buckets that we uh, dig into. Uh, I will say that one thing that you need to notice down here is that uh, the city of Mountain View funds expended one. 19, as you know, CSA raised an additional 12 million. We've actually spent 1300000 and on this so far. Part of that is because, as you know, we started cutting checks for rent relief well before the city funds came into us, and we've had to take up some gap in that. But that's not a problem. But I think the important thing to point out here is that we are going to get to a point where the city of Mountain View's rental assistance programs, uh, data, rental assistance funds is going to dry up. And once that happens, we're going to be heavily reliant on other sources of funding, which were not quite so generous. Uh, that we continue to see in that rental assistance program. And this is generally true of all of our programs, that the vast majority are 30% AMI or lower, and so we're very pleased that these programs, and especially the Mountain View Rental Assistance program, continues to reach that group. This is a very, very important number here. This is the number of brand new clients since March the ninth. Households, nearly 1200 individuals, nearly 2000. These are these are people who are brand new to CSA. Uh, and I think this is kind of indicative of the, of the, of what we're seeing here. And uh, why we need to be so uh, so on guard and on point with our new new programs and services. And then food, food is becoming a big issue, especially for seniors. And so I wanted to include this. But I think food is going to become an even bigger issue as we see changes in the administration. We see changes at the USDA, uh, and their farmers to families, boxes, uh, a huge number of community groups and churches, all got into uh, helping to supply food to the community, which was fantastic. And so they all deserve great kudos for what they've done on that. But we need to be prepared that there are going to be changes in food that's available. And then finally, our program numbers, and again, you can see that these numbers are translate into quite a fair number of people. And finally, uh, this is, uh, uh, just uh, uh, if you need to get in touch with me or want any more information afterwards, I'm available not only to uh, council members and city staff, but to anyone in the community, that would like to get in touch. Thank you.

[02:10:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you so much. Thank you for making time to be here in the update. Any questions from council members for Mr. Myers? Yes, counts number Ramirez.

[02:11:03] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, there. Um, and thank you, Tom, for uh, for your presentation. Uh, so I'm, I'm sure you're aware, the final item on the agenda tonight includes, uh, a recommendation to, uh, use up to a $1000000 in Cares Act funding for COVID response and and release efforts, and, uh, there isn't a staff recommendation per se, but, uh, we can probably get something very close to one based on the, you know, in the field knowledge that you and your stats have. So if you had a $1000000 to play. Um, you know, where would you invest that money?

[02:11:44] Tom Myers: Well, I, you know, uh, it's a, it's a difficult choice, but I do think that if you, you know, I would probably divide it and look at, uh, what, what you can do with the money, depending on where it's coming from, if, and, uh, and so forth, I think rental assistance is going to be a big issue for a while now. We, I think many of us said over the summer that this is a long slog, uh, through through this, uh, it's a marathon, it's not a sprint. Uh, and so I think rental assistance is going to be a huge amount of uh, of that of that uh, money that needs to be spent. I think the other issue, Quite frankly is, I don't think we're ready for this surge and I, I, I, often get accused of being overly cautious around the COVID stuff. Uh, I think some of this is my own experience. I lived through one plague when I was a young man and uh, lost a great many loved ones in my life, friends and, and so forth. And, uh, I, I personally would not like to, to lose any more to this COVID thing. Uh, so I, I do think that the response, though, that the staff and I give full, full credit to my staff for coming up with this rapid response team. We're going to see more and more families that are going to be isolated and quarantine. Uh, for a long period of time. Uh, and uh, and unable to work, and they're going to fall even further into, into, uh, uh, need. Uh, so I would say those those 2 things are are right up there. The other thing I, I, and I think the, the, the jury is still out on whether food is going to be a problem. As you know, at the beginning of the pandemic, uh, we were told that we would have a lot of supply chain issues, and those never really materialized. We did end up with this USDA farmers to families program, which unfortunately ended up CSA did not participate directly, we got some of those boxes through another outside source, but we did not get those boxes directly, so we did not have to deal with putting in some of the political stuff that had to be put in to those boxes legally to get those boxes. And I won't go into that, but it was a long thing. So we did not, we did not suffer from that. But I do think that uh, if uh, programs are going to lose the ability to do the USDA farmers to families program, then we may end up having to find other food resources out there for distribution. So I think that, you know, if you're talking a $1000000, I think rent relief, keeping people housed is so incredibly important. is one of those things. And then the other one is going to just be a basic reaction to the COVID search.

[02:14:33] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: That's helpful. Thank you. And the only other question I have is, um, it's, it would be helpful, I think, to understand how people are finding out about CSA. One of the things that that I've been a little concerned about, and you alluded to it in your presentation is there are many people in our community who don't have advocates, right, who are seniors putting alone and that kind of thing, you know, folks who don't have access to the internet. Um, I hope that there's that they know about and are taking advantage of the services that you provide, that they may not be. Um, and I'm curious to know how we, the city, can help make sure that those folks know where they can get the assistance they may need. How can we assist you in just spreading the word?

[02:15:24] Tom Myers: I think the city, we have a great partnership with the city. The city staff has, I mean, the CSA staff has a huge amount of respect for the city staff. And I think it goes both ways. in that regard. And so we, we utilize whatever resources we have available to us to get the word out. We also ask, you know, get the word out to the city so that they can help get the word out. Uh, I think that there is some success in that. If you look at the numbers of new people who have shown up since this COVID crisis began, you know, almost 2000 new people coming to CSA. Uh, that's pretty phenomenal. That said, you're absolutely right. There are folks that are out there that we're hearing about all the time, who are living very isolated lives and who do not know. And I think the ones I'm the most particularly concerned about are those that never thought they would need help from the town charity, if you will.

[02:16:24] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Great. Thank you very much.

[02:16:25] Tom Myers: Absolutely.

[02:16:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Counselor Immanachek.

[02:16:29] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Thanks, Tom, for being here. I appreciate it. That was it's always great information from you. Um, So I was wondering about their mental assistance. And, you know, I know it's at 100% right now of rent. And um, I'm wondering, You know, I know we talked about once changing that to 25% given what is done at the state level. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, what you thought about and have you rethought that decision to keep it at 100%? And what if, um, some people say, oh, I really just want 25% for a while. Um, you know, how are we going to manage that?

[02:17:10] Tom Myers: Yeah, absolutely. Well, we actually don't immediately say, okay, your rent is this, we're gonna, here's your check for this. What we do is we ask, how much can you pay? And, you know, try and do it that way. That helps keep, you know, because we're the average rent check that we're sending out is about $2,000. The average rent in Mountain View is more than that. Although it's changing. It's starting to go down as it is in many places around the Bay Area. We do have other bulkets. For instance, we just got a sizable bucket of rental assistance from destination home, uh, which uh, has been targeted specifically to those people who do not get government assistance, who follow below a certain level of poverty and can help with third, 4th, and 5th months rent. So because that bucket of money is able to do that. A lot of this is my staff juggling. Oh, this does this and this does this and so we can do that. So because that bucket of money does that, and we still have a sizable number of people in Mountain View that are coming to us for 1st and 2nd months rent, We're primarily utilizing the Mountain View funds for those folks, new folks that are coming in for 1st and 2nd months rent. And then we switch over to another bucket of money, uh, uh, around that. And we actually have several buckets of money, not just city of Mountain View or destination home. We have other buckets of money that we're using United Way, for example, provides one bucket.

[02:18:43] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, so if we allocated more money to rental assistance, um, we might specify that it could either be for the 1st and 2nd month or it could be if somebody does want, um, for a long period of time.

[02:19:01] Tom Myers: Absolutely. The thing with rental assistance is the funder makes the rules. So yeah, whatever you guys decide you want to allocate on that. Uh, I, I, I, I will tell you this. The city staff works really well with the CSA staff on the back and the 4th and the back and the 4th. Yeah. And, you know, oh, you know, please let us give this, for instance, to people who are living in, in, in, uh, dwellings that are on wheels. In the past, you could never use rental assistance for a dwelling that was on wheels. Now we can. And at the next map back and forth and so forth.

[02:19:36] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay. So, um, I've had a number of folks, um, ask, you know, if they could help. Um, it's um, you know, what would they do? And it sounds like, you know, as individuals, certainly providing financial help, um, to CSA to help others is top priority. Um, it seems like people also really like to provide something more tangible, so to speak. And so, you know, what would that be? What would be the next best thing that I could tell folks they could do?

[02:20:11] Tom (CSA): Okay, one thing, and this is where I come off as Grinch. Uh, one thing that uh, we are not doing this year is toys. Uh, toy, we are not doing toys. We are, you know, we are giving out gift cards to our families. And frankly, our clients prefer that. They have told us over and over and over again, they much prefer the gift cards. So we were actually transitioning to gift cards last year. That's when they were really calling Grinch. Now, now they they probably won't so much. But, uh, we really want to give gift cards instead of toys and that's primarily because of COVID, but also because it's really about empowering our families economically. Giving them the economic needs to go get what they want for their family, what they want for their children, what's going to do best for that family. Doing the gift card thing though also helps us expand it beyond families. Toys are for kids. With gift cards, you can expand it. So all of our seniors are going to get a gift card this year. All, you know, so we're, we're, we're expanding the whole gift card thing. And to me, It's, and I know this is going to really rub people who love the toy thing the wrong way. But for me, it's really about economically empowering our folks so that they can Utilize its full what's appropriate for them. And as far as other tangible things, we are still taking food and things like that. We're not taking like fresh food. Please don't bring in fresh, fresh, uh, poultry, uh, as a lot of people are wont to do in November, but we are taking, taking things like canned goods and things like that.

[02:21:48] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay. Um, and maybe this is for, um, the city manager, but, um, one neighborhood, the Questal Park neighborhood, said that, you know, maybe they would like to, um, furnish, help furnish some of the places that, um, the home key project, and I don't know what the arrangements are for furnishing those units. Um, but is that something that a neighborhood could help with? Either with, you know, like furniture or like towels and other things like that.

[02:22:24] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, thank you, council member Mattachek. Yes, I know this issue has been brought up. Um, there have been a few neighborhoods or just individual neighbors interested in it. Um, so that is something that, uh, I will note for staff and I know that, uh, some of the staff that are working on the project are, are on this meeting. So, uh, We will figure out what we can do for that because I know that we are on a quick time frame and so we'll get back to the community about what we can do with that.

[02:22:51] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, that would be great because I, and let us know because I think we can spread the word um, to our context throughout the city. Um, because I think a lot of people do want to help, um, especially, you know, around the holidays and especially in light of COVID. So let's help them help others.

[02:23:09] Tom (CSA): Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that that's good. We have Eagles, an Eagle Scout project, in fact, it's coming over next week to give out 100 tarps to homeless, homeless individuals. Those kinds of things are great and and let your imagination run wild when you come up with things like that.

[02:23:25] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Great. Thank you very much. That's it for me.

[02:23:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Counselor McAllister?

[02:23:34] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, hey, uh, So, Tom, you know, I'm a big advocate for rabbit rehousing and rental housing and advocated for a lot. So, the question I have is, when you have these multifamilies and COVID hits someone in that household, How do you, does CSA help isolate the one person so that it doesn't spread in that or are you guys involved in any aspect of that?

[02:24:01] Tom (CSA): Uh, if there's a person that's +and I'm not a public health person. So, uh, that's the that's the caveat. My understanding and from the experience we've had is when a family or a group of individuals who live in the same dwelling are asked to isolate, the whole group is asked to isolate, and quarantine. The county of Santa Clara actually has a hotline. which I don't have right in front of me, but there is actually a hotline number that people who are homeless. can call and or our advocates for the homeless like CSA folks can call to get people into a hotel room right away or a motel room right away. But that's specifically for homeless individuals. If you're talking about someone who's been asked by the doctor or the health department to isolate at home, it's our experience that the entire family is asked to isolate at home. So there's a difference between isolate and quarantine.

[02:25:01] Councilmember John McAlister: But you're you're talking so much positive that everybody isolates.

[02:25:08] Tom (CSA): I'm going to have to defer to the public health department on the terminology and stuff like that. I, I, yeah, because I'm going to say the wrong thing if I'm not careful.

[02:25:18] Councilmember John McAlister: Is there, uh, Um, A necessity or a way to help you guys, to help those families or groups that maybe be one or 2 people or something that maybe needs to be in a hotel room that is a family unit. I mean, Because I know the financial impact that if the whole house has to be quarantined, and that just devastates their financial, you know, economic engine coming in.

[02:25:48] Tom (CSA): Absolutely.

[02:25:49] Councilmember John McAlister: And so that's one that I'm saying. Is there any way that CSA can get involved that's sort of isolated so not everybody, or is that a county health deal? I'm just trying to find a solution that, if we give you, if we get you some money for the housing and so forth like that, Can you use it in that direction?

[02:26:08] Tom (CSA): No, I would say that if you want to fund in that regard, our, we currently are funding ourselves out of our own reserves this rapid response team that we have going out, and that's going to cost, I mean, we're doing this 7 days a week, uh, 24 seven. So, I mean, we're going out. That's costing us, uh, food money that's going to be additional rental assistance that's needed and so forth. So if you're interested in helping that family that's devastated by the isolation, uh, and funding through CSA, uh, it's funding that that COVID rapid response team that I'm so incredibly proud of my staff for coming up with. As far as get isolating people into hotel rooms, uh, there is a project that the county is running, but it is primarily for homeless individuals, but I think that they are, uh, they are working, uh, uh, uh, through a central office in San Jose, to, uh, to get uh, hotel vouchers out to families as well.

[02:27:15] Councilmember John McAlister: But that's being run through the county, right? So I'm going to take council member Ramirez's wish list to you. And he asked you how you would spend the money. Does this rapid Response team? play a more critical immediate need than rental assistance.

[02:27:39] Tom (CSA): Not yet. It probably will in January, but not yet. No. So when the surge comes, I mean, I, I, and like I said, I'm, I, I think everyone thinks I'm a little bit of a, uh, of a scary cat around this little COVID thing, but I, I really am worried that if a surge comes, we're going to end up with some major numbers, not just uh, uh, down in San Jose or, or, uh, in other parts of the county, but right here in Mountain View as well. So I think that, uh, you know, rental assistance is an immediate need. Rental assistance is a long-term need and it's going to be a need well into 2021. But this COVID rapid response team is a need that's becoming a bigger issue. Um, I would be more than happy. I don't know if you guys are going to be planning to make decisions tonight or not. If you are planning to make decisions tonight. My advice to you would be to uh, look at rental assistance as the most immediate need, but this COVID-19 rapid response team is being a need that's going to be happening very, very soon and very quickly.

[02:28:46] Councilmember John McAlister: Do you have secondary funding for this rapid route? You're saying you're using your own internal funds and

[02:28:51] Tom (CSA): Right. We're funding this out of reserves at this point.

[02:28:56] Councilmember John McAlister: So are you looking for other?

[02:28:58] Tom (CSA): Okay, you're like, it's a very unique. I will tell you, it's a very unique It's a very unique project and it's not something that normally gets funded by private foundations and corporations or even individuals. I do actually have one healthcare organization that is looking at at funding at least a portion of this, certainly not to what it would cost us. But there is a health because they see this as a public health issue.

[02:29:29] Councilmember John McAlister: My last question is, with your rapid response team. Is there a progression that you can say, hey, a month ago we did this, but now we're 30%, 20, 30%? More involved or something? I mean, is there?

[02:29:43] Tom (CSA): I know the numbers have gone up since we implemented it. Uh, but I do not have actual data for you. And I, uh, I, all I can tell you is that the numbers have gone up. My staff are getting ready and gearing up, though, for the fact that this will probably exponentially grow within the next couple of months.

[02:30:02] Councilmember John McAlister: Has anybody in your organization? came down with COVID-19.

[02:30:07] Tom (CSA): We had one employee very early on that had COVID-19 off site. Uh, and uh, got this uh, got was exposed off site, thankfully, thankfully. No one else in the organization had it. No one else among the volunteer corps had it and none of our clients got it from this individual. This individual was exposed off site. That was the only case that I know of. I am sure that some of our clients, you know, we have 1000s of clients. I'm sure that some of our clients have come down with it. But none of our volunteers or staff that I know of, and we're very strict here. This is a very, you know, caring environment to work in, but we have a rule. You get one warning if you're seen on campus without a mask and that's it and next time it's termination from employment.

[02:30:59] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Thank you. Thank you for everything you're doing and hopefully we can continue to assist you.

[02:31:05] Tom (CSA): Thank you. I appreciate that.

[02:31:07] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. And we have Counselor Hicks.

[02:31:13] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes, thank you, Tom, and thank you to the previous council members for all these, um, clarifying questions, particularly on what different, um, different things the cities paying for and what would be most helpful to inform the, uh, discussion will have at the end of this meeting about the budget. Um, a couple of follow-up questions, and maybe you, you more or less answered this, but you, you've been talking about, um, rental assistance, but also direct assistance. And I'm wondering if one is ever, like if the direct assistance is ever better than the rental assistance. Um, because you can pay rent with it, as well as other things. Do you have any comments on that? I'm not. I personally don't have a preference in either direction. I just want to know what your experience is.

[02:32:08] Tom (CSA): Um, there are a number of different, um, uh, well, let me just say this is a very complex kind of question. And so I, I, at the risk of, of getting overly wonky on you all. Rental assistance is specifically from a funder and must go specifically to pay rent, and so we don't, the client never touches the money at all. The money goes directly from CSA to the landlord. Financial assistance, uh, a good example of financial assistance program is the fact that we've changed our holiday program into completely financial assistance and you're going to get money directly from CSA. So USA's raising this money. We're giving you the money. You're going to go out and use that money. Uh, I think that fin- direct financial assistance uh, is can be very helpful to the client. It also, uh, and I think can be more advantageous sometimes to the client. It also means, though, that the funder does not have any control over what that is used for. It can be used either within the community. It can be used to move out of the community. It can be used for whatever that family needs. That actually, I think, is very empowering for that family. I also think, though, that depending on the funds you're going to be using, you may not be allowed. Like, for instance, the rental assistance money we got through CDBG and all of these other things. We were not allowed to use that for anything other than pain. So it really does just depend on what your preference is. And what that does do too, is that, you know, I know that several of you expressed that you liked the idea of doing rental assistance because you were helping landlords as well. The financial assistance does not help the landlord unless the client uses it to pay the landlord. But it is definitely a more financially empowering thing for the client to have that money. But you then have no control over what that money is spent on. Neither does CSA if the person qualifies for the financial assistance. When we hand out a gift card for the holiday program, The client goes and spins that on whatever they want. It does not have to be on toys or whatever.

[02:34:30] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah, I'm, I mean, I, as I said, I don't, I'm trying to mull through our, our different possibilities and I don't have a preference myself at this point, but I would, I can imagine if I were given a direct check, I might move in with my mom and spend it on food instead, if I were able to do that instead of live separately and pay rent. But, um, So, but I'm not saying I prefer that. I think their strengths and weaknesses on both sides. Um, and then my 2nd question is, you mentioned rents going down. And I, I, I appreciate it, it also council member of Mattachek's questioning around what percentage of rent we should pay. Um, and I, again, I don't have a final answer on that. I've heard different programs with all different percentages. And I guess my only fear at paying 100% is rents are dropping. And I would hate that we're kind of propping up the rental market at this time. I would hate to design a program that way. Um, you know, that we would be paying 100% of January 2020 if January of 2021 were, say, 25% below that. So I'm kind of trying to mull that over. Do you know you talked about, um, rents going down, do you know if any of your, uh, clients are able to access that going down? Are they able to negotiate with their landlords as rents in a building go down to not have to pay last year's top dollar? Any information you might have would be helpful.

[02:36:12] Tom (CSA): Sure, absolutely. First of all, you mentioned that before. And I thought that, I really liked that, uh, that you asked that question, because I took it back to my staff and I said, you know, if you guys, uh, see any indication that we are artificially inflating rents in town or we are keeping rents high for some reason, Let me know right away. And then I did not hear anything. But I think that you're, we always tell our clients that they should talk to their landlords and negotiate with our landlords to make sure that they feel empowered to do that. Uh, the, the, the problem is not everyone feels empowered to talk to their landlord. Their landlord has a certain amount of power over them. There's a power inequality there between the landlord and the tenant. And so it's not always comfortable, especially if you are yourself, a person that doesn't feel like you have a lot of power in society in general. One thing I had, I surveyed my staff. I said, tell me, you know, I've got this, uh, uh, a presentation to the council, tell me, uh, what you're, you know, what you think are some unmet needs or some uh, some things that are going on. Uh, and one of the uh, one of our case managers who's doing the rent relief program, uh, uh, he did say that he, he said that it seems to be a real problem, that people do not feel empowered to talk to their landlords, even though we're encouraging them to talk to their landlords. People do not feel empowered. He said, I don't have statistics as to how many of my clients are feeling that way, but I'm hearing anecdotally. I don't feel comfortable with that. Or I can't because the rental office is closed and the landlord is working remotely or the manager's working remotely or whatever the case may be. So, uh, but I think the the point you make is really well taken. We don't want to put ourselves in a position where we're artificially inflating the rent. Uh, so, uh, but I I have not heard anything back from staff that indicates that we are.

[02:38:13] Unknown Speaker: Okay, thank you so much.

[02:38:15] CSA Executive Director: Absolutely.

[02:38:17] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Anyone else with questions? I just had a couple. Um, I was wondering what happened with Silicon Valley Strong? I, early on in COVID. We had some conversations and I just was wondering if we, if you received assistance from that program.

[02:38:36] CSA Executive Director: Uh, the Silicon Valley Strong was used at the very early stages, as you know, of the of the epidemic to raise money that was specifically went to destination home. At 1st, uh, we were concerned that not in, not enough of those funds were going to be making it out to places like Mountain View or Gilroy or other parts of the county. Uh, and, uh, uh, we, we, I, I later saw statistics that showed that, yes, it probably could have been better, getting up here, but, uh, that some of it did, uh, and that, uh, CSA now is, is, uh, you know, getting, uh, you know, because we are an agency of the emergency assistance network and we are getting funds through destination home, uh, that those funds are definitely flowing. And in fact, this latest batch of destination home funds. may be from that Silicon Valley strong campaign. I don't know. I don't I never hear of Silicon Valley strong anymore.

[02:39:35] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I was wondering too, because I stopped hearing about it as well. I heard they raised 20 million. I think their target was 25 or something, but I just wondered how much of that might have come into Mountain View. Right. Um, and then I was wondering in terms of need, um, is, since I, I go to the senior center and help there, it seems like um, after summer, the number of volunteers has, uh, dropped us a lot of college students, at least initially went away to college and, um, sometimes we, on Tuesdays, we have a, a shortage, but is there a need for volunteers as well?

[02:40:13] CSA Executive Director: Absolutely. and thank you. Thank you for asking that. We definitely have a need for volunteers because so many people who can volunteer during the day or on a regular basis or older or retired or somehow, and we don't want to put those folks at risk. So, yeah, we definitely have a need for volunteers. especially if people are younger and healthier and not suffering from any, you know, underlying conditions like asthma or whatever. Uh, we, we would love to have folks uh, come and volunteer. Because yes, our volunteer numbers are dwindling. And I have a feeling that when the surge happens, the volunteer numbers will dwindle even more. That's why I give all all huge praise to the volunteers who do volunteer with us. Uh, so thank you, uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. I appreciate that. And uh, also to uh, to uh, the staff here at CSA. I mean, they really are heroes.

[02:41:13] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, I very much agree with that. They're amazing. Yes, I one staff. Uh, Counselor McAllister.

[02:41:21] Councilmember John McAlister: Follow up on a question about volunteers. Do you have an age limit where you go, hey, you're in a, population that, you know, we would love to have you, but we don't want to put you at risk or everybody's welcome.

[02:41:36] CSA Executive Director: Well, no, we actually, if someone is older, we will, we will, uh, uh, we're not going to say, oh, you know, you're over the... I mean, I'm 60. I just turned 60 and I'm sitting here in the CSA office right now. So we're not turning anyone away. But, uh, uh, but we are, we are telling people, especially people who are like 70s and so on, uh, to, uh, police think twice. Uh, and uh, we are also uh, limiting the number of young people, uh, who are volunteering as well as far as under the age of 18. It used to be that you could volunteer if you were under 18, as long as you were there with a parent or a group or somehow adult supervision. And it's just too difficult to get, make sure that 18 year olds or younger or 17 year olds or social distancing. So we learned that lesson very, very early on.

[02:42:25] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, thank you.

[02:42:28] CSA Executive Director: Great. Thank you so much for the intensive conversation. Sorry, that wasn't brief.

[02:42:37] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Well, it was very informative, so thank you.

[02:42:40] CSA Executive Director: Well, and you all know where to find me. I'm more than happy to talk more about this. And actually hook you up with my staff who are much smarter than I am when it comes to the details.

[02:42:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Well, thank you again for everything that you do and please pass along our thanks to your staff as well. All right. With that, we will move on to the next item, which is item 4, our consent calendar. These items will be approved by one motion unless any number of the council was just to remove an item for discussion. The reading of the full text of resolutions and ordinances will be waived unless a council member requests otherwise. Would any member of the council like to pull an item? I see council member Ramirez.

[02:43:23] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Uh, yes, I'd like to pull 4.5.

[02:43:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And thank you, Counselor McAllister.

[02:43:29] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, I don't necessarily need to pull 4 4.6. I just wanted to make a comment on it.

[02:43:37] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Would you like to make your comment now?

[02:43:39] Councilmember John McAlister: Sure, um, 4.6. This is where the uh, independent auditor uh, normally comes along gives a uh, study session to staff. Uh, it was in front of the uh, procedure committee, and it was a 3 uh, 21 vote, and I did not support it there. I will not support it here in this particular one because I feel it's, uh, Even though all intentions are good that council members and I'll pay attention to what the financial independent auditors do, I think just having that full session for the council and also for full transparency with the citizens that they have a chance to the public to take a look at it. So, I would recommend, uh, as if it goes forward, I will not support it for those reasons. And I hope my other council members may consider the transparency and the full effect that it will do. Thank you.

[02:44:37] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Anyone else, council members? If not, if there are any members of the public wishing to comment on any item on our consent calendar, please if you're in the attendee box, please raise your blue hand. If you're on the phone, please. Um, Press star 9. And I will start with Ryan Kerrigan. And uh, let's see. Ryan, you have an older version of Zoom, so we need to promote you. Could we do that? City clerk? Oh, actually, I think I have the capability of doing that. So, let's see. There you are, Ryan.

[02:45:16] Ryan Kerrigan: Sorry, mayor. Thank you. I wanted to comment on 4.5, so I don't know if it's appropriate to wait until you vote on the rest of the consenter now.

[02:45:24] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I know, please go ahead and comment.

[02:45:26] Ryan Kerrigan: Okay, thank you. I, um, just wanted to briefly, um, provide a little bit of perspective from where realtors have been with these pace programs, um, over the last few years and specifically the last um, few months, um, before you guys vote on um, this item. Um, you know, I'm sure most of you are aware when when pace really started to become a thing a few years ago, realtors, um, raised a lot of concerns that the programs were, um, really suffered from a lack of transparency, disclosures and all types of issues that really could get homeowners in a lot of trouble, um, when undertaking, um, those loans. And the biggest problem with that at the time was these pace liens were superior oftentimes to the mortgage. And at one point or the other, and even still, my understanding is the FHFA will often decline to provide mortgages, um, oftentimes when they see there as a superior, um, pace, um, lien on a property on a home. Now, I want to be fair and say, I don't necessarily want to cast any judgment on this specific servicer. And in the subsequent years, up until even the last legislative cycle, um, there has been a number of legislative, um, fixes to provide more transparency, um, disclosure requirements and that type of thing when undertaking a pace loan. Um, But even that having occurred, the um, concerns and potential pitfalls of this has been so great that recently earlier this year, LA County actually ended their um, pace program. Um, they dealt with a number of issues, um, particularly from national consumer law groups that typically brought up, um, either lower income homeowners, maybe homeowners that were from non-English speaking families, and those type of things, who often, um, kind of get stuck in a, I know necessarily want to say predatory lending, but oftentimes it's the, um, construction groups and things like that that are out there pushing these pace liens and that type of thing. Um, and even recently in the last week, there's examples in LA County of, um, firms being charged with um, fraud um, in these type of scenarios. So that means that there are no doubt, um, many, many homeowners, 1000s, 100s of 1000s that have successfully managed pace programs use it successfully, that type of thing. Um, but these concerns, obviously, were still so great. LA ended it and other jurisdictions have as well. Um, I would simply suggest, ask that maybe before you consider this or as you consider it, um, perhaps ask staff to take some time to see if we could do some type of audit or some type of, um, accounting and get some, uh, info and data on if it's being successfully used in Mountain View, what problems there are, if there's still a demand for it. And that type of thing before maybe further expanding that program. So, that's all the context I have. Otherwise, thank you and hope you all are doing well.

[02:48:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Look at Emily Rainey, please unmute yourself to speak.

[02:48:45] Emily Rainey: Hi, good evening, uh, members of city council and uh, hi Ryan. Thank you for speaking on behalf of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors. I see you're really I did with that room. I represent my Green Energy Fund. Our JPA partner, Golden State finance authority is on the agenda this evening, and has been vetted by folks at the city level for probably the last 3 years. Really important to note, Wygreen was never a part of the LA County's Pace program. All of the existing providers that Mountain View has already adopted. We're members of the LA County program that was terminated. That program was terminated mostly because it was not a revenue generator for the county, and they were not totally convinced that they had satisfied some consumer issues that did arise in the LA basin area. Um, as far as the uh, recent legislative upgrades to pace. They were enormous. They've been enacted for 2 years since 2018. Um, mostly around ability to pay requirements for our underwriting uh, guidelines and for contractor uh, management and oversight. Including rigorous training, auditing, testing, and disciplinary action for non-compliance. Um, we are a member of the Department of Business Oversight, licensed pace providers. The DBO. That's the acronym, is our regulator, and they have conducted an audit on piece programs. We've also been a member of the Kate loan loss reserve, which is a program through the state treasurer's office. And we've also completed an audit recently where we had no significant findings on our program activity. Since we joined that entity in 2015. Um, lastly, as part of our uh, outreach and uh, expansion in the Bay Area years ago, um, we joined the A-Bag um, RFI for a collaborative services agreement around peace programs, which we dated a lot of the legislative efforts around uh, disclosures, which was AB 2693. And then that was in 2017. And then more recently, the items I mentioned from 2018 around uh, underwriting requirements and consumer uh, who's been contractor protections. Um, it's a bag agreement uh, preceded those provisions and so was sort of a best practice uh, agreement that was established. Or which private administrators had to apply. It was a very rigorous program. We were accepted, and we've been operative with the ABI collaborative services agreement since 2016. Uh, excuse me, 2015. As far as consumer protections and contractor oversight, we are active in dozens of cities in the peninsula region, both San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, I could keep going on. And we have a long history of serving both residential and commercial properties. Throughout the region. I'm happy to address any concerns, especially from the realtors, the realtors, historically, have had concerns on the program and we offer realtor trainings. We've done several throughout the state. And I'm happy to provide that opportunity for the Silicon Valley group. I used to be in touch with Jessica Epstein back in the day as well. Um, so, just a point of reference. I can speak too much other questions as the item is discussed. Thank you.

[02:52:00] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Anyway, else, from the public machine to speak on any items on the consent calendar? If not, I will click comment, bring it back to council and um, item 4.5 has been pulled. So, um, if there is a motion to approve the balance of the consent calendar. I'll entertain that. And there's quite a bit to read. Counselor Clark. Thank you for always volunteering to read.

[02:52:28] Councilmember Chris Clark: Oh, I'll move the balance of the consent calendar, which is everything except 4.5 and that includes 4.2 adopt an ordinance of the city of Mountain View, amend the section of chapter 36, donate ordinance of the city code to update accessory drawing unit regulations to align with state law to be read entitled only for the reading wage attachment one, the council report. 4.3 adopt an ordinance of the city of Mountain View, amending chapter 19, article 8, division 5, a Mountain View city code relating to electrical vehicle charging and parking spaces to be read title only for the reading wave attachment. One with the council report. 4.4, adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View, making findings, um, with respect to an extended, the unexpected, unexpended balance of the North Fish or development impact, transportation fund, California government coach, section 66001 D, to be read entitled only for the reading wave detachment to the council report, and the 4.6 adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View, revising council policy B 6. Um, selection uh, of the external independent auditor to be read entitled only for the reading wave detachment one. report.

[02:53:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Counselor Ramirez.

[02:53:42] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: A second.

[02:53:43] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. So we have a motion by council member Clark, 2nd by council member Ramirez. Any other discussion? And we will note Council member McAllister's, no vote on item 4.6. Um, if not, no, if there's no other discussion, could we get a roll call vote, please?

[02:54:00] City Clerk: Thank you. Council member Clark.

[02:54:02] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah.

[02:54:03] City Clerk: Council member Hicks.

[02:54:04] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[02:54:05] City Clerk: Council member Matachek.

[02:54:07] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[02:54:07] City Clerk: Council member McAllister.

[02:54:09] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes.

[02:54:10] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez.

[02:54:12] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[02:54:13] City Clerk: Vice Mayor Kame.

[02:54:14] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[02:54:15] City Clerk: May I be Koga?

[02:54:16] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Hi. Thank you. Thank you, Mission Carrie 70 with a no vote on item 4.6 by Councilman McAllister. We'll go to Ivan 4.5? Was it Councilor Ramirez?

[02:54:31] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes, thank you, mayor. I appreciate the opportunity. So, uh, Mr. Kerrigan spoke to some of the concerns I had, um, I, uh, I, you know, don't claim to be a technical expert in pace programs, but, um, I, I've heard about the consumer protection issues over the years and asked the questions, um, in, uh, of staff before the meeting. And I guess what I'm, what I'm a little concerned about is we don't have, uh, any data about the utilization of the programs in Mountain View, whether they're actually helping us achieve our sustainability goals, um, whether there are examples of people who have, uh, encountered financial hardship as a consequence of participating, and I'm, uh, I'm uncomfortable with, with expanding the program. Uh, without at least doing uh, greater review uh, to see, you know, whether there has been, whether there is a history of problems here. Uh, and if it, if it's actually a program, that's, that's beneficial to, to, to residents here. Um, my preference would be to at least conduct a review before expanding the program. Um, but I'm I'm open to other ideas. Um, uh, that uh, the accounts may have.

[02:55:53] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Councilman Clark.

[02:55:56] Councilmember Chris Clark: I appreciate Councilman Ramirez's, um, Um, thoughts on this, but, um, you know, pace for, you know, I think probably the 1st year I was on council with something that was brought up, um, and expanding the number of providers and providing some additional competition and options for homeowners. Um, and I know as one of the speakers said, um, staff has been reviewing this for for quite a while. Um, it just hasn't been, you know, uh, something uh, that was like, you know, priority 0 or one. Um, and so I, I'm, I'm comfortable adding another, um, you know, solid provider to the mix, um, that homeowners have an option to choose from and they can do their own research. Um, and I think, um, you know, given the, the number of years there's been under resorts and review by staff, I think we would have uncovered any major issues, um, with this particular provider, and I think, um, I think the additional state legislation that's been put in place provides some additional, um, checks on it. So, I don't, I don't think it's really the, I think the council should, um, or the city should, you know, review the providers that it offers, but it should generally lean in the direction of, you know, providing, you know, as many solid options for, for folks as possible. Um, so, um, uh, others can, can time it if they want, but I'll go ahead and move 4.5, which is, to adopt a resolution of the city council, the city, Mountain View, consenting, to inclusion of properties within the city's jurisdiction, in the Golden State Finance Authority, community facilities, district number 2014 dash one, queen energy, to finance renewable energy, improvements, energy efficiency, and water conservation improvements, electrical vehicle charging, infrastructure, and other improvements, and improving associate. Associate membership. In the joint exercise for powers authority related there to, to be read, title only for the rating, wave, detachment one, the council report. And then we adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View consenting to inclusion of properties within the city's jurisdiction and the Golden State Finance Authority program to finance renewable energy generation, energy and water efficiency improvements, electric vehicle charging, infrastructure, and other improvements, and improving approving associate membership in the joint exercise, the powers authority related there to to be read title only for the reading wave attachment to the council.

[02:58:22] Unknown Speaker: Second.

[02:58:23] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Thank you, and Council member Metachek.

[02:58:28] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. I had a question. Um, it says in the council questions that, uh, staff has reached out to the existing pace providers in Mountain View, uh, to get information or updates on the programs, and that that should be available soon. I was wondering if, like, is there a deadline where, um, driving to, for what's before us tonight? Or, um, is it okay to wait until we get the information from? the other providers?

[02:59:02] Assistant City Manager Audrey Randberg: Uh, thank you for the question, Council for MatterChack, Audrey Randberg, Assistant City Manager. Um, uh, It would be counsel's direction as to whether it needed that information in order to make the decision this evening. Um, there isn't a timeline from staff's perspective about when, by when the decision needs to be made. Um, there is a staff capacity issue on the, the level of additional review and research that we're able to do. Um, and, and I believe what we do is typical based in my experience in other cities, um, in, um, uh, having these programs be administered by their providers and, and not being necessarily audited and reviewed, um, and those kinds of records regarding, um, programs be kept by um, maintained by the city. Um, we therefore do rely on the providers to give us that information. Since, um, the, the answers were crafted for um, today's Council Q and A. We did hear back from one of the 2 um, uh, pace organizations that are already um, authorized to operate in Mountain View, and that is California 1st, which has been, um, approved to operate in Mountain View since 2010. Um, we were, um, and the information that we received today is that they have, uh, record of only 3 projects that have been funded in that 10 year period for a total funding, um, of uh, $40,000. And also, um, uh, they do estimate the greenhouse gas emission reduction. That came from that, if that's of interest, I will try to find that information, um, and provide it during your discussion. The other is the the hero program, and we have not heard back from the hero program, regarding the level of of loans and activity that they have, um, uh, um, made happen in Mountain View.

[03:01:03] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, so once, um, a resident or business, um, takes advantage of this program, um, The city has absolutely no involvement, so we wouldn't even know how many, um, residents or businesses have taken advantage of this. Is that correct? Like we have no role other than to approve pace programs to be available in Mountain View.

[03:01:31] Assistant City Manager Audrey Randberg: Right. We, we can certainly request that information and establish, you know, ongoing communications to, to collect and review that, that information, but we don't have an official role to play and how the programs are administered and what, um, uh, um, what records they keep and, uh, and so really it is just the, the action is just to authorize, Um, those programs to operate um, in Mountain View.

[03:02:04] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, thanks.

[03:02:06] Assistant City Manager Audrey Randberg: You're welcome.

[03:02:07] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: That's it. Thank you.

[03:02:09] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Council member McAllister?

[03:02:10] Councilmember John McAlister: Oh, I'll 2nd the, the motion and to go along, uh, concur with Chris's statement. I remember when it 1st came up, when I was a uh, early council member and I had concerns. But again, we have, I've never heard anything about that program negative. Um, It's just a tool, as, you know, so I'm saying the toolbox, but I've never heard anything, problems with it, and I see no reason to uh, delay it. Uh, just because, I mean, I trust staff that they've done their for a share of diligence. And, uh, because we get a concern, it's not, I don't think it warrants the, uh, to the point of stopping it and, uh, process.

[03:02:57] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: You can't find Ramirez?

[03:03:00] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. I won't belabor the point. I, I, uh, my preference would be to do the due diligence and collect the data before we expand the program, so I won't be supporting the motion, but, uh, I understand where council members, McAllister and Clark are coming from and, uh, don't begrudge anybody for supporting emotions. That's all, thank you.

[03:03:22] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Any other discussion on this item? I would, um, just add that, yes, I, I remember, it must have been, like, about 10 years ago when this 1st came up and, and initially there, there were some issues and so it was put on hold for a while. My thought or understanding was that those were being worked out in some of the issues that were mentioned earlier, I thought were worked out, um, with, uh, state legislation and whatnot. So, um, I feel at this time, um, comfortable to move forward with this. So I will be voting for the motion. So with that, could we get a roll call vote, please? On item 4.6 4.5? I sorry.

[03:04:04] City Clerk: Council member Clark.

[03:04:05] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah.

[03:04:06] City Clerk: Council member Hicks.

[03:04:08] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[03:04:09] City Clerk: Council member Mattachek.

[03:04:10] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[03:04:11] City Clerk: Council member McAllister.

[03:04:18] Councilmember John McAlister: Catherine. Oh, there. Yes.

[03:04:20] City Clerk: Thank you. Council member Ramirez.

[03:04:23] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: No.

[03:04:24] City Clerk: Vice Mayor Kime.

[03:04:28] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Ice American May? Yes.

[03:04:32] City Clerk: Thank you. I'm may I be Koga?

[03:04:34] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Hi. Thank you. So motion carry 61 with no extensions? All right, thank you. So we'll go on to item 5 oral communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any matter not on the agenda. The speakers are allowed to speak on any topic for up to 3 minutes. We'll decide, depending on how many speakers there are. State law prohibits the council from acting on nonagenda items. If there are any members of the public in the attendee box, wishing to speak on a non-agenda device item, please raise your blue hand, and if you're on the phone, please hit star 9. And I see one. So we'll go ahead and keep the 3 minutes. So, uh, Stephen Goldstein, please, uh, unmute yourself to speak.

[03:05:29] Stephen Goldstein: See here. Can you hear now?

[03:05:32] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, I can hear you now. welcome.

[03:05:34] Stephen Goldstein: Thank you. 1st of all, I just wanted to say thank you very much for your time tonight. I just want to make 2 comments. One was about the recent passage of measure C. The reason why I'm theying this up is because I was doing some research on the Mountain View City website. And when I'm seeing, Yes, we have approximately 120 slots for both passenger vehicles and RVs, but it's turning out the transition success rate has been only between 30 and 50% of the passenger vehicles and none of the rest. And I'm like saying, if we are going to actually ban RV vehicles, Uh, I would suspect that we should get at least a 70% placement rate regarding a safe parking for both RV and passenger vehicles. Other than that, you're just going to be causing a lot of trouble for a lot of people. The more important issue I wanted to bring up is the fact that uh, It was actually brought up earlier. Currently, I live in a CSFRA rent stabilized unit. And it turns out that, uh, we have actually seen a rent increase, even though, uh, it appears that if you look at Zooper, uh, uh, my apartment in, uh, the average rent in, in Mountain View has dropped by 38% in, uh, regarding rent rates. And what I understand is that my particular unit went through a hearing process and was adjusted for the market rate, but now we are still continuing to get rent increases in the know, the increase was only about 5%. If you're looking at a yearly drop of the market rate in Mountain View, being 38% for a single bedroom unit. And, uh, for a double bedroom. It's 32%. I would think that at this point in time, uh, the, the issue that Alison Hicks, I believe, brought up was really coming into fruition. We are now having our, the rent stabilization act, in effect, inflate the values of units that were not proportionately equal to the average units in the area in the 1st place. Because most of the average units in the area, where newer units, and not only were they newer units, but they are luxury units, in which my unit is a very basic unit. It only has one central gas heating system, it has no central error or heating system at all. And we have no pool or anything like that. We just have a carport and a shared washer and dryer. So I would say that uh, there may be good cause to do 2 things. One, uh, in the future, the RV band may want to be revoked because of the fact that you're not dealing with the entire need of of the people that you're trying, you said you would. Under the your provisions. And 2 that may be the uh, city council should argue to, create a temporary regulation to force rent reductions under the CSFRA. Thank you.

[03:08:35] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, anyone else from the public wishing to speak on a non-agenda item? Could raise your hands. You don't see any, so I will close, uh, our communications and bring it back to council council member, Canister, you have your hand up.

[03:08:52] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, I have a question for the city manager, uh, to help clarify, the speaker said that there was a ban on RVs, and I thought that RVs are allowed in Mountain View. So could you help clarify that comment that there was a ban on RB?

[03:09:08] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, yes, council member McAllister and I'll ask uh, my city attorney colleague to fill in any gaps that I miss. Um, there's not a ban on, um, RVs in Mountain View and the, the ordinance, um, that has currently been considered by the voters is, um, an ordinance pertaining to parking on narrow streets, um, so those streets that are determined to be narrow would apply, but, um, It's not an outright ban across the entire city. So I'll defer to the city attorney to fill in any gaps.

[03:09:42] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yeah, so it's absolutely correct. The city manager's comments are correct. The ordinance is based on health and safety concerns on narrow streets to prohibit the RVs on just those streets, and there are other streets in the city that are available for, for the oversized vehicles to park on. There will be measurements of the streets to ensure that only those narrow streets that fall within the ordinance are adopted per resolution, and then there will be Detailed signage on all of those streets, but it is not, it is not characterized as a ban on obese.

[03:10:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah, thank you. Um, can I ask for clarification too? Um, you know, folks talk about the safe parking lots for vehicle dwellers, but um, with our, uh, upcoming project home key program with the 120 or so rooms. Um, will those be available for, um, some of the vehicle colors as well.

[03:10:54] Unknown Speaker: Um, thank you, mayor. Yes, so those, um, rooms would have availability to residents in Mountain View who currently are either homeless or unstably housed. So we would have over 100 spaces in our safe parking lots in addition to the spaces that will be available in the home key project.

[03:11:16] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And vehicle dwellers are considered homeless under county, um, definition correct?

[03:11:22] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes, that is correct.

[03:11:23] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Right. Thank you. All right, uh, that will close uh, oral communication. So I'll move on to item 6 public hearings, and our 1st item is 6.one regarding the HVAC replacement at City Hall, and the Center for Performing Arts as well as fire station number one. And we have a special guest staff presenter. Welcome back, project manager, Mike Fuller.

[03:11:51] Project Manager Mike Fuller: Good evening, honorable mayor, members of the council. Pleasure to be here. I'm here with Don Cameron. your public works director. Um, to talk about the City Hall CPA and Fire Station one, HVAC system replacements. Just quickly by way of background. Both systems are 25 to 30 years old, mostly original to the buildings. And if we had to pick the most critical issues at each. It's the chiller at fire station one. We do have a rental chiller out there right now. Um, the existing chiller has failed a number of times. We were concerned about getting it fired back up. So we do have a rental chiller out there. At City Hall, it's really the boilers. Um, there are two. They have failed a number of times. Um, we've actually had to isolate some of the systems. They're not working at full capacity, can't get parts anymore. And so it is time to replace them. We'd like to, we're recommending using a streamline process that is allowed under the government code. It is for energy conservation projects, and as long as the energy savings, Um, equal the value of the improvement. over the life of the improvements, you can use this provision. We're scheduled to go to council. Oh, I'll mention we did use this successfully at Fire Station 4. Um, It's very easy on staff time and it hap- and it's a, it's a much more streamlined process. We can get it done much more quickly. We were scheduled for council in January 2020 to recommend a contract. Um, however, council, uh, adopted the sustainability action plan for in October of last year, and that, um, directed staff to evaluate electrification when we renovate buildings or when we do major equipment replacements. And so we stopped, took a step back and evaluated both facilities, and I will present the results and our recommendations of each. This is fire station one. I'm just showing this because Dana Park is next door and that that'll become relevant in just a moment when I go over the alternatives. Here's what we came up with with fire for fire station one. The 1st option is replacing kinds. So that's natural gas boilers. and came in at about $700,000. You can see there in the table the annual utility costs. The savings was a little under $6000 a year because it is a much more efficient system. And then you can see the GHG annual reduction. There is, you know, about a 10% reduction. We looked at 2 electric alternatives. Both are a kind of a heat pump, which exchanges heat with the air or with the ground or with water. Um, the 1st one was a traditional heat pump, generates cold water um, to cool the building. Came in at about $900,000. And similar energy savings to um, auction one. However, you can see the GHG reductions are substantial. That's because we use Silicon Valley clean energy. So anytime you go electric to replace natural gas, you're having a substantial reduction in GHG emissions. A heat pump does take a little more space than a natural gas furnace, and we happen to have the space at Fire Station one to accommodate the equipment for option two. Another way to go electric is to exchange heat with the ground. And so what that means is burying tubing, either by drilling like wells or varying pipes under underground garages or something. So we looked at actually drilling 64 holes 300 feet deep in Dana Park next door. Has a heat exchange system. That came in at about a 1000000 dollars. Um, better energy savings. However, it is not what we'll recommend. We are recommending option 2 for 2 reasons. One is the cost. And the 2nd is, as evaluated, the 3rd option doesn't provide for simultaneous heating and cooling in the building, which you do need sometimes to maintain comfort in the building. If we provided that, we'd have to expand the equipment in the building. We didn't have room for that. So we are recommending option 2 for fire station one. City Hall and the CPA is a little more complicated, a very large system because it does serve both buildings and a very constrained site. Um, We have the cemetery in Pioneer Park. That's the cross hatching there on the screen. The only back of house area. We really have to put additional equipment is between the library and the CPA, and even that space is well utilized with dumpsters, some equipment for the library, loading sets for the CPA, the bookmobile access. Really not a lot of room for new above ground equipment outside the building at the Civic center. So we didn't evaluate a traditional heat pump like we're recommending for Fire Station one very much. We did look, though, at ground source heat exchange. Once again, we've got the cemetery and oak trees out at the park. So we looked at what is our nearest other city owned site that might be available that is Eagle Park. Um, the calculations show we need 102, 300 foot deep boreholes for enough conduit to provide the heat exchange for the system. We would connect the system to city hall with conduits. It is feasible. Um, and so these, these are, this is a comparison of those 2 options. The replace in kind, just the HVAC improvements, about 2.4 million. You'll see that 186,000, that is some energy conservation improvements unrelated to the HVAC system, but this government code provision is all about energy conservation. This is some replacing some old transformers and some other improvements, some really good energy savings at about $24,000 a year. So we did include that in the project. Came up with a total of about $2.5 million. Y'all electric system, you're going to see a pretty wide range. It's a very complicated system. There are a lot of variables, and we didn't do what would have had to be a partial design really to narrow that number down. We thought this range was enough to make a staff recommendation. It came in at 5 to $7.5 million. Um, among the variables, we would have to actually upgrade the electrical service to the civic center all the way back to a PG&E transformer. Uncertain costs there. There are a lot of other variables. So um, that is the range you get. Um, and then there's the other there's the other data on that alternative. So some of the considerations, the all electric option was quite a bit more costly, as you can see, for City Hall. Um, another is schedule. If we went with the electric at City Hall, we would have to stop with the, um, streamline process. We have to do a traditional design bid built because the energy savings just don't pencil out at that capital cost. We're very concerned about what we think would be about a two-year project really to finish, considering the condition of the equipment. In terms of GHG considerations, continuing natural gas, offsets are an option, and we have made a recommendation in that regard, and I'll talk just a little bit more about that. And then in terms of other opportunities, this evaluation really provided a couple of things, it provided a recommendation for Fire Station one, which was all electric. And it also made us look at a very high level at our other facilities. And we really think that besides those 3 buildings at the Civic Center, we can probably electrify everything else. And some of them are pretty big users. The pools are big users where you have winter swim, the MOC has a lot of buildings. Um, we really think there are a lot of opportunities as equipment reaches the end of its life to to electrify. This, the CPA and City Hall are probably our toughest candidates. In terms of offsets, as you know, they are GHG reduction or sequestration by others. They are projects that would not be done otherwise. So you're not just paying somebody to do something that some regulator is... New GHG reduction or sequestration, used by other agencies, including Palo Alto for their community wide natural gas use. They have an offset program, shows up on your bill. It does, however, not count towards reduction in our GHD inventory. That is a downside. Um, We estimated based on the GHG use, um, with the HVAC system at City Hall and CPA, about 6 to 12,000 a year for offsetting 200% of the ongoing GHG reductions. Um, We didn't have policy guidance to tell us 200% was the right number, um, but we are making that recommendation, and that would be about 150 to $300,000 over the 25 year life of the improvements. This is a long term decision, but it's not a forever decision. This equipment will have to be replaced. We are hoping technology improves. And when we do have to revisit this again, maybe it is a more feasible option. Um, staff. We didn't go out and do a lot of research on purchasing. We did enough to present this range, and if staff approved, or if council approved, the staff recommendation. We will come back with the budget process, um, with more specifics, um, for funding offsets.

[03:21:16] Public Works Director Dawn Cameron: Sorry, Mike, um, can you go back to that slide for a moment? Uh, we forgot to update this one. This cost range is for just 100% um, Offsets. So what's in the staff report is because we're recommending 200%. It's 12,000 to 24,000 a year or 300 to 600,000 over the life of the improvement. And the reason staff was recommending 200% is, we want to do more, and, and it's, it's like a 2 for one replacement, and, but I wanted to make sure you were aware of what, what we think the cost estimate will be for that. Thank you.

[03:21:55] Project Manager Mike Fuller: Thank you Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry, is that it? So at a high level, we're recommending the Airwater Heat Pump at Fire Station one, replacing kind for City Hall CPA and 200% offsets, and then there's the detailed recommendation, and that concludes my presentation.

[03:22:16] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you very much. And it's good to see you. Any questions from council members? I don't see any hands, so I will open this up for public comment, if there are any members of the public, in the attendee box wishing to speak, please raise your blue hand, or if you're on the phone, please hit star 9, and we will start with Mary Didio. And if you can unmute yourself to start, please.

[03:22:43] Mary Didio: Thank you. Uh, good evening, um, city council. I want to thank staff for the research and analysis of all the electric solutions for the city buildings. Um, as we all know, um, all fossil fuel burning needs to be ended within the next few decades and the sooner the better. So I'm very encouraged by, um, how seriously staff is taking this 1st for Fire Station one. I urge a council to approve the recommended electric solution, the air water heat pump, which I think, uh, Oh, uh, which I think nicely balances the cost in the greenhouse gas factors. Um, 2nd for City Hall, with the cost of the all electric solution being so disappointingly high, if council chooses the fossil fuel solution, then I urge you to approve the recommended um, 2 times offset for the resulting greenhouse gases that will be created. Third, I was very happy to hear quoting staff's report. The analysis performed for Fire Station number one in City Hall, CPA revealed that there's likely space at most or all the city's facilities, with the exception of the library, to convert HVAC systems to electric. So um, that's mostly good news. Um, and I didn't hear in tonight's report any mention of the library. But, um, it was open in 1997. So if that system is likely to need to be replaced, um, after 25 years like city hall, it's going to be need to be replaced in the next few years, and my request then, is that we start, um, early enough so that if we do need extra time to do a design bid build process, which there isn't time for with city hall, because city hall is breaking so much, right? But, um, allow extra time for the library so we can do more research and see if there is a viable option that's not fossil fuels. And maybe staff has already found something that's not fossil fuels for the library or is anticipating something. Um, but it is a slightly smaller building. I'm hopeful that an all electric solution can be found for that if we start planning in time. Thank you very much.

[03:24:54] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. We'll go on to um, it's a phone number. Last digits are 793. If you could please unmute yourself to begin.

[03:25:06] Bruce Nagel: See here. Hmm Oh, here we go.

[03:25:12] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And you should be on. If you'd like to be here.

[03:25:17] Bruce Nagel: You hear me now?

[03:25:18] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: There you are. Yes, please.

[03:25:20] Bruce Nagel: Hi, this is Bruce Nagel. Um, I want to thank, uh, your committee, you know, my clothes are doing the work on the analysis, it was quite interesting, and it's good to see that the city is looking at, replacing, you're doing something about the existing buildings, because we have a, a large, uh, overall issue that, uh, we will need to fix our existing buildings, and the fact that, that you're tackling that, we're putting in new. Uh equipment that's energy savings and uh 0 carbon is is very helpful. Um, one of the things that I think is, is important is, is understanding more about the, the offsets. Um, well, unfortunately have not had a very good name. Uh, as Mike mentioned their, their in use in, in Palo Alto. Interestingly enough. It also is something that's going to be required or is allowed by the state. If you look at the state's requirement for 2045. They're saying carbon neutral. So they're assuming there's something other than just carbon reduction in order to get to, to a, a right place. And in fact, uh, city that's gone even earlier than that is, is, um, Memo Park, which is going to have, which has a requirement for, um, 90%, uh, carbon reduction, but 100% of carbon neutral by 2030. So this would be something that's worth looking at. The other thing is is that as we start to get experience about how to do these kinds of things. It seems like it would be wise to make it, to capture this kind of information, so that other cities could be beneficial from it. Mountain elites and a lot of things, but the real issue is we need to not just be the loan, white star, but figure out how to get everybody else to shine as well. We do thank you for putting this together and um, hopefully we can continue to drive through the rest of the buildings in Mountain View as has been indicated, and figure out how to do that well so that we can communicate that to others. Thanks.

[03:27:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you Well, then to Alex Brown, if you can, and meet yourself to begin speaking, please.

[03:27:37] Alex Brown: Hey. Uh, I just wanted to say carbon offsets are a convenient fiction, but they are not a good excuse to install new uh, carbon burning, uh, equipment. The time and money that we spend now is going to protect the planet. Forever. Uh, and there is, it's unconscionable to, uh, put in new equipment that uses fossil fuels, knowing what we know about the harms that they do to us and to all future generations. Thanks.

[03:28:13] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Anyone else wishing a comment on this item? I don't see any more hands, so close public comment and bring it back to counsel for deliberation and action. Any council members wishing to speak, council member Hicks.

[03:28:33] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, um, thank you, thank you, Mr. Fuller and, um, thank you for, I wanted to thank the public speakers as well. Um, in, I, uh, am going to support the uh, staff recommendation, but I, I wanted to thank in particular our last speaker because he used the phrase I wanted that I was grasping for. Um, so I was originally like counsel, uh, prior counsels have said, I was originally, um, very much against carbon offense offsets because I had read about them as convenient fiction, but, Um, uh, The Mountview Sustainability task force has recommended them in some cases and being puzzled over that. I talked to Bruce Kearney from that task force. And uh, he convinced me, one, that they have, um, changed over time and some are now verified in a way that they weren't when I was doing the original reading. Um, and that also they can be, and I think this would be a case, this particular case, would be one where, um, you can use them to purchase, basically, you can pick, for example, say, a sister city that does not have the, we're a relatively rich city, uh, relative to other cities. So we can buy a solution that will save more uh, save more carbon uh, in a place that would not be able to make that expenditure themselves. So I'm actually pleased that we'll be able to test that. Um, I would like a report back on, um, what we purchase, uh, and how it works out. Um, I, I would even encourage instead of the 2 times to go 3 or 4 times because I would like us to be able to take the money that would, that we'll be using and sequester more carbon, then we would be able to save ourselves if we, if we bought the fully electric system. So that's my thinking. I will be supporting the staff recommendation, like I said, unless other council members convince me otherwise. Thank you.

[03:30:56] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Counselor Metachek.

[03:30:59] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So, um, along sort of the same lines about carbon offsets. Um, I was wondering if there was anything here in Mountain View that was unfunded, um, that would reduce our carbon footprint. Um, that the money could be used for. And have we done any comparison of if we used it ourselves, what would be the impact versus if we did the offsets.

[03:31:31] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: We haven't done that comparison. It was an idea. Um, and that's a, that's a range of cost if we went out and purchased them. We do have our sustainability action plan. We do have projects, and I think if it's council's desire, when this does come back with the budget process, we could do more than just provide, this is what we recommend because it's the best deal on offsets. I think we could provide a little more information about things in Mountain View versus things outside of Mountain View, and then Council would have a little more information to make a decision.

[03:32:03] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: We have unfunded actions in the SAP 4. I know we allocated a lot over 3 years. I think it was 7.500000 over 3 years. Is there anything that's unfunded?

[03:32:17] Assistant City Manager Audrey Ramberg: Um, hi, um, Audrey Ramberg, assistant city manager, um, the SAP 4 as adopted is funded through the Sustainability Fund CIP that was approved by council at that same time. Um, and if there were, um, changes in scope or changes in cost estimates or desire to fund beyond the 3 years, then, um, then that funding um, could be applied towards that. But it's 100% funded through for the 3 years of the sustainability action plan.

[03:32:53] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay. Um, okay, thanks. That's it.

[03:32:59] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Anyone else? Actually, um, appreciate Counselor Medicheck, your your suggestion, and I'm just wondering, like, I would be interested in further exploring what we could do here locally. Um, I was just thinking, you know, for example, and I know we'd have to do the whole, um, calculations, but what if we put the funding into, for instance, more EB charging stations? So, um, yeah, if we can look at our SAP4, um, and see how we could potentially utilize that funding for something more close to home, um, I would be very much interested in that. And I did struggle with this item. I, you know, really, um, obviously, I'm very interested in us moving towards all electric, but in light of the, um, many challenges of the, uh, city halls, CPA. I will um, support staff's recommendation. But again, if we can look at something local for the off- instead of offsets, that would be great or, um, and then, um, the other request would be, I think the library, I think in our, like, stuff did mention the library is, um, scheduled for, for a need for, uh, replacement, if I remember correctly.

[03:34:22] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yeah, it's about 5 years out, and so we've had a discussion, um, Ms. Cameron, and and and Damian Skinner, the assistant public works director of our facilities and I talked about, um, getting ahead of that issue, so we're not in the same position we are with City Hall.

[03:34:35] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: That'd be great. And then also with city hauling. I think it's a 25 year lifespan, um, if we can start earlier in, um, doing the evaluation in hopes that technology will have advanced by then too. Um, but also give us an ample time to do the, the actual analysis, um, the, so that we're not crunched for time and that's not a, you know, such a major factor as it is here. Um, I would appreciate that approach. But that, uh, Counselor Clark?

[03:35:08] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um, I was just gonna say, I, I, I generally agree. I think, um, you know, I struggle with this too. I, I'm, I'm okay with this act recommendation and if, if, if the majority wants to go with, The offsets this time, that that's fine, but I I had the same. Um, I had some of the same inclinations in terms of, I wish we could create some sort of, not a formal reserve, but like an informal reserve where instead of offset, you know, maybe this bucket of funds basically ends up in like a sustainability, CIP sustainability. bucket that we can use later on when, you know, the library comes along and we realize that, yes, we can, we can go all electric, but it's going to cost an extra $500,000 and if we have, you know, several $100,000 sitting in that reserve that we can use that is, that is generally by council policy used for, um, you know, um, highway sustainable, um, upgrade, or, you know, upgrade that, that result in, you know, a significant amount of additional sustainability in greenhouse gas production, then we have those funds available and it makes spending that extra money a little bit easier to do. In this case, it, it obviously, it makes sense for, um, for fire station one, but, um, there may be areas in the future where, you know, that extra, you know, 250, 500,000 would make us feel more comfortable, especially in, you know, the, probably the, um, um, the fiscal situation we're going to be in for the next few years. So that's, um, I, I'm not sure. I'm open to other thoughts in terms of just going with the outfits this time, but I think it would be maybe something that's part of the budget process for next year that might be worth, um, thinking about instead of just always doing offsets when it doesn't make, um, sense we could set aside that money for, for specific, um, purposes in the future.

[03:37:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I think you might have more support there than, you think. Um, so if you, or if someone would like to try emotion and incorporate that. Um, I think it's, Could pass. Um, So counselor on matter check.

[03:37:25] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, I'm happy to make a motion unless Council member Clark wants to.

[03:37:28] Councilmember Chris Clark: You pretty much said what I was going to make a motion. No, I mean, I, the only reason I didn't make emotions, I wanted to hear from others what they thought, and then the, the 2nd was, you know, if, if, if that, as long as that isn't going to be a huge burden on staff, to just say, like, look at, look at the, you, look at longer term, how we create it, just a council policy that says we're going to reserve this bucket probably within CIP for, you know, highway sustainable projects, and we'll contribute to it over time in place of where we might have spent. money for offsets like in this case.

[03:38:01] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: So, I didn't see any other hands, and that's why I raised mine, but I'm happy to make a motion. Um, so I will um, move that way, adopt a resolution at the city council. Um, of the city of Mountain View, awarding a contract to Ciserco? that how you say that? Energy solutions for the HVAC replacement at City Hall, CPA, and fire station number one for cost not to exceed, $30000,808,028, including a 340,000 contingency, to be read in title, honorary, further reading, weighed, which is attachment one to the council report. And then, um, the staff recommendation for two, which is appropriate and transfer 245,000 from the construction conveyance tax fund to project 20 dash 1802. Planned and emergency facilities projects, fire station number one, HVAC, and $1,328,000 from the construction conveyance tax fund to project 20 dash 54, Civic Center, infrastructure, phase one. And then direct staff. Um, I believe as part of the budget uh, process, right? Uh, to come back uh, to counsel with, it sounds like 3 options. Um, and that is, um, doing offsets. The 2nd would be looking at establishing a sustainability fund, and 3rd would be, um, what would we potentially spend the money on, um, for sustainability actions within the city of Mountain View. I capture it all. I

[03:39:52] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. Thank you. Vice mayor.

[03:39:57] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: I just, uh, 2nd the motion, and I think, um, my colleagues did a good job of kind of summarizing my my sentiments on it. You know, the reservations that I had, but I think that this kind of amendment will kind of help us and move us in the right direction.

[03:40:17] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Any other discussion on this motion by Council member Medichek, 2nded by Vice Mayor and Council member McAllister.

[03:40:25] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, I support it, but I just had to say hi to former assistant, public works director, Mike Fuller. It's a, it's a pleasure to see you again, and we appreciate you coming back to assist with that full knowledge that you carry with you. So, I just wanted to say hi and take the opportunity. That's all.

[03:40:46] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you. Anything else? If not, can we get a roll call though, please?

[03:40:51] City Clerk: Council member Clark.

[03:40:53] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah.

[03:40:53] City Clerk: Council member Hicks.

[03:40:55] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[03:40:56] City Clerk: Council member Mattachek.

[03:40:57] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[03:40:58] City Clerk: Council member McAllister.

[03:41:02] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes.

[03:41:03] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez.

[03:41:05] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[03:41:06] City Clerk: Vice Mayor Kime.

[03:41:07] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[03:41:08] City Clerk: Yeah, big Hoga.

[03:41:09] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Bye. Thank you.

[03:41:11] City Clerk: Thank you, Motion Carry 70 with no extensions.

[03:41:14] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, thank you again, Mr. Fuller. It's good to see you Well, go on to item 7, uh, new business, and we have 7.one, the fiscal year 2021 budget update, and, um, approving the use of an equity lens for the upcoming budget development process. And our staff presentation is by our city manager, Cameron McCarthy and our finance and administrative services director, Jesse Takahashi. Welcome.

[03:41:47] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, Mayor. As you mentioned, I will be presenting with our finance and administrative services director, Jesse Takahashi. So we have an outline of the presentation for this evening. First, we're going to briefly talk about the unaudited general operating fund balance right now, followed by an update on the current year budget status, um, then followed by some brief COVID-19 program updates, which uh, we did talk about a little bit at the beginning of this meeting. And then some other appropriations that we need your authority to do. And then finally, we'll talk in further detail about using an equity budget lens during the upcoming budget development process. So at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Takahashi to take on the, um, the numbers and the update for our budget.

[03:42:43] Finance Director Jesse Takahashi: Thank you very much. Appreciate that intro. Good evening. Uh, well, uh, mayor and council members, Jesse Takahashi uh, finance director. So as was mentioned, we wanted to briefly touch on how we ended the last year, fiscal 1920. We are in the process of finalizing the city's audit, which is substantially complete, and wanted to just provide this brief summary of how we ended up. The, um, I would note that the full, more detailed report will be coming to council on December the 8th. So that's just around the corner. In the meantime, um, the results for fiscal 1920, uh, were actually quite positive, uh, given uh, the expectation at the outset, uh, given the impact of COVID-19, uh, the city ended and, and this is for the general operating fund balance, um, or for the general operating fund only, um, which is the main operating account for the city. Um, So revenues, unarted revenues, um, for the year were $142.7 million. Which was down from what the original, uh, adjusted budget was, um, but ended slightly better than what our revised estimate, uh, that we provided the council was. And so overall, we, um, did a little better than than we thought, but overall the revenues were down based on the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic during the last quarter of the year. Expenditures came in at just under $137 million.

[03:44:25] Mr. Takahashi: Um, again, uh, below what we had estimated we would be spending and, and this was due in large part to the fact that we had a number of vacancies as well as, um, the impacts of COVID, which, uh, prevented us from doing, um, a number of, uh, of the things that we would otherwise be spending because of the shelter and place orders. Bottom line is that the operating balance for the city, for the general fund, came in at $4.5 million. So this was certainly down from what we thought at the outset of the year, but was better than what we had estimated as late as May. So looking at the summary for revenues and expenditures here, going into fiscal 21, the current year, we are looking at the 1st quarter update. And uh, overall, uh, it is looking uh, positive uh, for now. Uh, revenues are uh ahead of um, budget. as well as expenditures are running, um, below what our budget is. So both good signs. Um, as can be seen, the quarter one, um, revenues are on track. And while expenditures look to be significantly below, it would just remind everyone that because this is the 1st quarter and the expenditures aren't incurred evenly throughout the year, there's seasonality to a lot of this. Um, you do have to take this with uh, sort of a grain of salt, uh, recognizing that expenditures as well as the revenues will come in, um, uh, not necessarily in even chunks each quarter. But for the time being, we are looking very favorable based on one quarter only. This next slide breaks down that the revenues for the general fund slightly, just to provide a little bit more detail. And so, really, of that, um, uh, $378,000, um, uh, positive variance for Q one. You could just see here where that kind of breaks out for the most part, property tax, other local taxes, use of money, property or on track. Uh, the one that really kind of stands out is our sales tax, uh, which was about 761,000, um, more than what we had initially estimated. And that is basically because we did receive more than we anticipated. Uh, you can understand, given the COVID impacts, um, that it was a very challenging uh, number to come up with in terms of what we've uh, had estimated for the current year. Um, which is, which is good news. Things weren't quite as bad as we thought. But again, just a copy of that. This is only the 1st quarter, and there's still a long way to go through the rest of this year. So, um, we're definitely grateful that things in that area look, look good for now, but, um, we just have to wait and see as the next quarter progresses. Uh, and then other revenues uh, were below uh, where we estimated them to be. And partially or, or primarily, this was due to uh, the fact that the shoreline uh, amphitheater, of course, uh, had events canceled, no events there. And typically in this category, we provide a number of public services that the city gets reimbursed for. And so because there are no events there, we are providing those services and won't be getting those reimbursement funds. But overall, again, revenues were still slightly ahead. Next slide. Again, for the expenditure side, this really just breaks down that $4.2 million, um, a little bit more, and you can see that broken out between the salary and benefits from, um, primarily vacancies, uh, and also from budget savings from supplies and services, um, that, uh, are trending below. Snack slide tries to capture and summarize the other major funds in the city. We have 3 major funds that we report, development services funds. Uh, the shoreline golf links in Michael's uh, restaurant as well as the shoreline um, regional park community. Um, and so from here, uh, revenue sort of development services fund, uh, are basically on track. The development services fund incorporates a lot of the planning and building work, inspections, um, checks and reviews. Uh, so, uh, despite the, um, uh, downturn, uh, they, there was some recovery once we reopened, and uh, revenues seem to be on track now, uh, expenditures, um, as you'll see for all of them are trending below budget, um, which is certainly a good thing, uh, for now. And so, um, uh, move on to the shoreline, the golf links, and Michael's restaurants. Because, you know, those operations were completely shut down for a while, um, uh, we got off to a slow start, but, um, the good news is that uh, since we've uh, been able to um, restart the golf. Um, it's come out better than uh, anticipated, um, which is has been great. Uh, but still, we're playing ketchup, and overall, because the restaurant is still, um, uh, have limited serving is not open for in, you know, full service dining, um, revenues are trending slightly below. Um, but we are sort of, um, uh, catching up, as it were. So a lot of it depends on how the rest of the year goes. Expenditures again, running below budget for the same reasons. And then, um, lastly, the shoreline community uh, revenues seem to be on track there. With expenditures running below budget. So, overall, overall pretty good. Next is our utility funds, uh, and again, summarizing our 3 utilities, the water, the wastewater, solid waste, um, Funds, uh, the water fund is on track, uh, with revenues, um, Expenditures are running trending below budget, uh, again. Um, and uh, the wastewater, uh, revenues are running slightly below, but, um, not not too worrisome, um, because expenditures are also running below budget. So net net, um, uh, they seem to be doing, doing okay. Solid waste management, essentially, is a repeat of the same. doing well, um, training below, uh, budget, uh, for the revenues, but again, met or offset with um, expenditures also, um, running below budget. So, um, overall, um, seem to be generally uh, in in decent shape. So as city mander had presented earlier this evening, a couple of updates on the COVID-19 programs, the 1st being the rent relief program. Um, that started in April, was subsequently provided with, um, about $250000 in funding, and the latest update that we have to provide as of October 28th was that there was a total of 963 households that were served. Um, meaning they've either received or, or are waiting 2 months of rent. Um, or, I'm sorry, are waiting their 1st month's rent, uh, out of these households, 631 have received or are waiting 2 months of rent support. A total of 1594 checks have been dispersed, or will be dispersed, and the average check is about $2000. Um, there have been uh, $1900000 in city funds expended, um, and a little over 700,000 uh, in city funds that remain with uh, about 403 applications that are still currently pending. And 80% or so of the clients that are being served or at or below the 50% average median income. The program was modified to serve that population, uh, for the full rent, as was previously discussed, um, for 2 months, uh, due to the state, um, recent legislation. CSA who administers a program with the city, noted that the rental relief requests are steady, and that there have been many households that are behind many months in their rent payments, and still unsure how they're going to be able to cope, and payback. So um, That was the update on that. Moving on to small business relief program. This has distributed $7000 0% interest micro loans to 71 small businesses, um, staff is currently scheduled to relaunch the program, um, which, uh, was actually just done. Yesterday, as was mentioned. There's about $277,000 remaining in funds. The loan maximum, his was changed and increased to 15,000 dollars to provides more relief to the each business. Uh, main street launch will continue to be the uh, program administrator, um, And as was mentioned, was announced yesterday. And lastly, our consultant is continuing to explore long-term options for funding, continued funding the program. Um, an item for possible discussion after as part of this item is uh, the use of uh, a $10000 in uh, CARS Act funding that we've received from the state, uh, which is a pass-through of federal Cares Act monies. Um, for the purpose of serving COVID-19 related, um, uh, issues. And so, um, with respect to these resources, um, and was discussed earlier tonight, um, we have a $1000000 that is available at, at, uh, the council's, um, discretion to, um, provide funding as appropriate and needed, um, for various, um, priorities. Some of the options, I think, that were addressed and discussed were for additional rent relief, um, as well as for small business relief, um, and any other part, um, priorities, uh, that may uh, council may feel are appropriate. So as noted, the COVID-19 emergency is still ongoing. There's no particular site, um, in end insight at this point. And so, um, one of the things staff is, is requesting council direction on is whether it would like to make any use of these funds right now or possibly consider this at the mid your budget update, um, in February. And uh, The slide here regarding other COVID-19 emergency expenses. So the city has already come to council last year for about $600,000 inappropriations to fund COVID 19 related expenses. Um, this year. We are anticipating or actually have incurred an additional $200,000 through September, anticipate that, depending upon how long this will continue to go, um, that we will need an additional 500,000 for fiscal 21, um, although we are still in the process of trying to refine that number. Uh, staff uh, is rather than coming to tonight uh, for a request. Just wanted to put this on your radar and is planning to come back at the mid-year update to refine that number a little bit more. And then request for additional budget adjustment at that time. And with that, um, I would like to turn it over, unless there are any questions back to our city manager, who will cover, um, uh, the next section of the presentation on the, um, equity-based budgeting.

[03:58:15] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you for that. Oh, sorry, mayor. Oh, um, do you want to take questions now, Mr. Takahashi, or should we wait till the end of the entire?

[03:58:26] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I think I think we can wait till the end.

[03:58:28] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: And I would just note too, that as part of the COVID-19 emergency expenses, that we do expect that we'll get some reimbursement through FEMA for this, so up to hopefully 75%. Um, but I would note that those FEMA reimbursements do take some time to get um, that's pretty typical. It could be, you know, a year or two. Um, and then you do have to substantiate everything, uh, that you've spent. So we're, we're doing a good job tracking everything. But I would note that hopefully we'll get at least 75% of that back. Is it okay if I just go ahead and move on?

[03:59:10] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, please go ahead.

[03:59:11] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thanks. Okay. All right, so just turning to the equity based budget piece. Um, we all know about the recent events that have happened. So, Obviously we've been in the middle of this pandemic for many months now. And then at the turn of the summer, there was a spotlight on a lot of the racial inequities and social tension, social justice issues that happen amidst this ongoing economic recession that we're in. So what really has happened is that, um, all of these events have really shown a light on, um, the stress and the different disparities that have been put on communities of color or residents who are have of less economic means. So one of the things that we have really been trying to do for the last several months as part of our racial equity and inclusion efforts is looking at holistically a variety of efforts that we can do across the city, and in various ways to really address equitable outcomes for our residents. So, uh, one of the recommendations that came about from the council's subcommittee on race equity and inclusion is exploring, uh, looking at the budget and the budget development process through a budget equity lens. So I'm going to talk about that a little bit as to what that means. And then how we would apply that in Mountain View versus how that may be applied in much larger cities. So in terms of the background on equity-based budgeting, as I mentioned, there are a lot of very large cities across the country, primarily actually some of the largest cities in the country that have looked at equity-based budgeting in more recent years. And in more recent years, I mean, literally within the last two, 3 years, looking at how their budgets impact communities of color and lower income residents. So the approach can take a variety of forms depending on the size of the city, how the city runs their different programs, all of the different perspectives that the city has with their departments and divisions. So it really does run unique to each city. But in general, equity based budgeting, it looks at how budget decisions and programs impact the various communities in the city. So as I mentioned, the council subcommittee on race equity inclusion, recommended looking at an equity lens as part of our process. So what this means very simply is that in general, there is something called a budget equity tool that is implemented in these cities and the budget equity tool is really just a series of questions that is asked of the departments as part of the budget development process when budget requests are presented to the city manager or the budget team. And those questions are really very specifically about how a new program or how a service level reduction or how a change in a program may impact a communities of color or lower income residence. So the goal of this really is to make sure that there is full participation of the community and really looking at the future success of the community. And part of this also entails enhanced communications and engagement with the community. So it's not just the budget piece. But it's also the communications piece. And so the 4 primary objectives of equity-based budgeting are listed here on this slide. So as I mentioned, it's looking at whether the budget request. So these are the requests from departments, whether those requests advanced equitable outcomes for community members, looking at the benefits and burdens of those decisions, ensuring that all programs and investments are reducing any disparities that are in place. And then, as I mentioned, making sure that there is increased or enhanced community engagement in the budget process itself. So considerations for Mountain View. This is something that we really needed to look at and nail down because obviously Mountain View is not one of the largest cities in the country, but we did think that it was important to at least take baby steps or start, um, and looking at how we could apply this and Mountain View. So our resources, as you all well know, are more limited and we have significant workloads right now. So we do think that we can start with small steps and incorporate that as part of our process now. Uh, so what we would do is we would use this equity lens, um, as a 1st step towards integrating this concept of equity based budgeting into our process. And then over time, the process might change as we learn more and as our resources allow. So how would this work? So the 1st thing that we would do, um, is simply ask as part of our budget development process when the departments submit their their budget requests, we would ask these 2 questions for the new budget request. So how this would either benefit or burden communities of color and low income residence, and then how? Um, the other piece of that is really enhancing our community engagement efforts with our budget. So, we are proposing to hold a budget 101 workshop, um, in the spring as part of this process. also launch a budget blog. And what's not mentioned here, um, but is going to be a significant undertaking next year is, um, the council having a strategic planning process and also a goal setting process. So this is going to be a new process, then what's been done in the past, and this is all going to be with significant community engagement and feedback from community members along the way, which leads into the last piece of it, just being accountable and really looking at how we are doing over time and setting goals, which we'll do as part of the goal setting process. And that leads to the council feedback saw it tonight. So the 1st question is whether council agrees with the recommendation to take these baby steps and incorporate an equity budget lens into the next fiscal year's budget process, and then also finding out what council's funding priorities are for appropriating the $1000000 in Cares Act revenue. And with that, I do have a couple slides that have the recommendations, I can pull them up when counsel is ready to deliberate on the recommendations, but I will leave the feedback slide up on the screen and stop there, uh, for any questions.

[04:06:09] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you very much. So are there any questions for either Mr. Takahashi or city manager? And council numbers? Yes, council member McAllister.

[04:06:29] Councilmember John McAlister: Um, just for my, Margaret. This reminds me very much of our discussions back in 2015 about human rights. And how we would uh, Apply those 2 city projects. And at the time, I asked staff, if they were able to, uh, find anything off the top of their head that would, raised to the occasion to modify something. Now, I've, uh, And I was wondering, if staff has had an opportunity that when they thought of this idea, that anything came immediately to their mind saying, oh, this, Here's a specific example of what would change. So do you guys have any? Examples that, without doing the research that you just said, oh, the top of my head or, people on the committee said on the committee say, oh, here's examples of where we can do these changes. Or they'll be applicable. Specific examples, just gut ones. So yes, that's a question.

[04:07:47] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Okay, thank you, council member McAllister. I can take that and then I'll defer to the subcommittee members if they want to weigh in on this. So, um, in terms of the equity-based budgeting concept versus the the, um, human rights city concept. So the budget is arguably the most important policy tool that the council will pass or deliberate on every year. And so looking at this concept throughout the budget is, is a different way of looking at, um, basically how decisions are made for funding allocations. So it's not necessarily just about one program. Or uh, one initiative, but really looking about anything new that's proposed, um, from the departments or any new ongoing program or position that's proposed. So I can't pinpoint a specific item right now that says, um, that it would benefit or burden, uh, communities of color or lower income residence, but that's the actual exercise that's going to be undertaken. Now, I will say that we are not in a situation where we're looking at reductions or service level impacts. And so oftentimes in a lot of the larger cities, that's when this process happens, when there are a lot of changes that are made to the budget. So we're not in that situation. Um, And so I think this just really gives us an opportunity to see how it's going to work. and ask the questions and really just think about it as a transparent part of informing the community, how we're doing things. And the big, the other big piece of it is really just the community engagement piece. Um, but the budget 101 workshop and the budget blog, um, or other ideas that council may have to engage the community. Um, but, but I think, you know, there's nothing really that springs to mind for me that, um, would, you know, be something that, uh, I could tell you right now that, that is going to be a benefit or a burden because we just haven't started that process yet. So I don't know what the department requests are at this point.

[04:09:53] Councilmember John McAlister: Is there going to be, um, I thought I saw read something on the staff report about, uh, time commitment, that it could be a large time commitment, or could you clarify your, the staff time commitment on this?

[04:10:08] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yeah, thank you for that question. Um, so this is something, as you all know, that has been top of mind for me in terms of um, staff's workload and time commitment with projects. And so we don't anticipate this to be too much of a significant time commitment, the way we've proposed it. Now, if we were to undertake it, like many of the larger cities have done, it would certainly be a big change and a significant lift. But we think that just by starting with these baby steps and asking these couple questions of departments, just getting people to think about the request that they're making and the new programs in a different way, um, and really thinking about how they might impact the community as a whole. Um, we don't think that it will take much more significant amount of time beyond what they would already be doing and submitting their department budget request to me or the budget review team. Um, but certainly it's a different component to it, but we think just with these baby steps. It's not going to be, um, too terrible of an exercise to undertake in terms of time.

[04:11:14] Councilmember John McAlister: So with the human rights analysis, we took a pilot. A pilot project or we looked at something and we just scoped it to just see how it would work and how applicable it is. Is that something that could be done with this particular project to just sort of say, okay, let's look at a narrow scope and see how much of it's really real, you know, makes a difference or it's applicable, just to test right it a little bit.

[04:11:43] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Sure, council member McAllister. I think that is similar to what is being proposed. So just starting with these 2 small questions, I think we'll see how the process goes and we'll see how we can incorporate it as part of our process. Um, And I do think that, you know, as our resources expand and as we learn more and have more information, we can certainly relook at how things are done. Um, whether it's working to ask these questions or not working or maybe we want to think about doing it differently. So, I do see this as um, just one of the 1st small steps as part of the process. Um, and I do think, yes, I mean, similar to the process that may have been undertaken in the past. Um, it would be similar in that regard where we can reassess it.

[04:12:34] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you. That's not a meta check.

[04:12:39] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Um, so I just have one question, and I could have sworn I read this in the staff report, but now I can't find it. And that is regarding the, um, Loans for small businesses. Um, if a small business already received a $7000 loan, can they apply for either the $15,000 or maybe, 8000?

[04:13:10] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So the program is intended to be for new businesses that did not receive the loan before, and you may be thinking of the council questions. I think that that may have been in the council Q&A. But yes. And, you know, the other piece of this, I think, just like everything that we've been talking about is we can assess as we go. So if we start to see that we're not getting the number of applications from new businesses, I think, uh, we can certainly think about going back to the businesses that have already applied to see if they would want to apply again. But I think at this point administratively, we wanted to make sure that folks who didn't get funding the 1st time. could reapply this time. I would also note that the county has recently indicated that they are going to start a small business loan program where they are thinking of $100000000 into this program. And the county is considering that in their own budget deliberations. I believe it's November 18th and 19th. So, um, not only will we have our program, but hopefully there'll be a countywide program launching at some point, um, you know, within the next few months, and I know that obviously that has to be approved and they'll have to figure out the logistics and administration, but we are hopeful that that will be another resource for our small businesses.

[04:14:30] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: So if, um, a small business, so if there aren't, um, as many applicants to, uh, use the rest of the funds that are available, could we go back to the businesses that applied originally for 7000 and see if they are if they need more?

[04:14:51] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes, cats or Madashack? Yes.

[04:14:53] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay. Okay, thanks.

[04:14:57] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh, count number Hicks.

[04:15:01] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I was, um, very impressed with, uh, Tom Myers presentation kind of in terms of impressed or depressed. I don't know what to say. Um, the fact that he's thinking that there will be mushrooming need, um, in in various arenas and and maybe not not totally predictable, which arena. Um, and that makes me think that I, I would like to keep as much, not lock in our expenditures as much as possible in, into particular programs. I mean, I do think there's immediate need and I do want to be able to address immediate need. At the same time, I want flexibility. And I should say, Mr. Myers presentation also paralleled, um, one of the letters we got from the Mountain View Tenant Coalition. Some of the, the kinds of programming that he mentioned, were like direct grants, um, and, uh, COVID, more COVID assistants were also mentioned by the Mountain View Tenants coalition, along with it, I thought a lot of other helpful ideas. So, I would like to know what I, either from um, Jesse or from Kimber, what ideas you might have to keep some foot, to spend on immediate needs, but keep some flexibility, would it be to, you know, make a split, allocate some particularly, um, in terms of the CARSAC money? Oh, I guess the other additional need for flexibility would be if there are, um, on the positive side, if there's federal money coming in that that we don't know about now because that decision has not been made now. Um, so I would love to be able to meet needs now, but keep some flexibility for needs in the future. Um, and I don't know whether that would be whether we can allocate now and change our minds later, or allocate a portion now and reconsider, um, during the mid-year budget update, which I guess is in February, whatever suggestions you have for meeting immediate aids while also being flexible, I would appreciate.

[04:17:29] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, so I can try and answer that council member Hicks. So I would advise counsel that um, if you do decide to make uh, an appropriation tonight, that, that, that you make that decision tonight, um, you do have options as to whether you would want to provide maybe some of the money tonight and defer some of it to midyear. Um, that certainty a prerogative of of counsel. Um, I did, it seemed like, um, heard from Mr. Myers that the rapid relief program might be something of interest for counsel to consider. Um, you all did also hear about the rent relief program and his concerns about the longevity of, of what's going to happen with, um, the COVID numbers increasing as we all know and and what's going to happen into this winter and into next year. Um, but, but I would say that either you, um, make, make, if you make the decision tonight, that's the decision and and you would appropriate the funding at that time, but you don't necessarily have to make the full funding allocation tonight. You could say, you know, make half of it or a portion of it. And then if you wanted to defer, you could do that to mid-year. Um, but that would certainly be up to to counsel tonight, um, as to whether you would want to spend the full amount now, um, and then some later or, um, if you wanted to defer at all, um, but it does sound like there are some, some pressing needs before February.

[04:18:52] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you. That's Sarah McAllister. Uh.

[04:19:02] Councilmember John McAlister: Oh, yeah, the question was, uh, San Jose, were they going to do grants or were they going to do loans?

[04:19:09] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, thank you, council member McAllister, Santa Clara County. I think that's what that's what you're referring to.

[04:19:13] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah.

[04:19:14] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: They are loans.

[04:19:16] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, zero.

[04:19:18] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: I'm not sure actually about that. Um, likely if not zero. I'm sure very, very low interest.

[04:19:24] Councilmember John McAlister: And Mountain View loans were going to be zero.

[04:19:26] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Correct. Mountain View loans are 0% interest. Over 5 years. Three years. New years.

[04:19:32] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. Any other questions? Nope, all right. We will open this up for public comment. There are any members in the attendee box who would like to comment on this item. Please raise your blue hand, or if you're on the phone, actually, I don't see anyone on the phone, so we will bypass that. Uh, any members of the public wishing to speak? Uh, it doesn't look like it, so I will close public comment and bring it back to council for deliberation and uh, entertain emotion. Uh, let's see, counts number Hicks.

[04:20:14] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I'm, I'm not gonna make a motion. I'd love to hear what other people have to say, but I just would like to as reflected. In my previous question, I would like to retain some flexibility. So as the city manager said, some, you know, whether it's a 5050 split or 4060, I would like to keep some of the monies for whatever needs might come up and not try to guess what those would be at this time. Thank.

[04:20:41] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: All right, thank you. Counselor McAllister.

[04:20:44] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, my thoughts are similar along that line. Save some now and save potentially because when he was talking about the COVID rapid response, you know, if there's that huge spike, I mean, you're taking care of housing is great and they're isolated, but then how do they survive? So if that does happen down the road, I like to see some money set aside for that. So I'm also available or open to funding some now and having some funding for those type of programs down the road.

[04:21:21] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Counselor Ramirez.

[04:21:25] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Uh, I raised my hand when no one else had, and I see a bunch of folks have jumped in. I was going to attempt emotion to that effect. Um, I'll just throw it in and and we can modify it as we need to, but, um, I'll move the staff recommendation. Uh, which doesn't include, including the resolution, so I don't think I need to read any of the text, and then, uh, specifically for a recommendation to, um, or sorry for, for item 2, I'll, uh, uh, suggest that we, uh, allocate half of the $1000000 in Caris Act revenue, uh, to CSA, um, and have CSA, uh, decide how to use that funding, but we'll provide the specific parameters that it be used for the, for rent relief, for the rapid response team. And for financial assistance, since those were the 3 topics that I think Tom had mentioned. Um, and that we also direct staff to negotiate. Um, I think last time it was 15%, so up to 50% for administrative fees for CSA, since they'll still need, you know, some some funding available for the administration of the program and for staffing and that kind of thing. So staff recommendation except for based on what we're hearing here will allocate half of the CARSAX funding to CSA. They can figure out how to use it with those 3 programs in mind. And then next year, if the needs change, uh, or as the needs evolve, we can allocate the balance accordingly.

[04:23:12] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you for the motion. Council member. If someone could raise your hand to 2nd it? Okay, thank you, counselor, I'm ready, check, would you, do you have, uh, further comments?

[04:23:23] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I did have, um, other comments, but I was also wondering, and it sounds like we can, um, just allocate, um, a lump sum to CSA and let them figure out what's the best use of the money. We don't have to specify, you know, 50% to uh, rental assistance. I think they're in a better position to figure out what is needed than we are and to give them flexibility and also, um, you know, speed in terms of responding to the changing environment. I would prefer to just give them, yeah, the lump sum and have them allocated as they see fit. Um, I would, though, like to add a little bit more flexibility if they use it for rental assistance and say, let them figure out based upon what their clients are asking for. If their clients only want, you know, 25% of the rent, then I think that's what CSA should provide them. Um, and it doesn't always have to be, um, kind of not, I wouldn't say the full rent, but, um, the portion of the full rent that they can't themselves provide. About that. Because, you know, Tom was saying that, um, you know, they ask, well, how much can you contribute? And then CSA makes up the rest. Um, but if somebody really only wants to pay 25%, Say to CSA, then that's what you should provide. Because I also met with the Mount View tenants coalition, and they said, they would prefer to do 25%. I'm not sure every renter not he wants to do that. So I would want to give CSA the flexibility.

[04:25:07] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So council member Ramirez, would you be open to that modification chair? Or addition to your emotion?

[04:25:15] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes, so I'm understanding it's it's basically to give CSA staff the latitude to, you know, allocate more or less and rent relief. So we're not dictating the parameter, they get to decide based on the client, how to have it, how much to allocate. Yeah, I'm very comfortable with that.

[04:25:35] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Okay, thanks. all I have.

[04:25:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. So there's a motion, a 2nd vice mayor.

[04:25:44] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: So I just, uh, I just had a quick question. So, um, Did we want to also include small business relief? Because it sounds like 50% would just report CSA, then we ruled on to the remainder of the 50%. But, you know, some of the items listed in number 2 did say small business story, but I know that we just restarted our program. And so knowing that we'll be in this pandemic longer, I just, you know, wanted to ask that as well and do we need to also be thinking about relief for our small business community and how we're doing this allocation and they turn to staff to let us know before voting on this motion.

[04:26:34] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, vice mayor. So, I would note that when we did the 1st round, the full allocation was not spent and there's 277,000 leftover, which is why we're in the 2nd round. So I would say we don't yet know the demand on this program, the consultant that we have now is going to be looking at the possibility of doing a grant program. As you all know, there were some parameters and considerations with why they are given as loans instead of grants right now. Um, but I think, you know, at this point, we need to see if we have the full demand for the 277,000 now. Um, but it would be up to council to decide if you wanted to go ahead and allocate any funding now, um, or if you wanted to wait. Um, but I think, you know, either way, we know that there will be a need with the small business community. Um, particularly if we roll back into another tier or two.

[04:27:37] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Right. I think that's why I asked the question because you know, we've also seen multiple restaurants close and leave the area. And so, you know, I don't know if they know about the program or if that's part of it. So.

[04:27:56] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, if I can jump in, yes, I was gonna, um, ask about that too, and to see if, um, there's interest in setting aside some funding for small businesses, um, but I, I, you know, I, my, what I, what I gathered from this experience is that I think the best way to help folks is to just get them back to work. And so, you know, helping small businesses in turn helps folks to be able to work and get a paycheck to pay their bills. And so, um, I, that's my interest in helping our small businesses. Um, and yes, as we see more closing. Um, I think, you know, originally they had the PPE and other PPP, PP and other um, programs and right now we're in this, you know, situation where we're not sure what's going to happen. Um, hopefully with the new administration. Things will be better, but um, I do hear more from the businesses that the longer this goes out, the more they need um, assistance. So, um, you know, I'm, I'm fine to say we can wait again, we can wait, um, but depending, I guess depending on how, you know, quickly we could get the funding infused into our small business program and how quickly we can bring this back to the, um, council for that decision. Um, you know, I'm, I'm inclined if, if there's interest to just, at least set aside another 250,000 for the, um, small business resiliency program. And then, you know, if it doesn't get used, then we could reallocate it. But I do want to set something aside for the businesses rather than, you know, just um, expanding it all and and having it be too late. So, um, is there interest by, uh, oh, yes, city manager?

[04:29:42] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, mayor. So I would just note that Main Street launch has indicated to us that basically after the end of this year, their own workload with everything else they have going on is totally going to change. So if council is interested in 200,000 or some other amount. I would recommend that you all allocate it tonight, um, so that we move forward with that and we can put it. We can basically tack it on to the 277 we have now. I think just from a mechanical and administrative perspective. It would be very hard to do that and bring it back to administer with the same program we have now. So I would recommend that if you are interested to do that, make the decision on that. Now, if it is for the same program.

[04:30:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, great. Then I'd like to ask, um, if there's a interest in a friendly amendment to Counselor Ramirez to, um, set aside $250,000 to the small business resiliency program.

[04:30:41] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: The only hesitation I have is I feel like the 1000000 uh, from the county, freeze up uh, our ability to, you know, perhaps find other ways of providing relief or or assisting the recovery locally. Um, for my benefit. Uh, do you, the staff know, um, and my psychology, if, if this was already discussed, when the county program is expected to become operational?

[04:31:12] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So council member Ramirez, I don't yet know that, um, the, the idea was presented to the board of supervisors, I believe, last week, and they are expected to decide or deliberate on the matter at their budget hearings of November 18th and 19th. So I'm not sure exactly the timing of the start, but I imagine that's what they'll probably be talking about and we'll be ironing out this month. But I don't yet have all those details.

[04:31:40] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay. So, so maybe, maybe one way of doing this would be we could make the allocation tonight, and then if staff, uh, finds that the county program will be, uh, operational expeditiously, and it's easy for Mountain View businesses to take advantage of it. Then we can they can come back to council and we can redirect the money to some other purpose after that. Um, but if, if it, you know, if it proves helpful to have that funding locally for small business relief, because the county program is taking a long time to become operational, or if there are constraints that make it difficult for Mountain View businesses to benefit, then we can, you know, we'll be prepared. Uh, because we will have already made the, the appropriation. Is that is that reasonable?

[04:32:33] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Council Ramirez, I'm not sure if that's a question for for me or friendly amendment, but yes, I believe that's reasonable. And counsel and staff will know if the program is being used. So like now, we have the 277,000 that was unused. So if we allocate this funding to it and, um, we don't have any businesses that apply for it or we know that the county program is launching, then yes, um, I think we can consider what we might do with that funding alternatively. Okay, he could come back in mid-year review or some other opportunity.

[04:33:11] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes. Okay. Um, I'll, I'll, I'll accept the, the friendly amendment, and then if, you know, we find that the 1000000 you know, can, can, would be adequate for, for small business release and that, then we can reconsider, um, next year.

[04:33:30] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. And uh, the 2nd year council member, Medicheck? Are you?

[04:33:36] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: So, um, I was originally thinking that because we are going to open up the, uh, loan program again with the $277,000 that we have, um, that we could wait, um, to see if there is interest in that before, um, before doing something with the rest of the $1000000 Um, I'm very interested in helping our small businesses. I would prefer to do grants though. So when the city manager said that the consultant was looking at how we could do grants, I would much rather do that than do uh, 250,000 more to a loan program. Um, I don't know what the timing of that is. Um, but if it was. I don't, I don't know. I guess we've got 2 things going here, the county and, um, our own loan program. Um, But I actually would much prefer to allocate money to grants than, um, the loan program. And I don't know if there's any way to, say what the timing would be, potentially, of when the consultants looking at that.

[04:34:50] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So, counselor, how to check, the timing would not be this calendar year. Um, this is a workload issue for our staff, that we don't have the capacity to administer a grant program ourselves. And so we would need to look for another administrator or another, um, entity that may be able to help us do that. So that is what we're looking into right now. So we probably wouldn't be looking at a grant program until 2021. Um anyways. Uh, and I just don't yet have answers as to what they have found yet because they're just starting this uh, process of researching what our options are since we still have the main street launch program going. And I think, um, our finance director has something to add to that.

[04:35:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, gosh, go ahead.

[04:35:43] Finance Director Takahashi: Thank you. Um, I just wanted to point out, um, depending upon how council ends up, uh, deciding, uh, to go, if, um, they're going to increase, uh, money's going to either CSA and or Main Street launch. I believe we have agreements with them. So it would be good to also authorize a city manager to amend those agreements for any additional amount of money that, um, you may wish to, um, allocate. To them. That's all.

[04:36:15] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, so the, um, Amendment is 250,000 to Main Street launch for additional loan money. And if we find that, um, either there's, um, not that much interest in these loans, or if the county, um, county's program, It is what is, is, Up and running soon and enough for our businesses to take advantage of it. And I guess you would see that by the lack of use of our program.

[04:37:00] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So, mayor, if I may suggest an alternative option. So what council could do is, I think you could just designate that amount of money, and we may not necessarily need to give it to Main Street launch right now. We could still meet in the middle where council member Matt check is saying, see how the 277,000, see if it's being fully expended. Um, if it is, and if there's a significant demand, then we can put more of that, that money that $250,000 or whatever it is that's earmarked. Um, if that 277,000 isn't all spent, Then we could figure out of that 250,000. Can we start a grant program next year or if there's another method that we can spend it? So I don't think that council necessarily has to specifically, um, say it has to immediately go to Main Street launch. And as Mr. Takahashi said, I think you could give that authorization if we need to do that. Um, but I think we can see how the program goes this year and just at least kind of earmark that money. So it gives us some of that flexibility.

[04:38:10] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I'd be open to that. Yes, that'd be great. I think I'm fine with the flexibility. I just wanted to make sure we had some funding set aside for small businesses in case we needed it and how that's used could be determined later. I just wanted to make sure that we don't expend all the funding tonight on something else or, or, you know, have to wait till sometime next year, is at this point or in November, and we only have a few meetings left, and then with the changeover and whatnot, it's just going to take time to bring it back, and my concern is that, um, you know, from what I'm hearing, his businesses just need things, need help quickly. Um, if and if they need help. So, um, yes, that'd be great if we could keep that open ended as to how we spend the funding.

[04:39:03] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: So I'm okay with that, but I was the 2nder.

[04:39:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So, council member Ramirez. to go back to you. Are you? Okay, it's a minor change.

[04:39:20] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes, and if I could just pair it back, uh, it's, we're, we're setting aside the funding, not necessarily giving it immediately, staff will gauge, uh, how, how much of the money that we are, that, that currently is allocated, you know, is distributed, if it's not distributed. Uh, so it's not, if it's not all expended, then we'll be revisiting what to do with this pot of funding, including potentially. creating a grant program uh for small businesses. That's, that's sort of the order of operations as I understand it.

[04:39:58] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I believe so, yes. We have lots of nodding heads, so, um, did you have other comments? So your hand was raised or was that for this?

[04:40:07] Unknown Speaker: Me? Uh, no, no. I'm sorry.

[04:40:10] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Counselor Ramirez. You're good. Council member Mattachek? you good? Okay, we'll get a counselor McAllister now.

[04:40:19] Councilmember John McAlister: You know, just to give you a perspective, a small businessman. Who is going through the struggles right now? I think the, Um, the loan program may not have been as well because Why put on extra debt? If you know, you can't pay it back or the responsibility of going through it, so that was a concern. Um, When we say we can't do grants, Los Altos has a grant program, Sunnyvale has a grant program. So I think if we had opportunity to tie into some of their programs where they're doing grants. And if we're giving somebody an administrative fee, then, uh, Main Street may not be the ones, but I think the grant program is actually the best way because you will give immediate help for people. Uh, it will also, it's sort of like rent relief. It's immediate. It takes care of some concerns, and hopefully it will get you through the next month or the next 2 months. And hopefully the laws change a little bit. To rely on the county. Margaret has mentioned earlier that when they were talking about some other programs, the county is a little sluggish to work with. And it's not as responsive. If something that the city administers, um, we can be a little more nimble and accommodate the small businesses in town. Also, if you do want to help small businesses, I just like to remind you that January 1st, the minimum wage goes up to $6.30. So when you see small businesses going out. That will be part of the reasons that they're going out is because the wages are going up, the income's not coming in. So that is a factor. Um, so you should consider that too, when you say you're going to help small businesses. You pay them one way, but then you raise their expenses on the other side. So, I do want to thank the vice mayor for initially bringing up the conversation about small businesses. I appreciate that. Um, and it is it is something necessary out there. I hear and I talk to small businesses how they're struggling. And, um, I hope that you guys would consider the grant program sooner than the loan program. Because there's a reason why, I also applied for the loan program. And I thought I followed the rules. I was able to get PPP money, so I didn't follow up on it, but I thought it was a simple thing to get the mountain view money and I never heard back from anybody. He even asked staff to follow up on it. And they didn't, so, um, There may be some more work to be done on proving that. But yes, small businesses. I, as I say, you're going to start seeing, uh, a lot of, uh, businesses go down. Small story. I was at a, Used restaurant supply yesterday. And they expect a huge rush of people coming to them. For landlords coming to them and say, here, I got this equipment because what small businesses are going to do, they're just going to walk away from their business. And that's how they're going to do it. So, They expect a rest of small businesses to really start falling through the cracks right about now. So anything would be greatly appreciated. Thank you,

[04:43:36] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Counselor Clark.

[04:43:37] Councilmember Chris Clark: Can I just reiterate the motion to make sure that I understand it? Um, so it's basically the staff recommendation. Except, um, in number 2, we're allocating or designating, um, 500,000 of a $10000 in Care Act revenue for CSA, um, for the various programs that, um, and, and with their ability to decide which um, programs and priorities utilize them for, um, with up to 15% for administrative overhead. Um, and the, um, finance administrative services director can, um, amend the agreement as necessary to accommodate that. And then, uh, an additional 250,000 of the 1000000 is designated for, um, the small business relief program, um, and, uh, up to 250,000 is designated for, it may not necessarily be utilized, but it's, it's there at the funds run try. And we're also, um, letting. The finance administrative structure amend the um, the program is appropriate to accommodate that um, if and when the funds are needed. Is that accurate?

[04:44:53] Unknown Speaker: Yes.

[04:44:54] Councilmember Chris Clark: Okay, great. Thanks.

[04:44:58] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Right. Any other discussion on this item? If not, can we get a roll call vote, please?

[04:45:07] City Clerk: Council member, Clark.

[04:45:08] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yes.

[04:45:09] City Clerk: Council member Hicks.

[04:45:11] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[04:45:11] City Clerk: Council member Mattachek.

[04:45:13] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[04:45:14] City Clerk: Council member McAllister.

[04:45:15] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes.

[04:45:16] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez.

[04:45:18] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[04:45:19] City Clerk: Vice Mayor Kamei.

[04:45:21] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes,

[04:45:21] City Clerk: may I be Koga? I,

[04:45:23] City Clerk: thank you. Thank you, Mission Carries 70 with no extensions.

[04:45:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Shakashi and Star City manager. We will then now move on to item 8 council staff committee reports. Are there any reports or by council members or staff? Oh, yes, council member Metachek.

[04:45:49] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. I'll just report on my attendance at, um, 3 meetings, uh, the Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, um, Airplane noise round table meeting. Um, the airport land use commission meeting, uh, which is a county uh, body. And then, um, we had a council policy and procedure committee meeting, uh, the result of which, uh, you heard you're right. Wait. No, no, no, sorry, I'm confusing my meetings. We had a CPPC meeting. That was a different one. Thanks.

[04:46:22] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Counselor McAllister?

[04:46:26] Councilmember John McAlister: It's um, In VTA, we have this item called items of concern or for referral to administration. And our last council meeting, there were some touchy subjects, a touchy subject. And I felt a little, um, Restrained by what to say and was good advice at the time. But we need to be able to, and what concerns me is that, Council members should be able to have an opportunity to say, say, like section 8 or something or to speak their mind on any particular topic they want. And to just to express their concerns about what's happening with the city without having to worry about a Brown act or public input or some way to be unrestricted to discuss matters or relate or anything that comes up, like the current, the last election. You know, I like to congratulate people, but you got to be careful about saying something like that or my observations about the election. Um, I think we should have that opportunity to do it. And I was wondering if there's a mechanism like VTA does, where it's added to their agenda, or can we just say it's modify our section 8 to say or, uh, say, areas and concerns or other topics concerning the city? to allow that ability to express themselves. And not have to violate any particular law uh, procedures.

[04:48:06] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: That is something we could look at and um, I can review the VTA agenda policy to see if that's something we could look at. But there would have to be council majority agreement if that's something we would want to add to the agenda. Uh, and then just to give an overview about the brown act. The brown act has just very simple rules that all matters of business need to be agendized and a open discussion, it can often run, run afoul of that. So that's what the, the brown act is designed to ensure that the council talks about substantive matters only that are agendas, but certainly that's something we could look at and if, and if there's a majority of council interested in expanding item 8 to include such a, such an opportunity, if it's, if it's permissible, that that certainly counsels prerogative to direct, direct us to explore that.

[04:49:12] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, I wasn't thinking of a discussion, but just being able to express my opinion on particular items or observations. And so, yes, I agree that, you know, we're not we're not supposed to discuss anything. And so, I didn't expect it to be going into a discussion process, but just be able to. Or can I still do that now and just, without having to do that, whereas, Um, Because I expressed my opinion on a few items recently, but that was following up on some other stuff, but I still, Like to make sure that if I get on a roll or any council member gets on a roll and feels passionate about something, that they're allowed to speak their mind, and then not have to say, you know, be, hey, curtail your thoughts.

[04:49:55] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yeah, certainly a statement by an individual council member wouldn't violate the Brown Act, but it just, um, it was what I was speaking to was the potential for it becoming a, a discussion.

[04:50:08] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. That's all I just had a little concerned. I just wanted to get it out there, so people can speak freely, because I know Chris has been holding up for 108 years and he's ready to explode. So, that's all.

[04:50:30] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And you have no, um, you don't hold back, so I appreciate that. You don't never make Allison.

[04:50:36] Councilmember John McAlister: No, no, you know, these are sometimes you get asked, you know, I just want to free flow because this is one opportunity to hear what you guys really have to say, and then the community has some thoughts. I mean, because a lot's been going on and, you know, sometimes tough talk is say, hey, guys, what you're doing is not fair or we're trying to do something or whatever. So, yeah. But if the city attorney says that I can go and avoid a discussion and say, or anybody on the council says, hey, I want it, this is how I feel, and here's here's what I observe. And I don't think it's right. I'm speaking my mind. And then I'll leave it at that. Thank you.

[04:51:18] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah, I think this is item 8 is, I guess I tended to maybe be a little bit more, um, free flow with it and, you know, uh, if you have a statement or something you want to say. I would say this is the time to do it. Um, okay, if there's nothing else for item 8. We'll go on to a closed session report and um, since it's related to one of our council appointees, um, I will make the announcement that, um, as a follow-up to the October 27th closed session announcement, authorizing the human resources director to proceed with hiring the interim city clerk. The city council has hired Sylvia Bonderlinden as interim city clerk effective November 30th. Miss Bonder, London has over 20 years of experience working as both deputy city clerk and city clerk for public agencies, and will be earning $75 per hour. The appointment shall be effective upon the departure of city clerk Lisa Natouche, and will continue until the new city clerk begins employment with the city of Mountain View. And with that, is there any other closed session report, Sydney attorney?

[04:52:33] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: No additional closed session announcement.

[04:52:35] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. So with that, uh, we will stand adjourned at 9.57 PM, and our next city council meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 1st. Actually, that's not true, is it? We have one next week. Uh, so it would be Tuesday, November 17th. And I believe it's at 430, start tying with the,

[04:52:57] Unknown Speaker: Yes, I think with our, sorry, 430.

[04:53:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah, thank you, sorry about that. No worries. So, great. Thank you very much. Have a great week and we will see you next Tuesday. Please take care. Be well.

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