December 1, 2020 Special Meeting of Mountain View City Council

Video

Transcript

[00:00:04] (archive recording) Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I guess it's still a good afternoon. Welcome to our December 1st city council meeting. Uh, we will actually start with a study session, and I will call the meeting to order at 432 PM. Uh, I'll make my usual announcement. This meeting will be conducted in accordance with state of California executive order N 2920 dated March 17, 2020. All members of the city council are participating in this meeting by video conference with no physical meeting location. Members of the public wishing to observe the meeting live 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 mountain view.gov slash cc underscore speakers or by phone by dialing 669-900-9128 and entering webinar ID 94106736993. Any emails received by 430 PM today, we're forwarded to the city council. Email is received after 4:30 PM will be entered into the record for the meeting. Now I will ask the city clerk to proceed with roll call, please.

[00:01:19] (archive recording) City Clerk: Certainly, yeah. Council member Clark.

[00:01:22] (archive recording) Councilmember Chris Clark: Here?

[00:01:23] (archive recording) City Clerk: Council member Hicks.

[00:01:25] (archive recording) Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here.

[00:01:27] (archive recording) City Clerk: Also my room, Metachek.

[00:01:29] (archive recording) Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yep.

[00:01:30] (archive recording) City Clerk: Tell someone that... McLester?

[00:01:33] (archive recording) Councilmember John McAlister: Moha here.

[00:01:35] (archive recording) City Clerk: Council member Ramirez.

[00:01:38] (archive recording) Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[00:01:38] (archive recording) City Clerk: Vice mayor Kamei.

[00:01:45] (archive recording) Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Oh. Give me a speak. Thank you.

[00:01:49] (archive recording) Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Mayor Abby Koga, here.

[00:01:51] (archive recording) City Clerk: All present. Thank you.

[00:01:52] (archive recording) Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. We'll go to our study session. The 1st one is item 3.one, 365 San Antonio Road, and I believe Council member Ramirez has an announcement on this item.

[00:02:05] (archive recording) Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes, thank you, mayor. I am recusing myself from item 3.one due to my leasehold interest located in close proximity to the project site. So I'll be signing off.

[00:02:15] (archive recording) Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. We'll see you in a little bit. Um, and are there any council members wishing to make disclosures such as contacts with the applicant or site visits? Yes, count number Hicks.

[00:02:30] (archive recording) Councilmember Alison Hicks: Oh, I met with the applicant some time ago.

[00:02:34] (archive recording) Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Council member Medachek?

[00:02:38] (archive recording) Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. I did a site visit this past weekend on my own.

[00:02:44] (archive recording) Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Anyone else? All right, I think we are.

[00:02:48] (archive recording) Councilmember Alison Hicks: Oh, I just, how far back do we need to go? It's been a year or more, so, uh,

[00:02:55] (archive recording) Unknown Speaker: It's just for this present consideration of this project tonight.

[00:03:01] (archive recording) Councilmember Alison Hicks: No, I know, I met with them years ago, I'll wear these projects up. But nothing within the last year.

[00:03:08] (archive recording) Unknown Speaker: It would just be since the last, um, time this project came before council and now.

[00:03:13] (archive recording) Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, yeah. Penny.

[00:03:20] (archive recording) Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: We'll go to the presentation by our senior planner, Clarissa Burke. Welcome, Clarissa.

[00:03:27] (archive recording) Senior Planner Clarissa Burke: Hello, I need to enable screen sharing. Uh, do that, I think. I don't think I can do that. As someone else.

[00:03:49] (archive recording) Unknown Speaker: Oh, there you go. Maybe Ladita's host.

[00:03:52] (archive recording) Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Perfect. Thank you. Perfect. Should be good to go Clarissa.

[00:03:56] (archive recording) Senior Planner Clarissa Burke: Great, thank you so much. Good evening, may I be Koda and council members? In today's presentation, I will introduce the project at 365 San Antonio Road, an outline key questions for the council to answer and provide input. The proposed project is located at the corner of San Antonio Road in California Street, and is being called phase 3 of Marone Gaius, San Antonio Village projects. The project proposes 6 floor office area and one floor of retail space and 4 levels of underground parking. Malone Geyer received authorization from council to submit a project with an additional 150,000 square feet of TGRs from the Los Alto school district TDR program. The project requires a precise plan amendment to remove the office cap for this area. The specifics are laid out in the staff report. When the project received authorization, the council asks the project be brought back to study sessions to discuss the design, this project is therefore being brought for review early in the permit process. An EPC study session was held November 18. There are several project design topics outlined in the staff report. I will briefly touch on each of them today. At the study session, EPC agreed with these design recommendations. And also made recommendations to study further landscape opportunities and bike connections to San Antonio Village, and consider installation of artwork celebrating the area as the birthplace of the microchip. The project proposes landscape on either side of the public walkways and lining the outdoor pedestrian areas. Well, landscape is always encouraged special consideration should be given to how the landscape impacts pedestrian activity here. Too many planter boxes can cause the area to be a walkway instead of an inviting plaza, but enough space for distinctive landscape features should be incorporated. The project is predominantly clad in limestone and glass. While simplified material pallets are traditional. There should be enough detail and variation to create interest. These 2 areas should be studied to provide more details of ground floor area and break up the upper floor masses. A lot of design consideration was given to the phase 2 development, to separating the structures and avoiding a tunnel effect between the buildings. The separation between structures is less than what was generally constructed in phase 2. Due to the TDR's typical techniques for reducing the massing of upper floors are not possible. The applicant should study pushing in the ground floor area here to create more space for pedestrians. They should also study this area that is the back of house to make the facade more comfortable. This corner is a gateway to the San Antonio area and should be prominent, interesting, and inviting. While staff believes the design is on the right track, we recommend studying ways to emphasize the vertical detailing to create prominence, and add interest to the ground floor through art like installations either on the building or in the closet. The large covered bridge that creates a protected gathering area for the public, with a standalone retail building located here within it. It has the potential to be a really unique area. DRC recommends that this tall vertical massing. Be removed or minimized to better showcase the area and make it comfortable for pedestrians. Special attention to detail and material should be given to this area in general. The project proposes underground parking that is shared with the phase 2 development and can only be accessed through phase 2 parking structure. The applicant is also drafting a TDM plan. EPC was supported supportive of the shared parking reduction. Self request, the council discussed these 2 questions regarding ABC recommendations on project design and the shared parking proposal this evening. This concludes staff's presentation. AppleCant will also now give a brief presentation.

[00:08:20] (archive recording) Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Thank you, and I believe we have, uh, David Geiser. And Daryl Fulbright and David Harrison. If, um, we could bring them in. There we go. And if you'd like to, how you want to break up the time, but you have up to 10 minutes, and the city clerk will keep time and let you know when your time is up.

[00:08:55] (archive recording) Managing Director David Geiser: Great. Thank you very much, honorable mayor council members, and thank you, Clarissa. This is Dave Geyser. I'm the managing director of Malone Fire Partners. I was before you a year ago at our gatekeeper hearing and previous hearings regarding this matter. We've spent the last, the beginning part of this year working on plans for not only architecture, but civil and landscape, uh, to advance our application. And we spent the last few months working with staff, uh, and the DRC, uh, trying to refine that design, uh, to make uh, the addressing comments from not only DRC, great comments, but, but just again, trying to refine the design, make it more walkable, uh, pedestrian, uh, the ground plan, but also uh, looking at materials and how the, the different elevations work. Uh, we're in agreement with uh, with staff comments thus far. Uh, we're also uh, have made several changes that DRCs already recommended. We have not had a chance to incorporate Carmen from the EPC. We just had a hearing of the week with them, and we haven't had a chance to make the last corrections, I think, uh, dress comments from the DRC, because we're waiting to hear your comments as well. So what you're about to hear from our architect, um, with Gessler is, uh, you want to see is a work in progress, and we're very anxious to hear your comments as well and work towards, uh, you know, uh, coming up with a design that we can all be uh, proud of and uh, and get and get built, quite frankly. So tonight we have David Harrison and Daryl Holbright, with Gensler, Keith Minimeyer with Urban Arena, our landscape architect, Andy Knapp, our in-house architect, and Milo Geyer, but I'm going to turn over now to David Harrison with Gensler to walk you through our current design. And again, please feel free. Our group is here to answer any questions you have. Um, and I, but I think David's going to dress most of here for you right now.

[00:00:43] Unknown Speaker: Yeah, you're immuted. There we go. Can you please?

[00:00:47] Architect David Harrison: Oh, I have the share screen option here now. Give me 12nd. 12nd here. All right, can I see my screen?

[00:01:22] Unknown Speaker: You got you, David.

[00:01:24] Architect David Harrison: All right. Um, so the one of the 1st key elements to this project, um, to point out is, uh, this is the phase 3 of an overall master plan. And the site is connected with this social spine called the Promenade, and it has all of the campus amenities and retail spaces adjoining, and all of the office lobbies and the various lobbies through the project connect through the social spine. We've took great consideration into the massing and scale to fit within the existing context. And it's really important to note the adjacent train station that's pretty close by, making this area really smart for development due to ease of transportation. Um, this is an illustrative plan. as mentioned before. And you can see how we've brought in these outdoor living room elements to really activate the promenade. Um, you'll see some images of that, um, as we move in, but this essentially acts as a gateway, um, um, as an entryway into the promenade. It was important to put the office lobby, um, with along with the rest of the master plan, um, to create that campus connection and promenade activ- activation, as well as ease of access to the amenities, as well as creating pedestrian uh, porosity through the site. Um, and it was also important for us to put the commercial, uh, community commercial on the community side, the neighborhood side of the project, um, to really engage the community so that it's, um, it's an amenity that acts for the neighborhood, as well as, um, prime leasing space for retail. One of the important features of the design is to create this uh, vertical, um, prominent element at the corner of San Antonio and California, as well as bringing in some historically inspired artwork, um, based on, um, the previous use of the site. Um, this is a view of the uh, gateway portal. So this acts as a gateway entrance into the rest of the promenade. And we've separated this retail pavilion to act as a jewel box to further activate those outdoor living living rooms and social spaces, which would all be open to the public. And we've since been working on the DRC comments and to revise the design and the comments were very good and we've been making a lot of significant improvements in the design since then. That concludes my presentation.

[00:03:54] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Is there anyone else on your team presenting?

[00:03:59] Managing Director David Geiser: No, we're here to answer questions, um, but there's, uh, I think this addresses most of the of the DRC, the staff, uh, in terms of modifying design. Um, but, but no, there's, uh, there's no one else presenting on our side.

[00:04:14] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, great. Thank you. We're going to go to public comment and then we'll bring it back for council questions. So thank you very much for the presentation. And as this is a study session, um, we will go to public comments first. So, if there are any members of the public wishing to comment on this item, and you're in the attendee box, please hit your raise hand button at the bottom for your blue hand to go up. And if you're on the phone, please hit star 9. And let's see. See, one hand, so let's go with 3 minutes. Uh, Albert James, welcome, please, unmute yourself to start speaking.

[00:04:56] Albert James: Okay, can you hear me?

[00:04:58] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, welcome.

[00:04:59] Albert James: Okay, hi. Yeah, I just thought I'd say slip as long as I'm here for other parts of the meeting. I think it's no secret. I really don't like the way San Antonio Center looks. This is just one more monolithic block building. Yeah, it's got some articulation on the facades and stuff, but if you look at the plan view, it's just a rectangular box sitting among other rectangular boxes forming straight, you know, straight concrete canyons. And it struck me, this San Antonio center looks very much like Sunnyvale's town center, if you cook at Google Earth, and take a look at that. It's almost identical and I don't find that centered to be very inviting either. You know, that's just my opinion. You know, I'm just want to rip many, many residents in Mount View. I'm just sorry to see San Antonio Center turn out the way it did. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

[00:05:48] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. And Alex Brown, please unmute yourself to speak.

[00:05:56] Alex Brown: Oh, hey, I just wanted to take this opportunity to agree with Albert. Boring rectangular square buildings with a little bit of texture on the sides is boring and not attractive and not a good use of all the resources we have right now, given that we are investing in building out more infrastructure in Mountain View. Thanks.

[00:06:18] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Anyone else? in wishing to speak? Any other members of the public? Don't see any more hands, so I will close public comment and bring it back to the council for questions. Right. Are there, um, any questions from council members? Yes, council member McAllister. Can you emmute yourself, council member McAllister?

[00:07:04] Councilmember John McAlister: No, actually do both at the same time. Okay, thanks. Uh, For uh, for Stephanie, the project by uh, Gray Stark, across the street, was it 3rd quarter? Uh, we were very concerned about the presentation of their corner and it was, did they put a rounded facade on it or some kind of architectural to, That was not a square corner.

[00:07:33] Stephanie: Yes, there was considerable discussion with that project across the street about that corner and a lot of changes were made through the design review process to enhance it. And I think ultimately at, um, The public hearing, council expressed support for the revised design.

[00:07:53] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Okay, so okay. Yeah, that's what I'm looking at this. So my question also, why is there so much open space under the northeast corner? What made them think that that was necessary or what was what effect were they trying to accomplish with that?

[00:08:19] Architect David Harrison: Our goal with this, this corner that you can see here. Northeast. corner. Oh, sorry about that. Let me switch to the next page. This view?

[00:08:32] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes, please.

[00:08:33] Architect David Harrison: This is the northeast corner. So the intention of this was to open the space up to create prominence along this corner and to create an active outdoor space with outdoor seating, lounge space, place where people can hang out and read a book, take a phone call, grab coffee. That was the intention.

[00:08:51] Unknown Speaker: It's an extension. It's an extension of the promenade if you go back to that site plant. It's really that extension and connecting our internal promenade to the street. There is.

[00:09:04] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, okay. And do you also have a picture of the east side? Uh, building. That was. Yeah, okay, that photo there. Um, I'm looking at the windows there. And I think, uh, one of my colleagues once mentioned something across the street, so, There is there more to the building, I see the glass than I see all these windows in a row. Is there more articulation or anything in there that uh, Breaks up that sort of solid uh, Prison look.

[00:09:45] Architect David Harrison: Yes, so what we've done is we've we've actually brought the wood down um, vertically and then it breaks up into glazing as it goes down the facade. ties into that.

[00:09:55] Unknown Speaker: He's talking about up above.

[00:09:57] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, up and above. Off to the left. Above the village sign, you see where the village sign is? there.

[00:10:04] Architect David Harrison: Yeah. With the DRC response is what we've done is we've created a vertical slot to break up the monotony of the punched openings. So it creates a little bit more a variation between punched openings versus non.

[00:10:16] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, so is that 4 floors like that or 5 floors like that?

[00:10:21] Architect David Harrison: 4 floors? 4 floors.

[00:10:23] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Uh, and then, uh, the, Um, I'm con- so for city staff going back, when I walked through the promenade one night, it was pretty quiet. Actually, it was sort of dead. And I'm very concerned about the canyon effect, you guys have mentioned it a couple of times. And it really sticks out to me as not very open or conducive to public walking or so forth. So, You brought it up in the staff report. What can be done to make that Silicon Valley way? Uh, and also the, uh, main promenade, a little more open. Compared to the other building, because even in this, where it shows the key corner. It doesn't go up, but that promenade doesn't show that the building is where we do the view down. Right above, it's right on top of each and right next to each other. So.

[00:11:29] Applicant: The count on different things guys are, so the, One of the comments that we're addressing that haven't been addressed yet or shown yet, and David, go back to the one view there from the corner, from the plaza, the large vertical element that we were using to exhaust, they're on the right, that the staff mentioned, EPC mentioned this as well and started ARC, that was really blocking the openness of this space underneath the building and really making that feel closed off. We're working right now to eliminate that entire vertical piece. And so that's really going to serve to accentuate the jewel building that's under there and really open up that whole underground space. So they had the same comment you did. We're working on addressing that. Same thing on the Silicon Way. The monolithic, uh, the punch and openings there, uh, we're working to address that. We have some design options we're working on now with DRC and staff to further articulate that elevation. And again, give it more interest. The, the, and as David was about to point out, we also were working with staff and DRC to pull back the ground floor plane of glass along Silicon Way, to widen that for pedestrians or and for pedestrian connectivity along there. And so, so all these come with your brain up, we, we understand, we agree, and we're working with that, EPC, and DRC to address them.

[00:12:55] Councilmember John McAlister: What is the uh, distance between the uh, proposed building here in the theater across the way?

[00:13:06] Applicant: That, that's actually, that's actually in the area of around 45 to 47 feet. The same distance as it is between The, so right now, between buildings one and 2 on site, the minimum distance between those buildings is 47 feet. That's the same distance we're proposing on Silicon Way between building 2 and 3. And and again, if you remember, we actually step back building 2 at the upper floors to, to again, to step that back so you don't just have 2 walls up against each other. And floors 6 and 7 on this plan 2 are also pulled back a little bit from the, from the edge as well. Um, I point out that the distance today between building 2 and the pillen building there on site is about 45 feet. So there's no exact about 2 feet further back than the building building is today along that.

[00:13:55] Carissa: And council member, McAllister, to add some additional context. And since you're asking about the distance between this proposed building and the cinema, the proposed distance is actually 83 feet from building facade to building facade. And the minimum distance required in the precise plan is actually 58 to 62 feet. So the proposed plan is actually exceeding the distance from building to building between this building and the cinema that's already built. And you would also ask about why we're providing so much distance again also on the corner and along California. I mean, we've pulled the building back along the ground floor plane to again to increase, uh, pedestrian activity a lot, and just pedestrian open space and the ground floor plane.

[00:14:44] Councilmember John McAlister: Uh. Do we? Okay Was there a aerial view of the site? Does staff have the one?

[00:14:58] City Staff: Yes, let me let me pull that up really quick.

[00:15:00] Councilmember John McAlister: Or your vision from the aerial view of it. Was there one? Okay, there, yeah, okay. That's what I was looking at. So um, We're saying, Carissa, you're saying, That green building across the street to the other one, the is 80 some feet.

[00:15:32] Carissa: Yes, the distance from the green building across promenade to the cinema is 83 feet building facade to building facade.

[00:15:41] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, so I guess the pitcher really doesn't.

[00:15:44] Carissa: It wasn't meant for that. Uh, it's probably, we probably shifted the building or taken some dimension out of it since this rendering was done. This was really a hype. Uh, tool, not so much of building separation. Exhibit.

[00:16:00] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. And just clearly on How many total square feet is this building going to be?

[00:16:05] Applicant: 182,000? It's what we're allowed to do today plus the 150,000 square feet. So it's 182 total.

[00:16:15] Councilmember John McAlister: Correct. Including the 150. Or are you saying that?

[00:16:19] Applicant: No, including total building size is 182.

[00:16:22] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Um, Okay, those are the right questions for now.

[00:16:26] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Any other council members with questions? I don't see any more hands. So, um, are the, the questions, staff, you're asking us, um, is whether we support EPC, DRC and staff, design, direction, and have, and is there any other feedback from the council members? And then do we, as council, support the APC direction regarding shared parking? And associated reductions between phase 2 and 3. All right. Um, council members, there any, any comments? I know, if you want to just, if you agree, you could just say I agree, and if you have any additional comments, please, um, feel free to chime in, and we'll go with council member Hicks.

[00:17:24] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, I basically agree, but, um, I feel like this, uh, as staff and the architect said this is a key corner building, kind of a signature building, um, you know, for many people as you come down San Antonio. This is what you see when you see the San Antonio Center. So I agree, but I'd actually love with the EPCC and DRC. But about a building breakup and more detail and trees, but I would like to push it a little further as well. Um, So in terms of walkability, maybe arcades on the, uh, I appreciate arcades for walkability and I appreciate the breeze way. But maybe we could have arcades on California and San Antonio as well. It seems very close to the street. Um, I love council member McAllister's idea of rounding and softening the buildings. I think I've seen that work in a lot of other places. Um, you know, I'd like this to become a building that as you approach the San Antonio Center, You get a feeling of liking the San Antonio Center, and I feel like we're a long ways from that at this point. Um, I would even like to reallocate some of the TDRs elsewhere if that's the only way to, um, to do that. Um, and then in terms of the, uh, in terms of the parking, I agree with shared parking. I would like if there's a way to strengthen TDR measures so that people actually use the underground parking. I've seen that problem in many other places. And I think there are ways to do that. Um, I won't go into detail, uh, but, you know, I've talked to other developers about ways that we could actually ensure that people are working in that, you know, expensive to create underground underground parking. So those are my comments. Thank you.

[00:19:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Council member, Clark.

[00:19:34] Councilmember Chris Clark: Um, So, for the, with the 2 questions, like, I, I generally am, um, I'm encouraged by the direction that EPCGRC and stuff are going in. I think they identified most of the same things that I'm going to comment about. Um, and and I'm fine with the shared parking. I think the elements that I just want to make sure that get addressed, um, along the way are, I think it was slide 11, um, of the presentation shows 2 of them, um, But it's, uh, It's looking at the breezeway in the East facade. Uh, I just want to make sure that we, um, That we, um, we do something with, uh, so that the vertical element on the left, which is pretty blank right now. So I appreciate the change in design from previously. This is much warmer, the warmer tones that are being used here. Um, I think as long as we just don't have that really large sort of blank vertical element there. I understand there has to be a vertical element, but I'm hoping there are some things that can be done and it sounds like there are just to, um, to make that, um, less sterile, I guess, or sterile looking. And then, um, The, uh, the windows, I'm sure it sounds like some additional things can be done there, the, you know, just the, the rows of squares. Um, And, um, I appreciate some of the vertical elements that have been added to, to break that up, but perhaps some, um, you know, colors or other things can can be, um, you know, um, looked at to, to break up the monotony of that. Um, And then there was that vertical element and then I think it was, um, I don't know if it's the same one or not, but I think it was like slide, um, 7 or 8 just showed the other sort of vertical elements that were, that were there and were, um, You know, there's the one there on the right, which I think staff is already, um, identified. Um, but I, I, I appreciate the, the general direction that it's going in, especially since the last time we saw it with the warmer tones and everything. I just hope that we can do a little bit with the with the rows of windows there and some of the vertical elements. Um, But otherwise, I think it's, uh, I think it's at least moving in the right direction. So. Thank you.

[00:21:57] Unknown Speaker: Thanks, Mayor. Thank you. So, uh, for the 2 council questions. You know, same general direction as my colleagues supported of the comments from EPC and DRC and yes, okay, to the shared parking. I think the only other kind of like additional comment that I'd like to add is, given the location, it being on the corner of San Antonio, as well as the height. So I think something that was shown in the 3D model is that it might go up to 101 feet. Um, and so I think that there's really an opportunity to create, you know, some sort of place making. And so, um, you know, something I know that we've been talking about as a council is, you know, encouraging, um, potential partnership with our visual arts commission. And could that be something that we could, we could add to the corner to kind of create more of that, um, an inviting feel. Um, you know, in terms of the kind of massing of the building. I know that people have gotten really creative in terms of the type of like, um, greening elements and that can be put on the side of buildings to kind of make them, um, feel, I think, a little bit more, um, part part of the, part of the rest of the area and not just feel like, uh, this, this large behemoth, and I think that that's my concern for this corner. And I think the discussion, um, from council prior was, you know, how do we make this, um, something where people will want to, um, enter into the San Antonio shopping center, um, participate in the retail opportunities, perhaps utilize the various amenities along the promenade, the dog park, um, and so I just want to continue in in that direction.

[00:24:00] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Cute. Any other accounts numbers? Yes, counselor met a check.

[00:24:04] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you So, um, I want to start by saying that, um, I realize how important the sale of the TDRs are to the success of a neighborhood school and park in the San Antonio area. Um, I also want to repeat what I think I've said before when we've looked at this project. And that is, I'm disappointed that this is an office building. I firmly believe that this should be residential rather than office. We are trying to strike a balance. And this is not helping the balance. Um, I'm also not in favor of removing the office cat. In this portion of the San Antonio precise plan, the idea of the cap was so that the office space was spread throughout the San Antonio area, a precise plan area. And there was a mixture of August and residential and retail. And now we're putting all the office in this one corner. And so I don't think we should be removing that cap. And the exceptions that are being asked for are resulting in a project that is pretty massive. And I would prefer to see something much smaller on the corner. Um, something that's much more inviting, um, as an entrance to the shopping center. Actually, I should probably call it an office center. Um, and I think this is not very inviting. I appreciate the comments about making it, um, more interesting by having, um, something that's more grounded, um, you know, changing maybe the materials. I'm always a fan of public art. I think you could do something really interesting on this corner. Um, but I don't think this is where it needs to be. as a key corner to make it interesting. Um, You know, in general, I agree with the comments that uh, staff and the DRC and UPC had made. Um, I do agree that all the sites need to be worn with rich materials and detailing to enhance the pedestrian experience. This is supposed to be a pedestrian oriented area, and it doesn't feel that way. Um, And I agree with a comment about the pedestrian experience on the corner, the planters might be getting in the way. I like the idea of um, landscaping in that area, but it can't impede um, pedestrian access. Um, The East side with the jewel box. I agree with the comments about reducing the size or eliminating that piece that started juts out, um, that definitely makes it, I think, uninviting. Um, uh, but you know, actually, the, um, area that's the most concern to me is the southern side, and that's because, um, it is not conducive to um, a great pedestrian environment. And well, maybe it's not supposed to be. People would use it that way, just like they do in phase one. And so um, I believe that the buildings have to be further apart. 47 feet is not enough. And the sidewalk needs to be wider and it has to be inviting. And I don't really like the idea of an arcade because while that might help, to a certain extent at the ground level, they're still going to have that canyon effect at the top. And, you know, I think. Yeah, we learned a lot of lessons from phase one. And when you know better, you do better, and let's do better. That's not the peep and the stakes that were made in phase one. And learning mistakes is having the buildings too close together. So these need to be spread apart. And I get that that has an impact, um, and that requires a lot of real work. But it has to be done to make it more inviting for pedestrians and for the center as a whole. Um, I especially agree with the EPC comment about, you know, our landscape and greenery needs to be included and trees. And I don't want so much concrete without um, a green environment um, that makes it more enjoyable for people. Um, And, you know, as I said before, not only on that key corner, but I would like more art designed into the building, I've seen some great examples of that in other places. It doesn't have to be a standalone piece of art, it can be designed into the building. We learned a new term last night. Cloth art. And pop that as well, yeah, like peace art is just popped down somewhere versus integrated into a building or something or a venture or something else. I thought that was a great term. Um, and, you know, I can't say if I'm supportive of the parking reductions yet because I want to see the justification for that. Uh, via the study. Uh, that's it for now. Thanks.

[00:29:43] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. And Counselor McAllister.

[00:29:46] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, I had, uh, was there any, uh, Sunlight planes, uh, diagrams? Uh, Made on this project?

[00:29:58] Stephanie: Yes, they're in the EPC submittal.

[00:30:01] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, staff. Uh, I didn't see the EPC's middle, so I guess.

[00:30:08] Stephanie: They are in the project plans.

[00:30:11] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. And is there a perpetual, um, again, I apologize for not noticing that. Is there any spot there that's will always be in shape? Or a limited amount of sunlight.

[00:30:30] Stephanie: There will be some shaded areas on the project.

[00:30:35] Councilmember John McAlister: Continuous.

[00:30:37] Stephanie: Yes, on the north side.

[00:30:39] Councilmember John McAlister: Well, that's, is that along Silicon Valley way?

[00:30:42] Stephanie: It's on the north side. North California.

[00:30:45] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. sorry?

[00:30:50] Stephanie: On the north side of the building facing California will be the only shade.

[00:30:55] Councilmember John McAlister: Oh, the per okay.

[00:30:56] Stephanie: But Silicon Valley way will not have a, will have sunlight coming to it. Yeah, faces south and just like it does today, the building, as shown, will not cast shadow onto Silicon Way because it's on the north side of the street. So all the light that Silicon where he gets today, it will continue to get.

[00:31:15] Councilmember John McAlister: Well, so will it reflect a lot of, uh, lighter heat to the existing Office building.

[00:31:24] Stephanie: No, that's that's why the limestone is used on that part of the building where it's adjacent to the building number two. So, so the answer is no, the, the, there won't be a lot of reflection off that limestone.

[00:31:35] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Thank you. So, uh, my general comment says, in this particular one, I'll use the, well, one of the terms of the uh, developer when you said, the monotonous looking windows. So I appreciate that they're working on trying to get that looked up. I was looking at this southeast corner and all of a sudden it just sort of hit me up. A mini scale down to the Fremont experience. anybody's been to Vegas. There's an area called Fremont, an old part of Vegas, where they do a lot of light shows and stuff like that. So, um, That's somewhat innovative. So, you know, something to leven up that particular area. Overall, the, Uh, the building does look massive. Uh, It's not distinct. It's nothing that I would say would be a cornerstone building that I would be proud to say is a mountain view. Uh, I'm disappointed that we don't have more step backs as we go up. Because we're trying to maximize, and I understand we're trying to maximize the space, the square footage on this because of the, uh, TDRs. The overall size is, yeah, the canyon effect of the streets, and I still say even though it's 47 or whatever, I walk down again, and it still looks like there's a canyon effect, even though with, there's an opening park under by building too. And I still think with the tightness of that area. Um, in some regards, it sort of reminds me of Santana Row, which is very narrow as you walk down, even though it might peer, uh, and they're not as nearly as tall as this one. So, Anything that staff can do to add some visual breakup, which is you're you're working on. Um, Maybe looking at something over on the Grey Star, project and how they're doing the corner there because it, uh, This corner is uninspiring. As it I see it right now, so. Again, I would keep pushing the DRC to get some more character to this building other than a state building. The parking's not a concern with me, but the overall building. We're going to have so many buildings that look alike with the projects across the street with the apartments, and what's going to go across with, uh, Greystar, I mean, hopefully there's some compatibility in, Well, let me ask, Stephanie, is, is there going to be somewhat of similarity in construction materials or so forth with a look from this project going across over to Greystar?

[00:34:26] Stephanie: I don't think that they would be the same, but we always look to try to provide at least compatibility with surrounding developments without trying to replicate or copy, um, building materials exactly.

[00:34:40] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, so let's, I mean, we got Prometheus on one gray star here. Morale and I are here. I mean, I just hate to see is this whole area sort of a mismatch of buildings. And there's, even though, yes, we want individual reality. But we do want sort of a common sense that, you know, there's a visual, easy on the eye flow of what's going through. So, those are my comments for now. Yeah, I wish that we had mixed use. When I 1st saw, I said, hey, let's put housing on, you know, put some apartments on the top. So, uh, maybe the economy be changing and they'll say, hey, apartments will be, uh, mixed use, but We can only hope. So, thank you.

[00:35:25] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. So I think I, the last one and, um, I had similar thoughts as a councilman, rheumatic. Um, I, I think I don't think I supported this originally. Um, I thought it should be residential as well or at least um, excuse with residential. My feeling is that because it's the corner and already with what's there and what's being built on with Greystar on the other side, as you go down California, it really does feel like a canyon and this squaring off of the corner. I think just really accentuates that and that's not the feel that. I was I am looking for. Um, so I, you know, my 1st preference was to do something lower, um, lower height. Um, I know that because of the TDRs were not able to do that. Um, but frankly, this just looks like an extension of the other buildings and phase 2 that's just a straight line and uh, someone, a public comment, said, another box, and I appreciate at least the corner, and then frankly, I, I, I prefer something like that more throughout the entire building. Um, the, just the wall and it, the, I don't know what the material is, but it just looks very, very heavy. And, um, it's not very inviting as, um, council member Hicks mentioned. Um, so frankly, And I, I don't know if, you know, if this is at this point even possible, but, um, I look at these rooftop decks, and I don't, even though they're not like a full story of a square footage, I guess. There's still something up there. You still see it. And my feeling is if we're gonna allow that, um, I would, my preference would be to just allow that as square footage and then add, and, you know, add the step backs, um, uh, on the rest of the building, starting from the, the bottom level. Um, I just feel like, um, Yeah, if we're gonna see that anyway, just close and close it and then add more detail and more undulation and, you know, more, more, um, definition and step backs, um, to the rest of the other stories. So, I don't know if that's possible at this point, but, I mean, frankly, I'm just not really inspired at all, and I'm sorry to be, you know, pretty straight up, um, and, um, blunt about it, but I'm going to be because I've heard enough, um, you know, folks, residents, not happy with phase one or 2 I actually was okay with phase one, phase 2 got to be a little much, and this is not improving it. I think it's actually making it worse. And so, if we can salvage this. Um, you know, I, I, I, that, that's fine, but I will just be very honest and say this is not at all what I was looking for here. So I don't know if, you know, the DRC can help us. Um, but wherever we have to send it back to, I almost feel like we should start from, you know, start back, start from step one again. So, sorry to be so, you know, so blunt, but I think I have to be in light of the fact of how this is, how this has transpired over time. So in terms of parking, um, I'm okay with looking at the shared parking and, um, adding it to the parking garage. Um, you know, I know we're in COVID. Um, I've just been concerned about the viability of the, you know, the shopping, the retail part of this, this, um, center, um, the movie theater. I don't know what the status is, but there's a lot of empty parking, even when it was open, um, and I know it's, you know, perhaps it just took time for the movie theater to, to catch on, but, um, I would go into that, um, parking garage and just be like the only car oftentimes on level 2 or 3. And so, um, I guess I just really question the need for so much parking. Um, I'm not a fan of underground parking, as Counselor Hicks mentioned too. But in this situation, because it's part of a garage, and we have the, I think you have the digital wayfinding where you can, you know, see the numbers of open spaces, um, it, it, I think it makes sense because you, you can go into the garage and, you know, choose to go up or down based on where the availability is. So, um, I, I, I think that's fine to, to, um, to combine it with the garage there. Um, so that's my comments. Um, is that helpful to staff? Is there anything else you need from us staff?

[00:40:35] Stephanie: I believe every council member has answered the questions and given direction.

[00:40:40] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. All right. Anything else from council members? That, thank you very much. And we will switch gears now to our 2nd study session. Thank you. Thank you. Which is item 3.2. And the potential ordinances to address health and environmental impacts related to smoking and multi-unit residential buildings and operation of gas powered leaf blowers. And our staff presentation is by assistant city manager, Audrey Seymour Vanberg, and hazardous material specialist Patrick Maori. Welcome to both of you. Oh, I don't see Patrick yet.

[00:41:24] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour: I just promoted Patrick to panelist, and I'm also going to promote a few other folks from fire. There comes Eric Anderson and I'm going to get Chief Diaz. And with us, And I've got a couple of folks from the sustainability team, if you'll bear with me. I'm going to add them in as well. I think we're all here. Your primary presenters are myself and Patrick, but you've got a team of people here to assist as needed and we will both call on them if that is the case. Um, I'll go ahead and kick us off and do that by acknowledging the many different departments and staff who've been part of preparing for tonight's um, study session. Um, primarily our fire and environmental protection division of the fire department, led by um, hazardous material specialist after Murray, and, um, also, uh, our fire marshal, Eric Anderson, and we have with us Chief Diaz. Um, the city attorney's office also provided significant input on both of the items before you in this study session. Um, and also the Community Development Department, were part of the teams who looked into, um, what it might entail to pursue regulations for either, um, smoking in multi-unit residential buildings or the regulation of gas powered leaf blowers. And that is the purpose of tonight's study session is to seek council direction on weather council wishes to pursue regulation in either of these areas. Um, and they are of heightened interest to the community at this time due to the pandemic, which has required more things to be happening at home, people working at home, kids going to school at home, and therefore being impacted by, um, the air quality, um, uh, effects of smoking, um, and the, um, emissions, effects and noise effects of leaf blowers. Um, when response to community concern, emails and other communications from the community to council, council did at 2 different meetings, asked staff to bring these items back. Um, for your consideration, um, of what might it entail to, um, pursue developing regulations in these areas, and what the trade-offs would be with other, um, city priority projects and ongoing programs. Um, and because both of these do impact, um, health and environmental, um, uh, well-being and because uh, they both would be new projects and involve trade-offs, and then furthermore, um, some of the same staff would be involved with both efforts. If we were to proceed, we felt it made sense to bring them on the same night for your consideration. Um, so that's what we've done. We've mapped out in the staff report and we'll briefly present to you, some background, and also what the potential scope of an ordinance or regulation might be, um, some of the, the process steps to get there. And um, the trade-offs um, with other um, city priorities. Um, and, you know, we've done our best to try to um, anticipate and and uh, project those trade-offs, um, which sometimes can be difficult to do. In that, um, you know, the the ultimate time that staff takes and the the length of the process depends on the scope and you don't figure out the scope before you decide if you want to proceed. Um, and also the timing. Uh, when we go forward with items, um, it has conflicts with different kinds of projects depending on what that timing is and what's on the plate at that time. Um, so our presentation's going to have 2 sections. Um, I'm going to turn it over for the 1st section to Patrick, who's going to present on smoking restrictions, um, uh, in multi-unit residential buildings, and then he'll hand it back to me to uh, present on the leaf blower. Um, uh, uh, potential regulations and then will pose for you um, some questions for your consideration at the very end for both items.

[00:45:47] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour Rambers: You'll see them, you know, in both presentations, but we'll not ask you to provide direction on those until, um, uh, we've completed the entire presentation and you've had a chance to to hear from the public and and ask questions. So with that, um, I'm gonna, um, share my screen, and, um, and then Patrick will begin the presentation.

[00:46:17] Hazardous Materials Specialist Patrick Maury: Hello everybody. Oh, wait till we get this scream. Sorry.

[00:46:23] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour: Excellent. Patrick, I can advance your slides when you're ready.

[00:46:26] Patrick Maury: That'd be great. Can we go to my section since you kind of did the introduction?

[00:46:31] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour Rambers: Yeah, perfect.

[00:46:32] Patrick Maury: So my name is Patrick Maury, and I'll be presenting the study session for the prohibition of smoking in multi-unit residences. I would like to thank the working group members who helped with this study session report, including Meghan Marovich, from the city attorney's office, Harsha, Ram Chandani, from the city manager's office, Andrea Kennedy, from Community Development, Lieutenant Michael Canfield from Police, and Assistant City Manager, Audrey Seymour Rambers. Uh, if we can go to the next slide. So I'll start off with why we are here. In 2012, the city council passed a smoking ordinance, prohibiting smoking in any enclosed public space, including all enclosed public and private places used by the public, places of employment, picnic areas, and this refers to areas and parks and other outdoor spaces where there are benches meant for people to gather and eat in dining areas and a few other areas as well. Since passing this ordinance, the city has received requests from the public to restrict smoking in multi-unit residences that COVID-19 shelter and place order has brought the issue to the forefront, as many residents are working from home, and their children are participating in distance learning. Smoking of tobacco products is a well-known health problem. 480,000 people die each year from smoking related diseases, and it is the nation's number one cause of preventable deaths. Secondhand smoke is responsible for 41,000 heart disease and lung cancer debts each year. Tobacco is not the only smoke of concern, according to the American Lung Association, smoke from marijuana combustion has been shown to have many of the same toxins, irritants, and carcinogens as tobacco smoke. The hope is now, the home is now the number one place to be exposed to secondhand smoke. 29% of Santa Clara residents reported smelling tobacco smoke drifting into their home from nearby apartments or from the outside. Smoking is also the leading cause of home fire deaths each year. On average, 18,100 home structure fires are started each year by smoking materials causing 590 deaths and $4760000 in property loss. Santa Clara County residents, um, have been shown to uh, favorite a ban on smoking in multi-unit residences, 96% of Santa Clara County apartment residents believe that smokers should not be allowed to smoke wherever they wanted, and 86% of Santa Clara County apartment residents are in favor of a ban on smoking. Over 63 cities and counties in California have pass ordinances prohibiting smoking in multi-unit residences, several jurisdictions in Santa Clara County, including Los Gatos, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, and the unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County, require multi-unit residences to be smoke free. Mixed likely. So how does this affect Mountain View residents? Well, approximately 50% of housing units in Mountain View are multi-unit residences, including apartments and owner occupied condominiums. The majority of multiunit complexes and mountains, you have 3 or more units. Mountain View currently has 2 programs that regulate multi-unit residences with 3 or more units. The rent stabilization program implements the community stabilization and Fair Rent Act, which covers all multifamily rental properties with 3 or more units that were constructed prior to 1995. The multifamily housing inspection program through the fire department inspects the individual units and apartment complexes with 3 or more units for fire and life safety hazards, as well as building and residential code standards. In addition to that, the mountain view fire department inspects the common areas of all apartment complexes and condominiums annually. Fixed lighties. In order to accomplish a prohibition on smoking in multi-unit residences, an amendment could be proposed, article 2 of chapter 21 of the Mountain View municipal code. Article 2 of chapter 21 contains the city's current smoking regulations. The amendment would prohibit smoking within multi-unit residences, including common areas, balconies, and patios. The city could keep with existing programs that regulate multi-unit residences and limit the scope of the amendment to complexes with 3 or more units. The scope of the ordinance would require landlords to update leases and to include prohibition of smoking in multi-unit residences. Landlords would provide updated leases to all new tenants. Existing residents would have to sign the updated leases agreements when they renew their leases. Owner occupied multi-unit residents just such as condominiums would have to update their CCNRs, prohibit smoking within residences. All of this would require city resources to develop, implement, and enforce the proposed ordinance amendment. Next like, please. The process for crafting an amendment to chapter 21 would require city staff to review other jurisdictions that have passed similar ordinances and to learn from their experiences, to identify the scope and key elements from other cities that have ordinances prohibiting smoking and multi-unit residences. Staff would have to determine an enforcement approach, including who would be responsible for enforcement and what resources would be required. The city would seek feedback from residents, landlords, and property managers through public outreach and public forums. Staff would then incorporate the public input, conduct a legal review, and prepare the ordinance amendment. City staff anticipates that this could be completed by the end of June 2021. After the council adopts the amendments, staff would have to provide public outreach to ensure that all parties are aware of the changes and to support compliance of the new amendment. Next slide please. There will be impacts on staff that have been selected to create and pass an amendment to chapter 21. Those include for my own division. There may be delays for the hazardous material and fire life safety inspections, plan check and reviews, and fire and environmental protection division database maintenance. There will be impacts on the city attorney's office, including staff availability for ordinance drafting on other projects and general legal review and duties. The CSFRA staff, availability may be impacted for other community outreach activities, and the city manager's office staff will be impacted due to the time for oversight and coordination of the new amendments. Next life. And so finally, we have questions for city council. So does the city council want to direct staff to proceed with a revision to article 2 of chapter 21 of the Mountain View City ordinance to prohibit smoking in multi-unit residences with 3 or more units, consistent with current practices in other city programs and regulations, and does the city council have any input on the ordinance revision process outlined in the study session memorandum? Thank you.

[00:53:13] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour Rambers: Thank you so much, Patrick. Um, so, uh, so that you can consider all the questions together. I want to present now the slides on potential regulation of gas powered leaf blowers. Um, unlike a, a potential amendment to, um, a smoking ordinance, there isn't any existing, um, uh, policy in the city, uh, related to leaf blower operations. So this would be an a new ordinance. Um, such regulation was envisioned by the environmental sustainability task force 2, known as ESTF 2, um, which recommended both an incentive program and a ban, 1st voluntary and then mandatory, as part of its 2018 report. Um, ultimately the sustainability action plan for, um, included the incentive part of that, um, uh, ESTF 2 recommendation, um, for implementation next fiscal year, fiscal year 2122. Um, at the statewide level. It's, uh, noteworthy that the California Air Resources board, um, has begun discussing the possibility of adopting 0 emission standards for leaf blowers and other small off-road equipment, what they call it. Um, and um, if adopted, that would regulate the uh, sale of new equipment, not the operation of equipment that's already um, in use. Um, and the original proposal was to phase those um, standards in with them becoming mandatory in 2028. Uh, there's been a lot of feedback, um, and uh, uh, trying to encourage a earlier phase in. Um, but none of that has been acted upon yet by the, um, California Air Resources board. Um, so in terms of um, what carb has to say about week 4, um, they do um, describe the emissions from gas powered, we follow as significant. Um, and the emissions include a variety of smog producing um, um, um, compounds such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides. Um, gas leaf blowers also do produce some greenhouse gas, although it's not a primary component of their emissions. Um, furthermore, leaf blowers, um, create noise, um, with electric models tending to be quieter, but not, um, uh, completely silent, of course. And all leaf blowers, whether electric or gas do um, generate dust and particulates. And all of these issues can have impacts on the health of both the landscape, um, service providers as well as the, uh, residents and businesses that they serve and the surrounding, um, uh, residential and commercial areas. Subsequently, cities do from time to time, look into um, regulating leaf lower use and several cities have not as many in Santa Clara and San Mateo County as have restricted multifamily, um, uh, smoking restrictions. Um, and the uh, staff report does include an attachment that looks at the different cities across the state. Many of them have looked at different types of regulation, whether it be in terms of the days and hours of use, um, or noise levels or outright bands on gas powered. Some look only at leaf blowers, some look beyond leaf blowers to other kinds of, um, small landscaping equipment. Um, so we have been able to look at um, the experienced other cities and we've seen that the process can be lengthy. Um, and both to reach community um, and consensus on what the ultimate regulations should be, and then to implement them once they are adopted. So being able to learn from these other cities, we can understand both some options about what an ordinance might look like and what the process to accomplish it might include, but we can also anticipate some of the challenges. Um, there are many considerations and those, of course, include the benefits to the health and the environment of reducing the noise and emissions. Um, but there are also some impacts on the providers and users of landcape services. Um, although the technology for um, leaf blowers is evolving. Um, traditionally, the gas powered leaf floors have provided a more effective um, landscaping um, solution, um, and that they are more powerful, um, and not encumbered by cords and not requiring um, batteries that, um, don't always have the charging power to, um, provide a powerful leaf blower or to cover large landscaping areas. Um, I will admit I'm not an expert on the leaf blower equipment, but it has been traditionally the challenge is having that technology. Um, keep up in such a way that the transition, um, from the old technology new is more easily embraced by the users of leaf blowers. Um, and given the, the, the fact that there can be greater costs, um, associated with electric leaf blowers, that does create economic and equity considerations for the, um, small businesses that, that, um, provide landscape services and the employees of landscaping, um, businesses which, um, tend to have people who, um, are, uh, lower income. They can employ people who are lower income and there's a large number of folks of Latinx, um, uh, population who work in landscaping. Um, So this does create some disincentives to transition to electric leaf floors, um, which can impact compliance, and if compliance isn't easy for people to do, and they have barriers, which cost and effectiveness are among them. Also, the fact that they might serve clients that cross city borders that have different regulations or no regulations. When you have those kinds of barriers, then compliance is not automatic. And, um, ordinances aren't always effective, um, and it can take a fair amount of resources for, um, enforcement and public outreach and education in order to support compliance. So based on the complex stakeholder issues, the economic and equity considerations, um, if uh, council does wish to proceed with a, with leave or regulation, staff would suggest that, um, include both an incentive and ultimately a phased in ban. Um, so that, uh, that would assist in, um, landscape providers making that transition and assist in compliance. It also builds on the work of the task force, uh, and that that uh, mirrors more or less what the ESTF 2 recommendation was. So, um, the process to implement, um, uh, the approach that we've suggested, um, is, uh, um, would include then both the incentive program and the ban. Um, and I'm going to go over the, uh, the steps 1st of the incentive program and then, um, the ban. For the incentive, there is not an existing incentive program in place that either has the structure, the administration, or the funding attached to it that would allow us to simply kind of, um, uh, uh, opt into it. Um, so we would research the options, um, and uh, conduct outreach to the service providers and and users of landscape service. Uh, we would want to incorporate that input in the best practices from that research into the design of the program. We would need to identify and secure the funding for whether it's a rebate or a trade-in, for gas powered, uh, leaf blowers in favor of electric. And then we would need to do the outreach to promote the program and then to administer it. And we would expect to um, have it launch uh, several months prior to the band being in effect. And then continue several months into the life of the band. The steps associated with the ban would be, in some ways, similar to what um, Patrick laid out for the smoking ordinance, although as I said, this would be a new ordinance for the city. It's not building non-existing policy. And, um, it doesn't have quite the same model um, ordinance, uh, um, templates that have been promoted by the county of Santa Clara, um, for smoking. Um, so, uh, there would be, uh, I think a greater degree of that review and research, um, an analysis to identify the ordinance scope and key components that we think would make sense in Mountain View, um, including, as I mentioned, the the added element of an incentive that would be phased in. I think we would also need to do some extra work around determining the enforcement approach and the resource needs associated with that. Um, in that with the smoking ordinance, you have more infrastructure of, of the property owners and landlords and property managers who have responsibility to assist in compliance, um, and that would be, um, uh, dispersed, if you will, around, um, leaf blower, um, regulations. Um, we would uh, find it very important to get feedback from the public and peace stakeholders. Um, again, still including the providers and users of landscape services. And to conduct that, um, that, uh, rather to incorporate that input, um, to conduct a legal review and prepare the ordinance. And then following that to do the outreach necessary for compliance. So what we've seen in other cities, some of whom have spent, you know, a year or more investigating the potential for a ban and ultimately deciding not to proceed. Um, is that the stakeholder issues are quite complex, um, and, uh, the considerations, um, uh, require more process and and time to work through. And because of that, staff does not feel it would be feasible for us to complete either or both components that we would recommend within the current fiscal year. Um, I think it's just, it would be especially a challenging if, uh, to try to undertake both the smoking ordinance and a leaf blower ordinance at the same time. And staff would be prepared to move forward with the smoking ordinance in this fiscal year. Um, but it is staff's recommendation that the council consider the leaf blower incentive an ordinance as part of its fiscal year 2122 goal setting process. Um, if we were to proceed at the current time, um, the, uh, potential trade-offs, um, um, art listed here on the slide. I won't go and read them, they are the same ones that were in your council report. And the specific impacts would depend on the timing and scope of, um, the lower regulations directed by council. Um, so that leaves the, the, the one question related to the leaf blower ordinances, whether given the current work order and project impacts, um, council agrees with staff recommendation to include lethal regulations as a project for consideration in the 2122 goal setting process. Um, so that, just what I will leave you with is the slide that we can return to following public comment and your questions, um, for your, your feedback tonight on both items.

[01:05:49] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Um, since this is a steady session, we will go to public comment first. So if you are in the attend day box and would like to provide public comment, please raise your blue hand. And if you're on the phone, please hit star 9. And, um, CSC one hand, so, oh, couple hands. Um, see, what time is it? Uh, can we set the clock to 2 minutes? Please. And we'll start with Albert jeans. And please unmute yourself to speak.

[01:06:26] Albert Jeans: Hey, thank you. Could the city clerk please tee up my slides? I have my own timer here too. Great, next slide, please. Yeah, I, uh, yeah, thank you again for staff or, you know, taking this very methodical approach, this subject. I try to learn more about it myself. And so I just wanted to share with you some of these results. I did forward do this more detailed analysis. Um, I just wanted to find out, you know, what are we talking about here? Well, going on the web, I found some statistics. For example, the 1st chart up there shows the ratio between residential and commercial pieces of equipment. The 2nd one gives you a breakdown percentage as well as a total number of these pieces of equipment in the country. So I could hear the population of uh, pieces, you know, small off-road engines. Go to the next slide, please. And the same EPA report also gave you the now number of hours of usage, each of those typical pieces of equipment. you know, based on whether it's residential or commercial. As you can see, as you remember, there are many more residential units in commercial, but as you would expect, Residential units aren't used that often. I use my refow or, you know, maybe half an hour every month. Commercial units are used far more because they're used constantly. And then you also have the fact that, um, residential units tend to be small horsepower, whereas commercial ones tend to be 3 horsepower or more. So they're going to generate a lot more exhaust. Next slide, please. So when you put that all together, you can actually see what that exhaust out or the pollutant output is for each of these different classes of equipment. And as I point, and it works out that, again, residential leaf blow, I mean, residential pieces of equipment generate very relatively small amounts. See, that little sliver is about 3% for the residential leaf blowers on the left. And most of it comes from commercial usages. And the other thing there notice is that leaf blowers are just one of, you know, many big segments almost at a time. You know, it's also lawnmowers and string trimmers. So, you know, why are we doing those as well? Because they generate a lot of output and noise as well. That's all. Okay, that's all I have time for, unfortunately. So I'll have to stop there. Thank you.

[01:08:53] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: I will go to the next speaker. Oh, it's a phone number. The last 3 digits is 213. You could unmute yourself, please to speak. There you go.

[01:09:09] Mike Palma: Hello? Hi, this is Mike Palma, and uh, I was on the uh, sustainability task force, and in fact, was the author of the, uh, recommendation regarding uh, sustainable landscaping, so it was actually a broader topic, uh, but it included the, the leaf blower, uh, band with the incentive. So, uh, I also want to support uh, uh, uh, and thank the city staff for investigating this, uh, in, uh, in depth, and really looking at the effort, because, um, doing it right, we'll take combination of the incentives along with the ban, and I think that's, uh, um, a real important. And the key point I'd like to make is that doing this right, I know there've been, you know, issues with other cities and enforcement, et cetera. But if Mountain View can do this right, I think it can be a model for other cities. Um, in in that light, uh, I'm talking about, you know, the equity portion of this. Um, there's the equity to the owners of the business, uh, but there's often the workers, which are, don't always own the business. I know my landscape person isn't the owner, and yet he only had the option of a, a gas uh, appliance until I purchased an electric one for him to use. So when we talk about equity, the actual, um, you know, landscape professionals here, uh, there's that equity of their health in regards to, you know, COVID as well as asthma, et cetera. So, I just like to say that the time is right now, both on a health standpoint, an equity standpoint, and a technology standpoint, to move forward on this integrated plan so that Mountain View can be a leader and can show other cities how can be done right. Thank you very much.

[01:10:55] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Any other members of the public wishing to comment on this item. I don't see any more at hand, so I will close public comment and bring it back to counsel for any questions. Yes, council member Clark.

[01:11:14] Councilmember Chris Clark: I just have one question that I thought are related to the, um, Related to the, this proposed uh, smoking ban. Um, And it's probably for the city's attorney's office. I mean, most most leases that I've seen have some sort of provision in them that, you know, basically state that, um, you know, even if it, if smoking were allowed or or not explicitly, um, forbidden that, you know, a city ordinance would supersede that. And I assume that's just standard practice, even if something isn't written in the agreement. So I know Step had mentioned, you know, the need for the leases to be revised over time, which I assume they would, but that wouldn't prevent the ordinance from taking effect and the tenant being bound by, you know, to to, um, bound by the ordinance. Is that right?

[01:12:04] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yeah, supersede. That's correct. That's correct.

[01:12:08] Councilmember Chris Clark: Okay. Thanks.

[01:12:11] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: That's from Robert Hicks. Council number Hicks.

[01:12:20] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So 2 questions on the leaf blower issue. The 1st one is, there was some talk in the presentation of, if we did a leaf blower ban, it would be inconsistent with surrounding cities and might cause problems for that reason. But I thought I also read that most of the surrounding cities had leafflower bands, that's Palo Alto and Los Altos, 2 of our neighbors. So to me, so I just wanted to make sure that that was true. It seems like we'd be tipping the balance in the right direction rather than, um, you know, kind of causing startup problems in the area. But I wanted to confirm that that's true that Palo Alto and Los Altos currently have leaf blower bands.

[01:13:12] Unknown Speaker: That is true. Those 2 of our neighboring cities and Sunnyvale to the south of us does not.

[01:13:20] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And then my 2nd question is about, um, commercial leaf blowers. Thank you, Albert, for bringing that up and I, because I didn't know about the distinction before. And, um, I looked it up. I, um, Googled it while you were speaking. Um, and it, it looks to me like the leaf blowers that are used. I live in a single family home neighborhood. Um, with surrounded by no uh, offices on my block, but it looks, but we have constantly flower noise, and it looks to me like when I look at the gardeners who are using those, they're look, using what is um, described when I Google it as a commercial leaf blower. In other words, because they work for a landscaping firm or maybe they are self-employed. They use the more powerful ones with the backpacks. So, I'm asking staff whether they know anything about that, I think that my guess from Googling it is that what we see as what some may think is residential, uh, leaf blowers, just, I guess what I'm saying is just because it's in a residential neighborhood doesn't mean it's a, a residential type leaf blower is what I get from this. And I'd like to confirm that that's true.

[01:14:45] Unknown Speaker: I don't actually have any insight on that. I'm sorry.

[01:14:50] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. Well, thank you. Don't sound very met a check. Thank you. Um, I'm going to follow up by a question, Council member Clark had, um, just to make sure, um, while a city ordinance would, um, supersede a visa agreement. I assume the same thing is true for CCRs in a condominium complex. Is that true?

[01:15:18] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yes, if it's a health and safety ordinance, that would be applicable to all, uh, areas in the city, including condominium developments.

[01:15:28] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, um, well, um, it was stated that CCRs would have to be updated. Um, I live in an, uh, cognitium complex and um, updating CCNRs is often viewed as a, uh, challenge, uh, a big project. So um, I'm hearing that that it would be great if they were updated, but they wouldn't have to for this to get into effect, right?

[01:15:54] Unknown Speaker: Yeah, I think the intent was to with the leases and with CCNRs was to provide maximum notice and transparency to the residents, but I don't think there'd be an absolute requirement in your in your example, but certainly there'd be public outreach and efforts to get that message that this is a requirement. And but no, probably not an absolute requirement to amend CCNRs.

[01:16:23] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. So, um, then I was wondering, uh, in cities that have a smoking, uh, multifamily, unit smoking ordinance. Um, who actually does the enforcement? I mean, how successful is it?

[01:16:41] Unknown Speaker: Um, so I can speak to that. So I've reviewed quite a few of the ordinances and enforcement is kind of all over the place. Each city has it a little bit differently. Um, so in some cities, they allow tenants to, um, take legal action against the person who they, who's, you know, violating the ordinance. And then in other areas of the city, in other cities and other jurisdictions, they have, um, administrative penalties and potential civil penalties, um, for those. So it's kind of similar to current code, um, where we have financial penalties, um, um, if you're caught smoking, uh, violating the current smoking ordinance.

[01:17:22] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, but we're not expecting, um, in case of a condominium, the, either the property manager or the board, um, or in the case of an apartment, the landlord to do the enforcement.

[01:17:36] Unknown Speaker: Correct. And right now we don't have any designed enforcement strategy and that's why we're kind of here to get input from council members and then also public input from the public and shareholders once we start crafting this this ordinance. Um, but currently we don't really have a strategic plan yet for uh, enforcement.

[01:17:59] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. Um, and will we be looking at this, if we go forward with it, um, from a race equity lens as well?

[01:18:10] Unknown Speaker: Yes, so, um, part of kind of what I've been looking at is that, um, a lot of, um, you know, minority groups, specifically Latino groups have a much higher, um, likelihood of, um, you know, having this restrictions in place. So they they tend to live more in apartment complexes and things like that. And then, um, yeah, so we would definitely be taking that into consideration. with enforcement.

[01:18:37] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. Do we know how many complexes we currently have already have? In their leases, or their HOA or their CC and Rs, no smoking?

[01:18:51] Unknown Speaker: Uh, we do not have that information. That information's actually kind of hard to obtain. Um, I do inspections on most of the apartments that a lot of condominiums and almost all of the new apartment complexes that have been in, um, that have come up in, you know, in Mountain View are all smoke-free environments. So including in the residential units. So that's for the last maybe 5 years or so. Some of the older units. Um, I, I, I don't have an idea of how the breakup is of smoking versus non smoking.

[01:19:23] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. And, um, Is it typically that there's no smoking not only in individual units, but in the indoor common areas as well as the outdoor common areas?

[01:19:35] Unknown Speaker: Correct. It would be all common areas. Most of the ordinances that other cities have passed have allowed for a, um, designated smoking area and there's specific rules about to where that can be. Um, so there are designated smoking areas um, that can be established in those um, complexes.

[01:19:55] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. Um. And then one last question. Um, is there any, um, interaction or concern about this? With the, uh, CS Safari?

[01:20:11] Unknown Speaker: Um, at this time, no. So we've been working with CSFRA on this and they will, they're going to help us with outreach materials, but they have not, um, shown any objections to, or, or, you know, described any potential conflicts.

[01:20:28] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, thanks.

[01:20:32] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Any other questions from council members? I have one regarding the leaf blowers. There's mention about carb doing something. Um, and then the timeline looked like it was for our outfit. I just wanted to confirm. Is it next year that they're planning to revisit the timeline to see if they can move it up? Is that?

[01:20:57] Unknown Speaker: Yes, my understanding is that the board will be taking up the establishment of standards, including the timeline for those standards, um, in 2021.

[01:21:07] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Do you know if that is to ban gas? And let allow electric or what.

[01:21:14] Unknown Speaker: My understanding is that it establishes a standard to have 0 emissions, and I guess it's agnostic on the technology of how you, you get there. Um, but, uh, I'm not aware of a gas powered device that would be able to achieve that.

[01:21:31] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. All right. Thank you. So, um, the questions are, if we, if council supports moving forward with, um, multifamily, residential building, smoking ban and the leaf blower ordinance, correct? Okay. All right. Council member Clark, could you like start us off?

[01:21:55] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah, I'll start us off. Um, I'll start with the, um, uh, with the label ordinance. I actually agree with the Staff recommendation that if the council wants to proceed with this, that it should be. It's a new ordinance. It's a heavy lift, and I think, you know, in our tradition of doing things right. I think we should look at incider programs and ways to, um, you know, do this in a way that gets us to our ultimate goal, but is, um, you know, considers all the impacts that it will have in the mitigations associated with that. And I think the best way to do that is part of the goal setting process. So it's not something that I'm opposed to. I just think that that is a, a heavier lift that, um, this should be considered as part of the the broader, um, you know, project planning process here in a few months where all the trade-offs can be, um, considered, um, by the by the new council. So, um, I just feel more comfortable, you know, considering that either as part of that process, or as the mayor mentioned, you know, there may be some other initiatives that might coincide better with it, um, because, you know, ultimately, Yeah, this isn't something that's just going to happen in 3 or 4 months and ghastly floors are going to be gone and everyone will, who doesn't like them will be happy. Um, it's, it's, and I, and I think it's just something that we should do rights since it is a new ordinance. Um, and these aren't super common ordinances um, throughout the county. On the smoking ordinance amendment, um, But I'll say that, I think it is, it is the right thing to do and it's something that we should ultimately, um, get to. Um, whether, um, whether this is the highest priority and the most important thing to do right now with the other trade-off. offs. Um, I'm I'm less sure about. So I think I'm generally on board with, you know, putting the ordinance in place. Um, I'm just not necessarily sure about the timing and I think, um, You know, if my colleagues are willing to, you know, sacrifice some of the other things to to move this forward, then, you know, I'm willing to do that too, but I just think that, I think those that are, I think those that have, you know, sort of moved us in this direction or push for this, you know, assume that this is a, this is a simple ordinance and that, you know, if we just pass this, that their neighbor's going to stop smoking and and the, and the, you know, the smoke is going to start blowing, you stop blowing through the window, which, you know, isn't really how this works. You know, we, we're not going to be sending police officers out to enforce this. I don't think that would be a good use of resources. I think really what we need to get to is to have, have an ordinance on the books that allows these complexes and, um, to, you know, better and better enforce this and start setting a longer term, um, you know, changing habits longer term, which I'm completely on board with. I just don't think that, you know, anyone who has expectations that this is, this ordinance alone is going to solve everything is, and if you're in a condo complex, the fastest way, um, to resolve this, is to, you know, take over your HOA and, and, um, create your own rules and and, and, um, and enforce them. And, um, and I get that some HOAs may not be willing to do that and the ordinance will be helpful in those cases. But even then, you know, the enforcement mechanisms are really going to rely, I think, on folks policing themselves and being good neighbors to, um, you know, to implement this longer, longer term, um, and make it successful. So, um, and, you know, the other issues that we've, we've heard and, and that I, I, I don't believe, um, you know, they're true in 100% of cases, but, you know, in some cases, what you do is you just push the problem out, um, to other areas with folks smoking on on sidewalks and things wafting into 1st and 2nd floor apartments as opposed to, you know, higher up apartments, um, or different complexes that happen to be down the sidewalk. And those sorts of things. So that's, I'm not saying we shouldn't move forward with this. I'm just saying that, you know, this isn't, I think this is the right thing to do long term, but it isn't a panacea. And so, you know, whether it gets done in the next 3 or 4 months or, you know, next year or two, I think I'm, I'm less, I feel less, um, strongly about than I do that we ultimately move forward with it. Um, so, I question some of the, um, whether it's worth it right now, some of the trade-offs and I get that folks are sheltering at home. But I think even by the time this went into effect, hopefully, we'll be in overall where, um, that's a little bit, um, less like the one that we're in now, although I think a lot of folks will still be working from home a little bit more. So anyway, that's a long way of saying. I supportive of moving this forward when the, when my colleagues feel, it's right. I just not sure that, you know, if they feel that this is the right time, then I'm willing to get on board with it. I just want to make sure the public understands that this isn't going to be a panacea that's magically going to resolve all of these issues 6 months from now in terms of, you know, smoking. Thank you.

[01:27:22] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Any other yes, council member Hicks.

[01:27:27] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I'm, I'm generally supportive of, I'm appreciative of what, um, staff brought up as the, the reasons that this, these were not instant ordinances. Um, although I have to say, I was surprised to hear because I interviewed both a gardener and a resident in Pacific Grove, which you should add to your list of cities that have, um, Gas leaf blower bands, and both the gardener said it was wonderful that he didn't like using the gas when his employer had to use a gas leaf blower, that it was quieter. He could plug it in. It was easy to change over, and then a resident poked his head out the window and said, um, that it was great for him too. It was, it was very quiet compared to the previous gas leaf flowered. So I had thought it was an instant ordinance until I read the staff report. Um, and I do encourage you to contact Pacific Grove, and I think they said their next door neighbors, Monterey, had a similar ordinance. So that said, I now understand that it's not as quick and easy as, um, I understand that the, um, Gardner and resident I, uh, spoke to were not statistically significant and that was not a complete survey I took. Um, But I think that I would like, I basically agree with the staff report, I think that, um, we should be looking this over when we do our next goal setting and work plan and see how it fits in. I personally think that these are important ordinances, uh, because uh, not because I think, I mean, hopefully the pandemic won't go on, you know, until these may be implemented after hopefully the pandemic is, um, has disappeared. But, but I think that solving these problems help people to work remotely. And that that itself is a, makes a huge difference in terms of, um, you know, our carbon footprint, which is, uh, in this area, most largely caused by um, driving to work. So I do, and when people talked about stakeholders, I believe people working from home are stakeholders as well. So, um, so I, um, I really think that these are important parts of our sustainability plan, and I, I hope that we can, um, look them over and prioritize them when we do our goal setting and work plan. And I think that's all I have. Thanks.

[01:29:59] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: That's only McAllister.

[01:30:02] Councilmember John McAlister: I have a question for staff. You laid out a bunch of, on the leaf floor, uh, ordinance, you laid out a bunch of, uh, potential projects that would be, would be, uh, delayed if you went with the leaf floor. Were there any projects that are going to be delayed if you go forward with the smoking ordinance amendment?

[01:30:26] Unknown Speaker: I can give a start to that answer and then you can add in as needed. The work required for the smoking ordinance was not as extensive. Um, and uh, the staff involved in it are not directly lead on as many above the, the, the iceberg, you know, the iceberg, um, uh, illustration of everything that's happening administratively below the line being at least 85% of our staff capacity, uh, the attorney's office and the fire prevention, um, Fire and environmental prevention division don't tend to have leads on that many projects. Those kind of above the the waterline items to have trade-offs. It's more their ongoing, uh, programmatic duties. Um, that could cause some delays. And so that I can put that slide back up if that would be helpful if you wanted to see that.

[01:31:28] Councilmember John McAlister: Oh no, if you had specific. projects that are going to be delayed because you're going to jump over to the. No, not the, okay. Well, that doesn't show me that what projects could be delayed.

[01:31:46] Unknown Speaker: Right, right. And my, my, uh, comment is that the staff that are primarily working on this aren't people who lead on projects. And so it affects more their ongoing programmatic responsibilities than specific council major goals, work plan projects.

[01:32:06] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, so. There's some flexibility in there. They're not totally booked. Okay.

[01:32:12] Unknown Speaker: Not totally and also, as I mentioned, because this is not as heavy a lift. I mean, you know, anything that's additional, um, requires fitting in, but it's not as heavy a lift as a leaf blower ordinance.

[01:32:25] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. So my comments are, I agree with staff report. The uh, Because we're always constantly talking about trade-offs. Uh, I'm glad to when I read on the this leaf blower awareness that there is government uh, involvement that they are looking at this. So, regardless of what we do, it is being addressed at a level that can actually bring some change. And for the smoking, I, uh, I had 2 parents die from lung cancer. So, uh, from smoking, so, you know, this is something that, uh, can affect a lot of people. So I support staff and That's where I go. I do like Chris's comment, uh, that's why I asked about what projects were going to potentially be delayed, Chris, because I thought that was an excellent point. And, uh, I couldn't find anything that says, okay, it's gonna, you know, because we have a full plate of goals to be done and waiting to be done. And, uh, I appreciate that comment, Chris. Those are my comments.

[01:33:36] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Go to Council member Medachek.

[01:33:39] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you Um, so I'll start with the refill. And, um, I agree with the staff recommendation on that one that we should consider this legally talk about our goals and our projects to support those goals because it is a major project and because it has implications for other projects that we had already prioritized. Uh, there's a couple on that list that um, We prioritized 4 years ago. And we are still trying to get to them. So I don't want to not have that discussion. I think it's appropriate to do that when we talk about goals. And in terms of the smoking, I am in stage, I've got one moving forward. And, um, the only caveat, I mean, I think customer coffee has great comments. This isn't a penacea. It's going to take a while. And, um, I'm actually okay if, um, you know, it took maybe even, you know, 2 or 3 months longer. Um, mostly because I think the activities that are listed here for, um, the different departments, um, are really important day-to-day responsibilities that the departments do. And, um, if any one of those becomes a heavier workload than it currently is, um, that might have an impact on the schedule for smoking ordinance. Um, I want to make sure we do the day-to-day business that is, you know, the core of what the city does. Um, that I'm very supportive of it moving forward, um, as soon as again. Thank you.

[01:35:19] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Council member Ramirez. Council member Ramirez?

[01:35:32] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Sorry, I forgot to unmute myself. Um, thank you. Uh, so I, uh, I agree with council member Matachek and don't have much more to add. Uh, so, question one. Yes, I support proceeding with the ordinance, and uh, appreciate, uh, that, you know, while there aren't any high profile major initiatives that may need to be delayed. Um, there are some important day-to-day operations that, uh, we don't necessarily want to, um, you know, to, you know, forget about in pursuing this. But I, I'm, I'm grateful that, at least there is some bad width to it, to begin the process. Um, and that I think the, what's listed in the staff report is perfectly fine in terms of the process. And then, uh, I agree with the recommendation for the leaf blower ordinance as well. That's all. you.

[01:36:25] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you and vice mayor.

[01:36:28] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: He thinks, um, so I just wanted to, um, thank staff. I know that this has, um, you know, this is another thing that's come up unexpectedly, amidst what is 2020 and the, and the pandemic, and I really appreciate stuff bringing back both items. Um, together, and I know some, I have thought that they shouldn't have come back together, but I think, um, you know, kind of given the discussion, it's nice to be able to, to talk about them all at once, since we're hearing about both of them all at once and be able to be responsive. So I just wanted to make sure that I think staff are pivoting once again to something different. Um, and then, uh, yes, I agree with, um, what Counselor Ramirez said, I'm fine with, uh, moving forward with the smoking ordinance amendment, um, and going through the revision process. And then for the leaf floor ordinance. I do agree with the staff recommendation that it makes sense to be part of goal setting. Um, You know, it sounds like this was a recommendation too. That was part of the, um, ESTF2. And so, um, I feel like we're headed in that direction already. Um, and so, you know, that's where I feel comfortable. So, thanks.

[01:37:45] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you. And I'll add my, um, comments, um, again, uh, thank you to Steph as well for, um, bringing this back and I actually thought it was fine to bring it back, um, together since I think the bottom line is about, um, uh, resources and and timing and when we can, when we can tackle these issues. Um, But, uh, for the smoking ordinance, um, I fully support moving forward. This is something actually, I know many of you know. I've been talking about this since back in 2012 when we did the last smoking, um, restriction on, um, 25 feet, uh, distance from, um, Entrances, openings, doorways and whatnot. Um, I had thought that we would continue with um, you know, adding more smoking restrictions, um, following the county's dashboard. Um, but when I left council that seemed to have stopped. So I'm glad that coming back that we are taking that up again. And thank you to the public for their support to get this back, get this on the council agenda for us to discuss to move forward on. So, um, I think it's actually um, long overdue. And so I would like to move forward on this at this time. Also thinking, seeing that it's not as much of a heavy lift as the other one. I think we could probably make it work. The leaf blower ordinance is a little more complicated. So my father was a gardener, a self-employed gardener, in my days as a middle schooler, before I could go get a job. I helped my dad in the summers. I actually ran the leaf blower, um, sometimes, so I actually have quite a bit of knowledge about this issue. Um, from the user's uh, standpoint, um, back then, back 30, 40 years ago. Gosh, I guess it would be almost 35 years ago. Um, even back then there was an effort to try to ban these leaf blowers, but, um, there's a lot of implications here, uh, and I think staff has outlined it well. Um, you know, there is an issue of, um, the user and answering council member Hicks's question, the commercial grade, um, leaf blower, lawnmowers. Those are the ones that the professional guard gardeners landscapers use. So, yes, those are used in residential neighborhoods, um, but there is a commercial grade version that's, frankly, caught more powerful, and that's what the professional tend to use. Um, And, um, it, you know, it's an issue of, um, how to me, um, the, you know, one big consideration is to look at how it impacts the gardeners, the landscapers, people who, um, you know, this is their living. Um, it's not a very, um, lucrative business, frankly, there's a lot of low wage workers in the air in the business, so I would, especially given that we're talking about equity these days, um, I would really be mindful of that peace to this. Um, I also think that if carb is looking at this. Um, I would like to see what they do because I think making it more uniform um, would be important. Um, a gardener who, you know, works, like my dad, we, we lived in San Mateo, um, but, you know, he, he had clients in Portola Valley and some actually in Palo Alto, so it does cross city borders. Um, so I think a more uniform, uh, ordinance or, or, you know, regulations or, um, would be, um, much easier to, to regulate and to also, um, practice. So, um, I think it's fine to move, uh, to look at it under our goal setting process. But I'm also concerned, I was concerned because looking at the trade-offs. There's a bunch of, um, projects that, um, we had, uh, agreed to do in our goal setting to, I guess it'll be 2 years ago, um, that I've been waiting for to come forward and I know COVID has, um, delayed those and I would be concerned about delaying some of those further. So I would like to look at it um, in the overall scheme of our goal setting process. So, that would be my preference. So I think I heard at least, I know a majority said, yes, to the smoking ordinance moving forward, and then to leaving the leaf blower ordinance to the goal setting process. And, um, If any, does anyone have any other comments on this? And his staff, uh, his staff. Satisfied with?

[01:42:55] Unknown Speaker: We have the direction that we need.

[01:42:57] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. All right. Well, great. Thank you very much. Thank you, staff. Uh, let's see, it's 625. Why don't we take a 10 minute break and we'll start back for a regular session at 6.35. Thank you.

[01:53:55] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: M 2920 dated March 17th, 2020. All members of the city council are participating in listening 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. As noted on the meeting agenda, members of the public may provide all 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 669-900-9128 and entering webinar ID 941-0673-6993. Any emails received by 430 PM today were forwarded to the city council. Emails received after 430 will be entered into the record for the meeting. All votes will be taken by roll call vote, and if the, if we could get the flag up, um, please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag. of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. We will go on to roll call, city clerk, you wouldn't mind.

[01:55:24] City Clerk: So was me. Council member Clark.

[01:55:27] Councilmember Chris Clark: Here.

[01:55:27] City Clerk: Council member hits.

[01:55:30] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here.

[01:55:32] City Clerk: Council member Mattachek,

[01:55:33] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: here.

[01:55:34] City Clerk: Also, remember McAllister?

[01:55:36] Councilmember John McAlister: Here,

[01:55:37] City Clerk: council member, Ramirez.

[01:55:44] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: He's here. There you go. If I can make...

[01:55:47] City Clerk: Nice to American Bay.

[01:55:49] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Here.

[01:55:50] City Clerk: May I be Koga?

[01:55:51] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Here, thank you. Thank you. We will go on to item 3 presentations, and our 1st presentation, item 3.one, um, is a proclamation and recognition of our senator, state senator Jerry Hill. I'm not sure if he's with us yet. He is. Okay, great. Um, as you may know, um, Senator Hill, um, will be completing 30 years of dedicated public service as he, um, and retires from the state Senate. Uh, gosh, I guess it's this month in December. And um, I know that we have all had an opportunity to work with him. Um, personally, I've had the opportunity to know him for, know him for quite a lot, long time now. He hails from my hometown of San Mateo. Um, but I have just been so thoroughly um, impressed, inspired by Senator Hill. Um, he's, I, I know a lot of people probably call him this too, but they call him the energizer buddy, buddy. I don't know how he does it, but he's always been everywhere. Um, and so responsive whenever, um, we needed anything, um, when we, uh, needed assistance from the state. Um, he's always been there. And, um, in particular, for me, um, lately, he's been such a champion for our, uh, for uh, sustainability and our clean energy efforts and um, at times the clean energy community has been under fire and we could always count on Senator Hill to be there to champion our our interests and um, move, move the issue forward. And there's just a multitude of issues and initiatives and bills that he has passed. So, uh, we thought it would be, um, our opportunity here. Take this opportunity to thank Senator Hill for his many, many years of dedicated service in representing Mountain View residents so well in in the state legislature. So, um, I wanted to open this up to other council members if anyone would like to also say a few words and then, um, we'll open it up to the public and then we'll read the proclamation and then, um, say how, uh, if the senator would like to say a few words at the end, that would be great. And thank you for joining us this evening, Senator Hill. So are there any council members? Yes, council member Ramirez.

[01:58:26] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the opportunity. Uh, Jerry. Um, I got my start politically, uh, thanks to, um, your campaign, 1st State Senate back in 2012. Uh, and I'm, I, I learned so much from, from you and from that experience. I'm very grateful for it. Uh, one of the things I've always appreciated is how accessible and open you are, uh, to, to new ideas and and to helping folks, you know, just who are getting started, uh, get to better understand the industry and the, the work that you do. Uh, and it's, it's just been an, an incredible ride. I think about it sometimes about, you know, being just some, you know, uh, kid practically out of college, not knowing really what he's, what he's, what he's going to do and, um, you know, getting involved in in your campaign and, uh, and it was a lot of work, you know, any, any campaign is always tough, but one of the things I've learned from you is, uh, you know, just, you, you have to commit everything to it. Uh, and I've always appreciated, you know, like, like the mayor said, how much energy, uh, and and just dedication and persistency put into everything that you do. Uh, so I'm very grateful for your service and uh, and just, you know, it's, it's, it's remarkable and overwhelming to think about, you know, I, I'm here, thanks to you, uh, and I'll, I'll never forget it.

[01:59:45] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, and vice mayor?

[01:59:48] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, thank you mayor. Hi, Senator Hill. It's so nice to see you virtually. To be able to, you know, give our thanks to you. And I just, you know, when I think about you, I get a little speechless because I think you have really shown, you know, especially, you know, with council member, Ramirez is saying the next generation, what public service is all about. You have really mentored, but I feel that the next generation you're, you know, always coming to every peninsula young Democrat event always kind of encourage people to serve. And, you know, however they suffer, it doesn't have to just be an elected office and you really show that it could be in any way as long as you participate and as long as you engage. Um, there's a place in a spot for you. And it's always, I think, to me, you've been a model of how to really put the residents first. You are such a fighter for our district, for our community, and have this moral compass that I try to adhere to. So thank you for, you know, your mentorship and I can't wait for the next adventure and how we might be able to work together. Thank you.

[02:01:05] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Counselor McAllister.

[02:01:08] Councilmember John McAlister: Jerry. That's the old timers. They keep saying this new generation. I'm an old guy and you help me get started. So when Lucas said 2012, You were gracious enough to take this old part, and actually spend time and listening to him, and say, okay, let's put this guy got, and you helped endorse me. So you actually got me started, so everybody blames you, Jerry. But, um, Everybody's, what everybody said was great. I also like to appreciate the small business. I remember going to your office for the small business roundtables. And you listen. And as a small business owner, and you started out as a small, and you may still.

[02:01:50] Senator Jerry Hill: Hey, I'm still a small business owner.

[02:01:52] Councilmember John McAlister: You're going to become a small business owner again. It could be a little smaller than.

[02:01:56] Senator Jerry Hill: How do you get a small distance? You start with a big one. It gets a little one.

[02:01:59] Councilmember John McAlister: So, I appreciate all the effort that you put towards those type of positions. They weren't big, but they were very important and it took care of so many lives. And I appreciate everything you did, your accessibility. I didn't bother you like Margaret did, you know, I stuck it. I stuck it out and worked hard. But when you were, you were always available and helpful. So thank you for all your time and all the great ones. Turn out in 2020.

[02:02:28] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Me too. Thank you. Um, Council member Clark.

[02:02:34] Councilmember Chris Clark: It's hard to follow that. Um, I, Better, just thank you so much for all that you've done, not just for our district, but for, um, um, or for your district, but for, for Mountain View and, and especially over the last few years, for all that you've done, um, on clean energy, as the mayor pointed out, but mostly and personally help, um, thank you as come from Ramirez and, and the vice mayor mentioned for helping. Um, helping us get our starts and and being encouraging. Um, so, you know, um, pursue public service in whatever, um, way, shape, or form it, it might be right for each individual at, at a specific time, and, um, I, um, you know, I, when I started, I was, um, the youngest member on council, and I think part of a, a tribute to the work that you've done, and and others have done is that we now have 22 other council members who are now much younger than I am, um, on this council, and it shows that, You know, at the end of the day, you know, we have, um, you have many really great legislative accomplishments, but I think one of the greatest customers to a, to a great public servant like yourself that you're always looking, um, toward what's next and, and ensuring that, um, your, your legacy, um, continues long past your, your time in office, and I think that's something that I hope that we all, um, you know, um, learn from you and and others who take the time to mentor, you know, those who, who might, might be coming next. So thank you for all the work that you've done over the years in the state senate and and all the work that I'm sure you'll, you'll do in the future, especially in terms of mentorship and, and all the accomplishments that you've had.

[02:04:14] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, and council member had a check.

[02:04:17] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Thank you. So, Senator Hill, um, I, It's just been an honor to have known you, and work with you, and I appreciate all that you've done for the city of Mountain View, and the region in general. Um, it's good to have people like you around. And I wish you all the best in the future. I don't know what is coming next, but I wish you all invest in an enjoyable next phase. And thank you again for everything you've done for us.

[02:04:50] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Um, I'm now going to go to the public, see if there are any members of the public wishing to comment. If you are in the attendee box, please, press the raise hand button, or if you're on the phone, please, sit star 9. Oh, there's yes, Joan McDonald. Please, unmute yourself to speak.

[02:05:15] Joan McDonald: Oh, hi, Jerry. I just wanted to say that I was amazed that I was chosen for, by you and your staff for women of the whatever, um, a few years back, and what I said then. I want to reiterate, and that is, it was wonderful to have somebody in office who's almost every vote I supported. And that doesn't happen very often, but you've been on the right side of everything, especially people who need help. Affordable housing, sustainability, all of those things that really make a difference in people's lives. So thank you so very much.

[02:06:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Any other members of the public? Wishing the comments? If not, I'll close public comment. And if you don't mind, if you'll indulge me. I'd like to read the proclamation. Whereas having served as a council member, supervisor, assemblyman and state senator representing residents in Sacramento and San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, Senator Jerry Hill will retire from the state legislature after 30 years of dedicated public service, and whereas as a member of the San Mateo City Council from 1991 to 1998, a tenure that included serving as mayor, he authored an ordinance to regulate tobacco sales and restricts smoking in public places. A measure that was the 1st of its kind in California, and very timely, as we were just speaking about that earlier. Whereas as a member of the San Mateo County board of supervisors from 1998 to 2008. Senator Hill led efforts that expanded healthcare coverage for more than 17,000 children in the county, and also helped create a new homeless shelter in the county. And whereas as a member of the California State Assembly from 2008 to 2012, he authored the 1st of many bills to increase safety and accountability at PG&E following a rupture of a natural gas pipeline that triggered a deadly explosion in fire, leveling a neighborhood and killing 8 people in the city of San Bruno, including a bill that exempted survivors of the tragedy from paying state taxes on their relief payments. And whereas his other key assembly accomplishments include included legislation that qualified the state for the national popular vote, cracked down on repeated DUI offenders, under age drinking on party buses, and on retailers who sell tobacco to minors, and brought solar jobs to the region. And whereas in November 2012, he was elected to the state Senate, representing California's 13th Senate district, which stretches from the peninsula's biotech hub, to Silicon Valley, starting at the northern San Mateo County cities of South San Francisco and Brisbane, beside the bay, and Pacifica on the coast, and extends to Mountain View and Sunnyvale in Santa Clara County, and Anno Nuevo, at the southern tip of San Mateo County's coast. And whereas during his 8 years in the Senate, this legislation included bills to ensure access to Martin's speech, increased safety at investor owned utilities throughout the state, reform the California public utilities commission, increase oversight of auto shredders, increase availability of AEDs in public buildings, and allow individuals who vote by mail to verify that their vote was counted. And whereas, well, on the state Senate. In the state Senate, he chaired the Senate's labor, public employment, and retirement committee, and subcommittee on Gas, electric, and transportation safety. He was also a member of the Senate appropriations, environmental quality, governmental organization, and energy utilities, and communications committees. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the city of Mountain View City Council, on behalf of its members, city staff, and the community, does hereby express appreciation to Jerry Hill, 1st 30 years of dedicated public service to the community, in the state of California. Sign and sealed this 1st day of December 2020, and it's signed by the 7 of us. And thank you again for everything you have touched so many lies. Um, I'm just, I'm really kind of emotional to have to say goodbye to you at the state senate, but I hope that, um, look forward to your next adventures and thank you so much for everything.

[02:09:51] Senator Jerry Hill: Thank you very much, Madam Mayor, and thank you to all of you. It's wonderful to watch. Uh, you know, I think we've all had our Zoom calls. I don't say limit, but we had certainly many of them, but it's, it's enjoyable for me to watch the council interact and work together. And, and I think, uh, Chris has his background, what I find most, uh, uh, of most, what I've enjoyed the most about mountain view, besides the people, uh, is Castro and the performing arts center, and what you've done, the, the leadership of mountain view over the years, has created such a community, a sense of community, and a sense of place. That's what I value about Mountain View. That's what I enjoy. That's what my wife and I enjoy when we go to events at the performing arts center. And, uh, and eat dine on Castro, uh, Street, and and have, uh, and always find a place to park, which may be a bad thing when you're trying to get business, but you have enough parking that makes it easy and convenient for people, and that's what we enjoy it. But thank you for the wonderful comments. Thank you for your leadership in a wonderful, beautiful city on the peninsula. And I'm honored by this. It's interesting that, or that you mentioned about what, what, what I'm going to do. I have no idea what I'm going to do. Uh, and uh, it actually was interesting. My term, uh, ended last night actually at midnight or this morning at midnight, uh, at 12 12 o'clock. Uh, midnight was the uh, end of my Senate term. And I'm honored that you are giving me this recognition and honor today. It being so much to me, and thank you for all of your good work. And uh, and thank you for uh, for your uh, uh, your tenure on the, on the council because the city definitely shows up. I watch, you know, every meeting that you have. I see every, you know, watch the agenda, see what happens afterwards, read about it in the paper, and I'll tell you, you do some great work. And uh, and it hasn't been easy for you to do that and to take on some of those challenges that not just mountain view faces. A lot of cities do, but you've taken them on and solved and tried to solve them, and you may not be there on some of them, but you're really close. And I think that says an awful lot for your leadership. So thank you for this tonight, and I look forward to our paths crossing, again, many times, I hope, in the future. So thank you very much.

[02:12:20] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Senator Hill, and we'll probably be sending the proclamation.

[02:12:27] Senator Jerry Hill: look forward to it. Thank you, ma'am.

[02:12:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you again and best wishes on your next adventures.

[02:12:33] Senator Jerry Hill: Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye.

[02:12:40] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: We have another presentation this evening of item 3.2 is a proclamation and recognition of our building official, Shelley Woodworth on her retirement, and this also makes me sad. Shelley has been such an amazing member of our city staff for a very long time. And, um, I was very proud when she was um, appointed as our building official. There's, in it, she's in a, um, I'd say a non-traditional job. And, um, you know, it takes, uh, a lot, um, and, um, she's, she's, uh, tough and heard that from folks, but and I think rightfully so, but also extremely caring and compassionate. And, um, I've been also heard so many, um, great compliments from, from residents in our, in our community. So, um, Shelley, we will told very much miss you. Um, I will, again, I'd like to open it up for comments if any council members would like to say a few words. Council member Emirates.

[02:13:52] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go 1st again, but um, uh, Shelley, I, I, uh, I, I sent a note to you to this effect, but I, I'll always be very grateful for the time that you spent with me uh, very early in my tenure. Um, I can't recall exactly how it, how it came about, but the building division has always been, you know, sort, sort of a, a, a black box to me. I don't have a lot of, you know, previous history with it, and uh, you spent a great deal of time, uh, helping me understand the work that you do, and, uh, I don't think I had an appreciation for it then, but the amount of time that you gave me, despite the fact that you're so busy, and you have a small team, with just sheer amount, sheer amount of work that's going on. Uh, I'm very grateful for it and uh, you know, you've helped shed some light on, on some of the, you know, the really important work that, um, I think uh, Audrey had used the term earlier, but this, there's sort of the, the iceberg, right? Most members of the public are only privy, you know, to what's going on just above the surface, but the reality is the city does so much more. Uh, and I think the building division is a critical uh, component at work. So I wish I uh could have had a chance to work with you longer, but I'm grateful for the service that you've provided our city for so long. Thank you.

[02:15:06] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Council member Hicks.

[02:15:09] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Oh, I'll keep it short and sweet. Um, just tell you that I have already spoken to developers who say they're sorry to see you go and uh, a little a little bit worried about it. I won't drop names, but um, you are apparently very much appreciated by some people. So, I, I, I hope that your your next adventures are as good as apparently this one was.

[02:15:34] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, and Counselor Mattachek.

[02:15:37] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. So the Shelley, it's been an absolute pleasure to get to know you. I have really enjoyed our chats I've had with you and learning about your department, and you're so good at what you do. It's really gonna be a challenge. Uh, for the next person. Um, so thank you for everything you've done for me, for the city, for our residents, and I wish you all the best. Thank you again.

[02:16:04] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Counselor Mayor Clark.

[02:16:07] Councilmember Chris Clark: Just echo that, I think, um, this is one of those roles that not, not all members of the public, um, get to interact with this particular, the person who holds this role, but it's actually a really, really important, um, role with, uh, you know, frankly, a lot of power and authority, um, and ability to, um, to make our, uh, our community better. And, um, and I think those, uh, especially in a time when we were, um, you know, we had such a large growth phase. And so I'm sure I know the demands on your time were really significant, but I know that um, everyone that I talked to, that everyone talks about how thorough um, you were and how difficult it will be um, to, to fill these shoes. So thank you so much for all the work that you've done for us, especially in a, in a time that was, um, that had so much going on, especially for this particular role. So thank you for your service and and wish you all the best.

[02:17:03] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you and Council member McAllister.

[02:17:06] Councilmember John McAlister: Shelly. You know, I got it, thank you. You did your job so well. That you had never had to deal with me. And so that you gotta appreciate that, that you were seamless in what you did, and you did it flawlessly. And it was, it was a pleasure, those few times I'd met, interacted with you. We had a good time. But it was, it's important to be able to say, Hey, where were Sally or where was that apartment? And you never heard about it because they did their job professionally. They were expected, they were respected by the industry, and you did it well. And so, um, It is a strategy that, yeah, I didn't have to chat with you or you're lucky that you didn't have to chat with me either way, been out of West. But, uh, I look forward to joining you in retirement, as Chris does too, and we made cross pass, come by, get some ice cream to celebrate your, um, your hard-earned vacation. It was well spent time spread here. But yes, it was great to, to have you there and can't, everybody else there was good too. So, thank you so much.

[02:18:21] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. I'm going to open this up for public comment. Oh, yes, we have our city manager.

[02:18:27] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thanks. Thank you, mayor, for indulging me. I just wanted to thank Shelley on behalf of the entire city organization. I don't think that many people know right now that we actually have an unprecedented demand. for permits and inspections right now that I don't think many people would even realize. It actually seems like more, more people are building and constructing now during COVID than ever before. So, um, she has done Yaman's work over the past several months and pivoting her, her uh, staff and her division to doing things in a way that has never been done before. Um, especially the in-person inspections and just the sheer volume of the 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of requests that are coming in. Um, just for a little bit of perspective, we have already performed almost 100% of our target inspections, just a little bit over the 1st quarter. Um, over almost 19,000 inspections. That's just the 1st quarter of this fiscal year. So, um, just want to thank you, Shelly, and let everyone know that the work you've done has been tremendous. And thank you for everything that you've done over the last several months and just helping us pivot through COVID and prepare your team for the next stage. So, uh, really appreciate every everything you've done. Thank you.

[02:19:49] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you. I'll open this up for public comment. Any members of the public wishing to speak? If you can raise your blue hand or hit star 9 if you're on the phone? Don't see any hands. So, um, I'll bring it back and if you again will indulge me. I'd like to read the proclamation. Whereas in July 1994, Shelley Woodworth began her service as office assistant, assistant 3 for the city of Mountain View and rose through the ranks with her dedication and commitment to chief building official in May 2016. And whereas Shelley has been instrumental in helping the city, community development department, and building inspection division, achieve an impressive record and permit review and inspections for buildings in Mountain View. And whereas Shelley has achieved numerous local, county and state certifications and credentials in all areas of building, fire, green building, and reach codes. And whereas some of the highlights of Shelley's Mountain View career include supervision of the processing of over 5000 building permit applications, and 45,000 inspections annually in recent years, transitioning the permit and inspection operations of the building inspection division to deal with the challenges of the COVID crisis, including creating an outdoor permit review center, and an adjusting requirements for inspections to ensure the safety of personnel. while striving to streamline the process, managing 2 building code updates, preparing the city's 1st reach codes to help buildings move closer to all electric energy and help achieve a key goal of the city's environmental sustainability action plan. Managing the deployment of key technology and equipment for field coordination of inspections. Managing the initial coordination on the paperless permitting process, which will ultimately result in a customer focused, comprehensive, paperless permitting, review, and inspection process for the planning, building, and man management division of public works. Performing a key role in development of new affordable housing projects, as well as the rehabilitation of existing projects, such as the Franklin Street apartments, Eagle Park, 950 El Camino Royale, Breeze, veteran accession housing, and project home key, which provides a wide range of housing opportunities for special needs populations, and playing a key role in numerous other significant projects, including the Google, Charleston East office campus, the Microsoft office campus, the LinkedIn office campus, the El Camino hospital complex, and the Moffatt Gateway campus. Whereas Shelley has demonstrated a commitment to innovation, leadership, and development in the chief building official profession, including serving as a member to staff throughout the organization for decades. And whereas in good times and in difficult times, Shelley has dealt with a diverse range of people in and out of city hall, and provided courteous and comprehensive help to city officials, members of the public and fellow city staff, and has always been patient and understanding, and whereas she has distinguished herself as a hard-working and dedicated public servant at all times committed to helping her community, and administering building regulations with a sense of fairness, and prov invaluable leadership and guidance on many significant projects. And whereas Shelley has built cooperative relationships with residents, other government organizations, community groups, local nonprofits, mountain view businesses, design and development professionals, and other members of the community, and whereas her colleagues know her as a steady, dependable coworker and friend, who takes pride in her work and in the community, and who is always ready to lead moral support. Len, sorry, len moral support or a helping hand when needed, with dedication and commitment to the city. Now, therefore, I'm Margaret Abbe Kogami of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, city staff, and the community do hereby express gratitude and appreciation to Shelley Woodworth for her many contributions to the city, and congratulate her on the occasion of her retirement signed and sealed this 1st day of December 2020. Thank you so much, Shelley, for your incredible service and dedication to our community. We will absolutely miss you, but wish you all the best for your, and your new adventures, and I hope you stay in touch. We'll definitely miss you And if you'd like to say it for a few words, we'd love to hear from you and congratulations.

[02:24:35] Chief Building Official: Thank you so much. That was definitely a mouthful. When you started listing off projects. I was hoping it was going to be shorter because it would have taken you a very long time after 2.5 well, 2.5 decades or more. Um, I did want to say, um, thank you to everybody that works at the city and the council. I would not have made it. This is as cheap building official. This is my ninth position there, and I did start as an office assistant, which kind of kind of shows you the kind of support that the city in general does provide to internal staff, um, to help us be educated and to understand the best way we can really um, help our residents and the developers within our community. Um, really being part of the overall team. I think that's really the philosophy that was taught to me early on and that I carried on and hopefully communicated well to everybody I work with. Um, the council, you've always been extremely supportive of us and understanding and I can express enough how appreciative that myself and my staff has been over the years. Um, and I, I will say that, although I'm really excited to retire. I am conflicted, um, because, you know, some people are like, they have said to me, I can't imagine Mountain View without you and I really sometimes can't imagine myself without Mountain View because it has been, you know, almost half of my life that's been spent there, which is a very long time and I've created friendships that will last a lifetime. And so I'm, I'm very grateful for everything. I've been given at the city opportunity wise. Again, it wouldn't have happened without the leadership there. Um, I think that is key and that we all really care about each other as people. Um, and we consider every situation uniquely. And it is true. What I do sometimes is not popular. Um, and I, I do, I'm a little different, building official, because I oversee new construction for fire. That piece is actually transferred to building. So I have the fired gentleman at my in my division. So that's always a little different as well. So I'm constantly going a little bit back and forth between building and fire code. But it is exciting. I mean, I've really enjoyed my time here. And so I just, again, want to say thank you and say that, um, really working here has been an honor and a privilege, and I will never forget it. So thank you. Thank you again.

[02:27:01] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And yes, we will absolutely miss you, but miss you all the best and please keep in touch. All right. Oh gosh, it's, I guess it's the end of the year and there's, uh, More of these would be coming. Later. Um. But uh, we will now move on to item 3.3. And this is going back to our regular business, a COVID update by our city manager in Brad McCarthy.

[02:27:37] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, mayor. I'm sorry to follow um, 2 retirements wishing people well with uh, COVID news because I think as we all know, um, I'm not about to deliver any great news. So let me share my screen. And then we'll get going on this. So like all of the past weeks, I'm gonna start off by talking a little bit about the numbers and then what's happening. Um, I think most of us know that we are in a situation right now that is um, increasingly concerning, not only in our county here in Santa Clara County, but also statewide. Um, so the numbers you see on your screen right now, the top numbers are where we're at, countywide as of today. Um, so you can see the number in the orange right now, we are at uh, 384 new cases as of today. So the daily case count is going up exponentially. Um, and just this weekend on Saturday alone. There were 760 new cases. Um, that actually shattered the previous one day high, which was set back in July. Um, it shattered it by over 200 cases. So we are clearly on an upward surge right now at the county. And I was trying to think back to where we were at just a few weeks ago and I remember presenting to council when we were in 60 new cases a day. And so we are certainly rapidly progressing in the county. We are also seeing that here in Mountain View in particular. At our report out 2 weeks ago, we were averaging around 3 cases a day for our 7 day average. Now we're at nearly 21 new cases a day just over this past week alone. You can look at the bottom, um, the bottom numbers were our new cases over the previous day, and this is as of yesterday, were 30 cases a day. And we were in the 2 to 7 cases a day range. So even here in Mountain View, our numbers are going up very rapidly. So statewide. We're seeing the same trend. We are around 1200000 cases now statewide. There's a 6.2% positivity rate. And at the last report out 2 weeks ago. It was a 3.7% positivity rate. Um, I would also note that these numbers and this positivity rate is really before we get to any of the numbers or people who might have um, contracted COVID over this Thanksgiving holiday weekend. So we think the numbers right now are likely from the end of October, perhaps, um, Thanks, excuse me, Halloween. Um, the beginning part of October, but we are definitely going to be seeing the numbers increase after uh, this week and next week. So what that means statewide, you can see in the picture on the left, that most all of the counties in California are now back in that purple tier. Right now, the state does have a limited stay at home order in effect through December 21st. So what that means, as I think we all know by now, is that all non-essential work and activities between 10 PM and 5 AM are not allowed in any of those purple tier counties, which does include Santa Clara County. So the bad news about this, uh, or I guess it's really the furtherance of the bad news is that, uh, more restrictions are likely to be coming this week or next week if our numbers do continue to increase. So just yesterday, the governor held a briefing and he really presented some sobering projections about our hospitalizations and our ICU bed statewide. And he mentioned that, um, he believes that if our numbers continue to increase, that the ICU bed statewide could be overloaded by mid December, and be dangerously close to being full or even over 100% capacity by Christmas. So, essentially, he did say that the state would have to take drastic action. Um, if this continues as recently as probably within the next few days. So those severe restrictions could be a stay at home order, similar to what we had in March, but at this point, we don't know yet. But he did give pretty strong indications yesterday that something might be forthcoming within the next few days. So, I don't know what that might look like, whether it would be a full blown stay at home order like exactly like what we had in March, if there would be some modifications. Um, we are waiting to see what will happen, but but he did indicate those pretty alarming statistics yesterday. And so, like so much that has happened over these past several months. We will find out information when we get it and new information arrives daily. So in terms of Santa Clara County, uh, we have had a recent change just this weekend, uh, which really is similar to what we were hearing from the state and that our our numbers are increasing as, as we just talked about, um, they are expecting even higher numbers after this past Thanksgiving weekend. And we have a real concern here in Santa Clara County for the shortage of hospital beds. So what we now have is a new public health directive, new requirements. Uh, the biggest requirement right now is a quarantine that is required after traveling more than 150 miles. Um, so 1st any leisure or non-essential travel is strongly discouraged in, um, anywhere outside of 150 miles. But if folks do travel, more than 150 miles, they are required to quarantine for 14 days when they come back. And then also for people arriving, um, they are required to quarantine for 14 days. Um, there are a few exemptions for this. So healthcare workers, um, also essential workers, so those city employees who are essential workers are exempt from this, but for everyone else, um, this quarantine is in effect. They're also changes to indoor operations. So right now, um, stores and other facilities that are open are now limited to 10% capacity indoors and grocery stores, drugstores and pharmacies are limited to 25% capacity. I think what we are likely to be seen as stronger counts of people coming in and leaving stores. I know there weren't um, every business wasn't necessarily having someone posted out front doing that. Um, that is now a requirement. So I think for those of us that do go out and have to take care of essential services and needs, we will start to see that there are people at the entrance, counting people going in. Along the lines of discouraging travel. Hotels and lodging right now are only open for essential travel or to facilitate isolation or quarantine. So um, not for leisure travel or vacations, um, but really only for essential services. Gatherings also are allowed outdoors, but only for a maximum of a 100 people. And that is limited to 1st amendment activities such as church services or protests. So, so really you're not going to see excuse me. Too many gatherings outdoors. Um, and certainly not with with many people. Um, as you all may have heard, um, there's also a restriction on recreational activities or sports that involve physical contact. Um, so this definitely did impact the professional sports franchises in our county. Um, but just for general activities, people can continue to engage in outdoor activities where you can maintain social distance. So it's really for those contact sports. So you will continue to see us market and really show members of our community, residents, business owners wearing masks. This is something that is critically important now. I know that this is a message that we have been talking about. Um, over these past few weeks. Everyone knows the messaging about wearing face coverings, but it is even more important now as the case numbers go up. So is testing. So right now, we have tested over 10,000, almost 10,700 tests since mid-summer, and this is an increase of 745 tests since the last time I reported to you. We did hold a testing event today at our center for the performing arts. We have 3 upcoming testing, um, opportunities at the at the bottom of the slide. You'll see that it is going to be on December 15th. And December 23rd and you can register for those opportunities at SCCfreeTest.org. El Camino Hospital, also continues to accept tests Monday through Friday, 730 to 7 p.m. And we will also have the Stanford Teen Health Van tomorrow. At our ring store park pool. Also, the county is continuing to hold free testing at the fairgrounds every Saturday from 9 AM to 4 PM. And everyone is encouraged to get their flu shots, of course, um, at the same time as, um, getting a COVID test. So they are providing that opportunity. So pivoting to an update on our rent relief program. Right now. We have cut around 1600 checks, a little over 1600 checks, and we have about 600,000 available. So uh, you can see that we do continue to provide around $2000 per household. And the program is continuing along. So in a bit of good news, I wanted to end with some of the virtual activities that we're doing this December because although we are in a difficult time right now, we also are providing some great activities for the family and trying to pivot and do some unique things this holiday season that, of course, are different from prior years, but still give opportunities for our residents. So we will have our virtual community tree lighting on December 12th at 5 PM. It is going to be streaming live on our YouTube channel. We are going to have musical performances and storytelling and our usual community greetings. So I would encourage everyone to watch that event live if they can, um, at 5 PM on December 12th. And then I'm also really happy to say that we are going to be having a couple holiday drive-in movie events. So on December 18th and 19th. We will have 2 different showings per night per day of some holiday film favorites, and we will be putting out more information about that, um, in the next few days, but I do want to at least flag this and let people know that we will have that opportunity. Um, for folks to come and enjoy a holiday movie with their family in a drive in experience. We also have our home decorating contest starting December 14th through the 20th and we will have all of our decor up through almost the end of January. So we hope that brings a little bit of cheer to this time, which is going to get even more difficult than it is now. And then I want to end as I have on prior weeks, um, highlighting and thanking the work of some of our staff team. So, tonight, I would like to thank our human resources staff in particular. Um, they have really gone above and beyond this year to help address all of the health and safety regulations that uh, we are required to do as a city for all of our employees. So keeping up with all the different regulations, making sure that staff stays safe with social distancing, providing face coverings, um, cleaning. They've worked with IT on expanding the telecommuting program. We have provide twice a week. Briefings internally to all of our city staff. We have town hall events. They are really just doing everything they can to also provide wellness activities and virtual trainings to our staff. So I just want to thank all of HR and the wonderful team that is there for, for being there to answer everyone's questions when they need it and for doing whatever they can to help our employees. With that, thank you, HR. And that concludes my presentation, and I am open for any questions right now.

[02:41:00] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Hey, thank you very much, city manager. I have the council member McAllister.

[02:41:05] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes, madam, city manager. So we're having these 30 cases. Is there any, uh, culinary between what's what's causing these events to go up? Is it, do we know the cause of it? Um, family members?

[02:41:22] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yeah, council member McAllister. Yes, I think the messaging that we're getting from the county continues to be that most of the people that are testing positive or falling in a couple categories. First, they are continuing to see the younger age category. So, you know, 18 to 34. Um, are are tending to um, get more positive cases, although they are tending to be more asymptomatic and that is generally happening when people are around people, they know. So, um, letting their guard down, being around friends or family, um, and people contracting it that way. Or in the other instance, essential workers, um, that may also be around people who are infected. But I think the great majority, at least what we're hearing from the county, that they're concerned about is people getting together in gatherings and people they know, letting their guard down where maybe they'll wear a mask in a store, but they may not necessarily wear a mask around family members or people they know, then it's spreading that way.

[02:42:28] Councilmember John McAlister: So if, If they know the main reasons or younger people. But why are they setting down so many other areas where there's not the data to say people are contacting or getting the COVID-19. It just seems rather um, very restrictive than and not backed by data to close down all these events. So how do they justify it? Do you know?

[02:42:57] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Council member, um, you know, I know that they look at the the data countywide, um, and what's happening, the the trends for all of the different age groups, and You know, but at this point in time, I don't know specifically what all of the sources are that Dr. Cody is using, but I think that this is a good question. I think you are asking a question that many members of the community have also question across the state. you know, we've heard it from other people. I don't have a good answer for you because I'm, you know, not part of that decision making, but from everything that we're hearing, I think, um, they believe that in order to stop the spread, it has to be done everywhere. Um, which is why I think they're they're looking at all these different shelter in place restrictions and the current curfew. Um, But, you know. It's not our decision.

[02:43:55] Unknown Speaker: Speaking of the curfew. It's not a police department in the educational format of curfew. And have we issued any uh, Tickets or citations for people breaking curfew?

[02:44:12] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, as far as I know, uh, we, we have not recently issued any tickets or citations, but I'd have to get back to you on the specific numbers, we know that there have been, uh, reports um, from people that have called in um, about large gatherings, but I'd have to find out from the police department and get back to you on those exact numbers. But yes, you are correct and that we are focused more on enforcement, or excuse me, education, then enforcement. Yes. Um, education and voluntary compliance.

[02:44:43] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you. Any other questions, Sean, council members? If not, are there any members of the public wishing to speak on this item? So please raise your blue hand or hit star 9 if you're on the phone. I don't see any, so I'll close it and bring it back and um, thank you. Thank you for the update. I know it's not great news, but it's important news, and I hope that we can all continue to do our part here. Um, we will go on to item 4 the consent calendar. These items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the council wishes to remove an item for discussion. Would any member of the council like to pull an item? Yes, council member Hicks?

[02:45:31] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I just wanted to call one out. It's 4.8. I just wanted to say something about it not to vote against it or change it in any way.

[02:45:40] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, yes, I have to have a comment on that as well. So, um, is there anything else?

[02:45:47] Councilmember John McAlister: Uh, yeah, it's counseling number McAllister.

[02:45:50] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Any other?

[02:45:50] Councilmember John McAlister: I would like to, uh, well, I don't know, 4.7.

[02:45:54] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, great. It's like seven. Let me go to the public and then we'll come back and we can speak to item 4.8. And hopefully add that to the balance of the consent calendar and then we'll go to 4.7 at the end. Any members of the public wishing to comment on any items on the consent calendar? So please raise your blue hand or hit star 9 if you're on the phone. I don't see any hands, so I'll close public comment and bring it back to council, uh, council member. I think you had. From previous council member Ramirez.

[02:46:38] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you there. I'll go ahead and move the balance of the, uh, consent calendar, including 4.6 adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View to amend resolution number, uh, 18490, uh, resolution authorizing joint application to the project home key program, to be read entitled only for the reading waived.

[02:47:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, and Council member Medachek?

[02:47:05] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: 2nd it?

[02:47:07] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. And then I go to, um, council member Hicks, if you'd like to comment on 4.8.

[02:47:14] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes, I just wanted to draw the public's attention to uh, to this particular item because it's going to go by probably pretty fast. This is support for the Santa Clara County emergency ordinance to temporarily cap food delivery fees. And this is something that we've gotten some amount of messaging from small businesses restaurants about because apparently those fees have gone up to sometimes as much as 30% so that restaurants felt like all of the the profit and, you know, tip money that they could give to their employees. they were no longer able to, um, access. So, um, I'm just very happy that the county's been working on this and I'm glad that we will probably, if we vote this way, um, that we'll be supporting that and I wanted to encourage the public in these, you know, difficult times to keep, um, ordering out for food because now your money should be going to the people working there. Thank you.

[02:48:20] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. And yes, I wanted to just add some comments on this item as well. I think we've all heard from, um, our businesses about the, the, The incredible fees. I was shocked to hear some of the, the, the percentages that upwards of 40% for some of these, um, delivery services. Um, and so I, uh, I know our Chamber of Commerce has been working with other chambers in the area on this issue issue as well. Um, we brought it up at our weekly mayor, Saturday morning mayor's call um, last Saturday. And, um, I actually just got, uh, a message this, Afternoon that, uh, supervisor Chavez and supervisor Samidian will, uh, are planning to bring it up at the December 8th account board of supervisors meeting to recommend, um, a referral to their county council, um, to, Uh, explore an ordinance, uh, considering uh, this uh, temporary cap and um, bring it back to the board for consideration on January 12th of 2021. I know that that timeline is, um, a concern to some, um, I is going to uh, check in with the supervisor's office to see if there's any possibility of moving that up, but I'm not sure what their um, winter break schedule is, so that may be the soonest that they can do it, and they do need to do some research on it. as well. But I appreciate the supervisors, um, being very responsive and and, and getting this, um, going so quickly. So with that. Um, if are there any other comments, discussion on the consent calendar, everything except 4.7, uh, motion was by Counselor Miramira, 2nd by Council member Medicheck. If not, can we get a roll call vote, please?

[02:50:13] City Clerk: Pretty clear. C member Clark.

[02:50:16] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yep.

[02:50:17] City Clerk: Council member Hicks.

[02:50:19] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[02:50:20] City Clerk: Council member Mattachek.

[02:50:22] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[02:50:23] City Clerk: Council member McAllister.

[02:50:30] Unknown Speaker: That's my McAllister. Could you unmute? Thank you.

[02:50:34] City Clerk: Council member for me rest.

[02:50:37] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[02:50:38] City Clerk: Bye, Mayor Kame?

[02:50:39] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[02:50:41] City Clerk: Mayor, a big coga.

[02:50:42] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Hi.

[02:50:43] City Clerk: Thank you. Motion guaranteed, I was like,

[02:50:46] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: thank you very much. And then we'll go to item 4.7 Council member McAllister, would you like to start us off?

[02:50:53] Councilmember John McAlister: Absolutely. And thank you for the opportunity to talk about measure B and how it affects the city of Mountain View and our fellow neighboring cities. You know, I'm the VTA board representative for Northern District, which is Palo Alto, Mount View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills. And this forecast that came out started out that they were going to allocate, um, their funding for BART, even though measure B had major categories like grade separation, that affects Mountain View, Caltrain, improvements, that affects Mountain View, SR 85, that affects Mountain View with drive-by traffic, and jenison. And none of these items were allocated funding. So, uh, I have to commend the city staff, and Don Cameron leadership with the help of city manager and transportation department, have been advocating through the various subcommittees, the sub, the, the advisory committees that BTA has, and when it's called the technical advisory committee, that Don Cameron is Cherub, and they are, they started the ball rolling in a sense, the saying, what you're asking is unrealistic, and it's not equity for all the regions. We have many projects that we need that's important. Uh, our roads, uh, there's uh, an item that takes helps us uh, maintain our roads, as you know, our roads are starting to get worn down a bit. And it's a, um, That's a point where some group, we're not sure who wants to allocate all the money towards BART. I have been saying for many years that Bart doesn't do much for Mountain Dew, if it does anything or for North County, and that all of the cities should partake equally and fairly in an equal distribution of the funds through over this 10 year period, that to us to wait for projects, like our great crossing, that ring store, that was, if that was put off for 10 years, where I would just, speculate that that would double the cost of construction, and that we would put us even further behind, not trying to improve the quality of life for our residents amount. So I am grateful that this was done. I'm glad, grateful that it was on our consent counter that we are ratifying a letter. I think the phrase, I guess, yes, ratifying a letter to the BTA board, telling him, Actually, not, which is safe to them, which you are proposed to be looking at, is not fair, and that you should take a different approach, and send a message to VTA staff, that their proposed, uh, starting point is not acceptable to us at all. So, I hope my fellow colleagues, in fact, I will then make the motion that we ratify item 4.7.

[02:53:42] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: You. I'll go ahead and 2nd that and oh. Go ahead and 2nd that. Um, and also just mentioned that, um, um, it's going to be in my report out as well, but we did have a meeting, a, a call with a supervisor submitian who, um, brought, um, our representatives from most the cities in his district together to discuss measure B and, and try to coordinate our efforts to, um, speak out and to raise our concerns. Um, so, uh, we will continue to do that. This item is going to be on the VTA board meeting. Agenda for this Thursday. I know council member McAllister will be representing us well there. Um, and so, uh, we will continue our efforts to, um, advocate for our, our, all of our city's uh, fair share. So with that, if there's no other discussion, uh, could we get a roll call vote, please?

[02:54:44] City Clerk: Council member Clark?

[02:54:45] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yep.

[02:54:47] City Clerk: Council member Hicks?

[02:54:48] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[02:54:49] City Clerk: Council member Medichek?

[02:54:50] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[02:54:51] City Clerk: Council member McAllister?

[02:54:53] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes, yes, yes.

[02:54:55] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez?

[02:54:57] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[02:54:59] City Clerk: Nice America, May?

[02:55:00] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[02:55:01] City Clerk: The Arabic Hoga.

[02:55:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Hi.

[02:55:03] City Clerk: Thank you, motion carries unanimously.

[02:55:05] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you very much. We will now move 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. Speakers, I'm allowed to speak on any topic, um, during this section and I'll decide on the time, um, Depending on how many, state law prohibits the council from acting on non-agenda items. Are there any members of the public wishing to speak on a non-agenda item? If you are in the attendee box, please raise your blue hand by hitting the, um, raise hand button at the bottom, and if you're on the phone, please hit star 9. Um, let's see, I see 3s. So let's if we could have 2 minutes for each speaker and we'll start with Tim McKenzie. Please unmute yourself to start speaking.

[02:55:54] Tim McKenzie: Thank you. Hi, can you hear me?

[02:55:56] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, hi, welcome.

[02:55:57] Tim McKenzie: Hi, thanks. My name's Tim. I'm resident of the Montaloma neighborhood for the past 5 years or so. Um, and I saw something in the news last week. Scotland became the 1st country to make period products free. This is something that I've brought up at city council a couple of times over the past year and a half . Um, in the news again. So I wanted to bring it up again, ask that we make curried products free in all municipally owned bathrooms. Ellen, I know that you helped take action on this and made this happen in the city council chambers. They should be extended to all municipal bathrooms, everything all encompassing, everything you have jurisdiction over. Lucas, I know you have also mentioned support for this. There's at least 2 people that have support. I hope that the rest of the council members would be supportive and I just wanted to bring this up again and ask that something be done about it. Thank you.

[02:56:58] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. I go to Albert James if you can unmute yourself to start speaking, please.

[02:57:05] Albert James: Okay, um, City Court, could you please, do you have a couple of slides? Yeah, just go to rugby to slide too. Yeah, next slide, please? Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I wanted to bring this up before, you know, next week's meeting when you actually start talking about this, um, the implementation of the narrow streets, oversized vehicles ordinance, because there could be a big problem in enforcement. Um, as you know, as you may know, on Cresanto Street, there's currently a parking ban there. I mean, 1st Tuesday of the month, which turns out to be today, people are not supposed to park there so they can allow for street cleaning. And yet I was there this morning at 9.30, next flight police. And of course, as you might expect. You know, there was nobody moving, you know. So what's going to happen when we put the oversized vehicle parking band signs? How is that going to change? I don't know the answer to that. I mean, I think enforcement, this is going to be difficult, and I encourage you to think about what might happen, you know, people, maybe people will protest, maybe people will sit outside their vans, you know, legal arms or tie themselves to the vans, I mean, RVs and refuse to go or something like that. I don't know But it's something to think about before next week's meeting, which I expect to be quite contentious. That's why I wanted to bring your attention to. Thank you very much.

[02:59:05] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. I will go now to Melise Leib. You might pronounce that correctly, please, and meet yourself to start speaking.

[02:59:16] Melise Leib: Hi. Uh, my name is Melise Lib, and I am a Mountain View resident. I'm proud to live in a city that values sustainability, like how the mayor and council member Clark, acknowledged Senator Hill for his focus on clean energy. It would be great if the city could expand their local focus to the national level. I've spoken at past council meetings about this before, stating that we can accomplish this with an endorsement of Congress's HR 763, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. To remind you, HR 763 is a carbon fee in dividend bill that puts a price on carbon and distributes the proceeds equally to American households. This policy will drive down pollution while unleashing innovation. Climate studies have shown it to be effective, reducing America's emissions by at least 40% in the 1st 12 years. And it's something the entire country all can agree on in these polarized times. Levels like it because it will help low and middle income Americans by putting money directly into people's pockets. Conservatives like it because it's a market-based solution that doesn't grow government. And everyone likes that it will improve health and save lives while creating 2100000 new jobs. An endorsement from a city such as Mountain View is important because it tells Congress that people care and cities care. Plus an endorsement for one of Silicon Valley's biggest high-tech communities would demonstrate that HR 763 makes economic sense and fosters innovation. As alia and sustainability, your endorsement would create momentum. It would influence local and national organizations and communities to give their endorsement, who in turn influence other communities and so on. The endorsement would be far reaching, taking our country closer to solving our climate emergency. It would be so awesome for you to give the endorsement before the end of the year, signaling to the incoming 2021 Congress to take action. Even now in the lame duck session. Congress may feel less pressured to vote a certain way. Those that have been reelected have the support of their constituents, and those not reelected have nothing to lose. I ask that you endorse HR 763 before the end of the year.

[03:01:52] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. We'll go to Alex Brown. Please unmute yourself to start speaking.

[03:01:59] Alex Brown: All right. Hey. Albert, friend, I love that you bring visual aids, your traffic simulations are a lot of fun, but your lack of compassion breaks my heart every time. Come on. Anyway, uh, I want to echo Tim's call for hygiene products and all the municipal restrooms. Like we should follow Scotland's weed, haggis, bagpipes, menstrual products. Tech companies have been doing it for a while now, and I think we can too. Let's go. But also, don't forget that some men also need tampons sometimes. Uh, please keep that in mind. Thanks.

[03:02:33] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. We go to Ruth Rosenthal. Please unmute yourself to speak.

[03:02:41] Ruth Rosenthal: Hi, my name's Ruth Rosenthal, and I am a Mountain View resident, uh, living near Rangstorf Park. Uh, I like uh, Malise applaud the city's efforts to address climate change by doing things like developing climate action plans for the community and making sure that we as a city are doing all that we can do locally to address the issue. Uh, as you know, to further address this issue and really protect our community going forward. We will need national legislation to help support our national move away from carbon intensive goods and carbon intensive energy. Uh, like Malise, I've spoken previously at past council meetings about the Energy, Innovation, Carbon Dimiden Act. Uh, this would dramatically reduce our emissions, lowering uh, our emissions by 90% by 2050. And I really feel that this is the sort of dramatic national action we need to address the climate crisis. And I like to echo what Melissa said and, uh, ask that you help us show our members of Congress that this bill is important to our mountain view community. And consider passing a resolution of endorsement for HR 763, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act in time for the new Congress. Thank you.

[03:03:54] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Any other members of the public wishing to comment on a non-agenda item? I don't see any more hands, so I will close all communications, and we will move on to the next item, which is, uh, let's see, 6 public hearings, we have none, so we'll go to 7 new business, and 7. is the city council ad hoc subcommittee on race equity inclusion. An update and recommendations, and we have a staff presentation. We'll start off with an introduction by our vice mayor. Um, who is the chair of the subcommittee, and then the presentation will be uh, continued by principal management analyst Melvin Gaines. welcome.

[03:04:44] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, thank you, thank you, mayor. Tonight's presentation is going to be a team effort and honored to be able to be part of the introduction as we talk to many different people who've been a part of these efforts. You know, I miss the national and local calls for racial justice and police reform. The city created through your leadership mayor, the ad hoc subcommittee on race equity and inclusion. I've been proud to serve as the chair of the subcommittee alongside yourself and council member Ramirez. The subcommittee's purpose has been to help guide the city's efforts to engage. The community a meaningful dialogue and take action toward a vision of racial justice, equity and enhanced community trust in law enforcement. In Mountain View. The REI subcommittee has met 4 times since being created in June, and tonight, principal management analyst and all the games will present a review of the many topics that the subcommittee has discussed as part of our comprehensive race, equity, and inclusion action plan. We are also going to hear from Ida Rose Sylvester, who is the chair of the city's human relations commission. As well as a part of the subcommittee. I appreciate the work of the HRC and the collaboration of the community. And the work of staff on this important topic on race equity and inclusion. And uh, just want to, again, say that this is uh, have been a collaborative effort and excited that we're going to hear from all of the people who have been hard at work, um, uh, as part of this and I'd like to turn it over to uh, Mr. Gaines to kick things off. Thank you.

[03:06:59] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Can you unmute yourself, please, Mr. Gaines?

[03:07:03] Principal Management Analyst Melvin Gaines: There we go. Good evening, mayor and council members. Again, my name is Melvin Gaines and I'm a principal management analyst and the city manager's office. Happy to be here tonight to discuss what we've been up to with the REI subcommittee over the past couple of months. Is my screen sharing correctly?

[03:07:32] Unknown Speaker: Yes, it is. Oh, actually, we just lost it.

[03:07:44] Unknown Speaker: There we go. Now, I see it now. Thank you.

[03:07:52] Principal Management Analyst Melvin Gaines: Having a slight technical difficulty please bear with me a 2nd.

[03:08:43] Unknown Speaker: Melbourne, would you like to send me the PowerPoint to see if I might be able to share it?

[03:08:48] Principal Management Analyst Melvin Gaines: I think I'm good now. Okay.

[03:09:03] Principal Management Analyst Melvin Gaines: All right. Am I sharing correctly? You see the presentation?

[03:09:09] Unknown Speaker: You see, um, yes, it's a little small because we see like all of the pages at the bottom. Um, I don't know if you can. Oh, now we lost it again.

[03:09:25] Unknown Speaker: There we go. That's. That looks right.

[03:09:30] Principal Management Analyst Melvin Gaines: All right. Thank you for bearing with me. And I apologize for that. I have 2 screens and I clicked over and I was toggling between. But here I am now. Um, So again, I'd like to thank you all for the opportunity to present in front of you and thank you, Vice America May, for the introduction. This presentation will be split into 2 parts. First, I'll provide an update on the race equity and inclusion subcommittee efforts. And then, and as well as the race equity and inclusion action plan, I'll refer to it as REI action plan and REI subcommittee. So if I do that, I'm referring to race equity and inclusion action plan and or subcommittee. Following the update, I'll provide a presentation on the RAI subcommittee recommendation to establish a public safety advisory board. With input from the REI subcommittee and meetings with community members, staff develop the race, equity, and inclusion action plan. The action plan seeks to guide the city's efforts to better understand the impacts of city programs and policies on racial equity and justice. And it has 3 primary focus areas. Policing is at the forefront nationally and locally. The city is committed to understanding the impact of the police department's policing efforts on communities of color in Mountain View as well as assessing programs, practices, and policies to identify and implement modifications where appropriate. The action plan also focuses on implementing a range of opportunities for community dialogue about policing and race and celebration of the rich history of diversity in Mountain View. Finally, the plan is focused on reviewing the operations, programs, and policies across the city and organization, including looking at the city's budget and engaging a community in a budget process to ensure equitable allocation of resources, exploring an impact of historical zoning and land use planning on communities of color. And assessing and enhancing city personnel practices, and engaging employees to ensure diverse and inclusive workforce with the training and resources to provide culturally competent and equitable programs. The the REI subcommittee has considered many of the REI action plans during the 4 meetings that they've held since June. Action items include review of police department data on police contacts. 2 meetings to discuss community police oversight models, and the ultimate recommendation to establish a public safety advisory board, which I'll discuss in detail for later. We've participated in regional collaboration, which includes staff, participation in a collaborative effort, uh, a collaborative cohort of 6 cities, working with Stanford University to explore policing oversight models as well as alternative approaches to responding to mental health crises. We've hired a research fellow to help the city better understand the best ways to collect, analyze, and give context to policing data. And we in a way that we can better communicate and share with the community in a way that they can understand better. And later in this presentation, deputy police chief will provide an introduction to the research fellow who's joined us recently. The subcommittee has also explored alternative responses to mental health clause for service, receiving a presentation from Santa Clara County mobile crisis response team. City continues to explore alternative responses to mental health crises, working with our neighboring jurisdictions as well as Santa Clara County. The subcommittee, It also, uh, received a presentation on the police department's budget, the police chief provided an in-depth presentation, providing details on the different Mountain View Police Department programs, the Mountain View Police Department. Departments within the department. And overall spending and why the city budgets the way that it does for the police department. Additionally, the REI subcommittee discussed equity-based budgeting and supported a recommendation to apply an equity lens to the fiscal year 2021, 22 budget, which the full council approved on November 10th. The subcommittee also discussed the mini community engagement efforts that the city has engaged in since June. inclusive of staff members and city council members having one-on-one meetings with community members and community groups. Uh, the HRCs, community engagement on local policing form, which we'll hear later about today. as well as the MVPDX educational forms. Other RAI action items that have been undertaken include creating a race equity inclusion webpage, the city taking the Obama Foundation's pledge to reimagine policing. The library created a race equity and justice library collection. And the city has also hosted a number of racial equity and justice events and will continue to host those events. City also incorporated gender-inclusive pronouns and city documents and policies. Upcoming RAI action plan items include an HRC stability, roundtable, and implicit bias scheduled for December 2nd. Efforts to assess and ensure equity and sustainability planning and program design, implementation and community engagement. And launching a city staff initiative on diversity, equity, and inclusion to include trainings, assessment of recruitment, hiring, and other personnel practices. Additionally, The city will continue to explore alternative responses to police service calls related to mental health crises in conjunction with regional partners. City is launching a strategic effort, a strategic planning effort, in February of 2021 that will provide additional opportunities for the city and community members to further define the city's approach and objectives to achieve racial equity and justice. At this point, we're not certain if the RAI subcommittee will meet again, but we are potentially going to hold additional meetings in 2021. Earlier, I mentioned that the city has hired a research fellow. I provide a little bit more context now. Uh, Looking at MVPD policing data, the city recognizes that there are various questions that remain. And we seek to gain a better understanding of the data and find ways to better respond to that. data. Following up on the work of the regional cohort of city managers in Stanford University, the city had discussions with academic leaders at Stanford and the University of Michigan about ways to evaluate policing data. These conversations led to the city working with these academic leaders to design a fellowship that will bring a doctoral research fellow to our staff. who could use scientific evidence-based processes to analyze Mountain View Police Department data, and help the city better understand the best ways to collect, analyze, and give context to the data in a way that the community we serve understands. We hired a PhD student from UC Berkeley, who will do, who will conduct analysis to better understand MVPD contact data, identify any data gaps, and help design program and policy solutions. The fellow is based in a police chief's office, but works closely with the city manager's office. To staff's knowledge, no other cities in our region have hired a research fellow specifically to analyze policing data to better understand the story behind the data. Recommend potential solutions, and report back to the city council and community. At this point, I'd now like to invite Deputy Chief Shung to introduce The research fellow.

[03:18:15] Deputy Chief Shung: Thank you, Melvin, Deputy Chief Shung with the police department. Good evening, mayor and members of council. Just a little bit of information on Alex Stevenson that I'd like to introduce. Um, as Melvin laid out, um, the rationale for us becoming involved in this very unique um, opportunity with Stanford. Um, I know personally, I'm very excited about it, um, to fill in some of the gaps on, um, the time that uh, we've since brought Alex on. He spent a couple weeks with us now and really gotten a chance to meet the entire leadership team as well as line level staff and just kind of getting a sense of how the department does the work that we do. As Melvin mentioned, data is at the forefront, not only locally but nationally. But we also understand that data is not just one dimensional. Data is multidimensional, and I'm excited to have Alex and his talents on board to really help us have an academic and scientific look on that. So, without further ado, I'd like to turn it over to Alex for him to introduce himself and greet the rest of council.

[03:19:27] Alex Stevenson: Thanks, Deputy Chief. Thanks, Melvin. Good evening to the council. It's nice to see Mayor Vice Mayor and Councilman Ramirez again. My name is Alex Stevenson. I'm currently a PhD candidate in my 5th year, the University of California, Berkeley. My substantive focus is in political science. And I predominantly have historically looked at security institutions. Prior to coming to the University of California, Berkeley, I worked in DC for almost 6 years at a variety of institutions most recently before going back to grad school, the Rand Corporation. I was drawn to this fellowship, as mentioned by both Melvin and Deputy Chief, because of the collaboration with Stanford, but in particular, I have great respect for Anita Robbie Shakur, from Michigan, and Hakeem Jefferson, who's a professor at Stanford, and they were the primary reasons that I applied initially to be able to work with them. As deputy chief mentioned, I've been in the job now for around 3 weeks. I've had an opportunity to speak with a variety of members, both in command staff, but also line level officers and sergeants, as well as detectives, that experience so far has been very helpful. And I'm looking forward to continuing those conversations. The predominant focus of my work as mentioned is to take a look at what data exists in the department from an administrative perspective. What data doesn't exist? So data that we might consider future opportunities or hypotheses, to find ways of incorporating that data. And then also to take a look at what that data is telling us using the best methods that we have to analyze observational data, both from a causal inference perspective, but also to understand contextually what is going on in Mountain View. That work has begun. And so in early stages of that, but I'm excited to continue working on that. And with that, obviously, I'm open to any questions that the council has at this time, but I will turn it over to Melvin otherwise.

[03:21:26] Principal Management Analyst Melvin Gaines: Thank you, Alex, and thank you, Deputy Chief Shung. Um, I actually would like to hold questions a little while longer and we'll maybe open it up for questions if counsel desires after we conclude this 1st half of the presentation of the update. Um, and now I would like to actually invite, uh, HRC member IRO Sylvester to provide an update on the HRC community listening sessions. Um, I'm wondering who there we go. Do you have the next slide?

[03:22:10] Human Relations Commission Chair Ida Rose Sylvester: Great. Thank you very much, Melvin. I appreciate it. I'm Ida Rose Sylvester, chair of the Human Relations Commission. We formed an ad hoc subcommittee to engage the public regarding policing in Mountain View in May. Tell plan and facilitate the engagement, we hired PCRC, a local organization with a long history of expertise in this area. We launched the engagement process in August and concluded with a report out session on November 18th. Our objectives were to provide a space for Mountain View residents, workers, and visitors to share personal stories that increase the visibility and understanding of interactions between MVPD and the community. And to gather information for an HRC report to a BPD and the city council to help further inform police policy and programs. That report is transmitted to the city council as part of tonight's packet and goes into much more detail than will be summarized in this presentation. Before I continue, I like to thank our community, who trusted us with their stories and their time. And thank you to my colleagues, Julie Solomon, and Annette Lynn, as well as Audrey Seymour Lambert for all their hard work on this project and their good humor. Next slide, please. Um, so just a few notes on our actual um, process. Thank you. The process wasn't designed with the rigor of an academic research project, and we were tasked with developing specific policy recommendation. However, our report provides insight on the experiences and perspectives of a number of people in the Mountain View community, giving us the opportunity to find areas for further exploration. The engagement process provided different ways for people to participate. We held online forums, hosted an online portal and conducted one on one interviews. The forms themselves were designed to reach different constituent groups with one each in Spanish, Mandarin, and English, and one focused on youth. Our online portal allowed anyone who wanted to contribute a story anonymously in writing. We hosted one-on-one interviews with harder to reach populations, including homeless unstable house residents, as well as local nonprofit and business leaders. The participants were not selected to be representative of our entire community, but we did seek to connect with as diverse a population as possible. Across the formats, Participation was likely limited by some people not being comfortable sharing negative experiences, and others not being motivated to share positive ones. Access to technology and concerns about confidentiality may be other factors. As you can see, we reached 183 participants across the mix of the different ways we went to reach them. Next slide please. So from these stories that we heard and read. PCRC identified core themes and counted each time these themes were mentioned in the different stories. This generated frequencies which show how common the themes are relative to each other, but which do not provide any absolute quantitative indication. Bear in mind that the data reflect what is referred to as a convenient sample of people who are willing and able to share their experiences in the ways that we offered. However, they still provide a robust set of data reflecting the lucrous experiences and voices of a number of community members. I will briefly review the frequent themes in 2 general categories, expressions of satisfaction, and expressions of concern or need for improvement. In our report, we provide much more information in samples from stories that demonstrate these states. Satisfaction in general was mentioned 82 times. There were 29 mentions of general expressions of satisfaction or appreciation for MVPD without specific details given. There were 21 mentions of positive community relations, including more stories in which police presence in the community built trust and left a positive impression. There were 12 mentions of helpful police assistance and 10 mentions of pleasant police interactions. And there were a number of other ones, as you can see in the slide. Underneath needs improvement, there were 266 mentions, including 43 mentions of domineering police behavior. These are stories where an officer acted in a way that was considered food, arrogant, overbearing, avoiding. We have 42 mentions of race-based or biased releasing, in which stories of police contacted people, treating them fully or making assumptions because of their race or socioeconomic characteristics. There were 41 mentions of police not being the appropriate personnel for the call, including stories where people said a mental health professional would be a better person or an SRO should not be working with youth. We had 35 mentions of police training, a need for police training, where stories of people suggesting training to improve, interpersonal skills, or reducing concerning policing behavior. We also had quite a few mentions, 34 of a lack of trust in the police in general. 27 negative mentions or mentions of negative community relations, 23 mentions for the need for more police accountability and transparency and quite a few other smaller mentions, as you can see. One I do want to point out is that we had 8 mentions of the community's own bias leading to unnecessary calls to the police. I would like to wrap this up by saying that consistent with our community engagement objectives shown in the 1st slide, we recommend that these findings be used in combination with other data to inform policy and practices. And to promote ongoing dialogue about the diverse experiences of individuals and groups within our community, to keep raising awareness about the lived experience of others. One of our unexpected findings was how familiar, unfamiliar some people are with the experiences of others, and how much we can learn from each other. Um, our next step is that we will the HRC subcommittee will be meeting with deputy chief, um, John, um, next week, along with other police department executive staff. We hope in the future that we can have a meeting where we can host the community and police and dialogue. I'd like to thank the council for the opportunity percent tonight. you.

[03:28:17] Melvin: Thank you, Commissioner Sylvester. With that, I'd like to take a pause. To allow any questions on the 1st half of this presentation, which was the update on the REI subcommittee and on your action question. Thank you.

[03:28:37] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Any questions from council members thus far? I see Council member Ramirez.

[03:28:43] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, mayor. Um, just a couple that are sort of along the lines that I asked during the REI subcommittee meeting, so I guess for the, for the HRC, um, so what demographic data, were you able to collect in, in this report? uh, I think there's been a lot of interest in, you know, qualitative data. I know there's a lot of interest in quantitative data and the analysis that comes with that. So, I don't know if you if you can speak to that.

[03:29:18] Commissioner Ida Rose Sylvester: Council member Ramirez, and if it's okay, I can provide a response. Okay. Great. Um, so the, the, Process was designed to allow people to remain anonymous, um, and so we did not collect in the written stories. demographic information that along with story details might have, um, proved to, uh, identify people or they may have been concerned about being identified through through that information. Um, it was optional for people to provide demographic data either upon registering for the forums or during the polls and the forums, but that was not uniformly done by participants. And so we are not able to provide the frequencies or even the participation broken out by demographic groups.

[03:30:15] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay, so so that, and that, that, I think that's, that's helpful for, for all of us to sort of appreciate what we can do with reporting what we can't do. Um, but given, given that some demographic data, it sounds like, was collected, were, were there any trends within within, uh, the, for instance, the stories where, uh, a participant voluntarily provided demographic data.

[03:30:40] Commissioner Ida Rose Sylvester: Um, we didn't analyze the data in that way and I don't know that it would be robust enough for us to be able to see trends within it. But what I can say and what is included in the, the, the more detailed report that was transmitted to council with tonight's item is that, um, there were, um, the forums that were kind of constituent group specific, including the Spanish language forum, the, um, um, Mandarin language forum. And of those, the Mandarin Forum, had some things in common that were like more um, than the general themes across all subgroups and across all methods of gathering stories. They tended to have more of the positive expressions of satisfaction. Um, for the youth group, um, they tended to have less of the positive expressions, um, of, uh, in terms and more of the expressions of concern or need for improvement with, with more of the themes around, um, uh, police, not the appropriate personnel, and viewpoints about whether SROs have been helpful in their perspective in the schools. Um, the other was not as much demographics with regard to ethnicity or race, but with regard to, um, the, um, uh, socioeconomic demographics. The folks who participated in interviews who are unstably housed or homeless, had more frequent interactions with police, and more concerns about unnecessary ticketing, um, and negative community relations.

[03:32:29] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay, thank you. that's that's helpful. Um, well, I don't know if, if, you happen to have, so, you know, the report is, is a summary of, of, stories that were provided and the input receipt from the public. Um, and sometimes the council will receive, in addition to a summary, some of the raw data. I don't know if you happen to have any, you know, offhand, but other, other samples of actual stories from the report that you would be able to provide just to give us a sense of what I, I wasn't able to participate in any of the, um, forums and so I haven't heard anything. What kinds of things did people share, I guess, if there are any samples that are available?

[03:33:17] Commissioner Ida Rose Sylvester: We tried to illustrate that in the reports by including quotes, um, and paraphrasing sometimes so that we want, um, providing all of the details of a story, again, in order to, um, respect, um, the, the commitment that we made to to provide, um, confidentiality and anonymity to the extent possible. And so those are examples, um, for each theme, which I'm guessing that you saw in the report. Um, we, we have um, or can have from PCRC, the notes from the forums, which are not so much stories as they are bullet points that, that are comments made in the dialogic form of discussion that happened in the small groups. Um, we also have the written stories from the online portal, but it was not our intention to have those be public, um, publicly shared documents. They are often quite detailed and quite personal.

[03:34:25] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay, great. Thank you. That's all I have.

[03:34:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, Summer Hicks.

[03:34:32] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Well, those questions overlap with mine to some degree, but I have a few questions left. Um, I'm wondering whether there's any way, so it's, it's kind of hard for me to figure out what's going on with only such high level summarization. Um, so I'm wondering if there, but I appreciate, you know, the people, uh, when they told the stories, you know, were promised confidentiality. I'm wondering whether there's any way of, um, Because people members of the public remain engaged with this process, if there's any way of, um, asking voluntarily if anyone would release any of the stories, just so that I, at some point, a little more color for, you know, what the stories were like and what's going on. So that's one question. And then I have a 2nd question. Do you think that that would be possible?

[03:35:31] Commissioner Ida Rose Sylvester: Um, I, I, we, other than the interviews, we wouldn't really know who to go back to, um, and ask if they had that comfort level with, with sharing. Um, And so if, um, it were counsels direction to, to do that, we could go back to those that we, we know who they were when we talked to them. Um, uh, and by we, I mean, the the HRC subcommittee, uh, members who conducted those interviews.

[03:36:05] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, um, yeah, I mean, possibly people who are still engaged would just want to volunteer that, but I'll let that question drop. And then my other question is, um, How will the community engagement stories be used for in the future, um, either by Mr. Stevenson or for future policy or in any other way? Is it just going on a shelf? Or is there are there some sort of robust plans for using that material?

[03:36:43] Melvin: Sorry, certainly not um, just going on a shelf. Um, I think that these themes, and I think, um, uh, Ida Rose, um, stated it They give us a really good opportunity to explore what the experience is, or the impressions are of a number of people in the community, and how that might inform, um, the way that the police engages with the community and the way that the training happens and other things, to have it be, um, completely, you know, predictive or directive of program or policy, additional analysis and information would be needed. Because, um, you know, there are other data sources and things that could be more quantitatively reliable to be able to indicate what would be an effective what's going on and what would be an effective change or intervention. I'm going to borrow a word that I've heard our research fellow, Alex, mention a couple of times. as he talks with the professors and academics who are, um, uh, supporting and coaching his work. And they've been able to do this in other communities where you get an, you get, use this kind of information to identify where you want to learn more. And then you design ways to to plumb those depths and design something that might be an improvement in program or policy, that you can further test even with, um, more analysis. And those are the kinds of things that the research fellow would work on. And then as Idol Rose mentioned, the HRC subcommittee will be meeting with the leadership of the Mountain View Police Department in order to go over the report in more detail and to hear from from the police department what they see as areas to take next steps in.

[03:38:59] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, those are all my questions. Thank you.

[03:39:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Council member McAllister.

[03:39:04] Councilmember John McAlister: Thank you. Thank you, staff, and thank you, HRC Sylvester, for spending some time. I mean, that was, uh, I think that's what HRC really should be doing, is looking at those type of things and finding solutions. So I appreciate your work on that. I had a question for Melvin. Um, I read, like, there was 18 different programs that you guys were initiating already. Um, How does that compare to other cities? Are we behind cities below cities? Are we, uh, Are we ahead of cities? I mean, Where how does that compare to other cities that you can know of, especially like the research fellow, the budgeting, the, you know, the various collection of the library? I mean, that was some thought there. So, How do how do we compare with other cities?

[03:39:59] Mr. Gaines: Um, I'm most familiar with city of Palo Alto and some of the some of the other cities that were involved in the cohort of 6 cities. And Each of those cities have come up with different ways to address issues of racial equity, um, but we're all doing it somewhat differently. Uh, I believe that we are the only one that has hired a research fellow. But a lot of other cities are also exploring alternative police responses and mental like to mental health crises, uh, We're not unique in that sense, but we're also taking advantage of the opportunity to collaborate with other cities. Um, I would say that we were leading in many respects, but sharing the information that we have with other communities as they are sharing with us and trying to take a collaborative approach.

[03:40:55] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. So I read there's quite a bit of data, even though it might be raw or, you know, not as detailed as some other people did. So, Just from sort of a high level, with the data that you've seen, How do you think the city of Mount View Police Department looks?

[03:41:15] Mr. Gaines: I'll actually discuss some of the data in our data findings in my 2nd part of this presentation, which is my recommendation from the REI subcommittee. Uh, to form a public safety advisory board. However, the data, it depends on which variable we're looking at. Um, I'll, I'll, I just ask you to bear with me and I'll present thoroughly on, on those items a little later.

[03:41:41] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. And to uh, uh, Sylvester. Did you feel that you had a opportune time that you were able to get a get a true sense of how people felt through your interviews and so forth?

[03:42:02] Commissioner Sylvester: Um, If I understand, you're asking if we could have done more research or,

[03:42:09] Councilmember John McAlister: well, yeah, given the time, but do you feel that you got a good sense of of what was out there or how people felt?

[03:42:17] Commissioner Sylvester: Um, I feel fairly strongly, actually, if my, I have a colleague um, who has more thoughts on how we collected our data, if she would like to raise her hand to speak, I'm not sure if she would. Julie Solivan. Um, that to put her on the spot. Um, We feel we heard a lot of the things over and over in a very consistent manner. We've heard stories that were fairly similar, so they rang true to us. That's both +and, if you will, negative stories. We thought we were hearing the same themes expressed in similar ways. We, because of COVID and because of having to do everything online, and because of the limitations of technology, a lot of people just don't know how to use Zoom or don't have access to a computer or the internet. Uh, especially in the evening hours when we did a lot of this work, we discovered a lot of people were coming to us after the fact wanting to tell us stories. We actually get pinged almost every day with people who would like to tell us more because they just now heard about this. So I think there is a lot more, but I do feel that what we got would stay consistent even if we interviewed another 100 people or so or talk to another 100 people or so.

[03:43:24] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. See that Drew Solomon has raised your hand and would like... That's that's fine. You answered my question. I don't think you answered the question that you and I was looking if you got a sense. Okay, those are my questions for now and I'll save the other ones from Melbourne when we got to his aspect. Thank you.

[03:43:44] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Any other questions from council members? Doesn't look like it. Thank you so much, Ms. Sylvester, for your presentation. I guess we will continue with Mr. Gaines for your 2nd part of the presentation.

[03:44:04] Mr. Gaines: Thank you. Thank you. So now I'd like to begin with, uh, discussing the REI subcommittee recommendation to establish a public safety advisory board. The city considered many considered community oversight, community police oversight models because Mountain View residents expressed interest in creating a formal opportunity for community members to engage with MVPD, review policies and practices, and participate in law enforcement related decision making. Furthermore, the REI subcommittee expressed interest in exploring different models of community police oversight as a way to enhance public trust in law enforcement and ultimately enhance public safety. Since the RII subcommittee expressed interest in exploring community oversight models, staff has researched various community oversight models, discussed public safety matters with various Mountain View stakeholders, and as I mentioned earlier, worked with the cohort at Stanford of Stanford University researchers and regional city leaders to explore approaches to community police oversight and other public safety matters. Ultimately, staff discussed common community oversight models with the RI subcommittee, and later returns to the subcommittee to discuss a recommended oversight model for Mountain View, after assessing the most appropriate model for the city. There are 4 primary police oversight models that the RII subcommittee was able to discuss. Those include investigative bodies, auditing bodies, review boards and commissions, and task forces. The primary function of investigative agencies is to conduct independent investigations of complaints against the police. They often make findings on the validity of the complaints made against police. Typically, investigative agencies are staffed by professional investigators who have the authority to make decisions or recommend discipline. It's not common for investigative agencies to include a the ability for members of the public to comment on the decisions that they make. It's more so done in private in a private way because they're dealing with personnel issues. Communities that often have investigative oversight agencies, have significant erosion of trust and goodwill between the police department and the community. And those series have often experienced controversial events that have caused distrust. Auditing and moniting agencies. include the systematic review of police operations and internal investigations. And those auditors recommend improvements for police departments to change based on their findings. They're staffed by professional auditors. Typically they make recommendations to police chiefs, city administrators, and elected officials. Similar to investigative agencies, auditing agencies don't really involve a community input opportunity. Also similar to the investigative agencies, communities that have auditing agencies, have often often experienced events that cause distrust of their police department. And there is little trust and goodwill between the community and the police department. Temporary task forces are oversight models that for a fixed period of time will evaluate police department policies and practices and make recommendations to the police department or to the governing body of a community. They're typically comprised of community members who represent diverse perspectives, and they operate for a limited term. They're formed, specifically, to address policing in the community, and they are normally include, comprised of community members appointed by a city manager or a city council, who bring different backgrounds and experiences to the task force, but it's really a, They're, um, charged with working for a fixed period of time and making recommendations that the governing body will ultimately consider whether or not to accept. Most communities that have implemented task forces, have strained community police relations and have experienced some controversial events in California. There are examples of task forces in Stockton. Uh, and there is also an example in San Diego, California, as well as in Colorado, uh, Aurora, Colorado recently had a task force commission, and that was due to controversial events with a young man dying in police officer custody, as well as police officers making inappropriate comments about that person's death. Again, it was really the task force was formed as a emergency board to look at these pervasive community issues and to find ways to address it. The final model that we that discussed with the RII subcommittee was the review boards and commissions model, which is inclusive of various different types of boards. Uh, Some review boards and commissions discuss and make public safety recommendations. Others actually look at complaints against the police department and make determinations on that. And some just are there to be a sounding board for the police department. Most of all, review boards and commissions are comprised of community members, and they include opportunities for non-board and commission members to provide public input. They make recommendations to police chiefs, city administrators, and elected officials. Communities that have review boards and commissions vary. Um, often they are communities that have opportunities for the police department to work collaboratively with the community. Um, And there's meaningful opportunities for public safety to be enhanced from that collaboration. Community members having the opportunity to discuss their concerns as well as learn about policing issues and provide recommendations to improve policing. When considering all 4 of the police models, it's it's, Both mentioning that there's no best practice or recommended model that fits all cities. the best oversight model for communities, one that meets the local needs based on the political, social, cultural, and operational realities that demonstrate the need for increased public trust and police accountability. At the November 19th REI subcommittee meeting, the subcommittee discussed, 2 questions. Where does public trust and accountability of MVP need to be increased? And how might a community police oversight body accomplish? Increased public trust and accountability? The analysis that the subcommittee considered include an examination of Mountain View crime statistics? Mountain View Police Department contact and use of force data, and community feedback on policing. Considering Mountain View crime statistics, the subcommittee discussed that the most prominent crimes in Mountain View are property crimes. Ultimately, Mountain View is a relatively safe community, and in context of crime suggesting a need for a particular oversight model, the review boards and commission model seems most appropriate. Because that model provides additional opportunities for community members to voice their concerns about crime. Mountain View Police Department does a good job of providing opportunities for Mountain View, community members to share their their crime interests, whether that be through submitting and ask Mountain View requests, attending copy with coffee with a cop. Events, attending council neighborhood committee meetings. As well as just calling the police department to speak with a member of the department. With all of those vehicles to share. Prime concerns, it could still be enhanced through a community advisory body, sorry, a public safety advisory body. Discussion of Mountain View Police Department's contact data, highlighted that people of black and Hispanic races represent a larger proportion of MVPD contacts than their proportions of Mountain View's population. As I mentioned earlier, it's unknown whether or not this is due to bias in policing or some other factor. But the city and MVPD are committed to further exploring contact data as evidence by the city, hiring a research fellow, and genuinely intending to look at that the research findings and find ways to better address or address anything that we find. As the city gains a better understanding of MVPD, Contact data, an oversight board could discuss and provide a community voice to digesting the research finding, as well as make recommendations for how the city addresses any adverse findings. Considering whether Mountain View use of 1st data suggest a need for additional oversight. Staff presented data to the RII subcommittee showing that MVPD has a low use of force to a rest ratio. From 2015 to 2019. Police department made 8,408 arrest and had 145 documented uses of force. That's about 29 use of force. Per year, and that's less than 2% of their arrest made. The primary uses of force that were documented in my MVPD in that five-year period from 2015 to 2019 were uncontrolled takedowns, which made up 37% of the uses of force. It's worth noting that there were no firearm, hearted restraints, pepper spray or canine uses of force, as well as that there were no documented injuries, major injuries or fatalities. Despite this low use of force to arrest ratio that, The city doesn't believe that we should, Accept mountain views, use of force policy and in a way that the community responds to mountain views policies as golden, an assembly public advisory, um, a community advisory board, could provide the opportunity for community discussion and input on matters related to use of force. The, RER subcommittee, HRC members and city staff have engaged in the community in various instances, to gain understanding of community concerns related to policing. We heard from the HRC. Commission chair, Sylvester earlier, but I'll summarize a Q few themes from all the engagement efforts that the city has undertaken in the past few months. Uh, So whether it be from one on one meetings between the community members and city council members and REI subcommittee members, one on one meetings between city staff, whether it be police department staff, or city manager staff, and community groups, or social media input, or public comments. We've received both +and negative feedback. Um, As the as commissioner, Sylvester mentioned earlier, some of the most frequent concerns that were communicated, have been domineering behavior by the police, race-based or biased treatment, police not being appropriate personnel for responding to situations such as mental health crises, and the lack of trust in police from some participants. The most frequent Expressions of satisfaction relates to general appreciation for the police, positive community relations, police assistance, to resolve problems, and friendly caring police behavior. Overall, with both +and negative feedback. We've determined that their policing can be enhanced from having greater community input on policing matters. One of the underlying themes that has been expressed has been a clear concern community from communicated from the community. that, They don't want mountain view to experience the type of pervasive issue that has caused distrust of the police department in other communities. And they also believe that community members have a place in ensuring that that trust remains. Considering the REI subcommittee recommendation to establish the public safety, Advisory board. I was got to say that ultimately there is, Mountain View hasn't experienced the type of pervasive issues that cause widespread breach of public trust. But there are still opportunities for improvement. Community engagement efforts show that some community members have experienced negative interactions with the Mountain View police. And the city also needs to further examine the overrepresentation of blacks and Hispanics and MVPD context. Furthermore, there is a shared interest from the community. Mountain View Police Department and city leadership, for Mountain View to lead by example, and engage in continuous improvement. Both to sustain and to enhance positive collaborative community police relations, and effective equitable police services. As recommended by the RAI subcommittee, public safety advisory board would be the most appropriate model. of oversight over MVPD. Characteristics of the, the, public safety advisory board are that, you know, the public safety advisory board would act solely in an advisory capacity and be tasked with receiving community input on policing matters. as well as providing input and recommendation to the police chief, City manager and city council on public safety matters, including the development of community policing concepts, increasing public awareness of public safety matters, furthering Mountain View Police Departments, engagement and transparency efforts, and identifying best practices. The subcommittee recommends, That the body have up to 7 members who are planned by the city council. And also that the city council strive to appoint members who bring diverse community representation to the board. Mountain View residents of from who live in different neighborhoods, who are varying ages, races, cultures, et cetera. Regarding staffing of the public safety advisory board. The subcommittee recommends that the staff who serve the board include a member of senior police staff, and a non-police department employee designated by the same city manager. Recommend police representation to ensure that the police department is present in the discussions, can hear directly from the community, and can provide expert law enforcement context to discussions. A non-police department staff member is recommended to provide a non-law enforcement staff voice to support a public safety advisory board. And with that, I conclude my presentation and welcome any questions.

[04:00:46] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you very much. Any questions from your council members? Council member McAllister.

[04:00:55] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, Melva, let's uh, let's try to, uh, again, the same question. based on the data that you've seen. How did you think the Mountain City Police Department came out?

[04:01:13] Mr. Gaines: Based on the data that we were able to discuss at subcommittee meetings. Mountain View Police Department. It depends on which data you're looking at, the contact data shows that there are some overrepresentation of certain demographics.

[04:01:30] Councilmember John McAlister: The overall data, the big picture, not the individual, but the big picture data. taken as a whole.

[04:01:37] Mr. Gaines: As a whole, I reiterate that there is room for improvement.

[04:01:43] Councilmember John McAlister: But it's a department, a fair department.

[04:01:45] Councilmember John McAlister: Is it a good department? How do you think it compares to other departments?

[04:01:50] Mr. Gaines: Mountain View Police Department does a good job of promoting public safety and has a culture that is that values safety, that they have a, you know, they value community engagement. They have an overall good relationship with many of Mountain View police. I mean, Mountain View community members. We don't see the types of pervasive issues that occur in some of the other communities. There aren't many people. Alleging that Mountain View Police Department is using excessive use of force or that we don't see that mountain people police officers, as I highlighted in the use of force data. There aren't very many uses of force. There aren't very many personnel complaints against MVPD. It's a very subjective kind of, Comment your, um, but it's, I think Mountain View Police Department is doing a good job and can improve.

[04:02:46] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Do you know if any people of the public took advantage this might be for the deputy chief? Take advantage in this time when this 1st this topic came up since uh, During the summer, took advantage of the ride along program, or because of COVID-19, we stopped that program.

[04:03:10] Deputy Chief Chung: Deputy Chief Chung Police Department. Yeah, unfortunately due to the COVID restrictions, we put the write along program on hold, but we did create the MVPDX experience that allowed for 10 members of the community to get a pretty in-depth look at how we do our operations.

[04:03:28] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. That's my question for now. Thank you.

[04:03:34] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Any other questions for staff? In the 2nd part here? Yes, council member Ramirez?

[04:03:43] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, mayor, just a couple of quick questions. Uh, so, I think one of the themes that I saw in some of the emails from the public that we received, uh, relates to the scope of work of the proposed body that we're creating. And uh, just for, for my benefit, are we looking at providing the HRC report, which lists a number of themes based on the stories that were heard, the feedback provided, and sort of having that serve as the basis of the work for the advisory body.

[04:04:27] Unknown Speaker: Council member Ramirez, if I could handle that question. So I think right now, as far as the scope goes, um, the next steps for staff, um, council, if should counsel approve the REI, um, recommendations, are to really develop the scope, um, and to really think about those top line issues that not only the REI subcommittee discussed, but also the themes. Um, so not only the themes from the HRC listening forums, but as you all have heard, there were many other opportunities uh, for public engagement and uh, feedback opportunities that we have all learned, whether that's one on one or through MVPDX, but, um, certainly we would take some of those themes to potentially develop a scope, but also some of the recurring issues like uh, looking at alternative mental health calls for service, um, continuing collaboration on, um, other regional, regional agencies. So I think we would still need some time to flesh that out, but um, we would look at those themes as well as look at the feedback provided by the subcommittee.

[04:05:32] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Great. Thank you. That's very helpful. Um, and then the other uh, one of the other, sort of, series of questions, questions was about the, the staffing provided to the advisory body, and just to, to clarify, Mr. Gaines, I think you spoke to this, to some extent, but, um, you know, when we think about staffing, are you thinking, you know, especially for the representative from the police department? Part of the value is, they can provide the data, information, access to staff, that the advisory body will need in order to provide the recommendations that they're generating to the city council. Is that is that sort of what you're thinking?

[04:06:14] Melvin Gaines: Absolutely. I think that the most well informed city staff on policing matters are the police department staff. Um, And them being involved means that they can share policing information and provide the law enforcement perspective to those discussions, as well as hear firsthand the concerns of community members.

[04:06:40] Unknown Speaker: And council member Ramirez, if I may piggyback on your question, thank you, Melvin. So I want to, I want to be clear on the role of staff because I think there has been some confusion as to staff versus members of the recommended committee. So, um, as Melvin said, staff uh, would serve the committee and help facilitate information, help facilitate the flow of um, questions and answers, agenda setting, um, help with the scope, doing work on the back end, similar to the work that staff would provide other advisory bodies or commissions that we have in the city. So staff would not serve as members of this advisory body. They they would be, um, there in a support capacity.

[04:07:27] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Great. Thank you. Those are all my questions.

[04:07:30] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, counts number hicks.

[04:07:35] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, um, Mr. Gaines, you showed a table, unfortunately, I don't have it in front now. Um, but with the different kinds of um, boards or advisory bodies or task forces that, um, that, that, the REI subcommittee looked at. And they vary, you know, in name and composition and kinds of tasks and then the time duration of that those different bodies would, would, um, would embody. Um, but is there ever so I've been getting a number of emails from members of the public saying that they would prefer a shorter term task force. And I'm wondering, you had those broken out as if, I'm wondering if you can never, if we can ever mix and match those. I mean, it seems we can. They can embody the task for one group and the time duration of another. I've had members of the public ask questions about what the body be named. It seemed, although you had those, I think there were 4 different bodies in very discrete ways. It seems like, to me, like, they could be mixed to match to some degree, and I just wanted to check on your response to that.

[04:08:56] Melvin Gaines: There are definite components of so I provide an overview of 4 different community police oversight. Agencies and an idea of each of those Oversight models is that they are Oversight models that include non-police oversight of the police department and there are a number of different ways that that can be fulfilled. Um, depending on the need for a particular type of oversight. If in communities where there are a high number of Complaints against the police department, those communities often want an independent police investigator to conduct personnel investigations because they don't trust the police department to do it themselves. Similarly, an auditing agency is an independent body that will audit police personnel complaints as well as police operations and make recommendations for the police department to to improve. A temporary task force. is a body comprised of community members who are tasked with a very short term, focused mission of evaluating certain police department policies or police department operations, and making some recommendations within a limited period of time. Uh, while the public safety advisory board that we are recommending does not necessarily include uh, the oversight body having doing additional investigations of personnel complaints similar to the investigative model. It does not include them auditing and frankly, they couldn't audit, both investigative and auditing agencies have professional investigators and professional auditors who would be those investigators. Um, but there is nothing to say that those investigation investigators or auditors could not make recommendations to a policy, public safety advisory board. Um, And with the task force, there is nothing to limit the duration that a public safety advisory board would operate for in order to set deadlines or dates that the public safety advisory board would return to the governing body or city council to make recommendations or discuss specific matters.

[04:11:19] Unknown Speaker: Council member Hicks, if I could provide context on that too. I think, um, certainly should the council, um, you know, want to want to deliberate on on a model that is something that you could discuss, but the recommendation from the subcommittee is, is this model taken into account all of the, um, information that we received, um, also all of the work that, that we thought that the advisory body could do, um, over time and, um, the policy making from the council. So, um, that is something, obviously, that, um, the council can discuss in your discussion part of it, but, um, I think that you do have the ability to mix and match, but the recommendation from the sub, sub, from the subcommittee was, was this model for all of those, those reasons and that, that month of research.

[04:12:13] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Thank you. Nice seeing you.

[04:12:19] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. I just had a quick follow-up question 1st staff. So, I know one of the things that we had been talking about at the ad hoc subcommittee was, um, putting the information for the HRC report out. So, um, I know that, um, you know, I had I was able to attend the HRC report out for the portion. Um, and I just wanted to make sure that we were going to be putting that up. I saw that we did have the the transmittal up on the mountain view dot gov slash REI, but wanted to make sure we also have the report out video and I know that there's been, um, some questions about, you know, wanting to have the transparency of all the discussions. And so, you know, we did have the HRC come and speak tonight and I just wanted to make sure that we can, um, if we're going to be able to put up the the video or if there's any further information, um, coming out soon. We could share that.

[04:13:22] Unknown Speaker: Um, I will connect with, uh, the conflict resolution center, um, who created the video and the early, the, um, general plenary parts of the November 18th. Um, Report out session to see if we can get that and have that posted.

[04:13:42] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. Any other questions from council members? See any hands? So, I will open this up for public comment now. If you are a member of the public in the attendee box and machine to speak, please raise your blue hand by hitting the raised hand button at the bottom. And if you are on the phone, please hit star 9. And if city clerk, Set, uh, let's see, let's set it for a minute and a half, please. And I wasn't sure, will you be raising your hand or signaling us when the time is up?

[04:14:22] City Clerk: I can, I can, right now, I have to use a manual a timer. Okay, sorry, but I will.

[04:14:28] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Um, we will start with Rohin Gush. Please unmute yourself to begin speaking.

[04:14:41] Rohin Gush: Hey, counsel, uh, I would just like to say that, I think the, the recommendation to move into this, uh, to quote this advisory body is insufficient, and I am, uh, I, I am concerned by the fact that the, uh, HRC was did not make a presentation in full, uh, or was not allowed to do so at tonight's council meeting. I think a lot of what was what a lot of the information they collected is extremely important and is essential to the mission of the council. And addressing some of what I think, uh, Councilman McAllister presented his questions. I think the focus on somehow the issue of is mountain view better or worse than other cities misses the point of the fact that a very, very, very significant portion of the city's residence have had extremely negative, traumatic or violent interactions with the police. And that these experiences, just one of them is too many. And that there is a serious problem here that has been shown by the HRC's research. And I think that this step being presented is wholly insufficient to address that, but that I yield my time.

[04:16:12] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Go to Megan Fraley, please unmute yourself to speak.

[04:16:18] Megan Fraley: Hi, thank you, counsel. Thank you, Melvin, for the incredible amount of work that you've done. It is very, very deeply appreciated. Um, So I just want to say, um, my name's Dr. Megan Fraley and Mountain View resident, community organizer and a clinical psychologist. I have my master's degree in social sciences, the University of Chicago. And a PhD in clinical psychology from Sofia University. And I mentioned that to say, I've been very distressed, hearing how research is being discussed. We're discussing qualitative research that was requested to be done by the Human Relations Commission through a quantitative research framework as a way of diminishing its value. I would say, Margaret Abby Koga, Vice Mayor Kame, Um, Does Trayvon Martin's story matter, if it's not statistically significant? So Mayor Abby Koga, I see that you're looking down and not at me, and that is very much registered. Um, but this is what, this is what this all feels like is incredibly, incredibly disrespectful to the community. 5 minutes for the HRC that was due to hours of lobbying council members to basically say, look, we did our due diligence. We did something, but it, I think the distrust in this moment is more around the city council than it is around the police department. And we can't trust an advisory body, but only 5 minutes is given to that much labor from the human relations commission to report stories of people that have been hurt, abused. And there are problems in our police department, as there are on a systems level. So our trust is being undermined, and my request would be to actually get community input on this, this like advisory body and actually present in a meaningful way versus something presented online, the human relations commission report. So we can hear people's real stories. And anyone has questions about qualitative versus quantitative data.

[04:18:13] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Well, go to our next speaker, Eva Tank. Please unmute yourself to speak.

[04:18:20] Eva Tank: Hey, good evening. you hear me?

[04:18:22] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes.

[04:18:23] Eva Tank: Okay, awesome. Um, uh, thank you to the city staff and thank you so much to the HRC for all of your, um, hard work over these, uh, last few months, and I know that it is, um, not the most savory experience to, um, be hearing from us all the time. Um, But I really do appreciate uh, all the work that you've put into, um, this recommendation. Um, my concern is um, echoed. I'm sorry, I'm echoing, um, Dr. Fez's concerns about, um, The fact that we had to, uh, really push for the HRC to be able to present tonight. And so for an advisory body to be recommended, I'm concerned about, um, the advisory board being able to hold our police department accountable at all, um, if all they are able to do is, um, make recommendations similar to the HRSC. Um, how do I know that there will be tangible change felt by the community? I'm not super convinced of that, uh, given what we had to do for HRC to present tonight. Um, I also, uh, beg the question, why are we asking if we're more or less racist than other cities? I really feel like, uh, you know, given that we've established the race equity inclusion subcommittee that, uh, we have already identified this as an issue. So, just wondering about that. Thanks for your time. yield the rest to the mayor.

[04:20:04] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. We'll go to Tim McKenzie. Please unmute yourself to begin speaking. Are you there too?

[04:20:22] Tim McKenzie: Hey, can you hear me?

[04:20:23] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: There you go. Yes.

[04:20:24] Tim McKenzie: Excellent. Thank you. Um, so I, I want to respond a little bit to what, uh, a point council member Hicks made earlier about, uh, if any residents want to share their stories from the, uh, the HRC listening sessions, thanks to staff for all the work that you did on this. It's much appreciated. In the report out, in back in November, uh, I was in a small breakout group and a black resident of Mountain View mentioned that he is afraid to walk in his neighborhood around dawn or dusk because he's sometimes the cops drive by and he's worried about some sort of profiling incident and then something going awry. That, I can't speak to how he feels. I'm a white person. I don't really I don't feel that viscerally, but, It made me ashamed to be from Mountain View. Like there's a clear problem across the nation. And one of the main issues is that the police are armed agents of the state tasked with law enforcement. That's actually a fairly narrow role that doesn't require, We ask the police to do so much more than they're actually asked with. And we've heard from the data, there's disproportionate stopping of people of color in our community. We've heard that Mountain View police don't need to use force, that they haven't used their weapons. We should not be having armed agents responding to most of the calls that they do. We need to we need to reimagine and restructure what community policing looks like, reallocate resources and Remove, disarm the police. Thank you.

[04:22:13] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Well, go to Annette Lynn, please invite yourself to speak.

[04:22:18] Annette Lynn: Hi, my name is Annette Lynn. I'm one of the HRC members who is on the subcommittee in, um, Thank you for the city staff and city council, um, who've been supportive of our efforts. I understand that, you know, this is a very contentious issue. Um, I just want to put forth that one of the biggest lessons that I think I personally learned and the rest of us on the subcommittee learned. Um, were, you know, People who participated in, um, our forums getting exposure to each other's stories and the diversity of experiences that folks get here in Mountain View was really educational for them, um, for everyone who participated. Um, there are many times I heard individuals say, oh, I didn't even know that that would happen with Mountain View police. And, um, It's just all to say that, you know, I think it's been underscored many times that our intention was not to create a, excuse me, statistically significant study, of course, but, um, instead to expose each other to each other's stories and to break out of each other's bubbles. And I think that we really got a great start on that. And we had amazing participation, um, from community members this summer, and I personally would like this to just be the beginning of the conversation. Um, and that's what I had to say. Thank you.

[04:23:49] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: We'll go to Julie Solomon, please unmute yourself. Just speak.

[04:23:55] Julie Solomon: Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. This is Julie Solomon from the HRC subcommittee on Community Police Relations. Um, I just want to highlight a couple of points building on comments that others have already made. There has been a question of whether the proportion of negative versus positive experiences and the relative frequencies of the themes, reflect or represent numbers for everyone who's part of the mountain view community. So the answer is that we don't know whether our numbers are similar to are different from those as a city of the city as a whole. And if they're different in what direction. The only ways we could know about the numbers for the whole city would be to either conduct a census, gathering data from everyone, or collecting data from a random sample of community members. These were not and are not feasible methods for our subcommittee. Our community engagement effort was really a qualitative study, as was mentioned already, with a convenient sample. We had diverse and active participation of people who came forward, in spite of many factors that might have dissuaded people from coming forward. Well, we can't generalize the specific numbers to the whole city, given the range of themes we identified, the wide variety of community members who gave input and the recurrence of themes across groups. I feel extremely confident that the data provide a valid source of information in combination with other data sources to inform discussions about policy and practice, moving forward. Thank you.

[04:25:27] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. We'll go to SC Stone. Please unmute yourself to speak.

[04:25:33] Ezzy Stone: Hi, can you hear me?

[04:25:34] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, welcome.

[04:25:36] Ezzy Stone: Hi, hi, thank you, counsel for listening to us, and thank you, especially Mr. Gaines, for your presentation. Um, my name's Ezzy Stone. I am a new mom, um, and I have a few questions about the um, the board structure that is being suggested. Um, I'd like to know if there is data on how often the recommendations made by these boards, um, is implemented, um, and what the measure of success for these boards are. Um, I would also like to know if police will be required to um, to allow open access to all of their data with the board. And I would like to know why the only recommendation of the HRC thus far is this one board when it seems like we've had overwhelming community response with regards to getting school resource officers out of schools in particular and coming up with a new strategy for mental health 1st response. Um, so I would encourage the council to listen to their, um, their residents on this issue, and thank you for your time.

[04:26:45] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. We'll go to Miriam Conner, please unmit yourself to speak.

[04:26:49] Miriam Conner: It is so fast. See um, Thank you.

[04:26:56] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, Miriam.

[04:26:57] Miriam Conner: Thanks. Hey, hi, I'm Miriam. I'm from the Rex Manor neighborhood. First, I wanted to thank Mr. Gaines in the city staff for all the work they put into crafting their recommendation. Um, I'm hoping that the council will take time to incorporate this public feedback and the findings of a full HRC report before moving forward with the public safety advisory board. I mainly concerned about the president and precedent in Mountain View, where we form advisory bodies, but they don't really have very much impact on the policy implemented by the city. And I really don't feel that we should be spending staff or volunteer time on an advisory body if it's not going to have a meaningful impact because I feel this doesn't do justice to the work that the city staff did to propose and compile information about this board. So, um, now I would prefer that this board be temporary with a clear time frame and a final report and a clear outcome. Uh, similar to what uh, they recently did in Los Altos, so that we could focus the work and make sure the outcome is heard by council, and then if that's effective, um, then extend it and make it indefinite. Um, and then, like some other folks, I also want to underscore the significance of the findings by the HRC, and I really hope city council will take these seriously, even if they aren't statistically representative, as people discussed at the entire mountain view population, because, um, even if the majority of Mountain View residents are satisfied with the MVPD, the city serves all of Mountain View and not just the majority. And so

[04:28:28] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: your time is up. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay, is Sebastian Brisbol? Please unmute yourself.

[04:28:37] Sebastian Brisbois: Hey, can you hear me?

[04:28:38] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, hi, welcome.

[04:28:40] Sebastian Brisbois: Okay, hey, yeah. So, yeah, my name is Sebastian Brisbois, and, um, yeah, I'm a resident of Old Mountain View, and I would like to, you know, 1st of all, say thank you very much to city staff and the HRC for all the hard work. You know, it's it's good to see that we're making. You know, some progress, but I would also like to, um, talk about a few things that I think could be improved. And so one thing is city council has talked about needing to find a solution that exist in a city similar to Mountain View. And although like Stockton was mentioned as a place with a task force, but you know, just down on the street, as has been mentioned, LaSalle does implemented a short-term task force that has already come up with proposals that have been voted on by the city council over there. And yeah, there can always also be another task force as needed. And, you know, this happened actually here in Mountain View with the environmental sustainability task force. There was a 2nd one. So I think there's precedent of this working nearby and in our own city, where we can set up something short term, and we can evaluate it with a report at the end from this task force. So, In addition to that, I would just like to talk about the need to, remember, just like other people have said that individual stories really do matter. That's the whole reason why people are calling in is because started by the Black Lives Matter movement. We need to acknowledge individuals and minorities, not just society as a whole. Let's listen to them. you.

[04:30:17] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Well, go on to Sally Labor. Please send me yourself to speak.

[04:30:24] Sally Labor: Hey, mayor and council. I want to give credit to council and HRC and to city staff for taking this issue up. Um, I think that it is, uh, a bit hobbled and probably giving a negative reaction to many people in the community like me because, um, so many people were of the impression, including myself, that there would be a dignified full opportunity for the HRC's findings to be heard. And so many people didn't uh, attend the truncated version of it that took place in committee recently. Um, because we were told that there was going to be a final report out in at council. And I think when we're talking about, uh, unhoused, uh, residents in the community, when we're talking about youth, when we're talking about people of color, uh, people of low income, uh, people with developmental disabilities, we have a greater duty of care to, uh, hear their narratives and to, uh, pay attention to them in a, in a dignified way. Um, I'm also very concerned that, uh, a board that is, uh, with the frame of police oversight, that's um, staffed by the police, uh, doesn't pass the common sense, um, understandings that that most people have about independence. And so I'm hopeful that if we have to have this, that it can be a short term thing. Thank you.

[04:32:00] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Well, go to Elizabeth Green, please, unmute yourself.

[04:32:07] Ellie Green: Hello, can you hear me?

[04:32:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes.

[04:32:10] Ellie Green: Hi. Uh, my name is Ellie Green and I'm a Mountain Dew High School student. Now, I just want to share with you a moment that I had the privilege of experiencing, last week, on Tuesday, talking after the Royal South the City Council meeting. I've had the privilege of working with a motivated group of students, fighting to get police off of campuses. And they did. That decision was made at the South city council meeting last Tuesday. At one o'clock in the morning. Where we got to sit on a call and sob with relief and with joy, knowing that lost out those campus was no longer a threat. And yet we come to Mountain View. Where there are still cops on campus, where there's an ineffective committee, that has established a task force with no clear goals, with no true oversight, and no accountability. So now we get to go back to these high schoolers who are overjoyed for change for safety on their campuses and tell them, oh, by the way, Mountain View, Mountain View City Council. They're not doing anything. They're not worried for you, worried for your safety. They don't hear your fears. They don't care. Is that the message that you want to be sending to your youth? That you don't care, that you're not willing to fight for them? Create something with a spine. Create a system that's effective. Criticism that can do something. And fight for your kids.

[04:33:39] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: We're going to Dana Petey. Thanks, mute yourself.

[04:33:45] Dana Petey: Hi there. Data PD, Mountain View resident and member of NBC Bre. Really want to thank Mr. Gaines and the HRC for their hard work in these past few months. Specifically, the HRC's findings are much more of a holistic representation of voices than any one of us could possibly gather from the people in our own lives and our own neighbors. So please counsel. Listen carefully to the narrative that you heard in the very short 5 minutes tonight and take the time to meaningfully explore that, perhaps in another meeting. And if you're not sure how to reconcile what you're hearing in that report and also tonight with what you previously considered about Mountain View policing, please consider joining me tomorrow night at the HRC Civility Roundtable, and we can unpack our implicit biases together. I'm just really troubled by some of the comments I've heard in past few months. But downplay the concerns that have come out. Uh, you know, of course there's going to be people who have positive interactions, but don't use those few anecdotes to ignore the many constituents who aren't demonstrating harm. If I'm a teacher and if one of my students is getting bullied, I listen to them and I stand up for them regardless of statistical significance. These stories have to matter. I'm really encouraged by the promise of future work is shared by Mr. Gaines, but how do we know that this work won't be ignored? We don't really have much reason to trust that this advisory body is that's currently proposed. will have any power to do anything meaningful. Even if the group is able to do great work, it's not going to mean anything if it gets sidelined away from the center stage of city council's attention. So please, respect this issue. Respect the community that keeps showing up every time and give this work to a task force that will actually get its work on the council's agenda in a meaningful way. You saw how hard it was to get even the HRC 5 minutes tonight. Thank you.

[04:35:22] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Go to Kevin Ma, please unmute yourself to speak.

[04:35:27] Kevin Ma: Evening, members of the Mountain View City Council Dad. My name is Kevin Mom. I am context that, um, it seems that Mountain View is a bit so long place for fun compared to other series. Those outdos had, yeah, permission citizens task force. Alto at least has made discussions to talk about making changes to hiring practices as well as exploring for cahoots and an oversight capability for their IPA. And that this, uh, and every city we know looks at every other city as an example to set and lead or follow depending on how quick the uptake is. Like, we've, basically, we're back to step one, which is we're making a new body that's just here for listening, because we all know that advisory boards are kind of places you hide stuff. Because no one wants to deal with it unless it's so incredibly controversial like you find on EPC or something. That I, this council really needs to also make sure they make enough public output for what these implementations are, much like next week's non, the RV parking limitation. The city has not really done a great job of notifying people of any of these kind of changes, especially during the holiday season when everyone the pandemic's getting worse as usual. That the city really needs to step back, make sure what they do is actually substantive and listen to the public. Thank you.

[04:36:43] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: We'll get them, Moira Fong. You send me yourself?

[04:36:52] Moira Fong: Hi, good evening everyone. My name is Moira. I graduated from Mountain View High School a few years ago and live in the area. I overall wish that the HRC had more time to present, given that the purpose of the HRC doing all these findings was to give residents and the council time to process and understand the findings as a result. And so I think we need more time to understand the HRC's findings and to figure out the most effective way to take actual concrete steps towards change. As a result, I urge delaying the forming of this board. It's clear that there's still a lot of information that we need to go through and still much work to be done. At the very least, if there is a board to be formed, it should be a temporary task force. I actually served on a Los Altis task force that's been mentioned, and I think that is really effective and that we were able to have a specific focus and really dig into our scope. This allowed us to be a smaller group that was able to really objectively listen to the police department and the public before making final recommendations that the city council is able to actually vote on and take concrete actions on. I think the structure is effective in smaller towns, such as Los Altos in that view, because it allows the task force to focus on specific topics and specific issues that are relevant to the town. Instead of instead of having a review board that doesn't have a definite goal at the end and cannot be held as accountable or rescoped or reevaluated to make sure that it's continuing to be as effective as possible. So as a result, I strongly urge that if there is to be some form of board forms tonight, I really hope that it's a temporary task force, similar to the structure of all solstices. Thank you.

[04:38:22] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Good, Kelsey Joseph, please unmute yourself.

[04:38:27] Kelsey Joseph: Hi, my name's Kelsey and I am a resident here and a software engineer. Um, I've been following this cross off eagerly and I'm excited to continue to do so. There's been market progress and I'm glad to see the city taking some steps in the right direction. Thank you especially to Mr. Gaines and the HFC for all of your head work. Um, however, I'm concerned that this proposed board will not be empowered any more than the HRC seems to have been, um, to have its findings actually have an impact. Um, and what they're able to report out will not be taken seriously. I was deeply troubled. And frankly, kind of offended, by the way, council member McAllister spoke to Mr. Gaines. The results of his findings, the HRC's findings, um, were very clear to me as a resident and should be clear to anyone who's interested in listening to those who have criticism and not just praise. Um, with the role of the government to take care of all of its people, especially those who have the least and suffer the most. Um, it's pretty... Ridiculous to be like, okay, so after we hear all of that, doesn't that mean we're actually doing great? Um, that it races all of the nuance and all of the results. And if that's the attitude you're going to be taking. That I think we just seriously reconsider our approach here and implement something with teeth instead. Thank you.

[04:39:48] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And finally, Alex Brown, please unmute yourself.

[04:39:52] Alex Brown: Oh my god, you know I love going last. Uh, Melvin, you've been doing a great job. Thank you. Uh, okay. An advisory body without teeth is less worth engaging. If you want public trust, empower the body with a clear mandate, focus, and domain expertise to make meaningful decisions. If you want the trust of the community, let the public safety advisory board be accountable and give them power. Otherwise, why would any of our myriad community groups, that John loves so much, go to them when we can just come pester council directly? Also, uh, I participated in the 1st cohort of MVPDX. Hi Katie. And I'd be glad to talk to any of you about it if you're interested. Thanks.

[04:40:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: And you're actually not last. We had one more, Blaine, one sick. If you can unmute yourself. Sorry if I mispronounced your name, Lane.

[04:40:45] Blaine DeWanzick: Hi, can you all hear me? How you doing?

[04:40:47] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes.

[04:40:48] Blaine DeWanzick: Hi, my name is Blaine DeWanzick, and I'm home in Mountain View. My mother, Mary Beth Bird is with me, who's also a Mountain View resident. Um, I want to say thank you to Mr. Gaines and the work of the HRC for hosting such important community forums over the past month. My mom who's here with me was able to attend and found them really meaningful. And I want to encourage the council to listen to the community tonight, as well as the 1000s of youth and um, Mountain View residents over the summer who march for Black Lives Matter. Um, and asking for a change not just in the world, but specifically here in Mountain View. Um, it's really important to respect the movement that's happening in our nation, um, to demand accountability and equity when it comes to policing. And the way to do that is not a rushed process that creates a um, vague advisory board, but instead to create as many have suggested a temporary task course, that is focused on real outcomes, um, to increase equity and justice in Mountain View when it comes to policing. I'm not comfortable with a shoddy or rushed response to protecting my black neighbors and my neighbors of color. Thank you all, and I hope you have a good evening.

[04:42:01] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Exactly. Anyone else wishing to speak? I don't see any other hand, so I will close public comment and bring it back to council for deliberation in a potential motion. We'll start with vice mayor.

[04:42:19] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thanks so much. I just, um, I had a quick question uh, for the city manager. I just wanted to clarify, since it seems like there's been a few questions in on the public about the HRC report out opportunities. So I know that there was the targeted report out on the 18th. And I know there was the update at the subcommittee on the 19th. Can you maybe share a little bit more about what it went into tonight?

[04:42:49] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Certainly vice mayor. So yes, that is correct. There was the, um, public report out for the HRC listening sessions on the 18th, um, where PCRC and, um, HRC presented the findings from the report and then there was opportunities for small breakout groups for community members to go into, to, um, share stories and discuss the results and, um, also talk about, um, some scenarios, um, and how how people might react to scenarios. And then on the 19th, as you mentioned, the REI subcommittee met and staff reported out the results and the findings at that time as well. Um, I do believe there were um, comments made by HRC at that time, but uh, staff did present the findings uh, in that meeting as well. And so tonight, um, just because we had a very comprehensive presentation um, from Mr. Gaines, um, the HRC presentation was incorporated as part of that because, um, uh, there were a lot of the topics to get through. So, um, there, there have been, uh, 3, 3 instances at least, um, that's, that's get into your question where, um, the information was provided.

[04:44:13] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: And the, and the report outs were, and I, and perhaps the public doesn't know that, the council was able to attend the report out opportunity. Uh, we were able to participate in the small sessions. Um, but I saw quite a few of us were part of that report out as well. And I realized we didn't necessarily disclose that before, uh, we started talking about the topic tonight, but I, but I think that that might be something that could be helpful in that, um, you know, council had, um, had that opportunity to hear the full PCRC plus HRC report out at the 18th and I know, um, I think many of us attended that. Um, because that was also an opportunity or an opportunity for counsel.

[04:45:02] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, we'll go to council number Hicks next.

[04:45:08] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes, I attended that. Um, so I'm, I'm open to, uh, as many members of the public have suggested a uh, short-term task force along the lines that, um, that Los Altos explored since, or, or did, um, since that seemed to have some, some good outcomes. And I would love to hear what other council members think about that.

[04:45:35] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Count number Ramirez?

[04:45:40] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you mayor. Um, there's A lot to say, so I'll do my best to be, um, quick and coherent. Um, so, 1st um, I'll be supporting the staff recommendation or the recommendation that came out of the REI subcommittee, and I'll do my best to explain why. I think, So, in thinking about the difference between a time limited task force and a permanent advisory body, one of the things that stands out is something that I believe Mr. Gaines had said, and either this meeting or the, or yes, subcommittee meeting, and that's, this is a, a conversation that will take a long time to, to fully evaluate and digest, and, and it's not something that I think we can do. in the course of a short period of time. Uh, if you look at the, the themes that were identified in the HRC report. There's a lot of material that we will need to to go over. There's a lot of data that we need to collect, a lot of community input that will need to solicit. And I think that it's, it merits a permanent body or, you know, something close to permanent. Um, I I think, you know, you can do some tactical things with a task force. Um, you know, it's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a perfectly valid way of, uh, coming up with recommendations, but I think the, the magnitude of the, the, or the, the scale of the material that we're looking at is, is much greater than just sort of the, the, the tactical changes you can create with the task force. So I appreciate the elegance of the staff recommendation and allowing the city, you know, a greater, you know, a longer period of time, greater opportunity. To really um, to really delve into this. Um, you know, and talk about some of the things that members of the public had referenced, including, um, you know, SROs and the mental health, um, response and that kind of thing. But there were other themes that I think merit just as much discussion. Um, you know, the most frequently occurring expression of concern or improvement needed is domineering police behavior. Um, you know, that's, I don't think there's a simple solution to a problem like that. I think that's something that we need to think about. What does the data actually show? Um, you know, what are things that we need to better understand about police practices and what are improvements that have been made in other jurisdictions. These aren't things that I think will solve in 6 months. Um, and so I, I think, I think a permanent body. Um, is is a better way to go than a time limited task force. The other theme that has, I think, been shared and a lot of the public comment is, well, you know, task course is is empowered to make more decisions or, uh, has greater authority. And I, I, I think they're functionally equivalent, a permanent advisory body in a task force. The Los Altos task task force, for instance, um, still required the approval of the council. The task force could have made recommendations that the council, you know, may have chosen to deny. Um, I didn't, I didn't watch that meeting. I'm guessing the council approved many or all of the task force recommendations, but it still required council approval and the same thing would be true of this advisory body. They would be empowered to make recommendations, you know, working with staff, uh, in the community, and the council still would, would be the, the ultimate, uh, you know, approval body. Um, so I, I, personally, I don't see a lot of value in going with a time limited task force unless there were one or 2 very specific things that we wanted to achieve. And I think what the HRC report and what we've heard from the public suggests that there's, there's a lot more that we want to, we want to discuss and better understand. Um, Another thing that I think has come up a lot is, is the, you know, the body has a vague or undefined mission. And I don't agree with that. I think that, you know, it's, it's, it's pretty clear the, the scope of work that we're talking about. Um, personally, I think a good place to start is the HRC report. Those themes that are uncovered from the stories provide, you know, the foundation for a work plan. Um, I think as with any other advisory body that we point, um, the body itself should determine its work plan subject to counsel approval. But I would hope that when the body does that, it looks very closely at these themes and says, you know, here are the things that we think, you know, we should start with, you know, and take community input on that. That would be my preference to establish the scope rather than for us to dictate that, you know, tonight. Um, I don't feel prepared to do that. Um, And then there was, there was concerns about stacking by police, and I think this is another area where I, I, I disagree with, with members of the public. I feel like it's important to provide the body access to MVPD. I think 11 thing I appreciate about the proposal is MVPD has been very willing to be a part of the conversation. It's a very, it's a key stakeholder. Um, and there has to be a level of buy in from, you know, any department that we're talking about reforming. Um, and I think this is, you know, we're very careful with our words here. This isn't a body that is led by MVPD. It includes a liaison who helps staff it in the same way that, I think, as, as Mr. Gaines and others have pointed out, you know, we have staff assist us with, you know, any item that that goes before the council or the way staff assist the other advisory bodies. Um, and that's important. If you didn't have participation from MVPD on some level, you won't have access to the data and the information and, you know, the policies that you will need to have access to. I think it's important to have access to staff. I think that's one of the most important things. Um, you know, I've been a, a participant in 2 advisory bodies. One of the things I've always appreciated is the access to staff that you have. And I think that's essential also for this body. Um, so I, I, I don't think that there's, um, you know, a conflict or anything. I think it's, it's, it's, absolutely essential that we give body the access to the staff and to the information that they will need to succeed. Because the last thing I'll say about that is, um, in my, my day job, I've been a part of things that get up to council, get approved, and are forgotten about. And I think that comes, that, my guess would be that, that's because there was never a level of buy in, from, you know, whatever department, you know, we were talking about at that time. I think buy-in is essential. I think that's why we work together very closely, very carefully. We take the time to understand everything that we're doing, um, to make sure that everyone at the end of the day is is roughly on the same page. We may disagree about certain policy proposals, but you know, we've had an opportunity to work together and flesh it out as fast as we can. And I think that's why this, this body, that, that I hope we will create, um, is is so important. It's a, it's not the, the last stop. You know, this is the beginning of a much longer conversation. Um, And I'm excited to see the work that comes out of it. Um, so I'll stop there um, and hear what my colleagues have to say. Thank you.

[04:53:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Council member, Madachek.

[04:53:31] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So, um, I really appreciate the conversation we're having here tonight. I um, as I was going through the staff report and the attachments. I must admit, I was also wondering why the REI subcommittee wasn't proposing, uh, a body that did have a time limit. To me, this seemed like a good application of that. Because I do feel like there are specific topics that need to be addressed and in some ways, when there is a time limit, and we haven't really talked about what that time moment would be. Um, it could be 6 months, it could be a year, it could be 2 years. Um, But I feel like it adds to the sense of, um, urgency and focus and getting things done. Which is why I was thinking this, uh, it would make sense to have some, this sort of time bound. Um, I appreciate a lot of the comments council member Romero's just made. Um, I would want to see as a 1st step, um, based upon the HRC's work, um, a proposed work plan, um, but then the council would have the opportunity to provide input on. Um, because I think I've said this a number of times, I feel like I always get a better result when you have people from different backgrounds, different perspectives, coming together to put together a joint plan. And, um, you know, certainly we would want community input on that, council input, staff input, um, to make sure we've got a work plan that we can all agree to. Um, I also appreciate the comments that Council member Ramirez made about it. Sorry. I'm in the council, um, committee room and a poster just fell off the wall and scared me. Um, I'm not sure why it fell off the wall. Um, but, um, The access to MVPD. Um, I think it is important to have MVPD at the table. Um, you know, we talked a lot about, um, trying to have understanding and collaboration and buy in, and again, MVPD is going to have a perspective that, um, will add more information, um, and understanding, uh, for why things are done away, they're currently done and, um, ideas on how they could change, um, that can be implemented, you know, quickly or maybe more, it might be more difficult. So I do think, just like at every single council meeting, we have experts on staff that, you know, work with us, I think it's important to have MVPD at the table. And I appreciate their openness and desire to be part of the conversation and part of the collaboration to move things forward. So um, I'm feeling more comfortable with the, um, proposal that the REI subcommittee made, but I do think I'd like it, um, to have a deadline. Or a hard check in, um, to see whether or not we want to make any changes to it, um, or continue it as is, um, But again, I'm interested to hear what others have to say. Thanks.

[04:57:10] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, council member Clark.

[04:57:13] Councilmember Chris Clark: No, I largely agree. Um, I, um, with most of what comes from a matter of fact, I, and wholeheartedly agree with, um, Officer Ramirez, you were very articulate, and, and I think you made a really good case for why, um, why we're going down, uh, or thinking about going down this particular route in, in the, in the nuances we're supposed to see with the recommendation. Um, so I, I plan to support uh, the recommendation here, um, or the, the, um, the recommendation before us, I'm from the subcommittee, and, um, you know, I think, to council member, matter checks, concerns, you know, I think you could build in as quite, as you develop the work plan for, for this body, you could build in some, some check-ins or, or, or some specific guidance if you wanted. I'm not sure we. Um, but I'm open to what others feel there, whether we should, you know, talk about that tonight or, or save it for, um, the time when it, um, when the council reviews the, the actual work plan and, and the details of, you know, the body, how large it is and, and the makeup of it. But I did just want to echo, as my fellow council members have said before, how important it is to, you know, on everybody that I've served on. One is the access to the staff with the expertise and what you're trying to, um, either advise on or impact or change or or work toward a better solution. And the most important thing you could have, even with the rental housing committee, for example, you have the ability to have, you know, property owners on that, um, and and the goal is not to, um, Um, you know, create, um, uh, you know, a body that's that's less effective. The goal is to ensure that you don't have an adversarial relationship and so that you're all working toward a similar goal. And the last thing that we would want here, is to have, you know, an adversarial relationship where we have a body, um, that, um, you know, our, our, our key partners in all of this, for the police department, you know, feel like they, um, uh, you know, some level of trust isn't broken or there's just some adversarial relationship without any, you know, um, communication back and forth or frequent, um, um, frequent working together, and having the staff member there, I think, provides both the, the, um, the, um, the information that the body might need in a real-time basis or be that liaison to the department, who can help ultimately make this more effective, since we're all really working toward the same goal here. Um, and, you know, if the, if the particular staff member isn't working out, that can be changed if the, if the model here isn't working out. It can be changed. Um, these are, these are all things that, um, you know, if, if things just aren't going in the direction that we want that we can, um, make some modifications along the way. So, you know, I view this as the beginning of a conversation in the, in the beginning of a, a, a long term commitment to, to address a lot of these issues. And I think, you know, uh, as council member of matters, I mentioned, you know, I was initially thinking that would be something, you know, on a, uh, 6 to 12 or 18 month time scale. But, um, but if, uh, but, you know, council member, you and the, and, and, and Mr. Gaines and everyone have sort of convinced me that what we need here is a longer term commitment and, and something that, um, uh, a body that has the ability to work closely with everyone to effectuate change in a, in a long term manner, as opposed to just, you know, taking a few boxes, um, at the end of a, a short term cash force, um, sort of model, and, um, and then peeling, you know, patting ourselves on the back and moving on. I just don't think that's the appropriate way to, um, to handle this now that I've, I've, um, heard the, heard the recommendation and, and, um, and Counselor Ramirez, your, your thoughts behind all of it and, and mystery games. So, um, I'll report the staff recommendation. I'm open to, you know, any comments that others have about the, um, you know, check ins or anything to whether we need to address those now or or that would be part of the work plan.

[05:01:32] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Council member McAllister?

[05:01:35] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, um. Who Being the being around a little bit. I've learned to always put, uh, information and context. And So I'm going to make a couple of observations and then, uh, Some comments. Um, This whole thing, uh, this very important matter started. 1st of all, I do take what the HRC said. Very seriously. All they ended it. Just one incident is is room for improvement. So, don't get me misquoted as saying, oh, whatever. One incident is enough for improvement and definitely we can always improve. The police department can always improve. And we always want perfection. So, I'm very important that we always take all those serious because that can lead to other people getting wrong impressions, but it's very important. We honor and respect. Every comment, regardless of who gives it to us, because that's the only way we're going to approve by listening to everybody. And and listening is very important. I want everybody to understand that When this, when the uh, black lives matter and the deaths took place in June. Everybody was there was a lot of people very concerned that we need to change. We need to improve. And yes, this was the time to take advantage of the situation. And the time was right to look into it and take a deep dive and look into ourselves to see what we can do as a city of Mountain View. And at that time, I was always concerned that people were saying Mount View, you got to do something, Mount, you got to do something. Mountain View, you're this, Mountain View, or that. Without actually spending the time to look at what mouth you does. They took the national narrative of what was happening. And put it all on Mount, you was saying, oh, if everybody does it, then Mount, you does it too. And that's what was distressing to me is that people didn't take the time. To learn about what mountain does. It's a very serious matter, and the city of Moundview takes these matters and has a pragmatic approach, does the deep dive, gets the information, and tries to get it right, so that when they implement it, It's a, it's a smooth system of getting people to buy in. Tonight, I also heard, I saw, I was reading emails to people who were back then in June, Mount, you got to act now. You got to act now. Get something done. And now I'm hearing the same people saying, take your time. Take your time. And I'm going, okay, what transpired from June to now that you didn't want, you know, want to take the time. And that's not Mount View style. Mountain View is very well respected for what it does. And yeah, blame me for if I'm a believer of the Mountain View Police Department. And when I ask Melbourne, it says, overall, were they a good police department? I was trying to put that in context with other cities around us so that you will learn that Mount View, with, even with its faults, is a good city and it's a good police department. But you don't want to listen. And I know you're going to people are going to comment, oh, McAllister is rambling. But you want everybody to listen to you. But please listen to me trying to put some context of what you're trying to solve. that if we were a bad, I won't say a bad town, yeah, that's right. But look at what Mountain View is doing and it's going to work well. People are going and saying we need a task force with, with, uh, Meeting and authority. Well, I can guarantee you that I was on the plan, the, The plan EPC, the planning commission on council, and almost every report we get that's on planning, Biped, visual arts, park and rec. Uh, senior citizens, They all go to these various committees and commissions and advisory boards, and their recommendations are brought to the council, and we implement many of mostly all their recommendations. So when you say this body that we're going to make is powerless. You do not know how Mountain View works. Mount View respects all the committees and commissions that are out there and the people that volunteer their time to do it. To HRC, to cheer Sylvester for her time putting into it. Her time is respected. Her opinion is respected. The whole HRCs. Commission is respected and we will listen to them and incorporate that. So make sure when you guys are coming down on us, that you know the whole story of what we're trying to do. So I think that Where we're going is of the right way to do it. Um, just the point of information and people can correct me if not. But the decision by the Mountain View, uh, the Los Altos city council, from what I understand, did not take the input from the Mount G. Westman school, uh, high school district about policemen. There was a letter by their board president saying, hey, you made a decision. You didn't talk to us. Mountain View won't take that same approach. We will invite everybody's opportunity to be heard and we will listen to them and we will take it seriously and when we incorporate it. Um, So those are, those are some kind, but there's also a side note, I find it sort of funny is that Stanford has to go to Berkeley to hire somebody to do the job. So that's, That's an inside joke for all you guys that went to Berkeley. But I thought that was cool. Not Harvard. Stafford had to go to Berkeley to get a guy. Uh, listen, but we'll move on back on too. It is, um, It is important to, again, when we have these bodies, do you need to have? And everybody says, we got to listen to this. We got to include this. And so when we were talking about having the police department on it, How are you going to build trust unless you actually interact with somebody that you want to change? Are you going to make impressions based on what you heard versus what you actually experienced? And when we get this commission going, We will have residents of the city having the opportunity to have a one on one or multiple conversations with the department they want to change and so that they will make it as an informed decision. Council was, all these people were elected to make informed decisions. That's what we're doing. We take our job very seriously. We're collecting the data. And we're going to make an informed decision that will last a long time and make an improvement for everybody. So I think it's definitely important to have someone from the police department on there. Because we all can learn and share experiences with it. I, So that's that's pretty much what I got. So I'm also going to support the staff report. But I do believe that we need to have a check-in. And people say, well, whatever, but that, I would like to see it check in one year. Because if it's not going in the direction that the public wants, they have an opportunity to help, in course, correct it. If you have a task force, and they're going at it, They're they have their tasks and they're and they're done and they've had their input. But if we can have a hard checking in one year and the task forces are they advisory body isn't doing what people expected to do, It will give them an opportunity to say, let's get in there. We think you need to tweak it. Everything needs to be tweaked. So I support the staff recommendation. I support the policy of life, and but I do really, and if it's part of emotion, I would want to have a hard check in at one year to give everybody the opportunity. to have an, to make sure we're following the goals that we set and that we can implement them in a very reasonable way. Thank you. Thank you.

[05:10:14] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thanks, Mayor. Great, uh, thank you, mayor. Um, So I just uh, wanted to provide, um, the context, I guess, from from one council member's point of point of view. And, um, I just wanted to say that I've been proud of Mountain View. I have seen us try to be as responsive as we can to the various things that 2020 has put before us, whether it's been the COVID-19 pandemic, or it's been tackling a really difficult issue. Systemic racism. I've been proud because race, at least for myself growing up, it's not something that's easy to discuss, particularly coming from a multiracial background. Um, and here we are as a community, as an as, and a city. trying to come forward immediately in June. Putting forward the ad hoc subcommittee and talking about, not just policing, but talking about equity-based budgeting, talking about, uh, the different, uh, demographics within our own city organization, trying to bring diversity there. I feel like Mountain View has really been a leader similar as how we've been in other difficult issues, like affordable housing, transportation infrastructure. And I have been heartened to work alongside my subcommittee members, but also, you know, my fellow council members in bringing this forward. And I think one of the cries that we heard this summer. was, don't, you know, we can't, uh, you know, don't silence me. Hear me, see me. And I think this council has been working on that and trying to tackle that. And Tonight, I feel like this is, As was mentioned, one of those steps in bringing real tangible change and action. When we talk about implicit bias and biases, I think that one of the things that government faces is a bias, is how bureaucratic and slow it is. quite frankly. And I think that the council's trying to do tonight is actually try to respond. Um, and move things forward and bring progress. So, I think that one of the most important things that we all face probably personally, but as a city organization is that there's room to grow, right? There's room to grow as individuals and there's room to grow as a police department. There's room to grow as a city organization. And I think that this is also counsel, not just being performative. I think that listening to staff, which is put in countless hours into the listening sessions, into the HRC subcommittee, into community outreach and engagement, is a way of showing respect not only to our staff, but to our community, that we've heard you, And based off of all the information that we've gathered. This is the recommendation that's coming forward. I think that. There are many daily microaggressions that people have colored her face. And we are looking to tackle them by lifting the hood of the car open and say, look at our data, look inside, look internally. And how can we change? And to tackle inequities. And I do believe one of the most important things that actually cast another McAllister said was, you know, we need to be open and hear stories and allow people to tell their own narratives. And I think council is looking to tell the narrative of we are trying to move towards the same goal. We are, you know, trying to bring real systemic change to our community. and handle how we deal with, Racism. So, I, I, I think that that, an aggregate is why the ad hoc subcommittee had unanimous consent on this item. And I just, you know, feel like that needs to be shared and said, and that this is a 1st step, and that there is opportunity to make modifications. There is opportunity to create the check-ins as other colleagues have mentioned. And, This wasn't, uh, I don't think stock was putting this forward to, uh, you know, for this to be contentious, I think this was for us to come together as a city and to come together as a community. And I think that is really the way to heal, to move forward. And to create real meaningful and impactful change. So, with that said, I would like to put forward the motion to adopt the staff recommendation.

[05:16:21] Unknown Speaker: Second.

[05:16:22] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Is that, is that Council memory? Okay, great. Um, I'm gonna uh, uh, take the motion and the 2nd um, uh, I actually have not had a chance to speak, so I'd like to say a few words and then I know there's a 2nd round of, um, hands up. So, uh, we'll just continue discussion. Um, so I uh, want to 1st of all, thank, um, my colleagues and uh, the subcommittee and especially staff for all of the hard work that has been put into this uh, issue the last 6 months or so. Um, I, you know, I have a lot to say, and I, I'd like to take the time to say it because frankly, um, I, you know, I tried to hold my tongue, um, throughout this process, and, um, this is a very, um, you know, it's a very personal issue for several of us here. Um, and, um, so, you know, that was really the impetus for why we embarked on this journey. Um, I felt that it was important. Uh, I think we all felt it was important and I, and when the incidents occurred, um, earlier in the summer. Um, I think we all felt uh, a need to do something. And, um, the way we did it, I think, uh, was, uh, it was really an, uh, um, The attempt was to try to make it, to take it really seriously. That's why we created or I created the subcommittee appointed the members that we did. Um, it was very, everything was very deliberate. And I think the process has been also very deliberate. Um, I appreciate, you know, the input, I appreciate the many, um, efforts that have been put into this. I appreciate the community engagement. Thank you to the Human Relations Commission for all of your hard work. And I'm very proud of what we've come up with. Um, because I think it is a result of a collaboration of the many different, um, facets of our community. Um, I, I will say that, um, You know, what we've, what we've been trying to do and, um, you know, some people don't want us to compare ourselves with other cities, but others do end up comparing ourselves with other cities. Um, I did want to clarify one thing because Los Altus keeps coming up and the whole issue of SRS. My understanding is that, um, a set of recommendations were made by the task force to the council, but that has not been, um, presented to the high school board, which may think makes the final, uh, decision. So, I would like clarification on that um later. Um, But I think that what we've done here, we've put in our, you know, best effort. We've put in quite a bit of resources. The fact that we have a fellow that's going to be doing an analysis, a deeper dive is is really substantial. And I want, you know, folks to recognize that. Um, and to me, that is just uh, that's an illustration of how we've taken this seriously. Um, So, you know, at the models of, um, the different models of, uh, community engagement in the, in the, in police oversight or relations, however you want to call it. We looked at all of the different models and what we landed on, I think, is the best model. And, um, the reason why is that at the end of the day, um, and, you know, I, I look at the data. Um, I think we still have to do more, uh, as as I mentioned, a deeper dive into that. I listened to the HRC's report. I read the report. I read the, you know, the snippets, the stories. Um, I think a lot of this has to do with relationships. and building relationships and, um, you know, that that's where we have room for improvement. There's a lot of, we talk about implicit bias in how we're trying to, um, to remediate that. Um, but frankly, what I've seen and what I've read and what I've heard, Frank, is there's a lot of implicit bias, you know, even by the way folks have been at the public comment that we received, you know, I don't know if it's because I'm mayor, um, but I'm also a woman of color, and when I'm yelled at by other people, especially people who are not of color. Um, I question, whether that's an implicit bias, you know, it's funny because I, we talk about black and brown people and, you know, rightfully so, but as an Asian person, we deal with racism every day too. And yet that's been pretty much, you know, ignored this conversation. And so for me, when we impacted on this, I wanted to make sure that we covered everything. And that's what we've tried to do. And so I listened to the stories and, you know, I think as Council member McAllister said, even one story means that there's room for improvement. So that's what we're trying to do. But this is not something that can happen in 6 weeks. If we were going to task a task force to tackle one issue, like, whether SROs should be in high schools or not. Sure, maybe that can happen in one, you know, 6 week period. But this is really about relationships in the community. I really appreciated Annette Lynn from the HRC when she mentioned, you know, the purpose and I felt that too, the purpose of the listening forums was really to share our stories with each other. And in that, by doing that, we can understand each other better. And that was my hope from those forums. So whether they're qualitative, quantitative data. You know, we talk about data a lot, but at the end of the day, there's something to be said about just building relationships and building understanding amongst each other. And that was, for me, the real purpose of those forms. So I think we've achieved that. I think the stories that we received, we can, you know, use that as we get more information from the fellow and and try to weave that into whatever new information we get. But this is going to take time. And, and, uh, Councilman McAllister mentioned it too. I've been hearing mixed messages from the public. You know, some wanted us to go fast and make decisions right away and they were so upset when we didn't do that in the summer. Now I'm hearing, oh, slow down. You know, someone us to test the, the, the board, the advice or commission, whatever we call it, with, you know, a work plan. Some say, don't do that, let them decide. Um, so, you know, we get mixed messages. Our job, frankly, is to try to decipher all of that. And I think that's what we've done. And um, the process that we are setting forth. Um, it's, is again, I think it's deliberate. It'll take time. These issues are complex. Whether it's the cahoots model looking into that. Um, you know, wait, I, we talked about that at the subcommittee. It's a, it's a complicated issue and it's going to take time because it involves many different agencies. So, I want to take that time to do this because I think that's what we need to do to do it, right? And that's why I think a ongoing board commission, if you want to call it, I'm happy to call it a commission, is great, is the best way to do that. Um, because in that process too. I would hope that we can build a better understanding of the community, the community, understanding what the police department does. You know, I read these stories. I can understand that perspective, but I spent 12 years on this council, um, trying to learn and understand, you know, all of the workings of the city department. I've spent a lot of time with public safety, because I know that's one of our most important poor services. And it's taken almost that, you know, amount of time. I still learn something new every day. So for that, for folks to really understand each other. It's going to take time. I support the check-in, and frankly, um, you know, this is something we used to do um, before on the council where we would meet with all of our commissions, actually, that we'd have a joint meeting of the council and the commissions, and do these check-ins once a year. Somehow after I left, you know, in 2014, that sort of got disappeared or that fell off. Um, I think it's time to, you know, revisit that with all of our commissions. Um, You know, the senior advisory committee, we're struggling to get folks to apply for that committee. I like to understand, you know, what's going on there, why there's not interest. So, I think we should just do that as a whole. And this comment about, you know, the commissions not having teeth or power, um, as coun- other council members have said and who have served on commissions. I've served on the HRC and the EPC. And, you know, even this, this earlier today in our study session, we got a recommend, recommendations from the EPC on a development project, and we took it. And so I think that we do as a council, we do listen to our commissions very seriously. Um, I think the fact that yesterday in, we were 2 nights, we interviewed about 40 people who have applied for our commissions. There's interest in most of our commissions. They must think it's important enough for them to spend time to apply and then deserve. Um, so, you know, I, I, and as much as I appreciate the public engagement with, with this issue. I think the one thing that I have been disappointed is, uh, you know, I would, I would call this implicit bias, but there's been some, a lot of skeptism here and it's time I, I, I would like to ask folks to, you know, open up your mind. I've said this before, open your mind and give everyone a fair shake and of getting this work done. And if you do that, then we will get it done, right? But if you have biases going into this, it's not going to happen. So, Again, I just want to thank everyone for all the hard work. I do support staff recommendation. And then if staff, if you could clarify this whole issue with SROs and, you know, Los Altos and Los Altos PD versus RPD. I'd appreciate it. If anyone would, if chief or deputy chief, you could clarify that.

[05:27:18] Police Chief Max Bosel: Hello, I'm Madam Mayor. Yes, I can. I think the question is the difference between Los Altos Police School resource officer program and the Mountain View Police Department's SRO program. So, uh, Los Altos has one SRO assigned to their, I believe, 16 schools. And we have 3 SROs that are assigned to our schools that work, the Mountain View, Wisman School District, the private school as well as Los Altos school districts, since we have one school in the city that belongs to the Los Altos school district. So, the officers don't spend full time on campus. They rotate amongst the various campuses, and it's not just the focus of schools. It's really a youth services program in the sense that they also work with the kids after school and work with families as well, atlas families. So it's a comprehensive program really designed to prevent youth from entering criminal conduct in being subject to the juvenile justice system.

[05:28:19] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Yes, I think there is, there are differences between our Mountain View, PD and RSRO program and Los Altos is, you know, we have a power program. I don't think Los Altos does. And, and to me, you know, that's been a big part of it is, it's again, that relationship building and, you know, I was on campus at the high school one day and it was during one of the camps that Pal that the Pal program runs and, you know, there were officers there and they were, um, you know, throwing a football to, with the, with the students and laughing and, and again, it's, it's that relationship building that I think we've spent time on with our police department. Um, so, you know, folks don't want us to compare, and I frankly don't think we can compare because we have a very different program. So, um, thank you for that clarification. And again, I think that, yeah, the high school district ultimately makes the decision and they have not made a decision as to what they want to do. So, um, you know, I, I, there's no decision made and contrary to what's been said and during public comment. So, with that, uh, go to council number Hicks.

[05:29:31] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, early in this discussion, I floated the idea of a shorter term task course, and seeing that there's, um, not much support for that, I will be supporting the, the, um, staff recommendation, and I was also happy to hear that there, that, um, many council members want some kind of check in, sort of a check in to make sure that the, um, that the, uh, board or whatever it's called, that the board is fruitful. So I will be supporting the motion.

[05:30:05] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: In cats memory, McAllister?

[05:30:08] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, uh, couple of things. uh, The mayor was saying, Pal, as police athletic league, I, I'm a big guy about acronyms, men, not everybody knows what Powell is, and it's police athletically that's sponsored by them. Uh, to Dana, Dana Petey. I did see the movie 13. I think you were the one that recommended it, so I saw you were there, so still wanted to chat with you if you want, but I saw the movie 13. It was very, uh, very moving. Uh, but to the maker of the motion, Uh, I would like to formalize if you accept the idea of a one year check-in. You've heard 4 or 5 council members requested. I just like to make it a formal one so that people know that we will definitely be having that opportunity to check in. If you can include that in your motion.

[05:31:02] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Sure.

[05:31:03] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. The one year chicken. Okay, thank you. Does the 2nd or accept that?

[05:31:11] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So just to make sure, I understand what you mean, uh, is that like a joint session where the council would meet with the with the advisory body or are you imagining a different form of checking?

[05:31:25] Councilmember John McAlister: Um, I would there's a web where you traditionally do. I will live that up to the council at that time or the body. I mean, you hopefully you are monitoring the advisory body that they are, that they have their work plan, that they're following their work plan, they're accomplishing their work plan. Or that you've heard from the community saying, hey, you need to change things. So, That would be something that the council would be looking into to make sure. That was appropriate for him. And if council member Mattachek has any similar thoughts or clarifications, but that's what I would see.

[05:32:02] Unknown Speaker: I, I, I, I, You, you're mute.

[05:32:09] Unknown Speaker: Okay, council number, may I?

[05:32:11] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Were you speaking?

[05:32:11] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Oh, I I'm perfectly fine with the the suggestion. I think it just might be helpful to flesh out what that looks like. Well, what, you know, when your checkout, well, depends on, you know, you would say you have your, I'm sorry, vice mayor, you have thought on that one?

[05:32:33] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Oh. Sure, sure. So I guess my suggestion would be, so one of the things in the, in the staff report was talking about how, um, they're still deciding on what the future of the ad hoc subcommittee is going to be. Um, since there are a few more items. And so I think it would be appropriate not only for, um, the, the commission to update the full council, but probably built into updating the ad hoc subcommittee as well. And, and perhaps that would be a great way to continue to try to work in tandem. And I just wanted to throw that suggestion out there. Um, because I know that staff was going to come back sometime. Early next year to talk about what that might look like for the REI subcommittee, and perhaps we can also include, um, work alongside the commission or check in with the commission along with the full council.

[05:33:31] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh, Council member, manage your handout.

[05:33:37] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I did, and I originally had that because I also wanted to, um, see if we could include a check-in in the motion, so I appreciate that. Um, and for me, what that might look like is, um, you know, uh, how you doing versus the work plan? And are there any issues that are being encountered? Um, it's also an opportunity for the public to provide input to the council directly on if they would like to see something different from the, um, body. And, um, then make any, uh, tweaks, changes, um, at that tonic to the, um, next direction. Um, you know, if it's needed. Um, and I could imagine, um, you might have the chair, um, or the chair and the vice chair, um, come to a council meeting, we have a discussion about it. Obviously, you know, it's open to the public, so the other members could be there. Um, but, um, You know, just having a discussion. How's it going? Do we need to make any changes?

[05:34:48] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: So we're clear on the edition of the check-in. Okay, great. Any other discussion? So the motion has been made by the vice mayor 2nded by the Councilman Ramirez to move staff recommendation. And if not, could we get a roll call vote, please?

[05:35:09] City Clerk: certainly. Council member Clark.

[05:35:12] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yeah.

[05:35:13] City Clerk: Council member Hicks.

[05:35:15] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[05:35:17] City Clerk: Council member, Madachek.

[05:35:18] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[05:35:19] City Clerk: Council member McAllister.

[05:35:21] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes.

[05:35:23] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez.

[05:35:25] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[05:35:26] City Clerk: Bye, Samir Kame.

[05:35:29] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[05:35:30] City Clerk: May I be Kova?

[05:35:31] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Hi. Thank you, motion cares, unanimously. Thank you, and thank you again, everyone. Thank you, staff, for all of your great work.

[05:35:41] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yeah, and I just wanted to clarify some aspects of the check-in, just so I'm clear and there's clarity on that. Uh, the REI subcommittee was an ad hoc, temporary subcommittee task with a discrete, uh, task and and that work is essentially done, as I understand it. I just want to clarify that the check-in is for the, uh, newly formed body to check in with the council. I'm responding to the vice mayor's comments just so there's clarity on who's checking in with who. I understand that as the newly formed body as checking in with the council in approximately one year's time. Correct.

[05:36:29] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. Anything else? Oh, yes. City manager.

[05:36:36] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, mayor. So just to clarify what the city attorney's saying, what I'm hearing then, is that the one year check-in would be with the full council then and not with the ad hoc committee, which was fixed in time. Is that what you're saying to the attorney?

[05:36:54] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yes, that is what I'm saying.

[05:36:56] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. Thanks for clarifying. And Councilman Clark.

[05:37:02] Councilmember Chris Clark: I was, I was just going to mention that I think. I think the way it was, um, I forget who, who had mentioned it, but, you know, I think having, I think it's come from a matter of check, that having the chair and by chair, perhaps, you know, at a council meeting to do that. I just, um, I shy away from the joint meetings tend to be really, really difficult, logistically to have it happen. So I just, I wouldn't say that I would require a joint meeting. I think just having the chair and vice chair reach the council and then having all the public input associated that would be provisions of my perspective.

[05:37:36] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: And for context, uh, some of you may remember the rental housing committee had a similar check in with just the chair, I believe. So there is flexibility to do it as council member, Clark said, with perhaps the chair and the nice chair.

[05:37:54] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. That's clear. Clear is mad. All right. Thank you, everyone. Uh, we will now move on to. Item 8 council staff committee reports. Are there any reports comments by council members? No reports? Oh, Counselor me, I check.

[05:38:22] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. Um, I just want to, um, report on a few things that I attended. I was hoping somebody else can go 1st until I found my list, but here it is. Um, so I attended the airport land use commission meeting. This is all since our last council meeting. They spoke about a regional interrockability, authority go beating. The Bay Area water supply and conservation area board meeting. And, um, I attended portions of the NLC virtual conference. And and the only thing I would sort of report out on from that is, um, and we have a bunch of resolutions that they do each year, or each conference, and, um, Some of them carry over from year to year, and what they added to the one on airplane noise was that they want to require um, supersonic aircraft to meet these stage 5 noise requirements when they're operating at subsonic speeds. And that is the perspective of the, or better is what the, uh, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz aircraft, airplane noise round table meeting also had, um, suggested, um, or proposed, um, and put forth, uh, that we would also like to see that. And then we had, um, a council finance committee meeting and 2 council appointments, but we committee meetings, that they mayor and vice mayor also took it. Thanks.

[05:40:03] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great. Thank you, Counselor. McAllister.

[05:40:06] Councilmember John McAlister: I attended the Silicon Valley Animal Control. Uh, authority. That is always a, uh, happy one to go because that's the dogs and the pets, uh, as many of you know, what's COVID-19, a lot of, they have no animals really to adopt because as soon as they come in, they go out. And so that's been very good. Uh, Silicon Valley, Adam Control Authority is a, um, A agency that believes in uh, Life and not euthanasia, of the animals, and they have a 97% rate of animals that come in stay alive. So they have a very small margin of animals that they have to put down or their strays or whatever. So They are doing very well. Um, and it's my last time going to it. So whoever picks up that committee, uh, you'll have a, an easy commute, but it's a, if you like animals, you love animals. This is a great one to be participating in. Because they do a great job. They're very easy to work with. Yogi's been there to have some surgery. Uh, very reasonable and very dedicated staff, even with the COVID-19. They're the ones that patrol the parks and and check out for animals and and make sure of the wildlife that come across or are taken care of. So. But that was a. They are, I say, little bit struggling, morale wise, they're doing okay, but it's a great organization. Just that was my only update. Thank you.

[05:41:45] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Nice, Mayor.

[05:41:47] Vice Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. So, uh, as council member, Magicic mentioned, we had our council appointment review committee, we had 2 meetings. Um, and then the council use services committee met last week and we will be bringing forward our uh, full recommendations on youth wellness to next Tuesday's um, meeting.

[05:42:08] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. Great, anyone else? I would, uh, just add to the report that, um, I attended the park meeting and the in services committee meeting and we had a police, uh, badge pinning ceremony virtually, our 1st wind and virtually, uh, recently where we, um, uh, had some promotions as well as some recognitions, uh, when was uh, 40 years of service recognition. And uh, several other um, members of our police department for their exemplary service. Also attended. We normally do this in person as well in in the city hall, Rotunda, but we did it outside in Pioneer Park, we had the Discover Awards and the Service Award presentations. Um, we took photos outside uh, socially distanced with masks. Um, and so I'm glad that we were at least able to recognize our, again, our excellent employees for all of their service that they provide to our community. And, um, some of you may have seen that we did have a press conference on the importance of wearing masks or face coverings. We had 11 out of the 15 mayors, part and the county participate along with our county supervisor and Dr. Cody. So that would be my public service announcement is please continue to wear your mask. And face coverings, uh, practice social distancing, wash your hands, and um, hopefully that we can get through this, uh, this period of time. Uh, so with that, uh, sitting attorney, do we have a close session report?

[05:43:53] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: No close session report tonight?

[05:43:56] Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga: Great, thank you. So this meeting is adjourned at 1026 PM, and the next city council meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 8th, 2020 at 630. Thank you again everyone. Have a good evening. Have a good week and take care. Stay safe.

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