April 27, 2021 Joint Meeting of Mountain View City Council and Shoreline Regional Park Community

Video

Transcript

[00:00:33] (archive recording) Mayor Ellen Kamei: Start Heather. Great. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for closed session. This meeting will be conducted in accordance with the state of California. Executive order N dash 29 dash 20 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 or 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 669-9009128 and entering webinar ID 989-377-6577. Any emails received by 430 p.m. today, will be received directly by the city council. Emails received after 430 PM will not be read during the meeting that will be entered into the record for the meeting. All votes will be taken by roll call, the city attorney, Chipa, will make remarks, and then the city council welcomes public comment on all 4 items listed for close session. A city attorneyship there.

[00:02:02] (archive recording) City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Thank you, mayor. This is the closed session announcement for the April 27th meeting. The council will be meeting in closed session on 4 items. The 1st item 2.one conference with labor negotiators, government code section 54957.6 Agency designated representatives, City of Mountain View Assistant City Manager, Audrey Seymour Randberg, Human Resources Director, Sue Rush, and Charles Sakai, Sloane, Sakai, Young, and Wong, LLP. Employee Organizations, Service Employees International Union, SEIU, Local 521, the Eagles Association, the Police Officers Association, POA, the International Association of Firefighters, IAFF, local 1965 Unrepresented Fire Managers, unrepresented Police Managers, Unrepresented Department heads, and unrepresented confidential employees. The 2nd close section is item 2.2 conference with real property negotiator, section 54956.8. The property is no address, 8 PM number 116 dash 11 dash 031 and 116 dash 06018. Agency negotiator. Angela Ramonica. We have property program administrator. Negotiating party, Pacific Gas and Electric, represented by Cushman and Wakefield. Under negotiation, price in terms of payment for acquisition of real property. And item 2.3 conference with legal counsel, liability claims, government code section 54956.9 subsection D2 and E3. The claimant is Tobay, Tomasebi against the city of Mountain View. And finally, item 2.4 conference with legal counsel, formally initiated litigation, government code section 54956.9, name of the case, Joel Alejo versus City of Mountain View at all. Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara, case number 21 CV 378968. And is there any that would be the time to ask for any public comment on any of the closed session items mayor?

[00:04:29] (archive recording) Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thanks so much, city attorney. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on any closed session item listed on tonight's agenda? If so, please click the rate hand button in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone. A timer will be displayed on the screen. Okay, looking to our attendee box. I don't see any hands raised, and I don't see anyone on the line. All right. So, um, seeing as there's no public comment, the council will now recess to close session and return to this meeting at 6.30 PM for a regular session. See you all at 6.30.

[00:06:20] (archive recording) Mayor Ellen Kamei: Joint meeting of city council, a regular meeting in our Shoreline Regional Park community special meeting of April 27, 2021. I'm going to read the usual announcement as required. This meeting will be conducted in accordance with state of California executive order N dash 29 dash 20, 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 an item by citing up at mountainview.gov slash CC underscore speakers, or by phone by dialing 669-9009128 and entering webinar ID 989-377-6577. Any emails received by 430 p.m. today were received directly by the city council. Emails received after 430 p.m. will not be read during the meeting that will be entered into the record for the meeting. All votes will be taken by roll call vote. So I'd like to ask you to please join me in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice fraud. Thank you so much. Now, now turn it over to... I think I'm going to turn it over to our new city of city court glacier, um, who will do the roll call.

[00:02:09] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Attendance by real call. Council member Abby Coca,

[00:02:12] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: here,

[00:02:12] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Hicks. Council member Lieber? Counselor Mermatachek,

[00:02:22] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: here,

[00:02:22] City Clerk Heather Glaser: counselor, Michelle Walter,

[00:02:24] Councilmember Pat Showalter: here.

[00:02:25] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mia Ramirez.

[00:02:27] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[00:02:27] City Clerk Heather Glaser: May I come May?

[00:02:29] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Here.

[00:02:29] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you.

[00:02:30] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. So we'll move on to item two, which is our swearing in ceremony for our city clerk. So we'll move on to item 2.one, which is the oath of office for our city clerk, Heather Glacier. Am I saying that right, Heather? Okay. We will now view the swearing in of our new city clerk via pre-recorded video. So let's roll the video.

[00:02:57] Unknown Speaker: Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, I, state your name.

[00:03:03] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Heather Glaser,

[00:03:04] Unknown Speaker: to solemnly swear.

[00:03:05] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Do solemnly swear that I

[00:03:07] Unknown Speaker: will support in defend...

[00:03:08] City Clerk Heather Glaser: That I was important to find the Constitution

[00:03:10] Unknown Speaker: of the United States. The Constitution of the

[00:03:12] City Clerk Heather Glaser: United States, and the Constitution of the State

[00:03:15] Unknown Speaker: of California. And the Constitution of the State

[00:03:17] City Clerk Heather Glaser: of California, against all enemies. Against all enemies.

[00:03:20] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Foreign and domestic.

[00:03:21] Unknown Speaker: Foreign domestic.

[00:03:23] City Clerk Heather Glaser: That would bear true faith.

[00:03:24] Unknown Speaker: Then I will bear true faith, and allegiance. And allegiance.

[00:03:27] Unknown Speaker: To the Constitution of the United States.

[00:03:29] City Clerk Heather Glaser: To the Constitution of the United States. And

[00:03:31] Unknown Speaker: the Constitution of the State of California, and

[00:03:33] City Clerk Heather Glaser: the Constitution of the State of California, that

[00:03:37] Unknown Speaker: I take this obligation freely, without any mental

[00:03:40] City Clerk Heather Glaser: reservation, without any mental reservation.

[00:03:43] Unknown Speaker: Or purpose of evasion, or purpose of evasion.

[00:03:47] City Clerk Heather Glaser: And that I will well and faithfully, and

[00:03:49] Unknown Speaker: that I will well and faithfully discharge the

[00:03:51] City Clerk Heather Glaser: duties, discharge the duties, upon which, upon

[00:03:53] Unknown Speaker: which,

[00:03:54] City Clerk Heather Glaser: I'm about to enter. I'm about to enter.

[00:03:56] Unknown Speaker: Congratulations.

[00:03:57] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you.

[00:04:01] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yay, virtual. Wonderful. What a great video. Thanks so much.

[00:04:07] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Um, city clerk, pleasure, would you like to say a few words?

[00:04:11] City Clerk Heather Glaser: And it's time to say it's an honor and privilege to be with you all this evening. It's only been about a week, but I've been on the job, but I've already had such a warm welcome from the council and the staff and the community. So I just want to say thank you to everyone for your support and I'm really looking forward to the days and weeks and months and years to follow. So, thank you.

[00:04:32] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you so much for, we're very, very happy to have you with us. Would any member of council like to say a few words to our new city court later?

[00:04:47] Mayor Ellen Kamei: All right, well, I can I can start things off here. Um, so we're just, um, after, you know, several months of of, um, working with a wonderful interim city clerk, Miss Wonderlanden, who will be honoring later. It's just really nice to have our permanent city clerk here with us. And, you know, you moved from Southern California to Northern California. We won't say which side is better of this state, um, but we were just thrilled to have you and, um, thank you for serving our city of Mountain View. We really appreciate it. Council member Hicks.

[00:05:24] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah, I'll keep it super short. I just want to say I'm sorry we aren't here in person to welcome you. It's kind of strange to welcome you from and be saying goodbye to Sylvia, but to welcome you from while I'm sitting frankly in my dining room alone. Um, But I hope to welcome you in person very soon.

[00:05:45] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Councilman, I'm about to check.

[00:05:47] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So, heaven, we are so happy you are here. Welcome. We really look forward to working with you. I feel like we've got a lot going on in here in Mountain View, but I know you were up for it, and we greatly appreciate you being our new city clerk. So thank you and welcome.

[00:06:08] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, thank you. Council member Abi Coda.

[00:06:10] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. I just wanted to say a quick welcome aboard. We're glad to have you. Um, we went through quite an extensive process to to find our new city clerk, and um, it's great that you rose to the top, and I look forward to working with you. for the next several years. Thank you.

[00:06:31] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. How's it on the show, Walter?

[00:06:35] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I just want to add to all the welcomes. We're very glad you're here. We were really impressed by your, um, all of your qualifications and, uh, certainly, All we've seen just in this 1st week has been great. So we're looking forward to working with you for many years. Thank you.

[00:06:53] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, thank you. Council member Lieber.

[00:06:56] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Hello, speak for everyone saying that we're really thankful to have you on board and you're joining a very strong appointee team. And, um, I know that the city clerk's office staff has been able to greet you and work with you, um, so far and is really looking forward to the time ahead. So all good wishes for success.

[00:07:21] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Well, welcome again. Miss Glazier, we're thrilled to have you. So,

[00:07:28] Mayor Ellen Kamei: I now like to turn it over to public comment with any member of the public on the line, like to provide comment on this item. If so, please click the raise handbun in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone, and we'll do a 2 minute timer displayed on the screen if possible.

[00:07:49] Mayor Ellen Kamei: And we'll start with Alexander Brown.

[00:07:58] Alexander Brown: Hey, Heather. Welcome to the city. You have no idea what you just got into, but it's going to be fun, and I look forward to working with you. Thanks.

[00:08:08] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, Mr. Brown. All right. That looks like it concludes our public speakers, so we can turn it back. to counsel. And I'd like to move on to item three, which are presentations. So we'll start with item 3.one, which is our monarch preservation and natural habitat proclamation. And I know that there are quite a few people from, I think, the public who are in attendance about this one, so I'll just read the proclamation. Whereas the monarch butterfly is an iconic North American species whose multigenerational migration and metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly has captured the imagination of 1000000s of Americans. And whereas both the Western and Eastern monarch populations have seen significant declines with less than one% of the Western monarch population remaining. Well, the eastern population has fallen by as much as 90%. And whereas I, Alan Mayor of the city of Mountain View, signed the National Wildlife Federation's Mayor's Mark Pledge, and have included the following meaningful actions to protect the Mark Butterfly. And whereas the city of Mountain View has committed to the following 3 actions as part of the pledge. One, continue the native plant enhancement project at Shoreline at Mountain View, that has been ongoing for the past 10 years to increase biodiversity to benefit many local species, including men are butterflies. Two, engage with the community garden groups and urge them to plant native milk weeds and nectar producing plants. And three, host a native seed giveaway facilitated through the Mountain V public library's seed library program to make milk lead seeds available to the public with additional education and outreach, a betterfly friendly planting being conducted as part of the city's arbor day tree giveaway program. And whereas every resident of the city of Mountain View can make a difference by planting native milkweed and nectar plants to provide habitat for monarch butterfly and pollinators in locations where people would, work, play, learn, and worship. Now, therefore, I am a mayor of the city mountain view, along with my colleagues on the city council, do hereby proclaim April 27th as the mayor's monarch pledge day. Would any member of council like to say a few words before we turn it over to public comments? Castle number hits.

[00:10:43] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um, I just wanted to say I find this very important and I've had a lot of members of the public encourage us to do this and I, you know, I recently learned that, um, biodiversity loss and species extinction is, um, a problem, you know, large as large and on par with, with uh, climate crisis. Um, but that we can do things about it in the city. that as we, as we turn more and more of our rural land over to monoculture with pesticides, If we change over, do many of the actions that you just named, uh, in our own yards, our parks, and, um, you know, the, the planting strips and other opportunity areas in the city, we can uh, turn species extinction around. So thank you so much for declaring the proclamation.

[00:11:39] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, council member Hicks. I was happy to. Anyone else want to provide a few words before we go to the public? All right, seeing no other hands. I'll turn it over to the public. So we can do another timer for 2 minutes, and we have Bruce England.

[00:12:03] Bruce England: Hello, can you all hear me?

[00:12:04] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[00:12:05] Bruce England: Thank you, Mirac May. I know that Green Spaces Mountain View members and others in the community will be pleased to see that you've chosen to sign the pledge. Of course, signing the pledge is just the 1st step. Now to come are the further steps we need to take to support what the pledge represents. This means providing guidance and reference materials to those in the community endeavoring to make the best decisions around their planning choices. And further that we follow the same guidelines for city properties, including parks and other open spaces, and for schools and businesses. There's been much discussion lately in mountain view around expanding green spaces throughout our infrastructure. including in proximity to walkways and bikeways, realizing the concept of complete green streets along the way for our city. I'll just mention that monarch butterflies are but one among many pollinator species, and plant choices can differ among them. So for those hoping to participate in all of this, please consider all pollinators that are compatible with our region. Thanks.

[00:13:06] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Shani Kleinhouse?

[00:13:14] Shani Kleinhouse: Good evening, mayor command, city council members. Thank you for signing the pledge. It's wonderful to see this, um, great intent and project moving forward. Um, our organization helped with the uh, restoration project on Permanent Decreek at Shoreline. And our ruin is really enjoyed it, and it's the outcome is absolutely lovely. So thank you for that too. And, um, hopefully, you'll bring back the butterflies, it's so sad to see that they're gone. And I do want to support what this said, which is really good, you know, like trick giveaways, maybe give a milk with to everyone who's willing to plant it in this garden, you know? Anyway, thank you.

[00:14:01] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you very much. Right. And that hurts.

[00:14:10] Annette: Yeah, hello, this is Annette. I'm actually here for a different meeting. Um, and I'm very pleased to hear that I, I have been working from home for the last year now, and I have twice, have seen a monarch in my garden, so they are in Mountain New, and I really like the idea of the, um, the, the sea tiner, with seat giveaway. I would totally be in line for that one. So thank you so much for doing this.

[00:14:40] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. I can unmute my own self. Celia Palmer.

[00:14:48] Celia Palmer: Hey, um, I'm also with Green Spaces Mountain View, um, and, um, I really appreciate, um, your pledge, and I'm really excited for that in Mountain View's future. I would love if Mountain View could become one of the B cities, USA. Um, supporting poll, lots and different pollinators. Um, and, um, I appreciate all the actions we're going to take and I'd also love to see things at the, um, city level, for instance, um, eliminating the use of pesticides and uh, herbicides within our city parks. Um, so while we encourage our residents to do that, we can start um, with, you know, looking internally um, at that too. I know I love the in Los Altos, they have the signs saying, excuse our weeds, we don't spray here. So maybe we could do something similar to that. Thank you for your time.

[00:15:39] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Linda Ruthrup?

[00:15:48] Linda Ruthruff: Hi, I'm Linda Ruthruff on the conservation chair. of the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. Uh, we are thrilled that you're planning to plant milkweed. We're thrilled that there's become an understanding that the choices we make in our gardens and in our landscaping have a huge impact on the environment and on other creatures. Um, I would also like to, um, say that the monarch butterfly isn't the only butterfly that's in trouble, unfortunately. And so it's not just native milkweed that needs to be planted, it's a lot of butterflies have a specific plant that they need for their eggs and for their caterpillars to grow on. So, you know, to be able to expand this a little more would be wonderful to start looking into what are the pollinators that are in trouble in this area. And what can we plant in addition to milkweed that will help them all survive? So thank you for taking this on and it's a very exciting project. Thank you.

[00:17:02] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. All right. I think that concludes our public comet. So I will bring it back to item 3.2, which is our recognition of our outgoing interim city clerk, Sylvia Bondit Linden. And Ms. Vonderlanden, is she back? Okay, there you are. I see your camera on now. Wonderful. Okay. So I'd like to read the proclamation first. The proclamation reads was the office of the city clerk, a time honored and vital part of local government, exists throughout the world, and the oldest among public servants. And whereas interim city clerk, Sylvia Vonderlinden has provided expert assistance and a can do attitude, the city clerk recruitment was underway. And whereas interim city clerk, Sylvia Vanderlinen provided needed help. Sorry, needed leadership to this office of the city clerk, and diligently served the Mountain View community from November 2020 through April 2021. And whereas the city council, city staff, and the city of Mountain View recognized the invaluable contribution of interim city clerk Sylvia Vaunder Linden during her tenure with us. Now, therefore, I am commain mayor of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, do recognize interim city clerk, Sylvia Vanderlinen, and further extend appreciation to her for the vital services she performed, and the exemplary dedication, dedication she showed to the Mountain View community and residence. Uh, with any member. Yes, let's give you a virtual round of applause. And, um, would any member of the council like to say a few words? Yes, council member Hicks.

[00:18:54] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah, I'll keep it short and sweet, but thank you so much, Sylvia. I have to say, I was a little scared when we went clerkless, but nobody would be able to step in in the end around and you more than fulfilled my expectations. You made it. You know, I didn't see everything because behind the scenes, but you made it easy and thank you so much and I personally won't miss you. Thank you.

[00:19:19] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Council member Abbe Koga.

[00:19:22] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, thank you, Sylvia, for all of your dedication. I think you hit the ground running as soon as you joined us and we didn't miss the beach and then it was just really, um, impressed and, um, grateful and mostly I'm just, I really enjoy working with you, your, um, your, your energy, just really, um, you know, get things running and, um, always made me smile. And so, um, thank you again um, for all that you've done and we'll miss you, but please keep in touch.

[00:19:58] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Council member, Mattachek.

[00:20:01] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So, Sylvia, I just want to say thank you very much for filling in during this time. We really appreciate all that you've done for the council in the city, and I wish you all the best, and thank you again.

[00:20:14] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Council member Leaper.

[00:20:17] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Uh, just so much appreciate everything that you've done for us. You kind of dropped in, like the Mary Poppins of City Clerks, and have been so wonderful with the public, and with all of the staff, and so patient with us as council members. So we thank you so much, and don't be a stranger. We want to see you in Mountain View, because we definitely count you as one of ours now from now on. permanently. So thank you so much, Sylvia.

[00:20:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Council member Michelle Walter.

[00:20:55] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I just want to echo what lots of people have said. It's been a pleasure to work with you and I really appreciate all the effort you went to to help on board me and Sally as we join the council this January. And, um, best wishes and don't be a stranger. That would be terrible. Thank you.

[00:21:15] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. City manager, McCarthy?

[00:21:19] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, mayor. So, uh, Sylvia, I want to just thank you so much on behalf of all the council appointees and the department head team and the whole organization for stepping up and being there for us when we needed it. I've had the pleasure of working with you in 2 places now. And as everyone said, your positivity and your passion for the career and being a clerk is certainly something that everyone knows and can see and feel. So, thank you so much for everything that you've done. I really appreciate it. you.

[00:21:55] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Well, I have to get my thanks into Sylvia, which is I've never met a more humble public servant than you. I know that you didn't even want us to put this on the agenda tonight. But we couldn't let you get away without us being able to express our thanks, especially since we've had to interact, you know, for the most part completely virtually. And so what an interesting time to have to, um, you know, come back and and come back to the profession because I think that you came out of retirement just to help us. So we are just so grateful. So you came back in the middle of, you know, a global pandemic and, um, we're just, we're so grateful to have Denmark and then you've just been all about service to our our residents and in our community and you've really just exemplified what it means. I think to be a city clerk, but also to be a public servant. So we're just, it's an honor to have had the opportunity to work with you even in this brief time. So thank you so much.

[00:22:58] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: It was my honor and my pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm very touched. Thank you.

[00:23:04] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Good. All right. All right. So I'd also like to, um, Uh, open it up for public comment. Did any member of the public on the line that to provide public comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or star 9 on your phone. Okay, I'm not seeing any. Well, thank you very much, respond around it. Oh, I, we met the hand up. I saw a hand and then it disappeared. Oh, I hope that's not Alex messing with me either. Um, well, I think we just need to give another virtual round of applause to Ms. Wonderland and. Thank you so much for your service to the city of Mountain View. Great. Thank you. All right. So now we can move on to item 3.3, which is our COVID-19 update by our city manager. Miss Kimber McCarthy.

[00:24:02] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, mayor council members. I'm going to start sharing my screen now for the update. Okay. So I'll start off like I always do with just a snapshot of where we're at right now with our numbers. So, uh, countywide. We are almost at 118,000 positive cases since COVID began in Mountain View. We have a little over 3000 cases. Since the last update on April 13th. There have been 67 new cases. So, um, although the numbers are definitely trending downward, as we all know, we are still seeing uh, a decent number of cases countywide and um, even here in Mountain View. They're just not increasing as much as we've seen over the last several months. So this is another dashboard that I've shown very often and it really is indicative of how the county has ramped up. The vaccine efforts. So what you're looking at here is a snapshot of how many vaccines have been given. So the blue line represents the 1st dose of vaccines. The green, the green lines represent the 2nd dose. So those 2 combined, um, are residents that have had their full full doses, and the pink that you see along the top is the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. So those are counted as both doses. As we all know, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is only one dose. So right now, countywide, there is 36.7% of residents over the age of 16. That have been vaccinated. So, uh, they definitely are seeing higher numbers of people um, getting vaccinated, which I'll talk about in a couple slides. And there's also a lot more appointments that are available now than have been in the past. So this is very encouraging news that we're at almost 37% county wide. So I hope with the next update, we will be close to 50%. In terms of what's going on with the county vaccine update. So as I mentioned, right now there are open appointments at all county sites right now for anyone who wants to be vaccinated who's over 16. The county is also going to be opening up more evening, weekend, and even walk-in appointments. So this is new. The goal is to have at least 40% of folks vaccinated by the end of June, but it could take longer, depending on how many people are able to get in with all of these open appointments and depending on walk-ins. It could even be higher than that. Yesterday, the county announced that all of, um, where most all of the county vaccination sites will accept drop ins, and that does also include our site here in Mountain View at the community center. So you'll see on this slide that our drop-in appointments or excuse me, just the drop-ins are available through this Friday from 830 to 545 PM. Uh, you can still schedule appointments using the SCCFreeVax.org. Also, I'll note that just last week, the Bay Area health officers did concur with the findings of the scientific review board that said that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is safe and that Bay Area health providers are resuming the administration of that vaccine. In terms of where we're at with reopening the economy, we are still in the orange tier, we have been in the orange tier since the 24th of March. So it's been about 5 weeks. Um, this chart that you're seeing shows how a county can move from one tier to the next. So again, we're in that orange tier. So in order for us to move to the yellow tier, which allows for more of the economic sectors to be open. We have to have an adjusted case rate below 2%. So right now, our case rate is at 3.2. So we're a little too high to move into that next yellow tier, but again, as more vaccines are administered and as more people are getting vaccinated. We hope that we see that that number come down so that we can move into that yellow tier. In terms of how many vaccines we've done. So far we have vaccinated, almost 51,000 vaccines at our community center. And just last week alone. There were almost 7000 vaccines. So again, drop ins are allowed. We do have extended hours continuing through May 7th. That's Monday through Friday from 8.30 to 6.30 p.m. So they are offering more evening hours. Testing is still encouraged. We already have done a little over 16,000 tests at city facilities since last summer, um, and a little over 4000 2021. Um, then moving to an update on our rent relief program. There really isn't too much of a change from the last update. And that's because we are still administering the funding to CSA and they are working through other funding sources. So, uh, so far there's a little over 2000 checks that have been cut, uh, an almost $44000000 worth of the program. I also want to let everyone know that we are really close. Um, to finishing our home key Mountain View site, so the pictures that you're seeing are pictures of our construction and action, and you can see one of the modular units being placed there on the bottom. This is our 90 to 10 day, 120 day interim housing program. So it will house single adults or couples, families, and really try and help them return to a more stable housing option. We have partnered with life moves for this. And we are really hopeful that construction will be complete by the end of this week. So we are anticipating that clients will be able to move in by next month. And I would just encourage everyone to visit the mountain view.gov slash home key webpage. Uh, we will have grand opening details for this site really soon. So you can go to that website and get all of the updates. So before I close, I will end by thanking city staff and for this week's thank you, it goes to our center for the performing arts staff, we're launching our very 1st virtual Mountain View Film Festival. This festival offered 26 films in 2 days, and it was a mix of feature films and documentaries, short films, and even films that people shot on their mobile phones. And the theme was race equity and inclusion. Films from around the world were screened everywhere from Iran, France, Canada, Spain, the UK, and of course, all over the United States. Uh, they also arranged 4 panels with industry experts on ways to include more voices of people with disabilities, um, equity opportunities for the youth voice, and even creating more diversity and sounds uh, behind the scenes. So I want to thank them for putting this really innovative and fun virtual event together. They did a tremendous job on it, um, just these past few days ago from the from April 24th to 25th. So with that, I will just remind everyone to mask up, um, do a drop in vaccine appointment if you can, make an appointment and continue to stay safe and healthy. So thank you, mayor. I'll turn it back over to you.

[00:31:53] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you to any council members, have any questions for the city manager about her presentation? Okay. All right. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click Ray's hand in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone, and we'll display the 2 minute timer. We have our 1st hand here. Maybe this will be my fate tonight. The hand disappeared. So we can bring it, we can bring it back. All right. So, um, I just, I'll just share. I know that today we had a Papa vaccine site at St. Joseph's Parish Church on Hope Street, um, which I, which I did stop by, um, they said that they had about, um, 500 um, doses available for folks. So, tried to work to spread the word. And so we, the pop-ups have been, um, something that the community's been asking for because you don't have to make the appointment. You can just drop in whenever you need. And so as we hear more about this, we'll be sure to work to make sure that the community is hearing about this. But it was a completely fabulous partnership with St. Joseph's Parish, they already had this really large tent in their courtyard. And what was wonderful is it provided a really cool location for them to get the vaccines already and set to go. So, um, that we got lots of positive feedback from our county who said we had a great, great facility and we were easy to work with. So that's wonderful. All right. I think that concludes our presentations for item three. So we'll move on to item four, which is our consent calendar. These items will be approved by one motion, unless any member of the council wishes to remove an item for the discussion. The reading of the full text of resolutions and ordinances will be waived unless a council member requests otherwise. A motion to approve the consent calendar should include reading the title of the ordinance attached to item 4.2. Would any member of the council like to pull an item? Council member Mattachek.

[00:34:12] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. I just want to register a no vote on item 4.one. Um, I think the 2019 minute, 2019 minutes made another pass, uh, similar to the last time we talked about these. So I'm just registering a no vote on 4.one. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Leaper.

[00:34:36] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Well, thank you, Mayor. Oh, I'll be abstaining on the 2019 minutes and um, voting only on the 4 1321 council minutes on item 4.one. Okay.

[00:34:53] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Anything else from council members? City Clerk Glacier, did you get those um abstensions that we'll be able to note? Okay. Wonderful. Thank you so much. All right. Um, so no members would like to pull an item. Um, would any member of the public on the line like to provide uh, comments on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button and zoom or press starline on your phone. All right, I'm not seeing any. Vice Mayor Ramirez.

[00:35:29] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I'll go ahead and move the consent calendar. Uh, including 4.2, adopt an ordinance of the city of Mountain View, adding article 5 to chapter 38 of the Mountain View City code relating to firearms on city property. To be read a title only further reading waves, and I'll also note, um, the no vote recorded by council member, uh, Mattachek, uh, for 4.one and the abstention recorded by, uh, council member, labor also for 4.one. Um, I do have comments on one item, but I'll wait for a 2nd.

[00:36:09] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Council member, Abbe, okay?

[00:36:13] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: 2nd in the motion. Thank you.

[00:36:14] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. All right. Council member, Shelter, did you have a comment?

[00:36:20] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Oh okay.

[00:36:22] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Oh, Vice Mayor Ramirez. Would you like to, your motion has been 2nd dated by Counselor Robert Koga, so if you'd like to make your comment?

[00:36:28] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, and I'll try and be pretty brief. So I submitted several questions related to 4.3. um, professional services, contract for planning services, and I appreciate um, the responses from staff, um, and so I'll be supporting the item, but I did want to highlight, uh, The response to question one was a little alarming to me. Uh, that the 2 vacancies or the planning rules have, uh, have been vacant for, for a lot longer than I was anticipating. Um, and uh, I know we're currently working on a study or evaluation of CDD, so I'm hoping that there's uh, a lot that we can learn about ways that fill these vacancies and, um, you know, address some of the challenges associated with staffing within that department. Um, but, uh, I, I just wanted to slag that as, as an issue that I think we do need to do a deeper dive on, especially relative to the other vacancies that were provided by staff again. Thank you, uh, for for a later item. These 2 have been baking for for an unusually long period of time, which is why we have the need for contract services, but I think ideally we'd find a way to fill these roles, and if this isn't working, I think of some other way of addressing these concerns. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Hicks.

[00:37:57] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah, I just want to strongly support what council member Ramirez just said. I think those are important positions to fill Thanks.

[00:38:04] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Any other comments on the motion? Okay, seeing then, I will turn it over to city quick leisure for the World Call vote.

[00:38:17] City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Thanks, Mary Ramirez.

[00:38:20] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[00:38:21] City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Amikoga?

[00:38:23] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Hi,

[00:38:23] City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Counselor Hicks.

[00:38:25] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[00:38:25] City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Counseling my leaper. Counselor my Matachek.

[00:38:29] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[00:38:30] City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Counselor Michelle Walter?

[00:38:32] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes.

[00:38:33] City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: May I can I?

[00:38:34] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[00:38:35] City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Motion kicks?

[00:38:36] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. All right. So that closes um, item 4 so we can move on to item 5, which is oral communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any matter, not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic for up to 3 minutes during this section. State law prohibits the council from acting on non-agenda items. Please note that later tonight in item 7.one. The council will be hearing the budget styles report and updates to the general operating fund, forecast, and American Rescue Plan Act funding. If you have comments related to that discussion, it is appropriate to make them during the public comment period for item 7.one. As we start with oral communications, Shawnee Kleinhouse made arrangements in advance to share a presentation, and we'll have up to 7 minutes to present if the following members are also in the attendee box, which are Annette Hertz, Jim, Zorski, Soya Palmer, April Webster, Gulikiana, Pendleton. Catherine Trejo, Linda Ruthra, Mackenzie Mossing, Doug Weybert, Jill, Helen, and Matthew Daughter. I know we're double checking, looks like everyone is here. Yes, I see the city clerk shaking her head. All right, so we will turn it over to Shawnee Kleinhouse for her 7 minute presentation. And I am going to go and unmit you, Shani. There you go.

[00:40:36] Shawnee Kleinhouse: Thank you. So, uh, the presentation I'm giving tonight is on behalf of Green Spaces, Mountain View and Santa Clara Valley, Audubon Society. She just kind of trying to raise awareness about light at night and the impacts on our ecosystems and our health. And this is a picture of the Milky Way taken from Skyline Boulevard about Cupertino. Next slide will show you what light pollution looks like from the, from space and you can see population centers in North America, including the Bay Area. The next slide, please, will show you the mountain view is in the Bay Area. You can see the bay, you can see Sacramento. And you can see that it's very, very bright. So why is that a problem? The next slide, please. So, uh, we don't see the weekly way anymore. We basically don't see the twinkle, twinkle, little star that we all sang, oh, oh, and maybe still do. And light is sort of like sugar, we crave it, we want it. We like it and it's not that good for us. So there is a light that we look at in terms of artificial light at night when the weather we need it and sometimes we have too much. When we use light that we don't need or it's too much light, we call it light pollution. And the transition to LED, that we have all experience really helped us with benefits of saving energy and saving maintenance and cost, but also having a drawback, but there is more and brighter lighting and harmful spectrums, and I'll get a little bit more into the spectrum that we use and the wavelengths. So, and why that is important. So like, oops. Uh, next, uh, the biological effects of light affect all living things, whether it's a plant or bacteria or an elephant or a shark or a human, because the response to light is so is biological, we evolve with light. And so daily and seasonal changes in writing provide our cues for physiological and behavioral. Um, um, biological responses that include anything from, um, mating or migration or just even sleep and diseases in humans. Also, attraction to light is detrimental for a lot of insects and birds. And, you know, maybe when you look at monarchs can also look at some of the moths at light that are attracted to light and usually die in that because of that. And light pollution is indicated as one of the reasons why we're losing insects in the planet next. So they light a spectrum that is harmful. What you see here is a spectrum of the light and light when we look at it is white or yellow, but inside it has wavelengths and the arrows show you the blue light that is included in the light that we see as the yellow or white. It's measured in kelvin, and the color temperature, the more blue it has, the more harmful it is. Street lights in Mountain View are 4000 Kelvin. You can see it has with the air showing you a very large blue peak, meaning it's not very healthy. Uh, but now mountain view is moving in neighborhoods to 3000 uh, killing residential areas, which is better and can still do better and eliminate the entire blue spectrum. If you get to 2400. Next. So these are just lights on villa and wine. One of them is white and one of them is yellow. And the reason I wanted to show you this is because people really prefer the yellowish tint of the color of the light. And these lights are next to each other. It's just one of them is. I don't know why one is yellow, one is white next. Um, and this is really interesting because in Tucson, they did an experiment in being delights and measured from the satellite to see what happens when we dim the lights to 30% of normal on street lights. What they found out is they said, a lot of energy, light pollution decreased, people did not complain because eyes are really good at adjusting to light, too dark, if it's not completely dark, right? And there was no more accidents, no additional complaints or safety issues. But what they did find is that a lot of the light pollution did not come from city light. And because of the recommendations they made. The study, the people who studied this, they recommended that cities should actually look at both private properties, whether it be a car dealership or an office or anything, a parking lot, and their own lights, and devising how to reduce light pollution and make it a better environment for people and for all the wireless that still share our landscapes. So next one is um, the city of Cupertino. They just passed recently, 3 weeks ago. The bird safe design and dark sky ordinance. As soon as they passed it, the recommendation from the international Dark Sky Association changed. But, um, so maybe when you do yours, it would be a little better. Um, but they did look at uh, private properties and separately, the city, not including the ornaments, but being addressed or city lights, uh, in San Vazel's next slide. They have citywide design guidelines and standards and there's a lot of overlighting there, but they do say to keep the maximum color temperature for outdoor lighting below 2700 Kelvin, which is very good. And this is for private properties, at least during the migration, except for the for celebration in around Christmas time. They allow more lighting than Same with Cupertino next. I think that's my light, last light, uh, flight, it just says, it was only the light you need, you know, just as much, no more, shade the light, so they don't, you don't spill the light to the sky and not to your neighbors, choose warm lights rather than cold nights. That's the spectrum of the how much calvin you use and use a lot of timers and motion sensors and so on to make sure that you don't use light when you don't need to. There's a lot more, but I only have 30 minutes and I'm probably over. So thank you.

[00:47:06] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Just in the make of time, Charlie. Perfect timing. So, um, I think you know, we're not able to, um, engage on this since it's a non-agendized item. Um, so they aren't able to ask any other questions of you. But thank you very much for your presentation. We appreciate it. Thank you. Great, thank you. All right, so we'll move on to our regular oil communications from the public, which will be 3 minutes. So if we could just get the 3 minute timer up, and Our 1st speaker will be Gracia Alfaro.

[00:47:54] Gracia Alfaro Ruiz: Hola, muy when I start this. We nomres Gracia Alfaro Ruiz. Yoso una estudiante en a universidad de el estado de San Jose, and the programa de maestria del Cabajo Social. I'm here today to talk about the people who are impacted by the Mountain View Motorhome Ban, Measure C. It's soyaki ahora, para ablar, sobe las personas que stanga fectadas, por la provisión, de las casasas mobiles, en las Cayas de Mountain View. Yo tu del grand, honor, de poder alarco algunos de los residentes, de las casas moviles. Yo tengo algo en comuncongellos. Nasimos en un país, que no tiene los supicientes recursos para quidara su gente appropiadamente. Y vilimos anos estados unidos, a... Oscar un avida diperente. We migrated to the United States looking for different opportunities. With this policy, the city of Mountain View is criminalizing poverty. The individuals living in motor homes cannot afford housing, which is often why they live in motor homes, asking them to relocate their homes as problematic alone, and spending almost a $1000000 on signs to enforce this ban is concerning, especially when the root issue here is lack of affordable housing. I strongly demand that the city council members reconsider the negative impacts that this policy is having on vulnerable populations, and that they assess that the money that they are spending on these signs. It's a lot of money percent. Right. I believe that this money could be used more wisely. Um, and I also demand that committee members who voted for this policy take some time to visualize the people who are directly impacted by their vote. Think about the mother who works 2 jobs and is still unable to afford housing. Think about the young woman who is going to college during a pandemic and does not have access to use electricity to do her homework or attend Zoom meetings. Or the elderly man who has worked his whole life in the United States. And his social security benefits are not enough to pay for an apartment. Thank you for your time and consideration.

[00:49:58] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Alexander Kundraken.

[00:50:06] Alex Kamrahan: Yes, hello. Hello. Good evening, city council members. My name is Alex Kamrahan. I'm currently getting my currently working towards my master's of social work at San State University and have been working within social services and different agencies for the past 3 years throughout Santa Clara and parts of San Mateo County. I've seen and worked with a lot of individuals who are struggling to survive in our county and from the fight to secure consistent housing to finding both physical and mental health services. I have seen the challenges that these people face daily. I'm here to speak to you about the RV band that had gone to full effect this month. The band would have people in their families forced to move or potentially have their home towed away or be forced to pay fines that, frankly, cannot be paid. My colleagues and I have gone out and spoken with individuals who live in these communities, and there are a few things that we have heard that I like to bring to the attention of the city council. The 1st and biggest theme was of desperation, hopelessness among those who live, who live there. The pandemic has shown and highlighted the daily struggles that has not been seeing the public eye. Jobs were lost and finances were destroyed for many. I believe I could safely assume that everyone here has felt the financial panic that this pandemic has created. The people who in this who live in this community are not an exception. The people that live in these communities work constantly to be able to afford the bare necessities. It becomes a matter of choosing certain necessities over others. Do I eat today or do I buy gas and stay warm for the night? No individual should be forced to make that choice. Another thing that I wanted to address was the feeling of being betrayed. In other words, the feeling of being stereotyped. In our interviews, individuals express that the criticism that the people living in these RVs are either alcoholics or drug addicts was felt among the community and government. When bands such as these happens, it characterizes the population in a negative light, and from a case marriage perspective adds unnecessary layers when working with these individuals. They don't trust us to help them. But I'm not gonna stay here and demonize you. I believe the demonstrations in 2019 against the ban that you were fully understanding of the costs. I understand that measure C was passed through the will of the majority, and that civil servants, and as civil servants, you uphold majority wants. Where I do ask for your effort and leadership, though, is in the creation support of expanding self safe parking options for these individuals, increasing services that are being given to them. Home key is a start, but more is needed. The people want help and they're being great. They want to be part of the greater community, but it cannot be done when these options are limited to only what is easy. Just as easy as is suspended nearly $1000000 on signs, it must be as easy to create additional solutions rather than the typical California response of pushing individuals out onto someone else's care. Thank you, city council.

[00:52:28] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Alexander Brown.

[00:52:33] Alexander Brown: Alright, can you hear me now?

[00:52:35] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[00:52:36] Alexander Brown: All right. First, I'd like to fully endorse Shannon's presentation. I lived in Tucson back when they had the sodium street lamps for the observatories and I love the warmer, gentler lighting. The night should be dark. I also strongly agree with the previous speakers about the narrow streets prohibition, and its impact on those living in vehicles in Mountain View is an expensive and roundabout way to criminalize poverty and harm of ultimate population, and it's really unfortunate that it's gone through. Thanks.

[00:52:59] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Alan Whitaker.

[00:53:05] Alan Whitaker: Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to bring a concern to the attention of the council. My name's Alan Whitaker, a 28 year Mountain View homeowner. I'm representing myself and 22 of 23 households on the 2500 block of Alvin Street. We want the city of Mountain View to resume enforcement of the Organs 19.2 set, rather 19.72 parking in excess of 72 hours prohibited. This is the abandoned car audience, which this council suspended a year ago when a state of emergency was declared. 32 foot narrow Alvin Street is feet from Palo Alto, a city with no such ordnance suspension, making R block an easy dumping ground. Our street is always clogged with cars from somewhere else. Today at 4 pm was typical. 32 cars parked on our block. 7 live here, and there were 2 sparks available for parking. amazing. In comparison, the 2400 block, feet away, there were 14 vehicles total. 3 of them were contractors. So, not long, lost long ago were street sweeping services, which on the city's website states are crucial for safe and sanitary streets. Some of our some of the 7 neighborhood cars, I mentioned, are placeholders, just so the neighbors have spots to put their garbage bins out on garbage day. Otherwise, cars park every inch, even in front of your own driveway. And now with opening up, what's your plan? What's your plan? When family and friends come to visit. Valet? It's unlikely our street or situation is unique within Mountain View. Our neighboring municipalities, which never suspended enforcement abandoned vehicle ordinances, may address certain aspects of enforcement differently. This is something that mountain view should explore. Talking to my neighbors is evident, resentment exists. For both those who park here for weeks on an end, and the lack of any recourse. Thank you very much.

[00:55:26] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. All right, that concludes our public comment, so we can bring it back to the council. Great, thank you. All right, so we can move on to item 6, which is unfinished business. Item 6. is our strategic planning and roadmap for fiscal year 2021, 22, and 20223. City manager Kimball McCarthy will introduce this item, and then transition to Lawrence Cresca, the city's consultant from civic makers. who will provide a brief presentation. After the presentation, we will take public comment. Following public comment, this item will have 3 components for council discussion based on staff's recommendations. It'll be one, the Strategic Priorities, which will be led by Lawrence Godeska, to the action plan led by principal management analyst Melvin Gaines. And item 3, a vision statement led by city manager Kimber McCarthy. I will now turn things over to city manager Kimber McCarthy. I think we'll make sure to move all of the other speakers over. Great. Thank you.

[00:56:43] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Great, thank you, Mayor. Good evening, council members, members of the public. So this is the 3rd time that we are coming to council to talk to you all about your strategic priorities and the action plan, which is formerly called the city council major goals, which consists of your priority projects and initiatives. And then also the vision statement that describes Mountain View and where we are, where we want to be in the future. So at this point, um, I'm not seeing uh, Lawrence yet in the, uh, moved over yet in the, uh, Q. So I will go ahead and start with the presentation right now and hopefully they will be able to join us. I'm just going to share my screen here. Okay. So, Right now, just giving an update on where we're at with the process. So we started in February with the council survey and workshop. And throughout the month of March, there were targeted focus groups that were held. As well as community workshops, and also civic makers met with department heads, and also did a workshop with staff, really just to dig deep on the strategic priorities and also really talk about the vision. So, so council kind of set set that foundation in February. Then there was a lot of interactive work with the community and with staff throughout March and April. And there was a session also in March, where council provided further feedback and refinement to your priorities and the action plan. And that leads us to now, uh, where we are coming back with staff's recommendations, um, and taking all the feedback that we receive from council and uh, presenting recommendations to you on those strategic priorities and the action plan as well as the vision statement. Um, and that really is the start of the um, really brief presentation on where we're at now. So as you mentioned, Mayor, right now, we are at the point where we will move into the 3 components of this agenda item where we'll talk 1st about the strategic priorities, followed by the action plan, and then finally the vision. So, uh, that concludes just the brief part of the presentation. So I'll turn it back over to you for public comment before we begin the next part of it.

[00:59:28] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. And great news. I found Lawrence in. Lawrence, did you have anything you wanted to add before we go into public comment?

[00:59:36] Lawrence Cresca: No, just apologies. I was tending to the child in the brief window I had before we started. So, uh, thank you, um, Kimber, for, um, so in the context, and uh, we'll uh, have a council discussion after we hear from the public. Thank you, mayor.

[00:59:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Of course, no problem. Family first. All right. So we'll move it over to public comment. With any member of the public on the line, let's forget comment on this item. If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone and we'll display the 2 minute timer on the screen. Okay, the 1st is Robert Cox.

[01:00:19] Robert Cox: Oh. you hear me?

[01:00:21] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes, we hear you.

[01:00:23] Robert Cox: Okay, I'm here as a member of the steering committee, a little bit more of you. Thank the council and the staff are including livability and quality life as a citywide strategic goal in the staff report. I asked the council to approve it and the other strategic goals and look forward to the implementation of the projects that support livability and quality of life, especially those designed to preserve the character of our downtown core. Um, my co-member, um, Louise, cats will be speaking more on this when her turn comes up and I yield my time. Thank you.

[01:01:01] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Next is Shawnee Kleinhouse.

[01:01:08] Shawnee Kleinhouse: Good evening again, mayor and council. On behalf of Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. I wanted to express appreciation of the aspiration to protect habitat and biodiversity in Mountain View as expressed within the strategic priorities. But I'm a little disappointed that ecology and biodiversity are not called out in restorative approach or rewilding the city, and only as a protective goal of what's already there. As you pointed out yourself, the need to restore habitat and create connectivity and habitat patches, and maintain it in a way that is hospitable to birds and insects, butterflies, other animals. It's really, really critical that we start rewilding our cities. And Mountain View has really good precedent in North Bay Shore, and a very engaged group. And potentially the best way to answer staffs require, ask a question of how to do that. Would you have need to have a stakeholder group or a working group with people from the spoke here before? I'm happy to help and look at all the documents that already exist on how to do that regionally and specifically in Mountain View and come up with a good plan. So, um, I think it's really important to provide habitat, meaning food and shelter to a variety of insects in birds and wildlife. And establish the kind of connectivity that those habitat area needs, the craters can move between them, find the next spot. And really not only existing biodiversity, but also to restore and bring things back. So you can hopefully require more native plantings in new developments and city properties, but there is a lot more in a working group could really help. We did that in Palo Alto for the urban force master plan, and it's really working. Thank you.

[01:03:13] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Louise Katz.

[01:03:20] Louise Katz: Thank you very much. Can you hear me?

[01:03:25] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[01:03:25] Louise Katz: Okay, thank you. Yes, so on behalf of local mountain view again, I wanted to 2nd Robert's statement that we are truly appreciative of the inclusion of quality of life issues, and hope that this will be a vigorous and ongoing discussion. You mentioned the last meeting that you heard many people, many representatives heard from many constituents how important this is. And it's a varied list that we have within the quality of life that our staff has presented. And in our opinion, they're all essential to Mountain View's future. We can't plan our city without relating our decisions to the quality of life. So we hope that also that this will be a very inclusive process as the list is varied. We hope it will include your focus on businesses and schools and the needs of families, um, who will be there to invest in our future. Thank you.

[01:04:23] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, thank you. Albert Jeans?

[01:04:29] Albert Jeans: Good evening, Mayor Kamea, council members. Um, I just wanted to request that you consider dropping the continuation of the automatic guideway feasibility study. I looked at the original study, which is finished in 2018. It's pretty comprehensive, and it struck me just reading that, how feasible it is. And we're talking about $100000000 per mile. And, you know, I just use Google Maps and you probably need at least 3 mile segment just for a single line from the transit center to, you know, Google's headquarters and, and of course, the study recommended a much wired network, which probably would bring the cost close to half a $1000000000 dollars. Now, this is for a city of 80,000 people. And plus, you know, how many people currently, well, pre-COVID, actually went from the transit center to Google using private shuttles or whatever. I don't think it was that many. So how do the people how do the residents of Mountain View benefit from such a, you know, huge project? I think, and plus now with COVID, and you know, we don't know, we're not exactly sure what the post-COVID scene will look like, but I think it's fair to say that things have changed. You know, working habits have changed. We don't know what the commute patterns will be like after COVID. And so I think it's wise to just put this on hold. If it looks like, you know, we're headed for, you know, gridlock traffic again, maybe we can look at it again. But even in those cases, I'm not sure this is the right solution for Mountain View. This is too big and too expensive for, you know, a city of our size. And this is something that might be more appropriate for something like San Jose or San Francisco, but not Mountain View. Thank you very much.

[01:06:15] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Uh, 650 last 3 digits are 793. If you are calling in on a phone number. I think you need to hit, um, star. I think it's either star 9 or star 6 to unmute. So it's a 650 phone number. The last 3 digits are 793.

[01:06:57] Bruce Nagel: Can you hear me now?

[01:06:58] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes, perfect.

[01:07:00] Bruce Nagel: Okay. Uh, hi. I'm Bruce Nagel. I'm, uh, I'm a number of uh, sustainability uh, groups in Mountain View, and I've lived in Mountain here for 40 years. The plan that you put together is impressive with a lot of individual features of it. They do have a couple of comments in terms of how it would be implemented, but I think may be useful. And 1st off, um, some of these have, on us to goodness deliverables, maybe this reflects to an action plan that really shows what's going to happen with it. The other thing that I think is important is that, um, we have sustainability things and they're kind of linked throughout this, and that's good, um, but we should be showing how they, how they interact. You know, there was just, we reduce the amount of traffic by some of the, uh, modes that are put in here, that have more bicycle paths, that should somehow be reflected in this. And, and wherever you can be to have actual goals, it can be 1st off ones that affect the uh, amount of rehab gas as well as the things that are more concrete, like, you know, fewer bicycles or fewer cars that are single, um, single occupancy. So, a lot of good stuff here, figure out how you can prioritize some of the stuff because the list is long and distinguished, and figure out where some of the things interact with each other, especially as we need to continue to drive to uh, sustainability, effort of being uh, carbon neutral by 2045. Actually, opportunity to speak, and thanks for all the work that went into this.

[01:08:32] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Catherine Trejo?

[01:08:41] Catherine Trejo: Can you hear me?

[01:08:42] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[01:08:43] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, great.

[01:08:44] Catherine Trejo: Yes, Marty Wright and I have been residents of Mountain View since 1994. Uh, we live fairly close to Stevens Creek Corridor and to the trail. And uh, we very much appreciate um, the steps that Mountain View has made over the years, that we have witnessed and sometimes participated in, and increasing both the biodiversity, uh, and the papal friendliness of the city. We're very grateful for that. We have noticed over the years that some biodiversity seems to have been affected by structure building. For instance, this year, we have a noticeable decline in our hooded oil population, which we normally see in our backyard, in great numbers. We think that it has to do with a lot of building in this area that we live. And we appreciate that people do have to have a place to live, and this is a wonderful place. But we're hoping that in the future, um, the city of mountain, we will include more biodiversity and think of planting things like oak trees in the parks and maybe more palm trees for the Orioles, as well as, um, I love the idea of dark skies. I'm a Stargazer myself. And I would really appreciate any kind of movement that the city can make to make our skies darker, even if it is just a tiny spot on the map. So thank you for all your hard work and um, hope to attend a city council in person again someday.

[01:10:17] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Great. Thank you. Uh, Gita, Dad?

[01:10:30] Gita Dev: No. Am I on?

[01:10:32] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes, yeah.

[01:10:33] Gita Dev: Thank you, Mayor Committee, and city council members. My name's Gita Dev. I am speaking on behalf of the Sierra Club. I was very pleased with our session last time and was very excited to hear the number of people who spoke on behalf of biodiversity is really important for their city and also to hear the same from several council members. And um, I must admit that I'm rather disappointed to see that it has not really risen to, um, what I thought it would be, that it would be one of the real priorities. As the world becomes more urbanized. I think city managers are recognizing the importance of providing habitat that can support biodiversity. And there's sort of a start of an urban wildlife movement. Um, This sort of awareness has been happening a lot. around the world as people come to terms with the dramatic increase in our urban areas and the corresponding loss of wildlife. So it's really not enough for cities to just plant a 1000000 trees or have backyard gardens or build green roofs and smart streets. The trees and shrubs and flowers also need to benefit the birds, butterflies and other animals. And they need to provide habitat for breeding shelter and food. And where possible, the habitat needs to be arranged in corridors so that wildlife too can travel just as we want to travel. So the cities, the ones who once laughed off the idea that anything urban could be wild, are now supporting urban biodiversity programs, and I hope that Mountain View will too. I know that San Jose is doing a rewilding program. So now in some counties, canopy trees are asked to be 80% of planting rather than just a few, and that half of them need to be oaks because they all benefit. Uh, from carniballas to songbirds. So you know, a bird needs to bring like 6000 caterpillars to raise a clutch of nestlings.

[01:12:42] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Sorry, your time is out.

[01:12:44] Gita Dev: Thank you.

[01:12:45] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. All right, B, Hansen. I think you just need to unmute be. B. Hansen? All right, maybe we'll come back to B. Linda, Ruth Ruff.

[01:13:30] Linda Ruth Ruff: Hi, Linda Ruth Ruff again, conservation chair, Santa Clara Valley, chapter of the California Native Plant Society. You see a lot of dead animals on our roads and highways. Do you ever wonder why these unfortunate animals can't avoid being hit and killed? The answer is that when their neurological systems developed, there weren't cars speeding along at 60 miles per hour. They simply aren't equipped to anticipate something moving at that kind of speed and to avoid it. They aren't equipped to survive the modern world. The same is actually true for us as humans. Our bodies and our minds and our neurological systems aren't equipped for all the challenges of modern life. We pay differently than the animals. We pay with increased blood pressure, with digestive problems. With sleep problems, with chronic stress. Being in nature, however, is healing and restorative. We've seen how people flock to the parks during this pandemic. We need nature in our cities where people spend their time. In order for residents to function at their best. We ask that you include prioritizing, bringing nature into the urban environment, with a priority on rewilding and regreening mountain view. Thank you.

[01:15:13] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Alexander Brown.

[01:15:22] Alexander Brown: Oh, yeah. Can you hear me?

[01:15:24] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[01:15:25] Alexander Brown: Cool. Uh, be trying to unmute, but having some zoom issues. I feel like Shannon was speaking to me as a resident of North Bayshore, I fully support rewilding the area. Please bring back all the P-Foul. You know, I'd love to have more connected Byron Green Corridors full of life and fewer isolated grass squares, but no palm trees. I really dislike palm trees. Uh, pixnative flora. There's plenty of them. I'm sure Google would love to help out up here that they can speak for themselves on that. Also, I know it's already scheduled, so thank you for prioritizing protections for mobile home communities. I'm so anxious to see something on the books, but I'm more hopeful than ever. Thank you. I reserve my time. Can I do that? I don't know if I can do that. I'm going to try that.

[01:16:08] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Tim McKenzie.

[01:16:12] Tim McKenzie: Hi, can you hear me?

[01:16:14] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[01:16:15] Tim McKenzie: Yeah, sorry if I raised my hand earlier. I'm zooming on my phone for the 1st time and I noticed I accidentally raised my hand during a public comment thing and then no one else was speaking and it may have been me. Um, I'm going to also steal Alex's remaining time. I'm not going to let him reserve it for himself and I will take it for myself. I'm just kidding on that one. But there's many, many things in this plan. I just want to talk about a couple of them. The 1st one in the staff report is that just listed out is expand access to broad broadband access across communities. I would love to see municipal broadband just as a public service, uh, like uh, as a utility. Silicon Valley is like the heart of the internet in the zeitgeist in the cultural mind and I think people would be shocked about the type of internet access we have here. I think it would be great for us to set a model of municipal broadband that could be shown across across the rest of the country, or at least around the Bay Area, where tech is so heavily concentrated. Um, and uh, explore, number three, also, I'm not going to comment on all of them, but I'd like to mention number three, explore the feasibility of alternative mental health crisis response methods. That would be great. It'd be amazing if we could have a 3 digit number to call that would bring mental health responders 1st rather than bringing armed agents of the state with weapons that are not trained to handle these situations, because if someone notices someone in crisis, they probably don't have the 10 digit number memorized. So, yeah, I would just, I wanted to mention those ones. And then I'll also echo what, I would said, it's great just be seeing mobile home rent control. Thanks.

[01:18:04] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you that time. Thank you. Uh, payingly.

[01:18:14] Pai-Ling: Hello? Hello. Hi, everyone, paying she hers. I want to emphasize some comments on the biodiversity requirements as supported by commute groups like Ringspaces MV and MVCSP. Also wanted echo, Shanny, Gita, and other public cultures from earlier about biodiversity. So, 1st and foremost, um, thank you so much, um, council staff, for working on this, and then this this next phase of treated priorities, very excited to see that we're defining value receive requirements, um, as a recommended project. I think one suggestion is to perhaps conduct a working group of or stakeholders group to leverage collaboration among cross-departmental staff, community organizations and experts as well as community members. And then one required objective for the commute for that working group would be to have, um, to determine the requirements for landscaping. And I think that working group could also determine the scope of work that would ultimately strengthen the integration, growth of biodiversity in nature, and to see why planning and policies. Overall, I think we strongly suggest that this project at least manifests requirements around lighting, that could be in temperature or wants for power. bird safe standards, tree and plant palette, e.g. like no palm trees, as mentioned earlier, an analysis of green connectivity for people and wildlife. Overall, the project would have an emphasis on native tolerant pollinary friendly landscaping choices. And I think another potential outcome of this project would be to describe biodiversity sensitive design elements and various land use types. So office and commercial spaces, transportation corridors, open spaces, and residential areas, especially where dense. On a support note, for the next step on the strategic priorities, we were wondering, how will the community feedback via the survey that will be sent out affect the strategic worldmap action plan? Um, when and where will this community survey be available and will the results be returned to the community before um, the council meeting? Thank you so much.

[01:20:16] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. All right. So, uh, one more it looks like, um, is Anna Marie Morales? You could put the timer back up. Looks like we got a. Great. Thank you.

[01:20:33] Anna Marie Morales: Hello?

[01:20:34] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Hi, you have 2 minutes, Anna.

[01:20:36] Anna Marie Morales: Thank you. Sorry, I was having a little problem. Well, I wanted to thank everyone tonight for being here. I'm really excited to, um, talk about all these issues. I want to kind of echo what people were saying around biodiversity, um, housing in Mountain View and keeping Mountain View diverse is really, really important. Um, so I'm really hoping that we'll make sure to have um, lots of conversations as well as actions around this. So I'm looking forward to seeing where everything goes. Thank you.

[01:21:13] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. All right, it looks like be your back. Let's try. Okay, I think that might be working now. Yes, we hear you. Go ahead, B.

[01:21:26] B. Hansen: Yeah, um, I'll review on those encyclopedia's girls, no, Ramirez is out, uh, to make sure that, uh, I represent the Mountain View, mobile home community. Well, then you have something on the agenda. Uh, and I wouldn't care, review the council report that, uh, it shows the, the organ system on, uh, there's, you know, vista strategy, you're in this project. So I never want to have got an opportunity to go by to remind you that we're looking forward to adapt to that audience. Uh, in August or September, and of course, I think there's, like, something else will interfere with that. Um, so basically, I just wanted to, uh, let you know that we're out here, uh, waiting for you to do something. I mean, if you love it. really appreciate all of the support you've given us so far. That'll do it. Thank you.

[01:22:30] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Joan McDonald.

[01:22:42] Joan McDonald: Hi. I have one comment about the potential surveys of the city. I think we all know that the way questions are asked in a survey determines the answers. And so it's very important to me, that all stakeholders have representation, um, the development of any surveys that are going out to all of the residents, so that the questions are neutral rather than slanted. The other thing that I want to mention is, it almost doesn't matter what results happen. From some surveys, if we're talking about how much harm is done, because of certain practices in the city. It doesn't matter whether 90% of the residents. Don't think there's any harm done. If one person feels harmed, that's enough for us to look at how to change things. Thank you.

[01:24:11] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. All right, that looks like it concludes public comments so we can bring it back to council. Great. Just double checking that. So I think this moves us on to, um, item one of the 3 things we're going to be talking about, which is our strategic priorities. So, um, I'll close public comment and turn it back over to Mr. Goreska to kick off the recommended strategic priorities and then, uh, we'll move into council questions and discussion.

[01:24:43] Mr. Goreska: Great. Great. Thank you, mayor. Um, uh, I wanted to uh, share with you before we get into uh, the street priorities, what we heard last time and talk a little bit about how we revise the strategic priorities based on your feedback. I wanted to thank you for your really thoughtful and thorough input, uh, and congratulate you on landing on a really robust set of priorities for the city of Mountain View that aligns well with what we heard from the community and from staff. Um, what we did hear from you last time was, um, support for incorporating quality of life and its own priority, um, which it is now, um, in the staff report. You see the new draft priorities, which quality of life is one and livability. We heard that you wanted to incorporate access to housing and assistance for the unhoused population, into the intentional development and housing housing options priority, which we did. Um, and heard, um, from you all and and certainly from, uh, the, the community from, um, our callers about the importance of incorporating biodiversity into sustainability and climate resilience. Um, there was a desire to reference a, a, a burgeoning mobility network um, to create access across the city, various um, parts of the community, in the mobility and connectivity priority. There was also a real strong interest in the importance of walkable access to parks and green space, as part of livability and quality of life. And finally, acknowledging innovation and workers as key parts of the economic and vitality priority. So, uh, with that, um, where we landed, Uh, were these revised strategic priorities? Um, as mentioned, the the big change was adding in the livability and quality of life, um, priority, and, um, uh, you should all have had a chance to to review this, uh, in your staff report, for the, uh, the public, for folks that haven't, um, had a chance to see that, we'll just walk through the, the final uh, recommended language, for each priority, for community for all, uh, preserve mountain views, socioeconomic and cultural diversity, engage and protect vulnerable populations through equitable access to housing, transportation, and other programs and services. Livability and quality of life. Enhance mountain view as a great place to live that values community health and well-being. Preserve Mountain View's unique history and wildlife habitats provide access to parks, open space, and other key amenities. Intentional development and housing options, increase the quantity and diversity of housing options, including assistance for the unhoused, provide opportunities for subsidize and affordable housing, as well as homeownership, and plan for neighborhoods with nearby transit, jobs and amenities that balance density with livable green, mixed use development. Mobility and connectivity. Develop a mobility network that enhances connectivity across Mountain View and establishes green corridors, promote transit and safe active transportation options that reduce vehicle trips and traffic and increase walking and biking. For sustainability and climate resilience, minimize the city's greenhouse gas emissions, prepare for sea level rise, protect local ecosystems and biodiversity, support residents and businesses to adopt sustainable practices and use resources wisely. Economic vitality, invest in a beautiful vibrant downtown that draws residents, visitors, create an environment where small local diverse businesses can thrive across the city, continue to work in partnership with the business communities so that Mountain View remains a center for innovation with meaningful jobs for workers. And finally, organizational strength and good governance, continue to innovate, collaborate, and continuously improve, deliver a high-level customer service, recruit, develop, and retain top-notch staff, maintain fiscal responsibility, and effective intergovernmental partnerships, and communicate and engage regularly and transparently with our multilingual community. So, um, I'm going to um, stop the screen share, so we can uh, talk about this and everyone can see each other a little bit more easily. And uh, would love to hear from commissioners uh, about what they think. Uh, if anything, we missed in um, in those priorities, uh, based on the staff recommendation for for those uh, priority areas. And I see a hand from council member hicks.

[01:29:20] Councilmember Alison Hicks: No, I wasn't going to start off with what you missed out. Start off by saying, um, that I'm I'm generally happy with the way the priorities have come out. Um, I, I think that the, one of the good things is that I think we were kind of stuck with our 4 goals that we'd had for a number of years and that we were, um, I know a lot of community members didn't think they encompassed everything that they wanted to do. I think they were a little aspirational and they were never going to change. Um, I personally think that because we're, in my opinion, moving in the right direction, I don't, I personally don't feel a great need to tinker with them a lot more. I think that we can, um, you know, maybe do that over the years. Um, but I just thought I would say a few things. First, I was going to talk about livability. I'm really glad that that was added as one of the strategic priorities. Um, in my, and I know that livability can be an amorphous concept and that some people would say, well, shouldn't it include housing and so forth? And I think it should. But since we have called out housing as a separate strategic priority, I like the way it's framed here. Um, and, and I do, particularly because we, as a council, have talked about mental health and have been urged by the community to talk about mental health, I really think that this goal includes a lot of the things that we need to do as we urbanize to, um, to keep people, people's health and well-being. I would probably add things like art and culture, community in public places. We can add the, because I think all of those are the things that you need as you urbanize to, um, to, uh, to maintain people's uh, mental health and well-being. But I like the fact that it has health and well-being in it, that it has history and wildlife. So we can add those additional concepts now or not, you know, like I said, I'm not going to wordsmith. Um, The other one I was gonna, another one I was going to talk a little about is economic vitality. I feel like a little on this one, we're confusing. There's the like, um, The small businesses and the large businesses. I feel like when we talk about the downtown, in some ways, that's more a part of livability. That's part of, um, building public places where you can go out and see your neighbors. Again, I'm not going to wordsmith. I don't care if it's left in economic vitality. Honestly, I think what's giving our, uh, community, a good amount of its, uh, economic vitality is the the tech sector that our economy is kind of grounded in. But, um, so one thing I would change under economic vitality is to talk normally, not only about uh, the walkability and so forth of our downtown, but also village centers that are in our general plan. I think that we need more than just our downtown. I want to become more like a 15 minute city where no matter where you live. You can walk to a fairly, you know, walk to a place where you can meet your neighbors, um, you know, we have parks, but I think in East Wisman and North Bay Shore, and then in our general plan, there are other village centers named, and I would, I would like those to be good public places as well. And then the last one I was going to mention is the, um, I forget which number it is, but the strategic prior or the under sustainability. I would be, I don't know if you would put the words up because, but I would be, um, because we've gotten so much comment from the community on this. Um, and I don't think it's come out of nowhere. I interfaced to some degree with our local group, uh, Green Space is Mountain View, which, frankly, that group has been populated from a number of different places, including sort of the school park fencing issues and it's very broad. The number of people who come to that group is a very broad spectrum of our community. So another, and there is a call for, as people have been saying, real wilding, because I think that's one thing people do want from their parks. They want to see, um, they want, want to see more birds. It's one of the things that makes people feel happy. Um, So, and and also it's a big part of our climate crisis or our, our, um, environmental crisis is, uh, species extinction. So we might add protect local ecosystems. Oh, let's see, I can't, the way I have my screen arranged. I can't see all of that, like me. Protect local ecosystems, And by diversity, through rewilding and other measures or something like that. And that's that's all I have to say at this point.

[01:34:35] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Council member Bad Chuck. Okay, that's

[01:34:41] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: a process question. Um, I thought tonight we were um, sort of finalizing this. I hope. Yeah. Yes, so the comments from council member Hicks. Um, You know, she's suggesting additions or tweaks to these. So are we going to discuss those or?

[01:35:01] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Well, I think I'd like to hear from folks and then just ask if people can live with them as is. Um, you know, I think that, um, you know, the, uh, that what I heard from council member Hicks was that, you know, she could take or leave a couple of the things under econom, uh, economic vitality, um, you know, potentially at village centers. Let me reframe the ask here. Can you live with these? Is that really? I think that's where we're at. Um, and and so, um, thank you for for the clarification on the process. Um, and really that's what, uh, I want to hear from all the council members. I think it's helpful to get your feedback on where we are now, but ultimately, we do want to approve these and move forward and, um, um, you know, and and that's a kind of a, ultimately the question to ask ourselves to do that is, can we live with them as they are? Understanding that they, that they're living and we'll, we'll change um, in the future.

[01:36:03] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, thank you for that clarification. Um, I actually do have a few concerns, um, although in general, um, I think these are the right 7 priorities. Um, and I appreciate how far they've come since the last time we talked about them. But, um, I do have concerns, because I, Been like these set expectations with our community, and I want to make sure our residents and visitors and people who work here, uh, really have a clear understanding of what our priorities are and what they aren't. And so in areas where I feel like it's subject to interpretation. Um, those are the ones that are concerning to me because I feel like it could be setting false expectations with people. And I feel like we've seen that over the past 4 years. that I've been on council and I kind of like to avoid that. And because I want people to know really what we are trying to do, um, not what they think we're trying to do. So, um, Yeah, I've said this before that it's, we can't really like guarantee or insure. We can do a lot of stuff to promote, protect, enable, um, you know, incentivize, but some things are just not in our control. And so I want to make sure that is factored in here. So for me, I absolutely believe, you know, we're a community for all. Um, but I think it's hard for us to say the absolutely we're going to preserve our socioeconomic and cultural diversity. But I think we can do things to support that. Um, so I would change preserve to support, or I'm open to other words, um, Because I think we all want to do that, but it, you know, it's preserving it is not entirely in our control. People may choose to move away. Um, situations change and and we just don't control that. Um, The other um, word in this 1st one um, equitable access. And I thought, you know, what does that really mean? And I think that's a word that sort of, um, open to interpretation. And I want to set expectations that what we're trying to do is really provide access. I'm not sure we can guarantee it's going to be equitable, especially because different people might have different definitions of the word equitable. Um, so I tweak those 2 words in their 1st priority. And the 2nd one, um, I appreciate this being now a standalone one. And, um, I would say that, um, I would tweak it a little bit, um, in that I, you know, I think it's more of a, we want to preserve Mountain View's unique character, not necessarily its history. I think history is what adds to the character of the city, um, but it's more than just the history. And I struggle a little bit with preserve on that one too. Maybe there's a different word we could use there. Absolutely, we want to support it and do things to um, you know, keep it here, but, you know, I don't know that we can guarantee it. And I would also change, um, this to be, um, enhancer, restore the wildlife habitats. I think it needs to be more than what's said here. Um, And provide access to parks, open space and other key amenities. I would just say we want to provide parks, open space, and amenities. Um, Yeah, we, we're trying to have those distributed throughout the city, but I would just say we want to provide them. Um, on the 3rd one, I would say we want to support an increase in the quantity and the diversity of housing. We don't build housing. We enable housing. We do a lot of rezoning, we provide incentives. And so I don't want to say we're going to increase it. We're going to do things to try to make that happen. But we don't control that. And then, I personally, well, there is a technical difference between subsidized and affordable housing, I would just say affordable housing. That's what most people refer to it as in the community. Let's just make it simple. Okay. Sorry, on number five, um, sustainability and climate resilience. Um, The 2nd sentence there, I would say, um, promote and enhance local ecosystems and biodiversity rather than protect, because as we've heard, we need to increase, um, not just maintain what we have. And economic vitality, I would say, support a beautiful vibrant downtown. Not sure I want to say invest in it, but let's support it. Um, and that might be an investment in it, but let's support it. Um, and I would add the comment the council member, member Hicks said about the village centers, um, and other locations in the city. I would include that somehow here. So I guess I could sum that up by saying I can live with the 7, but I'm sorry. I had a lot of word tweaks because I do want to set expectations with our community of what we're really trying to do, so it's very clear and so that we're all clear on what we're trying to do.

[01:41:57] Lawrence Grodeska: Thank you. And um, are, are you, the way these are phrased now, um, you're unable to live with them, you would not be able to, to vote for these as is without some of those work tweets.

[01:42:08] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I wouldn't like.

[01:42:08] Lawrence Grodeska: Okay, great. Um, thank you. Let's hear from the mayor.

[01:42:15] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Hi. So, um, I just thought, um, just hearkening back to the 1st question about the process. Maybe, um, city manager McCarthy, you could talk to us a little bit about, um, because I wasn't sure if we're going. I didn't. I guess I didn't view it as all 7 of us going through and talking, you know, adding our tweaks to the 7 priorities. I think this is the 3rd iteration of that. So can you just let us know what you need from us to move forward or if these are things you could take as feedback and then implement or can you please let us know, Ms. McCarthy?

[01:42:52] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes, thank you, Mayor. So, um, I think at this point, uh, excuse me, as Mr. Grudeska said, yes, we were, we are looking for council feedback on what you can live with, but I also think if council members have a um, strong preference to maybe look at um, some of the wording and you all agree, then or there's a majority of the degrees, we can certainly take that feedback and we will incorporate that as part of what we bring back and the recommendation in June. Um, so I think we are definitely trying to land in a place that you feel comfortable with. Um, and I think some of the the items that were mentioned, um, are similar things that were likely raised before. So I don't think it would be too difficult to make those, you know, adjustments, just to make sure that the language is compatible with what council would want. So I think that we can make that work. Um, but yes, I would just ask, uh, if you all can be really specific on whether you would agree with, with what you've heard from your other council members or if there's just something that's, you know, magging at you that you really want to make sure that we look at, um, please raise that. But overall, we are looking to move forward on this and bring it back as a final recommendation.

[01:44:16] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Um, So can I give my comment?

[01:44:19] Lawrence Grodeska: Yeah, please.

[01:44:20] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, great. So, um, you know, I think that just, When my, my thoughts when, when talking about the strategic priorities is, um, I, I guess I don't mind them being a little bit more broad because these are things that need to live on for the next, you know, these have to live on for years. And how do we choose words for priorities that remain evergreen, right? So I don't feel closely tied to, um, You know, any any further tweaks. I think that I am comfortable with moving from the 4 priorities to the 7. I think that really encapsulate the, um, voluminous discussion that we had, the last time. And I think for me, it's more about indicating to the community, kind of at the heart of what the city is trying to do, and that, um, hopefully all of our council goals will go into those details of how we're going to illustrate the priorities. So, um, you know, amenable to making some some changes, um, if that makes my colleagues feel more comfortable. But I think my general feedback is, I'm comfortable moving to the from the 4 to the 7. I do agree with the categories, um, that were drawn out. And I think part of it is, I guess, my hesitancy in going into too much words and I think is, um, you know, obviously words need different things to different people. And so I don't I don't feel like when I hear like, for example, the the economic vitality principle, whether you're a large business or a small business, I want you to have economic vitality. So I guess I just didn't see it in the same scope. Um, You know, I think we want to buy kind of a vibrant city and community overall. So that's where I feel not as perhaps wedded to the language, but see it as our projects being ways we can illustrate that, and that the 7 priorities are kind of like the overall overarching umbrella that everything can fall under and can encompass. So, I just wanted to put that out there. So I don't know if we're going to need a emotion on the strategic priorities, it's the written, but I just wanted to provide my feedback. Thanks.

[01:46:48] Lawrence Grodeska: Thank you, mayor. Council member Lieber.

[01:46:51] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you. Um, well, I think it's always dangerous to give us another bite at the Apple, too. Uh, because new ideas come up, and if I hit my wish list, I'd love to see something about, um, multi-age spaces and about children in the community and about having a welcoming, um, community. But I also know that after we adopt these very few people are actually going to look at them. And as the mayor kind of alluded to, what folks will look at are really our actions and those kinds of things. That's what's going to end up in the newspaper and people pay attention to and have an opinion about. So I'm I'm 100% at peace with just adopting these.

[01:47:39] Lawrence Grodeska: Great. Thank you. Council member Abikoga.

[01:47:44] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, and it's um, 1st I wanted to thank you um, and staff for your hard work. Um, this is greatly improved, um, from the last iteration, I feel, and I think the expansion into 7, um, goals was a good direction to take. Um, overall, I um, support the goals. Um, but I think, um, like some of my colleagues brought up some, um, key words, uh, phrases that, um, and I had a couple of others based on some of the public comment that we received earlier this evening, um, and just like minor changes that I think would maybe clarify a bit. Um, But I really, I, um, I think it was both council numbers, Hickson, Metachek, who mentioned village centers and I think that is, um, important because that actually ties back to our general plan update and it's something that we've started on, but I think we still have a lot of work to do to, um, to realize these village the village center concepts. So that would be something I would like to incorporate. Um, the other one, and I do agree with counseling on the matter check when, when it comes to housing, um, you know, the more, like, all the conversations we have, and frankly, what's been going on with the state trying to intervene, you know, has been about cities building housing, but, yeah, cities don't build housing, developers, build housing, cities enable housing to be developed. And I think that it is important to really start to clarify that because, like, there's a lot of misconceptions and then from that, we're getting, you know, uh, a lot of, um, conversation and, um, some, I'd have to say unwelcome, um, intervention and, and, and in some places. So I would support that. Um, and then just the minor tweaks was under sustainability, uh, with GHD admissions, I think we're still working to reduce. So I was, would suggest adding reduce and minimize, uh, in front of minimize. Um, and then with, uh, let's see, look, the local ecosystem, I don't know, I just lost. Oh, that's also the same. Um, but based on what public, some of the public comment was, um, saying, um, protect and I would expand, uh, local ecosystems and, um, biodiversity. Um, and then on the mobility line, this is super minor, but I think it's um, worth clarifying, um, in terms of reducing vehicle trips. I would add single occupancy vehicle trips. Thank you.

[01:50:36] Lawrence Grodeska: Great, thank you. Council member or shelter?

[01:50:41] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Hi, um, since I was very pleased to see these categories and particularly that there was a description. I think that helps a lot. And, um, I think council member Lieber is right, that a lot of the general public will not read these very carefully, but the staff will read every word, and they'll read it again and again. They will study it. So what we say matters here. And I really appreciate the fact that council member Mattachek went over it with kind of a fine tooth comb. And I would really like to see us just make those changes because I think it just makes it better. It's not that it's bad now, but it just makes it better and we had that opportunity. Um, I would also, of all the things that have been said, I'd like to see an economic vitality. I'd like to see that rewritten, written a little bit. Um, to, because right now it seems to me that we're concentrating on small businesses, we have great small diseases and we have great large businesses. And, um, they, they, um, they all bring a lot to our community. So I think that needs to be rewritten to, um, kind of either not to not say which size businesses or add in large. And other than that, thank you very much. This is a great improvement. Thank you.

[01:52:02] Lawrence Grodeska: Other, uh, thoughts, comments? Uh, Vice Mayor Ramirez, anything to add?

[01:52:09] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: I was afraid you would call me. I don't know. We're tired for everybody else, so... Um, can I live with this? Yes. In so far as they serve as categories for the projects we're going to talk about in a few minutes. I'm comfortable with all of the prohibition proposed by my colleagues. What's missing? Objectivity, measurable goals, accountability, all of the stuff that I had talked about last time. Um, I've lost that battle, and that's okay. I'll fight it in a couple of years. Um, but I would love to see those incorporated next time. Thank you.

[01:52:49] Lawrence Grodeska: Got it. Okay, uh well, Well, it sounds like we have some work to do, um, to do a revision here. Um, city manager, McCarthy, um, Do you have thoughts about how to proceed? Would you like to take another pass of this and bring it back to council? Um, I guess, uh, yeah, I would love for some guidance from you about how you'd like to proceed.

[01:53:13] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yeah, thank you, Lawrence. So I think that, um, I captured, uh, the feedback that I received just about some of those wording changes and as long as, uh, council is comfortable with that. We will just incorporate those into the final recommendation, which is coming to you all in June. So, um, If you're all okay with that, that's what staff will do.

[01:53:37] Lawrence Grodeska: Great. Well, thank you all. Hopefully this next round of revisions will address some of the final lingering concerns and issues and we can rubber stamp fees as part of the roadmap. I guess with that, I'll turn it back to the mayor for our discussion of projects from the staff's recommended action plan.

[01:54:02] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Sure. I think before we keep going, I just want to make sure that all of my colleagues were able to include all of their, all of their recommendations to you, uh, Mr. Gladeska, just so that we know so that this is the process. So we've provided some feedback to you. We're gonna see it in the final form on June 8th and we'll be able to take that final vote. Did anyone have anything else within the 7 priorities that they feel like was missed or anything like that. I just want to make sure we have, um, We have more bites at the apple. It's so that we can we can get this one right. I appreciate that. Last call, as they say. Yes. Yes. Hesitating to call it that, but yes, right. anything else? All right, all right. Now I feel comfortable. All right. We will now, thank you. We'll now turn it over to Melvin Gaines to discuss the action plan recommendations. And after the presentation, we will do council questions and discussion. We'll turn it over to you, Mr. Gaines.

[01:55:06] Melvin Gaines: Thank you, thank you. Good evening, everyone. So now I get to discuss the, uh, the action plan recommendations, the strategic roadmap action plan is the work plan to accomplish the strategic priorities that you all just discussed and informed us of modifications you'd like. Next slide, please. The process to establish the action plan includes reviewing staff's list of recommended projects, discussing any projects that the council desires, as well as one project that staff would like additional clarity on, and then seeking council approval on the action plan projects. Next slide please. So following the March 16th study session, staff assessed 46 potential projects to accomplish these strategic priorities. This assessment included reviewing input from council advisory bodies on which projects they believe were most important, as well as cross-departmental staff teams, analyzing the workload impacts of each project, and evaluating potential trade-offs of prioritizing one project over another. Ultimately, staff recommends 41 of the 46 projects that were considered. 9 projects were ranked as most important by 5 or more of the 10 council advisory bodies. Each of those projects are included in staff, recommended projects. And staff did not recommend 5 projects. Next slide, please. So I won't read each project as you all have likely seen them at this and in your, I know you've all seen them, and I'm sure the public has had an opportunity as well in their staff reports. But I will highlight the number of recommended projects in each strategic priority area. So community for all, there are 5 projects recommended. There are non-project recommended under the intentional development and housing options. 7 projects recommended under livability and quality of life. Next slide, please. Six projects are recommended under mobility and connectivity. Driving local economy includes 2 recommended projects. Sustainability and climate resilience, has 6 recommended projects, and organizational strength and good government governance includes 66 recommended projects. Next slide please. In summary, staff recommends 41 projects and does not recommend 5 projects. We would like the city council to discuss any projects that you have questions on or disagree with staff's recommendation. There is one project that staff requests that the city council provide additional input on or clarity on, and that is the project to define biodiversity requirements for landscaping in Mountain View. We've heard a lot about biodiversity tonight, but we're really asking for council to provide as clear direction and possible on what the essential elements of biodiversity that you want the city to consider and what is the desired outcome from this project. I don't know if that I will stop talking and ask America May to guide the council through discussion of this project on diversity, as well as any other projects that the council would like to discuss. Thank you.

[01:58:38] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, Mr Gaines. So, um, Perhaps we should. I'm just trying to think how we should start. Shall we maybe go over the clarification of the biodiversity item, and then maybe we can go through the 46 projects, and then we can also get feedback on the deferred. Does that work for everyone? I can't really see your faces yet.

[01:59:04] Melvin Gaines: May I, if I may? So, yes, thank you. I think starting off with clarifying the biodiversity would be great. Okay. I wouldn't suggest that you go through all 46. So what we would ask is if council has any changes. to any of those or any clarification. So that way we can just focus on the items that you want to talk about and don't have to go through all of them.

[01:59:29] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Oh, yes. That's what I meant. Okay, great. We're on the same page then. So yeah, so starting with biodiversity is perfect. Okay, great. I just wanted to kind of roadmap as well for colleagues in the public on how we're going to do this. So, okay, so 1st we'll talk about defining biodiversity and I see council nevermind checks hand. Oh, you muted. Sorry.

[01:59:54] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Anyways, um, I think I brought this up last time, so I'm happy to expand on it. Um, as we've heard from uh, lots of folks, the goal of this is to um, provide food and shelter for a variety of insects, birds, and wildlife. and have connectivity between areas so that they can move safely between the areas when they, you know, are when they want to move to a new area and not be crossing busy highways. Um, and When, you know, as we've developed and as we become more urban, a lot of the, um, places where birds and wildlife used to live and eat have disappeared, and when those disappear, then the birds and the wildlife and the insects disappear. So we want to try to bring that back. So that's the goal of this. As was mentioned, Palo Alto, recently completed a project, and we might look at that as a template for what we might do. But, um, I haven't looked at that, but what, um, I think about when I think about biodiversity is, we as a city require um, certain trees and plants to be diverse in new developments as well as on city property. And that would include things like, you know, sometimes we do less maintenance on shrubs and trees because that makes for a better place for birds and wildlife. Um, we have more of a natural look in places. Um, I think it might be that we change our definition of what are acceptable trees to be planted throughout the city, and we increase the amount of oaks, and we add some trees that, you know, um, they might require more water, but you could have those planted in the bioswales. And um, we want to make sure we have ones that are conducive to um, bringing back that diversity. There's a balance there. And I don't want to say we completely discount things like root structure and the amount of water trees, um, consume, but some amount of, um, trees that have maybe not the best root structures or consume a lot of water, um, because they add to the biodiversity, that's important. So, um, it's also important to plant some trees and shrubs that have food because that provides food for um, the birds and others. And um, I know some people were kind of horrified. at the dead trees that were left at the Charleston retention basin, but those trees, those dead trees actually have a purpose, and it is to provide a place where birds could build a nest and stay. So um, we also would want to encourage green roofs and green walls. The green roofs can provide that connectivity in certain areas. And so I said, you know, I'm not an expert on this, but I'm guessing what this involves is updating city documents, and city requirements. And the documents I thought about were the community tree master plan, the heritage tree ordinance, development plans, and any other city document that we have that defines the requirements. So last time I talked about the lists that exist, I was not referencing lists of, um, plants and trees that others um, might have produced. I was talking about where do the requirements and the lists exist within city documents. I'm only aware of a few, but there's probably more, so we should take a look at all of those. And yes, we can reference the lists that, you know, the experts put together. I just don't know where all those lists are in our documents. And those are the lists I was talking about. Um, I think it's a good idea if we maybe form an advisory body. Um, tap into the experts. A lot of them were involved in helping Google do the wonderful job that has been done in North Bay Shore around the green loop. If you walk there, you will see all kinds of, um, insects and, um, you know, butterflies and all the things that we are trying to provide the habitat. So they'll come back. Um, So that's what I mean by um, this project, I don't know if others have other things they want to add to that, but that's what I mean by this project. Thanks.

[02:05:01] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, council member, uh, show Walter.

[02:05:06] Councilmember Pat Showalter: A tremendous amount of work has been done over the last 20 years, um, in in the Bay Area to identify what is really needed to, um, enhance the biodiversity of our area and, um, and to sort of, uh, um, protect, we're never going to get it all back. Um, but to provide the connectivity that's needed. Um, I think that we can look to the San Francisco Estrin Institute has put together guidelines, the um, habitat conservation plan that was done for about 80% of the county were not included of it, and it has plans. There is a, um, all of the cities in um, mountain view. I mean, not all the cities in that view. All the cities in Santa Clara County have agreed to some riparian guidelines, and these have a lot of information in them about, um, you know, about planting natives and the, and, and, and the things that, that, that, uh, council member Balachek talked about, you know, providing shelter, providing food, um, providing connectivity. And different species need different spacing. Oaks are the particular one, um, and it's it's, uh, it's interesting how, you know, we don't need to have an oak in every front yard. But we do need to have them scat for them to do their job, but we do need to have them sort of scattered around. And that distribution has kind of been figured out by SFEI. So we can, you know, we can go to them. I think the idea of having a, some sort of a community task force to work on this is really great. We have a lot of interested people in the community and that are very passionate about it that can bring this information together for us. Um, and, um, the other thing I think that that is really important for this is, um, the biodiversity of the trees that we plant. You know, we want to plant more trees because they provide shade and they, uh, they, you know, they sequester carbon and they produce oxygen and, and, you know, all of those things, they, you know, they're just, they just created a, um, an atmosphere that's so much nicer for everybody. And I, and they, I think that another thing that we, we don't want to ever forget is that um, there's real economic value to this work. I mean, if you are trying to sell a house that doesn't have any trees in the front, uh, it, you know, at least from a national point of view, it'll take you at least, it'll take you a lot longer and your house will be worth up to 15% more. If you have trees in front of it. So, um, and if you, you know, if you look at uh, canopy coverage of the communities adjacent to us and, um, you think about uh, where the, the, um, richer communities are, their canopies are higher. I mean, it literally increases the property values. But that, but it just has, you know, the increase in the canopy that goes along with his biodiversity, has so much value for us humans, as well as all the other creatures that we share the earth with. So, um, I think the idea of putting together a task force, um, like the one that worked with Google, um, is really a good idea and, um, uh, I hope we can do that.

[02:08:27] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Council member Hicks.

[02:08:31] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So thankfully, the previous 2 council members have said much of what I was going to say. So I'll just support what they said. Um, and and the other thing I was, the one or 2 things that were not yet said, I was recently reading, um, a paper by my, uh, alma mater on the sort of the history of parks. And in case people think that what we're doing or what we're talking about in terms of rewilding parks and places is unusual. Basically, it says at this point in history, people are wanting more than just recreational space, more than just swimming pools and ball fields. They really do want to go to their parks to see birds and see creatures like that. So when we take these steps, we'll be joining other surrounding cities. And I think we should turn to them, other cities who have similar wilding plans. I've heard San Jose and Palo Alto named, and also other groups like the San Francisco estuary institute, the Sierra Club, Audubon. And I would like, as other council members have said, to have a task force of interested citizens within our own city because there are a great number of interested people here. Um, So I just wanted to underline what other people had said tonight.

[02:09:59] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Anyone else want to provide input on the biodiversity item? All right. I look to staff. Does staff need any more clarification on this item? Ms. McCarthy and Mr. Gaines, no? No.

[02:10:18] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, great. So, I think since we are done with this item, we have 46, I believe, recommended projects, um, for the action plan. Do any council members have any projects that they would like to speak about or pull or have any comments on?

[02:10:44] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Okay. Thanks, Mayor Ramirez. Thank you, Mayor. Just to kick this off. So, is the idea to collect the whole list, and then we'll come back and provide remarks, or do you want the remarks right now?

[02:11:02] Mayor Ellen Kamei: I think what the city manager had said is, you know, we're gonna talk, we would talk about biodiversity. We talk about the 46 proposed projects, and then I think there are others that are not recommended, so we can talk about that group. So I was trying to parse it out into the different kind of buckets if that's okay with my car, with all of you. I was just trying to like specturally think about it. So, we talked about biodiversity. We can talk about the 46 projects and then if there's nothing for this, then we can just move on to, um, I think the kind of, 5 or 6 projects.

[02:11:40] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Okay, so that works for me. The 2 projects I want to talk about are 2 that are not recommended. The community workforce agreement and performance auditing, so I'll wait until after we've completed the recommended projects. Thank you.

[02:11:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, yeah, this is just a comments or anything for the recommended list. Thank you so much. Okay, great. Um, Council of the Ave Koga.

[02:12:02] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. I support the recommended projects. I just wanted to clarify a couple, um, I thought we, Steph is asking us to clarify the Moffatt precise plan. I know staff has proposed the scope and um, I, I'm supportive of that. Um, although I guess I just wanted to include or ensure that we include, um, transportation circulation, that, to me, that's one of the biggest, um, concerns I have for this area in light of all of the, um, proposed new developments that are happening. So, I just wanted to make sure that that is included in the scope. as well as open space need. Um, and then the other item was on the, um, TOT, um, increase. Um, my intent, whether to be very direct, is to look at um, a ballot measure, to increase the TOT tax on the hotel, the transit occupancy tax. So, um, I wanted to just make sure that that's the, that's the direction that I want like for us to, um, explore heading to. And I think those were the 2 for now. That, um, that are on the list. Thank you.

[02:13:38] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Council member labor.

[02:13:42] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. Um, I wanted to come out on, um, item 3 um, the alternative mental health crisis response methods. Um, I think that the city manager might have some developments to mention under that, um, in terms of alternative police response, but one of the things that I'm very interested in additionally is, um, in having, um, some kind of street outreach to people that, um, maybe uh, getting into, to a situation, uh, where they're dysregulated and I know that Palo Alto works with, um, momentum for mental health. Uh, to do um, that kind of outreach. Um, to help folks that are on the street. not get to the point where they're offending and become part of the criminal justice system. And, um, then on item 20, um, the strategies for the middle income, um, housing types, I'm very interested is things move along to see further definition, um, on that because it's a very a broad, um, topic. And then, um, item, uh, 38, the um, development and implementation of an enhanced legislative program. I'm most interested in seeing us take positions on a limited set of bills. Um, but I can't really at this time support what was proposed in this item $100,000 uh, to go towards lobbying and towards really intensive. Um, effort. I think that if we sort of dip our toes into the water, this year, and maybe support a limited set of bills, and then, um, next year look at a more intensive, um, effort if things merit it. Um, but I know that some of the really worthy objectives that we have, we're not, um, funding at uh, $100,000 and, um, I know that some of our neighboring cities, um, are pursuing that. And maybe it's possible to leverage their experiences and to leverage what the county is doing in terms of their uh, legislative efforts. But for me right now with, uh, the COVID situation, the housing crisis, um, with people that are in financial crisis, even though $100,000 is, A relatively smaller amount of money to us. I, I think that we might possibly just be, um, you know, getting that money out the door and not getting uh, a huge amount of, of impact for that. So I'd rather see us like kind of going a stepwise process where we get into the process a little bit and then, um, uh, see how we're doing with it before we commit to uh, a larger amount of money. And then, um, I also have some comments on the projects that were not recommended, um, by staff. And I guess, um, a question that I have, um, item 38. Um, is that if we are taking an affirmative position in support of legislation, I'd like to see that come back to council so that we know that it actually happened. And um, and that we can be a little bit selective and what we're supporting. So those are my comments.

[02:17:56] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Council member Mata check.

[02:17:59] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. So, on item 5, I support that, but I would like to see this broken out into 2 projects. Um, because I feel like there's been confusion about this one in the past, and so let's just clear it up, and it would be um, an ordinance to address wage theft citywide, and the 2nd one would be to develop a responsible construction ordinance. Let's just make it really clear. Um, um, Project 10, the Moffatt precise plan. So I think we need to be more specific there. Um, like it's Moffat, is it Moffat Boulevard area? Is it just Moffatt Boulevard streetscape? Um, What streets is it between? Is it central and 85 or middle field? So I would like us to have a discussion about that tonight so that we clarify it. For me, um, I appreciate the comments, um, that, uh, council member Adikoga said about, um, transportation and circulation and open space. And then I'm also interested in the streetscape along Moffat Boulevard. And I would say it would be between, um, Central and I originally was thinking middle field, but then I thought maybe it's a little bit further because maybe we wanted to define it for, um, Shenandoah Square at the same time. Um, because we would want that to be a nice streetscape as well and potentially have open space. So I feel like we need to have that discussion. Um, Project 25, which is the AGT. Um, I actually would just like to not pursue that project. Um, as was mentioned earlier during public comment. It's incredibly expensive. Um, I don't know that we're really going to need it. And we have so many other things that we're doing to address transportation and circulation in the city. I just feel like I, we can shelve this one for, I'd say for a very long time. So for me, it's just dropped it from the list. Um, then project uh, 31. Um, I don't think we need to separate that one out. That's part of the um, sustainability action plan. And it seems odd to me that we'd separate out one and not others. So just leave it in the SAP for. And um, project 40. Well, ultimately, I think we want to look at TOT. I just, I'm not feeling that this is the right time to do that. Um, so, If we leave it on the list, I'd say it doesn't happen for um, a while, like a couple years. Um, I just, um, am not, um, I'm just feeling like it's not the right time to do it right now. And let's see. The others are ones that, um, staff is not recommending, so I think that's it for that. Thanks.

[02:21:25] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So I just wanted to let colleagues know, I'm trying to take comments on all of the different projects that you are commenting on or have anything so we can circle back on discussion, and then I think we may need to take straw polls on the different projects that I'm taking notes of, and I know the city manager, and I think Mr. Gaines are taking notes as well to help me. So I just wanted you to know and then also to clarify for the public that we will take all the feedback and then we'll circle back to each one. All right. Council member Hicks?

[02:22:00] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, and I am so sorry as for your notes, I did not. I didn't take my notes with numbers next to them, so I'm going to just make this really hard for you for all of you taking notes. Um, so, First, in terms of the Moffat precise plan, I, I appreciated staff sort of narrowing of that down, but the, um, my big concern is that is, well, some of the things that people have have mentioned so far that the streetscaping and the circulation and parts. But my other concern is the ground floor uses, I feel that it's really going to be, it really should be. Let me put it this way. A lot of times when we develop, We say we're densifying in order to help people get out of single occupancy vehicles, but density alone doesn't do that. And I really feel if this is going to be the other half of our down, or I really feel this is the other half of our downtown, but we're developing it as if it's a suburb 20 miles away. Um, and we have, you know, there are all sorts of lots that are up for imminent imminent reuse, including, there's a large shopping plaza with like a laundry and a gun shop and some other things I don't remember. Um, that that I've heard may be for sale, and I don't want it to be a large surface parking lot right next to our downtown, to me, that's not appropriate. And it's not a good use of land in our downtown. Um, and I agree with council member Mattachek when I, when she said it should include the interface with the Shenandoah property. I've also talked with high school, um, School board members and said, you know, I would like that to interface with Moffatt as if it's a part of our downtown. you know, whether it's their theater, for instance, the high schools have wonderful music and theater productions. I would like to be able to walk down the street and go to one of those. I would like to interface more with that high school. I would like to develop that thoughtfully. Um, There's some talk of incorporating uh, the adult center across the street into that. Um, I think there's a big potential for some pretty rapid, well, I'll mention one other thing. I was very disappointed when the hotel developed there because a downtown hotel would have a lobby with maybe a restaurant or a bar facing the street that I would walk to and meet my friends. You know, friends of mine who lived just off Moffatt. And I don't think we're taking advantage of any of those things. I don't think we're using it as if it is the other half of our downtown. Now if there's an easy way to do it. You know, maybe it's just a little more than what staff has said. Maybe it's just, um, defining the area and just say that there should be ground floor uses that come up to the street, but I don't want to, I don't want to lose that opportunity. So and although I'd like to make it as easy as possible. Um, okay, my other comments as far as the lawn equipment goes, um, which is part of the the sap for. Um, I don't care whether it's listed with it or separately, but I would like to make it a priority because it is a big community priority and it interfaces with some other things that, um, that the state may be doing and and so, um, whether it's listed together or not, I would like to do that. Um, The, Transit Centered Master Plan. I'm very interested in how it interfaces with our historic downtown, which is the only, you know, the 100 block of Castro is the only historic block and the most vibrant block we have, frankly, in the evenings, and I want to make sure that we don't destroy that. Um, And, uh, let's see, I want TDM to include remote work. Uh, And Let's see if there's a, as far as the legislative program goes, I, I'm fine if we cut back on it. I think some of these other things are more of a priority As far as the automated guideway goes, I would also be open to deferring that. And then I'm wondering whether the VTA Evelyn's site. Um, whether that's immediate or whether that can be deferred as well. Um, And then I had a question about the middle income housing. Is that the same as the R3? Uh, I thought a lot of that was being incorporated in the R3 resounding, but maybe, maybe, um, maybe staff can clarify on that, um, whether it has a separate component that I am unfortunately not aware of. So thank you.

[02:27:17] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Mr. Gaines. May I ask a clarifying question to council member Hicks? You mentioned defer on 2 projects and can you clarify what you mean by defer? Is that saying that the project should be removed from the work plan? Are you suggesting that the project occur maybe in year 2 of the work plan?

[02:27:37] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I'm, I, yeah, I said that in a vague way so that other people can weigh in on it. I would either be, I would either be into putting them in the 2nd year or the 3rd year, which we are not talking about right now.

[02:27:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you Okay, thank you. Counselor Michelle Walter.

[02:28:02] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Yeah, I wanted to talk about, um, Moffat, the Moffat Boulevard, uh, um, The Moffat Boulevard precise plan. First of all, we should change the name if we're going to do it because it's confusing to have it in Moffatt. We think often think of Moffatt as Moffatt Field. And, um, it's it's not just Moffatt Field. Um, But, um, I um, I have concerns about this. We, you know, clearly, this area, many of the things that Alison, or council member Hicks said, I completely agree with, but I kind of come to a different conclusion about it. This should be the other part of our downtown. And I think that, um, when we finish the transit center and, and we, um, we get the underpass, the bicycle underpass that connects Castro Street to Moffat Boulevard. That's going to be um, just kind of a watershed moment in this neighborhood's life. And we want to make sure that we have all of our planning organized and clear then. But I understand that that construction of the underpass can't even possibly start until 2025, late 2025. So that would mean we really wouldn't need the precise plan, um, completed until probably 2026 so that it, it, it does, um, you know, it's useful for all of this development that we, um, need to take part. I do think that when we do this, we want to include the Shenandoah site that's very important. Um, and I think we we need to rethink, um, whether or not what's already in the streetscape design that is already in the, um, the transit center, um, program, master plan, is, is kind of what we were talking about, um, several months ago, um, or I guess it was just last month. When we brought up Moffat Field. Um, So I think that, um, this is important and we want to do it thoughtfully. But I think it is something that we should defer. Another reason. Um, we hear again and again about the bandwidth of our staff. And this is a significant project that will take a lot of thinking. And um, need our, you know, our most experienced planners to work on. And um, so I think it would be wise to put this off. There may be some small components that we want to do right away, but, um, and we could kind of do that as a beginning, but I also think we want to do a, um, uh, I think we want to do a comprehensive job of this when we do it. Um, and that's what concerns me about what we're describing here. This isn't a comprehensive job of it. And, um, uh, and it is a very important part of our community because it is an extension of the downtown. And I think that the deadline for when we need it is in 20 26. So I think we should think about one of the components that we really need to do now, and are they not covered somewhere else, and then how can we work toward doing a comprehensive job, um, in the time that, that, you know, before a real deadline, which to me is is when that underpass opens.

[02:31:42] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Any other comments? Council Marshall, I'll take?

[02:31:44] Councilmember Pat Showalter: No, I really, um, was generally supportive of the staff report. I thought it was very well written. I wanted to mention that. Thank you for that. And, um, uh, want to hear what other people have to say.

[02:32:01] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Council member Abbe Koga. Did you want to add your comments 1st before we go 2nd round?

[02:32:15] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Well, I guess I was trying to take a full list of everything everyone wanted to talk about 1st. and then and then discuss discuss them. Um, Has the vice mayor spoken already?

[02:32:30] Mayor Ellen Kamei: No?

[02:32:32] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, yeah, I mean, if he can.

[02:32:35] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yeah, want to go?

[02:32:36] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: doesn't I hear you? I'm happy to hear the 2 of you. I'm like deep in my note-taking, so if you want to just go count Florida, that's fine.

[02:32:43] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Okay. I just wanted to respond to, and I think I'll probably be trying to cover all the items that have come up, but, um, in regards to the Moffat uh, Moffat size plan. I actually think the deadline for this had passed. And had we had done this, um, when we did the general plan update in in Q, um, we would have had this done. And, um, the gatekeeper projects that went through anyway, would have been under precise plan guidelines, and I don't think we would have had that, you know, discussion the way we had it for 555 middle field. So, I think it, um, we should be moving forward. I prefer a much more comprehensive, precise plan update. I know staff resources are limited, but, um, you know, and I would, I would support expanding the scope from central to, I was thinking there's the 85 overpass, maybe that could be the, the cut, cut off point. Um, but as much as the underpass under central is part of it, that's a lot of geography. So I think we could get going on in the precise plan for Moffett. And, um, in terms of the, um, and I know this is different departments, but, um, I, I can't remember where they put, I was put in the category with the AGT, but in light of, um, where we are, um, I'm trying to defer it or revisited in a couple of years. Um, I, there's, you know, movement right now with um, reimagining light rail and and other projects. And so, um, I, I, I would like to see where those go and how we might be able to connect into, you know, those types of projects rather than spending a $10000 of our own funding on the next phase of the study. So, um, yeah, we're looking at trade-offs. I know it's different departments, but there's a project that I'm trying to, I don't know if you want to call it, drop it or differ it, but at least hold off on it for the next couple of years. Um, and then the leaf book, but we're, um, So there is a, uh, and I think you all know there's state legislation or something that Berman has introduced, and it sounds like it's moving. We just talked about it at the air district and there's a lot of interest in it moving forward. So, I'm, I'm kind of inclined to just wait to see if that moves forward and then carb, the California Aero Resources board is also looking at, um, uh, policy and uh, some of the Berman's legislation would have sped up that process, but there is a process happening at a higher level. So I don't know, we really need to work on it individually here. And then I think I shared with you that clean energy is talking with um, staff from uh, the member cities to see if there's interest in an incentive program. So I don't feel like compel the need to necessarily call it out. I think we can keep it apart under SAP and just monitor progress and then see where we are um, by end year end on that. And then a legislative program, I'm going to, um, advocate for it because, um, frankly for those of us who are on various regional bodies. Um, you know, we do get asked about legislation where the city stands, but also I would like, this is really my, you know, my request for assistance in, in our work on regional boards. So it's not just following federal, state legislation and taking positions, but this is all really about getting some staff support for our work we do outside of the city. And so that's why I feel it's very important. Oftentimes I come to these meetings. Other cities have a binder. They know where their positions are. Um, you know, city association, you have to vote on bills. I, I don't, I, you know, I, I go based on what I think sometimes, um, and I just don't think that's really, um, the way it should be be. So I think this is important. We've been talking about this for several years. So I would like to move forward with that. But, um, I think those were the 3 items I heard or 4 items that I heard. Um, So yeah, that's where I am. Thanks.

[02:37:15] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Thanks, Mariamz.

[02:37:19] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor, uh, and like Councilman Robbie Koga. I think I'm just going to respond to a handful of the items that have come up. So similarly, I'm comfortable with deferring the HTT project. Um, it's, it's a heavy list and, um, I, I, you know, we're not going to see the fruits of that labor for, for a very long time and it's also not clear, uh, how the project would be financed. So I, I don't think we necessarily have to say, shut up today, but um, personally, I feel like our, our money and our effort, uh, would probably be better spent elsewhere. Um, so comfort, comfortable with deferring that, um, similarly with the incentive for gas sour at least blowers, um, I agree with council member Mattisac, and I think she, she said it well, and it's difficult for me to justify elevating this above all of the other SAP for projects. There's a lot of really important stuff in there. Um, I can't remember exactly how each project was prioritized, but if there is some sort of internal prioritization mechanism. I'd rather use that, and maybe it's based on, you know, greatest bang for the buck in terms of greenhouse gas, emission reduction. Maybe this is high on that, you know, based on whatever metrics are used there, and that's great. Um, but if it's not, then I'd rather continue working on the SAP 4 projects based on whatever process staff, uh, is is currently using. And it's also helpful to know that there are state and regional efforts to address that issue. Um, the TOT increase. Uh, I think, I think, We might want to do a temperature check on that next year. Um, just to see whether, I mean, I don't have a good sense of what the economic recovery will look like, but um, I, I do worry that if we're finding that, you know, the hotel industry is still suffering, we might want to say, you know, let's, let's consider this another time. I'm not opposed to it, but I think it's important to, to just make sure that, you know, we can, we can find community support for, for pursuing that. So that, that might be temperature check next year, maybe some polling just to make sure we can, we can actually get it passed. Um, uh, and then the last one, this one probably will take a little bit of time to, to go through. I'm, I'm still landing on for the Moffat Boulevard precise plant idea. We should probably have a study session before we define it too much here because I, I'm getting the impression that there are different visions and different scopes. Um, and, In my mind, one of the key elements of the, of the precise plan concept is designing development standards that facilitate redevelopment of the area. And right now, it's zoned commercial residential arterial. Most of the parcels in the change area. And I was looking up, uh, in the municipal code, the development standards for the CRA zone, and they're quite flexible. Uh, the maximum density uh, right now for, for residential development in that zone is uh, I think it's 43 units per acre. Um, and, uh, 555 West Middlefield right now is proposed to be 51 units per acre. Um, so we're not that far off. Uh, and, you know, the, the heights and the, the setbacks. I think are, uh, height limits, 45 seats, 3 stories maximum. I guess we can go higher if we want, but I, I think we probably need a sense of, what are we trying to achieve there before we say, let's go in and, and change the development standards? Um, You know, I'm also looking at some of the parcels that we might consider including, uh, so the, the strip mall is already included in the change area. Uh, it has uh, commercial neighborhood zoning. So if we want to, you know, allow residential development that would require rezoning. That's fine. Um, uh 555 is already, you know, there's a gatekeeper proposal. You know, if we want to reduce the scope of that, I think we, we need to finish work on that before we, we entertain, formally including that, within whatever development standards we might want to design for this. The one area where I'm a little hesitant to the Shenandoah area is interesting, right? The, the, the, the, the danger, I think, and I'll defer to staff on this, but if we sort of up zone it right now, it has a public facility zoning and a medium low density residential land use designation in the general plan. If we change that to, uh, mixed use corridor, which is what that change area is, and either commercial, residential arterial, or some higher density, residential designation, the value of that land will increase. And that's going to make it much more challenging for us to acquire it. So I agree. I want it to interface, you know, with the rest of Muppet Boulevard. But I think we, we need to be very careful about what we're trying to achieve because if we, if we basically upstone it. Um, you know, we don't own that property. Somebody else might say, great, we're going to come in and build something that the, you know, the city may not want to see there. So, there's, there's a, a, some advantage tactically, if we're interested in affordable housing or a school or something, and keeping it where it is now, and maybe there's some different way of, like, you know, streetscape plan or something, there's probably a different way of making sure if that area is redeveloped, it's integrated appropriately in the, the, you know, what we're calling a precise plan. So, all of that, all of that to say, you know, I, I think before we say, we're going to do a precise plan, or we're going to take any particular action, we might want to have a study session, and have, provide staff an opportunity to inform us about what each of these would result in, and whether we're really getting, if you use the expression again, but the most bang for our buck, in terms of effort and, um, and investments, $500,000. for precise plan. Let's make sure we're, we're spending that money wisely. Uh, so those are my, oh, and then uh, some number of matters I could mention the, the distinction between wage steps and responsible construction. I support that as well. Thank you.

[02:44:18] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So I have a lot, a lot of things on the list. Um, I'm not sure. I guess at this point where the best is for me to make my comments. Um, I guess I'd like to take My stab and then maybe we could go through some straw polls if that if that works for everyone. Uh, council member Hicks, did you want to say something before I make my comments here? I see your hand.

[02:44:47] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Well, I was just going to say that for the Moffat precise plan of study session might be a good start. Maybe there's a simpler way of making sure that it just doesn't be, you know, I think that for me, the concern is immediate because I've heard that several of the lots that are significant. Maybe, and I don't want to name them because several of them may be up for immediate redevelopment or reconsideration. Um, so for me, it is an immediate concern, but there may be a simpler way of doing it than a full precise plan. You know, I just want to, maybe it's designed by blinds and streetscaping, um, maybe, you know, something to make sure that their ground floor uses and that they're at the sidewalk and so forth. So I, I, uh, think I am supporting the study session idea. Okay. Great. Thank you. Okay. So, um, I think it might just be easiest

[02:45:46] Mayor Ellen Kamei: if I um, look at the projects and then I think I'll probably do something similar to what the vice mayor did and just kind of make, make some comments off of what I heard colleagues talk about. Um, So, I do like the idea of number three. I think how some of the labor talked about this. So, when we're talking about alternative crisis, um, alternative mental health crisis response efforts. I thought too, that it meant the, the county's mobile crisis response team. Um, and so I'm definitely interested in that and hopefully that will be what's meant for item three. Um, for item 5, agree with the comments about decoupling um, wage theft and responsible construction. I think they are 2 separate items, so I'm comfortable with that. Um let's see. Um, so for item 10, which I think is the one that we did, we were being asked for further feedback. So, um, I checked in with city attorney Chopa, as somebody who lives in the Moffat area, the last 6 years of, of my time in Mountain View. You know, I just wanted to be sure that I could comment, which is, you know, as a resident of the of the area, I feel really heartened and excited that this is a point of conversation by our council. Um, you know, from where I live, it's less than a mile. It's like maybe 3 quarter mile from downtown. The walkability is excellent to transit and amenities and retail and businesses. It is part of the general plan change area, from my understanding of the 2012 general plan. So I would love anything that further explores being able to make it more walkable and likable, especially as an artery into our downtown. and the transit center. So that's just, I think, no general comments there. I think whether it's a steady session or something more formal, I just want to express an openness, because I think that's general enough for me to say. Um, Let's see. Um... I'm comfortable with the VTA other ones. I think that that's kind of just going through the natural process, so I'm comfortable with that staying on the list. And then, um, Let's see. 25 the HET. I I do, I think I heard at least 3 people talk about, um, removing the AGT. I'm comfortable with that as well. I think there's so many different transit options that are actually right here in Mountain View. Um, you know, whether it's like autonomous technology, um, or, you know, many others. I feel like those are something that we can kind of support locally in, you know, community that's already happening. Um, And I think the effects of how people will get around our city, post-COVID is yet to be seen. So, um, comfortable with that. Um, for, I think there was, the comments on item 31, Um, I do the comments related to the um, FA before and the state legislation. I'm comfortable if this gets tackled in an alternative way, then I'm comfortable removing it from the list, which it sounds like there could be some options for that. Um, And then, Item 29 was already on here, which was the biodiversity. I'm very grateful for my colleagues who so eloquently added what we meant by biodiversity that I didn't need to raise my hand. So thank you very much to council members, Medichicks, and show Walter, but we're using your expertise and leading the lay on the biodiversity discussion. And then, um, There was different one and apologies. I'm just cross referencing my list and everything. So for item 38 when we were talking about it, enhanced legislative program. I just feel like We are seeing so much legislation on the state level that it's really imperative to have this be a priority. Um, and now with the pandemic and, um, I think we'll be talking about this in a, in a next item talking about the federal funds that we'll be receiving. I just see this as being really critical for our city. Um, I know that perhaps our size may make it seem like it's not as, as, um, Does it rise as much to the top, but I think we are small but mighty city leading the chart on so many hot topics, hot policy issues, that I really, um, think that having some some focus on legislation would be really imperative. I mean, we're just talking about item 31 leaf blowers, which has legislation that's coming from the state. So just kind of digging in and having that focus. I think would really help us be, I think, nimble and be able to pivot, um, I've noticed that there's ever changing things with legislation where we're writing letters and embracing our opinions. And so being able to just, you know, you have to drop on a dime to be able to submit it for a committee hearing or for the vote that's happening. And so I just, I want to be able to make, I'm sure that happens so we can bring as many resources back to our city as we can. Um, and then uh, let's see. I think, I think that's it. I have openness to item 40, which is the TOT. I don't know in what time frame that should happen, but I do have an openness to continue to pursue that. So, um, those are my comments on, um, the list of 46 and then I'll go to council member show welter and then we can start taking some straw poles. Yeah, one thing I forgot to weigh in on

[02:51:48] Councilmember Pat Showalter: was the AGT and I would agree with everybody that we can put off almost all of it for many, many years and it should be fine. If we ever need it, we can, you know, we can, but the one thing that we really don't want to put off is identifying the right of way and just identifying the right of way. And um, trying to maybe acquire those right of ways. They, uh, I know when we were talking about it years ago, there were, there was going to be kind of large pillars that were, um, uh, scattered, you know, down the, the, um, the corridor that it went. And we need to have the land for those pillars. The rest of it, as far as I'm concerned, yeah, we can let it go for many, many years, but I really think it would be wise. for us to ask the public works department to identify the right away. And, um, or to at least get back with us with how much effort would be required to identify them right away. Um, and um, uh, take care of that. And then the other thing I wanted to weigh in on was the enhanced legislation program. I agree wholeheartedly with that. I know serving on BCDC and when I was very active in the cities association, we really didn't have, you know, we didn't have the support that some of the other cities had. And particularly with the legislation. There was a time, oh, maybe, I don't know, five, 6 years ago when the San Jose, um, officer in charge of legislation volunteered her time for the city's association. Well, she retired and with her went that service. And it was a big loss. So we need to be able to, you know, to support our council members on that. And also when we serve um, through the, through um, the committees on the cities, uh, the National League of Cities, there are also times where, you know, we need to be able to talk to our staff about, you know, what do these various things mean and, you know, and get a little help with it. So I think that could be money well spent.

[02:54:05] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. So at this point, I'm going to turn it over to a city manager in McCarthy to help us, um,

[02:54:13] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, mayor. So here is what I've heard. It sounds like we have a consensus on some items. Um, So what I'm hearing is, uh, removing the AJT and the leaf flower projects from the action plan. Um, separate the uh, or at least clarify that the wage theft and responsible construction are 2 separate ordinances. Um, I've heard different feedback on the Moffat precise plan, but where I'm hearing consensus is landing on a study session for that to at least determine if we move forward. Um, then as far as the ledge program. Um, I've heard, uh, a few council members, uh, say that they, um, want to keep it, but that might be an item, but we do a straw pull on just to make sure that, um, staff is clear. Um, then I've also heard openness to exploring uh, the TOT. And I would just also let council know that the way the TOT tax works is it's essentially a pass through tax that's collected from from people that are staying at a hotel that that goes to the city. So the hotels never receive um, that tax. So just to clarify how that works for the public and council. Then, um, one more item, the, um, interest in uh, exploring the other mental health response, um, street outreach, um, also heard interest in that. So, Those were the main things that I have. So, um, if I'm missing anything, please let me know, but I think we would just want clarity to confirm the Moffat precise plan item, study session, or remove, and the ledge program.

[02:56:09] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Oh, Councilman Mattachek.

[02:56:13] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, I just want to clarify, I don't think everybody commented on TOT, so maybe we want to have everyone comment on that. Um, at least according to my notes, I didn't jot down everybody commenting on that.

[02:56:30] Mayor Ellen Kamei: I'm comfortable doing a strap hole on that one as well. If, if colleagues are okay with that. So I heard 3 items. Moffatt led the legislative program and TOT. So perhaps we can start with Moffett. So, um, I believe in the staff report. It said, a Moffatt precise plan, but I think that city manager McCarthy and I both heard interest in perhaps a study session and then maybe using that as a building block to move forward. So I think I'm going to do the straw poll as that. So, um, for council members who are interested in moving forward with a Moffat study session, could I say to explore at this size plan or just a Moffat study session? Is there some language here that I should use City Attorney Chopra or?

[02:57:21] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Just a study session to explore a precise plan in the Moffat precise plan.

[02:57:27] Mayor Ellen Kamei: All right. So what the city attorney said. So for

[02:57:30] Mayor Ellen Kamei: all those who are interested, I guess we can just do a visual raise of hands if that's possible, or should do we need to do a roll call vote?

[02:57:39] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Just a straw poll is fine.

[02:57:40] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay Okay, thank you. All right, so all those who are interested. It looks unanimous. Okay, does Steph need anything else on this item? Okay. So moving on to the enhanced legislative program. So, um, I, I think for this one, I'm just gonna say for all those who would like to move forward with an enhanced legislative program, does that sound right? Mr. Gaines and Ms. McCarthy?

[02:58:09] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes,

[02:58:09] Mayor Ellen Kamei: okay. I think people have comments. Council member, how to check?

[02:58:14] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, um, on this one, I feel like we discussed this before and, well, I think it's important to keep track of bills and um, help us craft our position on bills. I very much feel that we're the best, um, advocates and that we should be doing that, not, um, affirm doing that on our behalf. I have had the opportunity to see materials prepared by consultants that other cities have. And while I appreciated, um, the work, I felt like there was still more work to be done and that, um, the individual council members who know the topics perhaps better than the folks tracking the bills, um, can certainly add to our position and then advocate one way or the other better than a consultant would. So while I absolutely support and enhanced because right now, we don't have a lot of resources against this. Um, I don't support going as far as saying they would advocate on our behalf. Thanks.

[02:59:32] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, thank you. Council member Libber?

[02:59:35] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Uh, I disagree a 1000% with council member Medachek. Um, I think that there's always folks that'll take your money in Sacramento. Okay. Um, so, uh, I think that the, oh, cancel my minutes.

[02:59:57] Mayor Ellen Kamei: I, uh, my perception of what council member Matterchek said is that it's the same thing that council member Labor is saying that you're, um, that you're agreeing that that a consultant would not be as good as someone in-house. So am I hearing something wrong?

[03:00:17] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Uh, that's, that's correct from, from my perspective, I don't mind spending extra, um, money on staff, but hiring a lobbying firm. I'm not supportive of at this juncture. I think that I said, I don't mind somebody tracking them for us and providing us with data, but we're the best lobbyists. So I think I said the exact same thing.

[03:00:44] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yeah, and I think maybe I can, before we get to go a little bit deeper, I just want to clarify with staff. So when we've been, when we've talked about the enhanced legislative program, can you maybe give us a little bit of what, what that might be? I guess I was, I wasn't thinking we were necessarily discussing lobbying.

[03:01:02] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, mayor. So we have recommended $100,000 to explore for a legislative advocacy firm. So yes, that would entail not only helping staff, track bills that we just wouldn't have time to track all of the bills. Um, also provide counsel with very pointed updates on legislation or, uh, you know, regional bodies or bills of regional interests, um, that you all participate in, and certainly helping us, uh, track through a lot of the, um, COVID related bills and changes that we're seeing with, um, a lot of, uh, local control. Uh, so that's really what the enhanced piece of it is, is just that, um, Staff isn't able to do that level of work. So, um, it's, it's up, it's up to counsel as to how, um, expanded you, you would want the program, but yes, we have recommended 100,000 to go towards helping us with this program.

[03:01:59] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Thank you. Hopefully that clarifies some things for me, so that's helpful. Thanks, counselor and brother, okay?

[03:02:07] Councilmember Sally Lieber: So thank you. I recall, I think we originally wanted to hire in-house somebody to do this, but just because of hiring issues and recruitment and whatnot, we went this route, but my expectation, I guess, was eventually when we're, you know, at a point where we can, I would like to consider someone in-house. But I agree with Counselor Mattercheck. I think you're right. We are probably we are the best advocates. Um, and as much as we can do, we should do. Um, I guess I'm just looking for the, you know, where's this bill at? What are the talking points and I look at it as interactive. So, you know, consultant whoever can give us the information, but then, you know, we should be able to respond and try to tailor it to what we think is best for Mountain View. So I'm not looking at just the lobbyist going up to Sacramento for us and, you know, lobbying for us. This is really where we can do the work. We should do that. Um, We just don't have any, like you said, we have no support right now and, you know, given all that we're doing. Um, I, you know, I have I, it's a challenge for me to go search the legislation and whatnot. And so that's what I'm really looking for is that support, um, the, the support and assistance. But I agree with you. I think we should be as much as we can, the advocates for our city.

[03:03:37] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, council member, Sean Walter.

[03:03:40] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I was going to say a similar thing. I think the idea is that, you know, we would get information, um, and advice from, uh, the consultant, but we would do the advocacy. That's how I would envision it. It seems like we're all kind of saying similar things. And also, you know, the truth is, I don't think $100,000 goes all that far with a good consultant. So I'm not sure it would cover them doing any advocacy, but it would cover them providing us with information, which is what we need.

[03:04:12] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Thank you, Council member Showal today. You know, I guess I was thinking the same thing, that that's the funding is mostly for going to be for research and for tracking, and then it'll come back to council for, you know, deciding how we'd like to best advocate for our community. So, um, I think that hopefully this discussion clarified the enhanced legislative program, um, and, um, I think at this point, if, colleagues are comfortable. We could take a straw poll on if we are comfortable with an enhanced legislative program, um, that would be doing, you know, research and bell tracking, and then it would be something that comes back to council for, um, sounds like action and. Okay. All right. So all those in favor. Okay, looks unanimous. Thank you very much. All right, so the last item for the straw pole is the TOT. So that is project number 40, which is study and propose any feasible increases to Mountain Review's transient occupancy tax. TOT. We'll start with Castle of the Hips.

[03:05:23] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So the 2 things I've heard from various council members are, um, whether to do it or whether to do it later because there's not going to be enough people staying in hotels now. And so, if anybody has further opinion on it, I mean, I'm very supportive of it. And the only reason I would defer it would be for workload reasons. So that those are sort of the 2 things I'm trying to weigh right now and I would appreciate anybody. you know, giving me some information on where my, where I should land on that.

[03:05:58] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Thanks, man, the miss.

[03:06:01] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. My suggestion would be that we, uh, keep it on the work plan and wait until our economic vitality, I can't remember the name of the, the new role, city manager, if you, if you can help me, but, but get some, uh, some insight and feedback from, uh, our, our new hire and, uh, and maybe solicit some input from, from the business community. And if we, if we find, you know, next year, I, I'm guessing that if it's on, If it's on the work plan, we're looking at November 2022. uh unless, unless we're looking at a different date, but that, that seems to be the most logical candidate for, for a ballot measure. Um, I just want to make sure that we're, we're going in eyes wide open, that we have a full appreciation for what, if any, impact on, um, the hotel industry that might be, um, and, and be in a position to, to build some buy-in and community support before we pursue it.

[03:07:06] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Council member Abby Koga.

[03:07:09] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: So this work plan item, um, I was envisioning like we've done with other ballot measures where we put some funding aside to go out for polling, actually. That's usually the 1st step. And and then based on that, we could decide to move forward or not. Um, and also we could look at the timing too, what would work better. Um, so, I was looking at this as this item as just starting that process. And then, you know, during, we, we can then decide along the way when would be best, you know, how much it should be so forth and so on. But usually it does include at least one round of polling, if not two, um, to best time it um, for success. So that's really what I'm looking for with this. And the reason why I, um, was thinking of TOT was, um, when we've talked about our SAP, our sustainability action plan, and my thought was perhaps this could be a funding source to actually move the plan forward. Um, but also, you know, this has been something we've talked about for a while because our tax, I believe, is um, 10% and our neighboring cities are at 14. So just to get us, you know, up to, we're missing, we're missing that opportunity, I think, and just to get us, uh, the footing and also get to bring in some funding for the, uh, sustainability. And I know that we have other needs too, but that was really my main thought was to to figure out how to pay or pay for the sustainability action plan.

[03:08:49] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. All right, any other questions or clarifications for the TOT item? Okay. All right. So, um, all those in favor of, I guess, just studying, um, any feasible increases to the mountain views transit occupancy tax. Okay, I see. Bunchy, so I see 6? Yes. Castle all that.

[03:09:20] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: So, so, so, I feel like, um, council, uh, vice mayor proposed one thing, and, um, council member, I'll be, Koga, proposed something different. So I'm not really sure which one we're voting on. Because I think they're both kind of studying it. One is the economic vitality manager studies it versus we do polling. I felt like they were 2 different directions, so I don't know how to vote.

[03:09:47] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Sure. So, uh, I will turn them to the vice mayor council member, Abe Koga, do you? I felt that it was studying and staff could see how they'd like to like to see fit, whether it's polling or whether it's the economic vitality manager. That's how I interpret it and the 2 of you are providing ideas to staff. Um, but perhaps the 2 of you can clarify. Thanks, man, Ramirez.

[03:10:11] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Sure, thank you. So I don't see them as mutually exclusive. I think we want, you know, I agree wholeheartedly with council member Robbie Koga that we need to know if there's voter support because if there isn't, then there's no point in pursuing it. Um, but I do want to work very hard with, um, with the business community to make sure, if, you know, if the Chamber of Commerce says we're going to come up opposed to it, then there's going to be a campaign and that makes things very difficult. So I would want to work with, with, with the new higher economic vitality. Uh, and, and just do, it's, it's both, in my opinion, I think we need, we need to make sure that there's support from, for both the business community and also from, from our voters.

[03:10:54] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Council member, are they coming?

[03:10:57] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I agree. So the process would include, um, reaching out to our chamber and, you know, number of stakeholders, similar to it, we did when we did the business license tax measures. So, um, I think it's all part of the process. Um, So, yeah, I don't think it's one or the other. I think it's actually all.

[03:11:19] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yeah, thank you. I guess that's how I interpret it. interpreted it as well. So do colleagues have any other clarifying questions on this item. I think that, um, the vice versa, Cosmary, COVID, I have talked about different kind of puzzle pieces in the process as, um, this is being studied. I think staff was asking for clarification if we'd like this project to move forward. Anything else on this? All right. So I will try to take the straw pole again. So, um, all those who would like to move forward and study any feasible increases uh, to the Mountain View transit occupancy tax that would include our reach to the chamber, pulling, and work with our economic vitality manager, et cetera. All right, it looks like this one is unanimous as well. All right. So we've made it through the uh, the biodiversity item and the uh, 46 projects, and now we're going to be talking about those that were not recommended to move forward and we will start with the vice mayor.

[03:12:27] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, and I'll do my best to be quick. I think these are where we start encountering the heavier list. So, the 2 I want to advocate for are the community workforce agreement and performance auditing. That should be no surprise. Uh, so for, for CWAs, uh, this is an item that's been on our work plan since 2019. Uh, you know, the majority of the council that supported it at that time remains part of this council. Um, I do think it's something that we need to explore. Uh, and the compromise I'm prepared to support is to, uh, complete the wage theft and responsible construction ordinance first. I think that was the higher priority item for the community at that time. I think we've done a little bit more work on that. Um, and to not begin work on the CWA item until quarter 3 2022. So we'll complete a fiscal year, uh, we'll have done whatever work that we, um, you know, we need to do to complete the high priority items in our work plan, and then we can reevaluate, uh, after the summer recess, uh, and, um, and hopefully begin working at that time, uh, to, to complete something that we've been talking about for, for a few years. So that's, that's the 1st recommendation. Uh, and then uh, performance auditing. Uh, so I'll, I'll try and make a quick pitch for it. Um, as I shared with the city manager earlier today. I'm really grateful, uh, that we have uh, a city manager who values, uh, periodic self review, you know, evaluation of CDD. I think is a high priority for all of us based on community input that we've had. Um, and I think we all we all want to see things get better. Um, my request is that we make that, uh, a standing part of our organization's culture, and that we don't just wait until we have a city manager who values that, because we may not always have a city manager who seems that that's important. Um, I don't think it has to be a heavy list. It might be one, you know, audit per year. Um, it might be less than that, but I do think it's really important to operationalize it, so that way we don't wait until things get so bad, that finally, you know, we, we build support for, you know, a study like this. Um, or, you know, we wait 8 years or 10 years or 15 years, you know, while we have a city manager who hasn't prioritized performance oddity, and then finally, get somebody who who does. So how we structure that, I'm totally open. We do have a city auditor defined in the charter. uh that has a fairly narrowly scoped role. Um, that's not necessarily prescribed in the charter. The charter simply says, you know, based on the will of the city council. Um, uh, but so we can, we can start small. Um, I did come prepared with a list of some of the, uh, audits that, um, that the city of San Jose has done that I thought might be of, of interest to the council. So, for instance, if we're looking at, you know, beyond the scope of, like, financial compliance work, uh, and get into not only auditing departments, but also policies and programs, uh, we might learn a lot about, you know, street pavement maintenance policies, right? which are quite internal. And some council questions have been trying to, you know, into that in the, you know, the past few years. Um, you know, towing services and vehicle abatement. Uh, 911 and serene times development noticing. You know, these are the kinds of things that I think are important, and we don't often think about them unless, you know, we start hearing, you know, uh, a lot of concern from the public, and at that point, you know, then we, we might be able to, you know, if the majority of us say this is worth spending time on, we might be able to promote some, some additional evaluation, but I, I think just building that into the organization's culture is really important. Uh, and I'm totally flexible on how we do that. Um, but I I would seek your support in including it on the work plan so we can develop it uh, over time. Thank you.

[03:16:54] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Councilman for all the COVID.

[03:16:59] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Uh, so I start with uh, um, CWA and I uh, am in full support of the vice mayor's comments. So um, Yes, I'd like for us to keep that on, but we could maybe wait until we finish the other items. Um, so 22, I think you mentioned, vice mayor. That sounds reasonable. Um, the performance on it. I appreciate my swear and where you're going and I've actually had this discussion on at the air district too. Um, I'm just, I think just to say, let's just do it is a lot. So, um, And in light of the fact that we've, or city manager has engaged in, a study of, uh, planning department CDD. Um, and wondering if, yet, there's some way to, um, to formalize that, maybe we look at one department, you know, a year or just to, to kind of break it up. So it's not like, okay, let's do everything. Um, but to make it a part of our, you know, regular practice to do, um, some kind of study of all of our departments because we haven't, I know counseling automatic check has brought this up many times we have that, those performance numbers and our budget at the, you know, back of the budget book and a lot of those just don't, they seem irrelevant, frankly. Um, so, you know, we've talked about redoing that. And so, I think this maybe could be tied to that. Um, so I could support something that's, again, a more focus scope over a period of time. I like to hear from the city manager what her thoughts of that would be, but, um, I do think we've talked about enough many years to get those numbers updated or change them, to make them more relevant. So um, I think we should engage, start engaging in that. And this could be another item that we, you know, push off to the 2nd half of this 2 year plant to your plan. Um, I was thinking because of COVID and, you know, going back to reopening, we may just need time to do that and we will probably be reimagining, I mean, we are reimagining how to do some of our, you know, services and how to do our business. So, um, maybe we need a little bit of time to, to, to, to let that happen before we do these audits, but I think it's something definitely that we should be thinking about.

[03:19:31] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Counselor official Walter?

[03:19:36] Councilmember Pat Showalter: I'm concerned about the soft story. Seismic retrofit program. Uh, I uh, we see that it turned out to be more expensive than was expected. Um, but we know that earthquakes are just a part of what happens in our geography. And, um, we know that that, uh, these structures make the people who live in them vulnerable. And since they are, um, often rented by, uh, they're kind of naturally affordable housing. They, you know, they're also are, are, the people in our community who are least able to recover from an emergency like their, you know, their house collapsing. So, um, I would really like to suggest that we revisit this for starting next year or the year after that. And perhaps this is something that we could use part of our um, part of next year's American rescue plan money to do. Um, I think that because of the vulnerable structures and the vulnerable people that live in them, um, it may, you know, it's really quite appropriate as a way to strengthen our community. So I just like to throw that out there as a civil engineer who, um, who serves on this council. I just feel like it's really my... It's really my duty to bring this up. We're going to have an earthquake sometime. And, um, we all we all believe very strongly in safety. Um, So I would like to uh, to keep this on the list and um, get started on it, hopefully, maybe next year.

[03:21:23] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. And I'm again, just letting everyone know. taking notes on what I hear too. So, all right. Council member Mattachek.

[03:21:32] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. Um, so I pretty much agree with what the vice mayor and council member of Bekoka said, I'd like to keep the CWA on the list, even if it has a deferred start date, and we do the other 21st. And We have been talking about it for years. It's hard to get stuff on the list. So I'd hate for it to drop off and then have to fight the battle again to get it back on the list. So let's just leave it on the list. And um, I also, no surprise, um, agree, uh, with the performance auditing. Um, I do appreciate that we have started to do some. I think the vice mayor was suggesting that we, you know, do maybe one or 2 a year. Um, the one that's happening right now is a big project. Um, I'm sitting there is other projects that are smaller, but I think it's important to look at your operations and make sure they're doing what you expect them to do. So I'm very supportive of the concept of that, the actual implementation, I think, is something we can discuss and figure out what would work best. Thanks.

[03:22:44] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Castle member Hicks.

[03:22:50] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I agree with the vice mayor's proposal for the CWA, and I think other council members are, so I won't belabor that. As for the performance audit, I'm, I think somebody else said we're in the process of, um, reimagining the services that we're um, providing, you know, going online with more things and so forth. So I would actually, I would prefer not to audit things while we're in the process of changing them. Um, and so I would prefer to get us, I think, in one of the later phases of the agenda tonight, we're going to talk about putting some money into reopening, uh, and putting things online and doing things in a different way. The process I would like to use is to do that 1st. And then maybe start step by step performance auditing after that. Um, So that that would be my, and that's also being, I was fairly convinced by reading staff's commentary on that. And the fact that I think a lot of other committees and, you know, our committees and advisory bodies didn't make it a high priority. For all of those reasons, I would prefer to defer it until after we, um, we imagine the way we provide our services.

[03:24:14] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, thank you, Counselor Believer.

[03:24:16] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. Um, well, I definitely uh, agree on the workforce agreement. I think it's essential that that we get that completed. Um, I would like to see it come back to us uh, sooner. But um, I can accept the timeline. That the vice mayor has suggested. Um, on the soft story issue, I, I think that that's really essential that we find some piece of that, that we can, um, get started. And, and I think that council member Sher Walter alluded to this. It's the kind of protective action that government is supposed to be taking to take care of of the long term safety of the community. And so I really want to see us, move forward in some way with that. Um, and maybe it's putting together planning for uh, low interest loans or no interest loans uh, for landlords to be able to do that necessary work. Um, but we know that we're not ready for um, even a moderate earthquake. And um, that we could really be in a very difficult situation. And then, um, in terms of the, um, performance, uh, auditing, I, I have a lot of concerns about that. I think that right now we are asking for a bone crushing amount of work from staff. There, you know, just looking at what we're looking at under one set of plans tonight. We are asking for an amazing amount of work. And I think that we could get literally run over by people rushing for the exits. Um, with this. And I would rather see people actually fulfill the work, then go into the dysfunctional situation where everyone's worried about, um, uh, performance auditing. And the idea of doing, going department by department and being 7 city managers and getting into the operations of each department is really a textbook nightmare. in council interference. And, um, I've been on council when we had, um, very extreme case of of council interference. And it was really something that took us a lot of, of time, effort, and, uh, to unravel, and we ultimately had the courts involved, and it was, it was a real mess. So, I understand the impulse to quantify things, but I think that we have to keep our action, that a policy level. And and I think that we should, uh, right size our demands from staff 1st and look at the positions that have been open and unfulfilled since 2015. and start to really give departments the help that they need before we layer on, um, the, uh, oversight of an audit. And, um, I am always a believer in asking for the information that we're actually going to use. And I think that staff does have a good handle on, on some performance measures and how often we're getting to do certain things. And, and I think that, uh, our interference in that could have some really unintended consequences. Um, and so, uh, if we move in that direction, I'd like us to forestall it until we add staffing. Um, I would rather not CSB one of those cities that puts a lot of resources. Um, into chasing information that will not ultimately be used. Um, but I think right now, there are people that are working 7 days a week. There are people that are working 16 hours a day. There are people who have been terrorized during this COVID period when they have small children at home, that they're expecting to sit in front of a screen. And they can't teach them, parent them, and fulfill all of counsel's expectations. Uh, all at the same time. And it can really lead to uh, losing good people to other cities. And then we have not served the public, uh, well at that point.

[03:29:29] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Counselor Leaper. All right. So, I think I heard 3 different projects rising to council discussion. One of them was the, um, Let's see, community workforce agreement. Um, the other was the, uh, soft story seismic retrofit program and the other item for discussion was the, um, Auditing to ensure the city is performing well. Those were the 3 items that I heard. Uh, City manager McCarthy, is that what you heard as well? Those 3 items. Okay. So I think that perhaps what we will do is, um, we could do straw holes on these as well. Um, and I think I'll just try to, like, give my comments now and then we can go into this job. if that's all right with everyone else unless there's further questions or clarification on anything. Yes, cancel your show, alter, go ahead.

[03:30:26] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, um, I'd like to ask uh, city manager, uh, McCarthy, to weigh in on this performance auditing. I mean, obviously, she came to the city and she saw immediately that our development and planning process needed to be revisited and looked at and we needed help with that. So I'm wondering, you know, how'd she use this? Um, and uh, what she thinks would be helpful. Because obviously what we're all interested in is making the city function better. And um, so, What do you think would make the city function better? in terms of this.

[03:31:08] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Uh, excuse me, thank you, council member, show Walter. So, As mentioned in the report, uh, we are undertaking already um, continuous improvement efforts and evaluating our best practices and uh, starting with our development review process, which includes building and planning and housing. Um, It's a very big lift. It's taken the consultants over 6 months. We still haven't finished it. We're also going to be embarking on a review of our internal, um, financial and administrative operations. So I think I would just say, um, Part of what I brought to this organization is the willingness to look at continuous improvement efforts and I think we have a department head team and a city organization that is um, constantly striving for excellence. And um, this having this be, uh, part of the action plan would uh, make it a little more difficult for staff to just uh, focus on all the other projects that are already underway and because this work plan or action plan is 2 years, Um, if we really aren't going to be, um, prescriptive about what to do, then I think the item could be deferred. Um, obviously it's up to counsel, but, you know, I do believe that we are, uh, doing this already, uh, may not need to be formalized, and, um, looking at how we can improve ways of doing things is certainly what's happened with COVID. We've had mini changes to our processes, procedures, doing things online. We're upgrading our systems. We are put in place, new online, um, online processes and it's, it's a heavy lift. I mean, just to be honest, it's a heavy lift.

[03:33:16] Councilmember Pat Showalter: So it seems like what I hear you're saying is that there's sort of a natural progression of things that you see need attention. And when that happens, you're like now with the planning and building, you're putting attention on that and doing a study. And then next, it's going to be administration and finance. And so this is an ongoing thing that isn't just going to go on for a couple years. It really will go on forever. So I guess I'm not sure we need this in addition. I think what we need to do is, um, we need to, uh, make sure that, uh, that the council does have some interaction with the city manager, as we do, about what are the things that need the next attention. And then we are included in those, um, those reports and and the action plans for, um, you know, for following up on what they've said. So far, I think, I mean, certainly with this one, we've been very well included. So, so I kind of feel like we have this ball in motion. And we don't need to set up a separate system for it. Um, but That's not, obviously, some other people are seeing it differently than that. Or are you? I mean, am I the only one that sees it this way that we, that really the, the city staff seems to be having a system in motion? Or you would just like it to be better to find or what? What are we missing? So I think that those are questions you're asking to your colleagues, right?

[03:34:59] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Okay. All right. So I see 2 hands that are ready to try to take a stab at your question, but if possible, I would just love to get my ¢2 in on the 3 items that I noted and that's okay. just trying to get in here. Um, I know that this is, you know, um, the dialogue is wonderful. It's nice to have such robust dialogue, even on Zoom. So, um, you know, I guess what I was thinking as, um, city manager McCarthy was speaking was, um, I wonder, it's, to me, it sounds like the city's already doing this kind of goal or some, some, you know, um, some type of iteration of this goal. And I wonder if there's just a way where we could put it on our website. You know, I think when we've been doing things as a city. We put on like the REI website. We put up things about, you know, projects like Project Home key. And so I wonder if we could just put something about like what the city's up to and what we're doing in terms of our good governance practices. Um, just so, so I think council could share with the public too about all the wonderful things that that staff's working on. Um, I don't, I guess I don't feel wedded to an actual like council project or goal to that if it's already happening. I just think, um, you know, providing that information to, you know, in some sort of public manner would be probably nice to have. Um, you know, to counsel member show alters point, it's, it's, it's happening. We just and you get the feedback from all 7 of us. So, you know, just putting putting that out that I think would be helpful. for the community workforce agreement and complete agreement with my colleagues. This has been something we've been talking about since I joined council 3 years ago and I know council was talking about it even before I joined. So I would love to love to continue this project. Um, for the soft story seismic retrofit. Um, I feel a little torn because, The cost is so high, um, to move this one forward, but I think it's such a critical issue with so much of our CSFRA inventory in need of seismic retrofit. So I feel kind of stuck in how to address this issue. And so, um, you know, I guess I would be open to the dialogue in terms of what council can do, um, to address that topic. So, um, Those are my comments on the 3 items and we will move it back to the nice mirror.

[03:37:36] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mary. I'll try and be quick because I don't I don't want to belabor the point. Um, Here's the way I'm thinking about this. Uh, so for members of the council who have served longer than me. It would be helpful to know how many times we have done this in the past. When was the last time we had a comprehensive study of CDD? The answer is, this is the 1st time, the past 20 years. What that tells me is it's probably important to operational life space, because it's only going to happen when we have a city manager who thinks it's important. We haven't always had a city manager who thinks it's important. And as much as I like Kimbra, I have a suspicion she's not going to be here for as long as the city of Mountain View exists. Um, and we may not always have a council that would value this as, as much as many of us do. Uh, that's why I think it's important. I'm not saying that we have to do you know 3 or 4 audits every year. It might be an audit every 2 years. You know, I think the point is that we have just a little bit of, uh, a process that gives us an opportunity, opportunity to say, we think it's worth a periodic review of department's policies and programs, because you never know what you're going to find, and I'd rather not wait until things are so broken, that, you know, that's the only opportunity we have to do a comprehensive analysis. Um, this is a much smaller example. But, uh, you know, I did some poking around with the shopping card abatement, uh, procedure, uh, and, uh, I appreciate staff's recommendation. I'm going to be supporting that. But how many of us knew that we were subsidizing that program to the tune of $35,000 a year? And if we had known that, would we have supported that, or would we have said, maybe it's time to think about charging a fee. Every time our staff, spend time going collecting shopping cards. Um, we don't know what we don't know. And that's why I think this is important. you.

[03:39:39] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Council member Ali Kogan?

[03:39:43] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: So, um, after listening to everyone. Um, I think I might be changing. I might change my tune a bit. Um, I think it is important to um, evaluate, you know, periodically. I agree, um, and I will say at least in the time that I've been on council, which is now 13 years, I don't recall as, um, doing this, and, and those, you know, that that book, the number, performance numbers in the back, uh, the way we are, even that way since I started, and frankly, they're obsolete. So, I mean, I would even go to the extreme to say, like, let's not even spend time filling those, um, pages out because they just don't really say anything or they don't really, you know, We don't get a lot of that data. Um, and that's where I do think we do need to get to a point where we are evaluating what's relevant. Um, but I will say, you know, we do have a city manager, who is, um, who has made this a priority, and I do feel comfortable in that regard to, um, just work with her or, you know, and, um, and I don't know if I should say this, but, you know, it could be something when we, when we do our council pointing evaluations perhaps to discuss more about like a future, you know, what the future plan, timeline where plan could look like. Um, so perhaps we don't need to put it as a council item, but something more operation, you know, focused on operational and and have that conversation in a different setting. Um, so I'm okay to move forward in that regard for now. But if we do, you know, see, and I hope since seeing Andrew McCarthy is here for a very long time, but, um, I think there's, there's some, I would like to find a way to memorialize it so it doesn't get lost if personnel staff changes. And I will say this is very, I don't look at this like micromanaging, frankly, it is about performance and that's what we are responsible for and it has very different from what happened in the early 2000s on, um, in the city. So, um, I, you know, I think it is an important, uh, tool, it's an important process to go through, but I like how the study manager McCarthy is handling it. So, at this time, in light of workload issues too. I'm okay to just move forward with what she has proposed. Thanks.

[03:42:24] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, thank you. Any other comments on the the 3 items, performance auditing, CWA, or soft story retrofit. All right. So I think the way to move it forward would be. Let's say. We'll say we'd like to move forward with it. I guess because these are getting recommended not to move forward. So I think if you raise your hand, you would like this item to continue and be re-added to the plan. Counseling about because, did you have something to add here?

[03:42:58] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah, I'm sorry, I forgot about the seismic retrofit item, but, um, I have a question because when we studied this before, one of the big issues was cost recovery, um, you know, whether to mandate, mandated or make it, um, optional voluntary, and then we had issues with CSFRA, and I'm just, I guess my question is, has that been resolved? and that was part of measure D, just trying to resolve it. But since measure D didn't pass. Is there a resolution or not? Because if there isn't, I just don't see a path to move forward with it. I don't know if who's the answer to that.

[03:43:44] Mayor Ellen Kamei: I see, I see Miss Shravostova coming on, coming in to join us. So perhaps we can turn it to Ms. Shravastava.

[03:43:54] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: Be there. I am. Thank you, counsel. Um, um, I, um, have to say that I'll have to do some more research because I'm sorry, we should probably, we should probably introduce, Do you mind introducing yourself? Our T-shore Rastava, assistant city manager and community development director. Um, this was an item that had just been discussed in 2019 when I joined and this was, this is my understanding. In order for property owners to pass the costs to tenants. Um, it would have to be a mandated ordinance. Um, and that is essentially what the council had initially um, um, landed on. But prior to that, we were, um, the city, they had also wanted a 2 step process, but the 1st step being, um, the city funding, um, an assessment of the soft story buildings. We have about, At that time, our estimate was about 5000 units in a number of buildings and I think it's around 400 buildings. Um, staff went out and um, did an RFP um, to get um, an assessment. Now, this wouldn't provide blueprints for people, but it would, it would help them assess sort of the critical parts in that buildings that needed work so they could go ahead and hire folks. Um, so, um, basically, um, uh, our costs from the RFP ran between one. 5 to 2.4 million. And we really did not have the ability to fund that. In addition, the building staff had experienced a pretty high workload, which is why we had recommended deferring it. Um, so that's essentially where we are today. Um, and and hope I answered your question.

[03:45:54] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Any other questions on the seismic retrofit item? Okay. So, um, I think we'll just start with um, for those who would like to develop and consider a community workforce agreement. So this would be raising your hand that you'd like it to move forward. All right, that looks unanimous. All right. Continue the soft, the sorry, continue the soft story seismic retrofit program. So this would be. I'd be assuming moving forward with some iteration of the program. Um, and including it into the work plan. All right, so all those in favor of this item. Okay, looks like three. So that does not move forward. And then it is the Establish and implement performance auditing to ensure the city is performing well. This would be re-adding it onto the work plan. Okay, I see one. Sorry, nice. All right. So I think those are the straw poles on the 3 outstanding items for the projects, um, that were not recommended to move forward. All right. So I think that ends the, um, action plan discussion and direction, Mr. Gaines, do you need anything else from us?

[03:47:33] Mr. Gaines: No, I don't. Thank you all. It sounds like I just just summarize what I wish you all voted on. You voted to remove the automated God way. Uh, system as well as the leaf blower, leaf blower project, and you added the community workforce agreement, as well as provided clarity that you'd like to see the Moffat Boulevard thing turn into a study session to provide for every direction. Sounds right to me.

[03:48:02] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thanks so much, Mr. Gaines, for helping lead us through this and to staff who helped provide further information. So this moves us on, I believe, to our last item about the strategic plan and visioning, which is um, the vision. So I will turn it over to city manager Kimber McCarthy to discuss the recommended vision, and then we'll have council questions and discussion.

[03:48:28] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, mayor. So with this next and last session, section. Uh, we are going to, and if you could share the screen that actually shows what the vision statement is. We're going to talk about the feedback we've heard from all of you in the last few meetings about the vision statement. So, There were several themes that emerged from your feedback. Those were themes about leadership, um, and innovation and sustainability, really valuing nature and biodiversity as we've talked about this evening and green spaces, um, honoring our diverse community. Um, and also you provided feedback that you wanted it to be concise and memorable. And also really try and reflect um, what makes Mountain View so unique. Um, and obviously, um, being in the middle of um, the innovation hub. So what you see on the screen, we can go to the next slide, what you see on the screen is where we landed with the revised vision statement, taking all of that into account. Um, so the statement is a diverse, vibrant city that plans intentionally and leads regionally to create livable, sustainable neighborhoods, access to nature and open spaces, and a strong, innovation driven local economy. So at this point, what we're asking for is, can you live with this? Did we capture your feedback and is it good to move forward?

[03:50:07] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, so and they will leave it out so everybody in the public can absorb. And then what I might say is if council members have any questions, um, we'll do questions 1st and then we can go into discussion. So do council members have any questions about the revised division statement. Okay. I'm not seeing any hands. Does anyone have any discussion about the revised vision statement?

[03:50:36] Mayor Ellen Kamei: And and just to clarify, city manager, I see some hands, but maybe city manager McCarthy as people are raising their hands. Can you just let us know again like what you need from us? Is this kind of similar to the principles you need to know what we can, can we live with this statement and move forward? Is that what you're looking for?

[03:50:54] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes, yes. Do you agree with this statement? And do you have any a strong visceral reaction about anything? But really, it's, are you okay with moving forward with recommendation?

[03:51:06] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you for that clarification. So, uh, we'll go to council member Hicks and then council member Mata check.

[03:51:12] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I can live with it and I'm willing to move forward.

[03:51:18] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Council member, Hicks, Counselor, Matt.

[03:51:21] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I appreciate the, um, the updates that have been done to this, um, I, I would just change one word. I, uh, I like the way we've described our diversity, and I'm assuming this, when it says diverse here, it means the diversity of the residents. Um, I would change it to um, a welcoming vibrant city. I think council member Shell Walter said that earlier. And, um, to me, that's just a, a real, it, it gives you a real positive feeling. Um, and given that this is a vision, um, I really like that. I think it's, um, I like it better than the word diverse. I would just change it to a welcoming private city. Thanks.

[03:52:09] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, Counselor Ravachek. Any other discussion on this? I, I, you're right. I love the word welcoming. I welcome that change, and I think with that, I'd be happy to live with it. So, um, Thank you so much, Counselor Nevada check and customer show alter for bringing that spirit to our vision. Does anyone else have any other comments? Or perhaps we can move forward with that tweak of a welcoming vibrant city? That plans intentionally and least? Does that sound all right for everyone? City management, I say, do you need a struggle or anything on this one?

[03:52:51] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Uh, no merit. It seems like there's there seems to be agreement on that. So I think we're going to.

[03:52:57] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, wonderful. Thank you. All right, so then, um, I will turn it back, I think, to Mr. Grudeska, to, uh, for you to close it with uh, next steps.

[03:53:11] Mr. Grudeska: Yes, thank you. Next steps are. We will go back and make some of the changes that we heard about the priority areas to reflect some of the final tweaks to the language, and we'll bring that back to you at the June 22nd meeting for hopefully final approval. Uh, the vision. Really great to hear that with one word. We have your approval on that. And then, um, as a, um, Mr. Gaines, uh, shared, um, the, we've got understanding of, of your desires for projects, and so we'll be updating the, through a map with that. Next steps are, we are in the process of, um, developing a visual, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, a graphically designed visual for the roadmap. Um, so, um, we'll be working with staff to come up with that and to incorporate that into, uh, the planned survey for the community. The intention for the survey with the community is really just to validate that what you all are proposing. lands with the community. We'll be bringing back the feedback that we hear from the community to you as a companion to the staff report on the 22nd. We anticipate that the community is going to support what you, uh, have approved, uh, because um, the community input that we've received the date through the focus groups as well as the public comment meetings. Um, you know, really is is, uh, seems pretty much in alignment with with where we've landed. If there are any major changes, you know, we can present them to you. But our intention and hope here is to just report back to you that the community, um, you know, broadly, uh, supports where you've landed, and uh, hoping that on January uh, excuse me, June 2nd, 22nd, that uh, this will be your uh, final strategic roadmap uh, for an action plan for the next 2 years, 2 fiscal years. So uh, commend you all. Thank you for the long conversations, the thoughtful conversations. It's never easy to come together and land on, um, something that can be, uh, as you've all mentioned, um, just so many different, um, uh, uh, worth at different meetings to different people. So, um, the fact that you've all been able to to come to some kind of consensus, uh, about, uh, and uh, uh, kind of reimagining of the, the, the key priorities for, for city council, Mountain View, uh, speaks a lot to your, your passion and commitment. So, uh, honor to support you in that process. And again, congratulations.

[03:55:46] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you so much, Mr. Grdeska. Does council have any questions or any other items from staff on this? All right, so seeing none? Oh, yeah, sorry. I know what the vice mayor is about to do. So seeing none, I'll close this item. And then I will turn it to the vice mayor. It's nice Mary Ramirez.

[03:56:06] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. I moved to continue the meeting test, Jen.

[03:56:09] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you very much, too. Have a 2nd for that.

[03:56:12] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Customer about a check. Sorry, you're muted. Yeah, there you go,

[03:56:23] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: 2nd then.

[03:56:24] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, great. So we have a motion to continue past 10 p.m. from Vice Mayor Ramirez 2nded by council member Mattachek, so we'll turn it over to City Clerk Glacier to take the roll call vote.

[03:56:35] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Ice B Ramirez.

[03:56:38] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[03:56:38] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Counselor Ratachek?

[03:56:40] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes,

[03:56:41] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member at my Coco?

[03:56:44] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I

[03:56:44] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: counseling my hicks?

[03:56:46] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes,

[03:56:47] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Labor.

[03:56:48] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Hi.

[03:56:50] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Shelter?

[03:56:51] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes?

[03:56:52] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Mayor, can I?

[03:56:53] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[03:56:54] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: motion case.

[03:56:55] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. So with that, I think that we could all use a quick 10 minute break. How about that? All right. So, uh, I will see you all in 10 minutes and we will have um, city, city clerk glacier, put up the timer for 10 minutes.

[04:03:47] (archive recording) Mayor Ellen Kamei: And welcome back. So we will move on to item seven, which is our public hearing. Item 7. is our fiscal year 202122 action plan and funding recommendations. Assistant community development director Wayne Chen will present the staff report.

[04:07:40] Mayor Ellen Kamei: See. We can bring Mr. Chen Oker. Let's see. Oh, move him over right now.

[04:07:59] Wayne Chen: Great. Good evening, Mayor and Council. How are you? Um, let me just take a moment to share my screen. Are you able to see my screen? Perfect. Thanks so much. Um, as the mayor mentioned, this item is to, um, uh, provide an opportunity for counsel to provide input on the fiscal year 2122 annual action plan and associated funding recommendations. Um, uh, by way of brief background, uh, the city is a direct recipient, uh, federal community development block grant funds and home investment partnership funds for the purposes of investing in activities regarding housing and community development. As a direct recipient, the city is required to create five-year consolidated plans, and also to create annual action plans to implement the five-year plans towards achieving those five-year goals. Uh, the 2122 annual action plan is the 2nd year of this uh, current five-year plan. The city typically conducts an annual benefit process to fund public services in capital projects, and when public services are awarded, The city has also typically funded those, um, on a on a two-year basis. Where capital projects are typically awarded on an annual basis. For this particular nova and annual action plan, there were some unique differences here. that allow the city to provide additional funding to projects. First for public services, $340,000 in CDBG public services. Um, I was made available through the no for process. As mentioned, the staff report, this is significantly more than usual due to the fact that the city has received program income, meaning projects that have been funded with CDBG in the past, have begun to repay some of those CDPG funds back to the city. And we are able to use a portion of that for public services. Given the needs in the community and with the pandemic, um, it was an opportune moment to use these available uh, funds for public services, and so that's why in this particular um, note for process. Um, uh, this level of funding was made available. And it's actually made available automatically, um, sort of on a 2 year amount, which is great. In addition, the city does provide general fund support for public services in an annual amount of $171,000. This is a one year amount because the city's budget process is approved on an annual basis. And awarded applicants through this number process would expect the same amount in the 2nd year of this 2 year funding cycle, pending good performance, meeting the requirements, and that the general fund level stays the same in the 2nd year. Um, also for this known for process, uh, the difference is that the funding for capital projects, um, it was not included in this nova process. It was not included because in the past, it has been challenging to find qualifying projects, whether due to tinier projects, not having enough funds to fund certain projects. Um, the uh, projects or agency's ability um, to do hard reporting. And how to allows cities to be able to directly apply these funds towards projects that meet the consolidated plan goals. Staff identified a project, uh, Crestview Hotel, uh, uh, as affordable housing to be able to use these CDPG home funds for capital projects, and to apply it directly for the rehabilitation of Crestview Hotel. And so that's uh, um, staff recommendation, um, regarding capital projects. It was not included enough for projects. Um, the no phone, and it will be included just as a direct um, allocation to it. This application period open at the end of December and it closed the beginning of February. Um, there was a required uh, uh, priest metal webinar that folks needed to attend to make sure that they understood the requirements and the application procedures. Ultimately, 18 agencies applied for CDPG or general fund support. Um, and it represented 22 activities. The total amount of funding in both groups, it was significantly oversubscribed, and as a result, based on staff's review of each of the applications. It was recommended to fund the top scoring applicants. Staff recommendations were brought to the Human Relations Commission at its March 4th meeting. Um, and HRC at that time also uh, provided funding recommendations to council. The HRC largely supported staff recommendations with some minor modifications. But one of the key recommendations was that the HRC would like the council to consider additional funding options for 4 agencies not initially recommended. Um, Staff does recommend using other CDBG funding sources in one time American rescue plan funds for this gap funding. Um, that we will talk about in just a moment and that is also included as part of item 8.one that will follow this agenda item. So let me just jump right into it. These are the CDBG funding recommendations for council consideration. You'll see the applicants, the proposed public service activity, the amount that they originally requested in the 3rd column, and the recommended total in the 4th column on the right, incorporates the HRC recommendations. So there are 8 organizations here. It's a two-year total, as mentioned before, in the total 340,000. Uh, these are for uh, senior adults legal assistance, community services agency, 2 projects, next-door solutions to domestic violence, this is similar for the blind visually impaired, the Bill Weston Center, Catholic charities, uh, in Silicon Valley Independent Living Center. The next set of funding recommendations are for the general fund supported public service activities. There are 11 agencies that are recommended for funding. Um, you'll see them there on the laptop. I will go ahead and read them. It does include 2 agencies at the bottom, YWCA and CSMA that was not initially funded, are recommended for funding. Um, but that the HRC did recommend to have at least 7150 for both of those agencies. And then also recommended council consider additional funding for YWCA and CSMA. Um, even if there were not additional funds, the recommendation from HRC is to have at least the 7150 for both organizations. So these are one year totals, again, because these are funded out of general funds. Um, and it totals the $171,000 that is available in the city's budget for these activities. These are the gap funding recommendations for the 4 activities, not initially, um, recommended, but HRC, um, requested, uh, the city council to find additional funding opportunities for the 4 There's a bit of information here, but, um, uh, just summarize it by saying day worker center and life moves, um, is part of the CDPG uh, applicant pool. And YWCA and CSMA, again, as part of the general fund pool. The 2 year total gap for the 4 and made us a 2 year period because of the type of funding available, and I'll see if we get to that in a moment. There's 208,832, as you see in the bottom right hand corner. Uh, staff did identify, um, uh, opportunities to include additional CDB funds that were not included in the no for process. Those funds are just over 101,000. And in coordination, the city manager's office identified an opportunity to use one time American rescue plan, federal stimulus funds that the city is receiving, to provide the remaining $107,000 a gap for these 4 agencies. And the details for how they break out in terms of CDBG, ARP funds, internal funds is in the 4th column on the right. Additionally, there is a recommendation for council to consider a one time funding exception for the general, a junior achievement of Northern California. Um, in the past, junior Cuban has applied to the city's uh, general fund bucket under the note for process, but they um, missed the deadline this year. Um, because of the availability of ARP funds, um, it is recommended that a one-time funding exception be made to junior achievement, uh, based on the proposed public service activity, their own history providing, um, these services to the community, and again, because there is this ARP resource available, and it is, um, being recommended for a $9000, um, funding amount, uh, as a 2 year total for junior achievement. Uh, so the funding recommendations are as follows, to allocate an estimated $340,000 of CDPG funds for the original applicants for that notebook process. Number 2 is allocate $171,000 from the general fund for those general fund applicants. Number 3 is to incorporate additional and other CDBG public service files in the amount of 101,200. And also, um, the city's ARP funds and the amount of $16,632 to provide gap funding for the 4 agencies plus junior achievement. Number 4 to allocate approximately what $3700000 of CDPG and home funds for CrestView Hotel for affordable housing. And number 5 to provide any input you may have on the draft annual action plan. Council's funding recommendations will be incorporated into the final in your action plan. And if council approves the gap funding recommendations, and staff will make the appropriate modifications to make sure that we're distributing the city PG funds appropriately across all the CDPG agencies. And just as I know that we do this every year, and every time, if the actual amount of any of the funding sources differs from the estimated amount, then there will just be an increase in decrease in, in, um, the appropriate proportion across the nonprofit agencies. The final and action plan and final funding recommendations will be brought back to council on May 11th. And um, per HUD requirements, that there would be a quick turnaround to uh, finalize the uh, uh, interaction plan to submit it by HUD by the May 15th deadline. Uh, so that, well, that, that concludes staff's uh, presentations, and we'll be happy to answer your questions. Thank you.

[04:19:41] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. So 1st we'll start with council questions and then we'll move it to public comments. So do any council members have any questions for staff? Council member Abby Koga?

[04:19:53] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. With uh, public, the public service programs supported by the general fund. Um, I think I missed it. Oh, I know we usually do a 2 year cycle, but, um, is it possible that just fun, pretend, possibly, potentially fund some programs for just the 1st year, just because of the, you know, our budget, um, to be safe if we need to be, um, is that a possibility?

[04:20:28] Wayne Chen: Uh, thank you. So, um, it is noted, and it has been noted in the note process that there would be, um, again, a proportionate increase or decrease if the funding amount anticipated is not the same amount. But there was an expectation, um, at the outset that these would be to your funding, um, cycles for public services, um, but however, if council does, um, end up in the, uh, 2 um, 2 years from now in that budget cycle to modify that amount, then it would just, uh, be applied proportionally to, um, to the um, applicants. The applicants were asked to include a 2 year expenditure plan. So I think we would need to go back and work with the applicants to make sure that we can understand that they can operate as planned based on the submittal information that they provided.

[04:21:24] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Um, since I'm familiar with almost all of these programs, they've been with us for a long time, these nonprofits, except for one, the, um, community legal services in East Palo Alto project, and could you, um, share with us what more about what that is? Um, and then do you have a sense of how many Mountain View residents would be served?

[04:21:54] Wayne Chen: Thank you very much. I'm happy to provide a quick overview and then I will follow up. Um, we have our uh, CDB consultant uh, assisting us on the CDPG program with some staff transition so I can, um, pull some of that information to, um, uh, during ensuing questions. But, uh, community legal services is to provide um, legal assistance. Really in response to the fair housing, a goal that is included in the consolidated plan. Um, I know there was some interest uh, by the council in terms of funding uh, legal assistance, and that's that's some of the information and resources that they would be providing to tenants and residents in Mountain View, in terms of the proposed number of folks that they would serve. This is something that I can pull up in a moment when I get an opportunity.

[04:22:48] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Oh, in that, um, staff report, it talks about workers' rights. Um, is that, it sounds like that's different though from fair housing or is it one and the same?

[04:23:02] Wayne Chen: Yeah, if I can make sure to pull up that information just a moment. I can see the breakdown of the services that they would be providing and make sure to clarify the scope of activities.

[04:23:13] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, and I'm sorry, normally I used to have all the applications and I know we're trying to cut back on all that, so I assumed it was in the packet and I didn't see it, so that's why I'm asking you now. apologies for that. But yes, if you can provide more specifics, it just isn't very clear to me based on this information, what this program really is. And I can, you can come back to me if you need to.

[04:23:47] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Counselor Mata check.

[04:23:52] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks, Sam. My questions are also for Mr. Chen, so I'm not sure if he's still looking up the other one. Um, So um, When we receive CDBG funds. Do they have to be spent in the same year they're received?

[04:24:14] Wayne Chen: Yes, they they are placed under an agreement typically from one year. We do have some flexibility, again, with the type of CDPG funds, but, um, in the typical case, it would need to be, um, um, dispersed and then spent in in the year that it is given. So, um, typically that's a one year period.

[04:24:35] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay. Um, How much do we have left of the American rescue plan funds?

[04:24:47] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: I would defer that question to the city manager, uh, to provide information on ARP funds overall. Council member, can you clarify, um, what you mean by how much do we have left just in general as related to the next agenda item or, uh, just for this?

[04:25:08] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I just, what I was wondering is instead of using, um, general funds, To supplement CDBG, could we use more American rescue funds? Um, Or even the ARPA funds, rather than the general funds.

[04:25:33] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So yes, you you could choose and it's and it's kind of linked to the next agenda item. You could choose to uh, lower the funding that's recommended in one or more of the items, um, you could choose to change it around. But I think for now, That's what staff's recommendation is, but if you have an exact amount, you do have the ability to to change it around.

[04:26:00] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I guess to me, it seems like our general funds are more flexible. In terms of what they can be spent on, then either the, um, ARP or the ARPA funds. And so, I would rather use more restrictive funds in places where we can than, say, general funds that we might need for something else. And the amounts are in here. I'm just curious, is that something we could do?

[04:26:31] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes.

[04:26:32] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, thank you.

[04:26:36] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Councilman Believer.

[04:26:39] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Oh, thank you, Mayor. Um, I, I do have some questions about, um, the, uh, some of the choices uh, on here, and I'm wondering if, um, these are just the folks that applied in terms of the CDBG or, um, Is, did everyone who applied uh, get represented in this, this graph? This spreadsheet? Um,

[04:27:16] Wayne Chen: thanks for the question. So, uh, there were um, a couple of agencies that um, were not recommended for funding. Uh, it's not on the table, but it is in, uh, description of the staff report. So for example, the uh, Ravenswood, um, COVID-19 vaccine program, uh, was one of the activities not recommended for funding, and, um, but it is not on this table. Uh, But for the most part, the, um, applicants who did apply through the local process is receiving funding at some level.

[04:27:57] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Okay, because as I, as I went through here, um, I kind of did wonder, Vista Center, they have a very large um, facility in Palo Alto, but I wondered what kind of services they do in Mountain View. Um, And then, um, The Catholic charities and the long-term care umbudsman program. Um, I looked that up and on their website, no, it's very fuzzy on their website. It's sort of like we help and um, There was one staff person. Um, noted as a connection. And then, um, On the, the general fund, um, Things, I had a similar question to, um, a council member, Abbe Koga is about the community legal services in East Palo Alto, and I looked on their site, and I noticed that, uh, maybe it's an artifact of them being in a different county. Um, is when you click on their link to um, housing help in Santa Clara County, it resolves to Catholic charities of Santa Clara County, but it's a broken link. And, um, So, um, It seems like uh, In some ways, kind of a non-intuitive list. Of, of organizations. Um, And and I'm wondering, I'm more used to in terms of housing help. Maybe we would have Project Sentinel. Um, but I didn't know if they just didn't apply or, or anybody else who is like a service provider in our county. Because I know that sometimes it really helps to run with the services that are in your home county, um, because you kind of get the cross pollination and you get referred to, um, other kinds of things, but to me, um, many of these things didn't, really, uh, weren't, when I was exactly expecting. And then, um, in terms of the junior achievement, um, it's hard to say anything bad about junior achievement because I know that they're a very reputable outfit and I definitely knew kids when I was little that, um, made crafts and got experiences. Um, through there, but I'm kind of triaging this year for the desperately needed help around food housing. Um, COVID disabilities, um, things like that, and, um, So, I, I don't know exactly what to do with the list that we've been given.

[04:31:11] Wayne Chen: Sure, I'm happy to provide a little bit more context. So, the city does provide funding for projects that low through, um, other means and, um, for example, progress that will provide mediation um, services for writers and and tenants. Um, what the staff does typically when there's no product available is to send the information out to its, um, its list, its outreach list and to try to get the word out that there is funding available. And then from that point on, it is really a matter of folks wanting to apply for the funds. And um, this was primarily the list of folks who did apply. for public service funding. Most of them are agencies that the city has funded before, but there are some new programs, for example, the cost by activity. Um, so, that is um, out of our hands in terms of who applies, but we do try to make an effort to make sure that folks know about it and then give an opportunity to apply. We did have a slightly extended application period this time as well as that pre-smittal, uh, uh, webinar that we required folks to attend to make sure that they understood the requirements. Um, there was an application process with um, various components that they had to fill out and being clear with the target population, the goals that they're meeting. Um, and the mountain view residents that they would serve as well as their expenditure plans. So, each of the applicants needed to provide that information clearly. And then they were evaluated against that. And so the funny recommendations were based on the evaluation of the information that was provided to the city through its application process.

[04:32:58] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Yeah, so I guess maybe part of what I'm thinking is that, um, next year, I'd like to be a little more, uh, directive, possibly, and kind of, like saying what we'd like the buckets to to be. Um, and maybe even going out and, um, Uh, You know, soliciting an application from entities that we think are particularly effective, that might not think that they'd get anything from Mountain View, um, But some, some entities that I would have never guessed it are getting pretty, pretty well compensated here.

[04:33:50] Wayne Chen: If the cancellation shows, the next time that there's a no fund for public services, uh, we can incorporate into the process, um, some additional prioritization of the types of activities that, um, the city would like to fund. There are 6 priority goals that are identified in the consolidated plan. Any activity would need to meet those 6 goals. They include things like increasing affordable housing, responding to homelessness, um, um, facilitating their housing, um, supporting economic resiliency and the like. Um, but within that, we could provide some additional um, specifications or parameters as part of a, a next cycle now for process, if that's the council's desire.

[04:34:39] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Okay, and and I'm getting a note from, um, someone in the community that says that the, the, um, the legal services in EPA actually do have a mountain view office, and they have been, um, helping tenants in Mountain View since 2016. It's kind of hard to see that from the information that we have, and if it's not on their website, then, It's difficult to tease that out.

[04:35:11] Wayne Chen: Yeah, so we tried to provide information here in the summaries form. There's a fairly extensive, um, application material that has been submitted and, um, to, to say a little bit more about the legal services, uh, the funding is to provide, um, services to, At least 110 uh, Mountain View residents for, um, economic advancement, and then there is a link through, um, housing and, um, immigration programs. So, um, it is providing sort of a suite of services that does include, um, uh, employment and worker issues as well as housing, um, items. In response to council member, uh, Labby Koga's question earlier as well.

[04:36:01] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Okay, any other questions? From council members? Vice mayor Ramirez.

[04:36:11] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, mayor. One quick question. Uh, and I think this was substantially answered in the staff responses to the council questions, but um, just, just to make sure I understand. So the newly established eviction, prevention, and defense program. Uh, I think should be included in the annual action plan. And I'm wondering if you need formal direction from us tonight to do that, or if you were already planning to amend the annual action plan to include reference to that program. Thanks.

[04:36:52] Wayne Chen: direction is needed. We can just go ahead and include this under the section that talks about, um, other public services that are being funded without CDPG funds. There is a section and we can include that program under that section. And we would just go ahead and do that.

[04:37:08] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Okay, let's have, well, thank you.

[04:37:10] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Okay. There's no other council question so we can turn it over to public comment. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand betman zoo or press star 9 on your phone. We'll display a 2 minute timer on the screen. First is Teresa Johnson.

[04:37:35] Teresa Johnson: Hi, thank you, members of the council, and I want to thank the staff and members of the Human Relations Commission for all of their work on this. Um, we're very grateful for the staff recommendation to provide funding for our meals on meals program, just to put into context what's, uh, happened in our community over the last year prior to um, the COVID-19 shelter in place order in March 2020. We were serving 1700 meals per week, mostly to isolated seniors. 3 weeks after the shutdown. We were serving 9000 meals a week. And by the end of June, we were serving 12,000 meals per week. Things have settled down a little bit, but we are still serving more than 7000 meals per week to residents throughout Santa Clara County. The need is not really going down as quickly as we thought it would. And we have great concerns about being able to continue funding these homebound seniors who have now found a source of healthy, good food. So we want to thank you for your consideration of our application. And I want to assure you that the funding that you provide will be spent only on our vendor cost for the meals. We provide very fresh meals with no added salt. They're a heart healthy dash diet. They're very tasty. And our clients really love them. And we serve those hot meals for people who need those every day or they can get them delivered frozen once a week. We also provide socialization services. We have a friendly visitor program. We do medical assessments on them. We have a rich resource and referral service that we, uh, refer people to many of the other agencies that are here also tonight. So again, thank you very much.

[04:39:38] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Kathleen King.

[04:39:47] Kathleen King: Thank you very much, Mayor Kumay, and counsel. I appreciate you taking time at this time at night to hear from each of us. And I want to thank you for the many years. You support it Healthier Kids Foundation. Um, what we always try and do is take what you're funding and leverage it. So you're funding 300 kids to get vision screen. We're excited about that. We're going back to that now and we're finding many children are either with broken glasses or glasses they've grown out of, but we also add dental and hearing with leveraged funding from others. So I appreciate you doing this every year and um, You know, I, I can tell council member Lieberman, uh, many of us have gotten to know each other through these meetings and, um, Teresa and I are working on vaccination efforts together. So, uh, you not only give funding to each of us, but you also help us partner in how we work together. So thank you very much.

[04:40:56] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Marilyn Usconte?

[04:41:03] Marilyn Usconte: Hello, Kiki. Yes. Hi, uh, I'm uh, with King Legal Services in East Palo Alto. I'm the manager of Institutional Giving, and I just wanted to clarify a few things about our proposal. So, uh, community legal services, our mission is to provide transformative uh, change through direct legal services. We operate areas of housing, economic advancement and immigration, but I wanted to highlight that for this proposal, we applied specifically for funding for economic advancement program, looking at the economic resilience, uh, goal that the city had laid out in its plan. And with this project, we are going to be targeting low each workers who have lost jobs due to the pandemic, who are now either applying for jobs or trying to return safely to work, so answering questions about, you know, what to do if an employer violates COVID safety protocols, and we will also be doing reentry services, helping community members who have made up for past criminal convictions to clear their record. Um, We anticipate serving at least 110 clients in Mountain View, uh, each year. So, and this is based off of clients numbers that we have seen. Uh, we in partnership with the Palo Alto public defenders office. We filed close to 350 expungement positions in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties combined. At about 20% of those were in Santa Clara County last year. We saw a really huge, um, rise in Mead in Mountain View last year, particularly in the areas of workers' rights. So that's why we are applying for uh, funding for economic resilience. And Katrina Logan, my colleague, is also on the line. So I'll defer to her leader. I yield the rest of my time to her. Thank you.

[04:42:47] Mayor Ellen Kamei: P, PR for long?

[04:42:53] Pilar Furlong: Hi, good evening. I'm Pilar Furlong, and I'm with Bill Wilson Center, and I'm here this evening to speak with you about our family advocacy services program that we're proposing to provide in the Mountain View, Los Altos High School District. So FAS is a school based homeless prevention and intervention service. And the program goal is to support families and connect them to community resources so students can remain in school, giving them the best chance of academic success. To begin services in the Mountain View Los Altos district, we requested a total of $70,000 over 2 years to fund a part-time case manager. It would be dedicated to the district. This is the minimum we needed to get the program up and running. Our proposal is supported by the district, and we received a really strong letter of support from the district wellness coordinator. The Wilson Center has been providing fast in other school districts, districts since 2012. And our staff work really closely with the District McKinney Vento liaisons to identify students who are struggling due to housing instability. Well, some families may need housing, others just may need connections to services. For those who need housing, the case manager works with them to complete the county's VI Spedat assessment, which puts them in the county queue for housing. But Bill Wilson Center goes even beyond that, and we can provide temporary shelter programs for families and for youth, as well as our own rapid rehousing programs for which they may qualify. And then lastly, to address issues that may arise from the trauma of living on the street, we provide counseling. So with 14% of the district's students identifying as socioeconomically disbandaged, plus a number of homeless and newcomer students. There's definitely a subset of students that need our services. So I'm very happy that we were recommended for funding and I hope you'll take the staff's recommendation this evening.

[04:45:01] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Georgia. Russell.

[04:45:09] Georgia Basile: Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. This is Georgia Basile. I the directing attorney of senior adults, legal assistance, or Sala. As many of you know, we provide free legal services to Mountain View residents, 62 or older, targeting clients that are very low income or at risk of abuse or loss of independence. Our current CDBG funding supports our services to Mountain View seniors and we do thank you. Would please the action plan does recommend funding for next year. During times covered by COVID health orders. We will continue to provide our services to seniors remotely and primarily by telephone, per the guidelines of the California Department of Aging. When in-person services can be reinstated at senior centers. It's our hope that all our appointments will be available again at Mountain View Senior Center. We've been located there for over 30 years and we very much miss not being able to be at that site. Legal assistance continues to be a critical need for seniors. We continue to assist clients with legal problems involving public benefits they rely on to shelter in place and meet basic needs, such as SSI, social security, Medicare and Medi-Cal, We're also seeing clients that are worried about evictions even during COVID moratoriums. We're also assisting clients that are victims of elder abuse. Many of these cases involve abusers living in the homes of our clients and sheltering, excuse me, in place with them. When warranted, our attorneys provide full legal representation for clients in court proceedings for elder abuse and domestic violence restraining orders to remove these parties from our clients' homes. And lastly, we're seeing clients that need to do very basic legal planning for incapacity or end of life with powers of attorney for healthcare or for finances. This is really important now during COVID. If they are gravely ill and their family members can't be with them. Your funding helps us provide the highest level of service possible to Mountain View Seniors. So I do hope that you will approve the recommendation in the action plan. Thank you.

[04:47:11] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Sherry Burns.

[04:47:18] Sherry Burns: Good evening, American May, and city council members, and Mountain View staff. Um, Mr. Sherry Burns, I'm the executive director with Silicon Valley Independent Relief Center, um, and SCLC has been providing housing assistance services to people with disabilities, um, including older adults with chronic health conditions. Uh for over 44 years. Um, we've had a long-standing relationship, um, which we greatly appreciate with the city of Mountain View, and through our, uh, project, the housing program for persons with disabilities. We'll assist 70 low income Mountain View residents with disability, including seniors, with disable and conditions, in learning how to locate affordable, accessible community-based housing, in which to transition from homelessness, nursing facilities or unstable temporary housing. We do this through individualized service provision from our housing coordinators that specialize in housing services, and we also offer housing workshops, usually in the community, including at the Mountain View senior center, but during the pandemic, these uh, services, uh, workshops have been offered online on a twice a week basis. Um, we also uh through these workshops teach clients how to perform a housing search and what tools are available to manage the process. Um, we also connect uh, the participants to our other 12 services, such as rent relief, food access to our food pantry, independent living skills, training, benefits, counseling, and peer support, as well as to our other partner organizations. Many of whom are here tonight that offer other support services. We greatly appreciate your support in the past, and we look forward to working with you as a partner in the coming year. Thank you.

[04:49:08] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you Alexander Brown.

[04:49:15] Alexander Brown: Hey, uh, looks like a lot of these organizations are doing great things and I'd love to see it. I can see money going to where it's actually being used to help people directly and serve needs. I just wanted to speak to my experience with Cosba. Uh, they have been fantastic and I've, uh, many people in the community who have been helped by them in the housing area, get advice. And I wanted to point out that when it comes to workers rights, If you pass a wage theft ordinance, but there isn't an organization ready to try to help people understand what their rights are and how they can take advantage of the ordinance that's supposed to protect them, then it's not much of a protection. Uh, and organizations like Kosba that are there in the community doing help for the people who need it the most, who don't understand the legal system, can don't want to. Why would you? It's terrible. Uh, People like that are doing great work and they deserve way more than they're getting, uh, both in money and prestige. Thanks.

[04:50:19] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Jordan Dancer? Jordan, you there?

[04:50:41] Jordan Dancer: Good evening. I'm Jordan Dancer, grants manager at Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence. We've requested $15,000 for the two-year grant period to provide support services to 70 survivors through 3 core programs. Our services are at no cost, at will, and provided by trained and certified DV peer counselor advocates, with the majority being binilingual. The safety of victims of domestic or intimate partner violence and their children is our primary concern. As batterers isolate their partners, victims become increasingly vulnerable, socially, economically, their health and wellness and a missed opportunities and advancement in life. At the start of the pandemic last year, we shipped it quickly to remote services, communicating with our survivors by phone, text, email, and phone or video conferencing. And our shelter and hotline remained operational 247 throughout. Many clients report escalations of violence within their relationships. And others spoke of how the stress and anxiety created by the pandemic, and its numerous impacts on our lives. We triggered the previous trauma. Community and systems advocacy services address crisis, safety, and stability, needs through crisis intervention counseling, lethality risk assessment and safety planning, legal advocacy that focus on legal rights and how the court systems work. Uh, restraining orders and referrals to our internal legal counsel. Support groups currently 12 are in English and Spanish and includes group for male survivors, LGBDQ, and for teens. Facilitators lead a series of specific discussion topics, and support groups provide a larger circle of support through shared experiences, and help to increase resilience, knowledge of resources, increase safety strategies, and reductions in isolation. And in self-sufficiency case management, survivors work towards maintaining or increasing their level of self-sufficiency, focusing on 80 essential life domains of income, food, housing, employment, education, healthcare, wellness, and domestic violence, which is abuse and safety. Thank you for considering our our requests, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

[04:52:51] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Oh, but, Iza?

[04:52:59] Alda Garza: Hi everyone, thank you for your time, city council name is Alda Garza, and as one of my rules in the MBALA school district, I work closely with homeless students as a McKinney Rental District liaison. I'm in favor of the Bill Wilson Center Family Advocacy Services Program. I have firsthand seen the devastating repercressions that this pandemic has had on our most vulnerable student population, and strongly believe that this program would bring relief to these families. This grant would allow us to have an on-site case manager. Designated solely to our homeless students and provide intensive case management services. This access to a county approved case manager immediately removes barriers, such as being screened for the vice for that in order to enter the county queue. The vice bedad stands for vulnerability, index, service, prioritization, discussion, assist, decision, assistance tool, which prioritizes the need for housing using different risk factors. The ability to provide this in-house, at our school sites would be one of the many benefits. The knowledge and expertise for this well established agency and case manager would ensure that students have an alternative option to homelessness. It would also alleviate a high demand being placed on our local community agencies as the demand for housing support rises. In, in addition, Sorry, um, as mentioned earlier, that this for that would be provided by the case manager. We would like to join efforts in providing access to housing options, maintaining housing stability and preventing homelessness for our students and families in our community. This program would add an additional layer of support to our students in such critical types. Thank you.

[04:54:49] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Tom Myers.

[04:54:55] Tom Myers: Uh, yes, uh, good evening, Mayor May and council members. I'm Tom Myers, executive director at Community Services Agency. It's my pleasure to be here with you this evening, and to present the 3 programs that we have presented to the city for funding. I wrote a letter late this afternoon, adding to the data that you're seeing from the city staff, and in addition to that, I am pleased to let you know that our programs are moving into a phase where we are starting to think about what is life going to be like for our clients after COVID. Uh, in addition to all of the information that you uh, probably already know and have seen from the data of what's going to be supported by the CDBG proposals tonight. There is one thing that I think that is incredibly important. And that is that we are starting to look at opening up, and when, for example, the senior center opens up one more time, and we are able to start providing lunches inside once again, what is our capacity going to be? We have to look at whether this is the numbers that we're carrying now of clients that is really overwhelmed our system in the beginning. And we've been able to start serving now from, are, we're going to continue to be able to serve that in the future, which is why support from the city of Mountain View, and the support from our very generous community is so vitally important. And that's why we partner with many of the groups that you see here today, as well as many who are not, a part of this process, because those partnerships are vital for us to be able to provide services. So thank you very much for your consideration.

[04:56:54] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. William Blair.

[04:57:00] William Blair: Good evening, council members. My name's Wayne there. I'm the MVLA wellness coordinator, and I came to speak on behalf of the funding for the Family FT Services partnership in LA, but I also just want to say thank you, the city of Mountain View, for all of its support from LA schools throughout the pandemic, for all the support, with the teen center, CSY, CSC, Senior Center. And so thank you for all that. And I, you know, I think my colleagues, all but, and well, I've already kind of explained the benefits, but I just want to say thank you for considering it. And I really command the city council for really prioritizing people. We know that the most vulnerable populations have been the most disproportionately affected. And so we really appreciate, um, giving space and time to consider these proposals for all of the organizations. We know that the inner agency's support. Um, we need far more coordination and interagency partnerships than we've ever had in the past. And so we're really grateful for this opportunity. Thank you.

[04:58:03] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Right, that concludes our public comment. So we can bring it back to council for deliberation. Does anyone have any comments or um, I believe we're going to need a motion for this item? Council member Mattachek?

[04:58:27] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks, I'm supportive of the, um, organizations that and the amounts that staff has recommended, um, the only change I would suggest if other council members are open to this, is to use the, uh, things we got from the federal government, the ARP funds, instead of the general funds, and that was $171,000. that the total would remain the same. So I would make that motion that, um, oh, do I have to read something?

[04:59:07] Mayor Ellen Kamei: You can just refer to the staff recommendation with the proposed modification that you.

[04:59:12] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, so the staff recommendation, and with the one change, which is instead of using 171,000 from the general fund, use 171,000 more from the America's rescue fund. Thanks.

[04:59:33] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Bye, Mayor Ramirez.

[04:59:37] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. So I, um, I, I, I, I wanted move on because I think the next item that's going to take a little while, but, uh, I would encourage the maker of the motion to, to just pursue the staff recommendation if there's otherwise general comfort with, uh, the proposal and the allocation, the reason I say that is that, the federal funds, and the general fund are, Virtually interchangeable. I understand, I'll defer to staff on this, but we can use the federal funds to offset lost revenue resulting from the impact of the pandemic. And if that's the case, it's, it's functionally equivalent to general fund money. If we can say, we lost this amount of revenue from sales tax or TOT, we could supplement it with this and use it for any purpose, then they are the same. Um, and the, the, the self interest I have in this is, it makes the map a little bit easier for the next item, is a device we're going to have to sort of be mindful of whatever it is, a $170, I think, roughly, from the, uh, from the federal funds that we're going to have to sort of take out of the allocation from, From consideration. So, um, I would 2nd the motion if you make that change. Like I said, Steph, I mean, I was under the impression that the, um, federal funds were not as flexible as our general fund, but if that's, um, not the case. I guess I'd like to know.

[05:01:30] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Council member Mattachek and Romero's, um, So the funds have to be used for a specific purpose, which we will describe in further detail on the next item. Um, and it is accurate that the funds can be used to replace any lost revenue, which is very broad. So in the sense that the city has lost almost 20000000 in revenue over this past fiscal year, the ARP funds could ostensibly be used to backfill that, although we have made other recommendations for that because we are going to be balanced this year. So, it really is up to council. The ARP funds can be for a variety of things. Um, and I believe that these, these uses would be covered based on uh, what we have in the staff report, but it, it's really, um, depending on whether you want to use 170,000 towards this, which might give you less money for other items, um, in the next agenda items. So It's really up to counsel. Um, there, you know, you could do either or. I did also want to know that the 171,000 amount is for just the 1st year of the 2 years, and so council are interested in funding the same set of organizations for the 2nd year. It would really be 171,000 times two. Um, for 2 year funding amount. Do you want to hear from Council?

[05:03:09] Mayor Ellen Kamei: No, Bisho Walter.

[05:03:11] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Sure. I mean, I heard editing on this. So I, I, I want to call on her, but vice mayor asked you a question, Councilman Mata check, so I want to be responsive to his question, which is, if you are amenable to John, because we have emotion, but no 2nd. And so I,

[05:03:28] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, I guess I was interested in hearing if other council members had a perspective behind. Um, We use the general fund or we use the other funding.

[05:03:44] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. I just, I wasn't sure if we could proceed. I know that there was a motion. So I, we're getting into a discussion without even a 2nd or a motion. So that's that's fine. I don't know. If there's a point of clarification, city attorney Choppa, Can we continue this exploration or, you know, there was a motion and then no second?

[05:04:04] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yes, you can continue the discussion about the use of the funds.

[05:04:10] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Cousin Marshall Walter?

[05:04:14] Councilmember Pat Showalter: I was going to, um, I was on the second. That what I was going to say. But, um, I think that I would feel a little more comfortable going with the staff recommendation. Um, but, If so, if you're willing to change to the staff recommendation, um, council member, uh, Magic, that's better, but, um, I'm willing to 2nd it either way.

[05:04:39] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Let's stick a vote and see where we are. So we'll leave it as is, and we'll see where we are.

[05:04:49] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, so the motion is to move forward with the stack recommendation, but instead of using the general fund money, we would be using our American rescue plan funding times too. All right, Councilman Believer.

[05:05:05] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Um, I was just going to say that I feel more comfortable with, um, uh, going with the staff recommendation as the funding sources, uh, uh, right now and uh to give us the bandwidth to fully consider the next item. Um, and so if there is not a 2nd to the the current motion and vice mayor doesn't wish to make a substitute motion, then I'd be comfortable with making that motion.

[05:05:41] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Sure. So I think I heard a 2nd from Council member, Shelter, um, motion, but if you would like to make an alternate, um, or subs- sorry, a substitute motion, then, um, you can, then to do so, I think, would be now.

[05:06:00] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Okay, I'd like to move the, um, the staff recommendation with the funding sources as as they are.

[05:06:08] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Thank you very much. So we have a substitute motion back to the original staff recommendation. Council member Hicks.

[05:06:17] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I would like to 2nd the staff recommendation with as originally put forth with the funding as originally put forth by staff.

[05:06:26] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, great. Thank you. So we have a substitute motion from Council member, Leaper, and 2nd by council member, Hicks, for the original staff recommendation. Um, I think we can take a roll call vote if folks are comfortable with that. Okay. City clerk blazer.

[05:06:48] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member labor?

[05:06:52] Councilmember Sally Lieber: I,

[05:06:52] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Counseling breaks.

[05:06:55] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[05:06:56] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Cats member Abby Hoga?

[05:06:59] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Hi,

[05:06:59] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: cancel on the matter check.

[05:07:03] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Burgant's fine, yes.

[05:07:04] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council membership alter?

[05:07:06] Councilmember Pat Showalter: I,

[05:07:07] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Spice Mia Ramirez.

[05:07:09] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[05:07:10] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Mayor, can I?

[05:07:11] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[05:07:12] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Substitute motion carries.

[05:07:14] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, great. Thank you. All right. So this concludes item 7.one. So we can thank you to staff and to our public commenters who are staying with us until the we hours of the night. It's uh, we can move on to item 8, which is new business. 8.8. is our fiscal year 2020, 2021, 3rd quarter budget status report. Our fiscal year 202122 preliminary general operating fund forecast update. And American Rescue Plan Act funding update. City Manager Kimberly McCarthy and Finance and Administrative Services Director Jesse Takahashi will present the staff report. After the staff report, we will have counsel questions and then we'll move to public comment. I'll turn it over to you, city manager McCarthy.

[05:08:04] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, mayor, council member. So our finance and administrative services manager, Jesse Takahashi, is joining me for a very brief abbreviated presentation given the late hour. I believe he's going to start sharing his screen soon. If not, um, I can share mine. Let me just pull this up. Okay. So, as you all know, uh, we came to council in February, what the med year updated at that time, we were projecting, our deficit would be around one. 1500000 dollars. Um, we also talked a lot at that time on about how much there was still a lot of uncertainty, how we were still assessing revenues, and there was a lot changing with the reopening of the economy, which was impacting our revenues. So although COVID does still continue to impact our economy, there are changes that have impacted our budget more positively. So, uh, we all know as we talked about at the beginning of this meeting that, uh, we have moved to a less restrictive economic tier, uh, there are uh, more vaccines. So things are looking better, although there is still uncertainty because we don't know yet, specifically when things are going to change in terms of all of the different economic sectors opening up. So the governor did announce June 15th as a target date for the state reopening, that's based on less folks going into the hospital and also based on how many people are vaccinated. So, um, with that, one of the other major, um, development since the mid-year was the adoption of the American Rescue Plan Act. So we've been talking about it quite often this night, tonight. And the American rescue plan provided direct funding to cities, counties, and school districts nationwide. So we'll talk about that in a little bit, but at this time, I'll go ahead and turn it over to our finance director, Mr. Takahashi. And I'll drive the presentation. to Jesse.

[05:10:20] Finance and Administrative Services Director Jesse Takahashi: Okay, go ahead and skip that slide. Okay, thank you. So this is essentially the update for our fiscal 2021 General Operating Fund. As you can see, revenues, expenditures are pretty closely matched at this point. Um, and we would otherwise have a $300,000 uh, positive balance, which was the the new, um, bottom line, were it not for an additional one time fund of what we were calling the excess e-raf, and it's a form of property tax that comes to us through the county, um, that is only for another couple of years. And because of this one time infusion of funds, which is almost $4.9 million, are revised, uh, uh, general operating fund, and that balance is now estimated to be 5.2 million. So, um, that's quite a bit, um, to the better from our last update to council. Um, and although there is still a lot of uncertainty going on. So that's where we are on the current year. And looking ahead to next year, fiscal 2122 forecast assumptions, the significant highlight here is the 1st item, which, essentially the property tax base, which is our largest revenue source, is only scheduled to increase by just over one% compared to the normal 2%. So it will be a smaller increase, and that's probably the most significant, although we do expect overall property tax rate to still show growth. Next slide. And now looking at the uh, forecast for next year, um, uh, including all the updated revenues and expenditures, uh, the initial operating balance is actually a deficit of 3.990000 just under 4 million. But as I had mentioned, the excess e-raf that, um, uh, revenue source from the county that we're expecting to go away, uh, beyond uh, fiscal 22 is almost uh, $5800000 that we're expecting. And so when we infuse that into the balance, it will actually make our balance +one.8 million. And so that's what we are currently looking at based on the most recent information that we have available. The way the kind of the highlight, I think, of this, um, uh, item tonight is the discussion on the American rescue plan. Um, the American rescue plan uh, was enacted last month uh, by the president, uh, that allocated $65000000000 to local governments, 8000000000 to cities within California, and Mountain View share, uh, just under 150000000 um, And that is spread over 2 years. So we will get half of that amount, about $740000000 roughly this year and another 7.4 next year. Some of the things that they could be used for are to replace lost revenue, which was mentioned earlier, to mitigate negative economic impacts from the pandemic, assisting small businesses, households, hard hit industries, and aid and economic recovery. Also permitted our investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure. And one of the, um, provisions is that these funds have to be spent by the end of 2024. So there is a number of years in which these funds can be used. Um, and it should be noted that, um, the Treasury Department is still in the process of uh, developing regulations and procedures to clarify and to find how uh, these expenditures can be used, the eligibility rules, um, but staff did want to get council's early direction on how it would like to see these funds uh, utilized. And Steph has put together a listing of recommendations, uh, what you see in this slide. So as you can see, there's a variety of uh, uses of these, um, funds, and some of these recommendations uh, that are being uh, uh, recommended include uh, rent relief, uh, safe parking, and homeless services, uh, developing economic vitality strategy for the city, uh, and providing residential, small business relief for delinquent utility bills, uh, as well as providing some of the gap funding that was mentioned in the last item. So staff is going to be looking for council's feedback tonight on how the funds may best be utilized. And I would also like to point out that staff is recommending that, uh, the full amount not be allocated, uh, just yet because there will be, uh, needed room for change. Um, and also uh, the city is not absolutely sure that that 7.4 will be the final amount allocated because they are still finalizing uh, this information and it's possible that it could be uh, less than the amount that we indicated. So, this will be brought back to council in June at the recommended budget. So there will be another opportunity to finalize, um, uh, the decisions on this. And here, just really quickly, the next steps that are left in the budget process, finish up the CIP, another study session as well as adopt CIP, and also in June, we'll have the recommended budget as well as public hearing for utility rates and the budget adoption at the 22nd June meeting. And that concludes staff's presentations. This last slide is really just the 2 recommendations for this item to accept and file a report and then to discuss and provide feedback on the ARP recommendations.

[05:16:40] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Thank you so much. Um, so, um, at this point, we'll bring it back to council questions before going to public comment. So do any council members have any questions that they would like to ask of staff? Counselor Roche Walter?

[05:16:56] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I have 2 questions. When do you think we'll know the amount? And when do you think we'll know what the rules are? Um,

[05:17:08] Finance and Administrative Services Director Jesse Takahashi: Sure, thank you for the question. So the uh, The uh, legislation requires that the uh, treasury uh, issue these within 60 days. And so we are actually expecting by May that they will be coming out with these rules as well as the final amount, but um, We have not heard otherwise. We are expecting it to be coming soon. by next month. Thank you.

[05:17:42] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you Councilman Bobby Koga.

[05:17:48] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. in regards to our budget. Um, I'm excited that we got the URF funding to, um, put us not in the negative or out of the -and into the positive. Um, but I realize that that's, um, limited funding. It's not ongoing. So, um, well, let me see the, in the next budget discussion, the 5 year forecast. I am, you know, my concern is that, and based on past practice, this is not necessarily a structurally balanced budget. And so I'm just concerned about that and whether that's something that will continue or will go back to a deficit if once the IRAF funding is over. Um, so will you be able to provide that information next time we talk about this?

[05:18:41] Finance and Administrative Services Director Jesse Takahashi: Yeah, the 5 year funding um, or the 5 year forecast will be uh, provided with a recommended budget on June 8th. So we will see the rest of the remaining years. Um, staff had, you know, built in, um, uh, some it's preliminary assumptions that, um, you know, the recovery would continue in those out years. And so while there is some potential issues in year three, um, you know, going beyond that, uh, that some of that is, is, um, provided for with additional growth in in revenues. So, but we are still going to be finalizing that and it will be brought back at the June meeting.

[05:19:22] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, great. Thank you. Any other questions for council members? All right, so seeing none, we can turn it over to public comment.

[05:19:34] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button and zoom or press starter on your phone, and we'll display our 2 minute timer.

[05:19:46] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Fernando Romero.

[05:19:53] Fernando Romero: Hello. Good evening, council members. Uh, my name is Fino. I have been a monthly resident for about 19 years. I am on the human relations commission, and I'm a graduate of the city's Spanish Leadership Academy. This evening, I'm not speaking for representing the Human Relations Commission. I'm speaking, representing myself only. Therefore, um, I'm speaking tonight in support of the MB solidarity fun. I made most of the leaders of MB solitarity fun through the academia, including Paula Pedes, Olgamelo, Nadia Amada, Asusena, Castagnon, Sonia, Sequieros, Mariluquesta, Enuda, Juan Hoff. I have always been in Paris with their heart, passion, and experience leading in the community. I recently learned about their work with the MP solidarity fan. I am so excited and grateful that this incredible woman from our community have been quietly. Supporting undecumented families who have fallen through the cracks in this hard time. I really hope that they can get more funding to do more of this work. I saw on the city council agenda item 8.one for this evening that you will decide how to allocate $74000000 from the American rescue plan, including 3000000 does not yet have a staff recommendation. I know so many people in my community special enticement makes establishments have been struggling this time, and I know that virtual equity in a community for has been part of what our city has been working towards. So I ask that you commit 3000000 and find it for flexible financial assistance for Latino families who has suffered greatly during the pandemic. And also, I hope that you are okay, half of that, from the, the DMB is on the Tarity fan, community leaders like Paula Olga, Senator, Sonia, Marilud, at the end of that. Thank you. I understand close.

[05:21:57] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Philip Cosby.

[05:22:13] Philip Cosby: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Paul Cosby, with the capital C, Joe, I'm staying with the nations. Each week, our capacito meets, and we hear stories of struggling families who have lost income due to COVID and are struggling to pay their rent. They were very grateful that the cities provided, went with late funds, and also additional funds are coming through SB 91. But these funds go directly to the landlords to pay unpaid rent. What we don't know is that many families have been starving to pay the rent, striving not to receive those addiction notices, and have borrowed money from friends and relatives, but run out big balances on their credit cards to stay current with rent. And all that's admirable, there's really no relief available to them because sending a check to the landlord doesn't reduce the balance of their credit card. So I was going to suggest that we use some of the ARP money. To be more broadly available, to relieve struggling families.

[05:23:27] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Uh, thank you. Thank you, Tim McKenzie.

[05:23:39] Tim McKenzie: Thanks for unmuting me. Um, I'll 1st start and say echo, uh, what Phil just said. I think that like, uh, helping the actual people that we live with is really important, um, and not just funneling money towards landlords. Um, And I just, uh, seeing that this, that we're recommending for the budget, for approval and meeting in June, I can't help, but remember a year ago in June when we, again, stayed up to the wee hours of the morning, um, talking about the budget and there was huge public outcry asking for a reduction in the police budget. I've continued to keep in talk at any time the budget has come up asking for this. Um, I had one specific item that's come up in recent weeks is removing SROs from schools. Um, that's, uh, I would just like to, again, re-emphasize the, uh, uh, the, The need to reimagine, uh, how we keep our community safe and uh, stop funneling money towards uh, carceral and punitive methods and uh, move money from the police budget towards things that will actually uh, better serve the needs of our community.

[05:24:58] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Great, thank you. Alexander Brown.

[05:25:10] Alexander Brown: Okay, now you can hear me.

[05:25:12] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[05:25:13] Alexander Brown: You missed my whole intro. Okay, yeah. Oh, yeah. Somebody said the magic words. Jesse, you need his little broadband? Oh, oh, that was so exciting. I want it. I want it so bad, but I wish that we were in a position that we can actually get it because we didn't need to spend so much money to help people who are facing issues with their housing because we've been running in circles for years, people struggling to pay rent and just stay in their homes and be a part of the community. And, you know, we keep facing the same issues of, not, not, no affordable place to live. They get burdened. They can't pay rent. They get forced out. They get redeveloped, and we lose valuable neighbors and people who we love. Uh, But yeah, no, I really don't use a broadband. I wish I wish that we didn't have to spend so much money on housing all the time and just funnel it to land barons, and instead we could use it to help the people who are actually within the city living here to enjoy their lives more with fast internet, so they can stream Godzilla versus Kong on HBO Max. I'm not sponsored. I haven't watched yet. Alright. Uh, but no, this is good. Most of these organizations are great. And uh, thanks, thank you for, again, giving money to people who actually need it. Uh, this is this is the part of the city thing that I love, where we're doing underground work to help people who need help. It's great. Thanks.

[05:26:46] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Olga, no? Oh.

[05:27:01] Olga Melo: Hello? Hi, Linda. Hi. Do you hear me?

[05:27:05] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes, we hear you.

[05:27:07] Olga Melo: Okay. Mi nomres, oy la melo. Soy parte del Fondo del Grupo de solededa. Gracias proper mito, espresso no esta asideas. The space provar una redistribution de fundos lideriada por nuestra communidad en mayo y junio del dos milveiente. Desidimos associamos y optenner, el patrosimo, Ciscal de los Altos Community Foundation, para fortalesen, estra, intrastructura, financiera, el nestrativa, bajolcinientos, uno, cetres. E los ultimos mesen, recaudamos, is registribuimos, simpentamil, dolores, en assistencia financiera flexible, asimpuenta families, in documentadas. Tenemos otro cinquenta million promesa. Nestra limitación des financierra. Tenemos todo la capacidal para mentar, si micicativa mente nuestro alcanse hacientos de familias. In my, pensamos que mucha necesida qui nancierra and estem momento. cremos que recuperación economica. Cremos que la recuperación economica. de por de sige. Esta de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de. Camiles in documentadas y estatus mixed. Demos que las families estan regresando lentamente el trabajo. And medida que escuelas in negocios reabre, podemos imaginar que las familia, Latinas, que las trabajoran particular, necessita mes para recuperarse, y que estencia financiero flexible, sostegida, durante, un perodo, puede serlo que nostra communidad. Tenemo la sigiente recommendación. Quel consejo de la portunidad, a fondo de soledad, de serum meto do más, para distribuir, parte de los fondos del plan de rescat universal. Yeah, que somos personas, la communidad, masim tactada, y a sitendremos mas, de uno opportunidal, para de alto de terminal, la administración is recurso, y diceno. Sabeemos que muchas organizaciones, lucrativas como, se centro, bredo, rich potential movement, Inglesias, si grupos communitarios, que trabajan, argo momente, para, pollar, la communidad, mas munerable. Y a preciamos, muchos, ure, de fondo, sole, de solidarial, el cual responde las necessidades, entiende i respeta las differences culturales y linguisticas. Yeah, que este projecto, surgio, de la grande, cesidad, creando ung grand lideras vinterno. Montevio, siempre se a character. Por está, siempre la banguaria de los Cambios. Esta es la portudia de fresemos como Grupo, un estación, para évar, verdadera soluciones, a la communidadispana, que se a pega nestra realida. Muchas gracias.

[05:30:06] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Muchas gracias, alga.

[05:30:08] Unknown Speaker: Eiopenso que entre va producier, si?

[05:30:11] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Si, okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. Okay. So, um, colleagues, we weren't able to get um, Spanish translation for tonight's meeting, unfortunately. Um, Oga is one of the uh, leaders of the Mountain View Solidarity Fund, and um, I believe Anthony Chang, who's also part of the group. I will be speaking later and will be providing, I think, a bit of context and a little bit of translation about Oka's statement. So I just wanted to let everybody know about that.

[05:30:47] Mayor Ellen Kamei: All right, uh, Paula Perez. Please, pola, polo.

[05:31:01] Paula Perez: Hola. Buenas noches, a todos. Estimados, consejales de la ciodat de monte. Mi nombres, Paula Perez, vivo montebio, por más de bente años, y soy un a lider communitaria activa. Tambienso egraduada de la cademia de liderazo, civicoy en español en el Tosmil de associete. Or, you know, desir gracias, austedes, portodo, lo que hacim, por nuestra, comunidad, y me dirijo, austedes, respectosa, menten. En representación, de siete compañero, Antonio, Toto, somos lideres, voluntarios, de fondo, de solitarida, de montebio. Mi quiero catistar que cuando de solitarita de montebio, eso non paso más, resiente, en marcolar, de más de vente años de organización communicaria, por la communida, y para la comonidad. Sabemos que voy estedes estandando de recommendaciones, al personal, de la ciudad, sobre la financiación, del plan de rescati Americano. Inosotros tenemo las siente recommendaciones, para la pininseción de este plan de resta americano. Tres niones de los fondo del plan de rascatia Americano de la ciudad, para respaldados fondos, para assistencia financiera, flexible, y, 0 un piloto, de ingresos grantisados, para promover la recuperación, economica de las familias, mas, affictadas por la pandemia. Includa las familias, immigrante Latinas, indocumentadas, y estatus mixto. Así como tamblina, signal, la mita de estos, teremiones, de fondos, mosea, tum mi yoni medio, alfondo de solidad, de mountain bión, para que las personas, de la communidad, la tina, que están mas certa de los problemas, que enfrenta mas familias in documentadas, que son, langideres voluntarias del fondo de solidaridad, de mountain bión, tenga la portunidad, de distribute. estos fondos a travez de processos, que pueden funcionad, bien para la con, comonidad. A quantimación se muestra algunas de nestres consideraciónes al realistare esta recommendaciones. Primero, necesibad en la comonidad. Como grupo de immigrante Latinas principalmente de classe trabajadora, y padres de niños, señedades collar, que am divido en mountainvio, intrescinco vente años, de mos todo los días, la debastación economica, y el estres que la pandemia, adejado en nestra comonidad. La cual acido la mas impactada en este tiempo. Apesar de lamento de las pacunas, y la rea pertura gradual de escuelas, y negosios, sabenos que la communidat, Latina, aun tiene un larco camino. Haciella recuperación economica durante proximoayo. Asi, Opportunidad, para el lideras un Latino, para septis faserra necesidades de la communidad.

[05:34:33] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Gracias, paola, asse tiempo, los siento. Es tiempo,

[05:34:38] Paula Perez: gracias, gracias, gracias.

[05:34:44] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Where Blakely?

[05:34:49] Wren Blakely: Good evening, Mayor Vice Mayor and Council members. I'm here this evening, speaking in my personal capacity, and wanted to echo support for the Mountain View Solidarity Fund that was put together by members of our Latinx community who have graduated from the city, Spanish Leadership Academy, to help other Spanish speaking families in our community, who are suffering in this current environment, especially those who are undocumented and mixed status families who have not had access to much of the federal aid that has been offered so far. I've personally known Paula, Olga, and other leaders in this group for many, many years through their, you know, relentless volunteer efforts at our local schools. They are pillars of our school community and just incredibly reliable and caring people. And I'm so impressed by this fund that they have put together. Um, it's exactly the kind of thing that I think the city's leadership, Spanish Leadership Academy was um, formed to help develop and they're really, you know, carrying that promise to, help our community. And I'm super proud of them. Um, I understand that there may be some legal um, restrictions in the ARP that prevent certain portions of the funding to go to undocumented families. But my understanding is there may be other portions of it that are available to help. And so I hope that the city can allocate money that is permissible under that law, a significant portion of the unallocated funds to help the effort that the, um, that the fund is putting together. They truly know our community and are in a great position to help those people that are most in need. Thank you for your attention.

[05:36:45] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Anthony Chang.

[05:36:51] Anthony Chang: Hello. Thank you. Thank you, city council members. My name is Anthony Chang. I'm here supporting the Mountain View Solidarity Fund. My colleagues, Paulo Perez, and Orgamelo, spoke earlier in Spanish, and I want to reinforce some key points they made. First, Mountain View Solidarity, Fund as a group of primarily Latino volunteers who are graduates of the city's Spanish language leadership academy and working class parents who have 20 years of experience organizing the Latino community here in Mountain View. We're here to make the following recommendations as you give staff direction on the American Rescue Plan funding. We recommend $3000000 go towards flexible financial assistance and or guaranteed income pilot to promote economic recovery for families hit hardest by the pandemic, including Latino, undocumented, and mixed status families in our community. We also recommend the city consider allocating half of this $3000000 to mount view solidarity fund so that most impacted communities can have an opportunity to design and run programs for their communities. Our considerations in making this recommendation include, first, there continue to be huge needs among the most vulnerable in our community because of the pandemic. Second, there's a huge opportunity to center the leadership of the Latino community leaders who come from our most vulnerable communities in designing solutions that best meet their needs. Third, mountain view solidarity fund through fiscal sponsorship by Los Altos Community Foundation, has the capacity to meet financial assistance needs of 100s of families in our community. Our biggest limitation is funding. Fourth, we believe that economic recovery, mountain duty, to censor the most impacted in our community, which includes working class Latin immigrants, undocumented, mixed as families, single parents, essential workers, and more. Next, we recognize that $1500000 is a large ask. At the same time, you see it as a bold continuation of the $4000000 in rent relief funds channeled through CSA over the last year. We see an opportunity for Mountain View to think bigger and more creatively. For example, a community led universal basic income pilot could put mountain view on the forefront of how to support economic recovery for most vulnerable in our communities. Lastly, we want to be clear that we're advocating of both N strategy of supporting groups like CSA as well as Latino blood efforts like ours. Thank you.

[05:38:55] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So that concludes public comment, so we can bring it back to council for questions and deliberation. Council member Abbe Koga.

[05:39:08] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you. Um, I had a couple of questions to start out with that came up, um, after yes, for questions. Um, I'm looking at the list of recommendations for possible uses. Um, I saw the transit center master plan. Um, in light of us, um, Earlier, um, deciding to just defer, remove the, um, HET project. I'm wondering if we could divert those funds to the transit master plan. Because it just seems more like a capital project item.

[05:39:49] Public Works Director Don Cameron: Uh, good me, good evening, mayor council members. This is Don Cameron, Public Works director. Uh, yes, that's certainly possible to do because as you mentioned, uh, we will be defunding that CIP, which included $500,000 of city funds that we could redirect and fulfill that $100,000 need for the term that's in our master plan additional study.

[05:40:12] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, great. Thank you. And then, um, I noticed the check one time funding and was hoping to get more details of what that entails.

[05:40:24] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, Councilman for Abikoca. So the chat one time funding is to, um, help check with additional needs related to mental health work that they're doing in the community. And also for um, internal efforts to address diversity and inclusion for their own team. And check has requested 5% increase to their ongoing funding, which will be included in the recommended budget.

[05:40:55] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: So this is supplemental funds that I understand they have requested from all the members of the JPA, including the city. And they, um, requested the same amount from each of the JPA numbers or is it based on usually based on population or use or some, some criteria?

[05:41:20] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: From what I understand, they have not asked for the same amount from each entity in the JPA, but I cannot confirm the exact amounts that the other agencies were asked for. I do know that this asked was based on what they assessed was their proportional, um, share of uh, Mountain View residents, um, based in Mountain View. So, uh, Their percentage that they equated to the city might have been different than the percentage of the other JPN members. And then I,

[05:41:56] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I've seemed to recall, we received a request for one time funds last year with it in previous years. Is that right? I'm trying to.

[05:42:07] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: is accurate.

[05:42:08] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, thank you. Um, so those are my questions and then, um, comments. Um, I want to, again, think staff for all of your hard work, the budget is always a, a big effort and, um, it takes a whole organ- entire organization to, to come up with it. So, um, I appreciate this. And I know because of COVID, we've had to review this more frequently, we've agreed to do it quarter race. So I appreciate the work put into make these documents. I am very pleased that we are in a, uh, looking at a positive, uh, situation, um, getting out of the negative, uh, category. So that is very promising. Um, and, um, you know, thank you to the federal government and the new administration for the ARPA funds. Um, I appreciate the recommended uses. Um, I would just, uh, suggest, as I, my question, um, referred to the master plan and and maybe looking at using, um, CIP funding, um, from the AGT project, if not others, um, to fund that, that item. Um, my interest with ARPA and reading the guidelines for ARPA, um, and also just in terms of, um, you know, our situation with the pandemic, um, is really to try to get as much assistance to, um, folks, businesses, individuals, families, um, as directly and quickly as possible. That was why last year when we went into sheltering in place. Um, I had um, advocated for the rent relief program to be enhanced and and I think that that program has shown success. Um, so, um, that is my, that's been my primary interest. I support the, um, other items on here, um, because they do provide relief for residents with utility bills, um, continuing rent relief, um, small business and whatnot. Um, you know, I guess there's a, uh, the question of, um, if we have any other recommendations. And, um, this is where, um, since last year, uh, with COVID, as I, as we talked about the Cares Act funding and, and the various assistant assistants that was coming in, um, I started to think about, um, Whether we could engage, and embark in a pilot program for universal basic income. It's something that, um, came up in the last presidential election. And so I took interest in that. And, um, you know, since then there have been very many cities that have engaged in pilot programs. Um, they tended to be larger, but uh, most recently, South San Francisco, but the population of about 70,000, so a little smaller than us, um, is engaging in a UBI pilot program. And so that, um, made me think that if they can do it, maybe we can do it too. Um, I did a little bit of asking around. As the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, if they had been engaged in a UBI programs and they have been. Uh, they, they uh, referred me to this uh, group called the Mayor's for a guaranteed income, which is uh, national, that you probably, many people probably have heard about this Stockton Mayor doing a UBI program, and he has been leading this um, organization, and they provide technical assistance. And the community foundation, um, said, has, has said to me that they would be open to just get talking with us, um, to maybe um, provide some technical assistance or evaluation. assistance and so forth. So, um, my hope was to, if I'm hoping to get support tonight from my colleagues to um, explore a pilot universal basic income project. Of course, it would be limited, but it's a pilot program. I think the, you know, big piece of this is to track success and and and have measurables and the data. And, and then, and knowing that there is this national movement. I think we might benefit from being a part of that. Um, so my hope, um, might ask, um, I, I don't have any. Right, real, I guess, backing on, you know, why, but my thought was, um, looking at other programs, if we did $500 or around $500 a person or household for a year. Since this is your spending, um, and equating to about a $1000000 set aside for a pilot program, um, that might be a a robust enough program for us to, um, get some good results and good data. So that would be my request. Um, I certainly, um, am interested in the solidarity fund, but, um, I remember last year when I was in conversations with various groups about the Silkon Valley Strong financial assistance program, there were some restrictions with the federal funding. And so my ask would be to ask staff to look into what the guidelines are, and come back to us with more information is to how the ARPA funds could be accessed. But, um, my other, my big ask is a universal basic income pilot program. Thank you.

[05:47:58] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you, and apologies. So just, um, as we're taking more notes on things people are suggesting as I pull my pen out here. Um, so staff has presented, you know, preliminary recommendation on how to use these American Rescue Plan Act funding for various programs and priorities. So if a council member wishes to modify any of the recommended allocations for these items. We may need to take a motion to determine if there's majority support for any modifications. Staff will assess the final American Rescue Plan Act funding amount and then incorporate the uses into the recommended budget, which will come back to council on June 8th. So apologies for that. All right. So next I saw the vice mayor's hand, Vice mayor Ramirez.

[05:48:49] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, mayor, and echoing the sentiments expressed by council member Abbe Koga. I'd also like to thanks staff for all of your work on preparing the budget and the analysis necessary to generate the recommendations that we rely on. So thank you. Um, yeah. And very similarly, I think, just sharing our goals and intentions for the federal funding may be instructive. Uh, personally, I think the 2 priorities I have are COVID response and relief. Uh, and then poverty alleviation. I feel like the highest and best use of the money is to get it back in the community as quickly as possible, uh, to help people address whatever financial concerns that they have, to stabilize businesses, keep people employed, keep people housed. Um, so those are, those are the things that I'm hoping we can, we can commit the, the funding to. Um, I did want to put on my, uh, John McAllister. hat and try and make a comprehensive motion and do my best to accommodate all of the uh, the interests and concerns of all of my colleagues. So, um, I'll, I'll, I'll try. I did request of staff in advance in the meeting. I don't know if you had a chance to do this to prepare a spreadsheet just so that way we can better track, um, the any modifications provided by the council, if that's possible, great, if not, no worries, I'll try and be as clear as I can. Um, so I'll go ahead and move, uh, as a starting point, the staff recommendation for the use of the federal funds. Um, but I'm, I'm going to make it a little bit. Uh, a little bit broader in saying that we're simply providing staff directions to figure out how to make our recommendations possible and to return in June with those recommendations. So, uh, this will primarily be the federal ARPA funds. If there are 3 things we have to do to make some of these things work, then, uh, we would be open to just, seeing if, if there, there are other things we might have to do, other sources of funding that we can tap into. Um, so that's that's the starting point. Um, so I, uh, I really appreciate Council member Abikoka's suggestion to explore universal basic income. I think this is uh, a great opportunity to try an innovative program like that. Um, and one of the things that we've seen in other communities that have tried it is some success in leveraging private philanthropic funding, and I'm hoping that we can do something very similar here. That's true for everything, but I think there's, there's something attractive about UVI that has been, you know, more successful and, uh, and, you know, leveraging foundation money and corporate funding. So that's one of the things I'm hoping we can we can do with that. So um, here's the grand compromise. $1000000 for a universal basic income program. Staff would flesh out the details and if we could work with the Silicon Valley community foundation or similar, uh, uh, foundation to make this happen, I think that would be ideal. Um, $1000000 for the Mountain View solidarity fund. We've gotten very strong community support for exploring this. I like the idea of supporting a grassroots organization um that can deploy funding fairly quickly. Um, and again, that's just trying to uh, provide direction to staff to see if we can make that work. And then, uh, the $1000000 that's currently recommended for rent relief, we would provide the CSA, but with slightly different parameters. My strong recommendation would be that we allocate 750,000 of that for direct financial assistance. And the reason is, the solidarity fund will help some number of people, but CSA has been a tremendous community partner who can access other groups that the solidarity fund may not benefit. And I think it's really important that we reach out as, as expansively as possible. uh to every group within our community who needs assistance. And CSA, I think, has a demonstrated track record of doing that. So, Instead of $1000000 for rent release, it would be 750,000 for direct financial assistance. And then the remaining 250,000, we would leave to CSA's discretion, that could be rent release, that could be homeless services, but the intention is to give CSA knows their clients, they know the need, and I want to give them flexibility to determine how best to use that funding. Uh, and then the, uh, the additional component of this is that we would provide staff, the authority to negotiate, an administrative fee, consistent with prior direction the council has given when we've allocated rent really funding, because there's a cost to administering these programs. So, those are the big asks. Um, I do agree with council member of Aktoga that the transit center master plan is important, but I think there are other ways we could. And so my recommendation would be that that 100,000 allocation, $100,000 allocation instead be used for the small business grant program. And if not all of that is allocated for small business grants, then small business relief, whatever may make sense. So, we want to make sure that we're able to maximize our assistance to the small business community. Um, and then, uh, the last modification would be that $50,000, so a relatively small amount would be subtracted from the technology equipment, hardware and IT contracts item, and instead supplement the eviction, uh, prevention and defense program. And the reason I think that's important is the 45000 that has been allocated so far is a great start, but I think that the expiration of the eviction moratorium will generate far greater need for uh legal assistance. I want to be prepared for that. Uh, so, that's the motion. It leaves a $10000 as a buffer, consistent with a staff recommendation not to allocate the full amount. Um, and, uh, it provides staff the flexibility to return with modifications as need be in order to help implement the programs that were, and the, and the services that were, were, were trying to, um, to support. Uh, so I'm happy to go over that again if it's helpful. Um, But, uh, I'll, I'll go, go ahead and stop there, hear comments and modify as, as needed.

[05:56:30] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Okay, so, um, Before we continue, I just wanted to check in. So city manager McCarthy, do you have that spreadsheet that we can share so that people can see what device? Okay, great. Okay. I think now it's too small. Perfect.

[05:57:03] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, so I see you making some tweaks. So I think before we go into my colleagues who have their hands up, I just want to double check with the vice mayor. So let's just go through this. So is this correct? Um, the one, so the transit center master plan would be would be eliminated and that funding would be reallocated for the small business grants. So the small business grant is correct at 235,000 that we would have to remove the transit center master plan. Okay. So it looks like the changes are in red. Is that right? City manager McCarthy?

[05:57:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Does this look right, vice mayor?

[05:58:02] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Um, yes, but I think we still, we still have number 25 still lists the transit center master plan. So we would just delete that 100 that whole row, right?

[05:58:13] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yeah.

[05:58:14] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes. Okay. And then I think that's, that's correct.

[05:58:26] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. All right. So is everybody. I guess everyone can see the the new proposal. So Vice Vice Mayor, this is your proposal and you're looking for a second, right? Is this your motion?

[05:58:42] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[05:58:43] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. All right. So we have emotion from Vice Mayor Ramirez on um, these funding, um, this new funding, um, allocation.

[05:58:53] Mayor Ellen Kamei: All right, council member Hicks.

[05:58:59] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I'm not ready to 2nd it yet. I had a few comments of my own. So would you like to look for a 2nd or 1st?

[05:59:09] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Looks like it's council member at the Koga, 2nd day.

[05:59:13] Mayor Ellen Kamei: I can't see her. I'm sorry. Let's see. Okay, counselor have other COVID. Thanks for the second. Perfect. All right. So we have a motion from Council member Ramirez with a 2nd by Council member Audi Koga, and then we can go back to you, Council member Hicks with your questions and comments.

[05:59:28] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah, so I like the direction this is going in. Oh, I wanted to keep seeing the spreadsheet though. Because I haven't memorized it. So, um, the additional things that I'm wondering is whether I, is whether safe parking and homeless services need, as I've, I've heard from, uh, almost providers, that there's been, uh, sort of an, an increase in the individual's effect of there, that might need some augmentation. Um, And I should say, maybe I should start by saying what other council members have said, yes, I want this money used for, um, I want it used for relief from the pandemic and to get to out to people as quickly as possible. I, um, and very supportive of, you know, the suggestions of the solidarity fund. Um, I have, have felt that I, we, that the Latinex community is very impacted and that we haven't heard enough from them when, during these discussions. So I'm glad that we're now doing so. So then looking at the line items under that, I spoke to safe parking. I would agree with the CSA direct financial assistance. I like that it's getting more flexible than giving, um, just rent relief. I like that we're moving in that direction. I also agree that the, the small business grants, economic vitality, Castro streets, that getting those businesses up and running, those, you know, provide a lot of jobs, particularly, frankly, for some of our more vulnerable population that have been laid off. So I like getting those up and running again. Um, and the utility, so, then, um, I'm not going to comment on every item, I agree with, uh, switching the technology to the, um, To the addiction, a portion of the technology items to the addiction, defense. Um, I'm, uh, hoping to hear a little more, the the universal basic income programs that I've heard about have been, uh, fully funded by foundations. So I'm hoping that we, when this, I'm wanting to know a little more about how this will come back to us and how these various funds interact and how they'll be dispensed. Um, you know, I'm wondering, the universal basic income programs that I've read about have been a, um, they've been randomly given out. They've been, sort of names have been drawn out of a hat. I'm not sure, and it seems like they could be duplicative of people who are applying for other forms of assistance. I like a little more I'd like a little to come back to us with a little more information on how these various funds are working and how they're working together. Um, And also, how other populations can access some of them. I'll give an example. Um, I know a lot of uh, Turkish immigrants who work as uh, busboys and waiters and so forth because my husband's Turkish, who've been laid off. Would they have trouble? Could they access the solidarity fund? Because they're not Spanish speaking? So how would other populations access that or would they go to CSA? I feel like there's some questions that are open to that are that I don't have answered at this point. So those are my comments on what's been laid out. Thank you.

[06:03:27] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Council member Mattachek.

[06:03:30] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. Yeah, I think I need more information. on the basic income. Um. Yeah, if you have a pilot. Um, what happens at the end of that pilot? Is this something that we're envisioning the city? Burned ongoing, or as council member Hicks was saying, a foundation? Um, I guess I worry about doing a pilot and then really not having the funds to continue it when folks have potentially, you know, come to rely on it. And so I really want to understand what that whole program would look like. And I also wonder. Um, You know, the state now has um, a lot of funding for rent relief. And that if a landlord accepts 80%, 20% is forgiven. And I'm kind of wondering how this that factors into all of this, both in the programs that CSA is running, as well as, well, in what staff originally proposed and then potentially through the solidarity fund. And how would that be factored in? I kind of feel like, I would like this, maybe the city to help educate folks about that program, because if we could use, um, other money to help pay the rent, then we could use the money that staff originally proposed for rent relief, for people who might not be eligible for this state program, it's my understanding that that goes up to 80% of AMI, and that 80 to 120 is kind of a gap. Um, And then, um, You know, how how do we? So what council member Hicks was saying, how do these all kind of fit together? Um, because I, I kind of want to make sure we're optimizing what we're doing, and um, not overlapping, so to speak, and that we're taking advantage of resources that are available from other, you know, sources. um so that we can maximize the impact. Um, I'd also like to understand more about the solidarity fun. Unfortunately, I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish. And, and, um, I have not had the opportunity to have a meeting with them yet. We are trying to find a date. So I don't really know much about it. You know, I'd like to know, um, how the folks are identified, who might receive help, and what is the, the, um, help being provided for, is it, rent, food. something else. Um, you know, what sort of, um, tracking or, you know, we get a lot of metrics from CSA. Would we have any from the solidarity fund to understand the impact of the resources? Um, I appreciate the suggestion for more resources for our small businesses. Uh, given that um, 135 would be quickly absorbed. I think it is important to add more there. And I actually support even more going to our small businesses. Um, So in some ways, I feel like I have more questions than I have answers. Thanks.

[06:07:19] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Vicemail on this.

[06:07:23] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, there. a lot of good questions and reasonable concerns, and I'll do my best to speak to as many as I can remember. Um, so, uh, regarding the, the utility of, the solidarity fund. It's pretty similar to the concept that I think will also be addressed with CSA direct financial assistance. Um, both are basically one time payments to families in need. Uh, and CSA and the solidarity funds may have different parameters for their programs. I don't know what the maximum grants or checks from CSA would be, I think we heard from the solidarity fund, that it's a $1000 that they provide to the households that are selected for assistance. Um, it's, they, they both have utility and stabilizing families who have some immediate financial impact or who have to pay off debt right now. Um, and I characterize those, they're both important. It's, it's different from universal basic income. In that UBI is more a poverty alleviation tool, right? So a family might be, you know, just barely scraping by the, you know, multiple jobs and that kind of thing. And what UBI can do is buy folks some space and time to complete, you know, a certification program or a, uh, you know, uh, uh, maybe get enough credits at a community college to get a degree or something like that, but it gives people some time and space, uh, to, to get out of poverty, something that direct financial assistance will never be able to do as important as that is. Uh, the other the other advantage of shifting to direct financial assistance is it empowers the household to decide how to use that funding. Rent relief is great. But you can only be used for one thing. That's getting out of rent debt. But if you've got credit card debt or uh, I think we have examples of folks, um, uh, borrowing money from friends and families, they, they want to stay on top of their rent. But now they've incurred different debt that rent relief can't assist with. So that's, that's where I'm thinking direct financial assistance can be especially valuable as the eviction moratorium expires. I think there's going to be a lot of need for some quick assistance. Um, and uh, direct finance, financial assistance has the advantage of, of being able to go directly to the household where with rent relief, you have to, you know, work with uh, the landlord. Not that landlords are bad, but it just takes some time. You have to contact them. They have to be willing to accept the payment. Um, I think, you know, Tom and CSA have done a great job, but they've also been very honest about how logistically, it's just a little bit more challenging than direct financial assistance. Um, and so, so having 3 different programs, I think, allows for, uh, access to different communities, different program parameters that address different kinds of need. Um, you know, and some space to better understand, you know, how we can engage certain communities and how we can meet those kinds of need. Uh, I think there was a great question about what happens at the end of the pilot. Um, I'm thinking that if the pilot is successful, we've got uh, the 2nd Trancha funding from the federal government that we could choose to supplement any of these programs or all, or if we find we don't have that kind of immediate financial in need, we can transition to some of the things that staff was looking at for, you know, capital improvements and that kind of thing. But we do have another, roughly $7000000 that, um, we'll have access to next year, uh, which I think can help build on the work that we're doing right now. Um, so I think I, I, I think I'll stop there. I think there were some other questions, but I can't remember what they were offhand. Maybe some of my Robbic cogary numbers, thank you.

[06:11:28] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So, um, I, I thought I'd just maybe share a couple things that I heard from the, the public comment from our, from our 2 speakers in Spanish. So, you know, the 2 women are, um, 2 of the leaders in the group. I think they're about 8 women, um, from the Latino community, um, and they the Mountain View Solidarity Fund, um, has been around for over 20 years. And so some of the things they were talking about was how the, um, you know, the Latino community has been the most affected by the pandemic, both in terms of the values, but in terms of also the, their families and the workforce. Um, and so they've been able to raise uh, $50,000 and been able to redistribute to that to over 40 families. And then they're also raising another $50 a $1000. Um, and so, um, I think we got a letter too from the Los Altos Community Foundation. So the Los Angeles Community Foundation is the fiscal agent for the Mountain View Solidarity Fund. So it's just a little bit about kind of what they were talking about. And, um, you know, one of them was mentioning that they're a graduate of the 2018 class of the Spanish Language Academy. Um, and, you know, kind of their involvement in the community. I know some of them, um, were part of a group that um, did a pop-up vaccine site for the Latino community signing up over 300 people to get their vaccines. Um, so, um, that was part of the history that they were sharing and just kind of wanting to find ways to be able to, um, kind of redistribute funds back into the community of those who are hardest hit. So hopefully that helps. Council member Abi Koga.

[06:13:18] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, if canceling our show alter would like to go. I don't think we've heard from hers. Happy to...

[06:13:25] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay. Yeah, yeah, there were a couple things I wanted to say. Recently, I read a book for a book club called Good Economics for Hard Times. It's by 2 MIT Professors, Banerji and Duflo. Not terribly light reading, but not horrible. Anyway, they have a big section on UBI. And how, um, it's effectiveness compared to more traditional assistance programs. And I really found it quite convincing and fascinating. So I would just, you know, I'll send... I'll send this out to everybody that people might want to read this book. For any economics book, it's well written. Um, But I, I'm, I um, I like these ideas, but I'm a little, um, I'm a little, uh, uncomfortable with the magnitude of the contributions that we're giving, um, or we're talking about giving until we have a little bit more information. For instance, the UBI. Who would administer that? Um, it seemed like in the conversations we were having. The, the, the solidarity fund was saying, well, we would like money, that we can, um, you know, we can just give out in the manner that we've been giving them out or we could do a UBI. So, is this... Would this be the both of these be through the Mountain View Solitary Foundation or would be it be a 2nd entity of the of the Los Altos community foundation that would do it or would we administer it? I mean, it seems like there are a lot of questions about the logistics that are really pertinent, that we would want, uh, before we made a final, uh, decision on that. So tonight, well, that's my other question. So tonight, we're giving direction to staff to come back to us with, um, sort of logistics about how we would handle these things. Is that correct? I see, I see thumbs up and nodding heads.

[06:15:31] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: There I may. So we have about one month between now and bringing back the budget report. So realistically, I'm not quite sure that staff would be able to unpack how every program would work. Um, we actually will publish the report and it has to be in the system within 3 weeks. So we will find out probably by May 11th from the Treasury Department because that's exactly 60 days from when the ARP was passed. May 11th, what the very specific allowable uses are. And so we'll be able to at least take a deep dive into that with some of the questions that council members have raised. But as far as how an actual program would work. I know that UBI is very extensive, it often involves a lottery system, data, as has been mentioned, if we're looking at a match. I don't realistically think that the staff would have the answers on how the program would exactly work, but what we would be bringing back is your direction for you to, you know, allocate the funding where you've set your priorities. Staff will bring it back with all of the ways that we can fund it. And then we'll still need to work on what a program might look like. And we would still need to bring that back to council.

[06:16:52] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay, then 2 more things I would like to mention. One, I'm really glad to see the money in there to pay for utility bills. Um, and, you know, in work that I do through Waternow Alliance. I hear from other people around the country that, you know, people getting their water cut off or their power cut off during COVID has been a huge issue. And that hasn't happened here because we basically, you know, just said we're not going to do it. But now, you know, we're backfilling here to pay, um, the cost of what, you know, what that has cost us. And I think that that is a really important thing to do because as well as people needing shelter, which of course they do with rent relief, they also need water and power. So, you know, I'm really glad that that's there. And I just wanted to bring that up because we had mentioned it yet. And then the other thing I wanted to talk about is the language, uh, talking about documented and undocumented people. Those are federal terms. In Mountain View, we don't ask anybody whether they're documented or undocumented. Everything we do for the city, we do for residents. And, um, you know, that's, it's just, do you live here or not? That's that's all, you know, that's how we distinguish. So that's, Personally, I think that's the way it should be done and that's how I want to go forward. So I would prefer that as we move forward, we talk about helping residents that need help. And, um, they're, um, you know, their status, uh, uh, immigration status is none of our business. And, um, So I just really feel important. You know, that was one of the things when Trump came into power that got to be so frightening for people. And that we just don't do that. And I'm really proud that we don't do that. I think that's great. But let's continue. We help residents who need help. Not, um, and that's, and that's how we describe it. Well, that's how I like, that's how I'm going to describe it. And I hope you'll join me. Thank you.

[06:19:00] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, Counselor Michelle Walter. And you know, your comments make me think of the visioning statement where we taught where we changed it to be a welcoming, right? A welcoming and vibrant place. And I think that's that it hearkens back to that what we talked about. 4 hours ago maybe. Okay, so, um, Council member Libra and then Council member.

[06:19:21] Councilmember Sally Lieber: So I'm pleased to see kind of a diversity of approaches in what's been put forward here. And also recognition of um, the complications of people's lives in, and shaping our approaches around their lives rather than expecting people to shape their lives around our approaches. And I think it's, it's really, really important because we have a lot of residents who have had to tap out their credit cards, who've had to go to relatives, uh, to get money and then those relatives are short on money. And, and so I think that this is a very good, um, basket of of approaches. And we're also just very lucky to have the the women and the men of the Solidarity Fund. Because going through those names, they're the same folks who show up to do the work on everything in the community. You know, you see those same names over and over and over again. And, um, I think that we're just very lucky to have their guidance and, um, to have the ability to pursue these, these kind of uh, approaches. I think it's really going to help people in their lives. And, um, You know, so many of the people who are hurting right now have children. And that that stress that people feel and that they try to shield their children from. Uh, it does bleed through and it does impact all the different aspects of their lives and, um, if we can do anything to help relieve that, then I, I think it's just a very, very good thing to do. So I'm thankful to see this approach.

[06:21:18] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Castle magic.

[06:21:21] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. My new question is, um, Do we have to allocate, um, this money at the same time we finalize the budget.

[06:21:41] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Counselor Metachek.

[06:21:42] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So no, technically, you do not, but the budget will come on the 8th. It will be finally adopted on the 22nd and then you take a summer recess until August. Um, So no, technically you would not have to allocate it with the budget, but, um, The thought was that we would take the direction that you all give tonight and incorporate that as part of the recommended budget, and then staff would then have to work on the programs, um, and bring back to how things would actually work at least with the UBI program. Since that would be something brand new, and then obviously we need to look into the solidarity fund and how that would all work as well.

[06:22:29] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Because I'm thinking there's some things here that I'm guessing many of us would feel comfortable with saying, okay, but for some there might be, um, we want just a little bit more information. Um, even though we are saying, yes, you know, odds aren't, we're going to do this, but um, we might want a little bit more information. So I was just kind of wondering. Um, I'm actually hoping that at some point we can talk about, um, if any of these funds, not necessarily in the 1st launch, but the 2nd launch um, could go toward affordable housing. Um, there's always a need. We're always looking for funding for that I'd love to have that conversation for the 2nd launch. Um, and, um, I appreciate council member, show Walter's comments. about residence. Um, I think the only time we do talk about, um, documentary undocumented, um, is when we're asking organizations, If they ask, if someone is documented or undocumented. And if they say they do, it's like, well, then, you know, that's that's not for us. So, um, I appreciate that CSA doesn't ask, and the other organizations that we support don't ask. It's not, it's not important, as you said, these are residents, and they need help. So, Thanks.

[06:23:51] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. So, um, Let's see, we had, we had had a motion, and then had a second. A motion from the vice mayor with his proposal, a 2nd by a council member Abe Koga. Um, Is there more discussion? Is there more that that staff needs from council at this point or?

[06:24:16] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, Mayor. We would just need your, um, go ahead with the recommendations and the motion, I believe. Um, that was made by the vice mayor.

[06:24:27] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Great. All right. Well, um, I don't have too much more to add. Um, you know, I think it's all been said and it's almost one AM, so I want to be sensitive to time. So I'm hoping when this comes around on the 8th, it won't be such a late hour so I can have a little bit more time to say it, but I think, you know, when it comes to universal basic income, I've also heard it called, you know, AGI, which is the guaranteed income, you know, adjusted guaranteed income. I think there's many different names for it. I think anyway, the cookie crumbles. You know, it just makes sense to be able to, like, counselor Shalter said, financially, economically, it just makes more sense to, um, you know, provide assistance to residents. Um, And so I'm interested in the in the pilot program, whatever the iteration of that pilot program looks like. Um, and comfortable with the different changes, um, that the vice mayor and, um, council member, uh, Abbe Koga put forward in terms of what we can explore. I think that, you know, part of what the American rescue plant funds are supposed to be, are for, you know, COVID relief are supposed to be for how we navigate our community through the pandemic. And I see all of these items as rising to the top. I think, you know, our community was already suffering from a housing crisis and, um, you know, many different other crises. And then we had the pandemic layered on top of that, which has been prolonged. So, um, you know, really seeing this as, um, an opportunity to help all of our residents, as was discussed. So, I think we can turn it over to our city clerk, um, to do a roll call book.

[06:26:17] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Nice mayor Ramirez.

[06:26:20] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[06:26:21] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Abi Coca?

[06:26:23] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I,

[06:26:24] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Counselor Hicks?

[06:26:26] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[06:26:27] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Liebert.

[06:26:28] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Why?

[06:26:29] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Counselor Momanachek?

[06:26:31] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[06:26:32] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member shall alter?

[06:26:33] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes.

[06:26:34] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: And can make?

[06:26:36] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes,

[06:26:37] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: motion case.

[06:26:38] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. All right, so this that concludes item 8.one. so we can move on to item nine, which is our council staff and committee reports. Um, as council, um, decides if they have anything to report, I'll just like to announce that the city is accepting applications for our downtown committee that has openings for a downtown property owner and or a representative of a downtown business. The performing arts committee and the senior advisory committee also have openings. You're invited to apply on our website, which is Mountain View. GOV. Any council members have anything for item 9 to report? Okay, seeing then, I'll move to item 10, which is our closed session report. City attorney took that, do you have this closed session report?

[06:27:29] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Yes, I do have one report tonight. Earlier this evening. The council met on a closed session. Taiibi, Tomasebi, claim number 21 dash 5 and council voted unanimously to authorize the city attorney to reject the claim.

[06:27:47] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you very much. And I will move on to item 11, which is our adjournment. Thank you so much for joining us. Our next city council meeting will be May 11th, 2021. Until then, stay healthy, mass up, and our meeting is adjourned at 1259 AM. Thanks everyone. Have a good morning. Bye.

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