September 28, 2021 Joint Meeting of Mountain View City Council and Shoreline Regional Park Community

Video

Transcript

[00:00:01] Mayor Ellen Kamei: 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 by visiting mountain view.gov slash cc underscore speakers. To enter the Zoom meeting or by phone by dialing 669-9009128 and entering webinar ID 920-10243107. Any emails received by 430 p.m. today were received directly by the city council. City attorney Chokra will make remarks, and then the city council welcomes public comment on the item listed for closed session. City Attorney Chopra?

[00:01:00] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Thank you, mayor. The city council will meet in one item in closed session, item 2.one, public employee performance evaluation, California government code, section 54957B1, title, council appointee, city manager, and conference with labor negotiators, California Government Code, section 54957.6A, Agency Designated Representative, Vice Mayor Ramirez, unrepresented employees, city manager, city attorney, and city clerk, and public employee appointment, California Government Code Section 54957B1, title of position, city attorney. That concludes the announcement, and you may ask for public comment now, mayor.

[00:01:47] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on the closed session item listed on tonight's agenda? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom, or press star 9 on your phone. And we'll display a 2 minute timer. Right. I am not seeing any raised hands. City Quick Laser, are you seeing any? Okay, all right. So I will close, um, public comment and move on to item two, which is our closed session. The council will now recess to closed session and will return to this meeting at 6.30 p.m. for the regular session. All right, everyone, thank you. See, see the public at 630.

[00:07:10] (archive recording) Mayor Ellen Kamei: This meeting will be conducted in accordance with the state of California, executive order N dash 29-20. Dated March 17, 2020, and the state of California executive order, N dash 08 dash 21, dated June 11, 2021. 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 by visiting mountain view.gov slash cc underscore speakers. To enter the zoom meeting or by phone by dialing 669-9009128 and entering webinar ID 92010243107. Any emails received by 430 p.m. today were received directly by the city council. Spanish translation services are available for this meeting. We will now hear from our interpreter.

[02:11:15] Unknown Speaker: Buenas noches a todos, abra, interpretación al español, para al resto de este a presentación, si es que o cupa por favor va alicono al inferior de supantaya, y escoja, y escoja, el idio Español. Gracias.

[02:11:35] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. And now please join me in the pledge of allegiance.

[02:11:42] Multiple Speakers: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[02:11:58] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. All right, so now I'd like to move on to item two, which is roll call. The city clerk will take attendance by roll call.

[02:12:07] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Abby Hookup,

[02:12:09] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: here,

[02:12:09] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Hicks?

[02:12:11] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here.

[02:12:11] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Lieber.

[02:12:12] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Here,

[02:12:13] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: council member Mattachek.

[02:12:15] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Here.

[02:12:16] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member show Walter?

[02:12:17] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Here.

[02:12:18] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Vice Mayor Ramirez?

[02:12:20] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[02:12:21] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Mayor Kamei?

[02:12:22] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Here.

[02:12:23] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Thank you.

[02:12:24] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So we'll move on to item three, which is presentations. We will now take public comment for this presentation item. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on the presentation listed on the agenda. If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom, or press star 9 on your phone. I will display a 2 minute timer. Right. I am not seeing any hands for public comment. Um, um, presentation, so that means we can move on to item 3.one, which is our National Hispanic Heritage month proclamation. Maria Maroquin, executive director of the Day Worker Center of Mountain View, joins us this evening to accept the proclamation. So hopefully, Maria can come over. Perfect. Hi Maria, are you there?

[02:13:25] Maria Maroquin: Yeah, I'm here, so can you hear me?

[02:13:27] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes, we can we can hear you.

[02:13:30] Maria Maroquin: Well, I just want to express my really, really deep gratitude for this, uh, recognition just to honor the contributions of, uh, many people who come to this country, uh, just to bring the best of themselves, and try to uh, contribute to the betterment of the, the world. So, I'm very aware of the responsibilities that people like came before, brought to our community, and also, I'm aware of fully committee, to lift a good legacy, to the people who will come after us. So, thank you so much, uh, their mayor, uh, honorable consume members, too, for this recognition, and for allowing me to be the recipients of this uh, great owner. I just want to take this opportunity also to invite you to celebrate our 25th anniversary, to the day worker center as organization that really, uh, embarrass the best of the community and, uh, prominently, uh, Hispani Latino community. So I hope you can join us this Sunday, uh, October 3rd from one to 5 to the Civic Plaza, uh, here in our Socalo, the downtown Mountain View. Thank you again, and I hope to see you all there.

[02:15:09] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, Maria. So I'm just gonna read, um, the proclamation, which states, whereas in 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson 1st introduced Hispanic Heritage week, to recognize and celebrate the independence of our neighbors in Central America and Mexico. And whereas 20 years later, President Ronald Reagan expanded the recognition period from one week to one month. Beginning September 15th through October 15th. And whereas the Hispanic and Latino communities in Mountain View, who call our city home and help Mountain View thrive, represent a diverse group with routes throughout Latin America and beyond. And many Latino residents also trace their heritage to the original indigenous communities of Latin America and Africa. Whereas Hispanic and Latino residents have and continue to contribute to the prosperity and culture in Mountain View. The state of California and our nation. And whereas in recognizing and celebrating the achievements of our Hispanic and Latino community, we honor them and recognize all they have helped build in our state and city. They are teachers and business owners, scientists and soldiers, farm workers and 1st responders, artists and activists, and colleagues and friends. Whereas the Hispanic and Latino communities make incalculable contributions to our neighborhoods and community in every sector of the economy. And we are a greater and more vibrant city because of them. Now, therefore, I, Alan Kamemayer of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, do hereby proclaim September 15th through October 15th, to be National Hispanic Heritage Medal. So we'll just do a little virtual. Sting clap for that. And then, um, Maria, thank you for your remarks earlier, and I also wanted to share, maybe you want to share a little bit. But in our city hall rotunda, there also is a display from the day workers center. Maybe you want to share a little bit about your display.

[02:17:16] Maria Maroquin: Oh, yeah, thank you, Mayor. Definitely. This is, um, travel on stitches. This is an exhibit of the 8 wheels that was made from the day laborers, and is a remarkably, um, project that was made, of course, with emphasizing the interchange of experiences. And that happened. Meantime, and they was learning English. So that was something really unique and beautiful. And as all of you know, uh, people goes to the center looking for work. And they shared that meantime, they were sewing these quills. They totally forget what they was waiting for work, and sometimes when we called them, because the job was waiting, they really, really don't want to go to work, because they was so amazed, just sharing and feeling these deep connections with the roots, and also with the coworkers. So, um, there is also some pictures about the people who made it. And, um, it's also very interesting that typically men are not good with soin. And as you know, the workers, great majority of them are men. Well, and nevertheless, they was really eager to contribute with the talents, and they learned many things on how to express other feelings. So I really invite you to, uh, visit and thank you so much for allowing me to, uh, explain this mayor, because I am so full of emotion, and I forget about this important part of our celebration. Thank you so much.

[02:19:11] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Of course. Great. Thank you. And would any member of council like to say a few words? Right, I am not seeing any hands. Thank you so much, Maria. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

[02:19:27] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you again. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Well, 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 discussion. The reading of the full text of resolutions and ordinances will be waived unless a council member requests otherwise. As a reminder, the purpose of the consent calendars for the council to efficiently and quickly consider a high volume of routine or administrative business items with one motion. Although council members may remove items, It is generally not intended for the council to have a lengthy, substantive discussion on consent calendar items. Would any member of the council like to pull an item? Council member magic?

[02:20:13] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Um, I would like to um, pull item 4.5 for discussion. And I also want to register a no vote on 4.2 at this time. Thank you. But I don't need to pull 4.2.

[02:20:32] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. So that is a no vote on 4.2 and a pull for 4.5. Any other council members like to pull an item? All right. I... Well, now, to get public comment, Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on any item on the consent calendar? If so, please click the raise, hand button, and zoom, or press star 9 on your phone, and we will display a 2 minute timer. Right. They do see a hand. I'm just waiting on the timer. Hi, Mr. England, hold on just a second. I think we're waiting on the timer unless...

[02:21:30] Mr. England: I'm holding. finish my ice cream meanwhile.

[02:21:34] Mayor Ellen Kamei: We're all jealous. So we'll do... Great. All right, Mr. England, it's all you.

[02:21:48] Mr. England: Okay, great, thank you. Uh, yeah, on um, 4.5, which is the work plans, I believe. I just wanted to ask for a minor change. This is something I brought up at the PCAB meeting, so this won't be new for them. Um, But one of their work plan items is explore alternative responses to persons experiencing mental health crisis. I'd like to request a minor tweak there. which expands that item just slightly to explore existing and alternative responses to persons experiencing mental health crisis. I got a pretty much a positive response from the members of the board at the time, but it was so recent that it didn't make it into the work plans that you see in your packet. Okay, thank you.

[02:22:37] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Sure. Great. All right. So I think that concludes, um, public comment. I don't see any other hands raised. So I'll bring it back to the, bring it back to council for action, and note that a motion to approve the consent calendar should include reading the titles of the ordinance is attached to item 4.2 and the resolutions attached to item 4.3 and 4.4.4. Vice mayor Ramirez.

[02:23:15] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I was really hoping not to have to do this, but okay. I'll go ahead and move the balance of the consent calendar, including 4.2 adopt an ordinance of the city of Mountain View enacting mobile home rent stabilization, and adopt an urgency ordinance of the city of Mountain View protecting mobile home residents from eviction until the ordinance enacting mobile home rent stabilization becomes effective. 4.3, adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, amending exhibit A to city council policy A dash 10, authorization to execute city contracts and agreements and increase certain limited appropriations. And 4.4 adopt a resolution of the city council, city of Mountain View, making findings pursuant to AV 361 to continue virtual public meetings for the city council and city boards, commissions, and committees during the COVID-19 state of emergency.

[02:24:10] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you, Vice Mayor, for taking on that reading. Council member Hicks.

[02:24:14] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I 2nd.

[02:24:15] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. That's the real heavy lift by Vicer. All right, so we have a motion by the vice mayor 2nded by council member Hicks. We'll do a roll call vote by the city clerk.

[02:24:27] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Nice to meet you Ramirez.

[02:24:29] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[02:24:30] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Hicks?

[02:24:31] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[02:24:32] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Abbe Koga?

[02:24:34] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I.

[02:24:34] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Lieber?

[02:24:36] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Hi.

[02:24:37] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Mattachek?

[02:24:39] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[02:24:40] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Uh, Council member Shelter?

[02:24:42] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes,

[02:24:43] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: and Mayor Kmei.

[02:24:44] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[02:24:45] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Motion case?

[02:24:46] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. And that, um, included, um, customer Mattachek's no vote earned 4.2. So we'll move back to the item that was pulled, which was 4.5 Council member Mattachek.

[02:24:57] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So, um, You know, I really appreciate all the work that our advisory bodies do. Um, some of them have some ambitious work plans. Um, and I want to be very sensitive to the fact that, you know, really, um, the work plans involve quite a bit of staff support for most of the items. Um, so in looking at these, um, I was a little bit concerned about, um, the work plan for the human relations commission. And, um, Actually, I have, if there's someone who could provide clarification. I actually realize I have another question about the proposed work plan. And um, on page 12, item B. When it says respond to referrals or inquiries. Does that mean, um, if you already have done the work and you're just responding, saying, you know, this is what we found out or this is what we know or something as opposed to, you're taking on another project? If that could be clarified for me?

[02:26:04] Audrey Seymour Ramberg: Um, good evening, council member, Mattercheck, this is Audrey Seymour Ramberg, assistant city manager, chief operating officer, and staff liaison along with Christina Gilmore to the Human Relations Commission. And that item is to allow for referrals that may come from the council or for example, the um, a council subcommittee like the Race Equity and Inclusion subcommittee. Um, to ask the HRC to take on, um, a new work plan item. And the scope of that could be something minor or major, depending on what was being asked. For example, the REI committee at its last meeting when it was discussing, uh, uh, Asian Pacific Islander, um, sentiment in the community and discrimination, did ask that the HRC assist in promoting bystander training. So that's an example of something that, um, was referred to the commission.

[02:27:05] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, so this also says, um, referrals from other city advisory bodies. Um, which I think, from my perspective, is different than a council committee.

[02:27:17] Audrey Seymour Ramberg: Um, that's correct. I think that's been a long-standing item in the work plan. I don't believe that that's new. And in my experience in the last 5 years, there have been none of those. Um, but there are sometimes items of mutual interest where, um, a member of a commission may come to the HRC to present on something or, um, vice versa, an HRC member may go to another commission.

[02:27:43] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay. Um, thank you. And let's see. Um, also, on page 13, item one. Um, conduct homeless storytelling. Um, and then it talks about potentially having this, um, culminating in a civility round table. And could you tell me a little bit more about, um, the homeless storytelling and like, um, how that would be used or shared?

[02:28:15] Audrey Seymour Ramberg: Certainly. Um, in the current or the previous fiscal year work plan, there was an item around, um, safe parking to assist with the identification of locations for safe parking. Um, and that work was not, did not result in additional locations, but it did transition into the other part of that task, which was to, you know, assist with raising awareness within the community about the needs of, of, of folks who are using safe parking in our city. And so, there were, uh, that subcommittee, um, did a number of interviews of, uh, residents in the safe parking programs and wrote, um, short vignettes about the, the stories that these folks, um, had to tell about their families and their work and, um, how they viewed, um, the, um, safe parking, um, as their, their current, um, housing. And those are going to be put on the website and can otherwise be used by staff as staff sees fit in communicating about our strategies to address unstable housing, um, by the city. Um, I think the HRC's intent with this new item for the, the current fiscal year is to, um, uh, expand that beyond folks who are living in safe parking to other types of folks who are unstably housed, um, and possibly to have those folks speaking live about their experience through some kind of CRT, again, to provide some awareness within the community, um, about that population.

[02:30:06] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, great. Thank you. Um, so I guess, you know, in looking at this, and given it's the city manager's office that we know, um, has a lot of work on their plate. Um, I guess I would say that, um, I'd like to say that we have 2 civility round tables. Um, especially given the fact that they might be virtual. Um, since we don't really know what's gonna happen. Um, and as well as, um, the bystander training. I personally think the bystander training is really important. I'm glad to see it on the work plan. Um, but I guess I'd like to say we do 2 civility round tables instead of, um, potentially three.

[02:30:56] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Council member met a checker, is that? Question to staff. I see colleagues raising their hand or is that an item for discussion?

[02:31:04] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I think it's an item for discussion among the council members.

[02:31:07] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Well, then I'm gonna turn it over to those who have their hands raised, if you don't mind.

[02:31:10] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Perfect.

[02:31:11] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Vice Mayor Ramirez.

[02:31:14] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor, and I agree with council member Metachek that many of our advisory bodies are very ambitious, as is the council, and I think the community at large. Um, I have a slightly different perspective, though. Um, I, I feel like, um, I, there are, There are a couple of things that, I think we might want to be cognizant of as, as we continue this work. The 1st 2 proposals, I think, are particularly important, and I think the 3rd one has a lot of utility as well. Um, in helping us meet. This is kind of the sleeper issue that I'm really hoping we talked about pretty soon, but the, under some of, uh, recent state laws, the housing element process is much more robust than it ever has been. Uh, and there are some very, uh, uh, stringent requirements about, um, documenting and and showing that we're making a good faith effort, uh, to reach out to communities that historically haven't been involved, uh, in the development of the housing element. I think, um, what, what I would be comfortable saying is prioritizing the 1st 2 so that would be the, the homeless storytelling and the color of law discussion. Um, above the 3rd one, the racial reconciliation item, uh, unless the racial reconciliation discussion includes a pretty strong nexus to housing, in which case I think that also conserve, as a, as a means to help the city demonstrate that we've made a good faith effort to reach out to historically underrepresented communities, uh, in the, in the housing and development process. So, I, I would like to see the 3 retained because I think it, it actually helps us achieve some other goals that we, hopefully we'll talk about very soon. expecting the housing element process to be much more challenging than it ever has been. Um, but I do think you've made a good point, um, in work, ongoing work item B, um, I, I would agree. I don't think it's appropriate for other advisory bodies to make referrals to the HRC, so clarifying that I think it's really the intent of the council, that we allow, um, you know, council, the full council and then council subcommittees to make referrals and remove the reference to non-council, um, bodies. Um, And then, um, one other thing completely unrelated to this, uh, I, I, one of the things that I noticed was missing in the PCAB work plan was, uh, any reference to the MVPD budget, and I don't think we need to spend a great deal of time on this, but because, because it comes up like, uh, clockwork every year. I do think, um, a presentation on what's in the, the PD budget would be appropriate. And I don't expect any work on that other than just, uh, an effort to help educate the peace app and the community. Um, ideally, before we start doing the budget work, so that way people could come in with an understanding of how it works, um, before they come to the council and make, um, many requests. Um, but all, I won't request that we include it unless there's, uh, counts of support for that idea. So that's my my input. Thank you.

[02:34:41] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, thank you. Um, before, um, we go on to council member Leaper, did staff want to respond to some of the items that were raised by the vice mayor?

[02:34:52] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour Ramberg: Um, excuse me, thank you, America. If I can address, um, just staff's feedback on the HRC work plan. So in terms of just timing between now, fall of 2021 and spring of 2022, to do 3 civility round tables in that time frame is extremely ambitious, particularly given the workload in the city manager's office right now. So I do think that, um, staff, although, of course, uh, we will do three, if, uh, that is what counsel wants to do, So... It is preferred to do 2 round tables. So I just wanted to provide that context just with the workload perspective.

[02:35:40] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Appreciate staff's perspective. Council member Liever.

[02:35:45] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. Um, well, I'm, I'm normally uh, an aggressive pruner in terms of the, the workload and the activities that, that get added, but I do feel that, um, time after time I hear from community members that the civility round tables are some of the most valuable, um, activities that they can access. And, um, I know that in terms of, um, the homelessness, uh, civility roundtable, that, the bulk of, of the work, as I, as I understand it, and I appreciate hearing from staff, the bulk of the work for that, um, has already been done. Um, I do really want to concur with the vice mayor's observation that we get frequent requests, um, for more discussion of the policing budget overall, and so I would like to, um, see us add that item. Um, but, uh, I am comfortable with what has been, um, presented to us. So I would be comfortable in, uh, moving that we approve the council advisory body, uh, work plans for fiscal year 2021 to 22, Um, with the addition of the, um, uh, overall police budget going, um, to the PCAB is an issue.

[02:37:23] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Council member, Shelter.

[02:37:26] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, council member labor, would it be all right to have a friendly amendment to, um, add the, uh, language that, um, uh, Bruce England mentioned? I also queried some of the members of the P SAB and that came up. So I think adding that phrase about, um, exploring existing and alternatives with respect to um, the mental health um, would be, uh, good to add.

[02:37:59] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Certainly, I would like to entertain that. I can't say that I understood the distinction, coming from Mr. England, but I, in the spirit of comedy, I will accept your friendly amendment.

[02:38:11] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Thank you.

[02:38:15] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, so I think that I, just before we go to Council member Mattachech, I just, it sounded like there was a motion on the floor and so I just want to acknowledge it. So it sounded like council member Lieber was, um, moving forward, keeping the 3 stability round tables that are in the HRC work plan for PCAB. We would be, um, adding in, um, the alternatives to, uh, or mental health alternative language, and then we would also have, um, maybe a, I'll call it a police department finance 101 recommendation for PCAP. That's what I heard. Uh, okay, I see a nodding head. Okay. Council member match.

[02:39:01] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. Well, then, I'll make a substitute motion that we, um, modify the language on page 12, um, and item B, and so, um, the HRC would only get referrals from the city council, or from a council, committee. And that, um, the HRC can hold 2 CRTs this fiscal year. And I would leave it up to them to decide which ones, um, they would want to do. And, um, I, I do watch the peace ad meetings, and I agree with Mr. England's comment, um, that when you're looking at alternative health, um, models, looking at the current existing model is also a good idea. So I would add that. And, um, you know, I, I agree with the vice mayor about the, um, police budget, having the piece of look at that. I guess I would say If it's easy for staff to do that. I don't want to have another very large work plan item for staff. Um, so I guess I would say, you know, if it's easy, okay, they could provide that information to the peace app, have a presentation on it. Um, And That's it. Thanks.

[02:40:29] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. All right, so we now have a substitute motion. Which would include change language on page 12, item 2 of the HRC work plan, that referrals would come from a council committee or city council direction. And they would have 2 um, civility round tables or CRTs, uh, this fiscal year. So between now and May. And then there was also, um, an inclusion of for Pisa, looking at current existing models and for Pisa to look at the police budget as, um, I guess, staff capacity allows. That's what I'm hearing for the substitute motion. Okay, council member Hicks.

[02:41:20] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So between now and May seems fairly soon, so I would be willing to 2nd this, um, substitute motion because I feel that next year they'll be doing the, the, what would be the 3rd round table this year.

[02:41:37] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, so, uh, council member Mattachek substitute motion was, um, 2nded by council member Hicks. All right. City Attorney Chopra.

[02:41:48] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: Just a quick note, since there were substantive revisions to this item, I would just recommend asking for public comment if there is any on those 4 revised topics.

[02:42:04] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Um, well, let me just make sure that there's no more council discussion on the item first. Okay. Is there any other council discussion? Okay. Um, city attorneys? Oh okay. Vice Mayor Ramirez?

[02:42:20] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: I'm sorry, Mary, I'll try and be brief. I, I, I'm really struggling only because I think that the 3 concepts that are described in the work plan and the, the HRC work plan are important and I do think that they have potentially some value in the context of the, uh, the outreach component of the housing element. So I would, I would support it if we could include the 3rd item and just say, if there's time appreciating that there are some staff impacts. Um, But if that's not included, that's fine. I will probably support the underlying motion.

[02:42:56] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. So, to clarify, Vice Mayor, are you asking, is that an amendment request or is are you just, I just want to be clear.

[02:43:11] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Um, I was, I don't want to strong arm anybody. I think if there are the votes to approve the substitute motion, then that's fine. But, um, if, if there aren't, then, that, that, I just want to explain my rationale for, for not supporting this motion unless it is amended.

[02:43:29] Mayor Ellen Kamei: All right, thank you for that clarification. Council member Abby Koga.

[02:43:32] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. Um, I, you know, I think that we just talking at this point about, you know, timing and is that 3rd one. I don't want to, um, I don't want to, like, force or prescribe it or say dictate that it has to be done by June 30th of 2022. So if there's some way to allow for flexibility, or just to say, if it doesn't happen in this fiscal year, it becomes a priority for and remains on the work plan or is on the work plan for the following fiscal year, um, you know, and I guess I'm trying to, trying to make sure that it doesn't go away. Um, that would be preferable, but, um, I, I am mindful of the staff, um, time resources issues. So I would go with the two, but if we can just, you know, be a little bit more flexible and say, let's try to include the 3rd if we can, and if not, make sure it happens in the following fiscal year, that'd be great. Thanks.

[02:44:34] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Counselor, about a check.

[02:44:37] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I am a slightly different take on that. I'm happy to say or to amend the motion to say that, um, the 3rd one is a priority, but I would say, but it needs to have the next fiscal year, but it remains on the work plan for next fiscal year, which really could be a matter of months. Um, it's not like it's years. Thanks.

[02:45:05] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, I'll go with that.

[02:45:07] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. So, it seems like Council member Manachek, amended her own motion, and it was seconded by the seconder. So, um, just to, I guess, recap that, then it would be, an um, an amendment, um, to the HRC work plan, which would include the referrals come from council committees or city council direction, that 2 civility roundtables will happen this fiscal year with a 3rd one, that would happen next fiscal year. That the pizza, um, would look at the police budget S stuff time allows, and that would also include looking at current existing models for mental health services. Did I miss anything? All right. So, city attorney Chopra has advised us to take public comment on this item, given the changes, so I will do so. Um, I'll now turn to public comment, would any, um, member of the public on the line, like to provide comment on this item. If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom, or press star 9 on your, not on your phone, and we'll display a 2 minute timer. Right, I am not seeing any hands raised. So I will bring item 4.5 back to, um, counsel for a roll call vote, city clerk laser.

[02:46:32] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Mattachek.

[02:46:34] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[02:46:35] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Hicks?

[02:46:36] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[02:46:37] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Abbe Koga?

[02:46:39] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I,

[02:46:40] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Lieber?

[02:46:42] Councilmember Sally Lieber: No.

[02:46:44] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member, show welfare.

[02:46:46] Councilmember Pat Showalter: No.

[02:46:48] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mayor Ramirez?

[02:46:50] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[02:46:51] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor May. Motion carries.

[02:46:55] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, great. Thank you. So move on to item five, which are 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. 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 star 9 on your phone, and we will display a 3 minute timer. Right? I see a few hands raised, so we'll ask for the 3 minute timer to appear on the screen. All right, Emily starts his slop.

[02:47:48] Emily Staats Hislop: Hi, can you hear me?

[02:47:50] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[02:47:51] Emily Staats Hislop: Uh, hello, Mayor May, vice mayor Ramirez and council members. I'm a decades long resident of Mountain View, have 2 kids in the Mountain View, Wiscon School District, and have been a panel on the Mountain View mediation program since 2002. Um, and from May 2016 until July of this year, I was employed with the nonprofit Project Sentinel and closely supported the city in administration of its dispute resolution and rent stabilization programs. I want to speak today. I'm no longer with Project Sentinel. I am now with the city of San Jose as a housing policy and planning administrator and managing their Eviction Health Center. I wanted to urge the council to make staffing of the rent stabilization program and all the staff that might support the mobile home ordinance, the utmost priority. I've been with the staff since the very beginning when the CSFRA was passed, when the city was not prepared to implement such a robust law because it was a voter initiative. The people you have, there's only perhaps 4 now. They do the work of, especially in the last year, probably 8 to 10 people, and I am worried about burnout. They were already going above and beyond what would be expected in such a position and how it compares to the rest um, to other cities that have similar rent control problems. You have exemplary staff, that cannot keep doing the work of 10 people. Um, as well as they do. They are the model for the county. I am in meetings with council, I mean, with city government, and county officials and other agencies, and time and time again, Mountain View has been, uh, the, the leader in how to hold pop-up clinics to do outreach, education, to help reach our community and effectively implement these laws and help people understand them. So I just want to take this opportunity as a Mountain View resident and voter to, to, to plead that staffing, they've gone with open recs for lots of years, they, that their, their staffing has never seemed to have been a priority and they're going to need it more than ever with the mobile home ordinance. Thank you.

[02:50:06] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Ronit Bryant.

[02:50:16] Ronit Bryant: I hope I'm unmuted.

[02:50:17] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[02:50:18] Ronit Bryant: Good. Good evening, council. I'm a former colleague of yours. This year I serve as president of the board of CSA or community safety net. I've come before you to express deep concern about the ending of the state's eviction moratorium this week and its effect on CSA's clients, the most vulnerable members of our community. Throughout the pandemic, the city of Mountain View has been an example to all in support for its residents. Thank you. You helped thousands of Mountain View residents survive the crisis and stay housed and safe. CSA was your partner in this effort, and we are proud of our work together. Many landlords also work hard to help themselves and their renters, whether the crisis. Truly a community working together. But now that the state of action moratorium is ending, I fear that many of our residents would be pushed back into crisis. Financial aid is on the way, but we have found that it is slow to reach those who need it most, and sadly, it may not arrive in time. Legal resources and legal information are being offered and will help, but the need is greater than the available resources. It's easy to imagine a scenario where agencies offer help and even the courts are swamped and vulnerable people destabilized. I believe, I believe, truly that this is an issue of concern to you. I urge you to continue your work, to identify all possible ways within the city's power, to offer help and support for our most vulnerable residents, and thank you for the work that you do. Thank you.

[02:51:57] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Alex Brown?

[02:52:00] Alex Brown: Hey, I just wanted to agree with Emily and say that San Jose is lucky to have her, and she'll be Mr. Project Sentinel. Thanks.

[02:52:08] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. All right, that concludes public comment, so we can bring it back to council. We'll move on to item six, which is a study session. Our 1st item is 6.one, guaranteed basic income pilot. The purpose of this study session is to receive council input on staff recommendations for the design of a guaranteed basic income pilot program. After the staff presentation, the council will answer the following questions in turn. Question one, does counsel agree with the staff recommendations for goals, design, and anticipated outcomes for the GBI pilot program. And question two. Does council agree with the staff recommendation to fund the benefits, conservation fund, and the research end of design evaluation component, or does council have alternative direction? Assistant to the city manager, Kimberly Thomas, economic vitality manager, John Lang, and management fellow, Hersha, Ramchandani will present the memo. And I think Ms. Thomas will begin.

[02:53:18] Kimberly Thomas: Thank you and good evening, Marin City Council member, as noted, Kimberly Thomas, assistant to the city manager presenting along with John Lang, an economic vitality manager, Harsha Ramshandani, our management fellow, is also a part of our team and will be available for questions tonight. As the mayor noted a moment ago, the purpose of the study session tonight is to provide feedback on the recommendations for the design of a guaranteed basic income pilot shown on screen here are the areas for the presentation tonight. The city, as noted in some of the public comments this evening, has been at the forefront regionally with its COVID 19 response, including providing robust rent relief to Mountain View renters, grants, and micro loans to small business owners, safe parking, and many additional programs for the most underserved residents of our community. The council approved another $3 million for a series of direct cash initiatives as part of the fiscal year budget for 2122. That's one million for the GBI pilot, one million for CSA, for flexible uses, and one million for the Mountain View solidarity fund that will be discussed later this evening. These three associated, but quite distinct initiatives align with the city councils recently adopted strategic roadmap and the community for all strategy. In addition to the appropriation of funding, The city council also recently adopted in May, a resolution committing support for the principles of a basic income program, and participation in the mayor's for a guaranteed income initiative or MGI. Each of these initiatives is focused on addressing the needs of the most disadvantaged in our community. This aligns with more than 4 years of focused work on the community for all, where the city has undertaken many programs, policies, and actions. These programs, shown on screen, support and invest in the most vulnerable in our community, and help serve and promote Mountain View's socio economic and cultural diversity. The figure above, as shown on screen, shows the city's efforts, ranging, from the long standing programs, like the multilingual engagement program, to the more recent COVID 19 initiatives, relief initiatives. In recent years, basic income has moved from a policy proposal to action, with pilots being conducted around the nation, and indeed, the world. addressing poverty, providing economic stimulus, promoting community building, and increasing social mobility and equity. In the last two years, 19 GBI pilot programs across the United States have been launched, with another 20 being developed in 2021. GBI programs, as I noted earlier, are not like other financial assistance programs, such as the CSA program or the Mountain View Solidarity program. They are unconditional, unrestricted, and include regular payments for a period of time, rather than a one time payment or form of assistance. GBI pilots also typically collect survey and participation data that helps inform the larger policy community aiming to alleviate poverty. Unlike other government assistance, but have specific restrictions or requirements, GBI program recipients are empowered to make their own decisions on how to spend the money that's provided in the best way to meet their needs. Basic needs, providing dignity and self determination therein. There is considerable variation in both the design and individuals served by GDI programs. Most programs last between one and two years. Most of the early pilots have been philanthropically privately funded, but there has been an increasing shift over the last year using public funding to address the direct, as well as the residual, anticipated impacts from the global pandemic. A common element for all of the pilot programs is a robust and independent research component that offers insights, measurements, outcomes, and in the, uh, into how the cash assistance is assisting the participants. To share more on this and some background on Mountain View's needs. John Lang, our economic vitality manager, will take the next part of the presentation. John?

[02:58:21] John Lang: Thank you, Kimberly. Implementing a GPI program for Mountain View is anticipated to benefit both participants in the broader community. Early outcomes, from nationwide pilots, are showing correlations between our basic income programs, and their impact on alleviating poverty, creation of social mobility, and equity for residence. For instance, the Stockton Seeds program found that payments were used for the purchase of food and goods. It helped produce monthly, month to month, income volatility, and it removed barriers to full time employment. A couple of the city's goals and outcomes are, one, helped the most vulnerable residents, who are disproportionately affected by a wide ranging of financial challenges, including the ramifications of COVID 19. provide financial stability for participants and their families. As Kimberly mentioned, through the proposed research component, contribute to the national knowledge base of basic income programs. A cross departmental team, led by the city manager's office, in the economic development division. I've gathered best practices from other basic income pilots to identify the following timeline. The teamwork with the mayor's guaranteed income initiative to identify thought and technical assistance partners, which you learn about shortly, to help frame the city's proposed GBI pilots. Staff have also met with multiple organizations who play roles in the implementation of basic income programs, such as the nonprofit agencies and fiscal payment processors. Information from the most recent U.S. Census Bureau, along with the statistics from Mountain View's Consolidated Plan 20, 20, 25, chosen, many residents were struggling, struggling even before the impact of the pandemic. The impacts of the pandemic have exacerbated the struggle. The city of Mountain View uses income limits to establish such programs as the relief program. The current income limits for Santa Clara County are outlined in this table. Prior to the pandemic, there were nearly 6,500 households in Mountain View, classified as extremely low income. This is denoted by the bottom row of the table. And of those 6,500 households. 1,000 households have a child of 18 years or younger within it. Out of the 16 census tracks that generally represent Mountain View. Six census tracks denoted on the map, identify 20% of their households as extremely low income. So these are the census tracks that have one in five households as extremely low income. In addition, aggregate COVID cases, have acutely affected two specific census tracks, more so than any other area in this city, and that census track 5094.03, which includes Rangsdorf Park, and 5095 just to the south of it. The following table actually breaks down those numbers. So it correlates with the map on the prior slide, but this is the numbers behind that analysis. I will now turn the presentation back to Kimberly to finish out. Thank you.

[03:02:11] Kimberly Thomas: Thank you, John. Uh, shown on screen here is a workflow for how GBI works. GBI requires considerations that go beyond typical financial assistance programs. Shown on screen is the flow that highlights the level of complexity to establishing and operating a GBI program. This shows how GBI works from start to finish, including outreach, the applications processes, eligibility determination, research design, the setup of the implementation plan, processes, ongoing administration, and evaluation that I've highlighted here. The chart also, for your reference, does include one minor update from the staff report to figure three. We did note that the intake application does usually includes some survey components. So that's provided for you there. Program implementation includes key partners to accomplish the various tasks of launching and running a successful pilot. The cross departmental team that John referenced earlier has researched and developed the pilot. We've engaged with thought partners like MGI, Stanford Basic Income Lab, and the Jane Family Institute, that are key representatives in this field. We've looked and engaged with researchers, such as the University of Pennsylvania, Center for Guaranteed Income Research, that was mentioned also by John earlier. We've engaged with nonprofit partners that are needed to assist in the administration of the grants in the program, as well as significant outreach to our community. We previewed this with the CBOs that meet monthly. There's also fiscal payment processors that assist in the distribution of the cash monthly, to the recipients, including those who are unbanked, and those who may have tax or other documentation challenges. Steph also recommends as a part of its plan. Lived experience in corporation for the extremely low income residents of Mountain View to ensure the integrity of the program. Staff's recommendations for the program are shown on screen and I'll summarize them now. Staff recommends a GBI program centered on aiding, the extremely low incomes residents of Mountain View, families and custodial caregivers, with one or more children under the age of 18 at the time of application. As proposed, the GBI pilot would provide participants $500 per month for 12 to 24 months, that's $6000 per year, serving approximately 166 families. At this point, the council has appropriated funds for the first year of the pilot only. Income eligibility would be set at the 30% of AMI threshold similar to the majority of residents assisted through the city's rent relief program administered by CSA, where the threshold was set at 80, but 60% of the funding went to 30% of AMI or below residence. This is also in line with the recommendations that will be discussed later, associated with the city of Mountain View Solidarity Fund. That's the next item on the study session. Eligibility would be without regard to status for Mountain View residents only, and the participants would need to live within Mountain View through the course of the pilot. The proposed structure of the GBI program is to have payments made as grants paid directly to individuals by a nonprofit administrator, to limit the risks that are discussed in the staff report, about participants' eligibility for other safety net services being impacted. Those are common benefits that are, unfortunately, impacted by GBI programs, which include food or rent assistance. GBI could be considered income in certain instances, depending upon what the benefit program rules are, to counter this potential benefit loss. Cities have built upon the Stockton program, seeds concept of a hold harmless fund. We are calling this, in this case, a benefits conservation fund, but it's a way to assist in any potential benefit impacts for participants who choose to engage in the program. The total estimated cost for staffs of full recommendations range between 500,000 and 650,000. Research is a key component of that, depending upon what the estimates are used within the ranges. Staff is estimating, as you see here at the lower end, at that range. When staff returns to the council in November or December with an updated report, we will incorporate the direction received tonight from the council, and a funding recommendation will also be included. This concludes staff's report. The staff team would be happy to answer questions, John, or Harsha and myself. In addition, we have Cameron Burns, the deputy director of the mayor's for a guaranteed income initiative, attending on the line with us this evening. If you have any questions for MGI, the initiative that the city is already a part of. Thank you for your time.

[03:07:55] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great thing, you. All right, so I will turn it back to the council for council questions. Do any council members have questions for staff or for Cameron with the MGI program? Council member Madachek.

[03:08:17] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. Um, I sent in a couple questions about, um, survey results from other pilots, and, um, it sounds like Stockton has published some findings, um, or at least some, um, lessons learned, I guess maybe I'd say. I'm wondering if any of the other pilots have published like hard data on, you know, people's, um, situation has improved by, you know, X percent or so many people were able to, um, have, um, full-time employment, um, or X percent were able to move to, I think it was like a, a neighborhood where it was better for their children or something like that. Um, so besides um, Stockton, have any other pilots um, published anything?

[03:09:15] Kimberly Thomas: I'll start on that question and then ask also John Lang and potentially Cameron to jump in and add to it if I missed something. Uh, the key thing with many of the GBI pilots at this stage is that they are all in process and relatively new. Stockton is one of the larger pilots that we're beginning to get a lot of detail out of. The larger initiative that's being sponsored by MGI to assess, the state of California will be one of the next major contributions to understanding what the impacts of GBIR. John, if you'd like to add anything to that, please do.

[03:09:52] John Lang: Um, other than, you're 100% on point. Kimberly, most of the pilots have started up in 2019 and 2020. And so there is a lag in the research that's coming out. But we have heard anecdotal from the different pilots that we have engaged with very similar outcomes. It's not published, but very similar outcomes that are coming out, so the seeds report came out just this year. And it was the initial findings from the program. There's much more research that will be coming out of it, but it's the first report published from the program which got started in 2018. And Cameron, I don't know if you would like to add anything to that.

[03:10:39] Cameron Burns: Thank you for everything here. Yeah, no, for sure. Love council meetings. The briefest of additions, because the researchers are very intentional, with their design of RCTs and making sure that, you know, one data set in a point of time does not mean for ultimate findings and they don't want to construe data incorrectly, and so they're very intentional about, you know, analyzing it, you know, with a lot, uh, with at least kind of a year of experience to be able to detect the impact of a guaranteed income, um, over a certain amount of time. But in lieu of being able to provide, um, that analysis, we dig into what we call storytelling cohorts. Um, so as John was mentioning, um, that politically proposive sample, um, that storytelling cohort that is broken out of, um, of the recipient pools who are able to anecdotally share out their experiences, um, and help the community at large understand the impact we guarantee income. But, uh, yeah, the 1st pilot under MGI was kickstarted in September of 2020. Um, so got a bit of time for findings to come out.

[03:11:50] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. And then for those of us who are not familiar with the acronym RTTs. Do you mind defining that for the public? That'd be great.

[03:11:59] Cameron Burns: Yes, a randomized controlled trial. So RCT means that you're both able to have a treatment group, which means those are the folks receiving the treatment, a guaranteed income. Um, and you have the, that treatment group compared to a control group, that control group does not receive, um, that the treatment, a guaranteed income, um, but you're able to, you know, analyze the change, someone receiving a guaranteed income versus someone who is not.

[03:12:28] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Council member Matachek, did you have more questions?

[03:12:32] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Nope, that's it. Thank you.

[03:12:33] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. All right. Council member Hicks.

[03:12:39] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, so I'm trying to make sure that I fully understand the various line items involved here. So there's, uh, 500 to 650,000 for administration and study, and then an additional amount for the benefits conservation fund, that would, or is that included in the 500 to 650?

[03:13:08] Kimberly Thomas: That is included in that estimate of $500 to $650. So it's inclusive of the benefits conservation fund.

[03:13:16] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I see. And, okay. Thank you. And then, my second question is, um, have most cities that are doing this, have they, um, paid for that additional money through their general funds, or, um, from some other source, like, uh, foundation, maybe one of the foundations, uh, that you named, or some other foundation, and, Are we exploring doing that?

[03:13:51] Kimberly Thomas: Uh, to date, the bulk of the, uh, not many pilots at the city level, as you know, uh, the line share of them are at the county level, and then also facilitated by nonprofits. And so the list that's included just gives you a highlight of that in the staff report for what's happening in the Bay Area. One city locally is doing a pilot, which is the city of South San Francisco. And then the county of Santa Clara is doing a pilot as well. Both of those are using city funding with a South SF, I believe, targeting ARPA funding for their project. And in the county, I don't recall the specific funding source, but their project was brought online a little over a year ago. So I don't think it would have anticipated ARPA at that time. And that theirs has since been re-extended. And then, uh, to...

[03:14:41] Councilmember Alison Hicks: No, go on.

[03:14:43] Kimberly Thomas: To answer the additional part of your question about, uh, would staff be, uh, reaching out for philanthropic donations for this project if it is, uh, the design is approved? Yes, we would. That would be a part of the effort, both in light of the research, if there's any way to engage on that topic, as well as any potential support for the ongoing program.

[03:15:06] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And then my last question is, there's the possibility of duplication, you know, people, um, getting money from the CSA, the Solidarity Fund, and the GEI, has there been any talk about how to, you know, maybe make sure that that's not happening, or, um, making sure that, that we serve a larger population, rather than just the 16% of the very low income, um, if people are, who are vulnerable, are accessing, you know, for example, each from one of those funds, then you, then you serve a larger proportion of our vulnerable population. Has there been any talk of how to address that?

[03:15:54] Kimberly Thomas: For the solidarity Mountain View solidarity Fund and for GBI, the focus is on that 30% of AMI, smaller group for the CSA funding. That program is more broad, and does allow 80% or actually up to 120 of AMI. So that is a much more flexible funding program. And then in terms of administration. It is difficult, as the city doesn't, uh, it's not a county and doesn't have a large continuum of care to track safety net services. So in this case, we would have additional administrative burden if we were to add that to each of these programs. We also know, based upon the data and information shared by people serving residents locally in Mountain View, that the need really is great. And so we'd like to do what we can to avail these programs for the members of our community in the 30% of AMI.

[03:16:48] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. Okay, thank you.

[03:16:53] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, council member Abbe Koga.

[03:16:56] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'm not sure who to direct the question to actually may want to hear from Mr. Burns about what's going on in other parts of the country, but, um, I've actually been approached by uh, nonprofits. Um, and as well as, um, corporate foundations. Um, there's a lot of excitement around this concept. And so, I guess wondering, um, in terms of opportunities of collaboration, um, have, and I guess, have you seen, um, different programs that have, you know, joined forces to get the research part done to, frankly, save on resources? Um, ways to collaborate, um, or expand the pool, so there could be, you know, other funds, um, that are, um, brought in. So, for instance, the state program, my understanding is for foster youth and pregnant women. And I was thinking, well, if we expand, since we're looking at children, hustholds with children, could that include pregnant women? Um, yeah, so have you seen those types of collaborations to combine forces and, you know, and be more efficient with resources, basically.

[03:18:15] Kimberly Thomas: And just, Council member, EpicOVID, would you like Cameron Burns from MGI to address that or staff?

[03:18:22] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, actually, both. Have you seen some, Ms. Thomas? and then, um, I, Mr. Right?

[03:18:28] Kimberly Thomas: Sure. Yeah, staff is looking at the state program, and then the note that you highlighted about pregnant women, whether that could be a component that might be enabled through potential future legislation on that, so far for the state funds. It's just the foster youth bill that we've seen some detail on, so that could be a possibility. And then I'll let Cameron share more on that. But one of the major initiatives that really is underway right now is the one that staff recommends to you, which is alignment with the center of the center for research, the CGIR, through MGI's funded program. And that has allowed participants within the state of California, who are implementing pilots to amplify and maximize their resources, as well as reducing costs, overall, because the costs can be much higher. There is a resource I refer you to, which is the Jain family institute toolkit on GBI. And the cost for implementing and running a program for GBI, um, can be higher. And so that's something that I think is a real positive benefit that is happening currently in the space. But Cameron, you might want to share more about that.

[03:19:41] Cameron Burns: Yeah, I think the beautiful thing about MGI is that we have done our best to kind of it behind the scenes with all the kind of infrastructure that we've set up, realize those cost savings. So, um, you know, with the Stockton demonstration, the research and evaluation component, was just under $15 million, which was equal to the disbursement amount. Um, which we have brought down significantly, um, with making sure that, you know, parts that were not impactful, that we kind of just stripped away, um, but also because they are doing the work across 25, 30 other cities eventually, um, that they're able to just literally economize um, via scale. Uh, so no, we have not seen cities um, kind of cross boundaries beyond with like actual merging of of pilots. Um, I think there was talk of it in Virginia with Richmond and Arlington and a few other counties next to it. Um, but the beautiful thing about the research model that we've set up is that it can be highly tailored, um, to to the local context, um, offering you you all Mountain View local insights, um, to your specific residents. So, um, in terms of the research, it is, it is pretty locally driven, um, which is an important, um, highlight of the research, but, uh, No, I guess, I guess, There will be, of course, a special California focus and cohort with, with everything that's going on. But, um, not to this state. Has there been specific collaboration?

[03:21:20] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, council member Lieber.

[03:21:27] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. Um, so for staff. I'm just trying to confirm my understanding and Um, we've obviously gotten a lot of contact about this. So there's an initial $1000000 that we have in hand. From the federal government from the one time ARPO funds. Um, and so we're proposing to use, um, half or slightly half of that to do cash benefits to people in need in the community. And then half or, or greater, would go towards research institutions to tell us if we got it, things. And also to create the fund, to cover, um, any loss of benefits on the part of the, the individuals to receive the grants. My understanding things roughly, right?

[03:22:32] Kimberly Thomas: Uh, staff, what to say, I, I, uh, in terms of the funding sources, finance, based upon what they communicated with the adoption of the budget, is still looking at a balance of ways uh, to uh, manage uh, and support uh, the various programs that were funded uh, as a part of the budget. So that is something. That is still an open, uh, McCarthy might want to add anything to that.

[03:22:59] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: But I didn't fully, I apologize. I didn't follow the um, the, all of that, but I think the essence of it was correct in terms of the 1000000 out of the 3000000 that was provided for cash assistance out of this budget year. That is adopted, and that is for the GBI program. There would be an additional request if the council were to move forward with this project, and the program design staff is recommending, to assist with the components you highlighted, which would be the research component, the keep the benefits fund, the nonprofit assistance, and the other items that are included in the staff report.

[03:23:38] Councilmember Sally Lieber: And so the research, um, you know, normally, I think that you would always want to do program tracking and auditing. And that kind of thing, um, but to my mind reading the staff report, um, I had a good amount of sticker shock around how expensive it is to give out free money. And I wonder, um, Like, uh, um, how much of that is sort of discretionary where we could not, we could decide to turn some of the research into cash payments to help actual people. Um, and and how much is normal auditing that you would want to do on any kind of a program.

[03:24:31] Kimberly Thomas: Um, I'll, I'll, uh, uh, uh, offer an answer and then certainly the rest of the team is happy to uh, join to that. Because GBI is not simply a financial assistance program, it does have this additional research component and being a part of the larger conversation in poverty alleviation. So it is distinct and different from the financial assistance program that we talked about for CSA or the Mountain View Solidarity Fund. So it does have that component that has some costs associated with it. And then as Cameron highlighted earlier, the costs actually for Stockton, for example, were nearly as much as the pilot itself. So there are the costs are way down for cities that are participating at this time. But it is one of the hallmarks that sets a GBI pro project out from other forms of cash out the door, if you will, as you highlight it. Those would be distinct and different, where there's already existing infrastructure within a nonprofit or an entity that we would be working with.

[03:25:35] Councilmember Sally Lieber: And so for this pilot, we would, um, be using our stay out, our city staff to do the distribution, or we would have, uh, a nonprofit, or, or the county as a partner, to help in handing out money.

[03:25:55] Kimberly Thomas: Uh, we recommend that we partner with a nonprofit so that it's considered to be a grant fund. We've had some early dialogue with some of our local nonprofits serving families, including CSA and the YMCA, but we would anticipate that a nonprofit would be a better service provider to provide that gift to the families than the cities. The county for its aged out foster youth programs serving 72 individuals does administer their own program directly and issues their own tax documents for that program.

[03:26:28] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Okay, and I am very much interested in the county program, um, I noticed that it's, it's 72 youth, and there's much larger pool of, of transition age, um, youth. Um, or youth who have already transitioned. And so I'd be very interested in what the county's lessons learned are, um, and I wonder if you've seen anything that they've published yet, in terms of that.

[03:27:05] Kimberly Thomas: Uh, staff has not seen anything that they've published yet, but we have met, uh, with the program administrator and had a really productive conversation, uh, a number of months back when we were 1st looking at GBI. Their program has been very successful for that population. The county is very synced up with the aged out foster youth programs because, of course, they administer the infrastructure surrounding that, and they've been very pleased based upon what I've heard anecdotally with the program. I also understand, but I have not read the staff report myself, that they did receive additional funding to continue that program. That is a larger program in the sense that it's providing $1000 per month, to the h.foster youth, and again, 72 was the number that I had in my data that they were serving.

[03:27:54] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Okay, thank you.

[03:27:58] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Any other questions from council members? Okay, not seeing any, I will now move 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 button in Zoom or press Star 9 on your phone. We'll display a 2 minute timer on the screen. Right, and I see some hands. So I'll just wait for the timer. Great, Bruce Carney.

[03:28:35] Bruce Carney: Thank you very much. My 1st job out of college was working as a research assistant on the largest study of the negative income tax, which was what we called guaranteed basic income 40 years ago. That program distributed $600 million to recipients in today's dollars. It had 5,000 enrolles. It was run out of Stanford Research Institute. There were 30 staff, many PhDs, many analysts and assistants like myself. The report, uh, has a lot of relevance to today's needs. You can find it at tinyuRl.com slash SIMEDIME. That's/sime dime. Uh, one of the things they found is that, uh, grants do, in fact, lower the amount of labor force participation, not surprisingly, because most poor people who work, work terribly long hours, and, uh, giving them money allows them to cut back a little and spend more time with their families. Another thing they found is that when people transform their lives, it takes time. If they get their GED, if they go back and get an AA degree or go to college, it takes time to achieve that. So short term programs don't really give people the time they need to change their lives. I would recommend that your pilot be a three year pilot or more. One of the most important points is that almost all of us have moved to take advantage of educational opportunities or job opportunities. And the program design element that says you must continue to live in Mountain View for the duration of your participation is a very bad design idea, and I encourage you to strike that out and let people go where they need to go to find their opportunity in additional training. Um, this is a huge problem. I'm glad the city is thinking about doing something, but what would be the outcome of a successful pilot? Are you prepared to fund this in perpetuity or not? Thank you.

[03:30:40] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Leland Anders?

[03:30:47] Leland Anders: Thank you, mayor and council members. My name is Leland Anders, and I'm here tonight representing Nova Works. The workforce board for Northern Santa Clara County in San Mateo County. We applaud the city of Mountain View as a commitment to tackle long-standing inequities, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that guaranteed basic income will give unskilled workers the financial security to invest their time into skills training for quality jobs, permanently changing the economic viability of their families. Guaranteed basic income increases a families, financial stability, and reduces debt, leading to greater emotional health and ability to pursue opportunities to live at one's potential. This project can be leveraged with Nova Works employment and job training program to assist unemployed and underemployed workers, and will support Mountain View and partner in any way we can. Thank you.

[03:31:49] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Any other public comment? Steve Chesson.

[03:32:03] Steve Chesson: Thank you, Steve Chesson, and I'm a resident of Mountain View. And I like the, I'm glad that the council is considering doing this. I urge them to do this. My only concern is that the people who would most benefit from this may have a hard time finding out that this program even exists. And I think it's extremely important, that you really concentrate on outreach, and have your partners concentrate on outreach, to reach families that are so distressed, that they don't even have the time to even think about getting themselves involved in such a program. I understand that a lot of I don't know if this applies to Mountain View, but I understand that nationally. A lot of the problems with the rental relief funds is that people don't even know that they are eligible to apply for it. So I think it's very incumbent upon the city of Mountain View to do all necessary outreach to get families involved in this. Thank you.

[03:32:57] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. All right, I am not seeing any more hands, so I'm gonna bring this back. to the council. So, um, if there are decision points, um, we can take straw, straw poles in order to provide feedback to staff. But I'd really appreciate if, um, council members could answer the 2 questions. Um, at the same time. So, um, you know, question one is, does the council agree with the staff recommendation for goals design and anticipated outcomes for the GBI pilot program? And then there's question too. Does council agree with the staff recommendation to fund the benefits conservation fund and the research design and evaluation component, or does council have alternative direction? So I will ask if there's any council members who would like to start answering those 2 questions. Council member Abbe Koga.

[03:33:57] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. Go ahead and start. Thank you to staff for all of the really hard work. Um, that you've put in um, over the last several months, um, since I believe we moved, uh, decide to move forward in May. Um, it's, you know, that's quite a bit of work that's been done in 4 months and I really, really appreciate it. Um, I do support staff's recommendations. I think it's very well thought out. And um, I've been doing my own research. Um, as mentioned earlier, um, since we announced that we were going to be engaging in, um, um, a pilot program, uh, received quite a few, um, folks reaching out with interest in, um, partnering and so forth. And so I've been able to learn more about, um, the program and, and I, I agree that it is very distinct from the other programs we've had. Um, and the key to it for me is really that the, um, sustained income, added income over a year. Um, I appreciate Mr. Carney's comments. My hope is that we could do at least 2 years with the 2nd half of the ARPA funds that will, we should be receiving next year. But, you know, I think, and just to get things going. We agreed on the 1000000s. So, um, you know, I was supportive of that, but the, my, my feeling really is that it probably would take, um, more than a year to get, um, you know, to see results and also to be more, um, uh, to really be able to provide, um, um, impactful assistance. And, um, as, I think, uh, Mr. Burns and I have mentioned, um, you know, I see the, what I've read and yes, they're probably still anecdotal, but, Like in one program, I've heard 25% of the participants have been able to move out of poverty. Um, I think the key here is a predictable, predictable income, you know, monthly income, over a certain amount of time, which provides that opportunity to, um, as mentioned, you know, take GED classes or take college classes, um, or, you know, provoke get get childcare. So, uh, folks can do those types of, um, enrichment, um, activities to better their lives and to, um, to socially be more mobile. And so, um, I, I, I think that's the goal. The overall goal, you know, what's the long term goal for me. Um, and this is it ties to, I think, the 2nd question. Um, I do support the, um, the elements of the administration and the research design, I actually believe the research is key to all of this, the data collection, um, because, um, you know, we have a lot of assistance programs already. And what I'm really looking for with this is to collect data to see how we can change, change, um, the way we do things, to, we talk about reimagining, and that's for what, for me, what this is about. Um, you know, I think, I think most people know that our welfare system is not the greatest. Um, there's a lot of bureaucracy when it comes to, you know, assisting folks. Um, and this is this program, I think, is an attempt to try to do things a different way that's more, um, efficient, hopefully, more direct, and, um, and longer lasting. And, um, and so, you know, what I see, and in my conversations with others in this, um, arena right now, is the hope that within 3 to 5 years, we see good results, that we can then advocate for, um, to, you know, change real, larger, frankly, larger policies at the state and national level, to change the way we provide assistance to our low income individuals and families. So, it is important for me to be a part of that larger conversation at this point in time having come out of, or we're still in COVID, but given everything we did last year, you know, I'm so proud of what we've done, because we've done things differently than other places. And we have led a lot of conversations. And I think this is another one that we need to continue to be a part of, and I'd like for us to lead in. So, um, I do support that. I know, I know for folks, it might be hard pill to swallow the extra funding, but what I would, you know, like to propose is that we do aggressively, um, pursue, uh, grants, um, from, for a philanthropic organizations or corporations. I've, again, had some initial conversations, um, with potential grant funders, um, and frankly, their interest is in the data collection piece. And without that, I don't think we would be able to get, um, outside funding, to be frank. And so, um, I really believe that that's critical component of this, and, um, so I would ask, um, for support of the entire package and staff has, um, laid out. And thank you again, just for doing such a great job. Thank you.

[03:39:29] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Um, customer shelter.

[03:39:35] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I'd like to, um, echo a lot of the things that council member Abi Koga said. I do think that this is an opportunity for us to really contribute knowledge, um, of how to better, um, support people and move people out of poverty. Um, as a country, we spend a tremendous amount of money on welfare, and the outcomes aren't always what we want. So this is, this is, um, something that a lot of speculation and theorizing has been done for many years in the academic world, and there have been some pilots, and they've been quite positive. But it's time, I think, to have sort of enough of these pilots, so that the body of information that's available can be used to design bigger, either statewide or federal projects, or lots of little, you know, city ones that can go on for many years. And, um, so with that, I'd like to say I wholeheartedly support the goals and the design. I think that's excellent. Um, I am having sticker shock with the, um, the cost of all the analysis. I know that when I was in graduate school, I was taught that you should, for a big project, you should always have at least 10% for monitoring. Well, that's $100,000. So, um, then we have $250 for the, um, uh... the, uh, the fund, the benefit fund, that gets you to $350,000. That's still quite shy of the $500 to $650. So, um, I'm having a little problem with that, but at the same time, um, I do think that this is something that the local um, philanthropic community would be interested in assisting us with. And I would like us to direct staff to aggressively pursue that, um, uh, that philanthropic support. But, um... so, so, basically, I'm very much for agree on number one, and number two, um, I, I don't, I disagree. I mean, I agree with the research design, but I would hope we could, uh, find funding from the local philanthropic community for at least a, um, part of it. Thank you.

[03:42:12] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Councilman Michelle Walter. Councilman Bleeper?

[03:42:15] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. Um, well, I am very much supportive, obviously, of the, uh, overall thrust of this, and I, I think just, um, helping individuals with resources is, is what's needed. And, um, I, I don't know, if it was our staff for Mr. Burns that talked about, you know, individuals being able to spend more time on personal development and, um, investing time in their families. Um, but I think that all those things help to get people to the next step. Um, I would like us to really be in communication with the counties that have a program. Um, more so than the local cities that are just starting up because I think that the counties are the real experts in benefit loss and those kinds of issues. And, um, the, the different, um, pools of people who have high potential and I, I promise and just need the resources. Um, they are very much in touch with it. Um, I do like the, um, transitional, uh, youth kind of concept or um, focusing on families with, uh, children. And I know that from looking at the county's work in terms of safety net, uh, to the extent that, um, communities of need are in North County, they are in Mountain View. So I think that we have the potential for a really good nexus, um, there. Um, I think that it's ethically necessary to have the, um, benefits conservation fund, um, because I know that in certain circumstances, a really small amount of additional money can, um, knock people out of Medi-Cal and and other programs. And so that's something that we have to really take those steps to not have unintended consequences. And I think that's what makes it so important to be working with the nonprofit partners. And ideally the county, uh, to make sure that as as we try to do good things that we do it in a way that, um, there isn't an unintended consequence. Thank you.

[03:45:08] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Vice Mayor Ramirez.

[03:45:11] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I'm glad to hear support. So I won't spend too much time, um, providing my input. In short, I support the staff recommendation. Um, so that, uh, would be in response to, um, both questions. Um, I do want to share some thoughts on some of the, of the, uh, concerns and issues that have come up. Um, 1st becau- as long as we're targeting extremely low income. I personally don't have a problem if a household participates in potentially all 3 of the assistance programs that we've created. Um, one time, uh, financial assistance can only take you so far. And especially in a community like Mountain View, one time assistance might mean one month of rent, right? October 1st the eviction moratorium has expired. You have to pay the rent. Um, what we are hearing anecdotally in the community is that households don't want to be in debt. And they will take on other, well, in debt to their landlord specifically. They will take on other kinds of debt in order to pay off the rent debt. Um, so I'm personally expecting a fair amount of the CSA financial assistance to, um, helping to be dedicated to helping folks stay in their homes, you know, at the beginning of October. Um, you know, and the, 3 or $4000 that, uh, a household might benefit from, might be able to help pay off via, you know, credit card debt or medical expenses or, one time cash assistance will never serve as an effective poverty alleviation tool. And I think that's the unique contribution, that the GBI pilot, um, can address, that's providing people, uh, stability over time. an opportunity to help pay for a necessary, uh, service, like childcare or whatever it may be, right? I think retaining the flexibility is key because people have different needs and it's difficult for us, I think, to anticipate what all those needs might be. But the higher level point is that it's a unique program that neither the CSA nor solidarity fund programs, um, can, uh, provides a service that neither of those programs can provide. And I also think that, even if one household benefits from all 3, it's, it's not going, going to do disservice to the community, it might mean that poverty gets out. Oh, sorry, that household gets out of poverty and is in a financially stable place moving forward. Um, and the, I think the other, um, issue I'd like to speak to is who should we focus on? Uh, I agree, families, I think are my personal priority. I'm open to expanding eligibility a little bit if it helps us access uh state or other sources of funding. So I know the state, for instance, is looking at slightly different, slightly different demographics. I'm comfortable with that, but I do think our highest priority should be families, um, and to the greatest extent possible, I'd like to help those families that are in, uh, precarious, uh, housing circumstances. Um, So, I think that's pretty much all I have to contribute at this point. Um, I really appreciate the work that staff has done. I know it's, it was kind of a, uh, uh, an idea at a lust field, but I think an important one. Um, and in line with, I think, the council and the community's objectives in spending down our RPA funds. Um, in my mind, most, if not all of that money should be spent on helping stabilize the community. Uh, certainly the city has great financial needs too. Um, but, uh, in this case, the one time funds, I think, should be spent on, uh, one time use of helping our community get out of a very difficult, uh, period, the, the COVID, um, pandemic. Uh, the last thing, uh, I, I, I do think that the research component is, is critical. Um, it is, uh, unfortunately expensive, but I'm optimistic, uh, based on the research that has been done that we can find support from philanthropic, uh, organizations or, or maybe a corporate sponsorship. So I'm personally not too concerned that the city will be responsible for that cost. Um, I do think it's necessary to make the program work as best as we can possibly make it work. So I'm, uh, I'm supportive of the concept, and I do think that, uh, if it's helpful for staff to include direction to explore partnerships that can help, you know, address that, that, um, that cost. I think that's I'm very happy to support that. Thank you.

[03:50:26] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Council member Hicks.

[03:50:29] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, I'm, I'm definitely supportive of, uh, rethinking anti-poverty programming, um, and I'm especially glad that Nova spoke up. I think that that's a, that will be a good connection in, um, moving forward with this. I agree with council members who said they would like it to focus on families. I also like the idea of partnering with the county and foster youth. Um, and I, I mean, personally, I would prefer to just give all this money away, particularly given and not, not do the, um, the studies, particularly given that our eviction moratorium is, uh, expiring, and there's great need now. So if anybody on council can think of ways to move in that direction, to give more money away and give less money to less money for studies and more money for needs, I would, I would really appreciate that, whether it's going to, um, you know, going to philanthropic, and the philanthropic and corporate community, merging pilots, you know, whatever we can do, because as, uh, other, uh, council members have said, I'm kind of, when I first endorsed the GBI voted for it, I didn't know that we were committing to additional money for administration and studies. So if there's any way of reducing that, I would really like that. Another thing I'm a little concerned about is that... Personally, I think it's more appropriate for anti poverty programs to be administered federally because the federal government can do deficit spending. I hope in rethinking poverty, we're not just assigning a welfare function to the cities, because we're relatively well off city. A lot of cities are not very well off. And so, if we're rethinking poverty, or anti property programs, that's not the direction I want to move in, so I don't know if there's any, along with the studying, if there's, and rethinking, if there's, um, any way of including that, that perspective in the rethinking. I, I'll just underline that. I don't want any poverty programming to be moved to the city level, primarily. Thank you.

[03:53:04] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Council member Head, uh, Mad Check.

[03:53:07] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. Um, you know, I really appreciate Steph, um, doing so much research on this and providing us with so much information. It was incredibly interesting and helpful for me. So thank you for that. Um, I was um, interested in exploring this program, um, when it 1st came up. Um, but now that I feel like there's more information on it, um, yeah, I do have some concerns about it. Um, I am concerned that we, we don't have, um, a whole lot of data on the effectiveness of these programs. We have anecdotal data that was cited in the staff report and that we talked about here. Um, you know, I mentioned some of those, um, anecdotes earlier. And, um, you know, I guess I, I feel like I would like, more data, uh, before going forward with something like this. Um, The other concern I have, as others have mentioned, is the uh, cost of this program. It's certainly more than I expected. And it seems like a lot. Um, and I'm also concerned that the program as proposed doesn't necessarily collect the amount of information or data that not only we could use, but others could use to design programs. Um, so actually, I would prefer at this point to help our community, um, in, uh, a more immediate fashion, and, To me, that means more money for existing programs. Uh, that are more cost effective and that provide more immediate help, um, like CSA. Uh, you know, this is a program that would take place over time, um, over a year because we haven't implemented it yet. And we still have some work to do on it. And I feel like our community needs help now. So, I don't feel like I'm saying no forever to this. Um, but I actually would like to postpone it for a while. Maybe we look at it. Um, for the next um, funding. And round that we get from the federal government. Um, and in the meantime, some more information will be collected from other pilots around the US. Um, and, and actually, we would provide more immediate need to our residents, uh, with $1000000. So, uh, I guess you could interpret that as, you know, I'm not in favor of what was proposed. I'd like to wait, um, and allocate the funding to CSA and other programs that we already have right now. Thanks.

[03:56:14] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Thanks, council members. So I've been trying to, um, keep track of everyone's answers, and so I'll confirm with staff, who I'm sure diligently taking note as well. But I heard, um, 5 um, in support of the 1st question. Um, and then I heard 5 in support of the 2nd question with some other recommendations. So I think the biggest part will be, um, the funding component in looking to our philanthropic and corporate sponsors looking at ways that we make sure that we can maybe, um, work with the county and collaborate with them on information, as well as, um, looking into, I think it's, um, the foster youth component. Um, and try as much as possible, I think, to find creative ways to get that funding. I think I summarize that one. And then I heard a no and await, um, to allocate the funding to a later time. So that's what I've heard so far. I see your head naughty. Okay, great. Good to know we're the same type of not takers, Miss Thomas. So, it's my opportunity to be able to weigh in on the 2 questions. Um, and so, um, they answered for question one. will be yes. And the answer for question 2 is also, yes. And I think something that I heard the vice mayor said really resonated with me, which is these, the, this is ARP money, American rescue plan money, that's allocated to our city, to help our residents. And I really feel compelled that we need to help our most vulnerable. And this will do just that. Those who are living at 30% below the, you know, area median income are, I think, quite honestly, barely surviving in Mountain View. And I think it's really important that we do, that we're created, that we're innovative, and we look towards solutions. Um, to be able to to help them. And, um, I don't see this as just, um, I see this as a lifeline for individuals who may be looking for that. And for those who are really struggling, you know, we, we still are seeing errat, uh, you know, erraticness within the, the local economy, we're not seeing the job stability that we thought we might see when the state reopened in June. And so I think the struggle continues as the pandemic has been going on 18 plus months. So, um, you know, I really feel feel compelled that this is something that we need to do and we need to try. I do think that the city has had to step up and I hear the concerns about becoming, you know, a quasi safety net, but I think in a global pandemic during an economic recession. It's an all hands-on deck. We have to do everything we can to support our community and make sure people um, thrive. And I think that that's what we've been hearing from the community is how much they, they have that need. Um, I'm really compelled by the research component because I really identify with understanding the data and the metrics to make sure that we're doing something that is a solution. I am aghast at at the cost of that, but I know that our city staff is always creative on grant opportunities, funding opportunities, um, and I, and I feel hopeful or cautiously optimistic, that we'll be able to not have to go into city coffers, but rather find those in the community who will be able to step up to help meet that need, um, because it is so great right now. And those are my comments, council member Abby Kuga.

[04:00:14] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mary. Um, I'm sorry to, uh, chime in again, but I did want to, um, add my support for expanding the category if that would help with our being able to, um, partner or obtain the state funding or the county, foster youth or pregnant women, both either fine with me. Um, so yes, I want to give some flexibility there. And then to respond to council member Hicks. Yes. I don't, you know, I don't intend that the, the future goal is that cities become the, the welfare system. Um, what I'm really looking for is that we change the national, you know, the national system. Um, it's currently, you know, a very patriarchal system. And I think what we're trying to do is to change that to give individuals more, to empower individuals, to be able to make their own choices and to move out of poverty. So that's the hope for this program. And um, yeah, thank you.

[04:01:18] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. All right. So, um, Miss Thomas, do you need any other um, council direction?

[04:01:28] Kimberly Thomas: I think we have it, and let me also do a check in with the team. If I say heads nodding, I think we're in a good position. And also, of course, with the city manager, I think we are in a good position.

[04:01:39] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. And I want to thank Mr. Burns for joining us and providing the mayors for a guaranteed income perspective as well. I think that's really helpful for all of us. All right, well, thank you, everyone. Really appreciate it, and we'll move on to item 6.2. Which is the Mountain View Solidarity Fund. The purpose of this study session item is to receive council input on the city's award for funding to enhance the Mountain View Solidarity Fund program. After the staff presentation, the council will answer the following questions in turn. Number one, this council, support staff's recommended parameters, for use of city funds, to support an enhanced Mountain View Solidarity Fund program, and agreement terms with the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation, as a solidarity fund's fiscal sponsor. Assistant to the city manager, Christina Gilmore, will present the stock presentation. And actually, after the staff presentation, we'll go into public comments, um, and then go into um, council comments and questions, apologies for missing that before. Miss Gilmore?

[04:02:46] Christina Gilmore: Okay, thank you, Mayor. you hear me?

[04:02:49] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes, we hear you and we see the presentation. Thank you.

[04:02:51] Christina Gilmore: Perfect. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council. My name is Christina Gilmore, assistant to the city manager. And, um, I'm here with uh, with you this evening to discuss the Mountain View Solidarity Fund. Apologies, my screen seems to have frozen. There we go. Um, so at its June 22nd meeting, the city council appropriated $3000000 as part of the fiscal year 2021 adopted budget to support 3 of the program, 3 programs for direct cash assistance to Mountain View residents. Um, you just were, um, concluded discussing the, um, guaranteed basic income pilot program, which was, um, a $1000000 that was allocated to that program, and another $1000000 to CSA. And then finally, um, an additional $1000000 the Mountain View Solidarity Fund, which we'll be speaking about tonight. Each initiative focuses on addressing the needs of the most vulnerable and disadvantage in our community. The Mountain View Solidarity Fund program aligns with the council communities, community fraud priority to protect vulnerable populations, and preserve the socio and economic and cultural diversity. The Mountain View Solidarity Fund began in the spring of 2020 as an all volunteer mutual aid fund. The fund began as a direct response to the global COVID-19 pandemic and the Santa Clara County shelter in place order that was put in place in March. The fund consists of 8 volunteers, who are long-standing Mountain View residents, who are informal community leaders involved in parents, parent groups, schools, churches, and community-based organizations here in Mountain View. The volunteers are Latina. and have long-standing tides to the Latino community. The program was designed to address the extreme economic hardship of community members, build self-determination and power, and demonstrate the community's capacity for community-based participatory grant making. To date, the solidarity fund has raised uh, approximately $120,000, um, based on, um, individual donations as well as grants from other community organizations. And with that $120,000, they've had the opportunity to distribute one time payments to assist a total of 110 Mountain View households. And the solidarity fund is also, um, a fiscal, uh, receives fiscal sponsorship from the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation, which we'll talk about in a little bit in the next life. So as I mentioned just now, the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation, um, serves as the fiscal sponsor of the Mountain View Solidarity Fund. As a fiscal sponsor, the community Foundation, serves as a nonprofit incubator. It can assist emerging nonprofits with the fundraising, communications, organizational development, introduction to donors, and succession planning. It also can receive donations and acknowledged donors and donations on behalf of the project that they are the fiscal sponsor for. And they can also assist with reporting requirements as well as include the project or the program within their tax filing and audits. The solidarity fund will continue to um, be a project under the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation. At this time, they do not have a timeline for becoming an established nonprofit. Um, but the Community Foundation, um, is ready to assist them in their growth so that the solidarity fund can focus on, um, assisting the most needing verbal in our community. So beginning in May, staff has met with a solidarity fund representatives total of 6 times. We have met to, um, learn more about the solidarity fund, as well as to share information about the city and our processes, and really to, um, determine the enhanced program parameters with the potential, um, city and Mountain View $1000000 gram. The meetings consisted of quite a bit of back and forth between the city and the solidarity fund. We utilize simultaneous and in-person translation, um, to ensure that the solidarity fund members who were participating in the meetings with the city, um, had access to, um, language support. So that way we could communicate. and make sure that we were all on the same page. The average meeting time for each of the meetings was about an hour and a half to 2 hours. So even though there was only 6 meetings between May and August, um, those meetings took up quite a bit of time for both parties. And, um, there was quite a bit of correspondence back and forth to ensure that, um, we received clarification or additional information for staff, for city staff, with a solidarity fund, and for the Los Altos Community Foundation. So the proposed program enhancements that staff is bringing the council for your consideration this evening include expended eligibility, weekly and monthly reporting and other program enhancements. Under the expanded eligibility, the solidarity fund will have the flexibility to grant one-time financial assistance of up to $4000 per household unit. And with that financial assistance, that it'll go for broad assistance. So, um, helping family members or individuals pay for bills, rent, um, uh, loans, credit cards, medical food, um, whatever it is that they need in order to assist them with their financial hardship. And the, um, eligibility will include expanded eligibility to include any extremely low income family or resident in Mountain View. The additional program enhances will include weekly reporting, as well as a monthly summary of expenditures. So the weekly reporting will, um, be for, to understand a little bit more about who the solidarity fund is serving in Mountain View, so that will include total number of people in our house, in the household, um, the number of applications received, uh, who are receiving cash assistance and where that cash assistance is coming from, um, the average amount of funds given from the solidarity fund. and ensuring that the recipients live in one of the 3 Mountain View zip codes, um, and then also income verification, ensuring that the applicants fall within that 30% of AMI category. The other 2 program enhancements that staff is recommending is to have a solidarity fund expand their program outreach to neighborhood groups and CBOs to ensure that, um, all residents in Mountain View are aware of the program and that, um, anyone who is eligible for the program can, um, be assured that they information that they can apply for funds. And then at the end of the program, um, funding cycle to assist the city, with educating and connecting the recipients to other safety net providers and programs, to ensure that the participants are aware of other cash assistance programs or other programs that can help them with their financial, um, concerns. So the slide represents the current applicant outreach and assessment process of the, um, solidarity fund. Um, I won't go into a lot of detail, but as you can see, um, a request is received by the solidarity fund for assistance, they do a brief interview verification process, which goes into the approval process for the solidarity fund. And then the check request once the request is approved and then the disbursement. The proposed agreement terms that staff is recommending for council consideration will be that the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation will remain as the fiscal sponsor. The solidarity fund will continue to be a project of the Mountain View Community Foundation. The agreement will be between the city and in Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation, the term will cover the period of November 1st through June 30th, 2022. The funds will be dispersed in 3 installments based on performance and adherence to the enhanced program parameters, administrative fees are not to exceed 7.5% or $75,000 of the $1000000 inappropriations, and that the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation can return unexpended administrative fees back to into the solidarity fund without council approval. So this brings us to staff's recommendation and the council question that, um, staff is asking counsel for feedback on. Um, and so with that, this ends my presentation, and I welcome council comments. Thank you.

[04:12:30] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. All right, well, we'll stop the screen share for now because we'll go to public comment 1st before bringing it back to council. So would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press starting on your phone. We'll display a 2 minute timer on the screen. Right. Anyone have public comment on this item? Okay. Anthony Chang, and if we could get the 2 minute timer, please? Oh. Okay. Uh, I see Lucilla Hernandez now. Hi, Lucilla. See, you have to unmute.

[04:15:09] Lucilla Hernandez: una de catorsaños, una de, um, nueveaños. Gracias.

[04:15:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Then did staff want to translate?

[04:16:02] Unknown Speaker: Here I think that the way it's set up right now, we can select English interpretation to hear the interpreter.

[04:16:11] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Oh, so council should have selected the English interpreter.

[04:16:16] Unknown Speaker: She can interpret now.

[04:16:18] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, thank you. I don't think counseling knew that. you.

[04:16:23] Unknown Speaker: But you would have to select the English interpretation.

[04:16:28] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. So I think council members, if you see the little globe. And you click on it, and you would click on English. Yes. I, yes, I hear you, but I want to make sure, does, Counselors, if you give me a thumbs up.

[04:16:50] Unknown Speaker: I can hear you.

[04:16:51] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Council members, do you hear her?

[04:16:56] Unknown Speaker: No,

[04:16:57] Mayor Ellen Kamei: okay. Thank you. I think some people are still, so you hit there's like a little globe icon. It's a, it'll stay off and then English or Spanish and then you click English.

[04:17:11] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: There, I'm not seeing that option. Next to Ray's hand? I only have share screen and record.

[04:17:33] Unknown Speaker: Sure. Sure.

[04:18:27] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, right. We have, we have other. public comment as well, so I'm gonna move on to that. Um, Anthony Chang.

[04:18:42] Anthony Chang: Thank you, Mayor. My name is Anthony Chang. I'm a volunteer with Mountain View Solidarity Fund supporting the 8 Latino women that lead the Mountain View Solidarity Fund. The Mountain View Solid Refund sent an email to try to send an email to all the council members and some of them were bounced back in the last day or two. So I just wanted to share what was in that email. Said, thank you again for your support of Mountain View Solidarity's Fund's efforts to both support some of the most vulnerable residents in our community, stabilize their economic situation during this challenging time, and provide an opportunity for solutions to be led by us as a group of working class Latina immigrant women who understand the needs of our community. We appreciate this vote of confidence in our leadership and work in the community. As you all go into, talk about this, our understanding is that a Dean Miller from the Los Altas Mountain View Community Foundation will be available to answer questions. Um, we also wanted to share that, um, Paula Perez, Orgamelo, um, and I also be available to answer questions during the session in case you are not aware. Um, and finally, um, for additional contact, and I can translate for Paula and for Olga, um, if the interpretation's not working. But lastly, for additional context, as you consider this potential partnership, we also want to share a little about the long term vision for Mountain View Solidarity Fund. As you already know, Mountain View Solidarity Fund is less a new project and more the latest step in a 20 year arc of our community leadership, and organizing around education, public safety, anti displacement, affordable housing, and more. And as working class Latina immigrant community members, We will always strive to be responsive to the needs of our community and work towards our community having a voice and determining solutions, to the challenges we face. And as we look forward, we can imagine that our work may evolve, to include how we can work together on long term solutions to housing and displacement and long term stability, including community ownership of housing. Thank you again for your time today.

[04:20:39] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. And Anthony, before you go, you said it was Olga, Paula, and yourself? Maybe we lost him. Okay. All right, well, I think he mentioned um, 3 people who are um, also available. Any other public comment on this item? All right. So seeing no further public comment, and I know we're trying to get the vice mayor's Zoom updated so he can get his interpretation going, we'll bring it back to council, um, for comments or questions. And I think at this time, as was noted, a Dean Miller, with the newly renamed Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation is also in attendance that we can bring over in case we have any questions for our, the, who will be the fiscal, um, agent for this. Great. So do council members have any questions? I'm not seeing any hands. So if people don't have any questions or comments, then that means we can go right into our decisions. Um, so if, if, if needed, we'll do straw polls in order to provide feedback to stuff, but if each of you could, um, respond to the question, there's only one. Does council support staff's recommended parameters for use of city funds to support an enhanced Mountain View solidarity fund program in agreement terms without the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation for the Solidarity Funds fiscal sponsor. And, Adine, did you have anything you wanted to add before we go into our deliberation?

[04:22:19] Adin Miller: No, I'm here just available to answer any questions if anybody has that. I can, um, certainly add commentary if it's necessary, but, uh, I would prefer you guys to actually have a conversation.

[04:22:30] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, perfect. And look, I love the new logo already.

[04:22:32] Adin Miller: Isn't it awesome?

[04:22:34] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you for the name is fantastic. I love it. As Mountain View resident, I'm just thrilled that we got to this point, so thank you.

[04:22:43] Adin Miller: Yes, of course.

[04:22:44] Mayor Ellen Kamei: All right, council member Show Walter.

[04:22:46] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes, I'm just, Dean, since you're here, I'm just going to ask the direct question, and that's that you are looking forward to working with the solidarity fund as, um, as their fiscal sponsor.

[04:23:00] Adin Miller: Absolutely. Uh, it's been an absolute pleasure, actually, to work with him since December of 2020, and formalize the relationship at the beginning of this calendar year, and to continue the relationship with the volunteer leaders. Anthony and I have been chatting by text, even as this conversation is going on. We have a good working relationship and I think that's key, especially in this kind of fiscal sponsorship relationship. We are there to help the project, get realized, help it get established, um, build it its infrastructure, in essence, to become a standalone organization, if it wants to do that, um, but really serve the community, um, the best that it can.

[04:23:38] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Thank you so much, and thanks for being here tonight.

[04:23:42] Adin Miller: Thank you.

[04:23:43] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Council member Hicks.

[04:23:45] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Well, if council member Mattachek has a question, I thought we were moving into...

[04:23:50] Mayor Ellen Kamei: No, okay. We're in comments now,

[04:23:52] Councilmember Alison Hicks: then I'll comment. So, um, yes, I support the staff recommendation, and I just wanted to add that I'm, I strongly support, uh, community based organizations like this, and I'm glad that, um, that this has moved forward to a new level after, as Anthony had said, 20 years of, of organizing. And I really look forward to, um, to, uh, further progress in the future, some of the long term, uh, types of projects that, uh, Anthony had had mentioned, um, this is the kind of anti poverty program that I'm that I really strongly support.

[04:24:35] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, Council member Mattachek.

[04:24:38] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. Um, I am supportive of the staff recommendation for this program. Um, I appreciate that this program provides immediate help to residents, and I feel like that is what they need right now, given the situation with COVID. Um, I do want to encourage the folks from the solidarity fund to help people apply for rent relief from the state, because that would make the $1000000 go further for other needs. So I would really encourage you to help folks apply for that. Um, It's a really beneficial program. So um, as I said, I'm supportive of the staff recommendation. Thanks.

[04:25:31] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, Council member Leaper.

[04:25:34] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. I'm very supportive of the staff recommendation, and I'm very thankful, uh, for the the folks who put the solidarity fund together and are working so hard on it. And it's a great synergy with uh, the Community Foundation. Um, as well. And I think it's actually very, um, a very powerful model. Uh, to have uh, a group of Latina community members who are so experienced in our community, uh, working together in this way to, um, help families very, very quickly. And, um, so I think that this is great synergy and I'm 1000% supportive.

[04:26:26] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Council member, Abbe Koka?

[04:26:29] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. Yes, I also want to lend my support to, uh, staff's recommendations and thanks staff and, uh, the members of the Solidarity Fund as well as, uh, the Los Altons Mountain View Community Foundation for, um, the collaboration. Um, I, um, really looking forward to seeing that. Again, this is another new concept, innovation, at its best, I'd say. So I'm looking forward to seeing the good work being done. Um, I also wanted to just, um, appreciate, especially appreciation for the expansion, um, to all, um, all individual families, um, in the 30% AMI category. Um, I think, uh, seeing the census, our latest census numbers, um, You know, our demographics are changing and it's becoming more and more diverse. And so I do want to make sure that we are inclusive of everyone, um, who is in that, um, EMI category. So I appreciate that expansion. Thank you.

[04:27:37] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. And, um, Counselor, Walter, I'm marking you as a yes. Is that right?

[04:27:44] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Very definitely, yes.

[04:27:46] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, perfect. I just wanted to make sure. Okay, great. All right, so, um, I've, in terms of, for, for staff, I've heard 6 yeses to your question and I'll add my yes as well. Um, and just, um, I'm really heartened by the community partnership. Not only is it, our community members. We're also linking up with the community foundation, and I love to see this partnership, and I hope that this will perhaps be a model for for the future too, in terms of, um, you know, being able to cast kind of a wideness possible to help the most people who are in need. And I do agree with, um, council member Robbie Kogo's comments that by expanding into all folks who are a 30% AMI or below, will be able to help, um, the most amount of people. So, um, and just before we go, I just want to Agrada, Sarah, Olga, Paula, and Anthony for all your hard work. We appreciate it. Okay. So, um, and I think for the vice mayor, um, the, the public comment we received in Spanish, um, was, um, a big thank you from Lucilla. She's grateful for all the help that she's received through the city. She has received some CSA benefits. Um, high points are she has a 14 year old daughter who's doing really well academically. Um, but they feel the stress of the um, eviction moratorium ending. And so really looking forward to programs like the one at CSA and like this one that might be able to help her. So those are the translations that came through. All right. All right, Ms. Gilmore, do you need anything else from us? Okay, all right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Appreciate it. So we'll move on to item 7, which is our public hearing. Item 7.1. is a residential development at 1919 through 1945 Gamble Way. 574 Escuela Avenue and 1970 Latham. Would any members like to make any disclosures before we get started? So I think we can do as well. Um, perhaps if you met with the applicant, you could just, I could do a raised hand, um, and it looks like Counselor Matachek, Counselor Schoalter, Counselor Robert Koga, the vice mayor, and myself, on that with the applicant. Just noting for staff. Perfect. All right. Um, senior planner, Margaret Netto, will present the report, and then we will have a presentation from Bill Maston, principal architect, and Max, Ermolenko, project manager with William Maston, architect and associates, assistant city manager and community development director, Archie Shravastava, planning manager and zoning administrator, Stephanie Williams, and public works director, Don Cameron, as well as the applicant, Kevin Denardi. And the applicant's landscape architect, Eric Plato, with A-N-LA Associates, are also available for questions. I think we'll believe I believe we're going to start with the staff report.

[04:31:10] Margaret Netto: Good evening, council members. My name is Margaret Netto. There we go. The project before you tonight is located at 1920 Gamble Way. The project site is located on the west side of Escuela Avenue between Mount Vernon Court and Latham Street. Besides general plan, designation is medium density residential, and the zoning designation is R3 dash one, multiple family residential. The multiple, the multi-property project site includes 7 parcels, which you could see here, totaling 2.3 acres and is developed with 72 story residential buildings, containing 29 units. This is the proposed project. The proposal, the project proposes to redevelop the site with the 4 story, 121 unit residential condominium building, with one story of underground parking. The purchase and development of Gamma Way, a 50% density bonus under the provisions of the state density bonus law. Which allows density above the maximum load on the site, and also requires replacement of all protected units. This is the elevation of the site from Escuela Avenue. The unit mix consists of 281 bedroom units, 892 bedroom units, and 43 bedroom units, with units raging in size from 800 square feet to about 1400 square feet. The proposed site, layout is configured to provide an activated street presence with individual units along Escuela Avenue and about a 1400 square foot, common open space in the middle of this, uh, in the middle of the site. Vehicle entrance to the below grade garage is provided from a 26 wide driveway along the northern property line, and you can see there there's the driveway in on the right corner. And then Chris Egress Easement. Over Yammaway, Project Driveway will allow residents at 1970 Latham Street, development to the west to exit Escuela Avenue. Additionally, a pedestrian access easement over the sidewalk, along the driveway allows for public bike, and pedestrian access to replace the access to the public street. The proposed Mediterranean architectural style of development includes smooth, stucco style, and stone veneer, exterior wall finishes, and wood and metal architectural features. The applicant has requested the city vacate the existing street and easements known as Gamma Way, which is about 26,000 square feet or .59 acres to accommodate the project, and there you can see Gamma Way and the 7 parcels that are part of this project. Staff and the developer have reached a tentative agreement on the sale, the vacated land, for a purchase price of $480000 plus additional tenant relocation assistance benefits, pending council approval, and I'll discuss those later on. SB 330, um, the housing crisis took effect on January 1st, 2020. Um, SB provisions applied to residential projects not deemed complete before January 1st, 2020. Um, because the application was deemed complete prior to January 1st, 2020. The project is not required to comply with SB 330. However, comparable replacement requirements for protected units. Oh. However, um, comparable replacement requirements for protecting units and relocation benefits are being provided as part of the project to meet the state density bonus requirements. And as part of the deal terms of negotiated for the sale gamble way, and the enhanced trail benefits are comparable to SB 330. The project is subject to the city's BMR, um, rate, um, ordinance, phase one, as part of the BMR ordinance, phase 2 update, cancel, discuss, grandfathering projects that had been submitted prior to June 30th, 2019. Some staff, staff had some concerns about partial applications being forcibly submitted by applicants who wanted to be grandfathered into the BMR phase one ordinance. Counsel agreed, um, to give applicants time to prepare a comprehensive application by August 24, 2019. In this case, this project had been submitted, had submitted a comprehensive package on June 24, 2019 well before August 24th. Therefore, the project was grandfathered and is subject to the requirements of BMR phase one. BMR phase one allows the project to choose between provisions of anti-units of 10% or a BMR in lieu, amounting to 3% of the sales price of all the units. Density bonus and waivers by providing 36% of the project's density dwelling units, and that's 24 as affordable to low income households per state law. This project is entitled to a density increase of 50% over the otherwise maximum liable residential density. The maximum allowable density on the combined site is 35 dwelling units per acre or 80 units. And the 50% density bonus allows a total of 121 units, which amounts to a density of 52.5, 20 units per acre. In order to maximize the density, a number of waivers are requested under state density bonus law. Um, they're requesting an FAR increase. Setback waivers for the upper floors, a high increase, um, from a 45 to 254 feet, an open area reduction from 55% to 49% and providing state, um, parking requirements, one space for 200, um, one space per per unit, +20 gas bases, which exceeds a state law requirement, which is one space per unit. In addition, the state density bomb spa has a falling replacement requirements, which the project will provide 29 replace all the units on site, which amount to 29 based on tenant income, the project will require 9 very low, units, and 20 very low inconvenience. One tenant remains to be confirmed at which point the final income levels will be determined by the by the move out deadline. If the tenant declines to provide information, the unit will be priced at low income. The sale of Gamble Way, as mentioned above, um, before, a tentative agreement on a sale of a purchase of Gamble Way, the price was 4.800000 plus the tenant relocation assistant benefits, summary of the enhanced benefits, the 42 rent, um, rent subsidy. The 1st rider refusal to newly constructed unit at an affordable price. Um, the tenant also has a right to occupy their current rental unit 6 months prior to construction. Tended to exercise the right of 1st refusal will also be provided interim relocation. At a comparable rent. And also the enhanced BMR, the BMR units are deed restricted and perpetuity. I also want to add after reviewing, um, recent tenor request, the applicant has agreed to 2 additional benefits. The 1st is offering the same options of rental subsidy or comparable units to the tenants, um, who choose not to exercise the right of refusal to purchase a unit. So staff is therefore recommending the following revisions to be reflected in the 2 documents. The conditions of approval, um, number 64 A, and also the terms for the sale of Yamma Way. Staff would like to note, um, that some of the adjustments in the language in both documents may be required to reflect this intent and requires the council to adopt this in their motion. And the 2nd is to provide a right, a 1st refusal to purchase for the 2 remaining loan contenants that did not receive the notice of intent or the NOI to vacate on or before January 3rd, 2020 because they began ranting after the NOI was sent. Um, and this is an addition to, um, condition of approval 64 b. Staff is therefore recommending the revision to be reflected in the same 2 documents, the conditions of approval, and the terms of the sale agreement. Staff would like to note, um, again, that some of these addition, um, language would be, um, required to reflect the intent and requests of counsel and adopt this in their motion. Number two, tenant meanings held on August 25th. And September 22nd of 2021. There's also a neighborhood outreach meeting held in April 2021. Um, the DRC recommended, uh, approval the project pursuant revisions on June 2020. These revisions have been made by the applicant, and are reflected in the plans, the zoning administrator and subdivision committee reviewed the project on August 25th and recommended approval of the project and the vesting tended amount subject to conditions. And the recommendations. Staff recommends approval of the project with the following changes as highlighted on the slide. That concludes a staff's presentation and the applicant is also here, um, to make a presentation. Thank you.

[04:41:28] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you so much. So, I believe, is it? Mr. Master will be making the presentation, is that right?

[04:41:36] Bill Maston: Um, I'll be making the presentation. Can you hear me okay?

[04:41:41] Mayor Ellen Kamei: I can hear you okay? Yep.

[04:41:42] Bill Maston: Okay, great. Bill Maston, principal architect, here in Mountain View. Um, did want to allow access to Max, uh, in my office who will be providing some, uh, support documents on screen if we can let him on.

[04:42:06] Mayor Ellen Kamei: So Max is in the, is it? Are we bringing them over? Let's see. Okay, here we go.

[04:42:19] Bill Maston: Max, can we share the screen?

[04:42:21] Max Ermolenko: Yep.

[04:42:23] Bill Maston: There we go. Okay, thank you very much, and, um, uh, thank you very much to the council as well. First, as always, this project could not have happened without staff's continuous input, uh, the complexities of closing, uh, gamble, um, had its own efforts, uh, especially with public works. Um, but from an architectural standpoint, we collaborated with staff that would create a site plan, um, and overall development that maximized outdoor community space, uh, primarily, um, through the interior courtyards, which from actual shows here in a moment. If you could take us to the next slide, Max. This overview of the site does show the new driveway configuration, along the side of the property, which does also allow pedestrian and bicycle access from behind. Um, we are making use of, um, uh, significant number of photovoltaic panels, which also are hiding our air conditioning units. Um, I just also wanted to note that the 4 story elements are all facing inward towards the, um, central courtyard. And, um, we're providing 3 story elements uh, along the perimeters of 3 sides of the project to help reduce the overall massing of the project. And Max, if you could take us to the Next steps. Just one more slide to show the overall view from Escuela. Um, and if we could, um, make a couple minor comments about the, um, central courtyard. Things are moving a little fast, excuse me. Um, but to point out that in addition to this courtyard, which is almost 200 feet long and about, um, between 40 to 60 feet wide, um, we're providing uh, some, uh, common community spaces, which include, um, a generous entry with, um, seating areas as well as a community, uh, room that also has direct access to the courtyard. and outdoor um, spaces for kids and other um, people living here. So, um, if we just want to take one last look at the courtyard views, I'll finish this up and be available for uh, questions that you might have. That concludes our brief presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have.

[04:45:31] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So I think, um, if the presentation is done. We can stop the screen share. We can bring it back to council. Wonderful. All right, so we'll bring it back to council. Do any members of the council have any questions? For either the 1st staff or for the applicant. They're both available. Council member Mattachek.

[04:46:02] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Just real quickly, um, The 2 changes. Can staff run those by me again? Um, I am looking at the presentation that we received right before the meeting, but it looks like that's old, and that you updated it, is that correct? So I can't really refer to that one.

[04:46:25] Aarti Shrivastava: No, remember, I could answer that question. Yes, we made the changes recently because we just heard right before the meeting from the applicant, and we're working to make these changes. So, um, we'd be happy to share the 2 slides to, to, uh, give you more information if that's what you're interested in, or we could just speak to it.

[04:46:49] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: It'd be great if you could just recap them again for me. I would appreciate it.

[04:46:54] Aarti Shrivastava: Okay, um, the 1st change is basically offering the same rental options, um, to those who choose not to purchase a unit. That are given to those who choose to purchase a unit. Um, so they will, they will get the option of a rental subsidy or the option of a comparable unit in a, one of their properties. Um, um, you know, and if it's more expensive, they'll get the difference. Um, and if they choose to leave the unit, they'll get um, the differential for the balance of the months. So it's basically extending it to those who choose not to purchase a unit. Um, the 2nd is, um, to extend, uh, the ability, um, of the 1st rider refusal for 2 tenants, um, who started renting after the notice of an, um, intent to vacate was sent, and weren't eligible for the trail benefits. Um, so the idea is once the 1st set of, uh, uh, tenants gets to pick, if there are still remaining units in the 29 units that are being provided, the remaining 2 unit, um, tenants also get a chance. They're low income, and they will have the chance to uh, exercise a forced rider refusal. Um, and this is based on, um, the requests from various tenants as well as the tenants representatives.

[04:48:20] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, thank you.

[04:48:24] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you, Council member Hicks.

[04:48:27] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Thank you. Okay, so I think you've answered one of my questions, which was whether the dislocated, uh, tenants can move to some of Todd's Baker's, uh, properties as well. So the answer to that is previously, no, but now yes, I think, if I understood that, right? Okay, good. Thanks. And then, do you have any sense of how many current residents are expected to buy? I'm curious, because it seems like kind of a heavy lift for low income people. Is there any sense of that?

[04:49:10] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: No. The move from renting to owning is quite a large step. And even our BMR wait list. Those who are on our wait list have done the research and prepared for it. So, um, we expect that this process will take quite a while, and we do have time until the units are ready. We have our BMR administrators as well as housing staff to sort of help them navigate the process, as well as look for options for down payment assistance. Um, and and other, um, forms of help. Uh, in addition to just the price of the units. But we don't, at this point, know how many intend to, um, move forward with that 1st writer.

[04:49:55] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. I mean, you haven't had anybody even contact with interest.

[04:50:00] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: All the tenants have shown interest. I think it's interest in understanding the process at this point. Yes.

[04:50:08] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. And, um, so there's no down payment assistance given, but that would be through some outside agency, if I understand, right?

[04:50:20] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: Yeah, similar to our current BMR list. We offer units at certain price points. Um, and and folks have to qualify to be able to purchase units at those price points.

[04:50:34] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And then there's also no HOA fund, but the staff report outlined how much estimated what would be a good HOA fund in cases like this. Am I understanding that right?

[04:50:52] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: Yes. We did not include an HOA reserve in the deal terms. And, um, that currently, um, a project under BMR phase 2 would have been required to provide about 75,000 per unit. And that would amount to about $2.175 million for all 29 units. Um, just a quick explanation. The HOA reserve is not money that goes to the tenants. Um, the price point of the unit incorporates the estimated HOA dues. This is only, this goes to the BMR administrator into a fund where over time, if it goes beyond the expectation, Um, we would have to create a process, um, you know, to to disperse the funds and and get applications.

[04:51:47] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay, I didn't know that. Thank you. And then my last question is, um, for the new water and sewer and so forth, how does that proceed? Does the developer pay for all of that, if there's increased capacity? How does that? You know, with the vacation of the street and the new configuration and expansion of that.

[04:52:11] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: I would ask, um, Don Cameron to respond to it if she's available.

[04:52:20] Public Works Director Don Cameron: Good evening, mayor and council members, Don Cameron public works director. So, yes, in terms of any, um, removal and abandonment of utility lines and gamble way, it will be up to the developer to remove them, reconfigure, uh, take any actions necessary to serve their development.

[04:52:43] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Their development and the other developments that it used to serve.

[04:52:47] Public Works Director Don Cameron: Yes, if they're, yes, they would have to ensure that any other developments that might be feeding off of those lines could continue to do so, but I'm not certain if there are any others feeding off a gamble way.

[04:52:59] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. Okay. Thank you. Those are my questions.

[04:53:04] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Any other council members have questions? All right, I am not seeing any. So, I'll move it over to public comment. Oh, sorry about that, Councilman reliever. Sorry, go ahead.

[04:53:17] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Sorry, no problem. Um, I just had a question about the HOA reserve. So my understanding from the staff report is that that would cover, um, HOA dues. Um, in the future.

[04:53:35] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: Uh, the HOA dos are typically figured into the price points of the units. Um, uh, this is, um, the HOA reserve is an unusual concept and one that, I think we don't know if any cities that have this concept. We implemented it as part of BMR phase too. Because, um, typically, our BMR units for sale units are priced at higher price points. They're usually moderate and above moderate units. But we wanted to flag units that might be at lower income levels and say, yes, the price point figures, the HOA dos, but over time, if they go up much higher than imagined, the city needs to have some kind of a reserve to be able to, um, take in applications for assistance, and to disperse funds accordingly. And that's what the HOA reserve program was intended to do.

[04:54:38] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Okay. And we did potentially cover a scenario where, um, uh, that we've had locally where, um, wood trim starts to rot and, uh, the HOA is responsible for making up the difference on that construction defect and.

[04:55:05] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: You know, um, quite frankly, we have not yet created the program. These are all really good ideas, and I would imagine that if it were part of the overall HOA dues requirements, we could build some of this into it. But we haven't created the program yet. It's, um, it was a newly, a created concept, and we really haven't, um, had units that fit into this category, other than one other project. So, um, I know that over time will be developing that. And this would be a point of consideration, councilman of the people.

[04:55:45] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you for taking it into consideration. And and I was just, um, uh, wondering, like, what is the price point of these units?

[04:55:57] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: Um, I have, let me just go back to the um, FAQs. I know we had provided some, um, And if you just give me a minute, I will, I will look for the, look for the information. Mayor, it might take me a little time, so if you'd like to continue, I will raise my hand when I have the response.

[04:56:31] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, sorry about that, because I remember Lee Burke, is it okay if we'll come back to your question?

[04:56:36] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Certainly.

[04:56:37] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, great. Castle Rochelle, what's sir?

[04:56:39] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I mean, with these projects, one of the things that always upsets the community is the loss of trees. And, um, I, uh, had a discussion with, um, Mr. Gennardi, uh, a couple days ago, and and brought up the idea of, um, uh, them planting some, uh, trees immediately on, or very soon, on other speaker properties. This is a unique, um, situation because the speaker company owns quite a few properties around town. So, um, uh, I, I did wonder if, Mr. Gennardi, did you have a chance to investigate whether, um, you would be willing to plant some more trees to help that canopy? At least the community wide canopy, recover more quickly than if we wait until, um, the construction happens. Um...

[04:57:39] Kevin Denardi: Sorry. Can you guys hear me?

[04:57:43] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yeah.

[04:57:45] Kevin Denardi: Uh, yeah, so I talked with Todd, um, about the option you brought up, uh, council member show Walter. And instead of providing an on-site to his his certain properties, we're willing to just donate to, if it's a tree fund, where you guys can plant them in certain parks or whatever it may be, we're willing to contribute, uh, a dollar amount to that instead of, you know, putting the burden of planting trees on Todd's properties, uh, sold it on his, we're willing to donate the money to the city so they can plant wherever they feel is fit.

[04:58:24] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Um, we didn't really talk about an amount. Did you have an amount amount?

[04:58:30] Kevin Denardi: Uh, we estimated probably between 10, 15,000 to plant trees on Todd's, uh, sites, so it would be around that number.

[04:58:40] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay, okay. Right, right. Well, thank you. Thank you.

[04:58:46] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Great. And I'll circle back to Ms. Shavasta, but do we have the answer for customer believer? I don't see any other colleagues with hands up, so I think we're ready to come back.

[04:58:58] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: Yes. We do. Um, so I'll give you some examples for a very low income, um, unit at 50% AMI, a one bedroom, um, uh, an affordable, um, over the household size of 2 people, the affordable sales price would be, uh, approximately 264,700. Um, a 2 bedroom with a household size of 3 at that same level would be about 316,700, um, uh, a unit, a one bedroom unit at 80% AMI with a household size of 2 would be 439,300, and then, um, a 2 bedroom at 80% AMI and a household size of 3 would be 513,000. Um, $500 um. So, that gives you an idea of the cost of these units.

[05:00:03] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Great. Thank you.

[05:00:04] Mayor Ellen Kamei: All right. So do does anyone else have any other questions? All right. Great. Thank you for that information. We move over to public comment then. Um, And if we could just pull up the, uh, the 2 minute timer. So for any member of the public on the line, who'd like to provide public comment, please feel free to raise your hand. Um, or in the Zoom or you can press Star 9 on your phone. All right. Asusena. Casa non? Asusena, are you there?

[05:00:54] Azucena Castañón: Hello, hola,

[05:00:55] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Asusena.

[05:01:00] Azucena Castañón: Hola.

[05:01:00] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Hola.

[05:01:03] Azucena Castañón: Si bueno noches.

[05:01:05] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Buenas noches. I'll go to the quere de se or, uh, Al Consejo? Uh, , , , Okay. Let's go. See? No escuchamos.

[05:01:38] Azucena Castañón: Okay, bueno noches, a todos. I mean, hombre sasos in a castañol, soy parte de el fondo de solidaridas de Montenbu. Est esto muy agra de cida, muy era de cida por, la confianza, y estamos, uh, Plenamente, uh, Felices de podecer la comonidal. In si al luna, pregunta, de publico, estamos, mis compañeras, yo, aqui presentes, para poder, contestalis, gracias.

[05:02:10] Mayor Ellen Kamei: I, I, uh, terminaste, uh, y todo fuebeno, so muchicimas gracias, por yamando.

[05:02:17] Azucena Castañón: Si gracias.

[05:02:19] Mayor Ellen Kamei: All right. Um, were people able to hear the translation with the English? Okay. Well, Asusana was calling about the Mountain View Solidarity Fund. Um, to, I think she was having some some trouble, um, hearing us. Were you able to do the translation there?

[05:02:39] Unknown Speaker: Yeah, we can hear you now, but we couldn't, we couldn't hear it simultaneously.

[05:03:05] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yeah. And hopefully I was able to tell her that we finished that council item, um, but that, but we did pass it. So... Okay, good, good, good. I want to make sure. All right, so we'll move on to our next public commenter, Emily and Ramos.

[05:03:23] Emily Ramos: Hi, can you hear me?

[05:03:24] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes, we hear you.

[05:03:26] Emily Ramos: Good. Great. Good evening, Mayor Ka May, and members of the council. This is Emily Ann Ramos with SB at home here to support the residential development at Gamma Way. Now, the city has based many projects that demolish rent controlled units and replace them with a net loss or affordability loss projects in the last few years. But tonight, we finally have the tool to create a far better outcomes. We applaud the city council using the street sale of Gamma Way as leverage to focus on the needs of the tenants threaded with displacement. We support the relocation packages that give tenants the number of choices, including the opportunity to purchase one of the new units at a rate affordable to them, receive a 42 month rental subsidy, or be placed at a local or similarly priced unit at the landlord's other properties. Providing the rare opportunity of BMR ownership has allowed us to see the barriers that exist when transitioning our renter to a homeowner, for example, down payment, consistent income, credit score, immigration status, HOA fees. In the long term, the council should explore funding sources to bridge these issues. Mountain View, once again, shows that it's a leader in tackling the region's housing crisis, by acknowledging that the crisis of housing and security, rent burden and displacement, will not be addressed simply by replacing existing homes with new expensive homes, but by following the 3 Ps, producing more housing, by increasing density, preserving affordable housing, by requiring a one for one replacement of affordability, and protecting tenants, by providing a first rate of return and strong relocation assistance options. These kind of solutions show how the city can invest in our existing communities, without gentrifying, and it shows the path forward, now the SV330 project mouthed act. Now that SV 330 will apply to future projects. Developments like these should serve as a model for upcoming council housing initiatives are three district zoning update, and housing displacement response strategies. We support this project in solidarity with the current tenets of the Gamble Way. Thank you so much.

[05:05:19] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Tim Mackenzie.

[05:05:24] Tim Mackenzie: Uh, well, Tim Mackenzie, he him pronouns, uh, Monteloman neighborhood. Just, I wanted to thank you for being able to get, uh, tenant protections similar to SB 330, even though this project, uh, technically, didn't have to comply with it, so I'd love to see that. Would love to see enhanced tenon protections with all developments moving forward. Looks great. And glad to hear that the tenants are on board. So, thanks a lot.

[05:05:51] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Looks great. Thank you. Isaac Stone?

[05:05:59] Isaac Stone: Hello. Uh, good evening. Um, I want to say that I really like this development, and I'm happy with all the hard work that the staff and council has been doing to bring some affordability, and I like the courtyard plan, and I think it'll be a lovely place for people to live. I have a couple of comments. I don't know if staff or anyone has looked into this. Um, But there is uh, the, the South West corner of the development is close to an empty lot. Um, and I was wondering if You could look into the possibility of creating a pedestrian path through the south side of the property, working with the 1970 owners for that little corner and through the empty lot. so that the children, going to school at the elementary school there, could walk and not have to deal with that Latham and Escuela interchange, which is a very hectic place, especially in the mornings. Um, and I was also wondering if you had looked into at all the possibility of providing some ground floor uh, commercials to serve the local uh, neighborhood. It is one of the densest neighborhoods in Mountain View and has very little uh, walkable grocery or anything like that. And I think it would help with traffic and et cetera, if we had some more, um, local, uh, shops to serve the community so they don't have to drive everywhere. Thank you very much.

[05:07:44] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. All right. I don't see any more public comment? Oh, we have one more. So we'll just reset the the timer. E Keating.

[05:07:58] E Keating: Thank you. When I first, um, began hearing about and reading the, the outcome of this project and the proposal, I wasn't sure if I could support it. Uh, there are 2 questions I was asking. Is this a good proposal for the community? And is this proposal good for the tenants? And I think I pretty quickly felt this was a good proposal for the community, because the loss of rent controlled units was being replaced with income qualified BMR ownership units at quite low levels. And also, then the ad of, uh, the market rate units is also good for the community. And then I was concerned that, would the tenants be able to afford, uh, the ownership units, and they won't all be able to, I suspect, afford the ownership units. It's possible, and there will be good efforts to support them, is what the community has learned, hearing more about the ownership BMR process. But some won't. And, but the other option that was introduced just recently, I believe this evening, um, allowing the, uh, three and a half years of the tenants being able to transfer to other apartments and keep their current rent, their current rent controlled rate, uh, without having to, you know, qualify for income and credit worthiness, uh, to transfer to those others, uh, apartments is a big to the tenants. And the last thing is, my understanding is that the tenants are satisfied with this. And other conversations this evening, including the basic income discussion, say that trusting tenants is really important. I do support this project.

[05:10:05] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Thank you, Gail Sisich.

[05:10:13] Gail Sisich: Yes, good evening. Can you hear me?

[05:10:15] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[05:10:16] Gail Sisich: Oh, perfect, thank you. Well, um, hello, uh, mayor and vice mayor and city council members. Uh, I am a 10 plus your president on Gamble Way, and I will be impacted by this uh, relocation package, and 1st uh, I'd like to thank very much, thank the city staff, and the developer for all of the time and effort they put into uh, composing this package, uh, this, I should say, enhanced package of relocation benefits. Uh, this is, uh, cutting edge, and uh, we all certainly hope to see more of this in the future. Uh, my only concern at this point going forward is not so much the affordability, but the down payment question, which was raised by some of the other members of the public. Most of my neighbors on gamble are, I would estimate very low income, and a lot of them have had fairly serious income loss in the last 2 years, and many of them are still catching up, even with state and federal rent assistance, they're still catching up with paying their bills, other expenses in life. And that's my concern is a down payment because even at a 5 or 10% down payment. Uh, I imagine a lot of my neighbors do not have that kind of cash just laying around. I don't have that much laid around. I don't have the same issues that they do, but in any case, thank you again to everyone, and I do support the project, and I hope we can straighten out the few remaining wrinkles. Thank you very much.

[05:11:57] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Kevin Ma.

[05:12:03] Kevin Ma: Evening, counsel, my name is Kevin Mom. I live basically one block away from the project on Ortega, and I would like to echo the comments of the last 2 speakers. It is good that the situation at the end has provided a situation where the tenants of the development were able to have a favorable outcome, and I thank the city and the city staff for having the leverage to go ahead with making such demands from the developer. But I would like to make sure that these kind of situations, these kind of very close calls, do not happen in the future. Recommend the city make a known at loss of rent controlled housing, as well as strengthened trail, as to make sure that people are able, if they are displaced from a project, to be able to stay in the community because prices still keep going higher and the economy is still very shaky, especially for it was shaky before and it's shakier now and during COVID. And I believe that the city should make itself to be a welcoming place for everyone, for those who are making not that much, making, or making too much, or those who haven't been here very long or people have been here all their lives. Thank you, counselor, for this change. Thank you.

[05:13:12] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. All right. I'm not seeing any more, um, hands for public comment, so we can bring it back to, um, council. For deliberation action, and note that a motion to approve the recommendation should include reading the title of the resolutions attached to the report, and that is 7 um, 7 resolutions. Vice Mayor Ramirez.

[05:13:36] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I'll start 1st by thinking staff for their work on this project. I know it's taken a lot of time, and it's been a challenging project for a variety of reasons, but I think it's ended up in a very good place. And I also want to thank, uh, the applicant for, uh, for working with staff and, um, and most importantly, working with the tenants, uh, to, uh, come up with with solutions that I think have worked well for, or are, are working well for everybody. Um, and I just wanna, uh, I'll go ahead and move the staff recommendation. including, uh, so I'm, I'm guessing I have to read all of this, all the 7 recommendations are listed all, uh, or just, I'll just do the, the resolutions. I think those silhouets that actually have to be read. So, uh, adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, ordering the conditional vacation of Gamble Way, as a public street and public easements there on. Um, and then adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View, declaring the city owned portion of Gamma Way, to be exempt surplus land pursuant to government code, section 54221, um, S1 E, upon the vacation of Gamma Way as a public street. Adopt a resolution of the city council, of the city of Mountain View, conditionally approving a planned unit development, and development review permit for a 4 story, 121 unit residential condominium project, with a state density bonus, and the heritage tree removal permit, permit to remove 12 heritage trees at 1919 to 1945 game away. 574 Escuela Avenue and 1970 Latham Have, and then adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, conditionally approving a vesting tentative map to create 121 condominiums in one common lot at 1919 to 1945 Gamma Way, 574 Escuela Avenue, and 1970 Latham Street, and include the modified conditions that staff had, uh, provided in the report. I'll also include, uh, the, uh, it sounds like the, uh, request that council member show Walter had made, uh, and accept voluntary contribution from the applicant, uh, to, uh, increase, uh, or to plant trees or increase tree canopy. Um, one, there wasn't a specific figure provided. So, I'm guessing unless staff needs one, I'll just leave that up to uh, staff and uh, the applicant to negotiate. Uh, and then there, uh, was one other modification I wanted to make. And if there isn't council support, that's fine. happy to strip it. But, um, while I, I think, uh, the figure for the HOA reserve in the staff report is pretty significant. Um, at the very least, uh, I would I think it's important to, uh, include direction to staff. We wouldn't make the allocation tonight, but to provide direction to, uh, use a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Gamma Way or some other funding source, uh, to help the tenants who are currently living on Gamma Way, if they elect to purchase a BMR unit, to help them with that transition. Uh, so city manager uh, McCarthy, I'm hoping you could help me. We talked about this a little bit earlier. So if there's a particular language that would be valuable or helpful. I'm open to what that might be. But it's, it's specifically to work with, um, the, the tenants and the representatives who have been working with them to figure out what that need might be and quantified, quantify it, and then, um, have come back to council at a future date with, um, a recommendation for appropriation, then to help with that transition. And that could be, uh, the HOA reserve, is particularly important, but if there is some value in exploring down payment assistance. I'm open to that as well. Uh, if the council is. So that would be, uh, the motion, the only other thing I'll add is, um, if the, previous, the previous, uh, proposal we saw from the applicant was an exercise in, uh, exploring what we would have liked to a theme, if we had a different set of regulations, I think this particular project serves as, uh, an answer to that question, and and hopefully, uh, a model or template that we can emulate with future redevelopment proposals where, um, naturally affordable rent controlled apartments are demolished and tenants, um, uh, displaced. I think this is a great project. Um, I hope that, uh, we've learned a lot from it and taken what we've learned, uh, in a way that we can apply, uh, with either, uh, the anti-displacement work or or other work that the city's doing. Um, I'm excited to see, uh, the, uh, the relocation assistance and the, the tenant accommodations package workout. I'm hoping we can transition a number of the residents to ownership. Um, and I'm uh, eager to support the project. Thank you.

[05:18:57] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay, so I think that was a motion for the staff recommendation. Um, council member show, Walter.

[05:19:05] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Like to 2nd that recommendation.

[05:19:07] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. So we have a motion by the vice mayor 2nded by council member show Walter. Counselor Matachek.

[05:19:17] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. Um, I was wondering if the maker of emotion would make a couple little tweaks here. Um, and, you know, we talked about this, uh, for other developments, and, um, had the requirement that at least 75% of the plants be native plants. And we know how important oak trees are, they're scheduled plant too. If we could do four. That would be great because I do want variety in the trees. Um, would you be open to that?

[05:19:50] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: So the 75% I'm comfortable with, I just want to check in with the applicant, um, the 4 oak trees is that, Acceptable, feasible.

[05:20:00] Kevin DeNardi: Yeah, so we looked into it with our landscape architects and we'll be able to accommodate the 4 oaks.

[05:20:06] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: I'm happy to include those recommendations.

[05:20:08] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. And then I do feel like I need a little bit more clarity on the, uh, what you're proposing in terms of the gamma way proceeds. Thanks.

[05:20:20] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Sure. Um, so just, just to clarify, I'm not proposing an allocation tonight. Um, I think the staff report includes uh, a fairly large figure if you wanted to provide the HOA reserve under the BMR phase to, um, uh, provisions. And I'm not suggesting that we do that. I think it would be helpful, though, to do some informal check in with the, um, the, the tenants and their representatives to see how many of them are interested in purchasing, uh, BMR unit. And then, um, working with them to, to see if any additional assistance is needed. quantify that and then to come back to council to seek inappropriation. I think that would probably come out of the proceeds of the sale of gamma way, but staff may have an alternative source that they would recommend instead.

[05:21:21] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks.

[05:21:22] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. City manager McCarthy.

[05:21:26] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, thank you, Mayor. I believe Vice Mayor Ramirez just restated what I was going to clarify, but I do want to find out whether that's part of his motion as well. So I now you've you've confused me. So the, is that to, is the request to, or the, the clarification that staff would come back to council for the appropriation?

[05:21:55] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes, yeah, I'm not. I don't want to do that tonight. I'm not prepared to provide a number. So it would be for staff to come back.

[05:22:01] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you.

[05:22:04] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Council member Hicks.

[05:22:08] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, another friendly amendment, along with the increased native landscaping, I think a great deal of the courtyard is, um, plastic turf, which is not a very sustainable material, um, needing watering to not get too, uh, hot, um, and also needing to be replaced on a regular basis. I'm hoping that that can be substituted for some more native surfacing.

[05:22:40] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: That sounds reasonable to me. Just checking in with the applicant is that a request you can accommodate.

[05:22:48] Kevin DeNardi: Uh, Council member Hicks, what did you have in mind?

[05:22:52] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Uh, for more native, uh, I am not a, I am not a landscape architect. I would refer to the the, although I wish I was. Um, I would refer to a landscape architect to, you know, something that's being used in other similar properties.

[05:23:13] Bill Maston: Could I help respond to that, Phil Maston?

[05:23:16] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Sure.

[05:23:18] Bill Maston: Um, keep in mind that the central courtyard is being built on top of a podium with parking directly below it, and we had actually been given direction by staff to provide as much usable play area as possible. And so that was what led us in that direction. So if we were to remove the synthetic turf and replace it with something else, we would still like it to be a usable surface by those people that are living there, not just a raised planter, which won't allow children to run around or anything of that nature. So that was the logic behind it, just so that we're aware.

[05:23:58] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Mm hmm. Yeah, I appreciate that. I mean, I would even amend it to just exploring that with other, you know, what, um, exploring that option. I think there are other options available, but I certainly could not suggest them.

[05:24:18] Kevin DeNardi: Yeah, just to chime in. Yeah, we're comfortable exploring it with staff and seeing if there's other, any other suitable options.

[05:24:26] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. So, is that amendment added to your motion vice mayor? And that's okay with the seconder.

[05:24:38] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[05:24:39] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Okay, great. City manager, my car, see your hand still up. is there anything else to add? Okay, perfect. All right. I wanna make sure. All right. So, let's see. The... Vice mayor put forward the staff recommendation, which was 2nded by Councilman Schol Walter, but that has also been amended to include 75% native plants for oak trees, and looking into, I'm sorry, was it pavement? Uh, looking into uh, uh, to natural landscaping rather than the plastic surfacing for the for the courtyard. Okay, natural surfacing versus plastic. Okay, that is the whole, um, motion. Um, does staff have that? Did we get that right? Does staff need more in terms of what the motion is?

[05:25:38] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Um, no, but I did want to clarify one additional item, um, which I think city manager, Kimber McCarthy, wanted to clarify that staff was also to, um, look at options, um, uh, for either through the spar or other funding to help, um, transition, um, the tendons to purchase units and then come back to council with an appropriation to allocate the funds.

[05:26:09] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Uh, yes. So, so the, I think it was, checking in with the current tenants to see if, uh, if there's any additional assistance that would be necessary to facilitate that transition. And I'm, I'm thinking a particular DHOA reserve, and then down payment assistance to the degree necessary and feasible. Um, so that could be the gamma way proceeds or some other funding source as deemed appropriate by staff.

[05:26:43] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: So, Mayor, we've added that to the language in the motion in my notes.

[05:26:51] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Hey, so where would, would that be like an, there's,

[05:26:59] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: That would be just in addition to the, um, 7 items, that's a future, bring back items, so just be an additional, uh, request for staff to to complete that.

[05:27:11] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Okay. Okay. Do we need anything else then? Is this the final motion? All right. Okay. So, is there any other questions, clarifications, comments? All right. Okay. I think we're ready for a roll call vote then.

[05:27:35] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Thanks, Mayor Ramirez.

[05:27:37] Vice Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[05:27:38] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Councilman Michelle Walter?

[05:27:40] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes.

[05:27:41] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Abby Koga?

[05:27:42] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I.

[05:27:43] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Hicks?

[05:27:44] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[05:27:45] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Lieber.

[05:27:47] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Uh,

[05:27:47] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Council member Metachek.

[05:27:49] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes,

[05:27:50] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: and Mayor, can I?

[05:27:52] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[05:27:52] Interim City Clerk Silvia Vonderlinden: Mission curious?

[05:27:54] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. All right. Thanks, everyone. That concludes item seven. point one. So we'll move on to item 8, which are our council staff committee reports. Does anybody have anything to report? C member hicks.

[05:28:11] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I was just gonna, I'm a representative or observer of, um, the Avenidas senior services, and I haven't updated, uh, council or the public on their services for quite some time. Um, so I wanted to report that they've, they've been moving successfully, as is often difficult for seniors successfully, to providing a lot of online services, um, you know, teaching people how to use Zoom and so forth. Um, and uh, that they're now attempting to, uh, have a grand reopening. It's been a little delayed because of the Delta variant, but they're hoping to move to hybrid services, and be able to, hopefully, come out of the pandemic offering even more than before to our senior citizens. They also have a new program director, Nancy Keegan, who's experienced in the field. And that's my update.

[05:29:18] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you, Kelsmer, Robbie, Kogan.

[05:29:21] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. And her last NTC metropolitan transportation commission meeting. Uh, we approved uh, $200,000 from O bag, 2 funds, uh, for the Mountain View Transit Center, uh, to provide uh, placemaking technical assistance. I think we're going to be talking about the, the pedestrian, um, Part accessibility piece to that. So this funding should be going to that project. So, was excited to be able to, um, support that. And then um, for reporting purposes. I did attend the Cal cities, which was formerly the League of California cities. They've changed their name to Calcities, their conference last week. I want to congratulate our mayor for being elected, uh, the president of the women's caucus. Um, I also attended a couple of um, interesting workshops. One on 0 emission vehicles. Um, there's a lot going on in that, um, area right now. I know we've been working on electric charging stations and that's really definitely a big component of it. But there's quite a bit of, um, funding coming down and and so, um, there's, uh, yeah, lots of opportunity. And then I attended another workshop, but it was really interesting. I talked about retail after COVID, what retail would look like. And contrary to, I guess, even my assumptions that, you know, retail, brick and mortars going away, um, this, uh, workshop, the folks in this, on this panel, um, said that, um, it's, in fact, um, still around, staying around, and just will be in different forms. Um, so, uh, I thought that was interesting. And what basically, there's a lot more of the, you know, pickup, just order online, pickup at your local store, type of, um, retail. And so that may actually, um, the impact, some of our permitting and zoning requirements. So, um, I just thought thought it was very interesting. Um, and kind of buck the myth, I guess, that um, retail is going away. So that was it. Thanks.

[05:31:46] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you, Counselor Matachek.

[05:31:49] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I just want to report that I participated in the Santa Clara County airport and use commission meeting. And, um, I always appreciate it, that when Mountain View products projects go before that commission. Um, our staff shows up. Um, Unfortunately, I never get to participate in those because I recuse myself because those are going to come to the Mountain View Council, but um, I appreciate staff attending those. Um, and then I also participated in the uh, Bosca, Bay Area, water supply and conservation agency, board meeting, and um, we always get an update on the water situation, and it's complicated. Um, but clearly, we want to continue to encourage people to conserve water, um, because it's certainly a dry year. And it's not looking like it's gonna get any wetter. Thank you.

[05:32:48] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Um, so there's no one else. I'll also report that I attended the the Cal Cities conference last week. Um, And in addition to being Lomen's caucus, I'll be on the peninsula division, um, executive committee. So looking forward to continuing to serve our area. All right, so I think this concludes item eight, so we'll move on to item nine, which is our closed session report. City attorney Chopra, do you have a closed session report?

[05:33:16] City Attorney Krishan Chopra: There's no closed session report tonight, mayor.

[05:33:18] Mayor Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Great. Thank you. So move on to item 10, which is adjournment. Thank you so much for joining us, and our next regular city council meeting will be on October 12th, 2021. Until then, stay healthy. Make sure you're registered to vote. its national voter registration day. And the meeting is adjourned at 1034 PM. Thanks, everyone. Have a great night.

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