May 9, 2023 Regular Meeting of Mountain View City Council

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Transcript

[00:04:40] Mayor Alison Hicks: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our study session of May 9th, 2023. The city clerk will take attendance by roll call.

[00:04:51] City Clerk: Councilman Abby Koga?

[00:04:53] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Here.

[00:04:54] City Clerk: Council member Kameh?

[00:04:55] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Here.

[00:04:55] City Clerk: Couns member Mattachek?

[00:04:57] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Here.

[00:04:57] City Clerk: Council member... Marin?

[00:05:00] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[00:05:01] City Clerk: Council member Ramos?

[00:05:02] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Here.

[00:05:03] City Clerk: Vice Mayor of Walter.

[00:05:04] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Here.

[00:05:04] City Clerk: Mayor Hicks.

[00:05:05] Mayor Alison Hicks: Here.

[00:05:06] City Clerk: You have a core?

[00:05:09] Mayor Alison Hicks: We are now on 3.1 on our agenda, which is the recommended fiscal year, 2324 through fiscal year, 2728 Capital Improvements Program. The purpose of this study session is to present the recommended fiscal year, 2324 through 2728 Capital Improvement Program, for city council review, comment, and refinement. Given the need for council member recusals due to conflicts of interest, this item will proceed in the following manner. We will begin with a staff presentation, which will be followed by public comment. At the close of public comment, the council will ask questions, deliberate, and vote on matters requiring council member recusal first. Counsel will then ask questions, deliberate, and vote on the remaining items for discussion. Assistant public works director, Ed Durango, will present the item. Mr. Orango?

[00:06:16] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Durango: Thank you. Making sure that, yes, it's on the screen. Thank you. Thank you, mayor and council members, again, Edorango, Assistant Public Works director, and I'm also joined tonight by public works director, Cameron. So we're here to present the council, the Capital Improvement Program, regular term CIP, for council's review to guide staff and finalizing their recommended fiscal year 2023, 24 through 2027, 28, CIP, or five-year CIP. At the April 3rd council study session, staff provided an overview of the various elements of the CIP, including planned roll forward projects, new projects, and criteria for prioritizing projects. Outlined here are the 9 projects council provided direction on for the five-year CIP, with the details outlined in your memo as to how these have been incorporated into the CIP. The memo also lists how other projects identified at the last study session, such as grant funded projects, Castro Pedestrian Mall, grade separations, trail park, and facility projects were incorporated. At their April 27th meeting, staff presented the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, the materials from council's 1st study session, including council's direction. Staff included an update on the addition of the Evelyn Avenue cycle track project, El Camino Real Protected Intersections Project, and the recommendation to move to the unscheduled list, the Central Expressway, Bicycle and Pedestrian Crossing, Villa Undercrossing, Feasibility study. The committee supported staff's recommendations. Attestment one to your memo are the recommended projects to close at the end of this fiscal year. This will reduce the number of active projects, and more importantly, The unspent balances can be returned to the relative fund source and be appropriated to other capital projects. The projects to highlight are the Mayfield San Antonio BikePed tunnel. active transportation projects, and several annual non-discretionary water projects. The 1st question for council is, does council support the recommendation to defund Mayfield, San Antonio bike bed tunnel, preliminary design, and reallocate $4100000 to California Green Complete Streets Pavement Improvements. As part of the county property tax to support the state water project. Valley Waters Board authorized returning a portion of these funds and making them available through the guiding principles 5 or GP 5 grant program for water conservation programs and recycled water infrastructure. The city's share is approximately $9.3 million. Staff is recommending that the majority of these funds be used for the city's advanced metering infrastructure project, this project would install water meters and communication networks to streamline meter reading and provide usage data to customers. Additionally, availability of a separate Valley water grant program will also provide funding for the advanced meter infrastructure project, and remaining funding from the GP 5 grant program will be available and can be used for the recycled water for recycled water capital projects. Question two, does council support the recommendation to use state water project tax funds for the advanced meter infrastructure project and other recycle water capital projects? Also at the previous study session, staff discussed the high inflation trend and in response, staff is showing applying a 10% increase to all non-discretionary and discretionary projects with construction plan next year. Testment 3D memo lists the non-discretionary projects with the major recommended changes to those projects highlighted here. For discretionary projects, table 2 of your memo lists the recommended projects for each of the next 5 years, including 9 police and fire, related projects for facilities, equipment, 37 active transportation projects, and 4 new park projects. Question number three, does council support the recommended nondiscretionary and discretionary projects for the 5 year CAP? Moving to amendments and unscheduled projects, staff's recommendations of amendments to existing projects are listed in table 3 of the memo, and detailed in attachments of 5 and six. This includes amending funding and modifying the funding source, project scope, and or title. Unscheduled projects listed in attachment 7, are there recommended projects not included in the 5 years AP due to limited funding, lack of staff resources, lower priority than those within the five-year CIP, or planned future projects that are beyond 5 years. Question four. Does council support staff recommended amendments to existing projects listed in table 3 in question five? Are there any projects not included in the recommended? Five-year CIP or not on the unscheduled proposed project list that council would like staff to review for possible inclusion? Lastly, listed here are several major high cost projects included in the five-year CAP that council in the community have expressed interest in moving forward as soon as feasible to support active transportation in new city buildings. These projects are the construction phase for those projects either in design or that will be starting design. Funding sources for these projects are not yet identified, but staff will be looking for grant opportunities to help fund these projects. Staff is recommending that consideration be given to projects, including the public safety building construction, and fire station number 3 construction, for the potential 2024 revenue measure. For next steps, tomorrow night, we will be presenting to the Parks and Recreation Commission, the recommendation of the projects using Parkland funds in the five-year CIP. The commission's feedback will be shared with council with the adoption of the 5 year CIP on June 27th in conjunction with the adoption of the fiscal year, 2023, 24, recommended budget. That concludes my presentation with the council questions listed here for council's discussion and feedback. Thank you.

[00:12:36] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. So now we will be taking comments from the public. First, uh, comments from any members of the public who are here in person, and then comments for people who may be attending virtually. Um, Any member of the public virtually or in person? Please, if you'd like to comment on the item, either submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk or click the raise hand button in Zoom. So... I see no in person speakers. I see no virtual raised hands. So last call for public speakers. And we'll move on. Um, I'll now bring the item back for council questions. Attachment 4 to the study session memo contains a list of recommended 2324 discretionary projects. Project 24 dash 39, which is underground utilities at 1020 Terabella. requires a council member to recuse from any discussion related to that project due to conflicts of interest. Could the council member with a conflict of interest, related to the underground utilities, at 1020 Terabella, please make your easel statement now? Council member Committe.

[00:14:09] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. I am recusing myself from discussion of the underground utilities at 1020 Terabella project due to my employment as an external affairs manager with AT&T, an international telecommunications company.

[00:14:26] Mayor Alison Hicks: Now, does any member of the council have questions or comments about, uh, including the underground utilities at 1020 Terabella on the 23 to 24 discretionary capital improvement program project list? If not, the underground utilities on Terabella will be included on the 2324 discretionary Capital Improvement Program project list, and there will be no further discussion on the underground utilities. There. I see nobody raising their hand to speak about that. Um, So, Council member Kime can be called back. So we will now move to discussing and providing feedback on the 4 questions in the related to us in the presentation, and I will start with a council question. And then we'll move on to comments and answers. Are there any council members who want to ask a question? Vice mayor?

[00:15:45] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Yes, I have a couple of questions. First, I guess we should, we're all going to be saying how much work this was, and thank you. I know in the, you know, in the contest for which report has the most attachments. This is, you know, this is right up there, 7 attachments, and they're all all quite, quite meaty. Um, I, uh... I wanted to ask about how you characterize discretionary, versus nondiscretionary projects. Um, I, I, um, Yeah, why don't you just talk to me a little bit about talk up a little bit about how you do that.

[00:16:34] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Durango: Thank you for the question, council member. The distinction between discretionary projects and non-discretionary projects is better defined as what is termed a discretionary project, which is those ongoing annual projects that are needed for just the regular operation and maintenance of our infrastructure. So it includes utilities, streets, and this is just like an ongoing day-to-day repair and maintenance needs. Anything that falls outside of that is considered non-discretionary.

[00:17:05] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: You're reversing.

[00:17:07] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Durango: Okay, you're reversing it. Nondiscretionary? I sorry. Are the annual projects that are mainly designed towards maintaining our infrastructure and our buildings, our parks, and a state of good repair. They provide a lot of flexibility staff to take care of a lot of smaller scale, repairs and maintenance. You'll notice that some of them, though, also include sewer and water main replacements, and it, again, allows us then to select which ones are next up based upon utility master plans and needs and just keep those projects moving forward.

[00:17:49] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. Well, sometimes people have slightly different definition, which also includes anything that is required by a permit. Or, um, I noticed that I thought that there were some on the discretionary lists that actually were required. We had an obligation to do them, whether, so, in a sense, they're, you know, they're not, they're not an ongoing, We're gonna do them every year discretionary, but right now, that specific project really isn't discretionary. We've made an obligation to do it. So there's a little bit of overlap between those. I just wanted to bring...

[00:18:31] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Durango: Vice mayor, you're correct, and there are some regulatory requirements built in to the nondescriptionary annuals, but again, those are more standard ongoing. But when a project hits a certain cost level, involves major scope, um, and we need to bring on a formal engine, you know, do engineering plans and specs and do a formal public work, public works, construction contract. We tend to, we do call those discretionary projects so that they do receive more oversight and review, including the money that's being allocated to those individual projects. But we are careful when we provide those project descriptions to note if something's being done to meet a regular requirement.

[00:19:15] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, well, I just, I just want to, so, so there is a little bit of flux in that in terms of, of kind of the management required, it sounds like.

[00:19:23] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Durango: Yeah.

[00:19:24] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, and the only thing I kind of wondered about, I think, you maybe want to move the project CIP development to the nondiscretionary list. You've got to do that every year, or every few years, and, you know, we really, we definitely want to do the study, because then we can't make good... We don't do the study, we can't make good decisions about how to spend our money. So, I would just hope we maybe could do that. Um, and then a couple more questions about, you know, this has been a really odd year, or a, um, a record here, in terms of weather. And that has produced a tremendous amount of damage to things. And it's put a lot of wear and tear on things that don't normally have to be, you know, we don't have to worry about. I mean, it's created more potholes. We've lost a lot of trees in the parks. You know, there's been erosive incidents at some corners on streets. I mean, you know, there's just, there's just been this incredible laundry list. We've had power outages that have meant we had to have, um, shelters, uh, opened up. for people who didn't, you know, I mean, really, it's been quite, quite remarkable, all the work that the city has stepped up and done. And we're very proud of you, and we want you to do it. I mean, but I just wondered, is there a capital project associate? I mean, how do we account for that? Is there a project, like, a capital project that's associated with that, or is that not a capital project, because it's kind of an ongoing... I mean, where does that fit in the budget?

[00:21:08] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Durango: So I'll take it 1st crack at this. So thank you for the question. We have experienced with the recent rainstorms, just this influx of additional repair work that is being identified. The non-discretionary funds is where that lives. So the ongoing day-to-day repair and maintenance, such as potholes in the street or a repair that's needed for something that's damaged. It's part of our daily infrastructure repair needs. So it really does sit in the nondiscretionary CIPs.

[00:21:40] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: So where are we keeping track of how, um, kind of unusual a year this is?

[00:21:48] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Durango: I'll defer to Director Cameron, this one.

[00:21:53] Public Works Director Cameron: Absolutely. As part of the recent storms, there has been a significant, as we've all seen, additional water in the creeks and erosion. So as part of this fiscal year, as part of the next fiscal year's proposal to add a capital project to address some of the creek erosion that we've seen, we've added a new project that's specific just to evaluate and address any repair needs that are needed along the creek associated with the recent storms and erosions that we've seen. So that would fall into that category.

[00:22:27] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, all right. And is that kind of the only one the other ones are all, um, uh, just under. Well, the reason I'm just wondering about this, besides the fact that I know that many of these things are episodic. You know, when we have a big rainstorm like this, they rain period like this. It creates these things that need to be dealt with. Um, And I wonder, is there any historical, um, or ongoing historical value for having a separate project to keep track of that, or, or does it work? I mean, does it work fine the way it is? Because this is the 1st winter we've experienced this extreme level of storms and solves some of the, you know, as you're saying, that tree falls, the creek bank erosion, the pavement repairs, you know, since we've been in a drought.

[00:23:23] Public Works Director Cameron: Right now, we would suggest we handle it the way we have, as assistant director Erangel mentioned, because of we were aware, and have noted some Stevens Creek. Bank issues. We have proposed a new CIP project that will allow us to do a more formal assessment and paved the way for an additional CIP potentially to make repairs if, you know, once we fully assess it. But in terms of ongoing tracking, may want to wait to see if this becomes more of a regular occurrence every year. For now, again, we are able to address most of the repairs that are necessary through the non-discretionary annuals. That is one of the key things that they're there for is for us to dip into them. And, um, through this special project now that we've identified to deal with some creek erosion. I'll note that staff has developed a working public works and community services has worked together, produced a memo to council that does summarize the damage that we have seen from the storms and hope to have that ready to send to you soon.

[00:24:42] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Oh, that's great. Okay, thank you. I appreciate that.

[00:24:47] Mayor Alison Hicks: Council member Mattachek.

[00:24:48] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So I sent in the question about how do patches in the roads impact PCI pavement construction index? Sorry to be so in the weeds on this one? But, um, I would say that, um, right now, the most common thing residents contact me about, or talk about, um, are the state of our roads. And it's nice to see that so many people now recognize that El Camino Real is not a city road. We're making progress. But the rest of the roads, man, it's surprising how many people are concerned about the state of the roads. So I didn't do a very good job of asking that question on paper, so I'm going to try again. I was asking about how are patches when patches are done by people who have cut into the road to lay new pipes or other infrastructure, not necessarily a pothole? Like, do we hire, is it an outside agency that calculates the PCI for every single road, or is it internal that we do that? And then how do we factor in those patches done by others, not the ones done by the city? And maybe this is something you need to say, Lisa, here's a link to the manual on how to calculate PCI, and that's fine.

[00:26:21] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Durango: Thank you for the question, council member. I probably will do that for a portion of it. Let me see if I can tackle the question about our PCI. So our PCI is evaluated every other year, typically, through the metropolitan transportation commissions program for their pavement program where they identify a consultant to come out and evaluate all the cities in the area as pavement, and then they provide a report, and that generates the PCI, which is based on the condition of the roadway. for each of the streets, and as a whole collectively as an average of streets. As far as the patching by others. So when Typically when utility cuts are done in roadways, they're done by other utility companies, a developer or a homeowner that does this for their own utility upgrade or needs. So as part of that, the city issues a permit. It's an excavation permit that outlines conditions and details on how to repair and patch the roadway to meet our standards. And so they're very detailed guidelines on when you cut the roadway and you excavate and you do repair, when you do the patchwork, we have a specific guidelines that identify that you need to bring it up to our standard for trench cuts. So that's the document that we really use and rely on and the inspectors do to ensure that the payment condition of the roadway patch is in great condition when it's left. So that way it's level, it's meeting our asphalt requirements, and it looks better than it started at that spot.

[00:28:11] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, I'm thinking a lot of people are not necessarily following those regulations. I shared with the city manager that there is one company that I think has done a terrific job of patching. Um, and, um, it's surprising, it's PG&E, uh, but they've done a lot of work on Wisman Road, and their patches are terrific. But I can't say that for all the other ones throughout the city. And I don't know how we fix that. Um, because those, the unevenness and it's like the patch itself is not even consistent. It can be bumpy, and sometimes it's lower than the road or higher than the road, and for both bicyclists and vehicles. It's just not a pleasant experience. So it's like, how do we get greater consistency when roads are patched by others? Um, because there is a lot that is going on because of development throughout the city. So how do we do that?

[00:29:15] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Durango: So I think one avenue is informing us, informing staff that there is an issue with a specific location. I think another element may be, um, a lot of times construction is done over a duration. So when they do the initial patch, they're not really ready to do the full final patchwork. So they put back what we call is cutback. It looks like asphalt, but it's more malleable, and then as it wears and it weathers, tires get on it, it really starts to mold a little bit and starts to get bumpy, as you mentioned. And they do that on purpose to provide some kind of safe surface while they finish other patchwork repair and then come back efficiently to do the roadway paving all at one time for the trench work. So, again, it's maybe a combination of what you mentioned, which is poor workmanship that we just need to be aware of. cutback that's put in place as part of a larger effort to kind of do this in a more efficient way and come back and dispatch everything. Or it's something that we just need to be aware of that is it's not holding up and the contract needs to come back and fix it.

[00:30:24] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, so if I told people, if they encounter that to let me know, and I would pass it on to staff, I think sometimes the contractors think they are done, because I don't see any construction happening in areas. And sometimes that's the case where they go away and then they come back and

[00:30:39] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Durango: we appreciate the feedback as well because I'm going to go back to our construction section to ensure that when they are looking at construction patches, that it needs to be, you know, meet the weathering requirements so that way, it'll stay in a good condition for the duration of the temporary patch and they can monitor on an ongoing basis. But we have a lot of permits. So again, more eyes, the better. And if you tell us we can respond and get something out there quicker.

[00:31:10] Public Works Director Cameron: If I may also add on so that you don't have to be, the conduit for everything coming in citywide. You're also welcome to advise him to submit an ass Mountain View.

[00:31:21] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[00:31:22] Public Works Director Cameron: Then we will immediately send out either a member of our streets crew or our inspection crew to take a look at the situation, but it's, you know, it's a good way for the community to contact us directly.

[00:31:35] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes. I do tell people a lot to use Ass Mountain View, so I will continue to do that. Thank you. And the other question I have is, while putting together this information was a lot of work. Actually, the execution of this is a huge amount of work. And so I'm wondering, um, is this plan based upon having, um, full staffing, or is it 80% staffing, or... What is it?

[00:32:07] Public Works Director Cameron: It assumes full staffing. And it is still an ambitious plan. And we do focus in primarily on what we show in the first two years, because we want to be able to deliver those, knowing that we may need to adjust what we show in years, 4, 3, 4, and 5, not just based upon changes in funding conditions, but what's going on with the staff workload. So we really try to focus on the 1st 2 years in terms of, you know, do we have, will we have the staffing to deliver it? I'll note a couple more things, because I do appreciate the fact that council is very aware of our staffing challenges, and I've been appreciating the patients. Council is shown in terms of delivering capital projects. We definitely slowed down over the last year and a half, and we're really working to catch up. We've put out more projects to bid in the last 6 weeks than we did all year last year, and we have a couple, and we're really trying to get the projects back on track. One of the things we also did about 2 years ago, that you approved through the budget process, is we divided our capital projects team in half, and you approved a principal project manager position to be added, and therefore, we could allow our principal civil engineer that oversees major infrastructure projects to just focus on those projects. While we had the principal project manager come in to take over parks and building projects, which tend to need to require a combination of architectural expertise as well as engineering expertise. And that reorganization was set up to set us up in the long term to be able to deliver more projects more efficiently. By the way, this is an addition to a third engineering capital projects team in public services that delivers the utility capital projects. However, with approving that, it still took time to fill it. It took almost a year to fill the principal project manager position. In that time. We had a lot of retirements, and we needed to then backfill his staff, because he walked in the door with three vacancies, and we just hired our third senior project manager, started about two weeks ago. One more vacancy in that section. We're working hard to fill the civil infrastructure vacancies, and, um, have, cross our fingers, have offers out, working on it, filled a couple positions. So we're really moving quickly to fill the positions, and if we're successful, you know, I have greater confidence, we can carry forward on these projects, especially with the reorganization we did a couple years ago.

[00:35:08] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay. Um, I'm a little bit concerned, um, and I'll just say I'm open to staff suggesting, um, which projects, um, we might move from the upcoming fiscal year to later, if that would help. Thank you.

[00:35:30] Mayor Alison Hicks: Yes. Thank you. I know we're all concerned about staffing, so it was great to have that detailed review. Are there other council members with questions? I'll ask one question that I asked, uh, I asked in our written council questions, but I'm, I just want to know a little bit more. I asked about, uh, there's a project to study design and construct cycle tracks on Evelyn, from Franklin Street to the Sunnyvale Limit, and I know that, uh, Mayor Klein, the mayor of Sunnyvale, often speaks about, uh, project to, uh, allow you to bicycle through, like, beautiful bike lanes, going from Murphy and Sunnyvale to Castro in, in, uh, in Mountain View. So, I'm wondering, I know that, sort of, the streetscape changes when you go from Sunnyvale to mountain views. So I'd like to know, like, how is this project proceeding, and how might you coordinate with what it seems they're hoping to do in Sunnyvale, so that we could bike back and forth sometimes.

[00:36:42] Public Works Director Cameron: Thank you for the question mayor. So, first off, as the elected officials from Sunnyvale, we're contacting you and a couple of our other council members. We, I, personally, called Sunnyvale's key transportation person to ask them, what is the status of their plans for the Evelyn Avenue bike way? Why is this now generating so much interest? And it turned out that they had applied for a grant. And it looks like they were going to receive it, so they were interested in moving forward with the idea of a cycle track, or a two way protected bike way, if you will, that parallels the Caltrain track, so to be on the north side of Evelyn. So we spent a little time talking about what that would mean to continue it through Mountain View and connect up to the transit center, and looking at it, you know, he informed me that, as you were saying, their streetscape is very different. They do not have a median, they do not have trees, and that a lot of it for them will be repaving and shifting lane lines and order to create the space required to put in the cycle track. And it appears they have a little more room than we have between the road and the railroad tracks along several these sections. However, we had already had in our unscheduled project list to do a feasibility study to see what it would take to add similar cycle tracks on our section of Evelyn. So knowing that they were ready to move forward, it is one of the reasons that we have now added into the recommended CIP discretionary project lists funding in order to begin for us to do a feasibility study, because for Mountain View, most of most of Evelyn has a landscaped median with trees. And our road is almost right up against the fence line for the couch train tracks. So, one of the first steps to do is we've got to study what our options are to put in a cycle track. Are we going to remove a traffic lane, and reduce down to one lane heading towards the transit center in downtown? Or do we need to talk about narrowing the median or removing the median and affecting those trees? So our process is going to be a little more longer and evolved than Sunnyvale's. It would require a lot more technical work. We are proposing we want to get started on the feasibility study so that we can start sharing that with the community and with the council. But on the assumption that there is a desire to make this happen one way or another, we also added in money in the planned CIP to proceed with design, once we know the preferred alternative, and then 2 years later, what it could potentially cost to construct it. Because we may not be able to go as fast as Sunnyvale, but we would like to not be too far behind them.

[00:40:00] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, thank you very much. Um, it sounds, I hope we can do it. Sounds exciting to me. So this is a last call for council questions in case anybody thought of one? Um, So now we will look up, uh, if you can put the 4 questions up on screen for us or 5 questions, I guess. So now we will do answers and comments to the 5 questions. Are there any council members who want to start? Or if you're hesitant to answer all five, you could answer one or two. And we could come back to you.

[00:40:52] Mayor Alison Hicks: Council member Abbe Koga.

[00:40:54] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. I'll go ahead and start. Thank you to staff for all of the hard work on this. This is always quite an endeavor. Um, and thank for, um, thank you for your thoroughness as a result. I actually support all of the recommendations one through five. I'll keep it at that. Thanks.

[00:41:15] Mayor Alison Hicks: Council member Kamet.

[00:41:16] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. So, I agree. Yes, I support one through five. I think the only thing I wanted to note for question number 4 is just looking at some of the potential projects for the grade separations, gives me a little bit of heartburn, just due to the cost. And so I'm just always grateful that staff is looking for grant opportunities. You know, I continue to hope that particular, like, you know, our federal partners, um, will provide those. And I know that we sit on many regional bodies. So just, um, I don't know how quickly some of those will happen. And so I know we're always keeping our eye out, but I think, um, I would just hope, and in reading some of the answers to the council questions, It sounds like there's flexibility on report backs to council in terms of as things are changing in the climate that we're living in as the vice mayor was talking about. So if anything comes up, I just wanted to highlight, um, that I would be interested in that, whether that just be, you know, off agenda, um, just to make sure that we meet those deadlines, because I know that this can always be kind of tight crunch too. So, but much thanks to staff, as always, for a very comprehensive list, and I can't wait till next year when we hear that all the vacancies are filled, and we're going to be able to start doing even more things. Thank you.

[00:42:44] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you, vice mayor.

[00:42:47] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, I am going to talk a little more, but this is public works, and that's sort of my thing. So I hope you'll bear with me. First of all, I just like to make some comments on the attachments, because I think it's, you know, it's good to get feedback. I particularly like detachment five. You know, this is the one where you have a little box for each project, and you, you know, you talk about where the funding comes from, and kind of how it's different. I mean, why it's in here. I really like that. It was easier to read than the tables. And it did, it was kind of lengthy. I don't remember how many pages, but it was a lot. But anyway, I really like that. So thanks for that. And likewise, the unscheduled proposed projects, I think that's seven. I really found that one. I like that one. The first one, I felt, I need attachment one, that's the laundry list. I think it has like 200 projects on it. I felt like I needed a little bit of a magnifying glass for that. I don't quite know how you can fix that or if there's a way to fix it, but, um, uh, it was, you know, it was difficult to read and kind of keep your attention. Um, so maybe, even just breaking them up every five projects or every 10 projects, so you could... don't know. Anyway, I had a little trouble reading them. So I wanted to let you know that, but I really liked, um, particularly, uh, attachment, um, five. I thought that was very helpful, because, you know, when you jump from the study report to the attachments, you kind of lose your train of thought. And so, that had the information in the, um, in the table that was in the, in the study report. I found that really helpful. Okay, so, um, and then I also wanted to make a comment about, um, the, uh, question number two. Does the council support staff recommendation to use state water project tax funds for the Advanced Metering Infrastructure Project and other recycled water capital projects? Yes, I would like to say an enthusiastic yes to that. And I just like to mention to my fellow council members that one of the reasons this is so important is that it's very difficult to ask people to save water if they don't know how much water they're using. And these advanced meters will provide everybody with that information. So it's really important going forward as we continue in this whiplash weather cycle, which seems to be where California is moving with, you know, climate change. that we do provide people with more information. And so I think this is really valuable, and I wholeheartedly support it, and, of course, the recycled water is another, you know, another adaptation measure that's very important for, um, for moving forward with, uh, climate resiliency. So, um, the only, then, then, so, so, yes, on all of these, for question five, I was going to bring up, again, the idea of, maybe we don't do it this year, but somehow commemorating, keeping in mind, um, uh, just all the incredible amount of work that was done this year because of the extreme water. Um, water cycle, and if there is some sort of way, we should be, um, really almost historically, uh, recording that. And analogously to that, I wonder, have we done a report? I think we have done a report for all the things we did for COVID. We have done a report for that, haven't we? City manager?

[00:46:29] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yeah.

[00:46:30] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Yeah. So kind of a similar line. So anyway, those were my comments, and thank you very much.

[00:46:36] Mayor Alison Hicks: So just to clarify, you're asking for a storm damage report to counsel.

[00:46:41] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Well, they're making one.

[00:46:42] Mayor Alison Hicks: That's what I thought.

[00:46:43] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yeah

[00:46:43] Mayor Alison Hicks: So that's good. So you're happy that they're...

[00:46:45] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: very happy.

[00:46:47] Mayor Alison Hicks: That was the one I was going to ask. Okay, it's added. Okay, got it. Um, Council member Matic.

[00:46:53] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. I also am supportive of the staff recommendations. I will add, though, that if there was any way possible to add additional budget to fixing roads, Uh, I would appreciate it. And I know I've said this before, I don't feel that we need to be limited by the amount of funds we get from restricted sources. I think it's up to us how we spend unrestricted funds. And I'm okay taking some of those unrestricted funds and putting them toward road maintenance, because it is something that we hear a lot about, and the storms certainly did not help. But in general, yep, I agree with all the other recommendations. Wait, and as I said before, If there are things that you think we should consider moving to later years, please do let us know. Thank you.

[00:47:56] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you, Council member Ramos.

[00:47:59] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you, Mayor. I'm glad that my colleagues went before me because I was looking at the staff recommendations and I was like, I'm comfortable with all of them. Is this a trick? Um, so um, I am supportive of all staff recommendations. Thank you so much. It is clearly a lot of work. It's highly ambitious. I like being highly ambitious with what we can do for our community. Um, I'm supportive of uh, uh, vice mayor, show Walter's comments, about tracking storm damage, and uh, because as we deal with our future of climate change. We're going to get more significant droughts, more significant floods in rapid succession. I'm also in support of seeing what we can do for greater consistency and road patches that council member Mattachek brought up. I kind of almost imagine that we could even have, um, similar to how we have like a cert program, but like a road patch hunter program where people can easily, um, like, really band together to to track these road patches. I feel like some people kind of do that already. Um, and because it would be kind of important to see how often do we have these subpar patches, how long do these subpar patches happen? And if there are certain areas that have repeated subpar patching work, I would hate to think that, like, areas around, say, Castro City have more likely to have subpar patching than places like, I don't know, downtown. Um, So it'd be nice to keep track, especially if there might be equity issues related to that. But other than that, thank you so much to staff and your hard work on this. I support, um, I'm comfortable with all of Steph's recommendations.

[00:49:59] Mayor Alison Hicks: Council member Ramirez.

[00:50:02] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. Everyone else in the council, I support the staff recommendations and don't have a whole heck of a lot to add. Um, uh, like council member Mattachek. I'm hopeful that we can achieve everything on this list. And I'm also looking forward to fully staffing up, but if it's helpful, some of the projects that I was looking at that I think probably could safely be pushed out a little bit are predominantly North Bayshore related, like the landings related, generally LOS improvements. If that project is paused, you know, if what we're observing based on the trip cap analysis is showing that we don't really have the same level of congestion that we had experienced prior to the pandemic. Those are consequently lower priority projects at least for me. But I appreciated the staff responses to the questions and the packet prior to the meeting. I don't feel that we necessarily have to change anything right now, but as we learn more, Those are the things that I feel we can safely push out. Thank you.

[00:51:25] Mayor Alison Hicks: So, like, uh, other council members, I support uh, the staff recommendations for all 5 questions. I guess the only additional comment that I had, I thought maybe for prioritization, what I saw, and this is a next time thing, what I saw was people were prioritizing a lot of sustainability related projects. And so maybe that's something... I didn't see that in our criteria for prioritizing projects. I didn't see that maybe quite as specifically called out, as maybe the direction Council is moving in. I think it's there in some vague terms, but, you know, looking at how our sustainability action plans and active transportation and council sustainability committee projects, maybe ones that could be tagged that relate to those or any other sustainability. But that's for sustainability projects, but that's for the future. Um, and so what I'm hearing is support for the staff recommendations for all five projects, looking forward to your report back on storm damage, and how that relates to CIPs, and, um, that push projects out if necessary, but tell us what you're pushing out. And maybe the North Bay Shore projects, some of them, depending on how that situation evolves, is what I'm hearing. Is there anything else that people that council members think I should add to that summary or staff?

[00:53:09] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Well, I mentioned if there's a way to increase funding for road conditions. Um, I would support that, um, and I do support if there's projects that would be pushed North Bay Shore ones might be good candidates. Thanks.

[00:53:25] Mayor Alison Hicks: So let me get clarity on the road conditions. You want a certain amount from the general fund, or what is it that you want, exactly?

[00:53:33] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Now, if there's a way to increase funding, and it might be from the general fund, it might be from projects that get pushed, and then funds are available, I would, or something comes in under your budget. I don't know exactly how funds might be freed up. There might be many ways, but, um, I just would like to if we could increase the amount we spend on roads.

[00:53:55] Public Works Director Cameron: So thank you. We will, um, go back and re look at the amount of money that's been already allocated related to road pavement projects, uh, both interns of city funds, as well as the other funding sources we receive gas tax. We have measure B, local road funding funding. We have VTAs, VLF, funding. There's a variety of sources that come in. Some of them are really small, but we pull them all together, and then we have the state Senate bill, one funding that comes in. Again, one of the issues that we have faced, that is delayed us, is our staffing issues. So we've had quite a bit of this other funding build up, including the measure B funding and the SB1 funding that we have not spent. Just be honest with you about that, because we haven't been getting the projects out to bed. So we were absolutely thrilled that we got two major road pavement projects out to bid in the last couple months, and we've opened those bids and are getting ready to award both of those construction projects. And we have others that we're working on preparing. Um, Meramonte is an example of one. So we're going to be start spinning down the other funding sources that we've accumulated 1st and but we'll also take a look at whether additional funding would be useful to supplement that in terms of getting some of the other projects delivered. The one thing, again, that we try to point out in our staff report, is the unrestricted CIP funds are in great demand, and there are many, many types of projects that can't use the restricted funds, so it is, for us, a consistent balancing act. But we will go back and take a look and see if it would be useful, and if it's possible to do more if we had more money, because it's back to workload again.

[00:56:08] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. I appreciate it.

[00:56:10] Mayor Alison Hicks: So, is that sufficient, or do you want a straw pull on something? Okay, that's good. And then for support for one to five? Do

[00:56:18] Unknown Speaker: we need a straw pole, or was it clear enough? We need a straw pole.

[00:56:24] Unknown Speaker: Yes, it was clear enough.

[00:56:25] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, I shouldn't ask two questions at once. Okay. So seeing no complaints from council members, I assume that we're supporting all 5 staff recommendations. Um, and So, uh, we are now adjourning and taking a break until 6.30 p.m. when our regular session will begin.

[01:01:42] Mayor Alison Hicks: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Mountain View City Council of May 9, 2023. Please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Now the city clerk will take attendance by roll call.

[01:02:18] City Clerk: Council member Abbe Koga.

[01:02:20] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Here.

[01:02:20] City Clerk: Council member, can I?

[01:02:21] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Here,

[01:02:22] City Clerk: Council member, Metachek.

[01:02:23] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Here.

[01:02:23] City Clerk: Council member Ramirez.

[01:02:24] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[01:02:25] City Clerk: Council member Ramos.

[01:02:26] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Here.

[01:02:26] City Clerk: Vice mayor show Walter,

[01:02:27] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: here.

[01:02:28] City Clerk: Mayor Hicks.

[01:02:29] Mayor Alison Hicks: Here.

[01:02:30] City Clerk: Unorn.

[01:02:32] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. So we are now on item three of our agenda, which is presentations. Please note that these are presentations only. The city council will not take any action. Public comment will occur after the presentation items. If you'd like to speak on these items in person. Please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. First, we will be doing our bike month proclamation. So we're happy to be joined this evening. by bicycle pedestrian advisory committee chair James Kuzmo, and also Caltrans District 4, bicycle advisory committee member, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition Policy Advisory Committee member, and Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Active Transportation Working Group, co chair, April Webster. Um, you're going to think there's a bunch of people, but it's two people. actually. To accept this proclamation. Um, so, uh, Ms. Webster and Mr. Kuzmo, will you please join me at the lectern? So, let's see. Is this on? Yes. So, this is a mercifully short proclamation. I'm not reading the very long ones anymore. I'm summarizing them, but I will be reading this one. So, um... Whereas for more than a century, the bicycle has been an important part of the lives of most Americans, and whereas today, millions of Americans engage in bicycling, as an environmentally sound form of transportation, et cetera, whereas the education of cyclists and motorists, as to the proper and safe operation of bicycles, is important, et cetera. Whereas the League of American bicyclists and independent cyclists throughout our state are promoting greater public awareness of bicycle operation and safety education, et cetera, whereas Mountain View has been named a silver level bicycle friendly community by the League of American bicyclists, now, therefore, I, Alison Hicks, mayor of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues, on the city council, do hereby proclaim the month of May. as Bike month. And so you each get your very own copy of the proclamation, which you can hang in your living rooms from now on. And I'd like to know if you have any comments to make. I understand, Ms. Webster, that you also have some slides to show.

[01:05:36] April Webster: I do, yes, because my memory is a sieve.

[01:05:39] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay. So, Mr. Kuzmal, do you have any remarks to make? You can make them to the microphone.

[01:05:48] James Kuzmo: don't have anything specifically prepared, but I would like to encourage everyone to get out and ride your bike this bike month, and I hope that all the good work the city is doing, as evidenced by the CIP presentation before this will make it so that our streets are safer for everyone to bike and walk on, going forwards. Thank you.

[01:06:07] Mayor Alison Hicks: And Ms. Webster?

[01:06:08] April Webster: Sure. to Okay, thanks. Sounds great. Obviously, I'm thrilled to receive this honor. I'd like to bike. Um, but, um, one thing. If you could move on to the next slide, please. I really want to use this platform to acknowledge just how much we've accomplished in the city of Mountain View just over the past few years, and I put together this visual to try and capture that through the council and staff's leadership and hard work. We have laid the foundation necessary to create a connected network of bike lanes and urban linear parks. Just in the past month, we have prioritized 2 green complete streets projects that you see on the right. And we have also committed to revisiting our parking regulations, which presents us with the opportunity to open up more space on our streets for people and green infrastructure. Next slide, please. I just want to give you a visual of where all this hard work can take us, and it can move us from where we are in a hotter and slightly more hostile landscape on the left, to a safer, more attractive, and less stressful landscape that people actually want to use. And this is what we need to see a real modality shift. Next slide. Just elaborate on this vision. Green streets are more inclusive and comfortable for people of all abilities and ages, not just the strong and fearless. For whom our streets almost exclusively cater at present. Next slide. They also help us address greenhouse gas emissions through carbon sequestration, reduce urban heat island effects, make our cities more resilient to flooding and drought, and provide pollinator habitat. Next slide. I promise this isn't too much longer. I just want to let this all sink in as it is critical to create the vision we want in Mountain View. And I just want to say how excited we are to start seeing some of these green complete projects take root as we break round over the next few years. Next slide. I wanted to share with you some really good news, and to point out, we are now very, there's new money available, and we are strategically positioned to take advantage of it. There are two on the screen. There are 2 new funding programs that I just learned about 2 weeks ago for transportation infrastructure projects that address climate resiliency. There's the LT cap and protect. One is already open, another is opening just in two weeks, and they're closing at the end of summer. If you want to get more information, the full description is on the slide, I don't want to read it out. But I also wanted to point out some other really exciting news. And that Caltrans has just released their updated complete streets design guidance. And I was really excited, and a lot of people in the industry are as well, to see that it includes green streets and narrow car lanes. This can have a huge impact. Next slide, please. I want to encourage you to keep innovating, and you have our support, the community's support. One thing that we could consider is supporting continuing education for our traffic engineers. There have been a lot of changes in the past few years to the policies and standards for building active transportation infrastructure. And there are courses out there, such as the safe systems approach course. Next slide. I just wanted to point out, we also have support from the top. The, to quote the former director of Caltrans, that is keynote address in 2020 at the green streets for sustainable communities symposium. If we want to solve the problem of climate change, we need to tackle the source of the issue. This starts with us creating a more multimodal transportation system and investing in green infrastructure. We can no longer just focus on legacy-based approaches. Next slide. Finally, on behalf of the community, I'd like to say how incredibly excited we are with the direction that Mountain View is taking. And I would like this moment to say thank you. Thank you for taking the pivotal steps to ensure our streets are safer. Thank you for ensuring they are more inclusive and inviting, and that they're ready to handle the ravages of climate change. Thanks.

[01:11:36] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. So, I was going to take comments at the end of both presentations, unless you're just dying. Say... Okay. So, I'm gonna take, we have two presentations, and I'm gonna take comments from, uh, council and members of the public after both presentations. So, next, we're going to be joined by the Mountain View Academy principal, Mark Andres, and some of his colleagues, to accept proclamation for the 100th anniversary of the Mountain View Academy. So, Mark, you can join me at the podium. Now, this one. This one is a very lengthy proclamation. Um, so, I am not, I'm not gonna read every single word, um, but I'm extremely pleased to, uh, give you this presentation. And I'm gonna, and the reason I do not give all the proclamations we're asked to give. And the reason I chose to give this one is that the seventh day Adventist community has been really a historic addition to Mountain View. So here is your proclamation, signed by the mayor. And I'm going to sum it up just to say that the Mountain View Academy is celebrating 100 years of providing high school education in Mountain View. Its secondary school, ages 9 through 12, and part of the 7th day Adventist educational system, the 7th day Adventist Pacific Press Publishing Association came to Mountain View in 1904. And it was a big part of Mountain View's economic vitality strategy at the time, we have an economic vitality strategy now. Mountain View had a population of about 600 people at the time. and was looking to grow and add, I guess, high tech businesses, such as publishing. It was kind of the Google of the time. We lured Pacific Press away from Oakland by donating five acres of land, and a local bank offered a $50,000 loan with no strings attached, which was a tremendous amount of money at the time. So, the campus is still there today, and many people moved here to work at the Pacific Press and started what is now our Swan neighborhood, Southwest Association of Neighborhoods, you know, houses that are still largely the same as they were over 100 years ago when people built them to work at Pacific Press. So the end of the, and the Pacific Press and the 7th day Adventist community is in a lot of Mountain View's history books, like the milestone history book, if you've read it. So the end of your proclamation says, now, therefore, I, Alison Hicks, mayor of the city of Mountain View, do hereby recognize the 100th anniversary of the Mountain View Academy. And would you like to say a few words? I will listen from the dice.

[01:15:18] Mark Andres: Mayor Hicks and council members just want to say thank you for this honor for the proclamation. And also, my board members that are here with me, I'm joined by our board chairman, Dr. Renee Tabiola Kerner, and the representative from our school district office, the Central California Conference of Education. He's our Vice President for Education, Ken Bullington. We're just so thankful for the recognition. We have been part of the community, and we're thankful for the space and the support you've given us there on our little corner of Shoreline in California for so many years. On a personal note. So, I'm a student. I'm as a graduate of Mountain View Academy. I've been there for over two decades, and my first experience with the city council was when I was assigned by my government teacher to come to city council meeting when I was at the police station now, or in that room. And I heard a presentation from the city council about how they wanted to revitalize Castro Street by taking out the old businesses and putting in the sycamore trees, which are now all over. I mean, to see how the work of government brings fruit. And I'm also thankful for your work in street safety as you put in those crossing lights on parts of California and shoreline where my students walk and they're no longer afraid of getting hit at 50 miles an hour as people come careening down shoreline. You've cared for the community that we're a part of, and we're glad to be a part of the community and get back. So thank you so much for this honor.

[01:16:59] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. So, um, now, would any members of council like to say a few words? Council member Commé?

[01:17:14] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thanks. Well, just, uh, congratulations to the to, um, groups who receive proclamations. First, I was just wondering if Ms. Webster could send us that lovely deck that you put together. I think it'd be great for my colleagues and I to be able to see it. And then, um, just want to think that the Mountain View Academy. It's always fun learning more about history here in the city. And so, um, really appreciate that. Thanks, Mayor.

[01:17:43] Mayor Alison Hicks: Vice mayor.

[01:17:45] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Yes, I wanted to extend my thanks well, both to the bike group. I think that your advocacy has made a huge difference in our community and we've all benefited from it. So thank you so much for that. But for the Mountain View Academy, I was wondering, both how many students that you have, how big your school is. I know it's been there a long time. And, um, also, I remember quite a few years ago, we approved some on site housing, and I don't think that's happened yet, so I wonder what the status of that was. Yeah. And then, and then I also wanted to, um, I was down looking at the exhibit of art in our, in our, um, lobby. And I think that some of that is from your students, right?

[01:18:34] Mark Andres: I'm not certain. I know our students visited the art display. They walked over for... Yeah, I think some of it is. Anyway, everybody should go see it. It's our student art and it's quite it's quite inspiring. you. Let me see if I remember your questions. Currently, we have 60 students. And we're a day high school, 9th grades 9 through 12, and before COVID, we had about 100. So we're on the upswing. headed back up. As far as the building project. The architect in charge passed away. Suddenly, just before COVID, and then we didn't get back on track with the building permit process. So we're, um, just our constituency meeting recently, just had a meeting and they want us to continue the fundraising committee so that we can get that project restarted. So we haven't forgotten about it. We do want to do the housing project on that corner.

[01:19:28] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Yeah, I remember, it looked like it was, you know, just a great idea, but those things take a lot of time and money. So... Yes. Yeah. Keep at it. Thanks so much.

[01:19:38] Mark Andres: Thank you for your interest.

[01:19:42] Mayor Alison Hicks: So, seeing no more council members, uh, do any, are there any members of the public here in person? No members of the public in person, but I do see a hand, a virtual hand. Please raise your hands virtually. If you have comments, I see Bruce England, and no others at this time.

[01:20:12] Public Speaker Bruce England: Hi. Thank you, Mayor, and Council members, I, uh, just want to, uh, thank everyone for the, uh, bike month proclamation, and congratulations to James and April, for representing the community there tonight, and also to April, specifically for the presentation. Very well done. And it well states the case for Green Complete Streets that many of us out here in the community would like to see happen. So it's nice to see that represented at the council meeting tonight. Thank you.

[01:20:45] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. And seeing no other public commentators. I will close the presentation portion of the meeting. Thank you so much for everyone for coming. Nice to see you. And we will move on to item 4 on our agenda, which is the consent calendar. The items on our consent calendar will be approved by one motion, unless any member of the council wishes to remove an item for discussion. If you'd like to speak on this item, the consent calendar, or on oral communications on non agenda items, which will be next on our agenda, in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. Um, I also believe that council member Kmei has an announcement to me. Council member, commit.

[01:21:43] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes. So, should I make my recusal now, or should I pull the item I want to pull now?

[01:21:49] Mayor Alison Hicks: Oh.

[01:21:50] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Well, I would like to pull a knife. Sorry.

[01:21:52] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay. Why don't you pull an item, and then... Well, look to the city, is that... Oh, is this... I was gonna say, why don't you make your recusal? Okay. And then you can pull the item that you want to pull after that. Yeah, 'cause your recusals for generally everything that's gonna remain on consent and not be pulled, right?

[01:22:10] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[01:22:10] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay. Okay.

[01:22:11] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: So, I am recusing myself from participating. in item 4.9. Scope of services for broadband needs assessment and gap analysis, professional services, requests for proposal due to my employment as an external affairs manager with AT&T, an international telecommunications company. Thank you.

[01:22:33] Mayor Alison Hicks: Um... I just want to clarify, you do not have to leave. You just needed to register recusal.

[01:22:49] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, perfect. item.

[01:22:50] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay. Okay.

[01:22:51] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Um, can I pull my hand?

[01:22:54] Mayor Alison Hicks: Yes, you can pull your Okay.

[01:22:55] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, um, I would like to, um, pull item 4.8 for discussion. Thank you.

[01:23:09] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, so, um... I say some... So, I understand there are several items that need to be pulled for individual consideration. Do any other council members want to pull items? Council member, Matterchek.

[01:23:31] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay. Oh. Sure. Um, okay, voice mayor. Sure. Sure. Well, I wanted to pull just for comments. I don't... is the 4.4 of the Plymouth Street realignment, and, um, 4.7, the North Bay Shore trip cap monitoring report, just for comments.

[01:23:48] Mayor Alison Hicks: So you're not actually pulling them.

[01:23:50] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: No.

[01:23:51] Mayor Alison Hicks: Do you want to comment?

[01:23:51] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, sure, I can make this. Comment sound. Well, on the 4.4, the Plymouth Street realignment, I'm all for that. I know it's an important project. But one of the things that's happening is this project. and it happens with a lot of some projects, is we remove heritage trees. This one has a lot of trees, 86 trees that are getting removed. And I imagine the plan is just to chop them up into wood chips. And so I just like to encourage the consideration of milling some of this wood. Especially if they're 86 trees. I mean, I sort of, I felt like when I looked at all the trees that were blown down in the storm, I wish some of those could be milled, too. So that's what I wanted to mention about 4.4. And then 4.7. That's the North Bay Shore trip cap monitoring report. And, um, I wanted to bring this up because, in the first four years, I was on the council. This was a huge item of debate. We talked about this for many, many hours, and it's very exciting to see this report and see how things are changing. So I was particularly impressed with the attachments. And, um, so I asked the, the, um, the clerk to help me out by sharing one of the figures. Can you put that figure up, Heather? Or was Roger gonna put it up?

[01:25:34] Unknown Speaker: Here we go.

[01:25:35] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah. Well, I just wanted to share this. We have a lot of information that, um, and data that is shared with the city council, and, um, sometimes it's not very easy to understand or well, um, put together, uh, or, well, sometimes it's harder to understand. This, I thought was beautifully done. So I wanted to bring this to your attention. You see, the quadrant that shows single occupancy vehicles, active transportation, transit, and HOVs. So, all on the same graph. It's clearly shown with the color, which ones come from which, which ones come from, which gateway. And so I really wanted to share, it just, you know, encapsulates really quickly. An awful lot of information there, that most people come on shoreline, on the active transportation, it's a little different. The SC is Stevens Creek for the Stevens Creek Trail. You can see that the vast majority of people who bicycle come on the Stevens Creek Trail. So anyway, I just, I wanted to bring this to everybody's attention, and for those of you who are really interested in transportation, this is a very good item for you to read. Thank you.

[01:27:06] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Council member, Mattachek.

[01:27:10] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So, I had a question and a comment on 4.9, but I'm not sure I want to pull that, but, um... how would that work?

[01:27:28] Mayor Alison Hicks: It's 4.9, the one that you recuse yourself?

[01:27:31] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, so there's a couple. Usually people comment without fully pulling them, but questions, I don't know. And also, whether council member Kameh has to leave while we discuss this this week.

[01:27:43] Mayor Alison Hicks: Why don't you leave since there's questions about it? You wouldn't normally have to? Okay. So, council member, Kameh, will leave, and then you can ask your question and make your comment.

[01:27:57] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Uh, so the question is, uh, at the NLC meeting in Washington, DC, I attended the session on broadband, and it was, um, very much, uh, said and reinforced, that there will be federal funds available, but they will be made available through the state. And if you are not in on the ground floor, then you are not, um, eligible when the funds are actually distributed. And so I was wondering, have we checked to see what specifically needs to be done to get into on the ground floor? Is it just putting our name on a list? I don't know what the expectations are. And if we haven't done that, can we do that in addition to pursuing the path we are with, uh, getting a consultant to help us on this project?

[01:28:50] Mayor Alison Hicks: So I'm not sure who can answer that. Mayor, Councilman, Mermatachek. I'd like to invite Christina Gilmore, our assistant to the city manager, to comment on that. She's been promoted to a panelist.

[01:29:00] Assistant to the City Manager Christina Gilmore: Thank you, um, city manager, McCarthy, and thank you, council member manager for the question. Um, so, in answer to your question regarding, has the, has staff explored, um, opportunities for state funding? We have not. Um, and, however, we can certainly begin exploring, to understand what the city would need to do, to get on the list, to, um, receive potential funding opportunities for future broadband implementation, so we can certainly begin exploring that while we are simultaneously conducting the ROP process.

[01:29:39] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

[01:29:47] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, so now we can bring council member command back. So, now, um, we would have, I see no other council members pulling items. Would any member of the public joining us in person or virtually like to provide comments or uh, pull an item? I see, uh, in person. I see Alex Brown wanting to speak about 4.4. All right. 4.4.

[01:30:29] Public Speaker Alex Brown: You have to see this coming. Plymouth and Shore, like, Space Park Way on Shoreline. It is an awkward set of intersections, alignment's good. I would just ask, the city have, uh, a good notice and point of contact for the people in Santiago Villa. We are currently, we have two ways in and out of the park. We have that in La Venita. We have a lot of construction going on in Lavanita and pair right now. We're going to have a lot of construction on shoreline soon, and it's going to be difficult at times, I imagine, for people to understand where they can go, how they can get in and out expediently, especially when concert season starts up. So please be considerate of our community. and our needs and our ability to leave and get back to our homes. Thank you.

[01:31:13] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. So I think that's, I see staff taking notes, so duly noted. Um, and so are there any more in person comments? Are there any virtual comments? Please raise your hand in Zoom, if you have a virtual comment. Seeing no virtual comments. Um, we will come back and, uh, and, Council member Kime had pulled 4.8.

[01:31:52] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay. Just making sure you're calling on me. So I just actually, and I apologize, I just see the developer in the audience and forgot that I had wanted to ask this question. So, um, this park, Evelyn Park is uh, what used to be the old flower mart site, um, The project used to be Flower Mart. Now it's called the Hadley, I think. And so I just, I know that the Flower Mart Park was voted down by our Parks and Rec Commission. I just wanted to see if the applicant had already put, like, a plaque or anything. I know that sometimes our developers put up, kind of an homage to what existed there before, to Mountain View's history. And so, okay, I'm seeing a head shaking. No, it wasn't included. So maybe in the design of the park. I just wanted to make the comment then, um, that I would like to see that, um, you know, much of our roots here in the city are to those who, um, raised flowers. And so just wanted to ask that, but I'm comfortable with the Evelyn Park name, but just wanted to check if that had already existed. Not to make anyone have a heart attack on it. I just wanted to put that out there. Thank you.

[01:33:08] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, and I see staff taking notes on that as well. I think it doesn't substantially alter what's being proposed. Okay. So, um... So I think we have no other items pulled at this time. So I see, I'm bringing this back for council action, and see motion by council member Ramos, and a 2nd by council member...

[01:33:41] Unknown Speaker: Exuse me, mayor.

[01:33:41] Mayor Alison Hicks: Yes?

[01:33:42] Unknown Speaker: Sorry. Uh, staff would like to request that consent items 4.1 and, um, 4.6 be pulled for separate consideration. Okay. We have some staff reports to make.

[01:33:56] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay. Would you like to do that before we make this?

[01:34:01] Unknown Speaker: No. Just we can go through with the rest of them.

[01:34:04] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay. So, um, so, council member Ramos, would you like to make your motion?

[01:34:13] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Yes, I would like to move the consent calendar, including to item 4.2. Adopt the resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, adopting a list of projects for funding to be allocated during fiscal year 2023, 24 from Senate Bill one, the road repair and accountability act of 2017, to be read entitled only, further reading, reading, waived. Item 4.3, adopt the resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, authorizing application to the Local Housing Trust Fund Program, and certifying to the California Department of Housing and Community Development Compliance, with the local Housing Trust Fund Program Requirements, to be read entitled only, further reading waived, and adopt the resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, local Housing Trust Fund, to be read entitle only, further reading waived, item 4.4, adopt the resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, adopting an addendum to the North Bay Shore Precise Plan, subsequent final environmental, impact report for Plymouth Street Realignment, Project 20 40, to be read in title only, further reading waived, 4.5, adopt a resolution of the city of the, a city council of the city amount of view, approving final map, of track number 010575773 Questa Drive, accepting dedications and making findings as required by The city code to be read entitled only further reading waived. So that's a motion for all but 4.one and 4.6 and we can now vote.

[01:35:57] Mayor Alison Hicks: Passes unanimously. So we will now consider pulled item 4.1. We'll hear from the public works department staff on an update to this item.

[01:36:13] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Durango: Thank you, member and council members, Ed Orango, Assistant Public Works director and city engineer. And I'll be briefly outlining revisions made to item 4.one. Notice of intention to vacate street right away and public easements. The proposed easements to be vacated will be considered by council at the June 13, 2023 meeting. So that's the full update. Sorry, the computer didn't work for me. I have more.

[01:36:42] Mayor Alison Hicks: Oh, okay. I thought that was brief.

[01:36:44] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Durango: I'm clicking and it wasn't clicking. So thank you for your patience. As part of the council report for this item, a portion of Shorebird Way was inadvertently omitted as one of the street easements proposed for vacation, the amendment now includes the portion of Shorebird Way for the notice of intent. On page three, the council report, the street easement shown on table one is revised as shown here. For exhibit A to the resolution, the table outlining the easements to be vacated, has been amended, and lines 76 and 77 have been added, as outlined here. Lastly, exhibit B to the resolution, page 6 of the map, depicting the proposed vacated areas has also been amended showing the full dimension of Schoenberg Way. Now that does conclude my presentation with staff's recommendation for counsel to adopt the resolution included in item 4.one with amended exhibits. you.

[01:37:41] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Does any member of the council have questions on this item? Say none would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comments on this item? You should make out a blue speaker card or raise your hand if you do. Seeing none. Um, I'll now bring the item back for council action and note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolution attached to the report. Um, I see a motion by council member Abbe Koga.

[01:38:24] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, mayor. I'd like to make a motion to adopt a resolution of intention of the city council, the city of Mountain View, to vacate street, right away in public easements within the North Basier Master Plan, bounded by Charleston Road, to the north, Stevens Creek, to the east, Plymouth Street, and Space Parkway, to the south, and Huff Avenue, to the west, to be read entitled only for the reading, waived, attachment 2, to the council report, and set a date for a public hearing to consider the vacation for June 13, 2023.

[01:38:55] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. And I see a 2nd by council member Mattachek. So now we can vote. That passes unanimously as well. We also have a polled item 4.6, and we'll now hear from public works department staff on an update to this item.

[01:39:23] Public Works Director Don Cameron: Thank you, Mayor, Don Cameron, Public Works director. We have been informed by the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, or Bosca, that Abosca board director must be appointed for a four-year term. Should the appointee resign before the end of their four year term. Counsel may make a new appointment for completing the four year term. Therefore, staff recommends modifying this item's recommendation to say, Appoint council member Lisa Matachek as the city of Mountain View's representative to the Bosca Board of Directors and Bay Area Regional Water System Financing Authority for a four year term starting on July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2027.

[01:40:12] Mayor Alison Hicks: So, I imagine if someone wishes to make a motion on this, we just move the new staff recommendation.

[01:40:19] Unknown Speaker: Yes.

[01:40:20] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay. Um, now, uh, Council member, Matachek, do you have any comments?

[01:40:28] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I do, thank you. Thank you and thank you for the revision to this. Um, I have been on the busque board for four years, and recently, there has been quite a bit of turnover on the board. And because of that, the CEO contacted me and asked if I would consider being reappointed. And I let her know that, um, we do have a policy here in Mountain View of you need to be a sitting council member to be on a regional board. And that was a council policy that we passed a few years ago. Um, but that policy does not override, um, state legislation that created the Bosca organization. And so, while I am very happy to continue for, I guess it would be a year and a half. It is my intention, and I will follow the council policy of not being on a regional board, if I'm not on the council. And so, I will resign at the end of my council term, which is about a year and a half from now. And then you'll have the opportunity to appoint somebody who is a current council member.

[01:41:39] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other council comments? Comments, questions. Okay. Would any member of the public joining us either in person or virtually like to comment on this item? I see no, buddy in person, and also nobody virtually. So, I'll bring the item back for council action. And I see we have, uh, the vice mayor is moving, is making emotion, and council member Abiko is seconding vice mayor.

[01:42:20] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Yes, I moved the minute I flipped my page. Yeah, I move the staff recommendation.

[01:42:30] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. 4.6. Thank you. Now we can vote. And that passes unanimously. So we are now on item 5 on the agenda, which is oral communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for people wishing to address the council on any matter, not on the agenda. Speakers can speak on any topic for up to 3 minutes during this section. State law prohibits the council from acting on non-agenda items. So if you would like to speak on this item in person or the next item, uh, then, uh, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. And also, if you are with us virtually and want to speak, please raise your hand. Um, So, are there? I do not see any in-person speakers and neither does the city clerk. I do see one, um, one virtual speaker, and that is Stephen Goldstein. Stephen you may speak.

[01:43:46] Public Speaker Stephen Goldstein: Thank you very much for your time. I just wanted to question about the situation with regards to the Baykeeper's lawsuit regarding Mountain View and the Creek, from what I can see so far. There has been a news report in the Daily Post saying that the city of Mountain View may be required to pay $700,000 for the legal fees for Baykeepers. Even though, at the same time, it appears that the city of Mountain View already paid $400,000 to depend the case. And at the same time, even though the City Mount View argued that was following the Stormwater permit from the State Water Resources Control Board, from I understand, the Clean War Act basically overrode that. And what I understand now is that, uh, there's still currently a consideration regarding the, what is going to be the fines regarding the pollution of the Cree. Now, the important thing I want to point out is that the creek was polluted with E. coli, and as we all know, any person with E. coli is gravely ill. So, I would say that the idea that it was a human based E. coli pollution would be wrong, because otherwise, we would have a massive amount of medical problems with a lot of people in this area, and it would be well known. So, I would say, I understand now is that the city has something till 2027, in order to correct the problem regarding what's going on with the E. coli gang into the river, and that means that it looks like we're gonna have to get some kind of a treatment facility put in place in order to correct the problem, and we're gonna have to fix all the stonewater systems that are in the city. And so far, I'm not hearing anything regarding it. In the meantime, of course, I've, what I've read is that, uh, the daily fine could be as much as $53,000 a day, uh, that could be levied to the city based on the, the statutory, uh, uh, language of the Clean Water Act. And so I'm confused as to wondering why it seems like this report has only been on the printed version of the Palo Alto nose, and it's not been reported at all on the Mountain View Voice. And I'm thinking that what's going on here is that people are not wanting to discuss the fact that this means that at least a million dollars is gonna be lost by the city of Mountain View, just for the legal fees alone. And who knows what the total regarding the, uh, the cleanup and the fines are gonna be, I mean, at the same time. When is this gonna be discussed by the city council in some form? Because it seems like the decision was already made in the courts. In any case, thank you very much for your time and have a great rest of your night.

[01:46:33] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you for bringing that to our attention and just to remind everybody, we don't discuss things that are brought up during public comment. because they're not on the agenda. Um, so, the net seeing no other public speakers, uh, we are now moving on to item uh, 6.one of the agenda, which is the downtown outdoor patio and sidewalk cafe program, and we have transportation planner, Aruna Baduna, who will present the item. Ms. Paduna?

[01:47:22] Transportation Planner Aruna Baduna: We just need a moment to pull up the slide presentation.

[01:47:56] Transportation Planner Aruna Baduna: Thank you, mayor and council members. I am Aruna Bodhuna, transportation planner here to present this item. Joining me and available for questions are Don Cameron, public works director, John Lang, economic vitality manager, and Krisha Pinoliar, associate planner. We are here tonight to present for council consideration, ordinances, and resolution to support, implementation of outdoor patio program, for the Castro Street, entered in pedestrian mall, and downtown precise plan areas. The city established sidewalk cafe program in 2000 for businesses in downtown to operate outdoors. The program allowed for operations in the sidewalk areas and parking stalls along Castro Street, and sidewalk areas along the cross streets. The program required execution of a planning permit, along with payment of application and rental fees. In June of 2020, the Castro streets program was implemented to facilitate outdoor dining within the public right of way by restricting vehicle access along Castro. This was to support the recovery of downtown businesses as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. Certain requirements of the sidewalk cafe program and rental fee were suspended with the new Castro Street implementation. The Castro streets program will sunset by January of 2024, or until a new program replaces it. Subsequently, in October of last year, the city council adopted pedestrian mall establishment on Castro Street between East Leg of West Evelyn Avenue and California Street. As a part of this adoption, staff identified interim pedestrian mall improvements, including development of new standards and guidelines for outdoor patio operations. The layout of the interim pedestrian mall includes a 16 foot central walkway, 20 foot program zone, and 12 foot sidewalks on either side of the central walkway. Staff developed new outdoor patio program based on the existing sidewalk cafe program. The new outdoor patio program includes design standards and guidelines that are simple, unobtrusive, and convey the look and feel of an attractive and vibrant area across the 3 blocks of Castro Pedestrian Mall and throughout the greater downtown area. The design guidelines provide locational requirements of outdoor patios, permitted activities, and furnishings that can be placed in the outdoor patios. The guidelines also outline business responsibilities. For clarity, outdoor patios are permitted in programs zones and sidewalk areas of the pedestrian mall and sidewalk only throughout the rest of the downtown. The city previously permitted outdoor dining through the sidewalk cafe program. Retail was also permitted with a planning permit, but no businesses utilize this provision. Outdoor dining and retail will continue to be permitted in certain areas. So certain areas of the downtown under this new program. Live entertainment will be added as a permitted ancillary activity within the program patios in the pedestrian mall areas only. The design guidelines include specific requirements on the permitted furnishings for an outdoor patio, such as seating, umbrellas, heaters, et cetera. A council ad hoc subcommittee was appointed to review and provide direction on the new design standards and guidelines, along with an implementation plan for the interim Castro pedestrian mob. This committee met 4 times beginning last September. At their most recent meeting on March 20, the ad hoc subcommittee approved the standards and guidelines and recommended for council approval. Since the establishment of the pedestrian mall in October of last year, staff have conducted several outreach and engagement activities listed on the slide here to receive feedback from businesses, property owners, downtown business association, downtown committee, and the Chamber of Commerce. The design guidelines were revised based on feedback received from various stakeholders. I would like to note that extensive outreach and engagement activities also occurred prior to the pedestrian mall establishment that are not listed here, but available on the project website. While the design guidelines recommended by the council ad hoc subcommittee are for the pedestrian mall, staff is proposing to expand the guidelines to apply to permitted outdoor activities throughout the downtown precise plan area. The sidewalk cafe guidelines will be replaced by the new outdoor patio standards and guidelines. The procedural changes and implementation of the new guidelines require code updates. The code section changes are listed on the slide here and described in detail in the staff memo. The existing sidewalk cafe program requires an application, annual renewal, and rental fees for the use of outdoor public right away. With the implementation of Castro streets program, Council adopted resolutions to waive the sidewalk cafe permit fee through April of 2024. Staff recommends replacing the sidewalk cafe program fee structure with a new outdoor patio program, initial application fee, and a rental rate of $10 per square foot. There would not be an annual renual fee. Staff derived the rate shown here based on information gathered from neighboring cities that provide similar outdoor patio program, along with current retail lease rates in Mountain View. The last item for council consideration today is approval of intersection control at Castro Street at Villa and Dana intersections. Signals at both locations were changed to flashing red operation with implementation of Castro Street's program in 2020. Signals were reactivated in fall of last year, and staff conducted studies to analyze pedestrian signal warrants at these locations. Based on the analysis, staff recommend signal at both the locations. If council supports this recommendation, improvements will be implemented in 2 phases. The initial phase this year will continue to use the existing signalize crosswalk with enhanced pavement treatments. The 2nd phase, as shown on the slide here, will include converting to a single centralized crossing with new pedestrian signals and other traffic signal upgrades. For next steps, staff will continue community and business outreach on the implementation of the interim pedestrian mall, work with the businesses on license application process, and implement the new program beginning November one of this year. Concurrently staff will continue efforts to beautify and activate the downtown. Visioning and design of the permanent pedestrian mall is planned to start in 2025 after the interim pedestrian mall is fully implemented. Here is a summary of staff recommendations for council consideration today. That concludes staff presentation. Thank you.

[01:55:17] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. So, I'll now bring the item back for council deliberation. Oh, no. First, I'm going to ask if any members of the public, joining us virtually or in person, would like to provide comment on this item. If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom, or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in person speakers first. Any in person speakers? No. Um We will next take, uh, we will next take virtual speakers, and, uh, we will let them speak for up to 3 minutes, and they will be, uh, the 1st one will be Bruce England, the 2nd Peter Katz. Mr. England? Now, do you hear me?

[01:56:20] Public Speaker Bruce England: Yes. Okay, sorry, multiple mute buttons. Um, Bruce England, Wisman Station Drive. I have 5 comments. I'd like to make, but they're fast, and so I can do it in 3 minutes. First of five. Signaling at Villa and Dana needs to be more pedestrian friendly than it is currently. Please turn the standard signals back on to help provide additional cues to pedestrians where the signal cycle is at the moment, not just the walk, don't walk sign. number two. Um, clarify that presumably electricity can be allowed in areas that don't require running power cords over sidewalks or other open areas if possible. I think the crapery is one situation where that could happen. Number three. Clarify that live music is allowed in areas outside of the business dining areas. And please explore ways to encourage live performance downtown, including busking. Number four. In addition to allowing the monetary transactions outdoors, provision for allowing an encouraging food service outdoors would be welcome. This can be a great convenience for some patrons. And it can help to activate the streetscape and enhance business presence in the area, which we know many retail businesses sorely need. Number six, the APM cutoff for live entertainment seems too stringent to me, and I encourage some loosening of this guidance. And lastly, please ensure that sidewalks are sufficiently wide for pedestrian passage, including for those walking side by side or moving strollers, walkers, and other such devices, even on side streets, which might constitute part of downtown. 8 feet might be the needed width, and certainly not 4 feet, which can pose problems for ADA compliance. Note that proper sidewalk design can help to activate streetscapes and to encourage business transactions via foot traffic. Thank you.

[01:58:08] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. So next we will have Peter Katz, after that, Robert Cox, and after that, Jesse Cupp.

[01:58:22] Public Speaker Peter Katz: Thank you, mayor, and esteemed members of city council. Chamber has been a strong sport of the city's plan for the pedestrian mall for some time. In decoding the staff report, um, and based on conversations I've had with the city, it's really about formalizing the steps. The city has said it will take for some time now, to make both the sidewalk and the street space allocation more equitable, and in keeping with the overall planned look, feel, and utility of the ped mall. It also takes things out of the zoning code. It moves them into the municipal code so that public works can improve rather than planning. This creates a simpler process as well as fewer and lower fees. These are all ostensibly actions that the chamber would support wholeheartedly. At the same time, we recognize that many of our businesses are still struggling, so the challenges and implementation. As this process continues, we need to be aware that for a good number of small businesses, any additional costs or actions that would curtail their ability to bring in revenue will be hurtful to their recovery, their recovery. We also strongly endorse the restoration of outdoor music, and would echo Bruce England's comments regarding busking and performance outside of the private areas. Thank you very much.

[01:59:37] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Next, we have Robert Cox.

[01:59:45] Public Speaker Robert Cox: Can you hear me?

[01:59:47] Mayor Alison Hicks: Just barely, can you make that a little louder?

[01:59:52] Public Speaker Robert Cox: Can you hear me better now?

[01:59:53] Mayor Alison Hicks: Yes. Okay.

[01:59:55] Public Speaker Robert Cox: Mayor Hicks, Vice Mayor Showalter, and members of the city council, thank you for the opportunity to comment on this item. I applaud this. This is a big step in the rag direction. Keep up the good work. I just wanted to make a brief suggestion on the facade grant program that will be made available to small businesses to improve signs, awnings, windows doors, and exterior paint. As vice chair of the old Mountain View neighborhood association. My neighbors often share with me what they like about the changes along Castro Street. This includes comments complimenting and raising concerns when changes are made in the appearance of buildings along our historic retail and restaurant district. It makes me wonder if owners of the buildings could benefit from some guidance when planning a remake of their properties. So I'm recommending that in addition to providing funds, the city take an active approach to engaging building owners. The city could provide consulting on how to best use the available funds to get the most for the grant money, and enhance our downtown business properties, be consistent with the district's overall historic looking field. I have been told the city of Oakland, made such a consulting as part of its vitalization plan, and it was a key to the planned success. Thank you for considering my view. I yield my time.

[02:01:11] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. I think that was actually a comment on our next item on facade improvement, but I've taken notes, and we'll remember that for later. Um, next, uh, Jesse Cupp. And then Tim Mackenzie.

[02:01:27] Public Speaker Jesse Cupp: Hello. Can you hear me?

[02:01:29] Mayor Alison Hicks: Yes.

[02:01:30] Public Speaker Jesse Cupp: Oh, awesome. So, I just want to, um, once again, let the counselor know my concerns about banning, uh, bicycle traffic on caster sheet, and the unintended consequences that can produce, um, including less safe streets as, uh, cyclists ride through there, through the sidewalks, through the downtown pedestrian mall, um, because they're not allowed to have their own bike lane. Um, that's just gonna create conflicts, like I see everywhere. That bikes are banned. Even if it's clear signage saying to go around, not everyone will read the signs. Also, having a no biking zone for those 3 bucks will really disrupt our cycling network throughout the city and not just affect cyclists who plan to arrive at downtown. They're Peninsula bikeways, bike boulevards, and lots of bike lanes in general that just kind of converge on downtown. So if you're telling people to get off this mount, or go around that disrupts many paths in many different directions. So, one example is that the south to north route on Evelyn is currently likable. There's a nice little, um, protected lane that you can go take past the hot pot place and continue down Evelyn. However, it is illegal to bike in the opposite direction. If you try to go north to south, there's no way to do it. Um, and that's because of the, uh, no biking and downtown rule. So there are many other examples like that where you're gonna have to create a whole bunch of different alternate reps. So I'd encourage you to allow cycling downtown. It could be done safely. Down the center lane. Um, which is currently planning to be a 16 foot wide pedestrian walkway. That could be a 2 way cycle track. You could have it be slow. You can have it be filled with trees and public art and make a kind of a winding path to encourage people to go slowly and safely, um, and even have intersections at the midpoints of the blocks, um, painted bright green, have the bicycle symbols on the pavement, have raised curbs. So it's extremely clear, where should bicycles go, and where should pedestrians go, and then everyone is going to be safe and separate and happy. As the final point. Um, I... Remember a, um, Viva Calle meeting I went to in San Jose? Um, presented by the city and SVBC, I believe. And they had some studies showing that when you ban cars temporarily, when they close it down to car traffic, and then allow cyclists to go through that area, that actually increases sales to local businesses. despite initial worries that it would have the opposite effect. It turned out to be helpful to the economy. So, I hope you consider this. Thank you very much.

[02:04:26] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Next, we have Tim Mackenzie.

[02:04:36] Public Speaker Tim Mackenzie: Greetings, all. Um, I'd like to echo, uh, the previous speaker and say that it would be great to be thoughtful and intentional about bicycle infrastructure, especially as we're reimagining downtown. There was a recent paper in PNAS, uh, the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that actually showed that, uh, building bicycle infrastructure can increase active travel and uh, and kind of create an induced demand because there's the safe infrastructure. So that's, that's a, uh, great suggestion. I want to echo that, um, and also echo another thing I heard earlier, uh, live music. Performing downtown. That sounds cool. I'd love to have that sort of stuff. Yay, live music. Well, thanks all.

[02:05:28] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. So, this is the last call for public comments on this subject. Anybody in person or virtually? I see no hands or blue cards. So, um, now we'll bring the item back for council deliberation and action. Um, and just to let council members know that, uh, proving the staff recommendations should also include reading the title of the ordinances and resolutions attached to the report, which you should have in front of you. So, are there, uh, let's see, first council questions? Vice mayor.

[02:06:26] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, well, several of these are going to be questions that were answered in the Q and A, the written Q and A, but I think it's good to share them with the public, and a couple of them came up in the public comment as well. Um, one is about the room for buskers, and the prohibition of, um, essentially having musicians play, you know, like somebody who opens up their, uh, guitar and, um, stands and plays their guitar, and people drop dollars in. Apparently, that is not allowed at the moment, and it would only be allowed if one of the private owners said they could do it on their property. Is that how I understand the current?

[02:07:20] Public Works Director Don Cameron: Thank you, Vice Mayor, for the question. Don Cameron, Public Works Director. So, as we did work to clarify in, as you said, the council Q and A, the regulations that you see here are simply related to what's allowed within the outdoor patio areas to be licensed to private businesses, where it is allowed, as we noted, live entertainment, as an auxiliary use, it is permitted, it would have to be part of their application when applying for for the patio license. This is not regulating what happens outside of these patio license areas in the public right away. The key item that does regulate what happens in the public right away is the city does have a requirement that there be no amplified music. And therefore, if somebody did, um, a bus did set up shop and had amplified music that was very loud. They would be basically asked to stop because it's not to have amplified music, and as long as they're not obstructing sidewalks or causing any other problems. There's no specific regulation that says that they cannot operate within the public right of way, portion of the Castropet mall.

[02:08:47] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. So I just want to clarify, because we've gotten a lot of public comment and questions on this. Everything will, in terms of buskers, it will be the same. The regulations that we're reading about are just about what goes on in the gated areas that are the areas we're talking about under this item. Is that true?

[02:09:08] Public Works Director Don Cameron: That's correct.

[02:09:09] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Vice mayor, do you have more questions?

[02:09:12] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Yeah. Well, thank you very much for that clarification. I really like that answer, because it is charming, from time to time, to just listen to people play their guitars, or I remember one time there was a guy with a violin, that was nice, but that's different from amplified music. From time to time, we have carolers. We wouldn't want them to be, okay. All right. Then my second question was, about how the permitting will work. If you're coming, you're a merchant, and you're coming in to get your permit, what's gonna be the experience? How many staff people are you gonna have to talk to, departments you're gonna have to go to, kind of, what's the process going to be from a merchant's point of view?

[02:10:00] Public Works Director Don Cameron: Thank you, Vice Mayer, for the question. I do not, but do not transportation planner.

[02:10:05] Transportation Planner Aruna Baduna: City is has already put together a downtown team, consisting of several staff members, but for the, for the merchant, it would be a one-stop shop, they would be coming to one person to apply for permit, and it would be routed internally in the city staff. So whether they're applying for a public or a private, in the license intake process will, we will list out all the items that need to be submitted, along with the application form, and they are just making one time application, and one person to reach out to as their initial point of contact. It is on the city's staff that's happening internally, the coordination of routing it to different departments for revue and, you know, approval of that is happening eternally, but for merchant vendors, it's just one stop. That's our goal.

[02:10:55] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: No, that's really the way it should be. That sounds great. And I think one of the problems that there always is with this kind of program is the gnomenclature. Making sure that, you know, the Chamber of Commerce is telling people that the merchant should ask for the outdoor patio team, or is that what it is, or the downtown, what's the name of the team? See, I already didn't get it right.

[02:11:16] Transportation Planner Aruna Baduna: They'll come up with a nice name. Right, now we are calling it as downtown outdoor patio team.

[02:11:21] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, because...

[02:11:24] Transportation Planner Aruna Baduna: But we will be posting the actual permit application, the instructions on how to file a permit, and they will basically be told to bring it to or submit it to public works.

[02:11:35] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Excellent. Okay, thank you. All right. And then, the cleanliness of downtown has also been mentioned, and we're going to be doing that more frequently during the pressure washing more frequently. So, um, could you tell us what's happening now and how that's going to change?

[02:11:54] Transportation Planner Aruna Baduna: Sure. Thank you for the question again. Currently, the downtown cleaning, it has already been ramped up. Now it has doubled. It was happening once a month in the 1st 3 blocks of Castro during the past few years. It has been increased. The cleaning, the power, the pressure washing has been increased to twice a month. If I'm stating this wrong, John, please correct me. It has been increased in the 1st 3 blocks because of the extensive use with the outdoor patios. So it's been increased and in the beyond the 3 blocks, it's been ramped up to twice a month, along sidewalks in Castro and the cross streets.

[02:12:35] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Oh, good. Okay. So if there's a, I'm sorry,

[02:12:38] Public Works Director Don Cameron: if I may just add on. So that's the focus on the sidewalks. But also is council approval of the mid-year budget that provided additional funding. We're also going to be cleaning the street more frequently. where we programmed in for twice a year, pressure washing of the street, because with it being used, the walkway and an eating area with all the spills that happen. It's just that that's a much more intense process, including having to have furniture and other items moved off the street so that we can do the proper cleaning. So that is planned for twice a year in the street, but along the sidewalks and spot cleaning will occur, as Miss Badona said, much more frequently.

[02:13:22] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: That's great. And I assume that if there's a problem, people can just submit something through Ass Mountain View and it will get routed to the proper people. Okay, great. Then the other question I had was about, or a couple more. One one is about a group buy for the furniture. Are we going to be, are we working with the Chamber of Commerce, perhaps, to encourage them to organize that? I know that you said that the city was not organized. Is the chamber here today?

[02:13:51] Unknown Speaker: No, they were online.

[02:13:52] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, but I just, I wanted to bring that up as something that I know with respect to, what you can often get more consistency of looks. If you buy the furniture together, And also, I would assume that you would get a better price.

[02:14:12] Public Works Director Don Cameron: Sure. Thanks for a question. I'd like to invite our economic vitality manager, John Lang.

[02:14:20] Economic Vitality Manager John Lang: Good evening, Mayor. Members of Council Commute of Mountain View, John Lang, economic vitality. Excuse me, staff hadn't really contemplated the city being in the middle of a procurement process. We're happy to engage the chamber and see if there is a willingness and collaborate, collaborative spirit there to do a group by. The other thing we are also looking to solve is allowing businesses, have some flexibility. So this will require them to actually work together. There is a strong knit community in downtown, and we're happy to facilitate that conversation if there's interest. So we're happy to engage in that conversation, but that is something we'd prefer the private sector to solve amongst themselves than the city getting in the middle of, uh, doing the group handling the group eye on their behalf.

[02:15:15] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, yeah. Well, I think sometimes, you know, government can be a sort of a facilitator and not actually take care of the nuts and bolts, and that's why I wanted to bring it up. Okay, and then another question I had was, how much revenue do we really expect to get from this outdoor patio fee program? And kind of, what's the balance of that with respect to the work involved? Because the downtown is a, you know, that's a huge, hugely important section of our city. for everybody, not just the people who run businesses there. I just need to...

[02:16:00] Transportation Planner Aruna Baduna: Again, thank you for the question, vice mayor. So, estimating the amount of revenue is challenging at this point, because it's a program we have not yet initiated, and it will be based upon, the amount of interest we get, the applications we get, and what size patios they want, because we plan to be flexible and work with the businesses in terms of the sizing of the patios. We have estimated that based upon current use of the right away and what we've already heard from the businesses in terms of their interests, we could have between 40 and 60 businesses participating. We know that the average size is likely to be in the range of about 540 square feet, and we work those numbers out. We could see that the revenue coming in could range between $215,000 and $325,000 a year. We also know that in terms of the effort that it will take in the resources that it has already been taking with Castro Streets, with our need to even ramp up our level of efforts on maintenance and cleaning. We are seeing that it is in the order of 750,000, could even hit a million a year in terms of staffing costs, vendor costs, and all the other resources that we will be putting in regularly for the interim castro pedestrian wall.

[02:17:40] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Okay, and then last one is, this isn't really about vacant storefront fees or penalties. This is really about operating businesses. And so I just wanted to confirm that we will be working on the storefront, the vacant storefront issues.

[02:18:08] Transportation Planner Aruna Baduna: We will be working, but we're just, that's not what this one is about. That is correct. This is just about the outdoor patio areas in the pedestrian mall, and, as was mentioned, in the precise plan area along sidewalks, in terms of businesses wanting to use those areas.

[02:18:28] Vice Mayor Pat Showalter: And I bring that up, because it's kind of like the potholes. You know, those are, these are the things that we hear people talk about in the community. And so, you know, it's important to check in with staff about it. Thank you so much.

[02:18:42] Economic Vitality Manager John Lang: Mayor, if I may, and council member, Show Walter, I just also want to clarify that we do have a separate team that is working on the vacancies downtown right now, city manager's office staff in conjunction with city attorney's office staff. It's also going to be part of the economic vitality strategy that the consultant is working on where we will be coming back with some ideas and solutions for counsel to consider. Um, so we know that it is very important um, and significant as we look at the interim pedestrian mall, and so I just wanted to clarify that we do have a separate internal team that is looking at that.

[02:19:26] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you, Vice Mayor. So, council member Abbe Koga. questions?

[02:19:30] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, thank you, Mayor. Just one, um, a follow-up to the vice mayor's question. So, um, here's the estimated revenue of 215 to 325,000. I think did you say the cost is more like 750? So, um, what, how are we going to make up the difference? What funding do we use for that? Is that the downtown? I forget what we call it.

[02:19:58] Transportation Planner Aruna Baduna: Today, we have been using our general fund. A lot of this work is done by staff, mostly community services staff for maintaining the cleanliness and maintenance. Also, street staff comes in regularly. And it's just using our existing funding sources. Our general fund.

[02:20:19] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Right. Thank you.

[02:20:25] Mayor Alison Hicks: So not seeing other council questions. I'll ask some questions if other council members come up with questions. Of course, you can ask after me. So first, a couple questions on things that members of the public were interested in. There were some questions on what we're doing regarding bikes on Castro and bikes to the transit stop. My understanding from being on the downtown ad hoc committee is that that will be dealt with under our active transportation plan. Can you confirm that that's the place we're going to be talking about that item?

[02:21:04] Transportation Planner Aruna Baduna: Sure. Thanks, Mayor, for the question. Regarding bicycle travel along Castro, right now, the pedestrian mall blocks are ours will be treated as walk your bike zones, but we will be evaluating bicycle facilities in the downtown on those side streets and parallel streets through our current project, which is the active transportation plan that is looking at the citywide. and that including downtown areas. I'll just know, and that is the goal, one of the goals of the active transportation plan is to identify a parallel route, say, Hope Street along those 3 blocks of Castro for bicyclists that want to ride through. for bicyclists that wish to visit the Castro Pedestrian Mall, when they do approach the block from a side street that they want to then enter the Ped Mall, they will be asked to walk their bike. We already have added more bike parking, bike racks along the mall, and we plan to add even more to make it very convenient for them to have a place to park their bike while they visit the businesses along the malls.

[02:22:20] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. There are many moving parts to improving the downtown, and I just wanted to let members of the public know, I mean, I'm always happy to hear from members of the public, even if it's not the exact place we're gonna make the final decision, but I just didn't want people to feel ignored. And then there was a question from a member of the public about whether music has to be over at 8 p.m. That does seem a little early to me. And I did not catch that when I read it. Is that true?

[02:22:51] Transportation Planner Aruna Baduna: Oh, thank you, Mayor. Yes, that is true, and the reason we timed it for 8 p.m. is it's very consistent with what we have when we have the Thursday night live along Castro, which was ending at 7.30 p.m. So, again, we are initiating this as a pilot program, and um, So we would, in right now, it does say 8 PM, and that could be some minor amendment. If, if, um, if there is a lot of interest to extend that, but the intent is, is an ancillary, uh, life entertainment is an ancillary, permitted use as a pilot activity.

[02:23:30] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay. So, Miss Cameron, did you have more, you look like you're about to say something.

[02:23:36] Staff (Ms. Cameron): Well, as Ms. Patona mentioned, it is a pilot program. One of the things we're going to be watching is to see if there is live entertainment in one patio area. Is it disruptive in any way, shape, or form for an adjacent patio area for the other businesses? Or does it blend in well and work well as we see how that develops, we can make adjustments to this. We can, if we built many requests to go a little later, we can explore that. Part of the action you're being asked to approve tonight. would give authority to the public works director, to make such amendments to the guidelines without having to keep coming back to council as we see how things develop. I think the other area we're going to always want to be concerned about is, while this is Castle Street and, you know, it has a bit of a nightlife, you know, which we do want to have happen. It is neighborhoods surrounding it. So there is a desire to make sure, I think that, you know, that it doesn't go too late at night in terms of how it could affect the rest of the neighborhoods around Castle Street.

[02:24:55] Unknown Speaker: Okay, and speaking of pilots, my next question is about pilots. So when I was on the downtown ad hoc committee, there was one of the items people tossed around a little was the idea of merchandise displays, outdoor merchant, that merchants can have their merchandise outside, because sometimes that can, frankly, be a mess and sometimes, but it could be nice as well. So I just want to know the nature of that. I imagine that it's a pilot, but may it is a pilot. But maybe you can give some details on how you might want to keep an eye on that and what the follow up would be.

[02:25:34] Staff (Ms. Cameron): Right. Right now, there are specific guidelines in the design guidelines of the patio program, on what these merchandise, this place could look like, and staff will continue to inspect and make sure the businesses are complying with the guidelines. Um, and, you know, so we, we did add some guidelines on what kind of items should be displayed, you know, how it should look. You know, it should be an extension of what they are displaying inside. So not for sale tracks or, you know, some attractive displays that actually brings business to downtown. We can amend, you know, if the guidelines are not, you know, if merchants are not staying compliant with the guidelines, we can amend in the future or re-evaluate the nature of the pilot for this activity in the future.

[02:26:31] Unknown Speaker: Okay, and then my last question is similar to the vice mayor's, and it's about the amount of revenue. Now, the other that we'd be taking in from the patios licensing and so forth. Um, the simultaneously, the other thing we're trying to do in addition to allowing outdoor cafes is filling vacancies, which I understand is a separate program. But I'm wondering whether, um, it's a separate program that has costs and staff costs. And I wonder if, uh, if we reduce fees maybe one time, if that makes attracting businesses easier, or is there, you know, how you feel about that, how Mr. Lang would feel about that, or if there's no relation between, do you feel there's no relation between the setup fees for outdoor patios and attracting businesses? In other words, is it more easier to attract businesses, if the fees are very low for one year, for example?

[02:27:37] Staff (Ms. Cameron): We're going to go ahead and invite economic vitality manager, Lang, to help respond to that. I'll note that for now, it'll only be, you know, the businesses that will be participating in the ones that are there, and as new businesses come in, That's one of the reasons we want the flexibility that nothing's permanent, we can move things around, that, you know, we hopefully can offer outdoor patio areas to new businesses as they move in by shifting some things around as needed with the public spaces.

[02:28:09] Staff John Lang (Economic Vitality Manager): Good evening, Mayor and Counsel, thank you for the question. In terms of lowering the rate or adjusting the rate to be more attractive. First and foremost, a business is going to be looking at the actual built space. So that needs to be the most attractive feature. It's an added benefit to actually be out on the street, but 1st and foremost, does the building conform to the use you need it for? So in talking with other communities, don't envision the $10 a square foot to be an obstacle or an impediment to leasing space. I would like to just footnote, I think it's an important piece of the puzzle here when we talk about allowing space and going through a licensing processes. There are opportunities where people can potentially license space in front of another space. But part of that process is we want people to get approval from a property owner or a business owner that's there. And that is good for a year. So if at some point in time, things change. We have the ability to capture backspace and use it for those new uses that are coming on. So we've built in some flexibility, to Ms. Cameron's point, some flexibility in this program, so as things change, and as the street evolves with different uses, we have the ability to recapture space if that does occur. Recognizing there is an ebb and flow to the business cycle and what the attractive space is. So we feel like the $10 a square foot is not necessarily a huge impediment based upon current market rates for actual built space today.

[02:29:54] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. So this is the last call for council questions. Any council questions? Okay, now it's time that we can make comments, and take action. Are there comments or are people ready to make a motion? So, I see, uh, I see a lot going on here. I'll just make a comment myself that as given that my questions have been answered and that this is a pilot that we can adjust, I'm comfortable with the staff recommendation. Um, and I see emotion, uh, council member, Abbe Koga, what is your...

[02:30:52] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: The comments first?

[02:30:53] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, sure. Council member Meditor.

[02:30:56] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you. So I was on the ad hoc committee. for this topic, and I certainly had a lot to say on that committee. And I do appreciate how this program has evolved. I appreciate the changes that have been made, in response to not just the committee members, but members of the public, the chamber, and others who have commented. And I'm really happy with where it is right now. I also totally understand, though, that we might want to tweak it, and so I'm very sportive of allowing the public works director to make those changes without coming back to council. But I'm very happy with how it is now, so I'm anxious to get going. Thanks.

[02:31:39] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you, Council member Kumet.

[02:31:41] Unknown Speaker: Great, thank you, Mayor. So I, um, I'm happy to second the motion. I just wanted to add a... We were all deciding who was gonna press the buttons up here. That's why we were laughing. Um, I just wanted to take note of a couple things, which is, first, I just love to thank staff. Um, I know that it's a heavy lift, but for, um, at least me, I'm just thrilled to see the evolution and to see the collaboration. I was really happy to hear from Mr. Cats in public comment. The chamber has been a wonderful partner, I think, in outreaching with the businesses and the robust communication plan, I think, is really what's made it successful. People ask me all the time, how are we able to keep Castro, um, closed and kind of evolved to this program we have today, and I say that it was a joint partnership with, you know, our community, our residents, our city, council, our staff, and our chamber to make it successful. So I just really want to acknowledge that because, um, we're always so busy doing the work that we don't always get the opportunity to just talk about what a gem it is as other cities were, um, um, doing away with theirs. We've been able to implement it, and something that will have longevity. So I'm thrilled about that. Speaking about the robust communications, I do music on Castro is something we do hear a lot about. And so I would love more communications on the pilot, and maybe the upcoming flexibility in that program and how people can provide their input, and that we are trying it out after lots of input from them. Um, and then, um, kind of echoing some of the things my colleagues brought up was the flexibility, um, in making sure that it's kind of seamless and successful, but also safety. You know, I think we have people on all types of different modes and so making sure that it works, especially as the traffic signals have come back on. We got a lot of feedback about that when that happened. Um, but happy to, again, um, 2nd the 2nd the motion and just want to say things again.

[02:33:55] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, any other council comments?

[02:34:00] Unknown Speaker: And I just, I just want to 2nd what council member come, I said, I, I, since it's a pilot program and and public works can make, uh, changes I'd love to hear. I'd love to have some feedback, whether it's in the council connection or some other forum on, you know, what those changes are, what feedback you've gotten from people and how the pilot is changing.

[02:34:23] Mayor Alison Hicks: With that, seeing no more comments, we can vote. Oh, Margaret needs to make the motion first.

[02:34:31] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, may I hear I do the short straw here, I guess. I chimed into early. And before, if I do, I also want to say thank you to staff. I joined the ad hoc committee for the last meeting. But by then quite a bit of all of this has been worked out and I note the extensive number of meetings and outreach that was done to get here. So I think folks are just really excited to make it happen and to see it come into fruition. So I look forward to that. And definitely think, um, it's a work in progress. And I'm sure there'll be some tweaks and, um, we'll, uh, um, be looking forward to the, uh, the feedback we get. So with that, I will make the motion, please bear with me. It's quite extensive. To one, introduce an ordinance of the city of Mount View, repealing article 15 of chapter 36, zoning of the Mountain View city code to repeal sidewalk cafes in the downtown area, amending section 36.44.65 development review procedures, related to outdoor dining and merchandise displays, and amending other sections of chapter 36 for consistency and minor amendments to be read entitled only for the reading waived, and set a 2nd reading from May 23rd, 2023. and introduce an ord of the city of Mount View, repealing article 3, merchant vendors in downtown area of chapter 15, and adding a new section to chapter 27, streets and sidewalks to repeal the sidewalk cafe and merchant vendor provisions, and replace them with a new outdoor patio program in the downtown area. And amending chapter 25 neighborhood preservation, chapter 26, public amusements, and chapter 27, streets and sidewalks for consistency, to be read entitled only for the reading waived, and set 2nd reading from May 23rd, 2023. And adopt a resolution of the city of Council of the city of Mountain View, amending the downtown P 19 precise plan to add an outdoor activities section, authorizing outdoor dining and merchandise displays on private property, repeal and replace sidewalk cafe references with outdoor activities. and make other minor amendments to be read entitled only for the reading waived. And adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View, adopting the downtown Mountain View, outdoor patios, standards, guidelines, and authorizing the public works director to make minor amendments to the standards guidelines, to be read entitled only for the reading waived, and adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, amending the city of Mountain View, master fees schedule by repealing and replacing sidewalk cafe and merchant vendor fees, with outdoor patio application and rental fees, to be read entitled only for the reading waived, and adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View, repealing resolution number 18546, and all subsequent amendments, thereto, including, but not limited, to resolution number 18577, 18631, and 18726, which suspended sidewalk cafe program requirements and authorized application of the Castro Streets outdoor dining program throughout downtown, effective November 1st, 2023, to be read entitled further, to be read entitled only further reading waived.

[02:37:50] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you for reading all that. Now we can vote.

[02:38:00] Unknown Speaker: Passes unanimously.

[02:38:04] Mayor Alison Hicks: So Now we move on to the new business section of our agenda. First, the 1st item is 7.one. which is the American Rescue Plan Act Funding for small businesses, Assistant City Manager, community development director, RT Shvastava, and economic vitality manager, John Lang, will present the item.

[02:39:17] Staff John Lang (Economic Vitality Manager): Good evening, mayor, members of council, John Lang Economic Vitality Manager. I'm joined by Assistant City Manager, Community Development Director, RT Shvostova. We have a brief PowerPoint presentation for you this evening, talking about 4 proposals for ARPA funding that council discussed back on June of last year. The discussion at council was allocating $500,000 for small business funds. The feedback we got from council at that point in time was looking to do a program potentially around sustain businesses that were going through Americans with disability act, lawsuits, also looking to provide grant funding assistance just for strictly financial assistance. And then also looking to support businesses in the broader mountain view community. Staff is coming back to you this evening with 4 proposals to break out the funding, and we're going to dive into each one of these independently, but as an overview, the 4 are a facade grant program, in total amount of $200,000, in outdoor furnishing grant program of $200,000, a social media training program for $25,000, and a contract amendment with rethink disposable for $75,000. All 4 of these programs do align with different council priorities. Three of them align with the economic vitality strategic priority, and then the rethink disposal aligns with the sustainability and climate resiliency. Diving more into detail about the facade matching grant program. Staff is proposing to develop a facade grant program in 3 tiers, a 5000, a 10,000, and a $15,000 tier. The purpose of this is to provide small grants to do small exterior improvements to buildings. This is really an opportunity to get a fresh paint job, potentially a new sign, or replace a door that may not be ADA compliant. This program is envisioned to be very minimal facade improvements, not full exterior facade improvements. The grand tiers are really estimated based upon the type of work, and the approach would be working with small businesses or property owners, identifying what they're looking to do, what tierret falls into, and then working through the city's permit process in doing a grant reimbursement program around that. The 2nd program is a grant program designed to support the replacement of outdoor furnishings from any business that's been operating outside in Mountain View. This would allow for up to $45,000 grants for businesses to replace broken chairs, tables, heaters, umbrellas, anything that had maybe been damaged after being outside for the last 3 years. The 3rd program is to amend the rethink disposable agreement. This program is currently in existent in Mountain View. The program provides assistance to food service businesses. They go in, they audit the business, they look for opportunities to take disposable containers that are used for dine-in services and replace those with reusable materials. The classic example is thinking about a plastic cup that you may put condiments in taken to the table that gets thrown away. This program goes in, does that audit. They will maybe suggest a ramekin or some other reusable type of device. This reduces the this reduces the trash stream and meets other sustainability goals of the city. So we're looking to extend this agreement for another year to continue providing those services. And the last program is a $25,000 social media program. This would be done in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce. 2 lessons learned during the pandemic, both for the city as well as by the chamber. City staff have been doing some analysis on small businesses that utilize social media versus those that don't and can looking at sales tax trends. We have seen that those small businesses that are utilizing social media have had a quicker return or recaptured their lost sales from the pandemic. They're basically back at their pre-pandemic levels. There is a very strong correlation to that. Those that are not playing actively in social media, have not seen quite the return. We've also heard anecdotally from the chamber in the downtown business association that those businesses that are active in social media are also seeing greater crowds in interest in their businesses. So we think this is a great opportunity to partner with the chamber and implement a toolkit program for small businesses to be educated on the types of social media out there. What are the resources that they need, and what are the social media channels they should be thinking about for their business. So this would be a toolkit that any business can use to help them play better in the world of social media and certainly help. accentuate their business and hopefully increase sales. So to conclude, we're proposing 4 different programs that support small businesses, as outlined in front of you, and in the memorandum, $200,000 for a facade grant program, $200,000 for a grant program to replace outdoor furnishings, a social media training program, and a contract amendment with rethink disposable. We are here to answer any of your questions. Thank you very much.

[02:45:46] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Do any members of the council have questions? Council member Ramos?

[02:45:56] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Uh, receive, well, we received the comment in the last comment period, and I think it was a letter from, it was from Mr. Cox. Does it represent Old Mountain View? I wasn't sure I didn't remember. I don't know whether he maybe he will speak up and tell you the answer because he's still listening virtually. I don't know whether he was representing himself or a group that he belongs to. But it was asking about adding more assistance to people finding the architects and designers. Um, I think about it in terms of, um, like in a, when you're doing event planning, and then you get a venue, and then the venue gives you your lists of preferred caterers. Now, in some cases, that those are the caterers that you have to use. In other cases, that's just the caterers that, like, they know the kitchen, they can handle everything, and they just happen to be the ones that that venue likes to work with a lot. And it's easier for someone who decides to have an event at that venue, for example. Um, are, do we, do we have, like, a level of, Because I assume that there have been facade improvements coming before staff before, and there are probably some architects that you see over and over again that just know the process, some that you probably wouldn't put in your favorable bucket. But is that something that could be made available to um, people who may want to seek to use these, uh, this program?

[02:47:20] Staff (RT Shvastava, Assistant City Manager / Community Development Director): Thank you for that question, um, council member, our teacher Vastava, as city manager, community development director. What we do is, when somebody typically comes in, they do need a designer, and staff actually is pretty well worsened design requirements. They have a preliminary meeting to meet with the team. But we don't typically give people a list of private architects because I think we don't want to, we don't want to play favorites with certain designers, but what we do is we point people to projects that have moved forward successfully. In the past, there had been a program when we were still a redevelopment agency, where the city hired an architect to provide design services. So that was another example. And that probably would have to be done as part of a longer term program. It would be hard to just do a very short program. takes a while to get someone on board. So those are 2 examples of how staff can help or point them to successful projects, but to answer your question, we can't give people a favored list of private architects, because that would be a problem for the city.

[02:48:52] Mayor Alison Hicks: Council member Ramos, that's your last question. Are there additional questions that council members have? Um, Council member Metachek.

[02:49:10] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I just was wondering, we've been working with rethink disposable for a while. How's that going?

[02:49:17] Staff John Lang (Economic Vitality Manager): Thank you for the question. Um, There, it has been a little bit of a slow uptick. They have been their original contract. called for them reaching out to, if I remember correctly, 50 businesses to engage in this process. They have had some adoption from the local businesses. A big part of it is they do the audits. The audits don't always necessarily result in an opportunity to make the changes. There may be other requirements that are needed to support that. But they do go through a process. They try to educate businesses about what they can do. They do provide recommendations on alternatives. They have made some investments. We think there's a greater opportunity to get one more of Mountain View involved in this conversation, but two, it does align with a lot of the city's policy goals. And so we'd really like to continue to push and get the word out, especially as we're looking to reduce weight streams. There is also a goal of trying to reduce the takeout container issue as well. So there's opportunities to also provide gentle guidance along that path as well and during those audits. So we think there's a win-win synergy there. We would have liked to have had a little bit better uptick under this 1st go round, but overall, I think, as a pilot getting launched this past year, it was it's considered successful.

[02:50:51] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Is it mostly downtown businesses that have had the audits?

[02:50:55] Staff John Lang (Economic Vitality Manager): Uh, it's it's throughout Mountain View. So it was not it was not just unique to downtown.

[02:51:02] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: It's great. Okay, thank you.

[02:51:06] Mayor Alison Hicks: Council member Kmei.

[02:51:08] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thanks, Mayor. I think that this, I might have asked this during my briefing on the topic, but for the different programs for the small businesses, we will be able to provide translation services or some of the forms in different languages, at least in Mandarin and Spanish. Okay, I'm seeing in Nottingham. Okay, great. Yeah, I didn't I don't remember seeing it in the council report. And so I do think that that would be an important thing to highlight, I think a lot of our small businesses, you know, also like their level of understanding of some of the technology, you know, I know that that's what the social media training program will be too, but hopefully all of the different programatic elements can be in a variety.

[02:51:56] Mayor Alison Hicks: Great. Thank you for confirming. So I'll ask a question now. seeing no other questions, although those of you who haven't asked, of course, can follow me. I often do this, I'm not sure whether to make comments or questions, and I've decided I'll phrase this as a question. But I guess I have to start it as a comment. Um, so I've worked, I like, comment. I like these programs a lot, and I won't go into details, because this is questions. But the one that I look at most closely is the facade improvement, because I worked, I didn't work on it, but I worked alongside one in Oakland. Um, and that was decades ago, and it was very, um, it was Seminole in making Oakland, really, some of the very rundown streets really work, and they were, they were, at the time, they were mostly historic buildings. And getting design assistance was very important. Uh, you know, because otherwise, you hand people money, and they take off the historic features and put in something else and make the whole thing go downhill instead of uphill, even though the city's spending money on the program. Um, so, and I've followed those programs as they've changed over the decade and they've decades. And they, a lot of them have really become, um, not just about historic preservation, but about celebrating the people who are running the business, or the people who have worked, who have lived in the area for over the past 100 years. So a lot of celebration of different immigrant communities, you know, often the people running the restaurants are great at cooking food, but not very good at telling their story visually on the front facade or in other places. So, um, I agree with, uh, Council member Ramos's question, and, you know, when you say, staff, I'm wondering if there's a way we can strengthen that, because I've seen, you know, I kind of browsed what different cities are doing, because I'm interested in it. Um, and I know the city of Sacramento does, um, they hire, they, they, um, so, Mr. Fest, what you say is exactly true. You can't, what I've been told, at least when I worked for San Jose, you can't say, oh, I love as a staff person. I love this architect, go out and use them. Um, you can get in trouble for doing that. But there are other ways of doing it, and I think you reference them, either your current, you pick out current staff, who specializes in that, or you hire new staff, and you said that's a longer term thing. Or what Sacramento is doing is they're doing some kind of outreach where you apply to be a consultant. Um, and I could refer you to that if you'd like. And they're not the only ones doing it. They're doing it in, like, LA and San Francisco and places around the country. So I'm wondering if there's a way that we, if you have some suggested ways, and whether they would be short term or long term, to kind of reinforce the design assistance aspect. Because my experience is, when you just hand out money, the people whose facades look the worst, don't get much better, because the reason they're the worst is, that's not their strength. design is not their strength.

[02:55:34] Staff (RT Shvastava, Assistant City Manager / Community Development Director): Thank you, Mayor. All very good points. And, um, I have to say, if we had, maybe I could confer with Mr. Lang, and if the council's interested, we could look at something that we could do within the year that we're hoping to do, um, you know, kind of, uh, complete this program. And we saw this as a pilot, and we were gonna do research, and look at other programs, so that if we were to develop one as part of the economic vitality strategy,gy, I think we would certainly look at the city hiring services. And I did see some of the examples. They hired window dressers. you know, to go out and design and dress windows. So I think we want to look at those programs and look at how successful they've been, maybe talk to some of the cities, and come back with a bigger program. For this one, we tried to keep it fairly small in scope, because of the timeline. And the proposal was, um, we have in house staff. We do use the design review committee from time to time, but we don't want them to be a holdup to the process. Um, and so, um, you know, we have in-house staff, who's pretty well worsened design. And the idea was if somebody wanted to apply for a grant program, we'd have the downtown team, or the business team meet with the design person and go through the preliminary discussion. So whatever came in would be successful. So that was our proposal for this time around. But we're happy to make any revisions.

[02:57:16] Mayor Alison Hicks: So let me see if I understand. There's a piece of this. This is a pilot program, in part, I imagine, because the ARPA funding. And then we'll discuss this more under the headache of economic vitality. Am I understanding that, right?

[02:57:32] Staff (RT Shvastava, Assistant City Manager / Community Development Director): Yes, I mean, one of the program recommendations could be looking at, you know, what's other successful cities have done, and developing some kind of a program, that would allow maybe the hiring of design services, or hiring of certain things, you know, certain consultants to help. If the city hires, then we can offer the services on a consultant basis. And we wouldn't hire a person full time. The idea would be to have a consultant on hand, if necessary, so that we're not spending, you know, time they're not going to use on the particular service. So that's what we were proposing and would propose as part of the broader strategy. We are not currently proposing it. primarily because it takes time to put this together. Probably take a good 6 months to go find people, talk to people, and we didn't want a lot of time to go by. But it certainly could be part of the longer strategy.

[02:58:33] Mayor Alison Hicks: Yeah, and I really think the other thing, maybe you said this, I think there are different kinds of design services. There are people who are really who, uh, their background is historic. There are other people who do window displays. I actually have a neighbor who does really good ones. And there's, and then there are people who do more, like, color and design of contemporary buildings, and there are kind of three different specialties. So, yes, you would probably want to have various...

[02:58:59] Staff (RT Shvastava, Assistant City Manager / Community Development Director): We would certainly want, we'd certainly want to have someone with, with some historic background for the historic buildings, and then, um, you know, there might be other citywide buildings where you may not need that kind of architect. So we'd look for more than one kind of design professional to offer those services.

[02:59:22] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay. Okay, that sounds good. I guess those are my question. Oh, you know, I have another question about how signage will be dealt with, because in my opinion, the signage downtown, and I should have read up on this, but there's a lot of light box signs, which are more the kind of sign you see in a strip mall or maybe in a pretty dated strip mall at that. Um, and not the kind of signs that really, you know, walkable streets usually have. Do you have any comments on how we might upgrade that?

[02:59:57] Staff (RT Shvastava, Assistant City Manager / Community Development Director): I think staff has several ideas, and usually when somebody comes in for facade improvement, you can immediately see the difference. when they've gone through the improvements, primarily because they've staff has kind of reviewed their project and provided it, but a lot of what we see were built before, some of these sign guidelines went into effect. And, um, you could be sure that anyone who comes in for facade improvement for signs, will get that initial guidance from staff. And we do give people examples of work that's been done. You know, we downtown has some very good examples and the rest of the city. So we're able to, we're able to move people into a pretty successful format, especially when it comes with a grant funding. You know, at least we were able to, I think, move the needle a lot further.

[03:00:51] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, I think I have some comments for later, but those are my questions. So now, now is time, if there are no other questions from council members, now is time for public commentary. If there are people in person who want to comment, please fill out a blue card, and if you're online and want to comment, please raise your hand now. I see no in person speakers on this item. So, we'll go directly to virtual speakers, and they will be, um, first, you'll each get three minutes, and it will be first Bruce England, then Jesse Cupp, and then Peter Katz.

[03:01:37] Public Speaker Bruce England: Thank you, Mayor, and city council, Bruce England Wisman Station Drive. I know I'm talking a lot tonight, but you have a very interesting agenda this time, so can't help it. I have a very short comment on the rethink disposable program. So I support additional funding for the rethink disposable program in the interest of reducing proliferation of single use items in food service operations. In addition to providing more options for local businesses, more employee education might be called for. I personally find I still need to request that extra items not be included with my orders to service steps. So some improvement there would be welcome. Thank you.

[03:02:17] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. And now, I believe it's Peter Katz.

[03:02:28] Public Speaker Peter Katz: I actually thought it was Jesse next, but that's okay. I'll go. Thank you, mayor, and team members of the city council. Yes, are you there? Can you hear me now?

[03:02:46] Mayor Alison Hicks: Yes, we can hear you now.

[03:02:48] Public Speaker Peter Katz: You disappeared for a moment. For some reason, I thought Jesse was supposed to go, but I'll go. Uh, thank you, uh, mayor and see members of the city council. This is Peter Cat, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce again. Um, I want to thank the city for using ARPA funds to help our small businesses. This is a thoughtful and necessary infusion that can have a real impact on their ability to recover and to survive. Some quick comments. New outdoor furniture is very costly. So relief in its purchase will be very helpful. And in answer to the question raised by council members, show Walter on group purchases of furniture, yes, the chamber will be working with businesses to do this. As John Lang pointed out, social media has proven to be a cost-effective method for small businesses to increase awareness and sales, and yet too many of our owners and managers are not proficient or just lack the bandwidth to take full advantage. The chamber's been working closely with the city on tools and resources that should help. So again, this funding is exciting. With regards to facade dollars. This, too, is important and exciting, but we simply ask that the city be broad enough, in its definition, so that vital repairs that may or may not be cosmetic, but are critical to being a street facing storefront. And I mean things like the installation of ADA compliant ramps, or widening of doorways, things like that, that these items also be allowed. Thank you very much.

[03:04:19] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. And now Jesse Cupp.

[03:04:30] Public Speaker Jesse Cupp: Hello again. I also want to thank you for uh, getting this funding. I think it's gonna be great for our downtown businesses. Um, and also have a couple uh, comments and suggestions. I wanted to kind of echo what, um, Mayor Hicks said earlier about, uh, allowing these funds to be used for, um, window displays, uh, hiring designers or even, um, uh, local artists to put up murals. I have 2 businesses that have come to me with a desire to put up murals. Um, And it can be cost prohibitive, so, if this funny were, um, allowed to be spent on that kind of thing, uh, for the pilot program, I think we would see some good results and help to beautify our city. Um, It also makes sense that the funding should be able to be used for necessary repairs and uh, ADA compliance, um, as Peter Katz mentioned. So, Yeah, whether it's a small fix that just really needs to be done or someone's dreaming big and they want a big, you know, beautiful storefront, or they want a mural, I think flexibility is important. And thank you for going after this funding. Thank you.

[03:05:50] Mayor Alison Hicks: So, this is the last chance for public comment. And seeing no more public comment, I will bring it back to council for comments and action. Uh, vice mayor. Sorry.

[03:06:10] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Turn on my mic, just like I'm muting. Um, I'd like to concur with what many of the council members said sort of in their questions about supporting um, having real assistance, uh, design assistance for the the merchants. Um, Very helpful. I don't know with this. I don't know where that is. And the other thing I wanted to bring up was related to the social media. I wondered if we could encourage people to, or we might want to partner with the high school freestyle academy program. You know, that is a two year design program in Mountain View High School. There could be also something at Los Alto, so I honestly don't know, but the Freestyle Academy is teaching kids how to do graphics, and they're really quite good at web design, and Facebook ads, and, you know, all that sort of thing. And it would, I think it could be a nice energy between, um, downtown merchants and, um, and, uh, the social media assistance. So I just wanted to bring that up as a common, as a suggestion.

[03:07:32] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Are there more comments and suggestions? So I'll make another comment. Yeah, I actually, I was reminded by Mr. Cupp's comments that I hadn't brought up murals or interfacing with the Visual Arts Committee in any way, which I think might be helpful. Again, you know, somebody may want something on their wall, but need some, It's like needing a designer, needing an artist or a painter. Has there been any thought along those lines?

[03:08:15] Staff (RT Shvastava, Assistant City Manager / Community Development Director): Well, I don't think we specifically contemplated murals as part of the facade program, but I know the VSC has talked about... It says that in our staff report. Right. I mean, as in, as in, um, having the BAC review it, I think the idea was, right, um, the BAC is supportive of the program, but, but if we, if we do murals, it will go through the staff level review. So, um, I think the idea is, um, it could be allowed, um, and the city could potentially pay for it. But we would just review it for, you know, if it's a historic building. We want to make sure, for example, that it fits in with the character, if it's a different kind of building. So we would go through our typical staff review process for facade improvement. We haven't typically encouraged it, but the VAC has wanted to see more of this. So we wanted to make sure it was part of the program.

[03:09:18] Mayor Alison Hicks: Good. I've heard a lot more people than just the VIA warning mural. So that's good. So again, I'll ask whether there are other comments, and if not, maybe I'll make. One more. Okay. So I see emotion and a 2nd. And I'm wondering whether I can sum up, like, my summary of what I've heard is that people have mostly gone along with the staff recommendation, but wanted to encourage any possible way that there could be design assistance on a number of different elements. including with murals, with historic assistance and with other things like color, material assistance, signage, um, place making storytelling, those kinds of things, is that, does that sound right?

[03:10:27] Staff (RT Shvastava, Assistant City Manager / Community Development Director): Um, sorry, if I could, if I could just have you rephrase the question. We did hear a lot of this, and if the council's interested, we could we could certainly follow up for a portion of the budget to be spent on that. That's what I would like

[03:10:46] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, so we have a motion by council member Ramirez. Oh, and a comment by council member Manachek.

[03:10:54] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, I wanted to clarify that. I thought that staff had said that they could explore all of those things, but that would be like a phase 2 as opposed to this initial phase. So I would prefer to keep the motion, just the staff recommendation. without additions, because I think that's phase two.

[03:11:14] Staff (RT Shvastava, Assistant City Manager / Community Development Director): To confirm, staff's recommendation was to explore it as part of a future item and use this pilot program as examples and to give us some time to research. But we're open if the council wanted to make any changes.

[03:11:35] Mayor Alison Hicks: I actually have one question about a change, which is, uh, window displays were not in there at all, and often they're, some of them are pretty bleak, and they can be pretty inexpensive to have somebody do them for you. I'd like to, well, maybe I need to wait for the motion, but when the motion is made, I'd like to add window displays as a friendly amendment unless you're adding it away. So, the motion council member Ramirez?

[03:12:05] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. happy to move the staff recommendation. Um, it's a pretty, these are not large dollar figures, and that's the, I think, maybe what would be helpful as if we're adding window displays, which tier would you recommend that it fall under?

[03:12:26] Staff (RT Shvastava, Assistant City Manager / Community Development Director): Yeah, but that would affect the maximum grant that the business would be eligible for. So if we're adding, so my preference would be have staff evaluate modifications as we go through this program, and then we can make modifications, as recommended by staff, but if there is majority support for including a new type of improvement, then we would have to specify which tier, it would fall under because there's a maximum amount of funding. based on the improvements that are proposed.

[03:13:05] Mayor Alison Hicks: Tier one?

[03:13:11] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: With the consent of the seconder, I'm happy to add window display as a tier one improvement, which has a maximum grant of $5000 associated.

[03:13:27] Mayor Alison Hicks: Oh, he's asking whether you accept that.

[03:13:29] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just looking to you if it was okay.

[03:13:31] Unknown Speaker: Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think I support that amendment. I would I would think it would just be, you know, after sign removal, comma. Window display. That's how I would see the change. I wouldn't see it as anything more substantive and people can kind of, I would see it as like a menu. People can pick and choose what they'd like within that tier. Or they could choose the whole thing, right? If it falls within that budget.

[03:13:55] Mayor Alison Hicks: So I'm comfortable. Thank you. So we have a motion in a 2nd and now we can vote.

[03:14:23] Unknown Speaker: Passes unanimously.

[03:14:28] Mayor Alison Hicks: Now move on to item 7.2, which is the American Rescue Plan Act Funding for Workforce Development. Spanish translation services are available for this item via Zoom. We'll now hear from our interpreter.

[03:14:50] Spanish Interpreter: es el finance mento de la le del plan de rescate estadunidense, para el desarroyo de la forza laboral. Si esque ocupa production, por favor, selectione, el global. Thank you.

[03:15:12] Mayor Alison Hicks: Now, principal management analyst Laurel James will present the item.

[03:15:22] Staff Laurel James (Principal Management Analyst): Thank you, Mary and Council. Good evening. This evening, I'll be presenting staff recommendations for American Rescue Plan Act funding for workforce development. At the adoption of the fiscal year 2022 through 23 budget. Council directed staff to allocate $500,000 in ARPA funding for workforce development, and to follow up with organizations who reached out to the city and return with funding recommendations to program that funding. In the direction, council indicated preference to leverage or expand existing programs and capacity in order to maximize the impact of the one time funding, to seek out programs that support the strategic priorities and the programs that staff has recommended support community for all and economic vitality goals that the council has. as well as support new and existing partnerships between organizations in the funding recommendations. And then finally, counsel also directed staff to make recommendations for organizations and programs that have a focus on serving Mountain View residents. I'm going to briefly summarize the funding recommendations that are detailed in the staff report next. First, city staff recommends allocating $169,075 of the ARPA funding to city programs that are run by the library. They include Universal Class, which is an online course catalog of over 550 offerings. Brain fuses job now a web-based career resource that includes live coaching. And the queer online high school program, scholarships and stipends. This funding request would fund 5 scholarships, which would be matched by the state for a total of 10 and stipends for those 10 participants to complete the program. Additionally, staff recommends funding partnership programs with other community-based organizations and agencies, including working partnerships, USA's trades orientation program, which provides a pre-apprenticeship program, and this would cover, this particular funding recommendation would cover 10 mountain view residents for reserve spots. Additionally, staffer men's funding, the Mountain View, Los Altos Union, High School District, and Mountain View Wisman School District proposal for a cross-generational literacy program that would train high school students to be literacy tutors for pre-K through 8th grade students while their parents and community adults received training programs as well during school breaks and on weekends. Additionally, staff recommends funding foothill college's career exploration day, which would be an opportunity for participants to explore careers and pre-apprenticeship programs in the trades for enrollment in um, those pre-apprenticeship programs with scholarships following the event, as well as the childcare provider career development program, which would provide workshops and scholarships in um, early care and child development for nannies in the Mountain View community. Additionally, the recommendation includes funding for Novelworks whole person initiative, which is a job trading initiative that includes supportive wraparound services, Los Alsource Mountain View Community Foundation, and Reach SV's Mompreneur Program, which provides training and skills development for Home Kitchen Micro Enterprise, and the Dayworker Center's Gardener skills, basic tech, and bike repair and maintenance training courses. For a total of $426,900. The recommendations oversubscribe that $500,000 in one time funding, and staff recommends making an additional appropriation of one time funding to fully fund all of the request, $95,975. So in summary, the staff recommendation is on the slide, again, to allocate 169,075 in the ARPA funding to library workforce development programs, and then award 426,900 in that one time funding in the augmented funding to community partnership programs, which would include an appropriation of $95,975 from the general non-operating fund. So with that, I would be happy to take your questions and thank you.

[03:19:54] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Do any members of council have questions? Uh, Council member Ramos.

[03:20:08] Councilmember Emily Ramos: This is a quick one, actually more toward the city manager. Um, I was looking through the questions from the pre question packet, um, on question number four. It asks about how the mompreneur program is seeking matching funds and that they will be on the agenda tomorrow for the board of supervisors. If we do pass the funding for that program, is it possible for us to throw in a quick note to the board of supervisors showing our support for that matching fund?

[03:20:39] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, thank you, council member Ramos, that's a great idea. I think we can arrange to have city manager staff, send something over and have the mayor's signature on it tomorrow.

[03:20:50] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Other council questions? Okay. If not, it's time to take comments from members of the public, and we will take comments from those in person first. So if you're here in person and you want to speak, please make out a blue card now. Some people have already done that. So 1st we have Jose Caprera. Jose?

[03:21:31] Unknown Speaker (Clerk/staff): Oh, Mayor, how much time did you want to allocate?

[03:21:33] Mayor Alison Hicks: Oh, we'll do a minute and a half. For you.

[03:21:36] Public Speaker Jose Cabrera: I'll probably be quicker. Okay. So, um, good evening, mayor, city council members and staff. My name is Jose Cabrera. I'm one of the, uh, members of Carpenter's Local 405. I've been a member since for 28 years, and I'm here simply just to say thank you for, um, supporting the, uh, trace organization program, uh, better known as stock program. You know, your support is really gonna help out a lot of folks. And we hope that this support continues throughout the years. Thank you.

[03:22:12] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. And next, we have, um, I'm sorry, I think it's Louise Auerhan.

[03:22:28] Public Speaker Louise Auerhan: Thank you, Mayor Council members, Louise Auerhan, with working partnerships, and I just want to thank the city for advancing this item and urge your support for the staff recommendation. The trades orientation program that working partnerships leads. We call it TOP, the top program. It's one of those that's recommended for funding. And we're really excited for the opportunity to deepen our outreach and relationships with mountain view communities. So why is this important? As you all know, one of the biggest long-term challenges facing many of our community members is access to livable wage, family supporting careers. The registered apprenticeship system, and construction in California can provide those careers. It's an amazing opportunity to get into a union construction job. But it's very challenging. If you don't have family or know someone to get in. There are just in our area. There are over 24 different construction trades. Each one has their own apprenticeship, with different state standards, different requirements, different methods to get in. It's like if you were applying for college, but there was no college counselors, no college prep, no college guides. It's very difficult to navigate on your own. And that's where top comes in. It's something that was developed by us, the unions and the industry, to really provide that missing link. So we're excited for the opportunity to really do deep outreach in Mountain View, to bring more residents into our program, and really hoping to be able to work with all these other great organizations, too. Thank you.

[03:24:01] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Karen Root?

[03:24:12] Public Speaker Karen Root: Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and city counselors. I'm here today. I'm a resident of Wetwood City, but I'm here today. as a board member of Tiffin, the Institute for, uh, families and nannies. I commend you on your interest in reducing the disparities between different people here in Silicon Valley and appreciate you supporting both the economic development and the workforce development initiatives and hope that both of them pass. Tiffin has been expanding into Silicon Valley. Many people think that nannies are only for wealthy people. However, that's not true. And with the need for additional childcare, then we are looking for all different types of ways to support families and to take nannies out of the gray economy. Tiffin has found a wonderful partner with Foothill College. We have already had authorized a program at Foothold College that takes the nanny, gives them credits, allows them to move on to other levels of education, and who knows where these folks will go once they become certified. Thank you very much. The time goes by fast. Sorry.

[03:25:53] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, that's okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Jeddet Centeno Vasquez. I think I mispronounced your name. Maybe you can say it right.

[03:26:06] Public Speaker (Centeno Vasquez): Oh, that's right. I don't speak too much English, but I'm trying to speak myself. My name is Jedi Centen, Alaska, I've been here in the United States for 27 years, and living in Montameu for the last 12 years. Um, I am student, um, yeah, in psychology, doing a, um, graphic design. Um, because of the pandemic, it's getting so hard for my family, my husband couldn't work well, because it has to be had an operation. So I started a small business on my own. It's doing crafts, like, doing balls for girls. Right now, I'm working all about graduations, like stalls, like the colors. I don't know how to... cold in them, but I'm trying to get into... get money to help my family. And also, I have two younger kids, both are in the college, too. I'm just trying to get myself in college to get some career. I almost finished college, seven classes, more to graduation. And it's kind of been difficult. It's been, I have in five years in college, because my English is not perfect, because I have a lot of things, but some of my families. Now, I'm just gonna get some help for commerce, you know, the, I will speak in Spanish. I don't know.

[03:28:00] Spanish Interpreter: I'm gonna translate her. Um, she would like to also just put her out, so, so services and whatever she needs out there in the community. You step a little closer to the microphone. Better? Okay. She will offer her service out to the community, and the community can also help her, vice versa. So she's really appreciated to be here tonight.

[03:28:21] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. I don't know if I can show up something very quickly. So your time is up now. But, um, I'll try to think of a way you can choose. Okay. Okay, thanks. Thank you. So that all the women that prefer to speak in Spanish, we speak in Spanish. Perfect. Okay. Okay. Okay. So next is the Mata Baptista? Okay. We'll come back to her. Uh, Malia Pires.

[03:29:08] Public Speaker Malia Pires: Good evening, Mayor Hicks, and Vice Mayor Showalter and City Council of Mountain View. My name is Malia Pirus, and it's an honor to be here this evening to stand before you as a 17 year resident of the city of Mountain View, and then also as the executive director of Reach SV, which was formerly Reach Potential movement. And as an organization, we have been investing in the city of Mountain View for over 15 years. And right here in the city. We are a team of 11, 9 women and 2 men from 4 different nations and speak 4 different languages. And we are passionate about equipping individuals. And, um, it all started for us as a heart for Castro elementary, and it quickly evolved into a heart for mountain view. With an emphasis on title one schools and academic insecurity. The population we historically and currently serve is low income, Spanish speaking households, whether that's at the Castro, Mistraw, Latham Campus, where we just hosted our Dia, Delas, Nino's event, and over a 1000 community members came together, or distributing groceries at the Caltega apartments. We have a rich history and asking, how can we help? And resoundingly during the pandemic to current, women are asking, how can we sell our food? We need jobs, we want to work. Um, and they're here. They're here to tell you about what they'd like to do, and I'm glad to be here. Thank you.

[03:30:43] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. So, I'm going to take Sandra Sparsa, and then look for Amada Batista, again.

[03:30:52] Public Speaker Sandra Sparsa: Good evening, Mayor and Counsel, Vice Mayors, and everybody, and I'm glad to see you again after COVID. And back to work in the community. As you know, all the single mothers, I personally know each other, and I've been working with rich potential. I'm part of the cafecita, Cungaroma de Justicia. And I know how hard I work. Because me, myself, and more of the community members were helping to get some money during the COVID time. What they do, they, sewing clothes, they selling tamales, they selling pupusas, want to, like many of the sitting, you are trying their delicious food. You try the tamales, you try the pozzoli, you try everything. And thank you so much for supporting there. And because I have few emails and when they selling food, you guys purchase, which is great. But they want more. They want education, they want to be successful, to helping their kids, to being like the other member of the community say that she wants to finish her school, finish college, and I am working in the district. I keep working so hard, and the same is we really want you to please approve this funding, so we can have more education in our community, and they're willing to work in so hard, and willing to cooperate more in the community. And the most important, they are with diversity. And thank you very much, and God bless you.

[03:32:22] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Now, is the mother Bautista back?

[03:32:33] Public Speaker Amada Bautista: Buena noche sacada una dustas. Good afternoon to everyone. Okay, I mean, nombre samara obista, esta, qui para, um, pollernos, conos recursos, necesarios, para poder, tener, un futuro mejor, en estra familia, para la familia. Joso madre soltera, tenco dos nijos, cones capacidades, pero, aquistad, ais, yo trabajo, duro, limpio casadas.

[03:33:44] Spanish Interpreter: Her name is Bautista, and she's a single mom with two students that are disabled, and she would just like to have the community here, and she would like us, if you guys could support her in any way possible. She um, she wants to work by herself, her own management. And it would really benefit her children because um, childcare is very expensive. And this is a way for her to save and just to be around her children 247. So thank you so much.

[03:34:13] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Now, Angela Contreras?

[03:34:28] Public Speaker Angela Contreras: Hola, buenas tardes.

[03:35:02] Spanish Interpreter: and she has been living in Ranchoi for 23 years, and during COVID, or before COVID, she got hurt, injured in her job, and then COVID happened, And now she's focused on her own business, and she would like to just pursue her business now, and she's really excited to continue this journey. Thank you so much.

[03:35:21] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Now, Gloria Arias?

[03:35:33] Public Speaker Gloria Arias: Buenas noches? Mi nombres, gloriarias, tengo quo aquanentaños, venti tres años vibiender monten view, estu esperando, no portudida, para de mi propio negocio. Me gustaria, que nos a pollen para poder tene una vida mejor. So, madre, cuatro ijos.

[03:36:02] Spanish Interpreter: Her name is Gloria Arias, and she has four children. She's been living in Mount V for 23 years. She is 40 years old, and she's so excited to start her new business, if that's possible. So thank you for everything for tonight.

[03:36:15] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Thank you. Now we have Diana Pinto.

[03:36:28] Public Speaker Diana Pinto: Hola, buena noches, mi nombrezien a pinto, y ali que mis compañeros, estoy a que para que ustedenos dene la pollo.

[03:37:02] Spanish Interpreter: Her name is Diana Pinto. She's excited to be here, also, 23 years here and living in Mountain View. She has three kids, and it would be a pleasure for her to work at home and run her own business so she can spend more time with her children. She's very happy, and that would be a wonderful thing for her and her community members. Um, so she's very blessed and happy to be here tonight.

[03:37:22] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Thank you. Now we have Helen Alaya.

[03:38:27] Public Speaker Helen Alaya (Helena Ayala): Gracias.

[03:38:28] Spanish Interpreter: Her name is Helena Ayala. She's really excited to be here. Also, 20 years living in Mountain View. She was living one year in Sunnyvale, she decided to move to Mantu because she liked to hear better, and she decided here to be here tonight. She has three kids. They're more teenagers' age. They go to cast, they went to Castro, and now there are Grant, a lot Escuela. Mount View High School, and she's just wanting to be more spending more time with her teenager daughters right now, and she's a pleasure to be here. And she also also wants to involve her community members to be in the same program as her. The only reason she wants to continue on with this dream is because she wants a better future for her teenage girls.

[03:39:08] Mayor Alison Hicks: And thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, now, uh, we have, do you refuge, Joe, and please correct any names I mispronounce?

[03:39:22] Public Speaker Dulce Refugio: See, buenas noches, mi nombres, dulce refugio, vivien ven monte view, es una sonna tranquilla. con la renta los viles. Gracias.

[03:40:10] Spanish Interpreter: Her name is and she's really excited to be here tonight. She also has... She also lived in Mountain View for many years during COVID times. It was really hard for her and her family. So they decided to start a small business, and it's been beautiful, so they continue on, and this is a great opportunity for her family. Um, as you guys know how to is highly um, priced, as she was mentioning, and all the bills and everything accumulated. So it's, it's been hard for them. And she also just wants to continue on and also with the community members as well. So thank you.

[03:40:45] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Now, Angela Gabrielle.

[03:40:56] Public Speaker Angela Gabriel: Hola, bueno noches, mi nombre San Angelica Gabriel. Gracias, por escucharnos.

[03:41:48] Spanish Interpreter: Her name is Angelus, and she's really excited to be here tonight. Also, thank you for your time, and she just was mentioning how COVID was really hard. Her husband lost her job. So they had to rethink about different other parts or other ideas of how to accumulate money to their household. It's been a challenging way, and with this opportunity would be awesome for her and her family, just to continue and to stay living in Mountain View. So thank you for tonight.

[03:42:12] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Now we have Amadani Guzman Mordler.

[03:42:21] Public Speaker Amadani Guzman: Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council. Good evening. My name is Amadeni Guzman, and I have been part of reach for more than 11 years. My name's cousin. As a combination of volunteer work, internship, and a snack. I'm not sure. Do we have a technical glitch? Or...?

[03:42:52] Unknown Speaker: She is translating it into Spanish. Okay. Okay.

[03:42:55] Public Speaker Amadani Guzman: As a prom coordinator, I have been, um, Sina's groom, it's been a pleasure to be here and just joining these beautiful mamas. These wonderful moms, who come for us for service, and now they express their life stories with us. I remember when food, food, and youth got together for the 1st time, and that was at the Youth County School, which is, which was Terabella, which is now the CAA Overflow offices in Linda Vista. And now, we are here having, um, trying to have a little cocinita, which is also a small kitchen for our working moms, to provide them with hope. A time to recover, confidence, and also to be unafraid. Um, just thank you, and thank you for being here today with us. Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, and council.

[03:43:42] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Thank you. Uh, we have Rubedaya Ayaya.

[03:43:56] Public Speaker Ruby Ayala: noches, quesañola bendiga todos.

[03:45:11] Spanish Interpreter: Her name is Ruby, and she's really excited to be here today. Bless you all. She has been living in LA, Los Angeles for the past two years, but she decided to move back because Mantribute is her city, and she's very, she came back powerful more than ever, and she's excited to take on whatever is the next project, and she's here, and she just wants to her friends and herself to just continue on with this project. So she's really excited and to follow along what the following steps are, and she's ready to go. And God bless you all. you. Thank you so much.

[03:45:44] Mayor Alison Hicks: Hector Sanchez?

[03:47:19] Spanish Interpreter: His name is Ector, and his wife had been working hard during COVID times as well. He lost his job during COVID, so he had to be mindful and just open minded about what other jobs could he continue to provide for his family. And so this new project arose, and he's really excited. and excited to continue on with his wife, and, um, he said partner in crime. Um, just to continue on. They've been trying to sell food at local construction sites, but they have been dislocated just because no proof of permissions or just, he was not there yet. But he's here now, and he wants to continue on, get all his paperwork filing up and ready to go. Um, he's kind of upset how other cities are able to come here and sell their product, but he's a resident here for more than 20 years, and he cannot. So he's a little, not so happy about that part, but he's ready on to carry on for the next project. And thank you.

[03:48:17] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Uh, this one I'm gonna mispronounce. So, Lawrence Cavacomte.

[03:48:28] Public Speaker Solange Cavalcanti: Good evening. Yes, um, my name is Solange Cavalcanti, and, uh, I am stuffed with member, and member, as employee, we've rich Silicon Valley, and I'm here to support this project, uh, as I work with the community directly, and we support all the bombs, and sometimes we do events with them, to help them to sell and advertise their, um, business. So, um, and, uh, also, I'm working in Mountain View with, uh, Alexander Patsey, I'm a pastry chef, so, always working in helping the community. So, and I know how important is, that's why we are here to support their families, those families, in our community. It's a, it's a great project to, uh, and we will impact our community as, um, we will impact and help giving dig in it to those families and kids. And it's a great impact for the whole community. That's I really trust and believe. Thank you.

[03:49:45] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you very much. Now, it's, uh, Rosa Arellano?

[03:50:38] Spanish Interpreter: Her name is Rosa. She belongs to the rich, um, rich... Oh, sorry. This is Rosa, and she belongs to the breach potential. Um, staff, and she's really excited to be here tonight just to to be aware and just to know you, um, that she's here to support, um, all the families and moms and moms that couldn't make it tonight, and also the moms from our, the RVs that are located, and they also are wanting to continue with this project. She's really excited to be here tonight and just to provide just a support and she's really dedicated to those moms as well. So thank you.

[03:51:15] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you very much. So, I now see no more in person speakers. Are there any more in person speakers? Okay. So now it's time for virtual speakers. Please, if you want to speak virtually, raise your hand. And I see Jesse Cupp.

[03:51:37] Public Speaker Jesse Cupp: Hey, um, it was really great hearing all this public commentary from all of, uh, our working parents who are working hard on their small businesses. I think it's great to see these kind of micro businesses, like food, carts, and food stands. Food trucks have more opportunities, so I hope they can continue to support that, and give them resources, such as ghost kitchens, for commercial kitchens, that they can apply for space and use. I totally support this breach SV, is it? And all the other programs mentioned. There's just a lot of cool programs that I didn't know about. So, you know, I hope this passes, it sounds like it's gonna pass. But I also want to say that I think for the, for the, this is something that we can do to help these micro businesses immediately, like, right now, but in the more medium term, I think the city should consider, what's the next step up for these businesses? If someone starts out as the food cart, um, or a tiny, a tiny business like that? Then I think we need to have stepping stones in place and support, so that they can go from carts to truck, from truck to, and maybe a food hall, like a cafeteria style thing, with low rent, where they can try their hand, and growing their business, and those resources could really help. These micro businesses become small businesses become bigger over time. So, thank you very much. That's it. Thank you.

[03:53:08] Mayor Alison Hicks: Now we have Reina Dominguez.

[03:53:18] Public Speaker Reina Dominguez: Good evening, good evening. Um, I'm here to see if, um, you can support this project, the ritual potential bring to the community. These leaders, uh, Malia and Chandra. We can see all those needs for these families. to have the, um, the license to, they can sell their products, uh, and put and their houses, and it's, uh, it sounds like it's a good idea that they can take the, take the classes, and get the license, and then it's gonna be more safe for, for the family school's gonna sell, and for the people who's gonna buy their products. And, um, I know many families, uh, sell their foods on their houses. And also whenever we need their help too, like when we have any events, like a school event, or at the city event, these families never said, no, I can I help you? Oh no, I cannot bring our stuff. They always bring their own stuff with for free to share with the community. So I hope you can support this a great, great idea from this project, for all this family who in it. Thank you.

[03:54:37] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. So at this point. I see no more public speakers. So we will now, um, So we will now move into bring the item back for council deliberation and action. I see council member Ramirez.

[03:54:58] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. First, I want to acknowledge and thank the members of the community who participated in this meeting tonight and provided some input. It's encouraging to know that there is a lot of enthusiasm in the community for all of these workforce development programs and that many will partake and benefit from them. And I think it comes out of recognition by the council in the city that we did a lot of good work with the 1st installment of ARPA funds, providing immediate relief to many families who were hit hard by the pandemic, and lost income, lost their jobs, and were not able to pay rent. And so that 1st installment, I think, was powerful in helping people remain housed and remain in our community. And also supporting our business community and making sure that, you know, when we emerge from the pandemic, there would be jobs available to our community. But I think we also recognize that that money is not infinite. And that eventually we would exhaust the funding that we've allocated for rent relief and direct financial assistance. And what's really attractive and powerful about workforce development is that we're helping people get access to the education that they will need to make a living for the rest of their lives. It's not just a one time check. You know, that's great for a month, but, you know, if you're not able to get a job that you need to remain in our community, that check is only going to go so far. So I'm really excited to explore something that is new to our city and that's providing a substantial investment in a variety of programs. Some, uh, city, sponsored programs, but also, um, programs that are offered by, um, um, new and existing nonprofit uh, partners. And I also want to thank the staff for doing a tremendous job reaching out and identifying potential partners that we can work with. It's really a testament to your work that you found so many. And have, I think, come forward with a robust set of programs that provide different opportunities to different segments of the population. So it's all very exciting, a lot of great work tonight. This is, it's a rare meeting where I think every item that has come before us has been very encouraging and positive. So, having said that, I'll move the staff recommendation, including adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View appropriating and increasing expenditures by $95,975 in the general non-operating fund for workforce development and job training programs, 2 authorizing the city manager or designate to negotiate and execute a professional services agreement with working partnerships USA to provide the trades orientation program to Mountain View residents in an amount. not to exceed $100,000 and 3 authorizing execution of other related agreements as necessary for the disbursement of the funding to be read entitled only for the reading waived. Thank you.

[03:58:07] Mayor Alison Hicks: So we have a motion by council member Ramirez and a 2nd by the vice mayor. We also have comments. Council member, Abbe Koga.

[03:58:17] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. Counselor Ramirez said it very eloquently in terms of our ARPA funding and just looking back at what we went through with COVID. as mentioned that the interest, I remember, was about trying to get direct assistance as quickly as possible to our residents and businesses, but then realizing that COVID lasted a lot much longer than I think we all planned or expected. When, we're fortunate that we had the 2nd installment. Two, I wanted to just acknowledge that, it's really because we, as a city, have been in a financially strong position that we were able to use these funds, not to necessarily have to backfill our cities, services and programs, which other cities admittedly have had to do, but we were able to use this really to get it back out to the community and assist our community members. So, you know, I'm very grateful for it for that. And just like the earlier item, with the businesses, assistants, I think, is a much needed way of trying to, as counselor, I remember, mention, not make it a one time assistance, but something further lasting. And so, um, and I want to actually thank you, counselor members, because I know we talked about this within our brown act rules, but, um, it was, uh, your, um, interest in this that inspired me to, to, um, to support this as well. So, um, and I just want to thank, um, the community partners were coming forward. I do remember, I mentioned it somewhere and that we were going to do this, and there was just, like, eyes lit up. And so there was, you know, obviously a lot of great interest and I appreciate staff's work. I'm really pleased at the diversity of partnerships that we've, we've, we have, and to be off to be able to offer a variety of workforce development options is really significant. I think about, you know, and we saw it in during COVID, but just in general, where we live here, you know, the heart of Silicon Valley. I see it with actually saw it with my see it with my girls and me too. If I realized if you're not necessarily a STEM person or a techie, it can be very challenging to make a living or to have options or to have opportunities. And so I appreciate that we were able to find partners that to provide different types of job opportunities, whether it's with the trades, thank you to our working partnerships and our carpenters union, the colleges, and then I really am very excited about the entrepreneurs. I actually think of this thinking about my mom, she was had her own microbusiness, you know, both my parents had limited English skills. And so she was, um, she sold Japanese food goods, um, as I was growing up and then my dad was a self, uh, had his own gardening business. And so, you know, I think that is, it's hard work to run a small business. I did that for myself for a little while too, but um, it can be very exciting and, um, and so I appreciate that entrepreneurish spirit. And I'm very pleased to be able to support that, especially for our moms and our, to be able to empower, um, more women. So with that, I'm very excited to support this initiative. Thank you.

[04:02:14] Mayor Alison Hicks: Council member Ramos.

[04:02:16] Councilmember Emily Ramos: So as someone who ate plenty of those papooses and tamales during the pandemic because I don't cook, um, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm glad that there was an opportunity out there for people. Um, I do recognize a few of you. Thank you, Sandra and Malia, for your leadership and reach. Well, it's now reach SV. But during the pandemic, there were many, many people who just seeked help and many people here were digging in to help each other in the community as they were trying to find ways for rent assistance and food assistance and all these things for the community. So I'm glad that you're finding ways to build, um, essentially like careers out of it, which is wonderful. Um, I was looking at some of the uh, grant, they're not really grants, but um, allocations going out. And I recognized one of them, Nova Works. Um, several years ago, I was a, I guess, a UZ of Noberworks. Um, Several years ago, I was laid off of a job, um, that, uh, after 7 years working there. And it's very interesting when you, when you identify your life around your job, and then you lose it. And then, um, that, that, that you're able to kind of get over. But because you're here in Mountain View and Silicon Valley where there's so much opportunity, right? And then as time went on, you realize that sometimes, even though you can see that opportunity, there's always, there could be something missing that, that prevents you from getting that opportunity. And that is true for so many residents in our community. And it makes me so proud that we're taking steps to build that bridge to those opportunities. that we can see so easily in our community, yet it's so inaccessible to many. Um, so, uh, it's one of the strange things when you're new on council, um, so much of the work has done before you even arrive. And so when we finally do like that stamp of approval, you kind of get credit for it. But I really want to thank my colleagues for really pushing for this and building ahead these kinds of programs and this opportunity for our community. Um, it makes all of us look good, even though I didn't really do much toward this opportunity and thank you to staff for your work. And thank you to the community for stepping up to creating these programs, to really help our residents and our community and build stronger together. Thank you so much.

[04:05:09] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Council member Kameh?

[04:05:12] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Primero yo quiero, agradesera, la comunidar, para beneri, compartir con nosotros, ah, siempre soy luchando con Sandra, y malia, y muchicimas gracias. But I do have a question. And this is for staff. I'm not sure who. Just an understanding of the translation for tonight. So I know we had someone online, is that only for someone's calling in via Zoom, and if people are listening on Zoom, or because I think part of what we had worked on as a counselor, I thought in the evolution of the multilingual outreach program was that we, I think, in the past had like the ear translations, we had in-person translations. And well, I want to thank you so much for translating. Like, I feel like that's our job as a council and as a city, if we're a community for all to make sure that that's accessible. So I just wanted to clarify so that the community knows. So I don't know if this is an offline question or staff can, um, it's part of the hybrid model, um, just so, um, I wouldn't want groups to always feel like they have to bring their own translator. So thank you. And I'll be supporting the motion tonight. So thanks.

[04:06:31] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you, Council member Kameh.

[04:06:32] Unknown Speaker (staff): think there was some confusion. So our translator was going to be translating for those in the audience, but since there was someone here in person, she didn't, and then I think we were going to try and translate what the community member was saying in English back, but there was some delay with that. So we will make sure that next time that that's a little more clear between staff, behind the scenes. Thank you.

[04:07:01] Mayor Alison Hicks: And yes. Mm Yes, thank you for bringing that up. As chair, it was confusing. But bugs to work out now that we're back in person. Um, so vice mayor?

[04:07:16] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I just like to echo what many people have said. And I've been thinking about the adage, give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. I thought it was a Benjamin Franklin quote, but I just looked it up, and Google says it allows you, which is a Taoism. So whatever. I think it's sort of summarizes what workforce development is about. We want to teach people skills, that they can use so that they can apply them to better themselves for many, many days to come. And we're very proud to be able to assist all of these workforce programs.

[04:08:06] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you, Vice Mayor. So, I will be supporting the motion as well. I just want to I just want to conclude by saying that I really loved all the ideas that the different partners brought forward. I thought they were, I think, that they all are things that can really add to our community, in addition to, they sound like viable jobs, I think, in particular, thinking about, for example, the monpreneurs. Uh, idea that, you know, a lot of things that you, that you would sell, uh, there's been a lot of competition through online sales, and, uh, big box, but we all still buy fresh, or want to buy fresh, local food, hopefully handmade, and really tasty. So with a lot of families that have two person workers. I think that's a really viable idea, and who doesn't want to start their own restaurant. I know, when I was reading the staff report at home, my children asked if they could join the program as well. So, and I agree with what one of the public speakers said, I hope it's a first step to other job opportunities, maybe you don't have to stop with a food cart. But the other things on this menu of options, I think are really viable, too. I like that the day worker center gardening skill training was going to incorporate some of the new kinds of gardening that are happening, not just the mow and blow, but the, you know, the dry gardens and native gardens and some of the biodiversity, gardening that council is talking about. Um, also, the, uh, there's, I, hopefully there's a link to foothill College there because I know they have some landscaping courses as well. And then there were a whole bunch of others. There's certainly a shortage of construction workers, so I was very happy to read that the trades stepped up. Um, bike repair. I really think we need more people schooled, and that is the reason I often don't bike is that I can't find a place to get it fixed. And our bike stores are closing one after another. So I just thought, one, I'm not going to name all the ideas, but I thought they were all really excellent, creative, and viable. And actually, oh, I'll mention the nanny one as well. I think that that's a great idea, too. I'll say, I'll just echo what you said when you spoke, that I had two infants at one point and hired a nanny because it was actually less expensive than bringing two infants to childcare. And I often, I also shared with a nanny with neighbors, because that was, I liked it at home, and it was, um, cheaper. Um, So I think they're all great viable ideas, and I will be supporting the motion, and I hope we can get grants and continue uh, continue these measures in the future. With that, if they're, oh, uh, council member committee, do you have an additional comment? Okay, then with that, we can vote.

[04:11:27] Unknown Speaker: Passes unanimously.

[04:11:37] Mayor Alison Hicks: So, the next item is, um, 7.3, Assembly bill, 481 military equipment, policy renewal, and annual report review, and interim Police Chief Max Bozel will present the item.

[04:12:25] Staff Interim Police Chief Max Bozell: Good evening, Madam Mayor, and city council. I'm Max Bozell. I am serving as your interim police chief, and it's my pleasure tonight to present to you AB 481. The annual report for militarized equipment. Tonight, I'll provide you a background of the bill as well as give you an overview of the categories, the use of our equipment last year, talk about the intended purchases that we want to make, review our PCAB meeting, and then finally conclude with the staff recommendation. September of 2021 AB 41 was signed by the governor, and it requires the city council to approve an ordinance and policy governing the use acquisition collaboration of certain categorized equipment that is defined as military equipment. And it does not prohibit the use of this equipment, but rather gives us a process for transparency in your consideration and approval of the police department's use. May of last year, the council approved the ordinance 7.22 and adopted the policy for the police department governing military equipment, which also has annual requirements concerning an annual report that is presented at a community engagement meeting. This was done on April 27th as part of the PCAB process, as well as have you review the annual report and renew the ordinance. So if you so choose. And then also post the annual report online, which has been done already. The bill has 15 categories, 8 of those categories, the Mountain View Police Department reports, is having inventory for. These are the items that the department does not have, the larger vehicles and non-conventional type of weapons that we do not have in inventory. The ones that we do have include robot and drones, command and control vehicles, explosive breaching equipment, an assortment of rifles and ammunition, such as our patrol rifles, as well as less lethal munitions. I would just like to note that the bill does not require us to report patrol rifles that are issued as a standard piece of equipment, which our patrol rifles are. However, we are reporting them as a way of being transparent and communicating our complete inventory rather than holding them back. Some considerations of the use. They're highly specialized in nature and they're used under restrictions of various policies and procedures as well as training. We do a number of after action reports for incidents that occur both regionally and nationally to ensure that we're using the equipment to the best practices that the industry provides as well as evaluate the continuing use or even need for new equipment. And most of the equipment requires MVPD leadership, notification, and incident command approval in the event we were to use that equipment in an operation. It can only be deployed by personnel who are trained and in some cases certified, and we do store the equipment at the police department. The patrol rifles which go in the patrol vehicles are locked in the patrol cars during their operations with officers, but once they're returned, they're returned to an armory and stored there. In 2022, we deployed a number of items, including our robot and drones, a search for a suspect as well as documentation of scenes. We use our command and control vehicles at high risk operations and commonly at concerts, special events, and you may even see them at the downtown Art and Wine Festival. The specialized farms and ammunition as well as kinetic energy weapons, impact weapons, less lethal weapons are deployed for at risk, high risk incidents, SWAT callouts, some patrol calls that they may be utilized. It should be noted, though, that as we deploy them operationally, they have not been fired. So when we say they were used, they were not actually fired for the intent of a use of force. Predominantly. We use the equipment in training and certification. All but one. We haven't last year used our explosive breaching in training, but the other categories we did with most of the items that are in those categories. Some, for example, we have older equipment that is still an inventory but is not used. So that was not used during operations or for training and certification. And that's reflected on this slide here, which includes our explosive breaching and some of our specialized firearms, munitions, and kinetic energy weapons, which are the less than lethal weapons. We're intending to purchase request purchase of replacement equipment, and new equipment, and drones are probably the most predominant on the budget request, just under 60,000, replacing 2 older drones, and also 2 new drones that would be used for indoor use. This is an area of effectiveness that we're seeing in the industry where you can use small drones to travel inside homes and look ahead of where officers may have to travel in person for protecting them as they're engaging an incident within a building or a house. And we're also looking at replacing equipment that typically we go through during training, such as ammunition, and the total request just under $95,000. The drones were proposing using asset forfeiture funds and then the remaining as through our operating budget in the upcoming year. On the April 27th, uh, PCAB meeting, we had both questions and comments from board members as well as public. Uh, of note would be the fact of um, a recommendation to improve our outreach and publicizing the opportunity for community engagement, so that was taken of note in order for us to be able to be more effective at that, going into next year's process. The other comment that I heard was related to policy concerning the transfer or destruction of equipment that we don't use currently. And we do have city policies around that, but not a department policy, but I think it would be beneficial for the police department to adopt guidelines and policy with the disposal or transfer of equipment that's categorized as military equipment. So we will be looking at that into the next fiscal year. So some key takeaways. We are continually assessing the needs of our equipment. We did predominantly use the equipment and training. There were no complaints, concerns, or policy violations as a part of our use or deployment. We do have future planned purchases, which I've highlighted, and then the public comments which I've highlighted as well. So the staff recommendation is for your consideration to adopt renew our city ordinance 7.22. Your alternatives are to decline, the renewal, or give further direction. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much.

[04:20:13] Mayor Alison Hicks: Do any council members have questions? I'll ask just one question. We may be talking to the same people because I got a question from a member of the public about how you dispose of the equipment. And you said, you said, there's city policies, but not a departmental policy. What do you mean by city for disposing of city equipment? Like chairs? Or maybe you can give me a little more detail on what the city policy is for and how it relates to the department policy?

[04:20:52] Staff Interim Police Chief Max Bozell: Essentially, yes, inventory control. So when we conduct inventory, and then we decide to, um, no longer utilize and it becomes surplus, typically the warehouse will accept things like furniture, for the police department, in these cases, we just usually keep them within the police department. So, uh, we have some older, um, weapons on on hand that, uh, aren't contemporary or used, and, uh, there's no real uh, process to evaluate that and how we might dispose of that or transfer that with our smaller weapons like handguns as an example, uh, we do often look at uh, trade-ins, if you will, to law enforcement dealers as a cost savings mechanism, and we go through the city purchasing process as a part of that, where they review the value of the trade-in and comply with city policies around purchasing and then using that as a mechanism to return guns in exchange for new ones that we may purchase. The military equipment is a little bit different. And I think there are concerns about, for example, our fully automatic weapons, which we don't currently utilize operationally, but have on hand, whether it would be prudent for the department to dispose of those as opposed to looking to trade them in or seek a value in return for that.

[04:22:29] Mayor Alison Hicks: So we, so thank you for the details, and we look forward to further development of that policy. Thank you Council member Ramos?

[04:22:38] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I had more of a quick question relating to the process of the assembly bill. Now, my understanding is that PCAB served as the community meeting for the evaluation of all this.

[04:22:49] Staff Interim Police Chief Max Bozell: Correct.

[04:22:50] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Um, I had a comment from someone. It was more in passing, but someone mentioned that they didn't think that was a community meeting. I guess because in Mount View were used to having the type of community meetings where they have giant maps and dots. I don't know how that would translate to this, but are there ways that we can, uh, be more engaging of the public that they're used to being engaged with when it comes to community meetings. I wouldn't know how that would work, but I'm looking at you for some answers on that.

[04:23:26] Staff Interim Police Chief Max Bozell: So I think some of the comments I heard listening to the recording was surrounding the public notification and perhaps using social media more effectively, you know, perhaps talking with staff and the city manager's office about ways in which we may be able to improve community engagement at that process. It was felt, I think, that the public safety advisory board was a logical location to have dialogue both by members who are advisory to you as well as an opportunity to have the public invited to that meeting. And seek input and feedback. And so we can certainly talk about what alternatives there might be in order to provide that opportunity in a more engaging way. Thank you.

[04:24:22] Unknown Speaker (staff): Um, mayor, if I may. Thank you, Council member, Ammo. So just to bolster what the police chief said. So when this law was 1st passed and we tried to determine what would be the most effective way for the community to hear about this, we believe that having it via the peace app was going to get the most community engagement because that's what they, what they do. So we will certainly take the feedback that was received this year about publicizing it more. But I would recommend that we still keep that as the community meeting just because they're the body that talks about these items, and they also have really robust public engagement with their medians usually. So we will certainly work on publicizing it better, but I do think it's the best forum for that to be the public meeting.

[04:25:18] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. So seeing no more council questions will now take comments from the public. If anyone in person wants to speak, Please fill out a blue card. I do not see anyone right now. And I see one virtual speaker, uh, Tim McKenzie, and you can speak for three minutes.

[04:25:50] Public Speaker Tim McKenzie: Greetings, all. Um, and thanks for bringing and bringing this item on the agenda. I'll just give a brief, a brief mention about the PCAB meeting. I'm actually, I'm a little bit of the one of those, uh, PCAB engaged people. I have been to not quite all of the meetings, but, um, I think if for this AB, I forget the exact number, sorry, forgive me for that, but for this yearly report on military equipment, um, if we know it's going to be coming up every year and might be a little bit more helpful to have it more explicitly, uh, put out there instead of on the agenda that comes out 72 hours in advance. Um, I actually haven't been able to make it to the PCAB meetings since they've gone to in public only and have lost the hybrid option, uh, if we could get a virtual or hybrid option, um, as people have requested for some time. I think that would really help with more robust engagement. And just for this sort of meeting, um, at, at, the point as well made, that PCAB may be the most appropriate venue, but there might be a different cross section of our community that would come out if it was advertised more broadly, uh, in multiple different ways and earlier as well. With regards to the content. If we're not regularly using this military equipment, I think it would be great if we could think of looking at ways that we could, look to reduce or retire as was just brought up in questioning, moving, moving some of the equipment out of the out of our inventories and in ways that do not, uh, spread spread the weapons around widely. I think that the, the, the considerations that I heard, the, the police chief saying, with regards to that, were, were good ones to keep going forward. Um, but demilitarizing, removing weapons of war from our streets seems like a good idea. Um, and $60,000 of drones seems like kind of a lot, and maybe even if it's coming from, uh, asset seizure. Thank you.

[04:28:09] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Seeing no more public speakers. I'll bring the item back for council deliberation and action.

[04:28:24] Mayor Alison Hicks: I see a motion by the vice mayor and 2nd by council member Mattachek. And so, uh, council membership, Showalter, would you like to, Vice Mayor?

[04:28:38] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes. I would like to, um, move the staff recommendation that we adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View, renewing ordinance number 7.22, approving Mountain View City, Mountain View Police Department Policy, 709, military equipment, and determining that, based on the 2022 Assembly Bill, 481, military equipment annual report. Each type of military equipment has complied with ordinance number 7.22 to be read in title only for their reading waived. Thank you.

[04:29:16] Mayor Alison Hicks: Council member Mattercheck, do you want to make further comments?

[04:29:19] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Nope.

[04:29:20] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, then we can vote.

[04:29:28] Unknown Speaker: I think we do. So that passes unanimously.

[04:29:32] Mayor Alison Hicks: We now, as it's 10 o'clock, we need a motion to continue past 10.

[04:29:37] Unknown Speaker: So moved.

[04:29:39] Mayor Alison Hicks: Oh. There you go, whatever. one second. Okay. So, uh, council member Ramos?

[04:29:53] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I move that we continue the meeting past 10.

[04:29:55] Mayor Alison Hicks: And we have a 2nd by council member Ramirez, so everyone can vote.

[04:30:12] Unknown Speaker: Access unanimously.

[04:30:15] Mayor Alison Hicks: Now, we can move on to item number eight, which is council, staff, and committee reports. Are there reports? Vice mayor.

[04:30:31] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I have 2 reports that I want to tell you about, and I'm going to really be sending you presentations through, Heather, about them. One is a BCDC meeting where we had a presentation on the cost of sea level rise implementation, and it, uh, the bad news is that it will, it's estimated to cost approximately $110 billion to protect the entire Bay Area region. The good news is that expenditure will protect more than $230 billion worth of damage. So it's worth our while to do it. And then the other one, I attended an EE, an energy, environment, and natural resources policy committee, and there was a very interesting presentation, had legislative update, links, and news about our summer meeting, which will be at the end of July. I'll be going to that. And also, I'll share the presentation via Heather, and we have about 18 resolutions. on environmental issues, and we go over them every year, and we can add to them as needed. And at the summer meeting, we kind of resolve all that. So between now and July, If anyone is interested in working with me and looking at these, please let me know, I'll be glad to share them with you. And, um, suggestions would be welcome. Thank you.

[04:32:10] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Council member Abbe Koga.

[04:32:12] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. Let's see, a week or 2 ago, time is so weird. I attended MTC Retreat, where we discussed the state of transportation, and as I know, as many of you have Poly Reddit and heard about the fiscal cliff that several of the agencies are facing, We discussed, uh, future funding, challenges, um, of uh, transportation, and and it tied into, um, some ballot measure, um, initiatives that are being looked at. So, you know, you've heard about the housing regional housing bond measure that's being worked on right now. Um, there was also discussion about potentially going out for a transportation measure down the road, um, not at the same time, but um, just the need for, obviously, for more transportation funding, the positive that there was a pulling the done and um, results of the polling. The positive is that people do seem to value transportation and transit. Um, that the challenge is, obviously, the funding, the funding would be to all that. So more to come. It tended as our chair of the ETA ad hoc grade separation committee, and I know we talked about it earlier in our CIP. Our Mountain View projects are moving along. We've the city submitted grant applications to the federal government and we should be hearing from them the summer, you know, with Vice Mayor when we were in DC. We talked, we met with the administration folks and they mentioned that, so, um, fingers crossed on that. Also, as a whole, Caltrain is moving to, or they're working on a overall comprehensive rail corridor study. So looking at all of the grade separations together to see how they can better coordinate, potentially consolidate for efficiencies. So, which is great. I've been concerned, I don't want our projects to get slowed down because of this comprehensive view and have been assured that that is not the case. We're kind of actually, we're pretty far along, and I think we're actually becoming more like the test case for the rest of the corridor. Um, but, um, there, there's was assurance that our projects will continue to move forward. And then finally, just I wanted to ask you all to mark your calendars for the cities association. We used to call it the general membership meeting, but we're going to change it to something like the annual membership dinner. So all council members and city staff will be invited to this. It's on June 15th, Thursday evening, and it'll be at the Los Altos Community Center. The theme it will be sustainability. And we will be having a cooking demonstration with induction cooking, along with dinner and some speakers. This is a partnership with Silicon Valley clean energy. They're sponsoring the event, as well as joint venture, Silicon Valley. So encourage all of you to please attend. You should be receiving emails about this. Thank you.

[04:35:57] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Council member Maticrik?

[04:35:59] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. On April 26th, I participated in a meeting of the Santa Clara County Airport Land Use Commission, and we continue to work on an update to the San Jose International Airport comprehensive land use plan, and we hope to have that done by June of this year. And then we can consider updating the other comprehensive Lin use plans, although it's now changed his name. Uh, for the other airports in Santa Clara County. Um, and I have two other things. Given what seems to be a different understanding of what the policy is around having a meeting past 10 o'clock. Technically, the policy is we don't start a new topic past 10 o'clock, but we seem to let's continue the meeting past 10 o'clock. So maybe we ought to just simplify that policy and change it to what other cities have. I think ours is kind of unusual, saying we won't start a new topic unless we vote on it past 10 o'clock. and just change it to simply, let's vote on whether or not we want to continue past 10 o'clock and simplify the policy, if folks are up for that.

[04:37:18] Mayor Alison Hicks: Well, I think if we just, well, I would think we could maybe just say that here, or does it have to go to the CPPC?

[04:37:27] Unknown Speaker (staff): I don't think it has to go to the CPBC if council doesn't. It's a pretty simple change, so if you just want to make that modification.

[04:37:38] Mayor Alison Hicks: Or do we just do a show hands? Let me see if I understand. You're just saying, if we're ever going past 10, just at the close of the previous item, if we're past 10, you say, Do we want to continue?

[04:37:50] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah. Instead of, you know, technically, the policy is, but everybody says something different, um, that we don't start a new topic past 10 o'clock. But our meeting might, you know, there might be three or four topics, or, you know, we've never really done that when it comes to items eight, nine, and...

[04:38:06] Mayor Alison Hicks: Item 8, a new topic.

[04:38:08] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Well, different people have different interpretations of that. So let's just simplify it and say past 10 o'clock. Or it could be past midnight.

[04:38:17] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, so you want to take a straw poll on that?

[04:38:22] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Sure.

[04:38:22] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, pass this.

[04:38:24] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: And then I have one other. I was recently speaking with our city attorney about codifying previous council direction, that had not yet been included in our council policies, and one item that we discussed, was what is typically mentioned in item 8 itself. And that's the council staff committee, parts of the part we are on now. And there's already a policy A2 on what's required to be mentioned, and that is when the city expends money on something we're doing, such as attending a conference or a meeting, that is a requirement. But at the council team building meeting, on January 29, 2019. Um, that's when we talked about, um, you know, lots of different things. And one of them was, how could we improve the efficiency of our meetings? And one council member suggested that for item eight, in addition to the requirements, we disclose information on the regional boards like we typically do. Um, but, um, report outs on other activities, like social events or ceremonies, or things along that line, are not reported out during that time. So we just limit it to requirements and then regional board reports. I can imagine every once in a while there's an exception to that. Um, we've had some recently, uh, that makes sense to me, but um, in general, it would be limited to those. So that is what we decided at that retreat. But it wasn't ever codified, and now we have a different makeup of the council. So I thought I would bring it up here, um, to see if folks are still supportive of that. Or should we send it back to the CPPC or send it to the CPPC. It never went there. But I would like to get that codified in our council policies. So are folks okay with the previous council direction, which was, um, Council policy A 2 on what is required to be disclosed and then regional board updates during item 8.

[04:40:55] Mayor Alison Hicks: I see at least one shaking head. But you can still, I mean, I'm looking for input because not, um, all of the same council members that were around in 2019 are here now.

[04:41:11] Mayor Alison Hicks: Council member committee.

[04:41:13] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Sure. Yes. You know, I would even be so comfortable as, um, just what is required per A2. And I feel like there are quite a few attachments that, um, colleagues send through the city clerk, and maybe if there's information from one of your regional bodies, and then we can get it via that way. I'm comfortable with just going back to the original A2 policy, which is just, I think a little bit of a simpler version, and then colleagues can send around the attachments via the clerk, if that's okay. Because I do think some of the policy topics have been pretty robust. And so getting that information with the attachments has been something that I click on and read, um, when I when I have the capacity to do so. So I would support that or even go back to the original policy. If colleagues were open to that. Thank you.

[04:42:16] Mayor Alison Hicks: So I hear 2 possible policies. Do I have more? Are there more comments? Choice between the two? No. Should we do a show of hands on, um...

[04:42:36] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: So, um, what I suggested was what we decided in January of 2019, which was, um, the required disclosures when the, when money is expended on something we do, in addition to regional board report outs. That's one option, and the other is, we just do what's required by the current council policy, A 2.

[04:43:06] Mayor Alison Hicks: Or vice mayor.

[04:43:08] Councilmember Pat Showalter: I guess I like I like the, um, I like Lisa's requirement better. I think that these regional bodies are really interesting to hear about it. And the other thing is, um... But I do think we want to keep the reports pretty short, because, frankly, at this time, we're tired. And we don't absorb as much information as, so they should be short. Try to queue up short.

[04:43:36] Mayor Alison Hicks: So I'm hearing requirements and a short report from regional bodies and no more, and you can send a longer one. A show of hands for that. Okay, it passes. Thank you.

[04:43:54] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: And that's it for me.

[04:43:57] Unknown Speaker (staff): So can I seek clarification? So my plan would be to just make these minor amendments and bring it back on the consent calendar so that you can actually see and formally adopt the updated policies.

[04:44:10] Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, sounds good. Thank you.

[04:44:14] Mayor Alison Hicks: So, now we arrive at item nine, which is a closed session report, City Attorney Logue, do you have a closed session report?

[04:44:25] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Sorry, no, there is no closed session report out tonight.

[04:44:28] Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Item 10 adjournment. The next city council meeting will be held on May 23rd, 2023, and this meeting is adjourned at 1015.

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