March 26, 2024 Regular Meeting of Mountain View City Council

Video

Transcript

[00:00:00] Mayor Pat Showalter: Well, good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our closed session. Um, City Attorney Lo. We'll make a closed session announcement, and then we will welcome public comment on the item listed for the closed session.

[00:00:17] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Good evening. This is Jennifer Logue City Attorney. There is one item on this evening's closed session agenda. Item 2. Women's a conference with labor negotiators, regarding labor negotiations with service employees, International Union, Local 521, the Eagles Association, the International Association of Firefighters, Local 1965, unrepresented fire managers, unrepresented police managers, unrepresented department heads, and unrepresented confidential employees, pursuant to California government code section 54957.6 The agency designated representatives are Assistant City Manager, Arn Andrews, Human Resources Director, Maxine Gulo, Human Resources Manager, Lindsay Bishop, and Charles Sakai, of Sloan, Sakai, Young, and Wolf. I mean, and Wong, LLP.

[00:01:12] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Thank you. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this closed session item on tonight's agenda? I don't see anybody in the chamber. Is there anybody on Zoom?

[00:01:29] Unknown Speaker: Nope.

[00:01:30] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. Um, seeing none, then, uh, we will, uh, adjourn to the Plaza conference room for the closed session, and return to the council chambers at the close to continue with the regular meeting. Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. Please take a seat. If you want to take a seat. I'd like to welcome everyone to the March 26th meeting of the Mountain View City Council, and ask you to please join me in saying the pledge of allegiance.

[00:02:37] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Abbe Hoga?

[00:02:39] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Here.

[00:02:39] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Hicks?

[00:02:40] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here.

[00:02:41] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Ramirez.

[00:02:42] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[00:02:42] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Ramos?

[00:02:44] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Here.

[00:02:44] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mayor Matachek?

[00:02:45] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Here,

[00:02:46] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor Show Walter.

[00:02:47] Mayor Pat Showalter: Here.

[00:02:47] City Clerk Heather Glaser: You have a quorum with council member Kameh Pres. Absent.

[00:02:52] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Recently, several of our neighboring elected decision making bodies have been subjected to disruptive, racist, verbal attacks during public comment periods. The city of Mountain View is fully committed to racial, religious, and cultural equity and justice as we strive to create a welcoming, safe, and inclusive community for all. The council welcomes respectful and non threatening public comments regarding matters over which the council has jurisdiction. Common esteemed otherwise, pursuant to the council code of contact in the government code, may be grounds for terminating a speaker's comment period, and may be cause for removal from the meeting. So next is item three, presentations. And these are presentations only, so the council doesn't really take action on these. Public comment will occur after the presentation items. And if you would like to speak on these items in person. Please submit a blue speaker card to the assistant city clerk now. Thank you. So, the first one is recognition of synopsis science fair champions. And I'm going to move to the lectern, and I hope that the champions will join me there. Hi, everybody. Um, well, I'm just happy to acknowledge and, uh, congratulate all of you students for winning the STEM Award and recognition at the Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair Association. Um, and, uh, I, uh, I really think that science fairs and STEM activities are very important. I'm a professional engineer, and so I particularly think seeing young women, going into STEM, is, is just very inspiring. I, uh, I, uh, I wanted you all to come here personally. I know that you're from Mountain View, right? And we, um, we're just very proud of your accomplishments, and we hope that this will be, you know, beginning to very, um, interesting, and worthwhile careers. So the first one is Nandina. Thank you.

[00:05:36] Mayor Pat Showalter: You welcome. And Bridget. Is Bridget here?

[00:05:40] Bridget: Yeah.

[00:05:40] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. All right. Uh, you, Gwen?

[00:05:45] Gwen: Thank you.

[00:05:47] Mayor Pat Showalter: Sophie? And Angeline.

[00:05:50] Unknown Speaker: Thank you.

[00:05:51] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, and, um, I have this very long proclamation, which, um, I'm not Oh no, this is for the firefighters. Never mind. Good. I was gonna say, I didn't think I had two very long proclamations. But I want to thank you very much for your achievements. And for coming to our meeting. to let us celebrate you. And Forrest, would you like to say a few words?

[00:06:17] Forrest: Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Should we get together for a picture? Yeah. I'd like to thank the mayor and the council members for allowing us to come here and to award the individuals who have achieved in science and engineering technology and mathematics. They are our future. And we must do all that we possibly can, to urge and, you know, really push them. They have the capabilities. We must push them to the edge of their abilities. There are many things that we're leaving for them to do. There are problems that have been solved. And we look for them to solve these problems. And many of these students are well at the precipice of being able to grapple with some of the problems that we have, and technology is coming along now that will give us the tools that we need to move forward even more so. So I'm happy, and I'm pleased. And the Southern Color Valley Science and Engineering Association. Really appreciate you, and also what you've done, and what you're going to do. Some of these students are already being a part of the 2024 science fair, and we look forward to seeing a gap. So thank you so much. Mayor, I know you were homies in terms of engineering, and...

[00:08:00] Mayor Pat Showalter: And I really, the world is full of that. You can't touch anything. Touch something. Put your hand on it. There's an engineering touch that has been on that product. Something to say about creativity, how best to apply technology and engineering math and science to things that we use every day. That's right. I remember working with you. You were the San Jose rep, and I was working while we were working on the Valley Habitat Plan, which is a plan under the Endangered Species Act to provide protection for 24 species in most of Santa Clara County.

[00:08:38] Forrest: Right. So I remember getting to know you then. Good to see you again. Congratulations.

[00:08:43] Mayor Pat Showalter: Good. Okay, thank you. You want to take that picture?.

[00:08:49] Unknown Speaker: And I'll take the, the ones that warrant. Okay. Thank you. you so much.

[00:09:03] Mayor Pat Showalter: So next, we have item 3.2. 150th anniversary of dedicated service by the Mountain View Fire Department. We're happy to be joined. I'm happy to be joining this evening by Fire Chief Juan Diaz to accept this proclamation. And he has asked me not to read the whole thing. And you can sort of see why. There are many, many things listed on this proclamation. And I think he's going to go over many of them. But I think what's really important to understand is that this fire department precedes our city by many years, and has been served, and then when we incorporated as a city, of course, you came on board, and you were probably volunteer to start with.

[00:09:55] Fire Chief Juan Diaz: Yeah, we'll see you. Yeah.

[00:09:58] Mayor Pat Showalter: Started with horses, and have moved on to very sophisticated equipment. I always like to mention that my first knowledge of the Mountain View city fire department was, and I was in graduate school, studying environmental engineering, and Mountain View was credited with starting to establish many of the techniques that were needed to protect against solvents and hazardous materials that were used in manufacturing in Mountain View. And that led those regulations that the Mountain View Fire Department put together led to national to national legislation. So, um, you've always been on the forefront. Thank you. For many things. Congratulations.

[00:10:53] Fire Chief Juan Diaz: Thank you. May I say a few words?

[00:10:56] Mayor Pat Showalter: Absolutely. The floor is yours.

[00:10:58] Fire Chief Juan Diaz: Thank you. Honorable, Mayor Pat Shoalter, distinguished members of our city council, our city manager, Kimber McCarthy, our city attorney, Jennifer Lopez, city staff, and members of the public. My name is Juan Diaz, and I serve as Montameu Fire Chief. It is an honor for all of us and a privilege to be here this evening to receive this proclamation. On the 150th anniversary of dedicated service to our community by Mountain View firefighters. It all began in 1874, and it was April 1st, just down the street from here on the 100 block of Couster Street, when a group of civic minded residents and business owners got together. The population in town was booming, and they had 300 residents, and no fire department. So they got together in that form, but was called the Mountain View Station, fire department, hook and ladder company, number one. From our humble origins, for the past 150 years, the Mountain View Fire Department has stood as a symbol of commitment, involving evolving into a progressive, inclusive, and diverse group of men and woman, extremely well equipped and supportive by you, our council members, to serve our community and by our city management. As we reflect in the past, we also look towards the future. The Mountain View fire department has transformed into an all risk fire department, prepared to face many challenges. Today, we not only celebrate our rich history, but also affirm our dedication to our residents and business to be here for the next 150 years or more. To mark this location, a parade will be occurring in downtown Mountain View right here on Casters Street on May 19th. It'll start at 12.30. We will showcase our department's broad history with vintage fire apparatus pulled by horses. We will also have mud and fire apparatus, which will highlight the evolution of the fire service in technology and how things have changed. Public education will be the central focus of where we're doing that day. We are a brand new fire station that I'm sorry, I didn't tell you this, but we're going from 5 fire station to 6 fire stations. We have an inflatable firehouse. And it looks like a jumpy house, but it's primarily focused to tease the young children and adults also about public safety and fire safety. We also be doing a recruitment fair. We think that it's very important to let our community and the youth know about careers in public service. And so we're gonna have police officers and firefighters and dispatchers and others from the community, college speed, right here in front of our city hall, doing recruitment. And last, I would just like to leave you with this. Thank you for this proclamation, but we have a present for the mayor and for each council member. And just back in the day before we have computers. Everything was done in paper, and we kept track of everything by having flyers, so we're going to present to you our flyer announcing the parade. Thank you so much. So this one goes to the mayor. Please come in in. Thank you very much.

[00:16:25] Mayor Pat Showalter: The presentations are always one of my favorite parts of the meeting. I'd love to learn about all the accomplishments in our community. It's very exciting. Okay. Now, we have a chance to have public comment on any of the presentations.

[00:16:45] Mayor Pat Showalter: Did anyone turn into a blue card?

[00:16:48] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Not for this item, but we have a speaker on Zoom.

[00:16:51] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. Albert, you may go ahead.

[00:17:02] Albert: Sorry about that. I was waiting for public comment, not on the agenda.

[00:17:08] Mayor Pat Showalter: This is for the presentations. Is this what you want to talk about?

[00:17:13] Albert: No, sorry, I had my hand up too early.

[00:17:15] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, all right. We'll call you later. All right. So next, we move to

[00:17:22] City Clerk Heather Glaser: apologies, Mayor, we do have somebody filling out a card now.

[00:17:25] Mayor Pat Showalter: Oh, okay, great. Welcome, Hella.

[00:17:36] Hella: Thank you so much. Um, I'm so lucky to make it just in time to see the wonderful presentation and recognition of our brave fire department personnel. This year, I'm attending Leadership Mountain View program, and we just had our session, our last session at the fire department, and the police department. And even though I have lived here for almost 40 years, I just didn't realize how incredible our fire and police departments are and the services they offer. In fact, in the afternoon, when they were giving presentations about how, you know, they tackle the calls, they got a call, and we actually saw pictures of the building that they saved from a fire that had started in the kitchen, somewhere in Mountain View. So I just wanted to say, We are so lucky. We are really incredibly lucky to have incredible two fire departments and police departments that do, they go way and beyond what citizens expect of them to do. So I'm just very proud of them, and very pleased to be here tonight. Thank you.

[00:18:54] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. All right. Seeing no more... No more hands, I will... Well, Glenn Miller. Glenn, are you, do you want to talk about the presentations? If so, please begin.

[00:19:25] Glenn Miller: I think that's probably for later.

[00:19:28] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. All right. Well, I'm going to move on to item four, the consent calendar. These items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the council wishes to remove a fun item for discussion. If you would like to speak on this item or the next item, oral communications on non agenda items. In person, please submit...

[00:19:49] Glenn Miller: Oh, yeah. Can guys hear me there? Hello?

[00:19:52] Mayor Pat Showalter: Uh, yeah, are you talking about the presentations?

[00:19:56] Glenn Miller: Yeah, I had to speak about the presentations.

[00:19:59] Mayor Pat Showalter: Yeah, yeah. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, then. It's all good. It's all good.

[00:20:03] Glenn Miller: Hi, yeah, my name's Glenn Miller. Um, I'm new to the area, and, um, My question was, Why haven't we had a presentation on, um, on the rabbi sucking baby penis?

[00:20:22] Mayor Pat Showalter: Turn her off. Thank you.

[00:20:25] Glenn Miller: Fuck you. Fuck Jews.

[00:20:27] Mayor Pat Showalter: Turn it off, please.

[00:20:28] Glenn Miller: Fuck nigga.

[00:20:36] Mayor Pat Showalter: All right, well, that's our 1st Zoom, mommy. Hopefully it's our last. Next we're going to move on to four. Item 4, the consent calendar. These items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the council wishes to remove an item for discussion. If you would like to speak on this item or the next item, oral communications on nonagenda items. In person, please submit a blue speaker card to the assistant city clerk now. All right. Would anyone like to pull an item? Would anybody like to pull an item for discussion? Okay. I'm going to mention a couple of things. Although I'm not going to pull them. Number 4.2, that's modification of the council policy to increase the amounts that the city manager and city attorney can approve without city council approval. Basically, it raises a contract approval to about 250K from 100,000 on an annual basis. I think this is appropriate, given how costs have gone up, and these limits are also similar. It's bringing similar to neighboring cities. And I just wanted to thank all of the members of the finance committee. for their, you know, their part in taking care of this. And then the fire inspection service. This is an, I just wanted to share this service that... Okay. I wanted to share that this is a service that keeps everyone safe. Our buildings, multifamily buildings are inspected annually, and that's just valuable for everybody. Then, um, the annual progress report of the general plan, if you'd really like to see kind of how we're coming along and the planning space, this is a, um, a report you might want to, you might to look at. And it's particularly important this year, because we're doing so much planning. We're doing a parks and rec plan. We're doing the downtown update. We're starting a Moffat Boulevard area plan, a TDM plan, et cetera. And then, uh, 4.7 is the city hall remodel. We need to keep our city facilities up to standards, to create a good working environment. And so I hope that these improvements will make the building easier to work in and make the employees feel safer. And then 4.8? That's an application for EPA climate pollution reduction grant. And I'm glad to see that we're going after this federal funding. There's a great deal of it that's available right now, but it does require grant applications, which are a lot of work. But it's important that we, you know, we try and get our fair share. And I'm also glad to see that we're doing this and collaborate. I think, um, these are two collaborations. this is about. One is for food, foodware, reuse, and another one is for electrification, and both are important, important, things that help our environmental desires. So, with that, I'm going to ask for emotion.

[00:24:13] Unknown Speaker: Oh, we have a, you didn't... Uh... Yeah.

[00:24:20] Mayor Pat Showalter: Would anybody like to make a comment? Any members of the public like to make a comment? Okay. All right. Do I have emotion? Okay. Is there anything that needs to be read? All right. Oh.

[00:24:49] Unknown Speaker: Okay, so I'm moving the consent calendar, including item 4.one, adopt an ordinance of the city of Mountain View amending sections, 8.174.2, 8.174.5, 8.174.5, and 8.174.8 of chapter 8, article 8, of the Mountain View City code to bring the design and installation of manufactured homes into compliance with the Federal Emergency Management National Flood Insurance Program, and finding the Ordinance is not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act, to be read in title only, further reading waived. Item 4.2, adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View amending council policy, A 10, authorizing authorization to execute city contracts and agreements, to be read entitled only to be read, further reading, waived. Item 4.3. Adopt a resolution of the city council, the city Mountain View acknowledging receipt of a report made by the Mountain View Fire Chief, regarding the required annual inspection of certain occupancies, pursuant to sections 13146.2, and 13146.3, of the California Health and Safety Code to be read in title only, for the reading waived. Item 4.5 adopt a resolution of the city council at city of Mountain View authorizing the temporary closure of parking lot number 11, from 7.30 a.m. through 330 p.m. on Sunday, May 19th, 2024, for used by the city of Mountain View Fire Department, to support the 150th year parade and celebration. To be read entitled only for further reading waived. And lastly, item 4.8, adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View, finding that the action taken and activities approved here in are not projects subject to the California Environmental Act procedures and authorizing the city manager, or designee, to, one, apply for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Pollution Reduction Grant, to sign letters of intent to participate in the community scale reusable foodware system design, and implementation project. And the public facilities, resiliency, implementation project, and 3 negotiate and execute required memorandums of agreement with partnering agencies by July 1st, 2024 to be read in title only further reading waived.

[00:27:23] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you very much for all that reading. And now it's time to vote. The motion passes unanimously. All right, now we move on to item five, oral communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any matter that is not on tonight's agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic within the city council's subject matter jurisdiction. How many cards do we have, Clerk?

[00:28:03] City Clerk Heather Glaser: We currently have four speakers in person.

[00:28:09] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, for 3 minutes. During this section, state law prohibits the council from acting on non-agenda items. If you would like to speak on an item, on this item, or the next one in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city assistant city clerk now. Would any, and if any member of the public joining us virtually or person would like to comment, they also may raise their hand on Zoom. All right, we're going to take the, um, in person speakers first, um, the first one is Mike Meredith. And the second will be Margaret Olivera Barton.

[00:28:59] Mike Meredith: Hi. I'd like to thank the city council for keeping this forum open. I know it's only three minutes, but I think it can be a valuable source of feedback to the city. And I know, at times, what shows up here is maybe a little trying for the council. But I've got serious problems here in Mountain View, and you're probably gonna see me here again, uh, in the weeks ahead, um, but I have to say I'm very impressed with the city. You know, to me, a bureaucracy is something that really works on denying negative feedback. But I feel really positive about the process I see here. between Aske Mountain View and being able to send in concerns and comments that will generate attention by the city manager's staff, and then, if that's not working out, to be able to come here and get the attention of policymakers, it feels great. So I realize what you're doing can get tiresome. But I have to thank you for keeping this channel open. Thank you.

[00:30:16] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Next speaker is Margaret, Barton.

[00:30:23] Margaret Barton: Hello. My name is Margaret, and I live in Mountain View. I'm here, again, to ask the city of Mountain View, to Agen Zai's a permanent ceasefire resolution. The UN Security Council recently passed an immediate temporary ceasefire. This was the first time the U.S. did not use its veto power to veto the ceasefire resolution in the U.N. The shift from the U.S. is because of the constant pressure over the past 6 months from citizens speaking out and from cities across the country that have passed a ceasefire resolution and spoken out about this genocide. Every day, more Gazan citizens are killed and starved. It is the responsibility of every human being to recognize others humanity. We will continue to fight for the Palestinians' right to humanity, their right to life. When over 32,000 people have been killed, when there is a genocide going on in the world. We cannot turn away, we cannot stay in our lane, and we cannot continue on business as usual. Again, the reason that our government stance is beginning to shift is because of the many, many people that have protested, boycotted, spoken out, and refused to continue business as usual. We must continue to put pressure on our government in Israel for a permanent ceasefire. We must hold those who have funded and supported this genocide accountable. It is imperative for the city of Mountain View to speak out against genocide and agendize a permanent ceasefire resolution. Thank you.

[00:31:58] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Next speaker is paying Lee. Is she here?

[00:32:02] Unknown Speaker: Yeah.

[00:32:04] Mayor Pat Showalter: And then after you, um, Clara Jessup. And then it looks like after you will be... Devin Connolly.

[00:32:15] Paying Lee: So, um, we might know of UNICEF. UNISEF works in over 190 countries, and territories to save children's lives, and to defend their rights. They just released a statement today that Gaza has shattered humanity's records for its darkest chapters. Humanity must now urgently write a different chapter. So, I wanted to kind of share a couple updates, um, now that we've been coming here a couple months. You know, since January, just very locally. Um, you might know that the Santa Clara County Democratic Party, they did pass a resolution, um, calling for ceasefire, the board of education in Santa Clara County, also passed a resolution, for, in order for sustaining peace. They called for immediate ceasefire. Congress member Zoe Lofgren on January 24th, also released a statement asking and calling for a negotiated permanent ceasefire. All of these local voices are really, really crucial, and adding to this huge abble effect in our democracy locally, statewide nationally. I think it is important for us to keep our attention on Gaza. The whole entire global community still has their eyes on Gaza because of the catastrophic human crisis that's unfolding. I think just... As you might know from the previous comment, yes, the UN Security Council did pass a resolution for ceasefire, we're still looking at the U.S. to enact its power to do anything and everything possible to help what's going on in Gaza. So the ceasefire that was just passed, is temporary. It's going to be through Ramadan, which is about two more weeks. And I think that doesn't emphasize, again, the urgency of what we can do to help anything with the folks, what folks are experiencing in the Gaza Strip. So, a ceasefire, a permanent stop to any warfare, is necessary to provide humanitarian aid and the safe delivery, you might have heard that from the United Nations, all agencies since December, since last fall, have been calling sounding alarm of famine, starvation, and disease, who just reported recently, that from October to March 12th, there's been over 400 attacks on hospital facilities and over 30 attacks on hospitals themselves. So we all know right now that the startling difference with what's happening in Gaza is we're all witnesses to it, right? We're all under the eyes of the global community. But when we come here locally to speak up for this, this is us upholding human rights. This is upholding the fact that we, as a democracy, locally everywhere, have the power, shall help make a ripple effect of change. And, yep, I think it's so important that we do call for a permanent interview.

[00:35:16] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thanks for sharing your shots. Thanks for being. Next is Clara Jessup. And, and then, um, uh, is Jonathan... Madame Bah here, and okay, and you'll be next. And then Devin.

[00:35:33] Clara Jessup: Hi. Um, I'm back once again to support, um, a ceasefire, uh, like my comrades here. Um, in light of the recent passing of the U.N.'s temporary CSAR resolution yesterday. It is now more important than ever to continue to apply pressure to our federal government as the narrative and support for Israel just ever so slightly begins to shift. The only reason we have seen any sort of change in the U.S. support for Israel is due to constant pressure from the everyday people organizing and gathering together via protests, boycotts, civil disobedience, uncommitted votes, or ceasefire resolutions, the list goes on. While folks on the council might believe that openly supporting an immediate and permanent C-SAR isn't worthwhile because, one, it jeopardizes them politically, or 2 that what Mountain View states in regards to Gaza doesn't matter. I disagree. You all have decided for everyone that a Mountain View statement holds no meaning. But I would like to remind you that our collective voice does matter. I encourage us all to continue to speak up. I 1st requested support for a C-Fare here at Mountain View City Council meeting on January 23rd. Since then, a minimum of 7038, more people have been killed. Starvation and disease is only getting worse. In Gaza, everything is only getting worse. At this point, I don't know how to appeal to everyone's morals. I feel unbelievably saddened that anyone has to stand up here and explain why support for ceasefire matters. But the least I can do is keep standing up here to remind you that people in Gaza are being killed with our tax dollars, and that our voices do matter, and our call to cease fire does matter. The U.S. must restrict in condition aid to Israel, as it also does for other countries in violation of human rights. I really hope you all can change course, and I invite you to join us, pro peace activists, people of conscience. To help apply pressure to the Biden administration, and support an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and to stop sending weapons to Israel. Thank you.

[00:37:39] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Jonathan?

[00:37:50] Jonathan: Hello, thank you for having me speak. Hi, my name's Jonathan, and I'm calling for the city of Mountain View for a ceasefire in Gaza and Return of the Hostages, to Israel and Palestine, while the APAC lobby is silencing critics, and the Israeli aggression murders journalists, as the IDF propaganda worsens fabrications and planned atrocities. The IDF, also, are amplifying their hatred towards the Palestinians, the IDF, and the APAC, hush, truthful journalism, and that I'm seeing on Al Jazeera, and other journalists, like Bison and Motaws. Our local meta platforms and Instagram accounts are trying to hush and silence people. We already know that the government of Israel wants to wipe out Palestine. The International Court of Justice knows that this is a genocide against the Palestinian people. I, and many people, have deep concerns for the Palestinian communities all over the country, as their families are being wiped out, as well as as deep concerns for the Zion regime, that want to expel them from Earth. Images of burned skin, the burned bones, the caved in skulls, the ripped apart flesh, the blood dripping down, the blood of pools, the scattered flesh along the blown up schools, after £2000 carpet bombs, the torn up knee cavities, the broken arms, the people screaming for their families lost amongst the rebel. The ripped apart arteries, pulses, the rubble, and the blood mixed with the contaminated air, and falling down the architecture that took years to repair, from previous Israeli bombings. The inhalation of dust, the panic attacks, the inhalation of hopelessness, the torn apart hearts, skin, and days or weeks later, parasites grow, starvation, dehydration, and famine, as people cram into the north, or cram into the south. This is happening now. And this has happened before, in large occurrences back in 2014 and 2021. All four, colonialism. Speaking up to this isn't hatred or division. It's realization of the truth. The local issue is that there is a veil over people that can't believe this. Lift your veil, free Palestine. Thank you very much. Uh,

[00:40:53] Mayor Pat Showalter: Devon? Thank you for joining us.

[00:40:59] Devin Connolly: Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Show Walter, Vice Mayor Matachek, and council members. My name is Devin Connolly, and I'm the president of the Mountain View Wisman School Board. I wanted to share a brief update with you all regarding the fencing at Mona Loma Elementary School. Our school board voted earlier this month to finalize design for the location of the fence. I would like to thank everyone on city staff and council members for all of your support and partnership during this process. We spent a few years working with the community to try and find a solution that met the needs of both the students and staff during the school day and also the monoloma neighbors that use that open space regularly, even during the school day as well. The final solution is available on our website, and received a lot of community support. I did want to note, city staff, provided some feedback near the end, just as we were getting ready to take it to the community for one last look and then to the board. And the 2 recommendations from city staff. One was to kind of square off the end of the fence, where it crossed the field, and the 2nd was to expand the fence along the baseball field to the edge of the path. The board did not vote to approve those changes, and I wanted to share why. The plan that would have been to square off the fence, instead of having it be, instead of diagonal and preserves a lot of the field space, that was actually one of three designs that we presented to the community back in August and got a lot of feedback on. We had a community input meeting about it. We had a couple of board meetings about it. We went to the ice cream social at Mona Loma as well. And overwhelmingly, the community did not approve that plan, so we did not feel like that was going to be the best solution of the three options that we had looked at at that time. And the movement of the fence along the baseball field to the side of the path. One of the advantages of a long community input process is that we really did get a great deal of feedback from residents. And one of the major concerns, especially from our senior citizens who walk in the park, is that sometimes the pasts feel too narrow. And they're worried about children riding bikes or people with dogs kind of knocking them off the path or knocking into them on the path. And we're adamant when we were going through designs that we'd not put a fence directly adjacent to the paths, but try to give some room between the path and where the fencing was, so that if somebody needed to step aside or make room on the path through be room. So I wanted to share that reasoning with you all, and thank you again for all of your partnership on this. We are so happy to be moving forward and to have found a solution that gives everybody a little bit of what they need and want. Thank you.

[00:43:54] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, and next speaker will be the city manager.

[00:43:59] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, mayor. Before we move to virtual comment, I just would like to remind the individuals that are commenting on Zoom, um, some of them look like they may be, um, not real folks commenting on city council's business, that they are fake accounts that, uh, might possibly give, uh, language or feedback that we would not permit or tolerate at our city council meeting. So I just want to let everyone know that they will be removed immediately. And counsel, you can even consider not, um, accepting public comments via via Zoom, if this continues. So, I just want to remind the few folks that are on Zoom, that we will be paying attention, attention, and we will cut you off. if you provide language that is completely inconsistent with our values and morals.

[00:44:55] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, thank you. And I understand you can, you can, uh, push the off button for us. Okay? Um, we have one more... Are you related to public comment? Okay, Alex Brown?

[00:45:14] Alex Brown: Hey, friends. I just want to say, I am a little sad that we're gonna get the fencing around the school fields, 'cause I don't like fences, and I also hope that the bombing ends... Thanks.

[00:45:28] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, now we'll go to our first virtual speaker, who, I think, is Albert Jean. Albert, are you there?

[00:45:39] Albert Jean: Yes, hello. Can you hear me?

[00:45:41] Mayor Pat Showalter: Yes.

[00:45:42] Albert Jean: Great. Thank you for giving me opportunity to speak. I'll get to my point. A ceasefire resolution isn't far enough. It's virtuousing one. We must boycott those that are advocating for the genocides of men, women and children in Gaza. We can be free of all this violence in the world, but it requires more than just a piece of paper. It requires activism and action. Boycott, Zion. Sanction Israel. I keep hearing both sides talk about why they support or don't support a resolution for a ceasefire, but what I really hear, is one side calling for the end of bloodshed of innocent children, and the other side is a bunch of supremists, crying that they're being exposed. Supremacy is wrong. I'll make that statement Using violence against others that don't look like you or have your faith is wrong, but that's exactly what Israel is doing. We have a government officials trying to ban the criticism. Criticism and imprison those that work to expose their crimes. I'm supposed to feel compassion for a group that the Bible said was of their father, the devil. I'm supposed to feel bad that they are get finally getting some karma. People need to wake up and realize that Zionism is Judaism. Judaism is communism. and it's religion of sickness and evil. Do I feel bad about October 7th? Not one bit. The Israel has been killing kids for decades and have enslaved the world with a demonic...

[00:47:07] Mayor Pat Showalter: Yes, that was not our own Albert James, definitely. Okay. So, um, Bill Shaner?

[00:47:21] Bill Shaner: there. Good evening, city council. Um, Yeah, I would actually ask the city council to not support any resolution on a C-Spire. I'm Jewish myself. And my people have been persecuted since as long as they've been around. This is not started on October 7th. This is going on for 5000 years. And if we don't want to get into the religious history of my people. We can go back to Roman times where it's well documented history, where my people have constantly been persecuted for our religious practices. I don't want a ceasefire because we were not the ones paragliding into another nation and attacking innocent festival goers. I don't want my people to have to do what they do in New York City and have to build tunnels underneath of our religious buildings so we can practice our faith in peace without being persecuted. I don't want to go and have to set up walls and extreme fences and take these defensive measures to stop the Gentiles from attacking me and my people. Are we really gonna advocate to let these people who want to kill Jews, to be left around? Three of my 4 grandparents perished in the Holocaust. One of them in Auschwitz Birkenau camp. Okay? They were, and and then, it's just, it's, it's so traumatizing for me to speak about this. And I don't understand how the world doesn't see that we are the eternal victim in this conflict. We didn't go out there and attack them. Hamas came over on their paragliders, and they attacked my people. My parents had to leave Israel during the 6 day war after the USS Liberty incident in order to protect ourselves and to protect me as a young child. This is absolutely abhorrent that people are calling for a ceasefire. Because Israel is defending itself. And you know what? The IDF, they're just doing their jobs. They're doing what the same thing that you guys would do if you were in the military, and you had a foreign nation come in and attack your people, you'd kill every man, woman, and child you could as well. It's completely justified. It's what we Jewish people have stood for for the entirety of our existence. Look at the recent holiday of Purem. It's us celebrating the time when every other nation, that we have spent our time and has tried to kill all of us. But we survived. How do we survive through faith, unity?

[00:49:55] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, I'm gonna call I'm gonna turn this off, please. Thank you. The next, the next, uh, Speaker is Fred Lucher. Mr. Lucha doesn't seem to be available, so we'll go on to Dr. Zachary. Also, Olsen Gordon.

[00:50:34] Zachary Olson-Gordon: Hello, city council. I would just like to remind you that we do have a 1st Amendment right, which trumps whatever rules you guys may have. So while I don't personally agree with the speech that people are saying, I would like to remind you that there are multiple lawsuits right now filed against the city council for for anti, you know, for civil rights violations. And I believe that if you want to protect your taxpayers who end up paying those lawsuits, I think it's best that, you know, even though they may have things that they say that hurt feelings are not nice and are not kind, I mean, you have to let these people speak. And I don't agree with it, but in order to protect the taxpayers who you serve, I feel that it's best that we allow them to speak. Now, what I would like to talk about is the ceasefire, okay, and I personally do not support the ceasefire. I think that what Hamas did on October 7th, or October 6th, I forget the date, it was it was very violent. It was awful. I mean, they were killing the pedophiles and rabbis. I just don't agree with it. And I,

[00:51:43] Mayor Pat Showalter: All right. That brings us to the end of our public comment. And, um, so I'm going to close that, our oral communications, and we move on to item six. Public hearing. The, um, we have the housing element, annual report, and emergency shelters amendment. Council member Abikoga? Do you have an announcement to make?

[00:52:10] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, thank you, Mayor. I am recusing myself from participation in this agenda item due to the proximity of personal residents to the area under consideration for development of emergency shelters by right? Thank you.

[00:52:27] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. All right. Well, advanced planning manager, Eric Anderson, an assistant community development director, Amber Blasinski, will present the item. If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the assistant city clerk now.

[00:53:09] Eric Anderson: Okay. Good evening, Mayor Showalter. Council members, thank you so much. My name is Eric Anderson. I'm the advanced planning manager, and I'm joined with Amber Bluzinski, the assistant community development director. The item before council tonight is the annual progress report and emergency shelter amendments. The 1st item is the annual progress report, which is intended to provide an update to the city on the city's 1st year's progress and the 6 cycle housing element programs. and the regional housing need allocation. This is required by the State's Department of Housing and Community Development and must be completed by April 1st. The 2nd item that will be discussed tonight is implementation of state law AB 239, which requires zoning ordinance and precise plan amendments related to emergency shelters. Regional housing needs allocation, or rena, for short, is a state requirement. Local jurisdictions must accommodate their share of new housing capacity by zoning adequate land to build units. The city must also implement other policies and programs to facilitate housing production across incomes. This table shows the 1st year progress towards meeting the rena goal. It shows building permits issued from January 31st, 2023 to December 31st, 2023. And projects receiving building permits during the projection period, starting in June 2022, also contribute to the 6th cycle arena. We are currently meeting 9.2% of the arena requirement. Several housing element programs have been completed or are ongoing. Several of these are shown on this slide and described in more detail in the report. In addition, the city has also funded subsidized units, received multiple grants and funding to support subsidized housing, and additional funds have been provided to support homelessness, prevention, and outreach. The second part of this item. is regarding emergency shelters. First, we'll discuss what state law requires the city to do. Then we'll explain what that means specifically for the city of Mountain View. In short, state law requires local jurisdictions to identify one or more zoning designations that allow residential uses where emergency shelters will be permitted by right. This means no environmental review would apply to new emergency shelters in these zones. Discretionary conditional use permits can be required in other areas. State law requires that we must identify potential sites in the zoning designations where emergency shelters are permitted by right to meet the city's projected demand of unhoused people. Based on the requirements of state law, Mountain View must identify 6,400 square feet of land to accommodate 32 bed emergency shelter. Lastly, emergency shelters are only required to meet the objective development standards listed in the government code. In response to the requirements mentioned on the last slide, the city's adopted housing element includes an implementation item that directs the city to allow emergency shelters by right consistent with AB 2339. It also directs the city to amend, at minimum, the El Camino real precise plan, while also stating that staff will amend the zoning ordinance for consistency with the state law. This program has a housing element deadline of March 31st. Allowing emergency shelters by right has implications on another council priority, updates to the historic preservation ordinance and register. In April of 2022, council authorized staff to update the historic preservation ordinance, which kicked off a reconnaissance survey of historic resources. The preliminary results of this survey were transmitted to the city from our consultants in October of 2023. During the reconnaissance survey efforts, 8 sites on El Camino Real were identified as potential historic sites. One site was also identified as a historic resource as part of a development review. Additional analysis must be conducted over the next few months to determine if the others meet historic resource criteria. Staff had to consider the effect of by right zoning for emergency shelters on these historic resources. This is because ministerial, by right permits, cannot include city discretion to protect the resources. either through permit requirements or through sequa. In January of 2023, when the housing element, Environmental Impact Report was certified, it contains standard language that required further environmental review if any historic resources were discovered on a site where redevelopment may occur. Additionally, in April, when the housing element was adopted, a sequel memorandum was prepared to cover the new programs and changes that have been made to the housing element since the certification of the ER. This memo stated that additional environmental review may be required as housing element implementation occurred. Specifically, if new information of substantial importance is discovered that was not known at the time of the EIR certification. As the two project timelines were running at different speeds, and staff was not aware of the potential historic resources when the housing element environmental impact report was certified, these impacts were not analyzed in the original EIR. It is the city's responsibility to analyze and disclose potential impacts to historic resources if they arise in conjunction with the implementation of programs in the housing element. We are now aware of potential historic resources in the El Camino real precise plan area. So amending the entire precise plan to allow emergency shelters by right would require further environmental review. In the interest of meeting the housing element deadline and the requirements of AB 2339, staff is recommending that emergency shelters are permitted by Wright in the Castro Miramonte sub Area one of the El Camino Real precise plan. On the table to the right, you see the viable sites and number of historic sites in each sub area of the precise plan. Castro Miramani sub Area one exceeds the square footage requirements and includes no potential historic sites. Additionally, staff is recommending that we permit emergency shelters with a provisional use permit in all other sub areas of the El community Al precise plan. This recommendation, as presented, does not trigger additional sequel review prior to the adoption of these amendments. In addition to the staff recommendation, council can consider options to expand where emergency shelters are allowed by right in the precise plan. Option one, council may direct staff to begin environmental review in the form of a supplemental or subsequent EIR. to amend the entire pre- El Camino Real precise plan to allow emergency shelters by right. Environmental review would analyze and disclose the unavoidable impacts to the potential loss of these resources and would likely result in a finding of significant and unavoidable impact. If this option is chosen, environmental review is estimated to cost between 75 and $150,000, which could be funded by the housing element CIP, the ER would likely be complete in about a year. Option 2 is if council wants to expand the area in the El Camino real precise plan by right, while avoiding impacts to potential historic resources, staff can bring an alternative regulatory solution, such as a new overlay zoning designation. As this may require the city to complete the analysis of the Alchemina Real historic sites, this alternative would likely come back to council for consideration in 2025. AB 2339 also prescribes objective development standards that the city may apply and prohibits application of other standards that previously applied. The recommended code amendments summarized on the screen are consistent with state law. The EPC recommended staff's recommendation to consider the APR without changes, the annual progress report. Regarding emergency shelters, the EPC recommended the staff recommendations for amending the El Camino Real precise plan and zoning ordinance. The EPC also recommended option 2 as a next step. On March 25th, the airport land use commission held a special meeting to discuss the precise plan amendments, as a portion of the precise plan is located in the airport influence area. At this meeting of Moffat airfield. At this meeting, the ALUC made a determination that the proposed amendments are consistent with the Moffatt Airfield comprehensive land use plan. Here's an overview of the staff recommendations. As a reminder, staff is seeking council direction on whether to proceed with option one or option 2 for expanding where emergency shelters are permitted by right in the precise plan area. Please note, due to an inadvertent error, the wrong version of the draft ordinance in attachment 2 was posted with the agenda last. Thursday. The correct version of the draft, the draft ordinance was posted yesterday afternoon. This concludes our presentation, and thank you very much. We're available for any questions.

[01:02:55] Mayor Pat Showalter: Great. Since this is not a study session, we'll have council questions first, then we'll have public comment, and then we'll bring it back for council deliberation and action. So I'm waiting for people to raise their hands. And I see that, um, council member Ramirez is first.

[01:03:14] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I have a few questions. So first, thank you to staff for the report. I know this was a pretty complex item, and there are a lot of implications to it, so I appreciate the due diligence. I did want to follow up on responses to some of the council questions submitted in advance in the meeting. So, the response to question six, regarding by right approval of qualifying housing developments on housing element opportunity sites, is the by right approval, the same as the by right approval for emergency shelter under AB 2339.

[01:04:03] Ms. Belisinski: Um, yes, it would be um, uh, yeah, it would be the same by right approval, uh, ministerial approval process, yeah.

[01:04:13] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Just to be clear. So, presuming none of the opportunity sites with historic resources redevelop, and a future council elects to retain those opportunity sites in the subsequent housing element, then ministerial approval would be permitted for qualifying housing developments on those sites, akin to the ministerial approval allowed under AB 2339.

[01:04:43] Ms. Belisinski: Yes, that is correct, but that would be a discretionary action to choose them as housing element sites.

[01:04:50] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay. I have comments about that. And then the next question has to do with the response to question 9 regarding low barrier navigation centers. So I might need some help understanding this one. So if I read the ordinance, Um, This would be section 36.28.70, uh, B, low barrier navigation centers, uh, it says the centers shall be permitted or conditionally permitted, in accordance with the land use regulations, in the designated zoning districts, in precise plans, as specified in the applicable land use tables. So, low barrier navigation center is not currently listed in the El Camino Real precise plan, land use tables, right?

[01:05:50] Ms. Belisinski: No, it's not.

[01:05:51] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay. And staff is saying that we don't need to list it because state law already obligates us to allow low barrier navigations in most of the Al Camino real precise plan.

[01:06:04] Ms. Belisinski: Yes.

[01:06:06] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Can you help me understand why it would be advantageous to the city to omit low barrier navigation center from the land use tables for any of the precise plans, but because El Camino is on the agenda, that one in particular.

[01:06:26] Ms. Belisinski: Sure. So, I mean, Obviously, that use could be added to these precise plans as well. Typically, when you have a state legislation that has a sunset date, you don't typically put that into your municipal code, because then you have to remember to either remove it or to acknowledge that at the sunset date. This particular state legislation has a sunset date of 2027. Um, and that is one reason why you may not put it into a precise plan. But it could be put into them.

[01:07:01] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So, thank you, that's helpful. I am concerned about or thinking about scenarios where an applicant or a staff member may not be totally up to date with all of the permutations of state law, with sunset dates that override our municipal code. Um, how can, or how do we make sure that the conflict between our code and state law doesn't result in the city enforcing things that we can't legally enforce or sending an applicant down the wrong, the wrong way?

[01:07:47] Ms. Belisinski: So I think what you're asking is how our staff relaying that information? Can you just clarify that?

[01:07:56] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Sure. I guess maybe as a hypothetical scenario, right? If I'm interested in this use as an applicant, the 1st place I would probably look is the local regulatory framework, and I would see, um, the closest thing in El Camino Real precise plan land use table would be that last item, which is a catchall, if you don't see it here, it's provisionally permitted use. I look at the definition of low barrier navigation center, and it says that, you know, it's permitted or conditionally permitted in accordance with the land use regulations in the designated zoning districts and precise plans, as specified in the applicable land use stables, I may walk away, thinking, okay, well, I don't want to go through that provisional use permit, because it's fairly arduous. So that's one scenario that I'm concerned about. And another would be, I apply, and I'm not terribly savvy, right? And maybe I get a new planner who isn't familiar with AB 101, who says, okay, well, it looks like a provisional use permit, you have to go through this process. And because I'm not a savvy applicant, I go through that process, even though I actually can have that use permitted by right. So how do we how do we avoid scenarios like that?

[01:09:12] Ms. Belisinski: Sure. So, you know, most of the people who are looking to facilitate one of these low barrier navigation centers, you know, that's typically another government agency is involved in that. And so they would typically come straight to us directly versus necessarily looking through our municipal code. Um, I guess if, you know, um, it was a member of the public who was looking for that. You know, we would rely on our staff to provide that information and we keep our staff informed so that they're able to provide that information. It would be easy for us to put something on the website, per se, about these different types of shelter, you know, the different types of shelters and what, you know, how you would obtain permits. But typically we're seeing that from another government agency so that, you know, is coordinated through us pretty significantly.

[01:10:04] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay. And then just to clarify, also, the ministerial approval of low barrier navigation center under AB 101 is also akin to the ministerial approval under AB 2339.

[01:10:20] Ms. Belisinski: It's ministerial. There's a different, there's a nuance in, well, I'll let Eric explain that.

[01:10:27] Eric: Okay. So there's a nuance in AB 2339 in that the city gets to choose, which zoning designation?

[01:10:36] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So I understand that. The difference I'm thinking is there's SB 35 ministerial approval. Which protects historic resources.

[01:10:45] Eric: Yeah.

[01:10:45] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And then there's AB 2339 ministerial approval, which apparently does not. So there's already a range under state law. And I'm not certain where AB 101 falls within that spectrum.

[01:10:57] Eric: So, AB101, as far as I understand, is a ministerial by right, as long as you meet the objective standards that are set forth in that statute or in the government code.

[01:11:10] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So there would be no protection for historic resources.

[01:11:14] Eric: I don't believe so.

[01:11:15] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay, so it's different.

[01:11:17] Eric: We can try to look at the bill, you know, while we're having this discussion, but I don't believe that includes historic sites.

[01:11:23] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: It's different from SB 35.

[01:11:26] Eric: I believe so, and we'll verify that.

[01:11:29] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay, thank you.

[01:11:33] Mayor Pat Showalter: Council member Hicks.

[01:11:35] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So my questions are to clarify what we're doing here tonight. Um, I've talked to both on the phone and via email. I've had different members of the public interested in the emergency shelter portion of what we're looking at. And some of them seem to me. I'm just guessing enthusiastic about having more emergency shelters, and some of them seem to be not so enthusiastic. But I just wanted to clarify that, here's where some of the confusions seem to come in, that as we, if we are to make available in the long term, I know we're looking at a smaller, the staff proposal as a smaller set of parcels for the short term, but the entire El Camino precise plan, minus historic properties for the longer term. If we were to look at a larger space, that does not mean we're putting more shelters in, because I think both parties, you can tell me I'm wrong. But I think both parties were tended to be confused on that, and, um, or you can tell me I'm confused with what I just said. And the second part of the question is that there's another rubric for determining, whether and how many emergency shelters we do, I believe, and it's not the size of the, you know, if we do something 10 times the size of the El Camino precise plan, we don't get 10 times as many homeless shelters. emergency homeless shelters. So can you explain what, how you determine the number of shelters and what the different, you know, a small set of parcels versus a larger set, how, why we might want to do a larger set or a smaller set?

[01:13:35] Ms. Belisinski: Sir, and I will probably let Eric touch in on, you know, how you determine the number of beds, the size of the square footage, because he's more familiar with that aspect. But emergency shelters, it's a pretty rare use. Typically, you know, it's it's, they are typically, uh, it's the county coming to work with the city, um, and they're, you know, looking for sites that they can either reuse existing buildings or, you know, bring in temporary, uh, trailer type buildings for the use. Um, And they're not, to the shelters that I have seen, you know, aren't, you know, redeveloping a site, because that's not an emergency type shelter. That's a long-term shelter, right? And so these are more of a temporary or only, you know, cold weather shelters, those types of, of, um, shelters are not typically like a permanent solution. They're trying to house, you know, in a geographic location, as many people as they can. Um, and so it isn't that we don't anticipate. We have no applications for emergency shelters or any shelters right now. We have some existing shelters, but no new. And we don't anticipate that if you allow it in a larger area, you're going to get several applications for that. that wouldn't, that usually doesn't work with, you know, it's, it's usually that you want one central location. Um, The other side of that, I would say, is that if you do allow in a larger area, then, you know, there may be potentially more viable sites for one of these shelters. So I guess that's the pro or the, you know, the pro of the, um, but also in many of the El Camino, um, you know, zoning designations, the subdistricts, uh, there really were no viable sites per se, um, in in a few of them. And so, you're, you know, including all of them, you may not see more viable sites, there's there's really just the subdistrict that we're, you know, suggesting tonight and 2 others that had what is considered a viable site. And I'll let Eric talk a little bit about, you know, how you come up with those with the numbers and the square footages.

[01:16:01] Eric: Sure. So the state law AB239 prescribes how you establish the minimum area of sites that you need to identify as viable for emergency shelters in by ride zoning. And that prescription is basically, you start with your latest census, your latest point in time count of unhoused persons, from this is conducted every few years from the county. And then you may deduct from that number any pipeline development projects that include units that serve unhoused populations, such as permanent supportive housing. And so we did that calculation in the appendix of our housing element, and that's where we ended up with the 6,400 square foot number. The state law also has a ratio of persons to land area that you apply. And that's where we ended up with the 6,400 square foot number.

[01:17:11] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So am I summing up your answer correctly to say the advantage of, or the reason you might want to designate a larger area is not because you're going to have more shelters, but you'll have more places to choose from that might be better for the city, the developer, and the people in need.

[01:17:33] Ms. Belisinski: Yes, from my experience. And I think it's important to note, too, that we do allow emergency shelters, by right, in our MM, in our industrial zone, as well. So that does, you know, give a larger area with, you know, sites to choose from.

[01:17:51] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And then, Ms. Belisinski, when I had my briefing with you, did you also say you worked in Sunnyvale with a developer, an emergency shelter developer, and there was some discussion between the city? So over several possible sites in the city, because Sunnyvale had a large enough area designated, you got to kind of work with them on that? Is that a correct understanding?

[01:18:16] Ms. Belisinski: Yeah, it was... I've never worked with a developer in these sense, it's the county. So the county has their own planners and other staff who I worked very closely with on a use permit for a cold weather shelter in Sunnyvale. They had a few sites in mind. They're typically looking for sites that are either owned by the city or, you know, owned by an entity that's easy to, like, lease from, um, and not as much with private development, but sometimes that, you know, that can be uh, negotiated. Um, and they really, I would say they worked really close with us in, you know, um, alleviating any concerns we had and making sure there were services nearby and transit so that people could get to where they needed to go, um, because the shelter is obviously closed, that shelter in particular was closed during the day. So it was, you know, we needed to work out those details. So it was a good partnership, actually.

[01:19:13] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. Thank you. That conversation during the briefing was helpful for me, and I thought might be helpful for members of the public who are interested.

[01:19:19] Ms. Belisinski: Sure.

[01:19:22] Mayor Pat Showalter: Vice Mayor Mattachek?

[01:19:23] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Um, I want to make sure I read one of the answers in the Q and A correctly. And that was the question about the difference between the process for a by right emergency shelter versus one that would require a provisional use permit. And as far as I could tell, the major differences are, um, there's a, for a PUP, there's a ZA hearing. And there's also a fee. Are those the two major differences, or are there more?

[01:19:54] Ms. Belisinski: Those are the two differences? Yeah. So, ZA hearing, so, obviously, that's a little more time. But typically, once a project is complete and ready to go, we schedule for the next available hearing. And then the fee, of course. Yeah.

[01:20:08] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Okay. And, um, If council decides to direct staff to do one of the 2 options that were presented in the staff report. What could potentially be the impact on other projects you're working on?

[01:20:25] Ms. Belisinski: So, the historic preservation ordinance update is moving forward on its own schedule. And that's really the bulk of the work for option two. Option 2 would also include some analysis and benchmarking of other cities and how they're doing it. A lot of other cities do emergency centers, shelter, uh, overlay districts, uh, and so that is a model we could look at. So there's there are other ideas out there that we can just harness. I'm not saying it's no time, but with the direction from city council that the priority and option 2 is kind of excluding the historic resources. That's clear direction, and we can move forward with that direction. in a way that's consistent with state law and we can determine that. For option one, managing an environmental impact report does take some time. We have to manage all the required noticing and contract work. So that would be a little bit more staff time to pursue option one. And what option one, because it does require a little bit more staff time, potentially push out any other projects. Uh, it's difficult.

[01:22:01] Mayor Pat Showalter: Oh, yes. Thank you. Community development director.

[01:22:05] Don Cameron: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the question. Don Cameron.

[01:22:08] Don Cameron: Acting assistant city manager, Community Development director. The best way to answer that question, it depends upon the priority council places on pursuing these options. Staff has recommended that if council selects either these options, you give us at least a year to come back to you in 2025, and that was done with full knowledge that we have other deadlines and priorities to meet for the housing element, including several by the end of 2024, that we would recommend that we be able to focus on first. If council were to select these to be a higher priority and return to council as quickly as possible with one of these options. Then we would have to analyze the situation and see how that might affect our ability to make progress on some of the other housing element programs.

[01:23:05] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Great. Thank you very much. My questions for now.

[01:23:12] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, I don't see any more council questions. So we will open...

[01:23:16] Eric: Oh. There was a question about confirming AB 101, and no, it does not include exceptions for historical resources. Thank you for looking that up. All right. So, I'm going to open the public comment for this. Um, I see, we have one. How long would you like to come forward? Welcome.

[01:23:46] Public Speaker: Thank you again, Mayor Staff, and council members. I just wanted to say that I really appreciate our city working very diligently on meeting the housing element requirements, the state requirements, the arena cycle. Um, and I guess I wasn't clear if, so emergency shelter is something that has, that's added on, it sounds like, to what we've already done to meet the housing requirement, or maybe it's part of it. But anyway, what I wanted to say is that it's great that we're thinking about increasing the emergency shelters in our city, but please don't do it on the expense of losing historic sites that we've been asking for, you know, to be preserved to recognize and preserved for many years now. And it sounds like the city staff is giving an option for the council to preserve the historic sites, the eight sites that potentially can be designated, as historic, and also move, you know, make it an exception, I guess, or an exclusion, to doing the rezoning for the emergency shelter. So I would support that option, too, that the city staff have suggested. Thank you.

[01:25:12] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you, Alex Brown.

[01:25:16] Alex Brown: Hey, friends. Uh, just want to say, I really appreciate staff bringing much more options to hear than they did for UPC. I think I like seeing that there are actually lovers that the city council has available to them to try to do something good. you know, helping to house people who are unhoused, doing what we can to protect the vulnerable. When it comes to the historic properties that are being considered here. I counted three garages, chicken shop, barbershop, a printer, a car wash, and two sites that are already being redeveloped, that have active redevelopment plans, the Chase Bank, the mortuary. So, historic. I just, we keep referring to the idea of historic sites without actually enumerating the things that we're protecting, which is a quantit hut somewhere, that I feel like saying that this is more important than keeping people, like, sheltered and alive, is kind of disappointing. Thanks.

[01:26:17] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. And now we have two virtual speakers. The 1st one is Robert Cox.

[01:26:29] Robert Cox: Can you hear me?

[01:26:32] Unknown Speaker: We can hear you, yes.

[01:26:34] Robert Cox: Thank you, uh, mayor shall all provide Mayor Matachek and members of the city council, for the opportunity to speak on this item. I'm Robert Cox speaking night for the Vable Mountain. view. Let me hit the highlights on the letter we wrote to the council. on this important item. We support the PC's recommendation for rezoning of Castro, Mira, Monte, Sub Area One, for emergency shelters by right in that area. And note that this area exceeded what was required of the city, or folk compliance with the housing element regarding shelters in the view. But we are concerned that the council is considering, at this time, rezoning the entire El Camino precise plan area for emergency shelters by right. In particular, there are eight properties on El Camino and Mountain Dewark to currently being evaluated, for historic status by Paige and Turnbull. The city's consultants for the Mountain View, historic ordnance update. This historic ordinance update was agreed to unanimously by the council with strong support from the residents. It should not be undercut by pushing forward zoning changes that will make the assessment of those properties. Zoning changes on those properties should be considered only after the consultants report is completed. The council needs to have all relevant facts in hand before making a decision on the future of the properties. They help me in a precise plan covers miles of opportunities for other rezoning, even if the potential historic properties are excluded. But consistent with the historic ordinance update, there are no opportunities to have history preserved once the buildings are gone. Thank you for considering our views. I yield my time.

[01:28:12] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. The next speaker is Louise Katz. Louise?

[01:28:19] Louise Katz: Yes, thank you very much, mayor, and counsel. Again, on behalf of Liberal Mountain View, I won't repeat the prior points, but I just wanted to add that it's, I think, important to remember that the decision about what is, and is not historic, and how we should act consistently with our own ordinance, for updating the historic ordinance that was passed by the council, should not be a question of a popularity contest. We were orchards and rural land not so long ago. So we don't have the number of amazing historical, beautiful buildings, but the ones we have are our history. It's important to also put in perspective. For example, the Eiffel Tower, when it was built, was considered a desecration of the city of Paris. The Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue was a monstrosity amongst classical buildings, but now, both have their part and define, of the city's history and define the city and the sites where they are. So we take what we have, and we should follow the law. There is legal requirements for determining what is going to have a historic designation, and that the State Historic Resources Commission should be the ones to tell us what qualifies, and what does not, again, not as a matter of your personal opinion nor mine. So I wanted to, again, ask the council to consider that having the ignoring the very ordinance that was enacted by our council, um, not long ago. I think undermines also the public support, or the acts of counsel, if they believe that every time we turn around, whatever has been put in play will suddenly disappear. Again, we support having shelters, they're necessary for our community, but at the same time, eight buildings along several miles of El Camino will not prevent us from having and fulfilling the legal requirements or shelters. Thank you.

[01:30:38] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. The next speaker is Tim McKenzie. Tim, are you there?

[01:30:48] Tim McKenzie: Hello, all? Yes, I am here, and I'm able to unmute. you. Hi, all, Tim Mackenzie, he him. Um, I like the idea of flexibility in having these warming shelters. Um, they said, what it, I'm reminded of an article I saw in, in the late fall, early winter in the Boston Globe, where there was a, uh, a clip from a city counselor, um, in, I think it was in Revere, uh, talking about, like, just, like, decent humanity. The history of of Mountain View. There's a lot of great parts of history of us supporting each other as a community and looking to the needs of the community, I think, is a good way to preserve that history. And if there are people that need to be warm and when the weather is harmful to human life, I think that we should have some flexibility in having those sites available. Uh, with it, and uh, the plant, having flexibility in the planning so that we can uh, meet the actual needs of the community. Thank you.

[01:32:02] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. The next speaker is Marine Blando? Marine, are you available?

[01:32:09] Marine Blando: Yes, thank you very much, mayor, and vice mayor, and city council and city staff. I'm fully in favor of emergency shelter. I simply wanted to ask that, uh, city council decide to proceed with the historical study. Certainly, I cannot look at those 8 photographs and determine which of those may be a historical gym, maybe not all of them. But that's my full statement for tonight. Please proceed. To complete the historical study. Thank you.

[01:32:44] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. That brings us to the end of our public speakers. So I'm going to bring the item back to council for, um, deliberation and, um, some action, and it looks like council member Ramirez would like to be first.

[01:33:08] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I have a lot to say about this item, and I'll do my best to be succinct and coherent. I struggle with both of those things. I'll start with sharing that I'll be supporting the staff recommendation with option two, which I believe is a reasonable compromise, and I do appreciate, as one member of the public shared, that the staff provided that as an option, because I'm not sure it's one that would have come to us intuitively. So I do think it was helpful. to provide a pathway to achieving, in my opinion, the letter and the spirit of the housing element program without jeopardizing historic resources. But I did want to share... I feel like it's, there are so many different paths to the impact and potential destruction of historic resources, and I'll share some of those paths that, you know, the concern I'm hearing from the public feels a little misplaced. Some of them we've already talked about AB 101, allowing low barrier navigation centers by right, state law preamps us, and the same thing with AB 2162, which pertains to permanent supportive housing. And, in fact, we've already lost a potential, and, I think, likely historic resource to AB 2162, the Kuzimano Mortuary, which has personal significance, because it's a mortuary that my family has used. And, you know, while I think the permanent support of housing development there has great merit, I can understand why there might be some consternation about the loss of that resource. And then one member of the public also spoke regarding the integrity of the commitments made by the city. And while I don't always agree with Luis Katz on every matter, I think there's a lot of wisdom in that remark. And the other way of thinking about this, that I entered this meeting thinking about is our housing element sites inventory, which appears to include, potentially, a number of opportunity sites with historic resources. And that's concerning for many reasons. One is, it's possible that those historical resources pose a significant constraint, and those projects don't materialize in the next 8 years, but we are going to struggle, I think, with the next housing element, I think the 7th cycle is going to be even harder than the 6th. And if we retain those sites, then housing element law requires that we allow ministerial approval of housing developments that provide a minimum 20% affordable housing by right, which means that those historic resources are in jeopardy. But even if we start seeing projects beforehand, were placed in the quandary. Either. We allow the demolition of the historic resources, in order to meet our arena obligation, or we deny those projects to preserve the historical resource, which means, now we have to find some other way of making up the arena. Um, and, um, that's a difficult place for a council to be. And I would hope that we think very carefully about what it means if we do, in fact, have several historic resources in our opportunity sites, in our housing element sites inventory. I know that's not something that we knew when we were coming up with our sites inventory, so I don't think there's blame, but I do think it means that we might want to start thinking about, are there other ways of achieving these goals, which right now are incompatible. You can't preserve historic resource on a site that we're designating for housing growth, to meet our state mandate. And then another component of this, even outside of the site's inventory is the housing element program itself, which I have a hard time reading as meaning anything other than what it says, that we would allow emergency shelter by a right in the El Camino real precise plan. And so, when I think about expressing concern about the integrity of a commitment made by the city, whether it pertains to historic resources, or this program, you know, if we're, it may be, technically, legally defensible, but it's hard for me to feel good about it, because three months ago, if I were to ask anybody in this room, what this meant, I would doubt that anybody would say, well, it means El Camino, real, precise plan. Uh, you know, Castro Meramonte sub area one. or sub area two. It's not, in my mind, an adequate reading of that program, which is why I appreciate option two. Because what Option 2 does is that it finds that balance, where it allows us to, you know, meet the letter and spirit of the program without jeopardizing historic resources, and I think that's why, I think that's why that's the best way to go. It's hard for me also to support the expenditure of additional money and time simply to allow ministerial approval for, you know, two or three sites, with historic resources. It doesn't feel like a good use of staff time or city resources. So, that was a lot. I'm going to go ahead and move the staff recommendation. Including introduce an ordinance of the city of Mountain View approving amendments to chapter 36 zoning of the city code, amending the amendment standards and permitting process for emergency shelters, and finding the amendments to be categorically exempt under section 15061B3 of the California Environmental Quality Act guid to be read in title only, further reading waived, and set a second reading for April 23rd, 2024, and adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, amending the El Camino Real Precise Plan to add emergency shelters, as a permitted or provisionally permitted use, and to include permitting process for shelters, consistent with the housing element program, 1.1 F, and finding the amendment to be categorically exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act, pursuant to Sequel Guidelines, Section 11, B3, to be read entitled only further reading waived. And also include the direction for staff to proceed with option 2, as recommended by staff, so not adding any additional, there's no need to expedite that work at the expense of something else. So at a time, staff deems appropriate. I'll also share, so that's the motion. I had initially thought, I have a simultaneously a frustration and a concern with having our municipal code, clearly misaligned from state law, and I was thinking of seeing if there was counsel support for just aligning the land use tables with state law pertaining to low barrier navigation center. I hear what staff is saying about, I don't know if this is the best practice. I'm not going to 2nd guess you, but if there's a good reason not to explicitly list low barrier navigation center in the land use tables, then I'm not going to provide that direction today. I do expect that that law will be, um, extended, like SB 35 was, like, you know, SB 330 was. But I did want to, um, suggest, I guess, this would be more of a, um, an administrative action. You know, we have on our website, applications that are tailored to things like SB 35, recipe 330, both of which expire, they have a sunset. And I think it might be good and helpful to leverage this part of the city website. So application forms and fees is what I'm seeing, to start, including other ministerial approvals like AB 21, 62 and AB 101. I have, we don't have to talk about it in this meeting, but I have heard examples where, um, a well-intentioned representative of the city enforced something that they legally could not because they weren't aware of state preemptions. And, um, I think just to make sure everyone is on the same page about what we expect. I would like, I would prefer to align the Municode or the precise plans with the state laws that have the preemption, but understanding that the sunset may make that undesirable, for reasons that you've articulated, the next best thing, at the very least, would be, here's an application form that recognizes that this exists. So everyone is on the same page about what the expectations are, including any, you know, process that would have to, you know, we'd have to go through or, you know, objective standards that would have to be enforced. So I'll stop there. Thank you very much for your indulgence.

[01:42:57] Mayor Pat Showalter: Um, yeah, does your emotion include number one?

[01:43:00] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So, the staff recommendation, including the two... Well, there are three. Consider the 2023 annual progress report. Did that have to be read into the record?

[01:43:13] Unknown Speaker: Okay. So, yes, I agree with that. But I only read into the record the things that I was, I thought we were obligated to read.

[01:43:19] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: It had to be read into the record as well. No problem. Never mind. All right.

[01:43:24] Mayor Pat Showalter: Council member or Hicks?

[01:43:28] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, I, um, also support, uh, the staff recommendation with option number two, clearly, because I just seconded it. So, um, and just a little on my reasoning, the first, I mean, I kind of second everything that, um, council member Ramirez said, but, um, my first goal is to provide an abundant choice of sites for emergency shelters, so that we can pick one that works for everybody. So I'm hoping that we get to the entire El Camino precise plan minus any potential historic sites. You know, as soon as possible, because I would like to have a good selection. I actually, one of the things I like about the, I'm not actually super happy about the smaller selection of sites, and I hope that's just very short term, because the El Camino precise plan runs through a lot of village centers. It runs by the San Antonio Center. A lot of other places that we might put emergency shelters, and one of my desires with emergency homeless shelters, and other permanent housing, permanently supportive housing for formerly homeless people, is that the sites be scattered throughout our city, not all in one small place. So I think that the whole El Camino precise plan, minus the historic sites, does that. I would even add, maybe when we do our homeless response strategy, some additional sites, like the San Antonio precise plan, but I won't talk about that now. Then, my second goal, and I think the staff recommendation in option 2 does this, is to respect our historic process, the reasoning being, this is, in my mind, super important for making great public places and making a great city. And I agree with Ms. Katz, that we respect the process, and don't, you know, use our personal opinion, because it's one that has been labored over for a long time. Um, and, um, let's see, if I had anything else, I think. I think that. Yeah, I think that's it. So, thank you.

[01:46:02] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you, Vice Mayor Matachek.

[01:46:04] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you. I want to start by saying that, while I'm on the airport land use commission, I did not attend the meeting today, because the only item on the agenda was a Mountain View item, and I always recuse myself from Mountain View items. So I wasn't part of that discussion. So thank you for the update on that. You know, I think I often say that words matter. And I think I am known for wordsmithing on this council. And, um, in this case, I feel like my understanding of what's in the housing element just says, We will amend the El Camino real precise plan, it doesn't say, We will amend the entire El Camino real precise plan. If that's what we intended, that's what we should have said. So, I think what we're proposing tonight does satisfy the housing element, because we are proposing to amend the El Camino Real precise plan. You know, the fact that the city doesn't have any applications or interest in emergency shelters, from others, that is, I don't see anything on the horizon that really is gonna change that. They have been an option to build in the city, or to create in the city for a very long time, and we just don't have any. So I don't really feel an urgency to allow them on the entire El Camino precise plan. and override what we're doing in terms of our historic resources. So, um, I think we can wait until the update to the historic preservation ordinance is done. And then if we want to, we can go back, and if we want to add more sights on El Camino, that's fine with me. There are so many other things that need to get done for the housing element. I don't want to get distracted on things that I think are going to have less of an impact on housing than other things that are in our housing element. I'd rather focus on those. So I'm actually okay with the staff recommendation, and, um, I could go with or without option two, but if others are okay with it. I'm happy to support that. Thanks. Thank you.

[01:48:29] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I'm Council member Am Els. Thank you, Mayor. I started out this whole process with a little bit more raged. It has dissipated over time. We'll step back. With the housing element, I fully understand that we have a very ambitious housing element. It's also why we became designated a pro housing city and it's something to be very proud of. Our housing element, I believe, is something that we should be very proud of. It has, um, it's, it's, I know, I understand that it was more ambitious than what, uh, many people initially thought it would be. Um, and I feel like it is more ambitious than that original thought because we had a community that supported making those commitments to take that step forward to addressing our housing crisis. That same community is holding us accountable to these housing element commitments. Um, It's very fascinating, the different perspectives of how people viewed. We're gonna rezone El Camino, the El Camino precise plan, uh, to allow shelters by right. I think of it almost as like a coder. Um, if you have, um, a row of LED lights and you turn the code to say, uh, turn on LED lights, all of them are gonna turn on. If you wanted less than that, you would add exemptions to it. So it was, it's kind of an opposite thing, and I could see how that can go a different ways based on upbringing and professional background, I think. I think that's, that's where the confusion lies with, if that, we get that confusion here on, or that difference of opinion here on council, imagine out in a community of 8, over 80,000 people. Um, So, uh, I was prepared to go, uh, forcibly through option one. But, um, one of the things that kind of talked me back through that edge is one of the things that I kind of committed myself when I 1st became a council member is that to not disregard things that are important to others. And, um, I find having the options for shelters incredibly important, incredibly important for those who are are vulnerable in our communities. Um, But I understand how important it is, um, that we take the time to to evaluate our historic resources in there. So I am, um, I am supporting option two. Um, because I was talked back from the edge. I'm glad I have, um, more senior colleagues on this dias, uh, for me, not senior in age necessarily, but like senior in, um, in wisdom of years in, on here. Um, so, um, that's my long way of saying, um, I am, uh, supporting the emotion with, uh, option two. I really hope that, um, it does lead to the to the options, um, the wide variety of options we can get and removal barriers for emergency shelters, because that is the overall goal. Um, If we find that the, the, because we're going to evaluate these, these 8 sites as well, whether or not they actually are historical or not. That's, that is my understanding with this. Um, that we essentially maximize, um, without impeding that, um, its own study on whether or not they're historical or not, um, and then going for, if it's deemed not to. But if it is, then we go around it. Um, so thank you to staff. Thank you for dealing with my ever, ever floating rage every once in a while when it comes to the housing element. Um, and I look forward to getting this part done.

[01:52:45] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, well, I'll take a turn real quick. And I would just like to say, I really appreciate this discussion that we've had here. I think it's been, um, really balanced, and, uh, we've asked some very good questions. There certainly were a lot of good questions in the written ones as well. I, uh, you know, I would love to see, uh, shelter or two, so that we could house those 150 people. But I thought that what, um, what you said about it being a rare occurrence is, um, is the sad truth. So although I'm very glad that we're going forward, and we're taking care of this. I think this is very, in a lot of ways, it's a detail. It's a very important detail, but it's a detail, an administrative detail, that we need to go forward. And I think option, too, is a balanced way to go forward with that, because, as many people have said, although we might look at any of those individual sites on El Camino that have been ID'd, and we might think, hmm, why is that, um, why is that historical? That's not really our job. Our job is to let the process and let the professionals go through and explain it and then bring it back to us. And that hasn't really, you know, that hasn't been finished yet. So we need to let that play out. But the thing that was very meaningful and meeting, meaty about this item, from my point of view, is the annual progress report. And one of the things I really, I think, is so vital about that is that I have observed over many years, that things that get monitored get done. And so when you have an annual report where you have to go through and decide whether or not, you know, this has been worked on, or that has been worked on, and where you are in the process, you do that. And we've done that. And that's very important, and it's particularly important in making sure that we, you know, we get to the end of the cycle with a, you know, we keep our pro housing designation and, you know, A plus for our activities. This is how we do it, is by very careful annual monitoring. So I want to thank the staff for all the effort that was required to do that. And I want to thank all of the grassroots organizations that, you know, that have read this very, very carefully to, sort of, keep us on track. I think that's all very important. So with that, any more comments, I think it's time to vote. That passes with, um, five yeses and one abstention, because of the, one recusal, sorry, wrong, wrong term. Okay. Well, thank you, staff very much for that report. Appreciate it. And now we move on to item seven, which is council, staff, and committee reports. Who has a council staff or committee report they'd like to share? Vice Mayor Manachek.

[01:56:23] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you. The Council of Finance Committee met on March 20th, and we interviewed firms to perform the audit for the city. It's been many years since we've done an RFP. So we did one this year, and we interviewed several firms. Also, I participated in the Bosca Bay Area Water Splying Conservation Agency, board meeting on March 21st, and, you know, the Het Che Cheese system is in very good shape in terms of water supply. We had a wet water season last year, and we're having another good season. And so that resource is in pretty good shape. But I always add quickly, make water conservation a way of life. Not encouraging people to use more here. But, you know, the most interesting thing to come out of that board meeting was, um, the SFPUC has raised the possibility of maybe changing the minimum purchase agreements that they have with cities. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with that, Mountain View has for sources of water, but the SAPUC is by far the largest. And because we could potentially take more water from valley water. The SAPC wanted us to have an agreement to take a certain minimum amount from them, because they were investing in the infrastructure to bring it to us. So we've done, that's a great job of conservation that we actually use, we've used below our minimum purchase requirements, sometimes, and that is cause for concern. So the fact that they're even talking about this, I thought, was pretty exciting. Um, I know that the city of Mountain View and the other, I think it's other three jurisdictions that have the minimum purchase requirements, um, have all been talking with SAPUC. And while I don't have details, I'm, I guess I'd say I'm pleased that the topic is even being discussed. And we've got a good team here that is representing our city, so I'm hoping for a really good outcome from this. And as soon as I know more, I'll let y'all know. Thank you.

[01:58:54] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. That is great news. Council member Ramirez.

[01:58:59] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate the vice mayor's report. And I'll share as a member of the CFC. I enjoyed the interview process with the external auditors. It was fascinating, and we had some terrific support from staff. So I appreciate the leadership of our chair, and, you know, my colleagues and going through was what was a pretty arduous afternoon, I thought. I would like to see if there is support from the council to refer to the CPPC, the question of, and to be defined by staff, exploration of regulations or approaches to challenges associated with virtual participation in public meetings. Well, yeah. We've been targeted. Um, and it has been my experience. The jurisdiction I work for is different, but when you're targeted, you have a bull's eye on your back and they come back. And they come back and they come back and they come back. And I'd prefer not to deal with that.

[02:00:25] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Hey Siri, man a check. Is that a CPPC item or is that something that staff can just work on for us?

[02:00:37] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, thank you, vice mayor, Metachek, and council member Ramirez. So I'd like to confer with the city attorney on this. There are several agencies in our area that have ended the ability to comment publicly via Zoom, although folks may still participate in Zoom. Um, so I think that that might be the option that the council member is um, looking to explore because we couldn't pick and choose uh, who we would allow to speak going forward. It would either be all or nothing. And that's what other jurisdictions have looked into once they were the subject of Zoom bombings, and it occurred over and over. So that's what we would look into and whether it would be something that staff would bring forward. It seems like, since you're talking about it, CPPC could be a good forum, but I think the city attorney and I could discuss what could be a path if you all are interested in that.

[02:01:39] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: So I'm interested in it. I just feel like sometimes, you know, the CPPC meetings happen maybe twice a year. And so it might be more timely to have staff bring something to counsel than to refer to the CPPC, because I do feel a sense of urgency. I'm wondering if there's kind of a... a way we can say, we give people 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and, um, and after that, if... if they're not behaving, we just immediately cut them off. I mean, we normally have, you know, that we just... We just have a very, very short fuse for tolerating the behavior. Is there a way to do that to do it with the times? Thank you, Mayor.

[02:02:33] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: So we could look into that. I would say that some of the comments we received tonight. They were a minute in or so before the comments turned disruptive. And, um, not what our policy allows. So that, I'd say that's the only concern with waiting 15 seconds because then it might go longer. Or it would be would another possibility be to just say that, you know, um, uh, Zoom comments are only a minute. Or, I mean, to set a different standard for Zoom comments, then we would have for in-person comments. I just, it's just something to think about. I don't know if that's possible, but. Thank you.

[02:03:20] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: I think the time limit for public speakers needs to be the same, whether they're in person or whether or not they're by Zoom. So we can't distinguish between in-person public speakers and, you know, virtual public speakers. So if you set the time limit, it is going to have to be consistent across the board. And we could conceivably revisit that time limit to make it shorter. But anyway, we can certainly cut anybody off. our existing policy. We can cut people off as soon as we realize there's a problem. Yes, Mayor. And that's part of the policy that's outlined in the agenda. Yes. So if conduct, whether in person, or via Zoom is disruptive to counsel's business, then, uh, we can remove someone from the chambers, you can pause the meeting, um, or if it's via Zoom, we can remove them from being a speaker, which did happen this evening, um, when that conduct is disruptive.

[02:04:17] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. Council member Ramos.

[02:04:21] Councilmember Emily Ramos: This is regarding the item Council member Ramirez wants to bring up another option, which was mentioned to me in many conversations with the city attorney, was the possibility of just moving non-agenda comments at the end instead of at the beginning. I am less inclined to get rid of Zoom comments. Um, I'm aware of uh, Council member Ramirez's day job when they did it, and I was very upset about it. It, uh, lots of impacts there. Um, So I'm not as incline, um, to move that question forward, but I think if we look at it as a broad way of trying to figure out, like, how do we address this issue that we are facing now that that's something I think we should, CPPC has a good head under shoulders to take a look at?

[02:05:17] Mayor Pat Showalter: Council member Hicks.

[02:05:19] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah, I'm hesitant to, after one zoom bombing, completely eliminating virtual comments, because I know it's important to a lot of people, I'm more likely to, and since the mayor doesn't seem, she's the one who gets the pressure of saying, turn it off. She doesn't seem particularly perturbed. She can tell me if I'm wrong. Um, and, um, as I like the option of maybe putting public commentary at the end or doing something like that for a while and seeing how it plays out.

[02:05:56] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, any more comments on this? Okay. I have a just a brief report. I wanted to mention that the annual update. Many of us were at the annual update, and I want to thank the staff of our staff, the Brian Babcock and Lincoln Wright, and there were undoubtedly many others who contributed to it. I thought that it went really well. And also, I wanted to thank the Chamber of Commerce staff. They, um, they did all the advertising, and they, you know, sold the tickets and that sort of thing, and the hotel also really put on a nice, a nice breakfast for us. So I felt like we were able to make very positive comments about the accomplishments of the city over the last year and what we expect to be doing in the next year. And they were very well received, and it was a good experience. So thanks, everybody.

[02:07:03] Mayor Pat Showalter: Back to Council member Ramirez.

[02:07:04] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I'm sorry, Mayor. I don't think we gave staff direction, so I just wanted to clarify, there may not be support for eliminating virtual participation, but is there support for, at least, having staff, think about various options and coming either to counsel or see PPC? We do have a meeting in April, so there was an opportunity for us to talk about it fairly expeditiously. And that could include other items that have come up, other technology solutions, you know, relocating items on the agenda, that kind of thing. just giving staff fairly broad direction to think about ways of addressing the problem. I thought enough people spoke positively on it that we did give them that direction.

[02:07:48] Mayor Pat Showalter: Was that, did you feel that way? City manager, McCarthy?

[02:07:51] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, thank you. So I think what I heard is at least an interest to start by moving the public comment for an agendaized items to the end of the agenda, which we can do, starting with the next agenda, and maybe think about other options, is that. I don't know, I'm seeing different faces. So I don't think there's majority support then for anything unless you're open to staff bringing back options, but a lot of the options would be what you've discussed tonight.

[02:08:27] Mayor Pat Showalter: I think that's that's what I would be like to see as staff to bring back options. Think about this and bring back options.

[02:08:38] Unknown Speaker: Okay. I'll 2nd it?

[02:08:40] Mayor Pat Showalter: All right, we're giving direction. Yeah, bring back options. Thank you. All right. Okay. So that, I think, brings us to the next item, which is closed session report. Do we have a closed session report?

[02:08:57] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: There was no final action taken in closed session this evening.

[02:08:59] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Okay. So with that, I adjourn the meeting of March 26th at, um, my gosh, is it, it's not even 9 o'clock yet. Whoa.

[02:09:14] Unknown Speaker: Exactly. 853.

[02:09:19] Mayor Pat Showalter: Our next meeting is, does anybody have that?

[02:09:23] Unknown Speaker: April 9th.

[02:09:24] Mayor Pat Showalter: April 9th. Look forward to seeing everybody then, and enjoy the super bloom we are having, and all the wildflowers.

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