Oct. 15, 2024 Special Meeting of Mountain View City Council

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Transcript

[00:01:38] Mayor Pat Showalter: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the city council special meeting to interview environmental planning commission applicants. First, we'll have the pledge of allegiance. So please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Great. Roll call.

[00:02:18] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Cons member Abbe Koga? Council member Hanks?

[00:02:21] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here,

[00:02:22] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Kameh,

[00:02:23] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: here.

[00:02:24] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Ramirez.

[00:02:25] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[00:02:25] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Ramos.

[00:02:26] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Here,

[00:02:26] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mayor Matishak.

[00:02:28] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Here.

[00:02:28] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor Sh Walter?

[00:02:29] Mayor Pat Showalter: Here.

[00:02:29] City Clerk Heather Glaser: You have a quorum?

[00:02:30] Mayor Pat Showalter: Great. All right. So tonight we have a study session. For the environmental planning commission applicant interviews, and the purpose of the meeting is to interview applicants for one opening on the EPC, and make the recommendation for adoption at the December 17th, 2024 city council meeting. What evening member of the public joining us virtually or in person, like to comment on this item? If so, please click the raised hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in person speakers first. Each speaker will have three minutes. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak on this item? No? Okay, anybody on Zoom? No? All right, so we'll close the public comment session? And, um... So, According to the selection process outline in council policy, number K2, interviews will be conducted in a panel format. Each applicant will receive the same amount of time to answer each question, and the question selected by the council will be asked in a random round robin order to the applicants for each body. The council may be asked, may I ask a limited number of clarifying questions? In the event, an applicant's answer was unclear or otherwise not understood. Clarifying questions should not be used to allow an applicant an additional opportunity to expand on the original response. So, um, on October 17th, 2023, the council posed the following questions to EPC applicants in the denoted time limit for each category. So, we have them here. Does everybody have them here in front of them? Okay. So would any council member like to suggest changes to the questions, or propose a time allocation for each question? A different one? Council member Ramirez.

[00:04:31] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I would like to suggest omitting at least the reference to the Moffatt precise plan because that, I believe, is on the agenda tomorrow for the planning commission, and it doesn't quite feel appropriate to have a planning commissioner disclose their thoughts in advance of the meeting.

[00:04:56] Mayor Pat Showalter: That seems legitimate. Okay, so we'll strike Moffatt? It's being discussed separately from the downtown precise plan, isn't it?

[00:05:06] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: That's my understanding.

[00:05:07] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. All right. Any other comments? Okay, um... All right, well, I'm just gonna go ahead and read these questions, and then we'll have the, um, to make sure everybody's heard, and then we'll have the, uh, interviewes come forward. The first one is, what have you personally done to make a contribution to the environmental planning commission, or if you were not currently serving, what would you bring to the environmental planning commission, that is unique? And that's one minute. Um, and then 2 minutes. What are your thoughts on the city's existing plans, like the general plan and precise plans, specifically the downtown precise plan? And the next one is one minute and a half. How does good land juice improve our city? And what is good land juice? And then the fourth one is, how would you evaluate proposals to amend the general plan? So those are going to be the questions that we ask. So, now, I'd like to ask our three applicants to come forward and take a seat. And I just want to start by saying that we really appreciate the time and effort that you have taken to apply for this position. I know it takes quite a while to think up the answers and apply, and so we all appreciate you stepping up. Thank you for doing that. And, um, uh, we'll try and make this as painless as possible. Okay. Um, so... Another question. Would the council prefer that we rotate the questions or, um, that I ask them all? Okay, all right. Well? Okay, we'll rotate the order. You can help me with that. Okay. Okay. All right. So, Mr. Dempsey, we'll start with you. Welcome. And the first question is, what have you personally done to make a contribution to the environmental planning commission? And, um, And this one's supposed to be a minute.

[00:07:41] Dempsey: Shall I go? Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, council members. Thank you for having me tonight. Thank you for having me do this the last 4 years. So the question of what have I personally done? That's actually a hard one. and it's because the role doesn't lend itself to heroics. It's not a play, it's not a role, it's not a function that I found. I really want to stick out a whole lot and and, you know, carry the ball all the way to the all the way to the hole. I think the ways in which I've tried to contribute the most to to the EPC over the last 4 years. have really been pretty quiet. and pretty group oriented. It's quiet conversations with this person, that person, the other person. It's a lot of it's just showing up and there's nothing terribly heroic about that either. And probably the one thing that I've really tried to focus on this last, probably the last 2 years that is personal, is really deepening my relationship with staff. And that's that a lot of appreciation for the staff.

[00:08:55] Mayor Pat Showalter: Next one, we'll go to Douglas. Um, Douglas, what have you personally? Oh. It's the same question, but it's a little different for you because you haven't served on the EPC, so, um, if you were not currently serving, what would you bring to the environmental planning commission, that is unique.

[00:09:18] Douglas: Getting the interview, I really appreciate it. All of you. So prior to moving to Mountain View in 1998. I think it's on. It is on. Oh, no. Oh, sorry. Okay, prior to moving to Mountain High? 10 seconds for that. Okay, prior to moving to Mountain View in 1998. I lived in Europe where I commuted to work every day by mass transit. So when I came to Mountain View, and I saw the landscape of housing around, rail lines, I was immediately attracted to it. As a mechanical engineer and a manager, I've developed a lot of products in technology and processes, of particular interests, environmental planning committee, would be developing LED lighting, high efficiency LED lighting for automotive and architectural applications, and high efficiency, low emissions, power generation, at commercial scale. Through the work I learned to do program management, team building, problem solving, and all of the things that are done in the engineering world, which I believe are also applicable here. My vision for Mountain View is to create a sustainable urban environment, which encourages residents to reach their favorite destinations while connecting with each other in the environment. That means to the greatest extent possible.

[00:10:46] Mayor Pat Showalter: That's great. Thank you. Alright, Tina, would you like me to repeat the question?

[00:10:52] Tina: Yes, please.

[00:10:53] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. What would you bring to the environmental planning commission that is unique?

[00:11:01] Tina: All right, thank you. So, I am humbled to be able to be here with other successful and deserving applicants. Um, and I would like to say that I have not yet served on the EPC, um, but I bring a lot of unique skills that could be used for this group. Um, I, um, an environmental engineer. I have worked for 2 different cities during my career, have worked for the city of San Jose, the largest city in the county, and also the city of San Mateo. And so I've spent some time, you know, thinking about projects. I work on capital projects as an engineer, and I've spent a lot of time bringing them forward. So that's water, wastewater engineering, capital projects, bridges, sidewalks, transportation projects. And so I know what it takes to get things constructed. And I know why planning is so important because once it's constructed, buildings are around for 50 or plus years. So as a Mountain View resident, I wanted to bring some of my skills that I've learned in my career to help my, uh,

[00:12:03] Mayor Pat Showalter: Excellent. Thank you. All right. So now we'll move on to question two. This one you have 2 minutes on, so a little more time. And we'll start with Tina. What are your thoughts on the city's existing plans, like the general plan, and precise plans, specifically the downtown precise plan?

[00:12:25] Tina: Yeah, this is a great question. Um, I am in all of all that staff has done, um, and the EPC and council on the general plan, um, and the housing element in the last couple of years. I feel that I have some experience kind of seeing how other communities work. Um, and I'm so proud to come out and be my home. We're a, you know, a pro housing city. I see a lot of things, you know, built and changed. I live in the crossings and I love. that area. I moved there almost 10 years ago and I'm happy to raise my family there. I have a 2 year old daughter, and we really appreciate, you know, the area around us, and we know that's because it's because of careful planning, careful, thought out, um, you know, work that the EPC and council has done over years to be able to have the situation where it is now for me, um, and my family to enjoy. And so I would say, you know, the plans are, you know, a lot of thought has been put into it, but it's not just the thought that's been put into it. It's the work that will come, right? Implementing the plan, getting developers to come, and actually implement some of the housing that is, you know, set out in the housing element in the general plan. That will be a challenge for, you know, us as a community going forward to be able to encourage developers, but also, um, balance some of the impacts like transportation, resources, water, uh, parking impacts that may, um, you know, have to follow and staff will have to balance, uh, that as well as we think about growth in the future.

[00:14:04] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, thank you. Hey, you're next. Would you like me to read the question?

[00:14:11] Dempsey: Kind understood it. Okay, Madam Mayor. So, general plan, precise plan, and downtown plan. I think I have different feelings about all three. Maybe I'll start at the top and work my way down. Um, I'm struggling with the general plan and and the way that it, the function that it plays in our city now, and that's not a criticism of the plan, it's, it's, there is a shifting paradigm about, around land use, that's being driven by state law primarily, and also enforcement of state law. And I think one of the things I would notice, and this was pointed out to me by one of your number, but we have been shifting towards spot zoning. There's a way in which, you know, we see it on EPC all the time. There's the general plan, and we want to do something that differs from the general plan, so we just sort of change it, right? We're like, yeah, sure, go ahead. I have yet to see us really say no because we're like, no, the general plan says we're not going to do this, so we're not going to do this. It feels like it is receding into the background of influence in some ways, at least for the things that I see. And that concerns me a little. What I will say, however, is that we've gotten the precise plans, we're doing a lot of heavy lifting with them, and I've actually been really encouraged with some of the work, some of the really good creative work that we've been able to do with precise plans. And so I'm, I'm, I think those are a really good thing and, um, good things come out of that. The downtown plan is probably the place where I'm the most positive. I'm the most bullish. We need it. I think we're all very well aware of the empty businesses that are still downtown as a result of COVID, but I will say huge appreciation to the city and to staff for the work that's already been done revitalizing downtown, the creativity that we've been seeing, the customer service orientation that we've been seeing, really good things are happening downtown. We still have more ground to cover for sure. But I think that what the downtown plan enables.

[00:16:17] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Okay. Douglas, you're the last one. Would you like me to repeat the question?

[00:16:22] Douglas: Sure, go ahead please.

[00:16:25] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. What are your thoughts on the city's existing plans, like the general plan and precise plans, specifically? And, oh, what are your, and what is your thought specifically on the downtown precise plan?

[00:16:39] Douglas: Okay, yeah, I'm very impressed with the general plan. I like the vision, the scope, the clarity, and how ambitious it is. Multiple themes resonated with my personal values, such as quality of life, including mobility parks and neighborhoods, sustainability, in particular, for me personally. Greenhouse gas reduction, transit, energy conservation. health and wellness, diversity. This is one of the most diversities that I've experienced, and I really think it's one of our strengths. So I'm very pleased with it in principle and thematically. Some specifics jumped out for me. The Moffat plan for enhanced mobility and improvements support greater pedestrian by transit. I feel is really important, because we have a lot of interesting things in the city that are separated, or people are unable to get to. In the central plan, well served by transit services, but again, barriers. So I think that's great to recognize that. So in terms of precise plans, I did not read the downtown plan. I'm sorry, I was unaware that was your expectation, but I read the North Bay Shore Plan, because I feel like that is probably the most ambitious project for Mountain View, something I read on a table showed that we would grow the population there, by some 1000 to some 20,000, some factor of 20 is enormous. I don't know if you guys are aware of that. So, when I looked at that, and I read things like pedestrian and bike environment, wide sidewalk, smaller blocks, benches, bike, parking, that resonated with me, sustainable features, like passive solar, heat island reduction, building facing sidewalks. So they communicate with people. and plazas and shared spaces, again, for people. Thank you.

[00:18:47] Mayor Pat Showalter: Great answer. All right. So now we're moving on to question three. And the first one person to answer will be Douglas. That question is, how would you evaluate proposals to amend the general plan? And you have a minute and a half for this one. Thank you.

[00:19:03] Douglas: All right, so I would do it much like I approach problems at work, where I look at what the requirements are first, defining all the requirements, and making sure they're agreed upon, and then look at what the input is, to what the changes could be, and evaluate them against our principles and our requirements. And then I would solicit inputs from all the key stakeholders and try to get agreement on what the plan is moving forward, which I assume would come from the commission, or I'm not sure how the politics, or how the process works, and then, of course, get a final approval.

[00:19:49] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Okay. Next person is Tina. How would you evaluate proposals to amend the general plan?

[00:19:59] Tina: Great question. So, I would first think about what was being proposed and what was the intent in the general plan related to that amendment or that item. I would also think about what's required, whether from state or other external factors, that the city is trying to uh, match or uh, um, fix. And then I'd also think about what other cities in our area may be doing, as I work for other municipalities, I have a sense of, you know, what others are doing and know that, you know, housing and land use issues are not in a vacuum. There may be, um, issues, uh, that have been done elsewhere or lessons learned from elsewhere that we could take here. Those are all the things that I would consider in amending the general plan. And I would think very carefully before making amendments or recommendations to counsel regarding any amendment.

[00:21:03] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, um, Hank, how would you evaluate proposals to amend the general plan?

[00:21:11] Hank: So, I think the 1st place I would always start is gonna be resident input. And I think if we're going to talk about reopening the general plan, which is always a good idea. Extensive conversation with the community is always got to be first. And I, every time the, when there's a project in front of EPC, I always learn something from what we get from the residents. So I think that comes first. Second is going to be really having a deep internal discussion about the ways in which both the law is changing the way the general plan can be used, the state law is changing and how HCD enforces things, that is very heavy on my mind. And so I think having a really serious conversation eternally about how that changes what a general plan could and should do, I think that that's important. Um, You know, the, I definitely would want it to be forward thinking, but I think they they generally have been and they are. And I think we need to continue looking forward, and I think maybe the one lesson we might take from the last 10 years is really being a little more skeptical about having the good times role continuously, that downturns come, and it's very easy to get excited by projects that look fantastic, and they can deliver all these things. And sometimes we just kind of forget Murphy's law, and that a bunch of stuff's going to break, and people are going to go out of business, and the money's not going to show up, or they're not going to, you know, they'll sit on their permit for 4 years or what have you. So I think a little bit more skepticism might help us long way down the road.

[00:22:44] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. All right. So the last question is, how does good land juice improve our city, and what is good land juice? And the 1st person to answer that will be Hank.

[00:22:59] Hank: Thank you, Madam Mayor. That's the most important question. And there's probably a proper definition, and if I had gone to, if I had gone to planning school, I could probably tell you what it is. So I can tell you only my Laban's version of what good planning is. Are the people who live here happy? And can they do the things that they want to do that are important to them with minimal friction? Can they eat relatively easily, do the things they care about? Because cities should be built for people. And that's pretty simple. Um, and I think that, um, there was a 2nd half of the question now I'm already forgetting what it was. But that for me is the core. That's what I come back to every time I come into EPC, when I read these, when I read the projects, when we're trying to figure out what to do, is, is it helping people get, do the things that they want to do. They don't want to worry about this stuff. They want us to come in and worry about it, so they don't have to, so they can just get to work, however they choose to get to work. Their kids can play in a park. Basic things that everybody wants to do. And so I think, perhaps that's a little bit simplistic, but really it comes down to, Is it making the residents happy and minimizing the friction so they don't have to think about it because we thought about it for them. That's good planning to me.

[00:24:19] Mayor Pat Showalter: All right. Next person to answer is Douglas. And the question again is, how does good land use improve our city, and what is good land juice?

[00:24:30] Douglas: Yeah, let's start with what is good land use in my opinion. Number one, it meets the needs of the community. That is, people get what they want. They can access what they want, they can enjoy living in the city. It's the place they call home and they're proud of. The 2nd is it fits with the values of our general plan. If our plan is consistent with good land use and good land use, the way we are actually implementing is consistent with our plan, that's a positive. The third is, it has to be legal, has to meet all kinds of zoning requirements or whatever other requirements are imposed on us outside of the city. And the last thing it has to be sustainable. We can't have a plan that is too short term thinking. or doesn't have, really doesn't have a future. To that end, I think there are some examples where we don't have the best land use, and I don't think it's great to beat on that, but there are buildings that are empty. There are park spaces that are empty, like next to Cuesta. Maybe if I understood why it's empty. I have a better impression that. I think so full utilization is also good land use. So coming back to the first half of the question, how does it improve the city, if we're getting the best use of our resources, and people are happy using our resources, then we are successful.

[00:25:56] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Okay. Tina, you're the last one for this one. How does good land use improve our city? And what is good land juice?

[00:26:05] Tina: Great. So I don't have a lot to add from what Hank and Douglas have said. I agree with both of them. and I, that's one of the reasons I'm so happy to live here because I think a lot of people purposely think about land use and the citizens of Mountain View really benefit from it. For me, I believe good land use allows for projects to really bring benefit to the community in the city. And that could be in a lot of different ways. It could be an additional housing, it could be in, um, parks. It could be in facilities, it could be in entertainment. We really got to think when projects move forward, what is it that they're bringing to the community and good land use allows for those projects to move forward? But good land use also needs the balance, um, potential negative impacts. You know, we need to think about parking and uh, transportation and how to get people here and there, um, and resources like water resources, like how do we allow for uh, good land use policies to walk that balance? And that's very challenging. And I think that's, um, you know, one of the reasons why I think I'm happy to be here is because, uh, others from council and the EPC have really thought carefully in their plans and their implementation to make it so for me and also make it so for my, um, daughter who I'm raising to be in Mountain View.

[00:27:37] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Okay. So that brings us to the end of our formal questions. And, um, and then, uh, we have an opportunity, if there are any council members who would like to ask clarifying questions, and, uh, I'll send.... Oh, okay, so no. No more questions. All right, okay. So, thank you very much. That concludes the interview section, and then we'll bring it back to council for discussion and a recommendation. So you can, you know, you can stay or leave, um, whatever, uh, whatever makes you happy. Okay. You don't have to sit there. You can go back there. Yeah. Okay. So per the selection process outlined in Calzle policy, K dash 2, when voting, each council member shall vote for as many candidates as there are open seats. If there is a tie vote, we will revote on the Tide applicant, an applicant with the highest number of votes wins. The process can be changed upon a majority vote of the council. We can now discuss our recommendations for one member of the environmental planning commission, or we can proceed directly to vote by ballot. What do people? Okay, um, council member, Hicks.

[00:29:06] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, I just wanted to say that, um, that in my, this is the best group of applicants, in my opinion, that I've seen in the time, um, in the time I've been on council as a whole group. Your applications, in my opinion, were fabulous. A lot of competition, Mr. Dempsey. Um, but, um... In particular, I liked, um, you know, Ms. Fam's talk. I was impressed that she talked about, okay, I have a background in planning, but saying that planning is important because what we build is around for decades, if not more. And you're valuing green infrastructure in stormwater. And I like Douglas talking about buildings facing the streets and sidewalks, and basically active transportation and sustainability. All that said, we do kind of have a tradition of voting for the person who's been on the EPC, an incumbent, unless they've done a terrible job. And in my opinion, Mr. Dempsey's been doing a good job. Other people may feel differently, but, um, I will be supporting the incumbent, but really encouraging Mr. Wolverton and Ms. Fam to apply again. We do have several people running for council on the EPC now. I don't know if any of them will win, but they may, somebody there may well win, and there may be an opening soon, and many people who get on the EPC apply multiple times. So I'm really encouraging, if one or both of you don't get on the EPC that you apply again. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:30:59] Mayor Pat Showalter: Vice Mayor Madachek.

[00:31:00] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you. I do want to thank everyone who applied. I actually think the interviews were much better than the applications. So I'm really glad we did this. Um, I appreciated your, um, sort of bringing it back to what it means for you, some of the questions, and your family, and the things you appreciate about Mountain View. Um, and, um, you know, Len use is certainly an important, uh, element that we think about a lot. And it certainly does has an impact on your quality of life, which is really important to me, quality of life. And so I appreciate you applying, and going through this process. And as council member Hicks said, um, you know, I will be supporting Mr. Dempsey, since he has been doing, I think, a terrific job, especially as chair. You know how to run a meeting. Um, which I appreciate. Um, But I would encourage you to try again. Um, because I think you both have other things to offer, um, on the EPC, or if there's another commission that you're interested in. I think you 2 would make good additions to our advisory bodies. So thank you.

[00:32:18] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. And, um, council member Kameh.

[00:32:21] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. And apologies. This is a question for colleagues and staff. I forget. So I know we had had a discussion about alternates and not, so we're not discussing that. And I thought it went to CPPC. I don't, I'm just, did it, did it? So I'll probably seek the city clerk's help on this one. My understanding is we would have to make adjustments, in the case, the planning commission, to the charter to allow for an alternate, right? Got it. Okay, thank you. I just wanted a refresher on where we had landed before I went into my comment, so thank you. So, Tonight, we're not going to be talking about alternates. We just talking about for the one position. Just want to echo my colleagues' statements about just, thank you for applying. I appreciate the quality of the applications It gave me, and I think my colleagues a lot to think about. Also, just some things. Um, there's the criteria that you may have seen, what I enjoy about the 3 of you, so you are all from different parts of Mountain View. And that's exactly, I think, the perspectives that we're looking for on our boards and commissions, people representing different neighborhoods, different life experiences. Um, and I, uh, that is what makes, uh, these decisions so important is making sure we're representing not only our perspective, but those throughout the, the community. So I, um, As was mentioned, uh, we do have a tradition of, um, appointing the incumbent. Should they have been doing a good job? I think that one of the things I am thinking about is currently the commission is 7 members with 6 males. And so, that, obviously, that was obviously something I'm thinking about. I did talk to Chair Dempsey about this and how he can encourage more. And hopefully if there are some changes in a couple of weeks, we'll be able to discuss some future appointments and would encourage our other two applicants to apply again. I really appreciated your answers. I appreciated the thoughtfulness on both of your applications. You said very different things, very different perspectives, and gave us a lot to think about. So, thank you.

[00:34:52] Mayor Pat Showalter: Council member Ramos.

[00:34:54] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I echo my colleagues, um, gratitude for those who applied, um, I think this, this was actually a really good, good pool that we had for the EPC this time around. And in very different ways too. So, um, we have our current incumbent, and I, um, although there have been uh, decisions and votes that I've seen, you take over the, your time that I disagree with. I do understood I understood your, um, your thought process on it and you're always good about that. I appreciate it in your answers. Um, your, your, your, uh, your answer on what good land use was, was actually really good. I think that was actually my favorite answer in the entire interviews. Um, I, uh, for uh, Nespan, I really, for both uh, Miss Anne and for Mr. Wolverton. I have a tendency to appreciate engineers just a little bit more than lawyers sometimes. It's a mindset. I have a softer spot for mechanical engineers over environmental engineers, but that's a whole nother thing. Um, I think, um, I think, uh, for Miss Span, the, the experience you have working with other cities is actually a really, really good thing to bring to the table, because even though Mountain View leads, Sometimes it's good to see what other cities have done and really kind of dig into those to have that experience to see where it really went wrong or where it really went right. And the particular cities that you listed were had more resources to go a little bit further ahead sometimes the amount of you can. So we can, we can all learn from those opportunities. Mr. Wolverton, I, as you're answering some of those questions, you ask some questions in those questions or in those answers, and I think there were really good questions to have. And I think once you get those answers to questions, you're going to ask more questions that are also going to be really good. I like how you are digging deep into a lot of these policies and thinking it through. And you're asking, you are on a great path on how you are thinking it through. And I appreciate that a lot. Um, I do agree with a lot of my colleagues, what they've said before, with a tradition of, um, there's a respect toward the incumbency. Um, and I do I do also follow that on a general level. Um, because it also takes time to get them acquainted with how the committee works and getting along with the colleagues. There is a onboarding involved, essentially. But I do appreciate the work you put into this, and I really hope you all apply again, should you not make it. Thank you so much.

[00:37:54] Mayor Pat Showalter: Council member Ramirez.

[00:37:57] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I have a question 1st for staff. So in the event, that unanticipated vacancies are created as a consequence of the election, will the applications submitted be on record or will the applicants who are not selected tonight be required to resubmit?

[00:38:19] Unknown Speaker: No, so if that was to happen, you know, um, we would have to post a notice of vacancy upon either the, um, current commissioner's resignation or their, um, installment onto city council. So once we post a note, as a vacancy, that's 10 business days, if in that time period, we don't receive any other applications, then we would forward the applications of Miss Fam and Mr. Wolverton to the council, for a direct decision, they wouldn't have to come back for a 2nd interview, unless you stipulated otherwise, and they wouldn't have to reapply.

[00:38:59] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay. So thank you. And I hope you keep that in mind. I agree with my colleagues. has been a very strong candidate pool, and I wish we could appoint all three of you. Regrettably, there is only one seat available, although there may be opportunities coming in the near future, and as other members of the council have observed, there are other advisory bodies that you may wish to consider, and I believe the deadline is November 4th, right, for consideration for some of the other, or Did you say November 8th? Okay, my apologies. So that gives you even more time. So I want to echo a couple of concerns and observations made by other members of the council. I agree with council member Kumei. I would like to see greater diversity on the planning commission. And I feel like, you know, that's something I'm sensitive to and I think there's an opportunity to, there are too many men on the city council, for instance. So, I, you know, I, I, sort of see that also with the planning commission. and would encourage you to reapply and help us address that concern. I also appreciate the perspective that engineers can bring to the planning commission, and we heard some really interesting perspectives tonight. And especially, Ms. Pham is a fellow municipal employee. I work for the city of San Jose currently. It's been helpful for me to take a lot of the innovative ideas from a much bigger city and apply them where relevant and applicable here, and then also the city of San Mateo also is engaged in a lot of very interesting activity. So that, notwithstanding, I will also be supporting the incumbent. I agree, it's been the convention to reappoint when an incumbent has been doing a good job and I haven't observed any challenges, although I, you know, we may not agree on everything. I think you are an active participant, you're very thoughtful. You do consider community input very well, which we observe during the housing annulment process. And I hope you will continue to bring the skill set an experience that you've had in your next term. Thank you.

[00:41:32] Mayor Pat Showalter: Council member Abbe Coco.

[00:41:34] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. I had actually had quite a question, follow-up to count some of Ramirez. So if we do get a vacancy due to the election, um, is the member required to resign after the certification of ballots? Or so they can, or they would just roll into the installation on the 14th.

[00:42:05] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Either way, I wouldn't recommend doing any sort of meaningful recruitment over the holidays. That's never been a good outcome for us. So it kind of really doesn't matter when that happens between certification and the installation, if someone wants to resign, we can post it earlier, but we still wouldn't be able to bring anything to you for until January.

[00:42:35] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah. But could we, um, start recruitment after soon after the election, if the if it's pretty clear that recommend it?

[00:42:49] City Clerk Heather Glaser: I would recommend waiting until certification.

[00:42:51] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. Yeah. That would be....

[00:42:56] City Clerk Heather Glaser: And then, um, we would just hold if the 2 individuals who are not selected this evening, um, are interested, we could just hold their applications, not have them reapply, but they would have to most likely come back for an interview if we have more than... If you have more interest, then yeah, you would want to make sure that you have those interviews. Again, it would be up to you whether or not you wanted to invite them back for a 2nd interview, but your policy does say that, you know, if they've interviewed once, they don't need to interview again. So it's up to you. Um, but yeah.

[00:43:33] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, great. Thank you. I don't have any much to add. My colleagues said it all. Most of all, of not all of it. Thank you to the 3 of you for applying. I'm very impressed with all 3 of you and your backgrounds. And yes, I wish we could appoint all 3 of you this evening. Unfortunately, we only have one seat. I think Mr. Dempsey has done, a great job on the EPC. I hear a lot of great, especially this year as chair. I've heard a lot of good compliments. from others. So, um, I will follow our usual tradition and uh, reappoint our incumbent or vote to reimpoint our incumbent. But certainly for Ms. Fann and Mr. Wolverton. either there are other commissions to look at if you're interested, or I most likely, I don't want to, I guess I shouldn't put any bets down yet right now, but they're probably, they'll, you know, be an opening on the EPC fairly soon, so I hope that you will reapply again. And with that. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:44:45] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: And I have a question too, for the clerk. I haven't paid enough attention to remember this, but are the applications for the other commissions? They have different questions, don't they?

[00:45:00] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Yes.

[00:45:01] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, so they would have to make another application for the other...

[00:45:06] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Correct. Yeah, every body has its own application now, so if they would like to apply to multiple bodies, then they would need to submit multiple applications.

[00:45:15] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay, all right. So that's a possibility. All right. So, um, uh, I, too, you know, I've been very impressed with your, um, your resumes, and, um, I enjoyed speaking to, um, Hank and, and, uh, Tina, we didn't, we weren't able to get it together, but, well, perhaps in the future we can. And, um, I, um, I was also really impressed with the amount of homework that you had done to get ready for this interview. And I think that's noteworthy, because there's a lot of homework when you're on one of these advisory boards. So it abodes well, that you would dig in and get very well prepared for the interviews. So I appreciate that. Thank you for doing that. And I would like to, you know, kind of ditto, um, what all my council members... uh, my fellow council members have said, this has been an exceptionally good candidate pool, and that's, that's wonderful, great for the city. Okay, so with that, I think it's time for us to just pack our ballots to the clerk and she'll count them. I don't think we're Yeah, I don't think we're going to need to take a break. You can... look at it pretty quick, and let us know the outcome.

[00:46:58] City Clerk Heather Glaser: All council members voted for Hank Dempsey.

[00:47:02] Mayor Pat Showalter: All right, so with that, um, we will, um, make a recommendation to this city council. to reappoint Mr. Hank Dempsey. Thank you very much for your service thus far, and for all the work that I know that you will do in the next four years. And as we said, we hope that, um, Ms. Pham and Ms. Wolverton will reapply, um, for either EPC and or other, um, uh, boards. With that, um, we come to item five, which is adjournment, the next city council meeting will be held on October 22nd, 2024. This meeting is adjourned at 548. Thank you.

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