Oct. 22, 2024 Joint Meeting of Mountain View City Council and Shoreline Regional Park Community

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Transcript

[00:00:18] Mayor Pat Showalter: Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our closed session. City Attorney Logue. will make a closed session announcement, and then we will welcome public comment on the items listed for closed session.

[00:00:31] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: The Attorney Logue. Good evening, council members. There are 3 items on this evening's closed session agenda. Item 2.one is a conference with legal counsel regarding a liability claim pursuant to government code section 54956.9. The name of the claimant is Pedro Rivera de Leon. Item 2.2 is a conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9. The name of the case is Gonzalez versus County of Santa Clara at all, United States District Court for the Northern District of California, case number 24-00296. And item 2.3 is a conference with legal counsel regarding one item of anticipated litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9 D2.

[00:01:26] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on the closed session items listed on tonight's agenda? If so, please click the raise hand button and zoom or submit a speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in-person speakers 1st and each speaker will have 3 minutes. I don't see any speakers in person. And there are none online. So, the council will now recess to the plaza conference room for closed session, and return to the council chambers at the close to continue the regular session. Thank you.

[00:02:22] Mayor Pat Showalter: Well, good evening, everyone. Welcome to the October 22nd, city council meeting for Mountain View, California. Please rise and join me with the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, liberty and justice, for all. Thank you. Clerk, may we have a roll call?

[00:02:58] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Abbe Koga? Council member Hicks.

[00:03:01] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here.

[00:03:01] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Kameh.

[00:03:03] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Here.

[00:03:03] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Ramirez.

[00:03:04] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[00:03:04] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Coun member Ramos.

[00:03:05] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Yeah.

[00:03:06] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mayor Matachek. Mayor Shalalter?

[00:03:08] Mayor Pat Showalter: Here.

[00:03:08] City Clerk Heather Glaser: You have a Corp?

[00:03:10] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, everyone is here. Great. Thank you for being patient. We had a long, um, closed session, but, um, we're going to get to some fun things this evening. First of all, I am going to update you a little bit about the El Camino Real paving plan. which, um, is something that we all care about. As you, as you've undoubtedly noticed, Caltrans is making great progress on paving El Camino real in Mountain View. As a quick reminder, Caltran started the project with paving the southbound lanes in Palo Alto, beginning at Sandhill Road, and has been working their way towards us to turn around at Sylvan Road in Mountain View, which is just shy of the Sunnyvale border. That's about eight miles of work. A majority of the paving work is done in the South Bend lanes, and the paving work is now continuing in the northbound lanes. From Sylvan Road northward towards Palo Alto. And I think, as we've all noticed, when we drive on the lanes that have been repaved, it's just a wonderful experience comparatively. Once the paving is completed, the striping and other finishing work will begin, and it's really expected in early 2025. It will take a while, and that it also depends on weather conditions. Some of the active transportation improvements that you can look forward to with this project are the protected bike lanes, high visibility crosswalks, and three new pedestrian crossings with hybrid beacons at Bonita Avenue, Crestrew Drive, and Pettus Avenue. So, we're all very excited about that. And so next, we move to item three, which is our presentations. Please note, these are presentations only, so the city council doesn't take action. Public comment occurs after the presentation items. So if you'd like to speak on these items in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. So, the first one is item 3.1. recognition of Tom Myers' 25th anniversary with the community service agency of Mountain View, Los Altos, and Los Altos Hills. Tom, will you please join me at the lectern? This is going to be a long complimation because you've done a lot. Okay. All right. Well, whereas Tom Myers started working at the community services agencies of Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, CSA, on October 25th, 1999, and has led CSA, there were a number of crisis points. Dot Com Bust, The Great Recession, and the COVID 19 pandemic. He oversaw the growth of staff from 12 to more than 30 and has established and grew CSA reserve funds. CFSA serves over 6,000 local residents in need every year, including over 3,000 who use the food and nutrition center to access groceries. Tom rolls up his sleeves and helps out whenever needed, from sorting food in the pantry, to bringing in deliveries, and is deeply empathetic, and skilled at making connections with people from all walks of life. Tom is currently overseeing the renovation of CSA's Sterling Road building. And, whereas Tom's early career included a three year tour of duty in the Peace Corps in Liberia, where he also worked with Liberian friends to form LGBQT social support and HIV education group, volunteered with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, was part of a group which pressured Amnesty International to adopt LGBTQ prisoners, and volunteered with Act Up, the AIDS coalition in unleashed power, And, whereas Tom is a 2001 leadership Mountain View graduate, best class ever, right?

[00:07:21] Unknown Speaker: Yeah.

[00:07:23] Mayor Pat Showalter: His community work included serving on the board of the United Way, Silicon Valley, Chair, the Association of the United Way Agencies, the first Chair of the Human Relations Commission, for the City of Mountain View, past President of the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, Baymek, President of the Mountain View Rotary Club twice, past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce, past Chair of the Emergency Assistance Network of Santa Clara County, part of an American Leadership Forum Cohort, of Nonprofit CEOs working on diversity, inclusion, equity, and leadership in the nonprofit sector. Currently on the board of directors of Hope's Corner, and the board of directors of Alta Housing, a nonprofit developer of Affordable Housing. And, whereas the city and CSA have a long, successful history of working together to serve the community's most vulnerable residents, with CSA serving as a Mountain View safety net provider, of vital, multifacinated services, offering a wide range of programs for residents in need, and, whereas Tom won the 2022 Silicon Valley Business Journal Impact Award, and the 2022 Mountain View Chamber of Commerce, Community Champion, and led CSA to win the 2018 California Assembly District 24, nonprofit of the year. Now, therefore, I, Pat Showalter, mayor of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues, on the city council, to hereby congratulate Tom Myers, on his 25th anniversary, as executive director, and wish him continued success at the community services agency of Mountain View, Los Altos, and Los Altos Hills. Seriously, I don't think the community is really any more indebted to a single nonprofit than CSA. CSA provides help on so many levels to our residents, and they also help us work with other nonprofits. You provide glue in the nonprofit world here. That's really very valuable. So, Tom, would you like to say a few words? And then maybe, maybe we should all come up and have a picture? Okay.

[00:09:36] Tom Myers: All right. Well, thank you, thank you. Mayor Sho Walter. Thank you, council members, and city staff, as well. It is, indeed, a great honor. I didn't know until our current board president, Dan Rich, texted me yesterday that this was happening, and he said, You know, you have to be at the city council meeting tomorrow, and my first thought was, Oh, my God, what's on the agenda? I need to go do some homework. I'm not prepared. But thankfully, it is this. I think everything except my high school GPA is on here. But as a lot of you know, Mountain View is my hometown. And I'm very, very proud of this place. I'm proud of the fact that this place has an organization like CSA, local grassroots, that we are able to provide the services that we provide. I think 25 years, and I'm very proud of the 25 years, but I will tell you it's a labor of love. It's a labor that I feel very satisfied when I go home every night. Today, for example, today, two people had their rent paid. And I can go home and know that I signed those checks that people's rent was paid, and those may be people that will not be homeless and fall through the cracks. This community can be very proud that we started something like CSA back in 1957. because of the work that we all do on it. And so, thank you for this honor. I consider it a great honor. But I will tell you, it's an honor to go to work every day, and it's a privilege to work for a place like CSA. So thank you very much. I' come join us.

[00:11:39] Unknown Speaker: Christian's Christian's got a... Do you have a camera? My heart's got a camera. Oh, heart's got a camera. He's already. Yeah. Okay. You're tall. I guess. I guess I'm. Oops, sorry. I'll slouch. Oops, sorry. One, two, three. All right, thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. think you should get it. Right. Thank you. Okay.

[00:12:53] Mayor Pat Showalter: So the next part of the presentation is always to ask if any members of the public, or, um, members of the council members have, uh, comment. I see two comments. One, Alex Brown. And then after Alex, Virtual, Bruce England. Welcome, Alex.

[00:13:14] Alex Brown: Hey. Tom Rox. Love you, Tom. Thanks.

[00:13:19] Mayor Pat Showalter: All right, okay. And, um, Bruce England? And then we'll come back to council. Hi, Bruce. Welcome. Go ahead. We'll come back to Bruce. Vice Mayor Matachek.

[00:13:42] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: I'm here. Can I speak? Mayor?

[00:13:47] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. Go ahead.

[00:13:50] Bruce England: Okay, yeah, it took a while for the unmute to show up. Uh, I'll be brief, not as brief as Alex. Um, as you all know, there are a lot of different layers of what makes Mountain View work the way it does. It's a very diverse community, when we're proud of it. Um, and the work that Tom and CSA does to keep things working for people who are in need. That's a very important function of what happens in our city. And I just wanted to express my appreciation as a member of the community for all that Tom does and all that CSA does. Thanks.

[00:14:25] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Now, Vice Mayor Manachek.

[00:14:27] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you. I just want to also add my thank you. It's an absolute joy and a pleasure to work with you. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you. Coming by CSA and volunteering once in a while. Maybe now that my term's almost up. I can come by more often. Um, but thank you for all that you do. It's just, um, a cornerstone of who this city is. And I really appreciate all that you've made it. Um, and will continue to make it. Thank you.

[00:15:01] Mayor Pat Showalter: Next, Councilman Robbie Coca.

[00:15:03] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. I, too, just want to offer my congratulations and my thanks to you, Tom, especially during COVID, which nobody ever expected, and we had to quickly rise up and get things together and offer assistance to the community. I'm just so grateful that you are so willing to be a real partner with the city and getting the rent relief program up and running. And, um, that year I was able to go, um, serve the grabbing goal meals at the seniors center. I ended up doing it for 2 years on Tuesdays and really got to see CSA in action. And so just so grateful for all that you do. And I can't not mention our guaranteed basic income program, your willingness to do that and really just, you know, take the lead on a new concept and make it work out. So thank you for everything you do and I'm just really proud to be your classmate in the best class ever for Leadership Mountain View class of 2001. Thanks.

[00:16:08] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, um, council member Ramirez.

[00:16:11] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I agree with each of my colleagues, and only wanted to add, that it's been a tremendous pleasure to work with you, Tom, for the six years I've been on the council. You've been a remarkable thought partner, as council member Abbe Koga mentioned during the pandemic, especially when so many people were an extraordinary need. CSA really stepped up and helped ensure that countless families did not succumb to homelessness. And, as a council member, Abiko also mentioned that you were so essential in our direct financial assistance programs that were really innovative and not possible without CSA's partnership. And I just want to wish you well on your next 25 years with CSA.

[00:17:04] Mayor Pat Showalter: And council member Hicks.

[00:17:06] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I'm just gonna give a second. Thank you. Second to everything my colleagues have said. I won't go on at length, but I will add, I can't believe I've known you for almost 25 years since I first moved to Mountain View, and I took the leadership Mountain View class along with you, and council member Abbe Koga. And who knew 25 years later, we'd still be doing this work. So, yes, my heartfelt thank you to the work you've done over all these years.

[00:17:36] Mayor Pat Showalter: Council member Kameh.

[00:17:38] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you so much. Well, Tom, I feel like, aside from us on council, I think the next person people call is you. So I just wanted to say what inspires me about you, is you show us how to meet the community where they are. And you challenge us to get creative, to find solutions, and the city and CSA have been wonderful partners. And it's definitely a relationship. And I think, um, that's something that we try to model, um, for others, and it's because of you and your leadership of CSA. Um, and I just want to say thank you for that because all of the incredible programs that we're talking about up here on the day is are because you also, um, have been willing to work with us. And if we can't do it we know that you can help us do it. So thank you. Congratulations on 25 years.

[00:18:37] Mayor Pat Showalter: Um, Council member Ramos.

[00:18:40] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I'm just echoing everyone else's thanks. You're gonna get a lot of them for the next week or so. I was very grateful to have worked with you even before I was on council. I was on the board for CSA. But I also, one thing that I would like to highlight is your commitment to bringing up new leaders. You have worked with many people over the years to make sure that they understand how the nonprofit sector works, how our community works, and I think it has shown in the strength of our community. So thank you for that.

[00:19:16] Mayor Pat Showalter: And now our city manager.

[00:19:18] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, Mayor. So, Tom, I just want to thank you on behalf of all of the staff in the organization. Certainly our city manager's office staff that I know you work so closely with in our housing department staff, just a lot of tireless nights and evenings spent not only during COVID, but just over these last few years on so many programs. And I'll let everyone know, I've actually known Tom for about 10 years now. And I'll tell a little story. One of the things that 1st really struck me about Tom when I met him, we started working together on safe parking. And we had this idea where I was learning about it, and Tom said, do you want to meet some of the people with lived experiences? We'll bring him to CSA. And you can learn about what their life is like in Mountain View and the struggles that they may go through. And we had that meeting very quickly. And I was so moved by it and moved by you and how you interacted with the people that you so deeply care about and serve every single day. And you have really brought that forward over all these years, and I hope that you relays the impact that you've made in the community, and a lot of these programs that we have in Mountain View are really do a lot to your hard work and your true partnership with the city, and not only the city council, but our city staff team. So I want to thank you for that and acknowledge just how much we really love and enjoy working with you. So congratulations on an amazing 25 years.

[00:21:03] Unknown Speaker: Okay. That's great. Well, thank you very much. It's really always a pleasure to work with you and learn about what other question I bring to you. And there have been a lot. There'll be more.

[00:21:19] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, so now we're gonna move on to our next presentation. That's about domestic violence, awareness, um, awareness month, and, um, we're happy to be joined this evening by Shabana. And sorry, and the legal advocacy coordinator, Matri, to accept this proclamation. So if you would join me at the dais, we can read it.

[00:21:57] Mayor Pat Showalter: What a lovely dress.

[00:21:58] Unknown Speaker: Thank you.

[00:21:59] Mayor Pat Showalter: Sorry, yeah. Whereas domestic violence... Whereas domestic violence is not limited to any one group, and can take many forms, including physical, emotional, psychological, and economic abuse. And whereas, although progress has been made toward preventing and ending domestic violence, and providing support to survivors and their families, important work remains to be done, and whereas domestic violence programs in California provide essential life saving services for survivors, their children, and communities, and whereas there is a need to provide education, awareness, and understanding of domestic violence, and its causes, and whereas there is a need to support and amplify prevention programs, and community based strategies, to create healthy environments, and decrease the likelihood of perpetration, thereby stopping domestic violence from occurring in the first place. And whereas all survivors deserve access to culturally responsive programs and services, to increase their safety and self sufficiency. Now, therefore, I, Pat Showalter, mayor of Mountain View, along with my colleagues, on the city council, to hereby proclaim the month of October as domestic violence awareness month. So, um, Savannah, would you like to say a few words?

[00:23:25] Shabana Ansari: Sure. I mean, I have a little written something, and I will speak that.

[00:23:29] Unknown Speaker: Sure. Thank you. Can Heather just take a picture quickly for us? Is it okay, Mayor?

[00:23:36] Mayor Pat Showalter: Yeah. Oh, yeah, of course.

[00:23:42] Unknown Speaker: Thank you. Great.

[00:23:52] Shabana Ansari: I don't have a long speech. I promise I'll be quick. Good evening, uh, member council members and everyone here. Thank you so much for adapting the proclamation and pronouncing, once again, October as domestic violence awareness month. My name is Shabana Ansari. I'm a resident of Mountain View. October is nationally commemorated as domestic violence awareness month. Today, I stand here as an advocate for victims and survivors of domestic violence. To recognize domestic violence awareness month. I represent Maitri, an organization devoted to serving victims and survivors optimistic violence since 1991. And I would like to take a few moments to talk about that how it is so pervasive in our homes, cities, state country, and all over the world. one in four women, 24.3%, and one in seven men, 13.8%, between 18 and older, in the U.S. have been the victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Intimate partner violence or domestic violence exist in all communities, irrespective of their culture, religion, sexual orientation, financial status, or immigration realities. Domestic violence is the third leading cause of homelessness among families in the United States. Research also informs that the lasting negative impact on children growing up in the household experiencing and witnessing domestic violence. California has higher rates of domestic violence experienced by both men and women when compared to the national average. There were 103 domestic violence related homicides in California in 2023, which 74 of the fatalities were female, and 29 were male. Domestic violence has a significant economic impact in California, in 2022, the total cost of domestic violence to the state of California was 73.7 billion, about 230 per person in the U.S. Last year, my 3 provided culturally responsive services to over 6, 750 individuals. Organizations around California serve more than 57,000 individuals with life-saving supporting services. The need for comprehensive plan to address domestic violence in our communities is urgent, and we thank the city of mountain view for providing much needed assistance in many areas, as well as requests to step up the effort. I request the council. and its resident to connect and partner with us in preventing domestic violence and facilitating effective intervention methods of if it happens. Here are a few suggestions to consider, create a supportive environment for everyone to seek out information in service related to relationship abuse. Demand curriculum and practice that uplift healthy relationship at every educational level and professional spaces. Enact and support policies that address intersectional approach to addressing domestic violence, homelessness, paquity, reproductive justice, poverty reduction, banning child marriages to name a few. Support funding for domestic violence service providers at the federal states, county and city levels. Rethink law enforcement responses to crisis situation with spatial focus on stopping brutality against people of color and trainings on domestic violence. evaluate and improve language access at city facilities, offer training on cultural responsiveness to various local government employees and agencies, involve non governmental organizations, as thought partners, while planning city, activities, and uplift the voices of the minority groups, wherever possible, as they lack representation in committees, and other policy making spaces. I thank you for your time. Thank you.

[00:28:00] Mayor Pat Showalter: And now, um, do we have any cards, uh, on this, and any comments from council members? Okay, seeing none? Well, thank you so much for coming and bringing this to our attention. It's a very important social issue. Okay. So now we move on to item, uh, we move on to four, the consent calendar. These items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the council wishes to pull an item for individual consideration. If an item is pulled from the consent calendar, it will be considered separately, following the approval of the balance of the consent calendar. If you would like to speak on these items or the next item, oral communications on nonagenda items in person, please submit a blue speaker card now. And it is also our custom, sometimes to not pull an item for the vote but just to comment on it. Council member Hicks.

[00:28:58] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I'm going to pull 4.8, and I'm going to actually pull it. All right. Um... I was planning to talk about one, but I'm not sure if it's 4.8. Just a second. Yeah, I wanted to comment on 4.4. That's the active transportation plan, and, um, uh, I, uh, I got several comments from the public about this, and, um, uh, generate they were really supportive. And the thing that I wanted to share is that this is something that we've been working on a long time. Staff has had a great deal of public outreach. BPAC has been very active. The transportation committee has been very active. So I just wanted to thank everyone for all of their involvement on this and for all of their contributions. It's going to be really helpful for our community.

[00:30:05] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. So with that, um, do... We don't usually have public comment, but we have public comment tonight on this. So we'll start with do we have any council questions first? No? Okay. So we'll start with Serge Bont, and after that, Valerie Fenwick. Oh, wait a minute. You're commenting on 4.8. So wait a second. Valerie, will you talk about, this is more complicated. Valerie, will you please make your comments for 4.4 and 4.9, and then we'll have a comment for 4.8 a little separately.

[00:30:42] Valerie Fenwick: Sounds great. Hi, I'm Valerie Fennick. I am a member of BPAC. I am not speaking for BPAC nor for my employer. I am a 20 plus year resident of the city of Mountain View, and really thrilled on 4.4, specifically, just a huge four comment. This has been, particularly from a pedestrian standpoint. A long time coming. Our pedestrian master plan has been stuck in time. And this is bringing all of this work together. And I think, I just really want to just say, yes, please move that forward. And similarly, with the Shoreline Boulevard Pathway, 4.9. I am just saying, I'm really, I want to just say publicly for myself. I am disappointed. I feel the county fleeced the city of Mountain View for otherwise unusable parcels, but I have great trust in the city staff that they did their best to negotiate the best price for that. And I really hope that council will approve moving this urgently needed project forward. I do the shoreline path. I walk that, probably two to three times a week. The entire length of it is dangerous, broken up, irreparable, and I think this project is really, really important. That's the pathway project. So thank you so much for the council's support for that. Thank you.

[00:32:00] Mayor Pat Showalter: And we have a speaker online. Bruce England. Bruce, is this related to, um, not for 0.4. I mean, 4.8, not 4.8. Go ahead, if it's related, if it's not for...

[00:32:19] Bruce England: Yeah, I just, I had to get the unmute button. It's actually, everything's complicated, because I do want to echo Valerie's comments. I'm not gonna say more than that, but I did want to at least say that. And then I do want to talk about 4.8. So should I just talk now on that?

[00:32:33] Mayor Pat Showalter: No, let's, uh, let's, let's do the motion for the whole, um, the other ones first. So, um, at this point, uh, Ms. Webster, are you gonna talk on other ones, then 4.8?

[00:32:47] Unknown Speaker: Laughs for 4.8 a minute.

[00:32:49] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. So now I need emotion for the remainder of the consent calendar. And a second. Thank you. Council member Ramirez.

[00:33:02] Unknown Speaker: I think there's some things you need to read for us.

[00:33:05] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I will move the balance of the consent calendar, including item 4.1. Adopt an ordinance of the city of Mountain View, amending chapter one, Article one, Section 1.2 of the Mountain View City Code to modify the definition of holiday in authorizing city staff to return directly to city council with a resolution amending Section 8.05 of council policy, D7, governing holiday leave for city employees to be read entitled only further reading waived, and adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, amending Section 8.05 of council policy, D7, personnel, rules, and regulations governing holiday leave for city employees to align with the amendments to mountain Code section 1.2 to be read entitled only for the further reading waived. Item 4.2. Adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View, amending the fiscal year 2024 to 25 budget, appropriating $206,000 into the community development department parking district number two, operating fund for power washing services for the two downtown public parking garages, and implementing various actions of the downtown parking strategy, to be read entitled only further reading waived. Item 4.3, adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View authorizing temporary closure, from parking access of 13 parking spaces within parking lot number two, for 14 consecutive days to occur prior to April 2025 to be read entitled only further reading waived. And that concludes the.

[00:34:34] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you very much. Do we have any discussion of this? Okay, so with that, let's move to a vote. So, the consent calendar, except for item 4.8 passes unanimously. And now we'll talk about 4.8. So council member Hicks.

[00:35:02] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes, thank you. So, several members of the public, some of whom I see in the audience, brought up some comments on 4.8, which is pedestrian mall intersection improvements. The comments that were made were regarding not, instead of the improvements proposed that pedestrians who would be walking on sidewalks would be funneled into the center of the pedestrian mall on Castro Street, when they want to cross the street, and some members of the public have suggested and shown examples of other cities, notably Burlington, Vermont, was one of the ones I was more impressed with, where the funneling doesn't happen, and there are fewer gates and bollards, and there's a more kind of natural flow of pedestrians down the street. So, um, and it also looked like that configuration would be possibly less expensive. So I'm wondering whether I'm proposing entertaining those modifications. We do have, if people were able to look at the council ask written questions, of staff, and there was a question that council asked in written form, regarding changing the layout, and staff said that they could review potential cost savings, expanding the crosswalk, and reducing the number of barriers shown to better align with better align with the current aesthetics of existing barriers. I'm not sure what that means. But anyway, that they could, in fact, do some of those things. And that, although it would delay the project. I think that if it were something that the public, that the public appreciated more, and made a better pedestrian mall and was also less expensive, I would think we could go with what we have for a little while. So this would be a proposal to refer it back to staff and the council transportation committee. And BPack too, sure.

[00:37:33] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, I see, um, uh, acting public works director at Orango standing up, so I think he probably has a comment or two. Welcome.

[00:37:45] Acting Public Works Director: I didn't, uh, thank you for the question, uh, for the comments. Edarango, Acting Clubical Works director. That's consistent with the staff's response to the council question. It's an effort to go back to the concept stage for the Villa and Dana intersections. It's really looking at what concepts do we want to move forward with? As we had, um, staff had developed concepts through the council ad hoc committee, um, to get to this stage. If council, um, wishes we can relook at the concepts for those 2 intersections, go through the, um, BPAC and CTC as you identified, and get some consensus on, um, an approved concept, and then move forward with that.

[00:38:32] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Thank you. Approximately, how long do you think that that would take?

[00:38:42] Acting Public Works Director: Give me one second. Let me look at, um... Well, we had identified a timing in the council report. I just want to review that piece. Intro bed. Come back. So we had originally identified, um, the design of phase one to be completed in fall of 2025. Um, depending on how, um, the, the, the review of the concepts goes through the bicycle pedestrian advisory committee and the council transportation committee. If we can go through that one time, get general consensus, I expect it, um, it could be an additional 4 to 5 months beyond that.

[00:39:33] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, thank you. Now, um, council comments on this, and then we'll go to public comment. Vice Mayor Manachek?

[00:39:45] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Would this then go out to bid again?

[00:39:53] Acting Public Works Director: So, what's in front of you, this evening, is the authorization to enter into a consultant agreement for the design effort. So once we go through the concept design, get by in, then we would develop the actual construction documents, and then that would go out to bid. So it would all move together.

[00:40:17] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: So, um, they contract, is that part of your motion?

[00:40:24] Acting Public Works Director: Say it again, to approve the contract with Kimley Horn, to do the design, right?

[00:40:30] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: So, staff would recommend that council move forward with the action item?

[00:40:34] Acting Public Works Director: Um, and then, um, we have with the additional modification to re look at the concepts for those two intersections. This would allow the design to start, um, and, um, which would be the first order of work would be the concept evaluations.

[00:40:48] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Okay. Okay. That sounds like a good direction, a good set of steps, yes. If it's recommended.

[00:40:55] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: So then, um, my comment is, I am supportive of taking another look at this in these intersections, um, and potentially changing the design, but I would have preferred to have, um, a couple more folks been on. Um, 'cause I've had some concerns in the past, um, with this, um, service provider. And so, for that reason, I'm gonna vote no on this. Thank you.

[00:41:22] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, so, um, any more council comments? Um... Council member Hicks.

[00:41:30] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Well, I can take that as a friendly amendment and change it to that.

[00:41:36] Unknown Speaker: Okay, I will. You will make... no. No. Then they have to...

[00:41:43] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, more... I would like to hear more comments from other people. Compliment... Ramirez.

[00:41:48] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. My concern is, I'm not familiar with the concerns that the vice mayor is raising, but there's no guarantee that going out to bid will result in more favorable outcomes, right? And oftentimes, just given where inflation has been, we might risk an increase in costs if we delay it too much longer. So I'm uncomfortable with the change unless staff says otherwise because the risk is we may end up with the same firm and an escalated cost.

[00:42:24] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, well, I'd like to hear how other what other council members are thinking and what members of the public, I think. Council member Ramos, I thought I saw your name up, and then it went away. Are you interested in mentioning?

[00:42:37] Councilmember Emily Ramos: It was overall the same question that council member Ramirez has. If we choose to go out to bid again, for to pick a new design firm, does that add an additional delay?

[00:42:53] Unknown Speaker: So, um, to give the feedback on how we got with the current, um, design consultant that we are proposing to tonight, um, staff had gone through a, our, um, request for qualifications process at the beginning of this year, um, to get a list of qualified consultants to help, um, expedite processes for projects just like this. We have a civil engineering project, transportation related. We want to be able to move quickly and not having to go out for a full-blown request for proposal. So we have established a list of requests through the request for qualifications. That yielded 10 consultants that we deemed qualified. So we were going to that list and requesting individual proposals from three of them. Um, what yielded from that 3 request was one proposal, um, which was the Kinley Horn. If counsel would like to, for us to go back out to the list and identify other consultants to propose on it. I would expect it would be probably another 3 months to add through that process.

[00:43:59] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Follow question. In addition to 3 months, in addition to the 4 to 5 months for the new design, so a total of 7 months.

[00:44:07] Unknown Speaker: Cumulative, correct, yes. Oh, yeah. And may I also add council memoramos, we may not be guaranteed to have anyone else bid..

[00:44:18] Unknown Speaker: If I can make... One more element that I wanted to add regarding consultants. The consultantists we have, we've been exercising it pretty regularly. So we have a list of consultants that we've been going through. If we go to consultants that we've used before, we want to balance the workload, as the times, you might get a preferred consultant, but it doesn't mean that they will be able to efficiently process our efforts, because they have so much other work happening. So this, the RFQ process was really in an effort to balance the workload through the qualified consultants list.

[00:44:58] Mayor Pat Showalter: I see, um, council member Abbe Koga's name now.

[00:45:02] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. So, uh, just to get a better understanding, you have your bench of 10, um, firms, and so, how do you pick the three? So, is it the balancing of workload, meaning projects that we've provided, or given to these firms in the past, and trying to balance out how many projects we give each one that you came up with the three that you requested?

[00:45:28] Unknown Speaker: Yeah, we try to be fair and equitable to the projects. So from the list. We go through and we ask for proposals from consultants. And then as we go to the next project, we will ask for proposals from a different kind of group of consultants, and we go through and kind of rotate to provide that ability to show that we're being equitable to all the firms that are on the list. given an opportunity for them to bid on projects.

[00:45:54] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: You mentioned something about workloads. So do you also know the workload of these firms to know whether they can actually do the do the project or not?

[00:46:06] Unknown Speaker: We know the workload that we're providing them. We don't know the additional workload at other agencies or the other workload that they have, but we know that it's been impacting their abilities to get through our projects because of the large workload they have.

[00:46:21] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah. I was just curious that the comment is that one out of the three actually providing a proposal, I guess, is me question the likelihood of getting someone else, if we were to go back out, because it sounds like workload for the firms is pretty high. And maybe that's telling a story, as well, that we reached out to three, on a qualified list. And only one kind of provided, so the other two have more work than they can handle, and they don't want to overcommit themselves, and then not be able to deliver on the milestones that we've identified. Well, night of that, I'm fine with the staff recommendation for this evening, but to go back out to the concept. Thank you.

[00:47:06] Mayor Pat Showalter: Council member Hicks?

[00:47:08] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yeah, so having heard from staff and council members, my, uh, my motion will be to go with the recommendation, the staff made to go for redesign, but, but keep the, the same firm.

[00:47:20] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, great. So with that, we'll open the public comment on this. So, again, we're on item 4.8. And if you'd like to make a public comment on 4.8, please come forward. I see, Mr. Bond, coming forward. Welcome.

[00:47:41] Serge: Good evening. My name is Sargebont, I'm a resident in Montanlieu for over 25 years. So when I first saw that proposal, I thought that was kind of backwards. If you look at Castro during COVID, COVID and masks aside, it was actually much better for pedestrians, because we could walk on the sidewalk, in the middle of the streets, and cross Dana and Villa wherever we wanted. We also didn't have to beg or ask permission to cross, because that was truly a priority for pedestrians. So I think we went backwards, some, when we then funneled out people to go on the sidewalks, 'cause the only way to cross right now is from the sidewalks, and we also have to beg to pass permission to cross. But the proposal that was there is to, instead of throwing people out to the sidewalks, it was to fall van in, which still doesn't give you the same freedom that we had during COVID, for walking or crossing wherever we wanted. And it also comes at $2.5 million tag price, in addition to a yet non-identified CIP project, that may delay other things. So, to me, that seems to be going in the wrong way. at a large expense. So I had suggested some alternatives to go back to more to what we had during COVID, where you walk down Castro on the sidewalk or in the middle of the streets, and you cross where your line of travel is, for whatever reason, you chose. I'd like to go to a place where pedestrians also have the right away. So, I had mentioned the example of Burlington, Vermont, where the intersection is just to stop signs, and pretty much cars have to stop until they get the right away. If you, you know, in my hometown of Nice, you know, there is no cross traffic, except during early morning hours for deliveries and things like this. And then pedestrians have pretty much right away all the time. If you want to have signals, I suggest that it should be done backwards, instead of pedestrians having to beg and ask permissions to cross, that should be the cars. So set up some cameras or things like this so that the lights get triggered by the cars, but pedestrians otherwise can just go freely. Thank you. And I support the motion to kind of come up with better designs, and kind of review them before moving forward. Thank you.

[00:50:25] Mayor Pat Showalter: Valerie, welcome back.

[00:50:27] Valerie: Hi there. Again, I am a member of BPAC, but not speaking on behalf of BPAC, nor for my employer, but as a resident of Mountain View, who walks down Castro, a lot. And I also do drive. So I will have a slightly differing opinion than Serge on the current lights. Sensors might be better, but right now, they do turn for pedestrians very, very quickly when you push that button very quickly. You know, when we get to more advance, that would be great, but if anyone lived in the Bay Area in the 1990s and went to San Francisco, particularly Fisherman's Wharf and Barcodero, with the four way stops, with the volume of pedestrians, cars just couldn't ever go. So I do, I'm a little confused by the point of order, it seems council has made their decisions before hearing public comments. It was a little surprising for me, but I will just say, I think, what I'm hearing as a compromise of going forward with this design firm, but asking for them to come up with some other concepts. So it would be great, um, specifically, I think, you know, funnel, if you're going to funnel pedestrians at all, funneling them near our shops and restaurants, um, to our sidewalks, I think, would be a much better plan than into the intersection. In particular, even if we did put the stoplines back further. Cars will come naturally all the way up to the crosswalks and put their noses in, which would make it very unpleasant for any dining opportunities that are near the intersections of those that are being involved. So thank you so much for listening, and I hope that some of these thoughts from the public will still be considered. Thank you.

[00:52:05] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Alex Brown.

[00:52:12] Alex Brown: Hi, friends. I would like to agree with... I think that we should, like, prioritize people, uh, as themselves, not cars that they're in. I think that the people who, uh, whose safety and enjoyment of Castro, like, should be a priority, as opposed to people who are going, like, cutting through it, to get from place to place. That should be the priority. Also, I think that if the firm that we went with isn't flexible enough to redesign around better priorities, doesn't speak well to their quality, and so maybe we shouldn't bid with them in the 1st place. But I think they could do it. Probably. As we'll see you next time, right? Thanks.

[00:52:54] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Okay. So now we're, um, a close public comment. And are there people on? Bruce England. Sorry, we have two virtual speakers. First of all, have Bruce England and then April Webster.

[00:53:13] Bruce England: Thanks, Mayor. I got the mute button faster this time. Okay, so, um, by and large, I agree with what Serge has expressed and his um, ideas about what might be done there. Um, the, And in particular, the part about the signals that during the COVID period when the lights were blinking, it was much better than it is even right now. And the idea of making those intersections, pedestrian focused means not only, in my view, expanding the sidewalk space, totally agree with that, but I don't really got to say, I don't care for the signals at all, but I do like the idea if you're going to keep the signals of setting them to go at different times, maybe allowing more vehicle passage at rush hour times and keeping it all green for the pedestrians at other times or something like that. But, um, creative use of of timing. I'd be just as happy with stop science myself. But, um, anyway, some ideas there too. Um, work with. I also support the motion. In particular, the part about referring this item to CTC and to VPAC to make use of an important advisory body there. Um, and I also, uh, agree with Valerie. It was a little confusing to have counsel comments first. So I would like to ask, just in case, if other council comments might be made in response to some of what has been said from the community. And then lastly, I also agree with Valerie's point about the vehicle stopping points. One thing that I've noticed, if I sit outside of Red Rock as an example, that the cars and the buses and everything are just right there by those tables that you sit at and having vehicles set somewhat away, um, from where people are sitting and, um, mingling and everything while they're queued up for a light or a signal or a stop sign. Um, would be great. So some consideration around that. Would be nice. Thank you.

[00:55:12] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Next speaker is April Webster.

[00:55:18] April Webster: Hi, um, thank you, Mayor. I'd like to echo what Serge had to say and also, um, uh, repeat, you know, echo or support what um, Alex had to say about creating a people for his community. And I'm a little bit confused about the design and, you know, why we're adding barriers and restricting the movement of pedestrians and really funneling them from 3 paths, the 2 sidewalks in the middle lane into a single consolidated one in the center of the street, at intersections. It seems really seems contrary to the idea, um, and definition of a pedestrian mall. And it also seems contrary to the city's goal to create a more, you know, more people for streets, um, and spaces, and also the goal of prioritizing walkability. Um, so in a sense, it seems like an unnecessary also, an unnecessary use of our transportation funds with no really clear use cases or design requirements. I wasn't able to find anything or reason why we would funnel. I don't think it provides any better safety or anything of that nature. Um, and it almost seems like what we have now is better than what is being proposed. And so, you know, um, I fully support, um, going back to the design, um, I, I think it's better to take more time to create, to delay a bit, and create a design that actually works rather than rushing through it and creating a non-people 1st design. Thank you so much. I seed my time.

[00:56:52] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. And the next speaker is Mark F. Mark, are you here?

[00:56:59] Mark F.: I am. I'm going to keep it super short. I think, um, I agree with, uh, my fellow pedestrian friendly speakers. I love driving my Chevy Bolt. I love uh, the driving experience, but if if there's any question, let's defer to pedestrians, I think Castro Sheet should be all people all the time. Um, I would be happy just even not allowing cars to cross Castro Street at all. And that's how strongly I feel that this, let's make this a pedestrian friendly walkway. Let's make this a place where people feel safe, walking with their kids, with their family, um, as they're eating, as they're dining, as they're shopping, um, cars are, I mean, let's be honest, they're dangerous to pedestrians. And let's keep this a super safe place and whatever decision we need to make to do that. Let's prioritize that.

[00:58:00] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I think that's the end of our speakers. Um, public speakers, so we will bring it back uh, to um, the council for um, some emotion and some discussion. So, uh, Council member Hicks.

[00:58:23] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I would move to go with the current firm for the interim pedestrian mall improvements, but to go back for a redesign, to make it, to make the pedestrian crossing, broader, less funneled, and fewer fences and bollards, if it's possible. And they could consider signalization, if necessary. Um, and, uh, then bring it back to the CDC and BPAC. Thank you.

[00:59:03] Mayor Pat Showalter: I think that's clear. And we have a seconder, Council member Ramirez. Do we have anyone who would like to speak, um, to say something in addition to what they heard?

[00:59:13] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I guess the only thing I would say is that I thought the, you know, the concept that having cars come right up to the corner, which is where people are, you know, eating, very near, where people are sitting and eating, it might be nice to have the stop lines move back a little bit from the corner, and just be something to consider. I don't want to change the motion.

[00:59:38] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, um, any more comments? No? Okay, seeing none, then it's time to call for the question and vote. Okay, that passes 6 to 1. Vice Mayor Matachek dissenting. Well, that ends our consent calendar. Thank you, everyone. And so now we move on to item five. That is called oral communications. And this portion of the meeting is reserved for people who wish to address the council on any matter that is not on the agenda tonight. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic within the city council's subject matter jurisdiction for up to three minutes during this session, on this section, and state law prohibits the council from acting on non agenda items. If you would like to speak on this item or on the next item in person. Please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. Would any member of the public joining us virtually, or in person, like to provide a comment on this item? If so, please click the raised hand button in Zoom, or submit a blue speaker card. And I think I just see one person on, um, uh, on Zoom, and that is, uh, Devin Connolly. Welcome, Devin.

[01:01:08] Devin Connolly: Good evening, Mayor Showalter, Vice Mayor Manachek, and honorable council members. My name is Devin Connolly, and I am the president of the Mountain View Wisdom School Board. I'm here tonight to share some updates from the school district and to thank you for your continued partnership. I'd 1st like to thank mayor show Walter again, and assistant mid city manager, Arn, or Andrews, for joining the school board at our meeting last Thursday, where the board voted to accept the city's three-year extension, regarding the shoreline regional park community tax district. This agreement will ensure continuity and funding, while a long-term successor agreement is negotiated. Along with recent actions taken by the school board, including establishing a budget advisory committee, developing a formal vendor approval process, closing out services with or sending notices of cancellation to vendors contracted for leadership coaching and wellness as well as communications, and earlier this evening, appointing Kevin Skelly as interim superintendent, effective October 25th. Accepting the 3 year extension with the city, will maintain our district's focus on providing high quality education, each and every day for our students. We are also looking forward to celebrating the ribbon cutting for the staff and teacher housing project, the 7s, with you on October 29th. Your partnership made this 144 unit affordable housing project possible, and we look forward to celebrating its completion. And finally, I wanted to share that the district is seeking community input for the greening of our school campuses. As we move forward on making our campus open spaces more climate resilient, we recognize that these spaces also serve as public parts, parks outside of the school day. We invite you as council members and all of our neighbors to participating to participate in upcoming community input meetings, to discuss enhancing these school open spaces. You can learn more and register at mvwsd.org slash greening. Thank you.

[01:03:18] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Appreciate you coming and sharing that with us. Um, all right. So I think that It looks like we have another virtual speaker, Mr. Bruce England.

[01:03:33] Bruce England: Thank you, Mayor. Miss England was on Station Drive. Um, just really quickly, I want to encourage council members and anybody listening, if they didn't attend or haven't listened to it to listen or watch the APC meeting from October 16th, and for council members because they talked about them off the Boulevard precise plan visioning, and they also talked about the Builders Remedy project on Fayette Drive. And, um, on the 1st one, Moffat Boulevard, a lot of discussion about potentially expanding the boundaries of that space, um, to include some other properties, but also to go at least up to Highway 85. And I, with the time, when it gets before you, I would like you to consider even going beyond 85 because the trailhead for the Stevens Creek Trail is just beyond 85. And there's also a public works roadway project for bikes on Moffat Boulevard going even beyond 85 up to Clark, I believe. And to just make that precise plan consistent with the public works planned, and to include the trailhead, um, and the crossing to the Stevens Creek Trail across Moffatt, would be good. And on the Fayette Drive project. There was a lot of discussion by ABC members. And I think listening to what they had to say is going to provide a whole lot of value beyond what you'll get in your packet perhaps and in the minutes for their meeting. Just actually listen to it from beginning to end, maybe just listen to the whole thing, the Moffatt Boulevard part. Um, in the builders remedy part. It was a long meeting. But it was very interesting. and very insightful, so I encourage you to listen to it. Thank you.

[01:05:18] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Great suggestions. Okay, so with that, we move on to item six. The study session portion of our meeting, and we have one study session this evening, 6.1. It's the public art strategy study session, and the purpose of this study session is to receive input from the city council on the vision and goals for a public arts strategy in Mountain View, including policies and community engagement. And, um, welcome, uh, vitality, economic vitality manager, John Lang, uh, and, um, community development director, Christian Murdoch, uh, to the dais, and I understand, Kristen Hines is available by Zoom. So thank you. Oh, since right now, we'll have a study set. We'll have the staff presentation whenever you're ready.

[01:06:47] John Lang: Uh, good evening, mayors of uh, mayor and members of council John Lane, economic vitality manager. I am going to turn it over to my colleague, Kirsten Hines, to start this presentation for us, Kirsten.

[01:07:13] Kirsten Hines: Hi, good evening. Can hear me?

[01:07:15] Christian Murdoch: Yes, Christian. Yes, we can hear you.

[01:07:18] Kirsten Hines: Thank you. Good evening, mayor and city council. I'm Kirsten Hines, economic development strategist. Um, I'm sorry I can't be there in person this evening, uh, but just want to give a quick thank you, uh, for your time tonight to discuss or have a study session on the public art strategy. So the purpose of the study session is to receive input on the vision and goals for a public arts strategy, and what policies and programs could be incorporated into one. The presentation tonight will cover research that we've done to date, like potential aspects of a strategy, examples from other cities, and initial considerations for a public art strategy in Mountain View. Public art is exactly how it sounds. It refers to art that's located in public spaces. All of these images are examples of public art, and a couple of which are in Mountain View. So as you can see from these images, public art can take many forms, including but not limited to murals, mosaics, photographs, sculpture, streetscape, interactive art, and more. So the Mountain View pieces. one is on the top left. Um, It is the colorful fencing. It's more of a functional art piece, located on one of at one of Google's offices, and then right below that, um, is at the Ameswell Hotel. So it's the circular light up image. It's more of a focal point that draws you over to their elevator in their lobby. The current efforts around public art in the city of Mountain View are outlined in these 6 public art approaches shown here. Um, so the red categories are orangish color. And those are policies that are adopted by the city. The 2 yellow categories are programs. And then the blue is other efforts. The council policy case or K5. Um, that's the main uh, public art policy in the city that is the percent for public art, um, and it designates that 2% of city construction budgets are to be set aside for public art, uh, for select capital improvement projects. So through this policy, The visual arts committee, uh, they help release call for artists, and then they review proposals and make recommendations uh, for city council's final approval. And we've, uh, the city has commissioned over 40 pieces of public art to be installed throughout the city, through the K5 policy. And then the next policy is uh, the K 6 policy, and this is actually unaccepting donations. It's not directly related to public art, but we have accepted one public art piece, which is the Berlin wall pieces located in front of the Mountain View Public Library. So those were donated to the city through this donation policy. And then land use policies. This is kind of a broad spectrum of policies around public art. The 2030 general plan includes a visual arts goal, and that's a commitment to the visual arts that celebrate the diversity and aspirations of the city. and make art accessible to the entire community. And then there are public art provisions and 5 change areas that are identified in the general plan, and these are 5 different precise plans. So East Wisman, El Camino Rao, North Bay Shore, and San Antonio, they all include public art provisions and each precise plan. And these land use policies have resulted in over 60 public art pieces being commissioned and installed on private property, and that was done privately. And that went to the programs, um, so the center for performing arts exhibit, this is an ongoing annual arts program. The visual arts committee solicits a call for artists, uh, to display art pieces within the Mountain View Center for performing arts. And we do also typically hang up art in the community development department lobby. That'll be on hold during lobby construction, but we'll go back up once it's done. These exhibits last about every, um, they rotate every 6 to 8 weeks. And then other programs include temporary art programs. So, um, for example, the visual arts committee initiated the sidewalk studio program. It was a one time funding opportunity where several traffic signal boxes on city property near downtown were painted by local artists. And then this year, uh, the city put out a call for artists for the Ballard beautification program to paint on safety bullards on Castro Street, and we are currently working through contracts. And then in terms of partnerships and just other efforts that, uh, Mountain View has taken to, uh, um, public art, we've, uh, this, uh, within the last year, the city entered into a memorandum memorandum of understanding with Silicon Valley creates or SV creates their local arts advocacy group supporting art in Silicon Valley. And through this MOU, City staff have participated in municipal arts roundtables where we talk with other city staff working on public art projects. We learn from experts in the public art world. Um, and SV greats has also provided a brief on arts and culture in the region. to the visual arts committee. And then they also help us spread the word about calls for artists. And then we've engaged with another artist's advocacy group called local color. They've, uh, they've also helped us share our open calls for artists to their artist network helping us reach more people. And then with the Mountain View historical association. We have an upcoming event, a recent partnership with them. They invited us to, um, present at a event on the history of public art in Mountain View that's taking place on November 3rd. Um, and that'll be at Google Huddle. It's a free to the public event, um, through the Mountain View Historical Association and, um, both myself and our visual arts committee chair. Susie Murhart, um, will be speaking, um, at this event. This is an image of the public art map. So staff have worked to update this map of public art in Mountain View. It's an interactive map that's available online and it's accessible to the public. The link is in, um, you can find it in the staff report just below the image, um, of in the staff report. Those reflects, um, all of the art pieces that were installed through the council policy K5, um, and any art that, um, that we are aware of that is, um, was installed through um, private, um, on private property. So most of the public art is resulting from the, uh, or most of the art that has resulted from pencil policy K5, um, is located in the east, central, and west portions of the city. Um, and the uh, privately installed pieces are generally located in the northern and southern parts of the city. Um, and this is just largely due to, um, where the private development projects have kind of been focused, um, where these kind of larger office projects have been focused. The existing public art, um, it's mostly been installed as a secondary consideration to other projects being undertaken, uh, like a requirement of public infrastructure projects, um, negotiated through community benefits, or um, as an addition by a developer. In 2017, the city council directed the visual arts committee to develop a strategy to encourage public art and private development, really as a way to create a more systematic approach to how art is being done in the community. And so in 2019, the city retained the services of Barbara Goldstein and Associates to conduct public outreach, and to create an art strategy for public art and private development. So their efforts included discussions with the visual arts committee, analysis of existing policies in Mountain View, and neighboring cities, and they also did public outreach, which economic development manager John Lang will touch on more later in the presentation. Then in March 2020. Um, we all know what happened then, um, city staff and, and Barbara Goldstein and associates were prepared to conduct a study session with the city council at that time, um, on the findings of their work, but, uh, due to the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. And as a result of a shift in staff resources towards business recovery efforts. The study session was put on hold. However, the council priority to encourage public art remained through 2023. So in 2022 then, um, Daff resumed work related to the public arts strategy with the visual arts committee. So with the VAC's work, um, or, um, guidance. We focused on researching, best practice, best practices related to public art efforts, strategies and master plans. Um, and we looked at different uh, types of policies and programs associated with public art. In researching, best practices and other Bay Area jurisdictions. These 5 traditional funding approaches were, um, the most common, commonly used, um, funding approaches for public art. Um, so these policies really help inform, um, artists, developers and community members. Um, and so the 5 traditional funding approaches include art and private development, and in lieu option, um, when a private developer, um, would pay in lieu of putting the art on their property. Uh, percent for art and public projects, a donation or sponsorship policy, and then actively seeking grants, uh, through organizations like the National Endowment for Arts and, um, the Arts Council or California Arts Council. You can see in this table, and how Mountain View's implementation of arts stacks up against our neighbor, neighboring communities. Um, so we've, we've implement 2 of these policies and that is the percent for art and public projects. And then we have an existing donation policy. So an early suggestion around, um, encouraging public art was, um, around percent for art and private development. Um, so percent for art and private development is, it's one of the more common funding mechanisms, um, for public art, um, aside from percent for art and public uh, projects. The percent is usually between about one half to 2% of total construction costs. And then there is typically an accompanying in lieu option, which is a payment made when a private development project chooses not to incorporate public art into a development. I mean, cities can use, uh, or they typically use in loop fees to commission art for other areas, um, or create temporary art programs like, um, like the utility box painting or murals. Um, in some cities add additional stipulations, like a percentage, just not fully used towards public art, um, then the remaining can be paid in lieu. Many of these cities adopted these a few years ago. Um, Each city has, uh, operates it a little bit differently. They designate the type of development projects where the percent for art applies. Um, and it should be noted too with recent changes in state law, uh, as well as some legal cases around uh, this, the city staff and city attorney's office. We'll need to discuss, if this is an option for the city council to explore further. I mean if we do consider something like this. Uh, we'll need to define the types of applicable projects, uh, development projects, um, that this would apply to at a future council meeting. And then with that, um, they'll hand it the, virtually hand the microphone back to economic vitality manager, John Lang, to talk about the less common funding mechanisms.

[01:20:23] Economic Vitality Manager John Lang: Thank you, Kirsten. Um, so, as Kirsten highlighted, one of the predominant ones is percent for art and private development, but there are other funding options available, uh, to support art, if you look to our neighbor to the south in San Jose, they fund their art program through uh, transit occupancy taxes is how they fund their, our program, uh, some communities use admission or amusement fees is another way to fund their projects. A common tool to create safe environments is what's called a property-based improvement district, and these are typically projects that clean downtowns. If you adopt a implementation plan under AP bid, you can actually call out art as a requirement in that and it will also help fund art. There are also communities that actually tax themselves. So the city of Portland actually has an arts income tax associated, and that income tax actually funds, school art programs, and nonprofits. Additional types of funding also include using bond initiative to support art infrastructure. And then, lastly, public private partnerships and grants. In addition to the benchmarking we did around funding, we also looked at types of policies that are very common in art strategies or art master plans. And 3 reoccurred very consistently across different communities. Those 3 were a specific donation policy for art, and this would stipulate the type of art, and where the art can go. Another one was around the maintenance of art, as Kirsten mentioned. The city has over 40 pieces of art in our collection. And what is the long term maintenance and creating a plan around the long term maintenance and sustainability of those 40 art pieces, and as we continue to develop more art in this community. And lastly, removal of public art, there are times where art actually gets ruined or damaged by natural elements or people. There could be safety reasons you need to move art. And then, lastly, sometimes art doesn't necessarily align with cultural values or norms anymore and art needs to be removed. So a common policy you see throughout communities is a removal of art policy. And of course, we benchmark to our neighbors, maintenance policies and removal policies that you can see, how our neighbors approach their public art programs. And then in terms of the work of the VAC, the VAC, as Kirsten mentioned, has been having conversations around public art for the better part of 5 years now, and that really started in 2019. So as part of that effort and creating a North Star, they drafted a vision statement. And that vision statement reads, the creation of diverse public art enriches Mountain View's innovative and creative culture, enhances the vibrancy of our diverse community and transforms Mountain View into an art destination. Once again, this being a vision statement that they drafted as the North Star for public art and mountain view. The VAC has also been very active in trying to develop goals for art. And much of this work was drafted from public engagement that both occurred in 2019 and 2023, and I will expand upon this momentarily. The 2 draft goals that they've identified are cultivate a vibrant civic art culture, which builds community, reflects mountain views heritage, and diversity, and then foster placemaking, and identity to support economic development, and enhance mountain views livability. I touched on the outreach that has occurred. So, um, Kristen alluded to this, uh, back under the original workplan guidance, uh, the city retained the services of Barbara Goldstein and associates to help start to do some community engagement and understand what the community would like to see in art. And they held 3 different workshops, and that is attachment number 2 in the packet, if you'd like to view the actual detail of that engagement. But as part of that process, That is what led to the early development of goals by the VAC under that time in 2019, 2020. Subsequently, based upon the working meetings that the VAC has, staff and VAC members outreach to the old Mountain View neighborhood, had a booth at the Art and Wine Festival, and did a working session with the youth advisory committee seeking feedback on the vision and goals around public art, and at a very high level summary, combining all of that. Effectively, it was more art and more opportunities for art for youth. I would love to see more interactive art and a greater diversity or variety of art. And then finally, in moving forward with an art strategy, certainly a greater community engagement. So that leads us today in this study session. So, we are looking to incorporate feedback and direction from council on the things we've presented and give us a little more clarity on the things you would like to see focused on a public art strategy. We would definitely like to do greater community engagement and engage the community in a much broader way on a public arts strategy. We also look to use and leverage the VAC meetings to have those continuing dialogues on this process. We hope to come back to council at late summer 2025 based upon the direction we hear this evening, and with that, we have 3 questions for council consideration tonight. The 1st one being what feedback or changes does council have to the draft vision statement and goals prepared by the visual arts committee that will help guide staff's work? Question two. Does council agree that the elements and policies in table 2? So this was the matrix of funding mechanisms should be included in a public art strategy for Mountain View. Is there anything not listed in the table that should be included or explored? And then three, what specific outcomes are most important to achieve with public a public arts strategy? For example, should the strategy focus on providing public art in areas of the city that experience less development, or have fewer public facilities where art would, where we could actually create under the, where we could create art under this policy? That concludes staff's presentation. We're happy to clarify any questions and certainly seek your feedback to the 3 questions. Thank you.

[01:27:56] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. And since this is a study session, we start with public input. And so if any member of the public joining us virtually or in person, would like to provide comment on this item. Um, please come forward and, uh, put together a blue, um, speaker card and we'll take in-person speakers first. If you're on Zoom, raise your hand, and we'll call on you next. So it looks like, in the list I have, in front of me, the first speaker would be Trenton Hill. Welcome, Trenton.

[01:28:31] Trenton Hill: Good evening, council members, and mayor, thank you for having me. My name's Trenton Hill, and I've been a Mountain View resident here for 14 years, and previous to that, I had worked in this community serving the youth in a nonprofit capacity, and so I am deeply vested here since I was a teenager, and I was born and raised in Sunnyvale. I also happen to be here today also as somebody that daylights as the public art administrator for the city of Sunnyvale. And as a resident, I'm here to speak on the, obviously, you know the importance, but I'm trying to come to you to express the urgency, um, into support all of these in terms of funding sources. I'd like to also thank Kimbra and John, Christian, and especially Kirsten, for the presentations. Staff do not know I'm here. I am here on my own accord. Many of them I have not spoken with directly about public art at all. And so I'm here to voice my support for all of their work. They are extremely on point. They're headed in the right direction. And so all of discussion that's taking place this evening is exactly where you guys need to be. When you come back to this decision making next summer, that's where the urgency to make sure you guys are putting your money where your mouth is. It's really easy to support art. It's really easy to say it's great. It's really easy to say it benefits the community, but are you going to financially support public art in Mountain View? Are you going to put the right policies and resources behind it to make all of the things that are being presented to you as success? Staff have done, including the consultants who are nationally renowned, have done a great job collecting input from the community, and please make their voices be heard, support their programs, beautifier community. As it was shared tonight, art is a destination. you know Mountain View has $1000000 public art installations in its capacities. You guys do because you venture to Google Land. But most of us do not. And they can't get up. They're a $1000000 world award-winning artists here in our backyards and nobody can get to them. Art needs to be in our community and be accessible to everybody. I really appreciate you guys doing that and urge you, as you're having your discussions, to keep in the back of your minds. One day, you're going to have to 1st decision to fund these opportunities and I hope and support that you will do that. Not only in creative things, but also in staff resources is really important and having dedicated staff that their sole focus is community programs and public art. Thank you.

[01:30:56] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Next speaker is Jesse Cupp.

[01:31:02] Jesse Cupp: Hello. I'm Jesse Cupp, Mountain View, citizen, and I'm just speaking on behalf of myself tonight. Um, so I want to kind of stress the importance of, um, two points that I think it's important to have, um, increased funding from a variety of sources, um, to have an effective public art strategy. And I saw a lot of great options mentioned, that I just wanted to bring up. There's also the general fund. And, um, I believe the VAC currently gets 5000 a year from that. And if that number were increased and flexible, that would be very helpful in promoting public art, and it doesn't come from any specific, you know, TOT or percent for art and private development or anything like that. So if the funding is flexible, and can roll over from year to year, that's very important, and being able to build up over time, and and put that art where it needs to go. And the 2nd point is the importance of permanent dedicated staff. Um, if we have staff dedicated solely to public art in Mountain View, they can focus on grant writing, public art events, programs, contracts, installation of new artwork, all that kind of stuff, and they wouldn't get um, sidetracked. As Kirsten mentioned during COVID-19, economic development had other priorities. Understandably, they had to shift away from public art, and then some things like the, um, sidewalk studio, um, pilot program, which was actually intended to continue, fell through and has not yet been restarted. And meanwhile, if you look at communities with dedicated public art staff, such as Palo Alto, they were able to continue drink COVID to do things like code art festival, put up murals, do interactive art defense for their community, and they didn't miss a step because they were adequately staffed. And that would be great for men. Thank you.

[01:32:45] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Thank you. And virtually, we have Bruce England. Welcome, welcome back, Bruce.

[01:33:00] Bruce England: Just got my unmute. Thank you, Mayor. Bruce England, Wisman Station Drive. Yeah, a couple of things. that I have certainly talked to the Visual Arts Committee about a number of occasions. The two points I want to make are that our public art should reflect what the community stands for, and that is covered, I think, pretty well in the first draft goal. Obviously, what the community stands for is not one vision. There are a lot of people in Mountain View, and they have different backgrounds and different priorities and things like that. But in any case, the art should reflect that sort of conglomeration of what we all think of mountain view as being. So that when people come to Mountain View, they really have a sense of our identity and not just seeing art that could be anywhere or anywhere else, whether it's good art or not, it really does need to represent Mountain View. And highlighting that is important. And then the 2nd point that I don't see, in the documentation so far, is prioritizing use of natural materials that can readily be handled sustainably at end of life, because everything that we create does have an end of life. It's not just that it's damaged, or if it's inappropriate, it just, everything is gonna have an end of life, and you need to be able to return it back to its essential element so that it can become something else later on. So that means that plastic and electronics and things like that should not be prioritized as part of public art in my opinion. Now, creating sustainable art does not mean that it's something that's gonna fall apart in a year. You can make things robust, but just have a vision for what the end of life is. Manufacturers are doing this now in their green policies. We should be able to do that with our public art in Mountain View, too. Thanks.

[01:34:46] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Mark F. Mark?

[01:34:52] Mark F.: Yes. Hello? Sorry, I can't be there in person. Um, I wanted to speak in, um, in support of public art, I think, Mountain View is a great vibrant community. I love living here, and I think that we are, I don't want to say we're falling behind in terms of other cities, but I see other cities doing such a great job with their public arts. Los Altos in particular, that I think we can do better. I think part of it is just the public funding. Um, having someone on staff devoted to the effort. I agree with what Jesse said about the priorities there. But at the same time, I think there's a great opportunity for a public, private partnership. Um, I think one of the opportunities we could do is, is perhaps, make it a little bit easier for someone who wants to put art and their private land to do so. If I have a building in downtown Mountain View and I want to put a mirror on the side of it. Um, what if we remove or um, limit the permitting process? So make it so that, you know, as long as there's not any profanity, as long as there's not any pornography, like, go for it. You don't need to apply, you don't need to, um, go through hoops and hurdles and wait for the city staff to, to, you know, uh, give a rubber stamp. Just go for it. And I think that would allow us a huge opportunity to make a more interesting, vibrant, um, diverse, uh, uh, place with artwork, and, and also free up the city staff from, from a lot of other work that I'm sure they're busy with as well. So, uh, smoothing that process, I think, hopefully will be a, I'd like, I'd like to see that be a priority of the city as well going for, for artwork. Thank you very much.

[01:36:49] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. No, that was it. So, um, I'll bring it back to the council for, um, questions and comments. Um, Should we go with questions? Let's go with questions. Council member Hicks.

[01:37:19] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Well, I have a question, and I think this may be for our city attorney, and you can tell me whether this is, um, too high a level of detail, and I should just shelve it for now. Um, but, you know, when I talked to various people about, uh, public art, um, some of, some of what people talked to was about the level of bureaucracy, which, um, you know, maybe we can cut down on, some things are permits and so forth, are appropriate, maybe some could be streamlined, but in particular, somebody talked about a contractor license requirement for artists. That's a new thing that I'm asking you so that, oh, or maybe I'm asking you. Um, so I believe this is, I'm not on top of this, but, um, not my area, but, uh, this may be something coming from the state, and some people are really afraid, you know, artists don't have contractor licenses. So what can we do to not turn this into a just hold to everything kind of situation?

[01:38:28] Senior Assistant City Attorney Matash Bakta: Thank you, Council member Hicks, and city council, Matash Bakta, senior assistant city attorney. So, this is a very complex topic, so I'm going to speak at a very high level. Essentially, about 8 or 9 months ago, a local jurisdiction in the Bay Area received a letter from the state contractors licensing board. advising that local jurisdiction that certain kinds of public art, murals, or other installations, utility boxes, and so on, were subject to its regulations that required that contract be executed with a licensed and bonded contractor. Historically, that was not the practice for public art, because artists, customarily, do not have contractors' licenses. And for other kinds of tradesmen who work under a general contractor, they are conventional employees of the contractor, or they have their own separate bond with the state. So they're able to bid on projects that way. Artists, however, because their margins are generally small, and they might have a variety of different kinds of materials and creations they're working on, don't quite fit into that conventional mold. And for a long time, they were not considered to be covered by these regulations and statutes. We have been in discussions with other cities in the region because this is affecting the entire state. Every city is affected by this letter, and we're trying to devise an adequate solution to the problem. There does not appear to be a clear one at this juncture. However, it does appear, that because it is affecting everyone, there is a lot of momentum to do something about it. So at this time, that's the high level overview I can provide for you.

[01:40:13] Mayor Pat Showalter: So it sounds like, for the purposes of this study session, you'll just continue to study this and bring it back when it comes to us in 2025, or at some other point, because this is kind of a detail. Or with collaboration with other city attorneys, if we come up with another solution, we can discuss it with staff, and then it can return as appropriate to the council. City Manager McCarthy?

[01:40:37] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, Council member Hicks and Mayor. So just to provide a little more context to what our senior assistant city attorney just mentioned, this has really impacted us as it recently came up when we are trying to do our ballard beautification program, where we have quite a number of artists that we were going to work with, to basically paint the ballards, um, downtown. And then this issue came up right in the middle of us starting that project. And so we've been really trying to work through this for quite a number of months now. So not only is it being discussed among the city, um, attorneys, but, uh, city managers are also discussing it, and it is, um, it's a it's a sticky issue now. We're trying to figure out how to move through it and see if there's creative solutions. But for now, we're kind of in this holding pattern. Uh, we will be looking at whether they're could be a legislative fix for this. So that's something that we've talked about as a staff team. Um, but to your bigger question, we will try and get some resolve to this, hopefully much sooner than next year, because it's impacting some of the work we want to do right now. Thank you.

[01:41:57] Mayor Pat Showalter: Are you through with your questions?

[01:41:59] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[01:42:00] Mayor Pat Showalter: All right. Who else has questions? Council member Ramos.

[01:42:06] Councilmember Emily Ramos: This is more not necessarily high level, but like, hypothetically, say there is a wall somewhere downtown. Like some business has a blank wall. Someone wants to paint a mural. What is the process to do they have to get that approved by the city? Is it like the business as well and they could do whatever they want with it? What is the procedure moving forward on that?

[01:42:31] Unknown Speaker: Thank you for the question. So, um, as was alluded to uh, the public comment, um, doing a mural on a private property does require a minor design review permit. It is probably the lowest entry point in terms of a permit that basically talks about what you're doing on your building. It gets reviewed. I'm trying to recall the fee off the top of my head. I think it's $174. Um, but it goes through a review process and the review process is not uh, looking at it from a necessary content per se, except when it's, um, there's some free speech issues there, but obviously it can't be a billboard. So if someone is going to paint an ad that is very different. So there is a little bit of a review process that is undertaken and that's through a design review permit.

[01:43:28] Community Development Director Christian Murdoch: Good evening, council, Community Development Director, Christian Murdoch. In addition, I think the mural example is sort of one type of art that you could imagine being installed. There are other types of art, you know, sculptures, other types of panel installations. And so that review process from the city to require a permit also provides an opportunity for staff to engage with our building staff to make sure code compliance issues aren't encountered in terms of the way the art's installed on the building or covering a required exit window, for example. So there is more to this than just a bureaucratic process associated with creating art. There can be public health and safety concerns as well, depending on the nature of the installation.

[01:44:11] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Do you have an estimated time frame on how long that would actually take?

[01:44:18] Community Development Director Christian Murdoch: So, uh, so, if we're talking kind of the lowest barrier, um, I'll say truly just a mural paint, right? Um, and not getting into a potential fixture issue, our typical design review process is a 30 day process. And so, when you start getting into something that might be affixed to the building, it may be a little bit longer process as the building team would actually need to review any anchoring issues or things of that nature. The other aspect of it is depending on where it is on the property, there may need to be an excavation or an encroachment. So if someone needs to put scaffolding on a sidewalk, to paint on a building, that does require another layer of review. So it can be, sometimes it can be very easy, and then depending on where it's located, and once again, what the art might be, what the art may be, it may trigger a few other things. So obviously scaffolding, if you're putting it in the public right away to access a private property, that does require some public works review. Um, that can be a very quick review, but it does need to be done, ensuring that the public has safe access when there's stuff in the middle of the right of way or in the sidewalk.

[01:45:41] Mayor Pat Showalter: All right, thank you. Vice, mayor, mad a check?

[01:45:46] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So I had a few questions, but you answered them all during the presentation. But I was wondering if this new rule impacts the ribbons that would be painted on Castro, the street itself. Is that also impacting that?

[01:46:04] Unknown Speaker: That particular project because that is actually a public works bid project. It's following all the not going to use the right terminal, legal terminology. It's following the rules because it is a contracted bid to paint. So that is not an issue due to the way we went about procuring the contractor. And it is a contractor that's going to paint it. is not an artist.

[01:46:29] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Okay, thank you.

[01:46:33] Mayor Pat Showalter: City manager McCarthy?

[01:46:35] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, mayor and council member Mattachek, and I may need to ask our assistant public works director to provide clarification about timing. So we were intending to start the striping of Castro Street pretty soon, and I believe now because of the potential for poor weather like last year. We're gonna put it off a little bit just to make sure that we don't start it. And then something happens, or we don't start it, and we have to put it off for a while. So I'd ask Mr. Orango to provide some context into what we're thinking. Timing wise, just so that council is aware of what the plans are.

[01:47:13] Acting Public Works Director Ed Arango: Thank you for the comment. Again, Edorango, Acting Polot Works director. Mr. Link, do you know the current schedule for the art painting?

[01:47:25] Mr. Link: I do. Thank you for the question. It is actually anticipated to be early springtime just based upon the weather consideration. So, um, we had envisioned to have it happen, um, a little sooner, but given we're entering into the time of year where it's very unknown, what the weather's gonna be, uh, we've elected to do it in early springtime. So I believe it is April is what we're looking at, if I remember correctly.

[01:47:56] Acting Public Works Director Ed Arango: Thank you for the answering that. The, um, when we were, um, initiating the repaving work on Castro Street as part of this Castro Street repaving project. Um, it was the paving work really is dependent on kind of weather and, um, Warmer weather is more consistent with the ability to do that type of work. Painting is really reliable, reliant on the wet weather, as in, if it's wet, the contract is really campaign. But if it's dry, it might take a little longer to paint, but they can actually do it. So, um, sounds like the schedule is gonna be in April, which, um, by that time, hopefully, that our wet weather has passed, um, and it's just finding some dry days to, um, perform the work. Thank you.

[01:48:49] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, I have a couple of questions. Um, one is a, you know, we're, it seems like in this, in the public art we currently have, it's primarily physical art. It's not performance art, performance art is really in the performing arts center, with exceptions that are run by the recreation department. For instance, we have the civic center, you know, music. That's the kind of art. And, um, but I was thinking more of performance art, like, um, sidewalk painting and, um, activities that we might have for children. And I remember in the past, we have done some of that. Is that a regular part of the VAC program, or where does that fall?

[01:49:41] Unknown Speaker: That is historically not been within the domain of the VAC. I believe that is in our Sister Department of Community Services Department would have led those efforts, but that has not typically been within the domain. And what I understand going back historically. We talked about a little bit in the presentation, we have done the signal box artwork there, have done some different receptions in the CPA for artists, but that has really been the extent of the artist engagement. I would also maybe put this out there. When we talk about art, obviously there's performance art. And when we participate in SV creates these world's blend. So we have representatives from the performing arts committee attend the SV creates meetings because there is this blend between the visual arts, as well as performing arts, and there's a lot of synergy there. But a lot of these art master plans that we've come across also have components of other programming. So right now, the resources and the way our program is designed for visual arts, it's tied to capital improvement projects. And that is what funds the art investments in Mountain View today. So once again, if we were to explore this more in the world of VAC, we would need to, I think, either go after grants or some other funding mechanism to support these activations, but you typically see these activations in bigger programming, whether it be arts education, art activation, things of that.

[01:51:28] Mayor Pat Showalter: Well, we used to have every spring, I think it was, before COVID, for maybe 8 or 10 years, a chalk artist, come and do it outside of the library. And it might have even been a library program. I honestly don't know. But it was really fun to watch. And, um, uh, they would, um, create a chalk drawing that was maybe, you know, eight feet in diameter. they were really skilled. So, um, you know, people would just stop and kind of gawk, and then there were lots of pictures that were taken. It was just a lot of fun. And then I also, we didn't mention, you didn't mention CSMA, community school of music and art, which is an important art institution in our community. And I, um, I wondered, do we have an ongoing relation, does the city have an ongoing relationship with them in terms of art programming for the VAC? Specifically through the VAC?

[01:52:34] Unknown Speaker: No. A lot of these efforts and partnerships are with other divisions or departments in the city, but as more of a formal relationship with the VAC, that doesn't currently exist.

[01:52:47] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, so the idea for a public art strategy, is that going to... I mean, it seems like we can, we can, um, make that a little bigger now, if we so desire. We don't have to just keep it tied to capital improvement projects anymore.

[01:53:07] Unknown Speaker: Correct. So this is really trying to understand, does it stay really focused on capital improvement projects, or is there a desire amongst council, to want to think a little more globally around how to implement other art programs, whether they be slightly big or slightly small. There's a lot, they're small art little pop-ups that can be done. There's a range of things that can be done. What we're really seeking from council to night is some of that either direction or guidance of, we'd really like to see what are the available opportunities. As I mentioned, some programs have art education built into the work that they do around the arts. So that's obviously something that could be suggested and incorporated in. So there are lots of possibilities here.

[01:53:57] Public Speaker: Okay, great. Well, I just want to put in a plug for the sidewalk art drawing. It was really delightful. And I also think art pop ups could be a really wonderful way to fill some of the vacancies downtown for short terms.

[01:54:15] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. So, with that, we've had public comment. And we've had questions. So it would be appropriate now for us to go through the council questions. There are three of them. And it looks like council member Ramos would like to go first. And, um, I think, and we probably work fine to just answer all three.

[01:54:42] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Yeah.

[01:54:43] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. So take it away.

[01:54:45] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right, ripping off the Band Aid. Um, let's see. In the first question, what feedback or changes does the council have to draft the vision statement and goals prepared by the visual arts committee? I actually really like the draft vision statement. Um, I think when we think about overall the public art that we want, it is, uh, the key words are in our draft goals, placemaking, um, and that it, essentially, if someone takes a photo, essentially, in front of one of a public art structure in Mountain View, I kind of want people to know, yeah, that's Mountain View, um, on a basic level. So that is kind of how I'm viewing our overall goals. And I want to integrated with other plans. For example, if there is possible integration, with our economic vitality strategy. I think there's room there. We also want to be mindful. We had a case, uh, way back, um, where there was an art project that had LED lights, and people had concerns about how it would integrate with dark skies, uh, of possible dark skies ornaments that we would be looking up. So I would love to get that kind of out of the way as we look at our public art strategy, to have that essentially integrated in. And if possible, have, depending on where the art is, have it integrated with the nature of the area where it is placed. I also would love integration of it. and just like blending it with all our other projects. art could work here and art could work here and art can work here. And the other one is, as we're looking at our historical plaque program that we were looking at with our historical preservation policy. Um, that would be, uh, that's actually one of the easiest things I could see with art. I don't really have much of a art connoisseur vibe to me at all. Um, so, but I love the stories that usually come with the art and how it integrates that way. That's what I can easily understand better. In terms of elements in uh, projects in question two. Um, I, I, I would love us to have a maintenance policy and the excess, the removal policy. The one that kind of comes to mind when there was talk about if a piece of art does not reflect the cultural values, I work in downtown San Jose, and I get on to 87, there used to be a statue there that is now like removed due to the controversial nature of it. Um, and that was a public art thing. Um, I would love to have a policy on sometimes community values change. And what maybe seem okay now. We over time and a historical view lens may not be okay anymore. So we should be, we should have a policy in place too so that we could adapt to that. Um, Let's see. Other, we already have a donation policy, percentage charts. Art and private development. I'm actually curious on what my colleagues view on that. I am more open to it in commercial development. I'm concerned about residential development. Um, Uh, let's see. I do want an art strategy master plan. Um, and I think that covers it for table two. I am curious. When I 1st read the emission amusement fee part, I was like, are we like charging fees to go inside Mountain View, because that would have been really interesting. Um, but I do like that idea. We do have some entertainment events, but they're usually tied to our, um, our center for performing arts. That's my primary admission item, ticket item that I see here in Mountain View. But I also would be happy to have that be waived in terms of low income access to art. Um, so if we do have something like that, that's, I would love to have that integrated in there. Um, specific outcomes you most want to achieve with a public art strategy. Primarily, I just want it for place making as something to really define the identity, not just of the city of mountain view, but our individual, not necessarily neighbors, but areas inside a mountain view. Like, you can start to see like downtown is an area in mountain view. Um, San Antonio is kind of an area in Mountain View. The Wisman area is an area in Mountain View. Something also that's defining for that too, I think, would be really nice and very good to share with our community and our cultural history and our what defines us. Um, And I guess the question is, uh, oh, providing public arts scenarias that experience less uh, private development or have fewer, fewer public facilities where art would be created under current policy. Um I think art can be anywhere. One example that I also think about, this is also San Jose, so bear with me, they did this cute little light, um, art installation under an overpass. I don't know if it's, it's, um, yeah. And I think that's that's great. Like, it's an overpass. But it's art. Um, so, like, where we have those opportunities. I think, um, I believe the, uh, in the public comments, there was talk of a permanent dedicated staff for public art and of a dedicated funding source. I don't know if they actually said that, but I think that was kind of implied, and having that funding source roll over year over year if it wasn't fully used, so that you could have put it all together in big projects. So I threw a bunch of stuff there and I'm curious what my other colleagues, I think. Thank you.

[02:01:26] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, next is Vice Mayor Manachek.

[02:01:29] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: Thank you. I am really happy we are talking about this. Um, I really like public art and um, take every opportunity I can when I'm at other cities to check out their art. Um, I like that, um, Stanford actually has as part of their Stanford app, a section on art, and they've got a lot of art, and, um, I have not seen all of it yet. It takes a while to cover that whole campus, but, um, I that kind of, um, inspired me to think more about art in Mountain View, and how I'd like people to have a similar experience here, um, as they can have at Stanford. Um, in terms of the specific questions. The vision statement, I like the words that are there, I would just kind of put them in a different order, because to me, a vision statement describes the end result. It's what we're shooting for. It's the picture we want to paint of sort of the end state of all of our efforts. And so, I would flip things around a little bit and say, Mountain View is an art destination that, with diverse public art that enriches the city's innovative and creative culture and enhances the vibrancy and economic vitality of our diverse community. So, same words just kind of in a different order, but it paints the picture of what the city should be, or the art in the city should be. And then in terms of the goals, I've always, when I've worked with goals, use the rule of thumb, that they have to be measurable, and they have to have some sort of time commitment to them, and be fairly specific. so that you know whether or not you're reaching your goals. And the ones, the draft goals, I thought were too general for me. I don't know if we'd be reaching them or not, and I do want to know. I want, like, milestones and tangible things we're shooting for. Um, I did not, um, come up with a list of goals because I thought that should be something the VAC should do. But I do want them to be measurable and time based. And I can think of some, like, if you had a map, and you see there's sections of the city that don't have any public art. You know, one goal could be within the next five years, we want two pieces of art in this part of town. And then we're working toward that goal. Question two. I love the table. Thank you for putting that together, it was very clear. And I'm supportive of all of the elements that are on that table. Um, I have watched some of the VAC meetings when they were talking about some of those items, and, um, I would not have thought of having a policy about decommissioning artwork, but, um, that was a really interesting discussion, and I see that it's really useful. So, thanks for having that in there. Um, Question three. Uh, I wanna make sure we have art throughout the city. I think every part of town deserves to have things like that that people can enjoy. Um, and they are kind of, uh, in some parts of town kind of, um, close together. Whereas I'd like to make sure they're spread throughout the city. So then when you're running around Mountain View to see all of our art, you see all of our city. I also think it's very important to have diversity in the type of art. And that can be along so many different lines, like cultural diversity, uh, functional art versus standalone art, um, the topic diversity, um, art incorporated into buildings, um, art incorporated into other structures, the style of art, modern art, that kind of stuff. There's so many different ways art can be diverse. And I would like to see that throughout our community. I know I always take the opportunity to show developers when they want to talk about their project, how they can incorporate art into what they're proposing. And I often show them art that's built into a building. Palo Alto has some of that, and I think is really nice. As well as, you know, I've seen pictures where even a brick wall can be really interesting. Um, like on the edge or a, um, a handrail. can be artistic. Um, so I'm always showing those pictures to them. Let's see, how many of those? We'll see how many of those come to fruition. But, again, a lot of diversity. The one thing I have been concerned about, I think the council has kind of a citywide view. But sometimes when we ask the VAC to choose art, I'm not sure they're looking at the entire city, or they're not thinking about that. And so, I kind of feel bad sometimes when it comes to counsel, and we say, Oh, well, we have too much of that in the city, and they say, Oh, well, we were trying to diversify it, you know, among the parks or something. So I want to make sure we're looking at the entire city, and I'm wondering, is that something the VAC? Like, would all the art go through the VAC? Or would we have a dedicated staff person that is taking a citywide view? Because I think that's really important. And so if not everything's coming to council, then I think we need to make sure it's either the VAC looking citywide, or we have a dedicated staff person looking citywide. Um, While I love, you know, birds. Um, we have a lot of art around birds. So we need some diversity. And yes, the wildlife in our art. And again, I also think the same thing when it comes to organizations that we might work with. I want to make sure somebody that's got the background, the professional experience in art is working with them, um, to make sure what they might be doing in our city, if it's not going through the VAC or a dedicated person, um, is what we want it to be. And let's see, what else? Um, I think that's it for now. Thanks.

[02:08:44] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you, council member Hicks.

[02:08:48] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Thank you. So I want to start out by saying, um, just overall, I think this is very important. Um, that, uh, that as people, uh, as our cities evolving, all cities are evolving, and as people increasingly, work from home and shop, uh, through shop online, um, many parts of our city that used to be office and shopping areas, not just our city, other cities as well, are becoming entertainment districts. So, um, the arts component, the public arts component of what we do in various areas, whether it's our downtown Moffat, uh, North Bayshore, East Swisman, village centers. I think that's an important draw. And, in fact, that was one of my big takeaways when I was mayor and met with other mayors. You know, a lot of cities were talking... A lot of the mayors I talked to were talking about that. You know, whether it was Santa Clara, the city of Santa Clara, saying, They don't have a downtown anymore, but they're gonna put in a major pedestrian oriented arts and entertainment area, or whether it's Sunnyvale, which we had gentlemen from Sunnyvale, really capitalizing on that, in their new downtown. Palo Alto, I guess, has two or three art specific staff members. So, I just, you know, as we move through the next several decades, I want to make sure that we kind of, I don't know, keep up with the Joneses, that we are not falling behind. in terms of the way we develop. So I do think, I guess, council member Ramos brought this up, both economic vitality and place making. You know, I think we want to keep up with our surrounding cities, do best practices, and I think this is becoming an essential element of cities. So that's kind of reflected in the staff report. I'm not disagreeing with anyone, but that's the way I think one of the ways I think about this. I also think that it's one that art, along with other things, you know, green spaces and so forth, are some of the things you do for people's well being. You know, I want cities to be attractive places that people want to live in. I don't want people to say it's a concrete jungle, and I want to move to the suburbs. So, I think this is a part of that. So, that said, I think that that is reflected in the vision. I liked the rewording that council, that the vice mayor, came up with, and, um, so I don't need to say more about that. You know, I also like the suggestion to send the goals back to the visual arts committee for and staff for a little more measurable and time basicness. So that's question number one. For question number two, which is what we think about the elements and policies in the big table. You know, I really appreciated the table. I like the benchmarking with other cities. I agree with everything. But I would highlight, in particular, that we need diverse funding sources. I think that's one of the main, I think other council members have said that, but I think that's one of the main things, for me, because the percent, for art, in private, non public, uh, developments, that, um, you know, that could be uh, legally vulnerable. So I would like to make sure, when we see this again, that there, that some other funding sources, whether they be the various other ones that have been mentioned tonight, the, uh, transadocupancy tax, admissions or amusement fee, I should have asked that my questions. I don't really know what that is. exactly where that fee is coming from. I like the suggestion a percent of the general fund, or not percent, a few bucks from the general fund, and the ability to roll over whatever we get, and I'm sure they're more possible revenue sources, but that's an important one to me. And then the third question, what outcomes are most important? So, for me, one of the most important outcomes, and is the, like, an art coordinator, to have somebody overseeing, um, sort of specific to this and the professional, professional nature of public art. So that's why other people have other council members have suggested that. Um, I think council member Ramos. And, uh, also, um, I became aware that the visual arts committee has a subcommittee that's been working on a kind of more fleshed out public arts strategy than was in our staff report. And I got a hold of that and looked through it. And there were a lot of good things in it. I'm not gonna, like, name all the bullet points and all the, describe all the multiple pages. But I'm hoping that that can come back to us, because there were a lot of good ideas in it, and I would like the, um, the subcommittee or the whole committee to continue to work on that, and that we would, that the full council would be able to see all those ideas. Um, and then, um, I agree with things other people have said, aren't throughout the city, um, diversity in art types. The vice mayor said one thing that's also important to me, which is professional oversight, of, you know, if they're any, um, volunteers or members of the public working with, uh, working on public art, I want to make sure there's professional oversight, so that it is distributed throughout the city, it's not all in one place, it's not... They're not being directed to inappropriate, like painting the front of a historic building, or they're probably other, or focusing on one area, maybe the downtown, the detriment of, you know, maybe not looking at Moffatt, or not looking at some other places where, where, um, that are lacking in art. Let me see if I liked things people have said about materiality and meshing with nature and history, um, and I think those are, I think those are my main points. Thank you.

[02:15:54] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Okay, um, Council member, come A.

[02:15:58] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thanks, Mayor. Well, I want to echo and share the excitement about looking at this tonight. I think it's really exciting. Um, and I'll just go straight into the question. So for question one, I'm comfortable with the direction we're going with the vision statement and the goals. I didn't write down the vice mayor's tweaks, but I agree with what she said, and I think a word that I felt missing from the goals and the statement was the word engage. I really feel like the public art should engage with the community, catch the eye. So I'd love for that to find its way into either the vision or the goals. For number two, for the table, I'm comfortable with the direction we're going in with the table. The only thing that I thought not listed, or that we could consider, was partnerships, you know, how do we leverage support with partnerships, whether that be with local nonprofits or artists? I think the mayor was talking about CSMA. I think that might be something we could include in the table, especially as we're trying to address some issues like cost. Would those collaborations be a way to, um, bring something maybe even greater working with them than alone? Um, and then for, um, question three, I think, you know, the specific outcome, I'm most hoping to achieve with the with the strategy, at least the strategy part is that there's some guiding principles. I think over the years on EPC and on council. We've talked about parks or projects, things that felt one off, and I'm really looking for, yeah, a set of guiding principles where we can look, and everything, it can be like a home base. So I think that's what I'm hoping the vision and the goals will put forward. Um, a specific example I'm thinking about was most recently at CTC when we were talking about the um, the transit center and the proposal for the public art at the transit center. Um, and trying to make sure, um, as we're looking at different locations. Um, the type of art in those locations for the transit center, it's going to be, um, much more visible and heavily trafficked than perhaps a community park. And really, I think taking that into a account with the type of maybe submissions that we're seeing or what gets forwarded onto council, um, is helpful. And I think another, um, area that, um, I've liked is when sites can pay homage to the history of the location. So, um, I'm thinking Wyndott Park, um, and the, the art that we have there, right?

[02:19:19] Unknown Speaker: Yes, the chickens.

[02:19:21] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Um, and then the other with the with the owls and the bees, um, I think that was fun. Yeah. So I think that those are some things to think about. Mountain View has such a rich history. We have our historical association. We have our collaboration with the library. I think, um, those people are always curious about learning more about the city that they, um, live in. And I think that's where I was talking about the engagement. Sometimes if the local art reflects the history, It's just one other really way way for them to learn about Mountain View. And then I agree with the comments of the variety of elements. Um, I think, mixed metals, et cetera. I'm looking for, I think some variety there. I don't know if it extends to LED lights. But I do think there's some interesting things that I've been seeing, you know, in San Jose Airport, they have some contraption when you look up, and it's affected by, I think, the weather, yes. So I think moving in that direction would keep us, I think, as council member Hicks was mentioning Up with the Joneses, if we look at various elements. So thank you.

[02:20:44] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. And now, Council member Abbe Coca.

[02:20:48] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor, and thank you to staff for bringing this forward. I'm really appreciate the chance to look at art in a more holistic perspective. So, um, this is really interesting um, and exciting. I do, um, with the questions. Yeah, I appreciate vice swears, like, you came up with the mission statement. I actually think it's great. So I would totally support going with that. And I do, I agree with you about the goals. I would like to see them more concrete and measurable. So I think why Spice Mayor talked about like having some numbers, you know, how many pieces of art and specific areas of the city, should we be, you know, trying to striving to achieve? And I don't, we probably would have to do a survey 1st of the entire city to do those types of accounts. But I think that would be, um, you know, more concrete and, um, I think we just need to take that next level in the next step. In terms of the table, I definitely support all of the items in particular. I was thinking that the in Luffy would enable us to spread the art around. Um, you know, I appreciate with the, you know, public projects, having the art on the site, but, um, yeah, I think, right, it's all sort of random, but in terms of what we get is based on what kind of projects we get. and development projects we get and if we allow for an in-loo fee, then perhaps we can, um, might actually increase the amount of art in areas, neighborhoods that are deficient. So I thought that I thought that was a great option to have. Also, the maintenance policy, as that was something of interest, because I was thinking about one of the earlier art pieces that I remember dedicating, and it's over in Shoreline Park, and it's the birds, the metal birds, and they're looking a little tired, frankly. And then I think about the Berlin Wall and the glass is still shattered. So I was been, you know, wondering when we're gonna repair, repair that. So I would like for us to look at maintenance and repair and whatnot so that we can preserve these art projects for as long as we can, um, as well as decommissioning, um, some projects as they become maybe obsolete or, um, not with the times. I, in terms of funding, uh, I definitely think we should look at grants, foundations, um, as much as this is important, you know, I, and I'm leaving, so it's for the future councils to discuss further, but we are, you know, not really in the best outlook in terms of our economy or it's just uncertain. And as much as this is important, I think we have to put this in the context of all of the other needs we have in the city. And, you know, we've had requests for increasing staffing in other departments too. And so as much as I would, you know, love to in a perfect world, have a dedicated person, staff person, to do this. I would just, you know, leave it up to the city manager and the next council to look at priorities and what the city needs really are and then prioritize this accordingly. So I think looking for outside funding is important. Of course, I understand that takes staff work too, to apply for grants, but again, I would just leave that to the future council to prioritize. Um, a few things that I've kind of encountered over time. One is my older daughter is an artist and she's always looking for opportunities to display her art. And I've always, you know, in other cities, we have art galleries and found it curious that Mountain View, we don't really have art galleries. I know we keep talking about pop-ups in the storefronts downtown and I was thinking, was there a way that we can, you know, do a pop-up art gallery in one of those spaces? And, or, yeah, and figure out how to do that maybe even more permanently, to allow artists a place to be able to showcase their art more. And then I would really, and then I was thinking about how a promotion, and I remembered when I was mayor, I think the 1st time, we did a downtown art walk. I remember, I think we prioritized art that year, but I think there's like simple ways like that that we can, you know, do more promotions. And so I would, you know, encourage our mayor or future mayors to look at that or doing some kind of program. to be able to showcase the art that we have. Um, and I'm really looking for uh, ways to, um, get more community engagement. So, you know, I appreciate this, but I feel like it, and I don't know if this is the way it is in a lot of cities or not, but it does feel a little like city heavy, and I would like to see more community participation. So, um, and example, uh, a couple of weekends ago, I participated in a program in San Jose, uh, in it's actually a church that has taken on, um, art projects, beautification projects. So we painted a mural on a bridge, um, in this, in, and, like, us, you know, community folks did the background painting, so anybody could do it. It was outlined. An artist came in and did the outlining, and then she came in and filled in the rest of it. But it was, you know, a fun day, and it got a lot of people out there. I think there were several 100 people who came out to do it. And so it was, and, you know, it was beautiful when it was done. So I think, again, we can do things like that to, you know, promote more art, promote community involvement. And then actually also just, you know, have volunteer help so it could reduce the cost. So, I would love to look at what we can do in that realm. And then finally, I think someone mentioned it. But, um, we had the historic plaque, uh, project, and I specifically, I'm thinking about the plaque for China, the, you know, the original Chinatown and Mountain View, but maybe we can incorporate art into that, that program. Was that, let's see, what was the 3rd question? Did I answer it all? Yes. I think I did. Thank you.

[02:28:26] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Council member Ramirez, would you like to take a turn?

[02:28:33] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. One of the nice things about going last or near last is all of my colleagues have shared many good thoughts that I largely support. So I don't have too much to add. Um, so, uh, I agree strongly with, uh, I'm not gonna respond in any particular order. The suggestion to search for dedicated sources of revenue. I think the terms used in the staff report were opportunistic and ad hoc, that is currently the strategy we use to secure public art, and a dedicated source of funding can reduce that and guarantee, as several of my colleagues have said, that we can allow for public art in areas of the city that don't currently enjoy that opportunity. I am somewhat agnostic on the source of funding. I'd like the idea of exploring several of the ideas that were included in the staff report. Some of them are probably just not realistic or feasible, because they may require. So the income tax idea. Probably a little bit more challenging for us to pursue. But, you know, if we end up increasing the TOT someday, you know, maybe allocating a percent someday could be a source of revenue ongoing that could help us achieve some of these goals. So I don't want to specify too much other than a broad exploration and returning to counsel with qualitative analysis of this is pretty achievable and can be done expeditiously and these ideas are harder to execute and maybe not worthy of pursuing. I also feel that the council does a lot of stuff. Um, and I sometimes resent having to go through staff reports about things like proving visual art, not because I don't care or, you know, don't have no interest, but, um, I feel like some of these things we can safely delegate to authorities like the visual arts committee. I don't know anything about visual art. I studied music. And I don't understand visual art. I trust the folks that we appoint who have technical expertise on the matter to tell me what makes sense. Um, you know, I, giving a budget and some strong guardrails through a policy makes sense, and just having the visual art, uh, visual arts committee and staff figure out for projects within a certain, um, range of or certain cost. I'd be comfortable with that, and I think that should be something that should be explored as part of the public art strategy. Same thing with dedicated art staff. I know you're busy, John. You have a lot of stuff to do on your list, right? The economic vitality strategy, chief among them, right? And so is it worth your time doing this? I mean, it's not that it's unimportant. It's just, I have a strong preference that you work on other things, you know? So if it's within budget, if it's something that, you know, with a dedicated source of funding that we identify could allow for, you know, an art person or someone who does artwork halftime, you know, and maybe the other half of their time is spent on other economic vitality, strategy, execution items, I think that'd be worth exploration to. Aside from that, so comfortable with everything that staff has suggested be included within the art strategy. We've talked about without naming them, Thomas Fallon and Christopher Columbus, people that we are no longer desiring to put into statue form, in prominent locations of our cities. So having a strategy to remove that kind of art makes sense. I appreciate the suggestion to make sure that maintenance is a component of that, as it should be for every capital improvement that we pursue. And then the vision statement and the goals, I think, are good. And I agree always with the suggestion that our goals be measurable and otherwise quantitative. So whatever that might look like, I'm open to suggestions. But those are my thoughts.

[02:33:13] Mayor Pat Showalter: you. Thank you for sharing all that. Okay, so I get to be last. It's one of the joys of being the mayor. And hopefully I can be last and sum up a little bit. Vision statement and goals. I, um, I think you've heard loud and clear from everybody, and I certainly concur that this is a good vision statement, basically, and um, but we would like that some measurable goals, um, that we could, you know, I'll say, I think also, you know, goals kind of, especially measurable goals, they sort of function as deadlines, you know, and they're very, um, they're very good for spurring people to get to action. So, I think their valuable, they're very productive, as well as telling you what you've done. So I like that. I do have some addition, in addition to table two, as my colleague, council member Kame said, I think we need to add a column on partnerships, and that could be things like CSMA, it could be private, public partnerships, all sorts of possibilities. And then another one, I think, we need to have a column on, how do we want to use volunteers? And I think council member Abi Koga really brought that up when she talked about engaging people in art. People really enjoy making arts, and, um, uh, sometimes we call it crafts, but anyway, I think that there's a great deal of pleasure in that. And it's also something that's really good for our mental health. And, um, it's kind of, you know, the other side of the tech brain that we have a lot of around here. And it's really important to have a balance for that in our community. So, I think the use of volunteers is really important. Another thing I wanted to reiterate, is the need for a dedicated source of funding. I think that's a really good idea. There were quite a few suggestions in here. I don't really have, um, strong... I think Grant should certainly be one of them, but I also feel like one of them should be, um, uh, something that we can, you know, we can count on, like, a TOT or something like that. I think that's, you know, a great idea, but certainly open to suggestions. I'm sure there are lots of suggestions. I do think that we should have dedicated staff on art. I'm just of the opinion that, um, if it's really not on somebody's work plan or somebody's job, the chances are it doesn't get done, or it doesn't get done nearly as expeditiously as we would like it to be. And also, I think that there's a great deal of expertise involved in art, and also in sort of curating art. We're not really gonna be the, you know, the person who is the artistic director, or even the VAC there. They're not making the art. They're being the curator. And that's a profession. So, I think that having somebody on our staff with those skills is a really good idea. But that's not my job. That's the city manager's job, so I just want to plant that seed. And I think it would be a good idea. And, um, then the other thing I wanted to mention is, I, too, heard a presentation about the subcommittee that's been working on the VAC, and it seems like they've made really good progress, and they're going in the right direction. So I just wanted to mention that. And, um, then, um, people have mentioned place making. And to me, that's one of the things I think of first. I just can remember on college campuses, before we had cell phones, talking about, oh, we'll meet at XYZ statue, or we'll meet by the mural, or something like that. And everybody knew what they meant, and it was, you know, it's good. And... And then the other thing I wanted to bring up is my trip last summer to Tacoma. I went up there for the National League of City summer meeting, and I didn't know, but Tacoma is actually quite an art center. Ed Shagouli is from there. And, um, they took us on an art walk. And they had several pieces that were just kind of interesting when you looked at them. But when you read the plaque, they were really kind of heart wrenching because they represented a historical story. For instance, there was this bronze cart that was filled with all these things that kind of looked like bricks. And I thought, well, you know, this is interesting. It's by a port. You know, it demonstrates, you know, that they're taking things to this port. And, of course, that's one interpretation of it. But what that really was, when you read the plaque was, it was the story of many of the early Chinese immigrants that came to build the railroads and the port, and they left their families, and they wanted to be buried in China. So these were literally shipments back of these little boxes of these remains. And so, I mean, I'm never gonna forget that. It was just such a, you know, such a gripping story. And so, um, I would hope that there will be some stories that we can tell about mountain view through, you know, artistic methods that are really, really pretty amazing. I mean, for instance, I love that silicon piece that we have in the North in San Antonio. That's, you know, that's, yeah, I mean, it's a very, we're Silicon Valley, and we have this big molecule of silicon. It's perfect. Love it. Then the other thing I thought was interesting was the concept of using sustainable materials. And I think that that is something that I know in restoration efforts, I've seen, really pretty weavings used as retaining walls and, you know, various things that are kind of surprising, but actually quite beautiful, and do make a great statement from a place making point of view. So I think there's a, you know, there's a huge amount of stuff that could be involved in this that probably would be too much, but, but just that it should be kind of a big tent. And it should include placemaking, performance art. The idea that we are the curators. The city is the curators of the art here. or some things, and that also that if we really want to do this, well, we have to have somebody on staff whose job it is professionally to do that. Okay, so, with that, I think everybody's had a chance to talk, and there's been a lot of commonality to you feel, like, we need to take any straw poles or anything, or do you feel like you have the information that you need? I think there's been consistent themes in all the questions. Definitely heard loud and clear, you know, in general alignment with the vision, and tweaking the goals, making it measurable, more specific, as it relates to table 2 and the funding, really, like a lot of them like the options, maybe rank what options could work best in this community, and explore some other options, adding a few other pieces that were recommended in terms of exploring partnerships and other things like that nature. And then the kind of bigger catch-all question about other specifics around art. So I feel like we've captured a lot of the sediment from council, feeling very grounded and appreciate the feedback from council. Okay.

[02:41:42] Mayor Pat Showalter: Oh, wait, we meant? Counseling for Hicks?

[02:41:53] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Oh, um, what about the idea of dedicated staff? Most people have mentioned that?

[02:41:58] Mayor Pat Showalter: Yes, that shows up in four places, so... Okay. We do have that. All right, great. Okay. And now, honorary council member McCarthy.

[02:42:13] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you, Mayor. So, well, first, I want to thank counsel for the great discussion that you all had. This has been a subject I think that we have been seeking to bring forward for quite a long time. So I'm glad that we're finally at this point. And I think that we have a lot of really great opportunities to look at doing some new things. And this is really going to help build on the mountain view of tomorrow and what we're really trying to do in the future. And then, lastly, I just wanted to put a plug in for an amazing art program that the city does participate in, which is through our fabulous Stevenson elementary, which has an arts focus, um, sessions at once in the fall and once in the spring. And for those of you who don't know, the entire elementary school, essentially, like I mentioned once in the fall, once in the spring, every student is assigned a different art medium that they participate in, starting in kindergarten through 5th grade. And it's everything from uh, print work to photography, to sewing, weaving, um, painting, dance movement. It's just a variety of different types of art. And they come in display, everything that the children have done twice a year in the rotunda of our city hall. So I just wanted to put a plug-in that maybe we can also add something to this list about engaging children in the community with what we're thinking about for our public art strategy because that's just a fantastic element of Stevenson elementary, and I'm so happy that the city can also participate in that. So I just want to put that plug in as well, as part of this. Thank you.

[02:44:03] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Okay, so I think that brings us to the end of, um, item six, and does the council want to make a brief, um, we have three more things? I don't think they're, one of them will be a little long, but not too long. Should we take a break or should we just keep going?

[02:44:23] Unknown Speaker: Power through. Power through.

[02:44:24] Mayor Pat Showalter: All right. But we have vote. Is it past 10?

[02:44:28] Unknown Speaker: Not yet.

[02:44:29] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. Well, since we're at a stopping place, let's just go ahead and vote to go past 10, do I have a motion to go past 10?

[02:44:40] Unknown Speaker: Second?

[02:44:41] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Vice mayor Manachek?

[02:44:46] Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak: No,

[02:44:46] Mayor Pat Showalter: okay. All right. Okay. With that? Let's have a vote. It passes five to two, and I didn't, I think it was, um, council member, uh, Ramirez, and I council member Avekoke voted against, but, um, they, uh, we'll be fast, guys. Okay, so let's get to seven, new business. 7.1 Cowpurst Contract Amendment for all unrepresented police managers. Human Resources Director Maxine Gulo will present the item. Welcome. And if you would like to speak on this item in person. Please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. Thank you. All right.

[02:45:46] Human Resources Director Maxine Gulo: Good evening, Mayor Vice Mayor and Council. I'm returning on behalf of human resources to continue the process to amend the cost share for unrepresented police managers. You may recall unrepresented police manager employees, contribute a total cost share, which is .65% higher, than the cost share contributed by represented sworn employees. In order to reduce the unrepresented police manager's cost share. A contract amendment must be initiated with Cal Purs in compliance with government code 20516. There are three steps required by Calpurs to implement this change, the first of which was completed on September 10th, with city council's adoption of a resolution, outlining the intended employee contributions. I am here before you with the second step of three steps required by Kel Purse. Tonight's item is adoption of a resolution of intention to approve a contract amendment, which will incorporate the employee contributions as intended, as well as the introduction of an ordinance authorizing said amendment. Following city council adoption of the resolution and ordinance, staff will wait, the Calpurs require 20 days, and will return before you with the recommendation to adopt the final ordinance on November 12th. Based on this timeline, the effective date of the ordinance will be December 12, 2024. And the changes in the member contributions will be effective beginning December 22, 2024. This concludes my presentation. Thank you.

[02:47:32] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Do we have any council questions on this? Okay, seeing none will go to public comment. Is there any public comment? Okay, we're going to zip through that, and we'll bring it back for deliberation and emotion. We have a motion from Council member, and a 2nd from Council member, Abbe Koga. Is there any discussion of the motion? Saying none? It's time to vote.

[02:48:03] Unknown Speaker: Yep.

[02:48:04] Mayor Pat Showalter: Ah, there's, you have to read it.

[02:48:06] Unknown Speaker: Sorry, I was

[02:48:07] Mayor Pat Showalter: No, no problem. No attention.

[02:48:09] Unknown Speaker: Adopt a resolution of intention to prove an amendment to the contract between the Board of Administration, California Public Employees Retirement System, and the city council of the city in Mountain View for all unrepresented police managers to be read entitled only for their reading waived. And introduce. I'm sorry, and introduce an ordinance of the city of Mountain View authorizing an amendment to the contract between the city council of the city of Mountain View and the Board of Administration of the California Public Employees Retirement System to be read entitled only for the reading waived and set a 2nd reading for November 12, 2024. Thank you very much.

[02:48:49] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, so I think now that we've heard the motion. Any questions? No? All right, so let's vote. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you. All right. So with that, we can move on to item eight, which is a public hearing, we have two items under this this evening. The first one is related to downtown business improvement areas, and allocation of 2025 business improvement area revenues. Council member Abi Koka. Do you have an announcement to make?

[02:49:31] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, thank you, Mayor. I am recusing myself from participating in any discussioner. determination about the downtown business improvement areas, one and two, due to the proximity of personal residents to both improvement areas. Thank you.

[02:49:46] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Council member Hicks, do you have an announcement to make?

[02:49:50] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes, I'm also recusing myself from participating in the discussion about the downtown business. Improvement areas, one and two, because of the proximity of my residence to both improvement areas. Thank you.

[02:50:04] Mayor Pat Showalter: So you get to take a little break. And, um, so, welcome back. Economic vitality manager, John Lang, here to present the item. And if you would like to speak on this item, in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. Thank you.

[02:50:25] Economic Vitality Manager John Lang: Good afternoon, Mayor, members of council, John Lang, Economic Vitality Manager, I have just a few brief remarks. Tonight, we are holding the second public hearing in the annual renewal process for the downtown business improvement areas. The 1st meeting on September 24th, 2024 was to review and preliminarily approved the BIAs. There are 2 BIAs. BIA number one includes all businesses along Castro Street, and the side streets, and BIA number 2 includes just the businesses within the 100, 20300 blocks. of Castro Street. The business improvement area assessments are used to used for specific programming and services to support downtown businesses. Any changes to the areas including fees, fee structure, boundaries require a majority vote by the downtown businesses. In the annual report prepared for the DBA, by the Chamber of Commerce, the projected revenues are approximately $45,000. Tonight, there are three recommendations for city council consideration. resolutions confirming the annual report and leaving an annual assessment in BIA number one and number two for calendar 2025 authorized the city manager to allocate the 2025 revenues from BIA's number one and number two to the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce to fund a disbursement agreement with Mountain View Chamber of Commerce to accomplish the purposes of the areas. This includes staff's comments and available for questions. Thank you very much.

[02:52:09] Mayor Pat Showalter: All right, so does the council have any questions at this time? I don't see any. So, would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person, like to provide comment on this item? Um... Saying none?

[02:52:32] Unknown Speaker: No virtual speakers.

[02:52:34] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. So, I'll bring it back to council for a motion. We have a motion from Council member Ramos, and a 2nd from Council member Kamei. Is there anything you need to read?

[02:52:50] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Yes, I am. yeah I move to adopt a resolution of the city council, the city of Mountain View, confirming the annual report of the downtown Mountain View Business Improvement Area, number one, and living, the annual benefit assessments for calendar year 2025 to be read, entitled only for the reading waived, and adopt the resolution of city council, the city of Mountain View, confirming the annual report of the downtown Mountain View Business Improvement Area, number 2, and living, the annual benefit assessment for calendar year 2025 to be read, entitled only further reading waived. .

[02:53:26] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you very much. And also, I see that the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce is here. Thank you, being for being here in case we had questions. I appreciate that. Okay, so we... We... Does your motion include? Yeah, does your does your motion include the 3rd the staff recommendation as well?

[02:54:03] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I moved the staff recommendation.

[02:54:05] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay, excellent. All right. Okay. So with that, are there any more questions related to this? No? Then it's time to vote. Um, so the motion passes um, 5 to 2 to recusals, and, um, please invite, um, Margaret, uh, Council member Abbe Koga and Council member Hicks back? Can they hear us?

[02:54:44] Unknown Speaker: Yeah.

[02:54:47] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. So now we move on to one I'm very excited to hear about, 8.2. The building reach code updates, phase one, electrical prewiring and recycled water. Our assistant community development director, Lindsay Hagen, will present the item, and she's joined at the dais by Assistant Public Works director, Lisa Al. If anybody would like to speak on this item in person, Please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. Thank you, staff.

[02:55:35] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Good evening, Mayor, uh, show Walter and council members. I'm Lindsay Hagan, Assistant Community Development Director, and I'm here tonight with Lisa Al, our assistant public works director, to present to the council, the item before you, the building reach code phase one. We also have available, if there are any technical questions, our consultant, Taylor Taylor from TRC companies as well. Um, to provide a little background of how we got to tonight's meeting. So earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, affirmed their ruling on the California Restaurant Association's lawsuit. The lawsuit was against the city of Berkeley's prohibition on gas, natural gas appliances and infrastructures and buildings. This ruling greatly impacted how local cities in our region were implementing their reach coats. in terms of discouraging the use of natural gas. In response to that ruling in April of this year, the city suspended the portions of our code related to the prohibition of installing natural gas appliances. And in April and May of this year, staff met with the council sustainability committee to discuss options for how we could continue encouraging electrification in our local building code. In May, CSC provided a recommendation to counsel for staff to proceed with a two phased approach to updating our reach codes, which council endorsed in June of this year. Phase one, which was, you know, is to be done this year, includes adding electrical pre-wiring, um, using our existing reach code thresholds. And so this is the item before you tonight. Phase 2 is to occur next year and includes adding an energy performance approach, as well as expanding our reach code as part of the 2025 triannual building code update, as well as including evaluating lower thresholds for encouraging electrification and zoning incentives as part of that. So since June, staff has been working with Silicon Valley clean energy and TRC companies to actually draft the ordinance that's in front of you. Before I sort of dive into what, um, you know, the particular proposal is, I do want to briefly describe, um, what we're using this term electrical prewiring, what it really means. So really, we're talking about installing all the electrical components from the service panel to the installed natural gas or propane appliance within a building. So that includes installing all the electrical lines and conduits, installing any receptacle or outlet, labeling the voltage, dedicating space on your service panel, and a label for that future electric appliance, providing adequate interior or exterior space for a future electric appliance and planning for a future electric appliance in the actual construction drawings that are submitted. Um, it's, uh, sort of the main idea behind electric prewiring is really, um, installing all the electrical infrastructure, uh, and putting it in place to make it that much easier to swap from a natural gas, you know, appliance to an electrical one pretty easily. So for the type of projects that are subject to, um, our reach code requirements or really talking about brand new construction, as well as what I've what we sort of refer to as major renovations. So existing buildings, where they're doing, they're modifying up to 50% of the structural components of that building. So these are pretty substantial improvements. And um, so really investing in electrical infrastructure at that time makes a lot of sense for the type of work that's being done. It's really the most effective and efficient way to really implement electrical infrastructure. The other important piece to keep in mind as well is electrical prewiring is not a new concept. It's already in the state building code. So really this is about expanding what's already at work in the state code. So looking specifically at what we're proposing in the new pre-wiring requirements, Really, it's expanding the type of development, that's subject to the electrical pre-wiring requirements. The current state code is limited to just residential. And so staff is part of this package of amendments, is looking to expand it to all development types. Also, staff is proposing for pre-wiring to be applicable to all indoor and outdoor appliances, natural gas appliances. And then for certain types of appliances, requiring the applicants show location and dimensional information on their construction plans, for accommodating electric appliance, just to demonstrate that there is pre-planning occurring as part of a transition, or future transition. Additionally, installing drainage or other infrastructure that would, again, sort of just further the ease of transitioning to electric. And then lastly, I would argue maybe most importantly, is adding clear labeling to all of the electrical wires. So folks know whether you're the owner, the tenant, or the contractor, what these wires and outlets are for. So talking more specifically about the particulars of the pre-wiring requirements. So on the left-hand side here, is what is currently in the California building code in terms of appliances where electric prewiring is required. You'll see, it's quite a number of appliances, but it's really limited to single family residential, duplexes, and multifamily, new construction. So really what staff is presenting in these amendments is going further than that. So on the right-hand side, this sort of summarizes what we're proposing within our existing reach code requirements for new construction and major renovations. So briefly kind of walking through these for single family residential duplexes in townhomes, adding a requirement that, um, planning within the construction drawings has to take place, um, for accommodating a future heat pump space heating equipment. And that would also include installing the drainage requirements to meet that appliance. For multifamily residential and hotels and motels, staff's proposing to include minimum electrical panel system sizes. So essentially accommodating an electrical panel that can accommodate an all electric building. Um, and then the other piece that staff is proposing is uh, for in the construction drawings to show, um, the space and accommodation and the infrastructure necessary for, um, what's called central or shared heat pump water heaters, which are essentially the heat pump system that supports the common area of these multifamily structures, um, or hotels, motels. And then also individual heat pump water heaters for individual units or hotel rooms. And then also accommodating drainage and other infrastructure that's needed for those. And then sort of the last category is non-residential, and staff is proposing specifically language about commercial kitchens. And so the language in the commercial kitchens is really about, again, a minimum electrical panel size of, in this case, 800 amps. Um, and that's really to accommodate, um, you know, the electrical uh, needs for a commercial kitchen. And specifically, it's commercial kitchens in reference to what they call institutional kitchens, which are cafeterias would be an example of that. And then quick service kitchens, which are like counter service restaurants, would be an example of a quick service restaurant. Um, and so having certain electrical um, panel sizing requirements for those. And so with the commercial kitchens and with the central and individual heat pump water heaters with the multifamily residential. I do want to mention that those 2 aspects of the proposed amendments are actually directly from the California Energy Commission's recommended, an endorsed language that they endorsed last month, and will be part of the 2025 Triannual building code update. So essentially, staff's proposing that we would be adopting this essentially a year early, and start sort of putting it in play. One factor that staff has included in the amendments, is for commercial kitchens. The new requirement that we're putting in the code or proposing is for 800 amps, which is a lot higher than we've typically seen. And so as part of the transition, and because we are early adopters, we have put into the code some flexible language, that allows us to consider building permits where a customer could demonstrate that they don't maybe need a full 800, but they could service their whole building on a maybe less basis. So we provided that flexibility just because it is such a big jump, and we think we need a year to kind of, you know, get people sort of ramped up to the new code. And then last but not least, we have a catchall provision. Um, no matter the development type, if you install a gas or a natural gas or propane appliance, um, you have to pre-wire. So that's sort of a catchall provision that's proposed. And then, uh, the other set of amendments or one amendment we added to the package, um, in addition to the prewiring requirements is around recycled water. And really, this amendment was to reinstate language we previously had in the code in 2019. And it's really just to clarify our threshold for triggering our program, which is that dual plumbing is required for non-residential new buildings, 25,000 square feet or more. And so adding this language in is really just to clarify it, to applicants, to the public about when our program comes into play. But adding this language doesn't impact our program. We've still been implementing it on developments. This is really just to add the clarity for the public of when it would be required. So with that, staff's recommendations noted here on the screen, um, If council approves the introduction of the ordinance tonight, staff is planning to return to council on November 12th, the 2nd reading, um, and the proposed effective date, um, that staff is targeting is January 1st, um, 2025 just to make for an easy transition. And that concludes staff's presentation. Thank you.

[03:06:42] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. That's great. Okay, so the next step here would be council questions. Council member Abikoka.

[03:06:51] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation in bringing this to counsel. I'm sure you saw it, but we got an email from SVCE that, um, the state has approved new building codes for 20 January 1st, 2026, um, that requires space and water heating are all electric in the most common prescriptive path and multi-un- family units have 100% EV readiness. So, I guess what would our 2025 or this, how would this dovetail into the new building codes?

[03:07:39] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: I appreciate the question. So, um, So we get the final draft 2025 triangle building code language in July of 2025. So a lot of what's happening, um, basically from now, or maybe September, um, and over the next couple months is really, uh, the state really kind of finalizing the language. I think a lot of what has been endorsed or adopted by, say, even CEC, the California Energy Commission, they've basically endorsed the concepts that will go in and feed into the 2025. They haven't necessarily finalized all the language or everything. And so we're borrowing a lot of what initially has been floating out there in the case of some of the content we've, you know, suggested here. But I think to your specific question about how this all dovetails. I think really over the next, um, 6 months is when a lot of the heavy background work happens between, um, you know, city staff, Silicon Valley clean energy, um, and our consultant team to kind of like iron out, um, what are really considered new reach code items, what become part of the base code, that then we don't need to put in our reach code. So a lot of that happens in this sort of next stretch of time. So at the end of the day, what we bring to the council, as part of phase two, that would all sync up. And so any, if we have to make adjustments to what we've adopted here tonight, we will, but that's really a lot of the work that happens in 2025.

[03:09:14] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes, then pre-wiring, essentially, would just make this new ace code easier for folks to achieve, right?

[03:09:25] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Yeah, so if someone had to do a project now that subjects them to pre-wiring, then yes, they're putting all the infrastructure in place to make it that much more easier for when their appliance, their gas appliance, breaks, or they want to change it. come when a lot of these new regs come into place. And when the new supply shift happens, in terms of gas suppliances maybe not being as readily available, in some cases, I think that's where pre-wiring in advance really will help folks make that transition a lot easier. So, yeah.

[03:10:01] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, And then do we cover EV readiness on this as well?

[03:10:11] Lindsay: So our reach code already has pretty extensive EV, ready? In fact, we've had EV requirements in place that only now in July, did the state code start catching up to what we already adopted.

[03:10:23] Unknown Speaker: Yeah, definitely the scene is behind us. It sounds like they're finally starting to catch up.

[03:10:28] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you. Okay, any other council comments? questions? Okay, so I'll open up the public comment. I saw, I thought I saw one person virtually. Is it? No? Okay. All right. Then no public comment. We'll bring it back to council for...

[03:10:51] Unknown Speaker: Mayor, they just raise their hand again.

[03:10:55] Mayor Pat Showalter: Yeah, he's back. Okay. Tim Mensalvez. you there?

[03:11:05] Unknown Speaker: You have 3 minutes to speak.

[03:11:07] Taylor Taylor: Hello, everyone. Yes, sorry, I didn't realize my Zoom name is incorrect. This is Taylor Taylor. I am with TRC. Just wanted to add a couple supporting comments to what Lindsay shared is I've been helping city staff prepare the technical requirements of this reach code. So I'll come over under public comment. That okay. Um, I just wanted to know that in regards to the 2025 energy code language, that language is finalized and adopted by the CEC, so we know what to expect come January 1st, 2026. And it is correct that on the single family side or water heating, we will now see a change where that is prescriptively required to be a heat pump water heater. So that is awesome. We're all very, very excited about that change. And as Lindsay mentioned, these pre-wiring requirements will help support that for anyone in the future who is going through an equipment change or replacement. I did also want to mention in terms of future facing policies for Mountain View. There are still plenty of opportunities on the multifamily and non-residential side. So I just wanted to make that clear as well, um, that we can review those opportunities in more clarity in in the future in looking into 2025. Thank you.

[03:12:27] Mayor Pat Showalter: Okay. Does anybody have any questions for our consultant? Oh. Okay. Um, so I'll bring it back to council for comments. And, um, I, I, uh, I just want to say thank you to staff for bringing this to us and, um, and being so thoughtful about it. I also think that even though what we're only requiring is pre-wiring, I hope that it also functions as an incentive, because if you have to put the wiring in anyway, maybe you just will go ahead and be a little more inspired to put any electric appliance in the first place. So that's my hope. Counsel, no, anybody... Counsel member Hicks, did you push your button?

[03:13:15] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Well, I was gonna, I was making a motion in support of the staff, uh, recommendation, and I second what you said. I hope people will go all electric with all the hot weather we've been having in the hurricanes. I think it's time. So I have a second. Are there other people who want to comment, or should I just read it into the record?

[03:13:43] Mayor Pat Showalter: Go ahead and read it, please.

[03:13:44] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. This is a motion to introduce an ordinance. The city council is City Mountain View, adopting required findings, amending chapter 8, buildings, of the Mountain View City Code, to adopt local amendments to the 2022 editions of the California Green Building Standards Code, and the California plumbing code, to add electrical pre route wiring requirements, and to make clarifying changes to recycled water requirements, and finding the amendments to be exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act, pursuant to Sequa Guidelines sections 15061B3, and 15308, to be read entitled only for the reading waived, and set a second reading for November 12th of 2024.

[03:14:33] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you very much. Okay, so any more questions on that? All right. Well, then, it's time to vote. And that passes unanimously. Great. Okay. That brings us to item nine, which is council committee reports. Does anybody have any that they want to share? I have a couple. No? Uh, Council member Kamet.

[03:15:08] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank you, Mayor. I just want to share that I attended the League of California City's annual conference last week from the 16th to the 18th. Thank you to the city. I want to give a special thank you to assistant to the city manager, Christina Gilmore, who accompanied me there as I ended my term as peninsula division president. And there's going to be, I think, a couple of items coming soon from Cal Cities. There'll be a resolution. I got to serve on the resolutions committee, but the board has to vote on it. So more on that very soon. Thank you.

[03:15:50] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you, and thank you for taking the time to do that. A couple things. October 10th, we had a CNC meeting for the mobile home parks at the senior center, and it was really nice to see that there was representation from all of the mobile home parks who attended. So it was a good meeting. And, um, on October 11th, I attended Valley Waters Unhoused People and Environment Summit at the Santa Clara Convention Center, and Valley Waters has gotten a little, um, they're very interested in, in keeping homeless encampments out of creeks, uh, for lots of reasons, and they've gotten some special state legislation to allow them to support, um, interim housing. And they are interested in doing interim housing, like tiny homes, on their property. So I don't know if we have any valley water property in Mountain View. I don't think we do, but if we did, it would be something to think about.

[03:16:58] Unknown Speaker: What?

[03:17:03] Mayor Pat Showalter: Yeah. Well, along the creek, that's not necessarily good.

[03:17:08] Unknown Speaker: Yeah. There are those homes.

[03:17:10] Mayor Pat Showalter: Right. So anyway, that's interesting, and we should say tuned because they're also going to have grants. And we might be eligible for some of those grants. The first of my mayor visits was on October 16th, I went to visit Crunch Labs, and that is the home of a famous Mark Roeder, YouTube influencer, who makes all sorts of YouTubes related to STEM toys. This Crunch Labs makes STEM toy kits, and they're also developing a physical science curriculum for K through eighth grade. So this was really fun. There were also some permitting issues that the economic vitality director, John Lang, was able to help them with, get them in that steer them in the right direction. On the 17th, we had a really important meeting at BCDC. We had the public hearing on the regional shoreline adaptation plan guidelines. And these are the plans that every shoreline city and or county will need to put together related to their sea level rise protection plan. And I want to thank Raymond Wong and Lisa All and Danielle Lee for helping me get ready for this meeting. They had really combed these guidelines. It was a 200 page document, and they were really helpful in figuring out what my comments should be, and we put together a formal comment letter for the city. And that's important, because we're sort of seen as a poster child. for good sea level rise protection planning, because we've really been out this since 2012. So our experiences and comments are meaningful. And following up on that sea level rise protection plan, I'm convening a meeting tomorrow of at least one elected official from each of the five shoreline cities in Santa Clara County. We'll get a presentation on what sea level rise protection efforts are here. going on here in the South Bay, and also the resap requirements from BCDC. And while each city or county is required to prepare a resap, It is optional and also, um, appreciated, really, to do a multi jurisdictional one. So, we won't make any decisions, of course, but we'll, you know, just get ourselves a little bit bitter educated and kind of move a little further along, and making a decision, probably, sometime within the next year, about whether we want to do a multi jurisdictional one or not. So, I'm really looking forward to that. And thanks to the staff for helping me get this together. Then you all heard, President Devin Connolly from the Mountain View Wisman School Board, and Public Comic, came and told us about the school board meeting last Thursday. Arne Andrews and I went, and they did vote three to one to sign the three year extension. And that's really good news. And I, for one, would really like to know when we have that signed document right here. So I hope you will let us know. Has it been signed?

[03:20:45] Unknown Speaker: Thank you, Mayor. So we have sent the document to the acting superintendent now, but it sounds like we've learned that there's going to be an interim superintendent. So, um, if the current acting superintendent doesn't sign it, we'll make sure to have that to the interim superintendent soon.

[03:21:05] Mayor Pat Showalter: That's great. That's really good. Okay. And anyway, this morning I had another mayor's visit. This one was to PTC Therapeutics. It's in the Westman area. They developed treatment for orphaned pediatric diseases, and they've been in Mountain View since early 2000s, and they're about to expand into the building next door. And, um, it was really, uh, it was really fascinating to learn about a little more about biosciences, and, um, the, we actually do have, uh, quite a body of, of research and, um, industry going on here in the biosciences, and, um, This group has been here for quite a long time. So that was, that was fascinating. If you like chemistry, This is a place you should go and visit. Okay. So, and then tomorrow, I have another mayor's visit in the afternoon at Whisk Era. So we're getting a lot of these in this month, which is fun. So with that, that's my report. Thank you, everyone. And I think that brings us to that magical moment of adjournment. Nope. Nope. Oh, closed session report. Oh, that's right. We can't forget that. City Attorney Logue, do you have a closed session report?

[03:22:28] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: I do. Thank you. In closed session this evening, City council took final action on item 2.1 on the closed session agenda, which was a conference with legal council regarding a liability claim filed on behalf of Pedro Rivera de Leon against the city of Mountain View. Mr. Rivera de Leon's claim seeks $10 million in damages based on the assertion that he was unlawfully arrested, charged and incarcerated, for felony, felony, child endangerment. The council voted with 6 eyes. There was one absence to deny the claim.

[03:23:08] Mayor Pat Showalter: Thank you so much. Okay, so now we get to item 11 adjournment, and the next city council meeting will be held on November 12th, and this meeting is adjourned at 10.38. Thank you.

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