Okay.

I'm calling this meeting to order.

Good evening, everyone.

Calling this meeting to order at 503.

The city clerk will take attendance by roll call.

Councilmember Hicks here.

Councilmember Kamei.

Here.

Councilmember McAllister.

Yep.

Mayor Ramos.

Yep.

We have a quorum with four members present.

Thank you.

And now we'll begin with item three or three point one fiscal year twenty twenty-six-27 capital improvement program.

The purpose of the study session is to provide the city council an overview of the CEPOL improvement program and obtain city council input on the draft recommended fiscal year 2026-27 Capital Improvement Program.

Public Works Director Jennifer Eng and Senior Civil Engineer Joy Houghton.

Houghton, okay.

We'll present the item.

If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now.

On to you guys.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

We are pulling up the slide deck uh now.

While we're doing that, um again, I'm Jennifer Yng, Public Works Director.

Sitting to my left is Joy Howton, who's senior civil engineer uh in the public works department.

Our topic for tonight is the fiscal year 2020 2026-27 CIP.

We're getting our technology to hopefully cooperate with us.

There we go.

We're up on the screen.

Uh we can flip to the next one, Joy.

Thank you.

Um, so our CIP is a biennial, meaning every two years planning process.

This year is a roll forward year and is primarily an update to the CIP from last year.

Uh two categories of projects that we'll be discussing tonight include non-discretionary and discretionary projects.

Uh definition of non-discretionary is up there on your screen.

Next, we want to switch to what we have actively going on right now.

We have a lot going on.

We have 290 active projects underway.

The vast majority of that 290 221 are led by public works, and 13 of those projects are council work plan projects.

Um, just quick note that 221 is a slight deviation from what you saw in your staff report.

We had reported out 22, uh, but we forgot to attribute one project to community services.

Um, on the right-hand side, you can see that the volume and funding allocation breakdown.

The bulk of our time and our money spent in public works for these projects is allocated towards three main categories of transportation and streets, utilities, and facilities.

We do have a quarterly update of 25 featured projects on our city's website.

We started that at the end of last uh calendar year, and we're currently in the process of doing our quarter one update for 2026, and that will be up on the website shortly.

You'll see that it'll be slightly reorganized to categorize projects by type of project, so it's um a little bit easier to find if you're looking for a specific uh project type and what's going on in that area.

Um our pavement management program in 2024, we reported out that our pavement condition index, PCI for short, uh, is at 67.

And this is generally considered in the FAIR category for our roadways.

We've been trying to increase our pavement condition up to 70 to elevate us from a fair condition report to a satisfactory condition report.

In doing so, we plan to spend quite a bit of money on our paving program between 24 and 27, 2024 and 2027, excuse me.

We plan to spend over 62 million dollars on paving projects.

Several of these do have active transportation elements.

As an example, Moffitt will receive Class II bike lanes where there are none now.

Middlefield will have Class 4 bike lanes where there are currently class two bike lanes and part-time bike lanes, and a section of shoreline will be upgraded from Class II to Class 4 bike lanes.

And just as a reminder, because I know I'm doing engineer speak right now.

Class two bike lanes are on street stripes adjacent to the vehicular lane.

Class 4 bike lanes have a buffer and a vertical component separating bicyclists from vehicles.

As we look ahead to our paving program on the left hand side, you can see a map of the city.

A little bit of shoreline is chopped off, but we don't have lines on there.

But it shows all of the pavement work scheduled from now through 2028.

You can see that several arterials and major collector streets are being addressed, which is consistent with the direction that we've received from council last year.

And it's part of the budget item that you'll hear later tonight from the finance department.

Measure G funding has picked up, and as a result, we were able to capture an additional 125,000 towards the paving program.

That's a win for us.

In terms of our strategy here in Mountain View, we employ a best first strategy in which we spend money to maintain our fair condition streets to keep them from fully deteriorating.

Cost exponentially rises as we have to rehabilitate a roadway as opposed to maintaining a roadway.

And then one last thing to mention is that we have a standard details update planned in the upcoming year, which is going to complement the work effort that CDD is advancing on objective design standards.

Our standard details update will look at filling in the gaps between recently approved precise plans with respect to the roadway.

So we want to look at roadway widths and allocation.

We want to look at widths for standardized vehicle vehicular lanes, bike lanes, sidewalk, and landscape strips.

And we want to create a couple of new details for duckouts as well as green street infrastructure.

Since active transportation improvements and paving tend to go hand in hand, this is what we have planned for the active transportation plan.

The draft plan will be undergoing community review starting next week.

It will go to the BPAC at the end of April and CTC in mid-June.

And then finally, adoption by City Council is scheduled for September of 2026.

When we look at funding sources for our CAP, there are five main buckets, five, I shouldn't say main buckets, five buckets that are utilized in RCIP.

Unrestricted funds are our most valuable funds and can be used by any project.

Enterprise funds are used for our utilities, so water and wastewater as well as solid waste projects.

Transportation funds are a combination of gas tax, SB1, vehicle license fee, and VTA Measure B sources.

Shoreline funds are generally for projects in the shoreline area and are the source for landfill postclosure and sea level rise projects.

And there are a subset of utility and transportation projects that fall within the boundaries of the shoreline area that are funded that way.

And as you're aware, a major source of funding for our parks and open space projects comes from the development fees and charges category.

When we look at trends over the past four years for our CIP funding sources, you can see that the funding has been relatively flat with enterprise funds receiving a bump in this past year due to a revised fee study taking effect.

With respect to workload, that's something we're always monitoring in public works because we do have a heavy workload.

One of the major things that we've done this year to help address workload is creation of a new fourth division within public works.

This new division we're going to call the transportation division, and it will be headed up by a chief transportation officer, and we're going to take the two sections of traffic engineering and transportation planning and merge them together into this new division.

This group will focus on delivery of initiatives that are currently underway.

One of the benefits of doing so, moving the traffic section out of engineering allows the engineering division to really focus on delivery of those capital projects.

Other workload that sits below the waterline using an iceberg analogy analogy takes up staff capacity.

So this year we've seen the numbers of public information and public records act requests increase substantially.

In addition, Mountain View in general as a city has taken on many large policy documents, which do end up requiring significant coordination and effort from public work staff, even if we are not leading that particular effort.

So I mentioned earlier how valuable unrestricted funds are because they can be used by any type of project.

And this is a strategy that we've been employing for how to prioritize projects utilizing that funding source.

So on the left, starting with non-discretionary and pavement first, then funding amendments to existing projects, and finally discretionary projects.

In terms of criteria that we use, there are six main ones, and they include safety, regulatory, maintenance, matching grant funds, pavement, and council priorities and council work plan.

So for fiscal year 26-27 non-discretionary projects and going into that year coming up.

We have 21 projects total with two projects needing modifications to increase funding.

The first project is an increase of $90,000 to the annual parks and renovations improvements, and that supports activation and maintenance of amenities for the Castro Pedestrian Mall.

And the second project to receive a modification is an increase of $390,000 to replace 15 analog irrigation controllers with digital controllers and an antenna.

The digital controllers will focus on and help us achieve water conservation and efficiency out at the golf course.

Moving on to projects needing amendments.

Some projects need increases because we add scope.

Typically, there's some sort of hidden issue that makes itself known as we progress along during design.

Or we get favorable bids and can decrease funding.

A recent example of that is the Shoreline Pathway Project.

Or we're swapping funding sources.

With respect to discretionary projects, there were 24 new ones scheduled to roll forward from last fiscal year, fiscal year 24-25.

But due to shifting priorities, staff is now recommending that 22 projects proceed ahead in 26-27.

So we recommend two projects move forward as high priority.

Those are Crittenden Field, which is led and managed by the school district, and the city pays a cost share, and the fire station master plan, which will set a foundation for how we plan to renovate and or replace our fire stations.

Eleven new projects are being added because they can't wait for the next cycle of five-year CIP planning, and those include categories of building renovations, park renovations, and a safety project.

And 12 projects are being recommended for deferral, predominantly due to resourcing, whether that's staffing or whether that's funding, and or project phasing not being ready to proceed.

In terms of next steps for the CIP, we next plan to go to the BPAC, the bicycle pedestrian advisory committee later this month.

We will visit the Parks and Rec Commission next month in May, and then council adoption in June.

So that leaves us with the one question that we have for you all tonight, and that is does council support the staff recommendations for projects in the draft fiscal year 2627 CIP or have any suggested changes.

So thank you.

Looking forward to the discussion.

Thank you.

Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item?

If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk.

We will take in-person speakers first.

Each speaker will have we only have two speakers, so three minutes.

So first speaker will be April Webster.

Hi.

Good evening.

Um I want to thank staff for the additional detail provided in response to council questions, including the breakdown of projects and associated funding and overall depth of uh an organization of the CIP.

That's all very useful context.

Um, but I did want to uh sort of point out something that seems to be missing, um, and that's the next layer, and how those investments translate into measurable measurable outcomes.

Um right now it seems to be at the cat the level of categories, subcategories, and project counts, but it doesn't clearly map to what is actually being delivered on the ground.

Um, and that's what's important and needed to evaluate effectiveness, cost benefit trade-offs, or compare best investments across projects.

Um, for example, with the complete and green complete streets, parks, and biodiversity, um, I feel would be helpful to track out from outcomes like canopy coverage and distribution, tree counts and retention of um trees, including heritage trees, create stormwater performance, uh, miles or linear feet, uh, protected bikeways, um, and as well as parks and open space.

Um, all of this could be tracked with an equity lens as well, so we understand how much, not not only how much is being delivered, but where and for whom.

Um, I want to point out this is already being done elsewhere.

Uh, in my role as vice chair of the Caltrans D4 Bicycle Advisory Committee, I've been reviewing the shop projects at the PID stage, and they clearly identify it for every single project.

How many linear feet of bikeways are class four, class three, class two, et cetera.

So it's being done.

I'm guessing we have this data, but I I feel that if we start tracking that in addition to how many projects we have and just how much we're spending, um, that could help us better connect the um what we're doing to actual outcomes.

Um, we also see this with Stormwater under the water permit requirements we have with MRP 3.0.

Um, they require a certain number of acres of impervious um pavement land to be converted to green stormwater infrastructure.

Um, and I and we do this in a way with the PCI as well, in terms of having that index that we're monitoring.

So I feel like taking it to the next level, we need just a little bit more data to really quantify um and track some of that.

Um I realize this is a newer way of thinking about this systems, but um today pavement and vehicle infrastructure tend to be treated as core assets, and we're tracking that clearly.

But bike lanes, sidewalks, parks, urban forests are often treated more as secondary or project-based elements.

And this is not necessarily unique to Mountain View.

I've seen this in Caltrans and other cities and regions as well.

Um, however, I do think that there isn't.

Thank you.

We will now take uh virtual speakers starting with Cliff Chambers.

Hi.

Uh thanks for the opportunity to speak tonight.

Um I just like to briefly touch on three things in the staff report.

First, I think the reorganization of the new transportation uh division is really important, and I certainly applaud the administration for this path.

I think it's going to help with communication, coordination, and most importantly, project delivery.

Palo Alto has a similar uh organization, and I've observed over many years that they've really pushed forward with good project delivery.

The second thing I like to uh say is that I really do support the importance of the $54,000 for the standard details uh update, project 27-27.

You know, we've talked a lot about uh green complete streets.

I think um, as Ms.

Ng uh mentioned, this will be an important addition to the current details, but there's a lot of best practices that need to be updated, and and this will have a uh an important return of investment for the city for the transportation planning and the new division.

So I really applaud this and really support it.

And then just finally, I'm really happy to see uh the pickleball solutions going forward.

We added 13 hours, and and the pickleball club has been working really closely with uh city staff, and we're really making a lot of progress.

There's uh the courts are really packed, and we're really looking forward to hearing more about the update of the private property, public pickleball court uh in the near future.

But I'm happy to say that things are going extremely well right now, and the communication between our club and the city has been excellent.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next, we'll have Celia Paymer.

Hi, um, good evening.

Um I'm Silly Paimer, resident of Mountain View.

Um couple things.

Um I was excited to see in the report that we're gonna get a transportation manager.

Um it's been I think a year.

I think um we lost ours May 8th last year.

Um so I really hope that that is expedited and we start seeing that impact.

Um, because I think it's been a department that's been really missed um for many months.

Um we I also um noticed in it um again our repavement plan, um, the Mir Money project, the part between Castro and Cuesta was supposed to be done in the summer of 24.

Um, and that's what it said then.

And so I hope this time it happens because I believe it does lose some of its federal funding if we don't start it this year.

Um while we got postcards that it would start in February, it has not actually started.

So um I hope that someone can maybe look into that and double check that that will be completed.

Um and then also I wanted to also um give support for um the the street standards.

Um I think this is something that could help a lot of projects going forward.

I think many of our projects end up repeating work um that standards we apply to one.

We then have to start over again on the next one instead of being able to kind of learn and make progress and use best practices when it comes to alternative transportation.

So I'm excited to see that.

Um thank you very much.

Thank you.

James Kuzmal.

Good evening, um, James Guzmall.

Uh just speaking as personal resident.

Um, I want I wanted to echo some of the prior comments about being cautiously optimistic about the transportation department reorganization, um, as well as to look forward to some of the updating standard details, which uh have not been meaningfully updated in a while.

Um the one other thing I wanted to call out as a place or it would be lovely to see the city defer more work from the CIP is on the lot five parking garage.

Um it looks I can't tell the exact status of the project from the description, but that's a project that's continued to be deferred for a while and is currently on the books for some design work, and I would hope that long term we were not going to be adding hundreds of new parking spots, which would drain the city coffers of tens of millions of dollars and just continue to stifle our downtown with excessive traffic.

If we have we want to spend tens of millions of dollars getting more people to downtown, there's far more cost-effective ways to do it with improvement to the community shuttle, more bike wings, that sort of thing.

So if we're concerned about staff capacity, it'd be lovely to see um the design work on that further deferred.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Bruce Ingland.

Thank you, Mayor.

Bruce England, uh, Wisman Station Drive.

I will be brief because most of my efforts today were working with April Webster on the comment letter.

So a lot of our thoughts kind of came out of that.

So um and uh but I've heard all the comments and I agree with everything that everybody said, so I won't repeat them.

A few things that I want to note in particular that maybe weren't in the comments.

I have to get to my notes.

Um the question about how to handle the pavement management program.

I would really like the city to refocus the pavement management to take into account the areas where vehicles aren't traveling.

So all the sidewalk areas, the walking areas, the biking areas, um, and the maintenance procedures that happen around those areas too, because sometimes you see clean roads and then there's a lot of stuff all over the bike lanes, uh broken things and screws and all kinds of stuff like that.

So um be great to see that.

And the last thing I wanted to bring up, I brought it up before, is the general plan update because the current general plan is targeted for 2030, and presumably pretty soon you'll start working on that again.

And that's gonna be an ideal way to consolidate a lot of these ideas that people are talking about is sort of forward path for Mountain View.

Um also uh to take advantage of the newer precise plans like the North Westman Precise Plan, East the East Wisman, sorry, North Bay Shore and East Wism precise plans.

So those are my uh thoughts in short.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next we have Tracy.

Hello.

Um I just wanted to keep it brief and say I uh agree with the updated standard details and support um the comments by uh Bruce and Silvia and April and I don't remember the other speakers' names, but um thank you, and I hope you will uh fund this.

I'm done.

Thank you.

All right.

Um that is it for our oh wait, never mind.

Uh Jesse.

Thanks so much.

Yeah, I got to say now I'm back.

Um I kind of generally agree with everyone.

I you know would like to see the design standards updated uh so that we can have better bicycle infrastructure and more street queues and things like that.

Um thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Now the council will have the opportunity to ask questions.

Mayor, you still have one person.

Oh, shoot.

They just keep on popping up.

Uh Rashmi.

Hello, yes, thank you.

Um I also wanted to just express my support for the standard details and updating those so that we can align um our design more with our values and our vision and our strategic goals of Mountain View.

Thank you so much.

All right, thank you.

I'm watching the Zoom going once, going twice.

Okay, we're now going back to us.

Okay, so the council will now have the opportunity to ask questions and then discuss and provide feedback on the study session question.

Does any member of the council have questions?

Uh Councilmember Hicks.

Well, I have lots of great comments, but I'll save them for comment period.

Um just a couple of questions.

One is the Evelyn Avenue bikeway study.

Um actually, the um uh we got uh a comment letter, and I'll just quote them.

Is the city considering a broader green complete streets approach to that uh bikeway that and is there coordination with the city of Sunnyvale?

I know that when I talk to the mayor and council members in Sunnyvale, they envision a wonderful green street that connects our two downtowns.

There's been a lot of visioning, and I'm wondering how much we're connecting to their vision and and how green it might be.

I do know that on our end there's more there are more difficulties with that than on the Sunnyvale end, but any um you know, any additional uh details you can add would be appreciated.

Yeah, so the first thing I want to say is um, you know, we got we recently got um a grant from VTA to uh help us look at the Evelyn Complete Street, so that was definitely a win for us.

Um we haven't quite started the study yet, but absolutely the intent and end goal of this project is connectivity.

Um basically to connect from Sunnyvale's Caltrain station all the way to Mountain View's Caltrain station, right?

What would be the limits?

Um as you noted, we do have some constraints in Mountain View that Sunnyvale does not have.

We have a beautiful planted median um in the middle of Evelyn.

My understanding is that went in something like 20 years ago, um, and the trees are beautiful.

And Sunnyville doesn't have that constraint.

Um we also have some very nice trees that are planted along the edges of the corridor that will have to be taken into account as we start planning for this area.

So long story short, absolutely, we want to keep our our vision and our values true to what we um have here in in Mountain View, but um because the study is we just got the funding and um haven't even gotten a consultant on board yet, the study hasn't quite started.

Okay, well, I'll look forward to seeing how that rolls out.

And I know there are a lot of members of the public who will as well.

Um then another question is the um scooter pilot.

Do you have I I actually in our written questions asked one question about that, but do you have uh multiple locations um chosen for the pilot or one location, or can you give a little more detail on that?

Uh the study for the pilot is citywide.

I know one of the questions that was asked in particular was around the San Antonio area, and could there be scooter hubs in that area?

And the answer is yes, that can absolutely be evaluated.

So you haven't chosen any, you're just in the process of evaluating.

You've chosen no particular locations at this point.

Correct.

Happy to take feedback.

Okay, thank you.

Um I think those are my questions for now.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Hicks.

Councilmember Show Walter.

Yes, um, there were a lot of um questions submitted.

And so first I just want to thank you for your patience and waiting through all of them and answering them.

I know they rep that represents a lot of work.

Um, but it but it's really helpful for us.

So and um, and we do try and read them very carefully, which is you know, we have to kind of sit down and right in the afternoon to do that because we don't we don't have much time for them as well as you don't have much time for them.

But anyway, uh one of them I wanted I did ask a couple questions about the safe roots to school, and I um uh I appreciate you know your answers, but I I I wanted to kind of parrot them back because I think it's important for um the city to get credit for this project.

I think a lot of people might think this is something that the school district is doing, but it's not.

Um we run the safe roots to school program, and what the school I think what you said um very uh diplomatically is that the school donates class time for the kids to take the um uh the the classes and the rodeos that we have to teach um safe practices and we we run this program and we also provide the um uh uh the money for most of the money for the school um crossing cards.

So I just you know I just wanted to ask you how that um negotiation is gonna go forward.

You you there's some mention of talks in the not too distant future with the school district about about the program.

Certainly we always try to keep an open line with the school district with respect to communications to date, they haven't had a whole lot of excess money in their coffers in order to share with us for advancing those programs.

Those programs are very important to us in this particular city, and so thus far we've been um handling the bulk of that cost.

And and I get that.

Um I just do think that when we talk about the collaboration between the schools and the city, we don't want to um uh we don't want to be too quiet about our contribution because um as the logic has been explained to me, um, and I think it's really good logic, it's our streets.

And um, so we want these kids, our kids, to be safe on our streets, but um still still because it's a safe route to school, I think a lot of people jump to the conclusion that it's um it's a school district project, and I think it's important for us to take advantage of it.

So that's why I'm asking this question.

Um, and then uh kind of following up on when is the Miramonte um complete streets happening?

I know in the questions you said that it the construction has started, but I've driven by several times and I haven't really noticed what has started.

So I thought maybe you could go into that in a little more detail.

Yeah, so we've engaged the contractor and the contractor.

We're doing a bunch of pre-construction type activities right now.

We're setting the schedule, we're reviewing submittals, um, basically getting ready for construction.

So you might not have seen, you know, a big um yellow caterpillar truck out in the middle of the street quite yet, but we are we are getting there.

Okay, and do you does it still look promising to get that first section completed this summer?

That's our goal, yes.

That's excellent.

Yeah, okay.

Summer is prime construction season.

Yeah, yeah.

We have to have the temperature above 70 degrees, isn't that what it is, or something like that?

I want to say 60 degrees and rising for paving.

Am I right?

55.

Say that again.

55 and rising.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Um then I um the next question is related to the CCTV cameras at the police um safety building.

So um this capital project is to put in CCTV at the current building, and that building will probably be in use for another five to 10 years before we um so uh thank you, Councilmember Showalter.

So uh hopefully less time than that.

Construction is anticipated to start on the public safety building sooner, so within five years, I'd say.

Okay, we heard it here.

All right, so those CCTVs will uh cameras will be um valuable for the next five years at least until that okay.

Thank you so much.

All right, any other questions?

All right, we will move on.

Is it questions or are you ready for comments now, essentially?

Oh, questions, okay, Councilmember Hicks.

So that brought up another question, which is the safe roots to school.

When it was last brought to the Council Transportation Committee, that plan was brought as a sort of completed plan to just um say that we had received it.

Um and I I think that the council transportation committee at the time asked whether we could have a more thorough review because it is so important to because the city plays, as councilmember Show Walter said, a large role in it.

Uh and uh because it's very important to many members of the city.

Um and in particular, there were two things.

It it focuses primarily on biking and somewhat on walking.

Whereas I know from when my own children went to grade school, there were a lot of people on scooters.

Um I've also seen recently uh people arranging uh walk pools, kind of like a carpool, only without the car.

Um so I'm wondering whether the we could make it regular that the council transportation committee review that and whether we could add additional modes that we look at.

I guess we are adding electric bikes, but those are two things.

Can we can we um add those things?

Well, rolling is already a focus of the safe routes to school program.

Um so rolling would be as it implies anything with wheels, right?

And so that does include um scooters as part of that.

I know scooters are at least when my kids were younger, super popular amongst the elementary school set uh as a means to get to school.

Um so I think that's definitely something that can be um included and is already in the process of being included into the program.

Uh the program itself um, you know, we we bring a yearly update back to the CTC.

Um if you're looking for more, perhaps we can talk a little bit more about what that looks like offline.

Sure, I'd love to do that.

Great.

And then my last question is members of the public, many of them have uh brought up the um updated standards for roadways.

And I noticed one of their questions was will uh standard details updated standard details include um context sensitive approaches?

And I imagine what they mean is more than one standard detail depending on you know, perhaps is there a stream nearby, are there existing trees?

Uh is it a small, medium, or large roadway?

So that actually did interest me.

Will there be multiple for standard details?

Will there be multiple approaches and context sensitive approaches?

Yeah, I envision that just looking at the different types of roadways that we have, we will have to develop different details.

For example, a sidewalk and a land street, landscape strip on a small residential street or a cul-de-sac looks very different than what a sidewalk and a landscape strip will be on a major arterial like Ringstorf or like Moffitt, right?

Um and so we will have to take that kind of context into account as we're looking at updating the standard details.

Now they are standards, right?

There's always room for a deviation.

If there's a beautiful heritage tree that is, you know, blocking a portion of the sidewalk, and we say our standard is to have you know a specific type of configuration.

Um, you know, obviously we would try to save the tree and deviate from our standard in that case.

So there's always, you know, there's always engineering judgment that goes along with um application of standard details.

Good, perfect.

Exactly what I wanted to hear.

Thank you, Councilmember Hicks.

Councilmember McAllister, are you we still in questions or are we in comments?

Question.

All right, perfect.

Go ahead.

So I have three questions along the lines of um cost efficiency and expedition of projects for the city.

And my first question was under the objective design standards, and I asked the question will the the street projects will they be cost more effective, efficient, and more common sense valued?

And it wasn't I didn't see the real answer in your response, but I've seen a couple of projects recently where we've had a lot of signs, uh subjective from my point that they might be too many signs, too many confusing and so forth like that.

And so going forward with the sense of cost, because we are at a particular point in time where we don't have a lot of excess funds.

Will this particular standards help control costs, help the lens of the people that design these to say what can we do versus what has been done in the past?

And it gives them more flexibility.

Standards are just sort of like guidelines, but is it guarantee that they got to do certain things, but there's some discretion in how they design them?

Standards are the standards that we're looking to update are intended to be focused on the roadway itself, so the pavement, the sidewalk, um, the landscape areas, and any sort of green stormwater infrastructure that goes in those landscape areas.

Um signage is more with geared towards safety, and those uh guidance documents that govern safety, uh, you've heard of a bunch of them, you know, M U T C D, we use NACTO as guidance documents, et cetera, et cetera.

Um, those uh we absolutely there's there's requirements that must be followed.

Um, and so our traffic engineer when he's looking at application of signage to roadways, um, starts with safety first.

Okay.

My second question is that we have 229 projects.

And I asked the question, the dates.

So I pulled out this uh attachment one and I looked at active projects, and there are 22 projects that are active projects on this thing that are 10 years old.

And I wonder why.

Why are they still here?

What can be done to eliminate 21 of them that are 10-year-old, there's nine that are nine years old.

We have a lot of old projects here.

And um, if we could what can we do to get these type of projects off your list and make the workload easier and spend less money?

They're active projects now, so we're spending time and effort on those particular projects.

Some of them are large and long-scale, long-range projects that will absolutely take several years to design and work through issues and come up with funding plans.

Um, other projects uh are lingering because a few years back we got ourselves into a situation where um, as we've discussed in the past, there were a lot of projects that were um in the CIP that we just did not have the staffing resources to complete.

So our goal over last year and continuing into this year, you'll see a trend of completing more projects than we are starting new projects with an attempt to um essentially dig us out of this hole.

Would it be possible to give us a stage of completion on some of these older projects?

Sure.

Okay.

Um if you want to give me a list, we can follow up with that information.

Because we have one here from 2004, and it's the Huff Park Restroom.

And I am glad to say that it got completed this year.

So that was one that we can consider done.

So okay.

And my last question for you is what can the council do in guidance to help your department re-evaluate a lot of these projects, the 229, and give you the flexibility to reprioritize these items, including the council's work plan to get things done in a more efficient and quicker manner so that you can get that list from 290 to something that's more reasonable.

All guidance that we receive from the council is valuable.

It helps us prioritize our projects.

Other things that we look at include outside influences, such as have we received grant funding, right?

Those shoot to the top because they have grant deadlines.

Um, is there other external influences other than council work plan items that need to be considered?

Um so all of that gets taken into effect when we look at how to prioritize projects.

Um, as for what can you do to help?

I would say that your continued support of staff is greatly appreciated.

You know, we do have a lot of workload on our on our plates.

We're doing the best we can.

We try to tell the story of how we're advancing and making our way um through this giant list of things to deliver for you.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember McAllister.

Councilmember Showwalter, is this still questions?

Yeah, I just remembered one that I forgot to ask.

And that's um uh related to the Evelyn, the Evelyn corridor, you know, the bike path.

And um I think I've asked this before, and I've been given an answer, but that I didn't like, but I think I'm gonna ask it again just in case.

And that is is it possible to create a bike path on Evelyn kind of on the railroad side that's two way?

Because on our side, you know, on the other side of the street, there's all these, you know, across uh there's all these streets that come in, there's driveways, there are all these things that you know that interfere with a bike path or a bank.

But if you could put it two-way on the other side, you know, that would just be so much nicer.

Thank you for the question, Councilmember Show Walter.

I think what you're referring to is commonly called a cycle track, and that is what Sunnyvale is looking at doing.

So as we look at how we're going to butt up our project and merge um our project to Sunnyvale's, we will absolutely be looking at that as a as an option.

Excellent.

Thank you.

You ask and you get the answer you want.

Um don't forget, please remember to unclick when you say your questions.

Um next is Councilmember Kamei.

Uh great.

Okay, so um I just have a question for staff about our like how Vision Zero interfaces with the CIPs we adopt.

So I know we adopted the action plan, the safety plan.

Um, you know, that's more like the plans, policies, procedures of what we do, but I feel like recently council gets feedback on why are you doing this project, or um, I don't like this, but it all is a lot of it is to tie into our larger plans that we're adopting, like vision zero.

Um, and so I just wondered, and that's one of the seven E's, right?

The engineering part of the Vision Zero plan.

Um, so I was just wondering is there a way for us as we're looking at our certain CIP projects to be able to either have like a column or something where we can have that highlighted.

I think it would be really helpful as staff was mentioning to um support these projects that are going forward for us to help on that education component of why certain elements may be added, or I don't know if staff has any comments on that, but that's just one of the things I was thinking about is Councilmember Show Walter brought off the safe roots to school.

Um it can be maybe a you know answered later, but yeah, is the question how to um tag essentially certain projects uh if they fall under the umbrella of vision zero.

We currently do um you'll see on the featured projects page and and even um throughout the document that we have before you tonight, we've tried to flag those projects which have active transportation improvements.

Um I don't know if you're looking for a combination of both active transportation and vision zero, or if you're looking for something.

And underneath which cat tell me which category is so the in the various attachments.

Which how is it tagged, or how can I find that?

Let me pull up a page for you as an example.

Okay.

Because I went through the document and you know, I don't know.

Yeah, so if we look at attachment five, which is the pretty pink one.

Hold on, hold on.

We've specifically called out in a column those projects which have active transportation elements, what we anticipate those elements to be.

So I see the elements.

I guess I just didn't see anything tagged.

Vision zero.

But if it's an active transportation element, is that considered vision zero?

I don't active transportation is really more focused on how people get around vision zero is really more focused on you know, safety and getting to zero accidents.

So if we're looking to distinguish between the two, um, I don't have a specific column right now for vision zero projects.

Right.

So that was the crux of my question is you know, we had we adopted that in 24.

I think we're implementing that, but finding a way for the the public and therefore council to be able to champion those projects and to be sharing that to keep the document, I would call it maybe more more evergreen, right?

You adopt something and we're we're adhering to it, but I think that that that would that would just be that's the question that I had.

It sounds like staff is tracking it, and if there's a way for it to be perhaps more apparent, because I looked through all the touches and I didn't see that.

We absolutely do refer back to the vision zero document as we are creating projects.

Um I think the trick, as you mentioned, to trying to capture how we do that in projects um on our spreadsheets without making it look too cluttered is that's sort of the trick, right?

So yeah, let me look at um how we might be able to do so simply um and get back.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Kamei.

Seeing no other questions, we will now move move to comments by council, which should include feedback on the question on the questions staff pose in the staff report.

And the question was does council support the staff recommendations for projects in the draft fiscal year 2026-27 CIP or have any suggested changes.

We will begin with council member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um first uh I appreciate the questions submitted um and uh provided by uh council colleagues, uh a lot of uh important information and um some food for thought.

Um I don't have any questions, I just had um a few comments.

Uh first at a high level, I support the staff recommendations and want to call out a couple in particular.

The first is um I wasn't sure how to care characterize them other than as sort of general administrative updates, but those were the the f efforts described in the staff report uh to increase transparency, clarity, and simplicity, uh closing out, making it uh uh a concerted effort to close out projects as Councilmember McAllister was uh describing.

That's the concern I've I've had in the past too.

Um and uh I think staff has done a phenomenal job to to do that.

So I I uh want to commend you for that work.

I think it is um that this is a tough item for the council, I'm sure you can appreciate.

There's a lot of attachments.

The um council member um uh Show Walter and I were just talking about the very small print.

My eyes are not as good as they used to be, and so you have to blow things up to see you know what all is happening in the city.

And there's a lot happening.

I don't um uh uh envy you uh the the responsibility of uh monitoring and uh making progress on so many projects.

Um so any any work that you're doing to make our jobs easier and understanding uh the capital improvement program and also increase the uh the transparency and clarity to the public is good.

So thank you for doing that.

Um I uh as men members of the public uh and and council have done, I want to uh uh highlight and praise the inclusion of the standard uh details update.

Um I was joking with someone at work uh uh earlier.

Um there aren't many people who would be very excited to see update to the standard details.

Um but we are wonky and technical, and it's you know it's a very important thing.

One of the things that that council members have struggled with for many years, the my entire time on council is um when we are talking about development outside of a precise plan, we have limited ability to make changes to things like the streetscape.

Um so this is the way to do that.

Um I uh I like to break the fourth wall.

I envy you who are running for city council uh because you will be the beneficiaries of our work today.

And I'm sorry that we this council that is departing won't have the opportunity to provide a lot of input into that.

But I'm grateful to the staff for uh including that in the capital improvement program.

And and um as a relatively high priority.

This is not something we're talking about, you know, five years out.

This is something that you're gonna begin working on very soon.

It's very exciting work.

Um the last thing I want to uh call out is um uh the the unfortunate news that uh three of the five budgeted positions in trans transportation planning are vacant, uh and that diminishes our ability to achieve council and community goals.

I know there's a lot of good work to recruit and um uh full you know fill those those uh those positions, but in the meantime it means projects that we have to do a little bit of triage.

Um and I don't remember if this was last year or two years ago, but I remember making a valiant effort and failing uh to uh postpone or uh uh eliminate the Terabella uh Avenue bikeway feasibility study, which I don't think is anyone's high priority right now.

There are a lot of important things that I would personally rather see completed sooner, like the active transportation plan, like the transportation demand management ordinance, um, like the higher priority um uh bicycle facilities, including Merramonti and others uh that the community has been uh very uh aggressively advocating for terra bella has never once been elevated as a community priority.

So I would um I'm not good if other council members want to join me, you know, in my once again valiant effort to try and postpone or or uh eliminate that program entirely.

I'd welcome that.

Um but that's that's one thing.

I think if we're if we're if you have two staff, right, and we're down three, um, we we have to we have to pick and choose.

Uh we can't expect the staff to uh advance every project in this uh very ambitious um project schedule expeditiously when we just don't have the people to do it.

So with that, I will say I support the staff recommendations.

Um I think this is excellent work and very exciting work.

Um I'm I'm a little sorry I won't be around to um to see it executed.

Um but um I'm uh very proud of the work that we've done over the past several years to to bring us to this point and very proud of the staff for uh for uh achieving the goals that you've been able to achieve thus far.

Um I do I would like you know council input on the terabella project in particular um but um I'm not gonna fall on that sort um if uh if no one else stands up for it or stands up to oppose it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Ramirez.

You could always come back after two years, Councilmember Schwalter.

That's right, and even if you're not on the council, we would welcome you for public comment any time you want to come.

Uh um wouldn't we?

Yes.

Uh I would I I would like to sort of follow up on uh council member Ameris's um uh congratulations on this report.

It was easy to read.

I mean it it it took a long time because there is a lot in it.

But I mean, for instance, I don't know, the folks at home can see we had six pages of this sort of single spaced, but by alternating the colors, uh I don't know what the type font is on this.

This is an eight and a half by eleven.

I I think it doesn't pass the rules for many uh not ADA compliant.

It's not ADA compliant.

But that said, you know, the use of color and that kind of thing, that did make it easier to read, so I appreciated that.

And on the ones that were I I had to print them out.

I I it was it was too small on my little iPad screen.

Um, but but on this one, you know, it with the the color helped a lot and um helps folks.

So thank kudos to that.

I think the way things are laid out um does make a difference in how easy it is to absorb the information.

So it you know that that that counts.

Um I uh I too basically think that um I'm very supportive of um what is suggested here.

And I was delighted to hear kind of the groundswell of support of the standard details.

It is a very kind of engineering geeky thing, but it's very important, and it's kind of like um the objective standards that we need to have for for um our housing and zoning development.

Um so it's it's it's good and and I think it will be very helpful.

Um the the one conceptual thing I wanted to bring up is artificial turf.

And um it's it's uh we do have a number of projects where we are um working on replacing uh fields that have um artificial turf.

And there's apparently the the current practice is to replace um uh with what's there uh going forward.

But I think that we do need to have a community conversation about um about artificial turf.

Uh the there are pros and cons to it.

There are certain places where it allows you to use the land where you probably wouldn't at all.

For instance, the shoreline athletic fields, which are on top of um a landfill cell, you wouldn't be able to have a field there if you had something that had to be watered, period.

So um, you know that that's that that to me that's a place where we'll probably need to have artificial turf or something very different from regular grass uh pretty much forever if we're gonna use that as a field.

But um, I'm not so sure that's the case, other places, and I I would I really do think that we should be having a community conversation about that.

So I wanted to bring that up as a comment.

And um uh then uh the other thing I was gonna say is that um you you do do uh as part of your projects, you don't just do engineering.

I mean, you you do a lot of planning and you do public outreach, and you do, you know, you do um all of all of those things.

So I I was pleased to see that you mentioned those, that that was a important part of your job, um, because I do think that how um how the city brings all these um all this expertise to bear on a single project or or or that we're or issue that we're moving forward on is really important, and it's important to share with the community what we're doing.

So I I was pleased to see that you mentioned those, that that was a important part of your job, um, because I do think that how um how the city brings all these um all this expertise to bear on a single project or or or that we're or issue that we're moving forward on is really important, and it's important to share with the community what we're doing, and I hope that you feel like you have the breadth of expertise, you know, like on public outreach or various things available to you so that you know you can do the best job possible, and um I I think that's important.

And um then I um I just want to say keep up the good work.

Thank you, Councilmember Schulwalter, Councilmember Hicks.

So I'll start off by saying thank you for uh you know the comprehensive report that was you know maybe a little difficult to read, but much easier than it would have been if it had been um presented differently.

Um and also that I do support the staff recommended projects.

Um and then uh as for what previous uh speakers have said, previous council members, I I would um I I would go along with eliminating the Terabella project if other council members agreed, and also I do agree that we should have a community conversation on artificial turf.

Um so in addition, I thought I would have a really unique comment to make when I um when I said I was really I was gonna say I was really excited by the Mountain View Standard Detail update that you've put on the um as one of the projects, but I can see absolutely everybody saying that, so that makes me happy.

Not and people have said it's uh very kind of wonky and so forth, and but the council is that kind of body, but it's our public as well.

Like how many members of the public spoke up for it.

So I guess I'll just I'll say in addition to being excited about it, I want to br highlight a few details about it that I think are important and why um members of the public and maybe council as well are excited.

I think that this is really good timing, although okay, it's the standard details are are very out of date.

So in that way, maybe not good timing.

But that we are uh in the midst of updating our our parks and rec plans, so parks, I know standard details are about streets, but I'll link it in, don't worry.

Um so we're updating our parks, our biodiversity and urban forestry, and our active transportation plan.

So all of these things I think interface with the standard details and that the standard details are can be a vehicle for delivering some of the things that members of our community really want, like more uh trees and canopy in particular over our sidewalks and bikeways, so that during those hot days it's comfortable to walk and and bike.

Or uh or uh buffers, landscape buffers on very car-intensive roads so that we feel comfortable again walking or biking there.

Um other things like uh bioswales and other landscaping for drainage to prevent um flooding, um, let's see what else.

Uh pocket parks if there's excess roadway in some place, uh linear parks uh through possible uh lane reallocation if there's that much extra room, both in the streetscape and uh beside it.

I think there's a number of things that we can pull out of of the standard details, and I like that you said that we could have multiple possibilities, context sensitive, and I'm hoping that we can have enough public and council interaction with it, because I do with the plans, and I hope that they'll be gone ongoing over the years, because I do think that it's I mean, I guess you can tell from the public testimony and the email we've received, it's one of the things how we use our streetscapes is one of the things that um people are very interested in.

Um see if I had anything in addition to that.

You know, I'm just gonna also call out what uh council member McAllister has said from time to time, that um that sometimes some of our projects seem a little over-engineered.

To me, sometimes there's maybe um maybe a little too much concrete, too much signage, which you said is not a part of the um of these particular guidelines, but that if we can lean a little more into green infrastructure and a little maybe lean a little less into some of those things, I think it would make members of the public very happy.

So those are my comments.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Hicks.

Councilmember McAllister.

Yeah, thank you.

So uh I just wanted to uh before I bring up my first ones.

I do agree with council member Show Walter about the turfs.

Uh we need to have a conversation.

Uh the staff report did say that they are not recommending them at the time or doing it, but that was uh that was a concern I and I appreciate you bringing that up.

Uh we cannot talk about CIP projects without talking about project number 1454, and that's my favorite McKelvey ballpark.

And getting some benches and getting that resolved so that people can enjoy it that when we put on league tournaments and so forth, the people appreciate coming to Mountain View and able to see the ball game.

So every opportunity I usually do to write, but yes, 1454.

Hopefully that's on your calendar to get or radar.

Um going back with my feelings that I support the staff report, but I also like to be able to say to get some of these done, get them off.

Uh there were some projects that we were talking about that goes in one where it comes up that's five-year projects, but I would like to see a concerted effort that somebody reviews and says, This is dead, this isn't going anywhere.

Let's clear up the clutter because I think it's a distraction potentially to what's is important to us.

Um my focus on CIP projects is infrastructure, parks, roads, streets, water lines, mains, public facilities, parks.

Those are to me are important because that benefits the whole city.

And we have a very passionate group of people that speak up on active transportation and bike lanes and et cetera.

And that's important, but I don't think it is as important as addressing the concerns of the whole community.

We have 85,000 people that we need to look out for, and we need to make sure that their life, their quality of life, is listened to, even though it's not here at the council meeting, but it's out there that people are talking about.

Let's take care of our streets, take care of all the other necessary things that keep us safe.

So keeping that in mind.

Thank you, Councilmember McAllister.

Councilmember Kameh.

Great.

Thanks.

Um, just want to echo colleagues' thanks to to staff.

Um really appreciated um how the information was presented and just all the hard work that goes into it.

Thankfully, we sit on the council transportation committee so we get to see some of these and get some previews of some of the projects.

Um, so I think um I'm not sure I want to pull any of the threads that my colleagues brought up yet.

Um, but I I did want to call out um thank you for finding ways for us to just highlight the vision zero, wanna um double tap on council member showalter's comments on the complete streets, because I think council members we can we get well, we get a lot of comments on on that as well.

And then um just wanted to provide just a brief comment on the historic preservation ordinance project, which is um just wanted to highlight that as we're looking at the various elements and actions that will go into that, making sure that like language accessibility, ADA accessibility is built into that um for our residents.

Umward to when this comes back as a final action.

I feel like a lot of these things we've been talking about for a long time.

Um, but I can see the progress, and I'm like, I'm very excited and heartened to know that when this comes forward next year, you're gonna have all these things um on the completed list for council member McAllister.

Yeah.

Thank you, Councilmember Kamei.

Um, with no other comments, I'll go into mine.

Um I will agree with uh uh council member McAllister's elevation of uh McKelvey ballpark.

I am I'm happy to join you with a shovel as well.

Let's go.

Um I um I'm also I'm I guess another one of the plus ones for the standard detail update.

Um I would love to get that through.

I also would like to elevate the the conversation about artificial turf.

Um it it's not something like I I know we we had some people advocate to us to put down in our you know our council priorities, and and clearly none of us did um because we we we want to elevate different priorities, but the idea of like just continuing and then adding artificial turf in our CIP is kind of doesn't feel great kind of thing.

Like it's one thing to be like, okay, we're gonna actively like study and work on like this issue on artificial turf.

It's another thing to be like, yeah, we're happy to just let it happen, and we're like, I'm I'm not I'm not there.

Um and I guess I am also okay with killing the the terabella bikeway.

I I I um I we could delay it um if that's also kind of an issue.

I'm not entirely sure.

It it feels kind of weird to kill a bikeway.

Um so that that um I'm okay with opening up that that conversation there.

Um, but I guess uh oh, I see council member Kamei in the comments.

Oh no, that's done.

Councilmember Clark.

Oh, it was just um just to chime in overall.

I I'm fine with the staff recommendation, uh, and I don't I have some reservations about completely removing the terabella bike way.

Um we uh my thoughts behind that initially was that um you know we we are putting in housing, including subsidized housing, uh, and that is kind of the main thoroughfare in and out.

And I think that I think it would be short-sighted to um to just completely axe that so whether in terms of prioritization, you know, I think there are other projects.

Uh I I would agree with my colleagues that there are other projects that probably more at higher priority than that, but um, I think we would do a disservice to the future residents of that area if we um just completely take that off the map.

I think I think it needs to be understood long term that our plan is to um connect that area, those areas that we're increasing our housing in um to ensure that they have the proper connectivity to get over to shoreline to middle field to access the the services that they need because there aren't a lot of services in that um that neighborhood today without being able to get to Shoreline Middlefield and those other areas.

So I I don't know what the in terms of prioritization, I'm fine with changing the priorities there.

I just don't want that to get lost in the ether.

Thank you, Councilmember Clark.

I'm assuming in response to that, Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Maybe a question for staff.

Would staff um feel comfortable with placing that project on the unscheduled list uh pending uh resources and council prioritization?

Would that be reasonable?

We can certainly defer this particular project.

Um the consultants has already been uh under contract for this project and started some of the outreach with the surveys and such for the terabella bikeways.

Um however, due to staff resourcing, um that effort has sort of been put to the side uh in favor of advancing our higher profile projects such as our TDM ordinance and our active transportation plan.

So it is entirely feasible to push this project off and defer it.

Um moving it to unscheduled, I'm not sure exactly how that works when a portion of the project is completed and uh a portion of the funding has already been spent.

Uh so would uh staff would be comfortable with deferral pending resources and okay.

That seems reasonable to me.

Can I just ask how that's any different from what you're already doing?

I guess it sounds like you've kind of already so well versed in this that you've probably already taken those particular actions.

So I guess I'm not sure us telling you to defer it even more really does anything, but yeah, in in my mind it's really a question of how long to defer.

Um we've already had to triage um like uh ER room uh with all of the work that's on the transportation team and the limited bandwidth that they have.

So um, you know, at such time as we get fully staffed, we would be looking at pulling this back up to the front because it is a partial work completed type of situation, but if you were to tell me that you wanted to defer it out, you know, several more years, I would certainly take that into consideration.

All right.

Um I don't know if um so now we're at the point where I get to ask staff the summary of the majority of council direction.

Where did we land, staff?

I am looking at my notes.

Um for the most part, uh we are seeing support for the staff recommendation.

A couple of things that came up that seem to uh resonate uh with the majority of you, include uh discussion around timing of the Terabella bikeways project.

Um for elimination and some for a deferral.

Um and then there were multiple comments around having a community conversation on the use of artificial turf.

Does that sound right to everyone?

Councilmember McAllister.

Does that sound right to everyone?

Is that okay, Councilmember?

Oh I was gonna vote with you.

Councilmember Show Walter.

I would just follow it, just sounds like that there this um project is underway, and I think we should just defer to the judgment of the um public work staff about about when to uh provide resources to it.

I I don't think we need to do that from the the dias.

I mean, we've talked about how from our point of view uh nobody's clamoring for it.

And yet, on the other hand, if work has started, um that's important.

And the other thing that that um council member Clark, um Vice Mayor Clark said that's very important is that we do uh expect to have quite a bit more housing there, although it's not in the short term necessarily, and um, but not too long term, and the bike lanes will be important.

So I I just feel like you know we can defer to staff uh uh staff judgment.

All right.

Before we get to Vice Mayor Clark, we have City Manager McCarthy.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I would just like to ask um assistant city manager Audrey Seymour to provide some context on the work that staff has been doing with quite a few of the business owners along Terrabella just to provide some context as to what is going on versus what's been paused.

Uh thank you, City Manager Audrey Seymour, assistant city manager.

Um there are uh a number of large property owners and businesses on Terrabella that have contacted the city with concern about traffic safety, um uh the circulation for their employees coming to and leaving their sites, um, and that that is impacted by um concentration of parking by oversized vehicles.

And they um did uh participate in the initial outreach that um Public Works Director Ing mentioned has been started about the potential um use and need for bike lanes in the area, and I know that they have interest in that um uh as as one of the constituents in in the area.

All right, Vice Mayor Clark.

Yeah, so I I don't know where we'll end up with a majority, but uh my preference would be to kind of leave this at the discretion of staff.

And the thing that the ultimate outcome is you know it's uh at least the the ultimate goal from my perspective is that by the time that housing gets built.

Which is gonna take a few years.

Um because we've we've just been approving some of those entitlements and there are second phases to some of these things that you know the folks who live there, it you that this ultimately gets done.

You're reasonably close to when um some of that housing farther down Terra Bella is actually occupied because it isn't sustainable.

The business concerns aside.

Um I would not I would not want to be a resident there who isn't strongly encouraged to to bike walk through all those things, and I can't do that on a what ends up being a very busy street, uh especially a couple of times a day with lines of RVs where there's just you're you're forced to just go with traffic, right?

So I think the long term I think it's just really important that we have uh safe facilities there when that housing comes online.

And that's that's what was driving the timing in my mind.

So thank you, Vice Mayor Clark.

Um City Manager McCarthy, are you still in the queue?

Okay, Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor.

I guess uh this will be the last effort I make on this.

I'm I'm a little sad that we said the quiet part out loud that the the bike lane is it's it's the pretext for getting rid of the RVs in the area.

There are a lot of RV.

Well, that's sure.

And and there are safety concerns also near that school where the representatives have come time and again every council meeting to express similar concerns, and we're not talking about a bike lane there, where there are actual students going every day to school.

I so um if we want to use the bike lanes to get rid of the RVs, the future council will have extraordinary ability to do that.

Um, and that's fine.

But we've heard extensively from the community about a bunch of different, I think higher priority areas, including Marimonte and Moffitt and Middlefield and Shoreline, and we've really struggled with transportation planning, in part because we don't have enough people.

If we had five people, I wouldn't have said anything, but we have two of five.

And I think our um attempt to try and get all of the things through has not worked because we don't have the capacity to do it.

Um so that that's that's why in a previous version of this conversation I suggested this is not the priority that we're hearing from residents.

There aren't a lot of people who live there today.

There's not like the same business intensity that we have in in other parts of the city.

It doesn't strike me as a high priority.

There are other areas where there are RVs that would love a bike lane too.

I have a hard time personally prioritizing this and expending staff capacity on this area when we've struggled immensely in other parts of the city, but I will leave it at that.

That's something that the next council gets to take care of.

Thank you.

The staff have what they need.

I'm sorry, what was the question?

The staff, the staff have what they need is um for artificial, I mean for terabella, yes.

Um, do we want to come back to artificial turf?

Okay.

Do uh council member Kameh.

Great, thank you.

Um at this time I don't I don't feel comfortable adding or subtracting from RCIP list.

And so I welcome when this comes back for final action, if at that time there staff can evaluate and see if there's anything they would want to remove or add, because I'm hearing some ideas of what could be removed.

I'm hearing some things what could be added.

I think hopefully in a compromise, you we could just turn to staff and say, is there anything that you all recommend?

Um maybe for deprioritization or prioritization.

I'm open to that.

However, adding anything at this point when there are already 221 projects just doesn't feel like the the appropriate time for in in my experience um or my point of view, but um, so that's why I would prefer not to take a strumble on it.

If we do, I will vote no, and that's why.

Thank you.

Councilmember Show Walter.

Well, although I think that the that you know, this is a kind of because there are artificial turf involved in projects we're moving forward with.

Um I I think that it's not necessarily uh a um a CIP project.

It's it's um another kind of work plan project.

And I'm not sure when is the appropriate time to be talking about that.

So I'm looking to the city manager, rather she has an answer from Thank you, Councilmember Showalter.

So I think this um has more of a nexus with the parks and recreation strategic plan.

Um there are various um things in the works, like for example, the Las Altos School District, 10th school site.

Um you mentioned the shoreline athletic fields.

Um, and I know that our community services director has more context.

And I also know that uh we've received feedback as staff from a lot of the youth sports groups about it.

So I would ask our community services director to just let council know what's in the park rations, parks and rec strategic plan, and then I think um as council member Kame said, staff can figure out how to perhaps weave this topic into what we're already planning on working on.

Good evening, John Marshaunt Community Services Director.

Uh thank you, City Manager.

Uh, thank you, council, for for the questions.

And uh in regards to the parks and recreation strategic plan, we have not identified a specific use of synthetic turf versus natural.

Basically, as the QA stated to the question asked, is at this time moving forward, we are not looking to add any new net new artificial turf, but looking to replace in kind with what we have.

And as far as moving forward, I don't know if you have seen some of the other agencies that have taken on this item.

Typically, it is a very long process.

And so we are in this case under a timeline in relation to Crittenden.

This is a school district repair that is necessary for safety.

And so the timeline is coming upon us to do that.

And the fact that it also has lights, the number of youth sports organizations that utilize that site.

If it if we were to try to change that dynamic at this point, it would be a significant delay to getting that done.

And so that needs to be taken into consideration as we we look to schedule this item.

Okay.

The staff have what they need.

All right.

With that, we have a two-minute break essentially before regular session starts at 6 30.

I'm just gonna extend that to about five minutes.

So we'll come back at 6 33.

Um see you guys then.

All right, we're gonna get back into the council meeting.

Yay us.

So good evening, everyone.

Welcome to the joint meeting of the Mountain View City Council and Shoreline Regional Park Community of April 14th, 2026.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

All right.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, great job, everyone.

Now the city clerk will take attendance by roll call.

Councilmember Hicks here.

Councilmember Kamei here.

Councilmember McAllister.

Councilmember Ramirez?

Here.

Councilmember Showalter.

Here.

Vice Mayor Clark.

Here.

Mayor Ramos?

Yes.

All right.

Thank you.

In recent weeks, the city, along with a few of our neighboring elected decision making bodies, have been subject to disrupted, disruptive racial racist verbal attacks by anonymous callers during virtual public comments.

The city of Mountain View is fully committed to racial, religious, and cultural equity and justice as we strive to create a welcoming, safe and inclusive community for all.

The council welcomes respectful, non-threatening public comments on matters within our jurisdictions.

Comments deemed otherwise, pursuant to the council code of conduct and the government code may be grounds for terminating a speaker's comment period.

We will now move on to presentations.

Please note there are these are presentations only.

The city council will not take any action.

Public comment will occur after the presentation items.

If you would like to speak on these items in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now.

So now we will uh go to item 3.1 teen month proclamation.

Yay.

So we are happy to be joined this evening by the youth advisory committee chair.

Uh Shahan Raja Sekunren.

I hope I really got that right.

Um and Vice Chair Sophia Liu to accept this proclamation.

Commissioners, will you join me on the dais?

I mean, right there on the podium.

As soon as I find it, here we go.

Found it.

All right.

The proclamation reads whereas youth and teens account for approximately 20% amount of the Mountain View population and play a vital role in shaping the character and future of our community.

And teens represent an often untapped resource with diverse perspectives and innovative ideas that can contribute to positive change and help strengthen our community and you can like stand right here.

Whereas recognizing, including and amplifying the voices of teens empower them to become leaders and change makers in our community and beyond, and the contributions of teens in student-based organizations and youth committees are invaluable as they lead initiatives addressing critical areas such as educational access, mental well-being, climate action, and the promotion of inclusion and diversity.

And whereas since 2017, the youth advisory committee has championed Teen Week, now Teen Month, as an annual celebration designed to showcase the talents and creativity, intellect, activism, and overall well-being of Mountain View's teens, while underscoring their immense value to our community.

And Teen Month emphasizes the importance of celebrating teens and fostering positive connections among teens, families, schools, organizations, businesses, and community leaders, and whereas in recognition of Teen Month, teens can attend teen only events, including a simple sewing and clothing repair workshop.

Oh, that sounds like fun.

Um, and dodgeball and donuts, while community members can show their support by attending the Teen Art Showcase, Cultural Diversity Fair, and Teen Open Mike Night.

Um, now, therefore, I, Emily Ann Ramos, Mayor of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of April as Teen Month in the City of Mountain View and encourage all residents to recognize, celebrate, and support the youth who strengthen our community today and will lead it tomorrow.

All right, congratulations.

You're gonna invite them all to you if we might, right?

Yes.

All right.

Thank you, Ellen.

Um we are happy to be joined this evening by Clara Hubble, Chief Operating Officer and Founder of the United Effort, and Eddie Chong, volunteer usher at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts to accept this proclamation.

Claire and Eddie, will you join me?

Okay, Claire.

Oh, there you are.

Thank you, Edie.

Okay, so the proclamation reads, whereas volunteers generally share generously share their time and talents across the city of Mountain View programs and facilities, including park beautification, ushering tutoring activity leaders, docent, front desk support, and serving as community greeters, thereby enhancing the quality of life in Mountain View, and volunteers serve as an essential partners to city departments and local organizations, helping deliver critical services, expand access to opportunities, and ensure programs that remain inclusive, effective, and responsive to community needs, and whereas volunteers advance literacy and lifelong learning at the Mountain View Public Library, preserve local history and culture through the service at Deer Hollow Farm and Ranksdorf House, and strengthen community engagement through the arts, recreation, and environmental education programs through the city programs and youth engagement remains a cornerstone of city's volunteer efforts with teens participating in structured programs such as Teen Volunteer Summer Program, where participants develop leadership skills while supporting recreation and environmental education initiatives, and whereas the city hosts a biannual volunteer fairs that strengthen connections between prospective volunteers and community organizations, broaden volunteer participation, and encourage residents of all ages to engage in meaningful service, and the city gratefully recognizes the dedication of volunteers serving at Deer Hollow Farm, the Mountain View Public Library, Shoreline at Mountain View, the Mountain View Center Performing Arts, and Rankstorf House, and the Mountain View Senior Center, the View Teen Center, Citywide Special Events, and through programs such as Cool Block Leaders, Police Explorers, Kindness Ambassadors, and the Community Emergency Response Team.

And whereas National Volunteer Week provides an opportunity to celebrate and honor invaluable contribution volunteers bring to our community now.

Therefore, I, Emily Ann Ramos, Mayor of the City of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the City Council to hereby proclaim April 12 through April 18th as National Volunteer Week in the City of Mountain View.

Oh, we have two.

Yay!

Okay.

Um so Claire, Edie, would you like to say a few words?

Oh, thank you, Speaker.

Oh, sure.

My name is Claire Hubel, and I'm honored to accept this volunteer proclamation on behalf of the United Effort Organization.

Our organization works in a volunteer capacity with members of the community who are homeless or unstably housed, helping them navigate a complex system of benefits, services, and housing opportunities.

Since our inception, we've always been a volunteer-driven organization.

As such, we have seen the benefits of volunteering not just for our community, but for our volunteers themselves.

Several of our key volunteers are former clients who have found their involvement with our organization has given a sense of purpose and meaning to their lives, keeping keeping them engaged and giving them a family of people working towards a common goal.

We're thankful to be part of a community in Mountain View that appreciates and recognizes the value of volunteering for all those involved.

Thank you.

And we are so grateful.

We're grateful for the diversity of programs that are presented at the theater.

We're grateful for the diversity of the patrons who come to our theater.

I saw your your mayor on Sunday reading the group called the The Lynx, and it was a group of African American women who are belong to a sorority and from various colleges, but uh they're based now in South San Jose.

And they presented uh concert or recital for 13 young people who came from all over the Bay area.

And it's such a thrill to have people come from everywhere and be so impressed and pleased with what you have to offer us.

And we are so grateful to get to have that diversity of people who who come to us.

Sometimes we have in our group of seven people who were ushering or being the house managers that day.

One was an immigrant from Hungary, one was an immigrant from Romania, and one was an immigrant from Iran.

And I think how fortunate I am to be able to go and interact with these people.

Uh not only the ones who come as clients, but the ones who come as patrons, and certainly the ones who come as volunteers.

So thank you so much for uh acknowledging the volunteers that I get to represent this evening.

Oh, even handled the power outage too.

Yes.

All right, the proclamations are keep them coming.

We have a lot to celebrate.

Um, so 3.3 arts, culture, and creativity month proclamation.

We are happy to be joined this uh evening by Adriana Marisal, executive director of the Community School of Music and Arts to accept this proclamation.

Adriana, will you join me at the lector?

Hi.

All right.

Where this oh, where's the proclamation?

Thank you.

All right.

Whereas the 2026 Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month in April marks the eighth annual statewide celebration of this vital role that arts and culture play in enriching communities throughout California, recognizing themes joy, action, and power, and the city of Mountain View recognizes that arts and culture are essential public goods that foster civic pride, strengthen neighborhood identity, and contribute to the social and economic vitality of our community.

And the City of Mountain View recognizes that arts and culture are essential public goods that foster civic pride, strengthen neighborhood identity, and contribute to the social and economic vitality of our community.

And whereas the City of Mountain View's commitment to public art enhances public spaces, reflects shared values, and makes art accessible to all residents and visitors through permanent installations, temporary exhibitions, and community-driven projects.

And the city's visual arts committee advance public art initiatives that integrate creativity into civic spaces, support local artists, and expand equitable access to cultural experiences and whereas arts education provide youth and lifelong learners with opportunities to develop creativity, confidence, collaboration, and critical thinking skills essential for success in school, work, and civic life.

And whereas the community school of music and arts in Mountain View has served the community for decades by providing high quality arts education, performances, exhibitions, and outreach programs that inspire thousands of students of all ages and backgrounds, and through its commitment to access inclusion, access inclusion, and artistic excellence.

The community school of music and arts strengthened Mountain View's cultural landscape and nurtures the next generation of artists, performers, and creative leaders.

Now, therefore, I, Emily Ann Ramos, Mayor of the City of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the City Council, to hereby proclaim April as Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month in the City of Mountain View and recognize the community school of music and arts for its outstanding contributions to arts education and cultural enrichment in our community.

Let's make some art.

Do you have any comments to say?

Sure.

Yes, they do.

Thank you so much.

On behalf of the community school of music and arts, we are honored to receive this proclamation from the City of Mountain View, especially during California's Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month.

The community school of music and arts has served Mountain View residents for 58 years.

It has grown from a grassroots organization led by just 10 volunteers committed to providing music lessons to youth to a seven million dollar widely respected arts organization with the reach across the Bay Area.

CSMA's success has been a large part due to deep support from the City of Mountain View and its residents who believe, as we do, that art strengthens a community and fosters a sense of pride and belonging.

Today, CSMA continues our mission of inspiring excellence through music and arts education for people of all ages and abilities, now serving 28,000 people annually, including 8,000 Mountain View residents.

In Mountain View, we provide low-cost arts and music for the Mountain View preschools, offer music and arts classes for teens and adults with disabilities through our artistic intelligence program.

And when only 11% of K through 12 students in the state of California receive arts education, we are very proud of our long-standing partnership with the Mountain View Wisman School District to provide art and music to all elementary students, TK through five during the school day.

Thank you so much to Mayor Emily Ramos and the council members for recognizing CSMA and for supporting arts education in our community.

Thank you so much.

In our next presentation, we have item 3.4, local investment plan presentation.

We are happy to be joined this evening by Greg Richardson, BTA Deputy General Manager, and Manolo Gonzalez Este, uh government affairs policy analyst for this presentation.

Welcome.

It is on now.

Um, thank you, Madam Mayor, and to the City Council and to the City Administration, thank you for giving us this opportunity uh to present to you.

Um I am Greg Richardson, as was said, Deputy General Manager for VTA, and I am joined actually by Sam Sargent, our director of strategy and transformation.

So he'll be joining me in this presentation.

For Sam and me, this is part of what we're referring to as our little concert tour, the spring tour, to introduce this draft investment plan related to the propos to the proposed regional transportation revenue measure.

Ideally to gain insight and solicit feedback from the cities and community groups directly impacted by the measure.

This evening we'll provide a little background, a framework of the draft investment plan, and seek feedback again, as we said on what's important to you as we continue to refine the plan.

Next slide, please.

So I'm trusting that each of you is aware of the role that VTA plays in the region, but just in case, this slide provides a brief snapshot reflecting our responsibilities in transit as the congestion management agency and as well as a funding partner.

And we fundamentally see VTA's role is connecting people to the things most important to them jobs, medical needs, school, and family and community.

Next slide.

She's good.

The City of Mountain View sees and experiences some of VTA's major transit service via bus and light rail options as shown here.

And it actually serves as a major connection for passengers traveling to Super Bowl 60, and we'll do the same for the upcoming six FIFA World Cup matches.

Additionally, the city and VTA have partnered and collaborated on projects in the Mountain View area, focused on multimodal solutions, with a few shown here as reference.

And you'll see these projects range from bike pit improvements to grade separation to local streets and roads and highway work.

And I would be remiss if I did not if I did not mention uh really how excited we are with the recent work and collaboration with the City of Mountain View on the Rangsdorf grade separation project.

Uh, we're very excited about how that's moving forward.

The next slide provides a brief summary of the fiscal elements of the regional measures specific to Santa Clara County.

The regional measure is designed as a citizens initiative, meaning that uh it requires a 50% plus one vote for approval rather than the two thirds.

Through our board, VTA was able to ensure a full return to source component with the measure, ensuring that over 84% of sales tax generated in Santa Clara County is returned to the county through VTA.

The 84% return is after contributions of 5.25% to MTC for uh transit transformation initiatives and administration, and then our obligation to help fund Caltrain capped at 10.38%.

And using the measure's base year of fiscal year 2031, this means that approximately 264 million dollars annually will come to the county through VTA to support transit in the region.

And it's at this point here that I'm going to turn it over to Sam uh to take you through the rest of the way.

Thank you.

Thank you, Greg.

Uh Sam Sargent, I serve as the Director of Strategy and Transformation here at VTA.

Next slide, please.

So this evening we're really talking about SP63, which was the name of the enabling legislation for the five county regional measure uh that the VTA board unanimously um agreed to be a part of back in August.

And I'd like to recognize that Chair Sergio Lopez is in the audience tonight.

But very important to wrap our minds around sort of what this money could be used for.

And so SP 63, different than measure A or Measure B, where you had a much broader range of investments that could be made.

Uh this is for public transit expenses and roadway repavement projects on roads served by fixed route transit.

So it's transit operations, transit-related capital, and roadway projects, so long as we've got a VTA bus or light rail line on that corridor.

Next slide.

And over the course of uh of a number of meetings, including a workshop on February 27th with our board.

We've got a second workshop uh this Friday to talk about local investment plan, which is what we're calling the Santa Clara County portion of the regional measure principles.

We've focused on outcomes, because we think whether it's for the regional measure or really any of the investments that VTA makes going forward, we want to be focused on outcomes that are measurable and are impactful to the people that we serve.

So we are focused on growing ridership, on increasing productivity so that we can be a more efficient system and make better use of taxpayer dollars and enhancing the customer experience, which can mean a lot of things, but I think for a lot of people, safety, security, and cleanliness come to mind.

And doing so in a way that's financially sustainable.

As Greg mentioned, this is a 14-year measure.

So, how can we make changes to the way that VTA delivers its service and conducts its business so that potentially we do not have to come back out to voters at the end of these 14 years?

How can we make a better VTA transit system with these new dollars?

Next slide.

We've also focused on three strategic areas.

So, foundation, which is leveraging our expertise and data to drive our decision making today, reimagine, which is modernizing our business model and improving our service delivery, including implementation of our visionary network, and transformation, which is new technologies and partnerships with the public and private sector to future proof the system.

Next slide.

And because this is an invitation for input.

This is not meant to be any kind of ask for an endorsement or any decision by this body this evening.

We want the public and we want our cities to be thinking about potential uses of these funds.

So we'll be organizing the local investment plan into these strategic areas.

And if you think about foundation, here's some of the things that we're talking about.

These are examples, bus corridor improvements, station upgrades, improvements to transit service and transit capital improvements.

Next slide.

Reimagine.

Again, the visionary network, which you at a highest level you can think about as how do we get more of our bus routes that are at 30 minute service to 15 or better, speed improvements to enable that type of service, which would be things like transit signal priority, fair programs for seniors and students, so that we can better serve a greater swath of Santa Clara County residents, including the next generation of transit riders, safety and security enhancements.

Next slide.

And then transformation.

How do we look at new technologies to drive a better customer experience, including the replacement of our light rail fleet, advanced vehicle technologies, and continuing to work on our transit-oriented development program?

Next slide.

And at the end of this process, which we will wrap up with our board in June, we will have something that looks like this.

And it will be a list of projects put into these categories, the percentage of revenues that would accrue to each of these program areas.

What are the three outcomes?

One, two, or three.

Hopefully many of these hit all three outcomes will these projects drive.

Now, what are the key performance indicators or KPIs for each of those projects?

Because we want to make sure that we can measure and manage this so that we can make course corrections as needed.

Next slide.

And we're with you tonight, just inviting that feedback.

We have our workshop on uh Friday.

We'll continue to refine in April and May, and then June 4th, our board will take action on the local investment plan.

And then I believe I'll close with uh a final slide.

And so just we want the city and we want the public to be engaged.

This is your plan.

We want this to mirror the needs of our communities.

They're very diverse in this county.

And investment.plan at VTA.org comes to a number of staff members, including myself.

The QR code goes to our landing page, and with that, uh Greg and I welcome any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um so uh we will now take public.

Oh, would any council would any member of the council like to say a few words?

Um, I guess about really any of the uh presentations.

Uh councilmember Ramirez.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh it's tricky, I think, because we've grouped together all of the presentations, and uh one of the four is uh substantially different from the others.

Um so I I'll uh confine my comments to uh the presentation by VTA staff.

And first I do want to appreciate uh you, uh Greg and Sam for the presentation uh and uh also recognize uh Manolo who I've had the pleasure of working with for many years.

You have a great team over at VTA.

Um I guess some high-level thoughts.

I I wish this were agendized a little bit differently, maybe more like a study session or or even an item for action to allow the council to provide um uh some uh input uh as a body rather than just sort of one-off ideas here and there.

Um so I would welcome staff's feedback for um if there is an opportunity for for us to do that.

Um but I did I did want to share uh at a high level on uh I I had the uh the privilege of uh serving on the uh citizen uh advisory uh group or committee.

It had multiple names uh way back in uh 2015 and 16 and had the opportunity to uh um participate in various public processes for the development of uh 2016 Measure B.

And that was an extensive process.

That was two years of work and maybe even a little bit longer.

Um I'm um I've been a little disheartened that there hasn't been the same um uh robust approach to uh soliciting input.

I know there are different circumstances, some of which are beyond the control of VTA, but um it's a very uh truncated time frame that you're working under.

Um and it I think it makes it hard for the uh the councils who I think would generally like to provide robust feedback and the communities to to participate in a meaningful way if you like it.

A lot of it is uh a little rushed and um less less than clear about how how best to participate, what kinds of input are actually useful and relevant.

Um, and uh I would love, I think maybe at a staff level to collaborate and figure out how we can do something a little bit more substantive than what you're likely to receive uh tonight.

Um but with that, uh the the one thing I did want to highlight was um uh we've uh done a lot locally, uh, and I'll I'll I'll be charitable.

I think you know there's um uh a recognition that um we could be better served by transit.

Um and because uh our uh residents and uh uh the major employers and and small businesses also uh have not uh received the the level of service that we would like to enjoy from VTA, uh we've really stepped up locally through the creation of the uh Mountain View uh Transportation Management Association and uh and have provided that that uh that service ourselves, right?

Uh through uh collaboration with major employers, uh through conditions of approval for development and also through local funding for the community shuttle.

Uh and if there's one thing I would love to see come out of this measure, it's um VTA stepping in saying, look, we're the experts on providing transit.

Um we're happy to to take on um that service and free up uh city funding for capital, right?

Uh or some other type of transportation uh uh enhancement investment.

So that that's if there's nothing else that comes of this, that's the one thing I would love to see.

Um I love the community shuttle.

Um I think it's a great service.

I hear nothing but good but uh good things from our our constituents, but it's uh it's a major operational cost um and it's ongoing and we don't really have a uh long-term strategy, I think for making sure that that um doesn't become uh you know an increasing burden on our general fund, especially if you know, as I hope we do someday we we decide to expand it, adding additional stops or uh increasing the frequency of service.

That's uh a core uh service provided by BTA.

You're the experts locally, we're not.

I think we do a great job, um, but I do hope that VTA uh is able to work with the city long after I'm gone from the council, I'm turning out just so you know, uh never to be seen or heard from again.

Um so I I would love to see uh VTA um to collaborate with the city uh and I would uh welcome ideas from uh from the staff or the mayor about uh ways we can provide um formal feedback as a body.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Ramirez, Councilmember Kamei.

Great, thank you.

Um so just a question on the information.

Is this when I scan the QR code, it goes to a site that's um 100% in English?

And you know, trying to serve our diverse populations.

Is there gonna be and it's just one question, which is and I can um please give us your thoughts on VTA's draft local investment plan for the potential five county regional sales tax measure in November 2026?

It it is very open-ended because for for for a lot of reasons, the website should have translation, but I will go back and confirm.

And when we've done our public meetings, we've obviously made sure to have the right translation.

But I I appreciate you calling that out because it's a if that's a problem.

So let me circle back and then I can share with city staff when we make that adjustment.

Okay, yeah, on your website, it's English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Okay.

Um when you scroll to the bottom of the join the SB63 conversation at a community meeting.

So um really appreciative of the conversation of VTA's staff being here, but I think I don't know if we're allowed to give comments, but that would be my if if open to it, I think for our our residents in the city of Mountain View, it'd be great to have it in we have a whole multi um uh like multilingual engagement program.

Um and we have different leadership academies that we provide, and so I think that that would be useful.

Also want to thank Councilmember McAllister for his service on the VTA board.

I'm sure he's bringing up these thoughts to all of you as well.

Um so uh I I also wanted to ask, so given um Councilmember Ramirez's um kind of questions, uh aside from joining a community meeting or the survey monkey question, are there other ways where we're residents that can provide input?

Is that something you'll be sharing with the 15 cities in the county?

Perhaps you could share a little bit of next with us.

Thank you.

Yeah, I think uh so uh uh Councilmember uh Ramirez and Kamei um uh great great points.

I think that a lot of the input is very broad in part because it is a very different type of measure.

I mean, but not only do we have a truncated uh period of time to take the engagement compared to a measure A or measure B, but the fact that it has a lot of breadth to it, and because Santa Clara County is in the fortunate position to be able to have a local investment plan because we're not putting all of the money into keeping the lights on at you know at our main transit agency, we have the ability to program it for something else.

And so um it's it is very broad, it is a little bit open-ended.

I think it's something that we can work on with both our the the web form, including making sure that it uh adheres to our language access policy, which we did during the public meetings, but I want to triple triple check because that's very, very important.

Um but it is meant to be broad, and in terms of how cities can provide input, they've done it in different ways.

The city of San Jose passed a resolution where they have their priorities.

Others, I think that we've mainly been speaking with the city managers.

I would expect that sometimes we'll get individual input from members of city council, and we welcome it in in all of its forms.

I think if a city wanted to do it in a formalized fashion, that would be totally fine between now and June 4th when our board takes action.

And I think the one other thing that I will mention, because I think it's a really important caveat, is that unlike a measure A or B, what goes into this local investment plan is not gonna wind up on the ballot, because what's on the ballot is going to be common between the five counties, and so VTA through the board will have the ability on some kind of cadence, could be the biannual budget cycle to make adjustments.

So if we're measuring how well these investments are doing, some things we may want to expand and other things we may want to contract.

And so what goes into the June 4th uh resolution that the board will take on um is not gonna be the end all be all for 14 years.

I think that that's important to note.

Great, thank you.

Um so one of the other boards I sit on is the cities association as well as the peninsula division for the League of California Cities.

I think it'd be great if you would join both of those bodies to provide information.

I don't know if you're already gonna be served.

That we are, but I'll confirm.

That's fantastic.

It is.

Yes, thank you very much.

Yeah, and and again, public meetings are councils, the board of supervisors, a couple of dozen of our community-based organizations, and each time we go to a community-based organization, we share the link, which we will improve upon, but we also ask people to be a force multiplier, which is that if your neighborhood, your church, whatever it might be, wants to hear from us, we want to go to you.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Kamei.

Councilmember Show Walter.

Yes, well, I am gonna talk um uh just first about the other presentations.

And um I wanted to say that these um these organizations are organizations that were started in Mountain View because of a Mountain View need.

And I really appreciated having them recognized, and I also appreciate the sort of the grassroots initiative that they um they represent.

I mean, certainly CSMA is a is a wonderful uh I mean their their uh story of how they got going with a few teachers who decided that kids needed to have art lessons.

I mean, it's just a wonderful tale, and the um united organization getting together to help our homeless uh work because the bureaucracy of of the um the services is is difficult and everybody's needs are difficult.

And then and then the performing arts volunteers.

I mean, there was a performing arts center, we needed help to make it run, and they and they rose to the surface.

So I I just really applaud that initiative.

I think that there isn't um I don't think we give enough credence to to that characteristic.

Anyway, okay, so changing to um this presentation.

Um I just would like to say kind of from a higher level.

I'm I'm really concerned with climate change and um and what we can do to reduce our greenhouse gas um emissions.

And I understand from kind of every every presentation I get that the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in our in our county is um uh is transportation.

And so and and it's primarily cars.

So what I'm really interested in is what you can do to make your system so good that it reduces the amount of cars.

And to me, um that really has to translate into frequency of service.

Um we've recently experienced how nice um it is to have that service increase on Caltrain.

You don't really have to have a schedule anymore on Caltrain.

They're basically pretty much every 20 minutes or half an hour.

And you can just show up and wait a little while, and you know there'll be a train that and they for the most part they stop at every station, so you don't have to worry about where they're going either.

They're going where you're going if you're on the line.

Um, and that is uh that is a big change.

And but the bus system is not like that.

You really have to know how it works, and um it needs to be much more seamless.

So um that driver of GHG reduction is what I want to um bring up.

And then the other thing is I I really like the idea that I forget the amount you mentioned, uh 264 million or something.

Yeah.

Okay.

Of um funds will come to Santa Clara County every year.

That's that seems like an amount of money that we can do some significant good with.

So I think concentrating on what we can do locally is is really important.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Schoalter.

Mr.

Transit, Councilmember McAllister.

You heard that uh Manolo, Mr.

Transit over here.

Okay.

Um thank you, gentlemen, for coming.

And you too, Chair.

So uh it was interesting that Councilmember Ramirez mentioned the 2015 measure B.

Uh I'm proud to say that myself and Mayor Show Walter at the time were very instrumental on keeping the budget, the money going to services and not BART.

So with that said, when you said you'll get this money, how much of it could be go to BART?

Will it be a cap or could it all go to BART?

I am on record saying that none of the measure uh SB of our of uh uh SB63, none of that money is going to BART phase two.

It all stays in transit, it all stays within the service and the systems that we are operating right now today, exclusive of BART phase two.

Okay, so there's enough funding to get BART going without tapping into that.

Um that's a different question.

But I am gonna say things change, and you said the board has discretion.

But the board does have discretion.

But our our primary goal on this is to make sure that this fund these funds are available for transit operations, the transit net, the transit system overall, the basically the the CTA as what um uh VTA operates overall for the county, it's really to focus on those core items that need to be focused on exclusive of BART phase two.

Okay.

So those core things sitting here representing the city of Mount View, is there any way to determine how much money you would allocate to the City of Mountain View?

You were very generous in the other pro things, and I was just wondering if that would continue to help us with our grade separations, our light rail, uh local transit systems and so forth.

I mean, I'm I I don't want to say you know, yes or no to a question right now to to that degree, but I think once once we've identified what the priorities are that Sam was talking about, and we go through all of the different levels of needs that exist, once there becomes a more clear picture of what it is that we need to do from the overall system, then we can maybe identify the places in which they become more beneficial.

So then the cities that might have the greatest impact and greatest return um might be the areas that we would then focus on.

So that's when I would say we'd probably have an opportunity to start focusing specifically on I'll call it a return to source of the cities from the funding perspective as compared to what the county is doing.

So we could you hold that to you?

No, you can't hold me to the return to source to the city.

But the concept is what I'm referring to.

Because that's what the county is asking for a return to source.

Yeah.

Um I have and I'm gonna bring in some inside knowledge, maybe whatever.

So down the the forecast for the VTA down the road is that there may be some shortages in funding.

How much of this potentially could go to cover our deficits?

Um there will be some that most likely will have to cover deficits.

Uh we're in the process now of um reforecasting um our next 10 years.

Um I think although I and I guess I was a part of it.

Um I I think we might have been a little one, we were a little aggressive in some of the ex um uh assumptions we were making.

I shouldn't say aggressive, we were too too too conservative.

And we were showing some pretty substantial deficits that were going to be happening, starting actually um in in fiscal twenty-eight, which is our not our coming fiscal year, but the following.

Um things have changed a little bit, and I think we'll see some exact we'll see some forecasts that will change that to some degree.

Again, plus what Sam was talking about, some of this effort is any any projection that we've got from a long-term perspective that shows deficits, the same way that BART Caltrain, uh, Muni and AC Transit are doing it.

Um we cannot simply rest on the fact that this measure would fund those deficits.

We have to figure out how we change that business model.

And that's the focus that we've got.

And so even if we're showing deficits in five, six, seven, eight years, we're gonna have to we have to figure out ways, usually utilizing some of this money over the next four or five years to figure out how we c how we close those deficits without utilizing these this measure, but by doing it in other uh means.

Productivity, uh, reducing cost, increasing ridership, all of these different things that will help offset some of those things that we're projecting, those are the efforts that we've got to put forward now utilizing these dollars to make sure that those deficits don't happen in the future.

Is it too early to say some of this money will be discretionary and some will be non-discretionary?

Um I guess if you if you term it non-discretionary, if it's if it's something that we're gonna have to utilize from an operations perspective because it's there and it just has to be fixed, then I would say that's probably a block that would be at least identified.

Now, where whether that's identified on the front end, I can't guarantee that.

Um there's there's gonna be an understanding that if there's deficits that need to be filled, just like the other agencies, we'll have to address those.

Um, but everything that we'll do, we'll do everything on our power to reduce that number so that there is more discretionary money than non-discretionary.

Okay, thank you.

One last question.

Light rail.

$3083 per person to operate.

I'll just leave you with that thought.

I appreciate that.

That question was raised to me earlier today, so I I it was embedded in my mind, but thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember McAllister.

Councilmember Hicks.

Oh, wait, actually, uh City Manager Kimber McCarthy.

Oh, well, okay, we'll go with Councilmember Hicks first.

Thank you for taking your time to come visit us tonight.

Um, I just have a brief comment for your both short-term and long-term outreach.

Um I'm I'm just hoping that when you do outreach, you can take time to uh do outreach to parents of young children.

I have to say I took transit a great deal before I had young children, and I found it surprisingly difficult to use once I did have young children, and I will not give you my list of difficulties here, but tonight.

But um, you know, there were a number of them that could have been fixed, and it kind of it kind of made a a break in my use, and I didn't end up using it with when I had young children, medium children, older children, and and probably stop me from using it to some degree even today.

It was that kind of break.

So I do encourage you to um to do outreach to parents of young children.

Are you open to sharing that with me separate of this meeting?

Sure.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Hicks, City Manager McCarthy.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I just have a couple technical questions from staff perspective because this is the first time that I'm hearing this or seeing this.

Uh so a couple of things.

First, how is VTA staff going to determine proportionality once you all get the Santa Claus wish list from every city of what they want on their local investment plan?

How are you going to determine what you're recommending to the board on June 4th?

Um I think part of that's going to be informed by the list that we receive and recognizing where those priorities exist from the information that we've we've uh received.

I think when Sam talked about the foundational reimagine and the transformation components, I think what we've got to figure out is within those what are the critical needs, what is it that we've got to address that might require a little bit heavier funding, maybe on the front end, not so much on the back end, and that's gonna then dictate sort of how the uh the percentages will break down.

Um I think anything related to kind of that foundational reimagined component that has to do with ridership and increasing um frequency and doing the things to the system that need to be done, that's where you're gonna most likely see the funding go.

Um, but anything we can do on the back end from a capital perspective, even leveraging those dollars, not necessarily using a hundred percent of those dollars for the purpose of what we're looking at from a capital perspective, but if there's a way for us to leverage a certain percentage of it to then uh finance or fund through grants or other mechanisms to to do additional funding for some of those capital projects, and we'll find ways to utilize these dollars, not necessarily 100 percent going to one single project, but but leveraging and and attaching it to other funding uh options.

So, what I'm hearing is the funding priorities will go towards those projects that increase ridership.

So, for example, if council should decide to put different uh projects on Mountain Views list, for example, as council member Americans, perhaps community shuttle funding, perhaps funding for our streets and roads, perhaps funding for our ringsdorf grade separation project.

Is that then going to be less of a priority because it doesn't increase ridership?

No, I I think we we need to keep in mind that there's I used increased ridership as one of the examples, but the three that Sam had talked about with the priorities that we had.

I think we've got to keep in mind those critical items that are necessary that we're saying for VTA and for the agency and the system to succeed.

But we have also have to recognize we have a large county that has needs that go throughout all of the cities, and we've got to figure out where those priorities are as well.

Um there's gonna be a large list, and so not everyone's gonna get everything they want or need, and it's gonna be up to us and through this process to to really prioritize those effectively so that we can at least address what everyone believes to be the most critical items.

Okay, thank you.

So June 4th will be the actual vote of the board on what you are prioritizing in the plan.

Yeah, and and I guess um I'm gonna I'll say it this way as well.

I think the the effort is to what Sam had said before, um to provide some flexibility.

So as this evolves, because again, we're trying to put something together as it's been talked about.

This is a pretty quick process.

Trying to put something together that gives us the flexibility to identify things that could come up later that need to be done, but still stay within the framework of what's been basically approved with the measure.

So you know, if there's gonna be specific specific projects may not be as as concrete, but it it may be something that's more in a in a framework that makes sure that we are addressing some of the critical needs that are being identified and then prioritize as we move forward.

Okay, mayor, may I address council?

Yep.

So I would just um suggest to council that I've talked to our public works director Ng if you would give staff direction to let us think of what uh lists might look like for Mountain View for local um priorities that we would have specific to our city, and then staff could bring something back for council to react to, maybe on consent or otherwise, but I can talk to all of you about it and just kind of let staff um think about what that might look like.

All right, sounds good.

Sounds good.

All right, we are now going to public comment.

Finally.

Um we will now take public comment for the presentation items.

This is all for the all the item threes.

Um would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on the presentation items listed on the agenda?

If so, please click the raised hand button on Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk.

We will take in-person speakers first.

Each person will have two minutes.

So, Mr.

Zyoski.

Jim Zayorski.

I'm speaking on the VTA issue as an individual.

Um I've lived here for 40 years, and I remember how excited I was when the light rail was built.

My wife at the time worked at the DA's office on 70 West Heading, and she was really excited that she was going to be able to take the light rail to work until the first day when it took an hour and 20 minutes to make the 15-minute drive, and then she never took it again.

John McCallister's correctly pointed out that 83 a person is something that the people in Mountain View don't really like.

We don't want to fund that.

We don't care about that.

We see the VTA coming up with plans to extend uh VTA light rail into East San Jose while doing nothing to bring the light rail into Google or places where lots and lots of people work and lots and lots of cars could be taken off the road and lots and lots of people could be put on light rail and not driving and not causing traffic problems.

Yet the VTA has consistently shown that it's willing to take political paths of least resistance and thus make the jobs of our city manager and our council harder.

I know you're constrained by political things, and you've been very kind today, but the public is very frustrated that none of the benefits of VTA funding is going to North County, and we're very upset that we're not looking at our advantages as a region, not as an individual city where everybody gets a couple crumbs and VTA gets to close this deficit.

We would ask the council to look at asking VTA to take a regional approach, look at Mountain View as a major employer and extending VTA into the major employing standards.

It would do a lot of good to have downtown Mountain View and Caltrain attached to north of Bayshore, where lots of people work and lots of people in Sunnyville work, and lots of people in Santa Clara and San Jose work, so they're not riding on 101.

Yet we don't see any of that here.

So I I can say this, you can't, and I did.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs.

Rowski.

Okay, let's uh we'll keep the clapping down at a minimum for now.

Uh next is April Webster.

Hi, thank you.

Um, I'll echo what uh Jim had to say.

Um it'd be great to actually service uh locations where a lot of people are moving.

It it just makes sense.

Um I also wanted to echo what council member Shoalter said about frequency of service.

This is a key part of usability.

Um if service isn't frequent and reliable, kind of what Jim said as well.

Uh people just don't use it as hard to use in practice.

Um I'm usually from Vancouver, and I rarely needed a car there, which I absolutely loved.

Um, but then I'd only have to wait on certain lines, maybe five minutes.

And there was a bus within a block of me.

And a lot of other people used it too in business suits.

Many people going downtown would use the bus.

So it was a very common practice.

Um I'd also want to maybe talk about I I think the framework that was presented was really good.

Um, but I'd also sort of emphasize how people get to the bus and what they're doing while they're waiting is part of the user experience and usability.

And so I think it would be helpful to include in those measurable outcomes from that first and last mile access.

Um how accessible it is to biking and walking.

What are people doing when they're waiting?

I've seen so many bus stops where there isn't enough room, people are sitting on the sidewalk, there's no shade.

This isn't a especially in the summer, it's very uncomfortable.

Um, so I think that part of usability, in addition to what's happening while they're actually using transit, um, that whole experience is really important to consider.

I also want to support Councilmember Kameh's comments about equitable outreach.

Um, if we want these investments to be effective, it's important that outreach reaches the people who are most impacted.

And they're really strong models of this in other cities.

Um Sacramento, there's an organization called Civic Thread, where they go into the communities and work directly with the people there.

There are the promotoros in San Francisco, that model and these engagement, um, they work with local leaders in the community who have are much more impactful.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next, we will move on to virtual public comments.

Um Bruce Inglin.

Thanks, Major.

Um, Bruce England, Wisman Station Drive again.

Uh I ask that you do what you can to ensure that the funding you're considering tonight goes far as it can to help lead the way towards sorely needed improvements to both BTA and SamTrans service.

For certain, we need uh we need to see more frequent service than we do today, and with as many forms of transit as possible, support it.

Service to underserves communities is also essential where it is lacking or falls short today.

As you know, making reasonable connections across the network is challenging as folks navigate across shuttle, bus, light rail, shuttle, and uh train systems.

Um assurances that riders will arrive at their destinations can be uncertain.

If we want to see the mode shifts we dream of today, these improvements are essential toward helping to get more people out of their vehicles.

Also, I agree with Jim's comment on adequately serving North County.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next is Arjun Govingji.

Hi, my name is Arjun.

Um, I live near downtown Mountain View.

Um, I'd like to start uh by seconding uh council member Showalter's comments on improving frequency to make transit a viable alternative to driving.

It has to go where people want to go when they want to get there.

Um I'd also encourage council to work with VTA to consider uh improved weekend service, particularly on routes 51 and 52 that cross mountain view and increased frequency across the board.

Um this would provide our residents better daily access um to our neighboring cities of Los Altos and Cupertino.

Um this is a unique opportunity for us to bring VTA service up to par um with our neighbors to the north.

Um we should prioritize funding for transit priority projects that make service faster and more reliable while ensuring seamless connections within VTA and to Calterin and BART.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Daniel Hulse.

Hi, can you hear me?

We can hear you.

All right.

Uh yeah, so my name's Daniel Holse.

I live uh in the, I guess, northern part of Mountain View, uh by San Antonio station.

Um I guess uh what I'd like to see from this this plan, you know.

I I support this measure.

Uh and what what I'd like to be supporting in this measure is better service on our bus routes.

And I I think especially when you think about Mountain View specifically, we we've got a great route on Al Camino.

If we could get something perpendicular to that, so you could take it throughout the system, that would that would be good.

Um also like infrastructure that that improves service and improves experience.

So, you know, I I ride my bike lots of places.

We've got two new uh great bike lanes.

One of the missing links in those bike lanes, though, on both California Street as well as El Camino is you've got all of these conflict points with buses.

And so I think better bus stops that deconflict buses so they don't have to wait for bikes and bikes so that we're not afraid of buses.

Uh would be just really uh better for all users of the road.

Um and so I I think doing stuff like that throughout the county would be great, but especially here in Mountain View.

And then finally, you know, I I want to stress that we need to think functionally about this.

You know, you take transit from one place to another.

It's not about what's happening in one city, it's about the whole place.

So I I want to take an orange line all the way to Milpitas and not have it take 45 minutes.

I want it to take 20.

I want to take transit to Valley Fair, I want to take it to tr San Francisco.

Uh let's think uh region wide.

Thank you.

Next is Adina Levin.

Hello, uh, good evening, Mayor and Council members.

Adina Levin with Seymour's Bay Area and Friends of Caltrain.

I wanted to echo uh what a number of the previous community members have said, and um uh you know, starting actually to thank VTA for a lot of the thoughtful work um upstream of this presentation, asking about the expenditures in laying out some really good um goals and strategies to increase ridership and to uh deliver service more cost effectively.

The visionary network um is a um high-level plan to really uh increase service, bringing it up to par where Santa Clara County has for many years um you know not grown its bus service um with the population growth and has uh less service in other parts of the region and other parts of the country, and funding the visionary network would do that, and that is paired um really well with the plans for transit priority to make uh local transit bus and light rail faster, more reliable, more cost effective, and more competitive with driving.

And the combination of the visionary network and the transit priority investments together are something that this pad of funding can really uniquely do to uh uh really greatly improve uh VTA service, um, you know, including with the lens of serving Mountain View and uh North County, and so we'd really encourage uh putting a high priority, as some of the council members have spoken about, um, to that service frequency and the speed and reliability and competitiveness and cost effectiveness in order to move people who depend on transit in order to help achieve the climate goals.

Thank you.

Thank you, Adina.

Next is Kevin Ma.

Evening, council.

My name is Kevin Ma.

I'm speaking in my individual capacity.

I agree with some of the speakers, but I would like to emphasize that I would like to see a lot of the money to go to operations specifically.

Operations, money is incredibly hard to get compared to capital projects and operations pretty much always depend on ballot box money, which means they're rare, they're then there should be spent in the best they can be.

Everyone has talked about, you know, the buses aren't that great, the buses aren't that great because there's not enough money.

So money goes to the places where ridership goes most because that makes the most amount of any sense.

So therefore, I do believe that we should be focused on operations so we can get things like the 51.51 doesn't run on weekends, maybe we can get on a weekends.

People have discussed the 40 not being reliable enough.

Maybe it can be made reliable, maybe it can spread out.

But that requires the city to be focusing on the needs of the service.

Uh we're rather not see this on projects like the race separation.

At the end of the day, greatest operation is really a road project, not a transit project.

And um there will be capital again is easier to find.

And I would like to see the city also to do its part to make sure that transit is successful.

You know, we have talked about, you know, there's some things that VTA does, and there's something the city needs to do, right?

The city does not have a transit priority policy, even though MTC will probably push you guys to do with one later this year.

But as mentioned, you know, transit is also regional thing.

Most people, you know, the community shuttle does do a lot of transit within the city, but for the people complaining about you know where the Googler is going, you know, they do live in other cities, other counties, and there's not a lot of connections because again, due to how stringent we are with money, you know, VTA doesn't even go across county borders compared to AC Trans or Sam trans.

So there's a lot to fix, and there's a lot that money can help with that.

All right, thank you.

And that ends public comment for item three.

Yay.

So as we finish that up, um I will end item three with your mayor's call to service, call to action, call to community, and to note that this Saturday is the spring volunteer fair.

Please sign up.

Volunteer for your community.

It'll be fun, I promise.

It's gonna be at the Mount View Community Center at 10 a.m.

to noon.

All right.

Um oh, do we have more comments, Councilmember McAllister?

Uh just one comment.

I will be at the workshop at VTA on this Friday.

So if anybody wants to uh give me some ideas and channel anything through me, I will be there.

All right.

With that, um, we will now go to item four consent calendar.

The big event.

Uh 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 an approval of the balance of the consent calendar, if you would like to speak on these items or the next item, oral communications on non-agenda items in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now.

Councilmember Hicks, do you have an announcement to make?

I do have an announcement to make.

I would also, as your next question is going to be would any member of the council like to pull any items.

I would just uh it would be item the item regarding burrowing owls.

I would just like to ask a question on, but not pull it.

All right, that is item 4.3.

Yes, it is.

Does anyone does anyone else on council want to pull an item?

Seeing no other council members, uh, council member Hicks, feel free to ask your question for item 4.3.

So I have received a number of email messages on this uh item and also read uh an article in the voice on it.

So I believe there's a lot of community concern around it.

And one of the questions I've been asked is whether we are gonna hire a biologist.

And I would just like our staff to answer that question because it's not clear if we just pass the consent calendar.

Or if we don't pass it either way.

Good evening, council.

Once again, John Marchant Community Services Director.

Uh, looking forward at the position of the biologist for Shoreline, uh, we are interested in filling that role.

We are in the process of analyzing exactly what those responsibilities would be, um, possibly in coordination with continuing some of the consulting services that we're using now.

They do bring the consulting uh service that we're using now, do bring a lot of positive resources to us.

And so it's a matter of being able to look at what that position may look like in the future to also support um shoreline, the environment, and it's just a matter of being able to put together um how these can work together.

And so that's what we're working on right now.

Right now, the goal is to look to um fill the position by the end of the calendar year, is what we're looking at.

Okay, I think that's what many people wanted to know, so thank you very much.

Thank you.

Councilmember Show Walter.

I um, as I often do, I I have a couple comments on them, but I do have a question about the uh the biological services one.

I think um I really appreciated kind of the the breadth of the um the biological services package that you um you put together.

It seems very appropriate for the range of um issues that the city needs to be on top of.

Um it's not just Burrowing Owls, it's also um with our upcoming biodiversity plan, there will be a need for um somebody with quite a bit of not only just wildlife, but also um uh bot botanical um knowledge that can help with uh trees and that sort of thing.

So I can see how you know we do need more biological services, so I'm glad to hear that.

But I did want to um ask you a little bit about how you share your uh the information about the uh the monitoring with the um I understand it's shared regularly with parks and rec.

And if you could share that with the audience at home today, I would appreciate it.

We had a discussion earlier today, and I um I hadn't understood how this was done, so I'm probably not alone.

Thank you, Councilmember Show Walter.

Yes, each month to the the Parks and Recreation Commission staff completes a monthly report of the different things that we have completed month to month.

That also shows a graph of each of the last five, six years of burrowing owls where we are currently.

That report is available in two locations on the website.

Number one, if you go to the sh the community services department website on the left-hand side, you can see the the reports available there, and then the public can also go to the parks and recreation commission under commissions, and then look at the agenda items for each of the months, and one of the attachments will be the uh monthly report that shows those numbers.

Okay, thank you.

It's it's good to know that.

And um we can uh we can get that information whenever we need it.

And then I just wanted to um I I wanted to speak positively about the uh the national opiate oil sediment.

Uh I think it's good that we take part in these opportunities.

Um so I'm I'm happy that we're doing that.

And the entertainment zone, is that gonna get pulled?

I don't think so.

Okay.

I was just gonna say, I um this is a this is a fascinating concept.

It's a new law, and when you when I first heard it, I thought, well, entertainment zone, entertainment is sort of a broad thing.

But um, but really this law has to do with being largely being able to turn to serve alcohol in public um outside of a store or uh you know a restaurant that has an a license.

And it's gonna be um because of the pedestrian mall we have, it it will really be nice to have this area set up so that people can um buy a you know buy a cocktail or a glass of wine somewhere and and walk down the street to play cornball or sit and talk to friends or you know, someplace else and um and utilize the facilities of the whole pedestrian mall, not just the tiny area in front of the um the restaurant where they bought their their drink.

So I think that's that's really a nice idea, and I'm glad we're going forward with this, particularly in time for the World Cup.

That's that's uh that's our deadline I know for getting this pilot started, and it's a good one.

But I also hope when we move forward after we've done the pilot and we've had a little more time to think about it, that we take a little broader view of what entertainment means.

And um, we might think of you know, like do we want to encourage people to do busking?

Or um do um we want to have some other areas besides the downtown.

So um I uh you know I look forward to seeing how this project uh how this project evolves.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember School Walter.

Councilmember McAllister.

Yeah, I'm gonna take a big stretch here on um point two because I see the the fire chief and the police chief.

Does anybody know why on Easter the power went out in Mountain View?

Councilmember McAllister, I can answer that question.

Oh, I okay.

So our intergovernmental affairs manager um found out from PG and let me find the it affected about 40,000 people, and it was out for 11 minutes, and apparently it was due to work that was being done.

PGE work.

And that's all they're giving you work I am summarizing.

Let me find the email.

Councilmember, I if I may, um I I had a summary from PG ⁇ E.

I'm happy to forward it to you.

And or the entire council if you want, but it may be general knowledge that if okay but but what the city manager says correct.

There was a I think there was work, there was a there was a switching issue during that that um created a an outage for a big chunk of the city if you looked at the map when it happened, including equity in our building.

Okay, but you get the answer that will maybe you could share that with the rest of the public too.

They may be interested in that too.

Is that everything?

All right.

With that, um, we will have with any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on these items.

If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk.

We will take in-person speakers first.

Each speaker will have, because there are more than 10 people signing up.

We're gonna go down to 90 seconds, which is a one and a half minutes.

Um there we go.

Um so our first speaker, Albert Jeans, followed by Donna Kirasako, followed by Shawnee Kleinhouse, followed by Ping Ling.

So if you could uh get uh into like a line so we don't have to wait for you to mosey on down, that would be great.

Go ahead, Albert.

Okay, hi, Albert Jeans, long time resident.

Um yeah, I'm a big fan of the burrowing owls.

I'm you know, I like to see anything done and increase the numbers ever since the biologists left.

Um it seems to just be going downhill.

You know, I I go by there probably every at least every week to shoreline to check and see how they're doing.

And all I see is the burrowing areas will be left on camp, the weeds go out too tight, the wows leave.

And so we've seen the number of owls decrease.

And so I don't know why we're paying this outfit, you know, 250,000 and another 100,000 just to ban them.

Are they just watching the owls decline?

Is that what we're paying them to do?

They don't seem to be doing anything to really encourage the growth like the biologists did where they had you know captive breeding and little aviaries set up here and there, and the number of owls is actually increasing for a while for a while.

So I really, you know, think you should rethink whether we need to pay these people another 100,000, as opposed to you know just hiring one or two biologists who can probably do a much better job.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Donna Kiersako, followed by Shawnee Kleinhouse, followed by Ping Li.

Good evening.

Um, I'm here to speak on um you can speak into the microphone.

You're how's that?

Yes, perfect.

Okay.

I'm here to speak on item 4.3.

I've been a Mountain View resident for over 20 years, and I use Shoreline quite a bit, and I really love the burrowing owls.

They they are a bird that's found around the world.

And I think it's very important what Mountain View is doing here because Mountain View is one of the last bastions of burrowing owls in the Bay Area.

I really am was heartened to hear about the idea of higher hiring the um a new wildlife biologist, but I think the time frame needs to really be sped up.

Right now, it's breeding season for the burrowing owls, and from what I saw of the information spread about um provided on the um monitoring of the burrowing owls, there hasn't been a report since January.

So I really think that it's important to find a qualified biologist to work on this project and support this project, and so that we can continue to fulfill the obligation of protecting the burrowing owl and the habitat that Shoreline has.

Thank you.

Thank you, Shawnee Kleinhouse, followed by Ping Lee, followed by Zoe Zaroski.

Good evening.

I'm Shani Kleiners with the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance.

And I would like to support the additional funding for the program.

Um I think it's primarily for the scientific monitoring and for compliance with state and federal laws.

However, in the last few years, as you well know, the maintenance for the borrowing owls, the programs that supported them, the programs that increase their numbers, have stopped.

And so the borrowing owl preservation plan calls for 10 pairs, breeding pairs at Shoreline, which was the estimate by the biologist who prepare the plan of what is feasible in terms of all the activities and needs of Shoreline.

They didn't want to go above that, and they didn't want to think that being below 10 pairs would survive.

The population would survive.

Beyond that, the collaborations with the habitat agency is what brought the success, and I think that should be re-assumed as well.

So I'm we're happy to see that there is investment and the city's serious about it, and this public supports the borrowing owls, but there's got to be urgent, urgent action to to revive them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Ping Li, followed by Zo Zarowski, followed by Tracy Ferria.

Hello.

My name is Ping Li.

I live in Saratoga, and I'm a brother, and I particularly am fond of Burning Oo, and sometimes a volunteer to help for the habitat for them.

This is very special.

This is my first time to speak in front of any city council.

But what the heck?

I feel like we're like a bunch of Loreks and trying to speak for the owls because they can't come here.

So I think we all know they are struggling to survive in the Bay Area.

And I feel like we have the obligation to help them.

And so I strongly support the investment to monitor and recover and consistent with the city's 2012 boring owl provision preservation plan.

And I also support the hiring of qualified uh biologists and dedicated to um to save them.

Thank you.

Thank you and welcome to your first public comment.

So next we have uh Zo Zarowski, um followed by Tracy Feria, followed by April Webster.

Thank you.

I'm Zoe.

Uh I wanted to say that I support the funding of the Bowing Owls, uh monitoring and banding at Shoreline Park.

And I am a runner, so I run at the Baylands often.

I see the burrowing owls.

Uh when I was younger, they used to be at the Google Plex where the fields are.

Um, and now they're uh turf fields.

Um just some some data here.

There used to be a few, there's fewer than 25 breeding pairs remaining in Santa Clara County.

Um the species has been extra extirpated from uh 19 counties across California, and in October 2024, the state designated them a candidate for endangered species list and a decision expected by August of this year.

Um the state is watching what we do.

Um meanwhile, the owls along the bay trail are vulnerable.

Uh they they actually go beyond the Google Plex and um and and into the tiny strip of land where the runners, cyclists, and dogs are um, and uh there's no buffer.

Uh and so having uh a dedicated biologist to watch after them and and um hopefully grow their population back would be great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tracy.

I'm Dr.

Tracy Faria, and I want to thank you for um bringing up this extra funding, and I support the extra funding for the consultants because our owls desperately need it.

However, I'm deeply concerned about the burrowing owl program.

I haven't seen any owls in last my last few times volunteering out there in the preserve, and the program that was dismantled by parks and racks really needs to be restored.

We had one and a half biologists working, and that program worked.

The population says it all.

After dismantling the program, the numbers have kept dropping before the owl was owl population was increasing.

The question is will we even have one successful brood this year?

And uh, if the city council doesn't really take immediate steps to get this program back on track, this could be the council that may unfortunately be remembered for presiding over the loss of the city's owls.

Remember the plan change from shoreline burrowing owl management plan to the burrowing owl preservation plan because the city and the residents wanted to preserve the owls and the legacy as a home to the burrowing owls.

Um we were meeting the numbers before the program was abruptly uh dismantled.

Uh the report says that staff is anticipating recruiting a biologist in Q3 2026.

Makes it seem they don't really understand the urgency of the situation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Finishing up the in-person speakers is April Webster.

Hi, thanks.

Um, please include me as one of the Loracs speaking for the owls.

So I support funding continuing the funding to avoid gaps in protection, but I'm also concerned, like others, about that shift from more of a hands-on stewardship with expertise and to more of a consultant-based focus mainly on monitoring, especially when it comes to wildlife and being good stewards of that.

I usually speak about the trees and people, but this is part of a larger ecosystem, and the wildlife in our community also matters for maintaining that.

As Shani pointed out, um, with this change and how we're um managing this thing, this uh the owls, um, the population has dropped.

Um, so I strongly encourage council to pair this funding with a clear plan to hire a full-time biologist, but sooner than the end of this year.

Um, given how long the position has already been open, um, this just makes sense.

And um, yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

We will now move on to virtual speakers, Dasha Leeds.

Hello, my name is Dasha Leeds.

I'm the conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club Loma Prieta chapter.

I'm speaking on item 4.3 on the consent calendar, the biological services professional service agreement.

Please approve this item and please do everything you can as quickly as possible to hire an on-staff city biologist to support our local burrowing owls.

Uh, as other speakers have said, uh, we've seen a rapid decline in breeding pairs in these burrowing owls.

These precious, adorable and vulnerable beings need our help and support.

Their recovery is extremely important.

Please, let's do everything we can to save the species of special concern.

Time is of the essence.

Let's act now before it's too late.

Thanks for your time.

Thank you.

Next is Connie.

Um, good evening, um, Mountain View City Council.

Um, I'm speaking on item four.

Three with the burrowing owls.

My name is Connie Cunningham.

I'm an advocate for birds with um Santa Clara Valley Birding Association, especially in California and along this Pacific Flyway.

I have followed the burrowing owls for years.

I urge this body to reinvigorate efforts with additional funding to continue the good policy that Mountain View did have before with the 2012 burrowing owl preservation plan.

Please invest with additional funding for monitoring and recovery of the burrowing owls.

And please hire as soon as you possibly can, not the end of the year, but now because it is urgent, hire a qualified biologist to carefully manage and maintain the burrowing owls at shoreline.

The biologist needs to put recovery measures in place to fix recent losses.

And as someone has already noted, it is the breeding season.

Burrowing owls are charming.

They're small, they're long-legged owls who live in open grassy habitats and often can be seen during the day.

In 2024, California Fish and Game Commission accepted the petition to list these vulnerable birds as a candidate species for threatened or endangered status under the California Endangered Species Act.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

Thank you.

Next is Bruce Inglinha.

Thanks, Mayor.

Bruce England again.

Um this is for item 4.3.

I would like to express my support for the requested funding for the burrowing owl programs, including monitoring and recovery measures, which are both consistent with the city's 2012 burrowing owl preservation plan.

We cannot delay this work as burrowing owl populations are falling dangerously low, according to multiple measures has been mentioned by others too.

To make all this work properly, both the funding and hiring a biologist with burrowing owl expertise must happen as soon as possible.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh Bruce and Bruce Nglen just went.

Ina Mangmonger.

Hi, good evening.

My name is uh Ina Magner and I live in Foster City.

I'm um I'm a strong supporter of um funding for the recovery program for burrowing owls.

Um please help in this recovery, their population in such decline.

And uh I definitely hope that Mountain View will approve additional funding for monitoring and banding of those owls.

Um they're very unique birds, and it's such a shame to see them disappear from our environment.

Um I really thank Mountain View for taking this uh step of kind of recovering them.

Uh hopefully they won't disappear in our area.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Rowena D.

Hello, this is Rowenna Dodson.

I live in Los Altos.

I'm a member of the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance.

And I'm also speaking with great concern about the owls and also implore the council to, as so many of the speakers have said, urgently take action to help restore this still Chinese population, but surviving hopefully population in our county.

And thank you so much for your efforts and just wanted to be here to uh to give voice to that.

Thank you.

That's all I thank you.

Linda Ruth Ruff.

Hi, I'm Linda Ruthruff, and I've been following the plight of the burrowing owl for about 17 years now.

For a long time, it was doom and gloom.

All the sites with burrowing owls had declining populations.

The first big win was when they were finally included in the habitat conservation plan.

And then when Mountain View developed a management plan and hired a biologist, it was amazing.

And it worked.

For many years, things improved tremendously for the burrowing owls.

And then due to unfortunate circumstances, the implementation pretty much declined.

So I'm pleased that you're planning to once again hire a biologist.

They don't need to reinvent the wheel.

What was being done was extremely successful.

I agree with other people that the end of the year is way too far off.

I urge you to hire somebody very soon because this population is disappearing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Leslie Friedman.

Hello, thank you very much for this time.

I want to speak as so many other and very well educated on this program.

It's you you are in a position where you can save a species.

Well, we'll need to think it over.

Do we want to kill them all or do we want them to live?

I've lived here in Mountain View for more than 20 years, and I remember a number of times when the burrowing owls came up and down, and then they came up and down again.

And this is just it.

Let's go for it.

You guys are gonna be in the books.

You saved a species.

Don't let it go the other way.

That's about it.

I hope that the help that's a possible funding will go ahead and work.

And thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next we have Diane McCoy.

Okay.

Now can you hear me?

We can hear you.

Oh, thank you.

Okay, thank you for the time.

And I'm also speaking on item 4.3, and I just want to echo what everybody has said.

Um I love burrowing owls, and I believe like many others that have spoken that they are very extra special.

I applaud Mountain View for their 2012 burrowing owl preservation plan, but there have been challenges of late, so unfortunately their population has been declining.

I also want to echo that very urgent action is needed very much right now.

So please support and invest in the recovery of the owls, especially by high hiring a qualified biologist as soon as possible to steward the owl's recovery.

Thank you very much for your time.

I just want to echo what Leslie said.

Mountain View could be the town that continues a species and brings it back.

So you can be the heroes.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next we have Karen Jeffrey.

Hi, my name is Karen Jeffrey, and uh I'm also speaking on the burrowing owls.

First of all, thank you very much, City Council, for taking up this issue.

And I can only echo what all the previous speakers have said that we implore you, those of us who love the owls.

Uh we and I implore you to approve the funding and to please hire a qualified biologist ASAP.

As has been pointed out, this is breeding season.

The population's been declining, the numbers tell the story.

If we don't have a viable breeding season this year, we may not have burrowing owls left next year.

So the safeguards that a biologist, a qualified biologist can put in place need to start happening immediately.

And I really don't think that you know, because the owls live on their own cycle uh and are not subject to um legislative schedules.

I don't think they can wait until the end of the year to get the biologists that they need.

Um we we need to demonstrate also that we are good stewards of our land and that we're not going to let the species disappear.

So thank you all so much for giving us this opportunity to speak.

Please prove the funding.

Please hire a biologist.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next, we have Tatiana Kuvaldina.

Hello, uh, can you hear me well?

We can hear you.

Thank you very much for this opportunity.

Uh, my name is Tatiana Kovaldina.

I'm speaking on behalf of Ortfellows about item 4.7 entertainment zone.

Otfellows are located at the intersection of Castro and Vila Streets.

And um with the current proposal, our main concern is safety.

We open our doors to the public during city events as we accommodate art and craft shows.

And um, unfortunately, drunken people have proven to be an issue for our artists, especially when only female artists are present.

With the entertainment zone enactment, we can expect the number of intoxicated people to considerably increase.

I'm hopeful the safety will be taken seriously, and the necessary oversight will be provided for events when entertainment zone is active.

We don't want to choose between artist safety and engagement with the public.

We don't want to close our doors during the city events.

So please consider what can be done and how we can manage it because I understand the necessity to help the businesses and the desire to improve the experience for people.

But safety has to be taken seriously as well.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next, we have Annie Yang.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Annie Yang, and I'm a big supporter of helping burrowing owl populations recover in the South Bay.

I'm happy to see that Mountain View will be adding funding for scientific monitoring and banding of owls.

And I really hope to see the city reignite the stewardship of the burrowing owls at Shoreline as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have Annette Hertz.

Hello, uh, my name is Annette Hertz.

I'm a Mountain View resident since 2007.

Um, some of uh the older folks around you might remember me because I was part of the original advocacy on the burrowing owl um preservation.

And um I have been proud of living in Mountain View and off Mountain View itself since then.

Um and especially because of the way that you treated the owls.

Uh, meanwhile, I'm also a naturalist doesn't at Jasper Rich in uh Stanford's Preserve and at Midpen, and I've been telling people about Mountain View and what Mountain View did for the owls.

So when I uh realized what was happening, um that you dismantled the program, that the biologist was gone, and that as a consulting company, I was literally horrified.

This is my first conservation project.

I'm really proud of that.

I love the owls.

Um and the biologists that you had were clearly very, very passionate.

They were not just qualified, they were passionate, and owls in uh or any endangered species needs more than just knowledge, they need the passion, and clearly that consulting company didn't bring the passion because you can see it in the numbers.

So, like all the speakers before me, please please use the money better, hire uh not only a qualified, but a passionate consultant, and please have him do what the previous consultants did because it simply worked.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Melanie B.

Hi, good evening.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

I'm Dr.

Melanie Barnett, and um, we've live my family.

We've lived in Santa Clara County for 40 years, and I'm here for item 4.3 to support the burrowing owls and specifically to meet the requirements of the 2012 preservation plan and to hire a qualified biologist.

Where we live, where we've raised our kids, we used to be able to walk 10 minutes from our house and see a spot where burrowing owls bred.

It was the last time I saw an owl there, 2011.

My husband, we we still, my husband and I, we still grieve for those owls.

They're just gone.

We know they're not coming back to that spot.

If we had known, we would have probably been out there every few days.

I mean, I regret not spit.

They're just such special, iconic species.

Everybody loves them.

And Mountain View is now the closest spot to our house where they breed.

And it's somewhat of a comfort, but seeing the decline over the past few years has just been really sad.

I was there a couple of years ago, and there was a dad with his child, and the child's like, there's burrowing owls here.

I don't think they were there at the moment, but he knew they were there behind that fence.

Thank you.

Alex Brown.

Hi, friends.

Uh, I just wanted to call to speak in support of biologists.

I think that seeing the decline of their population over recent times, given all the circumstances, has been really unfortunate.

And I think that we should do our part to maintain the biologist population.

Uh by feeding the burning owls, I guess.

I I think I understand what's going on.

Anyway, uh, I support funding biologists to actually help the burning owl population.

And I think that we can do our part to invest in the ecology of the area.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Aisha Thiessen.

Good evening, council.

I'm Aisha.

We meet again.

I also speak on behalf of our owls.

I'm the organizer of the burrowing or of the Guardian Project, our community's volunteer effort to save our burrowing owls in Shoreline Park through habitat enhancement.

While I support maintaining care for our burrowing owls, especially adding banding for better tracking, I am deeply concerned by the lack of fiscal and ecological sense in this proposal.

Parks and Rec staff is asking for a total of 345,000 for contract biologists this fiscal year.

By contrast, our last dedicated full-time biologist costs roughly 165,000 and provide at least twice the value.

LSA's expanded services for over double the cost, still lack essential conservation efforts we've lost, such as volunteer supervision and on-site public education, supplemental feeding, juvenile overwintering, and captive breeding programs, regular camera monitoring and artificial borough maintenance.

Since moving to this contract model, the owl population at Shoreline has dropped from 27 to just 16 in one year, a 41% decline.

Furthermore, the contractors haven't been mowing adequately.

There's consistently been tall vegetation around the boroughs that should be barren to protect our owls from predators.

I urge the council to approve this funding only as a stopgap.

But more importantly, to demand that parks and rec staff immediately begin recruitment for a permanent full-time wildless wildlife preservation coordinator.

We need a dedicated expert on site to ensure our tax dollars actually result in survival of our owls.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Rashmi Hi, yes, Rashmi Sahai, um resident of Mountain View and Green Spaces member.

Um I'm also here to support the burrowing owls, um, support the funding of uh 4.3 and also to urge that we hire a biologist as soon as possible so that we can properly take care of the owls.

Um, I was very surprised to hear the former speaker share those um cost numbers.

Um clearly what's happening now is not working, and we're spending a lot of money on it.

So please shift the approach.

Um, let's rehire another biologist and um yeah, let's um try to get these owls back.

Thank you so much for um your attention on this issue.

Thank you.

Next, Celia Paymer.

Hi, good evening.

Um, I'm Celia Paimer, resident of Mountain View and also member of Green Spaces.

Um, I'm also speaking on 4.3, echoing others' comments.

Um, in support, as others have said.

Um, well, I am in support of the funding for consultants.

It is a band-aid, and it's a band-aid on a kid who needs stitches.

It's only going to buy a little bit of time.

A cynical person may think that given the evidence of the precipitous decline in burrowing owl numbers after the removal of the full-time biologist and the lack of filling the role per the preservation plan, that the goal is to entirely remove the owls out of convenience to city staff.

I absolutely hope that this is not the case.

Please prioritize and expedite the hiring of a new full-time biologist.

We don't have the time to wait a year, like we have been forced to wait for the hiring of a transportation manager.

Clearly, based on the comments tonight, there are many community members who are keeping eyes on this hiring process.

I would hope the city finds a way to fill the position with a person as qualified, as good at public communication, and as dedicated to preserving burrowing owls as our previous staff member.

As someone who frequently attends city meetings, I see how the wait for large plans often prevents the implementation of projects desired by residents.

This request already has a plan.

If our city plans are not enacted once approved, I think it will be hard to convince residents that our big P plans should be waited for and trusted to meet our city needs.

Please hire a full-time staff member to make sure we preserve our owls.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our last virtual speaker is Yilly.

Hi, um, good evening, council members.

My name is Ely.

I live in Sunnyville and work at Google's Mountain View Campus next to Shoreline Park.

I've organized volunteer habitat restoration events there and seen the decline firsthand.

Burrow areas overgrown with invasive weeds, artificial burrows deteriorating.

I'm here to support item 4.3, but also to urge you to think beyond it.

The city's former full-time biologist did comprehensive work for about um 16, sorry, 165,000 a year, captive breeding with DNA testing, a juvenile overwintering program, supplemental feeding, predator trapping, habitat enhancement, and trespasser deterrence.

Since he was placed on leave, nearly all of that has stopped and the owl population has crashed.

The contract before you tonight would pay a consulting firm up to 345,000, more than double for a scope that essentially adds only banding on top of bare minimum monitoring, no breeding program, no feeding, no predator management.

Please approve this funding tonight because something's better than nothing, and these owls can't wait.

But I also urge the council to prioritize hiring a dedicated full-time biologist who can do the comprehensive recovery work.

This population actually needs to survive.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now I will now bring this back to council for action and note that a motion to approve the consent calendar should also include reading the title of the ordinances and resolutions attached to consent calendar items 4.1, 4.2, and 4.7.

I see council member Kamei in the queue.

Great.

Thanks.

Thanks so much, Mayor.

Um appreciate all the comments from the public on all these items.

Um I just um had a quick question for staff on item 4.3.

I know that um there's uh a lot of the there was the staff report.

Um, we've heard a lot of feedback.

I just wanted to give staff the opportunity if there's anything you wanted to clarify from um the plan.

I I know that one of the things I asked staff was um updating the borrowing owl plan, and I think that that is something of of interest um for the cities.

I think there's gonna be some other next steps.

So want to give staff the opportunity to come forward before we uh vote on our consent calendar.

Thank you very much.

Thank you once again, John Marchant Community Services Director.

There's a number of items um that are related to tonight's ask.

Number one, as stated by members of the public, the um the status of the burrowing owls are being reviewed.

And so as California Fish and Wildlife Fishing Game are looking at that.

Once that decision is made, then they're gonna going to be giving us some new guidelines.

It is at that time that we expect to look at our 2012 burrowing owl preservation plan and make some updates based on what comes out of that transition.

In addition, part of the the request is um necessary for additional funding for this year is because of that change in status.

And so whereas prior the the borough, the biologist on site was able to understand that there was going to be a project that was being taken place.

He would review the site.

All right.

Councilmember Hicks.

You may want to walk back up.

So the other uh concern of the members of the public was the timeline for hiring.

And I know given what the answer you just gave us, it's not, I know you can't immediately find an appropriate person and you don't know the the items to do, but can you add more clarity to um what the timeline would be in terms of people's immediate concerns and then the timeline for hiring so the immediate concerns um the there is a sense uh tonight that we have seen a significant decline in owls.

If you look over time, um we were working with the habitat agency to bring forward some of the elements that were talked about tonight, the overwintering program supplemental feeding that has been put on hold.

So during the two years that we did provide those services, it was not necessarily directly through that biologist, but through the habitat agency's assistance that brought those burrowing owl numbers up.

If you look at the history of the burrowing owl population numbers, um, then you will see that the burrowing owl numbers are similar, not exact, but more similar to what they were before the actions were taken with the habitat agency.

And so um just want to to clarify that.

Number number two, related to the staffing.

Um, I understand the desire to have someone sooner.

We will do what we can to expedite that process.

Um it just depends on how much we need to change job description.

Um, then there's some additional steps through HR to make that happen.

So it's just a matter of getting through some of the administrative um situation as well.

And so we we will work as quickly as we can to fill the position.

So you will you will expedite it as much as possible.

As much as we can.

We understand there's a desire in the community and understand that there's that we have the duty to do so.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Hicks.

I see that Councilmember Show Walter is ready to make a motion.

Thank you, and thank you to Councilmember Kameh for seconding.

Um, yes, I would like to um uh move the uh balance of the consent calendar, and I need to read um a few items.

Item 4.1 adopt an ordinance of the city of Mountain View approving a zoning map amendment for the properties located at 922 to 950 San Leandro Avenue, APN 153-18-026 and 153-18-031 from the M General Industrial Zoning District to the R3 1.5 multiple family residential zoning district as recommended by the environmental planning commission to be read in title only, further reading waived.

Item 4.2, adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, acknowledging receipt of the Mountain View Fire Department's annual inspection report pursuant to California Health and Safety Code, Section 13146-4 to be read in title only, further reading waived, and 4.7 introduce an ordinance of the city council of the city of Mountain View establishing an entertainment zone on portions of Castro Street consistent with Senate Bill 969 as codified in business and professions code section 25692 to be read in title only, further reading waived, and set a second reading for April 28th, 2026.

Thank you, Councilmember Scho Walter is been moved and seconded by Council Member Kamei.

It is very clear that our uh community really cares about our burrowing owls.

We view this as a yes and kind of scenario.

Um so hopefully uh we will get this through and our staff will be working very hard to um make sure our borrowing owls are are protected and safe.

They're really adorable, and we know we love them in our city.

All right, shall we get to a vote?

Yay, unanimous.

So now we will go to item five, oral communications from the public.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any matter not on the agenda.

Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic within the city's council subject matter jurisdiction up for up to three minutes during this session.

State law prohibits the council from acting on non-agenda items.

If you would like to speak on this item or 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 comment on this item?

If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk.

We will take in-person speakers first because we're kind of behind now.

Um each speaker will have 90 seconds or one and a half minutes.

Uh first we'll have John Satcher.

Schechter, sorry.

Uh thank you, Mayor, and thank you, City Council members.

Uh, my name is John Shachter, and I am speaking about the uh Twilight membership at Shoreline Golf Links.

I have been a Twilight member at Shoreline Golf Links for eight years.

Twilight members pay an annual fee of approximately 1,700 per person to golf at Shoreline in the late afternoon during off-peak golf hours.

Kemper Sports, the private equity company that the city council has hired, has made the decision to cancel all Twilight annual golf memberships.

This is deeply disappointing.

Shoreline Twilight members are a large friendly group, including golfers of different abilities, races, religions, ages, political beliefs, and income levels.

We play together, we talk, we joke, we argue, we enjoy each other's company.

Um we come together for recreation, connection, and well-being.

Thank you for creating the Shoreline Golf Course and funding it, City Council members.

The purpose of a municipal golf course is to provide a recreational amenity at an affordable price for the community and should not be operated with the primary objective of maximizing profit.

Thus, why is the city of Mountain View allowing Kemper Sports Private Equity to eliminate shoreline twilight memberships?

City Council members, did you know that in 2025 Shoreline Golf links reported an annual profit of $345,000?

Did you also know that loyal Twilight members are a key thank you?

Um next, um that money could go towards saving the hours.

Thank you.

I love them too.

Thank you.

Next we'll have next we'll have Ramesh Babu Patabirahman, followed by Glenn Stewart, followed by Hormaz Romer.

I'm hoping I'm getting these names right, and then followed by June Lim.

So if you could uh line up so that other uh we can move quickly to the cobblance.

Go right ahead, sir.

Yeah, I'm my name is Ramesh Babu, resident of Mountain View since 1994.

I'm a toilet member from 2012.

Uh my membership is expiring within a week.

I went to renew in the shoreline.

They're saying we cannot renew.

They did not email us or communicate with us.

It's abruptly there saying like that from March membership.

Whoever renewed in January, they give them a year.

But we need some time.

They should have communicated, you know.

They cannot say you cannot renew.

You have to switch to other member in like.

So that's my concern.

And John talked everything about you know profit and other stuff.

So City Council should address to Shoreline what is happening, or give us more time and give everybody like three months or four months.

Switch to other members or whatever.

How do you can raise the fee?

Okay, that's my concern.

And I've been living here for 25 years.

So 30.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Just a reminder that uh we can't take action on items for um open public comment.

Uh, we can maybe in item eight, but we you won't hear that till the very end of this meeting.

Glenn Stewart, followed by Hormaz Romer, followed by June Lim.

Glenn Stewart.

No, we don't we don't see time like that.

Hormaz Romer.

Followed by June Lim, followed by Jennifer Yoon.

Hi, I'm Hormuz Rummer.

I'm also a member at Shoreline Golf Links and I'm facing the same situation.

So I've been there maybe five years, and it brings great joy and peace to those of us that get to participate in the golf there.

We are very disappointed because we don't know if staff was aware of these changes.

There was no communication to the members.

We don't know.

But we would like the city and the staff, we would like to work with them collaboratively collaboratively to give us some time.

Let's review and let's examine what is going on, what needs to happen, uh, what can be done about the membership program and how we can save this uh from uh being canceled, where it's a service to the community um that seems to be taken away to profit some private equity uh stakeholders.

So uh we hope something can be done about that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

June Lim, followed by Jennifer Yoon, followed by Teresa Cho.

My name is June Lim.

Uh I've been the uh Twilight member uh for many years.

I'm here at the uh the saber twilight membership.

The shoreline gold membership program has to provide a space where the people of all backgrounds, of course, age, income, and available can come together for recreation and connection and well-being.

However, I recently realized that shoreline goaling seemed to operate it for maximizing profit as a public asset, shoreline goaling should not be operated this way, should be balancing the financial responsibility with the public accessibility and community benefit, prioritizing higher margins over risk limiting or access, reducing participation and undermining the public purpose of the facility should be avoided.

But unfortunately, campus sports seem to pursue this direction.

We respectably urging the city council and park recreation to carefully evaluate whether camper sports current strategy fully aligned with the public interest and the long-term vision of a shoreline gold building.

We asked that the city ensure engagement management decision to reflect community values, access and sustainable operations so that the course continue to serve people broadly by keeping twilight membership rather than shifting toward a highly profitable golf course between this model.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jennifer Yoon.

Hi, my name is Jennifer Yoon, and I'm here for uh saving Twilight membership.

And I've been member for six more than six years.

And then, you know, this is a public golf course.

So it should be treated like a library or like a park.

And for the shoreline, for us, who is a golfer playing golf, is like um, you know, people go to a library for book, and then for people who like us who play golf, it's like this shoreline golf course, because it's very affordable.

So I like to maintain that one.

And then also people like us who like to play golf.

This is where we socialize people.

Like John mentioned, we talk with the people, we meet new people.

So it's really good for us.

And the third one is even though you it's money is reasonable, but this is the one.

Let's see, let me read this thing.

Why it expenses when they make more money for people, cheap membership show up constant consistently, even in the offices, which is the winter time and it's raining, we still pay.

So they provide a steady cash flow, keeps the course course running year-round.

So what I'm saying is like um this is since it's a public should be rigid, the money should be um reasonable, and then this is what Twilight membership is.

So I really like to uh council looking into it for the keeping this um twilight membership.

Thank you.

Thank you, Teresa Cho.

My name is Teresa Cho, and my daughter is called Melinda Cho.

We are from Special Olympics.

I serves as a volunteer coach for the head golf for 30 years.

And I was our and then we also participated in the uh Santa Clara Special Olympic golf training in the summertime since 2021.

Melinda Cho, my daughter, she loves to play golf.

So I like her to have a longer training.

So we purchased the Tri-Line membership so that we can play golf after this uh training season.

But she worked full time.

She could only play golf on weekends.

Now special now Shoreline is canceling the Twilight membership.

And that is affordable for members to play on weekend.

So Melinda, my daughter, is concerned whether she can be able to afford to play at Shaoline in the future.

But she had to go up to a high.

Thank you.

Next, our last in-person speaker is Albert Jeans.

Obviously, chose the wrong night.

Yeah, the next slide, please.

Yeah, just an update on the number of RVs last April Thursday, a couple weeks ago is 393.

That's five more than the previous month, still going up.

Reason is next slide.

Yeah, and Palo Alto, they really rolled out their street quitting bi-weekly.

Um so that is severely cut down the number of RVs on their streets gone from 172 at the beginning of the year to 108, and probably following still.

Next slide, please.

Now at the last council meeting, you know, staff said we were paying whoops, something like three million dollars going forward for the safe parking lot at Shoreline.

Will it be a hundred spaces?

$30,000 of space.

Now, wouldn't that be use better used as a relocation allowance?

It turns out Zillow is a very good tool for looking at apartments to other cities.

This is for Dallas Fort Worth.

Median price for a two-bedroom is $1,800 a month.

Next slide, please.

10,000 rentals available.

Here it is, Silicon Valley, $4,000, 1,200 rentals available.

Next slide, please.

At $2200, there's only eight available.

That's why safe parking is not working.

These people have nowhere to go.

You can't expect those people to pay $2,000 a month.

Where are they gonna find that kind of money?

Whereas they can go to next slide, please.

They can go to Dallas, Fort Worth or hundreds of other cities in the US.

For $1,300, they can get a two-bedroom apartment.

There are still 2,000 rentals available, and this is just one city in the US.

There's hundreds of others.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now move on to our virtual speakers.

Tim McKenzie.

Hi, all I'm Tim McKenzie, he him pronouns.

I lived in Montaloma for over a decade now.

Um I have a flock camera directly across the street from my house, my driveway.

It is impossible to leave without seeing it or being seen by it.

I know that we've turned off the cameras.

I know that we've canceled the contract.

Um I'm just curious as to when we will be getting the cameras actually taken down.

I know that installing the cameras took more than a year or much longer than was anticipated, and part of that had to do with getting permits, working with Caltrans, things like that.

But we shouldn't need permits to take them down.

Um I would like to see these cameras gone, like physically removed, not just turned off.

That would be lovely.

It is a bad reminder of the surveillance state every time I leave my house.

Thank you, Tim.

Uh we have now concluded uh item five, oral communications for public comment.

We will now go to item six and six uh new business.

So 6.1 adopt city council policy A-13A disruption of telephonic and internet service during city council meetings.

City Clerk Heather Glazer uh will present the item.

If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members.

So the item before you arises from recent updates to parts of the Ralph M.

Brown Act, which requires cities to adopt a formal policy by July first of this year in order to continue offering two-weight remote public participation for city council meetings.

Um this policy provides a clear framework for how the city will respond to service disruptions, restore access, document all actions taken, and determine whether meetings may persist, um, may proceed if an issue persists.

Um its purpose is to ensure compliance with state law, maintain transparency, and support continued public access during technical outages.

Adopting this resolution and policy will ensure the city remains compliant while continuing to provide reliable and accessible public meetings.

Um this concludes my presentation, but I'm available for questions.

Thank you.

Does any member of the council have questions?

Seeing none.

Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item?

If so, please click the raised hand button in Zoom or press star nine on your phone.

A timer will be displayed on the screen.

Each speaker will have 90 seconds or one and a half minutes.

I am seeing no public comment.

We will now take virtual speakers.

I am seeing no virtual speakers.

We will now bring this item back to council for questions and deliberation.

Please note that a motion to approve the recommendations should also include reading the title of the resolution attached to the report.

I see a motion by councilmember Clark.

Go right ahead.

Disruption of telephonic or internet service during city council meetings to be read in title only for the reading waived.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor, uh motion by Vice Mayor Clark, seconded by Councilmember Ramirez.

I believe we are ready for a vote.

And that looks like that motion passes unanimously.

We are actually going to take a 10-minute break.

Um so uh we will it is 8 51 right now, and so we will be back at 9 p.m.

All right, let's get back to business.

All right, so it is nine oh nine, and I'm calling the meeting back to order.

All right, so now we are item six point two, approve the public safety building construction financing plan and recommended fiscal year twenty twenty-five to twenty six fund transfers and appropriations.

Assistant city manager Arne Andrews will present the item.

If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now.

Go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council.

The item before you this evening is the culmination of almost a decade of proactive council reserve policies, community support for new revenue generation, and the ability because of our fiscal soundness to actually access the municipal financial markets in a prudent and cost effective way.

Probably should have said I am Art Andrews, one of your assistant city managers, and with me is Derek Rampone, your finance director.

Doesn't like that either.

There we go.

So one of the reasons we're here tonight with your financing plan is because of a couple of developments that have happened on the public work side.

One of them was the successful environmental clearance through the SQL process, and then followed by a bunch of detailed design that is currently underway.

What you see before you is the phased packages that Public Works has been working on, and phase one is a package, as you can see that will be ready for dissemination in July.

So as such, the financing team that's working on several aspects of the funding plan is ready to come forward with the final financing plan.

So as detailed in the staff report, staff went through what we refer to as like a building block process to put together the funding.

So some of the primary building blocks we're going to walk through right now.

And one of those is one of the actions that was taken back in 2018, which was making sure that the AMS will revenues were reserved for a future public safety building, and that the annual revenues are something that could be utilized to pay annual debt service.

I mentioned that the community supported additional revenue generation, and so in 2024, Measure G was passed, and Measure G has an annualized average expectation of about $3.2 million per year.

So with those two components, we now have close to an approximate $8.5 million combined that we could use towards debt service.

And so from a staff perspective, we started working with our underwriters and our financial advisor, and you can see that that would yield approximately 135 million in bond proceeds.

So that was the first building block as we work towards a funding plan to eventually get to the 189 million that we saw on the previous slide.

In addition, over the years, the public safety building actual CIP project has had monies uh allocated to it, including just I believe last month there was additional money allocated, bringing the total there to about 16.3 million.

And so once we put together the other funding structures, then we turn to Shoreline as one of the last building blocks.

And you can see here that the current recommendation was for 10 million, but I should caveat that a couple ways.

So the 10 million was simply predicated, and that was the remaining gap.

However, back in 2025, the finance department actually went through a very laborious cost allocation process, and through that cost allocation process, they came up with what they thought were reasonable expectations, looking at everything like the service calls, looking at the different structures, whether it's a beat structure or whether it's a firehouse structure.

And through that analysis, they came up with an expectation that it's reasonable to think that a fire allocation cost would be about 17%.

I'm sorry, a public uh police department allocation cost would be approximately 17.6%, and a fire allocation cost would be approximately 13.5%.

If you look at the current staff recommendation at 10 million, that's about 5.3% of total proceeds.

And so as the project moves on, or this evening, one of the alternatives was the ability for council to make suggestions.

Staff thinks it's reasonable to go up to the lower tier of fire at about 13.5%.

And I will remind folks that back in, I believe it was December of 2024.

The new scope of the public safety building does include a parking garage.

It was reduced to three floors, but it also includes a cold shell on the roof.

And by rescoping it to just have the cold shell, that was about a 14 million dollar savings.

So you can see where additional monies could eventually come into play, whether it's from shoreline or other avenues, but that is an alternative.

And as I mentioned, the analysis would warrant that ability to go higher on shoreline.

So these are the stacks that we just went through, the building blocks.

You can see an estimated 135 million in bond proceeds, the public safety reserve at about 26 and a half million, the public safety CIP at 16.3.

You do have two action items tonight, which are the 10 million current recommendation on shoreline.

And then this is the wrong slide, but there's also 2 million that we're uh suggesting in the budget process for the this evening, also.

And that brings us to a total of actually 189.8 million.

And so the project cost is currently estimated at 189.

And so this got us to the project cost.

Other sources include things like interest earned on the bond proceeds.

It's reasonable to expect the bond proceeds could earn between five and ten million.

Also, there's administrative fees that are built into the project.

Those administrative fees are something that may or may not meet full fruition, so there could be savings there.

So as we move through the project and we start to see the actual expenses as bid packages come back, there are additional sources of funding that could get us upwards of a 197 million, and then we already covered the shoreline aspect, which has some more room there as well.

So with that, the next step in the process is we return to you on April 28th.

April 28th is where you actually act in your fiduciary capacity to approve all the bond documents that are required to go to market.

You will actually get a brief training at that meeting to re how would I say it?

Well, it's been a while since the city has issued debt.

So it'll be a a briefing on what it entails as your fiduciary role as you look at these bond documents and eventually approve the bond documents for us to go to market.

And that concludes staff's presentation.

We're available for any questions.

Thank you.

Does any member of the council have questions?

I see council member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor, and uh thank you, Arn, for the presentation.

Um, if we wanted to proceed with the alternative suggested by staff, what modifications would we have to make to the resolutions?

So I'll get it started and then I'll defer to the city attorney, but I believe you have the ability to amend that this evening.

I think it would have to be read into the record.

Currently the resolution states 10 million.

Uh I saw the city attorney nod, so I'm assuming I haven't gone off track yet.

That number could be amended verbally into the record at whatever council deems appropriate.

Um I'm not very good at math.

What is so if it would have to be a uh a dollar amount, we can't say 13.5 percent.

Correct.

What would that number be?

Okay, uh I see what you're going.

So if we went to the lower threshold, which would be my suggestion if you're gonna go uh additional 13.5 percent would equal roughly 25.5 million, so you'd have roughly another 15 million in capacity.

Okay, thank you very much.

Any other questions?

All right, no other questions from council.

Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item?

If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star nine on your phone.

A timer will be displayed on screen.

Each speaker will have 90 seconds or one and a half minutes.

Um I'm seeing someone walk up to the podium.

Are you will you be speaking, Mr.

Zaroski?

All right, so Mrs.

Arovsky is going to be our public comment speaker, and then we will take virtual speakers right after him.

90 seconds.

In the set my clock down.

Okay.

Mine is more in the form of a question than a comment.

I've heard from people that the cost of the building has inflated to 300 million since the initial um estimate was done.

What you've done is good work, and it shows how we can get this done within the constructs of what of what we anticipated.

I know that Pat was very disappointed to see that the original building had gone from 139 million to 189 million in a year and a half, and she voiced her opinions about that.

The community is concerned that this isn't going to become another high-speed rail, that we don't have a plan that starts at 6 million and goes to 66, and we're committed to funding it no matter what.

So we'd like some assurance that we've done our homework on the 189, and we're not putting the cart before the horse, and we're going to prove this money, but find out later that we need another 150 million.

So that is a concern because we have so many other things that we need in terms of SB 79 infrastructure.

We're gonna need sewers, we're gonna need roads, we're gonna need parks, we're gonna need a lot of things.

And none of that's funded.

And if we're gonna have pain, we want to make sure that we know that the pa what the pain is and that it's gonna be shared.

So that's my question, and anything that you can do to say, oh, this is a good estimate.

This is not a two-year-old estimate, and the real estimate is 300 million.

And oh, by the way, no sewers, no parks, no downtown.

People aren't gonna go for any kind of revenue measure that looks like that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we have it um it's it's gonna be in 90 seconds.

Um button, and then we now move on to our virtual public comment.

Tim McKenzie.

Hi, Tim McKenzie, he in Pronons, Monteloma neighborhood.

Um following up on uh the previous speaker, uh, one way to be certain that the uh estimate is uh correct or that we're not gonna overrun costs is to reduce the footprint of the public safety building.

Uh there.

I don't know that there's a need for a shooting range.

I don't know how much that really contributes to public safety.

Uh there's been material changes in conditions.

The public safety advisory board, which was in existence for uh many of the decisions and discussions about this building no longer exists.

So some of that public oversight that we used to have doesn't exist anymore.

I ask and implore that you reduce the scope scale of the public safety advisory building, the public safety building, uh, because it's not big buildings and the fanciest new technology to the police that actually keeps us safe.

There are many elements to public safety, uh such as stable affordable housing, access to nutritious food.

Uh what's the there are uh many, many elements beyond giving a big new fancy building to the cops.

Um, and I'd ask you to reassess in light of changes of in material conditions to lower the footprint, lower the costs.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And that completes our public comment.

Uh, we will now bring the item back to council questions and deliberation.

Please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolutions attached to the report.

I see we have Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I'll go ahead and move to approve the slightly revised staff recommendations, uh, including uh adopt a resolution of the board of directors of the Shoreline Regional Park Community amending the fiscal year 2025 to 26, adopted budget to transfer an appropriate appropriate 25.5 million dollars from the Shoreline Regional Park Community Fund to CIP 20-49 public safety building design to be read and titled only further reading waived, and adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View amending the fiscal year 25 to 26 adopted budget to appropriate two million dollars in the general operating fund for a transfer to the public safety building reserve to be written title only further reading waived.

I do appreciate uh the additional analysis provided by staff and um agree with the findings.

Um, I I also think it is important.

Uh my the question I'll I'll conclude with is um the the uh concerns raised by Mr.

Zayorski and and um uh providing some assurance to the public that there won't be substantial cost overruns and um you know further risks to the general fund.

What assurances can can we provide to the public.

I'll get us started, but then I'll probably look for some help from our public works director.

She's still here, thank you.

Uh so when the first bid package is released, it's gonna provide a lot of clarity just alone on that, and that'll happen this summer.

And then my understanding is with the design work that's been done and with the engineering's estimates.

We're still in the ballpark with the action that council is considering tonight.

You are gonna increase the contingency availability in the event that it's above the cost of increases that are currently worked into it along with the administrative costs.

But I'm gonna stop there and uh I'll ask uh our public works director.

Good evening, Jennifer Ng, Public Works Director.

Um, let me give you a sneak peek into my world and as to how this works.

So we have several phases of this project.

There are three phases.

The first one is a demolition phase, the second one is construction of the main building, the third phase is site work as well as the garage.

Um at each phase, there are several check-in points throughout the design.

So there's typically a 35%, a 65%, and a 90%, and then finally we get to 100%.

At each of those phases, uh, we get an updated estimate from our design team that allows us to do checks and balances along the way so that we can see how we're progressing in the design relative to the amount of funding that we have available.

The nice thing about this particular project being phased is that that third phase of the garage is our off ramp in case something happens, catastrophic in the world.

I don't want to wish ill on anybody, but if there were another pandemic and bids went to heck all over again like they did five years ago, um, you know, and went crazy, you know, that garage component of the project is um our um is one of the major off ramps that we have in order to keep the rest of the project on track.

Great, thank you.

All right.

Any other okay.

Uh council member Kamei.

Great, thank you.

Thanks.

Um, just a quick question for staff.

So I um I know we have uh a web page for our public safety building, and it had like the designs and and things like that.

As we're moving forward through our process, would we be able to maybe like update and provide links and maybe that can address some of the public comment that we heard tonight in terms of making sure that it's daylighted and transparent on the process?

Yeah, I think the financing team would be happy to work with public works to embed financial components to what they currently have for the project itself, and then as we move forward, we can continue to update the financials.

Great, thank you very much.

Great, Councilmember McAllister.

Right of way.

We own a property, so can you explain the right-of-way of 2,670,000?

I'm looking at project detail.

Is that obsolete or is that still current?

So once again, I will call on our public works directory.

Let me make sure I understand what we're referring to.

Can you point me to a page in the staff report?

It's uh page two, project detail, construction, construct consulting services, city services, then right of way CEQA permit.

2 million 670,000 dollars.

But we own the property.

Oh, we do own the property.

Uh that's just a generic titling, I guess I would call it for how we typically bucket our um our buckets of money.

In this case, we own we do own the uh uh property that the building sits on.

Uh we do need to pay for a CEQA and permits.

Um, part of the right-of-way fees um is going to include um some additional work that we need to do to provide parking in the area uh for any sort of displacement during construction.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Any other comments?

Oh council member Hicks.

I just wanted to refer.

I do not have an additional question, but I wanted to refer to members of the public who are interested in how this is being paid for and the financial feasibility.

There, council does get the opportunity to ask written questions ahead of time.

And there are uh, I don't know, nine, ten, some number of written questions, which if you're super interested in digging into the details, you can read there available to everyone online.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Hicks.

We have a motion on the floor made by Councilmember Ramirez.

We are still waiting on a second.

Councilmember uh Vice Mayor Clark.

Um, can I just ask staff?

Can you I want to make sure in my head I understand the difference between the text that was presented to us to transfer an appropriate 10 million from Shoreline Regional Park versus the motion that was made?

Are we essentially just giving ourselves some extra cushion there?

Or I believe that's the intent.

The intent is to utilize the full capacity that's available through the cost allocation study that was done.

And as a staff perspective, we would just have that as additional contingency funds as we move through the project.

Okay, I understand now.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Okay, so now we have the motion by Councilmember Ramirez, uh seconded by Vice Mayor Clark.

Um, I guess if there are no other questions or comments, we are oh, Councilmember McAllister.

Okay, I guess I guess I was uh reading something.

I'm a little confused.

So there was two uh options, one is two million, one is ten million.

And you went you recommended the two million dollar.

Thank you.

It's the other way around.

The two million is a general fund allocation through the budgeting process, which we'll take care of this evening.

It's the 10 million portion from shoreline that's being increased to 25.5.

Oh, so we're doing both.

You were going to do both this evening anyway.

They weren't options.

They're two options.

That's what I was okay.

Thank you for the clarity.

All right.

Once again, any more questions?

Any more comments?

It looks like we are ready for a vote.

Let's go.

And the motion passes unanimously.

Thank you so much to staff.

All right.

We are now at item 6.3, preliminary review of fiscal year 26-27 recommended budget.

Finance and administrative services director Derek Rampone and Assistant Finance Administrative Services Director, Grace Jen will present the item.

If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now.

Whenever you're ready.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members, Vice Mayor and Council members.

Derek Ramponier, Finance and Administrative Services Director, and joining me tonight is Grace Sang, the assistant finance and administrative services director.

Tonight we are presenting a preliminary review of the fiscal year 26-27 recommended budget.

This is the second year in a row that we've been uh coming to council with this preliminary look at the recommended budget.

And then just as a reminder, this presentation focuses mainly on the general fund of the city.

On this slide is a high-level overview of the budget development timeline.

As you know, the process really begins in November.

Um, as when we kick when we send a kickoff menu memo to departments, and departments then will prepare their budget requests and submit them to FASD each December around the holiday time frame.

In January, the budget team compiles and reviews all of those requests, and in February, the budget team and the city manager meet with each department to discuss priorities and proposed funding.

Also in February, we provided the mid-year budget update to council.

And then tonight marks the preliminary review of the fiscal year 26-27 budget.

This is an oper an important opportunity for council and the community to provide input that will help shape the recommended budget.

The recommended budget will be published prior to June 1st with an anticipated release by the end of May.

Following that release, uh the public hearing will be held on June 9th.

And then a fine the final step in the process will be on June 23rd when council considers adoption of the budget, which includes the capital improvement program.

In recent years, uh revenue growth has generated operating balances that have allowed us to make additional payments towards our long-term liabilities, including pension obligations through CalPERS and fully funding the retiree health benefits.

The city also prioritizes maintaining healthy reserves to prepare for economic uncertainty under Council Policy A11, the general fund reserve target is 20 to 25% of expenditures, and we're currently around 20%.

These practices have all supported the city's triple A credit rating from standard and poor's, the highest possible rating, which helps reduce borrowing costs, such as was on the previous item just heard.

In addition, the city has received national recognition for excellence in budgeting, financial reporting, and procurement.

I'd like to provide a brief uh economic update since the mid-year budget report was presented on February 24th of this year.

Since then, there's been a notable increase in economic activity and volatility.

This level of uncertainty does make it a little more challenging to forecast future conditions with uh confidence.

We've seen escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, a partial federal government shutdown, and significant swings in the stock market lately.

In addition, gas prices have risen, which have increased costs for both consumers and businesses.

Turning now to the local economy, we are seeing mixed signals.

While revenues are not experiencing as much growth as in prior years, sales tax and business license tax revenues are projected to experience modest growth, while property tax revenue remains relatively strong.

Unemployment remains relatively low, around 3.7%.

While this is higher than a year ago, it is still below the recent peak of 4.1% in July of 2025.

That said, though, unemployment is expected to increase slightly in the near term.

Fewer employees working in the city can impact local sales tax performance as a reduced worker presence and visitor activity may lead to lower spending.

In addition, as we all know, the high cost of living in the Bay Area continues to be a challenge for a lot of people.

With that said, though, there are some positive indicators.

Several companies have recently relocated to or expanded within the city of Mountain View, including Toyota, OpenAI, and Glean, which all help support the city's economic base.

As we look towards building the Mountain View of Tomorrow, I'd like to highlight a new revenue source that's now available to the city.

Measure G, a property tax property transfer tax on transactions over $6 million, became effective on December 20, 2024.

This measure was approved by over 72% of local voters in November of 2024.

For the current year, staff is projecting approximately $5.1 million in Measure G revenue.

And consistent with council's approved allocation plan, that funding is proposed to be distributed as shown on this slide, with $2 million or 40% for the public safety administration building, 1.5 million or 30% to the parks and open space acquisition reserve, 1 million or 20% for affordable housing, and 500,000 or 10% across several priorities, including a citywide design standards, street maintenance, sustainability projects, and a new economic vitality reserve.

This slide highlights several of the city's ongoing continuous improvement efforts.

At the February mid-year budget update, council approved the transportation division reorganization, combining the transportation planning and traffic engineering under a new chief transportation officer.

Council also approved the addition of one librarian and one lead security services guard position, allowing the library to expand Sunday hours.

Now looking ahead, staff is recommending the addition of a principal planner position in fiscal year 26-27.

This position will be funded across the general fund, development services fund, and the shoreline fund, and will support key planning functions, including policy development, development review, and implementation of adopted plans.

The recommended budget also includes the continued investment in public safety, including funding for fire department equipment, such as testing, cleaning, and replacement of personal protective gear, as well as ongoing health screenings for public safety personnel.

Finally, the city continues to prioritize technology improvements with several major systems currently being upgraded or planned for replacement to enhance service delivery and operational efficiency.

Also included in the 26-27 recommended budget, along with some actions taken at mid-year, there are several investments related to economic vitality and small business support.

Staff is recommending 365,000 in limited period funding for small business grant programs and downtown storefront activations to support local economic development.

In addition, 150,000 in ongoing funding is proposed to expand support for businesses, arts and culture programs and community activities.

As part of the major G allocations discussed earlier, staff is also proposing the creation of the new economic vitality reserve, initially funded with 100,000 to support future initiatives in this area.

At mid year, council approved a new public art administrator position to further strengthen arts and cultural programming.

And finally, 186,000 in limited period funding is being recommended to support programming and events set up for the 35th anniversary of the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

I'd like to just highlight a few key assumptions and risks underlying the forecast for next year.

As always, there's an inherited uncertainty.

No one has a crystal ball, so the forecast is based on current economic data and is informed by input from economists and other sources.

Overall, I would say revenue growth is expected to be moderate.

Our key and key assumptions include a 3% increase in the property tax base, a 2.4% increase in sales tax, which is driven by recent business activity and higher prices, which are offset by any business closures.

Approximately 2% growth in lease related revenues, which are conflict consistent with inflationary adjustments.

And at the same time, expenditures are expected to grow at a faster rate than revenues, which is an important dynamic to monitor.

There are also several key risks and unknowns, including how quickly inflation returns to the Federal Reserve's 2% target and the potential impacts of federal policy decisions on the local economy.

Finally, it's important to note that the current forecast does not assume a recession scenario.

In addition to the uncertainties and risks already reflected in the forecast, there are several potential headwinds we'd like to highlight.

First, there is a proposed statewide ballot initiative that could significantly impact the city's property transfer tax revenue, particularly for cities like Mountain View that have adopted higher tiered rates.

Depending on the outcome of that, the city could see an annual revenue loss in the range of 10 to 15 million dollars, depending on how it shakes out.

This estimate is based on historical activity and includes the tier two revenue from Measure G, which was approved by voters in November of 2024.

Mountain View has been engaged actively in opposition to this initiative and is working closely with our legislative advocacy team to provide data and ensure the city's perspective is well represented.

In addition, there may be multiple revenue measures placed on the November 2026 ballot by other agencies, as we heard earlier this evening.

A crowded ballot environment could create voter fatigue, limit voter attention, and increase competition amongst jurisdictions for voter support.

This dynamic could make it more challenging for any individual measure to succeed.

And finally, a broader economic conditions remain a concern.

If the cost of goods, particularly essential items, continue to rise, discretionary spending may soften.

And given that consumer spending drives nearly 70% of the economic activity, a slowdown in spending could definitely have a downstream impacts on the city's key revenues.

But city staff will continue to closely monitor these potential hiddens and will provide updates as more information becomes available.

Now we turn to the preliminary numbers for 2627 for the operating general operating fund.

As you can see, the budget is balanced and stable, showing a slight operating balance of 172,000.

As mentioned on the slide before, fiscal year 2627 recommended budget is currently projecting a small operating balance.

Oh, wrong slide.

One of 172,000 as can be seen in the bold column.

However, future years are projected to have negative balances beginning in fiscal year 27-28 with a deficit of 329,000, increasing to a deficit of 3.4 million in 2829 and a deficit of 1.8 million in 2930.

And then 3031, we're expected or projecting a small operating balance of 354,000.

That positive balance is actually a result of anticipated declines in pension costs, and those declines are related to the recent higher investment returns that have been realized at CalPERS and the drop-off of prior losses at CalPERS.

Next, we have a snapshot of the city's estimated available balance and how staff is proposing to use it.

This is really a bucket of one-time revenues that can be used for one-time expenditures.

As you can see, we're estimating a balance at the end of this fiscal year of nearly 20 million dollars.

After limited period expenditures proposed in this budget, along with some transfers to the self-insurance and general liability funds, we're estimating a carryover balance of nearly 5.7 million at the for 2627.

This 5.7 million will be needed for future limited period expenses and any reserves transfers.

Included in the 2627 recommended budget are several proposed position changes as shown on this slide.

One IT position is being proposed to be converted from limited period to ongoing.

In addition, there are five new ongoing positions being recommended, along with an increase to an existing warehouse position from 0.5 to 0.75.

More detailed information on these changes can be found on pages 10 and 11 of the staff report.

As detailed on pages 9 and through 11 of the staff report, this slide summarizes the ongoing general operating fund recommendations for next fiscal year.

The non-discretionary items reflect required costs to maintain current operations, including investments in technology, the janitorial services contract, and fire and health safety programs, among others.

The three million in discretionary funding provides support for the six ongoing positions, changes uh discussed on the previous slide, as well as as well as other high priority programs and services.

Now we turn to limited period investments uh recommendations.

These focus on one-time strategic investments and highlights basically items over 250,000 that are being recommended for limited period funding.

Staff is proposing a total of 7.9 million uh recommended uh for limited period funding for fiscal year 26-27.

Key investments include sustainability outreach and staffing, temporary IT support, including two desktop technicians, upcoming election costs, and contract services to develop economic development programs and grants, additional funding supports firefighter recruits attending the firefighter academy, a limited period period financial analyst, senior sorry, senior management analyst in finance to assist with purchasing and contracts and consulting services to evaluate the city's planning, permitting, and land use processes.

For more detailed lists, you can refer to pages 12 through 15 of the staff report.

And to wrap it all up, I've listed the next steps in the budget process on this slide.

June 9th will be the public hearing for the recommended budget, and then on June 23rd, a public hearing for the adoption of the operating budget and CIP will be held.

And that concludes our presentation.

We look forward to answering any questions you may have.

Thank you.

I will now bring the item back for council.

Um does any member of the council have questions.

Councilmember McAllister.

Yeah, I'll I only have three.

Um when you were talking about the downtown did you the grant funding or did you just say downtown or the whole city?

I just heard downtown, but I didn't see if you were referring to the 265,000 dollars for the whole city.

Because there's a 100,000 for good evening.

Amanda Rotella, economic vitality manager.

So um the grant funding is related to the facade improvement grant program that we discussed, I believe, at last council meeting.

So we've heard from the interest in council of some prioritization of downtown, but it's for the entire city.

Okay, I just heard the downtown that grabbed my attention.

Okay.

The next question I had for you was, and this sort of ties into uh the public safety building.

So I asked a question for the standard and poor triple A rating, underlying credit rating.

Reserves are set at 20%.

Can the policies be modified to set to still meet the standard and poor's triple rating and free up money for current projects?

Yes, I know you got 20%.

So how does do they look?

There's more than one right criteria for the triple A, so go ahead.

Yeah, thanks for the question.

Uh the 20% I would say is a relatively standard industry for cities to follow.

Um, we have seen some cities that are low uh lower than that, but I would say we wouldn't want to get too much lower.

Um we have, I think historically had strong reserves here who have helped us through um downturns, and so I would you know have to I would recommend that the council seriously consider reducing that to free up any funds, but obviously that's up to council discretion.

So you're saying if we could reduce the reserves to maybe 18%, free up money, still maintain a triple A rating and pay for things now instead of having inflation eat the money up.

I don't want to speak for standard and poor.

Um so I would say that anything under 20 percent, they are gonna definitely look at more closely.

Would that be all funds, or are we looking at specific general fund?

The general fund.

Okay.

And what was my third question for you?

Uh oh for the thing about it, come back.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember McAllister.

Councilmember Schoalter.

Yeah, I um I was just hoping that you or somebody would go into a little more detail about um what we're doing to advocate against this ballot measure um that is putting I think it's called say prop 13.

Is that that's one of the is that that's one of the names that's been put forward by yeah, what what are we doing um along those lines?

It hasn't I mean I don't know exactly where it is in the process.

Has it qualified yet?

Councilmember Show Walter.

So we've actually had a lot of activity between our staff team and our uh legislative state legislative lobbyist um Dane Hutchins over the last I'd say couple days and even last week.

So there is a cleanup bill that has been um I guess cleanup bill might not be the right term for it, but there has been a bill proposed by Buffy Wicks um that they are working on, and there are um considerations that they are giving too trying to figure out a way to uh exempt cities from um basically not having to I guess not having to be impacted by this potential measure, and so what they're trying to do is see if the folks that are supporting this measure will remove this measure from consideration.

They are close to getting all the signatures, from what I understand, they don't have all of them yet.

They're very close.

So there are active negotiations happening at the state level between certain state legislators to try and see if they can get this taken care of.

Mountain View has a seat at the table.

Uh we very specifically provided uh detailed financial information that is being used by legislators to illustrate the severe impacts that Mountain View uh and we are using the $15 million number because that is frankly more likely to happen if we were to have the property transfer tax eliminated.

We're not the only city locally, San Jose would also be impacted by this.

So it's my understanding that they are also at the table talking about this.

So there are multiple cities across the state that would be impact impacted by this, but um it's really fast moving.

But in the last, I'd say, like I said, few days, the last week or two, we've been very actively engaged on this.

Okay, so if it if it does get on the ballot, um then we can we could pass a resolution that we're not supporting it.

Correct.

And we would certainly recommend council to do that.

Right, okay.

But um, all right.

Well, I just wondered because um, as these things go, if there's something we can do personally to advocate, I'm sure you'll let us know.

Yes, for sure.

Okay, all right.

And um, yeah, that was my major question.

Uh I thought it was a really good report.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Show Walter.

Councilmember Hicks.

So, like I did with the last agenda item.

I did not have more questions, but I just wanted to draw the public's attention to the fact that they that this is a big budget, not a lot of questions from council, but there were 10 pages of written questions that the council has.

So I think we're we're not digging into this enough, refer to the written questions.

Thank you, Councilmember Hicks.

Council member McAllister.

Uh I gotta figure out my third question.

So we're you're set aside 77,000 for uh uh park and rec for registration.

Is there any money?

I understand there was some discussion with the performing arts center to get a new ticketing service in.

So is that in a prior budget, or is that being considered at this time?

Well, it's not your money.

Oh, that's right, it's under you.

Sorry.

Is that the money?

Are you tired of me yet?

Oh no, not yet.

Once again, John Marshaunt Community Services Director.

So, yes, the we are looking to get a new ticketing system at the Center of Performing Arts that is funded.

We are actually in the process of doing that right now.

Um, as far as the 77,000, we have a uh set amount of funds set aside for the fees that we are assessed for registration fees, and so that that fund is basically allowing us to to stay stable to pay the fees to the vendor that we use for the the registration system for recreation.

And so that that fund is basically allowing us to stay stable to pay the fees to the vendor that we use for the registration system for recreation.

Okay.

You could have just said, yeah, we already have a funding.

Thanks.

Any other questions?

Any other questions?

Vice Mayor Clark.

Just I'll bring it up now as a question instead of later.

Um I think at some point in the past, either an item eight or some sort of referral.

Um we'd looked at there were this is a very minor thing, the overall uh piece of the budget, but we look at um, I think some of the escalators that were in place for things like council operations, like um travel and other things got paused during the pandemic, and I don't think they've been addressed.

And I think um I think they might have I I think at some point we talked about this previously, and I didn't know whether the finance committee or CPPC or the council directly should address that with you if we wanted in this budget.

Um I assume we can just work together offline.

Um, since there was, I think prior council direction on it, but if there wasn't, we can maybe ask to reaffirm it tonight.

But you're correct, there hasn't been increases in in some of the travel budget for council in eight years, almost 10 years actually.

So um I think that they would go to the CFC at first, um, pending your, you know, and then take it to council.

Okay, I'll bring it up in comments.

Council member Clark, may I make a comment?

So I I think the CFC meeting would be to uh it would if council were to make direction tonight for for staff to include it, we could include that in the budget.

It would not need to go to CFC.

My concern is that the CFC will not be meeting until too late in this process to where the budget's already developed and the books already developed as well.

Um I think an elegant solution is that we have already had to increase the travel and training budgets for most all of the departments for the similar reasons.

And so, should you give staff direction tonight to just have staff look at that and apply that escalator?

I think that's the easiest way of doing it.

That's what I would recommend.

Okay.

I'll bring that up in comments then because I definitely don't want anything special for us.

I just want to make sure that at some point we address um so that we five years from now we aren't in a world where we're looking at 50% increases or something weird.

So yeah, and that would be very consistent with what we've done across the organization.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Clark.

Councilmember McAllister.

Uh just clarification for council for the vice mayor.

So was it travel or all uh council expenditures?

Um I'll raise it in in um I'll raise it in comments, but I I was thinking just kind of taking a look at at anything that was paused then and just seeing if we need to get anything up to match what the staff more broadly is doing.

So thanks for your clarity.

Thanks.

All right.

Seeing no other questions from council, would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item?

If so, um please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star nine on the phone um or turn in your blue card.

A timer will be displayed on the screen.

Each speaker will have 90 seconds or one and a half minutes.

I am seeing no speakers in person, but I have one online.

Uh Tim McKenzie.

Hi all.

Um, I have a specific concern about one of the line items for a um uh one-time expenditure.

There's a line item for 158,800 for public safety equipment costs.

Um concern is that this seems premature to be pre-allocating money before the AB 481 military equipment use uh meeting.

Uh the last year it happened in May.

Um, I don't think it has happened yet.

And pre-allocating funding before approving the actual list of equipment seems not to be prudent.

I also questioned how necessary it is.

Uh block safety cameras, which the council unanimously canceled the contract with was public safety equipment.

And that was, I think, not the most prudent use of funds.

I and it seems council agrees with that as well.

And there was just 10 million dollars or more for the public safety building.

Um last year approved almost half a million dollars for essentially a tank for police officers.

Um how much money and why is it every year there's consistently more funds and more funds for policing for equipment that has questionable efficacy or need um and not for other needs of the community.

Um so I would request that that line item be struck.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We will now bring it back to uh council for uh questions and deliberation.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, and uh thank you also to uh staff for uh providing the preliminary review or budget workshop.

Um I uh had my one-on-one check-in with the city manager, and we agree it's uh a very helpful addition, and I appreciate staff uh taking the time to walk through um uh what you're um planning to include in in the upcoming uh uh the the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

So it's a it's a very worthy and helpful exercise.

Um I am going to highlight a few so I support everything.

I think this is a great budget.

Uh I'm going to um highlight a few of the uh line items that I thought were were um elements that I thought were particularly uh um commendable.

Um one is uh being forward thinking and including the ongoing uh child care subsidy program funding.

Um I'm uh I had recalled that the reserve was going to uh um uh to cease to be uh in existence um and had been monitoring that and I'm uh I appreciate staff for for being forward thinking and uh including that that funding uh as an ongoing expenditure even beyond the expiration of that reserve.

Um really pleased to see the the long-range planning staff included.

I know uh members of the council have talked about that.

I think going back to January when we were discussing um SB 79 and recognizing the increasing importance of being able to be nimble and respond to uh a lot of the state mandates.

Uh so that's uh that's very encouraging to see, uh and I'm very happy to support it.

Um again, the library hours expansion, that was great to see in uh the mid-year, and then uh that commitment um being advanced through this budget is is terrific.

Um these are uh really um uh valuable uh investments in our community, and I'm very grateful to staff for for finding a way to make it work.

This is one that's just for me.

This is the last time you'll hear this.

Um, but I was really happy to see the equipment replacement reserve below 20 million dollars.

That's great.

Keep spending it down.

It's like a cancer.

So you have to you have to remove it so it doesn't metastasize.

So that's terrific.

Um so I'm gonna go ahead and move to accept the report and advance the staff recommendations.

I'm also happy to include, I don't want to put words in your mouth, Vice Mayor, but I understood it to be um an escalator or sort of a right sizing of the um uh you didn't limit it to city council, but I think looking at some of the like travel expenses and things like that.

I'll let you fill in the gaps.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It looks like we have a motion by council member Ramirez, uh seconded by Vice Mayor Clark, who is now next on the dock at speak.

Yeah, I this was a very helpful preview.

Um I think we're we're heading the right direction, and I really appreciate staff um the these previews in advance of the the actual budget sessions are really helpful.

Um just to clarify sort of what uh what my request was.

It's uh I I think um I think previously um for for council operations, whether it's um training or or travel or some of the other expense allowances, I think a lot of those just kind of got frozen in time and rightly so um around the pandemic, and I don't know what the right answer is there.

I just don't want to get in a there's two things I'm trying to avoid.

One, I just don't want to be in a position in a in a few years where we realize we haven't caught up and then we are asking for really significant increases to get everything um um caught up, uh which I don't think is is fair to anyone.

And then the second is it it uh it does put the mayor kind of in an awkward position to um to have to review requests to release reserve funding, and we haven't had a a lot of those recently, and I just don't want to be in a position for our current mayor or future mayors um to where they have to um weigh those those options.

So the goal here is just to um apply whatever whatever formulas the staff is currently using um for management employees or whatever the right formula is just to take a look at at um what applies to the council and and try and get everything caught up to where we all know how much airfare and all the other things have increased over the last five or seven years.

Um so I just want to make sure we're thinking ahead about all that um uh as we go forward.

So if you're comfortable with that as a friendly amendment, Councilmember Ramirez, that's fine.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh next is Councilmember McAllister.

So in the vein of Lucas, I have a request.

Um there is a um hundred thousand dollars transfer to the CIP sustainable sustainability projects, and we know that grants and funding for sustainability projects are far or few between.

And I was considering that we could transfer that to street maintenance projects or and hopefully get that moving ahead.

Uh you always hear me talk about road structures and so forth like that.

And this is a only 100,000 dollars to help get our streets in better shape sooner than later.

I'm not sure that's gonna fly by a lot of our colleagues, so probably best to hear what folks have to say for including that.

Anything else, Councilmember McAllister?

And then I had one other thing.

So when I was talking, so do you want to do that now, Mayor?

Do what I'll vote on that one, or I got this other one I would just want to consider.

Uh let's let's I'll write it down and then we'll go back on that.

And then when I was asking about the reserves, uh, you said it was possible to um lower the reserves, free up some money to get projects done.

How would we do that?

Would we run it through the finance committee or would we do it now if there was this council support for freeing up some money to get some projects done sooner than later?

Council policy A11, which is the reserve policy, usually goes through the CFC for any modifications.

Okay.

So okay.

So how's the formal request to do that from council or from an individual right now?

If you want council to consider that, you can have deliberation on it and provide direction to staff.

Okay.

I would like the CFC to consider uh reviewing reserve balances to see if we still can maintain our triple A, but also free up money to get projects uh moving along.

Uh question for staff.

I understand so my reading of the report suggested that you were already planning to go to CFC with this council policy for for review, is that right?

That's correct.

It is on our is on our list for modification.

But we would need direction on what your what other changes you're looking for.

Oh no, I was just I wanted to review to see, and when would that be taking place?

Ms.

Mr.

Umpone, can you clarify what we're taking to CFC for A11?

Because there's a lot of parts of A11 and it's not changed to the reserves.

Correct.

It's not a change to the reserves for what we're uh planning on taking in May.

Sometime we don't have a date scheduled yet.

Um the first one is for our some other reserve balances to like the uh compensated leave reserve, which needed to be updated for a recent GASB pronouncement.

So we're updating that.

Go ahead with the others.

There are a few items.

Um we even think Grayson Assistant Finance Administrators or Director, thank you for the questions.

Um there are a few items that we're planning to bring it back to CFC in May for the council policy A11, including uh recommendation for modify our current research policy for compensated absence we serve um to align with our operating needs.

Um, and the second one is to clean up some languages on what budget or what expenditure are allowed to spend on capital improvement programs and the closing timeline of the capital improvement program.

That's the second item.

And then the third item is to provide a little bit more detail about our CT's current cost allocation plan um process.

And then the fourth item is to I think that's all we have.

Yeah, that's all we have.

Thank you.

Okay, because I don't think my ask is in there.

Just to review I would like to add that you would also review the uh reserve for the general fund and see if we can if just review the 20% policy and see if we were able to if we could lower it and use the money directed to pay you know to do more projects sooner and later and still maintain our I um I actually support that, but I do want to check in with staff.

Is that a reasonable addition to the scope for the next CFC meeting?

So we only have about a month.

Um, and I'll just frame what is typical for a body to look at reducing a general fund reserve level.

It's typically done in a deficit situation where an agency is seeking to find various methods to save funding um to decrease expenses, raise revenues.

Uh so it it could take longer, but I suspect that um given the short amount of time we have, what we would likely do is try and talk to our standard and poorers, um, the rating agencies, and even just have a conversation with them to say, hey, if we were to even consider decreasing from 20%, will this jeopardize our bond financing?

Um and so that would probably be the basic conversation that we would have, and then we could bring an update to CFC if that's something that they say it won't jeopardize it, it wouldn't matter.

Um, but typically this sort of situation is looked at more closely in a in a deficit year situation.

So we could do it, but it's not gonna be a robust uh analysis because we just don't have that much time.

And the reason one of the reasons I'm bringing it up because we're looking at some big projects that we're gonna be doing, we're also gonna be looking at a bond measure that may or may not get through.

And so I'm just looking at okay, we start looking at how we can get some of the money to go to these other projects, we'll be ahead of the game.

So all it is do you have a uh update on the apologies, Arn Andrews again, assistant city manager.

Just to update the council on the progression of what's happening with the public safety building and us going to market, we will actually be presenting uh SP with an updated what they refer to as a POS or a preliminary official statement, likely this week.

They've agreed that because we already presented to them once, and so our triple A rating is still pretty current, that any questions they have we will do through a back and forth in email.

Once the official statement also comes to council on April 28th and it's approved, it's referred to as redlined, which means anything material that happens, we would have to update the official statement.

My advice, while this is uh good conversation to have, I would recommend having it later.

You would recommend I would recommend delaying this aspect of the reserve conversation until later.

Okay, I mean it could be delayed.

I've just I just want to get it out there to talk about it.

Because it is a source, so if it's gonna jeopardize the bonds, yes, uh that's what I always said.

We're not trying to lose the triple A rating, but it's something that I would like to see discussed.

So maybe uh later part of this year we'll bring it up again, we'll go from there.

Yeah, thank you, Councilmember McAllister, Councilmember Schwalter.

Okay.

Yeah, I have a couple of comments.

First, I I I uh I really enjoyed this uh reading this report.

Um and one of the things about it that I really liked was your description of the economic situation we find ourselves in.

Um, you know in the last few weeks, there has been constant really serious volatility in all of the markets and there have been so many economic forces that you know are just um changing really rapidly.

And um I have had uh trouble following it all.

And I I don't think I'm alone in that.

I mean, I have a lot of trouble following it all.

And it was really nice to see it um you consolidated in in you know about three paragraphs.

And I'm sure that if you write this next week, you know, it would be different.

But but that said, I really appreciated um having you uh pull all that information together for us and talk about you know how these things interacted.

Um I thought that's really helpful.

And I hope, because the situation will be different when you know you're putting the but the budget together for June second or whatever it is, that you'll do it again because it's it's it's really um you know it's really edifying.

So thanks for that.

Um I uh just on in a detail following up on the um on the changes for travel, one of the things that's changed over the years is um kind of whether or not it's a good idea to really be flying basic economy or or economy or whatever.

So I think maybe I hope there's some discussion of that in it and and what's refundable.

Do we care about those things?

I I don't I'm not I I don't necessarily have the answers, but sometimes I think that following the rules that the city have aren't necessarily when you add in you know baggage charges, etc.

Isn't necessarily the least expensive.

And um, so I um I'd like you know that to sort of somebody to consider the flexibility of that so that the city does get a good job, and we also get you know good good um good coverage for uh going places.

Okay, and then um much more general, I want to say that I'm really pleased to see all these positions added.

Having been a government worker for most of my life, I've I've observed how there's an inverse effect to um what the general economy is doing and how good recruiting is for the government in a situation like this where you know there's been a lot of tech jobs cut, uh it's very hard to find a position now.

Um government jobs are considered very desirable, and um you we can get really high caliber applicants, and we can get a large number of applicants.

So I think that um it is it is really wise that we are adding some some head count here.

I I really approve of that, and I'm glad you're doing it.

And I know I've mentioned it many times, but um it's good to see.

And uh so I wanted to thank you for that.

Um that's that's basically my comments.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Schulwalter, Councilmember Hicks.

Well, many of my comments on the budget were gonna be virtually the same as Councilmember Show Walters.