following the order at date 33.

Um case through call committee room here and then committee member yes oh yes right all right welcome to the council finance committee wednesday january 21st 2026 this meeting was called for order already this is a hybrid meeting allowing the public to comment in person and virtually and instructions for addressing the committee virtually can be on the agenda.

We already did roll call so now we'll do move on to item three approved minutes would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item if so please put the raise hand in zoom and he should raise their hand to be called on we will take in person speakers first each speaker will have three minutes we will now take virtual speakers um thank you i will now bring the item back to committee deliberation and action is there a motion and a second to approve the CFC minutes of January 21st 2026 I'll check at that all in favor all opposed abstentions motion passes we'll now move on to item four oral communication from the public.

If so please click the raise hand button in Zoom in-person attendees should raise their hand to be called on we will take in-person speakers first each speaker will have three minutes we will now take virtual speakers and no virtues all right that includes that concludes our um oral communications from the public we will now move on to item five perfect timing 5.1 proposed changes to the council policy D-13 mountain view employee home buyer and relocation assistance program the finance and administration administrative services director Derek Ramponi will present this item all right good morning uh good morning Chair Reynolds and uh committee members uh clark and remember your finance and administrative services director the item you have in front of you this morning is the proposed updates to council policy D13 the Mountain View Employee Home Buyer and Relocation Assistance program uh a little bit of background on this item um during the development of administrative guidelines for the home buyer loan program um it was noted that uh several updates to the policy uh were recommended by staff and as we went through kind of the guidelines we wanted to clarify and update and basically kind of revamp the policy just to make it to provide some clarity and also some added features we had received some initial feedback from employees general employees about uh loan program was a great idea however it didn't seem to be totally helpful as far as helping them get their bit of home and city of mouth and view so we kind of took a fresh look at this policy and uh are proposing a fair amount of updates in addition to the kind of clarification and providing some clear uh a policy all together um as you'll note in the staff report or memo um we have outlined the kind of the major updates that we have for this item um starting with clarifying the available assistance they're broken down basically into three eligibility categories we added a definition section to provide some additional clarity we established uh kind of a participation window following hiring date thought that that was comparable to some other uh agencies that have similar home buyer programs which there are that many um so with hiring um within three years of their higher date they're eligible for the program.

We expanded and kind of modernized uh the some of the provisions including um being able to transfer uh a loan instead of a time uh formal refinance program decided that we would like to propose kind of a transferring of a loan to another property within the city um the clarified some property types and I would go ahead just basically trying to clean up the the uh policy another item that we we um updated was like clarifying of some relocation assistance provisions and then we provided some administrative and operational update in preparation for the uh administrative guidelines that will be uh preparing in regards to this policy um so with that happy to take questions i know there was some QA path uh for the meeting around this item all right if any member of the committee have any questions I have one quick uh clarifying um yeah I don't know never purchased a home so the median home price at 23 million was sparking is a little high um is that that includes all types of ownership housing single family detached single family attached and condominium is that right correct thank you questions all right we will now move on to public comment would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comments on this item if so please click the rate zoom in person attendees should raise their hands be called on we will do in-person speakers first each speaker will have three minutes we will now take virtual speakers and no right thank you I will now bring the item back for committee deliberation and action is there a motion and a second to recommend the city council adopt revisions to the council policy D-13 Mountie employee home buyer and relocation assistance programs all right um we're gonna suggest changes one okay yeah but uh thank you uh first up uh really appreciate staff uh putting together uh the recommended changes uh and for responding to the questions I submitted in advance uh were very helpful uh the one change I would like to suggest um is uh that for council appointees the council continue to approve um the uh home buyer loan um the relocation assistance program would be flexible um I do think that more likely not to come up during uh negotiations during hiring appointment process um but I think at the end of the day council if it stops with the council um take it from from a public community perspective I think it's important for the the council to be able to uh uh participate in and be held accountable for um any benefits or uh opportunities that we could we provide for for our appointees so I don't know staff had some suggestions or ways of approaching that but I would you guys think from a staff perspective appointees work at the beh to the council and so you know here in the comment that would make sense to that would fall underview um so I'd probably ask that rather than trying to do it on flight right now to delegate the staff where you got in to the policy but the point is clear probably under eligibility uh but the the point is clear you still want counselor to approved loans for the appointments but and that would make sense because it would probably occur as part of your negotiation process anyway or part of your evaluation process so we can we can work that I I appreciate that and I'm inclined to agree more often than not that.

That's probably where that discussion would occur.

And I'm uncomfortable with staff's recommendations for adding some of that um the other thing I was curious about, I don't feel very strongly, but um just because in our zoning ordinance we do make a technical distinction between row houses and townhouses um I don't know if it's meaningful, but it it's it's kind of seems to me like we're saying when we're taking a typology off the table.

I don't think we intend to do that.

But that's the other clarification.

I would you know, appreciate the staff's suggestions.

I think we can just add that term back to policy.

Any other comments?

Mr.

No, and I'm hoping to incorporate that in the way, but I'll move the recommendation question.

I'll second the motion.

All right, all in favor, say a new any abstentions, motion carries.

One to five point two.

Proposed changes to council policies A-11 financial and budgetary policies.

I have an administrative services director director.

I have a minute, and efficient service directory rates again for presenting items.

All right, thank you very much.

Replacing the financial services director, kind of walking through this item.

But before she does, I just wanted to mention that this item is very similar to 5.1 as far as updating the policy more from an operational standpoint.

We are proposing these recommendations and also to become a compliance with some recently uh enacted governmental accounting standards board statement.

And so with that, I'll take it off or I'll hand it over to Grace.

Good morning, everyone.

Um, so um let me start with um policy A11 is the city's financial and budgetary policy.

Um, so we view this policy periodically to make sure we are in compliance with city um compliance accounting rules and also um agree with our operations.

So um staff, we view this policy um and proposing a few changes um for the key areas.

So the first area um we are proposing changes in section 4.f, which is general fund open space reserve, as you recall council uh voter approve um real property transfer measure GTA in November 2024, and council provide direction on how that tax revenue should be spent on.

Um, so we are cleaning up the language in this section to align with what the council's direction is for how we spend on measure G allocation.

The second um the second area that we're proposing for changes is section 4.j, which is we serve requirement for compensated absence fund.

Compensate absence is the internal service fund that we establish to keep track of our vacation sick leave um payout for the staff.

Um and in last year we implemented Gas V 101, which um gasly expand the definition of what did compensate absence, including leave payout.

So um currently the funding um policy is to fund this at 80% of the liability we approve for this fund.

Giving this expansion of the definition, that thing that we should separate out the funding requirement with the with how this fund should be established for the um liability balance.

So therefore we are proposing to revise this policy um to establish the funding strategy instead of 80% at the compensated absence liability, we're using as average past five years' average spending.

So that aligns much more um realistically on how much cash we need for this one.

Um the third area that we are proposing changes is for 4.4, which is the new reserve that council directs staff to in create in last fiscal in 2324 budget development to establish a CIP reserve in the shoreline regional park community fund.

So this is just a clean of the language to formalize um this we serve in this area.

The fourth item that we are asking for proposal changes is section 5.

Which is capital improvement policy.

We want to provide a little bit more guidelines and clear direction to staff how to manage the week current annual and bio-annual CIP funding.

So we can be this the recurrent CIP can spend it on a specific purpose, and it will find guidelines, guidelines on timeline on when those unspent balance can be print back to the fund balance so we can re direct those funds to other CIP projects.

So the last item we're proposing changes is the cost allocation plan, which is section 7.H.

So this is one of the reasons driving this changes is we receive a GFO budget of work review um comment ask CT to clarify the um the cost allocation plan um process and also we want to provide the guy um guidelines on what annual increase um of overhead um administrative overhead costs that we can use um so with that that's all the changes we are proposing um for this policy and once the committee provide recommendation we will incorporate the changes and then provide it to council um for conservation in June 2026 thank you thank you um any member of the committee have any questions all right we will now move on to public comment with any member of the public joining a virtually or in person like to provide a comment on the still please click the raise hand button in zoom in person attendees should raise their hands be called on we will take in person speakers first each speaker will have three minutes all right we will now take virtual speakers and no rituals thank you i will now bring the item back from council committee deliberation and action are there any comments thank you chair again we appreciate the rest of the provisions always good they proper quality and dusted money that is to apply a state law so support all the changes I also appreciate responses to the other questions I said um I wanted to propose um three changes two of which I think are clean up and another policy change the cleanup items would be to include um in addition to the staff recommendations um the uh preliminary budget um review that we've incorporated into our process recently I think it's been well received by everyone the council has an opportunity to provide direction to the leader of staff make some changes to the budget which is great because that means that has more time to you know think through it and bring back some changes to the public get a sense of what um that has prepared for uh the the coming fiscal year um so uh I think um including that there's there's in the section regarding the budget probably existing procedural steps and we I think what one of the steps that we have even the other one is um section four on the equipment replacement reserve um suggested change would be to update it to the uh target 25% that staffer needs to I think it was this was in April this year uh based on uh some principal D recommendations I think so again I think um the policy with the practice and then the policy change would be for section four reserve uh policies um and the general fund open space reserve I didn't know this but um there's uh provision that says um excess city of revenue generated from excess city owned properties would um would go into the open space reserve which I think is a good idea but now that that open space reserve has dedicated funding from measure g I'm wondering if um committee would support um instead having either giving staff a chance to come back with recommendations, or what I was thinking is the revenue from uh excess city properties could go into the SPAR, which doesn't have a dedicated source of revenue.

Very valuable reserve for the council teaching property acquisition.

So those are the three changes.

Um interested in staff's thoughts and then the response to your first question.

And actually, I'll say I have to look at which policy it's in.

But if you all remember years and years ago, there used to be what was called a narrative budget, which is essentially similar to what we're doing now, but we're we're kind of preparing it in a I think more uh transparent way for council to understand and the public what's going on so we can maybe find where it references the narrative budget too and just change it to how we're what we're calling it now and also add it into this policy.

Um third point the proceeds from access to the property.

I saw the city manager nodding her ad.

That does seem to make sense now that there is a dedicated revenue source.

Then I'll defer to Derek and Grace on the 25% for the uh item 4K.

Yeah, makes sense that we could add it to that research policy or to that section of the uh ERF.

Thank you.

Three for three.

Okay, yeah, I'm happy to support your and um yeah, I guess we are um is there a motion and a second recommending that the city counselor dot revision technical policy-11 financial and budgetary policy.

So staff recommendations.