Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Right. Thank you everyone for being here. This is the first meeting of the economic development committee, 11/17/2025. We're commencing the meeting at 02:04PM. With that, we'll start with roll call.

Committee member Asawa? Yes. Committee member Bono?

Yes. Present.

Committee member Carter? Committee member Dante? Committee member Kang? Here. Committee member Kisolchiran? Committee member Lin?

Here.

Council member Wang?

Here.

Any member yet? Still here.

Great. So now we're we'll move to opening remarks and introductions, and our council member will be giving that.

I wanted to welcome everybody here. I think it's a very important day. We're bringing back the economic development committee, and I think it's really important for all of you to be here. You all represent a important part of the community and more importantly more part of the economics fabric here in Cupertino. We're gonna give them an opportunity to introduce everyone, give them a chance to kinda share, their experiences, who they are.

First of all, I wanna stand and thank staff, for bringing us together. So, Daniel, thank you. Thank you very much as well for pulling us together. I think we have an opportunity to really rethink or we have opportunities to bring revenue to the city. As you probably know, we are running structural deficits, going forward in the next ten years, and it's up to us to figure out how to track new businesses, new ideas, new innovation city.

And it's up to this committee to think about ways we can actually think sometimes outside of the box to bring new ideas in and also sometimes to work with what's available with us. We have some interesting opportunities we'll talk about later that we'll talk about that we can actually build within what's happening around us in the macro picture. But more importantly, there are a lot of small things we can do, especially with the businesses that we have here and, of course, the rich set of resources we have within our community. We have experts in so many fields. We have expertise in so many businesses.

We have expertise in so many cultural boundaries, that we can actually go and bring and bridge together. So I'm really looking forward to everyone here contributing, and bringing your best ideas and, of course, your networks and the ability and spirit to go innovate and find ways to actually build economic development. Thank you,

councilmember. With that, would you like to provide any additional introductions about yourself?

Oh, yes. I I I'm your council member. I'm elected last year here for another three years, I think. And so we're we're here to really think about a lot of what we're elected on is really my my end was really thinking about how we can actually help our residents improve the quality of life, what we can do for our fiscal and economic responsibility, and more importantly, spend a lot of time trying to figure out what we can do to really think about, I would say, our natural advantages and how we can use them, to really forward the city. So so happy to meet everybody here.

Thank you, council member.

So we're introducing ourselves. Okay. I'm Tracy Solshon. I am, as shown, vice chair of the planning commission, and I'm very excited to be helping on this commission as well. You know, we've seen a decent amount of loss of retail in all of the developments that we approve on the planning commission. And so, you know, this committee in particular for me, I think, is an exciting opportunity to see where we can help kind of restore and protect, what we have in the city. I also serve on the BTA Citizens Advisory Committee, and on the Cupertino Little League, so I'm very passionate about this community.

We do have, committee member Carter representing the state sustainability commission. He is not here at this time, so he well, he'll he'll have an opportunity up at the next meeting.

Hello, everyone. Claude Ubono here, proud Cupertino resident, but also I'm managing the Cupertino Hotel, and was one of the lucky one to bring millions of dollars in TOT taxes during this over past decades. Coincidentally enough, I am joining you from Guangzhou, China, where I'm actually representing Cupertino in order to bring more TOT taxes to the city. Tourism is very important for our city. We're not just an innovative tech industry.

And so I wear multiple hats as VP of the, chamber of commerce. I'm also vice chairs for the Parks and Recreation Commission. And, I link businesses with nonprofits and as a hotel chair manager, do everything to interconnect everybody. And I'm here to represent our city, and I'm more than thrilled to join you in this journey. And it's more than, it's been a long time coming, and I'm happy to be part of the economic development committee to represent Cupertino. Thank you.

So Selena Kang, representative of tech sector. So super excited again to be here and really surrounded by by folks who are united and promoting Cupertino, you know, as a a place to work and to live. I have over twenty years of experience in operations and strategy across tech. I mean, really, a lot of both, you know, AI, data centers, cybersecurity, next gen computing. I'm also you know, I also serve across multiple governance governance committees too as well with national foundations, like The US Fencing Foundation. I was the first woman elected as chair of the foundation board there as well as for Macapa USA. So a lot of both sporting as well as philanthropic experience too as well that I'm looking forward to bring to, you know, to.

Hi, everyone. My name is Jane. I work in Cupertino and as the chief investment officer at AlphaX here, a local developer from the residential side and commercial side. I'm very happy and excited to be serving as the the commercial real estate, position committee. Hope to to bring more, innovative ideas to Cupertino.

Hi. I'm Manjiri Sava. I I I'm very passionate about education. I have a PhD in electrical engineering. And but I consider myself as more holistic, like, more an ecosystem that it kind of work together, not just one sector. So I wouldn't say I just represent one sector. And I've been volunteered. My kids went to the school years, of course, education, but I'm also tech. I used to be a product manager, like, twenty five years in tech. And looking forward to working on it, like, help keep putting their charm and its, you know, the economic situation.

Hi. I'm Jennifer. So I'm a. And studied here in Cupertino when I was, like, 17. And I'm an entrepreneur here in Cupertino. I own two brands for, like, wellness and beauty. Everyone in four and twenty location. And next year, we're hopefully to roll up to, like, 30 location. Like and also in the meanwhile, I help, like, our business overseas, especially from China, to launch their business here in Bay Area, especially in Cupertino in the future since we are here in Cupertino. So I have to I hope we can bring more, like, food and freight business overseas here in.

The last member, meeting member, Danti, and he is part of the technology information and communications commission. He had a conflict today, and but he will be With that, that remarks and introductions. Next item on the agenda is approval of minutes. We have none. Postponement, that's also not gonna be heard today. There is no items for postponement. We have oral communication next.

Alright. So we have no hands raised

on Zoom and no participants in person.

Public hearings, there are none. Full business, there are none. Now we get into new business. And the first item on the agenda is elect a chair and vice chair. The recommended action is elected chair and vice chair position. This this role will be serving as chair and vice chair for the for the meeting in December as well as all of 2026. They will be facilitate the individual will be facilitating meetings, working with staff to develop the agenda for each meeting. If the chair is not able to make a meeting, then the vice chair would, step in the role of chair essentially and lead those meetings for the committee.

Any clarifying questions?

Yeah. Explain the role for the chair and the vice chair as to the role of

the committee. Yeah. So the main primary role for the thank you council member is really to lead the meetings, work through items during the meetings, and just run an efficient meeting is really the main thing for that. Right.

I would actually I would actually like to declare my consent candidacy for chair if that's how we proceed.

And the nominations?

Same here.

Would like to the vice chair? Yes. K.

I just wanted to So

sorry. I I'd like to nominate myself for chair or vice chair.

I would like to make a just a small comment, you know, as I think it's a great honor to serve on this committee, and it's a wonderful opportunity to have more members of the community involved in economic development. And, you know, as someone I already serve as vice chair on the planning commission. So as such, I would love to support somebody that is new to the Cupertino Commissions as a chair and vice chair. So I'm happy to support anyone that is interested in that.

Guess you have to make your case. Might be the easy thing. So yeah. I'm I'm happy to support everyone. It's important to get new blood and ideas as well. Jane, you up? You can do it?

Oh, yeah. For sure. I was gonna say, is it, like, a round table kind of thing? Do we just raise our hand if we wanted to nominate ourselves?

Yep. Go for it. I don't wanna you look like you're not included thing out there. So

Oh, of course. Yeah. I'm happy to nominate myself as either the chair or the vice chair either way.

Okay. So we have four candidates.

Any anyone interested in vice chair? We have one at this time.

Okay. Sure.

And, I mean, if we can't run for

the chair, then vice vice chair it is.

Yeah. Exactly.

Got it. Would it be appropriate for each individual maybe to share why they feel they're appropriate to, lead as chair? And then perhaps there could be a vote, the committee desired.

Sounds great. Did you wanna limit us in terms of just comments or commentary?

It's it's for the body to decide that.

I just wanna get you like, three minutes, four minutes, share with what you know, what why you figure qualified to do it. We give you an agenda or planning.

Yeah. That sounds great.

I mean, so happy to happy to kinda kick us off here. So did have a few just sort of prepared remarks. So as I mentioned earlier, I have over twenty years of strategy and operations procurement across multiple Fortune 500 companies, both L Brands, Disney, Nestle. I'm a lot of my focus has really been on AI, cloud, cybersecurity, mission computing. These are areas that I think are that really tie into the strengths of what Cupertino has in terms of our you know, what we can actually offer external to, you know, kinda external to our communities.

I have a lot of experience working with partners and suppliers actually across multiple, you know, across multiple sizes as well as industries too as well. A lot of my work really is not only just working with folks who are able to kind of bring and match their qualifications to kind of what we need as a city, as an entity, as, you know, as a, you know, place to live and to work, but also being able to understand not only how we all take our goals here and translate that externally. In addition to a lot of my corporate work, as I also mentioned in my introduction, I have a lot of extensive experience in corporate philanthropy as well as a lot of actually sporting organizations too as well. I was the first woman that was elected as part of the chair of the US fencing foundation, and a lot of my work is not only national but international too as well. Not only bring visibility to a sport that is growing and wanna tap into the mainstream, but also finding ways to kind of connect these two bridges together.

I also serve in many governance aspects too across many of these foundations. In Makabe USA, where we actually run the third largest sporting event in the world in in in Israel as part of the Makabe Ya games, and a lot of working through some, actually, some pretty tough economic circumstances as well as as well as socioeconomic, you know, kind of crises too as well. A lot of my guidance actually works across work across guiding a lot of executive bodies, CEOs, c levels in terms of how we not only just approach problems, and how do we think thoughtfully and intentionally about what we want to do in the future. I believe that especially is just so well placed across so many of this perspective. We're a highly educated community.

There is, you know, some very strong economic standings that I think would very much appeal to many of our partners. Figuring out how to match both the showcase in terms of a marketing aspect to an operational plan and blending both strategy as well as execution, I think, is going to be so critical. And it's wonderful to see the representation across the other commissions here in the world because it takes, you know, an entire village in many cases. But working and building those cross functional and stakeholder relationships across the city, across public and private sectors, I think, is a really strong suit that I bring to my role here, hopefully, as chair. So thank you.

And one thing to note, when the chair and vice chair is decided today, then that individual will then lead the meeting for this meeting today just for clarification on that. K. Anyone else who would like to go next?

Okay. Who would like to go next if it's okay?

Sure. Go ahead, Bob.

Alright. I joined the economic development not only because I'm a hotel general manager, but I link I think there's a little stress here because next year will be such a crucial crucial year. And I think, that in my humble opinion, having someone that already serves as vice chair who is aware on how that works, but not only that, is connected with nonprofits, businesses in the city, and a hotel, which will be a an indicator on how everything works so that I can provide all the information needed. And I do link hotels and restaurant together. So someone that is ready, that is always there a 100% of the time knows how that works so that we don't waste time.

Think 2026 is a little bit more critical because of Super Bowl and FIFA and all of these events. And now with the San Jose spotlight coming out this past ten minutes with the news that Cupertino will have also in the next fall, a brand new, TV series, I think it's the world of hospitality is more crucial than ever because it is the the bloodline of all the tourism and everything that attracts to Cupertino. And that is my reason why I definitely want to be the chair, or vice chair in this case, is to be responsive enough so that I can communicate enough and that we can take faster steps in order to make sure that we are fully ready for those two major events plus the TV show, which probably will host many of them in hotels. And I'd love to be the liaison so that I can keep you posted on everything that is currently happening. That was my pitch.

Thank you, Claudio.

Should I go next?

Sure. This is

yeah. So, really appreciate, actually, everybody's attendance and also participant, in this, you know, competing for vice chair and chair position. I can see that every committee member has a heart for the community, and being a such a good and diverse committee already bring a lot to Cupertino already. And my name is Jane. I'm running for the the chair or the vice chair position for this committee.

Since we already be become a committee, that means that everybody's whatever you just mentioned, like, Claudia or Kasim just mentioned, already become part of the asset for this committee. So the actually, the most crucial responsibility and the duty for being a chair and a vice chair is to get things done. So make sure that we attend all the meetings and make sure that we push all the agenda moving forward and make sure that we can conclude all the actionable items. So I'm I'm a good communicator, meaning that I would like love to collaborate and bring everybody together and make sure that every committee member can shine on every committee and also make sure that we can have actionable items and really, really practice for advice to bring meaningful revenue to city of Cupertino. And I have time to do that because I understand that everybody has their own agenda, but I'm willing and very, very, ample of, you know, contributing my time even off the hours to and then even before the meeting, after the meeting to collaborate with all the committee member and make sure that all the agenda get carried out on time.

And then, you know, all the meetings will have very, very, very practical practicable fruits after the meeting. So that is my pitch. I wanted to make sure that I wanted to, you know, voice my humble opinion and here to compete for vice chair or chair position. Thank you.

So as I said, I have been in the technology industry for twenty seven years. I was at AWS, Cisco, Verizon, HP, and a few others. I started as an engineer, was a product manager, customer success leader, director, like, have done the whole spectrum. In between, I took a seven years off. I know how to raise kids in pay in Libertyville. I raised two of my own. I was a class mom. Had those at volunteer. You name anything. I've done pretty much the run the gifted program in the schools. So I know how the schools works. I have been in the industry. I understand the industry. I actually owned a small business. I had my own company for seven years.

So I also know how to do a small business in Cupid. You know? What were the difficulties? Right now, I'm working on an AI startup for my that idea that I have, and it's supposed to my philosophy is on the health, so with the health. Of course, I've been lot into philanthropy and volunteer a lot.

I think what we really need in Cupid, you know, is, like I would like to look at, like, in my intro, like, not as one sector, but, like, completely all work together for the betterment of, like, you know, and instead of thinking a sector wise. And I consider myself a to do mindset, like, really, like, reach out to people and, you know, bring consensus and also bring the new ideas into it. And, yeah, I I I reach out to and so people call me. I'm very approachable. I hope so.

And I think we really need to support the small businesses also in community because, you know but anything I have to shop, I have to really pretty much go outside. Know? Why don't we get that same text? You know? So that's how I think, Basil. Thank you so much for considering me for the chair or vice chair.

Thank you. So

we have four committee members who have expressed interest. Has had their opportunity to provide their pitch as to why they would like to serve in that capacity. If there isn't anyone else interested, then we can have a vote for a motion. Right? And with a motion, it could be a second,

and we can move forward with

voting if if there's interest to do that.

Before we move forward with voting, can we open the public comment period?

Alright. We have no speakers in

person and no hands raised on Zoom.

Motion.

So I'd like to motion for us to earn vote on the chair position.

Is there a second?

Second.

Someone like to make a motion for a chair? Oh,

sorry. I thought we're gonna vote on the fact that

we're voting for a chair, but I guess no one need to do that.

Yeah. Anyone go for yes. And I'll nominate yourselves and wait for a second. Or

I'll make a motion to nominate myself for chair.

Second. Two

Second second

to call them, I would also wanna

And when we vote, we will have roll we will have individual roll frequency?

Yes. I'm sorry. Can I just clarify logistically how this works? So we are gonna vote on each person, yes or no, individually?

You're going to vote for the motion. So the motion on the table is for Claudio to serve as the chair.

Oh, sorry. I thought the motion was super clear for voting.

So I'm

sure Right. Right. Right.

So he's nominated himself for chair. He needs a second. Yes. So

is there a second Claudio to serve as chair of the EDC? Give a second.

So there isn't a second. So that motion not moved forward. Is there an is

there another motion on the table for someone else to serve as chair?

I'd like to nominate commissioner Lynn for chair.

Okay. Oh, commissioner.

Oh, so it is. Okay. Yeah. Alright. I'll second.

Is there a second for that

council member?

Can I also second that?

We got remember, Lynn, we do have a second, which is the council member. So we can now do a vote, and Lindsay will administer the vote.

Committee member Asawa?

Votes.

So you would be if you vote yes, you would be voting for committee member Lynn to serve as chair for the

No.

Committee member Bono?

Yes.

Committee member Kay? No. Committee member Kasalsram? Yes. Committee member Lynn?

Yes.

Council member Wang?

No.

Committee member Yip? Yes. Sorry. One second. The motion carries.

Next would be to vote for a vice chair.

I'll make a motion to be vice chair.

I have a second for committee member Bono to serve as the vice chair, economic development committee. Unpopular. Second. Would anyone like to make a motion for a vice chair?

I'd like to motion for myself to be a candidate for vice chair.

I'll second that. We'll have voting.

Committee member Osawa? Committee member Bono?

No.

Committee member Kane? Yes. Committee member Kisolshuram? Yes. Committee member Lynn? Yes. Council member Wang?

Yes.

Committee member Yeh? The motion carries with committee member Bono voting no and committee member Asawa voting no, with committee member Carter absent and committee member Don't be absent.

Can clarify who the chair and vice chair is voting?

Sure. Our chair is Lynn, committee member Lynn,

and

vice chair is committee member Kang.

K. Now we will so, meeting member Lynn, you will now be proceeding over the meeting as chair. Next item on the agenda is item number two. That is discuss economic opportunities in 2026 with the Super Bowl sixty, World Cup, Cupertino TV show, with a recommended action to discuss economic development opportunities in 2026, Super Bowl, FIFA World Cup, and show.

Sounds good. So can we be before that, can we maybe make sure that everyone understand the date and the time for these events so that we can be on the same page. And then, at this event, we should at this meeting, we should set the goals for, these three, events and what the economic development committee can can bring to the table for the seat of Cupertino.

Yes. Thank you for that. That's that's a great idea. So I could just add. In 2026, there are there will be economic opportunities for the Bay Area as a region that will most certainly come into Cupertino. There is the Super Bowl that's taking place in Santa Clara that's gonna take place on Sunday, February 8. That is going to bring a lot of tourism into the into the valley. People, as meeting member Bono had mentioned, council member had mentioned, there will be people staying in Cupertino, shopping in Cupertino due to this

attraction that's happening at the Super Bowl.

Same thing is happening with FIFA World Cup. This is coming to the Bay Area Santa Clara. It will take place during the month of June 2026 into the July. And then the Cupertino TV show is is a is a TV show that's going to go into production sometime in 2026 through CBS. That's something that we as a city are aware of, and so there will be some opportunities to create some branding, some marketing about Cupertino.

So that's happening as well in 2026. What would be very helpful from the committee is to see if there is a census for these items to be part of what the economic development committee will be working on in 2026. And if there is consensus and interest, looking at perhaps a subcommittee of these different initiatives could be very helpful as part of a work plan for the economic development committee. It's just something to think about, discuss as a group. Note, we'll come back again in December to meet as a group, and we can use that time to really flush out specific items on these particular projects. But just introducing the discussion will be great to do today in the speak.

Yes. So shall we start with the first one is Super Bowl, which will happen in June to the July 2026.

No. That's actually gonna be on February. The show on Super Bowl is February. But as, it will target Cupertino three days pre and post as far as hotels, restaurant, and shopping activity in our area.

Do we have a particular goal that the end or target that we wanna hit so that we can start with the end in mind?

I I would say, personally, that we should engage social media account for Cupertino to already inform everybody of that specific and critical date and to inform find a way to inform all businesses through press release or communication from the city to to advise all our businesses that and hotels that it's going to be very busy and to be ready for the event. We had recently in Cupertino even a a menu scale on restaurants, which promoted all the restaurants in our city. And I would really stress all our restaurant in Cupertino to be ready and to attract those visitors promoting specific menu or price specific pricing for menus for groups, and that would be very important. And but first and foremost, like I said, I want to make sure that Cupertino puts out a communication out there via social media or press release to say that Cupertino is ready to welcome all visitors so that it showcase compares to other city that we are ready for that event.

So so I actually agree with one of what Claudia is saying here. There's a need for unified comms. You're gonna need a single website for SEO, kinda redirect all the members that are there. There's Super Bowl dine out, which you're talking about, Claudia. There's also a Cupertino Super Bowl logo we should probably use to kinda identify the participants that are there. And then there's there's kinda generalized marketing that everyone can actually do, not just on the social media side. There are probably things here on the economic development committee where we can all, contribute with certain videos, certain spots, certain content creation. It probably has to be there. It's kind of an action plan that probably needs to be there. Plus also kind of, like, highlighting the story of Cupertino.

We haven't really done that as well. So so there's some things that are Super Bowl specific, some things that are foundational we should probably think about so that we can actually lay the groundwork to say, why would you come to Cupertino? What are the interesting sites? We haven't done an inventory yet of, available spots, available sites. Who's interested? I've heard ideas across the board from, hey. How do we bring all the wineries down here to a specific area? I've heard different stories about what we can do with shuttles and transportation, to and from the site, creating shuttle points along the way. We're not the host city. We're an adjacent city, so there's some constraints, but we are trying to, how we do it? We're trying to, hack our way into the event, and then we should do it with a lot of pride and and a lot of a lot of deafness, I would say. So

I wanted to revert back to the chair's question around goals. I think that KPIs are really important for whatever initiatives we embark on, especially if the city will be making investments. And as such, I think, you know, to the extent that we can have trackable metrics before and during the event, and then we can measure within those metrics, it would be really helpful to justify the efforts of the city. So, I mean, just thinking aloud about things we can track. So it would be great if there's a way to track sales tax revenue pre and post or pre and during the, Super Bowl period, as well as transit occupancy tax, which, you know, I would also like to throw in just hotel occupancy in general, but I'm not sure how easy that is to track across all of our multiple hotels.

So let's just say TOT the lift in TOT during the period. We could also look at just car traffic volume pre and during as a general metric as well as what council member Wang mentioned. So media impressions and, you just general web traffic to the Cupertino site or any sort of event website that we create.

So it doesn't Go

ahead.

Please go ahead.

Yes. So I'm writing down some notes. What we heard is, first of all, we need to market Cupertino and let people know that we're ready and also on social media and also make sure that, you know, not only from the restaurants, but hotel and transportation side, we need to be ready for this these several big events. And we also need to notify all the restaurants to maybe come together and have some promotions or some get together, well rounded promotion to to attract more visitors back to Cupertino for dining and also for accommodation. And we also need to work on single website SEO so that we can put all information together and track all the, you know, online netizens.

And, of course, most importantly is the transportation from and to the site, how to, you know, bring together not only attract people to come to Super Bowl and but when they are here, we need to make sure that they dine in Cupertino, they live in Cupertino, and they come from other cities to and from Cupertino and make sure that we we capture them and make sure they actually tour some sites even to spend more money in Cupertino. So sightseeing, also important. And, also, mention about goals, how to track our metrics so that we make sure every dime that we spend on this tech measures will have a return. So these are the, so far, the major items that we just discussed. And I'm sorry I interrupted somebody.

Was

just so appreciate that recap, definitely. Wanted to maybe wanted to maybe sort of, like, break this apart into a couple of ways. And I absolutely agree with everything that has been said around this table about, one, making sure that KPIs, etcetera. But I think council member Wang hit across a set of really key term here is that we are in adjacency. So I think one thing for us to think about is that, yes, we are not hosting.

There will be spillover in terms of tourism, etcetera, that I think absolutely would benefit from just sort of measuring and understanding how, you know, again, sort of cities that are kinda surrounding, you know, stadium and things like that, how we sort of, like, benefit so that we can actually lay a road map both FIFA as well as potentially other kind of engagements. Right? We, as a as a city, don't have a major like a Levi's, etcetera, things like that. But understanding but understanding that, I think, also helps us capitalize in terms of many other opportunities around sort of marketing and social media, how we just kind of mobilize a lot of our local businesses, which I think, one, makes a ton of sense. But I think that's something that becomes repeatable and scalable no matter what events.

Right? Major events that kinda come to the city. I'm getting better at probably urged this through a little bit because these are very these are very key opportunities is how do we use these as well as on that path to cultivation. So while we, of course, want to use these as how do we increase revenues and bring, you know, visibility to Cupertino, but to think about this more holistically as part of a road map around what is it that Cupertino what is the brand? What is the image that we also want to be portraying to this in this particular case, right, major sporting events.

If you think about some of the assets that we as a city have, our tech, our sports, our community, right, how do we start to kind of showcase this and also think about some key events that maybe highlight this? So it's a little bit more of a pool. Right? So people are coming here to see the game, but what are some of the other things potentially that you can do around things like the NFL? Right? NFL, the game, absolutely, really key, really important, but they've got their set packages. But there's a whole ecosystem around many of these sports that we can be playing and thinking. So let's say that No problem. Right? It's still part of the NFL.

It's still things that we are here in the Bay Area. How do we start to tap into, again, some of the I am just kind of some of the community that's already there and create events and ways, again, sort of showcase a lot of our assets? So I don't disagree with sort of what's being said. What I'm saying is that lays the road map for how we can scale that. But there are things that we can do that we can create that really, again, starts to refine that image for us. One thing that, you know, we are talking about 2026 here. Right? I will highlight again. Right? 2028, LA.

This is massive for us. Been forty plus years since, you know, anything's even been hosted, right, since, like, the LA eighty four games. So, again, as we're thinking about the state of California and kind of ways, again, that we start to to have this, like, multiyear road map thinking about where Cupertino fits into that, I think we can do something probably pretty special here that uses these current events in the next year to kind of build up to an image, a brand, a set of events that I think we can all sort of get behind. It's like a sit down and resourcing through. So, hopefully, just kind of put like I said, just provide maybe a different different thing for us to be thinking through as well.

I do actually believe that a subcommittee focusing on some of these will also help us really refine this and kind of come back to this much broader group to think about, well, what are some of the key initiatives around the support that we can make, you know, just kind of around that. So I do believe that, you know, task task force, subcommittee, etcetera, to look at some of these key events probably make a ton of sense.

If I may say, again, for someone like me who has been selling Cupertino, I think the stigma of our city is that 99% of everyone outside of Cupertino thinks that we are just a tech innovative city. Nobody knows that we have the best wineries. Nobody knows that we do have shopping. Nobody knows that we have golf course. So I strongly am believing that if the messaging if we're trying to go around all these event and uplift our city, that a one minute video showcasing even I'll I'll just throw a little script out there.

Our council member, Juan, does a a one minute video. It says, welcome to Cupertino with, Apple on the back and showcase we're ready for Super Bowl. We're ready for, FIFA. We have all the shops, salsa bell hotels, and the wineries. Come and visit us.

I think a powerful video will set the tone and, will make a difference in anything else that we're trying to do out there. And I have to tell you, I already received requests from Germany to Cupertino for Super Bowl. So we're known simply because, also, for Super Bowl area, all the hotels are already saturated. Every blocks are are stopped, so people are starting to look elsewhere. And there's a certain radius, mild radius that people are saying, the more I can get a rental car, the more I can drive.

I don't mind driving a half an hour away. So we're on the map where we're gonna be very successful. But I strongly believe a powerful message showcasing what our diversity in Cupertino is as far as what we have will finally open the mind of people because we need to get away from just being a tech industry city.

Yeah. I I 100% agree. And, also, maybe we can basically, we're put ourselves into you know, let's say, imagine ourselves being the person who are really booking for Super Bowl right now. The first thing we need to do is, for sure, we need to get the tickets. Right? We're gonna search on Super Bowl website and get the tickets. And second, we're gonna find a place to live. And third, we're gonna book the air tickets. And fourth, we're gonna see if we're renting a car. Fifth is after we come here, we're gonna find a place to eat eat.

So if we can just, by basically follow these road maps and imagine where we can we can put our ads or put our videos like, you know, a community member Bono said. You know? Then we can actually give them a guide so that they can save a lot of time exploring and and doing a lot of research or chat distributing themselves. That will be super helpful because the the if we wanted to achieve what we wanna achieve, which is bring more revenue into Cupertino, then we need to first give the our client or our audience what they need so that they can they can in return, you know, come to our city. If we can give them, like, a complete guide to Super Bowl, not only having a great Super Bowl game watching experience, but also, you know, they can kinda, you know, tour some of the surrounding cities, including Cupertino, and, basically, maybe give them a punch list of, you know, tours tourist attraction site.

And some of the restaurants they have to to come and try that is in Cupertino, that'll be that'll be super wonderful. Because if I am to go to a Super Bowl game from afar, I would want it to not only, you know, just pay for one one I I wanna pay for a onetime ticket, air ticket, and then I wanna experience all the things I can possibly can because I might not be coming back next time in Santa Clara or Santa Clara County. So I think giving them what they what they would want is very crucial. And I agree on the subcommittee because after today's meeting today is more like a brainstorming. Everybody throw ideas together.

And then our next meeting will be in December 7, right, or in in about, you know, three a couple weeks. That should give the subcommittee, like, enough time to do some research on each event because each event might be targeting different audience. You know, Super Bowl might be more adult, and then, you know, FIFA is more like sport event. So we can have a little bit tweak in each type of event because our audience are different. That's my I

just wanted to squash a rumor here that whether it's Super Bowl or FIFA, this is not about just getting a ticket. You do have pre and post parties. And I looked at some numbers. Obviously, the stadium can has a capacity of 68,500 for soccer, which is expandable to 75,000. So assuming that we have about six matchups, 68,500, it equal over 411,000 people or over 560,000 people in a three week period.

So not everybody will be able to get tickets, but they are coming mostly to do events and parties. So that is very important subject to know. And, Axios and ABC seven News reported and are anticipating over 5,000,000,000 TV viewers, which is going to amplify the, indirectly the tourism in our city. So let's not look at just the ticket, but look at the the enormous amount of people who are going to come. And I just wanted to make sure that you all record these dates, February 7, Saturday, February 8, Super Bowl.

It's gonna be very impactful. And FIFA is June 12 all the way to July 2, which I'm sure this next year, we'll have an amazing fourth of July fireworks because it will be worth celebrating the fact that we are gonna be so successful. And as far as rate is concerned, just to give you a quick idea, some hotels are starting rates for Super Bowl at $4.99 on standard rooms. It goes all the way to $805.99 for, FIFA from the entire half of the month of June. So it's massive.

So Good news. Sure, Jane. Sure, Lynn. I I I'll make a quick comment. There are a couple of things that we should be thinking about and following along what Claudia is saying and and building upon what a lot of folks have here. There's a component of the video that's interesting. Right? It's it's really about selling the city, and I think that's important. And it almost starts with imagine it like this. You look on your phone, and Cupertino is always the first thing that you see for weather. Right? We're default. Right? You start on the phone, then you see the food, then you see the wine, then you see the golf courses, you see the shopping, and it says, you know, be here in Cupertino. Right?

It's it's something like that. You got a video part. You got a website back to what Jane was saying, which is really important, which is stay here, dine here, experience here, and, you know, travel from here. Right? And that covers that piece. And you also need some kind of thing that is kind of the Cupertino like, it's the approved logo for the event or something like that. So websites can tie back to it. Stores can tie back it. They have the stickers that people know that, hey. This is Cupertino approved or Citi approved or something like that. So people know that they can shop here, and there's it's part of the larger program. But then the piece that was really important that you said, Claudia, is really about activations. There are watch parties, wine tastings, art fairs, a boba fest, a street fair that we can activate for all these types of events that can then drive that kind of community. It's like, oh, I don't need to go into the city. Why would city?

That's like aim of the butt. I'm staying here already. Let's come to Cupertino instead of going to San Francisco. I don't know if I wanna be in San Jose. So you have something there. Right? So so think about it in those things. Those are, like, tangible projects that we can kinda work off and break onto. And then all the other stuff will come, like the ICPs, like the personas we're going for, the flow, the journeys that we're gonna design for those individuals. Then you can start thinking like that.

Your product manager, even product management, you understand how it works to build these experiences. Father, you do a lot of those. Then we can start managing those journeys and we can draw out the journeys and then flow them out so people know exactly who's involved, what research is involved, what money is involved. We've gotta get there really quickly, especially for the Super Bowl because you really have to get it done before Christmas. So something to think about in terms of speed.

And I'd just like to add to that December 5 is the date where everybody will know who plays what match. And so that's gonna be crucial as to when Germany or Brazil or Italy or any other country will actually start making their bookings. So we we are short on time, I have to say. Yes.

So we have less than two weeks. So what would the the so what are we talking here? Like, the the final deliverable, what will it look like? Would it be a very marketable proposal so that we can, you know, involve all the restaurants, hotels, and the, you know, all the vendors? Are we talking about, like, a solid written proposal so that we can distribute and ask all the vendors to participate? Because there might be some cost to participate. Right? Or or all the all the Cupertino vendors are free to join. Just wanna clarify because time is of essence now.

So, Daniel, I believe they have to have a business license to start.

That is correct, council member. So we would want participants, as we do with many of our shop local campaigns and initiatives, to have an active business license with the city

through our

business license division. So that's the main criteria that we've been using. So, yes, council member. That's a good point to bring up. So

do we suggest, like, the one week involving the game, like, some events in the morning or evening when the game is not there, like, you know, a collective, like, a party kind of atmosphere, not just one shop, but multiple shops coming together and train some festive environment.

Event. Right? Okay.

Yeah. Pop. Something that people or even some music or something, right, where people have a reason. Okay. Let's this will be a fun thing to do.

I think if you ask me marketing wise, I think every store, every restaurant, every hotel should have a logo of the city that says Super Bowl ready with the logo of Cupertino and, probably a FIFA ready same thing so that we can I'd people can easily identify that specific logo slash the slogan of our city, Cupertino ready or whatever you want, Cupertino Super Bowl or Cupertino FIFA ready, and make it, global for so that it kinda gives a a stamp for everyone to feel like, okay. It's approved, like council member Wong said. So I I would think that visual is important, and I think that that could kick in our campaign together with the video. And, obviously, contacting every Cupertino, businesses that wants to be part of it and register for free for as long as they have an active but also a good standing business license. Yes.

So that we

can create a direct directory.

So I think it may seem too daunting to try to do all these things at once. And so just focusing on Super Bowl may be the test that kinda get us to the next level. So FIFA is much bigger and much longer. Right? And so what you can do is, like, say, maybe we do just the watch party, or maybe we just do a one tasting, right, to start, to actually have one activity. But we also wanna reach out to the merchants and the vendors that are out there to see who wants to participate. For example, you can do a watch party on Main Street, or you do a watch party here with a large screen in Quinlan or in Creekside Park. Right? But then what else is around there? Are there booths? Are there food? Are there other entertainment? What staff did for fourth of July for Creekside was really nice. Now imagine we had food booths or food vendors that are there that are available that represent Cupertino restaurants. Right?

There's something there. You bring the wineries in. Because the wineries are technically in county, but once they bring into the city, we can tax them for revenue, keep the taxes. So so it's about thinking about things like that. Let's bring them in here so we can actually drive the tax revenue.

Yeah. That's a good idea. We and then we can involve all the vendors, even all the residents to to come join the watch party and then have the food vendors and all the different vendors get profit from from the audience.

I forgot if we can broadcast the game. There's we're we're think we're not

Well, we can I thought that's

what we can broadcast the game?

So Yeah.

There's something about that that we can't do. Gotta make sure. I don't think we have broadcast rights to broadcast the games. If you remember that. But there's some kind of, like, a party around it, and maybe the maybe people have DIRECTV around. I can start linking in when I think about

it. Maybe

the way I can put it up. But yeah. But that's that's the way to do it. And at least get the website. Right? Get all the resources pulled together, the information that we need. Right? Which hotels are a part of this? Which restaurants are part of this? Right? And if we're getting transportation or sending transportation from these places, like, how do we do that? And so we need to pack on feed to all the all the hotels, but we create the unified transport so that the transport resources are there so you know which shuttles are coming in and out as you need to drop people off.

Yes. I that's a good point. People don't want, like, to rent cars, especially with all the parking. So if you can provide them a free shuttle or discounted shuttle from Cupertino there, then Cupertino gets more attractive places. Sponsorship.

Even though Waymo is not in here yet. Like, we can get Waymo or other places to start creating those partnerships. So you might wanna have the I mean, they're gonna be Super Bowl ready, but I don't think they're official Super sponsors. But we can basically allow them to be Cupertino Super Bowl sponsors, which is interesting. So maybe we can't use the word Super Bowl either. It might be the game. Right. So I think we have to be careful with that on the legal side. So

So I have two thoughts on subcommittees after hearing all these very excellent ideas from everyone. And, director Deku, you can let me know if this was something you had already intended on doing because, you know, we're our goal is to support your role, so we're not here to,

you know,

step on any shows. But it does feel like a subcommittee on partnerships would be useful as well as a subcommittee on, like, just overall messaging and positioning and branding. Like, how are we as a city positioning ourselves relative to all the other cities that are also trying to attract the visitors to them? What makes us different, and why would some us? So what is the message that we would want repeated across all of our materials website, restaurants, everything?

And, of course, what what budget you guys are gonna need? Right? You might wanna come back and see any budget for SEO, any budget for marketing. That's not in the other budget, so we'll have to think through the budgets as well.

Right. I was thinking, if I may say, council member one and to all the committee, do you think that issuing a PIN to all hotels, front desk, restaurant that says something about Cupertino FIFA or Cupertino, Super Bowl, make an official logo, and we're talking about budget here. And I think that if we're able to dispatch those to showcase that we're all unified in some fashion way visually to, hotels, restaurant, winery, you name it, shops that, you know, we could maybe, start to get probably a proposal for those kind of pins that we could design with the logo or whatever that is. It's somewhat fast to do. But that would be something that would show Cupertino and Unison as far as businesses and everyone across so that people kinda see the same kinda logo, the same kinda reference so that they feel that we're all connected or interconnect or and aware of what's going on.

Yeah. And I agree with you.

I have a question, probably. I'm not sure. I'm not in the tourist business, so probably you can give me. As a tourist, why will I care whether it's unified or not unless there's something concrete that tells me this is the fun thing I can do? Like, clarify for me. Something I'm like I'm not in this business, so I'm probably missing something.

Because there's always a thousand and one questions anyone ever has. And you have to understand when you're coming from Germany, when you're coming from Italy, when you're coming from Brazil, you don't know the area. So I think a visual is very important. I was in Miami for fifteen years, and we had events going on. And you could see the entire city being, offering specific menus for Miami week, and that was it showcased that everybody the whole city was coming together.

So visuals is very important for everybody. And, it is my aim, that every hotel we have seven hotels here in Cupertino, and every restaurant will kinda work somewhat together to guide and to give information, but it also showcase that, hey. Cupertino is is knows what they're doing, if you will, and there to answer any and all questions they may have.

A quick question. Is there a reason we're not part of the Bay Area host committee?

So we are.

We are?

Okay. So we participate in that.

Okay. So make sure we don't I don't see our logo on there. That's what I'm wondering.

So they do have specific partners, but but the Bay Area host committee, which is organizing on behalf of the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup for the Bay Area, they do have calls with local municipalities in our county. So the city of Cupertino, including other cities, are participating on those calls, getting updates guidelines, getting updates about the events. So we do collaborate in that way.

And just a quick question to Claudia. Are you part of the Bay Area host for me, like, approved hotel or partner hotel?

I to be honest with you, this is a first because I'll have to tell you, we don't have to be a member in order to generate interest in revenue as far as anyone coming over. We would need to sign up, especially if we have to pay for it simply because there's not many hotels that you would think. And so could we do it? Absolutely. It just needs to make sense, but we don't need to be approved in order to get, leads from all around the world and fill our hotels.

No. No. I got that. I was just trying to figure out, like, where we put our SEO efforts or website efforts, like, may make the most sense. Right?

So Yeah. I've never heard about them until now, to be honest with you.

And so I just wanna make sure because that's that's the big organizing group, and people are going there first to see things. We just have to pump our SEO up so people know that they have to be here if we're gonna go out on our own. That's one of the decisions that someone wants to make. So

I think it's more a decision of the city to make at this point because I think it's gonna be profitable for everybody and to the city. As we say, you can't, in order to make money, you have to put money.

Yeah. I I I think I really like the idea, Claudia, you said, instead of a video. Like, give me some guidelines, and I'm coming new to the area. Like, these are the things I can do. These are the things I can stay and close by and do things.

You know, may I say, I think visual is everything. Is there a way we can even budget on the budget side, think of a global map of Cupertino that represents hotels, restaurant, winery, and put them on the map on where they can go and find or maybe an interactive app slash QR code that we could create easily where it'll regroup what everyone can do. I think we need to arm ourselves with those kind of marketing tools in order to answer any and all questions and where people can easily find where to go, what to do.

Well,

Meredith, we just kinda returned back to what she remember. I was just saying around just the two subcommittees. I think one around partnerships is one is marketing because there's a lot of ideas here just around both budget and image and branding, etcetera, where I think having that maybe referred back to a subcommittee so that we can, one, to I also remember Wayne's point around prioritizing what we can what we can't do. That road map probably makes a lot of sense to kind of bring on maybe to bring together a lot of these different threads too as well. Maybe maybe we as the body can consider a motion to create those two subcommittees. Yeah. Would would that be okay with everyone? I just wanna be sure that the maybe the discussion. Okay. Got it.

And then you're gonna have to you had it written really well. So I'd like to make a motion to

Oh, thank you. Yeah. So motion to create subcommittees, one for partnerships and the second for messaging, positioning, branding. Feel free to read the work that

Yes. Section.

Just for clarification on that motion, would this be a subcommittee for Super Bowl? And then within that subcommittee, these particular topics would be discussed within this afternoon?

Yes. I I think it would be difficult to cover another single spokes.

And to form a subcommittee, we just cannot exceed more than four people.

So it could be up to four.

Alright. Oh, question.

Since the item is not agenda, so we can't vote on it as a day.

So So we can bring this back at the December meeting as as a formal recommendation and then commence that work as a committee

That's it.

After, if there's interest in that. So so perhaps think about if you're interested in that particular role, and then we can have a vote and establish it on December. Excellent.

Of course. So

is there a conclusion for this agenda for today, or are we just brainstorming for now?

Because I think

Oh, if we did have a discussion and brainstorming, these are the key things that we've just done. My recommendation would be with the city would let us know what the anticipated budget, if there are any surrounding all the efforts that we're trying to put out here. If we know that we'd say we have 50,000 or $100,000 to play with in order to be very successful and impactful anywhere outside Cupertino, to include the video, would that be approved so that we can work on something? And I I would gather both events together because the efforts that we do on one will be somewhat equal to the second one.

Yeah. Thank you for that. That can come back in December as far as budget. I will say that we do have we have done, as a city, developed maps highlighting businesses through our shop local initiative. We have created videos. So I can suspect that some of these particular point of interest can be done within city hall, I I would say. But if there's anything that would need to be done kind of outside of that that would need some budget, we can definitely talk about that at the next meeting.

I think these are great points. I think that there are a lot of probably existing existing initiatives, assets that we can either build upon or decide if all the remit of the subcommittee in terms of prioritization should probably actually be some version of a budget ask anyway to support any of those proposed comments.

Chair, before we close out the item, can we open the public comment period?

Yes, please.

We have no speakers in person. I have no speakers on signature.

K. Thank you. So shall we move on to the second agenda? And does anyone want to, because I already took notes on on these. What are the may I ask what are the next steps, or any of the actionable items before the next meeting before we close agenda and

move on to the next one? Thank

you, chair. So the next steps is to come back with a formal recommendation to establish a subcommittee for Super Bowl and for the committee members about if there's interest from any particular member to serve on this.

That way, they could be

Thank you. So let's move on to the next agenda, which is check. Which is item number three, brainstorming session on the 2026 economic development committee work plan projects.

If I can just provide a few comments on this, I can share, if that's okay.

Yeah. Can we clarify this a little bit more? Yes.

I do have a slide here that I will share. So, committees, commissions, will be approving a work plan for 2026, and this is the first kind of brainstorming discussion between amongst the committee to look at and consider potential work plan projects. What I've done is I've outlined a variety of sample projects for you all to kind of consider, think about. These don't necessarily have to be what's in your work plan, but these are just some ideas that kind of overlap with economic development, office of economic development work plan items, city the CWP, which is a city work program that the council has adopted a variety of different initiatives. There's a couple that relate to economic development as high priority.

So some of these items here can most certainly be something that you all are participating in, supporting through a subcommittee and through your work. So I just wanted to kinda call those things out. Some just categorically, this business outreach and marketing, so that could be being involved with business visits to local businesses here in the community. This could be participating in ribbon cutting ceremonies and celebrations for new openings. We do have a variety of different initiatives that relate to shop local, such as the first ever dine out.

Fourth of July, that was highly successful in July of this past year. Restaurant Week, which we just had for the month of during the month of October for the city's seventieth anniversary. As you can see there, there's a logo that highlights the seventieth that was developed by the city. So we can most certainly do that for Super Bowl as an example. Also, national small business week, holiday shop local.

So all of these initiatives are really promoting our local businesses, getting that in front of our community, getting that in front of visitors who are coming to the city, also working here in the city to shop local to preserve the tax dollars that we have here. We also have the tourism items that are happening that you just discussed in your previous item, as well as business and entrepreneurial support, such as technical assistance workshops, women's business lunch, and speaker series, as well as core data. That's very, very important to the city. It's important to how we effectively engage with businesses, attract businesses, retain businesses. So that could be looking at inventory of businesses, real estate, economic development, dashboards, surveys, and how we engage with local businesses to understand what their needs are, as well as business resources and support.

That could be regulatory and how we support businesses through permitting. That could be grants and funding as well as calendar events. So these are just some things to kinda get out there so that way you can look at, think about, and have your discussion. I'll stop right there, Cherry.

Sounds good. Is there any, like, again, any KPI or initiatives or goals that you we can put together so that we know where our goal is? Is there anything you wanna achieve and and explain to to the committee?

Yeah. That's a great question, Chair. I think that can be done through the core data, especially if there are specific initiatives. Right? Those initiatives could be designed to really focus on KPI metrics. And so that way, at the conclusion of those initiatives, we can see what kind of impact was made that we can control the city. So I I I can definitely see that being integrated in specific initiatives through the work plan items.

I see. And and continue on that. So, for example, is there any number or any revenue that that we need to target or or aim at, and then we can work backwards in in terms of, you know, different types of business. And then we can we can come up with this kind of projects or sample projects to help promote these businesses. So we kinda work backwards according to the goals and initiatives.

Yeah. So I would think of that if you don't mind responding, Chair, I would think of generally, from my understanding, when it comes to a work plan item for a committee or commission, it ranges around, I believe, five to 10 work items. So think about it in the in the way of for this upcoming calendar year 2026, what projects as a committee will we like to work on or we'd like to implement? And looking at that from a window of, you know, five to 10 projects, what what makes the most sense? I think I heard from the second item, new business item, Super Bowl, FIFA World Cup, the Cupertino TV show perhaps at some point this calendar year this upcoming calendar year will be items that the committee may wanna work on.

So what other kind of initiatives and projects I think should be the discussion by the committee?

I agree. So if we pick I I mean, everyone can chime in as well. So, because of item number two and because of the importance and influence that it brings to Cupertino, tourism is definitely the major items and the major items for 2026. Does anyone not agree on this?

Sure. I would say there are other things we can do. If you're going top down, yes, it's probably tourism. If you're going bottom up in your business, imagine how we bring businesses together, how we convene them to have conversations on a regular basis. You might want them as input sessions to grab their ideas. For example, they might want regulatory relief. So I'll give you one that I hear a lot from a lot of businesses. If you've walked into the beach fresh and you've gotten that paper spoon and that paper cup and that paper straw, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The disposable plastics ban or one time use plastics. So one time use has created a lot of issues for a lot of these folks.

They're wasting a lot of spoons and a lot of paper because those things don't hold up. Right? There may be regulatory. Right? A permitting process for a model that might be pulling them up, that might be able to help them in terms of making sure that they can get something passed quicker or something we can do with reviews or plannings to help them. There might be access to back to the business resources piece, grants and funding. Right? We should be doing a better job looking for grants that might help small businesses or tie back to American Express that does small business Saturdays those and kind of things or other companies that are doing that where we can kind of find those partnerships. So ground up for a business, what does it mean to them? The tourism is great top down. Bottom up is what can you do to make the daily life of, you know, business easier.

I would definitely agree with that. I think it's I think there are a lot of items here that are just have very natural sort of visibility and focus, but I think building that infrastructure and that foundation, to your point, actually, is also pretty critical and key to, one, actually even support many of these other areas too as well. But, again, how do we think about the work here as an EDC for laying again that road map, right, for 2026, but, honestly, too in terms of beyond that? I think a couple of things, and I'll just offer up some thoughts here as we kind of maybe think about this, is maybe not necessarily sort of, like, picking, like, oh, here's, like, 10 events, etcetera, because there are things that will naturally happen. I think as part of the cadence of the city, I think what we should be thinking about is what is, one, I think, the sort of the kind of, like, the the thought process, right, that we as a group here can kind of bring to amplify some of these key areas without ignoring that infrastructure and the foundation of the things that honestly, like, are easy to kind of overlook.

I think, too, as we think about some of these cadences too as well, because we all live, work, have experienced Cupertino, we should actually be thinking more about how do we amplify some of those efforts or potentially change some of those. Right? Because we have the feedback. We experience all of these. We think that, hey. This might help meet some of those KPIs and goals at a macro level. And then I think the third piece too is even beyond this list, I actually think we as a group should also be thinking, are there things here that should be listed here that we aren't already considering? I actually do think that innovation aspect, how do we, again, sort of bring this the collective experiences of us as a body to to build out that road map actually will, you know, I think will really help cement a lot of our a lot of our work.

I agree with that, and I also wanted to throw in some thoughts. I I did came at this a little bit differently more from the planning commission perspective. I do agree with a lot of those. And I would say the one point on this that I probably think is is really important is the surveying. So before this meeting, I did look into just how much vacant office space and retail space we have in Cupertino. I only looked on LoopNet because that is, you know, the one source that was available to me. But it looks like we have about 75,000 square feet of vacant office space in Cupertino. That was about 19 listings. And then we have 16 vacant retail spaces. So, you know, the question is kind of, you know, why are these vacant?

And I don't know that we would get to the answer without doing a proper survey of the business. It was an understanding what their needs are. And then, you know, I've also been pretty closely following some other planning commissions. And what what other cities like Palo Alto have done is retail zoning studies, where they look at, you know, very holistically, all the elements that help drive business in the city, be it zoning, so designating retail nodes, or be it actually are there areas of the code that are prohibiting development? So for example, for us, our definition of retail currently requires direct retailing of goods to the public, which would exclude dance, music, facilities, gyms, spas, fitness, exercise, childcare, schools.

And these are currently, at least in the heart of the city plan, these are limited to no more than 25% of the front and 55% of the rear of any building. But these are actually really synergistic businesses that support, you know, all of your actual retailers. Like, you drop your kid off at tutoring, then afterwards, you wanna go shopping. So I think I mean, this is just an idea, but are there areas of our code that we can possibly relax a little bit in order to spur on the business environment? And I have looked at other cities as well.

Like, San Jose, they have actually business districts, which are formed where the business owners collectively invest to improve their entire area. Not saying that's something that we need to do since we are relatively a much smaller city, but, you know, there are things that we can learn from other cities as well. So I guess, yeah, I'm coming at this really more from let's understand what is driving some of problems with their businesses today, and then how can we, as a city, help them.

Yes. These are really, really, crucial points and really, really good advice. Shall we also be because 2026, we only have, you know, three hundred sixty five days. Should we prioritize these, or we actually can, you know, separate and and divide and conquer so that we can get as much done as possible? But I understand that everybody has capacity and also the the city has capacity also. Is this just a sample project so we can, brainstorm on, and then we can prioritize them so that we know, you know, at least we can heat some of the most important items that, that we can check them out? So should we kinda prioritize? Because these are all very good points.

Sure. If I just can add, this item this item does not have to be addressed today. Sharing your ideas and and your thoughts as you're doing is perfectly fine. Going over the list that's on your screen isn't even needed at this time because this item to formalize a work plan can be done early in 2026, so there's time. But having the discussion, sharing your thoughts, even using the next meeting in December to add additional ideas and thoughts, we can bring that back as well. So just just to put out there for the committee. So

Got it.

Go

ahead. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to echo on, what, commissioner Tracy was mentioning because we are serving those vendors. Right? I I believe listening to what they get to say at your end is very crucial as well because we wanted to see what they care about the most. You know, is it, you know, people trying to come into Cupertino, but because of zoning, they cannot, or is it because of, you know, like, regulatory relief that they're suffering? You know, these kind of items, it's better to kinda hear it from the mouth mouth of the horse. So can I suggest maybe doing, like, a little quick survey, or we have already done it so that we can know what their concerns major concerns are?

If that's for me, sure. Yeah. We we can the city has done surveys, and businesses have been so, yeah, we this could be integrated in 2026, the surveying piece, in some capacity for sure.

Thank you.

Thank you. I think that so do we have a list of the major pain points that businesses have pointed out for doing business in Cupertino? Do we have a list?

Oh, actually, I have two business here at Cupertino, and I really agree, like, what you guys just mentioned about, like, how hard for us to get inside Cupertino. Because, like, the Sony, like, because we do a lot of, like, spa and a lot of Cupertino Plaza, they're, like, restricted, like, the certain amount of, like, type of business that we cannot enter into into Cupertino. So it's hard for us. And we if we did, like, successfully enter into that plaza, it takes, like, super long progress for us to, like, do the planning and drawing, stuff like that. And it's kinda hard for us to, communicate, like, to get approved.

Even, like, it's kinda hard for us to, like, get a business license. It takes a lot of time. So it definitely can help a business owner to attract them to come inside Cupertino if the process of everything has moved up a little bit. And a lot of business owner heard of Cupertino. The first impression is, like, expensive. It's so expensive to get inside Cupertino, and it's more like just schooling and just Like, it's housing, and there's not a lot of attracting, like, fun shop and fun restaurant. So for business owner because I used to participate every year in, like, Sunnyvale pop up fairs. There's a lot of pop up fair in Sunnyvale and even in Palo Alto.

So they did a really good job.

And I think, like, in for Cupertino, we definitely have the potential to do, like, copying them. Like, to do more, like, pop up and fares, attract, like like, kind of traffic. Like, we kinda attract, like, Poplar's restaurant, Poplar, like, business owner from other city, and attract them to come inside Cupertino and actually show them, like, our resident in Cupertino are, like, high quality. They're willing to spend money, you know, like, we we definitely have the power to attract them here and show them, like, how good Cupertino is, and maybe they can definitely see a huge boomer on the sales part. Because that for me, my first business, I actually did not start in Cupertino, but I was living in Cupertino back then.

I start my first business in Milquitas because what the first thought that I have is Cupertino is so expensive. I I I won't be able to afford the rent and, you know, I'm not sure about, like, sales and how the people gonna like our business. I I'm not sure, like, are they gonna like, wanna spend money on certain business. So I start my business, the first step in Milkydas. And after a year, everything, like, settled, and then I opened my second store here in Cooperton.

And the sales is, a big boomer, like, big big game changer, actually. So a lot of like business owner have a wrong perspective, like, for them to come in because it's expensive. And they cannot actually see the sales, the revenue that for particular resident can provide. So I think we have to, like, correct them, their mindset. Like, we have to do a lot of, like, pop up and attract them. Because business owner, their main goal is to, like, earn money. They open a business and they definitely wanna make money. Right? So we have to attract them to come here and show them Cupertino resident are like, they can afford. They

can pay.

They like like event. And then naturally, it will attract them. Oh, I see a game changer. I see a warmer on the sales. So I will like, if I think of expanding the business, I will definitely choose Cupertino like me. So I'm a real case. So after I moved my second store here in Cupertino, and then I opened a lot of my stores here in Cupertino because I see a big game changer on the sales.

That's

And and stories like this, we also wanna Right? Those are videos like this that would be powerful for people to say.

If some business can say

that, you know, yeah, I pay lower rent in Milpitas, but

my revenue is also low in Cupertino. Okay. I pay a little bit more rent, but my revenue is so much higher.

So we have a lot

of Something like that.

Right now. And we also have a lot of store, in, like, Stonyville, Palo Alto, Mononville, like, all around the city. And actually, Cupertino is the we have the best selling Cupertino. So I love

So yeah.

But a lot of like, business owner mindset, like the first thing that can pop up in their mind is Cupertino is expensive. I won't be able to afford. But I think like we can copy another city. Like they they do a lot of pop up and a lot of like popular like international brand like boba tea shop. They actually wanna attract business. Right? So they willing to travel over city to like attract the

Look at the molly tea opening.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy.

That's a lot

of yeah.

The lines

are out.

In the Haiti.

Right? In a hay team. In a hay team. K two.

But I have heard some of the younger generation complain there is not much fun things to do in q thirty. No?

Yes. I'm one. So bates.

Yeah. So probably getting some entertainment, like, maybe, like,

we used to have bowling galley, skating, ice skating.

We had all those things. There's been okay.

It's still there.

It's still skating. Going out, the one in Homesteadline.

I market.

But, yeah, like, nice to have a few together so that you know. Yeah.

I've got a lot of people.

May I say something in regards to city ordinance for liquor to be served? I think it's until 10PM. I may be completely wrong, but I think for for our major event, we may wanna work on this to make sure that people can enjoy partying safely and have additional police force scheduled in our city.

Yeah. That was a great infrastructure point.

Very good point. Yeah.

Sure. If I may, we are approaching the 03:30 mark, and I did mention in the email that this meeting would take approximately about an hour and a half. So if the committee is okay, we can end the meeting if that's okay. Sure that. And then I we can come back in December. I can bring your comments for item three as it relates to brainstorming idea. Let me just continue the discussion if that's okay with the committee. Yes. Is that okay?

Yes. And thank you for reminding us on time.

So

shall we conclude the meeting now, or is there any steps, like, open to comments to public?

Oh. Meeting?

Yeah. I is it okay?

Open set up to, like, this time.

Yeah. You should.

Okay. Alright.

Do you mind if you hear speaker, Chris?

Oh, I I don't is there a item that I can speak on or is it just general?

We are now item three of new business, brainstorming session on the 2026 economic development committee plan project. Okay.

So our oh, sorry. So our speaker, Darcy Paul?

So how do you is there a particular spot you want me to stand in?

You can stand wherever you feel comfortable. Okay.

Great. Hi. Who's the committee chair in the list?

Cherilyn. She's from Oh, okay.

Hi. Hi, Cherilyn. How are

you doing?

Committee chair and members of the city staff as well as public. Thank you for convening the economic development committee. I'm really grateful to see this happen, actually. So for those of you who aren't familiar, I was on the city council from 2014 until 2022. I was mayor in 2018, 2021.

And, actually, before I was on the city council, I was on the board of the chamber of commerce of Cupertino, and I was president of the board when I ran the 2014. So I'm very well familiar with the development committee. One of the things that we tried very hard to do during my tenure on the city council was to make sure that this economic development committee got formed precisely as you see it here right now. And I wanted to give you a little bit of context because I think it's important that you have it at the very beginning of your your inception as as a committee. And so, you know, essentially, the committee before was an ad hoc group of people that is that basically came from the city as well as the chamber of commerce.

And you didn't really have a type of open meeting like you have right here. And so we want to make sure that we formed a committee that the public was invited to, and you can get input on this regular kind of basis. So very grateful that this got formed. I I would say, you know, without getting into the meanderings of it, you know, politics got involved after I left in 2022. This committee was actually canceled.

But, of course, you have the ability right now as new members of the committee to have it reformed. And I think it's just fantastic what you're talking about. Was listening to a little bit of this on my way from work to, you know, on YouTube. I know that you're talking about various things that are happening in terms of One thing I want to ask you to consider is the city business licenses. I used to have my business in Cupertino.

I moved it for various reasons to Santa Clara. It's actually before I ran for council and got on in 2014. And I know various cities have, you know, different issues with, you know, different types of questions. But with regard to Cupertino, my understanding is that business licenses have actually kind of changed from paper solicitation of trials. And I well, I think that it's really great to adopt the new technologies. It's also really important that people have proper notes. And so, you know, one of the things that you have with an administration of anything really, but, you know, specifically with something like this, is that you have to give people proper noticing. Because sometimes they'll just say, well, I got emailed into my spam. I don't know. I didn't pay that kind of stuff.

And so as we're kind of thinking through the administration of this particular item, you know, how do

you get Darcy. That is your time.

Okay. Great. Thanks very much. Mhmm.

We have no other person in person and no speakers on Zoom, chair.

So so, chair, we're now at the city council subcommittee reports, and I don't believe there's any updates on that item. Is that correct?

We have none.

Yes? Do we have a yeah. Do we have a break on signal? I didn't hear anything.

Likewise.

Oh, sorry. Can you hear us now?

Yes.

We're now at the city council subcommittee reports, and there is no update for this item. And then the next item is the staff and committee reports. There is no updates on that particular item. And then the future agenda setting oh, there's nothing on this item for our first meeting until the next item would be adjourned.

Yes. So shall we conclude the meeting and adjourn now?

A motion for the meeting.

Yes. Second.

Second. Thank everyone.

Is is there a second?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Selena, six second.