Town Council - Regular Meeting

Right. Good evening everyone. Uh, thank you all for being here. I'm going to call this regular meeting of the Loscatoos Town Council to order. Um, town clerk, can we have a role? Council member Renie here. Council member Hudus here. Council member Badami, I'm here. Vice Mayor Risto here. Mayor Moore

here. Um, okay, great. So, first, um, happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone. Uh, uh, good to see, um, so many folks in the room. Um, my apologies for the heat. Um, we are, you know, really trying to come into the spring season and get us all acclimated uh to the the good uh, summer weather that is to come. Um, no, the the um, we're working on it. Um, but it might be a little bit warm this evening, so apologies um, for that. We're going to start with three presentations. Um, and we'll start with our small business recognition for Lisa Myers of the Loscatoos Bird Watcher. Um, you can come forward. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, do we have We'll do the pledge after. We do the pledge first. Okay. We'll do the pledge of allegiance first to kick off our meeting. All right.

Aliance to the flag of the United States of America for it stand indivisible with liberty. Thank you very much. All right. Exactly. All right. Um so Lisa Myers, you can now come on down.

All right. So, Loscatoos's uh small business business of the month for the month of March is the Loscatoos Bird Watcher. Um Lisa Myers is the owner. Uh if you all have never been to the Loscatoos Bird Watcher, I highly highly recommend it. You do not have to be a bird um to to go, although you may leave being one. Um I'm a a regular shopper at the Los Scatos Bird Watcher. And um I'll read a few things about um why I I wanted to celebrate and recognize Lisa and the bird watcher and then you can say a few things. So um uh congratulations to Lisa Myers and the entire Los Gatos bird watcher team on being named Loscatos's business of the month. This recognition is a testament to the care, passion, and community spirit you bring to Los Gatos every day. Um and I mean this. Your store is a true hub for connection. When you go in there, you will meet people um who are so passionate about birding and and many things. Um and uh through birding walks, workshops, events, you bring neighbors together, foster a deeper appreciation for nature, and help build a strong sense of community around a shared love of birds. Moreover, your commitment to bird conservation and environmental stewardship is helping protect the natural beauty and creatures that make Loscatoo so special. We are very fortunate to have the Loscatoos Bird Watcher as a vibrant, local, and welcoming presence in our town. Thank you very much. Okay. Do you want to say a few words?

I'll say a few words. Okay. All right. And maybe can you get Thank you, Rob in Lascatus. And yes, we just celebrated 30 years in Lascatus. What a wonderful community to be a part of and we do want to be the hub for anything nature. We'll talk about butterflies and bees and all that kind of stuff. So, please, if you've never stopped by, come on in and we'd love to meet you. And I thank you all.

Thank you. Thank you and congratulations. All right. And now we will recognize our resident of the month. Um Lauren Serret, will you please come forward? Um yes, please. So, some of you all might not know who Lauren is, but you um have likely recently heard of her art. So Lauren is the creator of Scrappy, which is um in the words of the Loscaten newspaper, the new unofficial monument of the town. Um and so I'll I'll read a few things uh uh and then um have you say a few words. So um congratulations on being named Loscatos's resident of the month. This recognition reflects the creativity, joy, and community spirit you've brought to town. Scrappy the trash gate, which I think is so cute, um is a truly unique piece of art that blends creativity with an important message about sustainability and mindful consumption. Um by transforming discarded materials into something meaningful, you've created a community monument that both inspires and makes people smile. Uh equally special is the way you involved friends, family, and neighbors, many of whom are here this evening. uh which I think is a testament to the the how much you've brought people together to bring scrappy to life. Thank you for using your creativity to bring uh your neighbors and loved ones together and add something very special to Low Shadows. And so for you those of you that are now very interested in in seeing Scrappy who have not seen Scrappy yet, it's on Blossom Hill Road um near the intersection of Union. Um though don't try to stop, you just have to drive by. Um uh but Lauren, I'll let you say a few words about Scrappy and uh your creation.

Thank you. I feel so privileged. Um I'm lucky that my in-laws Tom and Hel, my parents, Bob and Crystal and my husband Steve are here and so supportive. Otherwise, you know, um being a a parent, it would have been uh very challenging to make scrappy. Um, I used plastic because it's just such an accessible material. You know, we all have plastic packaging. It's not hard to come by. And one thing that I remember when I was going through my teaching credential program is my supervisor said, "Make sure to bring the magic." And so I feel really lucky um to be able to do that with my children. and now hearing that people enjoy seeing Scrappy and are trash um that it's it's really motivating to keep adding to him and I'm really excited for what's next for him after St. Patrick's Day. So, thank you so much.

Absolutely. We can't wait to see it. So, um Congratulations. Congratulations. Welld deserved. All right. Okay. And now we have one more um fun and important one. Um will the folks from the American Red Cross please come forward? Um um so uh this month we are proclaiming uh March to be American Red Cross month to recognize the compassion of the people in the town of Los Gatos and affirm our commitment to care for one one each another in times of crisis. Um and so we recognize the American Red Cross every year. Um I think it's a very important proclamation that the town of Los Gatos makes. Um, we hope to never have much interaction with with the Red Cross. Um, but when we do, it's incredibly important. I actually just met with a Red Cross volunteer who was sharing that um, a few weeks ago, the Red Cross was activated twice in about uh, a 48 or 72-hour period due to a large um, apartment fire and then another um, small disaster which led to the Red Cross activating several multiple shelters um, to bring people in. And so the Red Cross has um set up a variety of connections here in town with organizations that can like the JCC and and the town of Los Gatos here who can support in the event of a disaster. And

so it's an uh incredibly important resource and uh we're very very grateful to you all for the work that you do. So you want to share a little bit about your your work?

Yeah, thank you very much. Grab that. I'm Mark Ebner. I'm a board member here at Silicon Valley chapter of American Red Cross. I'm here with your very own Jim Yol who's our one of our wonderful volunteer community leaders. So, uh thank you very much for this uh the America this tradition started over 80 years ago where and by these proclamations really thank the volunteers that lead and power our mission and actually 90% of the work that American and Red Cross is done by volunteers. these folks that volunteer help out with disaster relief, supporting military families, and giving blood. So, speaking of activations and other things, in in Santa CL Valley alone, this last year, there's over a hundred different disasters that occurred inside of our our space. We had helped over 1,700 military families and this community gave over 18,000 uh blood donations. and from and there are 2100 volunteers across uh Santa CL County, but there's over a hundred volunteers from the town of Loscatoos and two board members and two staff folks that help us out. So very love the support. Uh we love what we do and uh you know, thank you mayor to the council to the town of the town of Loscatos as well as all of its staff for partnering with us to be ready for anything that does come. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And if someone wants to get involved with the Red Cross, how how do they do that? Yeah, we would love we would love that support. There's always need for more hands. You can easily go to uh American Redcross.org/volunteer today. Really easy. Sign up. There's training and everything. So, you don't need to know how to do anything. It's training and it's really a heart and a helping hand. Well,

thank you. And you're going to take a quick picture. Um very much. Thank you for being here. Congratulations and and thank you to all of uh everyone who's been recognized here this evening. Thank you. All right, now to the business of the Loscatoos Town Council meeting. Um, so first, um, I just want to provide a little bit of clarification on public comment this evening. I know there's a variety of folks here to comment on a few different things. Um, so just to clarify, if anyone is here who would like to speak um on an item uh on the agenda or under verbal, please um make sure you write a comment card. If you want to speak on consent, you'll be doing that now. Then if you want to speak on anything that's not on the agenda or on council matters, that is next. Um so that's during public communications at the beginning part of the meeting. And then we have um one

item, item eight this evening um that we'll accept separate public comments on. I I hope that's clear and um I'll sort through your comment cards as they come in. Um so um we'll move to consent. Um uh are there any members of the council that would like to pull an item from consent? Okay, seeing none, um I will go to public comment for consent. And I have uh two comment cards um for consent. The first is from Gus who the second Lee Quintano. Okay. Um, I wanted to start off because I did fill out a card and I filled it out Rob with more with one just a with one O. So, because I wanted to present uh these flowers to Wonder Woman because it's on the m on the minutes on the thing, you know, she uh was singled out and uh this person here, I don't know if you there's a picture of them says uh Chief Fields and unfortunately she was not here. Hopefully, somebody can, you know, she she uh did some wonderful things that's that should have been on the minutes and I want to point some of those things out. I I I strongly believe that uh you have my thing. There's enough people here that spoke on ICE. Um uh you know they there were 22 of them or around 20 of them the other day and now there's they're lined up. I don't know if you're supposed to have cards like that but um and then it's in the things. Also I wanted to I think you have to speak on DEI support. I support

that but uh I we only in five They're only inviting um people from uh just the locals when it should be a community thing. Um it sounds like that comment might be related to agenda item number. Is that a A? It says this is consent. So this is this is items. Oh, you have to speak on on DEI. It was the A. That's under verbal communications. Oh, okay. Sorry. I thought that was I I think it's an agenda item. And I think it's labeled A at the toward the end of the agenda, but they said to speak on it this at this this O. I thought you could speak on it this

to speak on on to clarify to speak on item A under council matters, you'll speak during verbal communications.

Yeah. Uh then I um yeah the biggest thing is I wish that you would pull number seven and correct you know I said two and seven because you're I think minutes are very important to it's it's it doesn't take four hours or six hours for the less to to figure out what we're trying to I'm the hardest person to think and I'm I support the ice but I'm supporting truth and and I when I'm you know like I'm saying hey the soccer field uh doesn't cost two and a half million for a new app to to surface. It's if you look it up online, it's it's a million dollars. So, the budget, you know, there's a whole bunch of budget things. Another thing that I brought up that I would want to bring up, um, you know, is all the all the the stuff that I've been saying on the minutes and, you know, if if it's even of a sentence, it's better than nothing because, you know, now I'm just a thing. I, you know, I'm just a member of the public. If two people are members of the public, then it's just one member of a public, two people, you know, because you don't have to speak on under your your name, you'd rather not because you're pointing out certain things that the town's doing or people are doing and you just want to, hey, the the kid a kid was up on a light pole, you know, and I sent in a picture or something like that, you know, you find needles in a in a a field, you know, and you don't that your name getting out there. So, thanks.

Thank you. We have one other uh speaker for consent, which is Lee Kana.

Good evening, Lee Kintana. Um I would just like some clarification. Uh the the motion the resolution is that uh for all um Brown Act meetings, the minutes will be um actiononly minutes unless uh for things like the town council study sessions or planning commission study sessions or that type of thing from the uh council and the planning commission that they have the choice of asking for something different. My question for clarification is that there are many other committees and commissions that uh don't make recommendations to the council or the planning commission or they do that but they also may have another function of um just reviewing things such as the historic preservation committee when we do a a preliminary review or the uh design review committee which makes suggestions to applicants who come before it. So my clarification that I would like is is this up to each committee to decide if they have that kind of function that they can ask for more than just action minutes for items that aren't action.

Thank you. Um, town attorney, do you mind jumping on that one? Um, I'll start and then the town clerk um will probably have more information, but um I'll start by explaining what a legislative body is. And so the legislative body is the town council, the planning commission or any board or commission that is created by formal action of the town council. And so that would include I think an example was given of the historic preservation um committee. And so they would qualify as a Brown Act committee. And then um Wendy, would you mind describing the contents of the new policy?

Um per the resolution, it does say that all meetings. So that would encompass the commission meetings as well and it does it does state um Brown Act bodies. Great. Thank you very much. Um, okay. With no other speaker cards, um, uh, do we have any hands raised on Zoom for consent? No. Okay. And then I'll entertain a motion on consent. Yes, Council Member Budami. I move to approve consent items uh, 1 through 7. Thank you. Yes, Council Member Hudis. Second.

Great. Um, all those in favor?

I. Any opposed? None passes unanimously. Great. Um so we will now move to verbal communications which again to clarify um is for members of the public wanting to speak on a matter not listed on the agenda or listed under council matters. That's item A. Um uh so um we will begin with Jeff Suzuki. And Jeff Suzuki will be followed by Suanne Lauric. Good evening, council members. Uh, first I will disclose that I am not speaking as a transportation uh, complete streets and transportation commissioner, but as a private citizen member of the public. Um, I'd like to start off my public comment by saying that I I have heard a lot about this handwriting the constitution um project that has been floated by um very strongly advocated for by uh Gordon Yamate, the chair of the DEI commission. I would very strongly support this project because I think that it is important to be reminded of our constitutional rights um especially in this moment. I've personally uh taken part in the project just kind of independently. I I discovered it when I was back in college and I did it and I thought it was a very useful exercise and we live in uh a republic that has the the world's oldest constitution. It kickstarted a long tradition of constitutionalism throughout the world and it's important to understand the limitations of government especially when we see the government uh committing large overreaches in its authority. um the executive branch unilaterally declaring war. Um murdering US citizens out in the streets uh unless we were to believe their word

that they are somehow domestic terrorists um tear gasing elementary schools unless we believe that they somehow deserved it. And I don't think that in any sane world, in any sane world that is truly democratic, we would simply sit there in silence. We have held vigils in recognition of the victims of federal immigration enforcement since February, since the start of February, and dozens, the biggest one was about 60 people on a Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. And you saw a couple weeks ago, you know, 20 people showed up with one day's notice to come and and and and give their presence and their voice in in in several situations that it's very important that our town government make their voices heard on this particular issue. Um, and we will continue showing up until you do. We will not stop until we hear what you have to say about this issue. Thank you.

You will go to Suanne Laurig who will be followed by Nigel Chandler.

Hi, council. Um, I'm Suanne Laurig, a resident of Loscatoos. uh you heard me speak two weeks ago on this issue of and I so I won't go into a long speech again. I just want to reiterate that I along with Jeff, I want the town council very strongly to take a position and make a resolution to not cooperate with ICE, to not allow them to stage on uh ICE on town property and to follow the Constitution and to support the rights and respect the rights of us, the people that live here the residents of Loscatoos. Thank you.

Thank you. And we'll go to Nigel Chandler who will be followed by Lee Quintano.

Hello, council. Uh my name is Nigel Chandler. Again, today I'm not speaking in my capacity as complete streets and transportation commissioner, but as a resident of Loscatos. Um, once again, I am here with my fellow towns people uh to ask that the town council officially consider the topic of ICE and immigration enforcement at the next town town council meeting or whenever uh it ends up being brought forth on the agenda. Um, we know that towns in our nearby area continue to make strides to protect the rights of their people and now is the time to act. I believe um amidst all the chaos we see with the wars, embargos, kidnapping and murders of heads of state, the bombings of elementary schools abroad. The state of the world is a little unhinged. You probably know, right? Um I'm not asking you to solve all that as council. I'm not asking you to solve any wars or to stop war crimes. Um but you can certainly act in the ways that you can. You can certainly follow the president of our other towns in this area and you should. We must stand united with our region or divided we shall fall. Thank you. Thank you. We will go to Lee Quintana who will be followed by Lee Figo. I want to speak on several things during this. I support the writing project. number one. Number two, I um last week there were many eloquent speakers asking the council to consider a resolution regarding ICE. I support that, but I did not speak. Uh those speakers were far more eloquent than I can be. But I do

want to uh say state one thing and that's that many years ago an ex a previous planning commissioner and by the way I'm speaking for myself not as a member of the historic preservation committee which I always forget to say. Um, a previous planning commissioner and city council member once advised me that when I spoke, I shouldn't deal so much with facts that doesn't get across, but that I should have some emotion and feeling in what I'm saying. And that's what I want to do today. Um, I think this while Lascatos doesn't want to get involved in things that aren't local issues, I think this is very much a local issue. And it's a very personal one for me in that my husband is Hispanic and recently uh both my sister and my son advised us that when he leaves home he should carry his passport. Uh, that's chilling to me. It's especially ironic, I think, because I am a firstborn American um citizen. My parents were born in Russia. My husband, on the other hand, is Hispanic, but his family has been in the United States for long before it was the United States, coming through with the concistadors as they went through Mexico into New Mexico with where his family settled. So, he's been here for generations and generations and generations. And yet we have to think about his safety when he goes out, especially because he tends to be sort of gruffy, but that shouldn't be a factor. And so I'm asking you from a personal standpoint to please consider this.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Lee Figgo, who will be followed by Karen Yamamoto.

Good evening. um leaf ago I'm speaking as a 30-year plus resident of Lascatus not representing any group and I just want to en endorse the the concept of the proposal by the mayor to place a diversity equity and inclusion commission recommendation regarding the proposed handwriting the constitution project and that that should be brought forward as quickly as possible because the need is very much there. This document the constitution uh is it's a document of guidance uh and it is inclusive of laws and accountability and it was developed and written by several founding fathers. We hear of the founding fathers but also the founding mothers were very much involved and they collaborated and they worked together and even though many of the founding uh families were not in alignment Jefferson and Adams couldn't agree on if it was raining outside but they came together to put this document together and help write the document in a way that has sustained our country for almost 250 years. So, please let's move forward with that project uh and have the council endorse it and have it being written in different sections of our community by residents and it'll be a learning project for many generations to participate in that project and it should be displayed in several places including in this chamber. So, thank you.

Thank you. Um, we'll now go to Karen Yamamoto who will be followed by Gregory Gentile.

Hi, I'm Karen Yamamoto. Sorry, he's a little taller than I am. I love going be right behind uh Lee because he's always taller and I'm shorter. Anyhow, um I'm here to support um item A. Our con US constitution is 250 years old and is the oldest and longest running constitution in the world. No other country has a strong constitution that has not been changed in 250 years. That's amazing. And we should feel honored and just privileged to be able to celebrate this this year. And I do love the idea that people get together and get to handwrite it. It shows that one the constitution is important. Two, it illustrates to our children that writing is important. Words have meaning. It gives us purpose. It gives us knowledge. And it tells us who we are and what we're made of. I love this idea. I love the importance. I love the significance. And I do believe this will make an impact on our little town of Lasatus. And it will be remembered and cherished for every Los Catton. Thank you. Go to Greg and then Gordon Yamate.

Good evening, council members. Uh my name is Gregory Gentiel and uh I'm a 30 plus year resident of the town of Lasatis. I'm uh presently serving on the community health senior services commission and have been appointed as a liaison to uh the uh DEI. Uh but tonight I'm uh uh speaking on behalf of myself as a private citizen. Uh I applaud this constitution writing project uh that uh Mr. Yamati uh brought to the attention of the commission and then to the town council. Uh it is to me a a a very worthwhile project. Uh it truly reflects a project that I believe will unite the community and c celebrating our unique history. Uh while we may be a country of divergent cultures, we remain as one people and share the bond of a unique document which celebrates our country's founding and created our country's institutions. uh as a history major and a now retired lawyer, I always had appreciation of the documents that forward that formed our country and guided the founding fathers in creating the republic. Uh I was excited uh ecstatic actually when uh Mr. Yamatti brought this to uh our attention that this was a project that we uh were thinking of pursuing and I think it would be good for the town. Uh the project as far as I'm concerned will uh provide a way for us to learn more about the country's or our country's unique history and will create a useful dialogue with our neighbors, our school staff, our students and seniors and all

the residents will benefit from this project and hopefully learn that we have all we all have more in common than we may think despite our divergent views. Uh thank thank you very much. Thank you. And we will now go to Gordon Yamate who is followed by Ann Lamour.

Good evening. Uh I'm Gordon Yamate. Um I'm here in my own personal capacity and not on behalf of the DEI commission, but I'm going to speak about the proposal from the DEI commission. Um, first of all, um, this is a community art project that we're proposing. It's very simple. You don't need to be an artist. Um, I've had some interesting discussions with our town manager about making sure that people observe the rules and they just stick to transcribing the constitution. Uh, because some people have taken liberties to do other things with projects like this. Uh but I do think this is a project that will provide an opportunity for community members to interact with others who they may not know. Um an opportunity to reflect on this country's most important governing document and the concept of democracy itself and to ultimately have a hand in producing a collective work that can be displayed uh in the town chambers or other suitable venue. Uh just from the standpoint of knowing the concerns of the town, this project will not cost the town anything and it will be funded and supported through volunteer and community contributions and efforts. Uh this was conceived by the DEI commission, but it also been supported and recommended by the town's arts and culture commission and community health and senior services commission. Uh the project is timely. We started this almost a year ago. Uh it coincides with the semiquincentennial or 250th anniversary of this country. Um I'm hopeful that we can get this going before we miss this great opportunity. And um I would just ask if you want me to be available later when this comes up under council matters, I'm happy to stay or be available by by Zoom.

Yes. Looks like council member has a question.

Yeah. So, um, staff did write this up a little bit. I don't know if you read the staff report. They're suggesting that, um, they don't have the bandwidth to host or co-lead the project and they're suggesting that the DEI commissioners, um, participate on their own time um, and there be a sort of a third party leading it, but the town could publicize it and provide town facilities for the final product. Is that adequate? Yes. And and that's kind of what I anticipated. The town does very little except maybe announce this on their website with a link to uh a site that explains the project more fully, allows you to sign up for this. Uh it goes, you know, provides all the information you need to know to participate in it. Um it it's uh I can't think of anything that could be less, you know, uh consuming of the town's resources.

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Hudis.

Yeah, thank you. And I um I think this project um could add a lot of value as people really understand the constitution itself. Um the question I have is about whether it includes things that I see in the proposal which is uh p participant reflections stories uh quote ri ght ting quote the constitution um and interpretations of the constitution. Um, as you know, there are some very big differences in terms of interpretation in our communities. Um, particularly on the second amendment and the fourth amendment uh 14th amendment with regard to uh women's reproduction rights and other other things. And so would the product include those written interpretations? It looks to me like in the proposal it says it would.

Uh well, I didn't intend to have people interpret the constitution in that sense. Uh this project is really just transcribing the literal language of the constitution. We will have guidelines for participants. one that they are respectful of others participating in the constitution as well as quite frankly the constitution itself. Uh but I really um you know want to emphasize that there is no interpretive uh issue with this. I will explain to you though that the conceptual art component of this is really what is revealed by the process itself. Uh we not we're not requiring that participants talk to each other, but the hope is that as they participate in this, people are just going to make comments. They're going to um uh ask questions and I'm hopeful that that can be a productive discussion and it be one that can't be within a controlled environment.

Yeah. Yeah, councilus. Also, I wanted to ask um whether the proposal uh includes a requirement that the conceptual art or the transcription be displayed in a uh public building uh owned by the town of or uh yeah, owned by the town of Lascatos.

Uh I've had discussions with uh uh Mayor Moore. Um I I know I'm not sure if you're prepared to commit to a a public venue at this point, but our hope is that given the scale of this project, we did think that this particular town chambers would be an ideal place for this, you know, for displaying this. But if it's not available, we're hopeful that there'll be something else that's that's equally appropriate. Thank you. Oh, uh Council Member Bami.

Uh thank you, Mr. Yamati, for bringing this forward. Um, I have a couple of concerns because we we heard a couple speakers talk about this is great, you know, handwriting uh the Constitution and it will involve useful dialogue with students. But you you didn't spell it as in handwriting as if we're handwriting the Constitution. You did it as writing as if you're trying to write the Constitution as if something is wrong with the Constitution. So, can you explain that for me?

Yes. I'm glad you asked for clarification. I know that uh uh uh council member Hood's alluded to that as well. Um you know, it's really a play on words and the writing is not intended to be, you know, a distinction between right leaning or left-leaning. It's writing the constitution, putting it back into balance, getting people to uh sort of understand and and quite frankly understand that this is, you know, the document that binds this country together. And my hope is that, you know, if if this document can't sort of bring this community together, you know, its chances of doing that on a nationwide basis are going to be pretty slim. So, does that help? It does. But I just have one other question and and I appreciate the unifying aspect of it and bringing people together in community. But with what council member Hudis uh mentioned with people having different interpretations and different beliefs of for example, you know, the right to bear arms and maybe some other, you know, issues um uh with other amendments, you don't think that that would create divisiveness? You know, I think there may be people who as they go through this, they're going to discover things. They're going to ask questions like, "I didn't know this was in the Constitution." And someone will comment or someone will say, "What does this mean?" And they'll solicit ideas from others there. I do want to keep the conversation to the point where they're not, you know, this isn't politicizing anything. We're not taking political stances on anything. were respectful of each other's own opinions on this, but you know, we couldn't have that discussion. If you don't have those kind of discussions, you know, uh, you know, I think it does sort of undermine the whole purpose of of doing this as a community.

Thank you. Mayor, could I suggest that any future deliberations on this topic move to item A on the agenda?

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and I just had one last question of the speaker. Um so uh uh just to at a very high level can you just for all of our understanding can you explain because the I think the council member Badami's question is a good one that I think a lot of folks have had from my understanding the writing piece is neither right nor left and it's also not correcting the constitution. It is it is uh societal writing of our you know it's it's it's a metaphor of sorts but it is my understanding of the project and please correct me if I'm wrong is truly as simple as writing the constitution in a shared space and then displaying it.

Absolutely. U we will provide copies of the constitution. Uh one of the rules of participation is that you're going to transcribe what the constitution actually is. Um I one of my colleagues from our commission uh actually has sort of done a test run on this. So you'll have some examples of this u and she'll be able to explain that I think a little bit more but yeah uh this is not an opportunity to reinterpret the constitution to say what's wrong with the constitution. It's really an opportunity to understand what this document covers, what it means, how it's interpreted by people, and hopefully enlighten this community. Great. Thank you very much.

Yes, appreciate it. Okay, our next speaker is Ann Lamour. She'll be followed by Joe Ends. I'm Ann Lamour representing myself and um be um I hand wrote part of the Constitution to test this out. But before I did that, I read the entire Constitution in one sitting and um that was a very very very enjoyable activity and I read it in the library. Um, I'd like to just show you what it looks like. And please direct your your um show and tell to the council. And you you need the mic because uh Bo you can you can lay those on the table if you want and and you can just stay at the podium. Uh this p first side of the foam core took um about 15 minutes to write um in cursive and I have not written cursive recently and I had I struggled a little bit and I did this in a broad chisel pointed marking pen. I suggest a rounded end. And then the second page was um written by my neighbor and um it's interesting. Our handwriting isn't really that much different. And I wonder I'm really curious to see

I'm just this is such a great project that I I really want to see it done. And um it can be done very very quickly and it can be attached um to the walls here very very easily with various products and thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay, we will go to Joe Ens um who will be followed by Gus who thank you Joan community organizer for friends of creek and lays on to the homeless. Um the homeless are really coming along. I I like this. Well, let me talk about the creek. Okay, they're piling up your garbage and I'm going to have it hauled off. The brunt of these people can all live in one place and I'm working with couchs simply have it hauled off. So, as long as we can keep that that way, I think uh the town will be happy if the homeless people are not tracking the creek that we all love and need. Um, thank you Cassandra Fua for starting that. the only one real homeless out there that you know cared I guess you could say. I think we all care and the homeless people are are getting I see them getting better. I'm working with these people that were all very highly intelligent people are starting to be respectful and think, you know, have a brain and not put put the drugs down and I'm just real proud to have the opportunity to bring these people up because it's it's bringing me up, too. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Um and then we'll go to Gus who. Okay, I'm going to try doing some of this. I I have a couple topics. Uh I I just handed you a things. Um I I took a screenshot of a Google maps and I um of offramp of uh seven uh no 85 is is over

by north 40 phase 2 and I actually talked to Mary and brought her out there by uh things but I had video and stuff like that you're there's to be backup when you dump out dump a lot of cars there and I I'm trying to push that along and saying hey you're asking for when you back it up to the freeway because it you the the screenshot shows it is backing up already and I uh tried to point that out at the streets and transportation commission and showed them the picture. I also showed you a gave you a picture of this. There's a flag in the article and I'm curious of what flag we're you're flying because I think that's another issue that the town really the the whole layout nobody was you know you don't tell people ahead of time and I don't think that represents you're you're f you were focused your council is focused on this when there's like ice ages you know a lot of people we've been I've been you know most people have been doing this for over a year. A lot of some of these people have spoken over a year, brought this up. Let's have this agenda. I said there's a second shooter. I want to use this the screen. Uh and and it some of it's already on the minutes. You know, I can I I believe I can prove that there's a second shooter if if somebody would watch this the screen. But, you know, those are some of the things. Uh another thing is the DEI. It sounds like a great project. Um, I think that uh I wouldn't want to write it all out, but I'd rather like to, you know, have your own version and everybody sign the beast thing and say, "Hey, we agree to this and no wars. Let's use our words and have a debate and type of thing." not to to overdo it, but I think you have, you know, I'm not a public speaker, but if you have people

that are, you know, 10 minutes or 15 minutes on a topic, I think you people can say one way or the other of of how people would would vote or, you know, do a straw poll. So, um, you know, also water bills, civil war, I think that we're in like last last time they moved behind us. So now they have, you know, they're a little bit more organized. I don't think you're supposed to put flyers up though, what I heard. But, uh, you know, those are a lot of the comments. And then the Brown Act, this is, uh, something between I I I disagree with that. This is something between the mayor and the vice mayor that you guys don't know about and it was at a a council meeting, a policy meeting that you guys weren't there.

Thank you. Um, do we have any speakers on Zoom?

There are no hands raised on Zoom. Perfect. Um, then I will close verbal communications and move to item eight under other business, which is to review and provide input on a comprehensive framework framework and work plan for the town's multi-year CIP. Christina Al Faro, our administrative services director, and Nicole Burnham, our public works director, will present the staff report. Thank you.

Uh, good evening. We have a presentation for you tonight. I am Nicole Burnham, your director of parks and public works, and as you noted, Christine Alaro is with me, administrative services director. Um this is um this presentation is a bit of a reiteration. Oh I believe I am incapable of controlling our remote. Um uh this is uh this presentation is a bit of a re reiteration of information that was provided to the finance commission on March 9th, 2026. Um so this is we're providing a preliminary framework and looking for input um on the staff approach to our best practices in CIP um and the preliminary framework. So we have long identified I think a number of us a a need for a more robust and comprehensive CIP development and implementation process. So the staff report outlines in detail um the government finance officers association standards that are used as the basis of a CIP process. And it also it uh discussed at some length the asset management system because the adequacy of the future CIP really does is underpinned by um by asset management. Uh so the CIP as many of you know uh is divided into three different programs streets parks and trails and public facilities. The year one of the CIP is appropriated. The future years are based on planning estimates for both the cost of projects and the revenue to support the funding of those projects. And current CIP funding is heavily

restricted and skewed to the streets program. Um and spending with uh so spending on facilities and parks are sort of left behind um with limited resources. about 88% of the CIP funding that is in the streets program is legally restricted, meaning it's dedicated to either storm drainage funding or paving or there's some other mechanism that restricts how we can use it. So, our biggest program and the majority of its funding is is restricted in its use. We as a town receive $850,000 annually from the state under the SB1 program that can only be used for paving. In order to continue to to receive that $850,000, the town's required to spend $3.7 million annually maintaining and managing our streets. And that can be through capital projects or through operating budgets. But either way, we need to spend that 3.7 million. um which is why there are other supporting options um funding sources for paving including the 2010 and 2016 measure B programs um and the gas tax as well. In the past years, we've also had the benefit of $878,000 in from our town's waste hauler in impact fees, and those were intended to support the impact to roadways as a result of heavy trucks. Starting in fiscal year 2627, we will no longer have that funding source available. Um I mentioned earlier other projects such as building improvements, facility maintenance, facility management have no consistent funding sources. Parks and trail enhancements also have limited um have no dedicated funding and no consistent revenue stream. So, what we're going to talk about tonight is a

proposed CIP framework that will provide in more complex and more complete multi-year financial planning, project prioritization, life cycle costing, um, and give us the ability to assess long-term impacts both for capital planning, but also for the operational impacts that capital projects inevitably create. So this slide is part of what was included in the in the staff report as table two. It is the GFO A framework. Um there are 10 items in the best practices. So this is one through five. Um the way this table is set up and again this is consistent with the way it is presented in the staff report. Uh the lefth hand column is the element of the framework that comes straight from GFOA best practices. That is their recommended best practice. The description column is um is our best effort mostly Christina's at a description and a translation of what GFOA actually means um with that framework element and then we've included an estimated completion time frame for the work to be done. So um step one is defining a planning horizon. We generally plan for 5-year CIP. We don't expect that that would change. So we marked that item complete. Step two is needs identification. Inventorying our assets, defining the life cycles of those assets. The staff report talks about using um not only the life cycle of the assets, but further subcategorizing them into items that might be perpetual assets like roadways and sidewalks, items that need to be repaired or replaced. Um life cycle assets that we know, you know, every 30 years we need to replace a roof. Um or new assets. that would be new as new infrastructure that we would build. Um things like the highway 9 trail connector would be in that category which also come with a new operating budget impact to do the future

maintenance. So step two is sort of starting to identify these needs, identify the assets that we currently have. Um step three and I would I do want to say this is not a linear process. We will not be working through this step by step. I think you'll see as I as I talk through it, you know, some steps will happen in front of others. Um, step three is where we start defining projects more clearly. Um, you'll see us and we're starting to do this already. We've started over the last couple years, but starting with feasibility studies, design phases of projects, construction phases so that we're discreetly funding projects phase by phase so that we can evaluate at each step of the process what the impacts are going to be and continue to refine those potential impacts both from a construction perspective as well as um as as an operating budget impact. Um how do we come about those cost estimates for feasibility study? It's really going to be part of just staff knowing what we need to do or having a concept of of what we need to do for the feasibility study. The result of a feasibility study will give us design costs and design estimates as well as very preliminary construction. And then as we move into design and fund design, as we progress progress through design, you'll start to see more refinement on construction costs. So becomes an iterative process um where we're defining very broadly at the beginning but refining the cost estimates as we move forward in the process. Um as we do construction cost estimating right now we base that information on unit costs from similar bids like with our paving project or concrete project. We also have you know CALR publishes bid information bid tabulation information so we get their unit costs. Um, so there's a lot of information that goes into that. If we're using consultant design services, they're using they're developing cost estimates for us and using their expertise for projects all over the area. Um, so that's how construction cost estimates are built. Um, we have

had some questions about how to manage grants in CIP. Um, which is a topic we'd like to explore um, more this evening. It's a little bit hard for us to project and we generally don't assume that we have grant funding if we haven't been awarded the grant. Um, and we don't know which grants are going to be funded and we don't know where we might see funding from. Um, and an example of this in our current capital budget program is the Blossom Hill Road overcrossing. We are planning we're we're making an assumption that in the future hopefully we will get grants and we're thinking when we're budgeting we're thinking about the grant match rather than a full you know the full $18 million we think we need for construction but I'm not I can't name a grant in the in the capital budget. I'm not quite sure how to do that. And I think um um Director Alaro would say there's some financial implications to naming grants prematurely as well. Um, step four, financial impact um, analysis where we start looking at long-term operating maintenance, replacement cost implications to help the council make decisions about what to prioritize and how to how to fund projects, which gets us to step five, the prioritization framework, which we do as staff. We're always thinking about health and safety, about legal mandates, um, regulatory requirements. Um but we we have that framework and we work within it but it hasn't really been socialized. So part of part of our work in this in in moving to GFOA best practices will be to socialize that prioritization framework. Okay. Uh slides six through um steps six

through 10. Um step six is about building comprehensive funding plans. Um comparing infrastructure needs with availing available funding capacity, evaluating long-term sustainability of the program. Step seven is about policy development and governance and how we work. And we have capital planning policies and budgeting policies. um as we do work here, we will refine those and update them and make sure that they meet current best practices. Step eight is a big part of this um which is working in asset management. So our CIP and forecasting of future information is only going to be as as as accurate as our asset management system is. Um PPW has long had an asset management system. It's not fully built out. We use it for work orders. We use it to manage the work we do. but moving it forward, we are where we we've already repositioned staff um over the last year to really build out a more robust asset management system and take what we were already doing to the next level. Um and then step nine is about communicating what we're doing and step 10 is moni monitoring and annual updates. um which will also look like developing include developing things like project management um standard operating procedures, documenting the processes and also looking at project management software which is something our engineering team has been doing for a couple of years. Um, and we've been waiting for some of the Tyler implementation, our accounting software implementation to come through to see how to balance the two needs of project management and and the project accounting. So, what are we going to do f So, what are we going to do first? Um, this is a big body of work that is for sure. Um, like I mentioned earlier, the process isn't linear. Um, we think

reasonably steps 5, 7, and 9. So, prioritization framework, policies, and communication strategies are are achievable in fiscal year 27. Um, as soon as we're done with this budget process, we can start working on those. Um and then behind that also starting in this fiscal year but unlikely to be completed are steps 2, 8 and 10 which really are about the the needs identification which underpins the asset management system because for the asset management system to be good we need to have defined our assets and identified their life cycles. Um so those are the things we'll start working toward this year. We have vehicles pretty well built out the um the vehicle inventory in the asset management system. Um we are looking toward building out the civic center building, asset management system. So getting all the HVAC, all the electrical, roofing systems, all of the systems of this building and into the into the asset management system and kind of using that as our sandbox as to test the system and see what's working, see how the life cycle analysis is working as we move toward the rest of incorporating the rest of the town assets into the system. That's not to say we won't work on other assets this year, but those are the ones we really hope to can really get the into the weeds on and really refine the analysis of. Um and this year we'll also focus on optimizing the reporting and tracking um using existing systems and adding additional software solutions. Okay. Um that's the last slide, thank God. So I'm done with that clicker. Um so tonight we're looking to um to um just get feedback from the from the

council um have a discussion about this. We did bring this forward to finance commission at their meeting of March 9th. Um their recommendation was um that given current staffing levels of the town, the commission recommends that council considering hiring a full-time equivalent or consultant to help with data management and project management for this project and to move forward with purchase of project management software. Um so we'd like to get feedback on that from you. Um, and then our longer term goal, if you in table two notice the schedules, we had laid out, you know, we've basically laid out a 5-year plan to complete this conversion to the new um to the new GFOA outcome. And with that, I can complete the presentation. Thank you.

Thank you, Director Bnham. Um, are there any questions at this time for director Bernham? Okay, I had a quick one which is just can you define the concept of socialization uh for us for me? Yes, I can. I just mean um getting it to the light of day and talking about it. Um and does that mean in the community to the council all of the above? All of the above. Okay. Yeah. Just talking through it with people so it's in something other than the heads of people in public works. Okay. So, so publicizing publicizing and communicating, right?

Um Okay, great. Then I will open up um public comment on this item. We have one comment card from Gus who?

Okay, we're in the Silicon Valley. I I uh this is about hiring a person or a consultant. I say, you know, do do the do an AI or do, you know, al algorithms and stuff like that. There's enough people in the valley that are really smart that if you hook up to the right people, you get good good information and uh you don't it's it's about information. It's not about, you know, let's let's uh you know, draw straws and stuff like that. So, put it towards tools. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, I will turn back to the council and per our new agenda policy, I am looking for a motion to kick off our discussion unless there are questions. Yes, vice mayor.

Um, actually, I do want to ask a question. I was at the finance commission meeting where they made the recommendation to either bring on a consultant or somebody full-time. And I guess, you know, what I'm trying to balance is, you know, they seemed happy with the savings we had from a vacancy rate, but now they're telling us to hire somebody. Um, how much will that help move this forward? And is that the biggest place where we need help? I don't know if director or manager want to answer that. Like how do I I how do I understand that recommendation and what does it mean? I I um I don't know the cost implication. I don't know the scope. Um I actually after after I heard from finance commission have set up some meetings with consultants that are in this field that do this work, but I haven't met with them yet. So, as I sit here tonight, I can't tell you what that would cost. I'm I'm guessing it's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars um to build out a full asset management system, but I I would need to get back to you on that. Um I think it's a question of um I think we can do the work. I think we have the intellectual capacity to do the work. It's about how long we want to spend doing it. because one person or 60% of an FTE, which is essentially what we've allocated, it's going to take some time. Um, but I also I would encourage us to be thoughtful about how we build out the system because I think and so maybe spending a little more staff time up front and holding off on a consultant may not be a bad idea right now. um to just to give us some time to kind of build out and be comfortable with what we're doing and get a clearer direction in front of us if that makes sense. And I don't know if the town manager finance

instructor want to Yeah, because I'm trying to understand like what's the critical link and is this the area or is it useful to you at this point which it sounds like maybe it's too soon but go with the manager. To the manager.

Yeah. So the premise of the finance commission was being able to properly track projects uh their cost uh percent completion and estimates to completion was primary and then to assist in the overall project management of our capital improvement program. What we wanted to do is first create the framework and get buyin from the council on utilizing GFOA or government finance officer association best practice and start to put the pieces together and not necessarily hire a six-f figureure total compensation employee and just throw them in there before we've figured out exactly what pieces do we want to move forward. Um the second piece we need to consider is the conversation we had yesterday about our capital improvement program. We are not contributing additional capital into our capital improvement funds. We this year we would have contributed 1.1 million which is what we've done annually for several years. We're not doing that and our current balance will not support projects for all five years. And so before we throw a significant amount of money towards a role that would be part implementation, part planning, we need to look a little closer internally as to what can we do with existing staff. How is the framework being framed and how do we want to proceed in the most efficient manner?

That's helpful. Thank you, Council Member Hughes. Uh thank you. I wanted to put the um cost of improving our project management and our asset management which I think are two different things um in perspective of how much money we're talking about. So early in the presentation um there was a discussion about uh streets and roads and uh maintenance and improvements and things like that. How much it are the current funds for that? We generally $3.7 million a year in the capital budget

is what we've been funding in recent years. And um that amount of money um I think you mentioned 88% was coming from outside entities. Is that correct? 88% is restricted but that's not only for paving for the whole the streets program itself includes paving concrete but it also includes storm drainage projects which also are restricted funding source and that's in the 3.7 no oh what is the total uh of the overall streets program that I would need to check on

okay um so you know the concern concern that was raised is the ability to understand um the uh estimate to complete on these projects because the discussion was that we have a general ledger system that shows what we've budgeted and what we've expended but we don't have a system that tracks uh the work that needs to go to complete these projects. Is that correct?

That is correct. I mean, we track it. I mean, we're not not tracking it, but we don't have one system that encapsulates all of the information that we would need and that we would want. And that's where the project management system comes in.

Okay. And then if I could follow up on the the magnitude of what we're dealing with, um the entire streets uh budget, capital budget, which we don't know the the number, but we know it's more than 3.7 for sure. Um and we say that 88% of that is restricted. um and most of that restricted funding is coming from the state and the county. Is that correct? Or our own storm water impact fee. But yes, most of it's coming from the state and the county or most

or our own storm water fee. Which which is it? All of them.

Okay. Um, so for the money that's coming from the state and the county, how do they know how much money we need to spend on streets? How do they know that um the amount of money that's being allocated is the right amount of money? Um, and particularly since I believe we're at now an 82 uh score on our streets and we've been improving steadily over the last uh six or eight years to reach that level. Um, so that money is coming. It's restricted. And how do they know how much we should be spending on streets? I'll cover that question. Uh um try to get these fiscal years correct, but uh sometime in the past, I believe it was fiscal year 2009, 10, and 11, uh the state had um agencies report how much they had spent on their streets. And the average of those three years became the baseline for um what they call the maintenance of effort or the minimum funding that needs to go towards um roads to uh ensure we receive the $800,000 that um director Bernham was uh speaking about prior to uh the the rest of a lot of the funding comes also from the gas tax revenues and those are also restricted in terms of how they can be used. But when it comes to the 3.7 and how they know, they used an average based on three uh fiscal years in the past to come up with that base and then escalate it on an annual basis.

One last question on this. If we're at an 82 score on our streets and we don't have control over the investment in them, how do we know that we're not going to overspend um and overachieve on our uh streets relative to other um significant needs that we have for things like maintaining this building and the building across the street. Um, you know, h how do we know that that money is going to the right place?

Um, I'm actually going to let town engineer Heap chime in here a little bit about how he plans out the the spending and programming of of paving dollars, but I I'm a little confused by the question because I think what we're saying is we receive this money and we have no choice but to use it on streets. It cannot be used for building. that is restricted. So I I might be a little confused by the question.

Well, I I could ask it again. You know, um how do we know that we're spending the right amount of money on streets? If uh we're at an 82 score and we have money that's coming in that we have to keep spending, are we going to reach 100? um is that the right thing or can we challenge the definition of what spending on streets is to include sidewalks or uh you know other things that um are deferred maintenance that are causing uh other problems in the town or would we have no ability to do that? Um, no, we do have ability to do that and we do move that money around and some of it does go to sidewalks and it does go to things like um, you know, the trail connector when it can. Um, and again and I we also some years spend less so that we can do larger projects. You're going to see us put forward a request to do some work on Santa Cruz which is going to take a lot of money. But again, I'll let I'd love to let town engineer Heap weigh in on this.

Thank you. uh Gary Heaptown engineer. Uh there's actually a lot that goes into paving every year. It starts again with the the maintenance of effort and that funding that is provided by the council for our paving program. Uh which goes to fund as Nicole or director Bernham said, not only our paving program, but our sidewalk uh program uh and doing a lot of the ADA improvements that are required when a paving program is actually done. We do utilize street saver which is an MTC provided software that helps us understand how to utilize that funding appropriately and to make sure we're getting the biggest bang for the buck that we're spending the money on the streets that need to be maintained at a higher level to keep them at a higher level and then when funding is available to go ahead and spend that money on streets that do need more substantial amount of work. So there's a lot of things that go into it. Um, paving is a very uh flexible and moving target when it comes to how things are actually done. We can set up a given year where we want to fund $3 million worth of paving. We'll design what we feel is $3 million worth of paving. And depending on the bid uh environment out there, bids may come in at 3.2, bids may come in at 2.5. And we've seen that over the last several years where we've been getting very good pricing uh where uh the numbers have come in somewhat lower which then allows us to bank some of that money for future years or put that then into other facilities like our sidewalk program where we can get maybe some additional cutting done or some additional curb ramps installed. So it it all has to go to transportation and all has to go to those types of facilities and infrastructure.

Thank you, Council Member. Um I'll just add a little bit to that. So, we know the the original gas tax has to be used in those certain areas and the SB1 money has to be used in those areas, but um the measure B money that came from VTA once our PCI is above a certain point, we have more um discretion on on what direction we could go. And maybe council members Hudis's questions are getting to we've just been dumping all of that into roads, but there may be a piece from measure B that we could use for some other things. Is that a question or is that a statement?

You can tell me I'm full of it, but I don't think so. I'll choose not to do that. Um, no, that that is very true. Uh the number has to be I think we have to have a PCI I believe over 70 or 75 to be able to use it for other projects but they all have to be transportation related. They all have to be related to the the funding source uh source and in a lot of cases that's gas tax uh to use uh to fund projects that would support those gas type of vehicles or other vehicles of of the like.

Great. I wanted to ask about um the tiered system we created in the the last CIP. Um, I think that's been a a big help and big improvement. I think it helps the council sort of collectively uh better understand what we're actually prioritizing. And I think we've already seen that, you know, in sort of the the pre-budget cycle this time we're already discussing, you know, okay, do we need to move something into tier one or tier two or how we want to think about that? And I think it's a helpful framework. And so, um, I'm curious a how how that fits into what we're talking about here. And then B, and this I think is kind of going to to um Vice Mayor Risto's question, it seems like we've made some big improvements already since, you know, in the last year or so. So what I'm hearing, you know, is a lot of these things can we can probably get away with waiting to do some of this until 2027. And that's, you know, so we would be okay to not rush it by hiring a consultant. We want to do it right internally. I want to see if two different questions but

um so yes to the latter that I think you know holding off and letting us give more thought develop some of these policies and procedures um will be helpful um will be really helpful to us. Um the first question tears

um about the tiers the that's it has been helpful for us as well as staff it's definitely given helped us focus on which projects to prioritize I don't know if the tiers will they will persist next year I think you can say the 2627 budget will have the tiers I'd like to think that eventually we move away from them into just a more strategic long range look ahead of what you should expect and what we need where right the te the tears are almost a triage step to to help tease apart you know priorities right now but I'd like to think that we can quantify priorities more effectively then that will help make the tiers are going to create themselves I think in the future

and so can you that's you know I know you're asking for feedback um and just uh uh you know gave a good presentation on this I don't know that I'm fully seeing the vision. So, can you explain the vision a little bit more and then um Yeah, I I just want to better understand where you want us to get to.

Yeah. Um I think that's a great question. I you know, I think the the way I would explain it is like looking at this building where we're in right now, we have a number of improvements that we know need to be done. I can't tell you whether they need to be done next year or five years from now or 10 years from now at right now. Um and then so mapping that out and giving you that giving that look ahead knowing what the cost of those improvements are going to be in a year, 5 years, 10 years, but then also what are the financial implications of not making the improvements, right? There's a there's an opportunity cost, I guess I would call it, to not not, you know, taking $2 million and not redoing the HVAC system in this building and putting it toward, you know, something different diverts money that we may need. And you need to be a we need to be able to tell you that um what those trade-offs are. And that's where things like the life cycle analysis come in. Like how much longer does this HVAC system actually have before it will completely fail and what and how do you you know it's a decision-making tool if that helps. And I'm the town manager might like to weigh in. I don't know. But

yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so I'm just going to ask and then I'll let the town manager weigh in. I'm seeing in my head sort of like a a yearbyyear sort of like you know spreadsheet I'm sure is is far too insophisticated but sort of a a branching spreadsheet where we can see if you you know we want to we're going to have $10 million this year and so here's the things we're going to spend on this year. If you don't do each of them here's what happens. Is that okay?

Yep. Yep. And I think it also from a budgeting tool you kind of started to see it last year too. We built out um for facilities we had done in 2022 the town had before I was here the town had done condition assessments partial condition assessments for each of its facilities. Each of those documents was living independently. And so we took them all and they all had recommendations and they all made recommendations of like in 26 27 you should be doing these improvements. 2728 these are the ones. We took them all combined them all into one spreadsheet. Total them up and you're like oh okay every year we should be spending $3 million on buildings just to keep them operating. Right.

Which we're not doing. We're not yet, but we but we although we're not we're not far off actually in the current like the last couple of fiscal years we haven't been far off. We haven't been spending it as much be as all of the funding we're given because I don't think we have enough staff to spend it. That's a difference problem. But but that that tool, you know, having these budgeting tools to really be able to look ahead and know how much money we really need. And I really think I wasn't here last night at finance at the joint meeting, but I listened to it this afternoon. I mean, I really feel like that is where we're all trying to get to. I feel like we all agree we need that kind of framework um to really be able to effectively budget.

Thank you. Do the town man. Oh, okay. Did you want to chime in about the vision? It's going to be a little bit long, but I'm hitting multiple things. If you want to keep going with the council members. Sure.

So, I wanted to ask about our systems. So, um I understand that there's an asset management system um and that asset management system is not integrated with our financial system. Um and uh Tyler has an enterprise asset management uh system that is integrated with uh the financial systems. Is there a reason that we're using a standalone asset management system? Parks and Public Works has had an asset management and work order system since 2002. So, and we have not changed softwares in all of that time. So, um when Tyler came in, I can't I can't speak to the decision-m on which modules were were incorporated because it was done before I was here. Um I would say, you know, we we have been using it's a it's an open gov system. Um it is one of the it's um very popular. There's a lot of communities that use it. Um it is a robust system. Um that doesn't mean it's the only solution and I don't think it's out of the question that we would think about u migration. Um but we haven't gotten there yet and I would shudder a little bit at the cost of what that migration might look like. Um but we and we haven't investigated it. Um but we haven't taken it off the table either. Is there a cost of that system not being integrated with our financial systems with um our financial systems um not being able to know about the life cycle of our assets and the spending that we're um uh putting into those assets?

Yeah, I think that's um one of the questions we need to answer. So, um, and that's one of the things staff is teasing apart right now is what does that look like? How can it integrate? What does that integration look like? Can these systems talk to each other? Can they not? And if they can't, what does that mean? Um, those are all the things we're evaluating right now. Thank you. Yes. Um, with Rosenberg rules, I'll go ahead and move this along. Thank you, Council Member Vadami.

Make a motion. Um I see this as a change to how we look at um projects only with a promise of refinement and a better outcome. So with that I move to approve the work plan and elements of the capital improvement program with consideration of the recommendations of the finance commission and hiring consultant services if needed and recommended by staff at a later date.

Council Hudas. Um I'll second the motion. I would ask um whether it would also be possible to further explore how grants will be evaluated as part of our CIP program because I don't see very much about that and when I look at the type of projects that we have life cycle perpetual repair and new I think all of the new um involve grants uh significant ones. So, would it be possible to add that to the the um what we're looking at? I know that the GFOA is great except it it's a one-sizefits-all in terms of, you know, governments and ours is highly dependent on grants

to the maker. I think is that is that an amendment to my motion or is that a question of staff? First, a question of staff. Would would it be valuable to uh put something more in the work plan about how grants will be um considered?

I I I think I'd like to ask you more about that. Can you can you tell me what your vision is when you say how to incorporate grants into the CIP? Can you tell me what that looks like? So, I'm looking at number six of the best practices, and it says multi-year financial strategy, build a comprehensive funding plan, um, and align financing methods with project timing and maintain maintain overall fiscal health. and um also number seven which uh defines um some of the financial requirements for capital planning. So I guess uh none of this talks about grants and so would it be possible to enhance those areas with a consideration of uh how grant funding um is part of you know number six and number seven.

Yeah. And director Al Faro and I were talking about this earlier today that I think as one of our policies we we talked about having one around grants and how grants get used and when they get used um because there are implications to it for for example I can have a $50 million grant for a capital project but in order for me to award a $50 million construction contract I need to have $50 million in the bank in c in town money and then get reimbursed. So, there's some implications there that we started talking about that we want to maybe have some policies around and see what that looks like. And I'm I'm not opposed to to grants in the um in CIP and flushing that out because you're right, we do think about them we think about them more off book. and I'm concerned about putting them kind of quote on book where I would say, you know, this project is for sure going to be grant funded 80%. Um, in fiscal year 2030, but I'm I'm happy to think about it. I'm not saying no. I'm just say like it it makes it gives me pause and makes me want to ask a lot of questions. But but we can we can certainly think about it. Were you gonna add something?

The town manager had go ahead. So as we look at number six, the point of it is a comprehensive funding plan. Grants are listed, pay as you go, which we do heavily now in addition to grants is listed. Debt service, which is something that would be needed for the larger dollar amounts, is listed. I think if we overemphasize one, I I think it would do a disservice. I think right now we don't even know what the comprehensive capital listing is that we need to be financing and figuring out how we pay for it. And I'll go back to the conversation we had earlier and council member Hudis asked, how do we know that this is the most important thing to do in effect to contribute continue to contribute to our streets? We don't. Why? Because we don't have enough resources for all our capital. So, we're dealing with funding that's restricted and therefore we're using it for that purpose and staff is trying to figure out the best way to deploy those assets and a whole host of other issues that we have that we're just kind of going along until something occurs, whether it be netting that holds lacrosse balls from the park or a leaky roof in the building or doors that don't close without a drill in the council chambers. And so when we proposed be the framework, the framework wasn't requested by the finance commission. It was staff that proposed us talking about a framework to start putting the pieces into place to understand what do we need, what do we have, and how do we pay for it. And so right now it's very simple. The money is dwindling. There's less of it. And we're trying to balance what's most more important right now when it comes to our streets. We're in a very good position. Our streets are at a better condition than many communities across California. And because they are, the cost to maintain the linear mile of a street is cheaper than it is to do it in a community that

has 70 PCI or 60 PCI, like my last one, which was at about 67 PCI. And there in the communities that have lesser, we were begging to figure out how do we get more resources to improve the quality of our streets to make it cheaper to maintain. And so I think if I had to choose what situation to be in, I want I would want to be in Los Gatos. If I have money to commit to do something well, the quality of our streets, our largest asset that we own and one for which every member of our community has a benefit from would be the better one to be at the higher quality. The problem is we can't figure out how to finance everything else yet until we figure out the plan.

Yes, Council Member Hudus. Yeah, I'm I'm going to withdraw any requests to modify um the motion. Um, but I would also say that when we do get the CIP budget, um, I hope that we don't take a step backwards from where we've been in terms of understanding how important grants are for anything new here and that we have enough of a framework for evaluating um, you know, not only the grants that have been awarded, but be able to have a discussion about the likelihood of the next phase of a grant. Um because you know you you don't want to only make a decision about um essentially sunk costs or sunk resources. You want to be able to look forward and say okay u is there some probability and having worked with a number of businesses who have um highly uncertain u activities in their business plan um there's always then a need for discussion about the probability um and I think grants are probably the thing that needs most discussion um about before we commit to a phase of a project where we already have funding. So, um yeah, so no change.

Um great. I wanted to ask about the um the categories. Um so, are those categories I don't recall are those new that we're sort of conceptualizing for the future work plan? I I don't remember reading in the staff report where those came from the life cycle, perpetual, repair, and new categories. Can you speak to those a little bit?

Um, I can start. I'm actually going to let the town manager or Christina chime in too because they sort of Chris pontificated on it and uh and we started thinking about it and thinking that it, you know, it does make a lot of sense. I think there's things I want to tease apart with the between life cycle and repair, replace, rebuild, but um but I do think it makes a lot of sense to think about perpetual assets as being those assets that um we know we are always forever going to have to own and maintain like sidewalks and roads. And they might want one bucket of funding, right? Or one category of funding or priority of funding. Life cycle assets we talked about earlier that need um you know that need routine replacement. We know every 30 years we need a roof. We know every 15 might need HVAC. Um so and I think that they help. I think that when it comes to both planning but also the maintenance and how we put money into these assets, you know, do we want to take care of these perpetual assets? Do we address the life cycle assets where we know we can hopefully the idea is we're planning for life cycle assets. Um, and then periodically we're going to have these these things we need to repair or rebuild. Um, and then we talk about new things that come with a whole different, you know, that that are new and are going to requ them, but they come with a different impact to the operating budget, right? I mean, if we're repairing or rebuilding something we already have, it's kind of status quo. But when we talk about new things, it comes with a different, you know, a different way of thinking about it. And so in my head, that's sort of how I thought, you know, laying them out that way. Um, again, might help with council decision-m and prioritization.

Yeah, I think some version of that framework is very is very helpful. Um, yeah, I don't know if this is the exact right way to do it, but I think again, this I think have been a discussion that's been ongoing, you know, sort of the the push pull between this building needs, you know, frankly, millions of dollars of investment as do other assets in the town of Los Gatos. Though, at the same time, there are a variety of things that that we hear, you know, the community come in asking for. And so I think being able to sort of couch those and have a a good concept because I think you're totally I mean one of the things I'm sort of hearing underlying all of this is that we're we're perhaps uh not prioritizing in in the way we might do if we had all of the information. Right? If we if we knew exactly when things were going to go down or you know when we were going to have more money than than a a different year, we might be able to prioritize a little bit better. We don't have that right now. And so when the community comes in and says we really want a public restroom, then this year it's time for a public restroom, right? Um uh which I think is, you know, what's what's going to have to work for this budget cycle. But I I hear I I think that's a good way to think about, you know, we want to set aside x amount of money for new things because we recognize that that's always going to be a demand, but that's perhaps less, you know, there needs to be less money in that pot than perpetual and life cycle and and other things. So yeah.

No, if I if I may interject,

grand vision. Yes. When we look at the categories, this is something that I pushed heavily for to conceptualize the thought process and the CIP has an integration with the operating budget. And so here's what happens. We're going along in our operating budget where we pay more than 60% of our budget for people, the fully loaded cost of people, including their pensions and the liabilities. And then we have a pretty static amount of operating expense money. and here's a $250,000 expense for the HVAC that goes out at the library that we didn't anticipate or we didn't realize it's at its end of life and we're just going along maintaining it until it breaks in that year where that occurs in an unplanned manner that $250,000 has an impact in our operational decision-m and so the CIP program and when we conceptualize this as a life this HVAC as a life cycle asset where I could buy and then look to the future and know 25 years from now it's its manufactured service life and I could calculate its future replacement and know what do I need to set aside so when I get there it won't have an impact on the operating budget smooths out our ability to be predictable on the operating side and have the comfort of knowing for that life cycle asset it's addressed and so when we then look at life cycle perpet the perpet the ones that we could have an end date that we'd have to place and plan for the perpetual for things that are forever that really don't have necessarily a hard and fast end date or the thing that most communities don't plan on the repair, replace, rebuild like the end of life of this building which is a massive expenditure or something new which is what most of the time the the city council and the community desires is they're not looking at hey do we have a good enough HVAC in the library. They're looking at what new thing do I want? The community center which is in one of our plans, the

bathroom which has been in our CIP for a number of years. And so it's easy to forget and neglect the earlier categories for the benefit of the latter. And I think there needs to be a balance across all four of those. And so what we're trying to get to, we're at when you look at the 10 items, the categories, we're at the one or two trying to identify assets, whether it's equipment, vehicles, uh technology or facilities related is identify what they are, where are we at, how far behind are we, and what do we need to do to get back back up to speed. And some of that may entail debt and additional revenue because we're so far behind. and then overlay on those plans the rest of these categories to try to figure out what do we come with to council to help you make decisions because if the HVAC needs to be replaced because it hits 25 years but it's going it's m being maintained properly there's no real reason to get rid of it we don't have to replace it we can continue contributing and know when it's ready to go we have the funding right now aside for how you feel or how I or staff feels we really don't have an objective way to say what's more important than the other. So when you see the CIP that comes forth, one of the reasons why we came to council on February 10 to ask, let's have a general discussion is so that we can get in the minds of the five council members and the public to say these are these are things we would like you to consider. Now that's on the table and now we can proceed with the same kind of process internally and figure out with this limited limited amount of money where do we put it? So when I propose the generator at the yard, which is something that we would be proposing, I'm doing it from the perspective of when something goes wrong, who is the town going to point the finger at? It's going to be the town manager. Well, why didn't you replace the generator that

led to the fueling yard not being available? That led to the police cars not being fueled during a disaster that then led us not to having police in the community. And so I'm weighing all that in the absence of this comprehensive plan. Thank you. Yeah, Vice Mayor Risto and then Council Member Hudis.

Thank you. I mean, I think it's all been said, but for me as a council person, this this is so helpful because, you know, this is my sixth year on the council and in the past having the CIP come up, it's kind of, yeah, we have the public coming up saying, I want this new thing, or council members want something. And then you look at the list of unfunded like ADA work and other things and it's so vast compared to what our budget is. It's overwhelming. And how do you pick one thing off of there when you don't know? And you know, I don't think it should be any elected group or single person's decision. We need all of the robust information to understand this is what we have to do to keep the town running. and um when we understand how to maintain what we've already got and what our future needs are going to be and then if and when we choose new things, not only understanding what the cost of the new thing is, but now we add that to the perpetual maintenance, right? And so how does that load on there? So, it will certainly make it much make us feel like a much more informed body as we make decisions when we're asked about prioritization when that makes sense. There's going to be other things that we really can't prioritize because we have to do certain things. And so, it'll be much easier. I like the comment that you made, Director Burnham, about, you know, when this is all in place, it'll sort of sort itself out or it'll, you know, we won't need the tears because it'll sort of generate it for us. And I just really appreciate this really robust, deep thought about our capital assets and how we fund it and how we make these decisions responsibly. So, I'm excited.

Council member Hudis. Yeah, just uh comment in support of the motion and the direction. Um you know, having observed this process, you know, now for my sixth year, um I I really don't think we've had such a problem in terms of prioritizing. I think the council has used good judgment. I think our parks and public works has done an excellent job of estimating projects and bringing that to us and providing a framework. The piece that's missing in my mind is the putting the money aside to take care of them. And it's that's been a fairly random process that happens with whatever is left over. And that's the part of this process that I'm most excited about is that um us having a way to actually put money aside for things that we know and think are going to happen. So, I'm I'm very enthusiastic about this. Other comments, other questions? Okay. Um, uh, real clear on the motion, then I will call the question. All those in favor?

I.

Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously. Thank you very much for the robust, uh, presentation and the thought that went into that. Thank you. Um, okay. We have, um, just council matters, but there is an item. Do we want to do a bathroom break real quick or do we want to go through? All right, we will continue on. Um, okay. Um, uh, so on council matters, we have one, um, request from the mayor, me, um, uh, to discuss placing the DEI commission recommendation on a future, um, agenda item for action. Um, and so I'll just give a quick intro on this. Um, which is per the town council's agenda policy, I wanted to agendaize the attached recommendation from the DEI commission um, for the town council to consider endorsing uh, uh, the handwriting the constitution project. In short, as the speakers alluded to, this project is a series of participatory art events um in which members of the community gather at various venues around Los Gatos and take turns transcribing the entire US Constitution by hand. Um and and again to confirm, from my understanding of the project, there's no interpreting. It's it's transcribing. The only role of the town of Los Gatos would be to endorse the merits of the project and then provide space to display the project. Um uh I think this is a an excellent community building activity and should I think will be non-controversial. So that's um that's what I wanted to say. Council member Renie.

Um so it's not completely clear, but I think we could just give direction to move ahead with staff recommendation and not have to drag this through another agenda item. I it staff tells us, you know, they're able to support it through publicization and a place to um display the final product. The the um DEI commission would be doing it on their own time. Um and some third party would lead it. I'm I'm okay with with that. If you want that, if I guess we need a motion, I'll make a motion that we go with with basically that staff recommendation.

Great. Is there a second? Vice Mayor Risto, I will robustly second that. Great. Um, Council Member Hudis.

So, I'm I'm very much in favor of the idea and the council taking this up of transcribing um verbatim and doing that. But I've heard very conflicting information about whether interpretation is included in that, including in the staff report. And so um I do think that if there is interpretation then we're entering a whole different area of uh political speech and whether uh that political speech should be um displayed on uh in the council chambers or in other uh town areas. And so um I I kept checking myself to say is it in is interpretation included or not? And I heard both and I see both in the staff report. And so I would if this is going to go forward, I would want to really understand uh whether interpretation is included in this recommendation and whether interpretation is something uh that is political speech that uh town assets uh should be used to uh to put that forward. or would it be better served in uh the museum um or in in some other um place in town?

Council member Renie then Vice Maristo. Um so I would be willing to modify my motion to include um the final product be checked and that it is a true transcription and not um an interpretation and if it's an interpretation it not be displayed. Okay. Uh, Vice Mayor Risto.

Um, yeah, I agree. My my expectation is that it's basically going to be the Constitution handwritten in a whole bunch of different handwriting. I can't think of anything more exciting than to see our Constitution in a variety of different writing, printing styles, sort of pulling everybody together. Um, I would I would just soften it. Well, I'm assuming it's just going to be a verbatim transcription. So maybe the motion should just be that as this project goes forward, it will be exactly the constitution as opposed to deciding whether

that that's fine. I I just think there needs to be a little bit before staff blindly puts it up. They should check it basically. Right. Okay. I'll second that. Council member Badami.

I still have concerns over the title or the spelling of handwriting the Constitution if it's just simply transcribing it. And by the way, that looks beautiful. um that Ann displayed on the table. Why are we not spelling it the right way because using a metaphor can have different meanings and it sends the message that there's something wrong with the constitution and that might come out during the transcripts and the conversations that people might have at a later date. And if we display this in the chamber, we're almost endorsing and teaching the message to maybe kids and young adults that there is something wrong with the constitution uh that needs to be writed to the town manager.

If I may, because I think this is the first item that's come forward since the council approved its revision to the agenda setting policy. So really the only action that's before you if you were to act is to agendaize since this was b brought by an individual or minority of the council. However, let me ask this hypo not this hypothetical. If the motion before you was to agendaize this to endorse a verbatim transcription of the constitution and to post it at some public place and that was if if that was for the motion before the sense I get is the council would unanimously be in alignment with agendaizing that conversation at the the next meeting. And so if there's not an opposition because I can see where the council is, you may not need to take a motion. I can administratively just proceed with a verb endorsing a verbatim unless there's an opposition by the council and you want to agendaize this for conversation. We can we can just proceed with a verbatim transcription that we can check before we put that publicly and without the council acting or you can act to agendaize it to do the action at the council level at the next meeting. I would be comfortable with the town manager administratively taking this on per the direction of the council um if there's no push back.

Yes. I would still need to understand if the project is called handwriting and and if we're going to endorse it in any way as hand writing

the the item I know there's a some confusion in how it was written and then it I flagged that also and so I had the chance to have a conversation with a proponent and from the DEI commission. It is intended to be a verbatim transcription of the constitution and where the interpretive part was intended to be in the exercise surrounding the writing where multiple people are writing together. It was intended to foster the conversation that would lead to one an understanding of the constitution to the thoughts related to it. It was not intended to revise the constitution as written in the document.

Okay. So if it was displayed by us the in the town chambers, would it be titled the actual artwork be titled the rewriting or handwriting of the constitution? I I would if I'm doing it administratively, it would be handwriting spelled correctly of the constitution or in some fashion that's very straightforward and unambiguous. All right. I I I'm looking at Mr. Yamati and I'm not sure that he would be okay with that.

I I can I can to the town attorney. Can I open up uh public comment to have Mr. Yumate? Yes. Okay. Please. So, um, you have to remember this is a community art project and artists don't necessarily think literally all the time. So, this was just to be putting something in there to kind of catch people's eye, make them think about this and then make them actually kind of curious about, well, what is this? And when they read the rules, they're going to sit there and say, I'm just going to transcribe this literally. But yes, that's what it is. And and you know, honestly, it's just artistic license. It's just this is what this is how artists do things. There's no hidden agenda. Let me put it that way.

Do you have a question for the speaker? Yeah. Uh just thank you for the clarification. I I'm not an artist, so thank you for that. Again, this looks really beautiful on the table, but I just don't want the caption to be in the town chamber. Uh, but I will take um I will trust the town manager that it would be spelled correctly if it's displayed in here. Um, but I I like the project. I think it's great, but again, I I'm I'm worried about the interpretation and the metaphor that's used. Okay. Um, it sounds like we have consensus then.

Yeah. Yeah, if the council is not opposed to my direction, in which case you can agendaize it to discuss it at the next meeting, I will proceed with the intent behind the concept of being an opportunity for community members to come together to write verbatim the constitution as it's published and to consider a location for which that can be displayed in a public venue to be determined. Great. Looks like the assistant town manager has a comment.

Thank you so much, Katie Nur, assistant town manager. The one last thing I just want to clarify just so that it has been said that when we say endorsed we mean you know it could be endorsed by um Loscatoos town of Loscatoos or something of that nature but the host and the responsibility would all be a third party. So just for everyone's clarity I think you all understand this but just for the public as well that that would be the distinction. Correct. Okay then sounds like no vote is necessary. Um, and I will move to our Oh, except Yes. To the town clerk. There is a motion with the second. Okay. You want to withdraw? I'll withdraw my motion.

Great. Thank you. Um, okay. Then I will move past this aspect of council matters and turn to um council members and I'll begin with council member Badami.

Thank you, mayor. I have two items. Uh on March 7th, I attended the Lascatusmani Serino Police Foundation ball as along with um I can't even talk. It's along with other council members. Uh the mayor, the vice mayor was there. Um and I also on March 14th participated in the little league opening day ceremony which was also attended by the vice mayor and uh quite a fun event. I I've done it I think for the past five years I've been a council member and it's quite exciting. That's all I have. as members do.

Um, thank you. I'll try to get through this quickly. On the 5th, I attended the Silicon Valley Clean Energy Administration and Finance Committee where we made recommendations to the board of directors. And then I alternate for um, Council Member Renie, I was at the Silicon Valley Clean Energy Board of Directors meeting where we approved um, a $6 million addition to the popular home rebate program. Um there's a whole variety of things we did but I think we don't have a big audience here. Um I also attended the police ball. Oh on the 8th I was one of three judges for the American Legion ortorial contest and quite um gerine to tonight's discussion. The theme was the American Constitution. And so there were the finalists from the six surrounding counties, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Alama, all around. And these high school students first had a prepared god like 9 minute speech without notes, without props, without anything um to give the speech on a certain section of their choice on the US Constitution. And then in the second part there were I think four or five different options of what could have been chosen and someone in the audience chose you know I think it was article 5 section two. And so one of the things that was interesting besides the fact that these high school students are absolutely amazing speakers and you know did a great job with their knowledge of the constitution and what the issues are around it. the three of us judges received copies of the Constitution and you know you think you know it but then when you're reading it you're reading the section that that student is speaking on it really brings it to life and as aside I'm really excited to come and work on this project because I think it will spark some really good discussion and um kind of bring the constitution to life. Also a member of

the public made a comment that our constitution hasn't changed in 250 years. It certainly has. there's amendments that have come along the way and you know it grows and changes and flexes with us and I think that's why it stood the test of time. Um on the 11th I had a tour of El Camino um Loscato's hospital. I think all council members are getting that you know um I've been there. I've been in and out of the emergency room with kids with other things. Um, it's really great when you get an entire tour of the hospital and get to see the oper operating rooms, the ICU, the labs, the cancer center, you know, a top tobottom tour. We really have a very amazing community hospital in Loscatoos and it's great to see how it's grown and taking care of our community. Um on the 12th um as vice chair I was on the VTA policy advisory committee where primarily we discussed um SB63 which will be coming forward as a transportation sales tax this upcoming election. It's multicounty. So there was a discussion of what it could mean for Santa Clara. um what would be important um and then that evening I attended the city's association meeting where one of our priorities for this year is um privacy and um automatic license plate readers and the presentation actually um there were two presenters the uh assistant sheriff Adam Oberdorfer and our police chief Damy Field who just described what license plate readers are, how they work, um, what the guidelines are, what DOJ has to say about it. And, you know, the representatives from all 15 cities were quite interested, good Q&A. Our town

manager was also in attendance. And then, um, also in the past couple weeks, I've met with a number of residents about the West Valley uh, Muslim Association CUP. Sometimes as individuals, sometimes in a group, and that's it. Thank you, Council Member Hudis.

Yeah. Thank you. Just a few things. I participated in the finance commission meeting on March 9th. Um and um I participated in some uh Lascatos Thrives meetings on something new that isn't so much community center but some other things they're doing on aging in place on spaces for mental health uh and behavioral health uh and some other areas that they're um pursuing. Um and then um I met with uh members neighbors of the West Valley uh Muslim Association and then I also met with uh leaders of the association and then um I observed some of the uh traffic that occurred um on Sunday night. So, um, and I know that item is, uh, meant to come to the planning commission shortly. Um, but, uh, it's it and we've received quite a bit of correspondence about that issue. I assume that correspondence will all be made public when the planning commission packet comes out. And so, this is really sort of a question for staff. Is that is that due to come out on the 20th of um this week of March?

Um I think Friday is the 19th and I think the packets usually come out on the Friday before the meeting. 19th. Okay. I think it's the 20th.

Thank you. So, um the 20th.

Okay. I also attended the police foundation. Uh one night last week, I also observed the uh Ramadan traffic exiting at 10:30. Um as a member of the Silicon Valley Clean Energy Board, I got to do a tour of the Diane Bloke Canyon nuclear power plant. Um they're giving lots of tours right now because it's finished its first 20-year mandate and they're looking to extend it. Currently they're um I think that's they're talking about 5 years but it it's been certified safe to run for another 20 years. Um so uh people are getting tours of that or elected officials are getting tours. Um I also met with Tom Picro to get an update on the Thrivives um foundation and that's it. Thank you. Um I I also um uh observed the traffic at the WVMA um at the mosque. Um I spoke to the Loscatos Interact Club, the uh high school version of the Rotary Club and then um later that week spoke to the Rotary Club. Um so that was a a nice tiein. Um I welcomed the uh some Calpali alumni to Testostera Winery for their alumni mixer. um and was happy to attend that. I um caught the first pitch from the uh Loscatos Certino Saratoga fast pitch softball opening day and shared a few words. And um Willow, the four-year-old who threw the opening pitch, was very merciful with me and she um it was a great pitch, but she did throw it right at the ground, which was perfect for me because then I didn't have to actually catch it. Um uh I also attended Loscatos Police Officers Ball. I attended the civic well policymakers conference um and this morning I spoke at compass realy um and then uh spoke at the campoachi St. Patrick's Day celebration

um and then finally I hosted um my community coffees and a happy hour and on March Sunday March 29th I will be tableabling at the Los Scatos farmers market. Um I'll turn it over to the town manager and town attorney.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Uh the council's mostly highlighted the items I wanted to speak to, but I want to reiterate the police officers ball. It's incredible to come to a community where we have a foundation and community members that come together and generate tens of thousands of dollars to contribute to the police department. And the items that they're funding for the most part are items that we would have to pay for out of our general operating budget. And the other aspect of what they do is pay for things that are new technology or things that we test out where it's somewhat hard at times for us to contribute or limited funds for things that could be potentially not something that work out. Um, but they contribute to that and the things that do make it to the end are things that we then stick into our operating budget. So, it's remarkable to to have that and it was nice to see the town coun the city council of Monty Serino and the manager of Monte Serino attend that event. Also, a true partnership between us and Monty Serino and our two communities and we should be proud for that. Lastly, I received a formal personal invitation by the console general of Greece out of San Francisco to invite me to an event which is the Greek independence in San Francisco on March 25th uh next Wednesday. and I'm honored to be the only Greek city manager in California and be able to represent the town of Loscatos at that event. With that, I'll turn it back to you, Mr. Mayor.

Um, thank you. Congratulations. Uh, how exciting. Uh, um, any updates from the town attorney? I just wanted to report that the council met in close session earlier tonight to discuss the disposition of Fort Tate and discuss real estate negotiations. Um the vice mayor u Risto was recused due to living in proximity to Fort and there's no reportable action. Great. Thank you. Um okay with that this meeting is adjourned.