Town Council - Regular Meeting

I'm going to call this meeting of the Los Gatos Town Council to order on April 7th, 2026. Clerk, can we have a role, please? Council member Annie, here. Council member Hudis, here. Council member Badami, here. Vice Mayor Risto, here. Mayor Moore

here. Thank you. Um so we will begin with the pledge of allegiance. And we have Lucas uh uh Lucas Lee Haniro um to come up and present the pledge of allegiance. And as Lucas comes up, I'll say a few nice things about him to just to embarrass him a little bit. So um Lucas loves history and he plays the piano which is very impressive. Um, he also swims for the Denza Certino swimming team and he volunteers monthly at the Fair Oaks Community Center in Redwood City distributing groceries to families. That's uh amazing of you. Um, here's the microphone. Um, okay. And before we start the pledge of allegiance, I know I promised I wouldn't make you say anything. Can you just tell us what your favorite swimming stroke is?

Um, freestyle. Very good. Okay. Um, all right. You tell everyone to please rise. Please rise. You got it. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Well done, Lucas. Can we give Lucas a big round of applause? Good job. Okay. So, Lucas, now what you're going to do is you're going to shake all the council members hands starting with council member Vadami and walk down the line and then you get a prize at the end.

All right, one more round of applause for Lucas. Good job, Lucas. Okay. Um, and now, oh, okay, we're going to go to, um, clerk, should we go straight into presentations? Um, okay. Um, so I think I'll do the Arbor Day presentation real quick first. Um, and so, um, I think Gary and Tyler, if you want to come down, um, to receive the proclamation for Arbor Day. So, on behalf of the town of Los Gatos, I'll be presenting this proclamation for Arbor Day to our hardworking parks and public works team. Um, for those that don't know, uh, Arbor Day, I had to remind myself of this, uh, uh, today. Arbor Day celebrates tree planting and the importance of tree planting. And one of my favorite proverbs is the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time to plant a tree is today. And you all do a lot of that every single day. Uh so thank you very much for all the work you do for our community. We're very grateful to you. Uh and uh happy Arbor Day. Thank you. Do either of you want to say anything about Arbor Day or or anything at all?

We appreciate the council support. So thank you for that.

Thank you very much. scary. All right, we will now move to our second presentation of the evening, which is a presentation from the Valley Transportation Authority, VTA. Um, and we have our um general manager Office Chief of Staff, Scott Hayward, and Jonathan Perez from VTA Government Affairs, who are going to be presenting uh from VTA this evening. Thank you for being here.

Great. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. And uh Greg Richardson, who is our deputy general manager, was here earlier, but he wasn't feeling well, so I'm afraid he he did go home. So, thanks very much for having me here tonight. Pull a little bit closer to you. How's that? Is that better? Perfect. Thank you. Okay, great. Thanks so much. So, I just go to the first slide here.

Great. Well, I'm here to talk to you about the draft local investment plan that VTA is starting to put together for SB63. But, let me just start with a little I gone the wrong way. It It takes a sec. Okay, there we go. Oops, I went too far. That's okay. Um, probably most folks in here are pretty familiar with VTA. We are the transit uh provider for Santa Clara County, but we're also the congestion management agency for Santa Clara County as well. Um, we're also a funding partner for a lot of the regional services that folks are familiar with probably. Uh, the most important one I would list here is Cal Train, which I'll talk about a little bit more in a minute. Uh, and we do serve approximately 134 uh miles of service with 27.7 miles, I'm sorry, million trips a year. Just real quick, I know limited on time, but in Lasatus, we do have uh several routes. Uh, I'm a veteran of mine, 27 myself, uh, having grown up similar in the area. Uh, but we also have a lot of pedestrian and other programs that we've been working on with the city, I'm sorry, with the town over the years. You see a list on the screen there. And then I'd also note that we do uh have provided $6.6 million for local streets and roads which was part of the 2016 measure B I think which um council member Renie actually helped with um many years ago. So let's talk a little bit about SB63. So as most folks are probably aware several of our barrier transit agencies are facing a major financial crisis. I'm happy to say VT is not one of them but our partners are including BART uh MUN and CLR. This is due primarily to the pandemic and writership not returning um since the end of the pandemic. So in response to this fiscal crisis, our state legislature passed SB63 and SB63 is primarily a relief measure uh for these agencies to help them

starve off major service cuts. So the mechanism for raising the funds to help these agencies is going to be through a sales tax that would be placed be before the voters uh this November um it's a half uh absent sales tax for 14 years in the five counties uh in orange that you see on the screen there for Santa Cl County. It would provide funding in several areas. Uh, one would provide help, it would provide our share of funding for Cal Train to help them um, uh, starve off the service cuts that they're having to to look at. Uh, it would also help fund regional programs um, through MTC's transformation transit transformation action plan. Uh, there'd be a small amount of for administration. But finally, what we want to talk to you about tonight is that uh the rest of the funds, approximately $264 million annually, would be returned to Santa Clara County to VTA for transit. Um should note that SB63 only allows uh the mechanism for the measure to be placed on the ballot. It doesn't actually place it on the ballot. In order for it to actually happen, it's going to be have to be through a citizens initiative group that has to require the number required number of signatures to put it on the ballot. Um and it's my understanding that uh such an uh effort is already underway. Just getting to the next slide as it comes up. Um just say that uh under SB63 um it's very specific what VTA would be able to spend the money for that's in the legislation. Um it's as you can see here on the screen, it can only be used for transportation projects um for transit and roadway projects for for fixed route transit. In years past when we put measures together, we've been able to include a lot of other things, pedestrian, bicycle, even highway projects, but we're very limited to what we could use the money for this year, um which would just be public um transit and what you see on the screen there. Um, so what we were doing at BTA is now

that this legislation has passed, we are looking at how we can put if if how we would put an investment framework together for how that would that $265 million would be spent. So to ha to help us, we've identified three outcomes that we are hoping to achieve by these funds and you see them on the screen there. Namely, to grow writership, increase productivity and enhance the customer experience. So when we look at projects and programs for the investment plan, they'll all be put under this microscope to see how well they can help us achieve those three outcomes. Uh we've also developed three strategic areas to help us organize the plan uh that you see on the screen there. They are foundation which is the core of our transit system and we will use data to drive our decisions for change um for changes to our services. Uh reimagine which looks at modernizing our buses, our business model and improving bus and transit service. And then finally, transformation, which focuses on new technologies and developing strategic partnerships to help improve our system. Great. So, uh, based on these desired outcomes and strategic areas, we will be drafting an investment plan for our board's consideration. And what I'd like to do today is just provide you with some potential transit projects and programs for each area and get the the council's input. Um, so I'm going to walk through each strategic area. So let's begin with foundation and you see a list of potential projects uh that might fit under this category. Uh, bus quarter improvements, which would include roadway and other improvements uh in a bus quarter. A station upgrades, which would improve the passenger waiting environment at our stations. Uh, transit service. I would just know that 10 years ago, we were in a similar situation to some of the other transit agencies are in today. And we had to cut back uh quite a bit of our service. So this would help us restore some of that service and eliminate any future deficits. And then finally, transit capital improvements, which would fund

key strategic improvements uh to help transit. Uh next is the reimagine campaign. And uh this would again help us look at modernizing our business model and improving service. Um so the first is funding the visionary network which is um our vision for how transit could be in Santa Clara County that would bring us up to um kind of to how our peers are in in the rest of the valley but to really uh have a good good bus system uh throughout the county. Um speed improvements which would help increase how fast our buses are able to travel includes uh transit signal priority and other projects. Then we also have fair programs for seniors and students to ensure they're able to utilize our system. And then safety uh and security improvements to ensure um people feel safe when using our system. And then finally we have transformation which would be uh some of the suggestions we have on the the screen there. Innovative transit experience projects to ensure we're providing the best experience possible for our passengers. advanced vehicle technologies to ensure we are taking advantage of technology not only for our employees, our operators but also for the public. Uh light rail fleet replacement. Our current fleet is coming to the end of its useful life and we are now looking at our fleet of the future. And then station redevelopments which would include more than simply making improvements but would look at what stations could uh could potentially be as places of destination and could really help enhance the customer experience. So based on uh the input we receive over the next couple couple of months from uh city councils and town councils uh throughout the valley, we will put together a proposed framework and determine how well each of the potential projects or programs meets our three desired outcomes of increasing writership, increasing productivity, enhancing the customer experience. So, we're going to continue to reach be reaching out and put together a draft

plan um based on those uh what we just talked about. And the first draft we hope to have will be next week at our board of directors meeting on April 17th, which is a board workshop to start to get some ideas of what they might like to see based on the input we've received. Then, with the hope of that, we would then go to the board uh for a final decision on June 4th for them to adopt the framework. Again, this is all assuming that a measure is placed on the ballot. Again, it would not be by VTA. It would be by Citizens Initiative. But if if it is, we'd want to be able to explain to everybody how we plan to spend the $265 million that would be coming back to VTA. So, with that, I'll close and be happy to take any questions or any feedback that you might have for us as we start to put it together. And thank you very much again for having me here tonight.

Thank you very much for being here. Looks like we have a question from Council Member Renie.

Um, thank you, Mayor. Um, so as you know, I've been around a while with with VTA. It's been three years since I've been a full board member and a year plus since I've been an alternate. Um, and I continue to get questions from Loscatus residents, when are we going to bring the light rail to to Vona? And I explain to them, you know, we don't have enough density. It doesn't pencil out very well. The priority has been to finish um East Ridge, which must be getting somewhat closer to being finished, hopefully fully funded. Um, and things are changing in Los Gallas. We just approved 450 units on the north side of our north 40, which is maybe a mile or less from the where the Vona station would be. We have other builder remedy projects that may or may not go forward that are not very far from it either. So, we have increasing density not very far from that station. I'm not sure what's going on in Campbell. maybe the Dell station would have increasing density. So, we in Loscatos, I know we're on the think about it later category. Um, but would like to keep that, you know, in VTA's mind and if funds are needed to make sure it stays a possibility, such as buying the Union Pacific right away or things like that, um, I think that would be some of the things we'd like to see. Um, I've heard other people say they'd like to see us buy the rideaway all the way through Los Gatos down to Certino for something in the future. Maybe it's maybe it's bike trails. Maybe it's light rail even beyond Bona. I don't know. But that might be a place to consider spending some of that investment to ensure our future.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And we have uh we are looking um at that corridor and um UP is always a real challenge to work with. Um but we've definitely been looking at that and like you said uh council member uh Randy I mean density is so important as density builds up that makes those projects a lot more viable. Thanks so much. Go council member uh Hudis and then Vice Mayor Risto.

Yeah thank you and thank you for coming here. Um, as someone who had his office in San Francisco for a dozen years, um, and tried to use public transit, um, something like an extension of the light rail would make it probably pretty close to feasible where for me when I did use public transit, it was over three hours each way to go 50 miles. And so as much as we dream about public transit and I grew up on the east coast and lived in many places where there is adequate public transit, we just don't have it here in Loscatos. And so, um, while VTA extension, um, I'm sorry, light rail extension, um, to VONA would make a huge difference, um, I know it would probably be very, very far in the future and very challenging to do. Um, so I'm, you know, I'm putting my hat on as someone looking out for the interests of Lascatos. I'm not sure that there's a lot in this plan with one exception and this is an area that ties directly to your reimagine safety and security enhancements. Um, and I had the uh pleasure of hosting your CEO here on a Saturday when we had uh beach cutthrough traffic and we took her on a tour and uh she got caught in the gridlock. uh herself and um one of the things that we are hoping for is some collaboration with VTA in terms of VTA's expertise in traffic engineering to look at how changes might be made to the uh on and

off of Highway 9, 85 and 17 um in a dynamic way. maybe uh closing some entrances, um closing some exits, uh but doing that in response to actual flow. And so we would look forward very much to continuing to collaborate on modeling scenarios that could help us because the beach cut through traffic is not just it's not really an inconvenience issue. It's a safety issue

because the worst days of the beach cut through traffic occur on the highest fire hazard, fire risk days. And so if you can imagine actual gridlock in the roads that you took getting here and the inability of our uh fire department to get through or residents to evacuate is is really critical and I think it fits directly with your safety and security enhancements u under your reimagine section. So I hope that gets uh continued attention and work. Absolutely. Thanks for the feedback. We actually have recently met with your staff to talk about this very issue. Great. Excellent. Vice Mayor Resto.

Yeah. Thank you and thank you for being here. I serve on the VTA pack. I am now the chair. So, you know, last month we saw this and knew that we'd have staff coming to each municipality. So, I appreciate you being here to hear our needs. Um, I think that the light rail coming to Loscatoos is critical. I don't know how long out that will be, but I think that needs to stay on the radar screen even if it can't be accomplished soon. preserving that um Union Pacific access toward Certino. I realize that's a very low density area, but if we can potentially even if light rail is too expensive to put in, if it were just a dedicated bus line um with bike bike path on there because that, you know, I've ridden the train line, it's bumpy, you know, on a bike. It's doable, but it would be nice to have it paved and that would be a good commute route. Um, the thing that I think about is when when VTA had to had to shift away from having as many buses, we lost the 48 and 49 bus that exclusively looped in Loscatoos. And the unintended consequence of that is we now have lost weekend bus service into the downtown because the beach traffic, as was referenced, gridlock that line and that would create problems up and down the line outside of Loscatoos. And if we had a bus route that just looped in town, then whether it got stuck in traffic or not, people could still take the bus and there are people that need it. And I think we could increase our writership. It would also allow a little more fine-tuning for the middle school and high school schedules without suddenly creating problems at Santa Teresa Hospital or whatever else. And so I think it allows more fine-tuning and you know as we are approving housing units and moving toward a thousand potentially 2,000 more housing units I think we are counting on

the fact that not everybody will be driving. Yeah. Um, so I think that's really important. Absolutely. And then of course we appreciate the support from VTA on the um, Highway 17, Highway 9 rebuild, that measure a measure B project, which I think is going to make that entire area better for everybody and hopefully will lend some improvement to the issues that council member Hud brought up. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks so much.

Um, okay. And then I'll I'll give mine. I think they were pretty much all named, but I'm going to couch them perfectly in your three. I'm going to give you one for each. Um, so on foundation to to Vice Mayor Risto's points, I think just service expansion, reducing headways, more dedicated bus service in Los Gatos, it's very, you know, it's it's it's such a a horrible catch 22. Bus service in Los Gatos when there's not heavy traffic is great. Um, I took the bus from my house on um off of L uh and Loscatoos Boulevard into downtown Loscatos on a Thursday night last week or two weeks ago and I think it took 10 minutes. Super easy and there were people on the bus. It worked great. You know, kind of commute hours worked perfectly. But when you sort of most need the bus during heavy traffic on weekends, the bus doesn't get you to downtown Los Gatos anymore. And I think that's um a real loss. And so I think anything we can do to invest in our existing bus service I think is a big win. And and I think also to Vice Mayor Risto's points about school traffic. We also have, you know, the just the way Los Gats High School is positioned, you have terrible, terrible traffic in the um mornings and afternoons. And so if we even got, you know, 50 extra kids riding that bus because you aligned it a little bit better with the start and end times for the school, I think it'd be a big help. Um to number two, reimagination. Um the State Route 17 corridor congestion relief project. VTA is already investing in that and um invested, I believe, $1 million this past year into into the design of that project, which is fantastic. And so just, you know, keeping the pedal down on that one. And then um to to Council Member, uh Hudis's points, I think, you know, broadening our scope of other congestion management efforts. And I know VTA is working with us on that, but I think it's a good suggestion of um funding for for modeling scenarios, funding for, you know, sort of um piloting things, trying

things. I think Loscatos is a community that has um dealt with be heavy beach traffic for as long as we have existed. And I think it's important for our community to recognize that VTA is our regional congestion management agency. And so um you know anything that we can do on on congestion management I think we you know the world is our oyster and and we want to you know try on that. Um and then lastly on transformation doubling down on the um the light rail extension. You know that was something that 10 years ago was actually very you know VTA was very seriously considering making happen. And I know VTA currently has someone that is tracking the the Union Pacific and and um the rail line and the potential of acquiring that. I think you know what I would say is number one priority on that is making sure that when the opportunity presents itself which it will we don't know when it'll be but sometimes in the next 10 20 years that rail line is going to be for sale and I think VTA has to be in a position to purchase it um and then we can talk about what it looks like um and how we get there um and and I'll just close on um and I meant to say this at the beginning but I think it's important you know as with VTA uh you all being here. Uh just this past Friday evening, Rod Deiran um passed away, who is the the father of, you know, public transportation in Santa Clara County. And Rod Deiran and his wife Gloria um were major mentors to me for the past couple of years, um serving as an alternate on the VTA board and and many other things. And Rod Deiran, whenever I saw him over the past two years, he would whenever I went over to his home, he had printed out all of the long range plans for VTA. And I think three times I I visited him the past couple years, and he would always hand me the plan that had the the light rail extension in it. So, um, in in Rod's honor, I will continue pushing for that as long as I I can. So, um, yeah, thank you for for

being here and, uh, listening to our our thoughts on this. Any other comments from the council before um we bit a due to VTA? Thank you very much for being here and please keep us in the loop on how we can uh continue to be engaged. Absolutely. And please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have further thoughts or ideas on it. We really appreciate this is terrific feedback and I've got several of those maps that Rod gave me over the years as well. So I know them very well. Thanks so much. Really appreciate it for being here. Thank you. Thank you both.

Okay. Um we will now move to the consent calendar. Um the consent agenda. Um and so items uh appearing on the consent calendar are generally approved in one motion and are considered non-controversial. Are there any council members wanting to pull an item? Yes, Council Member Hudis. Um I have a question on item 10.

Go ahead. Um, so item 10 is the professional services agreement with DUTEK uh for the townwide evacuation plan. And um I'm delighted to see we've made progress and that we um have a funding amount of uh 350,000 and it looks like we have an agreement with Monte Cerino to work with us on the evacuation plan. Um my question is um do we know the timing for this study? How you know when will it start? When will it finish?

Uh tenatively we're looking at a start date of May 1st. The contract or estimate about 18 months to execute, but we're going to give them a two-year window to complete. And just as a followup, is it will there be opportunities for the public to um you know have some visibility or input into this during that the time of the consult plan for a public comment. Great. Thank you. Great. Any other questions or comments on consent?

Okay. Um seeing none, I will go to uh public speakers on the consent calendar. Um, and looks like we have two speakers in person. We have Karen Yamamoto, um, who's up first, and Karen will be followed by Gus Who.

Hi, good evening. Um, I'm Karen Yamamoto. I live here in Los for 27 years. Uh, I have a lot to go through on consent items 1, 2, 4, and five. These are the minutes. I agree with Gus who um on his submitting of a little email to you guys. Yes, I agree. The minutes are important and they should be documented and it's a lot easier to actually see what we were public comment was. And if it was highlighted in the way that he demonstrated, I highly recommend it. It was so much easier. Then I could go to the video, figure out who said what, when, and whether or not I wanted to really view the the whole entire video because some of the videos are really, really long. Okay, so that was one. Um, on item number seven on the Oak Meadows band stand, why are we investing so much in this? Is it really a necess necessity? Is this going to actually bring money back by doing it to invest over $163,000 for basically concrete? I'm really questioning whether or not we should be investing at this moment on that. on consent item number nine. A million dollars for working and unforeseen services. That $40,000 I'm kind of like going really do we is that what is on the side? Do we really want to spend that on unforeseen things? So, and the last one, which is the evacuation plan,

that is a yes, we should invest in it. We need to know. I love the idea of the I'm very interested in the track traffic simulation modeling and what that'll actually look like in an evaluate evacuation. God, I'm having a hard time speaking today. And that's it for that. Okay. Any questions? No. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you to Gus who okay. Um first of all this uh meeting right now I don't know when you guys posted it because it wasn't posted. Uh well I do know but the you know I I always say 10day rule. This is not the Friday it wasn't even posted Thursday night or or stuff like that. So it you guys got to know when you post things because some of this stuff like like okay one through four I already sent sent it in. I got you know you I think it's very important to to highlight that. I'm not going to spend that much time on that. Uh number let's see number 10 was was my big issue. Um, I did, you know, again, I I when this all started, I think it's a there's a lot of money going out the door and I've I've sent you in what Saratoga does with with um the emergency fire and and and it's, you know, we people pay 14 cents of their property taxes. the article I sent you in this and there's a nonprofit that does this you know and I sent and I and Neimu had this and it and I I gave you Melissa and I you know watched the video she right after you were bringing this up and I and I looked online I mean I you said that the paper said that you know that they they canled that and you know it's millions of dollars and stuff like that and this is 346 I I'm against the the this to exit. Um, I think most people know that there's many uh maps out there on on Google maps ways if you want to get someplace. It tells you

right away the what's, you know, basically instant. You don't you don't need to spend 346,000. I think this that should be an agenda item. I think you should pull that and and make it and let the public, you know, say, "Hey, this this whole, you know, you're you can save $6 million if you let do the nonprofit stuff and do the emergency." Um, you know, I I think this is the the the the community at large is you're you're wasting money and they can it's a litigation thing. That's where the the number 12 is on litigation and I think you're underfunded and I think that you know there's a lot of projects that are coming up and you should up the Annie on that and again the the minutes I think it'll in the long run it it's easier if somebody you know I can I can submit the one sentence things like I did and show you how easy it is and let people decide. Thank you. Bye.

Thank you. Okay. Is there a motion on the consent calendar? Yes, Council Renie. I I have a question. Um and I don't see Council Mie, can I interrupt you? We I uh mistakenly skipped a consent speaker. Is it Sharon Childs? Yes. Because she'll know the answer to my question. Okay, then go ahead and ask your question. Do you want to ask your question first? No, let her speak. Okay, I'll bring it up.

Okay, we'll go to Sharon Childs. Hello, I'm Sharon Childs. I am the Lascatos Community Foundation President and we have been working on the band stand event floor for uh over 11 years. The reason it came upon wanting to build it is when we took on the park dance, which was held for 11 years on uh Labor Day weekend, our band was ingesting dirt because we don't have landscape around it. Also, we would have to rent a dance floor in order to have our project. So we came up with this idea for doing the band stand or for um existing not existing um expanding the dance floor and saying if you build it they will come because our first idea was if we have an area that is really nice we can use it to make money for the town. what we wanted to do. What we want to do is to be able to have it for events that we can rent it out. And if you look at other things that happen in the town, such as the Fourth of July event, they will no longer have to be over there and rent an area and over in order for them to have their band. And yes, the money is a little bit high at this point. If we would have voted for it and went with it when we first started 10 11 years ago, it would have been a lot less. I feel it is really important to take it on because the longer we wait, the

longer the more it will will cost and I truly feel it will enhance the uh Oak Meadow Park area. Did I answer your question? Thank you, Council Benny. Not not completely. So, um, when when I was on the community foundation 13 years ago, I recall that we did raise some money and donate it to the town. Yes. But I can't remember how much. Was it something like 50,000? I am thinking it was 69,000 which was a lot closer to the cost of the project 11 years ago.

Then it was going to be 75,000. The other thing I wanted to mention, I just thought about this with uh with the amount of that we're talking about to have the project done. Now, we do have people who would like to donate to have uh benches. We've talked about having raising money to to have benches around there, memorial benches, and we've also talked about raising money for having pavers, but we're waiting for the project to start so we can move forward. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. I will now entertain a motion on consent. Council member,

I'll move to approve the consent calendar consisting of items 1 through 13. Yes. Council member Hudis. Second. All right. Is there any other comments? Seeing none, all those in favor?

I. Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously. Okay. We will now move on to verbal communications, which is uh the time for uh members of the public to address the council on any items that are not on the agenda. Um speakers will have three minutes to address the council. Um we will begin with Muffy and I apologize that I um I'm going to butcher your last name, Godili. Got it right. Yeah. Thank you. You can begin whenever you're ready.

Good afternoon, uh, Mayor Moore, council members. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. Uh, my name is Mafi Gali. I live at, uh, 101 Sun Avenue, which is less than a mile from here. I'm here because my home was broken in, and so was my neighbor, Bill Galla, who's sitting right here. His home was broken into uh, about a week or so ago. And we are truly frightened, not just by what happened, but with what happens next. The break-ins in our home were not random. The intruders knew exactly where to go. They targeted our bedrooms. They took specific high-v value items and other valuables. They used wireless signal jammers to disable our security cameras. And these this entire incident both at Bill's house and my house was less than 10 minutes. And these were very sophisticated. They were coordinated and very deliberate. Law enforcement has not been able to identify any suspects and there are no active leads at this point in time and we are left feeling violated, vulnerable and frankly very very unprotected. We all know Los Caros is one of the most affluent communities in Silicon Valley and by many measures in the entire country today. We all we all residents we pay significant property taxes and we have every expectation of a responsive, resourced and effective public safety system. What we are all experiencing right now falls very far short of those expectations.

If organized burglary rings can operate in our neighborhood with impunity, these guys are casing our homes. They are monitoring our activity when we are home, when we are not. They are using wireless jamming technology to evade every protection that we have. And this is a failure that we cannot accept and this cannot become the new normal. So, I'm asking this council directly and specifically to answer these questions either tonight or in writing in the next couple of weeks. The first question, will the town council increase patrols, visible deterrent police patrols in our neighborhoods and by when? If you cannot commit to those patrols, we will get our own security. Will the C council reimburse us for the security? Can the council uh have cameras that can read license plates, uh track these offenders, and can you provide an update in the next couple of weeks so that we know what's going on? Make it another few seconds to finish.

Please finish. Again, we've we've moved to Los Gatos because it's one of the most beautiful, one of the most lovable cities in Silicon Valley and we really love living here. We believed it was safe for our families and we want to believe that again. We are requesting all of you town council to please act with urgency not not at a courtesy to us but as as a responsibility to the community that you serve. Thank you. Thank you very much. Looks like you might have a question. Uh there there have been some um residents that have invested in the flock camera, the security camera you mentioned. Has your neighborhood invested in one of those? Uh

are you aware that you could invest in that and then the data would go to the the police department? So I one I wasn't that I don't know if you Yeah. So we weren't aware of something like this.

Okay. Uh so all right briefly um we do have license plate readers in town that the town has placed certain places and some neighborhoods in order to help um augment what we've done. They've invested themselves in buying a flock camera that's effectively a private flock camera that sends our police department the data. So, it's a way of helping us extend our license plate reader network. Of course, it's only useful if if a thief comes through with a a car with a stolen license plate kind of thing because then it it triggers a a notice to the police department that hey, somebody with a stolen car is here. they're probably doing something bad and we rush out to try to find them. But it is one thing that neighbors could invest in to help out our police department.

Sure. And you know, we'd love to get information on that. Uh uh again, to your point, it it's only as effective as uh the license plates being attached to the original vehicles. Uh I think one big deterrent would be to have visible police patrols especially uh and obviously there's a pattern to this. Both of our homes were broken in uh either on a Friday or or Saturday night and and I mean these guys are very sophisticated. They planned these things out. They're obviously getting some inside information as well. Um and uh any visible deterrent I think will go a long way in just ensuring the safety for us and our families.

Any other questions for the speaker? Okay. Thank you very much for being here this evening. Thank you. Okay. We will now go to Jeff Suzuki who will be followed by Suanne Laurig. Good evening council. Uh, first I will start by prefacing that I am not speaking in my capacity as a complete streets and transportation commissioner but as a private resident and the president of the Loscatoos anti-racism coalition. I was disturbed to read that a man named Carlos Ivon Mendoza Ernnandez uh was shot yesterday in Patterson, California, an hour and a half's drive away from here. Uh he is now in emergency care. He was shot by ICE. ICE claims that he was involved in some terrorist gang, but I'm not quite sure what to believe from this administration. The same administration that claimed that Renee Nicole Good was a terrorist. Um, Alex Jeffrey Pratty was a terrorist. Um, but I will say this. I don't think that there is a world where these federal immigration enforcement agencies will make our town any safer. I do believe that our safest course of action is to join our neighboring towns and cities in opposing their presence legally. that our source of safety will be in numbers and in unity. San Jose has taken action. Santa Clara has taken action.

The chair of the VTA board has recognized that the presence of these agents represents a public safety issue. And it looks like they're about to take action. Our own DEI commission has recommended that this council act and I would suggest that we discuss their recommendations as soon as possible. I and many others in Los Gatos implore that this council adopt a local law prohibiting federal immigration enforcement from using town property. And we should make it very clear that under no circumstances will we collaborate with these agencies. That we should unequivocally state that this town will stand by the constitutional rights of its residents and visitors. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now go to Suanne Laurig. Suanne will be followed by Keith Blaine.

Hi, I'm Suanne Lurig and um I'm um 12 year resident of Loscatoos and I just want to echo what uh Jeff said. You've heard me speak uh before and I just want to let you know that I'm staying here until we get a resolution that the town of Loscatoos will not cooperate with ICE and that they will not allow town property to be used for staging for ICE and that the town will respect the constitutional rights for all the people here. Thank you.

Go to Keith and Keith will be followed by Susan Bassie. It's been 26 years since I've been in this room. Um, so good evening, Mayor Moore and members of the council. My name is Keith Blaine. I'm a Hillside resident. Um, and I've been emailing a little bit back and forth for the last couple years, but I'm just hoping to get your guys' attention. Um, I'm here to introduce this proposed code amendment to the animal code, specifically dog containment within the hillside and wildlife quarters of our town. I emailed this to you guys yesterday. Um, I've done as much homework as I can and trying to make it as easy as possible for all of you. Um, I'm largely speaking on behalf of my family, but um, hillside residents such as me and my family have an immense privilege to live in Lascatus amongst the natural terrain, the native oak trees, and the indigenous wildlife. uh Lascat Hillside residents um like my family, we also love our pets and we have pets, but currently underneath the code, it leaves us with no compliant option to have our our pets um on our own property. Um so section 4.4.005A, 005A, the animal code, was written decades ago in the 70s and recognizes only two forms of containment on on hillside uh or in general, sorry. Uh first is a leash and the second is then a 6-ft solid fence while then code section 29.40.0315

prohibits solid fences in the hillside areas. Further 29.40.0 0305 says hillside fence code exists specifically to allow the free movement of wildlife. The result is a dog owner has no compliant off leash option for their hillside property. Um the solution that I'm presenting here um in the amendment is a hidden underground radio electronic dog fence system which we have on our property through um company called Dog Watch, but there's also an invisible fence. Um, the dog containment is uh it's a buried boundary wire a few inches below ground that broadcasts a harmless radio signal to a receiver on the dog's collar that is worn by the dog. Um, there are no fence posts, there's no panels. Um, and there's nothing above the natural grade. The system contains the dog completely while pres presenting zero physical um obstructions to the turkeys, the foxes, the coyotes, the deers, and most importantly the town's indigenous bobcats and mountain lions for which our town was named after. Um I'll kind of skip to the end here. Um what I'm asking though is for the council to direct our town's attorney to review the proposed amendment. Um, and if there is to be a 2026 strategic plan.

Thank you. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Any questions for Keith? Um, Keith, really quick. I I believe I know the answer to this question. You've um prepared a very thoughtful and thorough uh uh document here at a very high level. You're looking for the town to create an electric fence ordinance that allows for electric fences in the hillsides. Uh the word electric fence is very problematic in this context and in California, but this is a um it is an electronic radio fence. I think an electronic radio fence. Okay.

So, it's low voltage, doesn't carry any current. Um and it's I would I'm proposing it be added to the 4.40. 55 just for hillside and uh uh wildlife corridor areas. I think it'd be great option also for uh for rivers and stream areas that people have property. Great. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks for being here. We will go to Susan Bassie and Susan will be followed by Gus who

Good evening. My name is Susan Bassie. I'm a longtime resident, former print publisher of my outandabout magazine and a highly trained investigative reporter. Six years ago, I started reporting on the cost of speech and the place where I am reporting from is Los Gatos. I do not report on national politics. I report on what happens in our community with respect to national politics. Over the course of my reporting, we have been preparing investigative series on a number of issues and we have revealed that Los Gatos is probably one of the worst towns in the entire state when it comes to public records handling. I have waited up to four years for these records. I have been appalled at what I have seen. Our staff, Wendy Wood and Jenna, who are here at these meetings all the time, work tirelessly, and the policies that you all have enacted have made their jobs harder. They're significantly underpaid compared to our police officers. You just heard a speaker talking about public safety issues. And I want to raise what I recently wrote an article on, and I sent a link to everybody here in this council, the town mayor, and um our town attorney. And that is the fact that our town had four police officers all being paid over 150 up to $250,000 a year in paying benefits. Investigate and prosecute and refer for prosecution a felony vandalism charge for chalking in the street related to one of the people organizing our no kings protest. We have also funded code enforcement hearings against somebody who is politically disfavored in this town. And the person that we put in charge of code enforcement wasn't paying his business license taxes. It has taken me years to uncover what is clearly either incompetence or outright corruption. This is a small town. You guys are spending money right and left and you're

not doing anything on public records. You're inviting another taxpayer waste lawsuit, which was already done on this city by James McManis in the Nymark case, and that cost our city thousands of dollars. So, fix the public records issues, get me my records on time, and stop funding police investigating sidewalk chalk on public streets, and start putting patrols out or cut the police budget. Thank you. We'll move to Gus Hill.

Wow, that was something to follow. I mean, she does have a point that you guys uh have to be a little bit more transparent. That's one of the big things that I' I've been trying to with the the minutes and stuff like that. Um I for the record I already told you about this Valley Water. You know, it's a Lynn Avenue. Um as a I'm a prophetic dreamer. This is coming around. Um I'll leave it at that. You know, uh there's safety issues there. It's in that class action lawsuit that I mentioned earlier. Um, I'd like to know who the staff is that are approving these. Uh, you know, you're you're you're spending money and it's not going out to bid. You have a 346 this item 10 346 930 for a study. Was that out put out to bid? A lot of this stuff is not put out to bid. Um, and it's how do an exit? I mean, you can there's only so many roads and you don't need to spend 346. That's just a waste of money and it's a lawsuit in it right there. ICE agents, we've been a lot of people, it's an agenda. I don't agree necessarily with all the whole thing. um we have facial recognition is if ICE agents come and say hey this is this person's a a murderer and a terrorist you know then okay let's let's but have a a public make sure you know because I've been in trouble and I have arrest warrants and I it's all minor stuff and it's and I'm against I'm against governments in general I'm against all governments forms of government because there's so much corruption there north 40 traffic study I don't it might be out of your jurisdiction send it, please send it to the state to see to study that exit because when you build that and and I've already explained that people are to get even

north 40 project if if it it if people can't get into the hospitals and I I I sent you emails and stuff like that and you know hiring practices bids those things I I you know there's too many things with water bills there there's for three minutes. I can't talk that much, but I wish that you would put the ICE agents agency on the agenda and have a disc I mean have the public either DEI or somebody do that have two sides that that have you know for and against arguments and then let the town decide on how to deal with ICE. But it's something that you guys can create. uh DEI already has asked for some sort of um uh some for you guys to do something been asking and all these people that that are protesting are asking I'm not I'm not saying go overboard but just let's bring it out because I have evidence up against uh you know I say that the the president of the United States faked his own assassination. I'll leave it with that.

Thank you. We will go to Monica Faria. Monica, I apologize if I said your last name wrong.

Good evening, Mayor Moore Town Council. My name is Monica Faria and I'm with PG&E. I'd like to take this opportunity to communicate that I'm your local government affairs representative. Uh, first I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge my colleague, Sergio Himenez, who previously served as your PG& government affairs representative. I appreciate the partnership with the town of Loscatoos, and I'm grateful for his support during this transition. Uh, moving forward, I will be your primary point of contact for all PG related matters. If you have questions, concerns, or need information regarding PG& I'm here to help. I value strong strong partnerships with our local government leaders and I'm committed to being a responsive and collaborative resource. I look forward to connecting and I'll be reaching out to each of you individually uh to schedule a meeting so I could better understand your priorities, your concerns uh and be of service regarding all PG& related matters and I look forward to working together with the town of Los Scats. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for being here. Any questions? None. All right, you're good. Thank you. Okay. Um that finishes verbal communications which takes Oh, or do we have any speakers on Zoom? No. Okay. Um that takes us to our public hearing this evening which is a public hearing to adopt a resolution um on the comprehensive fee schedule. And I will turn the mic over to Christina Alfaro, our administrative services director.

Good evening. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, town council. Um, I'm here this evening to present the uh 2026 2027 fee and fine schedule update. Uh, the town's financial policies require that certain fees, rates, and charges for services be maintained to allow for cost recovery based on the actual cost of providing the town services. Staff periodically review the cost of providing such services and recommend appropriate fee adjustments when supported by actual actual cost data. So, with that, um, uh, on our agenda this evening, we'll go over definitions for a fee and a fine. Uh, cover, uh, overall increases that are being recommended for the fee schedule. We'll also cover other changes, uh, being recommended to the fee schedule outside of the annual increase and other changes to the fine schedules as well. Uh, lastly, we'll go over uh, fiscal impacts, recommendations, and next steps. Uh so with that if we jump into the definition here. Uh fees are a charge for up to actual cost incurred by the town to those who receive some direct material benefit above and beyond services offered at for a general taxpayer expense. So for fees we have to make sure we charge we can charge up to the cost of providing the service but not over. When it comes to fines, fines are penalties for code violation. uh these do not need to be uh uh based on actual cost and they're really used more as a deterrent uh for uh behavior. With that uh our overall uh recommended increases for the fee schedule is a 2.2% consumer price index or CPI increase. Um, this is the average of the San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose CPIU 2, I'm sorry, CPIU for the two-month and 12 month percentages. Uh, this includes all items indexed and is not seasonally adjusted.

So, with that, uh, we come into the other changes, uh, to the fee schedule. So, you'll note that the fee schedule, uh, tables are in blue, and when we get to the fines, it's going to switch to green. aside from the header on the presentation changing as well. Uh these tables are set up to show the department on your far left, the type of change that's happening. So these are new fees on this slide. Um the fee and uh how that was determined and then a description of the fee that's being requested to be added. So for administrative services, we have uh four new fees uh recommended to be added. Uh I'm not going to go into detail on what's on the slide. It is also included in the staff report, but I thought it'd be helpful to have it um kind of all in one place is an expedited processing fee, a no parking sign administrative fee, an entertainment zone sinocase or A-frame uh fee, and a facility maintenance fee. With that, we'll move uh to the development services uh fees. And here we have a uh also new fees as well. This is a supplemental fee for minor residential development applications. We also have an SB684 small lot subdivision fee outside legal council deposit uh annual utility uh blanket fee for the as we're continuing on developmental services. We have some additional new fees. A certificate of correction, license agreement, application, town manager, license agreement, application, town council, license agreement, recording and issuance fee. For police services, we have an initial residential alarm registration fee. And for parks and public works, we have a new adopt a bench fee. And then we also have an increase to the electric vehicle charging fee as well.

With that, that moves us over to the fee penalty schedule changes. So, uh, for under the Losato's fire code, uh, we are, uh, for fireworks, uh, adding a, uh, uh, a penalty or a fee here. Uh, for false alarms, also uh an additional, uh, fee related to this. And then miscellaneous. um we removed from the fee schedule. Uh there was a stating an item stating first violation, second violation, subsequent violation. This was actually removed because the purpose of the schedule is to list the penalties that are different from those standard amounts. And so we kind of put standard amounts in for the fireworks and the fire false alarms. With that, our estimated fiscal impact is 168,000 uh for the upcoming fiscal year should fees get approved. Uh I do want to state that this is difficult uh to estimate uh because it's driven by consumer behavior. Uh so this was um estimated looking at the estimated where we're going to end the fees for this next fiscal year and prov providing an escalator for our next steps. Uh should uh the fee and fines be approved this evening, they become effective on July 1st, 2026. Uh there is also a new user fee study that is expected to be completed in the 2627 fiscal year. With that, I have the uh staff recommendations up on this slide. Otherwise, that concludes my presentation. Uh but staff is available should you have any questions.

Thank you very much. Questions from the council. Yes, council member Renie. Um just to clarify again so um these fees are meant to be cost recovery and none of these fees go beyond the the cost of providing the service. Is that correct? That is my understanding. There was a fee schedule that was completed about six years ago and that uh fee schedule what it generally does is it sets the fees either uh at full cost recovery or at some specific uh policy level set by the council and then um and it's acceptable in the years in between fee schedules to use CPI as an escalator and that should generally keep you in line um and have your cost beh.

Yeah. So, it's easy to go with the CPI on ones we've already done. And in some of those cases, we didn't bring them all the way to 100% because they were so far below we were trying to step them up. And I can't remember which they are. And maybe you go through that next time you actually do an analysis, but the ones the new ones are really the ones I'm I'm asking about. you know, you know, for example, development services almost $4,000 supplemental fee for minor residential development applications. That's just an example there. We know that that is doesn't go beyond the cost of the service. Is that correct?

That's correct. So, we asked uh staff to estimate. So, if it's based on staff time, how much staff, which staff uh that go into building that rate? Okay. Thank you. Yes, Vice Mayor Stow. Thank you. I think Council Member Erd hit on what I was kind of thinking um with the new fees. So, essentially um in the case where we have the new fees in the past, we were kind of losing money there or that was we were not recovering the cost, right? And so somehow that was just being absorbed elsewhere.

Yes. So, I believe and and staff at the tier can speak to some of them, but generally it's either something new that's required to be collected or or Yes. that it's either a fee that was not being charged or in some cases it's separating it out because it used to be part of a different fee. Okay. And then just a clarification under um the fee penalty schedule those are essentially fines. Correct. Correct. Okay. And we just use those terms interchangeably. I'm sorry. Say that one more time. Do we use those terms interchangeably? Because the table calls it a fee. Sorry. Should it should Okay. It should say fine. Okay. Okay. So, the green page with the police where it talks about first offense, second offense, third offense for fireworks, those are fines.

Those are fines. Okay. Thank you. Reus, did you have a question? Um, yeah, I had a question on two of the fees on uh first one is on page 25 uh items item 247 near the bottom of the page. Um, and I wanted to understand that. So, it looks like we're changing from 702 to to $71. That's a a very dramatic reduction. Um, what uh what is that?

I'm going to defer that to our rep representative from parks and public works to cover that.

Yes, thank you for that question. Um, that was actually something we looked at last year. Uh we redid a lot of our fees for cost recovery specifically and amended as you probably remember a lot of our fees uh upward uh to go ahead and amend that. Uh last year we also updated the the uh grading permit fee calculations and this was actually a typo that we did not catch last year. It should have been $71 all along. Once you get up into the 100,000 cubic yard fee and you're paying the town $94,000 to go ahead and review grading permits information on site, um we reduce that uh additional cubic yard rate to $71 because it's hard for us to provide as we've talked before $9400,000 worth of service when we're actually um you know doing some of these things. The a good example of this is the golf course. Uh the golf course um is going through its renovation right now. Uh when we calculated the fee for the golf course based on the grading last year with the older fees, the the fee calculated out to the golf course of well over a million dollars in grading permit fees. And so we adjusted those. So now the fee is more reasonable and comes in a little over 100,000 which is a good estimate for the amount of time the staff's going to be spending out there over the next year plus uh doing that review. So it is intended to be $71 not 702 uh like was in the previous amount uh to more again be representative of actual costs that the town would be spending on on efforts associated with grading and just doing my own calculation here. Um, I see. Oh, I I see. So, um,

after I see the way you get to the 94,000 is by taking the first 10 times 702. Uh, I'm sorry. The the 90,000 times 702 plus 30,000. So that gets you to close to that 94,000 number and then beyond that the increment is 71. That's correct.

Okay. Got it. Um, the other question I had uh was on page 33 which is uh the new fees for the adopt a bench. Um, I know we had some new legislation on this and so it looks like we have a new fee of uh 9,865 for the initial 10-year term and then 5,911 for each 10-year renewal. Um, what was the previous initial and renewal fees for adoptive bench? Was that not on this fee schedule at all or

I think it was was it somewhere else and now we've pulled it in here and and has the amount uh changed substantially? So I do not have the history in front of me for what it previously was but I do not believe we actually had a set fee. So this would be a new fee altogether for the adoptive bench program. So, we don't think we were charging at all for benches. From what I've been able to find, it does not look like we were charging a fee or if we did charge a fee, it was a very minimal fee that did not even cover the purchase of the bench.

Okay. I'm not, you know, maybe we could follow up after this session um with some more information on that. It it seems um I know that there was some information presented when we considered this item a couple months ago. So um I'm not going to object to anything in here, but maybe we could get a memo from staff on what we were traditionally charging for the adoptive bench and what we're charging for it in this fee schedule. Is that possible? We can go ahead and do that.

Great. Thank you. Go ahead. If I could follow up on that one. I I I I struggle with that because if somebody comes and says they want to adopt a bench and you say, "Give me $10,000." They're going to choke. It seems like a really big number. I don't think we'll be adopting any benches. If somebody has to spend $10,000, what is costing us so much money? It's a gold-plated bench. It's maintenance.

So, this fee that's almost $10,000 covers the cost of a brand new bench as well as the 10 years of labor and maintenance to not only install but maintain the bench. So, on average, we're looking about four3 to $4,000 per bench minimum, upwards of more. I've seen them continuing to increase on a monthly basis from our suppliers. So, it costs three to $4,000 for a bench. Yep, that's correct. Got to build my own. Yes, Vice Mayor Stow, then council member Badami.

Thank you. Um, one thing I brought up last year and I think it's probably ongoing with Dixon parking is the per parking permits. So, the residential parking permits, um, you know, my goal at some point is to have residential parking be cost recovery, which I'm sure it's not. Um, so I don't know, is Julie Dixon still working on this because I think last year we did some adjustments, but we were still waiting for more information from her.

Yes, thank you for the question. Uh, G again, Gary Heap with public works. Um, yes, Julie Dixon is still working on that. We are still working on a permit parking program. uh modification, if you will, or redo. We're going to be bringing that forward in the next couple months, and that'll have a fee structure associated with it for you to review.

Okay. Yeah. So, I don't want to go too deep on this right now. I think last year we did, we have at least differentiated the price for each vehicle because in the past, it was the same low price for the first through the fourth vehicle plus two guest passes. So, somebody could park six cars on the street for under $200. So, um, you know, now that we've differentiated this, I still don't understand why we can give two complimentary guest passes with a primary permit. So, basically, somebody can buy one permit for $52 and park three cars because they don't have to buy any other permits. Um, you know, I would be pushing for you still you also have to pay for the guest or this the guest permit should cost the same as the second permit or something, but I'll leave that alone if Dixon is coming back soon and we'll be reexamining this.

We'll make Dixon aware of those comments. Okay. Thank you. And then the other thing is um now I think all the permits are um virtual. You know, we enter them on the computer. It's done with a license plate reader. So, why do we have a lost permit replacement fee? And then on the next page under the business parking permit um for the employee fee, there's no charge, but there's a lost permit replacement, a damaged person permit replacement fee.

Those may be relics that we might want to revisit again when we bring the permit fee program together. Uh but right now we're we're hiring or we've hired a third-party independent uh firm to go ahead and help us issue those fees. So there is a or the permits. So there is a fee associated with them uh with contracting them and and getting those permits issued through that third party. Right. Okay, that makes sense. I just thought how do you lose a permit that you don't actually physically have? It's a good point. Okay. All right. Well, then I'll anticipate improvements to this program later. Thank you, Council Member Badami.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, I want to go back to that bench. Um, almost 10,000. So, if we're looking at that as being the the cost and that from 3 to 4,000 and then you have the maintenance that's another 6,000 over 10 years. I mean, what kind of maintenance is involved? So, this is anything from the original install of the bench, uh, routine maintenance, cleaning benches, making repairs. I mean, what are the quality of the benches to break down? I mean, I just it just seems like a lot of money that

So, it is a lot of money for these benches, but they they are expensive to purchase. They do require maintenance. Staff needs to clean graffiti off of them. If there's any damage done during that 10-year period, the town is taken care of. Whether it's a replacement part, sanding down a bench, changing out plaques, things of that nature with the maintenance. Okay. Thank you. Um, also on the bench, um, so the the three to$4,000, is that for the bench and labor? Is that the three to 4,000 and just for the bench itself? And that doesn't cover the install.

That does not cover the install. That is just for the purchase of the bench. Have Have we ever a lay question? Have we ever looked into cheaper benches? We have not looked into them in my tenure. with the bench options that we've gone with, it would keep with the current town standard of the green metal downtown bench and the plastywood park benches.

Okay. Um I guess we'll get into discussion shortly, but the the feedback I would provide is if I I actually think this is if we implemented this, I think this would be more of a a deterrent for you know an adopt a bench program than anything. I think if we want to get money from people in town to invest in benches, I think we would need to lower the cost. I don't think anyone would do this is is my I don't think anyone's going to pay for a $10,000 bench. So I I think we should talk about what we want out of our adopt a bench program. Yes.

Uh I was able to find uh an old brochure about the adopt a bench. And so here it says that uh there's a donation amount and it's determined by the actual cost of the bench or picnic table, shipping and taxes plus a fee for installation and future maintenance and repairs. Um due to the cost variance from product manufacturer, the cost can change at any time. So it sounds like we were likely charging something similar to it previously based on the brochure. town manager.

I think staff are hearing a concern from multiple council members about $10,000 benches. Uh we'll make sure we don't make it out of gold anymore and we'll make it out of a cheaper material. Um let staff reook at that um option, whether it be the type of bench that's placed there or the dollar amounts that were charged and whatnot. Uh 10,000 does sound like it's a lot. Uh, and and I don't have an actual number for what was charged previously as the true cost, but if I had to guess, we probably weren't advertising or doing the true cost and maintaining and installation of the bench, and we were looking at just doing the bench. And so, as part of the budget process, in next year's budget, there was a request that we purchase benches in advance that I was I'm not going to approve until somebody wants to actually pay for a bench. Let's not buy it and stick it in storage for a year or two, but let us do a memo on just the overall bench program costs options. When's the last time we looked at a different bench and see if maybe there's an opportunity to lower that cost of total ownership and encourage folks to actually contribute.

Great. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, Vice Mayor Stone, then we'll go to public comment.

Okay. If I could beat the bench for a second. Um, I was part of a group that purchased a bench probably 90 1997. So more than five years back um and you know at that point all the benches were wood and you know I do remember um parks and public works coming forward with the report that you know we people paid for a bench but then the maintenance that had to occur over the years wasn't paid for. So the bench that our group bought when we were doing wood we had wood all over the place. Staff would have to be out there sanding it, restaining it every couple years. And I think we were only charged essentially the cost of the bench. So this was kind of a loss for the town. Then they were switched over to a metal bench and the bench that we had purchased in front of the southern kitchen got got smashed like somebody dropped something on it or broke it on a Saturday night. was shattered and at the town's own expense they replaced it with a metal bench which has then since been removed because of the parklet and I don't know where it went but I mean it was a pro program that had not anticipated what the continuing cost would be so I think when staff comes back with I mean first of all you don't want such an inexpensive bench that you're it's breaking and you have to replace it but the other thing is maybe we look at something like you get the bench for five years you know bring the cost down so you're not looking 10 year maintenance is five years and then people can renew it if they want or something else. But I'll look forward to hearing something about it. But I do know that in the past it was a loss for parks and public works to keep up with the benches. It

it is common to look at something that has a multi-year life where the costs were normally would be borne by the individual that's contributing that we don't necessarily c do cost recovery. The other aspect of it and even though internally we talk about treat the item like it's your own. So when you're buying something, what would you buy for yourself? There's a distinction to that for a town or a city. We're liable for everything that occurs. And so the bench that you put out there, the quality, how likely are shards or something else going to injure somebody are extremely important. And so from a cost perspective, we're going to pay heavily more on something that is potentially safer because we know one incident, you know, at home where my daughter may get scratched doesn't turn into a lawsuit, but in the town it does and the lawsuit alone ends up being tens of thousands of dollars. So we have to consider that too in the formula.

Great. Um, we Oh, yeah. Do you have a question? Yeah, not bench related. U go ahead. Um on the residential alarm fees, um what is our communication plan for residents? Uh and um I understand we did a recent communication with them. Do we have a plan or after we adopt this tonight, will these just sort of automatically hit?

So the chief staff are not here. Um there was an initial letter that went out by our thirdparty vendor with regards to uh the program. Um it went out late prior to um the program starting. So we had quite a bit of confusion there. We also did receive questions about the $95 fee that was being charged. And so we had the police reook at the cost of providing that service. The initial $95 fee is um what the cost is when you take into account the entries into the CAD system and additional work that needs to be done by staff at the police department. And the renewal, you will notice, is dropped down to a lesser fee because after we're finally in the system, renewals are easier in terms of doing that processing with our third party processor. I don't know if there's going to be a follow-up communication, a formal letter of that nature. What we did do is make the decision to just wave all the fees for the remaining part of the fiscal year. So those that would apply would get their first year waved so that we get the program up and running. And then those same individuals will be charged going forward with the renewal rate. And then for those that did actually pay, we'll credit their accounts uh for the future renewals of those alarm fees.

Great. And while this one is brought up, I just wanted to thank staff for being responsive to this. I read in the staff report that you know um it was important to make sure that our fees accurately reflect um uh you know the costs and that um we should be mindful of how the fees are calculated in terms of you know first time versus renewal. And so um appreciate that because uh I'm I'm sure like all council members I I got a lot of emails about this one. So, um, thank you. Okay. Um, we will move to public comment for this item. We have one card from Karen Yamamoto.

Hi. Um, you guys have answered actually some of my questions. Um, the town flyer for the alarm system, I think, can be easily um set up by your town email to help with the notification of of the alarm fee. That would help. Or just on your town website, that would be helpful, too. Right there as you get on new information. Poof. There it is. Um, the bench. As far as the uh bench stuff, I would ask the town council to look at an itemized report on the benches and whether or not we want to continue this or whether or not this is something that our town can actually wants to continue or can afford to continue to do because that's an extra added quite a bit of money. Um, and the last thing is um on for the fireworks fee um for the first defense because it's such a high danger of fires with fireworks, I would consider doing a $1,000 for the first to really really let people know we're not going to tolerate this because one misleading set off firework can actually cost billions of dollars. So, please consider those changes. Thank you.

Thank you. Um Okay. Um we will I'll now entertain a motion or hear any further comments on this item. Yes, Council Member Hudis. A question for staff. Um, did uh staff consider or have an opinion about an increased fee on the firework first offense?

Uh, we talked about it and other neighboring jurisdictions do charge $1,000. Um, but currently the fee was um I believe $100 and we felt like the jump would be too extreme to go from a hundred to a,000. Um, and so that's why we recommended the 500. Um, but other jurisdictions do charge a thousand. I mean, when you say it, it would be too extreme, but that would be somebody new would be the person hit with it, right? It wouldn't be That's true. Somebody hit with it. Okay. Thank you.

Yes, Council Member Badami. with our new rules. I'm going to put a motion on the table expecting I'll get some comments. But being that the preparation of this uh fee and fine schedule was coordinated with all applicable uh town departments and offices and it's primarily cost recovery. Uh, I'm going to move that we approve the comprehensive fee schedule effective July 1st, 2026 and the administrative fine and penalty schedule effective July 1st, 2026 and adopt the related resolutions in attachment one and attachment 4. Thank you. Is there a second?

All right, there's a motion and a second. Um, further yes, Council Member Hudis. Yeah, I mean there's been a lot of work done here and a tremendous amount of progress in terms of cost recovery on the part of the town. Um, you know, we we were losing a lot of money on fees where the town was incurring costs and they weren't being recovered for a long time. And so I I view this as a process of uh and we've made some very substantial steps here. And so I think it's good. What I would um maybe ask about is uh whether the maker of the motion would consider um a friend two friendly amendments. One is to uh pull the adopt a bench fee until we receive further information from staff on uh two things. One is what have we actually been charging? Um and number two, whether there are any lowerc cost alternatives. Um and uh second would be to uh increase the fee for the firework the first time offender. Sorry, that's a fine for the first time offender to $1,000.

I accept. seconder. Um, well, so if you're going to increase the first offense, shouldn't you also be increasing the second and third offense? Um, so before I approve the second, I think we should think about it a little more. Do you want to propose something? Either of you? I guess we just bump them all up by 500. Yeah. So, first offense a,000, second offense, uh, 1,500, third offense 2,000.

Um, I will say in our research, I don't think we located any other jurisdictions that have the $2,000 fine. And so, one option would be the 1,000 for the first offense, $1250 for the second, and 1,500 for the third. Can we do 2,000? Is that You can. It's a penalty, and so it's not tied to cost recovery. It's whatever amount will disincentivize the behavior. I think you're shooting off three fireworks. That's a pretty That's pretty bad.

If I may, just a question for the town attorney. If the current fees we're proposing that go up to 500 and the escalators are reasonable from the perspective of comparability to other cities, would how would you um would you do the increases you talked about or would you do an enhancement for fireworks that are shot off in a high or very high or some kind of sever wildfires severity zone? Um that that could be done. That's not contemplated in this proposal, but that could be done. to the maker.

I would just like to make it a flat $1,000 for the first penalty and the second one 1250 and the third one,500 townwide, not just necessarily in the hillside. I think we're getting it too complicated. Yeah, I agree with those changes. Okay. and and that included his other proposal also I think from taking the adopt a bench fee off. Yes. Okay. I agree to those changes. Okay. Um anything else?

If I may restate the motion just to make sure we get this accurate. Uh there was a motion by council member Badami and seconded by council member Renie um as amended to one pull the adopt a bench fee until we receive more information with specific um related to what do we currently charge and determine other options for a lowerc cost bench. And then secondly to amend the fine schedule for fireworks to reflect 1,1250 and500 as the first, second, and third offense. That's correct. Thank you. My understanding also.

Okay, great. Uh I will call the question. All those in favor?

Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously. And uh thank you again staff for working hard on that. I think uh when I think of fees, rates, and charges, I think those are some of the more unpopular things we do. So, um appreciate the thoughtfulness that that went into those. Thank you. Okay. Um we will now move to other business. And our first item is item 15, which is to receive the West Valley Homeless Services feasibility study and adopt a resolution of intent to support participation in the implementation task force. Um I will turn things over to Joel Pollson, our community development director. Thank you, mayor, council members. Um, we have tonight with us Vera Gil with Good City Company. Um, they are the group that prepared this on the behalf of Campbell and the West Valley Cities. Um, and so with that, I'll turn it over to Miss Gil.

Thank you. Uh, good evening, honorable mayor and city council. My name of course is Vera Gil. I'm with the Good City Company. We are a consulting company and I uh specialize in affordable housing at this consultant. Um, before I begin, I just want to say I want to uh make sure that I thank Joel Pollson and Katie Namura who and the faith-based community here in Lascatos who did work with us on this study provided um provided us with a lot of feedback um as well as information on what is happening here in Lascatoos. And so we'll go on to the next slide. I'm hoping that this is a brief presentation. So, I just want to give you a quick overview. Um, I'll provide you with some background on the study on the needs analysis in the feasibility section. We'll talk about what that recommendation is. I'll answer any questions that you might have. Well, I'll try to and then you'll have some time to um to discuss what the re recommendations are and and make your decision about how what we go forward with in the next slide. This is some background on the timeline on the study. Um, in July of 2024, Campbell allocated $100,000 in ARPA funding to um have this study completed for all five West Valley cities. And so there's two parts to the study, a feasibility analys, sorry, a needs analysis and feasibility study. Um, in December of 2024, the good city company was hired to perform to conduct the study and we kicked off that study. um in 2025. I already talked about the two project

components and some recent milestones for you. Um Campbell City Council in August of 2025 held a study session to review the needs analysis. Uh the feasibility study was recently completed in March 24th. So, just last month, Campbell City Council reviewed and accepted the uh the study and they um adopted their resolution of intent to support participation in a West Valley homeless services implementation task force. Just last week, the city uh city of Saratoga did the same. The next study, so this is just a timeline. kind of already gone over most of this for you. And the next, thank you. This is the table which has been corrected um from the feasibility study. And just showing you these updated numbers, what the results are, what the differences are between that 2023 and 2025 um point in time survey. and you'll see um I think the numbers for Loscatoos I think that that represents what you are truly seeing out in this community. I just wanted to go over a couple of other things. There was an increase for the five West Valley cities in about I would say it's about 15%. Um we're seeing about 200 new assessments per year in these five West Valley cities. And so that basically means that there are case managers coming out and talking to um the unhoused in this community and entering information into for the case management. Sorry, next slide. So this just goes back over what we saw

in the um with the needs analysis and what those findings were. Um, and this is when we compare the West Valley cities to the county overall. So, the West Valley cities are seeing more youth. 19% of the homeless households in the West Valley cities um are youth and so we also have more families with children in the West Valley Cities. you're more likely to um they're more likely to either sleep in a car or stay at a friend's house, what is known what's sometimes called couch surfing. Uh you have a higher rate of recently homeless in the West Valley. 51% um have been unhoused for two years or more and there's a higher rate of domestic violence survivorship. You also have lower mental, physical, health or alcohol or drug abuse issues uh compared to the county overall. Thank you. This just goes over what we evaluated in the feasibility study. We looked at opportunities for shared services between the five cities. Um, strengthening regional partnerships, alignment of resources, and responses to specific needs of unhoused residents in the West Valley. We'll go ahead and go move to the next one. I just want to go over the next these tables can be overwhelming. So, I just want to go over what they are in the study. Uh these are ways that we can address the unhoused. Um and you'll see under each one there are there may be some topics. They're hard to read but for like homeless pres prevention you'll see there are um ways to address it which could be tenant

protection ordinances and other things and they're each addressed individually in the study. But that's basically what this study what this slide in the study is showing you what those different subject areas are and what we covered under each one. The next slide is more of showing impact um in these impact scores by the program and you'll see the green means highest impact, yellow means moderate, etc. And we basically talked to some experts in the field to get to evaluate what the highest impact is and what the lowest impact is. And the next table shows us what the highest impact and feasibility might be in that top right corner. Um and then obviously in the lower leftand corner you have the least impact and uh least um the least impact and the the least the least way the least impact by addressing those areas. And we basically took what was on that first that middle slide, scattered it across this to show you where you can get the highest impact and what is the highest feasibility per impact. So we'll take a look at the next one. These are the study recommendations that we talked with all the cities regarding. first was to adopt a formal implementation plan. Sustain and expand what works, what's existing, and what's working in your communities. Prioritize programs with high feasibility and high

impact. So that goes back to that chart that we just looked at. Cultivate partnerships with um cultivate partnerships at all levels. Engage with people who have an experienced of being unhoused. align with the community plan to end homelessness which is being put together countywide. Identify funding sources and support neighborhood health, safety, and cleanliness issues. This is talking a little bit about the implementation task force that's being recommended. Um, it's recommended the town council adopt the resolution of intent to support participating in a West Valley homeless services implementation task force. This is not committing you to anou. It's not committing any money to the to the task force. Um the proposed task force composition would be representatives from each of the five jurisdictions, county representatives, key institutional stakeholders, uh and select service providers. The responsibilities for this would be to develop a formal implementation plan, establishing your measurable goals, divi, defining your governance structure and financing strategy for um for whatever is coming out of the task force and how to monitor progress in the future. Take a look at the last. So your next steps would be um considering a resolution of intent um preparing thatou and with the other four jurisdictions returning to the five jurisdictions with theou for adoption and initiating your work for the task

force which means at that point you would appoint someone to um represent the town on that task force. And one more. I believe the recommended actions from the report is to receive the West Valley um needs analysis needs analysis and feasibility study, adopt a resolution of intent to support participation in the task force. And with that, I can answer hopefully answer questions. Thank you very much for the presentation. Um questions from the council. Yes, Council Member Hudis.

Uh, thank you and thank you for presenting this work. Um I have some questions about the data um in the report and so I wanted to refer to um first of all maybe possible to put back your slide that showed the uh PIT counts um with municipalities.

I think that was the probably the fifth slide in Yeah, that one there. So, I had a couple of questions about the data. So, um I'm looking at a first of a very substantial decrease in the count in Loscatoos. Um correct.

Yes. from 81 to 27. So, do we have any idea what happened to the 54 people who are no longer unhoused in Lascatoos? Did they move into affordable housing? Did they move out of town? Um, what do what do we know about that number? That's a very substantial decrease.

I can tell you how the pit um the pit survey is conducted. It happens on one day every 3 years. Um the change from 2023 to 2025 was that the time that the pit count took place actually changed. So instead of taking place at 3:00 4 in the morning where um volunteers were going out and trying to find uh the unhoused where they were staying and basing this information on data that they were receiving from people in this in the communities the 2025 survey moved to an 8 a.m. 9:00 a.m. start. I think that the 2025 survey probably better reflects what you are experiencing in the community and what your faith-based community has been has been seeing. I think that these numbers probably more accurately reflect that. As you know, the unhoused can they're transient, right? So perhaps one night there are more here than on other nights. Um so it's really hard. That's why they choose one day every three years to do the survey, hoping to capture people in the community where they are staying more often or most often. And they rely on on police services, um your service providers and others to provide them with the information about where they believe people are staying and where they believe they can find uh unhoused. It doesn't answer your question about where the specific people have moved to because when they do the point in time time survey, they don't truly interview and and enter the information into um a database. So, I can't tell you the names or who

the people were that they talked to in 2023 um and where and they can't trace where they are now, but I can tell you I do think the 2025 numbers better reflect what you're seeing in this community. Um, thank you. And do we is there any kind of uh statistical confidence level in the PIT counts throughout the county um and the state for that matter where the methodology is used? Do do we do we have any sense about how um how accurate these numbers are?

They're only as accurate as if you can find they're you're always going to miss people. you're always going to miss people and there's even the possibility that people are moving around when the nobody's staying still. You're always going to miss people. So, it's not I wouldn't say it's highly accurate. Um, but it gives us a good idea of where people are in the communities. Okay. I just am asking whether there's any statistical analysis, whether there's a confidence level in the methodology that's used here. I I can't answer that question. Okay. For you.

Thank you. Um yeah, go ahead.

And so on the next page on needs needs analysis finding you talk about relative to the remainder remainder of the county, the West Valley had for example more youth more um uh more likely to sleep in their car, couch surf. Um I I think that the community college, West Valley Community College has a lot to do with that that it's maybe not necessarily a bad thing. It's actually students coming to learn and we have a concentration in the west valley that may be higher because those students West Valley Community College provides a place where they can park and stay in their car and go to and go to college and build build their future. So when I read this slide I you know it sounds bad but in fact it may actually be good that homeless people are coming to the west valley to get an education. I think it also reflects that you do have some communities that um have safe parking sites. Um you have Campbell who has a safe parking program and provides uh their faith-based community does provide locations. Um so I think anytime you have some jurisdictions that are providing safe sparking safe parking spots that you are going to see that reflected. I don't think I don't think anything I don't think it's bad at all. I think it shows that the community is trying to help.

Yes, Vice Mayor Stow. Thank you. Um to council me council member Reniey's point, I thought about did West Valley College have some influence although the rest of the county also has colleges. What age is considered youth? So, for the purposes of the unhoused, it's under age 21. Okay. Not 18, it's 21. Okay. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Um, and just to to Council Member Hudis's questions about the PIT count, I've done the PIT count before. Um, I I found it to be rather unscientific. You're you're you don't even know if people are unhoused or not cuz you were at least when I was doing it, I heard this might have changed for 2025, but you were trying to count people who were sleeping in their cars and you were also supposed to try to guess how many people lived in those cars. So, I think it was rather rather unscientific. Um I I look at our the 81 number as probably being an overount, but I also look at the 27 number as probably being an undercount. Um I think we're probably somewhere in the 50 range. Um uh and this is I think you know part of why we're having this discussion this evening is that this is an important issue for our community. I get emails weekly about you know our our Hutton House neighbors and and what we're doing about them. Um, so I had the um, uh, I got to get a little bit of the inside scoop on this at the West Valley Mayors and Managers meeting um, where we discussed this and I think one of your colleagues talked to us um, who about, you know, a little bit deeper into the methodology and also sort of the the need and one of the things he touched on was the differences in service provision between the West Valley region and other regions around um, the uh, the South Bay area. I don't know if you know these numbers offh hand. I'll just share this then maybe you can touch on this more generally. But one of the things I found particularly surprising was he he compared us to Sunnyale. Um the five West Valley cities have about the same population size as Sunnyale and about the same homeless population as Sunnyale, you know, with Yeah. Approximately. But the service provision here is significantly reduced. They have a they have a shelter. They're doing a lot to try to contain the issue. um whereas we're doing less. And so can you talk a little bit about what's being done in the West Valley right now? Um

and sort of where you know where this might point us to.

Sure. I I think you should also make note that the larger cities do have more resources. They have more funding resources and sometimes they have a better chance of receiving that um that funding from from the county overall. Um, so, so the West Valley City, I actually I was when I started this study, I was really impressed by what some of the communities are doing. Your faith-based community here does does a lot. Um, your town your town is funding hotel stays. Um, so I think that that's, you know, it's not to be I think you're to be commended for that. That's a great start. uh other cities are doing something other jurisdictions in the West Valley are doing similar things. Um you have some that that are not are not um participating but you do have cities like Campbell um which in Saratoga is is helping as well. They're providing some funding for safe car parking for the support services that go with that. They are also providing um the hotel stays. They're seeking out funding from the county overall to to continue to put together um different approaches. And I think that the fact that we're here this evening to talk about putting together a task force is a great start. A way for this to be addressed with all five jurisdictions is a great start. you're not going to get to the point where um to be like Mountain View or Sunnyvale or some of those larger cities which have more resources and are better able to to address it. But I think um you're off to a great start and I think that there are some great ideas from some of the the providers out there. I don't know if that answers your

question at all. Sure. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Um yes, to the town manager and then we'll go to the public.

Yeah. I just want to speak to council member Hudis's question about the pit count. I've been involved in these now in three different counties. Um the 2025 pit count report from Santa Clara County uh is striving for a 90% confidence with plus or minus 10%. But the methodology they're utilizing is to sample high probability census block groups and then to take a smaller random sample of low probability track groups to get a total number. And so there'll be weightings that apply for communities like ours because we have low probability in our block groups compared to maybe other parts of the county. And so to me, at least in my estimation, the 27 number, the 87 number is irrelevant. um and for the purposes of services and what options we should implement going forward. Um I would not want to invest you know million dollars on some initiative or some approach just on the basis of a pit count that we need to be very thoughtful in how we approach the issue and not just the issue in terms of the task force which I recommend we participate in and the further discussions in the west valley. We also have to be talking about the other side of the equation, which is ordinances that provide the tools for our community to respond to impacts associated with homelessness.

All right. Um, thank you very much for the presentation. Really appreciate it. And, uh, we'll let you know if we have more questions. Thank you. Thank you. Um, okay. I will go to public comment. We have two public commenters. The first is Karen Yamamoto. The second is leaf ago.

Hi again. Um, I had a lot that I was going to say, but I scrapped it. We are going to have a increase in homeless. It's only a matter of time. With our current government and the circumstances, things are getting harder and harder and being that a lot of people are ending up homeless due to medical issues. I think in what they provided, the other information that they provided, twothirds of the people who file for bankruptcy do it because of illness and are unable to pay for their medical expenses. And this is what the issue is. How are we going to provide for the homeless? But more importantly, how is their program going to help people not become homeless? That's what we need to consider and that's what we need in outreach. But is this the program that we need? That's the question I want you to pose. I also want you to talk to our homeless people, our community. And yeah, you're right. We got about about 50 people that are pretty much give or take. Uh some live right in the park next to you. And there's a apparently um from what my neighbors and other members of the community have actually asked me to come talk to you about is that there's a couple of empty houses that are being occupied by the homeless that we don't necessarily see or know about. Well, the neighbors know about it. That's why they came to me.

I'd really like for our town to actually look into this and to advocate for our homeless, but talk to them. They have fantastic ideas and they know what they need. Another place is Calvary Church, the house uh house of hope. They actually provide a lot of food and services. So, please reach out to them. Thank you. Thank you. We will go to Lee Figo.

Thank you for agendaizing this topic. It's it's one that's uh very challenging in our community. I'm speaking now as a 30-year resident of the town of Losatus, and over the years that I've been here, um I have met with a number of the homeless, and I categorize them into two groups. those who are economically disadvantaged and those who are psychologically disadvantaged addicted to drugs and and and uh alcohol and so forth. And the remedy is different, the needs are different between those two groups. Um I agree very much with the comments that you just heard from Miss Yamamoto. And I want to say that um over the years that I've observed the homeless and uh have had several sessions with them, community sessions um and this story shows this this report that the West Valley has the highest rate of uh in the uh declining and the economically disadvantaged given the cost of living are very much a part of this homeless group. The programs proposed appear to be a good tool for remedying that part of the population and the fact that the data that we show were shown to us that the 66% decline. I agree. It's it's it's uh perhaps not uh substantiated uh well enough that we can use that as a as a a a a good sign. Um but regarding the uh psychological issues um leading to addiction and behaviors that keep them out of housing, the drugs, social challenges, they don't

want to be live in a housing program that has guidelines that that uh limit what they can and can't do. Um the rules of behavior and sanitation. So, these are another part of the housing homeless uh challenge um that was not really covered that well in in this report, but I think it's an integral part of what we need to be working on as a community. And I have to say that this proposal proposal to align with the west valley does not reach towards the solutions that that these unhoused the psychologically disadvantaged and more than 50% of the homeless have been so far more than two years um which is double the national average outside of of proper shelter. Let's focus resources on the causes and then the services to remedy this. And again, I appreciate the work and the commitment of the service providers, the faithbased groups and others that are helping these folks. So, I want to thank them as well.

Thank you. Okay, I will uh turn things back over to the council. Yes, Council Member Renie. Um, so that last speaker begs the question, um, if we adopt this resolution to participate in the the West Valley Homeless Services imple implementation task force, um, what kind how much resource is that going to take from our staff?

Uh, thank you for your question. Um, so the short answer is we don't yet know. Um, I think as Miss Gil mentioned in one of the slides, uh, the next step would be go out an RFP for a consultant to help with the task force and then staff time from each of the participating jurisdictions.

Yes, Council Member Badami. So, reading the staff report, it says there are no direct fiscal impacts associated with this item at this time. Um, so with that, uh, I would move to adopt a resolution to support the town's participation in a West Valley homeless services implementation task force, uh, per attachment 4. Um, and also receive the the feasibility study. Uh, yes, I move to receive the study. Great. Yes. Um, Vice Mayor Resto second.

Great. Thank you. Um, okay. Um, I I just want to provide a couple quick comments. um uh and others of course can too. Um so I think it's really good that we're talking about this. I think I you know two highle things to say. One is since I've been on the town council I have gotten more and more and more outreach about homelessness. Um I think when I was first running for office four years ago I I this is an issue I care a lot about. I used to, as I've shared before, I used to run a homeless shelter that had I was responsible for 80 homeless residents and 30 staff at the county fairgrounds during COVID. Um, homelessness is a complex issue with a lot of folks who have a lot of different needs. And, um, but, you know, I think four years ago that was sort of a San Jose issue. Um, and and I think since I've been on the council, I've gotten more and more outreach about this. Um, we, you know, I've gotten several emails in the past couple weeks about a woman sleeping near the Walgreens in downtown Los Gatos. Um, there are some folks who are, uh, staying in the day um, during at the park near my house, though they do leave at night. Um, uh, and and I there is an there is an increase that I have seen and so I think this is an issue that we absolutely have to talk about and invest in. Um, I I also think that this more regional approach is a very thoughtful one. I think that no city or town, especially a small city or town, is going to be able to solve this on our own. Um, and the last thing I'll say is from a, you know, policy standpoint. I think homelessness is one of those rare policy political issues where at least at the outset, everyone's on the same page and that everyone is antihomelessness. No one is pro- homelessness. Um, so that's homelessness and traffic are I think the the big two ones. Um uh and so I think that's a really good starting place. Um the last you know sort of starting place thing I'll say is that when you look at this

the the chart that has you know the the different um things on it. We have implemented already the highest impact highest feasibility uh piece on here which is rental assistance. Um which I think is is very very good. Um we the town of Loscatoos invests in in rental assistance or has for the last few years. Um and and the other highest feasibility and and high impact one um is an opportunity fund which actually how our rental assistance is uh administered is pretty similar to that. Our rental assistance is broader or the the nonprofits we fund through rental assistance. They they offer a broader array of services than just rent. And so I think we're doing two really big things in here which is is very good. And then I think when you jump over to the other categories of things um we have you know we have some you know uh permanent affordable housing you can you know uh you can say we have that or don't have that. We do have deed restricted low-income housing so that's good. Um but the other three we really don't have um uh and I think loads I think participating in this regionally is very important. I think for Loscatoos, what I would like to see us continue uh looking into and potentially finding a partner to work with on is case management because we have uh rental assistance and the hotel program. Both are incredible. Um but I don't think fundamentally either of those is going to get anyone housed. Um they're not going to get any they're not going to lift anyone out of homelessness. And I think if we are to they're preventing people from becoming homeless and and stabilizing people, which is critically important. I think that's the base level. But if we are to get people out of homelessness, I think we have to look at these this other these other four in the highest impact, high feasibility um piece of this. And I think case management is is the next one for us. And I um will reiterate and I've talked

about this before at the town council that we have a large pot of money um uh to fund something like that for folks that have behavioral health challenges. Oftent times our um uh behavioral health challenged folks are our most uh apparent homeless population. They are the folks that that we probably get the most calls about. And so um I I would like to reiterate that I'd like to see us look into spending down uh some of our um uh money that can be spent on on behavioral health care um in the space of case management in the future. We're obviously not in a position to do that tonight. Um uh but it's something I think we should continue looking into.

Yes, Vice Mayor.

Thank you. Um you know, first of all, I'm hugely appreciative to the city of Campbell for funding this study and you know, as Mayor Moore pointed out, you know, I think a regional approach is what we have to do. when you move along the Loscatoos Creek trail, you don't know if you're in San Jose, Campbell or Losatoos. And so, you know, I think we need to coordinate services and I think pulling our five cities together, um, we will have more resources and we can work on this. I inherently already knew this and I remember years ago when Mike Werman was on county board of supervisors, it may have been like eight or 10 years ago there was a study that the county did and it looked at the cost of homelessness and what it costs the county and hospital and services and it's really expensive to leave someone unhoused. So I think even if people are not going to be compassionate financially it makes sense to move people out of homelessness. But to me, the other thing is preventing homelessness. And so, it's really great to see that the rental assistance program that our council gives money to and we have two volunteer groups that do kind of the on the ground um rental assistance, we've got to stop people from falling into homelessness. So the extent that we can, you know, we we need all kinds of programs to help people not to lose their housing because it's just devastating once they fall out of housing to ever get back in and all the other cascading problems. So, I think we've got to stay focused on that. And then I'll look forward to seeing how the five cities work together, what things we can put together that leveraging all of our abilities, we can be more regional about it and what work other communities can do and how we can work together. I mean, I feel incredibly fortunate. that I think Oscato in the West Valley is unique in that we had our um faith-based communities basically

doing the work on the ground and the easy lift for the council was to give money because we may not have a ton of extra money but we did not have much staff time or other things to we couldn't put up a shower program or start doing rental assistance at the town level. Um although we do have a staff member who's very involved with the uh hotel program and coordinating with our faith-based partners, but I think leveraging those relationships was a good start. And so I think we need to see how we move forward. But this is a critical issue. I mean, when I moved here in 1987, they were unhoused in Loscatoos. Um but the number has gotten larger and if we are not working with our regional partners, whoever is not addressing this is going to have, you know, we'll we'll see the homeless shift to wherever um we want to make sure that we're all working together so that all of the homeless that are in our region are receiving the services they need and we can lift them up as opposed to having this patchwork. So, I'm really excited to see where this goes. Yes, Council Member Hudis.

Yeah, I I applaud this work as well. I think it's um really important that we come up with some ideas to work on a regional u basis. Um the West Valley has a lot more in common than it has different uh and there are some differences, but I I think that we can recognize them um and work through them. Um, I would um also say that I think that um we need to be um being more uh assertive and productive at getting help from the county. Um the county is um you know has a budget that addresses some of these items like case management, health, mental um health, mental health and substance abuse, housing, some of these items that are on the matrix um and has uh the scale and the resource level. But Loscatoos is a net funer of these um services, not a net receiver of these kinds of benefits. And that has historically been the case um because uh the town has had a uh you know on average a relatively affluent population. Um what is missing from this is the calculation about our aging population here. And so during uh this time our aging population has grown substantially and uh that is where a lot of the uh challenges that we see in housing um and uh mental health, loneliness, uh

other issues. Um, and that population is growing. And um I believe we need to, you know, not only collaborate with the other West Valley cities, they probably have a similar issue in um getting a a better fair share of resources focused on Loscatoos um and the unhoused here in these areas of case management um health, mental health, and substance issues. You know, for instance, in case management, while um perhaps there's money and we could do more, we don't have the scale in our um government to administer uh case management. We don't have um the staff that's experienced in uh largecale social work programs. And so even if we were to try to do this um we could very well be wasting money or worse uh providing services that are not effective for the people that we need to help. So I think we need to continue to um assert ourselves with the county and particularly I like this chart. It's very helpful um because you can see the things that we're doing and what we're not doing and on those items I can see almost every one of them um that we could be doing more of is really with the help of the county of Santa Clara. So those are my comments. I hope that gets taken into the uh feasibility study.

Thank you. All right. Um then with that we have a motion on the table and a second. All those in favor I. Any opposed? None passes unanimously. Um it is 9:17 so let's take a quick break. Um let's try to reconvene at 9:25 because we're getting along pretty well and then we will conclude with our legislative priorities.

Great. I will reconvene this meeting of the Los Gatos Town Council and we will jump right into item 16, our last item on the agenda, which is our legislative priorities.

Uh, thank you so much, Katie Namura, assistant town manager. Good evening, honorable mayor and council members. So, every year the uh council reviews its legislative priorities. In the past, we have been ambitious and thinking we would have active priorities that we could actively pursue and watch and monitor and act on um as well as passive priorities. Uh now that we've gone through it, we've realized we don't have the capacity for active priorities. However, having legislative priorities identified are can still be valuable to allow uh positions to be taken under time-sensitive things. So, anything that aligns with the legislative priorities adopted by council, uh the town manager has a process that they can uh take a position. Um and then anything that's not aligned would still need to be considered by the full council. And so this is helpful because sometimes there are uh things that require expediency and there's just not enough time to have a whole council meeting. And so uh what we're recommending is that the council adopt the strategic priorities as the legislative priorities because realistically anywhere where we're going to have the extra bandwidth to work on something, it's going to be for the strategic priorities because that's where we're focusing any additional effort. And so it makes sense to align these two. We have even come up come uh in a situation where there was some legislation that wildfire related. We thought that this would be great, but it didn't quite we could we could stretch it uh but it didn't quite fit our our current legislative priorities. And so it might make more sense just to have the broader strategic priorities. And then of course anything that the council um wants to discuss as a full body, they always can. So if there's anything you don't want a position on, you want to bring it to the full council or you want a different kind of position or you want to just discuss it, that's always on the table. Um, so I am here for any questions and that concludes my presentation.

Thank you. I did have a quick question. Um, so I think this is great. I think this is very smart. I think this is a a good approach. You know, I think generally we don't do a lot of legislative advocacy. I think when there are I see as our role being important in sort of two key areas to me. One is uh when our state legislators want the town to weigh in on something, I think that's important. Um and then I think too when there's a key topic for us that that we feel is important, wildfire being a perfect example. One of the things that that I did think about that I thought maybe it it I think you can easily make an argument for why it does fall into to our strategic priorities, but I think about um state legislation going through the legislature right now on ebikes that we might have a particular interest in. Um, and so I wanted to ask in your how how would you think about if there's a if there's a new ebike policy that's going through the legislature and it says we're going to um create a training program statewide uh and and the town is interested in doing that. How would you think about that?

I mean it would depend on the n Oh, thank you for the question. Uh it would depend on the nature of the legislation, but there is in our strategic priorities um a desire to improve safety for all users, including bicycle and pedestrian improvements. And if you're improving the safety of um these users, I think that fits in. There's also um we do acknowledge our core goals, which includes public safety, but I think the one about bicycle and pedestrian safety is probably closest.

Okay. And so can you just talk through a little bit more like what your process would be if if there were something that like if a does it always I read the the policy um which says it starts with staff. Does it always start with staff or what if a council member says I think this is an important bill for us to weigh in on. Right. And then the appropriate action would then be send it to the town manager and then it starts the staff process. But yes, we we get the alerts through many different avenues. It might be through the League of Cities or a council member or even a member of the public and if it warrants our attention, we'll we'll spend the time. Okay, got it. Thank you.

Yep. Uh Council Member Renie then council member Hudis. You know, when I read this, that was one of the thoughts I had was also we can leverage the city's association lack whoever our representative is um to the city's association if we have certain it's it's likely things that we are very interested in or other C city cities are also and get that on their watch list and then it doesn't weigh down our our staff. You know basically the whole purpose of cities association is so each city doesn't have to do the same overlap work basically and league of cities can be the same way also um le leveraging them um I did you know one of the things that again I also would know I think we're we're heading that way but I'd be careful about jumping on something like ebike because I think it's a problem in all the cities and how much do we need to have our staff also jump on the bandwagon when it's probably going to move along fine. I was thinking where we might do more is where we maybe differ for some from some other cities for example um on housing element kinds of things. um the cities that sit along, you know, the west valley and and up the mountain range tend to have a slightly different view on on housing element, I think, than many other cities. Um there's a lot more attitude in other cities about building at any expense, and I think we like to figure out how to um more carefully manage the growth. And so we might have a different perspective

where we might it might help for us to be weighing in because we aren't just another one of many many cities but a set of fewer cities that have a different perspective. Um one of our strategic priorities says um dil diligently maintain and implement the housing element. I'm thinking towards the next housing element. There's already some people thinking about legislation about how do we get HCD to be I I'm going to say more fair. I think the legislations are more about how do we get HCD to help us implement our get our housing elements approved for the next time. So those kinds of legislations are something I think some of these cities in our our type have been punished by it and see how we can do better next time. I'm not sure I've said all that very well, but I'll I'll stop there.

Council member Hus. Uh yeah, I um completely agree with council member Renie um in terms of our focus should be on those things that are more unique uh to Loscatoos and that you know we have more um I would say experience and expertise with some of these issues. And so, um, I, uh, you know, I I I'm not sure where we are in the process, whether we're kind of offering opinions now or just doing questions, but, um, I think that that makes sense. I would offer one other one which is currently listed as um a passive uh it's labeled beach traffic, but really to me it's a uh fire hazard safety issue. And I think if we keep calling it beach traffic, we're not going to get there because it's just people complaining about being stuck on the way to the beach. When really the issue is uh the safety hazard that's presented by having gridlock and not being able to uh evacuate and not being able to get um fire vehicles into town. So, um I um I think that there was a draft here regarding number five, which was consider um working to adopt AB 2908 from an ancient uh session of the legislature, which is a bill that prohibits navigation apps from sending traffic into fire hazard zones during fire hazard days. And um it may be there

may be some other cities in the region that have a similar issue, but there's certainly other cities up and down the state of California that have that same issue as well. Any place that has a lot of um fire hazard uh safety zone issues um is probably going to be experiencing something like this. So, you know, that's one where it does link to a priority um strategic priority, our number one strategic priority, which is further the town's emergency preparedness and resiliency. And I think that if um we could make some progress on that, it would make a very big difference on the most hazardous days um in middle of the summer. And so um you know again I'm not exactly sure about what the approach is whether we're just going to abandon legislative priorities um for now or I didn't I don't really understand the statement so maybe I'm going to come back to a question which is what do we mean by use our strategic um priorities in Uh let's see. Let me just get the the wording of that. Um use strategic priorities as the legislative priorities. I'm not I mean I understand the concept of uh using strategic priorities to prioritize legislative pri priorities, but I'm not exactly sure what that means because the none of the strategic priorities refer to actual legislation. So maybe staff could comment on that a little bit.

Thank you for the question. Um strategic priority. So setting the strategic priorities as the legislative priorities would basically mean if somebody asked us what are your legislative priorities, we pull up the strategic priority document and say this is what we're focused on. Um and so anything that falls within one of those categories and is in alignment with the strategic priorities, we can then um potentially take a position on it. you know, staff bandwidth um accounting for that and per town manager and then we go through our process where council gets to look at it all of these things and so that's what that would mean. So rather than picking very specific things where you know the legislature changes there are different things that are happening uh it allows us to be a little bit more broad and can capture anything that's in alignment with our strategic priorities is fair game. Granted, of course, there's limited bandwidth, so we wouldn't be, you know, authoring bills or pursuing things that are complex, but if it's something as simple as, you know, we we want to take a support position, we can write a letter to that effect, uh, of course, um, pending, uh, town manager's approval. But, um, that's the process that it would go through and what we're recommending in terms of setting the strategic priorities as the legislative priorities. So, to your point about, um, traffic mitigation, there is an item specifically about traffic mitigation. So if there were to be a bill that we wanted to support in alignment with that, we could if we set the strategic priorities as our legislative priorities.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um I'm going to open up public comment. Um I do not have any cards on this item and I have no speakers on Zoom. Seeing no cards, I will close public comment um and look for questions or a motion. Um, Bristo then Badami.

Um, yeah, I sort of have a question. I mean, so for example, like looking at these um at our strategic priorities, I mean, I think something that's important to us, which I think has has died at the moment, is SP274, which was um ALPR legislation and talking about how long data can be retained. And you know, it sounded like a really good law and if that passed, that might enable some of our partner communities that are nearby that have suspended the use of ALPRs to go back to it. So, you know, that was something that came up at cities association under LAC. And I mean, for me, I am the representative on LAC. Um, Rob Moore is the alternate. and we can show up at lack and sort of come up with our own ideas of what legislation we want to pass and I think we know or work on we know what's important to loads but I think having this discussion would be helpful for us to know what do we bring forward that then cities association works on I mean the two things that stuck in my head and there's probably others was the ALPR legislation which I think is important to a lot of us and then the ebike and e- motor laws e motorcycle law SP1 1167 which one of the most important things it does is defines a class 2 ebike as 750 watts max and I think that kind of legislation would be very important for our police department for our schools everywhere else that draws a very hard line on defining what is a class 2 um ebike and you know because we don't want to discourage mobility we want to make sure people have ways to get around town, but we also know that we have a huge illegal bike problem and trying to address that if we had statewide legislation. It would be very easy then for the police to know which bikes they can impound. It would be very easy for the

schools to legally say you absolutely can't have that. So, I view that as really important. Um the ebike falls under our, you know, safe transportation. I don't know where ALPR falls under. I mean, it's sort of public safety or quality of life, but would we then argue that that's not under our strategic priorities? Because I imagine it's strategically important to us.

Thank you for the question. I'm trying to I'm trying to figure out if there is a spot where it fit would fit in. And of course, if there's something that comes up like this um uh at the direction of the council, so if you guys say or if we want to agendaize an item that says we'd like to support this, uh we can always do that. Um and um so it's more it's more it would the legislation would help our comm surrounding communities or would it is there any way that it would reduce our unfunded liability of m retaining records and things like that? because that would fit under prudent financial management if so. Yeah. But you you bring up a good point.

Yeah. I mean, and so for me, I don't know I don't know that I necessarily when I think about what this item is about. I don't necessarily want staff to go after and be promoting this. I think what I'm thinking is somehow I want a mechanism so the council can decide which legislation is important so that other council members, you know, we know how to talk to our legislators. Um the mayor and I know what to bring to cities association. Um we might miss something that all of a sudden someone brings up and the rest of the council's like, "Oh yeah, that's really important." It's like, "Oh, I mean this Thursday night we'll be we'll be bringing laws forward." Um if if I could answer that I I like the train of thought and I do think um for example let's say we did or the council did choose to set the strategic priorities as the legislative priorities. I to your point you're like it's still helpful to have a discussion of what what specific things are we talking about or what would be nice especially for a cities association perspective because we do have representation there. I think it's fair to kind of discuss amongst yourselves about or here you know to be discussing you know for example something like this and I think that does fit in our strategic priorities and you just keep you can discuss it here in terms of uh does that does that is that sounding good to everybody and generally speaking unless you hear somebody that doesn't I think it's worth bringing up during this discussion if that makes sense. It doesn't necessarily need to be a motion that we add it to our legislative priorities because really that's direction kind of to staff, but I get that it's also direction for how you um encourage uh others in your roles as council members. Uh if you do want to add specific uh items, you can do that. It just becomes more um uh just there's just more to it. But that's it's it can be done. So, I'll I'll go to Council Member Dami

in a sec, but um I'm I'm hearing it sounds like to me the council thinks that maybe the council thinks that things like ebike legislation, wildfire preparedness, um curbing the use of traffic mapping apps cutting through downtown or cutting through high fire zones on high fire days and flock public safety or ALPR public safety um uh legislation that you know increases transparency and privacy uh are things that we would say fall under our strategic priorities. Um unless there's objection. Yeah, Council Member Hudis,

I completely agree with those and I think that that would that would add more substance to our statement on what our uh legislative priorities are. Um, I would put one other item out there and that is to uh support reforms to the U housing element and HCD processes as well that council member Renie brought up.

Okay, I will now go to council member. I'll try a motion and I'm not sure it'll pass, but I support staff's uh position and the recommendation. Um, Miss Namura provided um me with rationale and alternative process that makes sense uh going forward. So, um I would move to set the town strategic priorities as the town's legislative priorities with regard to state, federal, and regional legislation. Great. Vice Risto,

I'll second that. Okay. Um, and so when I said the thing I just said, um, I I was saying I I don't actually necessarily think we need to call those out specifically. I'm I'm providing direction to staff and it sounds like without objection that if we if if a bill came up and I I agree I think the the flock bill for instance died but if there was a bill that said we want you know the state's policies to match loads's strong policies around ALPRs the council is giving direction this evening that that fits um and so I don't think we would need to take more action than that. But if uh other folks want to um make an amendment to the motion, we can of course do that. Okay. Any other comments? All right. Then I will call the question. All those in favor?

I. Any opposed? Not. All right. Um it's a 401 vote. Um and it passes. Thank you very much for the presentation and the thoughtfulness put into that uh assistant town manager Kaden Moira. Um okay. Um we will now move to council matters. Um we'll begin with council member Badami.

Thank you mayor. Uh on March 19th I participated in a meeting of a resident wildfire advisory group. Uh later that uh morning, I met with the committee chair of Lascata Thrives Foundation. On March 25th, I participated in a board meeting of the Silicon Valley Animal Control Authority. And I was encouraged to hear tonight from a speaker uh that a Slovaka representative visited uh Mr. Blaine's residence uh to recognize his electronic uh dog fence for dog containment. So again, thank you for providing a very detailed uh synopsis of uh your recommendation to the town going forward. But again, I was very pleased. I hope you were very pleased with the representative that uh visited your house.

Go to Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. Um let's see. On the 25th, actually, I'll just throw a little note in. I took VTA um to go to the Silicon Valley at home elected officials roundt. And it was one of those fortuitous days where I had time to bike to the light rail, took the light rail there, and then I had a half hour for a very brisk walk over to the county board of supervisors building for the HCD advisory commission meeting. Um, at that meeting, we basically discussed grant dollars and allocations, making recommendations to the board of supervisors. Um on the 26th, the mayor was unable to be there, so I had the pleasure of speaking at NEU. Um it was the Art Now preview. So this is um the countywide high school juried art exhibition and that night was the preview where students art was first put up. It's on display now until May. I can't remember when the awards night is, but I know Rob will be there. But anyway, for the next couple weeks, make sure you get there. The theme is before, between, beyond, and the students art is in a variety of formats. I mean, photography, sculpture, painting, multimedia, and it's just really mind-blowing. Um, I think they have 95 pieces displayed this year because they had some smaller pieces, but it's just an amazing evening, and I know I'll be back there multiple times to spend more time with it. Um, on the 27th I attended the Chefs of Compassion dinner. West Valley Community Services does this annual fundraiser. Um, primarily it's to raise money toward the services they provide. The fun twist is that there's three marquee chefs from the Bay Area that create one does an appetizer, one does the main course, and one does a dessert out of only ingredients that are

found in West Valley Community Services um K uh pantry that residents can get money from or get food from. So, it was it was an amazing dinner and a lot of money was raised for a good cause. The next night I was at the chamber gala in the Santa Cruz Mountains at Nestleown and our mayor was there to present um a number of awards to community members. So I'll let him talk about that. And then uh had a couple meetings with people that are interested in running for town council. So I made a point to explain that what they see at meetings is the tip of the iceberg and that all the other work we do on various other committees and boards and meetings and preparing for all these meetings is the majority of the work. Um he was not dissuaded so that's good. Um and then on the first I met with um a representative from a developer who is looking at the Alberta Way property preliminarily for residences. And that's it.

Thank you, Council Member Hudis.

Uh thank you. Um I had a number of meetings with the Thrive uh Foundation talking about uh site selection, fundraising, and um publicity. And um they're thriving and uh making a lot of progress. Um I participated uh in the source-wise um advisory committee um that is looking at legislative priorities for older adults. And um there were actually quite a few things that I didn't know about and that I think are going to be important for our older adult population. Um, on the 26th of March, I uh participated and at the Silicon Valley Regional Interoperability Authority Board of Directors meeting uh where we looked at the technology that helps our uh public safety agencies talk to each other and uh Loscatoos was an early member of this and uh it's a very important capability that supported us through the Super Bowl and we'll be there for the World Cup as well. Um, let's see. Um, that pretty another source-wise meeting. Uh, but other than that, that's pretty much it. Council member, I also attended the chamber gala and I met with the um the new developer for the Alberto way that that bought um that property uh from I guess the bankruptcy. Uh I have nothing else to report. Thank you. Um I'll go through mine quickly. I attended my first meeting of the ABAG executive committee where we voted to adopt the Bay Area plan 2050 which is something that that agency has been working on for

like five plus years. So it was a good good first meeting to attend. Um I attended Gail Pelerin's woman of the year celebration um where the um tongue-in-cheek first lady of Loscatos was awarded as one of the women of the year um Kylie Clark um uh which was very exciting. Um, one of Gail's poor staff knocked over all of the resolutions and Kylie's was the only one that broke. And so Gail made a very sweet joke about how Kylie has been breaking the glass ceiling so much that that of course her resolution had to had to break too. It was very sweet. Um, I attended the Cats Hill uh bike race through downtown Los Gatos, which I had never attended. It was very very cool. um uh was honored to speak there and and give a a little bit of thanks to that organization for bringing that to town. Um yesterday I attended the Thrive's monthly movie screening event or today yesterday um and uh uh great event, very well attended. Um uh was very impressed with that. I attended three um uh seders this um uh Passover, including the JCRC Freedom Seder and one at Shir Hadosh here in Los Gatos. Um attended a meet and greet for Kowanas and also the Kuanas Easter egg hunt, which is so much fun. If y'all I'd also never done that before. Uh 10,000 eggs. They were all on the the high school lawn. 10,000 eggs, probably 500 kids, and they were gone in two minutes. Um it was it was insane. um uh uh was happy for those kids. Um attended chefs of compassion in the chamber gala. I tabled at Los Gatos farmers market. I attended an open house for La Atellier um which is a new art studio in Loscatos um which is behind Ethos um right across the street from uh Athleta and um great new space to do art and they're doing all kinds of fun

things. I think tomorrow night they're doing Picasso and uh uh what there's a word that starts with a P that's wine. Um but uh drink Pino and Picasso. There you go. Uh you should vent these things. And the last one was attended a grand opening for the European Piano Academy. Um and heard some beautiful music um which is in the Trader Joe's parking lot um shopping center. Um really impressive things going on there. So um I will now turn it over to our town manager.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I also want to highlight the chamber event and the recognition that our town library received during that event for the impact that they have in our community which is absolutely wonderful and it was great to actually to be there to see that. Um I want to switch a little bit to immigration enforcement. I understand the sensitivity surrounding ACES ISIS's actions in other communities particularly where local resources have been used in connection with immigration enforcement. So, while the town complies with the California Values Act, restricting our law enforcement's participation in immigration enforcement activities, there's not a simple this is not a simple issue to resolve and a one-sizefits-all approach is not comprehensively effective. To provide a balanced and consistent process for the town, on March 26, I issued an administrative directive to internal staff. The directive centralizes review of discretionary immigration enforcement related requests from the federal government, allows town management to determine the appropriate course of action, and provides employees with direction if they are approached by federal immigration officials. This approach preserves flexibility to evaluate each request based on its specific circumstances, including any significant public safety considerations. As we continue to work with county and federal partners on matters such as human trafficking and serious crimes, it is important that we remain thoughtful and diligent in our review of any such request to preserve our strategic priority of remaining a welcoming and safe community for all residents and visitors. And if you read through the directive, what we've done is we provide a lot of autonomy to our departments and employees to implement. And this is why you see the level of services that we provide in a community. That is awesome. In the case of this

topic, I have now centralized any review and authorization to come to the town manager's office. So we can look at every instance of request across any of the assets and resources that we have as a town and evaluate the best course of action and depending on the level and degree of the request also bring to council uh that action for the council to consider whether or not we will allow any of this access. And I think what this does that it helps balance between the concerns and the impacts that we've seen in other communities with the public safety aspect of us um in the activities that we currently participate in um as it pertains to human trafficking and significant crimes. Um I think this is the best approach for us going forward. But if the council at some future time wants to agendaize a further discussion or action, you're welcome to do that in accordance with your agenda setting policy. Thank you to the Oh, yes, Council Member Hudis.

Um, just a question about that and thank you for taking the initiative on that um and listening to the public and the concerns on it. Um, would the uh process that you've put in place um be able to address the possibility of use of town property as a staging area, for instance? It depends. If individuals are utilizing public space in a manner that is normal and customary, like I'm parking a vehicle in a marked public stall on the public street, um we would not be addressing that. If the engagement is in a manner that is not in compliance to how we would park, so you're taking and blocking roadways or you're doing things of that nature, that is something that this would take into account if that occurred. So, for instance, if there were um a a number maybe large number of vehicles uh that went into the public u parking lot um and assembled there, is that something that would be noticed or addressed?

I definitely think it would be noticed. Um it'd be something that would be um consulting with the police department in terms of what is occurring because we don't necessarily know when law enforcement whether it's state, federal or local is in our jurisdiction, what exactly are they doing. In some cases, actually in a lot of cases, the activities are very covert because of the nature of the activity. you know, sex crimes and things that, you know, homicide suspects that are not aware that law enforcement's aware of their activities and where they are. So, it just really depends on what that matter actually is. That's why we first need to understand what is the nature of it before we actually respond.

Okay. Thank you and thank you again for addressing that. Thank you. And that is the end of my report. Thank you. Go to the town attorney. Thank you. Uh the town council met in close session earlier this evening to discuss two matters of anticipated litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9 and there's no reportable action.

Great. Thank you. Um to the town attorney, I did want to ask about a uh public comment we heard this evening from uh Mr. Blaine um uh about electronic radio fencing. Um, I wanted to see if in the next, you know, 3 to 5 months, um, perhaps sometime in the summer, you could provide an update to the town council on the feasibility of this and, um, review what what he provided, which looks pretty comprehensive, um, and and see if this is something that that it might be feasible for, uh, the town council to, uh, consider implementing.

Um, yes. What I'd like to propose is that I return to the town council in late August um with a review of what was submitted um and then if the council um after the council has received that information, the council could ask my office to prepare a draft ordinance for its review. Okay, great. That that'd be perfect. Thank you very much. All right. Uh, with nothing else, this meeting is adjourned just after 10