Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I call this regular council meeting of March 3rd, 2025 to order. Thank you all for being here. Um clerk, can we have a role please? Council member Renie here. Council member Hudis here. Council member Radami here. Vice Mayor Risto here. Mayor Moore here.

Um thank you. Uh we will begin with uh the best way we can start the a meeting like this which is with the pledge of allegiance from four wonderful young students. Um uh so we'll have Remy, Emma, Eva, and Mila. Um who will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Come on up. Oh, okay. You can come. Sorry, I wasn't. We spent so much time in the lobby, I didn't even tell you where to go. Um, so while they're approaching, um, I'll just say that they are in, uh, LGCS fast pitch. Um, and I'm sure they'll tell you all about that. Uh, but thank you very much for being here. We're so glad to have you.

Um, so do you want to say a few things before you start the pledge of allegiance? I I love soft. I love Lascatoos so much and how they show up for kids sports, especially girls softball. This is our biggest season in six years and it's because of the amazing families and residents who support us. My grandpa was one of the founders of the league in 1992. And it's and it's become a

a it's because of all the families and and residents who support us is why we still thrive today. Thank that's beautiful. Thank you. Does anyone else want to say something about Loscatoos or are you good to go? Ready for the pledge? You're good. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. And you're leading, so I'm going to give this right back to you. You're saying the pledge. 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.

Wow. Well done. Well done. Can we give them a round of applause, please?

Thank you all very much. So, really quick, I'm going to keep you for one more second. You can shake each of the council members hands. Um and then the clerks will present you with a little gift. So you can maybe start over here with council member Badami. Um I know lots of things. You did great. Always wonderful to have our our students in the community come out and uh uh start our meeting off on the right note. Um, and I'll just put a plug in uh for families who are uh uh interested or anyone um we we like to have students uh lead the pledge of allegiance at every one of our meetings. So if uh there are any students um in the community who want to uh do a future town council meeting um you can look up pledge leader locatos and it comes right up. Um perfect. Okay. Um so now um on this meeting um we actually I think we listed verbal before consent. Is that right clerk?

Um verbal was listed at the end of the agenda. So it should be moved up before the other business and after consent. Got it. Okay. So we'll so we'll go to consent then. Um so items on the consent calendar um are considered routine and generally non-controversial. Um and they will be approved in one motion. Um are there any council members wanting to pull an item? Yes. Council member Hudis. Um I understood we may hear item number three at a later time. Is that

Yes. Yeah. So um item three was listed on tonight's agenda, but it's being removed. Um unless there's any opposition, it'll be rescheduled to a future meeting. Um, as long as that's okay with the the council. Okay, perfect. Yes. Um, I had a question about um item number four. Go ahead.

Um, so part of the work plan is to uh potentially work on a new tagline for the town. And so I'm wondering um what is the current tagline? Does anyone know? I I kind of looked on the website and I saw something, but it seemed to relate more to um town staff and operations relating to service. Um so I'm just trying to figure out where we are starting from on that. Um looks like our senior management analyst might have some thoughts on that. We'll give her one sec. Thank you for that question. I'm Holly Young, senior management analyst. And the town doesn't have a specific tagline. The one that we've that we've used that's on the website is small town service community stewardship and future focus. But the tagline that is referenced in the town DEI plan would not be to replace that on the website. it would be a separate um statement that was specific to DEI. So um the way that I would picture it is something that would be on the DEI website pages and potentially you know in a common space like the council chambers or you know at a lobby something that says you know everyone is welcome here or you all belong. Um there's similar things that you know are popping up in doctor's offices and that type of thing. Um so that is the way that um I see that item in the DEI plan.

Okay. If I could just follow up on that then if that work plan were accomplished and there were a recommendation what would the process be for adopting that tagline? Would it go through other commissions um such as community health and senior services or through planning or or other commissions or would it just be a straight recommendation from DEI to the council? Would the council have to approve um that um tagline?

Thank you for the question. The tagline would absolutely need to be approved by the council ultimately. I in the DEI plan there is an element of community outreach that is referenced. So you know maybe something like a survey different options to gather community outreach if it's something that the council desired uh to go to other commissions. I think that's definitely something that the commission could do.

Okay. Thank you. That's that's helpful because um if DEI commission pursues this and their work plan and their work it we want to make clear what the rest of the process is to the DEI commission um so that they don't you know necessarily think that it's you know it's been adopted without other because there are other perspectives other than DEI on um what the tagline should be um you know, safety things, you know, um prosperity, other kinds of things. Yes, please.

Um Katie Nimmer, assistant town manager. Um thank you for this clarification and discussion. Um this item came from the DEI plan and so staff kind of went through and was trying to evaluate, okay, what items can we take on potentially this year? Um propose those to the DEI commission. This was one of those items. it in that in the DI plan it contemplates kind of like a a de DEI type of inclusive tagline. So that is the center and focus of this tagline. Um as staff contemplated workload and all those other items. We uh did not anticipate going uh to many different commissions. We were just going to go to the DEI commission. Uh they would make a recommendation obviously working with staff. staff would conduct outreach um which of course any any commissioner could participate in and ultimately would need to go before the council for final approval.

Okay, thank you. That's helpful. Um I don't have any other questions. Great. Any others?

Okay, great. We do have um a few comments on consent. Um so uh members of the public may speak. Um we have four items on consent. Members of the public wishing to speak um speak on the consent calendar as a whole. Um so you get one 3minut allocation um per the consent calendar. Um our first speaker is Namay Kumar. Um good evening mayor and council members. My name is Nimai Kumar, community relations liaison for successful aging solutions and community consulting um otherwise known as Sassi. Um before speaking directly to the DEI commission work plan, I would like to briefly acknowledge two issues that are top of mind for older adults in Loscatos. First uh senior nutrition. There has been a disruption involving the second harvest distribution site serving local seniors. For older adults living on fixed incomes, food access is not theoretical. It is monthly budgeting, trade-offs, and stability. Sassy is exploring the option of stepping in as a replacement distribution site so service can continue with limited interruption. Our goal is to prevent gaps and maintain food security for older residents of Loscatoos who may be impacted by the discontinuation of this critical program. Second, transportation. There has been discussion around the very real possibility that the county will cut all funding for ride in the upcoming budget, resulting in elimination of this muchneeded and heavily used service. While no permanent cuts have been announced yet, Sassi is preparing a sustainability framework so that seniors who rely on this service for daily trips to the grocery store or doctor's appointments can avoid returning to the isolated state they were in before they had access to ride. As the realities

come more into focus, our CEO Tyler Taylor will present the town with our plans in full. With that context, I'm here to discuss the 2026 DEI Commission work plan and offer one perspective that is sometimes underemphasized in DEI conversations unless it is named directly. Older adults. Age is not just a demographic category. It shapes mobility, income security, digital access, caregiving roles, and vulnerability to isolation. Age also intersects with disability, language access needs, race, housing stability, and health status. In other words, when we talk about equity, we are already talking about older adults, whether we say it explicitly or not. In Loscatos, older adults represent a substantial and growing share of the community. They are not a peripheral group. They are defining part of this town's present and future. As the commission moves forward reviewing events, communications, engagement practices, and partnerships, I encourage the town to treat age as a primary inclusion lens, not simply a secondary mention. That means asking consistently, are older adults at the table? Are participation structures accessible? Are we designing systems with aging in mind? Sassy is ready to help with that work, whether through outreach via our Outlook newspaper, Insight, or facilitating dialogue. Thank you for your time and the comm continued commitment for building a community where belonging includes every stage of life. I appreciate your time.

Yes, Council Member Hudis. Yeah, thank you and and um thank you for everything that Sassy does for older adults in our community. um the concern that you raised about uh the food nutrition program. Um I'm wondering if you've had a chance to discuss this with our community health and senior services commission. Um I was at the last meeting. I don't recall that coming up, but I think it's fairly recent news, right? Yeah, it's it's fairly recent and we're still very much in the process of exploring the options alongside Second Harvest. Um but there is no formal contract or anything of that sort uh thus thus far.

Okay. So would would you be willing to maybe um make some comments at the next uh community health and senior services commission meeting? It's on March 26th at 4 p.m. Most definitely. I'll add it to my calendar. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Brown Act. Okay. I had a whole bunch of stuff that was you listed so I have to redo my brain. Um so five you're saying that's not it's to be pulled and is you know because it's on so that's after verbal now. F number five, the review and because I had a whole thing on that one. Number five is on the regular J.

Okay. So, uh, three people spoke at the last um on 217. Um, two members spoke twice. Uh, me and and Yama Yama Carl Karen I meant. Um, and uh concerns is, you know, it's it's uh members of the public. Uh, let's see. Concerns with minutes with Karen with integrity issues because you know there are some integrity because I she's saying I can't speak well and I can't speak well. I'm not a public speaker but I tried to say hey there's some fishy stuff going on and uh the only one person that spoke on ICE was Burn. Uh he's here tonight. He looks like he's to do the same thing. Um so I think that'll be pulled. Number three, uh was a 210 meeting. Four people showed up. Uh again, Karen was uh she was one of the four people that spoke up. She waited till the last No, she actually uh uh zoomed in because she she uh you know she didn't want she said that you guys talked too much and it was like three hours into it and she came back and zoomed in and I looked at the tapes from last year and she zoomed in on that one too. So I think she wants to, you know, try to muzzle you from talking a lot. And then number four um was DEI. I went to a DEI meeting and they don't have any funds and I don't you know I don't know if that's on there but they say you got pulled funds they don't have any publicity and stuff like that so you have to help them out and and you know uh with I I I said something about um reconsidering I'm trying to get you to reconsider number

five that was about the h the LMA street uh flood you know I I I I sent you in supplementum material. I lived close by there. You know, I drove that street a lot. When I looked at the the the footage was on March 21st, 2023, it was a flood down there because the the the the it it because they the storm drain got backed up. They fixed the problem. If you go back there, that's that's a lot of money. $147,000 is throwing it away for an assessment that doesn't need it. And I I I want you to try to re reconsider that because that's important for the town. It's, you know, I'd rather see that go to DEI and other commissions. Split it up. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, do we have a motion on the consent calendar? Yes, Vice Misto. Um, yeah. I move to approve items one, two, and four. Recognizing that item three will be heard at another time. Great. Council member Hudas. Second. Excellent. All those in favor? I.

Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously. Okay. Um, we will now move to verbal communications, um, which is a time for members of the public to address the council on items that are not on the agenda. Um, I have a number of speaker cards here. Um, so we will jump right into it. Our first speaker is Rich Stevens. Rich will be followed by Eric Mohler. Good evening, Mayor Moore, Vice Mayor Risto, and council members. Um, this is a little bit different. Unfortunately, there's somebody missing here. who is this going to be addressed to? But um I want to give I don't want to give details because I believe there's an ongoing investigation, but I witnessed something very sweet and warm and I wanted to pass that on. Uh last week there was a police in incident in Lasatus that involved multiple agencies from a I think there was five different agencies and it was quite amazing to watch. Um, everyone's fine, but there was a young boy that was quite traumatized by it. And yesterday I saw what I believe was extremely something extremely special. Um, there were probably five officers, two cars, a motorcycle officer, um, and a number of other support people that had come and visited the boy. And there was a drone in the air. They were showing him all kinds of good things. Um, lights were flashing. Everything was just all about making him feel special. And I just wanted to thank the town, the police force, chief field, and everybody else involved that made this happen because these are the types of things that I

personally love to see in Lascatus and which is why I've been here all my life. So again, not directly at the council, but a thank you to everybody, including uh Chief Field, and unfortunately, she's not here, but hopefully somebody passes this on. So, thank you.

Thank you. We'll go to Eric, and Eric will be followed by Bernen. Hello, council. I'm Eric Mueller. This is a comment to encourage you guys to get the question of resolving or having a statement how the town might handle uh ICE if they are perhaps coming to town. So I just have a couple remarks. Um there is a a certain view that this matter is already resolved because California and Santa Clara County have both declared they will not cooperate with ICE agents and this is codified into state law and local ordinances. This is my understanding at least um which prohibits state and local law enforcement from using personal personnel or funds to assist with federal immigration enforcement. However, state and count county laws do not prevent land owned by individual cities like Loscatoos from being used to stage deportation raids. That's why several of our neighboring towns uh have voiced their support by adopting their own IC-free zone ordinances. San Jose, the city of Santa Clara and Mountain View are notable examples, but I believe Palo Alto, Campbell, Sunnyville, Militus, Morgan Hill, and Gilroy have also made it clear that assisting with ICE activities is outside the city's purview. Um, I appreciate that there are strong views on various sides of this issue. I think what u myself and some people here today are saying is give discussion a chance um meaning add it to the agenda to discuss. Um my hope is that we in Lascatos can calmly share our perspectives and ideally the town can

pass a simple resolution similar to what our neighboring towns have done. Um, I know that many who favor Well, I'm checking my many who favor aggressive deportation nevertheless still do believe that we that all people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and those of us who strongly disapprove of the tactics being used by ICE and the Border Patrol in some cases. Um, it's not that we believe that or wish that there were open borders. We just want to register our shock at the tactics being used and we want to stand in solidarity with those most vulnerable among us. Um, and so I'll just say one more thing. I was kind of trying to figure out this issue a little bit and I thought it was interesting that in it's our 250th anniversary in the Declaration of Independence, one of the grievances that was laid against King George III was that the founders wanted more immigrants, not less. And in their words in the declaration uh they said to King George has endeavored to prevent the population of the states for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners refusing to pass others other laws to encourage their migration hither. So anyhow um we are a nation of immigrants. Thanks for your consideration.

Thank you. We'll go to Bern Nissen who will be followed by Suanne Laurig. Miss Risto, Miss Bondami, Mr. Udis, and Mr. Moore and Mr. Renee. I thank you for your service. And unless you live in a bubble, would you not agree that no matter your politics, to the majority of Americans, our democracy is in trouble? So what should we as citizens do? Stick our heads in the sand or take a stand? Let me be specific. The treatment of illegal immigrants by ICE has been horrific. Not all are rapists or felons, as Trump would like to attest. I can carry a poster and silently protest. You can, as elected officials, rule that ice, not stage or operate on property that belongs to the town. This might help to bring the actions of ICE down. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. We'll go to Suanne Lur who'll be followed by Nigel Chandler. Hello, Mayor Moore, Vice Mayor Bristo, and council. I'm Suanne Laurig and a resident of Loscatoos. I am horrified by the documented acts of federal immigration authorities across the country where masked federal agents have apprehended and abducted people without identification, reading their rights or even telling them why or what is happening. They've jailed them or taken them to concentration camps across the country or even to countries where they've never lived and don't even speak the language or have family or contacts. They've done so violently and brutally, killing people, even taking babies, children, elderly people, disabled people, US citizens, people on their way to or leaving immigration hearings, people following the law. Yes, there are some that are undocumented ill here without following the law, but they've been taking everyone brutally. This is totally intolerable and we must let it be known upfront and be absolutely clear that we will not stand for such lawlessness and brutality here in Loscatoos. I'm here to ask you council to take a clear stance that the town of Loscatoos, including the Loscatoos Manino Police, will not cooperate with federal immigration authorities nor provide any resources to assist with federal immigration enforcement efforts in any capacity. That includes prohibiting federal

immigration agents from using town property as staging areas or operational bases to interrogate and abduct people in Loscatoos or neighboring areas. It is your duty as elected officials to actively protect the constitutional rights of residents and visitors, including the rights to due process, free speech, and freedom of assembly. And I would really like to hear from you that you have a clear policy that you will do so. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll go to Nigel Chandler who'll be followed by Kathy Mattingley. Uh hello everyone. Uh my name is Nigel Chandler. Today I am not speaking in my capacity as a complete streets and transportation commissioner but as a resident of Loscatoos. I can see today that there are many people who have come to show the town council we care about its position on ice activity in our area. Mountain View and the Santa Clara County level government have acted to disable their flock camera systems. So too has San Jose banned ICE uh from using its public property for ice activity. I believe it is essential that we at least stand in solidarity with the rest of the towns in our region. To illustrate why, I would like to tell a small story. In 1953, a Jewish American journalist and author, Milton Mayer, visited West Germany to interview ordinary Germans that lived through the Nazi dictatorship. In the book, he wrote about the experience called They Thought They Were Free. He interviewed a chemical engineer who had used his position in the Nazi party to shelter hundreds of Jews before he was imprisoned by the party in 1943. When the journalist asked what exactly went wrong in Germany in his opinion, the engineer said, "One day in 1935, a law was passed that required me to take an oath of fidelity. I said I would not. I was given 24 hours to think it over. And in those 24 hours, I lost the world." The journalist said, "Are you saying it was a mistake to take the oath?" The engineer replied, "Yes." The journalist said, "By taking the oath, you you saved hundreds of lives later on, which you could not have done if you

refused to take the oath in 1935." The engineer replied, "Yes." The journalist said, "I I don't understand." And the engineer replied, "Maybe you don't. You must not forget that you are an American and that you have never known anything like this experience. My point is that if I had refused to take the oath of fidelity, I would have saved not just the few hundred, but the millions." The fact that I was not prepared to resist in 1935 meant that all the thousands, the hundreds of thousands of men like me in Germany were also unprepared. And each one of these were like me, men of great potential and great and great influence. And thus the world was lost. These hundred I saved or a thousand or 10,000, however many you suppose. What do they represent? a little something out of the whole terrible evil when if my faith had been strong enough in 1935, I could have prevented the whole evil. In those 24 hours, my faith failed me. Over the next 10 years, I was able to remove only antills, not mountains. The takeaway here then is that it is essential to stand in solidarity with others. I hope that this story might resonate with you tonight in light of the current moment in our country. I would implore the council to stand together with the rest of the Bay Area, too. who if nothing else set the example that allows our residents to feel safe in expressing their disscent. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Kathy Mattingley who will be followed by Alli Mo.

Good evening. Thank you mayor and councel. My name is Kathy Mattingly. I'm here with Los Gatos Anti-Racism Co coalition um and speaking about ICE as others have done. To me, the importance is that we cannot uphold law and order by meeting administrative lapses with violence, deliberately cruel enforcement, violations of the Bill of Rights, public displays of federal force in peaceful communities where crime is on the decrease, and extrajudicial killings. All of these and other crimes are occurring whenever ICE and Border Patrol officers increase their presence. Rather than acting outside the scope of town governance, joining with other Santa Clara entities in standing up against federal lawlessness is essential local action to stand up for our neighbors who live, work, shop, and go to school in our community. Thank you for listening.

Thank you. We'll go to Ali Moano who will be followed by Joe Ends.

Thank you for taking my comment. I'm sorry I wasn't able to prepare uh any comments as my colleagues uh in the Los Gatos Anti-Racism Coalition. You've heard a lot of eloquent pleas, but I would just like to underline what they have said and ask that Los Gatos not cooperate with ICE. Uh, and as well, why not declare ourselves a sanctuary town? Not cooperate, not provide any of our property, not do uh and not uh use the flock cameras, etc. um get out of the business of terrorizing people who are just coming here to contribute to work, work hard. You see them working in our gardens, you know, walk down any street in Los Gatos, they're here every day. So, let's protect them and show them the gratitude that they deserve. And since I have the mic, I promise not to take all three minutes, but uh I would also like to see our council come out against the war. I feel like I'm sure many of you do that our country is crumbling beneath our feet and we need to stand up and and take a stand against all the craziness that's going on and all the havoc from Venezuela to Iran that is is going on. This is not the way for a country to behave. And so I ask you to please use your voice, which is slightly louder than mine, to stand up for what's right. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go to Joe Ends. Joe Ends will be followed by Captain Seuss

and community activist. I guess I can say that now other than Friends of Losish Creek. Um, you know, the homes are experiencing their problems as usual. There's been problems and they're probably going to have to move away from the high school, which I don't know why they all congregate in one place. That's never good. And if somebody's a veteran and I've got to go out and help this person with a doctor, you don't go out there to take care of this person from the VA because for whatever reason, you know, he's scared. And I understand all the PTSD issues of want not being able to accept care that's offered to you. And the problem is is this person and he's the guy that got in a tree when there's floods a while back ago staff actor not doing anything to help himself. You know, I get that. I got degrees in psych. You know, certified ENT, not right now. So, I get all that stuff even though, you know, I've had problems, but he's probably going to have to be removed. Um, and then I've got him appointment uh to deal with the physician to go out there on Friday. Well, he's made another appointment because, you know, the whole rebellious stuff or whatever. And he's kind of almost got to be dealt with because all the bad things are happening in his camp all the time. And he just allows anybody there, you know, and all substances, drinking, whatever. Oh, but he's clean. It's sober. That's just what is going on, you know. So, I'm working with police as best I can, you know, and they they got to do what they've got to do. I got I'm trying to help the best I can. And thank you for letting me help. Thank you. We'll go to Captain Seuss, who will be followed by Jeff Suzuki.

Okay. Iran war. I uh this is that's a major topic right now. Um I sent you in a p I give you three pictures. Um I uh let's see picture I brought up at 21726 about the you know the randrower and I I you know flashed this uh paper uh um I brought the the two pictures to the CHSSC commission on February 26th and this paper and uh number two was a prayer you know if one side this is a Tulsi Gabber one Besides praying to uh you know for for the state of the union and it's listening to you know my stance on this as a coming in as a prophetic dreamer and and stuff like that and uh you know they're just listening to Mr. 666 and uh you know I also brought up uh to the thing people fighting back with snowballs and that's you know something that kids you know I I uh did like to uh I I tried to turn in a a email. It got sent back at three for that thing and it had the picture of of the kids. I I don't know if you've that was in front of Safeway on Union and there you know kids on a a light pole and the the town I mean you guys I hopefully you saw this but a lot of people haven't and kids are to get involved and they're to get in trouble and they're to do they're to get hurt and I'm trying to prevent some of that. So, and and I wish that you guys would not pass this message along instead of sending it back and not nobody not knowing about it. Um, let's see. I also

wanted to bring up on biblical prophecies uh re Revelation 6:12, Acts 2:20, and Joel 2:31 about the blood moon. um like uh and p preum I'm not the p ur i m for the for the Jewish uh thing that's all related the sixth seal technically online there's a lot of stuff going on with with saying hey this is the sixth seal being broken I also want to bring up reconsider the storm drain that I brought up earlier you know that's a lot of money project uh north 20 uh north 40 phase 2 the traffic stuff that I wanted to bring up. Um, also, you know, I' I've been into the sports and it's March Madness. I had some basketballs and stuff like that, but you know, hey, March Madness, let's go, go, go. And I like to bring flowers and just place them because this is a town. I know you guys, me and you guys are are not on the same page a lot of times. Some things we are on, some things we're not. And that's it. Thank you.

You We'll go to Jeff Suzuki. And our last card is from Jason J.

Good evening, council members. Uh, first I'll start out by saying that I am not speaking in my capacity as a complete streets and transportation commissioner, but as the uh, president of the Losatos anti-racism coalition and also as a private resident, you cannot remain neutral on a moving train. there. The word authoritarianism is often just thrown around, you know, as a kind of buzzwordy and if the government does something that is forceful or something that we might disagree with. What authoritarianism really is is when we see people subject to the iron fist of the state and have their lives snuffed out. And the average person, perhaps the average local government official, looks at that and says, "That's not my problem. I don't see what sort of thing I could say. I don't have any role in that. And if we all think that way, we've lost. That is when democracy dies. I think about how eminently unreasonable the position that federal immigration agencies could make our town any safer. I think about undocumented immigrants who have been killed like Cio Viegas Gonzalez who was shot in the neck. Keith Porter who was killed under

mysterious circumstances and has had no meaningful investigation into his death. Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and was left bleeding in her car for eight minutes until she died. Alex Prey, who was gunned down in broad daylight, and Linda Davis, who was killed in a car collision as a result of a chase that ICE started. I would like our town to pledge that we will not cooperate or provide any resources to assist with federal immigration enforcement. I don't want our town property to be used as staging areas or operational bases to abduct people in our own town or in our neighboring cities. and I would like you to actively commit to protecting the constitutional rights of your residents and visitors as necessary. Thank you. Thank you. Our final card in person is for Jason J. Mayor Moore, Town Attorney Wheelen, and members of the council. I'm here to place this body on constructive notice regarding the severe municipal liability Los Gatos is currently carries by refusing to codify a non-ooperation policy with the federal immigration enforcement because ICE detainers are voluntary requests and not judicial warrants. Any use of town resources including facilities, personal personnel, databases to to facilitate seizure constitutes a warrantless arrest. there. Therefore, by exposing the town to direct liability for Fourth Amendment violations.

When these resources lead to the seizure of a US citizen and unlaw an unlawful interstate transfer, the town becomes approximate cause of deprivation of liberty without due process. In California, this is a direct conflict wi with uh the California Values Act SB54. Under the doctrine of negligence, per se, the town would be found liable by default in a civil suit as any informal cooperation with federal agents absent of absent a formal ordinance constitutes a de facto violation of state law. We are talking about multi-million dollar settlements for for false imprisonments under the color of law that cost our general fund and insurance will likely bear a loan. I'm submitting a formal notice of liability for the public record today. On what specific date will this council place a resolution on the agenda to codify our non-ooperation policy and insulate loss taxpayers from these predictable liabilities? I'm here to ask I'm not here to ask for your permission to be protected. I'm here to ensure that when the bill comes for the when the bill arrives, the record will show that you were given every opportunity to prevent it. Thank you.

Thank you. Um that was our final card in person. Um I have no hands raised on Zoom. I'll give it one sec. Seeing none, I will close verbal communications. Um, and thank you all for being here. Um, we'll now move to other business. Um, we have just one item on the agenda, which is review and provide direction on the meeting minute format. Um, and our town clerk, Wendy Wood, will present the staff report.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Wendy Wood, town clerk. This evening is before you. The item before you is to review the town's meeting minute format and provide direction on the format. As noted in the staff report, the policy committee reviewed this matter and is recommending the comm the council reaffirm the use of actiononly minutes with a format that only identifies speakers and does not summarize the remarks. To provide background, council has discussed the style of minutes on several occasions. In 2001, council adopted a resolution formally adopting actionononly minutes as the preferred format for the town council meetings. The resolution stated that speakers comments during public hearing items would include a brief summary and did not provide direction to summarize comments on other agenda items or verbal communications. Over time, the town's practice strayed from the adopted resolution. The minutes began reflecting summarized public comment on all agenda items as well as council and staff discussion going beyond what was stated in the resolution. This prompted a further review of the minute format in 2007. At that time the council discussed the minute format being used and directed staff to explore better ways to capture the essence of the discussion in the most efficient manner. No official action was taken and there was no changes proposed to the resolution. In 2013, the council conducted another review of the minute format recognizing that the minutes included an expanded summary that was time consuming for staff to prepare and introduce subjectivity in interpreting and paraphrasing remarks. At that time, council took action to transition back to action only minutes to refocus the

record to the official actions and direction, reducing staff workload, and acknowledging the the public video and audio recordings were available and provided the complete verbatim record of the meeting. This action included direction to identify speakers and listing their topics in their comments with a clarification that the topic of the comments include the speaker's position on a matter whether it was in favor or against and did not include a summary of the speaker's comments. However, there was no change to the resolution in 2013. The current minute format con despite the direction in 2013, the current minute format continued to summarize public comment for the agenda items and verbal communications. This approach exceeded both the required outlined in the 2001 resolution which limited summaries to public hearings and directed in the direction in 2013. As a result, it's necessary to evaluate the current M format and consider if it should be modified or aligned with the adopted resolution. In reviewing the current format, the policy committee considered several key factors including ensuring compliance with legal requirements, maintaining transparency, preserving the clarity and action accuracy of the official record, and use utilizing staff resources efficiently. Legislative bodies are only required to record the action of the votes taken. Action minutes focus on documenting the decision and direction with the full video and audio recording providing a complete record of all the remarks. The practice of summarizing public comment introduces subjectivity and requires several hours of staff time per meeting for preparation and review while

offering limited additional benefit. Since the verbatim recording of the meeting is publicly available, the recommended change would better align with our practice in the intent of action only minutes and allow staff time to be used more efficiently. Based on these factors, the policy committee recommends continuing the use of action only minutes and modifying the current practice to identify public speakers only without summarizing their remarks. This approach keeps the official record focused on the decisions, votes, and directions to staff, making it easier for the public to understand the council's actions. It avoids subjectivity and summaries of public comments or discussions, ensuring that minutes reflect discussions accurately without interpretation or any unnecessary bias. Supports transparency with publicly available recordings providing the complete unedited supplement of the official minutes. Improves efficiency by reducing staff time spent interpreting and summarizing remarks, allowing resources to be directed to other priorities, and aligns with common practices in surrounding cities. If council approves the committee's recommendation, staff will return with a revised resolution to resend the prior action and clarify the minute format for all legislative bodies. As always, council retains the ability by majority of vote to direct staff to prepare more detailed verbatim minutes for a particular meeting such as a study session or specific items such as a land development project. However, doing so would likely require the use of a transcription service or an AI tool as accommodating the additional workload may be challenging for the current staff resources. As noted in the staff report, there was also an informal poll done for

neighboring cities and of those neighboring cities, all cities utilize action minutes and they vary in terms of how they record the public comment. However, seven of the 14 cities do list public comment names without summarizing for action items and they vary in terms of verbal communication. And this concludes my staff report and I'm available for any questions. Thank you. Please, Council Member Hudis. Yeah, thank you. Um, I understand this came from a recommendation from the policy committee. Um, are there minutes of that policy committee meeting?

The minutes currently aren't available for that meeting yet. This just happened, the meeting happened last Tuesday. Okay. And so did you summarize the actions in the staff report or the discussion or any of the rationale? Correct. The the recommendation is the recommendation that the committee provided.

Okay. Thank you. the questions. Okay, seeing none, I'll go ahead and open up um public comment. We have one speaker card from Gus who already started, but I was at the meeting. So, I will testify under oath when this does go to trial and and you guys are already underinsured by 30 minute million dollars. You're you're probably $100 million. Um I just I object to this agenda item changed at the last minute from minutes to from the this was from minutes to an agenda item when I you know it wasn't posted. It's It's before verbal on for a record. I got to put that on. I you know I just put this in. I I wrote that in. But I I had this, you know, typed up. I would like to like town council to poll number five and put it on an agenda item for the public to have a say in this subject matter. I believe this action can easily be construed as a power grab by the local government administration and possibly to cover up ongoing misconduct in the that is being brought to light and should be investigated. I was at the 22426 council policy committee and provided supplemental material on this subject. Then to the the flag policy member of the public have been member of public me have been faint voices for complaints for public at larger

that have larger risen to higher things like ICE and people you can see I've been one of the first to speak out against ICE and I'm not a public speaker but you saw how many people spoke have been speaking out um such as ICE in which this me member of the public me is quoted as saying ICE about ICE and the current administration government I have just various concerns quote quote I you know I'm not for or against ICE but I'm just various concerns when everybody else is speaking against ICE there there's no record of me saying ISIS is you know or civil war or now world war um in such minutes at such meetings I can at such meetings I learned from the mayor it takes four to six hours a week for staff to capture u the by the public uh by the public, you know, these like I and I had the the you know, six lines of it. It it takes four to six hours a week just to have, you know, 10 lines of of what the public says. There's not that many people that speak here. This is one of the larger things, but there's like three or four people that speak and it takes four to six hours a week to to to jot that down. I think that you're you're you're you know, this is a lawsuit again because you're not agendaizing. You you have to give people 10day rule, you know, hey, put it in the paper. Say, hey, do we want our minutes reduced? This is a town. It's not a city. There's not that many people to speak. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, Lee Quintana,

good evening. Um, I've spoken on this issue many times before. I I excuse me. I support transparency in government. Currently, uh, what is being suggested would reduce transparency in government. It would we would gain efficiency and lose transparency of people being able to understand what's going on in our town. Particularly on uh the motions that are stated by both planning commissioners and council people and other uh committees and commissions. In my opinion, um, having heard other jurisdictions and in the past Loscatoos having much much better motions made so that you actually understand by reading the motion what is being approved that it doesn't just refer back to the staff report for the findings and uh doesn't refer back to the staff report for various other things which causes you have to want understand what actually went on and what was approved, you need to go back to the audio. And um at the very least, if you're going to do this, and I I pray that you won't, uh you need to indicate the time period on the minutes that the the motion was made. So somebody can go back and listen to just that section that they want to without uh sacrificing individual efficiency for uh transparency.

Thank you. Um there are no other hands in person and oh looks like you do have a question.

I actually have a question for the speaker Miss Canatana. Sorry. Um, it sounds like you're bringing up two different points that one that could be solved in one way but wouldn't be solved by more extensive minutes. I mean, one of the comments you made that I can understand is that sometimes motions are made that refer back to a staff report. So, one cure for that would be to ask the council to make more extensive motions because even with verbatim minutes, you would still hear a motion that refers back to something that you would have to then look up. So,

can you pull that apart how that relates to this policy or are you talking about a a practice? Well, it it sort of comes together because if if you have action minutes that don't give you that information, uh then the public isn't being informed at all. They can't even tell whether they're interested in knowing more about something when when the motion is just approve as stated in the staff report. Um and findings aren't iterated. And so you really don't know what's what is being approved or a statement can be made uh the changes as stated by the commission or the or the council in the discussion. You don't know what that motion really is. And and so I think it's it's both to me it's a question of um much better motion making which when I first started coming

No, I understand what you're saying. Thank you. Okay. So it's an action in addition to but it's also a question of how an item is described in the first place and in in things that involve land use. I think we could do a much much better job in getting across what is actually uh before. Okay. Thank you. You answered my question. Thank you. you. Okay. Um with no hands raised on Zoom, we will close public comment on uh these items. Um and uh look to the council for questions or a motion. Yes, Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. Um I think I understand the difference, but I would like to ask staff, can you describe to me the difference um between the recommendation and alternative number one? I'm trying to understand what would look different um in the minutes.

So the the recommendation by the committee was to list names only for all speakers and not summarize their comments. So that would be for verbal consent public hearing and other business items. And the the first recommendation would be to align our practice with what is stated in the adopted resolution which says that we would um summarize comments for public hearing items. Okay. Not verbal but just public. I think what threw me was it says in there it would lessen staff workload and rel reduce the level of detail in the minutes. Are you saying compared to our present practice or compared to the recommendation?

Correct. So compared to our current practice, so our current practice would either either the recommendation of council would be to go with the recommendation from the committee or the first option would be to align with the resolution which is not the current practice right now. Okay. Thank you. Yes, council member Badami. Thank you. Um when we met um the mayor and I it was my understanding and it's here in the staff report that action minutes are intended to document official actions taken by the legislative bodies including motions, votes and direction to staff. So wouldn't we continue to do that? I I

if I may add and I think some of it was in the presentation, the council passed a resolution that would require only the documentation of public hearing items, the verbal communication, not the council's communication, not uh communication on other items. Our practice has been to do public comment for most of the matters, which is not in alignment with the 2001 resolution. And so the time savings is the time it takes the clerk to have to go back, review the video, try to figure out how to best summarize statements made by individuals on the areas that were not contemplated in that resolution. I think council member Badami was asking about specifically motions.

Yeah. Because this doesn't change anything about it. It does not change the motions and the actions and the votes. Okay. because it, you know, uh, Miss Quintana brought up the fact that the minutes would not be clear if they were changed that the public wouldn't understand what the content of a motion was, but I don't think that there would be any change on that from our current practice. No. And I think the clerk has done a great job improving upon the context around that motion when there's references to other documents that she's actually adding language into the into the action minutes to demonstrate that so it's cleaner. Okay, that that was my understanding. Thank you. Town clerk, did you want to add anything?

Yes. So, I just wanted to clarify the action minutes do reflect the action taken by council. So, that would be the motions. Our typical um way that we record that is that we record all actions as close to verbatim as possible. And so, in the minutes, you will see sometimes that we do bracketed items. So when there is a reference to a recommendation listed in the staff report, we'll add brackets denoting that that wasn't stated, but then it clarifies what that is. So that if a member of the public is reading the minutes, they'll know exactly what that recommendation is without having to go back to the report, which is something that I had to do when I was researching this because the minutes did say as recommended in the staff report. and then I had to see if I could find the staff report to see what that recommendation actually was. So, yeah, the action minutes do record the actual action taken.

Thank you, Council Member Hudis.

Um, yeah, I would like to maybe just comment that I think the um the minutes the action minutes that we are being provided with now are um an improvement and contain a lot more information. some of the issues that Miss Kentana um raised I think are um being clarified in our current action minutes. Um I I understand that um that the uh verbatim video is being offered as an alternative to um summary minutes. Um, the issue that I have with that is that I can't find stuff. Um, when I try to understand in a three-hour DEI commission when an item was discussed, I have to watch three hours of video or whatever it takes to come to that point. Um, same thing um with planning commission, same thing with community health and senior services commission. Um, so is it possible, um, as Miss Kintana noted, to timestamp the minutes, um, when an action is taken or, um, to index or bookmark the video recordings so that we can actually find things. And I'm I'm not so much talking about the council meetings, um, but more about some of the other commission meetings.

Happy to answer that. Um, yes, for the council meetings, you will notice that we do index those items. Um, we don't index when there's public comment. That would be another header we would have to add. So, the way that we do the indexing after the meeting, it has to align with a header. So, we have to timestamp that and attach that to each of those headers to denote when that item is being heard. In terms of the commissions, the commissions are audio only recordings. We don't do Zoom recordings, so we don't have the capability of timestamping the audio recording. So, that would be something if council wish to pursue that, we would have to look at maybe some other um equipment or some other um services to look and see how we can um timestamp that. or if they wanted to go with um a zoom as an option for viewing only then we can um add those timestamps in for those items. We could also denote in the minutes but I can't speak towards the commissions if they have the capacity to review those items and um for the audio and time stamp them in the minutes. Just as a followup, um, so it sounds like there would be additional work to index or bookmark the video or audio recordings. Um, is that more work than creating summary minutes of those meetings?

Currently for council meetings, we do index all of the meetings. Um, like I stated that we just don't index if there's public comment or anything further other than when the item started for discussion. So that's a current practice that we already have um that isn't necessarily that time consuming. Okay. But I'm I'm talking about the other commission meetings. um is it would it take more time to write summary minutes of those meetings or more time to index um the recording so that we could find where when an item is discussed?

Um I think indexing would be much quicker like I said um summarizing comments is up to subjectivity and then you have to try to pick apart what you think the intent is and what you think is important to summarize. But we would have to have the capacity or the capability to have the tools to um timestamp those because right now they're audio only and we don't have that capability other than if you're listening and noting it possibly in the minutes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I'll look to the council for a motion.

Council as Rosenberg's rules say we want a motion to discuss. So, I'll go ahead and make the motion to um support staff or the policy committee's recommendation. Thank you, Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. I'll second. Um, and then if I can ask a follow-up question of the clerk, when we're talking about timestamping, um, if you don't timestamp the audio, but the minutes just have the the time marker in it for each item, I think that might be what um, Council Member Hudis is asking for. That sounds simpler than trying to manipulate an audio file. I mean, which one is the hard thing?

I I think the challenge, as um Council Member Huda stated, is the audio recording because there isn't anything that denotes when there's an item or when there's a public speaker. the audio is a little more difficult and some of our commissions don't always um state audio um state verbally um when somebody is speaking or when somebody is moving to the next item or who is speaking. Sometimes they just start speaking out of turn and don't announce who's speaking. So it could be more challenging to determine when to time stamp those. Um but there are other avenues we could explore in terms of um a video only option possibly.

Well, I mean the other thing I was thinking of just super simply if you have an agenda for for example the finance commission and there's five items just in the minutes where item one is just what time that was on the when that started on the audio. Item two comes what time that was on the audio. you know, the minutes would just state for each item where that was on there. Not anything more complicated than that, just so somebody knows how to parse it. If it's a two-hour meeting, okay, I look at an hour and 45 minutes and I'm close. But I I also agree with you. I try to remind commissioners a lot of times they don't actually use the microphone. They speak out of turn. They don't get their name called. And when you're listening to it, it's really frustrating.

Correct. Yeah. And I think that that that could be something that staff could do. I would have to reach out to the liaison and just make sure that that that would be something that they have the ability to do. Okay. That might be something we would return to at another time then. Thank you, Council Member Hudis. Um yeah, I mean I think um I think it's a good idea uh to do that, but I guess the question is um aren't the recordings often made available well before the minutes are made available like in the case of uh what we're talking about tonight.

Correct. Yes. A lot of times the audio is uploaded the very next day so people can hear that prior to the minutes. Whereas if it's a monthly meeting for commissions, the draft minutes wouldn't be um available to review until the agenda is posted before the next meeting. Okay. Um I had another question. Go ahead. Um this is about study sessions. What under this policy, what would the minutes look like for a study session?

Um, if it's the action only that's pursued, then it would be the same as the council meeting minutes where it would just reflect the speaker's names that spoke and any action that was conveyed. So typically with study sessions if there's direction to staff that's clearly a majority of the council that would be reflected in the minutes um or any direct action of council. So any motions that are made would be reflected in the minutes.

Okay. So for for instance um if uh we had an expert speaking about squa and uh provided some information that information wouldn't be published. Is that correct? Not not with the action minute formats. So that would be available um in the audio or video recording or if a majority of council wished to have that summarized or a verbatim transcript that would be something that the council could request. Um,

so my understanding is that a study session because there is no notice there really can't be action taken. Is that correct? I mean I think it says that right at at the beginning of a study.

I can jump in. Um so I think so for instance there's an upcoming study session on objective design standards and I think one outcome of that might be um we would like staff to bring back an ordinance for our consideration that says X Y and Z and so they're not taking action but they are providing direction to staff on what product to bring back when a decision is made. So, if I could just follow up, I mean, wouldn't that be exactly the type of thing where the the council is asking staff to expend effort that require that now requires a majority of the council um to to do um I mean, that's exactly the type of thing that was described as an action that would require now a council majority. Yes, it would require a majority and if I understood the town clerk correctly providing that direction would be captured in the minutes.

Yeah. And I'm going to ask you pose a question to the attorney. I know we refer to these meetings as study sessions and we use them for specific purposes, but isn't it actually just a special meeting, no different than a council meeting other than it being not being the regular meeting? Um, no. study sessions um mean that no action is taken um because it's it's to get opinions from the decision makers to direct the further work of staff. Under the Brown Act, it defines it as a study session, not a special meeting.

Um the Brown Act defines special meetings. A study session isn't a term that's covered in the Brown Act. Um but the common practice is to have it that no action is taken at study sessions. I know in terms of how we utilize it, but my understanding is at any meeting the council that's agendaized can take an action. So while we call it a stud a study session, it is our practice not to have it as actions, but that doesn't forestall the council from having actions that they could take, right?

Um well, whatever uh potential actions are possible would need to be accurately captured in the agenda's description. Um, and so as you know, typically it would say provide direction to staff on the following topic. Um, if it were to say, you know, vote on a potential ordinance, that would require a public hearing notice. Um, and so there'd be much stricter notice requirements.

So I I guess where I'm getting at is for the council, it really is about the intent of what you're trying to accomplish. And so if we're walking into a meeting and having a general conversation that eventually leads to some direction, the council can ask for more detailed descriptions and minutes of that specific meeting if there's a value to what's coming out of there. If it's leading up to, you know, I move there's a second to give direction to staff to come back with an ordinance that could be evaluated in public, that action will be documented in the minutes of that quote study session because it's still a agendaized meeting of the council. And so I really I I think the crux of this is you have to ask the question, what are their meetings minutes intending to do for the council? And then when you want to adjust from that, you at any time could give direction to staff to go from absolute verbatim or back off to summaries or just action only.

Vice Mayor Risto. Um yeah, the other comment I was going to make is certainly coming out of some study sessions, we've had staff put out FAQs afterward. And so, you know, given a study session where we might have experts or other people speak and then there's a bunch of questions that come from the council and the public, those questions and answers at council direction are published. Correct. Plus, we have the video.

It was what was requested. So it really it depends when we went through the SQA discussion because I think that was the one that was presented was the intent was it would be nice to have question answers because the topic of SQA comes up frequently across multiple developments. So absolutely that was that was the right request by the council. It made sense we spend the time to do that. on a different study session. We just as a hypothetical, we may have a conversation about strategic priorities and it could be a fivehour conversation with a hundred residents that are speaking to that. You may choose to take a different action on how you want to document that based on what had occurred or what the topic was. So what we're just trying to say is just because we go action only doesn't mean you can't do more. And in today's age, we have video where in the past, we didn't have that for somebody to go back and be able to see everything that occurred. They really only relied on the minutes. And if you go further back, you didn't even have staff reports that would be available many years later to go back and understand, well, what was the context of the conversation?

Go ahead. So, in the spirit of Rosenberg, I'd like to offer an amendment. Um so we can continue the discussion of this and I would ask to amend the motion um with the following language that says except for non-actionable public meetings such such as study sessions for which summary minutes or FAQs shall be provided. And that would, you know, to amend the um recommendation from the policy committee. Yeah. Vice Mayor Risto.

Um I'm not sure how I feel about that. I think it's unnecessary because at any meeting we can always make a request. You know, at any study session, we can make a request for extra information. I just think going action only makes sense and then when we have a study session, we can ask for more. nothing about this policy rec precludes council from asking more and I don't know that I mean it almost sounds like from your statement then always with every study session there's going to be extra information coming out and every study session might not meet that criteria

is a motion without a second the amendment Oh I have a question for staff

yeah So when I look at the resolution that would be brought back and the wording it says number B so as to clarify the record of public hearing items. Is a study session considered a public hearing? Um so it's a public meeting but then public hearings the technical definition is a hearing that was required to have public notice per the government code. Um and so it would be a examples of that would be like formation of a landscape assessment district or um putting something on the ballot or making a land use decision. Um all of those have special public notice requirements in the state law and so technically those are what are considered public hearings. So, that being said, with um the friendly amendment by council member Hudis, if if that was to carry, would that be something that would be modified in the resolution if it was the will of the council to pass it?

Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, the motion fails for lack Yeah. Go ahead. Could I just clarify um what I stated?

Sure. Um so it it says except for non-actionable public meetings such such as study sessions for which summary minutes or FAQs shall be provided. So it doesn't specify um uh summary minutes which I recognize would be cumbersome for something like the strategic uh priority session. Um and I would just add a comment to this is that we put a lot of time, money and effort into these uh study sessions including um you know paying experts to attend and this is where I have more of an issue. It's not with action minutes for our normal meetings. It's when we've gone to great effort to uh have um a study session and then there's no action taken because no action can be taken at a study session according to the town attorney and um there will be nothing uh there'll be no record of this which I don't think um benefits transparency. Yes, Council Member Rudami.

I don't know if this should be through the mayor or for the town manager or town attorney to answer, but um with the amendment, that's not a substitute motion. That's an amendment that you're looking for council member Renie to accept as an amendment to his motion. I'm not clear on whether it's a friendly amendment that would require that or would require uh someone else seconding. I don't know. My understanding is um under Rosenberg's if it's a friendly amendment, the maker of the motion um would need to accept it and then the alternative would be to propose an alternative uh motion.

Oh, I thought there was a procedure for an amendment to a motion. There's an informal. So, as we did the presentation, there's an informal. So, you made a request and it could be accepted informally by the maker and the seconder. Uh you can make uh the chair can choose to take that informal and make it a formal amendment for which the council can consider amending that or you can just restate the entire motion as a substitute motion which is the most formal action and that would take precedence over the existing motion. Yes, council member Renie.

So he did request it as an amendment. So, I should be responding and never really to jump in all of that.

Um, I'm I'm uh you know, I can I'm I'm kind of favorable to the idea, but I'm concerned about again whether we want to staff to go through all the trouble for every study session. I think it makes sense for FAQs for a lot of study sessions. I personally think we have more study sessions than we need. I mean, there's some that I don't think we should have even had. And then to make staff do FAQs on a study session I didn't think was necessary just feels like even more work. So, I'm I'm hesitant to take it the way it was written. If there's some way that the then maybe council will decide at each study session whether FAQs are needed or not. Maybe some that that way it's you know there's a decision point in the future.

So it sounds like you do not accept the amendment. I don't want to accept it as as stated but I'm somewhat favorable to the idea. Okay. Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. I was thinking the same thing. I mean given the use of the word shall, it suddenly requires any study session we have no matter what the topic is whether there's experts or not um is going to require staff to have to either do summary minutes or FAQ when in fact without that part of the motion any meeting we have we can request by a majority direct staff to create FAQ or summary minutes or something right we always have that right This this policy would not preclude us from asking for more from a specific meeting. Is that true?

Correct. What we try to do is make sure we have either a video or an audio, which is the foundation for anything that the council may ask for. So, while I appreciate the spirit of the amendment, I think it's potentially overkill and at the least unnecessary.

Yeah. And I'll just chime in with my thoughts. the, you know, when the policy committee discussed this, a big part of the impetus was the fact that, you know, was the learning that it takes several hours, you know, to to go through and go through the minutes. And part of the discussion at the the policy committee, too, is we looked through I looked through several of our previous meeting minutes. Um, and the to summarize I I had never really thought about this, but to summarize a comment from a a three-minute public comment from a speaker in a into one sentence is actually a rather difficult task. I don't know how I would often do that, especially when speakers may talk about a variety of things and it's not clear if they support or oppose. And so I think it puts our staff in an uncomfortable position. Uh especially when for council meetings the in my opinion the best way to understand what went on at the meeting is to go watch the recording. And so and especially for you know council meetings when when the comments say something like the speaker you know if a speaker gives you know their perspective on 10 different things and the that necessitates the summary reading the speaker voke on spoke on various items that's not useful but it still required staff to sit down listen to that three-minute comment could try to think about how to put it together decide oh it's too tough you know and then go to the next one. Um, all to say the the my uh interest here is to reduce the amount of staff work. Um, and so I don't think that requiring um uh FAQs or summaries on all uh study sessions is is a good, you know, move in that direction. I I you know going back to the the sort of the topic um this

evening I I like the idea of just listing um speakers names rather than um listing their you know comments. I think that would save staff several hours per meeting. Um and I think that's a meaningful difference to a uh town clerk's department that has many many things on their plate. And um uh I I you know so I think I want to you know uh couch this in the I think I think the goal should be to reduce staff time. Um yes, Council Member Hudis.

Yeah, thank you. Um and I agree that um reducing the work of uh staff to summarize speaker's comments um for um for for normal uh decisions in the council makes sense and so I agree with that. Um but I would say that from my perspective there's not just one goal of reducing staff time. there's another goal of uh providing transparency for the public and for the public to be able to understand what's going on in meetings. And so, you know, when I look at this, I say, okay, the objective of this is to reduce staff time, but what is the objective with regard to our public? And um so I have another thought um having heard the comments um and have a a different amendment um um basically to say uh except for non-actionable public meetings such as study sessions for which summary minutes or FAQs may be provided and this will be uh discussed and decided at the meeting. And the reason I added that is that um I think it's easy for me as a council member to forget to ask about that. And I would appreciate a prompt in the staff report or from the clerk about do you want to have an FAQ or do you want to have any record of this and then have the council discuss it and um have a majority vote on that?

Council member. Um, the way that was stated, I I agree with that. I think it's a good idea to have a reminder, but have it decided at at that meeting so we can decide whether it's worth the ef extra effort. Um, so I would accept that. Um, I I'm also thinking about another amendment to my motion. Um, but maybe you want to check on the seconder on that one before I go to that. Okay. The seconder accepts the present friendly amendment. All right.

Excuse me. I'm getting over cold. Still got a little something there in the chest. Um it was discussed. So we are taking some work off of staff by not having them to to try to go through the subjectivity of summarizing speakers comments which I I worry a lot about because it is very subjective and you can get people but go well that's not what I meant. Well, you know, nobody's going to be perfect at that. So I'm I'm kind of glad that we're getting away from this, you know, too much too much possible trouble because of trying to not be subjective, but it something is subjective. I think as council member Hudis mentioned earlier, the idea of timestamps, it sounded like it was not going to be much e extra effort from staff to put in timestamps because they've got to read through it anyway. um that we maybe we want that was not part of the motion and is not in the suggestion that maybe we want to add something about timestamps. Do we want timestamps at at each speaker or just time stamps at each motion? Um so I I think we should add maybe something like that to the motion, but I'm looking for a suggestion on exactly what you think would work. What I think what I heard from the town clerk is especially for commissions we'd want to check with the liaison. So perhaps that can be uh this will have to come back to the council regardless. So I think maybe that could be you know uh staff could check with the liaison and if it's you know not overly burdensome it'll be incorporated otherwise staff could let us know that it was a big problem. Yeah. Um, I was going to add actually I was thinking um timestamps only for the videos because it sound like the audio meetings it's going to be a problem to create a timestamp um unless maybe the they just start a stopwatch and say it's approximately this time, right? Cuz nobody can

actually go to it on a on an audio call, right? But a video you can more easily fast forward to a point. So it really only makes sense to do it on a video call. So, I would suggest that we just focus on the video um meetings to the town manager.

I I just want to make clear on from the staff's behalf, we will do whatever the council desires. It's you know, transcripts are sometimes easier than summaries. Um but I I have to put in front of the council. You really need to ask what are we trying to do? The purpose of your council meeting is for the council to make decisions and to allow for input for the public. You don't you don't allow unlimited public speakers for an unlimited time for a specific reason. This is a venue for them to be able to address the government, but you have to act on your decisions. And when you make a decision, the decision is usually codified. When we turn to the commissions, the commissions for the most part are advisory bodies to the council. And so they're there to deliberate internally, take an input and then provide some kind of direction that could be documented. Right now what we're they take motions and seconds and it's documented the minutes in the form of an action and if it's something that's not it it goes to the council on a weekly basis and the council through your agenda setting policy can then put that forth to go through and say now you need to time stamp whether it's the agenda items or the public speakers. I would ask what goal are we trying to accomplish? If you know we we're making it easier to go to a specific item at a specific commission meeting, but is the time to do that going to be balanced with the amount of benefit that the public's going to derive by doing that? Typically, what I would see is this. When an item has a 26 people that speak to an item and you just have the listing of names or members of the public or a total 26, that signals to me, whoa, that's probably a pretty meaty topic that I want to tune in on. So, I will go in and tune in on it. I am not tuning in on 25 different items over the course of two months. And so, I would ask as you make your recommendations, can you consider what's the policy goal we're trying to accomplish? Is the workload associated

with staff worth it? Or is there some alternative that accomplishes the goal? Because right now we can provide transcriptions of every single meeting through AI tools that are not corrected that would not necessarily require a lot of time. It's when you start to go through and try to become more precise or make it your actual official minutes that starts to take an exponentially higher level of effort. Council member Hudis. Oh, and can we go to the town clerk first and then we'll go to council member Hudis.

I just wanted to clarify because the amendment was to provide summaries for non-actionable public meetings. So, if that does go through, it would be helpful for staff to define what a summary would be. Um, because it is, as we stated, challenging to try to determine what information should be included in a summary. Um, and if that's the avenue council would like to go, I think verbatim might be a better option in terms of subjectivity and trying to determine the intent and what what is important to be captured.

Thank you. I think that's helpful to think about. Yeah, council member. Um, yeah, I wanted to go back to uh Council Member Renie's I not sure if it was um an amendment or not, but I think I got one. thinking about an amendment, but I didn't have the precise wording or direction in it.

Okay. Um I mean I I I I do think it's a good idea to provide um timestamp and again for now I think only for the video recorded um meetings and so um I would you know I think it would be very helpful. Um I'm thinking about some very long planning commission meetings. um as well as some council meetings that I've participated and then forgotten when something was said uh to be able to um go back and review and I do frequently review um the video uh the videos of the meetings. So, um I agree uh with the town manager that there can be a tremendous amount of time um consumed in producing summary minutes and I think that should be um reserved for really special cases but um it's offered as an option in the in the amendment that we have um accepted and seconded. So, what I wanted to go back to was the second idea for an amendment. If if um council member Renie would like, I could make um an attempt at that. So um that is that for all uh video recorded meetings that uh time stamps of action um action items uh shall be provided on the uh minutes.

I accept that amendment. Um, I'll accept that. I assume you mean Okay. It looks like the clerk has a question. I would think that we're talking about a time stamp for the start of an item and a time stamp for any motions made. Is that what you mean by action? Yes, that was what I meant.

So, I'll I'll just chime in. So, I'm I'm a little I think actually going back to the the town manager's question. I'm not sure what the the goal is here because I'm looking at our I just pulled up, you know, the town's YouTube page and on the YouTube page, it displays very big at the bottom during each item what the item is and the the stat the um whatever we have on the agenda is listed the ent for the entirety of the meeting of the item. Um, so this is specifically a a minutes change, but I'm not sure. I don't know. I'm not sure who that's going to be used by. And so I think that's I I don't know. Yeah, I I I I don't know when this is going to be used.

Yeah, please. So the the change would be that the motion the time of the motion um would be captured. That's not currently captured on the YouTube. This the time of the item starting. Yes, but um the time of the motion is not captured. And so it's it's the time the first motion is made. Like in this meeting, where would you put the time stamp? It would be when the motion is made. And then what happens if there's a substitute motion? There would have to be a a second time stamp because that's a valid motion.

Okay. So I I would not support that. I think that's not a a good use of time. Yeah. Council member Renie. No, I I would argue that it is a good use of time and it helps this argument of transparency because if if somebody reads the minutes, they go, "Okay, there was this motion and then there could have been 15 minutes discussion and then somebody made a substitute motion and they're like, oh, okay, I want to understand this better." Well, it's just, you know, what were they really meaning, right? So, you want to go to the video. I mean this is the the point is so that you can now instead of summarizing it with so much more that you can really understand like in some cases the motion is do staff's recommendation well there may have been a lot more discussed around that. Um, if with the time stamp you can easily go to the video now to that spot and listen before and after the motion most well probably both. You're going to listen maybe before what led up to them making the motion and then the discussion of the motion afterwards and then 15 minutes later somebody finally said a substitute motion which has actually happened. We I did that a couple weeks ago. We discussed something for a half hour and I finally put in a substitute motion which passed. So, how do you how do you make this more transparent? You make it easier for people to go read all of find and and hear read all of the that went on. And I I'll just try I haven't heard from folks in the community that they're having a hard time finding when we're making motions and and doing our business. And so I I I worry that we're solving a problem that doesn't exist. And I think that again the original impetus here was to make things easier. I'm hearing that it's maybe you know this is less hard than summarizing. Um but I I don't I don't know that that this makes sense for me.

Yes. Vice Mayor Stow.

Um I guess for me, you know, especially if I go back and look at a planning commission meeting, there's a lot of times I see the start of the item, I'll fast forward to the start of the next item and then go backward until I can figure out what's going on. The best use for me if I were a member of the public or a council member looking back at something would not necessarily be every substitute motion etc. It would be when is the first motion made on an item and then maybe a vote is taken that's listed in the minutes. So you've got at this time a motion was made at this and then here was the vote now and then the next item started. If I look and see there's a half an hour between when the motion was made and when the next item started, I will know there was probably a lot of discussion before the vote was taken or what happened. So, I don't know. I think that's a lot of work for the clerks to decide, okay, a substitute motion was proposed, but was it accepted? And how many times do you mark it? So, to me, it would be okay if each time a motion is made and no matter what happens after that, when a vote is taken, that item ends. And if another motion's made, like say we broke it into three parts, each of those motions could be marked, but not each permutation combination of what happened to the first motion. I don't know. I mean,

we're getting crazy.

Uh I think we're getting so down in the operational when we're the council is literally talking about timestamps. I think we have to ask if there's not clarity in the motions, then we need to stop and ensure by doing what the clerk's done certain times, putting the motion on the board and making sure it's precise enough to what the council intended. The playbyplay of how we evolved to get to that ultimate motion could be beneficial in some respect in some in some cases to some people, but the reality is once the council acts, you only have the power and authority to act as as the majority of the council. And so the direction we're going, the the approach, I don't have a problem with it. The approach I'm going to take is not to have staff do the minutes. I'm going to contract out the minutes as planning does because they have a higher level of precision than we do even at the council minutes when they do the verbatim minutes for certain land use items and it's pretty cost effective. So I'd rather just have an outside body do it and free up the capacity of staff to do it in the format that the council desires. But I'm concerned, you know, we're talking about video meetings, which I think the clerk can correct me, tend to be the council meetings themselves. And so the C

and planning

and planning. And so we outline in the agenda what effectively becomes headers on the video. And the headers are what staff go back and start doing the time links so that when you're watching the video, you can click on a specific item and it takes you right to the location. And so if we want to get down to motions or the or public comments, which is something that's been discussed before, we would need to add that into the agendas themselves so that staff can connect them because if it's not on the agenda, it will not show up on the platform that allows you to link to that specific one. That's a better approach than it would be to try to go through the mi video and get the time stamp and add it to the minutes. It just be easier to go to the video and say planning land use item X motion click and then now you can watch the video from that part forward.

Council member Hudis,

I I think we're getting a little confused. So what we're talking about are actions of timestamping actions that would show up in the action minutes. We're not talking about public comments. Now, the the motion was simply to timestamp actions that would show up in action minutes. So, it would not be public comments. And if there were a motion that um uh failed or a motion that didn't get a second, that would be noted in the action minutes, wouldn't it? Clerk, if might I say is wouldn't those things like that be noted in the action minutes?

If council directs staff to denote the timestamps for the motions, we can add those in where the motions are listed in the minutes. We do go back to the video to confirm the actual language of the motion. As I stated, we try to keep it as close to verbatim as possible. So we typically that's part of the review process and the total time of preparing the minutes that we noted in the report is going back and reviewing the motion and capturing it verbatim as close as possible. But to your point, sometimes the motions um can be lengthy and not as clear of when they start and when they've completed. And I think some examples of that are when the town manager clarifies the motion and then council accepts that as the motion. So, um it would be helpful if you can provide clarity in terms of that situation. would you want when the council member accepted the statement of the attorney or the town manager or when the town manager or attorney made the actual statement because that's some of the stuff that we do do in the action minutes to clarify for example when somebody does state um I move to approve what was stated by the the town attorney I then make a reference to exactly what the town attorney stated just so that reference is included in the minutes. So if if there could be clarity as to if you do want the timestamps, we can do that, but at which point would you want that denoted?

If I could respond, um, for me, it would be the timestamp of when the clarified motion was made before the council, just before the council votes on it. It doesn't have to backtrack. You can always do that by working backwards from that. But um the the actual motion which is an action um that we voted on the time stamp for that when it was you know whatever point it was at where you captured it um would be adequate for me. And would that just be a matter of noting that the time in the meeting just next to the motion?

Yes, that's all I'm asking. I think that's was in my request. Okay. And so to clarify, this would be then just in the minutes, not in the YouTube video. Okay. So, we're not touching the YouTube. Okay. All right. And if I may clarify, because what was just said is a little different than my understanding. It won't be every motion and every substitute. It is literally the last action that the council took that would be in the minutes. Correct. It's it's it's whenever there's a a vote on a mo a because that's what we do in the minutes right now is action minutes there's a vote on a motion.

So yeah to clarify it would be anytime there was a my understanding is anytime there's a motion made whether it's a motion an alternate motion those would be captured. Um, so I guess there would be clarity. If there is a motion that fails, would that also be captured or a motion that was made and not seconded, would you want that captured as well? Are those currently captured in action minutes? Um, currently, if a motion's made and it's not seconded, we don't capture it. If a motion is made and failed, we do capture it.

For me, that would be adequate. It's whatever you're cap to timestamp whatever you're capturing in action minutes. And then also to clarify, would it only be for the motions or do you want to timestamp when staff starts their presentation of the item? Just the motion. Just the motion. That's what I think my um amendment was. And then also to clarify further um the original statement was for um meetings such as study sessions to summarize if you can provide a little clarity on what what type of summary you're looking for would be helpful for staff.

So I think um summary minutes are a term of art that's defined. I had asked the town manager earlier for a definition of that. It's something that other jurisdictions specify and so I don't want to make it up on the fly, but um I think that summary minutes are something that's defined, right?

Um there there's no current definition of summary minutes. There's a variety of ways that people do that. So it would be in terms of do you want summarization of just council discussion or staff presentations and discussion or staff presentation council discussion and public comment. Go ahead, Vice Mayor Risesto.

Um I just want to clarify. I thought the amendment included not that that will be done, but when there's a study session, there's the possibility to either that the council could ask for FAQs or summary minutes at a study session. That might never happen. It might happen sometimes. It was just leaving it open. So, I would imagine that then at a given meeting, if we asked for summary minutes, we would define what that was at that point. without having to define it now, but it was a may. It wasn't a shell. Okay.

And and we could also at that point, like the town manager suggested, just choose to do verbatim minutes, which would probably be easier than than summary. Manager,

I just want to go back and talk a little bit about the history of how we got here. The council passed a 2001 resolution that stated we would only summarize the public hearing comments from the public. The council in its practice or the staff in its practice would document verbal comments from the public in other areas on the minutes. In identifying that inconsistency, staff talked about the need to address that. So we brought it to the policy committee and the policy committee dis rather than implement the resolution as we're supposed to which is what is in effect. We wanted to first at least advise the committee as to what was happening and and determined you want to take a different direction. The committee took a direction to go even closer to action only minutes and made that recommendation. And so now we're at the council and we're now talking summary minutes. We're talking timestamps of every motion. um it which presumes that the discussion that occurred of the motion is not accurate in the minutes and I I think it's gone way far from the original intent that I'd rather have an opportunity to discuss it further with the policy committee as to what what where are we trying to go how are we trying to get there or just recommend to the council we take no change whatsoever and we just stick to what we're doing right now because where we're at is this it's a lot more work we're going to be going through every video for every action and trying to document the time stamp which I understand we want to know where in the video did that motion was that motion made and the presumption is why are the action minutes not accurate and sufficient enough for the council. I'd rather just stay at the council meeting and say let's specify the motion in writing today so that when we document in the minutes it's very clear we've already established it here there should

be no dispute about what went in the minutes. I'm missing the intent behind what we're trying to accomplish to ask staff to go and comm lions to go through if there's a video to document every motion what time stamp in the video it is. I'm I'm having a hard time understanding if it's not to see the subsequent discussion of that what the basis of that is. Council member Renie,

I'm going to have to say I disagree with the town manager. Um, I I fail to see why this is so much work. The staff already has to go through and verify the motion. They're at the video. They can read this the line, type in four letters in addition connected to it. It it doesn't need to be that complicated. And it's not about whether we believe staff wrote the motion correctly or not. It it's so people can then go understand what did the council members say about the motion? Why did they vote the way they did? It allows people more transparency to get to that, particularly for meetings that are three and four four hours long. So, you know, I I'm I'm still not getting why this is a lot of extra work to do that. But I think if you're following Rosenberg's rules, I can understand that because the motion comes first and then the conversation comes subsequent to that. But up until recently, we've been having the conversation leading up to the motion. And so we're looking at the motion being timestamped one minute and 30, let's say 1 hour and 30 minutes. What you're going to hear is a motion of X seconded by Y and then potentially the vote. And so if the goal is the conversation, then that then you have to go back and time stamp where that conversation if that's what the intent is. And so most of the motions we're going to have, most of the time there isn't a relevance to go back and look at what was discussed because we take 8 to 12 motions every meeting. But if that's what the council desires, that's what we'll have staff do and we'll then see what if it's as simple as it sounds.

Okay. Could the clerk um please clarify the the motion about motions and minutes? I'm trying to to look that up. It looked like um there was clarification when it was first made that it would be for the item and the motion, but then I asked for clarification and it sounded like it was just the motion. So, um I I guess I I just need clarification in terms of when the time stamp will be noted in the minutes if it's only for the motion.

Council me. So, what makes the most sense to me, you know, we've talked about cases where, you know, somebody wants to make a motion, it wasn't quite clear, staff clarified it, and I think we came to the point that when we finally say, okay, this is the clarified motion, that's the point we should time stamp it. So, in in this meeting, we would do that right now. Correct.

Sure. You know, I I don't think we really need to set the exact We're just talking about staff is already in there clarifying these things. Pick a time so somebody can get close to the frigin discussion. It shouldn't be this complicated. Yes, Council Member Hudis.

Yeah. And I would like to just clarify that nothing in what I've suggested or um Council Member Renie has accepted um requires additional uh any additional items, any additional verbiage to be put into the minutes. It's simply to record the minutes as we do now with uh regarding motions but to put a timestamp um next to the motions. That's all. And with regard to timestamp for the items, it's unnecessary because the YouTube as the mayor has pointed out YouTube does provide that information already. So we don't need to put that in.

Okay. So, so my understanding of the motion then is to accept the policy policy committee's recommendation with the change that we will timestamp motions for council meetings and planning commission meetings. Is that is that the motion? The motion said video meetings which would also include the finance commission. It's not videoed, it's just audioed. Are you sure? Yep. Okay. Well, then in that case, if we're not posting the video, doesn't make any sense. So, yes, planning and council based on the motion of video only.

Okay. And and there's all and then the third piece is that we will prompt during study sessions about how we would like to document or not the content. Yes. Mr. Mayor, I would recommend you ask the clerk to do the verbatim motion for the board like we did the last time just to make sure we get that accurately because I think the recommendation the commission specifies to reaffirm and then has additional content. Okay. Sounds like clerk might need a sec for that.

So if you want to take a fivem minute recess, we can go ahead and do that. How long do you How long do you need? We're so close to the end of this meeting. Yeah. Um I just wanted to clarify because I know that there was discussion about the video only for the timestamps. So um you're not touching the video. Yes. Yes. Yes. That was that was stated video only. But I think in terms of the type of meeting that would get the time stamp. So would it be better to clarify for council and planning commission? Is the maker of the motion okay with that? Yes. Is the seconder? Yes.

Okay.

Yep. Take your time. what I think captures and I can read it. um to accept staff's recommendation except for non-action public meetings such as study sessions where summary minutes or frequently asked questions may be provided and this will be discussed and decided at the meeting and timestamps for action items shall be provided on the minutes for council and planning commission meetings.

Okay, is that everyone's understanding of the motion? So Wendy, do you mind adding what the staff recommendation actually is from the staff report? So that that's the exact motion that goes in the minutes. Yes. Thank you. And while the town clerk is doing that, um I I would I sincerely apologize, but I would like to make a friendly amendment to add um summary minutes, frequently asked questions, or verbatim minutes or verbatim. I'm okay with that addition. Okay.

Yes. I would also like to have a a semicolon before we're at the meeting when you say and timestamps because it sounds like we're talking about study sessions unless we put a semicolon. Sorry, I'm not a grammar expert, but I think that's needed after the meeting. Yeah, after the word meeting.

No, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry. I like how this was an item to make things easier for the town clerk's office. And here we are. One more clarification. Um, since this is different than what our current resolution states, you still want to me to bring back a resolution with this language?

I I think so. I think that's necessary. Yeah. Okay. So then would I add that in as I think you would just copy what after the policy committee recommends in the conclusion section of the staff report

which says reaffirming the town's use of actiononly minutes and modifying the current practices. is Okay. So, I'll read it for the record. to accept staff's recommendation to reaffirm the use of action minutes for all meetings and modify the current practice for public comment to only identify speakers without sovereignizing the content of their remarks for both agenda items and verbal communication except for non-action public meetings such as study sessions where summary minutes or frequently asked questions or verbatim may be provided. And this will be discussed and decided at the meeting. And timestamps for action item motions shall be provided on the minutes for council and planning commission meetings.

I think that's absolutely the motion we made. I think the only confusion is that it sounds like the accept is referring to public comment which was not our intention. I mean, we all know what we're talking about, so maybe it's fine. But or maybe I'm wrong. Is does that read clearly to folks?

Two separate sentences like one concept and then however, non-action public meetings. Nice. The word however Okay. Yeah. Go go go. Do you want to

Yeah. I mean what I'm thinking is we have three things here and the third item where we talk about time stamp relates to the first part of the motion and so I think that middle part where we discuss study sessions should be a last separate sentence and the time stamp and action item things should immediately follow. Yep. Because those go together and then the study session can stand on its own. Do we still want our runny renie uh colon after communication? Semicolon

before the word the words and time. I'm so sorry. All right, town clerk, do you want to read it one more time and then we'll take a vote?

Sure. to accept staff's recommendation to reaffirm the use of action minutes for all meetings and modify the current practice for public comment to only identify speakers without summarizing the content of their remarks for both agenda items and verbal communication and timestamp for action item motions. That sounds awkward. Yeah. Do you want council member suggest making that a separate sentence? Just add put a period after communication and just say time

stamps. Disappointing timestamps for action item motions shall be provided on the minutes for council and planning commission meetings. However, non-action public meetings such as study sessions where summary minutes, frequently asked questions or verbatim may be provided and this will be discussed and decided at the meeting. Okay. And one more clarifying point

but it's the last one. Um this language will is this the intent for this language to be incorporated in the resolution that will be put brought back for adoption to replace the prior resolution. Correct. I think this the spe the the intentions of this language I don't think it has to be verbatim in the resolution. I think create the resolution as it makes sense. Okay. And then attorney, do they need to direct staff to bring back the resolution or is this adequate? Uh, this is adequate. All right. Very clear on our motion. Um, any other comments? Seeing none, I will call the question. All those in favor?

I. Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously. All right. Um, we will now move very quickly to council matters and we'll start with Council Member Renie. Uh, since our last council meeting, I attended the Silicon Valley Risk Oversight Committee meeting. Um, I was sick, so I missed a couple things. I also, um, was happy to attend the Meadows, which they changed their name to something I've already forgotten. Um, I guess sort of celebration of moving on to their next step and moving that project forward. Council Hutus.

Uh, thank you. Um, let's see. On February 19, uh I attended a meeting of the um wildfire advisory group and we had a presentation from uh Marin County um and our emergency manager Chris Todd Todd participated in that meeting. Um, we learned a tremendous amount about uh how a JPA could be put in place to do things on a regional basis. Um, as well as other actions that they've taken in Marin that have created um really a a five-year sustained effort on improving uh their their wildfire positions. Um, let's see. I participated in a group uh discussing the community center on the 24th and on the 26th I participated in the emergency air operations area council um which reviewed um actions from the Super Bowl and planning for the World Cup. And then I attended the um fresco uh meeting of the um at Opelia and I participated in the community health and senior services commission meeting. And then um on the 27th I participated in the state of the valley presentation that provided a great deal of perspective and statistics on what's happening in the valley. And um I think at some point when we do strategic planning it might be useful to provide a summary of that information. Uh that's all.

Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. On Wednesday, February 18th, I was um privileged to visit VRATA headquarters with our police chief, our two captains, um it and parks and public works. and Vicata provide some of the cameras that the town uses in conjunction with the Axon um capabilities. So, we got a presentation on possible future products, a discussion of what um security measures the town would be looking for, and it was just really interesting to see the kind of work they're doing. On the 22nd, I attended um Congressman Sam Licardo's press conference in Mountain View. I think our mayor will have more to say about it where he spoke about um money that was received. Um Congressman Licardo has been very successful in getting federal funding for a variety of local projects including affordable housing in Mountain View and um for West Valley Community Services. On Tuesday the 24th, I actually was at the terraces of Loscatoos where our town attorney was there as an invited speaker to talk about the Brown Act and public records requests. There's a number of very um thoughtful, intelligent, and curious residents there and I think um Gabrielle could teach a course on the Brown Act. So, it was awesome. Um on the 26th, I attended the Fresco Loscato's reception. So, that is the rebuild of the Meadows under a new name. On the 26th, um the mayor and I were and town manager attended a tour of the Rinkanada water treatment plant and um it's a really big water treatment plant up on Moore Avenue in Loscatoos. I've been attending the quarterly update meetings to the residents up there and hearing about it's a multi-year I think it's a six-year program where the entire water

treatment plant is being rebuilt but because there is no redundancy there's not another treatment plant each section of it has to be first built and then that part can be taken offline then the next part so it's very complicated but it's an expansion and increased resiliency um for our water And as pretty much the only utility that we would die without, it's uh good to have safe drinking water. Um on the 27th, I also attended joint venture Silicon Valley State of the Valley and this annual update of all indicators of the valley, job growth, um economic disparity, um increasing inaffordability of housing, um immigration, migration. It's an amazing um amount of work that's done and if anybody Googles joint venture Silicon Valley you can find this with the dashboard and with all the indicators and I agree with council member Hedayes some of that information might come in handy as we look at um not only our strategic priorities but in a couple of years when we have to work on our next housing element. Um and then uh that evening I attended a Ramadan dinner at the West Valley Muslim Association. I think it's my fourth year going. Um and this time it was for friends and neighbors and it was a friendly opportunity to be with our neighbors um as they broke an all day fast. I would say I had some resolve to try not to drink water or eat food from sunrise to sunset and I'm just not cut out for that. Um, but the food was delicious and the atmosphere was friendly and that's it. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. On February 19th, I participated in a meeting of the resident um wildfire advisory group and we received an excellent uh presentation as referenced by council member Hudis. Um, on February 24th, I participated in a meeting of the council policy committee, uh, which was discussing what we discussed tonight for a much longer time, and I also attended the fresco, uh, reception at Opilia as referenced by my fellow council members.

Thank you. Um, I met with the new rabbi of Shir Hadash in Los, Rabbi Rafie. He was just installed a couple weeks ago. um was very very impressed with him. I think he's going to be a great addition to to that um uh synagogue. Um uh as uh the vice mayor said, uh I spoke at the San Lardo press conference where we announced $200,000 that was uh that's going to be received by West Valley Community Services to provide a uh basically a a mobile navigation van to uh Loscatoos, Campbell, Certino, and Saratoga and Monty Serino. uh for homelessness services. And the the sort of vision there is that we don't right now have the um time, money, space, or will to build a um sort of permanent navigation center somewhere. And so this is the the next best way to do that. Um one thing that's important to recognize on that is that there will be more money needed for that um uh to to actually get that done. Uh I visited uh Automobile, our toy store in Los Gatos and got to meet and interview Tater tot the Capiara which was very very cool. Um uh there were over 200 people in line to meet this Cappy bar at the toy store. Very very sweet. It was a nice little event. Um I participated in a few meetings with the Chamber of Commerce. One I'll highlight is um I uh did a mayor's roundt with the Chamber of Commerce where about 30 um local business owners came in and um we discussed issues going on in the town. Um the town manager was nice enough to provide backup there um and had a very good discussion about um the business environment in town. Overall it seems like folks are very um happy with um things going on in town though I think we will have um one or two requests from the business owners this budget cycle. Um I visited the Mariposa Monttoauri school in Loscatos which is a wonderful little school. um got to meet some of the students there

and and some of the uh staff and administrators, also the landlords who are just so happy to have them. Um so that was very sweet. Um the town manager and I met with um some of the folks from Stanford's uh government relations team to discuss the Stanford NextG general use permit update. So Stanford is bringing forward a general use permit update which is a you know a pretty significant um uh they want to basically expand their um services and and footprint a bit and so um while Loscatoos doesn't have a you know isn't adjacent to the Stanford campus we do have a variety of Stanford facilities in Loscatos and a lot of alumni and and residents who who are involved with the university. So um that'll be coming forward in a few months and there will be listening sessions for our residents to attend. I also attended the fresco and the rinkanada um water treatment plant and the meeting of the policy committee to the town manager.

I always appreciate going after the council since you've already highlighted all the items I was going to speak to you. So I'll save the time and pass it on to the town attorney. And I will report that the town council met in close session earlier this evening to discuss existing litigation. It's the case of Lascatos versus Arya properties at all. Um the meeting was pursuant to government code section 54956.9 and there's no reportable action. Thank you very much. With that, this meeting is adjourned.