City Council - Regular Meeting

Everyone good? Good evening. Let's call to order the special council meeting close session of March 10, 2026 at 5:31 p.m. Mayor, first, Mayor Klein, do you have a statement that you would like to make? Yes, I would. Thank you very much. Uh I am participating remotely in tonight's council meeting under the just cause provisions of the Ralph M. Brown Act. Uh included in California government code section 54953.83C4. There are no individuals 18 or of age or older present in the room at my current location.

Thank you very much. The city does not tolerate disruptive behavior in our meetings. This council meeting is considered a limited public forum, which means the council can regulate the time, place, and manner of speech. Speaker comments must be limited to the agenda item being considered by the council. If a speaker's comments are not related to an agenda item, the presiding officer will rule the speaker out of order. A speaker will not be ruled out of order because of disagreement with the content of their speech. Location and online meeting details are available on the council agenda. Use the show captions button to view captions on Zoom. Following the closed session, the regular council meeting at 7 p.m. will begin at 7 p.m. We encourage the public to stay tuned and participate in the regular meeting. City clerk, may we have the roll call, please?

Mayor Klein, present. Vice Mayor Melinger, present. Council member Cisneros, present. Council member Cerny Vasan, present. Council member Cell, present. Council member Chang,

present. Council member Lelay uh six present with Mayor Klein participating via via teleconference and council member Lelay absent. Thank you very much. Members of the public will now have an opportunity to address council on the closed session items. Please submit a speaker card to the city clerk. Raise your digital hand now or dial star9 on a telephone to indicate you wish to speak. I will call on members of the public participating in person first followed by remote participants. Speakers will have three minutes to speak. Mr. City Clerk, do we have any individuals wishing to speak on these items?

Uh, no, Vice Mayor, we do not have individuals in the room or on Zoom. Uh, and then for the record, um, stating that Council Member Leia is now present

at 5:34 p.m. Thank you. I will now close the public hearing. Uh, we are now going to adjourn to close session uh where we will be hearing following items. Item A, conference with legal council, existing litigation, discussion and potential action to authorize filing an appeal to the California Court of Appeal. Uh, name of case 1230 Oakme Parkway LLC versus City of Sunnyvil. Item B, conference with labor negotiators agency designated representatives. Organization Sunnyvil Employees Association, SEA, IFPTE, Local 21, and Service Employees International Union, SEIU. I will now we will now adjourn to the close session. See you back here at 7 pm.

Good evening. Let's call to order the council meeting of March 10th, 2026 at 7:11 p.m. First, Mayor Klein, do you have a statement you would like to make? Yes, I would. Um, I am participating remotely in tonight's council meeting under the just cause provision of the Ralph M. Brown Act, including California government code section 54953 8.83C4. Uh there are no individuals 18 of age or older present in the room at my remote location. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. The city does not tolerate disruptive behavior in our meetings. Sunnyville prides itself on the rich diversity of our residents. We are committed to building a culture of belonging where members of our diverse community feel included, safe, and respected. This council meeting is considered a limited public forum, which means the council can regulate the time, place, and manner of speech. Speaker comments must be limited to the agenda item being considered by the council for consent calendar or public hearing items. Speaker comments during oral communications must be limited to matters within the council's authority, generally referred to as within the council's subject matter jurisdiction. If a speaker's comments are not related to an agenda item, the presiding officer will rule the speaker out of order. A speaker will not be ruled out of order because of a disagreement with the content of their speech. Location and online meeting details are available on the council agenda. Scan the QR code on screen or click the language access and translation link on the council agenda to read and listen along in more than 60 different languages. Use the show captions button to view captions on Zoom. Comments comments on matters not on the agenda must be submitted prior to the time I call the item for oral communications. Comments on agenda items must be submitted prior to the time I close the public hearing on the agenda item. Speakers are requested to keep their comments to the time period set for public comments for the agenda item which will be strictly enforced. Guidelines are posted on the city's website and on the council meeting agenda. Please join me in the salute to the flag. 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.

Mr. City Clerk, may we please have roll call? Mayor Klein, present. Vice Mayor Melinger, present. Council member Cisneros, present. Council member Sneasan, present. Council member Cell present. Council member Chang present. Council member Lelay present. Seven present with Mayor Klein participating via teleconference.

Thank you very much. Next is the close session report. The city council met in close session on the following item. California government code section 54956.9 conference with legal council existing litigation. Paragraph one of subdivision D of section 54956.9 discussion and potential action of author to authorize filing of an appeal to the California code of court of appeal. Name of case 1230 Oakne Parkway LLC versus city of Sunnyale Santa Clara County Superior Court case number 25CV457580. The city council met in closed session. Direction was given to the city attorney to file an appeal of the trial court decision and the city court council met in close session on the following item. California government code section 54957.6 Six conference with LEGO labor negotiators, agency designated representatives, Sarah Johnson Rios, interim director of human resources, uh, employee organization, Sunnyville Employees Association, SEA, IFPTE, Local 21, and Service Employees International Union. Nothing to report. We now move on to the special order of the day, 26-0273, celebrating International Transgender Day of Visibility. And would our guests please join me at the lectern?

Thank you very much, Mr. City Clerk, before we begin tonight's meeting, we have some special guests present in honor of Transgender Day of Visibility. Joining us tonight are Aaron Sofair, she hers, Crystal Haney, she hers, and Sully Surban, uh, he his. Erin is not only a heritage preservation commissioner, she is also a software developer, fantasy author, and dad to her six-year-old. Crystal and Saldi join us from the Santa Clara County Office of LGBTQ Affairs. Crystal is a community outreach specialist and Saldi is a senior management analyst. And now I'd like to hear some remarks from Aaron and then from Crystal. Aaron, take it away. Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, thank you. I came out as trans a few years ago. I go dancing in spinny skirts and serve on the PTA board. I go to block parties and walk downtown with my wife and daughter by my side. And at no point do we feel unwelcome. We are becoming part of what's normal in this slice of the Bay Area. It's tenuous and incomplete. But being so visibly part of the community makes many things possible. For me, visibility made possible a better understanding of who I am. I did not come to fully understand or accept my gender alone. I needed examples, exemplars. I found them in my 30s in a new generation of serialized fiction, wish fulfillment by and for trans and questioning folks. Folks like Purple Catgirl, in whose writings I found a certain epiphany. I found them in novels, in a dozen forms of media, and I found them most of all

in personal connections that would never have been possible if we were forced to stay in the closet. Visibility makes it possible for us to find these friendships so much more easily. It makes it easier for us to find vital information, for far more of us to reforge our bodies, to love ourselves as we are meant to be, and to be loved in turn. All without hiding these truths from the world. We are so much more when we are our authentic selves. And our authentic selves were not meant to be forced into the shadows. It can be terrifying being in the light. And we have perhaps never been more visible in our joys, our struggles, our hopes, and our vulnerabilities. We have never flourished in as manifold a complexity and been so easily part of normal life and such ready targets of hate. Our tenuous peace is the product of an ongoing unfinished work that has spanned decades and every step intensifies the opposition we face. But I for one believe that we can and will carry this work forward. And so I thank you all for your parts in building this community in which it is my privilege to live. And I hope you'll you'll set yourselves with us to the work of building an even brighter and more vibrant future. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Erin. And now I'd like to welcome Crystal to the stage. No, no, no. Stay here.

Hello. My name is Crystal Haney. I use she her pronouns and I am a community outreach specialist with the uh Santa Clara County Office of LGBTQ Affairs, uh part of the county executive's office under the Division of Equity and Social Justice. Our office would like to thank the city of Sunnyvil um or the Sunnyvil City Council for presenting us with this year's pro proclamation recognizing March 31st as transgender day of visibility. Public rec recognition of a community awareness day like transgender day of visibility is incredibly important, especially when it comes from our local governments or government um entities of any level. As a transgender woman and a public employee of almost 20 years, I can say this from personal experience. Why is this kind of recognition uh recognition important? While great strides for uh rights and protections of the LGBTQ plus communities have been made, pro progress for the transgender, non-binary, and gender expansive community has consistently lagged. Despite being at the forefront of the Stonewall uprising in 1969 and many other significant actions, trans leaders were even consistently silenced by leaders of lesbian and gay rights advocacy organizations. To put the situation in a nutshell, if we explicitly include you now, it is going to hold us back. We'll come back for you later. Luckily, that is not as true today. When it comes to gender expression, it is something that is often visible and can most easily be policed when you don't meet societal expectations. This has been especially true when it comes to the policing of black and indigenous trans people of color. But

our communities are strong, our communities are resilient, and when we need to be, we can be very, very loud. So, while the federal government is reversing legal gender markers when trans people renew or apply for new transport uh uh passports, ejecting and fully disenfranchising transgender military service members, and banning the use of bathrooms on government property aligning with a person's gender identity. So, while on February 26th, 2026, the state of Kansas invalidated the legal IDs of trans people in the state overnight, even if they had only changed their name and not their gender marker, making driving oneself to the DMV to renew a possible criminal offense the least of among many legal issues that one can uh come across when you do not have a legal ID. It is through the statements of recognition and support like the one being made today in the city of Sunnyvale and providing space for visibility by flying the transgender flag on trans day of visibility that local governments can let their trans residents know that they will stand with us as we continue in the struggle for our rights. Thank you very much Crystal. Transgender Day of Visibility was first celebrated in the United States in 2009 as a day to acknowledge, listen to, and celebrate living members of the transgender community. And while Transgender Day of Visibility may have only started recently, transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and interex people have existed throughout all of history in all times and places. Despite that fact, transgender individuals have been marginalized and denied the

opportunities to fully participate in society as their authentic selves. In the face of this resistance and growing attacks on their rights nationwide, the transgender community has continued to grow and break barriers, showing resilience, strength, and joy. Sunnyvale uplifts their voices as we approach the transgender day of visibility. to affirm our statement of values. The city honors and respects our individual experiences and we will support and protect people of any race, religion, ancestry, ethnicity, ability, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Today and every day, we celebrate our transgender community, which includes many residents, business owners, city employees, and students. Last year marked the first time Sunnyville flew the transgender flag in honor of Transgender Day of Visibility. City Council unanimously authorized the flag flying and we will continue to raise the flag each year. It will fly Tuesday, March 24th through Tuesday, March 31st to show our transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and interex community members that we, the community at large, see you, recognize you, and celebrate your experiences. We thank you for choosing to be part of our city. We invite everyone to join us for a ceremonial flag raising on Tuesday, March 31st at 8:15 a.m. We will gather in the plaza on the north side of the building along West Olive Avenue. Right out there, we look forward to seeing you. Now, it is my great pleasure to proclaim March 31st as Transgender Day of Visibility in the city of Sunnyale. And I'd like to present Crystal with our proclamation. There you go.

And do we want to get photos? Yes, please. Okay. And everyone in the middle.

Oh, in front. Okay, there we go. Next, we have a series of public announcements and I will begin with the first, which is that March is American Red Cross Month. March was first nationally recognized as American Red Cross Month in 1943 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed it in the midst of World War II. It has continued as an annual tradition since so that we may all recognize the individuals across the country who turn compassion into action and selflessly volunteer to help in times of crisis. Thank you to the American Red Cross Valley chapter and to their staff and volunteers for the work they do in our community every day. We encourage every resident to visit redcross.org to learn about the work the Red Cross does and see how they too can help. In honor of their efforts, Sunnyale has proclaimed March 26th at March 2026, excuse me, as American Red Cross month. And I believe we have a number of members of the Red Cross in the audience tonight. And so I'd like to

invite you down so that I can present you with your proclamation. have a small gift for you too.

Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. This is actually a vintage thing. Oh my goodness. Our historian dated 65 to 1970. Let's uh Why don't we Why don't we uh speak in the Why don't we uh bring you around to speak into the mic? bring you here to speak into the microphone. Yes. Yes. Why don't you

and speak over here? Okay. I'll start again. It's our privilege actually to give back something and hopefully this will be an interesting gift for you. We found a vintage Red Cross pin that our historian in DC Red Cross and a lot of AI support to be honest dated it 65 to 75. So that means that about 50 years ago, somebody donated blood and received this pin as recognition and thank you. And somehow they felt it's important and it was kept I don't know how through generations and it made it to one of this uh treasure chest that you find uh at fairs and I'm very very proud to give this to you and hope it will find another great home for 50 years with the Sunnyvil City Club. Thank you. Thank you very much and I am pleased to accept this on behalf of the city of Sunnyvil and I am sure that our city staff can ensure that it is appropriately treasured. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much for all that. Thank you very much. And now this is now the we will now move on to oral communication.

Sorry, Vice Mayor, if we have a couple more announcements that I believe.

I know, but the announcements come after I make the after I read the the bit. Sorry. This is now the public's opportunity to address council on topics not listed on tonight's agenda. This section is limited to 15 minutes and may be extended or continued after the public hearings general business section of the meeting. Individuals may only speak once during oral communications. This council meeting is a limited public forum and the council can regulate the time, place, and manner of speech. Speaker comments during oral communications must be limited to matters within the council's authority, which is known as the council's subject matter jurisdiction. If a speaker's comments are outside the council's subject matter jurisdiction, the presiding officer will rule the speaker out of order. This allows the council to conduct its business in a reasonably efficient manner and protects the rights of other speakers. A speaker will not be ruled out of order because of disagreement with the content of their speech. Please submit a speaker card to the city clerk. Raise your digital hand now or dial star9 on the telephone to indicate you wish to speak. I will call on members of public participating in person first followed by remote participants. Speakers will have three minutes to speak. Um before I get to the public, Council Member Cisneros has a number of announcements.

I do. Thank you very much. And now is the time to pull out your calendars because I have a number of things you'll want to make note of. Um, first is the sustainability speaker series, smart steps towards zero waste. Sunnyville's sustainability speaker series is back. Join us for anformational webinar with Jeff Dobert, the director of operations at the Smart Station of Sunnyvil. In this talk, he takes us behind the scenes to show how garbage, recyclables, and organics are sorted in the city. Learn how data and automation help Sunnyvil divert incoming materials from the landfill. Join us to see the journey that your waist takes after hitting the bin. This event will be held online via Zoom on Wednesday, March 18th from 7 to 8:30 p.m. To register and learn more about the sustainability speaker series and future events, visit sunnyvil.ca.gov and search sustainability speaker series or email green like the color at sunnyvil.ca.gov. The next announcement is board and commission application deadline. Board and commission recruitment is underway for the following openings. Arts commission, bicycle and pedestriy commission, board of library trustees, Heritage Preservation Commission, Housing and Human Services Commission, Human Relations Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission, Personnel Board, Planning Commission, and Sustainability Commission. Applications are due by 400 p.m. on Thursday, April 16th in order to be scheduled for an interview with council on Monday, April 27th and Tuesday, April 28th. General eligibility requirements include Sunnyvil residency. For more information, visit sunnyvil.ca.gov and search boards and commissions or call the office of the city clerk at 4087307483 to request an application. Applications to serve on a border commission are

accepted on a continuous basis. Applications received after the deadline will be considered for future openings. The next one uh is the spring application cycle for the 2026 community event and neighborhood grant program. The city of Sunnyville is seeking grant applications for the spring cycle of the 2026 community event and neighborhood grant program. The city will award up to $54,000 $54,15. The remaining funding of the $150,000 allocation. Applications are available on the city website and the deadline to apply is 5:00 p.m. on March 27th, 2026. The goal of the community events grant program is to celebrate Sunnyvil through free non-religious events. The goal of the neighborhood grant program is to increase communication among neighbors, improve the physical condition of a neighborhood, and/or enhance neighborhood pride and identity. Free activities and/or events are organized by registered neighborhood associations. To view guidelines and application forms, visit sunnyvil.ca.gov and search grant. For more information, email ncs@ sunnyvail.ca.gov or call 408-7307599. And our final announcement this evening is the Earth Day Festival, empowering our community. On Saturday, April 11th, show your love for the planet by attending Sunnyvil's Earth Day Festival. The event is from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Sunnyale Civic Center. The event will feature familyfriendly, sustainability focused activities and information from local organizations. Attend the festival to enjoy live entertainment from roving performers, children's activities, local food trucks, bike valet, and more. Join us in

empowering our community in building a sustainable Sunnyvil. We hope to see you there. To learn more, visit sunnyvilclimateaction.org. For more information, email green, like the color, at sunny sunnyville.ca.gov of or call 408-730-7717. And with that, that concludes the announcements for this evening.

Thank you very much, Council Member Cisneros. Next up, we have oral communications. My first speaker card is for Than Lynn, uh, who has indicated a desire to speak on the special proclamation of the day. Following Than, we will have Russ Melton. Good evening. Um, my name is Lauraai or L for short. I'm a resident of Mountain View and I'm here today in recognition of Transgender Day of Visibility. I want to take a few minutes to share a perspective that you might not expect. You know, I actually want to ask for less visibility and awareness and more of the right kind. Now, hear me out. Over the past few years, transgender people have been way more visible, more visible than ever in legislation, news coverage, and in political advertising. I just want to be honest with you, that visibility hasn't always felt like progress. It's exhausting to watch your identity become a talking point. And for me and other people like me, this is just like our everyday life. So, what I'm asking for isn't more attention or visibility on like manufactured controversies or empty platitudes. I'm asking this council and the community turn its attention towards like the real human impact. I just want to say something to anyone who knows in their heart that transgender people deserve dignity and respect, but has felt hesitant to say so out loud. Look, speaking up carries real social risk. Friendships, families, relationships, professional standing, all that. But people most affected by the silence don't actually have the option to stay quiet. And so those of us with more social safety choose to speak. It actually makes the room safer uh for everyone. So standing up for your values when it costs you something is exactly what counts the most. In our schools, conversations are dominated by sensationalized policy debates while the quieter, more urgent realities that trans transgender students are

navigating bullying, isolation, and lack of basic support every single day. As a parent of two young children, that breaks my heart. So that's why I want to ask this city to direct its care and resources. In our sports and recreation programs, transgender people, especially youth, often face barriers to just participate in the same activities everyone else takes for granted. Not because of anything particularly complicated. It's just they want to belong. And at the state and national level, we're watching legislative efforts that make it materially harder for transgender people to exist openly and safely. These policies have real consequences here and in this city for your neighbors and constituents. I'm not here to ask you to wait in national culture war debates. I'm here to ask something quite simple. It's that this council sees transgender residents as what we are. Community members deserving of dignity, safety, and equal participation in the life of the city. You don't have to have all the answers, but you can choose to lead with respect. You can ensure that city programs and spaces are genuinely welcoming. You can speak up, especially when misinformation about our community is being spread, and there's a lot of that. So, you can make it clear that in Sunnyale, every resident belongs. Thank you for your time and the opportunity to be heard. Um, happy to speak with any of you afterwards, but I think I need to go home and make sure my kids go down to bed. So, thank you.

Thank you very much. And you can always reach our council at council@s sunnyvail.ca.gov. Thank you. Next up, we have Russ Melton.

Good evening, city council. Russ Melton here, CEO of the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. And I'll go immediately off script by saying that that half ccentury old lapel pin from the American Red Cross is absolutely stellar. And I join you in viewing that as a treasured gift, Vice Mayor. So, thank you for letting me say that. The Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce exists to help our member companies grow their business, advocate at city hall, and with professional development and education opportunities. Chamber members in Sunnyvale employ nearly 60,000 individuals in this city. It's been a busy month at the Chamber of Commerce. On February 19th, we held our breakfast with the mayor event. and on behalf of the Sunny Vale Chamber of Commerce, we want to acknowledge our appreciation of Mayor Klein's participation in that event and outreach to the business community. Thank you. Then the following week on February 26, we held our annual Murphy Awards, which by all accounts was a huge success, and I want to thank Mayor Klene, Vice Mayor Melinger, and council members Shrina Vasan, Cell, Chang, and Lei for attending. Thank you very much. We have more events coming up and I encourage folks to visit www.svoc.org for more information. Our next signature event is the art and wine festival on June 6th and 7th. Please visit sunnyvale art andwine.com for more information. And at this point, I would like to specifically acknowledge Sunnyvale's professional staff for their incredible hard work on our special event permit application. really appreciate the professional team. Uh, finally, I just want to mention I do not have any prepared remarks tonight on your agenda item 1H, but would be happy to answer any questions on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce if or when the time comes. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak.

Thank you very much. Next up, we have Ruband M followed by Arav I. Yes, I had my time. Ah well uh thank you very much uh Rrookandra. Thank you.

Uh next up we have Arav I followed by David A. Hello esteemed council members. My name is Arif and I'm one of the vice presidents of the indigenous justice coalition a student non nonprofit that supports local tribes in their fights for justice. I'm also a lead intern for the Makma Aloney tribe of the San Francisco Bay area. I'm here today to request a letter of support for the tribe and their ongoing fight for federal recognition here in Sunnyville and on the federal level. For context, the MCMA are a currently unrecognized tribe whose ancestral territory spans five counties here in the Bay Area, including here in Sunnyale. In fact, the entire reason the MCMar are not recognized is because of Lafayette Dorington, a Bureau of Indian Affairs official in the 1920s who unilaterally excluded the tribe despite lacking both the statutory authority and formal congressional action. And that administrative decision made without due process was never lawfully corrected. For decades, the MUKMA have been wrongfully denied equal protections under the law because of political red tape and special interests. From our dozens of meetings with local and federal officials, we've seen firsthand the influence of third parties within the system. The result has been political hand ringing, not brought on by a lack of evidence, but instead a lack of will. Today, federal recognition would grant them educational, political, and land equality with tribes in California and nationwide. And if MUKMA finds support in local governments, cities who stand on the homeland of the Morcma people, then they can ensure that the government listens and eventually grants them those rights. That's why a letter of support is so important because showing Congress that the Morcma have the Bay Area behind them is the first step towards justice. I strongly urge you to consider writing a letter of support for the tribe and I would love to discuss this further after the meeting concludes. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next is David A. followed by Micah C. Hello, distinguished council members. My name is David and I am also one of the leaders at the Indigenous Justice Coalition working with the MCKMA Aloney tribe. Like my fellow intern before me, I'm here today to request a letter from the city supporting the trib's fight for federal recognition. You've heard about the history and the coalition. I'd like to address the evidence. Put simply, the facts line up in the trib's favor. A study conducted by Stanford University has found that every single tribal member, 100% of the Mokma directly descends from the previously recognized tribe of the Verona Band of Alama County and that the status of recognition was never terminated by an act of Congress. A fact affirmed by the US District Court in Moekcma Aloney tribe versus Kempthorne 2006 which stated that neither the United States Congress nor any executive agency ever formally withdrew federal recognition. The data clearly demonstrates that the MUCKMA have always been here. And most importantly, a federal judge ruled in 2022 that the tribe retains its sovereign immunity and that it was wrongfully excluded from the BIA's list of recognized tribes. Despite the overwhelming legal, genealogical, and scientific evidence, the MUKA remain wrongfully unrecognized. Look, the city issuing a letter of support won't magically solve the tribe its give the tribe its rightful status, nor will it prevent any other tribes from seeking the same. We're not asking Sunnyvil to make a legal determination. We're asking Sunnyvil to stand with the evidence, with the universities that verified it, and with the courts that affirmed it. By showing the federal government that you

care, you're pushing the tribe one step closer to recognition. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up is Micah C, followed by Sonoth K. May I start? Good evening, council members. My name is Micah and I am also a leader of the indigenous justice coalition supporting the Mukuima Aloney tribe in the fight for their federal recognition. I want to talk specifically about the trib's connections to the city. Not only does Sunnyvale rest on the Mugima's ancestral homelands, but it continues to be a vital part of the trib's culture and heritage. Research conducted by UC Berkeley and Stanford University confirm Aboriginal ties to Santa Clara County, including here in Sunnyale. The tribe has always been a part of the cultural background, and its members continue to thrive here as residents and participants. The Mukquima have also hosted numerous local and cultural events in Sunnyvil. The community of the city demonstrates a clear connection between uh the tribe and Sunnyville. Because it is so intertwined in both the past and the present, it becomes imperative that the city consider greater support for the Mugima. Support that starts with a simple letter. From reputable universities to local and federal courts, the story remains the same. The mukima have always been there and they are still here. In the end, support isn't just a question of evidence, significance or connection. It's a question of political will. We look forward to discussing this with you further after the meeting concludes. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up is Son K. Good evening, council members. My name is Sonath Krishna and I want to briefly bring together what you've heard tonight. You've heard the history that the predecessor to the Muakma Aloney tribe, the Verona Band of the Alama County, was never lawfully terminated by Congress, but instead removed through an act of injustice by Lafayette Dorington nearly a century ago. You've heard the evidence that Stanford researchers confirmed 100% direct lineal descent from the previously recognized tribe. That in MuMA Aloney tribe versus Kempthorne, the federal court acknowledged recognition was never formally withdrawn. And that as recently as 2022, a federal judge affirmed the tribe's sovereign immunity, reinforcing that their exclusion remains legally inconsistent. You've heard the coalition. Cities across the Bay Area have already acted. Students are watching. Communities are mobilizing and you've heard the local connection. Sunnyville stands on MuMA ancestral land. Their history is inseparable from the land you govern today. Taken together, this is not a speculative claim. It is a documented historical error supported by genealogical, legal, and academic evidence. We are not asking you to decide federal Indian law tonight. We are asking you to allow this council to formally consider a letter of support on a future agenda to deliberately to deliberate publicly and let the record show where Sunnyville stands. History created this problem through inaction, but it can be corrected through action. We respectfully ask you to take that first step. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Uh, does anyone else in the room wish to speak under oral communications before we hear from remote speakers? Seeing and hearing none, uh, because of the nature of remote communication, speakers who are ruled out of order will not be given another chance to speak on this item. Therefore, speakers are warned to limit their comments to subjects that fall within the city council's authority to decide or take action. City Clerk, do we have any remote participants wishing to speak on oral communications? Yes, Vice Mayor. First up is Carlen, followed by Steven M. Carlen, you've been unmuted and you have three minutes to address the city council.

Hello. Good evening. Um, I'm a volunteer with Bay Area Cats. Um, Bay Area Cats is a local uh all volunteer nonprofit and I'm um asking that you would consider them in your upcoming budget cycle. Um, I'm going to focus on the fact that Bay Area Cats uh supporting them aligns with uh adopted city policies. The first is that um Bay Area Cats takes in healthy cats and kittens, which the Santa Clara County Animal Shelter does not. And 85% of cats and kittens that are feral are healthy. So supporting Bay Area cats would allow the um enforcement of Sunnyville Municipal Code 6.05.010 010 to be reinstated. Uh that was suspended when Sunnyville partnered with Santa Clara County Animal Services uh because they do not take in healthy cats and kittens. It also aligns with Sunnyville's broader values and goals. The city's animal code emphasizes humane treatment and minimum standards of care. The general plan talks about public health, neighborhood quality of life, and efficient, sustainable services. Bay Area cat traps, neuters, and returns, TNRs, cat colonies, and the Sunny or Santa Clara County Animal Shelter only does TNR for one cat per week, which is not effective. So, Bay Area Cats is much more effective. They go out and trap cats themselves and then

take them to u vets that they partner with for spayneuter. And the other point is that Bay Area Cats did a survey. Um they got uh about 267 responses from people in the Sunnyville area or nearby and 87 87% of them out of 267 surveyed on this question would be much more likely to use shelter services if the partnering shelter were in Sunnyville rather than 40 miles away in San Martin. So, uh, to conclude, I hope that you will consider them, uh, in your budget cycle, um, supporting Bay Area cats. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, Mr. uh, city manager, I believe that last week we uh, prioritized an item that may have some relevance for this on establishing a funding program for community nonprofits. Could you speak to that briefly?

Yes, thank you, Vice Mayor. Um uh council supported a council priority project to fund a grant program for nonpro non nonprofits um outside of our other grant programs for special events and for human services. So um that will be coming forward as part of the budget uh process in May.

Thank you very much, Mr. City Manager. And if adopted, that would also provide a vehicle for Bay Area Cats and other nonprofits to apply for city funds. Um, next up we have uh actually we have another member of the public indicating a desire to speak under oral communications. Uh, next up is Stephen M. Stephen, you've been unmuted and you have three minutes to address city council.

Good evening, mayor and council. Thanks for your attention tonight. Um, I volunteer as a interpretive guide with National Park Service on the Coast Starlight train. Um we'll be going to a training soon and uh this year we're celebrating the 200 250th anniversary of the ANZA expedition arriving. Uh they arrived coming from Southern California. as a group of Spanish and uh native and mixed and even um African descent folks arrived to California 250 years ago and site near um Monav Vista High School. Uh there's a stone there with a plaque and that plaque is where the Spanish settlers came through 250 years ago. So I just wanted to bring that to your attention. uh related to that uh celebrate the comments earlier by the Moeka folks and support their efforts become recognized. At the same time, we should recognize all uh the folks in the area that were here in particular the Tommy Wum Roomson. I'm not the expert. I'm just a guide, but you I'd like to make sure that all the native peoples in the area that are recognized at this time. Thank you. It's the end of my talk. Thanks.

Thank you very much, Mr. City Clerk. Are there any other remote participants wishing to speak under oral communications? No, Vice Mayor. Thank you very much. I will go ahead and close oral communications. Uh, next up, we have the consent calendar. I will go ahead and open public comment on the consent calendar items. Please submit a speaker card to the city clerk. Raise your digital hand now or dial star9 on a telephone to indicate you wish to speak. Speakers will have three minutes to speak. Are there any speaker cards for the consent calendar? Uh, no, Vice Mayor. There is one individual online indicating a desire to speak on the consent calendar. All right.

So, I can check in with them and figure out find out which item they're interested in. Uh, AFNJ, can you please indicate which consent calendar item you would like to speak to? 20 26-03-03 which is I think 1B. Yes. So 1B is a one boy. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. City Clerk. I will close public comment uh and ask for a motion from my colleagues. Council member Shrina Vasan move to move to approve U consent calendar 1 A 1 C to uh 1J. Mayor Klene. Second. Thank you very much, Mr. City Clerk. May we have the the vote uh roll call vote, please. First up, council member Cisneros, how do you vote? Yes. Mayor Klene,

yes. Council member Cell, yes. Vice Mayor Melinger, yes. Council member Lei, yes. Council member Chang, yes. Council member Sernasan, yes. The motion carries 70 for items 1 A and items 1 C through 1J.

Thank you very much. At this time, we will take item 1B. Do we have any comments uh from or questions from council? Seeing none, I will go ahead and open the public hearing on this item. Please submit a speaker card to the city clerk. Use the raise hand feature now or dial star9 on a telephone to indicate you wish to speak. I will call on members of the public participating in person first, followed by remote participants. Speakers will have three minutes to speak. Uh does anyone want to speak on this item before we hear from remote speakers? Seeing and hearing none, city uh clerk, do we have any remote participants wishing to speak on this item?

Yes, vice mayor. First up is ASA J. ASA, you've been unmuted and you have three minutes to address the city council.

I want to thank you all for allowing me to speak on this matter. Uh during the contract award to BHS, the ESC rep told the city that the project on was on fast track to due to an expiring grant from Cal Recycle. We were told that the power supply was limited to an existing 480 volt 6 amp cable. Honorable mayor Klene indicate that he was willing to help and negotiate with PG&E to upgrade that power supply if it was needed. We were told that uh the power supply was adequate and did not need up upgrading. Um I reviewed the documentation and I thought that that power supply could be a limiting factor in in uh operation of the uh operation of the equipment. However, now we are uh dealing with a contract award change order in the contract uh for a power supply that supposedly was installed already. uh addition to that fact that I don't know if the power supply was installed and uh it needs uh or it needed to be installed. It is not clarified during the uh the presentation which one is the case. Having said all of that, the issue that remains is the increase in the contingency fund. Um I thought the contingency fund is limited to 10%. Only uh with an existing 15% contingency fund and then increasing it another 12% uh the contingency will be somewhere

around 28 29%. I don't think that the purchasing act support that uh high percentage of contingency fund. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item? No, Vice Mayor, that was the final remote public speaker for this agenda item. Thank you very much. I will close the public hearing and ask for discussion or motion from my colleagues. Council member Shernivasan, I wanted city manager. Uh any response to that? Now I have to look this side.

Oh, thank you council member. I'm not uh is the question about what the purpose of the contingency is or not I'm not sure I fully understood the uh actually it was two-part question. one is the contingency and then the second one is the usage of the electricity increase in usage or something to that effect.

I think the item before you is to increase the contingency. I'd have to get back to council on the electric usage question. The contingency is related to a change in trenching operations that we had to make due to the um complexity of the underground utilities there. So it required a shift from a conventional con um trenching operation or or excavating operation to one using uh um hydro hydro excavation which is a a different technology. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Council member Cell. Just motion to um accept staff's recommendation when it's time. Thank you very much. Is there a second? Second. Thank you very much. Uh Mr. City Clerk, please conduct the vote. First up, Council Member Le, how do you vote? Yes. Council member Cell. Uh yes. Council member Chang, yes. Council member Cneros, yes. Vice Mayor Melinger? Yes. Council member Siobasan, yes. Mayor Klein, yes. The motion carries 70.

Thank you very much. I will now call a 5m minute recess and council will return at 8:07 p.m.

All right, I will reconvene the council meeting at 8:09 p.m. Next up, we are moving on to item 26-75. Is there a staff report?

Yes, there is. Uh good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. I'm Ryan Dyson, housing specialist 2, and uh tonight we'll be talking about the 2025 housing element annual progress report or APR. So the APR uh is an annual annual requirement by the state. It's due every April um and submitted to the Department of Housing and Community Development or HCD. Uh the APR monitors the city's housing accomplishments for the calendar year. So in this case, we're looking at 2025 and it it includes our housing element program accomplishments as well as our reena progress which is measured by building permits issued. The APR form uh is very long. It includes about 14 different tables. So we will summarize just a few of those uh most significant ones tonight. uh starting with table A which shows the number of complete planning applications submitted during 2025 and you can see here that 380 total uh units were submitted uh complete applications were submitted for 380 total units. Uh and this further breaks it down by income level. You may notice on uh this chart here that there are two new income levels that have been added to the table. These are for acutely low income which is up to 15% of area median income and then extremely low income which is up to 30% of area median income. Uh these two income levels will um go to our uh will count towards our very low income arena. Uh but these were added uh due to recent state legislation AB30 3039 um which added these two new income categories in. Next up is table A2. Uh this is a

summary of the number of housing units that have been issued entitlements, issued building permits, and were final in 2025. Uh so you can see a wide variance here uh between the number of units that were issued entitlements uh issued building permits and final. Uh we have about uh 300 units that were issued entitlements, about 200 that were issued building permits, then over 1,400 units that were finaled last year. Uh that's the largest number that we've seen since uh going back to at least 2018. We also like to keep council up to date on ADU production. Um, and you could see here that uh 2025 was uh perhaps the strongest year uh in terms of ADU production with 1708 or 107 ADU permits issued and 72 ADUs completed uh during 2025. Uh this sharp increase for 2025 can largely be attributed to recent state law AB1211 which went into effect in 2025 and allows up to eight ADUs to be built on a multif family rental property. Uh there were 25 ADUs that were built on uh or issued permits for multif family properties last year. And then table B is a summary uh of our um progress to date on our arena or for our 2023 to 2031 housing element. Uh this shows that the city has issued building permits for just under 2,000 units uh since June of 2022. Uh which represents about 16% of our total arena. And you can see also here that uh in terms of where we're at in our arena timeline, we're about 41% through the arena cycle. Nevertheless, we have many residential projects that are currently in the pipeline. Uh nearly 4,000 units have

been submitted for either preliminary review or have a formal planning application in uh many of which would be uh deed restricted affordable housing as well. Already this year, we've entitled 400 units. That's more than we entitled the last uh calendar year. And we have another 1,600 entitle units that could submit for building permits uh now because they've been entitled. Oops. And uh we've also been busy implementing our 45 housing element programs. Uh so uh these are summarized in table D of the APR. And in particular, I'll just highlight uh we received our pro housing designation uh which we were awarded last May as well as meaningful programs to address homelessness and the completion of our ADU toolkit and brochure which are both available on our very new uh uh ADU web page which was just completed this year. And with that, um, our recommendation tonight is for alternative one to approve the 2025 APR and direct staff to submit it to HCD.

Thank you. And I'll be here for questions. Thank you very much. I will now ask for questions from my colleagues. First up, Council Member Shernasan. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Uh, table A and A2. Uh table A says total is 380 A2 says 326. What's the difference there?

Uh this difference is largely because of uh uh ADU projects that went through our streamlined application process. So those projects don't uh uh they don't receive a planning approval. Uh they just receive building permit approval. So we count the building permit when it comes in. Uh but we there's no planning approval as part of that process. So it's just approved as a um a building permit. So it'll show up again in the building permit issued. Okay. But it will be counted against RENA numbers, right? Well, since it's recorded in the building permit issue uh tally, that's what counts towards arena.

Okay. And then um on table B uh which is I think uh slides what is 41% completed mean uh that means we're 41 in terms of time we're 41% through the cycle. So it's been about three and a half years do with the units. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, which means that we are timewise we are 41% but then arena numbers wise we have 16%. So a lot of catching up to do.

Yes. So we're lagging behind there but as we note uh there's a lot of units that are in the pipeline. A lot of units have been entitled and and can submit for building permits. That's a good point. And then but these units in the pipeline those are uh 15% affordable or some of them could be affordable housing entirely. But is there a breakdown in the next slide in terms of the uh affordability? Yeah. What is the uh housing project versus affordable housing project?

Uh we we don't have that data in the table yet. Um but we will record that when those projects go in for uh building permits or for planning applications. Very good. And then uh yeah this is very good. Of course we have to do a lot of catching up and then uh because we are uh just 16% that's the worry we have. So, but how did they give us the pro housing designation based on just the 16%? The I'm sorry. No, no, go ahead. Yeah, the pro housing designation is largely based on policy items and programs.

Okay. Not the progress. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Council Member Shin Vasan. Next up is Council Member Cisneros.

Hello. Uh, thank you both so much for your work on this and for helping get us from the application process all the way through and making sure that we had that su we're able to successfully issue the building permit. I know it takes a lot of work. It's a lot of unlamorous um kind of back and forth there. And that'll go to my first question. Do you notice any stuck points in the application process where an applicant like a a specific type of housing where an applicant has a longer time in the application process before getting a building permit than other housing types.

I I'll take that, Ryan. Um Trudy Ryan, community development director. Uh really it's it's largely the applicant. Um how much time they want to wait until they submit their building permits. Um it there are hundreds of reasons why they might delay or or hurry uh the process. um the economy um the the availability of of um lending the fact that they might not have site control and they're waiting for a tenant to to locate if it's a h if it's a property that has other uses on it. So there's a lot of reasons. I don't think there's any pattern other than the you can tell when the economy is a little less robust um that they tend to wait a little bit longer.

That makes sense. And those are the things we can't those you just talked about a lot of things in the we can't control column. Correct. Whereas there are there are also a lot of things in the we can control column which is what we've detailed in the housing element and they've appropriately recognized us. They're doing a good job in that area. So I appreciate that. I always just like to check in to see if there's a stock point there on any of the build types. Um we're including this the streamlined ADUs in that number. What is what affordability are there are we putting those at? Is is there guidance?

Yes, there's been new guidance that's been released on that um based on a regionwide survey that uh the Association of Bay Area Governments has published uh just this past year. So, uh we categorize 30% of ADUs as very low income, 30% as low income, 30% as moderate income, and then 10% as above moderate income. And that's based on the findings of this survey uh which Stony Veil participated in but is is regionwide as I mentioned and that's regardless of the the conditions in the city. We're just going by the the survey breakdown for when we total our retally the final in the report.

Yes. And I'll add that HCD has approved those recommendations from Aback so we are clear to use them. Great. Um I have no other questions right now. Thank you so much. Thank you very much Council Member Cneros. Next, council member Cell.

Um, thank you for your work. So, um, I think in one of the graphs it showed like a an page um, one of the accessory dwelling unit production. It showed a spike on the blue bar and then staff mentioned that that was due to SB 1211 and um, 8 ADUs. Do we foresee that in the future that we'll um the blue bar will keep being high and so we'll be having more ADUs? Is that the trend?

I I think that's always the question with ADUs is uh what the buildout is going to be. When will we reach a point where everyone who has an ADU has built an ADU? Uh but this particular law uh SB 1211 uh does allow for multifamily uh projects to build an at an ADU on their property up to eight ADUs. Uh so we're seeing a large volume of of these projects come in now. Um I think it it remains to be seen whether that's going to continue. This was the first year where it was possible in 2025. Uh so we'll we'll continue to monitor and and uh report back uh next year as well and see where the trend goes.

Okay. And then those blue that blue bar units are those tend to be like on the lower end of the um affordability, you know, like the scale they they would not be um they would be more of the low income household low. Uh do we know these would fall into our categorization of uh 30% very low, 30% low, 30% moderate and 10% above moderate which is the recommendations from uh the AAG ADU survey. So that's what HCD has approved us to use.

Okay. And then one last thing like um I think state law has been streamlining more ADUs and um are we able to keep up with all those laws to streamline or how does that go or do you need to like get the laws from last year done and then do the this year's how does that go? Uh, Council Member Cell, we we're always working on um keeping up with state laws and since the the middle of the last decade, um there have been um an increasing number every year and then modifications to some of those bills. So, we we have a backlog um and it's on the council work plan, all of those um uh combination of of of bills for opportunity as well as streamlining.

Okay. And then if there's any bottlenecks or anything that comes up to like request to the city manager for extra um allocations of whatever that you need.

Yes. And we we tried to not go too too crazy um um because we don't know really what the workload's going to be. Um, so we do try to project as much as we can on on do we do we anticipate um a lot of applications and and a lot of that is really some of the larger applications that take a lot of staff time and and those we do get plenty of of of warning on. um this the state legislation, we just have to wait for it to happen and um we we're participating more since the city hired a lobbyist and so we've had some um success in influencing a few of the bills. Okay. Well, keep up the good work. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up is Mayor Klene. Thank you. Um I'll try to keep this relatively short. Uh so this was the first year we've had acutely low and extremely low uh from a designation standpoint of of permitting. Um, do we see this as a upcoming requirement from Arena's standpoint looking and also kind of looking backwards? Um, do we have a good number of acutely low or extremely low affordable housing, let's say, locations within the city already that we previously approved and are currently in operation.

Yeah. So um this will be uh a thing going forward. Uh since we were already midcycle when the uh the law was adopted uh these different categories acutely low extremely low are uh contribute to our very low income arena. But for the next cycle the seventh cycle housing element uh we will have these categories and we will be assigned arena for both of them. Um, it remains to be seen what exactly the guidance is going to be from HCD as to what constitutes a site for uh these particular particular income levels. It's likely that it might just be uh the same as a lower income site. Uh but we haven't seen that yet. Um and and then to answer your second question, uh we generally see a fair amount of extremely low income units through our 100% affordable housing projects and we do prioritize uh projects that have 30% uh AMI units. 15% AMI is something that is uh fairly uh it's it's not very common. Um, I suspect that a lot of the units that uh do have um that are allocated towards 30% AMI do have people that are 15% AMI living in them. Uh, but it's not something it's not an income limit that is commonly used right now. Uh, so it's something that we can, you know, continue to work on and and think of as a new requirement for uh affordable housing projects and uh it would be have to be something also that comes from TAC too.

Thank you. That's that's much appreciated. um from let's say single a single senior living on on um a fixed income um on their basically where does that where would that fall currently you know and when you talk about house housing burden and all that and we've had lots of discussions on the deis about uh senior housing and the need within our community where would basically um someone you know where would our senior years fall from that standpoint if that was their only income? It would certainly fall. Sorry, go ahead.

It would certainly fall under extremely low income. I I don't know. Uh it may depend on the the size of the household as to whether it applies to acutely low income. Um but it it's something that would certainly be extremely low income. Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. That's all I have for now. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Council member Lei,

thank you. First of all, I would like to thank you for um breaking that down into a PowerPoint presentation. These things are complicated and have a lot of numbers, and I just want to thank you for the um degree to which you were able to simplify that for us. I want to ask um generally, I think we hear the phrase current economic conditions a lot. Um would you say that the trending right now is reflective of current economic conditions and whether what we should if there there's no way to predict it but can you predict if this is going to continue? It doesn't look like we're going to be on track to match our arena numbers. Is there any hope to catch up? Um if you could speak a little bit about that. I can take a first shot at that.

I can take that.

Okay. Um so I am not aware of a lot of cities who've actually hit the actual arena reena number. The the philosophy behind it for a number of years is is make sure that number is high enough to push cities to make sure they have the land zoned should there be the market for it. Um make sure that you don't have barriers to development. Um, so we're we're not it depends on how much below that we are and other cities are be before I would anticipate there being some sort of stern remark from from HCD about that number um or that achievement. Um, if I could predict the future like that, I would probably have a different job. Um, I I usually have to base it on our conversations with the development community and how eager they seem to get the entitlement to come in for building permits. Um, we have a a couple of developers right now that are self- financing, so they're taking longer to build a project, but yay, the building permit was issued, right? Um, but that doesn't necessarily have the the door available for for someone to move in. So there this I mean I hate to keep saying it but it is pretty complex and complicated. Um and so I can only look forward to based on what I've been told and then some international event might occur that will affect things like co right

thank you and thanks for explaining the um I guess the aspir aspirational nature of reena numbers. I don't think that's completely um yeah, I don't know that H2D would phrase it that way, but I would I would agree with your phrasing. Okay, thank you. Uh thank you for elucidating on that. That was helpful. I don't think that's necessarily um the way that people would see that number and read it. So, that was helpful to have that from your perspective. I also um want to note that we're starting to see uh we recently approved applications in Moffett Park. So, it's exciting to see that development come up and more housing move uh move into that u anticipated area. And that's the extent of my questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next up is Council Member Chang. Thank you and thank you for the progress report. Uh looks like a much better year. I had a question. In the staff report, it mentioned um table K requires local governments have adopted a local tenant preference policy, but our city has not. Uh could you just explain a little bit more about that background?

Yes. Uh table K is also the result of a a new state law. I don't remember the number of that one, but um it requires any jurisdiction that is adopting a local tenant or a local preference ordinance uh to establish a a website for that ordinance and then any documentation showing that it's not a fair housing violation to to have that preference policy. U as far as the city is concerned, we we don't have a particular ordinance that establishes a local tenant preference policy. Uh, so there's no requirement for us to have that website or to list it in in its table. Okay. Thank you for that clarification.

If I could just add on to that, not not for the the preferences are not citywide. They're only project specific um on the affordable projects where we um uh or excuse me, for the BMR units where we we control those, but otherwise none of the other units have those um preference requirements. Thank you very much. Uh I have a couple of questions. Uh first of all, thank you staff for the excellent report. Um one of and I was delighted to see the number of units final in the past year. That's a substantial increase over what we've seen previously. Um although I'm perhaps somewhat pessimistic that we'll be able to match that number again this year, but we will see. Um, one question I have is, you know, we have seen a large number of townhouse and what you might call executive home projects come through the pipe in uh the past several years. And one concern I have is that with a number of these projects moving through, are we losing um land that could be used for higher density developments in the future? because we are going to continue to be allocated new reena numbers, you know, every eight years for the foreseeable. Um, and I, you know, the way the state is trending, I do believe those numbers are going to continue to be high and continue to be comparable to what we've seen in this cycle. Uh, how do we ensure that we're not, um, how shall I phrase this? um that we're not losing future development capacity because townhouse projects, townhouse complexes are very very difficult to redevelop.

I I'll take that for you, Ryan. Um right now we're still seeing a few um developments come in um on sites that were part of a 1993 resoning which we called our future study where the majority of industrial lands that were zoned for conversion to residential were zoned at medium density and the 75% of that is like the perfect townhouse density. So, we're still seeing um the few remaining sites associated with that um uh go through. Um in the last several years, Mafet Park specific plan, El Camino Rial specific plan, Lawrence Station Area Plan, all have introduced higher numbers than our prior general plan highest designation was. And um the the point I made about the 1993 sites is it takes a while. Sometimes it takes 5 years before you start to see a plan being implemented. Um I I think the city can feel pretty comfortable that we have other lands available for higher densities. We've done the analysis of of um of the infrastructure, sewer, water, um things of that nature. um and and we know that we can we can um support them and plan for them. Um should we decide or the council direct that we look at higher densities, it's going to take a while to get through those studies.

Understood. Thank you. Um next question. Um you know, we did see I I also have questions about what was it a local tenant preference ordinance. Um could we talk about what such an ordinance would generally look like and you know has the city considered implementing one? If not, why not? If so, why?

Uh surrounding jurisdictions have implemented uh local tenant preference ordinances and sometimes they're very specific um and may apply to a particular group uh to prevent displacement. Um, and in those circumstances, uh, that's where many jurisdictions need to justify that it is, uh, not a fair housing violation. Um, and in order to apply that to an affordable housing project, you need to have that justification in place to receive, uh, tax credits and other funding like that. So, that's where this particular requirement originated from uh, for table K. Um I you could also do a more broad citywide uh local tenant preference uh live work preference. Um you know that's what the city negotiates with our affordable developments right now and and through our BMR program. Um but it's not memorialized as a particular uh uh ordinance um that you know we we have available. So uh it doesn't fall under this particular category.

Okay. Thank you. I've certainly heard concerns from the community about, you know, recent allocation of, you know, affordable housing units at Sonora at Irad Hall Square and Sonora Court and, you know, claims that many, you know, very few of the, I believe, the units specifically for formerly unhoused individuals were uh actually going to unhoused residents in the currently unhoused residents in the city of Sunnyvale. Um, so I'm I don't fully remember all of the details of that, but you know, is that the sort of thing that a local tenant preference might ordinance might help to address? Most likely it would not. Uh most of the uh uh the prohibitions against our local ordinance applying to um uh coordinated entry permanent supportive housing units and units that receive a projectbased voucher uh is separate from a local tenant protect ordinance that we would adopt locally. U those prohibitions would still be in place. uh the uh for a a project based voucher uh federal law prohibits a a local tenant a local preference policy for for those units.

Thank you. Uh couple more questions and then I will hand things over to the public for uh public comment. Um what is the status of the review and update of our park dedication fees? Um well there's two components to that and one is an update to the park dedication um acreage requirements um to asssure that we are meeting our current standard of 5 acres per thousand and we've um we've pretty much gotten toward the end of that. Um uh we wanted to um look at adding other density categories because we have introduced these higher densities that were not addressed in in those um uh regulations. We have regulations in the subdivision code and regulations in the zoning code and they're um controlled by different state legislation. So for the um items that are in the zoning code, we need to do some verification of uh feasibility and do a feasibility analysis. And we've been um collecting that information with some changeovers in our budgeting system. It was not um a simple effort to extract some of those costs out. We had the actual um costs for the projects to improve parks, but not necessarily the staff time associated with it. So, we've now gotten that information and um we have a consultant who'll be helping us do the feasibility analysis and will be coming to council um later this year um possibly late summer um with a proposal for um for changing to the um to the acreage requirements. Uh last year we adopted a um lower land value than our survey said. So, we did lower all of the

park fees by 30% by lowering that land value by 30%. Um, so first piece is in there. Um, once we get the new densities, we'll we'll see if we can adjust some of that land value um a little closer to what the actual value is. That was a long answer to a short question.

No, no, it's a complicated question. Um and last question since co the I have heard consistently from developers pretty much anyone in real estate whenever I ask you know how about apartments how about mixed use the answer is it won't pencil the only thing that pencils right now are town houses I have gotten I will be frank very tired of hearing this um so my question is you know obviously we do a barrier analysis as part of our housing element. Um is there anything that staff believes that the city might be able to do to help to encourage um these more let's say urbanist style this more urbanist style of development that with an emphasis on you know higher density access to retail greater walkability and bikeability. Well, as I mentioned a little earlier, um we are now starting to see a few of the higher density sites come in. So, those are not townhouse densities. Um we do have a project that's ready for um close to ready for public hearing in the Mafet Park area, which is a much higher density than than the townhouse developments. Um and and um also some affordable housing projects in the Moffett Park area. Um and um conversations. So the the conversations have started. What a lot of developers will do during the time when they can't afford to build is get their entitlements so that when the economy changes, they they're in a ready position to to um get into their construction documents. Um I I don't know that there's a lot more we can do at this moment. Um I I I certainly will keep my ears and eyes open and um let the city manager know if I think that there's something that a missed opportunity that we have out there. Um, but I think most of the land that's going to be available is going to be at

higher densities.

Okay. Excellent. Um, and last question, and maybe this is something that could come back after public comment. Um, how many proposals have been submitted for Moffett Park at this point? I was only aware of one affordable housing project. It sounds like more have come in. We have um one application that has a formal application in um another affordable housing application that has a preliminary application which is SB330 preliminary application. Um we had a preliminary review which is city sponsored formal review of an application for um a market rate project and then we have a formal application um for another uh market rate project that's moving um towards uh public hearings fairly soon. So those are the formal ones and then we have conversations with developers who are considering applications.

Excellent. Thank you very much. Uh I have no further questions. Uh do any of my colleagues have further questions? Seeing no hands, I will go ahead and open the public hearing on this item. Please submit a speaker card to the city clerk. Raise your digital hand now or dial star9 on a telephone to indicate you wish to speak. I will call on members of the public participating in person first, followed by remote participant. Speakers will have three minutes to speak. And Mr. City Clerk, are there any members of the public in the room wishing to speak? No, Vice Mayor.

Thank you very much. We will now move on to uh remote Excuse me, my script disappeared. We will now move on to remote participants. Remote speakers are warned to limit their comments to the agenda item being considered. Speakers who are ruled out of order will not be given another chance to speak on this item. The title of this item is uh approve the 2025 housing element annual progress report. Mr. City Clerk, do we have any uh members of the public in the meeting room with their hands raised?

Uh Vice Mayor, we do have several remote people indicating his a desire to speak. First up is Himanchu S followed by Marie B. Himanchu, you've been unmuted and you have three minutes to address the city council.

Thank you. Uh good evening mayor and council members. Uh first I do want to acknowledge the work that the city has done to advance housing production and to meet the state housing requirements. I think Sunnyville has done has clearly taken its reena obligations seriously. At the same time, as you review this housing element annual progress report, I do encourage the council to look not only at the number of housing units being produced, but also where the specific development is occurring across the city and how that growth is being planned. So over the past decade, de development has not occurred evenly across neighborhoods. A significant share of that new housing has been concentrated in North Sunnyville and specifically around the Fair Oaks corridor. Within a half mile of Fairs Plaza alone, more than 2,000 housing units have been built over the past 10 years and additional projects continue to add housing. And projects along the Stewart Drive corridor alone, for instance, are expected to bring in close to 400 additional residential units. With this level of growth, it becomes even more important that housing and essential services are planned together. Village service uh village centers uh like Farax Plaza have historically served as neighborhood service service hubs. Uh they provide access to groceries and every and other everyday needs. However, the objective standards in the general plan to preserve essential neighborhood retail were not established before redevelopment applications began to arrive and this area now risks losing some of the limited grocery and retail access that currently serves the community. Sanville has also made walkability and sustainability core planning priorities, but these goals are difficult to achieve if residents must drive long distances for basic services like groceries. So, as service as Sunnyville plans for future arena cycles, I do encourage the council to consider policy tools such as general plan amendments or economic development strategies to preserve and require essential retail and services in underserved areas like North Sunnyville.

Downtown Sunnyville is thriving today because the city intentionally planned for retail alongside housing. Uh, and I think North Sunnyville deserves the same thoughtful planning so that housing, walkability, and services can grow together. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, do we have any further speakers? Yes, Vice Mayor. Next up is Marie B. Marie, you've been unmuted and you have three minutes to address the city council.

Good evening, Mayor Quin and Vice Mayor Melinger and council members. is Marie Bernard from Sunnyvale Community Services. And again, I want to uh echo the prior comments uh applauding you for looking at this uh the the whole housing element annual progress report. It shows progress, but I also want to say it's not enough. And so uh in doing the number crunching on the acutely acutely lowincome people that coming to Sunnyale Community Services and the extremely lowincome people um 80% of the people that we served last year which was over 11,000 people were extremely low income. And um in doing the math, uh one person at 15% of the area median income would be making $20,000 a year or 1708 a month. And we know that many of our seniors as well as disabled and other people who are living on fixed incomes are making that much or even less. And a family of four at 15% would be making about $2,400 a month. We know that's the case. And so we encourage you to really stress that we have to have h housing and as you've already heard as well, housing that is accessible and that is close by so that people do not need to drive can easily access basic needs like grocery stores and buses and be able to access all the services that they need and they deserve to have. So, please work with your nonprofit partners and also uh as as you heard before, do this with intention with intentionality and know that we will be able to help you as much as we can to both document the need and also encourage people to want to live and say stay in Sunnyale. Work with developers, identify people who are

deserving of this housing, work with landlords and developers to encourage them to build and to suspend housing for everybody here. And again, thank you all for the hard work. I know this is difficult, but we can do it. If we can do it anywhere, we can do it here in Sunnyale. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, Mr. City Clerk, are there any other members? Actually, council member Shiny Vasan question. No. Uh, Mr. City Clerk, are there any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item? No, Vice Mayor.

All right. I will go ahead and close the public hearing on this item. I will now ask for discussion or a motion from my colleagues. Council member Shernivasan. Mike,

thank you. Thank you. I had a question uh based on the comments uh from public. Um you heard the numbers 11,000 low income uh all the numbers and then you also pointed out that local preference may not be applicable with uh CAS uh the coordinated entry system of uh the county and then the project to which means that and then one of the public clearly stated that Many of the clients would like to stay in Sunnyale. How do we address this problem? Because IRA hall project I know that 45 designated units for announced community none of them are have lived or worked in Sunnyville. I think the issue is the CES and then the project voucher which Sunnyale residents may or may not be applicable. How do we address the actual issue Sunny Valley is facing?

Hi, Council Member Amanda Stolitz, housing officer. Um, so when it does come to coordinated entry, that's not something that we're able to control. We've had a few discussions with uh the county office of supportive housing and uh because there is uh a process in which they have to use to ensure equity uh across the board for people who are assessed and in those programs um they can't uh ensure that any one particular city um is funneling their people in over other people. Uh and so um it's just not something that they have been able to do. and they also have different funding sources that don't allow that as well uh because of fair housing issues. And so when it comes to uh ensuring that um we have permanent supportive housing, which is what they're serving, we may not be able to ensure that um they're Sunnyville residents that are always getting in there. Um but uh we do ask and talk with them about ensuring that you know sometimes it's it's people from North County and um they can't promise anything but we do know that across the board and and we can pull that data um that there are uh I think there were at least um 200 um households that were um in or going into permanent supportive housing um last year. So, we're able to access that data to ensure that we do have um families who are experiencing homelessness, households who are experiencing homelessness that are getting into permanent supportive housing, although it may not necessarily be in Sunnyville. Uh and another thing that we continue to look at is while it may not be permanent supportive housing, um you know, we're working with Midpen on uh 295 South Matilda and that may give us an opportunity um to have a Sunnybell preference because they're not using coordinated entry. So if we want to look at additional sites um in that way in the future um where we can place people who are acutely or extremely low income um and not use coordinated entry um and look at how the city can support

those efforts um that's certainly something we can do. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that explanation. But I have a follow-up question on that. So till now have we had any project which did not use CES in Sunnyville?

Uh we don't use uh coordinated entry uh for typically affordable housing projects. We we typically it's been used in the past for permanent supportive housing. Uh and so there are different funding sources and the county is bringing those funding sources in and then in turn they're um utilizing coordinated entry to place people. So there's no place like home funding from the state which um services people who have severe behavioral health issues for instance and the county places those folks into um our permanent supportive housing and that was the case with um Ira Hall Square that has that type of funding

but Irad all project uh county gave 11 million whereas the city gave 27 million dollars right and then uh how do we yet we didn't get the fair share in for people who work and live in sunny way right and then when I look at these numbers 11,000 uh low-income families and then we have about 400 announced uh if we and then you mentioned 200 of them have been placed at that rate we will not be even making a scratch in the whole problem Mhm.

How do we yet we are funding all this affordable house project including the Matilda project IRA deval project. Midpen itself has got eight projects if I remember correctly. How do we even address that issue?

Sure. When it comes to permanent supportive housing um one thing that other communities like San Francisco have done um is to use general fund for operating dollars for permanent supportive housing. And so um that does cost a lot of money um because you have to guarantee that for a number of years um along with the development funds um but that is one way that that other communities have been able to support um permanent supportive housing and the operating funds needed and ensure that um the people that they're serving are getting in there.

Okay. I I totally understand where you're coming from. That's why I I know building the construction cost, initial capital cost and then the operating cost and then we seem to be funding the first part of it through IRA or other projects and then somehow

because we are not catering to the operating cost. We end up first of all the 200 families you alluded to or you mentioned if they are placed outside Sunnyville that doesn't serve the purpose because uh people who want to work here live here kids go to school here need to live here and then if they are move to Palo Alto or San Jose that doesn't serve the purpose so somehow I think a comprehensive strategy needs to be looked today.

Yes, we're certainly looking at that in our uh uh strategy to address homelessness um through the tenant based rental assistance program and also through uh rapid rehousing programs which are able to at least um on a short-term basis uh pay for subsidy and and ensure that people can um find market rate units here. Yeah. TBR is for 40 families. Yes, if I remember correctly, right? Uh that is through Sunnyville Community Services. which we have been funding for three years now right but still the numbers are so staggering compared to what we are able to even address is

uh I don't know how we need to come up with a comprehensive strategy absolutely

okay council member Serini Bosan one of the things that um we've asked um some of the affordable housing operators in Sunny Bale is to to see if they can have the data to show us what percent of their tenants were identified identified as Sunnyville that lived or worked here um at the time that they they moved into the facility. So I I totally hear what the council saying about the ID Hall particular units for the the homeless. Um uh th this number would be, you know, all of those various income levels that are served by the affordable housing. Um it doesn't preclude someone in the future from being eligible for one of those uh units at ID Hall. If someone moves out, someone from Sunnyville w would be um if they're next on the list, they they would be available. I mean they would be offered

but but it is it is all based on the the ranking that the county has assigned. Right. Thank you for that explanation. I in fact I would love to see that uh data of how many people we we might only get a slice of a a year how many new tenants and what percent but it might be helpful to at least know

exactly are we making any progress or not. Right. ultimately uh we can be spending money on this problem without any results. That is the biggest uh uh issue of uh funding something like this. And then the last question you mentioned about the IRA project and then uh uh the coordinated entry system. I I understand and then I have talked to lot of uh uh the organizations who directly work with an community and then if the project voucher is the only way to fund the operating cost then people with fixed income like seniors on social security may not be able to qualify for that. So there is another set of uh group uh we may not be able to house them in Sunnyale if the operating of these affordable homes are purely based on revenue model. Does it make sense or uh

I think I understand what you're saying, but but seniors with fixed incomes, depending on the level that they're at, could be eligible for a voucher. Um so so I want to just make that clear. It depends on on the the level of income that they have. So if their fixed income, for instance, is $2,000 or $3,000 a month, they probably may not be eligible. Um but someone who um received $1,100 a month on social security disability um potentially would be eligible. Right.

So I I I know others have comments. Uh I what I wanted to say is based on my research uh getting a voucher is very very tough. Uh all the uh uh nonprofits whom I have talked to they say that they don't know the process. If they don't know the process, a a low-income family or a person may not know the process, right? And then similarly, CES is also a blackbox kind of a thing which nobody has access to that. So anyway, we need to come up with a long-term strategy and then I would really like to see the data of how many people who worked in lived in Sunnyville were given these kinds of housing units. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Council Member Sherina Vosan. And I will just editorialize for a moment and say that sounds like a potential council priority project for a future year. Um, Council Member Cisneros.

Yes, thank you. I just want to say on that topic with my mom as a formerly homeless, very lowincome senior. I went through the voucher program with her for years and it was difficult for me to figure out as somebody with a master's degree in public policy and a sitting council member who like does this. It was hard. I was like, "Wow, I'm getting stuck and I'm like not figuring this out right." And so that's the level to which this difficulty is. Um I like to think that I'm a fairly capable person in understanding these kind of things, but um it is very difficult uh truly for many families. And so if we were I mean I would love it if we could just build so much housing that and have so much stock to support that you know 80% of the 11,000 but I I don't know how we're going to do that um uh in this world but you mentioned the tenant assistance because these folks who are living in Sunnyville currently they're living in Sunnyville currently and the idea is they want to stay here or if they work here be able to do so more. Do we have any other tenant protections with in our programs that would support people being able to stay in their homes

in the housing element? I can't remember. Would this be financial assistance or financial assistant, tenant protections, any any kind of policy or program that we have that would assist people in staying local? Um, our tenant protections program is largely built on uh state law and the just cause eviction. Uh, so we don't have any program that is specifically designated to to keep folks in their home. Um, uh, but we do offer emergency rental assistance. Is that still available? Yeah. From the county.

Right on. Yeah. These are man maybe some really good ideas will come from tonight too because these are all very real issues that people it's like live life or death quite literally. So I'm glad that we're talking about them but I want to shift shift over to the part of the housing a brought up by another member of the public um because we were charged to affirmatively further fair housing. What does that mean? It means a lot of things as it turns out. Uh but one of those things was the geographic distribution of new housing in our city and we just approved the med pen project up here or like approved it for the next step rather that's ongoing which is south of the tracks in a high resource area. It's a lot of affordable units. How are we capturing that geographic distribution of where we are um approving building permits? Well, we we do have a program in our housing element uh to uh reszone additional sites in high and higher resource areas. So, particularly uh south of Calterain tracks uh as you know higher density above 30 dwelling units per acre. Um so that's something that staff will be working on over the course of this year. Uh in terms of tracking the buildout, uh we have data for that, but it's not something that we have been sharing as part of our APR.

Okay, that makes sense. Cool. I'm glad that we're tracking it. We'd love to see it at some point. Um but that that could be for another update. Um I know they don't require that. Y'all are busy, but um I'm glad that's something we're paying attention to and I appreciated that comment from the public. So I'll turn off my microphone now. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Council Member Cisneros, Council Member Cell. Hi. Um, I had a question based on some things that were said here. So, um, tenant-based rental assistance, all those 40 households, they're in Sunnyville, um, the tenants, the families and the tenant based rental assistance, um, that are federally funded.

Sure. We get the federal funding and then we have the pro we do the RFP and then uh we bid out the tenant based rental assistance to the winner of the RFP. Are those mostly in Sunnyale or

um the households have an option to be able to go anywhere in uh Santa Clara County with their voucher and so some choose um to go elsewhere in the county um and some um are able to find housing in Sunnyville. Um, sometimes there are challenges with finding it in Sunnyale because it may not there may not be um the size unit that they need in particular. Um, and so they may find something that meets their needs more in in San Jose or Santa Clara. Um, but they again have the option of of going anywhere in Santa Clara County, which is also nice because it allows flexibility if they maybe work um elsewhere in the county too. Um, so there is a variety of of where people are staying.

Okay. So although Sunnyville gets the money from the federal government and then Sunnyville has um a RFP process and then goes out, uh the families don't necessarily need to stay in Sunnyville.

Yeah, I just want to clarify the RFP process is only for choosing the operator. Um but for actually operating the program, uh the we have a live work preference. You need to live or work in Sunnyville or have a child in a Sunnyville school in order to be eligible for the program. in addition to uh a few other eligibility requirements including income. You need to be under 50% AMI um as as another one. Um and you can be um experiencing homelessness or at eminent risk of homelessness.

Okay. And then for that program in similar programs like that does in the housing element do we get credit for that in terms of low low income that we're helping in some way the low low income? Yeah, I can have Brian add to that, but we're not building units. We're just placing people into units. So, it has nothing to do with the housing element. Um, in terms of of the programs that are serving people experiencing homelessness, um, it's certainly one of the programs that we do mention.

Okay. Um, and I guess similar programs to that when it's tenant based rental assistance and we're keeping people housed. Um, does that have anything to do with the housing element? The housing element only has to do with building new housing. It has nothing to do with keeping people housed.

Uh, well, there's I guess there's two aspects of the housing element. There's uh the housing that's being built or approved and that's something that we record. And then there's our housing element programs and we record how we implement them. So, if that's a part of a housing element program, then it is a part of our housing element and we record that in the APR. It's not as uh I would say quantitative as the you know units approved, units issued uh and those statistics that we include as as part of the APR.

Okay. And then um I like um at the end of the council response questions. Um it seemed really positive that this year um you're going to be working on more policies, missing middle kind of policies. And then how as a council will we be able to see um that we're making progress on that and will that be in next year's report or um

um I think for for this year as far as missing middle that program um I think we should have a a study session. Uh so we'll we'll be bringing that to you and we'll also record anything that we do on it as part of our housing element APR. Um uh and yeah and any other program too we'll we'll record in the APR. Okay. And then um last thing is missing middle mean that also ownership owner people like start buying units because it's like missing middle or is missing middle just the AMI just a certain percentage lower in the AMI.

Yes. Missing middle can mean a lot of things. Um, in the housing element, we've defined it as uh up to 150% of area median income, but we can obviously go below that as well if we want to target um uh folks that are um making up to 120%. That would still fall under that category. And we are looking at um ownership uh housing for for that program. Okay. So, I think that's really exciting. So, keep working on it. Thank you.

Thank you very very much, Council Member Cell. I have a couple questions. Um, one of the things that was an important part of our housing element and the affirmatively furthering fair housing portion of our housing element, which I know I commented on at the time and I know got a lot of commenting, was the, you know, the concept of opportunity levels and the concept of ensuring that we are a building housing in the existing highest opportunity levels and b increasing the opportunity levels of the areas where that they are lower. Um you know and we did hear uh the comments from uh the members of the public about the importance of retail walkability services etc. And we are seeing developments in North Sunnyvale that are removing those services even as they are adding housing. How does that impact you know the our explicitly stated goal of affirmatively furthering fair housing? How do we ensure that as we add housing in areas that are already at the lower end of the opportunity level spectrum that we are not that we are increasing the opportunity level as we do so not decreasing it

perhaps director Ryan

yeah I I'll it's very difficult um so our general plan land use um element was created before a lot of the state laws were created. Um and this many of our mixed use zoning which was our attempt to um keep commercial and residential um are are being challenged uh or they are a challenge to preserve that retail. So we are looking at other ways as we saw with the uh village center master plans. We um kept the same number of units because we can't decrease the number of housing units. We can we can reszone land that's not residential for commercial but we can't um reszone residential without creating residential elsewhere. So it it is a huge challenge. Um we didn't anticipate that um the mixeduse zoning that we wanted uh um in so many areas would um um that we wouldn't be able to to implement um that that vision really. Um so we're we're looking at other opportunities um as we look at the at the um at the specific plans. Um, at this point we haven't identified a site where we could add more commercial in in um throughout throughout the city that aren't already identified. Um, we do have a potential council um uh policy study that would look at um programs that that potentially um assist in um attracting commercial. But there are a lot of state laws that have really tied our hands. So, even though our general plan says we want it one way, um the

state law overrides that. Understood. Um we have a general plan amendment slated or general plan review in the long-term budget slated to begin work fiscal year 2728. Um can you talk a little bit about what topics staff is hoping to examine as part of that review or is that too early? It

it's a little early. Um it's not just the land use and transportation element. It would be the entire the the entire general plan. It will include staff from throughout the city. Um and we'll need to kind of look at what we have, what's dated, what what did we say we were going to do that we've already done that we can come out um and what's the vision. um we would um likely come to council with our our first um review of what's there um to get direction um give some um options and get direction so that that won't happen right away. Um and um in the meantime, we'll have to keep our eyes and ears open for what might be happening at the state level.

Okay. Thank you. Um, I want to editorialize briefly on some of the comments we've heard about how we're going to meet the demand for affordable housing given, you know, literally tens of thousands of residents who need more affordable housing. Um, there I I'm going to there there is no gentle way to say this. There is no way to meet that demand through taxpayer subsidies. It is impossible. The state of California, the estimates I have seen is short 3 and a half million homes. And uh staff can correct me on this if I'm wrong, but the rough number that I have heard for the cost of an affordable housing door in terms of construction is $500,000 on the very low end to a million dollars at the frankly more common. And I'm I'm seeing nodding. Is the million dollar per door number roughly accurate? It's u several projects are approaching that but we also see projects at the lower end too.

So if you multiply $ three and a half million by let's say $500,000 per door and say you can get economies of scale you are talking about over a trillion dollars investment needed just to build not operate just build those units. Um that is a monumental sum of money that is beyond even the power of the state of California. That would require a massive federal investment that I do not see happening in the near future. Um ultimately if we are going to tackle housing affordability, yes, increasing direct government assistance and involvement in affordable housing is critical, but we have to actually work on fixing the housing market, which means we do have to rely on private developers. There is no way in the even medium term that government can begin to act can build that kind of unit those that kind of backfill. Um so ultimately you know this is something this is where what we need to be talking about. we need to be talking about how we can unlock the potential for additional, you know, private housing growth because ultimately, uh, I I actually consider it something of a failure of our housing market or in general that we need affordable, you know, taxpayer subsidized affordable housing at the low income level, at the 60 to 80% AMI level. that should not those residents should not be needing taxpayer subsidy to be able to afford a home. The market should be providing homes that are affordable enough for them. And in the past, the market did. And so ultimately, you know, as we think about this, we need to be thinking not just in terms of, you know, direct government investment, which again is critical, but

in terms of how we actually fix this broken market. Um, I do see that we have another couple questions from uh, council and I know that we are getting late on this item. So, I am going to express optimism that a motion is forthcoming soon. Uh, council member Cisneros. Yeah, I'm ready with a motion when other folks are, but happy to have people jump in first. Council member Cell,

I'd be happy to second a motion. And I just wanted to make one comment that a little ray of hope is that the ADUs seem to be afford more affordable and that you know is private investment investing people investing in their backyard kind of thing. So it it be able to diversify. So I thought that was a little ray of hope from this whole report that you did. So that's my comment and I'd welcome seconding uh a motion. Thank you, Council Member Cisneros.

Yes. Uh, thank you. I move alternative one, approve the 2025 housing element annual progress report and direct staff to submit it to the Governor's Office of Planning and Research in the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Thank you very much, Council Member Cell. Uh, second. All right, Council Member Ceros, to your motion.

Yeah, thank you. Um, I won't speak to too too much more on this. We've had a robust conversation, but I do want to say that in order to tackle the housing crisis, it's spaghetti against the wall. It's going to take it's a yes and rather than an eitheror proposition when it comes to the kind of solutions we need to look at. And I think what makes our housing element particularly strong is that we have a diversity of uh different strategies to support the construction of new housing to support people who are currently here and to alleviate the housing crisis in whatever way that we are able to do. Um there are a lot of housing laws that make it, you know, more cumbersome uh to to tackle this challenge sometime. But I want to remind everyone that it's because that there are people uh cities, communities in this state who are not doing their fair fair share that these this legislation is necessary in order to get them on track. So I hope that with our good example that we can um you know serve as yes you can do this, yes you should do this and this is how you can do this. And um I want to just say I support staff and however whatever is needed to to overcome any challenges that are there due to state law, but I hope that we're also able to find the opportunities when they are presented to make it easier to get these numbers. and they are at they're high, but I have full faith and confidence that we can we can tackle it. So, I hope you vote yes and I hope the HCD votes yes as well because the alternative is not my favorite thing in the world. So, but I'm sure they will. So, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Cell.

Yeah, I also hope HCD looks at this report positively. I think um you present it very simply and easily with accurate uh information. So, thank you for that. And um I know that um we have a good plan because there's only 65 cities that are prohousing cities in California and Sunnyville is one of those designated proousing cities. So you know that how we compare to um the other cities in the state and I just want to empower like staff to keep doing what you're doing because you're going in the right direction and um just uh come to council if you need more support um and uh tell us what you need because I believe that we're on a good track. So thank you for all your work. Thank you very much, Council Member Cell, Mayor Klene.

Thank you. Um, so I'm I'm happy to support this motion. I just want to thank staff for the report uh collecting the data, you know, and and meeting our requirements from a state level. Uh, I I like the concept of the acutely low and extremely low additions into the tables and see see how that plays out over the next few years. I'm of course I am a little worried that you know we're 40% 41% through the cycle. Um but we do have some good news. You know it's not just the 16% that's been constructed but the 4,000 units in different stages of application. Um you know there's still a lot of work ahead of us especially from uh CDD standpoint. lots of programs from missing middle to our park fees um that need to get done on top of approving and working with developers to get additional housing built in the city. But I have full faith in CDD that they'll be able to move that forward and uh looking forward to uh what we can what we're able to build uh and actually um not just approve but build in the next year or two. So um happy to support this motion. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mayor Klein. Council member Shernasan.

Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Uh I will be very happy to support this motion. Uh as I said, uh meeting Reena numbers is one aspect of the problem. The bigger aspect is how do we serve Sunnyville community as such. That is the challenge I think in front of us. And then of course Reena numbers is also we are just 16% into the uh quota and then as uh director pointed out it's a reach goal. It's not uh it's a target which may not may or may not be achievable but I am really really happy for the proactive uh aspect of Sunnyale housing uh projects and then the way Sunnyale approaches this problem as our as uh my colleague pointed out it could be the regional other cities may not be playing it Right. And then we are feeling the problem if we look at the region as a whole as such. But having said that this motion is specifically for the housing element which I thank staff for working really hard and then hopefully this should ease our next cycle which is 2030 or whenever the next housing element is due. I I know last time 2023 it was really a tough exercise. So great job uh staff. I thank staff for a wonderful work and then happy to support this motion. Thank you.

Thank you very much council member Shina Vos and I will also be supporting this motion. Uh thank you staff for excellent work on not just this report but on the implementation of our housing element and on the huge number of programs that are included therein. Um the housing crisis is in my opinion the single greatest challenge facing the state of California. It is why I got involved in politics nearly 10 years ago. Um and I am proud that Sunnyvil has historically been a leader in housing production. um you know the programs and policies that we identified in our housing element are vital and they will continue to ensure that we are we remain a leader in that field. However, we must continue to do more at every point. We all must be looking at how do we accelerate housing growth and production in this city and not just any housing highquality housing with access to resources, services, the all of the things that a community needs to thrive so that we're not just building, you know, that we're not just building cheap, we're building a community and we're building for the future. Uh, but that is a topic for many other nights and I will be supporting this motion. And uh, council member Shernivosan, did you have anything to add? No. Um, Mr. City Clerk, may we have the roll call vote, please?

First up, council member Cisneros, how do you vote? Yes. Mayor Klein, yes. Council member Cerny Vasan, yes. Council member Cell, yes. Council member Chang, yes. Council member Lelay, yes. Vice Mayor Melinger. Yes. The motion carries 70. All right. Well, uh, next we actually next we are going to have a 5m minute recess and reconvene at 9:30.

see nine on the six. Well, I see eight on the deis. And so we will reconvene at 9:30 p.m. So, moving on to our next item, 26-0259. Is there a staff report?

There is, vice mayor. Thank you for Tim Kirby, city manager. And um the item before you is proposed updates to the council policy manual. I'll be very brief. Um and can I have the presentation up please? All right. Great. Thank you, David. All right. Proposed updates to the council poly policy manual. uh staff is going through a process of uh doing council uh policy updates um as needed. Um it's part of our work plan and uh the goal is is to adopt new policies uh clarify intent, reduce duplication or simplify. Um and we in in order to streamline it, we formed uh the mayor formed an ad hoc policy advisory committee uh to review the policies in advance of bringing them to council. Um tonight you're looking at one new policy and then seven existing policies. Um the uh policies reviewed are listed here and in the staff report and I won't go into them in detail. Um the new policy is a council action on matters outside its subject matter jurisdiction. Uh this policy is designed to clarify when council may take official city positions on matters outside the uh um city's jurisdiction. Uh it emphasize emphasizes focusing formal city action on issues with direct local impact and gives an alternative to for council members to express positions when city action is not appropriate. Um we propose some amendments which are enumerated here but are pretty straightforward and uh simple. Um and then we've proposed some deletions. Uh the deletions are uh the reusable diapers policy uh which is now covered in zero in our zero waste policy. Uh reduction of carbon dioxide

emissions which is now superseded by the city's comprehensive climate action plan. Um our standard conflict of interest code which uh restates legal obligation imposed by state law obligations imposed by state law. and then um posting of agenda and procedure for confirming proper posting of notice of meetings uh policy restates requirements under the Brown Act. Um with tonight um we're we've got 112 active policies. 32% have been updated, eight um in progress, and uh if approved by council, 36 will have been updated 36%. Um so council uh staff's recommendation and I won't read that them all out but is uh to approve alternatives one through eight which address both the new policy the deletions and the revisions. That concludes staff report and I'm available to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you very much. And uh before I open it up for questions, I just wanted to note that Merrick Klein and Council Member Chang and I met as part of the ad hoc subcommittee on council policy to discuss and review these changes. Uh do I have any questions from my colleagues? Seeing and hearing none, I will go ahead and open the public hearing on this specific item. Please submit a speaker card to the city clerk. Raise your digital hand now or dial star 9 on a telephone to indicate you wish to speak. I will call on members of the part public participating in person first followed by remote participants. Speakers will have three minutes to speak. Uh first up we have Zachary K. Point number one, under quote policy 7.4.1 provision of staff/administrative support to council members close quote. Do you want to mention providing a council member with a city email address? I don't believe that's in there. Um, point number two, fitting under um would fit this under documents. um spit and polish. In the council policy manual, both uh e-mil email and e m a i l email um spellings are used. I believe best practice is to choose one spelling and use it throughout the document. I yield my time.

Thank you very much. Uh Mr. That is the only speaker card that we've received in the room and indeed the only member of the public still in the room. Mr. City Clerk, do we have any members of the public online wishing to comment on this item? No, Vice Mayor. Thank you very much. I'm going to close the public hearing on this item and bring it back to my colleagues for questions, comments, or a motion. Mayor Klene. Sure. Um, I'll move alternatives 1 through eight as staff recommended. Thank you very much. Is there a second, Council Member Chang? I'll second. Thank you very much, Mayor Klein, to your motion.

Sure. Uh, and I just want to thank uh, Vice Mayor Melinger and Council Member Chang for serving on the ad hoc uh, subcommittee with me. uh I think you know re reviewing and and kudos to staff for slowly working through the policies but I think the ad hoc committee has ma made it let's say easier to do a quick review and word smithing prior to getting up on the deis and um trying to uh figure out what those final final policies are. So I think in general uh the clean up, the deletions, the the approvals of minor changes to um the existing policies uh so 2 through 8 were um were needed um and you know very easy and then you know ultimately uh alternative one for the new policy 7.31 council action on matters outside our subject matter jurisdiction. I think it just codifies what has been best practices from a council standpoint. It allows us gives uh council a little more direction on uh what we should be acting on u and how we spend our business. So I think in general I'm very happy to see um you know these changes um and I urge my colleagues to also support this motion. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Council member Cisneros. I actually have a very quick question, but also I know that we were in uncharted territory when we were talking about um subject matter jurisdiction previously and when to like use that in in a meeting to you know perhaps limit public comment or or other things as defined in this policy. Is did state law ever issue guidance on that or is this something that we're still figuring out and now we're coming up with something that is codifi codified and that we're able to to point to uh so this policy is only related to adopting resolutions. So, I think uh when individuals make comments um on global events and things of that nature, that's a a different consideration that we need to make on a case-byase basis.

I see. I see. Okay. Um I was just relating them both because we use the same terminology. So, I think that might be and and that actually is clear now that I'm look like looking at it, but it it's like my brain skipped over it. So, all right. Well, thank you very much for that clarification there. Thank you very much, Council Member Cisneros. Um, seeing no other hands, I will be supporting the motion. Uh, fantastic work by staff on drafting this. I'm very happy that we're going through the process of gradually reviewing the entire council policy handbook. Um, I remember that at one point, I think a year or two ago, looking at it and seeing a policy requiring bicycle parking spaces for any grocery store that had an arcade machine that dated back to the 80s. Um, and so I'm, you know, while I I think that is an admirable policy, I do think it might be a tad dated. So, I do think it's great that we're starting to go through this and making sure that it is up to-date and meeting the needs of our cities. uh our city with regards to alternative one. I do see this as the mayor said as essentially cottifying existing practice. Um but I also think it's important to be clear with the public that you know we are here to spend our time uh focusing on things that actually move the needle for residents of Sunnyvil. Um and that while there is a time and place and space for symbolic gestures and resolutions by an elected body that should never distract from the core work of that body and uh make let's making that very clear in policy is I think a valuable exercise. Uh so with that I will be supporting the motion and seeing no further hands. Mr. City clerk may we have the roll call please the vote please.

First up council member Lelay. How do you vote? Yes. Vice Mayor Melinger. Yes. Mayor Klene. Yes. Council member Cneros. Yes. Council member Chang. Yes. Council member Cell. Yes. Council member Sin Vasan. Yes. The motion carries. 70. Thank you very much. Uh moving on to the next portion of the agenda. Uh for oral reports by council members on activities from intergovernmental relations and committee assignments. Do we have any council member reports? Council member Cell.

Hi. Um, so I'm Sunnyville City Council's representative to the VTA board. So um we had a workshop uh just about a week ago and um VTA is uh envisioning a visionary network in which in the future if we have the funds and we have the community support um will be more frequent uh buss and with more frequent and other amenities like clean buses, frequent buses and all of that. um that hopefully we'll have higher ridership and with higher ridership we'll become economies of scale so more economical so um that was exciting um and then with um that that'll support um more transit so that's exciting and um I believe possibly that VTA uh chair sent um a letter to the city council of Sunnyville asking if they could give uh the city council briefing. Um the other uh uh IGR I am on is the air district. So I'm just starting on that, but that's also exciting. Uh they have strategic plans and the strategic plans are focused on focusing um resources towards um communities of need that have uh higher pollution sources. and also overall in the nine counties to have plans so that uh they will be able to address climate um change uh and work with our CCAs and our cities to work on a comprehensive plan in the next few years to be able to have more uh green greener buildings. So

that's also exciting. So, thank my colleagues for helping to appoint me to those um IGRs. Thank you. Thank you very much, Council Member Cell. Council Member Shernova.

Thank you. Uh I serve on Silicon Valley clean energy board of director as alternate alternate to Mayor Klene. Um last week I I also serve on finance and administrative committee. uh la uh last meeting I was selected again to chair the finance and administrative committee this year too. So we looked at risk analysis of SVCE under different scenarios which will come up for board of directors meeting tomorrow. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Council member Cell, did you have anything to add? No, I don't. And um next week I'll be going to the National League of Cities uh congressional conference um and trying to bring back help our uh help convey like our needs to our Congress members and the senators. So hopefully that will be uh fruitful. That was indeed something to add. Mayor Klene.

Yes. Um I and first I just want to thank the vice mayor for running the meeting this evening. Um I am uh will be speaking at the civic IO conference US for the US conference of mayors later this week. So uh more information at the next uh at the next uh council meeting. So but I just want to thank everyone for for putting up with the remote uh communication and um the voice votes that that of course ensue. So thank you. Thank you. And uh I hope staff can make sure that we all get a link to the mayor's speech if it is streamed. Um next we have next portion of the agenda is for oral reports and announcements by council members and the city manager to share information. We have a colleagues memo uh 26-0370 colleagues memorandum prohibiting the use of city properties for civil immigration enforcement purposes and related policies to provide resources for city property owners, businesses and residents. Um this is a colleagues memo authored by uh uh co-authored by myself uh council member cell and council member Lei. Um, and I am this was inspired by recent action taken by the city of Santa Clara in advance of the Super Bowl. Um, and Mr. City Clerk, can you remind us on the procedure for colleagues memos?

Uh, yes, Vice Mayor. Uh, colleagues memos are an opportunity for uh two or two or three council members to propose an idea to be agendaized for a future council meeting. So, uh, tonight, uh, there could be a motion to agendaize this topic at a future meeting. Uh, and if that motion passes, then staff will return with this topic at a future agenda. Thank you very much, council member Shrina.

Thank you. I have a question for city manager. uh recently adopted uh steady issue of steady issue process which said that uh colleagues memo or new projects can be added in five different conditions that is emergency new outside funding opportunity uh new multi- agency opportunity community safety issue changes in laws uh which do you think this colleague memo will fall center. I know clearly it's safety, but do you envision that way?

Yes, council member. I I I interpreted this to be a uh an emergency or a community safety issue that council would view as urgent. Okay. Thank you that I I wanted that clarification. Thank you very I will add council member Shrinivasan that the other motivating factor for this is the upcoming World Cup and there have been substantial discussions and concerns about increased immigration enforcement activity not just as part of the Super Bowl but as part of the FIFA World Cup which is I believe kicking off in June, hence the June 1 date. Okay, sounds good. Thank you. Council member Cisneros. So to move this forward, do you need is a motion needed?

Yes, a motion to agendaize. I motion to agendaize this um as as soon uh as soon as possible with staff's discretion before June 1st. Thank you very much, Council Member Cisneros. Council member Lei, second. Thank you very much. Uh Mr. Kirby, thank you, Vice Mayor. I just wanted to um remind council that we are only discussing agendaizing this item. So, I know that uh there may be a desire to uh speak to a motion on the subject. Um, but I would encourage council to stay focused just on agendaizing the item and we'll have an opportunity to discuss it when it's agendaized in full.

Thank you very much, Mr. Kirby. You took the words right out of my mouth. Uh, Council Member Cisneros, any very brief comments on this? Yes, and thank you for that very helpful reminder. Um this is as was said this is a timely matter that is very important to the community and uh as we've seen in other cities uh has great relevance to how a city operates. So I would like to see this ahead of any uh potential and get ahead of this of any potential large actions where this would be particularly helpful to have and so that's hence the June 1st date but the community has been very very clear that they want us to discuss this and I would like to take them up on that.

Thank you very much council member Cisneros. Anyone else any further comments? Seeing and hearing none Mr. City clerk may we have the roll call vote please? First up, council member Cell, how do you vote? Uh, yes. Mayor Klene, yes. Council member Lei, yes. Council member Sernasan, yes. Council member Chang, yes. Council member Cisneros, yes. Vice Mayor Melinger, yes. The motion to agenda carries 70. Thank you very much. Do any council members have any other non-aggenda items or comments? Going once. going twice. Sold. City manager, do you have any non-aggenda items or comments?

Not tonight. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, this meeting is now adjourned at 9:49 p.m. Thank you all and have a lovely evening.