Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I call this meeting of the Los Gatos Town Council to order. Um, town clerk, can we have a role please? Council member Annie here. Council member Hudis here. Council member Vadami absent. Vice Mayor Risto here, Mayor Moore here. Uh, thank you very much. Um, so we will now go to the pledge of allegiance and our new administrative services director, Christina Alfaro, will lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

Thank you. If you can please stand if you are able to and put your hand over your heart. 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. All right. Um so we now have three um brief presentations. Uh and we will begin with recognizing our outgoing commissioners and board members. So if um outgoing commissioners and board members could come to the front of the table. Um would love to to uh say a few words and present you with a commendation. Thanks for being here. All right. Um, so they all say something similar. So I'm going to I'm going to read Mr. Blums here. Um, you can turn and and uh face folks. Um, so whereas our town commissioners have served the town of Los Gatos as members of uh their respective commission, um, they unselfishly contributed their time, energy, and capabilities. and uh the town council feels an outstanding uh uh gratitude for their public service. And so we wanted to present all of our outgoing commissioners with this special recognition. Um for those that don't know, our town commissioners donate their time, energy, skills, uh gifts to the town of Los Gats to make our community a better place. Uh so we are incredibly grateful to them. Our town commissioners often don't get a whole lot of of uh recognition. Uh but you know our our planning commissioners often spend uh uh you know in a given

month can spend dozens of hours uh working through some of our most important development projects. Our community health and senior services commission has helped develop um many important things for our older adult community. So we're very grateful and so we wanted to present these commendations to you all. So Mr. Blum, we can clap for Mr. Jeffrey Blum. [applause] Planning Commissioner Steve Raspby. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you. [applause]

Um, I thought I saw Bent Jensen here. Oh, do you want to receive your commendation? [laughter] Thank you. [applause] and Mr. George Rossman. Thank you. [applause] All right. And um for those watching online, I believe we have Verily Issacs and Stefan Shelton um who are watching online. Thank you to them for their service. And then we have a variety of other um commissioners whose names I will not all read right now, but we are eternally grateful to our commissioners. Thank you for your service. Uh thanks for being here this tonight. Thank you. [applause]

Okay. So, um, two others. Uh, so in in the past, the town of Los Gatos has gone out of its way to recognize residents of the month and businesses of the month. Um, residents of the month to uh really recognize service that has gone underrecognized or very important efforts that have um gone on in town from people that that uh we really want to highlight. Um, I think it's very important to highlight service uh uh because that's something I think this this town really believes in. And so that's our residents of the month and businesses of the month for somewhat similar reasons but but different um being that they are uh businesses uh locallyowned small businesses contributing um to the Los Gatos community. So, um, for this month's business of the month, I wanted to recognize Beyond Text, um, Antona. [applause] Thank you.

And do you want to just tell us a little bit about Beyond Text? Yes. Um, Beyond Text bookstore is a bookstore I opened couple years ago. It was a childhood dream of mine, but also I guess as an immigrant, I was hoping that maybe sharing something I love, books with others might help me to create a space I belong to. And I guess it worked. I've never actually expected this recognition and all the support I got and to meet all the amazing friends. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Tanya. the Los Gatos community is is very grateful to you. Um, and then for our resident of the month, I'd like to recognize Dick Conrad. Um, and go ahead. Um, and Dick Conrad is being recognized for his monthly cleanups that he organizes. um he spends his time bringing people in the Los Gatos community together to um clean up our public spaces and uh doing things that we could not do uh without the uh volunteers and people in the community that step up to do that. So, um thank you very much, Dick. You want to say a few quick words?

I think it's everybody's job to keep the town beautiful and uh I'm always soliciting a few more volunteers. If anyone wants to sign up, I'm I'm always available. Just call me. What's your email, Dick? It's RJ Conrad ko n r a d at comcast.net. And I'm really honored this there's to get this award because there are so many good volunteers in the community and it really makes our world go around and our our town a better place to live. Thank you.

Thank you for your service. Dick quick picture. All right. Thank you, Dick and Tanya. Congratulations. All right, we will now get to the business of our uh meeting this evening. Oh, I left my Okay, thank you. So, we will move uh to the consent calendar um which is for any items uh that are considered non-controversial. Um, and we have uh uh we have 13 consent items this evening. Does anyone have any comments on items on consent? Oh, there is. Okay. Um, are there any questions from the council on any consent items? Anything that they would like to pull? Okay. Um, we do have um one comment on consent. Um, so we will move to it looks like C. Seuss, Captain Seuss. Okay. I'd like to pull December 16th, 2025 meeting to have it corrected. Uh, the verbal communications portion of it. Um, Lynn Hogan and Mr. R both uh commented on various says commented on various concerns and I've been sending censorship censorship and

and there was a third person that started to speak on item number 15 and it was it was just the one u I mean it was it was all for the uh the flag parade and and uh I didn't think there was transparency. you you you know it was it was brought up. It was at your, you know, we should say that it was at your request, mayor, that this was brought up because the other there other all of them were mayors at one point and they could have brought it up and uh you know it should say then that you brought it up not the town council because the town council didn't um things there was also u issues on uh that I that I would like to point out in that uh people that spoke it was it didn't it wasn't publicized the people it's it's always whoever you know it's one party and this was the the LG you know the the a lot of people came in from one side of the argument the other the other side didn't really have you know in proportion and there was uh some you know even some of this stuff Um, people have titles on them. A minister, you know, one person doesn't have a minister uh uh title, you know, to to correct some of this stuff. [snorts] Um, people outside the community spoke on it when, you know, there was kids that spoke on it, high school kids, they threatened, you know, personally, they threatened whoever voted against it. Um, you know, we will remember how you vote and you know, I think Mary Padami was the only one that voted against it. And

I, you know, I think that's, you know, these are, you know, anti they're against, you know, uh, hateful things. It was it's it's a it should have been um heard. when you when you follow up on this, you should you should uh publicize it and have people write in because it was even the the people that called in, it was one-sided. Nobody spoke against it. It was all in favor of and and you know, I think it was just word of mouth. So, I just pull and correct, you know, the the comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Um I do not have any other speaker cards for consent. And I'm not seeing any other hands uh on Zoom. Um so I'll entertain a motion uh on the consent calendar. Council member Hudis.

Uh yeah, I move to uh approve the consent calendar items 1 through 13. Um I did want to make a comment that the uh minutes of a meeting um we're not here to redo the meeting. We're just here to approve whether the minutes are accurate and I find that they are accurate. So, I'm um able to make this motion. Thank you. Is there a second, Vice Mayor Risto?

Thank you. I'll second. And I just wanted to comment. I want to thank our town manager and um for the swift action that was taken um on Christmas Day. I know our staff and parks and public works were here, but um town offices were flooded with the rains and damage is being controlled, but it's quite expensive. And so, as we're approving this, um I appreciate that it wasn't worse. And anyway, thank you for your swift action on Christmas Day, as well as all the other employees who had to be here.

All right. Uh we have a motion to second. Are there any other comments? Seeing none, I'll call the question. All those in favor.

Any opposed? None. Um motion passes 420. Uh so we will now move on to verbal communications. Um which is the time on the agenda where members of the public can address uh the council on items that are not on the agenda. Um I'll say this ahead of this and any other items um with public comment that uh the town of Losato strives to ensure that all speakers and perspectives are heard in our council chambers. Um so please during comments do not clap, interject or otherwise disrupt the meeting. Um if you want to express your agreement with the comment you hear tonight, you can uh uh wave your hands um or or raise your hand, but please do not verbally react. Um thank you very much. So we will move to verbal communications. If you'd like to give um comment on verbal communications, you can fill out one of these yellow speaker cards and bring it to the town clerk. Um we will begin with Nima Nima Dia or Dean. Good evening town council members. My name is Na Dean and I'm co-owner of Ken's Coffee Roasters in Saratoga, California. We run a coffee bar on Lee Avenue in Los Gatos called Ken's Coffee Bar. We've been open since 2021 and the goal of our coffee bar is to bring community together in a welcoming outdoor space that connects and elevates every person over a delicious cup of coffee. We are a Palestinian-owned coffee shop and we proudly display a Palestinian flag to celebrate this part of our heritage and identity in our outdoor space. On October 29th of last year, our coffee bar experienced an anti-Palestinian hate crime when vandals tore down most of our flag and left a message on the remaining portion of the

flag with the words, "We support terrorism." This was done during closed hours and our staff arrived in the morning to this terrible site. They were upset and after speaking with us um and processing what had happened, [clears throat] they went right back to work and the next day we put up another Palestinian flag. This is not the first time our flag has been vandalized. It has been torn down before and this was not the first time a hateful message or sorry, but this was the first time a hateful message was left in its place. On our online Yelp and Google pages, we will sometimes get bot comments that will leave us hateful messages or one-star reviews from anti-Palestinian commenters. I share this with the council in the hopes that you understand the types of specific anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic hate that is happening within our town to a local business and community space. Equating the Palestinian identity or anyone that stands for Palestinian human rights with terrorism is a specific form um is a sorry is a dangerous and specific form of anti-Palestinian hate that allows for the dehumanization and widespread killing of Palestinians. I ask the council to please facilitate trainings for council members and the community at large about what anti-Palestinian hate looks like. When we are all informed on the forms of anti-Palestinian racism, we can do a better job of educating others and preventing this type of hate from happening within our town. I am happy to meet with council members further to offer education ideas or come up with possible options for trainings. And I also welcome you all to come and try out our coffee at Ken's Coffee Bar in

Lascatus. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next commenter is Joe Ends. Joe Ends, community organizer, Friends of Lost Scatter Creek. work with a lot with the homeless in particularly and uh they're doing real well. Morale's up and the substance abuse is down and we're playing music out there and it's good. Um what I want to address is the tunnel I guess with town manager and whatnot getting it. I'm going to talk to the uh people have the fence torn down there. It's been torn down for a long time and there's property management company that I'll call and try to, you know, get them to come out and seal that uh thing up so people can't come down there anymore because of all this bad things that have happened in that tunnel as everybody knows about. So, um, and then we're also working on trees that have ivy uh going up and choking them out. We're actually doing that for whatever reason just to save the trees. So, I'm pretty happy. Everybody seems to be happy. At least you're doing a great job as usual. So, thanks a lot. Bye. Thank you. We will now move to Gus who flowers are to be for the public, you know. I'll put them outside. I usually bring flowers. I got brown acted and I'm not allowed to do stuff. But um uh this is there are a couple issues that I've always been bringing up with, you know, the I sent you in uh this the civil war and and what's going on in the real

world and martial law being called, you know, probably to be called. But I want to emphasize I' like for you to pull uh or or reconsider the uh last special meeting because this is really important. It c you know I think Jack was right. You're getting ripped off for for a quarter of a billion dollars. Um the you guys weren't prepared. Um it it was all one-sided. You had a a a child running around in here. That's you know that was all play. you know, promised, oh, we're to get a new apartment building is a fivetory right on lo they're coming in right on Lascatos fivetory apartment building 10 uh 10 apartments are for you know it's less than 4% when it was supposed to be 17 you even said it and and in here it says 20%. the the parking uh you know it's if you looked at there was a whole bunch there was no transparency um the the public at large did not see this and and it was all if you if you saw anybody anybody I I looked back here it was all you know different people I didn't recognize a lot of them so they were all out of things and it was just the it was like lawyers just just got into the things I mean you have parking It says the project requires 922 spaces and only 768 uh spaces were are you know you you're giving away this that and the other things. there's traffic, you know. I I I I I spoke at the um verbal part and I said, "Hey, traffic alone, you're you didn't even notify the public. There's an on on-ramp in Agnu." I grew up in, you know, in Santa Clara. Agnu, they had tall tall uh fences because these kids will be running out in the public. The

public has to know you you should reconsider. make a motion to reconsider and at least let the public have its say. Nobody from the public really spoke. There's, you know, two or three people that are the usuals that spoke on it. And there's a whole there's a lot of legal stuff. It's it's, you know, I could probably help you out because I I have some insight on uh uh the development. I was in building and stuff like that. And but you guys, you're a small town. you did. You're I I I hope that you can because I I know you have that one one this this chance to reconsider otherwise you're probably in lose the towns to lose everything go bankrupt.

Thank you.

Um our next commenter is Asina Seder. Apologies if I mispronounced that. All right. Uh, good evening. My name is Asane. I am a resident from just over the border in Campbell. It is an honor to be here. I love this city. I am often here at the farmers market. St. Joe's is a particularly beloved hike. Um, I'm grateful for your thoughtful leadership of a beautiful community. I have gotten to know the owners of Ken's Coffee Bar because they've become part of a large interfaith coalition comprised of people connected to a variety of traditions. Muslims, Christians, Jews, atheists, Buddhists, and more. Um, among other things, Ken's owners recently stood in solidarity with Jewish community members against a hateful anti-semitic act that unfortunately took place at one of our Campbell High Schools. They showed up at our schoolboard meeting to say, "We stand with you and this is not okay." So, of course, when I heard about the racist vandalism that took place at Ken's, I wanted to stand with them and say publicly that this is not representative of our Campbell or Lascatus communities. I also want to highlight the specific nature of anti-Palestinian racism because it is often very deliberately fermented. This year, Prime Minister Netanyahu approved $150 million for public diplomacy efforts that are aimed at protecting an ongoing genocide, often by labeling Palestinians as terrorists or subhumans who deserve to die. A few choice quotes from Israeli leaders. Quote, "Every child, every baby in Gaza is an enemy." This is from Knesset member Moshe Fagelan. We are fighting human animals.

This is from Yav Galant, Israel's Defense Minister. Peace activists are terrorists. This is Itamar Bengavir, Minister of National Security. Given this specific nature of anti-Palestinian racism, I'd like to request humbly that you facilitate training by the Institute for Understanding Anti-Palestinian Racism for Council members to help everyone, all of us be able to recognize and prevent it. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Uh so that was our final card in the room. Are there any speakers who wish to speak on Zoom? All right, seeing none, I will close uh verbal communications and thank you all for your comments. We will now move to our public hearing this evening, item 14, um, which is a public hearing, um, to consider a recommendation by the planning commission to approve a zone change, um, at the Fort Tate property. Um, I believe we have one council member recused.

Uh, yes, due to the proximity of my home to the Tate property, I'm required to be recused from this item. I'll be back. Thank you, Vice Mayor Risto. Um, I'll now turn it over to Shawn Mullen, our planning m manager, who will give a brief presentation.

Thank you, Mayor. The subject parcel is owned by the town and located at the northeast corner of Tate Avenue and West Main Street in the Broadway Historic District. Property is developed with a primary building and an accessory out building originally constructed as a fire station and later used as a museum. Uh, the museum use was discontinued several years ago and both buildings are currently unoccupied. The town seeks to reszone the property from C2 LHP or central business district with a landmark and historic preservation overlay to R1D LHP or single family residential downtown with a landmark and historic preservation o overlay. In tandem, the town proposes a general plan amendment to change the land use designation from central business district to medium density residential. These changes would revert the previous resident revert to the previous residential designation of the property while continuing to maintain the landmark and historic preservation overlay of the property. As provided in your staff report, the proposed zone change and general plan amendment would be consistent with the general plan and consistent with each other. At their December 10th, 2025 meeting, the planning commission considered the request and forwarded a recommendation of approval to the council. Um the council can take the follow the actions detailed on page four of your staff report to accept the recommendation of the planning commission and approve the proposed zone change and general general plan designation change. This concludes staff's presentation and we are available to uh answer any questions.

Thank you very much. And looks like council member Hudis has a question. Uh yeah, thank you. Um with regard to the historic nature of this structure, um do the does the change in zoning or other um aspects give better protection to this historic re uh resource than what's currently afforded. Uh thank you for that question. the landmark and historic preservation overlay would be maintained on the property and I don't think it would u increase or decrease the level of protection by changing the zoning and the general plan designation.

Okay. Thank you. Um along the same lines, I wanted to ask to what extent could a new owner repair or just maintain the exterior that you know because how this has been laid out as we have the two sides that are being you know specifically preserved and I when I visited the property yesterday there was some some damage um on the property. So to what extent could someone uh repair or you know uh uh maintain that facade?

Thank you for that question. So this is a building that's located in a historic district. Um and we the town's rules and and guidelines would protect all sides of the building whether they're visible from the street or not. With that said, there are specific rules and carveouts and exemptions for repair for inkind repair, like for like repair. Um there's even guidance for improving the building, making additions to buildings. All of that's subject to um staff review and um most often review by the historic preservation committee for recommendation to the deciding body. Um so we anticipate any any improvements or maintenance on the building. Um staff would be happy to to work with any future owners to um facilitate that work.

Thank you. Any other questions before we open up public comment? All right, seeing none, um we will begin uh public comment on item number 14. We have uh quite a few comments for this. Um so we will begin with Suzanne Fior and Suzanne will be followed by Nadav Boozy.

Good evening council members. [clears throat and cough] My name is Suzanne Fiori. I have lived on Tate Avenue for the past six and a half years. I first rented 30 Tate for four years and love the residential feel of the neighborhood so much despite its proximity to town that I now own and reside at 5 Tate Avenue on the other end of the block and it's right across the street from Fort Tate. I am here tonight to speak in favor and in support of the planning commission's recommendation of returning the zoning of Fort Tate to its prior residential designation. My reason is simple. Tate is a residential street. If you look on a map, properties on and with the Tate address, and I didn't look it up for sure, but I'm pretty confident that they're all residential with the exception of Fort Tate St. Mary's which is on that block actually has a Bean address and with its populous activities for the congregation and school primarily facing Bean and downtown not Tate that's it's not a big impact on Tate. I would also like to mention that Main Street at the end of Tate is also residential across from that corner of Fort Creating additional housing that's appropriate for the neighborhood is the right call. Our street is already so busy with traffic and parking generated from St. Mary's Church and downtown businesses that I can't imagine it can sort anything more. Fortate resides between Bean and Maine. This block is significantly narrower than the rest of Tate, restricting parking to just one side of the street. We also lack that lack the benefit of alley parking behind our homes as other blocks in the Almond Grove neighborhood can afford. Access to residential parking for those of us that live here can be a challenge. I don't

know if you have ever had the opportunity to drive that block of Tate that we're talking about, but navigating oncoming traffic frequently requires one driver to give way to another in order for safety safe passage. It's even worse on trash days. I have heard arguments in favor of commercial use for Fort as it shares a property line with Loscatoo's parent nursery school and I bet Spa by Jackie which is the east side of the property or in the back property line. I would like to offer that appropriateness of designation should align with the facing of this property which is on the west side facing Tate not where it backs up to. Tate is the only point of access for for Tate and with a commercial designation uh activity and noise would exist on Tate as long as well as traffic and parking would be impacted with the residential designation. Access activity, noise and traffic would align with our neighborhood and would back up the aforementioned commercial properties similarly to the existing homes on the east side of Tate. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Um, next is Nadav, uh, who will be followed by Cat Bhutalia.

Good evening. Um, my name is Nadav Boozie. Um, and I live on 315 West Main Street. Been there about four years. I want to speak in favor of um, uh, the recommendation of the planning commission um, and converting this back to residential. I think um the first reason stated is the most obvious. This is a residential street. Um uh as well as the fact that uh we as residents between Tate and Bay View and everyone above and around the corner um are always struggling to find parking. I think parking is another issue. Um and finally, I just want to mention the safety issue. Um this is kind of personal to me. I work for Santa Clara County. I work at Valley Med. I'm a pediatric uh ICU, NICU, Piku doctor and I see a lot of pediatric trauma and I see a lot of cars zooming up and down the street and I my I have kids and and all of us you know along up and down that that specific block there's a lot of young kids as well. Um, so, um, we know that recently we've seen, um, a lot of fast zooming cars and the outcomes of that in town. And I think that, um, it's always an issue, but this would just make it even harder. Um, and I just want to close with that. So, thank you very much.

Thank you. We will move to Cat and then former Supervisor Mike Wasserman. Hi, good evening. Um, my name is Cat Vitalia. My husband, Rob White, and I own um 300 West Main, so we're the other corner of West Main and Tate. So, the entire side of our property, our driveway um face for Tate, and that's really the bulk of what we stare at. Um, and I have to agree with everyone else. I'm hoping that you do consider uh reverting back to a residential designation because it's very congested around there. Um it seems really inongruent to make that particular property commercial because it's kind of a buffer to the commercial what we sort of feel is the start of the commercial area that starts at Jackie's. There's also the um nursery school and elementary school that abut it on the back side. It seems a little safer for all the children in the area to have another residential property or potential residential property. Also, it's abetted on three other the other three sides by residences. Um as was already mentioned, Tate's a um residential. That whole section of West Maine is residential. Um the front of the property, the front door, the entrance, the driveway, the bulk of Fort Tate faces Tate Avenue, which is all residential. We do have I'm just reiterating what other people have said, it gets a little frantic with traffic around there and people trying to park. I've noticed it's become a bit more pronounced. if there's an event going on or even the thrift store has a sale, people get a little frantic and they um I can't imagine more people turning onto

Tate or there's a a a red curb there that a lot of people ignore. So they'll pull over there or often use our driveway to renegotiate their driving plan or what their parking plan's going to be because as soon as you turn on a Tate, there's just cars parked on the right side and it's really about maybe three lanes at best wide. So to pass by, people have to literally stop and allow a car coming from the opposite direction to to move along. So there's a lot of negotiation there. We also hear a lot of honking now, which I never did hear before. And just across from West Maine, across Tate now, uh, with it, it it takes a moment because there's a lot more traffic and people aren't as courteous as they used to be. So, it seems that there's a little bit of a safety hazard. I can't imagine a business trying to be there um, and trying to support people coming and going. Um, there's a noise factor and I think it would be a little sad because the property aesthetically it appears to be residential and its history has been residential. Um, as far as I know, we've been there for almost seven years. So, thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. It looks like you have a quick question from uh, Council Member Hudis. Yeah, thank you. Um, with regard to the traffic, and this has been raised u by someone else as well. Um I observed that beach cutth through traffic tends to come down Tate. Um is that is that your experience as well?

It's horrific. I did not know that when we purchased that property. I'm shocked because you can't leave. You can't leave on the weekends. You can't have anyone come to visit you until probably 5:00. People literally leave. They're sit on tate and when it's hot it's worse and their attitudes change because people are hot. So they often seek refuge in our yard under our birch trees or people with babies have literally come to stand under our trees because they'll be stuck on tape without moving for 30 minutes. It's it's shocking actually. So on a weekend I can't imagine adding more to that. I think it might be quicker if they even went down north Santa Cruz to get to the freeway, but it it's very problematic.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you for commenting on that. Thank you. All right. We'll move to Mike Wasserman, who will be followed by Mity Anderson.

Good evening. First of all, I want to thank the council staff and our police department for all your community service over the years. Um, I have a fair idea of what it takes to be up there and I thank you all for for what you do. I've lived on Tate, Maine, and Broadway now for 44 consecutive years. I know the area that we're talking about very well. I'm now at 301 303 and my rentals next door at 301. Um, I'm here to ask you to vote in favor of what the planning department has recommended and the planning commission has recommended. And I'm asking you to vote in favor of that as well. The Fortate is surrounded on three out of four sides, the north, the south, and the west by residential. I think that's a reason it should be residential. The front door is on Tate. I think that should be residential. I think it fits in nicely. Tate's a residential street. A single family home will bring a lot less traffic than a business would. And you've heard a little bit about the beach traffic which I know all of you know about. Um secondly down on that end of Tate as was mentioned before is the fact that it's only one side can be parking because it's so restricted. Uh a couple large trucks or a Hummer and an SUV they they can't get by each other. And so a single family residence would reduce the amount of traffic there as compared to a business. I will throw an aside out a consideration that a stop sign or two goes in at Tate and West Main. You heard reference to the horns, the honking. Uh we hear that each day as people coming south on Tate want to turn left onto West Main and there's a car parked in front of the firehouse and they creep out and there's a car coming up and so there's a lot of honking. uh single family residents would be considerably less noise and traffic than commercial.

And that's really all I got. I think it's pretty clear-cut and simple that this being zoned residential is the right move to make at this time for a number of reasons. And I believe whoever ultimately buys the property will I know they'll be required to maintain the exterior, the historical, and I've got great pictures from the Lascatus baseball team in front of the firehouse and also in front of my rental taken from the firehouse. So that that's nice history that I'd be happy to contribute. But the historical restoration of the property will be wonderful. the property being repaired, maintained, fixed will be wonderful. It's kind of a blight and all of you I know where you you each live. Um it's it's been a blight for a long time and there's pride of ownership and getting a residential getting a home in there. I think we'll restore it quickly and you'll be very proud of what it'll be. Thank you very much.

Thank you. We will move to Mitsy and Mitsy will be followed by Ulia Vasadev. Um I'm a Lasatis resident. My family has owned the property. Sorry, can you speak into the mic? Thank you. Thank you.

Hi, I'm a good evening. I'm a Lasatis resident. My propert My family has owned the property at 249 West Main Street since 1956 and I'm here to express my strong support for the resoning of Tate and West Main Street firehouse property to residential. I respectfully urge you to align with the recommendations provided by both the planning department and the planning commission to approve this zoning change. Residential zoning is the most appropriate designation for this site as the property is bordered by residential use on three sides and reszoning would also preserve the historic character of the neighborhood but would also oh and also would restore the property's prior zoning status. Furthermore, a residential designation would generate significantly less traffic and noise in an area that already faces challenges with limited parking and heavy congestion from local businesses, schools, and beachbound traffic. As the streets aren't wide, especially Tate, any added traffic congestion jeopardizes public and emergency vehicle access during an emergency. Thank you for your time and for considering the long-term interests of our community.

Thank you. Um and our last speaker card in the room is Ulia. Um and then we have a couple hands raised on Zoom.

Um hi. Um thank you for the opportunity. My name is Julia Vasadev and uh I am a resident of uh 11 Tate Avenue which is two houses down uh from the corner of uh Tate and Maine uh right across the street from uh the property right now that we're in discussion. So I'm here uh to support um the resoning back to the residential. Uh we've been um on living on Tate since 2019. So, it's been um six years. We chose this prop our property because of the neighborhood and about uh because of the residential feel of the neighborhood. We have three children, three daughters um and the safety of the neighborhood is critical for our family. Um I wanted to echo everything that was mentioned um about the parking, about the safety, the traffic. Uh but another argument I wanted to bring up is this property since in its commercial state has been uh vacant for a number of years and that created um issues like random people parking in that parking lot. Uh we don't feel safe that that there are like dark areas around that building and it feels like um there's uncertainty in terms of the commercial use. Um and we would like to make to have that more permanence um in that structure. Uh it is a quiet street. Uh we love living on Tate. Um so it we would love to see it turned back into residential property. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Um okay, we'll go to our Zoom public commenters unless there's anyone who wants to speak in the room. Uh seeing none, we'll go to Lisa Mamel. Hi, I'm calling I'm calling in from uh Tate Avenue. I have uh owned with my husband our property here for 30 years. What I'd like to emphasize is that we are a welcoming neighborhood. We ha we host yearly the cat's bike race, the preparation for the children's parade where everybody lines up on our street, Halloween in droves. We are neighborly. We are people who wave at the mayor when he runs by yesterday on his way down the street. We are a neighborhood of neighbors and we are welcoming and kind and we recognize each other and look forward to welcoming somebody who else wants to live as a resident here on the end of our street. The end of our street is indeed narrow. So narrow that there's only parking on one side and two cars can barely pass. Some years ago, when my children were still small, I was pushing them in a double stroller and a car actually hit me as I'm walking down the street with the kids in the stroller. It is a narrow street. Adding any business traffic will even make it more precarious. A business with ingress and regress of customers creates more traffic. It's already been highlighted and I don't need to note it again. Um there what I find interesting is that there were many years that a business could have found a place in this location yet none were found. So opening it up at this time is a little late and sort of creates confusion on my end as to why that would even be a consideration. I support strongly strongly what has already been provided by the planning department and planning commission the

land land use zone change back to residential. I have to note at the end here that my husband is also here who would like to make a statement but we only had one hand that we could raise on our zoom. Thank you. Perfect. You still have a minute. Um so if if your husband would like to speak he can do so now.

Thank you. Hi. Um, my name is Chris Potter and I also live at 33 Tate. Um, and echo everything. Even though we're a few houses down from four, um, it's it's I could throw a rock at and hit it from where we are. And, um, because I have a pretty good arm. And um I I just want to say that yes, it it we just don't need a commercial entity on the end of our street. There must be if if there is um a a group that wants to use it as a commercial entity for and we did hear that during the planning commission. there was a group lobbying to put in some sort of commercial or schooloriented um uh activity in there. There must be a better place for that. I walk around town and I see lots of vacant uh office space around. But they can go there and and get better foot traffic, better egress, and and have a much less impact on a on a street that is the heart and soul of the historic district. Like like my wife said, we have our Halloween tradition here. We have the children's parade lining up here. This Tate is the the one of the most, if not the most traditional residential streets in the in the city and in the Almond Grove. I fully support keeping it that way.

Thank you for your comment um and for saying hello. Um I uh will move on to our final hand raise which is from Chris. Chris, it looks like you need to unmute. We only have one Chris. Oh, there we go, man. Okay. Sorry. [laughter]

Okay. Uh, thanks for calling on me. Uh, I don't have much more to offer. Uh, but I will give my statement regardless. My name is Chris Morgan. I have lived on West Main Street for over 15 years. And as a proprietor of multiple businesses in Loscatos, uh, albeit small, uh, and a neighbor of the property in question, I would urge the council to approve a zoning change to residential status. While I agree with all my neighbors that a commercial inhabitant would create more of a problem with traffic and parking, um it is also my estimation that a residential owner would be more motivated to maintain this property and hopefully restore it in the future, which would bring an obvious uh boost of charm to this historic neighborhood. Um, I'll also mention that uh I do walk past it multiple times a day on my outings to the post office to pickups and drop offs and whatnot. And it always kind of bums me out to be honest that it is it's not as maintained as I had hoped it would be uh under undert control as a as a u an in a as a building waiting for a business to inhabit it rather. Um, I've personally called in and had to report breakins uh and vandalism to this building. And I just think that we haven't been able to get a business in there. You're not going to be able to put like a restaurant or a sandwich shop or something realistically. And there's plenty of other opportunities, places that a business can go in town. I think it's it's pretty obvious that it just needs to be residential. So there's my statement. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Um that is our final hand raised on Zoom. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? All right. And seeing none, I will turn it over to the council for any questions or comments. Council member Annie, I

I'll just say this is kind of a a no-brainer. We um stopped trying to pursue commercial uses more than a year ago now, I think, when we broke our contract with Mwali to try to find something for that. Um I think this is really just a formality to help us um move on to the residential uses. So, it's kind of a no-brainer.

Thank you, Council Member Hudis. Yeah, thank you. Um, this is an idea that, you know, came about when, uh, it looked like the town was no longer going to be able to successfully uh, utilize this property for um, for the public service. and it had been in public service really since it became a firehouse um and provided uh a service to the public as a museum. Following that, um the when it became apparent that the town was not going to be able to uh to continue that or to find an appropriate business that was going to be compatible with the neighborhood. Um this became the next step. Well, this this became a step in the process. there was also a step of making this um available and so in order to to make this available for what I would consider the highest and best use it's very important that we uh convert it to residential and we do the zoning that's appropriate and make sure that all of the historic preservations are in place as this is not just another old building. It's a building that uh served a very important purpose for our town in protecting the town from fires for a very very long time before uh it became uh a museum. And I don't even know all the uses that were there, but I do know that it is a site of public service. And so I'm I'm

very much in support of the work that staff has done. uh to identify the the changes that need to be made and the zoning. I would also point out that as part of the process, I uh would only want this to move forward if the proceeds from this become used as public service, a public service project for the town. I know that's not what's in front of us tonight, but this is a step that moves toward uh this becoming available as a highest and best use um and becomes uh available for someone to create a nice residence uh perhaps with an ADU um as well on this property. And so there are other steps in the process, but it's apparent that the town is not going to use it as a residence. So that means that it will, uh, move to, um, some other ownership at some time. And so, uh, I think this is done thoughtfully and done well and will, uh, serve the residents of our town. um but particularly will serve the residents of our town if the proceeds are used for a public service as that spot has served the town for so long. Um I am uh in favor of this uh process. So

thank you. Um I'll just share my brief comments. Um so I think Fort is as we know is an important uh property in Loscatos with decades of historical significance formerly operating as a fire station and later as a museum. Uh I had a couple people reach out to me who were who were supportive of keeping the commercial use of this and I think it's important uh to reiterate that for those who supported commercial use of the site the town of Los Gatos made a good faith effort to explore that um and and had little success. Um, we heard from uh uh neighbors this evening that Tate is a residential street and it is evident that the zoning of this property should be adjusted to be in better alignment with those surrounding residential properties. Um, I think this will do a good job of both preserving the historical significance of the site and addressing the concerns of those who live in the neighborhood. Um, thank you to those who uh took the time out of your evening to to speak to us this evening. It's always appreciated. Um uh regarding the sale of Fortate, I'll just say that I think it'll be very important that after the property sells, the town council designate is specifically involved in designating what the best use of that funding is and that that funding be used for the public good. Um I'll leave it at that and entertain a motion on this item. Council member Renie.

Um thank you, Mayor. Since Mary's not here who likes to jump in and do our motions, I'll see if I can I can do one. I've gotten lazy, I think, lately. [laughter] So, I will I will make the motion um to accept staff and the planning commission's recommendation, which includes making the required finding. There's no possibility this project will have a significant impact on the environment. Therefore, the project is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act section 15061. Um, in attachment two, I'll introduce an ordinance to affect the zone change, including the findings that the proposed zone change is consistent with the general plan and its elements in that the proposed zoning is consistent with the general the proposed general plan land use designation attachment two. I'll adop adopt a resolution to approve the general plan amendment including the findings that the general plan amendment is in internally consistent with the existing goals and policies of the general plan and its elements. attachment 4 and I'll approve the zone change application Z-25-002 and the general plan amended application GP-25-002. Now you see why I let Mary do this.

Council member Hudis, I'll second the motion. Well done, Council Member Renie. The easy part. Um uh okay, any uh further comments on this item? All right, seeing none, I will call the question. All those in favor? I I Any opposed?

None. Passes unanimously. Three um to zero. Uh okay. We will now move on to item 15. We will bring back Vice Mayor Risto. Um just real briefly, I just want to um share um uh everyone is of course always welcome to attend these meetings. We love when people attend these meetings, but um our resident and businesses of the month are by no means obligated to stay uh uh just because you were recognized. So, um uh please uh stay for as long as you want, but no obligation. Um we will move to item 15, which is to adopt the revised town agenda and rules format policy. Um uh Wendy Wood, our town clerk, will present the staff report.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Wendy Wood, town clerk. The item before you tonight is for the town council to review and adopt the revised town council agenda format and rules policy 2-01. This item was originally scheduled for the December 16th meeting, but due to the late hour of the meeting, this was deferred to this meeting. This policy establishes and prepares agendas and conducting meetings for the town council as well as the town boards, commissions, and committees. Over the past year, staff and the policy committee conducted several comprehensive reviews of the policy with the goal to improve clarity, transparency, consistency, and overall good governance. The proposed revisions before you tonight reflect multiple rounds of the policy committee discussion and direction beginning as early as November of 2024 and concluding last month and December 8th. Throughout this process, the committee carefully evaluated agenda preparation, public communication, meeting conduct, the role of the mayor and council members with consideration for staff impacts. Key revisions in the draft policy include updates to the order of the agenda, clearer procedures for public comment, presentations, the public hearing, revised expectations for timely submissions of written materials, and visual presentations. The policy also clarifies the process for council members to request future agenda items. The proposed language allows the town manager to determine whether a requested item would require significant staff effort. If so, placement of that item on a future agenda for action would require support of three or more members. The mayor's role in approving the council agenda is retained with added

flexibility for the town manager to adjust the order or scheduling of agenda items to mitigate operational, financial, or compliance impacts. Separate procedures and timelines have also been added for the preparation of the agenda materials for town boards, commissions, and committees, clearly distinguishing those processes from the town council's process. The conduct meeting section incorporates modified Rosenberg rules of order. The modification allows council members to ask questions following the public comment and change the process for reconsideration of a prior action. Additional revisions clarify procedures for managing disruptive behavior during meetings to ensure consistency with legal requirements. The council matter section was updated to clarify that brief announcements must relate to activities performed on behalf of the town or its residents in excludes personal business and campaign activities and limits council members to report in three minutes each. Overall, these revisions are intended to provide clearer, more transparent, and more consistent framework for agenda preparation, meeting conduct, and public participation. And I'd like to note that um it was brought to staff's attention that the redline version of the policy um did not display the redline corrections. So, those were sent to you as a desk item late today, but they were also available in the December 16th agenda packet and I'm available for any questions.

Thank you. Are there questions from the council? Council member Renie. Um, mine's probably for the town manager on the first one. Um, we're removing this um section in the agenda under orders of the agenda that that manager matters. And as long as I've been here, we've done, you know, an opportunity for the manager to announce things. Um maybe that was just the past town manager like to do that. Um but it seems worth asking why we decided to get rid of that. Does the manager not feel the need to um announce things? I don't think we're supposed to be striking council matters. Correct. It looks like that was

manager manager. manager matters. Sorry, council manager matters. I think that was intended to be retained. Yes, I believe that was supposed to be at the top. So, it's supposed to be council manager matters. So, yes, there is value at the manager being able to continue reporting to the council. Okay, that will be retained. So, that needs to be changed. So, it should say council and manager matters then. Yes, the draft that doesn't have the red lines includes manager matters in red. It's the only red that's in the draft. So, I think there's the confusion between the two drafts. Okay. So, I can assume it's already there just because this red line version doesn't show it correctly. Correct.

Okay. I have a second question. U Mayor,

um under council matters, we've done a lot of the section F called council members. We've done a lot of changes. Um, one thing that's slightly confusing to me says public comment on any council matter will be provided during verbal communication sections of the agenda which occurs at the beginning of the meeting and council matters occur at the end of the meeting. And how do people know what's on the council matters to make comments about? So, it's it's a confusing and and traditionally we've not agendaized anything under the heading of a council member, but further down here it talks about actually um putting things on the agenda a little bit. So, that all doesn't quite feel written well here to me.

I I completely understand that and there there's a reason behind that. the previous policy uh has not been implemented correctly. So when I first arrived last November 2024 when there was a request the process was council member request through the mayor an item to be agendaized and if it was agreed to by the mayor it would be agendaized. Um, if it was not agreed by the mayor, it would be listed under council matters for the council to be able to discuss whether they wanted to agendaize it for some future action. Um, up until that hadn't been happening in the past and it happened at my I believe second meeting here in November of 20124. And so part of the changes were intended that if the action is if it's intended for action, there should be it should be another business item and it should be if it's directing the work of staff requiring three individuals to put that forth to trigger that work, but that the council still retains the ability to either bring up under council matters like let's say today these there's a council matter item that's there at the request of the mayor uh to either request during the meeting that item of which the public would not be aware that that item is going to be even considered for some future meeting or if done in accordance to this new policy would be listed under council matter. So the public would have a chance to say have a say at the beginning and that the real discussion should be amongst the council as to whether you want to bring this back and direct more work of staff or consider it as a formal action under other business. So the intent is really to ensure the conversation of the council to determine whether there is a majority that want to request an action.

So I guess again what I seems to be missing is something that says items can be listed under council member matters agenda items can be listed under. Not until you get to paragraph four that where it says discussion items are intended solely for dialogue between council members and shall not require staff research reports or preparation beyond listing the item on the agenda. That's the first time we talk about the ability to list something on the agenda. So there isn't a lot of description in here or introduction of the idea that something can be listed under council matters. It just starts off talking about council members are going to report on their activities and all of a sudden four paragraphs later we're talking about ability to put something on the agenda. So I don't I I I feel like it's missing something a little bit.

I think it may clarify it if you move that paragraph that starts with discussion items to be the second paragraph as the next paragraph refers to during the council manners portion of the meeting. Any council member may request that an item be placed at a future agenda. Would that clarify it? I think that helps actually. Yeah. That it's not so far down the list that you get this idea that something can be put on the agenda. We we can make that move. It doesn't it it clarifies it doesn't I don't want to make this too complicated and rewrite it. So that does help me a little bit. So thank you. No, it is a good point. It should be introduced sooner.

Okay. Other questions of staff? Um okay. Okay, I'll open up a public comment on this item. I have no cards. Um, but looks like one's coming in. Um, Lee Quintana can provide her three minutes of public comment.

[clears throat]

Lee Kintana. Um, I have to start off by saying I'm a member of the historic preservation committee, but I am here not as to represent them, but as um a resident. Um, first I'd like to say that I uh thank you for com [clears throat] council member Renie. Thank you for bringing that up. That was a problem that I had with this also. I didn't understand that at all. I still don't but um okay in the introduction uh to to the staff report uh mentions that these changes are being made for clarity to reduce repetitiveness and to increase transparency. However, the changes being proposed would limit the use of the audiovisisual equipment only to applicants and appellants. Um, this seems to me that it is going backwards in transparency rather than going forward. It's often easier to express things in visual graphs, photos, whatever. Uh and if that isn't available to the public and only to the council having received that information, the public doesn't have that information and it doesn't seem that that's true transparency. [clears throat] The other uh question, I have a suggestion that you add uh a section for written communications that are uh for items that are not on the agenda. Um I also would like to comment on the fact that in the last six years there have been nine addendums or amendments to this policy and um

that I had another figure that I can't find. It seems to me that uh there there has to be a more effective way of making changes to these policies, especially since the mayor has such broad discretion in changing them around. Um I that's about what I had to say except that I found what I wanted to add to the six years. nine amendments in six years and this amendment has taken at least six or seven hearings. Seems like uh again there should be a way that these changes could be made annually uh without having to go through such a formal procedure to save staff time. Thank you.

Thank you. Um looks like you have a couple questions. Go ahead. Um yeah. So with regard to the uh idea about uh presentations um and you're talking about presentations from the public uh either commenting on an item on the agenda or in verbal communications. Is that is that what you're talking about? my understanding that this would eliminate the use of the town's equipment if I'm maybe I'm inter interpreting it wrong for uh yes for other items on the agenda hearings and whatever public presentations like me coming up here and wanting to put something on the overhead

I guess um to maybe explain a little bit about the concern that I understood it is um a concern that there might be uh obscene or improper materials and exposed um during the meeting by um a member of the public. And so um the I believe that was some of the rationale for not allowing those presentations. Um it but um you know then would it be appropriate if we were to allow presentations to require that they be submitted in advance

at the beginning of the meeting would be I mean if the if we allow comments up and during the meeting so uh I I don't know how to handle this, but I I I do think it restricts the public and it it's a it's a discrimination against being able to present your material in the best way you think it can be presented. Okay. Thank you. We'll take I'll take that into discussion for sure.

Um and I had a quick question for you which is you referenced written communications. Um you would want to add are you saying you'd want to add that to the order of the agenda? Um, I'm just saying that because I'm used to I was used to seeing that when I worked for the city of San Jose. They had both written communications that people could make for items that were not on the agenda and also the um public comments for um items that were not on the agenda. So, you have a chance to do both. And of course, if you're submitting written communications, you have an ability to submit additional information [clears throat] rather than just

Perfect. Thank you. Any other questions? I'm seeing none. Oh, one more from Council Brun. Oh, no. Not for not for the speaker. Okay. [clears throat] Thank you. All right. Um I'm not seeing any other hands raised on Zoom. I saw one go up briefly, but it looks like it is down. Um, last call for any Zoom speakers on this item. Seeing none, we will close uh communications on this item and go to council member Renie.

So, this is a question to think about. um in in section N which is remote attendance um I don't know that people have thought this through but whenever somebody's participating remotely there is a risk um because you have to brown act that location if that person doesn't come online then you're missing one of your meeting locations and technically the meeting is supposed to be cancelled. Um would it be worth mentioning that here? So that, you know, if somebody's planning to do a remote meeting, they put extra effort into making sure they wake up on time if they're in Europe or, you know, whatever the issue is that they they are are aware that they will cause a meeting cancellation. And and I hadn't thought too much about this until it happened to us at Silicon Valley Clean Energy where we had somebody in wherever Elliot was, maybe another country, and and he had to travel down a mountain and the roads were washed out to get to the Wi-Fi. And so he never made it, so we had to cancel. You know, everybody showed up for the meeting and then we couldn't do any business. So I'm wondering if it's worth noting that in here so that everybody makes sure they're aware of the risk. um they're they provide the body when they do a remote meeting.

My understanding is that I'm not sure if that was a question. It sounds like staff may on that, but my understanding is that different jurisdictions interpret that differently and the law did just change. So, it would be helpful to understand what staff's position on that instance would be happening in Los. Um, I would probably reach the same conclusion as the Silicon Valley group. Um, if the person were participate partic participating remotely under the traditional remote appearance provision of the Brown Act which does require that the remote meeting locations be posted. Um but there is a new provision in the Brown Act for just cause um remote participation and the remote just cause provisions don't require that the remote meeting locations be posted or open to the public and so if a council person were participating via the just cause provisions um there would not be a need to cancel the meeting. Um, and I'll defer to the town clerk if the town clerk has anything additional to add.

Um, my understanding would just be that it would have to be the in-person quorum. I would believe that if there was an issue with the location, they could post that that meeting location was no longer available. But um I would have to defer to the attorney to look at um any legal cases related to that. But I think it would be the same as if we had an an issue with the building and had to move the meeting location and as long as you post a sign at the location that the meeting has moved um you can move the meeting.

Council member Hudis. So, I'm, you know, looking for the language about just cause and I see there's something in here that refers to limited to five meetings per calendar year. Is there more that we need to say in this policy about the just cause provision uh for remote attendance?

We could add it if it would be helpful. My only concern is if the state law changes because it changes every couple of years. Um, and so my recommendation would probably be that we just reference the code section that's being used and then that that way the town won't have to amend this policy every time the state law changes. And if I could follow up, so is the language the red line language adequate to do that at this point? Um, I'm talking about the red line under uh N1 in the first paragraph,

right? And so I'll read it out loud. So right now it says uh it talks about you can request to attend remotely. Um and then it says in a you know however you can participate remotely under the just cause provisions. I guess if I were to make any change, I might recommend saying in addition, a council member may participate remotely under the just cause provisions because it is an alternative. And you think that would be a good revision to this text? I do. Okay.

Right. Council, [clears throat] if I please follow up. So, Council Member Renie's suggestion um about the implications of uh not attending is that you said you would agree with the um agency that he mentioned, but there's nothing in here now about that. Is there if you are suggesting that, is there a place where you would suggest that? And is there language that you would suggest to accomplish uh that sort of warning?

Um my thought would have been for me to prepare a memo for the council that would say the circumstances under which a meeting would need to be counseledled if there were remote participation and the person weren't there. Um and I so I would have leaned toward putting it in a memo as opposed to putting it in the policy. And and if I may add, if I to council member RNE's point to at least do an having an acknowledgement, you could consider the last sentence of that section N1 where and I'll read it with the proposed amendment. When a council member is participating remotely, they shall have their camera on and be visible for the duration of the meeting and shall make every effort to attend in order not to impact the holding of the public meeting. At least it is an acknowledgement if you'd like to put that in the policy for any future council who is requ council member who is requesting to attend the meeting remotely that you have an acknowledgement of your obligation to attend. And a violation of that is a potential code of conduct violation if the council wants to act on it if it's some um intentional act or sustained act into the future. Okay, Vice Mayor Snow,

thank you. I mean, I realize we can't solve it with this policy, but I am concerned about that. I mean, there have been incidents where somebody has been on a meeting um well, first of all, I just think that the Brown Act part where somebody participating remotely has to disclose their location is really outdated. I think it presents a safety hazard for people. you know, I've taken meetings at 3:00 in the morning in another city and I really don't want someone showing up with me and given that there's a Zoom option, nobody ever needs to be in another location. So, I am concerned about that. And then the other is if out of someone's control, there's a power outage or something and your remote person goes off, suddenly the meeting is canled. And then even worse, there's an example in another city where someone intentionally went off during in a remote location and caused the meeting to end. I just don't think anyone should have that power or that level of exposure, you know, safety exposure. Um, but that said, I think putting words in here that people will make every intention. I mean, you can use your phone as a hot spot if the Wi-Fi goes out and things like that. So, um I think we know what we have to do. It's just um doesn't hurt to add that sentence.

Yeah, I think that's a good addition. I I would say I I would I think that's a fine addition because it's not, you know, binding or anything. Um, I I would want, you know, perhaps separate from this item to have the town attorney look into this because my sense and, you know, reading the law as it stands is if there's a quorum in the room and there's a Zoom option, it doesn't make sense to me to cancel that meeting. So, that's that's my opinion. Um, and it sounds like there's, you know, a variety of opinions on this. So, it would be helpful to hear how other cities are doing this, you know, um, and and what allows the Loscatoos Town Council to have the greatest amount of, you know, uh, I don't want to say flexibility, but but, uh, uh, the the least likelihood that we have to cancel meetings because someone drops off. Um, so I wouldn't want to include anything else in there referencing state law or um talking about what to do if someone drops off until we have guidance. Um, which I think doesn't need to be in this policy. Uh, because that doesn't I know diff I have seen different cities do this differently. So it'd be helpful to understand what we have discretion on. Okay. Um, so that's one piece of this. Um, Council Member, I'm

I'm going to try a motion. I think according to Rosenberg's rules of order, we're supposed to make a motion before we discuss too much more, right? So, I I'll make a motion that um we we accept these edits to this policy uh 2-01 um with additional changes which were moving on section F. Whoops. I guess yeah se section F uh moving paragraph the fourth paragraph to be the second paragraph as we discussed um ensuring that the title in the agenda under section A orders of the agenda is council and manager matters um not just council matters as it shows here um and we go ahead and add to the end of the paragraph N1 the wording um that was suggested that effectively says make the council meeting council member will make every effort to attend so as not to impact the meeting

you uh Vice Mayor Risto I'll second the motion and we can continue conversation perfect council member Hudis oh we have a comment from uh the town clerk I just wanted to clarify um the attorney suggested adding in addition for the last sentence. However, so I just wanted to make sure. However, in addition, a council member may participate remotely under the just cause. That okay with the maker? Yeah, I'd like to include that um addition also in the motion. Thank you. Seconder. Yes. Okay, perfect. Council member Hudis.

Um my question was about in addition, but I think I'll go ahead and uh um make a comment now that we have a motion on the table. Um this has been a a fairly challenging process because um in in my opinion, the current uh policy has served the town well. It has um it has uh some aspects to it that reflect the fact that we are a small town and our um elected officials don't have any staff and uh directly to help them write reports or to draft things. And um unlike some bigger um municipalities and our mayor is appointed um for just one year, we don't have an elected mayor and they only serve for one year. So there's been um a bit of a balancing act during this to try to comply with the idea that um less than a majority of the council can't direct work of staff with the concept that we have a uh small town, small set of resources and limited ability to uh for the mayor to uh move things along. And I think we've come to a reasonable balance between those. I think it's one we're going to need to test out and try to see if it works. Um but it was uh it was a difficult process to uh get that balance right. One of the key aspects of

our existing policy has been to preserve the right of the minority to have an item heard by the majority of the council. And in a sense um by requiring a majority vote to move something onto the agenda, we've eroded that to some degree. Um it uh one of the ideas that had been offered earlier was to use an objective standard for what is significant work and it was proposed to be 20 hours of work. Um could be any number but there was some rationale that went behind that. instead. Um, the current draft says significant work is defined by the town manager. I'm willing to give that a try. Um, but I'm also um raising a little bit of a red flag that um we are small town. We have uh limited staff. we have limited ability um of any council member or even of the mayor uh to get much done. And in order to preserve um the full aspects of democracy and to allow um an elected uh minority of the council um to have an item heard by the majority is something we're going to need to watch closely. So, I'm okay with this. Um, but I still worry about it. Um, and so, you know, depending on where things go, um, I'm hopeful that this will work, but I'm also a little worried about it.

Thank you, Vice Morristo.

Thank you. I watched a lot of um this process go forward and I know it it felt like it took a lot longer than anyone would expect, but there were a lot of issues to work through and I appreciate the way um it landed with the mayor having um some power to decide what goes on the agenda balanced by the manager um you know where we found a place where if a mayor didn't want to agendaize something but it was critical time-wise or financially or something the manager could overrule that. Similarly, if the mayor wanted something on there, you know, I think the manager would be accommodating. I think um the nice thing about our community is we do have a great rel, you know, we have a mayor manager form of government. Our council sets up, you know, we decide what our um council priorities are for the year and it's our manager's job to implement that. We are just setting the policy. We're not micromanaging staff or, you know, doing the work of staff. And so I think this is a way to help forward it. Um I did have kind of a question um about presentations. I know in the past we used to have an overhead and if people submitted things they could then be put on the overhead. At this point I think part of besides not being sure what a member of the public might submit I think there's concern that you can't just stick something in a thumb drive and potentially crash our system. So, I don't know if you know, I know we're beyond questions, but I was going to ask like what were the concerns and how are we addressing making sure that we are electronically safe and understand what material could be presented by anybody?

I can answer that

please. Um, previously it was precoid when a lot of the presentations were allowed and that was when we had a dedicated computer to display um items. Right now everything is managed through our computers and we run the zoom simultaneously. So um about a year or so ago we had a presentation we were trying to do and it locked up the computer. So there are technological issues that could co be caused by some of the presentations as well as um somebody distributing something that may be um questionable and then that put staff in um the position of trying to determine if it's appropriate or within the scope of the council. So there was various concerns um for that and one of the the ways that we've been trying to mitigate that is to encourage the public to submit any visual presentations ahead of time for council in accordance with the guidelines we have for submitting and that goes for the the written comment as well. Um, we encourage them to provide it to the council as this is a forum for them to raise their concerns to the council and that way council has it. If it's submitted in time, then we're allowed to post it as a desk item or an addendum. So, the public does have the right to see it and it is public. So, it's following all the same transparency issues just in a different format that's a little bit more um easier for us to manage in terms of inside the meeting and displaying stuff. And then um I don't know if you want me to speak to the verbal the written comments as well. Um, we've been directing um the public if they want to submit written comments for items that are not listed on the

agenda. Those should be just directed to the town council as a a normal concern since it's not an item on the agenda. um we don't really post it as as an item on the agenda but it will be forwarded to the council so that you are able to see their concerns and then if it's something that you wish to take up then it would be something that you could request.

Okay. Thank you. Perfect. And I was thinking about that. I mean often someone will write into the council individually or directly about a topic and if it's on if it's something that's going to be on a future agenda then it gets put into the packet for that. So correct, that's how I've been receiving information from the public. And I also appreciate when the public writes in or submits a chart or anything that it not happen 10 minutes before the meeting because none of us have time to read it. So I like the 24-hour policy. Thank you. Thank you.

And then I also wanted to to point out that we did increase the time for the the limits for people to submit their public comments. So, instead of the 11 11:00 a.m., we did push it out to 300 PM just to give people a little bit more time and to make sure that you're able to get those comments in a timely manner.

Great. That's helpful as a as somebody who used to submit to the town council 11:00 on a Monday before a meeting comes up really fast and suddenly you're sending it in at noon and you've missed the target. So, I appreciate that. Um, I'll just add, uh, you know, I think one of the things that was hard to, you know, sort of work through and think through on this is that we currently, in my opinion, have a very good council. Um, and part of what we're trying to plan for in this is count future councils and we don't know what the, you know, future holds and who might sit in these seats, you know, uh, 5 10 years down the line. And so you do have to be thoughtful about uh how to, you know, create a policy that isn't, you know, necessarily built for um people always acting, you know, together in good faith, but but perhaps um planning for for you know, other types of folks being involved. And I think um you know when this first came up uh uh someone shared with me an example from a neighboring city where there was a a major infrastructure need that for 2 years was not put on the agenda and so which was creating an unsafe workplace for staff which um isn't you know fair to anyone and and the mayor refused to put that item on the agenda and there was no recourse for the manager. So, I actually think where we've um what we've reached this, you know, the mayor's agenda setting authority has remained, but the town manager can adjust the agenda order or scheduling of an item to mitigate for any operational, financial, or compliance impacts. I think that's a pretty good balance. Again, I think it's it's uh not super easy to work through this because historically the mayor and manager have always had a very collaborative relationship and um are sort of uh working to, you know, prepare the agenda in tandem. But I think this is a good balance. You know, there I'm I'm not um I share some of of Council

Member Hudis' um questions or heartburn. And so I think it it will be important to to you know uh uh stay on top of this and and make sure that this policy is operating how we intend it to this evening. Uh but I think you know this is a lot of thought has gone into this and I'm comfortable with it in its current form. Council member Hudis, I

I just wanted to add u a big thank you to the town clerk um for working through this um for separating the council agenda and the council format from the commission format. It was all tangled uh before and I think it's um a a really clean way of handling that. And so I, you know, you know, I'm of course uh not thrilled that we've had to take another look at this um so many times, but I do think this is a a substantial improvement thanks to the urging of the town manager uh for us to look at some of the uh some of the issues uh governance issues that existed in our previous policy and for the really diligent work of our town clerk in um navigating uh the Brown Act, the First Amendment, all all those kind of things that come into play on this. So, thank you for that.

Mayor, if I may, please. um on I was giving more thought to N1 and that one sentence I was thinking it'd be better to say alternatively a council member might participate remotely under just cause um since it's the just cause provisions are an alternative to the regular remote participation provisions. I can accept that change. I'll make that change. I guess since I she's she's not a member of the council, can't make the change, but [snorts] I I will suggest that we change the motion to include that. Second.

Perfect. Okay. Any final comments? Is everyone comfortable with the motion? I know we're voting on. Perfect. Okay. Um uh then I will call the question. All those in favor? I.

Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously. Um, uh, echoing council member Hudis's comments, thank you all for the very hard work on this. Appreciate you, uh, uh, getting this through in a very thoughtful and, uh, uh, way that ended in a very positive outcome. So, thank you. Um, we will now move to item 16, which is a, uh, draft license agreement for encroachments for public use of public for private use of public property. and Gary Heap, the town engineer, will be presenting the staff report.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council. My name is Gary Heap, as I'm getting comfortable here. Uh, very good. Um, I'm the town engineer with the parks and public works department. So, good to see you all this evening. Um, this evening, we're before you requesting approval of the proposed license agreement policy for private use of public property, otherwise known as our, uh, license agreement policy moving forward. That's what I'll be referring to it as. Uh that policy document is attached to your staff report this evening uh free review and uh then comment this evening. Um I just want to go over some of the highlights of that policy document in the staff report here in this presentation. The purpose of the policy is really to establish a clear and consistent procedure for permitting licensing inspection enforcement and revocation of private encroachments within the public rideway and on town owned property. The town frequently encounters uh private improvements in the town rightaway and handles those really through an ad hoc permitting process uh with code enforcement. This policy fills the gap by defining when license agreements are appropriate and setting uniform standards uh for staff and property owners so we have consistency and transparency and both sides know uh how we're approaching this. The policy applies broadly to private improvements in the rightway with limited exceptions. Uh and the document itself provides clear approval authority. Uh for the town manager, that approval authority includes res uh license agreements that are residential in nature, uh minor in scale, and don't really create a health or safety hazard. Examples of that are um residential fences, small retaining walls, structured mailboxes in the rightway. um those types of things. The town council then would review license agreements that are commercial in nature uh that occupy a substantial portion of the rightway um involve large permanent structures uh proposals with broader

community impact or really than set precedent. We want to make sure the council weighs in on those. Uh examples of that would be structural planters or safety ballards in front of a commercial business in the downtown area pretents. uh major building encroachments, those types of things. Also, it should be noted that when an encroachment is proposed through a land use entitlement, the review and approval for that encroachment will occur and be uh uh reviewed and approved concurrently as that application is reviewed. Uh requests will be evaluated based on safety, ADA compliance, drainage, utility, zoning consistency, and potential impact to future town projects. This policy also addresses legacy and unpermitted encroachments uh in place prior to the policy approval here. Um for those uh existing improvements that are that are made aware uh to us, uh staff will conduct a threshold review to determine whether removal is required or or for a retroactive license application can be submitted. uh review of the retroactive license agreement will will not be the exception uh or will be will be the exception, excuse me, and not legitimize any unauthorized construction. So, the benefits of this policy document itself, as I've stated before, transparency, uh that ensures consistency and protects the public interest, and it also aligns with the town's commitment to good governance. Uh with the with that staff recommends that the council adopt the proposed license agreement policy as provided and recommended this evening and I'm here for any questions you might have.

Thank you very much for your presentation. Any questions? Okay. Okay, I had a quick one um which is uh so there's this provision in the policy um about town council approval um when the item has broader community impact, establishes precedent or is contentious, sensitive or otherwise likely to generate public concern. Um uh this on the uh I think third page of the policy. Um, and this is a a silly hypothetical, but I think, you know, illustrates the the question I'm asking. Um, the town manager is for things that are minor in scale. Um, so question being, if there were a minor in scale, let's say, this is again very silly, but a beloved sprinkler, right? Just, you know, the community loves this this particular sprinkler sprinkler. It has somehow gained historical value, and there's something, you know, that people love about that. and and if you know we need to get rid of that sprinkler but people are we're going to get 15 public comments about it. Would that go to the town council?

Gary correct me on this one. Currently all these are unauthorized in a public right away if any of this occurs. Correct. Without an encroachment permit or any other agreement.

That's correct. any landscaping improvements that are that are in our rightway are technically in need of of a license agreement. Um, so it's it's hard to really speculate on something like that. I think if if that application were to come forward, we would really want to look at our policy document if it was to be approved this evening, go through the criteria identified there, and then uh take a look and see how that weighs against the the policy. The the reason I asked that question as of right now, nothing would come to the council to grant authority to be in the public right of or to remain in a public right away. You would have received a code violation and we may have given the directive it has to come out and there's nothing for the council to do there. What the policy does and I think I go back and hearken to a previous case. We had a fence in a public right away and residents that were at odds with regards to that fence. How do you handle that fence is the question that was coming in my mind and I was thinking not just about just that fence. I was thinking how do you handle everything else that's happening in the community because it's not just that one fence. It happened on Shannon Road when we did the improvements. It exists in other locations in the town. How are we consistent to residents and we treat them fairly? And so by changing this we are now bringing to council items of more significance. And I would have to evaluate that and balance that that this magic single sprinkler that has garnered a hundred people in the audience fighting for it. That may have some broader community impact in that decision. And that may be something we can't go wrong bringing it to council because in many things council is the sunshine in the daylighting of a matter that although a count town manager can make a decision on it, it doesn't hurt necessarily to just elevate that to council. And that would probably be where I would go on something like that.

Okay, that's that's helpful. I'm just trying to understand where the where the distinction is there, but that's that's helpful. Thank you. Okay. Um, seeing no further questions at this time, we will open up public comment. Um, I do not have any cards in the room for this item. Uh, are there any hands? Is there anyone on Zoom who would like to speak? I'm not seeing any hands. All right, seeing none, we will close public comment and go back to the council. Vice Mayor Risto,

thank you. Well, I guess actually before I make comments, I'll make a motion to approve this. So, I I move to approve this uh license agreement for encroachment for private use of public property as presented by council or as presented by staff. There a second. Second. Perfect. Um, go ahead.

Yeah. And then I wanted to comment I mean because of the fact you know very specifically a fence issue I you know over the years watching council there's always something that bubbles up with Shannon Road as we were ready to do public improvements that were approved all of a sudden we had items in the public rightway that had to be dealt with one at a time. Um periodically somebody reports an issue. I think that it makes a lot of sense to have consistency to have the rules laid out so that it's not each one off gee do I want to go to the council and make my case for this everybody's treated equally there's an understanding and I also like the part of the policy where if encroachment on public property is granted that is reviewed every 10 years so nothing is permanent it's not guaranteed in perpetuity because our needs may change for the public right ofway. We may suddenly decide we need a sidewalk or emergency access for, you know, wildfire or whatever. And so, um, I appreciate that there's a mechanism to examine these to remove things that are in the public right of way that don't have the right to do that and not have a big long public hearing about it all the time. Um, and then I have one follow-up question. Does the sprinkler have a name? like does that matter if people have a name on it [laughter] anyway. So I I I think this is really good. I know a lot of work went into it and I think um that work is well justified because otherwise we're just playing whack-a-ole with each individual process and going forward depending on the composition of the council or who the person is or what it is you don't have um the same treatment across the board. So thank you for that. Thank you for that, council member. And if I may add, just like our normal code enforcement process, we don't go out

looking for every instance in the town of a violation to try to deal with those violations. Most of the time these come to our attention because of a complaint. Um, and some of the times they come to our attention because as staff are driving down the street and they notice something that is in the case of a fence that's too high that cuts a sight line, a potential hazard to the community of which needs to be addressed or it's a new construction and it comes to the attention of a staff person. Um, but we this is not going to be perfect. And while we want to be consistent, consistency doesn't mean perfect consistency. And we have to recognize that we also don't want to weaponize our tools against one resident against the other. Um, and so there'll be some balance as we implement this policy. And if we need to come back to council for a change, we would come back to you.

Thank you, Council Member Hudis. U yeah, I'm going to support the motion and um in kind of replaying some of the examples that have come to the council, I think this will be um very helpful uh but also in going back to my days on the planning commission, I think this will be of value uh to the planning commission as well. Um because often these issues about encroachments come up during uh planning commission hearings as well. And so, uh, I think this will have benefit that extends, um, into that area in addition to the complaints that come in sort of after the fact. So, I think it's I think it's, uh, very helpful and, uh, we'll see how it goes. Good. Any comments? Okay. Um, uh, I would just say, uh, similarly echoing those comments, I think this is fundamentally very helpful. uh and adds a lot of clarity where there was some uh uh you know in our most recent example I think there was some confusion about the best way to handle it and so this I think helps a lot. Um okay uh there's a motion on the floor seeing no other comments I will call the question. All those in favor I

any opposed? None. Uh passes unanimously. Um, we are seven minutes shy of 900 pm, but I think to make sure we give the police uh uh services report it's due. Um, I think we'll take a a 10-minute break um to go to the bathroom, etc., and return at 8 uh 9:03.

All right, I'm going to reconvene this session of the Los Gatos Town Council. Uh to begin with item 17, which is the bianual police services report for July through December 2025, which will be presented by uh Chief Jamie Field.

Okay. Good evening, mayor and town council. Uh this is uh the fifth year that we're going into these bianual reports report outs. We'll continue doing them in the spirit of continuing the trust and transparency that we want to provide to our community. Um so this will be a reportable period of July through December of last year, the last six months. And in addition, based on some feedback from our last report out in August, I've also uh brought forward an additional member of our team, one of our senior our senior sergeant uh traffic sergeant Kalipo Kawoa. He will be helping me with a a portion of this slide deck uh momentarily, but I'll go ahead and kick us off. Uh next slide, please. Thank you. During this reportable period, we hired one record specialist, a police lateral officer, and then three trainees. Um, now why those may not be significant numbers, what is a significant number is the number of applicants that we received during this reportable period. So for those positions that are represented up there, there was a total of 7 68 applicants for that what rendered from it uh specifically for record specialists there's about 350 and then the remaining were divided up between the lateral positions and the traininee positions it is a significant as I've always shared undertaking to go through the background process to be hired on and it's not just that an individual may not clear these processes there's also it's a competitive market that's out there for public safety in general as we've all heard so we know that When people apply for our agency, they may also be in the process with other agencies as well. And for a number of different reasons, they may not continue through the process or they may get dropped from the process. We are

continuing and plan to have an oral board each held each month and always looking for efficiencies and ways to streamline. Next slide. Our volunteer program that's definitely part of the heart of our department and allows us to re reach out to the community. um in many different ways both uh including Dart Explorers and CERT had additional members added to the team during this reportable period. Uh four new members were actually added to our explorer team almost doubling it in size and we had three additional new dart members that were added as well and those are just force multipliers for us that assist us during the children's holiday parade and many other events whether they're planned events or disaster in nature. Uh for CERT specifically, we added two additional neighborhood incident command posts and the prior mayor was there to cut the ribbon at one of them. So very exciting, wellreceived by the community um and the CERT leads as well. Additionally, we have volunteer program known as volunteers and policing and during this reportable period, they deliver or they went out and did 575 vacation checks, which is significant. And that's an additional uh service to the community that makes us unique and it's one of our differentiators as well in terms of our localized uh community support. Uh next slide. There's a lot to cover on this side slide, but really what I'm trying to get out here is we're moving into a new era with the Loscatus Monos Reno Police Department really focused on modernization and innovation. And in that spirit, we've listed a few items up here. And specifically today, uh it was a council approved initiative was a uh replacement of our mobile data computers that are within the cars. And so that vendor was on site today and will be on site for the next seven days replacing

those because they're are no longer supported. And so we do appreciate that support. Another item that is very much underway is the Axon ecosystem and that includes our drone for first responder. We had the electrical pulled just last Friday and that dock should be arriving within the next uh 24 hours is our anticipation. We are trying to get it underway uh potentially for the regional events to be able to use it. There's much more that comes with that including our real time information center as you've heard more about and other enhancements as well. And then we'll definitely keep uh the council apprised of those resources. We've really leaned towards automation of different functions of the police department to include subpoena service uh to our officers so we can reduce the amount of overtime of officers being on call and they can stay in communication with the district attorney's office. Additionally, the district attorney's office has Axon and so we are now able to move towards automated case filing instead of having somebody have to literally drive the packets down to the district attorney's office in most cases which is wonderful. Another item that we brought forward and this was under the Malora assessment uh recommendation was to incorporate or to also add residential alarm false alarm management. Um so we have uh uh secured that process and almost 14,000 letters went out to both commercial and residentials um within the last week or so. Uh there's many other items up there to note but um we'll uh move forward. So [laughter] that's okay. Um so moving forward in terms of the discussion surrounding consolidation. So I'll draw your attention to the top of this slide. You have the mealora assessment project that was done in 2024. That was the public safety assessment. An outcome from that

assessment was the need and the recommendation for consolidation both for the efficiency and the internal structure of the police department and then also for modernization and then for access to our community. Both stations are about 2 miles apart from one another. And we know that during uh beach traffic or other significant uh congested traffic periods of time um such as school traffic, it can take upwards around 45 minutes to get from one station to the other. So if somebody needs a service that we provide here and also service at the other location, it takes a significant period of time out of the day or for our resources. Uh the police operations building, it's about 12,000 square foot in size and headquarters which is just next door is about 5,000 square foot in size. The recommendation from the DLR group who uh we went into contract with to do a space assessment, their early recommendation is almost uh twice the size being needed for the police department consolidation. So we're continuing on in that project. We have not um completed that uh project with the DLR group, but we will have more to come during the next report out to council as well. Next slide. So, in terms of some of the analytics, we always like to include some of the same u measurements in here on these this slide and the next one. What this one represents on your left is our response time for call for service and our standard uh measurement is to aim for five minutes for priority 1, 10 for priority 2 and 15 for priority 3. You can see that we are significantly below that and uh priority one is those emergency calls where it's a threat to to person in most cases. the slides or the graphs to chart to your right. It's

a comparison between 2024 and 2025 of the communication center. Um, and their calls that they're either receiving through uh our non-emergency line, which is our 4083548600. And so receiving calls, outbound calls, and the 911 calls. You can see that they're similar in measurements up there. And that tends to stay the same and has for the last four years that we've been or four and a half years that we've been presenting on this. Next slide. Traffic enforcement is uh the measurements there on your left. And you'll see that uh while our citations are about the same, they're just a uh slightly slightly off. you have uh 742 or 791 it should be for this reportable period and uh but there's fewer traffic stops. We took a look at that and we believe that some of the the possible reasoning behind that is there was a period of time where we did not have a motor officer um available in service and they are out there doing a lot of that visibility traffic enforcement. However, we did maintain similar numbers and citations. The documented reports, those are very much uh the same from year to year. Next slide. This slide and the following slide, I'm going to turn over to our traffic sergeant, Kalipo Cowoa, um as he is definitely very familiar and engaged in the special events that we came from in 2025, as well as he'll speak to some of the efforts that are underway moving forward for the regional events. Sergeant Kev.

Thank you, Chief Mayor, Vice Mayor, Town Council. Good evening. My name is Kalipo Kawioa. I'm badge number 67, sergeant here with the town of Loscatos Monino Police Department. Been serving the community for 20 years. My current uh job is uh traffic and regional events. And I'd like to share with you some of the highlights on these these slides. You saw previously that the chief spoke of technology and of the good people we hire. uh those pe those good people just happen to be cops and they're working here in our community to uh serve it the best we can. Uh with the help of my fellow officers and town staff, I coordinate, communicate, and implement strategic planning, operations, and evaluation within the roles and tasks assigned to me. I am a modern-day multimodal transportation influencer. And you saw that on one of the previous slides where we take traffic enforcement and multimodal traffic safety seriously. uh to kind of give you an idea of um one of the three of the five E that we stand for. Uh in order to create a more safer traffic environment, we have a device that uh records speed or or uh illustrates speed to drivers than on the roadway. It's a more commonly known as a radar trailer. And that's part of our education and encouragement. As a driver passes by this trailer, it illustrates the speed or displays the speed that they're traveling at and gives the good driver an opportunity to slow down and abide by the law. And then about a week later after displaying that trailer, we come out with our motor officers and our patrol officers and we conduct traffic enforcement of that area. And it allows us to share the education and encouragement with that radar device and then back it up with a little bit of enforcement. We we uh go to those specific areas for traffic enforcement when the community uh calls us either through dispatch as the number the chief

provided with the 354600 or they can email us police lossca.gov. Highlighting some of the other uh roles with regards to traffic. Uh all roadways in the town north and south merged to one lane. The maximum speed in town is uh 35 miles an hour. Over 1 million vehicles traverse our roadways every month. Each officer, including our two motor officers, have the ability and capability to influence safe driving utilizing the latest traffic safety technology devices to do so. And the chief had mentioned some technology uh mentioned earlier. And about a year ago, we implemented crossroad citation software. Uh this allows the officers to carry the citations and ecitation on their phones and then also conduct uh crash investigations um using crossroads software which then uh uploads to the state for statistics in partnership with parks and public works and local organizations such as Loscato safe routes to school, the Loscatoos Union High School District, uh the Loscatoos school district and our own complete streets and transportation commission. We accomplish our goals by following and implementing the five E of traffic safety. Those five E are engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation. These partnerships and commitments to public safety help us educate, encourage, and enforce the lines and signs set into place throughout the town and paves the roadway toward safer multimodal travel. Moving on to our slide here for past and present and the local and regional events that occur in this town. I was designated as your regional events coordinator. Some of you folks may be or you folks may be familiar with some of the events

the police department facilitated in 2025. They included coffee with a cop, the community police academy, neighborhood watch, national night out, the children's Christmas parade, Christmas holidays parade, excuse me. And in and the the for the parade, we're looking at over 10,000 people. There's almost 6,700 people that participate just in the floats and the bands, etc. And then there's a crowd that comes and it's an event that uh is significant to the town. I think this year we'll be moving to the 70 70th anniversary of the parade. And uh it's a year in planning. We've already started planning for next year uh back in 2025, December 2025. So it's a large event and our job is to make sure that we provide the safety, security, and service that the town expects in these types of events. Um, a piece of technology that we use is uh the anti-vehicle barriers and we close the streets with those barriers so that big trucks can't get through. And uh we're also using drone technology. You heard the chief talk about our DFR uh program and we now have pilots that will fly above the crowds and um kind of keep an eye on things so we can get a bird's eye view. uh for Halloween uh both on Tate and Johnson Avenue uh th those events are about 8,000 people. And uh when looking at those crowds, we also have to expect as police officer that the people that we see in costumes and in the dark uh we don't see always all the little kids, all the children that are below four feet. And so our numbers are uh I would say highly exaggerated under uh because we see mostly adults and we don't see all the children that are there. Um but another great significant event but one that takes a lot of uh planning and uh and care with regards to keeping the public safe in the Almond Grove and the Johnson area. Uh we've also had some significant

dignitary visits uh you may recall over the last three or four years including the president of the United States, the vice president uh and the first lady. Uh these visits are usually fairly uh surprising. The Secret Service doesn't give us much heads up. They show up about a week before, give us a plan of action, and then we do our best to not inconvenience the public while at the same time providing the highest level of security for our our nation's leader and our government. Um, so another area where we use technology, people, and um good planning to implement public safety. In 2026, the Loscatus Monosino Police Department will provide safety, security, and service to the town during regional events occurring nearby. These events include the uh 60th uh Super Bowl uh which will occur next month on February 8th, 2026, the World Cup soccer for FIFA which is in also at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara June uh and July of 2026. And then America's 250th birthday, which is a nationwide celebration on July 4th of 2026. Uh the police department is uh intrinsically involved in the planning with the other agencies, state, local, uh regional and federal agencies for all of these events. And um our job is to make sure that we're providing the best we can in public safety, service, and safety to our community. That concludes my report. Uh is there another slide? I'm sorry, one more. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. Can we move the next slide down? Thank you. Sorry, I thought I was in control. And I touched base on all of those events. Uh, National Night Out and Halloween and Holiday Parade. Uh, I want to do want to bring attention to uh the soccer tournament that

happened. I believe it was back in 1994 when Brazil, we were the hometown for Brazil. Uh there's a wonderful picture of that uh celebration at Willow Street uh pizza right here on on Main Street. If you go toward the cooking alley, cooking galley uh to the right there, there's a picture of the thousands of people that came to celebrate while Brazil was here. Um not that I expect that's going to happen uh this year, but um we always want to prepared, be prepared, and are prepared for what's to come. Okay, next slide. Oh, you already have it. Thank you. So, this is one of our final slides, but I want to touch again on some of the technology and and innovation that we're going towards. Um, it's very exciting. I think that this is going to uh be a very defining year for the department in many different ways. From the modernization, from the innovation, from the focus on staffing and development of our staff, retention of our staff. Uh one of the areas of technology that I know is sensitive um right now is surrounding flock. So I would just like to address that really quickly. So SB34 that was in 2015 and established some parameters around how flock information is being shared um from state agencies to federal agencies. And then furthermore SB54 in uh 2017 the CARES Act also sets some further uh safeguards around there where uh how we will uh support or engage with our our federal partners. Now, specific to Los Scats, I'll bring it down to a localized level. You might recall when we did implement flock that we did not share with anybody else in the county

for a number of years. And then when we look to expand that a little over two years ago, we brought that to council and said we would only share within our county, also including uh California Highway Patrol on our flock portal. And I have it up here on my computer and anybody else can log in to the Los Scatos Police uh transparency portal and they can look at our flock page. It will show on there how many flock cameras are owned by the town specifically. There's 17. How many cars have passed through within the last 30 days down to the number um because we keep for only a 30day retention period. And then all of the agencies are listed in there of whom we share with and they're listed on there. Um, so all of that information is current as well as our flock policy is on there as well. Um, we do have an auditing process that occurs monthly overseen by a support services captain. So hopefully that provides just a little bit of level of assurance of uh how we operate here with within the police department here locally. Um, I know that the city of Monoseno has also installed their flock cameras. they have their own uh transparency portal. It lists on there that they share with uh the town of Los Gallatos for policing services that we contractually provide. Um, additionally up there uh you see the Malora assessment recommendations. We continue to work on those 130 recommendations and we have made significant progress. I don't have the number of where we uh how many we have been able to scratch off that list, but a lot of the initiatives I spoke to tonight were a result of uh those recommendations there and a lot of that was supported through uh council as well. So, thank you for that support. We'll continue to develop our collateral teams. You heard about the drone team. There's other teams are uh currently underway and being developed and you

will hear about those um as the year goes forward. and we hope to uh have quite a few new faces at our next swearing in which we anticipate being in May of this year. It will be a very uh voluous year for the department given these regional events um and the 250th uh year of independence for our country. And it will be exciting times for for all of our staff and for our region. And uh we will definitely be at our best and prepared to serve our community. Next slide. And with that, it concludes our presentation. And we are available for any questions. The entire command staff and Sergeant Kowell are here to respond.

Thank you very much, Chief. Um okay. Um it looks like no burning questions from the council. So I'll go ahead and open public comment. Uh and then we'll get into our discussion. We have one um inperson commenter. Uh that is Austin.

All right. Thank you. Um so I'm glad you Excuse [clears throat] me. I'm glad you brought up the the policy. I have it right here. Um there's a lot of things in particular. It talks a bit about training and uh 429.3.1 Bureau of Support Services captain shall be responsible for developing guidelines and procedures. Specifically, it talks about developing training requirements for authorized uh users. uh 429.5 subsection D. No member of this department shall operate ALPR equipment or access ALPR data without first completing department approved training 149.9 under training the administrative sergeant or personnel and training analyst should ensure that members receive department approved training uh for those authorized to use or access the LPR system. Finally, 429.8. Uh, this training will be documented and kept on file with the training analyst. Um, so I've requested that documentation. I've requested the uh both the training, the records, and uh the town came back and said that um there are no responsive documents. Um, so I'm I'm hoping that was a mistake. I'm hoping training is happening. Hoping it's being documented. Uh, as you mentioned, it is controversial. It's controversial in part because it's uh it's being abused. If you read the

news every week, it's a new story. And um, so yeah, I'm just hoping you can shed some light on that. Thanks.

Thank you. Um I have no other. Um all right. Um please come forward. Leafigo go 30-year resident of the town. Uh good evening. As a long-term resident and with the police uh facility within uh one block of my house, I am very happy, comfortable, and my neighbors also express that same sense of confidence and comfort because of the quality of the police services that we have seen exercised in our community. the fact that our police are reaching out into the community and working with citizens. And some of the comments that I've heard from other residents are that they see the police, and I've observed this twice now, police doing more to prevent crime than just trying to chase down the bad guys. Um, and and this is true community policing. So with that, I'd like to say thank you for the work that you're doing. Truly appreciate it. Keep it up. Uh you've put the expectations very high now. So we'll be cheering and hopefully you can stay at that level. And again, thank you. and let's work on some of the new challenges that we have with electric bikes and what's happening there in our community um to try to protect our our youth um by reaching out to the schools as our community service officers have been doing uh and conducting classes for the students. The school districts are very interested in in doing what they can to to try and protect their student

population. So, let's let's keep that up and again uh enforce the laws where it it is necessary to do so and let's prevent people from getting into some bad habits. So, again, thank you for all that you have done and it is nice to have this quality of service in our town. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I see no other cards in the room and no hands raised on Zoom. So, I will close public comment and uh look to questions and comments from the council. Council member Hudis.

Um, kind of one sort of minor question raised by the public. Um, is there a reason why training records of police officers would not be provided under public records act? I'll look to the town attorney on any uh thought behind that response. Um I'm not aware of any exemption for training records and so it would be a matter of whether or not they exist, whether or not the town has them to provide.

So I can respond a little bit further. So, uh, we do undergo audits through the Department of Justice for, um, information that or tests that are, uh, I would say issued by DOJ or overseen by DOJ to asssure that all of our staff that has access to information on a need to know, right to know basis that they complete those tests. And that's an audit that is undergone, I want to say, annually, but I would have to double check on that. But those tests are completed. Uh, one of our administrators on that is actually one of our senior dispatchers and she makes sure to monitor that closely.

Okay. Thank you. Um, I won't get in public uh hearing into a particular records request, but I I might have some questions um for the attorney later. Um, I don't want to spend all the time on uh the license plate readers, but in general, um, the the statistics on the use of flock. Um, could you maybe elaborate a little bit on what the results have been from using license plate reader technology

for on a local level? We've seen actually a slight reduction in the the outcome in terms of the use of flock. Um it appears as such that a lot of the license plates that may uh I guess be alerted by the system that they've been covered for one reason or another. Um so as we implement technology um others that may have um ill purpose um may may find ways to overcome said technology. So, we just have to uh I guess layer it in such a way, but also do it in a way where we're very thoughtful that we're bringing it before the council that we establish the trust anytime that we hold the community police academy. As many of you know, we completely pull back the curtain to share what all of our systems are, including how they operate, what we're doing, how they function, and there's a full deep dive into our community police academy um which we hope to hold this uh fall. And we definitely welcome anybody that's interested to to reach out to us at policelocatoosca.gov. Um from a local level, we are actually extremely restrictive um because we only hold that information for 30 days. Many agencies are a year or beyond. And I know that there's legislation that's trying to bring that back to the 60-day mark. We are even more restrictive than that. We are also one of the few agencies that only shares within the county. and for a lengthy period of time only shared within uh within just our department ourselves. But we found that there was for officer safety purposes value and investigative purposes and safety to the community value in going a bit further and for that reason that's when we brought it back to council in August I believe of 2024 I believe. Um but that is something that is monitored regularly by our uh administrator on

that and as I mentioned overseen by a support services captain.

Okay. Thank you. Um I uh think it might be valuable again even if the numbers are down from the initial ones to articulate maybe in a future report um what you know the the number of um effective uh stops and crimes um uh that have been tracked. You know, my understanding is that the license plate reader technology allows uh the police to um understand when a criminal um has entered town and when someone who's committed a crime uh uh is someone who ought to be looked at. And that's the exact opposite of uh profiling. It's it's, you know, making a stop of someone who is known to be a criminal. And so I think the the results um are important to share with our residents. Um and uh I would encourage to provide some of those statistics going forward. Um, I've read a number of the articles about uh some communities that are concerned and for for the most part it has been uh federal agencies accessing uh state and local uh databases associated with flocked and my understanding is that that's not permitted under um our policies. Is that correct?

That is correct. And if I could just expand a little bit further, um it is a little bit difficult to measure the value of flock because there are some instances where we may receive a flock alert and go to that particular area and we're not able to locate or potentially that vehicle flees from the area. In addition, it does it doesn't capture the investigative value of it. if we're following up on a burglary of a particular area and we can identify on a surveillance camera nearby and also get the license plate of a particular vehicle as a result of flock and the investigative followup of it. So just signaling on the license plate as it goes by it doesn't capture the full picture. So there's a little bit more um there. Additionally, there's also the value of how many vehicles are coming and going that are captured on those. Well, it certainly doesn't it's not a comprehensive picture of vehicles coming and going from our community, but what it does when I looked earlier, I think it showed for the 17 cameras that 413,000 had passed just within the last 13 or 30 days.

Go ahead. Um, so you know, some of the concerns that I've read about have been uh federal inquiries into state or municipal uh databases, and I understand that we don't permit that. One of the other abuses um that I read about was where a uh local municipality, I think in Texas, put out a missing person bulletin um to attempt to locate an individual. And it turned out that wasn't a missing person. It was someone who they suspected of breaking uh Texas law regarding um abortion. and uh that information was provided back. Um that wouldn't be federal, that would be state to state or state to municipal. Do we have safeguards with regard to that?

Absolutely. And anytime that we access uh the flock database, there has to be documentation of what that purpose is. Uh usually surrounding a case or incident number. And so if something were a supposed missing person report, we wouldn't necessarily take it at face value.

If it so flock does help for missing persons. It also helps for somebody that may um be need to be checked on for mental health purposes. We can follow up on those those matters as well if they're potentially a harm posing a harm to themselves. So, it's not just for the criminal matters, it's also for other public safety matters, too. So, yes, a missing person may qualify. Okay. Thank [clears throat] you. Questions about other statistics, but we'll go

I have a couple flock questions if we want to um stay on that for for just a sec. So, um first, I I really appreciate the thoughtful presentation this evening. Um I I you know, have shared this before um heard it from many residents. I really want to emphasize how much I uh am grateful to the department. I think your emphasis on trust and your transparency. You know, I've um uh yeah, I think it's it's top-notch and and we're very grateful to have a police department um that that uh you know, care so much about being community facing and involved in everything uh uh that you are. Um, so going off of what what council member Hudis was asking about, my understanding is that um, uh, a couple of weeks ago, the city of Santa Cruz voted to end their contract with Flock. Um, and they had very similar policies to what our policies are from what I can tell that they forbade um, uh, federal agencies from accessing their flock data. And yet it was um utilized by by ICE and or accessed by ICE. Um and there the city of Santa Cruz's intent was explicitly not to share the data. Um and yet uh uh it was still accessed. And so my my concern is not at all with the trust I have in our police department. It's more about the security of the technology. And so, um, uh, and I appreciate, you know, I I, um, I know that that you all would be, uh, sharing with us if anything was, you know, arai. And so I'm I'm not, um, just for for the the public record, I wanted to ask if our flock data has ever been accessed by ICE without our explicit permission. And I um, you you've shared in the past that it hasn't. Um and then I also wanted to to ask you know kind of two other questions. One is um about you know the

guarantees Loscatoos has that our data won't be accessed in a manner similar to Santa Cruz. Um and then I'll I have one more question I'll ask but I won't add a third now. So I'm familiar uh with with the incident and and what was taking place in Santa Cruz. also offer in that same week where they canceled their flock cameras. Actually, the community of Greenfield, I believe, added more flock cameras to their program. So, uh I can't speak specifically to what happened there in Santa Cruz, but I will look to our support service captain to just expand a little bit further about the auditing process and the schedule that he's implemented.

Hi, thank you for the question. and Greg Bourport services captain. Um so recently onboarding into that position specifically um looking at the audit trails and stuff like that and knowing some of the concerns and the trust that we had built up. Um working with our administrator who is housed specifically in our investigations bureau. um they do a weekly check to see any and all access points um which is very definitive and all that information making sure that that's within the policy as well as also looking at all of the administrative backend switches from the admin perspective that are controlled um from my level and from his level are staying consistent with everything that was already outlined from the council. So that reoccurs monthly so that anything that looked out of the ordinary would be spotted early and that we can address those things ahead of time and as we have rolled forward since we've just implemented it um and it has been functioning the way we had intended with your direction.

Okay. I I appreciate that that that makes sense. I guess is is Loscatoos doing anything different than you know uh other agencies because my my understanding from the Santa Cruz example is that this was um uh again the city of Santa Cruz said don't access our data and yet it was and so is do we have the same protections as a city like Santa Cruz? Are we doing more? are we doing? It sounds like, you know, the auditing is sort of on the the front end of that and so we would immediately know if if something happened. Uh but are we're not doing any I'm not getting the sense we have any greater protections than another city.

I don't know of anything that's going to separate us anything further. Um, I can tell you that I mean we have not had ICE reach out to us uh in that manner and I'll look to our operations captain if she has anything further because it would come through the patrol.

Good evening, Rebecca Alman, Captain Operations. Uh, I concur with everything that's already been said. said, I mean, I certainly can't speak for another agency, be it Santa Cruz or any other one. Um, having spent several years as a public information officer, I also know enough not to necessarily trust everything I hear about on social media or read in the newspaper. Um, so I I can't sit here definitively and say that the uh same checks and balances in Santa Cruz or anywhere else are to the level that we have here. Um, I will say based on my training experience and having worked for a different agency for many years that our organization is different in a good way because I think it's the industry standard that most uh police departments in California share throughout California. Um, I was actually very surprised when I came to work here and found out that we didn't do that because that was what I I I knew as normal. Uh so I will say that uh our community here and our police department is actually I think far more restrictive uh in who we share with uh than the majority of police departments in this state. Um and to your earlier the earlier example about the um misuse of the missing persons with the abortion in Texas. Um our laws here in the state of California are also more restrictive than in Texas. And we have specific prohibitions from the state level beyond just our local policies that prohibit us from using flock for abortion rights, for immigration rights or anything of that sort. So, um I think that we're doing everything that we can on a a daily, weekly, monthly basis. Um and I stand by that. Um, and I think we're going to continue to do our best, aware that this is kind of a hot button topic for the community right now, but we're in line with all of you with your concerns.

Thank you. I I appreciate that. And the last thing I would just say on that is um again hearkening back to to trust. I have a lot of trust in the Loscatos Reno Police Department. I think our community does too. Um, and I I want to air all of this because I've had at least five residents over the past couple of months or or weeks maybe reach out, I think, especially in light of Santa Cruz because they're our closest um, you know, neighbor that that has chosen to end their contract with Flock who do have very real concerns about this technology. So, if you know if anything happens, if there's anything to be aware of or especially if if you all have privacy concerns that that you know change or or issues that you see with this company, um I think that's really important for the council um to be aware of. Uh you know, I I think there's you know, there's a variety of companies that do provide these technologies. So, I think it's always important to to look at, you know, alternatives and and make sure that that the folks um that we're contracting with are, you know, have the same values that we do. Uh and so, um I appreciate the answers. It's very helpful. And um thank you. I'll turn it over to other folks if they have any questions. Yeah, Vice Mayor Risto.

Um yeah, I wouldn't call it a question. I had the same cons or similar concerns and I you know knowing that our police department is taking every step they can to protect data. You know my concern is is flock like how much control do we have over that or if they were offered enough money or if they had some kind of um search warrant or something. I mean what's our protection for our data um in a scenario like that which may be untested. So it's my understanding that only the police department would have access to the data um because it's our data to that's withheld or but that's held within the system for those 30 days and then then it's removed. So I we can follow up and provide the council with further safeguarding information um and we can look into that a little bit further um and provide that through through the town manager.

Okay. Thank you. I mean because um Flock has been incred, you know, I I follow the reports. I'm looking at the transparency page. It is a powerful tool and as um Council Member Hudes has repeated often, it's the opposite of profiling. So I think it's an incredibly effective way for um our department to have another way to know just factually this vehicle needs to be stopped. it's either a missing person or a stolen vehicle or was wanted in a crime. It's also super helpful if somebody commits a crime here and the license plate is seen and then we find out that it entered another community where we share data and I think that's incredibly valuable knowing how helpful that is. of course it makes us concerned like can it be used for the wrong purposes and I think we're always walking that line and I appreciate the policies we have in place and the restriction. Um so thank you for that.

Absolutely. It is a very powerful tool in uh keeping the public safe and following up in those investigations. Um we've seen immense success some of which we may not be able to share in open forum. Um but there has been very significant success here specifically in the community and even partnering with the few agencies that we are sharing with as well. There has been instances where there has been significant crime against a person and our officer stopped that vehicle and we would have never known that that person was involved in said crime if it were not for. So it's been valuable in many different ways. Thank you. And I think we would welcome uh any additional information you can provide us on that in the future. Thank you, Council Member Hudis.

Yeah, I had a few other areas um that I wanted to uh learn a little bit more about um from the report. The volunteer program and it's I think well articulated in the uh written report about community engagement um explorers and volunteerism. And I think it's really one of the highlights of our uh approach to public safety and uh the you know not only is there real collaboration between the police department and the volunteers. Um there's also a large number of people who are involved and that number has grown substantially. Um I understand we have a retirement in that uh function. Um could you describe a little bit about how we plan to go forward to maintain that really high level of community engagement?

Well, first I definitely want to give praise to those different uh volunteer units. So DART explorers and the the VIPs. They're immensely valuable to us. um including in these upcoming regional events. We will be partnering with them and we they each one of those uh units helped us during the children's holiday parade and some of which also helped us in many other events throughout last year. So um force multipliers and partners for us. That said, um continuing the continuity of the support for that is definitely very important to us um because it's one of the separators for the model that we have here within the police department. We have not identified that date of when that um transition will occur and um while we hope to prolong it as much as possible, we know that it's it's inevitable. Um and we wish that person well, but I'll definitely be working with the town manager on what that future uh will look like in terms of the the staffing model to support it.

Go ahead. I I don't mind saying her name in public. Jackie Rose has been a tremendous [clears throat] asset uh to the community and has gone above and beyond uh in her service and understanding of the community and working with all of these volunteers. Um I did want to talk about two

council I had a question on volunteers so I was going to jump in on that. Um uh so had had actually a very very similar question about sort of contingency planning. So, um I hope that that as we you know uh uh cling on to that person for as long as we can uh uh that she is training you know someone else to to come in and take that place because um you know just as when I before I was involved on the council as a volunteer every event I went to you know uh uh there was a PD presence there and and and I thought that was very um very important. So, I think that just doubling down on that key staffing change, um, making sure that we're we're doing the adequate contingency planning. I wanted to ask, you know, outside of the the staffing change, um, what the sort of um, vision for the future on those programs is, you know, I I not that anything needs to change, but I I saw that um, uh, the Explorers program looks like it's it's back up and running in a really healthy way, which is excellent to see. Um, I'm very glad to see that. So, uh, is is it just sort of, um, keep, you know, going in the same direction? Are there any changes coming or, um, because I know it's always been there's there's always a balancing act between, uh, you know, these are volunteer positions, giving adequate staffing, you know, it takes a lot of work to, you know, uh, uh, stand up these teams, but they seem to be a huge value. So, um, anything you can share on on, you know, those programs?

Yes, it does take quite a bit of effort in this. um the explorer program, we have officers that are actually pulled from patrol to oversee that uh the first Wednesday of the month. Um so it's it's a passion of theirs to make sure that that's something that continues forward, but it's also something that's absorbed within the staffing structure currently. And while we hope to be able to to um continue th this level of service right now, we're definitely off operating at a stretch because of our staffing model. and it's it's something else that's absorbed. Uh Sergeant Kowaloa is is doubling with um some of the administrative sergeant duties right now as well and we appreciate what's what's taking place there. Um so we will do our best to find uh creative solutions for for how we are able to continue that moving forward with explorers. That program is for ages 14 to 21 years old. And so they very quickly age out and actually we anticipate losing uh or not losing well we're losing it's his gain um but one of the explorers was recently accepted to Stanford so he will be continuing on in that process um still remaining in the community but just shared with us recently of how um important it was to helping him understand a perspective um of not just the government but a local arm of the government. And so it was invaluable to him as well. We anticipate sending probably one or two to the upcoming Explorer Academy which is usually held in June. As long as that will be held and uh I know other agencies, not just us, public safety agencies are undergoing some staffing strain as well. So should that continue, we'll be sending some to the academy. Uh Cert uh we just see as an absolute partner to us in many different ways with the various neighborhood incident incident command posts throughout town. um expanding the level of vigilance through our community

volunteers is so important um because then they through word of mouth um build that even further for us and we'll be seeing some of their assistance in the upcoming regional events. DART. Um they're somebody that we can call out in the middle of the night and help us in so many different ways, whether it be a down tree or a significant incident underway. And they've been partners with us actually started by Joe Preszinski um just a little over 40 years ago. So we hope to also continue that moving forward. And we know because we hear from the community the value and appreciation in those uh vacation checks and the welcome packets as well. Well, it's not something that's that's expected, I don't believe, um, by any community. It's something in addition. It's a plus and it's our separator that really makes us unique um, and our public safety model. So, we hope to be able to continue that forward. We'll be as creative as we can with our staffing stretch that's currently underway and uh, working with our staff and town resources.

Perfect. That's very helpful. Thank you. And I'll just say that that you know DART cert volunteers and placing explorers I see those all as as you know really really valuable programs. So anything um that the council needs to be aware of in terms of you know resources you need etc. I think those are um uh I I just really value those. I think those are great ways you know you're doing so many things. You're providing meaningful volunteer opportunities. You are providing all these services that we couldn't do otherwise. And and exactly to your point, I think um a huge part of what makes Los Gatos a very unique model of policing um that uh I think is you know envied by many um in the county and beyond. So um thanks for that.

That position that Jackie Rose holds um is very significant in so many different ways. she oversaw uh the implementation of our false alarm ordinance and the permit and working with the vendor and that's that's definitely not a light lift when you have to reach out to everybody that's currently there do the education um in addition our sworn staff also for any false alarm that they responded to over the last 6 months which was I believe around 430 half of those were residential uh alarms and so they made sure to provide a door hanger with all of the information we've done significant outreach in that and that's a lot of it spearheaded by Jackie our volunteer program also our community outreach coordinator um and so many other services the parking program um supported by traffic sergeant and her so we're very grateful to have that position and also specifically the individual in that position is um we're indebted to her long-term service with with the town

thank you council member Hudis Thank you. Um I had a couple of areas that relate actually to another agenda item which is talking about potential um revenue measure and that uh relates back to our largest part of our budget which is um our police services. Um the first one is about space and I know from the Millora report there was strong recommendation that we consolidate uh the headquarters with the PO and now I see uh that I understand that the it's uh 12,000 square ft at the PO and 5,000 square ft which comes out to 17,000. Um, and yet I think we're we have a report saying we really need 25 to 30,000. And I can somewhat understand that having spent time in the headquarters and the very cramped uh situation there that it would be larger than that um as a need. My question is um have we given thought to some sort of interim uh solutions that maybe short of building brand new police building 30,000 square ft or more. uh to um take some steps potentially to to uh you know is there an interim solution that's coming out of it or is it strictly we absolutely need 100% new building

I'll take a stab at that I may look to the town manager for any thoughts that he has as well um we have taken some efforts to try and and identify different efficiencies through the various automated systems that you've heard about through parking, through um our subpoena services, through the filing of the DA uh reports and that sort of thing just to try and bring us closer together in different ways instead of having staff go back and forth. Um because that's certainly a challenge. Now, what I'll also mention is at POB, which stands for the police operations building, that 12,000 square ft also encompasses an emergency operations center. So that's not uh an area where we can necessarily place staff at. So we're even more restricted there. In addition, we had a jail that was in uh the police operations building and we have decommissioned that jail because we know that we have a jail that's that's 15 minutes away from here and it wasn't an area that we felt was was necessary. So there's a decent amount of area that's not usable currently because of its current design. So that restricts us even further and and I couldn't estimate what that is, but it's definitely several thousand feet less than what's mentioned in um in the footprint currently. In order for us to all fit into a building, I don't have an additional proposal for that and I would look um to the town manager on that. The ways that we've been trying to do it is communication is key for us. Um we frequent we have more meetings than probably most departments, but we want to make sure that we're able to support one another, that we're monitoring the bandwidth. We know that we're um absorbing quite a bit just through our our staffing model currently. And so we want to make sure that we're not overstretching and that we're committing to something that's that we can accomplish these initiatives that are currently underway with things like the

axon implementation with the regional events with having access to the public. Um so we're trying to find means and ways that we can maintain that. In terms of the physical footprint, um we don't have any solutions currently, but town manager, did you have anything to add? I I think what's important is to wait until the study is completed in terms of what the space needs are and then to evaluate that from the perspective of are there opportunities to I guess and what if if I'm interpreting correct what you're asking ensure that the space that's being allocated is absolutely necessary um not just for current but also for f future growth of the department which I think is important. Well, my Yeah, I mean that's important, but also are, you know, there's maybe a long-term vision to have a new facility that's adequate to house everyone, but I'd be interested in any short-term or near-term, midterm recommendations uh to potentially have other operations there. And I'll tell you why I raise it. It's to for me it's efficiency, yes, but it's also emergency response. I actually spent time there during our drills and I know um that we have I think a a dispatchers console over there. Um, I would be, you know, I'm I'm frankly worried about the electronic communications um between the headquarters and that building in case of a disaster, particularly if part of that disaster involved one of those facilities. And so, um, I would be interested maybe in this report if there were also some short and midterm

recommendations that could help not only improve efficiency, but also address uh the potential to respond in an emergency. I we've made some very significant steps in hiring an emergency manager. That person will be, I think, key to emergency response. Um, and a lot of that will be in the EOC. Uh, and um, I think it, you know, I don't know if we've done this, but maybe actually doing a drill where we move the dispatchers over here, oh, I'm sorry, over to the P uh to the POB and uh the PO and have uh, you know, actually exercise that contingency as well. So, the console that's actually in the emergency operations center is a radio only. It doesn't have all the different functionality that um is in our dispatch center over here. And I do really appreciate and I believe that the the dispatchers as they're probably listening in as well do appreciate recognizing and remembering because oftenimes they're somewhat forgotten, but they're the first ones that the community talks to in their absolute moment of need. So yes, we are definitely very much aware. I will share that when we had I believe it was in 2023 the storms, we were able to establish a standalone line um when we opened the EOC where we brought parks and public works and PD and we operated around the clock um for those three different periods of storms and we were actually um taking in some calls there. Well, it's a standalone single uh line. It doesn't operate as what we have in our PAP center or our dispatch center where we can have six calls potentially coming in at a time. Um, and delineating between what's non-emergency and what's the 911 line. That's not something that

we have the the capability for in the EOC, even through a drill. The radio console that's in there is in essence similar to like a radio that if we were to pull it out of a vehicle and it looks very similar to that. So it's really as you've seen I know um and council member Reny through the through the various drills that you've all been a part of there that it's a mic handheld um function there and that we're able to just basically do uh operate with a single line there. Um, so to be able to up and move them over there, there would be very limited functionality. Um, but it would be um, of great value if we could have our dispatch center obviously with our operations um, just for the communication aspect of it um, and better service to the community.

I I think you're speaking to the resiliency. to what extent does the facilities or the consideration of future facilities take into account the resiliency of critical functions such as emergency and I think chief can you speak a little bit towards how do we currently deal with let's say a big storm disaster or if we had to stand up the EOC or if we had to evacuate town hall what are the contingencies that we should take into account for that

we would put into place a similar model of what we did in 2023 and we would open the EOC and operate out of there through either handpack or through that radio console there and we'd bring our resources in there. Our dispatchers can um at least operate through our CAD database um our computer automated database and put in basic information. It does not mean that they would have the full robust model of what they have. So it would be a very limited model. Um, and I'll look to uh because we did talk about this a little bit earlier on some contingency plans. I'll look to Captain Borome Mayo if there's anything he would like to expand on that.

Uh, thank you, Chief. Again, Greg Boro, support services. Uh, the only expansion is the ongoing um technology exploration that the chief outlined with um some of the new onrem and the cloud-based systems for 911. But as the chief outlined, um it's basically uh several separate systems that we have set up at the EOC. Um I've had to run several whether it's Christmas morning or different things where um we had to come up with contingencies should uh more uh damage or disasters were to occur. So, there are ways that we do have redundancies built up through our partnerships through mutual aid with the county uh in the event it does get to that level um with switching our 911 systems there and forwarding non-emergency lines to continue that continuity uh to a cell phone line or multiple cell phone lines that we have on that or desk lines at uh the POB to continue that non-emergency connection as well as be able to communicate in conjunction with the rest of our volunteer groups through the EOC. Um and some very quick ones. Um and currently in preparation to the regional events um we are running several uh drills uh concurrently to test some of those systems and those concepts um to kind of strengthen and identify some other avenues that we can explore as we move forward.

I'll add just a little bit further to that. We have had conversations with Caloes where we receive funding for um enhancements in to our 911 system and repairs and replacements to our 911 system. Um, you might be familiar with the the reference to NextGen 911 and that was supposed to be a cloud-based option um that we had already engaged with, signed contract with um through the beginning of last year 2025 when that was found to not be a viable option, not because of us or anything local. That was something between the vendor and Callowas that was taken up at the state level um including the governor's office offering attention to that. We sent those products back. Um we canceled that agreement and then we moved forward into what would be an approved proposal with the funds through the state. Um what their uh pivot plan was was to go to an onprim. Um we hoped for the cloud model. I think many of us did because that meant that we could be um more mobile as you're mentioning and there would be more of a contingency plan to that. that does not appear to be an option for us. Um, in the immediate future, we do have to identify purpose for those funds by end of this fiscal year. Um, we have had those conversations whether uh and what that looks like and there are steps underway currently and they have uh the team has already evaluated one vendor, another vendor will be evaluated by end of this month forthcoming. Um, but that will be an onremise solution. Um but at least that will update our abilities um within that our uh dispatch uh unit currently.

Other questions? Okay. I had one more quick one which is just about um uh patterns of crime generally. Um I was recently asked by um uh the morning Rotary Club about you know how safe is Loscatoos and I I my knee-jerk was very um uh but uh they they asked about you know sort of what if there's any big patterns of crime that we're seeing um you know one of the things that that I sort of uh uh thought to was you know and I shared this with the the folks there from my understanding that we have very little to know you know very little violent crime. there's, you know, we're fortunate to not have, you know, a lot of, you know, what seems to be major crimes, but I get the sense that we have potentially a disproportionate amount of DUIs and and incidents like that. So, can you share just a little bit about any patterns you've seen over the past couple years or or six-month period?

DUI is definitely one of the first ones that came to mind. We have seen an increase in that um last year and just in the last 6 months um we've seen quite a few including just several weeks ago one of our officers was actually hit by a DUI driver while in a marked patrol unit and thankfully is uninjured. So we're we're grateful for that outcome. However, it is um it's a very preventable situation. So we try through social media to do that that education. Um we'll continue to do the enforcement out there. Our DUI vehicles, uh Sergeant Kawoa is really focused on um they I believe have arrived and they are underway in their development. Um we've trained quite a few of our officers through that DUI grant. So um that that is definitely an area that we are giving attention and we did see a rise there. Um additionally, property crime um that that comes up from time to time. I know that it's not just isolated to us in talking to our our county partners, um law enforcement partners that others are seeing it. Um whether it be a crew that's coming through and um our detectives very quickly utilize their resource resources to um address those concerns. We have taken part in partnership with uh with um other agencies to address things like um some uh person related crimes, specifically child abuse. Um and so we've been able to make some some progress on um holding some individuals accountable as well. But our detectives are definitely not um short on work to do. They have been very involved. Quite a few search warrants. A lot of those search warrants are surrounding technology. Um, we're connected to these devices at old times.

Um, so now search search warrants often times take a different form versus a a residence or something. It's about records of some sort, whether it be financial records or what have you. And that requires the probable cause, the court process, um, review and judge's signature as well. So, they're definitely underway and a lot of that's just awaiting those returns. But there's there's quite a bit of work there. Um unfortunately I can't share sometimes those details to your question of is it a safe community. I feel that we are very fortunate in this community that we operate more in a proactive manner. Um and I think that that's that's really important to take note of. Um this is my third agency. Well, I've been with this agency for 17 years. Um, I think all of us have a broad network. Um, and are familiar with some agencies that when officers log in, they're in a reactive mode and they have eight calls in the queue and they're having to respond to each and every one of those calls. Um, and it gets diluted sometimes. There may not be the level of attention that we are thankfully able to provide. Just over the weekend, um we received a thank you note, um in helping a a a parent find, um their child who was in a vulnerable situation. And we saw that case from start to finish and were able to lo part in locating that person by end of the day. And as a parent myself, I can't imagine what that that family member was going through. So receiving those um those letters um I think it really speaks to our engagement, the trust that we have, the proactive nature that we're able to maintain here and that's unique here. Um I can definitely say that that's not everywhere. Um that there may not be the connection with the police department that we fortunately have and the the connection that we have with the community. And we hold that

hold that dear because we know that that we're one incident away from a catastrophe occurring and we really rely on the public's trust that we will be there in our best form to every extent that we can to respond to their needs.

Well, I really appreciate that. Thank you. I think that the um yeah, like you said, the word proactive, I think, is is very key for our department. So, so thank you. Um and uh yeah, and and I appreciate, you know, in the staff report you highlighted the the nearly $250,000 grant on DUIs. Um you know, hugely significant. I I hope that um you know, I always think if if you know, if there were five DUIs that we picked up on a really busy Saturday night, I just think about how many DUIs that means were probably out in the community. And so, um that is very scary. And and I I appreciated the department sharing the example, the very scary example of one of our officers, you know, in in their vehicle getting rearended. Um again, if if someone is rearending a police car, you know, driving under the influence, that's um you know, I think indicative of a of a a challenge that we're facing. So, I appreciate the attention there and and um on on all that you all do. So, thank you.

Absolutely. And with those increase of enforcement, of course, there's costs that come with that for each one of those DUIs. if it's involving uh the capturing the evidence through a blood draw, the cost of just that alone has gone up and that's a cost of the department has to absorb. So when we have increased enforcement, we see increased cost that's associated to it, but I think that that definitely outweighs the public safety nature of things. Great. Thank you, Council Member Hudis.

Yeah, thank you again. I think we're a little bit um trying to respond to the financial challenges of the town and we have another agenda item to talk about that. Um and the town definitely values uh the response times. Um when I look at the response time chart, I see the uh priority two calls and the priority three calls um us achieving essentially the same response level on two and three. And um it's only you know a little bit more than the priority one calls. Um, you know, our goal on the priority two is, I believe, uh, 10 minutes and we're down. We're, you know, beating that with 6 point uh, six minutes 28 seconds and the priority three, our goal is 15 minutes and we're achieving those in about seven minutes. Um, so I have to kind of ask the question about because I think, you know, if our public is going to respond to a call for uh public safety revenue measure, um, we need to understand maybe a little bit more about this. And so, you know, the priority three, we're beating the goal by 53%. and the uh the priority two we're beating that by about 37%. Is is it possible to understand a little bit about what the cost is of um beating our goals so significantly in in those uh areas of the priority two and priority three. I know the example you gave of the missing child that I'm

sure was a priority one. Um but these these are you know without getting into the details of what change what the differences are between them the the question is do we have an understanding about what what the cost is to provide the service level that's being provided on the priority 3 and priority 2.

So I'm going to take that in two different steps. Thank you for the question. Um because I think it's important to address. So, we definitely train our officers to be very responsive to whatever call that comes out, whether it be a leaf blower call or a priority one call and and somebody's um harmed in some way. And so, we we're absolutely responsive and that's what's reflective here to do a costbenefit analysis of what would be the benefit of uh if somebody were not to be able to respond. I think that that's something that um that our community expects whether it's a priority one, two, or three, that they've come to expect that level of responsiveness. Um and having the staff that's available, if we have three or four officers on at any given time, um if there's a burglary call, and that might be a level two call, maybe it's something a cold burglary, um property crime, but we need to go there and still go clear that house. It's important that we have the the perimeter established. We don't want somebody going out the back. We want to make sure that there's the support there as well. Um, periodically we do reach out to neighboring agencies in order to be able to sustain the the number that's needed. Um, but we're still operating uh at a 13 square mile radius with three beats um and having three to four officers not including a motor officer at any given time. So generally there should be somebody available but it's not going to be the case at all times. So we may have to pin calls. Um but whatever comes in is getting dispatched immediately. So there's not a delay in the dispatching um system. I know that doesn't come down to that costbenefit analysis, but I think it's hard to really assess what's the what's the value of not having that resource there to respond. And so it's difficult to put a cost on that because

when somebody needs that person to respond for a priority one, um we'd be, you know, we'd be in a a bad spot if we we put a dollar on it.

Sure. And I I I'm not even attempting to ask questions about the value side. Um I'm really thinking about the cost side. And I think if we are going to articulate and be successful with obtaining a public safety revenue measure of some sort, um we may need a little more information about, you know, what is the cost of being able to beat our goal by 50% and is that the goal that the community wants? um the 50% uh to beat that goal by 50%. So, I'm just raising it. Um I'm not looking for an answer on the spot. I'm just kind of raising it as I look at this and I look at the numbers and I I understand the challenges that are probably going to lead to a public safety revenue measure. Um I think we have to be able to understand what are the costs of providing some of these services. Not really a question, just a comment.

Thank you. Um, do we have any other comments? All right, seeing none, um, this is just a receive report. So, thank you very much to our police chief and our entire police department for um, the always informative and, uh, wellprepared report. Really appreciate all the information um, you provided and everything you all do for the Loscatoos community. Thank you. Um, okay. We will move to item number 18. Um, which is Oh, go ahead. We'll take a two-minute break.

We're back. Um, one and a half more items. Um, uh, we'll go to item 18, um, which is, um, the discussion, consideration, and possible action to provide direction on a revenue measure. And we will hear from Christina Alaro, our new administrative services director. First, Christina, welcome to the town of Los Gatos. We are very grateful to have you. Um I'll I'll let the town manager introduce you if if that's what he's going to do.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um thank you for introducing Christina. Christina comes to us with uh having worked for the city of Certino for the last 13 years. I will say it's a very cool to have somebody of her caliber and experience in the areas of administrative services to step in and take over our newly formed combined department of administrative services here in the town. Uh, I think it's wonderful and you'll be able to see by her communication style and knowledge that uh, she was the right pick. So, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you so much for that introduction. Very happy to be here. Uh, good evening, honorable mayor, town council. As I was already introduced, I won't go into that, but I am here this evening to present to you a brief presentation on potential revenue tax measures. Uh, with that I'm gonna try to advance the slide maybe. Okay, maybe. Thank you. Next slide. We'll do [laughter] that. On the agenda this evening. Oops. One back on. Just wanted to go over what we'll be uh covering in the presentation. We'll go over the finance commission's recommendations. We'll go over some future important dates that are coming up. Go over the current financial status of the town. uh cover uh operating and infrastructure unmet needs uh go over community priorities and then finally end with a summary of um tax measures uh for discussion. So with that we can go to the next slide. On January 12th staff presented the revenue tax measure item to the finance commission. Uh the commission supported the supported engaging in a professional services contract up to 80,000 to preserve an option for a November 2026 revenue measure. Uh in addition, they uh they also recommended that that measure include special legislative authority for higher transaction in use tax or a sales tax and we'll cover this item later along with uh other revenue options. Uh lastly, they did also recommend waiting for the financial and financial and impact analysis from NHA advisors before deciding to proceed forward. Uh so with that on the next slide is a good segue to say on February 3rd uh we anticipate bringing NH advisors um 5-year forecast analysis uh to the council. Prior to that, the meeting the night before on February 2nd, uh that will be heard by the finance commission. And then the second meeting in February, uh we will be bringing the midyear

financial report which will give us status as of where we are the first six months of the year and also provide a forecast for we anticipate ending the fiscal year. And then on April 20th uh we'll be uh posting the proposed budget. Um so starting off for our next fiscal year, fiscal year 2627. If we can go to the next slide and then just this got a few animations. Here we go. So, uh, the current financial status of the town is that, uh, we're in stable at the moment, which is which is a good thing. U, we're not in crisis, and this really allows us to, uh, take some time to make any course adjustments as necessary to ensure a balanced forecast, taking into account all of the uh, unmet needs that we're going to go over later tonight. And, um, also looking at the working toward a potential structural deficit. And so that's really the next item listed here is recent fund balance growth has been driven by one-time revenue and expenditure savings, including high interest income and lower salary and benefit costs due to vacancy savings. The 2526 budget, as you know, was balanced using $1.1 million in reserves. forecast projections see rising expenses driven by personnel cost and declining revenues and interest income that create a structural risk where ongoing expenditure growth outpaces revenue growth. In addition to that, we have a list of uh several unmet needs in different categories. Some uh one-time capital needs, some uh ongoing operational needs. You'll see the largest need here is in our streets and roads for pavement and infrastructure at about $172 million. After that, we're looking at public safety, which was me mentioned on the previous item. Uh looking at a new police operations building and EOC at between uh 50 million to $66 million. Uh town facilities, including building

maintenance, repairs, and other capital is projected at 22.7 million. uh park rehabilitation. Uh this is about 2.5 million for a soccer uh field turf rehab, a wildfire uh critical infrastructure, 6 million to 11 million. And then wildfire operations uh between 2.1 to 3 million in total unmet needs ranging from two uh 285.7 million up to 307.2 million. And so when we look at our community priorities um that were taken from our most recent community survey, we know that uh our community values public safety and emergency preparedness, streets, sidewalks, and drainage, parks, libraries, and core services. And so if we can go just click the next one here. Um our current budget capacity is really insufficient uh to meet uh to fully meet the expectations. And so what this means is our existing revenues cannot sustain our current service levels in the long term. Our continued deferral of any uh maintenance or um capital costs just increase those costs and the risk associated with them. This is a good opportunity for us to have some proactive planning uh to avoid crisisdriven cuts or rush tax proposals. And lastly, revenue tax measures require a significant amount of lead time uh to make it onto a ballot. Uh and so we want to make sure that we're having the options in front of the town council with sufficient time um to make some decisions. With that, this is a summary of revenue options that we have. I'm going to start by going over the categories uh on each of the columns and then go in kind of give a brief summary of what's presented here. Uh so for a summary of revenue options across the top, we have a potential tax measure. The next just gives a description of that tax measure. than if it's progressive or regressive.

When we think of a progressive tax measure, it's something that uh kind of in two areas. One is the the folks who are reaping the most benefit are the ones paying the most. The other thing you're going to look at is the cost. What are the additional costs and how are those being spread? Are they being spread to the higher earners versus the lower earners? Is it being spread evenly across? So, those are the criteria we're looking at when we're calling this a progressive or a regressive. Next, we're looking at the use. And this is really related. Can it be used for ongoing operating cost, capital or both? The burden, which is really showing kind of who would uh essentially uh kind of pay the most uh of this tax measure. The approval is the approval rating required uh uh to pass either 50% or a uh twothirds vote. And then lastly, uh for the categories where we do have an estimate, the potential uh revenue that this could bring in. So the first one up here is our transaction and use tax or a sales tax. Uh the town has about 1/8 cent left to hit the 2% max here. This is a local tax for any uh taxable retail sales and certain outof area purchases used in the town. It's considered regressive because it applies across the board uh really no matter uh how this the service that we're paying for for these or how much an individual taxpayer makes. uh but this can be used for operating and capital. Uh the burden would be to residents and non-residents as we have uh people coming into the town uh to use either to shop or to eat. Uh they would add uh to this tax revenue. Um majority if the measure is flexible that means we're not specifically tying it uh for a specific use then it's a majority vote otherwise a twothirds vote if it's were setting it aside for specific uses. As I mentioned earlier, 1.3 million for the 1/8 sales tax that we currently still have available. Um, and looking at most

recent forecast, we'd likely uh need about a half cent sales tax, bringing in about 5.2 million to really assist uh with our budget forecast. The parcel tax is a flat annual tax on each parcel. Uh, this is considered regressive. we collect the same amount a flat across the board regardless of the services uh that are being offered or the value of the property or uh any of the income related to that. Uh this is uh restricted based on a purpose stated uh statement for the ballot. So if we were to go out for this, we need to specific specifically list um how we would use these dollars. This also has a higher threshold when it comes to voter approval at a 2/3. Um, and we anticipate about a $1.1 million from a tax rate of about $100 per parcel. Next, we have general obligation bonds. These are long-term borrow borrowing repaid through a voter approved property tax override. Uh, this is uh considered uh progressive as this would uh align long-term capital costs and spread it across the taxpayers in the community. This can only cover capital expenses. Uh this would uh would be for resident and non-resident uh owners who own property within the town. This also does require a twothirds voter approval. And each $10 million of bonds would equate to roughly tens of uh dollars uh tens of thousands of dollars per per 100,000 of assessed value. Next we have our utility user tax which is a tax on electricity, gas, telecommunications and cable. Again this is considered regressive because it applies across the board and you have may have a lower income o earners who are still paying this tax on these services. Uh this can be used toward operating and capital. Uh this can apply to resident and non-resident owners as well. uh similar to the sales tax measure majority if we don't

specifically state what how the funds will be used and twothirds uh vote should it uh we set the set set aside the dollars for a specific purpose. Um now this uh this will vary by rate and services taxed uh can generate a significant ongoing revenue but we have no town specific estimates at the moment to provide. And lastly, we have special assessments, which are charges on properties within a defined area to find improvements or services that provide a specific benefit to those properties. Um, as with that description, that is progressive because it it has the value of those services to the folks using those services. Uh, it's specific only to those properties within a defined area. Resident and non-resident owners in the area would be bear the burden. The approval requires uh a prop a 218 property owner approval process. This requires a special election which is done via mail-in ballot. Uh and the potential revenue it's going to depend on the district boundaries, the benefit, the methodology and the assessment levels. With that, if we go to the next slide. So other considerations, uh Loscatoos is effectively at the state sales tax cap with only 18 cent remaining. If we the town were wanting wanting to pursue the half cent, we'd need special legislation um to get that cap uh to allow us to go over that cap. And again, the half cent uh would equal about 5.2 million annually. And if we go to the next slide, staff recommendations are to authorize actions to preserve options uh not to commit a tax. And we're seeking uh we'd like to seek state legislative authority to exceed the 2% sales tax cap. We'd like to engage in uh legal, financial, and legislative consultants and allocate $80,000 from general fund reserves to do so.

In closing, uh recommended authority this evening, we are asking to preserve legal and timing flexibility. We are asking to uh that that we can enable an informed 2026 decision uh by the ask to get more information to bring back to the council and then align with our fiscal stability priority of having a balanced uh forecast. It does not raise taxes. It does not place a uh measure on the ballot and it does not approve any projects. So with that, that concludes my presentation and I'm available for any questions you may have. Council member Renie,

I I have a few questions. Um, let me start on uh I don't you didn't number your pages. The unfunded needs under streets and roads, you have 172 million um for pavement and infrastructure. Um that's probably a question for Nicole. This this always confuses me because pavement and infrastructure is kind of an ongoing cost. So, how do you total it? is it over what period of time? Um, and we have SB1 and measure B funds that come to us to help pay that. And you're calling this unfunded. So, it seems like you're saying above those. So, maybe you're saying, well, currently if we wanted all of our streets rating to be 100, it would cost us 172 million. I don't think that's we don't need that, right? We need our streets to be at some decent rating. we'll call it 80 over some period of time. So th this this estimate always confuses me. Uh Nicole Bham, director of parks and public works. It's a great question and I'm looking forward over the next year to teasing apart the details of that number. What that number includes is is not annual paving. It includes if you go through the general plan and you go through the bike ped master plan and look at all the priorities that have been identified there, things like um complete streets on Winchester Boulevard is a big chunk of that. So there's these major projects that are in there that at some point, you know, maybe we need to have a conversation about, but as of right now, their direction to staff. So, as we've looked at the at the planning documents that the town has adopted and thought about what it would take to fulfill those those needs. Um, that's what's included in there. It includes storm drainage and maybe not. I would need to double check, but there is a

list of th of of projects that are in there. I know one of the big ones is Winchester. Um, so

that that's actually that's helpful. That's actually very helpful. Um, I have a second different question if I could, Mayor. Um, on the summary of revenue options, I have trouble understanding why the parcel tax is regressive, but the general obligation bonds is progressive. Regressive to me means it's everybody pays the same. So that means poor people end up paying as much as rich people. Progressive to me means, you know, the more value you have, the more wealth you have. You pay more of your fair share related to to your wealth. Unless I'm not understanding something, they're both the same. They're both regressive taxes. Why Why is a general obligation bond progressive? So I listed this as progressive because it's over the so if you're building some capital a new building you're effectively that's going to benefit residents over the long term. So you have that payment of that obligation happening over the long term and the use of that building for likely several generations after it first comes in. So that it spreads that cost across several generations is really why I have it listed as progressive. But it's still really a a parcel tax divided amongst everybody equally versus the value of your property. For example, somebody that owns a $20 million house probably can afford more than somebody that owns a million-doll house.

Yes. So I think a part of that is looking at it uh two ways when we're looking at progressive versus regressive is one of them is yes the value of of someone making more being able to pay their fair share but the other portion of it is making sure that the folks that are people that are contributing to it that that benefit is being spread across as well. So when I looked at I looked at those two criteria and listing them. Okay. I have a third question but I'll let the others that clearly have on this subject ask theirs. Go ahead. Vice member Stow and then council member Hudis.

Thank you. And I'm not sure if you actually answered that, but I mean, you know, looking at school bonds and parcel taxes. So, I've looked at um to me a parcel tax is regressive because no matter what the value of your property is, the parcel tax is exactly the same. The bond measures based on the value of the property. So, if your home is valued at $500,000, it's it's a certain amount of dollars per value of your property. So the more expensive the higher your property is valued at the more you're going to pay. I think that is what makes it progressive. Correct. Correct. Okay. Thank you. That's actually much clearer. I didn't understand that part. [snorts]

Did you have a question or Okay. Thanks for that. Um council member Hunus to be clear since we're asking my question was is do I understand that correctly? Yes you do. Okay. Thanks council member Hudis.

Yeah. Thank you. Um, and in looking at this, to me, it's a little bit of the degree that these aren't black and white. So, some things are more regressive, some things are more pro progressive. Um, when I look at these options, and I think as we start to look at them, it might be helpful to understand where they fall on that continuum. Um, for example, the the parcel tax, yes, it applies to everyone who owns a home, doesn't apply to renters, though, only indirectly. So, I think, you know, whereas sales tax applies to everyone whether you rent or own as long as you're a res, as long as you spend money here. So, um, it does seem like there's some these things sort of fall a little bit on a continuum. Would would you agree with that?

Uh, yes. I think depending on exactly as you explained it, but also it could be where you're spending your sales tax dollars that could have a kind of depend on where it might land on the spectrum. And then the other question I had, which is one that I had during the finance commission meeting, um when we look at potential revenue, it seems as though we probably need to normalize these in terms of what would the impact be on a resident. And so when I look at a parcel tax of $100 a parcel generating 1.1 million, I did some back of the envelope and said, "Well, if you were to normalize that, it actually wouldn't be $100 a parcel. It might be $300 a parcel to get to an equivalent level of revenue that you might get from a half percent um sales tax. So I you know I think we have to be a little careful in just jumping on you know the number of $100 a parcel as you know what that solution is. Would you agree that we need to kind of look at the impact? I believe these were meant to be illustrative and I think as if if uh the town council does give us direction we'd be able to come back um with some more work on these to get understand um how we can normalize these so you can understand if what's the goal what's the number is it operating capital and then how we would kind of say based on that number here's what that might look like for what the needs are

one more comment on the revenue options is that I think as we start to articulate the need to residents. Um much as the county needed to do and needs to do with regard to its sales tax measure to pay for health care, we also need to look at uh productivity savings um as well as revenue options. So um you know I think that we have to be able to make the case that we're doing everything we can. Um and so for me it would be helpful to have uh some uh goals for um efficiency and productivity improvements and that those goals are not necessarily ones that would be handed down by the council but ones that could be arrived at by our employees who are really close to the processes and operations. And I think it's important that we articulate that. And I had, you know, a resident uh this afternoon call me and say, "Where's the part where we say we're going to be as efficient as we possibly can before asking for additional revenue?" And so I I do think that this is a little bit incomplete in only looking at revenue options. Um I I we're kind of getting into discussion before we've taken public comment.

Um any other questions at this time. Um okay, great. Uh we'll open public comment. We have one comment from Leaf AO. Oh, you're on 19. Oh, sorry. You 18 scratched out the 19. Okay. Um uh I'm not seeing any comments in the room. Um and no hands raised on Zoom. So we'll go uh we'll close verbal communications and go back to discussion. Uh Council Member Renie.

Um so the third question I had and maybe a fourth is appearing um on the staff recommendations where we need to seek state legislative authority. I it it planning it it sort of sounds like you're assuming it's a [clears throat] it's an easy done deal. I wonder, you know, if we plan to go that route, what's the risk that it we we won't get it and when will we know when we're not going to get it? And is that too late to do anything for this this um cycle?

First, let me jump in here. We would be hardpressed to make a November 2026 timeline. And so while we've discussed our future projections of finances, there was two things we had to have caveat. One, we brought out we brought in NHA advisors, external adviserss to do the analysis and to improve and conduct their analysis to result in a 10-year forecast so that we have an objective body helping us to understand what our future looks like. and two that we would introduce and provide you information as early as possible so that we're not surprising the council at some point saying the sky is falling, you got to do something now and be forced into it. Clearly, the questions that you're asking have more fundamental elements to it. If we're talking about effectively the economic impacts on residents of all these different measures right there, we're not making November. I mean to look at that and to think about and to consider what approach do we take and what element of what's needed is paid for with what revenue source. I mean we're not we're not going to get there. The recommendation of preserving the option, which is something that the finance commission supported, did not presume we would take any specific measure, but that a sales tax measure that does have this extra requirement that's external to us that required some action by the legislature in this case. If you wanted to preserve that option, whether it's this November or a future time, we can do what Campbell and a number of other cities did and get that exemption for some period of time, 3, four, 5 years, so that if you do consider it over the future, you're not running to the legislature. Because even if we went there today to get it through the process, which is obviously a gauntlet and approved inside by the

governor, it may not happen prior to that election if you decided this year. And so we may be talking about having these conversations with a presumption that we're looking at potentially something in the future. Or to what one council member mentioned, what else have you done? which is a very common refrain from residents that do not like taxes, do not want to pay or believe they pay more than they should. And so I have a solution for you too. We can cut the budget for whatever number that is necessary to balance the budget. The number and the mechanics of that are not challenging. The politics, the impacts, the implications, and the public input regarding the options is the challenging part. And so we can go either way or both ways as the council desires.

So the reaction to that, there's some opinion rather than just questions at this at this point. I um so I'm I'm hesitating, but let me go back to the question. Uh so we could put I'll just make the the one comment. You know, you talked about cut cutting and I feel like before we make drastic cuts that people really feel and start complaining about, if we put something on the ballot, then our our our voters, our our town residents get to decide, do they want cuts or do they not or they want to pay a little more and not have the cuts. So then, you know, this this question about whether you want to pay more taxes or not, I I think you need to leave it to the voters. So the sooner we can get something that they actually vote on and decide if we miss 26, we can't put something on until 28. We're going to be based on forecast cutting pretty deep by 28 without having asked our residents in a vote, do you want the pain or do you want the pain of pain more? So that that's early in our discussion here, but I wanted to go back and just ask this 2%. So we could put this half percent on the ballot for November, but not have the legislative authority. What would happen? We would only get the 1/8 that's available and then the other would sit until we received authority, a legislative authority.

I believe that's currently being litigated in the Campbell case. uh that I believed that were the fact patterns for it. Um and I would say to the to the um perspective of letting residents decide um how we proceed. Um I agree it is important for those that are impacted to have a say in what occurs, but so does the role of the council being the representative body and deciding kind of what approaches we go to. And so for the next if we don't proceed this year to generate what we project would be the high point of the deficit which is about 5 million in our current 5-year projections of which I believe our NHA advisor study would probably indicate it's worse. I would say we would be leaning I would lean to the philosophy we applied for the current year budget. We could have cut the $1.8 million out of the budget by cutting services. We chose not to. And the reason we chose not to was every year when we project the future, we're conservative on revenue and we're conservative on the expenses that we're going to spend it. And as we saw last year, our interest income was dramatically larger than it typically is given the market. And our vacancy savings were larger than what we assumed in the budget. And it had a net swing of about $3.8 million just in the general fund. It's really hard to sit here and say you just cut, name the program that you do not want to cut and then result in a $3 million growth in your ending fund balance and then the question arises, well, you didn't really need to cut. Why did you cut? So, the philosophy applied last year in in the budget process to what we will apply next year will be the same vein. We will make cuts or sustain the cuts that we have and the additional cuts that our projections say we will make. we will lean on reserves

in some of our special uh accounts like our pension and OPIB trusts so that we're not cutting programs and when we do in fact have to lean into those accounts then we know circumstances are in that year that you are deficit spending now we need to turn to the public and say before we make all these different cuts that are very significant are you open to enhancing revenue and that would be what we'd be looking at over the course of the next two years. All right. Thank you, Council Member Hudis.

Yeah, I mean I I agree with Council Member Renie that um this will ultimately go to the voters and that we need to do it soon. Um I think that the window of 28 is too late. And and the reason I say that is that I think that we have information now about wildfire preparation and preparedness and some budgeting for that that we didn't have when we did the budget last year. And I think that our we need to ask our residents um whether they want to spend the money to do that preparation and this is a way to do that. Um I think the other category of somewhat new information um is the police consolidation piece. We did not really have that uh number in our budget. I know it was part of the millora report but um the which is why I'm asking some questions. So, I think there's a ton of work to do, but I think it's work that we have to do uh for our residents and to um do it, preserve the optionality for now, but be prepared to act pretty quickly. So, um I you know, I I would encourage us to continue to make this a high priority to get something in front of the council. Um, and I'm very supportive of the recommendation to hire the consultant to help us work through that and uh to pull in data about whether um we will be successful with the increased uh sales tax um because I don't I don't have that in front of me now and I would be really uh I think it would be really important to understand that. Um, so the but but

preserving the optionality and moving quickly are kind of the two things that I think are important. Vice Mayor Risto,

thank you. Um, you know, I I saw this presentation at the finance commission meeting. Um, I feel like there's skepticism on the part of our f some finance commissioners about whether this is too soon or whether it's necessary. you know, when you look at the unfunded needs. So, when you look at our newly identified wildfire um priorities, we can't cut our way out of being able to pay for that. And, you know, knowing that we have a structural budget deficit or yeah, structural deficit looming and we have additional needs, never mind unfunded needs. You know, I think there's a way to make the case. That said, um this past year at uh cities association conference, I attended two different talks on how to pass a revenue measure and the community two communities that presented um that were extraordinarily successful took two years to get to that point in terms of looking, you know, presenting the case, meeting with the public, making sure that it goes forward. And I I don't think we should slow down at all. I I'm feeling very strongly that we need to move forward with trying to get that legislation whether we can use it this year or in two years. I also feel like there would be time to identify what our our budget needs are and making that case. I don't think we and getting the study information back. I don't think we will know for a few months if we could really make 26 or 28 work, but I think the work is the same to get started. And I do think that it will be even if we didn't have to cut deeply, if we could dip into reserves and make our budget work for the next two years without doing drastic cuts, we are kind

of pushing off things that we know we want to do. the police building consolidation, the wildfire preparation, and particularly with the ris the existential risk of wildfire to our community, any delay we could be really regretting at some point. And so that does concern me a lot. Um, so I think I I'm I'm tending toward not saying we must do this so we can get it in 2026, but I don't think I want to sit back and say, "Well, it probably won't happen till 28, so let's slow walk this."

No, I absolutely agree and I'm not recommending we go slow. That's why we're definitely wanting to proceed with the recommendation of preserving options. I just want to caution the council. You're right. It is a, you know, I've been involved in bond measures and other other measures. It's a very tight time frame as we currently are right now. And if a sales tax measure is what's desired, that right there makes it very challenging to make November given the exemption. If it's a parcel tax, that's probably doable, but it's a twothirds vote, which has a lower likelihood of passing. And if you're looking at facilities, you may be looking at a geo bond or in some other fashion. There's two real buckets we need to think about. One is the projected deficit for our existing services. The things that we see normally when we talk about police, library, uh the t the typical work that's currently being done by PPW and community development. And then there's the other bucket of things that are written somewhere known um but not funded. For example, half our claims are trees. You know, trees are very significant. You know, we've had two tree falls on homes and our largest claim in the last 5 years was a eucalyptus tree into a house and we had one happen this year. Or sidewalk trip and falls which seem like they're not that large of a potential impact. No, they can be in seven figures every time it happens. Or storm water where we get during the course of a storm a number of residents saying, "What are you going to do about my neighborhood? It started to flood." Well, so did town hall and so did nearly the dispatch center because of the drainage system in the back or the conditions of our buildings and whatnot. There's just a lot in that second bucket that just the wildfire analysis alone can sub can generate a need for at least a quarter or more of a sales tax measure. Just the wildfire, the newly identified here's what we project over

10 years. And so I don't think this is a question of do you need more revenue or can you cut your way out of it or as a recommendation I heard you need to generate way more economic activity to generate more revenue which um you would need to generate more than half the current total sales [snorts] tax economic activity of the entire town and you still won't get to $5 million doing that. I mean we're left with where we are today. Uh so I'll jump in with my thoughts real quick. Um uh so uh a couple things. Um I'm I think all I've heard a lot of valuable input on this. Um I'm not disagreeing with anything I've heard. I'm I think slightly more of um lean toward how Council Member Risto is thinking about this. Um but I think there's arguments to be made always. One thing I'll say is that I think what what council member Hudis brought up is very important about the need to demonstrate efficiencies. You know, um I think you can use uh the county's measure A as an example on a in a few spaces on this one. Um they they were very clear in their whole all the marketing that this is one portion of what we're doing and here's everything else. Here's all the cutting we're doing. here's all the efficiencies. You know, the county was able to very articulately um talk about a one-/ird one-ird one-ird approach where, you know, measure A was one-third of their, you know, kind of budgetary uh uh approach and then a third is getting other funding in their case the state um and another third being cutting efficiencies etc. And I think being able to to demonstrate that that well is is very important. And I think you know

along the same line I think you really with something like this you need widespread buyin especially if you know half of these require 2/3. Twothirds is a massive lift. I think 2/3 is um you know I'm I'm generally an optimist. I think 2/3 is unlikely. Um I think 2/3 is tough um at at the least. um a and even 50% is hard. And so getting widespread buyin, making the case, not even, you know, not in a campaign way at all, but telling our story about our budget to residents is super important because it's confusing and opaque. And you know, the uh dozen of us in the room understand it pretty well and maybe another dozen or so, but then there's 33,000 other people that probably don't understand it that well. Um, so that's super important. Um, and and the other thing I'll say is that the reason why I'm somewhat, you know, I think absolutely I think that what you've the recommendations laid out here are are good and how we should proceed. The the reason why I want to make sure we don't we you know work hard and move fast but don't rush it is because of a mistake that I pushed for when on this council was which was pushing for the council to go for a 1/8 cent sales tax two years ago which would have generated maybe a million dollars uh and would have you know maxed out this tax here. I again I was supportive of that at the time and I think that actually would have been a big mistake. Um I I think that that when you go for a tax in a town like Los Gatos you get one big swing at it. And so we want to make sure that we generate a meaningful amount of revenue from this. I think at least $4 or5 million. Um or else it's sort of not

worth it because if we would have gone for the 1/8 cent sales tax and got a million dollars, that's nice, but it's not that meaningful. And then you've burnt a lot of political capital that you're going to need to then spend a couple years later that you don't have. Um so I think all of that is is super important. Um, I have a little bit of input on the specific tax recommendations. Um, but I'll go to Council Member Renie for now.

Um, so addressing it from slightly different direction, but saying maybe some of the same things about efficiency, [clears throat] I think there's a certain number of people that assume government is fat and there's plenty of fat to cut before I need to contribute more to to their fat. And and it could be even things like, you know, well, if you if the government has too much money, of course, they're going to give big raises, bigger raises than are really deserved kind of thing, right? They want to make sure, you know, people are paid fairly but not overpaid, for example, or, you know, other places that there's there's fat in the system. Um, I I think our budget process this year helped to show, you know, we started talking about cuts and we cut some small places and we stopped because the next cuts were going to start hurting. I think that's a good exercise and we're going to have to do it again this year and and as the town manager explained, you know, there's a lot of uncertainty. So, we don't know exactly where we are. So we before cutting into things that really hurt, we're taking out of funds which are kind of um you know our pension funds so forth in a way are sort of stealing from the future causing problems from the future. Um and but if we don't actually need to do that then it's I agree it's better than cutting where you know something really hurts. If you stop stop trimming trees as often people are going to complain. We already have people complaining right? if you you we're getting lawsuits on people falling on the sidewalks and we say to the town manager, "Hey, we need to spend more money on sidewalks, find me the money." And he says, "Well, you're going to have to cut somewhere else." That kind of exercise starts to help you understand how much fat do we really

have. So I I want us to continue to do those kinds of exercises at the a and as part of the process, not just say, well, we have this list of un unmet needs we want money for. um without demonstrating that we also understand kind of how much fat we have that I appreciate what you said and but it opens up a really big box that we're looking at. Um how do we define fat? You know, we talked at the last agenda item about what's the efficiency impact of us meeting our priority three targets on response times by 50 plus percent. And when I unpack that and I think about the ex the intellectual exercise of getting through that is yes, we can get through all the imaginations of that, but you can't separate the public's general fear that anything involving reductions in public safety equal death and destruction in our community. I said, "Our response times are fantastic. Our crime, our crime is low for our population, dramatically low. Our violent crimes are extremely low." I mean, we our PD does a great job. Is it the most efficient operation? Um, is the same as saying, "Is a fire department efficient if they're only doing fire?" They're not. They're waiting around waiting for the fire to occur and then they're running to the fire. but they're staffing for fire when even though those calls are at a low volume and they've taken on other duties EMS and medical to take up the capacity. Our town is a 12 plus square mile geography. Our level of activity begets a smaller number of police officers but over the geography it has dramatic effects. You know, right now we already have our community and our community survey saying 55% of

residents that are on the furthest ends of our town up on the hillsides uh feel satisfied with seeing police officers in their in their neighborhoods. And it may be whether a call is needed or not. There's a perception that they're not there enough because of the geography. So when we look at efficiency, you know, I will be the first one to go to dollars and cents and tell you what the most squeeze the most out of a dollar as being a former auditor. But rationally when you look at operations, there will be inefficiency that we have to endure because of the unique aspects of our size, geography, and distribution. And so I don't know how to have that conversation and get to a rational answer that says yes, why don't we eliminate all vacancies in the town that we currently have right now, of which the majority of them are police officers. We're achieving the goal and this is something that members of the finance commission said. So why just do that? And you just garnered a $3 million cut in our overall operations. Well, the answer is long term, is that sustainable? What impact does it have? and the public's going to perceive us being able less safe because you effectively cut critical positions. And I think we got to figure out how do we do that conversation um in the context also of how do we do the conversation of additional revenue? And I I think when we meet on the 10th of February for our uh budget retreat, this may be the the discussion of the needs and considerations. It may be even more important now in the context of this conversation. Go ahead. I

I I would just say you're correct. Politically, we could never cut the police budget, but we could more easily politically not let it rise much while the basically, you know, it's like the government debt. You want high inflation so that your debt's worth less, right? Kind of thing. if if you keep the line on the budget, but the number of people in town grows because we've just approved almost a thousand units and if they get built, that's, you know, it it does increase our revenue base and it's more work for the police. But if you do find that, well, yeah, we're doing okay on the times, maybe you don't need another officer that would add to the price. I I know the chief doesn't want to hear me say this, but that's a more politically palatable way to bring it in line. Yeah, I agree. Uh but over the course of the last 10 years, we have not hired or increased the authorized strength of the police department. They're still at 39 sworn. Are we achieving 39? No. And I think you're speaking towards if we're at a certain number, maybe you just hold the line there and garner that savings and you're not cutting anything at this point and then you're adding as you need with the growth. Um, I think they're all good conversations. I just I just want to be very clear as the town manager. I'm not recommending a tax measure, nor am I recommending cuts, nor am I [snorts] recommending a lot of different things. I'm providing options that we need to consider to preserve the options you have in the future. For me, it's very simple. It's as a mechanical exercise. I It's just not a challenge to get five million cut from the budget, but it's nowhere easy and nor can I do it with the implications of what it has. And I think I want to be sure that

you're advising us on the right avenues to pursue here. What we're recommending is at least preserve your options whether you go in November or not and then give us more direction in terms of the budget reductions. We're not going to go as far as the 3 point I think it's four I think it's about 3.8 million projected deficit next year. We are not going to recommend cutting services at $3.8 million for next year's budget. We're going to make recommendations for some cuts, but we're going to balance that. But I think we need a little more direction from the council about how to go about tackling some of the larger issues that have more policy significance for the town.

Council member Hudis.

Yeah, I I think I'd like to put a motion on the table um and uh to see whether that moves things forward. Um, I've read the staff report that has um the recommendations in it. I think that actually it's encompassed in the recommendations that are in the PowerPoint um better. Um, and so I'm going to uh move to uh authorize to uh preserve options, not commit to a tax, uh, seek state, legislative authority to exceed 2% sales tax cap, to engage legal, financial, and legislative consultants, and to allocate 80,000 from general fund reserves to move it forward. Um, I would add one thing to that and that is that I would like to hear back as soon as possible a little bit more information about the timing of the state legislative authority and the likelihood of achieving that. A little more information than we have tonight. I can second that. Perfect. Um so one uh one thing that I wanted to add on this is I think we have five good revenue options in front of us. Um two that I wanted to you know if we're bringing on consultants to explore these options with us. Two that I think are also worth adding to explore are a head tax and a gross receipts tax. Um the head tax um we can look to PaloAlto's measure K which passed um in uh November 2022 um and it a head tax requires a simple majority um but in Palo Alto it passed

with 67%. And what PaloAlto did is that they uh levied a tax of 7.5 cents per square foot on an occupied uh business with a max cost of $500,000 per year. And for PaloAlto, they have, you know, some large businesses, but that generates over $10 million per year. Um and that's a very progressive tax. The beauty of that t the structure of that tax is that you it's like a sales I mean it's it's you're not taxing residents as much as you are taxing businesses and you're taxing your largest businesses a huge you know disproportionately more um and so it's progressive in that way. So I think that's one that's that's worth keeping on the table. The other is a gross receipts tax which is, you know, similar um in in pretty much every way. It's done differently. Um I think the head tax is especially compelling because PaloAlto passed this um just a few years ago. I I think these are all good options, but I really, you know, the the the input I would give on this is things that need a twothird voter approval I think are going to be really really hard. And I would spend, you know, a little bit more time thinking about some of these other options. And the reason I I bring up the head tax is because I I talked to folks at the chamber today about this item being on the agenda. And um you know, people in our business community hate the idea of a sales tax. They they just do. And so uh you know, we we understand that there are limited options in front of us, but I think we should have as many options uh within those limited options as possible. And so I would I would just recommend adding those two to the list of um uh taxes we're interested in

exploring. Um and the last thing I was saying that's sorry um is uh the utility user tax I think is something that's really also really really worth looking into. Um it's on the list. I think that's great. Um and and it's you know a little bit unusual but I think could be a really good thing here. So,

Council Member Hudis.

Yeah, I don't think that that's um necessarily part of the motion. I think it's part of, you know, information we want to come back to. Um I would be uncomfortable with a head tax. Um basically, that's a tax on our businesses hiring people. And I, you know, I've seen it for as much success as it might have had in PaloAlto, I've seen it fail elsewhere. And it makes Loscatoos into a very sort of anti- business, but just not just anti- business, but an anti-worker um kind of an environment. So, I'd want a lot more information about where that has been successful. Um, the other possible revenue option I think we've talked about in the past has been the uh franchise fees that are being charged to the utilities. And I think that um taking a look and seeing whether we're in line with other municipalities and whether we have any possibility of increasing uh the franchise fees for the utilities. Um, but we're we're ahead of that, I think. I I mean, that is something that comes later, I think.

Can I can I ask the question? Is the council asking us to add head tax, gross receipts, and potentially franchise fees in the analysis?

I I would ask that, Council Member Benny. Um, I think franchise taxes are not easy to do. We talked about this when we first did the first measure G and we the the use the you the utility use tax, franchise taxes, there was some reasons why they didn't fly and you might be able to in 10 minutes figure that out. I know that the last time we looked at a UUT on cell phones, for example, that had to go to a vote of the voters, which what hadn't been the case prior, uh this is years ago, but I'm not up to speed. We're probably going to have to get we do have somebody available to us, legal counsel to assist us with some of the uniqueness of these type of measures. It would come from the 80,000 to be able to engage them. The one thing that makes for me a utility use tax um interesting to to look at is um you know and this is a legal question and it might be again a 10-minute question that the answer is no, but are there any cities in California that have um with how much uh you know cable and telecommunications have changed over the years? has is has anyone levied that on streaming? I think that would be a particularly interesting use case for Los Gatos. I think that's what makes that very

I do recall about two years ago we had some conversation about that. So I can and I do have some research on those topics so I can dig that up. Okay, that'd be great. And provide that.

Thank you. I I would you know the the question was whether to research the head tax or not. I'm I'm not sure whether I support a head tax or not. My first reaction was no. Um I'm for I think for the same things Mr. Hudis said, Council Member Hudis that it I think we are very different than PaloAlto there. I mean that is an innovation center with a VC center and they can get away with it. We don't have that same you know attraction for large offices full of people kind of thing. And I and I also worry, you know, businesses decreasing in Lascatoos as we build res residential buildings in place of our commercial buildings, you know, you know, we as we lose our hotels and so forth. I mean, that that's the trajectory. If you look out where the proposed projects are, I worry about relying again too much on business and then also the well just scaring businesses out of town particularly. I mean I think it works better on big business businesses but we don't have any large class A format other than Netflix really in town. the other ones are going to be smaller startups that are going to be looking for a cheap way to to get started kind of thing. So, I'm I'm I'm a bit worried about the the head tax.

Yeah. I mean, if if if we need to look at it, I wouldn't spend a lot of time on it. I mean, even San Francisco eliminated their head tax um and for for the reasons of uh the public being concerned that it would um decrease employment and employment opportunities in town. So, I think we have to be really careful if we're going to, you know, if we're going to look at it. I need to see some more information um about it, but I don't uh I I'm I'm very very skeptical about it.

Yeah. I I just the reason I throw in the head tax and also the gross receipts tax is because these are I think these are all if we're looking seriously at a sales tax I think we should be uh honest in the options we can present to our business community about you know again what the alternatives are. And so, you know, a something like a gross receipts tax, you could structure in a way that that impacts, you know, mom and pop businesses very little to none. Um, and so, uh, I I think for that reason, it could be more popular. Um, and so I think it's I think that's worth looking at if if Yeah. So that's that's why I think it's worth spending, you know, 30 minutes of research on just to have the information to to share. I have a question. Isn't our um relatively new business license kind of along the lines of a gross receipts tax?

Yes, it it we currently tax gross receipts of businesses for our business license tax. Okay. So it might actually be redundant. I mean, I guess from a minor research point of view, I think it's not bad to get some information. I just think some of these are going to be hard for me to get behind outside of what was outlined. And I do agree that 2/3 um we do have a motion in a second. Are we adding amend are we amending the motion or

Okay. Um just I just want to clarify the recommendation. What I have is to seek state legislative authority to exceed the cap for sales tax to engage the appropriate consultants to allocate $80,000 from the general fund reserves to move forward and to report back to the council on the timing of state legislative authority when we have more certainty on that is the recommendation. Yes, that's that's the motion. Okay, then I will call the question. All those in favor?

I. Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously. Um, thank you very much uh for the uh thorough presentation. Okay. Um uh two quick things on this last one. So I think we should um really quick address um the uh uh council matters request. Um one quick question for the attorney. We have a public comment on this item. We just discussed how we are now accepting public comment on uh council matters items during verbal communications though I don't know that that was necessarily clear. Are we able to open up comment on this if we choose to?

Um it's it's at the mayor's prerogative. Um I my understanding of the agenda policy is that the item appears on the agenda and that means that anyone who wishes to comment had the opportunity to comment on it under the earlier verbal communications section. Um but if you would like to reopen verbal communications that you can do that. Okay. It it wasn't even clear to me so I think it's it's only fair. So, um, uh, I'll I'll guess do I process-wise, does the the manager want to say anything on this item or No, because it's a council request.

Um, it it sounds like you want to allow a little more public comment, so you can open up public comment.

Okay, I'll I'll open up public comment and call in Mr. Figgo. Thank you. And given the hour, I will be as brief as I can on this item number 18. Um I'm sorry, item 19 to uh evaluate feasibility of painting red curb markings near intersections, crosswalks under California's daylighting law. Um, I'm all for this and I believe that we should be uh doing intersections with a 20 foot uh space marked in red. 20 ft being one vehicle parking space. And it's because these are very unsafe throughout our town. at the end of my street which comes to Chamilleia Terrace which is right behind the police station. Um as you come up my street lilac way I can't see cars coming on Chamilleia Terrace because people have parked their big vehicles SUVs and the the lifted pickup trucks so that I can't see what's happening. So that clearance would be very helpful for people instead of having to eek out to try and get out and see if there's anything coming. And in the meantime, the nose of your your vehicle is out in the intersection. I would also ask that um we also do the same thing with a 20 foot marker red painting at the uh parking lot exits. For example, on Main Street, there are two parking lots, uh, one East Main Street, one on West Main Street that come from those parking lots onto Main Street. And those are sites that are very difficult to see exiting. Today, I

was coming out of the one on uh on West Main Street and could not see uh a uh a an electric bike coming on the street. Um, and uh I almost made a hood ornament out of that electric bike. Um, so I I really think that the uh not just the crosswalk intersections, but anything that is an exit from a parking lot should have the same 20 foot protected space marked accordingly so that there is visibility coming out onto the onto the street. Um I would also ask that fire hydrants and incidentally for parking spaces I think it's 20 ft red marking for fire hydrants it's 15 ft from either side of the hydrant and not all of those are marked in town and I tried getting Santa Clara County Fire to come out to mark the one on my street and they said they could they didn't you know whatever. So I bought a gallon of paint and I painted it myself. Um, and uh, it's been interesting to see the that my neighbors and their visitors are no longer parking next to the fire hydrant as they did previously. Um, and I would also ask that we get volunteers to help do the painting. You can get community members to do that.

Thank you. Thank you.

Um, okay. So, uh, uh, very briefly, uh, my request on this item is for council to provide direction to more widely implement the use of red curb markings at key intersections to support, um, the visibility and safety goals of the new daylighting law. Um at this time a lot of residents are not familiar with the new daylighting law which I think creates issues both for safety improvements um uh you know with the intent of the new law um and also residents who may be cited not knowing the law has changed. Um, so I think this will create better compliance. Um, and uh, uh, and I think intersection should be prioritized based on traffic volume, known resident complaints and concerns, and staff's assessment of visibility, safety, and potential for conflicts um, between vehicles and bikes and peds. So, that is my request. Council member Renie. Um, so this agenda item confuses me a little bit because isn't this something we're already going to be doing or working on? I mean, what's interesting about the legislation is it um does not require that local jurisdictions paint the red curbs. The legislation just exists saying that it's unlawful to park within 20 ft of a crosswalk. Well, that's kind of a stupid law.

So, so this is this is to have the town paint more curbs red. So, you know, I I I hesitate because everybody's always complaining about needing more more parking. I particularly hesitate in the downtown area where I I spent many years trying to figure out how we could get more parking, not less parking kind of thing. Santa Cruz Avenue, it might eliminate some parking spaces and we need the parking spaces, but I would argue that at that it isn't the cars that would are causing any sight problem on Santa Cruz Avenue. And the speed limit is only 15. So it's a reduced speed limit. So you don't need as much sight distance. It's more the the stupid trees at each of the planter boxes where I know when I drive down it, you can't tell if there's somebody coming out of those trees. Has nothing to do with whether there's a car there. Um, so I I I would hate to see parking spaces eliminated um on on Santa Cruz for something that's not going to make a difference. And again, I hesitate on, you know, Mr. Fgo's comments about main street parking lots again, losing parking spaces that are that are desperately needed. you know, you mentioned he he also mentioned in neighborhoods um there may be places that are are helpful um for it. So, I'm I'm I I have mixed feelings here.

All right, Vice Mayor Risto,

thank you. I mean, first of all, it's an interesting law because a lot of times laws come about and create what we call unfunded mandates. So, if the law had said, you know, on the leading edge of a crosswalk or any corner, no one can park there for 20 feet and you must put a sign up or stripe it red. That would be an unfunded mandate, right? All of a sudden, it's going to cost money and it's going to take time. On the other hand, the the law is there to increase safety. Um, I think it is a little bit challenging for our police department then to be told by state law, go ahead and write citations. And you know, my experience is almost nobody knows what the new laws that are coming out are unless you know, like I follow every single pedestrian and biking law, but I'm sure there's other laws that have come into play that I don't know about. And I've talked to people who had said, "I would be furious if I got a ticket for parking, you know, 10 ft from a curb, and I never heard of this law." Um, I know that those kind of things happen a lot. I do think that, um, a compromise could be looking at where we do have higher speeds and higher pedestrian volumes and we don't have curb bulbouts because certainly on Santa Cruz Avenue, most of our crosswalks are bulbouts. And I agree with you, Council Member Renie, that those trees and those planters create are ridiculous because they're exactly where a person would be. You can't actually see someone. That's a whole different thing. Um, but the I guess the issue is if we want many of the curbs painted red, that takes work and that takes maintenance. Um, another thought I had is I know it's a higher upfront cost, but maybe lower maintenance in key areas. Could a sign

just be put up? No parking here to corner or something? I don't know what that option is, but I do think that um from a community education and an effectiveness point of view, it makes sense to perhaps look at what are the most impactful areas like around schools where students are crossing and others and pick targeted areas to do that red curb or some kind of signage. If I may turn it over to Nicole to speak to the matter, please.

Uh thank you, town manager. Um Nicole Burnham, director of parks and public works. Uh the department evaluated this extensively. Uh it was an item that went to complete streets and transportation commission in December of 2024 before the law came into effect. Uh the engineering team worked with Sergeant Kowaloa, evaluated all locations downtown, set priority, did do some red curbing um in critical areas where it seemed like it that was really necessary. Um held off on extensive amounts of red curbing for all of the reasons that Council Member Risto just noted. Um we don't have the resources. We don't have the staffing. Painting red curb does take time. And while it might seem like a nice idea to have residents do it, um the enforcability of that become can become challenging. And I would contend that based on this law, the parking spaces are already lost because people are not supposed to be parking in those parking spaces whether there's red curb or not. And I'm going to let Sergeant Kaloa talk about enforcement. Um but that is what the law is at the time it came into effect in early 2025. We did do outreach. There is information on the website. Um, could there be more? Absolutely. It's not the thing we're we're we're the strongest at at the moment. Um, so we certainly could do more. Um, with regard to outreach, the plan focused on exactly what council member Risto said, looking at the downtown area, um, and the next phase was schools, which you know, and identifying areas specifically around schools. So, um, the team is getting ready this year to start looking at that and see if there are specific areas around schools where red curb need to be painted, but the key here is trying to balance painting red curb with our ability to

maintain and manage it in the long run. And I I do just want to give my partners at PD the opportunity to comment. I don't know, Chief, if you want to.

Uh, thank you for the question. Sergeant Carol with the police department. Um, so this is a fairly new law. It's been been on the books for less than a year and the state of California tried to do a lot of education uh with the daylighting. It's very similar to the primmaacial laws for a yield is 15 miles an hour. Speed in a residential district is 25 miles an hour and parking in front of a fire hydrant is unlawful. Um and so we are able to enforce the law of parking in front of a fire hydrant um as being unlawful without a red curb because the DMV the state of California states that um the officers are trained uh to have discretion with regards to public safety. I think that the fire hydrant parking in front of a fire hydrant is a public safety matter and parking at an intersection so that uh you can see clearly an intersection is a public safety matter. Uh that's where I rely on the collaboration and partnership with PPW. So I mentioned earlier that we want to reduce property damage, injuries, and deaths due to vehicle crashes. Um one really good example is Lark Avenue and Los Scouts Boulevard. We had an increase in uh pedestrian versus vehicle crashes and what we found out was that in the series of reports that were taken by the officers was that the vehicles never saw the person in the crosswalk. So, I reached out to uh the PPW group, worked with the engineers, and what they did was they changed the timing on the pedestrian crosswalk so that the pedestrian crosswalk timer started a few seconds before the vehicle red light, green light did. What that did was it pushed the pedestrians into the crosswalk to a point where the drivers could see them. Uh, as I recall, we haven't had a collision uh of a vehicle versus pedestrian since that uh since that enhancement. Uh the other thing

that's changed recently is that you can now uh a bicyclist can now cross into the intersection when the pedestrian signal is green. So they don't have to wait for the red circular ball of a motor vehicle. And these are all new laws that came within the year. And I I bring these up because it's it is surrounded around safety. Um, with regards to uh the enforcement and our future with AB413, uh, myself and Gary and the other folks at PPW did look at the higher volume areas and that included like in front of the high schools. So, we can we can clearly get ahead of it. Where it gets a little complicated is a lot of the homes in the Almond Grove, LMA Alta, Johnson area, uh, they have carriage houses. They don't have garages for cars. Um they were built in a day when horses were you took your horse home that put your horses to pasture and put the carriages into the into the house. And so that's why we have so many alleyways between um those those areas. And so they don't have driveways or excuse me, they don't have garages to put their cars in. So they're they're out onto the streets, which is another reason why we have a residential permit parking program. if we start to paint areas red, um we could be losing those those areas of um of residential parking. And most recently, I've heard from a few uh people on Lom Alta where this is a concern for them. And then we go out, we do pedestrian counts and hardly a pedestrian crosses the street. It's just a matter of them wanting the red curb there, which we know costs money because it needs to be maintained. That's that's what my comments are for that. Thank you, Council Member Hudis.

Yeah, thank you. Um, and I appreciate hearing from uh staff on this. Um, it sounds like there's been a fair amount of work done on it and that there are other items that we didn't have the funds or the resources to do. My my question is, you know, why why does a council need to take action on this now? Would wouldn't those requests come through the budget process in terms of the priorities that PPW would be asking uh for us to take care of.

Thank you for for bringing that up. Um and I think PBW has some work ahead of it to do. That's going to be one of our the things we're working on this year is evaluating these unfunded mandates like this one that have come our way and how they kind of pick away at our um at the time of our staff, right? And we haven't changed staffing levels in years despite a number of unfunded mandates related to this related to storm water. I mean, our maintenance levels have been at the same for at least the last 15 years um for field maintenance. So, um we have some work to do with that. I don't disagree with you. I don't know if we'll be ready with detailed numbers this year, but it is definitely very much on our mind. Um, and because we do have to figure figure this out um and put it forward as a budget item. Um, we will always we're always welcome a conversation with council about our staffing levels and budget out of cycle if you'd like to do that, but it probably would be wiser to do it through the budget process.

Appreciate that. Thank you. And just to clarify, so my the the whole key intersections piece of this my in my head this is like a dozen intersections. I've this is coming out of several resident complaints that I've received from the Loma Alta neighborhood. The other big one that I've been hearing from a couple folks on is Andrews and North Santa Cruz. Um and so I I think there's there's a couple of of key intersections that we could, you know, make sure that we are addressing. I don't think this is a drastic change in any way. Um, but just, you know, a dozen key intersections as identified by staff for safety and resident concern reasons to paint the curb red. That's that's the whole and and I'm not envisioning doing the downtown north Santa Cruz um parking. So, that's that's the request to be clear.

Vice Mayor Risto,

thank you. I'm I'm hear what you're asking. What I wasn't aware of is that this had gone through complete streets and transportation commission and that areas were identified and prioritized and that the next phase is the schools. And I will say as I'm walking around I've noticed 20 foot areas in some parts even downtown I think near the tape museum there are curbs that are painted red that didn't used to be. So I can see some of the new work that's happened. Um, I guess for me to consider, you know, should additional direction be given, um, does staff have feedback on how the requests of the mayor dovetail with what's already being looked at or are these new intersections? Because I think if we are responding to a constituent or multiple um at any given time you have a conversation, everybody has their pet intersection that needs um attention because I hear the same thing and they're not the same intersections and they're all over and it's whatever somebody uses. So I think um there has to be a funnel or a way if we say we're going to do a limited amount, how do we get there? So, if you can let me know like how the areas that the mayor has brought up fit in or don't fit in with what's already been addressed and what is intended in the short term to be addressed.

If I I finally before Nicole goes, I want to bring us back to this is a council matter request. This is not the agenda and I think we're going staff have not evaluated, have not analyzed and they can speak to it, but I think it pierces the veil of what we're trying to accomplish with it. Okay.

Um, yeah. Well, and I'll I'll start, but the um actually most of the areas that are in the that were mentioned in the council memo have been evaluated. Um, when staff initially did the work to take it to complete streets, um, they evaluated all of the downtown area. There have been some additional one-off requests that have come into PBW that have been evaluated and haven't been painted because they may not have met the criteria. I think Sergeant Kella also mentioned that he's looked at some areas and we've elected to not paint them for a variety of reasons. So there's more. So um there's factors that we consider. I definitely would suggest that anyone who has an intersection that they want us to look at, they are welcome to email ppwcatoca.gov. Um and the team will evaluate it. The engineering team will evaluate it. they will work with PD um and determine if red paint is really required. The other thing to remember is that this law requires that it only be red curb on the approach side, not on the far side. And in some of these instances, that's been the case. Like the request has been for a far side um red curb. And the law doesn't apply there. So, we wouldn't red curb unless there was some other mitigating safety circumstance, but that hasn't been the case. Vice members do.

Okay. Thank you. Then taking this back to a council matter. It it appears to me I mean I think this is a really important topic and it's an important law to increase safety. It looks like our police department and parks and public works are already addressing it and looking at what um within the limitations of staffing and time and other priorities how to address it. So, I'm not sure that it needs further attention. Um, from my perspective, I can always be persuaded, but I think it's been addressed. Council member,

I was going to say the same thing. Um, I'm not in supportive of the wholesale do every, you know, paint the tayon red kind of thing. Um, I I think council member Risto originally said, you know, what are the most important places, the highest speed, highest volume or places where their complaints are. And that sounds like they're already doing they're already thinking about that. So, and you anybody can email PPW. So, again, I don't feel like we need to authorize any more than what's going on.

Okay. Being that that is the case, um, sounds like we can move on to council matters from council members. Um, council member Renie, uh, the only thing I have that's sort of tangentially interesting is, um, the fires safe council, which is a nonprofit, non-government organization, um, which is a resource for the town that we sometimes use. Uh, I would just say that, uh, today I was appointed, uh, chair of their board. Council member Hudis.

Uh just a couple things. Um I've had a few meetings with uh the Thrivives Foundation. Um and I met with a resident with an I a separate topic. I met with a resident who had an idea about um housing that could be provided uh potentially by um uh employers and um other institutions in town. It's an interesting idea and he's going to provide um some text about that. It's something that's currently being done by some of the churches. Um and uh I attended the finance commission meeting on the 12th of January and um that's all I have to report.

Vice Mayor Risto,

thank you. I'll just cover meetings Germaine to the town on the 12th. I also attended the finance commission meeting being uh newly appointed this year. So, um it kind of mirrored the discussions we had tonight and we'll be um looking for continued conversation on this. Um on the 14th, I attended the Silicon Valley Clean Energy Board of Directors meeting as an alternate for council member Renie because I was always already going to be there. And I'll just give the very very highlights. Um we um appointed new board leadership positions. So, Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klene is now the chair of the board and Sally Meadows, Mayor of the Town of Los Altos, is vice chair for the year. Um, the construction is going to begin at the Silicon Valley Clean Energy Office with a contract for interior buildout. So, SVCE has its own building and we authorized the budget for that construction. Um we also approved an agreement for advanced compressed air energy storage project to support the clean energy grid. So kind of as an alternative um as a pilot project looking at energy storage um you know for solar energy right now a lot what everyone knows about is batteries and batteries are great. We've deployed those very successfully. they do have a lifetime and they'll they'll degrade over time and it's not well known what that'll mean long term for storage. And so um there's a pilot program where we'll be looking at um using um compressed air energy and that will not have as high of efficiency as um the lithium batteries. However, it's not expected to ever degrade. So this will be a good experiment to see if we can broaden ways to do energy storage. And then um finally um there was an evolution of Silicon

Valley clean energy's electric vehicle customer programs where given that electricity is dirtiest at night any energy that's used. There will be some rate incentives to try to get customers who are able to do vehicle charging during the day in the middle of the day when the sun is shining and we've got more than enough solar energy. So, um we approved a project for or program for that. Um the next day VTA policy advisory committee, we chose new leadership. Elliot Scazola from the city of Campbell is the chair. I was appointed or elected the vice chair. And um a lot of the discussion was around um preparations for the Super Bowl with VTA expecting at least 30,000 people using public transportation. And just a note, I mean this happened a while ago uh not too long ago for anybody riding BTA you don't even need a Clipper card anymore. You can just use a credit card. And so you know that if you want a student discount or a senior discount, you'll have to have the Clipper card, but otherwise just for a straight rate, you can use your credit card. So easy tap, easy use. And that's it for um town meetings. Thanks.

Perfect. Thank you. And uh real briefly, I was honored to give the leadership loads welcome. Uh a great cohort this year. Um we missed Monica Ren. she was out for that um uh meeting and and it was it's clear how much uh love and energy she puts into that program. So a big kudos to her and the whole team for a great program on that. Um I attended Supervisor Abbe Koga's D5 mayor's roundt where I met with mayors from the other um cities in county uh supervisorial district 5. It was good to to um talk about you know how things at the county might affect each of our our towns and cities. Uh, I visited Lexington Elementary's second grade students and talked to them about what it's like to be uh, uh, the mayor. Uh, I met with the Loscatoos Chamber of Commerce's food and wine group today. Um, had a productive conversation there. I held, um, my, uh, first mayor's happy hour and community coffees, um, which went well. and I held my last young leaders group meeting last year um which uh I hope to evolve into uh uh youth town halls this year. So um more to come on that um to the manager and attorney.

Okay. Uh the town council met in close session on January 13th to discuss the case of Lascatoos LLC versus the town of Lascatoss and there was no reportable action. And the town council met in close session this evening to discuss labor negotiations and again there is no reportable action. No report from the manager. All right. Perfect. Then this meeting is adjourned.