City Council - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good evening and welcome to the City Council meeting of April 2026. That's not twenty twenty twenty twenty six. That's just 2020 '6. I'm having a little April fool's joke on myself apparently.

I want to call the meeting to order and advise everyone that this meeting is being recorded and the recording will be made available on the city website. I also want to let my fellow council members and the public know that I will adjourn this meeting in honor of Sheriff K9 Chico and his deputy Casas. Unfortunately, K9 Chico, who was one of our apprehension dogs in police force in the sheriff's department. He was he has an end of life today. And it was very sad.

He was a young dog and he got sick and unfortunately had to end his life. And so in honor of Chico and deputy Cassis. So I ask you all to please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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.

Thank you.

All right. Britt, can you please proceed with the roll call and the rest of the stuff you gotta do?

Pursuant to Saratoga City Council's remote public participation policy, members of the public may participate in this meeting in person at the location listed on the agenda or via remote attendance using the Zoom information listed on the agenda. Public attendees participating by Zoom are automatically muted and are not viewable on camera. I will now call the roll. Council member Eftab?

Present.

Fitzsimmons? Present. Zhao? Present. Vice mayor Walia? Present. Mayor Page?

Present.

We have a quorum, and the agenda was posted on March 27.

Thank you. Okay. I have a report from closed sessions and a study session. On March 18, the council held a closed session on existing litigation. There is no reportable action from that meeting.

On March 31, the City Council held a closed session on the initiation of litigation and there's no reportable action from that meeting either. Earlier this evening, we held a study session regarding the use of automatic license plate readers, also known as ALPR technology, and Flock Safety, who is our provider. We received presentations from Captain Neil Valenzuela of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, who is essentially our police chief. And from Lily Ho of Flock Safety, our current ALPR contractor. We also had the opportunity to hear from a great many members of our community on this topic, and there was no action taken.

Next we have oral communications on non agendized items. This is an opportunity for anyone in person to join us and make comments on any item that is not on today's agendas. The council typically cannot answer questions or discuss this at all, but they may choose to give some direction to staff. So with that, Britt, could you please explain the public comment process and invite our first speaker up.

If you would like to address the City Council on an item that is not on the agenda and you have not submitted a speaker slip, now is the time to do so. I have four public speaker slips. Okay. First is Dory Albert. So Dory, you've submitted two but you only get three minutes total.

You may want to turn that on first. At the bottom of the mic.

Good evening. My name is Dory Albert. I'm a resident of Saratoga. And I just wanted to make a request for city council that we could address the Saratoga Avenue traffic congestion together. And I have been working on traffic by myself and with a group of residents. And there is a video circulating now, and there's a survey that parents would like to it's a safety issue. And I can't do it myself. I really need you. I need the schools. I need VTA.

And I'd like to meet with residents and try to work something out. So that's my request that this Saratoga Avenue congestion become an agenda item that we can look into and kind of make some progress. It's a priority item for the council and I'd like to make some progress with everyone involved. The next piece of it is I'm also, my request is as a resident, I'm also on the traffic commission. And in the meeting last night there was discussion of cutting, looking at cuts into the traffic commission's budget.

And though nothing was really said, I just feel like right now is not the time to do that in this commission. We have some really big changes happening in Saratoga that we're really going to need a lot of I just think that with Costco coming and we have the new towers, I just think that we're going to need a lot more I just don't think it's a good time to cut the budget right now at all. So I'm appealing to you to not do that. I know that in our meetings that we really try to do the right things with our resources. We're not, you know, we are very, you know, we are doing our best.

But I just feel that this is not the time. So please do not cut the budget. And thank you very much. Safety first, as you all believe as well. I do too. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Samuel.

Can you hear me? Good. Okay.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Samuel Lille. I'm the operations manager for SASE, otherwise known as Successful Aging Solutions and Community Consulting. We are your senior services provider for Saratoga. I'm coming to you tonight to let you know of an event that's coming up that we are putting on with the county assessor's office at West Valley College campus.

The name of this event is Understanding Property Assessments to Help You Save Money. The target audience for this event is seniors ages 55 plus, but the community is welcome to attend. You're invited to a property assessment workshop. You can join assessor Nisa Flager to learn more about the property assessment process and programs and the opportunities available to you to save money. Topics will include the parent child transfer, moving assessed value to another property in California, adding an accessory dwelling unit, homeowners and veterans exemptions, and more.

This event will take place on Tuesday, April 21 from 6PM to 8PM in the Fox 120 Lecture Hall at West Valley College. Parking will be available in Lot 5 most likely, and that's at West Valley at 1400 Or 14000 Fruitvale Avenue right across the street. Thank you.

Thanks, Sam.

Okay. And Monica.

Good evening. A little nervous, but good evening, mayor, vice mayor, city council members, city manager, and city attorney. My name is Monica Freia, and I'm your local government affairs representative for PG and E. First, I just want to acknowledge my colleague Sergio Jimenez, who previously served as your representative. I appreciate his work and partnership with the city of Saratoga.

I'm grateful for his support during this transition. Moving forward, I will be your primary point of contact for all PG and E matters. If you have questions, concerns, information regarding PG and E, I'm happy to help. Please reach out. I value strong partnerships with our local government leaders, and I'm committed to being a responsive and collaborative resource. I will be reaching out to each of you individually to schedule a meeting so I can better understand your priorities, concerns, and provide you with information of interest. I look forward to meeting each and every one of you soon. And please feel free to reach out in the meantime. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Monica.

Okay. I have no other speaker slips. I do want to acknowledge we have one hand raised for a remote public speaker. I just want to let that person know that we do our remote public speakers for non agendized at the end of the meeting. So I've lowered your hand and we do you can raise your hand again at the end of the meeting.

Great. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the house that wants in the theater that would like to speak? Okay. Seeing none. So at this time I'd like to share a few announcements with the public. First up is I'd like to invite people join me for mayor's office hours at the Saratoga Farmers Market this Saturday from 10AM till noon. I host these hours every month at the Farmers Market at West Valley College. So please come on over. The market's open from 9AM to 1PM where you can shop for fresh produce, support local vendors and stop by for a conversation.

The location is again West Valley College. It's in Parking Lot 3. And whether you have ideas or just wanna say hi or somebody came by and wanted a photo the other day. I'm like, I hope I don't end up on the post office wall. But we're hoping for that. Next up is opportunities for youth in Saratoga. And I'm glad we've got some here. So thanks for being here. I'd like to call on all middle and high schoolers in Saratoga. The city is now accepting applications for both the youth commission and the youth in government program, offering students the chance to build leadership skills, get involved in their community, and gain first hand experience in how local government works.

If you're interested in making a difference and representing youth in Saratoga, we encourage you to apply. The youth commission applications are due by April 12 And the youth and government applications are due by May 3. So learn more and apply on the city website. The new community development newsletter. I'm excited to announce that the launch of the Saratoga's brand new community development department quarterly newsletter.

This newsletter is designed to keep residents informed, involved, and connected to the work work that's shaping our community. Each issue will provide updates on key projects happening around the city, opportunities for residents to weigh in, helpful tips for navigating permits and services, and a closer look at the people working behind the scenes. Copies are available here in the lobby, in our city offices, and on the city website. I encourage everyone to check it out and stay connected with the exciting work happening in our city. Next I've got Walkwise.

You know, I know that the weather's been a little bit toasty, so people are often waiting till the evening to do their walks. Please remember, when you're walking on our city streets, if you're walking, you want to walk against traffic. If you're riding a bike, you want to ride with traffic. And the reason for that is because if you're a pedestrian and you're walking, you wanna know when that car is coming up on you. And the only way to do that is if you're walking against traffic.

So you're they're they're coming towards you. You see them, you make eye contact with them, you got a much better chance of getting home safe. So please follow those instructions. So next up, we have a couple of ceremonial items. So the next item is a proclamation recognizing the week of the young child.

And so will Saint Andrews Lower School Division head Grace Chew and our Saint Andrews students please join the city council on stage. As mayor of Saratoga, I'm proud to proclaim April 2026 as the week of the young child in the city of Saratoga. This is an important opportunity to recognize the value of early childhood education and the dedicated educators who shape the growth, learning and success of young children in our community. High quality early education strengthens children's development, lays the foundation for lifelong learning and supports families. This year, we also celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

This honoring a century of advocacy for children, families and educators nationwide. The city of Saratoga is especially grateful for the contributions of Saint Andrew's School whose staff provide high quality learning experiences that foster curiosity, creativity, and a lifelong love of learning. Their dedication highlights the critical role early childhood educators play in shaping the future of our community. On behalf of the entire city council, I'd like to present this proclamation to you Grace. So if you mind, come on over here, and I will hand you this. Thank you. And would you like to say a few words?

Yeah, go for it. Thank you so much for this. Are our students are very proud to be here tonight. And our school is proud to be in the city of Saratoga. Thank you for acknowledging our students and our early childhood programs. Thank you.

You're welcome. And since we do have the young folks here, I'd like you each to take the mic, say who you are, and wave to the camera. Oh, you don't have to wave if you don't want, but tell us who you are. Okay? And what grade you're in.

Hi. My name is Leah and I'm in fourth grade. Hi. My name is Kylie and I'm in fifth grade. Hi, my name is Mishika and I'm in fifth grade. Hi, my name is Naomi, I'm in fifth grade.

Hi, my name is Chuck and I went to fifth grade.

Hi, my name is Luke and I'm in fifth grade. Hi, my name is Adam and I'm in fifth grade.

Hi, my name is Yvonne, and I'm in fourth grade.

Hello, my name is Erin, and I'm in fifth grade.

Alright. Well, I I thank you all very much for coming and we celebrate your childhood, your education, and continued learning. So please do good stuff. Alright? I wanna see you guys on on the stage when we're up on the altar actually when you graduate in eighth grade. Okay. So I'm usually there. So alright. I'm counting on you. You guys all in? Alright. Good. Thank you very much. Shake hands with everybody, will you? You gotta get a picture. Sorry cook. Photos.

Perfect. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you very much. We have another one.

Why don't

you come up? Thank you, Musa. Come on come on into the middle here with me. As mayor of Saratoga, I am proud to proclaim April 2026 as American Muslim appreciation and awareness month here in the city of Saratoga. Our community is enriched by the many contributions of Muslim residents who bring faith, culture, service and civic engagement that strengthen the social and cultural fabric of our city.

This month provides an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the rich history, enduring contributions and positive impact that American Muslims have made in California and across the country. Muslim communities in Saratoga and the surrounding region create spaces for worship, learning, service, and connection supporting individuals and families while fostering a spirit of inclusion, respect and shared community. By honoring these contributions, we not only acknowledge the achievements of Muslim residents, but we also reaffirm our commitment to diversity, understanding and unity within Saratoga. On behalf of the entire city council, I'd like to present this proclamation to you. And Musa, I suspect you might have a couple things to say.

Nothing about flock.

No. No. Not this time.

Thank you so much. I'll just I'll be brief. Hello again mayor and council members. I'm Melissa Wakir, the Council on American Islamic Relations. On behalf of the Saratoga Muslim community, we want to thank you for recognizing American Muslim and appreciation and awareness month.

Its proclamation is especially meaningful as our Muslim communities have faced an unrelenting and unprecedented wave of Islamophobia and discrimination over the last several years. 2024 was the worst year of anti Muslim hate recorded in Cara's thirty year history with a sharp rise in hate crimes and discrimination. And this trend has only increased and continued through 2025 and into 2026. 2025 saw powerful public officials try to tell Muslim Americans that American freedoms come with conditions, that they must look, speak, and worship in their approved ways or that they do not belong otherwise. Today's proclamation is an important step in celebrating the Muslim community whose contributions continue to strengthen Saratoga's civic, cultural, and economic life.

We thank you for affirming that Muslims are woven into the fabric of the city of Saratoga, Santa Clara County, the state of California, and this country. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. We'll we'll get a photo, I know. You want to open that up maybe. Before I move on, I guess I should probably have taken public comment on our ceremonial items.

So if there's anyone in the audience who would like to make comments or provide some public comment on them or remote, I welcome you to raise your hand now. Seeing no one, we will move to our, we have a special presentation today. Sujatha is here somewhere. Where is she? There she is. Sujatha is the Executive Director of the West Valley Community Services. And I'd like to welcome you, Sujatha. Thank you for being here.

Good evening. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, counsel. Like mayor mentioned, my name is Sujatha Venkatraman. I'm the executive director of West Valley Community Services serving your community of Saratoga for fifty two years.

Does it just move? Sorry. The mission of our organization is to unite the community to fight hunger and homelessness with a vision that everyone has food on their table and a roof over their head. This is our impact report number from last year. We served nearly more than 2,800 new individual, individual accessing all services.

That was 6,650. That's a 30% increase from last year. We served more than 1,000,000 meals and provided rental assistance in the amount more than $800,000 The Park It Market, which is our mobile operation that comes to Saratoga, we are at West Valley College and also at the services in the Saratoga Affordable Housing Fellowship Plaza, the pocket market served about fourteen eighty two individuals. These were new individuals who were accessing services, more than 2,000 of them returning clients who are accessing our services, and we provided more than 300 meals. We do what's called special programs, and that is around the holidays and around back to school for our families, and that was for Park It Market, it was two fifty households accessed.

Now my numbers here are only for Saratoga. So Saratoga household, we had 53 new Saratoga household accessing services. Two sixty six households accessed our market at Cupertino, which is in our main location, and the Park It market. 62 individuals participated in special programs, and three household received rental assistance. This prevented eviction and homelessness for these three households.

These are some Saratoga stats, and I'm not going to go over it, but as you see that we have more single individual accessing services registered with us, more female households. And this is kind of our numbers, again, with our ethnicity and demographics that we serve. We serve a very diverse community. What is unique about our services, we are offering critical services in the form of grocery assistance, so food assistance. We do the mobile operation.

We have rental assistance, housing referral and support, affordable housing, family support, homeless supportive services, case management, system navigation, and also financial education and education and advocacy. Our clients, like I said, are diverse. All of West Valley residents, so we serve Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Gatos, West San Jose, up in the mountains as well. Multicultural, multilingual, and a varied family composition of single households, family, and couple. I'll just go back to the slide so I can talk about a little bit about income eligibility.

It's in the two hundred and fiftieth percentile, which is 46,000 earned income for an individual and 96,000 for a family of four. Our intervention is a choice market. We look at food from the access of a meal, not just putting of food items. We do not bag anything. Clients shop for their own items.

We have a one stop shop approach, which I mean is when they come to us for food, they can get laundry quarters, they can get a subsidized bus pass, they can get information about food stamps. So everything is offered in that one service or point of contact. Our mobile operation is now in 11 locations. We have two vans at this point operating in all of West Valley cities. We have a lived experience committee that we have lived experience conversation and understanding the needs of the communities better and then come up with policy and talk to all of you on policies that we need to to protect SafetyNet.

Housing and hunger advocacy, we do it through our policy. Our approach has been crisis intervention, immediate support when someone comes to us, to short term intervention, which is more case management, and then long term as we try to work with the entire family to build self sufficiency. We developed a theory of change about five years ago, and what the theory of change is showing us is if a client is coming to us and is accessing at least two basic services, whether it is our case management and food, food or special program, 92% of them move from crisis to stability. And that has been the data, and hence we are advocating that critical needs services are very important. The other data point that we have seen through our theory of change is when we provide rental assistance, whether it is one time or short time for three months, we are seeing that ninety two percent are stably housed in their community and they are not seeing displacement or eviction or are not showing up on shelters or in safe park programs.

Again, our homeless prevention intervention is really helping prevent homelessness. Here is a story. These are stories of clients who come to us. So Michael, he is a caretaker for his father who is going through dementia, and he could not have a full time job. They were struggling. They were living in their car, couldn't get food, and they accessed WVCS services. And for the first time, Michael felt like he and his father could get the nutritional support that they need. Here is another story of a family who accessed services in our mobile operation. That's our pocket market. The family is able to do that because it is so close to their home.

They can bike, they can walk. In many of our locations, the clients just come right out of their doorstep, take food, and go back. So we make it very easy, accessible to all our residents. These are some pictures. This is our market. It's a choice market. This is the picture of our Park It market that comes to Fellowship Plaza. Here I have some more. This is at Fellowship Plaza. And we have the new van, and this goes to smaller location where parking is an issue, so Town Of Los Gatos and some of our Title I school.

The other important aspect where Saratoga residents can be part of this mission of ours is through our Grocery Rescue Program. We bring in food. So our goal has been that food does not get wasted. So we have a rescue program through our different grocery store. We need volunteers for this program.

So if you check our website, www.wvcommunitieservices.org, there are a number of volunteer opportunities for families, for youth who can come and help us. We also have a program of rescuing fruits from your yard, and that we are doing it in partnership with Cupertino Rotary. Again, the information is on our website about community harvest. These are some other programs called Gift of Hope, which we do in December, which again has volunteering opportunity for the community. You can come.

You can sponsor a booth. We make it like a carnival for our families, or you can just come and volunteer. Back to school is a program we do in August. This is called Sending Kids Back to School with Dignity, and here, again, we have volunteer opportunity for community members and for all of you in the council as well. And many of you have done that.

Here's about volunteerism. Apart from doing programs, you can just come help us clean the market. As you see, we have 30,000 visits happening in our market, and it is operational from Monday through Friday. It gets pretty dirty and sticky, especially when there are berry season. So that is another opportunity to come and help the market clean up. This can be a group opportunity, an opportunity for the faith community to be part of. Here are some resource fairs that we do. We do it around distribution of information, haircut, pet care. I think that ends my presentation. Thank you so much.

We value this partnership. City of Saratoga has been supporting the critical work we do. And me and my board and the staff truly appreciate this. Thank you.

You're welcome. Anybody from the council have any questions? Then I'll open it up to public comment and come back for any comments. Bilal?

I have a question. When a resident of the West Valley, whether it's Saratoga or Cupertino, when they start to experience need for your services, whether it's homelessness or food insecurity, what are some of the signs that we should be on the lookout for? Or what would they be looking for if I was one on my phone? Is it, hey, where's my next meal gonna come from? What are the sorts of things that you see an individual about to go into that start doing? And how can we be aware of that?

I think it is just spreading the knowledge. So for example, working with our landlords to know that if they are missing on rent, that's an opportunity to give them

a

referral. Schools like, you know, student attendance is a good indicator. When we see that students are not showing up and we have you know attendance review sessions, that's a good place to check on to see. And also just neighbors saying like I don't know I'm struggling and just opening up the conversation of seeing that there are organizations. Many a time, community members don't know there is organization like us.

Or they think that they don't qualify because they make enough income. So there are all these myths surrounding services. So it's just having that conversation and just giving them the brochure. Sometimes it is just go check them out. They even have volunteer opportunity. And that is sometime a good way to engage them.

Thank you.

Thank you a lot.

Thanks. Okay. Jatta, don't go too far. Is there any member of the public that would like to make a comment? We invite you down. You've got up to three minutes.

Hello, Glenn Hendricks. I just wanted to go ahead and make one comment. First of all, thank you for what everything you and your team does. But she talked about different volunteering things that the residents and community could do. I'd like to mention one more thing she didn't want to say. Is for people that can afford it, they would love to have a monthly check. I moved here to Saratoga about three and a half years ago. I started writing you a monthly check. And again, for anybody who's out there in my hearing in our radio land hearing my voice, they do fantastic work. There's need in the community.

And if you are in a position where you can financially afford it, I would highly encourage you to write them a check, monthly check, whatever it is you can do. They're probably in a constant trying to gather money and stuff. And so anything that our members of our community can do to help, it just makes the work that they do so much easier and so much better. So again, but only if you can afford it.

Thank you. Anybody online?

Thank you.

Okay. We'll close the public comment period and bring it back to the courts.

Thank

you. Sujatha, there may be a couple of people that want to say something before we go. Anybody? Cookie?

Yeah. I just wanted to thank you for your amazing services. I had the occasion to visit the location in Cupertino a few times in the last couple years. And there's just always been the feeling of dignity, right? So I just wanted to emphasize one of the things. So two years ago, I have a persimmon tree in my yard. And two years ago there were 400, 500 persimmons. I could grab 400. I brought 400 to the Cupertino location. And this last year I brought 125. So it was a feel good moment for me. And I know that they were really appreciated. They were good. They were good. So anyway, I hope I have another big crop this year.

And I'll be seeing you guys probably several more times.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. Fresh fruits and produce is something our clients really, really enjoy.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much.

Anybody else? I'd just like to say thank you too. And I actually have volunteered. I actually have cleaned that pantry in the market. So I know what that's all about. I can't get down on my knees like I used to anymore. Also, wrap presents. I know I've done that. And one time when my kids were little, we did some gleaning down in Monterey County. We brought back a bunch of sugar beets and things. And I was grateful that I had a place to bring them. So thanks for all that you do. Thank you. And you know, I happened to be at Starbucks the other day. And I talked to a couple of ladies that were sitting there having coffee.

And we were talking. And there was a neighbor of theirs that they talked about that had, all of a sudden, lawn was overgrown. And so they were asking, what can we do? And I said, well the first thing might be to ask. And so the next time I drove by that house, the lawn was all cut. So I think everything got taken care of by the neighbors, but that is exactly the kind of thing to do. We're neighbors. We walk up. Sometimes people might be afraid, but once they understand what you're there for, and we, if we keep in mind West Valley Community Services, we'll be able to offer some additional support. So thank

you Thank very

you so much. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good night.

All

right. Next on our agenda is the consent calendar which contains items of typically routine and noncontroversial business. Items in this section can be acted on in one motion unless removed by a mayor or a council member. Is there anybody that would like to pull an item? We'll talk about yours in a sec. Is there any member of the public that would like to speak on any item on the consent calendar? Anybody online? Britt?

I do not see any hands raised.

Okay. So we'll close the public comment period and bring it back to counsel for a motion. MARTINEZ: Or I know, Cookie, you have to not I can make a motion. DANIEL Yeah. Sure. Absolutely.

Move to approve consent calendar items 1.1 to 1.7, with myself recusing on item 1.6, the ordinance adopting village design standards.

Okay. I'll second that.

Okay. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? And no abstentions. So thank you. All right. Next up is on general business. We have item 2.1 which is our comprehensive communication strategy. A lot of words to say SOS.

Hey, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. Tonight I'll be providing an overview of how the city communicates before, during, and after an emergency. I'll also be talking about our system strengths, our gaps, and what comprehensive really means in practice. So first I just want to start off with our communication structure. We use a centralized model to avoid conflicting or delayed messaging.

Our communications are led by the Public Information Officer, which is myself, and our acting city manager. We work closely with our county partners listed here on the slide, especially for fire and law incidents. And this ensures consistency, accuracy, and alignment with regional messaging. We want to make sure that our residents are hearing one clear message versus multiple conflicting ones. So this graphic here frames our entire approach of the city communications.

The key point here is that communication doesn't start when an emergency happens. It starts well before with preparation and education. It also continues after through recovery and community support. And each of these phases listed here have different communications needs and tools, which I'll get into. So the first stage is preparedness and we focus mostly on education, outreach, and sign ups.

In emergency communications, we operate by like a 90 fivefive rule is what they call it. And 95% of the communications work you're doing occurs on non emergency, what they call blue sky days. And so the bulk of our time is spent in this phase. This phase is critical for emergency communications because if residents don't know where to get their information ahead of time, alerts will be less effective in a real emergency. The major focus for us is getting people signed up for Alert SCC and Genesis Protect.

Genesis Protect is an evacuation tool that is real time mapping and alerts that help emergency officials quickly issue, manage, and communicate evacuation warnings and orders to the public. We also, in this stage, are building familiarity with our city channels, including our social media channels and our website. And then we also utilize banners, flyers, and community outreach events, which is important because not all of our residents are online. This stage is really about building habits before an emergency happens and the goal is to ensure residents know where to get information before an emergency. The next stage is activation.

This is immediate alerting when identified. And in this stage, speed is the priority. We accomplish this by using two different alert systems. The first is WIA, wireless emergency alerts. These are powerful because it does not require sign ups by residents.

WEA alerts are short, loud messages pushed to all phones in a geographic area for life threatening emergencies only. If your phone is in the impact zone, has signal, and you allow wireless alerts, you should receive the alert automatically. An example that people tend to be familiar with are AMBER alerts. Another type of alert that we use in this county is alert SCC, which adds another layer with more detailed messaging. The county's alert system for important local updates can range from wildfires, evacuations, to traffic impacts, shelter info, and more.

For these, residents must subscribe and they can choose how they receive their alerts, whether they're by text, call, or email. Both of these alerts rely on technology and no system is perfect, and that's why it's smart to use multiple tools in conjunction with each other. Coordination with the county is critical for these alerts and this is where regional systems and local systems intersect. Both the acting city manager and myself are trained and certified in how to send alert SEC messages. The goal of this stage is to deliver urgent geographically targeted alerts quickly.

Then the next stage is the response phase and this is providing real time updates during an emergency. And this is where communications becomes ongoing, not just a single alert. The alerts tell you something happened but residents need updates about what's changed, what actions to take, and where to go for help. The website for us becomes sort of a central source of truth where we can update for residents and we also use all of our social media channels to push out information quickly and repeatedly. The 1610a.

M. Radio is important as well and I'll get to that in the next slide. This phase is about clarity and consistency across channels and partners. And the goal of this phase is to provide accurate, timely, and actionable information. So here we have a visual of the AM sixteen ten radio coverage. This is one of the city's backup tools. And in this graphic, the white shows the Saratoga City boundary. And what's important to understand from this graphic is that Saratoga is covered by at least the minimum threshold for signal strength. So this is very important because it does not rely on internet or cellular service. This means it can still function during outages congestion.

So we really encourage all residents to obtain battery or solar powered radios and keep them charged in case of emergency. The radio is not our primary tool, but it's part of our redundancy strategy and it adds another way for residents to access information. And then the fourth stage is recovery and this is supporting the community after an incident has occurred because communication does not stop when the immediate danger passes. Residents will need guidance on reentry, safety, and available resources. This phase can last much longer than the others.

It can span from days to weeks to months depending on the emergency. And in this phase, the messaging shifts from urgent alerts to ongoing support and the goal is to help residents safely return and recover. Once we complete all of these steps in an emergency, we can move on to review and improve. And this is where we're assessing and making changes based on the data we gathered. We can identify gaps.

We can track performance. And most importantly, we'll adjust strategies and provide staff training as necessary. The goal here is to implement improvements to strengthen our future communications. So redundancy across all phases. Redundancy is really the foundation of our entire strategy because no single system will reach everybody.

Different people rely on different channels and systems can fail in emergencies. So we use a layered approach that uses multiple tools that reinforce the same message. If one fails, others still work and that's what makes our system resilient. So into our system strengths, overall our system is very strong. The WEA alerts provide very fast, targeted alerts to all residents in a specific area.

And we're not just relying on one platform. We have a variety of different platforms that we can reach our residents on. We also have strong engagement on our digital channels, which helps us extend our reach. And this gives us a really solid foundation to build on. However, there are some areas that the city does have gaps that we can improve upon. Some of the gaps are structural in nature. So, for example, with Alert SCC, it's an opt in system. So we need residents to sign up themselves. Other situational residents who may not have phones, might not receive alerts in an emergency. At night, there might be residents who have their phones off or on do not disturb.

And people may be spending time outdoors, such as going on a hike, may not have cell service. There are also some equity related gaps. We want to make sure that we're reaching all residents regardless of their primary language and any disabilities that may make it difficult to receive our communications. There also are some technology related gaps if we have power outages or network disruptions. All of these are common challenges, but they're important to acknowledge.

So what a Comprehensive System includes. Comprehensive does not mean perfect coverage, but it does mean multiple systems working together. This visual on the slide on the right demonstrates our whole system in sort of a hierarchy. It shows that each tool serves a different purpose. The WEA Alerts are immediate alerts, alert SEC is providing more detailed messaging. Then our website and social media channels are providing ongoing updates for residents. Then we also rely on our physical tools for backup and accessibility. It's a combination of all of these together that really creates the effectiveness. So some things to keep in mind for the future. Based on our gaps, we do have some areas where we can strengthen our emergency communications.

A big one for us is improving Alert SCC and Genesis Protect for our residents. We also can continue to provide improved accessibility and language access to make sure we're reaching all of our residents. We also would like to provide more ongoing public education. Our recent evacuation seminar in February was an example of this. Potential supplemental tools that the city might want to look into are sirens or message boards.

It's important to note that these do not replace our existing system but would act as an additional alert layer. So to sum it up, the city has a strong layered system in place and that spans across all emergency phases and types of tools that we have. Our system is built around redundancy and coordination. No system is without gaps, but our approach maximizes reach across different conditions. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Does any council member have any questions? I've got one. And if you don't know the answer, I perfectly understand. With Alert SCC, I know one of the difficulties is that it's an opt in program. So is there a way that somebody who thinks they may have opted in to be able to check to see if they have?

They can go to alertscc.org. And if they sign in, it will show if they've registered or not. If they haven't registered, it will take them all through the steps. But otherwise they should have an email or a phone number already registered in the system.

Cool. Thank you. That's awesome. Balal,

I had a question. In the event of an emergency of some kind, there's a good chance that other cities will be affected as well, including Pawpie County. How does that work in terms of coordination? Do you rely on the county to send some of those messages? I know you're trained to do send messages on behalf of the city. How does that tend to work?

In that case, we would set up a joint information center with the county. The county office of emergency communications would most likely take the lead depending on the type of emergency, but we would follow their lead and support them as needed. We have our own channels for our specific residents. So it's important that we use those. But if there was a larger emergency that involved multiple cities or the county, we would definitely work with them closely.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank

you. Okay. We'll open it to public comment right now. And so if anybody in the chambers would like to come and speak on this item, please come forward. And Britt, can you tell me if anybody's online?

If you would like to address the council on this item when you're attending via Zoom, now it's time to raise your hand. No hands raised.

Okay. Thanks. We'll close the public comment period and bring it back to counsel for any comments or actions.

I'll jump in just to keep us going. I really appreciate the update. It's helpful for us to have the context. As part of our capital evaluation for our budget next year, our capital projects, we're talking about potentially having messaging boards, and it's helpful to understand how those would fit within the context of having a layered approach there. So appreciate this, the update. I think it really helps put things in perspective, and it's great to know that we've been doing so much work here. And our residents should know that there is a lot of work to do being done here. And obviously, we're not perfect, but and we wanna maximize the amount of information we can get out there. Just communication is really hard in general. But I promise you, every household has gotten communication about this multiple years.

So please check your mail.

Thank you. Tina.

Corinne, thank you for a really good staff report. I don't know where she's hiding. I can't see her. So well, you may be hiding, but you're doing good work in the communications space. And I deeply appreciate that.

I just want to share a data point. We have been trying as a city for quite a few years to promote Alert SCC. This was a big deal, especially in 2020 with the CCU fires and the need to educate our residents which is the correct source of information for us. And I'm very happy to see the number, 8223. When I looked at the number, for a moment, I thought, oh, we need to increase it.

And I completely agree. We really need to increase that. Our residents are 30,000 plus. But I just want us to pause for a second and feel good. We are at one of the top levels as a city in our county.

I just got that data the other day from the county office of emergency management, the OEM. And great job to the City of Saratoga, everybody who has worked on this. And at the same time, that also means you ought to move up and get those numbers even higher. So just want to thank you for everything that, Corinne, you are doing and our city has done and our active city manager Leslie has worked on this a lot last year. Open to more ideas and the less dollars that are needed with wider reach is the best way to go. But of course, the layered approach is the solution. Thank you.

Okay. Ann?

Yeah. I just want to echo what has been said. Just want to thank you for the great job on the comprehensive emergency communications strategy update. I feel great, you know, after hearing all those things we are working on. And so I just want to say thank you. And I'm particularly, you know, excited you're talking about, you know, the things that you want to look into, including the message board as well as sirens. So I think, yeah, this is something that potentially, you know, another tool that can be added to our communication strategy. So I just want to, you know, thank you for that.

Thank you. Cookie?

Great job. Thanks.

Okay. I'll throw in my 3.5¢. Thank you very much, Corinne. Great presentation. And I think what it shows is that our residents, you know, I know I've done, I'm in my twelfth year of 20 on this city council, the last 20. And I know that one of the things that continually comes up is that people don't receive communications. They feel that they're not aware of things. The layered approach, having multiple avenues to connect with, is really, really important. So I encourage everybody to follow what's been said today. And cover yourself with multiple layers. It's the way to make sure that you're communicated with and that you understand what is going on when it goes on, and hopefully before. Thank you.

JULIE: Mayor, if I may? Yeah. Just one thing. Just to add to the alert SCC. You know, one of the things last fall we did during the great shakeout, we had an alert, a test alert for the city. And prior to that, we had done a city mailing. And that number had really increased our numbers of people signing up so that we could test it. I do want to let you know that we are going to do another test alert on May 1 to the city, and we'll be promoting that. And that will be May is the kickoff of National Fire Preparedness Month. So we will do another alert.

And one of the things that will be interesting, which we will be looking at are our existing numbers for sign ups for Alert SEC, and then what does that change that number post doing that test alert again. So we continue to look for ways to test this out with our residents, but also to encourage them to continue to sign up for it.

That's excellent. Thank you very much. Okay. Next on our agenda is the West Valley Homeless Services Feasibility Study. And we welcome the staff report.

See if Kyle has the magic touch.

Thank you mayor, vice mayor, city council members. For those that don't know, my name is Kyle Rathbone. I'm an associate city planner here with the city. And tonight we will be discussing the West Valley homeless services feasibility study. This homeless needs analysis and feasibility study is associated with the memorandum of understanding with the West Valley jurisdictions.

The study is the product of the city of Campbell contacting with the Good City Company. Tonight we will present key findings of the study and staff recommendations. And the recommendations are that the city council receive the report and adopt a resolution of intent to support participation in a West Valley Homeless Services Implementation Task Force, which we will expand upon later in the presentation. So some background. In July 2024, the city of Campbell allocated $100,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to conduct a homeless needs analysis and feasibility study for the West Valley region, which includes the cities of Saratoga, Campbell, Cupertino, Monte Sereno and the town of Los Gatos.

In December 2024, the city of Campbell contracted with Good City Company to conduct a needs analysis and feasibility study. In spring twenty twenty five, the city of Campbell developed and entered into a memorandum of understanding with the other West Valley jurisdictions, recognizing that homelessness is a regional challenge and best addressed collaboratively. Saratoga City Council authorized a city manager to execute that MOU in March 2025. So the project consisted of two components, phase one, a needs analysis, completed in July, and phase two, a feasibility study, completed earlier this year and summarized in this report. The completed feasibility study builds upon the needs analysis findings and evaluates collaborative strategies the five jurisdictions could pursue to more effectively address homelessness across the West Valley.

And so Campbell adopted their resolution of intent last week. Los Gatos and Monte Sereno have theirs coming up for their council hearings. And Cupertino's is also coming up. I think they haven't set it on an agenda yet.

So

purpose, the feasibility study evaluates opportunities for shared services between the West Valley jurisdictions, strengthen regional partnerships, and alignment of resources and responses to the specific needs of unhoused residents in the West Valley. So I will characterize some of the major existing needs identified from the analysis. This chart shows point in time counts of people experiencing homelessness by each of the five cities in 2023 compared to 2025. So the West Valley area saw a 13% increase, which was higher compared with the overall county increase of 8%. And for context, other cities in the region, such as Santa Cruz, actually saw decreases.

The needs analysis also used county homeless services intake data, which reveal about five twenty four individuals across three twenty two households. So these numbers provide an order of magnitude of the homeless population. This is the best data available, but it should be understood as an absolute floor of identified individuals or households. The real numbers of homeless people is likely to be higher. And in Saratoga, nineteen people were found to be experiencing homelessness as of the twenty twenty five point in time count.

West Valley individuals were more likely to sleep in their car or couch surf and less likely to utilize a shelter bed than the remainder of the county. 19% of households of homeless in the West Valley are youth, and 19% are family with children. A higher rate of individuals in the West Valley are more recently homeless relative to the remainder of the county. Fifty one percent of individuals in the West Valley have been homeless for two years or more, which is roughly double the national average, but lower than the rest of Santa Clara County. The West Valley area saw a higher domestic violence survivor rate and lower mental, physical and alcohol substance use rate than the remainder of the county.

And Hispanic, Latino, black and American Indian indigenous individuals are substantially overrepresented relative to their share of the population in the West Valley. We will now turn from the needs analysis recap to the results of the feasibility study. So feasibility findings, the West Valley homeless services feasibility study analyzed potential policy and program responses to address homelessness in the West Valley area. The study notes that while homelessness is a complex problem, investing in proven housing and services programs can have considerable positive impact on people experiencing homelessness and on the community at large. So the feasibility study provides an analysis of several homelessness response programs and includes a series of specific recommendations and you can consult the study for additional detail on these.

But the feasibility study provides a detailed analysis of several programs which are categorized into six overall categories: homelessness prevention, outreach and case management, immediate needs, shelter and parking, interim and transitional housing, and permanent housing. And the study recommends ensuring adequate services at each of these six categories to support individuals and families to prevent homelessness and at every step on the journey towards permanent housing. So each potential program was ranked with a feasibility score and with an impact score as indicated in the table. The impact score is a composite of three indicators, scale of the current gap, short term impact and long term impact. The feasibility score is a composite of five indicators, cost savings, cost, external funding likelihood, level of difficulty to implement and the level of established implementation partnerships.

The study recommends giving attention to those programs that have both high impact and high feasibility, though it recognizes that there can also be good reasons to invest in other programs as well. The programs also looked at the West Valley unhoused population characteristics. While all programs have the ability to be tailored to meet the community needs, some programs may be suited better to specific groups. For example, unhoused families may benefit from rapidly housing programs which provide short term rental assistance. While people sleeping in cars may benefit from safe parking programs along with access to food, showers and laundry.

While those who are couch surfing may benefit more from rental assistance and homelessness prevention programs. So as we have two metrics here, the same data can also helpfully be visualized in a matrix. The matrix diagram provides graphic representation of each of the potential programs organized by its respective impact score and feasibility score. So programs with a higher feasibility score are in the greener shaded columns towards the right hand side along the x axis. And programs with a higher impact score are in the greener shaded rows towards the top along the y axis.

As the red box on the screen highlights, the study recommends giving attention to those programs that have both high impact and high feasibility, though it recognizes that there are also good reasons to invest in other programs as well. So the feasibility study discusses actions at the local and sub regional scale that have a high likelihood of making meaningful and measurable positive impact for community members experiencing homelessness and for the community overall. These actions are likely to be particularly important in an environment where federal funding is less available. So those recommendations are adopt a formal implementation plan, develop and adopt a West Valley area homelessness response implementation plan that includes an aspirational vision, clear goals and objectives, programs tailored to population segments, plans for near and long term outcomes, and leverages existing programs. And the study does provide an example set of the types of goals and objectives that could be used as a reference by the West Valley Homelessness Response Task Force.

Next, sustain and strengthen what works. Use the tools available to local governments to ensure that continuation of existing services with a proven track record, including homelessness prevention and expanding affordable housing. Prioritize additional investments in programs with high feasibility and high impact. As we saw in the matrix, these include homelessness prevention and rental assistance, case management, rapid rehousing, permanent affordable housing, health and mental health care, food, showers and laundry, opportunity funds and reunification programs. Cultivate partnerships at all levels, deploy a whole of society approach to engage governments, the private sector, civil society, individuals and communities.

Establish a formal West Valley Homelessness Response Task Force to set goals and monitor progress. Engage with people who have experienced homelessness, identify ways for individuals who have experienced homelessness to meaningfully participate in program design, implementation and evaluation. Align with the community plan to end homelessness, demonstrate alignment with the plan's goals to address the root causes of homelessness, improve the quality of life for unsheltered individuals, create healthy neighborhoods for all, and expand homelessness prevention and housing programs. And an update to the Santa Clara County Community Plan to End Homelessness, which serves as a roadmap for ending homelessness in Santa Clara County, is also underway. Recommendations from the West Valley Feasibility Study will be shared with the county to promote alignment between the plans.

Identify funding, explore creative funding approaches to support homelessness response programs, and finally support neighborhood health, safety and cleanliness, address quality of life issues for the entire community. So staff recommends that the city council adopt the resolution of intent supporting participation in the West Valley Homeless Services Implementation Task Force. The task force would be composed of representatives from the five West Valley jurisdictions, as well as county representatives, key institutional stakeholders and select service providers. The task force would develop a formal implementation plan and establish measurable goals, define governance structure, financing strategy and monitor progress. So the resolution of intent is intended to gauge the initial interest among all five West Valley jurisdictions to participate in the task force.

So following adoption of the resolution of intent, the city of Campbell will be obtaining a scope of services with a consultant to provide technical support to the task force and prepare a memorandum of understanding outlining the role of the task force and funding needs. Once an MOU is ready, Saratoga staff would bring that MOU back to council for adoption and subsequently initiate work on the task force. Adoption of the resolution of intent by itself does not commit each city to adopting the subsequent MOU. So again, the recommended action tonight is that the city council receive the report and provide feedback on the West Valley Homeless Services Feasibility Study and adopt a resolution of intent to support participation in a West Valley homeless services implementation task force. Thank you for your time.

And we are happy to answer any questions.

Any questions? Yeah.

Thank you so much for the report. Just have a question. You know, in your presentation, you talk about next steps, you know, resolution of the intent in Campbell to seek consultant support. And I'm just curious, is any budget? I mean, they they allocate a 100,000 for consultant support. Is that correct? I just wanna make sure. Is any I mean, right now, we are not doing anything. We're just going to be, signed MOU. But for the, you know, subsequent, you know, task force and recommendations? Is any budget that we associate with the future work?

Yeah. I haven't seen an exact budget. Obviously, you know, this is just the resolution of intent and then any actual funding requirements from cities would be worked out in that future MOU after obtaining a scope of services which should give a better idea of costs on that side of things. But yeah, no tangible budget as of yet.

So the consultant support is from the $100,000 that's from the ARPA money, right? From the Campbell allocated that already?

Yeah. I'm not positive I can check-in on that because that was for the preparation of this feasibility study in terms of if that used up all of the ARPA funds, if there's any left over. I have to check with the city of Campbell.

Okay. Thank you.

So because the Campbell City Council already adopted their resolution, they do have a preliminary budget for a consultant of $80,000 that would be shared amongst the five cities. I don't know what the breakdown would be. We would get more information on that if they bring back an MOU. And as Kyle mentioned, it doesn't commit the city to anything. It's just a study.

So if we sign the MOU, it does, we do commit for the, to pay part of the $80,000 the consultant work?

I would assume so. I haven't seen any language of the MOU, but I would assume so. And I don't know if the breakdown would be an even split, or if it's going to be based on population. We don't know that information yet.

Okay. Thank you.

Tina?

Thank you. I am going to ask a different question and then come back to the question that was just asked. When I saw the results of this study a couple of months ago, this was a very sobering moment for me. I think January when you sent this study to the council, to see 19 homeless persons in Saratoga. I paused and I paused.

It just hit me. My question is, and I've discussed this with Leslie a couple of times, how is this count done? And I heard Kyle say this evening that this is the baseline, the numbers could be more. So I was under the impression the numbers could even be less. So is this one person counted multiple nights or what? Please help me understand that.

So it was a point in time count. So essentially all those numbers come from just one night where essentially a group of volunteers you know, canvass the city identifying unhoused individuals. That's why it's a baseline because it was all done at once. Doing a count in that way can't identify individuals who are couch surfing, potentially staying in like RVs on private property. So that's part of the reason that it's just able to act as a baseline. It can only identify homeless individuals with a certain level of visibility.

Okay. Thanks, Kyle. I have I

asked this question of the consultant, how they got that number. Uh-huh. And what I was told was they found a person, and then they extrapolated based upon the area that they'd actually surveyed. They had not surveyed the entire city. They surveyed a portion of the city and extrapolated out to a number of 19. Now, one is not good. 19 is not good. So something needs, you know, whatever. I mean, that's why the study came out. But that was what the consultant said. That is how they came up with that number.

Thank you. That's helpful. The other thing I Chuck, that helps. So if memory serves me right, somewhere in the report, again this is two and a half months ago, or maybe three months ago when I read this, did it not refer to three nights that they were out counting? Because that's what I vaguely recall thinking.

Is it the same x number of people that they have counted three nights that they went out and counted? Because that would be important, not to belabor the point, but whether it is one, as the mayor just said, or five, or 19. It would be important for us to understand exactly how this is counted. I'll leave it at that, if we don't have any more information on this one. Leslie?

I can let Kyle possibly address that if he found that in the report. But I would say, too, that one of the things that we found out with this point in time count is that they did say that their methodology did need further refining. So it's one of those things that it's kind of continuously lessons learned from this, but that it's not a hard, fast number for Saratoga right now.

Okay. That's very helpful.

But that doesn't answer your question with regards to the three. But just know that the methodology, in and of itself, they realize, needs some further refining. Okay. That is helpful.

Again, it is a sobering number. And I think it behooves us to understand, have a better insight of their methodology, if even they are not clear. Will leave it at that. It is I'm going to make a comment here which kind of ties into this, that this is, what, an hour plus ago maybe just about an hour ago, actually we had West Valley Community Services the director of that place, Ujata Venkataraman, here. And it is good to know that this council, all of us, we have supported that organization.

The city of Saratoga supports that. And clearly, there is a need. So when I'm asking about this number, I am not saying there is no need. We do know there is a need, as has been demonstrated year after year by West Valley Community Services, because they have been bringing us data in multiple ways that our city needs to support. Back to the budget question, so we are being asked tonight to support a resolution of intent, or I may have it backwards, the language.

That is correct, the resolution of intent.

Okay. Thank you. But we WILLIAMS: don't

know what budget implications that brings us to the city of Saratoga?

There's no commitment in the resolution of intent. And then the future MOU, which will have more details, that will come back to city council for another decision.

How does that work, Leslie?

Well, again, what Kyle had mentioned is that this resolution of intent, we wouldn't be financially bound with this MOU with financial implications. But from my understanding with this, one of the things about doing this West Valley feasibility study was that it was something that we needed to do as cities as also part of the housing element. So it would behoove us to sign this resolution of intent to meet certain obligations within the housing element and what we've required of the state. Maybe, Cindy, I don't know if I'm incorrect in that, but I believe in talking with our CDD director, he had told me that this was something that we needed to do.

I'll wait for Cindy to respond.

So I did just a quick word search in our housing element. And so program 4.2 is 4.2.4 is affordable housing incentives and waivers that will work with housing developers to expand opportunities for affordable low income housing. And including persons experiencing homelessness by existing partnerships, providing incentives, and pursuing funding opportunities. So that's where the program comes from.

Okay. Thank you. That's helpful. Again, my concern is only it would be good to know if there's any dollar amount tied to it. What happens? So let me ask it differently. If we and I fully support. It's you know, Leslie. This shook me up when I read that early January. As a responsible council member, my question is, supporting to adopt the resolution of intent tonight, Do we know for sure it is not tying our hands at this point to any budgetary implications? That's a simple question.

It is not. And again, my understanding is that once we get into the MOU, that's when we would be. So right now, just the resolution of intent does not bind us into joining that MOU.

Okay. That is very helpful. That is clear. Appreciate that. Thanks.

Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Have a couple. One, you know, I discussed a little bit about the methodology used in my disagreement with it, which I expressed to the consultant.

When would a recount, or as they called it, an assessment occur again?

As far as I'm aware, there's no plan currently for a further recount. You know, this was something that was scoped and the study was conducted. So that would have to be, my understanding is, a future study carried out.

Okay. Thanks. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Then we'll, open the public comment period and invite anyone who'd like to speak on this item to please come forward or raise their virtual hand. Or they can sit in the audience and raise their virtual hand. Hi, Glenn.

Hello. So first off, I just, this is one of those, items where having a three minute clock is really going to kill me. But I think this is a great idea to be working together with other cities to try and get a critical mass of being able to try and do this. This is such a big kind of problem to do. A city smaller city like us can't do this on our own.

You guys may not know this, but I sit on the Measure A Citizens Measure A twenty sixteen Citizens Oversight for the nine fifty million dollar bond to build housing. I also have a lot of experience with Sunnyvale Community Services to try and work on this. And one thing you should do is you should tell this consultant to go speak with the Sunnyvale Community Services people because the things that you have, your high high up there, that's what Sunnyvale Community Services does. So you have a working example that if and if you cobble together these multiple cities, you'd probably get something of similar size to what Sunnyvale Community Services is. I have no doubt about the need.

Point and count timing, I think the county does it like every two years or something like that, and they're just supposed to span out over the whole county. I don't know why they're not counting Saratoga. That's something else to ask the county, because I'm really pissed with them. The one thing I was disappointed with in this study wasn't until page 11 that it uttered the word funding. And I didn't see anything in here about how funding to do. You guys are going be able to get a great study that says we should do this, and we should do that, and we should do the other thing. And here's how you can go ahead and make an impact. And it's all about where's the money. And the other thing I didn't see in this study is where is the county? The county is the safety net piece for us.

It's not the city's job. Your city budget is not built to be funding these kind of services. So the consultant or whatever, they should be working with the county, and understand where is the county money coming from. At best, what you guys are going be able to I don't know if you guys get, you know, community grant money from the federal government or something. That's something you can push towards this.

I think it's great to go ahead and do this study. If you guys had to put $20,000 or less into trying to put this together, I have no problem with it. I would be very upset if you were putting general fund money into the solutions that come out of this. This is where it needs to go to the County Board of Supervisors and go, here, how much money does the city of Saratoga put into the county coffers? And what are the services that we get back?

And the services I really want to raise my hand for, we're already paying separately for the, our sheriff department and stuff, is for this kind of stuff, the social safety network services. Because that's their job, and that's what they should be doing here. So do the study, work with Sunnyvale Community Services, because they can help lay out and tell you how to do it. And they're also going to tell you what it costs. But that's what it's all about. You can come up with a great program. How is it paid for?

Thank you.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members, Bernie Mills. Glenn said it well. The only thing I would add to what he said is, from what I've heard tonight, I'm very concerned about the consultant that's in place. And I think you guys probably are as well, and just haven't said it. But the fact that there isn't a methodology that's outlined that I could see, and maybe you could see in more detail than we could see, is a problem.

And the fact that we don't know if that number 19 is one person counted 19 times, is one person that they found, and then they extrapolated over the rest of the city. Or they found none, and they just assumed that there were 19. I don't know what it is. This is a big problem for our area. The other thing that I was thinking as I was listening was, and maybe they provided this or not, but are the 19 assumed individuals in Saratoga?

Or were they in San Jose and they just came to Saratoga because it's a safer place than where they were in San Jose? It's a different set of problems to solve if it's one versus the other, or if it's none of those two and it's something else. So trying to understand the issue, I think, would be helpful. Maybe the data's there and it just wasn't presented tonight. But I think there's a lot of questions that should be asked.

Again, a very real problem. A very real problem. We invest money from our own plan of giving, my wife and I, to address this problem. But we address it in a way that we know is going to go to people who actually need it. And I just haven't heard that tonight in what's come out of the recommendations. So I hope the discussion further addresses the particular issues that I see and that Glenn raised and that I'm sure you see as well. Because this is a problem that needs to be solved for our city and for the rest of the county. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. We'll go to our remote speakers. We'll go with Dontavious.

Hello.

Hello? Hello?

Go ahead.

Yeah. I just wanna say that that educated man that just came up, man, we he used to be my gang and shit. We used call him bookworm, nigga. Man, that nigga, I seen him use a pocket protector in fact that you'd stop a bullet, nigga. Man, shit. We love that bookworm, nigga. All I gotta say is y'all gotta stop trying to spy on the homeless and shit. Alright. We out. Thank you.

Next is Clayton.

Hello? Hello.

Hi. Go ahead.

Okay. Hello. I'm a trans homeless. I identify as homeless. As a homeless identified person, I think everyone who came up here is a bigot. And home the homeless community is the backbone of Saratoga. We should open up all public lands to the homeless like front lawns, golf courses, and parks. And this council chamber's really big. Why can't we let them live in here? We should allow them to sleep in here, and we should start giving out free needle kits and meth pipes. Homeless people make Saratoga great. Don't be a bigot.

Well, thank you.

Next is Edward. Edward.

Okay. Let's see.

Dellum. Edward.

I'm so very sorry about that. Am I audible?

Yes. Go ahead.

Thank you. First off, a lot of odd speakers tonight. My I am Edward. I'm speaking from the Trans Revolutionary Council of Saratoga. It's basically like a little shish, like, shadow city council that criticizes what you guys do online, like, Reddit. I'd like to first off say that I appreciate the professionalism, the candor of the council thus far. You know, speaking as someone who hails from townships and municipalities with, you know, a lot more bickering and issues present at city meetings. Seeing the cooperation is very nice. Secondly, I, as as well as many other residents, we've become aware of the inundation of illegal Chinese residents. And, you know, I understand that the various railroads in town, they're starting new construction projects.

You know, they're bringing in like a big wave of immigrants from China, but they're like they're paigao gambling in the fucking streets. They have open air dog meat markets, you know, all that stuff. When when Lord President Trump a couple months ago uttered, they're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats, it was here that he was speaking up. You know, here that the endless masses of Chinese state operatives have begun endlessly plucking familial animals from their loving homes, just to be cramped cramped into the stomachs of railway workers, while they play mahjong in a dirty alleyway on their brakes. City council members, we demand a solution.

Thank you.

Don.

Hey, can you hear me?

Sure can. Mayor, there are no other speakers. The last one we had, you couldn't understand them.

Yeah, there were technical difficulties apparently. Okay, thank you. With that we'll close the public comment period and bring it back to counsel. Well, you all won't jump in, I will. Thanks a lot for the report. I did have a meeting with the consultant and the other mayors of our West Valley cities. I do have serious concerns about their quote methodology. This really comes down to, as it was explained to me, within the housing element there's certain requirements. Addressing the needs of the homeless, as Cindy mentioned, is part of that. Do we try to do that individually or as a region?

And I agree wholeheartedly with Glenn that the county is the safety net. And that was a big part of our discussion, that they need to be part of this. But regionally seems to make more sense from a dollars and cents perspective. So that's what we're doing here. I know in the resolution it talks about, or I think we'd call it that, it talks about two things.

And it says, one, that it's in the best interest of us to work together collectively. And that basically we're asking the city manager, or his or her designee, to enter discussions about the formation of the task force. After that, the MOU will come, and that'll give us the opportunity to define funding, etcetera. And you know, I personally would love to see, A, the counting methodology to be, you know, something that we'd all agree upon, or at least we could acknowledge. The way that they went about it seemed like a bit of a crapshoot, if you ask me.

And I think that it ought to be legitimately done. There ought to be a clear understanding of how they go about it. And we as members, contributing members of this task force, we should agree methodology used so that we can all participate members in a way that actually solves a problem, not just looks at a made up situation. And we try to address something that may or may not be there. So my 2¢. Who's next? Yeah. No.

Well, I'm ready to make a motion, if it's okay with you. I move to adopt the resolution of the intent to support participation in the West Valley Homeless Services Implementation Task Force.

Okay. Do we have a second? I second. Cookie seconds. Any discussion?

Yep. Yes. Generally supportive of it. Just to sort of throw in my 2¢, I agree that it'd be helpful to understand the different methodologies. I also had a call with the office of supportive housing at the county just to understand it. And they do a point in count point in time count every two years. But then they also take a look at surveys, for example, that folks will submit. And then, you know, for example, this is separate from the point in time count. Take a look at the surveys and basically say, you know, what percent people indicate where in the county they're coming from. And within the county they'll say, hey, I'm coming from Saratoga.

And so sometimes they're indicate you know, there's an example of, you know, people coming from the county maybe to Saratoga, but more often it's actually at least that as it was described was Saratoga to to the county more often. But, yeah, look, there's no perfect way to do this, frankly. It's like it's a very hard thing to do to assess the number of homeless out there. I, you know, we there we I have heard stories just but also observed with city staff, with folks in the creek, in different parks, even in the heritage orchard. And so we do have examples of that. So we know that I personally know the number is not zero. Is it 19? I also question the number from zero, like three years ago. Right? I will recognize this whole thing is imperfect.

And I I I am supportive of this. Obviously, like, the the concern is will there be more is the ask gonna be for funding? Because we just don't have it right now. And I do, on behalf of the city, sit on the I always get the exact name wrong, but it's the Housing and Community Development Advisory Committee, where basically it's literally designed for cities like Saratoga which are too small to get grant dollars and distribute them ourselves. It basically goes to the county and work with the county to distribute those across the county.

And so as we have more projects that are actually coming online, the Builders' Remedy, when we have more low income housing in Saratoga, or if there are other projects that do get developed in Saratoga, that funding can be used for that. But frankly, a long time, any funding that may have come for our population allocation has just gone to other projects across the county. So I think it's something for us to be aware of too for when these projects start coming up for us to go and get that funding. And that's probably a more thoughtful way for us to go from a funding perspective because I agree we just don't have the budget for it.

Excellent. Thank you, Bilal.

Yeah. And I don't know if you have to appoint someone on the task force, but I'm willing to jump on board. Not that I know anything about it, but willing to learn.

All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries, five-zero. Thank you. Yes?

Just wanted to follow-up. The point in time count does happen annually. It's usually after the last part of the month of January, just as an FYI.

Okay. I think I was indoors then. I'm not sure. Okay. Everybody doing okay? Or do you want to take a little break? We don't have very much to go. Well, maybe. Can we take five minutes? Let's take a five minute break and we'll be back.

Thank you. Sorry. Item 2.3, our accessory accessory dwelling unit, that is ADU for most of the rest of us, incentives. Cindy.

Good evening. I'm Cindy McCormick, development manager with the City of Saratoga. And thank you for giving the acronyms so that I can just say ADU during my presentation. The City of Saratoga currently incentivizes homeowners to deed restrict their ADUs to be affordable to low income households in exchange for specified incentives, including fee waivers and favorable development standards, including increased floor area and lot coverage. Staff has recommended a variety of options to further incentivize affordable ADUs, including creating an amnesty program to legalize unpermitted ADUs, creating a program to incentivize the conversion of accessory structures to an ADU, evaluating the city's internal ADU process, and increasing outreach to advertising the city's ADU programs and incentives.

I'm going to focus on two of the recommendations this evening, but happy to talk about each of them. One of these is to increase what we already have in terms of an incentive from one time 10% increase to a 15% increase in site coverage in floor area for deed restricted ADUs. Given the large lot sizes in Saratoga and the desire for larger multi generational homes, the increase from 10% to 15% will further incentivize development of affordable ADUs. In terms of the fee, rather than provide fee waivers for all the ADUs, staff is recommending that the city remove the deed restriction requirement for affordable ADUs that receive reduced or zero cost fees. Homeowners may be reluctant to record a permanent restriction against their title for what may be perceived as a relatively small financial incentive.

For example, the building permit fee for a 1,200 square foot ADU is about $17,000 And that amount of savings may not be seen as a beneficial tradeoff. Therefore, is recommending that the recorded deed restriction be replaced with a notarized affidavit, which may be more amenable to a property owner. The amount of the fee waiver would be tiered to incentivize very low income units which are difficult to obtain in Saratoga. The fee for a very low income unit would be zero cost, while the fee for a low income unit would be 50% of the permit costs. The signed affidavit will serve as a documentation to HCD that the owner has committed to renting the unit at an affordable rate.

The annual progress reports include a line item to count non deed restricted units so long as the APR includes information supporting the low income RINA credit. And we've provided language that we would change in the fee schedule if you support this recommendation. And this concludes my report. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Any questions? Balal?

Quick question, Cindy, on the affidavit approach. Have we seen other cities do that? And has HCD responded or acknowledged that in any way?

So we, there is state law, and Richard can help me with this. In terms of when somebody does a lot split, they sign an affidavit that says that they're going to occupy one of the lots. So the affidavit is in place. And it's being used statewide.

Yeah.

Thank you, Cindy, for your report. So you just talked about so for 1,200 square footage of ADU, you talked about $17,000 This is just for the building permit, plan check, everything? Or are there additional fees that the homeowners still have to pay?

So I'm going to ask Erin to assist with the question. And these are rounded numbers. So the question was for a 1,200 square foot ADU with the fee calculated at around $17,000 what does that cover and what other costs might there be?

About 65% of those fees go to the cover just the building department services. Those are building permit fees and plan check fees. There's other surcharges that go to technology. There's a planning fee involved. I believe it's $1,400 that goes to planning.

There's a few surcharges that go to the state for various things. So, all those things add up to about 17. I don't remember exactly what the number is, but the part that goes to the actual building permit is, I want to say, about 65% of that number. So, 9,000 or $10,000 And then the rest of the, you know, like I said, surcharges and extra fees that are just kind of city, community development department related.

Another question is, does the homeowner have to pay the parking loo fee for ADUs?

The what? Parking loo. I'm not sure about the park, no. I don't, that's not a fee I'm familiar with collecting, at least for, at the building permit stage, no.

I thought that. The park?

Park in lieu.

Yeah, park in

Yeah, not familiar that.

We have to pay for every

park and loop.

Park and loop fees do not apply to ADUs. Staff had proposed that last year, but counsel wanted to discuss it further, and we are still working on some other park fee issues. But ADUs have never had to pay park fees, so that's not an issue here.

Okay. All right. Thank you. I just want to make sure. I know we were going to discuss later about the fees, and so we never charged any parking move for all right.

But the staff had talked about beginning to charge them

Right.

But suspending it for a year. But there were a lot of other questions that came up with respect to the ADU ordinance. So that was all tabled. It will be coming back at some point.

Since we're added, the parking lot fees are calculated by the square footage, correct? Or by I

think they are based on the units. I'm not positive.

Okay. All right. I'm just kind of curious. Thank you.

Okay. Tina?

Firstly, thank you, Cindy, for answering a few of these questions. And we spoke earlier on this subject. And thank you, Erin, for providing the data for the fees. So one question, Cindy, that I also asked you was about the conversion programs. And what kind of fee would be there, either for the conversion program of some existing structure, how do we incentivize those into ADUs, and also about the amnesty program. I mean, you and I have been talking about that, what, twelve years now? We need to grandfather all these existing ADUs in the city and how do we incentivize them?

And so in terms of the building fee, the fee would be the same if it's if they're legalizing an unpermitted ADU, it's as if it didn't exist. So they would pay the same fee as if it was newly constructed. For the conversion from like a pool house to an ADU, they would pay a remodel fee.

Which is what I would have thought. So if somebody is adding another 400 square foot or something, then that's what they pay for, or whichever way. Aaron's department will calculate that.

Correct.

Okay. Is there a way, in your experience with other cities, or talking with people from other cities, have you seen a different incentive given for the amnesty program? And I'll add another question. Do we have any sense of how many those would be in our city? So that we don't have I don't want to increase staff time to go and research that if all we have is five units. However, if we have 50 such units, then do we want to ask all 50 to pay the full fee and what's the incentive for them? They will say, continue using it like this. Can you help me with that?

So there are cities that do have amnesty programs.

I don't

have the specifics of that. That would come back to you if this is something that you're interested in learning more about. I don't think it would be a huge staff ask to ask the cities for this information. We meet monthly and we collaborate with each other. And then in terms of the number of unpermitted ADUs, we don't have that information.

Thank you.

Cookie, anything?

I guess I'm taking a bigger view of this. And I would like to move forward on all of these, right?

Okay. Well, we've got to do public comments.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cindy, question on the notarized affidavit. If I have an ADU and I get, or I'm building an ADU and I sign this notarized, I get this notarized affidavit, that I'm going to make it very low income and I pay no fees. How long do I have to keep the house before I sell it and they do whatever they want with it? Is there any restriction on how long that's in place, or anything like that?

So the affidavit would be signed by the current property owner. Would not be recorded against the deed. So it would essentially, with a new owner, they have not signed an affidavit. So there is no?

There's no risk, there obviously, well, would it still count? We don't know better? Or does it go away, I guess is my question.

In terms of its legal effect, it would no longer apply. How HCD will view that? Yeah. We don't know. We believe that if HCD asks us, do you have evidence that these are deed restricted? And we provide them with an affidavit that was signed that year, the year that HCD is doing their audit, HCD will say okay.

But if it's three years later and they don't know who owns the house, they're not going

Oh, we'll have to.

They may not be so gracious. We don't know.

We don't know.

Gotcha. Okay, thanks. Thank you. Yes, Yan.

One more question. Do we charge school, I mean, not we, but, you know, the school fees are applied to ADUs? Yes. So just calculate regularly by square footage.

I don't know. Does your does this

collect the fee, the school fee districts do, but I believe they do it by square footage.

So the building official is saying that he believes it is done by square footage.

Right. Yeah. Okay. So that is now waived, since we don't have it. SPEAKER Correct. Okay. Thank you.

SPEAKER Bela? SPEAKER Really simple question. When we say deed restricted, what does that mean an owner can't or can't do with that property, with the ADU? Like, would be allowed to stay there, under what conditions, and who would not be?

So the deed restriction runs with the land. And essentially, once it's sold, there should be disclosures. Let's say you have this deed restriction. And if you're going to rent the ADU, you need to rent it at the income rate.

Okay. But so if they rent it, you have to rent at full income rate. Let's say you want your father-in-law to stay there. Is that okay? And to not rent it to them, just have them stay there?

Under the terms of the deed restriction, if your father-in-law is low income, then it would be fine for your father-in-law to stay there.

Okay. Thanks. Okay. No other questions? We'll open the public comment period and invite anyone to come on down and let us hear your comments about this item.

All right. We've got three speakers online. Going to go to the first speaker. It is your turn.

Yeah. I on?

Yes. Go ahead.

Yeah. I say Chinese people good. That that guy got here talking about Chinese people bad because they play pow gow. It's it's not true. Chinese people hard work. We build railway. We good. We good for America. So no.

Great.

Okay. Next speaker. Go ahead.

Good for nothing, niggas. And I know some of you don't wanna hear me say that word. It's the ugliest word in the English language, but that's what I see now, niggas.

I think that's it.

All right. Next speaker. Go ahead.

Hello?

Hi. Go ahead.

Okay. So the other day, I was on my way to a grinder hookup and a homeless man was like jerking off in front of me, and that was inappropriate. I think that all homeless people should be shot. We don't need to deal with those here. That's not who I wanted to jerk off with. It's just disgusting. It's disgusting. They're all icky, and they're making our city icky. And as like a longtime California resident, I go to Pride every year, and I'm so sick of seeing these homeless people. They can just rot for all I care. I hope that they all die. I hope they all die. Thank you.

Okay. Next speaker.

Yeah. I'm the guy who, like, came on and spoke about Chinese people ruining the city, and that motherfucker on here, that Chinese fuck that came on here is trying to say that they're not doing that shit. Fuck you, dude. They're absolutely doing it. They're pike out gambling, dude. They're plucking fucking house animals. They're throwing them in boiling pots of stew. You think this is acceptable? You think it's okay because they're building a railway here and there? Fuck you, man. And fuck this city council as well. Trans Revolutionary Council of Saratoga for life.

Mayor, there are no more hands raised.

Excellent. We'll close that public comment period and bring it back to counsel. Take a deep breath. Let's go forward. Tina. I

want to thank staff for exploring different avenues to find opportunities to incentivize accessory dwelling units in the city of Saratoga, increasing affordability through this process, while most importantly balancing our priorities. We need to increase housing supply. But at the same time, we need to monitor the economic impact on our, well, difficult budget situation. So with that, I am open to exploring all these ideas. One and two are very specific.

And the conversion number three. Well, me back up. One is the use of the affidavit. And the second one is the increase of 10% to from ten percent one time to 15% increase for the restricted units. And those two, I completely support that.

The number three one, which is developing incentives to convert existing structures, I think that makes perfect sense. And to look at details with bringing back the code requirements, the code amendments, back to counsel. Number four also I support for the amnesty program, that you will explore that. And thank you for pointing out earlier that it won't take too much staff time, because that's what I'm concerned about. And the fifth one is to essentially review all internal ADU processes and to increase outreach to incentivize this. Fabulous work. I support this. And with that, I'll make a motion to support staff recommendation.

Do we have a second?

I second.

Okay. So I heard Cookie seconded it. Any comments? I have one. I'm not in favor of the notarized affidavit. I think the other ones seem to make sense to me. I especially like the incentive for legalized ADUs or juniors that weren't built with permits. And then converting, I think that makes a lot of sense. The one time stuff makes perfect sense to me. But the notarized affidavit does us nothing except buy, it may buy us some credit for the current cycle.

But it does nothing for the long term benefit of what it's supposed to do. So I'm absolutely positively against that item. I would be willing to vote for the other ones. And if you want to extract that one and vote later, that's fine. But I will not, I'd love to support three of them, the others, but I can't support the first one the way it's written. It does not bias anything. It is, it's, it's a joke, in my mind.

May I ask what's the

concern there, Chuck? I mean,

I'm open to changing But what's the concern?

Our attorney mentioned, we have no clue what HCD will do. So well, if it was done this year, yeah, they might say you're fine. But if the family moves out, there is no sense, no, there's nothing to commit anybody else to keep this as very low or low income. And if that is our goal, if our goal is to meet some stinking number that HCD sets out, then I guess this is fine. But if our goal is to actually accomplish the housing that's required in the state of California, then I think voting for this is a farce. That's my problem. Because this does nothing to actually accomplish that goal.

So you're saying keeping it only deed restricted with the additional Correct. Square

Commit or non commit?

I agree with you on that. Yeah. I think it's I went really back and forth on this one mostly because it's Yeah. It feels like a quick fix that feels like there's a lot of ways around what you're trying to accomplish. I understand the precedent on lot splits. It's a risky one. Right? And on the other hand, it's like how do we incentivize folks to do this? And so I it's a clever idea. I don't want to discredit that. But I do have to agree with what Mary Page is saying around is it really accomplishing what we're trying to accomplish?

Okay. I can see two voices that don't support this.

Can make

a friendly amendment to remove that and maybe we discuss that separately. That works for me. Though I think we can get some extra units in the first year. But if you feel that strongly, I'm open to it. Friendly amendment?

I think you make a really good argument. So I would be okay with removing number one.

Okay. The motion then is, after the friendly amendment, and you had seconded it, so you agree to it. So now it's, again, go ahead.

Can I just ask a question, not to the, related to the motion, but I, have you I mean, this is more for Cindy, I guess? Have you heard any challenges? Is this an issue prevent homeowners, you know, if you require them to do de restrict, so people hesitate to do that. And, I mean, this is for me, you know, at David, it's it's a clever idea. It's, you know, trying to incentivize incentivize people to do it. So is this a problem? I just want to kind of hear from you.

It hasn't been a problem. But to the mayor's point, HCD could later decide that they absolutely have to have a deed restriction to count the unit.

Okay. So, yeah, deed restriction, that's what we have been doing, right?

Yes. Okay.

All right. Thank you.

Okay. So the revised motion is to approve items, numbers two, three, and four. And five. And five. Thank you. I've to turn the page to get there. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No opposed and no abstentions. So that passes five oh. Do you want to bring back anything on number one?

Just a question on it. How many, I think we got the report on this last meeting, but do we know how many very low income or low income de restricted ADUs have been built in the last year? I think it was like 36 or?

So I don't have those numbers. But the numbers I do have 23, 24, and 25. So in 2023 we permitted 79 units. One of those was deed restricted.

Okay.

In 2024 we permitted 74 ADUs. One of those was deed restricted. And in 2025, we permitted 119 ADUs. Seven of those was deed restricted.

Okay. And so what I'm trying to figure out what that means, right, which is I mean, the cost of an ADU is, you know, easily 300 to 500,000, if not more, depending on on the size, location, a bunch of different factors. I do think some of these the fee reductions help, but it it seems like the folks that are gonna do it are gonna do it anyway. We're trying to see if we can incentivize even more. So was I trying to think if there's anything else that we can think of. But I can't think of it. Anyone else?

Mayor? Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. Sorry.

Sorry, Yan. Sorry.

No. It's okay. You're taking a nap?

Thinking. No, I was just thinking.

Just sorry. So currently, we give them 10% bonus, right? That's just one. And also waive all the fees. And that's pretty good, you know, incentive in term of do you think adding more, like 15, will give more incentive to people to do that? I know people are concerned with, of course, the cost of adding a ADU or the assessed value of the ADU and all that. So I don't know how we can encourage more people to do de restrict because that's really what we're looking, right, so for the low income housing units.

So if you were to increase from 10% to 15%, and I can tell you the staff does encourage the deed restriction fluoride bonuses at the counter. So maybe if the numbers increase from 10% to 50%, we could reevaluate and see did we go from seven deed restricted units to 15 next year? Or, you know, how did we do?

Okay. Thank you.

But we did pass that part already. The 10 to 15%. We passed that one, right? Yeah, was the one we just did. So now if we were going to talk about anything, it's the affidavit.

Okay, yes. The affidavit piece.

Yeah. Anybody want to go forward on that? It looks like I don't hear anything. So we'll move to our next item. So next item is item 2.4, the building permit process improvements, the implementation update. And so Aaron, I think you're up.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members. It's nice to be here with you tonight. My name is Aaron Yuma, the building official for the city. We've got a good news item for you tonight. We're going to talk about our things that we've been working on for about a year now to improve our permit process.

I thought I'd start by giving you a little bit of background. I started here three years ago. I've been doing this type of work for thirty five plus years now. It's kind of hard to believe, but between California and Oregon, I've been a building official for over thirty years. And when I came here three years ago, I was tremendously impressed with the staff that works so hard, who really cares about quality work, and really cares about customer service.

A council that really gets into the business of what we do and cares about how we deliver service to the community. So, it's been a joy to be here and work on our permit process. What I noticed when we arrived, when I arrived, was we had a permit system. It's called Trackit. And it was in place.

We had processes in place, but it hadn't been customized, and staff hadn't been trained on how to fully optimize it. So, fast forward a couple of years, we're at the point where we're going to go to, I'm going to use the slide here. We're getting to the point of going to the cloud, the next phase of Trackit. And it has much more capability. We can do online payments.

We can do lots of things online. But, again, we didn't know how to customize that without getting some help. So, we had the opportunity to get a consultant. We hired Urban thirty seven to come in and assess our process, look at what we do. They had a background of working with this specific program called Track It.

And they did a deep dive into our whole system. It's all about the effort of bringing in Urban thirty seven and studying our system is about improving customer service, bottom line. We wanted to make it more efficient. We wanted them to have transparency to see at all times what was happening with permits. We wanted to improve consistency and customer satisfaction.

The goal was simple, to improve the customer service experience. But to do this, it was a big, it was a pretty big heavy lift. So what we found was we had some opportunities for improvement. The desire was there, but we clearly found that we could improve in several areas. Many steps relied heavily on manual coordination.

Applicants often needed to contact staff for status updates. The review process was largely sequential, not concurrent, which extended timelines. Communication and document sharing occurred across multiple platforms, such as internal network drives, Dropbox, emails, consultants who have their own online portals, things of that nature. Knowing where we had opportunities to improve, we went to work on them immediately. Now, as I move forward, you're going to hear me talking about the word, or the term Track It and E Track It.

So, in case you don't know, the Trackit is the staff side, the, what we use to process permits. And the E Trackit is the public facing portal, which our customers can get online to use as they apply for permits. I want to make an acknowledgment real quick before I move forward with the key people who really worked hard behind the scenes. I've already mentioned Urban thirty seven. Raley Glasser was the key person in doing the, you know, kind of that deep dive and giving the assessment, making recommendations.

Francis Reed, an administrative analyst in our community development department, played a huge role. A lot of heavy lifting there to make adjustments to our Track It system. And Rob Blena and our IT department was also a huge, made just a huge effort to help us in this process. So, shout out to them. So, what do we do?

What do we do with this information? And what was our next steps? Well, we modernized the permit system so we can more fully utilize it, the Track It system. Permits can now be submitted entirely online through eTrack It. Reviews are conducted concurrently across departments and agencies. Third party code review consultants and the Santa Clarifier Department are now integrated into the Track It system. They don't have to email us. They can go right into the system themselves. The whole process can be viewed in real time by the applicant, creating transparency for the customer. Automated notifications, online payments, and online inspection scheduling were also implemented.

New customer guides helping them to transition to this new streamlined process are also made available online. When you go to the building department's webpage, the first thing you'll see is a great visual on the overall process. You might call it a building permit roadmap, which you'll see in an upcoming slide. You will also see new guides, checklists, and frequently asked questions links to help clarify and educate our customers about permits, the process, how to apply, and give them all the guidelines that they need to have a predictable process, know what to expect as they go through it. So we have a nine step map.

Actually, you know, once you apply for permits, about seven. But I'll show you here that the goal in this roadmap is to provide more clarity as to what the resident or a builder would expect when they apply for a permit. Step one is just to do a little bit of homework. You need to check with the planning department and make sure it doesn't need any kind of entitlement or design review. Typically, a larger project, like a new home, would need that type of thing, whereas an interior remodel would not.

Next step would be to gather your documents and your plans and get all that together to be ready to apply online. You could go to the city's website and get the checklist and guidelines that give you all of the information that you need. Step three would be to apply online through eTracket and upload those documents. Next step is for the permit tech to review the application for completeness and assess the fees that will need to be paid as part of the plan review and permits. We talked about those a little bit earlier.

The city then determines who's involved in the reviews, outside agencies like fire, sanitation departments, school districts, who's going to be involved in this process, and then makes the assignments to the plan reviewers. That would be step six. Plans are approved ultimately, and a permit is issued. Step eight, permits in hand, construction begins, they call for, the builder calls for inspections, and we provide them during different phases of the project. And step nine, the project is complete, they call for final inspections, and ultimately the permit is closed.

This handout's on our website. It's a great visual for people to just kind of see real quickly from a, you know, 10,000 foot level maybe to see how it works. So, now I want to talk about the customer's experience a little bit. This is what we're really, what's really important. Right? So, applicants can pay online anytime through eTracket. They don't have to come in and visit city hall. They can upload plans and documents directly into the system. No more emails. No more drop box links, things of that nature.

The process is guided step by step. So, you know, when they apply and something happens, we change the status of the permit to, say, awaiting payment, or corrections needed, whatever the case is. An automatic email goes out to the applicant so they know exactly what's the next step. And then they can also look online any time. So that brings us to real time tracking.

Applicants can log in. They can view which departments have completed reviews. They can identify remaining steps in the process. When it comes to review comments, they will now be incorporated into a single consolidated review letter that goes out. So we call that a review cycle. So, let's say it goes to the fire department, it goes to a third party plan reviewer, it goes, you know, wherever it goes, we're waiting for, you know, the planning department. They all come back. We wait until the last one comes back. We have a two week timeframe. All the comments go out in one letter.

So, this is an opportunity to say a little shout out to the fire department. Because the fire department, they cover not just city of Saratoga, right? They cover a huge territory, multiple jurisdictions. And they're a busy group. They've typically been running close to three, four weeks in review times, which would not meet our goal of doing the two week consolidated letter.

So, spoke to them about our goals, and they stepped up to the plate and said that we're going to do it. So, they're giving us a two week turnaround time, and that's going to help us issue permits faster. So I want to talk about eTracket just a little bit, because this is where real time tracking can take place. The customer has their login. They can go in anytime to check on the status of their permit, see how things are going.

This is an example of where you can go in and see, you know, what the status is. So you see the two arrows there. That's just to help highlight where you can see the status. In this particular case, they've applied. We've assessed fees. And they can now pay the fees so it can go to the next step. They would also get an email. But if they haven't checked their email and they just want to go into the system, this is, this makes it very clear. Another example on the same permit is to check and see how reviews are going. So, you can see here that this one, the first round of reviews went out.

Went out to arborist, the building department, fire district, planning department. And we're, that's the first cycle. So when this, that cycle is complete, the permit technician is watching this. And when it gets to the deadline, we should have all those comments in, and then the consolidated letter goes out. Customers' experience for payments and issuance of permits. This has also improved because we've talked about this before. They pay online through eTracket. This eliminates the in person visits. And it helps us to issue the permits faster because before they might have to come in and pay or get a check. They can do this online.

And then we can turn around and issue that permit quickly and online. So the permit tech, before he's waiting for emails to come in. And he might have a, I'm not kidding, a 100 emails a day. So, now he just simply has a dashboard. A dashboard on his computer gives him, a payment came in. He goes with a permit. It's paid. He changes the status to issued. They get an email. Permit's issued. Download your documents. You download your permit. You download your group plans. Here's the information. How do I get your inspections?

So, a much better customer experience there. Then we go to inspections. A permit is issued. We talked about this. So no phone calls are needed because they can go online.

They can schedule an inspection online. We can do time windows now. So, before, you know, the inspector did the route, we gave a paper document showing about the approximate arrival times for all the sites for that inspector. People had to call into the department and ask the, you know, one of the staff to get that, you know, an idea when they had to be around the house when, for someone to come by. And now they can look online, and we're going to say, between ten and twelve.

Between nine and eleven. Between, we give them that two hour window for every single inspection. So, I'm sorry. Let's go back. What this means for the applicants. What these improvements mean. They mean it's clear. It's a clear and efficient path to, from the application all the way to approval, and all the way to the end of the life cycle of the permit. They can apply online. They pay fees online.

Permit issuance and approved plans are available online. Inspections are online. New guides and checklists are on our website. Automated emails go out. And real time tracking. So they kind of have multiple layers of communication there. They can look it up and see real time. They're also going to get auto generated emails. So, some of you might be wondering, does this actually improve the process of, you know, getting a permit? Are people getting permits faster?

Well, we're three weeks into this. It would definitely improve the time people get permits. We can't control every factor. Sometimes, you know, we give our comments, and it might take one architect a month to get back to us, and it might take another architect a week to get back to us with their reviews. But on our side, we're faster turnarounds, And we're getting the information out in cycles versus trickling it out.

You know, one plan veer gave us comments this day, and another one that day. More emails, more work for the permit tech. It's just simplified and more efficient. So now I'm going to switch over to do a quick example of how you would apply for a permit. I'm going to go scoot this over here.

You can hear me? I'm going to go over to let's see if I got it here. There we go. All right. So we're on the home page.

You can see here on the left that if you don't have an account, you can set up an account really easy. We have a guide on our web page as to how to create an account if you need to. In this situation, I've got an account. I'm going to toss my password in there. I'm going to go back to the home page just so you can see how this works. I'm going to scroll down to building permits and apply for a permit. So as you can see on the left, I'm clicking on apply for a building permit. I'm going to agree to the rules here real quick. Go to the next page. And you can scroll down for different permit types.

So I'm a homeowner. I'm going to do a little, you know, do it yourselfer job. So, I'm a homeowner. That would mean I'm doing a remodel to a residential project. So, you can see I scroll down there. Let's say it's a bathroom. So we'll do a bathroom remodel. And I'm going to just say $10,000 project for the job value. And we're going to search by address. And so I'm going to toss in a well known address.

We'll do 13777 Fruitvale, see what we come up with. We'll do a search. Do the dropdown, see what comes up. We've got two addresses with 1377. We'll pick Fruitvale Avenue. I'm the property owner. And I've got to upload some documents. So I'm going to go to select. And I've got an example plan here I'll throw in there. And upload.

This is accepting that I'm going to use the proper naming conventions, not using improper symbols and things like that. So you can see there, it is uploaded. I can click on that and take a quick view to make sure it's really there. Yep, there's a plan. Next step. Okay. So it's taken over my owner information, applicant information. That's been auto filled. Maybe I want to tell them who I'm hiring to do some work. So I've got Bob the builder there.

And I'm just, to go quickly here, I'm just going to fill, just give that information and go to the next step. So, now we're kind of reviewing to make sure everything's in order. I've got the bathroom project. It's a $10,000 value. It's done a preliminary estimate on the fees. My plan is uploaded. Everything looks pretty good. Going to go to the next

step. All

right. So contractors, you have some rules to follow. There's some information about we're going to do some intake. We're going to review it. You know, thank you for submitting everything. We're going to take a look at it. You should get an email and a response within two days. Our goal is to get there faster, much faster than that, but we're given two days right now. So let's view the permit. All right. We created a Permit 26DashO824. You can see here we got the project info. The status is applied. This, when that status went to applied, the email already went out. They tell them the next step.

Okay. Now, the permit tech is going to do the assessment, make sure those fees were correct. If they need to be adjusted, he'll make sure they're correct before we ask them to pay the plan review fee. So, when that happens, the status changes to awaiting payment. Again, emails automatically goes out. They can click a link and make a payment. And then it goes to the next step. Very easy to follow. So, with that, I'm going to go back to the PowerPoint. See if I can do this right.

Here we go. No. Let's go back. Did I get the wrong one? Thank you.

Yeah. Got it.

Perfect. So, it's not time for us to do any victory laps or anything right now. We're, this is three weeks in. We're, our customers are telling us what needs to be fine tuned. We're listening.

They're the best one, they're the ones that are going to let us know the quickest. We issue 2,500 to 3,000 permits a year. All of the permits go through this system now. We're going learn very quickly what we need to do to fix any bugs. But just to conclude, I'd like to say that the Building and Vision has implemented a comprehensive set of improvements that modernize and standardize the city's permit process.

Through the strategic use of the TRACA system applicants can now submit, track, and manage permit applications entirely online with real time visibility into the review status, comments, and inspection results. Beyond improving access, these enhancements represent a broader transformation of the permit workflow. Processes have been restructured to support concurrent review, centralized communication, and consistent guidance throughout the project's lifecycle. Applicants now experience a more transparent and predictable process with clear direction. So the department will continue to monitor the system's performance, provide more training, refine the process as needed, and ensure the permit process remains efficient and transparent and responsive while supporting future growth and increasing service demands.

So I'd like to leave that with you and ask if you have, I'll remain here if you have any other questions. Thank you.

Any questions? Yep, Tina.

Firstly, thank you so much, Aaron. And thank you to the team, the IT department team, as well as the consultants. And thank you, really, for making the time to walk me through some of these details. This has been a concern expressed by quite a few residents over the course of the last few years. And I'm saying it plural.

I'm thrilled. I'm just thrilled to see how powerful this is. The biggest pain point for residents was the sequential approach. Because at every step of the way, it was not just additional time. Every step of the way, they had to go back to their architects, engineers, structural engineers, which meant time and money.

Because they would make one change and then come back and get more comments. You've heard this from me many times, the challenges. I personally read some of those comment letters and seen what some of the residents for comparatively straightforward additions and remodels, what they had to go through. Thrilled to hear fire department working. So I'm going to ask you only two questions.

This is question time. I'm thrilled about words. I have to say that again. Thank you. So how much from a homeowner's perspective, if the application is pretty straightforward and either complete or almost complete, the first time they submit it, how much is the time savings here? And is the turnaround time from the department, from the city, always going to be two weeks? Just help me understand those two pieces on the timeline.

So anything that needs to go out to, we, I wish it were cut and dry. And I could tell you that every permit was processed the same. But some permits are actually over the counter. They don't require any review at all. Actually, a lot

of them

are. Some of them are fairly minor. This, that bathroom remodel that I just applied for, That would go to internal staff because it's nonstructural. It doesn't have any engineering. We can turn that around in five days.

When it gets more involved, then it goes out to third party reviewers, engineers, the fire department. And as you mentioned before, under the sequential method, if we needed to wait, say, I'm not, I'm just saying an example, a department might take four weeks and another department had to wait until they were done to go to the next step. You can see how that doesn't make people happy. So the concurrent review process for permits that go out like that, like the larger projects, I think we're, a three week time savings is not out of the realm of possibility. You know, it's kind of too early to tell you what the results are yet, because we just started.

But, so I'm thinking if it doesn't go out to fire, you know, for those projects, we're probably saving a week, you know, if everything's perfect. If things aren't perfect, and they go out to review, and there's corrections, and it goes back and forth a few times, then the process before was clunky. And it could take a little longer. So I can't give you a real cut and dry answer. But I think on, it's safe to say on larger projects it could save three weeks or more. Smaller projects, about a week.

Okay. And I understand there's no one simple answer to this. To me, the biggest benefit is going to be removing that sequential approach.

Right.

And I know cases where it has taken over a year for an addition of about 1,000 square feet, just because of the sequential approach.

Yeah. And it's hard to gauge those because I've looked into, you know, I've had that's my job is when you hear about those, when we hear about those, why is it taking a year? And I dive into those, and I find out that oftentimes there is that case where, for whatever reason, the person responsible for responding to the comments takes long. So it extends it out, even though it's out of our hands. But you're right. If it goes three or four reviews, and it's going sequentially instead of concurrently, it can get drawn out.

Okay. Wonderful. Two quick questions. One is, what kind of feedback are you getting in the three weeks? And the other question is, the example you gave, and I was looking at the drop down menu. Yeah. Often a mistake made by a homeowner, a genuine mistake, they don't realize it's a demo. They call it a remodel. So if a homeowner chooses from the menu remodel.

Oh, yes.

How is your system going to catch that it's a demo, or is it the plan check person, the tech?

That's a great question. There's a domino effect to these improvements. One of them is that the permit tech, instead of just treading water because of 100 emails a day, he can actually open up the, our next step is having him actually open up plans. Instead of just taking the applicant's word for everything, we're going to compare the application to the plans and see what's actually happening. And if something is, we always catch it at some point, but we want to catch it at the beginning.

So if it gets, if it's not caught at intake, and we send it out to, you know, third party reviewers and whatnot, and something's off, it should be this versus that, or the fees are wrong, and then we tell them the fees are higher at the end of the project, nobody's happy. So the goal is for, you know, just think about 100 emails down to, say, 20 emails a day. Now we have time for the permit tech to actually look at things, to see things correctly at the very beginning stage. If something's wrong, within two days they get an email from the system saying the application is incomplete or missing these pieces of information.

Okay. And you touched upon the point that I was thinking about the fees. Because if the demo, if it's called a demo four weeks or whenever later on, it's difficult to tell the homeowner you have to pay a lot more because it's a demo. Okay. So you haven't implemented that portion yet because this is so new, to be able to open the plans, the permit tech to be able to open the plans and

all He has the ability. But I haven't asked him to do the plan assessment yet. That still falls on me.

Okay. Okay. That's good. So what kind of feedback in the three weeks that you're getting?

Generally good. Most of it is just how do I do this or that? And so we're, we are getting, you know, you expect that anything new. So we're doing phone calls saying, well, go to the website. Here's the guide. Here's how you do it. I haven't had anybody call me up and say, hey, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread yet. But right now, I'm not getting any complaints either. That's a good sign. So, it's really too early for me to give you a lot of good feedback.

We are getting some feedback about what isn't working. You know, like when somebody goes in and you check the box property owner or builder, well, sometimes it's the architect. So, you know, they have to, they're confused. They don't realize that you don't have to check one of those boxes. You can go to the next screen and just fill out all the information, like I went through that. But those are examples of, oh, we didn't think of that. We're going to fix that. So, we're getting those types of, that type of feedback and making improvements.

That's adorable. Great. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else? Yan?

Thank you, Mayor. Erin, thank you so much for the presentation. I'm really, really thrilled and impressed with the work you have done. Just one quick question. So, you showed us a drop down menu.

Yeah.

So, do you have a place, like, in case whatever they want to do is not in your drop down menu, do you have a, say, other, or a place they can write their comment, or something they can put a note there?

Yeah. I think I'd have to double check. But we always had miscellaneous for things that fell out of that category, if you just had nothing. But I'm going to have to double check and make sure we still have that. Because we did, but I don't remember if it dropped off that menu or not.

Okay. All right.

Thank you. Bilal? One question. When you think about folks who maybe aren't as digitally savvy, can they still come in and fill out something on paper? Or is it expectation that their contractor will do that or something for them?

We love to have customers come in. That is not a problem. But we are going to convert over to what we would do in that case is take them to the computer and help them do it on eTracket. We just do a form.

Awesome. Thank you.

Cook, anything?

Yeah, Erin, I just wanted to thank you for your leadership, your stewardship, and your dedication. And for me, it's all about customer service. And when that's right, it's right.

Yeah.

And friendlier and easier is better. It's a good thing. So thank you so much.

Thanks. I'm curious. In your example that you showed, when it had, there's tabs for the various things. Right. And there was permit fees. And there was a number in there. Yeah. I've noticed that when I used searches on previous permits, there's a list of the fees, but it doesn't total up into that coding. Will that be fixed? Like in the tab, it says zero as the fees. But if you click on there, it has a list of the things that had fees. So the question is, will that tab get fixed to show the total fees so people could see it?

The example I just gave, did it not show that?

I just said. The example you showed had that. If I do a search for a previous one

Oh, see what

you it mean. Shows me that there were fees, but it's not totaling up.

I actually wasn't aware of that. Will make note of that.

I got a dozen of

them. I'll

hold them for later.

I appreciate all the help we can get.

Okay. Okay, thanks. No more questions. We'll open the public comment period. If there's anyone who would like to comment on this item, please step forward or raise your virtual hand. Britt, how are we doing?

Okay. We do have a speaker. Go ahead.

Yeah. I just wanna thank each and everyone for all you've done to your lives.

I don't hear any more words.

Here we go.

All right. Thank you. We'll close the public comment period and bring it back to counsel for your comments, suggestions. And go forward. Tina.

Just a big thank you. You are going to make so many residents happy with this. I'm going to get less phone calls. I know that. Because the process is looking much more streamlined. This is what we had been hoping for and working towards. It's a great moment for the city to see that we are able to use technology while improving our processes in a manner that the residents of our city deserve and expect and have been asking for

for So a long

I'm thrilled beyond words. How are we going to inform the residents? The next source? Or are we waiting for some

more time? We are. We're going to be putting it also in another issue of the CDD newsletter. And I should add that there's going to be continued outreach in terms of educational videos that are going put on the website, how to use this. And so there's going to be a multifaceted we're continuing to work with Urban thirty seven.

This is, as Erin mentioned, continuous improvement. And so I would welcome all of you all to share with us the feedback. And we want to reach out to kind of some of our super users in the community, architects and things like that, to say, how is this working for you? And so, yes, there will be continued push in education and roadmaps and things like that. Wonderful. Thank you. Thrilled.

Okay. Anybody else?

Thank you.

Ann?

Since I mentioned earlier about the drop down menu, just make sure you do have the miscellaneous. I Because I actually had one case that, you know, whatever what I want to do is not theirs. Felt frustrated. So, anyway, so if you have a place that is miscellaneous, you can actually put a note there.

Absolutely. I agree. Yeah.

I think it's great. I'm really excited. You know, we launched this new thing. And it's just great step towards, you know, a more efficient and transparent process for both applicant and staff. Improve the customer service and experience and turnaround time. I think it's all good. So thank you so much.

Thanks. And I do, I've had one question that I didn't ask before. How far along does this put us towards what the state requirements are for online permitting?

I'm not aware of a mandate for everything to be online. No, not everything.

But there were certain things. Yes. Do we meet all those Yes, we do.

Might be touching on one thing that we do want to, we have on our to do list, which is our, we were mandated to have a solar app type, like an express permit, like automated plan review. And we have that. The next step is to make it more integrated with this Track It system. So, it automatically issues the permit. Right now, the integration isn't complete. So, they get, they go through a company called Symbium. They get the plan review approved like that. It triggers an email over to our permit tech. And then we've got to issue the permit. Gotcha. That's going to go seamless. We hope to have that done in a few months.

Okay. That's great. A couple other recommendations. One is, the way that our website is set up, when I open up the webpage and I go to the building department, you know, in the newspapers they call it what's above the fold. Okay? And when I open the thing, above the fold it says Saratoga, California Building Division. And then the first thing there is permit history. On the left it says eTrackit, guides, forms, and handouts, etcetera. I just recommend that next to eTrackit, put just a little definition. It says eTrackit, online permits Okay. And searches. Just something simple. Absolutely. So somebody might know. Because all you gotta do is page down and you see a whole lot more.

Right.

But, you know, if you're like me and you're skimming between sites so fast, you don't always do that. Right. So so that's one thing I'd recommend. Just to make it a little easier for people

Intuitive.