City Council - Regular Meeting

Call to order the January 12th, 2026 meeting of the PaloAlto City Council. Would you kindly call the role? Of course. Council member Lithnes. Yes. Mayor Vinker here. [laughter] Council member Rectal here. Council member Bert here. Council member Lowing here. Vice Mayor Stone here. Council member Lou here for the record. All present.

Thank you very much. The first item on our agenda is a closed session item uh conference with the city attorney potential litigation. Um so may I have a motion to Well, no. So is there any public comment on our close session item one? [snorts] There are no requests to speak and no hands are raised on Zoom. Okay, great. So it's a closed session item. Do I have a motion to go into close session? So move second. All right. I think that was allowing on the motion and Lou on the second. All right. Taking the vote. Council member Rectal. Yes. Council member Lifod Hayes here. Vice Mayor Stone Stone. Yes. [laughter]

Mayor Vinker. Yes. Council member Lou. Yes. Council member Lowing. Yes. And council member Burton. Yes. Motion carries. All right. Thank you. So we will adjourn into close session and by our agenda it's estimated that we will be back by 6:20. With any luck we'll be back earlier, we might be back later. Um but we will look forward to reconvening in open session then.

order and uh open session. Now, I do have a report out to make from our closed session. Council did meet in close session and we have one reportable action. Council authorized the city attorney to initiate litigation in one case. And with that, we will move on to agenda changes, additions, and deletions. City manager.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, no changes to your agenda this evening, but did want to note uh for both uh public and council awareness that the order of the agenda is a little unusual uh in the sequence of action or discussion items. As such, uh in particular, item number 15, which is listed at the end of your agenda, is largely an internal city uh topic. and as such uh would be conducive to either um continuing if you're not able to get all the way through it or deferring it if heaven forbid it's later and uh you don't get to it this evening. But just wanted to note that for your awareness.

Yeah, thank you for that uh note. Um you know, hopefully we'll be a little earlier. I know we don't like to agendaize things that late. When we moved the agenda into this particular order, we didn't have times associated with it yet. And uh seeing that we will assess how we're doing uh when we reach item 15. Okay. Uh and with that, we'll move on to public comment on matters not on the agenda. Madame clerk, do we have speakers? Yes, we have 11 requests to speak. All right. Well, if we could invite them up for two minutes each.

Great. Our first speaker is Sven T. And just to as a reminder for our members of the public, two minutes, there is a timer on the uh screen as well as on the podium. Oops, we just saw it. So at Stanford they study everything and they study hope as well. And so this is the results of this professor. Next slide please. And he says hope is comprised of three things either collectively or individually to envision a better future than what we have right now. Two, the willpower and the motivation to get there. Three, the actual road map to where we're going to this vision of something better. Hope. That's what hope is. You need three things. The vision, the willpower to do it, and the path to get there. Next slide, please. Sorry. So, what do I have? I have a vision of an all electric utility. My motivation, I love you guys. We're all parents here and I've decided as I drift into spirituality that I don't know the difference between my child and somebody else's child. They're innocent and they're not responsible for our actions or inactions. So I am highly motivated cuz every kid is my kid and the path that's the hard part. That's where we work together to make this happen [clears throat] because it's going to require some

sacrifice and some time and some energy and some money to get there. But it needs like that road map and it needs a date to say, "Hey, our utility used to supply natural gas to the residences, the commercial buildings, and the industrial sites, but we don't anymore because we love our children." Thank you. Our next speaker is Sarah S.

[clears throat]

Hi, I'm Sarah and I'm an eighth grader at Ellen Fletcher Middle School. Um, you might remember me from a few weeks ago when I talked about how using an induction stove has helped me and my family, including my two cats. So, I'm sure everyone in this room knows that smoking is bad for you. This image is a page on the city of PaloAlto website explaining the effects of smoking and the city's numerous e efforts to prevent it. If you scroll down, we you can't um we can see that the city has done a great job getting this information out to people and has made a huge effort to keep Palo Alto cleaner and safe from these harmful substances. Below the image, it says tobacco use kills nearly 40,000 Californians every year. Well, what if I told you that using a natural gas burner is the same, if not more harmful, than breathing in secondhand smoke? In fact, researchers at um Stanford's Door School of Sustainability measured benzene emissions from stoves in 87 homes in California and Colorado and found that natural gas and propane stoves emitted benzene that frequently reached indoor concentrations above benchmarks set by the World Health Organization. These benzene levels were above the upper range of indoor concentrations seen in secondhand tobacco smoke. You might be thinking that since you're not using the stove all the time, you're not emitting these harmful chemicals all the time. But actually, these stoves leak methane even when they're turned off. It's so important that we spread awareness about this topic. Using a natural gas stove is not just an environmental issue, but it's bad for our lungs. Do we really want to be breathing in human carcinogens and polluting the air when there's a better solution? If the city can put in an effort to reduce smoking, then I think we can definitely put in an effort to spread

awareness about natural gas stoves. Thank you. Our next speaker is Zara H. Hi everyone. My name is Zara Harwell and I'm a junior at Palato High School and I'm going to be talking about this pamphlet that the city provides and it's supposed to have like sort of everything you need to know about gas safety and gas appliances. Um, and while I do want to acknowledge that I'm very grateful that the city offers this cuz it has a lot of good information especially regarding gas leaks, I think there needs to be a lot more added in the health section right here. That's all we have about health and all it covers is what happens when there's a gas leak. But it doesn't mention what my fellow intern Sarah just mentioned how just being around a gas stove. There doesn't have to be a leak that there's other really harmful gases that are emitted on the daily and just being exposed to them can be really harmful. Um it also doesn't mention certain age groups. Little children are way more susceptible to these gases as well as senior citizens. Um on a personal level, I live with my grandmother, so she's 85. So if there's just being around gas appliances, even if there's not a leak, um benzene, methane, nitrogen dioxide, they're emitted every time you use it. and that's really harmful for her to be around because she's older, her immune system is weaker. Um, so having a lot more information regarding these things would I think be really helpful since this pamphlet is supposed to be like everything and anything you need to know regarding gas safety. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Avo S. Good evening, council. My name is Aros Sha and I hope you're all doing well. I'm a junior at Paul Alto High School. Um, and I would like to share my appreciation with you all for passing the dark sky ordinance last month. Um, I walked outside a couple nights ago and I could see more stars than usual, which just going to hope is something more than coincidence. Um, I thought that it was a nice gesture in passing it that we upheld our values of public wellness and belonging as well as climate action and protecting the environment. Um, and I hope that council this year extends um its dedication to those priorities by committing to public health and climate action in the household residential sector. um by urging residents to electrify and helping residents electrify their gas stoves. I think this aligns very well with public health and you've seen the science Zara very eloquently explained that you know the gas safety busher should be something that says everything about gas and it doesn't. It's missing something that's quite frankly very easy to include and the science is very clear. It's very harmful. Children in homes with gas stoves are 42% more likely to develop asthma. Um, I've experienced respiratory symptoms myself and I know that probably a lot of people in this room have the there are easy solutions that we could be taking and currently we are not. Um, and I am very very willing to work with council and staff to develop solutions. Um, I if we could get a referral to a staff member who would be willing to meet and talk um to help us devise a solution, I would be very gratefully um in appreciation of that. Um, and if there are other ways that we can work

together to solve this, I think that will make a very big impact. Thank you. Our next speaker is Peter D.

I'm so impressed by those previous speakers. Um, I'll associate myself with their comments and great to see students out and educating us and motivating us. Uh, Peter Dremar Palto resident Uh, Mayor Vinker, congratulations. Vice Mayor Stone, congratulations. All council members, thank you so much for serving us. Um, I just wanted to comment briefly on the leadership changes at uh, Third Thursday, which is an event I've been going to since the beginning and really enjoy it, and I know I've seen a lot of you there as well. So, it's been a a wonderful community treasure. And I know that there's a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that I'm not aware of. I'm no expert on on what happened, but uh the story in the papers was that there was a petition that gathered 30 signatures from supposedly um business owners on Calav that wanted to see leadership change, but no one seemed to have seen the petition or if they had, they didn't have access to it. And so out of curiosity, I filed a public records act request. And I've always had great experiences with City of Palto staff. They do a wonderful job at providing information and being transparent. And I did receive the petition. Um it did have 30 names on it but no affiliations. And in a summary it explained that they started collecting they being anonymous people or someone I don't know um started collecting signatures from business owners and managers and then employees and then the general public. So, it's very unclear of the 30 signatures gathered over an 8-month period, how many were actual uh business owners. And my understanding is that Carol Garen went out and collected quite a few few more signatures supporting keeping her um over just a two-year period. So, again, you know, I don't know all the details, but Palo Alto

sometimes gets criticized for the Powalto process that we just um I hope we'll do better next time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Alice S.

Okay. Hi, my name is Alice Snider and I'm a senior in high school. I go to Notre Dame, San Jose and I live in Baron Park. Uh I wanted to express uh the importance and impact of switching to induction stoves. To me, the most important things are uh limiting indoor air pollution and creating a healthy environment indoor and outdoors. Thank you. Our next speaker is Walter C.

Good evening, madame mayor and city council members. My comments are tonight in regard to the recently cancelled third Thursday event. As a longtime Los Altos resident, I had witnessed how its first Friday event changed the dynamics of my city. So when Miss Garson asked if I would help out on the new event she was starting in PaloAlto called Third Thursday, I did not hesitate. I watched firsthand the joy that the event brought to Cal A. Um I as well as many others were shocked to hear the event was cancelled. I was even more shocked at how the news was divulged and the reasoning behind it because there wasn't a reason, not a solid one. It was claimed that there was petition addressing it to the chamber foundation asking for Miss Garson's removal. However, when she asked to see it so she could address people's concerns, she was told not to get involved. There was no official agreement between the chamber and Miss Garsten. And when she requested a fiscal sponsorship agreement, the chamber cancelled its support instead. When she went to the city manager to seek support while obtaining a new sponsor, she was told the city decide to cancel the event. Miss Garen was shocked. The city council had just 3 months earlier allocated $40,000 to fund Third Thursday and now the city was cancelling it. This made no sense. When asked why, it was once again the fictitious petition that no one could produce. So a petition a petition did finally materialize, but as stated earlier, it did not have any valid information on it. My question to the city council is who is running the city? On one hand, the council is allocating funds while the city manager is cancelling the event you just funded. Canceling it based on whose recommendation? The chambers foundation, a single council member, a directive from the city council. There's no transparency. The only truth that remains is that third Thursday was a very successful event and Mrs. Garen's reputation has been tarnished by false accusations. Accusations were then used

to justify by the city for removing quote firing her. The city owes Miss Garson a public apology for how she was treated. I also beg the question based on how she was treated, why would anyone waste their time and energy as a volunteer in this community? Our next speaker is Claudia B.

Hello, it's Claudia Bloom. Thank you for the time and thank you for making this a a platform. I'm going to follow up with the Carol Gerston support. I've been a PaloAlto resident for 33 years and I'm currently the director of director of the PaloAlto School of Chamber Music now in its 11th year of operation. Our musicians were featured this past October 16th at the 3rd Thursday Cal A Festival thanks to Carl Garen who invited us to participate. As you may or may not know, Carol started this festival in May of two 2023 23 and it's been going ever since. And hallelu hallelua for that. I'm a professional musician and this has been a vital part of uh PaloAlto for many years and something that people have greatly appreciated. I experienced a a a positive experience the whole time that she was helping us with chairs that were provided for audience members to enjoy classical music which is underappreciated and under supported. Our musicians range from very young to very old. that it's an intergenerational program and our students couldn't have been more excited about this and the audience was extremely enthusiastic. Without Carol, this would not be happening in our community and without Carol um we wouldn't have things like this happening. Carol is is a lifechanging person who has changed PaloAlto. She has uh she has made enormous strides and is going to continue doing this and it would be a real shame not to be continuing to support her [snorts] because she makes a difference in

everyone's lives. I have only positive things to say about Carl Garen. Thank you. Our next speaker is Hillary G. Hi, good evening. Um I am Hillary Glenn. I'm the co-leader of the Palato 350 Silicon Valley team and shockingly I'm not here to talk about switching to electric. Um instead I'm here to speak on support in support of Carol Garen and the work she did on third Thursday. Uh we really took advantage of it as the Thrifty Silicon Valley team. We had great experiences. We were at three different events last um year. At all of them we talked to renters and family with children who are, as we all know, are kind of our sweet spot to uh get electrification happening. Um, I will say that Carol is a very talented organizer. She's very good at event promotion. She, even though she nagged me a lot to do it, it was very effective. Um, her logistical skills and ability to balance conflicting needs are very, very good. Um, I would really encourage the city to figure out a way to sit down with the uh the restaurants and other tenants on Calab and figure out a way that they can work together because I do think we're missing a very strong organizer who made a big difference in the city. Um, and I think there are a number of nonprofits who had they known that this was happening tonight to speak to on Carol's behalf, they would have shown up too. So, I I urge you to do that. But since I'm up here, I'm going to take what How many seconds do I have left? Ha. A few seconds left to just say totally excited about more talking about induction cooktop. Uh the 350 Silicon Valley Palto team. We have a professional project manager on our team who's ready to step in if you guys want to give us a grant to buy some induction loaner units. We'd be very happy to do that and run that for the city. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Herb B. Uh, Mayor Rink, Vice Mayor Stone, and council members, I attended the utility advisory commission uh meeting last Wednesday on the fiber uh project update uh in which it's still uh the plan to have the city be an internet service provider. And uh I think that that was a key part of the decision to not do uh bond bond funding. Uh the city uh h has no uh [gasps] expertise or training in in a competitive environment. Uh as an internet service provider or the pro or connecting the last mile or customer premises equipment or an incident of property ownership. And despite the uh flexible rates that you have approved essentially you would need uh the customers to change uh prices. Uh and also what you would want to have are someone running the network and uh being an internet service provider uh who has a you demonstrated you know competence of already what they've done and also who has a uh commitment and demonstrated uh commitment to privacy uh including uh guarding against using customer information for targeted advertising. ing and tracking purposes. What I've objected is an as an alternative which is the city extend the dark fiber network and that the fiber [snorts] project be set up as a separate fund which is a customer of the dark fiber network and the dark fiber network has reserves to do that and it would be

uh the stream of income from the fiber promises project uh which would pay off any uh loans against the dark fiber network. Uh the advantage of that uh is that you can have set a separate price. Time is up for fiber. Thank you. Our next speaker is Deborah G.

This is the flyer that's gone up over town um advertising the uh city sponsored event uh Martin Luther King Junior Day. And the first thing I noticed about this flyer from a distance I saw, oh my gosh, what's red, black, green, and white? You all know what red, black, black, a green or white is. Um, yeah. And there it is. City of Palo Alto logo on it. It's double-sided. Probably came out of your print shop. Um, and maybe this was an oversight. Uh, but um, you know, the city should know better. This is an incredibly provocative thing to do. Um, you know, how about red, white, and blue instead of green? I mean you even if it was unintentional um it's unacceptable. Thank you.

Oh our next speaker is Valen V. Hello all. This is my first time doing this. My name is Vilen Varnasi and I'm a 10th grader at Los Altos High School though I live in Palo Alto. Back in seventh grade, I vividly remember playing a soccer game at the Cberly Turfield. During the game, the skies were orange and smoke filled. I was struggling to breathe and so are a lot of my teammates. Gas stoves are one of the root causes of polluted environments and increase in emissions. Gas stoves also release toxic fumes such as methane, which are detrimental to young children's health and are carcinogenic. I strongly believe and support the idea that Palo Alto City Council should move to an allect electric utility. Thank you.

And that concludes public comment on items not on the agenda.

All right. Well, thank you, Madame Clerk, and thank you to our speakers. Uh particularly thanks to our students. We appreciate you being here. Um, and just as a a point of process, so we can't engage on subjects not on the agenda ourselves, but in terms of process, um, city manager, we have a youth climate advisory board, which could be a way of giving input. So, I don't know, uh, if you all know about that or want to apply for that next time around or have friends who are on it who could talk directly to staff, but that's a process option. I'm getting nods. So anyway, and obviously to any of us directly. Um, okay. So we will ask

Sure. Council member Bert.

Thanks. And because I'm afraid we're going to lose uh those speakers before we have council comments, I just want to know the speakers who had spoken on the on the methane health issues that at our sustainability and climate action committee uh we had received uh similar u uh uh recommendations from community advisors and that the committee itself has really embraced that our messaging on uh electrification should focus far more on the health impacts than it has to date. So, we're with you on that. Thanks.

All right. So, moving on to uh council member questions, comments, and announcements. Um I'm I'm going to start just given what's going on right now. Um, it's been an exciting first week as may mayor with a groundbreaking and an international visit. And I uh want to issue a huge congratulations to our sibling city, Bloomington, Indiana, and Indiana University on going from a program with a football program with the most losses in the history of major college football to playing in the national championship next Monday night. And I mention that because we are hoping to get together a watch party with our sibling city. And so that's something that should be a lot of fun for any of you who are interested in watching national championship football. Um, but the the real reason I wanted to to go first is I wanted to uh mention something on a more serious note, which is the ICE shooting in Minneapolis last week, which has put cities back on the front lines. Um what we saw there and the reaction out of Washington has shaken many in this community. Approximately 400 people showed up last night at a vigil in front of city hall um including council member Lithcott HS and me. This tragic and heartbreaking killing must be addressed headon to ensure the safety on the streets of all American cities including PaloAlto. So to keep Palo Alto safe, I hope my colleagues will stand with me in calling for three things. First, a full and independent investigation of the incident so that those who should be held accountable are held accountable and an investigation of the policies and training or lack of training in things such as deescalation that led to the shooting. Um, such policies could include the provision of medical care. We had an incident right here at

Stanford Hospital whereas decisions as to when the patient was ready for release, family access to the patients, presence of ICE in a private hospital were all called into question. And last week, ICE denied a physician access to the shooting victim, meaning that these policies are still problematic, deeply troubling, and in need of review. Second, PaloAlto will continue its policy of police independence from ICE. Our police chief has said, and I quote, "Let me be clear, our department policy expressly forbids officers from inquiring about an individual's immigration status for purposes of immigration enforcement. Moreover, our policy and state law prohibit cooperation with federal authorities for the purpose of immigration enforcement. Third, we will continue our pursuit of legal actions that prevent the federal government from withholding grant funding absent cooperation with ICE. The resolution that council adopted last year uh resulted in the city joining three federal lawsuits and those suits have successfully procured preliminary injunctions that protect us from executive orders that would otherwise threaten PaloAlto's federal funding based on our policy not to take a direction from ICE. Finally, I want to follow the lead of the Minneapolis mayor and ask our community to rise to the occasion and show our best selves. While we may be angry, I was proud that our community showed up with peace and responded with love last night. So, ICE, if you come back to Palo Alto, please know that in this town, we respect the law and will not disrupt lawful operations. But please also know that if the operations are unlawful, we will demand accountability and pursue every avenue to keep our residents safe. I have sworn

an oath to uphold the constitution as have my colleagues, our police officers, and every one of our staff members, and we intend to honor it. In Palo Alto, we may speak with different voices and hit different notes, but let's work together to speak in harmony and to keep each other safe. Council member Bertney. Okay, we'll turn off that light. Anyone else? Council member Lowing.

Okay. Thanks. So I just wanted to report briefly that uh last week we met with the we meaning the mayor and myself uh met with the incoming council general of uh Deutseland uh Germany. Uh I had a previous interface with his predecessor who's been reassigned in the diplomatic corps back to Germany. Uh so he was here and I did a handoff uh to our mayor and we had a I thought pretty fruitful conversation for almost almost an hour. Um, and then pictures appeared on his Facebook from right over here. So, the the torch has been handed uh for the German relationship. Oh, sorry. His name is Theo Kittis.

Thank you, Council Member Lowing. Council member Liths.

Thank you, Mayor Vinker. Uh, I appreciate you're mentioning um the shooting in Minneapolis of Renee Nicole Good and um the various things you mentioned about our city's response to the presence of that kind of law enforcement activity in our nation, in our cities. Um the vigil last night right here at city hall as the mayor mentioned was really extraordinary. I think actually the Palito weekly said over 500 uh which is amazing. I figured they would undercount you know the media that was underount the number the crowd size but I think they got it right. Um and I just want to express my gratitude to Indivisible PaloAlto Plus and the other organizations that helped uh to really scramble and put something together so quickly. I um also attended a um uh gathering at Town and Country on Friday um at noon or over the lunch hour which was a protest at Embaradero and El Camino um all related to uh the activities in Minneapolis and the killing of Renee Nicole Good and I believe there was an event on Saturday as well. So our community has really mobilized quite quickly. Uh people are hungry to do something, yearning to gather with others, um to stand up for what we know is right and necessary. And anybody listening who didn't know about these events and wants to be involved, uh there are plenty of ways to to find out about such things, follow the right groups. Uh but you can definitely go to my website, julieforpow.com, where I uh sent out uh a flyer promoting these events before they happened. Um um with respect to mental health, I want to acknowledge uh that we've been

informed that uh there was a life that ended at the train tracks this weekend, a middle-aged adult. Um um this is an ongoing concern for all of us I know and we are trying to address issues of mental health from many angles including partnering with the nation's leading organization on youth mental health uh the Jed Foundation um and making changes at the tracks as well. And um I want to acknowledge that a community member, Mayor Lucas, pulled together an event called Candles and Hugs, which happened right before our reorganization. So it was last Sunday, the 4th. It was a gathering um a candlelight gathering here at city hall um to acknowledge and commemorate and and offer support for those affected by um youth suicide. And uh I'm saying this because I know it's hard to talk about these things, but I think we're learning as a community that more conversation is better than less. Uh so I do this deliberately and to acknowledge that we're all um struggling in our in our own way as a city with with an underlying grief related to uh the fact of of suicide. Um on a more upbeat note, uh the Cubberly ad hoc continues to be hard at work. my colleagues, uh, Council Member Bert and Council Member Rectal, and I along with our, uh, city staff, um, continue at this effort, uh, to prepare a ballot measure, uh, to put before our residents this fall. And just this week, our third poll went out to the community um, to gauge further appetite for the project and um, so on. And so, to the extent you receive the poll, please don't hang up. uh please participate. We want to know your thoughts. And um I also want to

acknowledge that fire station 4 uh had its groundbreaking uh a few days ago. A number of us were there. Uh it's very exciting to see uh not only the fire station um getting rebuilt, but to see that it is in this gorgeous Iller style, very fitting of the neighborhood, and um I know it's going to be something we're all extremely proud of when it is completed. The one surprise at the groundbreaking, at least for me, was that uh our fire chief revealed that there was a um time capsule buried in uh an element of the old um fire house and he opened up the time capsule and read the note that was in there. And it's really cool when the past is in dialogue with the present. And that's what I think uh opening up time capsules can do. So, here's to planting more time capsules as we continue to lay foundations uh for what's next. Um, one day people will wonder what were the people in in our era thinking and a time capsule is a wonderful way to give them a hint. That's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you. And uh seeing no more lights, we'll move on to our second item, which is a study session. Review and discuss a 2025 Q4 council priorities and objectives and format of the 2026 council annual retreat. I'll turn it to staff. Is that going to be

Yep. Uh let's see. We will have an ensemble cast as you might expect with a topic uh this broad. So I'll ask our assistant city manager Lupita Holamos to lead off uh and then we'll have uh others uh chime in as the case may be. I think I I would like to just give a little bit of context for the council and and in particular in the context of your meetings over the next few weeks. Uh tonight we will review the status of calendar year 2025 uh priority objectives as we've referred to them and uh this really uh sets the stage uh for the uh city council's retreat on January 24th. So two weeks really uh from today. Uh so again at this point you'll get a a report on last year and then in two weeks you'll be discussing the current year. So we really uh hope that this sequence is helpful for you uh so we're not cramming everything into the retreat uh day itself and also uh we can take your feedback on the 25 uh objectives uh as we are preparing additional information for your consideration on January 24th. So with that, Miss Alamos.

Thank you Mr. Shada. Good evening Mayor and Council. Lupita Alamos, assistant to the city manager. Um and uh next slide. For tonight, as Mr. Shakata has already covered, we'll be discussing those um 2025 priority objectives uh outcomes and then moving on to the 26 retreat for the second part of the presentation. Next slide. Wonderful. Um so tonight we'll be just very briefly covering each of the uh four priorities um that were adopted in 2025. This includes climate action, adaptation, and natural environment protection, um, economic development and retail vibrancy, implementing housing strategies for social and economic balance, and public safety, wellness, and belonging. So, supporting the implementation of these four priorities were 70 objectives or projects. And of those um at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, 66% of those were marked as completed. Um 23% were marked as behind. Uh seven 7% continue to be on track with a change in scope with from either council or council committee. And uh 4% of those uh were placed on hold. And you'll briefly hear um just some highlights on a few of these uh different um categories from our staff. Um and first we will have our um um section our priority on climate action and adaptation natural environment. And with that we have Mr. Egleston.

Good evening Mayor Vinker and city council. uh Brad Igson, director of public works. So uh next slide please. Okay, so for the climate action and natural environment uh protection priority, 79% of the 24 objectives were completed in 2025. Uh want to note this really reflects very significant progress in a number of different SCAP uh sustainability climate action plan areas. and that the climate action and sustainability committee as well as our working group of community members were uh an important factor in in advancing much of this work and making sure we could get through it. So just briefly the completed highlights on this slide cover 12 of those 24 completed objectives. Uh some of the ones uh shown here include construction projects like the grid modernization pilot project uh as well as the new road bridge replacement and Hamilton Avenue storm drain uh improvement projects. There are mobility related plans uh including the safe streets for all action plan adoption and uh council's initial review of the draft bicycle and pedestrian transportation plan. the adoption of the reach codes. Um that turned out to be quite a project this year that had to be fasttracked because of uh new state legislation AB130. Uh several SAP plans. Uh I won't name them all, but they include the uh 2026 and 2027 work plan, which is scheduled to come to council for approval on February 9th. So you'll be hearing about that soon. And just noting the photos on this slide are from our very successful climate action workshop that was held in December uh and helped to finalize some

of the input that went into the work plan that you'll be hearing about and then as well several approvals that were for programs on uh build different types of building electrification and uh multifamily EV charging in particular. Next slide. Okay, so this is the list of the five objectives uh that are shown either as on track or behind but were were not completed according to whatever uh criteria we had described for the year. So on these I'm not going to speak to them individually. Um we'll be happy to take questions if you have them at the end of the presentation. I do want to note that none of these are on hold. They're all moving. Uh really important progress has been made on all five of these and several of them are expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, um we have the economic development and retail vibrancy section priority and here to present is Mr. Andrade. Actually, before he jumps in, let me, as I typically would do, introduce our new staff member. Uh, Alex Andrade is our new economic development manager and assistant to the city manager. Uh, I know many of you have had the opportunity to meet him individually, but this is, I believe, his first uh, appearance with city council. So, Mr. Andrad, please proceed. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and city council. As our city managers mentioned, my name is Alex Andrade. I think I'm in my fourth week and I'm with the city manager's office and focusing on on economic development. So, it's a real pleasure to be in front of you here today. The economic development and retail vibrancy priority is made up of interventions and investments that enhance Palo Alto's business climate and ensure that the local economy is healthy. I want to give you a little bit of data just to kind of give you a sense of where we are. While the Q3 2025 University Avenue retail vacancy rate is approximately 13% and essentially the same as a year ago, the Q3 2025 vacancy rate retail vacancy rate on Calav is 6.4%. Which is down from approximately 12% a year ago. Last year there were roughly 38 retail and commercial businesses that opened in Palo Alto. And I think that's really important because what that tells me is that business operators are invested in Palo Alto because there are economic opportunities here. There's talent here and they want to add vibrancy and character to our business districts. I'm really excited about having the opportunity to be in front of you at your council retreat on January 24th and expanding the

um conversation and appropriate economic development solutions for Palo Alto's economy. So, I'm going to get into this what's on the screen now in terms of several city council priorities that have been completed. Examples include the city council approving staff to proceed with the preliminary design and environmental review of a 274 space parking garage. The next step is for staff to engage the historical review review board followed by the architectural review board to explore options for long-term improvements. On December 1, 2025, the city council approved an amendment to the downtown and Calav steam cleaning contract for sidewalk and garage pressure washing. In terms of the wireless communication facility regulations, the city council held a public hearing on a draft ordinance on May 19th followed by a second reading uh which took place on June 9th, 2025. I'm going to now move to the next slide, please. And I'm going to focus on several projects. And you'll see on the slide there that there are four projects that are in bold. And so I'm just going to give you uh an update on that. And you'll also notice that in your report, it indicates that these project projects are behind. However, I want to say that uh there actually is work being done and it's in progress. So objective 211 outdoor activation of Cal Avenue. Through this objective, the architectural review board was formed to provide feedback on permitting options, parklet standards, and pre-approved parklet design modifications for Calav. Parklet and sidewalk dining options and illustrations have been developed for year-round weather based on merchant feedback. Next steps for this project consist of an architectural re review board meeting followed by a recommendation by city council consider for city council

consideration by the close of the current fiscal year. Objective 212 which is the signed plan for Calav. This project has been bifurcated into two separate projects with one moving forward and the other one on hold. The project in progress is led by public works and consists of two signs including a monument sign that's located at the El Camino Rial Calav intersection and a welcome banner on Oregon Expressway. These are anticipated to be complete in late quarter 3 or early Q4 2026. The project on hold is the wayfinding signage plan to ensure there is additional business engagement and to identify additional resources and m maintenance needs. Objective 215. This is the street design for Ramona Street. The project is led by public works. The spherical bowlards and meridian barriers will be installed on Ramona Street for pedestrian safety by the end of this month which will result in the removal of the orange water barriers. Objective 222 which is the retail vibrancy ordinance. This project is led by planning and development services. The proposed options and recommendations will reduce regulatory barriers for businesses applying for permits and will result in a more robust retail environment. So the next steps for us will be to get in front of the retail committee on January 22nd and thereafter the process requires returning to the planning and transportation commission followed by the city council's consideration for the retail revitalization strategy in Q2 of 2026. That concludes the uh this priority project update and I'll be available for questions after the presentation. Thank you. Okay, our next priority is implementing housing strategies for social and

economic balance. And to uh provide a summary of that is Mr. Lee.

Good evening, mayor and city council. About uh let's see, 70% of our um housing strategies for social and economic balance are either completed or um on track. Uh many of these are reflected on the um accomplishments to the right. We have uh introduced a number of uh housing production related ordinances that are increasing uh housing production on our commercial areas and in multif family areas. We have uh updated our accessory dwelling unit ordinance and uh last year had our highest uh number of ADU applications filed with the city which was 244. Every year we continue to see more of those applications filed. As a whole, we have over 3,000 units in our pipeline uh for housing units that are slated to be going through the entitlement process and the building permit process. We begun have begun work on the uh San Antonio Road area plan. Uh this is moving quickly and there's a number of meetings that are taking place this quarter and the city council will have an opportunity to weigh in on this project again uh in early April and again on June to provide a um direction on a preferred um alternative. Uh late last year the city council considered a number of uh uh housing options for the um 1acre parcel that we are uh going to get as a part of the subra uh development agreement. Um and we also entered into and made a lot of uh progress on um lot t uh engaging with alta housing and we anticipate an application to be filed uh very shortly for that project. Uh work was uh presented to the city council and uh staff received direction on the fair chance ordinance. We have updated our development impact fees and more recently have embarked on a much larger

project to update all of our development impact fees and to do a housing uh feasibility study as a part of that effort. [sighs] And we've also initiated um phase one to address oversized vehicle impacts. If we can go to the next slide, please. Uh there are some projects that are uh either uh behind or on hold. Um starting with project home key which will provide transitional housing and services for unhoused residents. This is a project that met some initial uh project delays uh in the construction uh process but a revised schedule uh midyear last year. Uh remains on track with that project anticipated to um be completed in spring. Um the next priority or objective to identify uh funding sources for affordable uh housing development is currently on hold. Uh much of the staff that would be working on this is currently working on project home key and also our oversized vehicle uh program. So there's a resource challenge there. The next two items related to the retail uh excuse me the rental registry program and anti- rent gouging um are expected to go to policy and services I believe in March uh with updates. We have some good data from the rental registry program. Uh we've just been a little bit delayed in getting it to uh to the council to share that information with you. And uh the second to last one is the downtown housing plan. This one is actually mostly on track. Um you'll recall uh last year SB79 became um was adopted or signed into law. It becomes effective in July. Uh we look forward to meeting with the city council appointed ad hoc from late last year to uh have some discussions to decide to what extent if at all we want to incorporate SB79 into that uh planning initiative. And the last item on this list is um looking at ways to um further incentivize um housing development over commercial development by possibly

adjusting um commercial floor area in our commercial zones. And with that, I will turn it over back to Lepita.

Okay. Up next is our last priority on public safety, wellness, and belonging. And here to present that is Miss Cotton Gaines. Good evening, mayor and city council. Chantel Cotton Gains, deputy city manager. Uh really excited to give a very brief overview of the last priority section, particularly because most of the objectives are completed. And so just wanted to uh visually show some of the progress made over the course of this year. You should see yourself and some photos on the screen. Uh so see your work also reflected in what's happening. So we were able to open the public safety building. Uh, a lot of work went into that by a lot of folks. So, um, tons of gratitude there. Also, fire station 4 groundbreaking was referenced earlier this evening. Uh, being able to award that contract was one of the items on the list. And so, last uh, week is a great time for us to show that visually to the community. Uh you also see there one of the items that is on the equity action plan or wellness and belonging action plan was being able to have a dashboard that is having all of our workforce demographic information available to the public so that um that information is able to be seen, understood, people can analyze it. It was a static PDF the year before and we've been able to make that into a interactive dashboard. And so that's one of many items in the action plan but one that we're really proud of completing. The other item on here is coverly master plan. So also referenced earlier this evening. Lots of work going into that through the ad hoc committee and staff um and continuing to progress that very important initiative forward. The last image that's reflected on the screen is enhance and expand inclusive programs and services. And so you see a great event there that was put on by our community services department. It's just one example of the work they're doing. We have a new staff member that came on board in December. Uh and so we're really looking forward to enhancing that

work throughout the year. So next slide, please. The few items that are remaining for us to continue to work on are the three that are on the screen. So the first is implementing the wellness and belonging action plan. There are 26 items that are on that action plan and we also added the training related to Islamophobia, anti-semitism, and anti-Palestinian hate as one of those items. And so we have been advancing along the way, but not all of the 26 items are completed. And so we have that still here as um still moving along, but it is behind schedule. The other item on here is open 445 Brian Street Community Center and it's actually uh soft open right now. So between the time of the printing of this report and today, uh we can mark this one as completed as well. And the last item uh which is related to Gatsby or sorry not Gatsby sorry GBAZ which is the groundbased augmentation system project uh our staff has done quite a bit of work with that along with uh vice mayor stone in terms of engaging with SFO staff to review complete and appeal um the SFO's draft EIR and recommended airport plan. So, there has been a lot of work done on this item, but because the item specifically says to um call out and I believe related to a consultant help, we still mark that as um ongoing as opposed to marking it as complete. But a lot of work has been done throughout the year related to that. And that concludes this section. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, and before we conclude this section, um, and turn it back to, uh, the council for questions or feedback, I did also want to point out that we have launched our, um, council priorities dashboard. These are now uh, available on the city council priorities web page, and it's just an improvement of how the community can um, engage a little better with the um, objectives and and the priorities set by this council. And with that, I'll turn it back to um Oh, I was going to do this. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Next, we will um present also on the um 26 city council retreat process. On uh December 9th, the policy and services committee met to provide feedback on the retreat process as is called in the council handbook. Um at the at its meeting, the U policy and services committee recommended that the council continue its 2025 priorities into 2026. as well. Uh then discussed that the uh focus of the retreat would um best be served by focusing on maybe the development and prioritization prioritization of mid-level goals. And this idea of middle level goals is a um way to bridge our existing framework of council priorities which is very high level um areas um to very to our council objectives which are very um specific um and um smarty uh projects. So the idea of mid-level goals is a desire to bridge

those um two and create uh more mid-level um goals to um identify what should be achieved in that year. So the proposed agenda um if this is what the council should uh desire would then focus on orienting um the focus of the retreat. Uh opening up with a question on on retreat focus followed by a discussion on any suggested mid-level goals and a pri prioritization of those. And then following um that would be a discussion on ad hoc committees and the strategies um to achieve our goals and then followed by next steps. So in conclusion what we are asking um the the council tonight is then to provide provide us with um any questions or feedback on the outcomes of the 2025 priorities. Um and with that looking into 2026 um as well as provide um feedback on the um recommended process uh as as described by policy and services committee for the 2026 retreat. So, if I could just close um to reiterate this last point, we've we've certainly heard uh from the committee specifically and the council more generally or PNS committee as I'm referring to that uh for your retreat on January 24th, the desire to kind of level up the u priorities as they're described. We've got a recommendation to proceed with the basic four priorities. It has been uh u adopted by the council for 2025. And so the real question for 2026 is how much detail and in what areas you want to uh focus any

supplement. Uh again gotten the impression that 70 objectives was a bit much. So an interest in reducing that uh to a more manageable set. So I think that that's the plan going into our uh retreat for the 24th and would uh uh certainly look forward to any feedback you have uh this evening. All right. Well, thank you uh thank you Miss Alamos for coordinating all of this. Uh thank you to all the staff for their presentations and for being here tonight. So many of you and honestly for all the work by all the staff that went into that 2025 report and uh achieving all those objectives. Um, just as um, PNS chair, I want to add just a couple of comments on the go forward retreat process because I'm I think all of us on the committee are eager to hear what our colleagues think would be a productive way to conduct that, but I wanted to give just a little more background on on what you've described. Um, so first of all, the the PNS recommendation to continue those four priorities for a second year, I believe, was affirming council's prior recommendation that we do this on a two-year cycle. We didn't just come up with that as a new idea. We were presented with, you know, the council having thought about that before and we looked at those priorities and thought that was a good idea in this instance given the priorities and how they seem to continue to be such. Um but yes uh you know following up on what staff has said we we did notice of course that those priorities are so broad uh and high level that it really didn't give staff a lot of direction. So, we have four priorities and we had 70 objectives that were kind of a laundry list or a to-do list of of of how how to, you know, within those priorities, but it really didn't have

council weighing in on timing or importance of those. Um so the mid-level goals that we're asking you know our colleagues to propose discuss and priorities prioritize are really designed to give staff greater direction without micromanaging how they're accomplished. So we are recommending discussing at the retreat what is really missionritical and what is somewhat more flexible recognizing that it's all important work. And so, um, and interestingly, I did notice that you whereas we've kind of backed ourselves backed into these, um, mid-level goals, it's really consistent with what the policies and procedures uh, manual originally said about objectives because it recommended that uh, we have three to four priorities with two to three objectives each. So, even if you take the max of that, that would be 12 objectives and we have 70. So I think we're kind of going back to that, you know, can we get a manageable number that we can really sort of compare and contrast uh in terms of the advice we would give to staff. Um and you know just to give you an like an example um because sometimes that makes it more real without really advocating for any particular thing. Um you notice like in the 2025 report we just went through um on the uh economic development and retail vibrancy um priority there were a whole lot of things about Ramona about Calav that were individual objectives but perhaps a mid-level goal is advanced car-free streets. So, it's kind of, you know, do we care about that versus maybe under public safety, wellness, and belonging, there's a whole lot of items about what to do about Cberly, but maybe Cubberly is in at a high level. Then how would we how would we rank those in terms of uh prioritization and and what needs to

happen fast, what needs to happen in 2026. So, that's kind of the feel for why you have this recommendation in front of you. Um, and the other why is that last year we didn't get the 70 objectives set until May 5th, I think it was. So, the year was literally like a third gone by the time we even, you know, signed off on the 70. So, we're hoping we can do this more quickly. We have the same group that had the discussion last year. if we start with those basic priorities or you know tweak them a little but can really get at you know spend our time together chewing through what do we really care about for 2026. Um so and and can we get that to staff you know in the next month or so as opposed to 3 or four months later. So that was the why. But I'm really you know interested in everyone's thoughts on on the how. Um, and I before I go uh to others, I want to see if either of my colleagues on the policy and services committee would like to comment further on that.

I'm not getting a lot of enthusiasm. So, apparently I got it close to right. Okay, I guess I got it close to right. Okay. Um, let's do uh one round of comment and then we'll go to public comment. Is that a legacy light or is that a new light?

Oh, okay. Council member Beal. Yeah, I agree with the policy and services that I think the organization last year ended up being a little unfocused and having 70 we really spread our attention and I'd really like to I think trim that down we'd have better uh production I think uh you know in the past we've had or we still do have these enduring values then we also have priorities and the priorities were meant to be uh narrow categories that where we were going to make exceptional progress over a shortterm period. And now if you look at our past 10 years, nine of the past 10 years we've had housing on it. And that doesn't smell like a short-term priority. That smells like an enduring value. And same with climate. Last seven years we've had climate on. And so that also would be another enduring value. And those are both really important things. But I'm not sure if it makes sense if you're going with a model that the priorities are short-term where you really want to catch up. you really want to make extraordinary progress on these narrow items, then housing and climate should be an enduring value. But the way it's set up right now, we don't tie any objectives to enduring values. And so I'm not sure how exactly how to work that if you have climate tasks that you think are really important. How would you wrap that? Because right now all our objectives are tied to priority. Well, that's the other thing is that not every good idea has to be a priority. We have 70 items on here. Some of them are I mean all of them are pretty good ideas. I looked through the last night and say, "Well, would I throw any of these out?" And they all No, they're all really good. Uh but I think we really want to say no, not every good idea goes on the priority list. I think we really want to reserve that for great ideas. And the other good ideas we're going to do anyway, but this is really where are we going to concentrate? Where can like for example home key really important for

the city? I'm not sure how much leverage we had to accelerate home key. Uh and so should have that been on that list because even if it was important to us, even if we wanted to accelerated, I don't think we had the ability to. So I question whether that should be on there. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. And I guess one thing I forgot to mention is that um for the objectives themselves down at the more granular level just out of the committee uh we were also uh recommending that those be prioritized into the tier one and two as described in the staff report and I personally um was under the impression coming out of the committee meeting I didn't it didn't get captured in the staff report so I don't know what my colleagues think uh was that we could still it's It's not like we couldn't suggest um objectives or things to do that we would like to see on the staff list. It was more just aimed at that higher level prioritization as in terms of spending our time. So I would still like to see in there an ability to name things that we thought were urgent for this year. Um so I just wanted to add that uh Council Member Bert.

Thank you. Um so first I'd like to say that I think that um as much as this is 70 may be too many having them there seems to have had a real impact on the organization having clear focus and deadlines that they are attempting to hit. And even if they don't hit it on all of them everybody is being accountable for what were the reasons we couldn't quite make it or what happened or whatever. and and it it gives a real ability to uh focus on what's important um both internally in the organization and as it gets reported to us and the public and then um uh so I I think there's real value there that we want to continue to embrace and that I guess the other part is even though it's this real long list the city manager has come back uh multiple times during a year to give us updates is it quarterly Yeah. And it just has kept a focus and a public awareness of all those things that are being done. So I like the idea of these mid-level way some of this may be um uh uh nomenclature because I think what we have in the procedures and protocols talks about objectives and these are really projects um uh that would fulfill maybe certain higher level objectives is how it might be organized. So I I think we we can still have both things and whether we refine it um uh I'm open to that. Um I I also like what PNS had talked about on the um having these tiers of our most important ones that we are going to try to uh hell or high water accomplish and the others are very important. Uh they aren't maybe we'll do it but they just

aren't of the same highest importance. And then um uh one of the things that I as much as I've valued this I thought that by trying to take all these important projects that are being done in the city and it's a lot uh and shoehorn them in to saying well they have to fit within a council priority a council priority and what I see is some of them actually help fulfill more than one priority and others don't really fit and yet we've created this structure where it's there. So I think from the way to format it going forward I I would uh maybe have another category that is all the others and maybe look at how they align to core values. I mean, we aren't replacing the new bridge because we adopted climate ch action as a priority. And even within uh the great set of accomplishments on the climate action area, about half of them are things that we really didn't initiate because we prioritize the climate plan, which we have done in the last four years or so. um we've really elevated that uh prioritization and seen real progress, but that didn't drive these projects, some of these projects being here. So, I think we should reook at that. Um, and then, um, and then lastly, uh, I wanted to, um, follow up on Council Member Rectal's kind of saying we we really have had a a number of our council priorities that really, I think, more are our enduring values and that we may need to update those to make

them more clear to embrace those. But once again, uh the the priorities can change. I would say that this year we should be considering um our our are really our uh organizational uh efficiency and innovation to be able to accomplish what we're hoping to accomplish with a tighter budget. I mean this is going to drive a lot of things and um and that may be a much more focused area of one or two years. Um and by no means do I as it's you all know would I say oh I want to dep prioritize our climate action plan for instance or some of these others. Um but but that can be in strengthening our our council value statement for things that our climate plan is not going to end in two or three years and the climate issue isn't going to end in that time frame. So anyway, those are my initial thoughts.

Thank you, Council Member Liths.

Thank you, Mayor. Um I think a challenge for me um going into my fourth year of this is I think everybody has maybe a slightly different definition of value, priority, objective, project, etc. And it's been articulated a bit here tonight. Does something belong at this level or this level? um something enduring like climate, housing, does that belong as an enduring value instead of showing up repeatedly on a priorities list which our handbook until recently I think said priorities do not repeat or priorities only last for three years. Well, that's clearly not been the case. So, we've been trying to align our practice um with our language. The question I want to ask is I feel like sometimes um the menu, what do we call it? The placemat. What is it? Placemat.

Placemat. the placemat as it's called this lengthy list of 70 objectives under the four priorities which is updated for us quarterly which we really appreciate. I feel like sometimes the impression I get from staff or maybe it's it's stated outright is these are council's objectives. There are too many. You know, there's a lot. It's an exhaustive list. We're busy with other things and we got your 70 things. And it begs the question, you know, wait a minute. These aren't just council's pet projects that we want to add to your workload. These are actual in many cases things that would be at top the staff list if you guys were the ones creating the list and telling us what matters most. Put differently, it might be helpful to know of the, you know, there are 70 things that we're paying attention to. Is that 1% of what staff is doing, 10% of what staff is doing, 50% of what staff is doing, most of what more than 50% of what staff is doing? I'm I'm trying to get clear on what's what are we adding to your plate in the name of a council priority supported by objectives that y'all would not prioritize if council wasn't coming in saying hey this matters to us and if there aren't that many things on that list and perhaps there are um I would love to feel as we discuss this that we are more aligned that this isn't council yanken staff chain with these 70 placemat items, but rather this is a joint articulation of, you know what, these are the most, you know, urgent important um high high focus areas. And I I I honestly don't know how many super important things are not on this list, uh, for example. Um, and why is that? Why are those things not council

objectives? Um, so I know I'm, you know, I'm sort of asking a big perhaps unclear question, but you're nodding your head and taking notes, so maybe you have some idea of what I'm getting at. Thank you, Council Member Lowing.

Okay. I thought the city manager was going to respond to that question. That's my pause, but it's okay.

Well, I I I could I to be honest, I'm struggling a bit with it. I I would just offer the reflection that we certainly don't want to leave the impression that things are only on the list because they're important to you. To your point, there is a shared ownership on uh I'd say at least many if not all of the items. Uh that said, we do look to the council to tell us what you feel is the most important and that reflects itself not only in the list of what's on on our priorities as we've referred to as objectives, but also what we bring forward as a part of your budget, what we set in terms of the the the policy options in front of you. So uh I I would simply note that it's a it's a shared u responsibility both for development and uh the the identification of what's on the list

and and just because we we come back to this and and I think that's what we were trying to do with PNS was not have it just be generated by council but have us at this higher level of directionality and prioritization and let the professionals you identify objectives. We can also pitch in on that, but we don't necessarily have to do that, all of those. So, that's why it wouldn't be just ours. Council member Lowi.

Okay. Um, just a few things. One is that, you know, the the 70 objectives um even last year that felt a bit too big for me. Not that they weren't object um essential, but we don't need to know that level of detail in some cases. So, um I'm I'm in support of getting that one way or the other uh down this year. Also, the fact that most of these objectives now that we're in January are 70ish 75% complete suggest that maybe at least with the resources allocated, they weren't achievable. Um not not I mean that's discounting a couple that were intentionally postponed that we all understand. [clears throat]

So, um, uh, secondly, I'm just strongly in favor of the idea of waiting the objectives. Um, I believe we talked about that last year and decided not to do it, but I really think that's an important thing to do cuz even if it's 70 or if it's 50 or if it's 40, um, some things are going to have to get, you know, a lot of pedal to the metal and a lot of financing and others not so much. And we kind of know what those are. or if we don't, that's also a way to sort out um if staff doesn't really agree with the urgency of a particular priority. Uh we can upgrade that so that we're all on the same page. There's another discussion in there about um in terms of the prioritization that might be based on if it was skipped there's not an immediate risk to the process which I don't think is full enough because that's sort of the downside of well nothing's going to die you know nobody's going to die or something but what I think we want to optimize is those things that we think are really important benefits for our citizens so um if we drop that if we drop I can't come up with an idea right now but if we drop one of those that it's not going to be a disaster if we don't get that benefit done and we think that's an important priority for the citizens in the next you know 12 to 18 months that should be included so I don't think it should just be risk oriented and I don't know if that was your intent but that's how the words came out so that's why I wanted to to raise that one [clears throat] um I'm going to need some tutoring on what mid-level objectives are because I'm not sure in the scheme of things what we're trying to define there. Uh if we're going to combine them and that sort of bridging idea from the priorities, it seems to me like that overlaps with our um some issues are more important than others and and mid-level. So I think we are going to have a almost like a a contract where you go in and the

definitions from an attorney are right up front of all these things. priorities, objectives, mid-level objectives, and so on. So, we don't get confused in the six or seven hours that we're doing this retreat. Just seeing if people are paying attention to that comment. Um, and you know, the last thing just in the first round of comments is um I'm not sure we should be making a decision before we walk into that um um retreat that we don't want to make any changes to the four priorities. It might be that some should be combined. It might be that just saying with the theme of council rectal for a minute that one of them becomes, you know, more of an enduring value. Uh, and we might say something is so crucial that we really really want to pump it up to being one of the four. Um, that said, I don't want to get four or six or eight. Um, so the the the brevity is going to be an important discipline for us. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Lou.

Thank you. Um just a few comments and reactions. Firstly, I like the idea of having a priority focused around internal capability and efficiency. I think that is timely and I think there are a lot of opportunities. I agree that we can have a lot of priorities, but I also agree that 70 is probably too many. We can certainly be in the dozens. There are things in our current list like um uh executing on work plans that are already approved that are frankly quite vague and maybe not that informative to staff or council. You know, they're just a few examples like that. But we should be really disciplined about what we think of as a priority because that means we're going to trade off against it. Uh trade off other work to get that done. Um and continuing that I think these goals should be hard. I think it is okay to miss goals and it is okay for us to be ambitious and to also set some norm uh which of course we'll figure out over time but getting twothirds of our objectives done I think is actually a good number. We want to stretch ourselves so that in some years we can do a little bit better or in some years we might do less but we can sort of break down and understand why that happened. Um so having fewer goals but also notably having harder goals is important. Uh, one thing that I noticed is that in a couple of cases, present an ordinance uh actually referred to passing an ordinance and that was what meant it was uh uh complete. But there's another example like present a renter protection fair chance ordinance to council where it's considered complete because council heard it I guess in a study session or

something in April. And so we really need to make our goals harder and less squishy because if present means different things in different contexts and present just means someone on council or some committee or council heard it uh at least once like that's not um how we actually want to set goals and motivate ourselves. Um just one more thought about mid-level goals. I think of that as what do we actually want to get done? Why do we even have these objectives? So, uh there are many objectives around climate, but to council member Bert's point as well, some of them are just things we would do anyways. But having an objective like reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by X% so that we are on track for uh whatever 80 by30 or you know goals that we might tweak or sub goals. um that is very clear to staff uh what metrics we want to hit. Um it is very clear why we are doing those four projects that ladder into uh or those four objectives that m that ladder into that mid-level goal. And it's also clear to staff, okay, between these four work items on climate, I should trade off one or the other because the real goal is to get on a path to reduce uh greenhouse gas emissions. Um, and we could structure our housing goals in a similar way where the mid-level goal might be to uh get X units of affordable housing in the pipeline. And we could think of some of those as 100% affordable. We could think about some of those as inclusionary housing. We can, uh, uh, try to really sort of optimize for a goal. Um, uh, we can think about similar things for vision zero. uh um uh mental health, a variety of other uh mid-level goals. So, those were just

some more examples I want to chime in. Thanks. Thank you, Council Me uh Vice Mayor Stone.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I just first want to really appreciate staff for how much we have been able to get accomplished last year. you make us look so good. And so we just just appreciate all the work that has gone into this. I really always like this exercise of being able to reflect back and just be reminded of how much really has been accomplished and I I it's been beneficial here in the discussion tonight. seems like I'm I'm kind of I'm glad having been on policy and services. Seems like our recommendation is is generally being supported, but getting a lot of really great ideas of how we can continue to tweak this process moving forward. Just following up on on Council Member Lou's point there, I really liked the idea of kind of creating harder, more concrete goals. I I've often found I think a lot of times kind of goals are put into place almost as a way to be able to just kind of check them off even though it's kind of ongoing work that staff and our and our organization would do anyways. And so if we can be more intentional so we can really look back and and say, "Wow, we actually accomplished this meaningful measure, I I think that would be far more beneficial for for us, for the community, and give staff a a better sense of what we're trying to achieve." So I think anything anytime we're seeing a an objective that is just kind of worded as continue this I don't know how beneficial that that is unless it really is moving towards achieving a goal. So I really like liked that point overall for for this retreat. love the idea that we are sticking with the idea of our our four primary objectives and diving deeper into that during that

actual retreat. I agree. I think we all agree 70 objectives is a bit overly ambitious and I think we all recognize that at the at the time, but I'm not quite sure where that healthy medium is. I I also agree with Council Member Lou. I think we did a pretty good job at achieving especially the more more meaningful objectives and where we fell short generally makes a lot of sense. Some out of our control uh others not. But I think staff's uh staff's discretion in prioritizing in real time is discretion that we should provide you as the professionals to make those to make those judgments. loved the idea of of council member rectal how you kind of kept describing our I guess enduring values. Um thought that was I I I really like that. I've always struggled with that as as well. Housing climate have been objectives ever since I've been on this council. I am curious and maybe tonight is not the place to to have this discussion because this isn't for this year's retreat, but but looking forward, I'd just kind of be curious getting staff's feedback on how how does that make then your work more challenging if we're saying we're not going to have housing and climate as a annual kind of priority. We give you of course we're going to give you others to fill in those. How then do you achieve these enduring um values that we have of housing, climate, etc. while taking on additional ones? And so I think that's something for us all to to think about cuz you know we we might be left with having to keep these as objectives as various things like the affordable affordable housing crisis and others um that we that we continue to wrestle with. And then just final thought, I think we've

talked about this a a little bit and again more long-term, so maybe 2027 is rethinking about these um objectives is not really one-year objectives, but more on that two-year cycle. So, if we're really going to stick with this idea that our council priorities last for two years, then maybe our objectives should as well. Maybe that comes down to the tiering that we're going to do that there's going to be some more immediate ones that we can get done in a year. Others that we recognize might be more of a 2-year objective. I think that would obviously kind of depend on on on what it is. So glad we are I think being just being more um intentional with this with this process in a way that's going to be able to make it more meaningful. And I I'm excited at what the mayor mentioned that we're going to be able to actually come up with objectives early on in the year rather than adopting them in in May and then expecting greater than 70% completion come January. So given that's the reality we're we're working with, I'd say well done and looking forward to the retreat. Well, I was going to to lay down the challenge here that I sus I I would say success for all of us would be to come out of the retreat on the 24th with the statements, whatever the statements will be. Uh and and so that tall order, but uh uh staff is uh prepping and and would look forward to trying to reach that immediate objective.

All right. Well, thank you colleagues. a lot of good thoughtprovoking feedback, but I'm going to hold that thought uh to see if we have any public comment on this item. Yes, we Yes, we do. We have one request to speak.

Okay. Our first speaker is Hamilton. Okay, I'll assume that's a yes. Um, I have three comments on three different areas. The first is that I like the current structure of goals and specific projects. What concerns me about mid-level goals is that they're not smart. Specifically, they're not specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. And I think it just adds a layer that may not be that helpful. Uh, for example, this thing about make progress on Ramona, it's not specific, achievable, time bound. It's not doesn't really have any accountability built in. And that leads into the second point, keep a one-year cycle. Um, I think because we want to remain adaptable. We want to measure our progress every year and we have a lot of upcoming changes. So, I don't want us to become complacent. In a way, I feel like we're becoming overly complacent. We have the Fed who's going to who's in the process of cutting local funding. We have Fed overreach, which we're going to have to continue to grapple with. international instability and we could have rapid changes in the economy. So I just want to make sure we maintain our ability to respond rapidly just as we had to when co arrived. And the third is uh the utility budget and revenue is larger than the general fund yet they really seem to ignore our city priorities. In my recent foray into the

natural gas rates, I found an organization that was very compliance focused and opaque at at the exclusion of all other city priorities. I we we struggled to uh get them to consider climate and they basically said we're not considering climate because um we don't want we don't want to expose ourselves to any liability. and they took a hyperconservative stance that was beyond what was legally required. So as we look at these priorities, ignoring half of the income to the city that goes through the utility I think would be a mistake. And so I'd like an increased focus on the utilities and getting them aligned with with our goals and priorities. Thank you.

And that concludes public comment for study session item two. All right. Thank you. Um, so I want to reflect on what I've heard so far so that we can get to um, sort of an outline for this retreat that we feel comfortable enough with knowing that between now and then we're all going to, you know, digest a lot of this and cogitate and probably come there with some even more uh, evolved, I'll say, ideas. Um, you know, it's it's a tricky thing to do and I think a lot of it is uh nomenclature as council member Liths uh suggested um when when PNS considered uh whether or not we should um have the the same priorities as part of the two-year cycle that we had posited previously. Um, it wasn't the idea that it wasn't so much making a rule that we would always have two-year priorities. It was looking specifically at these four and saying, you know, is housing, climate, economic development, public safety still the sort of the top four categorical priorities that we have and and I and at least the three of us unanimously said yes. But that doesn't mean we can't change them. We certainly can discuss them. Um, there's some interesting ideas tonight around that. I also think that again getting back to this nomenclature idea um you know when you talk about uh council rectal the enduring values so I'm looking at the council values that are in the um PNP handbook right before the annual council priorities and um they're kind of different in nature um although overlapping we we're talking about values would guide decisions that,

and I'll just give you a couple examples, balance revenues and expenses, are environmentally sustainable. So, kind of baked in there are some of the ideas we've talked about. Um, I I think that, you know, our our question is no one's I don't think anyone's suggesting we not do climate or not do housing or any of that. It's more what is the structure of a conversation where we can give staff more direction on prioritization and talking through each of 70 ideas may not be the most efficient way to do that. Although I do agree that I think I think we were still suggesting both staff and the committee that the objective still be created and written and identified and reported on and that a timeline be attached and all of that. It's just that a lot of that would be done by staff pursuant to the recommendations which were fewer. Um and so that's the idea and those objectives would still be smarty objectives, right? and and so we aren't trying to get away from that. The question is how do we how do we uh in some kind of efficient way get this give some feedback on these areas and I quite like the idea of saying well hey you know what what are the things that are special this year what are the things that must do this year um and and that I think we we need to talk about and this was an effort to try to um craft a structure to do that but I I'm certainly open to whatever works. Um, but I I think that giving sort of the the the the critical

musthaves this year um whether it's uh because they're time bound or um be because we just uh we think it's a a oneshot deal um is important. Um, and I think the the to-do list, um, sort of the objectives could be generated by staff with our input, be referred to committees in some instances. You know, the climate, um, ESCAP work plan is very much like the objectives here. Um, and so I I I think there may be other ways to do that, but I I just want at the retreat to have a discussion that isn't just, hey, here's high level categories and here's a to-do list. I think we need something in between because y'all are really smart about strategy. Um, so that's my general thoughts. Are there additional comments on our structure going forward? Council member Bert. Yeah, I'd just like to follow up um that uh uh I think that the the council values one that uh when we throughout the year we put up our priorities, but when we created those values, it really was for this intention to uh live up to what's in our procedures and protocols around what our annual priorities are supposed to be and not lose sight of things that remain very important to the city, the staff, uh the council, and they are going to stay important. And so I they were composed at one time and a little bit on the fly. And I think that uh we could spend uh a little bit of our retreat time to um see how we want to

improve them uh and just have them capture more accurately what we are um thinking of as those enduring values. And then just a reminder that um in that same uh page 35 on our uh council protocols uh booklet um it's that the goal of no more than three or four priorities a year um and have a two to threeyear time limit which for the mo we've tweaked them a little bit in a word or two but as council member rectal said and council member lithgods um they they've really um uh been enduring uh as what are supposed to be uh a more narrow time frame set of priorities. And lastly, that they will receive particular unusual and significant attention during that year. And that doesn't say that um these other projects and uh goals actually that the city has uh will not continue to have priorities and and have uh fulfillment of those projects. It's just that it's an an additional particular emphasis. So I think we want to return to kind of thinking about that. Um and um so for that reason I'm I I one I look forward to actually the the um uh priority setting discussion to see what we might change and at the same time um uh integrate that with an update to the core values and then doing these other things that PNS had recommended um around the tiers and and other aspects that we've already discussed. So, um I think we'll have a good discussion on the retreat.

Thank you. Um I might suggest at this point I I I I agree with that and I think it's um you know we had talked last year about the fact that um we'd sort of run over the two to threeyear limit and that it wasn't so much just this you know the goals had kind of I'm sorry the priorities had kind of morphed away a bit from what was set forth in the P&P. What I'm thinking uh we might do just to to to move this along is um on the proposed agenda that I believe we need to vote on um to some degree. No,

really your your call on whether you'd like to uh ultimately this is setting up a future meeting. So you can either give us general direction or specific as you see fit.

Okay. Well, then maybe it'd be simple. Well, just looking at the proposed agenda as it's set forth here, I I think that we could insert and we can cogitate it on on it between now and then. For example, the uh retreat facilitator, I know she's in touch with staff and and I'll be having a conversation with her. Um, we could have discussion of values, priorities, and suggested mid-level goals with the idea that we're not going to that this is this is aimed at streamlining and and we were what we were trying to do was was have a more focused discussion here, but I I think that what we've heard tonight um means that we really need to get on the same page with nomenclature upfront. And so perhaps we can can can do that and and talk about these values. And then uh the rest of it I think um as council member Bert said um we can can roll through those prioritization and other conversations. So if if you don't need anything more um unless somebody wants to make a motion. H council member rectal

I just want to make a couple comments. Certainly.

I mean it all comes down to the the task that we're want staff to do and how it's organized really doesn't matter. it comes down. But one thing I think is really important is where do you want to make exceptional progress here? And by broadening out the priorities, we've lost that and do we want to return to that? Is that important to identify some narrow areas where we want to make a lot of progress? I I'm not sure about that. The other is that right now all the objectives have to be tied to a priority. And do we need that? Can we just say no, this is a really important thing. It doesn't tie to one of the priorities. For example, if housing was off, we might have housing tasks that we want to do even though housing wasn't a priority. Uh so right now, do we want to keep that linkage, that mandatory linkage of having priorities linked to objectives?

Great. And maybe that's something we can bake in at the beginning. What I love about this discussion is I think all of us are on the same page that we want this to be a meaningful exercise. And that was exactly it. I felt it had gotten so broad and so high level that we'd kind of lost the appropriate role for council input to to do that prioritization. What do we really really care about this year? And so I think we're all on the same page in that and we'll we'll try to we'll we'll work through the specifics and the nomenclature and all that uh in a couple weeks. Right. [laughter] All right. Okay. Okay. Well, uh, seeing no further lights and and you, I guess, have the direction you need.

Yes. We'll follow up and again, we expect we'll be providing some additional information for council in advance of the study uh, the retreat itself. Okay. And I I just want to do one more thank you to staff. I know you're all here and we didn't ask you a lot of questions about your objectives and and that you reported on, but you know, I concur with my colleagues that were thrilled to see the progress. I think we can follow up uh elsewhere on specific ones, but thank you all for your work that went into the report we received tonight. So, with that, yes. Oh, I'm sorry, Council Member Lats.

I'm sorry. Yeah, I might have misunderstood the uh plan. So, I thought we were going to ask staff some questions, but we had just pivoted to uh talking more about the organizational stuff. So, we we can um Well, I don't want to be the only one. I know they're all here. So, um I I just wanted to ask the question if I'm if I'm the only one I can take it offline, but if there were others who do a quick round of that, but let's try to keep it just because we have a long agenda, but yeah, please go ahead.

Okay. Well, um I'll join the mayor in thanking all of you for uh all of the work that's reflected in um the presentations that you brought forth tonight. And um I did want to ask director late um it was clear in the report and in your presentation that um housing 3.2.6 six, which is to I believe it's to identify funds for affordable housing. Um, essentially says that staff time has been cannibalized because of work other important work like OSV impacts. And I think there was another item that you mentioned that kind of prevented staff from focusing on this one. So, could you say a little bit more about that? I'm raising it because I think on October 20th when we had our big meeting on oversized vehicle impacts and how to support RV dwellers, we unless I missed it were not presented with, hey, you go forward with this, here's what we're not doing on housing and um it I don't know that would have changed anything, but I think it's it's a pretty material thing. So, I was surprised to see that sort of this was a trade-off. Could you say more about that, please, Miss Mcdana? Uh thank you Melissa Mcdana, assistant to the city manager uh and lead on both both of those items. [laughter] So when when we got to October 20th to get to that date, the exact same staff resources were working on that policy and services item to get it to council on the 20th. Um then council gave us direction to immediately work on some time bound things um at that council meeting which is what we we worked on. There was no way to do that and to do the uh priority objective on affordable housing financing.

So if I could which had a more open timeline.

Yeah, if I could uh perhaps amplify or clarify a little bit beyond that. So clearly this was written from a city manager's office perspective in terms of the staff support that was anticipated uh to be needed in order to work on affordable housing funding. And so uh that that is true. You you started your question as as pointing to director late and for understandable reasons. Uh but uh I think it's as worth noting that we had not anticipated that their staff was going to do much more than they already had. Uh that said, you know, on this broader topic of of affordable uh housing funding, uh we have been engaged in legislative initiatives and so really we'll continue to track that as a as a potential resource aside from anything developed specifically here in Palo Alto.

So it's gone but not forgotten.

Okay. Thank you. And um Director Okaine, um with regard to 445 Bryant, um I've been delighted to read about and hear about the um opening, which is not far away, the um city-owned building will house La Coma and a new teen center. And I see the new teen center written up as designed by and for teens. And I'm wondering if you could let us know which of our teen groups did we work with and give us some examples of uh what the result will be. Um what will it offer? When will it operate? How will it interact with LAA in the same building? Thank you, Council Member Kristen Okaine Community Services Department. So yes, the teen center is planning we're planning on opening in February. We're just putting some final touches on it. Um the way that we engaged with teens was a couple of ways. One was through an online survey um where we asked specific questions about what they might like in the teen center. Um

and who received that survey? I would have to get back to you on that. Um it's teens in our own groups or broader groups of teens.

So both. So teens in our own groups, but then we also share those links. Um we ask our teen leadership groups to share them broadly with their networks and then we also share them on social media for anybody. Um so that was one way and then the other was um we did an openhouse at the teen center at Mitchell Community Center and we did a couple of workshops where we asked them to um do some mockup drawings for us on what they might like um to be to have in the teen center. And then when we we scaled that down into a couple of options and ask them to weigh in on those options.

Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Appreciate the update. And with my time being up, I just want to welcome uh Mr. Andrade. Uh welcome to the city. There's a lot ahead of you and we're all very motivated to help you succeed uh in this important work. Thank you very much.

Well, I actually have a question as well. Um, and it's on the climate action priority that director Eglesson reported on, but it may or may not be director late because it's 1.2.3, which is a stream/crete corridor setback requirements. [laughter] I I thought it might be um I'm just curious about this because this this is what I think was one of the very first things that my cohort uh addressed on council. Um and it it it uh we were hoping to to have it I think back this year and um I know at the PTC it says roadblocks. Uh the PTC requested further amendments to address concerns about potential impacts to properties. Um and then it has next steps. The revised ordinance is anticipated to return to PTC in 2026. So are we not going to see it this year or how are what how where does that stand?

Yes, it will be before the city council this year. I think the plan is to go to the planning and transportation commission in the first quarter and then wrap up there and then we would be able to come back to uh the city council. It's um delayed but not uh forgotten as referenced [laughter] earlier. Yeah. Well, I I see that it says on track, but the next steps just sort of stopped with PTC and 26. I thought, "Oh, please tell me it's not going to be 27 before we see it." Okay. No, it's just a little more complicated as we got more into it and it just takes a little bit more time to go through it. Okay, understood. All right. Well, I will look forward to that one. Thank you. Um any others?

No. Okay. Well, I'll reiterate my thanks and uh we'll close this item. Thank you all. All right. So, that concludes our study session and takes us to our consent calendar. Do we have any uh requests to pull uh or other on the consent calendar? Do we have I guess we should probably take public comment first, but do we have any public comment on the consent calendar? No, mayor. There are no requests to speak and no hands are raised for consent calendar items. Okay. Council member Liths,

I'd like to register a no vote on items 10 and 11. Okay. Any others? No. All right. I would like to move the consent calendar. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second.

All right, Madame Clerk, when you're ready, would you kindly call the role? Vice Mayor Stone.

Yes. Council member Bert. Yes. Mayor Vinker. Yes. Council member Liths. Yes. Council member Lou. Yes. Council member Rectal. Yes. Council member Lowing. Yes. Motion carries. All right. Thank you. And with that, we'll move on to city manager. I'd like to talk to my I'm so sorry. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much. Um, I voted no on items 10 and 11, uh, simply because I have concern that the motion we passed on October 20th with regard to the impacts of RV dwellers on businesses and residents and our intent to dis to um, uh, investigate more safe parking options for RV dwellers that those two branches of uh, you know, a very difficult um, situation um are not proceeding at the same pace. Um it's frankly much harder to find safe parking lots and I know our staff is working on it. I'm not uh this is not a ding on anybody. This is um an articulation of a concern that one piece of it is proceeding um with greater expediency than the other which I think was predictable and um so we find ourselves with with uh a lot more to say on on the front end and less on the back end. I have confidence that um that will write itself over time. Um but I in the meantime, humans are being impacted by these uh ordinances that we've passed. Um and they're being impacted during the holidays. We're impacted during the holidays and so it's hard to see us with such uh fervent effort on the one hand um uh knowing that the the second piece um is just going to take longer to to um put into place. So that's the reason for my no votes. Thank you. Thank you, city manager.

Yes. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. If I could ask the city clerk for assistance with a few slides. I'll keep this uh quick. I do want to note, and I don't have a slide for this, uh uh just to reiterate appreciation for council members and community members that joined us uh for the fire station 4, affectionately known as the Mitchell Park Fire Station u uh groundbreaking uh last week. and uh certainly look forward to that construction proceeding uh expeditiously and having the new fire station in service along with appreciation to the coverly community that is uh uh bearing with the temporary uh station on campus. Uh let's go to the next slide please. All right. Well, again much uh conversation already but uh what we're referring to actually we don't have it on here. 429 Brian Street. There's a change in the address. Turns out the 445 is actually the parking garage. So, for those who are looking for the new community center, it is at 429 Bryant Street. And uh this just a quick teaser on uh how uh gorgeous the uh facility looks. Uh now that uh we've had some interim improvements. I think it's important to manage expectations. We noted that uh more can and should be done uh at this facility uh but sufficient at this point to open our doors and working with Lakomeda uh for their transition and as noted here uh that uh we have uh uh grand opening details being finalized and more to come but reservations are already uh being taken. Next slide please. Speaking of reservations and registrations, uh the enjoy catalog uh is now moving to the virtual enjoy catalog because we are making the transition to a digital uh format and so

as many of us have become accustomed to receiving that catalog in the mail. This will now be a postcard uh that you'll receive and uh that uh will now refer you to what has always been our online registration system. So change management in the works. Uh but again we were this is just part of getting the word out uh that summer camp registration is beginning on uh February 5th as noted here. Uh we know that that's a very important date on people families uh calendars. So just want to get the word out early and uh more information to come on registration. Next slide please. Then also throughout the month of January, we've got a number of community events upcoming uh that families and and members of our community uh would uh be welcome to participate in ranging from final movies at Cubberly through uh upcoming uh Lunar New Year uh activities at the end of the month with the library. Uh so more detail here on the city's calendar. Next slide, please. Also uh ongoing activity, our artlift grant program uh which has uh always generated tremendous uh works uh and certainly want to reinforce local opportunities for local artists uh and uh that uh program is now launched and deadline is February 20th city uh at our uh city's website pelto.gov/artist opportunities. Next slide please. Then finally, looking forward to the upcoming city council agendas next or or just actually this week, Thursday, if anyone sees a city council meeting posted, note that this is our closed session uh only and so will not be a regular city council meeting. Then uh there will be no meeting next Monday uh due to the Martin

Luther King Jr. holiday. Instead, you'll meet on Tuesday, January 20th. a number of items uh shown here, a study session with your community survey results. Uh our legislative guidelines and the long range financial forecast. Again, that's next week, Tuesday. Uh then next Saturday will be the city council's retreat that we've spoken to. Then the following meeting will be on February 2nd. So there's also no meeting on I guess it would be the 28th or thereabouts. Um no, that would be the 26th. Thank you. No meeting on the 26th of January. Next meeting is February 2nd. Then we've got a number of items uh shown on that agenda as well as through the remainder of February. So with that, mayor. Um that completes my comments. Back to you.

Thank you very much. All right. So we'll move on to our action item uh 13. Oh, okay. Please go ahead. Thank you. Uh, city manager, could you, it was alluded to tonight that the retreat is 8 hours long or 6 hours long. I'm not sure that we have been given the exact start and stop. I'm wondering if you have that. Let's see. I think the start time is 9:00 a.m. I don't think we set an end time to it. So, we did want to, but you will. [laughter]

Well, I think that's uh at at the discretion of the council. you know, we um we're trying to try to get as much done as we can on that retreat day. So, again, I don't have a specific end time. Yeah, we nor do I, but uh hoping for, you know, early afternoon, not hitting not going the full day, but that requires us to be sort of focused and organized, but Oh, we could make plans for dinner, let's say. Yes. Okay. Or we could arrange for dinner. No, no, no. That's why I think we should talk about the happy hour. [laughter] All right. Thank you.

All right. [sighs and gasps] So, now we'll move on to 13. Study and assessment of PaloAlto turf systems and direct staff to proceed with El Camino Park synthetic turf replacement and natural grass pilot. Welcome, Director. Okay. I assume I'm turning it over to you for a staff presentation.

You are. Thank you very much. Good evening um Mayor Vinker and council members. I'm Kristen Okaine with um the community services department. I'm actually going to turn um the mic over um straight away to Sarah Robastelli who's our division manager of open space parks and golf and who has really been leading this project. And then online we also have Anthony Stevenson with Lloyd um sports and engineering. I think that's the right title. So I'm going to turn it over to you Mr. Robustelli. Lovely. Thank you so much. Good evening, uh, mayor, city council members. Um, as Kristen mentioned, Sarah Robastelli, division manager for open space, parks, and golf. Online, you're correct. Uh, we have Anthony Stevenson, principal for uh, Lloyd Consulting Group. Tonight staff is presenting the study and assessment of PaloAlto turf systems and the associated recommendation related to El Camino Park um El Camino Park. This item returns to council following your November 17th, 2025 direction to form a city council ad hoc committee and request additional information and clarification on several topics related to the turf study and the El Camino Park project. If you go to the next slide as background, uh, community services manages four synthetic turf fields across three locations, El Camino Park, Stamford, and Peloto community playing fields. Um, throughout this presentation, I'm going to be referring to that uh, complex as Mayfield as well as Coverly. El Camino Park was originally scheduled for a synthetic replacement. However, city council directed staff to pause that project and instead redirect

funding towards a comprehensive turf study to better inform uh future decisions. The Mayfield project just this last month in December was substantially completed and Cberly is anticipated for replacement in 2028. Uh next slide. The turf study was designed to provide an objective datadriven evaluation of turf systems used by athletic used for athletic fields. The study focused on environmental and health considerations, costs, durability, usability, and the scope was adjusted to incorporate the Santa Clara County public health report released in January of 2025. El Camino Park was used as a case study allowing staff and consultants to combine local operational knowledge with independent technical expertise. The intent of the study is not to mandate one single solution, but to rather to establish a consistent framework to support informed decisionmaking for future athletic, uh, field replacements. Um, this next slide, um, I've titled, you know, the turf study project, uh, calendar. However, it really could have been titled community engagement. Um, I really want to underscore to council as well as the public the robust robust community engagement process that that incurred throughout this process. Uh, the project was launched in June of 2025. It included f focus groups in July. Um, that included athletic users,

park and rex playing fields ad hoc committee as well as the Sierra Club. Um, a draft report was released on August 13th and followed up by a formal public comment period throughout uh, September 3rd. The study was discussed at multiple park and recreation uh, meetings and was presented to city council November 17th. Um following that meeting, city council informed uh formed an ad hoc committee which met on November 24th as well as December 9th. During those meetings, staff specifically um was specifically received further evaluation to clarify risk mitigation me measures. The recommendation before you this evening reflects this follow-up work. On the next slide um is is your action that took place on November 17th forming that ad hoc. And on this next slide we I will discuss risk mitigation measures as it's been a central focus of both the turf study as well as subsequent polity policy discussions. So, uh, the parks and watershed protection as well as storm drain work groups met at three locations. At Mayfield, drainage is completely subsurface and there are no open drains requiring filtration. Um at El Camino Park, staff has now ordered 13 inlets, hats, filters, as well as three exterior sock filters for uh installation. At Cubberly, we currently have uh filters around the track area and staff are evaluating whether additional filtration

is warranted. Um, I also have a graph that may be handy at the very back of this slide deck if we um it it may give a better picture and I apologize I didn't add this earlier but um key areas of concern that were raised by council as well as the ad hoc committee um and uh let's see the public include PAS infill materials storm water protection, uh, surface heat and ongoing GMAX, uh, performance. Historically, PAS testing was not conducted for synthetic turf materials. Moving forward, staff will uh, pursue material testing and manufacturer verification as part of the replacement uh, projects. This represents a change in practice compared to our earlier uh, installations. I also wanted to highlight that the recommendation before you this evening significantly reduces plastic content uh compared to what existed what currently exists at El Camino Park. Previously fields use a thermoplastic elastimemer or TPE infill. Their proposed replacement would use natural cork infill, which removes the vast majority of plastic from the infill material and has um has the added benefit of reducing surface temperatures. Storm water protection has also been strengthened. Earlier fields did not include storm drain filtration as a standard practice. Today's staff coordinates closely with

the parks watershed protection and storm drain work groups to assess site specifics uh drainage needs. GMAX testing has been conducted annually to monitor surface hardness and staff will continue to practice with increased scrutiny as fields approach their end of life. Um, slide seven, if you go to playability impacts, the study also evaluated systemwide playability and capacity impacts based on current usage and the city standard winter closure for natural grass fields from December through February and sometimes March. Removing the synthetic turf at El Camino Park would displace approximately 1,221 players annually, including about 570 PaloAlto residents. There is currently no uh available capacity at other fields to absorb that displaced use during winter during the winter season. And if you go to the next slide, based on the findings of the turf study, community input and direction from the city council ad hoc committee, staff is bringing forward before you this evening. first uh to proceed with replacing synthetic turf fields at El Camino Park using improved synthetic turf with organic infill while implementing risk management measures including storm water filtration, enhanced maintenance practice and related uh mitigation. Secondly, to pursue a natural grass pilot project to enhance playability and durability. Once

cost estimates are available, staff will return to city council for review, including any uh uh potential requests for appropriation. This is anticipated to occur as part of the fiscal year 202 uh7 budget. And then thirdly, to continue exploring opportunities to transition to synthetic turf, transition away from synthetic turf at coverly over time. In close, this um in closing, this is concludes staff presentation and we are available for any questions. Um we'd like to turn it over to the ad hoc.

All right. Thank you. Um, so, uh, I was chair of the ad hoc, uh, serving on it along with council member Bert and Council Member Lowing. So, I will start with a couple comments and then see if they want to add anything. Um, but first of all, thank you, Director O'Ne, Miss Roseelli, and your team for uh, dealing with the second toughest issue in PaloAlto. I think the first is pickle ball, but this is a pretty tough one. Um uh thanks also to the PRC and the many residents who spent a lot of time um and effort providing comments and feedback. We've gotten a lot of emails, but I also know you've shown up at a lot of places uh a lot of meetings uh on all sides of this issue and it does matter to us and we do appreciate it. Um I will say that the committee really angsted over this. Um, a year and a half ago when uh I was serving on finance at the time and and this issue first came up, I was ready to just say no uh to synthetic turf replacement field. It was really the biochemist in the environmentalist in me um that uh was really concerned about it. And I think um at our last council meeting, I think council member Bert was the the most skeptical of synthetic turf. And so all three of us took this very very seriously. um in terms of the concerns about PAS um synthetic infill, microplastics, heat effects and more. Um but I'm also the mother of two daughters who played soccer for between 10 and 13 years a piece and uh also a co-founder and former general counsel of a professional soccer league. Um so this is something that has been really personally challenging for me. Um, so we had two in-depth uh ad hoc meetings where we really drilled down on these issues and and uh particularly the

concerns about um the um the concerns about synthetic fields and how we could minimize them. And I really appreciated that last chart that you pulled up because that's what I wanted to add. I'd just seen the the first part of the deck. Uh because we really did learn that synthetic fields have improved a lot uh since the prior field was installed. That there's less shedding of blades that we can and have plans to implement technology to mitigate the shedding of blades to keep them out of our storm water drains. And also there's field sweeping. We have the drain hats and socks that you described. Um, also that we'll contract for turf that doesn't contain PAS and can do the testing to confirm that. Um, we'll use only organic infill that does not add to or contribute any plastic content and that these new fields are apparently cooler than the old synthetic fields. So, while I think we all still had some lingering concerns, they're much lesser than they were before we went into this deeper dive. um and much lesser than prior iterations of synthetic turf. Um but we also drilled down on field usage um and the results that were reported out uh a few minutes ago by Miss Robustelli and there was just no way to replace the El Camino fields with grass without displacing huge numbers of players. And that's troubling for the reasons that many of you have articulated. Um, so we made the recommendation to replace the El Camino field with synthetic turf this year. But going forward, as was mentioned, we are directing or we recommend that council direct staff to explore ways now to transition away from future replacements with turf uh by

seeing if we can increase playing hours on other fields. Uh so starting with this enhanced grass pilot to see how many additional hours playing hours we might be able to get out of a natural grass field that could be iterated. Um, and then also it was mentioned as that third item, continue to explore opportunities to transition from synthetic turf at Cberly because that's the next one up and I think it's 28 uh when that's coming up and we have a little runway and we can look at options uh including the hybrid turf that I've mentioned from time to time and that's something that is also evolving and whereas it has much greater wearability, playability than um grass in in in the winter. Uh all grass, it's still largely grass and so it has much less um content uh that's not the natural growing grass. Right now, most of those are synthetic the the the hybrid part of it. So you'll have, you know, it's it's it's depends on the vendor and and installation techniques, but you know, 60 80 some percent of natural grass with um uh right now synthetic grass blades in there that will grow around, but they're piloting ones that are all organic. So even if the uh the other parts of the hybrid aren't um growing, they are they are organic and non-synthetic. So that's something that uh we could also explore between now and then and see if some combination of that yields enough playing hours that we can avoid doing that in a couple years. So that's not before us tonight, but I did want people to know um that that's the direction is to to explore uh a transition as we move forward that would if we can pull it off allow us to have

our cake and eat it too. So, um, that's my, uh, report, but, uh, Council Member Lowing.

Yeah, thank you. Uh, that was very thorough and almost had these folks sitting in our ad hoc committees. Um, and the point of this all was that as you know, we moved [clears throat] to continue this item till it's called a date uncertain, which is now uh, tonight. Uh and the fundamental reason for that was that we just didn't have a uh comprehensive set of data uh from the consultant on all these issues that you've heard about uh to make a fully informed decision on this really tough issue. Uh and that's why we said let's take a few weeks and get the answers to that so that we're fully informed on being responsible in these decisions. You know, there there are a number of big gaps and you've you've heard about some of the ones that we've that we've looked at. Um, so we want to take a deeper dive and that's exactly what we did. Um, one of our local news sources said that the council punted on this issue. Um, that is completely incorrect. Um, since we're in the playoff season, I'll stay with the football analogy. Uh, it was more of a timeout on the field. Uh, and in this case, you know which field we're talking about. Um because what we needed to do was just take that time out and dig in and fill the gaps and look at our playbook so to speak to figure out even some of our own uh data such as you know the the the pressure on the fields particularly in the winter months and the summer months. And so there was just a very cooperative effort uh at the end of the year between staff and and the ad hoc back and forth with as you know the first first ad hoc meeting starting a week after we made this this motion uh and as we're getting ready for the holidays. So uh because of that we didn't quite make a December return but we're here but we're here now. Um, and you saw the the the summary items and particularly the items that were um um sort of incremental to what we were talking about the other day and

that was uh you know the mitigation measures and a full understanding of the cost assumptions during a life cycle. Um the the consulting report was a little bit um uh missing on that. uh obviously the field usage uh and then as uh the mayor just said these um uh possibilities for what can we do going forward on other kinds of of turf as well as uh how how can we get this uh actual natural grass field going. So that's the comm the motion you see is committed to all of that. And then in the interim another sort of benefit of the process I think for the council is that uh we heard from a massive number of of citizens that we hadn't heard from before. Uh a large proportion of the emails that we got were actually from parents of youth that uh used El Camino specifically. Um and they were all asking us to retain the turf so that the winter season didn't have to be scrapped. Uh it was sort of it was as simple as that and our our field study as that you just saw on this slide uh said the same thing. Uh we also got uh a number of emails from from doctors saying that the current generation of of uh turf products is is definitely way better. Do we have further to go? Yeah, we do. Um but also emphasized in those same letters that mental health is as important as physical health. And so these particular doctors that wrote in uh were were supportive of this. Um so I think overall the ad hoc believes that the current staff report which we effectively helped uh get that new staff report ready um you know represents a balanced approach on a a controversial item that doesn't have 100% answers but um we know you know a lot more than we did um you know eight weeks ago and are comfortable with the recommendation. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Bert.

Yeah, thank you. Um, so just supplementing uh the comments of my colleagues, uh, I I want to say that as as um, our mayor and and the staff have noted. Uh what we have are looking at now in the El Camino Park artificial turf is uh a far better product than what we have historically had and most communities have historically had. Uh we had already uh changed the uh the filler materials from uh from uh uh uh rubberized materials to cork uh even at the Mayfield location. And that not only has um an environmental impact, it has a health impact because of volatile organics that were uh being um emitted from those materials. And it has a very significant heat impact. Uh and that was one of the things we hadn't even talked about at the council that we ended up uh digging deeper into the committee at the committee level. And um it goes from very significant heat differential for artificial turf to something closer to much closer to uh natural turf. Um, but I I really came into that process wanting to um have answers on do we have to have artificial turf at El Camino in order to meet the playing uh playability me needs, the user needs and the data that we got really proved to us that we do. And then second, can we to a great degree mitigate the environmental

health and safety impacts of the artificial turf? And as been noted, the progress in the materials is has gone forward on the on the uh filler. Uh now on the blades um we had real significant concerns because a lot of uh these earlier materials had POS materials and in fact even today many or most of them P do uh but we're going to have um not only materials that the supplier is asserting uh will be POS free but that we are going to do testing on. Correct.

Great. Um and then we had a concern that we realized about runoff from nanoplastics which is not insignificant. And that's where uh the presentation showed a bunch of um uh actions we're going to take to filter the runoff materials which we didn't even think of as either a primary problem or that it could have a a strong solution maybe not a perfect one. Um, so out of this process, we're going to have uh better fields at El Camino than we would have otherwise. And so I think uh it not only has led to good decisions, but it's actually led to better actions. Thanks.

All right. Thank you. Um, are there any other council members who wish to comment before we go to public comment? All right. Seeing none, uh, Madame Clerk, how many public commenters do we have? So, without the approximately 10 or so hands that additional hands that were raised on Zoom, we have 30. So, um I'm assuming about 45. All right. Once I add the Zoom, uh comments in.

Okay. Thank you so much. So, we're going to go with a minute each. Um what I want would encourage you to do is um if you agree with Bob who just spoke, you can let us know that. Um we we uh we hear the same thing over and over. We lose a little focus sometimes. So, you can use up your full minute, but if you want to add on to to others, that's fine. Uh, one just reminder, um, if you agree with something someone said, that's that's great, but we don't allow any audible, um, acknowledgement of that. We want to keep it safe for all speakers of differing viewpoints. If you want to let us know, you can do the sign language like this if you're applauding, but um, we just encourage you no no clapping or or or uh, vocalizations in response. Um, that said, the clerk will uh call the names of the speakers in the order in which they've signed up, and she'll let you know who's next so you can be ready to please come on down so we can move through this quickly because we want to get through uh to the actual uh council deliberations tonight. So, there we are. All right. So, Madame Clerk, if you would take over and and and call our public speakers for being here.

Our first speaker is Manny D. As the mayor noted, you have 1 minute to speak. The timer is on the podium. And for those that are speaking on Zoom, the timer will be displayed on the screen. Our first speaker, Manny D.

Did you say Manny?

Uh, good evening. My [clears throat] name is uh Manny Diaz. I'm a consultant for um Tikcake Grass. They're the global artificial turf manufacturer in the world and I have a letters here we have previously submitted and first of all I wanted to thank staff and the study that you folks have done. Uh a lot of improvements have been done on artificial turf and right now uh Tucat is is probably the leading researcher dealing with artificial turf and we actually have a product at PAS free since 2023. We also have the product that doesn't have infill which is the concerns that many had raised before. So significant improvements have been made on this product. So we recognize the concerns that the community has on environmental stuff. So, I want to thank you for for doing the study. I'll leave this letter here for for you folks. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Angela D.

Hi. Um I'm really pleased that your one of your priorities um for this year is the protection of the natural environment and um I can hear that you've done a lot of study on uh the environmental impact of the um the turf that um that is being proposed. But I want to suggest that uh just because it's a better product doesn't mean that it's actually good for the environment. And I also want to say that I've been thinking that um uh even though it's it's odd to me that even though students um there are fewer children in PaloAlto now um than there used to be when we only had grass fields that there's more of a demand. And I'm not sure that maybe it's good for students to be doing that many hours on um of practice every um every week. Uh maybe they could cut back on a little bit

time is up of time on the field. Thanks.

Speaker is Claire E. Hi, my name is Claire Elliot and I'm a PALA resident and a retired ecologist. And there's plentiful evidence that plastic is harmful to people and the planet. Um there's the microplastics that spall off, but and we've talked about additives like PAS, but PAS is only one of oh no thousands because there are thousands of different compounds that are PAS chemicals. Um but there are many other additives that are toxic that can leech out of the plastics and then also be incorporated in the material that breaks down in the environment and become toxic to the to the to the wildlife. So I am frankly dismayed that we're still considering plastic coating our parks with this material. Um, it's really not an environmentally sound decision and I thought PaloAlto being a city that generally makes environmentally sound decisions. So, it's disappointing. I think it's extremely important that you formally reject the flawed turfs study and remove it from the website.

Your time is up. Wow. Our next speaker is Magdalena C. Let's see. Just a reminder while you're walking up, if if uh if you aren't able to complete your comments and want to send them in by email, if you haven't previously, you're welcome to do so. [clears throat]

Good evening. My I'm Magdana from the Venture neighborhood. I'm here tonight one more time to plead with you to reject the turf study and promise to run a pilot study of grass turf here in Panoalto so we can make a fair comparison between plastic grass and the real McCoy natural grass turf. There are many studies that show there are more injuries sustained by players playing on artificial turf. Do we care? I do. Let us not fall prey to yet another company industry that is chasing the almighty buck at our children's expense. History has a long track record of corporations telling the public either half-truths or outright lies. Think Chevron. Think the sugar manufacturers. Think the tobacco industry and Monsanto with its glyph phosphates. Let's not be conned. Please. Lead Consulting has a serious flawed analysis yet seems to be pushing this product and why to sell more of it no matter what. No matter the cost of health to the environment or our children. Think carefully what your legacy is going to be before you make your vote. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Andrea W.

Good evening. I had something else to say to try to convince you that artificial turf is not the best product, but you guys seem to have your mind made up, which is a shame. I'd really rather address all the kids and the coaches and the parents here to say, I wish you understood. We do not oppose soccer fields. What we fear is that you do not truly understand the hazards that you're causing yourself in the environment with the micro and nanoplastics that are in your body in the environment in the water you're drinking including the chemicals. And it's only down the line in the future that you're going to come to realize that you've made a big mistake by accepting all this plastic and your health is going to be harmed because of it. And I'm sorry about that. I only wish you would push more for grass and well done grass than really worry about plastic fields. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Palo Alto Adult Soccer League.

Good evening. My name is Travis Kelly. I'm the current president of Palo Alto Adult Soccer League. Uh we're a nonprofit and one of the prides and joys of Palo Alto since 1978. Uh serving men and women ages 25 to 80 plus. Um, in any given week, we rent and hold 20 soccer games uh in the city of Palo Alto with 500 plus players, several hundred of whom are PaloAlto residents. Uh, the vast majority of whom are in support of continuing with artificial fields. And while we sincerely appreciate the board and the committee's um consideration of all the concerns and the issues, it's our stance that the benefits of the continuation of artificial fields significantly outweighs the detriments. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jeff G.

[clears throat]

Congratulations, Mayor Vinker and Vice Mayor Stone, and good evening, city council members. I'm here to support the Haddock and staff recommendation. Soccer's been a major part of my life since I was five, and I'm I've been a proud member of the Sierra Club for for 40 plus years. Mental, physical, and social health benefits I personally experienced and witnessed include invaluable life lessons such as team perseverance, dealing with setbacks and winning gracefully, positive role modeling, stress release, team building and group interactions, lifelong kinship and camaraderie, joy and fun. Couple more thoughts. Adult leagues and pickup games offer a level playing field for for uniquely broadened social interactions, welcoming everyone from CEOs to bottle washers. Uh if we don't replace the turf at El Camino, this won't stop or significantly reduce uh youth or adults from playing soccer. It will increase the environmental footprint with more lengthier car trips, reducing bike trips, traffic congestion, and will increase etc. Looking forward to all the comments from all the the kids that are here tonight and thank you for your consideration here.

Our next speaker is Omar Z. Uh hello, my name is Omar Zabi. I'm in seventh grade at Green Middle School. I'm here today to support keeping the turf field at El Camino. Turf [snorts] fields support our sport activities the whole year, especially in winter. This is very important to our mental health. And I remember when Mayfield was closed and and I had to um and El Camino was totally booked, I was down with very bad mood that affected me at school. Dirt fields aren't the place where sports h where sport happening only. It's the place where a lot of families use when grass fields and parks are closed. Lastly, the injuries in grass fields um grass fields. We totally appreciate the work of the city and parks, but man maintaining grass fields in Pawoto is a big challenge. And also in Pawoto um and all grass fields have a lot of holes that created a lot of injuries. In addition, grass fields for some kids create skin allergies which never happens in turf fields. I'm going to need you to wrap up quickly, but go ahead. You can finish your sentence.

All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Robert F.

Good evening. Uh my name is Robert Fitz William. Uh proud parent here in Palo Alto. I have been an AYSO coach to many kids throughout the years. uh some of which have gone on to play in college, my son being one of them. That would not have been possible if they didn't have the opportunity to play and practice in the fall, late fall and winter periods. The turf fields gave that ability uh for them to do that and hone their skills. Um, as a person who also played in Palo Alto adult soccer leagues in the evening times uh in the winter periods as well, that has been helpful for me and I encourage you to continue to keep the turf fields. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Adriana F. Dear city council, my name is Eison Regade and I'm a soccer player. I think that the city of PaloAlto should keep the fields of El Camino as turf. One main point on why the fields should say turf compared to grass is accessibility. If there are weather problems such as rain, grass fields won't be usable while turf fields would be fine. To add on to accessibility, it'd be much harder to take care of grass fields shown with the example of the grass fields of Greer Park. Another main concern is safety. And I can assure you that as a player, turf fields are much safer than our grass fields. On turf fields, it is safer due to its evenness, whereas grass fields such as JLS can be very bumpy and have dangerous potholes. Overall, in my opinion, turf is better for having fun accessibility wise, and most importantly, safety. Thank you for your time. Our next speaker is an L. Um, hello. My name is Amana and I am currently been coaching at the Palo Alta Soccer Club for over 10 years. Um, I have four children that have come through the club. Um, I have seen firsthand how important access to consistent safe playing surface is for kids, families, and the wider community. I understand there is concern regarding the PAS plastics and surface that he associates for turf fields. These are all very valid topics. But in the same hand, due to the increasing number of grass fields that are shut down because of weather conditions or lacking of lighting when fields close, programs are cancelled, seasons are shortened, and kids lose opportunities to play, stay active, and be part of the team. I

firsthand have seen over eight of my own personal players that have torn ACL's on our grass fields right now. Several practices we have, they've rolled their ankles just by passing a ball with zero contact. Being on the turf fields, the lack of um players getting injured is better. Okay, thank you. Our next speaker is Fernando L. [snorts]

[clears throat]

Hello. Uh, my name is Fernando. I would like to speak in favor of keeping turf at the El Camino fields. I have been coaching in PaloAlto for over 10 years, starting with AYSO, followed up by high school and now with the Palo Alto soccer club. In those 10 years, I have not once had a parent come up to me and say, "We are worried about the turf." In fact, it is the exact opposite. The parents and players want to be at the turf fields. I have had more than one player confide in me personally how important soccer is to them and their mental health. And by taking away a turf field at El Camino, we would be affecting them mentally because we are worried about their physical health. So we are just causing one problem and by trying to fix another problem which does not uh make sense to me. Also I was a player at El Camino when it was grass and that field was not wellkept um and we do not have good grass fields. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Sarah W. Good evening and uh thank you to everybody for their public service. I'm basically here in support of uh keeping the turf field at El Camino. I do want to I guess make it known that I do understand that there are many other concerns that people have. Um and again as you on the ad hoc committee have said you know we have to do the best research we can and weigh the um options and I do feel that the turf field option is the best um and so I thank you for your time and consideration.

Our next speaker is David L.

Hi everybody. Thank you. I am also in support of keeping the turf fields. I am a soccer coach here in Palo Alto for the last 10 years. I my entire livelihood pretty much is based on coaching. So, um for me, if we have restrictions to this, this can affect um my unemployment. It can affect my livelihood. Not to mention what everyone has said um about the players. And just a couple stats, according to the CDC, 36% of kids currently are obese or overweight. And I think the last thing we need is more kids being at home and looking outside a rainy window and not being able to play soccer. That was actually one of my most hard traumatic experiences was one of our tournaments being cancelled because of the rain. And uh if we had turf fields at that time that wouldn't happen. So I think the benefits definitely outweigh the risk and we run a lot of tournaments here in PaloAlto which we wouldn't be able to do without the turf. Thank you so much. Our next speaker is Jeff H.

Good evening, mayor and [clears throat] council members. Uh my name is Jeff Herman. I've been coaching for about 20 years. I'm a coach here at Palo Alto. I'm also director of coaching in Valo, California. [snorts] Um I've worked in communities with abundant resources and I've worked in communities without them. And I can tell you the difference shows up in kids. Uh when there isn't quality field space, kids lose more than practice time. They lose joy. Coaches are forced to cut games, cut creativity, and cut connection. Soccer is one of the last spaces where kids consistently show up together after school, away from their phones, to move, to laugh, to struggle, and to grow side by side. It's where friendships are formed and confidence is built and kids feel like they belong. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Nicholas CR. Hello, my name is Nicholas Cortez and I am a current SPSA and Palto soccer player. I'm also a senior at Henry Gun High School. Um, I am currently in the process of taking my soccer level uh to college and this would not have been possible without having the proper facilities and being able to play on these turf fields we have in Palo Alto. Uh, soccer has always been a fundamental part of my childhood as like many kids in this community and all over the world and I feel taken away these turf fields and the possibilities from future children. I just remember over the last few months not having that Mayfield complex took away a huge part of who I feel I am and didn't give me the opportunity to let loose of stress and soccer has always been the way I um help myself go through different challenges I have in life. It's always been my output and I feel taking away this possibility from future children is a negativity.

Our next speaker is LCP.

Hi, my name is Elsie and I'm a Palatoto resident and I played for Palto Soccer Club from first grade until graduating high school. I've continued my soccer career and I'm currently playing division one soccer at the University of San Francisco. Um, year-round access and reliable highquality fields in Palo Alto played a huge role in my development and the ability for me to reach my goal. When I was younger, the nearby fields in Palto made it easy for me to bike to practice while my parents were at work. That accessibility was extremely important to me. If practices required traveling outside of Palo Alto, it would have been much harder for me to show up consistently. El Camino is a vital resource used daily by hundreds of young kids and athletes. Switching to natural grass would likely cause frequent closures due to wear and maintenance, which would reduce access for many kids in the community. Although I appreciate the city's environmental goals and concerns, it is important to consider the impact on youth development and accessibility. Thank you. Our next speaker is James S. Hi, I'm James. Uh, I'm a current college soccer player, but I played on the Powto fields for 15 years. Uh, I think that whatever small environmental changes might come from the grass fields do not justify taking the opportunity to play away from 500 to a,000 kids who really enjoy that time playing soccer. And also having played on both uh poorly maintained grass fields and turf fields, injuries are much more common on grass fields because they're bumpy, they're uneven, they're slippery, and turf fields are much more like easy to play on uh and much less likely to get injured on a turf field. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Rodrigo B. Hi, good evening. Um, my name is Monnique Palifox and I actually took uh Rodrigo's speaking turn. Um, thank you for allowing us the space and the time to come and share our thoughts. My son Eli has played for PaloAlto SVSA club for about 4 years now. Prior to that, he's been playing soccer since he was 5. He's about to be 18. Recently, um about a year ago, while playing on a grass field in a tournament, he broke his ankle. Um his ankle got caught in a hole on the grass field as he was running up, got caught, broke his ankle. He was out of the sport for over 6 months. It affected him mentally. It affected him physically. Um, and I really don't want anyone else to have to go through anything like that. It was very hard as a parent to see that, to go through it with him. And I feel that sometimes grass fields tend to have less maintenance.

Your time is up. So, I would just ask that you consider keeping the turf fields. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Cynthia F. Plastic starts polluting the water cycle from the moment it's manufactured. This pollution continues throughout usage and for many years beyond disposal. This is part of the reason a reduction in plastic production is being pursued as part of the global plastics treaty that hundreds of nations are working hard on. Unfortunately, progress is stalled by industry and our own federal government. So, to help reduce pollution of the water cycle, it is very important communities work at the local level to voluntarily reduce plastic consumption. We have to normalize making do with a lot less plastic, and we can make do without plastic grass. The sacrifice is relatively small. Converting El Camino's plastic field to real grass, would per the staff report require only 570 people, which is less than 1% of PaloAlto residents to shift to other activities and for only a few months during rainy season in order to benefit 100% of residents by helping reduce the microplastics in a shared essential resource, drinking water. It's time to improve the playability of Peloto's grass fields and El Camino to real grass. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Robin P. Hello mayors and city council members. My name is Robin. I'm 14 years old and I live in Palato. Thank you for giving me this chance to speak today. For students like me who train seriously. Being able to practice year round is extremely important. Turf fields make this possible. During the winter when it rains, turf fields allow us to keep training instead of cancing practice for weeks at a time. Without turf, it's much harder for players to improve and stay motivated. By supporting turf fields, you are supporting young athletes like me, helping us continue to grow, learn, and pursue what we love. Thank you very much for listening.

Our next speaker is Wendy L.

Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. I'm here today to express my support for turf fields. I'm a mom of two boys who play soccer here in Palter. The student who just spoke is my son lobbying. From a mom's perspective, soccer is more than a sport. It helps my children stay healthy, focused, and confidence. Our family moved from Laning Seattle to Palato three years ago because we wanted more opportunities for our kids to be active and grow through sports. Fields like Camno Park are a big part of what makes Palato such a great place for families. Turf fields make a real difference for families like ours. When it rains, grass fields are often closed and the practices are cancelled. Turf fields allowed kids to keep playing.

Thank you so much. Our next speaker is Adam O.

Hi, my name is Adam Olsen. I'm a longtime resident of Palo Alto who had two kids who played for AYSO and Palo Alto soccer club. I'm here to advocate um maintaining the artificial turf field at El Camino. I my favorite speaker so far was one of the players James S, who pointed out that the infinite decimal change to the environment is uh worth paying that price for the benefit of thousands of people. And it the idea that you would close the field for for months on end for such a small benefit um strikes strikes me a as really weird. Also the patronizing speakers who think that we're too dumb to understand this. I'm a professor in public health and um look how healthy the soccer players look versus the people who spoke against the soccer fields. Our next speaker is Pete C.

Hi, Mayor and Council members. I'm Pete Chen. I'm the current regional commissioner for Paloto Ayso, a volunteerrun soccer organization that has been here in Palo Alto since the late60s. I believe we're one of the oldest and longest running sports organizations here. [snorts] on behalf of our organization and the thousands of children who have grown up playing soccer here, myself included. I am uh I I grew I was raised here in Palo Alto playing soccer and many other sports. I'm currently a parent and a coach uh with the organizations and we fully support the effort to improve our turf fields here. It's it's vitally important that we provide these opportunities for kids today, kids in the future. Um the health risks that we've talked about, I think we've we understand that most of the complaints I get actually uh concerning health and safety issues tend to uh tend to uh be about the the grass fields, about the holes that some people mention, about bald spots, about poor irrigation inconsistencies. We understand we love grass when it's consistent.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Natalie S. Uh, hi. I'm Natalie. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Um, I'm a student at Johns Hopkins University. I play soccer there. Um, I grew up playing on El Camino and Mayfield for my entire life. Um, and I'm also like a premed student and a neuroscience major and I think it's like very important to maintain public health and to reduce plastic in the environment. Um, I think that there are just like endless other ways to do that. And I think the ben or the drawbacks of taking away fields from so many players and the like physical impact on not playing soccer for so many months and not being able to have this time outside would just um totally outweigh the like benefit to the environment and to their physical health. Um, and yeah, I think it would be uh devastating for the community if um there was no field to play on for that many months of the year. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Linda HK.

Linda, you should be able to unmute yourself and speak. Hello, my name is Linda Hutchkins Nolles and I'm the co-founder of Mothers Outfront Silicon Valley. Our organization comprised of mothers and allies working for a livable climate for all children supports returning the fields at El Camino to natural grass fields. This is because it's better for children's health, better for their safety, better for the environment, and better for the climate. We ask you to listen skeptically to the claims of the industry similar to the cigarette industry that this product is safe. It is patently unsafe as has been documented by many health professionals who have written in requesting the Santa Clara County to ban artificial turf. The industry is one of the most powerful lobbyists on the planet. This is the prochemical industry and I would expect more of the Palo Alto city council than to be hoodwinkedked by the greenwashing of this industry. You have been climate champions. Please continue to be climate champions. Please insist that all the grass fields be maintained so children can play on safe grass fields. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Nicole L. Hello, I'm Nicole and I'm a student and throughout high school I've played on several outdoor sports, but um more specifically uh I'm speaking for my friend who has played soccer all of her life and she um she grew up playing on natural grass fields, but going into high school we only had artificial turf, so she didn't have a choice. And the first year that um she played on artificial turf, she got three concussions even though she didn't change her um playing style significantly. And the reason is because artificial turf even though um it people are saying that it's not really that different. Um, she can attest, and a lot of my friends in high school can also attest, that artificial turf is not um any better for athletes than natural grasses, which I suggest you switch to.

Our next speaker is Andrea V. Hello, my name is Andrea Ventura. I represent an organization called Clean Water Action and our hundreds of members in PaloAlto. I want to clarify two things that have been said that are absolutely false. One is that the environmental impacts um are minor. We are talking about huge problems related to off-ging, plastic pollution um and other problems that affect public health. But most importantly, my expertise is around PAS. And there is no such thing as PAS free artificial turf. What manufacturers will tell you is they don't use PAS to make the actual product. But what they're not telling you is they cannot make that product um without using PAS in the machinery to extrude the blades. So that plastic which is already problematic is going through pre PAS and I work in a coalition of national

your time is up. There has never been p uh artificial turf that has tested negative for PAS. It's a it's a lie. Your time is up. Our next speaker is Laura F. Mute.

Hello. My name is Laura Fay. I urge the council to reject the installation of plastic surfaces for health, environmental and safety reasons. In the staff presentation today, the level of PAS was not actually reported, just that it is quote tested and manufacturer verified unquote. Respectfully, this is a contentfree statement as trust in industry self-reporting is incredibly low uh and untruthful as the earlier um speaker mentioned. With respect, I'm stunned uh hearing from parents that are willing to expose their children to the health and heat hazards of artificial turf in the face of well publicized scientific findings linking PAT to cancer and endocrine disruption. The youth have little perception of the risks they are exposed to. Let's hope that these young people don't pay with health complications down the line. If the council does vote in favor of installing artificial turf, I strongly urge the council to mandate highly visible safety warnings alongside the turf fields. Much like Prop 65, labeling these warnings should parents and children to the human hazards of the exposure of PAS. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Leanne M. As a soccer mom, I support real turf. With petrochemical plastic turf, there's one crucial orbe accidental filter that's getting overlooked. The kids that play on them. Our kids should not be filters for the microplastics, other toxins, or excessive heat from plastic turf, especially when they have no choice where they play. But at this moment, [clears throat] you and only you have the choice of what sports surface they play on and what they're exposed to. Sports families supporting plastic are relying on a wholly incomplete staff report. Kids supporting plastic don't understand what they're supporting and they should not have to bear the burden of that knowledge or resulting worry. It's our duty of care to protect them from the worry and the risk of toxic exposures by exercising the precautionary principle in times of scientific doubt. Please earnestly pursue real grass fields. Real grass and soccer. It's not one or the other.

Our next speaker is Becky S. Good evening, council members. This is Becky from Ventura. I do uh agree with the previous speaker. This should not be a zero sum game and we should not be uh asked to choose between two really poor options. The staff report listed all the mitigations that will be implemented to make sure these materials don't degrade into our environment. Would this enforcement be akin to other monitoring and enforcement boondoggles legion in this city? The city has a poor track record of accountability and code enforcement. I don't believe we have the moral high ground to say that we will follow through and hold companies and individuals accountable to make sure that these mitigations are carried out to the letter. You can just say no to the installation of additional toxic carcinogenic forever chemicals in our playing fields and playgrounds like Bullwear Park for instance. and and stop the running off into our waterways that drain into the bay. Tonight, you can just say no to putting adults and children at risk. You can say no to contamination of our watershed. And I did happen to pull like four sheds pieces of grass off my granddaughter when I put her in the bathroom. Your

time is up. Park. Okay. Thank you. Our next speaker is Pam B.

Good evening. Uh please do not approve the flawed study and assessment as it is now given uh all the questions and concerns expressed by the council and community at the last meeting. I strongly support the natural grass pilot project and hope that staff will carefully consider who they hire as natural grass consultant. I'd love to know the name of the aronomist who consulted with staff. I don't know where evidence of less shedding with newer turfs comes from when current warranties for quote newer artificial turf is warranted to lose up to 50% of the blade height with more limited warranty for high high use areas. There's a field in San Jose with infill-free plastic turf and full chunks are shedding off of that field over the past year since it was installed. So newer isn't always better. Cork infill still gets hot. Please install heat monitors on all of these fields for player safety and install signs that better inform players and parents about the artificial turf health concerns. Your time is up. Our next speaker is Susan H.

Good evening. I'm Susan Hinton, chair of the Sierra Club Loma Pria Plastic Pollution Prevention Committee. I want to be forthright. Today we face a climate crisis that is also a global health crisis. Here in California, we've seen the impacts. Wildfires, floods, droughts, and extreme heat. We're also seeing more disease appear. Plastic is an enabler of these impacts. By installing acres of multi-layered plastics, we are actively and knowingly contributing to this global decline. We should ask ourselves what kind of world we want our children to inherit. One where ecosystems are diminished and public health is compromised or one where they can run on living grass, hear birds, and watch pollinators at work. Biodiversity supports both mental and physical health. The choice is clear. Do the right thing. Install plants, not plastic. Thank you. Our next speaker is Courtney J.

Good evening. My name is Courtney Jansen. I am a soccer coach and both of my kids play competitive soccer. They have played on a pelto grass fields at Levit and right now they practice on the artificial turf field at Fair Oaks Park in Sunnyville. That field is a Gen 4 field which means it has all of the improvements that were discussed today by council members and in reports. And let me tell you, it sucks. I have a long list of reasons for why, but I'm going to just pick two tonight. The first is the infill. You heard organic infill. Organic does not mean chemical free. It means made of plants and then modified to adapt. My kids come home from every practice with their cleats and socks with infill, which they then litter around my house. Second, I heard a lot of concern about artificial turf fields being closed or not being closed. Fair Oaks is closed right now for 6 to 8 weeks for renovations. So artificial turf fields closed too. It's not just grass. Please go with grass, not artificial turf. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ane D.

Hi, my name is Anne Desai and I've been a soccer player for 10 years. I'm urging the city of Palo Alto to install organically managed grass sports fields and to replace the plastic at El Camino Park with grass. While I do appreciate the studies conducted by the council members about the environmental impacts, we have all collectively failed to address the 58% increase of injury that artificial turf has. I too have rolled my ankles, broken my ankles, seen my brother break his tibia, and witnessed my teammates literally lose their soccer scholarships because they've torn their ACL's on artificial turf in the wintertime. All of the proponents of artificial turf today have claimed that grass fields have not been properly maintained, and that is the root of the problem. Speaking with my teammates and other athletes, the general consensus is that we would rather play on a well-maintained grass field rather than an artificial turf one. I believe that the city of Palo Alto should focus more on better maintaining its grass fields rather than pushing this false narrative that artificial turf is better. Thank you.

Your time is up. Our next speaker is Sue.

Sue, you should be able to unmute yourself and speak.

Uh, tonight I would like to present you with one important fact about artificial turf fields and cancer rates among young people in Western democracies. The countries that are most likely to have both relatively low youth cancer rates and relatively few artificial turf fields for youth sports are the following. Greece, low childhood cancer incidents and very limited artificial turf infrastructure compared to Northern Europe. Ireland, low childhood cancer incidents and a strong preference for natural grass in schools and clubs with relatively few artificial fields per capita. Sweden and Norway both have relatively low youth cancer incidents compared to the US and both also have relatively few artificial turf fields for youth sports especially compared to the US. The most recent global data show that youth cancer incidence is higher in the US than in the European Union as a whole. Certainly correlation is not causation but it is an important correlation to take note of. Cigarette companies used to claim that smoking was safe even are using doctors and smokers testimonies and so-called science to reassure the public. But we all know what happened.

Your time is up. Okay, that's it. Our next speaker is Shrui G.

Good evening uh mayor and uh council members. I'm a palata resident, a mom to a six-year-old who plays au soccer and a volunteer with mothers up front and I support for natural grass grass at Elmeino Park. I want to address the claim that PAS free or infill-free artificial turf is good enough even without PAS artificial turf is still a plastic system that heats up sheds plus microplastics and sends runoff into our stormwater system ultimately towards bailance one of our most sensitive ecosystems. I also want to respond to some of the concerns about year- round soccer and mental health. Soccer is not a sport that's just played in America. It's played around the world and at the highest level under FIFA and in leagues like La Liga. The best players train and compete on natural grass. I agree with my fellow commenter previously AI who mentioned about uh you know playing on natural grass even in rain because those fields are well designed and well drained. So if families really want to raise athletes in PaloAlto, we should let kids play the way elite athletes actually play on natural grass. This is the most responsible long-term choice for kids health and palo's values. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Nick S.

Hi there. I'm a Palo Alto resident, uh, father of two who, uh, frequently use the turf fields. I'm also, uh, in the adult soccer league that uses the turf fields. Uh, currently there are just no substitutes for those. The grass fields, uh, the previous caller was saying we should play on grass. If we had super nice grass fields like uh, Barcelona or Real Madrid, that would be great, but they do not exist. Um the turf fields are invaluable for offering playing time, the durability and just the overall surface. It's it's better and uh I think fewer injuries occur. The turf field or the the natural grass fields uh in Palo Alto are quite holy and ready. Uh so I think it would be a travesty if you removed the turf fields. Our next speaker is Vivvec K. Hi, my name is Nha. I am a PaloAlto resident and I play soccer for Palo Alto soccer Club. I'm here tonight uh in favor of the El Camino soccer field remaining as a synthetic turf field. Every single day I look forward to having soccer practice. And no matter what, I feel great after practice. Without the turf field at El Camino Park, my teammates and I will not be able to enjoy the sport that is so dear to us due to a lack of fields and grass field closure in the winter months. The turf fields in Palo Alto, especially El Camino, is are invaluable to the entire soccer community. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ruchi R.

Hi, my name is Ruchi R. I'm a Girl Scout and also a soccer player and I'm in support of um having real grass. While it's true that artificial turf has improved compared to older versions, improved doesn't mean still safe. Uh it's still plastic, still contains chemical additives, and still sheds microplastic. It also still heats up far more than natural grass. All of this means that it's not safe for soccer players and it can create a lot more injuries. We should try to support the children and our community and help them be able to reach their full potential and that's without injuries. So, I support having real grass. Thank you. Our next speaker is Wen Jing. Good evening, council members. I'm a parent who lives in Palato and I have two and I have two kids who both play soccer here. Actually, my oldest kid has played the soccer for more than 10 years. I I I appreciate the council's concern for community health and the effort [snorts] that went into improving fields like Mayfield. For by kids, soccer is where they run, they breathe, and connect with friends. When fields are unavailable, they don't just lose practice, they lose joy and routine. During the Mayfield construction, children were pushed onto extremely small, crowded spaces. They were frustrated, bumping into each other and unable to truly play and enjoy soccer. That experience showed us how long construction and the field and the field closures affect families. Grass fields can be

your time is up. Warm and slippery and sometimes increase the risk of injuries. Okay, I think that's Thank you. Our next speaker is Roham.

Hi, good evening. My name is Rohan Zammanian. I'm a physician and a father of uh two children who are active soccer players and have used all the fields in Palo Alto. Um, as a physician, I understand that there are health risks to microplast plastics, to individuals, and also to the community and the environment. But the reality of it is that all the comments that have been made to some extent in uh associating increased risks of cancer to just purely microp plastics is is confounded. So association is not causation. The second thing I want to say as a physician is that we all take actions that are risk that have risks and have benefits. And so we as parents of children who may want to continue to play on turf understand the risk of that and we'll do our best to mitigate. So I commend the community coming together. I appreciate all the viewpoints that have been expressed. I am for retaining and improving turf fields in PaloAlto. And that concludes public comment on action item 13.

All right. Well, thank you, Madame Clerk, and uh I want to thank all of the 42 commenters for uh taking the time to address us tonight. And hopefully for some of the younger ones, they can sort of see how communities make decisions and struggle with tough issues. And I want to commend you. I think this was the best behaved group of large group of public commenters we've had. Uh there weren't outbursts. You all took turns. So thank you for uh following the rules. Uh okay. So with that I'll bring it back to the deis uh for any additional uh comment from my colleagues. All right folks I know some of you have comments. Well, in the meantime, I can ask Ah, we have one. All right, Council Member Rectal.

Yes, I'll take a shot. Um, I mean, youth sports, I think, are very important. It helps with mental health, helps with reducing anxiety, reducing depression. I think there's so many good uh benefits to it. And then the physical activity is good for the growing body too. So, I think youth sports is is very very important. uh you know the best option would be to have some type of natural turf field but right now I don't think that exists for some high use field like El Camino. So I think we really do need to push for a a pilot program natural turf pilot program but that's going to take a while to learn get up the learning curve and we don't have time to go through that learning curve while the kids are sitting there waiting for the grass to grow. So, I think in the short term, we unfortunately have no option but to go to the the artificial turf field. There's been a lot of talk about plastic exposure. You know, it's a crazy world right now. There's plastic everywhere, right? You go to the grocery store, everything's in plastic. Uh, you know, every toothbrush has plastic bristles that you put in your mouth every night. We have just driving in a car gets exposure to microlastics. uh you know uh rip vegetables like carrots absorb microplastics and when you even if you wash them off it's still inside the carrot and same we have microplastics all over the ocean. You heat your fish there's microplastics in it and so we have this huge microplastic exposure and a turf field will probably have some microplastic exposure but there's no silver bullet. Even eliminating that turf field still means you're going to have a huge amount of of of microplastic exposure. And so now there's this procon. If you reduce your microplastic exposure a little, but you give up the benefits of youth sports, I think that's a bad trade. So I I support in the in the short term going to El Camino putting the new turf in, which is

again, as Council Member Bert mentioned, it has organic cork infield. would be much cooler, much safer to people, much safer for the environment. I think it's so much better than we had even a few years ago. So, I think even though it's not perfect, I think that's the best option right now.

Thank you, Council Member Rectal. Can I just ask a quick question of staff if you know um when we think about where youth play um they play at their schools a lot and we [clears throat] are obviously as a city aren't responsible for those fields but do we know how many of the PA USD fields are turf because I'm under the impression that most if not all are if we don't know it's okay I was just curious um are you asking if they're artificial turf or natural artificial synthetic artificial I don't have an answer to that. I believe at the high school level is where there are some, but I don't know how many. Yeah, that that's what I was thinking about. So, all right. Thank you. Um, Council Member Lithcott HS.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I want to first affiliate myself with the terrific comments of my colleague, uh, Council Member Rectal. I also want to say that I, like a number of people on the day, am originally a Midwesterner. Raise your hand. There's four of us here who grew up in the Midwest. And for the four of us here who grew up in the Midwest, we had snow that fell starting in October or November and it lasted until April. And that is why California sports teams are better than those sports teams because we can practice year round here. And I have come to appreciate I I rode crew for Stanford my freshman year here. Came from the great state of Wisconsin. Back east and in the Midwest, if you're rowing crew, you row in an inside in a tank during the winter. And in California, you row in the bay. And so, you know, having had that personal experience, having listened to countless youth and parents and coaches and adults who play come in and tell us, "This is something I do year round. It's good for my body. It's good for my mental health." Um, I have I I really do appreciate that this is uh the ability to be out there 24/7, 365 is a competitive advantage for Californians. It is what catapults us to the scholarship opportunities, to the admission opportunities, to the various uh advanced leagues. It's it's part of who we are. And um so having affiliated myself with the comments about the relative um uh existence of microplastics from playing on a soccer field versus the microplastics that are there in our lives in general, which we we all understand is a uh an a concern we are better and better understanding all the time. I am persuaded that um eliminating these turf fields and returning to natural grass um without better without better natural grass solutions that allow for year- round play um is a step backwards when it

comes to our health and mental health. So that's how I'll be voting tonight.

Vice Mayor Stone.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. And I I I want to begin by uh sincerely thanking the ad hoc committee for the time, the care, the ser the seriousness you brought to this work. I know this is an incredibly difficult Simon and you listen to competing priorities and you produced a recommendation that I think really reflects a real desire to meet our community's needs. also want to acknowledge the many parents and and coaches and young people who have spoken about the importance of reliable year-round access to fields. The need is is real. It deserves to be taken seriously. I also especially want to acknowledge the the [clears throat] young speakers tonight. I was incredibly moved and impressed by your by your comments and your words. I also I teach high school during the day and uh I I was just really impressed and also just impressed by your ability to make your argument without belittling or bullying others. And sometimes you might see adults do that. Don't do that. It's not effective. Doesn't work on us. It doesn't work on anybody. So keep doing what you're doing. And you are just a testament to young people and to to soccer players all around. So I was really impressed. Um, now I'm going to give my position. No need to boo me because you could already tell the scoreboard you've already won on this issue. But I'm going to explain why after careful consideration, I can't support the recommendation before us. And and the primary reason is the Santa Clair County Medical Association. They represent over 4,000 physicians in our county and they formally recommended against the use of artificial turf on sports fields and playgrounds and school grounds uh in their December 4th email to this to this council and it's in the public record. Invite everybody to go

read it. And I just want to pause on that for a moment because in my six years on this council, I don't I don't ever recall receiving a letter from the Santa Clair County Medical Association on any issue. This is not an organization that weighs in lightly or often or casually. And when they do, I think we have an obligation to listen because at at the end of the day, I'm not a doctor or a scientist. This issue is far more complex than simple field access. I think it's a true public health issue. And on this issue, I'm going to defer to the health experts at at the medical association. I found the recommendation to be clear that artificial turf is potentially harmful to human health and the environment. Natural grass is safer. It's a more sustainable alternative, especially for children. And their position was not ideological ideological. It was grounded in peer-reviewed research, life cycle cost analysis, and a precautionary public health framework. I won't restate all the findings in that letter, but again, invite you all to to read it. It's in the public record from December 4th, 2025. [gasps] So, ultimately, my my vote tonight is not against youth sports. It's not against access. I'm committed to dedicating all the necessary resources to be able to invest in natural grass fields that will increase playable hours for our community. According to our own uh our own report, we have over 20 we have about 20 fields that are severely underutilized. I think we could be dedicating these same resources to finding ways to better utilize those fields and and increase um increase access to it. I I ultimately don't think parks I I think ultimately I think parks should be

places that promote public health, not introduce new risks. And when our county's doctors are telling us that a proposed solution may do harm and offer a clear alternative, I believe we have a responsibility to choose that safer path even when it's harder. And I I think it's a false choice to say we are uh that we're that we're choosing synthetic turf and then youth sports over choose natural grass. Um we are voting against youth sports. Sports will continue. I think we can find better ways to be able to uh create um create access to it. So for those reasons and with respect for the work done and the needs expressed can't support the recommendation as proposed. But again I can I can tell I'm in the minority. So am looking forward to finding ways that we can at least end synthetic turf for future uses, truly invest in these pilot programs and other ways so we can make sure that this is the last time that synthetic turf is is used in PaloAlto and we can move towards a more green sustainable solution in the future.

Council member Lou,

thank you. I ultimately align myself with the ad hoc and comments from uh council member lithotes and rectal. I think it's clear that science is still catching up to artificial turf fields. Uh certainly there valid reasons to warn or caution against this. There are other recent studies and conclusions from uh [clears throat] uh groups including a recent study in from the uh this is a m office of environmental health hazard assessment from California that uh draw much more ambiguity and uh look at the mechanisms from which you could actually expose yourself to chemicals and microplastics whether it's through inhalation or ingestion or through skin contact. And uh the point is that there are other very empirical studies that ultimately show that we don't have a clear conclusion and that some uh but that some people do believe that there is marginal risk. I think in the case where the science around the actual health impact is so unclear, we're making a reasonable and prudent approach that people can choose on the environmental impact. The technology for both natural grass and artificial turf fields is improving uh seemingly uh more quickly than I would have expected. And so I think our approach to uh look carefully at Cberly and run pilots in the meantime is uh a really considered and thoughtful option. Um I agree that in the long term we'd love to have highquality natural grass fields everywhere. Uh and uh I don't see this vote as really uh stopping us from

achieving that long-term vision in any way. So I'd also be happy to make a motion. It seems like the time. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. I'll just make a quick comment before I'll return to you for that. Um since there are no other lights on. Um it's funny, Council Member Rectal, I think you took the words right out of my mouth in terms of uh I I agree with you. I mean, plastic is not ideal and it's not even good. Um but it's everywhere. It's, you know, honestly, plastics in our environment are a much bigger problem than one turf field because we do have it in all those places you describe, not just our water bottles, you know, computers, pens, everywhere. Um so similar to what I believe it was Natalie um the Johns Hopkins neuroscience student said there are a lot of ways that we can reduce plastics and we should um but switching to switching one field uh to natural grass at El Camino today is not going to solve this giant problem. We need a much bigger solution and our goal as uh council member Lou just uh referenced is to start down that path. Um so you know the ad hoc's recommendation was three-fold. Um, it was first to proceed with replacing the existing synthetic turf at El Camino with improved synthetic turf, but second to pursue this natural grass pilot, but third to continue to explore opportunities to transition from synthetic turf at Cubberly. And I know that that can give some of the same people that are proponents of the synthetic turf at El Camino some heartburn, but we're trying to do it by really looking hard at new technology and looking at all of the fields as a collective. uh in the city of Palo Alto is providing enough playing hours. Now, I do want to note though that you know when we talk about some of the currently underutilized fields, a lot of those are grass that can't be used in the winter time. So, that's where the bottleneck happens and that's what a lot of these folks are talking about wanting to have

um the the the playing hours in the winter that council member Lithcott HS was referencing. Um, so if we're going down a path to explore transitioning away, I really look at this solution as having two benefits. One is that we're improving the situation at El Camino. We're going to have a a better synthetic turf field, both from a playability standpoint and from a a public health standpoint relative to the current situation. And we're going to direct staff to start now to craft a course to transitioning away from set synthetic turf while maintaining playing time if at all possible. So I I don't know that uh uh Becky would agree a public commenter would agree with me on the totality of what I'm saying, but I do agree with her that there should not be only the two choices. We really right now it is. So, we need to do this tur synthetic turf field, but we really want to ask staff to help us find a third way. And so, that's, you know, with a little runway, we can hopefully accomplish that. So, with that, and seeing no further lights, I would entertain a motion. Council member,

I'll move the ad hoc and staff recommendation. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member Lithcott HS. Any further discussion? Council member or Vice Mayor Stone. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I I just I know I don't have the votes to make any changes to this. So, I just ask if you can separate out the motion of separating I guess then one from the rest of the motion. Yeah, I think that's fine with us. The clerk can do that. Yes.

Yeah. I mean, I I got the nod from the movement. Oh, sorry. Sorry. For some reason. Thank you. [clears throat]

[clears throat]

All right. All right. So, we can go voting on the voting on the first motion. Council member Lithcott Hayes. Yes. Council member Rectal. Yes. Council member Lowing. Yes. Council member Burton. Yes. Mayor Vinker, yes. Council member Lou, yes. Vice Mayor Stone, no.

Motion carries 61. Voting on the second motion. Mayor Vinker, yes. Council member Lowing, yes. Council member, um, sorry, excuse me, Mayor Vice Mayor Stone, yes. Council member Rectal, yes. Council member Lou, yes. Council member Burton, yes. Council member Lot Haynes, yes. Motion carries unanimously.

All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk, and we will conclude that issue. Um, it is time for our break. It is also 5 minutes till 10. So, I would suggest this. Um, I would suggest that we take a a short five minute break. um that we come back and do the public improvement corporation um meeting because that's um important and we should get that done. But at that point, we're after 10:00 and I would suggest that we um defer [laughter] the the last action item. Second. Okay. Well, let's go take our break and we'll come back and talk about it. Thank you.

really. All right. So, if you have any objection to uh moving forward at this hour with uh the what what are we doing? The public improvement corporation meeting, let me know. Um and or any objection to deferring action item 15, let me know now because I that is our plan. I'm seeing no trouble. So, we will now briefly recess the city council meeting and call to order a meeting of the public improvement corporation board. The city council serves as the board for the public improvement corporation pronounced or the acronym pick. Uh tonight we meet as the pick board for the purpose of approval of the fiscal year 2025 PaloAlto PIC annual financial statements. The financial statements are audited annually and require board approval. For the record, city clerk, would you please note that yes, all members of the pick are present?

All right. Does staff have a presentation? Yes. Let me ask our assistant director of administrative services, Christine Paras, to report for staff.

All right. Thank you. Um, the PIC is a nonprofit led by the city council that enables the city to issue certificates of participations or COP bonds debt to fund capital projects. And the bylaws of the pick require that the board meet at least annually to approve these financial statements. Staff is seeking council the board's approval of the 2025 financial statements. They've been audited by our external auditors MGO and have a clean audit opinion. Um this is a annual process requirement that the board receive these audited financial statements and any new issuance of debt would be considered separately as part of those respective projects and or budget development. The pick has three outstanding debt obligations totaling 138 million outlined on table one on packet page 364. The three debt obligations are the 2018 refinancing cops that refinance the 20 2002b downtown parking improvement project and funds renovations of the golf course. the 2019 Cal a parking garage project and the 2021 public safety building. And that concludes my verbal comments on this item.

Thank you. Um do we have any public comment on this item? There are no requests to speak and no hands are raised on Zoom. All right. Thank you. Do we have any questions or comments from board members on this item? All right, Council Member Rectal. So, for this payment, it's it's like a bond. Can we accelerate effectively? Is it callable bond or is it a fixed payment period for these coops fixed payments? Uh, not callable. Okay. So,

all right. Well, then may I have a motion to approve the FY2025 annual financial? I asked for public comment. Yeah, we we we did public comment. [laughter] I know you're new at the time. So move. Okay, we have a so moved. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Madame Clerk, would you kindly call the role? Council member Bert, yes. Vice Mayor Stone, yes. Council member Lou, yes. Council member Lithu Haynes, yes. Council member Rectal, yes. Council member Lowing, yes. Mayor Binker,

yes. Motion carries unanimously. All right. Well, thank you, Madame Clerk. And uh we will now adjourn the pick board meeting and reconvene the council meeting. And we will now adjourn the council meeting. I think I got that all right. Okay. [laughter] Okay. Thank you all. Good night.