City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Good evening. And welcome to our June the 3rd, 2006 regular meeting of the Saratoga City Council. I'd like to welcome you all here. And I know that Britt is going to bring Bilal in. And we'll wait until that happens, because Bilal Aftab is remote today. He's in my home state, not confused, New Jersey, just so you all know. The internet is apparently slow going to the East Coast. Are you there? Oh, good. All right. Welcome, Bilal. All right, so good evening and welcome to our meeting. I'd like to ask you all to please rise, remove your hats, place your right hand over your heart, and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Britt, can you please proceed with the roll call and other administrivia?

Members of the public may participate in this meeting in person at the location listed on the agenda or via remote attendance using the information listed on the agenda. Public attendees participating remotely are automatically muted and are not viewable on camera. PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE 54953 SUBSECTION B, MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL, SORRY. PUBLIC ATTENDEES, I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE CLEAR FOR THE RECORD COUNCIL MEMBER AFTAB IS PARTICIPATING FROM NEW JERSEY PURSUANT TO CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT CODE 54953 SUBSECTION B AND THE LOCATION HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED IN THE AGENDA FOR THIS MEETING. Councilmember Aftab, will you please respond to the following questions? Can you hear me well?

Yes.

Were you able to hear our proceedings up until now?

Yes.

Do you have a copy of the agenda for this meeting?

I do.

Is your location accessible to the public such that any member of the public can participate from your location if they wish to do so?

Yes, I'm in the lobby of a hotel in New Jersey.

Is there any member of the public there with you who would like to participate in the public comment portion of the meeting or otherwise address any agenda item for this meeting?

There are members of the public here because it's a hotel lobby, but no one's approached me to comment about an item for the council tonight.

Thank you, Council. Thank you.

I'll let you know.

Thank you, Council Member Aftab. Is there any member of the City Council who has not been able to clearly hear Council Member Aftab?

No.

Hearing none, let the record show all members of the City Council have indicated they are able to clearly hear Councilmember Aftab. Is there any member of the Councilmember? City Council has reason to believe, based on voice recognition or otherwise, that the person representing themselves to be City Councilmember Aftab is not truly so.

No, but when I first saw him, I thought it was Sam Liccardo.

Hearing none, let the record show that no council member has expressed doubt that Council Member Aftab is the party participating by teleconference with the City Council present in person. Please be advised all votes taken during this meeting shall be taken by roll call. I will now conduct the roll. Council Member Aftab?

Present.

Fitzsimmons? Present. Zau?

Present.

Vice Mayor Walia?

Present.

Mayor Page?

Present.

We have a quorum and the agenda was posted on May 29th.

THANK YOU. EARLIER THIS EVENING WE HAD A STUDY SESSION. WE HAD A STUDY SESSION THAT WAS ON ZYLO PLANS WILDFIRE MODELING AND PHASE TWO OF FAIR AND PEERS WILDFIRE EVACUATION ASSESSMENT FOR DISASTER PREPAREDNESS. During the meeting, we heard about some new science and some science that's been developed over time related to how wildfires spread and the damage they could do and what we, the public, can do to try to mitigate the spread of wildfire. One of the key things that came out to me was that the more we do to harden our houses, the better off we all are. And there are certain patterns of spread of fire that those people, that any hardening they do, can greatly reduce the damage that is caused to them and to others. In terms of the evacuation route planning, we got a little more detailed in how long it would take, what kind of scenario, a couple of suggestions on things that we can do to plan for evacuation and perhaps make it a little bit easier. I think that one of the key things that came out is that You know, if we get a warning to evacuate, get ready and go if you can. The sooner we start to leave, the sooner we'll be able to evacuate and the less risk that there'll be for people that are at the far ends of the roadways or if any roadways get blocked. So did I capture that pretty well? Thank you, Acting City Manager. Appreciate it. First, we'll have oral communications on non-agendized items. That's our next item. At this point, I'd like to ask anyone that's in person to join us at the podium to speak for up to three minutes on any item that is not on tonight's agenda. Come on down. We will ask people, if you can, to fill out a slip and give it to our city clerk so that we would have the ability to follow up afterwards. Thanks for coming. Please, if you can, if you'd like, tell us who you are. Oh, wait, we've got to turn it on. Jocelyn will take it. Well, you're good.

Hello. My name is Evangelina Stepanchenko, and I am a student at Saratoga High School. I'm also currently a reporter and editor for the Saratoga Falcon, Saratoga High School's newspaper publication. A couple months ago, I signed up to write a news story about the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, a Native American tribe whose ancestral land included Saratoga and other Bay Area cities. The more research I did on the tribe, the more I realized the importance of this issue, and I felt compelled to speak on it. So I wrote an opinion story for my school newspaper that was headlined, The City of Saratoga Should Acknowledge the Indigenous Land the City Rests On. To summarize my article, the Muwekma Ohlone tribe have historical and scientific proof that they existed in the past and currently exist today, and are currently fighting to gain federal recognition, which would help them have access to resources such as medical benefits, but also helps them have more sovereignty in the eyes of the government. In my opinion, there are no disadvantages to the city of Saratoga formally recognizing the tribe. Other cities, such as Union City, have recognized the tribe. And the city of Saratoga's acknowledgment of the land and history of the Muwekma Ohlone people would not only provide the tribe support in their fight for federal recognition, but would also help dignify the tribe. Historically, Native American tribes, such as the Muwekma Ohlone people, have been erased. And by not recognizing the tribe, the city of Saratoga is implicitly part of the problem. Although the council informed me that their general practice is to not engage in federal matters, I would like to acknowledge that there is a sign at Wildwood Park by the Wildwood Creek that mentions the Muwekma Ohlone tribe and features a seal from the city. While I was pleasantly surprised to see this, I would appreciate further clarification as to how the sign is approved. But a land acknowledgment through other formal mediums is not. I STRONGLY URGE THE COUNCIL TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE MOECMA ALONI TRIBE'S LAND ON THE COUNCIL'S WEBSITE AND TO GIVE A VERBAL LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT AT CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS AND PUBLIC EVENTS ORGANIZED BY THE CITY. ACKNOWLEDGING THIS HISTORY DOES NOT HARM SARATOGA. IT MAKES SARATOGA PART OF A MOVEMENT THAT IS LEADING TO A SOLUTION. THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU VERY MUCH. ARE THERE ANY OTHER FOLKS WHO WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK ON NON-AGENDIZED ITEMS? SEE NO ONE.

I WOULD JUST LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE PERSON WHO HAS THEIR HAND RAISED THAT WE DO NON-AGENDIZED COMMUNICATIONS AT THE END OF THE MEETING FOR THOSE WHO ARE REMOTE.

THANK YOU. OKAY. SO AT THIS TIME I HAVE SOME ANNOUNCEMENTS. And we're waiting for a slide to pop up so you don't have to look at my mug. There we go. That shouldn't be on. Why is it on? There we go. Saratoga Nights. Please join the Chamber of Commerce for Saratoga Nights this Thursday, June 4th, that's tomorrow, the first Thursday of each month through October from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the heart of our historic Saratoga Village. Enjoy an evening filled with live music, wine and beer tents, and lively community vibe to get to know your neighbors, get to share a little bit of joy and enjoy the charm of our downtown, and whether you're unwinding with friends, enjoying an evening stroll, or you're just supporting local businesses, which is really, really important in a small town like this, Saratoga Nights will offer a lively and inviting downtown experience here in Saratoga. So mark your calendar, and I hope to see you all there tomorrow night. Farmer's Market office hours. Please join me this Saturday. The mayor has office hours at the Farmer's Market at West Valley College every first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon. I host office hours on the first Saturday every month, and it's a great opportunity to get to meet with me, express your concerns, interests. Thanks. If that comes, that's always cool. And I pass it on to the council, too, when you do that. The farmer's market is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. And they've got great produce. I've met so many people from other cities that come to our farmer's market. Here at West Valley, they say it is by far the best in the local areas. I've had people from Sunnyvale. No offense to our Los Gatos-Montserrano police force that's here and the folks from there, but Los Gatos folks said they really prefer to come here. So please, come on over, West Valley College, parking lot 3. And love to hear from you, whether you've got ideas to share, something that we need to address, love to hear from you. So thank you. Next up, Saratoga Summer Movie Nights in the Park. Every year for quite a number of years, we've done this. Grab your blankets, your lawn chairs, and bring the whole family and friends. It's time for Summer Movie Nights. Join us on the second Friday of June and July and the first Friday of August for a fun-filled evening under the stars with free movies and popcorn for all to enjoy. Our first movie night is Friday, June 12th, and it features the movie Elio. or Elio, depending on where part of the country you're from. Community resource tables will open at 7.30, and the movie starts at sunset, which is around 8.30 p.m. The Saratoga Youth Commission will also host some fun themed activities for kids beginning at 7.30 p.m. You guys all ready for that? I want to hear that. Are you ready for that? All right, good. Come early, connect with neighbors, and enjoy a fun Saratoga tradition. And then I just wanted to put some things on your agenda. On the 4th of July, I don't know how many of you have gone, but if you haven't, you've got to go. The 4th of July celebration that we do every year is completely run by volunteers at Kevin Moran Park. It starts around 9.30 in the morning. Come and gather. Bring your blankets. Bring a chair if you want to sit on the lawn. Enjoy a great band. You're going to see some great performance. And you'll basically go away from there smiling about America. Now, this being the semi-quincentennial, try saying that three times fast, that's America's 250th birthday. This is going to be a really special year. So please come out, come early, and come in droves. The Rotary Club also usually sponsors some kind of frozen delight afterwards. So after the little parade that we have, enjoy a nice cold treat. And then on August the 22nd, Saratoga is going to celebrate its 70th birthday. We're going to have a party. a dance party, if you will, down at Wildwood Park. It'll probably start sometime noon to one, so come on whenever you can. We're going to have food. We're going to have some beverages for you. It'll be a great time for the whole family, and you're going to come and enjoy some really good danceable music. So put that on your calendars, August 22nd, Wildwood Park. And so Saratoga's 70th, America's 250th. What a great year for birthdays, huh? This is going to be a good one. Are there any other council members who'd like to share an item? Yeah.

Sorry, I forgot to send this to you. Dragon Boat Festival is going to be held this Saturday, June 6, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at West Valley Community College, parking lot number two. So after you have a chance to talk to our mayor, you can stop by to the festival. Performance programs including face painting, festival crafts for kids, drum team performance, live band music, and also line dance. So have a good time, and you're going to be busy this Saturday, so talk to the mayor, go to farmer markets, and then enjoy the festival as well.

Thank you. And I see that Bilal has his hand raised.

Yep, just a reminder that we won't be holding the Boston Festival next Saturday, June 13th. That would not necessarily be a source, but just a friendly reminder that we won't be holding that this year.

Thank you, Bilal. Anybody else? OK. Thank you. Our next item is to welcome our Youth Commission, who is here to provide us with a year-end recap of what they've accomplished. I'd like to invite the Youth Commission to the podium to begin your presentation.

Mayor Page, Vice Mayor Walia, esteemed members of the City Council, my name is Chris. I am the chair of the Saratoga Youth Commission, and this is our Saratoga Youth Commission year-end presentation. Just a quick round of introductions.

Hi, my name is Anastasia, and I'm a second-year youth commissioner. I'm Praisha Jain.

I'm the youth commission treasurer.

I'm Sonia Agarwal. I'm a first-year commissioner.

I'm Alexis Chiu, and I'm one of the co-marketing chairs.

I'm Eamon Uribe. I'm a second year youth commissioner.

I'm Kevin Chen. I'm the co-marketing chair of the Sarah Covenant Commission.

Hello. I'm Arav Anand, and I'm the secretary of the youth commission this year.

I'm Jenny Sa, and I'm a second year youth commissioner.

I'm Alyssa Lee. I'm a first year youth commissioner.

Our vice chair Zahra is unfortunately not able to attend in person today, but she is attending online. So just as a quick recap, our 2025 to 2026 themes, we continued our theme from last year of physical and mental health, but we also included a new theme this year, which is youth civic engagement. And so as a result, our events will be focused primarily on trying to achieve these two goals.

One of our new events this year was hosting a booth at the Farmer's Market. We hosted three booths this year at the Farmer's Market. In December, we hosted the South Asian Student Union from Westmont High School. In February, we hosted the Black Student Union. And in May, we hosted Cultural Connections, which is a nonprofit that focuses on civic engagement and belonging. Overall, this event focused on building community and growing partnerships for the Youth Commission. And we got to engage with over 100 constituents on things they loved about Saratoga.

Another event that we organized this year was our annual SED Talks event, which was in collaboration with the Teen Advisory Board. It occurred on Saturday, March 28th, with the theme of Bridges to Innovation. The event started with opening remarks from Mayor Chuck Page, and we had three speakers, Steve Chu, an e-commerce expert and Wall Street Journal bestseller author, Karen Donnan, who is a senior director of Silicon Valley sales at Siemens EDA, and Srinivas Mukamala, who is a cybersecurity expert and CEO at Secure Inc.

Our next event was the Community Hike, which is a repeated collaboration with the Parks and Recreation Commission. So this took place on April 25th, and the trail that we decided to hike on this year was the Saratoga to the Skyline Trail. It was a one and a half hour hike and throughout the activity we encouraged the community to reconnect with nature. So some highlights throughout this event were the fact that we provided free snacks and drinks and we had activities and bonding to promote wellness and mental health which as we mentioned was our second goal for this year.

Our next event that we hosted was Coffee House, which we hosted in collaboration with the Teen Advisory Board, or TAB. And this was hosted on Friday, May 15, 2026, after the two-week stretch of APs and intense academic rigor. We had nine performances by students of Saratoga which was a huge success and we had a turnout of over 30 people. We ended the night with some fun karaoke which really brought the whole community together and I feel like it really reached our purpose of de-stressing after APs and I would like to thank Vice Mayor Walia for coming to this event.

Movie Night is another one of our events in collaboration with the Parks and Rec Commission. Our responsibility is to host the activities before the movie starts. Last year, for the movie Inside Out 2, we hosted stress balls and we also had candy bracelets. This year, our theme is Elio, which aligns with our goals of physical and mental health and civic engagement.

Yes, and since Elio is space themed, we'll be holding a bunch of activities that are super fun, and they are glow-in-the-dark, including glow-in-the-dark stress balls, glow sticks, face paint, you name it. And we think this is an amazing way for younger members of our community to make friends with each other after the stressful, long school year has ended.

So not only did we host and run our own events, we also attended a lot of events run by the city as well.

So one of these events that we were planning was the Sassy Bingo Night. However, due to scheduling conflicts, we were unable to participate in the Sassy Bingo Night, but we did learn some lessons from it. So first we learned that when we want to make our work plan, we want to keep language flexible and general in case plans change. And then we also learn to start conversations and coordinations earlier to make sure that we have everything set in place. And then we also learn to have an alternate event or another opportunity where we can engage with SASE in case something comes up.

Another event that we participated in was the Scarecrow Contest hosted by the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce. So this happened around October 2025, and we designed that beautiful, beautiful vampire-themed scarecrow, which is shown right on the slide. We were able to turn it in, and we also placed it in the Saratoga downtown, and I hope that you guys were able to stop by and actually see it during that time.

Another event that we participated in was the Witchy Walkabout. It was right before Halloween. And we made crafts for the kids. Some of them were tubes and also origami.

Another event that we tabled was the fourth annual Smash event hosted by the Saratoga Robotics team. So we had a tabling event for origami and pipe cleaner wands. And we also got to watch them smash pumpkins.

Another event that we participated in was the Candy Cane Village hosted by the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce held on November 28th, 2025. And then here we hosted two tables with activities like Letters to Santa and Ornament Crafts.

Another event that we hosted a booth at was the Lunar New Year event hosted by the Hakone Foundation. We passed out Zodiac sign stickers that were popular with all age demographics, and we also offered a cup craft for kids that enabled them to create little cats.

Our final event that we hosted was the St. Patrick's Day event, which was held on Saturday, March 14th, 2026. And we had a few activities there. Kids passing by could cut out pots and glue stickers on there, which was a really popular activity. We also had just stickers to pass out and necklaces as well. And I think it was a really great event.

And that is all that we did this year. I think overall this year has been a great success. And thank you for listening. Are there any questions or comments?

Does anybody from the council have any comments? Tina.

Very simply put, that is all we did this year. Beautiful. Thank you so much. You did a lot. Thank you for all you do. You bring a lot of energy and a lot of working with the community. Much appreciated. Thanks.

Jan?

Well, I want to say congratulations to all of you. What a year. I know all of you are very busy with your studies and activities. I'm just so impressed with all the events you organized and participated. And job well done. Congratulations and thank you.

Cookie, Bilal, anyone want to add anything? And I'll just say thank you again very much. Every year, we're enthralled with the energy that you bring, the events that you plan. Lessons learned are always good, no matter how they come. But I really appreciate you guys sticking through and doing everything that you did. So thank you all very much. I think we owe these folks a big round of applause. All right, thank you. And next up, we have a ceremonial item. We'd like to recognize the six outgoing commissioners. So if Eamon, Zahra, who's on Zoom, Preksha, Anastasia, Jenny, and Chris could join us on stage. And we want you to come up this time. So please come on up. And if the council will join me out there, we'll do this out there. Y'all get to come out in the middle here. Find your spot. We didn't mark it, actually. Oh, that's an interesting thing. They're just going right to the front. Usually we intersperse the council with you, but it's all good, however you guys want to be. I'm okay. So on behalf of the entire city council, I want to first thank our incredible youth commission for their outstanding service these past two years. Despite the demands of school, extracurricular activities, and personal commitments, these dedicated students consistently showed up, represented the city at events, and made their voices heard. Their ability to balance so much with grace and professionalism is truly commendable. Through their hard work and thoughtful input, they've strengthened the youth voice in Saratoga and helped shape a more inclusive and vibrant community. This year, As you heard, the Youth Commission hosted and participated in a number of really great events that uplifted and empowered their peers and the rest of the community too. Their impact has been far-reaching, and whether it's organizing engaging activities, advocating for issues that matter to young people or the rest of us who maybe aren't so young, or building bridges across generations, their work has been inspiring. We're proud of each and every one of you, and thank you for your dedication, your leadership, and the positive difference that you continue to make here in Saratoga. So I'd like to give the chair an opportunity, if he'd like to say anything, since he is getting out of here.

Yeah, I think it was honestly a wonderful two years to serve on the Youth Commission. I first want to extend my thanks to Jocelyn, who has been a great staff liaison this year. She has... She has been on top of basically everything. She was on me for some things as well. And I greatly appreciate that as well. So I just want to extend a great thanks to you. I'm not sure if any of our collaborators were here. at this meeting right now, but I also want to extend a thanks to them as well. Without them, these events would not be possible. But last but not least, I want to extend a thanks to all of the youth commissioners of this year, outgoing and returning next year, because again, like Mayor Page said, you guys were just on top of everything. You guys were great. You guys were just fun to be around as well. So yeah, thank you guys for making these past few years memorable, and it was an honor to serve as your chair.

Now, we don't always do this, but because you guys are so lively and bright and energetic, I want to give each of you a chance, if you'd like to, to say something.

Hi, I'm Anastasia. I'm a second year youth commissioner and I gotta say I love being on the youth commission. I love organizing events. I love connecting with the community and I love that our themes during my terms were mental and physical health as well as civic engagement because that really allowed me to connect with the community and facilitate a bonding, supportive community. And as we know, we're all super busy. And I just love unwinding at our monthly Youth Commission meetings. And I love the events that we get to have fun at. And I'm so sad next year that I won't have the same opportunities to participate in the city events. But I'll make sure to drop by sometime.

I'm Preksha and I was a treasurer this year and I truly enjoyed my two years on the Youth Commission. It was amazing to work with all these people and Jocelyn towards the end. I loved getting the opportunity to interact with our community, meet new people and run booths, run events and just have the opportunity to make an impact on this amazing city.

My name is Jenny and I wanted to say I'm super grateful for the opportunity I was able to have to volunteer and work alongside other youth commissioners and I want to extend my thanks to them as well and then also wish them luck for an even better next year.

My name is Amon. I'm a second year as well. I want to say I'm very happy that I was part of the Youth Commission. Before I joined, like, I know everything, all the events that we do and everything that we're able to do. And, like, in just, like, these short amount of two years, like, I've done so much with the Youth Commission that, like, I never would have done if I wasn't part of it. And I'm just really grateful for everyone. And thank you, Jocelyn. Like, you're a great staff liaison. And thank you everyone else, too.

Awesome. And so before we take some photos, I want to give the council members a chance to say something.

I want to thank each one of you. I have spent time with you over the last two years, all the fabulous projects that you have done. And you have brought so much joy and happiness to me personally. And for that, I deeply appreciate this. Great job. Thank you. I'm going to miss you, but we will see each other soon.

Thanks. Congratulations for one more year, and once again, thank you, and wish you all the best. And I know some of you is going to be going to college, and just best luck, and enjoy the college life. Thank you.

Congratulations on an awesome year. It's always great to see you guys at the events. You bring wonderful energy to the events. We really appreciate it. Thanks for everything.

Thank you.

I'll do it really quick. Oh, thank you, Bilal. I just want to thank everyone. I know that there's a lot of pessimism in the world sometimes. But whenever there is pessimism, I say you should be our youth commission. Because you all give me a lot of hope for young people doing incredible work and making the world a better place. So keep it up.

Thank you Bilal and I just add my gratitude. We really appreciate the time you all put in. It's a lot, especially for those of you that are approaching graduation or getting there. I know what you're going through and these days especially. It was a lot different when I was growing up and maybe where I grew up too, but I really appreciate all the time and energy you put in. It's really appreciated by everybody, especially the lives you touched and you did touch them. And by the way, sometime in the future, you know, when you're you know, a granddad or a grandmom or something, and you're looking and you're thinking, hey, this kid is about the same age, this grandkid of mine is the same age I was when I was on the Youth Commission, you can pull up this meeting and you can see yourself speak. So you can say, that was me that many years ago. So just want you all to know that our videos are saved forever. So you can always get them. So let's get some pictures here. Is there anyone that would like to make any public comment on this item before we move on to the next item? Okay. Seeing no one. And is there anyone on remote with their hand raised there, Britt? Okay.

No hands raised.

Thank you. So we'll close the public comment period, and we shall move on. So the next item is the appointment of six new youth commissioners. So now you all know, the six of you that are coming up, you know what you've got to live up to. So first we'll need a council motion to go with this. Jan or Tina? I saw Jan moving first. All right.

I'll just move to adopt the resolution appointed. Do I need to... SAY ALL THE NAMES OR SHOULD I JUST SAY APPOINT? IF YOU WANT TO TRY. ALL RIGHT. I KNOW. IT'S GOING TO BE A CHALLENGE. NUSHKA, ROHAN, SHARIA, AUSTIN, DAISY, AND SUMMIT GEAR TO THE COMMISSION AND DIRECT THE CITY CLERK TO ADMIT THE OATH OF THE OFFICE. DO WE HAVE A SECOND?

I SECOND THE MOTION. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Oh, I think we need a roll call vote. Sorry. Sorry. I don't usually do this. May we have a roll call vote, please?

Council Member Aftab? Aye. Fitzsimmons? Aye. Zao?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Walia? Aye. Mayor Page?

Aye.

That passes unanimously.

Thank you. At this point, I'd like to invite the new members up to the stage for the swearing in. And Say bye to your folks.

Raise your right hand. I state your name.

I state your name. I, Austin Zhao.

Solemnly swear.

Solemnly swear.

That I will support and defend.

That I will support and defend.

The Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

And the Constitution of the State of California. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

That I will bear truth. That I will bear truth, faith, and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. That I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. And that I will well and faithfully Discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. Congratulations.

All right, thank you, and congratulations, and we wish the new Youth Commission the very best. We're here to support you, and we can't wait to see what you've got lined up. You can stay if you want to. You don't have to leave. Of course, we've got homework or finals, you know, time to go. Next up, we have our consent calendar, which typically consists of items that are relatively routine and non-controversial. Items in this section are typically acted on in one motion unless removed by the mayor or a council member. Would anyone like to remove an item from the consent calendar? Tina.

I'd like to remove item number 1.6. 1.6.

Okay. Anybody else? Bilal, anything? Okay. All right, so do we have a motion for the other items?

So moved.

Okay, and Yan, is that a second then?

Yep, I'll second that.

Okay, so we have a motion and a second. May we have a roll call vote, please?

Council Member Aftab?

Aye.

Fitzsimmons? Aye. Zell?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Walia? Aye. Mayor Page?

Aye.

That passes unanimously.

Okay, item 1.6, the five-year community access cable services contract amendment.

I have a question. I spoke with Leslie about this, and I got the answer, but I would like to ask the question for the record. So the proposed KSAR contract, the red line document adds some language where my question is really in case of the city not being able to give the required 72-hour notification to KSAR to record the meeting. What is our backup plan? Because our transparency policy says we would like to record all the meetings. Thanks.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Wally, and I thought that was a great question, and I'm glad you're bringing it up tonight. In the past, you know, we've held special meetings, and we've held them in Warner Hutton House or the school district and Joan Pisani, and so we've recorded those meetings with the audio sound bar, but one of the big things that's coming down is SB 707, and that's going to be effective July 1st, where we'll be required to offer the public a way to participate in meetings via two-way access, telephonic or two-way audio-visual platform. And for Saratoga, this has historically meant Zoom. So to your point in your question, is if we were to call a special meeting in the Civic Theater with less than 72 hours notice, in case I could not record it for whatever reason, our backup process would be to use a single-camera shot in the chambers, record the meeting via the Zoom platform, and staff will load the video after the meeting So this allows a meeting to be held still in the theater, allows the public to participate via Zoom, compliant with SB 707, and records a meeting without KSAR. And you have raised a good point. And so given the pending implementation of SB 707, we are going to create an internal policy just to memorialize this process moving forward.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that.

Any other comments on this? Okay, seeing no one, do we have a motion?

So moved to move staff recommendation.

Do we have a second?

Second.

We have a motion and a second. May we have a roll call vote, please?

Council Member Aftab?

Aye.

Fitzsimmons? Aye. Zau? Aye. Vice Mayor Walia? Aye. Mayor Page?

Aye.

That passes unanimously.

All right. Our next agenda item is our general business item, which is to review the law enforcement services options of the Santa Clara County Sheriff and the Los Gatos Monteserino Police Department. May we please have a staff report?

Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. Tonight's discussion is about the future of law enforcement services in Saratoga and We have two decisions before the city council. I'm going to try doing this at the same time. First, we have two decisions before city council. First, what level of law enforcement services should a city contract for? with the Sheriff's Office in fiscal year 26-27? And second, what long-term service model best meets Saratoga's operational, financial, and community needs beyond 2027? So Saratoga has contracted with the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office for law enforcement services for 70 years. The current agreement expires on June 30, 2026. However, we recently received notice from the County Executive's Office that an extension has been granted until September 30, 2026. The Sheriff's Office has proposed a new contract for the same service levels with projected annual costs of approximately $11.6 million. compared to approximately $9 million under our current contract. The primary reason for this increase is the county's transition to a full cost recovery model. Under the proposed approach, contract cities would pay the full actual cost of services, including direct staffing, support services, dispatch, investigations, records, administrative support, and countywide overhead. As Council has discussed during budget deliberations, absorbing these increased costs would require significant financial trade-offs. including reduced capital investments, lower discretionary pension contributions, operational reductions, and increased reliance on our reserves. As a result, staff evaluated not only the sheriff's proposal, but also an alternative service model proposed by the Los Gatos Monasterio Police Department. Tonight's discussion is not simply about choosing a police provider. It is about evaluating cost predictability, governance, service delivery philosophy, and long-term financial sustainability. So before discussing the individual proposals, I thought it may be helpful to frame the conversation around several policy considerations. How much value, number one, how much value should Saratoga place on maintaining a 70-year relationship with the sheriff's office? Number two, how important is long-term cost predictability? Number three, what level of accountability and direct communication does council expect? And number four, how should service effectiveness be measured? Through staffing allocations or through performance outcomes such as response times and service quality? These questions ultimately drive the evaluation of both options. The Sheriff's proposal continues Saratoga's existing service model. Services would include patrol operations, traffic enforcement, investigations, school resource officers, dispatch services, records management, emergency response, community engagement, and access to specialized countywide resources. One of the primary advantages of this option is continuity. Residents are familiar with the service model, staff relationships already exist, and no operational transition would be required. The Sheriff's Office also provides access to countywide resources, specialized investigative units, crime lab services, and regional support capabilities. There are several considerations for Council. First is cost. The projected fiscal year 26-27 cost is approximately $11.6 million. Second is cost predictability. Because the contract is based on full cost recovery, future costs would continue to fluctuate based on actual operational expenses and service demands. And third is contract flexibility. Under the city's current agreement, either party may terminate within 180 days' notice. Under the proposed agreement, which was included as an attachment to the staff report, the city would effectively be committed to five-year term with automatic renewals, with the first five-year term having no termination option. However, after this agenda was posted, We did receive written notice from County Supervisor Margaret Abicoga's office that the county is open to a one-year termination clause with the new contract. The sheriff's model is also based on annual staffing allocations and service hours, allowing the city to adjust service levels through the annual plan for service process. Yes. Okay. One of the things as noted in the staff report, staff is looking for direction on what the service levels should be for fiscal year 26-27 with the sheriff's contract. One, for consideration, we stay where we're at with 25,889 hours. Or, for example, if we reduce the contract by 1 million, that would reduce our hours to 21,974. If we reduce our service levels to 9.5 million, our hours would be 17,740 and no school resource officer. An alternative option would be to continue negotiations with Los Gatos Montes Serrano Police Department for a potential transition beginning July 1, 2027. This proposal envisions an integrated West Valley policing model that combines Saratoga, Los Gatos, and Monteserano into a regional service partnership. The services proposed are generally comparable to those currently provided by the Sheriff's Office, including patrol, traffic enforcement, investigations dispatch, records management, school resource officer, emergency preparedness, specialty units, and community engagement. One notable difference is the service philosophy. The Sheriff's model is based on purchased hours and staffing allocations. The Los Gatos model is based on integrated regional deployment where resources are allocated based on operational needs and service outcomes. Rather than focusing on staffing counts or hourly allocations, the model emphasizes response times, service quality, community engagement, and overall performance outcomes. Under this approach, Saratoga will receive police services in a manner similar to Los Gatos and Monteserano, rather than through a fixed allocation of purchased hours. The proposal also emphasizes local accountability, direct communication with city leadership, and enhanced reporting. And similar to the sheriff, drones, body-worn cameras, automated license plate reader technology, and emergency preparedness coordination. The preliminary estimated annual operating cost is approximately $9.5 million. Los Gatos has proposed annual base rate increases ranging from 3% to 8% providing greater predictability than the Sheriff's full cost recovery model. The proposal also includes provisions for extraordinary external mandates. However, those costs are not automatically passed through and any overall annual increase would remain subject to a 4% maximum cap per year. There are still important unknowns. The proposal remains preliminary and would require additional negotiation. Staff have been told this proposed number of 9.5 is what the final proposal will be. I do want to say that, and I did just find out tonight before the staff report that while we had the initial estimates of 9.5, I was told that the final proposal will remain at 9.5 million. But I do want to point out that should there be terms the council desires that are larger terms than what is typical for a contract, that could have cost implications. So that could impact the final price. Startup and transition costs have not yet been fully identified. Potential costs could include dispatch integration, technology systems, CAD and records management integration, radio interoperability, potential new facility and facility modifications, fleet needs, training, and community outreach efforts. While tonight's discussion includes next year's service levels, the long-term financial implications are also important. Staff prepared a 10-year projection comparing both service models, as noted in attachment E. The blue line represents the Sheriff's high and low projections. The orange line represents Los Gatos' high and low projections. Under a mid-range growth scenario, the gray dotted line, Sheriff's costs could increase from approximately $11.6 million today to approximately $20.8 million by 2036. Under a comparable mid-range scenario, Los Gatos costs could increase from approximately $9.5 million in fiscal year 27-28 to approximately $14.8 million by 2036. These projections are estimates and should not be viewed as guarantees. However, they illustrate the significant differences in long-term cost trajectories between the two approaches. And with respect to automated license plate reader technology, if Saratoga remains with the Sheriff's Office, the city may need to replace its current flock safety ALPR system. Following a February 2026 Board of Supervisors decision restricting the Sheriff's Office's access to flock cameras, the Sheriff's Office is unable to use data from Saratoga's existing flock network, which would require transition to another ALPR provider. Los Gatos has indicated that ALPR technology would be included as part of its law enforcement services from the outset, as they currently partner with FLOC. They have also stated that they would provide Saratoga with additional contractual assurances that ALPR services would continue to be available in the future. So in conclusion, staff is seeking counsel direction on two items. One, what level of share services should be included in the fiscal year 26-27 contract? And two, does Council wish to continue pursuing discussions with Los Gatos Monasterio regarding potential transition beginning July 1st, 2027? With that, I, along with our Administrative Services Director, Ryan Hinchman, am available for questions. I'd also like to welcome the folks from the Sheriff's Office here tonight, as well as Los Gatos Bonos Reno Police Chief, J.B. Field. Thank you for being here. Should there be any operational questions that I or Ryan or even Mayor from the Ad Hoc Committee cannot answer, they are also available to assist as needed. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'd like to ask if anybody has any questions of staff.

Yeah. A few questions. Thank you, Leslie, for your presentation. In your report, you mentioned that Can you go back to the proposed average yearly increase from 3% to 8%?

Is that correct?

That's fine. So what is the average increase for the county sheriff's service for the past 10 years?

Wasn't it fixed then?

I'll let Ryan answer that. He's got that information.

Yeah. In relative terms, over the past several years, the sheriff contract has been increasing for Saratoga around 7%. If you look at the sheriff's budget in total, it's increasing at a similar rate.

Thank you. Leslie, I have one more question. You mentioned something about 4% maximum. What was that? I guess I missed that. Okay.

Those are the extraordinary external mandates. So I think we've been talking about, and correct me if I'm wrong, if I'm misinterpreted, but the balloon, we're kind of concerned if we're trying to avoid not having any surprises and trying to kind of keep our costs continuous year after year. So if there was something extraordinary, kind of like to try to catch up on a large payment, That's what is being termed extraordinary external mandates, and that would be a cap at 4%. So to your point, I think, again, in earlier meetings, we kind of talked about how do we avoid a balloon payment at the end of the contract. That would be something like that.

Okay. One last question, and then I'll yield my time. Do we have an estimate on the, you know, if we start up the new service with Los Gatos and Monte Sereno, what is the initial startup cost? And...

Those have not been provided to us. You know, I kind of mentioned some of the costs. There might be another vehicle needed. There's things like that. But I would say that in the discussions that we've had with staff, it's nothing that is going to be an extraordinary amount to the city. And I have not received an actual amount, though. And that's something that we, if we're given direction to pursue continuing contract negotiations with Los Gatos, we would finalize those details. Okay. Thank you.

Thanks, Mayor Page, and thank you, Leslie, for your presentation and for your attendance. A couple of quick questions. So just to make sure I'm understanding here, and also for our residents, we're talking about two different models here, where the Sheriff's And then with Los Gatos, the model is philosophically different, where the model would be more of a regional policing model, where we're not purchasing a number of hours, but seeking commensurate coverage that Los Gatos and Monteserino have for their respective cities. Am I describing that properly?

Yes, you are.

Okay. Next question I had. One, there's a question around level of services and potential reductions for that for the Sheriff's contract over the next year.

As part of our current contract,

upsides of it or benefits of it is the level of flexibility where we have the ability to kind of modify the number of hours of our purchasing. We could, you know, sort of tone it down, turn it up. In terms of let's say we made a decision to reduce it today. Do we have the ability to increase it later with that same level of flexibility? Or is it kind of a trapdoor decision that once we've made that decision over the next year, we have to stick to it?

So that, in terms of whether or not we're locked into it, I'm going to ask, I know that Adam Orbiter is here, and our Captain Neil Valenzuela, so perhaps you can address that. Thank you.

I appreciate the question. I think it's going to depend a little bit on the scenario, but for the most part, what we do is we staff each of the cities, Saratoga specifically, with a number of deputies to meet your hourly allocation. That guarantees that you'll have at least that many hours in your city throughout that calendar or fiscal year. On an individual daily basis, on per shift, we staff that shift substantially higher. And then that Saratoga unit, may respond to calls in unincorporated, which then those hours don't count towards Saratoga. So what we have to do is based on the total hours for your annual service plan, we figure out how many deputies the West Valley contract receives. And then based off of that, we can increase and decrease your hours based off of your needs. That's why we're able to respond to those calls. And as you may look back over the history, there have been some years where you're slightly above your contracted hours and there's other years that you're below. And that's because we're billing you for the actual hours that we spend in Saratoga.

Thank you for that. Very helpful. And my last question is, Let's assume for a second that we don't have any reduction in level of services over the next year with the sheriff's office. And we think about sort of, we just, thank you, Adam, undersheriff, for the great answer to helping us understand our flexibility on staffing. But let's say we don't make any changes and we stay at the current level. And we talk about staffing, number of police officers on patrol per shift on an hourly basis. So it's over the course of the day. Since we're talking about two different models here, how would those staffing levels compare? Do we have that answer while recognizing there are two different models?

I can't speak to how another jurisdiction would staff. What I can speak to is I think our model provides a guarantee to the city that the police officers, the deputy sheriffs that Saratoga is paying for are actually in the city. And that the way that our billing mechanism works is that if that Saratoga unit has to respond for a mutual aid call in Los Gatos or responds to Cupertino, those hours no longer are being billed to. So it's an accountability metrics. not necessarily a staffing plan for us. We staff the city based off of your calls for service, based off of vacations, right? So in addition to all of the other requirements that we have to provide safety and that we've done for the last 70 years in Saratoga, it's also to ensure that we have the adequate staff to achieve those hours. So behind the scenes, there's substantially more than the X number of hours that you're contracted for.

Thank you. And then also, I don't know if the chief field, if you'd like to just talk about the, since Council Member Aftab raised the different staffing models, maybe it might be helpful to hear the operations on the Los Gatos site as well.

Good evening, counsel, and thank you for the question. It's a little bit difficult to assess the two different models from an hourly to more of an all-inclusive service model. In essence, for a police department, we have our entire patrol team that is available, obviously, within a regionalized area for a three-community approach here. So, of course, we would have this as included beat area, a regional area, And if additional resources were needed, we can certainly pull from Los Gatos and Monastirino area as well. So the entire patrol shift is available at any given time should the need arise.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Tina. Any other questions? That's all my questions. Thank you, Bilal. Tina?

Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. And I have a couple of questions. First clarification, Leslie, is did you say the county office, the amendment that they have sent in writing, is a termination clause of one year or 180 days?

So the current contract right now that we're with for the sheriff's office is 180 days, and that was set to expire July 1st, and now we did get an extension to go to September 30th of 2026. And then what we are working on is the new contract that would start October 1st, and While the contract that you have as an attachment shows the initial terms of a five-year contract with no, we have been verbally told in writing from the supervisor's office that they are open to doing a one-year termination clause.

Okay. That's exactly what I wanted for the members of the public to understand. The 180 days is the current one with the extension of the next three months, 120 days, that extension period, the 180-day clause applies. But after that, rather than the five-year, which is in the staff report, they are willing to talk about one-year clause of termination. Correct. There are three pieces I wanted to make sure. that the residents who have been calling us with all kinds of questions. And I am grateful and appreciative of all the residents who have taken this seriously and done their research and reached out. Thank you for that clarification, Leslie, or confirmation for me. A couple other questions. So you gave some numbers that I quickly tried to jot down. At $11.6 million with the sheriffs, we get 25,899 hours of service. At $10.5 million, we get 21,974. At $9.5 million, we get 17,740 with no SRO. Can you please walk us through how many deputies reduction happens at each of those levels. Those hours of service are great to know. Maybe Ryan can help us with that. It'll be good to know. Thanks.

Yeah. Thank you for the question. We tried to put together a rough order of magnitude in the staff report in terms of an FTE, a full-time equivalent for a deputy, and how much would be reduced. We got some refined numbers from the sheriff on these. So for the first scenario, going from the $11.6 million down to a target of about $10.5 million, the reduction in hours equates to about 2.5 FTEs. So it's 2.5 deputies. I'll keep it at that unless there's further questions. Is that helpful?

Yeah, it certainly is. And from $10.5 million to $9.5 million is?

It'd be a similar reduction, so it'd be another two and a half, so we're looking at about five deputies. Our contract hours, based on the productive hours, are about 16 FTEs. So these are pretty significant reductions.

So we have 16 FTEs?

Correct, in terms of hours.

At the current?

That's right.

Okay.

So what's happened is the new proposed model from the sheriff has created a large fixed overhead cost. And to change service levels requires relatively steep reductions in deputies.

Thank you. You knew I was going to ask you that question. That's my next question. So please stay there. The staff report does call out for those looking for this information that every FTE is approximately $337,000. The point you touched upon is the large fixed overhead costs. Can you help us all understand there is a sentence here which says in the staff report, the agreement is structured as a full cost recovery model, meaning the city pays the actual cost of services provided with annual review and adjustment of staffing levels and rates through a yearly plan for service process. Can you help us all understand? We have gone through this multiple times, the council, but I want the residents to get a good understanding of that.

Thank you. Sure. So, you know, earlier a question was asked, what have contract costs increased over the last 10 years? And they've been relatively steady in the 7% to 8% range. What's happened this year is a significant increase. So this year our increase was closer to a 30%. And what's happened is our previous contract had a cap in place, meaning that cost could not exceed a certain threshold. And with that, cost built up over time, and we now have this large true-up or balloon payment, if you will. The new model proposed by the sheriff is a full cost recovery model, as they've stated. We've been through a lot of analysis with them, and we appreciate the detailed analysis that they provided. But there's a methodology that's being used to allocate costs, particularly for investigations, records, administrative, both indirect and direct costs. And these are significant costs, right? So it's a new model, and we've been working collaboratively with the sheriff to fully understand this. But with that, it's structured in a way that changes to service levels don't have necessarily the large savings that we might expect.

And why is that?

It's because the majority of the costs are really in those direct and indirect costs that don't fluctuate with staffing. So as deputies are reduced, we don't ultimately see the results right away in reductions in direct and indirect costs, such as investigations, records, and other categories.

So the proposed contract with the couple of changes that Leslie mentioned earlier, Is that a fixed dollar amount, or are there any areas where we cannot be sure from the Sheriff's Department?

So there were two components, I believe she mentioned, the changes to the contract. One was an extension.

No, I'm talking beyond that, the proposal that is given here.

The other is the early termination component.

Not the termination, but the proposed contract. Are there any, I'm just blanking out on the term right now, in the full cost recovery model, is that a fixed dollar amount? Or is there something that could be a surprise to us, a fluctuation in the dollars?

Oh, yeah. So to be clear, so the... Fixed cost model, the prices are relatively set, and the contract states multiple times that actual costs will be passed through to the city of Saratoga. So if there's an event where costs increase significantly, those costs without discussion will be essentially passed through to Saratoga.

And there is no cap to that as well?

There's no cap built into the contract.

So that is an area of concern for us?

Yes.

Okay, that's what I wanted to draw out. We have talked about this multiple times, but I wanted the residents to understand that. Okay, I have one other question, which is for the town of Los Gatos contract.

I'm sorry, say that one more time.

The town of Los Gatos? Mm-hmm. So what they have proposed, I understand that they are talking about $9.5 million, and the details are still being worked upon. To my understanding, they will be getting that level of detail sometime in the month of June. So the question that I have is, which I've asked multiple times, for their startup costs, A, we don't have a dollar amount right now that they're working on. Secondly, I'm trying to draw the difference between the location of the West Valley current...

offices just up Saratoga Sunnyvale versus the town of Las Gadas located a little further up from the city of Saratoga.

Are they proposing another location in Saratoga that they would have their deputy's base off of?

So initially, we talked about they will need a location similar to how the Sheriff's Department, they have a location here right in Saratoga at the Prospect Center where deputies come and do reports and they have an office. That would be a need is what Los Gatos would initially need, so that's something that is a city facility, so there's no cost to us because they would just use that portion. To your question of a true facility located in Saratoga, that's something that would be down the line you know, maybe years down the line when we, you know, if both cities, if both councils determine there's a need, that that discussion would be essentially like a meet and confer to determine where the location is, the costs, how much, you know, Saratoga City Council would have an opportunity to determine the location and we just don't know what the costs are would be to build a new station here in Saratoga right now. But the point would be is that there would be that opportunity to meet and confer with Los Gatos so that you can kind of control what that payment might become for the city.

But currently the sheriff's office has a West Valley location, which is Officer Toga Sunnyvale. In addition, they tend to use for some limited amount of work the Prospect Center, which is city-owned.

Correct. They have a location, but my understanding is that they have a lease for three more years, and then it's uncertain for the sheriff's office. They may be able to stay, it's just not certain at this point.

Okay, that answers my question. That's all my questions for now. Thank you.

Thank you. Cookie, any questions? I have a couple of questions. FIRST, I'M GOING TO ASK CHIEF TO COME UP. YOU GAVE ME A REALLY GOOD EXPLANATION OF SOMETHING THAT TINA ASKED A LITTLE BIT AGO. AND I THINK THAT IT'S IMPORTANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. THE QUESTION ABOUT THE FACILITIES REQUIRED IN SARATOGA AT THIS TIME. YOU GAVE ME A REALLY GOOD EXPLANATION OF HOW YOU WOULD USE THAT, AND I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT THAT EVERYBODY HEAR THAT.

THANK YOU FOR THE QUESTION. THE PURPOSE OF HAVING A SUBSTATION OR A DROP-IN LOCATION for units from our department that would be here, is not just for them to take a break, but it's also so that they can best serve the community here within Saratoga. Should we have a witness or a victim that we engage with here in Saratoga, we certainly want to bring them a short distance and within their own community, that community being Saratoga. So utilizing a city space that would already be available, similar to an office with a desk and some private area would be Much preferred.

Okay, thank you. And then my other question is, if over time, say there was a rash of burglaries, as has happened in this city in the past, what would your proposal be to staff up or to help protect against that or to minimize it as it occurred? This happened after I got off the council the last time. All of a sudden, there were a lot more burglaries. We actually put together a public safety task force on how to basically educate people, lock your doors, use your alarms, all the things. Do put a lock on your gate. Don't leave your lawn furniture out or a hose so somebody can break your sliding glass door window. But what kind of staff-up could you do, or what would you propose might be a way to resolve that? Because I know the citizens, the residents, were concerned at the time And there were some things that were done. And I think you should say how you guys would do that. It's important.

Well, thank you for the question and the opportunity to speak to our philosophy. There's many different prongs to that approach. First and foremost is to listen to the community and to address those concerns, because we place ourselves in their shoes. And if that were my community, I would want to know what is being done, what's the reaction to it, and what can I do to be helpful. empowered to be a part of this solution. So we always propose something similar to a neighborhood watch, which we are all familiar with, and bringing the community together to share with them what we would be looking for, for them to actually be able to help assist us. So it's additional eyes and ears, in essence, in the community. We have the technology approach, which we heard about earlier on the automated license plate reader. There's other technology that we also employ through our vehicles and other investigative tools that our detectives are very well informed and utilize frequently for those successes in their investigations. And then there's obviously what you're talking about from the day-to-day patrol. So we want to make sure that we have a smart deployment pattern. So we look at the frequency, the locations, what the trends are, We do some analysis there, so we make sure that we're not taking this shotgun approach, but we're being very strategic on where we're placing our resources. And then, of course, looping back around with the community, because hearing from us once is likely not going to be sufficient in the situation that you advised. And I think, too, one that we had not long ago, but we had an initial, I think within about 72 hours, we brought the community together because, of course, there's a significant concern Narratives get out of control, we have to pull that back. And then we employ all the tools that I mentioned, and we have a follow-up conversation to make it sustainable.

Thank you. That's really helpful. The other question I had, because Saratoga uses the county's very restrictive ALPR usage and surveillance policy, and it's probably one of the tightest in the nation. And I'm not going to ask you to compare the two or anything like that, but you guys have some amazing technology, and you use it differently than Saratoga. I was wondering if you might... in general terms, describe how that surveillance policy works and how you guys are able to do some things. Again, not that somebody else can't, but how it helps you to do your job and you're forced to do the job better.

Thank you for the question. We're very proud of the technology approach. We said that last year we committed to becoming a smart town for town of Los Gatos versus the smart city approach. But we applied that to Montessori and our partnering community currently and our approach as well. And our approach is primarily through Axon and some other vendors are out there. But we are currently implementing a real-time information center It's not just for our tools, though, that are purchased through the town or through the city of Montessorino. It's also being expanded to incorporate some of the business partners, other organizations, including educational institutions, and including offering partnerships with residential communities as well. So leveraging all the resources that are out there, not just city or town purchased. to be able to be integrated into a greater awareness that the Real-Time Information Center will allow us to do.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Yes. And then I have a question for either Captain or Assistant Sheriff. And this is related to our next year of service. And without giving away the farm in terms of any criminals that are listening... It's a really hard question to ask, and if you can't answer it, I'm totally cool with it because we don't want to give things away. But if we were to go with a model that was less money, which means less FTEs, can you give me some ideas of how that might be affected and how you would implement that?

Mayor, the contract has always been set up based on what the community needs and what the city budget is. The city always has the flexibility of adjusting whether it's increasing or decreasing the hours depending upon situations that arise or whatever the community needs. It's always been set up like that for us. Now, any decrease to those hours just may impact our response times or levels of service may.

Okay, and yeah, I don't want to, again, we're not going to cut a deputy here or a deputy there. I don't want you to get down there. So it wouldn't affect investigative, I imagine. It would be, like you said, the response time. So we might not have, the shifts might overlap a different way or something, and you'd

Correct. We may take a different approach, but it's just depending upon what we could provide for the community. But it wouldn't affect anything overhead like your detectives assigned to the city.

Thank you. Thanks very much. Any other questions? Yeah.

THANK YOU, MAYOR. LESLIE, I HAVE ONE MORE QUESTION. WILL THERE BE ANY ADDITIONAL COST THAT NOT A COWARD IN THE, YOU KNOW, LAS GADOS MONTE SERENO POLICE PROPOSAL SERVICE? IS THIS $9.5 MILLION? Is all the cost there is? Besides, I know there's startup cost, but is this covered everything? If there are additional costs, what are they, and how much would that be?

Well, I think it depends on the contract that is negotiated, and so we need to really determine what the council and the desires of what you want in that contract are. To answer your question about additional costs, right now that final proposal is 9.5. If there was something significant and out of the norm that Los Gatos and Monastirino don't provide but you require it for Saratoga because you just are asking for it, that would be an additional cost that would make that proposal go higher. Right now, if you look at what they're doing with Monastirino, The similar thing would be with us, but we do need to actually work on a contract so that Los Gatos can hear what the city council wants in their contract. So again, if there is something that Los Gatos is not providing that Saratoga is requiring or requesting that is extraordinary, then that is a cost that would increase that $9.5 million.

I'm just looking at the attachment B, the sheriff's contract comparison table. So on page two, you talk about, you know, the crime lab services says not addressed and reporting and some other stuff says it's not addressed. What does that mean? I mean, if we need the crime lab services, is this going to be charged by additional services, or is that something?

Okay, I'm just catching up looking at this here. So what does this mean? Attachment B was a comparison of law enforcement service agreements, so it was looking at the existing agreement that we have with the Sheriff's Department versus the new proposed agreement with the Sheriff's Department, and there's been some significant changes and so back in our original the agreement that we're currently under right now um where you say crime lab service is not addressed that just truly wasn't in the contract so we're just doing contract comparison literally looking at the language of that versus the new language that has been provided to us by the county and keep in mind that back in 2014 the contract was um and the execution of the contract and all that, from my understanding, was done by the sheriff. And now this contract, this time around, is being done through the county executive's office. So there are some differences in the language for the contracts.

Thank you for the clarification. So let's see, for the Los Gatos Monteserino proposal, those all will be covered under the new proposal? Are you referring to a particular attachment or just wondering? Just wondering, just a question.

Actually, I believe we have one of the attachments. Let me just pull it up here. I know I read it multiple times and then sometimes I forget where I read it. Let me find the attachment because we did a comparison. Okay. Okay. Yeah, D, attachment D. And Ryan, you want to, because you put this one together.

Yeah, just to chime in if I may. Attachment D essentially is trying to show that the $9.5 million is providing similar services as to what's provided by the sheriff today. So there are still unforeseen costs. We identified the startup costs. There will be external mandates that may come down. There's some components that are unknown, but the intention of Attachment D was really to show that the $9.5 million base rate for Los Gatos is comparable to the sheriff's services.

Thank you. So my understanding is so the $9.5 million covers all the services that we are currently covered by the sheriff's department. Okay. Just want to make sure. Thank you.

Any other questions? Bilal, any questions? I just have one other. In our packet, we have the contract that the sheriff's office has delivered to us, but we don't have the contract that Los Gatos has proposed to us. I was wondering if you could explain to everybody why that is.

Sure. So there is a draft contract, but for Los Gatos to Saratoga. But in working with staff in Los Gatos, that contract has not yet been provided to their council, nor have we really worked out particular contract terms between them. So we've gotten an idea of what... WHAT THEY'RE PROPOSING, BUT WE REALLY DO NEED TO SIT DOWN AND FURTHER DEFINE WHAT EXACTLY IT IS THAT COUNCIL IS LOOKING FOR IN A CONTRACT SO THAT THAT FINAL CONTRACT COULD BE PROVIDED. AND THAT WOULD BE PROVIDED TO THE PUBLIC AT A LATER DATE. RIGHT NOW, AGAIN, BECAUSE THE CONTRACT THAT WAS CREATED IS A DRAFT CONTRACT BUT HAS NOT BEEN SHARED WITH THE LOS GATOS TOWN COUNCIL.

Thank you. And then I know that we provided, this is through the ad hoc committee of the three mayors, we provide, and Saratoga specifically, provided a red line contract to the county. And they came back with the one year clause. We know that they're okay with that. Have they come back with any other responses on the other items that we've asked for?

We are still working on that. And because we did get that extension, that initially we were kind of scrambling to get up to that July 1. But we know that that termination clause is a one-year termination clause, but we are still working between both parties to get that full redline contract. And I should mention that, in addition, you know, you do serve on the ad hoc committee, so we are working with Los Altos Hills and Cupertino because the contracts are similar. So it's working with all three cities to determine what that is, and then you kind of break apart and determine what each city also needs within that contract. I hope that makes sense.

Yep. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So I think it's time to open the public comment period. Britt, why don't you give it a shot? And I think that there's somebody in the audience that I'd like to call on first, if it's OK with you. But you explain the process. You're the mayor.

If you would like to address the City Council on this item and you have not submitted a speaker slip, now is the time to do so. If you're attending via Zoom and you would like to address the City Council, now is the time to raise your hand. We will handle in-person speakers first, and then we will go to Zoom. Mayor?

Thank you, Britt. How many in-house speakers do we have?

I have four speaker slips.

OK, great. So we'll keep it at three minutes. And I'd like to ask Lon Allen, mayor of Monteserino, if he would speak. I know he's got an engagement.

My name is Lon Allen. As your mayor said, I'm mayor of Binding Street this year. I was mayor 10 years ago in 2016. Chuck and I have laughed that when you're elected mayor more than once, it's I guess people don't learn, and they elect you again. Wearing two hats. One is as a long-term resident of Monte Sereno, so if you will, as a consumer of the law enforcement services. Mary and I have lived in Monte Sereno for 47 years. So for the first 17 years, our law enforcement services were provided by the Sheriff's Office and we had a contract similar to yours based on a number of hours. About 30 years ago we looked at it and felt for our needs that that really wasn't the approach for our community. You heard Chief Field talk about sort of the community approach that's sort of not a quantitative approach, but a qualitative approach. And so we entered into a contract relationship with the town of Los Gatos. And we've had that relationship now for 30 years. Obviously, we're pleased with it because every five years we renew it. I might say that as mayor 10 years ago and as mayor today, I'm sort of the primary contact with the police department. I've only heard, as you guys know, if residents have issues, we hear about it. you know, my business card has my personal cell phone number on it, not the city hall number. Ten years ago when I was mayor, I never heard anything but praise from our residents about the level of service and sort of the look and feel of a community police seat when you have a It's different. A county organization with hundreds and hundreds of officers is different from a municipal one where you count the officers by the dozens and not by the hundreds. Your job is to do what is best for the residents of Saratoga. All I can say is, over the last 30 years, we've been very pleased with our relationship with the Los Gatos Police Department. And I would, based on our experience, think that your residents would, too. Anyway, thank you very much. I don't see any questions, by the way, if any of you have any.

Thank you, Mayor. I do have one question. Sure. We had a question earlier about surprises, and that's inherent in any contract that there could be things happen, and so there could be surprises in terms of a need for additional services, additional investigation. I know Montessor Mino has gone through a little bit of that. I don't, yeah, that's a very fair question.

I don't I've been involved in and out of Monte Sereno government for 15 or 16 years. And I don't really recall something where something was dropped on us that sort of messed up our budgets, because we all live paycheck to paycheck in municipal government. We're very fortunate in my 47 years of Monte Sereno, had one homicide in the community in 47 years. It was in the press. And their mayor may not have been an additional charge for that thing. But other than that one, I can't recall. Certainly when I was mayor 10 years ago and now, there are no surprises. We have the contract, but again, It's really a qualitative, not a quantitative relationship. Excellent. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you.

Okay, Britt. All yours.

All right. Next is Glenn Hendricks.

Mayor, Council, I'd like to start with an observation. It seems to me we have two different kind of paths of questions we're trying to talk about. what we're doing for fiscal year 26, 27, and then after that. And at least for me, it's been really confusing where we're talking about 26, 27, then we're talking about what we could do in the future and back and forth. If we could separate that, I think it'd be helpful for me and other people in the audience. So first. I think what we need to do is we have to sign with the sheriff for 26-27, and we have to do our budget in June. So I'm assuming what you're going to do is you're going to allocate for the maximum amount of what the budget, what the contract with them could possibly look like. Then we get to this idea of you could be possibly reducing the number of service hours for the 26-27 contract. And I'm really struggling with trying to understand how to define what the impact of that is. I hear people talk about service hours and FTEs, and I clearly understand what those things are, but I don't understand what it means to me. I know we have to have investigative service and all that. What I'm concerned about is when I call 911, and how does reducing those service hours when there are multiple priority 911 calls roughly at the same time? That's what I'd love for somebody to be able to explain to me of what's going on. I think we should thank Supervisor Abacuga's office for her being engaged and getting the five years cut back down to one. I think that was important. Then going forward, so I think what we need to do is we need to sign with the sheriff for 26-27. We have the extended time on the contract to figure out what we're going to do with service levels and stuff. And then all these other discussions that are going to go on with what could be with either, it's really interesting, you know, what's the services from this side of the room and the service from that side of the room. We've got, you know, three, six, nine months to go figure out all these detailed questions you're asking. And I think that you don't get answers for them because you haven't figured it all out yet. But that's really the two paths, what we do for 26, 27, and then we've got time to actually clarify and work out all the really, really nitty-gritty details of what a future contract would look like with a different agency or what we might want to see changed with the current agency we're going with. So thank you very much. That's my deal.

Thank you.

John Hirakawa, followed by Quinton.

Evening, Council. John Hirakawa, resident of Saratoga for 25 years. I just have a few suggestions as you move forward. And one of them would be, I think you need to get more information and more analysis in regards to how you consider moving forward, whatever direction you want to take. And I think one, and the council has addressed this already, a couple of you have asked about the startup cost. And so that would be, that's in attachment G. And it does indicate that you may be responsible for the startup cost. So what are those? And what are those possibilities? Now, if you're talking about one car, Okay, which I doubt. Okay, it's not going to be much, but if you're talking about six or ten cars, that's a significant amount. Also, the cost of radio dispatch switching over. And so one of the things I would ask for, for the past three years, I would ask for the number of calls for service from the city of Los Gatos compared to the number of calls for service for the city of Saratoga over the course of three years. And so how many calls are there? 20,000, 30,000 a year? So then you're expecting one agency to pick up an additional, maybe double, the amount of service costs. So I'd like to know what the startup cost would be for that. I'm also a little concerned about knowing what the baselines are for some of their costs. So in attachment D, instead of just saying included, I just kind of like to know if I'm, you know, I would just kind of like to know what's it going to cost you for different services if they're including that in the 9.5. So moving forward in the future, I kind of know if they're raising costs, what's that based on? Is that just salaries for the officers, personnel, which is usually the major portion, but what are the other costs that are associated? So the other thing I would also say is that You know, I'm not going to let the county off either. Full recovery cost. I mean, that's kind of vague for me. And it was interesting to hear the first time that the county exec is doing the contract versus the sheriff's office. So what's full recovery cost? Now, I'm not accusing the county exec's office of doing anything. But, gee, I think if I have five homicide detectives downtown and they require secretarial staff or support staff, whether I have Saratoga or not, I still have the same amount of cost. So what is that? What's the overhead cost? And I was surprised to hear, I didn't know that the cap at the sheriff's office was CPI plus 2%. I'm surprised to hear that the CPI has been going up for the past five years by 5%, and you have the cap of 2%. So that's 7%. So I would ask for a 10-year analysis on the city of Saratoga's contract, actual costs, because I know the city has gotten back money from the sheriff's office. But I ask for a 10-year cost analysis for Saratoga and the sheriff's office. So their cost has been going up 7% per year. And I would ask for the city of Los Gatos' budget for their police department and the last 10 years for the city of Monteserino COMPARED TO PERCENTAGES OF WHAT THOSE COSTS HAVE GONE UP BEFORE I START MAKING DECISIONS. THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

NEW SPEAKER QUINTON FOLLOWED BY PATRICK.

NEW SPEAKER HELLO, MY NAME IS QUINTON HEIM, MAYOR, VICE MAYOR, MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL AND STAFF. THANK YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO COMMENT. I'M NOT GOING TO duplicate things that have already been said. But I'm a resident of Saratoga for 18 years and I've had a very positive experience every time with our existing police force. I find them responsive, courteous, professional. I think the culture seems to be pretty good and over time I've seen several deputies who are actually, who grew up in Saratoga, which is always reassuring. Forgive me, because the chart of the 10-year chart with the divergent lines is a very useful and well-intentioned device, but my business experience has taught me to view those with scepticism, just as I would if the Federal Reserve published a 10-year projection on inflation right now. And I think it's taught me to go for real rigour in terms of qualitative analysis and quantitative inputs. Quantitative inputs, I think, have been covered pretty well by the previous two speakers. It does seem to me that there is considerable uncertainty over the startup and switching costs. And there's also actually, quite frankly, considerable variability in what could emerge in terms of the long-term budgetary implications over a 10-year period. So let me address instead the qualitative side of it, and just two points on quality. First one is, I'll echo what's said, you know, if I or a neighbour dials 911, how long is it going to be? How many minutes till the first officer shows up at the door? And secondly, I think about a real crisis. Let's hope there never is one. But in the event of a real crisis, how many officers or deputies, what's the maximum number that could be devoted to it in Saratoga? I don't know the answer. These are answerable questions, but it seems to me that it's probably prudent to get answers to them before we proceed. The other element is We've lived through before the joys of being in a beautiful city with woods on the hillsides and wildland urban interface. And we've got proven experience in what we've seen in 2020 with our current police provider. And many Saratoga residents will remember from that year that we were alerted to the fact that we might have to evacuate at very short notice at any moment. That is quite a moment when you have that. And I'd just like to point out that my family actually went through that for six days and nights. So thank you.

Thank you very much.

Patrick, followed by Anjali.

My name is Patrick Rupert, and thank you, council members, for giving me an opportunity to speak. I keep this short and sweet. I own a wine shop in Saratoga for 23 years, and so I have a unique view of what's going on in the avenue. And also, my customers have talked about this situation, and what they're concerned with mostly is that They've been comfortable with the Sheriff's Department. They have a working relationship with them, and they want to see that come through. If you decide to change over to Los Gatos, how that's going to affect them. They're very sensitive to things. They like the response time, and they feel safe, and they want to keep that going. So that's all I have to offer here. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Patrick.

Anjali, followed by Doug.

Good evening, Mayor Chuck. And council members, thank you for the opportunity to speak. I am Anjali Kausar. I'm a long-time resident of Saratoga, over 20 years. You know, after listening to the presentation today and my fellow speakers before me, I think there are a lot of points I would agree with them, and I would encourage you to, you know, renew the contract for 26-27 so it gives us all more time to understand the two different options that are presented. I don't think it can be made decide so fast. And by personal experience, the sheriff has been incredible. Their response time has been great. And every single time that my family has had to call to the sheriff, they have shown up within five minutes. My mother-in-law used to live with us. And, you know, you call 911. I know the ambulance comes, but the sheriff also comes. It's really a safe environment. I think to know that a service we have used for over 70 years, that we need to give it more than a month to decide to change. So it really, I think, with them giving us the opportunity to extend it to September, we'd encourage you to please do the 26-27, and then let's have further discussions. I do have a couple of questions that I'm hoping that you all would bring up. as you're looking at these two different proposals. One of them is about diversity. I believe that Saratoga is very different and diverse than Los Gatos or Monteserino is. And so we should look at what kind of diversity training is there for all the various contracts we're looking at, just to be sure we don't lose eye on that. And the other thing that I would like to highlight see if you can look into is the sheriff is an independent department whose only job is to protect us. On the other hand, Los Gatos is a town which has its own budgetary challenges. How is that going to impact if we're going to be going with their police department? Will that become our budgetary challenge also? Because from hearing from past and could-be hearsay, there have been budgetary issues in the town of Los Gatos which have been related because they have their own independent police department. So please pay attention to all this, and thank you for the opportunity to speak, and I know it's a big job to try and decide, but it can't be done in a month. I think you need to give yourselves a year and involve more community to help you come to the right decision. Thank you.

Thank you.

Doug, followed by Shannon.

Good evening. My name is Elizabeth Lacy. I'm the Vice President of the Deputy Sheriff's Association of Santa Clara County. Thank you guys for the opportunity to speak to you today.

And good evening. I am Doug Ulrich, president of the Deputy Sheriff's Association. I'm speaking on behalf of the Deputy Sheriff's Association of Santa Clara County, which represents approximately 385 members from the rank of deputy sheriff through lieutenant. For many years, our members have, from the association, have proudly represented and provided public safety to the city of Saratoga. We simply ask that, as these decisions move forward, the human impact not be overlooked. Behind every badge is a dedicated professional who has invested years, if not decades, of service in serving the City of Saratoga. I myself have worked in the City of Saratoga in patrol for 10 years out of my 12 years of patrol. We also understand the impact it may have OF THE INCREASE IN COST. HOWEVER, IT IS NECESSARY TO RECEIVE THE COMPENSATION TO MAINTAIN OUR LEVEL OF SERVICES AND STAFFING. SO THIS IS MORE ABOUT THIS IS ABOUT MORE THAN A CONTRACT TO US. IT IS ABOUT HONORING THE COMMITMENT OF THOSE WHO HAVE FAITHFULLY SERVED THIS CITY IN ENSURING THEY ARE GIVEN A FAIR CONSIDERATION IN THE TRANSITION. THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU.

Shannon followed by Larry.

Hi. Thank you so much for the detailed presentation and to both departments for showing up to answer questions. It's really appreciated. I will also try and keep my remarks brief. I'm a homeowner downtown and my family has been a homeowner for a long time. I think that there are a few points I wanted to make when we're assessing both options. And I actually, I really want to say I appreciate that both options are being assessed. I think it's important for due diligence and for the future proofing of Saratoga in our budgets. One, I think this is mentioned, but response times and really comparing what that means and sort of looking at the past retrospective, but also what that would look for the future. I think that we also need to be looking at the scheduled patrols versus response to calls. There has been conversation around what the man hours looks like in response to calls, but what does that look like for regularly scheduled patrols or traffic and safety and things like that? There was a point about continuity, and I think continuity is always really important, but I was curious from a historical perspective if a Monteserino, like a Los Gatos Monteserino club has been discussed before akin to the school districts. I imagine this is something that has been explored when there was a decision to move forward with the county, and I'm curious if what that decision looked like, what the circumstances at that time looked like versus now. A lot has changed in 70 years, not only in Saratoga, but in this corridor. And so it's frankly quite a different decision now than it was then. And I think looking back, often gives us insight to today and the future. I was really curious if we have had any meetings for feedback around current community safety concerns or what would be a rank order priority from the community in terms of safety. Recently we received a survey from the joint school district around increased need for costs and repairs and shared prioritization. I thought it was really useful. Folks are really busy. They don't have time to come here. But I think there was a really high response rate to that survey. And it really helped prioritize, in a world of ever-tight budgets, where would we focus our prioritization for repairs? I think that could be really helpful from a safety perspective as well. Are we worried about crime? Are we worried about traffic? Are we worried about schools? If we're worried about schools, removing a safety officer from the schools is not the thing to do. So I was curious if we had pursued any kind of community survey or meetings, even something less formal. COFFEE DATES AT THE DOWNTOWN WHATEVER COFFEE SHOP. I ALSO WANTED TO POINT OUT THAT I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT 10-YEAR VIEW BECAUSE I THINK IT'S REALLY HARD TO ASSESS CHANGE. BUT AT THE SAME TIME, THE 10-YEAR DELTA IS WHAT WE'RE REALLY LOOKING AT. A CONTRACT CHANGING, IF YOU'RE ENTERING INTO A 10-YEAR CONTRACT AND IT HAS ONE-YEAR CLIFFS, A ONE-YEAR DECISION IS VERY DIFFERENT THAN THE 10, 15-YEAR BUDGETARY DEFICITS. we may not have a lot of choices but to assess what this is going to look like, whether it's reduced service or whether that's shifting our relationships. So I think it's really important to look at it from a 10-year vantage point, not just now. Thank you guys for all your hard work. I know this is a lot.

Thank you, Shannon.

Larry, followed by Bob.

Folks, I'll make this really brief. I think this is the first time I've heard such glowing support for an existing organization. And without knowing the new organization, I'm just going to stay focused on that because I agree with all the comments that have been made up until now. I've been a resident of Saratoga and specifically Saratoga Woods for 28 years. I'm part of the safety watch group and part of the lead group that brought the APLR technology before the city adopted it. We work with the Sheriff's Department, Captain Urena first, then Captain Vilswell, then LT, who come to our meetings. So there is a personal bond that exists between the community and the Sheriff's Department. So I go on the side of, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. That being said, I'm a CEO. I also know what it means to maintain budgets and look at expenses. But I implore the Los Gatos team that if a transition is made, that they understand this is a relationship between the community and the police force. Thank you.

Thank you.

Bob, followed by Michael.

Hi, I'm Bob Lepresto, and I'm president of the HOA for Saratoga Oaks, which has about 108 owners, and we have four board members here tonight, so thank you guys for being here. And Michael Fleming is one of those. And he's our treasurer. And he's going to be following me. I am honored to have been a deputy sheriff many, many years ago in this outstanding organization that has given us one of the safest cities in the country and maybe the world for the last 70 years. I haven't heard that mentioned very much, but that's very important. I have nothing against Los Gatos. They're probably excellent. I'm impressed with them. But why are we making a change? Financial reasons. So we should look at what things are not absolutely essential that we might be able to reduce out of the budget and then get a new budget. I'm grateful that the county has extended this so that we have this coverage until we get all these details worked out, but we're not ready to make a decision. There's not an information that's been given yet. So my experience, we've had two incidents at Saratoga Oaks, one where a man who was a cab driver died because he went down a hill and either had a heart attack or his brakes failed, and he ended up in Arch Creek AND WAS DEAD, BUT THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT WAS THERE WITHIN THREE MINUTES FOR THAT, AND THEY HAD EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL, VERY ORGANIZED. RECENTLY WE HAD A WOMAN LOST CONTROL OF HER CAR, AND WITHIN THREE MINUTES, AGAIN, THERE WERE THREE CARS, THREE SQUAD CARS THERE TO MAKE SURE SHE WAS OKAY AND TO WRITE IT ALL UP AND MOVE ON. SO WE HAVE HAD OUTSTANDING SERVICE, AND COSTS ARE VERY IMPORTANT. OUR CITY COUNCIL HAS made this city one of the safest cities in the world because they care. We have a traffic safety commission that helps us with our streets. Our streets in Saratoga Oaks are the narrowest streets in the city. We have no curbs. We have no sidewalks. So we have young children walking dogs. The city has helped us lower the speed limits and set up radar. It's extremely a well-run organization, and I would really hate to see us make a change at this time. Thank you so much for listening, and this is a very important decision, and I thank the city for making this a safe city and carrying the Neighborhood Watch Safety Program, which I co-chair with Michael We've had no crime in Saratoga Oaks, and the crime is very low in Saratoga compared to other cities. So that's it for me. Thank you. Thank you, Bob.

Okay, and our last in-person speaker is Michael.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor. Council members, hi, Cookie. Council members on the screen. Much has already been said. I won't repeat it. If this was simply a vote on results, I think I, like everyone else who stepped up here, would be hard-pressed to state anything other than the results are evident. I have been a homeowner in Saratoga for more than 44 years of the 70 years that The Santa Clara Sheriff's Department has been policing our area, so I've seen the results, and I've met many of the officers and find them to be a very professional group. But this is fundamentally not a beauty contest. This is about budgets, and the money is important. The county of Santa Clara has a $13.7 billion operating budget. The Sheriff's Department is divided into three different groups. The policing, which we're talking about tonight, they have a $250 million budget. The other two groups that they also operate, the parole area and the prisons areas, have similar budgets. There are about $750 million. So they're kind of a rounding error within Santa Clara. The actual budget of the Santa Clara Sheriff's Department is less than 2% of the total budget of the totality of the Santa Clara County budget. So what I have heard is what many others have heard tonight. There are a lot of moving parts. Those parts haven't all come together. There have been a lot of questions asked. There's not enough answers that have yet been given. There is clearly some very detailed, granular data available from all of the parties involved here, and I think it's really up to the city council and, more importantly, the staff to ask those tough questions and demand that granular detail so that we can make, you can make, legitimate comparisons, apples to apples. Right now, it's... apples to reindeers. It's a little hard to figure out what the hell's going on. So thank you for your time, and thank you for all the wonderful members of this community for showing up and adding their two cents to this discussion.

Thank you, Michael.

You're welcome.

Okay, we're going to move to our... Is there anybody else in the theater that would like to come up and speak? Because after we go to the... to the remotes. Excuse me? Rozzy, did you want to? Come on, now's your time. If you're here, this is the time to come up because after we go to remote, we're going to close the public hearing. Unless somebody comes running in in a panic because they need to see a cop.

Thank you. Pleasure meeting all of you here, council members. Thank you so much. A couple of things that I wanted to mention here. First, I've had the privilege of actually working with both the sheriff's department as well as the Los Gatos Monteserino, given that as part of the West Valley Muslim Association community, we have had facilities in both locations. And I have nothing but outstanding experiences with both of those organizations. So I just wanted to commend both of them in that. I think what you're grappling with is actually a typical time and materials contract versus kind of a fixed price contract in traditional business terms in that sense, or a la carte versus an all-you-can-eat buffet type of thing. I think in both of those cases, my suggestion is actually to look at what the outcomes are and compare that to what the outcomes would be as an example. And outcomes could be, for example, in response times, outcomes would be how many cases have been handled, what is the kind of other things. There was another mention, there was another comment that was made about diversity as an example. And I can tell you that from the West Valley Muslim Association's experience, That has actually been very positive in terms of both of the departments here, the sheriffs as well as the Los Gatos. So I just want to commend both of them for that. So I just wanted to provide that feedback, given that I'm probably in a unique position having seen both of those organizations work. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, Britt, let's bring him on.

Okay, Austin. Austin. Austin, it's your turn.

All right. So let's call the Los Gatos proposal what it is. A cash grab by the town of Los Gatos and a power grab by Chief Field. An attempt to have Saratogans subsidize a new Los Gatos Monteserino Police Department headquarters and expansion of surveillance dragnet. Contracting with the town of Los Gatos for police services would be a disaster for Saratoga and a boon for Los Gatos. Where Saratogans have no vote. If I were on the council, I would seriously reconsider whether Los for lack of credibility and good faith. Chief Field wants to sell you your access to your own flock cameras, but to date, the chief has failed to disclose training materials that the town has required by law to develop and sworn officers to follow, and continues to mislead you and the public about CLET certification and DOJ audits, which have nothing to do with flock ALPRs. At the same time, the town withheld public records of state and federal law. This disregard for transparency and law is not representative of a partner in which you should entrust public safety. I do hope you work something out with the county because Los Gatos should be a non-starter. I do also want to address the issue of response times. Beach traffic in Los Gatos is epic and I can't imagine what that could do to response times if you're relying on Los Gatos Montessori Police Department to respond to Saratoga on a Saturday or Sunday during the summer. I do also want to address the issue of diversity, as one of the earlier speakers mentioned. And it was nice to see someone come up and represent the WVMA, which is currently facing some issues in the town of Los Gatos right now. The Los Gatos Monteserino Police Department refused to provide traffic control training to the West Valley Muslim Association. And this is not a partner that you should consider dealing business with. Thank you.

Thank you.

Chris.

Hello. My name is Chris Vasquez. I live in Saratoga, where it's over 30 years. And I think the biggest issue that's facing us right now is the use of ALPR cameras. As Larry said, we were one of the first areas to put in flock cameras. And they reduce crime. The last meeting I attended that was a task force on this, that Chuck, you put together, I heard sheriff deputies say that block cameras prevented crime and they solved crime.

We worked with them on that when we would provide footage to them. So I think a big plus for Los Gatos is that they're continuing to use those cameras.

And I think that the county and the sheriff should press the county to allow them to use either our existing cameras or suggest other cameras.

Because Larry didn't say, but we had a stolen vehicle right after the cameras were turned off.

So pretty soon the crooks are going to figure it out. And I think this is a good opportunity.

You can't turn the switch now, but you can get all of the data that's necessary that people have been alluding to to compare the statistics and to see if crime is going up.

Because we're going to be paying more money for the sheriff, but they have their hands tied behind their back. They can't use the technology that is really just sitting outside our homes right now.

I implore you to put that as a priority when you're taking a look at both departments. And I'd also like to say, in a perfect world, the sheriff could continue to use the cameras like they said that they like to do to prevent the crime.

And I bet you that they're sorry that they can't do that any longer because of the county. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

THANK YOU, CHRIS.

JOSH.

HELLO. HOPEFULLY YOU GUYS CAN HEAR ME. THANK YOU, MAYOR. THANK YOU, VICE MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. MY NAME IS JOSH WILLIAMS. YOU GUYS KNOW ME. I actually want to make a comment from the last thing that I just heard where I just want to separate. You guys know where I stand on flock cameras. This is not a flock camera issue at all. This is a law enforcement issue. The sheriff in our city knows this very well. They know our residents. They know our streets. They have served us for many years. They have personal relationships with us. That is not something that you can replace by going to a new law enforcement agency. And the other comment, I know that beach traffic very specifically. My son actually goes to Los Gales High School. We deal with that all the time. The response time is something that I know every neighborhood association, every resident in the city actually cares about. It's critical to our safety. I live off Pierce Road up in the hills. I can't even imagine if something happened up here, how long it would I know the sheriff report department will be here in less than five minutes. So it's not even, it's not even a choice. It's not an option. If we care about public safety, like I've heard in every other meeting I've attended, including ones about surveillance and other things in our city, and we actually stand behind trying to make our city safer. this wouldn't even be up for consideration. I know it's budgetary. I know you guys worked super hard to try to figure that out, but I don't think we have an option but to figure out how to solve the budgetary and stay with the law enforcement agency that knows us personally, knows our city, and we know from track record can keep us safe. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Josh.

Karen.

Karen? I would just like to point out that I did attend that previous study session and I was talking with some folks. Oh, hold on. Can you guys hear me?

Yes.

Can you guys hear me? Okay, great. Sorry. So I went to that previous study session and I was talking with some other folks in the lobby afterwards. And I just remember we brought up the whole problem with the budget, with keeping the sheriffs. And I just remember people being just really aghast and just, you know, I don't think I've really seen a better relationship with a police department. anywhere else I've ever lived than what I've seen with the folks here in Saratoga. Like there really is like a very deep connection. And I really have a level of trust that I don't think I've seen anywhere else. And so I think it would be really important for the city of Saratoga to consider that because You can't replace that with AI. And you can't replace that with cameras and tech. The human touch is just something you can't really replace. And response times are really, really important. When people are having a heart attack, they start having permanent damage in six minutes. And then they're basically not savable after 10 minutes. So if you're getting amazing response times less than five minutes, three minutes, that's saving someone. Okay. Um, if you have longer wait times, like all these folks that are bringing up the, you know, the beach traffic and all that, oh my God, I, I've been through there. It's horrible. And there's really narrow streets and all this stuff. And you're spread out. Like that's the difference between, you know, three minutes to 10 minutes, that person with a heart attack is going to die. Okay. So, um, I just think this is really, really important to consider, and I don't mean to sound catastrophic, but I'm just saying if we want to consider what is important to the people of Saratoga, it sounds like response times is a huge factor. The personal relationship is a huge factor, and I just think that that should be the overriding motivation here. So thanks again.

Thank you.

Patricia. Patricia, it's your turn.

Yes. I've been a resident of Saratoga for, well, since high school, so 50 some odd years. And any time that we've had to call for the sheriff, I have to agree with everybody else. responsive, like minutes. We're fortunately just off of Prospect, so it makes it even, you know, we're at the far end, I guess, if you think of from Los Gatos. It would certainly be an increase for our side of the city. But knowing that it's a budgetary thing, as most everything is, I would just be curious if Salaries would be talked about for the City of Saratoga staff. All salary tables are public. And I, uh, would encourage everyone to look at the salary tables. They seem to be, um, if not the highest, a lot higher than Los Gatos. And I know it's all union related and I have no idea how that works, but, um, I, I just, I'm always amazed at the salaries that, uh, that we have for the city, and that's certainly salaries are always the top end of any budget. So I would hope that that might be addressed just as an option for where to look for some money is hold salaries steady. Don't have such big swings. And I don't know, renegotiate some contracts or something. But anyway, that's all I have.

Thank you, Pat.

Glenda. Can you hear me? Sure can. Go ahead.

Hi. As most of you know, I've lived in Saratoga for a little over 40 years. And I definitely think you have a hard decision in front of you. I lean towards staying with the Sheriff's Department for all the reasons we've heard tonight, or most of them. And I think we need to take another look at the budget. And I'm sure you will not agree with what I'm going to say, but we need to look at some small things and maybe they can add up to big things. Do we need an orchard? Do we need to maintain an orchard? Doesn't mean anything to me. I've been here 40 years. Doesn't mean anything to me. Do we need to maintain all the trails? There's a lot of things in that budget that might add up to some dollars if we took a look at it. And and and really thought outside the box on what's where the real priorities are for the city.

That's my thought Thanks Thank You Glenda Mayor there are no other hands raised Thank you, so we'll close the public comment period and I'm gonna defer to my fellow council members is it time for about a 10-minute break before we get to questions I or comments, or wherever we are at this point. So we're going to take about a 10-minute break. So 25 after, we'll get back started again. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to reconvene our meeting. And as you know, we're talking about our future of law enforcement here in Saratoga. I know there have been a lot of questions about startup costs and things specific to the Los Gatos contract that we don't have in front of us. But the city manager... Sorry. The town manager of Los Gatos is here. And I would... APPRECIATE IT IF THE COUNCIL WOULD INDULGE ME AND LET HIM COME UP AND EXPLAIN A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE CONTRACT, PERHAPS ANSWER SOME OF THE QUESTIONS THAT HAVE COME UP. AND IF THERE'S A QUESTION OR TWO, I THINK THAT'S OKAY. SO THANKS, CHRIS.

THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR. AND THANK YOU FOR HAVING US HERE TODAY. I FIRST WANT TO START OFF AS I'M SPEAKING ABOUT THIS CONTRACT. I'm speaking as the town manager of Los Gatos, but I'm also speaking as an individual that represented Saratoga for 13 years as an elected official on the West Valley Mission Community College District Board, a certified EMT for four years, and a current active reserve police officer with another city on the East Bay. I ALSO SERVED ON THE CITY COMMITTEE NEGOTIATING THE FIVE-YEAR CONTRACT FOR THE CONTRACT CITIES, 42 OF THEM IN L.A. COUNTY WITH L.A. COUNTY SHERIFFS, SIMILAR TO WHAT YOU WERE DOING WITH SANTA CLARA COUNTY, SO I'M VERY FAMILIAR. WE DO HAVE A CONTRACT THAT'S VERY EXPLICIT AND IT'S EXPLICIT MORE THAN ANY OTHER CONTRACT THAT'S OUT THERE AND THAT WAS INTENTIONAL. You don't typically bring a contract into a public venue so both councils see, here's the first draft, and then you start negotiating council to council. That all has to first happen between the administrations where we have the ability to go back and forth until we get close enough to where we think both jurisdictions are satisfied with the provisions, and then you bring the contract before you. So I don't want to lead you to believe that there's so many pieces that are not there. So I want to address some of them very specifically since they came up. Startup costs. We don't know the exact number of the startup costs, but we don't believe it would exceed $100,000 a year. The contract of 9.5 million is 9.5 million plus potentially up to $100,000 of 9.6. We also have to recognize THAT THE CONTRACT COST THAT YOU'RE LOOKING AT FROM THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE IS A CONTRACT COST FOR 26, 27. WHAT WE'RE QUOTING YOU TODAY IS FOR 27, 28. SO YOU HAVE TO ADD WHATEVER THE INCREASE FROM WHAT YOU'RE CURRENTLY GOING TO PAY GOING INTO NEXT YEAR, WHATEVER THAT INCREASE IS COMPARED TO THE 9.5 OR 9.6 MILLION DOLLARS. IN THE CONTRACT, PART OF THE DISCUSSION FROM SARAOTOGA STAFF WAS THE COUNCIL WANTED CERTAINTY. We didn't want balloon payments 25, 35%. We didn't want an end of contract balloon payment. And so we've specifically written that agreement with some provisions that provide more certainty to Saratoga. THE COUNTY, AND AGAIN, THIS IS NOT A COMPETITION. WE WERE ASKED TO COME FORTH AND PROVIDE A PROPOSAL AND THAT'S WHAT WE'RE DOING AND YOU CAN SELECT IT OR NOT. I THINK YOU'RE GOOD WITH BOTH AGENCIES THAT ARE EXCELLENT AND THIS COMMUNITY WILL BE SAFE. BUT THE CONTRACT WE PROVIDE IS JUST DIFFERENT. We truly believe in the community-oriented policing model. We believe we should be integrated in the community and that it shouldn't be based on hours. If I have to commit five officers on a call, it typically takes two. We're going to commit it because the bottom line goal for us is response times, which are excellent for Los Gatos, as well as the quality of service. And if we do enter into a partnership, just like we did with Monte Serino, this isn't officers are coming from town hall or the police department in Los Gatos all the way to Saratoga to service Saratoga as if Saratoga is an appendage to the partnership. You are a meaningful part of the partnership. So that's why we've had the conversations that we want a physical presence here. We are assigning officers here. We are engaging here in the way that we need to. And the county is not going away, nor is Los Gatos if you stay with the county. We mutually assist each other on a number of calls, the county coming to our assistance and us going back to them. And while I know the officers and the deputies are sitting on other sides of the room, they're friends and they're one in the same, they just wear a different uniform. The question before you is really the structure, the cost, the certainty that you go forth. Under the Gonsalves Act, the county has to pass on the full cost of what they bear to you. The Gonsalves Act does not apply to the cities. We currently subsidize the activity of Monasterino and the price of 9.5 to Saratoga is still subsidized by the town of Los Gatos. Our intent is not to pass on the full cost because we don't intend to cut our agency. The fact that we would join in a partnership takes a very expensive resource because that's what law enforcement is and spreads the fixed cost along more agencies. And since we have capacity in ours, the capacity we have and the growth in the number of officers we would add can provide the same, if not better, level of service we currently provide in Los Gatos and Monte Sereno to Saratoga. And the intent is to make Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, and Saratoga one community as it pertains to responding with police.

Thanks. Are there any questions of the town manager before he sits down? Yeah? Yeah?

This question might be for Richard. Should I ask now or should I?

Well, when we get to our comments, we really should do comments. So this is a time to ask a few questions. All right.

I have questions. So in term of indemnity, I know currently we, you know, the sheriff's department, we have never incurred any defense costs or other liabilities. in terms of the sheriff's service. I'm kind of curious, do you have any comments on any history of any lawsuit related to police department? And how is that the cost? I guess relate to the budget or to the how is that going to be paid and any things like that?

Let me speak to that. When you compare the two contracts, ours and what was proposed by the county, ours is over 40 pages in a very explicit detail. Now the downside of that explicit detail is you can look at the contract like the indemnity provision and then look at the very vanilla indemnity provision of the county, which is pretty normal and customary for county contracts, and say, wow, are we incurring liability as Saratoga? The answer is no. The responsibility, you know, any failure on the part of our staff is the Town of Los Gatos responsibility. Any failure on the part of staff in Saratoga is Saratoga's responsibility. It's just written differently. The staff report isn't an accurate reflection of what the provisions are. We do provide some examples where liability would fall to Saratoga. So if you passed a faulty ordinance and the lawsuit was based on that ordinance, we didn't create the ordinance, you did. And what we would ask is for you to defend the ordinance, not us, when our officers may enforce said ordinance. Now if you take all those examples out, then the language is pretty much the same. So the indemnity provisions are equal. So in terms of liability, We all incur liabilities. In L.A. County, those 42 cities had multimillion dollars of liabilities, and I was on the board reviewing every single one of them. The sheriff has them, the town has them, and we cover our own when we make our mistakes.

Okay, thank you. Okay, anybody else? Tina? Tina?

Firstly, I want to thank you and Chief Field for the opportunity you gave our council a few months ago to come and visit your whole operations and spent quite some time to walk us through everything, see everything, which again, the Sheriff's Department also, we have done that. But I do want to thank Los Gatos for a very open approach in terms of what could we get to have the opportunity to ask questions. I'll ask just one simple question, which I'm kind of hearing from the residents again. So how many deputies would this translate to, roughly? I know we are working on the details that you're going to provide us, but what are we looking at to maintain the same response time?

I don't understand, in terms of deputies, or are you talking about police officers? You mean police officers? Yeah, police officers. There is a number of sworn and non-sworn we would have to add to ensure that we can meet the response time and quality that we have. I don't want to quote a number, partly because there's labor relations responsibilities, and so I have to engage our bargaining units. And so part of the conversation that I heard from residents were, take a year to mull this over and walk through it. We can't take a year. And so if the request is for Los Gatos to walk into a contract, I have to hire ahead officers non-sworn to prepare to start day one to service Saratoga with the extra staffing to be able to maintain the response times. And so that startup cost is just that incremental difference that if I'm hiring five, six, 10, 12 officers, three, four, five months in advance, that cost is a part of it, as well as our CAD system upgrade to include the mapping for Saratoga, the marketing to talk to both our community and yours about the change, and over the course of the next year or two, having our officers and our community make a very concerted effort to start building relationships within Saratoga to build those relationships that the Sheriff has been able to do very successfully for 70 years. And I think, quite frankly, your biggest challenge centers around both the dollars and the fact that change is hard. And after 70 years of building relationships with an excellent law enforcement agency, This is a change, and it's not that common in the state of California, although that's where we're going in terms of regionalization of local law enforcement, public safety, and other services.

Okay, thank you. I understand the way you explained this, and apologies. So used to calling the officers deputies that for a second I just still continue to use that. So really for us to explain to the residents, it's the response time that we need to focus on. which we understand you are planning to maintain.

Yes, our priority calls that are targets five minutes, and we come in about four minutes, 20 seconds to four minutes, 30, I think is in your staff report, is accurate for priority calls. Our intention is to maintain that level of performance that we have in Los Gatos and Monte Sereno in Saratoga and to operate in Saratoga just like we are in the other two jurisdictions.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Chris, I have one question. If Saratoga said... Yeah, let's do this. Let's go with Los Gatos and Monteserino Police Department. Let's figure out how this works. Can you describe the process for contract finalization from your perspective and where approvals would need to be granted before we could do that?

So currently we've provided a draft contract to staff, and we're waiting for red lines to come back, and I think they're waiting to have the public meetings to understand more about what the nuances are of what you're looking for. In terms of the question to extra costs that could occur, what we're really talking about is if you ask and say, we want a police station in Saratoga as part of this contract now, well, we're probably going to have to have the conversation that we're not going to pay for a brand-new police department with a $9.5 million contract. But I don't expect that there's anything that you would be asking based on what we have in the contract and how many protections we have for Saratoga, as well as for Los Gatos, so that we don't incur big costs because of the contract that would impact that cost.

And then I know that you guys have engaged a consultant to better analyze the resources required. Maybe you could talk about that and talk about contract finalization with your council, et cetera.

Yeah, the analysis that we're doing internally is two parts. One's to ascertain and make sure that the projections that we have of staffing changes and internal changes are sufficient to maintain the response time and quality that we have in Saratoga. The second part of it is strictly from a labor relations perspective and how we engage our bargaining units in terms of the process, the meet and confer process for this change because this is a change in working conditions for our officers. The preliminary information is that what we're planning and the dollar amounts that go with that plan are sufficient to do that. Okay.

And then the contract approval process going through council?

So once we receive the red lines, depending on the extent of those red lines, it is a priority for us to work together to get to what does that final agreement look like that's ready to go to the councils. And then we would bring it to both councils for their approvals. And depending on the changes, it could be as soon as a few weeks.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks a lot. I'd also like to address, there were some questions about the timing, and Chris mentioned it. We did get a three-month extension on our existing contract from the sheriff or from the county, but it takes at least a year to transition to a new police force, and that's why we have the termination clause with the county. So if we, say we go through September 30th with our existing contract, and we were to... give the county notice. We'd give them a year notice, and that would give a year for Los Gatos Monteserino to staff up. And there is, as Chris mentioned, a lot of staffing, a lot of resources. There's equipment. There's capital stuff. There's a lot of things that we need to go 9-1-1. How does that all transition? A whole lot of things, and that takes at least a year. I've heard proposals of longer than that, but I know that professionals can work together really well, And we're lucky that we have two extremely professional organizations that have worked well together. We're still waiting for some information, but that's not, I think, on the sheriff. It's more on the county. But that's the way it goes. Sometimes the data is not that easy to pull. But it is something that takes some time, so we have to make a decision to be able to give notice if that's the route we're going to go. So that's why the time frame. THE OTHER THING THAT PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW, AND I THINK IT WAS POINTED OUT IN THE STAFF REPORT, WE GOT OUR FIRST PROPOSAL FOR THIS NEW CONTRACT WHICH BEGINS JULY 1ST. THE FIRST NUMBERS WE GOT WERE ON DECEMBER 31ST. THAT GIVES US SIX MONTHS TO ASK ALL KINDS OF QUESTIONS AND FIGURE OUT HOW THEY CAME UP WITH THEIR COST RECOVERY MODEL. all kinds of questions that if we had gotten numbers a year ago when Mayor Aftab was here, sitting at this dais in this seat, we had asked for those, and unfortunately the county couldn't give them to us until December 31st. So unfortunately we're very pressed for time, we're very pressed for the kind of things that we're going through right now. So it's been a strenuous and somewhat difficult time, but I'm really happy that we've got PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ON BOTH SIDES AND A TOWN COUNCIL AND A TOWN STAFF IN LOS GATOS THAT HAS BEEN ABLE TO PULL TOGETHER SOME REALLY GOOD INFORMATION FOR US AND SOME GREAT PEOPLE THAT WE'VE HAD A CHANCE TO WORK WITH. SO I'LL STEP BACK, HOPEFULLY I ANSWERED A LITTLE BIT OF THE QUESTIONS THAT WERE THERE, AND WE COME BACK TO COUNCIL COMMENTS. COOKIE, DO YOU HAVE?

THANKS. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE ATTENDING TONIGHT, NOT JUST THANKING YOU FOR TONIGHT. but also for the many months we've been discussing this central topic that speaks to the very core of our quality of life here in Saratoga. First, our discussion is only as good as the data provided, and at this point we do not have a completed draft proposal from Las Gadas. I am sympathetic to the reasons why this is so. However, this puts us in a position of not having all the information. For our short-term actions, I have two comments. Number one, Las Gadas needs to provide a draft contract that includes the multiple foreseeable costs not included in the base rate, including the startup cost, external mandate costs, wind-down costs. Las Gadas does not currently have infrastructure in place to serve Saratoga with law enforcement services. We need to obtain significantly greater clarity on this topic as well. Number two, for the immediate future, I support renewing services with the sheriff for FY 2026-27. Saratoga's exposure to liability, it appears that Los Gatos' indemnity provision is narrower than Santa Clara's, which increases Saratoga's exposure to liability. This is a very real and important concern that I have and will be taken into consideration in balance with the entirety of both proposals. We may need a little more clarity on the indemnity topic. Institutional knowledge, Santa Clara has an established track record in providing services in Saratoga for decades. If there is a change, this can possibly suggest risk in switching to a new provider and new systems. However, this doesn't mean that we should not look at all the alternatives. I believe it is our duty as stewards of this community to take everything into consideration and always do what is best for the community. First, we need to get all the data. as I previously mentioned. Thanks.

Thank you. Tina, Yan, Bilal?

Sure, I can go. I think it's important to be clear about what this is versus what this isn't, right? This is not us showing up saying we have a real quality, a service quality problem with the sheriff's office. That is absolutely not what we're saying here, right? We have a fiscal challenge, right? As has been described, there was the last 10-year contract. There was a 10-year contract and a two-year contract that we had with the county did not properly capture the expenses that they were incurring. And with the sort of renewal of this contract, we saw the price increase by 33%. Now we've been able to negotiate down to 29%. But that's sort of the reason we're in this situation that you've been having this conversation. And we are lucky enough, I think, to have two excellent options here. is because our sheriff's costs are scheduled to go up dramatically for next fiscal year and not just next fiscal year, but the following year. What does that mean? I think residents have brought up a lot of reasonable questions saying we should take more time. There's a lot of uncertainty here. I think we've been talking about this for many, many months now and talking about it within the context of our overall financial and budgetary situation, which is to say, if we were to fully absorb this contract and its future and future increases as well, we are basically we talk about risks. Right. And we as stewards of this community have to make tradeoffs around what those risks are. Where are we spending money? Where are we not? And I think it's really important to think about if we commit to and staying with the sheriff's contract. The reason why we're having this conversation is we as a city, we put money in our reserves, which is basically our piggy bank, our savings for a rainy day. We will go through our reserves within about three to four years. We will not be able to invest in our roads to the level that we need to to maintain them. We will likely have to cut staff. All of these things will result in, will also carry significant risks. Lower quality roads, way more potholes, way more, basically reducing significantly across the board. We as a council, with our excellent staff, have gone through every line item that we can, asked every department to go back and find at least 10% in terms of reductions. And in so doing, we're not able to make up the delta that we're talking about here. Our residents have brought up great points to say, hey, we need to go through and take a really close look at the budget i want to assure you that we've done a lot of work there you can always do more absolutely but there are many months of recorded meetings both for our finance committee and for the council meetings including the last one where we talk about sort of the level of detail that we've gone into to try and find cost savings in lieu of a major increase with the sheriff's contract so the situation we're in is not because of a quality of service problem i think anyone on the council is seeing or questioning that quality it's a it's a really it's a dire fiscal situation and i think it's important that we're transparent with the residents about that and i also understand if you haven't been following along not everyone's going to show up to a council meeting you all have are busy with their day-to-day lives you can't always there's so many things going on in the world you can only keep up with something I also just want to touch on something that the Deputy Sheriff's Association said, which was about the human element of this. I hate the term contract city. To me or Bender, this is a partnership. These are deputies that will walk into dangerous situations inside our homes and take care of us and do what's best for us. They are oftentimes showing up on a person's worst day. And that is a significant responsibility that they do on our behalf. And a big reason why people move to Saratoga is because of the safety, because of the low crime rate, because of the quality of schools. It's one of the things that we're known for, and so something we have to take very seriously. To get to the specific questions in front of us, I want to address the first question, which is, do we decide to reduce levels of service for the next fiscal year or not? That is the first question that has come up and that we're asked to discuss in the staff report. With regards to that, my take is I don't think we should reduce service levels, and there's a couple of reasons there. Those few reasons are as follows. We're always sensitive, and I'm really sensitive around sharing the number of deputies that we have patrolling our streets right now. That's just valuable information that you don't want necessarily out there for all the reasons I hope you can imagine or think through. But we already can run pretty slim at times. And so to reduce that further to me doesn't feel like the right decision, especially in lieu of the fact that usually we can complement our police officers with technology, like an ALPR. We are not using our ALPRs right now because of a policy at the county level that is not allowing law enforcement to use them. And to me, that introduces a higher level of vulnerability. which means if we, to reduce services on top of not having the technology accessible to us, to me would be significantly increasing the risks that we're talking about. Folks ask the question, what does it actually mean? Reducing service levels ultimately means longer response times. That's what it means, right? It means having less deputies out there and they can only respond to so many things at a certain point in time. That is what we expect it to mean. It could mean that maybe there's a lesser number of calls this year and response times don't change. Or there could also be an increase in liquidity service levels. So there's a lot of things that we just don't know here. But in general, on that very first question, I think we should continue the current level of service. And then we also have the option to increase that or decrease that based on how things go. um to the second set of questions around do we continue the partnership that we have um with the sheriff's office at the county level um or do we work with um los gatos um and contract with them i do want to thank the sheriff's office the county exec's office the board of supervisors los gatos uh town staff and also los gatos town council for entertaining this option that we we to be really transparent in both ways, right? Cities across the country are facing pretty dire financial situations right now. You have a lot of federal cuts that are trickling through hitting the state and local level. A big reason why the county is increasing their costs the way that they are is because they themselves are seeing significant cuts, whether at the state and at the federal level, and are passing some of that through to cities like Saratoga, Cupertino, Los Altos Soles, and many others. And so the reality of it is we have to look at our options here. I also, you know, taking a look, you can go re-look at all Los Gatos Town Council meetings, and you can get a sense of their budgetary challenges as well. This would actually help them in the sense of we would basically help absorb some of their fixed overhead on the law enforcement side, and we would get a lower, cheaper option by a couple million dollars, which helps us continue to invest in roads while also thinking about what are the levels of service we maintain. We are limited services government within Saratoga. We don't do all the things the county government does or the county of San Francisco or other cities do or the city of Sunnyvale. We already do a significant, have a pretty narrow scope there. So just to run through my thinking on some of these things. We are talking about two different models. And as you've talked about for many months, there are pluses and minuses to both of them. On the one hand, the hours option with the county right now gives us a lot of flexibility, because you have the ability to ramp up and ramp down. But there's also just a fundamental lack of clarity in terms of, hey, are those hours being filled during the day are being filled up for in the morning. Whenever we've asked for more information, we haven't really gotten it to Mayor Page's point. When I was mayor last year, this was one of my top priorities, went to folks in the administration in the sheriff's office, asked them very directly to share as much data as possible. I know our residents have said we should get the data and compare it. It seems like a pretty obvious thing to do. We've been asking for this data for over a year, and I recognize there are a lot of reasons on the one hand i recognize but also just don't get why the state has been so hard to share right like some of it's just pretty fundamental to operations um but it's but and that by the way has also resulted in a delay in los gatos been able to give us a more quantitatively confirmed and certain number because we it's hard when you can't get comparable data how can they also want to take on the risk of maybe they're signing up for way more than they thought they would I'm being really transparent here because I want our residents to understand that some of the work that's been happening behind the scenes on this for quite some time. I think that in terms of timelines, we've been working on this for quite some time, there are questions around comparable staffing levels, like I tried to get to. I think that there's, given we're talking about two very different models here, right? It's hard to really compare apples to apples, but I think the extent to which, you know, my understanding of the data that I've observed, right, is there's sort of, where we are at the share today, there are sort of best-in-class standards when it comes to being a city and what level of staffing we should have. We're not there to be really transparent. We're beneath that. And I think, you know, with the Los Gatos, do we have the opportunity to meet that standard that a city of our size should be at i think it's important for us to endeavor to that the nine and a half million um is obviously not a small amount but it's less than 11.6 i think this is one of these um it's not obviously not that simple at all because the nature of things that are hard decisions like this is like you want to get as much certainty as possible the reason we're in this position to begin with is because We went from being in a very certain predictable contract to one that our fees got jacked up by a third. And so we're trying to find the balance of all these things. We care a lot about safety, fiscal responsibility, long-term certainty. I'll touch really quickly on terms. This has been a question that has come up. Total length is a really important one. You know, our contract with the sheriff for a long time is 10 years. And then a few years ago, we agreed to enter into a five-year. They came back and asked us to come back with a two-year. And so now they're asking for a five-year agreement. This is with the sheriff, but with a one-year termination option. which we really appreciate them being flexible on. Los Gatos, in order for them to work with us, is saying, hey, we want a tenure contract because we're going to have to take on some pretty significantly new staffing and invest significantly in the partnership to serve Saratoga the way in which we would serve our own existing city. And so that's part of why they're asking for a longer term contract there. What I would like us to see is like, no, there's all these things. In any new partnership, you want things to go a certain way. We all hope it goes well, but there's always a chance it doesn't, and that's what contracts are for. To put that down, how things should operate, when things go well and when they don't. And so if there's some language we can figure out that gives us the ability to really give it a strong try from both parties over the next three years, in the course of a tenure of contract, and then say, hey, how are things going? I think that would be quite valuable. Transparency reporting I think would be really helpful. That's a piece where I think the county has been quite slow and disappointing to be really transparent because they just haven't shared data. We've been told that the reason for increased fixed overhead costs is because of things like software. If you're getting new software, how is the data still impossible to find? At the same time, I want to be really clear. I know it can seem like I'm, I don't want to, I feel like what I'm saying might sound really harsh towards our own, towards the sheriff's office, who's been our incredible partner for 70 years. Like, you know, there's not like a love that you know the people you've been working with, so you know it's not working. To be really clear, we don't know what's not going to work with Los Gatos. Right? And so I can sit here and tell you the things that are going well with the sheriff today and the things where I think you need improvement. I can't even make me tell you that. And so the reason I share that is I hope it doesn't seem like I'm sitting here saying I... the sheriff's office isn't doing a great job in some capacity. I just recognize that no organization's perfect. And what I will say is on transparency and reporting, it's quite lacking. We don't have the ability to control our own LPRs. We would love to pass them to you within reason. I think there are, the critical thing is for us to be reasonable partners. There are really important things that we need to cover, like, you know, response times, making sure there's appropriate staffing levels, and then there's more open areas that I think are actually really incredible opportunities for long-term collaboration, like disaster preparedness and emergency operations. Most presidents don't even know where the borders for Cerro Toca, Las Gadas and San Jose and Buenos Rinos begin and end. And so in the event of any wildfire or an earthquake, we all have to work together. And this is a great opportunity for us to do that. I don't think we're going to solve that in this contract on this term, but that is something for us to explore down the line. Last but not least, I think just the marketing piece of this in terms of how do we communicate to our residents that this is happening? And that's why I think at least a one year transition period is really important, both for Los Gatos and for our community for them to ramp up so that when we make this transition, we do it really well. And I'm just so grateful to both agencies because it's been such a productive conversation, despite the fact that it's also a really hard one. And so in general, I would say in favor of us, Given our current fiscal situation, we're moving to work with Los Gatos MSPD here. I wish that wasn't the case, but I also think we're, I wish we had more time. I wish we could take two years to study every possible option. But we've been working hard on this for a long time, and this is kind of the position that we've come to. And if any residents want to meet and discuss this in more detail, I'm happy to reach out. I know it's taken up a lot of time. Thank you.

Thank you, Bilal.

All right, I'll go next. We have 70 years of relationship with the county sheriff's department, and over the past 70 years, and they served Saratoga well. And you heard from a lot of residents' testimony, and I have worked with Captain Urena, Captain Neil Venezuela, They have been wonderful and their deputies have been responsive, professional, deeply care about our community and our residents respect and really value their services. They show up to our neighborhood meetings, shared timely crime updates and provide practical safety guidance to our residents. I mean, we have no issues with the services that they provide. But a jump from $9 million to $11.6 million for the same level of the service annually, and also with very limited cost predictability, it's really a physical challenge for us. Las Gatos, Monte Sereno Police Service is a different service model. For us, it's a lower cost base and also a better price predictability. So I think this is, you know, for us, The issue before us is public safety and financial sustainability. All these years, the relationship, I know it's hard because we have no issues with them, but it's just because of financial pressure. I would like to, for the short term, I'd like to direct staff to... SELECT TO RENEW THE ONE YEAR FROM 2026-27 TO MAINTAIN THE SAME SERVICE LEVEL WITH SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT. I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANY SERVICE LEVEL REDUCTION JUST YET. For the long term, of course, I think still I'd like to get more information and more analysis before we make a decision tonight. I'd like to... I think... Thanks, Chris, to give us a look on the startup cost, but I think still I'm not clear about... Do we need a station that here in the city of Saratoga will be closer to our community members? I think still a lot of questions need to be answered, but I think this is a direction I'd like to kind of move forward. That's where I am right now. Thank you.

Thank you. Tina?

Mayor, I have one clarification from the recommended action that is written here in the staff report. Yeah? Okay. So, Leslie, you pointed out earlier that the sheriff's office or the county supervisor's office, they have offered the extension of the 120 days. So... This staff report came out prior to that, and this one says the near-term action is direct staff. So are we talking when we are saying the one-year extension? I hear from two of my colleagues. Are we saying one year after the 120 days, or we are going to come back with this to the council? That's the clarification I'm looking for. What do you need from us?

Well, what we need is in... We have to, no matter what is decided, whether it's to go with the sheriff or Los Gatos, Los Gatos, hypothetically, if we're going to Los Gatos, we still need to give them a year to ramp up. So we need policing services for the year. So no matter what, we have to sign a contract with the sheriff's office for fiscal year 26-27. Okay. And so come September 30th, when that 12-week extension expires, we will sign a contract. The question then becomes, with the contract, now we have a five-year contract with a one-year termination clause, thanks to... getting notification from not only the supervisor's office, but also from Under Sheriff Oberdorfer. Both, or Assistant Sheriff Oberdorfer, both let us know that. So we know that that's happening. So we need to sign a contract with the sheriff. But then the question's going to become, once that contract is signed with the sheriff, will we decide to terminate and let them know and execute that one-year termination clause and then in fiscal year 27, July 1st or August, whatever it may be, that's when we would go with Los Gatos.

That's the question I'm asking, that at this point when I'm hearing one year with the sheriffs, which we have to, I understand, is that effective July 1 or are we talking October 1?

It would be October 1 because of that extension.

That's exactly what I was looking for. Yeah. Okay. That's the direction you want from council tonight, effective October 1. versus bringing this back to council, say, next month to decide for the next year? That's the clarification I'm looking for.

Sure. What I'm looking for is, one, if you wanted staff to look at reducing service levels so that we could lower the cost for the sheriff, that was the first one. And then the second one was, do we continue these conversations with Los Gatos? Yes.

That's the second one, the longer term. Yeah. It's a short term that I needed the clarification. July 1, October 1. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So I want to start by thanking the county sheriff's office, department, all the officers, the deputies who for 70 years have kept Saratoga and our residents safe. We are very comfortable. We know you personally. It has been a fabulous relationship. One of the comments made by a resident was, don't fix what ain't broke. That's certainly not what we are looking at today. Nobody has said that there is a problem with the service. The service is fabulous. We respect the deputies. I want to thank the town of Las Gadas for being very open about what you are proposing to us, where you are in the process. At the same time, very respectful of the service we have been getting from the county sheriff's office. I want to thank the residents. for coming here tonight and still staying with us here, sharing your thoughts. Deeply appreciate it. This is a very, very big decision for the city council to consider how do we go forward. It's a matter of public safety as well as fiscal responsibility. The two topmost things that any council member signs up for. We all do that. That is the most important thing. And for us to be grappling with balancing the two at the same time is a very, very difficult situation. We have been working on the details at different levels for the last, this is the sixth month, because we are already in June. So having said that, I will keep my remarks very short. We have a three-month extension from the county sheriff's office. Of course, we are getting that. I agree with my colleagues. This is not the time to consider reducing the service levels. Certainly go with the one year moving forward in the short term for fiscal year 26-27, as Leslie explained, effective October 1. That is the near-term action that you have asked for, which is sheriff-focused per the agenda and the staff report. Now, looking at the longer-term service model direction, there are a couple of questions that are presented both in the staff report as well as the agenda. That is where the real challenge lies. There has been a lot of information provided, a lot of conversation, quantitative data as well as qualitative data. For me, it has to be a decision which is based on some levels of detail that is in the works from both sides. I am not at a point today to make that informed decision without looking at the proposed contract coming from the town of Las Gadas, as they are saying they are working on it. The number that they are presenting, $9.5 million, certainly gives me pause to say I am not ready at this point to pursue or be ready to support a long-term contract agreement with the sheriff without considering or seeing what we are getting from the town of Los Gatos as an offer. So essentially, I don't have all the information in front of me. I'm hoping to get more from the county executive's office. I want to thank the District 5 supervisor's office. We can see John here, and Chief of Staff, former Mayor Mariko Sayoc here. Thank you for taking the time, and thank you for all the conversations that you have had reaching out to us over the last few months. So that is a decision I am going to wait to get more information before I can make a decision one way or the other. That will happen in the next couple of months. Thank you. Those are my thoughts.

Okay, thank you. So I guess I'm a little bit different. I think that, first of all, for the near-term contract, which is the one year following our three-month extension, we should ask the sheriff to provide us with details about a $10.5 million cost for that year of services versus $11.6 million. I have worked with the sheriff and their captains for 20-plus years, and I know how creative they can be. And there's a way of providing service that will not, I'm convinced because of my past experience, that there's a way to do that, lower our costs a little bit, and we wouldn't see a significant change in service level. It would be negligible. And I'd like to ask the captain and the assistant sheriffs to help us with that. Come up and tell us what the difference would be. And so we have something specific to be able to compare. And I recognize that might not be something that is you want to make public, but it could be perhaps with our attorney. It could be something in a confidential memo that helps us to understand that. I think that that would be very important because it would give us a little bit of a break going forward. And it could help us with how we are going to manage policing in the future. As for the long-term model, I agree. I think that Los Gatos needs time to complete their consultant study of resources and resource allocation, especially expansion into our cities. I think that would be very, very helpful. I would ask, I know that there's information that we and Los Gatos and probably other cities too that I've been working with have asked the county for in terms of resources and calls and things like that. As Bilal said, a lot of money has been spent on software, and we're now going to be paying for it in much greater rates than we were before. So I'd really like to see that data. That information needs to be shared so that we can all work with it and have a solid base of understanding going forward. So I think that it's important to continue the negotiations with both groups. We should redline each contract and really start negotiating. And believe me, after How many months we've been doing this task force or the ad hoc task force and talking about this contract since we got the numbers. That's the last thing I actually want to do. But I think it is absolutely the right thing to do. So we have to go down that route. And so let's get down to basics and down to the red pen or whatever we're using to make sure that that happens. And let's get the numbers so that we can move forward. We do need time. to both give the county notice and give Los Gatos the time to ramp up if that's the direction we're going to choose. And we want to do that. So let's take it forward from there. But I do think, and I hope I can get somebody to go along with that direction, that pursuing the numbers and the actual how the service would weigh out with the difference in cost for the next year. I think that it's important to see that, because we really don't have that specific level of detail. And again, it's something that I know as a public official who's responsible for this, I certainly don't want to share, because then people might know where to go, when to go, how to do it. But I do think that it's important that we get that. So that's my remarks. Tina.

I'm happy to support that, Mayor. I had been wanting to, and that's why some of the questions I asked earlier this evening, since I didn't see that, I was supporting with the current level of service. But I'm totally open to and I support your suggestion. And if that's a recommendation, I agree with the recommendation that we get more information. And if that doesn't impact the actual quality of keeping our residents safe, then Absolutely. We have to look at that. So I support that.

Okay, thanks. How are you feeling about recommending? Have you got some direction there? Or is it one of those signs that has arrows pointing every way?

Let me reiterate or repeat and just make sure. What staff will do is... We will get further detail on what the service levels will look like for $10.5 million for next year. And we will also continue negotiations with Los Gatos Monasterio and work to further refine the law enforcement contract to be able to get it a point in front of you all so that you can see exactly what that is and try to get as much information as we can regarding startup costs. And does that adequately capture everybody?

Everybody okay with that? Cook?

I'd be supportive of that as well. I think especially if we can find a way to, like you mentioned, get creative around a potential reduction in how much we'll be incurring with the Sheriff's Office over the next 12 months, I think that would be something that is definitely worthwhile exploring. I know we've asked the question a couple of times, but I think it's still worth double-clicking there. I think I'd be supportive on both of those.

Thank you. Ian, you okay?

I have a question. So I mean, before tonight we give the direction to the staff is continue like two paths, right? We want to, one is continue getting information from Los Gatos, Monteserino. And the direction also is continue to negotiate with Sheriff Department. Are you saying we are going to continue to negotiate with Sheriff Department? to get the service level for different annual budget for 9.5, 10.5, and 11.6? Are we doing two tracks at the same time? I just want to make sure I understand what I'm doing. Sure.

And just for clarification, I know that Mayor Page had mentioned the details and to work with the sheriff to kind of get creative for 10.5 to see what that would look like. But would you also like the 9.5? Because that was what, Councilmember, is that what you're asking as well, Councilmember?

Right, because we talk about, you know, there's three levels, and they gave us, actually, if you're going to look at the, you know, I know 11.6 is the same level we're getting, right? If we were going to go down that path, I would like to see, you know, I know if it doesn't take that effort to give us that kind of data, I would love to get that data as well.

Okay, the reason I picked the 10.5 is because they had told us a couple years ago we should anticipate a 20% increase. That's not quite 20%, but that's why I picked that one. And rather than waste a whole lot of time on something that the county probably might not go for.

Never going to get down to 9.5.

So, yeah, that's why. Because that may be, when I looked at those hours, it went to 20,000 and it went to 17,000. I don't know if that's too much or too little. I guess we should let the sheriff figure it out. But I figured rather than let them, I'd rather have them spend the time to give us more of the numbers that we've asked for to be able to compare our services with between these two law enforcement agencies and give everybody a chance to be up front. Right.

It's about 6% and also 20%. So I don't know. If they give us annual 7% in the past, 9.5% to 6%.

Yeah. OK. Well, I'm just kind of curious.

Is this the path we want to continue to pursue? I'm OK if Council agrees with that.

I'm okay with just going with the 10.5 because I think we're approaching that anyway. But you tell me. We're a majority rule, so there's five of us, and so let's get a consensus.

I'm open to 9.5 as well. Since we are asking them to look at this more closely, I'm open to that. I think we can do both. And I hear your argument earlier, your point earlier, Mayor Page, when you said likely the 10.5 is going to be the sweet spot. I hear that. But while we're asking for information, it doesn't hurt us to get more information from them. I totally support that, yeah.

Okay. I'm good with that. Cookie, any thoughts? Okay. Bilal, you okay? I mean, we're asking for more is probably not... Not a bad thing. All right. Awesome. Well, I think you got it nailed.

We're ready to go.

All right. Thank you so much for everybody for coming out. We really appreciate your comments, your thoughts, your support. I'd like to thank both law enforcement agencies for being here. We really appreciate the opportunities we've had to work with all of you, the new folks that we haven't seen very much of. But it's kind of neat looking out and seeing blue and gold. And on this side, I've got my gray and tan or brown and tan or whatever it is, green and tan. Anyway, thank you all so very much. And now it's time to move to our asset lifecycle analysis. So we went from the excitement of law enforcement to now we're talking about asset management. Brian, are you doing this staff report?

No, Ryan is.

Oh, Ryan is. Okay. Ryan, Brian. We only hire people whose names rhyme now. All right.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council. Tonight I am presenting the asset life cycle analysis. You will tell relatively quickly this presentation is really focused on stewardship. Streets, parks, retaining walls, and facilities are all community assets entrusted to us, and our job is to maintain them wisely over time. Good asset management is about balancing cost, performance, and risk across the full life of an asset, not just reacting when something goes wrong. So this slide shows an overview of the table that's created. It's attachment A in the staff report. The city manages about $580 million in assets. The asset lifecycle analysis, this really is a planning tool. It helps us to set priorities and understand long-term needs. The core message here is really to preserve assets early, prioritize safety and risk, and recognize that one-time deferrals often create larger and more expensive problems later. You'll notice there's a recurring theme that we're going to continue to come back to. Plan maintenance is almost always cheaper, safer, and less disruptive than deferred maintenance. IT'S PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT WHEN ADDRESSING OUR BUDGET CONSTRAINTS. THIS SLIDE SHOWS OUR GENERAL FUND CAPITAL CONTRIBUTIONS BY YEAR. WE'VE LOOKED AT THIS A FEW TIMES WITH THE BUDGET. YOU CAN LOOK OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS HOW SIGNIFICANTLY WE'VE INCREASED OUR FUNDING FOR CAPITAL. THIS HAS REALLY BEEN PART OF THIS COUNCIL'S PRIORITY TO INVEST IN OUR ROADS AND IN OUR A good stewardship approach means thinking beyond the budget cycle, means recognizing that our assets continue aging every year, whether or not funding keeps pace. So this year, because of our previously discussed budget challenges, you can see the reduction that we had to make to our CIP, our Capital Improvement Program. So starting with our highest risk area that's identified in the table is retaining walls. Retaining walls are currently about $7.5 million of imminent failure needs. Basically what this means is that walls have been identified that have a zero-year lifespan. They're subject to fail at any time. This picture here is, I believe, the Parker Ranch area. This is a retaining wall that fell. The I-beam here is rotted out, and you can see what was left. This is a good example of why stewardship matters. When we maintain and strengthen assets in time, we protect safety and avoid much more disruptive and expensive emergency repairs. This photo is the repairs that Public Works put together for this item. This was over $100,000 of repairs. It's really a small segment of the wall. You can see the old wall. It's kind of built out to help maintain the structure. We put set aside as a part of our priority funding about $200,000 in CIP, which was used for this particular project. SO THIS COUNCIL IS ALSO VERY FAMILIAR WITH OUR PAVEMENT CONDITION INDEX, OUR PCI. ROADS ARE ONE OF THE MOST CLEAREST EXAMPLES OF LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT AND BEST PRACTICES TO REHABILITATE PAVEMENT BEFORE IT DROPS TOO FAR IN CONDITION. BECAUSE ONCE ROADS FALL BELOW THAT THRESHOLD, REPAIR COSTS RISE SHARPLY. THESE ARE EXAMPLES THROUGHOUT THE CITY OF DIFFERENT PCIs. In this presentation, the key threshold for our PCI is around 60. The city's current PCI, or the most recent, is 67, and our goal is 70. That tells us that our streets are still serviceable, but we need to maintain a timely investment to keep them from slipping into a much more expensive range to repair. What this graph shows, just to kind of reiterate, as we go further along in the life cycle of roads, a dollar spent ends up being four or five dollars if we wait too long. STORM DRAINS, THIS IS A FAILED STORM DRAIN. I BELIEVE THIS IS BY PIERCE ROAD. A STORM DRAIN SYSTEM IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF AGING INFRASTRUCTURE THAT'S MOSTLY OUT OF SIGHT BUT CRITICAL FOR DAILY SERVICE. THE PUBLIC WORKS TEAM PUT TOGETHER A SYSTEMWIDE ASSESSMENT AND FOUND ABOUT 2,000 LINEAR FEET OF PIPE THAT NEEDS REPAIR OR REPLACEMENT WITHIN THE NEXT 20, 25 YEARS. THESE ARE THE KINDS OF ASSETS RESIDENTS RARELY SEE UNTIL THERE'S A FAILURE AND THEY BECOME A MAJOR PROBLEM. This shows a new storm drain. It's a very different material, significantly longer life that's going in. It looks like Sobe and Chester here. Curbs, gutters, and sidewalks and related assets. These assets may seem routine, but they're essential for drainage, mobility, and neighborhood quality. In many cases, curb and gutter work needs to happen alongside paving so these systems are interconnected and often managed together. The city does receive some dedicated funding for paving, but generally these areas are underfunded. Medians help to shape the look and feel of Saratoga, and residents experience that every day. Taking care of these highly visible assets, I'd say, is also part of the stewardship process because it reflects community pride and supports the quality people experience and expect in Saratoga. CITY PARKS, PROBABLY OUR STRONGEST CONDITIONED ASSET WITH AN OVERALL SCORE OF ABOUT NINE, AND THIS IS SOMETHING WORTH NOTING. BUT STRONG CONDITION DOES NOT HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT. IT REFLECTS ONGOING MAINTENANCE AND KEEPING PARKS AT THIS LEVEL REQUIRES SIGNIFICANT FUNDING AND ATTENTION. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE STORY. STEWARDSHIP IS NOT ONLY ABOUT FIXING WEAK ASSETS, IT'S ALSO ABOUT PRESERVING THE ASSETS THAT ARE PERFORMING WELL BEFORE THEY START TO DECLINE. So some key takeaways. The big picture is Saratoga's assets are generally functional today, but there are some clear risk areas and funding is not yet sufficient to meet an ideal life cycle for our maintenance needs. So the question is not whether we have assets worth protecting, because we clearly do, but whether we will maintain them in a disciplined enough way to avoid higher costs and greater risks. OUR RESPONSIBILITY IS TO PRESERVE THE PUBLIC ASSETS THAT OUR PREDECESSORS BEFORE US BUILT, MANAGE RISK RESPONSIBLY, AND INVEST EARLY ENOUGH THAT THESE ASSETS CONTINUE SERVING SARATOGA WELL INTO THE FUTURE. I WANT TO THANK PUBLIC WORKS TEAM FOR PUTTING TOGETHER ALL THE DETAILS FOR THIS REPORT. TO MY KNOWLEDGE, THIS HAS NEVER REALLY BEEN PRESENTED HOLISTICALLY TO COUNCIL, SO REALLY APPRECIATE THE EFFORT, AND I'LL NOTE THAT JOHN IS WITH ME IF THERE'S ANY QUESTIONS THAT ARE TECHNICAL RELATED TO OUR ASSETS? THAT CONCLUDES THE PRESENTATION. NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. DO WE HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

THAT'S NOT THAT LATE. BILAL, ANYTHING?

NEW SPEAKER NO QUESTIONS.

NEW SPEAKER THEN I HAVE A QUESTION. FIRST OF ALL, THANK YOU FOR THE PRESENTATION. We know we have a significant budget issue. We do not have ways of increasing our revenues. So what's the best recommendation that y'all can come up with? Because eventually, this city is going to become a much more staff-driven city. There won't be as much experience on the council when term limits and stuff set in. AND NOT THAT EXPERIENCE HELPS WITH THIS STUFF BECAUSE IT DOESN'T ALWAYS. SO STAFF IS GOING TO NEED TO COME UP WITH RECOMMENDATIONS. SO WHAT, YOU KNOW, IN THE NEAR TERM, IN OUR IMMEDIATE BUDGET, FOR EXAMPLE, WHAT WOULD YOU PROPOSE BE DONE? HIGHEST PRIORITY. PICK THE TOP THREE. I DON'T CARE. AND THEN FIGURE OUT WHERE THAT MONEY IS COMING FROM. SAME THING I WOULD ASK A COUNCILMEMBER.

Well, some of the assets are at a point where they could fail at any time. So those are the kind of things that we're going to have to come up with money, whether we have it or not, and we'll have to figure it out. Some of the things when it comes to annual maintenance items, those are slower to deteriorate to a point where we're going to be needing THAT KIND OF REPAIR. OUR PARKS ARE IN GENERALLY WONDERFUL SHAPE. SO I WOULD SAY THAT IF YOU'RE LOOKING AT ANY ASSET THAT WE HAVE IN THE CITY, THAT IS IN THE HIGHEST LEVEL IS OUR PARKS. I THINK WE FUND THEM WELL. I THINK WE ARE, I WOULDN'T ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE THAN WE DO NOW. I THINK RIGHT NOW OUR LANDSCAPE BUDGET FOR OUR MEDIANS ARE WELL FUNDED TOO. I DON'T THINK WE NEED TO DO ANYTHING THERE. When it comes to retaining walls, which are mainly in the hillsides, those are about to – they're getting to the end of their life cycle. So we're going to see significant repairs. Whether we budget them or not, they're going to come. And so we're going to be faced with capital expenditures that aren't programmed. THAT GOES WITH LANDSLIDES, TOO, IN THE HILLSIDES. THOSE ARE SIGNIFICANT RISKS TO THE CITY IN TERMS OF NOT ON AN ANNUAL BASIS BUT AT A POINT IN TIME WHERE SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN AND WE'RE GOING TO BE FACED WITH A VERY LARGE EXPENDITURE. OUR STREETS OBVIOUSLY ARE ONE OF OUR BIGGEST ASSETS. It's been very helpful over the last few years that we've had an extra million dollars that the council has put towards that beyond our gas tax, which has really helped us stabilize our PCI value over the last few years. Noting that the money that we get in gas tax doesn't increase as fast as the amount of increased costs for labor and materials that have skyrocketed over time. So basically, we have the same amount of money, but we just get less done. And so those are the kind of things that, along with storm drains, where we're getting a better handle because we're We're working on a master plan that's almost basically complete. We'll have a better idea of things that we can then program in the future without having an imminent failure like you've seen, or a failure that you've seen on the screen, where on Pierce Road, on Sobe, these things just happened. And luckily, we have funding set aside for those. THAT SORT OF RATE OF FAILURE IS GOING TO INCREASE OVER TIME. SO THOSE ARE JUST SOME OF THE THINGS THAT WE'RE FACING, AND I THINK THEY'RE ALL IMPORTANT, OBVIOUSLY. SOME ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN OTHERS, OBVIOUSLY, BECAUSE IF, LET'S SAY, A LANDSLIDE HAPPENS ON PEARCE ROAD, YOU KNOW, EARLIER YOU WERE FACED OR WERE SHOWN A an evacuation study that didn't include Pierce Road being closed at some juncture there. So those are just some of the risks that we're, you know, we face on a yearly basis. Luckily, nothing's happened like that. But those are real possibilities. And so we just need to consider, I think, that... NOT ONLY THE SHERIFF'S CONTRACT BUT THESE OTHER THINGS ARE ALSO IMPORTANT THAT WE ALSO HAVE TO SEE HOW WE CAN MANAGE THEM WITH THE LIMITED RESOURCES WE HAVE. SO IT'S NOT THAT, YOU KNOW, WE NEED TO INCREASE THE BUDGET TODAY BUT THESE THINGS HAVE TO BE, YOU CAN'T MAKE DECISIONS IN A VACUUM WITH JUST, YOU KNOW, ONE DATA POINT LIKE, YOU KNOW, Public safety, obviously, is ultimately our most important thing that we do. But these other things are also important. And I'm not trying to preach this. I know you all know this. And I'm just trying to just say that there's a balancing act on everything we do. And we have a lot of responsibility out there. And there's a lot of miles of things. lots of square feet of things that have to be maintained and we have to be good stewards about them because we're all only here for a short period of time. Some here, like me, longer than probably normal, but these things, they all have shelf lives. I've been here for 34 years, but I'm starting to see things that are already being replaced in my tenure here. So it's an interesting look. It's a long-term cycle that we all have to be good stewards in the time that we're here and then hand it off in good shape to the next people that are in charge. And that's all I have to say. I'm happy to answer any questions beyond that speech I just gave.

Thanks, John. Any questions? Okay. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THEN WE'LL OPEN IT UP TO PUBLIC COMMENT. ANYBODY WANT TO RACE TO THE STAGE HERE AND DO ANY PUBLIC COMMENT? SEEING NO ONE RACING UP HERE, BRIT, ANYBODY ONLINE WOULD LIKE TO RAISE THEIR VIRTUAL HAND AND PROVIDE SOME COMMENT ON THIS ITEM?

If you would like to address the City Council on the Senate and you're attending the meeting via Zoom, now is the time to raise your hand. Mayor, I see no hands raised.

I don't either. So we'll close the public comment period and bring it back to Council for any comment.

I can go first. I think this is the... This underscores the conversation we just have been having both today, but also a lot of council meetings this year about our general fiscal situation. This stuff we've also known for a while, though, that we have a number of infrastructure assets that need a lot of investment. And so getting this list in this sort of consolidated fashion, I think, really helps us put it all in perspective. So thank you to John, Ryan, and everyone who's worked on this for a very long time. because we see it day in and day out. And on the one hand, we've gotten really lucky, but, yeah, we have a lot of work ahead.

Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Tina?

Thanks, Ryan. Thank you, John. Difficult to see but that's the reality that's as we'll all just put it the Budgetary responsibility and the budgetary situation with what we need to do for our city That's essentially what we are grappling with every day Thank you, and I'll just add that you know there's a lot of times when I

I walk around these streets, I drive around, and right now I'm pretty thankful we don't have a whole lot of sidewalks because there would be another couple million dollars in there for those. So there are some benefits to being a whatever rural-like community that we are. So thank you. All right. We will move on to a resolution calling for a general municipal election on November the 3rd, 2026.

Mayor and vice mayor and city council members, the item before you tonight is to call for the general municipal election, which will be held on Tuesday, November 3rd, for the purpose of filling three city council member seats. To conduct the election, the council must adopt this resolution. which calls for the election. It calls for holding the election and requests consolidation with the statewide election, establishes guidelines and costs associated with candidate statements, and provides the process to resolve a tie vote. The filing period for the election will begin on Monday, July 13th. and will end on Friday, August 7th, unless an incumbent fails to file the nomination papers by the end of that day on Friday, August 7th. If an incumbent does not file the paperwork by that time, the filing period is extended by five calendar days for non-incumbents only, which would then extend that filing period to Wednesday, August 12th. Right now, there is one mandatory fee of $25, which is the filing fee. And then there is the voluntary candidate statement fee, which is set at $3,460 for a 200-word candidate statement. We are also holding a candidate orientation on June 22nd in the Linda Kellen Conference Room from 6 to 7.30 for interested candidates who would like to receive more information about running for election and running for this election. And I am happy to answer any questions you might have.

All right. Anybody have any questions for Britt? Tina?

Thank you, Britt, for your report. I have a clarifying question. We spoke about this earlier, Leslie. So the staff report talks of a 200-word candidate statement. Yes. What has it been in the past?

Historically, Saratoga has had a 400-word candidate statement. I put in this time a 200-word. We are the only city in Santa Clara County that has a 400-word candidate statement. You can change that. So this is... Your decision. The 200 word is, as I said, 3,460. You can change that up to 400. But as I said, we are the only city in the county who does 400.

We are the last one there. Correct. Would you off the top of your head know how long have we been the only city at 400 words?

I did not check to see how long we have done that. No, no, no.

In case you knew. Okay.

No.

What's the, for 400 words, what would be the dollars?

The cost for a 400-word statement this year is $5,070. Okay.

Thanks.

Okay. Bilal, any questions? Okay. No other questions? I will open the public comment period. If there's anyone in the arena here who would like to come up and speak on this item, now would be the time to come forward. And if you are online, you're attending remotely, please raise your virtual hand. I see no one here in the theater. And it looks like nobody has raised their virtual hand. So we will close the public comment period and bring it back to council. OK, Tina, sure. Go ahead and ask your question.

It's late. I forgot to ask. How much was the dollar amount for last time?

In 2024, the 400-word statement was $4,500. I see.

So it's increased by five. Okay, thanks.

Yes. They did give me a cost. In 2024, the cost for 200-word was $3,150. So it looks like it was about a 10% increase from 2024.

Thanks. Okay. Anybody on the council want to weigh in? Cookie?

I'd just like to keep it straightforward and move to approve staff's recommendation as is.

Do we have a second?

I'll second.

Okay. Any discussion? No discussion. Okay. We'll have a roll call vote, please.

Council Member Aftab? Aye. Fitzsimmons? Aye. Zell? Aye. Vice Mayor Walia? Aye. Mayor Page?

Yes.

That passes unanimously.

All right. Thank you. Okay. Next up is council assignments. We'll start with Bilal.

The only one I have to report is the Boston Festival getting canceled for next Saturday. That's all.

Okay. Thank you. Ian?

Yes, I attend a board of director meeting for the Silicon Valley regional interoperability Authority So in the meeting we adopt a resolution basically We approved a new agreement for the executive directors new salary and a bonus plan another thing we did was talk about World Cup. So for Super Bowl, it was just one day event, and the SVRIA was in charge of all this radio system of performance, and they did a report, and for the World Cup, it's going to last three weeks, so it's going to be intense, and they found that there were jamming activities during Super Bowl, so they're going to actually have extra workforce on detecting all these jamming devices. So the Super Bowl is going to start from June 13 to possibly July 1. I think that's it.

Thank you.

Okay, thanks. Cookie?

Nothing new to report. Thanks.

Tina?

I attended two meetings. The first is EOAC, Emergency Operating Area Council. And there were multiple presentations, again, focused on the FIFA for those three weeks. And different organizations, especially from San Jose, were talking about how they are ready to And a remark that stayed with all of us is, imagine the Super Bowl was like a practice for the three-week FIFA preparation. So it's good to know our county and different cities' emergency centers are well prepared. and we are praying for everyone to have a good time during those three weeks. They went into extensive detail. The second meeting I attended was Cities Association of Santa Clara County, the executive committee meeting, and there is nothing to report there.

Do you want to report on the SBC meeting?

No. I did that last time. You did that last time? I did that. And you also thanked me.

That's how much I'm going. Thank you. Oh, that's right. That's after I came back from it. Thank you. Okay. And I've only got to report on the ad hoc, the mayoral ad hoc. So the three-month extension that we got was we've contracted with an accounting firm to do a deeper dive. They're calling it an audit. It's an analysis of the county's numbers to see if they're specifically related to the breakdown of overhead and how they're charging us. That's one area of it. It's not as specific as I would have liked it because I think it's not going to come out to be very much of a difference, but at least we'll go through that process and the cities will be able to Understand better how the county has done their Breakdown of overhead charges and how they relate to us.

So that's that are there any City Council items Tina We had at our study session we had a resident come up and suggest something and I'd asked a question of our city attorney so I am going to request that staff investigate options to bring back a report for a possible ordinance to be considered for proposed projects in the wildland urban interface area where there is some kind of a limit to the increase in cumulative baseline evacuation time. Richard, I'm going to leave it open at that. What was asked was 5% cap, but my intent is really just to get some report, not detailed ordinance. Can you help me with that?

If the council directs, we can look at and see if there are thresholds like this that have been adopted elsewhere in the state and can think about what the structure of it would look like.

That would work. Thanks. And I hope to get a second on that.

Just want to get a report? Is that what the, your, okay, I can support that.

Okay. Anybody else? I have one more. Oh, Tina, go ahead, sorry. If I may.

So the other one is I want to thank Leslie for the email you sent on the SVCE DCARB grant project. I'd, also on that one, I'd like to request a report as a council item. With the original council-approved scope that was approved last July, with options to complete the original project, what would it entail without modification? That would be my other ask, and I hope to get a second on that.

Again, you just asked for a report? Yeah. Okay. I can second that. Thanks.

Okay. Any council communications? This is the time.

I just had a quick council item.

Thank you, Bilal.

Yeah, I had one item, which was... In the last year, we approved increasing the threshold for city manager signatures to $50,000. I still think that was the right choice, but I would just love to see just more visibility into the contracts that are being signed. And I don't know if that's part of the check register. We've got a list of all the checks that have been issued. But we would just love to explore that conversation to get a sense of, do we want to maybe even to share a list of contracts, whatever it might be, that have been signed in the amount, just so that there's some transparency around agreements that are being signed above a certain threshold.

I second that.

Thank you. Thanks a lot. That's awesome. Okay. Council communications. Anybody have any counsel? This is time to take your soapbox out. Nobody's got a soapbox tonight, huh? Okay. Do we have a city manager's report?

Nothing to report.

Do we have a city attorney's report? Nothing to report. And now it's that inevitable time of night when we welcome oral communications on non-agendized items from the folks who've stayed up so late and are watching us remotely or are participating remotely. So if there's anyone who'd like to make any oral communications, make any comments, public comments about any item that was not on our agenda and you're attending remotely, now's the time to raise your virtual hand. Seeing no one with their virtual hand. Is that what you got, Britt, too? You don't see anybody? Okay. We both are in concurrence that there's no one with their hand raised, so we'll close that oral communications on non-agenda items portion of the meeting for our remote visitors. And it is time to adjourn the meeting. So thank you all. We'll see you in a couple weeks. Thanks, Bilal. Have a good trip back.