City Council - Regular Meeting

Is being recorded. The recording will be made available on the city website. If you all would please join me, remove your hats 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. Melissa, will you please proceed with the roll call?

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. I will now call the roll. Council Member AFTAB, Fitzsimmons. Present. Zhao. Present. Vice mayor Walia. Present. Mayor Page.

Present.

We have a quorum. This agenda was posted on 05/15/2026.

Thank you. On May 13, the City Council held a closed session on public employment review of applicants for city manager. There was no reportable action from this meeting. And earlier this evening, we had held a joint session with San Jose Animal Control. Monica, would you like to share a brief summary of our meeting and talk about the great stuff you all got going? Captain, you can join her please.

Thank you for having us. My name is Monica Wiley and I am deputy director for animal care and services in San Jose. Happy to be here in the beautiful city of Saratoga. And I have been here for, I believe, about seven months now. So I'm newly in this position with this great team. Joining me today is Captain Jason Jenkins. And he is our field operations supervisor, our field services supervisor. And we did want to share some things. We have a new website update. So please, it's where art meets science.

And with the click of a button, you can see what's going on in the shelter. So please visit that website. As well as it's kitten season. So if you're looking for kittens, if you're not looking for kittens, you didn't know you were looking for kittens, we have kittens. It's also a great time to foster. If you're not sure if you want a kitten, you could foster a kitten. It's like being the fun ant. Where you can have them for a couple weeks and then give them back. So we would love to have more Saratoga come in, do a tour, come and see what's going on at the shelter. And Captain Jenkins might say just a few words about his field services team.

Good evening. Thank you, Monica. So the city of San Jose field services, we offer a wide variety of services for the community, including animal pickup for injured, sick. We respond to aggressive animals. We investigate municipal complaints regarding animals off leash or creating a public nuisance.

We also investigate aggressive attacks. We work with the city's code enforcement officer. And we also investigate animal cruelty and abuse cases. If you be sure that you know that we are here to offer services to the city of Saratoga, and be sure to reach out to us if we're ever needed. Thank you.

Thanks. Is there a shortcut to your website?

Only if you put it in your cheater bar. So yes, you have to hit on City of San Jose and then it will do the services link.

Okay. Or you can do a search for San Jose Animal Control. And that'll bring you to a summary. Just make sure you click on the right one.

Click on the right one.

Thank you. And tell me, can you tell everybody what your address is? So when people want to come down and see those pets live and in person, please tell us where they can go.

Yes. San Jose Animal Care Center is located at 2750 Monterey Road. Zip code is 95111. We are open seven days a week. Saturdays and Sundays we're ten to five Mondays we're noon to four for adoptions. And the rest of the time, it's actually ten to six the rest of the time of the week. And we are the largest shelter in Northern California. So, the good news is we have quite a selection of pets. So, the bad news is that we have to be such a large shelter. But again, I'm hopeful that we would have a pet to meet your needs.

And again, please come down. I invite City of Saratoga. My name is Monica. You can ask for me even. And I'll give you a tour. So thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. And for those of you listening, this is a great time to pick up a kitten. Lots of kittens available right now.

We receive about 3,000 kittens a year. And I mentioned in our earlier session, it feels like they're all at my house right now. So please, yes, come foster a visit. Or if you do find kittens, leave them and see if their mom comes back. Because they don't always need to be rescued. Thank you.

Thanks very much. Next item on our agenda is oral communications on non agendized items. This is the opportunity and we invite members of the public here in our, I was gonna say arena. But it's not quite an arena. It's more like a theater. To discuss any matter that is not on tonight's agenda. The City Council is generally prohibited from making comments or discussing the item. But we may occasionally give staff direction to follow-up. Melissa, can you please explain the public comment process and announce the first speaker?

The City Council will receive oral communications on non agendized matters for those individuals attending in person at this time. Oral communications on non agendized matters from those individuals attending remotely will take place at the end of the meeting. If you would like to address the City Council on a non agendized matter, please submit a speaker slip to me or approach the podium and state your name if you wish. Speakers are limited to three minutes each.

I see no one racing to the podium. All right. So we will close the open communications part of the meeting. And we'll move on to announcements. We should have a slide coming up soon. First of all, I'd like to announce that this Friday, join me at the Starbucks Coffee in the Argonaut Shopping Center from nine to 10AM. This is what we call Coffee with the Mayor. It's a great opportunity to share your questions and thoughts with me and connect with fellow residents in an informal setting. Come enjoy coffee, conversation, and community. I believe that our our sheriff's captain may join us at this meeting too.

I'm honored to invite everyone to Saratoga's Memorial Day Observance on Monday, May 25. Organized by the Saratoga Foothill Club and sponsored by the city, this event begins at 09:30 a. M. And at Blaney's Plaza at the Memorial Arch. We have a flag ceremony there and then a procession to Madronia Cemetery.

This is only a short walk up the little hill, so it's easy to do. At 10AM, we'll honor our veterans and active service members. All ages and community groups are welcome to attend this very meaningful, and I'm sure you'll find to be an amazing tradition. Next up, our harvest registration list is now open. The harvest season is approaching and Saratoga residents are invited to sign up for a chance to participate in the city's annual harvest in the heritage orchard.

Advanced registration is required and those who have signed up in previous years must complete a new form. Please note that joining the registration list does not guarantee that you will be able to participate. Residents are selected randomly to take part in the twenty twenty six harvest. If you're selected, you'll be contacted by the city to let you know the date and time of your picking. Of the time that you're allowed to pick, that is not your picking. You can't choose it. It's chosen for you. Please sign up at saratoga.ca.us/harvest. Are there any council members who'd like to make any announcements? Tina.

I'd like to acknowledge the month of May as the Asian American Pacific Highliners Month. We have a lot of Saratoga residents of, actually majority of Saratoga residents of that heritage. Thank you.

All right. So next up we have a couple of ceremonial items. The first is I'd like to recognize Affordable Housing Month. It seems that May is a very popular month for months of. So I'd like to invite Corey Walbach to please join the City Council on stage.

And we've got a little presentation. Alright. So Corey as mayor of Saratoga I'm proud to come to I'm sorry it's been a late night. It was at Los Gatos Council meeting till almost 01:00 last night. So I apologize if I'm I know I'm gonna mess up tonight.

As mayor of Saratoga, I'm proud to proclaim May 2026 as Affordable Housing Month in the city of Saratoga. Affordable Housing Month is an opportunity to recognize the importance of safe, stable and affordable housing in creating strong, healthy and inclusive communities. Access to affordable housing helps individuals and families thrive and supports the long term economic and social well-being of our region. Across Santa Clara County, many households continue to face significant housing challenges and addressing these needs requires collaboration among local governments, non profit organizations, housing advocates and community members. The city of Saratoga appreciates the efforts of organizations such as Silicon Valley At Home and the many regional partners working to expand housing opportunities, prevent homelessness and promote thoughtful housing solutions throughout our community and region.

Their work helps bring greater awareness to the importance of affordable housing and encourages meaningful dialogue and action. On behalf of the entire City Council, I'd like to present this proclamation to you. There you go. And I'm sure Corey you'd like to say a couple of things.

Just want to say thank you so much to the mayor, council,

the excellent staff of the City

of Saratoga for recognizing affordable housing month. As a local nonprofit, SVHOME advocates for the three P's of housing. We need to produce more housing, especially affordable housing. We need to preserve the affordable housing we have. And we need to protect our tenants who are most vulnerable. So please check out siliconvalley@home.org for all of our affordable housing month events where we're doing events with community partners around the county We engage and learn more. We invite you to help us plan and build a future where everybody in Santa Clara County has access to a safe, stable, affordable home. Thank you very much.

All right. Any council members like to make a comment? Then before we take the pictures, I'd like to invite any member of the public who'd like to make a public comment on this to please come forward. Seeing none, we'll do the photos. Alright, I'd like to invite Shannon to come on up.

Sorry, Shannon. Almost forgot you. No, come on up on stage. Here you go. Front center.

Thanks. As mayor of Saratoga, I am proud to proclaim May 2026 as Foster Care and Resource Parent Appreciation Month in the city of Saratoga. This month is an opportunity to recognize and thank the foster families, resource parents, kin caregivers and organizations such as the Kinship Adoptive and Foster Parent Association of Santa Clara County for their dedication to supporting children and the youth in need. Through advocacy, resources and compassionate care, they help create stability, connection and opportunity for young people and families throughout Santa Clara County. We are grateful for the important role these caregivers and their community partners play in strengthening our community and making a lasting difference in the lives of children and families.

On behalf of the entire city council, I'd like to present this proclamation to you. I'm sure you might want to say a couple of words, Shannon.

I'd like to say thank you so much to the city council and to the mayor for having this recognition. We work really hard with our RFA families and our birth families to make sure that our kids are supported during one of the most vulnerable times in their lives. We are always looking for volunteers for our events, I so will say a plug for that. If you feel like you can come and support our events, then we would be more than happy to have you there. But thank you so much for this and we will continue to keep working hard to support our kids in the best way we can.

All right. Thank you. Any council member would like to make a comment? Any member of the public would like to make a comment please come forward now. Seeing no one, we'll close the public comment period.

And thank you so much Shannon. Thanks for all you do. Our next item is a presentation from United Way Bay Area. I'd like to welcome Laura Escobar, Vice President of Safety Net Services. Laura, if you can get it working.

Yeah, just I hope.

Good job.

I There we want to live in Saratoga and have coffee with the mayor. That's pretty cool.

You can come anyway, but anybody can come.

So thanks for having me tonight. I think I've been here a few times. And there's a lot of slides, but I'm going to breeze through them. There's a couple things, new things I want to talk to you about. So what is United Way? You know, there's 1,800 United Way's. United Way Bay Area serves eight counties. We're all independent nonprofits, but we're part of this bigger network worldwide. Oops, I went the wrong way. Okay.

And basically we're an anti poverty organization, pro prosperity, so all of the programs we do are poverty fighting. And so I oversee a lot of our basic needs work. So it's just ten years now that we merged with United Way Silicon Valley. So I remembered very clearly ten years ago coming into Santa Clara County in May of, you know, ten years ago, meeting all of the EANs and the Safety Net agencies. So is how long we've United Way Bay Area has been your United Way.

And again, this is our areas of impact. So I oversee our basic needs work, which is two eleven, which is what I'm here to talk about. But we also work with the EAN very closely, and I have a few notes about that at the end I'll share with you. I was part of a press conference this morning with the EAN. So just I'll update you on that.

And I also oversee some federal funding that comes into Santa Clara County. It's been on pause, but I was notified yesterday it's coming back. So some other federal funding called Food and Shelter Program that comes into Santa Clara County to the tune of about 750,000 for a year. So hopefully that will be coming back online soon. So again, two eleven is free, confidential, twenty four hours, three sixty five days a year, multilingual call center for referrals to Health and Human Services.

So you can call 211. We have a website which was recently updated, so it's a little more user friendly, better interface. And you can also text. We get a fair amount of texting, but still the majority of people are calling. I started my career at United Way right before Loma Prieta as a call center specialist. We operated the helpline. And then in the early 2000s, we began getting the CPUC designation for 211. So now it's our helpline became 211. And United Way, why United Way? Well, we've always had been part of the nonprofit network and a champion of the nonprofit space.

So we know the nonprofit, so it kind of made sense for us to refer people to kind of our wide network of partners. So in the Bay Area we operate in six counties, all but Alameda and Contra Costa and Sonoma. Those have other call centers. But we're in Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, Napa Marin, and Solano. Those are our counties.

So we try to emphasize when we're talking to electeds that two eleven in an emergency is very critical. I was at the call center when Loma Prieta happened, and it really, they gave out our number a lot, which was 772 at the time. Now it's 211. But it really alleviated a lot of the strain on 911, and people who wanted to volunteer, donate, get involved, or just wanted to know where the staging center was, the recovery center was, you know, we would talk to them as well. So it takes a lot of stress off 911 in an emergency.

And we can do things in an emergency about evacuation routes, where are there shelters, you know, where can you get sandbags, and then also as recovery shelters, things like that. So we have a lot of special projects. So that's kind of what a few of them I want to talk to you about and highlight. So one is preparedness, screening, and care coordination for people with access and functional needs. So if there's ever a power safety public safety power shutoff, PSPS, you know, we can talk to people.

They can call 211. You know, if they need medical equipment, need electricity, we know there's going to be a power shutoff, we can link them with motels. So that's PG and E is funding us and funds the hotels. This is our really cool new partnership. I wanted to call your attention to it.

It's with airbnb.org. And in a disaster and this really kind of went to scale in the L. A. Fires, but Airbnb is working with two eleven's nationally, so in a disaster, you can get connected, get credits to get an Airbnb, you know, house, get, you know, host, they will pay for or stay in an Airbnb. So how that's worked recently in some local fires there were two in Santa Clara in the last few months, Santa Clara County, and then one just Friday in the Tenderloin.

And so if it's especially if it's a big building with a lot of low income people, in it or seniors, you know, we work with the Red Cross. And so when the Red Cross runs out, we have them they call 211, and, you know, they're eligible for these Airbnb credits. And it just gives them more time to kind of figure things out. So again, that was really big in the L. A.

Fires, and we're using it here. God forbid there's a fire, or any other natural disaster, or even like a building fire. So I just wanted to call your attention to that. We also, through our national office, have a partnership with Lyft for rides to different things like medical appointments or food pantries or getting public benefits. So there's a it's up to free Lyft rides.

So this would be really great for seniors, if you have seniors in your community you want to tell this Sometimes, you know, we get a quota a month, so there are times where we could run out. But for the most part, they've been available. So, you know, that's something to call 211 for. We've done some work with Kiki California. We have a caregiver support program.

So it's a partnership with AARP about resources for family caregiving. We're also partnering with statewide California versus HATE. People can report hate crimes, and the call specialists will assess their safety, determine the need for, you know, anything emergency assistance, and provide connections to resources. So again, I just want to remind you we have data dashboards on the two eleven Bay Area website that you can navigate and poke around and see, you know, who's calling us in Santa Clara County and why, for what, and who they are. And so just a little Saratoga data, and this is true for most counties, is housing.

And then I think I saw on the ages, a lot of your seniors are calling us. Or that's the highest amount, which makes sense, right? I know my mom likes to talk to someone on the phone. So I think that's why two eleven is still really needed. We have some capacity challenges I want to call your attention to.

We've never had federal money or state funding, but there are some asks in the state right now. And there is a federal bill that's floating around called the HELP Act. So we're hopeful because we really need more public investment. I thank you for your investment in us. But, you know, it's a $1,500,000 budget for these six counties, and we need to get more public investment from some of our other counties not this one, but from our other counties, and also state and federal would be.

So these are some bills, if you feel like, I don't know if you can advocate, but if you can, here they are. So again, the data dashboard, you know, we have a way for agents, nonprofits in the community to update their own record in our database. We have flyers, and here's our team. So I would say that if you ever want us in an outreach event, I know I've come to the state of the city, You have like an outreach event. Please invite us. Remember to invite us. Happy to come. And just my little update about the EAN. I also work with the EAN. We had a press conference this morning.

So if you heard anything, NBC was there and interviewed everyone. Sujatha with West Valley is your EAN. They were there really calling attention to some county cuts that are going on, to the rental assistance. And with the wave of all the changes to CalFresh, there's going to be a wave of food people walking in the door. So we were the press conference. And United Way convenes the EANs. I go to their monthly meetings. I organize their monthly meetings and work with them closely. Just wanted to like shout that out too. That's another thing we're doing. Not with your dollars, but just we get some grant funding to do that at United Way. So I thought I'd mention that. Any questions?

Thank you, Laura. Are there any questions from the council? Okay.

I talked as fast as I

could.

Did a great job. Did an

awesome Thank so much for having us.

Thank you. Is there any member of the public who would like to make a comment on this item? And Melissa, if you wouldn't mind explaining the process in case there's somebody online that would like to make that.

If you would like to address the city council on this item and are attending the meeting in person, please submit a speaker slip to me or approach the podium. For those viewing through Zoom, please use the tool in Zoom, raise your hand. Those listening by phone can press 9. If you're participating by phone, press 6 to unmute yourself when it's your time to speak. Public comment will begin with in person attendees, then proceed to remote public speakers. Speakers are limited to three minutes each for those speakers attending in person. The yellow light on the podium comes on when you have thirty seconds left, and the red light comes on when your time is up. For those participating via Zoom, when your time is up the timer will sound.

All right, I see no speakers and nobody is raising their virtual hand. So we'll close the public comment period and we'll move on to our second special presentation, which is Catholic Charities. And for those members of the public who are wondering why we have these presentations, these are our partner organizations. Saratoga is pretty much a minimal services city, so there's lots of services we can't offer. So we have community partners that we may make a contribution to. And we encourage them to come and present to us every year so that we can get a better idea of where our contributions are going and the benefits that they're providing to our community.

Hi. Good afternoon, Mayor Page, Vice Mayor of Aglia, members of the council. Thank you so much for inviting us to present our services. My name is Milton Cadena. I'm a Program Director for Senior Services Catholic Charities, accompanied today by our Manager of Ombudsman Programs, Linda Dominguez.

So Catholic Charities is a fairly large nonprofit that extends from zero to five services to end of life. So today we will be just presenting about our small department, which is senior services, older adult services. Our program, our department is rooted on the successful aging model, and our core services gravitate around these five factors, which are good nutrition, physical activity, health education, socialization, and advocacy. Any program that we provide, every service that we provide, is usually based on one of these five elements. So to start with good nutrition, we have two centers located in East San Jose and Downtown, since they have been traditionally underserved sectors, and they have a fairly large population of low income seniors.

We deliver around 80,000 meals a year, which is an average of 300 meals Monday through Friday year round, except holidays. Our population is very diverse, being the most relevant populations, the Latino, Filipino, Chinese and Vietnamese communities. We also promote physical activity, which has become increasingly popular after the end of COVID. We have had a change in the demographics at both centers due to different factors. One, that some of our ZIP codes were the hardest hit during COVID and also because several seniors have moved out of the area due to the cost of living.

We also promote socialization and recreation. We have several groups. As I mentioned, we are a very we serve a very diverse population. And we have several groups that come together and celebrate their different traditions and cultural activities, attracting their specific ethnicities like the Filipino club, the Latino club, the Vietnamese and Chinese clubs at both centers, both senior centers. Also, we promote a healthy living.

We provide health checkups with the help of nursing students from the University of San Jose State. And also we try to foster anything that is an activity that promotes healthy living, like walking groups or gardening groups. Besides the senior wellness programs, we also have a small department, a small group that's called Handy Capables, that is motivating seniors with different that are homebound to come out and socialize. Because the ultimate purpose is for seniors not to be isolated, since isolation is a big driver for depression and other chronic illness. These groups meet in several parishes throughout the county.

Saratoga Parishes has been one of them. And besides that, we also have a department called the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program, which is an advocacy program. And for that, today came our manager, Linda Dominguez, who will walk us through this program that directly benefits from the contribution and the past and ongoing support from this city. Thank you. Linda?

Mayor Chuck Page and city council members, thank you very much for allowing me to share regarding the ombudsman program. As you can see on the first screen, the ombudsman program, Santa Clara County has a community partnership supporting the ombudsman services. We have the city of Campbell, the city of Saratoga, the city of Milpitas, the city of Palo Alto, the city of Mountain View, the city of Los Altos, the city of San Jose, and the city of Santa Clara, the town of Los Gatos, and the city of Sunnyvale. Our program consists of 51 skilled nursing facilities, three twenty RCFE care homes, which are residential care homes. We serve a total of 13,000 beds, but there's also always a turnaround because some residents are not there long term.

Some of them are short term for physical therapy, so the number constantly turns around. Our staffing for the ombudsman is we have six full time staff and one part time staff, and we have seven volunteers who assist with the program. The ombudsman program serves the city of Saratoga. We advocate for complaint and investigations. We educate both the facilities and the community.

We provide trainings for the facility staff to identify and properly report suspect abuse. And we also participate in community outreach events to increase awareness. A little bit about the program and how the layout of what our services are for the city of Saratoga. We have a crisis line, which is a hotline. That hotline is for the state ombudsman.

It's a twenty four hour number where a resident, family member, or the community can call in cases of an emergency. A lot of emergencies over the weekend and over the holidays, I would hate to say they're discharges and unsafe discharges. So, family members will contact us. We have an ombudsman who's on call, and they will handle the call. And if they need to go to the facility, they will also go to the facility as well.

We also do visits because of case related. We have the SOCs that come into our office through email, as well as through fax. We have law enforcement who reports to our office. We have adult protective services that reports financial institution that reports for financial abuse. We also have different communities like hospice or dialysis that also report to us.

Also, the facility is a mandated reporter. They have to report to our program as well. And also, family members and residents will they don't have to complete an SOC, but they can call us and report an incident to us as well. So, our investigation is mainly to ask the questions that help support the resident. Of course, we listen to the resident, the victim, and the abuser.

We listen to their concerns that they have. And also we document them in the ODIN database with the state ombudsman office. So, of our calls that we receive, they're called information and assist calls. These calls range from all the different communities. They're specifically all of our ombudsman have a designated city and facilities.

And so the calls will be directed to the ombudsman. In order for us to respond quicker, all of our calls are not only forwarded to their extension, but all the calls are also emailed. And that way they see the call right away. We try very hard to return the calls within twenty four hours. We also have general visits, which play a vital role.

Because general visits, we go on a monthly to quarterly base, and they're important because it helps us to speak to residents, family members, to do general visits. We check for med cards to make sure the med cards are not open where residents who are not coherent can open a med card and take medication that doesn't belong to them. We also take we review the grounds of the facility, making sure that there's no syringes on the floor, no water spilled. We also work with the residents to make sure, you know, this last couple this year and last year, we had a lot of bedbugs reports sent to us. And so we will go and speak to residents to see if there's any concerns with infestation.

We also make sure that the call lights are being answered. A lot of times call lights are not being properly answered, and a resident's need is not heard right away, especially if they need assistance right away. Also speak during our general visits. We hand out our business cards to family members who are visiting residents. We have posters on the walls for the ombudsman posters.

But a lot of our community residents do not know what an ombudsman is, or maybe have not heard the word ombudsman. And just a little familiar on the ombudsman title, it's a Sweden name, and it means to advocate. We actually are changing. Our poster has changed now. We got new posters that have already been mailed to the facilities, and then we are also delivering more posters if needed.

And these posters say more about the advocacy and explain the ombudsman, which is very helpful because a lot of people, if you're not familiar with the facility, you're not familiar that an ombudsman can help you. And a lot of times they don't know that we can help until something has escalated so high that then they find out, oh, wait a minute, there's someone that could help me. And so, this helps us to, you know, play more of a vital role in assisting our residents and family members. We also attend advanced healthcare directives, which are the AHCD. Those are legal documents.

Those are documents that a resident will indicate his wishes, who he wants as his agent when he no longer has capacity to make healthcare decisions. They're legal documents that we filled out, and also they are then placed in the resident's chart. They don't have to complete this advanced healthcare every time they go into a facility. It's a legal document that just follows whenever they need it. We also attend care conferences.

Care conferences are very important a lot of times. We have family members who are upset with the facility. We have facilities that are upset with family members. And so, instead of playing the middle ground, we want to bring everyone in together and see how we can assist them into making sure that the resident has quality of care. We also participate in resident and family councils.

Those are very important because who knows better than the residents themselves who live in this community and family members who have their loved ones in this community. Resident council and family council, you have to be invited to attend, and the invitation has to come from the president resident council. But we always come in. When we visit, we stop by and speak to the president council, making sure we give them our business card, letting them know that we're here if they ever need our assistance, and we are available to attend their meetings if they would like us to. We also participate in abuse trainings to the facility staff.

We complete those once a year. And this is a mandated reporting program that discusses how to report, when to report, how much time you have to report, because there are financial if they don't report at a certain time, they could have a financial debt of up to $10,000 for not reporting at a proper time. And also, we also participate also with staff. Sometimes the staff reports to us as well as an anonymous report. And they will tell us because staff knows what's happening.

They will let us know what's taking place in the facility. And just a little bit of background about myself. I actually, fifteen years ago, I actually worked in a skilled nursing facility. I was a social service and skilled nursing facility. And I remember the very first day that I walked in for my onboarding, I opened the front door and I seen a resident tied to his wheelchair. And I went and spoke to HR and the administrator. I let them know that there was a resident tied to his wheelchair. He needed to be untied. And they said, No, Linda, don't worry about it. It's for his own good, because if he gets up, he's going to fall.

And so, I just happened to work with an administrator that was heavy handed, and it was very hard to stand up for the residents. I was involved in unsafe discharges by force. And so what happened was the ombudsman was a married couple. They were volunteers. And they would come once a week, and they would always stop by my office and ask me, How's it going, Linda?

And little by little, because they kept coming, they gained my trust. So, I began to share with them about this facility and some of the stuff that was happening, and they began to guide me on to how to report anonymously. And so then I began to report anonymously. With that experience, I knew that when I grew up, I wanted to become an ombudsman. And that's the trend that I came when I moved to that was in San Joaquin County.

I moved back home to Santa Clara County to help take care of my parents. My mother and father both had strokes. And so we came back home to take care of them. But I just I looked in the newspaper and Catholic charities, was hiring for an ombudsman, and I applied and got the position. Also, in Santa Clara County, Because of budget cuts, there have been quite a few RCFE care homes.

RCFE care homes are six beds. We call them six beds. They're more of a home environment when a resident does not need a hospital environment like a skilled nursing facility. A lot of them are closing. Some of them are closing because the owner is now the resident in the care home.

Or they're now moving to a different location because of the expense of keeping up the facilities. But the highlight for the city of Saratoga, we have not had any SNF skilled nursing facilities or RCFE residential care homes closed for the city of Saratoga. So that's a high positive note. And so with that is the closure of this presentation. And I'm open for any questions that you may have.

Does anybody on the council have any questions? We're going to get to that. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank Both of you. I would like to open this up for public comment. If there's anyone who'd like to make a public comment on this item, or if there's anybody online who'd like to make a public comment, now is the time to raise your virtual hand. Melissa, I don't think we have any slips, right? So seeing no one, and with a hand raised, we'll close the public comment period and bring it back to the council for comments. Honey there, please, Tina.

I just want to thank United Way for all the work they do. United Way Bay Area as well. There you are. Thank you. Was looking in the wrong Thank you for waving. I appreciate that. And also to the Catholic Charities for all the work they do to support the people, especially the long term care ombudsman group that they do. It's touching and deeply appreciated. Thank you.

Okay. I too would like to add my thanks. This is something that, in my first time on council, we had never had the opportunity to do this kind of contribution. And when we thought it was a very important need, both for the two eleven and obviously for we've got a lot of seniors in the city and we're an aging population. So it makes a lot of sense that we have somebody to help make sure that everybody is safe and sound as it may be. So thank you both very much. We appreciate it. And now it's time to move on to our next item. Our next item happens to be the consent calendar. The consent calendar consists of items that are typically routine in nature.

And not often are they controversial, but sometimes they are. So, I'd like to ask if the council, if anybody would like to pull an item. Seeing no one. Oh, Tina? Yeah.

I'd like to pull item one point three and one point seven.

One point three and one point seven. Okay. I'd also like to open up the public comment period for anybody to comment on any item that is on our consent calendar. After we hear from people in our, I kind of keep losing that, the theater, we will then go to people online. Is there anyone in here in the chambers that would like to speak on the consent calendar on any item? Seeing none, is there anybody remote that would like to raise your virtual hand and make a comment? Or ask to have an item pulled? Seeing no one, we will close the public comment period. And looking for someone to make a motion. Yan.

All right. I'd like to move to approve consent calendar 1.1, which is City Council meeting minutes, 1.2, our regular account payable check registers, and 1.4 through 1.6.

Okay. Do we have a second?

Second.

Motion by Yan, second by Tina. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? So motion carries four-zero. Okay. Item 1.3. Tina?

I have a quick question for this one. John, is this the park in lieu fees that's used for the maintenance of these trees?

No. That's a general fund.

Okay. So what caught my attention was this is for the fiscal year twenty twenty six-twenty twenty seven. And you're just working on the budget. So why pull this out of that budget as a separate item?

We usually do contracts. They don't become executable until the fiscal year, because that's the date that starts on July 1. So I guess if you had some changes, then we would have to change the contract. If you decided to make some further changes to the amounts and so forth.

That's what I was wondering. If we approve this tonight, then it is pulled separately from the budget which we will be adopting in a month. It's part of that budget. Why separate them out? It's a process question.

Well, do most of our contracts in this time of the year to get ready for the next Some of them we'll bring in July, but we are trying to get ready for the new fiscal year. Sure. But it doesn't begin until the beginning of the fiscal year. So, won't it won't be executed until then. We're just getting our act together. Lot of stuff going on. So, yeah. It's normal. We've done this plenty of times. This item just is more larger than normal, perhaps.

That was the thing. It's a large amount of money. And counsel is literally working through the budget in a very difficult And financial

we did reduce this budget by one third, by the way, just in case everybody wants to know. That was a $300,000 budget, and we reduced it to 200. But again, counsel can make changes. If, for example, if you decided to take another $100,000 off, we would just bring back the contract again.

Okay.

There's no problem in terms of it's not taking any decisions away from the council. Okay.

Sure.

Okay. And item 1.7.

Thank you. That the Fair and Pears contract for wildfire evacuation impact assessment, the first amended agreement. I appreciate that, city manager has brought this to the council's attention. And could you just mention very briefly for the members of the audience, the residents, why this is here?

Sure. So we had done an evacuation impact assessment probably a year ago. And that was just kind of initial phase of looking at the hillsides. And then that was phase one with Fair And Piers. We then went into phase two with Fair And Piers, and it was a next level analysis to do computer simulations to consider potential developments, potential mitigation measures, and costs. And so that's phase two. And we have not yet received that report. That report is actually going to go to counsel on June 3. We are going to have a study session at 5PM. And so we will present the findings from phase two on June 3.

In order to get us to that final report, we needed to do a little bit additional analysis. We've been working also with our city attorney's office, again, with regards to development. And then Farr and Pierce will also be joining us via Zoom to present the assessments that they have done. This is just in terms of this agreement right now tonight, we're asking for an additional $19,900

Thank you, Leslie.

Okay. Any other questions on these items or discussion? And we're looking for a motion.

So moved to go with staff recommendation on both number one point three and one point seven.

Do we have a second?

I'll second.

Thank you. A motion by Tina, second by Yan. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None opposed? Nobody abstaining? Motion carries. All right. Now we move on to our public hearings.

First up tonight is an appeal hearing on a design review approval for 19519 Glen Una Drive, a residence and an accessory dwelling unit. We'll begin with a staff report followed by counsel questions for staff. After that, the appellant and then the applicant and their representatives will have a total of 10 maximum for opening statements each. After the opening remarks we'll proceed to public comment. Members of the public may comment on this item for up to three minutes each.

The applicant will then have a total of five minutes for closing remarks, followed by five minutes from the appellant for his closing remarks. It is our practice that people that speak during the opening or closing statements do not speak during public comment time. Chris, nice to see you. Thanks for being here.

You. Good evening, Mayor Page, vice mayor Wallyad, council members. 9.1 acre project site located at 19519 Glen Una Drive. The site contains an existing one story single family residence with a detached ADU. Structures in the general vicinity include a combination of both one and two story homes.

On January 27, the Planning Division approved a design review application for the site, which included a new two story residence, a detached ADU, a pool cabana, and a swimming pool. On February 9, the appellants, located at 19511 Benuendo Drive, you can see from the map by label of the appellant's location as well as the applicants, submitted an appeal to the Planning Commission of the Planning Division's decision. On March 25, the Planning Commission reviewed the project, denied the appeal again, and approved the project. On April 8, the appellants submitted an appeal to the council, the Planning Commission's decision to approve the project. The project arborist inventoried 19 protected trees on-site, which include Douglas firs, coastline oaks, olives, and avocados.

The project will consist of a new approximately 5,517 square foot two story single family residence with a 2,914 square foot basement. Residents will have a maximum height of 25 feet eight inches. Other proposed structures include a nine ninety nine square foot detached ADU with a two sixty four square foot garage near the front of the site, a swimming pool, and a 146 square foot pool cabana. The main dwelling main dwelling will be located approximately 75 feet from the front property line, 23 feet 10 inches from the left property line, 20 feet from the right property line, and 159 feet from the rear. The ADU, we located 30 feet from the front property line.

Two trees identified by yellow x's on the map were approved by the city arborist for removal, which include two avocado trees in the rear yard, which were determined to be in poor condition. This project was an administrative design review application. The project was not reviewed as an SB nine project. These are the front renovations of the main dwelling, which feature a contemporary architectural design. The maximum proposed height is 25 feet eight inches.

Exterior materials will include off white covered stucco exterior with stone veneer cladding, black colored aluminum windows and doors, and a gray color standing seam metal roof. The rear elevation illustrates the location of the second story deck. A concern of the appellant is that views from the second story deck will cause privacy impacts to his rear yard area. The deck is located 25 feet from the property line. The deck is 49 feet wide and 18 feet deep.

Height of the deck is approximately 13 feet. These are the side elevations of the primary dwelling. The deck is accessible from the exterior stair in the right elevation as well as from second story bedrooms. The applicant is proposing to install a 5.7 foot tall and 15 foot wide metal screen on the right side of the deck to minimize views into the Pelwin Shard. That screen is shown on both elevations on the screen.

These are the floor plans for the primary dwelling. As already mentioned, the size of the primary dwelling is 5,517 square feet. The project will also include a 2,009 to 14 square foot basement, was not included in the total allowable floor area for the site. Areas that are considered as floor area are colored in blue. Outer areas, including the entry porch, covered patio, second story balcony, are colored in red.

These exterior elevations for the attached ADU, which have a maximum height of 16 feet. Square footage of the ADU and the garage are twelve eighty five square feet. The exterior materials of the ADU are consistent with the main dwelling. This is the floor plan for the ADU. The square footage of ADU is colored in blue.

The entry porch is highlighted in red. Interior porches will include one bedroom, an office, living room, dining room slash kitchen, and one car garage. These are the elevations of the pool cabana in the rear yard, adjacent to the pool. The height of the cabana is 10 feet and 900 square feet in area. The cabana is not an enclosed structure.

It's not considered as floor area. This is the landscape plan for the site. Existing landscaping includes coast live oaks, redwoods, olives, pine, and majone trees. Other landscaping includes inguious floral bushes, which the applicant planted along both side property lines from front to back, which have the potential to grow to a height of 18 feet. Proposed landscaping will also include three pistachio trees located along the right side property line, with the potential to grow up to 35 feet tall.

They'll be located to the right side of the pool in an area open space between the existing redwood tree and an oak tree. Front yard landscaping will consist of existing trees, wood bark, and turf. On February 8, adjacent neighbors located at 19511 Glen Unaud Drive submitted an appeal of the Planning Commission's decision to approve the project. This slide lists the appellant's seven justifications for the appeal. As mentioned in the appellant's appeal letter, the primary focus of the appeal is the proposed second story deck of the main dwelling.

Staff's responses to each of the appellant's appeal justifications are included in the staff report. These are the six design review findings that must be made to approve the project. These are the first three, and these are the remaining three. Staff was able to make all the findings recommend approval. Staff recommends the city council deny appeal application APCC 20 six-two, thereby approving design review application PDR 20 two-twenty three, and city arborist recommendation ARB 20 two-one 109, and finally, application exempt from CEQA.

That concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris. Any questions of staff? Tina?

Chris, just to confirm, the appellant I believe I read somewhere they're talking of SB-nine. This project is not SB-nine.

That's correct. It's not.

Okay. Thank you. The second confirmation is that the balcony on the 2nd Floor, the size is 20 feet by 49 feet four inches. That's what I just saw in the drawings.

Okay. I listed on my presentation what the size was.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you. So my next question is more for the legal counsel here. The staff report says on page one, it talks about the Housing Accountability Act. And I think the second or third sentence under scope of review talks about while conditions and requirements may be applied to further applicable goals, policies, etcetera. What I'm reading from the appellant and what I heard at the site visit yesterday, the appellant is saying they are not seeking denial of the project, but their objection is limited to a discrete design feature, which is the elevated second story deck, and talk about privacy.

What are the options in front of the council?

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm going to refer that question to my law partner, Gabe Ross, who has been reviewing this project and is on Zoom.

Thank you.

Thank you, Heather. The options before the council are quite limited. Because the Housing Accountability Act only allows the denial of a project if it is not in compliance with objective standards, or if it will result in a specific, adverse public health and safety impact. As Chris has explained, we don't think either of those are present here.

As

for conditions and, I agree this is a little confusing in the staff report, which is not on Chris. That's my, my confusion there. Conditions, if the counsel were to want to place conditions on the approval, those conditions have to also be based on objective standards. The the the sort of legal interpretation is that Pardon me. Is that we can only place conditions on the basis of of provisions that we could deny the project on.

And instead, we're conditioning. So the conditions, like denial, can only be based on objective standards.

I'm going to have a follow-up question to that. Sure. Thank you so much, Gabe. Question is, we're not talking denial of the project. Does the counsel have the option to approve the project and let's say change something in the size of the deck?

That deck is 1,000 square foot right now as proposed, which is the same size as the ADU. And if hypothetically the Council wanted to reduce the size of the deck, and that's the condition of approval, we are approving under that scenario, the council would be approving both the main dwelling as well as the ADU without change to anything to that main design. Is that an option in front of the council?

That's that would only be an option if there were an objective standard that we were bringing the deck into compliance with. I am not aware of any such, as to deck size. So the answer is that is not an option.

I see. And in our objective design standards, what I'm hearing from you is there is no size limitation to the deck. Correct. Are there any other objective standards, for lack of a better word, that talk about the deck in terms of privacy impacts or anything else?

I'm Chris will know this better than I do, but and he can jump in and correct me if I'm wrong. But I believe that there are standards as to the height of the deck and how close it may be to the neighbors. And I believe that this deck meets both of those standards.

That's correct. It does meet the objective standards applicable to decks. That is correct.

Thank you so much, Gabe, and thanks, Chris. That's my questions, Mayor.

Anybody else? I just have one for, again, it's for our attorneys. Is this a de novo review?

Yes, it is.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Thanks, Chris. So at this point I'd like to invite the appellant to take a total of up to ten minutes for your opening statement.

Good evening. Thank you for your site visit yesterday. My name is James Campagna, and I've lived next door to the subject property for over twenty years. I respectfully request that the council members consider my letter to the council, which is posted dated 05/19/2026, which was distributed yesterday. Look, I am pro housing and pro development and not trying to interfere with the feasibility of this project.

My concern is related to a specific feature of the project, the very large second story deck, and illegal removal of trees to accommodate that proposed deck. The deck presents an invasion of privacy and is unwarranted. I've been informed by staff that this project, because it's a two dwelling unit development, is subject to an objective standard of review. I believe this finding for the objective standard of review is improper. Both Saratoga City ordinance, and I'll quote it as one five dash five seven dash zero three zero, and state laws like have exclusions in the case of demolishing of rental housing.

It cannot be disputed that the subject property has been rental housing for the past three years. In my packet yesterday, I provided publicly available listing information as to the rental activity, and we'll also note that the property has even been rented by the city's own building official within the last three years. He was a great neighbor. This project includes the demolition of rental housing and should not be given the benefit of objective standards of review. As the adjacent property owner, my primary concern is the loss of privacy.

Specifically, this project proposes a large second story deck that's not only inconsistent with the city's design guidelines, but also unnecessary. This deck directly overlooks our swimming pool and primary bedroom, creating a significant and unavoidable invasion of privacy. Given the applicant's site is approximately one acre with ample usable ground level space, there's no clear need for additional elevated outdoor space. Even if the objective standard was proper to apply in this matter, then the city cannot generally deny or impose conditions that make it infeasible. Eliminating this second story deck does not make this project infeasible.

And in the presentation that Chris Reardon just made, one of the things he said was, or he said in his presentation was, related to this project, he says the design and structure of the site development plan is consistent with the residential design handbook. And it is not. If you go to the residential design handbook at page 11, I have copies if anyone would like them. I'll just

leave them here.

It is not consistent with the design handbook. Importantly, in order to accommodate this expansive deck, the applicant removed several large trees without obtaining required permits. I have raised this violation in my comments to staff, and it appears the matter is still pending with the city arborist. The applicant has violated municipal code and should not be allowed to benefit from that wrongdoing. And I'll also add in the staff report, number three, the staff response.

It says that the city arborist and code enforcement office have never been notified of this issue. And look, I raised this issue with Chris Reardon back in September in my written response to him on the initial plan. And then I also raised it in writing and again here at the podium at the Planning Commission. So it's not fair to say that that wasn't reported. While I fully recognize and support the right to build a home in Saratoga, this project lacks reasonable consideration for neighboring properties.

I respectfully request you to affirm my appeal and deny the administrative approval as submitted. Thank you.

Thank you, Jim. And now I'd like the applicant to come up. And you have ten minutes to make your presentation.

Hi again. My name is Anita Hunter and I'm the owner. I absolutely have given neighborhood consideration and neighbors doing this design. As a matter of fact, one thing that, it was the first thing that came to mind was the ADU position. I could have put two ADUs, a junior ADU and an ADU, where that orange netting was that you saw yesterday, 16 feet high and four feet from the fence. And I chose not to do that. And we would not be talking about any of this. So I put it on the opposite side of the property in the front. So that was the first thing. And I'm sorry.

I wanted to thank Chris also because I know this has been a very long approval process. My application was 2022. And I'm trying to put an ADU in Saratoga. I promised my daughter, this is Nicola, she could have a graduation party there and we're going to miss that. The house sits vacant right now I can't get a short term tenant to move in there right now.

But I'm adding a unit. I'm adding an ADU. As shown on the site plan, my home is 20 foot back from the property line. The second story is additional five pardon me, five feet back for a total of 25 feet from the property line. I also found out that my property is nonconforming.

In the middle there section, it's only 117 feet wide. My setbacks could have been 11 feet seven inches, 10%. But instead, I went 20 feet side setbacks. And on the opposite side of the property from this neighbor, I'm 25 feet or 23 feet instead of 20 feet or instead of 11.7 feet. So I could be closer to the fence.

But all of those were considerations that I made to make it less obtrusive to neighbors and take them into consideration for sure. After that 25 feet from that balcony to the fence, then the neighbor has 20 feet setback. Then a three car garage. Then where we were standing another 25 or 35 feet from where we were standing the other day. So if you add five feet, 20 feet, 20, another 35, it's 110 feet away from the balcony where we were standing yesterday.

And everyone was in a little bit different places. So it's approximately. That is the width of many parcels in Saratoga. We could fit another house between where my balcony ends and the backyard of my neighbor. Furthermore, to the primary bedroom, which is the only living space window that would face my property, that is another 35 feet to 50 feet away from where we were standing.

So for a grand total of 160 feet away to that bedroom. My neighbor posted orange netting like that was the balcony itself. That balcony is an additional 25 feet from that orange netting that we saw. So it looks very intrusive when you have that orange netting, But it's not. I mean, it's 25 feet away.

That's a substantial distance in any residential context for sure. I've also asked why I was not pursuing a more intensive development or splitting the lot. Is because it started before SB nine was allowed in Saratoga because that was twenty twenty two. I could have placed that accessory dwelling unit, like I said, four feet to the property line where that orange netting was. Privacy is a subjective term.

There are no objective standards that have been violated here at all. So even reducing the balcony there, that's just subjective. What is large? If you think that is large at 49 feet wide, then 160 feet to the primary bedroom of the neighbor is really large. So if you think that the deck or the balcony is big, the distance between that neighbor's is a lot larger.

That's three times the size. So I don't think cutting that back would even matter. I've made sincere efforts to work with my neighbors and be considerate through this process. I intend to live in this home with my children. And it's very important to me to have a positive neighborhood environment.

While I cannot control how others feel, I have taken reasonable efforts to make sure that this design fits the surroundings. What I have done beyond is to plant 89 trees. Those are laurel trees because they have the trunk on them. Plus three additional trees for a total of 92 trees I have added since starting this project. I also put up that screening on the top of the balcony, which is metal, just to screen out.

My neighbors peeking over the fence with cameras talk about privacy. I mean I should be concerned on that. I think those measures demonstrate good faith efforts and to be respectful to any potential impact. For these reasons there is no objective basis to deny this project. I respect the counsel to uphold the staff's recommendation and the Planning Commission's unanimous recommendation to deny the appellant's appeal and approve this project. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And now I'd like to open this item up for public comment. If anyone in the theater here would like to make a comment, please either turn in a slip or come on down to the podium. And if there's anyone online who would like to make a comment, please raise your virtual hand. Oh, yeah we're going to get. We will, will. I was going to just do that and then we'll get to us. Okay. I don't see anyone. So I'm gonna close the public comment period and bring it back.

And yes, we can, we will allow questions of the applicant or the appellant. Or the attorneys. Or Tina. If that was a question. Want to see if you're awake. Go ahead, Yan.

I am awake.

I know you are. I'm teasing. Geez.

All right. I do have a question for a appellant. If you don't mind, come to the podium. Well, again, I just want to thank, you know, Chris and everyone who, present this case. And, my question for appellant is, you presented your case and as you can tell, there's no objective reason to deny this project.

What is you know, you appealed what is you consider is a reasonable size of balcony to you, or what is exactly what you are asking for? I kinda want to understand, but because there's no objective reason to deny this project.

So I would request that the balcony be eliminated or significantly mitigated in size. And I also, as I mentioned, I don't think an objective standard is proper here. And I'd ask maybe the city attorney can look at this section fifteen-fifty A3. And I'll just read it to the council real quick if you don't mind. It says a two unit residential development or urban lot split, so one or the other, may be located on parcels within all single family residential zoning districts with the following exceptions, and it lists several.

And one of the exceptions is housing that has been occupied by a tenant within the last three years, and this property has. So I don't believe it's proper that this application get an objective standard.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Perhaps can we have a city attorney to address the question that raised by the appellant?

Yes. Mr.

Ross.

Oh, sorry, Heather.

I was referring the question to you. Thank you.

The

section that the appellant cited is part of Saratoga's s b nine implementing ordinance. That is correct. If this were an s b nine project, a two unit development is it has a specific definition within our ordinance, then then that restriction regarding tenant occupancy would apply. But as Chris explained in his staff report, this has not been a s b nine project. This is a single family home in an ADU, and neither of those types of projects alone or together have this tenancy requirement or or bar on on properties occupied by tenants.

So that provision that the appellant cited does not apply to this project.

Okay. Yeah.

I have a question for applicant, if you don't mind. Thank you for your presentation. And I like your design, and I appreciate the effort you made for your landscaping, your architecture design, as well as the effort you made for privacy concerns. But yesterday, at the site visit, we were at a parent's backyard with a two story large area of balcony. And with the balcony, the floor at 13 feet.

So with a six feet person, literally, is at the 20 feet. Yes, I think you can tell. You will be able to overlook the appellant's backyard. The pool and the yard, I'm not sure about master bedroom. But there's plenty of room.

But definitely, there are some privacy concerns. I'm just curious if you are willing to make any concession in term of I know you already put the setback at 25 feet. Would you be considering voluntarily to move even further back? I mean, you guys are gonna be in the neighborhood for, you know, a long time. And I just I'm just kinda curious if you'd be willing to, you know, consider to do anything just to address the, you know, the privacy concerns? I know that's not an objective standard, but it's just a neighborly ask, I guess, from your neighbor.

I think it's a big ask to kind of put it on the spot right now to make that decision. Aside from putting in 92 trees and the screening that's there, I mean, I know that people in one story houses really have a hard time with a two story home being built next to them. And others can look out a window and be at that same height as the balcony. So, take away balcony, you can look out a window. It's not but it give it a couple more years, just like you saw that one very large tree bush to the right of the orange netting when we were in this backyard, that will go way that will conceal all of that, I mean, in a very short period of time.

I've already started fertilizing and watering to do that. I am on the left side of the property. If I can go 11.7 feet to the property line instead of the 23 feet that I'm at right now, I could shift the house over to the left. I just, that's a huge ask to say right here in a public hearing. Who's going, that makes my plan unbuildable right now.

And I have to talk to an architect, the civil engineer, soils. I mean, that goes through planning again. How could I do that? How could I even cut back the design and I'd have to redraw? That's too much. I mean, I have done 92 trees, three additionals.

No, no, understood. I'm not asking to, you know, you redesign anything. I was just wondering, you know, secondary, the balcony move further back. You already have 25 feet of setback. I understand. Just, you know

The balcony, for architectural reasons, is basically the patio cover, right? The patio cover's there. So it's not additional construction. Cutting it back means cutting back not just the balcony, but cutting back the outdoor patio.

Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome. Cookie?

So, is a clarifying question. Don't know if it's for Christopher. But those three pistache trees that are right there, they get up to 30 to 35 feet in height. Is that correct? Am I getting that in the right spot there?

Yes, that is correct. Those trees will be puffing at 35, 30 feet at maturity.

Right. So the height of the deck is 13 feet. And let's say someone has eyeballs at six feet high. There's still whatever the difference between thirty and thirty five and nineteen feet? Yeah.

Correct.

Thanks.

Any other questions? Tina? I have a question for Anita. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, Jim. My question is, I've seen people put in trees. I've seen those trees die. Sometimes they die because, you know, the owner doesn't take the kind of care that they want of them. So if it was amenable to the appellant and you, would you be willing to put some trees on the neighbor's side of the home, of the, you know, where the view would be of the balcony?

So then it's, both of you have trees. And there's less likely that it's going to, all of that will fail. Is that something you might be willing to consider? It doesn't seem to me like it would be that many. Maybe a couple extra trees. Three, four maybe at the most. I'm just wondering if that might be something that would be a consideration for you.

I think that would be a consideration. I do have to wonder if my neighbor is so concerned about privacy, why he hasn't put in trees to this point. You know, that might be a question for him. Why does he not do it? I have put in trees so I could have that privacy on the other side of the property as well, on the backside of the property. And it's like, yeah, I'm totally in agreement for doing that. Why hasn't he?

Okay.

If his privacy was really the concern. Or is the privacy, is it not really privacy, but more because he just didn't want a two story home next to him.

Well, I'd love to go down that path. But that's a rat hole I really don't want to go down. So I'm going stick with the privacy side of things. I'm going hope for the best. So thank you. Appreciate that very much.

You're welcome.

Jim, I'll ask you in a second. But I wonder if one of our attorneys could tell me, again, know we heard it multiple times. But tell me if the applicant decided to scrap what they were doing and move things, tell me where this house, by the objective standards, could be built in proximity to the property line on that side?

I don't think I can answer that in the abstract. We generally look at existing projects and determine whether they are whether they comply with our objective standards. We don't look at the objective standards and figure out what project can be built.

I'm saying if

the Chris might be able to tell you sort of where the setback lines are

That's right.

Relative to the property and the house. He's very good at figuring out the setbacks. But I don't think that we're in a position to to talk about where a house could be other than where it is and whether it can be there, legally?

Well, where it could be is the setbacks. So that's what I just want a clarification on that from staff or the attorneys. The attorneys can't do it. Staff, maybe you can, Chris. Thank you.

Well, I can't say what the setbacks can be. The right side, the first story setback is 11 feet seven inches. Second story setback is five feet more than that.

Okay. So 22 feet away from the fence for the second story And eleven, twenty two feet, seven inches.

No, 16

No, feet, second eleven and seventeen, I'm sorry. 17 feet. And yeah, I was already five feet ahead of Okay. So 11 feet, seven would be the first story.

And five feet more for the second story.

And five feet more for the second story. Okay. Thank you.

JAMES

DAY: Yeah, yeah.

JAMES Oh, since you talk about, what about the setback for the left? Is that substantial larger than 25 feet also?

Yeah. The second story setback for the left is the same as the right. It so happens that the, where the lot is positioned and the house positioned, the secretary setbacks that are proposed are greater than the right ones.

What is that setback?

It's still the same as the right, 11 feet seven inches for the first grade.

Oh, no. I'm not talking about the standard. What is the current setback?

Oh, for the proposed What's

the current proposed project?

It's in the staff report. I can go ahead and look at it. Okay. Let me see.

Here.

It's 23.

Brian Tan is 23 feet to the left.

20 feet for the balcony?

Oh, for the balcony.

Okay. Alright. Thank you.

The drawings are very small, so I'm sorry.

LV is located 25 feet from the right side

of the property.

Right. That's correct. 25 feet from the right side.

Want to go the left side.

From the left side. Okay. Let me look at the drawings.

Give me

a second.

Buying the site plan. Get closer. One side plan is always the last thing. We go. So here it is. So it looks like it's

Sorry, trying to find the The drawings are so small. Here we go. So it shows here that the

Wish we had those drawings from your trunk now.

It's 43 feet 10 inches to the left hand side. And that is on A0.1 of the plans.

That's the 1st Floor setback?

That's the setback to the deck. The 1st Floor setback is 25 feet. Okay.

Thank you.

Sorry for the plans are so tiny.

We know. I think that's why she asked. Yan, you get what you want? Is that

Yes. I would just, you know, looking at that, it seems like there are more setbacks on the left than on the right. But, you know, I'm just kind of curious, you know. But this is the kind of, the lot in the middle is not a, what do you call, the, you know, conformed lot.

Yeah, it's narrower there.

Can I explain why it's such a large setback on the balcony on the left? There is a sunken pit for the, a light well for the basement down there. So you skip over that part. Then you get the balcony. So it's 20 feet. I was 23 feet or 25 feet from the left setback, plus there is no balcony that goes all the way to the end there. So then it starts 20 more feet away. That's why it's 40 something feet.

Got it. Thank you. Okay.

Any other questions? Okay. Then we'll ask the applicant to come up and you'll have five minutes to, you've five minutes to talk to us again. Okay. Make your case. Take more. That's okay.

Thank you all for being there, for being here, and for your consideration. I also, in taking out some other trees, a lot of them were very dead and falling apart. And we didn't get to go in the back and the other ones that are approved there. I've made every effort in every regard to say what I can, to add 92 trees, to be further back from the setbacks that are required, not lot split, to not put an ADU next to my neighbors that would be, you know, that they'd have to look at the side of the building. I really have been considered the best, the best that I could for all my neighbors. Thank you.

Thanks. Jim, you have five minutes. Why don't you come on down and tell us what you think about the trees at least. My suggestion, that is not the dead ones. Or the missing ones.

Yeah. I think the more trees, the better.

Okay. So So if there were some trees planted on your side, you would be okay with that? And they could each control some trees and

Yeah. The more trees the better. I mean, have beautiful trees on the property. Have a nice one in front you guys saw. Trees would be nice.

Okay. Anything else you want to say to the counsel about your appeal?

No. Only that one issue that really hadn't been addressed at all is that there was a bunch of trees removed without a permit. They were in an area where this deck's going that permits may not have been approved if they weren't taken out illegally and then a deck couldn't go there if the trees weren't approved. Nothing further.

Thank you very much. Okay. So we'll close all of the public comment periods. And the appellant and applicant, thank you all for your remarks. And bring it to counsel for discussion and or motion.

They may know the theme to Jeopardy. Who wants to go first? Anne, you look like you're ready.

Right. Well, again, I want to thank staff and applicant and appellant for presenting your cases here. And as we heard from our city attorney and you heard from our city staff, this project meets the objective standard and also according to the Housing Accountability Act requirements, I believe this proposed home is well designed and comply with all the city's object development standards. I understand there are concerns over privacy. I totally got that because I understand how hard it is to see a two story home next to your single story home.

Hopefully, this 92 trees will help, you know, doing the screening job. Definitely, encourage your two neighbors to talk to each other and make sure the trees and screening are, you know, well in place. And for that reason, I had to deny the appeal. And I just don't see we are we don't have any tools to even put any conditions for this design. So for that reason, I have to deny the appeal.

Okay. Anybody? Cook?

Thanks. I do have a whole page of notes and comments. But I would like to make this as brief as possible. I do not see any grounds for denying this project. So I support staff's recommendation of denying the appeal.

Tina?

I want to thank the applicant as well as the appellant. I understand the concerns that Jim has raised with the size and everything. But as you heard, Jim, the attorneys have shared with us how we have to use our standards, the objective design standards, how they have been applied here. And I do appreciate the applicant, as you described very well, what the minimum setbacks are and how far you have come. As well as, you could have swapped the design from left to right.

And the light well in the back, next to the balcony for the basement, that does add the 15 feet something to the location of the deck at the first level, which creates the second floor balcony there. And thank you for planting the 92 trees. Good idea, Mayor, to suggest that the applicant can add more trees on the appellant side to add to the privacy. And I hope you can work it out. It is good to have neighbors who support each other.

That's what happens in challenging times. And our neighbors are our families. So I would be supporting staff's recommendation and denying the appeal. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate the comments and the appeal and the work that's gone into where we are today. It does stink when, you know, what seemed like healthy trees are removed at a certain time. If it's not complained about at the time, there's nothing that can be done. And except for an after the fact permit, which is just money.

I wish that there was more that we could do. Unfortunately privacy is not an objective thing. It's a subjective thing. We see this in many, many neighborhoods as unfortunate as it is. So I will also support the staff recommendation with the modification that the applicant put several trees kind of where Jim has the orange netting.

So that could be two or three or four trees. I'd like our arborist to work with the applicant and the appellant to come up with the right mixture of trees. And one of the things I learned from several of our arborists over time is that when you plant, don't plant full box trees, 48 inches box trees that are already grown and got big old root balls. Plant trees that will grow in their environment. They will be much more healthy. They will adapt to their environment much better and become much stronger. So that would be my suggestion. Does anybody have a motion? Well. Second. Dana. Sure.

I'd like to make a motion to support staff recommendation.

With any

I second. With the addition of Do you want to give a number or keep it

I'd like to keep it

Open?

So that the arborist can work with the appellant and the applicant to come up with the right number.

Okay. So with the added condition that the city arborist works with both the applicant as well as the appellant, to have the applicant plant additional trees on the side of the appellant's property, along the area where at the site visit we saw the orange netting yesterday. So that's my motion, mayor.

The hearing has been closed. And it's up to the discretion of the mayor to determine whether to open it again.

I'll ask the counsel, would it be okay if we hear from the applicant on this before we go ahead and make the motion? I always hated that on the Planning Commission. We do things like that, and then we'd never hear whether it really worked or whether it wasn't going to work.

I'll leave it to you. I'll leave it to you, Mayor.

So I'm okay. Can we hear from you?

I'll note in the record the hearing's been reopened.

Oh, yeah. Public hearing's reopened.

Although cooperation is wonderful, I think if you make that a condition of approval, you are saying that I have to do landscaping on someone else's property. Jim hasn't even spoken regarding that. I mean, that just seems like not a condition. Of course, as verbal as we're standing here, too, we want to work together. But don't make it a condition on the approval. Because how can we do that? I can't landscape someone else's house. And he could say no. And then we go nowhere.

Well, that's why the arborist would be the final arbiter. And a couple of trees, Anita. It's just a couple of trees that you'd have to plant. You don't have to do landscaping. It's come up with them. Probably the same trees that you already got in, just on the other side of the fence.

I'm just saying Jim hasn't said yes to it.

You're Well,

going kind of

did when he came up. He said that more trees would be good.

Think as a condition it's, I mean, I will work to plant those.

Thank you. That would be awesome. Thank you.

Just for the record, I think your request is very unfair and unreasonable.

My request?

Yeah. You're holding her hostage, basically. I don't like it. Don't like what you're doing.

This is a de novo hearing. That makes

I'm just saying I don't like what you're asking of the owner. Okay.

Do conditions like this all the time. But that's okay. Go ahead and make your motion.

Mayor I already did

the addition.

You did.

Do we have a second?

Can we hear the motion, what the motion is?

Go ahead,

The motion is to move staff recommendation, which is to deny the appeal. I'm not going to read the details. With the additional condition, as requested earlier by the mayor, confirmed by the applicant as well as the appellant, that the city arborist works with both the applicant and the appellant to add a few trees on the appellant's property that the applicant do you want me to use the word pays for? Or

Plants. Yeah.

Plants. Okay. That's it.

Okay. Do we have a second so we can discuss?

Can I have

a question?

We need a second before we can discuss.

All right. I'll second that.

Okay. And ask the attorney.

Question for the city attorney. Can we do that? That's what before.

That's what I was going to

do. Okay.

Mr. Ross, would you like to take that question?

Yes. Again, unless we have an objective standard that this condition is requiring the parties or the the applicant to meet, we we do not have discretion to apply that condition. I will say

Take it out.

I can't I'm not sure whether you intend the condition to be mandatory or if the condition is for the parties to work together on a plant to plant more trees as opposed to if you are requiring the parties to get to a result of planting more trees. The latter, we could only do with an objective condition. An objective standard rather.

Okay.

Which I don't I'm not aware of an objective standard that that condition would be implemented. Okay.

It was the former that they worked together with the arborist. And maybe we put a deadline on if they can come to an agreement. If they can't, then it goes away. Is that something we should do, just leave it out and hope they work together?

Mayor, would you want me to make a friendly amendment if the attorney proposes a different word? Because that was the intent. That's what I heard from And that's how I put it, added it in the motion. I think it's a good idea for neighbors to work together. And I do appreciate the applicant's willingness to add a few trees. Neighborly relations in the long term are good. So would the attorney recommend a different word, or just leave it at that?

I would suggest, I think, work together in good faith to Consider. To consider. Yeah. And then I think what we had is to, by my notes, work together in good faith to consider plan for to plant additional trees on a appellant's property.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Let me, let me

I will

Did we get all that?

That

I Yeah. Will

Thank you.

That works. Let me rephrase the motion. I support staff recommendation denying the appeal with a recommendation to the applicant to work through the city arborist to plant a few trees on the appellant's property to consider in good faith. Got the grammar wrong, but I think you can fix that.

Okay.

Am I clear, Leslie or Heather?

It works.

Okay.

Will you second that, Yan?

Yeah. I'll accept the amended motion.

Okay. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? So the motion carries unanimously. Thank you both. Our next item is public hearing regarding vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts.

This is an informational report on the City Of Saratoga vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts in compliance with Assembly Bill 2,561, which became government code section 3,502.3. Hi, Babette.

Hello. Good evening mayor and council members. I'm Babette McKay, human resources analyst presenting the annual staff report required under the Assembly Bill 2,561, which as the mayor just said, mandates a public hearing on vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts. This is the second year of this report and it will continue to come before you annually. Starting with workforce data, I'm pleased to share that Saratoga maintains strong staffing levels.

Our citywide vacancy rate is just 3.54% with two open positions out of 56.6 full time equivalents, including the city manager position currently in recruitment and expected to be filled early in the new fiscal year. This low vacancy rate is not new. We have averaged 5% or fewer vacancies throughout 2024 and 2025, reflecting consistent success in recruiting and retaining a high quality workforce. Our hiring process is both thorough and efficient. We advertise on platforms such as Cal Ops, Handshake, governmentjobs.com and LinkedIn as well as specialty platforms for technical roles.

The selection process includes applicant screening, skills assessments, interviews with subject matter experts, background checks, and a twelve month probationary period to ensure the right fit. Retention is equally strong as our current employees have served an average of ten point nine years of service right now, and our longest tenured employee has been with Saratoga for more than forty one years. We support retention through competitive compensation and benefits, nine eighty work schedules, professional development, wellness programs and employee recognition. Saratoga maintains a stable workforce with minimal vacancies, demonstrating that our recruitment and retention strategies are effective. With a lean but dedicated team, we continue to provide high quality services in our community.

This report fulfills the requirement under Government Code Section 3,502.3. And we respectfully request that the council receive and file it. And no formal action is needed. Thank you. And I'm happy to answer any questions.

Do you have any questions? I have one. My bad. Sorry I didn't ask this earlier. In the portion of the staff report, it's the beginning of the second page, It talks about throughout calendar year 2025, the city maintained an average vacancy rate. And you talk about the vacancy rates now for the different bargaining groups. And then it says compared to whatever percentage in May 2026. Was that supposed to be May 2025? Because this is May 2026.

Yeah, as compared to right now, May 2026. We gave the report last year in May 2025. So it's a snapshot in time for So

which one's today? Is it the first number or the second number?

The first number is the average for 2025.

Okay.

And then the second number is just what the snapshot is right at this moment.

Okay. Okay, thanks. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you very much for helping us meet state law. I'd like to invite the public to make a public comment. It's all up in the public comment period. Anyone here in our chambers may come forward or turn in a slip and come and speak for up to three minutes. And if you'd like to speak in your remote, please raise your virtual hand. Seeing no one come rushing to the podium, we will close the public comment period.

And I thank you very much. Appreciate your time. And thanks for hanging around. All right. Next up is item, oh, You want a break? Okay. We're going to take a ten minute break. And then we'll come back with the budget. Which last night took an inordinate amount of time in Los Gatos. So stay tuned.

And now we're going to conduct a public hearing on the proposed budget, which will have final consideration at our June 17 meeting. Ryan, podium is yours.

Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. Ryan Hinchman, administrative services director. I am bringing back the fiscal year twenty twenty six, twenty seven, preliminary budget. We recently reviewed this. This represents work that's been ongoing since January with the city council staff and finance advisory commissions.

Did I say commission? It's a finance advisory committee. The budget discussion, again, is really this is the culmination of three core documents that are included in the agenda packet. The proposed budget presentation, which I'm walking through now, as well as the general fund forecast, which was provided as an attachment to provide a little more detail on the general fund budget. And we also have the preliminary budget document that is attached to the agenda packet.

That budget book is in draft form and will be updated with metrics as they become available. As we review the budget, the key policy question we want to address is whether the proposed spending plan supports city services and priorities while remaining fiscally responsible. So with that, I'm going to jump right into the budget. You can see here that we have a balanced budget technically, but it's balanced through temporary measures relying on one time reserves to fund our projected deficit. The main issue that we've been discussing for months is the public safety cost increase that we saw with the proposed sheriff contract.

We made several reductions to operating costs, but those don't solve this structural issue we have with the rising sheriff costs. And over the next fiscal year, as we wrap up this presentation, I'll lay out the key priorities that the council will set for long term balance. Looking at the agenda, I'll walk through these items fairly quickly. Again, because we've discussed them in the past, What I really want to highlight are the changes and refinements that we've made since the April presentation on the budget. So again, looking at our financial forecast, This graph shows the green line of our revenues.

The last two years have been historically good for the city, and we found ourselves in good financial position. As we look to the future, we received a significant increase starting in fiscal year twenty twenty seven with the sheriff contract. What this graph shows is the use of our reserves. These are the monies that we have set aside that we can use to fund city services. Those are now projected to be exhausted in four years with the refinements that we have made to the budget.

So the underlined change here that's been refined since the previous draft that we shared in April is the public safety increase. It has now gone down to a $2,600,000 proposed increase, down from about, previously we had about a $3,000,000 increase. Again, to sort of balance the budget for this fiscal year, what we've done and relied on is a one time reduction in our capital costs. We've reduced our additional discretionary pension payment. So we will make the necessary pension payment this year, but we've been setting aside additional funds to help reduce our liability and improve our financial position.

We've also made some operating reductions to our budget. You can see, no changes here from what we reviewed in April. Public safety. We're at a crossroads. This has, put the city in a real challenging position, the proposed sheriff increase.

What we've asked for are, service reductions from the sheriff, to help us, right size and balance our budget. We are yet to receive, feedback or a response on on the proposed reductions that we've asked for. And the city is exploring a regional partnership, potentially with Los Gatos Monte Sereno Police Department, to see if there's alternatives to providing, necessary protective services for the city that are more cost effective. We talked about the forecast risk, and potential challenges that aren't shown in our graph, the largest of which is a recession. We don't have contingencies for one time emergencies or extreme weather events like we saw in 2023.

2023, we ended up setting aside over a million dollars to help, deal with that storm. Excess eREF, the story, really continues here. There's no no real changes. Just calling out, again, the potential clawback of these funds. This slide highlights the refinements since May. The largest is the sheriff proposal. Significant reduction as they refine their methodology and fine tuned the numbers that they gave us. We did add some funding and expense for two electric vehicles. So this really didn't have a budget impact. We will need to transition our fleet in upcoming years.

I'll talk about as we get into the future slides. We will need to start transitioning more aggressively towards no emission vehicles. And finally, we had a very small change in the administrative analyst position, increasing the FTE slightly, which had a minor budget impact of about $9,005 Internal service funds. So, you know, we talk periodically about internal service funds. But just to, you know, remind the council and the public, we use internal service funds to allocate shared support costs.

Insurance is a great example. So the city procures insurance. It's a large cost. We then take that cost and allocate it to the different programs to really establish the correct costs for those programs. These four buckets here represent our major internal services.

They are information technology insurance, our vehicles and equipment, and our building and facilities internal service funds. So looking at the costs for these funds, we're projecting a 7% increase in 2027, slightly outpacing our revenue growth, but considerably better than what we've done in past years. If you look at this graph, starting in 2023, our insurance cost was about $1,000,000. By 2025, we were at about $2,500,000. So the insurance cost was a rising challenge that the city had.

It was something we put on the radar in terms of our structural challenges. And the good news here is that cost has stabilized. The insurance markets are stabilizing, which is good news for us. We had a slight increase in our building and facilities. This has to do with a roofing replacement project that's underway for city hall.

So a slight increase there. I mentioned I want to talk about vehicles and equipment. We are taking a phased approach to our zero emission fleet for vehicles as replacements occur. The current state rules are focused on medium and heavy duty vehicles, that need to to, be replaced with zero emissions. The current schedule is that the replacements need to be one hundred percent zero emission by 2027.

I bring this up because this will increase our future costs for our vehicles and equipment. There's potential, what's happened in the past, is this technology really hasn't been available. It hasn't been cost effective. So there's potential that this 2027 deadline moves further into the future, but I did want to flag it for the council and the public. If we're not compliant with this law, it exposes the city to enforcement action and potential penalties.

We talked about our reductions to, capital. These would include the investment in the city's buildings, infrastructures, and our equipment. These represent our largest long term investment. We've really narrowed it down to just the priority projects this year with a few new projects budgeted as well. This slide depicts our capital contributions over time.

We've shown in the past We reduced this one year just to right size our budget and make sure that we're balanced. But it's not a long term solution. As we defer our capital investment, we increased our future costs. And we're fiscal stewards of the community's capital assets. And our role is to manage, maintain and reinvest in those infrastructure assets over the full life cycle.

This table, we talked about our reserves, our unassigned reserves are the most flexible. We have policies in place for what these monies are used for, but they're really at the discretion of this council to use for our budget. We're projecting about a $14,000,000 unassigned fund balance that can be used for operating deficits in the future. We've talked about the challenges with cutting further beyond what we've done. We're proposing this budget.

We're highly reliant on the public safety contract. It's a major component of our budget and big expense driver. Our options with this item are very limited. Our deferrals in capital and pension costs solve our near term challenges, but they actually increase our future costs, something we want to be aware of. And finally, our revenue.

Sources are very limited. The city relies heavily on property tax, and we have high volatility in what little other sources of revenue we have, including our charges for service and interest earnings, which change very rapidly with the economy. This really brings home the message again, looking at our general fund financial forecast with our expenses outpacing our revenues. It's something we're going to continue to share as we make policy decisions in the future and our reserves ultimately being exhausted in about four years. So I think the key takeaways for tonight and this message, you know, we've continued share is that our budget is balanced.

We've reduced it from 1.5 to now $1,200,000 in reserves for the upcoming fiscal year. So moving in the right direction, but we have a little bit of work to do over the next year or so. Under the current trajectory, our unassigned fund balance would be completely exhausted in four years. A balanced budget is going to require a mix of solutions, more than just service cuts and reductions. We're going to need to make some policy choices in terms of prioritizing what services we provide to the city and look at some potential revenue strategies as well.

So these are key thoughts. I want to leave, for the council. Some of these we will be addressing, in the near future. Some of them are a little bit more long term. Starting with the first question here is what public safety service model can the city sustain long term? So we're still waiting for our options. This is the critical question on this slide. We're looking at our service options with the sheriff as well as a potential regional partnership. So we'll be bringing that information to you as it becomes available. How much did the city continue to defer capital and pension funding to preserve our near term flexibility?

We're stewards of the assets in the city. Again, we'll bring before council, a comprehensive list of our assets, hundreds of millions of dollars that we're entrusted to maintain. And although we we can help balance our near term budgets, it creates challenges, for us in the future. And finally, should the city pursue revenue options for short, supporting, current service expectations for the city. I believe that's my last slide. And that concludes my presentation. I'm available if there's any questions.

Any questions of staff? Ken? And then Tina?

I have a lot. But I'll start my first three. Thank you so much, Ryan, for the presentation. Do we have a policy on the unsigned reserves? How much do we have to maintain?

Yeah. So we have policies for each of our reserves. They have target amounts. Generally, we are at about 100 of our targets for all of our reserves, currently.

But let's say, because to balance this year, we have to use 1,200,000 from the unassigned. Because I look at your unassigned, there are like a couple buckets, right? And let me find that slide. And do we have any policies on how much we have to like, I see on the side, we have 13.9. You've got working capital, too. So is this all the policy that we have to maintain, or this can be reduced?

So if we were to continue to reduce our reserves, we'd quickly fall outside of our policy goals. Off the top of my head, I believe there's a combination of our working capital and there's another reserve.

Yes. CHRISTOPHER CHRISTOPHER E.

J. Believe it's the fiscal stability and the working capital combined. The goal there is to have three months of appropriated budget as a goal. The idea there is we have a quarter worth of cash flow to keep the city solvent. So we would go below that goal quickly. In about a year, we'd start to fall below that goal.

Okay. Got it. Thank you. Second question. Can I just keep going?

Yes, please.

I'll ask my first three. And one of the slides, I need to find it. So you talk about the options under review. This is public safety costs. Options under review includes service level reduction with estimated savings of 1,100,000 or 2,100,000. What is this is based on our current or based on the proposed? What are we talking about? Yeah.

That's a good question. So what the sheriff's done is provided a completely new methodology in costing out the contract for their services. The methodology that they proposed increased the cost by $2,600,000 to provide the same current level of service that we're already providing. The question that we've been asking for the last several months is what does that service delivery look like if we were to reduce the total cost? Based on the new proposal, what would that look like? Would we have three less deputies? Would it be four? We haven't received a response to that question that we've been asking for some time.

Understood. So this is our proposal. Let's see if we want to reduce 1.1 or 2.1, what kind of service level will we receive? Got it. Okay. Just make sure I understand that. Another question. I know you talk about, you know, the state law requires us have to have all zero emission vehicles by end of twenty twenty seven. I know a lot of government agencies have not, even close to achieving that goal? Because 2027, just next year, you think this is something that can we delay or because that's a that's a cost add on, right, to, you know, our operation cost?

Yes. So the rules around this are pretty detailed. There are some exceptions, I'd say. And what's happened in the past is frankly the technology hasn't been available, right? So if I recall correctly, initially the deadline was 2024. It was moved out to 2027. I think it's probable that it gets moved out again to say 2030, in anticipation of that technology becoming available.

So we will have some time to purchase new, all the zero emission vehicles for the mid to heavy, I don't know what we call heavyweight or medium weight vehicles. So it will help us. If we put that in our budget right now, will help us to have a further saving at this point.

So it's difficult to say where the prices go. Today, they're generally more expensive, these zero emission vehicles. I think it's likely that the deadline gets pushed out. In terms of the cost savings with that, it would be difficult to quantify. But I think, you know, it's something we're looking at. We watch very closely. We are taking, as I mentioned, a phased approach, right? It's the replacement. It's not every vehicle today has to be turned around into zero emissions. But as we go to replace these vehicles, percentages of them need to be zero emission.

So it's really something I just wanted to put on the radar. It's not something we've talked about in detail. But as, you know, those laws become closer to us, it's something I'll apprise the counsel and the public of.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Tina.

Thanks. Ryan, thanks. A couple of quick questions. I'll pick up on the one clarification that I need. You just responded to Yan on the unassigned balances, which is Slide 13. So what was the dollar amount you said for working capital? The reserves currently indicate here $2,000,000 fiscal stabilization, 5,200,000. Other unassigned, 6,500,000. So you said about three months of appropriated budget we need to keep. What would that roughly translate to?

In rough numbers. So I believe our total general fund budget is about $35,000,000 So that would be 25% of that.

Okay. Okay. And then you mentioned the ERF, 1.1, and at 20%, 1.4. The likelihood currently, last I checked with the assessor's office, it seems like, yes, they are saying 20% risk, but we should be getting 1.4. Right?

Yes. That's correct.

And also the property tax roll for Saratoga being pretty much residential, we are on the higher end in the county. And very highly likely we are going to stay above five. Right?

Yeah. Okay. We're projecting 5%.

Yeah. So in some ways, the budget is just a tiny bit conservative, which is good.

Tim Yeah, that's correct. You mentioned it's conservative in both those respects, the 20% reduction to the eRAF, as well as the 5% assumption for the property tax.

Okay. And then my other question is, you brought up the going back to the zero emissions vehicles, the fleet, yes, my not that anybody can guess, but as you pointed out, 2024 was the original I can't recall what year it got moved back to 2027. It's likely it's going to get moved. And also hopefully, not the way to deal with the budget, but I would say that, gets moved beyond that. But that, a lot of that, isn't that the one coming from SVCE grant money that we got, the 2024 grant money that we got?

Grant funds could be used for some of these vehicles. As the legislation really takes hold and all agencies are scrambling to get these vehicles, it will be challenging to secure grant funding for large amounts of these vehicles.

Moving forward. But in the current budget, the 180 ks, that's coming from the grant money?

Correct, yes.

So we are not paying for that from our okay. And where I can find where is the other, the 493,000 grant money that we got in May 2025 from SVCE for the community decarbonization program. Where is that reflected in the budget?

So this is money received in May 2025?

No. We were allocated that. We were awarded that in May 2025, twelve months ago. And the project completion date was Leslie, we were talking, emailing about that. So I saw the $180,000 for the EV charging and the fleet, but not the other one in the budget, the $4.93 ks, dollars $05,000,000.

Yeah. And that, just for clarification, that is for the what's going on in the community. Joan Pasani Center and the HVAC and things that are happening. We'd have to look into it. I don't we have not received the funding. And so we'd need to look into where that is. We talked about, Tina, kind of talked about the status of where things are, we have not. We're right now in the conceptual portion to determine how we can even use those funds.

Twelve months in, it's half $1,000,000. We are looking for every single dollar. And we will not receive the funding until we complete the project. That is how we were awarded that.

There has been a lot of back and forth with SVCE based on the original grant and what we are able to use that for as it relates to the theater, the senior center, and Jompasani Center. So there's been continuous back and forth in terms of what falls within those parameters.

Did they change the conditions on us?

They did not change the conditions. They just, what we originally thought after the grant was submitted and what we were able to do, it's turning out that some of our electrification is there's more components needed to this electrification. So, we're not sure if we have to have consultants come in to kind of look at the HVAC and various things. And we're not sure if that can be used towards the grant. And so that's been the discussion with SVCE.

But we should be reflecting that in our budget. We are looking for we're scrambling for every dollar. We got half $1,000,000 of grant money like twelve months ago.

Well, since it's going be awash with what we buy, it's not really, yes, it's nice to show, but it's going to be a net zero at the end of the day. Because it's going to pay for something we're buying. I've actually heard this with SBCE with many other people. They think that it's going to do a certain thing. But SBC has to prove only, that there's only certain devices, certain things that actually match the grant. And this is both homeowners and commercial. So I think that there's a lot of conversation that will go on. But you're right. It'd be nice to show it. But it was also showing a cost of the capital purchase.

So it's going to be a net zero. It's not like it's going to show an extra 500 ks. So I think we can move on and we can take this part offline. And then, you know, when staff gets a real good, defined answer on both what the consultants say we need to do this and the parts that SVCE agrees will actually be paid for by the grant, because they are very specific about what they'll pay for. I think that that might be a good way to handle this.

Anything else?

I'll leave my questions for now.

Okay. Cook, any questions? Okay. I think we've got just, I mean, we've got a lot of questions. But I'm going to ask just one.

I know we talked at length about the 140 I think it was, what was it, dollars 140,000 something for the signs, for the emergency evacuation signs and stuff. I was wondering if you could tell me how much of that was, because I know that part of our deal was that we were actually allocating funds to be able to match a grant. We're going to go out and try to get grants to do these things. After many conversations with law enforcement and with fire, both our district and county fire, I'm not a fan of the signs at all. But I do believe that there's an opportunity, that there may be opportunities for grants to help us for, you know, wildfire safety and evacuation, etcetera.

So I wonder if you could tell me how much of those funds would be allocated for like matching grants versus actual hard purchases in the next fiscal year. And John may need to do that. Because I don't.

John?

Your recollection is correct. And the numbers have changed over time.

Exactly. I apologize. Yes, the money that we allocated for that.

Yeah. There was $300,000 we had in the CIP from a year ago. And that we have not spent because that's going to be used for a local match if we get the grant. So it's being parked. And then there's another $100,000 that was allocated or supposedly allocated, if you approve it, be allocated this fiscal year, which is a total of 400,000 that will be leveraged into 2,000,000.

Okay. And so that money is assigned for grants?

Or approximately 2,000,000.

Okay. To get 2,000,000 in grants. I know that we had talked about these signs and things before. But I know being in the back, it's kind of tough to hear sometimes. After conversations with fire, both our district and county, and law enforcement, I'm not convinced those signs are actually going to benefit us the way we want to. Because there are other concerns. So I just request that before any, you know, we're going out for grants for different things. If the grant comes back to buy those signs, maybe we should consider not doing that request, because there might be other better uses for it. The signs, I don't want to get into it. Yeah.

It's only a small part of the grant.

That's what I thought.

Yeah, wasn't still. It's, yeah. I mean

It's a it's a minuscule part compared to for the 2,000,000. Right? Exactly.

Of it's

for other things. You know?

So Okay.

And, Mayor Page, I would just add with all the grants, we're we're keeping it broad in terms of fire risk reduction and not specifically applying for only a grant associated with emergency signage.

Okay. Thank you, John. Thanks Sure. Very No problem. Okay. I 'm gonna leave it at that. I've just been through this too many times. Any other questions? Yan?

Actually, this is one of my questions. So it is on our budget currently, dollars 100,000 for the emergency message boards. I am actually a little concerned with this allocation. I'm hoping we're not gonna if we're not gonna do it, we should just remove that from our budget. So that's that's another I don't know if this is might be this is not the question, but I I I this is a question, we we can talk about that later.

One question, that I do have is on the capital reduction. Currently, we say we reduced by $2,000,000 to reduce all the project. I actually am trying to look at all the from what was the original budget, what we talk about? And what is the reduction percentage? I'm trying to find the number. I couldn't find it.

Yeah. So if I understand correctly, you're asking, reduced capital by $2,000,000 Where do I find the comparison for that $2,000,000 So the current year budget is $3,600,000 that we allocated from the general fund to capital. That was primarily to streets. That trend has been the same for the last seven years. I had a slide that showed the last several years of general fund allocations to capital, and they've all averaged around $3,500,000

So this year, we're just going to have 1,600,000 for CIPs?

Yes.

Okay. All right. This is one of the questions I have. Let's see. One more question. I'll leave that in the discussion, and I'll ask. That's it for now.

Okay. Any other questions? Okay. So now I'd like to open the public comment period. And anyone that's in our chambers that would like to come down and speak on this item, please come forward now. And if you're online, please raise your virtual hand. I see Glenn Hendrix coming down. Thank you. Oh, we got a card. Oh, I'm sorry, Melissa. I didn't realize we had some. We just know each other here so well. We just

So thank you. Glenn Hendrix. So I believe in your proposed budget, you're looking at reducing, one of the sheriff's positions. And I was just curious, is it gonna be the traffic officer or a, the school resource officer? And Ryan said the sheriff's office hasn't responded to that. Do they get a vote on what our optional incremental, kind of things are? That's something kinda weird to me. The last slide was the council direction on priorities. And you had the first question about what policing model you want to go to. In an earlier item, you talked a lot about objective models.

I would love to hear a discussion about what percentage of the general fund budget we want to go towards public safety. Because I think that would help define or set how you're going to deal with future public safety discussions of what goes on. The third question was pursue new revenues. You've heard me before. That's an absolute yes.

I would love to see somebody start putting together models about that. I wouldn't be waiting years down the road. Currently today, I think we get 7¢ out of a dollar in property tax. I'd love to see a model just to start looking at what it is, an incremental additional 2¢ just to kind of see how that plays out and what it would look like and what it would do to the overall budget. I think you should be very strategic in who you pick as the vice mayor for next year.

Because in 2028, they're going to have to be a champion for some kind of revenue increase for the city. So I think that should go into your thought process of who you're looking for. I didn't hear anything in the budget talking about what is the contract duration and being able to get out of the contract in a year or two years if we want to go to a different kind of model, and this whole zero emission discussion of what goes on. I think you guys should just tell Sacramento to go pound sand. If you look at the residents of Saratoga and how many electrical vehicles there are here in the city, we are way ahead of any other city in terms of the state of what's going on.

And the number of fleet vehicles that you guys have is an increment is changing all those to zero emission is not going to make a difference, especially not compared to what the residents have already done to be able to try and get to that. And you can use if they don't like what I said, you can tell them to call me. But thanks, Ryan, for all the budget work.

Thank you. Anybody else in chambers? We'll look to those online. Anybody that's online, please raise your virtual hand if you'd like to speak on this item. Seeing no one, I'll close the public comment period. I kind of want to address the police item that Glenn just brought up. You may have noticed we don't have a police chief or anybody that's an expert in law enforcement. And we haven't paid a consultant to come on board and help analyze this. So we're working with our law enforcement partners. And we've given them some parameters to come back and provide us with, for x amount of dollars, what would the level of service be?

And we think that that's a fair way to do it. We are not the only city doing this because the two other cities that contract with the sheriff feel that that is the most responsible thing to do, is to go to the experts and ask them to do it without spending $100,000 on a consultant to tell us what we should do. So it's a process. Unfortunately, yes. They have not responded. And it stinks. And I was on the phone today with our county supervisor staff. I've been in contact with the other mayors. I've been in contact with law enforcement. And it's horrible.

It is absolute, it's pitiful, the response that we've gotten from the county. Their whole tactic of not delivering numbers to us until December 31 was the beginning of a non responsive tactic that they've been playing. So we're trying very hard to get the right numbers. And we are also reviewing several other agencies to provide us support. On June 3, we will have a, I guess it'll be a public hearing item. And we'll be discussing the offers that we've gotten and reviewing the kind of police services that we think Saratoga should have and how to best fulfill them. So it isn't right. I agree 100%. It is what we're dealing with. And unfortunately, I've got to deal in realities.

I can't deal in some, you know, pie in the sky, wish this was happening kind of world. I've to deal with today. And that's what I'm doing. So, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get on my soapbox. I'll get down. Anybody else have any, I guess we bring it back for comments and a motion. Or a motion. Or hopefully both. All right. Tina?

I want to go back to the half $1,000,000 grant that I was talking of earlier. I asked the question. There are cities that have already used their grant money. We are looking for every single dollar. We are scrambling for dollars here in Saratoga.

Other cities and the county, they are struggling with money. We have a grant that has been awarded to us twelve months ago. It meets our sustainability objectives. It meets our need for facilities and infrastructure improvement. It is external funding.

Why wasn't this brought to council if there's a challenge? Twelve months and other cities have already used their grant money. That raises concerns to me. I would say, at the least, let's acknowledge the $493,000 granted to us by SVCE in the proposed budget. And secondly, I would actually like to include in the motion that we direct staff to return with the necessary allocations to complete the full project scope.

Otherwise, when are we planning to do it? The mayor just talked about the 100 ks. And I think Jan also alluded to that from the messaging board. There's 100 ks right there. Or elsewhere, come up with some options. Why should we walk away from money? That is ours to use? And again, I will repeat. Why was this not brought to

counsel? Well, I'll just give a little bit more detail in terms of what staff has been working on regarding this money. Progress has been slower than anticipated. We do have a couple of years to use this grant money. It has been slower due to the complexity of evaluating feasible electrification options and a lack of dedicated consultation funding in the grant.

So, we need to have consultants look at this, and that is not in the grant. So we have been working with HVAC contractors to assess the project requirements to know how much this is all going to cost and identify viable replacement solutions for this grant. The current evaluations indicate that the planned replacement of six rooftop HVAC units, two split systems at the community center, and the Warner House HVAC units can move forward as proposed. However, the theater boiler replacement will require a revised approach as the original proposed heat pump systems would not provide sufficient heating capacity. So the initial retrofit estimates for the theater significantly exceeded the original budget allocation.

So we can and we are moving forward. We're meeting with contractors for the three, but not the theater. We are working with another HVAC contractor to identify a more appropriate electrification model for a solution for the theater. Recommendations are expected within the next few weeks, after which an updated scope of work will be prepared and submitted to SVCE for approval. So there's just been a lot of back and forth on this. Again, we do have a couple of years to use this grant, And there's been a lot of behind the scenes work. We are happy to bring forward to counsel an update with this information that I provided at a future council meeting, if that's what the council desires.

Thank you, Leslie. I'll repeat. Even if we have two years, it's twelve months in, no report to council. The quotes we got from the contractors that you cited are within the last month or so, essentially. Maybe six weeks or something like that. Why has this not been brought to counsel's attention? Why has this this not been included in the budget? It just doesn't exist in the budget. It's puzzling to me. It's absolutely puzzling.

Other cities have completed their projects. It is not a surprise to us the conditions when we applied for the grant, and that was approved, were clearly stated, to the best of my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, that the ancy fee would not be included. I understand there are surprises. But why not bring it to counsel? Why not propose when we were allocating monies for other things? Why has there been absolute silence as if the process, the project, is going to move forward with the money

allocated? Again, we are happy to put together a timeline of what staff has been doing this last year regarding the various discussions that's had, the information that we've gathered. I do believe that this grant we have through until 2028. But I'm happy to provide we can get more clarification and happy to provide a full report of what has been going on throughout this year to determine how to make this project happen.