Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'm going to call this meeting of the Loscatos Town Council to order on February 3rd. Um, town clerk, can we please have the role? Council member Anie here. Council member Hudis here. Council member Abdami here. Vice Mayor Risto here. Mayor Moore here.

Uh, perfect. So, we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. Um, and we have four very impressive students here. Um, who we're going to hear a little bit from. Um, so Daniel, Aditia, uh, Arjun, and Yuvon, can you please join us? Um, and they are all from Stratford School. You can come on up. And so for everyone's awareness, these four students are part of the student government for Stratford School. And I had the great pleasure of seeing um part of their election. And how many how many people do you think ran in your election?

A lot of people. It felt it felt like 50. Um uh which 52? That's so I shared uh uh with them that that's a much more competitive election than than we have. Um so and they gave very good speeches. I don't think I saw any notes um which I can't do and I'm the mayor. Um uh so uh we have some very impressive students here. So um do you each want to tell us uh your quick uh fun fact or something about the community? We'll start with you.

So one favorite thing about this community is my school Stratford. We learn new things every day and study hard and play hard through fun school events. Our teachers and friends are very supportive. I feel grateful to my school and to the Los Gatos community. Thank you. Thank you. Wow. Thank you. All right. Next.

Okay. So, um, one thing I like is that all our neighborhoods are peaceful. like there's nobody shouting on the streets or annoying you. And also there are many fun events happening everywhere. For example, at school we have our Diwali celebrations, our um Lunar New Year celebrations and Aru celebrations. Thank you.

I honestly like the nature which makes it pleasant to look at. There are numerous roadside trees and plants which are vibrant in many different colors. I also like that you made it safer to ride on um ebikes. Trying. All right. One thing I like about the community is the farmers market where you get yummy fruits and vegetables from the local farmers which are very good at farming.

Perfect. Thank you all very much. Can you imagine being a fourth grader and having to run in an election against these uh uh fine young men? Um okay. Um so we'll uh do the pledge of allegiance. Do you mind leading us in the pledge, Mr. President. Yes. So, place your right hand over your heart. Look towards the flag.

Ready? Begin. I pledge aliance 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.

Very well done. Thank you. Can we give them a round of applause? Okay, perfect. And now you'll each get to shake each of the council members hands. Um you can start down this way and we'll make our way this way with um council member Badami. Thank you for being here. Thank you very much for being here. We really really appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Um now we will move to the um rest of the agenda. So, um we'll begin with the consent calendar. Um and if anyone is here to speak on either the consent calendar or on any items um for the regular meeting, please make sure you fill out a yellow speaker card and bring it up to the town clerk. Um and just a quick note on um before we begin, uh item 14 on the agenda um tonight is being removed and will be rescheduled to a future meeting date. Um and uh we'll now move to consent and Vilsia Rodriguez, human resources manager, will make a brief announcement regarding items 10- 11.

Good evening. I have a statement to read regarding item 10. In accordance with government code section 54953 subsection C paragraph 3, I'm providing an oral summary of the recommended action. The item before the council tonight is to set the salary and terms and conditions of employment for the town attorney position effective November 23rd, 2025. The proposed annualized base compensation is $310,000 effective no November 23rd, 2025. In total, annualized compensation is $468,630 inclusive of French benefits, payroll taxes, and retirement contributions. For item 11, in accordance with government code section 54953, subsection C, paragraph 3, I'm providing an oral summary of the recommended action. The item before the council tonight is to set the salary and terms and conditions of employment for the town manager position effective February 15, 2026. The proposed annualized base compensation is $366,000 effective February 15, 2026. The total annualized compensation is $538,287 inclusive of French benefits, payroll taxes, and retirement contributions. In addition, we would like to correct a typo in the recommendation language. It should state $5,536 for costs associated with payroll, retirement, and taxes from the available general fund unassigned balance. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Much appreciated. Any questions? Okay, seeing none, uh, thank you. Um, we'll now move to the consent items. Um, items appearing on consent are approved under one motion. Are there any council members wanting to pull an item? Council member Hudis. Uh, yeah. I'd like to pull item one, please. Okay. Which is the minutes from the January 13 uh hearing on the North 40.

Thank you. Any other um items to be pulled? Okay, seeing none, I'll entertain uh I I'll open up um public comment on the consent calendar. Um it looks like I have one um speaker card in the room um which is Gus who um if there are any other speakers for consent, please uh fill out a speaker card. And if you're on Zoom and would like to speak on consent, make sure you raise your hand. Council, mayor, vice mayor. Um, since you pulled number one because that was one of my main topics. I have six pages. I like to talk.

Can make sure you're speaking to the mic. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you.

I I have uh six pages. It was just a highlighted and just like one of the major things was the the three-year-old, you know, going to uh Lexington and was in preschool and, you know, I don't think, you know, that that's really fishy because I don't think that type of person has a the that that place has a it it doesn't have um a preschool for you. You know what I'm saying? I I at least when you go to middle preschool, I mean, when you go to elementary school, you start out at four years old. And I looked online, the the closest is four years old. So, it was, you know, some of those things I, you know, so now now do I get another three minutes for the

Yeah, sorry. Let let me just pause you really quick. Um, so this is on consent. Um, item one will be heard later, so you can comment again on item one. It'll be apologies for not making that clear. Um, okay. Item one will be heard after the the last item on our agenda.

Okay. Okay. So, I'll come back for that one. Okay. So, on number three, um the this is a lot shorter, just one page. Um the town um had a the town um had a regular meeting for uh and Mary wasn't here. And I'd like to have that pulled for censorship. I uh I commented, it says commented on number two. Um approved u which was raised. Let's see was about the gay community and I stated that uh the wording um and the public at large wasn't um notified. Um and I'm not a public speaker. Uh let's see. a legal argument was made by um Hughes that he thought that it was uh you know the records show what what he said and and my thing is you know you had a lawsuit with you know you mayor and the vice mayor and that that person that that sued you is not even in the the she spoke at the verbal and you just like dished her and so you're you're opening up you know I like to correct some of this language because uh and it should you know it's it's one of those things where you know you're you're underinsured and she wants to sue and and you know I'd probably go in on that because you're censoring the the public. It was it was one-sided um the it wasn't in the newspaper or anything like that and it should have been you know publicized. Hey, this is a big thing. a lot of people are dying about it, you know, on both sides. And it, you know, I would I would when you refollow that up, let's have, you know, maybe two people speak, you know, get input from the the community because

there was, you know, only a certain amount of people talked and it you can really there two side only one person favored, you know, four of you were for four and and was against it. Thank you. So, I'd like to have you pull that. Thank you very much. Um, I have no other um speaker cards for this and see no hands on Zoom. So, we'll close u uh verbal communications for the consent calendar and I'll entertain a motion on consent. Vice Mayorristo. Thank you. I move to approve items 2 through 12. Great. Is there a second? Second.

Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. All those in favor? I I.

Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. Passes uh unanimously. We will now move to verbal communications, which is the time for um individuals from the public to address the council on any items not on the agenda this evening. Um we do have more uh so we have 30 minutes for verbal communications. Um there are more than 10 comment cards uh which means if everyone takes the full 3 minutes and we will go over our 30 minute aotment but it's just a few more. So if some folks can can be under uh uh 3 minutes um we should all be good. Um so so please um that's my uh uh friendly um suggestion. Um, okay. So, um, we have, uh, we'll start with Jim Ratcliffe, um, who will be followed by Kim Ratcliffe.

So, hi, I'm Jim Ratcliffe. I am the neighbor to West Valley Muslim Association. And so, I wanted to bring up the West Valley Muslim Association's uh, modification of their CUP. So, that was submitted last uh, May. And here we are uh February and we have no no notification on what's going on with that. And so um I met uh with the planning commission last week and much to my chagrin they had not even heard about this uh issue. So, I'm just trying to hopefully bring everybody on the same page here and so we can get some dialogue because it's been like two years of me and I've met with a lot of you guys on the council here and you guys know about it, but the planning commission doesn't know about it and uh Ramadan's 3 weeks away and um it's going to be very busy as it always is and it's it's a very uncomfortable safety issue. Uh, and it's very um overwhelming for 30 days and it's unsafe and I'm just really hoping that we could get some um some traction on this because it's just it's it shouldn't someone shouldn't get hurt during this time. It would be really unfortunate and I just would hope that the town could um off also offer some traffic mitigation during this time because it is like festival of lights uh on Farley Road which does not have very many street lights and there's no sidewalks. Cars are parked on both sides of the street. So that narrows the the thoroughfare. So if a emergency response person had to get down there it it couldn't make it. So, um, I just would

hope that we could get some dialogue and I would also hope when I could expect a public hearing on this matter. So, thank you. Thank you. Um, we'll have Kim Ratcliffe next, followed by Michelle.

Hello. I know a lot of you. you've been over at my house, a couple of you, Matthew and Maria, and I'm just following up on my husband's um piece. I feel that we came to the town two years ago asking for help, I want to preface this by saying when West Valley Muslim Association moved in next door to us, for the first couple years, we got along beautifully. There were no problems whatsoever. We were excited to have them. We welcome the diversity. But in March of 2024, the first Ramadan happened. And what it entails is a thousand cars coming into our neighborhood for 30 nights in a row. It's like living in Levi Stadium. Maria, you were nice enough to come over and stand in my front yard, so you experienced it. I think Chris, you drove through and saw there's 300 cars parked on six different streets. 15 neighbors have written in with concerns that border the WVMA on five or six different streets. And I'm just I don't understand why this is taking so long. We've met with Chris. We've met with Joel. We've met with Matthew came over on a Friday to observe Friday prayers. We've been patient. We've let the process play out. We tried to negotiate and talk with the mosque. My husband and I spent 6 hours with the founder of the mosque. We invited him into our home. I don't know what else we else we can do. And I just feel really disappointed because we grew up in this town. We love this town or we raised our children in this town. And I feel very let down by our town and finally we were forced to hire an attorney who sent a letter. WVMA turned in their CUP modification application in May. After being asked to turn it in in

September of 24, they finally turned it in in May of 25. And we have not heard one thing from anybody in the town. So, we finally hired an attorney and he wrote a letter. He sent it in November. We still haven't heard anything. So I just want to take this time to hand out some copies and just I don't know what else we can do but we have Ramadan coming and right here I have a email communication from last year from West Valley Muslim Association. They wrote to the police department and asked for help and the police department wrote back and said it's likely impossible to control the volume. So, I mean, it's like the Disneyland parking lot in my they're they're only their current CUP allows them to have between 10 and 25 people attendees stay until 11:00. Everyone else is supposed to leave at 10:00, but they have a,000 people staying until 11:00 and 1,000 people are leaving 100 ft away from my bedroom window. So, I'm not going to take any more time. Now I'm done. So I'm just going to hand up.

Thank you. Now we have Michelle. And after Michelle, we have Carol Manchester.

Good evening. Um I want to underscore Jim and Kim's comments tonight. And the purpose of me taking this opportunity is to raise the awareness to the town council regarding the residential neighborhood concerns regarding the pending application for the cup modification number U2410 for WVMA. We believe that this is a compatibility issue. This is the second cup modification put forward by WVMA. The first has already been granted in 2020 in conjunction with the purchase of the property and the second application was actually filed on September 3rd, 2024 and the status remains pending. It's February 3rd, 2026. We want to protect the character of our residential neighborhood. It's zoned as an R18 single family residence zone which consists of 8,000 square foot lots and we want to persevere and preserve a safe, peaceful and healthy environment which is not currently what we enjoy. We believe that the previously approved cup modification provides a meaningful opportunity for WVMA to operate in a manner conducive to their exception request in place and also will support the year-round environment for the property uses that is compliant with Lascats town's noise usage ordinance between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. We do not support expanded hours of operation for dawn, which is 4:30 a.m. of usage of the property and night usage after 10 p.m. outside of the Ramadan exception. Our ask is for the town council and the planning commission to provide us with an update on the application in a public

forum as a formal and dedicated agenda item within the next 30 days. Thank you. Thank you. Um we now have Carol Manchester who will be followed by Suanne Laurig. Good evening, Mayor U. Moore, and council members. My name is Carol Manchester, as you know, and my family and I have Am I standing too close? You're good. Just keep going.

Um uh my family and I have called Lascettos home for the last 28 years. I want to speak tonight just as a not just as a resident, but as someone carrying a family story that still weighs on me heavily. My mother grew up in Ohhigh, California during World War II. As a child, one of her very close friends was part of a local Japanese American family. One day, that friend simply disappeared. My mother later learned that her friend and her family had been taken to a relocation camp. Tragically, my mother never learned or knew what ultimately became of her closest friend. That story has stayed with me and it makes me wonder why it is so hard for us as a society to learn from the mistakes of our past. When I look at the actions of ICE today, I don't see immigration reform. I don't see community safety. I see see fear used as a tool, families terrorized, people taken without transparency, and power exercised without meaningful accountability. That does not make our community safer. History shows us that great harm doesn't begin all at once. It begins when people are taken quietly, when communities look away, and when leaders remain silent. I often wonder whether history might have unfolded differently if more people had resisted early. When intimidation first became normalized and neighbors were first taken from their communities, laws has an opportunity to learn from those failures of humanity. Silence is not a neutral choice. Choosing not to act is still a decision. Tonight, I'm asking the council to agendaize this issue and

move toward a clear local law that prohibits town resources from being used to support or cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. I also urge you to engage in the DEI with the DEI commission and to speak publicly as individual leaders about where you each stand on this subject. Mayor Moore has already shown leadership on this issue. I hope the rest of the council will join him. The values we claim as a town matter most when they are tested. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Um we'll next hear from Suanne Laurig and she will be followed by Jeff Suzuki.

Hello U Mayor Moore, Vice Mayor Risto and Council. I'm Suanne Lurig and have lived in Lascatus 12 years. I have been pleased to see leaders and residents of our town stand up to bigotry and hate with the Lascato stands united against hate march and rally in 2021, the town's diversity and equity initiatives, and the town's establishment of a DEI commission. As we all know and as the speaker before was telling us, our country is in an unprecedented time where people are being grabbed by masked armed members of ICE who provide no identification. They're unlawfully doing this without due process at schools, on the street, at courouses where people are there for immigration hearings and at work. People are accosted based on the color of their skin or their accent without a warrant or evidence of a crime. Even little children have been swept up in this nightmare and taken across the country to concentration camps and even deported, denied medical care, and not allowed to speak to an attorney or even notify family of their whereabouts. People are beaten and way too many have been killed. I could go on, but I'm sure you're aware of the atrocities being committed by immigration enforcement. As a person of conscience, I feel that I must speak up and say that it must stop. As leaders of our town, each of you should speak up, too. Stand up for fairness, due process, following the law, and doing what is just and fair. We must not collude with these lawless agencies. Other municipalities across

the Bay Area, including the city of San Jose, have said that they will not cooperate with ICE enforcement efforts. Los Gatos should do the same. Losatoos has a DEI commission that could and should draft a resolution for consideration by the council. This is not something to put on the back burner and quibble about. It's urgent. We know ICE is coming and we must be prepared in advance. We must act now. Thank you. Thank you. I will now go to Jeff Suzuki and Jeff will be followed by Nigel Chandler.

My bad. Good evening, council. Before I begin, I'll disclose I'm not speaking in my capacity as a complete streets and transportation commissioner, but as a private citizen and the president of the Loscatus Anti-Racism Coalition. I grew up here. I grew up in this town. I moved here when I was 10 years old. I went to Blossom Hill. I went to Fiser, then Loscatus High School. And growing up here, I heard the same thing over and over again. Loscatoos is a bubble. Perhaps one may imagine Los Gatos to be a tranquil neighborhood untouched and unsolied by the outside world. Perhaps this whole thing with ice and border patrol will just boil over like a bad dream because nothing bad ever happens here. But consider this. The Japanese American incarceration did happen here. I have co co-authored three articles on it happening here. Uh I know at least a few of you on council have read that series because you told me you did. You know that right here in 1942, Los Scatus residents were forcibly incarcerated. Japanese Americans were expelled from their farms and schools. There were students at Losketas high school who took a train to the Santa Anita detention center, then were forced to spend years in concentration camps. I went through all the newspaper articles from from Los Gatos that were published in that time and council members said nothing. Instead, our main newspaper, the Los Gatos Times, was printing articles about how California was teaming with fifth columnists, saboturs, and traders who could lose us the war.

It printed articles saying that with the Japanese gone, now the white farmer could live the American way. I want you to ask yourselves a serious question. Would you have said something then if you understood that ripping families from their homes and throwing them into detention centers would not have made our country any safer? Would you have stayed silent? or are you willing to stand up for what is right when it really matters when it is hard? We needed we need an assurance that the town of Loscatos will under no circumstances collaborate or provide any resources to assist with ICE or border patrol. It's not too late. Thank you. Thank you. Uh we will go to Nigel Chandler and then Jason James. Hi everyone. Uh my name is Nigel Chandler. I just wanted to clarify that I'm not speaking in my capacity as a complete streets and transportation commissioner but purely in my capacity as a loss resident. Uh there has been a lot of news lately as we know uh regarding federal immigration enforcement. Um, I would like to concur with many of my fellow speakers here who have so eloquently stated their concerns. Um, and that I also believe Lascat should make clear its commitment to defend the civil rights of our town's residents. Um, I believe it is vitally important for us to stand in a united front uh with all the rest of the Bay Area to make it clear that unlawful federal encroachment will not be tolerated in our town. I wanted to bring some attention to some

of the precedents that are now being set by other towns and cities in our local area. Uh just a few weeks ago, San Jose made it clear that ICE agents would not be allowed to use its city-owned property as staging grounds following a countywide policy that forbids ICE from using county-owned property. I believe Lascat should consider uh adopting similar measures. One of our county supervisors, Otto Lee, recently remarked that, quote, "There is no such thing as absolute immunity and no license to kill." And that, quote, "If anyone comes into our county masked, spreading terror, breaking laws, or threatening residents, that they would be arrested by our sheriff, deputies, and police officers. I would agree that our officers should act to defend our residents against anyone who acts unlawfully, even if these illegal actions are committed by federal agents. We don't typically have county level sheriffs active in our town as far as I'm aware and so it would be nice to see some local reassurances as well. Lastly, I did want to bring up potential concerns regarding the town's flock license plate reader system. Uh I am not personally aware of the details behind this arrangement uh with Loscatoos, the town in particular, this one. Uh but our fellow town here in the Bay Area, Mountain View, actually just conducted an investigation and announced today um that they discovered federal and state agencies had unauthorized access to flocks data. They immediately suspended the usage of that system, the Flock system, in response. I would implore the town of Lascatoos to look into this case and to conduct a similar investigation for uh the Flux camera system here in Los. Thank you.

Thank you. Um we'll now go to Jason James who will be followed by Debbie Low. I'm here to ask the city council to agendaize a local law that ensures Loscatoos does not use town resources to support cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, including ICE and Border Patrol. Federal immigration enforcement is not making communities safer. It is creating fear, chaos, and trauma. We are seeing US citizens detained, jailed, sued, and intimidated simply for using their constitutionally protected right to speak, report, and protest. What's happening? This isn't hypothetical. It's happening now. History shows us what that when government power is used to terrorize communities, silence becomes complicity. Los Gatos has its own painful history during the Japanese American internment camps. When families were removed, incarcerated, and stripped of their rights while many local leaders and communities stayed silent. We should have learned from that moment. We should not repeat it now. And let's be honest about another fact. immigration. I mean, immigrant communities are the backbone of Los Gatos. They are the reason our restaurants and businesses are what they are today. As a brown American citizen, I shouldn't have to fear being wrongfully detained by ICE. But that fear is real. I urge the city council to take action, use DEI commission, and speak publicly. History will not be kind to those who enable to remain silent in the face of these actions. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. We'll now go to Debbie Low and Debbie will be followed by Carmen Low.

Hi, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak. Um, I'm going to follow Jeff's lead. I don't know if I need to, but I am here as a private citizen, not as in my capacity as a library commissioner. So, anyways, um, I am a longtime resident of Lasatas and I'm here today to ask uh the council to consider developing a plan and statement regarding ICE and Border Patrol. We live in a wonderful community, often buffered by um from what is happening beyond our town limits. Perhaps subconsciously, a lot of us think that can't possibly hap uh happen here. But in light of the recent events in Los Angeles, Chicago, and especially Minneapolis, wouldn't it be prudent to have a plan for our community if ICE decides to descend on our town? My motto is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Um it is evident that um ISIS tactics are extreme and indiscriminate and causing fear and anxiety in many communities. A statement declaring that our local police will not help or facilitate ICE in Lascatos would go far to alleviate uh those feelings. The safety and protection our pro uh our residents should be prioritized. I'm hoping some of you um witnessed the uh the rally or the walk that the high school students did yesterday. It was both inspiring and um I just you know you know that even our youth are being that live in this you know our our our little community are affected by what's happening what ICE is doing across the country and they know that it's wrong and they came out in support of you know get ICE out of here and um I feel as a community and as their elders that we need to support them and you know the kids in our community. So uh thank you. That's it. Thank you. Um, we'll now hear from Carmen Low, who will be followed by Tim Crane.

Good evening. Thank you for your time. My name is Carmen Low. I am a Luscato resident, a mother of young children. I also serve on the diversity, equity, and inclusion commission. Even though I come here tonight to speak in my personal capacity, I'm here to urge you to take action to protect our town and our residents from the violence and illegal actions of federal enforcement agents. I have watched in horror, as I'm sure many others have, at the atrocities that have been committed by federal immigration enforcement over the last year. And particularly in the last few weeks, as American streets have become more and more militarized, we've all had to mourn the death of a mother at the hands of ICE officials, a nurse for veterans who was murdered for protecting a neighbor, and children who have been ripped from their parents' arms, and detained in inhumane conditions. And this is happening to everyone in the United States, citizens and non-citizens alike. What we see is terrifying. It's an abuse of power. It's legal and it's deadly and it's really causing fear and anxiety in the erosion of trust with our government institutions locally in this town. So the question becomes, what are you as leaders of our town going to do to protect us? You had the chance in November of 2024 to take on this matter, to stand by our constitutional rights, to stand up for my family's safety, and to safeguard public trust. But you did nothing. And so it's really time for you to show clear and strong leadership and to align yourselves with other local municipalities including San Jose, Oakland, and our county and to do your job to protect the student, the residents and families of this town. There are many actions that you could take. You could affirm that uh our town

services should have operational independence from federal government. Um that and that the police should have no cooperation with ICE, that the town property should not be used um for any ICE activities. That you should be working with Lascato's police on a clear policy for how to protect our first amendment rights for protesters and also to protect us from ICE violence. You should be working with our local community leaders and faith leaders to understand what more you can be doing to protect the residents of this town. It is truly time for you to show clear and strong leadership and to lead with the values of community safety, protecting our rights, and that we're truly stronger as a community that looks out for each other and it's not afraid to stand up against the wrongs that we see. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Tim Crane. And Tim will be followed by Karen Yamamoto. Um and I'll just um before you start, Tim, um we have about 5 minutes left of verbal communications. Um I can uh have us go a little bit longer than that, but we do have a number of speakers left. So, um brevity is encouraged. Thank you.

Hello. I'm uh Tim Crane. I am a father of three, a Air Force veteran, and a business owner. and I am coming to speak to you to discourage ICE from coming into our community. Um, ICE brings chaos. We see it everywhere that they go. They're they gas preschools. I would not want them to gas my children's preschool. They their munitions will damage businesses. Uh, flashbangs are well known to start fires. The these are highly destructive. They are murdering US citizens. They are kidnapping people. And I do not want that in my community. So, I encourage the uh the council to uh follow through with the agenda items recommended by the other petitioners.

Thank you. Karen Yamamoto, followed by Joe Ends.

Hi, how are you guys? Um I'll make this real quick. Um totally agree with them. Kids are getting scared about ICE. I hear it every day when I sub. Um, but that's not why I'm up here. Uh, and actually I should talk to them a little bit later. So, I have a major concern about um there's an issue with the road on Lascatus Boulevard between um Churo Road and Frank. There's water and it seems to be seeping up from the ground. So that indicates to me that a there's a leak underneath whether it's sewage or whether it's a water pipe, but it can lead to a sinkhole. And considering that that particular area is part of the secondary fault line, I'm concerned. So I wanted to bring it to your guys' attention and have it addressed. And if you need pictures, you got my email. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll go to Joe Ends who'll be followed by Gus who last time I was up here. I had Joan's community organizer for the Friends of Lasish Creek on to the homeless. But I'm here to discuss the tunnel I brought up last time about securing that. So I went through it. Uh the people the property management people property was sold. Uh I got a picture for the city manager that I'm going to send you and uh it's going to be taken care of. But we got to find out who uh the guy the old property owner was very helpful. The old property management person in finding out who's responsible for this gate that's wide open and we'll get it done. So, I'll contact the town manager on that with the photos that he's going to send to the people who are responsible for it. So, that's it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. We'll go to Gus who will be followed by Gordon Yamate and that's our last speaker card on in person. Um, and I'll close uh in person and then go to Zoom.

I wish I could put those up there and have, you know, just make this friendly. uh you know I've been up here for a while you know coming and stuff like that and I always say censorship issues water bill you know this is a inside between us um you know that I have been saying civil war that I come as at at times as a prophetic dreamer I've I've I've stated hey you know shotgun that you know there's people running around you know that that dream that I gave you guys and I I believe that's the ICE agents. Um uh I like to point out just facts that uh the um and I quote this is Santa Clara County has the largest share of immigrant residents of California's 58 country I mean counties. More than 40% of its residents were born outside the United States. One in five immigrants resided are undocumented according to the county records. That was on October 17, 2025. I think I put that in and it was in the paper uh the town paper. Officials look to expand ICE fight things and this is all because they're coming. This is a tactical thing. You have to you, you know, I've been promoting the sporting stuff, but they they want to take sports, you know, away from us. and they know um that that you know they know that there are bad people here cuz there's a it's a large turnout and they'll they'll say hey we we found this guy or this guy and they could have picked him up a while ago and it's it's it's it's you have to look at a tactic we're in a civil war you have to look at this as a civil war you can't we can't be speaking I can't be speaking like this because I I'm already on their list you know I I've been underground

for some time I have my issues with u government all governments even you guys I I don't agree with four of you the only one I agree with at time a lot some most of the times is Mary Badami but you know she last time we spoke she looked at me and said you know I'm representing the the town and I understand that but then represent the town you I think me and you talked about some of this and I've said there's a second shooter I think that if you brought that up you would this would unravel because it was a fake fake assassination attempt by and he didn't get hit in the ear. I mean, it's just um another thing was that I'd like you to look at because this I only have a couple is uh the article on the developing housing activist lawsuit. I want you to continue fighting that. Um because this is you know you're taking you know all this the the front page you know the taxes in the the um the our town is this town is small it's not a it's not like Santa Clara um which turned into a big city. Thanks.

Thank you. We'll go to Gordon Yamatu who's our last in-person speaker and then we have four hands raised on Zoom and we'll uh limit it to those four.

Good evening U. Mayor Moore, members of the town council, I'm Gordon Yamate. I'm here in my personal capacity and not on behalf of the DEI commission or any other organization. Um, first I would just echo the comments uh in support of taking greater action to protect uh Loscatoos against the excesses of ICE and border patrols. And I have to tell you, I was personally touched by some of our previous speakers. Um, I I think the question that you're all asking is why does Loatos need to speak out and ensure that local town resources and properties are not used to support ICE activities? It's like it's not going to happen here, right? This community is safe precisely because we have an excellent police force that cares about the safety and well-being of all members of our community. This community is safe because the overwhelming majority of people in this community are concerned about the excesses of ICE and Border Patrol operations in Minneapolis and other parts of the country, including Southern California. when you when you are deemed to be a domestic terrorist by the current administration for merely exercising your first amendment rights to disagree uh with that administration's policies and actions. You know that uh no one is safe from ICE and Border Patrol excesses. Santa Clara County has enacted policies to protect its citizens by preventing ICE and Border Patrol forces from using county properties for staging and operations. That policy does not apply to town owned uh or controlled properties, but you can strengthen what the county is doing by joining them and taking similar steps here in Los Gatos.

When our communities are united in cause and purpose, it sends a strong message that the ICE behavior that we've seen in other parts of this country, including uh in in this state, that those actions are not acceptable nor welcome here, and that no one has cart blanch to terrorize or even worse, murder innocent people. I urge you to agendaize this matter and explore what Loscatoos can do to affirmatively ensure the safety and well-being of all members of this community. Everyone in this community is thinking about this. I see that from the demonstrations, the vigils that have taken place in recent months. This council's continued silence and reluctance to address this issue simply sends the wrong message to our community. I offer the support and willingness of my fellow members on the DEI commission to assist you in crafting appropriate resolution and policy for the town. Thank you for the opportunity to share my concerns with you.

Thank you. Um we'll now move over to our Zoom commenters. We'll start with Amy.

Uh hi. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can. Okay, great. Uh, so I'm here to comment on um the town making a statement and not supporting ICE, not allowing town resources or town police to support illegal federal law enforcement activities. It's really to me it's about making a very strong statement that the town will not stand for this. Currently, federal law enforcement or DHS is violating the laws of the country. They're violating the Constitution and we can't let that happen here to the best of our ability. to I would just like to reiterate what everybody else said. And you may think, hey, this is little Los Gatos, you know, we have a little tiny police department. ICE isn't going to come here. Um, and maybe they won't, but we really don't know that. And we we need to make a strong statement. We can't just sit by and watch these bad thing h these bad things happen like the Germans did when the Nazis came for all the Jews or people in this very town did when Japanese Americans were taken away to the camps. we can't help facilitate the holding of people and children and breaking up of families and putting them in what's been very well documented horrible detention camps. So maybe this won't have practical application in Los Gatos, but it makes a

very strong statement that we care and it's not about whether we vote Democrat or Republican. It's about upholding the law and order of the country and the constitution. And I'll just share a little story. My my cousins live in St. Paul, Minnesota. So that's the Twin Cities. My cousin's a psychologist. He had a patient come in and tell him, "Yeah, I've been having a rough time. Couple weeks ago, I was at Home Depot and this guy got caught up in an ice sweep because he happens to be MexicanAmerican. So, they scooped him up and they shoved him in a van. They zip tied his wrist together, his ankles together, and put a sheet or something over his head and they drove him to North Dakota. And in order to get out, he had to show his birth certificate. So, his mom drove up and showed it to them. And then they charged him $800 processing fee in a little scatter camps down by

Thank you. Thank you, Barbara Ruth. Barbara, you need to unmute. I'll ask one more time if you can unmute Barbara. Okay, we'll skip Barbara and we will go to Tina Fam. Oh, okay. Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can. Thank you.

Hi, this is Tina Fon. Um uh I've been a Los Gather citizen for almost 20 years now. Love the place. Um but I want to come to the panel today because I want to speak as a Vietnamese immigrant. Um I came to the country when I was uh 12 years old. So my family came to this country knowing that you know we came with pretty much nothing but fear, hope and we knew that this is a place of refuge. We knew this is a place that families like ours would be protected and we weren't be hunted by the, you know, the government like in the communist Vietnam. But I want to be honest about something. We did not come here to become citizens because we were smarter or more deserving or better than anyone else. We came because at that time it was a political political moment because of a war and because of the of the US policy at the time was to open the door for us. So we were lucky. Our timing was lucky. It was pure luck. It has nothing to do with our ability. And what did we do since we came? We worked really hard. We obeyed the law. We paid taxes. And and I personally raised our children in Los, the rules and the people of the United States of America. So I as personally I would like to give the same opportunity to the people with similar situations like our family was when we came to the states. You know this is supposed to be a safe place. This is you know what how what we're doing now to the immigrants that is not

safety. That's not justice. that is not the America that I believed in and what I have experienced in my life. So I'm hoping that you know as I I want to come to speak as an immigrant because this is my personal history, my personal experience and it's very sad for me to see what's going on right now. So thank you so much for listening to my story. I appreciate everybody to come to this panel to speak out. Thank you. Thank you. We'll hear from Ali Moano. And our last commenter tonight will be Autumn.

Thank you very much for taking my comment. I'm not feeling well tonight, but I will try to be coherent. Um, and I'm going to have some help here from a decision handed down by a Texas judge today uh when he left let uh set free the Ko family. the uh the father and son. You've probably seen the pictures of the little boy with his, you know, uh dogeared cap on. Anyway, uh just in case you haven't seen it, I'd like to share this. Commenting on the federal government, the judge says, "Apparent also is the government's ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence." 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nassent nation. Among others were, one, he has sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people. Two, he has excited domestic insurrection among us. Three, for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us. Four, he has kept among us in times of peace standing armies without the consent of our legislators. We the people are hearing the echoes of that history, says the judge. And then he says there is that in his words pesky inconvenience called the fourth amendment. The right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. not shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause cause supported by oath or affirmation and particularly

describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. So, I just wanted to share those words from this Texas judge, Fred Beer, uh, and, uh, lauded all the previous speakers who were so eloquent and joining them. And, uh, I had one more one more point, but, uh, yeah, I told you I'd try to be coherent, but, I've lost it there. So, uh, thank you so much and I do hope that the town will take a stand this time and not let this opportunity go by as another speaker said uh, you did in 2024. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll go to Autumn.

Good evening everyone. My name is Autumn. I have lived in Los Gatos for 10 years and I've been really touched by a lot of what has been shared tonight. I was especially touched by all of the people who spoke about Japanese American incarceration and how it happened here in our small bubble town of Los. I can't speak as eloquently as others about the context of this atrocity, but I can say that my grandfather and his family were among those swept out of their homes on the West Coast when he was just a young man. I used to think of this terrible experience, which has sent waves of intergenerational trauma through my family as distant history, horrified that it could have ever happened and sure that nothing like that would ever happen again. But these days I am chilled by seeing very similar tactics fueled by government sponsored rhetoric happening in real time. As others have shared, many of us came out one year ago to ask you to make a formal recommitment to uphold state laws prohibiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. We did that because we were worried that something like Minneapolis could happen. All but one of you were unsupportive and now it has happened. So today, knowing what we know now and recognizing that we cannot stand or afford to repeat history, you all have a second chance to take a stand to commit to protecting our community before it is too late. Please show us that you do not approve of what is happening and that we will not let it happen here. Thank you.

Thank you. That concludes uh verbal communications this evening and uh thank you all very much for for the comments. Uh we will now move on to our public hearing for the evening which is item 13 which is to conduct a public hearing to consider objections to the proposed abatement of hazardous vegetation uh for properties listed on the weed abatement program. Um Nicole Bham, our parks and public works director will present the report this evening. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and town council. The town of Loscatoos municipal code requires property owners to prevent potential fire hazards on their property and nearby structures by clearing hazardous vegetation. The weed abatement program that is the subject of tonight's hearing is the mechanism by which the town code this town code section is met. The program is administered by the county of Santa Clara on behalf of the town and is funded from fees assessed to the properties included on the assessment list. Garrick Alefki, uh, the county's weed abatement manager, is here with us this evening to help support this item and answer questions. On December 2nd of 2025, council had, um, passed a resolution declaring weeds a nuisance and setting tonight's hearing date. On January 14th of 2026, the county mailed weed abatement program packets, including a notice of tonight's hearing date to all the affected property owners that were presented in the commencement report that was in attachment one of the your staff report. The content of the mailing was also included in their staff report. In accordance with town code, the notice was also published in the newspaper twice and posted at three prominent locations in town. At tonight's hearing, town council should consider objections from any owners whose property was listed in the commencement commencement report in attachment one of the staff report. At this time, staff from the town nor from the county have received any formal

objections from any of the property owners. Uh following tonight's action, the county weed abatement program staff will proceed with coordinating with property owners in the program and support them in their weed abatement efforts and if necessary conduct the abatement on behalf of the owners. In August, staff will return to conduct the final public hearing of the 2026 weed abatement program in which we'll assess any fees incurred by the county to support the abatement work. With that, I can open it up to questions. Thank you.

Thank you. questions for Director Burnham? All right, seeing none, we will open up public comment on this item. Um, it looks like we have one comment um from Doug Ferrante. Thank you. My request seems a little insignificant given the light of everything else here, but uh I take great pride in my property. Uh I live right off the boulevard between Lark and Samaritan and I've worked in this town for 25 years. I do all the glass work for Loscatus Glass for the high school. I work for Lascetta Glass. I own it and again everything we do we do great work on and and I've always taken pride in my property but uh over a year ago I got a letter showing all of a sudden my bookkeeper showing me where I'm paying you know more money for weight de weed abatement where again I I keep my nose out of people's business but then when I work so hard and take care of my property and I see that I'm being charged for something um it upsets me. So, I now get this letter and my property is the nicest one on the boulevard in terms of I'm right on the corner of Torino de Flores and Lascettes Boulevard. There's not a weed on it. It's been that way for years. Uh when I spoke to the gentleman on the phone that told me about what or why my house was on the list, well, somebody must have drove by one time and saw some weeds and I said, "Okay, it must have been right after some rains where some weeds pop up." But really within the first week or two, if I'm around, they are gone. But you must have caught me

right at a you know, right at that time. That's all I told the guy. But I I would like cuz you know it says in terms of objections to being on the abatement list. I have an objection. I'd like to be off the list. That's my concern here tonight. So I don't know how I go about doing it. Do I have to wait now till July or August or whatever to get my house off the list? Because I don't want to pay for something when I work tirelessly at keeping my property and keeping my business going and keeping everything going and yet I'm being charged for something that I feel I should not be charged for. So that's really about it. But who can tell me how I would get off this list then again at this point in time? If the director is here tonight, he can tell me. Maybe that was the guy I spoke to at the time. I don't know.

Thank you. So, at this point, we we take um comments and then if we have any questions for you, um it looks like council member Renie. So, for clarification, you're 14990 Torino Torino Doris Lane. Yeah. Thank you. Okay, that's it. Any other questions? Okay, thank you. You can share those with the town clerk and um they can distribute them to us. Thank you. Okay, great. Um I have no hands raised on Zoom, so I'll go ahead and close uh verbal communicate. I'll close public comment on that item um and turn it back to the council.

Council, so do we have a fire department representative online or with us or you're able to answer questions? We do. We have um Garrick from the county. He's the weed abatement manager. Um so does this what's the history on this property? Um item number 22 on our list 14990 Torino D and then the rest of the name is not listed here. But

Hi, good evening Mayor and council members. My name is Garrick Yosvki. I'm the weed abatement manager for the County of Santa Clara Consumer and Environmental Protection Agency. I'm happy to answer any questions. Uh, regarding this property, um, I do see in our database that the property was added to the list in 2023. Uh, an inspector drove by and did see some, uh, overgrown weeds on the property and they were sent a notice stating that they're going to be added to the list. In 2024 was the first year that we had done an inspection on the property and charged fees. Uh, they did pass the inspection in 2024. Then in 2025 they also passed the inspection. So uh if they were to remain on the list they would have one more year which would be this year. If they pass this year they would be removed. Otherwise if you decide to take them off the list for their two years of compliance and I can take them off the list tonight.

Thank you. Other questions? Yes. Vice Mayor Sto. Thank you. Um, if you can just remind me, is the fee that they're paying each year for the inspection or has the county needed to do weed abatement on behalf of the owner? On this property, they have only been charged an inspection fee in 2024 and 2025. Okay. And for clarification, that is just cost recovery. Correct. There's not a fine or anything. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Uh, and my question is when would they be inspected this year to be determined to to determine if they stay on or off the list?

Uh, the deadline in Loscatos is April 15th. So, the earliest that we would go out to do an inspection would be April 15th, but we can go anytime between then and October 31st, but typically it's earlier in the spring. Okay. Thank you. Yes, Council Member Ponami. Thank you. And for the record, can you just tell us what the inspection fee is that would have been charged uh to this uh speaker for this year? Yes. This year's inspection fee is $296. What was it last year? Last year it was $15. Thank you. Uh and is that part of the the kind of countywide fee updates that have been done for cost recovery?

Correct. Yeah, we had to increase our fees significantly this year due to a budget shortfall that we experienced last season. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um, thank you. If there's no other questions, um, I appreciate you, uh, being here. Thank you. No problem. Council member Renie. Um, I think we should go ahead and take this off the list. I'd make a motion to remove item 22 which is 14990 Torino D whatever the rest of the the name is that doesn't show on ours and then continue with all the rest of the ones on the list. Thank you. Council member Hudis,

I'll second the motion. You um thoughts and comments? Yeah, Vice Mayor Risto.

Um yeah, I mean I can understand the continuation for three years given that this property has been okay for two years. I don't want to start changing policy, but um given the owner came here, objected, the property has been clean the last two years and the fees have gone up so substantially um that before the inspection is done is the right time for I think for us to make the decision as opposed to waving um a cost that's been incurred. So um I will be reluctantly supporting the motion. Um, and I'll just Do you want to do you have any comments? No, you you're ready to vote.

Oh, well, I'll just add to I'm going to be a reluctant yes vote like the vice mayor. Great. Thank you. Yeah, and I I think especially in light of the the cost increase and the fact that that the property has been compliant for the last two years. I do think it makes sense to take them off the list. So, um, so to clarify, is the motion to remove this property and approve the rest? Yes, exactly. Great. Any other comments, questions? Perfect. Then we'll take a vote. All those in favor? I.

Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously. Um so we'll move um we had item 14, which has been rescheduled um without objection from the council. And so then we will move to item 15, which is an ordinance amending the town's special events regulation um to establish an entertainment zone. and we will turn uh the floor over to Monica Ren, our economic vitality manager, who will present the staff report. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Good evening. Monica Ren, economic vitality manager. Uh before you this evening is an ordinance um to adopt an entertainment zone. Um, and so the way that this kind of came about is first of all, uh, Senate Bill 969 has been, um, adopted on January 1st, 2025 to allow jurisdictions to decide whether or not they would like to, um, add an entertainment zone to their ordinance. In the summer, the Chamber of Commerce approached staff and asked if we would do some research and look into, um, allowing Loscatos to have such a zone. So, staff began researching. Um originally it was thought that something that an entertainment zone could help things like the winewalk or some of our existing events. And so through the research what we realized is that um entertainment zones are specific for the brickandmortar shops that are actually located in town. So there wouldn't be the ability to have um like a winewalk or something use it because you also can't have um you can't have the temporary ABC licenses. So that's a very important point uh to note as you think about this tonight. uh part of the activation um or part of the adoption is that the bill requires the town to adopt very specific things within an ordinance and then outside of that we can control um nuances in a policy. So that's what we're looking for tonight is for the framework that meets the ABC requirements and then beyond that the town staff will work individually with each business or each activation as it comes forward so that we can make sure that we're really being responsive and being able to to provide support to the communities. Um for example, if we recognize that, you know, the time is or that there's something that's not working, then we can on the next activation make it make tweaks to that. So that's why we're seeing the framework that matches what the ABC and what the bill is asking for and then the the staff will work individually with

the businesses. So beyond that, the um most of the all all of the um ordinance points are outlined in the staff report and staff is here to help guide our conversation tonight. Thank you, Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. First of all, I appreciate um you know the background on how this came about and I know that um there was probably an initial reason like the winewalk and it's actually going to be a different type of situation. I do have a number of questions and I think you answered one because um it looks like the um parameters are kind of set by um the state law because I was a little startled to see that the hours could be 8:00 a.m. till 10 p.m. And I do understand that staff can rein it in, but I can't even imagine a scenario under which it seems like a good idea to have people walking on the sidewalks with alcoholic beverages at 8 a.m.

So the law actually allows 6:00 a.m. to 2 am. It allows it within the parameters of what ABC would allow alcohol to be sold. Staff went 8 to 10 because we have the parkletits and all of our outdoor entertainment that ends at 10 p.m. So, we felt like that's was the alignment for the cutoff. The reason we did 8:00 a.m. is for example, if there was like a Mother's Day stroll or something where people were doing mimosas, that's was the consideration there. That said, if it's the will of the council, we can definitely adjust those hours within the town code. Um, they don't have to be 8 to 10. San Jose is doing an even broader set of hours and we, you know, did some research with them and I just thought knowing our community, I really thought, you know, 6:00 a.m. was probably too early and that I I know that we're not the type of community that's looking for things after 10 p.m., but that's definitely negotiable with with the council this evening.

Okay. If I can follow on, please. Do we have any businesses that have liquor licenses where their cup allows them to be open and serve alcohol at 8 am? Off the top of my head, I don't know, but that's a great point. So ABC does require that each business follows what is in their cup. So if, for example, a business is not allowed to be open until 11:00 a.m., then they would not be able to participate in an activation until then. So um those are that's why we we chose those hours because it provided like the biggest parameters possible but at the end of the day they have to adhere to their ABC license and to their cup.

Okay. And then um if I can understand like the entertainment zone we've got a definition we've got a defined area that is the maximum and the entertainment zone can be a subset of any place in there. Um, could someone activate the entire thing or would it require multi businesses at the terminus of each edge? Do you know what I mean? I mean, could somebody in the middle of it say, "We're just going to have a giant party from here to there."

They could, but the thing is is that everyone's that's participating has to be participating within the rules. So, they'd have to have the signs posted. They'd have to have their approval from ABC. So, um, what ABC says is you can't charge a business to participate. And if if their storefront is activated, they have to be allowed to participate if they've been approved. So it can't be the type of thing that I'm like, "Oh, this is a beer only, so you have to only serve beer." No, if it's if it's activated on North Santa Cruz and anyone who's located on North Santa Cruz would be able to participate in in it. Um, so that but what we were thinking is we get like we get questions from the folks on Village Lane and they want to have something very like a shop and stroll where they can, you know, really highlight some of the restaurants there, highlight the stores there. So in that case, someone from Village Lane could come forward and activate just Village Lane. And they would say, "Here is here's our proposal. We're going to have barricades here and here. We're going to have X number of businesses um you know doing it. These are the hours that we're going to have the participation." And then staff would come back and write all of those conditions in the special event permit. And then it would be signed with insurance and all of the things that are required through the special event permit process. So that's why that was kind of the framework to set it up like that. Um the other thing is it wouldn't require a road closure. So typically you do have to close a road when you're you know trying to have alcohol outside of restaurants. So in this case they could do some sort of stroll that's on the sidewalk and they're not needing to do traffic closures and traffic plans and things that can be more costly and involved for the businesses.

Um and then if I can um because I have a lot of questions. Um, so say Village Lane activates an entertainment zone and now you're up to Highway 9 and, you know, down to the road that comes in next to Pedro's. Um, do does the business or the businesses that activate it, do they need to have monitors at the boundaries um, so that people don't continue beyond.

So that's 100% up to the jurisdiction. ABC relies on the in on the businesses to serve responsibly and to have the proper signage. It's up to us how we um set monitoring. So, if it's something that feels like it's, you know, from 7 to 8 or very lowkey, we can say, "Okay, you need two volunteers and we want to make sure they're roaming." If it's something that's broader, then within the conditional letter of approval, we can say, "Okay, we we would love ambassadors or security guards or volunteers or whatever it is at X, Y, and Z points to make sure that the containers are staying within that zone." They'd also be required to have signage um that ABC requires. So, no alcohol beyond this point, no outside alcohol allowed in. Um basically, it's a lot of signage and a lot of trust. And then they would have monitors that are making sure that the proper vessels are being used um so that folks aren't bringing things in and out.

Okay. So staff would decide or advise whether depending on the size of the zone whether there needs to be ambassadors.

Correct. And I suspect that we will probably be a little more um conservative in the beginning and see how it h it works and then pull back a little bit. Another reason why we didn't want to get really specific within the code because we may find that we want two officers every time it's activated or we may find you know there's this security company that these folks have been using similar to like Kowanas and we know that that they've have this vetted service. So we want to be able to have the flexibility but you know I think activation in the beginning will be very conservative. I see us doing more like smaller blocks and kind of seeing how it works. Um when we met with the businesses there wasn't like a whole lot of excitement like okay yeah we're going to do this tomorrow but they were very excited about having the opportunity for a restaurant week or something they could now participate differently like in the gold Thursdays. I don't foresee us doing a huge number of them but we can definitely add it to that quarterly report that we provide with the events a very specific category so that you all can see how many folks have applied and kind of what that looks like.

Okay. And then um can there be more than one activation on a given date? Like could Village Lane have an activation on say Valentine's Day and the businesses around Plaza Park?

I think ABC would say no. I think they would say there would need to be a cohesive activation. I haven't had that question yet. We've I thought I had every question, but I haven't had that one yet. So, let me get back to you. But what I would think that they would say is that so if if Village Lane is activating for a morning and then the ones around the park are activating in the afternoon, then that would be yes because they would be separate activations. If they're going to activate at the same time, then they would need to have a cohesive activation with two maps. It wouldn't it couldn't be like there's two separate applications coming in. Um, and that also aligns with our special event permit code is that you can only have one special event application within like a ge like a control geographic area at a time.

Okay? So, we would treat it the same way. We would say no, there's already a, you know, they're already having an activation here, so please either work with them to expand the activation or pick another date. Okay? Because I thought I saw there could only be one. Um, somebody brought up an edge case. I've talked to a lot of merchants. What if there were um two restaurants and one wanted to be spiteful and they activated an entertainment zone that did that excluded some restaurants. Um yeah, they can't exclude. They could only exclude G if they stopped the stream,

right? If they if they if they set up the geographic location such that it ends just before another restaurant that would want to be part of it. If the first group that authorizes it or um applies for it and sets up a zone and all of a sudden two more restaurants say, "Wait, we want to be part of it." And they say, "No, they're blocked out for that occasion."

I think staff could say they have to be allowed because they are technically part of the the entertainment zone. So, I think staff could make the the determination that we're going to expand the zone because they're they're really ABC leaves almost everything up to the jurisdiction to manage, but they're very um clear about the businesses having to get their own approval and them not being excluded if the zone is activated. So, um I think if we found out that was going on, we would just expand the area because ultimately each point of sale is in charge of their own behavior and their own sale.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I was curious how much discretion staff had. And then one more thing, um at the moment, no, two things. One is would we have a I don't know if we'd want a limit. Would there be a limit on how much a zone could be activated? Like for example, if the businesses around Plaza Park decided they wanted an entertainment zone Thursday, Friday, Saturday night all summer or something. I that's an interesting question because I think that could be two-sided. In one way, I think that could be exactly what would bring the vitality and you know it creates um it's very similar to like now there's a known thing to go for, right? So we I think as staff we may be um a little apprehensive to go all summer three nights straight out of the gate, but I think we could look at what a series event would be. So like for the chamber to come forward and say, "Okay, could we add this to our gold Thursdays so that folks could walk from one place to another?" Then we would say, "Okay, yes." But um I don't foresee us doing it so it turns into like an open container all the time. It's very much about a special event. Um, so I think that we would be looking more to keep it tighter than that and and but again it's going to be up and I think that at the will of the council if we get a request like that you know we could come to you and say this is what we have you know does this make sense? Do you feel like this is within the intent and the spirit of the ordinance?

Okay. Awesome. And then one last question at the moment. Um I noticed and I can understand the exclusion of a glass container. Do you know why metal is excluded? Because I'm thinking aluminum is basically infinitely recyclable and the thought of plastic or greenwashed biodegradable cups. We're just filling up land. I'm so tired of takeout.

Um I definitely can can feel that comment and I agree. Um the metal is so that folks aren't using cans of beer. Um because they really want to make sure that the vessel is distinct, right? So, um, you know, we went back and forth like, do we put something in the code that says it has to be a clear plastic cup? Well, if we get an activation that's just about wine, we may want to limit that the cups can't be more than 8 ounces, you know? So, the other thing we want to stay away from is like the yard cups you may see in Vegas or something, right? So, we want to make sure I mean we we saw some very creative things happen in CO and I learned very quickly that you need to be able to to um to rein things in when they get super creative. So, that was my hesitation to being very specific about the cup. You know, alcohol comes in different sizes. Um also the the restaurants are limited on their pores and things that they can pour. So, they have to follow their ABC rules too. So that was my hesitation in really putting it into the ordinance. The non-glass and non-metal are in the in SP969.

Okay. Do would So I guess one more question. Would we be able to mandate if we can do some research whether biodegradable or compostable is better? Would we be able to mandate a type of vessel, not the size or the volume of it, but that it not be plastic? and also then have education about how it can be disposed of because they can't be recycled.

Um, we could we could do whatever the council would like to have in there. My concern would be if there's like a new technology that comes out that doesn't align with that, then we'd have to go back through and do a code amendment. Um, what has to happen is there has to be a standard cup for every activation. So with when there is condition the conditional letter of approval is created, it will have the color of the wristband that they'll have to give out and then San Jose was um experimenting with cups with stickers on them, but obviously the stickers start to slide off. So there will need to be a standard cup. We've also looked into doing maybe a group purchase where we can have an order online somewhere and then businesses can go in and order however many they need. um because there's no cost that can be picked up by the town unless you know we don't we don't want to get in the business of selling cups and we're not collecting money for the permit. So we want to try to make it as um userfriendly and userdirected as possible. So there are options. Um we're exploring all of those. Staff didn't go too far down the rabbit hole because we just weren't sure, you know, where the council would land on it.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Um, I have a few questions and then maybe I'll ask a few questions and we'll open up public comment and then we'll come back. Um, so I a couple things. Um, one, uh, I love that it that part of this allows for partial zone activation. I think that's probably the the best use case I see for this. I don't see a whole lot of businesses saying we're going to open up the whole entertainment zone area for, you know, big parties. But I think your Village Lane example is perfect where they do a, you know, a Saturday evening, you know, event where you're trying to draw business there. And then I think it's a really great thing for them to, you know, sort of encourage vibrancy in a part of town that might not get, you know, as much attention as it probably deserves. Um, so I had three questions. one um the chamber really in their letter really emphasized the importance of voluntary participation by businesses and so is that all managed by the individual businesses that opt in? Is that what I'm hearing that they have some sort of employee that's managing the in-n-outs of folks? So the conversation that we had when we met with ABC and then with San Jose who had only had like two activations at the time is that they did they assigned somebody. So they had like a a standard uh set of rules that went on the door of every establishment and at the point of sale and then they had either a bartender or a buser or a you know somebody who knew the rules that was kind of monitoring um because technically you can't come in with something that was purchased from somewhere else. can only go out and so ultimately each individual jur each individual business their ABC license is on the line if they're doing this illegally or inappropriately. So they want to follow the rules. Um so that would be it that would be within each place would have um would have to assign

somebody and then annually they need to go back to the ABC and get approved. So they need to say we still want to participate in this and then ABC has to say yes back to them and then they have to submit that approval to the town. Got it. So, to be clear, I I buy a beer at Orin's Hummus. I then can't go walk into the movie theater or I can't walk in anywhere. It's only out and on the street in public spaces.

You can walk That's correct. And you can walk into like a like um a shop that doesn't sell alcohol. You if they're willing to let you in. So, I don't have to let you in. If I have a dress boutique and you have a glass of red wine, I don't have to let you in, but I can. But if I have an ABC license, then I can't let you in because now you're mingling what they call co-mingling ABC licenses. It's the same reason why you can't have the temporary ABC license activated.

Got it. And so folks that are participating in this event would theoretically be given very clear instructions about you can walk into this business and not this business. And so has the the chamber or staff thought about um sort of standardizing that like poster or whatever? So, it's very clear this is a participating business. This isn't because I could see, you know, um I I had a meeting um a couple weeks ago with the the food and wine group from the chamber and they were very excited about this, but there were folks who, you know, brought up the idea of like, you know, automobile, the toy store is pretty close to um you know, we olive or whatever that sells alcohol. And so we we should be very clear about what businesses you can and can't go into. Um have have we thought about any standardization on that?

Yes. So what our plan is is to have a kit that that folks can print from. So if you're participating, you'll receive the link to the kit. You can print whatever you need. Likewise, that's a wonderful point. If you're not participating, you will have the information that can say, you know, no alcohol permitted in this location or something like that. I mean, it's really the intent is really about bringing people out into an area. It's a little clunky sometimes in Los Gatos. You know, even like with the park, folks could go into the park, but they can't do it, for example, during Jazz on the Plaza because Jazz on the Plaz utilizes our own town code of being allowed to bring your own beer and wine. So, it's it's very it gets a little sticky when you look at co-mingling. And so that's going to be a lot of what we have to do when we get activation applications is say, you know, it it can't take place during a jazz on the plaza because it's not going to work, right? There's just too many variables for for the co-mingling of it. So that'll we'll have to be very astute to what those rules are and then make sure everybody has access to those rules.

Got it. And so that's that's what is that why on the map that um Town Plaza Park is excluded? It looks like it's Town Plaza Park is not in the entertainment zone. is that

so um I think that was an error that it wasn't it wasn't colored in. We actually did that map kind of in the 11th hour cuz cuz I had to the one I had was not quite as as good as that. Um but um it would be it would have to be specifically included as a part of the conditions of approval and and staff would recommend that it not be unless it's it's like a necessary entity, right? because then we have to have someone out there monitoring to make sure people aren't bringing their own in um which the town code allows. So really it would be more about the mingling and going and going from place to place and being out in town.

Got it. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, I um but so Town Plaza Park would technically be included. Okay. Cuz I could see like if if Parkside and Dawn be are doing an event and they're willing to have a staff person there and they want to activate, you know, the park, I think that's maybe a a reasonable use case. Um uh two other sort of uh categories that I had questions about were um so this I think is of interest to like I said some businesses not others. How would this be promoted to um all businesses in an active? Because I would think that if you know using the the we all of automobile example, I would think that automobile would want to know you know when businesses around them are going to be activating this. So would we I guess my question is would we notify everyone in a given area even if they're not included? Oh, we would require that whoever's activating it provide notification and proof of notification.

Perfect. Okay, great.

So, and one point that I wanted to mention that you made me think of like if the if the restaurants are using the park, anything that would require a special event permit if without the activation, then they will go through the special event permit process. So, if they are utilizing the park for a special event, they would then have to pay the fee and go through all of the um the considerations that someone would go through if they're having a special event in the park. And then the activation could be dovetailed with that. Um so there's like activation, special event, and then there's a special event if you're act if you're dovetailing in the activation. And that one would have the fee of the special event permit because it's just a component of what would already be a special event permit.

Okay. Thank you. That's helpful. Um, my last question for now is you talked about how something like the winewalk would not because it's a it's its own special event, right? Is is what is so what is what is the exclusion for the winewalk? Like what how help me understand how this would be different than the winewalk and and what yeah how that would all work.

Sure. So for the winewalk, each individual winery has to have a special ABC license to set to serve wine that day. So for that, they're using the the temporary special event ABC permit. When that's activated, an entertainment zone cannot be activated because you're co-mingling ABC permits. So it's the same uh reasoning why you can't have an entertainment zone activation and then have a beer garden popped up in the middle of the street. Got it. So, it's either the brick and mortars ABC permits or it's the special event ABC permits, but it's not both in the same location.

Got it. Okay. Then I guess final followup on that is so just in your opinion, it seems like the use of this would be pretty narrow. Um, uh, I don't know, you know, I think your village lane example is maybe a perfect one, but can you are there other sorts of events that that businesses or the chamber has expressed that they might be interested in in activating this for? So, um I I haven't heard from others what they are. I tried to brainstorm if I was going to activate what I would do. And I thought of things like a Mother's Day stroll where they're, you know, offering champagne or mimosas or something and then there's specific stores that maybe you're going into. I mean, ultimately, it's going this is going to work best when there's an umbrella agency like the Chamber of Commerce who's doing the activation, right? Um I think it's going to be difficult for like one business to say, I'm going to activate. it's probably going to need to be like the food and wine group or something like that that kind of oversees it. Um, and so that's how I see it working or potentially for FIFA if there's a World Cup game and maybe the um, we know that you can't erect a screen that's not already up to show the game. So maybe all of our sports bars or places with TVs and towns want to do some sort of cocktail or drink. The other thing I was thinking would be like a restaurant week. So, we don't do a restaurant week currently in Lasctos. They're difficult to plan, but we could do something where, you know, folks get to have go to different restaurants. Maybe they try it's a small drink and a small appetizer or something from each restaurant. So, I think there are opportunities, but to your point, they're very narrow and and they're going to take a lot of coordination because there's not a lot of funding for it, right? There's no like real pot of money. So, if I had to guess, I would say we'll get two or three a year, but I don't know if that's true or not. and we can, you know, do quarterly memos to let you all know kind of what we're hearing.

Okay, great. That's that's super helpful though. It's helpful to kind of think through what it might look like. Thank you.

Okay. Um, uh, to the town manager, I just wanted to point something out and have a potential recommendation. The this is being inserted in the special event permit section of the municipal code that when you look at that in terms of at what point can you deny that permit, there's currently 13 different conditions which those are the conditions. One of those conditions is what you have to find to deny the permit. And so there's no explicit discretionary ability to deny. So by adding this in there, if all those 13 if none of these 13 conditions can be met, then that entertainment zone can be activated. So if you want to ensure that this is a discretionary permit, you may want to add uh subsection 14 to the code, which you know 14100.03514 03514 to read, "An entertainment zone event is a discretionary permit and may be denied at the discretion of the town manager or designate and we always have the opportunity to elevate it to the council, but you would still be privy to those denial requirements. So, I recommend you keep this as discretionary. Secondly, when you do make the motion, we just need to make sure if you're intending to include any other properties like the park or town plaza that that's made part of the motion to ensure it's very clear in the action.

Both helpful uh uh clarifications. Um okay, I'm going to go to public comment. Um we we did have a hand pop up on we have one card in the room. Um, and then we did have one hand pop up on Zoom for violin music and just want to make sure you have the opportunity to speak if you want to. But first we'll go to the room uh which is for Gus who now we're here about something that I, you know, was pushing for, you know, some time. I think this is probably my project 2026 with you know the World Cup and football and talk you know basketball and the whole thing you know what I was saying is and I brought this up Mary is is Santa Clara doesn't have a hometown we uh it's all overbuilt and you know I say hey this is a perfect you know with the World Cup coming in um this is a perfect area because We we hosted the the Brazilian team and and you guys it's it's like a a you know billion dollar the the Super Bowl is five days away. You the the the finance commission is should be all fired because you this is a there's a lot of money coming into the town. There's a lot of, you know, people that that want to spend. This is a nice little area and it's a little hometown and it could be, you know, part of Santa Clara and you share some of the the, you know, the the thing people want to come here. They you close off the main street. You have a big giant block party. What happened you know in 1994 with the the Brazilian national team. World Cup is a ma major issue and you put this this area once you get a you like if if this can be

like a tourist thing, you know, because because there's going to be a lot of sporting events at at Levi Stadium and you get some of that runoff here, you know, you have to think of that. You guys aren't thinking it doesn't seem like you're thinking straight. And I brought this up and I brought this up. I'm not the public speaker, you know, all that. But but you know, I've been saying, "Hey, use this street and and coordinate it off and say, "Hey, we're to you know, I I'm already saying because when I uh I remember my my mother and father um had a 25th wedding anniversary on our street and I just went to the neighbors and said, "Hey, you know, we're to have a party, you know, you no matter what." And you know how well I'm Italian or I when you throw a party, you throw a party and it got out of hand. I mean, we had like a block party. everybody in the neighborhood just comes in and and all of a sudden the the street's blocked off, but that's how we we rolled, you know, uh you didn't come down our street because we owned that street and uh you know, the everybody in our neighborhood owned that street and we just wanted to throw a big block party and that's what you know this this is a small little town and that's what we a lot of people in in u this area because it's a it's it's a small town and and when I was growing Growing up, Santa Clara was a small town. Now it's not. It's a city. And I'm trying to keep keep this as a city, but make it, you know, part of Santa Clara because it is our backyard. But, you know, I've been here my, you know, I I I built in in Certino. My brother bought a house here. So,

thank you. Thank you. Um, I have no other hands in the room. Um, wanted to go back to Zoom and see if anyone wants to speak on Zoom. All right, seeing none, I will go back to the council. Council member Hudis.

Yeah, thank you. Um, I apologize I didn't send this question in before. that just occurred to me during the conversation, but it does seem to me that this is very much oriented towards um you know the kind of events that the town has traditionally hosted and trying to comply with um changes in the law and um and and all of that. But there's been discussion from a number of places uh about a uh cultural festival um especially a multicultural festival that could highlight uh foods from um our different uh community members. um and might include uh you know some cooking uh demonstrations as well as um uh maybe dance or other things that could be incorporated in this. Would this um change that's proposed here in any way help move forward that type of event?

So it c it certainly could. Um, this is really only speaking to the alcohol piece. So, if we wanted to do, you know, a road closure and maybe have food booths in the street or dances or music, um, if there wanted to, we could also utilize the businesses for their cuisine. Um, this could definitely go hand inand the only the only restriction would be that there couldn't then be like a beer or wine garden within the event. Um, this is is a great way to utilize our existing businesses. And I think I think the thing that I find most exciting about this is that for so long our businesses actually couldn't participate. They had to turn over their CU their ABC license if they wanted to have a winery inside or you know so really a lot of the events became detrimental. And that was how this bill grew and how it became to be. It was really about, you know, these are the folks that are paying the rent and investing. So, if we could definitely, you know, a cultural event or any event, if there was a way we can dovetail them together, that definitely works. The the piece that has to stay clean is that the alcohol comes from either within the stores or within a booth. But that definitely opens opportunities for other events. Yes.

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Badami. And then Vice Mayor Risto. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I share Monica Ren's excitement over this. Um, I'm in favor of the entertainment zone. Um, it also has the support of the chamber and look at all these good things. Revitalize the downtown areas. Is that not great? Support small businesses. How come we disagree with that? Um, adds the benefit of additional visitor exposure, especially in consideration of the World Cup. Um, adds the economic benefit of eventbased sales. So, I would completely support this uh and when ready would make a motion, but I I know that there's other comments waiting. Thank you. Yeah, Vice Mayor Risto.

Um I have a quick question. Um because as I was looking at it when someone pointed out that the plaza was not included, what about Grace Lane because that seems like a perfect place for activation.

Yes. So, Grace Lane would be included. Um similar though because LMA has a portion of that within their like still within their parklet ABC permit. They would either need to relinquish that part of it or um we'd have to figure out how to activate that. So that would that's part of another conversation that needs to take place. Um but it's definitely doable. Grazling is part of it. Grazling has become a really wonderful place for folks to activate for fundraisers, for schools, and for things like that. So, it is it should be highlighted on the map. If it isn't, then um we would want to make sure that we include that in in um the motion. The intent was to include all of C2, which does include the park and LMA, and then the small portion of the C1 zone that's actually right out here on Main Street. Um so, so that like the hotel could participate or the club or any of those small businesses that are down. Um and then I just wanted to note, um I do love questions. So if you have more fleece, it's this is a very complicated subject, but the reason why we are just um bringing forward downtown right now is because this is very specific to public rightway and public property. So if a shopping center wanted to do something similar to this, they don't need code language to do it. They just need a special event permit. So for example, one of the centers could choose to do some sort of market night and have, you know, drinks that um that come out of the stores and and go into the parking lot for food. they can already do that. So, um there's this wasn't the type of thing that we're trying to only, you know, bring this attention to downtown. It just happens to be the only area that is the public property that would need it.

Awesome. Thank you.

Um okay, so one, um uh so two questions. One is it it doesn't look like to me on this map that there's any distinction between roads that are in the entertainment zone versus not. So we might just want to clarify in the motion you know whatever your recommendation is if it's all at least that I'm looking at it look like the gray on the highway looks like the same as as North Santa Cruz. Um, so I think maybe it would just be helpful to clarify if it's all roads in C2 plus, you know, is it all of C1?

So the language in the ordinance should be pretty clear. Um, the attorney's office just wanted to have a map that went along with it. And so what I'm realizing as I sit here, and I'm very sorry, is that this map does not match the language, but the language does say all of C2. Um and then the portion of C1 that is on Ma on East Main Street between um I believe it's Pageant and then Jax or just one just one property. Yeah, Alpine because there's one property on the other side of Jackson. So the language should be specific to include all of that. Um we'll just need to update the map itself.

Got it. Okay. Um that's helpful. That's uh clarifies that. And then my other question to Vice Mayor Risto's um questions about you know sustainability, environmental sustainability. Um the cup does seem to be like a little bit of a hard nut to crack. I I um my recommendation might be to have to include in the motion the chamber pursue an eco-friendly option. Um, and we can provide some suggestions if that's, you know, helpful. Um, because I do, it says plastic in the the staff report, which is understandable because that's what, you know, it isn't metal, it isn't glass, but I think broadening that a little bit to include other kinds of of plastic like eco-friendly um, uh, things would be great. And then the other question on the cup I had was, so that's the eco-friendly piece that I think is important to include. The other question is if we're gonna invest all of this money, I mean not the town, but if businesses are going to buy these cups and we put in the the sort of infrastructure to create them. Um are you how confident are you in the 12 ounce being the right size? Um cuz like my when I thought of 12 oz like that's a beer, right? That makes sense. Um, the only thing I could think of is is if you know I thought of Kat's um Oktoberfest where you do I think it's probably a 16 ounce um uh cup if not larger. Um and I know this is different that would require a special event that requires a special event permit. But I'm just thinking through if if 12 ounce is the right size. So, this is why I think it should not be in the code because I think that um so and this was part of what San Jose's uh was talking about wanting to do the sticker is because if you're a beer and wine location, maybe you have a plastic wine

cup and a plastic beer cup and it has the sticker on it. Um ABC isn't I don't want to say they don't care, but they're they're leaving it up to the jurisdiction. They just want the cup to be so consistent that I can't get something in my kitchen and walk in and it looks like I'm participating. So, um, we can definitely ask for, um, options for, you know, environmental friendly options. I would say the one friendly, um, amendment would be that I don't necessarily want to make the chamber part of the motion because if we have folks who aren't chamber members or maybe, you know, I also don't know what their workload is and I don't, you know, I think that they're such amazing partners that will work with them on this regardless. And I know that, you know, Jennifer Lynn, the CEO, has really been championing this and talking to folks. So, I think there will be a strong partnership there. I just don't want to put them in a position to to have to do something.

Sure, that makes sense. I appreciate that. And then um so, and I'm rereading the the staff report. It says staff proposes a clear plastic cup that is no more than 12 ounces as a guideline, but it can be uh changed at a policy level. And by policy level, is that staff level? cuz I hear policy level and I think us which I don't think we need to get in the 12 versus 16.

It would definitely be policy level and it'll also be case by case. So um I don't know that we would ever say 16 ounces or you know that's a very specific to the October Fest. I think what we're really looking to do is is a limit to single drinks, right? So what does that single drink mean? Um so that people aren't and I think the other thing is that it would be like a baseball game. It's a two drink maximum per person, right? you know, one spouse or partner could be outside while the other one runs in, but we're certainly not going to have someone going in and getting, you know, 12 drinks and then leaving with those. So, those are the type of rules that we want to be able to put in the conditional use permit. Um, and maybe it's a it makes sense at some point to say, "No, you can only buy one drink per person." So, we want to be able to have that control um and have that discretion um as we move through each individual event. Certainly, if it's a larger activation, I could see us being more conservative on the number of drinks that could be purchased.

Got it. Thank you. Helpful.

Okay, I'll try a motion. Um, I move to introduce an ordinance of the town of Lascatus amending article 10, special events of chapter 14, licenses and miscellaneous business regulations of the town of Lascatas town code to establish an entertainment zone pursuant to SB 969 and include the updated uh map uh per Miss Ren. And I believe that's going to be it. I had considered your amendment of the chamber pursuing some options, but um with Miss Ren saying it might not be a good idea for the eco-friendly serveware, I I'm going to pass on that.

Town manager, do you I just want to clarify on the on the motion. I had recommended adding a provision for making this entertainment zone discretionary. Is that something that you were considering or would you like rather leave that out? Uh, I I would add that it be discretionary. Would you mind if I repeat the motion with all the elements and tell me if that meets what you're recommending?

Yes, I would like that very much. It's to introduce an ordinance to the town of Loscatoos amending article 10 special events of chapter 14 licenses and miscellaneous business regulations of the town of Loscatoos town code to establish an entertainment zone pursuant to SP969 with the addition of section 1400.035 035 subsection 14 which reads, "An entertainment zone event is a discretionary permit and may be denied at the discretion of the town manager or designate and confirming that the eligible area is as specified and depicted in the draft ordinance modifications under section 14100.070 070 subsection H which specifies C2 central business district commercial zone inclusive of all public parking lots, alleyways, and parks located within the central business district C2 and the portion of C1 neighborhood commercial zoning located directly adjacent to the southwest of the C2 zone along East Main Street between Pageant Way and Alpine Avenue as shown on the map below within the ordinance. And that language is as specified in the ordinance.

That's exactly what I meant to say. Thank you. Okay. Is there a second? Yes.

Um I'll second it with a question. Um as the town managers just read this, did you also include under grounds for denial the addition of the discretionary? Okay. Thank you. Um and then I'm seconding it. I was originally going to ask for a friendly amendment to maybe not have any events start before 10:00, but um I think given that staff can have discretion and also I'm really scratching my head over thinking about how many businesses if any can start serving alcohol before 10 a.m. knowing that we have the guard rails of the existing cups that doesn't concern me as much. And if I may add, with the discretionary provision and also the provision that we can elevate to the council, if we believe there's a reason to bring it to your attention to sunshine and have the opportunity to speak to whether we grant it or not, we have that ability to do so.

Thank you. That sounds good. And to the town clerk, just to clarify that the map will be updated with to incorporate the language that's in the ordinance. I think the map's already included in the ordinance depicted differently and that the map will be updated to reflect that ordinance map. Correct. I just want to make sure that that was the intent of the motion. Correct. Great. Yes. This may not be the appropriate time, but after you take the motion, can we take a break?

Absolutely. Yeah. We're we're approaching 9:00 p.m. Um I um if it's okay with the maker and the seconder just I would want to include a recommendation to identify an eco-friendly cup that would be used um for this purpose. Um it's okay. I wouldn't make it mandatory, but I I think it would be explorable. I think that I could go with that. Okay, perfect. Um yeah and as a secondary I think we should have strong language encouraging um not a specific type cup because as you pointed out technologies might change but something that is as environmentally

and staff will definitely have that as a part of the of the conditions um as we consider each individual um event. Great. Okay. Thank you. Any final comments? Great. I will call the question. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously. All right. Um, it is 1 minute till 9, so we'll take a uh let's do it. I think we're almost to the end. So, let's do a a break until 9:05.

Um, okay. Uh, we are back. Um, we have one more regular item and one item that got pulled. So, we'll go to item 16, which is the bench policy.

Good evening again, mayor, vice mayor, and town council. I'm Nicole Bham, director of parks and public works. Happy to be here this evening to talk about our adopt an asset program. Um in 2024 um the department put on hold the adopt a bench program that we had been running for quite some time. Um we did this specifically to allow um opportunity for us to develop a policy to guide the implementation of the program. Um as we built out the program we also recognized that adoption of other town assets may be desirable in the future. So, we have put forward um a policy that was written to address a broad range of potential assets. Um at present, we plan to only use it for benches. And so, when you see your fee schedule this spring, when you do budget work, you'll see a fee only for benches. Um at this time the proposed policy defines the location of assets for adoption, how those will be identified, the responsibilities of the town with respect to maintenance of adop of assets that are adopted, the term of adoption and the process by which we would do renewals. None of which exists now. None of this existed in our current work plan that or work that we had been doing as we ran the policy before. Um, we also included plaque language for adopted assets, recommended language. Um, the item was presented to the Parks and Sustainability Commission at their meeting of December 1st, 2025, and they did recommend bringing forward bringing it forward to council. They had two recommendations. One of which we were able to incorporate, the second one we did not. The first one was they we had initially drafted the policy to only allow two terms of adoption. They recommended that we go to unlimited terms. who cares if people are willing to renew an adoption, why not? Um, which was fine with us. The other recommendation they had with was with regard to custom messaging on the

plaques. Um, we did not incorporate this change as staff. Um, we had concerns that we would then have to be we meaning parks and public works would be the arbiter of what people said and didn't say on these plaques and how they were how the language was written. Um, so if council wants us to include that, we'd have to come back at a later date with some kind of objective standard for how we might review that language and assess appropriateness. Um, so but our primary objective was to develop a policy and procedure for us to use as we implement the program. But as part of the work, recognizing that we have benches that have been adopted over a number of years, we wanted to do some cleanup with that as well. So, we did spend the time, it's part of the reason it's taken us so long to geollocate every bench um that we have in town parks and on the streets. Um in doing that, we also identified which ones had plaques indicating they had been adopted and we made efforts to find um all the people that had adopted benches in the past. So, there's a 264 total benches in the town in case anyone's wondering. They are now in our asset management system. Um and they are in our GIS system. So you can you will see story maps that can show you where those are located. Um 136 of those so 51% of them included plaques that suggested the bench had been adopted at one time and we were able to adopt identify adopes for 43 of those 136. So that means there's 93 benches out there in town right now that have commemorative plaques on them but for which we weren't able to recognize or identify who had adopted it. And this was we did some social media outreach. We posted signs in parks. Um we put letters out in the we put um feelers out in the newsletters. So our proposal, you know, we need to figure out what to do with these with those benches. So our proposal is to remove the plaques that are unidentified and we will keep them at parks and public works. So if people

recognize that their bench plaque is gone, they'll be able to find us and we can either give it to them or we can reinstall it after we've reconciled the program. So that is a summary of what's before you. We are asking you to um adopt the policy um and accept it as proposed. And if if accepted, we our plan is to again bring forward a fee as part of the in the fee schedule for this coming year and reset the program, excuse me, and restart it starting July 1st of this year. And with that, I can take questions. questions. Okay, I have a couple questions, but maybe we'll open up public comment. Um, first, um, I did see violin music raise their hand again on this one, but I'm not seeing it raised now. Um, uh, would anyone in the room or on Zoom like to speak on the adopt a town assetbench policy? Seeing none, I'll close public comment and go back to C. Vice Mayor Risto,

thank you. Um, first of all, I appreciate you wrangling the benches. I I'm sure it was quite the project and, um, I did see the social media posting and I was part of a group that had adopted a bench, so, you know, I got to go through the form and fill it out and everything. So, I appreciate the way that was done and I it popped up quite a bit in my social media feed, so I'm hoping it reached people. And I did um reach out to people that I thought had adopted benches. Um one of the things the parks commission's recommendation that there be allowed to have kind of the non-standard language as they were discussing it. Did they come up with any recommendations for how language could be vetted or what that process would be? Um because as somebody who's had a bench and enjoys looking at the benches. I think I saw later a letter from Kim Byron, you know, she's right. It gives a lot of personality. You know, it's like somebody grandpa who liked candy and it's in front of the candy store or, you know, it's in the park and why was it there? Or somebody was a gardener. I I would have a hard time losing that flavor and just having a name without context or anything. But I also understand that you don't want to be in a position of having to decide what's appropriate, what's not. Um, was there any discussion with the parks commission or did they have suggestions for how to

They didn't. No, that was their their guidance was just please let people provide whatever you want. And we and we took that back, right? That was at the December meeting. And so we took it back and we really talked about it a lot as staff like how what would that look like and how would we do that? Um, and it just seemed like for us, given the resources that we have, that it would be a really um, challenging thing for us to try to manage. Um, and the town attorney was the one that suggested, you know, we'd have to come up with some kind of objective standards. And I I don't, as I sit here right now, I don't know what those would look like. Okay. I mean, I had one thought, but it's bizarre. you know, almost like magnetic poetry where you list a number of adjectives or nouns that are allowed to be used. You know, we have a whole list. I don't know if you know what magnetic poetry is, but you know, you stick it on there and you can rearrange the words. You know, it' be something like a whole list of I I imagine somebody heckbent on creating chaos could find a way to take those words and give another meaning. But I, you know, that's one option of, you know, a list of approved nouns, a list of approved adjectives, a list of approved verbs that could then be expanded over time if it needed to be. And that would be an easy kind of search. Maybe it's crazy.

Council member Hudis. Yeah. And kind of in in that vein, um, we have 264 plaques Do any of them contain hidden or nefarious meanings? I mean, I'm trying to figure out whether we have a problem here that we're trying to solve. To be clear, we have 136. So, but but to your point, I don't know. I don't know. I have I did not personally read every 136 of the messages that are on existing benches. Well, has the town attorney had any complaints? No. Um,

I'll just pipe up here. Thank you. Uh I I did talk with your town attorney about this um before uh this meeting and her concern in mine too is there's a first amendment concern uh when you open up um your town's property to um as a public forum then at that point the town could be limited in its ability to restrict speech in that forum. Right? So it's for example like in a Facebook post for example if you were to um open it up and say people can comment then at that point you can't really say what they can or can't comment about. And I think that the effort to have, you know, set specific messages is basically an effort to say, you know, this isn't this isn't a true public forum, right? This is basically it's a the town's speech. Um, and we're allowing it to be used in this uh pretty specific way.

Thank you. Yeah, Council Member Hudus. So, is isn't this similar to the personalized license plates that the DMV reviews and uses some judgment? And they don't always get it right because I've seen some that slip through, but um and I'm sure people are pushing the limits on that probably a lot more than they would be on naming a memorial bench. I've seen a lot of plaques. I've never seen anything that's nefarious. I don't know how you'd un find one with hidden meaning if it's hidden. But um I I think we're solving for a problem that we don't have with limiting this. Um and I think it's very similar to uh to the to the personalized license plate thing as well. Um, so, you know, it seems to me that just a little bit of judgment looking at these things, um, these are these are, uh, they're not inexpensive. They, uh, are typically done for very, um, sentimental reasons. Um, and so I don't can't really see us uh restricting the language on on these except for the judgment of staff. Um, I don't I I haven't seen any evidence that there's an issue.

Yeah. Go ahead. Thank you. Um, Council Member Hudis brings up some good points, although at the and at the end his comment about except at the judgment of staff, if there's a concern that this is free speech, does staff have discretion to turn something down? I mean, if somebody came up with a bench that said Hitler was right, or, you know, you can envision something like that. Would the town have the ability to deny that?

Right? So, if you don't have parameters in place that that is the answer is no. Right? If you've opened it up as a public forum and you have no parameters in place as to the messaging, then it's it's at a staff level, they would be um you know uh a bridging somebody's speech rights if if you were to open it up in that way. Um, so as a follow on, could you have a group of approved people that it's just a condition? It's not free speech. It's you come before the parks commission or you come before this group and they must approve your message. Um, if you had a a listed discretionary body,

I don't think that changes it. I think um, what would change it is maybe some just parameters. And I apologize I haven't looked those up before this meeting, but I can spend some time looking at that right now. Okay. I just feel like, you know, as council member Hudai said, these are typically very sentimental reasons. And so, you know, I would be disincined to I'm I have an intention to get a bench. I would be disincined if it just had to be something bland, this person's name, whatever. Council member Bami,

you know, I I agree with that. I mean, even looking at the veterans memorial or even some of the churches, people purchase bricks and, you know, sometimes there's like a little buzzword that's sentimental that refers to maybe somebody who's deceased or or or served. And I think these are the things that give our town charm rather than being bland. It it just adds personality and um historic relevance to maybe some of the citizens that have, you know, built paths long and roadways, not you know, I'm just speaking figuratively or um forgotten people. Um so I don't see any harm in continuing as we have.

Council member Hudis. Yeah, just looking quickly at state of California. Um, they limit the number of characters of course, but then they say the configuration cannot be offensive, misleading or duplicate existing plates. duplicate existing as an issue, but they state law is offensive, misleading, and I just, you know, I don't know, maybe there's a ton of lawsuits on this, but I I don't see it see it in the in the plaques that we have here that I've seen. I just think we're solving for

um I'll chime in and then I think our attorney would like to as well. I think the challenge I would have with offensive or misleading is what's offensive to me may not be offensive to you. And so I have a, you know, an administrative assistant reviewing these applications who's going to have to make that determination. Um, and so how do I, you know, what guidance do we give her? Um, and clearly there are going to be occasions when they rise to to my level for sure. But what do I what do we do with that? And what do we do when the person says like I don't I don't think that's misleading. I don't I don't think that's offensive.

There's other language that says they may DMV may review uh refuse configurations that are sexually suggestive, vulgar, profane, obscene, or considered hostile. I understand all of these are um a judgment, but I uh I think if the state of California can tolerate dealing with this, the town of Loscatoos can on a much smaller scale. I I'll just chime in that uh you know the thing that I thought about this when I read the staff report is at the very least I would think we would need more um sort of pre-built uh language because three out of the four are memoriam are in memoriam of someone and so you only have one option if you're trying to to say something for someone who is is alive. Um uh and and so yeah, I I have similar concerns. I I very much do recognize though that the position we would potentially be putting Director Burnham in is not one that I would necessarily I I think we'd have to be very clear about sort of all of the um legal parameters and look into how the state of California does it, etc. Um, but I I do think I mean I think this would significantly disincentivize at least some folks from from doing this. And I think the um the goal is to get this program right. And we've been, you know, it's been disact disactivated for, you know, more than a year. So, um, if we had to send this back to staff to figure out how to, you know, allow for more personalized language. I I think that would probably be worthwhile.

The town manager, so we're trying to work for with some language that would offer that. Um, another option, uh, if the director is amanable to it, could be to remove defining in policy the messaging and leave it to administrative policy, allow us to work internally with the town attorney about what are the parameters and limitation because it sounds like you want to offer a very broad ability for somebody to commemorate but not cross a line that is objectively unreasonable. and and that's I think that area it's not black and white. The other consideration to that would be if we are then looking at more customized messaging the staff time involved would be something that I would be seeking us to be able to recoup the time it take the cost associated with reviewing that. So re within reason if we're going to do that.

Yeah, I think that makes sense. I I I like that that idea of removing this from the, you know, remove this from the ordinance at this time. Um, yeah, I think that potentially makes sense. And I I would just say I would personally be supportive of adding $50 to the cost if it allows for more, you know, the ball. I don't know what the number is, but but if it takes an extra hour of staff work, I think on a bench that's already, you know, costly, to me, that's worth it. Maristo.

Yeah. I guess the other question I have and I'm not I generally don't want to do what everyone else is doing, but has this become an issue? I mean, it hasn't been an issue in the past in Loscatoos. Are there other municipalities that are reigning in messaging on benches or commemorations? Um, you know, I certainly know like for headstones, cemeteries can have discretion over that's private property. I didn't participate in the research, but what I can say in previous jurisdictions, we tended to refrain from anything that was personalized, commemorating a tree, a bench, or things of that nature because of the maintenance and other obligations that come with that. And although we have a 10-year licensing here, there was always the exposure and the impact if you do something with with an item that was commemorating somebody, especially a death or some other significant event, how you treat it, how you work with it, and fast forward decades into the future. Know what change in practice could have a ripple effect. And so it's easier just to stay away from allowing that to occur. But again, it's definitely a policy call and it in our community, obviously from the veterans memorial where we've allowed commemorative stones and whatnot, it is something that we desire here.

Um, and I guess my follow on comment is I think aside from that, I like everything else about this. So pulling this out um, you know, how how it for more work or maybe who knows, we'll adopt it later. I think the rest of it is great. We could replace um the language where it has the specific you can only have these options and add that applicants can apply for custom message in accordance to limitations defined within administrative policies intended to restrict objectively obscene, explicit or threatening messaging. Excellent. Yeah. Council member Hudis,

I had another question. Um the the discussion about uh removing the plaques, did that go through the parks and sustainability commission? It did and we actually went through them twice with that because we came to them in October and said we have this like list of benches and the and the challenge is so we had pre205 the data is was limited from 2015 forward we had pretty good recordkeeping of who had benches and where they were and who owned them. Um before 20 so everything that we don't have information on is pre205. we didn't hear from folks as we reached out to them. Um, and we went so we went in October to the commission and said, you know, what would you suggest we do? Like how, you know, how do we go, you know, do you have recommendations or thoughts for us on how to how much we should pursue? And so they were the ones that really sent us back to the drawing board to say like, no, you know, go do more outreach. We want to see more outreach. make that good faith effort to try to reach people. Um, which is why you saw the QR codes in the fall. Um, and so as we went forward, yes, I mean, we did talk with them about the fact that we would remove the the remove the plaques for people we couldn't identify. And part of it is we just don't we don't know what to do with them or like we're not when we're trying to handle it with some sensitivity, but we don't necessarily know who these people are. And if they come forward, we remove the plaque, they come forward, we then have an opportunity to engage with them and put the plaque back and then get them back in the program and get the information. We even had an intern come in over um the holiday break and make phone calls to people like we had a list of names and numbers, but we don't we weren't sure what benches they went to. So we we've we've done a fair amount of work to try to match people with

benches. So go ahead. So, I'm not that familiar with the history of the program, but were all of these plaques placed under an adopt a bench program, or are some of them possibly so old that there wasn't a program that required a payment for a particular amount of time and all that?

That is an excellent question. Um, we and like I said, our records pre205 are pretty limited. And this is why when we when I when we as a team started getting into this and talking about like what does this program really look like and recognize that there's no documentation, we had no policy and guidance on how to manage this and it just it it and it is a sensitive issue. So hence the reason we just did this body of work. So but we definitely we don't know.

Yeah. because that raises the concern about removing these plaques if they were not placed with the expectation that that people would have to, you know, continue to pay for them. Um, do we really want to erase the history of the town where people have placed a plaque um expecting that it would be there? And so the the default of removing them, I'm not sure is the right thing to do um if we don't know that, you know, people had that expectation when they were placed.

Can I ask a clarifying question? If if if they were if we're directed to retain them, can they be removed when we need to replace the bench because it's at the end of its life? I mean, I would assume so because people were specifying, you know, that it would go on that bench. I don't think it would be an issue. Don't think, you know, if somebody puts a, you know, something up on a tree and the tree dies, there's not an expectation that that's going to be there, I don't think. So I I am concerned about erasing history if we didn't have this type of program before.

Council member Ready.

So you know I'm sitting here thinking about all the things that could go wrong. I you know with the very limited um one that was written by our town attorney basically I I feel like it's too limiting also. But if in in today's world if we don't limit it, I I keep thinking of all the things that could go wrong with this. And I'm I started thinking maybe is there some way we can limit it to there has to be a Los Gatus connection. Person has to have lived in Los Gatos if it's a commemorative or some kind of Lost Gatus connection. So, I'm just thinking somebody could come and say, "I want a a bench that commemorates Charlie Kirk and his work making sure women understand they're supposed to be homemaking babies." And it's going to pass all your profanity rules, but there's going to be some people that are pretty upset with that. And it has no connection to Los Gatos. So, I'm just trying to think of ways to keep it from becoming political like that. And you know, maybe there'll be somebody in Los Gatos that's done something that is controversial, but at least it's a Los Gatos connection in history.

Council member Hudis.

Yeah, I I I agree with that. And also the possibility of it being commercial. Um, so somebody buys a whole bunch to, you know, advertise their business. The policy does have was this what you're about to say? The policy does have language that says uh the D will accept donations for assets that commemorate or recognize a person provided that all provisions of the policy are met. Recognition is limited to individuals or families with a documented connection to the town of Loscatoos. No organizations or groups are will be considered. only one asset shall be dedicated to any single person or family unless there's a compelling reason for additional dedications and goes on from there. So I think that gets to the questions you just asked.

Um yeah, go ahead.

Thank you. Um I had another thought about all the plaques that have been removed. Um is there some way I don't want to give anyone work that they can just be photographed and on a website so people can look at them? I mean, because there's a chance like if I look at them, I might recognize who it is or where it goes. Um, I'm thinking about the children's art bridge years ago, my children had art on it. And when the town decided they need to re wanted to refresh the art bridge, and they do that on a regular basis now, they um contacted all of us who had art on there. And I'm not suggesting we do something like this, but the library actually digitized all of the existing art. and you know it's then available to be seen and every time there's a refresh every couple years whatever was there is digitized. Um, I'm just thinking, is there some way for all the plaques that are sitting there, if somebody doesn't know that they're there, um, to just have a listing someplace with a QR code or a website so that people who think they know, a lot of people can go just search through it and say, "Hey, you know, to my 80-year-old neighbor, hey, that bench you put in just some way to help link people." To be clear, all of the plaques are still in place. We haven't removed any of them. Um, and I felt maybe I misheard you, but I I want to make sure you the council knows we did.

Okay, they're going to be removed. We would remove them if you accepted this. Um, so they are still all in place, but um, we don't have photographs of them, but they are in the GIS system. And so the story mapping, I can talk to the team about what I mean, it I don't see any reason why the story map can't let you click on a bench. I mean, you're going to be able to click on a bench and see I can click on a bench and know what the plaque says. I don't know why we can't make that public. So, from that regard, you know, that might kind of it's not photos, but it would get to the the Yeah. Um I that's a good suggestion.

Now, based on where the conversation is going, I do have a recommendation of an ad if you'd like, please. So on page three of the policy in a section that has the bullet points for what the messages are and it starts with sentiment on the plaque shall be without removing anything at the end after the four bullets we can add if a custom message is desired such message shall be reviewed in accordance to administrative policies intended to restrict objectively obscene explicit or threatening message gene could be added So there would be a would there be a fifth bullet?

No, it would be a paragraph that closes out that section that there just be a paragraph underneath the fourth bullet just like the remaining paragraphs after it. Okay. I I think that's a little confusing, but I like the idea. I like the language. I think the way you formatted it is a little confusing cuz you're saying it's one of these unless No. No, it would be the paragraph that says upon installation. It'd be like that paragraph just above that paragraph,

right? But it above that it says sentiment of the plaque shall be one of the following. So it could I think it should say sentiment on the plaque shall be one of the following or custom or some I don't know the the it just is it reads a little confusing to me. Yeah, council member. So I took it to that it would not be a bullet point like those four bullet points. It would be a paragraph that's separate uh after the fourth bullet point and then would be followed by a plan installation. Is that how I understood how you were recommending it to us?

I would in to us it would read as you got one of these four options but if it's going to be custom it has to adhere to this other policy that's administrative not council. Okay. Could you say suggested sentiments on the plaque are the following or preapproved preapproved sentiments on the plaque are the following? The clerk just texted me a very good recommendation. You could change the word from shall to can. Okay, that's

or may. Would you like may instead of shall or can? You could also use recommended. Yeah. Uh, Vice Mayor.

Yeah. Because I think if you say shall, then it really has to be a bullet point. Otherwise, you're saying shall, which is a requirement, and then underneath there's going to be a paragraph that nobody might read after they see the four choices and go, "Oh, well, I don't like any of those," or, "I have to pick that." Um I I think either a bullet point that says it shall be one of these, you know, a custom one or maybe one of these and then its own paragraph right after that talking about how a custom one can be accommodated. I I think maybe is more appropriate. So we can strike the word shall, add the word may, and then add the underlined paragraph underneath the four bullets. I'm okay with that.

I'm okay with that. Okay. Yeah, I'm okay with that. Okay. Go ahead. The language uh in the staff report about removing the items is does that appear somewhere in um in the policy? No, it does not.

So, that could be um does that need to be part of a motion to deal with that issue? What? The plan the the plan was to remove them, store them for a year and then um at at which time I think we would dispose of them. If the intent of the council is to retain them for the life of the bench, I would ask the director to talk to the implications of that.

Um, none other than that. I mean, I think that's fine. It just means that asset wouldn't be available for someone else to adopt if they've had their heart set on that location. But it's there's plenty of benches available in town. So that was actually one of my other questions that I had is do so we talk about this set amount of benches we currently are aware of and and have you know um that are adopted or not adopted what have you. Do you have do you maintain or have a list in your head or does somebody have a list of potential future locations? Yeah we're going to add those into the GIS system. They'll be in the story map

and and what's the like ballpark? Is it like over a hundred or Okay. No, it's probably not going to be a lot. I mean, to me, I would just look at it from the perspective of usability of the park. You know, how long is it? Like, I think about Live Oak Manor. You know, it'd be nice to have a bench every 200 feet along the walkway, which we don't have right now. So, it' be things like that, kind of filling in gaps. Uh, and historically, because I've had several in my time on the council, I I can think of three or four people that have reached out to me interested in doing this. And so, do we have a wait list or or have we just completely ceased? Like, what is what's your sense of interest?

We've had interest. We definitely and we and we do have people on a wait list. It's not a lot. It's not more than half a dozen people. Um, but there are people kind of waiting for us to get this policy together because they're interested. So,

okay. And and if they're, you know, let's say we adopt this as as we're discussing, we don't we leave the the old plaques on the old benches. Um, if we we go through everybody and there's still more people who want to uh put their names on a bench or do, you know, adopt a bench. Would we just have them continue on the wait list or would we think about looking at other spaces that could potentially accommodate a bench? Um I think it would

depend. Um I I think I mean I think we're a ways away from having every bench be adopted. So um and it wasn't you know when the program was running it was you know four or five a year. It wasn't like it was 30 a year that we were having to grant for. So, I think I think we've got a few years before we'd have to grapple with that.

Perfect. I would just suggest if if there is, you know, especially I'm sure when we ultimately adopt this policy, we'll put it out on social media, you know, let people know that they can now adopt a bench. If you end up getting a lot of interest, I would think at least keep the parks and sustainability commission a prize so we can know if we I I would be concerned about running out of benches. It would be my concern there. Thank you. So, the benches, so anyone on the wait list would have the option of adopting a bench that doesn't have a plaque on it or having a new bench installed. Correct.

Um, we would encourage people to, one of the reasons we needed this program was because people kept selecting the same locations for benches. And so, we have a couple of spaces in town where there are too many benches and other spaces where there aren't enough. So, we're going to try to encourage people to use spaces where that what um that where the bench hasn't been adopted. And that may mean a new bench needs to be installed and um or it may mean putting a plaque on an existing bench depending on the age of the bench, right? And for new benches, you would have defined places where you need them, not I want a bench right next to that one kind of thing.

That is our goal. And then the other question I have is because newly adopted benches will have a lifetime before they need renewal. If we choose not to take the plaques off of the already adopted benches, what's the protocol for that? Um because if we're saying that we're going to leave those on, do those stay on in perpetuity and the new ones only get 10-year renewals? I might have the 10 years wrong. him. I feel like the direction I heard is that yes, if those old plaques that were way haven't identified an owner, they would just stay indefinitely until the end of the the life of the bench. Good point. Yes, the bench will not last forever.

Okay. Thank you, Council Bami. I'm almost considering that we should um continue this to a date certain because we're really bouncing around a lot of different modifications in a motion that we might make and that might allow staff time to incorporate the concerns of the council so that we could really tighten this up and refine it. Um but I'm open to my council members comments as to that or if they're ready to make a motion. I'm I'm I'm okay to move forward, but if does somebody want to try a motion on this and see council member Hudis because you had the suggestion about No, I I I thought we had a motion.

If we go to the beginning of the policy and you looked at the purpose, I think that's says it all. When we're commemorating something to somebody, taking that away um when it still has useful life is very significant. So what we're hearing is the benches that are currently there and have dedications will remain there until the end of the useful life and those needing to be replaced. Anything new would fall under the program and the way it's operative. So therefore the only so that's an implementation part of how we approach this. The only change then to the policy would be the change of the one word from shall to may and the addition of a paragraph that was if a custom message is desired. And I'm not hearing any other changes that the council is asking for.

Mhm. So I can propose the change if the council desires in the form of a motion and then you and you can modify it from there. Sure. Council member, that sounds good to me.

Okay. So, the mo the re the motion would be to approve a council policy entitled adoption of assets on town owned property with the amendment under page three. uh section starting with sentiment on the plaque to change the word shall to may and then after the four bullet point messages to add a paragraph that reads if a custom message is desire desired such message shall be reviewed in accordance to administrative policies intended to restrict objectively obscene explicit or threatening messaging. Yes, council member Hudis. Yeah, I'd like to move that motion forward.

Yes, Vice Mayor. Second. Great. Hey, any other comments on this? Great. Thank you very much to staff for working uh through this with us. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Um all in favor? I. Any opposed? None. Passes unanimously.

Um no. Um uh okay. Um thank you very much, Director Burnham. Um uh keep us updated if we really messed up. Um uh we will now move to item one, I believe, or do we to the clerk? Do we go to council matters first?

Item one. All right. Item one is the minutes. Um yeah, council member Hudis, you pulled this item. Uh yeah, I think we need to make sure that we're very correct on this um on these minutes. And I had three areas of concern. Um, and uh, I I think it would be better if it were possible to take that input and for the town clerk to take um, a look at those areas and to uh, continue this item um, and to be able to listen to the transcript um, to listen to the recording as well. I don't think there's a transcript available. Um so I'm happy to articulate those areas that I'm concerned with. Um the the first one um is well this not in quite in order but um on page five uh it's it says Mayor Moore closed the hearing after further discussion. and town attorney Wheelen provided recommended improvements, etc. Um, I think that wasn't done without um a a request that I made for the town attorney to assure that at all times 25% of BMP assets be available to individuals with developmental disabilities. and then the town attorney came up with a lang language that included the word preference in that. But the minutes didn't reflect that. It looked like the town attorney just

recommended this. So that was one area where I think it would be important um to note why uh the town attorney did that and there were specific um question that I asked about that. Um the second area um was under on page four. Uh here we have middle of the page. It says council asked the town attorney about a condition of approval to ensure open space is publicly accessible in perpetuity. And so I had a few questions about that. Um which which council member asked for that. Um I don't think it was the whole council because the council didn't vote on it. Um why that's one concern. The second is um this is the only question of the town attorney that's included in the minutes. There were many questions of the town attorney. Um, so either this one is different than the others or all of the questions to the town attorney should be included in the minutes. Um, and then there's a minor issue with the spelling of the town attorney's name. So that is the second concern. Um the third concern regards the motion that I made which is described on page three and I'm not really sure how to handle this the

you know in the action minutes um this just uh it seems like it's incomplete because there's no context for this. So, the motion discussed information, correspondence, and reports that were missing at the hearing or were provided with extremely short notice for the public and the council. Um, but the specifics about these that were included in my findings weren't included in the minutes, including the letter from HCD the evening prior to the hearing. Uh, the clarification message from HCD one hour before the hearing. Uh, information and drawings with uh information on the website that's not contained in the packet. um correspondence with HCD and town staff which was represented in the staff report represented by staff and not disclosed to the council and that specifically refers to the gross versus net um correspondence and meetings with town staff and the developer and HCD and not documented and um track changes to the multi were revisions of the conditions of approval that were changing right up until and during um the meeting itself. So those were all concerns that I raised in the findings for the motion and that there's nothing about that in in here. So I'm not sure how that gets handled, but it does it does seem so that's it's very incomplete. So, um I guess I don't I'm not prepared to make

a motion on specific language, but I would maybe um ask that the clerk take a look at those points and review um the the recording on those. And I don't know if there's others. Um, but I want to make sure that we get this right. It's very important that these minutes be correct. Council member Renie.

Um, so I'm I'm okay with the clerk looking at this, but not with the idea that they're going to do something special. I think they just need to check that they're consistently reporting minutes the way we always do. the the last item um council member Hudis just mentioned. I have concern about adding all that detail because that's never done in here anywhere. Um so that wouldn't make sense to me. He just spoke for 5 minutes on things that he thought should be written here that would be completely different from what's what's in here. you know, on the on the first one where um why town attorney Wheel did that, it could make sense to add something there. But again, the emphasis I'm putting is it needs to be consistent with the way we do minutes, not asking for something special to make sure one council member, another um gets said what they want to show. They said it needs to be consistent with that and and I think of some of what Mr. Hughes is asking for m may not be consistent but I'm willing to have them review it with the idea of staying consistent.

Yeah. Town clerk. So I can respond to a couple of those concerns. One of them in regards to the response of the town attorney for a question that was added in context because we essentially do a verbatim motion and the motion was to include the conditions of approval as stated. So to have reference for that what that motion was is why we added the context of the response of the town attorney. So that was why that one was in there versus versus other. That's the after further discussion one. That's the um at the top of page five.

Um that would be the one on page four. Page four. Okay. Uh-huh.

And then I I can go back and look at and see who asked the question of um perpetuity. Um, we just typically don't call out each individual council member's question, but again, that was to add context as to why the attorney had that response and why the motion was made. So, because the motion was was very um general to in terms of what the attorney stated, we just had to add that context. So, if somebody was reading the minutes, they would have a little bit of context where that motion came from and what that motion really was. Council member Hudis.

Yeah. And I agree with, you know, having the uh town clerk take a look at this for consistency. Um but that's an example of consistency in that that one has some context. The motion that's cited earlier that I made doesn't have the context. So I I for for reasons you know, I think uh for consistency that would be important. And same thing with actually the the last one um on page five that that also uh should be looked at for consistency as well. Oh, I'm not going to sit here and try to make a motion for specific language tonight, but I would hope that uh town clerk could take a closer look at this.

Yeah, I'm I would just say I'm generally not inclined to support that that um request because it sounds like this is consistent with how the town does minutes. that um the town clerk just said generally we don't call out questions or comments made by council members by name and if that's our process I don't think it would be appropriate to add that vice mayor

um you know for example the recordings are there in perpetuity or as long as they can be kept and there are always motions or there's always in the minutes something like council discussed and then there's an outcome and we don't go into the details of the discussion. So, I'm not going to be inclined to support this either. Well, I'll make a motion anyway. Um, it's clear uh that folks want this development so badly um and uh are not going to support getting the record right. But I'm going to make the motion anyway for uh the clerk to review uh the minutes for cons.

Can I interrupt you really quick? We haven't done uh public comment yet and there is a speaker card, which is my mistake. Um uh do you mind if I open it up and then go back to your motion right after? Okay, we have one um comment from Gus who clerk. Was that your

Thank you. I agree with some some of this has to be redone. Um the what I spoke in the verbal part verbal communication. I didn't speak on um the other the the thing because I was trying to make a point and um where's my glasses? Sorry. And I'd like to correct, you know, because it says commented on a concerns regarding notice and opposition of to the pro the project, but I was commenting on because um I sent in two, you know, says sent in two Google maps uh pictures and the red traffic, you know, I want something to say that, you know, the traffic concerns is obvious. And then al you know like for safety reasons and um uh you know like the the public notification and when I was reading through some of this stuff you know even in the emails it was it was saying a lot of people didn't get notified and that's how I even got into here. And then like on when I was reading through this like Jake van the the thing 200 it should say 288 less than original proposed because that was something that was a major major thing and he's he's one of the persons that you guys should really look at because he's I've I've heard him before and he every time he speaks I always listen in. Um, and I, you know, I also wanted to, like I said, the the three-year-old, you know, that was a big deal. That should be someplace on there because, you know, the Lexington and I had to put that on the record. And then, you know, for the record, too, since it was a thing, the mom, she kind of looked on drugs. So, you know, it just it it

was it was uh and then I came from Santa Clara. A lot a lot of this was from Agy. guys don't know about a lot of you don't know about Agnu but it was on Lafayette you had these tall fences you don't put put Agnu people you know a couple people spoke on that um also uh you know when you go looking through all the minutes and stuff like that people were saying hey why you know why weren't we uh notified I live on I live you know on Burton Road when and like the street sign they asked it has been there for 6 months and it wasn't submitted you know nothing was nobody was told you know after you know they wasn't submitted that hey there's a meeting here you know after 6 months so if you went through all the comments and I'm just saying hey the public should know um he it just it it it was just like a thrown together thing and you got Mary Badami talked about

thank you the the cars and that's where you know all right um back to council member Hudis.

Yeah. So uh so I think uh the motion is for uh to continue this item to allow the town clerk uh to review uh the minutes for consistency with our policy and consistency with uh the the record of the meeting which I think is just a video at this point. um and uh to bring this back at the next uh council meeting. So that's the motion. Um the reason that I think it's important um because I think we need accurate minutes uh for this important action that was taken by the council. Um, I think for the same reasons that we needed to see all of the documents um that were referenced, some of which may not actually have existed uh and some of which were provided minutes before the meeting were all reasons um why we need to again get the minutes correct. Uh I find it astonishing that people are so enthusiastic about the project um that they're willing to forego uh some process that's you know very important in transparency and in um having accurate minutes of our meetings. So um that's the rationale for my motion. Council member Badami,

I'm going to second the motion with the comment that on page four as I'm looking at the the disclosures and there's five of them from all of the council members and and I'm last, which is fine. Um, and it I said that I stated I was chair of the planning commission when phase one was heard. Yes. Then it says met Don Caporres. I think that's somewhat misleading because I think during the hearing I disclosed that I occasionally crossed paths with Don Capobra's Wendy Baker due to the location of my downtown office, but I didn't specifically meet with him to discuss the proposed application prior to the hearing. I think the way it's written, it says, "Yeah, yeah, I met him. I, you know, who hasn't met Don in all these years he'd been around?" But um I think that might be a little misleading and that I actually sat down with them and reviewed the application.

Okay. Thank you. Um yeah, Council Member Ready. Um, so in trying to decide how to vote for this, I'm confused on part of the motion or justification for the motion relating to whether you're for this development or not. I'm I'm that's I'm having trouble understanding how that's relevant to whether we should look to see if there's an improvement to the minutes. I mean, that was stated as a reason we should vote for the motion, and I'm confused.

I I also uh uh strongly disagree with the assertion that um any of us are disinterested in foregoing transparency. I think that's that's a bit harsh. Um I I I just feel the minutes are accurate as written. And so I I do not uh think there's a reason to to do this. I also think it sets a very um uh bad and inappropriate precedent to have uh council members nitpicking at the minutes whenever an item is um you know controversial. Um you know I I think all of us if we chose to could go through and throw in things that that we wish you know came out a certain way but didn't. Um, I I just don't think that's a practice we should get into. And so I'm I am comfortable with the uh uh minutes as written. I think they show very clearly what happened. The motion the the there were a variety of motions. Um, and the the most substantial passed with a 3-2 vote. And so I think that, you know, makes everyone's uh opinions on the matter very clear.

Yes, Vice Mayor. Uh, yes. Um, I'm not easily insulted, but I think um a comment that we're so enthusiastic for the project, we don't want accurate minutes is um bordering on really, really insulting. Um, we are not going to go into all the details of reasons why people voted or didn't. That can be apparent in the video. the fact that one of the documents that came in at the last minute was redundant with information we originally received in November and came in was in a phone conversation then an email and then came in a letter it was the same information so you know I don't think we want to relitigate this but we are looking at a process where we are action only minutes we've had a lot of meetings covered this way and digging into each person trying to highlight their own contributions to a discussion will get us into verbatim minutes and we're not going to be doing that for every meeting. So, I cannot be supportive of that and it's not because I so much want this project to happen.

Council member Renie, um I'd like to make a substitute motion that we approve these minutes. Second. All right. Any understood? Thank you. Um uh any further comments? Okay, great. I will call the question on the substitute motion. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? No. No. Motion passes 3 to two. Uh the minutes are approved. Uh okay. We will now go to council matters. Uh I will go to council member Renie first.

Uh thank you, mayor. Let me look through my chocolate smudges here. Um, so on January 21st, I met with the developers of 647 North Santa Cruz, learned lots of things about their project. Um, at this point, I don't think I need to share with the other council members cuz many of you may meet and go see and understand the site and the project. Um, on 126 I attended the swearing in of our new county assessor. on 128 um uh the Silicon Valley Clean Energy Risk Oversight Committee met and I have nothing to report from that. Council member Hudis. Um, let's see on uh let's see. On January 21st, um I attended the SVRA board of directors meeting um where the Santa Clara Police at the Santa Clara Police Department where preparations for the Super Bowl and um FIFA were discussed regarding uh communications and preparation for u potential um need to coordinate our different public safety agencies. Um and then on uh the 22nd I participated in the community health and senior services commission meeting and then um I attended the uh city selection

committee meeting of the city's association and um I was appointed to the board of the SVRIA. Um, and uh, council member, I'm sorry, mayor um, the mayor was uh, uh, appointed to a number of agencies and I'm I'm sure he'll talk about that, but I wholeheartedly supported his appointment to uh, those other agencies. I think it'd be very important for the town to have representation. um on these other agencies. So um and then the last one uh oh no a couple others. So on the 28th I participated in a very interesting uh program at Toronto Wireless um which uh Carl Gardino invited me to attend and there were a number of uh elected officials there uh looking at how to provide a reliable wireless service um at low cost uh with some new technology and it's very very interesting program there. Um and then uh last one is I attended the finance commission meeting last night.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. Um on the 21st I um met with two county representatives um to discuss adult nutrition and the funding for it. And later that afternoon, I'll let um Mayor Moore talk more about it, but I was there for the Hillbrook Impact Challenge kickoff. Um on the 22nd, I attended the Cities Association uh legislative action committee. Um we're just sort of it was a very short meeting because we got compressed between the nominations um and the selection for Mayor Moore and council member Hedayes to our regional um positions which is really good. Loscatoos is well represented and um you know they're both doing good work on our behalf. On the 28th, I met with um Live Oak board members to discuss um the nutrition program there. And then um that afternoon, I was on a Zoom meeting along with our town manager. Um are you going to discuss that? Um for the good governance? Okay. So there's a project um with a number of council members and managers to discuss a partners in local governance effort where we're seeking to bring modernized information and training materials to help elected officials and professional staff deliver excellent services to our communities. So, it's how to have effective um relationships on um council manager form of government and um be very effective and hopefully bring new council members and professional members into a respectful um relationship. On the 29th, I met with um the executive director for Safe Routes to School to talk about the ebike work going on at the middle school and the high school. On the 30th, I

attended the 2026 um Cal City's legislator spotlight um for Peninsula Division and it was a great opportunity to hear from um Sam Licardo, uh Patrick Ahern, a bunch of our legislators were there talking about um highest priority being um the impacts of ICE and requirements within California for um protecting people's rights, but also what legislation is coming up and didn't move forward in terms of reform of the housing element process um and what what the new priorities will be. On the 2nd, I also attended the finance commission meeting with council member Hudace. And as people saw, we had an item pulled tonight because our discussion last night got very deep into um some suggestions for assumptions with um with uh Rafalis, the consultant. And so they'll be taking those recommendations back from the finance commission before it comes to the town council. And then finally this morning I met with some residents who have some serious concern privacy concerns with flock cameras which is making the news throughout the valley right now. And that's it for today.

Council member Budami.

Thank you. On January 26th I participated in a meeting of the council policy committee whereas Mayor Moore was appointed chair. And then on the 28th I participated in a board meeting at the Silicon Valley Animal Control Authority whereas I was appointed chair. Congratulations. Um, as uh, Vice Mayor Risto said, uh, we met with students from Hillbrook, um, to talk about better doing more education around ebikes. Excited, um, about the the potential for that project. Um, along with the town manager and the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, um, we toured the Pacific Clinics campus in Los Gatos, um, which has been here for more than 100 years and is a a beautiful campus. Um, uh, I met with representatives from CALR and the California Transportation Commission to talk about, um, traffic safety, potential traffic safety improvements to our on and off ramps in low scatters. Um, apparently, uh, CALR cart launch now says no rounded mirrors. Um, so that was too bad. Um, but but hopefully more to come on that. I visited the and spoke with the Union Middle School leadership cl eighth grade leadership class and um it was my first time back in my alma mater in in many years um uh except for coaching wrestling and so um it was fun to talk to those students. Um, I attended the joint venture leadership lunch. Um, uh, along with council member or vice mayor Risto, attended the Cal City's Peninsula Division Legislator Spotlight. Um, I attended both of the Weedmire All-Star football games and uh, welcomed folks to town for those. Um, the it was the 51st uh, boys Weedmire All-Star football game and it was a a ton of fun. Stayed for most of the game. Uh, it was great. Um it was the first ever girls um Weedmire all-star flag

football game and it was awesome. Um super competitive uh young women uh total powerhouses. It was a ton of fun. They're really glad to be there. Um I spoke with uh the members of Democracy Tent. Uh I met along with the school board um the the Lascato Saratoga Joint Union High School um uh district board president and superintendent. uh met with the uh director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office who is visiting um our community um which is very interesting visiting um uh representing Taiwan. Um spoke with the Christy Sereno Realtors this morning and um as uh Council Member Hudis alluded to, I was appointed to the Abag Executive Committee which should hopefully give Loscatoos just a little bit more say in uh the next arena process. We'll we'll see. Um uh and that's all I have. I will turn it over to the town manager and then town attorney.

Thank you, mayor. Uh at today's public comment, we heard of a report of a water issue on Loscatos Boulevard of water seeping up from the roadway. Uh we had identified that at Los Gatos Boulevard between Churo and Frank and has already been reported to San Jose Water to be able to address that. So, thank you to uh for folks that are watching out for that. Uh we also heard of a concern regarding a fence uh into the creek from one of their representatives that is an actual CALR issue and not a town issue. And so we'll make sure that the when we get that information the proper notifications occur. And then lastly the Super Bowl uh Super Bowl preparation has been tremendous. Our police department has been fully engaged as has been our emergency manager who will be um playing a role in the information center for communication to all the EOCC's. Um there's a lot of planning that's going on. I will not go into detail. Due to the security nature of most of what's occurring, but I will say for those who plan on flying drones um over Los Gatos or any other areas, there will be a restriction and that drones will not be allowed to fly. So, please don't fly your drones. Um, and while the 49ers may not be in the Super Bowl, we wish both teams uh the best of luck. So, thank you.

Thank you. Any updates? Yes, your town attorney gave me a couple things to read out tonight. So, first of all, thank you for having me while I have Yeah, should have welcomed you to the meeting. Uh, I'll welcome you here uh uh three and a half hours later.

Great. Okay. Uh uh on January 20th, the town council met in close session pursuant to government code section 54957.6 to conference with its labor negotiators regarding negotiations with the police officers association and there was no reportable action um from that conference. On January 21st, the town council met in closed session pursuant to government code 54957 to discuss performance evaluations for the town manager and the town attorney. And as you're aware, amendments to those employment contracts were on tonight's council agenda.

Thank you very much. Um, great. With that, this meeting is adjourned. Welcome.