Town Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening everyone. I'm going to call this meeting of the Loscatos Town Council to order. Um, town clerk, can we please begin with the roll call? Council member Annie here. Council member His here. Council member Badami here. Vice Mayor Rista here. Mayor Moore

here. Um, great. Uh, well, thank you all for being here tonight. Um, we'll begin with our pledge of allegiance. And so, we have, uh, Dean and Savannah from Stratford Elementary to come up and lead us in the pledge. And as they're coming up here, um, I'll share just a little bit about them. Uh, so Dean is in kindergarten at Stratford. Um, and Savannah is in fifth grade. Uh, and Dean plays baseball. He's in the Loscatoos little league. Go Dean. Uh he's in single A golf with his dad and enjoys math, which is more than many kindergarteners can say. So, good on you. Um when asked what his favorite thing about Loscatoos is, he said he likes the ice cream options. Good answer, Dean. Um for Savannah, she plays soccer withi Loscatos United and she's training for pickle ball at Courtzside. Very exciting. Um, her favorite subjects are writing, history, and science. And when she was asked what her favorite thing about Los Gatos is, she said it sounds like a great community. So, she's not sold yet. So, we have to convince her what a great town we are tonight. Um, so I will hand the mic over to you to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Great job. Round of applause for Savannah and

[applause]

Thank you. always the best part of the meeting. Okay. Um uh so I will now we have three presentations this evening. Um which is nice because we don't have much else on the agenda. So um we will begin with our affordable housing month proclamation and Corey Walbok from SV at Home is here to receive the proclamation. Um uh so this proclamation we do every year uh to reaffirm the town of Los Gatos's commitment to affordable housing which is a of critical importance in a community where it is rather expensive to live as I can tell you firsthand as can everyone else in this community. Um some of the things we we highlight in this proclamation is that affordable housing is a basic human right. Yet every year thousands of families in Silicon Valley struggle to find an affordable home. uh in what is one of the most expensive housing markets in the nation. And so this proclamation is an important opportunity to remind all of us uh how critically important it is that we continue to produce affordable housing in Los Gatos. And I will hand it over to Corey to say uh a little bit about his work in affordable housing and anything else he'd like to share.

Okay, if I use the mic over here.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. Good evening, honorable mayor, council members, and city staff. Uh my name is Corey Wilbach. I'm the civic leadership manager at SV at Home or Silicon Valley at home. Thank you for inviting us to join you in recognizing affordable housing month. We are proud to receive uh Loscatus' affordable housing month proclamation and glad to see this important recognition of how critical affordable housing is for our communities. Uh as a local nonprofit, SV at Home advocates for practical solutions to meet the housing needs of residents across Santa Clara County. Our theme for affordable housing month this year is allin for housing. We are excited to coordinate dozens of events throughout the month throughout the county hosted by SV at home and our many partners. We encourage everyone to visit sil uh silicon valleyatathome.org/events to find virtual and in-person events where you can learn and connect with your neighbors. It is no secret that our need remains great across every city and town. Nearly half of Santa Clair County's renters are costburdened. Too many of our residents have been priced out of their homes. and local cities, schools, and small businesses are deeply struggling to recruit and retain employees and talent due to housing costs. That is why your continued leadership is essential. Our work focuses on the three Ps. Production, preservation, and protection. That means building new housing, especially affordable housing, preserving the existing affordable housing that we have, and protecting our most vulnerable residents from housing instability. By investing in affordable housing, we are securing the future and well-being of all our residents and our community.

We invite you to join us in envisioning, planning, and creating a future with safe, stable, and affordable housing for all. Thank you again for your partnership and leadership this affordable housing month. Thank you very much, Corey. [applause] Okay. Our next uh proclamation is uh sort of tied uh to affordable housing um uh in a way which is our building safety month proclamation. Um and Robert Gray, our chief building official in Loscatos will be here to receive it. um along with the building team. Um please come on up. And uh so I I'll read a little bit from this proclamation as well. Los Gatos is committed to recognizing that our growth and strength depends on the safety of our homes, buildings, and infrastructure. Um and our confidence in the resilience of these buildings that make up our community is achieved through the devotion of vigilant guardians of that safety. um such as our building safety and fire prevention officials, architects, engineers, builders, trades people, design professionals, laborers, plumbers, and others in the construction industry. Um uh like those uh that I have here. Um I just want to give a huge huge kudos. I I think it's very important every year that we do proclaim building safety month because I think lots of folks in town don't know about the work that you all do behind the scenes to keep our community safe and it is so much. Um, and so Robert or or if your team would like to share a little bit about um what you do in building safety month. Uh, I'd be honored.

Uh, just thank you, mayor. I appreciate uh the council and uh the town for issuing the proclamation. We enjoy that every year. We appreciate the recognition through building safety month. I wanted to call out two of our staff members here within the building department. And it just so happens we have the uh newest staff member to the building department and also the longest serving staff member of the building department, Roy Alba, our senior building inspector, and Hannah Makuchi with our uh permit uh tech team. So, thank you guys for coming. We appreciate it. Appreciate everything that you guys do. And of course, this is just a small number of we're a small but mighty group, but but this is just a small representation of us. But thank you very much, Mayor. Appreciate it.

Thank you. All right, hand of appla round of applause for our building department. Thank you very much. And our last proclamation this evening is for historic preservation month. Um and Sean Mullen, our planning manager, is here to receive this proclamation. So um for historic preservation month, Loscatos is a community with a long history. Something that I learned um you know in the last few years is that Los Gatos is much older than many of our neighboring communities. Saratoga next door has only been an incorporated city since 1950 whereas locatos was founded in 1887 and so we have many important historic homes that our planning department uh works very hard to keep historic and uh uh in our registry and and accounted for. So, um, Sean, if you want to share a little bit about, um, uh, historic preservation, uh, it's all on you.

I'll be brief, but, uh, while I'm here accepting the proclamation, I do want to make sure that we recognize the the citizens, volunteers that serve on the historic preservation committee that do the lion share of the work. Staff's just here to support their work and and their passion for preserving the town. And, uh, again, we want to recognize them.

Well, thank you, photo. All right. We will now move on to the business of the meeting which begins with our consent calendar. Um and so if there is anyone in the audience that would like to speak um on consent, now would be the time to do so. Um but before I turn it over to the public, um are there any council council members wanting to pull any items from consent?

Yes, Council Member Hudis. Uh yeah, I'd like to pull item six uh since we received kind of lengthy communications about that and I'm not sure that we even could resolve all of those things in there, but I think it'd be good to have a discussion about uh some of those points.

Okay, we will pull item six. Um uh any other comments? Seeing none, I will go to the public. Um, and we have one uh speaker card for consent. Um, from Gus who before I start, can I can I ask about number six because I wanted to talk about number six. You you can talk about number six later. Yeah.

Okay. Um uh I like to do number one and number five. No, number four. Um the one you know the minutes again 10day rule. I always want you to reconsider that because you know there I I did I didn't submit it but six people uh spoke about ICE that that they're always here and uh you know they they should be notified. It just has their names. um you know there's 12 out of 12 people um and so there you know you you're you're hurting the public when you don't say something about ICE or uh uh like the the porta potty the 44,000 that's that came up and that should be uh uh highlighted you know because at the planning at the finance commission we find out that that it really isn't on the agenda the agenda and we did talk about it a couple years back. Um but it's there's no planning on that and the town council highlighted that at at the finance commission. I'm not you know I'm just trying to get out the truth. Um also on the uh the other issue with the high the the all the height stuff um that one is you know there's 12 people or 11 people spoke on it. One spoke on verbal but uh you know all of them are against it. So it should say all of the whole town basically is against the all the highrises. It's not a city it's a town type of thing. and they should, you know, should just have a quick sentence of something that they said. Um, let's see. And I, you know, I I spoke on the same stuff. ICE agents, DEI, you didn't,

you're not supporting the July 4th as much as you should be. The water bills, uh, looking out for town residents instead of yourselves types of stuff. Um, the 14oot statue should be, uh, you know, that's with art and culture. I don't I'd like to see what the price is. And then on number five, the four the 130,000 for water and uh for the fountain, you know, that's that's something that like a pool. That's a lot of money for to for a warranty for just to to for the the to make sure that the waters u call you just it's like maintaining a pool. That's that's something that should be pulled and not you know $130,000 for five years or or whatever when it should be guaranteed that uh that you know for three years at least if that you just did a whole bunch of work on it. So it it's just about pouring chemicals into uh uh the the water and maintaining it like a pool and I think most people have uh fountains know that. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, okay. Great. Um, we will, uh, now I'll now look for a motion on consent. Yes, Council Member Bami. I move to approve uh, items one through five. Great. Uh, Vice Mayor Risto. Second. Um, we will we will take a roll call vote because we have one member of the council participating remotely. Council member Annie, I. Council member Hudis, I. Council member Badami I. Vice Mayor Risto I. Mayor Moore

I passes unanimously. Uh we will now move to verbal communications which is the time for members of the public to address the council on any items that are not on the agenda. Um and so I have some speaker cards here. I'll begin with Tim E. Um and then go to Jeff Suzuki. Timmy again. I'm going to go with green eggs and the ham budget. We're talking I'm going to be talking a little bit about the budget and the budget uh stuff that uh that came up last night. There's a lot in the budget. uh this that uh there are four points about it and I'm just going off the top of my head but I just I remember the 6.8% that you guys are that two of you know that the that uh everybody's all the finance people in the town everybody that you hired in the town are saying pay back the $4 million. Only one person that uh last night that that said uh we don't want to do that was the town manager because he's he's he's looking out for uh you know paying people. It was giving people raises 5% across the board for for all the town employees that need to be if you listen to the tape or or stuff like that. I I sat through it and and uh there were four points that he the one of the council members uh the the commissioners made that made total sense and and you got to run around from the town like they're cooking the books and uh it it's you you know those things uh like the overtime pay um I I I want to point out I um my

brother um we talked about this in in I think up north in one of the small towns their cops or their unions got the last two years if you if you got uh uh overtime. It it you got your retirement package skyrocketed. So that could be a that or is it the the new tax laws that that you know that you get benefits for, but you it was 100% overtime. Um, I'm trying to think what the the I forgot the other two, but there were, you know, it's important that we we investigate and have the town uh the finance commission get records because they're not getting the the straight answers and they're asking for straight answers and uh you know, it's just like oh well, we'll get back to you on on you know, who how many people are in the things. I know that uh the the police chief said that a couple other uh cops retired. Um another thing was uh was brought up there was like 300 the the the 346,000 if you averaged out how much the cops are getting paid. Um just off the top of my head it's just like wow wow wow you know it's it's fascinating if you look at it and I just said numbers numbers do matter people do lie. So that's that's my three minutes. Oh, and the DEI, you know, these guys, I mean, not uh the uh ICE agents. I sent you in that clip and I sent showed them that clip. So, if we can agendaize that.

Thank you. We'll now move to Jeff Suzuki who will be followed by Joe Ends.

Good evening, council members. My name is Jeff Suzuki. Just as a quick disclosure, I am not speaking as the complete streets and transportation commissioner tonight, but as a private resident and the president of the Los Scatus Anti-Racism Coalition. Yesterday, I had the privilege of serving on a panel uh regarding the Japanese American incarceration. Um it was due to the work that a lot of the coalition had done including Nigel uh who was the co- one of the co-authors of our local narrative series about how what happened here how people were forced to relocate. Uh people who went to my high school, Losa's high school, were basically ferited out of their classrooms and then forced to board a train and then go to the uh Santonita detention center and then go to Hart Mountain. And towards the end of the discussion, there was of course a questions about current events. What what do the those who had relatives who were part of the camps, what did they think about what was going on with regards to federal immigration enforcement? And they said it is incredibly similar. We see the dehumanization of people, people in the periphery, people who can't fight back. Uh people who are disproportionately productive in the economy, uh people who might not have English as their first language. And unfortunately, our town was a part of that. There were

newspaper articles calling Japanese Americans fifth columnists and unfortunately I didn't find any transcripts of of council members standing up for them. The DEI commission has put forward a set of functional recommendations. We have stated our position repeatedly. Uh so I I will not repeat it again. Basically, no town. Uh yeah, I will I'll stick by that. I won't repeat them again. But I do find that there is a lot of incredible stuff in this uh including that the town will coordinate with community leaders, faith leaders, healthc care facilities, school officials, creating a task force comprised of comprised of an individual or team of individuals of all stakeholders, establishing new requirements to train town employees on how to handle interactions with federal immigration enforcement and a number of other things. And I would like the council to discuss that. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll go to Joe Ends who will be followed by Corey Walbuck and that's our last speaker card in the room council. Um there talk about the homeless mostly I guess it's kind of serious out at Miles Avenue. Everybody's kind of doing substances together. Everybody's telling on each other to the police working with Sergeant Taylor and we're beginning to talk about like what can be done or there's like basically two homeless camps. One is self-sufficient people are not acting out as badly as what's going on on the miles and that's kind of the bad homeless camp if you will. But it needs attention, police attention. I don't know how many calls have gone out there, but everybody has been had the police calls on them, you know. So, it's say this person, that person, this person, that person. Nothing's getting done. Everybody's on substances, central nervous unspecified stimulants, whatever you want to call it with the fentanyl thing and everything else. It's time to probably cease and desist or sessate that behavior because of the danger and then all everything else. and it just it needs attention. So, I'll be working with Sergeant Taylor there because he's put he came nice man. He had jeans on for the sexual awareness thing if if you can follow that. And thank you, Mr. Moore, for your diligent work because u you're good and everything you do out here is like the way it should be. That's all I can say, you know, and all the political parties. I mean, if I'm going to run in November, it's in the middle. I'm not on the left, I'm not on the right. I'm like, it's about the quality of life party which was starting because everybody should have a quality of life here. Not worried about the building so high and then the other

things and the police were doing great job budgeting Jamie. What do you want? I mean, you know, she cut stuff down and anybody that says anything negative about her, no, it's wrong. It's just wrong. You know, the budget and I didn't like the figures. Look at the numbers and look how she's what she's done for the police department. This is solemn but sort of dangerous to thank you very much and it was a pleasure addressing that from my heart instead of getting up there and trying to figure out what I'm going to say. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll now go to Corey Walbach. My name is Corey Wbach. I'm speaking on my own behalf. Elected officials take an oath of office. It says nothing about following orders. It says nothing about avoiding risk. It affirms loyalty to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California. Local law enforcement should actively, proactively protect local residents from masked unidentified bandits, kidnapping people from our streets and from our buildings, denying them habius corpus and sending them to concentration camps. Local law enforcement should proactively prevent that and stop kidnapping. But at least the minimum be to not actively help. When I was a member of the Palo Alto City Council in late 2016, I wrote a memo that we adopted uh just before well I guess we actually adopted it in late 2016. Um it became uh the template for a memo passed on May 2nd, 2017 by the town of Lascatos on Lascatos being a diverse, supportive, and inclusive community. to quote this is interesting because I remember writing these words and I was excited to see them borrowed by our neighboring city in Loscatos. The town of Loscatos will oppose any attempts to undermine the safety, security, and rights of members of our community and will work proactively to ensure the rights and privileges of everyone in the town regardless of religion, country of birth, immigration status, disability, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity. passed and adopted

at a regular t meeting of the town council of the town of Losatos, California held on the second day of May, 2017. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any speakers on Zoom? There are no hands raised on Zoom.

Great. Thank you. Uh all right. Well, that will close uh public comment for this evening and we will move on to item six. Um our pulled item, which is to authorize the town manager to execute a fiveyear agreement for services with Field Turf USA to perform park uh to perform turf maintenance at Creekide Sports Park. Um I will turn uh it over to Director Burnham, our director of parks and public works.

Sure. Good evening uh mayor and council. Thank you for letting me talk with you on this topic. Um the the contract proposed in this council item, it relates to maintenance of the artificial turf field at Creekide Park. That field is 14 years old. It was constructed as artificial turf with a crumb rubber infill, which was really the kind of only option at the time that it was built. Uh we have been maintaining the field via contractor for a number of years. the current contract expires on June 30th of this year. So recognizing that it was um going to expire, we issued an request for proposals to solicit firms to provide maintenance. We also as part of this work um in this new request for proposals requested an enhanced level of service beyond what we've done in the past. Um recognizing that the age of the field and the intensity of its use warrants additional consideration um of how we're maintaining it. uh after publicly bidding that we bit received one bid um from field turf which is the proposal that's in front of you tonight um to do perform more maintenance than has been done in the past in more detail um and offering additional um services beyond what we have done in the past like sanitation testing, sanitary testing, bacterial testing. Um these are really the things we you know with the given the age of this field that we feel are required. Um we think the agreement in front of you um meets the standard of care for this field and for what the town requires. We did receive and review the comments that were received today. Um and we are happy to discuss them and field questions from council um on what you might like to see with regard to changes if you want to see any of them. um we we do as staff feel that we bid um

the appropriate level of service required. It adding services will require us to go back and negotiate with the contractor. That's what council would like us to do. We're happy to have that conversation. Thank you. Thank you. Um questions? Yes, Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. Um I appreciate the report and the presentation. And I also appreciate some of the um specifically some of the points brought up by um the letter from our member of the public uh Cynthia Fan. And one of the things that struck me was particularly given the fact that Creekide Park is Creekide. Um is there has there been effort made to prevent um the rubber pellets or all of the plastic flaking from leaving the field and getting into the creek? I mean, is there some way? I don't know. You know, she talks about more frequent maintenance, but I mean, my main question is how is the maintenance done? And is it done with is it done with the goal of removing all the extra stuff that sheds off or is it done with the goal of removing it and making sure it's not leaving the site that it all goes away together?

The goal is to make sure it doesn't leave the site. I am joined tonight by Tyler Thomas, our superintendent of operations. So, I'm going to let him kind of talk about how the current maintenance is done on the field. Vice Mayor Council, thank you. Tyler Thomas, superintendent for parks and public works. So, currently the way the maintenance is done is to a [clears throat] keep the rubber on the field as much as possible with the blades of grass. We avoid using blowers that'll kick it up over to the creek. So when our contractor comes out and they sweep the field, what they're doing is they're pulling all the loose material off, we'll recycle rubber back onto the field that we can, but anything that can't is removed and taken off the site. So the goal in mind is to keep as much rubber on the turf as possible and keep it out of the creek and coming off of the actual playing surface.

Okay, great. So follow-up question. Um, did you have a chance to review the letter from our member of the public? And can you tell me if there are points in here that you think I mean it sounds like some of the concerns she brought up have already been addressed with the existing contract. So, is there anything in here that you think could or should be added to the contract? Um, is that a fair question?

I think it's a fair question. and I'll start and Tyler can jump in. Um I think what we're doing um so the the contractor already collects material off of the field and it goes into the dumpster and Tyler and I were talking about this today. We know that because West Valley Collection Recycling has questioned how heavy the hall is from that from the from the garbage cans out there. So we know the ex and to be clear field turf is going to be a new contractor for us. So we are changing contractors. So, um I think this gives us a new opportunity to to kind of reset our expectations of what's happening out there. We do collect um and dispose of the microplastics that are that that are collected from the field. So, I think we feel that's in there. Um the sweeping frequency in the proposed agreement is um is increased over what we are doing now. Um, and we are working toward having staff be able to do more frequent sweeping in between, right? So, they would we try to get them out there every other week or at least once a month so that we're doing that ourselves as well to fill in between um between the work that would be done by the contractors. We already don't blow the microplastics as as Tyler just mentioned. I think the one thing we really that really gave us some things to think about and we talked about so we do um the the contract amendment about drain filtrations um and and filtrations in the storm drains. Um we do clean the storm drains out here regularly. We it's part of our regular maintenance program. We do that for every catch basin in town. Um but the idea of installing filters is something in the catch basins here on site is something we talked about and we and we think we could do. It doesn't need to be part of this contract though. I think we would do that as staff. Um because this contract field turf would not be responsible for maintaining the storm drainage system. We would still do that. Um and I think we're I t I'll let Tyler weigh in, but I think we're happy to

just to say that we will do that. Um no, I would agree. We we're happy to put some filters in and that's something we can do in house with staff and as director Berno mentioned, we'll work towards additional sweepings to help keep it clean. You know, I did have a chance to review the letter. I've looked at the pictures, the couple videos that were sent. There's some housekeeping items that need to be addressed out there and that's something with a new contractor and our internal staff will be addressing. Thank you so much.

Yes, Council Member Cudis. Um yeah, I'm just kind of reacting to the volume of ideas that came in in this letter and um it looks to me like if I count them up, there's somewhere between 10 and 15 um amendments that are being requested. And I I have a hard time uh getting up to speed on all of those between the time we receive the letter and the time we're going to vote on this. So, um, ha, have you had ongoing dialogue with Miss Fan on this? And have some of these ideas been addressed or been floated before we got to the contract amendment?

Um, our interactions with Miss Span have been related to her interest in moving away from using cub rubber and the artificial turf. So, um, so no, we haven't discussed the contract with her or the bidding process until until we received comments today.

Okay. So, you know, I'm I'm, uh, kind of reacting and and I don't want to go through each of the 10 to 15 items since I don't even understand them at this point. And so, um, I I guess I would ask, um, is there, um, merit or is it reasonable to request for an estimate of these additional items at this time? or is it uh does it make sense to staff to to meet with Miss Fan and understand um all of these requests um as well?

I think we'd be happy to review the requests with our proposed contractor um and see if an amendment is in order. I mean, I went through I I skipped section two, but I did go through um what she identified as 1 A, 1 B, 1 C, 1D. Um, and I think for those amendments, we feel like we can address them with that. We don't need an amendment, but we can talk to the contractor about it. Um, the second uh section that I neglected to mention earlier is about um the infill and GMAX testing. I mean, we are following the recommended guidelines for artificial turf fields, which is GMAX testing once a year. Um, we're happy to share those results when they come forward. there's no reason why they can't be public information. Um, our most recent test was from May of 2025, so we know we're getting ready to was at the end of May of 2025 and we test once a year, so we know we'll be doing that soon. Um, it's been we certainly, you know, we can get costs for that information and come back. Um, we'd love to ask council to amend to approve this as presented and we can come back and talk about an amendment to the agreement if we if if when we have cost information.

Is that fair to say? Um, yeah, that that I appreciate that and I'm not sure that I would even know which ones to ask you to go back Yeah.

on tonight because there really hasn't been adequate time to review it. And um but it does seem like uh there is some substance in this letter. Um you know and and some of the things that uh you know I think are important is to understand um the runoff situation um into uh into the creek. Um the uh active measures that are noted to stop migration of both materials offsite in any direction including but not limited to the creek side of the park. Um and that uh you know and I'm just picking out a couple of the many items that are suggested here. So, um I if you're you you're willing to engage with Miss Fan and then perhaps to ask for um some other estimates. Is that correct?

Yes. Okay. Thank you. Great. We'll go to Council Member Renie.

Uh thank you. So, I want I'll follow up on the on the testing. Um, it's mentioned two testing levels, the 164 and the and the 200, and you mentioned you're following the guidelines, and she's suggesting that it should be more often to make sure that um the the people using the field are are safe from concussions. I guess the first question in my mind is when you test once a year, are you over the 164? Are you even over the 200? If you are, that says we should be testing more often. And and maybe we should have a contract that, you know, kind of like our weed debatement program. If you violate it one year, we test you more often kind of thing. Um if we are above levels that we decide are important, either it's 164 or 200, that we should then test rather than wait a whole year, we should be testing more often until we get to a point where we're not receiving tests above these thresholds. Uh your thoughts on that? Do you do you happen to know if we're what levels we're exceeding?

I I do. Yeah. So, to be clear, we are not over the 165 threshold. um are in in 2025 are testing. So when they do GMAX testing, they're testing 10 different locations around the field and averaging them. So the minimum test bounce that we got was 133 and lower is better on the GMAX testing. So you want to be lower. 133 to 150 was the range. The average was 140. So that's where we were. Um, we certainly if we were to test out at 165, we absolutely would immediately be taking action. The contract in front of you, uh, includes funding for unforeseen circumstances. I think we would call that unforeseen. We would try to do remediation on the field, let it settle, and then because she, you know, she does make that point rightly so that you don't want to do GMAX testing right after you have fluffed the fluffed the turf. So, we would wait it for it to settle. um and and then retest. Um and if we can't get the test below 165, then I think we would need to have a conversation certainly with the town manager about what our next steps might look like. Um one of the things that she suggested is if we do get results over 165 that we would sign the field. We're happy to do that as well. I think there is, you know, merit to public notification. If it tests over 200, which we're very far away from, to be clear, very far away, but if we were to test at 200 or more, we would recommend closing the field immediately.

Okay. So, what that tells me is our contracts we've had so far are doing a good job because part of her suggestions are test more often, but also do more infill redistribution, whatever, to make sure that it's it's staying at at a softer level. But if you're getting results that are below 165 every time you test, that tells me our contract is is in good shape. we have the right kind of contract and you're saying, you know, if you do get these 165 reading, our contract allows for some exception to do more work to mitigate that. So, it sounds like a lot of what she's suggesting is already covered with what we've been doing.

We we do agree with that. Um and I we do think that the c the proposed scope in the agreement in front of you is more extensive than what we've been doing in the past. So we actually do think the field condition will continue to at least stay the same if not improve a little bit as we pay more attention to the maintenance and do more detailed maintenance. Um but we you know we also understand the importance of the safety of this field and the value of this field to the community. So, if we, you know, if council wants us to explore additional safety options to add to the contract, we we can do that. We did not recommend it. We don't we don't necessarily think that it's it's needed at this time.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah, I'm just going to jump in. Um, so a couple things. So, uh, first I I appreciate the letter from from Miss Fan. I think that's very helpful. um uh you know things to think about, good food for thought. I think there's a little bit of um you know, elephant in the roomism here with with this because we've talked about this field, you know, in the past and there's a a giant potential price tag hanging over our heads for this field when we eventually, you know, redo it or something else. Um regardless, it'll be expensive. It's a large field. Um, and so my question was, this is, you know, this is a one-year contract for up to almost $28,000. Do you have a ballpark of how much the two organizations that use the field pay the town? I would need to check that and I'll ask Tyler if he knows off the top of his head. Um, I want the I would say the annual use is in the $30,000 range for both of them

combined. Combined. Yeah, I think we're right. There were high 20s, low30s combined. And they pay But then they also pay um maintenance fees per per member of the team. So that's the number I don't have off the top of my head. Sorry. So do they pay any portion of this? They do not.

Okay. Um so being that so I was surpris you know when when this came up I I pulled up you know helpfully on the town's website there's a um schedule of of when the or the two organizations the Red Hawks lacrosse and Loatus United Soccer use the field for this month you know as an example on Saturdays and Sundays those two teams are using the field from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday, 12 hours, which means our town residents on the weekends, if you're not in one of those two leagues, have literally zero access to the field. I guess I don't know if we open it up at 7:00 a.m. Maybe we do, but maybe 1 hour um uh or or no hours. And then during the week, it's um from 3 or 4:00 p.m. to 8 or 900 p.m. another 5 or 6 hours. And so, you know, this isn't necessarily I think this is gerine, but not necessarily um uh directly related, but my concern is that we're approving a contract of about the about what we're recouping um in maintenance. And so, uh that seems that's a problem if this is supposed to be a this is a problem for me if this is supposed to be a public field for, you know, town residents. And so I think in the future if if we want to have, you know, more conversations about the contract and maintenance, I think that's great. But I do think at some point in the next, you know, year or two, we need to have a more holistic conversation about the use of this space. Um because this is unlike any other facility. You know, if if there were folks playing ultimate frisbee in the park next to my house every single day and I couldn't use that park, Live Oak Manor Park, I would be frustrated by that. Um and and so I think while it's it's very important that we you know provide space for the community um I think there's a bigger conversation to be had. But I really appreciate staff

bringing forward this new agreement with a new provider to do this enhanced service. I think you know 14 years from my understanding is a little bit long for um uh a field like this to to go on. So I appreciate all the effort that's been put into to improving it and um yeah. So, uh, just some some food for thought. I I will just say that we we agree. We think there's a policy discussion to be had here and we are working on that. Great. Thank you very much, Council Member Hudis. Uh, yeah. I mean, I did have some questions about cost recovery, but I'm going to um defer those to future and I'm prepared to make a motion. Um, so Oh. Oh, thank you. Thank you.

I thought we had purple.

We did not. No. Um, okay. Um, thank you for the reminder. Uh, I will open up verbal communications on this item. We have one speaker card from Gus who soccer thing here. I uh I have played, you know, kicked the ball over there. I have a nephew that plays lacrosse there. Um and I have looked at the field and tried to talk talk about the I know the where differences on resurfacing it and I've you know as a general [clears throat] contractor I've done little bits of artificial grass and artificial grass today is a lot lasts a lot longer. This this field is maybe a year away a year away from its life expectancy. Um, it does need any any kind of service is just throwing the money away right now. Save that service. Let the let them let the town uh do it. But but as you know, that's what I was trying to get out is is there's enough I know soccer players. I know sports people that will pitch in and if you you privatize it, you guys, you know, sell it to a nonprofit uh and we all chip in. uh you can you guys don't have to worry about the the cost of the field and just work with a a nonprofit. Just put out the word and uh that type of thing because the World Cup's coming and you you're to get people out here and you don't see it but I do. And uh you know it's it's one of those things that um you it'd be more uh costefficient to put whatever money you're putting into it into chipping in for a new field than to you know put any additional things. If

you even close the field for for a month, you'll you'll get feedback, but you know, but the the the two two the soccer league and the lacrosse league, you know, they'll say something, but just say, "Hey, we're to close it the rest of the time if it's just open on the weekends." And that'll get publicity in itself to to resurface it. You know, it would be it's just uh you know, though they might be reasonable, you're right. It's too cost effective. It's not cost effective for the town to put $30,000 or $25,000 and I thought that was for for fiveyear thing. Uh what I read it was there it was a fiveyear contract on the on the thing for twice a year they're they're going to do a deep deep thing. That's what at least I that's what I thought I read this because it just came out. I just skimmed through the the brief but you know that's what that's all I'm trying to say. Thanks.

Thank you. Um, and do we have any speakers on Zoom? There's one hand on Zoom, Leanne.

Leanne, you if you can unmute. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can.

Okay. Um so I just wanted to with regards to the safety measures with the field given its age. I do know that one of the issues is the GMAX readings which is what you do to assess the hardness of the field and I believe some recommendations were made to you by Miss Fan. Um I would like to request that um when you do the GMAX reading according to these new schedule of maintenance on the foot fields that you post those the results at the entrances of the field so that they are you know like an elevator. It has kind of like a um certificate of safety posted at the entrance. So people that put their children on the field do know what condition the field is in terms of hardness. Um and I I do think that it would be prudent to find out when that testing is being done. It's if it's done immediately after the field's been remediated, it's really not going to give you an indication of what the safety of that field is like over the year. So, you really should give time for any added infill or anything like that to settle and then take the GMAX readings to ensure that the field is safe for the young players and the older players too. Um, that's all I had to say. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, we will close public comment. Um, and I'll turn back to Council Member Hudis.

Uh, yeah. So, you know, I think there have been some uh points that have been raised that have some merit to look into further um including um you know, particularly looking at the runoff issues and the safety issues. But what I see is those are all incremental improvements to the agreement that is in front of us. And so I don't see any reason to hold up the agreement. In fact, I think it would be uh worse for the environment and public safety if we didn't move ahead with this agreement um at this time. and but I do think it warrants a a future discussion if there is some merit to uh the issues that have been raised um by by all of the public. So, I I move to authorize the town manager to execute a 5-year agreement for services with Field Turf USA uh incorporated with a base year not to exceed amount of $27,690 for FY 2026 to 27 and subsequent annual adjustments based on the consumer price index. and that uh if there are discussions with uh Miss Fan or other members of the public and um other uh things that staff deems um worth exploring that staff come back to the council um with revised estimates. Um but the the ball is in staff's court in my motion.

Great. Thank you. Yeah, Vice Mayor Risto. Thank you. I'll second it. And I would like to add a friendly amendment um for outside of this contract. I think um Miss Burton did point out that um town staff could look into um do installing filters in the storm drains uh to prevent uh plastic carpet fibers and uh the rubber crumbles from entering into the storm water. And so I know that's outside of the contract, but I think um amending our motion to include that action right now, I don't think that needs to come back to council if they can do it.

Yeah, I don't have any problem with that. I just want to make sure with town attorney and town staff that that is okay with the agenda item that we have in front of us. Um, I think I recommend that the council accept um staff's statement that they'll install the filters um but not take action since installing the filters was not on the agenda tonight. Okay. Then I will resend that friendly amendment and just second the motion as originally stated.

Great. Um, and I just wanted to ask it uh of staff um do I'm curious if it would make sense in the next fiscal year before you know budget season of 2728 or 20 yeah whatever the next fiscal year is um uh that we would have a discussion about the this more holistically. I I don't need that to be an emotion, but I think I just want to provide the the direction that that I think this is worth discussing at a at a larger policy level, this field. Yes, understood. Great. Thank you.

Okay. Um, seeing no other comments, I will call the question with a roll call vote to the town clerk. Council member, I. Council member Hudis, I. Council member Badami, I. Vice Mayor Risto I. Mayor Mark

I passes unanimously. Thank you very much Director Burnham and uh uh the whole PPW team for the insights. Um okay we will now move to uh council matters as that is our last item. Um I'll begin with council member Renie from afar. Uh, since our last council meeting, the only thing I attended was the Silicon Valley Clean Energy Risk Oversight Committee. Thank you. Thank you. I'll move to Council Member Hudis.

Uh, thank you. Um, let's see. I attended uh the leadership logatos graduation at the pageant um grounds here and uh vice mayor Christo did a presentation so I won't speak more about that but it was great to be at the beginning and end of that wonderful program um and then I participated in the finance commission meeting uh last night um I I think there were quite a few things that were raised of interest regarding the budget and the way we're managing our uh financial matters. And um I would just remark that I think that uh staff's um engagement and participation and presentations on the budget um are at a higher level than we've seen before. And I would commend staff on their efforts uh to u work through a lot of the the tougher issues on the budget. Um and I think that it'll be a very valuable item when it does come to the council. Um and then uh that was it.

Thank you. And we'll go to Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. On um Thursday the 23rd, my husband and I actually toured um Silicon Valley or West Valley Community Services. Um Sujatha gave us a tour as a followup to the Chefs of Compassion. And it is really remarkable how well they can stretch a dollar, how many people are served, and um the amount of food that is gleaned from our local grocery stores and redistributed. Um but there's never enough and they're always looking for other ways including a location potentially near here for distribution. So more work to do. Um then the 25th I worked the winewalk which I always do. It's a great way um carting people and checking them in. There were, I think, over a thousand attendees and so um great opportunity to see residents, see people that are coming back to visit Loscatoos and meet people that have not been here before and are so impressed with our beautiful town while they're sipping wine and checking out the music and the shops um on the next day. And it I have to mention that it rained at the winewalk and people still came out. And then it rained at spring into green where um we still had a whole bunch of um wonderful vendors and booths and information um different nonprofits and organizations there to talk about gardening and open space and electrification. and such an engaged crowd that um you know part of spring is rain and the the plaza looked amazing. The grass was lush and green and the sun did come out and we had a great turnout and our mayor gave an awesome state of the town which has been

covered well. Um on last Monday and then this past Monday, I attended two of what are going to be three finance commission meetings in a row where we're discussing the budget and um you know going into suggest suggestions for forecasting and questioning some of the assumptions and um you know I I concur with council member Hudis that um the presentations were great. I mean, at the first meeting, the um presentation of all of the data and information besides the tables, the charts were just incredible. So, it's nice to do a dive deep dive before this comes to the council. Um on and then last Friday, I attended the leadership load's um graduation. Unfortunately for our mayor, he was unable to be there because he cannot be in three places at once. Fortunately, I was there to give out the certificates and the little chocolate Leonas that each graduate gets. Um, and so we have 20 people that have just done a nine-month um, kind of deep dive into how municipal government works, how our county interacts with the town. They had great questions. I had great discussions with them. And we also had a number of town employees who took the program. So, I'm excited to see where that all leads. And that's it.

Thank you, Council Member Badami. Thank you, Mayor. On April 26, I also attended the Spring into Green event. On the 28th, I participated in a meeting of the Council Policy Committee along with Mayor Moore. And on May 4th, um last night, I remotely attended um a meeting of the finance commission.

Great. Um yeah, I'll just highlight uh Spring to Green went very well. I was very impressed with the turnout given the the sprinkle uh that day. Always a lovely event. Uh you know, if we could move Earth Day to be a month later, I probably would. So, we didn't get rained on so often, but as uh Vice Mayor Risto said, it's it's just part of part of spring. Um April flowers brings May showers, right? I'm sorry. April showers brings May flowers. Um uh really enjoyed giving a state of the town address. Um and uh you know I think it's a a good way for people to understand what's going on in municipal government. Not everyone uh not everyone pays attention like uh all of us in this room do. So um uh enjoyed doing that. Uh the day before that I did the annual Arbor Day tree planting. I did that at Live Oak Manor Park. We um uh we mostly town staff planted four trees. Um and I I just want to compliment you know staff. I know our director um has left, but we did this a little bit differently. Usually, this is done at a school and it's a ceremonial tree planting. At this uh Arbor Day celebration, we actually planted four trees, which was really nice um for everyone, I think, there to um you know, there were there were some youth commissioners there who actually involved in planting the trees and um we had uh someone there to talk about what kinds of trees they were and why they're going to do well in this exact environment. And it was it was really nice and so I thought that was a good change for that event. um uh that I thought, you know, worked very well, especially given that we didn't have a school to plant the tree at. Um I spoke to the fourth graders at Dave's elementary school. I gave a talk on culture and diversity to to all of the fourth grade at Dave's. Um really enjoy doing that. I've done that for a few years now and uh we have such such good kids. They they ask such smart questions, far smarter than I ever would have asked when I was in fourth grade. And you know, they ask things, you know, at a very uh uh sort of uh, you know, elementary level about what the town

does for culture and diversity and and then they ask questions about what do you do when someone isn't kind to someone who is who looks different than than you and so always really enjoy doing that. Um, I attended my first uh board meeting of the city's association executive board. Um this is now public information um that is pertinent to the town of Loscatoos that the executive director of the city's association will be ending her contract with the city's association um at the end of the fiscal year um very grateful to Shali for her service to that organization for um four years and leading that organization into incorporation as a JPA but the cities association will be looking for a new uh executive director. Um that position pays uh currently about $130,000 a year and is a an excellent um organization, great opportunity. The one thing is it does not pay health insurance. So um uh one one thing to look out for, but uh yeah, definitely need a a a new executive director of the cities association. Um really enjoyed participating in the winewalk um in two ribbon cutings in the last couple weeks. um one for uh uh beauty bars beauty lab. Beauty bar is an is a uh business that exists in lo that that already uh was operational but they just open it opened their beauty lab which is um a variety of sort of cosmetic um uh things. They would you know obviously talk much better about it than I could. Um and the second one was Fiat Lux um which is a new jewelry store and piercing store in downtown Loscatos. really beautiful site. They have a bunch they spent months doing handp painted uh murals and they hand painted their floors and it's it's just beautiful. And this is they have two locations. This is now their third. Both of their first two locations were in San Francisco. Their third is now in Loscatos. And I think says a lot about sort of the caliber of of our community. And the owners couldn't love downtown Loscatos more. They just raved

about it. They they think we have the best downtown. So, um that's great. Um, I attended the Art Now awards ceremony and and spoke at that ceremony. Gave out awards to the students there. I have to give a big shout out to the best and show winner who was the first ever Lee High School best and show winner. Um, so I was very proud of my my alma mater. Um, I tabled at the farmers market, answered lots of questions from community members. I met with the governor's office of external affairs, um, which was an interesting meeting to talk about some of the things going on in town. I reminded them of uh the town of Los Gatos's former large uh uh grant that we received for emergency preparedness um that or emergency um you know wildfire reduction efforts that that we no longer receive and they weren't aware of that. So that was good to have on their radar. And then also talked about um a bill that council member Badami and I talked about at the policy committee um to make uh things a little bit easier for our our town clerk's office. Um uh finally, the last thing I'll share is that uh this Thursday is the Chamber of Commerce's first gold Thursday, their first first Thursday of the season, and it will also be our first entertainment zone activation. So um if anyone has any reviews, uh let us know. Um we are one of the first cities in the state to um move forward with the activation zone or the entertainment zone. So be interesting to see how that goes. Um, I will now turn things over to our assistant town manager to see if she has anything to report.

Thank you so much. Good evening, mayor and council members. Katie Namura, assistant town manager. I am standing in for our town manager, Chris Constantine, as he was away meeting with the leadership of Axon and learning about a lot of new technology that could help keep our community even safer. Um, and so we just wanted to thank everyone who came out to the Arbor Day and Spring into Green festivities. And in alignment with that, we also wanted to give um uh a shout out to the fact that we are working on our first ever urban forest management plan. And so there is a survey that we would love everyone to take um and you can access it at locatosca.govfmp survey. So urban forest management plan survey. Thank you.

How long do folks have to take that? When does that close? It is scheduled to close May 31st. Great. Thank you. Now turn to the town attorney. Thank you. Um I'll report that the town council met in close session to discuss one matter of anticipated litigation and there's no reportable action. Great. Thank you very much. With nothing else, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you all.