Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'll call this meeting of the council appointments review committee to order at 06:38PM. We have, a note that both, committee member, Kameh, and myself, vice mayor Clark are present. The mayor is currently not here, but we expect her to join shortly. The first item on our agenda is the approval of the prior minutes. These are from the 11/17/2025 council appointments review committee. Are there any questions on the minutes?

Happy to move.

Seeing none, is there any public

comment on the minutes?

No one in that line.

I don't see any, so we will, entertain a motion to approve the minutes.

So moved. Motion

by committee member Kameh and seconded by and I'll go ahead and second it. All in favor, say aye.

Aye. Aye.

So that carries unanimously. We'll move on to oral communications from the public on nonagendized items. So this is the portion of the meeting reserved for anyone wishing to speak on any matter that's not on tonight's agenda. Does anyone wish to speak on anything that's not on the agenda tonight? I don't see any.

And we will, the only other item tonight is new business to discuss our community our committee openings and all. If the committee's okay with it, we'll just recess for a few minutes and and wait for the mayor or or pause the meeting. Are we still live? Can I, if the committee's okay with it, can I also do item six? Yes.

Any staff comments, questions?

Yes. Of course.

I don't

have any. I just have one question maybe for a future, in the in the packet. It looked like there was one other HRC member turning out at the end of the year. Do it we'll do that recruitment in the fall. Is that right?

Now we have. Yeah.

Yeah.

And then the.

Yeah. So this is interim. Mhmm. Yeah.

And then we're kind of an open recruitment for us to contact. Okay. Because there's two.

We'll give it till 06:45, and then and then I'll just proceed. They thought.

It's like you would have been waiting. No. We don't. For being too thin. We're not doing anything. I already ate. I'm like, you guys. I have a question. Once you once you're live, do you are you just live the whole time? Do you can you, like, mute?

And be live again? No. Like yeah. I just Just curious. Hi. Sorry. I think you're dressed. Thank you. My mom. Oh, I like the credit.

So we do. I went ahead and started, but and I did everything with. It's there and then the questions. Sorry. We're starting with that.

Alright. So we're in new business. Yeah. I guess deputy city clerk Wanda will make, brief remarks, and we'll proceed with review and selection of interview questions. Good evening. Tonight, you will interview one applicant for the downtown committee and another applicant for the human relations commission. Suggested questions are on page two and three of the memo.

Thank you.

Thank you. Alright. Is there any changes that anyone wants to do to the questions?

No. Nothing. That's

good. Alright. I guess we alright. Who wants to do the first, second, or third question?

Think since there's so few applicants Yeah.

Mhmm. You can just

You can just do them if you want. Alright. Or I can, whatever you want. Alright. Let If you need to settle.

Let's let's go, like, one, two, three. So Ellen, you can pick. So member may get you The vice mayor clerk will be there. Alright. Alright.

Oh, yes. Feel free to come up. I think you first.

Yeah. Downtown first.

Wanda was asking me. My name says the house is pronounced in.

Good name. Nice to meet you. So the first we'll we'll tell you how much time you have for the questions for each of the questions that you'll ask for. No worries. Alright.

Ask the

second question. First question, I already did. Did not pick up my

car. Yeah. No. That's perfectly fine. Just over the mic? Yep. So for thirty seconds, are you gonna be talking? You're at one. Oh, you have the timer? Okay. Great. Why do you wanna serve on the downtown?

Well, my business is in downtown, number 1. That's the main reason. I'm in 300 Block, which is. Uh-huh. Mhmm. And we are huge on improvement across the farm, doing other people's facade. We are the only architecture from here now since Bill has left. And we are trying to improve the whole downtown along with the facade improvement. So love the city, so I want to make sure Since we afford the buildings, we are planning to spend another fifty years here. So why not invest? Wonderful.

So this next question is gonna be two minutes. Oh, yes. Like, you start from thirty seconds, then you get two minutes. What do you think of Downtown Mountain View? How would you improve it? How would you balance the interest of businesses with those commune with with those of the community?

Yeah. That's a long question. No. That's not very good. In fact, I've written your own paper on that. So there are quite a few things. First of all, kudos to people who closed this fee for petition. That's one of the best things down on. I think that if I can divide it, my answer in two parts, there is a downturn improvement, and then there's a process improvement in downtown. So I think first part, from the city side, there are lot of businesses who are hurting.

I have gone through our process of improving, and everyone has the same same old concern that people want to improve. The process takes time. So that's the process part of it. But your question is more towards the downtown part of what you do on that part. I think it's it's a charming downtown.

This the way the sun hits it, it's just perfect. It's not on one side or the other side. It's in the center of it. This town there has been discussion of making a street as one big street, like, raising it up, making it a little bit European style or something. I do strongly believe there is the precise plan has too much restriction on facade improvements, way too much.

We we have been doing multiple facade for multiple city multiple businesses along with our own. Those I will ease a little more. If you look at Palo Alto or other cities, there is modernization that's coming. We need to be little more adopted to modernization of the buildings also along with traditional, so mix and match kind of thing. So those are some common thing.

The other things which cities already start doing, the street has to be more lively, more more interactive. So there's some things people have put city has put in, like ping pong table and other things. So I think there has there's more room for it where kids come in and play. Weekend is amazing. Right. So really?

Yes. Oh

my god. Let's not do that.

Even tougher for politicians.

But, yeah, there's so many things.

I think sort of related to that, you know, we have a we have our economic vitality strategy that we worked on sort of during the pandemic and stuff there at least is is now in place. I just curious how, or one of the questions that we have is just how, Citi can assist you downtown businesses with with implementing that. Or, you've touched on a few, but can I give you an extra minute or so to keep going?

Yeah. I think it's it's around the same time. Thank you very much for asking that same question. I had similar question. I I think process is a big part. There is lot of eagerness in small businesses to be part of it and to improve the the downturn. But I would say majority of the business have talked. They feel they are either not there's not enough support. There's not enough outreach. And when they reach out, there is not enough speed in the process that's out there.

And I've been past three years, we've been here two and a half or so. Three years now. And I think that's something we need to work on, the big one kind of thing. I truly welcome the team of Amanda and Kristen and Tony. They have done a marvelous job. Being there, that department itself was needed, I think. But I think there has to be a community involvement also, and businesses are not involved much.

Thanks. Alright.

That completes all your questions. Thank you for joining us. We'll let you know first, the the way this works is that we'll write a recommendation to council, and then council will formally adopt the appointment. And that's I I'm not entirely sure when the when we'll actually vote on that on council. But May 26. May 26? So you'll hear from the council, but at that point, that's fully officially.

It might be out of country on May 26.

That's okay. Well, you It'd

be alright if you're not here. They usually stick with our recommendation, but you never know. But

thank you very much. I appreciate you all for the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Alright.

The next the committee will now interview the applicant for the human relations committee. Mary? Know the last my interview for this? They gave me a time

limit. No.

We're now more efficient. It was Kazverzak. That was Oh. That was a long time ago. Ramirez. Oh. Oh, Rosenberg. I'm sorry. Margaret. That's a no. Lisa. Lisa Matyszuk. Oh, alright. So, council member May, we'll start with the first question. Why do you want to serve on the human relations committee?

Thank you for the question. As noted in my application, I spent nine years on a downtown committee, previous committee that was being interviewed, and the service during that period was the highlight of my life career, honestly. I don't really want to have a a very dramatic political life, but that was really the highlight. I loved every minute, honestly. I loved talking about the hotel that we did not build.

And I know. I know. I know. But, anyway, my committee was the committee that recommended the closure of Capitol Street to be VA and Cuban traffic, which I'm very proud of. And so I'm it's I took a year off, couple years because I have family stuff, personal stuff to attend to and back because I you can serve the city of Mountain View, city I call home, and it's a new lot of work from. Okay. So the next question is two minutes. What are the most pressing human relations needs in our community today? So I can't say to that, you know, objectively. It's just it's gonna be my own personal take.

Actually, in the last election, was speaking with current councilman Shelton, expressed to her that, you know, members of our community are having sort of fear and and, shock, right, as to what's happening to the to some of the immigrant community, you know, evidenced by what happened in Minnesota. And, thankfully, right, none of the the harshness, sort of persecution and and attacks ever came into our community, but I thought, like, not you could be a beacon. Right? We could be a a safe haven for folks who needed that protection. I don't actually know how how much work HRC has done in this particular respect.

I I assume there's much. I I have not looked into it. But I think that's something we could really invest our time as a city of Mountview to be and I don't wanna say, oh, we're a centurist. Who who knows what that means or some legal definition, etcetera? But to provide a sense of security and safety and protection to our citizens, right, to our people who live here, work here, etcetera, to to hope you know, I think everyone deserves to live without fear. I, myself, an immigrant, first generation. Right? And then I think how can anybody, right, raise children in the community? So, yeah, I think that that's something that's really urgent, I think, critical to me given the current political landscape. Further down the line, I would love to get more I myself and Chinese American.

I would love to see more Asian American involvement. This meaning notwithstanding, Asian Asian Americans have historically, right, been, some of the lowest percentages in terms of participation in public discourse and public civic service. And I would like to change that by being serving myself, right, as as demonstrating that it can be done. It's not that hard. And then two, by pulling people in and showing that this is something we really can invest our time and energy and it's worthwhile.

Right? My my dad was even though we're first generation immigrants, he served on the campaign to elect the first ever Chinese woman. Was that my time work? Yeah. Sorry. So

And then just the last question is, what do you think the job of the of the Human Relations Commission should be?

Follow the work plan. I just reviewed the work plan today. It all looked pretty reasonable to me. I I'm only filling a role, I think, for six months. The term expires literally in December. So I have even if I were appointed, I have a maximum of six months. Do you guys take the summer off? Probably the summer off. So four meetings, let's say. So, yeah, I'm filling in for four meetings.

I'm not trying to, you know, boil the ocean or change the title or whatever the sayings. I'm I'm trying to follow the work plan, execute what is currently in the works, and do the job that was expected to this particular That being said, if I were to reinterview and be reappointed to future HRC committee commissions, I have other thoughts. But as of right now, it's to finish out the work plan for this fiscal year. Alright. Thank you so much.

That concludes our interview with you. I have comments. But thank you so much. We will we will the the recommendations will come to council on our May 26 meeting, and then you'll get a final approval then, but not guaranteed. Hold on. You will keep asking. Perfect. You'll probably get several text messages to let you know. You have a lot of ins in the room. Blessed out a whole blazer, you guys.

Oh, look questions for me. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, counsel, for your time and city clerk for your heart, as always. And I promise I will take the meeting very seriously. All right. So, we will now bring it back to counsel for deliberation. Do we have to do any public comment for this part? There's nobody. Okay. Good. Thank you, sir. Seeing no public comment, do we have a motion for a recommendation to counsel? Or did you wanna do them separate, or did you wanna do them altogether?

Let's do one motion.

We'll do it all together. Alright. Do we have a motion on the table? The only thing that kinda needs to be decided for the downtown committee is which term do you wanna represent that place.

So that's right.

That's up to you. You want it to be a short term or a Mhmm. Well, this is for the downtown business. Right? Right. And both of them are for a downtown business seat? All of

them.

Oh. Oh. There's but you know how it's, like, broken up? Yep. Because they're all yes. Oh.

I'll move that we appoint or that we recommend the council appoint Mary Anne to the human relations committee for the unexpired term ending 12/31/2026, and that we appoint Junaid Roshi, to the to one of the two unexpired terms ending 12/31/2028. I think he'll be I think he'll be very good on it, and I think there's no reason not to have a certain extent, especially since apparently they own

the building, they're probably gonna be here. Second. Alright. We have a motion by vice mayor Clark, seconded by council member Kamay. All in favor, please raise your hand. Aye. Yay. And that concludes this item. Do we have moving on to item six. Do we have committee staff comments, questions, committee reports? None? Then we are hitting adjournment at exactly 07:00.