City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, everyone, we are back from closed session. Okay, so good evening, everyone. Welcome to the joint meeting of the Mountain View City Council Shoreline Regional Park Community and City of Mountain View Capital Improvements Financing Authority of June 9th, 2026. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The city clerk will take attendance by roll call.

Council Member Hicks? Here. Council Member Kamei? Here. Council Member McAllister?

Yeah.

Council Member Ramirez. Here. Council Member Showalter. Here. Vice Mayor Clark.

Here.

Mayor Ramos.

Here. Wonderful. City Attorney Logue, do you have a closed session report?

No final action was taken in closed session this evening.

Great. That leads us to item three, presentations. Please note that these are presentations only. The City Council will not take any action. Public comment will occur after the presentation items. If you would like to speak on these items in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. So we will now go on to item 3.1, Pride Month Proclamation. Yay. We are happy to be joined this evening by Saldi Surubin, Sarah Fernando, and Becca Ponce from the Santa Clara County Office of LGBTQ Affairs to accept this proclamation. Would you all join me at the lectern? All right. The proclamation reads, whereas the city of Mountain View is committed to supporting dignity, equity, and visibility for all people in the community and whereas Mountain View celebrates the history and diversity of our city's LGBTQIA plus community and promotes a society in which all residents can live free from discrimination and Whereas the city will host its second citywide pride celebration called Together in Pride on June 20th. The event will feature a flag raising ceremony. Other activities will include performances by artists, community booths, roaming entertainment, family fun zones, and a community art project and... Whereas flying the rainbow flag at City Hall throughout the month of June further symbolizes the city's celebration of diversity and support for the city's LGBTQIA plus residents. Now, therefore, I, Emily Ann Ramos, Mayor of the City of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of June as Pride Month and encourage all residents of Mountain View to celebrate the rich diversity of our community. Saldy, would you like to say a few words?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Good evening, everyone. My name is Saldus Rubin. My pronoun is he, him, his. I'm with the County of Santa Clara Office of LGBT Affairs. Thank you for being here as we celebrate Pride Month. Pride is a beautiful reminder of the power of visibility and the strength of united community. It's a time to honor our past, celebrate our joy, and reaffirm our commitment to full But real support extends far beyond the flags and festivals. It lives in our policies and resources. If you or someone you love looking for support, advocacy, or community connection, I want to remind you about an incredible local resource, which is our office, Santa Clara County Office of LGBT Affairs. Established as a historic first in the United States, this office acts as a dedicated champion for the health, safety, and well-being of the LGBTQ plus residents right here in Santa Clara County, including the city of Mountain View. From connecting community members to affirming healthcare and housing to providing cultural competency training, the office work tirelessly to make sure our county is safe to call home. Also, this June 12, I want to invite you all, we are turning a 10-year anniversary since the establishment in 2016. It's happening on June 12 from 5 to 8 p.m. at 71 setting in San Jose. This June, let's celebrate our diversity and make sure no one walks their journey alone. Check out the Office of LGBT Affairs. Stay connected and have a beautiful, safe Pride Month. Thank you.

All right, for our next proclamation, 3.2, Juneteenth Proclamation, we are happy to be joined this evening by Jamal Williams, Kima Egbuwu, and Jocelyn Dubin, co-chairs of the Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet of Silicon Valley to accept this proclamation. Would you all join me at the lectern? Hi. Absolutely. All right, the proclamation reads, whereas President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, declaring slaves in the Confederate territory free, paving the way for the passage of the 13th Amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States of America, and word about the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation was delayed by some two to... two and a half years to June 1865 in reaching authorities and African Americans in the South and Southwestern United States. And whereas this day has a special meaning and is called Juneteenth, combining the words June and 19th, and Juneteenth is an opportunity to acknowledge a period of our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today, a time to honor and pay respects for the sufferings of slavery, and whereas the city of Mountain View strives to be a community for all, which is to support its socioeconomic and cultural diversity, Whereas the City of Mountain View recognizes the historical significance of the Juneteenth Day to the United States, supports the continued nationwide celebration of the Juneteenth Day to provide an opportunity for residents to learn more about the past and to understand better the experiences that have shaped the United States, and recognizes that the observance of the end of slavery is part of the history and heritage of the United States. Now therefore I, Emily Ann Ramos, Mayor of the City of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the City Council, do hereby proclaim June 19th as Juneteenth Day in the City of Mountain View. Would someone like to say a few words?

What's up, everybody? Thank you for having us, Emily Ann. And let me first say that I was given permission to speak by these two wonderful women. This is not patriarchy or misogyny at play. And it's Kevin.

Yeah, yeah.

That was one of the questions. The Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet continues to work tirelessly on behalf of black residents throughout the county as a coalition. We give our time and dedicate our lives and our professions to make sure that we are advocating, fighting for policy and building community that supports and uplifts the black community. we recognize Juneteenth as our Independence Day. If we can imagine what it was like during the actual Independence Day, our ancestors were enslaved, but on June 19th, 1865, they finally were able to gain some semblance of freedom. And we think about Juneteenth, not just as a special day for black Americans who were enslaved, but also that set the course for all underrepresented populations in this country. And we wanna make sure we recognize that milestone. we think about today and we recognize that um there's a lot of uh a lot of our civil rights and liberties being under attack and even at a as a reflective time such as this we want to make sure that we're fighting against those that are continue to oppress and try to rewrite history the systems and protections that black people fought and died for are under renewed threat and social progress that communities achieved not only for themselves but for countless others are continuing to be rolled back we've seen black folks continue to be we've continued to lose black folks in this county and we have continued to see black women being attacked over this past year. And so I ask that when we think about how we choose to move forward with policy, that we not only observe Juneteenth as a historical time, but we recognize that it sets a course forward for us in our policy decisions and our choices with our funding and support for the community. So thank you again for this proclamation, and we look forward to continue working with y'all in the future.

All right, would any member of the Council like to say a few words? Council Member Showalter.

Yeah, I really would like to say a few words about Juneteenth. Growing up in the capital of Confederacy, I was really educated about the Civil War in a way that was just a fairy tale. And in the last 30 years, there's been an incredible movement to bring back the real history of what happened and share it with everyone so we can all learn about our past and think about the implications of it and move forward from there in an honest, manner and so it just really does my heart good to see this. When I was a kid growing up, nobody ever talked about Juneteenth. I don't think it became a very popular holiday until the last 20, 25 years. But it's a very welcome one. And particularly this year, as we celebrate our 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it's so appropriate that we remember the other parts of our history, all of them, the good, the bad, the wonderful, the ugly, and think about the whole. And so I just wanted to mention that. When we talk about we the people, there were a lot of people included throughout our history that didn't get their story told. And this is about telling a very important story and not letting it die. So thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Showalter. Any other comments from my colleagues? Seeing none, we will now take public comment for the presentation items. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on the presentation items listed on the agenda? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker will have three minutes.

Do we have any in-person speakers?

All right, no in-person speakers. We will now take virtual speakers. All right, we have a virtual speaker. Judy, can you unmute yourself? Judy? Oh, and Judy disappeared. All right, seeing that there are no other public comments, we will end item three, but with just one reminder for your call to action, call to service, call to community, on Saturday, June 20th, we're gonna have our Pride event, so yay! We're so excited. So please come out for that and show support and celebrate our diversity in our community. that will be at the City Hall Plaza and it will begin at 11 a.m. So yay. Now we'll move on to our consent calendar. These items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the council wishes to pull an item for individual consideration. If an item is pulled from the consent calendar, it will be considered separately following approval of the balance of the consent calendar. If you would like to speak on these items or the next item, oral communications on non-agendized items in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. Would any member of the council like to pull an item? Seeing none, we will now go, oh.

Okay, we will now, do you wanna speak now or do you wanna speak after public comment?

Okay, so would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to submit a comment on these items? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in person speakers first. Each speaker will have three minutes. This is for consent calendar.

Do we have any speakers?

No in-person speakers? All right, we will now take virtual speakers. Judy?

Yes, hello. Can you hear me? I got disconnected on my public comment earlier.

We can hear you.

Okay, I got disconnected on my public comment earlier, and I wish you would make a disruption policy to cover the disruptions in virtual comments. That is a state law by the beginning of July. You need to do that because I would like to be able to speak on the last section where they were talking about the Black Pride Day and the Gay Pride Day. Will you still let me speak about that?

No, this is no longer that item for this public comment, but thank you so much.

Okay. Well, thank you. And please work on that disruption policy because you cost me my speech tonight and that is a viewpoint discriminate. Thank you.

Um, next up we have Albert jeans.

Hi there. Just a quick comment on 4.1, zero the acquisition of property at Bella. Of course, that's a really great, you know, it's a great opportunity to add to the park. There's a big difference between, I think, a two-acre park and a three-acre, but I just wanted to point out, as Mr. Jean did in his email, that the lot next to that at 965 Terra Bella also appears to be available. And if we could add that, you know, we're looking at a four-acre park, which is a really decent size. So, you know, it's pretty rare, I think, that the city can put together so many lots to make a decent-sized park. So I really hope the staff and the city council will move forward on that. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Albert. We will now bring this back to council for council action and note that a motion to approve the consent calendar should also include the reading of the titles of the ordinance and resolution attached to the consent calendar items. 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, and 4.9. Good luck with that. The city clerk will take roll call as we have a council member participating remotely this evening. Council member Showalter.

All right, I guess I should have looked at how much I had to read. No, that's okay, I'm just kidding. I also want to make a couple comments on one, you know, when we get to the end of the sort of the sessions, we have two more meetings in this session before we have our summer break. There are always a lot of consent calendar items and that's just kind of indicative of all the work that the city is doing they wanna get things wrapped up enough so they have our approval to get through the summer. So there's always a spate of them. I think the most I ever observed was 28 in one meeting. That was definitely a record. So this time I think we have 11. And next time I bet we'll have more, we'll see. But anyway, It's interesting to note that three of them are second readings of ordinances or resolutions that we've passed, which is also an indication of something that we've finished, we've completed, and that's a good thing. And I particularly wanted, I also want to mention 4.4, that's the extension of our shelter emergency, and that allows us to continue our our programs to assist the homeless. It's very important in the social fiber of our community. On a very happy note, we are putting more money into the heat pump rebate program. It was so popular that we used up all the money. And so by putting another $500,000 in, we'll be able to take 250 more heat pumps out of people's houses in Mountain View. And the reason it's so important to take a heat pump out is because a water heater in a typical single-family home produces about the same amount of greenhouse gases as a car does, a family car. So these reductions are very important, and it's something to be proud of. Also, as Albert Jeans mentioned, 4.10, we're purchasing some land that's going to allow for a park that's a little larger than three acres in this area. That is definitely something to celebrate. And also, I just want to thank the BPAC and James Kusumal. I congratulate you for being willing to step up and serve on the Santa Clara Transportation Authority bike ped committee. Advisory Board, that's an important way to bring the Mountain View concepts to county issues. Okay, so with that, I'm gonna have to probably have a few sips while I do this, but I'd like to move the Consent Calendar, item 4.1, adopt an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Mountain View, amending chapter 36. Article nine, division two, residential development below market rate housing program of the Mountain View City Code to modify the below market rate program and add section 30.40.32 governing graduated fee reduction for small projects and finding that these code amendments are not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act to be read and titled only, further reading waived. Item 4.2, adopt an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Mountain View, amending Chapter 36, zoning, of the Mountain View City Council Code to authorize streamlined administrative approval of housing development projects that are statutorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, pursuing to Public Resources Code Section 21080, and to make other minor modifications to chapter 36 to align land uses in the recreation, I mean in the residential and commercial zones with state laws and finding that the amendments are exempt from review under CEQA as recommended by the Environmental Planning Committee to be read in title only, further reading waived. Adopt an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Mountain View amending chapter 28 subdivisions and chapter 41 park land dedication or fees in lieu thereof. of the Mountain View City Code to authorize streamlined administrative approval of housing development projects that are statutorically exempt from CEQA pursuant to public resources code section 21080.66 and make other minor modifications to chapter 28 and 41 to achieve greater consistency with state laws for internal consistency within the city code and to align the city code with current permitting procedures and practices, and finding that amendments are exempt from review under CEQA to be read and title only further reading waived. Item 4.3, adopt an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Mountain View, renewing approval of the Mountain View Police Department military equipment use policy, adopting updated military equipment use policy, and finding that this action is not subject to CEQA. to be read in title only, further reading waived. Item 4.4, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View authorizing the city manager or designee to execute fiscal year's 2026-27 funding agreements with the Community Services Agency of Mountain View, Los Altos, and Los Altos Hills for housing related services and an amount not to exceed $177,000 for a homeless prevention direct financial assistance program and an amount not to exceed $150,000 to be read in title only, further reading waived. and adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View amending resolution 1A301 to extend the declaration of a shelter crisis in the City of Mountain View through June 30th, 2035 to be read in title only, further reading waived. Item 4.5, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View approving a request to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for the allocation of fiscal year 2026-27 Transportation Development Act Article 3 Pedestrian Bicycle Project funding to be read in title only, further reading waived. Item 4.6, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View authorizing the city manager or their designee to amend an agreement with Silicon Valley Clean Energy to increase funding for the heat pump water heater program by $500,000 resulting in a total not to exceed amount of a million dollars to be read in title only, further reading waived. Item 4.7, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View calling a general municipal election for the purpose of electing three members of the City Council, requesting the Board of Supervisors to authorize the registrar of voters to contract for election services authorizing the city clerk to contract with the county of Santa Clara pertaining to services to be performed by the county in connection with the general municipal election to be held on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026 and related actions to be read in title only, further reading waived. And adopt a resolution of the city of Mountain View, city council of the city of Mountain View adopting a 200 word, wait a minute, 200 word maximum, I've gotta flip the page here guys, sorry. 200 word maximum for a candidate statement of qualifications and charging each candidate for a fixed share of cost for the printing, handling, translating and mailing for the general municipal election to be had on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026 to be read in title only, further reading waived. And last but not least, item 4.9, introduce an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Mountain View amending chapter two, article eight of the Mountain View City Code to add section 2.86.25, governing the selection of arguments for city ballot measures and make other clarifying modifications to be read and title only, further reading waived, and a second reading for June 23rd, 2026.

Great job.

All right, so we have a motion by Council Member Showalter, seconded by Council Member Hicks. City Clerk, would you mind taking the roll call vote?

Council Member Showalter.

Yes.

Council Member Hicks. Yes. Council Member Kamei. Yes. Council Member McAllister. Yes. Council Member Ramirez. Yes. Vice Mayor Clark. Yes. Mayor Ramos. Yes. Wilson carries unanimously.

All right, so that concludes consent calendar. We will now move on to item five, oral communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic within the city's council subject matter jurisdiction for up to three minutes during the section. State law prohibits the council from acting on non-agendized items. If you would like to speak on this item or the next item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. And in recent weeks, the city along with few other neighboring elected decision-making bodies have been subjected to disruptive, racist, verbal attacks by anonymous callers during virtual public comments. The city of Mountain View is fully committed to racial, religious, and cultural equity and justice as we strive to create a welcoming, safe, inclusive community for all. The council welcomes respectful, non-threatening public comments on matters within our jurisdiction. Comments deemed otherwise pursuant to the council code of conduct and the government code may be grounds for terminating a speaker's public comment period. So we will now move on to our public comment. It looks like we have one, two, three, four. five people in the queue, so we'll go for two minutes. So would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in person speakers first. Each speaker will have two minutes. Our first one is going to be Bruce Carney, followed by Kristen Anderson, followed by KBT, followed by Shawnee Kleinhaus.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Ms. Glazer, would you please show the slide for public comment I submitted earlier? Thank you very much. I want to take just one minute of your time to make sure you are aware of the greenhouse gas emission report released earlier this year by Silicon Valley Clean Energy. They prepare reports each year for all of their member agencies. The clerk is showing the latest slide for Mountain View. As you can see, emissions in 2024 were higher than in 2019, the year before the pandemic. In fact, 5% higher. The reason for the increased emissions is that in 2024, Silicon Valley Clean Energy was unable to meet its goal of providing 100% carbon-free electricity. I have been assured that SVCE returned to being carbon-free in 2025 and will strive to be carbon-free in the future. But what happened in 2024 should serve as a reminder that we can't take it for granted that the electricity we consume will always be as clean as we hope it will be.

Thank you, Mr. Carney. Kristen Anderson, followed by KBT, followed by Shawnee Kleinhaus.

Good evening, thanks for hearing me. I just have two things I want to bring to your attention. One of them is the City of Mountain View Dog Park over off of Shoreline by Shoreline, across from Shoreline Amphitheater by the golf course. There's a dog park, has both for large dogs and separated for small dogs. It is barren. There is like one, covered bench for someone to sit in. And then another one has like a second bench or, you know, it'll have some benches, but it's just plain, plain gravel type of, you know, dirt, nothing for the dogs to do and run around or have fun with. And so I would like to see you guys kind of spruce it up. It's been this way for decades, as long as it's been there. So it would be nice to have some fun. The other one is the issue on, for Charleston entrance onto southbound 101 highway. There is, right there it's by the Costco, and there's also an exit from southbound 101 to Ringstorf, and they are within 100 feet of each other. There's also, in addition to that, there is a Ringstorf entrance to 101 that's right after them. And this clogs up 101 all the time, all day. There's no give from that. And I'm surprised, honestly, that there's not more accidents right there. It's very hazardous. And I would like to see... When last year you guys closed that entrance from Charleston and it just made the flow on Southbound 101 so much easier. It's just, it was amazing. So if there's a way that you guys could actually just close that entrance because there is a ring store of one and if you do need an additional.

Thank you. All right, next we have KBT followed by Shawnee Kleinhaus followed by Alvin Kerr.

I'm with the coalition of community organizations called SOS, Safety Over Surveillance, and I want to commend the council and the Mountain View police chief for taking the groundbreaking step of canceling the flock AI-enabled cameras to protect our citizens from outside surveillance by federal agencies like ICE and from violations to our Fourth Amendment rights, protecting us from warrantless searches and invasions of our privacy. This is so incredibly important also for our immigrant community as well. While other cities drag their feet, Mountain View leads the way by canceling these cameras. I was overjoyed to see the cameras near my neighborhood removed and some other ones as I drive around. In the last couple of weeks or so, I had thought from the February 24th meeting that there was going to be an official announcement to the public of when these cameras were going to be removed. So I hope that that can be considered soon to be announced because I would love to see our city stand firm for the individual civil liberties and a safe surveillance free zone for our city. Additionally, I hope the council continues to reject the use of any AI enabled ARPR cameras from any company in the future because there is still so much evidence of increased misuse and abuse and lack of data protection. So I hope we can continue to protect our citizens from overreach by the federal government by doing so. Thank you again so much, Council, for canceling the contract.

Thank you. Shawnee Kleinhaus, followed by Alvin Kerr.

Good evening, Shani Kleinhaus with the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance. I wanted to thank you for adopting the Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan. The biodiversity anchors in the plan are really great to see and thank you for that. It's more than just a park feature. It really looks forward to integrating nature into the fabric of the city. So it's really important to note that one, the plan does not require every new plant in every park to be native, not at all. You only have to have one area or one tree or a few trees that provide biodiversity value. And by biodiversity value, I would take the California Native Society definition that talks about what is biodiversity, and that's the web of life that co-evolved together native plants that evolved along native insects, birds, and other wildlife, providing food, shelter, and ecological relationship all together. So we're not talking about a lot of trees from a lot of places. That's not biodiversity that's relevant to this landscape here. So, we really need to look at how do we bring a biodiversity anchor that has biodiversity value. So, a tree from Nevada or New York or Pennsylvania doesn't have that value here, and we need to remember that in the definitions, and now you look at the next plan, which is going to come next time, and I can't come and speak, so I'm here today. And there is a city in Cenitas that just adopted their native plant ordinance. 100% of all plants planted on city properties have to be native. And in other projects that they permit, 50%. Not asking you to do that today. But I think keep in mind there is an importance to bringing back and supporting our local ecosystems and our local native plants. These are our butterflies.

Thank you. Next up, we have Alvin Kura.

Mayor Ramos, Vice Mayor Clark, council members, city staff, Chief Canfield, Alvin Kerselden Park neighborhood. Just three quick things. One, thank you Mayor Ramos for the state of the city. I just, I don't know if you've been told, but I wanted to mention it's really important that these things be sent on the internet so that those of us who can't be on site for those kinds of things are able to watch. I'm very grateful. City Attorney Logue, congratulations. I hope that it's something you're looking forward to, not just something you feel like you have to do, so thank you. And finally, particularly to Chief Canfield, I'm an active parishioner at St. Joseph Parish, and I wanted to thank you all for being supportive of the activities that we do, just like this last weekend, especially if your support is your patience. I'm pretty sure my pastor appreciates it. I can tell you for sure that I do, and I yield back my time. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We will now take virtual speakers. We have one virtual speaker, Judy.

Okay, can you hear me?

We can hear you.

All right. Is this for non-agenda items?

It is for non-agenda items.

Okay, great. Because it's within your purview to discuss this, you give these special days for special groups like the gay group and the black group, so on. You don't have the right to cut me off just because I'm white and I want something for my group. Just recently, the SPLC has...

been under uh a lot of investigation now um indictment or some kind of charges put on them for uh basically giving jewish actors the assignment all right okay we're gonna stop that the council rep welcomes welcoming um respectful non-threatening public comments on matters within our jurisdictions comment deemed otherwise pursuant to the council code of conduct and the government code may be grounds for terminating a speaker's comment period thank you so much And we will now move forward to item six, the public hearings. So item 6.1, City of Mountain View Vacancies and Recruitment and Retention Efforts, Government Code Section 3502.3. Human Resources Director Maxine Guillo will present the item. If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. Did I pronounce your name wrong? I'm so sorry.

Maxine Gulo.

Gulo, thank you. All right, and we are ready when you are.

All right, good evening, Mayor Ramos and members of the council. I am Maxine Gullo, Human Resources Director, and tonight I'll be presenting Mountain View's Annual Workforce Transparency Report under AB2561, covering our vacancy data, what we're doing to address it, and how we're investing in our workforce for the long term. AB-2561 took effect January 1st, 2025, requiring public agencies to report vacancy and recruitment data at a public hearing at least once per fiscal year. If any bargaining unit exceeds a 20% vacancy rate, a formal remediation plan is required. Tonight's presentation fulfills that obligation, and I'm very pleased to report that no bargaining unit is in that territory. Yes, AV2561 took, sorry about that. So let's go into our four recognized labor organizations. We have Eagles, SEIU, the Mountain View Professional Firefighters Local 1965, and the Police Officers Association known as POA, representing nearly 640 positions that deliver essential services to our community every day. their work is the foundation of everything this council prioritizes at the time of this report i'm very happy to say that we have four new hire schedule to start by the end of the fiscal year which improves the vacancy rate to 9.04 percent which is below the national public sector benchmark of 10 to 11 percent And I wanna say that that is not a coincidence. It really reflects the years of deliberate sustained investment in our recruitment and retention efforts that the city has done. Vacancies by a snapshot. So breaking it down by unit, Public safety is performing really well. Firefighters at 4.4% and POA at 3.3%. Our Eagles group is at 10.5% and SEIU is at 14.54%. Both are below the 20% threshold requiring additional disclosure under the law, but both are numbers we take seriously and are actively working to bring that number down. I'm happy to report that even since this report has been done, we actually have six new start dates for positions in our eagles bargaining unit. So our numbers continue to change every day. So for our recruitment and retention efforts, our recruitment efforts really begin with a community for all approach, where we recruit individuals who reflect Mountain View's diversity and values, prioritizing quality over speed. Also, we are recruiting smarter. We are expanding our use of NeoGov, which is our online applicant tracking system to reduce time to hire. We offer a great competitive package. We have targeted hiring bonuses for hard to fill roles. And we continue to build from within our organization through succession planning, internal advancement pathways. On the retention side, we provide paid parental leave, we offer a hybrid work options, and we also provide mental health and wellness resources. And these are just a few of all the wonderful things that the City of Mountain View provides to our employees to contribute to our retention efforts. Also, I want to highlight that we continue to invest in our workforce. Over the last decade, Mountain View has grown by 129 FTEs, and that's a 22% increase. The fiscal year 2026-27 recommended budget, which comes on next, proposes 714.75 regular positions, and this is the highest in city history. But I'd like to be clear about how we've gotten here. That every position added has been tied to a specific service need, a funded budget line item, or a deliberate council decision. This growth has been fiscally responsible and calibrated to what our budget can sustain. Not adding, not simply adding headcount, and I believe that this is part of the fiscal prudence of Mountain View is what makes us so fiscally sound as an organization. Through the last several years, the city has converted multiple temporary and limited period positions to permanent. I will even say that in HR last year, we had a limited term administrative assistant funded from limited term to regular, which really helps continue capacity in HR to support services such as recruitments. All these great things, there's also some challenges. We still continue to find challenging in the technical and specialized roles such as engineering, planning, utilities and dispatchers. They continue to remain one of the hardest to fill because the credential pipelines are long and everyone's competing in this market space. Public safety hiring requires multiple step post standards and that can't be shortcut. We're also planning proactively for some anticipated retirement waves in the next three to five years. And so we continue to build our investment in HR, such as hiring a limited term recruitment analyst that the city council approved in mid-year. And she's actually training this on her first week so that she can continue to assist and support us in recruitments. In summary, Mountain View continues to be below the national vacancy benchmark. We continue to grow our permanent workforce responsibly and add and convert temporary roles to permanent positions. And so this concludes my presentation. And if you have any questions, please let me know.

Thank you. We will now hear from Kevin Ho, analyst two and president of our Eagles Union. Welcome.

All right. My name is Kevin. I work for the city in the public works department. Good evening, council members. First, we'd like to give appreciation to the city for their continued transparency and partnership, as well as their commitment to strengthening recruitment and retention efforts. So thank you. However, with the passage of California Assembly Bill 339, we are asking the city to prioritize filling vacant full-time positions and to convert more hourly, temporary and contract roles into permanent union positions. AB 339 has made it clear how many positions remain vacant and how much work relies on temporary and contract staff. Work that permanent union represented employees could and should be doing. Our goal moving forward is simple, transition these hourly contract and temporary roles into permanent positions to strengthen our workforce and better serve the people of Mountain View. Doing so has many benefits for the city and its employees by allowing the city to retain institutional knowledge and increase accountability and oversight. It guarantees coverage for crucial 24 seven operations, It promotes stability and because permanent roles are stable, they strengthen workforce reliability and encourages commitment by supporting career growth and providing access to essential benefits like CalPERS and healthcare. All these reasons and many more underscore the importance of making sure union jobs are done by union workers. We support thoughtful, limited use of non-permanent staff when truly needed. However, over-reliance on temporary workers weakens long-term workforce capacity and union representation. Thank you for your time, and we look forward to working together so we can build a more resilient, invested city workforce.

Thank you. Does any member of the council have any questions? Seeing none, would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button and zoom or press star nine on your phone. A timer will be displayed on the screen. Each speaker will have three minutes. Do we have any speakers in person? We will now take virtual speakers. Do we have any virtual speakers? Seeing none, thank you. I will now bring the item back for council deliberation. Any deliberation? It doesn't look like there's any motion. So with that, go ahead, Council Member Hicks.

Well, I'll just say, although I know this is a pro forma thing that we didn't put it on the agenda ourselves, I find it quite useful actually to check in and I found the written staff report and then the two the two, the report from the union and from you Maxine. I find it helpful to go over these things every year and think about them and think about staffing. So thank you all for taking the time.

Any other comments from council? Council Member Showalter.

Yeah, I think it would be interesting to see how the number of staff has varied with the population. Because although our staff numbers have gone up over the last 20 years, our population has gone up a lot too. And so, I mean, it's not, it would just be interesting to see how that changes over time, how that's changed.

All right. Go ahead, Council Member Hicks.

Okay, and I'll add to that. It would be interesting, taking the point of the gentleman from Eagles who spoke, it would be interesting also to see the temporary and part-time, whether that has been constant over the past several decades or whether it has grown. That would be an interesting thing to track as well.

City Attorney Logue.

When you're done deliberating, can I just recommend that you make a motion to receive and file the report just so that we can close out the minutes and it's clear?

All right, it looks like we have a motion by Vice Mayor Clark, seconded by Council Member Hicks. Go ahead, Vice Mayor Clark.

Yeah, the motion is what the City Attorney said.

Can we get a roll call vote, City Clerk? Vice Mayor Clark.

Yes.

Council Member Hicks. Yes. Council Member Kamei. Yes. Council Member McAllister. Yes. Council Member Ramirez. Yes. Council Member Showalter. Yes. Mayor Ramos. Yes. Motion carries unanimously.

All right, and that concludes our public hearing. We will now move on to item 6.2. City Manager McCarthy will kick us off and Finance and Administrative Services Director Derek Ramponi and Assistant Finance Administrative Director Grace Zeng, will present the item. If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now.

Let's go. All right. Thank you, mayor. Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm very pleased to be here before you tonight to present a structurally balanced budget. And as the mayor said, I'm joined by our finance and administrative services director, Derek Rampone, and assistant director, Grace Zeng. And I just wanted to highlight a couple things before we launch into the presentation. And the first thing that I wanna say is you all heard during the April budget workshop how this recommended budget before you this evening is focused on providing core city services, long-term service delivery. There's a real concerted focus on putting funding and recommendations in those council priority areas, the strategic priorities and projects. And then obviously one thing that we really pride ourselves on is still trying to be the first at many things and innovating, doing things differently and really doing these important projects for our community members. So that is kind of the baseline for what we present to you this evening. But one thing that I do want to underscore is the fact that our revenues, although stable, they are not growing as fast as what we have seen in the past. And so what that means is that we have a lot of bold initiatives, we have a lot of projects and priorities that council and the community are wanting us to do and we are seeking to fund and we just simply do not have all the money that we need to do all of these things. So coupled on top of that is this economic uncertainty that we all know that we're in right now and we just really, can't look that far ahead in our crystal ball right now to know what's gonna happen certainly by the end of this year and into next year. So as with a lot of cities, we're very focused on our infrastructure, improving our streets and our roads and our facilities, but it doesn't stop at that. We have a lot of important priorities related to affordable housing and sustainability and new parks and also making investments in technology within the city organization, because there's been a lot of things over the last several years, certainly since the pandemic and before, where we just need to upgrade our aging systems. And so that's something that we're really focused on as well. So talking about our revenues not growing as fast as they should be and needing more money to do a lot of these really important projects, we are looking at a revenue measure in the November 2026 ballot, which the council will discuss at your June 23rd meeting and Really this is to help meet those needs that our community has identified and also think about how we can build the mountain view of tomorrow together. So you will see that phrase in a lot of the infrastructure projects we have tried to talk about that. not just with community members, but with conversations that we're having individually with people. And then you'll also start seeing those signs around town so people can actually see the things that we're working on and they know that these dollars are being invested in this important work. So I also wanna talk about how this budget making strides towards improving our internal city operations. Some of the things that council has highlighted both at the mid-year budget and in the April budget workshop are things like the reorganization of our transportation division, hiring and you all approving a new chief transportation officer position. We have also expanded the weekend hours of our library and added more staffing and security. We're prioritizing long range planning. We're making investments in our objective design standards, which I know is a very important council priority project. in parallel with updating the standard details for our roads and sidewalks and really looking at green street infrastructure. So that's something that we'll really be focused on in the next budget cycle and beyond. And then one of the other things I'll wanna point out with this budget is we've made a very concerted focus to place a lot of resources on economic vitality and small business support. So we've implemented a lot of different updates like small business zoning code updates, the business ambassador team we've created, we've launched the facade improvement program. And so in this budget, We also have recommended the creation of what's called a property-based improvement district or a PBID, which will really help improve the downtown district. Also more frequent cleaning of the parking garages downtown and also the actual Ped Mall, the Castro Street. So those are recommended in the budget as well, along with a brand new storefront activation program along the Ped Mall. And I also wanna say that We're really excited about investing in the summer of soccer. So really supporting those World Cup activities and helping activate our businesses and bring people downtown, both spending money and eating downtown. We've also made an investment in this budget in our public art and culture. And part of that is hiring or I guess you all approving a brand new public art administrator position for the first time. And we are in that hiring process right now this month. So that's very exciting. And then we'll also be celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Center for Performing Arts this year. So we're very excited to recommend funding towards that project. And then lastly, before I turn it over to our finance director, really at the foundation of all that we do, in this budget and in everything we do every day is our focus on being a community for all. We've heard about it tonight, we've talked about it, and it really is our foundational principle in Mountain View and our funding of our programs and initiatives, all the various events is really rooted in this belief that Mountain View is a city that serves a very diverse community and that we are a welcoming, safe and inclusive place for everyone, not just to live, but to work and visit. So that is also at the foundation of our budget. So with that, I'll turn it over to our finance director, Mr. Rampone, to walk you through some of the details in the budget.

All right, thank you, City Manager McCarthy. Good evening, Mayor Ramos and Vice Mayor Clark, Council Members, Derek Rampone, your Finance and Administrative Services Director. Joining me this evening is Grace Tseng, the Assistant Finance and Administrative Services Director. The item you have in front of you tonight is the public hearing for the fiscal year 26-27 recommended budget. Here is a roadmap of the budget development process, as you've seen before. As you know, the process really begins in November with a kickoff memo distributed to departments. Departments then prepare and submit their budget requests to the finance department around the December holiday timeframe. In January, the budget team compiles and reviews those requests. And in February, the budget team and the city manager meet with departments to discuss priorities and proposed funding. Also in February, we provide the mid-year budget update to the city council. On April 14th of this year, we provided the preliminary review of the fiscal year 26-27 budget. um the recommended budget that you have before you this evening was actually published early this year on may 22nd and then here we are now at the public hearing for this recommended budget and then the next and final step in this process will occur on june 23rd when council considers adoption of the budget and including in that will be the capital improvement program As we've discussed previously, the city has a long history of sound fiscal practices. We consistently adopt structurally balanced budgets, aligning ongoing revenues with ongoing expenditures, and using one-time funds for only one-time costs. In recent years, strong revenue growth has generated operating balances that have allowed the city to make additional payments towards our long-term liabilities, such as paying down our pension obligation through CalPERS and fully funding our retiree health benefits. The city also prioritizes maintaining healthy reserves to prepare for economic uncertainties. These practices have helped support the city's AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's, which is the highest possible rating. And this has helped reduce our borrowing costs, as we saw just last month when we issued our lease revenue bonds. And finally, the city has received national recognition for excellence in budgeting, financial reporting, and procurement. As we look at what's changed since our last touch point in April, we still have a lot of economic uncertainty. It remains elevated, which makes revenue forecasting more challenging. Growth continues, but at a slower pace than previous years. Inflation has actually shown some signs recently of re-accelerating, which have increased cost pressures for both residents and local governments. Consumer confidence has softened as households grapple and face affordability challenges. The labor market remains resilient, but is showing signs of moderation recently. And interest rates are expected to remain higher for a longer period of time, which may affect development, investment, and economic activity. Overall, staff continues to recommend a prudent and cautious fiscal approach while closely monitoring economic conditions and revenue trends. As we turn to the local economy, the local economy continued to show signs of slowing, though growth does remain positive. Revenue growth is expected to be modest in future years. Unemployment remains low, but is expected to rise slightly. Sales tax has been impacted by business relocations and closures. Affordability, as spoken about previously, remains a challenge for residents and businesses. However, there have been some new employers that continue to locate in Mountain View, which will support the city's long-term economic vitality. Overall, I would say the local economy remains resilient, but growth is really expected to be more moderate going forward. The forecast assumes moderate growth and a stable local economy. Property taxes expected to grow at 2.9%, while sales taxes forecast to remain flat. Lease revenues for the city have been projected with a 2% annual increase. Expenditure increases are expected to grow faster than revenues, which creates an ongoing budget pressure. Key risks for the forecast include inflation, the federal policies uncertainty, and the potential for an economic slowdown. The forecast that we have prepared does not include or assume a recession. So overall, the budget remains balanced, but there's definitely uncertainty and expenditure growth that continues to require close monitoring. Here's the recommended budget for fiscal year 26-27. It's structurally balanced. We have new ongoing staffing requests that are very limited and targeted. The budget focuses on maintaining service levels and advancing council priorities. Investments are also included to improve operations and support a lot of economic vitality. The budget balances fiscal sustainability with strategic investments in city services and priorities. included in the recommended budget as the city manager mccarthy previously indicated are various continuous improvement efforts these recommendations focus on improving service delivery and operational effectiveness key initiatives here include the transportation division reorganization expanded library hours and enhanced long-range planning investments in public safety health and wellness and technology improvements support employee effectiveness and community service Overall, the budget includes these targeted improvements that strengthen city operations and service delivery. As we previously spoke about with economic vitality and small business support, this budget includes targeted investments to support small businesses, downtown activity, and economic vitality. Funding supports grants, loans, business promotion, and storefront activation programs. The budget also invests in public art and cultural programming, including a new public art administrator position and MVCPA's 35th anniversary celebration. These investments will support a vibrant economy, an active downtown and a strong cultural community. Now we turn to some of the recommended items in the budget for 26-27. The recommended budget includes a limited number of targeted staffing changes. These positions focus on legal services, planning, transportation and public safety operations. One GIS position is being converted from limited period to ongoing, and one warehouse staffing position is being modestly increased to meet operational needs. These position changes are strategic and focused on maintaining service levels and addressing key workload demands. As we look toward building the Mountain View of tomorrow, I'd like to take a moment to again highlight a new revenue source that's now available to the city. Measure G was approved by more than 72% of voters, is now generating dedicated funding for community priorities. In this fiscal year, 2526, Measure G is projected to generate over $5 million in revenue. These funds will support the public safety building, parks and open space, affordable housing, and other community investments. Measure G provides an important local funding source to help advance council priorities and invest in Mountain View's future. So as we continue building the Mountain View of tomorrow, we're asking the community to help shape our future priorities. A community survey is now live to gather input on potential investments in public infrastructure, public safety parks, affordable housing, among other things. The survey results will help inform council discussions regarding a potential revenue measure. And this survey is a good opportunity for residents to provide direct feedback on the services and investments that matter most to them. Now we'll get into a little bit of an overview of the numbers in the actual recommended budget. First, we'll turn to budgeted revenues. This is citywide all funds, just over $520 million. As you can see in the pie chart, the General Operating Fund, Enterprise Fund, and the Shoreline Regional Park Community Fund make up nearly 80% of the city's budgeted revenues. with special revenue funds, capital project funds, internal service funds and other general fund related funds comprising the rest of the balance. SWITCHING TO CITYWIDE EXPENDITURES, THE FISCAL YEAR 26-27 RECOMMENDED BUDGET INCLUDES NEARLY $598 MILLION IN EXPENDITURES ACROSS ALL FUNDS. THE GENERAL OPERATING FUND REMAINS THE LARGEST COMPONENT AT 36% OF TOTAL EXPENDITURES FOLLOWED BY ENTERPRISE FUNDS, SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS AND THE SHORELINE REGIONAL PARK COMMUNITY. TOGETHER THESE FOUR FUND CATEGORIES ACCOUNT FOR OVER 80% OF CITYWIDE EXPENDITURES. Expenditures exceed revenues on a citywide basis because certain activities such as capital projects and affordable housing loans are funded from accumulated fund resources and balances rather than current year revenues. So you may notice that the total expenditures exceed revenues, but that's why. Now turning to the general operating fund, which is the city's primary operating fund and supports core services. In fiscal year 26-27, revenues in the general fund are expect, operating fund are expected to increase by 11.9 million or approximately 6% compared to the fiscal year 25-26 adopted budget. This represents a healthy revenue growth, particularly given the economic uncertainty and slower growth environment discussed earlier. and this projected revenue growth will help support city's service commitments and a structurally balanced budget. This slide really highlights some of the major economically sensitive revenue sources and how they compare both to the current year's budget and current year's projections. Property tax remains the city's largest and most stable revenue source. It's expected to increase approximately 3% over current year estimates. Utility users tax continues to face some pressures projected to be below budget assumptions. which really reflects changing consumer behavior and utility usage patterns. Business license tax continues to perform well, while sales tax is projected to remain relatively flat as the local economic growth moderates. It is important to note that comparing current year's adopted budget shows a 6% increase, but comparing to what we now expect to actually receive for this year, growth is a more modest 2.6% in the bottom right corner. I wanted to give a little bit of context for how our major revenues are growing. This chart really shows the historical growth rates of the city's major general operating fund tax revenues. Revenue growth has generally been positive, but has definitely varied based on economic conditions. the current year 2526 and fiscal year next fiscal year projections are below historical averages as you can see on the this chart 2.8 percent and 1.5 percent this really reflects the more moderate growth assumptions that are included in our forecast overall we continue to project revenue growth but definitely at a slower pace than the city has experienced in many prior years now we'll turn to expenditures in the general operating fund They are expected to grow by 6.4% or $12.5 million in fiscal year 26-27 when compared to the 25-26 adopted budget. As you will recall a few slides ago, revenues are expected to increase by 6.1% or 11.9 million. So you can see there is a slight gap where expenditures are definitely growing at a higher rate than revenues. This slide shows the five-year forecast for the general operating fund. As you can see, the 26-27 years is structurally balanced with the projected operating balance of $150,000. However, looking ahead, you'll see the red numbers. Those are modest deficits beginning in 27-28 as expenditure growth really starts to outpace revenue growth. The forecast does return to a positive balance in 2030-31, but that's largely due to projected reductions in pension costs, which are variable and can really change. So still focusing on the general operating fund, this is the revenue by function or by type, with property taxes being the number one source, the largest source, and use of money and property being the second. Use of money and property is investment earnings and lease revenues that the city receives as a landowner of numerous ground leases. having a higher percentage of revenue come from lease revenue is a rather unique situation which the city has historically benefited from especially during economic slowdowns most cities usually have sales tax as their number two revenue source but in mountain view it's actually our number four largest revenue in the general operating fund Turning to expenditures in the general operating fund, approximately $217.7 million. This chart shows how expenditures are distributed across major service areas. Police and fire account for 46% of the general fund expenditures. This is typical for California cities as public safety services must be staffed and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and are generally funded through broad-based city revenues rather than user fees. As detailed in the recommended budget document, this slide summarizes the ongoing general operating fund recommendations for next fiscal year. The non-discretionary items, it's about $1.5 million, those are required cost increases to maintain current operations such as citywide utility costs, fleet maintenance, investments in technology and the janitorial services contract among other things. There's 3.1 million in discretionary funding that supports the six ongoing position changes discussed earlier as well as other high priority programs and services. We also have limited period funding included in the 26-27 recommended budget. These are one-time strategic investments. The staff is proposing 7.9 million in limited period funding for fiscal year 26-27. Those key investments really are staffing support, upcoming election costs, contract services for various programs and grants. Additional funding will support firefighter recruits attending the academy and also some other limited period support for various departments, including consulting services to evaluate and improve some of the city's planning permitting and land use processes. So at the April preliminary review, Council did provide some direction regarding rightsizing Councilmember travel and training budgets. It should be noted that Council budgets have not been adjusted in 10 years. The recommended budget does include increased travel and training budgets, as you can see on the first bullet point there. What's not in this recommended budget, but we will be including in the adopted budget is an increase to the per term technology and office equipment allowance. So that will be included. That's per term for four years. So we're gonna recommend increasing that from 3,800 to 5,000 total for the four years. So I'd like to close with just next steps of the budget process. We will return to the city council on June 23rd with any updates or modifications that are discussed tonight, including we will have the capital improvement program budgets. In addition, we will be seeking approval of utility rates and other fees charged to customers. And we'll also have the Gannon appropriations limit as a separate item for approval. And with that, we're happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Does any member of the council have questions?

Let's go. Questions, questions? No one?

Council Member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. I just have a couple of quick ones. First, thank you, staff, for the presentation. Nothing surprising because we've had many opportunities to provide input. I have a question for the fire chief. I'm sorry to burden you, but this I hope will be easy. I'm curious why the fire protection performance measures use averages rather than median figures.

GOOD EVENING, COUNCIL, HONORABLE MAYOR, VICE MAYOR, COUNCIL MEMBERS, BRIAN JONES CURRENTLY SERVING AS THE FIRE CHIEF FOR CITY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW. Performance measures provided for a four-minute travel time, which is the most common measure that we don't meet due to traffic, road closures, other variables that are beyond our control. Providing an average gives you a good example of where we most often meet, which is around five minutes and 55 seconds, which is very good for the city. Answering your question on median, we did in response to your question that you asked earlier this week. Our median for EMS incidents and small fires is four minutes and 52 seconds, and median median response times for, or median travel times for building fires is four minutes and 11 seconds. As far as why we did average over median, it was just a staff decision at the time, but we are more than willing to provide both in the future.

Great, thank you very much. That's very helpful. I think that's good for now, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Ramirez. Council Member Showalter.

Yeah, I asked a couple of questions about inspections. Because when I hear complaints from residents, it's often about things that are related to an inspection of one sort or another. And so it was very helpful for the staff to answer questions about specific kinds. But yeah, why don't you come back up, Brian, because I was gonna ask about the code enforcement. One of the things I think that people have questions about is how, just kind of how a code enforcement, how a code enforcement procedure works. You know, how do you hear about it and when it comes in, where does it usually go, that kind of thing.

um so to start in the city of mountain view we adopt the california fire code so that's our standard for our fire inspections we also have a municipal code item which has several mountain view specific fire code adoptions that we've made So our inspectors have several mandated inspections. The majority of those are what we call R2 occupancies. So those are multiple family occupancies. A lot of your apartment buildings, residences that house four or more occupancies, four plexes as such. So all of those are mandated that we go to each year, as well as hospitals, schools, and those types of facilities. And then we have all of our permitted occupancies, occupancies that hold hazardous materials, restaurants, assemblies where large people gather, large amounts of people gather. So all of those require annual inspections. So we have an inspection list and a database. We hit all of those inspections annually, and our inspectors go out. On their first inspection, they will note any violations. The most common ones we come into are housekeeping, so a lot of clutter around, exits blocked, electrical boxes that are blocked by high piled storage, storage that is piled within 18 inches of a sprinkler head that would prevent the sprinkler head from dispersing adequately to put out a fire. Those are the most common things that we see. Also exit lighting that is commonly out that we just asked to replace. Our priority is always in fixing an issue and addressing an issue. So we'll write up a notice of violation. We come back out 30 days later. And our focus is really on helping those property owners or business owners address the issues. Our ultimate goal is safety. And if they don't address those on the first round, we usually go out one more time and really help them understand what the issue is and address the importance of it, why this is such an important issue. Almost every fire code item that you'll run into is because they're a fire that had multiple fatalities. You look back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, there was a huge fire problem in the United States. We had a lot of large assembly fire or fires that occurred in assembly occupancies, a lot of nightclubs, hotels. multiple family dwellings, apartment fires, all of those fires that resulted in a lot of fatalities is what led to a lot of these fire code items. So we stress the importance of those. And through that education campaign, a lot of people make those fixes right away. Very rarely will somebody refuse to make a change. When that happens, then we go to an administrative hearing and there's sometimes a fine involved with it. But ultimately, our goal is always safety.

And basically this year there weren't any of those.

I understood reading the table properly. Correct. Well, I'd have to go back and review the performance measure, but we hit 100% of all the inspections.

Right, you hit 100% of all inspections.

Yes.

Well, another reason I'm bringing this up is that I think that it's really important for us all to understand all the many layers of government and kind of what we do and what we do to keep us safe. without any complaints that anybody makes, all of these things get inspected by the City of Mountain View by a professional every year. That's just a very important service that we offer. And so, That's why I'm asking these questions to kind of bring it forward. Because I do think it's a very important service. And people should be aware that we are really actively involved in promoting their safety. And I know that in previous times, the previous chief mentioned the calls that the fire department gets. And the vast majority of them, of course, are for medical, right? And he attributed that to this very extensive inspection program. that we have that means that the number of fires we have is less than it might otherwise be.

Yep. And Mountain View has always been very proactive in fire prevention since the early 80s. It was one of the first cities to adopt a full city code fire sprinkler ordinance. And then I would also add, in addition to those mandated inspections, the city and the fire department are very proactive in other events. So for example, for the Super Bowl event where we knew different assemblies were gonna have festivals or events. We went out and proactively worked with those business owners, offered an inspection, made sure that those assembly occupancies were safe. We also do that, we're at every Shoreline concert doing pyrotechnic inspections, making sure all of the exits are clear throughout those concerts. So we're very proactive in safety throughout the city, not only on our mandated inspections, but anywhere where we believe there's a safety hazard.

Thank you, okay. And then I have another question about inspections and that's probably related to public works or planning. And I wanted to hear a little bit about the distinctions between the inspections that public works does and the planning department does in the construction of a project.

Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, council members, Christian Murdoch, community development director. One of the divisions within the community development department is the building division, and there are a number of inspectors we have on staff that go out and primarily focus on the private property components of developments. So things all the way from the underground utilities, excavations, foundations, all the way up to the multiple levels of construction above grade. I'll defer to the public works director to describe the scope of her team's inspections, but primarily those involve issues typically related in the public right-of-way, utilities connections, street design, curb, stormwater, and so forth.

to make sure that that's all produced properly and it will function as built, as designed.

That's correct. So the building inspectors are there making sure that the field conditions and construction is occurring consistent with the approved plans, which have been reviewed for California building code compliance. Similarly, the public works inspectors are making sure the public realm improvements are meeting city standard details and other standards for connections to the city infrastructure.

Thank you. OK. Want to talk a little bit about public works inspections? Educate us a little bit about that.

Always happy to talk public works. I'm Jennifer Ng. I'm the public works director here at the City of Mountain View. As Christian described, when we do a inspection on a private development project, public works' realm is really related to everything that's in the public right of way. So, any sort of frontage improvements, those could include sidewalks, curb and gutter, the street itself, the street trees that are installed, the utilities that are in the street, those all fall under the realm of the public works inspector. Any sort of, I call it mitigation, if we have to do anything to touch a traffic signal, et cetera, that is also in the public right of way and falls under the public works domain. As it relates to private development, CDD is really in the driver's seat with respect to that, and so the Public Works inspections fall under the general umbrella of the overall building permit, and so my team in Public Works interfaces very closely with the building division and the building division's inspectors so that at the end of the project everything is wrapped up nice and tidy and everybody agrees that the project is ready to be accepted as public improvements for the city to then take on maintenance and also just that things are built safely

It's your job to make sure that things are built safely. And I think that's another thing I try and stress when I talk to people is that we can't necessarily control what is built here because that has a lot to do with what developers want to build. But we can make sure that it's designed well and we can certainly make sure that it's built safely. And that's really what all these inspections are about. So that's why I wanted to bring this up because I think this production of a safe city infrastructure is just a major function of a government service that we provide. So thank you very much.

Those are my questions. Thank you, Council Member Showalter. Vice Mayor Clark.

It's just a clarification question on the council budget changes for travel training per term. So I think with travel training, that's annual. So I think, and that's typically for either brand new council members because the fiscal year doesn't match our terms. typically your first and last year it's prorated to like 50%. So that would, that will be a natural proration that occurs in July.

Yes, that's correct.

And then the per term are different because that's for the, that is an annual. So I'm just curious if you plan to, in what comes back to us in a couple of weeks, have a sort of a proration formula there that you'll just take care of or if you need direction from us tonight as to how to how to think through that yeah our plan was to do a proration based on the years left for the 5 000. okay got it that's perfect thanks

Thank you, Vice Mayor Clark. Council Member Kamei.

Great, thank you. And apologies, these questions came to me as I was sitting here, not ahead of time. So apologies to staff. So one of my questions is about the nursing pod at the library. I know that that came forward because of community feedback. Has staff heard about community feedback, for example, at our community center or anywhere else where council might be able to explore that? I'm sorry, I don't know who to direct the question to. Thank you.

Good evening, John Marchant, Community Services Director. Specific requests for that service at the community center, we do not get that on a regular basis. There's a interest on the part of council, we can look into it, but that is not a typical request that we receive to date. Yeah.

I just, I was curious, I think we were getting, we have so many programs at the community center and I know that's how it came about at the library. I'm not sure if staff can look into if the cost on it and come back to council when this returns and just would be curious if it, I know that times are a constraint, but if there, that could be possible. Great, thank you. And then my second question unfortunately came to mind because of news. So today the voice said that the office vacancy rate, I think more specifically to downtown is over 30%. But when we're talking about our budget, we were talking about how we've reduced our vacancy rate I'm assuming that's across our whole city or maybe we can provide some clarity on those numbers or what we're doing I'm you know not to get into too many comments but I know we've as the city manager mentioned economic vitality has been of one of our pillars and I just wanted to ask a question so we can provide clarity if necessary thank you.

Sure, so I think the story in The Voice was highlighting the vacancy rate that resulted from a single large tenant vacancy. And that resulted from a broader corporate restructuring and acquisition that occurred. So I'm not taking that as an indication of particularly challenging conditions in our downtown related to office vacancy. There is a broader regional challenge with that as business continues to change post COVID and reimagining office work versus remote work and so forth. And so I think it's difficult to sort of draw a trend from that particular single vacancy. We are continuing to pursue strategies across a range of activities to improve the conditions for office occupancy in the downtown.

But overall, I would say, you know, what our budget is showing is that we've been tackling that and reducing overall office vacancy throughout the city. And I think that distinction is important clarity. But that's how I read.

That's right. And we reported extensively on that in the economic vitality strategy update. And so I feel confident we're trending in the right direction across.

Thank you. Council Member Kamea, I'd like to ask our library director to come up here just to provide further context about your question and the library's experience and the cost.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. Thank you for the question, Tracy Gray, Library Director. So the lactation pod at the library was installed in October, and in the last update that we got statistics, So for about six months our usage has been about 140 uses, which is quite a lot compared to several other libraries who do have them in their libraries. So the cost would, there's some inspection components and public works, that piece, but probably the cost ranges from $30,000 to $60,000. Okay.

Thank you, Council Member Kamei. Council Member Hicks.

So first, just sort of a big picture question of clarity. One of the things that jumped out to me was that they, and correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm saying this from memory, is that the expenditures were over revenues, but then there's a little asterisk that says that this is because of fund balance equity use. I thought maybe that jumped out at other people and maybe you could give sort of a little more clarity on what all that means.

Yeah, thanks for the question. So over the years, as fund balances, as revenues may have exceeded expenditures in years past, especially for a capital projects fund or other type of fund, not necessarily the general fund, but the other fund types, enterprise funds, same things, as they build reserves, we will use those in subsequent years. And so our expenditures will look like they're higher. Well, they will be higher because we are using accumulated balances from prior years, basically.

Yeah, and I'm asking that because at quick glance, when you're thumbing through the report, it just looks like we're being really irresponsible. And I guess the other question, and I feel like this is a big picture question, too, and I feel like I should know the answer. But when you talk about the process for developing the budget, you talk about asking the different departments what they need. Do you also ask, kind of as we're

hitting somewhat harder times than we were when I was first on council.

Do you do what we do in our family of ask like, are there some streaming services we don't need anymore? Do you also ask, is there anything that's kind of built up that we don't need? Because it seems like that's a good practice.

Yes, I think if you were to ask the department heads, they would tell you yes. There are certainly discussion about whether it's requests that come in for maybe minor adjustments or things that may have been going on for a long time that may not necessarily be needed anymore. And the budget team has discussed the process for next year as well and depending how revenues come in we may need to ask that question even further.

Exactly that's where I was going to go but I won't need to say that in comments now. Thank you.

All right, any other questions from council? All right, we will now move on to public comment. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide public comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star nine on your phone. A timer will be displayed on the screen. Each speaker will have three minutes. We will take in-person public comment first. So we will start with Bruce Carney followed by Kristen Anderson.

Hello again, Mayor and Council. Ms. Glazer, would you put up the slides? Thank you so much. This first slide shows how the prices of residential electricity and natural gas have changed over the last six and a half years. Both have increased by more than 7% per year, but the price of electricity peaked two years ago and has since fallen. Over the period shown, gas prices have risen faster than electricity. Next slide, please. This second slide shows how the rising cost of energy is increasing our city's revenue from its 3% tax on electricity and natural gas. Tax receipts in the last three fiscal years were almost 50% higher than in the preceding years. It's my opinion that the rising price of gas and electricity has created a windfall that should be returned to the community from which it came. The windfall should be returned in ways that will help reduce future energy bills. Next slide, please. If windfall is defined as the portion of the energy tax revenue exceeding $5 million per year, you can see how large the windfall has been. The windfall is almost $7 million in just the last three years. Future windfalls will be larger. In fact, they are likely to be far larger, shockingly larger. Next slide, please. About a year ago, the California Public Utilities Commission hired PG&E to produce a 30-year forecast of natural gas and electricity prices. The report included two scenarios. In scenario one, it was assumed that the use of natural gas would decline quickly. This would leave fewer customers to cover the gas system's fixed costs. Thus, the price of gas would rise rapidly and continuously until the late 2040s. In scenario two, the assumption was that a slower pace of decarbonization would lead to less cataclysmic increases in gas prices. But even in scenario two, natural gas prices are projected to increase three times faster than electricity prices. Many Mountain View families have seen the writing on the wall and replaced their gas water heaters, furnaces, and other appliances with electric equivalents, but most have not, and those families need your help, especially families who are renters. Final slide, please. My first conclusion is that the last households to decarbonize will be burdened by shockingly high gas bills for years and years. My second conclusion is that it would be prudent for the city to begin earmarking the windfall portion of its energy tax receipts for decarbonization incentives and investments while letting the rest flow to the general fund. Finally, I would love to see the council add significantly to the coming year's sustainability budget. In the words of Oliver Twist, please, good councilfolk, I want more.

Thank you, Mr. Carney. Kristen Anderson.

Hello. So I'm a resident at the Santiago Villa Mobile Home Park. And we have approximately 358 homes there. And so with your utility rates increase, proposed, I would like to remind you that mobile home parks are lower income and your increase is, or not the increase, but your proposal is $22.55 per month per household. So with that, with 358 units, that's over $8,000 that you're gonna be getting a month. over $96,000 per year for our park alone, and this is to pay someone to read the meter, and I guess to look at the lines once a year. I feel like that needs to be addressed, that that's too much for low-income housing, and so if you could just look at that and... adjust that price accordingly. Because I know that it was raised last year and then I thought it was reduced. So can you look into that? Because that's just a lot. I know it might not seem like a lot for some people, but just look into that rate increase, okay? For utilities, for the low income people. the other guy with the gas. I went all last winter not using my gas heater and using electric heaters just because of the price of gas.

Thank you. We will now move on to... We will now move on to virtual speakers. We have Judy back. I will say before we unmute you that we are a very welcoming community here in Mountain View. We are proud of our diversity. We are a community for all and we will not accept comments that will deviate from that. So with that, we will go ahead and call upon you. But keep in mind, we will mute you if this gets out of hand.

Yes, and I am transcribing this and you will hear from me and nothing's gotten out of hand. You have not allowed my viewpoint. And I think that's on full display and you will have to account for that. I'm going to say that as far as it goes with the other people who spoke, I approve the gas as well. And then I would say, as a white person, I believe I have the right to express myself. And I think that the rates on these, on the financing of this money is, by nature, a Jewish youth. And we're done here.

That ends our virtual public comments. We will now bring it back to Council for deliberation. Council Member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. I really appreciate most of the public comments. But I guess I was sort of BECOMING INTERRESPECTIVE EARLIER TODAY BECAUSE THIS WILL BE THE FINAL BUDGET I HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK ON WITH COUNCIL MEMBERS AND IT'S ALSO AN INTERESTING DAY BECAUSE I'VE HAD TO CONTEND WITH THE BUDGETS OF TWO CITIES AND YOU CAN GUESS WHICH ONE WAS MORE SATISFYING TO DEAL WITH. BUT I'M I WAS SHARING WITH THE CITY MANAGER EARLIER I FEEL very optimistic about the future of the city i feel like we're leaving the incoming council with a remarkable set of programs and and investments supporting many of the community priorities that we've heard over the years that we've worked together an exceptional staff some really strong bones right a wonderful wonderful foundation to work from and many other cities can't say that and We're also working on some things that may come up in the next council meeting that I think will strengthen the city's position. So I just wanna share my gratitude to staff for having worked with me over the years to incorporate many of the priorities I've been interested in, in collaboration with my colleagues. I feel really good about the work that we've done. I have just a few quick comments. So I'm gonna move to approve the staff recommendations with some very minor tweaks. First, I'm grateful to the staff for the responses provided in advance in the meeting. And in particular, FASD's, I'm guessing it's FASD's response to question three about thinking about a different way of presenting the other local taxes or major revenues information and not for this budget obviously but in the future I think some of this the way it's been presented made sense when a lot of these types of revenue were comparatively trivial right so the previous version of the business license tax and even the UUT you know the cannabis tax continues to be minor right and then we also have taxes that are not included here for the reasons you've explained but I think know still merit some level of transparency right the construction tax is minor but i think something that is worth elevating to the community it exists it generates revenue here's how we use it here's the projections over time um but now the real property transfer taxes is significant and even though it's a volatile source of revenue, we are now using it for an ongoing purpose, right, for debt service. And I think that also merits some level of transparency. So I don't want to be prescriptive in how you choose to present that information, but I do think it will be increasingly valuable, particularly for the incoming council. I think one of the things I've really appreciated about our budget presentations is the budget is an educational document as much as it is a, you know, financial planning document. I always learn a lot reading through it, even though I, you know, I've been monitoring the council for a long time, and now I've had the privilege to serve for nearly eight years. Every time I read through the budget, I learn something. And probably some of that is because I've forgotten over the year what I recall reading from previous budget cycles. So I'm grateful to you for that consideration. I also don't want to provide explicit direction, but I've learned recently about there is value in presenting both in our performance measures averages as well as median figures. I appreciate the fire chief's responses to the questions earlier. And I'll leave it up to you if it makes sense to present both. We can learn something from each of those. But I thought it was useful to understand your perspective in choosing the performance measures as you have. Really, the only thing I wanted to suggest or change based on an experience that I had at the recent Civic Leadership Academy graduation. I had the opportunity to attend with Mayor Ramos, with Council Member Kamei, and Council Member Showalter. And I think many of us have been going for years, and it's always a wonderful experience hearing the enthusiasm and enthusiasm I guess the excitement to continue to be engaged from the graduates of both the Spanish and Chinese leadership academies. as we were speaking with many of the graduates, I think what I took away was there's a strong desire for more opportunities to engage the city and in particular for things like mixers for graduates from previous academies or some of the cultural programming that we've been doing a lot of investment in over the past several years that we've been on the council. The Dia de los Muertos, the Lunar New Year Festival, I think those were some of the events that have come up repeatedly as desired, well received enthusiastically by our community. So again, I don't necessarily want to prescribe exactly how staff would like to do this, but I think a very modest increase to the multicultural engagement program for something like regular alumni mixers or expanding some of the existing events to provide additional volunteer opportunities or something like that. I'd welcome the input from my colleagues, but I'm thinking based on the analysis that you provided us and the first two questions, in the realm of $5,000 to $10,000. And I don't want to be specific about FIGURE BECAUSE I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN STAFF'S PERSPECTIVE ON HOW BEST TO USE THAT MONEY. BUT I WOULD MOVE THE STAFF RECOMMENDATION WITH THE ADDITION OF SOME AMOUNT RECOMMENDED BY STAFF BETWEEN MAYBE $5,000 AND $10,000 FOR ADDITIONAL MULTICULTURAL ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM, EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES, AND I think I'll leave it at that. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Council Member Ramirez. Council Member Showalter.

Thank you. Yeah, I think having a little more extra money for that is a great idea. It could conceive of, well, staff can put it where they want to. I couldn't imagine it could also be part of community services, you know, ongoing a recreation program. But I just wanted to thank all the staff, having served in local government for many years, not as an employee at Mountain View, but as an employee of a local special agency. I know how much work goes into budgets. And boy, it's not just one or two people. I mean, we see one or two people up here. I know you've devoted hours and hours and hours to this, but you're not the only one. I mean, there have been people throughout. We have over 700 employees, and I would... I would venture to say that probably at least 100 of them and maybe 150 of them have been actively involved in getting this budget together. So thank you all for working together to do that. And I also want to talk a little bit about how budgets are kind of a story. They're a story of how we're going to spend our money. And they're a story of what we value and what we care about. And I think that one of the parts of the story that I think are so important now is that we're really trying to focus on the things that we can control. And we are, you know, we're working on affordable housing, things that we can help get built. We're working on getting more parks for people. We're working on the inspections that keep people safe. You know, those are, we're concentrating on what are the things we can control because we know that some of the insistence from other, from the federal system, it's just not what it was before. And so we have to stand by ourselves and we have to collaborate internally to do that and I see that the staff is doing that and I really appreciate it and I hope you're having fun doing it and you're learning more about what each other's jobs are And that can be, you know, really a great growth, professional growth experience as well. And it also saves money because if, you know, you find out by working together that you can have one process that can meet a certain subject instead of having ten of them, well, you've saved a lot of money. And that's a good thing. So then I also wanted to talk a little bit about revenue and how we are really working to get some increases in our revenue. Like we fixed the minimum purchase agreement issue with our water bill that has amounted to upwards of $3 million a year, I mean, We have a, that's not a lot in terms of our budget, but it all adds up. So I think, and that goes into our water fund, which we will need money in forever to maintain our infrastructure. We have Measure G, which is bringing up new money. We've had the business licenses. We did a new funding study to evaluate, I mean, a fee study. We did a new fee study to evaluate what was appropriate in terms of charging people fees for services that we provide, particularly with respect to development. And some of those fees went up a lot, which was appropriate because they hadn't been changed, I mean, some of them hadn't been touched in 20 years or so, so there's been a lot of inflation over that time. And then we are also working to bring new businesses to our community, one, that we're all looking forward to for many reasons will be the new Toyota dealership, which will open into stores in a few years. And I think that will help our sales tax revenue go up. So all of these things, you know, do add together. And I would also say that considering the... the windfall nature of the UTT is really an interesting idea because it, in a sense, it's sort of an internal collaboration between our desire to meet our climate goals, i.e. reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, that the less greenhouse gas emissions, you know, the less gas is used, nothing gas is used, the less greenhouse gas emissions we produce, the closer we are to meeting our standards. And at the same time, while we, you know, while gas gets more expensive, you know, we can utilize that money to help people do things that reduce their greenhouse gases locally, like getting a heat pump or buy an electric car or, other things that might help. Plant lots of trees. I mean, there are many things we've heard that would be valuable. So I thought that was a really good suggestion. But mostly, I just want to say thank you. And I appreciate the time and effort that's gone into this. And I also appreciate how you keep reorganizing this, and it keeps getting better. And having been reading these for 10 years now, I couldn't agree more with my colleague, Council Member Ramirez. Every time I read the budget, I learn just a lot, like, I don't know, 20 or 30 new facts about the city that I either had not known before or I had forgotten. So it's really good to have these all put together, and I particularly love these little vignettes on every department and what they're supposed to do and how many people they have and what the org chart, all of that information brought together. It really does provide a great story of what's the organization of the city. So anyway, thank you for all that work and yes, I'm very happy to be seconding this motion.

Thank you Council Member Showalter. Council Member Hicks.

Yes, I'd like to express my thanks as well. I actually wasn't going to speak. I was just going to support the motion because for members of the public who don't come to every council meeting, we actually go over the budget multiple times and we kind of hopefully make all our big changes. I'm not going to propose a big change now. All our big changes earlier, and also I made my main comment, which was because we're not as flush as we have been in past years, that we're gonna have to, it's a good time to take a look and see if there are any things that have kind of, grown unnecessary. But I made that comment already during questions. So I wasn't going to say anything additionally. And then Councilmember Ramirez talked about more money for cultural events. And I have to say, and I agree, I will support that. And I've been to the Lunar New Year and the Dia de los Muertos and enjoyed them a lot. And I agree with you that staff can figure out how to use more money and make them better. But I do want to encourage good music. Because I have to say the music has been uneven from year to year. There have been times when there have been really great bands. And to me, that's what gets me out. And a lot of other people. So I want to encourage that that be taken under consideration. And then lastly, I agree with what Council Member Showalter said about the UUT, that it might be good to put it towards electrification and reducing people's carbon footprint.

Prohibition remains in place.

Thank you. So I can't support that part of the motion. So if you want to bifurcate it, I still see a conflict of interest. And it could be minor, it could be big. But there could be consequences to other members of that he works in a department that he wants something done. And it would be opening up a can of worms. So those are my thoughts.

Is that all your comments?

That is it.

All right Councilmember Hicks.

So my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong is that the purpose of Councilmember Showalter's modification was in case there were cases and you brought up the sevens which is a portion of it is affordable housing for city employees if you wanted to make a board. Have to have city employees on it because that's what that housing is for. But do we not have other options for that? Could we, if we were going to make some sort of board for the sevens, couldn't it not be a Brown Act body? Could it be some other sort of body? So maybe the modification that Councilmember Showalter is talking about is not as important as it would seem. And I'm thinking I may agree with Council Member McAllister that it's just easier to make sure, because council changes, although this current council has talked about conflicts of interest and anybody we create, we might make sure that there are appropriate guardrails for that. Future councils may not have had that conversation and you might want it built into the law. So I'm thinking maybe we, I'm thinking what Councilmember McAllister has said, that maybe we should go back to the way it was originally written. But there are other ways to address what Councilmember Showalter was worried about, which is, you know, what if there's some exceptional committee that we want employees to be on? So any comments on that, welcome.

City Attorney Logue, do you have an answer to that? Yeah. Oh, thank God. I can respond. Yes, you can create bodies administratively. So if they're not legislatively created bodies, for instance, you have the Deferred Compensation Committee. That is all city employees with some investment advisors That is an administratively created body that is staffed by members of the union, by employees, because it's governing investment of our funds, right, our retirement funds. And so that is a body that has employees on it and is created administratively. So you could have bodies created administratively, which essentially would happen through the city manager's office, and you can create these bodies and employees can be can be on them. You just run into the problem if it is a legislatively created body or a body directed by counsel.

So I'll say that's my preferred route. And I think administrative bodies are great. Everybody doesn't have to be a Brown Act body. They might be appropriate for other things, and I think we've used them for other things. Anyway, that's my comment.

Thank you, Council Member Hicks. Vice Mayor Clark.

So I think I agree with you in principle, Council Member Hicks and Council Member McAllister. The reason that I'm okay with Council Member Showalter's change is that my goal here is to have the charter be, the charter should cover, it should be our constitution, it should cover the most basic fundamental things and everything else should be left to the council because the charter is very difficult to change and all sorts of other things like FPPC regulations and what constitutes, you know, Is someone getting $250 from the city? Are they treated the same as someone who's a full-time employee? I think that should be reserved for us in our judgment. And so I think what we could do is address the concerns around a paid employee being on a body. That can be a resolution that we pass that are rules that we have in place that we could put in place now and future councils would be know unless they make changes to it would have that as the default um i think putting i think having any sort of prohibition without any thresholds or anything like that on every single body that we create at the charter level i think the charter is the wrong level to set that at i think we need to be able to respect the principle that i think everyone is or especially Council Member McAllister and Hicks have articulated, but not tie our hands to the extent where we actually have to go to the voters and ask permission to make a change for something like, for a committee that we might wanna create at some point in the future that may very well need to have an employee or two from the city on there.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Clark. Council Member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate the Vice Mayor's comments, and I was going to say essentially the same thing, but sometimes it's helpful to think in terms of example. And the example I had been noodling over is, do we want to prevent a high school student who happens to be a compensated lifeguard, right, paid by the city, do we want to prevent that high school student from serving on the Youth Advisory Committee? really what we care about. You have to pick, you could only, you have to either be on the youth advisory committee or be a lifeguard. And I think that's the kind of example where it gets into exactly what the vice mayor is suggesting that by resolution or ordinance, as we establish these committees, you know, a city employee to also serve on this body. And I would imagine that's probably the case for most of the bodies that we create. But there are some, and I think the Youth Advisory Committee is a good example, where the conflict of interest is essentially nonexistent. And all we've done with this charter language is prevented that high school student who happens to be a lifeguard from serving on our Youth Advisory Committee. I reflect sometimes on the vote we took a few years ago, where it was a 4-3 vote. We decided to retain the Senior Advisory Committee. I supported dissolving it because I felt that it was appropriate to have that as a non-Brown Act body, that staff can assemble seniors in our community to solicit input. And I think they would have the flexibility to meet as they wanted, whenever they wanted. But a majority of the council disagreed with me and felt that it was appropriate for that to be a Brown Act body. I THINK THAT'S SOMETHING TO CONSIDER HERE, RIGHT? HOW MUCH DO WE WANT TO SHACKLE OUR BROWN ACT BODIES? SO COUNCILMEMBER HICKS AND COUNCILMEMBER MCALISTER I UNDERSTAND YOUR PHILOSOPHY AND I WOULD SUPPORT BY RESOLUTION OR ORDINANCE GENERALLY NOT PERMITTING CITY EMPLOYEES TO SERVE ON MOST OF THE LEGISLATIVE ESTABLISHED BODIES BUT THERE MIGHT BE SOME INSTANCES WHERE it is appropriate. And I think that, as the Vice Mayor suggested, that flexibility might be valuable for the Council to benefit from.

Thank you, Council Member Ramirez. Council Member McAllister.

So everybody's bringing up scenarios. So right now, we have an appointment committee of three people. And so would they be, even though it's supposed to be ratified by the city council, or does it have to be ratified by the city council of everybody that with those three members pointing someone to a body and saying, is there a situation where the three could do it without the whole consent of the council?

No, it requires four votes.

Okay.

If I could just jump in real quick, John, it would also require that the establishing resolutions provide that that can happen. And currently you don't have that in any of your resolutions.

Okay. What can happen with, okay, again, what can happen without a resolution?

So right now, none of your resolutions allow for paid city employees to serve on any of your committees.

Well, yeah, okay. So that goes back to when we've had the discussion years ago, it was, yes, there's exceptions to all these things. But I remember the discussions that we had on back then was, well, should we or shouldn't we? And the path sounds like we're going down again that there could be potential conflicts. Council Member Ramirez's scenario is also rare, but we do have other things. I appreciate everybody's input, but I still feel that the clear-cut case is usually a little easier to work with, so thank you.

Thank you, Council Member McAllister. Council Member Hicks.

So there are things I feel strongly about and won't vote for, but this is not one of them.

I will be supporting it no matter which way it goes.

But that said, is the Youth Advisory Commission currently a Brown Act group or not?

It currently is, but we have talked about making it not a Brown Act body.

For exactly the reason we're talking about the whole lifeguard thing.

That and also because they like, they've, wanted to have meetings outside of the city boundaries and are prohibited from doing that right now.

Okay, so thank you for the clarification.

All right, anyone else in the queue? Council Member McAllister, you still have your hand up?

Okay, I'll bifurcate that just to, or do you want to, I would like to support the whole motion, but except for the acceptance.

I'm not sure there's a technically feasible way to do that because we're placing the charter, we're placing all of this on the ballot.

City Attorney, any thoughts?

I THINK ONE THING TO CONSIDER, COUNCILMEMBER, IS TO JUST STATE IN THE PUBLIC RECORD YOUR GENERAL SUPPORT AND THEN WITH THE SPECIFIC OBJECTION AND THEN I THINK THAT'S VERY CLEAR FOR EVERYONE HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THE BALANCE OF THE AMENDMENTS.

I THINK THAT IS PROBABLY THE.

I WAS GOING TO SAY IN RESPECT TO COUNCILMEMBER RAMIREZ FOR HIS PERSISTENT AND ENCOURAGING TO GET THIS thing cleared up, I will go along with his suggestion.

All right.

Seeing the queue empty, let's do a roll call vote. Council Member Ramirez? Yes. Council Member Kamei? Yes. Council Member Hicks? Yes. Council Member McAllister?

Yes, and my gratitude to Council Member Ramirez for staying on top of this one.

Council Member Showalter? Yes. Vice Mayor Clark? Yes.

Mayor Ramos?

Yes. The motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much. And now we are on item eight, council staff and committee reports. Do we have any council staff and committee reports from any of my colleagues? Anyone? Council Member Kamei.

Great, sorry, sorry, Mayor. I think since the last time we met, we had the Lot 12 ribbon cutting, now known as CORSO. Yeah, we were all there. Well, it's item eight, so I'm just reporting, right? But I can, I don't know if I'm allowed to do it for all of us. I don't know, is that in the Charter Amendment, Lucas? And then I attended the Chinese Leadership Academy graduation,

Thank you. Council Member McAllister.

A couple of transportation deals. VTA is actually going to start working on the Wisman Station. It's taken a while after the CPUC approved it. Now they're going to give us a guideline to take care of some of the whistles and bells. So hopefully that will take those people. I also attended the VTA board meeting where they discussed some money for Mountain View and they also were talking about express lanes and SR 85. I know Chris is eager to jump on the 85 corridor committee again but they're thinking of trying to modify what was done about six years ago. So we'll have to keep tuned on what they're planning to do with that.

Thank you Council Member McAllister. Vice Mayor Clark.

I just wanted to note that I filled in for you Mayor while you were at the U.S. Conference of Mayors and I just wanted so I just wanted to we cut the ribbon at Lungo Thai which is at the Grant Road Shopping Center and it was great opportunity for me to scrape off some of the rust and I was so rusty that I wanted to apologize to my colleagues that I Cardinal rule number one when you're doing a ribbon cutting is to introduce your colleagues and I was so rusty that I failed to do that and our Chamber CEO had to do that right after me. So I'm sorry for my colleagues that I'm so rusty that I didn't do, I didn't follow rule number one but I have learned from that and I will try not to be so rusty in the future.

This is why it's vice mayor and then we build up again.

Council Member Showalter. Well, I attended a afternoon workshop at BCDC on sediment. You've heard me talk about sediment a lot. This was pretty exciting because we are putting forth policies about changes in the use of dredge material. This is just an important step in it becoming California law. The reason that's important is because for sea level rise protection, there's sort of three basic things we gotta do. We have to change our policies to allow the things that we need to build to protect us, like the restoration of Pond AW, we need to change those policies. We're working on that. And we need to have the building products to do it. And one of the major building projects, the building blocks, is just dirt. And where do we get that dirt? Well, we get a lot of it from dredging, and we get a lot of it from construction sites that instead of sending it to a landfill and paying for a tipping fee, they can take it to a construction site, which we did for Pond A2W, and we're doing it now. And then the third thing, of course, is we have to figure out how to pay for it. That's a whole other story. But then I wanted to end on a happy note, an exciting, fun note is I had the pleasure of being at the first concert on the green, I mean, a concert on the plaza that we do every Friday night during the sort of the long hours of the year. And so there will be music and dancing every Friday night from 6 to 7.30 p.m.

Thank you, Council Member Showalter. I've also went to the Lot 12 Affordable Housing Groundbreaking and the Chinese Language Civic Leadership Academy. On May 30th, I presented the Odd Fellows Lodge, their anniversary celebration with a little Commendation, they are celebrating, I believe, 150 years. You have the Springer Trees Neighborhood Association Ice Cream Social. That was on the 31st. And then the Monteloman Association Annual Meeting on January 3rd. And then I also went to the U.S. Conference of Mayors this past week, and it was an incredible experience. I'm really so... privileged to be a mayor. It's crazy. Every once in a while, I'm there, and I'm surrounded by all these mayors, and being like, am I really here? But thank you so much, there were really great panels, a lot of meeting other mayors, all different kinds of mayors, and it was really quite an experience. So with that, we are on item nine, the adjournment. The next city council meeting will be held on June 23rd, 2026. This meeting is adjourned at 9.45.