City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, everyone, we're gonna get started. It is now five o'clock. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our closed session. City Attorney Logue will make a closed session announcement, and then we will welcome public comment on the items listed for closed session.

Right, I'll just. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members, City Attorney Jennifer Logue. There are four items on this evening's closed session agenda. Item 2.1 is a meeting to consider appointment of a City Attorney pursuant to Government Code Section 54957B1. Item 2.2 is a conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9. The name of the case is San Francisco Baykeeper versus City of Mountain View and City of Sunnyvale. United States District Court case number 20CB00824. Item 2.3 is a conference with legal counsel regarding two items of anticipated litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9 . And item 2.4 is a meeting with legal counsel to discuss the initiation of litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9 . Thank you.

Thank you. Now, would any member of the public joining us virtually or in-person like to provide comment on the closed session items listed on tonight's agenda? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker will have a minute and 30 seconds. All right, we'll have Monica come up and then Brandon after that.

Hi, my name is Monica Teicher and I have been a resident of Mountain View for over 27 years. Thank you for making sure our city remains a community for all. I commend City Council for drafting the no staging policy and presenting it to you in such short time. I also want to congratulate City Attorney Jennifer Locke for her appointment to serve as a judge on the Contra Costa County Superior Court. I am speaking today to urge you to join the amicus brief with local jurisdictions throughout the Bay Area and Central Coast to support and strengthen the lawsuit filed jointly by Santa Clara County and AG Bonta to block the illegal development of the ICE facility near Gilroy. The amicus brief is being prepared by the County of Monterey with the Public Rights Project. They plan to file by the end of June, so you must act promptly. Hollister, San Jose, Palo Alto, Alameda, and the counties of Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Mateo have already signed on. If you're here in support of filing this amicus brief, please stand up. Adelanto and California City are concentration camps, prisons for profit run by corporations that ICE uses to shuffle and hide detainees to deprive them of their legal rights. We need to block what will most probably become an enforcement and removal operations office in our vicinity. ICE continues to violate human and constitutional rights and we should not allow them to do so in our county. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Brandon.

My name is Brandon. I've lived in Mountain View for more than 20 years. I'm here tonight to also comment on the proposed lawsuit against the Gilroy facility, and I'm asking the city to join the amicus brief. I'm here to comment because I've seen what ICE and the federal government are doing to our neighbors, and I don't like it. I don't know how to say this in a way that is not, it just doesn't sound like it hasn't happened to me, it's so crazy, but the same agency that shot a nurse in the face, or excuse me, a poet in the face, a nurse in the back, and left a five-year-old boy in the snow to act as bait to grab his mother, wants to open a concentration camp in Gilroy, a place I previously had known for its garlic ice cream. I'm glad that you passed the resolution recently to not help ICE with staging, and now I'm asking you to do more. As a citizen, I know what I'll be doing. I'm going to be there with my sign, and I'm thinking garlic, not gulags. But since you're our elected officials and I know you can do more, I'm here tonight to ask you to do more. Tonight, I'd just like to ask you to help our neighbors join this lawsuit. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now take virtual speakers and I am seeing none. So council will now recess to the plaza conference room for closed session and return to council chambers at the close to continue regular session.

Do I read this part? Okay.

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the joint meeting of the Mountain View City Council, Shoreline Regional Park, and City of Mountain View Capital Improvements Financing Authority of June 23rd, 2026. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. All right. 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. All right, the city clerk will take attendance by roll call.

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

Here.

Council Member Showalter? Here.

Vice Mayor Clark?

Here.

Mayor Ramos? Here. Yevacor? Thank you. In recent weeks, the city, along with a few of our neighboring elected decision-making bodies, have been subjected to disruptive, racist, verbal attacks by anonymous callers during virtual public comment. The City of Mountain View is fully committed to racial, religious, and cultural equity and justice as we strive to create a welcoming, safe, and 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 comment period. I will also say in advance that all public speaking comment periods tonight will be limited to 90 seconds or one minute and 30 seconds. So now we will move on to item two, closed session report. City Attorney Logue, do you have a closed session report?

Yes, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. In closed session this evening, the City Council took final action on item 2.4 on the closed session agenda, which was a conference with legal counsel pursuant to government code section 54956D4 regarding the initiation of litigation. Council voted with four ayes, zero nos, and two abstentions by Vice Mayor Clark and Council Member McAllister. to authorize the city to join a legal brief with other Bay Area local governments supporting a request for a court order to halt construction of a proposed U.S. immigration and custom enforcement detention facility in Gilroy.

Thank you, City Attorney. I do believe it was Five Eyes.

I apologize, that's right, it was five ayes.

Thank you. All right, we will now move on to item three. Please note, 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 have item 3.1, National Immigrant Heritage Month Proclamation. We are happy to be joined this evening by Maria Marroquin, Executive Director of the Day Workers Center to accept this proclamation. Maria, would you join me at the lectern? All right, so the proclamation reads, Immigrant Heritage Month provides an opportunity to celebrate our origins as a society built on the strength and diversity of immigrants from every corner of the globe and whereas generations of immigrants have courageously left their homes, lives and loved ones in search of refuge, opportunity and freedom in the United States, driving our economic innovation and enriching our cultural fabric. and whereas immigrants continue to build businesses, strengthen our workforce, and create jobs significantly contributing to the vitality and success of our community, and whereas this month allows us to celebrate this rich diversity, reflect on the essential contributions of newcomers, and reaffirm our commitment to creating a welcoming, inclusive, and equitable environment for all residents, and Now, therefore, I, Emily Ann Ramos, Mayor of the City of Mountain View, the best city, along with my colleagues on the City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of June as Immigrant Heritage Month in Mountain View, and I encourage all residents to celebrate their diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contributions that make our community a vibrant place to live. Miss Maria, would you like to say a few words?

most definitely good evening madam mayor and members of the council thank you for this proclamation receiving this recognition during national immigrant heritage month is a profound honor but not just for me but for the entire community i stand here representing The heritage we celebrate today is not just about the traditions we bring or the hard work we perform. It is about resiliency. It's about the courage of who came before us, who sacrificed everything to build a foundation so that we could stand here today. But heritage is not just a gift for the past. It's a moral responsibility for the present. Do you remember the moral responsibility from Juan Lopez?

I know you do.

As you move into today's agenda, you will have the power to make decisions that directly impact the stability and prosperity of our community's most vulnerable members, those who are too often overlooked, but yet form the very backbone of Mountain View. We honor our way history not only with words on paper, but with a legacy we leave for those who will come next. Through leadership means ensuring that the doors and opportunity and stability remain open and secure. Therefore, I urge you, Council, to honor our shared history by making choices tonight that protect, lift up, and guarantee the dignity of our community. Let's build a legacy that we all can be proud of. Thank you so much.

And we have the proclamation right here. We're going to take a picture with the council. All right, we have lots of proclamations, lots of things to celebrate this evening. So item 3.2 is the 100th anniversary of the Kiwanis Club, a Mountain View proclamation. Yay! We are happy to be joined this evening by Marina Marinovich, the Foundation's Grants Committee Chair with the Kiwanis Club of Mountain View to accept this proclamation. Ms. Marina, will you join me at the lecture? All right, so you can be right here. It's better for the pictures. All right, so the proclamation reads, whereas the Kiwanis Club of Mountain View was officially chartered on March 15th, 1926, beginning a century of service dedicated to improving the lives of children and strengthening the Mountain View community, and whereas the Kiwanis Club of Mountain View is part of Kiwanis International, a worldwide organization of volunteers committed to improving the world one child and one community at a time, and whereas for nearly 100 years, members of the Kiwanis Club of Mountain View have volunteered their time, leadership and resources to support youth programs, local nonprofits, educational initiatives and community projects benefiting the residents of Mountain View and neighboring communities and Whereas through the Kiwanis Foundation of Mountain View, the club has provided significant grants and financial support to dozens of local organizations each year, helping expand programs that serve children's families and those in need. And whereas members of the Kiwanis Club of Mountain View have actively supported community engagement through events, partnership, and volunteer service, including youth leadership development, and programs that encourage civic participation and community pride, and whereas the Kiwanis Club of Mountain View continues to bring together civic-minded volunteers dedicated to improving the community and creating opportunities for future generations through service, leadership, and fellowship, now therefore I, Emily Ann Ramos, Mayor of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the City Council, You hereby proclaim Kiwanis Club of Mountain View Centennial Day in recognition of 100 years of service and commitment to the Mountain View community. We extend sincere appreciation to all past and present members for their lasting contributions to the well-being of the city and its residents. now before i ask you to say a few words i'll use this opportunity for our mayor's call to service call to community and call to action so as you take this mic please let people know how can people join and support the kiwanis club

Thank you so much, Emily. I'm gonna call a couple of different members up for this. Didi is our president here. First of all, thank you so much City of Mountain View and everybody that served. We've all been to the Harvest History Festival and the City of Mountain View's helped so much collaborating with that. And anyway, come up Didi and thank you. Okay, just say a few words.

Hello and welcome. The Kiwanis Club of Mountain View is, as I said, a group of volunteers. We have been in service now for 100 years here. Kiwanis International is our, I don't know what you'd call it, like... umbrella group thank you and that has been in service now for a hundred and ten years and Kiwanis is in over 80 countries around the world and we do quite a bit of different things I'm sorry I'm not prepared But if you would like to join us, we would love to have more members. You can contact either myself or Marina. And we have a website, so you can go to that and find out. KiwanisMountainview.org, yes. And we will be having a lunch meeting this coming Friday. If anybody's interested and you'd like to join us, it will be held at restaurant Don Giovanni's at noon here in Mountain View on Castro Street.

First lunch is on us.

Yes. So if you're interested in joining, we will buy your first lunch there. It's very good. So please come out.

Okay. Robert. Our vice president, yes.

I'm the vice president of the local chapter and I'm just here to tell you about our century of service here in Mountain View and our big celebration that's coming up. The Kiwanis Club of Mountain View is proud to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2026. Since 1926, local Kiwanis volunteers have worked quietly behind the scenes to strengthen our community through scholarships, grants, youth leadership programs, service projects, and support our local nonprofits. Over the years, we have given away more than $4 million to the community through these efforts. To commemorate this historic milestone, the club will host its 100th anniversary gala on Saturday, August 8, 2026, at Don Giovanni's in Mountain View. We especially would love to hear from and celebrate with individuals and organizations that have been touched by Kiwanis over the years. If your school, nonprofit, family, child, or community group has benefited from a Kiwanis grant, scholarship, program, or volunteer effort, we warmly invite you and the entire Mountain View community to join us. This will be an evening of community, memories, and appreciation for the generations of volunteers who have helped make Mountain View a better place. and there will be a live band featuring Marina and her band, and her husband, Jeff. Okay, we will only be selling 100 tickets, so early reservations are encouraged. We hope to celebrate with many of our neighbors and community partners who have been part of our remarkable 100-year journey. Thank you, and we look forward to your attendance.

Okay, come on.

We got other Kiwanis here.

You call them Kiwanis or like Kiwanis? Kiwanis. Kiwanis. All right, are we centered?

Are we balanced? Sorry, we're a short council.

Thank you so much.

All right, now we're at our final proclamation of the night. It's item 3.3, proclamation honoring City Attorney Jennifer Logue's appointment to the judiciary. We are happy to be joined this evening by City Attorney Jennifer Logue to accept this proclamation. City Attorney Logue, would you join me at the lectern? All right, the proclamation reads, whereas City Attorney Jennifer N. Logue has been appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to the Contra Costa County Superior Court and will conclude her service to the City of Mountain View on July 3rd, 2026, and whereas Jennifer has served the city of Mountain View for four and a half years as city attorney, and whereas Jennifer earned her Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center, and whereas Jennifer has dedicated her legal career to public service, and Jennifer strengthened the city attorney's office by building an experienced team of legal professionals by incorporating new technology and best practices into the city attorney's office, and Whereas Jennifer has assisted the City in navigating complex legal issues with a calm demeanor, sharp intellect, and unwavering commitment to the City of Mountain View and its residents, and whereas Jennifer possesses the rare combination of intellectual proudness and compassion that makes her uniquely qualified both as a Mountain View City Attorney and as a judge, And whereas City Attorney Logue leaves a lasting legacy and impact on the City of Mountain View and will always be appreciated by the City Council Executive Team and City Attorney's Office, now, therefore, I, Emily Ann Ramos, Mayor of the City of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the City Council, do hereby express gratitude and appreciation to Jennifer N. Logue for her exceptional expertise. Exceptional leadership, service and dedication to the residents of Mountain View. City Attorney Logue, would you like to say a few words?

Yes, please. I wrote this down so I didn't forget or get nervous or cry or get overwhelmed. Thank you Mayor and Council Members for this incredibly meaningful proclamation. I am deeply honored to have been selected to serve as City Attorney for the City of Mountain View. Serving this community has been one of the greatest privileges of my career, and I have truly enjoyed the opportunity to work on behalf of the City, its residents, and its elected and appointed leaders. As I prepare to begin my new role, I am overwhelmed by the many warm wishes, kind words, and expressions of support I have received regarding my judicial appointment. They mean more to me than I can adequately express in words. I also know that whatever success I have had during my time here was only possible because of the remarkable people with whom I have had the privilege to serve and work with. I am especially grateful to my fellow appointees and city colleagues whose partnership, dedication, and friendship have made this work both rewarding and enjoyable. While I have been fortunate to work on many complex, challenging and interesting matters during my tenure, I believe my greatest achievement has been helping to build a strong and talented legal team. I am confident that this team will continue to provide the city with outstanding legal representation and the support it deserves for many years to come. Leaving Mountain View is truly bittersweet. Although I'm excited for the opportunity to serve the public in a new capacity, I will greatly miss the many people who have made my time here so meaningful. And there are many of you that I will not forget ever. Alex, I'm talking to you. Thank you again for this honor and for allowing me the privilege of serving as your city attorney.

All righty. So would any member of the council like to say a few words? Council Member Hicks.

Well, I'll keep it short and sweet and just say to City Attorney Lowe, well deserved.

Thank you, Council Member Hicks. Council Member Kamei.

Great. Thanks, Mayor. I love all of our proclamations because I think it shows how we're a community for all. We're a community of immigrants. We're a community of community servants and soon to be judges. It's very exciting. Congratulations, most especially to City Attorney Logue. It's hard to believe that half of our time has been together for some of us. and it's been so wonderful to work with you. I'm happy that you know me and in case anything ever comes up, I don't wanna be on any side of that, but the hardest working person, the court is lucky to have you. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Kimme. Council Member McAllister.

Here's a phrase that you'll probably enjoy for the rest of your life. Here come the judge. Here comes the judge. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member McAllister. Council Member Showalter.

It's been a pleasure to work with you. I've really enjoyed all those explanations you've given me over the years. So thanks very much. We'll miss you.

Thank you, Council Member Showalter. City Manager Kimber McCarthy. Thank you, Mayor.

So many of you may know and council will know that when we have one of our executive team members or department head or someone who's been with the city a very long time retire, they get the privilege of having their very own official street name sign. And we felt that even though this is not an official retirement, that you certainly have earned the right to have your own official street sign. So I just wanna thank you on behalf of the whole organization, thank you for your partnership, for all of your hard work, unwavering dedication to all of the residents, to the organization. It's just been a pleasure working with you. I'll tell everyone when I talked to one of the folks that was vetting you and they asked what I thought you would be like as a judge, and I just said that this role was suited for you. You know, your temperament, your commitment to fairness, to rigorous research of the law and making sure that you're applying it in a way that is fair to all and also with compassion and empathy, you're gonna be absolutely fabulous. And let's hope none of us have traffic tickets in Contra Costa County or do anything else. So without further ado, I wanna congratulate you and present you with your sign. And you do have to open it in front of everyone because it's very fitting.

if I may say this is going up in chambers for sure.

Our staff are so clever. All right, Vice Mayor Clark.

Just to briefly say what a pleasure it's been to work with you and when I was filling out the, I received a similar feedback form when we found out that you were up for the appointment. It was really, really hard to fill that out knowing that it was basically ensuring that you were going to move on to bigger and better things, but we were really gonna miss, but then it hits you that what a feather in our cap to have someone who not only has worked so hard for the residents of Mountain View, not just for us, but for all the residents of Mountain View to be in a branch of government judiciary where I think you're just incredibly well suited because of all the characteristics that our city manager articulated. You're gonna do an incredible job and we're so proud of, we'll be able to say we knew you when. So thank you so much for all you've done and good luck.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Clark.

Any other comments?

We are good. Congratulations again, City Attorney Logue. All right, 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 a blue speaker card up to the city clerk we will take in-person speakers first each speaker will have 90 seconds um or one and a half minutes All right, we will take our only speaker in person, Alex Brown.

Your honor and may it please the council, congratulations. Thanks.

All right, thank you. We will now take virtual speakers. Seeing none, this ends our presentation items. We will now move on to item four, consent calendar. So 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 the approval of the balance of the consent calendar. If you would like to speak on these items or the next items, oral communication on non-agenda items in person, please submit a speaker card, a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. Would any member of the Council like to pull an item? Okay. It's a very large consent calendar, y'all. Council Member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. Sorry, I have to pull 4.14.

Why do you do this to us? 4.14? Yes. Council Member Showalter.

Well, I'm not gonna pull an item, but as is my custom, I do go over the consent calendar very carefully, and there were a mere 34 items this time, so I felt the need to make a chart, and I divided that chart into eight categories, which I'm gonna share with you. So, clerk, can you open it up? And there are a few that I thought were particularly meaningful, so I made them red. Anyway, every year at the last session before we go into summer, there is just a plethora of consent calendar items. And that's because the city staff needs to get things finished and they need to get approval for all of the contracts that they may want to carry out during the summer. So we expect to have a lot. Last year, I think the most I have ever seen before is 28. So this is a new record. Okay, next, this also means that the city staff and your city is doing a lot of work. So the first category I made was ballot issues and policy changes. And there are five of those. And I think in particular, the one that's probably of most interest to people is to prohibit the use of city property for federal civil immigration enforcement activities. But there are other ones that are, for instance, I think the last one, 416, Mountain View Employee Home Buyer Assistance, that's an idea to allow employees to get loans to help them live closer. And that's for our retention program. Okay, next one is housing. We all care a lot about housing, we've been We've been recognized as a pro-housing city, but this is the largest affordable housing grant that we've gotten. The total award from this program, which is for affordable housing in sustainable communities, is $50 million, and 35 million of it is for the Evelyn Avenue Affordable Housing Project. and then 14 million is for sustainable transportation. That's pretty amazing. Then we go on to budget. This is the final meeting of the session, and we will approve the budget later on, but there are some separate budget items. Then public works. Public works took two screens. Lots of nine consent calendar items. The urban water management plan, which is an important regulatory requirement. We do every five years. And just all sorts of other things that we have to do to keep our infrastructure in good working order. So the next one. Next one, so some more thing, building plan checks. One of the things that we do is inspect things and check plans and make sure that what we build in Mountain View is safe. And also, we have to do things like keep up with keeping our sewer mains repaired. Not necessarily sexy work, but very, very important. Next, transportation. We all care a great deal about transportation. In particular, we talk about the importance of repaving our streets, having active transportation, all that sort of thing. So $14 million of this grant that was, the 50 million grant goes to sustainable transportation. We also every year get a report on the North Bay Shore trip cap, and we're well within those thresholds. Next category is sustainability and climate change protection. We do a lot of work on sustainability and climate change protection. We don't just plan, we actually do it. And so the last three items on this are literally things that are related to our sea level rise protection program. And we completed the construction on Pond A2W. I hope most of you have gone out there and enjoyed the area and the new trail that's there. Next slide. Everybody in Mountain View seems to love parks, and we don't think we have enough of them. Well, now we're getting two more, and that is really something to celebrate. One of them is the purchase of property of 2.4 acres on San Rafael Avenue in the Terra Bella area. And this is an area that's park deficient, but at the same time, we're expecting to build some more housing there. So there'll be more need for parks. So this is great news that we were able to purchase these properties. And for those of you who live in the area, you might wanna think about taking part in the design of the park, which the Parks and Rec Department will be initiating shortly. and then this is one uh the back back yeah the other one i think is is cause for a great deal of celebration is the city has made arrangements with google to lease a facility on clyde avenue to make a new pickleball facility And that is pickleball has been something that this community has been tossing around for three or four years about where we should do it. So we've come upon this, this facility has been identified and we should have room for, I believe it's 12 or 20 pickleball, up to 12 pickleball facilities. which should be great fun. And I couldn't resist saying, Pickleball pickle resolved. Okay, so then the last one is just administrative things. There are always administrative things, the minutes, the youth advisory committee appointments. We always have to advertise for legal things, and this is the first, this land management assessment advisory service item, that is the first consent calendar item of our new IT director, Michael Senor. So with that, I think that's more than enough. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Showalter.

Council Member Hicks. So I'm not gonna, I am not gonna pull anything. I do want to make a comment on 4.27. So Mayor, just tell me when you would like me to do that. We could do that after public comment.

Okay.

All right. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide 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 90 seconds. So our first speaker is Alexander Amoroso.

Evening, Madam Mayor. Evening, Council. So I only really had a couple of thoughts regarding items 4.7, 4.8, and 4.13. So in regards to 4.7, I very much enjoyed the Strategic Energy Innovations and Climate Corps strategies to those ends and even with representative or sorry council member uh shelter said about again this being a sustainable um city let's keep going that direction and i would actually suggest when plans are made on these items let's look towards uh regenerative agriculture because we have the gardens for it we have the local um the local uh farmers market folks to work with, and let's keep rolling in that direction. Now a couple concerns I would say for 4.8 is when we're looking for plans for development towards these parking structures and these parking areas, there has been some constraints over where folks are going to park in places like the spot in front of 24-hour gym. So maybe we can work on possibly, helping folks find better parking in that sense. And also when it comes to the Mountain View GO, missing the mark on that contractor's deadline. Let's see what we can do proactively to prevent that from happening in the future. Thank you.

Thank you. Seeing no other in-person, oh, we have an in-person, Ms. Joan.

Hello. I live at Sunset Estates, a mobile home park for seniors on Sylvan Avenue. We always are uneasy about our stability since we own our homes, but we just rent the space that they sit on. What are we gonna do if Mountain View one day allows our spaces to be sold from under us? So on page 18 of the COAP, the Community Ownership Action Plan, that is included in.

Ms. Jones, this is the wrong item. That item is item six point.

I don't know.

7.1.

Well, we're only on the very first one.

We're still on consent calendar.

Okay, I will come back then.

No problem, thank you, Ms. Joan. Now we will take virtual speakers and we have one online, Bruce England.

Thanks, Mayor. This will be really quick. I just wanted to call out the item 415, which Pat already brought up, prohibition on the use of city property for federal civil immigration enforcement activities. It might be a no-brainer to approve that, but I just want to at least voice one person's support for your approving that. Thanks.

Thank you so much. We will now bring the item back. Oh, here we go. We will now bring this back for council action and note a motion to approve the consent calendar should also include reading the title of the ordinance and resolutions attached to consent calendar items 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.8, through 4.18, not including item 4.14 and 4.22. Please note that the adoption of items 4.4 reflect the updated policy text attached to the council Q&A document and posted online. I see a motion by Council Member Ramirez, seconded by Council Member Kamei, and I will let you be a masochist. Oh, Councilmember Hicks, go ahead and have your comment.

Thank you, Mayor. So I just wanted to bring I wanted to thank first councilmember show Walter for bringing some of the among these 30 some Consent items there were some that were I think Really notable and that members of the community have been very interested in or would be including the the large 50 million dollar grant and the two parks I was just going to bring, I will be voting for this motion and accepting everything including 4.27. But I wanted, which is the North Bay Shore trip cap monitoring where we count how everybody is going into North Bay Shore. I did, however, want to bring up, I wanted to bring that to people's attention as well, because since 2015, transit use is down by half, biking is down by two-thirds, carpooling is down by one-quarter, and single occupancy vehicle cars are up, use is up by one-third. So at the same time, there's a lot of change going on in the transportation arena, you know, positive things like micromobility, electric cars. There's also automatic vehicles which you may deem positive or not positive. So, and also I believe that our Stevens Creek Trail use is way up, so I just wanted to bring the TRIPCAP, not continue to ignore, I mean I'm sure you're all reading it, but not ignore the TRIPCAP monitoring. I think it's really time for some creative thinking around this to turn those numbers around. You know, I think that we should incorporate that into future agenda items. And with that, I'm ready to vote.

All right, and that brings us to Council Member Ramirez. Take it away.

Thank you, Mayor. I have to read a short Steinbeck novel, so if you have to use the restroom, that's a chance. I move to approve the balance of the consent calendar, including item 4.2, adopt an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Mountain View amending Chapter 2, Article 8 of the Mountain View City Code to add Section 2.86.25 governing the selection of arguments for city ballot measures and to make other clarifying modifications to be read in title only. Further reading waived. Item 4.3, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View establishing the fiscal year 2026 to 27 appropriations limit 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 modifying City Council policy A-11, financial and budgetary policy 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 adopting the City of Mountain View 2025 Urban Water Management Plan to be read in title only further reading waived and adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View adopting the City of Mountain View Water Shortage Contingency Plan 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, adopting the recommended fiscal year 2025 to 27, sorry, 2026 to 27 capital improvement program, including all amendments to existing projects, excluding the shoreline and regional park community to be read in title only. Further reading waived. and adopt a resolution of the Board of Directors of the Shoreline Regional Park Community adopting the recommended fiscal year 26 to 27 capital improvement program for the Mountain View Shoreline Regional Park Community, including amendments to existing projects to be read in title only, further reading waived. Item 4.8, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View authorizing temporary closure from public access to parking lot number 11 for a minimum of 66 consecutive months beginning October 2026 to be read in title only, further reading waived. Item 4.9, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View authorizing the city manager or designee to amend the professional services agreement with optany uh incorporated to increase compensation by 32 950 dollars for technical and financial advisory support services for municipal solar and battery storage projects for a total not to exceed amount of 285 950 dollars to be read in title only further reading waived Item 410, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View finding that the action taken and activities approved herein are not projects subject to California Environmental Quality Act procedures and authorizing the city manager or their designee to, one, enter into a memorandum of agreement with the Resilient Facilities Coalition, or RFC, a multi-organization coalition for climate and community resilience projects, and two, apply for grant funds available under California Proposition 4 and related programs in an amount estimated to be a maximum of $35 million, including as a lead or partner agency for a not to exceed amount of $285,950 to be read in title only, further reading waived. 411, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View declaring that the city is authorized to accept and incur an obligation of the affordable housing and sustainable communities grant funds and enter into and execute standard agreements 213 with the California Department of Housing and Community Development for a total not to exceed amount of $285,950 to be read in title only further reading waived. For 12, adopt a resolution of intention of the City Council of the City of Mountain View to vacate the public street and street easement known as Gamma Way in its entirety to be read in title only, further reading waived, and set a date for a public hearing to consider the vacation for September 8th, 2026. 413, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View authorizing the Public Works Director to execute program supplement number F027 to administering agency state agreement for federal aid projects number 04-5124F15 with the California Department of Transportation for the City of Mountain View Transit Center Mobility Hub Pilot Project 23-27. to be read in title only, further reading waived. 4.15, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View adopting Council Policy A-24 prohibiting the use of city property for civil immigration enforcement activities to be read in title only, further reading waived. 4.16 adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of mountain view amending city council policy d-13 mountain view employee home buyer and relocation assistance program to be read in title only further reading waived 417 adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of mountain view appointing 15 members and nine members at large slash alternates to the youth advisory committee for the 26 27 school year term to be read in title only further reading waived 418, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View authorizing the acceptance and appropriation of a cannabis tax fund grant from the State of California in an amount up to $498,397.20, a contingent upon award and receipt of the grant funds to help reduce and mitigate the impacts of impaired driving in Mountain View and authorizing the city manager or designee to take all steps necessary to receive the grant funds to be read in title, only further reading waived. And 422, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View. One, approving a special event permit and sound amplification permit for the Oktoberfest special event subject to conditions. Two, approving the closure of certain public streets in the downtown area on Saturday, October 10th, 2026 2 30 a.m through sunday october 11 2026 at 10 p.m for the october octoberfest special event pursuant to california vehicle code section 21101e and three delegating authority to the community services director for future octoberfest events to be read in title only further reading waived and i think i forgot to include the staff recommendation for item 4.4 this is council policy a-11 financial and budgetary policy to include that last underlying sentence under 4g the use of proceeds from the sale of excess city-owned properties shall fund this reserve as directed by the city council thank you council member ramirez i hope people record that for their own asmr um

All right, and it was seconded by Council Member Kamei. We are ready for a vote for the balance of the consent calendar. The balance of the consent calendar has passed unanimously. We will now move on to item 4.14, which was pulled by Council Member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor, and I'd like to remind the public that the Charter requires us to read all of these things. So if you don't like that, do something about it in November. So item 4.14 is Council Policy A-13B, Governing Community Engagement in Public Meetings. I was conferring with the City Manager in a city attorney earlier. I think there needs to be a little bit more time to review the language and the policy, so I will request that we defer consideration until September. I think that was, okay, that would be the motion.

We have a motion by Council Member Ramirez, seconded by Council Member Showalter. Let's take it to a vote. Motion passes unanimously. We have now completed our consent calendar. Thank you so much, everyone. 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 Council's subject matter jurisdiction for up to three minutes during this section. State law prohibits the council from acting on non-agenda 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. Spanish translation services are available for this item. We will hear from our interpreter.

Buenas noches. Para las personas que necesitan interpretación en persona, tenemos auriculares disponibles. Hoy ofrecemos interpretación en persona y de manera virtual. Para aquellos que necesitan interpretación mediante Zoom, favor de hacer click en el botón de interpretación y después elige el idioma de su preferencia. Thank you.

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 90 seconds or one and a half minutes. So we have our first speaker. I'm gonna start listing them all so you can go run right after the other. So Eric Poikon is our first speaker, then Debra Tabaloff, Jiangin Sun, and Elizabeth O'Grady. So Eric, please make your way up to the podium.

Good evening, Mayor Ramos, Vice Mayor Clark, and council members. My name is Eric Boycon. I'm a member of the HRC and part of the Rapid Response Network here as myself, along with IPEN and many community leaders. First, I want to thank Council Member Kamei for leading the No Enforcement Zone conversation. It has meant a great deal for our impacted community members, and it's the kind of leadership we need right now. Many others and I are glad to see this policy passed onto tonight's consent calendar, keeping the city property off limits for immigration enforcement, protecting our neighbors and our city employees, and we're grateful the council took this step. If anyone in the audience who supports this work could stand with me for a moment. And there's so many more who couldn't be here tonight, but emailed you to say the same thing. We all stand with you in these decisions. We are also here to thank Council in joining the amicus brief, supporting the lawsuit from Santa Clara County and the Attorney General to stop the ICE facility near Gilroy. This one matters. It's not one of a symbolic gesture. It adds real legal weight to a case that could keep the facility from ever opening. And it tells people in our community something they need to hear that mouth view isn't going to stay quiet while families in this region are under threat. When the city signs onto that brief, immigrant families here know the city is standing with them. As many already know, our community is living in fear of losing their families. With facilities proposed in both Gilroy and Dublin, that fear is going to grow in Mountain View whether we want to or not. Cities and counties across the region are...

Thank you, Eric. All right, next we have Deborah, followed by JE, and then followed by Elizabeth O'Grady. Deborah? Okay, we'll go back to you, Deborah. Geogen or J.E. Sun? Oh.

So do I have like three minutes or like one and a half?

You have 90 seconds. Okay.

Hello, I'm here to talk about a problem in Gemini Avenue that keeps getting worse. Gemini Avenue is one of the roads where the oversized vehicles are allowed to park, but still 72-hour parking rule applies, which meaning they are not allowed to park in the same spot more than 72 hours. But this is not the reality. RVs are sitting in the same spot for over a month. So last week, there is an RV parked directly in front of my own front door. It was so close I could almost touch it. So it took like more than five days to move. So this morning when I was leaving my house for work, another RV parked right in front of my neighbor's house as well. I have lived here for two years, but it keeps getting worse. Here's what enforcement looks like. They come to check the tires. once or twice a week, but the RVs don't move. I've talked to the officer in charge myself, but after more than a month, the city finally posted a towing warning. I was told from the officer, it's the first observation of violence after a month. So this is the happening on Gemini Avenue. Gemini Avenue is a quiet street of family homes. It's a 100% pure residential area. How did it end up like this? And why is the city not just failing to enforce its own rule, but actually adding more RV parking spots, making rooms for RV dwellers, not listening to the residents who actually live here, who own these homes, rent these homes, and pay taxes here? I know a lot of this comes from the Navarro settlement, which is set to expire in early 2027, but will it really end?

Thank you so much for your time. Next we have Elizabeth O'Grady and then we'll bring it back to Deborah if she is still there. Elizabeth? Is Deborah here? Okay, what we'll do is that we'll move on to our virtual speakers. And then from there, we'll try back to Elizabeth and Deborah. So our first virtual speaker is Bruce.

Thanks again, Mayor. Bruce England, Wiseman Station Drive. Very quickly, just want to voice my support for Eric's points that he made earlier in person.

Thank you. We're gonna circle back to our in-person speakers, Elizabeth and Deborah. Are you here? If not, we're going to have to move on to item six. Oh wait, we have. Jason, feel free to, you'll have 90 seconds.

Yes, thank you very much, Mayor and Council Members. I just wanted to say that I live near, in Sunset Estates Mobile Home Park, near the new Evelyn Park that was made. It's a wonderful park, but I mentioned earlier too, there is no parking. So no parking for people to visit. The park is surrounded by a private residential building and there is no parking whatsoever. And also when cars unload, they block the bicycle lane, which I've also mentioned a couple of times. So I really wish you would consider doing what Sunnyvale has done, make that road a one lane road at the part and to be able to allow temporary parking for people who visit the park and for vehicle loading and unloading when trucks come to move people in and out of the facility. Thank you.

Thank you. That ends our oral communication on non-agenda items. We will now move to item six, 6.1, the Biodiversity and Urban Forest Plan Adoption. Assistant Community Service Director, Brenda Sylvia, and Senior Management Analyst, Lindsay Wong, 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. And we are ready for your staff report.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. My name is Brenda Sylvia, Assistant Community Services Director and Project Lead for the Biodiversity and Urban Forest Plan. I'm joined this evening by Lindsey Wong, Senior Management Analyst, John Marchant, Community Services Director, and Russell Hansen, Urban Forestry Manager. Also joining us virtually this evening are Selena Pang, Environmental Scientist, and Sasha Heath, Senior Ecological Scientist, both with the San Francisco Estuary Institute, SFVI, which supported the development of the plan. Tonight, staff is bringing the updated draft plan forward for council adoption following the April study session and subsequent refinements. The Biodiversity and Urban Forest Plan updates and expands the city's 2015 Community Tree Master Plan into a larger and broader, more integrated framework. The plan focuses on biodiversity, urban forestry, habitat connectivity, climate resilience, and community well-being. It is intended to serve as a long-term policy and implementation framework to help guide future city projects, programs, investments, and decision-making. The plan also supports the city's broader sustainability and resilience goals while helping foster a healthier, more connected, and climate-ready urban environment. The plan was developed in partnership with SFEI and a cross-departmental city and project team through a multi-year planning process. The process included technical analysis, interdepartmental collaboration, and review by both the Parks and Recreation Commission and Environmental Planning Commission, as well as City Council review at the April 2026 study session. The project also included extensive public outreach and engagement through community workshops, multilingual engagement opportunities, pop-up events, surveys, a stakeholder meeting, and neighborhood-based activities. On April 28th, 2026, City Council held a study session to review the draft biodiversity and urban forest plan and provide feedback and direction. Council expressed overall support for the plan and gave input related to implementation accountability and staffing, adaptive management reporting, integration of plan concepts into city projects and green infrastructure efforts, expanded native planting where feasible, and support for partnerships, volunteerism, and community-based implementation. Council also directed staff to consider input from community partners and stakeholder organizations and emphasize that the plan should serve as a foundational city policy document to guide future projects, programs, and investments. In response to Council feedback and additional stakeholder input, staff and SFEI refined the plan for ease of review. Updates made to the draft plan are highlighted in yellow throughout the attached document. In response to council feedback, the implementation framework was strengthened to support long-term coordination, accountability, monitoring, and adaptive management. The updated plan identifies a designated staff lead to oversee the city implementation team and coordinate plan efforts across departments. Annual reporting was also expanded beyond the Parks and Recreation Commission to include city council and the public, along with additional community-facing engagement opportunities. The adaptive management approach was further reinforced to support adjustments and responsiveness to evolving funding opportunities, scientific knowledge, community priorities, and lessons learned over time. The revised plan further clarifies its role as a foundational city policy document intended to guide future projects, programs, investments, and decision making. Updates also support incorporating plan concepts into future objective standards, roadway design approaches, and green infrastructure strategies where feasible and appropriate. The plan also recognizes opportunities to incorporate greening, urban forest, and green infrastructure improvements into future capital improvement program projects and broader infrastructure investments over time. Overall, these refinements are intended to support long-term coordination and alignment across departments. Revised language places additional emphasis on the use of native and regionally appropriate species, including refining definitions to better clarify ecological compatibility and regional applicability while continuing to balance site conditions, maintenance considerations, species diversity, and long-term resilience. Refinements also underscore the protection and retention of mature trees, habitat features, and ecological resources alongside future enhancement efforts. You may recall the discussion of the term near native during the adoption of the Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan. Staff subsequently updated the Biodiversity and Urban Forest Plan in response to that direction. After receiving additional public input following publication of the council agenda materials and draft plan, staff is recommending several refinements to the definition section to improve clarity and better distinguish native species. We will discuss those refinements shortly. Overall, these updates are intended to support a healthier, more resilient, and ecologically connected urban environment over the long term. The updated plan strengthens language, recognizing the important role that community partnerships and volunteer efforts can play in supporting implementation and stewardship throughout the city. As implementation moves forward, staff will explore funding opportunities to support these collaborations and stewardship efforts. The revised language also acknowledges opportunities for community science and biodiversity monitoring efforts, including the use of publicly contributed ecological data where appropriate. Staff also considered and incorporated select recommendations from community partners and stakeholder organizations, excuse me, that were received during the study session process. Following publication of the council agenda materials and draft plan, staff received additional public input and is recommending the following refinements for council consideration as part of the adoption action. We removed the definitions of near-native species and non-native species from the native species category. We added the term biodiversity anchors, as defined in the Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan, to the native species section. And we replaced the term near-native species with functional species. to better describe species that provide biodiversity benefits. This slide shows the specific updates made to the definition section. Native species are now defined by a given species status as being native to or having a long evolutionary history within a specific locale. Native species can contribute to biodiversity anchors defined in the Mountain View Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan supporting ecological relationships and functions in native ecosystems. Functional species are not included in the native species category, and are defined by species that are not regionally native, but are native to a nearby ecologically similar region. Functional species as defined in this plan, particularly those closely related to regionally native species, can be selected for planting to provide specific desired functions, such as climate resilience, pest resistance, urban compatibility, or native biodiversity support. These revisions clarify terminology, incorporate the concept of biodiversity anchors, and more clearly distinguish native species. Staff believes these changes improve clarity and consistency while maintaining the intent of the plan. Following plan adoption, staff will establish the city implementation team to support long-term cross-departmental coordination Early efforts will focus on advancing actions identified as in progress and upon plan adoption while continuing to incorporate plan concepts into ongoing city projects, programs, and initiatives. Staff will also begin developing baseline metrics, monitoring approaches, and reporting procedures to track progress and support adaptive management. addition council will also consider a cip funding request this evening to support the development of a web-based tree selector tool in partnership with sfei the tool is identified in the plan as an early implementation action and will support future city projects development review and community tree planting and educational efforts in summary the biodiversity and urban forest plan establishes a comprehensive long-term framework to guide biodiversity, tree and habitat preservation and enhancement, and climate resilience efforts throughout Mountain View. The plan supports coordinated implementation across city departments, projects, partnerships, and future planning efforts while advancing broader sustainability and well-being goals. The updated draft plan reflects extensive community engagement, technical analysis, interdepartmental collaboration, advisory body review, and council direction. This plan positions Mountain View as a regional leader in biodiversity and urban forest planning and helps establish a strong foundation for long-term environmental resilience and stewardship. Staff is recommending that council adopt the biodiversity and urban forest plan, including the additional refinements outlined in this presentation. We appreciate your time and consideration, and we are happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Does any member of the council have questions? Council Member Hicks. Okay, thank you very much.

So my only question is I, like you, have been contacted by a number of local and regional groups. too numerous to name right now. And I just want to make sure that with, I really appreciated the slide on refinements and the staff recommendation. I just want to double check, because I've been contacted so many times, that in your refinements, the native is only used with regards to regionally native and California native now?

Correct.

and near-native no longer is in the plan. Instead, you are using functional species. Correct. That's what I was told to check for. Thank you. And you also have modifications regarding the biodiversity anchor. Is that true or not true?

We added that on slide 10. It highlights how things will be laid out in the plan. Native species is now defined as a given species status as being native to or having a long evolutionary history within a specific locale. Native species can contribute to biodiversity anchors defined in the Mountain View Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan supporting ecological relationships and functions in native ecosystems. Okay, thank you very much. You're welcome.

Thank you Council Member Hicks. Council Member McAllister.

So I have a couple of simple self-centered questions. So if I wanted to improve the butterfly population that once was here when I grew up, what plants would I grow and would that information be in this plan?

I'm gonna let SFVI specifically answer that. They're on the line virtually. They're gonna give you a better list than I can.

if you are there please raise your hand so that our our city clerk can bring you up oh here we go thank you hi this is selena pang at the san francisco estuary institute i'm sorry you didn't realize i had to raise my hand so um yeah thank you for that question um i think the plan does address the um biodiversity benefits um for insects and pollinators, but it does not get as specific as telling you exactly which plants you would want to plant. And as Brenda highlighted, the next step of this work is to look at a virtual plant selector tool, which is highlighted in several actions of the plan. And the work on that, it hasn't been funded, so it's not quite underway. But that tool would be, I think, the next step in answering your question.

So it is coming?

Yes. Council's voting on that tonight.

Oh, okay. Well, okay. Hopefully it's coming. And my next question, which is a long stretch. So in Arbor Day, we get free trees, we can request. Can we apply that type of... program to the plants. So if somebody wanted to put in a native plant that the city have some stockpile or options to be able to go down the city MOC and say, okay, I want a few plants to put in their yard to be part of this program.

Well, we currently don't have the the space or the funding for that, but we can certainly explore it. I like the idea.

Well, I mean, you're doing trees, and so, you know, this is implementing the program faster than if we relied. Everybody would have a piece of opportunity to do that.

When we do the tree program, we take requests, and then we go purchase the trees and deliver them right away.

So is that what you're saying you're gonna implement? You'll purchase the plant?

We will take a look at that and look at our space and capacity and resources for that.

Okay, I'm looking forward to it, thank you.

Council Member Cal, so you could join me in volunteering with the pollinator habitats. They always have wonderful plants.

I'd like to do that on my front yard, so thank you. You could come by, because we used to have the bees and the caterpillars in my front yard and the butterflies and all the other birds. So let's see if we can get that going.

All right, Council Member Showalter. Yeah, I'm gonna go back to these definitions. I'm a little confused about what would be a functional species. Can you tell me an example of a tree you know about that we use a lot that's a functional species?

Sure, I'm gonna defer to SFEI and possibly our urban forest manager on that.

And SFEI, you're able to unmute now.

Thank you. I'd like to invite Sasha to answer that question. She has a very strong ecology background, stronger than mine. Hi, thank you. Do you have me?

Okay. So what we mean by functional species was specifically these used to be the near native species. And so these are, excuse me, chat's in the way. species that aren't regionally native, but that might provide a similar function to a species that's either phylogenetically related by genus or is near and from an ecosystem that is similar to the ecosystems in Mountain View. So specific species are listed in the tree selector tool, or I'm sorry, in the tree plant list and in another Santa Clara Valley plant list that could provide some options. It would be a species that would provide fruits, nectar that has been demonstrated to be associated with some of the butterflies that the other council member mentioned, support for bird nesting might help improve soils in a particular habitat by bringing water into the area, acts as a refuge for bird migrants during migration because of the foliage and the insects that might be foraging on the tree. So functional species meaning, It is still providing some of the functions that a native species would provide. But, um, is planted is not a regionally native species is in this planted perhaps because. Not a difficult growing conditions or that sort of thing. That makes sense.

Well, you're not quite getting to what I'm interested in, so I'll try and ask it a different way. When I think about the plants that we plant here, we talk about native plants, we talk about low water tolerant plants. Those are things that we often try and promote the planting of. The low water tolerant plants are often from New Zealand and Australia. They're not near at all. And that doesn't mean we're saying you should never have these in our area, but they're not near native to Australia. a close by area. And we're not trying necessarily to get rid of them, except maybe eucalyptus because they burn. So I'm having a little trouble with this. And then the other thing is, the truth of the matter is, the fruit tree cultivars that we've used in agriculture for decades aren't native anywhere. They are produced plants that were humans morphed over many, many generations into things that were wonderful agricultural producers, like orange trees and apple trees, and that can have blossoms, et cetera, et cetera. So this inclusion of the word native in here, I think is a little, I mean, I'm confused by it. What...

I'm gonna have our urban forestry manager, Russell Hanson, take this question.

So thank you, first and foremost, Russell Hanson, urban forest manager within CSD. Yeah, we could get into a lot of different species, but just to kind of put a few examples out there, when we talk about our native coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia, that we have within our community, where I go to when we talk about these functional species is I go to like Quercus canbii. It is not native to California, but it is from, I'll say the Southern desert areas from Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico on over even into Texas. We have several other species of oak trees that we can draw upon. that we feel will be adaptable to our climate. And it's about getting them here, trying them out, making sure that they absolutely will survive within our community for the life expectancy that we're really truly looking for. And so that's the first example. I could come up with a lot more, but you're absolutely correct. The hybridization of our fruit trees, of all of those other types of plants that we have done over time has shown that they do adapt to our climates, that they do provide some benefits or otherwise, and that's where we're going with the functional species.

But they're not native.

Not native to California, correct.

Well, you know, those hybridized trees really aren't native anywhere. You know, they're an architect... agricultural product, which is great. I love them. But they're not native. So I think that that term in here is, I think it's misplaced.

It's not under the native species category.

It says, yeah, it's not under the category, but are native to a nearby ecologically similar region. That's not necessarily a requirement. You want functional trees. They don't have to be native. You want trees that are gonna do well here. that when we get to this functional species, we're kinda out of the native category. We're talking about other things, and that's okay. You know, there's lots of great trees, but I just, I think that when we keep this native nomenclature in here, we, it's just, it just strikes me as, being incorrect. And this, and I have to say, I am so excited by this plan. You know, I've read it a couple times, and I've been working in restoration work for many, many years, and we are doing a great job. This is the only thing that's kind of sticking in my, and when I, and I just feel like this utilization of the term native here is, is unnecessary and kind of negative. So I would, in the functional species part, everywhere else, we wanna have it be at the forefront. Thanks, that's my.

Thank you, Council Member Showalter. I see Council Member Hicks, you're back in the queue.

Yes, so I'm going to ask Council Member Showalter, because this is kind of the core of what a lot of these organizations are getting at. Maybe they will speak up for themselves after our questions. But I know not all of them could be here tonight. So I want to make sure that I understand the change you're asking for. So what you're asking for is on slide 10 in the small print under functional species that it say you're hoping that when it says functional species as defined in this plan, particularly those closely related to regional native species. I'm not sure what word you want taken out of that, because it seems that it's saying functional species are not regionally native, which you are also saying. Oh, you want the part that says, but are native to a nearby ecologically similar region? You want that half of the sentence taken out?

Yes.

Okay, that sounds fine to me. If it's fine with staff. I just wanted to make sure I know what you're saying because it is kind of the core of what a lot of people have been asking about.

I'm gonna also, SFVI just chimed in. They'd like to address that and answer a few questions now that they said they better understand what you're asking for.

So if we can go ahead and. I have Sasha online. Hi, thank you. Yes, I think I understand the reason we have native to another region in that section is just to point out the idea that nativity is defined by the region it is native to, right? So we are defining native species for the Mountain View Biodiversity Plan as being those that are either within California or those that are regionally native. And so when we use that term in the way that you're describing species section, we're saying. These individual these species may be native to another region, so like Russell explained, south of California in Mexico, they might be able to move further north, that sort of thing. They're native there. They're not native here. I do understand your point that the horticultural trees, like fruit trees, are so long from being native from a given place, but they did originate, let's say, in Asia or Europe, that sort of thing. So when we're using the word native, we're saying, you know, everything is native to its location, wherever it happens to be. We're just differentiating between what's native here regionally versus elsewhere. But if that's confusing, I'll leave it to Brendan to decide whether to change that. Yeah.

Well, I guess my additional question would be, what are we trying to do with this functional? We're trying to say that there's other trees or species that aren't native that are still valuable here, right? Isn't that really what we're trying to say?

That's exactly what we're trying to say. There are other, the plan is called a biodiversity, the word diverse is in there. So we're trying to say that there's other species that may not be native, regional, or California, that provide functions that support biodiversity.

Stop, that's it, just say that. No, it says. You got it, yep. You're a native, get out, yeah, that's, you got it.

I saw you going up to the podium, Mr. Marchant. Was there anything you needed to add? Are you good? Okay. Is that it, Council Member Showalter, on your end? I think so, yes, thank you. Council Member Hicks, you're back in the queue.

No, I just didn't, but I'm fine with taking that. But that's a comment, so that's for later.

Okay, so do we have any more questions? Council Member Kamei.

Thanks, Mayor. So apologies, I'm just seeking clarity. So this will come up when we take an action, if there's an edit to, you'll clarify for us before we take the? Yes.

Okay.

All right. And just to further clarify, it's the kind of,

link like the nomenclature of the word it's not the use of these trees that's it's it's more okay thank you i have species that can be selected for planting to provide specific desired functions such as climate resilience pest resilience urban compatibility or native biodiversity support simple i think that's much better thank you so much you got it all right do we have any more questions from my colleagues

Questions, questions? Seeing none, as some of the members of the public seeing that back and forth of questions, please let us know in your public comment We are in a good place. So we will now, with any member of the public on the line, like to provide 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 90 seconds or one and a half minutes. We are going to start with our in-person speakers first. Robert Cox, followed by Daniel Shane, followed by Tracy Feria.

All right, thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. For the years of work that have gone into putting this plan together, I recently completed for the second time our local Loma Prieta Sierra Club Environmental Sustainability Program. At our last spring session this year, one of the program directors announced, Mountain View is the first city in our chapter area that has a biodiversity plan. This plan is one more example of how our city is leading the Bay Area in the adoption of programs that support and sustain our environment. In particular, I appreciate the parts of the plan detailing the ecosystem surrounding the Stevens Creek Trail near my home. I would like to add my support to the letter sent by Shawnee Kleinhaus from the Silicon Valley Bird Alliance and a host of local environmental groups recommending some final changes to the plan document that you've just discussed. In particular, I do support removing the reference to near native species and support strict advocacy for true local native species. The near native language could be used as a loophole, excusing us from using truly local native plants while planning our biodiverse environment. But I appreciate the discussion that you just have and I think you're all on the right track, so just keep going. Thanks for listening to my concerns and thanks once again for a great job on this biodiversity plan.

Thank you, Mr. Cox. Mr. Shane.

And I agree with Mr. Cox. You've done a great job on this plan. I'm really happy to see that the planning of trees in public spaces for increasing urban canopy was expanded to incorporate private lands and development. That was really, really great to see, thanks. The plan will hopefully increase the chances and opportunities to protect, preserve and enhance natural urban forest ecosystems by requiring developers to consider these important natural resources early in the planning and design phase of proposed housing, commercial and transportation projects. And sometimes it's not just the tree that's important, So most times it's not what's most important, it's the ecosystem that they're in. And so native trees, and plants provide the food and the shelter, sources of food and shelter for native animal species. And that's one of the key things about why we are promoting native species maybe over other types of species. But I agree with Councilwoman Showalter that I love fruit trees too and we should be very diverse in how we think about planting more trees, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Daniel. Ms. Tracy.

Okay, I'm Dr. Tracy Faria. I'm a Mountain View resident. And I just wanna say these revisions, they really created a clearer and more transparent framework and preserved the distinction between native and non-native plants that helps ensure that biodiversity anchors remain focused on supporting local ecological relationships and food webs. Now that we have a plan, or hopefully we'll soon have a plan, I like the wording, I just wanna say that I think this is gonna help us to have a city where the next generation will be able to sit underneath the trees, enjoy the birds and butterflies with Councilmember McAllister. And I want to thank all the staff, the council, the commissioners, and all the people who had input on this. Council Member McAllister, in the bottom definition of natives that they had here, they have cowscape, and you can put in your, you put in Mountain View, you can look up all the plants that are in Mountain View, and they will list the butterflies that are, that will use those plants as host plants. So it's by California Native Plant Society. Thank you all.

Thank you so much, Dr. Tracy. We will now move on to our virtual speakers. We have Dasha Leeds.

Hello, my name is Dashiell Leeds. I'm the conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club Loma Prieta chapter. I'd just like to thank staff and council for all your work on this plan. We do appreciate the recent modifications that have been made, and we just hope that as you proceed forward that you do everything you can to ensure that we're prioritizing the use of native plants locally wherever possible. Native plants have vastly superior biodiversity benefits, as opposed to non-native, even functionally non-native plants. So we hope that wherever you have the discretion to use native plants, that you do so. Thanks, and we look forward to revisiting this in a year.

Thank you. We will now move on to Bruce England.

Bruce England, can you hear me okay?

We can hear you. Great.

Okay, short, but I got a couple of questions. I know you can't answer them directly, but I'm going to raise them anyway. So the question about turf, artificial turf versus natural, wondering what the changes are that we should be looking for, because a lot of times the discussion around turf doesn't make it clear whether they're talking about plastic fake grass or natural grass, and even if it's natural grass, whether the grass choice is appropriate for our area, just like the native plants and trees discussion that you already have been talking about. Second is I'm just not sure if you're going to refer over to the plan from the active transportation plan as well as the parks and rec plan, which was mentioned. So as you know, green streets are called out in that plan as it stands, the active transportation plan that is. And they do cite the biodiversity plan there, but with no explicit direction regarding tree choices, at least that I'm seeing. So are they shooting for something more explicit in the parks plan to point that out? I'm sorry, in the active transportation plan. Just wondering about that. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. England. Ronit Bryant.

Yes, thank you very much, Mayor, council members. This is a culmination of a long process to position our city as a place where people and nature can thrive together. Biodiversity means supporting our native wildlife, birds, butterflies, and all forms of life that call California home, not planting a wide range of plants from across the entire globe. And so biodiversity anchors must be based on native plants, preferably locally native plants, or else they will not be supporting biodiversity. I thank staff for clarifying the definitions and listening to the community and making changes even this late. Late stage, I'd like to say that functional species provide environmental benefits such as canopy and water and soil retention, but not the kind of biodiversity that native plants can supply because our local wildlife has evolved with native plants, not with functional plants from elsewhere. uh so i hope that that helps the discussion that the council had earlier and i look forward to next year's prc meeting to hear how the plan has been implemented and what adaptive changes might be necessary so thank you very much thank you former mayor bryant um next we have rashmi hi can you hear me we can hear you

Great, thank you. Yeah, Rashmi Sahai, a member of Green Spaces Mountain View. And I just want to echo some of the things other folks have been saying. Thank you so much to staff and council for moving this plan forward and staff all your hard work in incorporating feedback along the way. I really have seen that and appreciate it, especially in this late stage process. And I strongly support the changes in the definition and Like Ronit said, the reason we're focusing so much on native is that they provide the biodiversity of all the other life within Mountain View. It's less about diversity of plant species, but diversity in the ecosystem that we have. We just want to make sure that when we're saying native, when we're talking about protecting biodiversity, that's what we mean and we're not confusing it with other functions that plants can provide. And yeah, I don't have too much else to say. I wanted to say one more thing for Council Member McAllister. The library has seeds and there's native seeds there. So maybe if the city is not giving out plants, you can always get seeds at the library to start your garden once you look at that plant list. So hopefully with that, that'll get you started. Thank you so much and looking forward to seeing the plan implemented.

Thank you. And our last virtual speaker is April Webster.

Hi, thank you. I also, like the other speakers, want to give a huge shout out to staff and consultants for putting in all the work to integrate the comments from the various community groups into the final buff plan. The final plan is a lot stronger for it and, yeah, just really excited about it. I also just related to the previous letter, the draft that was sent in. I want to say that I appreciate that the plan now more clearly recognizes This document as a foundational city policy document that Action 1 better integrates biodiversity and urban trees into transportation and capital improvement projects. That Action 17 now includes a shade goal for active transportation corridors, not just parking lots. and that Action 22 creates a stronger annual implementation and reporting framework. I also support the joint letter around the definitions for Native. I think that's really important as well. And just finally, I want to say, you know, moving forward, I think the focus should be implementation, and I hope that this plan and these goals can be considered early in transportation and the parks and public realm projects. Thank you so much.

Thank you, April. And that was our speakers. I will now bring the item back for council deliberation and action. Council Member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll allow another Councilmember the privilege of making the motion to approve the plan, but I did want to share a few hopefully quick reflections. First, and I think every Councilmember will agree with this, this is a remarkable work, and it would not have been possible without the persistent advocacy from our very well-informed community, and also the remarkable work by our staff, who I feel have been very proactive in working with our community, including right up until the very last minute to address some of the concerns that we've been hearing. We take all the credit sometimes as council, but really I think the credit goes to all of you who have been engaged in the development of this plan for so many years. a privilege to sit here and watch you all do the work and i'm grateful i have the opportunity to vote yes before i disappear at the end of the year there are a couple of things in the plan that i did want to elevate though I think members of the council will talk about the different forms of advocacy that we've seen, but I'd love to call out my friend Daniel Shane, who I've met with over the years, many of us have met with. I feel the plan meaningfully incorporates a lot of the specific concerns I've heard from you and from others that you've worked with. And I plucked out sections and put it on a Word document. One of the actions includes a specific commitment to reviewing the general plan, the municipal code, and capital project requirements to identify opportunities to codify plan commitments, such as pursuing canopy cover, uh or landscaped area targets and i think that's remarkable that to have objective standards that go beyond the things that we've historically included like setbacks but now objective standards and roadway design approaches green infrastructure strategies that incorporate biodiversity elements too That's really cool and worthy of emulation. So I'm excited for future councils to implement this plan and I think help Mountain View become even more of the role model that we already are in doing this work in incorporating objective standards that apply to private property as well, the biodiversity strategies that we've worked very hard to bring to fruition. I don't want to belabor the points. There's a lot of cool stuff, but two other things that I thought were really neat. This strikes me as a really hard thing to do, but so important and wonderful if we could achieve it. There's a line item here about Permanente Creek and Stevens Creek. And the plan includes recommendations to pursue restoration efforts like daylighting stream sections, softening channels, planting trees, and building green infrastructure. That would be great to see. I would love to see it in my lifetime. I know that's not easy to do, but I would love for us, for the future council, as you implement the plan to consider opportunities to elevate that action item. And I think we once upon a time had a part of that in, development proposal from a major employer in the area, and unfortunately that didn't move forward, but that's the kind of innovative thinking that I think we ought to continue to explore. And the last thing I'll leave you with is there are a lot of interesting opportunities more clever people than I hopefully can help realize, and that's looking at challenging properties or private properties where we've long had an interest in finding useful ways to make that property valuable to the community quest to annex comes to mind i think that's hard work but with a lot of community outreach i think we could find something that has lasting value that helps fulfill the strategies in this plan but also i think about the francia property which some of you on the council for for many years have been looking at how can we do something that's a lot of land and it's it's it's in a strategic location where there will be some uh growth probably in the near future and uh wouldn't it be wonderful to see that land utilized for some purpose that helps achieve the goals in this plan and there are i wrote a few other examples down but i think the long and short of it is as as the staff report i think i put it away now but i think there was a commitment to ensuring that this becomes a foundational document it's not a regulatory document per se but it helps influence a lot of the work that we will do in the next few years right so when there is private property that's redeveloped biodiversity elements are incorporated or when we look at strategic property acquisitions or partnerships with governmental agencies or you know developers we can help achieve many of the goals and the action items that we have listed here so I'll stop there. Very exciting. Kudos to everyone except for me. I've done nothing except vote yes. But very excited for you and those of you who will replace me on this council to see this work to fruition. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Ramirez. Council Member Showalter.

Yeah, I am very excited about this plan. It has been a long time coming and you've done a really good job of it. You've brought together a very diverse group of experts to work on it, both in our community and in the staff and in our consultants and it just shows, it really shows and I really appreciate your just a few minutes ago, correcting that definition that had really been bugging me for a long time. So thank you for that. ditto to everything Council Member Ramirez said, and one of the things that I'm really happy about with this is to see the impact it's already having. For instance, one of the things that was on the consent calendar, the 34 items, was some actions related to the Public Safety Building, and one of those was that Instead of going with the selection of plants that had been made initially that many people working on the biodiversity plan had said, no, we don't like that, a new... a new process was put in to send that list back to the PRC and come up with a list that is much more in line with what we are doing with the biodiversity plan. That's just perfect. I mean, that's really the kind of thing that we're supposed to be doing and integrating these programs. So I'm so pleased to see that. The other thing I think that's important to recognize is this kind of science is really kind of new. I mean, for cities, it's new. And so it isn't going to, everything that we have in this plan that we wanna, the actions we wanna take, they're not going to all go just as planned. We're gonna learn a lot as we go through. And so I think the fact that we've built in this adaptive management, which means that we will bring back every year, every few years to the PRC to look at how the plan is going, that's just really healthy from a point of, view of our transparency as a community, and it's also just best scientific principles. So I'm really delighted to see that going on, and I think that it will be a wonderful way for the experts in our community to stay involved and kind of make sure that we keep on task with this. Then I guess I feel the same way in a sense that my colleague, Mr. Ramirez, does. We've sat back for years and watched this go on and not really done very much. So we recognize that there were other people who were really, really working hard, and that's just very appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Showalter. Do we have any other comments from my colleagues? Council Member Hicks.

So I'll just say very briefly, a deep thanks to all the staff and all the community members who've been working so hard on this. I remember when I first heard about the possibility of having a biodiversity plan, It seems almost counterintuitive to have a biodiversity plan within an urban place but I have read that with agribusiness and heavy use of pesticides actually urban places are some of the best places to make sure we have biodiversity not only of plants but of the small creatures that keep keep everything going for us. But one of the things that I like best reading in the plan was it said it's not just for habitat and species well-being, that it's also for community well-being. Because I think people thrive, not just small creatures, but larger creatures like ourselves thrive more when we live among diverse plants and tree canopy. Thank you again. I hope I understand, Council Member Showalter, what the actual motion you're making is, because you made a few changes.

Yes, it's just to approve the plan. That's what we're supposed to do, isn't it?

So as on the last slide.

We actually updated the slide based on the recommendation that Council was looking for. Okay. recommendation to adopt the Biodiversity and Urban Forest Plan, including the additional refinements outlined in this presentation, with a revised definition of functional species that reads species that can be selected for planting to provide specific desired functions as climate resilience, pest resistance, urban compatibility, or native biodiversity support. That's it.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Council Member Hicks. So we have a motion made by Council Member Showalter, seconded by Council Member Hicks. I will also like to echo the thanks that my colleagues have made to staff and the community at large. There are a lot of items that go before council. It's not a reasonable expectation of all seven of us to be absolute experts at all the things that come before our council. We rely so heavily on the experts in our community for this and we rely on you to care very strongly to go through the rigmarole of government bureaucracy to get something quite amazing through. This is a plan that has been really, really worked through through community engagement. I thank staff for their work and their willingness to incorporate so many of the suggestions from our community. I've had the opportunity with a number of the people who volunteer with the pollinator habitats, the green spaces, Mountain View, I have not met with Mr. Shane, that is not his fault, that's my fault. But I see your emails and I read your emails and then try to reread it again to understand it and I still have to reread it again to understand it. But it's because people like that in our community are just so determined to making sure that this plan is something truly special and truly worthwhile for essentially the best city. And essentially true, very much so. And I say that in other cities too. But thank you so much to our community for getting us through this finish line, through the very end because there were changes right there at the end. And thank you to staff for your work on this. So with that, we are all ready for a vote. And that motion passes unanimously. Congratulations, everyone. And with that, I'm actually going to call a 10-minute break. And we will reconvene back at 8.51. And I have a surprise for my colleagues in council in the break room. All right, let's head back to our seats, y'all. We have one. No, we are not going to get, we have one, two, three, four, we have five items left tonight. Let's get this done before 1 a.m. tomorrow, let's go. Oh, we lost our quorum. So if you all can make your way back to your seats. We're calling this meeting back to order.

I really like using that.

All right, we are item seven, 7.1, Adoption of the Community Ownership Action Plan Housing Element Program 3.2. Spanish translation services are available for this item. We will now hear from our interpreter.

Interpreter.

We're back. Oh, but they're not gonna make an announcement?

Oh, there we go. Thank you. Para aquellos que necesitan interpretación mediante Zoom, favor de hacer click en el botón de interpretación y después elija el idioma de su preferencia. También estaremos ofreciendo interpretación durante los comentarios públicos en persona y virtuales. Las personas que necesiten interpretación consecutiva, por favor, hablen en bloques de tres oraciones, luego tomen una pausa para nosotros interpretar y así consecutivamente poder interpretar todas sus ideas. Gracias.

Thank you. Housing Director Wayne Chen 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.

Ms. Joan, this is the item.

Go ahead, we're ready for your staff report, Mr. Chen.

Thank you very much, Mayor and Council, Wayne Chen, your Housing Director. I'm very pleased to be here tonight after a two-year process to present the Community Ownership Action Plan, or the COPE, for your consideration. I'd also like to note that our consultant, David Driscoll, with Community Planning Collaborative is also on the line in case questions come up. I'd like to thank him and his team, along with ECHO Northwest, the joint consultant who helped us get to this stage here today. I'd also like to recognize the COPE Advisory Committee, who spent many hours of their time to participate in advisory committee meetings, as well as meeting individually and with other stakeholders to talk about and provide input about how we can be successful in supporting groups to achieve successful community-owned projects.

Sorry, this mouse is very scrolly.

Just very quickly, an overview of the recommendations is for your consideration to adopt the COPE, to consider additional project funding, to consider additional capacity building funding, and to authorize the city manager or designee to establish a more streamlined funding process to meet the requirements of acquisition preservation projects. As a reminder, the COPE is part of Housing Element Program 3.2, which is the city's comprehensive tenant displacement response strategy, and the goal or the requirement in the Housing Element is to facilitate the acquisition and preservation of at least 50 community-owned housing units And as discussed with council in previous meetings, the focus of these 50 units would be on units covered under our Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act, or CSFRA units, because those have been the units that are most susceptible to market rate development pressures and redevelopment causing tenant displacement. Just a brief overview of the timeline. Shortly after the housing element was adopted in 2023, we held a study session with council in early 2024 to talk about the COPE and other items. That's where we also recommend the allocation of $4 million of funding, which was later appropriated of October that year. We started the process with our consultant team, convened an advisory committee, and then brought back guiding principles and vision and initial $75,000 to support technical assistance grant funding last year. Since that time, we've been working to develop the COPE and other program requirements, and here we are tonight for your consideration. The COPE has five sections. It is informed by council direction and the COPE Act, the advisory committee input. And I'm gonna go over each one very briefly. The first section is essentially an overview of how we got here and the process, talking about the underlying reasons and causes for the need for this type of plan, which to our knowledge is really one of a kind at the local level, and the redevelopment pressures that exist because of the strong economy here. The COPE can help create more market stability and stability for residents, and it's part of a larger response by the city, including production, preservation, and protection. The notion is that the COPE can lay a foundation and a framework to not just achieve 50 units, but with all the extensive work that is being done, it lays the foundation for scaling up potentially well beyond 50 units pending funding availability and really developing the capacity of the system to do this work. Section two is focused on people-centered housing and further explaining what that means. The concept was presented and unanimously supported by council back in September of last year, but it is really about starting with people first and figuring out the financing needed to make it sustainable over time. three levels of change at the household level, integrating the community and finding new ways of doing things, and so that's the system levels change, and the notion that community well-being, health, and these other items that are typically not part of real estate conversations is really central to this type of real estate development, this type of housing development. It's guided by six key principles and conditions for success. Those six guiding principles are shown here with the first three, decommodification, resonant roles in governance and community stewardship as definitional to what community ownership housing means in Mountain View. The remaining three items are key ways in which we would need to undertake in order to make community-owned housing successful. That includes capacity building and systems transformation and continuous improvement. The conditions needed for success are somewhat straightforward, but we need a lot more funding. We need the funding to be more flexible. We need to build up the capacity of the organizations, mission-driven organizations who want to undertake projects, and the ecosystem of the partners and other organizations that help support that process. We need to have sort of a new way of looking at what compliance and accountability might mean because these projects might be operated differently from the traditional affordable housing projects that we may be used to. The partnerships and ecosystems are foundational and resident education and participation is critical. Most folks as residents may have never participated in governance or making policies about the housing that they live in. That's both an amazing opportunity and also an area that will need to be supported. Section three defines community-owned housing and one of the things that really stood out certainly for me is that as we went into this research and talking with folks is that there's not one form of community-owned housing. And many folks use community-owned housing or even referring to organizations like community land trusts or co-ops interchangeably and in different terms. And so what we wanted to do with the COPE is to create a framework that we understand what these terms mean in Mountain View. At the core, it's the three core elements of decommodification, resident governance, and community stewardship. The actual housing project can be structured in many different ways. It can involve different organizations. And there are generally four models that I'll go over in just a moment. But the COPE is intended to be flexible and allow organizations to propose the type of housing project that generally would fit into one of these four models, but variations can also be supported. So the COPE is intended to be clear but flexible. The four common models overall, there's sort of a rental model, and then there are many types of ownership models that we came across. So largely speaking, ownership has been a focus of these community-owned housing projects. In Mountain View, the conversations that we've had have really been centered on having a rental project, and we certainly want to be able to support that. and even having rental projects that could evolve over time to become ownership units. By ownership, we mean the residents' ownership in the building, whether it's the individual units or shares in the building, if it's numbers two, three, and four. Section four is talking about making community-owned housing work. The importance of having organizations that can undertake a project for the entire life cycle and all the aspects needed to acquire, own, operate for the long term are really key, and gaps in any one of those areas can really impact the viability of a project. The ecosystem for this type of work is very nascent. There's a lot of interest. There are projects throughout the region, but as a percentage of all the types of housing that is being done, it's very, very small, and so this requires some sustained long-term investment, and the city has already undertaken the roles of being a convener, a funder, capacity builder, and policy leader, and the recommended goals and actions will continue to support those roles. I'll talk about the funding in a moment. Very briefly, these are the different categories and areas that we see as the project lifecycle in a mission-driven organization that wishes to do this work if they're requesting city funding is to be able to demonstrate the ability to execute on these different functions over time. We did wanna note that we felt that was very important to be able to support different types of organizations, whether they are locally created, informed in Mountain View, which are community-based organizations and are very key. They bring much of the relationships, the trust with the local community and tenants, but they may be new to development. And wanted to note community-oriented organizations who may not have developed in Mountain View to that extent, but are oriented in a way where they do projects elsewhere that have the values of the COPE. They could bring a lot of technical knowledge and expertise of the various parts of a project lifecycle that can really help support, build up our ecosystem, and the recommendation is have the COPE be able to support both types of organizations. Regarding the project funding, a couple of years ago when staff made and council approved the recommendation to allocate $4 million in project funding, that was based on this idea that it would require $20 million of subsidy to be able to achieve the 50 units. And we recommended this four to one ratio. Last year when we came to council, that amount had increased to 25 million and we didn't make any changes to project funding at the time. Tonight we're recommending increasing that amount by one million for a total of five million to achieve and maintain that same four to one ratio. And we will continue to undertake efforts to fundraise, establish partnerships, or apply for grants in order to try to achieve growing that fund. The capacity building efforts, the recommendation tonight has increased the initial $75,000 by $425,000 for a total of $500,000 to support capacity building. After the meeting last September, we had identified three additional options besides providing grants to mission-driven organizations to build their capacity and identified partnerships as being really critical for transferring knowledge and supporting projects, and that requires more resources. Section five are five-year goals and an action plan. The intention for this is to provide, again, a clear, actionable framework, but provide some flexibility to allow us to be able to implement, see what works, modify or update as needed, and iterate over time. We, along with our partners, are doing this really for the first time in this region and in the city, and there will be learning involved, and so we, have provided this clear and hopefully flexible framework, but with clear actions that we would implement over time. And it is intended to be a five-year timeframe. These are the goals where we, again, hope to have very sort of clear goals, but the first one is achieve at least 50 units by the end of the five-year period in partnership with our local organizations and our regional organizations, and to create the ecosystem that can allow us to increase that over time is to continue to build the community-owned housing fund to try to achieve the $25 million. building capacity within organizations and our partners in the broader ecosystem with a goal of being able to stand up at least one organization locally formed and founded in Mountain View to be able to stand up projects on their own. Number, goal four is to transition the city-led leadership of this process into a more shared and regional process. We would remain a vital part and play a leadership role, but it would be more sustainable to do this if the regional, if the leadership were shared. The goal five is that once a project is up and running that there would be metrics and accountability measures to monitor if the projects are being operated according to the COPE requirements. Regarding recommendation four for streamlined funding approvals, last September we had made a recommendation to identify and work with a third party agent to allow us to transfer the funds, allow that party to be able to receive funding requests and underwrite and approve the requests. Because of the nascent nature again in our county, we have not been able to identify an organization that could fulfill all of those roles. So we will continue to look. However, we are also recommending to allow staff to identify another option, which is to keep the funding process within the city and identify a more streamlined process that could meet the timing and the needs of community-owned housing. and to delegate that authority to the city manager designated to identify and then to approve projects and funding requests. We would recommend in doing so that there would be the appropriate safeguards and transparency measures and be able to provide sort of very current updates to the public and to the city council if a funding recommendation is made. In terms of next steps, we would update and finalize the COOP, any identified cleanups, but also updating the funding amounts, should Council approve them tonight, and then we would begin implementation and continue to convene the COOP, at least for a period. Again, these are the recommendations here, and that concludes staff's presentation, and very happy to answer any questions you may have. Thanks very much.

Thank you, does any member of the council have questions? I'm staring you all down. Seeing no questions, we can move on to public comments. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on item 7.1? 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 90 seconds. So our first speaker, Joan Brodowski.

Thank you, Council. As you know, I live at Sunset Estates, which is a mobile home park. And I was already telling you about how uneasy we are, which isn't very uneasy, but it's always there, about the fact that we only own our homes and not the land under it. And then I saw on page 18 of the COAP, the Community Ownership Action Plan, that is included in today's agenda. that mobile home community ownership is actually mentioned specifically as eligible for support under this plan. And I thought that's really great. So that's what I'm here to say. It might not apply to us because as I understand this, all of this is for new housing, not for what's already there like us. But in any case, thank you very much City Council for remembering that mobile home parks are a place where a lot of people live. And we hope that you make this plan work for us mobile home owners or renters, thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Joan. Jason Clark. Followed by, I'm assuming, Alex Brown.

Yeah, thank you, Council. So before moving from New York and Washington, D.C., I think we have never seen home ownership on rental property and hope we can end it in favor of housing stability. I, too, we live in a mobile home park, Sunset Estates. Rent increases without justification with no positive changes into the park have been happening. I do thank you for your work to reducing the annual increases, but let's work to have all 1130 mobile home owners in our six parks own the land. Current problems, fixed incomes. I live in a 55 plus park, supporting my mother. Fear of park sale, fear of retaliation and eviction. Mobile homes are considered affordable, yet the owner is able to raise rents annually and when sold substantially. Currently, Sunset Estates has many homes for sale with rents that make it harder and possible for 55 plus often retired buyers. Many applicants fail to meet the income requirements of the owner. Some have returned to work to help cover their rents of more than $2,000 a month. Ownership would stop unnecessarily for profit rent increases if we owned it. It would also support owner-rental conversations. We have had no input in any decisions that affect our park. For example, we have wanted a ADA automatic door and accommodable restrooms and have been denied that. Since rent control, the owner has been able to pay for our monthly magazine, the directory, annual holiday party, which was hosted by his family for 50 years. I'm thankful the neighborhood grant has helped us to continue to offer that free and for a summer bash. So thank you for that.

Thank you. Alex Brown.

Hi, friends. Alex Brown, president of Santiago Villa Mobile Home Park in North Bayshore, a guy who does stuff sometimes, I guess, for the Mountain View Mobile Home Alliance. Thank you for including us in the process. I really appreciate being a part of the COPAC. I'm excited to see this come to council and to have progress because knowing that we have the support of the city is huge. It helps people feel much more secure. We've had a lot of fear in the mobile home communities that the parks are gonna get sold for redevelopment, that people are gonna get forced out, and this gives us a much stronger chance to be able to use that as an opportunity to make it better, to actually take control of our homes, our lives. So, thanks. And also thanks to the consultants who are, I assume, on the call for putting up with me in all the meetings.

Thank you, Mr. Brown. We will now move on to virtual public comment. Sandy Perry.

Hello. Thank you. My name is Sandy Perry. I'm a Vice President of the Board of South Bay Community Land Trust. And we were privileged to be part of the Community Ownership Action Plan Advisory Committee in Mountain View. South Bay Community Land Trust was the first CLT that was formed in Santa Clara County. And we're very happy to be joined by now, not just one, but two. We have Mountain View CLT and Seoul CLT. that are emerging in Mountain View. We're very pleased to support this Mountain View community ownership action plan initiative. Last week in San Jose, we just closed on a $6 million rehab loan from the city of San Jose for our second property, which is an 18-unit apartment building in East San Jose. Preservation creates affordable housing by taking unsubsidized affordable housing units permanently off the speculative market, which prevents people from being displaced and prevents those units from being lost as affordable housing when rent increases drive up the rents and make them unaffordable. Preservation is more economic than new construction. It's much faster and it's easier to win over public support. And I'm running out of time. It's also an opportunity for ownership.

Thank you, Sandy. Next, we have Bela.

Bee, are you there? Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me? We can hear you. Hello, Council. This is Bee Hanson from the Mobile Home Alliance. And I'd just like to start by thanking you for directing city staff to work on COPE over two years ago. Their current task is to find funding and develop processes to implement COPE for Mountain View residents who are most vulnerable to displacement. And I hope you'll direct staff to continue that work. As you know, Mountain View's six mobile home parks are naturally affordable housing, but have a large proportion of residents who are seniors living on fixed incomes. Some have heard rumors that one of our parks might be sold, and two years ago, another one did sell. Our carefully crafted MHRSO, which passed in October 2021, helped our entire community immensely, but it's time to start thinking about future challenges. Because our ordinance could be weakened by a future council, having a co-op housing model in one of more of the parks would assure mobile home residents that they won't be displaced. One of the current goals, starting with 50 CSFRA units, is a good start. And I hope you'll keep moving forward by approving all of the recommendations in the council report. Thank you.

Thank you, B. And our final speaker online is Anna Marie Morales.

Hi, can you guys hear me?

We can hear you, Anna Marie.

I thank you so much. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Annamarie Sheher from the Mobile Home Alliance as well. I'm definitely going to echo what Bea and Alex just said. I'm a lifelong resident of our beautiful city and I'm speaking in strong support of the Community Ownership Action Plan being adopted tonight. I hope all in its entirety. I appreciate the direction and goals outlined in this plan. I also deeply appreciate that our mobile home communities received due consideration throughout this process. It matters to see us recognized as a vital part of Mountain View's housing landscape. This plan represents a crucial step toward greater stability for our neighborhoods. Mountain View residents of all incomes and all types of housing deserve to live with stability and dignity. For many of us, the goal is simply to stay in our homes without fear of displacement. Please give us the resources and support we need to be active partners in shaping the future of our homes. Whether through ownership or other models of community control, we want to ensure that our communities have security, dignity, and a real say in where we live. Thank you so much for your leadership on this critical issue.

Thank you, Anna Marie. That was the last of our speakers. I will now bring the item back for council questions and deliberation. Please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolutions attached to the report. Do we have any deliberations? I know that we have a motion by Council Member Kamei and it's seconded by Council Member Ramirez. I will let Council Member Kamei go first.

Great, thanks so much, Mayor. Okay, well, , it's very exciting, we're here. And I feel so apt that the seconders, Councilmember Ramirez, because I feel like this work was motivated by the very painful experience happening in our community where we saw people naturally affordable units getting demolished, our residents displaced, and a real frustration on our council on what we could do to help our residents stay in Mountain View, but also how to preserve housing affordability generally overall in our city. And over these seven and a half years, we've been grappling with that, and part of that comes to fruition tonight with our community ownership action plan. I think similar to the biodiversity and urban forestry plan, you know, these are plans, but it's all about the actions that go along with it to bring it into reality. But I think that what we can really be, I think, excited about is staff and the incredible work of Mr. Chen, his team, and how he has really tried to not only bring, I think, guiding principles, but also the five-year goals. And I appreciate how the different models it start, you know, one of the models is rental, but there's also, you know, three opportunities for potential ownership, which I think we've often heard as a council, our residents goals. So very excited that we're here tonight. I want to thank the co-op and our residents for their input, their collaboration on, you know, how we can both preserve and create more affordability in the city of Mountain View while putting our residents first. So it's just very exciting. So I just wanna keep it brief. We still have a ton of other items, but I just wanted to add that. Thanks.

Thank you, Council Member Kamei. And you were the one that made the motion, seconded by Council Member Ramirez. Council Member Hicks.

Yes, I will be supporting the motion. And I just wanted to thank staff and everybody who worked on this. I also wanted to say that, so in another life, before I lived in Mountain View, I worked for a community land trust for 10 years. And so going over this work, it's really heartening to see that, for example, the guiding principles are very much speak to the work I did in the past. So I think we're really on the right path in particular. I will not read all six of them, but decommodification, resident roles in governance, et cetera. These are all the things that I worked on successfully in the past and did see that preservation can be more affordable than starting from scratch. So I hope that will happen here as well. I also wanted to highlight another thing that seems like going on the right path is I asked in our council written questions whether staff or community-based organizations have been talking to any potential community-oriented organizations or developers because I think that's really key and the answer I got was that, it's a long answer which I won't read, but that staff has spoken with at least three community-oriented developers who've expressed interest in supporting this. So that's another thing that tells me we can be on the road to success so I will be supporting the motion.

Thank you, Council Member Hicks. Before we go to the vote, I would just like to say thank you to staff and thank you to our community for pushing this. A lot of programs relating to this kind of preservation strategy of community land trust, limited equity co-ops, and the other one is community development corporations. A lot of the ones that exist now existed without a lot of help from their local government or cities. This is a way Mountain View can lead to create that ecosystem that is needed, especially in the time where the recovery of our economy is very K-shaped. It has been really since even before the pandemic, but then that supercharged after the pandemic. And it has been getting worse. One of the ways to really negate a lot of that pressure is essentially looking into housing. And as we look into housing, you have the three P's framework, and this is very much in the preservation of the P's, which has always been the squishiest of the P's. A lot of us know the production, a lot of us know tenant protections, and we've also led on that. We have records of leading that, very few cities lead on preservation because it's hard to do. It's hard to grapple with. And this is where Mountain View is leading. This is an incredible framework that other cities have not even looked at, don't even know where to even begin. We are beginning it. And I'm really proud of the work of our staff and our community because there's no way we can make this happen without the community pushing. Very similar to the item before this, the biodiversity strategy. This is where not necessarily we're relying on our community to be experts, but we're relying on our community to really carry a significant amount of work to make this happen. And so I am really grateful to having the community do that. Particularly I'm also highlighting this does cover the mobile home parks. So it's not new development, it's existing. So all our wonderful mobile home parks would be under this framework. So I remember a long time ago, there was a great documentary about how vulnerable our mobile home parks, just in general, because it was a national doc, it was a documentary that covered mobile home parks nationally. However, they did do a focus on some of our parks here in Mountain View and interviewed some of the residents there. This was before we had our rent stabilization program for the mobile home parks. But it did cover not only getting protection set, but the next step. This is that next step of the possibility of the mobile home park residents owning their park, what kind of system that would take. And there are resources out there on a national level, but it is so important to really highlight how much our city is looking at putting that investment ourselves. We are taking that step forward. So I'm really glad that this is a big step forward everyone in our community to really addressing preservation and protecting our naturally occurring affordable housing. So with that, let's take, oh, yes, Council Member Kamei.

I'm so sorry. Adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View to transfer and appropriate $1 million from the Below Market Rate Housing Fund to the Acquisition and Preservation Sub Fund to help fund community-owned housing projects as part of the Community Ownership Action Plan. To be read in title only, further reading waived. and adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View to appropriate 425,000 from the General Housing Fund to fund capacity building efforts as part of implementing the Community Ownership Action Plan to be read in title only. Further reading waived.

The motion also includes the items you didn't have to read. It's the staff recommendation plus those items.

Yes, correct. I just didn't read the things that we need to read right now, but pretty soon not.

Yep, the voters can decide that this fall. All right, so let's take it to a vote. And that motion passes unanimously. Thank you everyone for your work on this. All right, so we have our next item, item 7.2, call for a municipal election for November 3rd, 2026, and place a measure for the transit occupancy tax on the ballot. Assistant City Manager Arne Andrews 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, and we are ready for your staff presentation.

Good evening. Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council. Tonight's item is the culmination of one of Council's strategic priorities. The fiscal year 2025-26 and 26-27 Council Work Plan included a priority item, which was pursue a 2026 revenue measure to seek additional funding for priority community projects and services. To that end, in September of last year, the council approved a 2026 revenue measure ad hoc subcommittee and assigned the members of the council finance committee to meet to review revenue measure options. The subcommittee met five times between October 2025 and June of this year, and tonight is the culmination of their deliberations with a recommendation that's coming forward this evening. One of the other things that have transpired since the ad hoc committee has been meeting is we also wanted to engage our community and let them know that this was a conversation that the council was gonna have. And to that end, we did a mailer of about 40,000 of the homes in Mountain View, to which we actually got from a marketing standpoint, a pretty good response. We actually received over 1200 online responses and about 300 write-in responses. So we actually heard from about 1500 of our residents. In addition, the finance director sent an email to all 19 of the hotels in the city. We have heard from two of them. Basically their responses to us was they would be interested in meeting and speaking at some point. And so we've offered to meet with any hotelier that decides they would like to meet with us. From the resident survey, we asked them to look at six different priorities and rank them. And so you can see that the responses from residents, a lot of interest in streets and roads, a lot of interest in public safety, affordable housing. We just heard the item before us, the interest in maintaining affordability in Mountain View. And then local parks, either the addition of new ones, the maintenance of existing ones, And then we also heard quite a few people just talk about infrastructure in general. There was the ability for residents to also just add other. And so we had a lot of residents that talked about other issues, including oversized vehicles, commercial vacancies, appliance electrification, parking, pickleball. We heard about that this evening as well. And then interest or lack thereof in road diets. So the item before you is a recommendation to update our transient occupancy tax or what we refer to as TOT. A TOT is a tax that assessed on hotel or motel room occupancy, some call it a hotel room tax. The city's transient occupancy tax was last amended in 1991. And at that point, it was increased from 8% to 10%. Since that time, almost all of our neighboring jurisdictions have updated their TOTs to rates higher than where we currently are. So as a result, we have one of the lowest rates in the surrounding area and also just looking at other large tourist and hospitality destinations in the state. The proposed increase because of how low we are would likely not have any impact on our competitiveness in the hospitality industry. And you can see that in the table that was included in the staff report and also before you here. Our 10% is clearly one of the lowest in the area. And so the recommendation before you this evening, which we'll get into a little more detail later, is an up to recommendation, which provides first the electorate to decide in November if this is something they want the council to have the latitude to do. And then if they agree, then ultimately the council could decide what they think an up to increment could be between the current 10 and up to 15%. Staff went ahead and did some analysis on what this would have meant retrospectively and what it could mean prospectively. One of the takeaways, if you just look at the baseline TOT from 2023-24 to the current estimate, you can see that it's increased from about 8 million to 11 million, which shows that we do have strength in the hospitality sector coming out of COVID, going from the 8 million to 11 million. And retrospectively, if somewhere between the 2% or a 15% rate were in effect, it would have been an addition of about 1.6 million to about 5.5 million. And prospectively, that same analysis, any increase from 12% up to 15% would be an addition estimated revenue of about 2.1 million to about 5.4 million. I mentioned that we're recommending what's referred to as an up to model. So you can see the recommended ballot question, which talks about the areas that the community mentioned were of importance to them, and then compotes to what is known as an up to model. And you can see the language actually authorizes the city council to increase that at a point in the future, working closely with the city attorney on this ballot language. So next steps, August 7th is the last day for resolutions calling a measure. At a date to be determined, there will be a deadline for submitting primary arguments in favor of or against a measure. August 12th would be the last date to amend or withdraw a measure. A date to be determined would be the deadline for submitting rebuttal arguments to primary arguments in favor of or against the measure. And at a date to be determined, that would be the deadline for submitting an impartial analysis by the new interim attorney. And then, as I mentioned, in the November-December timeframe, depending on the outcome of the election, staff would return to council to see what, if anything, action council would like to take to move from the current 10% to something up to 15%. So before you tonight, you have four actions. Adopt a resolution of the City Council of Mountain View. First, calling a general municipal election and ordering consolidation with the statewide general election for the purpose of submitting to the voters a ballot measure to amend Mountain View City Code Section 33.2 to authorize City Council to increase the city's transient occupancy tax. The second, authorizing members of the council to author an argument for the ballot measure. The third is directing the city attorney, as I mentioned, to prepare an impartial analysis. And then finally, authorizing the city clerk to contract with the County of Santa Clara for services to be performed in connection with the general municipal election to be held on Tuesday, November 3rd, it's supposed to say 2024 instead of 202, to be read in title only, further reading waived. 26, thank you, I'm still back with Measure G for brains. So that concludes our presentation, and with that, we're available for any questions.

Thank you, does any member of the council have questions? Staring down. I am seeing no questions. So we will go to public comment. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on any item on the consent calendar? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom. Sorry. Would any 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. Each speaker will have 90 seconds or one and a half minutes. I am seeing no speakers in the queue. I am seeing no speakers online. So I will bring it back to the council for questions and deliberation. Please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolution attached to the report. I see Council Member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor, and I appreciate Councilmember McAllister making the motion so I don't have to read it. But there are two quick things. First, I want to express my appreciation, and I'm confident this is true also of the other ad hoc committee members, the appreciation to staff and the City Attorney's Office for the quick pivot. I know there was a lot of work down a particular direction, and I think that was important work, and I think that will have lasting value when I know the TOT increase was not the thing that we were contemplating when we first started this journey. So thank you for putting this together in a relatively quick period of time. And then second for the motion, part two is authorized members of the council to author an argument. I would request if the other members of the ad hoc revenue subcommittee would join me. So I would request to Council Member McAllister to include Mayor Ramos, Vice Mayor Clark, and myself as the members of the council who would be authorized to prepare that argument for the ballot measure, thank you.

All right, seeing no other speakers, Council Member McAllister.

Well, you know, Council Member Ramirez, you worked so hard on it, I think it's a disservice for me to read it. I think you should take the motion, and it's your honor to have it if you like. Thank you, you can take it.

Is the seconder okay with that? Thanks, Councilmember. I will move to approve the staff recommendations, including adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View 1, calling a general municipal election and ordering consolidation with the statewide general election for the purpose of submitting to the voters a ballot measure to amend Mountain View City Code Section 33.2 to authorize City Council to increase the City's transient occupancy tax. Two, authorizing Mayor Ramos, Councilmember Clark, sorry, Vice Mayor Clark and I, to author an argument for the ballot measure. Three, directing the City Attorney to prepare an impartial analysis. And four, authorizing the City Clerk to contract with the County of Santa Clara for services to be performed in connection with the general municipal election to be held on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026, to be read in title only for the reading waived.

Thank you for the motion, Council Member Ramirez. It has been seconded by Council Member Hicks. Thank you to my colleagues on the Ad Hoc Revenue Measure Committee, whatever it's called. I look forward to trauma bonding with you on the election campaign trail. With that, let's bring it to a vote. And that motion passes unanimously. We're going right through these. So now we will move on to item 7.3, resolution appointing a retired annuitant as interim city attorney under government code section 21221H. Human resources manager Lindsay Bishop 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.

All right, good evening, mayor, vice mayor, members of the city council. The item before you this evening is a resolution appointing Jannie Quinn as interim city attorney. Earlier this evening, council recognized current city attorney Logue for her service and her appointment to the judiciary. At the direction of council, city staff is working with Terry Black and Company to identify a successor and to fill the position. Recruitment is underway for an anticipated appointment in the fall, an onboarding of a new city attorney excuse me, in this calendar year. Until the vacancy is filled, the city needs to appoint an interim city attorney. Jannie Quinn retired in 2019 after 24 years of service with City of Mountain View. In addition, Ms. Quinn served as the interim city attorney in 2022 during the recruitment search that resulted in Ms. Lowe's appointment. Ms. Quinn is available and possesses the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to serve as interim city attorney until council makes a regular appointment. Government Code 21221H permits the City Council to appoint a CalPERS retired annuitant to a vacant position during a recruitment with several restrictions, which include the following. The interim assignment is required to be a single appointment and may not exceed 960 hours in a fiscal year. The proposed interim assignment complies with all applicable CalPERS requirements. Staff recommend appointing Ms. Quinn as interim city attorney with an hourly rate of $179.66, effective July 6, 2026. This concludes my presentation, and Human Resources Director Maxine Gullo and I are available for any questions.

Thank you. Thank you. Does any member of the council have questions? Seeing none, we are moving on to public comments. 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 90 seconds or one and a half minutes. I am seeing no public comment and I'm seeing no virtual public comment. So we will now bring this item back for council questions and deliberation. Please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolution attached to the report. Council Member Showalter.

Yes, I had the pleasure of working with Ms. Quinn for many years in earlier terms, and she was a delight to work with, very knowledgeable about the city and the law, and very good at explaining to anybody who needed explanations, and that's a major part of her job, how how that we could best go about doing things. So I think that it's wonderful. She's been willing to step up and join us for a few months in this, in our time of need. And so I'm very pleased to, Move the staff recommendation, which is to adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View, appointing Jannie Quinn as an interim city attorney under government code section 21221H to be read in title only, further reading waived.

Thank you, Council Member Showalter, and it looks like it was seconded by Council Member McAllister. With no other speakers in the queue, we will now take it to a vote. We are just zooming right through this, y'all. We will now move on to item eight, public hearings. Yes, yes, public hearings. All right, so we will have item 8.1, residential development project at 333 Franklin Street. Would any council members like to make disclosures?

No disclosures? No one met with anyone?

Okay. Planning member George Schroeder. Is that correct? Okay. And senior planner Phillip Brennan 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. And we are ready for your presentation when you are.

Okay, good evening, Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is George Schroeder, Planning Manager, and I'll be presenting a residential development project for your consideration at 333 Franklin Street.

Okay.

The project site is located mid-block on Franklin Street between California and West Dana Street in downtown Mountain View. The general plan land use is for medium-high density residential, which allows for 26 to 35 dwelling units per acre. The project site is located within the downtown precise plan, and specifically it's within area B or the Franklin Street residential transition area. The project site is 7,500 square feet in size, And currently the site is vacant, but previously contained an eight-unit apartment building. The surrounding land uses consist of single-family and multi-family residential buildings. The applicant, Silicon Valley Custom Homes, is requesting a planned community permit and development review permit to construct a three-story residential building with 11 apartment units and two two-story detached accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. The app can also request a heritage tree removal permit to remove two heritage trees from the site. The site is comprised primarily of the residential building fronting the street and two ADUs located at the rear. The site is accessed from Franklin Street along a shared driveway with the adjacent multifamily development located at 325 Franklin Street. Along the south property line is a pedestrian walkway to allow for access to the units. At the rear are two detached ADUs with parking spaces located beneath the ADUs. The project is providing eight below market rate or BMR units comprised of seven low income units at 80% of the area median income or AMI and one very low income unit at 50% AMI. This exceeds the city's 15% BMR requirements. The project also meets SB 330 replacement unit requirements for the eight previous rent-stabilized units. I want to note that the city red-tagged the previous apartment building in 2024 due to unsafe conditions. The city's tenant relocation assistance and right of first refusal provisions do not apply to previous tenants of the project site because of the timing of the formal planning application which was submitted after the previous building was already vacated, and because the city's previous tenant relocation assistance ordinance, or TRAO, that is applicable to the project exempted displacements due to a city enforcement order, such as the red tagging. Aside from the concession requested, which I'll go over in a moment, requested for the unit distribution between the main building and ADUs, the project complies with all the other requirements of the BMR ordinance. The project is eligible for a 50% density bonus because it provides more than 24% of the base units for low-income households. The applicant is requesting one concession under the state density bonus law to locate two BMR units in the ADUs in lieu of the main apartment building as required by the city's BMR ordinance. The app can also request five waivers that would otherwise preclude the construction of the development for open space, floor air ratio, landscape planting, building eave height, and trash enclosure dimensions. The design of the project is considered contemporary craftsman, designed in conformance with the downtown precise plan design guidelines. Traditional building elements include horizontal and vertical cement plaster siding, a street-facing gable roof, and angled dormers integrated into the roof form. The design intentionally integrates the third floor of massing of the roof dormers to serve as a better transition between downtown and the surrounding single family neighborhood.

Here's a view of the project from the shared driveway showing the main apartment building to the right and the detached ADUs to the left with the parking spaces located beneath the ADUs.

The site contains two heritage trees, one redwood and one silver maple tree. The project will require removal of both trees to accommodate the new buildings and site improvements. APCA is proposing a total of four 24 inch box replacement trees to offset the loss of the two heritage trees. The new tree replacements are anticipated to increase the onsite county coverage by 6% at full maturity. Auto parking is not required for residential uses located within the downtown precise plan. DAPCN is voluntarily providing two parking spaces on site, one electric vehicle or EV parking space, and one accessible space located at the ground level beneath the ADUs. The project is categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, under the Class 32 infill development exemption. And several public meetings have been held for the project. The project was reviewed at the design review consultation meeting in May 2025, where the applicant made some design changes in response to the DRC's recommendations. The applicant also held a neighborhood outreach meeting in February with 12 members of the community attending. Lastly, the zoning administrator reviewed the project on May 27th and recommended its approval to the city council. In conclusion, the project is found to be consistent with the applicable objective development standards It achieves general plan and housing element goals by increasing affordable housing opportunities in the city within close proximity to downtown and major transit routes. Therefore, staff recommends that the City Council adopt a resolution conditionally approving the planned community permit, development review permit, and heritage tree removal permit pursuant to the conditions of approval for the project. And this concludes staff's presentation, and community development, housing, and public works staff are present here tonight to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now hear from our applicant, CEO Jenny Kang, and Chief Architect Haoqing Liao with the Silicon Valley Custom Homes, Inc. You will see seven minutes on the clock.

Okay, I think most of the topics were well covered by George, so I'm just gonna take a couple minutes just to reiterate some of the highlights of the project. So just wanna mention that this project replaces deteriorated building that was old and unsafe and structurally unsafe, and with a very safe and modern and code compliant for the Mountain View downtown area. And this project also increases the housing supply from existing eight units to 13 units, which I believe it's making more efficient use of the valuable downtown site. and more than two-thirds of the units are affordable, and the affordability levels ranging from low income to very low income, which I believe is going to be contributing to the housing issues in the city and the Mountain View downtown. And the site is located within, excuse me, located within the walking distance from the downtown Mountain View, and less than half mile from the Caltrain Station, and which I believe it's going to make excellent transit-oriented housing project. And this is, in a nutshell, the project turns, in my opinion, safety concerns into a community asset. and which also provides affordable housing and supporting local businesses and boosting the vitality of the downtown. And with that, I encourage the Council to support the exciting and responsible housing production project in Mountain View. Thank you. Any questions, I'll be here to answer.

Thank you. Does any member of the Council have questions? Council Member Showalter.

Yes, I was just wondering why you chose to build ADUs at the back instead of making the building larger. It just seems like an unusual decision.

I think the idea was that the city would allow detached ADUs, but in the new development, George can correct me wrong, but the attached ADUs, there's limitations of adding that in the new development.

So it just allowed you to have a little more development?

Only in the detached building, the ADUs were allowed. That's how we were able to add more units.

Okay, so you couldn't have just made the other building larger?

No, then it becomes the attached ADUs, which is not allowed in the new development. Okay, thank you, I get it now. No problem.

And Councilmember, just to clarify, the main building is limited by the limitations on the allowable density by the general plan, and then the ADUs, the state ADU law essentially gives more density with the, just through the ADU development.

They took advantage of the amount that they could build on with the regular building and the ADUs are additional to that.

Correct, they've maximized what the general plan density allows.

Yeah, that's what I thought, but okay, thank you.

All right, thank you, Council Member Showalter. Council Member Hicks.

So I'm just curious, with 13 units and two parking spaces on site, how will you determine who gets those spaces?

So those two, thanks for the question, those two spaces, one for ADA parking and the other one is EV charging, so there's no tenant parking on site. And there has been some concerns raised around the lack of tenant parking spaces and because of the ROI of the project and also we looked into the options of putting in a basement parking and because of the narrow width of the lot, the clearance that requires to have a car go in and out with the ramp down, it was not only not feasible from the layout perspective, but it was very difficult to pencil in the project just because of the affordability level that we had to take into consideration.

So maybe I missed something, but who will get the parking spots?

So the ADA parking will be more of a first-come, first-served for the handicapped individuals. And then the EV parking charging station will be available for any tenant who wants to charge their vehicle.

So the charging one will be rotating and the... ADA one will be if there's a disabled person otherwise.

Correct.

To be determined.

Okay. Yes, thanks. Thank you, Council Member Hicks. Do we have any other questions from Council? 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 in Zoom or press star nine on your phone. A timer will be displayed on the screen. Each speaker will have 90 seconds or one and a half minutes. I am seeing no speakers and I am seeing no virtual speakers. So we will now bring this item back for council questions and deliberations. Please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolution attached to the report. Council Member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm happy to move to approve the staff recommendations including adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View conditionally approving a planned community permit and development review permit to construct a three-story multifamily building with 11 apartment units and two two-story detached accessory dwelling units or ADUs on a vacant site which previously contained a multifamily building utilizing state density bonus law and a heritage tree removal permit to remove two heritage trees on a 0.172 acre site located at 333 Franklin Street, APN 158-12-069 and finding the project to be categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act or CEQA pursuant to CEQA guidelines section 15332 infill development projects to be read in title only further reading waived. And I'll only add appreciation to staff for their work on the project and also to the applicant I think all of us are impressed with the high percentage of affordability in the project, which is always good to see. And also note that the project, if it's constructed, will help achieve our AFFH goals, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, which is one of our critical housing element programs. If memory serves, there's a specific call out for downtown above and beyond lot 12. So this is a project that will help us achieve that housing element program as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Ramirez. Council Member Hicks.

I will be supporting the motion, and I agree with the merits of the project that Councilmember Ramirez mentioned. I do want to say the one thing I'm disappointed about is that even despite the low level of parking provided, much of the site is driveway and hardscaping on all sides. So I'm hoping that in the future we can get some objective design standards that can maybe reduce that. because I personally don't want housing all surrounded, planted in concrete in our downtown or anywhere else in the city for that matter. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Hicks. Council Member McAllister.

Yeah, this project, when I look at a project, I always like to see how it enhances the neighborhood, it benefits the neighborhood, it doesn't impose anything on the neighborhood. And unfortunately, this unit, this project does not supply parking. for those units, so they're going to have to be parking on the street, and they go, oh, we got all this transit. Well, if we're looking at the demographics that are going to move in there, most of them will probably need cars to get to work, and so it's just going to be an additional burden when Lot 12 opens up, that there are more people are going to be parking on the street and it's going to detract from the neighborhood. It's not going to make the streets safe because their visibility will be impacted. And I got a kick out of it that they're going to have an EV in there. And again, looking at demographics, I don't know. I could be wrong that they're going to be buying EV vehicles to park in that area. So because of that, I'm not going to support this motion. I know they're allowed not to do it, but they were also allowed to do it. And going forward, I will always continue to make sure that the neighborhoods are protected from unnecessary burdens. And you think of parking as an unnecessary burden, but I think it is because it affects the quality of life for the people walking around and just looking for the visual aspects of seeing, when we were talking about the urban forest and so forth, all the cars out there and not actually to see some open space.

Thank you, Council Member McAllister. I am not seeing anyone else in the queue. So thank you, staff, for your work on this. Like Council Member Ramirez, I'm actually impressed by the percentage of affordability on this. I'm a little annoyed about the tenants who were evicted because of the red tag that don't have that right of first return and that the recently adopted TRAO that we had doesn't affect them because we passed it a little later. too late for these residents to develop that. That's on us, not on the applicant. But I will be supporting this development. And with that, let's bring it to a vote. And that motion passes 6-1 with Council Member McHouse, sir, dissenting.

Is it 10 o'clock now?

Oh, it's right there, 10 o'clock, let's go. Do we have, I'm assuming Council Member Clark, I already seconded it. Go ahead and make your motion.

Yes, we only have one item left and it's a really important one, so I'll move that we continue past 10 p.m.

Thank you, Council Member Clark. I will second that unless we don't wanna do our budget. That's always an option. All right, we'll take it to a vote. And that motion passes 5-2 with Council Member McAllister and Council Member Ramirez not wanting to have a budget. All right, we will now move on to item 8.2, adoption of fiscal year 2026-27, budget fee modifications and funding for fiscal year 2026-27 capital improvement projects. City Manager McCarthy will kick us off and Finance and Administrative Services Director Derek Ramponi and Assistant Finance and Administrative Services Director Grace Jen will present the item. If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to city clerk now.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm sure glad that you voted to go past 10 since we are legally required to have a budget by July 1st every year. So with that, this is the culmination of many months that council has considered the budget, provided good feedback to staff. And so tonight is the official adoption of the budget and various regulatory things that we have to pass with the budget. So with that,

i'll turn it over to our finance director derek rampone to walk you through the changes that we've made and all the elements of this budget all right good evening thank you city manager mccarthy uh good evening mayor ramos vice mayor clark and council members derek rampone your finance and administrative services director and joining me is great saying the assistant finance and administrative services director The item you have before you tonight is the last step in the recommended budget process for fiscal year 26-27. The recommended budget is structurally balanced. We have some new ongoing staffing requests that are limited and targeted. The budget focuses on maintaining strategic service levels and advancing council priorities. Investments are also included in the budget to improve operations and support economic vitality. Overall, this budget really balances fiscal sustainability with strategic investments in city services and priorities. This slide provides a high level overview of the fiscal year 26-27 budget development process. The process really begins each November with the budget kickoff and department budget request development. Throughout the winter, the budget team works closely with departments and the city manager's office to review requests, evaluate priorities, and develop funding recommendations. In February, we presented the mid-year budget update to council, followed by the preliminary review of the recommended budget in April. The recommended budget was then published in May, providing the public and council time for review. On June 9th, the city council conducted the budget public hearing, and tonight represents the final step in the process with consideration of the CIP budget and adoption of the operating budget as well. As a reminder, the General Operating Fund budget has an operating balance of 145,000. This is down slightly from the last time you saw this item, which was at 150,000. That's due to the additional $5,000 of expenditures that are being appropriated for increased multicultural engagement programming, which was discussed on June 9th and will be further discussed later in this presentation. This slide shows the five-year general operating fund forecast. Fiscal year 26-27 is structurally balanced with the projected operating balance of 145,000. Looking ahead, staff does project some modest operating deficits beginning in fiscal year 27-28. as expenditure growth does outpace revenue growth. The forecast does return to a positive balance in 2030-31, and that's largely due to some projected reductions in pension costs, and that's as of today. There were three adjustments that were made after the recommended budget hearing on June 9th. The first one is to appropriate $100,000 for lease payments for property located at 485 and 495 Clyde Avenue, which was approved in item 4.31 this evening. The second one is to finalize the increase in the per term stipend that council members receive from $3,800 to $5,000 per term, as also discussed at the June 9th meeting, that has a cost of $12,000. And then the third one is the $5,000 increase, ongoing increase in multicultural engagement programming that was discussed at the June 9th meeting. Before concluding, I'd just like to thank the City Council for the guidance throughout the budget process and for the opportunity to present the fiscal year 26-27 recommended budget this evening. I'd also like to thank the many staff members across the organization who contributed to the development of this budget with special recognition to the budget team for their hard work and dedication throughout this process. All recommended budget actions are detailed in the staff report before you tonight. Staff respectfully recommends that you approve these actions and adoption of the 26-27 budget with the related appropriations. And with that, we are happy to answer any questions.

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

Let's bring it home, y'all.

No questions, no questions. All right, so now we'll move on to public comment. Would any member of the public on the line or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star nine on your phone or turn in a blue card. A timer will be displayed on the screen. Each speaker will have 90 seconds or one and a half minutes. So it looks like we have two in person speakers, Lauren Hatton followed by Daniel Kelly.

Good evening and thank you so much for the opportunity to speak. My name is Lauren Hutton. I'm the managing director of Peninsula Youth Theater. We are a resident company of the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts and have been with MVCPA for decades now. In the last few years, our expenses at MVCPA have increased increased astronomically, and as part of this budget plan, you are projecting further increases, including increases to our patrons by eliminating the tiered facility use fees. We are doing everything in our power to absorb those increases and keep our programs accessible to our community, but when those fees go up on the side of the center, we have no control over that. So we are asking that you please reconsider the facility use fee elimination at the $2 level. And to just keep in mind how these fees impact the organizations in your community. We are effectively being priced out of Mountain View by the raise in fees over the last several years. And we want to stay. We love it here. It's our home. We love the center. We love Mountain View. But the fee increases have been really, really detrimental to our organization. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Daniel Kelly.

Hi, thank you. My name's Dan Kelly. I'm a longtime Mountain View resident. I'm a board member of PYT. I wanna echo much of what Lauren said and add that I think PYT is a real asset to the community. My children participated, they're too old now, but they got a lot out of the program and I think The people who participate, we serve a lot of children over the course of the year, and they all get a lot out of the program. The Center for the Performing Arts is a beautiful resource that the city has, and the city can choose who uses it, and in the choices they're making, they're pricing PYT out of using that space, which I think is a real shame. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you. I see no other in-person speakers in the queue. We will now take virtual speakers. I am seeing none. We will now bring the item back for council questions and deliberations. Please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolutions attached to the report. So it looks like we do have a motion and a second. Before we get to that, I do have a question, because I do want to address what was just in public comment. It might be too late to do any action, at least for this upcoming budget, but is it something that we can look into?

Mayor, I would ask that we hear from our community services director about this. I know the participants pay to participate in PYT. Okay.

Good evening, Council. John Marchant, Community Services Director. And I first want to start by thanking PYT for being here and bringing this up. They certainly are a valued client and user of our facility and have been for a long time. And we want to continue that relationship over the time. So what we are recommending is that there is basically, it's called a facility use fee. Think of it as a convenience fee. So we, the city, pays to have, as charges go through for the purchase of a ticket, we have to pay for that service through the software company that provides that service. So previously, what we are recommending to eliminate, which was discussed, that tier, any ticket that was under $30 would pay $2 as that convenience fee. any ticket over $30 would pay a convenience fee of $3. What we're recommending is that everybody, no matter what the price of the ticket, to pay that $3. This fee has not been raised since 2009. So 17 years of not increasing that fee, which our costs go up, and that's why we're making that recommendation.

Do we have any follow-up? Oh, Council Member Hicks.

So what are we talking in terms of like if we, for example, if we kept it at $2, what would we be talking about per year in terms of?

I don't have that math in front of me and I'm sorry. I also want to highlight that as you're probably aware, PYT offers a number of matinee programs for students and we do not charge that fee on those tickets. And so it is just the tickets that are available to the general public.

So nobody knows like even roughly per year whether we're talking several thousand, 10,000, 50,000, like nobody knows.

I just don't have the volume off the top of my head. I'm sorry.

Council Member McAllister, do you know the rough fee?

No, I don't. But I have a question for him. So that's a pass-through fee, right, to the consumer?

Correct.

Not to PYA?

That is that the consumer is charged that, not PYT as an organization.

One other follow-up question to that. So the public comment speakers are talking about increased fees. So it was more than just this fee. Was there another fee that is affecting them in the increase?

So over the past couple of years, several actions have been taken with that program of which yes, there have been some fee changes to bring us in line with what the market average is or even below, but we have been making changes so that we can staff appropriately. And when you staff appropriately, we're passing on some of those costs, which is the greatest impact that they're seeing right now. Okay.

Council Member Kamei. Great, thank you. Would it be possible for Council to get a off agenda memo with the information on maybe in aggregate what we've been doing and related to the different fees and the costs and things like that? I think it'd just be helpful for all of us to have that information, if that's okay?

Sure, absolutely.

Wonderful, thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Kimme.

I didn't know how I was gonna go with that. So we do have the motion by Councilmember McAllister and is seconded by Councilmember Showalter. Did you already read the thing? Oh, he did not read the thing. All right.

I figured I'd give him a break because I saw the length of this and I go, do I really want to make the motion on this one? But you want me to read it now for you?

Yeah.

Okay. to memory of Lucas. Oh, I'm sorry, wrong line. Adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View. One, adopting the fiscal year 2026-27 city budget. Second, appropriating funds to cover expenditures approved by said budget. Three, authorize the city manager or designee to execute funding agreements consistent with the nonprofit funding appropriations in the adopted budget. Four, adjust the budget license tax amount by the annual CPI, and five, authorize the finance administrative service director to adjust appropriations in various funds as needed to align with actual reserved earned and received as specific, specifically set forth herein make final adjustments to the community stabilization and fair rent act and mobile home rent stabilization ordinance budgeted and fees. Adjust appropriations related to the Graham Middle School site based on bill invoices and determine final budget amounts based on council direction to be read in title of further reading waived. And adopt the resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View amending the City of Mountain View master fee scale to be read in title only further reading waived. Adopt the resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View amending the fiscal year 2025-26 salary plan for hourly employees and adopt the physical 2026 salary plans for regular and honored hourly employees to be read in title only, further reading waived. And as acting as a Mountain View Shoreline Regional Park Community, adopt a resolution of the Board of Directors of the Shoreline Regional Park Community. One, adopting the fiscal year 2026-27 Shoreline Regional Park Community budget. Two, appropriate funds to cover expenditures approved by said budget. And three, authorize the treasurer to adjust appropriations as needed to make payments in accordance with the tax sharing agreement with the Santa Clara County and the Educational Enhancement Reserve Joint Powers Agreement to align appropriations with the actual reserves earned and received as specifically set forth herein and determine final budget amounts based on board direction. To be read in title only, further reading waived. And acting as the City of Mountain View Capital Improvement Financing Authority, adopt the resolution of the City of Mountain View Capital Improvement Financing Authority MVCIFA adopting the fiscal year 2026-27 budget for the debit service payments appropriating funds to cover expenditures approved by said budget and authorizing the MVCIFA treasurer to make budget adjustments and determine final breathing amounts based on MFCIFA board direction to be read and titled in further reading way.

Thank you, Council Member McAllister. And that has been seconded by Council Member Showalter. I see Vice Mayor Clark on the queue.

It was just the same thing again. Just to clarify, the motion covers all of the recommendations printed in the staff report, including those that you read. For a few of these, you didn't do anything wrong. It's just the... The staff recommendation includes things in addition to what was read. So just clarifying, we're approving the staff recommendation plus everything you read.

This is what I was told to read by the mayor, so I did.

It's in the record.

It's in the record.

All right. With that, I see no other people in the queue. Let's get this vote on. Passes unanimously. We have a budget y'all. All right, now we will go to item nine, council staff and committee reports. Do we have any council staff and committee reports? I see council member Showalter.

I'm gonna let everybody else talk about all the fun stuff in Mountain View, but I wanted to share with you that last week, on Monday and Tuesday, I traveled to New Mexico as your representative from Silicon Valley Clean Energy to take part in the celebration of the completion of the SunZia wind farm and transmission project. This is the largest wind project in the United States. It's literally three times larger than the next two largest wind farms combined. It's huge. It includes 3,650 megawatts, 916 wind turbines that are spread over 90 miles, and 550 miles of high voltage direct current line. that enables this power to be transmitted over such a far distance. Normally, when you use AC lines, you lose a lot of power over time. But with the use of this AC, I mean use of the DC, that those power losses are much, much, much smaller. And so this was new technology. It was developed in Sweden, it's been used there, but it hasn't been used here before. And so it went 550 miles from New Mexico to Arizona, then it switches over into AC, and it goes into California. And we and, Silicon Valley Clean Energy and a number of other CCAs or early customers in this. And one of the things that makes this so cool is that, well, the time. We're in a time when wind power isn't really popular with everyone. So to have completed this project is quite an accomplishment. It took 16 years to get through all the permits, the financing, a mere $11 billion of financing and construction for three years. And it's really a fabulous proof of concept that huge quantities of clean energy can be transmitted many miles from where they're produced to where they're used, which is just vital for us to transform into a clean energy country, which is one of the things I think most of us want to do. So I wanted to share that with you and say that really we should all be proud that we're part of this CCA movement that has been so effective at inspiring clean energy projects to be produced. And this is just a great example of one. So that's what I wanted to share. And we went to a lot of fun stuff locally, but other people can talk about that.

Thank you. Council Member Kamei.

Thanks, Mayor. So I just wanted to clarify when we were talking about item 7.1, about our community ownership action plan, I failed to highlight Council Member Kalash's advocacy that we, the city, should own our own housing units. And I really, I'm so sorry that I omitted that. and I've tarnished his legacy related to the city owning housing because I forgot. Is that good? Are you happy now? Okay. Thank you. Okay. And now that he has his flowers, so on June 10th, Microsoft invited the council to, and I attended their data center grand opening. The 11th, I attended the city's association, Annual summer meeting, it was related to our resiliency. Really fascinating, really great. I think a majority of us attended. On the 16th, we had our Council Transportation Committee. And on the 18th, I attended the Future Proof Your Business, our collaboration with VTA and the chambers. And then this past Saturday, we had our Pride. Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Kamei. Council Member McAllister.

Well, I guess since you mentioned a couple items, I did attend the city association and that was interesting to hear. The response, the emergency response, we had a CTC meeting where we went over the ATP and I thought we gave some very valuable information, some of our thoughts on that one. And I also was honored to be with my fellow council members Most of them. And that was my first attending to that meeting, and it was quite impressive to see the activities and how it was set up. But I also wanted to bring up on item nine that it's been kicking around for a while, but we haven't addressed it. I responded to a customer's question constituents concerned about RV parking over on Gemini. So I went over there to look at it, to talk to the lady, and it was interesting that when I was there, the, what is it? N-E-P? N-E-S. N-E-S. The neighborhood.

Event services.

The services were there checking on some of these RVs. And I got a glimpse of what was actually taking place and what they did and how they went in there and tagged them. But what was interesting is that there was about three unhitched trailers and I asked them what could they do and I said since they don't move and I said well that's not part of your ordinance so we really can't do much except registration or something like that Well, that's interesting. And I said, are we getting a lot of those? And they said, yeah, we're getting a lot of them coming from Palo Alto and other cities. And I go, oh, because they're putting in regulations to do it. And in fact, there was one trailer that was sitting about five feet away from a fire hydrant. And I said, can we do something about that? I left at the time so I'm not sure exactly what took place. But I'm bringing this up now because we are increasing with a lot of unhitched trailers are coming along and I think that we've, and also we just got a report from our assistant city manager giving us an update on the memo that we asked about going down. And I was wondering, as the council feels like, should we adopt some new regulations to fill in the gap, especially like the van lords, that it was interesting how they said, the police said, well, I said, can you tag the registry owner of the RV or the trailer? And they said, no, we have to go after the, we tag the person that lives in there. And I go, well, how do you get to tag the person if they're not around? and there was a cat and mouse range that was always confusing on who was gonna be responsible for moving their RV. But since it wasn't in one of our agreements, and I could be soft on that idea, but I go, okay, whatever. But it would be interesting to maybe consider having staff, because this last one was a memo, to maybe write up a memo of saying, as we move forward, that we might have an action plan. And I just wonder if other people are interested in that or if they've gotten comments from our constituents talking about the RVs up there. I know I got a couple emails from businesses who were saying that the people, their tenants are not coming in, the employees don't feel safe, the vacancy rates are up in that area, so there is some economic hardship on the people that are in that area and some of the neighbors. So I'm putting that out there to see if... we can maybe look at having staff again spend about an hour or so writing up a memo, potentially doing something about the unhitched trailers and the van lords. So I'm just opening it up for discussion. And if, I mean, I was just wondering maybe, you know, should we ask the staff to look into some ordinance going forward with the unhitched trailers?

I'm not entirely sure how we move forward on this. I guess this is a question if we wanna add something to our work plan essentially in this last six months now. Do we wanna take a straw poll to add an item onto our work plan? Will we have to remove items from our work plan in order to move this forward? Amendment, okay. We want a memo. Council Member Hicks?

So I'm just a little unclear on what a memo, a memo that is an action plan, how that's different than putting it on, that's putting it on the agenda. Maybe you can spell out. Somebody can spell out what that is.

Okay, my thought is because we're going to be coming up on February. and I'd rather have something in place that everybody has an idea what's happening, the people out in the RV parks and the trailers that all of a sudden they don't, something happens, but here they're given the opportunity to give input to what's going on and understand what's happening out there.

Vice Mayor Clark.

I think what would be helpful, and I'm curious for feedback, after reviewing the memo that we received, and thank you for all the time and effort that went into that, the one thing that I'm most concerned about having some sort of semblance of either a conversation or at least knowing what our options are is what exactly happens in February when the settlement expires. Because I don't think, unless I missed it because I have, I might have missed it in the memo, but I think understanding exactly what happens in February, you know, one assumption is that Major C, basically we go back in time to what, August of 2022, where Major C governs, and settlement expires and we're basically transported back in time then to when what the voters passed governs i'm not sure everyone sitting at this day is necessarily wants that to happen um and but maybe i'm wrong as to what actually happens then but i think understanding from a legal perspective what will happen if we take no action between now and february would be helpful for us to know and that can be a confidential memo maybe if it pertains to the settlement. But that aspect of it is kind of what I'm most curious about because assuming we don't want to just sit here and do nothing and have everything expire and have an outcome we don't want, then we probably should start thinking about that. And I assume we probably don't necessarily need to authorize staff time. We would naturally, I would hope, as a proactive city, think about these things in advance, but I see Audrey, so I'll stop talking.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Clark, Mayor Ramos, members of the Council, Audrey Seymour, Assistant City Manager. What will happen at the end of February when the Navarro settlement agreement expires is that there will no longer be a requirement that the city maintain at least three miles of street where the parking of oversized vehicles is not prohibited. And we will no longer be required to provide a map that shows parking restrictions throughout the city and those segments. where there are no restrictions that limit oversized vehicle parking. Nothing else, well, and there are some noticing requirements regarding when the city does its street cleaning program, and also if a vehicle is oversized and parked illegally in an area covered by the narrow streets ordinance or the bike lane ordinance, there are special noticing requirements for how the police interface with those vehicles, giving them a copy of the map, for example, and not immediately citing. Those are the things that will discontinue with the expiration of the settlement agreement. There will not be, and that will mean that the narrow streets ordinance and the bike lane ordinance will continue to be enforced and in place. And nothing else will change in the areas that aren't covered by those two ordinance absent further or additional direction from council. So there were some things that happened around the same time as the Navarro settlement agreement that related to specific criteria adopted by the council for where there would be the posting of no 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. parking. And that criteria... resulted in some changes to where that restriction would apply and there were signs removed in the areas where there once had been signs, that does not revert back to anything automatically as a result of the settlement agreement expiring. That makes sense.

I think if there's a general understanding that it's okay for us to have conversations with staff and to start thinking about this before February without a giant study session or work plan, I think that's one thing. I don't necessarily desire that, but I just don't want to be in a world where we have really kicked the can down the road to the point where we've created a mess We've just created an enormous amount of uncertainty for folks who are on our streets and living in the streets and who deserve to know what is or isn't happening on what timeline. And that's my concern, which I think Council Member McAllister probably shares too.

So that was Vice Mayor Clark. Council Member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. I think I'm leaning more in the direction that Vice Mayor Clark just expressed. I guess I have two concerns. One is I don't want to delay or remove existing work plan items that might otherwise be completed by the end of the year for a new priority like this. This is not something that I'm personally interested in spending a great deal of staff time on. So I wouldn't support a proposal to have staff do new work that they hadn't been contemplating that would displace existing, in my opinion, higher priority work. But I also appreciate and agree with the Vice Mayor's comment or observation that we don't, necessarily want to leave everything in a state of total uncertainty. I think the two memos that we've received from staff are, I thought, pretty comprehensive. There's a lot of analysis, a lot of suggestions for next steps, including a significant amount of activity ongoing. I don't know how much of this we can talk about because I can't remember if the memo was confidential or not. It was not, but there were tables with information about citations and tows and that kind of thing, a significant amount of outreach, and then from what I recall, staff working with major employers who are proactively conducting capital improvements, right, installing bike lanes, which would also then trigger the bicycle lane ordinance, the parking prohibition for streets with bike lanes. so i i feel like there is a significant amount of attention being paid to this but if there's something along the lines of what vice mayor clark was describing where especially the members of the council who are going to continue to serve you know can work maybe at a more informal level with staff and talk about you know here are things that maybe some of you would would be comfortable with and also where are your red lines that would at least provide some clarity and then maybe even some guidance for staff you know come the end of this year or january february where you have a pretty good sense of where the council's leaning i mean you're already very good about this city manager um so i i i would agree i'm not really interested in a big study session but um some way for the council to continue to receive the information that staff has already been providing, I think very well, and then also maybe informally getting some guidance from the council members who are gonna be staying on about what might make sense for immediate term or near term actions.

Council Member McAllister.

Yeah, I just had a question. So the Navarro settlement, that didn't include the unhitched trailers, did it? Is that it? I mean, it's...

Include them in what way? The Navarro settlement didn't really, it just defined oversized vehicles and references oversized vehicles, so it didn't really I wouldn't, when you say did it include the unhitched trailers, do you mean in specifically allowing them to park?

Well, do they have the same 72 hours because it's a trailer and not a RV and not a vehicle? I'm a little confused of that. There may be some part of the thing, but it's not part of enforcement or they have their own type of enforcement, so I wasn't sure how that actually worked.

So the Navarro settlement did not impact the 72-hour parking requirement that was left intact as even as a result of the settlement agreement and um i'm not certain why unhitched trailers are not subject to the same 72-hour rule i believe they are well here's somebody you might know

Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, Mike Canfield, Nominee's Police Chief. To answer the question specifically related to unhitched vehicles, they are required to follow the same 72-hour enforcement as vehicles with motors or if they were hitched. There is no exception.

What about notifying the person in it or the register owner of the vehicle? Is there some confusion on how someone gets notified who in it or rents it and so forth?

There is challenge associated to it. Specifically, if it is rented, it becomes harder to move. You have to find somebody that's then able to move it. But the complexity is more in the application of enforcement than the law itself. But there is no carve out that protects unattached trailers.

Yeah, I was confused a little bit. That's why I asked for clarity. But it is more complicated to do whatever you have to do then.

Enforcement is a challenge, has its challenges.

Okay, thank you.

Vice Mayor Clark.

I think if it's clear, and I see Council Member Hicks in the queue, I think if it's clear that we're individual council members or, you know, a group short of a Brown Act is, is okay to explore concepts or things that came out of the memo more deeply with staff, especially concepts like, there are more than just enforcement actions. There are incentives that I think other communities have explored. As long as I think there's an understanding that it's okay to do that, as long as we're not taking up so much staff time that we're taking them away from other things and other priorities, and that they are very much authorized to close the door on our face and say we've got other things to do. That's all I'm asking for. And maybe that's always been implied. I just want to make sure that that's okay and I don't get my hand smacked by my colleagues at some point later on. But I try not to do that. Every now and then I deserve it.

All right, City Manager McCarthy. Thank you, Mayor. So staff has an obligation to be preparing for the end of this settlement as it is now. So there's only a few months left. As you all are aware, as you've heard from our Assistant City Manager, we have been working with and have been contacted by various businesses and residents. And so we are working with residents various people to try and help solve some of the challenges that we're facing. So that will continue. And we do have our human services division. Obviously our police department is also working via the neighborhood and event services division. So this work will continue because we have to be prepared for what's happening in February. So we don't necessarily need council direction for that. I believe that if there is interest in seeing what other options there are, that is something that staff can work on. I don't necessarily see this as a work plan item because it's just part of some of the day-to-day things that staff's having to address, along with multiple other things that we're working on. If there is a desire tonight for council to give specific direction, though, for staff to look at anything specific, then I would ask that you take a straw poll. But otherwise, just know that I think what the vice mayor has suggested could also work, and staff's already working on various actions.

Thank you, City Manager McCarthy. Council Member Hicks.

Well, maybe what I was going to say is redundant at this point, as several other people have spoken. But since I pressed my speaking button, I'll go on. So I think it's pretty clear that things are not going to go on. They're not going to continue the same. There are multiple things that we're facing that are very different. expiration of Navarro, a pretty big change in council, and legislative changes that are having vehicles, lived-in vehicles, stream into Mountain View. So I think for all those reasons, we all know there are gonna be changes. And increasing comments from residents and companies here. And so I just encourage, although I don't want to displace items that are on the as other people have said they're on the uh our work plan for the next six months i also don't want to i think coming next year we're going to be seeing some changes and should be preparing for that and um so the various things that people have mentioned to move that on and be informed so that we can ramp up to those changes and and make those changes in a thoughtful way that i think our next council should be engaged in, I think. And also the comment that was made that the people living in vehicles on our street, I mean, this is the vast majority of our homeless individuals, that they should have some hint as to what's coming so they can prepare because everything will not stay the same.

Thank you, Council Member Hicks. Council Member Kamei.

Great, thanks Mayor. So I just had two questions, kind of one, did we decide on anything yet?

Okay.

No? Okay. The second is I did want to follow up on one of the items. It had been of interest when we spoke about this back in 2019 was the kind of the predatory practices that we're seeing related to those who are unstably housed. I mean, lack of better word and in the memo, it's, you know, van lords. I know that there's three cities that have taken action against that type of predatory behavior. I think that's like state legislature had like looked at maybe a bill or two about regulating that. Just kind of not sure where we are with that. I think to me it's just kind of bifurcating the issue a little bit. I think one of them is obviously related to the three miles of parking, but the other is kind of more predatory practices. And I think one of the actions we took this evening, talking about community opportunities for people to purchase and the co-op, I think this is another area I've personally been interested in trying to protect folks who are in the situations where they're being in these domiciles which cannot move and adhere to the 72 hours. And they're the ones getting the you know, notices and perhaps ticketed. And so I just, I don't know how colleagues feel about that. I think that's one of the things that the councils, whether this one, the ones prior haven't been able to tackle. And I'm not sure as February approaches, if that might increase, I don't know, you know, I don't know what could happen as people may feel the strain of, Navarro coming to an end, I don't know. I don't know how else the Council can tackle that, but that's one of the things that had been on my mind back in even 2019 that we've never spoken about.

I don't even know where to go from here. Did you want to make a motion?

Well, I don't know. I mean, I think there's many different ideas getting floated and so I'm just bringing it up. There are cities which have already had that. I don't know if other people are curious for more information. I only saw a short paragraph in our briefing. I don't know if there's more there, if people are interested in that. I think that obviously there's another issue which we're talking about is like the sunset of the settlement. So.

All right, Council Member McAllister.

So were you interested in exploring how to prevent the landlords taking advantage?

Okay.

Because there are examples that, you know, I know some people are concerned about the work plan, but if we already have examples, I could ask city managers if they look at other cities, what they do with their landlords. That's what you'd like to explore or get some answers on? I'm with that too, yeah, because that is, people are being taken advantage. And some of those units, if you look at them and they're rented, you go, how can anybody live in those things?

Council Member Hicks?

So I don't know whether the previous two council members who spoke, are you talking about an expanded, another off-agenda memo with more detail on that particular issue?

It can be. I just, I think that Council Member McAllister started the conversation with quite a few different topics and this is the one I'm of interest to me, which is we have made a lot of our work as a council protecting the most vulnerable. And I have been out because residents and other businesses have reached out to me. So I have been out in different parts of the community and I have seen it. I went this morning. And so it is something that concerns me. We do have three cities that are examples. There wasn't a lot of information in the off-agenda memo, so we could get more, but I don't know how other people feel. But of the different topics that Council Member McAllister put forward, it sounds like staff's preparing for February and the sunset, but this was one topic that the council's never tackled, this council or prior iterations.

Council Member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. My preference right now would be what the city manager was suggesting. I think there's, I feel like there's a substantial amount of work that is occurring sort of at an operational level on this, including some preliminary investigations of policy approaches. I think van lording was mentioned, if I'm not mistaken, in that memo. I have a different perspective about the van lording proposal, in part because of the practical matter when San Jose looked at it last year, the ordinance. It was ostensibly about van lording, but it's very difficult to enforce, and the primary enforcement mechanism is basically a prohibition against living in RVs. So I think it is not a good thing, and I don't think we should be encouraging it, Moving too far down the road basically is just, it's a defacto RV ban. And I think that's something that the council can consider. I'm not gonna be on the council for very much longer, but I personally would be reluctant to suspend existing work to elevate that. That's just my opinion.

about any of it. My general preference is to not displace any of our existing workload. That's kind of first and foremost because a lot of the workload, if we add this into a workload, it's going to change just by the nature of we're losing people on our council that may have different ideas about it. I don't know when this item will come back to council relating to the Navarro settlement. I'm assuming it will eventually. And we could probably guide some feedback to staff as Vice Mayor Clark was mentioning. about like things that the policies that were in the off agenda memo that we recently had and there are still more policies that city staff are exploring when it eventually comes back to us. And we probably are hearing from our counterparts in other cities about the different policies there, which we can also direct staff to consider when it comes back. I don't anticipate it coming back any time soon. Well, I mean, I guess it depends on what you mean by soon. I think it. If something is coming back to us, I wouldn't mind looking into van lording, particularly what I'm kind of interested in van lording is how, how prevalent it might be. I've been hearing different stories about it from different contacts. I've been hearing from, we did a while back, I was with Vice Mayor Clark, I don't know if I was mayor yet at that point, where we were just hopping into a van with the MVPD on a ride along.

I don't remember when that happened, but like.

It was a year ago where there was discussion about van lording and there were some stats that MPPD gave us. I don't think it was in the memo about the stats of like the percentage of how many of the RV residents were renting the RV from someone. I've heard different numbers from like the Law Foundation. on how actual prevalent it is, and they are different numbers. So it would be kind of interesting to understand that when it becomes something. I see City Manager McCarthy on the line.

Save us. Yes, thank you, Mayor. to be clear about what's gonna happen in February. So what will happen in February is everything will revert back to what the status quo was before. So the terms of the settlement that we're under now, we will no longer be under the terms of those settlements. That also means that the city could explore options, like looking at the predatory practices, looking at the unhitched trailers, are problematic for reasons that the police chief said, and also the restrictions that we're under in providing warnings, and then if no one's there, you don't even know who you're giving a warning to, who the owner is, who has it there, and we could have our officers spending hours or even days chasing down, trying to figure out who a trailer belongs to. So I think there is some low hanging fruit there that would be more simple ordinances that wouldn't displace the work that you all have prioritized for us to do. We are still working on all of that work plan and that will not stop because of this. But I think just realistically from an operations level as folks have mentioned, we just have to be prepared for the messaging, the noticing, some sort of transition plan so no one is caught off guard and especially those that are the most vulnerable. So perhaps what the easiest thing might be is for you all to just provide a general thumbs up or agreement that staff will continue to work on options that are related to the settlement ending. And then as far as timing goes, I think that can be a conversation that I have with council members. and what's realistic with what the work plan is versus how long some of these things might take. Because we are still in the settlement until February, so we can be working on things, but there's still some things we just cannot change at this point. If council's comfortable with giving that direction, it could be kind of a medium between what all of you have said, knowing that we're gonna be working on these items and then coming back to you all at some point in the future.

Does that sound good to people? Okay. So next, I guess if that, Council Member Kamea, you're still in the queue. Should we do this? Oh, go ahead.

Thanks. Thanks, City Manager McCarthy. Thanks, Mayor. I think that sounds fine. I just... want to be explicit and clarify that my interest in and even discussion of landlords was not to was not the same purpose as it sounds like perhaps the city of san jose councilmember ramirez you know i just wanted i think it's really important to clarify that i think mine is specifically related to predatory practices, I am seeing firsthand in how we're helping all of our residents, housed or unhoused, who are the most vulnerable. And I just wanted to clarify that. It's not to ostensibly do what other jurisdictions may have done. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Kamei. With that, should we thumbs up on what City Manager McCarthy? All right. All right, we have mostly thumbs up, which is good enough. And with that, I don't see anyone else in the docket for item nine. So with that, I will report out that I went to the public art ribbon cutting. There's a new public art at our transit station, yay us, and I probably suffer from heat stroke, and this is why I don't go outdoors. Then after that, I joined several of my colleagues for the City's Association, Santa Clara County, where we went over emergency response, essentially. And then I went to the Wagon Wheel Ice Cream Social, which was partially paid for by our neighborhood grants, and they're very appreciative of that. On the 18th, I went to the ABAG General Assembly. And then on the 20th, we had our Together in Pride event with these lovely t-shirts that are being modeled spectacularly by my two colleagues right next to me. And then we had another ribbon cutting for the Breakfast Club which is delicious. I ate so much food, RIP my diet. And with that, thank you so much for joining us. The council will enter summer recess. So our next council meeting will be held on August 25th, 2026. And this meeting is adjourned at 11.05 and we are halfway through my mayor administration.