City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, I will call this meeting to order at 5.03 p.m. We're gonna begin with 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 city council subject matter jurisdiction for up to three minutes during this section. State law prohibits the council from acting on non-agendized items. If you would like to speak on this item or the next item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person?

Is there no roll call?

No roll call yet, okay. If any member of the public would like to join us virtually or in person, like to provide us a 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 three minutes. All right, first up we have Jack Vorce, followed by Joel Torode, followed by Sue Torode, followed by Ronald Yin, followed by Robert Townsend, then Sherry Sanger, and then Ron Sanger.

Go ahead. Good afternoon. Dear council members, my name is Jack Force and my wife is Linda Lenoir. We have four children and three grandchildren. I have been a resident of Mountain View for over 40 years. We live on Glenboro Drive directly across the street from beautiful Sylvan Park. Recently, my neighbors and I noticed that the grassy area of the park near our homes was no longer being watered and therefore the grass was dying. We notified the Parks Department and they responded that the that they responded that the area had been identified as non-functional and would no longer be maintained with grass. We and our neighbors had never been notified that this idea was even being considered. We would have suggested other areas of the park which are much less utilized. The park's representative apologized for this lack of communications during the project planning phase. The area of concern is at the corner of Glenborough Drive and Sullivan Drive. For the past 40 years, this area has been used as a gathering point for neighborhood parties, holiday celebrations, yoga, tai chi, and small children's games, etc. Assembly Bill 1572, which was quoted to us by the Parks Department, is a proactive measure to safeguard California's vital drinking water supplies. In it, non-functional turf is defined as grass that serves no practical purpose for human activity or recreation. quote, areas that are not regularly used for sports play or social gathering. This is not the case for the area selected. Last week, the entire area was covered with six to 12 inches of coarse black mulch, making it completely unusable, unstable to walk on and as well as unsightly. It now looks like the waste from a coal mine. I completely support the city's water saving and biodiversity plans, but I think the area selected is completely wrong. With new housing, the city's population is rapidly growing, and thus the need for usable park space will be ever more important. I would be happy to discuss other areas of the park that would be less utilized in accordance with the city's plan. During this time when the nation is so polarized, we need to keep community green spaces where we can come together and feel connected to each other. I would like to invite the city council members to come and view the area, an area that was once beautiful and a community gathering point is become unsightly and unusable. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you. Next we have Joel Torode. And then Suter Road, if you guys could line up so you can just go right after another, that would be great.

Thank you very much. And I, my wife and family have lived here for 40 years. We've enjoyed every bit. You've done a fantastic job with our city and we're so happy that we live here. And I want to say today, we just heard less than a week ago what was happening to our park. We live at Sullivan Drive, right across, not across the street, but kitty corner from that area, and see it frequently being used by people who live nearby and partially by. We would have been happy to be part of an organization or part of a group that was going to get together and talk about where the park is going and how it's going to be used in the future and it's been a wonderful place for our grandchildren and children as well to be a participant in what takes place in that park area so i thank you again and our mayor who's done a fantastic, even in our main street down here in Mountain View, in the town itself, for places for nourishment and places to go eat at night. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Next we have Sue Turode.

Thank you so much, Council. I appreciate you taking us tonight. My name is Susan Turode. I live at 539 Sullivan Drive in Mountain View. We moved in in July 1986. when that home was just being built. And it has been a marvelous place for our children to grow up, for our grandchildren to grow up, and I have to tell you that history-wise, back in the 1990s, we even had Fourth of July celebrations of praise that would go down there the mountain view fire department would lead the way and the dogs were all dressed up and the kids were all in their bicycles it was a fantastic place and right in that particular area was where we would gather all the time every year we even had karaoke meetings at there. It was just an amazing time that we had. And I have to tell you, that is the people's park. It is, we see every day going through all day long people walking, walking through the park. We even have been walking for years through there. I did four or five laps at one time. And it's just been a marvelous time. But the one thing that stands out in my mind is that we had my father-in-law live with us for eight years. It was such a privilege and honor to have him in our home. But he loves that park. And he was there every single day, always walking there. And it meant so much to him that when he passed away, the family and I, we gathered and had the ability to be able to put a park bench there in his memory. And we go by there all the time, every week, and we see that park bench. But I tell you, it's not empty. There's somebody sitting there all the time. But that particular corner has been a historic place for all of us for over, good grief, 30 years. and it's a lovely wonderful place and i just wish you could see some of the times when the gatherings there when the cook cookouts are there and it's right there and so we hope that you will understand and see how much this little corner it may just seem like a little corner but it means so much to that neighborhood and it's for the people. And I know you care about it because you wouldn't be sitting there where you are and you wouldn't be serving where you are if you didn't care. So thank you so very much, thank you.

Thank you, next we have Ronald Yin followed by Robert Townsend.

Hello, my name is Ronald Yin and I reside at 547 Sullivan Drive. I resided at that address for more than 40 years. I'm here to address the replacement of the turf with mulch at the corner of Sullivan and Glenboro, which is only four houses away from where I reside. While the replaced mulch is unattractive as well as being unsafe and done without the residents' feedback, I will let others address this issue. I will stick to the issue of the purported goal of the replacement. Ostensibly, I'm told that the replacement was to comply with AB 1572, which is to reduce non-functional turf, and I emphasize the word non-functional, which means no function, not under utilization. I submit that the replaced turf was very functional for at least two reasons. As I've said, I've lived there for more than 40 years, and for at least the majority of that period of time, nearly every Fourth of July celebration has occurred on that plot of soil. Activities occurred in which lawn chairs and tables and barbecues be supplied by the neighbors and children's games would be played at that area. The other day, however, I walked through that area and I nearly twisted my ankle. It's no longer functional. It is a veritable lawsuit waiting to happen. The second reason for regarding the functionality of the turf is that more recently the city council has encouraged the formation of many neighbors to look after one another in the event of a major disaster such as an earthquake. In our block area we've called the formation of the cool kids block, which as you know is to encourage neighbors to help one another in the event of a disaster. Well, we the cool block kids meet there in that corner regularly to discuss activities in our neighborhood. This is no longer possible as we no longer can put lawn chairs there or tables there for half a potluck. similar to what's happened with the 4th of July then. So I would respectfully that I request the city to reconsider this decision and restore the corner lot to its former state. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Robert Townsend followed by Sherry Sager.

Thank you. I concur with everyone else who's already spoken. I have an office that overlooks this piece of grass or was grass. And there were people there every day. I would say that when parks people showed up, they would leave because they were going to dig or make noise or do something. So maybe the city staff would go there and not see anyone just because of their own presence. But this is a place that's regularly used. The Sutter Health people have lunch there almost every day. in the good weather. So it's just a very functional piece of area. I know that we have to reduce water use, and I feel NIMBY-ish, which is not a good feeling. However, this is an important piece of land that's made non-functional. I think I've made my points. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Sherry Sager, followed by Rod Sager. I hope I pronounced that right. Seeger.

Seeger. Seeger. OK. Hello. So I'm going to be reading a letter from one of our neighbors who.

You can get closer to the mic, though.

Oh, I'm going to be.

You can move the mic, too, to get closer to you.

Is this good?

Yeah.

I'm going to be reading a letter from one of our young neighbors instead of all of us old folks. She couldn't be here. She is picking up her kids from after-school activities. Dear Mayor and members of the Mountain View City Council, I'm writing as a longtime Mountain View resident and neighbor of Sylvan Park to kindly ask the city to reconsider the recent decision to replace the park's grassy area with brown mulch. When my family moved next to Sylvan Park in 2016, my son was two, and I was pregnant with my daughter. This neighborhood park, and especially its simple, open, grassy space, was one of the things that made it such a wonderful place to raise our family. My children are now 12 and 9, and that field has been part of their childhood. They have kicked soccer balls, thrown frisbees, played with friends, celebrated birthdays, enjoyed picnics, and simply run around there countless times. Its value was its flexibility. It was an open, accessible place where children could play, families could gather, and neighbors could enjoy being outdoors, especially as an alternative to the bigger main field, which is often crowded and used for other activities. That is why I was surprised and saddened to see the grass removed and replaced with mulch. I understand that the city may be balancing water conservation, maintenance costs, and other environmental priorities. I strongly support those goals. At the same time, replacing grass with mulch changes the function of this particular space. Children can no longer comfortably play soccer or frisbee, and the area is no longer suitable for the informal play and picnicking it once supported. We have lost more than grass. We have lost usable recreational space. I hope the city will distinguish between decorative turf and grass that serves an active recreational purpose. As Mountain View becomes denser and many families have little or no private yard space, flexible public areas where children can simply run and play are increasingly important. Open grass can serve as a soccer field, a picnic area, a birthday party space, or simply a place for children to invent their own games. These informal spaces also help build community. Over the years, this field has brought children, parents, and neighbors together in ways that are difficult to measure, but meaningful to the life of the neighborhood. This was not unused or purely decorative grass. It was actively serving as recreational space and its removal has reduced the parks usefulness for neighborhood families. I respectfully ask the city council and park staff to reconsider this decision and explore restoring the area as a usable play space. If conventional surf is inconsistent with current sustainability goals, I would welcome consideration of drought tolerant recreational turf or another environmentally responsible child friendly.

Thank you. All right, next we have Rod Seager.

Would the Council consider giving her another 30 seconds and I'll cut my time?

If you're reading a letter, you could probably just read the end of the letter for her. Okay.

She asked for the city staff to seek more input. The staff did ask us for input after decisions had been made. When we made our input, we were told in that meeting on August 5th that no changes would be made in the plan, that they waited to put turf in until they talked to us. But they also informed us at that time that... that they were going to proceed with plans. The last paragraph of the letter though states, Sylvan Park has been part of my children's lives for as long as they can remember. And I'm grateful they have had the opportunity to grow up with the park beside their home. I hope future children in our neighborhood will have the same opportunity. Thank you for your time, consideration and service to our community. So I guess my job a little bit is to summarize this and to say thank you so much for being willing to listen to us. We've had something of a frustrating experience. But I want to state a couple of things. Number one, I think everybody here, most of the people that I know in our neighborhood support the urban forest and biodiversity policy that was adopted by city council in June. We think it makes sense. We understand the need and that there are varying needs within our community. So, in terms of summarizing things, usable functional space within Sylvan Park has been lost. Biodiversity at this point has not been enhanced and it's not budgeted based on what we've been told by staff. The area selected for conversion from irrigated turf is not consistent with AB 1572. We were told that AB 1572 was the driving force behind decreasing irrigated turf. Future plans are likely to further decrease functional areas of Sylvan Park. If anything, we think more functional turf within our community is important in the context of the housing density is likely to increase in our community. And for physical and emotional well-being, we need more, not less. The ask, though, that we have is restoration of functional turf to Sylvan Park at the corner area bordering Sullivan and Glenborough Drive. We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to us and having this opportunity. It's been great, and thank you so much.

Thank you. We will now move on to virtual speakers. It looks like we have two online. And I'm so sorry if I messed up your name on that. Hello, you're unmuted now. Hello, do you hear me? I can hear you, yes.

Okay, thank you. Good evening, city council members. My name is Jeong Eun Son, a resident of the Gemini Avenue. I'm here to ask the city council members to consider excluding Gemini Avenue from streets where oversized vehicles can park. Gemini Avenue sits between a residential and an industrial area, which is separated only by a row of bushes. At night, it is quite isolated, and oversized vehicles parking there are turning it into what feels like, as a resident, an encampment, a real safety risk for residents. These oversized vehicles routinely stay far longer than 72 hours, sometimes over a month, even parking right in front of the gates. Police say there's nothing they can do since there's no ordinance against it. Meanwhile, people repair cars and load and unload the stuff, idle engines, and run generators right in front of our homes. Again, with no ordinance to stop it for police. When the city set a narrow street rules for oversized vehicle parking, it should have considered a neighborhood character, not just the street width. It's over 40 feet or not. I'm respectfully asking the city council to start a real discussion about excluding residential areas like Gemini Avenue from oversized vehicle parking. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you. Next, we have April Webster.

Hi, good evening. I sent a letter earlier today for the Performance View that built on a joint letter that I and a few other members of the community submitted last year. I snuck it in pretty late, so apologies. I'm speaking just for myself tonight, and I wanted to add one point that didn't make it into the letter. And that is, as the CTO role takes shape, I'd really like to see it bring a more multidisciplinary and human-centered approach to transportation. that can bring together engineering with planning, human factors, accessibility, sustainability, and then really focus on the way people experience our streets. Transportation is really a human system, so it matters how people perceive risk and they make decisions how they make mistakes and how they experience the streets. And this is especially true for children, older adults and less confident users. I've also been chatting with Caltrans staff recently about the Rengstorf Green Complete Streets project and the SB1 grant. And one thing that keeps standing out to me there as well is how multidisciplinary it is. and how it connects transportation with land use, accessibility, safe systems, green infrastructure, etc. So it's really not just an engineering problem. And I wanted to also share Caltrans Complete Streets team as a really interesting example of a leadership that takes this form. I learned about this a year or so ago and I was really pleasantly surprised to learn that the person that they hired to lead that team at headquarters has more of a non-traditional background. Her name is Susie Lindsay and she comes from landscape architecture and she shared with me that they had interviewed a number of folks from the engineering background but they decided to go with her because she had brought a more diverse view and more holistic sort of framing on transportation. So I'd encourage council to be a bit more open to candidates with this kind of non-traditional background and I really hope the CTO can help make sure council direction carries through in that vein from planning to project scoping into engineering design and construction. And then I also wanted to briefly comment on Ringstorf. I also sent a letter in about that. And I wanted to really encourage Council to reaffirm the direction that it gave during the 2023 SIPP. This is our first Green Complete Streets project. It sort of brings together our ATP and our biodiversity plan in a single project. And I think it's really important that we make sure we deliver on both of those, both the green and the complete. And I also want to add, if we're going to call it a safety and complete trees project, we really need to fully deliver on that and not partially. So thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

Thank you, April. That concludes our oral communications for public comment on non-agendized items. We will now move forward with the closed session announcement. Interim City Attorney Quinn will make a closed session announcement, and then we will welcome public comment on the items listed for closed session.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm gonna speak before our Interim City Attorney. So I would just like to ask the Clerk to move over our Community Services Director, John Marchant, to provide a couple remarks because I know there's significant interest in this. And also to let the community members know that we will be having a neighborhood meeting and we'll be following up with the neighbors about this in the next step. Hold on, let me just see if he is on real quick.

I do not see him on yet.

Okay, he must have accidentally dropped off, so I think I've stated what I need to state. So we will be following up with the neighbors, staff will be. Thank you.

All right, thank you for that.

Now, City Attorney Quinn. It's my pleasure to be back here and to make the closed session announcement. You will be recessing to a closed session period Agenda item 3.1 for public employee performance evaluations pursuant to California government code section 54957B1 for council appointees, city manager, and city clerk. Additional attendees at the closed session will include our city clerk, Heather Glazer, our city manager, Kimber McCarthy, and Nelson Fialo, the executive director of RPMG. Item 3.2 in the closed session will be conference with labor negotiators pursuant to California government code section 54957.6A. The agency designated representative is our vice mayor, Chris Clark. Unrepresentative employees, again, include the city clerk and the city manager. And Mr. Fialo will also be attending the closed session. and we do not anticipate any announcements after this evening's closed session.

Yay, all right, thank you. 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 three minutes.

I see no one here now.

Now we will take virtual speakers. April or April Webster, your hand is still up. Is that from the previous one?

No, I put it back up.

Oh, okay. Could you speak louder into your microphone, by the way, April? We are having a hard time hearing you.

sure is this a bit better that's better okay i have the my screen right in front of me now um thanks yes actually um i didn't realize that um i'd be able to provide comment on this particular agenda item um so i'm just going to speak really briefly i did mention that i sent a letter about this And I wanted to share that I think there's been some real progress in some of the areas that we had looked at over the past year, especially moving projects forward. I think the staff has done a great job of moving the biodiversity plan, the parks plan, and the active transportation plan through. So I give them kudos on that. I do think that some of the concerns we did raise are still relevant. Some of those are around just more transparent communication, finding ways to achieve that in terms of community engagement, finding, looking into how we can do that earlier across the city as more of like a system change if we could find a process because I think as one of the other speakers mentioned earlier, sometimes we're brought in a little bit too late for that to actually happen and have an impact so I think this is really important and somewhere else you know and some I work with Caltrans that same sort of discussion and thought is happening in terms of how can you impact a project and bring in the community and get that feedback at the start before you actually get into design so I wanted to share that One of the other biggest questions I have is whether some of the improvements that we've seen in some of the departments and conversations and projects is becoming more of a normal city practice. And that would be great to see that normalized across the city and not really depend on specific individuals, departments, et cetera. And then, Actually, I think I've covered most of what I wanted to say. But I just wanted to, you know, congratulate staff and, you know, keep moving, you know, forward. I think there have been a lot of good changes and I really hope that, yeah, we can move forward on things. Thank you so much.

Thank you, April. That concludes our public comment. The council will now recess to the plaza conference room for a closed session and will not return to open session for adjournment.