Downtown Committee - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting. Order at 08:05, and

Amanda could five. There we go. That

is This is We're getting close.

Getting close.

Could you cut the roll, please?

Yes. Committee member Kavanaugh is absent. Committee member Foreman?

Present.

Keith? Absent. Katz is absent. Lynn is Dylan is absent. Esslin? Present. Malera? Absent. Sheik?

Here.

Vice chair Baird? Present. And chair Kasparza?

Present. We don't have a quorum yet, so we will have to come back in a minute if we reach a quorum. Item number four is upcoming agenda topics. Any things you needed to report on that agenda?

Nope.

We We've

got the list of of things there.

In fact,

the next page. Yes.

Right.

Yep. She said we have a lot going on next year, so

Okay. Prepares.

Alright. Moving on to item number five, oral communications from the public. And do we have any public online?

There are no public online, and there's only staff here in the room.

Okay. I guess we don't really then have to go through that. So we'll move on from oral communications from the public to unfinished business. And six point one is the downtown development updates.

Morning, everyone. Hi.

Good morning. I'm Vincent Pon, associate planner. To give you guys provide you guys with the downtown development updates. So few updates from our last meeting in October. I see direct your attention to item number 17. That's 185 Dashford Street. The that project is approved for a minor facade model of Jenkins just for new storefront windows, meaning this thing's worth a little bit. 185 Castro, I believe, is Hummus.

Hang on. Just what? Yeah.

Hummus is now. One of immediately adjacent to Eureka.

Okay. The new one. Yeah. The newer Right. The new one. Mediterranean hummus.

Yeah. So

that's fine. Yeah.

I've been there. Oh, we're meeting the hummus place.

Like, three of our hummus place.

They're up at the Plaza Conference Room. So that one is just new storefront windows, so not much change on that one. That was approved by planning on November 17. They're still going through the building permit phase. So Oh.

They may have some construction, following few weeks if the building permits be approved. The second item is, not necessarily like a planning permit update, but more of just like new businesses, coming into downtown. So, item number 24747 West Dana Street, a new dessert shop for ground floor retail space with the up to the new building that's being built right there. Right where the that, like, floral shop is, like, right behind there's a Yeah. That was built. Built. So that's just the new dessert shop that's gonna anticipate it to be open. No occasions. Sorry. Yeah.

We have a quorum.

No. No.

We have a double quorum. I'm sorry.

We've got you you have to sit at the head of the table.

Oh, okay.

Because I was sitting

on the side here.

And then so we will pay a little bit.

So, yeah,

this Number 28 is just a new dessert shop that's being opened. So no. And so that's just a new business. And then the next item is item 21 for 250 Bryant Street. That's also new to operating in the existing office on 1st And 3rd Floor of this 315 office building. So that's an office tenant. No commercial there, but that's also an existing building at 250 Street. Additionally, I don't know Amanda, is Diana on the line?

Oh, she is not. No.

Okay. So just gonna give you a brief highlight on, items number 23 and, 24. So downtown precise plan update, as you guys may well know that we're undergoing a comprehensive update of the downtown precise plan. The information regarding, the downtown plan is that, there is anticipated to be some delays, on these, work for downtown precise plan given the new assembly bill one thirty, which has impacts to which has impacted staff's workload essentially for being able to kinda concentrate our specific efforts on the downtown precise plan. AB one thirty is something that is whereas, like, statutory exemptions from SQL, which is why staff has we kinda manage the workload regarding that.

And then similarly

Excuse me. So does that mean we're gonna go through and evaluate properties with with that in sequel? Or

Well, no. A b one thirty is, like, a a process for projects, like, kind of citywide. So it's just that there's kind of a a shortened timeline typically for certain projects, which is, limiting fast kind of, bandwidth in order to kind of concentrate their efforts on the apprecise. But, subsequently, there's also, senate bill 79, which is also recently passed, which does have more impacts to the downtown precise plan. So right now, that one is allows for, like, a lot, changes allowable do allowable land uses within one half mile of, rail transit stops.

So, essentially, the entirety of downtown. So that's why there's gonna be there's gonna potential impacts to anticipated impacts to the downtown area and which we will need to kinda do further studies on understanding how it should be just going into the precise plan areas. So that's just kind of a FYI regarding that. And Diana Pancholi, she, our principal planner, she, is leading the, or kind of in charge of the downpipe size plan update, so she would definitely be a good contact if you guys have any questions to, to kinda direct her away. And lastly Question on that.

Has there

there was a timeline on the website. Has that been updated? There was quite a timeline of when quarterly meetings or outreaches would be done. Has that been updated on there?

I'll have to touch base with, staff to make sure that that's updated, but I assume that it will be updated accordingly to what's and what our new anticipated timing of. And so lastly is item number 24, which is to talk sky. So this is a project project that has been ongoing by staff, and this is a an objective to establish some exterior lighting standards in the city to kind of use light pollution, both the wildlife, and maintain, like, the the ability to enjoy the night. So right now, this project has been ongoing since June, and there is a link that is available on the, our city webpage or allow us for community feedback, up until December 10 and next week. So you can follow the link that I think it is included.

Yeah. It's on on the backside, or you can visit it online. There's and you just label it at dark sky ordinance and provide feedback. Yes.

I did this some way. You know how responses for the community? I

would have to follow-up with the project planner on that, but because the, survey is still ongoing, I don't know if we have the full picture of.

Thanks for taking the survey.

Yeah. It was fun.

I'm glad you're actually It

was great. Fascinating already. You know? Yeah. Maybe

we'll be

able to see the Aurora Borealis now.

Yeah. Yeah. It's

okay. You're right.

Well, you're

a little tipsy, maybe. Yeah.

So that that is, the last of so that that projects will have to go to EPC and council, ultimately for an approval of the ordinance. It's anticipated to go to EPC sometime early twenty six, and then subsequently, it'll go to council at the first. That is all for the updates. Were there any questions?

Just yeah. If I think we did this last year, but then as we change, so I have staff members who handle the downtown committee. Like, if there's an item where there's a change, could you, like, underline the address or something just so we can see where the new where the changes are?

Yep. Yeah.

I think we were doing that, and then I keep looking for that. And he says, look. Must be no changes. Yeah.

I know. I can definitely Yeah. Things that.

I know. Right. Any other questions or comments on the

wow. Are in. We are. Sorry for which

That sky.

Oh, that's that's citywide.

Yeah. So the entire

Yeah. It's in for the entire city. So that's just more of, like, an FYI.

Quick survey. They'll ask you. Downtown only residential.

So Do hear that? That's for any residents in the city or to to participate in. Cool.

Okay. Anything else? And still no public input or public

Same here.

Members of the public? Alright. Great. Thanks, Vincent. Have a happy holiday season. Too.

I know. Yeah. We will.

Bye. And by the way, the plaza looks I guess that's part of the.

Esther. Do you wanna circle back to

Yeah. Why don't we go back to item number three, approval of the minutes. The minutes for October 7 were attached. And are there any corrections? And if not, is there a motion to approve the minutes?

I'll make motion.

Okay. Moved by Chamille, seconded by Marina. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Excited. Now back to 6.2, Castro Street update.

Hey. That'd neat. Oh, wow. There. Okay.

Well, fine. I'll go noteless. Okay. Alright. Good morning, committee. Amanda Rutella, economic vitality manager. And these are our updates, not for September 2025, but for December 2025. First, really exciting development that the Lot 12 affordable housing project is moving forward. You can see a little bit more about that project on the screen, number of units, affordability rate, the populations that'll be served. There There is a fair bit of city funding.

And just to orient you all, this is city hall back here. Library is sort of. CVS is sort of where this photo is being taken from, so you can kinda see what the rendering is there. But we're really excited that this project is moving forward with Alta Housing and related California. It'll be really, really awesome for downtown, the increased foot traffic, and then, of course, our building affordable housing meets a lot of our city goals.

And so timeline for this, we're planning to close the parking lot to public use starting late January, I believe January 19. So we're gonna be doing a kind of full court press on communications, letting different user groups know. We're gonna be doing outreach to the library, the CPA, to city employees, to visitors of city hall, letting them know that the parking lot will be coming offline, and construction will be starting sometime in February or March. That project is moving forward. And I see commercial on the 1st Floor. That may have been original in the in one version of it, but I don't believe there's commercial as part of this. It's just a potential. Yeah. Farmers market notification. Right?

Right.

Right. Yeah. The Farmers market is moving to Lots 4 And 8. Four's 4 And 8.

Oh, right.

Her and city council will be will be reviewing that.

It's original sites.

It's original sites. Four and eight. Where's that? Right by the Caltrain station.

Right behind, like, Depot Garage

and Oh, that one. Okay. Okay. Yep. So that'll go to city council on the sixteenth. Hotel's gonna be.

Okay. It'll be Sunday. Yeah.

And I'm just making sure. Okay. So we're breaking construction begins January 28. Groundbreaking in February, March, and anticipated completion is January 28.

I did keep my notes. Groundbreaking is when?

Twenty sixth? Twenty ninth.

Sometime in February or March.

Oh, you don't have the day. Yeah.

Downtown Digest. Our November Digest is out or was out just last month. So I provided print copies here, and I'm happy to print out some more if needed. But lots of good articles in there. I did another article on update an update on downtown vacancy, which has a list of some of the new businesses, a

little

bit of an update on the public art strategy. There's another printout if you haven't taken the survey. I've got a printout. Standby. That's all. Thank you. And then we had a really great small business Saturday campaign just this past weekend. Folkfolks the media campaign we did with the mayor. And the umbrella share program is back. Although, we've been out of umbrellas, and I am waiting to get more. So finally happened.

Maybe they they should say, I belong downtown.

Well, they do have a bigger I put QR codes on all of them. Home. Yeah. And it's they're pretty obviously Mountain View ones. They've been branded. So anyway but we're happy people are using them. So just a reminder, holiday tree lighting is happening next Monday. This is a free event open to everyone. For those of you that have been in the past, know that it's quite a popular event. So it's a good time, and that'll be happening just here at the Civic Center Plaza. The other thing, Marisol,

do you

wanna talk about this one?

Oh, yeah. We're gonna have a blood drive. So we're the DBA is collaborating with the city of Mountain View to have a blood drive on Friday, December '25. It's gonna be a blood mobile that's gonna be parked in front of City Hall. It is, to my current understanding, based on appointments. So there is a website where you can scan the QR code. And, yeah, it'll make it'll be a a fun time. Oh, they have a I think this is the most important part, is they have a drawing happening for the everyone that donates during the month of December, and a lucky winner will go to the Super Bowl.

So Oh, crazy. So take a bow. What's going on? Have you go far? It's like, how many? How many times? I'm taking

bow hands.

Bowen arms,

but there's So platelets. So

This is part of this is pretty much the main holiday event, if you will, that the DBA will be supporting this year. Of course, we will also be promoting what else is going on in everyone's doors, but this right here is what we're gonna be,

forward.

Are the elves gonna be the phlebotomists?

The DBA actually this year decided to go, to not do the elf scavenger hunt this year. So, there has been some feedback that it was great. You know, when COVID was around, it helped people get, like, come out of their house, go into the businesses. They don't see

the huge value of it

for this year, so we are going to skip it and see if we miss it and try again next year. But for now, this is what we're

in. Great.

I don't weigh enough to give

blood, so How about platelets?

Is there a substitute?

You can give hugs away.

You can give hugs. I don't know if that

qualifies for the drawing, but there are four tickets. You just take three friends.

Well, see, that's the thing though. Usually, if you go and then you get deferred, that counts as You an tried.

Tried. So yeah.

If you don't have enough iron,

they still count you as like

a Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah.

So I think that that might be an entry. Considered an entry.

Well, let me just lay down and say, uh-oh. I didn't know.

I didn't

know. Okay. So let's talk about the big games, actually. So as you know, World Cup and Super Bowl are coming to our area in 2026. We the city, in partnership with the chamber and downtown business committee, downtown business association. Don't know. Too many committees groups. One of those. Are working on some activation. And so our activation goals, obviously, we're there's a lot of economic activity that will be coming to the region, and we want to draw some of that benefit here to Mountain View.

So our goals are to boost local economic activity, to enhance community engagement, and to elevate the city's visibility. And so we are taking a three pronged approach. The first is around branding and place making in the downtown. That'll be with, you know, sidewalk decals, photo moments, other fun elements to create a festive atmosphere. City hosted activations is number two.

So having different events both related to the Super Bowl and World Cup to promote Mountain View and to draw visitors down. And then the third, and I think really key one, is business promotion. So we wanna really support and encourage business to do watch parties, to name drinks after players, to create, like, a really fun events and activities in their businesses. And so we'll be doing a lot to highlight and promote businesses and what they're doing to in our in our city marketing and promotion. And so just a quick reminder of the schedule.

So, obviously, Super Bowl is on February 8, but there's gonna be a whole week of activity happening in the lead up. Obviously, we won't we will have to stop saying the word Super Bowl in our promotions as that is a trademarked verbiage. Very soon, you'll start seeing us promote the big game or other with other approved languages. So

You sound like six, seven

or something. Yeah. You're so hip, Mike.

They're up, but there goes my idea. I was thinking about having Super Bowl week.

Yeah. Yeah. I can't use it. Can you use Super Bowl?

SW. We'll have

to look. We'll have

to look.

What numbers is SW. Twenty six and twenty nine.

And just to note, so Super Bowl, we're already starting to do business engagement. So I've created this survey available for businesses so that they can start letting us know. Obviously, we'll really start leaning into business coordination as we get closer, but this is for for the football big game. Businesses can let us know, like, they having special deals? Are they are they hosting a watch party?

You know, are they have are the hotels having special deals? Are there, you know, different packages? And our plan is to create a map, a sort of fan fest map with all of the inputs we get from the business community, and we'll be promoting promoting that really heavily. So that's out there. And then just a reminder for World Cup, obviously, this is about a month and change long game series that'll be taking place across North America.

So one of the benefits it's to us is that all the games will be at reasonable times, so there won't be any, like, two AM games since it's all happening here in North America. Bay Area game specific games are there hosted are are noted in that green bubble, and we'll be looking to do similar three pronged approach, branding and place making, city hosted event and activation, and then the business promotion for this as well. Yeah.

Can you call it

World Cup or is

it Yeah. Call it World Cup. The big Games, plural.

I don't know. We'll Another big game.

More big games. Yeah. Soccer season. So, anyway, we're gonna bring on Great. Get some help with some branding and marketing to and and the Bay Area Host Committee, which is our regional group that's helping to organize these large events. They've created this playbook that I shared with you at our last committee meeting, and they've got some really clear direction around phrases you can and can't use, graphics that, you know, dos and don'ts. So we've got a lot of really good direction. We are going to be at city council also on December 16 with with a a proposal for them to approve around this as well. So if you're interested, stay tuned. Question.

Do we know what other cities are doing, like Sunnyvale or

Yeah. I think all cities right now are are in this sort of planning process. San Jose, I know, has put a real strong stake in the ground. They're doing drone shows and concerts and watch parties. I know a number of other cities are another city has opened up, like, an RFP for an event producer company to come in.

There's anything out at Shoreline.

There's nothing planned at Shoreline. And I and and for this in particular, it'll there'll be some crossover with our concert series happening

there. Yeah.

But I I would say I'm part of the regional economic development group, and every single one of my peer colleagues, we're all talking about this. So every city is looking to see about how they can capitalize on this economic opportunity.

Are there any statistics or knowledge of what kind of money is going to be brought into the Bay Area based on

I had that on my last slide from last year. I'll have to look it up. I had put some stats last time. I didn't include that slide about that. Okay.

Who cares about the Bay Area?

Know. I care about

Mountain Dew.

What about Mountain Dew?

I'll try and find that, and I'll send that over.

How many people are taking the train?

Took a photo of the of an article that I read, and it's in my it's in my office. I look at it every day. Okay. We're gonna get our our piece of the the economic benefit there. Okay. Moving along. Just wanted to provide an update on fleet findings. So we're currently out to bid for a company to produce produce these signs, and it the bids missions are due they're due tomorrow. So it's the the third, not the second. Is that right?

No. They may be due today. Anyway, they're due this week, and we're planning to have a bid awarded by December 16. And my guess is that we'll have sand signs manufactured early next year just given the Christmas holiday, but really exciting that this project is gonna be happening early next year. Very excited. Before the events

that Yeah.

Absolutely. The halfway finding up and ready to go. And then some exciting updates. And actually, I see I see Kirsten is on the line. Kirsten, do you wanna provide this update?

Hey. Good morning. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Alright. Perfect. Yeah. So we have the the I think we've talked about this before with this group that there was the senate bill four fifty six that was going to exempt Muralist from needing a contractor's license. So, that passed in September and will be effective starting January 1. So, we're starting to reengage with the artists, and I think almost everyone is able to continue participating in this program, and we're gonna start re we're reengaging them now to to start in the New Year.

So probably weather dependent. I'm sure it's not gonna start January 1, but we're thinking probably early spring or as as soon as the weather is good enough to for people to go out and and start painting.

And you wanted to provide a quick update on the train depot as well?

Oh, yeah. So the train Depot art project, so we've been working with Arts Mountain View. This is a nonprofit group led by Mountain View resident Anita Rosen. She she received a grant from the Valley Transportation Authority to put murals in downtown within a half mile of the train station. So we've you know, we identified the train depot as location for this.

They Anita Arts Mountain View worked with the Visual Arts Committee to select an artist, and they chose John Patrick Thomas, who created these series of art panels that will be set up onto the Train Depot building. So it'll be not next just directly next to the savvy seller space, kind of wrapping around the building facing both Castro and the train station. And each of the panels kind of represents a different different period of history in Mountain View. So those, again, will also be something that's done in the New Year, a little bit of weather dependent, so we'll have more updates on time timeline and timing probably in the next month or so.

Are we gonna get all those baller designs or just like those are just options?

These were correct me if I'm wrong, Kirsten. These are art that has been selected by the VAC. They did a whole call for art, and these were part of the art.

It's a sample

of the one. Exactly. Yeah. So these are three different artists. The first one is John Patrick Thomas again.

Second one, I think, is Catherine Liu, and I think the third, the bottom, more abstract, colorful one is Anne Sophie Gaudet. There were two other artists or there are six artists selected in total. So far, I think we're only going to have five participate. The others were, is it Zoe Karen and Rachel Barnes? And so, they each will paint two bollards and the purpose was to have them kind of match, so they won't be exactly similar, the two that each artist are painting, but they'll be kind of cohesive, create a little identity for that each end of the block.

So does each artist get, like, the two on the end or they okay. So, like, those two will be kind

of matching pairs on them.

Yeah. One might be sharks.

Yeah. Well, because I was like, if you have, like, sharks

and then a fish, like, a block away, I don't know. Yeah.

But will it be using the same kind of paint, like, the utility utility boxes kind of paint? I

think it'll really vary, but

Yeah. It is it's gonna be up to the artist, but they they all need to have, like, an anti graffiti decoding added on top of it, to keep it safe and clean.

Cool. So more to come on that, but exciting that that's moving forward and that we have that legislation change.

I have a question. So just just the paint would be, like I mean, it's not it's not very slippery because sometimes the kids try to get on there and things like that. I don't want them to come down, you know, the slippery painter. It might be.

I mean, the I I would do it. Don't think the anti anti graffiti coating is

I have seen the kids come in. And sometimes put the kids on their ticket. I'm gonna be

able to hose them off.

Yeah. Exactly. Somewhat not. The kids

the kids are the Yeah.

Yeah. They and the kids. Both. Depending on what they're doing.

Alright. And then this is really exciting. This is sort of you guys are the first to know. But we have been working on a pop up with Moment, which is a pop up company. They have a number of spaces in San Jose.

They're also out at the Google Visitor Center. But we are we've been looking to activate a vacant store front, and this will be opening soft opening December, and happening at two nine three Castro Street, which is the former Inorbit space. You can see the different artists that'll be that 'll be participating there, but we're working on some promotions for this. We'll be doing press release and excuse me, a grand opening ribbon cutting event in February, which we would all we would love all of you to be at. So keep an eye out for that.

So how long will that be in effect? They have a year lease. Oh, year. Okay. And,

yeah, we're trying to get them in right before the holidays.

Are we gonna be rotating through different artists? Is it that these are the four?

These are the four that will be there.

Yeah. For the entire year?

For the entire year. Yes. Well, I mean, I imagine I I don't know. I imagine there's you know, the intention is that they would all be there and be successful. But if one has to swap out Moment are coordinating it. They have a whole sort of list of artists and and pop up vendors. So there could be some turnover in the air. I don't if we're I'm hoping not. They're all successful.

Has there been thought of, like, adding, like, food

pop up in there?

So there is actually interest on the part of one of these one of these business stores. Businesses specialty cocktails and tea drinks. Oh, there you go. Yes. So but as soon as you add food, the permitting gets a lot more complicated. So we're starting with retail as it's sort of the simplest easiest path forward. But but, yes, there is interest on the part of one of these entrepreneurs to expand a little bit into that.

So that sort of food that's like food service as opposed to buying, like, a jar

of honey or food That's considered retail. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Right, Diana? Thank you.

So I'm so glad you brought that top up thing because I forgot and forgot about that. The real one we were talking about updating agent topics, you know, is I saw a documentary about these entrepreneurs. They have these place where they get all these options, and they have different lifestyle work and all that. But they were we went back to South America, and then he is having pop ups all different countries to get these people there for an unlimited time. It's two days, a week, or so, and then we just think I'll pass the information. I'll bring more information.

Yeah. Send me the documentary.

Interesting. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So I will just say, you know, we're really excited about this. This staff and Moment have been working on this for over a year. And And I I wanna stress, you know, the biggest challenge to us has been finding a property owner partner. And so we're super excited this is moving forward, but I wanna just sort of provide the context that this was a really difficult long lift and that while we love pop ups and we're super excited that this is happening, it is a model that's difficult to replicate because it does require property owner participation. So just just some context there.

Exciting.

It is exciting, though. And then lastly, I wanted to provide an update on our downtown committee visual arts committee, performing arts committee collaboration, which Stephanie and Pamela sit on our subcommittee. We're really excited to be moving forward with a pilot artist reception. And so we're targeting Tuesday, February 17 in the evening. Exact time is still TBD.

But we're gonna do a talk with Donald Hirschman, who's gonna be having his collection code switching on display, and then we'll be doing a talk about about his work. And so I think this is gonna be particularly cool. Do either of you wanna add anything? But really, this is an effort between these three committees to to kind of bring some activation to downtown to obviously, it's at the performing arts center, so getting exposure for performing arts center and to highlight one of our artists that will be exhibiting at the performing arts center. So there's a good crossover with our goal of just bringing more people down for the arts.

Do we do and I and I know we do things, like, with the street pole banners and stuff like that. But if there's a special exhibition in the performing arts center, do we ever, like, highlight that with street, you know, like, light pole flags and stuff like that?

For the banners, we haven't. Typically, you know, the our community services department uses the bus shelter, large signs to promote different city events. The banners require staff to go and sort of swap them out. And so we we haven't typically used that as a resource, but we're planning to print out flyers to send them out, bring them around to all the downtown businesses to use all of our various networks to promote this. So, yeah, we'll be we'll be looking to

Can you can you do things have thought about things like communications coming out of the city, like, feature an image from the collection, again, with artist approval that sort of might change as there are different artists, but it's a way of set you know,

it's sort

of a sub logo or sort of thing that says, you know, this is the theme of the month sort of thing.

Yeah. I mean, for we do promote the exhibits that are in there. They're promoted on social media. There's in they're in the downtown digest. And, Christina, we promoted I I don't think there's been any larger promotion through the larger city.

No. I think we typically stick with the Downtown Digest and our social media.

But It might be worth talking about. So, I mean, just to, like, cobrand it with normal I mean, it's on social media, but gotta be see. I don't hardly ever look at don't view social media. But, you know, like, kind of agendas. There could be a little picture up here of, you know, the theme of the the thing. I'm just sort of

The same.

Yeah. Just trying to get an image of those sorts of things out so that people see it. Oh, what's that? Oh, yeah. It's an exhibit at the Funkyard Center.

Yeah. I mean, one of the things I know that they have done in the past is put little a frames out, like, in the plaza, so that's something we could explore as well, finding ways to get in front

of people.

So but, yeah, this will be really exciting, and we hope you'll all be able to participate. We'll send more information out as we get We have, like, a quarterly newsletter in mail and also email. So I don't know if they put it in there, though. I don't feel like they usually put a picture

Yeah.

The view. Of it.

Oh, in the view. Yeah. We'll have to see when the next one's going out and see if there's an opportunity to highlight this.

Over at the view. Okay. Alright.

And that is all the pie updates.

Alright. And, again, still no public on

Still seeing no members of the public.

Jill? Yeah. Just it has to update. So I saw you know, the city hall has this Christmas lightings and all that. Mhmm. And I think the ornament three ornament balls hanging in front

of it. In on the building? Yeah. Mhmm.

But I don't know if if anybody noticed it. I walk if you walk at night late at night, you look at them, the reflection is such that they've become six thing. You know? They count to six. They got reflection in in the back. It seems like there's three on the other side and three inside. And I counted. I was walking with somebody and said, ah, I I knew that. So I asked him, see how many are they count to six. You know? So it's, you know, fun to see. A little benefit of

the reflection.

The new light tunnel.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

We will then move on to item number seven, new business. And item 7.1, we've got a throne labs public restrooms presentation. Amanda, were you gonna kick this off?

Yes. I would love to take this off.

And I will and I will pre kick this off by saying Take off. I was down at the league league of cities or Cal Cities conference earlier this year. I get to keep going as a former president and met the folks from Throne Labs and went in to see the thing. I said, oh. Send it off to Amanda. And so, Amanda.

Yeah. So I just wanted before we begin to provide just some framing for this item. And this is a purely informational item and is not currently tied to a current staff work plan. As you know, the committee often receives, informational presentations on topics of interest to the committee. For those of you that have been on the committee a while, what we had, the Mountain View mediators came and spoke to us.

We had the sister cities. And so these are topics of interest, and obviously public restrooms come up quite frequently in discussions. And so really the purpose today is informational, simply to learn about an approach that other cities are taking. And because it is informational, no action will be taken today. So it's not discussion about next steps or recommendations.

Really, any next steps will need to go through a city process with city city staff analysis before we would bring a action item forward. And so, really, their discussion today can be, you know, learning more, getting asking clarifying questions, but we wanna be really careful to not have the conversation move into, you know, evaluating or exploring implementation here in Mountain View as that would really kind of move beyond

what what we're prepared to

do and and would kinda overstep the the next step, which would be staff analysis. So just a little bit of context there. And with that, the DroneLabs team, Welcome.

Thank you so much. I'm plugged in. I'm mirroring

the

next step here

to occur.

No next steps.

No next steps. Yeah.

I can also just join the Zoom meeting if that's easier.

Black screen. That's not

I was just introducing this. Yeah.

If you're able to join the Zoom meeting

For sure.

I'm gonna give you the I also can pull up your slides.

Let's see. Get us started. Whichever is easier for you. Zoom pulled up. So if you want if you wanna email me the or just tell me the code, can type it in. Whatever works.

Yep. It's 81419543379. Just make sure to turn your ear out. Okay.

Perfect. Good.

This out.

Perfect. Sounds good. Well, thank you very much. Hi, everyone. My name is Ben Simons. I am an account executive here with Throne Labs, and this is

Beth Simons. I'm one of the cofounders and COO of Throne.

Thank you very much for having us today. Thanks, Mike and Amanda, for inviting us. So I know we have about ten ten minutes or so. So I'm just gonna do a quick overview about Throne, what we do, why we're doing it, talk about some data on some of our local deployments here around Mountain View in The Bay, and then hopefully have some time for a q and a and just get everyone's questions answered. So to start off at the top, about five years ago now, one of our other cofounders, Fletcher, likes to say that his GI system is his worst system.

He started talking about that a little more publicly than most people are accustomed to, and he kinda started to realize that a lot of people have their shared experience of, like, having stress about where the next restroom is gonna be. Right? Is there gonna be an open, clean, functional, public restroom for them to use? Turns out there's actually actually also a ton of data on this and how this affects our communities. I think one of the most interesting points is that approximately one in six Americans have actually left a job or access to a restroom network.

So this does have a lot of real life effects. So he sat down with with Jess here, and they said, okay. Well, what are we what are we gonna do to solve this problem? How can we how can we find us the solution here? And, really, what they came to is how can we provide a public restroom that is that is delightful?

And those are not words that you hear together very often at all, public restroom and delight, but that's really the key to why we have been so successful in these past years. So fast forward to today, we have, we've deployed about 90 thrones, our restrooms across the country, about 18 of which are here in the bay. In total, we've had more than a million uses across that entire network. So definitely a very successful implementation of public restrooms that are consistently providing delight and also, obviously, is according to our mission, expanding access to clean and delightful restrooms, which is, very important to us. So we've kind of gotten to this point today where we are providing what we call self contained smart public restroom.

So let's unpack that really quick. Self contained, this is important for a couple different reasons. What it means is that we have no connections to water, sewer, or power. So speed, really, really important. We can do this within a couple of weeks and, obviously, cost. There's very little to no infrastructure cost required to set up a throne. That said, we are not compromising on, again, thinking about the light, how we can provide a a positive restroom experience. So even though we have no utility connections, do have clean and wastewater tanks. So they have a flushing toilet. They have a running water sink, and we have solar.

So we have ventilation. We have climate control. All those things that you would expect to have in any bathroom that's gonna that's gonna bring you a light and make you comfortable in there. So self contained, very important for those reasons. When we're thinking about deploying into a downtown area, downtown corridor, a big advantage there, obviously, is that we can move these around if necessary. We can talk a little bit more about the data we use to make those decisions, but also a consideration. So self contained, really important for a couple of reasons. When it comes to the smart side of things, I know that can kind of sound like a little bit of a buzzword these days. We use technology specifically to improve the experiences of the folks using Throne, so our users. On the one hand, accountability is really important.

There's no public restroom out in the world right now or even a normal restroom in a business that can provide any accountability to the folks who are using it. So someone can go into a public restroom and destroy it and walk out and nothing will happen. With a throne, you're typically gonna enter a throne using your phone. You're gonna scan a QR code and send you a tech it's gonna auto populate a text message on your phone. You're gonna hit send, and then you're gonna see this delightful door swing open or slide open. Excuse me. And I'll show you a video in a second. What that means is if someone goes into a throne and decides to smoke, we can actually text them and say, hey. You're misusing the throne. We're gonna restrict your access if you continue to do that.

Same thing if they stay beyond the time limit. You might expect this means that we're just restricting tons of people from using the throne, and no one's gonna be able to use it anymore. In reality, we see the opposite. We see very, very few repeat offenders because we're providing people with a really nice, clean, delightful bathroom. So we consistently see, much less vandalism in a throne than any other public restroom.

And what these things add up to is we're providing a restroom that people in, like, Beverly Hills and Palo Alto just love because of all these features, and it's really pleasant to use. But we can also put it in, like, Downtown LA next to Westlake MacArthur Park or Berkeley because we have this accountability feature built in. Second part of that smart concept is around how we can maximize the efficacy of our servicing model. So we provide all the servicing and all the maintenance for our drones. So we use data to maximize our effectiveness there.

So one, when you enter a throne, we're gonna ask you for a clean rating. One to five, how does this look? We use that information along with historical usage data and real time usage data to say, hey. How likely is it that this throne needs to be cleaned? For every single time we visit a throne, we're maximizing the efficiency of that visit. You don't have to visit a throne in the morning or the evening to open it or close it. It's all automated. Our tanks all have sensors, so we know exactly when they need to be filled and pumped. Every time we visit a throne, we're maximizing that. What that ends up looking like is that thrones in the bay get cleaned on average every 13 uses.

And that

in reality is what it takes to buy a restroom that is gonna be really comfortable and clean. And so that when you have folks visiting downtown, spending money in businesses, they are really enjoying their balance.

So that's

kind of a summary of what we're doing. I'm gonna show a video because, obviously, if pictures or videos worth a thousand words. As mentioned, entering a throne, you're typically gonna use your phone, which is gonna scan a QR code. It'll auto populate that message. That that door is gonna slide open, kind of Star Wars esque, very fun. Again, clean, touchless, flushing toilet, running water sink, ventilation, and, again, solar. So when we place this, we would take a forklift, place it down, install the solar, and have it activated within a couple hours of placing it. We love our users. Our users love us. They let us know. And when they don't love us, we find out very, very quickly, and we respond to it.

We also do have phone with three mechanisms for Yeah. House or elderly, that can

be used.

Yeah. So

data wise, what this actually means in the real world, what's the effect we're able to have. This is some broad data from across our entire network. On average, we see about a 4.3 out of five on that cleanliness rating. So the the ratings that your our users are giving us on a day to day basis when they're using a Throne. In community surveys, we see about 91% of people saying Throne is either good or great as a public restroom option. So, again, pretty unheard of for a public restroom. When it comes to, like, a real world impact, This number on the right hand side here, 50% decrease in public defecation. I don't know if that's an issue whatsoever in Mountain View, but we see consistently when we provide folks with a clean public restroom, they're gonna use it. And that's really the whole point here. Right?

We want as many people as possible to use this restroom while still providing a really good experience. Local to here, as I mentioned, we have about 18 thrones across the bay. We range from Berkeley to South City, down here to the on the Caltrain line and Palo Alto, Redwood City, Sunnyvale. This is the kind of data that we're able to share with our customers. But as you're using a phone typically to enter a throne, we're able to know how many.

The sensors onboard tell us how long they've stayed in there, how long if they're returning for more than one visit. So across these three thrones on the Caltrain line here, we have 35,096 uses as of yesterday at, like, 7PM, I think, six or 7PM. So, you know, more now. Average clean score is pretty typical from across our network, 4.23 out of five. And, again, this number is one of my favorites, 12 uses between cleans.

I have a question.

Yeah. Definitely.

So if I had a business and only 31% of people returned to visit my business again, I would be concerned. Mhmm. So is this such a new way of doing I'm gonna say way of doing business. I didn't do it that way.

Well, you did. It

is a very new way of doing business.

So are you concerned about that, or is that just happenstance that very many people need to use a public restroom?

This is actually very typical. And one thing we're you can't make someone want to go to the bathroom. Like, they either have to go to the bathroom or not. And this is only from March. So when we're in locations for longer, we see higher repeat usage. Mhmm. But, you know, a lot of this is also, like, sports traffic. So Sunnyvale gets a lot of Levi's Stadium, and people are maybe coming once, but they're not actually right there. So people We do see over time, like, rideshare drivers, delivery people seek find out about Throne and seek them out. But for the most part, it's a it's a merging of right place, right time.

And so 31% is pretty normal, and and we see that as positive.

I have

a question. You mentioned that there are mechanisms that can be used for the unhoused community. Is it in all of them? Is it, and how what does that look like?

Yeah. Definitely. So for folks that do not have access to a phone, and it can be either a smartphone or a flip phone, you can scan that QR code. You can also just text the number on the throne to access it, or you can use our app. But we do have a tap card program for folks that don't have phones. And the way that works is that we distribute those tap cards to a local agency. So it might be a city hall, it might be a service provider, and they assign those cards to those individuals specifically. And

then with

the cards, are you able, like okay. What if they go in there and they're smoking?

Like, how Yeah.

How do you how do you regulate that?

Yeah. And and and that's and that's why our first you know, our our priority is that we have as many people accessing with phones because we can communicate directly with them. Obviously, that's the disadvantage to a Tapcard. Right? We can't communicate with them. Because it is that Tapcard is associated with a with a user ID on our end, we can still restrict that tap card's access. The disadvantage being that we can't actually text them and see why.

But, essentially, they could go

and get another tap card.

So when they go back to that

page, see

that tap card is associated with that individual. They would go back in, and they would say my tap card's been shut off. And when they get that tap card, they're made aware of the of the guidelines around using a throw. There will be a conversation at that time.

Are more of these at, like, train stations? So I was at a Magic Bridge Park in Portland, and they have, like, like, probably one of your competitors, which is a very nice experience, I have to say. Like, you push the button, but they don't have, like, the whole card. And I'm thinking, like, I think our park should have more of them because usually you have some kid that's like, oh my god. I need to pee. You know? Yeah. And so so one, it's like, would you get a tap card to a kid? And especially nowadays, we're trying not to give her kids Mhmm.

Cell

phones. Right? So then, like, would you assign, like, a 12 year old a card? Or, like, I don't know how it would work. And my second point is, question is, like, in Japan, they have those little, like, things you could, like, put your kid on and, like, strap them in. Like, have you thought about adding one? Because Yeah. That would be great. So they're not just, like, touching all over the place. Your three year

old is like, Yeah.

I feel like you could just, like, shove it on

the wall. Like, if you really miss

a little five point harness.

Mhmm. Yep. That's a suggestion. Thank you.

I'm in Japan.

Yeah. That sounded

Cool.

I'll I'll take that one,

which is Yeah. Sure.

We have thought about it. I think one of the things we're very cognizant of is accessibility, and we do have a baby changing station in there. Unfortunately, with the, like, footprint, it's hard it's difficult to remain ADA compliant and have that at that level just with in the current footprint. But it's definitely something we can take back and and see if there are ones that are safe but

higher. Yeah.

And so I have I I have one question you answered already. ADA compliance. You know? So it's not the other one was in emergency. If somebody went in there for some reason to pass out

Yeah.

It can be they they can't answer. Yeah. Can the emergency services open that thing?

Yeah.

Good question. So when you enter a throne, there's gonna be a voice in English and then Spanish that tells you there's a ten minute time limit. After ten minutes, the door is going to open. It also says it inside the throne. It's written in several places. There's warnings at five, eight, and ten minutes. At ten minutes, the lights are gonna start flashing, and a voice is going to tell you that the door is going to slide open. Ten minutes and twenty seconds, the door is going to open. And that's designed for a couple of reasons, and one of those, the most important, is that if there's, like, a health emergency inside a throne, someone's gonna know really quickly. Right?

Because there's gonna be flashing lights and a voice playing, and they're gonna see that someone's in there having an emergency. So compared to a traditional restroom where one might know for hours that someone's in there passed out, and then when they do realize the fire department has to come in and bash down the door, it's gonna be really clear

after this.

And we have had, like, days Yeah. With that, bumped in. And then I think the other thing that's really important is we have twenty four seven remote monitors that are looking at the data. They're looking at the customer, like, inputs and supplies. So part of their job is, you know, helping prioritize and dispatch clean cleaners and technicians. But part of it is also, you know, there's a phone number right on the front if emergency services can actually call and just have it remotely opened too. We've also worked with some customers to have emergency entry mechanisms on the throne with, like, a Knox box if you guys are familiar with that, but not all fire emergency services.

Did you decide on ten minutes?

We looked around to see what was kind of standard in restroom time limits, and it ranges from about five to ten minutes. The five minutes is usually with, like, in person attendant where they have more discretion, and then that ten minutes. We are working on mechanisms that would allow us to provide additional time for people with mobility issues or disabilities. The challenge for us is we don't wanna be the arbiter of, like, who is deserving, and so we're looking at ways to partner in order to do that.

Interesting. Old magazines.

Old magazines inside.

Yeah. Yeah. You can take

a magazine just for ten minutes.

Put some downtown digest in

the Does it wait until someone leaves

to close the door again? Because usually they're closed. Right?

So it senses someone's walking out.

It senses that it's empty. So if you have two people in there and one person walks out, it's not gonna close the door and have that other person still in there.

So what was the decision of having, like, the manual cleaners versus

this other one I went

to has, the we're cleaning right now. Like, it's, like, spraying the inside. Like, so why is it this versus the other?

Yeah. Definitely. So one of the most important reasons we made that decision is around cost for infrastructure. So a self cleaning restroom is gonna have to be connected to water sewer, which in bay is gonna cost a lot of money. Two, just like the actual efficiency and efficacy of that cleaning. Right? A self cleaning restroom, it's it's spraying water everywhere. Pretty humid. It gets pretty damp. It gets pretty gross. And there, to be honest, is usually people's complaint. So our kind of concept is if we want the job done right, like, we're just gonna do it ourselves. So our cleaner is gonna come around, and they're gonna actually clean the unit, and make sure that it's done right.

So speaking of the cleaning and the servicing Mhmm. So, I'm assuming you're contracting with some sort of a organization that will do that, or do you create your own staff? Or

Yeah. So we have a full local staff of cleaners and techs. So we have an operations team that's based in Hayward, and then we have the twenty four seven remote monitoring team. But we do we do all that with folks that we hire here in the day. And that's obviously really important. Right? Because you never know when something's gonna happen in a public restroom. So we we need to be able to respond very quickly if something So

just out of curiosity, so do you charge for it? Like, each person that walks in, how much is it used, or is it that you charge the city? Is that

Yeah. It is free to use a throne. Typically, we will it'll be working with a city. And the way that works is that we we assign each throne a service tier depending on the likely amount of use that it's gonna get over a twelve month period. So based on that information, basically, we say each service tier has a certain average number of cleans. So for instance, our hub service tier averages three to four cleans per day on a busy Saturday farmers market. Your Mountain View, we're probably at 10 times. Right? Because we're gonna be looking at all that real time data on this as being used, you know, way way more frequently, and we're also using that historical data to say, hey. Actually, it turns out every Saturday at 10AM, this thing gets a ton of use.

So we're gonna make sure that it gets pumped the night before, and it's nice and clean before. And on your rainy Tuesday, it might get cleaned once. But we so that's just a flat fee that we bill monthly for the year. So regardless of what happens, the vandalism, any maintenance that we have to do is all covered under that service tier. There's no hidden costs or anything if something gets damaged.

Do you make the usage data available to the city?

Yeah. Our customers will we essentially have quarterly reports with an account manager, and they would share similar information to what we were showing earlier around clean ratings. Time is a big one that people really care about, so the percentage of time that the throne is available for people to use during opening hours. So in Martinez, our uptime is about 98% right now, which pretty much means that it's only not available when it's being cleaned.

I think that's been really useful. We've had customers that think it should be one place, but then we see the this is kind of lower than expected and the community value is not as great. We've moved and had, you know, usage go up a lot. In Ann Arbor, we, like, moved a throne in the downtown two blocks and, you know, got about 15 more average uses per day. And so I think also as you look at, like, the the precision plan for downtown, like, this could be really useful tool to say, like, where should we be placing public restroom infrastructure.

Mhmm. Sorry.

Did I understand that it's not it doesn't operate kind of like a like,

it does It can. It has, like, an extra time? Yeah. So our our standard hours are 7AM to 10PM, but we do offer extended hours. Sometimes we have a few that are 20 four seven.

Oftentimes, like,

the LA ones at 6AM to midnight.

And that's for staffing purposes for

purposes. We don't have someone to go out and clean it at 3AM. So and just the risk of misuse at 3AM versus different.

What happens in places where there's, like, nightclubs?

Yeah. We we offer extended. Okay. So we can we have units, like especially when, you know, we work with some transit agencies, and their bus operators have routes that end at two, 3AM in the morning, so we can keep

And presume these are all, like, long term placements as opposed to, like, extended event Mhmm. Placements.

Yeah. Typically, we'll do a twelve month contract, and that's not to say that it can't be shifted during that contract. We can. Throw us away about 3,500 pounds, so, you know, they you're not gonna knock it over or take it away. We the forklift and put on a flatbed truck and move it, but typically a twelve month contract, which is typically necessary to get the kind of data, to really show that the the use case, is necessary.

Other than sensors, presumably, there's no video capability. I mean, and I but, you know, at first, that's well, then you could oh, no. That wouldn't

be good. Do you want the comments slide?

Yeah. Definitely.

So I was just curious where you're located.

Home base. We're leadership is dispersed. We all started it in the Bay Area. The other two moved closer to family. I'm actually from Portola Valley. One of our other cofounders is from Redwood City. But we have You have locations in DC and

Ann Arbor.

Yeah. We have operations in Washington DC, Detroit, Ann Arbor. LA is our biggest market, and then the Bay Area. Do

you have a general, like, demographics? Like, where you don't collect that information?

Yeah. We don't wanna be creepy.

Yeah. I'm wondering. Just wondering.

That's one of our core company values is don't be creepy. Google's be good or whatever.

What do mean? They're old mano.

They're they're old. They're the OG. But yeah. So we we don't. Sometimes we'll do we'll partner with a city to do, like, a a survey where we could where people can contribute that information. But, yeah, in general, we we try to make it as easy and low data as possible. So I'm

so sorry. Did you

Oh, no.

That's okay. So, like, in LA where you have a lot of these, like, do I have, like, a throne app that I'm like, where is the nearest toilet? Or is it mostly, like, you just happen you're like, I have to go to the bathroom. You're looking around and there's one.

Yeah. Yeah. So we do have an app. It's called the Throne Bathroom Network.

So everyone I don't know if

they wanna check it out. So it shows you where each stone is located. You can it'll send you to navigate to that throne. It'll tell you when it's how how clean it is, so the last clean rating that it received. So yeah.

Know if you wanna drive five minutes out of your way or

not.

I mean, when you gotta go. Walk. But I can see the delivery driver one. I have a family member that drives for UPS, and she, like, plans her route Yeah. Based on where bathroom

Oh, yeah.

Access access is.

To Starbucks.

Right. Yeah. And it's one of my

real challenge.

Yeah.

One of my favorite things to do is and this is not being creepy. It's like, when we're doing a demo at a throne, just like sitting there and watching people come and use it and the number of people drivers that you see just like pull up

use it

because they know exactly where it is. Also, how, like, the accountability tech really just, like, throws you for a loop because you can it's so easy to judge people when they're going into a restroom. Right? I'll sit there and watch someone who, like, looks,

you know,

on house going in all. First, when I first started working here, I was like, oh, boy. Like, we're about to have a tour and this person's going into the throne. And it's, like, consistently just, like, really cool to see people use the bathroom and then just walk out. I mean, like, go in there and it's sparkling clean. It's just, like, cool. Like, so easy to judge people.

I saw someone hit the

ten minute limit the other day in Berkeley before we were recording a podcast, and I was like, oh, no. Yeah. And he just, like, changed clothes for the day. And I think that's one of the other things is it's large enough that it allows for people to do that. Also, in in DC, just to kind of bring it to the business case as well, we do hear a lot from small businesses, especially cafes and small restaurants, what a big pain point people

that are not

customers asking to use their restrooms are. It actually takes staff time and staff focus away from the core business. And so we did a survey with a third party in DC and found that 97% of small businesses supported more public restrooms. And we found in in kind of qualitative surveys when we've gone around to to the downtown areas where there are thrones that people really value being able to have something to point people to. So they can say no, but they can say, but there's a restroom right down the street. Mhmm. So as you think about that.

Was at one time I was working out on downtown, and a person ran in and locked themselves in the bathroom in the workout place to

use the bed. It was Totally.

Yeah. Like, random. Everyone just working out, and it just, like

I think.

Cool. Yeah. Yeah.

So how about the soundproofing? You know, is this if somebody will tap on it to get out of the area, can can they reach to it, or is soundproofing is good so you can hear in and out?

You can you can a little bit. You know? Not so much that it's not, like, embarrassing to be in there and using it when someone's standing outside, but you can hear someone was tapping on the door, like Yeah.

I mean in there.

We have applied a lot of kind of innovation techniques. I think we came at this from a curious perspective. And,

you know,

we've included a lot of behavioral science elements. Like, the wallpaper looks nice, but it's also, like, easy to pass, fix quickly, and it deters writing on it because it's very, like, patterned. We our text just carry, like, recut leaves. So if somebody burns it or slashes it, cover it up. So kind of broken window theory.

But we also had there's a condition called shy peeing where people can't pee in public or public restrooms. And so we had somebody from a a foundation that works on that come and test it out. And he and he loved it because there's actually music, and you feel like it's very private. But at the same time, you know, ultimately, we have control. And at the end of ten minutes, you know, there's lights flashing, and there's a way to get to move people along who might otherwise just wanna, like, camp out or hang out.

So you said it it flashes lights and all those things. I was just thinking about, would you put something in there that if the flight flashes, it's there are three people waiting outside or something, four people now, two two person so they can keep going faster.

Yeah. I mean, we still want it to be a delightful experience, not like a, oh my god.

Two minutes to self destruct.

The door opens.

We have a lot of interesting conversations about design.

So I want to be conscious of time.

One other item.

But I know and I don't know if there's anything else any other slides you wanna just No.

We can we're happy to send over the the study that Jess mentioned on

Yeah.

Yeah. The local businesses.

Yeah. That's that's great. And they have offered if there are people who are interested in going over to Sunnyvale to with them to look at the the throne toilet.

I wanna

go ahead.

Yeah. Is it at the train station, or where

is it at? Okay. Yep.

The Palo Alto one at the train station also?

Yep. On the on the West East Side.

On the

South Side. Yeah.

The train across the train. Sun. Okay.

Across the

On the on the

On the on Got the it.

So we're gonna head to the Sunnyvale Throne after this. If that works for people and they want to join, we can open up the back and show you how everything works, if that sounds good. I know we just can't have more than half the people.

Right.

Can't make it. So I wanna go. I will

say, they're very cool.

I'm sure. I'm sorry. I just can't make it. Yeah.

And then

an eagle for breakfast.

Oh, for breakfast. Yeah. So

just I know this isn't this is an informational item. But if the committee wanted to either get this on a work plan or make a recommendation to counsel or through you to public works, what would be Yeah. An appropriate process

for that? I think including it in our work plan item when that comes when we're developing our next year work plan, that would be the right time to to bring this. I'm certainly we'll follow-up with with Of course, you

know about it, and somebody's saying, oh, jeez. Oh, well, you know. Yeah. Mean does happen without committee engagement.

So Well, and I know, you know, certainly public restrooms are part of what we've talked about in terms of amenities for for the larger picture for downtown. But things that we have to look at is, okay, what are what are the budget constraints? What are the staffing, you know, implications? All of that. So those are the things that can that'll happen with staff analysis. So we'll follow-up instead of meeting with and Jessica to to follow-up. But but, yeah, in terms of committee action, I would say for us to discuss it as part of our work plan makes the most sense.

Or have another survey.

Have another survey? Yeah. Okay.

It only also takes nap time. Thank you.

Yeah. Of course. Thank you, everybody, for coming over.

Yeah.

Great to see you guys again. Yeah. Okay. Again, still no public on the line.

New public here.

I don't

have to do public input. So item 7.2 is the 2026 committee calendar schedule. And did you wanna address that? Amanda did attach the proposed schedule for next year, which I think was what? Six meetings?

Six meetings. This is what we did, Chuck, at our last committee meeting to move down to six committee meetings. They're slightly odd. Like, there's not a

It's not every other month.

It's not a super simple cadence, and I'll just I have I have the slides from last time.

We just

want a quick look at it. But so it's not every other month because we do take a break.

April, May, June is very heavy, and then it goes after

Right. On the

So yes. So July and August is when the, you know, city council doesn't meet, and it's a good time for staff to take vacations. So those are preexisting. So it's really just taking away so the black were what where we didn't meet in the past was January, July, and August. And we discussed also not meeting March, October, and December. So we meet February, and then three months in a row because we have a lot of action that we take during April, May, and June, we have to renew the parking district and the business improvement area, and we have to create our work plan. So all of that happens in there, and then we'd meet in September and November. So we'd be down to six months a year, but, again, it's a little bit of a wonky cadence.

And this is the regular meeting scheduled. There could be a special meeting

if needed. Meeting. Yeah. As needed. Yeah. This would yeah. And so And

then the staff will send us the briefing about, like, what's happening in December lighting and all those things.

Yeah. That's That

is true. You know?

Mhmm. Yeah.

Well well, we can email those out, yeah, Thanks. Any

any questions about this? If not, is there a motion to adopt the meeting schedule? So moved by Is there a second? Oh. Pamela is the second. Any further discussion?

All in favor,

say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Okay.

Eight. I

know. Staff comments, questions.

I have a comment. Mhmm. So we have quite a few committee members who are terming off. And two out of three aren't here, but one is here. Oh, we I wanted to really have a sincere thank you, Marina, for all of your time on the committee.

She is totally turned out, not just As

of the end of this meeting, she will no longer be on the downtime committee. So a huge thank you.

Your badge back.

From Yeah. Yeah. From the city, from staff, for your time on the committee. It's been really valuable having your perspective, and and you've been our link to the Downtown Business Association for years, which has been really important connector. So Yeah. There's been some changes happening recently, so I won't be qualifying to be in town. So that's why the reason the reason why I'm gonna be But you can always come as a member of the public. Yeah.

Right. No. Absolutely. We used to have regular publics.

Yeah. She could be an emeritus. There we go. I'll it.

Thank you so much, Maria. And I know, you know, I mean, Monte Carlo is still very active in Mountain View. So Yeah.

No. And it will be.

It will be. The chamber and all of that. So

All the folks we're ringing out are David Lynn and Anne Cavanaugh. And so we wanna neither of them are here today, but a huge thank you to them as well for their service and their inputs to the committees.

And then

what are we doing for replacement?

We do have

One is sitting here.

Welcome. Do

you mean? It's come to me.

You got a throne. Yeah. So yes. Starting January 1, we will have a new committee member, and there were a number of committee members who You

and I were re as was Jim Hill.

Was the lead account.

So can we get his name?

Oh, yeah. Do you wanna introduce yourself?

I'm sorry.

You said I have to stay anonymous.

Well, no. No. No. You're not anonymous, member of the public, member of the public at

the moment.

My name is Dennis, and I'm the food and beverage director at the A. M. Swell Hotel, actually.

Oh, okay. That's wonderful. Great. We

saw him there.

Bring a lot of expertise when it comes to, like, restaurants and stuff like that. Yeah.

Hospitality would be cool. We're all to have you join in your perspective.

Oh, this is wonderful.

Yeah. Dennis will be officially joining in January. So at the moment, he's just a community member joining the conversation.

So this is

So we did have a member of

the public here all day.

Oh, I guess downtown.

Is it