City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the City Council meeting of September 2nd, 2026. This is our regular session. I'd like to call the meeting to order and advise everyone that the meeting tonight is being recorded and the recording will be made available on the City website. Will you all please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All righty. Britt, will you please proceed with the roll call and any other questions? Administrative announcements that need to be made.

Members of the public may participate in this meeting in person at the location listed on the agenda or via remote attendance using the information listed on the agenda. Public attendees participating remotely are automatically muted and are not viewable on camera. I will now call the roll. Council Member Aftab?

Present.

Fitzsimmons? Present. Zao?

Present.

Vice Mayor Walia?

Present.

Mayor Page?

Present.

We have a quorum. And the agenda was posted on August 27th.

Thank you. Earlier this evening, we had a closed session on public employee performance evaluation for our city attorney, and there was no reportable action from that meeting. Now it's time for oral communications on non-agendized items for folks that are here in our council chambers. This is an opportunity for anyone to speak on any item that is not on tonight's agenda. The council is generally prohibited from discussing or taking any action on non-agendized items, but we may give direction to staff. Britt, can you please explain the public comment process and announce our first speaker?

If you would like to address the City Council on an item that is not on the agenda and you have not submitted a speaker slip, now is the time to do so. Our first speaker is Matt Bordone, followed by Frank Chen.

Wait a minute, Matt. It's not turned on. The bottom of the mic.

There you go. Matt Bordone. Thank you for your time here. I'm here to talk about the West Valley track that was fenced off on August 13th. The Save the Track group has submitted some requests to the city, but has yet to hear a response to our concerns. So I'll hopefully take this time to talk to you about the value of this resource and what it means to the community. Over 50 years ago, it was the Saratoga community that raised the money that built the track, and they did all of this in support of West Valley. The Saratoga resident, Don Bowden, was the team leader of the 3M group that helped to construct the track. Don is still to this day a resident of Saratoga. When I was in the fourth grade, I met Don at the West Valley track. Don was the first American to break the four-minute barrier in the mile. He did it a few years after Roger Bannister did it in 1954. As a young runner, having a connection to track history, Roger Bannister and historic four-minute mile, was a core memory to me growing up. Sometimes we need these connections to let us know that our goals are within our reach. Running on that track was an important resource for me from an early age. I was eventually able to be recruited out of high school and run on a track team at Yale. To think that the resources that I had that aided me on my path are not going to be destroyed makes me sick. But this is not just about the next youth runner who will not have access to this wonderful facility. It is about our whole community. People use this track weekly, sometimes daily, to exercise on a track purposely built to soften the impact on their joints. It's about Walt Van Zandt. A legendary coach from Wilcox track and cross country, he uses this track as the only perfectly flat and safe place to push his walker and push himself. And yes, that means that he keeps a watch running when he's doing his laps. For decades, this track has brought together students, runners, walkers, seniors, families, neighbors, local clubs, and people intent on staying healthy. The track in itself is a wellness center. At the time of me saying this, the petition to save the track has almost 500 signatures on it. Now, many years ago, the Saratoga community funded and built this track without a bond measure. I think we owe it to the Saratogans past and present to defend our local heritage and the resources built for the community. Maybe it is that the Saratoga 70 generation honored their community a bit more than this generation does, but I believe that that spirit lives on today. Thank you.

Thank you, Matt.

FRANK CHEN, FOLLOWED BY JENNY HONG, GONZALES.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR, MEMBER, CITY COUNCIL, AND CITY STAFF. MY NAME IS FRANK. I'M THE RESIDENT LIVING IN THE COMMUNITY NEAR THE WEST VALLEY. I'M HERE TONIGHT ALONGSIDE OTHER RESIDENTS TO EXPRESS OUR DISAPPOINTMENT WITH THE CITY. the silence regarding the Sunday demolition at West Valley Track. For weeks, residents have reached out to this council and the city manager asking for one basic common sense action For the city of Saratoga to stand up for its residents and formally demand that the Western Valley Mission Community College District publicly release its environmental and soil testing data, among others. Today, our repeated requests have not even been acknowledged. We are not naive. We understand that under California law, a community college district has operational autonomy from the municipal zoning. But the district does not have autonomy over the air our children breathe, the soils in our backyard, and the safety of, for example, Masona Creek. Over the years ago, On July 18th, 2025, based on the district public worker notice, the district conducted a technical boring test on that exact track site. On August 7th, the district filed CEQA notice of exemption and citing vaguely internal technical analysis to claim that the project possesses no health risk to the physical environment. Yes, yet they have kept those internal analysis and the boring result hidden from the public. Days after filing that exemption, a heavy excavator began touring into the track and the field built in 1973. A vantage of the track and the asphalt notoriously for containing from the mercuric acid, let's say lead, and asbestos. And the residents watched the dry, uncontained digging take place without the visible wet dust suppressions, leaving debris piled openly on the site near surrounding communities. If the district, the July 2025 boring test in the internal review truly proved the site Can I just finish this?

Thank you, Frank. Wrap it up.

Okay. So I think I have the two requests. One is to send a former city demanding letter. We ask the mayor and this council to ask for them to release their tested result. And also alert the regional regulators, for example, the water regulator and air quality.

Thank you, Frank.

Thank you.

Jenny Hong followed by Kristen Terlizzi.

Hi, good evening. My name is Jenny Hong-Gonzalez. I'm a resident of Saratoga, an avid runner and also an attorney. and also an attorney, I stand here before you to remind you that there is a valid and enforceable contract between West Valley Mission Community College District, City of Saratoga, and the West Valley Homeowners Association. This agreement is effective September 3, 2004, and shall remain effective until 2034. The city and district contractually agreed to certain obligations, and those obligations remain enforceable. Changes to the current track cannot be made without the agreement of all three parties as per the agreement. Per one of the homeowners members, one of the, I quote, one of the provisions of the agreement that was signed prohibits the college from enlarging the footprint of any of its athletic facilities. The member also states that the purpose of the agreement was not to increase traffic, noise, and congestion. UNQUOTE. ALL OF WHICH I WANT YOU TO REALIZE THAT ALL OF THIS WILL INCREASE SHOULD WE BUILD THE NEW WELLNESS CENTER AT WEST VALLEY COLLEGE. WE ASK THE CITY COUNCIL TO IMMEDIATELY DIRECT THE CITY ATTORNEY TO ENFORCE THE 2004 AGREEMENT Issue a formal demand to the West Valley College to cease and desist all demolition activities and to take action to preserve this community as it before is permanently destroyed. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Jenny.

Hi, I'm Kristen Terlizzi. I'm a third-generation Saratogan, born and raised in this city, and a current SUSD parent. This is my first time speaking at a Saratoga City Council meeting, and honestly, I'm disappointed that we have to arrive here with coordinated comments to get our local leaders to enforce an agreement that our own city attorney was a signing participant of. As Jenny has outlined, the city has a clear legal agreement with the college. YET WEST VALLEY COLLEGE HAS ABRUPTLY PADLOCKED THEIR TRACK AND SNEAKILY, I MIGHT ADD, WITH ZERO PRIOR ON-SITE NOTICE. THEY ARE ACTIVELY ATTEMPTING TO DEMOLISH A VITAL AND UNIQUE 50-YEAR COMMUNITY ASSET. THEY HAVE MADE ABSOLUTELY NO ARRANGEMENTS FOR YEARS-LONG INTERIM ACCESS FOR OUR RESIDENTS, NOR DO THEY PLAN FOR AN ACTUAL LONG-TERM LIKE-FOR-LIKE REPLACEMENT. Why is our city council standing by while a state agency erases a public resource that our community relies on? This brings me directly to voter intent. Saratoga taxpayers supported Measure W and H and C to upgrade local STEM facilities, to modernize classrooms, to enhance our community college. We voted to fund and to maintain our community assets. We did not vote to have our city's only open access 400-meter track quietly demolished in plain sight to be replaced years in the future with what West Valley College itself labels as an inferior auxiliary 200-meter rectangular path. Why is Saratoga not holding them accountable? West Valley College has given zero consideration to the downstream impacts of removing this resource, nor to the community public health legacy that it is actively destroying. West Valley colleges claim that voters authorized the destruction of this facility is an egregious and total misrepresentation. Why is the city not holding them accountable? If West Valley College refuses to fulfill voter intent with the like-for-like 400-meter replacement, who will? Is the city of Saratoga planning to step in and build one? Our taxpayers have voted for this facility. Local K-12 schools cannot act as a substitute because they cannot operate within the same open access model that West Valley College has uniquely provided to Saratoga residents for over 50 years. I don't understand how the city is claiming no jurisdiction when West Valley College intends to create a massive public health void within your city limits and to ignore the 50-year legacy that this track has served Saratoga for generations. As a lifelong resident, I am asking you to stand up for Saratoga taxpayers and to protect our local assets. We ask that the city council immediately direct the city attorney to enforce the 2004 agreement, issue a formal cease and desist, and take action to preserve this community asset before it is permanently destroyed. Thank you.

Thank you, Kristen.

Jim Cargill.

THANK YOU, AND GOOD EVENING. I JUST WANTED TO REMIND THE RESIDENTS IN THE CITY THAT TOMORROW IS SARATOGA NIGHTS, RUNNING FROM 5 TO 8 IN THE SARATOGA VILLAGE, THE SARATOGA VILLAGE PARKING AREA. WE HAVE A GREAT BAND, FOOD TRUCK, CITY VENDORS THAT ARE GOING TO BE OUT THERE, SO IT'S A REALLY NICE TIME TO COME OUT AND ENJOY NICE SUMMER EVENINGS IN SARATOGA AND DISCOVER OUR DOWNTOWN. The other announcement that I want to make, and it looks like this is a live update for the Redwood fire, which is currently burning in the up Redwood Gulch. So it's something that citizens should be aware of. It does appear that a tanker has dropped retardant and forward progress has been stopped. But still be vigilant and watch out for this. Thank you. Thank you, Jim.

I have no other speaker slips for non-agendized.

Is there any other member of the public here at our meeting that would like to speak on non-agendized items? If so, come on up. Seeing no one, I'll close the public. Is there any council member that would like to give any direction of staff?

Just one request.

We are working with the city attorney to make sure that we understand all the ramifications for response. We penned a couple. It's not quite done yet.

Okay. My only request is that their emails be acknowledged by city staff and that you're working on it or something. That's my only request.

Didn't think it would take this long, but every email has another twist that we have to turn around. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

Yes, you mentioned that you're working with our city attorney looking into the legal agreement. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. So at the meantime, I'd like to ask our city attorney, is there any way that we can ask West Valley Community College to cease the demolition as we are looking at this issue right now?

Well, you can certainly ask, but the city council could, if you want to make that, we could have that as an agenda item. It's challenging, but there is a way. I'm not sure that the district would do it, and from my initial review of the agreement. The agreement is there to prohibit construction of a stadium. And there are creative arguments that have been made. So it's really a question of, you know, it would be a big undertaking.

But, you know, the West Valley track has been our community asset for years. I'd definitely like to see our city council to take action, at least to look into what we can do to preserve it.

You could ask that we have a closed session to consider initiating litigation against the district.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Thank you all for your comments, and we do appreciate them, and I'm sorry it's taken so long to respond. On the track issue especially, there have been a lot of twists and turns, and we really want to make sure that we're responding in the best possible way to support everybody that's asked for things. At this time, I'd like to share a few announcements with the public. First of all, as Jim mentioned, we have Saratoga Nights tomorrow night, Thursday, September 3rd from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Village. Jim talked about it. Great band, great community, great time to get together with your friends and family and relatives and non-relatives and meet some new neighbors. Get to enjoy Saratoga's downtown. There'll be live music. You can go get a meal at a restaurant and bring it over. There's tables and chairs. It's a really fun event. I encourage you all to come out. Registration for fall chipping. The Santa Clara County Fire Safe Council has announced the fall chipping dates for Saratoga residents, and this is Saratoga residents in the WUI. The chipping service in the Saratoga area is scheduled for October 5th to the 9th, and registration opens on Tuesday, September 8th. Participation is free for residents living in the wildland urban interface, the WUI, and available on a first-come, first-served basis. The chipping program supports homeowners in creating and maintaining the required 0 to 100 feet of defensible space around permanent structures. By reducing fuel loads, this program helps lower the wildfire risks and improve community safety. Learn more and register at sccfiresafe.org. Farmers Market Office Hours. Please join me for Mayor's Office Hours at the Saratoga Farmers Market at West Valley College on Saturday, September 12th. That's right, we're not doing it on the first Saturday this month, we're doing it on the second. That's so everybody can enjoy their Labor Day weekend. I'll be there from 10 to noon. This event's a wonderful opportunity to come and express your concerns, your interests, your ideas. Share them with us in an informal, welcoming setting. I welcome you all to come, and the market is open, I think, from 9 to 1. Thank you. And I'd love to have you all come out. All right, let's see. I have one other announcement. I am actually thrilled to announce that I got a call from Assemblymember Mark Berman. He is our Assemblymember. Yesterday, he was on his way back from Sacramento. And he called me to announce that the City of Saratoga has secured that he, as part of the closing documents, the closing bills, secured the City of Saratoga $1.75 million to strengthen wildfire preparedness. This money is targeted at vegetation management on our evacuation routes. He worked diligently to get this. He actually learned about some monies that might be made available, called up our cities, and thanks to staff for recognizing that this is a priority for Saratoga. And so I think that we're going to see some good benefit from that. It'll allow the city to strategically reduce hazardous vegetation. improve evacuation route safety, and strengthen our overall wildfire resilience. Wildfire preparedness remains one of our highest priorities and will continue to be so, and this $1.75 million will help us make meaningful, proactive steps to protect our residents, homes, infrastructure, and open spaces. And on behalf of the entire city of Saratoga, and I know my fellow council members, I want to sincerely thank Assemblymember Berman for championing this funding, AND FOR KEEPING HIS PARTNERSHIP WITH SARATOGA AT TOP OF MIND. SO THANKS, MARK. WE APPRECIATE IT. ALL RIGHT. SO ARE THERE ANY COUNCIL MEMBERS THAT WOULD LIKE TO SHARE ANY ANNOUNCEMENTS? ALL RIGHT. SEEING NONE, OUR NEXT ITEM IS FOR PROCLAMATIONS RECOGNIZING NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS MONTH. SO I WAS WONDERING IF CORY BOSWORTH, LORI BURNS, AND JIM CARGILL WILL PLEASE JOIN THE CITY COUNCIL ON STAGE. As mayor of Saratoga, I'm proud to recognize September as National Preparedness Month and celebrate the important work of our local Firewise USA recognized communities. This year's theme, Americans Stand Ready, reminds us that when individuals and neighbors take steps to prepare for disasters, we help make our entire community safer and more resilient. Our local Firewise USA recognized communities exemplify this spirit of preparedness. Through education, wildfire risk reduction, and neighbors working together, the Garrett Heights Old Oak Way and Saratoga Heights HOA communities are taking proactive steps to prepare for wildfire and protect their neighborhoods. We appreciate their leadership and commitment to helping Saratoga stand ready for emergencies. On behalf of the entire City Council, I'd like to present these proclamations to you, and I'll give you all a chance to talk. And I do would like to say that we could use a few more. So y'all that live in the WUI, we'd love you to form a Firewise community. We actually have resources that can help. I know Jim has offered many times to come out and speak to neighborhood groups, and I'm sure that we could engage the resources appropriate to make you more safe. So thank you. Would you like to say something?

Hi, guys. This is Sam. We're getting him involved early. It's important to us. I'm sure it's important to all of us. I also want to say my uncle, our uncle, Bill Cooper, would be happy to talk to anybody about the Firewise program as well. It was his brainchild to get it started at Garrett Heights. So that's always another resource for you.

Awesome. Lori?

Yeah, and I'd just like to say that it's a good way to try to figure out how to get neighbors to talk to neighbors, and that's really important for being able to build the safety. And I'm really glad to hear that we're going to have more resources to try to clear our evacuation routes, especially Pierce Road and Highway 9.

Thank you. In recent meetings, we've heard a lot about the fear that people live in because of lack of preparedness. And I think fire-wise, with all of these neighborhoods that are put together, we don't necessarily live in fear. We live with a plan and preparedness. And the more of these we have together, if we can stitch these together through the community, CURRENTLY, THE GARRETT AND OLD OAK WAY ARE TOGETHER, BUT WE WOULD LOVE TO STITCH THESE ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE COMMUNITY, AND WE WOULD LOVE TO HELP YOU THROUGH THE PROCESS. WHILE IT'S NOT EASY, THERE'S A LOT OF RESOURCES OUT THERE TO HELP YOU THROUGH IT, SO PLEASE REACH OUT.

THANK YOU, JIM. NOW IF WE COULD ALL GATHER TOGETHER FOR SOME PHOTOS. IS THERE, BEFORE I CONCLUDE THE ITEM, IS THERE ANY MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC WHO WOULD LIKE TO MAKE ANY COMMENTS RELATED TO THIS? SEEING NONE, WE'LL MOVE FORWARD. WE HAVE A SPECIAL PRESENTATION THIS EVENING FROM THE VALLEY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY. SO, GREG, IF YOU WOULDN'T MIND INTRODUCING YOU AND YOUR TEAM AND THEN GO FORWARD. THANKS.

ABSOLUTELY. THANK YOU. So to the Mayor, Vice Mayor, and to the entire Council, thank you for having us here tonight. As mentioned, my name is Greg Richardson. I am the Deputy General Manager for VTA, and I am joined in the audience by Jay Tyree. He is our Deputy Director of Transit Service and Capital Planning, and then Jonathan Perez is our Policy Analyst for Government Affairs. And before I begin, even getting farther into this, tomorrow night is our board meeting. But now that I've heard it twice, I'm pretty sure that I'm coming to Saratoga nights and I'm not going to go to the board meeting. So we'll see how that goes tomorrow night. But anyway, so they're here just in case they need to save me through some of the questions that might be asked as this process goes. Tonight, we are providing a brief update on SB 63, which is the regional sales tax measure, which is on the November ballot. along with the investment plan and framework that was adopted by the VTA board, which was intended to inform the public of how funds from the potential measure could be utilized for the county. But first, we'll do a little quick glimpse of VTA in Saratoga. This slide highlights some of the service in Saratoga, along with the funds used to date related to the 2016 Measure B program. I will say that I referenced some of the service provided in Saratoga, because unfortunately one of the most important routes, and one I believe you'll be hearing about later this evening, Route 51, was inadvertently left off this slide. So I do apologize for that oversight, but have no fear, Route 51 is alive and kicking. Regarding SB 63, this slide provides a summary of the key elements of the measure related to Santa Clara County. And as a reminder, SB 63 is a five-county regional measure and will be on the ballot in November as a citizen's initiative, meaning it requires a 50% plus one vote to pass, as opposed to pass measures needing a two-thirds vote. And the VTA board voted in August of 2025 to join the measure. The counties of Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda, and Contra Costa are asking for a half cent rate and San Francisco is asking for a full cent. The VTA Board worked hard to ensure as much of the funds generated from the county of Santa Clara from the measure, should it pass, that those funds stayed within Santa Clara County, and which is reflected in the estimated $264 million yearly average coming to VTA that's shown on the slide. Another significant piece of this measure related to Santa Clara and VTA is the contribution being made to Caltrain at 10.38% as one of the joint powers authority member agencies. The measure is very focused on transit related needs as shown in the verbiage on this slide. The intent is to address transit needs. Pavement improvements are possible, but roads must be served by fixed route transit. The regional measure was developed really to address what was referred to as fiscal cliffs being faced by BART, Muni, Caltrain, and AC Transit. VTA is in a bit of a different place, and we have viewed the regional measure as a means to reinvest in the system to better meet the needs of the county. The VTA Board, through staff, developed an investment plan framework to provide context to the public of how potentially new funds could be deployed. And the focus of the plan is shown here on these three primary outcomes. Growing ridership, increasing productivity, enhancing customer experience, all within the boundary of being fiscally sustainable. Now, in June of this year, the VTA Board approved the draft local investment plan framework. And although details are not in these slides, tonight I'm going to verbally provide a little more context around elements of the framework. And after tonight, we will provide this body some additional slides and material so that you can see the plan a little bit more clearly. There was a little concern about how much we would show in this given the sort of the framework of the measure and all that, but I think we're at a point now where I think we can provide some information to you a little bit different than what these slides are. So the framework centered on three phases, keeping the focus on ridership, productivity, and the customer experience. So the first phase is known as foundation. Foundation of these investments would be seen in bus corridor improvements, upgraded stops and stations, safety and security enhancements, and transit stabilizations. The next phase is what we termed as re-imagine. There's a significant focus on frequency and service through the visionary network, system speed improvements, fair and service programs for seniors, those with disabilities and students, and customer technology enhancements such as real-time information, way finding, and then some mobile applications. And then the last phase is referred to as transformation. This is where you would see some innovative mobility partnerships, advanced vehicle technologies and fleet modernization, major capital improvements to light rail tracks and grade separations, and major station redevelopments. Now these phases are not necessarily sequential. For instance, elements of re-imagine, for instance the early stages of visionary network, could be implemented before certain foundational elements are done. Should the measure be successful in November, this draft investment plan will be the first of what I would consider many iterations, and this is just the beginning. So as more analysis is done on elements of the three phases, updates and revisions are anticipated, especially as we work through recurring budget development cycles and input from various stakeholders. To ensure proper stakeholder engagement, we anticipate the development of a rolling four-year program. To ensure we are meeting expectations and maintaining a fluid, but steady program. And to help in this area, staff will develop scorecards for performance tracking and fund utilization, providing the opportunity to shift priorities of goals or not being met. So we encourage everyone to stay engaged in this process, and we commit to continuing our outreach to the cities and civic organizations to ensure we get the feedback necessary, not just for this investment plan, but to address the critical needs of the residents. So I thank you again for allowing us to present, and we would be happy to take any questions that you may have. Thank you.

All right. Council, any questions? I know we don't always do this, but since we do have members of the public that are going to present later on on VTA, if there's anyone that would like to ask any questions related to this, I'm going to open the public comment period so that anybody could address that. Glenn, come on down.

Hello, my name's Glenn Hendricks. I'm a former chair of the VTA Board of Directors, and I was on the Caltrain Board of Directors, so it's good to see Greg and Jay here. I used to work with them. I do have just a couple quick questions for you guys. So is the 10% increment to Caltrain, is that a replacement of money that VTA already gives to Caltrain, or is it, so it's replacement or new money? And with this measure, what you're talking about, envisioning things, in terms I can understand, Is it going to generate increased service hours? That's really the kind of question. So thank you very much.

Yes. So I feel like I want to say this on the front end. I need to be careful about, I think, how I respond to certain things because, as we've always talked about, we are not here to advocate for the measure. But specifically to Glenn's questions, as it relates to Caltrain, the way this is structured, these are incremental monies. This is additional funds that will be going to Caltrain to take care of what was considered to be their fiscal cliff projections over that next 14-year period. So this is our contribution along with the other two members being Sam Trans and SFMTA. And those are incremental dollars on top of what is currently provided through measures. And the other question was, what was the other question?

Service hours.

Service hours. So one of the major considerations that VTA is looking at, because many years ago VTA took many steps to address at that time what you would consider to be a fiscal cliff related to VTA. And at that time it was reduction in force and it was reductions in service. And so we have faced those issues already and we took those steps to take care of that financial position. We have never gotten our service level back to where it should be. And so this is when I say that these funds for us, when it talks about the measure, these are opportunities for us to reinvest back into the system. So we would be looking on that visionary network to really be focused on service and frequency and providing service where we need to and where it can be provided, utilizing these funds should they be available to us.

Tina? I do, but go ahead.

Thank you. Just a quick follow-up question. When you're saying looking at investing the funds if it passes to expand the capacity and the service, is there already detailed plans that are in place, or have the gaps been identified, or is that going to be done if and when the measure gets approved?

Yeah, I would say the gentleman behind me, Jay Tyree, has done an extensive amount of work along with some of his staff to develop what we call the visionary network. And that network has, I want to say, maybe nine phases that we've identified of how the implementation could work throughout the entire county. And again, this plan, just so everyone's clear, this plan was developed long before the measure was being discussed. I mean, these were things that we knew we needed to try to address. The measure would be an opportunity for us in being able to implement some of these things. So, yes, it's a phased approach that's already identified that I'm guessing it's a public document we'd be happy to share.

Thank you. And how does that impact Saratoga residents?

The possibility exists, and again, Jay might, if there's specifics, but we can share the document with you. A couple of the routes, I think 51, maybe 26, those are ones that could possibly see some impacts as it relates to frequency and service overall. So there definitely would be an opportunity for that to be impacting Saratoga.

Thank you so much.

And Greg, thank you for that and for the presentation. When I was on the board, one of the things that was always a concern was amount of ridership, on-time performance. I heard it a lot from members of the public. Is there a place that people can see that on the VTA website? Do they know what the ridership is for various routes? And that was always a determining factor of whether or not you increased performance, the number of frequency of the buses, et cetera. Is that available?

Probably the most visible approach would be through our board meetings. We've got presentations that are done that address monthly ridership, annual ridership, on-time performance, some of those statistics that are out there, not necessarily by routes when that's done. It is an area that I think we've got to focus on as an agency to provide some of this information, a lot of this information, a lot more freely to the public through our VTA website. And so that's the approach that I think you'll see us taking as we move forward into this process with not only this implementation but other activities within the agency that will be on the website.

Thank you. And so the $264 million annually, if this thing passes, And it's sales tax revenue that goes up. It's sales taxes go up. How do you plan to allocate them today? Like, if you've got $264 million in the next, you know, whenever it takes effect, what are you going to do with that money?

Well, fundamentally, that's where the investment plan, the framework, came into play. And so once everything is settled after November, then through the board with staff, we'll start developing the prioritization of some of the funds as it relates to that overall investment plan, focusing most likely on the front end, on the foundational elements that we talked about, again, some of the core elements of safety and security and just cleanliness overall, but then also focusing on the visionary network would be probably the most primary focus that you'll see as we move forward.

Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Well, thank you very much for the presentation. Thank you. Jay, thanks for sticking around. APPRECIATE IT. WELL, I DIDN'T CLOSE THE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD, SO, DORI, IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION, COME ON TO THE MIC, PLEASE. DON'T YELL UP FROM BACK THERE. I HAVE A QUESTION.

SORRY.

THANK YOU.

I WILL BE PRESENTING LATER, BUT I JUST HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS ON THE VTA MONEY PIECE OF IT. SO BECAUSE I'VE BEEN TRYING in our community to actually use VTA buses to go to school for the students and things like that. And we've run into some issues. So with this money, there is a question about additional routes. The 51 wasn't put up on the, and that's a very important route for us. So I would like to see some kind of, for me, itemized because we're using the buses and, you know, on timeliness, better app, the app that we've been, that parents have been using. We're getting cancellation notices when it's not being canceled and it's been like every single, pretty much 75% of the time which isn't quite working so and also want to mention that you know we're kind of hopping on this route 51 from coming from all the way from Mountain View to West Valley College and I would like to see a depot station if you can If we're going to talk about money and where it's going, I'd like to see real items down on the list, like have a depot station at De Anza for the 51, run it more often. I can fill that bus. Also, I've gotten riders, I've gotten 50 kids that will ride the bus if it will come on time. And I want to just say the school, the district has been great supporting this effort. allowing for late arrivals, but it needs to be on time and all that kind of stuff. The other thing I want to mention is Joe's Trail. So that was approved in 2021 in the VTA handbook. It hasn't been finished yet. Where is it? When's that going to happen? That could also be a nice EVAC route for us. It's never been done. And now I listened to a Zoom meeting, and it was like, we can't do it because we have to truck the muck. What does that mean? I don't know what it means. You have a lot of analysis paralysis that I'm seeing, but I'd like to see a list. Here's what we're asking for, and this is what we're going to deliver. And also, the other thing is, okay, so the VTA, I think it's the 37... It's supposed to connect, it's supposed to help out with, it's supposed to go to, okay, so if you're leaving Los Gatos, Maine's hound, and you want to get to West Valley College as a student, it's four and a half miles from point A to point B, yet if you're going to take a VTA bus, guess how long it takes. to get from point A to point B, if you connect, an hour and a half. So you have to really look at the routes. I'm going to be working with Los Gatos on this. If that VTA bus came down Route 9 as it used to, it could actually pick up Monte Sereno kids and drop them off at Saratoga High School and Redwood. If it's going to De Anza, it could work out that way. I just think you guys need to look at the routes, itemize what you're going to do, And here's where your money's going. Oh, I only get so many minutes. Okay.

Thanks, Dory.

And you'll hear more from me later.

Thank you. Greg, do you want to answer anything?

All I would say is all of the points, I would just say, duly noted. I think Jay and his team, and Jay specifically, We'll be more than happy to work with folks to identify the most effective utilization of the funds, especially as it relates to Saratoga, where we can do it, again, should it pass and should that be an opportunity for us. I do want to find out about, I think it was referred to as Joe's Trail. I don't know anything about that one, so I'll follow up on that one and find out what can be done there.

Okay. Thank you. Thanks very much. I will close the public comment period on this item now so we can move forward. Any further discussion on the council? Next up is our consent calendar. The consent calendar contains items that are typically routine and non-controversial. Items in this section are acted in one motion unless removed by the mayor or council member. Is there anybody who would like to pull an item before I move forward? Any member of the public may speak on an item on the consent calendar at this time or request that the mayor remove an item for discussion. If you're requesting an item to be removed, please give your comments on the item and inform the council why you'd like the item removed. Public speakers are limited to three minutes. Do we have any members of the public that would like to speak on the consent calendar? Britt, anybody online?

I see no hands raised for the consent calendar.

Okay. Then we will close the public comment period. And looking for a motion.

All right. I'd like to move approve consent calendar item 1.1 to 1.7.

I'll second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. ALL RIGHT. NEXT UP IS OUR GENERAL BUSINESS SECTION OF THE MEETING. AND WE HAVE FIRST UP IS THE VTA BUS PILOT PROGRAM. SO WE'RE GOING TO RECEIVE A STAFF REPORT, AND THIS IS A REPORT ON A RESIDENT LED BUS PILOT INITIATIVE PROGRAM HERE IN SARATOGA. HEY, JOHN.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR, VICE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL. JOHN, PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR. And I'd like to introduce our Traffic Safety Commissioner, Dori Albert. She's here to discuss a bus pilot program for Saratoga schools, particularly Redwood Middle School. And this is using the existing Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority bus service. The initiative is intended to provide families with an alternative to individual vehicle trips. while reducing traffic congestions, particularly along Saratoga Avenue. This will support walking, biking, and other safe route to school efforts. Dory has worked with VTA to align the bus Route 51 to align with school start time at Redwood Middle School. Also, Route 26 is also being explored to include use along Saratoga Avenue. With that, I'd like to have Dory explain the pilot program in more detail, along with the successes and challenges that have occurred since the start of the school year. If there's not any questions, I'll have Dory come up. Any questions?

OK, thanks.

Thank you, City Council and Mayor, and having me up here, and John very much as well. So I want to talk to you about the VTA bus initiative to Redwood Middle School. So I just want to let you know that this is what I considered a pretty simple idea with very strong community support. and why this makes sense. We are a basic aid school district, and we don't have school buses. And so we need to be resourceful. So we already had two VTA routes that serve Redwood Middle School. No one was using them. You don't have any of my slides or anything or not? Oh, OK. Sorry. I'll go without my pictures. But you've seen it. OK. Anyway, what was happening, because no one was taking the VTA buses, is they weren't aligned to the Redwood Bell schedule, which is something when I met with Russell and Jonathan just a few months ago we were able to do. And once that happened, I decided, okay, I'm going to see how many parents would be interested in the buses. And before actually I did that, I did a survey, and we had about 200 parents interested in in a VTA bus, not a regular school bus. So community support was there. And I had about 50 kids ready to sign up for the 51. So who are we? Is it just me doing this? Well, I want to first point out Bawal. Thank you very much, because when you were mayor, you asked me to do a pilot. And that was at the commissioner's dinner. And I said, you sure? And I did one. And I want to also thank Yann, who is also supported come to the meetings and everything like that. The Redwood PTA President, Lori, has been very supportive, getting the word out to the community and to parents about this whole new bus program. What is it? Where does it stop? What do the kids do? And all that kind of stuff. Superintendent Ken and Redwood Principal Steve, also really positive feedback. ON THIS BUS PROGRAM, THEY SEE THE VALUE, THEY SUPPORT BUSES, THEY'VE BEEN VERY FLEXIBLE WITH TIME DELAYS, AND ALSO BOARD MEMBERS, I WANT TO JUST POINT OUT VIDYA AND RAMYA HAVE ALSO BEEN VERY ENGAGED IN WORKING WITH ME. OTHER PARENTS, JENNY, WHO YOU MET TONIGHT, SARUCHI, JACQUELINE CONTHY, AND LOTS OF PARENTS HAVE GONE INTO HELPING THIS PROGRAM. EUGENE, WHO WAS ALSO A SARATOGA RESIDENT, HELPED WITH A VIDEO THAT I PRESENTED WHERE IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT THE SCHOOLS, IT'S OUR COMMUNITY WHO'S ACTUALLY FEELING THE PAIN OF SARATOGA AVENUE CONGESTION. AND I WANT TO ALSO THANK THE RESIDENTS WHO AGREED TO BE INTERVIEWED ON THIS. and the Traffic Commission, who unanimously supported this initiative. Why does it matter? First of all, one of the priorities of only about a year ago was the Saratoga Avenue traffic, which I was out there just a couple of days ago, and it's gotten even worse. So less traffic, and so when you have less traffic, I mean, I've taken pictures, and it's on the PowerPoint I sent to you, At Redwood, at least last year, it was one kid per car. So you have 600 kids, you have 600 cars. When you have that many cars on the road, the congestion is so bad, you saw it on the video, that parents are fearful of letting their kids walk or bike to school. And so if you don't have buses, I'm not saying it has to be VTA, but we're trying out VTA online. if you don't open the roads, you're not going to have a safe routes to school program. That you just have, one thing has to, buses reduce the cars and then people feel more safe. And also it helps, and this is what Superintendent Ken and Principal Steve said, it helps with student independence. Students gain experience using public transportation. And as I mentioned before, WE'RE LIKE THE LAST IN LINE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN THE AREA THAT ARE DOING VTA RUN BUSES. THEY'RE CALLED SCHOOL TRIPPERS. MOUNTAIN VIEW HAS THEM, SUNNYVALE, ATHERTON, THE LIST, MENLO PARK CITY SCHOOLS DO IT, AND So it has been done, and there's a format that I followed when I was working on this program. It's community building. It has environmental benefits. It does support, as John had mentioned, safe routes to school. It might not be part of the brochure, but as I mentioned, you take the cars off the road. You open up the streets. You make it safer. People feel more comfortable. Using the bike lanes. Oh, sorry. That doesn't mean I'm over, right?

Yeah, if you can wrap up your comments, and then we have perhaps some questions.

Oh, okay. I didn't realize I was being timed. There are other parents that did want to make a few comments. Anyway, the community response has been enthusiastic. The pilot proved demand. Now we need reliability. We started, like I said, with 50 students. But we have late buses, canceled buses, parents uncertain whether their children will arrive on time, and that kind of thing. So the pilot has proven that families want the buses. They want it Monday through Friday. They want morning and afternoon. I haven't been able to do the afternoon yet. Parents are willing to pay for the Youth Clipper card. And it's not a question of whether or not families are not interested. It's how we can make the service reliable for enough families to depend on it and what I'm asking for the city. I'd like to, I'm not asking for funds. I'm asking for the city to be an active partner in helping the community initiative succeed with working with VTA, with on-time performance, avoiding cancellations, what we've actually been working on that. AND OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE EXPANDED SERVICE. RELIABILITY IS A SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN KEEPING FAMILIES ON THE BUS. THANK YOU, DORI.

ANY QUESTIONS OF DORI? ANYBODY? I WOULD LIKE TO OH, SORRY. YES, THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, DORI, FOR DOING SO MUCH WORK ON THIS OVER THE LAST REALLY A COUPLE OF YEARS. Can you just provide a bit more clarity on what your ask of the city is in terms of being an active partner? Sort of mentioning, like, you know, it seems like the priorities are pretty clear, like, you know, reliability is sort of number one to avoid cancellations. What is sort of the best version of that is, you know, the council members being engaged with VTA? Is that staff? Just to give us a better sense of what's most impactful while we're balancing resources.

Yeah, so I didn't quite get to that part of that. Sorry, I didn't realize it was being timed. But so what it is is that we have two council members already that are part of VTA. So this would fold into that capability already, that responsibility. So VTA council members would at, you know, once a month or whatever meet with VTA, meet with Redwood PTA because it's a combined, that's how the districts, other districts do it. You work with VTA, you work with the city, you work with the school, and you also have parents. And how does it all work together? So it would be having a place to meet. We've been meeting at Starbucks. It would be nice to be meeting at the city. Having a staff person helping to do minutes and kind of coordinate, that kind of thing, might be like once a month. And so for all us to meet together to find out how we can best serve our community and how we can, it might be adding extra routes, that kind of thing, but That's kind of what I'm asking for. Did I answer your question? Yeah, that's helpful.

And then the other question I have is, yeah, can you give us just a bit more like anecdotally what's happened? So, you know, school's been open a couple of weeks now. How's that gone?

Yeah, so, and I've been trying to update that being pretty transparent about this. It's not been a real smooth ride. Parents want to take the bus. We've had some issues. VTA is addressing it. Right now, the 51 is a no cancellation bus I don't exactly know what that means but I'm hoping that because we did have a cancellation and then parents were like what do we do so the the program started with like eight kids on the 51 just a few on the 26 then we went to 12 on Monday three days after the program started we were at 25 so we're halfway to the 50 mark and then Wednesday we had a VTA flaw in the app. It said it was canceled. Parents freaked out. So we didn't have, like, things like that have actually hurt the program. But, so now I've been in contact with BTA. So we're going to do a non-cancellation. So hopefully that will help. The school has been very flexible about allowing for late time, you know, arrivals. But what I think we need is, I think the bus, the 51 can't arrive at 11, at at 7.50, and I've been tracking this for like three weeks too with the parents, it needs to arrive like at 7.35. So if it is a little bit late, we build in time there. Because we have to get those kids on on time. And I know I can get 50 kids on that bus. I know it. On the 51 for sure. And then the 26 will also serve Bell Grove. So those kids could actually, you know, take that bus. It would be easy for them. And, oh, yeah, I wanted to just mention when I met with the district, they would like to work with the city on where these crossing guards would work. They want to work with you guys to identify how that would work out. And that's all part of this consortium sort of thing that I talked about that other districts are doing, and that's how it works. It's not just me. It's not just you. It's not this district. It's that kind of combination.

You're welcome.

Anybody else? Is there a member of the public that would like to speak on this item? Now would be the time to come on down or raise your virtual hand. Come on down, Jenny.

Well, this is Eugene.

And whoever else, come on down.

Hi, my name is Eugene, or Yunjin. Like, what is it, as Doreen mentioned, I helped, what is it, I helped put together the video that a lot of our Saratoga residents saw. I just want to talk about the energy of Saratoga residents right now. Ever since we had that incident of that mother getting into a traffic incident with her infant child. We've seen a lot of frustration on sites like Nextdoor and Facebook. And there's a lot of frustration and apathy building towards, just generally, our social institutions, such as the city council and the schools. And I just wanted to, essentially, I think what Dory meant by active participation of the city council in our initiative to bring buses to the schools is we want the members of the city council to be more engaged with the residents, to be more transparent. Because I see it in my father. I see it in the group chats of parents. Nobody really knows what's going on. I feel like what happens or occurs within the city council, all the initiatives and the measures that are passed usually are unheard by. They aren't known by the members of the public. And I believe if we are able to, what is it, I guess reach out to the residents more, you would see more active participation. Because the energy is there. The energy is there, and people want the city to be better. And I'm one of them, too. I personally hate speaking in public due to anxiety, but I guess even still, I want the city to be better. So it gives me the strength to come up here. That's really all I wanted to say. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Eugene. Jenny? Jenny?

That's why it's down here. So I'm like a middle schooler at Redwood. And I take the bus every day to school. And it's like really late. Like sometimes it like gets us like, like today, for example, it got us like two minutes after like the last bell rung and we were all late to class and we all had to go to the office and get like target slips. So I think it would be like better if we could like somehow get the bus to run on time or maybe start from an earlier place, like De Anza College, because at its peak, there's a lot of kids, I don't know, maybe 30, and then the bus was late on Tuesday, and then it was canceled on Wednesday, and now I'm the only eighth grader in it, and I think there's only eight maybe kids on the bus, and so it's really plummeted after. all, like, the cancellations and everything. So I think we should definitely start it earlier because, like, it's a lot of stress for students like me to, like, wake up really early just to go to the city, I mean, just to go to, like, school late. So, yeah.

And where do you get on the bus?

I get on a Cox and Saratoga Sunnyvale.

I saw you yesterday waiting. I think I saw you, yeah. Great. Thank you.

Good evening, City Council. I'm a resident of Saratoga and a mother of four. All of my kids have biked or are biking to Redwood Middle School. I'm here to urge the City Council to support the VTA initiative that Dori and other parents have been working on for at least the past two years. As you all know, the streets close to Redwood Middle School are congested and dangerous during drop off and pick up because there are four schools close to each other. It's dangerous for drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, and others. As such, we started this initiative this fall, wherein the students can take the VTA to Redwood Middle School along Route 51 or 26. It all started very well at the beginning of the school year, but is slowly dropping in ridership because of inconsistent bus time drop-off, last-minute bus cancellation, bus cancellation shown on the app, but in reality, the bus ran. Improving and continuing this VTA grassroots program will teach kids to be independent, make our streets safer for all in our community, and help the environment. Therefore, I urge the city to please help support this VTA initiative.

Thank you, Jenny. Do you have questions for me? I'd just like to say one thing. I heard your message about the crossing guards, and I've actually gone to the Blower in Saratoga-Sunnyvale. Didn't quite get there every day, but I'm trying one or two days a week. Yesterday I chose to follow the bus just to see how many, and I saw this young man, I'm pretty sure, at the corner of Cox and Saratoga-Sunnyvale. There was one person there. This morning there were only two kids that got on, and I'm sure that the lateness and stuff, that's an impact without a doubt. And I think it's a really neat thing. What I've been impressed with is the cognizance of the young people in crossing the street. They wait for the light. They're respectful for that. You know, those are audio symbols when you press that arrow to go across. It says wait. Thing is, it doesn't always say go. But when it does, it says Saratoga Sunnyvale, Blower, or whatever, and you go. So I think that it's a really neat idea. I'd love to hear from Jay after this to hear a little bit more about what they're doing to make sure that it's on time. I mean, this is one of the problems that I heard as a VTA board member, and we heard it at every single meeting. Buses are late, buses are on time, buses are missed, the stops are missed, or the buses don't show. It's a concern, and especially if there's another half a cent added in regressive tax that, you know, the same people who probably need to take the bus are going to be impacted the most. So not necessarily the kids in Saratoga, mind you. But I think that it's important that we understand how they're going to make these buses timely and how they're going to make sure that they actually run. So I'm anxious to hear that.

And just to add to that, I was at the bus stop at Blauer and Saratoga Sunnyvale on Monday, and as I mentioned, the ridership has gone down, pretty much from what Jenny had said. I think it's a great idea. I think the parents are behind it. We just have to make it work. I mean, if you guys have another suggestion on how you want to deal with it, I'm all ears with the congestion on Saratoga Avenue. I've brought you the buses, and so we can work with that. It's resourceful, or we can't afford private buses, but we need to do something. So I'm saying let's get started. Let's kind of work on it. it's got its flaws i i know that and we've been actually fixing it as we've been going along but i did have 25 kids on that monday bus and that told me that things were going and people were relying on it until everything started falling apart and i've been pretty i've been letting you guys know i haven't been saying oh this is awesome you got to stick with it it's awesome and and all that kind of stuff it has its problems and i think working on it together Let's hear from Jay about what we can do. And it works in other districts, too.

Mayor, I'm sorry. I do have someone virtual.

We have somebody online? OK, awesome. Let's hear.

OK, so Josh Williams, because we have public comment, correct? We're still doing public comment? Yes. OK, so Josh Williams?

Yeah, I think I'm unmuted.

Yes, go ahead.

Hello, council and mayor.

Nice to see you all tonight. I was calling them for a different reason, but this bus one I think is super interesting.

I love that we are looking to support public buses for our students. I have a son that's gone all the way through all of the schools in Saratoga. I was raised in a city where we had busing to all of our schools, and it blew my mind that I now lived in a city that had no busing to help working parents, given how high amounts of working parents that we have in Saratoga. And so it becomes very challenging. Who's gonna be late to work to be able to bring your kids to school? So having an alternate, I hear that there are certainly some problems work through, but I think it is very important that we try to work through those because it would significantly help so many families. And I know it sounds like you have a good amount of people that are interested. I think if we had something that was working, I think you would quickly get even more parents and students that would do it and not only that it would teach them some independence that i think is sorely missing from our city uh and just you know the area that we live in and building that independence for our kids is going to help them so much so i i really wanted to say that the city council should definitely support this initiative to everything we can do i think it's a

Thank you, Josh. Okay, we'll close the public comment period. Oh, sorry, you got more?

There's one more. Oh, my gosh.

I didn't see it.

Okay, we have someone, Corinne?

Hi, City Council, Corrine Vida. I just want to commend Dori. I'm her neighbor, and I've been helping her with this program. She had the vision. She saw these empty VTA buses, 26 and 51, and she said, boy, there's got to be a better way. If we could get students on these buses, since the buses go right by Redwood to the West Valley Depot, So I really want to commend Dory for all of her leadership and work as a citizen to bring this program forward Dory has asked the city for marketing help to get the message out across the city But I don't believe any resources were given to her So I would love for the city to give her some marketing support Secondly the city can work with VTA, the reliability which you've heard about. It's been mentioned multiple times. That needs to be fixed. Otherwise, I think this program will not succeed. And lastly, one thing Dori and I heard as we were working on the program, from the schools, the school leadership said to us that none of the schools coordinate their schedules. In other words, Redwood has a start bell. St. Andrews has a start bell. Sacred Heart has a start bell. West Valley College has a start bell. No one talks to anyone in terms of these different schools. So again, I think that's interesting information that the city council ought to know that from a traffic and congestion and just safety standpoint, these schools are making up their own schedules and they're not communicating to each other. even though they're located on the same streets or the same thoroughways, and they cause tremendous traffic congestion. So I just thought you might find that interesting. But that's it, and again, thanks to Dory.

Thank you, Corinne.

I have no other hands raised.

Now I'll close the public comment period, and Jay, love to hear from you.

Great. Thank you, Mayor. My name is Jay Tyree. I'm Deputy Director of VTA's Planning Division. And so I do appreciate the efforts of the parents. So the first thing I want to say is a thank you to the parents and Dory for coordinating. We share the value in getting students onto transit. So let me describe a little bit about the framework by which we use to adjust our service across our network. We have a dedicated scheduler on my scheduling team that his job is to be in touch with the administrations of schools all across the county to get bell times so that where we can, we can adjust, make adjustments to our service that goes by the schools to meet the bell times, both the a.m. and the p.m. And so we were able to do that at Dory's suggestion. This summer we adjusted the running time on the 51 to meet the bell time. There's a few challenges with the 51, to be honest. You know, our buses are stuck in the same traffic. The bus comes down from Nassau Moffitt, And that's an hour and 15-minute trip one way. And that variability can go as less than an hour. It can go 20 minutes beyond the hour 15. And so that variability is something that we have to estimate in advance. We have to estimate it 15 weeks in advance of the start of the school season. So back in the summer, we had to estimate how long it would take. And it is normal that at the beginning, we see it every year, at the beginning of the school term, congestion is really bad. And then things start to calm down a bit. So we are hopeful that that's going to happen. Although we have already made an adjustment after discussing with Dory that's going to come into effect in October that's going to pull the running time back five more minutes so that it's better timed for the Redwood Middle School bell time. And then I just wanted to also point out on the do not cancel list. So Dory and the parents are right. We had two issues of cancellations. One was an actual cancellation and one was an error in the app's code. both of which we have a ticket in to fix the app, so that won't happen again. And then on the cancellation, this is due to lack of personnel, VTA personnel, when personnel aren't available to operate the service, we've put it on a list called the do not cancel list, which essentially means to the dispatcher that's dispatching operators in the morning, this is a route that needs to be protected. This is a route that really needs to go out. It's an important route. And so do not cancel. By all means, do everything you can to not cancel the service. And then finally, I just wanted to mention that there is a framework that limits VTA's ability to provide school service. That's Federal Regulation 49 CFR 605, which essentially says that VTA cannot provide exclusive school bus service. So this is an area that we have to be very careful not to go beyond our mandate and risk our federal funds. by providing too specialized of service. But when there are demand on our routes, when there are students on board, and when we can make adjustments that don't impact the rest of the route and the rest of the riders, then we are happy to do that. And Russell, you have my commitment. We will continue to do that for Redwood Middle School. We'll continue to watch the running times. We'll watch the ridership. We're going to work on the on-time performance so that the cancellations are not an issue.

So I hope that helps. Thank you. Any questions? Anybody? Bilal?

Thank you for the presentation. I appreciate you and Russell and everyone here who have been working on this. Question regarding what you just asked, what you just mentioned around being mindful of route protection and do not cancel lists, right? And then also the federal regulation that you mentioned. How does that operate in real time? Does that mean it's like for the whole day, the 51 won't cancel? Or is it during peak traffic times you can say, do not cancel in the mornings, but midday maybe it's okay? How does that work in terms of that route protection?

Yeah, thank you for the question. The Route 51 is on a do not cancel list for all day. It's 60-minute service, and so it's really impactful when that bus doesn't show up because then you're talking of a two-hour wait for the bus. And so The way that our service works generally is there's an operator that goes back and forth all day, and that's the whole trip. And it's that whole piece. It's not just the one trip that is at risk of being canceled if the operator doesn't show and we don't have a backup available to take the service. And so by being on the do not cancel list, that means that the dispatcher is going to prioritize the standby operators that we have every day to go on this one if that person doesn't show up. So it'll be all day service that's protected.

And then the second question is just the operator of the bus itself. Is that usually changing? How consistent does that tend to be? I know you're probably shuffling resources, but can you give us a sense of that? Just because having the same person who understands the kids and their dynamics and how to pick, that could be helpful, but I want to understand other constraints if that's possible.

That's a good question. We operate on a quarterly assist, roughly quarterly. It's actually lined up to the school bell time, so we have a It's called four sign-ups per year, and that's when the operators can pick their work for that sign-up. So this sign-up that we're in right now runs from August to the end of October. That's also the point at which we can make schedule changes to our services is once per sign-up. And so it'll be the same operator in this sign-up that we're in right now, but it could be a very different operator in October, but only four times a year. Cool. Yeah?

Thank you, Mayor. What is the current ridership and capacity of bus 51 and 26?

Route 51 is an hourly bus, and ridership on Route 51 is lower. It goes up all the way through Mountain View. It serves the El Camino Hospital, serves Alta Vista High, Mountain View High, and another high school I'm forgetting up in Mountain View. And the school trippers, the school service, the trips that are timed to the bell services, those do really well. So some of those trips are more than seated capacity, so more than 40 people on the bus. And the, I'm sorry, what was the second question?

Just, you know, the ridership and capacity.

Right, yeah, and the 26. The 26 is a frequent route, and so it operates 15-minute service all day long, and it goes over to East San Jose. That one has several thousand people a day on that bus, and so it's much higher ridership. That's why it's 15-minute service. I recognize that it maybe doesn't go in the right areas to connect the Redwood Middle School to the market. Sometimes the origin and destinations aren't perfectly linked. And that's where that federal school regulation comes into play, where we can't create a new route just for a school service. And so that limits our ability to provide that better service there.

So the capacity for both buses are 40 people on the bus?

There's about 40 seats on every bus. These are 40-foot buses. There's crush load. We call it crush load. It's like the absolute standing load is about 70 people on the bus. So we regularly also, we monitor ridership, and if ridership ever gets to the point at which capacity is an issue, we'll add another bus. And we do that as routine, regular course of service, and that's what one of Russell's jobs is just to monitor school ridership to make sure that's not happening. And we'll always do that.

All right. Thank you, Jay.

And, Jay, do you monitor ridership? ridership at specific points along the route? How do you do that?

We do. We have automated passenger counters. It's equipment on board the vehicle that counts ons and offs of the bus and then geographic location. And so we have a map that shows every bus stop in our system. We have 3,200 bus stops in the system where the ridership is across our system. It's also available online, so anybody can see it at opendata.vta.org. And we use that for service planning and looking ahead to where demand is growing and adjusting our service accordingly.

Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Well, I think this was very informational, and we appreciate all of the comments and certainly the work. Any comments from council or any direction?

Just one quick comment. I just want to thank Dory for spearheading the VTA bus program. And I think what you are asking for might be a, like, task force, you know, city council and school, you know, I don't know, PTA or, you know, administration, perhaps staff. But anyway, right now we don't have that, and I'll be happy to look into that. Okay? Thank you. Thank you.

really appreciate all the work, the diligence, the surveys, everything like that. Also, huge thanks to VTA. We can't do any of this on our own, and so obviously, I think, you know, ridership has been relatively low for a while, and this is an opportunity to sort of crank that up, and I think the exciting thing is, like, if you get folks hooked on riding a bus young, they'll just, they'll do it even longer and longer. I went to Cal, and the 51 was the bus I took there, and I've never forgotten the numbers of the buses I take, and I think, and the hope is that that can be the experience of kids here. I absolutely agree with what all of the residents are saying in terms of encouraging independence. I know, for example, I have friends with kids in like Orinda and Lafayette where their kids absolutely love taking the bus because it's an opportunity to be with their friends, get some independence. Hey, it's a fun experience. Also tap on and tap off the bus. There's a lot of different things like that that I think are actually just a really great experience. ALWAYS REALLY PLEASED TO SEE COMMUNITY WORK ACTUALLY DRIVING INITIATIVES. WHEN IT'S COMING ORGANICALLY FROM THE COMMUNITY, I THINK THAT'S A REALLY POWERFUL THING. AND THEN SOMETIMES IT BECOMES HARD TO SEE HOW DO YOU FIGURE OUT WHERE YOU SHOULD POSITION THAT ACROSS SOMETHING AS CROSS-FUNCTIONAL AS THIS, THE SCHOOL DISTRICT, VTA, THE CITY. multiple school districts, really, including the private schools and West Valley College. And so I think getting all of that to work together is very hard to do. I thought this would be, even getting the pilot to this stage, would be way, way more work than it has been. And I love being wrong on that. So thank you for proving me wrong. it's great to see some of that initiative come together um yeah i think yen happy work with you and looking into how we as a city can be plugging into that i think a concern that we do have is just resourcing right um like funding is one thing um staff you know if running spending staff time on this that also means we're funding it too right and so but how do we figure out a way to stay engaged um and and support um i know yen and i can can talk about how we can be more plugged into that I think the other perspective on this just as a closing thought is I really appreciate, like, the term pilot is one that can scare people, but I think it's a great way to iron out some of the issues that are coming up, even anecdotally, like, hey, issues with the app or bus cancellations, and us having this conversation is, I think, the progress that we need, and it's not going to be perfect overnight. It's going to take a number of steps, and hopefully by, like, by January, it's operating really well at 40 or 50 people. Sometimes managing expectations is the hardest part of that, but here to help support, and thank you.

Okay, thank you. So we'll now move on to item 2.2, which is Alternative Policing Services Ad Hoc Committee. Leslie?

All right, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and council members. The item before you tonight is a recommendation to establish an ad hoc committee. consisting of two council members to work with staff as we continue evaluating potential long-term law enforcement options for Saratoga. As council is aware, staff has been exploring a potential partnership with the Los Gatos-Monteserino Police Department for law enforcement services. The proposed ad hoc committee would serve in an advisory capacity, working closely with staff to review the proposed Los Gatos-Monteserino law enforcement contract. The proposed contract is set to come to the City Council on September 16th. And so we would like to get this ad hoc committee forum to get them up and running. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions? Suggestions? Comments? If we don't have any questions, I'll open the public comment period. And if there's anyone who would like to comment on this item, we welcome you to come on down or raise your virtual hand. Come on down. Hey, Jim. Jim, before you start, could somebody close that door back there, please?

Jim Stallman. I live on Braemar. With the contract, you know, I was impressed. When I looked at Danville, they said their police department, which is actually the county sheriff, writes 7,000 tickets a year. They're really transparent. You know, you can tell everything that they get for their service. Their police blotter is online. And I don't know. We don't have the ALPRs connected to the sheriff, so we can't prevent attacks. Luckily, just the cameras being there is keeping the residential crime down, burglaries down. But I'm thinking if we get more tickets being written in the city, I don't know how many are actually written in Santa Clara County. The county sheriff data portal is pretty hard to use. Maybe they are writing 5,000. We should be getting 5,000 tickets a year. And if cars are getting pulled over getting tickets, then people that don't pay much attention to the law, scoff laws, maybe even nefarious-purposed visitors to our town... They don't like the attention. They don't like getting pulled over. So that means Saratoga will be taken off the list of preferred destinations for those type of people. And just writing tickets could mean the difference between safety of our residents and leaving us exposed. Thanks.

Thanks, Jim. This is really about creating an ad hoc, not about law enforcement services. If there's people that want to talk about law enforcement services, please hold them. That would be a non-agendized item, especially if you're remote. Is there anyone here that wants to talk about forming an ad hoc committee to understand the nuances of the Los Gatos Montes Sereno contract? Seeing no one. Britt?

Okay. First speaker to address the ad hoc committee would be Austin. Nope, Austin lowered his hand. Tim.

Hi, my name is Tim. I request that the ad hoc committee have a minimum number of council members to be subject to the Brown Act. There were comments on the previous item about the importance of transparency and the making policy decisions about police services is a very important community decision where there there should be community oversight and opportunity for comment. So I ask that the ad hoc committee that is created will have a minimum number of members that make it subject to the Brown Act. Thank you.

Thank you, Tim.

OK. Karen, it's your turn.

Hi, I also just want to point out that the ASL interpreter, I think, was getting ready to interpret. So I think you need to make sure that you let Austin come back on. He might have had technical difficulties. Anyway, so I think you guys should make this ad hoc, have enough members. to be subject to meeting public comment and public transparency. We just had the previous agenda item. Eugene brought up a great point that there's a lot of confusion because people don't know what's going on. There's not a lot of transparency. And this is just kind of running along that same theme. When you have only two people, That then means that you guys can get away with having it behind closed doors. And this is a very, very vital, important subject to have public opinion on. There needs to be three or more people on this ad hoc to make sure that it can be able for the public to see what's happening and comment. I also think it's very interesting that it's being framed that they're exploring options, but then only one option was listed, which is to go with Los Gatos. And I think that's also very telling. So if you guys really stand for proper democracy and proper transparency of serving the public, then I suggest you amend this item to appoint more than two people. You need three or more, I believe, to make it subject to the Brown Act. and make sure that people can comment and make sure that people can see what's happening and what's being discussed because this is police services and this is a huge, big deal. This is about public safety and about the trust of the community. So please change the number of people to be three or more. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, Josh.

Hello again, council.

I wanted to comment about creating the ad hoc committee. I think creating the ad hoc committee is a great idea. I also feel very strongly that we need more than two people as part of this committee. This discussion about policing, any investigation that happens, any meetings that happen like this is just too big of a deal of something that can change the fabric of our community we've had the sheriff here in saratoga since i moved here and i know many many many years before that The personal relationships we have, the response time that is like second to none, that we're just not going to be able to get with an alternative leasing force. It's just something that I think it's too important for our community. and i know you guys are trying really hard to do the right thing for our city and i think this extra step of just having this extra transparency is going to make a big difference and go a long ways for whatever direction we ultimately go as a city i think this is just one more step to try to make sure that this public is informed and in it along the whole way so we know what's going on and we can make the right decisions thank you thank you josh

Okay, Austin.

All right, thanks for recognizing my hand. I won't take it down until this is over. I just want to say I don't agree with the formation of an ad hoc committee at all. To be honest, this decision is too big and too consequential to be happening behind closed doors, absent of critical Brown Act transparency. Deliberations must be properly noticed and involved the public. We still haven't seen any real numbers, yet both sides are acting like it's a done deal, and the public has not had a real opportunity to weigh in. If you are to have an ad hoc committee, I urge you to delegate three members of the council ensuring future discussions happen in the open with proper notice, agendizement, and input from the public. And if you are going to go with a two-person committee, we need to hear where those two delegates stand before a decision is made. Also, as a parent in the district, I want to respond to a letter that the superintendent of the Los Gatos Saratoga Union High School District wrote endorsing your decision to move forward with the Los Gatos Monastery and the police department over the sheriff, especially in light of a recent event involving use of force on campus. The framing of the decision as one of the question about which model best Saratoga for the future is dead wrong. This is about money, plain and simple. Saratoga failed to adequately plan for a predictable and measurable price increase, and the Chief is seizing on the opportunity to get you to pay for her 70 million headquarter ambitions. Thank you.

Thank you, Austin.

Mayor, there are no other hands raised.

Okay, then we'll close the public comment period. I think it's fair to state that we have not made any decision related to law enforcement. We plan on having several town hall meetings to get input from our citizens, and we plan to do it in a format that is not like the city council where it's a store and forward, you come up and speak for three minutes and we can't talk to you, and then you all sit down and we try to figure out how to answer the questions. We plan to have a back and forth. We plan to have town hall meetings that are open, and hopefully we can share some good information and we'll learn some good information about the type of law enforcement that our residents want. No decisions have been made. This is specifically to... have a couple of council members weigh in, not make any decisions, have no decision-making power at all, but it's to weigh in on how that contract looks so that we can actually compare apples to apples as best we can. We did sign a five-year contract with the county sheriff. We did that because at the end of September, our extended contract from the last one expires. And frankly, it'll take at least a year, maybe longer. We've had some optimistic views that it'll take a year. Many people have suggested it'll take a year and a half or two to change to a new law enforcement agency. We know that as of October 1st, we need law enforcement, so we signed that contract. It does have an exit clause, so we have to give some notice, at least a year, to the county. and then we could have the opportunity to change. But in the meantime, we're going to have some very, very healthy discussion, both in public, and it's going to all be in public, as a matter of fact. It's just making sure that the ad hoc committee's really, their role is to make sure that the language is such that we can all understand it effectively. And I think that's the real goal and objective. Much like the ad hoc I had with the other two mayors related to the sheriff's contract. I mean, we determined some things. We did a We actually hired an audit firm to go and look at the county's program or the contract that we had. We all made some changes. They made some changes. We're going to see if there may be more. Leslie, maybe our city manager could add a little bit more.

Well, I just, if I may, the purpose of this ad hoc committee is really just to engage the council because staff has been working on this contract, and we want to just ensure that while we feel like we've thought through everything on the contract, having two council members to look at this Los Gatos Monasterino contract ahead of the point of when it goes to the public, which will again happen on September 16th, so it's just again to kind of make sure that we as staff are not missing anything and that the two council members can just take a deeper look at it. Again, to your point, Mayor, of just making sure that it's completely thorough before it is brought to the public. So again, no decisions are being made. It's just to make sure that this contract is fully ready for when it goes to council on September 16th.

And I would like to ask the city clerk, if we were to form a committee that was three or more, what is the time frame that you'd have to have TO ANNOUNCE THE MEETING, PRESENT THE AGENDA BEFORE THAT ACTUAL MEETING COULD BE HELD, AND THEN THE TIME FRAME FOR OUR SEPTEMBER 16TH MEETING WHEN WE'RE PLANNING TO HAVE THE CONTRACT, HOW WOULD THAT ALL FIT IN?

72-HOUR REQUIRED PUBLIC NOTICE FOR AN AGENDA. SO IF IT'S SEPTEMBER 16TH, WE'D HAVE TO DO SEPTEMBER 16TH IS that Wednesday so we post our agendas the Friday before unless it's a closed Friday then I have to post it on Thursday so you're okay I'd have to look at the calendar I don't know what if that's an on Friday we're a closed Friday we are closed on that Friday okay so okay thanks any questions of staff Tina

Thank you, Mayor. I think it may also help if the city manager could explain what would be the role of the city manager or city staff to work with the ad hoc committee. There were a couple of questions I sort of heard from one of the members of the public regarding the working of the ad hoc and the scope.

Well, again, to kind of talk about timing, the staff just received the contract from Los Gatos. And so because of the timing, and again to what the city clerk pointed out, the agenda will go out next Thursday, which means staff has to provide a completed staff report by Wednesday of next week. And so in order for us to really have two members of the council to take a closer look at this contract, That is why we went with the two for an ad hoc. And again, it's not any decisions. It's just to ensure that because you are elected representatives and you know better what our residents need and desire for law enforcement, we just want to ensure that we didn't miss anything. in that contract. And so it's to kind of take a peek, a preview, and say, let's tweak it really again, because what we'll have to do is once this ad hoc committee takes a peek at this, takes a look at this contract, if there are some changes, we'll want to work with our city attorneys to incorporate those changes into that contract to get the best version of a draft itself to share with the public by next week. Did that answer your question? Thank you so much. Okay.

Yes, yeah.

I have a quick question. What are we talking about? You said September 16th, that's when. Are we going to talk about what the city council need to do with Los Gatos? I think it's misleading when you keep saying September 16th we need to be ready to make a decision, but that's not. No, no, no. I'll clarify.

Absolutely. I'll clarify. So September 16th will be the first time that we will be able to share the draft version of a proposal from Los Gatos Montes Reynos. And so, again, I think I heard another person or the public say law enforcement options. To the mayor's point, we do have the options are do we stay with the sheriff or do we consider Los Gatos Monterinos? So September 16th will just be the first opportunity for the public, city council, to look at it and ask questions about the contract, any concerns, things like that. And then to the mayor's point, we will have some town hall meetings on Saturday, September 19th from 3 to 5 at the Prospect Center. And then we will have another town hall meeting on a special meeting on Wednesday, September 30th, again, to hear public input on what they feel about now that they've had a couple weeks to look at the contract. know what they may or may not want, and we'll continue to gather feedback. One other thing I should mention, we have an online survey that has been sent out to residents, so we're trying to gather as much community feedback. So we'll hear all that, but then ultimately the thought would be on our October 7th meeting, that is where we will then decide, does the council want to stay with the sheriff's office, or do they want to make that change over to Los Gatos Montes Reynos?

Thank you for the explanation. I think that's much clearer to public. I think before it wasn't quite clear.

Yes, no decisions made until October.

All right, so we've closed the public comment period, so it's back to council for discussion and or motion.

I'm very open to hearing feedback from the rest of my fellow council members. Just one thing I'll throw out there is I do think that at least one member of the committee, of the ad hoc committee, and I'm supportive of us forming one, to be clear, for all the mentions that the mayor mentioned, should be from one of the committee members should be on the next council, I think as a minimum. And I'm willing to throw my hat in the ring to be the other one, but also if someone else feels more strong about wanting to be, I'm absolutely happy to support that as well.

If I take your point, Bilal, thank you so much, and I'm happy to be that person. I will continue on the council next year. We will be having three new council members, for those of you who haven't caught up with that information yet.

I just throw my hat in the ring because I'm very familiar with the one that we've just done and all that negotiation and conversation, but this is our decision to make, so please make a recommendation.

You've been closer to it because you looked at the sheriff's contract than I have, and so I'm more than happy to... I think you'd be a great fit for it.

Or if the two of you... Is that a motion? I said if the two of you wanted to work, I'm totally fine with that?

No, you need to be on. Somebody make a motion then.

I thought you just made a motion. Oh, I did. Oh, OK. All right, so I will appoint our mayor and vice mayor to be the policing service ad hoc committee members.

Do we have a second? Second. OK, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? The motion carries unanimously. And I'm getting that meeting set up pretty quick.

That will be set up early next week.

Thank you. No vacation time for you. Do we have a three-day weekend? I wouldn't even know. I don't know what that is, so that's cool. Perfect. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Next item is item 2.3, the future of the Blossom Festival. We have a staff report.

That would be me again. So mayor, vice mayor, and council members, tonight is an opportunity to discuss the future of one of Saratoga's longstanding community traditions, the Blossom Festival. The Blossom Festival has a long history in Saratoga, dating back to 1900, when it was known as the Valley of Hearts Delight. The original festival continued until 1941. In 2013, the Saratoga Historical Foundation revived the tradition and has been organizing this event ever since. Earlier this year, the Historical Foundation canceled the 2026 festival, and in June, the board determined that the organization could no longer organize this event. Given the festival's history and connection to Saratoga, staff is seeking council direction tonight on whether the city should explore options for continuing the Blossom Festival in the future. If council is interested, staff can evaluate potential options and return at a future meeting with additional information for council's considerations. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions of staff? Seeing none, I will open the public comment period. Anyone in the chambers? We do have some slips, so take it away, Britt.

If you would like to address the City Council on this item and you have not submitted a speaker slip, now is the time to do so. If you're attending virtually and you would like to address the City Council, now is the time to raise your hand. Our first speaker is Bachi?

Jackie.

Jackie, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. That's okay. I was thinking I'm looking at it, so thank you very much. You know when you're writing really fast. I apologize.

And I'd also like to introduce, go ahead, you can introduce your name.

Huiling, Huiling Su.

Okay. Yes. My name is Jackie Funk. Thank you so much for giving us an opportunity to speak about this. We're both representing AABC organization, which was founded in 2017. Our focus has been on an integrated community, supporting community, working across education, socioeconomic differences, race relations, everything that connects us to the community. We love civic engagement and community support. And one of the things that we're here presenting is that we'd like you to consider AABC, I can talk, excuse me, as a community partner that would community partner with the historical society as well as the city of Saratoga to continue this longstanding tradition of having the Blossom Festival. working with you to make sure that there's enough volunteers and organization for the event.

We are a group of Saratogans forming the AABC, Asian American for Better Communities. We just wanted to take this opportunity to see this tradition for over 120 years to be continued. So we would like the city council just to consider us as an alternative or as an organization. We can partner with the historical foundation, or they can be an advisor to our community, to our organization, to continue this great tradition. Yeah, this tradition, great tradition, I see some history there. In the past, they probably have over 20,000 visitors in the past. It's great to see we can bring this back to the Saratoga community again. So we're not here to invent the events. We're just bringing the tradition back and just adding the new energy to it. Thank you for considering us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

there anybody else in chambers that would like to speak on this item okay i will go to our virtual attendees marilyn mckinney uh good evening mayor council can you hear me okay yes go ahead okay fantastic um as leslie mentioned the uh boston festival has been in existence since the 1900s when Reverend Edwin Sidney Sunshine Williams organized the community gathering. You've already heard the history from Leslie, so I'm not going to go into that. But I would like to say, as you just saw, there's already been some interest from AABC and other groups. I happen to be on the board of directors from the Historical Foundation, but I'm here speaking by myself, as myself. I think that between the foundation and other organizations and community groups such as AABC, we can keep this activity going so that, I'm kind of changing based on what I've already heard. I don't want to repeat anything. But I'm pretty confident that we can get enough people involved to keep this important function going. And what I would like to recommend is that the council allow us to have a study session where we can bring in a lot of organizations and groups and have an opportunity to try to talk about the reorganization of the event. Who's going to be the chair? How it's going to work? Who's going to manage the volunteers? The foundation has a lot of information from previous events, so we have a lot to contribute. We just don't want to, we decided not to head up the project. But I think Alex is probably in the audience or is going to be speaking on that. So I will, that's all I would like to say is I think there is enough interest from the community to keep the thing going. Thank you.

Thank you, Marilyn. Alex, do you want to raise your virtual hand? There you go.

I'm Alex Nugent. I'm the president of the Historical Foundation and Museum. Um, we had to step back from, uh, leading the Blossom Festival. We've been overwhelmed, uh, this past year. We have a lot of tasks to attend to at the museum itself in terms of our organization, our volunteer work, our docent work, our education program, and all on our own, we're just not We don't have the capacity to manage it. And so the idea of perhaps getting together with other community groups to see if this is feasible. And we also have to talk about the realities of the budget. What does this festival cost? Is it affordable? Is it something we can continue with? And we would be happy to meet with groups and also with the city to see if it's feasible, practically speaking, budget-wise, to continue this. And yes, Marilyn mentioned volunteers. It does require a robust group of volunteers. It's a tremendous amount of work to put it together, but we'd be happy to work with other groups to see if we can continue the tradition. So thank you.

Thank you, Alex. Appreciate that. Anybody else online?

Those are the last of the speakers.

Well, thank you all for your comments, and I'd like to close the public comment period and bring it back to the council. Alex, I saw your hand go up. Is there something you forgot?

No, I'm sorry. I made an error.

No worries. Thank you. All right, so now I'll close the public comment period and bring it back to council. BELOW.

A COUPLE OF QUICK THOUGHTS. FIRST I WANT TO THANK THE FUNDATION FOR BRINGING THIS BACK. WITH THE NET, ALEX, SO MANY PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN INVOLVED FOR A VERY LONG TIME. IT IS A REALLY IMPORTANT FESTIVAL THAT IS A TESTAMENT TO THE CITY'S HERITAGE AND IT BRINGS EVERYBODY TOGETHER IN A WAY THAT'S QUITE PHENOMENAL AND HONORS SORT OF OUR REALLY older history but also our more recent history as well with historical figures and you know an ode to a lot of the our farming history and things like that so i think there's a lot of incredible history there so thanks lots of the historical foundation for really bringing a lot of this tradition back and carrying it forward um also thank you to abc for volunteering to to drive this forward i'm this council's representative to the circle foundation and was involved earlier this year and have volunteered at the festival a couple years in a row. But basically have been involved to understand just sort of some of the capacity challenges with the foundation right now. But that being said, I think it is an event that the community absolutely can and should put on. It's just a matter of finding the right set of community groups and stakeholders and organizers to actually take that forward in a way that is sustainable for whether it's multiple organizations. And so I think it's actually a great opportunity to revisit revisit that. And so I... Yan shared with me just a little right before the meeting that y'all would be taking this, that y'all would be volunteering. And I think that is really incredible and awesome to see that and would definitely be supportive of that. The city has not put it on, right, the Blossom Festival. And I don't think the city should put it on. This has always been a community-driven event. And that's what makes it special. I think if we get the city involved to help organize it and do a task force, first off, that becomes subject to budget cuts and all sorts of things. But also, I think that would slow it down, to be really frank. I think the ability for groups like ABC and the Historical Foundation, and whether it's Rotary or Lions or anyone else that want to get together and help with that, I think that'd be pretty phenomenal. Now, typically Rotary puts on the art show, and so many organizations do their part. And ABC also does a tremendous amount for Chinese New Year and other community events. And so it's not a small thing to take on. And so I don't think the city should put it on. The city has already approved for this upcoming fiscal year, right, budget towards as part of our community event program. So there is some funding there. I think given that we're sort of revisiting this too, revisiting what this looks like, the only sort of suggestion I would have as well is for us, as Alex mentioned, to take a closer look at all of the costs involved. And some of those costs are, there is the grant that we give as a city, but then also our staff. I know John and his team do a lot to support putting on the Blossom Festival, but just making sure that that's also sustainable, that we're not taking on too much overtime, too many folks having to, like, you know, jump through hoops and perform miracles to make that happen, just so we can make it a bit more, you know, sustainable for our staff, too. And just having all of that, I think, is a really good opportunity. But I'm really glad to see at least one community organization set up, a step up. Maybe there'll be more, but even if you just do it, I think that would be great, but also want to hear from the rest of my fellow council members as well.

Okay. Yan?

Thank you, Mayor.

You know, when we learned that this year Blossom Festival was canceled, I was kind of sad, you know, because Blossom Festival has been a very important part of Saratoga history. And I volunteered for many years and played a historic character many times, so I really enjoy the Blossom Festival for many, many years, so I'm so pleased when I learned that Asian American for a Better Community is interested in carrying on this longstanding tradition, so I'm just very, very happy that We have a community group who are willing to step up to continue this tradition. This event has always been a community volunteer-driven event. And I think it's important that we remain that way. And so I am very excited and thank you so much for willing to take on this. Of course, you know, there are a lot of history that you need to work with, you know, Saratoga Historic Foundation and perhaps, you know, Heritage Commission as well and, you know, come up with plans how to carry on this longstanding tradition. And also, I know I have seen AABC organized Dragon Boat and many other community events, and I know you're a nonprofit community-driven organization as well, so I just want to thank you for willing to carry on our tradition. Thank you.

Thank you, Yan. Tina?

There's a community group, AABC, that has been running successful events. And these are Saratoga residents who have come up volunteering to continue the blossom festival that has been a tradition in our city going way before any of us came on this earth, least of all Saratoga. I think it's a good situation, and you're willing to work with the Historical Foundation. Alex Nugent is open to the idea of that conversation, Marilyn Marchetti as well. So I think it's a good situation. I'd be happy to support that if that's the way we are going to go. Thanks.

Thank you. Anybody else? Kogi?

Thanks. Thanks. So the first question is, and I think I know the answer to this, The first question is, do we want to continue with the Blossom Festival? And I believe the answer is yes for me. And I mostly agree with what Bilal has been saying, that this really is a community-driven event. I don't think the city should be putting it on, but I do believe there's interest out there from groups, as we've seen, that they would like to take the torch and move forward. Historically, for myself, I was actually chair of the Blossom Festival when I was president of the Village Merchants Association, so I know how much work it is, and I know how meaningful it is for the community. So moving forward, I think it's worthwhile to explore new ways to run the Boston Festival. I'm not sure if that's something that Alex can take and sort of either pass the torch or still hold onto the torch, or I'm not sure what's going to go on with the torch. But I do believe that we want to continue with the Blossom Festival. Another organization that might align so beautifully with this event, and I hope I'm not speaking out of turn, is the Foothill Club. So the Foothill Club has been here since I think 1907, so sort of around the same time that the Blossom Festival began. They believe in tradition and history and community and Just something to think about would be to touch base with the Foothill Club, which I know Alex is part of. Those are my comments.

I'm glad to see that people are willing to step up. I think that it would be awesome for any of the groups that want to participate if the Historical Foundation would put out some kind of a COMMENT LETTER OR PRESS RELEASE TO INVITE THEM TO MEET WITH THEM AND SEE HOW Y'ALL CAN SHARE THE RESPONSIBILITIES. BILAL, MAYBE AS THE LIAISON, YOU COULD MAKE THAT HAPPEN.

MY NEXT RESPONSE THAT WAS GOING TO BE, I THINK WE SHOULD USE THIS MEETING AS THAT NOTICE TO SAY, HEY, TO ALL THE LOCAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS, WE ARE LOOKING FOR ACTIVE COMMUNITY PARTNERS. WE ALREADY HAVE ONE THAT'S VOLUNTEERED, WHICH IS FANTASTIC, BUT I THINK THE MORE THAT WANT TO COME TOGETHER, THE BETTER. I'M ALSO HAPPY TO WORK DIRECTLY WITH ALL THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS TO BRING THAT TOGETHER. IF YOU NEED A MEETING SPACE, WE'RE HAPPY TO PROVIDE THAT AT THE CITY. to help make that happen and so I'm happy as the representative for the council to the foundation as a non-voting board member to be clear I'm happy to help support them in whatever way we can awesome we don't really have any action for this so is that hopefully the message has gotten there and Bilal I know you'll take that and I know Alex and Marilyn and others are here so

Thank you all so much for stepping up, and we heard that there's a couple other folks, so work together and make it better than ever. Thank you. All right. Oh. So we've had a request for a five-minute break, so we're going to break for five minutes. All right, so we'll reconvene our meeting. I think our next item is Cities Association of Santa Clara County. So we have a staff report.

All right. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Councilmembers. The item before you tonight is to discuss Saratoga's continued participation in the Cities Association of Santa Clara County, which we refer to as SASE. SASE includes the 15 cities and towns in Santa Clara County and provides a forum for collaboration on regional issues and advocacy at the county, regional, and state levels. It also serves as a city selection committee for appointments to various regional boards and commissions. Saratoga's membership dues for fiscal year 26-27 are $8,698. Under the JPA, a member may withdraw six months' notice subject to its existing financial obligations. Saratoga would continue to participate in the City Selection Committee regardless of SASE membership. Tonight's staff is seeking council direction regarding the City's continued participation in SASE. I'm sorry, I'm saying SASE. I'm calling it Cities Association. Thank you. That concludes my report.

Thank you. Any questions of staff?

Yeah. Just a quick question. What was our membership fee? When was the JPA established in 2024?

Yeah. The same. So even at last year's payment, it was the same. So it has not gone up. Okay. Thank you.

And I'm sorry, anybody else before I go jumping in here?

I have one question. Yeah, go ahead. Do we know what our annual fee is for the League of California Cities? Is there a fee we pay there too? I know I didn't prep.

And I meant to do the same.

For the League of California Cities. We can look that up for you and get back to you.

But do we pay a fee? Yes. We do, right? It's a membership that the city of Saratoga has.

So if I remember correctly, I remember when we did this in 24 for the 25, no. The first time we did it. But last year we got an invoice and I think it it was missed by the then city manager, and so we never had a chance to discuss it or have it come forward or actually even, it may not even have been in the budget. I don't remember that.

I could ask, I believe it was in the budget, it just, the invoice was paid late.

Okay. All right. And I know, thank you, Tina, for serving as chair this year. I know that's a, I served as the Peninsula Division Chair, and I think, Ian, you might have too, right? For the Peninsula Division? No? Oh, Vice Chair. Yeah. I know what that can be, and I was just curious. I know that as Chair, staff is involved, and can you give me an idea of what that involvement is, the amount of time? I know we've had a couple meetings here that were pretty well attended, so I imagine there was some time and energy put into that. Can you...

Sure. So, you know, this year is, I think, a unique year, and that's because we do have Vice Mayor Walia who serves as president. And so there is, you know, I would say a little bit more staff time associated with that. And there was a transition with the executive director. But, you know, and I think that Vice Mayor Walia could also chime in because typically in years when you're not serving as president, very minimal staff involvement working with the city's association on an annual basis it just so happens to be because you are the president we are providing support which we are happy to do and there has been you know the summer meeting but again there was the transition of the executive director um but other than that there's there's i don't think there's a lot of staff involved but i do want to say that vice mayor wally is very cognizant of asking staff for that because she typically turns all of that request to the executive director, and we do now have an interim executive director on board.

Okay. Thanks. Any other questions of staff? If not, I'll open the public comment period. Anyone that would like to speak on this item, come on down. Or if you're attending remotely, please raise your virtual hand.

Glenn Hendrickson, I kind of, maybe I missed it. I'm a little bit confused what brought this question up. Why are you guys thinking, why is it a question of whether or not to stay in the city's association or not? Is it just a money thing or is it an effectiveness thing? I just didn't quite hear that in the discussion of what was going on. So it'd be just kind of nice to know why, where did this question come from? So thank you.

Okay. Any other public comments? Seeing none, we'll close the public comment period and bring it back to council.

Oh, thank you.

Is there anyone that would like to make any comments on this item? Okay, I will. When they formed this as a JPA, one of the things that I remember from my time on council is that the Cities Association seemed to be an organization struggling to find something to do. What I've seen this year is, you know, unlike the League of California Cities, which actually lobbies for bills to, well, used to be to protect local control, I think they're moving back to that. The Cities Association did a lot of things and shared them with our fellow communities in the county that Saratoga's done. And I commend you, Tina, for making that happen. Because there's a lot of people that didn't really see any of that. But, That being said, is this organization, are they, and we have a chance to set their agenda in a way, because every year we have a member, are we doing the right thing? Are we actually working towards that? And if we're not, then perhaps we shouldn't pay our dues. And that's the only reason it's on the agenda, is to make sure that we have a thoughtful discussion about whether or not they're actually benefiting our city or not. And I'll leave it to the council. So anybody like to make a comment? Anybody like to make a motion? Do we need a motion? Was it to pay the bill? It was just to discuss it. So if nobody wants to discuss anything, I think a little direction, should we continue to be a member of the city's association?

The law? Sure, everybody. I don't have a lot of very developed thoughts on this besides, I think, the reason I asked the question about the League of California Cities is I do think there is value to memberships in these organizations around cities being able to come together, elected officials, and share what's happening, distribute those learnings. Doing it at the state level is one thing, and then doing it at the local level. I mean, there's the US Conference of Mayors, and there's any number of organizations. And so I do think we should absolutely be intentional about where and how we spend that money and where we choose to invest. That being said, I feel like this has been a pretty thoughtful way to bring elected officials together in the area. i thought whenever they have events like you end up end up meeting other you always meet somebody you haven't met before but also you just end up having an interesting conversation about from a neighboring city um or another city in the in the broader county around hey like hard thing about wildfires or whatever it might be and every city approaches it kind of differently so i i find that helpful uh but again more i also have to hear from vice mayor wall who's president you know just some of like some of the things they've been working on some of the wildfire safety guidelines and things like that but also Anyone else?

Any other comments? Yeah?

Actually, just one question. So how many cities in the Santa Clara County belong to the Cities Association? 15.

14 or 15?

15.

15. So everybody. OK. I didn't see, because I was looking at the original one, Gilroy was not part of it.

So now they are part of it. Did they come back? They had 10, correct, Vice Mayor Walia?

Yeah, I saw them. That's what I saw. But when I was looking at the document, I didn't see their name. I just want to, you know, because I saw the mayor yesterday at the city's associations event. Thank you.

One of the neat things about this organization is that San Jose does not have a weighted amount of members. They have one, which I think is always pretty cool. Seeing that there's no other comments, I think that that says we should continue our membership and go forward from there. So we'll move on to our next item, which is council assignments. We'll start with Bilal.

Give me a sec. The only update I have is... Yeah, just Historical Foundation, Board of Directors. The intention was to have the conversation today about the Blossom Festival here, and I think feeling hopeful that we can find who the next partner will be for the Blossom Festival. The other thing... that we are doing with the Saratoga Ministerial Association. We did have our lunch a few weeks ago. One thing we discussed was how do we actually document some of the stories of different faith communities in Saratoga and also just how the Interfaith Ministerial Association came to be. And it sort of helped being there because I was able to share the Saratoga History podcast that we started last year with the museum. That actually pikes some interest, because there are some pretty incredible stories of how that David formed. They purchased the land from the church that was adjacent to them. That parking lot is used by folks going for Muslim prayer services at the Prospect Center. So I think there's a lot of really cool stories there that we just want to try and document and share a bit more across Saratoga. But that's all. Thank you. Yan?

Nothing to report this time.

Cookie?

Thanks. Hakone. Event bookings are $100,000 more than last year. The garden lighting campaign received $50,000 from Supervisor Abe Koba's community impact grant. The Koi Pond capital campaign will begin September 28 with the moon viewing celebration. And the gift shop has been remodeled. They reopened. It's more welcoming, better traffic flow, and allows for more natural light. Thanks.

Tina?

I attended three meetings. The first one is the Emergency Operating Area Council, and that was on 27th of August. Something really good I'm very happy to share, that the Emergency Management Accreditation Program, based on 73 global standards, officially accredited Santa Clara County's emergency management program in May of this year using a FEMA grant. The county is now in the continuous administrative compliance process, and there are only four California counties that currently have this accreditation. This is really good to know that we are one of those four counties. This is a big deal, and I'm very proud that we are in Santa Clara County and the OEM is doing so well. They talked, we had reports, one that this is El Nino season and they are watching with the winter storm season preparation is in full swing and they recommend that public works departments start right now to avoid localized flooding and I'm sure our public works department is working on that. There was reports on fire season and we also received a report on the successful uneventful issues, anything of that sort at FIFA. The second meeting I attended is Cities Association of Santa Clara County, the executive committee meeting also on August 27th. Nothing to report there. And the third meeting is a joint meeting, Cities Association of Santa Clara County special meeting with Silicon Valley Clean Energy. It was a workshop that Silicon Valley Clean Energy put together with the Air District and Cities Association. We co-sponsored without spending any money. The workshop was on the upcoming Bay Area Air District appliance rules, what elected officials need to know. Thank you, Jan, for being there. It was a very successful event, 65 attendees. And the key takeaway, the focus was from the Air District on NOx rules that are at this moment scheduled to expire. take effect in January of 2027. I would just like to share a couple of things with you. They shared with us that really the NOx rules are about air pollution. That is the focus. And there is going to be a board vote in November. The Air District Board will be voting. And staff is going to be recommending to delay the effectiveness, the start, to January of 2028, giving all the cities one more year. And certain exemptions will be included, including affordability, one-time project specific, et cetera. These are the two that are important for Saratoga. Since I have time, I want to share a couple of key things, because even I was surprised about some of these, that the residential appliances, 66% coming, the NOx pollution is coming from, NOx emissions are coming from space heating, and 23% from water heating. The rules will only cover space heating and water heating. They will not be covering gas stoves, ovens, fireplaces, clothes dryers, or any other gas appliance, something a lot of residents have been asking about and have been concerned. And the rules will not require whole home electrification or discontinuing gas service. This is based on what is already currently in place, and they will be adding more exemptions to this. And they will be working on a lot of public awareness, which as Jan mentioned earlier, Mayor of Gilroy and another council member were there, and they brought out the issue of public awareness, especially in the South County. So good workshop. Thank you so much. That's all my report.

Thank you. And I attended the West Valley Mayors and City Managers meeting, and we had a discussion of the West Valley Homeless Feasibility Study and the options to address that. We are engaged in conversations. Actually, Campbell's been taking the lead in this, so they're taking the yeoman's part of it. With West Valley Community Services about a mobile facility a mobile environment where homeless folks could take showers and get food and meet at different places, and it could stop at different places along our five cities. Interesting to note that Saratoga is one of two cities in the West Valley cities that actually have a rotating safe park, so we make sure that we are providing opportunities for folks to have a safe place to be at night. Campbell participates in Silicon Valley Safe Park, and LG and Monteserino don't have any program at this point. So we're kind of ahead of the game in doing what we can, and we'll wait to see what the conversations with West Valley Community Services is related to the mobile van. They've I THINK I REMEMBER THAT THE NUMBER PROPOSED FOR ANNUAL RUNNING OF THIS PROGRAM WOULD BE ABOUT $195,000 A YEAR. I'M NOT QUITE SURE WHERE THAT NUMBER CAME FROM, AND THERE WASN'T ANY DEFINITION AT OUR MEETING, BUT WE'LL LOOK FOR MORE DETAIL TO COME. SO THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT. NEXT UP IS COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS. ANYTHING FROM THE COUNCIL? I just want to once again thank the members of our business community and public for their contributions to pay for the 70th birthday party that Saratoga had at West Valley Community Services. I'm sorry, at Wildwood Park. West Valley Community Services is on my mind apparently. But I want to thank everybody that did. Letters will be going out. And most of the contributions were made to the Saratoga Monteserino Community Foundation, which has issued a grant to us to pay for that. So it worked out really well. Next up is city manager's report.

Nothing to report.

Oh, I have one more announcement. I'd just like to say hi to Dan if you're still watching and Leslie's parents. I know you may be in town. Sorry. Now we'll have oral communications on non-agendized items for our folks attending remotely. If there's anyone that would like to speak on a non-agendized item, now would be a great time to raise your virtual hand. Seeing no one, we'll move on from that and go to I did that on purpose. And I'd like to know if the city attorney, whatever the heck he is over there, with those cool herringbone glasses, if you've got any comments that you'd like to make. Nothing to report. All right. Thank you very much. And with that, we'll adjourn the meeting. See you again on September 16th.