Town Council Meeting / June 16, 2026 / 7:00 PM

All right. Good evening everyone. I'm going to call this meeting of the Loscatoos Town Council to order and we will begin with a roll call.

Council member here.

Council member Hudis here.

Council member Badami here. Vice Mayor Risto here. Mayor Moore here. Thank you. Um, okay. So, as we begin all of our meetings, we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. And today we have Nora Lee who's going to lead us in the pledge. Nora, you can come on up.

Um, and as Nora makes her way up, I'll tell you a little bit about Nora. So, Nora is a fourth grader um or is a rising fourth grader at Van Meter Elementary School. Um, she is very involved in our community. Perfect. Um she is uh involved in gymnastics, golf, um she loves reading and drawing. She's involved in the K kids club which is amazing. Our our Kowanas club for students. Is that right? Um and the refuge. What is the refuge?

That's okay. Um [laughter] and and when asked what her favorite thing about Los Scatos is or what she wanted to share with the community, um she said she likes how neat and clean Loscatos is, the stores, the parking lots, and the building. Um which is a big part uh thanks to our town staff.

So, thank you to our town staff for keeping our community clean. Are you ready to lead us in the pledge, Nora?

All right, I'm going to give you the microphone to please rise. Please rise.

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, for liberty and justice for all.

Great job, Nora. Thank you.

Okay, perfect. And so now you can um start with council member Dami um and shake each of the council members hands.

So um walk over to council member Dami, make your way back to council member Risto behind you. Vice Mayor Risto right behind you and at the end of our handshake train um you get a a little prize. So, thank you very much, Nora.

All right. Thanks again, Nora. You rock.

Um, and as a reminder for everyone in town, um, if you have a little one that wants to, uh, lead the town council in the pledge of allegiance, you can just reach out to the town clerk's office and we can get that scheduled. So, um, thanks again, Nora. Um, okay. So, we have three uh, presentations and recognitions this evening. Um, and the first is our small business of the month, which is Coupet Thai. Um, so please come on down.

So, for those of you that don't know, coup d'et Thai is a wonderful local business in in our town, um, located in the downtown. Uh, coup d'et Thai is a authentic, amazing, uh, Thai restaurant.

Um, one of my absolute favorites. And so, I'll read a little bit about um, coupet Thai. So, congratulations to the entire coup d'et Thai team on being named Loscatos's business of the month.

For over a decade, you have brought authentic, exceptional Thai cuisine to the heart of downtown Loscatoos and become one of the most beloved dining destinations in our town. Um, more than just a restaurant, you show up for our community, opening your doors for gatherings that bring locatos together.

coup detai regularly hosts um gatherings whether it's the chamber of commerce or private events and inviting people into your space and um more recently if you all haven't seen coup detai did a major remodel um which also was a major investment in our downtown community I think doubling or more than doubling your space um they now have a business of the month picture [applause] Thank you. Thank you very much. Really appreciate you being here. Thank you.

If you have not checked out coup d'etai, I couldn't recommend it more. Okay. Um our next recognition is a commendation for Superintendent Paul Johnson. Um please come on up.

So, for those that aren't aware, um I have some some very uh bad news for you tonight. Paul Johnson is retiring um from the Loscatoos uh Union School District after 35 years in public education.

39 years. [laughter] Um Paul has a true passion for students.

It's very evident in everything that that you do for our our students and our community. And uh I I think one thing that's particularly uh commendable about you is um some folks might not know that Paul Johnson is not only the superintendent of a significant high performing school district, but he is also the president of the Loscatoos Rotary Club. Um which is uh uh truly amazing. Uh as if you didn't have enough on your plate. And so, um, the the town council has put together a commendation for you, um, uh, honoring your I have more than three decades, that's still correct, more than three decades in in public service. Um, began his career in 1987 as a teacher in Riverside County.

Um, and and one of the some of the things that I'll highlight about Paul's service to our community, he advanced project-based learning um, at our uh, elementary and middle school. um has uh really pushed steam, has prioritized elementary Spanish, which is something that is so cool. I think that's that's such an amazing skill and something that I wish I had learned um when I was going through our school district. Um and and one of the other things I'll I'll just say about Paul is that Paul really embodies service above self. Um which I know is is very important for you. It's not only the motto of the school district, but also the motto of Rotary.

And um you know when I was looking things up, preparing this commendation, you cannot look up Paul Johnson on the internet without um seeing him by service above self. And I think that's very much indicative of the school district that you've run in our community for the past decade. Um we're I I can't think of a more servant leader and someone that that is uh has done more for our community. So I just want to express my most sincere gratitude. Um and I'll turn it over to you if you want to say a few words.

Sure. Um, well, thank you for that, uh, Mayor Moore. Um, you know, I frequently tell the school board, the current school board of Loscatos Union School District, they're the that they're the allstar, rockstar school board, understand governance, um, so forth. But I would say the town council is also like uh, second to none.

And I think about Mary, you serving lunch to the kids there at the school and talking to them and Maria, one of the founding forces behind Safe Routes to School, all was there for the schools. Uh my Rotary buddy, uh Matthew uh Hudas and being involved with the community center committee and project, Rob making, um multiple appearances, sitting in front of uh school children answering their questions. um Chris and all of your work as town manager. Um I just consider it such an honor and privilege to be here in Los Gatos and to work with all of you. Keep up the good work and appreciate the recognition.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Um I'll give this to you. Um you want to take a quick picture?

Yes. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[laughter] [clears throat] Takes a good partner to be a good superintendent.

[laughter] All right, here we go.

Thank you for your leadership and unwavering commitment to our students. Thank you.

Okay. Um, and we have one more presentation recognition this evening for the Daughters of the American Revolution, Los Gatos Chapter, um, who are here this evening of of all evenings to help recognize uh, the United States's 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Um, and for those that don't know, the Daughters of the American Revolution is comprised of members who directly descended from a patriot of the American Revolution. Um, they focus on patriotism, service, historic preservation, educating our next generation. Um, and so I'll welcome up uh the Daughters of the American Revolution to uh help celebrate and recognize um this important occasion.

[laughter] Oh, thank you. Okay.

My name is Janet McAlpine and I'm the chairperson of the America 2 250 Las chapter Daughters of the American Revolution. [snorts] Um I'm going to give a brief very brief summary of DAR. Uh National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution or D which is is how it's commonly called was founded in 1890. The organization's home occupies a full city block in Washington DC. The buildings include Constitution Hall, Memorial Continental Hall, a big library, and several other buildings. They can be rented out. In fact, the the US government rents them out. rents them for gallas, military events, uh anybody can rent it. For a wedding, it can be anybody can rent it. It's the largest building of its kind uh owned and maintained exclusively by women.

D has achieved a membership of over 1 million women worldwide.

Our chapter started in 1929 and we're almost 100red years old. We have 145 members in our chapter and we're a service organization.

Some of our activities include the San Jose Veterans Parade, the Lasatus Children's Parade, Fourth of July Symphony in the Park. If you haven't been to that, that's a lot of fun.

Constitution Week with schools and library displays Memorial Day observance downtown Saratoga Reacross America which I'm sure most everybody's heard of and we do ours for Madronia Cemetery. Uh with JOTC and ROTC awards, Dood Contest award, D American History essay and video contest and the Fisher Middle School Veterans Day appreciation which is so wonderful and so touching. If you haven't been, it's a treat. Um, in our chapter, our chapter alone, in 2025, we recorded over 10,000 service hours. The women in D are generally are women who enjoy history and of course genealogy. And as Mayor Moore told you, we're all related to somebody from the directly related to somebody from the Revolutionary War.

Thank you. And I brought treats. So, if you um if you uh want to know more about D, I have pens, writing pens, and our website is on it. Um I'll leave it over here or by the door so you can grab one or if you just need a pen, take one. And the other thing is uh for the for the city council, I have D America 250 buttons. Thank you very much.

Um thank you. So, um uh this is it's a little funny because we don't meet in July. Um, so we're here this evening in June, but um, we're here to proclaim July 2026 as Daughters of the American Revolution Month. Um, and encourage all people in our community to reach out and support your mission. So, um, thank you very much and thank you very much for the You want to come up to take a photo?

one first.

One more. very much. Thank you all for being here.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much.

All right. Um so we will now move on to the public portion of our meeting um which is uh the time for people to comment um first on items that are on consent and then on items that are not on the agenda. And so um if anyone is here to um comment on any of the items on the consent calendar which are considered routine town business um please fill out a speaker card um and I will call you up.

Um all right, we have um one speaker for consent um which is Gus who okay I uh sent in a supplemental material and I just uh there's a bunch of stuff that 10 10 items that I want to speak on. One is the one is you know I think we should have you know 10day 10day kind of thing but the minutes aren't put down and people talked you know number of people talked last week and it's it's easier to trace and and look back at you know I talked on the World Cup and it's here and uh you know some of the stuff this on the paper here. Um the number three uh is the terabyte is, you know, they're charging $5,000 for a ter one terabyte and it's like 50 if you looked it up, it's like 50 to $250 the max to store terabytes. And so if you wanted more terabytes, you know, uh number four, cloud storage cost, uh $10 per month, you know, data and stuff like that. These are very expensive uh things. I think we need to overhaul the the system anyways because it wasn't working last last week. The the Zoom wasn't working. And I you know there should be number five um law firms on on call two five and six are law firms on call 40,000 for the cup. You know I I'm going to be talking a little bit more about that number 19 the cup modification and stuff like that. This is they should get paid by the hour not you know straight up 40,000 in legal costs. I mean we save a lot of money that way. the town would uh seven for what this is the study for a fiveyear I'm not sure exactly what that is a lot of this stuff we should there should be a study sessions on some of this and the financial commission should do have have more say on the on on uh instead of doing the consulting stuff there's way too many consultants as it is the 10 and 11 are drainage system surveys no bids on call I've talked about Loma Street and and that's that's you know I think that's fraud people if you start looking at it number 12 consultant legal uh legal department again uh it's LA based you know they're not local how you you have to do this over thing 13's overpriced $5,000 for lighting for the library um for I guess emergency lighting or for the battery stuff and you know so I think that if you pull pulled it and talked about it, we'd save a lot of money. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, are there any hands raised on Zoom?

There are no hands raised on Zoom.

Thank you. Um, so then I will turn to the town council to see if there are is anyone looking to pull an item from consent or a motion.

Council member Hudis. Uh, I move to approve um the consent calendar items 1 through 18.

Great. Council member Badami. I'll second.

Perfect. Um, and we will be taking roll call votes tonight because we have one member of the council who is remote. So, I'll turn to the clerk.

Council member I.

Council member Hudis I.

Council member Vadami I.

Vice Mayor Risto I.

Mayor Moore I. Um, that passes unanimously.

So, we will now move on to verbal communications. Um, which is for items that are not on the agenda. Um, and I have a few speaker cards here, but if there are any other uh speakers who want to speak on any non-aggendaized items, um, please uh bring your card forward or raise your hand on Zoom. Um, our first speaker for um, verbal communications is Ian Baronowski.

Um, and Ian will be followed by Joe Ends.

You can approach the podium. Yep. You'll have three minutes.

All right. Thank you. My name is Ian Baronowski and I've lived in Los Gatos for 4 years. Um, I've had my first child here and I dream of settling down here.

I believe this is one of the safest towns in the Bay Area, which is what brought me here. Uh, in fact, from the Los Gatos's own website, it says, "Feeling secure is a major part of any community's quality of life. The town of Losatoos has one of the lowest crime rates in the Bay Area." I am here to tell you that despite the low crime rates, I am feeling less secure since the rise of camera usage in Loscatoos.

Every day I drive home off Highway 85 at Winchester and on my short 1.4 4 mile drive.

I pass seven flock cameras and 31 cameras that I can't identify.

I can't escape the feeling of being watched until I'm inside my own home.

We all hear the message about how secure our data is with these cameras. And we have heard it all before. In 2023, customers were assured that 23 and me securely handled our most sensitive data, our DNA and our ancestry.

Then a black hat crime group hacked the data of 6.9 million customers.

In December of 2025, a YouTuber named Ben Jordan used simple internet searches to gain access to Flock's Condor camera system and look at footage from cameras in real time and tracked himself moving around his home city. Clearly, they were unaccounted for weaknesses. They described that as Netflix for stalkers.

I am requesting that you do not renew or if possible cancel any flock cameras that Los Gatos has in place.

I also ask that you provide clarity to citizens on how many cameras are installed in Los Gatos, what are their purpose, how our data is being handled.

I'd like to end by saying I believe in our police force and I know that they are here to protect us. But with all the events going on around us, I know this is not the right way forward.

Thank you.

We'll go to Joe Ends. Um, and Joe will be followed by Jeff Suzuki.

Thank you very much. Um, I guess I want to be a little more serious than I've usually been about this crime and I don't like naming names. Uh, but I got three of them. And there's town manager over there which I said I was going to meet with and we thought should talk. I don't know if you want to air it out here. I'll give you three names though. And there are confidential informants.

The police department. Yeah. There. And then we got to talk about a police officer that listens to these people and I get hit. I get battered. There's nothing done. Nothing. Gone. Because officer Juan Banese guy, I think that's his name. He comes and does every time I get hit or a broken rib. This is serious stuff. And one comes and takes it. Oh, the D never picks up on the case. It's kind of funny in a way that No, it's not. I had a cranial bleed with a head, a broken rib.

I can give you those names. I probably should. and and responsible supposedly responsible police officer that we got a great police department now saying this this can't exist and I'm not they're calling me a snitch and they're like so I'm choked up for words I'm real happy with my life but I got to get real serious and keep the integrity of our police force can't have bad cops can't have them we had them I got rid of the last police chief bas on that with a grand jury civil complaint sent to our wonderful Laurel Pvetti. Remember hello great because um so he got his disciplinary hearing in L of termination he was gone a couple days and that's how we picked up beautiful sheep that we have. Okay, thanks a lot everybody. Bye.

Thank you. Um we'll go to Jeff Suzuki who will be followed by Lee Quintana.

Good evening, council members. I will disclose that I am not speaking as a complete streets and transportation commissioner but as a private citizen and the president of the logatus anti-racism coalition.

I would like to spend a short amount of time to express my gratitude for uh taking action upon our request during the last council meeting to increase funding uh through the community grant program in light of our request for uh resources specifically for the rapid response network. We had come to these council meetings for I mean since March basically every council meeting uh we had started our vigils in February. There were hundreds of distinct visitors over the course of those months. Um, and it really does uh mean a lot to me and to the organization and to many of our community members that that I've spoken to uh that that this council uh acknowledged the concerns of our community and acted upon them in a m in a material way. It really does represent the ideals of local government. So, thank you. I I very much appreciate it.

I I understand that the this money has not yet been allocated to the rapid response network. Uh but I understand that this council uh was working within the constraints of uh the existing system. It can't accommodate every individual request. Uh but I do appreciate that this council did what it could uh on that particular night. Uh this this money would be very useful for supporting the over 100 uh volunteer rapid responders who serve within Loscatoos, providing material uh support for those who are victimized by federal immigration enforcement, and also providing legal support uh and material support to those whose family members have have been deported across the county and potentially in our own town.

Um so thank you. I I very much appreciate it. Thank you.

We'll go to Lee Quintana. Um, and Lee will be followed by Gus who?

Good evening. I just have one comment and that's regarding the uh item that was on the June 10th um planning commission meeting regarding um it was on uh excuse me it was on other matters and it would to be discussion of the work plan that was submitted to the council by the historic preservation committee. And by the way, I have to say I am on the historic preservation committee, but I'm not speaking for them. I'm speaking as an individual. Uh what I want to say is that even though the area architects were informed about this meeting and staff reached out to them to get their input, the members of the historic preservation committee were not aware of that meeting. Uh, and I think that is something that they should have been made aware of since it was their word program that was submitted and that was going to be discussed.

Thank you.

Thank you. And our last card in the room on verbal is Gus who?

Hello again. Uh so I think uh got mutated the world cup the good old color. So we I think we might have to quarantine the sound or something. Um I'd rather actually be watching the two A teams Algeria and Argentina putting playing right now and standing up here and and uh you know bringing up some concerns. Um, same thing. Uh, uh, ice though I don't agree with Jeff on the the last that was out of agenda. That wasn't even on the agenda. And you guys seem to want to, you know, dish out $20,000 to basically lawyers. And uh um I I think there if you went the legal route, it would be better. On on March 18th, 20125, council orders staff to follow federal funding and report back every two months. That hasn't happened. Um let's see. Six days ago, um, another concern is six days ago, um, there was a preliminary review of construction on North Santa Cruz Avenue that had six parking spaces for a three-story maximum, two retail store, two retail stores on the first floor, one office building on the second floor, and four rental units on the third floor. Six in six things. It's perfectly legal that you know because the staff said it but everybody nobody heard about it. You know I'm saying again 10 day you got to give people 10 days to to if you're putting things out. I know this is that was something that's not really on the um um it's just it was out there.

I gave you two uh pictures of uh the the the you know article on 92024 that shows that you guys you know we with the the bathroom we don't have we have one party down things and it was activated you guys have talked about it there's a lot more money put into it than $18,000 and and it's just it's a h 100,000 and the second pictures of you know we pick one up for $38,000 and it, you know, it's on a trailer and we can put it in and I've done enough research on it that uh you know there's there's sewer in the park and the it was an on call architect for got 23,000. I don't know if he got 23, but it's just that's you know there there's a lot of waste there. And last was the front page news on the uh uh the two things I'm probably against that because uh there's I can see problems coming with with you know working with different agencies. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, and it looks like we have uh one hand raised on Zoom for verbal communications. Um, we'll go to Arnov.

Hi, I'm a recent Fisher graduate. I've always ridden my bike to school and I am here to ask the council to prioritize finding funding for the Blossom Hill Highway 17 pedestrian cycling bridge. It is very stressful to bike next to cars on the current bridge because it is so narrow. Some cars don't even slow down.

So that's why we need to we need the separated bridge.

It may not be it may not benefit me anymore, but it will help Fisher students in the future and encourage more people to bike and walk. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your comment.

Um okay. Uh that concludes verbal communications. Um and we will move to our public hearings for this evening.

Um, our first public hearing is item 19, which is to continue um is to consider continuation of an appeal of the planning commission decision to approve a request for modification to an existing conditional use permits um for the West Valley Muslim Association. Um, and I will turn to Gabrielle, our town attorney, who will explain the continuence recommendation.

Good evening. Um, so this relates to a planning commission decision that was made on May 21st. The town code provides that interested parties can appeal the decision and they have 10 days to do so.

The deadline to do so was 400 p.m. on Monday, June 1st. And in order to submit an appeal, an appellant needs to submit a form that explains how their property will be injured by the decision and pay the appeal fee. Um the town received two appeals. Um the town code provides that the appeals are to be heard within fix 56 days of the decision that's being appealed. However, the town council does not have July meetings scheduled. Um, so staff reached out to the two appellants to ask if they would wave the 56-day deadline. And both appellants have waved the 56-day deadline. And as a result, um, staff anticipates scheduling the appeal hearing for August 18th. And so tonight's election [clears throat] is for the council to continue the hearing to August 18th [clears throat] and accept any public comment on the continuence. Thank you.

Um yes, uh Council Member Hudis.

Yeah, thank you um for making clear what we're considering tonight. So we're not considering the application. We're just considering a continuence to August 18th. Um I wanted to just ask with the process of an appeal. Um when does the public um when is the public informed of the contents of that appeal? Um is that something that uh is made public um or can be made public? Is that something that's available?

Um, it typically would be made public in the hearing packet, but um, a council member did ask for a copy of it and so copies have been provided to the council as and also posted on the town's website um, under the project. So, if residents go to or anybody goes to the town website and looks under pending planning projects and looks up uh modification to conditional use permit on Farley Road, um both appeals are posted there.

Okay. Thank you very much for clearing that up. Yes, Council Member Dami.

I just want to clarify. So, because a council member asked for it, um, typically we would not have posted it until maybe closer to the appeal or because That's correct. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Great. Are there any other questions?

Okay, seeing none, then I'll open up public comment on this item. Um, I just have one speaker card um from Gus who Okay. You have just been handed uh my I appealed it on the the day after. Um I do have the [snorts] I have a right to appeal. You know, it's a constitutional right. First amendment.

If I have a grievance, I have, you know, it's it's uh one of those things that um and I I do have documentation for that the town doesn't give back doesn't get back to me for a week later after I appeal. I handed it to the town attorney and stuff like that. I don't want to get an argument, but uh you know, this is a religious you know, I I'm I'm Christian.

And I and I um uh say that this is a religious argument. You're going to lose if you do this cup thing because it's under the first amendment. Uh any religion has a right to to uh their it would be, you know, it's guaranteed.

It's I'm just to say the first amendment, the religious right, you can't interfere with that. And that's what the town is doing. It's it's not a traffic issue. that there's an article that I I provided here on the second picture and and and printed out and it's basically a biased it's it's it was in the paper that's part of the record. Um you you're punish you're you're opening up you're to litigation major litigation if this goes you know u out you know because this this is supposed to be a public hearing nobody hears about it you have three days you're supposed to give 10 days and stuff like that you know I'm I was the first to file I don't know and I couldn't afford to pay but I don't know both the other two paid for legal uh uh for all these planning fees and stuff like that. It's it's it's one of those things that you're the town's going to lose out. you you're this is another hearing on it and I'm you know I should have that right to you know say get together with people that are just non you know that represent religion and say hey you're wrong you know the town's wrong trying to uh put uh uh you know if it was Christmas and it Christmas Eve I went and and uh and they were packed the the parking lots were were packed and stuff like that and it it's it's later than 10 o'clock or 10:30 at night. So, I mean, those would be some arguments that'll be made, but you're to continue it when this is the first one is wrong. It's not it's not really agendaized. It's it's this the first sentence is it's a continued on this. So, it's it's just written wrong. Thank you.

Thank you. Um we will now move on to Lee Quintana.

Lee Kintana. Good evening. Um, this is going to sound like a continuation of my other comments earlier. I too looked at the pending projects uh filed several times before today expecting to see the uh appeals that were submitted.

It's my understanding that once something is submitted to the town, it becomes public and uh to the public should not have to ask for something to be placed on the pending projects.

uh page, the project is the appeal and the appeal should appear on that page.

And this is just another instance where some of the noticing practices that we now do uh in a sense is um keeping the public from knowing what is going on.

There's a it it presents as a transparency problem. Thank you.

Thank you. Um I see no hands raised on Zoom for this item, so I will look to the town council for comments or emotion. Yes, Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. Um first of all, I appreciate that both of the appellants waved the 56 day deadline because given that we don't meet in July, it would have been pretty impossible to get all the material together for tonight's meeting. So that worked out well. Um, I do have a question. I mean, typically in advance of almost any issue, the town council receives a ton of letters from people or there's other records that come in and folks are told it'll be in the packet because sometimes we're hearing about a project long before it ever comes to the council or as a council member, I was getting letters about um West Valley Muslim Association CUP before we even thought it would ever come to the town council. if it had ended the planning commission, it wouldn't be in a council packet. And so my assumption is that like every other issue that comes before the council that all of the information that relates then to how everything came to the how how the hearing came to the planning commission is part of our packet, but also subsequent material from the date of that hearing. So that would be the appeal, that would be any letters that continue to come in. Is that correct?

All the documents are provided to the council and I know that the speaker indicated that the appeals are not posted online. They are the second and third links on the pending projects page for the Farley Road project. So both appeals that were filed correctly in accordance with our rules are posted there. So when the meeting does occur, all those documents will be provided for the council's consideration.

Okay. Um a follow-up question. In the past, when there's been an appeal to the town council, has the appeal been posted ahead of the package for that meeting?

I don't believe so.

Okay. Is that part of our um procedures or is that a policy?

I I will turn it over. I think Sean Mullen's here that can speak to that.

Thank you, Sean Mullen, planning manager. That's not our typical procedure to post the um appeals on the pending planning projects. Um I think when we look at this particular appeal, there's a significant amount of information that's going to that has come in thus far and probably will continue to come in. So posting it made a little bit more sense in this case. Okay. Thank you.

Yes, Council Member Bami.

for the reasons provided by our town attorney that council has a recess during July and that both appellants wave the 56-day period. Um I move uh that we continue this appeal hearing to a date certain of August 18th, 2026. Great. Vice Mayor Risto second.

Okay. Yes. Council member Hudis, a question for the town attorney. Um, are there two appeals or is there a third appeal that is uh lawful?

There are just two appeals that submitted the appeal form with the required information and paid the fees.

And that said, when this does come for public hearing, any member of the public can address the council.

Thank you.

Great. Um, seeing no other questions, I will turn to the town clerk for a roll call vote.

Council member Annie I.

Council member Hudis I.

Council member Vadami I. Vice Mayor Risto I.

Mayor Moore I. That passes unanimously and we will hear that item again um in August. Thank you all very much.

We will now move to item 20 which is to conduct a brush abatement program public hearing to consider objections to the proposed removal of uh brush on parcel listed on the 2026 wildland urban interface WOOI area non-compliant parcel list. Um Paul Gonia um public works project analyst will present the staff report and I apologize if I said your last name wrong.

You actually got it correct so thank you. Uh good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. My name is Paul Gonia, and I'm a project analyst with the parks and public works department.

Each year, the town adopts a hazardous vegetation abatement program, also known as the brush abatement program for part parcels located within the wild land urban interface area, also known as the WOOI. Santa Clara County Fire uh administers this program on behalf of the town. Jeremy Davis, a representative uh from County Fire, is here with us tonight in support of this item. Town Code section 92025 requires that properties within the WOOI maintain defensible space near homes. Each year, property owners are reminded that they must remove flammable vegetation around their homes and other structures on their property to create a defensible space. Throughout the spring, county fire staff performed inspections and provided education to property owners in the WOOI to encourage compliance with vegetation removal requirements. On May 5th of this year, the town council adopted a resolution declaring unmanaged vegetation a nuisance, ordered owners to perform abatement, and set tonight's hearing date to consider objections from any property owners who have not yet completed the necessary abatement.

Attachment one of the staff report identified properties that still need inspection. As of May 29th, the date of the hearing had to be posted. As of June 3rd, 2026, County Fire completed all of its inspections and notified the town that all inspected Loscatoos properties are in compliance. Parks and Publics Works would like to thank County Fire for all their hard work and support in administering the county brush program.

PPW would also like to thank the Loscatoos community and the various property owners for all their efforts and support. Uh, no protests or other written communications have been received on this on this item. Uh, that concludes my report and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. Thank you to County Fire Parks and Public Works and our town residents for making our jobs a little bit easier this evening. Um, are there questions for staff or county fire?

Okay, seeing none, I will open up uh public comment on this item. I have no speaker cards and I do not see any hands raised on Zoom.

So, we'll close public comment on that item and turn back to the council. Yes, Vice Mayor Stow.

Thank you. Well, this is easy. I mean, everybody came into compliance. I feel like the messaging about hazardous brush and fire readiness is being taken seriously all across our community, and I think this is one outward sign of that. Um I looking it just says we have the hearing. So it doesn't sound like we need to vote on anything or make a decision. We're just hearing this.

I'll look to the town attorney, the town clerk, or public works staff.

Do you want us to make a motion to be safe? It it it sounds like we're in such a unique situation that everybody's in compliance that we're stunned to think that there's no action that needs to be taken. I do not believe any action is necessary as we're not going to proceed with sanctioning any property owners. Okay.

Um can I can I make a motion?

Sure. I move to uh thank County Fire and the residents of Loscatoos and parks and public works and everybody who has put out the messaging about this preparation um and the fact that our residents had 100% compliance this time. So if that can be a motion that relates to this council member if it's a motion I will gladly second it. I cannot underscore the importance of wildfire prevention and vegetation management and the work uh that you've done. So, thank you to all.

Great. Um, do do you want to vote on that? [laughter] Um, okay. We have a motion on the table.

We'll take a a roll call vote.

Council member Renie, I.

Council member Hudis, I.

Council member Vodami, I.

Vice Mayor Risto, I.

Mayor Moore, I. Passes unanimously. And thanks again.

Um, okay. We will now turn to item 21, which is to conduct a public hearing to hear protests and adopt resolutions confirming the diagrams and assessments um uh regarding the landscape and lighting assessment districts one and two. And I will turn back to Paul for the staff report.

Thank you again. Uh [clears throat] the California Landscaping and Lightning Act or Lighting Act of 1972 allows local agencies to form assessment districts for the purpose of financing the cost and expenses for landscaping and lighting public areas. In 1990, the town established two landscape and lighting districts consisting of six benefit zones. Each year, the town levies assessments and reauthorizes the districts through the adoption of resolutions following a public hearing.

The annual process is required by the landscape and lighting act. On May 5th, 2026, the town council approved the town's engineering report, adopted resolutions confirming the diagrams and assessment, and set tonight's hearing on the proposed assessments.

Tonight's public hearing was scheduled pursuant to the California Landscape and Lighting Act. Before you final report, it is recommended that the six resolutions be adopted. No protests or other written uh communications have been received on the proposed assessments. And that concludes my report, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. Are there any questions from the council?

Okay, seeing none, um I do have one speaker card on this item. Um so we will turn to Stephanie Rickard Hacker.

Afternoon or evening. I'm mindful of my three minutes, so I'm going to talk fast. So I have been Do you mind pulling the mic to your Oh, sure. Thank you very much.

Take that off my minutes. Okay. So I have moved to Loscatoos in 1985. Um, we moved to Kennedy Meadows in 1996. That's when it was bare dirt. We were the first house that was there. Kennedy Meadows benefit zone is one of the areas you're considering for the budget of what's going on. For those not familiar, it's a development with 10 homes. Surrounding the 10 homes is an open area where people walk their dogs. There's wildlife. There is a creek that is there. It is a former wetland. It is a beautiful area. To develop it, the Army Corps of Engineers had to give approval because it's a protected area. Things of that nature. It's gone wonderfully. It's a great resource for the community, everyone else, which leads to the problem and why I'm here. So, I have a dog. I may or may not love my dog more than my husband. That's up to vote.

Anyway, my dog was having issues for about a year. She's a mut. Um, we walk her three times a day on the trail. She was having issues with her paws. She was licking her paws. She was having distress in her intestines. We took her to the vet. She was exposed to something. We couldn't figure it out.

Long story short, at some point my husband decides that he may talk to the landscapers that are out treating the area just outside the paved area around the trail there. He finds out they are spraying something called tribune, which is something that's called dequat dromide. Dequat dromide is sort of like a junior version of Agent Orange that is legal in California. However, it is not legal in the UK. It is not legal in the European Union, nor is it legal in the state of New York. The reason for that is it's poisonous. It's toxic. There are many guidelines as to how and when you can use it. One of those is you've got to give written notice. Two is you're supposed to leave the area for 24 hours without anyone else being exposed to it.

And three is you have to get permits to even use the the substance. The reason I'm here is because I want you to ask that we do not use that substance at all. I can represent to you having lived in the neighborhood for 30 years. We didn't use the substance for many, many years. No giant weeds grow up on the trail in between times. And the danger with the poison is extreme. In my court alone, we have two dogs that died before they were four years old that were walked on the trail daily. One of the neighbors in my book club said that she knows of five other dogs that have died.

We have children that walk on this trail. We don't have any preventative measures in place to say that no one can walk on this after the people that provide the poison have to wear masks, hoods, and other things. So, I'm just asking that we don't allow this poison to be used on the trail. I don't think it's necessary. I think it's toxic, and I don't come here often. The last time I came here, my husband was trying to get elevated bar stools for a restaurant that's long been sold and gone. So, I come to you because I think it's very serious, and I hope you can address that one issue. I'm in favor of the budget. I think it's great. Maybe add in a little bit more for poop patrol because we've also become sort of a local uh pooping zone. My time is up. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Great. I will turn back to the town council.

Yes, Council Member Bonami. Uh, if we're looking for a motion, um, I would say I move to adopt the six resolutions in attachment 1 through six to continue the annual process of renewing landscape and lighting assessment districts number one and number two for fiscal year 2026 through 2027.

Thank you. Is there a second? Council member Hudis, I'll second. Um question for staff about uh whether the issue that the resident raised has been something that the uh staff um has been aware of or um has uh interacted with the residents on it.

Yeah, thank you so much for asking that question. I'm Nicole Burnham, director of parks and public works. Not sure why there's so much feedback on this mic tonight. Um uh yes, we have been in contact. Um the resident did contact us, reach out to us as soon as she found out this information. We've investigated. So our our landscape contractor does the treatment work in this area. So we've addressed the issue with them. Um and and the noticing requirements. Um and they do have qualified applicators that are licensed to to work with this material. Um it is legal as was noted. I think we need we're going to think about that a little bit more with them about whether there are other alternatives that could be as effective. Um, one of the things we've discussed is whether we should just change our treatment protocol entirely and go to mowing which would be more more expensive. So, we we are working um on this issue and we will continue to work through it. Um, but any change we make in the treatment protocol is going to change the price point. So, we're going to need to work through that and come back with different pricing. So, we're asking tonight for you to, you know, if you to adopt um the fees as they're proposed and the and the um and then we'll continue to work through the issue.

So, if I could just follow up, I I appreciate getting the information. Um, is there a time frame that you plan to come back to the council on this or um is is it something that you plan to resolve without coming back to the council? I'd like to think we can resolve it without coming back to council and then ne and because I think we can resolve the use of chemical issue or the type of chemical that's being used and then over the next year we want to look more closely at all of these um LLD areas and the way they're being maintained and see if we do need to make changes holistically in all of them which would change the pricing which would bring us back next year with maybe a different a different price point for some of these areas.

Yes, Vice Mayor Stowe.

Thank you. Uh, thank you, Director Bernham. I appreciate that, you know, follow up with the resident and the thoughtfulness of what our other options. Um, does that mean that there would not be any changes executed this year or that if there were changes considered, we wouldn't do a price adjustment until next year?

Um, we would not.

The changes we would look at this year are using different chemicals, not an entirely different way of maintaining the area.

Okay, got it. So changing chemical wouldn't have a big impact on the price.

The price swing would be if we went to mowing or some other maintenance approach versus, you know, hand pulling, whatever.

That is versus chemicals. Okay, got it. Thank you.

Great. And it sounds like um uh staff is thoughtfully looking into this. I'll just share I'm I'm very sympathetic to what the resident shared. I've actually I've had a resident from the um Santa Rosa Heights Lighting and Landscape District reach out to me about this maybe six months ago and then also I've had a few residents whenever this whenever the spring happens in Belgato and the Heights open space. I get a couple emails um and so I do think it's something worth looking into. It sounds like um you all are going to do just that. So, thank you.

Um Council Member Renie has a question.

I'll comment. I I would just say that um you know I'm sympathetic to trying to use the least chemicals possible or at least the least toxic chemicals um possible if we decide that we're going to a more expensive um method to reduce our effect on the environment and the and the people basically. Um I I would say we would want to notice our you know the people of these districts to say you know we're increasing because we think this is going to be a less toxic less bad for the environment and the people um solution but let you know basically let them know that is why we're increasing it and then see what the feedback is. Thank you.

Thank you. Look to the town manager.

No, we'll take a look at see if there's a more sustainable way to approach this.

However, with a landscape and lighting district, if there's any changes that impact the cost and there's needs to be a cost increase or decrease, we would need to go back through the process that involves a vote of those who are impacted by that assessment. In which case, yes, we would have to engage them.

So I think if we're looking at a different protocol that may have a material impact on the dollars and cents of the approach, yes, we will be engaging with the residents to determine is there an appetite to do so and if so proceed through the process for the next year to change the assessment.

Great. Thanks for that context. Okay.

No, I'm sorry. Thanks for asking. Um uh we will now uh call a vote of the council. I'll turn to the town clerk.

Council member Annie I.

Council member Hudis I.

Council member Badami I.

Vice Mayor Risto I.

Mayor Moore I. That motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Um okay. We will now move on to item 22, which is to adopt a resolution approving the proposed fee schedule for the adopt a bench program um for this next fiscal year. And I will turn to Nicole Bham, our parks and public works director.

Ah, good evening, Mayor and Council.

Super happy to be here talking about adopted bench. hoping we're going to get this over the goal line, but we'll see how tonight goes with you. Um, so just as a refresher, so I did this um this presentation, thank you so much, Cara, came out today very late in the day as a as a desk item. Um, just to kind of frame the conversation we're about to have. So, if we could go to the first slide, just as by way of background, um, and friendly reminder, we've been working on the adopt a bench program for quite some time. Um there's been in historically no framework, no policy, no guidance on how the program works or how people pay for what they're getting out of the program. Um so back in February, we came forward to council with a new policy that covers um the bench adoption and thank you for that was adopted and is now effective. Um on April 7th, uh the bench fees for the associated program were part heard as part of the public hearing on the fees and and charges schedule. Um and council at that time asked some questions about how the fees were established and why they were what they were. Um and so we're back tonight to try to um work through some of that.

your staff report that accompanied the the council agenda talked about the history of the fees that are charged. Um provided you with some backup calculations of how the fees were charged uh the fees were developed. Um explain the cost and provided some backup on the costs of the town standard benches that we currently use. Um discussed some potential lower cost alternatives um and the ben type bench types that are used in other jurisdictions.

um and included a comparison of cost to other jurisdictions just to provide some context and understanding for council.

So for the next slide, um so these are the bench styles we're talking about. The one on the left is uh typical of downtown. This is actually so this brand is called Duour. That's the ba brand that most of the jurisdictions around us are using. Doour makes a number of different styles and colors, but generally speaking, people use most in a lot of public spaces, people use do more benches because they have an incredible warranty that comes with them and they're incredibly durable. Um, Saratoga is using one of their benches.

Campbell uses their benches. Dublin, Pleasanton, we Tyler did a number of research. So, there's it's a pretty common bench um bench style. The one on the right is what we use in other areas outside of downtown. It's a recycled plastic bench um that has proven to be quite durable early on in the advent of [clears throat] bench and street furniture when recycled plastic was first in coming into its its own. Um recycled plastic benches were very unreliable. They baked in the heat, they melted, they warped, they were awful for maintenance. They've come a long way and we've had really good luck with these these benches and using them in public spaces in the parks. Um, as we noted in the memo, in the staff report, there are cheaper benches that exist for the options that are here. Um, San Jose standard is a concrete bench. Um, but we, um, staff, not to be obstinate, um, continues to recommend that we retain the existing standard that we have. I think if council wants to evaluate changing them, it that's a topic that really should use some have have some community engagement behind it. And I think we should have more conversation about what we pick rather than sort of trying to pick on the fly to manage a cost. So we continue to recommend that we we retain these two benches. And so that's what the cost information that you're going to see on the next slide supports.

The next slide um shows a cost comparison of the various options and alternatives that um that are that were presented in the report plus one bonus option. um on the left. So there's four five columns. One is the bench information and then four item four columns that show you the charges. So the first one is the historic charges um which are quite low. We don't have any backup information about how those charges were defined or established. They are not cost recovery.

when we brought forward um the item um for inclusion in the fees and charges um document that the the council um adopts each spring. Um we had done a calculation. It was included as attachment two in the staff report. It was quite detailed based on the cost of the benches, the cost of the plaques, the time it takes us to coordinate um with prospective adopters, um the time and materials it takes to install the various benches um and um also a 10-year maintenance cycle. So, the idea is residents are adopting or whoever is adopting a bench, they get a bench installed or they're adopting an existing one and they they adopt it for a 10-year period. And so, over that 10-year period, they're also paying the maintenance cost. Um, we did calculate two different price points because the ben the steel bench that do more bench is more expensive than recycled plastic.

We took those two separate costs, steel versus plastic, and then averaged them to get the $9,865 price point. And then we did with this new um with the new policy, we did open the opportunity for adopters to continue their adoption. But right now in the current program, if you've adopted a bench, there's no mechanism for us to sunset that adoption or um or understand if you even want to continue to have the bench adopted. So um so one of the things that we also recommended including was subsequent cycles of adoption and you then wouldn't need to buy the bench. You're only paying for the maintenance. So that's what the proposed charges from 2026 were. In the staff report, we presented an alternative recognizing that council really can set the fee at whatever they would like. Um we could um we had suggested we could do the benches at cost and if we can find lower cost vendors then people would we would charge we're only going to charge them what we pay for the bench um which we can document through our procurement procedures. um and then determine, you know, council certainly has the right and the opportunity to determine what they would like to charge for for staff time.

Um today in preparing for the for this item as we were talking about it more at staff we at a staff level we recognized that when we calculated the 10-year maintenance cost we included time for both a lead maintenance worker and a a field worker to do the maintenance. And as we thought more about that, um, we recognized that the lead worker, while they would be there in the park, they probably aren't dedicating all of their time to, um, maintaining the bench. So, the alternative to that's on the slide in front of you recognizes a pot a cost savings from not including or or reducing the amount of time a lead worker could um would spend on bench maintenance. So, that drops the perspective fee down as low as $6,912 for a new bench. Um, and drops the 10-year renewal down to the 2500 $2,958 value. Um, which so those are options for for council to consider and think about. Um, if we go to the next slide.

So, just as you're considering this, um, a couple of things to think about too.

So in the past with bench adoption, people would come to us and say, "We want a bench and we want it here." And so almost every time someone adopted a bench, they were paying for a new bench because they were adding a bench to the system. With the way we recalibrated the program, we are strongly encouraging people to use existing benches, existing bench locations. So they can pick a location and if they want a new bench, they can pay for it. But if they don't want a new bench, they we can put a plaque on the existing bench that's there. So if the bench is in good condition, they don't need to pay for the new the new bench. And I I think that's a really important distinction um and understanding because it gives people some flexibility over the cost um that they end up paying. Um, so under all the scenarios that we're presenting, we're suggesting the bench cost is only charged if they're not using an existing bench or if they decide they want a new one for some reason. Um, and the bench costs that we're presenting to you are based on re recent purchases. We will continue to look for lowerc cost vendors for these same style of benches. Um, and obviously pass that cost on to adopters whenever we can. So, just to wrap up for the last um for the last slide, um just the recommendation. So, we're asking tonight that council give consideration to adopting the fee um as presented or provide us direction for an alternative fee. Great.

Uh sure. Should I? We'd like to recommend alternative too. So in in discussing the maintenance protocol and understanding the the staff that are involved, I think that alternative two that's presented that drops that price below Saratoga and is in a more reasonable range, I think is more appropriate. Um, I'm also cognizant that while we're very supportive for folks that want to commemorate a new bench and put benches in different locations, we also have to recognize that unless there's a guaranteed funding source, every new bench in a location that the town wasn't originally planning to place a bench is potentially a long-term cost that the town would incur. And so I thank the director for helping folks navigate towards existing benches and either upgrading them from the wood the recycled plastic to the more durable what was the name of that bench again?

Do more since the bench does do more in terms of last longer.

Um and and I think that's the good direction.

Great. Thank you very much. I really appreciate uh parks and public works looking into this and and really taking some time to be responsive to the the feedback um from council and and providing some good options in front of us this evening. Vice Mayor Risesto, thank you. Um I agree. I appreciate the deep dive into here and also giving us an option that heads more toward what we were asking for before. Um I do have a question because it looks like if I look at your chart um the bench and plaque fabrication alternative two basically is the same as the proposed um you said we if someone selects an existing bench then they would basically pay the 10-year maintenance cost only but and the application charge. I mean I'm not seeing a number there. And when you said they don't have to pay for the bench, well, the plaque fabrication is included in the cost of the bench in the top line. So, the plaque fabrication cost presumably would need to be pulled out if if I'm adopting an existing bench. Is that correct?

Yes. Thank you for catching that. Um, well, yes. Yes. Thank you for catching that. Attachment two gives us the cost of the plaque fabrication. So, we can probably do some math here and uh Okay, good. and know what cost to to how to set things. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

If you do decide to go that direction, I'd recommend you approve the alternative two with the addition of the plaque fee for any bench that is doesn't require a new bench.

And um it sounds like you can do the math on that, but do you have a a ballpark of um what that cost would be?

Yeah. In attachment two, it's presented.

Um the plaque on the the steel benches is $450 and on the wood benches, the plastic bench, it's 402. So, so to be clear, someone would adopt the bench, an existing bench at that cost and then agree to the renewal cost moving forward or the maintenance costs moving forward.

Yeah, I think what they would do is is agree to the adoption at the with the fee paid that's in the on the on the um the second row of costs, application, processing, bench procurement, and installation.

Uh and plus the $400.

So, which would be $586 for the steel bench or 1360. It's a lot cheaper to install the steel benches plus the 2458 for the 10-year maintenance.

Okay. Thank you very much. Uh, Vice Misto.

Yeah. Not to beat this too hard, but if you're adopting an existing bench, there's no installation charge. Correct.

So, I realize I'm guessing we can probably adopt something without knowing the exact numbers and if we get there.

Um, so would we be able to since we're asking questions, would we be able to um make a recommendation or or adopt something saying that for the existing benches, the cost of the installation would be pulled out of line two and the plaque fabrication would be substituted in line one and that would be the cost of an existing bench. I I would recommend we take a break so we can frame that portion of the resolution because you are approving a resolution with a specified dollar amount.

Okay, that's fine. I think we had a couple other questions from council. So, let's get through questions. Yes, but I council member Hudis.

Yeah, my question is just where where is um this being documented? Is there is there a document? And so will it be just the resolution or the presentation?

Um, I was looking for that. I didn't see it. So, so the final the final fee that gets adopted will end up in the um in the fees schedule with the fees and charges that gets published July 1st. But are I are I think you're asking so all of the line items that we're going to talk about are in attachment two of this staff report. I think what I'm going to do at the break is just juggle them a little around a little bit to give you a clearer picture of what Okay, that's um very helpful and um I'm not going to comment yet, but we haven't taken public comment. So um but thank you for doing that, Council Member Renie.

Uh thank you, Mayor. So I also am a little confused. I I I think part of what's confusing me is is you have a a recommendation to uh approve a a resolution which only talks about the cost of the a new bench. But you've also said that if you want to use an existing bench with a new plaque, it does that need to be part of the resolution or is it part of the resolution or is it already something that's included? That's so that's what's confusing me a little bit and I I know we're going to take a break and make it a little clearer. So I'm just telling you what's confusing me. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, Council Member Hudis.

Um, just another question. Has have we had any information coming um from the uh uh parks and sustainability committee about other places where benches are needed?

Um has there has there been any uh either through that means or through the public any idea about whether people think new benches are needed somewhere?

We had taken the policy to parks and sustainability commission twice during its development. Um the comments we received from them were more focused on the plaque and and plaque language. Um I think they were grateful for the mapping of benches. No one no one brought up the idea that we need new benches and more locations. Okay, thank you.

Great. Um, we we do have one public comment on this item. Um, I think I'll take the public comment now um in case it is uh relevant for staff's consideration. So, um, we'll go to Sharon Childs.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Actually, what I am here to say doesn't really have to do with the with the fees, but because although because I was the executive director of the Lascatoss Community Foundation at the time, we were very involved in doing and uh the adoptive bench, I have some information.

I actually had a lot of information, but since I've been listening, I've changed everything. Hopefully, I can get my points across. First of all, um, Mayor, uh, Council Huers, you were, one of the things I heard you say was the location and adding benches. When I was involved in doing this, we were told that there were only a certain number of benches that could be placed in certain areas, and we were not going to be placing them any uh, any place else. I had one uh person in particular who was uh family of uh longtime resident of the the whole family wanted her bench to be put in a certain location and we were adamantly told we could not put it in that location and years later and I can't say exactly how many years now there's not only one bench at that location she wanted there's two and there have been other situations where I've been involved in wanting to place benches and we can't do it, but then later we can.

So, one of the things that I would like to have done if it hasn't already been done is to have a map of where all the benches can be placed and not change it.

um have it so that we know exactly where downtown and where the parks where they're where where we can have them and uh like I said not change them because I personally have watched this happen and watched people be turn turned away. We have benches in the downtown area. There was you were you mentioned um the cost of maintenance with the parks but you didn't say anything I didn't hear you say anything about downtown. I just want everyone to to know that there when I was involved, the benches downtown were the plastic ones and if we were putting them in the parks, they were going to be the metal ones and we couldn't change that. So, I don't know what's going on with that. Now, one thing I did want to say want to say is I know that you've been uh looking up for the people who are currently adopted bench people. I don't know if you found everyone or not.

I would be willing to uh help out because I realize if I look at the names or the information that's on the bench, my brain will eventually remember who bought that bench. And I do know there are some people who have not been contacted about their their current benches because I talked to my friend today. So, I'm really here to offer assistance and just give you history information. And do I get to have my hand get to shake my hand with every that's all. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Um, looks like there might be a question for you, Miss Childs.

[laughter] Um, Council Member Renie, I was Yeah, I do have Thanks a lot.

Hello. [laughter] Hi. Maybe you, you know, your comments made me think about this, you know, this problem of where we allow benches and then later we allow them somewhere else.

And you mentioned two locations, parks and downtown.

And the first thing that comes to mind, are those the only places we want to consider allowing benches? Do you do you have any perspective on where where should we be where should we be considering allowing benches? I I know there's parks and public works has criteria in their mind of where we shouldn't and shouldn't allow benches, but I I you know, and that's probably a long discussion, but I I guess I wanted to get your thoughts. Is parks and downtown good enough or there other places in town where we might want to allow benches?

Good question. For myself, my opinion would be I think the way that we have it now where some are downtown and some are the in the parks and not just the big park. We also have them uh at Bachmann and the park that's um by Harwood Avenue. Can't remember. Oh, Belgato Park. Um and I like that they're different depending on where they are.

Personally, I don't think we need them any place else other than where we have them now, but it might be something to look at.

Thank you. Thank you. You know, I'm I'm kind of thinking it'd be nice to have it places other places, but most of the other places are private property, so we probably can't say anything about that.

I'm thinking, well, you know, a lot of times people dedicate benches for somebody who's passed away or somebody who's been, you know, very involved in the community and maybe they're from an area, for example, say the Downing Center. Well, could we have a bench at the Downing Center? Well, the answer is no because it's private property. Um, you know, so that's why I was kind of trying to think this through a little bit. So, thank you for your comments.

Also, I'd like to mention when we have the event floor completed for the band stand park, we will at least I remember that we will have opportunities for people to buy benches around that area as well.

Great. Thank you very much.

All right. Um, I see no hands raised on Zoom. Um, so what we'll do right now is we'll take a quick break. Um, uh, Director Bernham, do you have a sense of how long you'll need?

10 10 minutes max. Great. We're We're almost done. Um, we'll reconvene around 8:35.

Thank you.

Good evening everyone. Um we will reconvene this meeting of the Loscatos Town Council and uh to ensure we don't rush through an important item. Um we're going to come back to the adopt a bench program after staff finishes uh working on some of the edits to the resolution.

And we'll go now to item 23. um which is our uh first item of other business um which is the annual agreement for services with the Los Scatos Chamber of Commerce. Um uh and the uh we'll turn to Monica Ren, our economic vitality manager who will introduce the item and present the staff report.

Please take Yeah.

Yeah. Let me lead this off as she gets to the actual item. Um, I've had internal conversations with our economic vitality manager about the entire structure of our economic development program. Everything that we do that includes the chamber contract and I will be proposing some fundamental changes in the next year's budget and wanting to report to the council the new approach we're going to take. So, I want you to take that into the context as as to whatever direction you want to give us today that there will be future changes to the entire program.

Thank you for your patience with me while I open my computer. Good evening.

I'm Monica Ren. I'm the economic vitality [clears throat] manager. Um, and as Chris had indicated, before you this evening is the annual agreement for services with the Chamber of Commerce. Um, the oppos the proposed agreement is attached to the staff report tonight along with the scope of services. Uh, the base compensation. So, just a little bit of background. The base compensation for the Chamber of Commerce Services was $55,000 historically and then through um the COVID recovery to get us back kind of back on [clears throat] our feet, we had um allocated ARPA funds to increase that contract up to $88,000.

And then through the LA then following two years, we were able to sustain that that um compensation with the caveat that every year we would have to kind of reconsider if we can meet the 88,000. So this year as we built the budget um we work to get that 88,000 back into the budget um just knowing how much work the chamber does do to um support our businesses and to partner with the town on the visitors information center and the visit loscatos destination marketing platform. So after that was built in, we did hear from the chamber that they were asking for an increase in the funding for the for the same agree um the same scope of services that was sent out to the council and attached into staff report. So all of you should have that tonight. Um as we continue this discussion, we are here to support the conversation. But as Chris noted, at this time staff is recommending that we do move forward with the $88,000 um payment for the scope of services that remains the same and is in alignment with the services that have been rendered over the last three years.

And then as we move forward through the budget cycle this year, we can look at um reformulating the services and then the compensation for that. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I will turn to the town council for questions. Yes, Council Member Hudis.

Yeah, thank you. Um, so it's good to understand the historical context for the $88,000 level. Um, has is that number in any way indexed to costs? Um you know for instance our uh town operating budget increases um due to salaries and it also increases due to um revenues that come in. Is there any provision for that to increase due to cost increasing?

Historically there has not been a CPI increase um and that hasn't been direction that we've received but it's definitely something that we can consider. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Misto. Um, thank you.

Um, so manager Ren, I I I guess what I don't understand is how does economic vitality mesh with or work with or partner with the Chamber of Commerce? Because what I'm not clear about is what is staff work? What are we essentially contracting out to the chamber? And is that part of what an upcoming discussion or renegotiation would be? Because I know things keep changing, how we get information, how efficient we are, and what your workload is.

Thank you. That's a great question. And so taking a step back, historically um we would actually have two reports coming forward from the Chamber of Commerce every 6 months that itemized the the how the money the allocated funds were being used um to a dollar amount. So they used to be applied to specific um portions of the work that the chamber was doing through COVID. We moved to a subsidy because at that time everything was so fluid and there was you know the inability for the office to be open. And so the visitor center was not available, but the chamber we knew were there 24 hours a day supporting businesses, coming up with with new kind of innovative ways for them to open or to access customers. So during th that time we moved to just a subsidy base for the chamber um and the reporting was limited. So then when coming out of CO when we started to look at the new contract for 55,000 and then the additional 33 this was the same time that we were having conversations with them about destination marketing. So there was also um an independent one-time grant that we did and I off the top of my head I believe it was 50,000 to get the destination marketing up and going and then part of that was the visit Loscatos platform. So they built out the website um that has the itineraries and the restaurants and then they maintain that that website on a very regular basis to make sure that we're keeping track with all all of the businesses that are coming and going. So it's been quite an evolution of services. And then as we as we grew that the newest rendition of the contract, what we were hearing from the chamber is that it's so hard to nail down $10 for this, $300 for this. So they were asking for a more fluid compensation. And at the time that the council agreed to that and said, "Yes, you know, we'll go to one-time report knowing that you're doing these umbrella things, which is a visitors information center where people can walk in and have real time assistance." and then the visit loscatos platform which is a website and the social media channels. So um even further we used to say okay you need to have x number of posts and you need to have x number of engagement and we got rid of all of that as well. Um hearing feedback from the chamber that it was kind of like chasing something that was constantly changing. So, that's how and I I don't know if I'm going to answer your question fully, so please let me know, but that's how we've gotten to where we are right now with the way that the scope works, but um to date, we don't have direct funding attached to direct individual itemized services.

Let me add to that. Um I think you're asking a higher level question about just general economic development.

Chambers are a very powerful resource in terms of supporting our businesses and most cities partner with chambers. Some cases monetary, some cases property um in other cases of a wide variety of issues. the way we have currently we have an economic vitality manager that engages to identify b uh barriers that we can overcome and some of the changes like the reductions of cups and how they're approved and for what type of uses to make it easier for businesses to come into the downtown for example we have a tremendous resource and data um that provides us a lot of good information for businesses where in my previous communities I would use that to support those specific businesses to do better and increase their economic output In other cases, you know, at least here, I've heard from the council the desire to incentivize um our partners to encourage folks to come visit and stay, increasing our toot and increasing our sales tax generation, which is something that other communities do. And so, there's a lot of pieces right down to what community development does to make it easier for a business to open up in the community.

And so one of the things when I looked at the program in general, we got these different pieces and we've never really asked a question. How do we put everything together to really look at the lens of what's the most effective for our community and removing constraints that we may give to money that may go to our partners? For example, the concept of a block grant with lesser restrictions to our partners for with a very limited uses to allow them more flexibility. I don't like the I'm paying you to do five posts. I mean that like what am I trying to accomplish there, right? I'd rather give you money and say this is the general goal we're trying to approach. You as the expert go figure it out, right? And then report back to us the value of what we're receiving for the funding that we just provided to you. It puts less burden on them, less burden on us, and it puts us towards a path where we're trying to accomplish. In terms of internal staff, we're very ben we're we have a huge benefit in having a dedicated person in the economic vitality space to be looking at where are the problems in our code, where are the problems in somebody that's going through the process that's running into barriers, how do we eliminate that to accelerate a business being able to get up and running and producing. And so I want to be able to spend the time to put all that together and figure out what's the best strategy utilizing all the resources that we're committing to it and then working with our partners chamber in this case for one of them and other partners to get us on that same path.

And if I may take it one step further just to add on to that. So, one of the things that we do in economic vitality personally that is um kind of above and beyond is so we take every business or I take every business that comes in or broker and I'm working and I shouldn't say every it's the ones that connect with us that look for help but they get a personalized assistance. So, I want to do this use in this space. How can you help me? So, if that was a residential application, they would be charged by the hour for the services that the you know that the planners are are doing on applications. Whereas my work is more organic and it's more supportive, I also stay on board, I would say, with all of our businesses as they move on. Um, so they're reaching out, you know, someone called today and said, "Hey, can I do XYZ? Is that okay?" So then I remain at that resource for them. Um, and they're very particular questions that are related to the code, related to our policies, related to things that are at kind of a community development, business development level and less at like a marketing or event level. So, that's the value of of having the one-on-one service is they can actually get some that not actually, but they get questions answered that are related to their use specific to our rules. Super helpful. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Bami. So, thank you um for the explanation, but I think what I'm hearing for now um you've got some things in the works that might not be [clears throat] happening now, but for now it might be helpful for them to apply for maybe a sustainability grant. Um seems that they're looking for about 20,000 and then that way they wouldn't have to necessarily report back with specificity on reports. We we did increase the amount of money towards the grant program and the director is increasing the max grant amount to 20,000. That is an option. Um I think the recommendation that I made with Monica was to retain the current funding level until we decide what's the grander structure. We haven't had that conversation with the chamber. I'd rather them reduce the level of service to meet that 88,000 if it's a cost issue until we make those changes. But but I'm not recommending going to the 108,000 at this time. Thank you.

Um, council member Renie.

Thank Thank you, Mayor. Um, the question is starting to be answered and my memor is not so perfect. Um, the what I'm struggling with is is long history on this. We were 55,000 um a year to the chamber to upkeep the visitor center for many years and then it became clear that you know cost are rising and we should give them a little bit more money. Um we then um I think we gave them a little more money and then the next year staff came back and recommended back to the original amount.

Um, but confusing all of that was we also added in some money for destination marketing. And now it looks like it's I think it's been simplified too much to really get back to the basics of this and and what's fair or not. It looks like we're back to the 55,000 that they were getting 10 or 15 years ago to maintain the visitors center and then the extra 30 33 to do destination marketing. Um and and so what I'm struggling with is that correct?

Again, you know, I think the town manager said it very well. They're an important partner that we can leverage and if we give them a little bit of funds, they can do an awful awful lot with it, probably more than the town could for this small amount of dollars.

So, I'm trying to make sure that we are I don't know if fair is the right word, but um give the give the right amount of money to leverage an important resource that can give us, you know, multiples of of what the dollar really is. And so again, I go back to is it are we still at 55,000 that we were giving them to manage the the visitors center many years ago plus the extra 33 for destination marketing. Is that what we're really recommending from staff at 88,000?

It's not articulated in those two categories. when it was just the visitor center, you know, to use your words, for the 55,000, there was a much different agreement. There was an agreement about the number of hours and the number of days that the center had to be open, and we don't regulate that anymore. Um, I think that also in that time, they probably received more in-person visitors, and at this point, they're probably far heavier on the calls and answering the DMs or the messages that they're getting through social media and through um the other channels. So I think it's um I think it's difficult to rewind five or six or seven years and then allocate say that we're allocating the same amount for those things. I think there's just been so much that has changed and evolved over time. Um and that gets to how the report has come to be more organic and and less itemized.

Um so I think that it's you know it's it's I'm not sure how it's divided. We don't have at this point how much the chamber is spending on these two things separately. Um it's it's more that these are the services um that are in the scope of services. They're very broad.

They are visitors information center and visit loads kind of high level to allow them flexibility to do what makes sense to meet those goals.

So, what I think I'm hearing is staff is saying the the work is changing somewhat and we don't think we need to to give them more to do that work because it's we're we're doing different work that maybe doesn't cost additional amounts as everything costs more these days.

No, I think what we're saying is what we're recommending 88,000 work within that budget so that we can have the conversations of looking at what's actually more value added. Is the desk is destination marketing and a visitor center really the the highest value for the resources we're providing? Or is if I just give you a block grant that allow you to allocate it the way you see fit with the goal being enhancing the the benefits to general businesses, not just memberships of the chamber, but all businesses in a way that's the most effective and finding other ways to incentivize the type of activity uh of bringing folks to our community to generate toot and to generate sales tax.

I don't know yet. And so the council can decide to allocate more money and we can move forward and the recommendation could be to to direct staff to work on an amendment with the agreement for whatever dollar amount you're recommending. But I still have serious questions as to whether the two items were asking them to do is the most effective use of that resource.

Okay, that that's a fair answer. Thank you, Council Member Hudis. Yeah. And just to clarify, so we're not considering a block grant tonight, correct? We're just considering the proposal that's in front of us and the request that uh the chamber has made to increase that amount. Correct. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Um with that, I will open public comment. I have two comment cards um in person. Uh the first is Lee Quintana and the second is Jennifer Lynn.

Good evening again. Again, I'm a member of the historic preservation committee, but I'm not representing them. I'm uh presenting my own opinion.

First, I'd like to say this is one of the buildings that I love in this town and I'm so happy that it's going to uh have the opportunity to be restored and protected over the long term.

Can I stop you? Um you had a card for item 23. This is um the chambers contract, right? I'm sorry. Um, did you want to speak to No, only the only thing I wanted to if I spoke to the com commerce would be that uh I've had a couple of visitors comment to me that the the visitors bureau isn't open on the weekends when the visitors are most likely here that but I wasn't going to comment that but since you asked.

Great. I'll be back on the next one.

Thank you. The the chamber does have a nice building too. Um uh we'll go to Jennifer Lynn.

Good evening, mayor and council members.

I am Jennifer Lynn, CEO of the Loscatoos Chamber of Commerce. First, thank you so much for the town's long-standing partnership with the chamber. Together, we have built a strong collaboration that drives economic vitality, supports local businesses, and strengthens Loscatoos as a destination. Tonight, I am respectfully requesting a renewal of the town's contract with the chamber at $18,000 for fiscal year 2026 to 2027.

This past year, the chamber executed every aspect of our contracted scope of building and delivering the visitor resources, destination marketing tools, and community activations needed to attract visitors and support local commerce. Our focus is on building an integrated destination marketing ecosystem that helps visitors discover, engage with, and return to Loscatoos over and over again. The Loscatoos destination guide is one of our strongest visitor resources with 6,000 print copies distributed annually through the San Jose airport and through our visitor center alongside more than 166,000 annual digital impressions. We strengthened Visit Loscatos as the town's digital destination marketing identity through robust storytelling, expanded visitor engagement tools like the Loscatoos gift card, the perks pass, and free digital itineraries. We also built strategic creator creator partnerships designed to increase regional visibility and position loss competitively for future tourism opportunities. That strategy is translating into real economic activity.

Our signature events attract about 90% non-residents, bringing thousands of visitors who drive local spending and sales tax revenue. Our events create welcoming, inclusive, and family-friendly experiences that strengthen Loscatoos as a destination and encourage visitors to return throughout the year. At the town's request, we launched the new entertainment zone through our free Gold Thursday series, increasing downtown energy, foot traffic, and business activity.

The actual cost to fulfill the town's contract in 2025 to 2026 was approximately $154,000.

At the current $88,000 funding level, the town covers just 57% of the cost required to deliver these services with the chamber covering the balance. Our request of 108,000 would bring the town's contribution to approximately 70% of per current program costs, closer to prior support levels before inflation and rising operational expenses have significantly increased delivery costs.

Through your investment in the chamber, you are investing in Loscatoos. We're very proud of what we've accomplished.

We're very grateful for your partnership and we're excited for what lies ahead. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you very much. Um, are there questions for Jennifer Lynn, the chamber CEO? Yes, Council Member Hudis.

Uh, thank you. Um, first of all, I want to say I'm very impressed with the direction that the chamber has been taking in terms of um some different focuses than we had. The previous ones I thought were very appropriate to the immediiacy of COVID recovery. But now um in reading the comprehensive set of programs um that the chamber in collaboration with our vitality manager has developed um I'm I I just want to say I'm very impressed with that. I also um want to comment and then ask a question about um Loscatoos as a truly exceptional destination for weddings and celebrations. Um, you know, having experienced some of these myself, I understand that there are small towns in Northern California, um, that benefit tremendously from sort of the 3-day event of a wedding where, um, people don't just hold the ceremony, but people come from all over the country and they stay and they go to all the restaurants and they walk everywhere and they shop and then they go to the wedding venue, but then they come back um as well. And it seems as though um Loscatoos is really ideal for that and that we're sort of underachieving what we could in that area. So I wanted to ask a question about how we finally make some progress on that. And it's it's not out of frustration that I say finally because I think that there's a lot of great work that's been put in place, but I do think it's a little bit different mindset. And so um what I'm asking is how would the chamber feel about um having its visitor related services um tied to excess revenue collected um by toot.

So, you know, in order to under under uh encourage much greater wedding and celebration destination activities, could we perhaps designate um 30% of toot collected above the current baseline, which I think is about 2.2 million. Um, and for anything above that baseline be allocated back to the chamber for destination marketing where the maybe the chamber took 30% of that and the town took 70% because it needs to provide additional services for the additional activity. Um, and so I'm asking what you know us to think a little bit differently about this. Um, and so, you know, the it seems as though if that were the case, we could increase the amount used by the chamber way above the budget of 150,000 u to maybe several hundred,000 and then maybe um the hotels would do more cooperative or co-op or co-arketing for Loscatoos as a destination. Um, and I understand the hotels, uh, difficult for the owners of the hotels to write big checks. Um, but could they provide their marketing muscle? Um, create packages, create ways of showcasing Loscatoos as a really great destination for uh, weddings and celebrations.

um and you know, hotels, Airbnb perhaps.

Um but it would seem to me that could raise the revenues uh for the hotels, the restaurants, the retail, and maybe even provide a counterbalance to some of the beach traffic challenges that we have. So I coming back to my question, what does a chamber think about that idea? And could the chamber think about having their um budget, their incremental budget tied to excess revenue above our baseline uh toot.

Thank you first of all for the affirmation of our uh initiatives and our work. appreciate that very much and I do also agree with you that Los Scatos is a gem and I think well poised to be um elevating our profile as this destination for multi-day stays and I do think there's room to grow there. Um and I do want to say that using toot um tax to help fund destination marketing is definitely a wellestablished model in many cities because it creates a direct loop um between uh visitor activity and tying it back into tourism growth in the future. Um the chamber would be uh absolutely supportive of exploring using toot tax as a longer term strategy to continue strengthening Loscatos as a destination for wedding celebrations and overnight stays. Um at the same time I do view that as a complimentary a potentially complimentary model not a total replacement to a baseline contract. Um and I think you're intimating that. Um, and I do want to say that the chamber's work today does support not only lodging activity, but also same day retail, dining, and community activation and broader broader economic vitality. So, I wouldn't want it completely like the entire contract to be tied just to the toot tax. But, um, I do think that reimagining all of this as a part of the chamber's monies, it sounded like you were saying as incremental, that that could actually make a lot of sense. And like I said, it is done in many cities.

Okay, thank you. Then, um, do you think that members of the chamber would be willing to work with our economic vitality manager, our town manager, and perhaps some other folks um to sketch out how uh a really outstanding worldclass uh wedding and celebration destination would work here?

For sure. We're definitely already working with some of our premier wedding destinations venues like Nestle Down and Lexington Hills estate and winery. We've been in discussion with some of our businesses about potentially doing some kind of wedding related fair. I think there was one in town years ago, but perhaps bringing that back. We have been working with um another partner called Distinct Locations up in Napa that is working to help us elevate our profile as that that true multi-day destination for celebrations. So, we've already begun that work and I know that there are many members who are excited about increasing that profile. Okay. Thank you. Yes, Council Member Badami.

Um, Jennifer, I want to thank you and your staff for your efforts um with the destination marketing in particular. I know you've been working on this. It's a vision you've had and I spend a lot of time downtown as everyone knows. I had an office. Um, so I'm right on North Santa Cruz a but over the last year or two, I mean, I have noticed a significant number of what I think are non-residents because I don't understand a lot of the different languages that are being spoken. So clearly they're being flown in or arriving from other places for a a weekend or a couple days stay. And and not just on the downtown, but I I also do the Lexington Trail almost daily. I I also pass um Mr.

as well, [laughter and gasps] but I also noticed a significant number of people on the trail as well, and it looks like they are also visitors that are enjoying all the wonderful things we have to offer. So, I have to thank you for um I've noticed um an increase. So, thank you for all your hard work.

Thank you. Thank you very much. No more questions? No. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

All right. Um, that concludes our public comment for this item. Um, and I'll go back to the town council.

Um, okay. I'll just try and chime in with my thoughts real briefly. Um, I similarly to to what I've heard from other council members, I want to give a big big compliment to the the Chamber of Commerce. I think we have an absolutely superb team at the Loscatoos Chamber.

And for um community members that don't know, it's a very very lean team with only one full-time employee. Um and so uh and I I appreciated the letter we received that highlights, you know, not only your your signature events, but all of your support for our local businesses, both members and non-members. Um I I'm especially enjoy what you've done with our holidays. I think they really feel like Loscatoos and and our summer events. Um, and I also think you've, you know, as you highlighted in your letter, been responsive to feedback from the town council and staff. Um, you know, uh, piloting things like the entertainment zone. Um, and, you know, I I think that the Los Scatters Chamber is one of the town's most single most valuable partners. I I don't know where we would be without our Los Scats Chamber. And so I think investing um like we mean it is is uh you know only reasonable. Um I I hear from from staff the perspective of wanting to look more holistically at economic development. I think that makes a lot of sense. Um and I know we're we're not in a position this evening to do that, but I I do I appreciate that perspective and I think that's that's helpful. I I also do appreciate the the thought of again wanting to get a little bit broader when it comes to not uh telling the chamber exactly every single thing we want to do from whether it's you know destination marketing or or what have you. Um but but more holistically granting a dollar amount and and having the chamber as as the experts implement sort of the the highle vision. Um but but I I just want to say at a high level and then I'll turn it back to the the rest of the council that I am somewhat sympathetic to the the chamber's request um uh given the major investments they continue to make in the town of Los Gatos and um the degree to which costs have increased without um the town responding.

Yes, Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. Um, I've always been a huge fan of the Chamber of Commerce and I feel like, um, [snorts] yeah, your presence, your engagement with the businesses, the new programs. I think I can see you, Miss Linder. Um, and I I think these things are critical. I also look at the fact that you did have a contract that was extraordinarily detailed. You know, how many clicks, how many posts, how many whatever. And so part of what I'm looking at um is maybe it does make sense to say you get $88,000, tell us what you can do with it and renegotiate and see what the contract can be. That's one thought I have. Um because I think the contract is written so specifically that of course costs go up but we don't know which things you're doing that maybe I mean the visitor center is only open four days a week. What if it was open three? What would that impact be? I don't know.

Um the other thing I think about is I've I volunteer every year for the wine walk. I know that the events that you create remarkably just pull people like Loscatos pulls people from all over the Bay Area because of our quaintness, because of our businesses, because of our welcoming sense and I know very few of those people spend the night. So I think our big events and our big draw is daytime visitors and I think we want to continue to pull on that. Um the wedding destinations that I think of and that you pointed out, none of them are actually in Los. So if people did have a wedding there, they may or may not stay in Loscatoos or if they were driving all the way up, they might then head over to the ocean or go to Santa Cruz or do other things. So I don't think we're kind of a self-contained location where people will stay here and do everything in town. But I do like in the past I know um some of the hotels were putting together packages that involved doing things in Los Gatos and going to the beach and going to the mountains for wine tasting. So, I think we're a good base for those things and I think probably that can grow. Um, I also think that some of the work that went into destination marketing was creating the really inspired and thoughtful and fantastic visitors guide, the physical visitor's guide that's at the airport, that's in the hotels, that's all over um the place. And I think that says a lot about Loscatoos and I think that was a huge accomplishment by the chamber. I'm assuming all the work that went into creating that was the big lump of the work and maintaining that is still work but it's not the same expense. Um so I'm just trying to think about like is all of the work that's being done the same every year and is it growing or is it morphing? Um, and so I'm also sympathetic to the thought that maybe if we approved a contract at a certain level and then staff worked with the chamber, maybe there could be an amendment, maybe there could be an addition, or maybe we would say, "Oh my gosh, we don't want the visitor center to close." So, I don't know. I don't feel like I have enough information tonight to decide um that I need to expand the contract yet, but I would love to hear from my fellow council members.

Yes, Council Member Hudis.

Um, when I look at, you know, what the chamber is doing now, it is very very different than 5 years ago uh when we were uh just entering um the pandemic.

and it's very different than what it was before. So we didn't just go back to what was before. So I think there's been a tremendous amount of definition, innovation and ideas that are uh coming out of the chamber right now without uh the town needing to specify those in a great amount of detail. So, if I look at, you know, return on investment and what we're talking about is um an additional $20,000, I feel fairly confident that the chamber as it's constituted now will come up with um a return on investment that um is worth it for the additional money.

So, I would be supportive, but I would say that I think that it needs to be linked to a re-imagining of economic vitality in Loscatoos. And I put forward one idea.

There's probably other ideas um as well.

And so I would only be willing to support the additional $20,000 if the chamber were willing to work um with the town with other businesses that maybe are not members of the chamber uh to really uh take a run at a um serious uh incremental growth through destination marketing. and through um not just destination marketing but Loscatoos as a worldclass uh wedding and celebration destination and uh making it um a place that would stay and going along with that are defining a new financial model for funding those activities because I think they're way in excess of the 55,000 or the 33,000 or the 33 plus 20 in order to make something like this work. And so, um, I would be interested in expanding, um, the request as it's been made, but also with the commitment that I heard, uh, from Miss Lynn to work on this idea so that we wouldn't be back here looking at necessarily another $20,000 to add some more activities in, but we were looking at a true partnership and revenue sharing where we saw toot increase substantially. We know that sales tax will also but it's much more difficult to attribute sales tax to this kind of activity. But toot um I think it could be very directly related to that. And so where would you get toot increased tot? Well, you get it through um a better um vacancy rate or a smaller vacancy rate at the hotels. You get it in higher room rates. You get it in the hotels upgrading their facilities um over time to make them more attractive because uh that is a very important part of it. But it may also involve um exploring Airbnb as well. And not the old Airbnb where somebody came in and slept on somebody's couch for the weekend, but the kind of Airbnb where someone uh takes a house and the wedding party stays in one house and then another house is taken for other guests and uh they're contri they contribute substantial um uh additional revenue. So, um I would be in favor of uh the increase that's been asked for, but but with the um requirement for me to start to work on something that's really transformative.

Council member Bami. So my question probably is more for staff. Um based upon council member Udis's um input uh and if it does go to a motion um would we need to open public comment again to seek this commitment that he might be asking for? I mean I have a lot of confidence in Miss Lynn's stewardship.

Um but this would be something how do you how do you seal the deal with a commitment? And number two, would this involve a budget adjustment? We just adopted the budget at the last council meeting and I I had wished that you guys had come forward, you know, maybe a couple months prior to that, but would that mean I mean I've got two questions for you with this?

Yeah, I don't think you have to open up the public hearing. It's still within the scope I'm sorry, the public comment because it's still within the scope of the agenda item. That's one. You can if you desire. two, if there's a desire to increase the allocation, my recommendation is to start with directing staff to come back with an amendment. Um, I don't have a funding source that I've identified right now. I just talked to Monica about a contract that I have been waiting to execute, which is a contract with Placer AI for the data that we receive. It it is more than $20,000 a year that we pay for that. And so that may be a source. We eliminate the data that we would collect and just provide that resource to the chamber. But that would have a a different impact on our economic development opportunities. But again, it's it's that the pleasure of the council.

Yeah. The the way I interpreted what council member Hudis was talking about and and please correct me if I'm wrong, but it I'm I'm hearing some level of consensus that over the next year there we need to holistically discuss what economic development means in Los. I think that's a that I'm hearing from everyone. Um, and so I I wouldn't necessarily think that that we are directing the chamber to engage in in these specific activities. I think it's a a you know, it would be a discussion between staff and the chamber about how to reinvision the model. Yes.

Um, yeah, I I agree with those comments that I don't uh I'm not prepared now to to articulate a program and I think what I brought forward is only one of several that could be part of a way of looking at this. Um, so like I said, I would be supportive of um, you know, the increased amount. The chamber seems to be willing to work on some of these new ideas. Um, but I'll tell you, I wouldn't be willing to do that again next year if they haven't done it. Um, so that that would be uh, you know, from my my perspective, um, I wouldn't want to see another increment um, coming back without us kind of rethinking this. So, it's just my position on it. I don't I'm not asking the chamber to to agree to that. Thank you.

Yes, Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. question for the manager. So I don't think I quite understood what you said before. I mean that basically if we approve this contract as it is, you would then look toward the um AI work or if we approved it with an increase, you would look toward that.

Explain the current staff recommendation has been programmed into the budget for next year. If the council's desire is in turn to an amendment to increase that by 20,000, we would probably either go to the ending fund balance which is negative or the um the projected ending fund balance which is currently projected to be negative next year or look at an alternate source like our data contract since I have not executed it and not executing it and then reallocating the funds to the chamber.

So I don't know that I'm willing to do that. I would like to know from our economic vitality manager. I mean, this sounds like this is information that you were intending to use to drive vitality.

It is part of our draft kind of strategy that we're looking at right now and the the things that um Chris and I are discussing. We, you know, if that's the will of the council, we could definitely make changes. Um we would just need some time to talk about that. I don't I can't sit on the days right now and say that we can or can't do without it. I think it's um kind of two things. one is what the council wants to do, you know, with the contract and then I think whatever that direction is, then staff will go back and and discuss that and then see what we have as far as funding um as we look to the new kind of holistic approach of economic vitality.

Um and then furthermore, if we don't approve the increase, if we follow the staff recommendation, is there follow-up work staff would be doing with the chamber to understand the work they'll be doing? I I think I'd want to little know a little bit more about the costs associated since we several years ago stopped asking for a breakdown of all the expenses for obvious reasons. A lot of them are small dollar amounts and whatnot and it could be administratively burdensome. But I'd want to get a better understanding of this $150ome,000 cost 150 something.

I think that was the quote of the total cost of providing this program. Uh let me just highlight we have a number of partners that we work with that we provide subsidies to LGS wreck current you know we we service with a building at a high amount of subsidy um they will be coming to us in the next year or two to if to continue our 55 plus with a grant that's expiring and that grant's a4 million a year and so if we want to continue our 55 plus we're going to be looking at that. We work with Numu and the friends of the library. We provide very below market leased property for them to to operate. In the case of the friends, we derive a pretty significant investment in return from money that goes to the library. And with new moo is in according to the reports driving activity to come to the town. And so this is no different than with the chamber and the partnership we have. It's really the desire of the council.

What level of investment? What are you asking for that investment? and what are you expecting in return to demonstrate the return on that investment and that is completely within your purview how you want to set it our recommendations I'm okay not you not taking the recommendation it is your choice but I have to but I would really like to look at at least in regards to economic vitality what do we really want to do because our investment isn't just 88,000 or 108,000 if you go there you know salary and benefits of staff there are three different events that we have the dollar amount that you would allocate at 108,000 is a significant percentage of what we currently offer in events for the three events that we have. There's a lot of pieces to it that when we make a peace mill decision and you know we did this at the last meeting where we allocated $50,000 because of a request that came from a group in the public, we make a decision snap decision and then now we got to deal with how do we implement that? And so here, yes, you could allocate $20,000. Will it break the bank? No. But once again, we're making a a change and we don't really sit and think about the actions we're trying to trying to make. And I think Council Member Hudis hit upon one of those. If there's a desire to increase visitors, [snorts] the data just from the reports that we're seeing show about a 26% leakage of folks that are not staying overnight, right? Do we want to make an impact on that number? Working with the chamber, we got to figure out what's the best approach. Is is the visitor guide really the best approach for us to do that? Is it really getting and penetrating and resulting in people coming to our community? Or if I just gave you a block grant of money that says here's generally what I want you to achieve. Go do it and demonstrate what you did. Some some of the initiatives may fail. Some of the initiatives may be wildly successful in the kinds of things that we as the council and staff would have not directed as a condition of the money that we're giving the chamber. You know, in some cases, you may want to let them run free and let them succeed and then let us decide, yes, that's something we may want to invest more in. It's just really what the council desires.

I'll just say I think those are all good points. I think one of the challenges with trying to dictate the work of the chamber is a they're a entirely separate entity.

They're a nonprofit. we don't it's not really our role to tell the chamber uh uh what they should and shouldn't do.

And this is this has I know at one point this was a contract for service. I don't really think it I mean in some ways it is in some ways it's very much not. Um I also think you know something like the visitor guide as an example. I think that's something that's very smart, very innovative. I've heard a lot of great feedback on and I don't know that's something the council would have come up with, you know, to say chamber go do that. The chamber can also make decisions that are um perhaps things that that the council would never be able to direct because they would be, you know, politically unpopular. I think the chamber reimagining uh the holidays in Loscatoos, moving to the trolley has been an excellent decision. I think if you would have come to the council and said, "Oh, should we do the horses or the the trolley?" That people probably would have been really mad at the council and said, "No, keep the horses. despite that being the right decision.

So, I don't know that that it makes a ton of sense for the council to be directly directing the the work of the chamber.

Um, and and so I I mean I at a high level I think we need to be the town of Los should be providing the chamber the resources it needs to succeed and and and letting the chamber do what the chamber does. And I think they've been very successful. Um, I I would definitely be concerned about um, you know, pulling back on something like the Placer AI. I think that's been a very, you know, from everything I've heard, that's been a very effective tool. I think that's a an asset. And so, um, you know, I I don't know the the right dollar amount. Again, it seems like we we need to have a larger conversation about this that we're all sort of we all seem game for. Um, but for me, I think we might want to add I don't know if the 108 is is the right number, but I I do still think um giving the chamber a little bit more wiggle room over the next year to to succeed I think still makes sense for me.

Well, I think the options before you is the staff recommendation 88,000. You also can consider the alternate which would be directing staff to come back with an amendment uh for $108,000. And that's something you can consider if you look at the contract as being really a contract for services and the chamber indicating that that cost exceeds the $88,000 that's being provided. Or you can give us an alternate direction. Um it it sounds like the council is pretty conflicted in terms of making making that. So let me just make it simple. Why don't we just do the 108,000 direct us to do the amendment because we are going to be working with them. I will not be proposing $108,000 in the budget next year. Now we will be looking at a different strategy. We'll partner with the chamber to figure out what the best use of that money. Maybe it's a block grant. Maybe it's a block grant partnership on toot. Maybe be a whole variety of different things. But what we have to do is we have to start looking synergistically at what we're doing and leveraging the assets and attributes of our partners that they're best at with what we're best at for ours and maximizing every dollar that we have to get what's really the goal. Driving activity, getting people to stay, getting people to spend, and getting people to enjoy the highest quality experience when they come to our community.

So, I will make that alternate recommendation that you direct us to do that.

Okay. So, that would be $108,000 for for this upcoming fiscal year and and over the coming fiscal year, you will work with the chamber to bring back something else for the council to consider for the following fiscal year potentially. Yes. Okay. Council member Hudis.

Um I'm prepared to make a motion. Um so um I move to direct staff to come back um with a um an alternate uh proposal working with the chamber for a total of uh no more than $18,000.

Um and I don't think I need to add the language um about next year. That's what we're going to do next year. So, I'm going to just keep it at that.

Council member Badami, a second.

Um, okay. And so, to to clarify, we have a question from council member Renie.

I'll just one sec to clarify. Um, and maybe this is a question for the attorney. the the council. Could the council allocate the 108 this evening and then have the contract discussions over the coming year.

The agenda description is broad enough to encompass a change to the contract amount. Um, I understood the town manager to be suggesting that the staff return um with information regarding how where the extra 20,000 will come from so that the council will decide how that's funded, but I'll let the town manager follow up.

I'd like to come back. Do I don't believe we have an executed agreement at this time. Correct.

I'd like to come back with an agreement for that dollar amount because there may be other provisions I want to add if we're giving $108,000.

But my recommendation is just to direct and authorize us at $108,000 to take that funding from the ending fund balance which would increase the deficit and then we will execute that set agreement which would have to come back to the council.

Okay. Thank you. Um council member Yeah, I'm okay with where we're ending up here. I just thinking we're having this discussion at the the wrong time. If we've already set our budget and then we're being asked as council to agree to a contract with a set amount, that seems, you know, I realize it's a little bit of a chicken and egg thing, right? We've got to figure out what what can we afford in our budget then decide what we can have a contract on or should we talk about what the contract should be and how much we need and then set our budget. It just feels like maybe that should come first.

Is that the egg? Maybe. Maybe the egg came before this chicken. Um, so I would just say, you know, we're talking about next year and I sounds like we're going to do it, but we should have a discussion about the contract and what's needed in the contract before budget season, not after, because it leaves council no flexibility to really make any decision. I mean, this is this is painful because we've already set a a budget and, you know, thank you, town manager, for trying to make us stick to our budget, but we're already, you know, kind of locked in and and I don't feel like there's any any discretion here. So, I I would just say this feels like the wrong order this year.

That's I mean, maybe good feedback to staff that that we would have this discussion sometime before June of 27.

And I recognize that, but based on the timing of when the request came in, it makes it really challenging. This is why I'm telegraphing now for next year that we were not going to have this conversation in May, June, because I'm just not going to put it in the budget at all. And so, we're going to have that buildup. So, what we'll do as a next step is come back with an agreement for the dollar amount specified, that $108,000, and then we will start engaging in the grander conversation because that's a conversation that Monica and I have been having for several months about what is the real vision for economic development. It just feels like it's too peacemeal in our community and we need just to do a better job thinking strategically and then maximizing the dollars.

Okay, great. That sounds good. Yes, Vice Mayor.

So, it sounds like the motion did not cover that. So, I'll make an alternate motion that I I I don't think we need the alternate motion. I think that what I took and interpreted is that you're authorizing entering into an agreement at $108,000 with the funding coming from the general fund and that we already have direction from what I heard to work with the chamber to look to something grander for the long term.

Come back on consent in August.

Okay. I missed the the approval of 108 and that agreement will come back to you hopefully in August. Yeah. Okay. Sounds good.

Yes. To the town clerk.

I I just wanted to clarify that the motion that was actually made by Hudis was to direct staff to come back with an alternate proposal working with the chamber for a total of no more than 108,000.

So if the motion wants to be clarified, that's the motion that was made and was seconded.

Great. Thank you. Council member Hudis, do you just want to clarify that what the town manager just shared is the the nature of your motion?

I don't see any difference.

Yeah, I think it's I think it's the same. It's we have to come back. It's a contract exceeding 100,000. So, the council has to approve that contract.

So, the proposal is a different contract than what we were proposing in the budget to reflect 108,000.

Okay. Yes.

Yeah. I don't I don't mean to sound picky. I'm hearing a big difference because what I heard was not an approval of 108, but asking staff to come back with something not to exceed that, but it didn't allocate the 108.

That's that was the motion that I heard from the clerk and from council member Hudes.

No, I think what we're going to see is you're going to see the contract and the appropriation for it at the same time coming back to us. Yes.

Okay. So, tonight we're not allocating any money. We're not approving any amount of money.

I interpreted the motion to be giving staff direction to return with a contract that has 108,000 in compensation and other parts of the agreement may change and it'll come back to the council for consideration. So yes, you're not approving a contract.

You're directing us to come back with a contract at 108,000 in August. Okay. Council Hughes.

Yeah. And the reason I think that's a good idea is that I don't think I would have enough information to provide um where that appropriation would come from. And so I would appreciate the town manager coming back with that.

All right, I think we're ready to call the question unless the town clerk has a Yes, please.

Sorry, I don't mean to be a stickler, but that it's your job. [laughter] But for the record, the motion was actually as I stated. So if there's any further direction or clarification, I think that needs to be stated in the motion because what what I read out to you is going to be what's reflected in the minutes. So if there's different direction, then I think that needs to be stated.

Thank you. Yes, Vice Mayor Sto.

Thank you. I'll make a friendly amendment that we actually allocate $108,000 to the contract and staff comes back with what the or up to 108,000 and staff comes back with what the contract look looks like. So, we're actually authorizing 108,000 up to 108,000 tonight. Is that clear to the clerk?

So, let let me just take a step back.

The initial action was to approve um an annual agreement at $88,000 with the chamber which would then have allowed us to expend funds starting July 1st.

the action that's the all the second action that we're taking which was council member Hudis the intent was we want you coming back with an agreement at a up to $108,000 which would be in August which would mean we would presume to not have an agreement until August with that dollar amount what you're recommending council Risto I'm interpreting as authorizing $108,000 but it's it just doesn't wouldn't have the legal effect I enter into an agreement I think No, you're right. You're right. I'm I'm wrong.

I I think one of the I think maybe the easiest Let me ask for a substitute motion. They make it really easy. That the council authorize the town manager to execute uh an agreement with the chamber to the amount of $88,000 and to return to the council in August with an amendment that would increase that allocation to $108,000. that would allow us to expend the funds starting day one and then bring back the increased allocation before they've exceeded that $100,000. I think that's a good way to do it.

Council, um I'm prepared to make that substitute motion. Please do it.

Um so it would be to approve the contract as stated for 88,000 and for staff to come back um with a proposal working with the chamber for up to 108,000.

you. Yes. Second.

Excellent. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no other hands raised, I will uh turn to the clerk for a roll call vote.

Council member Annie I.

Council member Hudis I.

Council member Badami I.

Vice Mayor Risto I.

Mayor Moore I. Passes unanimously. Thank you all very much. Thank you very much to the Los Scatos Chamber. Uh good to see you as always. Um, okay. We're going to go back to item 22, assuming that um, parks and public works is ready to go.

Sorry to our assistant town manager who would looked really ready for 24.

All right. So I think um we've worked out a motion.

Um so we went back verified everything verified all the numbers so I can tell you application cost plaque cost installation cost the cost of each bench and 10-year maintenance. Aggregated all of that put it into a motion. Um you want to use this one or do you want to use the other one?

Let me just read the motion really quick so I can and and and just real briefly for the purpose of the public just so it's clear um to anyone listening. This is the adop we are back to the proposed fee schedule for the adopt a bench program.

Correct. And we're going to send it right now to the clerk so she can put it up online so everybody can see it as we're reading through it and to make sure we're all on the same page.

Yeah. Thanks for making our jobs easy.

Teamwork makes the framework. The effect of the the recommendation to adopt a resolution would take the resolution that's currently in the packet that's being recommended and would revise the number two item at the bottom to read as what will be on the board.

I could read it if you want while we're waiting for it to get projected.

Is it just number amendments? I I think we just wait. Yeah.

So, the recommendation would be to adopt the resolution as provided in the package with the amendments of other two to reflect um an amended fee for an initial bench application installation at $7,517 for the initial 10-year term. um the fee for each subsequent 10-year renewal term at $2,958 and the fee for just a plaque on the existing bench and initial 10ear maintenance period at 3,638.

So that would mean somebody who is dedicating or sponsoring a brand new bench would be paying $7,500.17 and they would be getting the bench plus the 10 year first 10 year maintenance.

And since those benches tend to last longer than 10 years, if they want to continue that sponsorship, they would pay an additional $2,958 for every 10 years after that. Or if they want to sponsor an existing bench that hasn't been dedicated and they want to do the application and the plaque that goes on there, they'd be paying 3,638, which would cover the plaque, the application fee, and the 10 years of maintenance. And with that, I'll turn it back to you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you very much. Um, my only question on this is would I assume that staff would very clearly publish on the town website that you have two options and and share those dollar amounts up front. Yes.

Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, I will look um Yes. Uh, Council Member Hudis.

Um, and then Council Member Renie.

Yeah, I was going to make a motion just to move the thing along. So, I move to adopt a resolution establishing a fee for the adopt a bench program as amended to set the fee for an initial bench application and installation at $7,517 for the initial 10-year term. the fee for each subsequent 10-year renewal term at $2,958 and the fee for a plaque on an existing bench and initial 10-year maintenance period at $3,638.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Risto. Second. Thank you, Council Member Renie.

Yeah. So, I have a a clarification on this. Thank you for making it clear on on the just the plaque cost, but the tenure um at 7 12,000 um sounds like it's below cost and we're subsidizing the benches based on what was in the report and it should have been a lot more than this number, maybe 2,000 more or even more than that. Is this a subsidy or have you reduced something in the cost? So, this is still cost redu recovery. I'm confused a little.

We reduced that 10-year maintenance period cost and that is what's reducing the cost from the 9,000 in the report to the 7,517.

And and in in this reduction, is it are you adjusting what you think it will cost like maybe you didn't get it right or are you doing less work and this is still cost recovery?

It we believe it's still cost recovery.

In the initial calculations, we had included time for a lead maintenance worker and a maintenance worker. And as we looked at it more, we thought we could reduce the amount of time that a lead maintenance worker spends on bench maintenance. And it was that reduction in time that that reduce the cost.

Oh, okay. Thank you. Just that now it's clear to me. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Hudis.

Yeah, just a comment. First of all, um I want to thank Parks and Public Works um for taking some feedback and taking another look after the initial report came out. And I feel that uh I I am fairly confident that the uh $7,500 is um attainable because Saratoga charges $7,500 per bench and they are the highest municipality. The other ones were at 5,000 and 3,000 uh per bench. And so I think that um it's uh you know it's probably very realistic that we're not very different than Saratoga in uh what goes into the benches themselves and the maintenance costs. And when I looked at the initial maintenance estimate, I appreciate you're sending that. Um it did just look high to me in terms of how many hours were going to be spent maintaining each of these benches at the um it was close to $5,000 level. So I you know having looked at the numbers I feel pretty confident that um this makes sense and that we're not digging a hole for ourselves uh by uh you know underpricing this at all. It is a jump for our residents. Um it is uh twice the current cost. Um and uh that is significant. But I also think that we have to be responsible in terms of what really goes into maintaining these.

These are a beloved part of our community. They're part of the community character of Loscatoos to have these benches and to be able to u word them in an appropriate way and to commemorate um people who u are then sort of recognized for a long time in the community. So it's it really is part of our character of our uh town and our community be able to do this. And so I'm glad that we were able to reach a level um where it's not costing us money, but we're definitely not uh the the low spender on this when you look at the other communities. And thank you for preparing the um the comparisons to other communities as well.

Yes, Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. Um I appreciate the work you did on this. I do agree that we probably should not be subsidizing, you know, private donations. So, I appreciate that this is cost recovery. We need to be looking at that everywhere if we're going to be responsible users of our taxpayer money. Um, one of the thoughts I had, which is not part of the motion, but I think going forward hopefully it'll either be online or easily accessible for somebody wanting to do a bench to have a map that indicates where existing benches are that can be adopted so somebody can know where that is. Um, and the other thing would be, I don't know how hard that is, but to have in your mind, I know that there's certain parks that are overs subscribed, but if all of a sudden 40 people wanted to put benches in Bachmann Park, we'd probably have to say no. And so I think, you know, that doesn't need to be a council policy decision, but you know, for parks or the parks commission to have an idea that I mean, I don't know if we want to be this specific, but certainly a map of where the existing benches are and potentially on that map a location of desired benches if it's identified, gee, we only have one bench at this park and we'd like three more or something so that when someone's making a choice, they can make an easier choice.

I'm really glad that you brought this up because I was listening to Miss Child's comments even though we were over here crunching numbers. Um, and we talked about this a little bit when we adopted the policy, but that was months ago.

So, as part of our effort to revamp this program, we did geoloccate and map every bench in town that we're talking about as part of this program. With the roll out of the program in July, there will be story GISbased story mapping. So anyone can go into any location in town, see a map where all the existing benches are, and they're identified as either having been adopted already or available for adoption to help with that exist specific issue. And I was really I was feeling her pain as I was hearing it. Um be the the pain points that she talked about, the inconsistency with location, some people being told yes, other people being told no. That's exactly why we went through this exercise. um so we can try to put this program back in a box because it I I do I I think she's right.

I think it probably has been inconsistent in the past.

And one the further thing I mean I think we can't promise nothing will ever change because streetcapes change, parks change, um but to the extent that we have these mapped out and we know where we have benches and where we want them.

I mean for example there's a bench that a group and I had but it got taken out because of the parklets. So you know things change and I you know it was painful at first but I understand it. So I think people will have to understand that which leads me to another thought.

If for example somebody put a bench in and two years into their 10 years it can't be there you know a tree falls and we rellandscape a park or something would they be able to would their purchase have purchased them another eight years in a nearby location or you know yeah I think that's such a case- specific thing that we'd have to cross that bridge as we get to it but we would work certainly to make the community member whole u you know with the town manager and we don't I mean nothing I don't want to make any commitments. I think is there's some accounting that goes into it too. I think it's if you desire to be there and you bought bought the 10 years, you bought the 10 years and then we we grapple with case by case how do we want to go forward with it?

Okay. Thank you.

Great. And I'll just echo um Council Member Hudis's sentiments of of appreciation and and I you know I think it's when I first saw the number I'm I'm sure some folks in the community will still be frustrated by how high it is. I I recognize that it's it's very high. Um but I I do think this is an appropriate step for us to take. I'm glad to see we're not way out of whack with um other communities that that do similar programs. And again, I just want to reiterate this um might sound, you know, this this program is um you know, it might seem a little silly to some to spend so much time on on this program, but I think it's really important. I think a lot of these benches are memorial benches. This is an important thing. And so I I appreciate staff uh putting the the time and effort it clearly required to uh get this across the finish line. So thank you. Um uh and then Council Member Ren and then we'll call the question.

Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to um maybe understand a little better for my own edification. I I agree with the direction we're taking here. Um, I I just want to make sure I understand when I read the report, it it didn't jump out to me or it seemed to me that we haven't been charging people for 10 years. We've been giving them a bench in per pert peruity and now we're changing it. So you basically purchase a bench for 10 years and if you don't renew that's now a location available for other people. If if that's if I'm remember understanding this correctly then we have a lot of benches that could become available at some point because we didn't have a 10-year program before.

I think we we talked about this when the policy came forward and grappled with this and ended up settling. I think the direction we got from council was just hold the existing benches unless someone, you know, in some cases we were able to locate the people, but in a lot of cases we weren't. So, we're just going to let those ride until we need to address them. Um, because just no point in spending t staff time, you know, chasing people down. Um, but I think if the bench were to need replacement, then we would reach out to people and and figure out how to handle that.

Okay. So, I I sort of remember that discussion. I forgot where we landed on it. And I I'm sure we were trying to make it less cumbersome for staff and and again I'm just trying to you know the the idea that benches might come available is um probably a good idea for people that don't want to spend the the bigger number and want to spend the smaller number if and I I don't want to change what we decided but it you know again it sort of sounds like we have given people benches is until they rot and fall apart and and there isn't any limit to it then. Is that correct?

Yes, that is in effect correct.

Okay. And maybe that's fair because maybe that was the understanding before.

At least I have it in my mind what we're doing. Thank you. Thank you. Um can we please take a vote?

Council member Renie I.

Council member Hudis I.

Council member Badami I.

Vice Mayor Risto I.

Mayor Moore I. The motion passes unanimously. Thanks again to Parks and Public Works. Um okay. So quick time check. It is 1000 p.m. We have two items left on the agenda. We're doing well for having a a very packed meeting. Um but uh I think we can get through these in an expeditious um and thoughtful fashion.

Um okay, we will move to item 24 which is um Yes. Uh Vice Mayor Risto or go ahead and announce the item and then I'll make my announcement.

Yeah. Um we're moving to item four, which is a resolution to sell the Fort Tate property. Um and I will turn to Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. Due to the fact that my home is within 500 ft of this property, I am required to recuse myself.

Thank you very much. We'll let you know when we get back to item 25.

Thank you, uh, honorable mayor and council members. Katie Namura, assistant town manager, here to give the verbal report on this item. And so we are uh considering a sale agreement for Fort Tate uh Fort Tate Avenue in Loscatos.

This property was originally used as a fire station and later as a museum. Uh in 2016 it ceased to be a museum and is currently unoccupied. From 2020 to 2024 uh the town attempted to lease the property for commercial purposes but was unsuccessful. And so, um, on January 21st of 2025, uh, the council adopted a resolution declaring the property to be exempt surplus land and in, uh, signaled our intent to sell the property. Uh, HCD has approved that exemption as of August 2025.

And so, since then, the town has entered into a brokerage agreement with Cosmont Realy. We have some of our representatives with us tonight. So, if we have any additional questions, they're available. Uh, and then we also went through a reszoning of the property from commercial to residential.

We listed the property for sale on the market uh in February and uh at a price of 3.5 million.

Uh we are happy to report that we have received offers above the listing price and tonight we are considering uh an offer by uh Branis Lavage Dick uh for the property asis for 3.8 million in cash with 21day due diligence period and a subsequent 21 days to close escrow. Uh they have indicated that they have intentions to renovate and live on the property as their residence. Um, the buyer has also agreed to the historic preservation covenant that would be recorded against the property and run with the land. This historic preservation uh covenant would require compliance with all applicable historic preservation laws um and require that any element of significant historical or architectural value be preserved and in addition requires town approval for any changes to the facades along Main Street and Tate Avenue. So in conclusion, staff recommends accepting this offer as it uh aligns with our strategic priority of fiscal uh management as well as leveraging unused resources uh that the town does not have the resources to maintain and there are capital improvements that would be needed. Uh the property remains vacant and we would generate an estimated $3.6 million from this sale after closing costs. and the once it transitions to uh ownership uh not from a government entity it will start uh generating some property taxes as well. So for these reasons we are recommending uh to move forward with this sale. Uh you will also see a desk item where we have included in the resolution to explicitly grant the town manager authority to execute the certificate of acceptance for the declarations of covenants and restrictions. And so if when you if and when a motion is made, please make sure to uh include that new resolution so we can ensure that's part of it. And that concludes my presentation and I'm here for any questions.

Excellent. Thank you very much. Any questions?

Seeing none, we have two public comments in the room and we'll begin with Lee Quintana and then go to Bran Vidic.

Hello again. Um, again, as I stated before, I'm glad to see that uh the long um efforts of the town to preserve this property are finally showing some fruit.

Um, I two comments again about Oh, excuse me. To back up, I have to say I'm um a member of the historic preservation committee, but I am not representing the historic preservation committee. I'm representing myself um in the notice again this is something that involves eventually the historic preservation committee and uh the implement and and the historic preservation ordinance [clears throat] but again the historic preservation committee was not notified of this but specifically the covenant as I read it uh and maybe you can clarify by this does not seem to me to provide any additional protection than uh any other property with the same designation of historic uh and in a historic preservation district would have.

It it states that um in order to change the facade on Maine or um Tate would require the approval of the town. And it states that uh the uh any renovations to the property would have to be consistent with the uh his cl excuse me characteristics historic characteristics of the of the property itself.

That's what we look at when we look at any project that comes before the historic preservation committee. So I would ask that you be a little bit more specific. Uh, I wish that this had could go to the historic preservation committee and actually identify the uh characteristics that were to be preserved.

Um, but I'm happy to see that something is finally taking place. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, now we will go to Brian.

Thank you so much for the opportunity uh to speak uh here tonight. I'm going to offer some details uh about my own background and uh why I'm so excited about the prospect of being uh resident at 4 Avenue. Um uh by the way of introduction you know I grew up in Europe uh came to the United States uh for graduate studies uh got my advanced degrees in engineering worked for a big company in the area for about 20 years and last 20 years I've been part of the small company a startup scene here in in in the Silicon Valley.

I moved to Los Gatos uh back in 1990 16505 South Kennedy Road uh was our residence for a number of years. Then we moved to uh witty road about the serino and uh about 40 years later or 36 years later you know I am retiring and my ideal home is not anymore an acre property a big house it's a smaller house it's a single level it's a walking distance to Losatus roasting company the farmers market and and indeed the the restaurants downtown.

So uh Fort Tate uh is ideal match for this description of my ideal retirement home and that's why I'm so excited about uh the prospect of of living there. Um, on top of that, uh, you know, there are many nice homes in the downtown area, but this one is special, uh, because of the historic nature it it it offers. And, you know, I can assure you that, you know, I will, uh, do my utmost to restore the property. I plan to hire a private consultant historic historic u you know architecture consultant to work with preservation uh historic preservation staff here so that we can jointly really you know arrive at something that we all be proud of. Uh so that's basically at the top level you know why I'm so interested and I really appreciate uh you know the opportunity to uh to be you know resident at that address. Thank you.

Thank you council member Hudis. Just quick question for you.

Yeah. Uh first of all I want to thank you for coming forward um for this property. It's a very important one for the town and um it not only served as our fire station starting in 1915 uh it also uh served as our museum. Um and so I was very much in support of preserving every aspect that we could of the historical essence of this property.

Um, and so I would like to thank you for your commitment to do that and then ask you um would if if you uh have any doubts or questions about being able to do that, would you be willing to come forward uh to our staff and ask for guidance on how to best preserve the historic aspects of this property?

Absolutely. it. I fully intend to uh work with the staff and again you know not being professional. I will hire a professional to help me, you know, and the staff, specifically historic preservation staff, you know, arrive at a again a u solution that will uh meet all the requirements of the town. And I don't see any conflicting requirement between what I'd like to see and what most likely the town wants to see. It's restoration.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Okay, with no hands raised on Zoom, that concludes public comment on this item and I'll turn things back to the council.

Yes, Council Member Vami.

I'm comfortable that Mr. Vaduk, I'm hope I'm saying the name correctly, will cherish this property um and will work with the town. um will make us proud as proud as he is to obtain this property.

So uh with that, I'm going to make a motion uh to adopt a revised resolution per attachment 4 to sell the Fortate Avenue property, which is APN number 510-44-054.

Approve and authorize the town manager to sign the historic covenant and authorize the town manager to negotiate and execute all required documents for the sale, including a sale agreement accepting an offer of 3.8 million for the property and substantially the form presented.

Thank you. Yes, council member Hus. Yeah, I'll second the motion. Great. Thank you.

Um and and I'll just comment that this is, you know, this has been a long time.

Uh this has been a long process with this property. Uh the the town has tried a variety of approaches um long before I was on the council and I think before most folks were were on the council. Um, and you know, while property owned by a local government is a real asset and something that I think should be um, cherished and and taken great care of. The town spent several years trying to lease this property without success. Um, and I think we have a a really excellent buyer who clearly is is interested in preserving the historic nature of the property and and uh understands what he's getting himself into. Um, and so, um, I think we have a a a great arrangement here. I completely understand that that there will be, you know, I've received several comments from folks in town who who are concerned that the town is selling this property, but I think, you know, understanding everything that's involved with this sale, I think this is the best step the town can take to preserve the historic nature of the property. Um, the town is not upkeeping the building like um, you know, it it would if if we were going to try to continue to to preserve it. So, um, uh, all to say, I think this is a a a good idea and something that staff has worked very hard on and I appreciate very much. So, um, I'll support the motion.

Yes, Council Member Hudis.

Um, I had a question for staff. So uh two weeks ago we considered the budget and in the budget I believe it was anticipated that there would be 3 million in um revenue net of costs to sell it. And um now it appears that it's um going to be 3.6 6 million net of costs which would be 600,000 more um that was considered in the budget. So, um, and and you know, the the reason I'm raising this is that one of the big motivations for our town based on the survey that I did and the um the conversations that I've had uh was that the proceeds from the sale of an asset of the town um be put to similar use And so the council unanimously agreed and I am very thankful for the support of the council to take the proceeds and put it into a fund that is uh a fund that is committed um and uh would take an act of the council to change that. And that commitment is for a long-term community benefit. Um, and we listed several options for that, but the amount was 3 million. It appears like it may be 3.6.

Correct me if I'm wrong on that. Would there be what would be the opportunity to take budgetary action and what would the timing for the um additional 600,000 or whatever the amount is?

Thank you for the question. Um so what we would do is 3.6 is estimated what we believe the revenue to be at the end of the sale but we would like to let the sale go through and complete the sale.

We have the money in hand. we will come to council for that uh revenue appropriation and that can be clarified at that time.

And so that would follow the close. So it probably be in the fall sometime or that. Yeah. So there's 20 21 days of due diligence followed by 21 days close of escrow. So roughly two months there um give or take depending on what uh what work and what we need to work through.

Okay. So, yes, if I may just clarify though, um we're not going to bring forward automatically, I think you have to go through your agenda setting policy to direct staff to come forth with an allocation of an extra 600,000 to that purpose. The direction of council at the last meeting we discussed this was allocate $3 million to the committed reserve. It was not to um come back and agendaize increasing that amount upon the sale.

Thank you.

So, yes, you can do it. Let's wait for the sale and then you can give direction.

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Renie.

Thank you, Mayor. As you know, I often don't don't uh make comments, but I'm I just have to make comments on on this.

Um, you know, I'm echo I'm going to echo your your comments. I'm in year 12 on the council, and this property had already had the museum move out when I started on the council almost 12 years ago, and it's been a long road. We we started off with how can we um make make some economic benefit out of an asset we have while preserving the historical value of it. And we spent a long time trying to do that over and over and over. Um, and it it's been a little frustrating to me as we weren't able to achieve that and then as time went on it just became historical asset that was decaying as an asset. Um, and you know, we're not when it's not used, it's not really being kept up and it's it does need some improvement. So, I I'm really quite excited that we're finally um going taking care of this and you know, both both um well, you know, we're getting some economic benefit out as as the town, but also we're we're selling it to and I'll try not to um disclose too much that was discussed in in close session, but we had multiple offers and you know I'm I'm very happy that this particular buyer was one of the offers as as he spoke it you know we could even tell that this is was the right kind of person that was going to really respect the historical value of this property and preserve it and and bring it back because it it really is kind of at a decayed point at at at this point. So, I I just want to also say how appreciative I am that we found the right buyer for this. This wasn't just us chasing necessarily top dollar, but also chasing a buyer that would really appreciate the historical value and and preserve and take care of this this historical gem of Lascatoss. Right.

Thank you. Yes, Council Member Hudis.

Just one more comment on the historic preservation aspects of it. Um I I have to say that I you know in reading the covenant and in the steps that have been taken um I am confident that we are providing strong protection on the historic preservation of this. And I want um certainly for the public to understand um that we're doing I think everything that we can to preserve uh the historic aspects of this structure.

The co having the covenant having it recorded is very important and specifying uh some of the um items [clears throat] that are articulated in the covenant and the staff report I think um illustrate that. So, I do have a lot of confidence that um the town has done what it can uh to preserve the historic aspects of this.

Thank you. And I will turn to the clerk for a vote.

Council member Renie I.

Council member Hudis I.

Council member Bidami I.

Mayor More I. Um the motion passes unanimously with council with Vice Mayor Risto recused and we'll invite her back and move to our last item um where uh we will receive a report from the town clerk on a remote public access disruption policy and an amendment to the agenda format.

Good evening, mayor and council members.

Wendywood, town clerk. The item before you tonight is a recommendation to approve the remote public access disruption policy and adopt a resolution establishing reasonable efforts to encourage public participation in meetings and consider an amendment to the town council agenda format and rules policy. As background on this item, Senate Bill 707 was signed into law last year and amended the Brown Act to require eligible legislative bodies to provide hybrid public meetings through a two-way telephone or video platform system. In addition, the legislation requires agencies to adopt by July 1st, 2026, a policy addressing how the agency will respond to disruption and service that prevent members of the public from remotely observing and participating in the meeting. The legislation also requires agencies to determine and make reasonable efforts to encourage participation by individuals and groups that do not traditionally participate in public meetings. The town already conducts town council meetings in a hybrid format using Zoom and will continue to comply with those requirements. The action before you tonight are intended to address the remaining requirements of Senate Bill 707. The proposed remote public access disruption policy establishes procedures for responding to disruption and remote access service that prevent the members from observing and participating in the meeting. The policy outlines the procedures for announcing a disruption, recessing and reconvening meetings, documenting restoration efforts, and making good faith attempts to restore remote access service. State law requires that good faith restoration efforts continue for up to one hour before the council may consider whether to adjourn or continue the meeting after making the required findings. Under government code section 54953-4, if remote access service cannot be restored within one hour, the council may adjourn the meeting or continue it with the findings. The proposed policy addresses the circumstances such as late night disruption, facilitywide power outage, and other conditions where waiting for restoration efforts to continue for up to an hour may not be practical, and adjournment may be appropriate. The policy also requires documentation for the disruption restoration efforts in the meeting minutes. Following review by the policy committee, the policy was revised to clarify that a meeting may continue under certain circumstances if a council member experiences a disruption in service or is otherwise unable to participate from the designated teleconference location. The policy committee also recommended amending the town council agenda format rules to change the council meeting end time from midnight to 11 p.m. Under the new legislation, the remote access disruption could require a recess for up to 1 hour while restoration efforts are underway. Because the new law may not the new law may require recess for this duration, the policy committee is recommending moving the meeting time to 11 p.m. to help avoid situations where council staff or members of the public may be required to remain in attendance until midnight or later to accommodate the 1-hour period. Accordingly, the proposed remote public access disruption includes provisions to allow the council to adjourn rather than recess if a disruption occurs after 11 p.m. The presiding officer determines that continuing the meeting would be impractical or inconsistent with the established meeting procedures.

Additionally, Senate Bill 707 requires the legislative body to determine and make reasonable efforts to encourage participation by individuals and groups that do not traditionally participate in meetings. To satisfy this requirement, staff is recommending adoption of the draft resolution, which establishes a framework for reasonable outreach efforts, including media outreach, electronic agenda access, and subscription services. and organizational outreach.

Staff recommends the town council approve the remote public access disruption policy, adopt a resolution establishing the reasonable efforts to encourage public participation in meetings, and consider the amendment to the town's agenda format and rules policy. This concludes my presentation and I'm available for any questions.

Yes, Council Member Hudis.

Yeah, thank you. Um, I wanted to understand how does the 1hour rule relate to changing the adjournment time from midnight to 11:00 p.m.? I didn't I didn't really follow that.

So, the the um thought was that if we set the meeting time for 11 and we do adjourn at 11:00 p.m., then if there was a disruption past 11, we wouldn't have to stay past that time. So, it's trying to to keep that 11:00 p.m. time so that we wouldn't have to proceed for an hour to try to restore service if there's an event that we need to continue the meeting and have to wait that amount of time.

And I'll just clarify from the policy committee. I think this was also just we were discussing the agenda format and rules and this was a change that was recommended.

So if I could just understand. So we're changing the adjournment time because sometimes we might have to invoke this one hour or there's a recom there's a reason why meetings should adjourn at 11 p.m.

I'll I'll just answer from my perspective that that I think the policy committee, not to speak on council member Badami's behalf, but I think the council member uh uh the policy committee separately and with this new policy thought that the 11 p.m. adjournment would be a good idea. But that the 11 p.m. adjournment on its on the face without this is a good idea.

Yes, Council Member Budami. So, what I I would also expand that um I believe we are in agreement that um some of our meetings have gone almost till 1:00 in the morning and in consideration of staff and the new modified Rosenberg's rules where we can put a motion on the table and and just kind of button up the meetings um that it just seemed maybe um a prudent thing to do especially in consideration of the public participation we get where they sometimes have to stay till very late hours where we could maybe just be a little bit more concise and and again um just kind of button things up.

Yes, Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. I have a a comment and a question. I mean, years ago when council meetings used to go till 1 or 2:00, it was changed so that they had to end at midnight. It doesn't mean that we end at midnight. If we've got business to do and we have a majority vote to go past midnight, we do that. Um, so the question is, and I support planning that we end at 11, that might keep us on track more. If we are approaching 10 minutes to 11 and we make a motion to go on till 11:30 because we have an item and then we have an outage, do we then have to try for an hour to keep going?

That's what the state law currently provides. Okay. I mean, so it doesn't really eliminate it going us having an hour to try and close it, but I think this is sort of while we were while you were doing the policy policy people just addressing getting us it was something we discussed prior to the 707 and it got lost in terms of the final draft that came to council.

Let's just make it very clear. The council is in full control of when you decide to end your meeting. There's no question there. If you change it or if you eliminate it, you at any time can end the 12:00. You can extend it, not extend it. You're just saying we'll go all the way to 12 before we even get to the point of saying we should vote to we're thinking about should we go longer or has it been too long?

So 11:00 I think makes total sense. When you add the 7:07 and the fact that you have to stay for an hour, irrespective if you did not want to go that long, you're going to be stuck doing it. And so if the time is 12 and it's 11:59 and we lose connectivity, you are here till 12:59 even if you wanted to just end it and not extend it from 12:00. And so the the balance was well at least we know we'll be out by midnight if we have a technical issue and it happened after 11:00. But if we want to be here till 3 in the morning to consider all the items on the agenda, the council is fully within their wherewithal to extend it at 11 o'clock until as far as you need.

Okay. Thank you. I think we're starting to get into discussion. So I'm going to open up public comment before I go to Council Member Renie. Um is there anyone here to speak on item number 25?

Seeing none, I will close public comment and go to Council Member Renie.

Yeah, that was good because mine's not really a question. It's a it's just a comment uh or maybe provide some perspective. Um as mentioned, sometimes we had council meetings that went past midnight, but we've made a fundamental change and I don't know if it'll continue with f future mayors or future town managers, but we um used to stuff everything into our regular council meeting. So if that was a land use item that had 30 people that wanted to speak and we needed to discuss it for two hours and then we had other agenda items on top of it easily goes past midnight.

What what we've I guess sort of consciously done is now we hold our long land use meetings as a special meeting on a different date. So, we don't need to go till midnight nearly as much as we used to because we're we're making this is sort of cottifying this idea that we're going to have more meetings in order to cover the long land used ones and our regular meetings won't need to go as long. And and I think council member Risto, Vice Mayor Risto was starting to um make are making the point that when we get close to midnight, we actually kind of move a little more efficiently along as we know the end of the meeting is coming. I think if the end of the meeting is supposed to be 11, we'll do the same thing. We'll start moving a little more efficiently and you know, maybe we make a motion to go a little past 11 like we do a little past 12, but I think it will help us to focus a little bit. So, with all of that sort of perspective in mind, I'll say that, you know, I I do I'm I'm supportive of the changing to 11:00 idea.

Council member Hudis, um yeah, question. Have we done um any survey or view of how uh what time other municipalities um have their uh adjournment time?

Um I have not done that. Um but then I also wanted to add a little bit of clarification um in regards to your question. So um it's regarding the 1 hour limit in the late night. The code doesn't [clears throat] have any specific exemptions for that late night hour, but the Brown Act does allow legislative bodies to adjourn a meeting um if they determine it's impractical or inconsistent with procedures. So there that is a procedure in the policy that we would then follow if there was that late night disruption, but if if you'd like me to look at other jurisdictions for their end time, um I could do that as well.

Great. Thank you. And and I know this is a little challenging because I know the town manager really likes it when we go to midnight. Um but I do think this is uh the right thing to do for for our community. Um, Vice Mayor Risto.

Yeah, with that and you know, moving the meeting along with Rosenberg's rules, I will move to approve a remote public access disruption policy, approve an amendment to the agenda format and rules policy 2-01, and adopt a resolution establishing what constitutes reasonable efforts to encourage public participation in meetings.

Council Bami, second. Great. Thank you.

Um, seeing no other hands raised, I will turn to the town clerk for a roll call vote.

Council member Annie, I.

Council member Hudis, I.

Council member Padami, I.

Vice Mayor Risto, I.

Mayor Moore, I. Passes unanimously. Excellent. And look at us at 10:35, 25 minutes before um 11 p.m. Um I will now turn to council matters. Um, and I'll begin with our remote member, Council Member Renie.

Um, thank you, Mayor. I had, I guess, two meetings of of interest. Um, I met with some of the neighbors of the West Valley um, Muslim Center um, to get a better understanding of their perspective on the the agreement that we um, actually continued. Of course, I did not give them um, any assurances of how I was going to vote. I um was just collecting information and trying to understand their position and of course told them that I I couldn't tell them, you know, how I was going to frame a motion or vote until I've heard all the information. The second item, um I met with um the developer for the um other meeting that was um rescheduled for tonight of the Oka Road development. I met um with that developer and I did not I don't think I learned anything new from him that uh the other council members don't already know. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to Council Member Hudis.

Uh thank you. Um let's see. On June 3, uh, I met with the leadership of El Camino Hospital to discuss their plans for, um, building a new facility in Lascatos. I was very impressed with their plans and, uh, their focus on being truly a community hospital. Um I same day I attended the Saratoga Council meeting where they considered um a proposal from the town of Loscatoos or whether to negotiate a proposal from the town of Loscatoos for police services. And I have to say it was um I thought it was uh Loscato's leadership did an excellent job of uh outlining uh the uh benefits the synergies uh from that process.

Um I participated in two uh Loscatoos Thrives uh meetings and then on the 9th I participated in the community health and senior services uh commission meeting. I think they've canceled the other meeting and um uh they had uh very interesting discussions there um where uh Tyler Taylor um provided some insight into the challenges in funding um senior activities. And I think that it's a little bit of a warning that um this isn't going to end. uh that it isn't only um issues with uh the federal administration but also with the county fundamentally uh taking on the operation of four hospitals and uh the need to provide those as probably their highest priority. And so I think that the town is going to have increased pressure to look at funding um services particularly for our seniors nutrition programs and things like that.

Um I participated in a meeting uh with Jim Foley regarding a development and also the chamber activities and um I participated in the cities association wonderful summer u membership meeting and I know a number of folks were here were there for that as well um focusing on panel discussion of emergency preparedness and preparation And I learned a great deal uh from that that presentation.

Um and that's it. Thank you, Vice Mayor Risto.

Thank you. I don't have a lot to report.

Yesterday I met with Jim Foley um to hear his point of view about the chamber contract and also um he wanted to talk to me about the Suriri Farms project um development which will be coming to the council. And then this morning I met with Eric Hayden, the developer of the Oka project um prior to knowing that we weren't going to hear it tonight. So, um, anyway, didn't learn anything from either of them that I didn't already know from watching planning commission meetings.

Council member Bami.

Thank you, mayor. Um, on June 8th, I participated in a meeting of the resident wildfire advisory group. Uh, on the 11th, I met with the CEO and executive director of El Camino Health, as mentioned by council member Hudis. Um they showed some really exciting plans uh for the development of a hospital uh in Lascatus uh off Pard and it looks beautiful. I'm I'm excited about them being a partner with Lascatus and making it really fit and being part of our community. On the 10th um I participated in a meeting of the conceptual development advisory committee. Uh and that was regarding potential development of a threestory multi-use development at the corner of North Santa Cruz A and Bachmann A. Um it would be 43 feet tall.

Um it still fits within the height guidelines of the area. Um there was a number of residents there that provided um a lot of feedback um asking the developer to maybe kind of refine or modify his plans to make it fit more within uh the character of Lascatus. He seemed amendable to coming back because it's an important piece of property that could be developed um and improve the corner. Um, but there was a a lively discussion not only from the committee members but also from the input provided by the community. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, I also met with staff from El Camino Health and the developer of the Oka Road property. Um, I also attended a Whimo training along with town staff and the Loscatos Monte Sino Police Department along with council members from Monty Serino and Saratoga to learn more about the Whimo expansion to Los Gatos. Um, which as I've shared in the past, surprisingly has nothing to do with the town of Los Gatos. The town has no say. Um, and there supposedly will be Whimos rolling out on the streets of Los Gatos in the next few weeks. Um, I provided opening remarks at the Bellwood Dolphins uh, opening meet of the year. I was a long and proud Bellwood Dolphin. Um, I swam on that swim team for for many years and um, it was a very fun full circle moment. I attended the opening day of the summer service of the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad at their pancake breakfast. The Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad is now open seven days a week for business through the summer. Um, and uh I recommend checking it out. Um, had a lot of fun riding the train. Um, I uh swung by the KCAT camp which was a lot of fun. Kat Camp is going this whole summer. Really cool uh video and TV and movie training camp for kids. Uh, really, really neat.

And what I participated in was at the Apple store which every week is working with the KCAT campers to tell them about you know how um Apple works and what they do there. So very very neat. Um, I also attended the city's association emergency preparedness session where I'll just um add on to what council member Hudis said um in that our town manager was one of the uh panelists um and provided a lot of excellent expert perspective on um what happens in the event of an emergency especially um uh what councils should and should not mostly should not do. Um this morning along with the town manager I uh spoke to the NUMO summer campers which was a lot of fun. Um really good group of kids right above us here. Um today I also met with the uh Bill Wilson Center Youth Impact Partnership Group. Bill Wilson Center is an organization that serves Santa Clara County and beyond and has um at least one property in Loscatoos um a uh a home um a single family home where where um I think largely foster youth are housed. Um and the Bill Wilson Center is really working on trying to combat youth homelessness specifically in our community um and beyond. And so um a lot of good happening there.

They're very concerned about some um key state cuts and so trying to help them uh navigate those and advocate to our state partners. Um I held my community coffee where I met with a variety of residents including um regarding uh the uh mosque appeal among other things. And lastly, I will just announce um as the town manager might be getting ready to that we have our July 4th celebration coming up on the 4th of July um happening on the the Saturday of July 4th. Um it'll be a really fun event. One of the particularly exciting things is that this is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. and the um town of Los Scatters will be rolling out a bell, a historic bell that we used to ring for many many years um that we would ring right at 11:00 a.m. um when the declaration was signed in uh you know on the East Coast at 8 a.m. And this bell was hiding in the uh Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad Storage for many years. And so we will be ringing the bell at 11:00 a.m. It'll hopefully uh is a new or or returning tradition that we get to uh uh you know ring in. So um I will turn to the town manager and then the town attorney.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And that event on Saturday, July 4th, will start at 10:00 a.m. and go to 1 p.m. And I'm certain it will be an awesome event.

Well, we're now two weeks into our official deployment of our 311 uh application called My Lost Gats 311. And we will be happy to note that we currently are up to the 42nd request that has come through that software. Uh much more than has happened in my last jurisdiction in the first two weeks. So, we clearly have a community that is very engaged and we are deeply appreciative for that. It's probably the best way to get that message to the right staff and have that back and forth with staff. And so we continue to encourage our residents to download the app on their Android or iPhones. Or if they can't access those, they can access it on our web page at loscatosca.gov and go to the upper right where it says uh find a concern or report a concern, I should say.

Lastly, I'd like to let the folks know and that are watching that the administrative offices will be closed February June 19th in observance of Junth. Um, that does not mean the police department gets a vacation and nobody's working. Our emergency services will continue to operate. It's just the rest of our operations will not. And that council will be on recess for the month of July with the next regularly scheduled meeting occurring on August 4th. With that, I'll turn it back to the mayor. Um any report from the town attorney? Uh nothing to report from close session. Thank you.

Great. Thank you very much. Um with that again before our 11:00 uh new 11:00 deadline, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.