June 9, 2026 Joint meeting of the Council, Shoreline Regional Park, & Capital Improvements Authority

Okay everyone, we are back from close session. Okay, so good evening everyone. Welcome to the joint meeting of the Mountain View City Council, Shoreline Regional Park Community, and City of Mountain View Capital Improvements Financing Authority of June 9th, 2026. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The city clerk will take attendance by roll call.

Council member Hicks here.

Council member Kame here. Council member Mallister

here.

Council member Ramirez

here.

Council member Sha Walter

here. Vice Mayor Clark

here.

Mayor

here. You have a qu.

Wonderful. City attorney log, do you have a close session report?

No final action was taken in close session this evening.

Great. That leads us to item three, presentations. Please note that these are presentations only. The city council will not take any action. Public comment will occur after the presentation items. If you would like to speak on these items in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. So, we will now go on to item 3.1, Pride Month Proclamation. Yay. Um, we are happy to be joined this evening by Sali Surubin, Sarah Fernando, and Becca Pon from the Santa Clara County Office of LGBTQ Affairs to accept this proclamation. Would you all join me at the lectern? All right. The proclamation reads, "Whereas the city of Mountain View is committed to supporting dignity equity and visibility for all people in the community. And whereas Mountain View celebrates the history and diversity of our city's LGBTQIA+ community and promotes a society in which all residents can live free from discrimination. And whereas the city will host its second citywide pride celebration called Together in Pride on June 20th. The event will feature a flag raising ceremony. Other activities will include performances by artists, community booths, roaming uh yeah, roaming entertainment, family fun zones, and a community art project. And whereas flying the rainbow flag at city hall throughout the month of June further symbolizes the city's celebration of diversity and support for the city's LGBTQIA plus residents. Now therefore, I, Emily Anne Ramos, mayor of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on on the city council, do hereby proclaim the month of June as Pride Month and encourage all residents of Mountain View to celebrate the rich diversity of our commun community. Saldi, would you like to say a few words?

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, good evening everyone. Uh, my name is Sali Serbin. My pronoun is he, him, his. I'm with the county Santa Clara Office of LGBT affairs. Uh thank you for being here as we celebrate Pride Month. Pride is a beautiful reminder of the power of visibility and the strength of united community. It's a time to honor our past, celebrate our joy, and reaffirm our commitment to full equality. Uh but real support extends far beyond the flags and festivals. It lives in our policies and resources. If you are someone you love looking for support, advocacy, or community connection, I want to remind you about an incredible local resource, which is our office, Santa Clair County Office of LGBT affairs. Um, established as a historic first in the United uh United States. This office acts as an dedicated champion for the health, safety, and well-being of the LGBTQ plus residents right here in Santa Clair County, including the city of Mountain View. From connecting community members to affirming health care and housing to providing a cultural competency training, the office work uh to work tirelessly to make sure our county is a safe to call home. Also, uh this June 12, I want to invite you all um we are turning a 10year um 10y year anniversary um since the establishment in 2016. Um it's happening on June 12 from 5 to 8:00 PM at 70 West heading um in San Jose. This June, let's seate let's celebrate our diversity and make sure no one walks dur their journey alone. Check out the office of LGBT affairs. Stay connected and have a beautiful safe pride month. Thank you. [applause] All right, for our next proclamation 3.2 to Junth Proclamation. We are happy to be joined this evening by Jamal Williams, uh, Kima Egg Buhoo, and, um, Joselyn Dubin, co-chairs of the Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet of Silicon Valley to accept this proclamation. Would you all join me at the lectern?

Hi, Mayor.

Thank you for having us. Absolutely. All right. The proclamation reads, "Whereas President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, declaring slaves in the Confederate Territory free, paving the way for the passage of the 13th Amendment, which formerly abolished slavery in the United States of America. And word about the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation was delayed by some two to two and a half years to June 19 uh 1865 in reaching authorities and African-Americans in the south and southwestern United States. And whereas this day has a special meaning and is called Junth combining the words June and 19th. And Junth is an opportunity to acknowledge a period of our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today, a time to honor and pay respects uh for the sufferings of slavery. And whereas the city of Mountain View strives to be a community for all, which is to support its socioeconomic and cultural diversity. Whereas the city of Mountain View recognizes the historical significance [laughter] of the Junth day to the United States supports the continued nationwide celebration of the Junth day to provide an opportunity for residents to learn more about the past and to understand better the experiences that have shaped the United States and recognizes that the observance of the end of slavery is part of his part of the history and heritage of the United States. Now therefore, I, Emily Anne Ramos, mayor of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, do hereby proclaim June 19th as Junth day in the city of Mountain View. Would someone like to say a few words?

Absolutely.

Sup everybody. Thank you for having us, Emily. And um let me first say that I was given permission to speak by these two wonderful women. This is not this is not patriarchy or misogyny at play. Um,

and it's Kim G.

Yeah. Yeah.

I just wanted to bring

um we the Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet continues to work tirelessly on behalf of black residents throughout the county as a coalition. We give our time and dedicate our our our our lives and our professions to make sure that we are advocating, fighting for policy, and building community that supports and uplifts the black community. We recognize Junth as our independence day. Um if we can imagine what it's like what it was like during the actual independency independence day um our ancestors were enslaved but on June 19th uh 196 1865 they finally were able to gain some semblance of freedom and we think about Junth not just as a special day for black Americans um who were enslaved but also that set the course for all underrepresented n uh populations in this country and we want to make sure we recognize that um that that that milestone. We think about today and we recognize that um there's a lot of uh a lot of our civil rights and liberties being under attack. And even at a as a reflective time such as this, we want to make sure that we're fighting against those that are continue to oppress and try to rewrite history. The systems and protections that black people fought and died for are under renewed threat and social progress that communities achieved not only for themselves but for countless others are continuing to be rolled back. We've seen black folks continue to be um uh we've continued to lose black folks in this county and we have continued to see um black women being attacked over this past year. And so I ask that when we think about how we choose to move forward with policy that we not only observe Junth as a historical time, but we recognize that it sets a course forward for us in our policy decisions and our choices with our funding and support for the community. So thank you again for this proclamation and we look forward to continue working with y'all in the future. [applause] All right. Would any member of the council like to say a few words? Council member Shoalter.

Yeah, I really would like to say a few words about Junth. Um, growing up in the Capitol Confederacy, I was um really uh educated about uh the Civil War in in a way that was just uh a fairy tale. And in the last 30 years, there's been an incredible movement to um bring back the real history of what happened and share it with everyone so we can all learn about our past and think about the implications of it and move forward from there in an honest manner. And so it just really does my heart good to see this. When I was a kid growing up, nobody ever talked about Junth. I don't think it became a very popular um uh holiday until the uh the last 20 25 years, but it's a very welcome one. And particularly this year as we celebrate our 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it's so appropriate that we remember the other parts of our history, all of them, the good, the bad, the wonderful, the ugly, and um and think about the whole. And uh so I I just I just wanted to mention that this this when we talk about we the people um there were a lot of people included throughout our history that didn't get their story told and um this is about telling a very important story and not letting it die. So thank you.

Thank you Council Member Shoalter. Any other comments from my colleagues? Seeing none, uh we will now take public comment for the presentation items. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on the presentation items listed on the agenda? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker will have three minutes. Do we have any inperson speakers? All right, no inperson speakers. We will now take virtual speakers. All right, we have a virtual speaker. Judy, can you unmute yourself? Judy. Oh, when Judy disappeared. All right, seeing that there are no other uh public comments, we will end item three, but with just one reminder for your call to action, call to service, call to community. On Saturday, June 20th, we're going to have our Pride event. So, yay. We're so excited. So, please come out for that. Um and and show uh support and and celebrate our diversity in our community. Um, that will be at city the city hall plaza. Um, and it will begin at 11:00 a.m. So, yay. Now, we'll move on to our consent calendar. These items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the council wishes to pull an item for individual consideration. If an item is pulled from the consent calendar, it will be considered separately following approval of the balance of the consent calendar. If you would like to speak on these items or the next item, oral communications on non-aggendaite items in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. Now, would any member of the council like to pull an item? Seeing none, um we will now go Oh, is this this Okay, we will now Do you want to speak now or do you want to speak after public comment? Okay. So, would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to submit a comment on these items? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. If so, um we will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker will have three minutes. This is for consent calendar. Do we have any speakers? No inerson speakers. All right. All right, we will now take virtual speakers. Uh Judy,

yes. Hello. Um can you hear me? I got disconnected on my public comment earlier.

I can hear you.

Okay. Um I I got disconnected on my public comment earlier. Um and I wish you would uh make a disruption policy to cover the disruptions in virtual comments. Uh that is a state law. By the beginning of July, you need to do that. Um because I would like to be able to speak on the um the last section where they were talking about the um the Black Pride Day and the Gay Pride Day. Um will you still let me speak about that?

No, this is no longer that item for this public comment, but thank you so much.

Okay. Well, thank you and please work on that disruption policy because you cost me my speech tonight and that is uh viewpoint discriminate.

Thank you. Um, next up we have Albert Jeans.

Hi there. Just a quick comment on 4.10, the acquisition of the property at Terabella. Of course, that's a really great, you know, it's a great opportunity to add to the park. There's a big difference between, I think, a twoacre park and a threeacre, but I just wanted to point out, as Mr. Gene did in his email that the lot next to that at 965 Terabella also appears to be available and if we could add that you know we could we're looking at a 4 acre park which is a really decent size. So you know it's pretty rare I think that the city can put together so many lots to make a decent sized park. So I really hope the staff and the city council will move forward on that. Thank you very much. Thank you, Albert. Um, we will now bring this back to council um for council action and note that a motion to approve the consent calendar should also include the reading of the titles of the ordinance and resolution attached to the consent calendar items 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, and 4.9. Good luck with that. Um, the city clerk will take roll call as we have a council member participating remotely this evening. Council member Shoalter.

All right. I guess I should have looked at how much I had to read. I'm happy to do it.

No, that's okay. I'm just kidding. I I also want to make a couple comments. Um, one, uh, you know, when we get to the end of the, uh, the sort of the sessions, we we have two more meetings in this session before we have our summer break. There are always a lot of consent calendar items and that's just kind of indicative of um of all the work that the city is doing and they want to get things wrapped up enough so they have our um approval to get through the summer. So there's always a spade of them. I think the the most I ever observed was 28 in one meeting. That was that was that was definitely a record. But so this time I think we have 11. And next time I bet we'll have more. We'll see. But anyway, um it's it's interesting to note that three of them are second readings of ordinances or resolutions that we've passed, which is also an indication of something that we've finished. We've completed and that's that's a good thing. And um I I particularly wanted I also want to mention 4.4. That's the extension of our shelter emergency. And that allows us to continue our um our programs to assist the homeless. It's very important um in the social fiber of our community. Um on a a very happy note, we are um putting more money into the heat pay heat pump rebate program. It was so popular that we used up all the money. And so by putting another $500,000 in, we'll be able to take 250 more heat pumps out of um out of people's houses in Mountain View. And the reason it's so important to take a heat pump out is because uh a water heater in a in a typical single family home uses about the same I mean produces about the same amount of greenhouse gases as a car does a family car. So so these reductions are are very important and it's it's something to to be proud of. Um also as Albert Jeans mentioned 4.10 10. We're purchasing some land that's going to allow for um uh an a park that's a little larger than three acres in this area. That is definitely something to celebrate. And and also um I just want to um to thank uh the the uh BPAC and James Kusmal congratulate for being willing to step up and serve on the Santa Clara Transportation Authority bike ped um uh uh advisory board. That's that's an important way to bring the Mountain View concepts to uh county uh county issues. Okay. So, with that, I'm going to have to um probably have a few sips while I do this, but I'd like to move the uh the uh consent calendar. Item 4.1, adopt an ordinance of the city council of the city of Mountain View, amending chapter 36, article 9, division 2, residential development below market rate housing program of the Mountain View City Code to modify the belo below market rate program and add section 30.40.32 40.32 governing graduated fee reduction for small projects and finding that these code amendments are not subject to the fall California environmental quality act to be read and title only. Further reading waved item 4.2 Two, adopt an ordinance of the city council of the city of Mountain View amending chapter 36 zoning of this the Mountain View City Council Code to authorize streamline administrative approval of housing development projects that are statutoily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to public resources code section 2180.66 66 and to make other minor modifications to chapter 36 to align land uses in the recreation, I mean in the residential and commercial zones with state laws and finding that the amendments are exempt from review under SQUA as recommended by the environmental planning committee to be read and title only. Further reading waved. Adopt an ordinance of the city council of the city of Mountain View amending chapter 28 subdivisions and chapter 41 parkland dedication or fees in lie thereof of the Mountain View city code to authorize streamlined administrative approval of housing development projects that are statutoily exempt from SQA pursuant to public resources code section 2180.66 66 and make other minor minor modifications to chapter 28 and 41 to achieve greater consistency with state laws for internal consistency within the city code and to align the city code with current permitting procedures and practices and finding that amendments are exempt from review under SQA to be read and title only further reading waved. Item 4.3, adopt an ordinance of the city council of the city of Mountain View, renewing approval of the Mountain View Police Department military equipment use policy, adopting updated military equipment use policy, and finding that this action is not subject to SQUA to be read and title only. Further reading waved. Item 4.4, Four, adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View authorizing the city manager or designate to execute fiscal year's 2026 27 funding agreements with the community services agency of Mountain View, Los Altos, and Los Altos Hills for housing related services and an amount not to exceed $177,000 for a homeless prevention direct financial assistance program and an amount not to exceed $150,000 to be read in title only. Further reading waved and adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View amending resolution 18301 to extend the declaration of a shelter crisis in the city of Mountain View through June 30th, 2035 to be read and title only. Further reading waved. Item 4.5. Adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View approving a request to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for the allocation of fiscal year 2026 27 transportation development act article 3 pedestrian bicycle project funding to be read and title only further reading waved. Item 4.6 Six, adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View authorizing the city manager or their designate to amend an agreement with Silicon Valley Clean Energy to increase funding for the heat pump water heater program um by $500,000 resulting in a total not to exceed amount of a million dollar to be read entitle only. Further reading waved. Item 4.7 adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View calling a general municipal election for the purpose of electing three members of the city council requesting the board of supervisors to authorize the registar of voters to contract for election services. Authorizing the city clerk to contract with the county of Santa Clara pertaining to services to be performed by the county in connection with the general municipal election to be held on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026 and related actions to be read read and title only. Further reading waved and adopt a resolution of the city of Mountain View um city council of the city of Mountain View adopting a 200word um wait a minute 200word maximum. I've got to flip the page here, guys. So, sorry. 200word maximum for a candidate statement of qualifications and charging each candidate for a fixed share of cost for the printing, handling, translating, and mailing for the general municipal election to be had on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026 to be read and title only. Further reading waved. And last but not least, item 4.9, introduce an ordinance of the city council of the city of Mountain View, amending chapter 2, article 8 of the Mountain View City Code to add section 2.86.25 governing the selection of arguments for city ballot measures and make other clarifying modifications to be read and title only, further reading waved, and a set a second reading for June 23rd, 2026. Great job. All right. So, we have a motion by Council Member Shoalter, seconded by Council Member Hicks. Uh, city clerk, will you mind taking the roll call vote?

Council member Shoalter,

yes.

Council member Hicks,

yes.

Council member Kame,

yes.

Council member Mallister,

yes.

Council member Ramirez,

yes.

Vice Mayor Clark,

yes.

Mayor Ramos,

yes. Motion carries unanimously.

All right. So that concludes uh consent calendar. We will now move on to item five, oral communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic within the city's council's subject matter jurisdiction for up to three minutes during the section. State law prohibits the council from acting on non-aggendaized items. If you would like to speak on this item or the next item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. And in recent weeks, the city along with few other neighboring elected decision-making bodies have been subjected to disruptive, racist, verbal attacks by anonymous callers during virtual public comments. The city of Mountain View is fully committed to racial, religious, and cultural uh equal e equity and justice as we strive to create a welcoming, safe, inclusive community for all. The council recommen welcomes respectful non-threatening public comments on matters within our jurisdiction. Comments deemed otherwise pursuant to the council code of conduct and the government code may be grounds for terminating a p a speaker's public comment period. Um so we will now move on to our public comment. It looks like we have one, two, three, four, five people in the queue. So we'll go for two minutes. Um, so would any member of the public uh joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker will have two minutes. Our first one is going to be Bruce Carney, followed by Kristen Anderson, followed by KBT, followed by Shaunie Klein House.

Good evening, mayor and council members. Miss Glazer, would you please show the slide for public comment I submitted earlier? Thank you very much. I want to take just one minute of your time to make sure you are aware of the greenhouse gas emission report released earlier this year by Silicon Valley Clean Energy. They prepare reports each year for all of their member agencies. The clerk is showing the latest slide for Mountain View. As you can see, emissions in 2024 were higher than uh in 2019. the the year before the pandemic. In fact, 5% higher. Um the reason for the increased emissions is that in 2024, Silicon Valley clean energy was unable to meet its goal of providing 100% carbon-f free electricity. I have been assured that SVCE returned to being carbon-f free in 2025 and will strive to be carbon-f free in the future. But what happened in 2024 should serve as a reminder that we can't take it for granted that the electricity we consume will always be as clean as we hope it will be.

Thank you, Mr. Carney. Kristen Anderson, followed by KBT, followed by Shaunie Klein House.

Good evening. Thanks for hearing me. Um, I just have two things I want to bring to your attention. One of them is the City of Mount View dog park over off of Shoreline by Shoreline. Um, across from Shoreline Amphitheater by, you know, by the golf course, there's a dog park has both for large dogs and separated for small dogs. It is barren. There's like one um covered bench for someone to sit in and then another one h has like a second bench or you know it'll have some benches but it's just plain plain gravel type of you know dirt. Nothing for the dogs to do and run around or have fun with. And so I would like to see you guys kind of spruce it up. It's been this way for decades as long as it's been there. So, it would be nice to have some fun um added to it. The other one is the issue on for Charleston entrance onto southbound 101 highway. There is right there. It's by the Costco and there's also an exit from southbound 101 to Ringorf and they are within 100 ft of each other. There's also in addition to that, there is the ringorf entrance to 101 that's right after that. And this clogs up 101 all the time all day, you know, all day. There's no give from that. And I'm surprised honestly that there's not more accidents right there. It's very hazardous. And um I would like to see when last year you guys closed that entrance from Charleston and it just made the flow on southbound 101 so much easier. It's just it was amazing. So if there's a way that you guys could actually just close that entrance because there is a ring storef one and if you do need an additional

Thank you. All right. Um, next we have KBT, followed by Shaunie Klein House, followed by Alvin Kerr. I'm with the coalition of community organizations called SOS, safety over surveillance. And I want to commend the council and the Mountain View Police Chief for taking the groundbreaking step of cancelling the Flock AI enabled cameras to protect our citizens from outside surveillance by federal agencies like ICE and from violations to our Fourth Amendment rights, protecting us from warrantless searches and invasions of our privacy. This is so incredibly important also for our immigrant community as well. Uh while other cities drag their feet, Mountain View leads the way by cancelling these cameras. I was overjoyed to see the cameras near my neighborhood removed and some other ones as I drive around um in the last couple of weeks or so. I had thought from the February 24th meeting that there was going to be an official announcement to the public of when these cameras were going to be removed. Um, so I hope that that can be considered soon uh to be announced because I would love to see our city stand firm for the individual civil li civil liberties and a safe surveillance-free zone for our city. Additionally, I hope the council continues to reject the use of any AI enabled ARPR cameras uh from any company in the future because there is still so much evidence of increased misuse and abuse and lack of data protection. So, I hope we can continue to protect our citizens from overreach by the federal government by doing so. Thank you again so much council for cancelling the contract.

Thank you, Shaunie Klein House, followed by Alvin Kerr.

Good evening, Shaunie Klein House with the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance. I wanted to thank you for adopting the uh parks and recreation strategic plan. The biodiversity anchors in the plan are really great to see and thank you for that. Um it's more than just a park feature. It really looks forward to integrating nature into the fabric of the city. So it's really important to know that one the plan does not require every new plant in every park to be native. Not at all. You only have to have one area or one tree or in a few trees that provide biodiversity value. And by biodiversity value, I would take the California Native Society uh definition that talks about what are what is biodiversity and that's the web of life that co-evolved together. native plants that evolved along native insects, birds, and other wildlife providing food, shelter, and ecological relationship altogether. So, we're not talking about a lot of trees from a lot of places. That's not biodiversity that's relevant to this landscape here. So, we really need to look at how do we bring a biodiversity anchor that has biodiversity value. So, a tree from Nevada or New York or Pennsylvania doesn't have that value here. And we need to remember that in the definitions. And now you look at the uh next plan which is going to come ne next time and I can't come and speak so I'm here today. Um and you know there is a city in Senas that just adopted the native plant ordinance 100% of all plants planted on city properties have to be native and in other project that they permit 50%. Not asking you to do that today, but I think keep in mind there's an importance to bringing back and supporting our local bio [laughter] ecosystems and our local native plants. These are our butterflies. [laughter]

Thank you. Next up, we have Alvin Kura,

Mayor Ramos, Vice Mayor Clark, uh council members, city staff, Chief Canfield, uh [laughter] Alvin Kilvin, Park Neighborhood. Uh just three quick things. One, uh thank you, Mayor Ramos, for the state of the city. Um I just I don't know if you've been told, but I wanted to mention it's really important that these things be sent on the internet so that those of us who can't be at at on site for those kinds of things are able to watch. very grateful. Um, city attorney log, uh, congratulations. I hope that it's something you're looking forward to, not just something you feel like you have to do. So, thank you. And, uh, finally, uh, particularly mention Chief Canfield. I'm an active parishioner at St. Joseph Parish, and I wanted to thank you all for being supportive of the activities that we do just like this last weekend. Especially if your support is your patience. Um, I'm pretty sure my pastor appreciates it. I'm I can tell you for sure that I do and I yield back my time. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We will now take virtual speakers. We have one virtual speaker, Judy.

Okay. Can you hear me?

We can hear you.

All right. Is this for uh non-aggenda items? It is for non-aggenda items.

Okay, great. Because uh it's within your purview to discuss this. You give these special days for special groups like the gay group and the black group. So on uh you don't have the right to cut me off just because I'm white and I want something for my group. Um just recently the SPLC has um been under uh a lot of investigation now um indictment or some kind of charges put on them for basically giving Jewish actors the assignment.

All right. Okay. We're we're going to stop that. The council rep welcomes welcoming um respectful and non-threatening public comments on matters within our jurisdictions. Comment deemed otherwise pursuant to the council code of conduct and the government code may be grounds for terminating a speaker's comment period. Thank you so much. And we will now move forward uh to item six, the um public hearings. So item 6.1, City of Mountain View vacancies and recruitment and retention efforts government code section 3502.3 human resources director Maxine Gilo will present the item. If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. Did I pronounce your name wrong? I'm so sorry.

Maxine Gulo.

Gulo.

Correct.

All right. And we are ready when you are. All right. Good evening, Mayor Ramos and members of the council. I am Maxine Gulo, human resources director, and tonight I'll be presenting Mountain View's annual workforce transparency report under AB2561, covering our vacancy data, um, what we're doing to address it, and how we're investing in our workforce for the long term. AB2561 took effect January 1st, 2025, requiring public agencies to report vacancy and recruitment data at a public hearing at least once per fiscal year. If any bargaining unit exceeds a 20% vacancy rate, a formal remediation plan is required. Tonight's presentation fulfills that obligation and I'm very pleased to report that no bargaining unit is in that territory. Yes, AB28561 took um sorry about that. So, let's go into our four recognized labor organizations. We have Eagles, SEIU, the Mountain View Professional Firefighters Local 1965, and the Police Officers Association, known as POA, representing nearly 640 positions that deliver essential services to our community every day. Their work is the foundation of everything this council prioritizes. At the time of this report, I'm very happy to say that we have four new hires scheduled to start by the end of the fiscal year, which improves the vacancy rate to 9.04%. Which is below the national public sector benchmark of 10 to 11%. And I want to say that that is not a coincidence. It really reflects the years of deliberate sustained investment in our recruitment and retention efforts that this city has done. vacancies by a snapshot. So, breaking it down by unit, public safety is performing really well. Firefighters at 4.4% and POA at 3.3%. Our Eagles group is at 10.5% and SEIU is at 14.54%. Both are below the 20% threshold requiring additional disclosure under the law, but both are numbers we take seriously and are actively working to bring that number down. I'm happy to report that even since this report has been done, um we actually have six new start dates for positions in our Eagles uh bargaining unit. So our our numbers continue to change every day. So for our recruitment and retention efforts, our recruitment efforts really begin with a community for all approach where we recruit individuals who reflect Mountain View's diversity and values, prioritizing quality over speed. Also, we are recruiting smarter. We are expanding our use of NEOGV, which is our online applicant tracking system to reduce time to hire. We offer a great competitive package. We have targeted hiring bonuses for hardto- fill roles and we continue to build from within our organization through succession planning, internal ad advancement um pathways. On the retention side, we um we provide paid parental leave. We offer hybrid work options and we also provide mental health and wellness resources. And these are just a few of all the wonderful things that the city of Mount Mountain View provides to our to our employees to contribute to our retention efforts. Also, I want to highlight that we continue to invest in our workforce. Over the last decade, Mountain View has grown by 129 FTEES, and that's a 22% increase. The fiscal year 2026 27 recommended budget, which comes on next, uh, proposes 714.75 regular positions, and this is the highest in city history. But I'd like to be clear about how we've gotten here. That every position added has been tied to a specific service need, a funded budget line item, or a deliberate council decision. This growth has been fiscally responsible and calibrated to what our budget can sustain. Not adding, not simply adding headcount. And I believe that this is part of the fiscal prudence of Mountain View is what makes us so fiscally sound as an organization. Through the last several years, the city has converted multiple temporary and limited period positions to permanent. I will even say that in HR last year, we had a limited term administrative assistant funded from limited term to regular, which really helps um continue capacity in HR to support services such as recruitments. All these great things, there's also some challenges. We still continue to find challenging in the technical and specialized roles such as engineering, planning, utilities, and dispatchers. They continue to remain one of the hardest to fill because the credential pipelines are long and everyone's competing in this market space. Public safety hiring requires multiplestep post standards and that can't be shortcut. We're also planning proactively for some anticipated retirement waves in the next three to five years. And so we continue to build our investment in HR um such as hiring a limited term recruitment analyst that the city council approved in midyear. and she's actually training this on her first week so that she can continue to assist and support us in recruitments. In summary, Mountain View continues to be below the national vacancy benchmark. Um we continue to grow our permanent workforce responsibly and add and convert temporary roles to permanent positions. And so this concludes my presentation and if you have any questions, please let me know. Thank you. We will now hear from Kevin Hoe, analyst 2 and president of our Eagles union.

Welcome.

All right. My name is Kevin and I uh work for the city in the public works department. Uh good evening council members. [gasps] Um first we'd like to uh give appreciation to the city for their continued transparency and partnership as well as their commitment to strengthening recruitment and retention efforts. So thank you. However, with the passage of California Assembly Bill 339, we are asking the city to prioritize filling vacant full-time positions and to convert more hourly, temporary, and contract roles into permanent union positions. AB339 has made it clear how many positions remain vacant and how much work relies on temporary and contract staff. work that permanent union represented employees could and should be doing. Our goal moving forward is simple. Transition these hourly contract and temporary roles into permanent positions to strengthen our workforce and better serve the people of Mountain View. Doing so has many benefits for the city and its employees by allowing the city to retain institutional knowledge and increase accountability and oversight. It guarantees coverage for crucial 247 operations. It promotes stability and because uh permanent roles are stable they strengthen workforce reliability and encourages commitment uh by supporting career growth and providing access to essential benefits like Kalpers and healthcare. All these reasons and many more underscore the importance of making sure union jobs are done by union workers. We support thoughtful limited use of non-permanent staff when truly needed. However, over reliance on temporary workers weakens long-term workforce capacity and union representation. Thank you for your time and we look forward to working together so we can build a more resilient, invested city workforce.

Thank you. Um, does any member of the council have any questions? Seeing none, um would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone. A timer will be displayed on the screen. Each speaker will have three minutes. Do we have any speakers in person? We will now take virtual speakers. Do we have any virtual speakers? Seeing none, thank you. I will now bring the item back for council deliberation. any deliberation. It doesn't look like there's any motion. So, with that, go ahead, Council Member Hicks. Well, I'll just say although I know this is a a proforma thing that we didn't put it on the agenda ourselves, uh I I find it quite useful actually to check in and I found the the written staff report and then the two the two uh the report from the union from you Maxine um I find it helpful to go over these things every year um and and think about them and think about staffing. So, um, so thank you all for taking the time.

Any other comments from council? Council member Sha Walter.

Yeah, I think it would be interesting to see um how the number of staff has varied with the population because although our staff numbers have gone up um over the last 20 years, our population has gone up a lot too. And so I mean it's not it would just be interesting to see how that changes over time, how that's changed.

All right. Go ahead, Council Member Hicks.

Okay. And I'll add to that. It would it would be interesting taking the point of the um gentleman from Eagles who spoke that it would be interesting also to see the uh temporary and part-time how whether that has been uh constant over the past several decades or whether it has grown. That would be an interesting thing to track as well. Uh, city attorney log,

when you're done deliberating, can I just uh recommend that you make a motion to receive and file the report just so that we can close out the minutes and it's clear.

All right, it looks like we have a motion by Vice Mayor Clark. Uh, seconded by Council Member Hicks. Go ahead, Council of Vice Mayor Clark.

Yeah, the motion is what the city attorney said.

Can we get a roll call vote? City clerk.

Vice Mayor Clark.

Yes.

Council member Hicks.

Yes.

Council member Kame.

Yes.

Council member Mallister.

Yes.

Council member Ramirez.

Yes.

Council member Shaw Walter.

Yes.

Mayor Ramos.

Yes.

Motion carries unanimously.

All right. And that concludes our public hearing. We will now move on to item 6.2. City Manager McCarthy will kick us off and Finance and Administrative Services Director Derek Rampony and Assistant Finance Administrative Director uh Grace Zang will present the item. If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. Let's go. All right. Thank you, mayor. Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm very pleased to be here before you tonight to present a structurally balanced budget. And as the mayor said, I'm joined by our finance and administrative services director, Derek Rampone, and assistant director, Grace Zang. And I just wanted to highlight a couple things before we launch into the presentation. And the first thing that I want to say is you all heard uh during the April budget workshop, how this recommended budget before you this evening is focused on providing core city services, long-term service delivery. uh there's a real concerted focus on uh putting funding and recommendations in those council priority areas, the strategic priorities and projects. And then obviously one thing that we really pride ourselves on is still uh trying to be the first at many things and innovating, doing things differently um and really uh doing these important projects for our community members. So, uh, that is kind of the baseline for what we present to you this evening. But one thing that I do want to, um, underscore is the fact that our revenues although stable, they are not growing as fast as what we have seen in the past. And so what that means is that we have a lot of bold initiatives. We have a lot of projects and priorities that uh council and the community are wanting us to do and we are seeking to fund and we just simply do not have all the money that we need to do all of these things. So coupled on top of that is this economic uncertainty that we all know that we're in right now and we just really can't look uh that far ahead in our crystal ball right now to know what's going to happen. certainly by the end of this year and into next year. So, as with a lot of cities, we're very focused on our infrastructure, improving our streets and our roads and our facilities. Um, but it doesn't stop at that. We have a lot of important priorities related to affordable housing and sustainability and new parks and also making investments in technology within the city organization because there's been a lot of things over the last several years certainly since the pandemic and before where uh we just need to upgrade our aging systems and so that's something that we're really focused on as well. So, um, talking about our revenues not growing as fast as they should be and needing more money, uh, to do a lot of these really important projects, we are looking at, uh, revenue measure in the November 2026, uh, ballot, which the council will discuss at your June 23rd meeting. And really this is to help meet uh those needs that our community has identified and also think about how we can build uh the mountain view of tomorrow together. So you will see that phrase in a lot of the infrastructure projects uh we have uh tried to talk about that um not just with community members but uh with conversations that we're having individually with people. And then you'll also start seeing those signs around town so people can actually see the things that we're working on and they know that these dollars are being invested in this important work. Um so I also want to talk about how this budget making strides towards improving our internal city operations. Some of the things that uh council has highlighted both at the mid-year budget and in the April budget workshop are uh things like uh the reorganization of our transportation division. Um hiring uh and you all approving a new chief transportation officer position. Um we have also expanded the weekend hours of our library and added more staffing and security. We're prioritizing long range planning. We're making investments in our objective design standards, uh, which I know is a very important council priority project, um, in parallel with updating the standard details for our roads and sidewalks and, uh, really looking at uh, green street infrastructure. So, that's something that we'll really be focused on um, in the next budget cycle and beyond. And then uh one of the other things I'll want to point out with this budget is we've made a very concerted focus to um place a lot of resources on economic vitality and small business support. So we've implemented a lot of different um updates like small business zoning code updates the business ambassador team. We've created uh we've launched the facade improvement program. And so in this budget, we also have recommended the creation of what's called a propertybased improvement district or a PBID, uh, which will really help improve the downtown district. Um, also more frequent cleaning of the parking garages downtown and also the actual ped mall, the Castro Street. Um, so those are recommended in the budget as well, along with a brand new storefront activation program along the ped mall. And I also want to say that we're really excited about investing in the summer of soccer. So really supporting those World Cup activities and uh helping activate u our businesses and bring people downtown um both spending money and eating downtown. Um we've also made an investment in this budget in our public art and culture. And part of that is hiring or um I guess you all approving a brand new public art administrator position for the first time. And we are in that hiring process right now this month. Um so that's very exciting. And then we'll also be celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Center for Performing Arts this year. So we're very excited to recommend funding towards that project. And then lastly, before I turn it over to our finance director, um really at the foundation of all that we do in this budget and in everything we do every day is our focus on being a community for all. Uh we've heard about it tonight, we've talked about it and it really is um our foundational uh principle in Mountain View and our funding of our programs and initiatives, all the various events is really rooted in this belief that um Mountain View is a city that serves a very diverse community and that we are a welcoming, safe, and inclusive place for everyone, not just to live, but to work and visit. So that is also at the foundation of our budget. So with that, I'll turn it over to our finance director, Mr. Rampone, to walk you through some of the details in the budget.

All right. Thank you, city manager McCarthy. Good evening, Mayor Ramos and Vice Mayor Clark, council members, Derek Rampone, your finance and administrative services director. Joining me this evening is Grace Sang, the assistant finance and administrative services director. The item you have in front of you tonight is the public hearing for the fisc year 2627 recommended budget. Here is a road map of the budget development process. As you've seen before, um, as you know, the process really begins in November with a kickoff memo distributed to departments. Departments then prepare and submit their budget requests to the finance department around the December holiday time frame. In January, the budget team compiles and reviews those requests. And in February, the budget team and the city manager meet with departments to discuss priorities and proposed funding. Also, in February, we provide the midyear budget update to the city council. On April 14th of this year, we provided the preliminary review of the fiscal year 2627 budget. Um the recommended budget that you have before you this evening was actually published early this year on May 22nd. And then here we are now at the public hearing for this recommended budget. And then the next and final step in this process will occur on June 23rd when council considers adoption of the budget and including in that will be the capital improvement program. As we've discussed previously, the city has a long history of sound fiscal practices. We consistently adopt structurally balanced budgets, aligning ongoing revenues with ongoing expenditures and using one-time funds for only one-time costs. In recent years, strong revenue growth has generated operating balances that have allowed the city to make additional payments towards our long-term liabilities, such as paying down our pension obligation through Kalpers and fully funding our retirey health benefits. The city also prioritizes maintaining healthy reserves to prepare for economic uncertainties. Uh these practices have helped support the city's AAA credit rating from standard and pores which is the highest possible rating and this has helped reduce our borrowing costs as we saw last just last month when we issued our lease revenue bonds. And finally, the city has received national recognition for excellence in budgeting, financial reporting, and procurement. As we look at what's changed since our our last uh touch point in April, we still have a lot of economic uncertainty. It remains elevated which makes revenue forecasting more challenging. Growth continues but at a slower pace than previous years. Inflation has actually shown some signs recently of reacelerating which have increased cost pressures for both residents and local governments. Consumer confidence has softened as households grapple and face affordability challenges. The labor market remains resilient, but is showing signs of moderation recently. And interest rates are expected to remain higher for a longer period of time, which may affect development, investment, and economic activity. Overall, staff continues to recommend a prudent and cautious fiscal approach while closely monitoring economic conditions and revenue trends. As we turn to the local economy, the local economy continued to show signs of slowing, though growth does remain positive. Revenue growth is expected to be modest in future years. Unemployment remains low, but is expected to rise slightly. Sales tax has been impacted by business relocations and closures. Affordability, as spoken about previously, remains a challenge for residents and businesses. However, there have been some new employers that continue to locate in Mountain View, which will support the city's long-term economic vitality. Overall, I would say the local economy remains resilient, but growth is really expected to be more moderate going forward. The forecast assumes moderate growth and a stable local economy. Property grow property tax is expected to grow at 2.9% while sales tax is forecast to remain flat. Lease revenues for the city have been projected with a 2% annual increase. Expenditure increases are expected um to grow faster than revenues which creates an ongoing budget pressure. Key risks um for the forecast include inflation, the federal policies uncertainty, and the potential for an economic slowdown. The forecast that we have prepared does not include or assume a recession. So overall, the budget remains balanced, but there's definitely uncertainty and expect and expenditure growth that continues to require close monitoring. Here's the recommended budget for fiscal year 2627. It's structurally balanced. We have new ongoing staffing requests that are very limited and targeted. The budget focuses on maintaining service levels and advancing council priorities. Investments are also included to improve operations and support a lot of economic vitality. The budget balances fiscal sustainability with strategic investments in city services and priorities. Included in the recommended budget, as city manager McCarthy previously indicated, um are various continuous improvement efforts. These recommendations focus on improving service delivery and operational effectiveness. Uh key initiatives here include the transportation division reorganization, expanded library hours, and enhanced longrange planning. Investments in public safety, health and wellness, and technology improvements support employee effectiveness and community service. Overall, the budget includes these targeted improvements that improve that strengthen city operations and service delivery. As we previously spoke about with e economic vitality and small business support, this budget includes targeted investments to support small businesses, downtown activity, and economic vitality. Funding supports grants, loans, business promotion, and storefront activation programs. The budget also invests in public art and cultural programming, including a new public art administrator position and the uh MVCPA's uh 35th anniversary celebration. These investments will support a vibrant economy, an active downtown, and a strong cultural community. Now, we turn to some of the recommended uh items in the budget for 2627. The recommended budget includes a limited number of targeted staffing changes. These positions focus on legal services, planning, transportation, and public safety operations. One GIS position is being converted from limited period to ongoing. And one uh a warehouse staffing position is being modestly increased to meet operational needs. These position changes are strategic and focused on maintaining service levels and addressing key workload demands. As we look for uh look towards building the mountain view of tomorrow, I'd like to take a moment to again highlight a new revenue source that's now available to the city. Measure G was approved by more than 72% of voters is now generating dedicated funding for community priorities. In fiscal year this fiscal year 2526, Measure G is projected to generate over $5 million in revenue. These funds will support the public safety building, parks and open space, affordable housing, and other community investments. Measure G provides an important local funding source to help advance council priorities and invest in Mountain View's future. So, as we continue building the Mountain View of Tomorrow, we're asking the community to help shape our future priorities. A community survey is now live to gather input on potential investments in public infrastructure, public safety, parks, affordable housing, among other things. The survey results will help inform council discussions regarding a potential revenue measure. And this survey is a good opportunity for residents to provide direct feedback on the services and investments that matter most to them. Now, we'll get into a little bit of an overview of the numbers in the actual recommended budget. First, we'll turn to budgeted revenues. This is citywide all funds. Uh just over $520 million. As you can see in the pie chart, the general operating fund, enterprise funds, and the shoreline regional park community fund make up nearly 80% of the city's budgeted revenues with special revenue funds, capital project funds, internal service funds, and other general fund related funds comprising the rest of the balance. Switching to citywide expenditures, the fisc year 2627 recommended budget includes nearly 598 million in expenditures across all funds. The general operating fund remains the largest component at 36% of total expenditures, followed by enterprise funds, special revenue funds, and the shoreline regional park community. Together, these four fund categories account for over 80% of citywide expenditures. Expenditures exceed revenues on a city-wide basis because certain activities such as capital projects and affordable housing loans are funded from accumulated fund resources and balances um rather than current year revenues. So you may notice that the total expenditures exceed revenues but that's why. Now turning to the general operating fund which is the city's primary operating fund and supports core services. Uh in fiscal year 2627 revenues in the general fund are expect operating fund are expected to increase by 11.9 million or approximately 6%. Compared to the fisc year 2526 adopted budget. Uh this represents uh healthy revenue growth particularly given the economic uncertainty and slower growth environment discussed earlier and this projected revenue growth will help support city's service commitments and a structurally balanced budget. This slide really highlights some of the major economically sensitive revenue sources and how they compare both to the current year's budget and current year's projections. Property tax remains the city's largest and most stable revenue source. It's expected to increase approximately 3% over current year uh estimates. Utility users tax continues to face some pressure. It's projected to be below budget assumptions which really reflects changing consumer behavior and utility usage patterns. business license tax continues to to perform well while sales tax is projected to remain relatively flat as the local economic growth moderates. It is important to note that comparing current year's adopted budget uh shows a 6% increase but comparing to what we now expect to actually receive for this year growth is a more modest 2.6% in the bottom right corner. I wanted to give a little bit of context for how our major revenues are growing. Uh this chart really shows the historical growth rates of the city's major general operating fund tax revenues. Revenue growth has generally been positive but has definitely varied based on economic conditions. The current year 2526 and fiscal year next fiscal year projections are below historical averages as you can see on the this chart 2.8% 8% and 1.5%. This really reflects the more moderate growth assumptions that are included in our forecast. Overall, we continue to project revenue growth, but definitely at a slower pace than the city has experienced in many prior years. Now, we'll turn to expenditures in the general operating fund. They are expected to grow by 6.4% or 12.5 million in fiscal year 2627 when compared to the 2526 adopted budget. As you will recall a few slides ago, revenues are expected to increase by 6.1% or 11.9 million. So you can see there is a slight gap where expenditures are definitely growing at a higher rate than revenues. This slide shows the 5-year forecast for the general operating fund. As you can see, the um 26 27 years is structurally balanced with a projected operating balance of $150,000. However, looking ahead, you'll see the red numbers. Um, those are modest deficits beginning in 2728 as expenditure growth really starts to outpace revenue growth. The forecast does return to a positive balance in 203031, but that's largely due to projected reductions in pension costs, which are very variable, which are variable and can really change. So still focusing on the general operating fund. This is the revenue by uh function or by type. Uh with property taxes being the the number one uh source, the largest source and use of money and property being the second uh use of money and property is investment earnings and lease revenues that the city receives as a land owner of numerous ground leases. Having a higher percentage of revenue come from lease revenue is a rather unique situation which the city has historically benefited from uh especially during economic slowdowns. Most cities usually have sales tax as their number two uh revenue source but in Mountain View it's actually our number four largest revenue in the general operating fund. Turning to expenditures in the general operating fund, approximately $217.7 million. These uh this chart shows how expenditures are distributed across major service areas. Police and fire account for 46% of the general fund expenditures. Uh this is typical for California cities as public safety services must be staffed and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and are generally funded through broad broad-based city revenues rather than user fees. As detailed in the recommended budget document, this slide summarizes the ongoing general operating fund recommendations for next fiscal year. The non-discretionary items, it's about $1.5 million. Those are required cost increases to maintain current operations such as citywide utility costs, fleet maintenance, investments in technology, and the janitorial services contract, among other things. There's 3.1 million in discretionary funding that supports the six ongoing position changes discussed earlier, as well as other high priority programs and services. We also have limited period funding uh included in the 26-27 recommended budget. These are one-time strategic investments. We're prop the staff is proposing 7.9 million in limited period funding for fiscal year 2627. Uh those key investments really are staffing support um upcoming election costs, contract services for pro for various programs and grants. Additional funding will support firefighter recruits attending the academy and also some limit other limited period support for various departments including consulting services to evaluate and improve some of the city's planning permitting and land use processes. So at the April preliminary review uh council did provide some direction regarding right sizing council member travel and training budgets. It should be noted that council budgets have not been adjusted in 10 years. Um the recommended budget does include increased travel and training budgets as you can see on the first bullet point there. What's not in this recommended budget but we will be including in the adopted budget is an increase to the perterm technology and office equipment allowance. Um so that will be included that's per term for four years. So, we're going to recommend increasing that from 3,800 to 5,000 total for the four years. So, I'd like to close with just next steps of the budget process. We will return to the city council on June 23rd with any updates or modifications that are discussed tonight. Um, including we will have the capital improvement program budgets. In addition, we will be seeking approval of utility rates and other fees charged to customers. And we'll also have the GAN appropriations limit as a separate item for approval. And with that, we're happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Does any member of the council have questions? Let's go. Questions? Question. No one.

Council member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. I just have a couple of quick ones. Um, first, thank you, staff, for the presentation. Uh nothing surprising because uh we've had many opportunities to provide input. Um I have a question for the fire chief. I'm sorry to to burden you, but this I hope will be easy. Um I'm curious why um the fire protection performance measures uh use averages rather than um median figures. Good evening, council, honorable mayor, vice mayor, council members. Brian Jones, uh, currently serving as the fire chief for city of Mountain View. Uh, because our performance measures provided for a 4-minute travel time, which is the most common uh, measure that we don't meet due to traffic, road closures, um, other variables that are beyond our control. Uh providing an average gives you a good example of uh where we most often meet which is around 5 minutes and 55 seconds which is very good for the city. Um answering your question on median, uh we we've did in uh response to your question that you uh asked earlier this week. Um we our median for uh EMS incidents and small fires is 4 minutes and 52 seconds. Um and median uh median response times for or median travel times for building fires is 4 minutes and 11 seconds. Uh as far as why we did average over median, uh it was just a staff decision at the time. Uh but we're we are more than willing to provide both in the future.

Great. Thank you very much. Very helpful.

Um I think that's good for now. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Ramirez. Council member Schoalter. Yeah, I asked a couple of questions about um inspections because when I um hear complaints from uh residents, it's often about things that are related to an inspection of one sort or another. And so um I it was very helpful for uh the staff to answer questions about specific kinds. But yeah, why don't you come back up Brian because I was going to ask about the code and um enforcements. One of the one of the things I think that uh people have questions about is is how uh just kind of how a code enforcement um uh how how a code enforcement procedure works. You know, how do you hear about it and and when you when it comes in uh where does it usually go? That kind of thing.

Um so to start in the city of Mountain View, we uh adopt the California Fire Code. So that's our standard for our fire inspections. Um we also have a municipal code uh item which has several uh Mountain View specific fire code adoptions that we've made. Uh so our inspectors have several mandated inspections. Uh the majority of those are what we call R2 occupancies. So those are multiple family occupancies. a lot of your apartment buildings, uh, residences that house four or more occupancies, um, forplexes as such. Um, so all of those are mandated that we go to each year, as well as hospitals, schools, uh, and those types of facilities. And then we have all of our permitted occupancies. Uh occupancies that uh hold hazardous materials, restaurants, uh assemblies where a large uh large people gather. Um large amounts of people gather. So all of those require annual inspections. So we have an inspection list and a database. We hit all of those uh inspections annually and our inspectors go out um they on their first inspection, they will note any violations. Uh the most common ones we come into are housekeeping. So a lot of clutter around um exits blocked uh electrical boxes that are blocked by high piled storage. Um storage that is piled within 18 in of a sprinkler head uh that would prevent the sprinkler head from dispersing adequately to put out a fire. Those are the most common things that we see. Also exit lighting that is commonly uh out that we just asked to replace. Our priority is always in fixing an an issue in addressing an issue. So, we'll write up a notice of violation. Uh we come back out 30 days later and our focus is really on helping those uh property owners or um business owners address the issues. Our ultimate goal is safety. Um and through if they don't address those uh on the first round, we usually go out one more time um and really help them understand what the issue is. uh and address the importance of it. Why this is such an important issue. Almost every fire code uh item that you'll run into is because there a fire that had multiple fatalities. Um you look back in the 50s,60s and 70s there was a huge fire problem in the United States. We had a lot of uh large assembly fire or fires that occurred in assembly occupancies. a lot of nightclubs, hotels, um multiple family dwellings, apartment fires. All of those fires that resulted in a lot of fatalities is what led to a lot of these fire code items. So, we stress the importance of those and through that education campaign, a lot of people make those fixes right away. Very rarely um will somebody refuse to make a make a change. Um when that happens uh then we go to an administrative hearing and there's sometimes a fine involved um with it but ultimately our goal is always safety

and basically this year there weren't any of those

if I understood reading the

the table properly.

Correct. We well I'd have to go back and review the performance measure but we hit 100% of all the inspections.

Right. You hit 100% all the inspections. Yes. Well, one of one of the another reason I'm bringing this up is that I think that um you know, it's really important for us all to understand all the many layers of of um government and um kind of what we do and what what we do to keep us safe. So, without any complaints that anybody makes, all of these things get inspected by the city of Mountain View by a professional every year.

Yep. that's a just a very important service that um you know that we offer and so that's why I'm asking these questions to kind of bring it you know bring it forward because I do think it's a very important service and people should be aware that you know that we are really you know actively involved in promoting their safety

and um and I know that in previous times uh uh previous chief mentioned um the calls that the fire department gets And the vast majority of them, of course, are are are for medical, right? And that, you know, and he attributed it that to you this very um extensive inspection program that that we have that that means that the number of fires we have is is less than it might otherwise be.

Yep.

So, Mountain View has always been very proactive in fire prevention since the early 80s. It was one of the first cities to adopt a full city code uh fire sprinkler ordinance. Um, and then I would also add in addition to those mandated uh inspections, the city and the fire department are very proactive in other events. So, for example, for the Super Bowl event where we knew uh different uh assemblies were going to have festivals or um events, we went out and proactively worked with those business owners, offered an inspection, made sure that those uh assembly occupancies were were safe. We also do that uh we're at every shoreline concert uh doing prior technic inspections making sure all of the exits are clear throughout those concerts. So we're very proactive in safety uh throughout the city not only on our mandated inspections but anywhere where we believe there's a a safety hazard.

Thank you. Okay. And then I have another question about um inspections and that's probably related to public works or or um planning and I wanted to hear a little bit about the distinctions between the inspections that public works does and um the planning department does in the construction uh of a of a of a project. Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, council members. Christian Murdoch, community development director. Um, one of the divisions within the community development department is the building division, and there are a number of inspectors we have on staff that go out and primarily focus on the private property components of developments. So things all the way from the underground utilities, uh, excavations, foundations, all the way up to the multiple levels of construction above grade. Um, I'll defer to the, uh, public works director to describe the scope of her team's inspections, but primarily those involve issues typically related in the public right ofway, utilities connections, uh, street design, curb, storm water, and so forth.

Okay. to make sure that that's all um produced uh properly and it will um function as built as designed.

That's correct. So the building inspectors are there making sure that the field conditions and construction is occurring consistent with the approved plans which have been reviewed for California building code compliance. Similarly, the public works inspectors are making sure the uh public realm improvements are meeting city standard details and other standards for connections to the city infrastructure. Thank you. Okay. You want to talk a little bit about public works uh inspections? Educate us a little bit about that. Always happy to talk public works. I'm Jennifer Ing. I'm the public works director here at the city of Mountain View. Um, as Christian described, when we do a inspection on a private development project, public works as realm is really related to everything that's in the public right away. So, any sort of frontage improvements, those could include um sidewalks, curb and gutter, uh the street itself, uh the street trees that are installed, the utilities that are in the street, um those all fall under the realm of the public works inspector. um any sort of um I call it mitigation uh if we have to do anything to touch a traffic signal etc that is also in the public right ofway and falls under uh the public works uh domain as it relates to private development CDD is really in the driver's seat with respect to that and so the public works inspections fall um under the general umbrella of the um overall building permit and so um my team in public works interfaces very closely with the building division and the building division's inspectors so that at the end of the project everything is wrapped up nice and tidy and everybody agrees that the project is ready to be um accepted um as public improvements for the city to then take on maintenance

and also just that things are built safely you know

always to make sure that things are built safely and and I think that's another thing I I you know I I try and stress when I talk to people is that you know we can't necessarily um control what is built here because um that has a lot to do with what developers want to build. Um we can but we can make sure that it's designed well and we can certainly make sure that it's built safely and that's really what all these inspections are about. So that's why I wanted to bring this up because I think this, you know, this this um production of a safe uh city infrastructure is is just a major um function of uh a government service that we provide. So thank you very much. Those are my questions.

Thank you, Council Member Shaw Walter. Vice Mayor Clark,

it's just a clarification question on the um [snorts] the the council budget changes for um travel training per term. So I think with um with with travel training that's annual. So I think and that's typically for either brand new council members because the fiscal year doesn't match our terms. Um typically your first and last year it's prrated to like 50%. So that would that would that will be a natural pration that occurs in July.

Yes, that's correct.

And then um the per term are different because that's for the the um that is an annual. So, I'm just curious if if you plan to in what comes back to us in a couple weeks have a sort of a proration formula there that you'll just take care of or if you need direction from us tonight as to how to how to think through that.

Yeah, our plan was to do a proration based on the years left for the 5,000.

Okay, got it. That's perfect. Thanks.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Clark. Council member Kame. Great. Thank you. Um, and apologies. These questions came to me um, as we were s as I was sitting here, not ahead of time. So, apologies to staff. Um, so one of my questions is about the nursing pot at the library. I know that that came forward because of community feedback. Has staff heard about community feedback, for example, at our community center or anywhere else where council might be able to explore that? I don't I'm sorry. Sorry, I don't know who to direct the question to. [laughter] Thank you.

Good evening. John Marshant, community services director. Specific requests for that service at the community center. We do not get that on a regular basis. There's a interest on the part of council. We can look into it, but that is not a typical request that we're we receive um to date.

Yeah. I just I was curious. I think we're we were getting we have so many programs at the community center and I know that's how it came about at the library. Uh I'm not sure if staff can look into if there the cost on it and come back to council when this returns and just would be curious if it I know that times are a constraint but if there that could be possible. Great. Thank you. Um and then my second question um unfortunately came to came to mind because of news. So today the the voice uh said that the vacancy office uh office vacancy rate I think more specifically to downtown is over 30%. But when we're talking about our budget we were talking about how we've reduced um our vacancy rate. I'm assuming that's uh across uh our whole city or maybe we can provide some clarity on those numbers or or what we're doing. I'm uh you know not to get into too many comments but I know we've as the city manager mentioned economic vitality has been of one our pillars and I just wanted to ask a question so we can provide clarity if necessary. Thank you.

Sure. So I think the story in the voice was highlighting um the vacancy rate that resulted from a single uh large uh tenant uh vacancy uh and that resulted from a broader um corporate restructuring and acquisition that occurred. So, I'm not taking that as an indication of uh particularly challenging conditions in our downtown related to office vacancy. There's a broader regional uh challenge with that as business continues to change uh postcoid and reimagining um uh office work versus remote work and so forth. And so, um I think it's difficult to sort of uh draw a trend from that particular uh single vacancy. We are continuing to pursue strategies across a range of activities to improve the conditions for for office vacancy in the downtown.

But overall, I would say, you know, what our budget is showing is that we've been tackling that and reducing overall office vacancy throughout the city. And I think that uh distinction is important clarity, but that's how I read.

That's right. And we reported extensively on that in the economic vitality strategy update. And so um I feel confident we're trending in the right direction across.

Thank you. Um, Council Member Kame, I'd like to ask our library director to come up here just to provide uh further context about your question and the library's experience and the cost.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. Thank you for the question. Tracy Gray, library director. So the lactation pod at the library was installed in October and in the last uh update that we got statistics. So for about 6 months of use you six month our usage has been about 140 uses which is quite a lot compared to several other libraries who do have them in their um in their libraries. So, the cost would there's some inspection components and public works uh [laughter] uh that piece, but probably the cost ranges from $30 to $60,000. Okay.

Thank you, Council Member Kame. Council member Hicks. So, first just sort of a big picture question of clarity. One of the things that jumped out to me was that the and correct me if I'm wrong is from because I'm saying this from memory is that the expenditures were over revenues, but then there's a little asterisk that says um that this is because of fund balance equity use. And I was want I thought maybe that jumped out at other people and maybe you could give sort of a little more clarity on what all that means.

Yeah, thanks for the question. So over the years as fund balance as as revenues may have exceeded expenditures in years past, especially for a capital projects fund or other type of fund, not necessarily the general fund, but the other fund types, enterprise funds, same things. As they build reserves, we will use those in subsequent years. And so our expenditures will look like they're higher. Well, they will be higher because we are using accumulated balances from prior years basically.

Yeah. And I'm asking that because at quick glance when you're thumbming through the report, it just looks like we're being really irresponsible. So um and I guess the other question and I feel like this is a big picture question too and I feel like I should know the answer but when you talk about the process for developing the budget you talk about asking the different departments what they need. Do you also ask kind of uh as we're hitting somewhat harder times than we were when I was first on council. Um, do you ask what maybe do you do what we do in our family of ask like are there some streaming services we don't need anymore? You know, do you also ask is there anything that's kind of built up that we don't need because it seems like that's a good practice.

Yes. Uh I I think if you were [laughter] if you were to ask the department heads um they would tell you yes there there are certainly discussion about uh whether it's requests that come in for maybe minor adjustments or things that may have been going on for a long time that may not necessarily be needed anymore. Um and the budget team has discussed uh the process for next year as well. Um, and depending how revenues come in, uh, we may need to ask that question even further.

Exactly. That's where I was going to go, but I won't need to say that in comments now. Thank you. All right. Any other questions from council? All right. We will now move on to public comment. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide public comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star9 on your phone. A timer will be displayed on the screen. Each speaker will have three minutes. We will take in-person public comment first. So, uh, we will start with Bruce Carney, followed by Kristen Anderson.

Hello again, Mayor and Council. Miss Glazer, would you put up these slides? Thank you so much. This first slide shows how the prices of residential electricity and natural gas have changed over the last six and a half years. Both have increased by more than 7% per year, but the price of electricity peaked two years ago and has since fallen. Over the period shown, gas prices have risen faster than electricity. Next slide, please. This second slide shows how the rising cost of energy is increasing our city's revenue from its 3% tax on electricity and natural gas. Tax receipts in the last three fiscal years were almost 50% higher than in the preceding years. It's my opinion that the rising price of gas and electricity has created a windfall that should be returned to the community from which it came. The windfall should be returned in ways that will help reduce future energy bills. Next slide, please. If windfall is defined as the portion of the energy tax revenue exceeding $5 million per year, you can see how large the windfall has been. The windfall is almost $7 million in just the last three years. Future windfalls will be larger. In fact, they are likely to be far larger. shockingly larger. Next slide, please. About a year ago, the California Public Utilities Commission hired PG&E to produce a 30-year forecast of natural gas and electricity prices. The report included two scenarios. In scenario one, it was assumed that the use of natural gas would decline quickly. This would leave fewer customers to cover the gas systems fixed costs. Thus price the price of gas would rise rapidly and continuously until the late 2040s. In scenario two, the assumption was that a slower pace of decarbonization would lead to less cataclysmic increases in gas prices. But even in scenario two, natural gas prices are projected to increase three times faster than electricity prices. Many Mountain View families have seen the writing on the wall and replace their gas water heaters, furnaces, furnaces, and other appliances with electric equivalents. But most have not, and those families need your help, especially families who are renters. Final slide, please. My first conclusion is that the last households to decarbonize will be burdened by shockingly high gas bills for years and years. My second conclusion is that it would be prudent for the city to begin earmarking the windfall portion of its energy tax receipts for decarbonization incentives and investments while letting the rest flow to the general fund. Finally, I would love to see the council add significantly to the coming year sustainability budget. In the words of Oliver Twist, please good council folk, I want more.

Thank you, Mr. Carney. Kristen Anderson.

Hello. So, I'm a resident at the Santiago Villa uh mobile home park and we have approximately 358 um homes there. And so with your utility rates increase proposed, I would like to remind you that mobile home parks are, you know, lower income and your increase is or not the increase, but your your proposal is $2255 per month per household. So with that with 358 units that's over $8,000 that you're going to be getting a month over 96,000 for our at per year for our park alone. And this is to pay the someone to read the meter and so and I guess to look at the lines once a year. I feel like that needs to be addressed that that's too much for lowincome housing. And so if you could just look at that and adjust that price accordingly cuz I know that it was raised last year and then I thought it was reduced. Um so can you look into that because that's just a lot. I know it might not seem like a lot for some people, but just look into that rate increase, okay? For utilities, for the low-inccome people, the other guy for the with with the gas. I went all last winter not using my gas heater and using electric heaters just because of the price of gas.

Thank you. Uh we will now move on to um uh we will now move on to virtual speakers. Um we have um [snorts] Judy back. Um I will say before we uh unmute you that um we are a very welcoming community here in Mountain View. We are proud of our diversity. We are a community for all and we will not accept comments that will deviate from that. So with that, we will go ahead and call upon you, but keep in mind um we will mute you if this gets out of hand.

Yes. Um and and I am transcribing this and you will hear from me and nothing's gotten out of hand. you have not allowed my viewpoint and I think that's on full display and you will have to account for that. Um I'm going to say that as far as it goes with the other people who spoke I approve the gas as well. Um, and then I would say, um, as a white person, I believe I have the right to express myself. And I think that the the rates on these, um, on the financing of this money is, uh, you know, by nature a Jewish um, youth.

And we're done here. Um, that ends our virtual public comment. Um, we will now bring it back to council for deliberation. Council member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. Um really appreciate most of the public comments. Um but uh I have I've I guess I I was sort of uh um becoming introspective earlier today because this will be the final budget I have the opportunity to work on u with um council members Kamehay and and Hicks. And um it's also an interesting day because I've I've had to contend with the budgets of two cities and you can guess which one was more satisfying to deal with. Um uh but uh I'm I was sharing with the city manager earlier. I I feel um very uh optimistic about the future of the city. I feel like we're leaving uh the incoming council uh with a remarkable set of um um programs and uh and investments uh supporting many of the community priorities that we've heard over the years that we've worked together. Um an exceptional staff um some really strong uh uh bones, right? A wonderful wonderful foundation to to work from. and many other cities can't say that. U and we're also working on some things that may come up in the next council meeting that I think will strengthen the city's position. Uh so I'm I'm just want to share my gratitude to staff for uh having worked with me over the years to uh incorporate many of the the priorities I've been interested in um in collaboration with my colleagues. Uh I I I feel really good about the work that we've done. Um I have just a few quick comments. So I'm going to move to approve the staff recommendations with some very minor tweaks. Um first uh I'm I'm grateful to the staff for the responses provided in advance in the meeting. Um and in particular um Fazd's I'm guessing it's Fazd's response to question three about thinking about um a different way of presenting the you know other local taxes or major revenues uh uh information and not not for this budget obviously but in the future I think um some of this the the way it's been presented made sense when a lot of these types of revenue were comparatively trivial, right? So, the the previous version of the business license tax um even the UUT uh you know the cannabis c tax continues to be minor, right? U and then we also have taxes that are not included here for the reasons you've explained, but I think you know still merit some level of transparency, right? The construction tax is minor. Um but I think something that is worth elevating to the community. It exists. It generates revenue. Here's how we use it. Here's projections over time. Um, but now the the real property transfer tax is is significant and even though it's a volatile source of revenue, we are now using it for uh an ongoing purpose, right, for for debt service and I think that also merits some some level of transparency. Um, so I I don't want to be prescriptive in and how you choose to present that information information, but I do think I do think it will be increasingly valuable particularly for the incoming council. I think one of the things I've really appreciated about our budget presentations is the the budget is an educational document as much as it is a you know financial planning document. Um I always learn a lot reading through it even though I you know been monitoring the council for a long time and now I've had the privilege to serve for nearly eight years. uh every time I read through the budget, I learned something and and probably some of that is because I've forgotten over the the year, you know, uh what I recall uh reading from from, you know, previous previous budget cycles. Um so I I'm I I'm grateful to you for for that that consideration. Um I also don't want to provide explicit direction but you know I've learned um recently about uh there there is value in presenting both in in our performance measures averages as well as median figures. So I'm I'm I appreciate the fire chief's responses to the questions earlier and you know I'll leave it up to you if it makes sense to present both. We can learn something from each of those. Um but uh I I thought it was uh useful to to understand uh your perspective in in choosing the performance measures uh as you have. Um really the only thing I wanted to suggest or change uh was uh based on an experience that um I had at the recent uh civic leadership grad academy graduation. I had the opportunity to attend with Mayor Ramos, with Council Member Kame and Council Member Shoalter. Uh, and uh, I you I think many of us have been going for years and it's it's always uh um a wonderful experience hearing um the enthusiasm um and uh I guess the you know the excitement to continue to be engaged um from from the graduates of of both the Spanish and and Chinese leadershipmies. As we were speaking with many of the graduates, um I think what what I took away was uh there there's a strong desire for uh for more uh opportunities to you know engage the city uh and in particular for things like mixers for uh graduates from previousmies or um uh some of the the the like c cultural programming that that we've been doing. um uh a lot of investment in in uh over the past several years that that we've been on the council uh the Dia de diutos the the um uh lunar new year festival I think those those were some of the the uh events that have come up repeatedly as a desired uh wellreceived enthusiastically by by our community. Uh so again I don't necessarily want to prescribe exactly how um uh staff would like to do this but I think um uh you know a very modest increase to the multi- multicultural engagement program um for something like um regular uh you know alumni mixers or expanding some of the existing events um to uh provide additional volunteer opportunities or something like that, you I'd welcome the input from from my colleagues, but I'm thinking based on the analysis that you provided us and the first two questions. Um, you know, in the realm of 5 to$10,000. Um, and I, you know, I don't want to be specific about a figure because I I would be interested in staff's perspective on how best to to use that money. Um but uh that's so I would move the staff recommendation with um the addition of some some amount recommended by staff between maybe5 and $10,000 um for uh additional multicultural engagement um program um events and activities. Uh and I think I'll I'll leave it at that. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Council Member Ramirez. Council member Shoalter,

thank you. Yeah, I think having a little more extra money for that is a great idea. Um, uh, it could conceiv well staff can put it where they want to. I couldn't imagine it could also be part of community services, you know, ongoing a recreation program. Um, but, uh, I I just wanted to well, thank thank all the staff having, you know, served in local government for many years. um not not at mount not as an employee at Mountain View, but as as as an employee of a you know a local uh special agency. I I know how much work goes into budgets and boy it's not just one or two people. I mean we see one or two people up here. You're I know you've devoted hours and hours and hours to this, but you're not the only one. I mean there have been people throughout we have we have over 700 employees and I I would um I would venture to say that probably at least a hundred of them and maybe 150 of them have been actively involved in getting this budget together. So you know um thank you all for working together to do that. And um uh I I also want to talk about how a little bit about how you know budgets are kind of a story. They're a story of how we're going to spend our money and they're a story of what we value and what we care about. And um uh and I think that one of the the parts of the story that I think are so important now is that we're really trying to focus on the things that we can control. And um uh and uh we are um you know, we're we're working on affordable housing, things that we we can help get built. We're working on getting more parks for people. We're working on the inspections that keep people safe. [laughter] Um, you know, th those are we're we're concentrating on what are the things we can control because we know that some of the assistance from other um from the federal system. It's just not what it was before. And so we we have to stand um by ourselves and we have to collaborate internally to do that. And um and I see that the staff is doing that. And I really I really appreciate it and I hope you're having fun doing it and and you're learning more about what each other's jobs are and and that that can be, you know, really a great growth um professional growth experience as well as and and it also saves money because if you know you find out by working together that um you can have one process that can meet a certain subject instead of having 10 of them, well, you've saved a lot of money and that's that's a good thing. So, um then I also wanted to talk a little bit about revenue and how how we are really working to get um some increases in our revenue like um we we fixed the minimum purchase agreement issue um with our water bill that has amounted to um upwards of $3 million a year. I mean, we have a that's not a lot in terms of our budget, but it all adds up. So, I think and that goes into our water fund um which um we will need money in forever to maintain our infrastructure. We have measure G, which is uh bringing up new um money. We've had the business licenses. Um we did a new funding uh study to evaluate I mean a fee study. We had did a new fee study to evaluate what was appropriate in terms of charging people fees for services that we provide particularly with respect to development and some of those fees went up a lot which was appropriate because they hadn't been changed I mean some of them hadn't been touched in 20 years or so. So you know there's been a lot of inflation over that time and then we are also working to bring um uh new businesses to our community. one that um we're all looking forward to for many reasons will be the new Toyota dealership which will open its stores in a few years and I think that's that that will help our sales tax revenue go up. So um all of these things I you know do add together and um I would also say that considering the um the windfall nature of the uh of the um UTT is is really an interesting idea because it in a sense it's sort of an internal collaboration between our desire to meet our climate goals i.e. reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, the the less um uh you know, the less gas is used, methane gas is used, the less greenhouse gas emissions we produce, the closer we are to um to meeting our standards. And at the same time, while we um you know, while we while gas gets more expensive, you know, we can utilize that money to help people um do things that reduce their greenhouse gases locally, like get a heat pump or buy an electric car or um uh other things that might help. Plant lots of trees. I mean, there are many things we've heard that that would be valuable. So, um I just I thought that was a really good suggestion and um but mostly I just want to say thank you and I appreciate the time and effort that's gone into this and I also appreciate how you keep reorganizing this and it keeps getting better and um having been reading these for 10 years now um I I couldn't agree more with my colleague uh Council Member Ramirez, every time I read the budget I learn um just a lot like I don't know 20 or 30 new facts about the city that I um I either had not known before or I had forgotten. So um it's really good to have these all put together. And I particularly love these little vignettes on every department and what they're supposed to do and how many people they have and you know what the org chart all of that information brought together. it really does provide a great story of, you know, how what what's the organization of the city. So anyway, thank you for all that work and um yes, I'm very happy to um be seconding this motion.

Thank you, Council Member Shaw Walter, Council Member Hicks.

Yes, I'd like to express my thanks as well. I actually wasn't going to speak. I was just going to support the motion. Um because for members of the public who don't come to every council meeting, we actually go over the budget multiple times and we kind of hopefully make all our big changes. I'm not going to propose a big change now. Um all our big changes earlier. Um uh and also I made my main comment which was because we're not as flush as we have been in past years that we're going to have to it's a good time to take a look and see if there there are any things that uh have kind of grown unnecessary. Um but I made that comment already during questions. Uh so I wasn't going to say anything additionally. And then council member RmIrez uh talked about more money for cultural events and I have to say uh and I agree I I will support that. Um and I've been to the the Lunar New Year and the Dia de los Muertos and enjoyed them a lot. Um, and uh, I just I I agree with you that con that staff can figure out how to use more money and make them better. But I do want to encourage good music because I have to say the music has been uneven from year to year. There have been times when there have been really great bands and that's to me that's that's what gets me out. So, um, and a lot of other people. So, I want to encourage that that uh, be taken under consideration. And then lastly, I agree with uh what council member Sha Walter said about the uh UU uut that it might be good to put it towards electrification and um you know reducing uh people's carbon footprint in the future. That's it.

Thank you, Council Member Hicks. Council member Kame.

Thanks, Mayor. Okay. Um, so I just want to uh thank staff. I um I look forward to reading the budget now. Um and I I think when we talk about building the mountain view of tomorrow, uh council is able to um be forward thinking and to be creative and to do all these things because of staff. um because you are working with us. Not only is staff doing that, our community I feel like the way that we've been able to engage with our community has been much more robust. Each year we improve whether it's the budget in brief or it's the video or other ways to de demystify um honestly local government and what we are spending um city funds on. I think that helps us tell the story of Mountain View. And so budgets are, you know, testament of of our values and our greatest value is how we're a community for all. And the everything in our budget helps showcase that. And it uh makes me feel very proud to be able to vote and support this budget. And hopefully colleagues feel this way and our community um feels that as well. I think it's also um so timely that we're talking about recruitment and retention efforts and our budget same night backtoback because I also feel like we've made a lot of progress um as a city and as a council and just to kind of give a couple like vignettes of how I've seen that when council member Hicks and Ramirez and I started our um budget for multi uh multiculture engagement I think was like 0.5 FTE and now it is this robust program. We've been able to support expansion and create our Mandarin Chinese civic leadership program and that's just one example of of what we've done and I and as I reflect back on nearly eight years there's so many instances where we're able to to say that and um those wins are all because of of staff. So, I just think it's um really important for us to to highlight. Um, one other thing, and it'll be a seed I plant because I know better than to try to sneak something into the budget last minute, is uh the mayor's like, "Oh, you need a match." Um, no. I I think that one of the things I've seen our city do and this ties into the recruitment and retention is how we have become an all-incclusive familyfriendly city. Um and we have done that in how we've approached paid leave, our commitment towards child care, how we're including it in one of our all affordable housing projects. I am it heartens me that we have seen such high usage of our nursing pod in our library just over a short amount of time of six months. Um I I feel a bit surprised that um because our aquatic center and community center are right there and I see so many families utilizing it that it hasn't come forward. But I also remember when I was, you know, a new mother, how overwhelming and kind of shy you can become for making those kind of requests. Um, and you're and so I would just ask council to, you know, if maybe not this budget, but in future-looking budgets, how we might be able to do that. Rangor Park is so heavily utilized. I'm sure, you know, thousands of people use it every day, especially we have Magical Bridge. um providing that opportunity um would I think would be really great. So I just want to plant that seed. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Kame. I don't see anyone else in the queue, so I will use this time to thank staff for their amazing work in the budget. Um thank you to my colleagues for putting in all the the things that you want to put in our budget. One thing I would also like to point out with our multicultural engagement program, I see throughout the state and our local um region, how uh all these councils want to talk about like we care about community engagement and I'm sure there are several candidates for council here. I'm just going to be just like council member Ramirez. um who who who will who will say how much we care about community engagement. But this budget is one of those things where you show where where we invest in that community engagement and it has really paid dividends um not just with the multicultural engagement program with our neighborhood council neighborhoods committee grants. There are a lot of things that our city does that that really not only says that we care about our community and having them having a voice, we invest in it and we invest in the megaphone that they have for us. So, thank you to staff, thank you to my colleagues. We are ready for a vote. Uh, city clerk, feel free to do the roll call vote. Council member Ramirez,

yes.

Council member Schultzer,

yes.

Council member Hicks,

yes.

Council member Kame,

yes.

Council member Mallister,

yes.

Vice Mayor Clark,

yes.

Mayor Ramos,

yes.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you, city clerk. Uh, we will now go into item seven, new business. City Attorney Jennifer Log and Assistant City Attorney Francesca Serrano will present the item. If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. And we will it'll take a few minutes to to shift around. Thank you to all our department heads who uh made sure that they got funded. Just in Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. Franchesca Serrano, assistant city attorney, here with city attorney log to present uh the 2026 proposed ballot measure for the charter modernization. Want to start with a little bit of background, how we got here, uh what the initial directive was for this first uh ballot initiative regarding the charter modernization. Charter modernization was included in the 2025 to 2027 work plan item. Uh the plan is to have two separate ballot items. The first of which would be the 2026 proposed ballot measure. This proposed ballot measure would include non-substantive and non-controversial updates. The purpose of this first ballot measure is to modernize and clarify the city charter. And it is very limited in scope to typographical errors, clarifying existing language, revising archaic terminology, improving internal consistency, and getting us aligned with charter and state law and current operational practices. There was a February study session with the council in this issue and uh city attorney log did comprehensive benchmarking with several other cities looking at their charters and the nine cities are listed on the slide and after the study session council uh gave majority support to correct typographical errors to replace gender specific terminology with gender gender neutral terminology. To clarify a reference to qualified elector to align with state law. Uh to amend the deadline to fill a city council vacancy from 30 to 60 days. To remove the requirement that ordinances and resolutions be read or have their titles read prior to adoption. [laughter] to require a roll call vote on the adapt adoption of ordinances and resolutions only when requested by a council member or required by law. To remove some outdated references to maintaining books and uh update that language and make changes to charter section 900 to address requirements for boards and commissions. And then finally to clarify the requirement that stagger terms uh of stagger terms for boards, commissions and committees. So we uh will go through the changes that we are proposing for the charter myself and city attorney log and we will not be going through them in chronological order. Instead we'll start with the simplest changes and then go to the more complex changes. So the first change is section 504 in regards to vacancies. And currently the 30day charter deadline to fill a city council vacancy creates a very constrained timeline particularly when vacancies arrive unexpectedly. And so this gives us a little bit more time um when when there are vacancies particularly unexpected vacancies to fill them. Again, at the study session, a majority of council indicated support for amending the charter in section 504 to extend this deadline. Section 602, powers and duties. Um, this is one of the replacements to gender specific language into a genderneutral alternative. Um and and making these changes helps to modernize the charter, improves clarity and inclusivity, and ensures that the document reflects contemporary drafting standards. And again, at the study session, this was another change that the majority of council supported. Section 711, powers and duties of the city attorney. This is another section wherein and if you'll note it's just in uh subsection H that we change his or her to there. So again that genderneutral language section 1107 contracts for public works. This was a very minimal change and this was just a an error uh changing noting to nothing if you'll see at the very last paragraph of section A. very straightforward. Uh section 501 eligibility. So this the term qualified elector that was referred to in this section did not actually exist in the California elections code. So, in order to make very clear that we were referencing the California Elections Code and the term that they use as elector, we wanted to clarify. And so, this language clarifies and where you see that there's additional changes, that's just to clean up and streamline language, nothing substantive. Section 514, adoption of ordinances and resolutions. Uh again, this was to streamline council meetings and align with current practice. The substantive portion of the changes here remove the requirement that the title of the ordinances and resolutions be read in full. [laughter] [gasps] And again, the additional changes uh are just to clean up some of the language and streamline. Um, and I will say that at the study session, this was enthusiastically [laughter] indicated um as as something that council supports. Section 515, eyes and nos. Uh, this streamlines the council meetings and aligns with current city practice. It revises the current roll calling voting requirement so that a roll call vote is required only if requested by a council member or required by law. Again, this was a change that the majority of council indicated support for at the February study session. Section 709, powers and duties of city clerk. Um, this refers to what I referenced previously, some outdated language. There was many references to keeping books, which is not something we do any longer. And so this modernizes the charter while preserving the substance of the city clerk's duties and responsibilities. And it's rewritten to make the language clearer and more concise. And these changes were also supported by the majority of council during the February study session. Section 16003, the construction of the charter. So in addition to fixing the specific instances of gender specific language, we also included this uh amendment to this section to address kind of a catchall so that going forward it we can indicate that we are our intention to use genderneutral language. Section 1702 definitions. This was a section that at the study session, council directed staff to confer with the rental housing committee to determine whether it supported amending this chapter. I'll refresh council's recollection. The reason for amending this was that it was actually an incorrect citation to the code section. However, because of where it falls in the charter and kind of how it can be controversial, council did want to get that input from the rental housing committee. We did get that input and they are in support of this amendment. And I will hand it over to city attorney log. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. Jennifer Log. Um I'm going to take you through the section 900 changes. Um if you recall section 900 um at the study session you were given three options for section 900. This is a section that had the residency and qualified elector requirements for members of boards, commissions and committees. And the three options was one to maintain the status quo and require the residency and qualifier elector um for all boards, commissions and committees. Option two was a partial delegation where uh charter created bodies had to have the qualified elector and residency requirements while council created bodies did not. And then the third option was full delegation to city council so that you could decide for everybody whether or not they needed to be a resident or qualified elector. Um the majority of council supported um option two which is partial delegation that preserves the residency and elector requirements for boards and commissions created by the charter unless the charter itself otherwise provides. and uh while granting city council authority to establish membership and qualifications for bodies created legislatively and then you also supported making corresponding clarifying and conforming amendments to other um sections within article 9. I will now take you through each section. So section 900 begins article 9. This is the one in where we are now um implementing option two. Um you can see clearly that at the top in addition to the boards and commissions that are established by that article that council is now authorized to create by ordinance or resolution additional boards, commissions and committees as you deem necessary. And then any ordinance or resolution creating such body shall shall prescribe its functions, duties, powers, jurisdiction, membership qualifications, any other and any other terms or conditions council deems appropriate. So now you are fully delegated the authority to establish those other bodies. Um the rest of the this section um maintains requirements that were already in it. It's just cleaning it up. Um it maintains the requirement that members of board commissions and committees shall not hold paid offices or paid employment with the city um during their term of employment. And it also maintains the requirement that um every member of a board, commission or committee established by this article only um shall be a qualified elector of the city. And the reason why I put the word established by this article is to ensure that we are not impacting the requirements that are already set forth um in the CSFR with regard to their membership requirements. So this qualified elector um requirement is only going to apply to the boards and commissions and committee established by article 9 which currently stand as the EPC or environmental planning commission, the parks and recreation committee and um the library board of trustees. Those are the only three that are in article 9 and those are the only three that will be um affected by this um qualified elector and and residency requirement. The CSFR stands on its stands on its own terms. Okay. Um section 902 um in this section I have just added the word before it only referred to boards and commissions. I've clarified that it um applies to boards, commissions, and committees. Um I cleaned up the first sentence just to uh clarify that it's the affirmative vote of at least four council members. Um and then with regard to terms, I said unless otherwise provided in this charter, members of boards, commissions, and committees shall serve four terms. That literally is only if every document relating to these boards, commissions, and committees is silent. There is at least a term somewhere. But you in the next sentence you see that you have the power to establish the terms unless the terms are created in the charter. That is once again to preserve what is in the CSFR. They do establish terms for their members. And so I didn't want to take away what was already existing in the CSFRA, but you otherwise have the authority to establish terms as you as you deem appropriate. And then it also clarifies the staggered term assignment. There was a requirement that um staggered terms begin on January 1. Um I clarified the language um to establish the uh terms in accordance with the body's established appointment cycle because some of the bodies have different appointment cycles. So this just provided a little bit more flexibility. Section 904 um in the title you see that I made it gender neutral to presiding officer as opposed to chairman. Um, again, I cleaned up some of the language adding boards, commissions, and committees. Um, and then I don't think there were any other changes in here other than just to clarify the language. Oh, in the third paragraph, um, we clarified some language. It was very difficult to determine, um, the vote requirement when there are vacancies on the body. So we made it very clear that it's incl excluding vacant positions provided that the members then in office is not less than a quorum. So as long as the body has a quorum they can move forward and now we know what their vote requirement is. And so there was a lot of confusion over that. So we've clarified that language. Um, and then you see the rest is just adding um the term committee to uh the rest of the the um section um section 905. The major change that I made here is to clarify that a vacancy is not created simply because someone is no longer a qualified elector or a resident unless that is a requirement of their membership. So before a vacancy was automatically created when that happened, but now it's it aligns with the the option two that you chose and so now it does not automatically create a vacancy. The other things that create a vacancy were existing um already existed in this section and all I've did is I've cleaned it up a bit, but it's the exact same requirements. Okay. So, this is the language that will show up for voters of the proposed uh ballot measure. Um, and it includes a summary of all of the changes that we just went through. And so, this is our recommendation to the council. In addition, we want to note that uh the resolution in section 13 uh allows for council to select and authorize up to three members of the body to file a written argument in favor of the proposed measure. So any motion um on on this matter should include adoption of not just the resolution, but also identify the members you select to file arguments in favor. And so with that, we're happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Does any member of the council have questions? Vice Mayor Clark. Right. It took me a minute. Um, two hopefully simple questions. Um, section 902, the appointments and terms. [snorts] um the affirmative vote of at least four council members. Uh what if we only have a quorum of five and three? Can it just be a simple majority instead of requiring four people to be affirmative in the affirmative?

If you

It's slide 16 at the top if that helps.

Yeah. Um if you if you want to change that, you can. That was just the requirement that already existed in the charter and so I did not change it. Affirmative votes was it was it was always had to be four. I just cleaned up the language. So if you want to change that that's fine. Just

I think it would be a rare occurrence. I'm just thinking if we only have five members for whatever reason the simple majority is three. Then you have to basically have a supermajority to do something. But um okay. But it it sounds like it was that way before. There were four at least four affirmative votes. And then for slide 18, section 9005, the there's no world where um I think this is another case where it's not necessarily any more restrictive than it was before. But if a if a vacancy occurs, you know, two months before the person's term would have expired, there's no requirement that we appoint someone on short notice for that two-month period. We could do we still have the authority to just leave it vacant and fill the next or full term.

You do. I don't think there's anything in your charter that requires you to fill a vacancy in any certain period of time

because I think I saw elsewhere in the charter it says until their successors are qualified and or I guess maybe that's mostly elected officials but

and that that successors qualify that was the term that was in the four-year term but that language has actually been scratched and I just clarify the I didn't say until the successor is qualified. I just it was it didn't really have a purpose. It was It's in the term section. Um, let's see. Section I believe you don't spend a whole bunch of time. [laughter] [snorts]

Okay. Did that read before? So, it used to say it it said serve a four-year term until their respective successors are appointed and qualified. So, it just says so it was a little bit weird. Um, they just serve a four-year term period, but then if they leave early, there's just a vacancy and it gets filled whenever you fill it. So, I just clarified their language that it's it's a four-year term, but clearly vacancies can be created by retirement or, you know, resignations or other reasons, but then your charter has never had any deadline for you to fill those vacancies.

Got it. Okay.

Okay. Uh, Council Member Scho Walter.

Yeah. Um, I have a a question about uh section 900. Um that's basically talked about on slide 14 and 15. And um the idea is uh of option two is that the city council gets to um set the qualifications for new committees. Right.

For Yes. for any legislatively created committees. So all the committees other than those that are created by this charter. Correct.

Okay. So, so um maybe it might be a little clearer if um on uh slide 15 in the second paragraph we inserted um established by this article uh after no members of any boards, commissions or committees established by this article shall hold any uh paid office or paid employment because uh that is a qualification and we would like to um give that authority to future councils to um to make that. Okay, if you give me a moment, I actually prepared a backup slide so I can show if that is if this is what your Yes. Is that what chair I think that would be clearer and um uh I can imagine that there might be a um for instance if we wanted to have a uh a committee sometime related to um the uh the way the sevens was working. um we you know the people who live there are we would want some of them to uh to be city employees because that's who lives there. So I I can imagine where that's the only one I came up with but I can imagine where that would occur. So I just like to leave it open. That's it. Thank you.

So I think that's fine. And I think we would just want us uh the motion maker if that is supported by a majority of council could just if it's if supported would need to make that motion for us to amend this. All right. So since we're still in questions um does anyone else have any questions? All right. Moving on from questions, we will now go to public comment. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on any item on the uh uh provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker will have three minutes. Do we have any speakers? No speakers. We will now take virtual speakers. Seeing none, we will bring it back to council. So, um, I will now bring the item back for council questions and deliberation. Please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolution attached to the report. The city clerk will take a roll call vote as we have a council member participating remotely this evening. Next, uh, looks like we have a motion by council member Ramirez. Bring it home.

Thank you, mayor. Let's go home early tonight. Um, you I will know we probably would have gone home five minutes earlier if Pat didn't have to read all of that stuff into the record during the consent calendar. [laughter]

I move to approve. Uh, thank you very much uh for for your work on uh the charter modernization. I know it's been um something that we've talked about for for quite some time and um it it takes uh time and effort to just make time to figure out how we should modernize the the provisions of the charter. And I I'm grateful to uh the city attorney's office um which I'm sure worked in collaboration with the city manager's office and city clerk's office to uh uh come up with these uh recommendations. So, I'll move to approve uh the staff recommendations, including uh adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View. Uh one calling a general municipal election and ordering consolidation with the statewide general election for the purpose of submitting to the voters a ballot measure to amend the city charter to modernize and clarify its provisions. Two, authorizing members of the council to author an argument for the ballot measure. and three, directing the city attorney to prepare an impartial analysis. Uh, and four, authorizing the city clerk to contract with the county of Santa Clara for services to be performed in connection with the general municipal election to be held on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026 to be read entitle only further reading wave. Just to clarify, do we have to as part of the motion determine which council members are um okay? So, we might need to think about that. Um, I'm uh okay including council member Shoalter's recommendation uh or suggestion noting that the council will retain the authority to determine the membership uh requirements by resolution and ordinance for legislatively created uh bodies. Um I'm uh happy to suggest and and we can sort of figure this out later, but uh as a starting point um that um the mayor uh if you're comfortable, the vice mayor uh and um yes. Well, ju just this is for the the arguments. Um and I'm happy to volunteer as that third person um uh be the the members of the council who are authorized to author an argument. If someone else would like to work with us or, you know, replace one of us, I'm totally comfortable with that, too. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Ramirez. It looks so he made the motion and seconded by Council Member Kame. We also have uh Chris uh Vice Mayor Clark on the in the queue.

I just have two more questions. Sorry. one is what is the practical impact of council member Sha Walter's addition. So it's um so it it has to do with commissions or committees shall the members of such um shall not hold any paid office or paid employment with the city during the time of their appointment. Um I I just I'm trying to figure out what the practical impact of it is because it does have one.

Yes. So the charter as currently written right now prohibits um any member of a board or commission from holding a paid office or paid employment. So it's any border commission um with and so I kept the original language with this modification made by council member or proposed by council member Sha Walter. You are now only saying that members of boards and commissions and committees established by article 9, which is only the environmental planning commission, the library board of trustees and the parks and recck body um cannot hold paid offices or uh paid employment with the city. every other legislatively created body by you. You can allow employees, paid employees or paid officers to be on those bodies or you can prohibit it in your ordinances and resolutions establishing those bodies. To the extent that you are going to allow um paid officers or employees to be on those, there is obviously going to need to be some conflict of interests um assessments done because there are FPPPC requirements and regulations governing incompatible offices and things like that. So that is something that would need to be assessed as you are establishing those bodies. if you carve this out for yourself when you're creating new bodies legislatively.

So with with the proposed change, the the the article 9 bodies still have that prohibition.

Correct. And then we can decide for everything else whether to allow it on a commission by commission basis or overall which I think we've done previously or we've at least had that debate at some point but um basically we have flexibility but we're not modifying the the the chapter 9 or whatever article 9 or whatever it is.

That's correct.

Bodies. Okay. And then just back to 905 um or um or whatever it was. Maybe it was 902, I think. Um I guess the the only reason I I I recoil a bit from four votes is in my mind there's kind of three there's three things. There's like six votes required. I don't and I can't remember in the charter if it's six votes or if it's a percentage threshold, but there's like urgency ordinances that require typically six votes. There's appropriations that typically require five votes, which I think is just a twothirds. Um, it doesn't specify five. And then most everything else that we can do is just simple majority. And we have conflicts of interest in those present in voting. And um I'm just trying to avoid creating arbitrary um numeric thresholds any any more of those than are necessary even if they already existed as opposed to just sticking with simple majority. But maybe that's not the right thing to do. I don't know. Does are urgency ordinances and appropriations a fraction or a percentage or I can look it up, but

I don't recall. I would have to pull up Let me pull up the charter. I don't know if urgency ordinances had a different vote requirement. they have the ability to be adopted without a second reading, but I it's possible that the vote requirement is the same. Um, let me see. Might be called emergency ordinance. Let's see. Okay. Adoption of ordinances. I see a few different four fifths. I just see no ordinance or resolution shall be passed or become effective without receiving the affirmative votes of at least four members of council.

Okay.

So, you even have

it's there all over the place then. Yeah. Okay. It is.

Yeah. Just ignore me then, right? [laughter] Um Okay.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Clark. Council member Mallister.

Yeah. Could I get clarity on what uh council member Scho Walter is asking because um I years ago on my first term of council, this came up before and we discussed it that no employee could be no city employee could be on a commission board because of conflict of interest and it was already talked about and we kept that in the uh the law the bylaws. So there's could I just get some clarity on what he's asking again please?

Certainly. Currently the charter prohibits um paid employees and paid officers from being on any board commission or committee. With this change proposed by council member Shoalter, that prohibition would apply to only the um boards and commissions created by article 9, which are currently the environmental planning commission, the library board of trustees, and the parks and recreation commission. So that prohibition would apply to those three only. every other board, commission, and committee that would be created by council by legislative action. So, you'd either be creating it by ordinance or resolution, the council would itself have the authority to decide whether or not to prohibit paid officers and employees from being members of those bodies. So what it does is it gives council the right to decide for those legislatively created bodies, but for those that are created by the charter, the prohibition remains in place.

Thank you. So um I I can't support that part of the motion. So if you want to bifrocate it, um I still see a conflict of interest and it could be minor, it could be big, but there could be u consequences to other members of that he works in a department that he wants something done and it would be opening up a can of worms. So those are my thoughts.

Is that all your comments?

That is it. All right, Council Member Hicks.

So, my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that uh the purpose of council member show Walter's modification was in case there were cases, and you brought up the sevens, which is uh portion of it is affordable housing for city employees. If you wanted to make a board, you would have to have city employees on it because that's what that housing is for. But do we not have other options for that? Could we if we were going to make some sort of board for the sevens, couldn't couldn't it not be a Brown Act body? Could it be some other sort of body? So maybe the modification that council member Sha Walter is is talking about is not as important as it would seem. And I I'm thinking I may agree with council member Mallister that it's just easier to make sure because council changes, you know, although this current council has talked about conflicts of interests and we might any body we create, we might make sure that there are no there appropriate guard rails for that. Future councils may not have had that conversation and you might want it built into the law. [snorts] So, I'm thinking maybe we I'm thinking what council member Mallister has said that maybe we should go back to um the way it was originally written. Um but there are other ways to address what council member Sha Walter was worried about, which is, you know, what if there's some exceptional committee that we want employees to be on. So, any comments on that? Welcome. City Attorney Lo, do you have an answer to that?

Yeah, I can respond. Um, yes, you can create bodies administratively. So, if they're not legislatively created bodies, for instance, you have the deferred compensation committee. That is all city employees with some investment advisors. that is an administratively created body that is staffed by members of the union, by employees because it's it's governing investment of our funds, right? Our retirement funds. And so that is a body that has employees on it and was is created administratively. So you could have bodies created administratively which essentially would happen through the city manager's office and you can create these bodies and employees can be can be on them. Um you just run into the problem if it is a legislatively created body or directed a body directed by council. So I'll say that's my preferred route and um and I I think there's I think administrative bodies are are great. Everybody doesn't have to be a brown active body. They might be appropriate for other things and I think we've used them for other things. Anyway, that's my comment.

Thank you, Council Member Hicks. Vice Mayor Clerk.

So, I think I agree with you in principle, Council Member Hicks, and Council Member Mallister. The reason that I'm okay with council member Sho Walter's change is that my goal here is to have the charter be the charter should cover it should be our constitution. It should cover the most basic fundamental things and everything else should be left to the council because the charter is very difficult to change and all sorts of other things like FPPC regulations and what constitutes you know does someone getting $250 from the city are they treated the same as someone who's a full-time employee? I think that should be reserved for us in our judgment. And so I think what we could do is address the concerns around um you know a paid employee being on a body that can be a resolution that we pass that or rules that we have in place that we could put in place now and future councils would be you know unless they make changes to it would have that as the default. Um, I think putting I think having any sort of prohibition without any thresholds or anything like that on every single body that we create at the charter level, I think the charter is the wrong level to set that at. I think we need to be able to um respect the principle that I think everyone is or especially council member Mallister and and Hicks have articulated but not tie our hands to the extent where we actually have to go to the voters and ask permission to make a change for something like um yeah for a committee that we might want to create at some point in the future that may very well need to have an employee or two from the city on there. Thank you, Vice Mayor Clark. Council member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate the vice mayor's comments, and I was going to [clears throat] say essentially the same thing, but sometimes it's helpful to think in terms of example. Um, and the example I I I had been noodling over is do we want to prevent, you know, a high school student who happens to be a compensated lifeguard, right, paid by the city. do we want to prevent that high school student from serving on the youth advisory committee? Like, is that really what we care about? You have to pick. You could only you have to either be on the youth advisory committee or be a lifeguard. And I think that's the the kind of example where it gets into exactly what the vice mayor is suggesting that by resolution or ordinance as we establish these committees uh we we at that level decide it's not appropriate for you know a city employee to to also serve on the spot. Um, and I would imagine that's probably the case for most of the bodies that we create, but there are some, and I think the youth advisory committee is a good example, where the the conflict of interest is is essentially non-existent, you know, and all we've done with this charter language is prevented that high school student who happens to be a lifeguard from serving on our youth advisory committee. Um, you know, I I I I'm reflect sometimes on the vote we took a few years ago where uh it was a 4-3 vote. We decided to retain the senior advisory committee. Uh I uh supported dissolving it because I felt that it was appropriate to have that as a non-brown act body that staff can assemble seniors in our community to solicit input and you know I think they would have the flexibility to meet as they wanted whenever they wanted. But a majority of the council disagreed with me and felt that it was appropriate for that to be a Brown Act body. And um you know I I think that's something to to consider here, right? Like do how much do we want to shackle our Brown Act bodies? Um, so, uh, you know, Council Member Hicks and Council Member McAllister, I I understand, uh, your your philosophy and I I would support by resolution or ordinance generally not permitting city employees to serve on most of the legisl uh, established bodies, but there might be some instances where it is appropriate. Uh, and I think that as the vice mayor suggested, that flexibility might be valuable for the council to uh to benefit from.

Thank you, Council Member Ramirez. Council member Mallister. So um everybody's bringing up uh scenarios and so right now we have a appointment committee of three people and so would they be even though it's supposed to be ratified by the city council or does it have to be ratified by the city council of everybody that with those three members appointing someone to a body and saying uh is there a situation where the three could do it without the whole consent of the council.

No, it requires four votes.

Okay.

And if I could just jump in real quick, John, it would also require that the establishing resolutions provide that that can happen and currently you don't have that in any of your resolutions.

Okay. What can happen with Okay. Again, I'm What can happen without a resolution? So, right now, none of your resolutions allow for paid city employees to serve on any of your committees.

Well, that Yeah. Okay. So, that goes back to when we've had the discussion years ago, it was yes, there's exception to all these things, but I remember the discussions that we had on back then was, well, should we or shouldn't we? And the path sounds like we're going down again that there could be potential conflicts. Uh, Council Member Ramirez's uh, scenario is also rare, but you know, we do have other things. So, um, I appreciate everybody's input, but I I still feel that the clear-cut case is usually a little easier to to work with. So, thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Mallister. Council member Hicks. So there are things I feel strongly about and won't vote for, but this is not one of them. So I will be supporting it no matter which way it goes. But um but uh that said, isn't the youth advisor is the youth advisory commission currently uh a Brown Act group or not? It currently is, but we have talked about making it not a Brown Act, but

for exactly the reason we're talking about the whole lifeguard thing

that and also because they like they've wanted to have meetings outside of the city boundaries and are prohibited from doing that right now.

Okay, thank you for the clarification.

All right, anyone else in the queue?

Council member Mallister, you still have your hand up. Okay, I'll bifrocate that just to uh or do you want to I would like to support the whole mo the motion but except for the uh except

I'm not sure there's a technically feasible way to do that because we're we're placing the uh charter uh we're placing placing all of this on the ballot. City attorney, any thoughts?

Well, I I I I think one one thing to consider, council member, is to just state in the public record your your general support and then with the object the specific objection and then I think that's very clear for for everyone how you feel about the balance of of the amendments. I think that is probably the Oh, sorry.

No, I was going to say in respect to council member for as persistent and encouraging to get this thing cleaned up, I will go along with his suggestion.

All right, seeing the queue empty, let's do a roll call vote.

Council member Ramirez,

yes.

Council member Kame,

yes. Yes. Council member Hicks.

Yes.

Council member Mallister.

Yes. And my gratitude to Council Member Ramirez for staying on top of this.

Council member Sha Walter.

Yes.

Vice Mayor Clark.

Yes.

Mayor Ramos.

Yes.

Motion carries unanimously.

Thank you so much. And now we are on item eight. Council staff and committee reports. Do we have any council staff and committee reports from any of my colleagues? Anyone? Council member Kame.

Great. Sorry. Sorry, Mayor. I think that since the last time we met, we had the law 12 ribbon cutting, now known as Corso. Um, yeah, we were all there. Well, I'm It's item eight, so I'm just reporting, right? Um, but I can I don't know if I'm allowed to do it for all of us. I don't know. Is that in the the charter amendment, Lucas? Um and then um I attended the the Chinese um leadership academy graduation.

Thank you, Council Member Mallister.

Um a couple of transportation deals. VTA is actually going to start working on the Whisman station. Uh it's taken a while after the CPU approved it. Now they're going to give us a guideline to take care of some of the whistles and bells. So hopefully that will take those people. Uh I also attended the VTA meeting, board meeting where they discussed some money for Mountain View and they also were talking about express lanes um and SR85. I know Chris is eager to jump on the 85 corridor committee again, but they're thinking of trying to modify what was uh done about six years ago. So, well, we'll have to keep tune on what they plan to do with that.

Thank you, Council Member Mallister. Vice Mayor Clerk,

I just wanted to note that I um filled in for you, Mayor, while you're at the US Conference of Mayors, and I just wanted um so I just wanted to uh we cut the ribbon at uh Lungo uh Thai, which is at the Grant Road Shopping Center. Um, and it was a great opportunity for me to scrape off some of the rust uh from [laughter] and uh I was so rusty that I wanted to apologize to my colleagues that I Cardinal rule number one when you're doing a ribbon cutting is to introduce your colleagues and um I was so rusty that I failed to do that and our chamber CEO had to do that right after me. So, I'm sorry for my colleagues that I'm so rusty that I didn't do I didn't follow rule number one, but I have learned from that and I will try not to be so rusty in the future when

this is why it's vice mayor and then we build up again.

Uh, council member Sha Walter.

Well, I attended a um afternoon workshop at BCDC on sediment. You've heard me talk about sediment a lot and this was pretty exciting because we are putting forth policies about uh changes in um the use of uh dredge material and um this is just an important step in it becoming California law. And that the reason that's important is because for sea level rise protection there's sort of three basic things we got to do. We have to um change our policies to allow the things that we need to to build to protect us like the restoration of Paw W. We need to we need to change those policies. We're working on that. And um we need to have the building products to do it. And one of the major building projects, the building blocks is just dirt. And where do we get that dirt? Well, we get a lot of it from dredging and we get a lot of it from construction sites that um instead of sending it to a landfill and paying for a tipping fee, they um they can take it for to a construction site which which we did for Pande A2W and we're doing it now. So, and then the third thing of course is we have to figure out how to pay for it. That's that's a whole another story. But then I wanted to end on a happy note, a exciting fun note is uh I had the pleasure of being at the um the first concert on the green. I mean a concert on the plaza for that we do every Friday night during the sort of the long hours of the uh of the year. And so there will be um music and dancing every Friday night from 6:00 to 7:30.

Thank you, Council Member Shoalter. Um I will I've also went to the lot 12 affordable housing groundbreaking and the Chinese language civic leadership academy. Um on the on May 30th I presented the Oddfellows Lodge their anniversary celebration with a little commenation. They are celebrating I believe 150 years. Um, you have the Springer Trees Neighborhood Association ice cream social that was on the 31st and then the Montaloma Association annual meeting on January 3rd. And then I also went to the US Conference of Mayors this past week and it was incredible experience. I'm I'm really so privileged to be a mayor. It's crazy. Like every once in a while I'm there and I'm surrounded by all these mayors and being like, am I really here? But um thank you so much. There were really great panels, a lot of meeting other mayors, um all different kinds of mayors um and and it was it was really quite an experience. So with that, um we are on item nine, the adjournment. The next city council meeting will be held on June 23rd, 2026. This meeting is adjourned at 9:45.