1 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:11,300 Good afternoon. This is the town of Los Altos Hills City Council special meeting. Today is 2 00:00:11,300 --> 00:00:17,380 Thursday, June 18th, 2026. So the time is 4.30 p.m. I will now call the meeting to order. 3 00:00:19,370 --> 00:00:24,940 And the meeting is occurring both in person and via Zoom in accordance with applicable law. 4 00:00:25,860 --> 00:00:29,380 Erica, can we have a roll call, please? Yes, Mayor. Council Member Muck? 5 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:35,100 Council Member Swan here. Council Member Tonka. Yes. Vice Mayor Tyson here. Mayor 6 00:00:35,100 --> 00:00:41,160 Bataja. Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. We have a quorum. Thank you. At this time, the 7 00:00:41,160 --> 00:00:44,700 council will receive public comments, which is limited to matters that are 8 00:00:44,700 --> 00:00:48,300 subject to this special meeting. I don't see anybody in the room. 9 00:00:50,420 --> 00:00:51,120 Is there 10 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:56,160 anybody online? Yes, Mayor. John O'Connell. We are promoting to speak. So 11 00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:58,300 The comments are limited two minutes per speaker. 12 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:03,100 Speakers and members of the audience are reminded that public comments must comply with the town's 13 00:01:03,100 --> 00:01:04,080 rules of decorum. 14 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:08,740 Profane language or disruptive conduct is prohibited under Los Altos Hills Municipal 15 00:01:08,740 --> 00:01:09,020 Code. 16 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:12,200 Let's go ahead with the public comment, please. 17 00:01:14,940 --> 00:01:15,560 Okay, John. 18 00:01:15,700 --> 00:01:16,640 We're ready to hear your comment. 19 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:18,220 Thank you. 20 00:01:18,960 --> 00:01:22,300 Today's legal topics, although different, have one thing in common. 21 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:25,620 None of them should be wasting the town's time and money. 22 00:01:25,620 --> 00:01:33,360 The CalHDF linebarger brief paints the town as a bad actor, doing anything to avoid multifamily housing, 23 00:01:34,060 --> 00:01:41,180 suggesting nuances of words and sentences in California government codes to provide an interpretation of their meaning, 24 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:46,180 and makes claims that a reasonable person would disagree with Los Altos Hills. 25 00:01:47,300 --> 00:01:53,520 I contend the reasonable person would likely consider the safety of evacuating 40 to 80 26 00:01:53,520 --> 00:02:00,780 seniors in the event of a fire from a 55 by 150 foot 4 to 5 story building with almost 27 00:02:00,780 --> 00:02:08,080 no access to 80% of the residents since the lot is less than 66 feet wide. Further the 28 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:12,700 building is in a high fire hazard severity zone and it is likely that a reasonable 29 00:02:12,700 --> 00:02:17,280 person would expect Santa Clara County Fire and Los Altos Hills to put the 30 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:21,880 safety of residents as their number one priority. Clearly the plaintiff's lawyers 31 00:02:22,500 --> 00:02:28,540 do not have that responsibility. There is nothing Los Altos Hills can do to stop 32 00:02:28,540 --> 00:02:33,940 lawyers like Cal HDF from making frivolous claims. However, having read the 33 00:02:33,940 --> 00:02:39,320 court documents, I believe Los Altos Hills needs to make clear why the project 34 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:45,440 was denied rather than defending against the narrative that it has used process and details 35 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:52,740 to deny a wonderful project. In contrast, the town had full control over the 36 00:02:52,740 --> 00:02:58,600 Grady case. Mr Grady made several requests to the City Council and City Attorney to 37 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:04,020 direct the town manager to stop stonewalling and comply with the law. The actions of the 38 00:03:04,020 --> 00:03:08,260 town manager were not surprising, but if the city attorney had advised the 39 00:03:08,260 --> 00:03:12,880 council to direct the town manager to comply, this case would never have 40 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:18,540 happened. The invoices of the city attorney are twice the amount, more than 41 00:03:18,540 --> 00:03:24,000 twice the amount that Mr. Grady has spent himself, plus having to refund Mr. 42 00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:28,760 Grady on a case that should never have happened. No wonder the overhead 43 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:32,240 being allocated to building and planning staff brings their hourly 44 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:36,560 rate to nearly two-thirds of a million dollars for processing resident permits. 45 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:43,380 I am also concerned that the shield case is headed in the same direction. It is already 46 00:03:43,380 --> 00:03:49,660 more than 140 hours and greater than $60,000, but I'll comment more on that in your second 47 00:03:49,660 --> 00:03:51,300 closed session. Thank you. 48 00:03:52,780 --> 00:03:55,440 Thank you, John. Is there anybody else online? 49 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:56,300 No, Mayor. 50 00:03:56,300 --> 00:04:02,380 All right. We will close public comment and now retire to the closed session.