All right. Good evening. Welcome
everyone. Like to call town council to
order.
Can we have roll call? Veronica.
>> Council member Walter
present. Council member Hasco here.
Council member Flynn
>> here.
>> Vice Mayor Hufty
>> here.
>> Mayor Taylor
>> present.
>> We have a quorum.
>> Thank you. All right. The third item on
the agenda is a report out from close
session. Katherine.
>> Uh thank you, Mayor, Council. Uh the
council met in close session prior to
tonight's regular meeting to uh conduct
the annual performance evaluation of the
town manager and provide um direction to
uh the town attorney um as his labor
negotiator. Nothing to report out. Thank
you.
>> Thank you.
All right, moving on to number four,
presentations and proclamations. So
tonight we have a com com, excuse me, a
commemoration honoring the life,
leadership, and enduring leg legacy of
former Portola Valley Mayor Edward C.
Ted as we all knew him, Briscoll. Um,
and I'd just like to give all the
council members just a short moment to say, you know, whatever their
thoughts are on Ted, and then I will
basically hand the um commemoration to
the family. Um, and we really appreciate
you coming here tonight. Thank you. So,
should we start Mary?
Well, uh Ted was a a was an
inspirational leader for all of us and uh he uh never failed in his
optimism and he was did a wonderful job
with of course our town center in an
effort that uh those of us who resist
change resisted uh mightily and he made
a beautiful center a culturally alive
uh meaningful place in our town and we
deeply appreciate it.
Also, as the more I've researched him,
the more impressive he gets. So, thank
you for sharing him with us for those
many years.
>> Thank you, Barry. Judah.
>> Yeah. Uh the town certainly benefited
from all of his efforts on it on our
behalf. Um uh Ted actually was one
interviewed me for the planning
commission with Steve Tobin and um I
just I it made a huge difference um the
way he was interacting, the way he was
describing the opportunities and you
know being frank about the downsides. Um
it was a great conversation and I'm not
sure I would have stepped up at that
point if not for him. So on a personal
level he he made a huge difference and
you know looking forward I'm sure I'm
not the only one with that tale to tell.
So he really did inspire people to step
forward and volunteer in the good portal
valley spirit. So, we really appreciate
Ted and you you his family uh sharing
him with us. Thank you,
>> Rebecca.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I first met Ted um through
the town center renewal project and um I
was very impressed with how much he went
out to the community and listened to um
so many people's opinions and
perspectives on this. And I was also
really impressed with how informed he
was about the whole the the whole green
building uh features of the comm of the
town center. And he really pushed to put
those and to get us our lead
certification so that the town could
actually be the town center could be
sort of a a goal for many other
communities. So um I I was very
impressed with how smart he was and how
kind he was. Thanks,
>> Helen. Um, so while I was raised here, I
actually didn't know your dad. Um, but I
had, you know, my parents knew him and I
always heard about your dad. Um, and for
those of us who grew up here, you know,
like I learned to drive over where the
tennis court was in front of the old
building over there, right? Like round
and round in the big parking lot. So
that your dad had the vision to help
create what we have today. I really
appreciate and [clears throat] um and
I'm sorry for your loss and that please
know that I am um grateful that he would
that he guided our town as like he did.
So thank you.
>> And I would just echo the comments of my
fellow council members. For people who
haven't been here,
the town center that we sit in now,
which is the cultural heart of Portola
Valley, was driven by TED. Ted made it
happen. I mean, other people were
certainly involved, but without Ted's
leadership, it it would not have
happened. Um, and I was here when there
were people who were against it. I mean,
as hard as it is to believe today, how
beautiful it is that people would have
been against this, but at the time they
were. Um and and Ted drove it forward,
has Cherrettes brought people together
to make it happen. So again, I I think
we were so lucky to have him both
serving as a council member and
basically having a vision for what we
could have here at the town center. So
again, thank you so much. Thank you for
the family for sharing him with all of
us in Portola Valley. It's greatly
appreciated. And with that, I would like
to hand you a proclamation. So thank you
for coming tonight. And I'll walk to
you. You don't have to come up to me.
» Exactly.
[laughter]
Thank you.
We We're not going to do our moment of
silence.
Do Do you want to do a moment of
silence?
>> I think they're left. I don't know. We can do a moment of silence. I mean,
we give him the proclamation.
I I'm I'm good with that. Why Why don't
we just take a moment um and just
remember some of the great things that
Ted did for this town? Thank you.
All right. So, I'm going to move on to
the next one. But, um, again, I think it
Ted was deeply appreciated by this town.
Uh I I wanted to just say that one of
the things that have come out of this is
u that the uh historic resource
committee is working hard on the
archives the historic resource and uh
we're hoping to have sort of a the
personalities of the town and and a
commemorative page at some point come
out of that effort.
>> Great. Well, look forward to it. All
right. All right, with that I'm going to
close number four and move on to number
five, the town manager report. Darcy?
>> Yes. Good evening. Darcy Smith, town
manager. I'll give a brief report. First
of all, thank you for everyone who
attended our last summer concert series.
I think I saw many of you there and it was packed to be honest. I would say
for the next one, which is August 6, get
there early, get your little spot on the
lawn with your blanket and enjoy it.
I have a housing element amendment
update which is that we've checked the
box submitted it the state housing and
community development department and
they have 60 days to respond and they
will either give us another comment
letter or they might might certify it.
Um but that will happen midepptember and
then the plan would be to bring it back
to the council as soon as possible.
So, thank you to all the council and the
planning commission and our committees
and the staff who helped this happen. It
is a certainly an important milestone to
move forward and as you know remove the
Dorothy Ford Park and open space site
from the housing element and replace it
with three other sites that we're really
excited about.
And then an important note to the
community, our next council meeting on
August 12th will be cancelled and the
next meeting of the town council will be
August 26th.
And that said, the town halls town hall
will remain completely open. So we are
there in the mornings and frankly it's
been very busy in the mornings. So we
welcome you in at and we open at 8:30 if
you want to come in. And that concludes
my short report. Thank you.
>> Thank you Darcy. Any
questions for the town manager? No. No.
Good. All right. So then moving on to
oral communications. So I'll open this
up to the public. These is basically for
anything that we've discussed up to this
point and any other things that are not
on tonight's agenda. So I don't see any
hands in the schoolhouse
and I don't see any hands online.
Okay. So, with that, I'm going to close
oral communications and move on to the
consent agenda.
So, are there any public comments on the
consent agenda?
Again, I don't see any in the
schoolhouse.
I don't see any online.
All right. So, I'm going to bring it
back to the council. Are there any
consent ag consent agenda items that a
council member wants to pull?
>> No. No. No. All right. Then I would
accept a motion to approve the consent
agenda.
>> I move to approve the consent agenda.
>> Second.
>> Thank you. We have a motion and a
second. All in favor say I.
>> I. I.
>> Any opposed?
All right. I hear no opposition. All
right. Moving on to number eight.
Regular agenda. First topic is the
considering considering adoption of a
resolution authorizing an additional um
sorry
basically this is a um consideration of
whether we should spend more money on
the auditing to accelerate the audits.
Tony
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening,
members of council. Uh tonight I
tonight's item staff is asking STE uh
council to recommend to adopt a
resolution authorizing an additional
45,000 in general fund appropriation in
the current year in order to expedite
the completion of the audits for fiscal
year um 23 24 and for fiscal year 2425.
origins.
So, um in our meetings with Maize and
Associates,
um who is the town auditor,
um they agreed to do fiscal years 23,
24, and 245 uh concurrently. Um and
since uh financial
um responsibility and long-term
viability is one of the highest council
priorities, uh one strategy was
completing the backlog of the audits.
And it's uh it's time we uh put these to
bed. And um so in our conversations with
Maize, they did propose a very
aggressive schedule. I'm happy to report
that we have reached the first two
milestones. Uh the first one was on July
20th. We were to have trial balances and
uh prepared by client checklist items
which was schedules. Um it was about 30
for each fiscal year. uh we were able to
produce about 95% of what the auditors
had asked for and um on the 20th uh the
auditors did confirm receipt and that
they were uh have what they need in
order to meet the deadline of uh issuing
both financial statements by October 15,
2026.
Um this chart is the schedule as as I
stated the trial balances and the PBC
checklists were due to Mays on the 20th.
we did meet that goal. Um I have already
received the first analytical review
questions for fiscal year 24. Um I am
almost completed with my review of that.
We'll probably have that back to Maze
either tomorrow or Friday. Uh and then
they will send 25 uh when that is done.
And then looking at uh next month um
we'll have the analytical review
questions before August 10th and then
we'll have May's conducting fieldwork
through August 21st and hopefully with
the first draft of financial statements
by August 25th and then the next few
weeks will be final review revisions and
approval. Um when the draft financial
statements are available we will be
taking them to the finance committee. uh
before coming to council. Uh so plan on
the second meeting in October for the
financial statements for 23 24 and 2425
to be brought to council for acceptance.
So yes uh some considerations for the
before adopting the resolution number
one. Yes, we are asking for an
additional 45,000 appropriation for the
current year. By doing so, we'll be able
to reduce the finance department's
budget by $95,000 in the next fiscal
year. U, but one tradeoff is that um
with this being a priority uh for the
finance staff and myself personally, um
the we will be delaying in hiring the
finance manager until uh probably
October before we can even start the
recruitment. Um and it's not just for
the audit. There's also other projects
that are coming online as well. We're
going to be bringing to council uh the
street resurfacing contract probably in
September and then October or in August
we'll also be bringing a contract for an
IT service provider as well. So these
are some items that are on my plate as
well and we'll be getting those off my
plate as well.
And um if you look on the chart on the
right, which is the finance department's
budget, uh the amount adopted was
96,000.
U we're asking for an additional
$45,000. We did have $50,000 budgeted
for miscellaneous consultants. Uh the
plan was to bring in a an additional
person to augment uh staff and just
focus on the 2324 audit. Uh but since
May came back with the the proposal,
we're just going to bite the bullet and
uh just get these audits done. So we'll
be reducing miscellaneous consultants by
50,000, but we will be increasing the
accounting and auditing line by 95,
which is a net 45. Um also, if there's
any other overages since we're delaying
hiring the finance manager, we'll have
some salary savings as well uh to cover
any overages as well.
So that concludes my report. Back to
council for questions.
Thank you, Tony. And I'd just like to
add to this that I think Tony probably
spent 30 hours last weekend working on
this. So,
>> as a staff, we spent over 100 hours
personally.
>> I mean, I did 30 hours over the weekend,
but
>> yeah, in addition in addition to all
your staff time. So, I'm I'm just saying
finance staff is on this and and it's
greatly appreciated. So, questions for
Tony on this?
>> I I have a couple. Um, these are pretty
straightforward. Um, but Tony, you're saying we're putting off the
hiring of the finance director. Is that
because it would take time, your time?
>> Yes. I mean,
>> do that and we have to
>> do applications, do interviews. Um, I
just do not have that in my
>> Yeah. And I understand. I just wanted to
make sure I was following the rationale.
>> And then in terms of the
next year's savings, just explain that
to me one more time.
>> Right. So we we're not going to be
having $50,000 for additional
consultants and we're also not going to
have
>> two audits. Will we actually be paying
for one?
>> Oh, we're we're frontloading this year.
Yeah.
>> Okay. Thanks.
>> Other questions? Helen?
>> Yeah. Go ahead.
>> So um I know that we've had some public
comments about trying to get
these audits done potentially before,
you know, if we vote tonight to put this
on the ballot. Um, and I'm so I'm
wondering how much
bec was was this decision like
recommendation based on that idea to
have it done before the potential ballot
measure?
>> That was part of it, but the other part
of it is we just we just need to get
these done
>> because if if we didn't do this when
remind me when it would be done. we
would still be one or two years behind
going forward. Um but with bringing in
the finance manager, we could probably
catch up with one more, but then next
year we would still be two years behind.
And so it would we would still be
playing catch-up. Um but it probably
would be until 2728
that we would have had all the audits
caught up.
>> Got it. Okay. Um Okay. Thank you. That's
my question. And and one other thing I
can mention just because I was involved
talking to Maze is we now have a partner
doing our audits. So that's the way we
made this work is they didn't have their
normal sort of auditing staff to do this
because they're already they're going to
be booked in August, but we got a
partner who said I'm going to cancel my
vacation to work on this stuff. So
that's we all along the line here we've
gotten people who we've moved this stuff
around. So, I think we're both The other
thing is it's going to cost us a little
bit more, but we're getting a higher
quality auditor on our audits for the
next two years. So, I think that's
another great plus. Other questions for
Tony?
>> Yeah. Um, yeah, I just I really
appreciate how much effort you and
others put into actually
finding a solution with Maze to get this
work done. Um, I I understand that it
makes sense not to delay hiring the
finance manager because of the bandwidth
to actually find somebody, but I am a
little concerned about um what type of
support you might need for some of the
finance tasks given that I think you're
doing at least three jobs now. I just
kind of want to understand a little bit
um what support you would need just for
some of the to offload a little bit
while you focus on the audits and the
other jobs. Um
>> I I'm happy [clears throat] to say that
staff are
happy and willing to if whatever I need.
Um the finance staff um has been my own
personal pet project since I started. Uh
and it's been training and getting their
skills up to date. Uh and they are hund
times better than when I started. Uh so
there's that's lessened the load for me
a little bit. Um, but I mean there's
still I still have my day-to-day, you
know, I have to review and post and and
you just because of internal controls.
Um, but the other duties, every other
staff member is stepping up and, you
know, you if I don't have the answer
that they they can help me out as well.
Uh so it's it's um and um personal note
um I I enjoy a challenge and so it's
kind of been my career has been every position I've
held has been a challenge in some sort
of way. Uh so but I'm very happy to say
that staff is stepping up and supporting
me uh in my role. And then my second
question was well well I guess I have
three in all. Um you had said something
about capital projects that I didn't
quite catch. Um
>> uh we'll be bringing the street
resurfacing uh projects in September
>> and that's with our interim
>> public managers handling that right now.
Yeah. Okay.
>> Um and then my last question was um
I know that the there's a certain number
of years you can work with each auditor.
>> Mhm. And um with Maize we we've managed
that by working with a new partner and
then what is the plan for 2520? Do we
need will we need to recruit a new
completely new auditor or
>> No, it'll be technically it'll be year
three with this partner.
>> Okay.
>> Have three additional years. Um but then
I mean but we can always revisit that.
But yes, every six years we're to rotate
auditing firms unless they have multiple
partners. And as long as we can rotate
partners, then we can stay with the same
firm.
>> But I'm very pleased with May stepping up
and helping us get through this and
being a partner for us.
>> Great. Thank you.
>> All right. Any other questions for Tony
before I open up the public? Okay. No.
All right. Are there any questions for
Tony or comments? I guess I should say
for Tony um in the schoolhouse. All
right. So, I don't see anybody's hand
raised in the schoolhouse
and I don't see any hands online.
All right. So, I'm going to bring it
back to the council for discussion and
potential approval.
So, who would like to start?
>> Um, go ahead. Um, thank you so much. Um,
we it is going to be so great to move
beyond the discussion of why we're late
and revisiting history. And and frankly,
this is an opportunity to turn the page
and get things right. And I think that's
part of our priorities uh was to move us
into position to get it right. Um I do
admire your tenacity and challenge uh
love of a challenge. So uh on a personal
level, thank you so much for applying
that energy here. Um you know, I know we
don't want to pay more than we have to
at this moment in our town's history,
but this opens up so many better
possibilities.
um grants are going to be more easily
available to us. That that to me this is
a pretty straightforward uh analysis and
I'm very grateful we have the
opportunity. So I I support it
>> and it will also free up my time.
>> Very important.
» Yes, I'm I'm totally in support and uh
this makes a lot of sense. I'm just so
glad we can finally see the finish line
and uh go for it.
» Yeah. Yeah. I want to um echo what my
colleagues have said as well and I think
it's um
the reasons to accelerate these audits
is that it's very important that we
communicate to the residents that that
our uh our financial documents are very
high quality that um particularly since
you've come on board and all the
incredible work that you've put in as
well as your team um in fixing all the
problems that were identified us before
you arrived. Um I I think it's really
important that the audit will only just
reconfirm what we all know already that
our um our finance team and our
financial documents are um perfectly
well-kept and we are following all the
uh rules and the government um auditing
rules and um that everybody can be safe
and feel safe and secure that the
numbers that we're publishing are
accurate. So again, I appreciate I
appreciate you're missing your vacation,
you're not going on your vacation. Um,
and I do appreciate how much effort
you're putting into our town. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Ellen.
>> Um, so I'm sorry to hear you're going to
miss your vacation potentially. Um,
and and I'm somewhat relieved to hear
that it's not just about the election
because I have this in the 2024
election, nearly 60% of voters cast
their ballots early and, you know,
October 28th is early. So hopefully, you
know, we always want people to vote and
vote early. Um, so I I was a little bit
concerned about that. Um, but I would
love to get these audits taken care of
and um it would be nice. It would be
it's would be such a relief to have have
it be done and so um so I support that.
So thank you.
So I would echo my colleagues
this is money well spent. There's no doubt in my mind this is
closing a very unfortunate chapter in
the town's finances. Um, and Tony and
your staff have been instrumental in
leading that charge. So, so thank you
for doing that. Um, and we're all glad
you enjoy a challenge. Thank goodness
for that. [laughter]
So, with that, I would entertain a
motion to authorize additional general
fund budget for the maze contract.
>> I move to authorize. Second.
>> Thank you. I have a motion in a second.
All in favor say I.
>> I.
Any opposed? I hear no opposition.
Congratulations, Tony. Thank you again
for your hard work.
All right. Now, we're going to move on
to agenda item 8B. This is considering a
adoption of a resolution submitting to
the voters of Portola Valley a measure
both to adopt the CH town charter and to
authorize a real property transfer tax.
So, with that, who's presenting?
>> Yes,
>> Darcy. Yes, I have the pleasure of
presenting this item. So, just give me a
second to bring up the PowerPoint.
Come on. Sorry. Okay, there we go. Oh.
Um, I'll be presenting, but as I get the
PowerPoint up, I just want to make sure
everyone knows it was a real team
effort. And while I'm making this
presentation,
our esteemed town attorney, Katherine
Angberg's available to answer any
questions after we're done. Tony
McFarland, assistant town manager,
is here as well. And then I want to
acknowledge Lauren Tarpe, who's
Katherine's associate, who's been really
helpful on this as well. So
hold on. It's not
does not like to screen share.
maybe a testament of how
important the spell measure is to
improve some of the challenges in our
town like our capital infrastructure
here. Okay. So, this is the
consideration of a resolution and I will
acknowledge that we have the town team
has been working on this for over a
year. So, this is a important milestone.
But I want to reflect on where we
started. In 1964, this town was
incorporated
primarily, although not only to ensure
local control over development as this
town faced development pressure in the
hills and to preserve the rural beauty.
As you can see in this photo from Dan
Quinn, our local photographer,
we have a lot of natural beauty and we
also have a lot of ecologically and
environmental sensitive
um land. This town was founded by
volunteers and in its for many decades
run by volunteers such as Ted Driscoll
who you just heard about and that was
really meant to minimize our costs and
minimize and that in turn though
resulted in minimal taxes. The general
plan goals which we're very proud of. Um
the general plan is our constitutional
growth um echo these sentiments of
keeping our town rural and tranquil,
familyfriendly
and um using the land in a manner that's
compatible with the ecological
environmental richness of the community.
Um when we started on this journey to
look at this ballot measure back in
September, we found overwhelmingly
positive feedback from the residents
that were surveyed that 91% of them are
satisfied with the quality of life. And
I think it's a credit to this town
council and the councils before you that
local government governance is what
keeps our values and our character
intact.
So Tony talked a little bit about one of
the council's top priorities that we've
been working on and he demonstrated the
work that the staff has put into that
over a few years. Um he's been working
hard as you've heard on the backlog of
audits and we now have a successful plan
in place. He's been implementing the
financial consultant best practices
recommendations.
You
adopted the master fee schedule recently
with um improved fees that reflect the
true cost of providing these services to
our residents. And one of the key items
which we're talking about tonight is
preparation of a town charter and a real
property transfer tax ordinance that
placed on the ballot. And the the
guiding mission of that is to provide
locally controlled funding to ensure the
town's fiscal stability and autonomy
which I'll talk more about.
So you've seen this slide before. I want
to just note it has gotten worse in the
last month as we looked at our budget
and we looked at the cost for example of
the sheriff's contract. Um, and I think
some people look at this and they only
see the $700,000 ongoing structural
deficit and they think, well, that's all
you need to raise. But in fact, we've
deferred a lot of items. Um, this is
what I would call like the life support
plan. you know, we're on life support,
but eventually
um we there is an unfortunate outcome
when you're generally on life support.
And what we've seen is not uncommon to
cities. It's also not uncommon to
household budgets as they've looked at
inflation and growing costs, but our
expenses are increasing faster than our
revenues. And a lot of our revenues, you
know, comes from property taxes and it does not grow quickly. Um, I know
this community and you have heard a lot
about the law enforcement contract
class, but Tony and I looked at the
numbers recently and I'll tell you what
I saw when I stared at the numbers was
shocking that over f in five years since
um the contract cars started going up.
They've gone up 85%.
So we were at $1.37 million cost in 2122
and this year it's um 2.54 million.
That's an 85% cost increase. That is the
reality and that's not going down. If
anything, their cost will continue to go
up. Um and the general fund burden of
paying that also increased more 94%
because we had uh one time uh COVID
funds called the ARPID funds and we were
getting credits. But this harsh reality
is that this this has caught up with us
and so without new revenue our forecast
is the black line. Um, next fiscal year
the reserves will fall below our lowered
20% minimum that as you know was a new
policy adopted. It was previously 60%.
And our reserves will be depleted.
So to address this issue, we started
having the community engagement portion
which is dubbed the Portella Valley
conversation. Um, and we heard from
residents about, you know, what they
value and they told us they do value, of
course, public safety, and they value
emergency preparedness. Um, they also
value town autonomy and local control.
And they want our town, as I'm sure we
all do, is to become financially stable
and to maintain our autonomy, to have a
valid emergency reserve because again,
we are in an area that is ecologically,
geologically sensitive and now we have
the more increasing threat of fire. um
and they want us to be self-reliant or
resilient. Um what local control does is
it ensures it can't be taken by the
county, the Sacramento or the federal
government, which has been a track
record, right? We've seen that the
county level with the vehicle license
fees and that was a tough issue and is
still not resolved. Um and this county
has been fighting for every dollar and
sometimes the state just says we're
going to keep it. Um
so again this conversation with
surveying the residents um led to the
residents prioritizing that we should
protect our autonomy. We should protect
our ability to make our own local
decisions over zoning and over our
financing. And if we did lose that
independent status, our zone and land
use decisions would unfortunately be
made by the county. Um so we believe
it's important to keep our autonomy and
our ability to be self-reliant.
um it's just very important to us. So
when we surveyed the community
there were four top priorities that were
ranked um and in fact all there were
many and then they sort of got clustered
together but the number one interest of
the community right now is wildfire
prevention that includes the brush
management which the town does. We have
the chipper program and we pay um
Woodside Fire money to do this and no
they wouldn't do it for free if we
weren't paying Woodside Fire. We'd be
paying another vendor. It's expensive
work. Um, emergency response is
important to the community, of course.
Main maintaining the 911 emergency
response time, police patrols,
maintaining our town autonomy is
independence, as I talked about
previously, is important. And, um, also
important is our storm drain
infrastructure. We've seen heavier
flooding and heavier storms. And
repairing this deteriorating storm drain
is important to ensure that we don't
have flooding and water pollution and
sink holes. and it it can leads to lead
to roads washing out and that would be a
big problem in our community since we
basically have two main roads in. So,
this all led to the council being
presented with the option that we're
here to talk about tonight, um, which is
a town charter, which I'll talk a little
bit about what that means, and a
transfer tax. And again, that was the
most viable option supported by the
residents. Our finance and audit
committee did a lot of hard work and we
really want to thank them for looking at
a lot of options, but when you're
looking at a ballot measure, you really
have to pick one and only one. Um, you
can't have multiple options and this is
the one that would be the most
successful outcome for the town. Um, so
in April, the council directed us to
start this work um in earnest and
prepare the town charter. So, I'm really
proud that we completed both hearings on
the town charter already on in May and
June. Um, those are required. And again,
just to briefly up remind the council
and any new audience members what the
charter will do. It converts us from
what I'll call the generic or general
law to a charter town. Um, the this the
focus of this is on revenue authority.
And I want to emphasize that that's part
of our autonomy is having local control
over our revenue. Um the local revenue
goes 100% to the town. Um there would be
no change the town governance. We would
still have the town council and the town
manager form of government. Um and if
the charter can only be changed by the
voters. The again there's a lot the
charter doesn't do. And I think you can
read online about charters and some
cities are over 100 pages. Ours is
simple. It's two pages. It's meant to
enable this taxation. Um, it does not
affect local election procedures. It
doesn't change voting options. It
doesn't affect public contracting
prevailing wages. Ours is simple and
it's meant to accomplish what is most
important to this town. Um, and again,
charter towns are different than general
laws, but important to note, we follow a
lot of the same state laws. Um, and the
main thing again is that we have this
ability to enact this tax. Um, but it
doesn't change, you know, the our
adherence to the US and California
constitution. Um, and some people have
asked, is it a lot more expensive? No,
it's not that more expensive. Um, the
there's really no minimum no cost after
we pass the charter. Um, and the
election cost is about $6,000 to add
this to the ballot since it's statewide
ballot. Um,
so
now I've talked about the charter. I'll
talk about this the real property trans
transfer tax ordinance which the council
reviewed in detail two weeks ago. As I
reviewed at that meeting, this will be
an ordinance that amends our current
municipal code chapter and it will
eliminate what is the existing 27.5
cents per $500 or 55 cents per thousand
transfer tax and replace it with this
new real property transfer tax of $10
per 1,000
in locally controlled funding. That's
the staff recommendation. We are seeking
feedback tonight from the council, but I
want to pause there because there have
been a lot of community questions about
the rate and it's just remind the
council and the audience that the
council is explicitly authorized to
repeal or reduce that tax without going
to the voters. So, if for example um you
decide in the future that that was
generating enough revenue, you could
lower it to $8 or $7 and that could be
done very quickly with an ordinance. Um
and then if the council found themselves
in a financial predicament and then it
could be increased. Um as we talked
about the last meeting, we are not
recommending any changes at this time to
the current exemptions again in our
current ordinance. Those are largely
consistent with state law and that's the
simplest approach. We have been asked we
staff a lot of different exemptions.
There's a lot of well what if this or
what if that? What if we had a wildfire?
What if this happened? Again, the
council can add future exemptions by an
ordinance, which as you know goes in
effect 30 days. And I think if we did
have something as catastrophic like a
wildfire that affected a lot of
properties, all of a sudden lots of
properties were looking for sale. Um, we
would of course examine this. And it's
important to note that under our GAN
limit, which is a state requirement, we
do have a maximum amount that the the
count town council can authorize an
expenditure. So there are some checks
and balances. Another thing is
independent oversight and I just want to
emphasize that um that is which is in
the ballot measure question which I'll
show you soon. um that has been added to
the ordinance in the sense that the
current finance and audit committee um
would provide this independent oversight
that's consistent with their charter um
which allows them to have this oversight
of the revenue generated from the
measure as an again an independent
oversight
and we've gotten a lot of questions
about how this transfer tax actually
works. Um, again, people pay it now.
They may not remember they pay it, but
it's a $110 per thousand and it shows up
when you go to buy a property um on your
closure um escrow closing documents.
It's a one-time tax on the transfer. So,
if there's, for example, um tr transfers
of property from like a parent to a
child, but it's not an actual sale, this
doesn't apply. This is based on again
the transfer the sale of the property.
It's not an annual property tax and um
usually buyers and sellers negotiate.
Sometimes, you know, it's 50/50,
sometimes it's someone else pays it. But
um it's really important to remind
people that if you don't own property or
if you rent you tax and it is collected
again by the title company when you
close escrow and it I've heard it can be
rolled into the mortgage for some folks
too. But again, important to remember
that 100% of this town's
transfer tax would stay in the town and
the county separately retains its
documentary transfer tax.
Um, so again, a little bit more about
charter cities because a lot of people
have asked, you know, is that something
special? Are we unique? Um, right now a
little 26% of California cities have
charters. And in our area, um, there are
other transfer taxes like Sonteo, but
there's is only a commercial transfer
tax, which some cities have that. Um,
what I'm showing you here are other
cities that are more residential in
neighbor that n in nature that have
transfer taxes that would affect single
family properties. Um and our $10 per
thousand, which is a recommended rate,
is actually when you look at this on the
lower side. Um there are communities
around us like Mountain View that have
$15 on more um higher valued property
sales. Um, and there are places like
Piedmont, I just want to point out that
recently decided to have a ballot
measure in November to increase it up to
1.75% because they found that their
current rate, which is $13 per thousand
or 1.3% isn't adequate. Um, they're
similar to us. They're mostly
residential community without a lot of
tax revenue from other sources.
So, there's been a lot of talk about
what this money could be spent on, and
I'm not going to show you a slide with
any dollar amounts. Um, but I just want
to emphasize it would be a general tax.
and the council if this should pass
resolution should pass and the ballot
measure pass um they really need to roll
up their sleeves and and get get working
on the budgeting and the spending policy
which I'll talk a little bit more in
detail um after this passes and the
council could consider a spending plan
and policy because while this is the
list that came out of the community
surveying there's a lot more work to be
done in terms of how to spend the money
Um, generally there's allocations for
some of the things that again are are
safety related, but there's a lot of
other things that this could be spent
on. And some of this we've been talking
about like storm drains. We talked
earlier this year about a storm drain
master plan and the need to do that. Um,
so here's the ballot question and it was
in the packet in the resolution, but I
just want to show you this and then we
can come back to it later in the night.
Um this is staff's recommendation and I
want to emphasize that it has to be an
objective
um factual
um ballot question and we have been able
to document through our past um tax
revenues because again we collect this
revenue already. We've been collecting
it since 1967, the transfer taxes that the state allows us to. Um, and we
do think approximately $2 million is
what we would generate um when we look
into average home sales over the past um
15 years, but I can bring this back up
um for the discussion. But essentially
what we're asking the voters is do they
want to adopt a charter for the town of
Perola Valley solely for an establishing
a real property transfer tax of $10 per
$1,000. And again, that would be a
general tax, not a special tax.
So if the council decides to put this on
the ballot through adopting the
resolution tonight, then the town
attorney springs into action. She
actually has a lot of work to do because
she has the responsibility of writing an
impartial analysis and that's again an
impartial analysis of the effects of the
measure on existing law and operation.
Um so she would work on that and then
there are other pieces of this puzzle
including the arguments and the
rebuttals and those are public documents
um that are available to be reviewed
here
and for future consideration. I don't
want to get ahead of us, but I've just
we've had a lot of questions in the
community is sort of like, well, you
know, who decides where the money goes
and and what's the independent
oversight? What does that mean? As I
mentioned previously, the current
charter of the town's finance and audit
committee um includes provisions for
their independent oversight. And at our
meeting with them last Monday, there
were there were ideas um about a
spending policy and some ideas of the m
how the money could be allocated. So
Tony and I have worked on these um tax
measures in the past and what we've seen
is often a spending plan um policy
that's developed if the measure passes
um and it would be developed with the
committee and the community and there's
a lot of different elements that that
could be in but I just wanted to give
you a flavor of what those could be. Um
some of these things came up with the
finance committee last week. They are
keenly interested again in looking at
our reserve target because they were um
they lowered it recently to 20% with
then you're they made a recommendation
and you approved it but um that gives
them a little bit of pause when they
think about the town security. Um there
was an interest in maybe designating a
plan annual funding amount for capital
and safety projects. Um they they want
to look at
maybe potentially again thresholds for
when this tax and or the user utility
tax might be lowered upon meeting
threshold criteria. Um they obviously
are keenly interested in the audits. So
the this this fund would be audited and
their interest in transparent reporting
to the public. So, this is an item to
work on, but I just want the public to
know that there's a lot of work still to
be done and a lot of it comes around how
the money could be spent and a spending
policy is often a useful tool to shape
that. So, again, we've had a lot of
meetings since we've been talking about
this um March, April, May, June, July.
So, a lot. And tonight is your time to
consider placing this on the ballot. Our
filing deadline is August 7th. And if
approved by the voters with a simple,
which is a 50% plus one majority, then
the charter takes effect when the town
files it with the secretary of state
after the town certifies the election
results. And the ordinance which imposes
the tax is effective 10 days after the
council certifies the election results.
Um so tonight's meeting um based on the
purview of the mayor could be separated
into two different discussion items. The
first could be a more detailed
discussion of the transfer tax rate
because in the past we haven't um had
the rate as a discussion item and then
the ballot question text. I will tell
you that ballot question text writing is
an art um and a little bit of a science.
It was based on our you know our
scientific analysis but we are stuck at
75 words which makes um it very hard to
write this. And again, as I noticed, it
must be a true and impartial synopsis of
the purpose of the measure, and we have
to include certain requirements. Um, but
I want to also emphasize that the
impartial analysis that the attorney
prepares does flesh out some of the
items that I've talked about tonight in
more detail, um, such as the independent
oversight and and more information. So,
that and that will be prepared again
very quickly and that's included in the
voter pamphlet and so on. So that
concludes my staff report. Again, the
item before you tonight, which is read
by the mayor and published on our
agenda, is the consideration of this
resolution,
which would submit the item to the bot
to the ballot for the voters on November
3rd. So happy to answer any questions
you have.
>> Thank you, Darcy. Questions for Darcy?
Ellen,
>> um, could you guys turn off the fan?
It's Thank you. Okay.
Do you have any other questions for
Darcy?
>> Thank you.
It just was hitting me in the face. Um,
so for the record, um, because we've had
some questions and I don't mean to throw
a ringer out, but can you remind us
I don't uh why we're not doing a parcel
tax?
Well, the the simplest answer is that it
requires a higher majority threshold to
pass, which is 66.67%.
And generally,
it is very challenging for towns and
cities to meet that threshold.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um and can you also
remind us um why we came down at the one
number?
>> Yes. So the 1% or also referred to as
$10 per thousand um that was based on
the town's analysis of our financial
needs and you heard me say that we've
estimated the revenue at that level
would be approximately 2 million.
That's based on analyzing the current
property sales which we get from our um
tax consultant. And again we're
collecting this tax now. So, we have
real numbers of property sales and the
taxes that they paid. Um, and again, our
current exemptions and it would be
approximately $2 million and we believe
that's um the approximate number of our
funding needs based on where we are
right now. [snorts]
Thank you. Um, and remind me if this
were to get passed, would it be clear if
it's the seller or the buyer who would
be responsible for it? So, that is
negotiated
through the private transaction. It is
not specified by us. It's not specified
in state law and it's generally
something that realtors, buyers, and
sellers are aware of now because then
they've been paying it and they work out an agreement.
So, um
is uh and to add that it could we if we
wanted to to spell that out that they
would agree.
>> No, we cannot spell that out.
>> Okay.
>> When I say they've been paying it now,
they've been paying again the current
authorized rate which is 110 per
thousand. Right.
>> Okay. Great. Those are my questions.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
Questions to my right? Mary?
>> Any questions?
>> No questions. Okay, Judah.
>> Okay. Uh just a couple of uh
confirmations, clarifications.
When you talk about a spending plan and
policy, that just mechanically would be
something the council
is before the council. It's a council
decision.
>> Correct.
>> With finance and audit committee
um consultation,
>> correct? Input. Yes. And I would also
advise we have one community meeting
where it's presented and community input
is received.
>> Okay. And when we talk about independent
oversight
by the finance and audit committee, are
we changing the role of the you said
it's in their charter, but what is what
does that mean? Do they how like is it
similar to their role on audits at this
point? They review, they discuss, they
pressure test. Correct. It's similar to
that.
Also, they would have a similar role in
expenditure. So right now in their
charter they do review the town's budget
and the expenditure plan and so they
would also look at that because
the source of revenue is folded into our
annual budget. So it becomes part of
that budget package in terms of the
expenditures.
>> Okay. So there's nothing to do to change
that charter.
>> Correct. The charter would not need to
change it last week and it authorizes
this.
>> Okay. Those are my questions. Thank you.
Rebecca.
>> Um, I think I had all my questions
answered in our one-on-one. Thanks.
>> Okay, great. All right, so with that,
let me open it up to the public. Um, are
there any public comments? Are there any
com I'll mention that on schoolhouse,
please? Welcome.
» I need to push a
>> You do. No, not on that one. That one
will just
>> It's going. Yeah, it's going. U My
name's Richard Murk. I live at 171
Brookside Drive here in Portolo Valley.
Um I spent 32 years on the planning
commission and the town council
combined. My pictures up there on the
wall pretty close to Ted Driscolls. Um
and my concern is about I'm 81 years old
and I'm concerned about us old folks
that live in town that might be
transferring and oh you'll have to
excuse me. I have not read the details
of this. I only heard about this meeting
by seeing an old almanac and realizing
that there was a meeting tonight. That
was like an hour and a half ago. So, I'm
here unprepared. I'm sorry. But
my concern is that it's not clear to me
when you say a property transfer tax
that if I move my property into a family
trust whether I have to pay that tax or
if I leave uh my property to a child and
they inherit it with without having to
incur additional taxes under Proposition
13 and those following uh propositions.
Are those things exempted? How are they
handled? Is it clear how those things
are done? Because if if they're
exempted, I'm totally in favor of this.
But if they're not, um you're going to
have a fight on your hands.
» Thank you. Great. Thank you.
>> So, what I'd like to do is I'll take all
public comments and then we'll, you
know, answer some of the questions. And
generally, it's public comment, but we
try to answer important ones. I think
that the general public would be
interested in hearing the answers to the
questions you're asking as well. So, let
me go through everybody's public comment
and then we'll come back. Um, and Dart,
are you going to be prepared? So, you'll keep track of these. So, all
right. So, any other hands in the
schoolhouse?
All right. So, I don't see any other
hands in the schoolhouse. So, then let
me go online. Um, I see Dale's hand up.
Dale,
welcome.
Great. Uh, thank you. Can you hear me?
>> Uh, we can. You're fairly low, but we
can hear you.
>> I will try to speak up.
>> Thank you.
>> Okay. I've got uh three points. Uh,
number one, uh, since it appears that at
least one prior town manager and at
least one prior town council ignored
some fiduciary responsibilities, I would
like to see this council implement some real teeth so we don't get into
this mess again that includes teeth
about ensuring that audits are completed
on time and perhaps ensuring that there
is a balanced budget.
uh that would give me a lot lot more
confidence that we've resolved this
issue. We're not going to have it in the
future. Um number two, the ballot
language uh as at least I saw in the the
documents to me appears to be
disingenuous and maybe a little bit
misleading because the first item listed
is wildfire prevention. And you know, in
at least for the past several years, the
budget for wildfire mitigation in this
town has been less than the legal
budget. And I'm sorry, but but you can't
put it number one when we all know that
the real problem here is you're trying
to fill a hole to solve the problem of
the uh uh the sheriff's contract and
maybe a few few other things that have
been pushed off. So, I have a real
problem with with the language and I
think you ought to be honest about that.
And number three, uh I'm in support of
Betsy Morganthal's letter that I saw in
the comments uh about maybe making it $8
instead of 10 because let's be honest,
you will never decrease your tax burden.
And if it's eight, then maybe you have
to work on a lower budget and if you
need to, you can raise it, but I I hate
to see it start at 10 because I know
you'll never decrease it. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Dale.
Is there anybody else online that would
like to comment?
» All right, I don't see any hands online.
Let me bring it back to the council for
discussion. Um I would like to actually
discuss both of these at the same time.
I don't see any reason to bifrocate
them. So as we go through um I think
it's basically comments both on the
amount and then um on the ballot
wording.
So anybody like to start?
>> Just a procedural question. Um, do you
want us to raise any public comments for
clarification while we're making our
>> Actually, why why don't we since that
was relatively small public comments,
why don't we do that now? So, thank you.
I I appreciate. So, Darcy, if we could
address um a couple of Richard's
questions in particular and um I think
we could comment on a few of Dale's as
well.
>> Yes. So,
it's important to note this transfer tax
is assessed essentially on a sale. And
so, if a property is transferred into a
revocable living trust where the current
owner remains the granter or
beneficiary, that's just a nominal
change in title, not a sale. So, there
would be no tax assessed. Um, a transfer
to a child is consider if it was a true
gift or inheritance, not like in your
will, like I'm going to sell my daughter
my house for $2 million
versus the market value of 10 million.
But if it's a true gift, as you know,
there are federal and estate taxes that
could be imposed, but this again is not
a sale. And so it would be exempt from
the transfer taxes. But I just want to
pause there because many times estates
are more complicated. Um, but this came
up last time and I want to also say it's
very different than like your property
tax assessments. This is a essentially a
one-time fee on a deed recorded sale.
>> And and it's worth mentioning that the
exemptions are the exemptions that exist
today in state law. We're not adding
it's exactly the same set.
>> Correct. Yeah. Um, so then the other
question was raised by Dale about
wildfire prevention spending. And I want
to emphasize, and we've talked about
this with the budget, that we've trimmed
our wildfire prevention budget. We
trimmed our days that we pay Woodside
Fire to do the work um for clearing. And
it's I mean I it's significantly less
than what Tony and I as your budget team
would recommend to you. Um and it's just
the reality that we've been living in.
Again, we're on life support. So when
you're on life support, you can't really
fund what you want to fund. So I don't
think people should look at the current
budget or again the $700,000
deficit and say, "Oh, that's how much we
need." And I've gotten that question a
lot. And and I might add on the wildfire
prevention. I mean, Woodside actually
provides residents a sort of matching
grant and we've talked about it and and
the fire department has actually
recommended that we implement that, but
given our current um budget situation,
there's no chance we're going to do
that, but with this ballot measure, that
would be something that we could
consider in our spending plan. We're not
committing to it, but it's definitely
something that we could consider um
after looking at our other needs.
>> Correct. Correct. and our safety element
which we're working on and the local
hazard mitigation plan which was
prepared by the county has things in it
like the grant because they're
interested in how we're reducing the
wildfire hazard. So yeah, we're not
keeping up with our neighbors and we're
not honoring our plans which is
unfortunate predicament. Um the other
question about the audits,
we are required to do audits and we have
a plan to catch up and I I know that
Tony and I and the finance staff, the
team you have now audits are important
and we will adhere to the state
requirements of completing them every
year. Um, there was also a comment about
a balanced budget. Um, and that would be
a policy decision with council, but I
think that could be part of how you look
at your long-term financial plan and
again the spending plan for this.
>> Great. Thank you. Okay. So with that
council discussion,
anybody would like to go first or would
you like
>> I actually have a follow-up question to
confirm on those points. So um I'm
looking at So what you've attached is
exhibit B. The ordinance shows changes
from the currently applicable transfer
tax
which is being repealed and it shows the
changes. So essentially it's the same
ordinance. Um do we can we confirm today
that if someone's allowing their
children to inherit a property that the
current tax does not apply?
That's my understanding. Yeah.
>> And Katherine, do you have any I I don't
have any additional concern with that. I
mean this is um like you said this has
been on the books for a long time and
I'm not aware of any tax for a gift
>> for a gift. Okay.
>> And a conveyance would like legally
speaking a conveyance for an inheritance
would be a quote gift.
I just want to make sure that we're
really tight on this and that we're
comfortable that it like I don't want to
do research tonight, but I did want
confirmation that we haven't been
charging less on the current one because
the only thing we're changing are some
of the very specific rate and um a
couple of um sentences that are
underlined. Otherwise, it's the exact
same thing we're living under.
And again, the current ordinance um
refers to the tax rate. Um you know, the 27.5 cents for each $500. And uh
again, it's our understanding is you
know, the town is actually zero.
>> If it's zero, then it's then it's also
zero.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um,
and then to the point of
a hard commitment on
always doing audits on time and the
like, I thought one policy like behind a
bunch of laws is that this council
cannot bind future councils. Is that
also a factor in considering that we can
decide what's appropriate for us? But I don't see how you could do that
legally. Yeah, that is generally a legal
principle that current councils cannot
bind future councils. Uh I I would note
that this ordinance does in section two
contain financial sorry fiscal
accountability provisions that does uh
clarify the role of the um the town's
finance and audit committee uh pursuant
to its charter authority. uh the the
idea wasn't to give them you know
additional responsibilities but really
to clarify that as part of their
existing charter authority to provide
this independent review and oversight uh
the the funds that are generated by this
uh tax would be included in the audit
and would be reviewed uh by the
committee and they would make
recommendations to the council as they
have been doing um in their oversight
capacity.
>> Okay. And and then J's one thing I'd say
this I mean a council can set a policy a
future council can change that policy
but in between it sets an expectation
with the public and so when the new
council changes that policy if that's
not meeting the expectations of the
public then the public can speak out. So
I mean at least it sets an expectation
even if it doesn't bind a future
council.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm I I was just
wanting to put a fine point on that
because it is something that I think
we've considered in other contexts and
that's been a running theme for me. So I did want to bring out that principle.
Okay, those are the questions that were
followup. So you can do with it.
>> Oh, that's great. So do you want to make
you We're kind of in discussion section.
>> Sure. [laughter] Okay. Um
there's been a lot of work, there's been
a lot of analysis, there's been a lot of
consultation, input. Um this has been a
long process over a year and it's very
clear to me that we need to be um doing
something for the viability of our town.
I think we've done a lot of thinking
through of how this should look. I do
think that even a 50% plus one success
uh is going to require simplicity,
communication,
um attention
and I personally think keeping things as
simple as possible for now is in our
interest. We have to do something. So is
this perfect? Um I think it's in the
range of being very useful and yes I
support it. Um both as to the rate and
um
uh the language um no ballot measure is
you know Shakespeare and it's uh always
going to be something that you can
parse. Um and a ballot measure you know
there is an art to putting that together
that I'm not an expert in. So I tend to
look at that language as something
that's been pressure tested by the
people we've engaged who are more
familiar with that landscape. So I I
feel pretty strongly that we ought to
keep it simple. We pulled on the $10 per
thousand. I respectfully disagree that
we'll never put it down. I actually do
suspect though the capital improvement
projects we have put off for way too
long are going to be a hurdle to get
through because we're going to have a
period of years where we're having to
prioritize and set with the finance
committees um consultation and good
thinking ways of establishing a rolling
budget or a way to identify key capital
improvement projects.
But at some point we will get through
that and we should never be charging
more than we we need the variables we
deal with with the sheriff's contract.
Um even with the wood chipping and and
the like. Um I think people in town
would probably want to spend more on
wildfire prevention. I I think the harsh
realities of this year and what we're
dealing with have influenced um what
we've been able to do within the budget.
So um I think I would keep it simple. I
support it pretty much as it is. I think
people are asking really great questions
and that I would encourage people to
continue to ask questions and pressure
test and understand because it's in all
of our interest for the public to
understand why, what, and how and uh
move forward. So those are my comments.
>> Thank you.
Mary Rebecca might go next. Mary.
>> Well, uh, I have been a long proponent
of a charter, uh, town. I think it's
very much in the character of Porto
Valley to be a charter town. I u this is
definitely not my vision of what the
charter town would have looked like if
we had done the full um the full charter
town analysis. I looked pretty carefully
at the history over the last six years
at of charter towns and why we weren't a
charter town. Uh, and I don't think
there was ever a good reason. I think we
did it uh really very quickly. Um, and
sort of in an emergency kind of fashion
to become a town. Um, I think Charter
Town was much more suitable for for
Portolo Valley. uh this this particular
charter doesn't change anything in the
governance um and which is a good thing
because we're not ready for a lot of
changes there. So uh I'm in complete
support of getting the charter town at
least process started. Um this the uh
transfer tax
um a characteristic of Porto Valley is
uh is that we are a resilient
uh rural community uh dedicated to the
idea that we can in fact cope with
emergency situations. You cannot cope
with emergency situations if you have no
financial reserves. We are virtually
we're down from 60% which was our
historic uh reserve down to 20% under
our leadership. I'm not comfortable with
moving forward at a 20% and I'm
certainly not comfortable moving forward
at a zero reserve which is what we're
looking at within our foreseeable very
closely foreseeable future two years.
So, uh, I'm 100%, uh, in support of this
ballot measure, moving it forward and
moving it forward at the $10
level. And the reason why I'm in for
that is that within five years, we can
be as resilient as we were five years
ago. Uh and that to me this is this is a
time when when we need as a town to
invest in our town. We really can't rely
on anyone else uh in an emergency
situation and we need to have these
resources in order to be able to move
forward safely. So from a from a public
health point of view but also from just
a community resilience point of view,
this is critical. This is absolutely
timesensitive and we're doing it fast
and we need to do it now.
>> Thank you, Mary. Ellen, Rebecca,
Ellen,
>> sure. Um, so, um, you know, uh, I get
asked often how this town is on the
fiscal cliff, right? Um, but many nearby
cities are fiscally constrained right
now. hugely constrained. Um costs have
just gone up, public safety, the costs
of uh you know labor costs. We also have
a history of volunteers in the city and
because of that um
uh the piece of the pie we get from the
uh county is smaller than what other
counties get. Um but we also have a
history of pulling ourselves up by our
bootstraps. So, um, and I want to
continue to enjoy Portal Valley's
autonomy. I, you know, Mike Calig and
the county, like, God bless you guys and
my friends in the planning department
over there. Um, but I, I really want
Port Oral Valley to have autonomy around
land use and our safety issues. I want
to make sure that we um
uh are able to do our evacuation route.
Um we have put off a lot of the areas
fire protection and evacuation shortened
town hours uh you know to have town hall
open um a skeleton staff which stresses
them out and uh doesn't always serve the
public um capital projects around our
storm drains like I just you know what
wakes you up at night um that is one of
the things that you worry about like you
know as we face El Nino like is the town
going to make it through this next year
without a catastrophic breakdown. Um,
you know, and too many potholes that we
didn't used to all have those. And the
list goes on. The town un, you know,
this is bitter, but the town needs the
money to continue enjoy uh enjoying what
we've got. So, I support it. Um, I
support the $10 per 10,000. Um,
uh, because, you know, I do think that
we have these capital projects in front
of us. So, um, so I appreciate how staff
has gotten us to this point and, uh, and
what you guys have done and, um, the
legal aspects. You know, I used to say I
would never vote for, you know, I did
not support a charter city and here I
voted for it and I'm voting for this
tax. So,
never say never. Thank you. [laughter]
Here we are.
>> Thank you, Helen.
Rebecca.
>> Um,
yeah. I mean, that's it's obviously
always a challenging um decision for a
council to decide to raise
um a revenue measure to help uh pay for
the town services.
Um,
Valley has very limited options. I think
we all recognize that we are essentially
a residential bedroom community. We
don't have a lot of uh commercial. We
have no hotel. We have no boutique
hotel. We don't have a boutique
uh convention center or something that
might bring in extra money. Uh all we
have is, you know, mainly residential
mainly homes. And the reality is that
our homes don't actually turn over very
often, which means that a significant
number of our residents have been able
to enjoy living in Porto Valley for 50
60 70 80 years
um because their taxes haven't gone up
that their taxes don't cover the actual
cost of the town to operate the town.
So, um, we are at this point. We've had
the finance and audit committee explore
a lot of options. The staff as well.
We've been looking at this for two
years. Two years we've been exploring
all sorts of different options. And
ultimately, the decision for a charter
town with um a re uh a property tax, a
transfer tax is what is made the most
sense. Um, we hired a very experienced
uh consultant who has had tremendous
success with getting their ballot
measures passed and we took their
advice. We are taking their advice. Um
they we they had us do a survey, a
scientifically um designed survey to to
understand the appetite of the residents
to be willing to make a larger community
contribution to supporting the town and
to helping the town run and be fiscally
um responsible. Um I think u many people
have underestimated how many how much
the costs have gone up. We already heard
today and in the packet that in the past
five years, our public safety, our
sheriff's contract has gone up 85%.
Um,
you know, if you look at housing, our average housing has gone up
in that same five periods, less than
25%.
So, obviously, we can't keep up um with
sheriff costs if they keep going up like
that. And it's similar in other areas.
We all have had increases in insurance
costs um just like the town has. Um
staffing has gone up because staff have
had increases in their costs. So we do
have to recognize that we have very few
levers that we can play with in order to
have a functioning town. So this one
based on many people studying it for
many months um makes the most sense. Um
and I wanted to say that based on the
polling and based on the advice of our
consultants,
uh the 10% was what the community was
reason what what a majority of the
community 60% felt was reasonable. And I
do want to say that we have built into
the whole
um ordinance and the whole ballot
measure the ability to have tremendous
amount of flexibility so that if we do
stabilize our reserves and and enable
them to come back up to 60%.
If we um set aside a million dollars a
year for our capital projects and our
safety projects that have been left
languishing for five years or more.
um and we start making a lot of progress
on that in a few years it's entirely
possible that we would be able to reduce
this somewhat um and by leaving it at
10% in the ballot measure means that we
have that flexibility
>> so you keep saying 10% but you need 1%
$10 per thousand
>> yes thank you for that $10 per thousand
thank you for for correcting the 1%
um
so I I think that flexibility is really
helpful And for those who say that that
councils have never reduced it, that is
not true. I mean, our UUT was actually
reduced a few years ago. So, um, and
perhaps that's led to some of the issues
that we now have. But um
I I think having that flexibility,
having the the fiscal accountability
procedures in place, um having the
ability of the town council and future
town councils to make modifications find
that it's necessary, um is really
important. Um and I think, um I I trust
our finance department to keep us on
track with the budgets. They've been
very frugally responsible. they've been
um very careful to recommend um expenses
that that um we can bear right now. Um
but the recognition is that we have have
had a a not a 100% balanced budget but
as close as we can make it based on
things like deferring capital expenses.
So when you I have seen costs for other
towns that have done a storm drain
evaluation report. This is just the
report, not the repairs. Um, and then
it's on the order of $300,000 to
$500,000.
So, if we're talking about putting aside
a million dollars for safety and, you
know, capital projects, the the report
alone eats up almost, you know, a third
to a half of that money. And that
doesn't count for repairing, you know,
50-year-old um storm drains, you know,
that have rusted out and that could lead
to washing out an entire neighborhood if
they were to fail. So, I think it's um
really important and also I I've been
working with Craig about um the safety
element and we've been putting together
this repository of all of the recommend
recommended actions that our safety
committees have recommended and the list
has 260 items on it. Um that doesn't say
all those items need to be done. Many of
them or not many but quite a few have
been already done and and they're in
ordinances. But there's a large number
of items that our our safety committees
are recommending that we tackle and we
have had no money to do those. So I
think it's important that we um raise
sufficient money to be able to safeguard
the town and the polling said very
clearly that people are very concerned
about wildfire and that's pro that's why
it's listed first. Not because we're
planning to spend the most amount of
money on the first item, but legally
this is a um a tax that is for um
general spending that will include a
number of items including wildfire
preparation and the others that are
listed there that are priorities
communicated by our town. So, um at this
point, I recommend that we approve this
as written uh with the 1%
um tax rate.
Thank you. So, I'd like to thank my
fellow council members for your
comments. I agree with I think all of
them. Um, I'd also like to say that, you
know, I believe in this town. Um, I
believe in our general plan. We
have can we have built a town that's
special and that process has been
intentional. We haven't gotten here by
accident. Um, we have buildings that are
subservient to the land. We have limited
lighting. We have limited fencing.
That's because the town exists and we
control our own destiny. And I think
that that's critical. And it's critical
that we do that in the future. For
people who don't know, because we have
always been efficient and frugal, we get
4 cents on every property tax dollar.
It's so low that they had to pass
another ordinance to round it up to 7%.
We get the lowest property tax rate of
any jurisdiction in the county. So, I
think it's important to know that this
is not a town that's spending money hand
over fist. Um, I believe that the $10 is
the right one. I believe it sets a
ceiling. Um, and I think that's
important. Um, as I think Rebecca
mentioned, we have lowered the UTS. So
councils have lowered the taxes. And I
would also remind the public that if we
get to the point where we have an
outofcrol council that is not careful
with money that this can be withdrawn by
the voters. This is not permanent. This
is not forever. This is until the voters
decide whether they want to continue. So
I think we have safeguards in terms of
the voters and I also think we have
safeguards in terms of the council
because I have found that our councils
have been thoughtful and that the
councils generally do not believe that
overt taxing the citizens is one of
their goals. So I'm comfortable and that
you know the the controls that we have
is we could lower UT and we can also
lower the um real property tax the real
property transfer tax. So, I'm
comfortable with the controls we have
for for lowering this. So, I I think
that that stuff will work well in our
favor.
So, I I think in closing, I would just
say, you know, I love Portola Valley. I
want to protect our values. So, I'm very
much in favor of this. Um, as much as I
dislike taxes, I'm not in favor of tax
general, but I believe that this is the
right thing for the town to do now.
So with that, I would entertain a motion
to do we need to read the whole thing.
Can I just sort of point us? I mean, I'm
happy to read it.
>> Uh, no, you can refer Well, the the
resolution. Um,
>> might be just to be clear, it might be
good if we could just pull up the
language.
>> I mean, it's or adoption of the
resolution submitted to the voters of
Porto Valley. um a measure both to adopt
a town charter and to authorize a real
property transfer tax at the general
election to be held on Tuesday, November
3rd, 2026 um as called by resolution
3001-2026.
So I would accept a motion and a second.
>> Second.
>> Okay, we have a motion. We have a
second. All in favor?
>> I. Any opposed? I hear no opposition.
Thank you very much everyone. This has
been a long hard set of deci, you know,
discussions and decisions and then we'll
go on. I I think one thing we've heard
from the other council members, I think
particularly Judas was right, if members
of the public have questions, they
should ask them. We want to make sure
that we are crystal clear on what the
consequence of this um ordinance or this
resolution is. So with that, I'm going
to close 8B and move on to agenda item
number nine. So are there any oral um
subcommittee liaison committee or agency
reports?
See none on this side one. Okay, go
ahead Helen.
>> Um so the wildfire,
do you mind if I do this report actually
the wildfire or are you going to do it?
>> I submitted something paper for next
time, but that's welcome. You're welcome
to go ahead and
>> um Okay. I just wanted to um let council
know I am not the leazison. So
um but uh one shoreline did go to the
wildfire committee
um last Wednesday. I think it was last
Wednesday, Thursday, sorry. and uh and
they approved being part of a pilot for
the for the county along with Hillsboro
and then there'll be a coastal area um
uh for fire to help a pilot to help with
wildfire insurance and it's a minimum of
25 households and it's to be determined
where in town it would be. Um so the
wildfire committee is working on that.
Um, do you want to add anything?
>> Yeah. Can I add one other thing?
>> Um, one shoreline was recommending that
we identify where the greatest
concentration of homes that have been
forced to go onto the fair plan. So, I
would really love it if our residents
could let us know if they are on the
fair plan because that would help us
determine, you know, sort of localize
what neighborhood made the most sense to um participate in this pilot. And the
pilot is about home hardening and um
vegetation clearance, sort of the impact
of that might have on a larger
neighborhood scale in terms of helping
to reduce um insurance rates. So we'd
like to identify that. So if you're on
the fair plan, please talk to um MJ Lee
over at the wildfire preparedness
committee or probably you can just call
into the town as well or email into the
town to let us know that you're on the
fair plan.
Um, and also can I'll just add a couple
other things. So, um, it should not it's
not expected to cost the town anything.
So, I wanted to bring that up. Um, and
then uh the the pilot will bring in um
uh um like contractors and scale of
economy. So hopefully there'll be, you
know, a savings to homeowners, but the
homeowners would probably need to pay
for their home hardening themselves to
explain the economics of the of the
pilot. And so not everyone will want to
be part of it, which is understandable,
but hopefully there's a scale of economy
because of bringing, you know, uh, doing
more home hardening all at once. So
that's the idea, too.
>> So thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> All right. With that, I'm going to open
it up for public comment. Is there any
public comment on agenda item number
nine? I see no one in the room with
their hands up.
And I see no hands online.
All right. So, I'm going to bring it
back to the council um and look for a
motion to adjurnn.
>> Motion to adjurnn.
>> Second.
>> Okay. We have motion. Second. All in
favor?
>> I Thank you everyone.