I will call this meeting to order at 5.03 p.m. We're going to begin with 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 city council subject
matter jurisdiction for up to three minutes during this section. State law prohibits the
council from acting on non-agenda 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.
Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person?
Is there no roll call?
No roll call yet. Okay.
If anyone, if any member of the public would like to join us virtually or in person,
I'd like to provide us a comment on this item.
If so, please 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.
All
right, first up, we have Jack Vorse, followed by Joel Tor Road, followed by Sue Tor Road,
followed by Ronald Yin, followed by Robert Townsend, then Sherry Sanger, and then Ron Sanger.
Go ahead.
Good afternoon.
Dear council members, my name is Jack Vorse, and my wife is Linda Lenmoire.
We have four children and three grandchildren.
children. I have been a resident a mountain view for over 40 years. We live on
Glenborough Drive directly across the street from beautiful Sylvan Park.
Recently my neighbors and I noticed that the grassy area of the park near our
homes was no longer being watered and therefore the grass was dying. We
notified the parks department and they responded that the area had
been identified as non-functional but would no longer be maintained with
grass. We and our neighbors had never been notified that this idea was even being considered.
We would have suggested other areas of the park which are much less utilized. The parks
representative apologized for this lack of communications during the project planning
phase. The area of concern is at the corner of Glenborough Drive and Sullivan Drive.
For the past 40 years, this area has been used as a gathering point for neighborhood
parties, holiday celebrations, yoga, tai chi, and small children's games, etc.
Assembly Bill 1572, which was quoted to us by the Parks Department, is a proactive
measure to safeguard California's vital drinking water supplies. In it,
non-functional turf is defined as grass that serves no practical purpose for
human activity or recreation. Quote, areas that are not regularly used for sports play
or social gathering. This is not the case for the area selected. Last week, the entire
area was covered with 6 to 12 inches of coarse black mulch, making it completely unusable,
unstable to walk on, and as well as unsightly. It now looks like the waste from a coal
mine. I completely support the city's water saving and biodiversity plans but I think the
area selected is completely wrong. With new housing the city's population is rapidly growing
and thus the need for usable park space will be ever more important. I would be happy to discuss
other areas of the park that we'd be less utilized in accordance with the city's plan.
During this time when the nation is so polarized we need to keep community green spaces
is where we can come together and feel connected to each other.
I would like to invite the City Council members
to come and view the area.
An area that was once beautiful
and a community gathering point
has become unsightly and unusable.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you.
Next we have Joel Torode and then Sue Torode.
But if you guys could line up so you can just go right after another, that would be great.
Thank you very much and I, my wife and family have lived here for 40 years.
We've enjoyed every bit.
You've done a fantastic job with our city and we're so happy that we live here.
And I want to say today, we just heard less than a week ago what was happening
to our park.
Park. We live at Solvendilva, Solvendrive, right across, not across the street, but Kitty
Corner from that area and see it frequently being used by people who live nearby and
partially by. We would have been happy to be part of an organization or part of a group
that was going to get together and talk about where the park is going and how it's
going to be used in the future.
And it's been a wonderful place for our grandchildren
and children as well to be a participant
in what takes place in that park area.
So I thank you again.
And our mayor who's done a fantastic,
even in our main street down here in Mountain View
in the town itself for places for nourishment
and places to go eat at night.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Next we have Sue Terode.
Thank you so much, Council. I appreciate you taking us tonight.
My name is Susan Terode. I live at 539 Sullivan Drive in Mountain View.
We moved in in July 1986 when that home was just being built.
and it has been a marvelous place for our children to grow up, for our grand
children to grow up, and I have to tell you that history-wise back in the 1990s
we even had 4th and July celebrations of parades that would go down there. The
Mountain View Fire Department would lead the way and the dogs were all
dressed up and the kids were all in their bicycles. It was a fantastic
fantastic place. And right in that particular area was where we would gather all the time
every year. We even had karaoke meetings out there. It was just an amazing time that we
had. And I have to tell you that is the People's Park. It is, we see every day going
through all day long people walking, walking through the park. We even have been walking
for years through there. I did four or five laps at one time and it's just in a marvelous time.
But the one thing that stands out in my mind is that we had my father-in-law live with us for
eight years. It was such a privilege and honor to have him in our home. But he loves that park
and he was there all every single day always walking there and it meant so much
to him that when he passed away the family and I we gathered and had the
ability to be able to put a park bench there in his memory and we go by there
yeah all the time every week and we see that park bench but I tell you it's not
Not empty, there's somebody sitting there all the time, but that particular corner has
been a historic place for all of us for over good grief in 30 years.
And it's a lovely, wonderful place.
And I just wish you could see some of the times when the gatherings there, when the cookouts
are there and it's right there.
and so we hope that you will understand and see how much this little corner it may
just seem like a little corner but it means so much to that neighborhood and
it's for the people and I know you care about it because you wouldn't be sitting
there where you are and you wouldn't be serving where you are if you didn't
care so thank you so very much thank you thank you next we have Ronald yin
followed by Robert Townsend.
Hello.
Hello, my name is Ronald Yin,
and I reside at 547 Sullivan Drive.
I resided at that address
for more than 40 years.
I'm here to address the
replacement of the turf with mulch
at the corner of Sullivan and Glenboro,
which is only four houses away
from where I reside.
While the replaced mulch is
unattractive as well as being unsafe
and done without the residents' feedback,
back, I would let others address this issue. I will stick to the issue of the purported
goal of the replacement. As sensibly I'm told that the replacement was to comply with AB1572,
which is to reduce nonfunctional turf, and I emphasize the word nonfunctional, which
means no function, not underutilization. I submit that the replaced turf was very
functional for at least two reasons. As I've said, I've lived there for more than 40 years
and for at least the majority of that period of time, nearly every 4th of July celebration
has occurred on that plot of soil. Activities occurred in which lawn chairs and tables and
barbecues would be supplied by the neighbors and children's games would be played at
that area. The other day, however, I walked through that area and I nearly twisted my ankle.
It's no longer functional. It is a veritable lawsuit waiting to happen. The second reason
for regarding the functionality of the turf is that more recently the City Council has
encouraged the formation of many neighbors to look after one another in the event of
in our neighborhood, major disasters such as an earthquake.
In our block area, we've called the formation of the cool kids block,
which as you know is to encourage neighbors to help one another in the event of a disaster.
Well, we the coop, we the coop kids meet there in that corner,
regularly to discuss activities in our neighborhood.
This is no longer possible, we no longer can put lawn chairs there or tables there for
half a pollock, similar to what's happening with the 4th of July then.
So I would respectfully that I request the city to reconsider this decision and restore
the corner lot to its former state.
Thank you.
Next we have Robert Townsend followed by Sherry Sanger.
Thank you. I concur with everyone else who's already spoken. I have an office that overlooks
this piece of grass or was grass and there were people there every day. I would say that
when parks people showed up they would leave because they were going to dig or make noise
or do something. So maybe the city staff would go there and not see anyone just because
of their own presence. But this is a place that's regularly used. The Sutter Health people
have lunch there almost every day in the good weather.
So it's just a very functional piece of area.
I know that we have to reduce water use, and I feel nimby-ish, which is not a good feeling.
However, this is an important piece of land that's made nonfunctional.
I think that made my points. Thank you.
Thank you. Next we have Sherri Sager, followed by Rod Sager.
here. I hope I pronounced that right. Seager. Seager. Seager. Hello. So I'm going to be reading
a letter from one of our neighbors who... You can get closer to the mic. Oh, I'm going
to be... You can move the mic too. Is this good? Yeah. I'm going to be reading a letter
from one of our young neighbors instead of all of us old folks. She couldn't be here.
she is picking up her kids from after-school activities. Dear Mayor and members of the
Mountain View City Council, I am writing as a long-time Mountain View resident and neighbor
of Sylvan Park to kindly ask the city to reconsider the recent decision to replace the park's
grassy area with brown mulch. When my family moved next to Sylvan Park in 2016, my son
was two and I was pregnant with my daughter. This neighborhood park and especially a simple
open grassy space was one of the things that made it such a wonderful place to raise our
family. My children are now 12 and 9 and that field has been part of their childhood. They
have kitsch soccer balls, thrown frisbees, played with friends, celebrated birthdays,
enjoyed picnics and simply run around there countless times. Its value was its flexibility.
It was an open, accessible place where children could play, families could gather and
neighbors could enjoy being outdoors, especially as an alternative to the bigger main field
which is often crowded and used for other activities. That is why I was surprised and saddened to
see the grass removed and replaced with mulch. I understand that the city may be balancing
water conservation, maintenance costs and other environmental priorities. I strongly
support those goals. At the same time replacing grass with mulch changes the function
of this particular space. Children can no longer comfortably play soccer or frisbee and the area is
no longer suitable for the informal play and picnicking at once supported. We have lost
more than grass. We have lost usable recreational space. I hope the city will distinguish between
decorative turf and grass that serves an active recreational purpose. As Mountain View
becomes denser and many families have little or no private yard space, flexible public
areas where children can simply run and play are increasingly important. Open grass can serve as a
soccer field, a picnic area, a birthday party space, or simply a place for children to invent
their own games. These informal spaces also help build community. Over the years this field has
brought children, parents and neighbors together in ways that are difficult to measure but
meaningful to the life of the neighborhood. This was not unused or purely decorative grass.
It was actively serving as recreational space and its removal has reduced the parks usefulness for neighborhood families.
I respectfully ask the City Council and Park staff to reconsider this decision and explore restoring the area as a usable play space.
If conventional surf is inconsistent with current sustainability goals, I would welcome consideration of drought-tolerant recreational turf
for another environmentally responsible child friendly.
Thank you.
All right, next we have Rod Seger.
Would the council consider giving her another 30 seconds, and I'll cut my time?
If you're reading a letter, you could probably just read the end of the letter for her.
Okay.
She asked for the city staff to seek more input.
input. The staff did ask us for input after decisions had been made when we made our input.
We were told in that meeting on August 5th that no changes would be made in the plan
that they waited to put turf in until they talked to us. But they also informed us at
that time that they were going to proceed with plans. The last paragraph of the letter
those states. Silva Park has been part of my children's lives for as long as they can remember
and I'm grateful they have had the opportunity to grow up with the park beside their home.
I hope future children in our neighborhood will have the same opportunity.
Thank you for your time, consideration and service to our community.
So I guess my job a little bit is to summarize this and to say thank you so much for being
willing to listen to us. We've had something of a frustrating experience. But I want to
state a couple of things. Number one, I think everybody here, most of the people that I know
in our neighborhood support the urban forest and biodiversity policy that was adopted
by City Council in June. We think it makes sense. We understand the need and that there
are varying needs within our community. So in terms of summarizing things, usable functional
space within Sylvan Park has been lost. Biodiversity at this point has not been enhanced and it's
not budgeted based on what we've been told by staff. The area selected for conversion
from irrigated turf is not consistent with AB 1572.
We were told that AB 1572 was a driving force
behind decreasing irrigated turf.
Future plans are likely to further decrease
functional areas of Sylvan Park.
If anything, we think more functional turf
within our community is important.
And in the context of the housing density is likely to increase in our community.
And for physical and emotional well-being, we need more, not less.
The ask, though, that we have is restoration of functional turf to Sylvan Park at the
corner area, bordering Sullivan and Glenborough Drive.
We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to us and having this
opportunity. It's been great and thank you so much. Thank you. We will now move on
to virtual speakers.
It looks like we have two online.
I'm so sorry I have messed up your name on that.
Here I'm muted.
Hello.
Do you hear me?
I can hear you.
Yes.
Okay.
Thank you.
Good evening, City Council members.
My name is Itongun Son, a resident of the Jemini Avenue.
I'm here to ask, does City Council members to consider excluding Jemini Avenue from
streets where oversize vehicles can park?
Germany Avenue sits between a residential and an industrial area which is
separated only by a row of bushes at night it was it is quite isolated and
oversized vehicles parking there are turning it into what feels like as a
resident on encampment a real safety risk for residents. These oversized vehicles
routinely stay far longer than 72 hours sometimes over a month even parking
parking right in front of the gate, police say there's nothing they can do since there's
no ordinance against it.
Meanwhile, people repair cars and load and unload the stuff, idle engines, and run generators
right in front of our homes, again, with no ordinance to stop it per police.
When the city set a narrow street rules for oversized vehicle parking, it should have
considered a neighborhood character, not just a street width.
It's over 40 feet or not.
I'm respectfully asking the city council to start a real discussion about
excluding residential areas like Germany Avenue from oversized vehicle parking.
Thank you for your attention. Thank you. Next we have April Webster.
Hi, good
evening. I sent a letter earlier today for the performance view that built on
a joint letter that I and a few other members of the community submitted last
I snuck it in pretty late, so apologies.
I'm speaking just for myself tonight,
and I wanted to add one point that didn't make it into the letter.
And that is, as the CTO role takes shape,
I'd really like to see it bring a more multidisciplinary
and human-centered approach to transportation.
One that can bring together engineering with planning,
human factors, accessibility, sustainability,
and then really focus on the way people experience our streets,
transportation is really a human system so it matters how people perceive risk
and they make decisions how they make mistakes and how they experience the
streets and this is especially true for children older adults and less
confident users. I've also been chatting with Caltran staff recently
about the the rank store Green Complete Streets project on the SB-1
grant and one thing that keeps standing out to me in there as well as this
It's how multidisciplinary it is and how it connects transportation with land use,
accessibility, safe systems, green infrastructure, etc. So it's really not just an engineering problem.
And I wanted to also share Caltrans Complete Streets team as a really interesting example
of a leadership that takes its form. I learned about this a year or so ago and I was really
pleasantly surprised to learn that the person that they hired to lead that
team at headquarters has a more of a non-traditional background. Her name's
Suzy Lindsay and she comes from landscape architecture and she shared with me
that they had interviewed a number of folks in from the engineering background
but they decided to go with her because she had brought a more diverse view and
more holistic sort of framing on on transportation. And so I'd encourage
council to be a bit more open to candidates with this kind of non-traditional background,
and I really hope the CTO can help make sure council direction carries through in that vein
from, you know, planning to project scoping into engineering design and construction.
And then I also wanted to briefly comment on Ringstorff. I also sent a letter in
about that. And I wanted to really encourage Council to reaffirm the direction that it
gave during the 2023 SIP. This is our first Green Complete Streets project. It sort of
brings together our ATP and our biodiversity plan in a single project. And I think it's
really important that we make sure we deliver on both of those, both the green and the
complete. And I also want to add, if we're going to call it a safety and complete
We really need to fully deliver on that, and not partially.
So thank you so much. I appreciate your time.
Thank you, April. That concludes our oral communications for a public comment on non-agendized items.
We will now move forward with the closed session announcement.
Interim City Attorney Quinn will make a closed session announcement,
and then we will welcome public comment on the items listed for closed session.
Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to speak before our interim city attorney.
So, I would just like to ask the clerk to move over our community services director,
John Marchant, to provide a couple remarks because I know there's significant interest
in this, and also to let the community members know that we will be having a neighborhood
meeting, and we'll be following up with the neighbors about this in the next step.
so he's not um hold on let me just see if he is on real quick I do not see him
on yet okay
he must have accidentally dropped off so I think I've stated what
I need to state so we will be following up with the neighbors staff will be
thank you all right thank you for that now city attorney Quinn it's my
pleasure to be back here and to make the closed session announcement and you
will be recessing to a closed session agenda item 3.1 for public employee performance evaluations
pursuant to California government code section 54957B1 for council appointees city manager
and city clerk. Additional attendees at the closed session will include our city clerk
Heather Blazer, our city manager Kimber McCarthy and Nelson Fialo, the executive director
of RPMG. Item 3.2 in the closed session will be conference with labor negotiators
is pursuant to California Government Code Section 54957.6a. The agency designated representative
is our Vice Mayor, Chris Clark. Unrepresentative employees again include the City Clerk and
the City Manager. And Mr. Fiala will also be attending the closed session. And we
do not anticipate any announcements after this evening's closed session.
Hey. All right. Thank you. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in
person like to provide comment on the closed session items listed on tonight's agenda.
If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a speaker card to the City
Clerk. We will take in person speakers first. Each speaker will have three minutes. I see
no one here now. Now we will take virtual speakers.
April or April Webster, your hand is still up. Is that from the previous one?
No, I put it back up.
Okay. Could you speak louder into your microphone, by the way, April? We are having a hard time hearing you.
Sure. Is this a bit better?
That's better.
Okay. I have my screen right in front of me now.
Thanks. Yes, actually, I didn't realize that I'd be able to provide comment on this particular agenda item.
So, I'm just going to speak really briefly.
I did mention that I sent a letter about this, and I wanted to share that I think there has
been some real progress in some of the areas that we had looked at over the past year,
especially moving projects forward.
I think staff has done a great job of moving the biodiversity plan, the parks plan, and
active transportation plan through. So I give them kudos on that. I do think that
some of the concerns we did raise are still relevant. Some of those are around
just, you know, more transparent communication, finding ways to achieve
that in terms of community engagement, finding, looking into how we can do
that earlier across the city as more of like a system change if we could
and find a process because I think as one of the other speakers mentioned earlier, sometimes
we're brought in a little bit too late for that to actually happen and have an impact.
So I think this is really important and somewhere else, you know, in some of my work with Caltrans,
that same sort of discussion and thought is happening in terms of how can you impact
a project and bring in the community and get that feedback at the start before you
actually get into design. So I wanted to share that.
One of the other biggest
questions I have is, you know, whether some of the improvements were seen, that
we've seen, you know, in some of the departments and conversations and
projects, is becoming more of a normal city practice. And that would be great
to see that normalized across the city and not really depend on, you know,
specific individuals, departments, et cetera.
And then, actually I think I've covered most of what I wanted
to say, but I just wanted to, you know, congratulate staff
and, you know, keep moving forward.
I think there have been a lot of good changes
and I really hope that, yeah, we can move forward
on things.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, April.
That concludes our public comment.
The council will now recess to the Plaza Conference Room for a closed session and we will not return to open session for adjournment.