[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[2:54] I will call this meeting to order at 5.03 p.m. We're going to begin with oral communications.
[3:00] This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any
[3:04] matter, not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic within city council subject
[3:10] matter jurisdiction for up to three minutes during this section. State law prohibits the
[3:14] council from acting on non-agenda items. If you would like to speak on this item
[3:18] or the next item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now.
[3:23] Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person?
[3:28] Is there no roll call?
[3:30] No roll call yet. Okay.
[3:32] If anyone, if any member of the public would like to join us virtually or in person,
[3:37] I'd like to provide us a comment on this item.
[3:40] If so, please so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom
[3:43] or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk.
[3:46] We will take in person speakers first.
[3:48] Each speaker will have three minutes.
[3:49] All
[3:54] right, first up, we have Jack Vorse, followed by Joel Tor Road, followed by Sue Tor Road,
[4:01] followed by Ronald Yin, followed by Robert Townsend, then Sherry Sanger, and then Ron Sanger.
[4:09] Go ahead.
[4:11] Good afternoon.
[4:13] Dear council members, my name is Jack Vorse, and my wife is Linda Lenmoire.
[4:18] We have four children and three grandchildren.
[4:20] children. I have been a resident a mountain view for over 40 years. We live on
[4:25] Glenborough Drive directly across the street from beautiful Sylvan Park.
[4:30] Recently my neighbors and I noticed that the grassy area of the park near our
[4:34] homes was no longer being watered and therefore the grass was dying. We
[4:38] notified the parks department and they responded that the area had
[4:45] been identified as non-functional but would no longer be maintained with
[4:49] grass. We and our neighbors had never been notified that this idea was even being considered.
[4:54] We would have suggested other areas of the park which are much less utilized. The parks
[5:00] representative apologized for this lack of communications during the project planning
[5:04] phase. The area of concern is at the corner of Glenborough Drive and Sullivan Drive.
[5:10] For the past 40 years, this area has been used as a gathering point for neighborhood
[5:15] parties, holiday celebrations, yoga, tai chi, and small children's games, etc.
[5:22] Assembly Bill 1572, which was quoted to us by the Parks Department, is a proactive
[5:28] measure to safeguard California's vital drinking water supplies. In it,
[5:34] non-functional turf is defined as grass that serves no practical purpose for
[5:40] human activity or recreation. Quote, areas that are not regularly used for sports play
[5:47] or social gathering. This is not the case for the area selected. Last week, the entire
[5:53] area was covered with 6 to 12 inches of coarse black mulch, making it completely unusable,
[6:02] unstable to walk on, and as well as unsightly. It now looks like the waste from a coal
[6:09] mine. I completely support the city's water saving and biodiversity plans but I think the
[6:15] area selected is completely wrong. With new housing the city's population is rapidly growing
[6:21] and thus the need for usable park space will be ever more important. I would be happy to discuss
[6:27] other areas of the park that we'd be less utilized in accordance with the city's plan.
[6:32] During this time when the nation is so polarized we need to keep community green spaces
[6:38] is where we can come together and feel connected to each other.
[6:42] I would like to invite the City Council members
[6:44] to come and view the area.
[6:46] An area that was once beautiful
[6:48] and a community gathering point
[6:51] has become unsightly and unusable.
[6:54] Thank you for your attention.
[6:57] Thank you.
[6:58] Next we have Joel Torode and then Sue Torode.
[7:04] But if you guys could line up so you can just go right after another, that would be great.
[7:11] Thank you very much and I, my wife and family have lived here for 40 years.
[7:16] We've enjoyed every bit.
[7:18] You've done a fantastic job with our city and we're so happy that we live here.
[7:24] And I want to say today, we just heard less than a week ago what was happening
[7:31] to our park.
[7:32] Park. We live at Solvendilva, Solvendrive, right across, not across the street, but Kitty
[7:40] Corner from that area and see it frequently being used by people who live nearby and
[7:47] partially by. We would have been happy to be part of an organization or part of a group
[7:55] that was going to get together and talk about where the park is going and how it's
[8:00] going to be used in the future.
[8:02] And it's been a wonderful place for our grandchildren
[8:05] and children as well to be a participant
[8:08] in what takes place in that park area.
[8:12] So I thank you again.
[8:13] And our mayor who's done a fantastic,
[8:16] even in our main street down here in Mountain View
[8:18] in the town itself for places for nourishment
[8:23] and places to go eat at night.
[8:27] Thank you so much.
[8:30] Thank you. Next we have Sue Terode.
[8:38] Thank you so much, Council. I appreciate you taking us tonight.
[8:43] My name is Susan Terode. I live at 539 Sullivan Drive in Mountain View.
[8:50] We moved in in July 1986 when that home was just being built.
[8:58] and it has been a marvelous place for our children to grow up, for our grand
[9:05] children to grow up, and I have to tell you that history-wise back in the 1990s
[9:12] we even had 4th and July celebrations of parades that would go down there. The
[9:17] Mountain View Fire Department would lead the way and the dogs were all
[9:21] dressed up and the kids were all in their bicycles. It was a fantastic
[9:26] fantastic place. And right in that particular area was where we would gather all the time
[9:33] every year. We even had karaoke meetings out there. It was just an amazing time that we
[9:40] had. And I have to tell you that is the People's Park. It is, we see every day going
[9:47] through all day long people walking, walking through the park. We even have been walking
[9:54] for years through there. I did four or five laps at one time and it's just in a marvelous time.
[10:03] But the one thing that stands out in my mind is that we had my father-in-law live with us for
[10:10] eight years. It was such a privilege and honor to have him in our home. But he loves that park
[10:17] and he was there all every single day always walking there and it meant so much
[10:24] to him that when he passed away the family and I we gathered and had the
[10:31] ability to be able to put a park bench there in his memory and we go by there
[10:39] yeah all the time every week and we see that park bench but I tell you it's not
[10:45] Not empty, there's somebody sitting there all the time, but that particular corner has
[10:52] been a historic place for all of us for over good grief in 30 years.
[10:58] And it's a lovely, wonderful place.
[11:01] And I just wish you could see some of the times when the gatherings there, when the cookouts
[11:08] are there and it's right there.
[11:11] and so we hope that you will understand and see how much this little corner it may
[11:18] just seem like a little corner but it means so much to that neighborhood and
[11:25] it's for the people and I know you care about it because you wouldn't be sitting
[11:30] there where you are and you wouldn't be serving where you are if you didn't
[11:34] care so thank you so very much thank you thank you next we have Ronald yin
[11:42] followed by Robert Townsend.
[11:44] Hello.
[11:45] Hello, my name is Ronald Yin,
[11:47] and I reside at 547 Sullivan Drive.
[11:50] I resided at that address
[11:52] for more than 40 years.
[11:54] I'm here to address the
[11:55] replacement of the turf with mulch
[11:57] at the corner of Sullivan and Glenboro,
[11:59] which is only four houses away
[12:01] from where I reside.
[12:03] While the replaced mulch is
[12:04] unattractive as well as being unsafe
[12:07] and done without the residents' feedback,
[12:09] back, I would let others address this issue. I will stick to the issue of the purported
[12:15] goal of the replacement. As sensibly I'm told that the replacement was to comply with AB1572,
[12:23] which is to reduce nonfunctional turf, and I emphasize the word nonfunctional, which
[12:29] means no function, not underutilization. I submit that the replaced turf was very
[12:36] functional for at least two reasons. As I've said, I've lived there for more than 40 years
[12:42] and for at least the majority of that period of time, nearly every 4th of July celebration
[12:49] has occurred on that plot of soil. Activities occurred in which lawn chairs and tables and
[12:57] barbecues would be supplied by the neighbors and children's games would be played at
[13:03] that area. The other day, however, I walked through that area and I nearly twisted my ankle.
[13:10] It's no longer functional. It is a veritable lawsuit waiting to happen. The second reason
[13:17] for regarding the functionality of the turf is that more recently the City Council has
[13:22] encouraged the formation of many neighbors to look after one another in the event of
[13:29] in our neighborhood, major disasters such as an earthquake.
[13:32] In our block area, we've called the formation of the cool kids block,
[13:38] which as you know is to encourage neighbors to help one another in the event of a disaster.
[13:44] Well, we the coop, we the coop kids meet there in that corner,
[13:51] regularly to discuss activities in our neighborhood.
[13:54] This is no longer possible, we no longer can put lawn chairs there or tables there for
[14:01] half a pollock, similar to what's happening with the 4th of July then.
[14:09] So I would respectfully that I request the city to reconsider this decision and restore
[14:15] the corner lot to its former state.
[14:17] Thank you.
[14:19] Thank you.
[14:20] Next we have Robert Townsend followed by Sherry Sanger.
[14:23] Thank you. I concur with everyone else who's already spoken. I have an office that overlooks
[14:31] this piece of grass or was grass and there were people there every day. I would say that
[14:38] when parks people showed up they would leave because they were going to dig or make noise
[14:43] or do something. So maybe the city staff would go there and not see anyone just because
[14:49] of their own presence. But this is a place that's regularly used. The Sutter Health people
[14:55] have lunch there almost every day in the good weather.
[15:00] So it's just a very functional piece of area.
[15:03] I know that we have to reduce water use, and I feel nimby-ish, which is not a good feeling.
[15:08] However, this is an important piece of land that's made nonfunctional.
[15:17] I think that made my points. Thank you.
[15:20] Thank you. Next we have Sherri Sager, followed by Rod Sager.
[15:26] here. I hope I pronounced that right. Seager. Seager. Seager. Hello. So I'm going to be reading
[15:36] a letter from one of our neighbors who... You can get closer to the mic. Oh, I'm going
[15:40] to be... You can move the mic too. Is this good? Yeah. I'm going to be reading a letter
[15:47] from one of our young neighbors instead of all of us old folks. She couldn't be here.
[15:52] she is picking up her kids from after-school activities. Dear Mayor and members of the
[15:58] Mountain View City Council, I am writing as a long-time Mountain View resident and neighbor
[16:02] of Sylvan Park to kindly ask the city to reconsider the recent decision to replace the park's
[16:08] grassy area with brown mulch. When my family moved next to Sylvan Park in 2016, my son
[16:14] was two and I was pregnant with my daughter. This neighborhood park and especially a simple
[16:19] open grassy space was one of the things that made it such a wonderful place to raise our
[16:24] family. My children are now 12 and 9 and that field has been part of their childhood. They
[16:30] have kitsch soccer balls, thrown frisbees, played with friends, celebrated birthdays,
[16:34] enjoyed picnics and simply run around there countless times. Its value was its flexibility.
[16:41] It was an open, accessible place where children could play, families could gather and
[16:46] neighbors could enjoy being outdoors, especially as an alternative to the bigger main field
[16:51] which is often crowded and used for other activities. That is why I was surprised and saddened to
[16:57] see the grass removed and replaced with mulch. I understand that the city may be balancing
[17:02] water conservation, maintenance costs and other environmental priorities. I strongly
[17:07] support those goals. At the same time replacing grass with mulch changes the function
[17:12] of this particular space. Children can no longer comfortably play soccer or frisbee and the area is
[17:18] no longer suitable for the informal play and picnicking at once supported. We have lost
[17:23] more than grass. We have lost usable recreational space. I hope the city will distinguish between
[17:29] decorative turf and grass that serves an active recreational purpose. As Mountain View
[17:35] becomes denser and many families have little or no private yard space, flexible public
[17:40] areas where children can simply run and play are increasingly important. Open grass can serve as a
[17:46] soccer field, a picnic area, a birthday party space, or simply a place for children to invent
[17:51] their own games. These informal spaces also help build community. Over the years this field has
[17:58] brought children, parents and neighbors together in ways that are difficult to measure but
[18:02] meaningful to the life of the neighborhood. This was not unused or purely decorative grass.
[18:08] It was actively serving as recreational space and its removal has reduced the parks usefulness for neighborhood families.
[18:17] I respectfully ask the City Council and Park staff to reconsider this decision and explore restoring the area as a usable play space.
[18:27] If conventional surf is inconsistent with current sustainability goals, I would welcome consideration of drought-tolerant recreational turf
[18:35] for another environmentally responsible child friendly.
[18:41] Thank you.
[18:44] All right, next we have Rod Seger.
[18:53] Would the council consider giving her another 30 seconds, and I'll cut my time?
[18:59] If you're reading a letter, you could probably just read the end of the letter for her.
[19:03] Okay.
[19:21] She asked for the city staff to seek more input.
[19:26] input. The staff did ask us for input after decisions had been made when we made our input.
[19:35] We were told in that meeting on August 5th that no changes would be made in the plan
[19:40] that they waited to put turf in until they talked to us. But they also informed us at
[19:45] that time that they were going to proceed with plans. The last paragraph of the letter
[19:52] those states. Silva Park has been part of my children's lives for as long as they can remember
[19:58] and I'm grateful they have had the opportunity to grow up with the park beside their home.
[20:03] I hope future children in our neighborhood will have the same opportunity.
[20:07] Thank you for your time, consideration and service to our community.
[20:12] So I guess my job a little bit is to summarize this and to say thank you so much for being
[20:18] willing to listen to us. We've had something of a frustrating experience. But I want to
[20:26] state a couple of things. Number one, I think everybody here, most of the people that I know
[20:32] in our neighborhood support the urban forest and biodiversity policy that was adopted
[20:39] by City Council in June. We think it makes sense. We understand the need and that there
[20:46] are varying needs within our community. So in terms of summarizing things, usable functional
[20:56] space within Sylvan Park has been lost. Biodiversity at this point has not been enhanced and it's
[21:05] not budgeted based on what we've been told by staff. The area selected for conversion
[21:11] from irrigated turf is not consistent with AB 1572.
[21:18] We were told that AB 1572 was a driving force
[21:22] behind decreasing irrigated turf.
[21:28] Future plans are likely to further decrease
[21:31] functional areas of Sylvan Park.
[21:34] If anything, we think more functional turf
[21:37] within our community is important.
[21:39] And in the context of the housing density is likely to increase in our community.
[21:48] And for physical and emotional well-being, we need more, not less.
[21:54] The ask, though, that we have is restoration of functional turf to Sylvan Park at the
[22:01] corner area, bordering Sullivan and Glenborough Drive.
[22:06] We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to us and having this
[22:11] opportunity. It's been great and thank you so much. Thank you. We will now move on
[22:19] to virtual speakers.
[22:22] It looks like we have two online.
[22:36] I'm so sorry I have messed up your name on that.
[22:45] Here I'm muted.
[22:46] Hello.
[22:46] Do you hear me?
[22:48] I can hear you.
[22:49] Yes.
[22:49] Okay.
[22:50] Thank you.
[22:51] Good evening, City Council members.
[22:52] My name is Itongun Son, a resident of the Jemini Avenue.
[22:56] I'm here to ask, does City Council members to consider excluding Jemini Avenue from
[23:02] streets where oversize vehicles can park?
[23:05] Germany Avenue sits between a residential and an industrial area which is
[23:10] separated only by a row of bushes at night it was it is quite isolated and
[23:16] oversized vehicles parking there are turning it into what feels like as a
[23:21] resident on encampment a real safety risk for residents. These oversized vehicles
[23:27] routinely stay far longer than 72 hours sometimes over a month even parking
[23:33] parking right in front of the gate, police say there's nothing they can do since there's
[23:37] no ordinance against it.
[23:39] Meanwhile, people repair cars and load and unload the stuff, idle engines, and run generators
[23:45] right in front of our homes, again, with no ordinance to stop it per police.
[23:51] When the city set a narrow street rules for oversized vehicle parking, it should have
[23:56] considered a neighborhood character, not just a street width.
[23:59] It's over 40 feet or not.
[24:01] I'm respectfully asking the city council to start a real discussion about
[24:06] excluding residential areas like Germany Avenue from oversized vehicle parking.
[24:11] Thank you for your attention. Thank you. Next we have April Webster.
[24:19] Hi, good
[24:20] evening. I sent a letter earlier today for the performance view that built on
[24:26] a joint letter that I and a few other members of the community submitted last
[24:29] I snuck it in pretty late, so apologies.
[24:33] I'm speaking just for myself tonight,
[24:35] and I wanted to add one point that didn't make it into the letter.
[24:38] And that is, as the CTO role takes shape,
[24:41] I'd really like to see it bring a more multidisciplinary
[24:44] and human-centered approach to transportation.
[24:47] One that can bring together engineering with planning,
[24:51] human factors, accessibility, sustainability,
[24:54] and then really focus on the way people experience our streets,
[25:00] transportation is really a human system so it matters how people perceive risk
[25:05] and they make decisions how they make mistakes and how they experience the
[25:09] streets and this is especially true for children older adults and less
[25:14] confident users. I've also been chatting with Caltran staff recently
[25:18] about the the rank store Green Complete Streets project on the SB-1
[25:22] grant and one thing that keeps standing out to me in there as well as this
[25:26] It's how multidisciplinary it is and how it connects transportation with land use,
[25:31] accessibility, safe systems, green infrastructure, etc. So it's really not just an engineering problem.
[25:39] And I wanted to also share Caltrans Complete Streets team as a really interesting example
[25:47] of a leadership that takes its form. I learned about this a year or so ago and I was really
[25:52] pleasantly surprised to learn that the person that they hired to lead that
[25:58] team at headquarters has a more of a non-traditional background. Her name's
[26:03] Suzy Lindsay and she comes from landscape architecture and she shared with me
[26:06] that they had interviewed a number of folks in from the engineering background
[26:09] but they decided to go with her because she had brought a more diverse view and
[26:14] more holistic sort of framing on on transportation. And so I'd encourage
[26:19] council to be a bit more open to candidates with this kind of non-traditional background,
[26:24] and I really hope the CTO can help make sure council direction carries through in that vein
[26:32] from, you know, planning to project scoping into engineering design and construction.
[26:39] And then I also wanted to briefly comment on Ringstorff. I also sent a letter in
[26:47] about that. And I wanted to really encourage Council to reaffirm the direction that it
[26:52] gave during the 2023 SIP. This is our first Green Complete Streets project. It sort of
[26:59] brings together our ATP and our biodiversity plan in a single project. And I think it's
[27:06] really important that we make sure we deliver on both of those, both the green and the
[27:10] complete. And I also want to add, if we're going to call it a safety and complete
[27:14] We really need to fully deliver on that, and not partially.
[27:18] So thank you so much. I appreciate your time.
[27:22] Thank you, April. That concludes our oral communications for a public comment on non-agendized items.
[27:29] We will now move forward with the closed session announcement.
[27:32] Interim City Attorney Quinn will make a closed session announcement,
[27:35] and then we will welcome public comment on the items listed for closed session.
[27:40] Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to speak before our interim city attorney.
[27:43] So, I would just like to ask the clerk to move over our community services director,
[27:52] John Marchant, to provide a couple remarks because I know there's significant interest
[27:56] in this, and also to let the community members know that we will be having a neighborhood
[28:02] meeting, and we'll be following up with the neighbors about this in the next step.
[28:08] so he's not um hold on let me just see if he is on real quick I do not see him
[28:17] on yet okay
[28:24] he must have accidentally dropped off so I think I've stated what
[28:28] I need to state so we will be following up with the neighbors staff will be
[28:32] thank you all right thank you for that now city attorney Quinn it's my
[28:38] pleasure to be back here and to make the closed session announcement and you
[28:43] will be recessing to a closed session agenda item 3.1 for public employee performance evaluations
[28:50] pursuant to California government code section 54957B1 for council appointees city manager
[28:57] and city clerk. Additional attendees at the closed session will include our city clerk
[29:03] Heather Blazer, our city manager Kimber McCarthy and Nelson Fialo, the executive director
[29:07] of RPMG. Item 3.2 in the closed session will be conference with labor negotiators
[29:12] is pursuant to California Government Code Section 54957.6a. The agency designated representative
[29:18] is our Vice Mayor, Chris Clark. Unrepresentative employees again include the City Clerk and
[29:23] the City Manager. And Mr. Fiala will also be attending the closed session. And we
[29:29] do not anticipate any announcements after this evening's closed session.
[29:34] Hey. All right. Thank you. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in
[29:39] person like to provide comment on the closed session items listed on tonight's agenda.
[29:43] If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a speaker card to the City
[29:47] Clerk. We will take in person speakers first. Each speaker will have three minutes. I see
[29:52] no one here now. Now we will take virtual speakers.
[30:01] April or April Webster, your hand is still up. Is that from the previous one?
[30:06] No, I put it back up.
[30:08] Okay. Could you speak louder into your microphone, by the way, April? We are having a hard time hearing you.
[30:13] Sure. Is this a bit better?
[30:15] That's better.
[30:16] Okay. I have my screen right in front of me now.
[30:19] Thanks. Yes, actually, I didn't realize that I'd be able to provide comment on this particular agenda item.
[30:26] So, I'm just going to speak really briefly.
[30:29] I did mention that I sent a letter about this, and I wanted to share that I think there has
[30:34] been some real progress in some of the areas that we had looked at over the past year,
[30:40] especially moving projects forward.
[30:43] I think staff has done a great job of moving the biodiversity plan, the parks plan, and
[30:52] active transportation plan through. So I give them kudos on that. I do think that
[30:58] some of the concerns we did raise are still relevant. Some of those are around
[31:04] just, you know, more transparent communication, finding ways to achieve
[31:08] that in terms of community engagement, finding, looking into how we can do
[31:16] that earlier across the city as more of like a system change if we could
[31:21] and find a process because I think as one of the other speakers mentioned earlier, sometimes
[31:26] we're brought in a little bit too late for that to actually happen and have an impact.
[31:32] So I think this is really important and somewhere else, you know, in some of my work with Caltrans,
[31:38] that same sort of discussion and thought is happening in terms of how can you impact
[31:45] a project and bring in the community and get that feedback at the start before you
[31:49] actually get into design. So I wanted to share that.
[31:57] One of the other biggest
[31:58] questions I have is, you know, whether some of the improvements were seen, that
[32:05] we've seen, you know, in some of the departments and conversations and
[32:08] projects, is becoming more of a normal city practice. And that would be great
[32:13] to see that normalized across the city and not really depend on, you know,
[32:19] specific individuals, departments, et cetera.
[32:22] And then, actually I think I've covered most of what I wanted
[32:27] to say, but I just wanted to, you know, congratulate staff
[32:31] and, you know, keep moving forward.
[32:34] I think there have been a lot of good changes
[32:36] and I really hope that, yeah, we can move forward
[32:40] on things.
[32:40] Thank you so much.
[32:42] Thank you, April.
[32:44] That concludes our public comment.
[32:48] The council will now recess to the Plaza Conference Room for a closed session and we will not return to open session for adjournment.