Good evening. Let's call to order the Special Counsel Meeting Closed Session of August 25, 2026 at 4.37 PM.
The City does not tolerate disruptive behavior in our meetings. This Council meeting is considered a limited public forum, which means the Council can regulate the time, place, and manner of speech. Speaker comments must be limited to the agenda item being considered by the Council.
If a speaker's comments are not related to an agenda item, the presiding officer will rule the speaker out of order. A speaker will not be ruled out of order because of disagreement with the content of their speech.
Location and online meeting details are available on the Council agenda. Use the Show Captions button to view captions on Zoom. Following the closed session, the presentation on the Clean Water Program update will begin at 6pm, and the regular Council meeting at 7pm. Mr. City Clerk, may we have roll call, please?
Mayor Klein? Present. Vice Mayor Mellinger? Present. Councilmember Cisneros? Present. Councilmember Sunnyvassin? Present. Councilmember Sal? Present. Councilmember Chang? Present. Councilmember Lay? Present. 7 present.
Thank you very much. Members of the public will now have an opportunity to address Council on the closed session item. Please submit a speaker card to the City Clerk, raise your digital hand now, or dial star 9 on a telephone to indicate you wish to speak. I will call on members of the public participating in person first, followed by remote participants. Speakers will have 3 minutes to speak.
There, as there are no members of the public in the room, Mr. City Clerk, are there any members of the public online wishing to speak? No, Vice Mayor. I'm going to close public comment. Council will now adjourn to closed session. See you back here at 6 p.m.
Alright, let's call to order the Special Counsel Meeting presentation of August 25, 2026 at 6pm.
The City does not tolerate disruptive behavior in our meetings. This council meeting is considered a limited public forum, which means the Council can regulate the time, place, and manner of speech.
Speaker comments must be limited to the agenda item being considered by the Council. If a speaker's comments are not related to an agenda item, the presiding officer will rule the speaker out of order. A speaker will not be ruled out of order because of disagreement with the content of their speech. Location and online meeting details are available on the Council agenda. Scan the on-screen QR code or click the language access and translation link.
on the Council agenda to read and listen along in more than 60 different languages.
Use the Show Captions button to view captions on Zoom. Following the presentation, the regular council meeting will begin at 7pm. City Clerk, may we please have the roll call? Mayor Klein? Present. Vice Mayor Mellinger? Present. Councilmember Cisneros? Present. Councilmember Sunnyvassin? Present. Councilmember Sell?
Present. Councilmember Chang? Present. Councilmember Lay? Present. 7 present.
Thank you very much. Moving on to item 26-0005, is there a staff presentation?
Councilmembers, good evening. Aaron Burt, Director of Public Works. We're here tonight to present you an update on the Sunnyvale Clean Water Program.
I'll be joined during this presentation by Marlon Cayambao, who's the Assistant City Engineer that oversees special projects, and also Matt Pollan, the Finance Director. In addition, in the audience, we have our partners from ESD to answer any questions if need be.
Oops.
So, for this presentation tonight, we're going to give you a bit of an introduction, reintroduction to the program. I'm going to talk about some recent highlights, some challenges and lessons learned, and then also talk a little bit about funding and financing for the program.
Excuse me one second here.
This is a broad overview of the water pollution control plant. Aerial overview shows the, the…
sludge ponds, and then also the constrained location of the facility down on the lower left. Challenging site, but the team working through this process is making some great progress in the program.
As you may be aware, the plant has been under construction for the past 10 years, and we will be continuing probably about for another 15.
The question always gets asked, you know, why so long? And it has a lot to do with the constraints of the site and the need to keep the plant in operation 24-7, 365 days a year.
First, we had to bring the scenario grow, to mechanically dewater biosolids, rather than the solar drying that had occupied most of the eastern plant.
Then we were able to demo that area, free me up space, and work on the culvert and the stormwater that had been flowing through this channel that wraps around the southeast part of the plant.
With the stormwater culverted, we could then fill this channel to create more real estate.
On this newly created space, we built the new Headworks and Primary Treatment Plant.
From there, once that was done, we were able to demo the old primary treatment facility.
And in that footprint, we put up an office trailer and modular maintenance building that will tie into the next phase of construction.
Now that we have the staff building in place, we're finally able to demo the old primary control building, which we'll be undertaking here shortly.
The area on the top is from last June, and you can see the dramatic transformation that has been undergoing over the past decade. It's been quite a bit of work, and we're making considerable progress.
Most of the plant, as this alludes to, has been under active construction, the whole site, pretty much, over the past 3 years.
The team has been playing a massive game of Tetris for staging equipment, moving people in and off the site in order to complete the two major, larger projects. Right now, as you may be aware, we have one contractor under contract on this for Walsh, for the two large projects.
It's the existing plant rehab project in pink, and this is refurbishing the secondary and tertiary processes that were built in the 70s.
The secondary treatment project in orange, this adds the modern biological treatment for the betterment of water quality and reliable water quality moving forward.
So that is the general overview, and I'm going to turn it over to Marlon for him to go into further detail for you.
Hi, good evening. Marlon Cambao, Assistant City Engineer with the Department of Public Works, overseeing the Sunnyvale Clean Water Program.
Here, we have the site that Aaron just kind of walked us through, and our next steps on this site are actually to prepare for our Joint Wall and Clean Water Center project. So just wanted to give you a little preview of how the sequencing is going to go for that.
First, we are gonna finish off some, minor, rehab of the Digester 3 work.
Then, bring on a contractor to complete our joint wall that we've, coordinated with Valley Water ahead of their floodplain, improvements, followed by,
Stage 2 temporary offices, in the center of the site to allow for us to move staff over into these temporary facilities and demo and abate the existing admin building.
That'll free up space for us to begin foundation work, go vertical, for our, exciting new project, the Clean Water Center.
And at that time, actually, our secondary project will, have just been completed and will undergo some commissioning of the processes.
And then finally, we'll, once Walsh is off-site for the secondary project, we'll complete the southern perimeter wall, and the, the site will now be protected from 100-year water events and tidal flooding.
Moving into recent highlights,
you know, we've… since the last time, we provided an update back in March of 2025. Like Aaron said, we've made really good progress on-site, and I'll take this opportunity to walk us through, that partnership.
So, first off, proud to report, that the Clean Water Program, has received recognition on the state and local level. We've received a couple, awards for a couple of our projects.
Headworks Primary Treatment Project, received, 4 total, pro- awards, and then, recently, we received the Project of the Year award for our secondary site prep project.
I'm told this is not normal, but it's something I've gotten used to over the last year and a half, thanks to ESD staff and DPW staff, along with our project management consultant.
Here is our secondary site prep project we just completed back in April.
In the center of the screen, you see the temporary, facilities, the office, and the shop.
This project also included a reorganization of the trunk lines entering into the site, and then, allowed us to also work through demolishing some of the existing process facilities, such as primary sedimentation tanks, which is where
They used… this is where they used to be, as well as our primary control building.
This area is going to be known as our temporary office complex, and will expand, actually, to house the plant staff during upcoming Clean Water Center construction.
Next is our secondary, treatment construction.
This has… this has gotten a lot of momentum, and circular tanks in the foreground and the grid-like tank in the… behind it is our secondary treatment. Over 10,000 tons of concrete was poured for the bioreactors in the back alone.
With this in service, it will hold around 5.5 million gallons of wastewater, and these tanks,
We'll hold back… bacteria that biodegrade wastewater so it's inert before we release it into the bay.
Next, these couple photos are of, a couple of our structures. So the secondary treatment project includes over a dozen new structures.
These two are for our, thickening and dewatering building, and they're the last to be constructed. As you can see in the photos, the foundation pads are being prepared for upcoming concrete pours.
And you've seen on earlier sites how intricate the sequencing on site
Is. And so these buildings are actually towards the end of that sequence.
Next is our, existing plant rehabilitation project, which is nearly finished. It'll complete early 2027.
And these processes are located on the western half.
Which were built in the 70s. Most of them… Er…
will need to keep running for another decade or more while the ponds are still used for treatment. On the left is the reactor, fixed growth reactors, where a certain type of bacteria live in, and remove ammonia from the wastewater before it enters the bay.
We replaced many of the parts and improved how well this works. On the right are the channels where the wastewater is disinfected by chlorine, which is the last step in our treatment process, and we were… we were able to improve that structure to make it, earthquake resistant.
This, this last project, which I'll highlight, is our condition assessment.
Which completed last August, under budget. And, you know, we went over how we're fixing tanks and replacing equipment. What we haven't done yet is fix and replace old, pipes. So as you can imagine, there are miles of pipe running all over the plant.
And they have different materials dating back to the 1950s.
These can carry anything from sludge to foul gas to untreated wastewater, so we don't want these to break.
But we recently finished inspecting a lot of this pipe, to figure out which ones need to be rehabbed versus replaced.
And we identified quite a few that do need to be worked on, but also there were a lot that are fine, in fine condition, despite being old, which is a credit to the continuous hard work of the plant maintenance staff.
So now we'll be… we're able to be targeted with, our yard pipe improvements and do, only work that needs to get done.
I'll jump over and shift gears a little bit. As you can imagine, a program this large and complex
We also encounter obstacles, from location… from the location of an underground pipe, to evolving regulatory requirements, to growth of the customer base. We can never perfectly characterize the environment or the future.
Instead, we'll… we continually adapt and evolve as we go.
So, this first, couple images…
is one of the challenges we face. You can see how crowded the plant can be. It's common when we reroute… it's common for us to reroute in the field, when we discover unexpected, pipelines.
The plant is very congested with underground utilities, and there's very little open space that isn't already reserved for future improvement.
It can require re-engineering during construction, which you can see, on the left image. And my team will work with the contractor and our CM group to limit impacts to both budget and schedule.
Fortunately, at this point in the program, we've exposed the majority of the site.
And mapped uncovered utilities in as-built drawings for future projects.
This next couple images, highlight a challenge that, that we've brought to Council previously on our site prep project, where we encountered, hazardous material, as part of our, primary sedimentation tanks.
So you can imagine, a plant that's built in the 1950s, a lot of the material is, uses lead, asbestos, PCBs. And so, while we do do,
testing, hazmat testing during design. We can't catch everything, and this does have a tendency to slow down demo. That first HAZMAT event that we, experienced with,
PSTs gave us a template for responding, which allowed for the demo and abatement of the primary control building to go smoother, which is the picture to the right.
So, as we, move on to, you know, progress the program.
What we consider is what worked well, and what…
Things do we need to change?
We're continually refining our approach to keep pace with evolving best practices. For example, with the rehab and secondary projects, we pre-qualified pre-prequalified electrical subcontractors. This allows time for more vigorous vetting.
Which is needed for higher risk work.
Another improvement was to add partnering sessions, every other month, and this helps us both with issue resolution processes and issues themselves, getting them solved faster and more amicably.
Not all problems can be prevented, but we can take steps to reduce the impacts. We now have a legal counsel who is more vigorously… who more vigorously protects the city's interests.
And with Walsh, we've kept the delay out of litigation, but did involve a forensic accountant to open their books to make sure the costs they were quoting were legitimate.
here on the screen,
We also took a look back at how we approached previous projects. In the past, the strategy was to break up the work, create smaller projects to expand the bidder pool.
We now see that on a constrained site, the, the risk of having contractors delay each other, far outweighs,
the benefit of having an expanded bidder pool. So for Phase 3, we're planning to take multiple smaller projects and bid as one bioenergy upgrades project.
We're also experimenting with the new engineering program management
program manager pilot program with the Air District, where they essentially offer a facilitator on the side… on their side to navigate complex permits. This is temporarily free. If it's effective, we may decide it's worth paying for on future permits.
With that, I'll hand it over to Matt Paulin, our Finance Director, to go over our funding approach for the program.
Yep.
Good evening, Mayor and Council. Matt Pollin, your Finance Director.
So, this slide here lays out the total cost of the project as future phases come online, so it reads cumulatively from left to right.
We're about 40% of the way through the project in total time, planned time, and planned costs. Everything to the right of the red line is based on the current adopted master plan and budget.
And as Marlon was talking to you about, there are multiple phases going on at any given time in the project, which adds to the complexity.
So, how do we pay for the largest capital project in the city's history is based on a number of factors. Council's policy is underlying all of that, which dictates that we typically look at debt as part of that plan of finance, and I have a couple more slides later on that'll show you the overall funding plan for the project.
But there's a number of reasons to use debt to minimize costs, cash flow.
And really importantly, it's an equity issue that future ratepayers in Sunnyvale are paying for the cost of this project, not just today's ratepayers. So we take all those things into account as we develop a plan of finance for a project that's in the range of $1.4 billion.
So we've been very successful, as you all are well aware, of procuring low-interest loans from the state through their state revolving fund.
loan program, and through the U.S. EPA, through their WIFIA program. Look at those interest rates, and they're just phenomenal. They also offer very flexible terms as well, which is really important. So, we've done a great job, been very competitive about procuring these low-interest loans so far. Most of the active projects so far in Phases 1 and 2 have been financed through these low
interest loans. So we've done a really good job of controlling the cost of capital so far in the project.
So this slide here just shows, again, how all those loans fit in with the different projects at this point. And you can see, again, those interest rates are just phenomenal, well below market.
So we're going to continue as we progress. I'm always going to be pushing us to see if we can procure more of these loans. Unfortunately, the interest rate environment today is not what it was in the past, so we'll always judge. Interest rate alone, of course, is a main factor in looking at these revenue sources. But again, I mentioned the structures that they allow, too, which are also advantageous. So we'll definitely look at procuring these and looking into them to see if it's viable.
from us from both the cost and a structure, perspective.
So here's the total adopted budget. You can see a combination of PAYGO, service fees, the low-interest loans I've talked to you about for the last couple of minutes.
and other plan debt. We don't have the debt specified in the financial plans yet, but of course, we'll always look at the low-interest loans before we take a revenue bond to market at market rates.
So, we'll keep… keep plugging away.
We've been successful, too. About… we got $4 million from Valley Water for the perimeter wall project that Marlon was talking about, since that, coincides with our West Channel Flood Protection Project, and we were pleased to learn that we got a million dollar earmark, for the Clean Water Center from the U.S. EPA. So whenever we can chase any of these,
Good funding sources down, we'll continue to do so.
So with that, I'll… Hand it back to Marlon.
Couple more slides. So we have a couple of Council actions coming up this calendar year.
As you can see on the screen. Regarding the master plan update, which, which we have scheduled to bring before Council in spring of 27, you know, we… a quick update is that we've identified all the treatment improvements needed.
You know, the last piece is engineering to confirm the electrical improvements that will power all those, treatment processes. And then after finishing the engineering, we'll finalize the improvements and
group into projects, and determine what their timing will be, making sure everything is built when everything… when we have the money to do it. So this is our work over the next, few months.
And then we'll, package it up and prepare a presentation for Council, to receive and, and,
potentially adopt the new master plan update.
With that, we will conclude the presentation and, open it up to questions.
Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm actually going to ask a couple of questions first, and then we will move on in order of hands, and I think if my colleagues, if we do 5 minutes each, that should be, get us to 7 o'clock.
I have two questions. The first is, can we get an update on when we expect recycled water production to begin again?
Good evening, I'm Pramana Janekotla, Environmental Services Director. We think that we will be able to produce recycled water once our secondary treatment is online, which will basically be sometime between summer and fall of 2027.
E7.
How about a year from now. Okay. Alright, thank you. And are we… we're looking at doing a package plan to get… is that correct? So we… that was something that we basically got the budget for, but given the timing of…
when we are actually going to bring up the secondary treatment, there's no real need to actually put in the package plant. The one thing that made the decision very easy was the vendor who we were going to use the package plant, they actually still haven't gotten a permit from the regional water board.
That package plant is actually for portable water, but they need to get a special permit for recycled water, and they promised us they would have had this by now by over 6 months back, and they still haven't done that, so…
Even if we got the permit today, it would take us a year to actually build the plant, by which time we would have our secondary treatment.
online store. Oh, thank you.
The second question I have, and this might be for you or for Mr. Burke, is obviously we have the legalization of design-build going on the ballot as a charter amendment.
Can you talk a little bit about, if that passes, whether we'll be considering using that, for the future contracting, as we did see the slide in there about the contract bundling.
And also, I'd like to hear if design-build would have helped to avoid some of the problems that were called out in the presentation. Thank you. Councilmember Mellinger, I want to be cautious that we don't get into an area that could be considered, campaign.
For the ballot measure. All right, I will, defer to City Attorney Moon, and we can just ask if that would be something that we would be considering, if it passes for this project.
Yeah, I would say absolutely, considering the complexity of the next phases of these projects, a project delivery model such as progressive design-build would lend itself very well to this type of project.
All right, thank you very much, and I have no further questions at this time, so I will bring it to my colleagues, the first of whom is Councilmember Srinivasa. Thank you. I have a question for you. On slide 7,
We have, I think you pointed out sea level rise protection under near flood.
Can you talk about that?
Because we also have a sea-level protection
Which is, led by Valley Water. Yeah, actually, I'll turn that over to Ramana.
And then I have a finance question. Be ready. So I don't know what slide number 7 is, but if it refers to the wall, the perimeter wall… Yeah, so the perimeter wall, once it's built, the other side, the east side, is already built.
So once this red portion is complete, the facility itself will be protected from a 100-year flood, and also tidal flooding that happens during the, during the winter and stuff like that. It, however, does not protect the facility from sea level rise.
So that's a separate project that we are pursuing with Valley Water to protect the entire shoreline, not just this facility. Okay. But, sea level, the…
this plant will be protected. Once we finish the… any shoreline protection, then the plant will also be protected from sea levels. How about on the west… east side of the… the red cover… red color covers only
portion of the plan. What happens to that? The other side, we already have built the perimeter wall. Yes, that's the question I had. And then, be there.
And then this is not for stormwater, right? This is for stormwater. So, I mean, it is… it's flooding. This plant will handle the wastewater, right? Not the stormwater. That's correct. This is for wastewater treatment. Wastewater treatment, yeah.
Of course, there is a terminology, clean water and wastewater terminology. Well, after you clean the wastewater, it becomes clean water. Yeah, and then, Vice Mayor asked about the water treatment, the purification.
Valley Water has got a purification plant, which they are still working on. I asked them specifically to work with Sunnyvale, any technical know-how, so… Yep. Okay. We are very, very much in touch with them. Okay, sounds good. Next is, revenue stream, and then…
funding question.
If I remember correctly, I think the loans we got, the… for, project, financing.
The loans are interest-only for next 40 years, and then the principal will kick in, or…
How does that work? I don't have the terms off the top of my head for the loans, but yeah, some of it's, they're deferred payments. We have some of them further, like, in the back half of the financial plan, the what's due increases pretty significantly. Okay. Yeah.
And then the second question is, you mentioned about the revenue source.
That is the water rate increase we are seeing, right? We will be projecting for next few years… many years, is that correct?
Yes, the… How are we funding this?
Servicing these debts, or these loans.
Yes, those are eventually going to be repaid from rate funds, yes. And then the last question is.
Do we have any track record on what we projected till now to what is the actual number? Is there… how much is the overrun of the project so far? I know a lot of… it's not completed, but the phases we have completed so far
What is the budget, and then what is the actual number? Do we have any idea on that?
So, I just want to make sure I understand the question. So, what we originally projected to… or budgeted to spend versus what we actually spent from the beginning of the project till… till now?
Right.
Yes, we should be able to pull that together. Okay, those are my questions. Thank you. I beat 5 minutes. Yes, you did. Thank you very much, Councilmember Sunnyvassa and Councilmember Sell.
Okay, hi, I had a question about the project management.
So,
Has Sunnyvale ever done anything of this magnitude? If you haven't, what do we leverage? Other public works projects or other,
what do we do? How do we keep this on project, on time, on budget?
What gives you the confidence, and…
Sure, yeah, no, great question. We… this is the largest, capital, project, that,
I think the city and the Public Works have undertaken. What we do is we utilize our program management consultant, which is like a deep bench.
They, they have several subject matter experts in the field related to wastewater. And so, when we are faced with, either, programming, high-level, decisions,
we identify, pros and cons, and then, I bring those alternatives and recommendations to Sunnyvale leadership.
that's probably our deepest bench. We do attend conferences as well, to understand what the latest technology is, and the industries are kind of, projecting. And that's kind of how we've, managed to approach it so far.
So, from the work you have done already at the water treatment plant,
You mentioned there was some lessons learned, and so that will be applied to this.
So has the past projects, even though they were smaller scale, have they been on budget and on time, or if not, understanding where, we need to augment
So that going forward, this larger project will be successful. Like, any thoughts on that? Like, what are some focus areas that you want to focus on? Lessons learned?
Excuse me, I… It's a great question. I think in terms of how we can approach this in the future, and in terms of staying on budget, you know, from a construction standpoint,
We authorize… or, staff's authorized with a standard 10% contingency.
And how that's broken down typically is, you know, there's industry standards for, what is, typically figured out in the field versus unforeseenes. And so when we consider a type of project like a rehab, for instance, where we're touching existing systems and, the…
the…
sequencing may not go as what we intended, because we have to keep the plant running. We… we have to leverage what that contingency, offers, to… to progress the project. And so, with each, completion of new, of project.
we typically will go through a lessons learned process with all stakeholders, and we'll either pull that information into the contract itself for a future contract, similar to what we're doing for Clean Water Center, in order for the risk to be not on the city, but on the contractor.
So,
That's kind of the ever-evolving aspect of how we take what we've learned and continue to make it better.
And you mentioned something about, I just have one more minute… about, you having, like, good legal support. So I imagine that with such huge projects, that if something goes a little wry, the contractor will want to,
You know, get their, money back from somewhere, and then they might…
blame, like, Sunnyvale, because, you know, this and that contractor, we had to wait for them, and you made us wait for them, and all that. So, any strategies for that?
Most of what we handle, it's kind of like a chess match, and we… when we can't manage it on the staff level, we do involve OCA and, and their outside counsel. Outside counsel, in this case, is,
very heavily, experienced in civil… heavy civil work, and they've provided guidance on not only contract change order language, but, you know, other ways we can limit risk to the city.
Okay, thank you very much. Pleasure.
Thank you very much, Councilmember Sell, Councilmember Cisneros.
Yes, thank you. Many of my questions have been asked and answered, so hopefully it won't be too much.
I want to circle back to sea level rise, because members of the public have
expressed concern. I'm also a little concerned, clearly, about the whole shoreline. How long do we have to address it before it becomes a very large and expensive problem?
So we have been working with Valley Water, on the shoreline project. The U.S. Corps of Engineers is the agency that's actually tasked with doing the study, so we should be getting an update from them, you know, very soon.
But, just looking at what, the Palo Alto piece.
came out to be in terms of the outcome. They told us… they told the Palo Alto
You know, portion that they would not need any flood protection until 2060.
So, we are waiting to hear what they say about our portion, but, hopefully that gives us enough time to plan and, figure out how to fund it.
Thank you for the proactive approach on that, and also communicating with cities up and down the coast to be able to get that information to understand, because it's urgent, you know, hopefully it's that long, but hopefully it's not.
mention… so this is about the plant. I appreciate that we did a kind of an audit of all of our equipment to see, okay, what do we need to replace and whatnot? And some of these old pipes are still in good working order. I will assume that they are no longer under warranty.
And so, what is our plan for, like, continually reassessing the,
The capabilities of these pipes and pieces of infrastructure over time.
So that's the reason why we do the master plan update, and typically we do it every 5 to 10 years. So, and during that process, we do condition assessment as a matter of practice.
And as we… as you saw, as we upgrade, you know, different portions of the plant, then they are all in good shape. So the number of things that we need to do.
Becomes smaller and smaller in terms of, condition assessment, and also in terms of.
Redoing some of the things that are pretty old.
Soap.
Great, awesome. I'll just want to keep an eye on those as things go, and before…
something happens, and we're made aware of it… made aware of that in a different, more unpleasant way. But it sounds like we… we're right on track to having that figured out.
And then, I just want to say I really appreciate the vigilant stewardship of taxpayer money and city resources in terms of our loan strategy and our financing strategy around this, how we're smoothing that out for residents. We heard from a lot of people that…
the rate increases are just really painful. I know even small amounts of money really impact people's budgets, and I really hear that, but…
it's reassuring to know, and I hope that residents are reassured to know, that city staff and the whole city is looking out for them and coming up with these strategies specifically to help.
cope with such a really big investment, and not putting it all on the current ratepayers. I just wanted to make that. And then, if we could go… I just have a curiosity question on slide 7. There is a building
that is labeled Demon, And I'm wondering if that was an acronym?
Or just one of the materials from the 50s that we found, like, I don't know.
Yeah, nothing evil about it. It's supposed to actually remove nitrogen, so it's actually short for dehummonification.
So, that's their, the vendor's school name, so…
We didn't come up with it. Well, it's just set up here.
For looking at the maps. No, that was a fun… I didn't expect that one, but anyway, thank you for clarifying, and I think that's all I got. I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Cisneros, and just to editorialize for a moment, any new summoning facilities in the city need to come to Council for approval. Thank you. Councilmember Lay.
Thank you, and thank you to Councilmember Cisneros for pointing that out, that is amazing. I want to thank everyone for their hard work on this. This is one of the biggest capital projects I think the city has had, ever, and it's nice to, see all this, expertise and, hard work, and as Councilmember Cisneros said, the, stewardship that's going into the preservation of public money being used
To the best of our ability. I have a question about the…
Interest rates on page 25, we've talked about, the interest rates are there, and I'm curious about, historically, have they maintained this in the future? Are they going to continue at this, at this rate? Are they, are they locked in where they are, or are they variable?
Mr. Pollen.
Nope.
Just pulling up the slide, and there it is up there. Sorry, so can you repeat the question? Are the interest rates variable, or are they locked in as they currently are? They're fixed. Okay. And so, for example, for the highest interest rate one, was that one that we have received the most recently, and if the rates fall in the future, is it possible to refinance that?
Sorry, could you repeat that again? So the 2.1% one, it's a little bit of an outlier compared to the other ones. Is that the one that we received most recently? And if interest rates fall in the future, is it possible to refinance that? Yes, these rates are all tied to kind of benchmark rates, and yeah, and so the more recent they're going to be, the higher they're going to be. It's only, you know, looks like about 50 basis points higher than the other ones. It's still well below
at the time market. Like I said before, now the current, with U.S. Treasuries at 4-5%, given the amount of debt the United States has, we shouldn't expect
these low over rates, when we're looking at WIFIA and SRF again, but we're gonna definitely poke around and see if it's worth our while. Yeah, thank you, and I appreciate that, especially in context of this being a 15-year-plus project. So historically, you have these… did we… when did we get these loans? Did we get them, like, when interest rates were low, and now they're creeping back up?
Yes, it's all just a matter of timing, yes. So we were just… it still happened to be really good timing for us to apply for these loans and be successful. I don't want to take for granted that we're successful when we get these loans. They're very competitive. It's a pretty rigorous process to go through to get them, but yes, we were fortuitous in our timing that we were getting these loans at a time where interest rates were still fairly low.
Great, and I appreciate that. I like that we are…
smart with their money and able to, get as much out of it as possible. And I think to, could you correct me if I'm wrong? I believe that, Representative Khanna gave, was able to secure funding for us with this in the last budget cycle?
I can take that one. Yeah, go ahead. Yes, Councilmember Lay, you're correct. Just over a million dollars was allocated to the Clean Water Center, which will be the administrative building. Okay, fantastic. Are we using that to pay down the loans, or are we doing that in a different way?
We'll be using that to help build that particular phase of the project. Okay, great. Just a cash contribution, yeah. Great, thank you. That's all of my questions.
Thank you very much, and next up is Councilmember Chang.
Thank you for the update and the presentation, and following up to that question, originally in 2025, it was supposed to be $5 million, so where would that have been applied to, or if we were able to get a larger amount of funding like that in the future?
We… from the federal government? Yes, we typically request more than we receive, and we will continue to request, you know, as much as we think is a potentially viable option each year in federal and state budgets.
I think in the case of this project, we would be able to use it in…
The Clean Water Center, or ICE Center? Up to $50 million, we could use anything up to $50 million. Anything up to $50 million.
Yeah, and also I want to add that everything, the SRF and the WIFIA, they're loans, so you have to pay them back. So any money that we get, like these from, you know, from Mr. Khanna's office, those are actually grants. So that means we actually can reduce the cost of the project itself.
Great, thank you. And this is feedback on the project. I think it would be helpful in the future if we're able to have a timeline or to show milestones of which milestones we've met, and how… where we are on the map. I went through the website, and it looks… it's set up a little bit differently than our regular website.
So I think it would be helpful to have a timeline for different project milestones.
Mostly because, I did look for that, and it's kind of buried on the third page of the brochure.
And the website… I do like the news articles, but it's… I guess if I just want to look at a zoomed-out picture of where the project is at, I think that would be helpful moving forward.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Councilmember Chang, Mayor Klein.
Thank you. Thanks for the presentation and seeing, kind of, where this has gone on for almost my entire time on Council. But happy to see, you know, the WIFIA loans and, you know, the other, the other
Grants that we've had that… that have conceivably reduced costs for our ratepayers and… and from a project standpoint.
You mentioned Forensic accountant.
Is there any, let's say, lessons learned? And I understand this is a very specific project because of its size, but we have other
projects, large… relatively large projects. Is there something to be learned here from… from Forensic accountant that we need to…
To look at from the city standpoint.
Or is it just specific because of the complexity of this project?
You know,
The forensic accountant was primarily used to validate, the request by the contractor in terms of the delay, the cost of the delay and escalation of costs.
You know, what it kind of gave us a behind-the-curtain look at is how the bid is formulated, because, what it was validated against was the competitive bid.
Because we're forecasting future costs rather than validating or auditing, actual, actualized costs, it was, the… the competitive bid was used as a basis in, when…
Doing the forensic accounting.
So, I guess to your question, what can we,
take from that or learn from that. I think the process in which it's used, whether forecasting or auditing, is, is helpful for us when we consider what risk or what, you know, markups the contractors typically put in their bids, and can actually kind of uncover how, you know, change orders are priced as well.
Okay, and it's more, I'll say, you know, trying to figure out what best practices are, and, you know, where this is ultimately applied, because
Definitely, we're looking at, you know.
lowest, best bid, and… and we're in… from a… from a council standpoint, we don't get a good vision into
cost overruns or things of that nature. We do just contingency fees, and conceivably, there's a lot of work behind the scenes from a staff standpoint, but… but trying to make sure that we're using, let's say, best practices to
Push back where need be, to make sure that, you know, either change orders or delays that are the result of the developer, the consultant specifically, are being, you know, let's say.
negotiated at a reasonable level to make sure that… that we're just not footing the bill. So… so I appreciate that feedback, and how, you know, we… we don't… we'll never have a project this big again, in our lifetime, but… but…
Each project, you know, and we have lots of public works projects that are
medium, large size, not super large like this one, that, you know, it's trying to figure out how to best use that from a practice standpoint. So, thank you for that. Recycled water, so…
not…
happy to hear that it's going now delayed until, you know, basically middle or late next year. There are other projects that are related to recycled water, so the pipeline, you know, the additional recycled water pipeline extension.
or expansion within Sunnyvale. That project still moves forward, correct? Even though we don't have the recycled water, and that should be, you know, ready sometime… sometime in 2027? Yes, so there are two projects we're doing, one in Moffat Park to make some connections to existing lines.
We're also extending the, Wolf Line to the Sunken Gardens Golf Course. So those are all proceeding. So this project was also, I mean, all set to proceed.
But because of delays from the vendor, it just makes sense for us to, you know, just wait until
the conventional actuated sludger, the secondary treatment is online. We can actually produce recycled water today.
Rohan, our plant manager, has done a great job of, you know, using his chemicals magic. We are able to produce recycled water, but what's also is happening is between now and,
the end of the year, we are doing at least 10 plant shutdowns, because
We are also finishing up our existing planned rehab project, so we are moving a lot of the old electrical system and putting in the new electrical system, so you're changing the system from the old to the new. So, as a result, every single time you do that, you shut the plant down.
So, every time you shut the plant down, you're also shutting down recycled water.
And, from a customer's perspective, that every time that happens, they're seeing a change in the water quality. So we kind of thought through all that and basically made a decision to just wait until
You know, the cash one comes online.
And then we would basically be able to provide very consistent, good quality recycled water, you know, from that point on. Okay, thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Seeing no further hands from my… wait a minute, Mr. City Manager.
Yeah, thank you, Vice Mayor. I just wanted to,
make a quick comment regarding the financing. We… I don't know if we still have the… David, if you could bring up…
I think it was slide 7 that has the interest rates on it.
I just want to emphasize that, this particular project is total over the 20-year life cycle, is over a billion dollar project, and…
These interest rates are,
incredibly low. If you think about it in terms of…
But what you would earn on the money if you had it in hand, or money over time, how it inflates, or how costs inflate.
This is just really, really good interest rates for this, and so I just want to set that context, because I think Matt kind of…
Mentioned it, in passing a little bit, but the current bond market, if we were to have to go to a traditional revenue bond, tax-exempt revenue bond, we're going to be in the 4-5% range.
On a project of this size, that is millions and millions and millions of dollars in financing costs.
That, would be in addition to just the core project costs. So, we're going to continue to, try to achieve low rates, but I think it's important to understand that in the current interest rate environment, although we won't probably pay
full market rate, we'll pay a little bit under that, even in a traditional financing, that we're not likely to see this kind of savings. I think these, and correct me if I'm wrong, Matt, but I think we're carrying around
$550, $600 million in loans at these rates, so it is really a, really a great thing for the ratepayers. So I just wanted to make sure that that got out there, that those are really great financing tools, and I'm thankful to the federal government, the EPA, because these are
federal loans, and also to the state revolving fund. These loans are designed specifically to help
you know, agencies like ours shoulder the burden of the costs of these very, very large projects. So, just wanted to make that comment. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. City Manager.
I will now go ahead and open the public comment on this item. Please submit a speaker card to the City Clerk, use the raise hand feature now, or dial star 9 on a telephone to indicate you wish to speak. I will call on members of the public participating in person first, followed by remote participants. Speakers will have 2 minutes to speak.
First up, we have Zach K.
Obviously, this has to go forward.
Relative to today, how much should one expect residential sewer rates to go up 5 years out, 10 years out, 15 years out, 20 years out?
Is there an option to do the remainder of the project as a fixed-price contract?
That might have been something interesting originally.
Thank you very much. Does anyone else want to speak on this item before we hear from remote speakers?
Seeing and hearing no one, City Clerk, do we have any remote participants wishing to speak on this item?
Yes, Vice Mayor, first up. When we get to that, remote speakers are warned to limit their comments to the agenda item being considered. Speakers who are ruled out of order will not be given another chance to speak on this item. The title of the agenda item is the… well, it's the presentation on the Clean Water Program. Now we can proceed.
First up is Stephen M, followed by Afsaneh J. Steven, you've been unmuted, and you have 3 minutes to address the City Council.
Stephen Meier: Hello, good evening, City Council, and all the, wonderful staff in Sunnyvale. First hats off with regard to, the finance. These interest rates are absolutely incredible, so,
Stephen Meier: The finance team is doing an awesome job, and I'm sure the water plant is being constructed in a great way.
Stephen Meier: My concern I'd like to raise is regarding, Super El Nino.
Stephen Meier: Super El Nino's forecast for next season.
Stephen Meier: And I don't think you guys are ready.
Stephen Meier: I think we're gonna have a major flood event coming to Sunnyvale.
Stephen Meier: And, as you know, I've been watching all this, discussion on the Baykeeper lawsuit, and it appears that
Stephen Meier: Your underlying sewer infrastructure is faulty.
Stephen Meier: You have aged infrastructure, and what's gonna happen when you have a storm event is there's gonna be a huge inflow into your water infrastructure.
Stephen Meier: It's gonna completely overwhelm… you're buffering.
Stephen Meier: You're gonna have a storm that's gonna overwhelm…
Stephen Meier: The buffering capacity, and then you're gonna have a huge disaster.
Stephen Meier: I am concerned that the flood wall that you specified, there's no way to test it.
Damn.
Stephen Meier: you're not gonna test it until the flood event happens. And I had this personally in my engineering experience, where I thought I had computer backups.
Stephen Meier: And then a computer backup system was never tested. And I lost a whole bunch of data as a computer executive.
Stephen Meier: So, I'm wondering, how do you test your flood wall?
Stephen Meier: There's no way to test it.
Stephen Meier: How do you know it's gonna hold?
Stephen Meier: In a 100-year flood, and, you know, this…
Stephen Meier: Yeah, climate change and the stormwater rise, this is serious business, folks.
Stephen Meier: If we have a flood event that overwhelms the buffering capacity of the plant.
Stephen Meier: I mean, all the biologics don't work anymore, and we're gonna have…
Stephen Meier: You know, a huge mess flowing into the bay.
Stephen Meier: So, mark my words, you guys have a huge problem with sewer infrastructure that you're hiding.
Stephen Meier: Right, you have huge litigation costs coming up.
Stephen Meier: The judge is gonna come back with his injunction, and you guys are gonna be required to fix your sewer infrastructure.
Stephen Meier: You're not being honest about the problems with your pipes. I've done a PRA, I know the problems with your pipes, and it's a huge cover-up.
Stephen Meier: So why don't you come clean?
Stephen Meier: And meet with me.
Stephen Meier: You're holding me off, you're not talking to me, you're holding off because of litigation, litigation, litigation, litigation, litigation, you're not being honest.
Stephen Meier: When you're not honest, it's gonna turn out like the Oroville Dam, it's gonna turn out like Pacific Palisades.
Stephen Meier: You're gonna have a huge disaster, and I wanna know who's to accompan.
Stephen Meier: Is it the mayor? Is it the city manager? Is it the head of environmentals? I don't know. But you guys are not ready. Thank you, goodnight.
Thank you. Next is Afsane AJ.
Afsaneh, you've been unmuted, and you have 3 minutes to address the City Council.
Afsaneh Jabbar: Thank you so much for allowing me to speak on this issue. I want to concentrate on the schedule of values, and also the coordination study for overall contract and Walsh's contract.
Afsaneh Jabbar: The two-line items that I am concentrated on are the electrical lines. For over a project, it is roughly $8 million, and for Walsh's project, it's roughly $54 million.
Afsaneh Jabbar: And it is only one line item.
Afsaneh Jabbar: You were talking about, how effective it will be to have, design-build.
Afsaneh Jabbar: So, from the experience that you just had with overall and the electrical coordination study.
Afsaneh Jabbar: I'm here to tell you that probably it will not be that successful, because with one line item, project.
Afsaneh Jabbar: You cannot control what project is done and what all isn't included under that heading.
Afsaneh Jabbar: And to account for that, if you look at the people who have signed the coordination study.
Afsaneh Jabbar: It doesn't look like any of them is a power engineer.
Afsaneh Jabbar: So, how would a… A coordination study will be completed without a power engineer.
Afsaneh Jabbar: And the person who signed it as approved says.
Afsaneh Jabbar: No exception noted. When somebody says, no exception noted, it means that it met all of the specifications. And then, as you saw during the implementation, the project was delayed for about 3 years.
Afsaneh Jabbar: Another issue that I want to bring to your attention is a coordination study was submitted in February of 2002.
Afsaneh Jabbar: the notice to proceed was, issued at December 2022, which means that you still had some problems.
Afsaneh Jabbar: And somebody should have known that the problem will not be solved in such a short amount of time, and the notice to proceed either would not be issued or would have been issued for a couple of years down the pipe. You may say, well, the price increase
Afsaneh Jabbar: would have existed. That's true. You would have had to pri…
Afsaneh Jabbar: Pay for the price increase, but you would not have paid for the delay to the construction company.
Afsaneh Jabbar: Thank you so much for allowing me to speak.
Thank you very much. Mr. City Clerk, are there any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item? No, Vice Mayor.
Thank you very much. I'm going to close public comment on this item. Do any of my colleagues have any final comments they would like to add before we adjourn?
Seeing none, one last question I have for staff. There were a number of questions raised by public commenters. Would it be possible to get a written response for those questions as an information-only item for the next Council agenda, or something like that?
Roll it in with Council questions, or is that a feasible thing?
That's not a normal practice that we provide a written response to public comment on a informational presentation? That's fine. Yeah. All right, thank you. With that, I am going to adjourn this meeting at 7.01 PM, and Mr. Mayor, let's go ahead and take a 9-minute break, and come back at 710. Thank you.
Good evening. Let's call during the Council Meeting of August 25th, 2026, at 7.13pm.
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safe, and respected. This Council meeting is considered a limited public forum, which means that Council can regulate the time, place, and manner of speech.
Speaker comments must be limited to the agenda item being considered by Council for consent calendar or public hearing items. Speaker comments during oral communications must be limited to matters within Council's authority, generally referred to as Council's subject matter jurisdiction.
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Comments on matters not on the agenda must be submitted prior to the time I call the item for oral communications. Comments on agenda items must be submitted prior to the time I close the public hearing on that agenda item.
Speakers are requested to keep their comments to the time period set for that specific item, and time limits will be strictly enforced. Guidelines are posted on the City's website and on the Council Meeting agenda. First, please stand if you are able, and join me in a salute to the flag.
I pledge allegiance to the flag.
of the United States of America.
And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Next is roll call. City Clerk, may we please have roll call? Mayor Klein. Present. Vice Mayor Mellinger? Present. Councilmember Cisneros?
Present. Councilmember Srinivasan. Present. Councilmember Sal?
Present. Councilmember Chang? Present. Councilmember Lay? Present. 7 present. Thank you. Vice Mayor, may we please have the closed session report? Yes, we may. The City Council met in closed session earlier this evening, held pursuant to California Government Code Section 54957.
Public Employee Performance Evaluation title, City Attorney, Nothing to Report. Thank you.
Thank you, Vice Mayor. Next, we have a special order of the day. Let me come up to the lectern.
Before we begin tonight's meeting, we have a special recognition in honor of Workforce Development Month. Joining us tonight are Leland Anders, Employment Training Manager for NovoWorks.
Along with co-executive Director of Maker Nexus, Regina, Sokles, and…
Kelly, Yamanishi, and a Nova Works young adult intern, Kyle Yannis.
sorry, Kylo Yanis. Come on forward.
Thank you all for being here. Would you like to say a few words? Go right ahead. Yes, thank you.
Good evening, everybody.
My name is Leland Anders, and I'm with Nova Works. Each year, Nova Works provides career services to about 2,500 adults and young adults in San Mateo County and northern cities of Santa Clara County.
For the past year or two, we've had… we've been very fortunate to partner with Maker Nexus in Sunnyvale.
Mako Nexus is a special nonprofit organization, where the community can learn new skills in many different areas. Woodshop, welding, 3D printing, laser cutters, sewing, electronics, and so many other things.
If you haven't visited Maker Nexus yet.
Then I would highly recommend you check out their website, and you check out their calendar. The skills learned there are often used by our community to build small businesses.
which then contribute to our local economy. But tonight, we want to give special thanks to co-executive directors, Regina and Kelly, for hosting our young adult interns, providing a really inclusive environment for them to develop their professional skills. And I'm going to hand it over to them to say a few words.
Thank you, Leland. Thank you. This… we're really thrilled to be here. We've had a wonderful working relationship with NovaWorks. You really should come down and check out what we offer, because you can learn all kinds of things, but among the things you can learn is how to be a good employee, to learn some soft skills, and to learn how to fit into the workforce, and we've just been thrilled with the quality of candidates we've gotten from NovaWorks, and how well prepared they are when they come in for their interviews. They've really
stood up head and shoulders above others that we've spoken to, and we've really been thrilled to have Kylo with us, eager to hear what she has to say. It's been a great experience working with Neela Works. We really thank you.
Hello, everyone. My name is Kylo. I've been, with NovaWorks since high school, and it was through them that I was able to get, an internship right after I graduated.
And, that is my internship with Maker Nexus.
I'm a month deep into my internship.
I'm an office assistant.
And what I can say is this.
Every day, I come into work, and I'm excited, because I'm always learning new things.
Whether that be how to use the laminator, or, cleaning a laser machine.
It's so fun, and it's so nice to be surrounded by innovation.
Makers are the future, and Maker Nexus is where your future can begin. So, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. In 2021, the U.S. Senate passed a recognition
a resolution recognizing September as National Workforce Development Month. This recognition highlights the importance of, equipping residents with the education, training, and skills necessary
To advance their careers and grow our economy. It is also a time to reflect on the contributions of workforce makers.
Here in Sunnyvale, we partner with 7 other jurisdictions, and the County of San Mateo, Cupertina, Los Altos, Milpitas Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Santa Clara in support of NovaWorks. NovaWorks is a non-profit, federally funded employment and training organization that connects people
with opportunities to learn, to grow, and to build meaningful careers. It's all happening right here in Sunnyvale City Hall.
They support adults and young adults through personalized career achievement.
job search workshops and skills training, as well as career pathway guidance. Young adults can also gain valuable real-world experience through internships that build skills, expand professional networks, and provide a pathway
to future employment. Nova works.
Also, partners with our local employers to find talent and strengthen their workforce through employee training, creating opportunities for both businesses and job seekers alike.
On behalf of the Sunnyvale City Council, it's my great pleasure to proclaim September 2026 as Workforce Development Month. Thank you to NovaWorks. Thank you for Maker Nexus for being an important part of our community. Thank you very much.
Haley?
Thank you very much.
Next up is oral communications.
This is now the public's opportunity to address Council on topics not listed on tonight's agenda.
This section is limited to 15 minutes, and may be extended or continued after the general business section of the meeting. Individuals may only speak once during oral communications.
This council meeting is considered a limited public forum, which means the Council can regulate the time, place, and manner of speech.
Speaker comments during oral communications must be limited to matters within Council's authority, generally referred to as Council's subject matter jurisdiction.
If a speaker's comments are outside of Council's subject matter jurisdiction, the presiding officer will rule that speaker out of order. This allows Council to conduct its business in a reasonably efficient manner, and protects the rights of other speakers. A speaker will not be ruled out of order because of a disagreement with the content of their speech.
Please submit a speaker card to the City Clerk, raise your additional hand now, or dial star 9 on your telephone to indicate that you wish to speak. I will call on members of the public participating in person first, followed by remote participants.
Speakers will have 2 minutes to speak.
Before I get to the public, Councilmember Cisneros has several announcements.
I do. I have 4 announcements, this evening. The first is the 2026 Sunnyvale State of the City. Celebrate Sunnyvale with us. We invite you to our annual State of the City event on Saturday, September 19th.
The event is free and open to all members of the public, and will be from 8.30am to 12.30pm at City Hall. It will include an opening reception, the Mayor's State of the City Address, Board and Commission recognition, and community awards.
For more information, visit Sunnyvale.ca.gov and search State of the City. We hope that you can join us in recognizing all of the wonderful people and happenings in the City of Sunnyvale.
Our second announcement is Sunnyvale Beam is here! Sunnyvale has a new way to get around town. Sunnyvale Beam, our new on-demand rideshare service, is now rolling through the city.
Sunnyvale Beam makes it convenient and affordable to travel anywhere within Sunnyvale. Whether you're heading to school or an appointment, meeting friends, linking to other transit, running errands, or visiting your favorite places around town, you can use the Sunnyvale Beam app or
Call to request a ride. A comfortable shuttle will pick you up nearby and take you to where you need to go within Sunnyvale.
And we invite you to join… invite you to help us celebrate. Join us at 9am, Tuesday, September 1st, at Sunnyvale City Hall for the first official Beam launch event. Come see the new BEAM vehicles, learn how the service works, and help us celebrate this new transportation option for our community.
Sunnyvale Beam is about giving people more freedom and flexibility in how they get around our city. So, leave the driving and parking to us, and Beam, your way around Sunnyvale. To learn more, download the Sunnyvale Beam app, or visit
city.ridewithviavia.com slash Sunnyvale.
And our third announcement.
Sunnyvale is National Library Card Sign-Up Month!
This September, join the Sunnyvale Public Library in celebrating Library Card Sign-Up Month, and discover how a library card can hit all the right notes, no matter what your tastes are.
This year's theme, A Library Card Hits All the Right Notes, is a reminder that libraries offer something for everyone, no matter your age, background, or goals.
Whether you're checking out a classic story, or trying something new, finding harmony in library programming, or composing your future with new skills, there is a seat in the front row at the library for you, with your library card as the ticket.
Getting a library card is free, easy, and empowering. For students, it's key to academic success. For adults, it's a gateway to lifelong learning. For everyone, it's a smart way to stay connected to your community.
When the new Lakewood Branch Library and Learning Center opens, your Sunnyvale Library card will work there, too. To register for your own Sunnyvale Library card, visit the library's website at library.sunnyvale.ca.gov.
And our final announcement this evening is the Safe Routes to School Working Group Meetings. We are proud to participate in Safe Routes to School, SRTS,
Program, working alongside schools, community partners, and city teams to ensure that every child has a safe, accessible route to and from school each day.
Volunteer support is essential for Safe Routes to School programs to be successful and sustainable at school sites.
Volunteer to serve on the Sunnyvale Safe Ridge to School Working Group to discuss how future program… how to further the program's mission. Meeting are open to all members of the public.
For more information, visit Sunnyvale.ca.gov and search Safe Routes to School. You can even subscribe to stay informed. Thank you for helping us to build a safer Sunnyvale, and with that.
Our announcements are concluded.
Thank you, Councilmember. I'll be reading off two names. The first name, please come to the lectern, the second person be hopefully waiting nearby to speed over transitions. First up is Russ M, followed by Mike C.
Good evening, Mayor and Council. Russ Melton here, CEO of the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for the opportunity to speak, and while the City Clerk is pulling up my foils, let me just say, at the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, we love workforce development, and we join you in celebrating Workforce Development Month.
We have a young adult intern at the Chamber of Commerce, Stephanie. She's been on board for a month and is already doing a fantastic job for the Chamber of Commerce, so I join in celebrating the entire team at Sunnyvale Nova, Athena Gazet, Leland Anders, and Marlena Sessions. Great job by everybody. We have a number of exciting upcoming events, including one this Friday. This is the grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony
Dumont Creamery and Cafe at the Calais Center on El Camino Real. This one's open to the public. I'd love to see everybody there. Mayor Klein, I think you're going to be out there to speak, and I really appreciate that. This is at 1pm on Friday. I'm told by the proprietor there's going to be lots of free ice cream, so no reason not to come, and that means everybody standing behind me here in Council Chambers and watching online, please merge
mark your calendars.
Then, coming up on September 17th is the inaugural golf tournament and banquet. This is going to be held at Sunken Gardens Golf Course at 3.30 in the afternoon, and then the banquet event will be held at Old Greenwood Barbecue at the Gold Rush Saloon on-site, Thursday, September 17th.
On October 14th, we're pleased to welcome California State Treasurer Fiona Ma for our Breakfast With event that's going to be held here in Sunnyvale. Would love to see everybody there.
And in my last few seconds, I'll mention the 60th Murphy Awards that will be held on February 11th, 2027. You can learn about this event and all of our other events at our website, svcoC.org. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
Thank you. Next up is Mike C, followed by Pamela K.
Hi, this is Mike Casconi, a 45-year resident of Sunnyvale. Last week, I had the opportunity to, go to the Ro Khanna open house. It wasn't an open house, so they didn't have any cookies.
No, it was a town hall meeting. And I was very, impressed with his ability to answer questions on the fly.
And I may ask you a couple of questions. I understand from the Brown Act that you don't have to answer questions, but you can, or you can refer them for further discussion.
I'm hoping, that you want to,
help the trust and transparency process, and so I'm going to ask some very simple questions.
We're gonna run out of time.
I have here the consultant agreement, that was signed, by the city manager and a couple of other people, and it says, 6-12-2026 on it, but I want to know when was it signed? Was it just signed on that day, or was it…
Recently.
Can you answer that question?
So this section of the meeting is for public comment only. It's not a back and forth from that standpoint, and… So, like I said, the Brown Act says you don't have to answer, and clearly you don't want to answer.
So, I'll ask you guys later, because I've asked for a private meeting.
So another question is, and I got 30 seconds, who wrote this document?
Was it the City of Sunnyvale, or was it the consultant, or was it a collaborative effort?
You can't answer that question either.
So this is all operational, so you can talk to the city manager. Okay, so the last question is, did the Parks and Rec Commission have input to this?
Can't answer that question either. You guys are not transparent, you're not making us trust you anymore. Thank you.
Pamela K? Through the Mayor, could I… Oh, sorry. Thank you. Could I please ask the City Attorney to clarify for the public the, provisions in the Brown Act that prohibit us from answering questions from the dais at this time?
So, public comment is a time for members of the public to express their opinions about the topics that they're concerned with. It's not a time for staff to respond.
And, the Brown Act says there can be no more than a brief discussion on a non-agenda item.
Thank you, Rebecca. I want to add that it is possible for us to answer questions at the end of a session… at the end of a meeting, and that is permissible under the Brown Act.
it…
But these questions that you asked are operational, and as the Mayor said, please refer them to the City Manager. Thank you.
Thank you. Pamela K, followed by Steve B.
Good evening. I don't have any questions tonight.
But I do have a few comments.
My name is Pamela Gwen-Kitler, and as of this month, I have been a resident of Sunnyvale for 40 years.
My family and I chose our house due in part to its proximity to Las Palmas Park. We have spent hours and hours enjoying the playgrounds and its grassy knolls.
I really appreciate your patience with those of us who attend the public comments section as part of the Green and Serene group.
I have sat where you are. In the 1990s, I ran for and served on the Sunnyvale School District Board of Education, so I know it's not always easy to hear constituent complaints. However, it is part of the job of an elected official.
I mention this because those of us who have lived and worked and volunteered in the city for as long as I have.
Know that in many ways, Sunnyvale is like a small town. People talk.
Recently, in fact, I've been hearing that there's some frustration on the Council that the Green and Serene Group is attending and commenting at each council meeting.
I've even been told that there have been some heated remarks.
I would just like to say that the reason I come regularly is that I care deeply about Las Palmas Park, and I am upset that the opinions of park users other than
Organized sports groups were put out last.
Like an afterthought, almost, following significant work on the park redevelopment plans. I felt very disrespected as a constituent by that process.
So I plan to keep coming to these meetings. I don't trust the process at this point, and as you move forward working with all stakeholders, I also don't want you to forget about me and the other constituents who want to keep the park green and serene.
Besides, attending helps me better understand other issues facing the city, and how all of you as council members govern.
I am better informed now when sharing my impressions in discussions with friends and neighbors. In Sunnyvale, word of mouth still matters. Thank you. Steve B, followed by…
Gwen M?
My name is Steve Belton. I've lived in Sunnyvale for 38 years.
And, this is my first time to speak at a council meeting.
And I want to thank each one of you for your service to Sunnyvale.
But I want to use this time to share some concerns
about what seems like a push to have another cricket field with field lighting in Sunnyvale, despite there already being one at Ortega Park.
In the first survey done by the city in April 2025, the top four things people wanted for the park renovation
Were additional restrooms, more open space.
More walkways, and better lighting for the walkways and the parking lots.
In the second survey done by the city in November 2025, the most favored proposal was Option B, without a cricket field or lighting. The report described it as, quote, the clear favorite.
Also, when people who chose option C, the one with the cricket pitch, were asked about the features in option C they liked, the cricket pitch was the least often selected favorite feature. So even the people favoring option C were not choosing it because of cricket.
Now, though, despite your own survey data.
It seems that cricket, with field lighting, is still in the plans we hear about.
Who is pushing this?
It certainly seems it is not a majority of the citizens of Sunnyvale.
And this is a public park. It's public land. Public land should not be used for what seems to be a private benefit for a privileged few. I can't help but wonder if we are somehow being unduly influenced
By private interests, a special interest group that is having an outsized voice in a public forum.
I favor option B, a refresh, without cricket and without field lighting.
Thank you all very much.
Next is Gwen M, followed by Steve M.
Hi there. My name is Gwen McKay. I've been a resident of Sunnyvale for almost 30 years. Tonight, I'd like to speak to you all about the very complicated and sticky process of getting a traffic calming study
started in the city of Sunnyvale. So, in 2024, I submitted a request for a traffic
calming study to be done on Kennewick Drive, which also included Helena Drive. If y'all know Kennewick Drive, it, leads you into, Homestead, Homestead High School.
There's a lot of traffic, it's a very busy street, particularly during school hours, drop-off and
end of school days. Also, Helena is one of those streets that crosses, Kennewick. There's a lot of, students that are traveling on bicycles in groups, going through towards Sarah Park, and also going towards
CMS, Cupertino Middle School, West Valley, and also Homestead. So on Kennewick, my neighbors all agree that we've noticed there are more cars, there's more bicycles, there's more scooters, there are more e-bikes. This road is being shared by lots and lots of traffic. What prompted me to first submit this study in 2024,
was there was a near accident. Anyway, I submitted this application. The process revamped. My application was lost. Two years later, I resubmitted my application. This past January, I tried to get a status on this. I've emailed the department.
I've had, to refill out applications. Nothing seems to be going on. I don't know what to do. I would really like this study to happen, and unless I initiate contact, nothing happens. Thank you. Thank you. City Manager, would you care to comment on…
Process and traffic calming.
Sure. So we recently, I think as you identified, redid our traffic calming process.
There currently is a backlog, and so we're working through that, and we're actually trying to staff up, add a full-time staff to work exclusively on traffic calming. If… I'll come down after I finish this comment, give you my card. If you email me, I can follow up on your behalf and find out the status on your particular request.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next up is Steve M, followed by Julian.
Hi, good evening, Mayor Klein and Council Members. My name is Steve Morrison, and my wife Ellen and I have lived in Sunnyvale since February 2020… 2006. We moved here with our three children, and Los Palmas Park has been part of our family's life for more than 20 years.
This is personal to us. Our children grew up with Las Palmas Parks. For us, it isn't just another city property or collection of athletic fields. It's part of what makes Sunnyvale feel like home. We've walked through that park countless times over the past 20 years. We've watched our children and other children play, and we still use it today. The park already works beautifully.
Just a couple of weeks ago, we had a friend with us from Glasgow, Scotland, and during a walk over to the park, he spontaneously commented on how beautiful the park was, and what impressed him most wasn't a particular sports facility, it was the openness and the diversity of people using the park. There were more than 10 volleyball nets being used, young children were playing.
Families were gathering, people were walking and enjoying the evening. That's what makes Las Palmas special. It already works as a multi-use community park. We aren't opposed to improving the park. I want to be very clear about this. We support improvements to the infrastructure paths, restrooms, parking, landscaping, and other facilities. Our concern is that if we're not careful by trying to improve the park, we may
Fundamentally change what makes it special.
Please don't turn it into a sports facility. There is a difference between adding recreational opportunities and transforming a community park into a specialized sports venue.
This isn't about being against cricket, it's just that this is not something we believe that Los Palmas should have. And think about people who use the park every day, and please listen to the City Council's own community input. As has been said, Option B was the most preferred option, receiving approximately 41% of responses. Julie N, followed by…
Ellen… sorry, Eden M.
Hello, good evening. My name is Julie Matthew, and I just wanted to, tell you guys what Las Palmas Park means to me. I've lived there since I was 6 years old, and I… I really live… we lived right next to it. I didn't even have to cross a street to get there, so me and my sisters would
run around the whole park. We'd be climbing trees and just going everywhere, and we'd have friends over.
Excuse me. And just play, and it was… it was amazing to grow up in that place, and right now.
I wasn't expecting to get emotional, sorry, but I have my 3 kids over there, and this one also is a 4. I get to raise them right there where I was raised.
And they run around.
All the time?
And it is open for them, and they climb trees, and they have all this amazing… we are so blessed.
to be able to live right next to Las Palmas Park, which has been called by many people that I've heard of, the best park in Sunnyvale. It's the best park because it's open for so many
different types of people doing all different types of things. There's volleyball, all these volleyball, we love watching them.
We'll just sit as a family, watch them play volleyball while we're running around and my kids are doing, you know, whatever they want to do. There's so much space.
And there's more and more people coming, like, just living in Sunnyvale, because when I grew up, you know, there wasn't always a ton of people at Las Palmas, but now there's even more, and it just… the way Los Palmas Park is, that's what brings people, and I do not want to see it change. I've got my four kids growing up.
Here, we're so thankful to be right next to Los Palmas Park. Please do not change it.
Thank you.
Eden M, followed by Zach K.
Me and my brother Ezra, we love to play baseball out there, and it's a lot of fun, so please don't change the park.
Thank you. Thank you.
No, sorry.
Next up is Alan… W?
Hi there.
So I really… I concur everything that everybody's saying about Las Farmers Park. We've lived here for 30 years also.
And everybody that's visited us from all kinds of different places around the world, we always make it a point of taking them to Las Palmas Park so they can appreciate the open green space, which it is.
We all understand that there are,
that there's renovations that have to go on. We understand that. And also, I understand you're thinking about putting two free pickleball courts and two tennis ball… free tennis ball… tennis courts there.
I would suggest that you take two tennis courts from the existing ones and turn them free.
and take two pickleball courts and make them free, and let the shop actually handle the organization of those for you. Then that way, you will not have to tear things apart and put more free courts in there.
It's a really special place. A lot of people that live around Las Palmas Park, that's one of the reasons they waited for houses to come up for sale. And they bought them because they wanted to live around the park. It's an extremely, extremely special place to live.
And I sincerely hope that you are listening to all of the people that have been here tonight, and the multiple times, and the information that you've received from the past, and don't just blow it off, as,
The public just…
That's the published opinion, but we're gonna do what we're gonna do anyway. That green space does not need a cricket court.
There's no doubt about it, it definitely does not need a fence around it, and it does not need, large lights there, which would actually impede a lot of people at that core… at that point.
Okay, and thanks for your time.
Thank you, that was my last speaker card in the room.
Because the nature of remote communication, speakers who are ruled out of order will not be given another chance to speak on this item. Therefore, speakers are warned to limit their comments to subject matters that fall within Council's authority.
to decide… or to take action. City Clerk, do we have any remote participants wishing to speak under oral communications? Yes, Mayor. First up is Judy S, followed by…
Jamondre B. Judy, you've been unmuted, and you have 2 minutes to address the City Council.
Judy, you should see a pop-up on your screen asking you to unmute.
Okay, Mayor, we're gonna go on to Ja'Mondre B, and then we'll check back with Judy.
Ja'Mondre, you've been unmuted, and you have 2 minutes to address the City Council.
Ja'Mondre Black: Yes, hello, my name's Ja'Mondre Black, and
Ja'Mondre Black: I'd like to say I really agree with a lot of the speakers.
Ja'Mondre Black: I've seen a trend. I moved to Sunnyvale.
Ja'Mondre Black: recently, my little brother died due to gang violence in 2023, so I've been an advocate for stopping violence in the Black community.
Ja'Mondre Black: And, also, for the advocation of, the Second Amendment, but…
Ja'Mondre Black: I've noticed this trend of city governments misallocating the funds, and it's become pervasive
Ja'Mondre Black: in our communities, as far as I can tell, it's all around the country, and…
Ja'Mondre Black: it's very hard for us. Now, there's a bubble in the housing… market.
Ja'Mondre Black: And I started to do some research into it, and I saw that,
Ja'Mondre Black: there's a lot of these hedge funds that are buying up all the houses for renters, and they're jacking up the prices, and I don't think that's right. I think we deserve fair housing. The Constitution says that all men are created equal, and this is the land of opportunity, so I think that…
Ja'Mondre Black: We shouldn't have, all these rich billionaires buying up all these things and then, jacking up the prices on all of us.
Ja'Mondre Black: So… also, another thing is,
Ja'Mondre Black: regarding the gun violence, I think that…
Ja'Mondre Black: The guns aren't the ones that are killing people, it's…
Ja'Mondre Black: these people that… maybe they have mental health issues or something, but they can't control themselves. And so I think that we need to, blame the people that are doing, this gun legislation here, instead of the people, and giving them some help. And I wanted to also say that,
Ja'Mondre Black: Black Crimes Matter. If you go to, the Black Crimes Matter, you'll understand why all these things are happening, why Black is killing everybody.
Alright, Mayor, we're gonna check back in with Judy S. Judy, you've been unmuted, and you have 2 minutes to address the City Council.
Judy, you should see a pop-up on your screen asking you to unmute.
Mayor, unfortunately, the ACE individuals, appears unable to activate their microphone to provide public comment.
Okay, thank you. And they are the final remote public speaker for oral communications. Thank you. I'll go ahead and close Oral Communications. We'll move on to our consent calendar. I'll open up public comment on our consent calendar items. Please submit a speaker to the city clerks.
Raise your digital hand now, or dial star 9 on your telephone to indicate that you wish to speak. I will call on members of public participating in person first, followed by remote participants.
Speakers will have 3 minutes to speak.
I want to double check.
So… Zach, is this 1B or B?
Oh, sorry. Okay.
So cool.
Sorry, okay, thank you. I have no speaker cards in the room. City Clerk, do we have any remote participants wishing to speak on the consent calendar item?
Yes, Mayor. First up is Henry S. Henry, I'm gonna unmute you to find out which agenda item you'd like to speak to.
Henry Soong: 1c as in Charlie.
Thank you, and we'll return to hear your public comment momentarily for that.
Pro item 1C as in Charlie.
And that's the only public… And that's the only remote public speaker for the consent calendar. Thank you. I'll go ahead and close public comment.
And bring it back to Council.
Vice Mayor Ballinger. I move Consent Calendar Minus 1C.
Thank you.
Councilmember Sharene Bonsai. Second.
Thank you. City Clerk, can you please conduct the vote?
Okay, Councilmembers, please go ahead and vote.
The motion for consent calendar items 1A…
1A, 1B, and 1D through 1I carry 7-0.
Thank you, let's go ahead and take item 1C now.
I'll go ahead and open up public comment on this item. Please submit a speaker card to the City Clerk, raise your additional hand now, or dial star on your telephone to indicate that you wish to speak. I will call on members of the public participating in person first, followed by remote participants. Speakers will have 2 minutes to speak.
I have no speaker cards in the room. City Clerk, do we have any remote participants wishing to speak on item 1C?
Yes, Mayor, first up is Henry S. Henry, you've been unmuted, and you have 3 minutes to address the City Council.
Henry Soong: Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Councilmembers. I'm commenting on 1C over the August 11th draft minutes to raise a basic question of accuracy and editorial consistency.
Henry Soong: In this draft minutes, during oral communications, a public commenter named Manny Guerrero expressly identified Parks Recreation Commissioner Prakash Gary by name, identified his leadership role with the Northern California Cricket Association, and raised an appearance of conflict
Henry Soong: concern regarding the Las Palmas renovation project. And then immediately after Mr. Guerrero's comment, the city manager publicly responded to that controversy and stated that he had seen no evidence of a financial conflict.
Henry Soong: now compare to the July 28th public comments, commenter, who also raised concerns regarding Commissioner Geary, but in both versions of those, draft minutes, they merely describe Commissioner Geary as, quote, a Parks and Recreation Commissioner, and in the August 11th version does not identify Commissioner Geary by name.
Henry Soong: Similarly, when I made consultant payment comments regarding RRM design groups during the consent calendar comment on July 28th.
Henry Soong: The minutes version didn't reduce RRM to simply a consultant, it actually named RRM by name. And I've also raised previous similar editorial consistency concerns regarding other advisory commissions, such as the Park and Recreation Commission minutes, over the last several months.
Henry Soong: And so it's becoming an institutional record question, not just an isolated wording disagreement. I think a neutral correction to this August 11th, minutes, it could be something as reasonable as.
Henry Soong: You know, Manny Guerrero raised concerns regarding Commissioner Prokask Geary's participation in the Las Palmas Park matters in light of his leadership role with the Northern California Cricket Association. I think this version records the allegation without endorsing it or denying it either way. If Sunnyvale has an editorial standard, when named individuals or organizations are anonymized in minutes, please identify what those standards are.
Henry Soong: and apply it consistently across the city's legislative commissions and advisory commissions and advisory bodies. If the city's legislative record should, you know, reflect what happened, not make
Henry Soong: a publicly answered controversy less intelligible after the fact, I think that actually promotes more transparency, not less.
Henry Soong: The Brown Act, does not, you know, mandate that summary minutes have to be verbatim transcripts, but summarizations should not selectively remove material context. Please correct Item 1C before approval. Thank you.
Thank you.
Mayor, that was the final public speaker for this agenda item.
Thank you. I'll go ahead and close public comment.
Vice Mayor Mellinger? Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Mr. City Manager, Mr. Clerk, could you, describe our general practice in writing minutes?
And how we decide, how public comments are summarized.
Yes, Vice Mayor, David Carne, the City Clerk. So, the City Council follows Sturgis, which generally requires action minutes, which don't include the names of any public speakers or the discussion of Council members. Sunnyvale City Council has a practice of including a sentence or two
Naming the individual who spoke, and a sentence or two of what they said.
There is no set standard on, you know, if individuals are named in those public comments or organizations are named, whether those are included or not included.
Thank you, and is it fair to say that the minutes are intended to function as a summary of the meeting, and that the full record of the meeting is available online via video?
I would say it's fair to say that the actions taken by the meeting body are recorded in the minutes, and additional information, including names of public commenters, is included as a courtesy, but we do have a full video recording of all City Council meetings, and then we have video recordings of
Board and Commission meetings, generally starting around, the year 2020. Thank you. I have one other thing that I do want to note for correction in the minutes, which is multiple references to Lowellwood Elementary School, and I believe that would be Laurelwood.
And I am happy to… To have my colleagues correct me if I'm wrong on that.
Thank you.
Thank you, Vice Mayor. Councilmember Chang.
Yes, thank you. I sent the low wood in the Monday morning questions. It's referenced twice. Could you also update Serene to S-E-R-E-N-E?
Yes, we can make both of those, corrections. Thank you. …when the minutes are published.
Thank you.
Councilmember Chang?
Vice Mayor Mellinger? I move that we adopt the minutes with the corrections as described, Lowell Wood to Laurelwood, and correcting the spelling of Serene.
Thank you.
Councilmember Sharinovasan. Second. Thank you. City Clerk, can you please conduct the vote?
The motion for consent calendar item 1C carries 7-0.
Thank you very much. With that, we'll move on to our general business. Our next item is item 26-0180, the update from the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board.
Caltrain Budget by Casey Promsen, Caltrain Chief of Staff.
Vice Mayor, you have a comment, and… Yes, I do. I want to refer to it after your comment. Yes, I am recused due to a property, blah blah blah… due to real property interest from any discussion involving the Mary Avenue undercrossing. As such, I would like to ask that my colleagues please hold questions on that undercrossing till the end of this item so that I can leave the room
for those questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Councilmember Cisneros?
Yes, I would just like to mention for the record, I do live within the recusal
distance from the Sunnyvale undercrossing. However, I am a renter.
And two years ago, when we first discussed that undercrossing, we got a letter from the FPPC saying that it would still be appropriate for me to, sit in
and deliberate and make decisions about that due to… I'm on the farther end, and the exposure to train noise, there being a large apartment building between myself
And, that site. So I just wanted to clarify for folks, I do live within that distance, but…
It is okay. The MPPC ruling, I, nothing has changed. So, thank you. Thank you, Councilmember.
And with that, we will…
I'll introduce myself, Mayor Klein, council members. I'm not Casey Fromsen. Casey Frumson is to my right. I'm here to introduce Casey. I'm Michelle Bouchard, I'm the Executive Director for Caltrain. I did want to tee up this item, and Casey is going to do the heavy lifting here.
The topic of today, we wanted to really give a general update
on how Caltrain is doing, and really focus on some of the near-term financial challenges that we are looking at. But first, I wanted to just
Tee this up by saying.
really have appreciated all of the support that we've received from Sunnyvale and all the communities along the right-of-way, as the Caltrain team constructed the electrification program. And it's hard to believe that nearly 2 years ago, we launched electrified service, so we launched in September of 2024. And since then, I think we have seen what the power of smart investment in
Transportation can do.
Caltrain was named America's Outstanding Transit Agency by the American Public Transportation Association, so that's a, you know, a very high award, and I think that is because of what we've been able to do in terms of ridership growth.
Last year, we were the fastest growing transit agency in the United States, and that really is because we are seeing the promise of the electrified service and what it can do to transform the railroad.
And not only the railroad.
but also the communities in which we operate. From a sustainability perspective, we are completely GHG-free. We're getting our power, that is completely green power. From a customer perspective, we've got these, state-of-the-industry, state-of-the-art Swiss trains that
have Wi-Fi on board and all sorts of customer experience benefits. And really, the true power of electrifying is creating much shorter travel times. And with those shorter travel times, people are getting time back to their lives.
And so we have seen, the ability to grow ridership quickly. In addition to that, we've been able to, double our off-peak service, so we're running every single half hour, so any station on the peninsula, 7 days a week, you can go to any other station.
Every single half hour, and that really has resonated for us, not only for our regular riders, but also for all of the special events that we're able to support up and down the peninsula. So there really is some… some very, very good news here.
And we'd like to say that, the benefit of Caltrain not only accrues to the riders, but it also results in, less traffic on 101, Casey's gonna talk to you about that, and higher property values at our station. So we really…
are very proud of how we've been able to partner with the local communities to provide what is now becoming much less of a commuter railroad and much more of a regional railroad. So with that as a setup, I did want to turn this over to Casey. I very much appreciate the time that you've afforded us today, and we are welcome to answer any questions at the end of the
presentation. Thank you.
Good evening, everyone. I'm going to be mindful of our time, because we want to run a tape ship and get you to your destination on time, so we'll flip through this presentation pretty quickly, but as Michelle said, we're here for questions afterwards, and we'll certainly follow up if we don't have it right on the spot.
I will go over the details of the corridor. I think this is a city that's well-versed in how long Caltrain's been around for 160 years, but I will point out two of the stats at the end there. We've commissioned information to show that we have an 82% favorability rating with voters. That means people that aren't even riding the train really like Caltrain, and our joke is that's as good as libraries and babies, so really.
Proud of the…
The reputation that we have, and then when you look at what the writers think, you know we're doing a great job there as well.
Caltrain is part of many, many people's daily life, to get to social events, to get to work, to get to school, and that's what we want to remain. But it's not just about that daily experience, it's also the… when you take a step back, how does Caltrain fit into the regional picture? As Michelle mentioned, we carry roughly 3 lanes of highway traffic, and so even if you don't ride Caltrain every day.
You appreciate that other people do, because that could make a huge difference if you are experiencing increased traffic.
When it comes to the economy, we have…
we have data points that show that there are higher property values around the Caltrain stations, and that translates not just for, businesses and activity around there, but for higher property rates for local communities. And then, as Michelle mentioned on the clean air side, 100% renewable. This is something that's a good investment, just not for today, but for future generations.
We have lots of major projects that we are working on up and down the corridor. You can see some of those on the left side, but I do want to point out and talk just a little bit about the project on the right side. We know that overall, as an organization, we need to do projects
well, with innovation, and cost-effectively. So we found, using some technology at one of these crossings, that cars three cars a week were turning onto the tracks in this location. So we knew we needed to do something. We worked with the local city to adjust the timing. We worked with the technology providers to make sure they enhanced the audio so that when you saw that crossing, you had an automatic default of you need to go past the crossing.
And then we installed about a hundred, several hundred dollars worth of, you know, cost-effective.
tools out there, so you see some of those solar markers, and we found when we put those in place that we've had zero cars on the track since then. So that's been a year and a half for that, and we're rolling out these smart, cost-effective investments throughout the corridor. We know we need to work on these big projects, and we'll talk about that just briefly, but we also need to do our work well, cost-effectively, and be smart about our investments.
So, as I mentioned, there's an asterisk here because we really think that this is worth a separate presentation. We talked to your city manager about this, that we would like to come back in the future and just talk about these particular capital investments. Grade separations are so important, and we have several major projects that we're working in partnership with the city on, so we would like to come back to be able to focus on that. But I, as I mentioned on the right side, some of those costs
effective, quick, baseline safety enhancement programs. They're going to be throughout the quarter, and Sunnyvale will see those in place,
In 2027, at the latest.
So, going back to electrification, it's the three-legged stool here. It's faster, it's more frequent, it's a better experience, and then the fourth one, which is the benefit, is you can count on it. A 95% reliability means you can use this service and depend on it, and that's really important, and we think a key component of why we've seen the ridership growth we have.
And speaking of that, we have seen a lot of growth.
as Michelle said, again, it's the fastest growing transit system in the U.S. We've seen new growth for a lot of different events, too. Our weekend service is the highest it's ever been, but people are also using it to sporting events.
We've seen a lot of increase in the youth ridership with our dollar discount that we have on it, and it's more diversified. We have lower income seniors, people with disabilities that are using the system because it works almost all day for anyone. And then you can see that last one there. Sunnyvale and Lawrence stations have seen significant growth there, and we're really proud of that partnership with the city and all the work that you're
We're doing to make sure there's a good integration with the system and the stations we have in place.
So that's all the positive things, but we're mindful that we have some challenges ahead. You can see that our ridership, while we're really, really proud of the growth, is not as high as it was in 2019. And we've come back from a 2% ridership growth in 2020.
The fares also do not… do… no longer cover the same share of costs that they did in the past, and this used to be a key part of our, covering our budget.
And we get there because of the commute patterns have changed. People are not coming into the office 5 days a week. You know, we see a high water mark right now with 3 days a week, sometimes 4 days a week.
As I mentioned, the ridership is not as high as it was. Certainly, we've seen, inflation costs, and we have a brand new 50-plus miles of infrastructure that we need to maintain. So those are additional costs that don't go away,
No matter what the service looks like. As I mentioned, this is what we're facing. It's an average of $75 million each year, and so what we need to do is look internally first. It means cutting costs. And so, you have on this slide strategic hiring freezes, a really robust cost reduction efficiency program. We went line by line of last year's budget, and we held the operator contract to the previous level, which really looks like a cut then.
And you can see some of these other elements on here, that we are really focused on this. We know that we need to look, to how we are doing our business first before we look externally. That last bullet point was just this month. The federal government essentially did an audit of our organization and found no findings showing that we really are doing what we need to do.
This is another side that is part of our financial picture that we're really leaning into. We need to monetize as many assets as we can. We can't just rely on fares, we need to look at some other creative ways. Think more like a business. So you can see the spectrum on here, everything from the special events and parking, which could be near-term revenue, to some bigger items of leasing fiber optic cable, looking at TOD that's available to us, but also partnering
with the surrounding organizations to make sure that there's that strong partnership.
We have been talking to the Caltrain board about these,
these scenarios, and in June, the Caltrain board told staff, you have to prepare for a couple different futures. And these are not things that we are taking lightly, but we need to look at what happens if we do not have external funding, or if we are able to receive that external funding.
So what we have in place is two different scenarios that are pretty stark. On the left-hand side, you see the service that we operate today that is really attracting a robust ridership and benefiting the communities in the broader region. On the right is what potential cuts could look like.
Hourly service, no weekend service, early shutdowns, no special event service, and station closures. These are certainly not things that we want to do, but we have to think about what the options would be if we did not have a way to help, help us with the challenges that we're facing.
And we know, especially with a rail system that has fixed costs, where we have to maintain that service… we have to maintain the tracks, the safety of the tracks, and some of those elements, no matter what type of service we put out there. But we know if we put out less service, we will have less riders and less revenue.
And this is something that folks call the death spiral, that we know is not going to help us.
But things we are grappling with and going through different iterations of scenario planning of what that could look like.
So, for us, we're at a critical inflection point. We certainly wanted to come to the board today to make sure we could answer any of your questions, make sure you know what we are grappling with, what the Caltrain Board has been talking about for many, many months.
And making sure that we're available for any questions and comments you have for us, which we feel like is such a critical inflection point for us.
And so with that, I will leave it here with our last slide on just… we're at an important crossroads.
Thank you very much. Let's bring it to Council for questions. First up is Councilmember Cisneros.
Next, is Vice Mayor Mellinger.
Thank you very much, and thank you very much for the presentation.
First question I would like to ask, you mentioned TOD. In general, I believe that TOD is something that we should be pursuing. It is environmentally positive, it is good to have people living close to, transit.
I would say that, as I said, in general, I'm broadly supportive of TOD. What TOD opportunities are, is Caltrain exploring?
Yeah, you know, Caltrain, unlike some of the other, more newer transit agencies, we didn't build out really big parking lots, and so we actually have a more limited supply of open space than you might think. We have a large one in San Francisco, which is about 20 acres where the northern terminus is of the system. We also have entitled property in San Jose.
right across from the Deer Dawn Station.
And then there are kind of slivers of parcels throughout the corridor, a little smaller in footprint, but we do have an active real estate program now to look at what those could be in the future.
Okay, what I'm going to say, looking at this presentation, is…
I understand the importance of passing the transit measure in…
This fall, to Caltrans continued operations.
However, You all need to be working on a better Plan B than what you have.
One hour service.
One hour weekday service amounts to suicide as an organization.
Okay.
I don't know how to phrase that delicately, but that amounts to the end of Caltrain.
You all need to be working on a Plan B, something that can bridge you at least 2 years to get the chance to run another ballot measure should this one fail.
And I understand that… You know, that is a very difficult thing to plan for.
But… the…
I do not like the idea of an all-or-nothing bet on a ballot measure that is going to require a two-thirds vote of the entire Bay Area to pass.
You know, obviously, there… this is… the funding situation is bleak, and I understand that that is a very challenging thing.
But that is my feedback, is that you all need to be thinking about how you can bridge two years to a, you know, if an all… if this omnibus transit measure fails to something that is perhaps a Caltrain-specific measure.
Because cutting service to…
Cutting to one-hour weekday service would be catastrophic for the region as a whole. Thank you.
Thank you, Vice Mayor, and one thing, I think the transit measure is a 50% pass, not 60.
Because it's citizen-driven. Yes. That is,
And that is correct, just… Is that… that is actually better news than I had realized. I did not realize that it was a citizen's initiative rather than an agency initiative. That does help, but there is still a need for a Plan B.
Thank you.
Thank you. Councilmember Sal.
Hi, thank you for this presentation, and, I'm on the Air District Board, which has its board meeting in San Francisco, so I take Caltrans twice the
Twice a month. And it's really enjoyable, it's on time, I love it. So, thank you, and people in Sunnyvale that used to hear the noise of the old trains, they love the quietness, so…
I really like the service. But, you have financial challenges, and,
I think I read an article, or in this, it says, well, you have the $75 million deficit, and so…
Even with this funding measure, it's, for 15 years. And so, if…
that measure passes. What will you be doing in those 15 years to try to,
what will you do? Yeah, no, absolutely.
I'm gonna keep going back to a three-legged stool, just because it's an okay analogy to stick in your head, but it's the three things that we talked about. The cost, efficiency, and the cost containment that we are embarking on in earnest. We've been very clear internally with all of our staff.
That this is not just a now issue, this is something we need to carry forward throughout our organization and into the future. You know, and so that's part one, that we need to continue to tighten our belt and do things efficiently. The second part is leaning into those,
other potential sources for revenue. You know, some of those will take a couple years to come in online, but they may have some significant promise for us. You know, millions of dollars that come… could come into the organization, so we have dedicated staff now that are looking at those business partnerships and those business opportunities, and that's not something you always hear from a public transit organization.
And then the third part is we can… we need to continue to grow our ridership. You know, that is going to continue to be an important part of our overall picture, and the more riders we can get on Caltrain, the more that will help support the system as well. So, those are the three things that we keep in mind, especially when we look out the next 10 years or beyond that, that we need to do our part to make sure we are going to be
Put ourselves in a good financial position.
Okay, and I just agree with,
Vice Mayor Millinger, TOD, you know, benefits our community, gets them close to the transit, and I'm on the VTA board representing Sunnyvale, and VTA, is investing a lot into.
TOD, you know, thousands of housing units will be built over the next few years, and that'll just help our community overall, and help the transit system, too. So, hope you keep working on that. So, thank you for coming to Sunnyvale today. Absolutely.
Thank you, Councilmember. Next is Councilmember Srini Bassan.
Thank you, and thanks for the presentation.
I hear, loud and clear about the ridership, we need to increase the ridership. What is the current ridership percentage-wise?
Ballpark number. Percentage-wise from what it was in 2019? Yeah. What percent is the capacity of, all the trains.
What is the utilization now? Yeah, well, maybe I'll break it down in two different ways. So, the first one is, compared to the ridership that we had in 2019, it's about 80% of what it was. But when we look going forward to the capacity we have as a system.
we built the system, and thanks to many people, including the city, built in capacity for this system to grow even beyond what we had in 2019. So we're able to run even more service, and because of the performance of the trains, we've been able to change that pattern and make more stops on it. So,
I would say…
you know, we have the ability to grow even beyond what the service we're running today. And I'd have to get back to you of, you know, what that looks like with the exact number of, you know, seats on that. But as an example, before we were running 5 trains an hour in the peak period. Today, we're running 4 trains in the peak period, but we still have, it feels like, more service because of the patterns we've put out in place.
But we're able to put, with everything we have currently, 6 trains an hour with that. We need to be able to have the financial, kind of positioning in order to do that, but for some…
stations, that could mean almost every 10 minutes you have a train that's there, and so that can be really meaningful for what it looks like to run the system. So, going from 4 trains an hour today to 6 trains an hour in the future. Okay. I guess my question was slightly different. Let's say the trains operate at 100%,
capacity, will Caltrain be profitable?
This is where I can look over at our executive director on that. You know… In the US, there is 75%, $75 million dollar deficit. I'm trying to understand, is the ridership the only criteria there? And then, let's say, ridership increases by whatever, will there be still deficit?
I can take the first shot, and then if you want to. You know, if you look around the world, transit systems are generally not a profitable system, you know, and so they do rely on additional support and different kinds, and so we do want to be as self-sufficient as we can by looking at our assets and looking at how we can have a lean organization.
But it's certainly a good goal for us to strive to, to be able to live within our means. And especially if we have ridership at that level, you know, we could get maybe pretty close.
Yeah, and I think that's right. I just think it's important, one of the things that we were very proud of pre-COVID is that we were covering 75% of our operating costs out of the fare box.
How much, sorry? 75. 75, okay. Yeah, which is unheard of.
In the United States. And so, at this point now, we are significantly lower than that, but we're still sort of at a nation-leading, you know, just above 30%. Okay. So, will it help? 100%.
But I think what is critical is we have taken this opportunity to assess all of the other assets that the railroad has control of or owns, and this includes TOD and fiber and energy. And so we're really trying to unlock that revenue.
Because what we've learned in a case like this is we cannot be solely dependent on fares, because we have to have a much more stable economic basis to maintain the railroad. I totally agree with that. Advertisement is one of the things, and then fiber, all these things are…
in my opinion, you can leverage, right? You are not solely dependent on…
ridership, or grants, or other things. So, asking another way.
Was Skyltrain profitable in 2019, before COVID? No? No. No? Okay. No. What was the loss, approximately? What was the deficit then? 25%.
We had to cover 25%, not
From the fare box. Okay.
Okay.
And then…
You mentioned electrification benefits, which I totally agree, environmental, all these things. And then the… the most importantly is the rider comfort of the rider. Rider comfort itself is amazing.
I would also imagine you would be saving in terms of fuel cost and all those things.
Is that a…
significant number, or it's just a write-off, or something like that? Well, I would say this year, it's more significant, and some of our sister agencies wish that they were electric instead of depending on, the global
fuel market. You know, one thing I will point out on that point, and it falls into being efficient as well as coming up with additional revenue, these electric trains are so efficient that they were sending back, through renewable generation, 40% of the energy that they were getting. And so they distributed amongst the other trains first, but then 25 was going back to the grid.
And we were not being compensated for that. So we had to work with some of our state legislative leaders on that, and then we were very happy to work with our local energy partners on that, and came up with an arrangement where we could be compensated for that energy that we were sending back. So, yes, I think today we are happy that we have switched to electricity, and we'll continue to see how we improve on that.
looking at things like battery storage or other ways we can maximize the amount of energy that we're putting out into the system. Okay, thank you very much. Thanks for your responses. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Cisneros.
Yes, thank you, I'm ready now for the questions.
Is this a historic, historic crisis? Has Caltrene faced an existential threat like this before in its 160 years?
I'm not 160 years old. Me neither, that's why I'm mad. Yeah.
I mean, I would say, from the history I know of the railroad and its different iterations, there have been different challenges on… for the railroad. So it… it changed ownership in the 90s, and it was the three counties that came together at that time to purchase it, so it almost… there was a potential that it may not have existed, and so that was at one point in time. I think there was a time, especially after the
where the service was lagging, and Michelle was around at that time with the organization, and introduced the express service that we used to call the Baby Bullet, which really charged ridership on the system.
But in the last 30 years, there's nothing that have been… that has been this significant, and the commute pattern changes in the Bay Area, you know, have really changed the funding model for Caltrain that we had relied on before, so…
To use another term that's being floated around a lot, it's unprecedented times for the railroad, but, you know, we're gonna do what we can to make sure we put ourselves on the best footing we can.
Yeah, thank you for that. That is helpful, because just thinking about where we are now, and getting my bearings.
As was mentioned, a lot of your Plan B solutions would take time to implement, and you acknowledged it could take a couple years, sometimes a couple more years. TOD? Like, development, that takes a long time, and so I have a couple questions around that. Who has land use authority over the property that you have in various cities or jurisdictions?
I'll also take a stab at this one. For the most part, if it is on Caltrain property, we have a certain
amount of authority on it, but we definitely work with our surrounding areas, because there are times that we need to make sure that, you know, there are agreements and partnerships that you need to have in place, and it may vary a little bit depending on where it is. One example is in San Francisco, where we don't actually own the property there. We have an operating easement on it, so we need to work
Not just with the city of San Francisco on some of their zoning there, but also with the underlying owner of it. So, our property has a very long history with the 160 years attached to it.
Right, absolutely. So, would you need to go before… like, if you owned the property, would you need to go before that city council? Yes.
Yes, okay, and they could.
Just re… reject the application.
I, you know, if you want to jump in on this one, you can as well. I think it really depends on what the nature is that we're coming.
for the city on, you know, there are oftentimes another examples in San Jose where the city of San Jose took actions that enabled the entitlement of the property there. So, in all of these circumstances, and not just maybe what's required, but to be a good partner with our surrounding cities, you know, we wouldn't go into any TOD, you know, on our own and just expect, you know, hey, we're trying to do this on our own.
We really value that partnership with cities and the communities around that, and that's how we would plan to go forward as well. Okay. Yeah, I was just kind of checking to see if that
you know, if a certain amount of resistance to the kind of development that you would want in certain cities would be a significant impediment to pursuing that. Yeah, I understand that. You know, I think we have found, again, we don't have massive amounts of land.
But a lot of cities are supportive of it, because they like the idea of, you know, some of that density and some of that concentration right next to, transit hubs. So it's gonna reduce, you know, congestion in the city, it promotes the city's greenhouse gas.
reduction goals, and so they generally… we've generally had, good relationships as we've been thinking about those, developments.
If I could just add just one other thing, because… and it just speaks to how we do work with cities. It does speak to how we work with cities, because often you'll have a city that has a downtown area plan that is centered likely around the Caltrain station as a feature, and so usually will be involved in that downtown area plan.
And so we're able to give input.
to provide for the type of densities that we'd be looking for. And that… that also… what we found is that most cities would like to see.
Okay. That we work with.
Yeah, and these are… these are super long processes, and they're… and one more question on the land use piece.
Would you be doing a ground lease and maintaining ownership, or, like, whatever relationship you have, and, like, maintaining that kind… that asset, especially if you own it, or would you be selling this property in any case? Yeah, no, it traditionally has been our policy to do ground leases.
Okay. Okay.
That's, that's really helpful to know.
And then, when you're talking about ridership, I know that we're talking about fares, and how important that is to
you know, contribute to more of the overall revenue, but is overall headcount important as well? Because I know that there are passes that are given to folks subsidized opportunities, free transit.
Does having just an increased headcount of people using the train help drive revenue for Caltrain, or is it purely fair?
You know, we have talked a lot internally that it's… it's both things. We want to increase revenue, and we want to increase fares. We're playing the long game with the youth fair, that's a dollar to ride Caltrain, because we know that building in that future,
you know, ridership, and that people that use the system are excited about it, they'll often bring their parents on there as well. And, you know, so that's one where we want the headcount. We want people using the system, and we think we have such a good system that once you get on and kind of do that first dabble, whether it's to a Giants game or to a concert, you know, once you get in there, then you'll start to think about, how can I use this on a daily basis? And then, hey, maybe I can use this on a
monthly basis, and then we have a whole variety of different pass features, and we've been modifying those over the last couple years to try and fit what people need, such as more of a remote work style. You know, if you don't need the full every single day pass, maybe you're someone that, your organization's better for 3 days a week. We have now tiered pricing for that, too. So, it's a combination of basically all of the levers for us.
And I want… thank you. And I want to give a little piece of feedback on that, since you mentioned youth passes.
I haven't… I have a daughter, and she got a youth pass, and that was a number of years ago, so it may have changed since then, and I haven't gone to it, but there were very limited places that you could go and present your ID in order to get one of those passes.
And that was challenging, because, especially if you're a young person, you need help with transportation, that provides an additional thing. So I would say to give feedback on that, having
The ability for people to
present ID or obtain those passes in as many places as possible, convenient to people, would make a difference, and advertising that really well, to know that you don't have to go super out of your way to… to get a pass like that, because that can be a pretty big barrier, especially if you're getting one of the passes subsidized, senior youth, kind of the people who have the hardest time getting places. Yeah, absolutely. I have two kids, and I went through that exact experience, and so that's kind of the Clipper official Youth Pass.
class.
But when we rolled this out on our system, and it was a pilot program first and then made it permanent, now you can buy it at all of our ticking vending machines along the corridor. So we've opened up a whole new access point for people to be on that day of, hey, how do I get it, and not have to go through the many, many steps it takes to get, you know, an official Clipper pass. And that's awesome.
I really appreciate that. I think that, wait, and that would… that would just be for a ticket, or you can get the whole pass?
Yeah, that's your… the whole ride, if you want, so it's… for $1, you can go anywhere on our system if you are under 18. Oh, okay.
Okay, I think that it would be really helpful to communicate that to the public more, like, these… you can do this here, you don't have to go all the way there, you can get on the train for your pass amount, because it was like that for a long time, and it was difficult. So, letting people be aware. And then, just the last thing I'll say, is you mentioned that it was popular as Babies in Libraries.
Those are very popular things.
But voters often end up voting against babies' interests and libraries' interests at the ballot box for reasons I don't personally understand, but they do. And so…
just encouraging you to really dig into which of these Plan B options are available in the very near term, in case that doesn't turn out. I sincerely hope, you know…
we keep Caltrans, so, but that's something that came to mind when you said that, too. I'm like, I wish people were more consistent with what they like and what they vote for. So, thank you very much for coming and sharing all this information with us. Absolutely.
Thank you, Councilmember. Next up is Councilmember Chang.
Thank you for the presentation and update. I know you mentioned you're going to talk about capital projects at a later meeting, but I did want to talk about the track safety you mentioned. Is there any way to fast track that? Just, I'm thinking back about 6 months ago at the Hendy… at Hendy Avenue, there was a collision with the train.
Right on the tracks.
Yeah, you know, the date that we had on there was for when we plan to have the entire corridor complete, but I can get back, and make sure your city manager gets, the updated information of when we expect we have the
the safety features in place in Sunnyvale, specifically, and I think we are being mindful if there are places that are a little bit more of a hotspot, and there have been more incidents there, you know, can we make sure we get even
You know, more, safety enhancement features in there quicker.
Great, thank you. Absolutely. And on the topic of safety, I think the station has been really confusing to people when there are safety concerns. So, you know, if your car is broken into in the parking lot, it's under the jurisdiction of the city. If there's something, you know, suspicious or dangerous, you're supposed to report that to transit police.
But it gets really difficult for people that get kind of hot potatoed back and forth, and there's not, I think, enough communication between transit police, so I guess it's more of a request if they can work with our Department of Public Safety more. There have been a lot of issues with dumping in the past couple months.
In the, and then a couple years ago, there were also issues with some vandalism things happening, so just a lot more coordination with our public safety.
Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. You know,
it's kind of a theme, but we want to be good partners to the city, too, and so if there are ever any issues that you guys are seeing, we do want you to reach out to us to make sure we know about it. It's good to hear about that one. I know the mayor's raised a couple issues that we're looking into, and we want to take care of the things that aren't pleasant, but also try and build up the ones that will be better. You know, another example is working with the city on a mural at Sunnyvale, which I think is a great idea, so…
Thanks for raising those. We'll look into seeing what we can do at that station.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember. Next is Councilmember… Right?
Thank you, thank you very much. thank you for the presentation. It's good to see the progress that you've made and the,
I wouldn't say creative solutions that, Caltrain is using to try to increase ridership. I think it's a little bit surprising for people who remember electrification, and before electrification, I think we all expected it to go up
to 2019 levels. Obviously, that isn't true. Do you know…
why that trend line is happening. It seems like that's true not just for Caltrain, but for other agencies as well. Is this still a combination of
work-from-home policies, just people who have gotten out of practice using the Caltrain, could you elaborate on that a little bit?
Yeah, there's data for all the systems across the Bay Area that we track in our monthly report for our board of directors, to… to see how we're doing and how we're comparing. The systems that were more commute-focused took the biggest hits, so systems like Caltrain and BART that, you know, for Caltrain, 80% of our riders used to
ride the system 5 days a week to the office. And so, we also had the steepest decline. So, going from 2% has been a huge climb for us to come back from it. Some systems were not as reliant on that kind of peak period commute pattern and had
You know, ridership that never got below 50%.
And some of those systems, you know, are serving different needs and kind of different, areas for it.
So, we are hopeful that we will get back to that high water part, and we've definitely seen kind of a tick up when we introduced the electrified service, which we added more service at more stations for that. But we have a ways to go to get back there, and I think that the number one reason for us is the travel patterns have changed so dramatically for in-office
Work.
Yeah, thank you. I am on the LPMG, and we'll be having a meeting Thursday, but we're talking at that meeting about,
events, I believe, and the Caltrain usage during events, which is good, but not, you know.
we don't always have a BTS. We don't always have a World Cup, unfortunately, so those are good things, but as you say, the most reliable commuters hopefully will come back to the station. I just want to say that I personally really like the electrified Caltrain. I have
A 3-year-old who really likes trains, so we,
We like to see it go by, we like to take the train down to, at Santa Clara, they have a historical train museum on Tuesdays. That's very fun for little children, as long as they understand it's no touch. Yeah.
I have a question about something Councilmember Cisneros touched on, which was, special, I guess, passes. The Caltrain Access Pass, which I believe is the new name for the accessibility pass for disabled
customers. It used to be the case that those special passes, those, for Clipper cards, were only available, I believe, in the San Francisco office. Is that still true?
So,
I am gonna go out on a little bit of a limb for this, and so I think you're asking about, specialized kind of Clipper passes that are universal to all systems, so it's not just kind of like a Caltrain pass. And there's specific distribution places where you can get Clipper passes. I think we have heard it come up before that people are interested in having more locations where you can get those clipper passes.
So, at our headquarters now, you can get that. There are some places along the Caltrain line you can get them, but I guess I will take it as a note that we should continue to make sure that those passes are easy to access, and, it's clear how you access them. Yes, thank you. I would appreciate that. And especially in my experience, a lot of those were focused in the North Bay. Like, they were in the San Francisco area.
around there.
And I think it would be good to have those locations in the South Bay as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember. I had a few comments. First, I'll second
what Councilmember Chang talked about as far as safety improvements. You know, when I…
resigned from the Caltrain Citizen Advisory Commission in the beginning of 2024.
it had already been talked about at that point that, you know, these solar bot dots were going in, and all that, and here we are several years later, and no progress, and every time I, you know, every time I see, a car, especially
at Mary and Sunnyvale Avenue that have turned onto the tracks and stopped, and we've been lucky that no one has been injured, but we've had some close calls and affected service. This was something that
you know, we talked about years ago now, and so I'm… I'm very, very interested in seeing, you know, when that'll move forward and giving actual dates. Other thing is just general ridership. So, I know pre-COVID, we were one of the, when we were pushing… when we were pushing for.
another baby bullet coming into Sunnyvale. We were, I think, the highest
onboarding in the mornings, for going into up the peninsula or down to San Jose. I would love to see what weekday and, weekend.
onboarding and offboarding are for our two stations, and you look at… you talk about transit-oriented development, that's what we've done at our Lawrence station, and whether or not
You know, we've kind of lost the opportunity to a certain standpoint from downtown because of the power substation and, you know, raised those issues when I was on the Citizens Advisory Commission. That being said, electrification was critical.
But our Lawrence Station, which is a relatively narrow area, but we put, and, you know, between Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, we put lots of housing at that general location.
I'm not sure if there's opportunity, you know, conceivably that is an opportunity location for… from a Caltrain standpoint, and would love to hear more about that. You know, I always focus on downtown, because there was an empty… a large empty parking lot that would have been perfect, but… but…
definitely looking at the Lawrence Station, would love to hear more, but overall ridership, to me, in seeing where we are, because as much as we talk about.
a lot of companies not being back to work. A lot of our bigger companies are forcing 4-day and 5-day weeks. So, you know, this is one of the big things that we're seeing. I'm not sure about the rest of the Bay Area, but
But at least in talking to, kind of, our tech powerhouses, that's what they're expecting, so… and that's one of the reasons why we are
from a city standpoint, you know, running our own citywide shuttle, trying to make sure that we're filling in those gaps for those medium and small companies that don't have full shuttle service, so…
you know, if I can add on to a couple of your comments, you know, we're so happy for what the city's taken on, you know, we feel like we can be the, you know, the work engine to get people up and down the corridor, but those first-last miles are so important that we continue to build out that network, and so we were so pleased that the city was taking the steps on that. In terms of the specifics for the ridership, we'll get back to you with exact numbers, but, the Council should know overall
that Sunnyvale and Lawrence Station are
In the very top tier of the highest increases in ridership, and when we were planning out the system of what the new service would look like, we had been talking to your city staff about what development you had planned there, and we saw the growth there, and we wanted to make sure we were matching that with service, and it's bearing it out, and we'll make sure we get you those numbers so you guys can…
Talk to your friends about them. No, I… and I appreciate that, that, you know, I think exact… and that's…
Our, you know, that's what you see in our downtown as far as transit-oriented development, is what I think you need to see up and down the peninsula to a large degree from… from a density standpoint and a walkability standpoint. So… so that… that to me is critical, and, yeah, def… would like… would like to get more of that information, so thank you.
Next up is Vice Mayor Malinger.
Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Now that I've gotten the existential dread out of my system, I have some more prosaic things I'd like to raise.
The first is the sound wall along the Caltrain tracks in Sunnyvale. Some of the graffiti on that sound wall is old enough to go to school now. What would it take to get that sound wall… get a fresh coat of paint over that sound wall?
You know, before this meeting, we were talking with the mayor about this as well, and I was texting with our chief, operating officer, and actually, earlier in the week, we had someone that was going to go out there and walk that area, and we need to figure out if it's ours, we need to clean it up. If it's something we need to work with another partner with, we need to let them know as well, but, it's…
On our radar, at the highest levels of the organization, and
We're gonna… we're gonna do something about it.
Wonderful. The second question I wanted to ask you, so we passed a Caltrain, access improvement plan in January, and one of the things that I raised as part of that plan,
was finding something to do with that old ticket office at the Sunnyvale Caltrain station.
Which is… has been closed and empty as long as I've lived here. And I think that, you know, having a cafe or a snack shop or something like that in that ticket station would help to activate the station.
You know, it would be a nice amenity for riders, and I suspect it would get a fair amount of business. What does it take to, start exploring that? And it would bring in some revenue for Caltrain.
Do you want to jump in? Well, I just… I feel like you… Well, no, because just recently, I… sorry, I just… I just had a meeting with our real estate folks, and we just completed a plan, which is looking at every single leaseable space along the right-of-way, one of which is the Sunnyvale old ticket office. So, we have to do some assessment to figure out, you know, what it will take to
attract someone who needs water and the right type of electrical, etc. At some point, we'd like to engage with you, because it would be really nice to have a local purveyor there, if we can get to a place where we understand that we have interest in the space. So this is all to say that it is definitely… it's also on our list, but we've identified it as one of the spaces that we would like to see occupied, and so we're working through that diligently.
along the corridor.
I'll report back to the city manager as to progress we've made on it, as to what the status is, but it is definitely on our minds, because we are looking at
leasing every possible space for the purpose of revenue, but almost more importantly, for the purpose of customer experience. That's another reason why people will want to come and ride the train.
So, we totally acknowledge that. Yeah, so, let's dig in on that a little bit. First of all, how do we make sure that that doesn't get lost in the shuffle? How do we make sure that that keeps moving along? That might be a question for the city manager as well.
Like, can we make sure that there is some kind of regular
check-in, or discussion on what can be done with that space. Absolutely, happy to do it. Okay, great. The second thing I wanted to ask is there is sort of a long space on the station behind the parking garage, where the bike lockers used to be.
that space is no longer really used for anything. It seems to have become an occasional encampment site.
And so, what I'm wondering is, you know, what is…
Are there any thoughts on what to do with that space? It's a very awkwardly shaped space, I'm not sure that you could really put a structure there of any sort.
But are there any… do you all have any thoughts on that?
you know, I think we'd have to look at that location and get back to you and talk to the team. So, maybe we can follow up to make sure we're clear of exactly where you're talking about and… and get back to you on that. Yeah, so it is the space that is directly north of the parking garage on the southern platform.
And if staff can get you my email address, I would love to hear back from you on that. Last thing I wanted to ask you about is, do you have the weekday parking usage rate for the Sunnyvale Parking Garage?
The Sunnyvale Caltrain parking garage. Do you know if that typically fills up daily?
We do have that information for all of our parking lots. I do not have it off the top of my head, and so we can follow up with that one as well. I would really like to see that, because one of the things that, you know, could be done, potentially, if you're looking at leasable space.
is people have started to look at converting parts of parking garages into, you know, possibly commercial spaces, etc. And so, if that parking garage is not getting full utilization.
Then, it's worth considering whether that is, you know.
Currently, the highest revenue generator for that site.
Alright, thank you very much, and I'm gonna turn my mic off now. Thank you, Councilmember South.
Just quickly, I was just wondering if you've considered public-private partnerships. Like, I've seen, it where there's parking garages on the bottom floor, and then above it, there's housing. So, I know, even if you're able to pass this measure, there won't be a lot of extra money for investment, is that correct?
It's mostly just filling the gap. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, no, we're very open to it. That piece of land in San Francisco that we were talking about, who the underlying owner is a developer, actually, so we're thinking about that one in particular, of what can we do to improve, you know, have a world-class station for folks, and have a better layout there, but also have development that's gonna do that, and that would for sure be an example of a partnership. But there's other areas up and down the line
Where, we want to make people aware of the places that we can lease things, we do want ideas, and generate a little bit more of that, so they know that we're open to business and do want to
hear people's ideas, and we have started to be getting some unsolicited proposals, too, of ideas that people are bringing to us. I think the word is starting to get out there that, you know, we're open to be creative of how we can monetize our assets, as long as it's also going to be for the public good, which, at the end of the day, is
Is who we're serving.
And last thing, does the state legislation that allows more housing to be developed more easily, closer to transit, will that help your outlook in the future of more transit-oriented development communities, like in Sunnyvale?
Yes.
Okay, wonderful. Okay, thank you, take care. All right, thank you so much. Thank you, and finally, Councilmember Lay.
Thank you. Going back for a second round, to piggyback on the Vice Mayor's, statement about the encampments,
Are you sending a representative to the Sunnyvale Unhoused Collaborative Meeting that's put on by the County of Santa Clara? I feel like your presence there, Caltrain's presence there in general, would be appreciated. That's, I believe, the first Friday of the month, every month.
Supervisor Lee's office would likely have more information about that. But if there are encampments, routinely on Caltrain property, that's a space where, local organizations,
have a scheduled get-together to talk about, unhoused issues. And then…
Related to that, I've seen in the community complaints recently about trash on Caltrain property. Is that… Your?
jurisdiction to clean up, or ours, or how does this work? Yeah, that's another one where we welcome comments from the public. If they see something that we can do to improve our area, we want to know about that and clean it up. There was a…
one public comment that came up pretty recently, and we jumped on that. We had a team that went out there, looked at it. There was one area where they realized it needed a design fix so that, you know, the trash couldn't easily get caught in a difficult spot for when our cleaning crews go out there that they couldn't get to, and so they're working on that, in addition to what we need to do for our daily cleaning on that.
You know, I welcome any of the council members, or you can pass it along to your city manager. If you see something, too, we want to know about it, because we want to be a place where we're continually improving what our service looks like and feels like for people that use it.
And then, what is the mechanism to contact you?
We are happy to give our contact information to the city manager, so you can contact us directly, but we also have a pretty robust customer service line that we can also share with the city manager to make sure that the general public knows that it can go there, it gets tracked, and… Okay, so the general public, perhaps, can go to your website and go from there and make a report if they see trash in the
Caltrain area. Yep, absolutely. Councilmember, I would suggest that the general public just put a request into My Sunnyvale, and we can take it from there. Great, it's even better. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go ahead and… thank you, you can have a seat. We'll stick around, we'll ask a few questions at the very end. Let me go ahead and open up public comment on this specific item.
Please submit a speaker card to the City Clerk, raise your digital hand now, or dial star 9 on your telephone to indicate that you wish to speak. I will call on members of the public participating in person first, followed by remote participants. Speakers will have 3 minutes to speak.
My first speaker card is Zach K, followed by David H.
April 7th, 2026 Agenda Item C VTA Presentation, we heard that a half-cent proposed sales tax increase, only 10.38% goes towards Caltrain. Or, to put it differently, a little over half of 1 tenth of a cent goes towards Caltrain.
At the April 7th VTA presentation, a council member asked, quote, I seem to recall several years ago there were discussions about installation of bus lanes in El Camino Real, even on Matilda. I know those discussions got shelved.
Is VTA looking at expanding the number of bus lanes in the area?
VTA responded, quote, we spent a lot of money on El Camino, I mean $10 million trying to move that project forward.
It did get shelved because we couldn't get all the cities to agree on that was going… was going to move forward. Same thing with Stevens Creek. After additional commentary from VTA, we heard, quote, I think revisiting that may not be a bad idea, close quote.
That alone is a reason to vote down the measure.
VTA's plan called for moving a huge number of trees, I want to say over 100, but it's been a long time. Many left turns would go. To turn around, a driver had to drive a good bit out of the way, really great for VMT.
True, VTA's buses wouldn't experience congestion. Instead, they would create it. In my personal experience, it seems like 10 to 15 people ride on the 22 or the 522. Taking the worst possible case, how long does it take for 10 to 15 single driver cars to pass a point at 35 miles per hour?
I would venture easily under a minute. The rest of the time is wasted road capacity that could have served as a lane.
Turning El Camino at times into gridlock, unfortunately, is reason to vote down the November ballot measure for a half-cent, 14-year sales tax rise.
What of Caltrain? I commuted on it for years.
Maybe you need to go back to a schedule more like what I experienced until ridership rebounds.
Before me, I have a Caltrain schedule running from July 6, 1997 to Jan 3, 1998. I'll read to you from it for a bit.
So, if you were going from Sunnyvale to San Francisco… One second here…
There we go. On the weekend, you're looking at 645, 8.15, 915, 10.15, 11.15, 12.15, 115, 2.15, 3.15, basically every hour.
Same… same thing roughly on Saturday.
I mean, on Sunday. So hourly. And then, you basically had, during the peak of the commute, you had reasonable service. The rest of the time, it was, like, every hour.
it worked, I got by with it, I loved it.
Anyway,
time's limited. So, the presentation's nice, I need use of it, you need Plan B. I also have a Jan 1 Schedule 2006 with me that escaped the recycling bin.
Thank you.
David H.
Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Councilmember Sond.
I was here last time for VTA, when they were here. It was interesting. Yeah, I'm a Sunnyvale resident,
I was concerned. I heard… I was riding, Caltrans, and I was talking to some guy, and he said, oh yeah, they're thinking about closing, or not stopping at some of the stops, and I'm like, well, that's not good. But I don't know if that… it doesn't sound like that's gonna happen, so… I got, you know…
This is really kind of strange, because, you know, the… I don't know if you're aware, but the incident on the Oakland, and the one dead, and the four stabbed, and on… you know, and the BART police were involved, and it happened yesterday. You know, a bad, bad safety problem, and I mean, that is one thing that at least we don't have necessarily in this area, but, I mean, it is something to really promote, and…
be aware of, you know? So, you know.
I guess, I don't want a show of hands, but, you know, I drove here, I don't know how many people took public transportation, but… so, just, putting it out there.
let me see… when I… I ride, the White Rail, or the VTA white route around here, and, the buses and everything, but…
I usually don't want to get on unless I have a bicycle.
You know, I…
Yeah, because I had… I was downtown Sunnyvale, I took the Caltrains over to Deirdawn, and then I took, the light rail up to,
oh, Tasman, and then… but I still had to go a half mile past that stop to get to my destination. So, you know, it's… I think you'd be better off having the bike racks, the e-bikes, at these stations, and, you know, people accessing them, so I don't have to take a bike. I can just get on a bike, and I can go, because, you know, you may end up walking a mile, which…
a lot of people don't want to do. And they can get on a bike and then, you know, and hop on and get to their destination rather quickly, and safer, too. If I'm at a station and I feel this is uncomfortable, unsafe, I'll go to the next station, I'll ride my bike to the next station, you know, and get to where it's comfortable.
Do you, do you go to Gilroy?
It's a lifetime goal for me to go to Gilroy, because I thought, oh, you know, I can just hop on and go to Gilroy. No. It's, like, special days, or special times, and, like…
So…
Do you… do you… did you refer to babies in Caltrains? So, you can… Sir, you should be directing your comments here, and you can see them out. But, yeah, I don't… I don't, I don't… I don't simulate babies in Caltrains.
Bad idea, I don't think. You know, it's one idea,
is, you know, I had a 49er VTA card, and I still wish I had it. I mean, it was kind of like the, you know, you go to a game, just the whole experience, right? You know, you have your V… sorry. Thank you. Anyway… Thank you. Yeah. And you had a comment? Go ahead.
How have I used notes?
Yes, absolutely.
Okay.
Let's see… Hello, Councilmember for the record, if you want. Oh, yeah, sure. Hello, council members and Caltrain representatives. My name is Caspian Hoing Yang, but you can call me Andy. I am a 13-year-old urban strategist, aspiring urban strategist and independent urban researcher based here in Sunnyvale, California, and I would like to make several recommendations.
First, I would like to propose a City Caltrain Community Partnership Fund that supports youth transit, rail safety, TOD, and community improvements.
I would also recommend creating a use advisory committee to advise the city and Caltrain
So, we would have used representatives that could provide input on use passes, transit accessibility, counterint safety, pedestrian and bicycle connections.
and Lauren Station TOD, as well as partnerships involving homeless shelters and community cleanup.
This fund could support use and discounted passes, collision prevention, grades crossing safety, pedestrian and bicycle safety, and emergency response.
It could also be funded voluntarily by residents, businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations with sponsorships.
opportunities on edge-eligible Caltrain materials. Donors could designate their contributions toward use access, safety, or TOD, while keeping the fund supplemental to existing public funding. For Lawrence Station, I recommend studying mixed-use TOD with housing, retail.
housing retail community services, and strong pedestrian and bicycle connections. We could also explore underground or structured parking beneath above-ground housing to use land efficiently while preserving a walkable environment.
I would also like to recommend a feasibility study on a vacant or underutilized lumber yard, and this one is more specific. It's specifically near Lawrence Station.
And I would like to examine it.
for potential… for, like, a potential feasibility study, you know? So, like…
Yeah, I could, if there's any way to reach… stay in contact, I could send the specific details and, like, the address of it, because I forgot where it was.
And then…
The use advisory committee could also sponsor a youth-led graffiti cleanup program, identifying priority areas and coordinating with city staff, but this is only if you agree with, like, the existence of the use advisory committee.
Okay, I'm short on time. And finally, I would like to recommend the Sunnyvale Last Mile Bicycle System, which is a citywide network of protected and low-stress bicycle routes.
For Caltrain and Lawrence Station. And separately, I have a separate proposal, I'm just gonna make it quick. It's not related to the Caltrain, which this meeting is about, but in order to honor Indigenous
payment history of the Lonely people, I think it might be a good idea to consider having a second name for Sunnyvale, only if you agree with it. But, like, I think that could be put up for discussion. And, yeah, that is it. Thank you for your time and consideration, and thanks for having me.
Thank you.
Vice Mayor?
Thank you very much for coming and giving comment. I would say a couple of things about the land use issues that you raised. The city passed the Lawrence Station Area Plan, which largely does what you're talking about in terms of mixed-use development and housing near Lawrence Station. Many…
5, 6 years ago? Director Ryan, who is sitting right there, could get you some more information on that. And the other thing I wanted to tell you is that right currently, we are slated to begin a general plan review in about a year, next summer. That is all very tentative and far out, but if you are interested in the land use issues that you're talking about here, you should follow along
for updates on the general plan review, that is the city's controlling land use document, and so that's going to be an opportunity, to give comment on these things. So, two quick questions. So, first off, is there any way that I could contribute with my independent urban research to, like, directly to the city, or, like…
So, you are always welcome to email council at Sunnyvale.ca.gov. Oh yeah, I emailed you, I remember you responded to me, actually.
Yep, so you can always email us. The general plan, will have extensive public outreach that you will be able to participate in. And I did also want to mention that we do have a teen advisory committee.
I'm only in 8th grade, so I need to wait a year.
Well, there you go. And what was your other question?
Oh, yeah, it's just that, so, like, I remember I actually emailed you before. I hadn't emailed you under a different name, but, like, you responded, so… is this, like, how things usually work with, like, contacting council?
Yes, you can email Council. Whether you get a reply back from a given… an individual council member depends on, their time, email load, etc, etc. But yes, you can always email council at Sunnyvale.ca.gov. And if I have any further questions I want for discussion, could I just send an email? Absolutely. Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Councilmember Lay, one sent, one moment.
I just want to thank you for coming and giving public comment at your age. I know it's difficult, and I see your parents are out there and proud of you, so thank you, and thank you so much for your civic participation at this young age. It's, it's…
great to see young people engaged. I know the Vice Mayor already suggested our Teen Advisory Committee, but I would like to encourage you again to
Keep that in mind. Thank you. Alright, thank you.
Thank you. That was my last speaker card in the room. City Clerk, do we have any remote participants wishing to speak on this item?
No, Mayor. I'll go ahead and close public comment.
First, from a council standpoint, do you have any general questions before we talk specifically about grate separation?
Councilmember Lay?
Oh, I had, based on the young man's comment, I was curious if Caltrain would be interested in presenting to our Teen Advisory Committee. We have a teen advisory, a all-ages accessible, and an accessibility committee, all of which are
Handle through stuff.
Yeah, absolutely. We'd be happy to. Great, thank you.
I see no other general questions.
I'll let the Vice Mayor exit the Chambers.
And we'll get to just a few final questions on grade separation.
Okay, do council members have any questions about grade separation?
Councilmember Sal.
Grade separations are tending to be more and more expensive. Are there any… Thoughts, that…
Caltrain has to try to reduce the costs, or different models of developing the grade separation? Are there any insights, or… that you're thinking of?
To help fund the grade separation in the future.
Yeah.
Well, it sounds like there's kind of multiple parts to that. You know, the first thing that I'll say that we did is
In the past, so many different cities were working on grade separations kind of in silo, and how they were doing it. Just recently, the Caltrain Board adopted a corridor crossing strategy, and really leaned into the idea that we need to think about
This is a whole corridor, and we need to learn from other projects that are in place, and figure out when we can have efficiencies from those projects as well, and really work together, not just of how we're building them, and building them effectively, and kind of doing as much as we can to standardize the work throughout the corridor, and I think that's what
We benefit by having this regional perspective that we have of all the cities, but we also took that effort to make sure that we were working really closely with cities. We have a meeting with the city managers throughout the corridor on a quarterly basis and send out a monthly update, and also the funding partners, so the local TAs in all three counties, they were all part of that overall Caltrain. It's not…
It's not actually called Caltrain, it's called the Quarter Crossing Strategy, because we knew it wasn't just about us, it's that connection to everyone. So, part one is that we need to do this with a regional hat on, and think about the quarter at the regional level. I think the second part is the funding part.
We have found that we will be more effective to get funding from different sources if we also are united in our funding asks.
And so instead of having 5 different cities compete for the same pot of funding, making sure as a corridor we really know where the different projects are, and help to line them up so that we can get funding for projects and move them forward. And we have found, since we've had this strategy in place, and this is just, you know, in the last couple months that it's… it was passed and is coming more to fruition, that we're having some more of those
coordination efforts, especially around funding. There's not enough funding available right now for great…
grade separations across the country, so we need to all continue to advocate for more funding pots for that, and then use those funding sources effectively to make sure we're getting projects through the pipeline and finished. So those are a couple
Kind of broad-level thoughts on, grade separations.
Okay, and then, do you see, cap and trade at the state level being able to fund, grade separations, and if so.
Is that, like, the legislature that would advocate for that, or is that Caltrans that would build a coalition to advocate to the legislature? Do you see, cap and trade being a source for great separation spending?
Yeah, it has been a source for some grade separation funding. At the moment, there's a pretty big,
fight, for lack of a better term, of how those cap and trade funds, or cap and invest, as they renamed the program, are going and where they're going. And, you know, one of the key features were just funding for transit, too. But, you know, we believe that it is really important to have more sources of funding for grade separation. So we are very interested and want to
Continue to build that coalition.
of cities.
counties, you know, regional entities, businesses that are gonna push for funding for grade separations. I think cap and trade could be a source.
There's just a lot of needs right now. The other place is the federal government, where there is a specific grade separation pot right now, but again, we need to continue to advocate that that pot is even bigger, so that we can fund these projects that do cost millions of dollars.
Okay, thank you. And then I understand you're gonna come back.
For more details. Okay. Yeah, we'd like to come… yeah, we'd like to come back to talk about the specifics of the crossings in… in this city. Okay, so I won't ask details. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Councilmember. Next up is Councilmember Cisneros.
Yes, thank you, and thank you for working with all of our questions.
So, I understand that horns need to blow for safety reasons, and actually, I can see the Caltrain tracks from my living room window, which is awesome. I have a small child, it's very popular, we're a very popular household for that reason. I see the trains all the time, and increased frequency, has only improved that.
However.
being so close, and all my neighbors as well, I frequently hear questions about, can we get a quiet zone? Just because it's very loud, especially for folks who live in, older properties that don't have the same kind of soundproofing as, say, a 2016 build where I live would have. It's pretty reasonable for me, but I understand it's harder.
Would grade… like, my understanding is that we need to do grade separation and not have that traffic conflict in order to…
make a strong case for a quiet zone. Can you talk a little bit about how having grade separations, impacts our ability to…
To do something like that? Yep. Quite zones are a topic, that Michelle… has…
I have feelings about them. Yeah, so, and I super appreciate the fact that we have a very dense corridor, and, there are many folks like yourself that directly abut the, the right-of-way. I certainly hope that,
You know, with… with the… the… the less…
noise from the diesel engines, that that has helped your quality of life a little bit. It has, it has… it made a measurable difference, yes. That's great, and it also may have made the horn noise a little bit more obvious, because that was the only thing going on. The reason why I bring that up as a preamble is, quiet zones are,
Let me put it this way. Quiet zones can be pursued by municipalities, and what is required is that there is a diagnostic that is done at the grade crossings to determine what absolute improvements need to be installed.
in order to get your safety measurement up to a level. So this is all to say that
If you grade-separated, there wouldn't… there wouldn't be any conflict anymore, so there would naturally be no horn…
use required. But you could get a quiet zone.
by making certain improvements, but they would have to be agreed to by the PUC, the FRA, and Caltrain as well. From the railroad perspective, this is… this is my commercial, which… which is that the horn is a tool that the engineer uses to ensure safety, and so, my commercial is we very much
support.
Funding for enhanced safety at grade crossings, and we would not oppose a quiet zone, because we do need to support, but we do have an opinion that, an engineer that has the horn to be used is a much safer train.
Yeah, and I emphasize that all the time when asked that, like, this is… if it's a safety issue, it's a safety issue first, and it's a comfort issue second, but not saying that comfort's not important, just…
people's lives are very important, so we're gonna do that. And then, I guess we're not…
Yeah, I had questions about the specifics of how we would go about pursuing that funding and prioritizing, but it sounds like we're not talking about specifics on that at this point.
Okay, great, thank you very much. I will say, if we do get an invitation back, which we hope we will, to talk about grade crossings generally, we'll bring with us Sherry Bullock, who is our Director of the Capital Program, who's a wealth of knowledge as far as how these things get built. Fantastic, thank you.
Thank you. Next up is Councilmember Srinivasan.
Thank you, and a quick logistic question. I know you also mentioned funding is limited. How do you prioritize which crossing to go first, or how do you determine that?
Well, we are trying to take a coordinated approach to that, and so there were a series of…
criteria that helped inform what that list could look like, but we also had some iteration with the cities and the TAs along the corridor. We actually had some, you know, useful conversations with your city manager on that, and we are supporting applications that the City of Sunnyvale is pursuing. So we wanted to have a data-driven, you know, initial list, but then we also need to continue to talk to each other
Another example was the last funding working group meeting that we had, when we said there's this federal RCE railroad, elimination, yep, process, and what cities are even thinking about applying? And we realized, hey, this city isn't, this city is, and then we could have a united front of, hey, it does make sense that that city is the one city that's going for
with the application right now, and even us, having us in that facilitation role to continue to strengthen that
Working relationship of how, as a corridor, do we work together and have us in that role where we're really trying to bring everyone together.
I think it will make us more successful in the future of advocating and being a stronger voice as a corridor, so that when any city goes back for funding, they can say, we are part of the corridor crossing strategy, and I think funding organizations like to see that unity, and especially when you can pull it in so it's not just your own city that's advocating for it, it's
It's every… it's the 20 cities along the line, the 3 counties that we touch, you know, everything else that comes along with that. Okay.
Just for my own knowledge.
how big is these corridors? Is that…
Multiple cities, or… Yep, there's 20 cities, 20 jurisdictions, 3 counties, the cities that we touch are about 40% of the population in the Bay Area, and our railroad is 77 miles, 50 miles that Caltrain owns, and then 20 miles owned by the freight rail line.
Okay.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you, and thank you for, you know, working on the grade separation. That's the other big issue for us specifically, and, you know, it's been talked about as far as the funding concern, whether or not the cap-and-trade program and, you know, ultimately.
high-speed rail success depends upon grade separation getting done, and
They focused, I think, on one station and helped them do their grade separations, but hopefully, you know, the cost of that continues to go up, and, you know, having that done
throughout… throughout the corridor, to me, makes sense, but, we'll see whether or not they'll ever unstick that money. That's all the questions, so thank you very much for… for spending time with us this evening. Hopefully it was a good… good conversation, and, you know, I appreciate, you know.
I look forward to hearing, kind of, those updates, so thank you.
Absolutely. We have a long to-do list, but we'll follow up, and we really appreciate your engagement. Thank you so much. Much appreciated. Thank you. With that, we will take a 9-minute recess and come back at 9.30. Thank you.
Mine says 9.30.
Let's go ahead and reconvene and move on to our next item, item 26-0125, Council Strategic Work Plan, Year One Update from Staff. It's their staff report.
Okay.
Yes, Mayor, there is. Good evening, Sarah Johnson-Rios, Assistant City Manager.
We're excited to bring you this informational update tonight. It's effectively our annual report on the first year of your two-year work plan.
That is associated with Council's five strategic goals. And, we've actually accomplished quite a bit in fiscal year 25-26. We're going to just touch on some highlights this evening, and I want to be very clear that the credit really goes to the entire city organization, every department, and hundreds of staff were involved in delivering this work.
So, as a reminder, in March 2025, Council established five strategic goals to guide the City's work for the next two years, and given the broad nature of these goals, potentially beyond that time frame.
So, following the development of your strategic goals, as you'll recall, staff developed the city's first consolidated dashboard to report in one place on progress towards a number of one-time efforts to advance these strategic goals.
This… the, the dashboard and the work plan is a dynamic data set, so this is a point-in-time snapshot, but there are roughly 150
projects and the work plan. This includes council priority projects. There are currently 34 as of the, the, including the new ones that you added in 2026. And then there are 116, relatively significant staff-led efforts that align to your five strategic goals.
This, of course, is in addition to the ongoing city services that we continue to provide, and just as a reminder to the public, the adopted budget document really includes a number of performance and workload indicators that track our ongoing service delivery.
And the 150 projects in the work plan, break down roughly evenly, not exactly evenly, but roughly evenly across your five strategic goal areas, which is… which is interesting. There's a lot of work underway in all five.
One of the focuses of the work plan is to transparently report on project status and progress, and we do that quarterly. And as a reminder, this dashboard is live, you can look at it at any time, as can the public.
As of June 30th, over a quarter of the projects in the work plan were completed, which is great progress. We wouldn't necessarily expect that to be at 50% halfway through the work plan, because many of the projects are multi-year projects.
Of the remaining projects, most remain on track relative to the original project schedules that we set out, but there are some that are delayed, and where that's the case, we've provided explanations for each project.
on the dashboard.
In this snapshot, you just see that, really, as I mentioned, almost every department is included in delivering this work. I think the only exceptions to this chart in particular are the City Attorney's Office and NOVA Works, and so the City Attorney's Office is involved in reviewing many of these projects, although they're not, they're not leading
leading them.
A key interest area for Council is the Council priority projects. We completed 8 this year, and I'll touch on these as we go through the strategic goals briefly, but I want to spend a moment to talk about just numbers. 8 is actually more than the City has completed on average in the past 5 years. In the past 5 years, the city completed 6 on average, and so we were able to pick up the pace a little bit this last year.
We do still have, as of tonight, we've actually already completed 2 more in the new fiscal year since July 1st. We do still have 24 ongoing.
So, if you look at the math and the averages, it could potentially take staff 3 to 4 years to work through the remaining 24 that are carrying forward from prior years, but we're excited about finishing 8 this last year.
So, looking at the responsive government goal, this is really focused on, of course, responsiveness as well as transparency and efficiency in delivering our services. And interestingly, this goal area has the highest number of projects in the work plan.
So you've got a group of staff that's really committed to and proactively advancing a lot of process improvement, efficiency, service delivery improvements in this space.
The three council priority projects that were completed under the Responsive Government Goal are noted here.
As you likely recall, just in June, you adopted a new ordinance that strengthens parking regulations by clarifying the 72-hour parking limit and prohibiting van lording.
And then in October of last year, you adopted your updated study issues process. The city was able to, successfully use the new Council Priority Projects process in 2026. And,
You also took action on the service worker retention ordinance and directed staff to return with the draft ordinance that's actually on the tentative calendar for October.
The ones that are ongoing in this area, the Council Priority Projects that are ongoing, most of them were added, in 2026, with the exception of the Paramedic Services study issue, or, I'm sorry, a former study issue, Council Priority Project, that is underway and, making good progress. And then these other three were funded last month.
Just touch briefly on some of the non-council priority projects. That just means that those were staff-initiated. Several were completed, just a few highlights here in this category.
include LRS's efforts to, update the special events permitting process to make that easier to navigate, and DPS's efforts to secure alternative animal sheltering services, and to improve the massage establishment licensing and permitting process.
On an ongoing basis, we…
just launched in June the updated My Sunnyvale CRM app, which is really being… being led by, 200 staff members throughout the organization who are responding to service requests, and we were really
Happy about, the… lowering the barrier to base… to allowing, residents to submit service requests to… to the city.
We are expanding self-service options for utility customers, and then we're updating council policies. I think we've updated over 50 in the last fiscal year.
Moving on to the Welcoming Community Goal, we're advancing 24 total projects that are striving to create an accessible, engaged, and welcoming community.
And we have one council priority project that was completed in fiscal year 25-26 in that area, the needs assessment for additional outdoor sports programs and facilities.
And there are actually 10 continuing council priority projects in this area, 7 that are ongoing from prior years, and then 3 that were added in 2026. So, as you can see, the 4 on this slide are…
making good progress. Some of them have been scheduled for preliminary, actions on the tentative council agenda.
In the fall and the wintertime.
And then moving on to 3 additional ones that were, still ongoing in this area. Actually, one of these three is one of the ones that was completed just last month, so just noting that that was completed already this fiscal year, the interior levee trails
We've updated signage there, and closed out that Council priority project.
And then work is ongoing to, talk with PG&E about the, potential conversion of some of those lots to open, green space.
And we have 3 new ones in this area as well. So, efforts to support neighborhood-serving retail, clear the sidewalk maintenance backlog, and expand the roles of some of our staff advisory committees are now on staff's work plans.
Some brief highlights on the staff-initiated work that was completed in this area. There are several. Staff completed the design for the Fair Oaks Cricket batting cages, launched an Adopt-a-storm drain program, implemented a disability awareness program, completed a community equity assessment.
And is continuing implementing the Master Plan for Public Art. There are 22 public art projects underway now.
And I did want to highlight, LRS is continuing to expand cultural inclusion programming. Last fiscal year, they provided 235 cultural inclusion programs and served over 12,000 participants. So, kudos to them for all of that work.
The Housing Solutions goal area, this remains a top priority for Council and the community, and it continues to really rise to the top in the national community survey data. It also came up in the community equity assessment. This goal area includes 25 projects in the work plan.
Five of those are council priority projects, and while it says here that they weren't yet completed as of last fiscal year, one has already completed this fiscal year.
So, this work is really focused on increasing housing opportunities, addressing homelessness, and responding to community housing needs.
So you can see here progress toward the Council priority projects in this area. Staff is actually including the evaluation of emergency housing and shelter options for families. They're wrapping that into the upcoming strategic plan to address homelessness, which will come to Council on September 29th.
And then you held a study session at your last meeting to consider increasing inclusionary housing requirements and updating housing and Liu fees, so work is progressing on that.
And a study session is scheduled in November to discuss requiring seismic retrofits for vulnerable buildings, so that'll be coming up this fall as well.
And here's the one I mentioned was completed in July of this fiscal year, so updates to the single-family home design techniques document, those are in effect at this point, and that one is complete.
And then staff is evaluating the city's minimum parking requirements for residential uses, and looking at scheduling hearings also in the fall on that one.
So lots on the horizon.
To touch briefly on some of the staff-initiated work that was completed in this area, staff established the new ADU toolkit, which makes it easier for property owners to work through the process of,
potentially building an ADU and expanding housing options. They also streamlined the bathroom remodel permitting process, which will help aging in place.
And completed an evaluation of street outreach and essential services for people experiencing homelessness.
They're continuing work on advancing missing middle housing, preparing for a study session on that topic.
And then I did want to note that it's not on the slide, but staff recently secured the state's pro-housing designation.
For the city. It's a small, relatively small group of cities that have that designation. That makes us eligible for some additional funding, and we were just, learned that we were awarded over a million dollars of that funding, so that will help advance these efforts. Congrats to the housing team on that.
The fourth goal area, Sustainable City, is one of our larger goal areas as well, with 36 projects. We completed 4 Council Priority projects in this category this year, and 8 operational or staff-led projects.
This area is really wide-ranging. This includes our work on climate action, clean energy, water conservation, sustainable transportation, waste reduction, and environmental protection. So, a wide variety of projects here.
The four council priority projects that were completed this year include the Climate Budgeting Project.
You establish an approach to incorporate climate considerations into the city's budget process.
And you completed, you provided direction, after staff completed two, bike and ped studies, well, actually the Tasman Drive Bike and Ped Study, and then the Holland Bike Study, and you provided direction on design options for both of those.
And finally, as was mentioned earlier this evening, you approved a plan to improve bike and pet access at the Sunnyvale Caltrain station.
There are 5 continuing council priority projects in the Sustainable City Goal area, including one that was just added in 2026. Work is underway on the three that you see on this slide. Actually, Council's already provided input at a study session on the artificial turf study.
Staff is evaluating the feasibility of pedestrian scrambles at the two high traffic intersections noted near Sunnyvale Schools, and then for the Fair Oaks Avenue projects, staff has finalized the scope for evaluating signalization and is moving forward with consultant procurement.
Noting here, this, the first one, Council has already also provided input at a study session on chemical pesticide use on city-owned and leased property. And then the newest one on the list was added in 2026 around improving the Safe Routes to School program.
And even though that just got funded last month, there has already been progress made updating the city's Safe Routes to School website, and there was actually a council announcement this evening about how folks can get involved with that program.
There's also a lot of staff work… staff-driven work underway in the Sustainable City Goal area. A few highlights, include Public Works completing the final design for Evelyn Multi-Use Trail.
And that project has advanced, to construction award. ESD also implemented a reusable foodware mini-grant program that serves 33 restaurants. You may have seen that highlighted on social media.
there's a substantial amount of work ongoing, and it's really interdepartmental work, to advance the Climate Action Playbook and all of the moves in that playbook to support the city's greenhouse gas reduction goals and long-term sustainability goals.
And as of last week, the citywide shuttle beam launched, which is really exciting, and we're excited to report that there were over 270 rides in the first week of operations. So, congrats to the team that worked on that as well.
And finally, DPW is also advancing the Safe Routes to School infrastructure improvements at both Lakewood and Snail Brawley Corners neighborhoods to make it easier and safer for students and families to walk to school.
Last but not least, the Modern Infrastructure Strategic Goal Area includes 26 projects, including 2 Council Priority projects.
So, as you know, much of this work is large, multi-year capital projects that require significant funding, lengthy planning, design, and construction phases. So some of these go beyond even the two-year work plan period.
These represent major investments in the infrastructure that the community relies on daily, so water and wastewater systems, streets, public safety facilities, parks, libraries.
etc.
The two council priority projects that are in this category are underway, and one focuses on communications resiliency, and the other on how the city delivers major construction projects.
So most of the work completed in this area is outside of the Council Priority Project data set, but these are really some significant projects that progressed or completed in 25-26. The Community Center Grounds Rehabilitation was completed in May. That was a $14 million transformation of a
50-plus-year-old civic and recreational space, including a new playground. I think most of you were able to, go to that, that ribbon cutting.
And earlier in the year, we opened Corn Palace Park, transforming that site into a new park for the community.
In downtown, the Murphy Avenue Ped Mall was completed, which created a permanent pedestrian-focused space.
And several large infrastructure improvements are underway. You heard earlier tonight the update on the Clean Water Center, construction at the Lakewood Branch Library is nearing completion, and the Lakewood Park project is also underway, with the playground having just opened last month.
As we move into 26-27, we will remain busy. We've highlighted tonight just a subset of the 110 projects that remain on the work plan, including
The slide says 26, but as I mentioned, it's actually 24 as of tonight, continuing council priority projects that staff will advance.
And it's really a significant body of work on top of the ongoing service, city service delivery that, of course, we want to maintain excellent standards in all of the core city services as well.
So going forward, you can expect that we will continue the quarterly review process internally, and that we will be updating the public-facing dashboard quarterly, we'll continue to do our informational items in your council packets quarterly, and we'll be, through all of those efforts, raising
Any potential challenges, any schedule delays, any funding needs that are, that are coming up on these projects, and of course, celebrating when we are able to, complete these projects and…
Just want to remind everyone that you can check that out at any time on the website.
I think that covers it. So, as I mentioned, this is really an informational update, your first annual report on this consolidated work plan, and we're available to answer any questions.
Thank you very much. Let's see what questions we have from Council. First up is Councilmember Srinivasan.
Thank you very, very much, and this is very informative, really, really good information.
A couple of questions. The link you provided on the slide
Seem to be outdated.
It takes you to Sunnyvale.ca.gov, some
Basically, it's not updated. Okay, we'll look at fixing that. That page needs to be updated. It still has a lot of old, projects.
which are not the representation of this presentation you just now gave. The presentation is very, very informational. Thank you very much.
There are… so I was trying to figure out some of the projects you have listed, like, animal shelter services, and then public art, CBO, Direct Aid.
Slide number 11 and 17.
I don't know where to get that information, so maybe if the page is updated, maybe I'll get that, because these are not council projects, these are all operational projects, so we don't have any details on that.
Thank you for the question. That is actually all part of the public-facing dashboard. I wonder if we can pull it up, if we can pull it up here or not. Which items were you talking about?
Councilmember Shinovasan, sorry. No, no, first of all, I was talking about the link on the… Oh, no, no, no, but the items that you say… Well, the CO-8, that is the Public Art Repository. Got it.
And then, animal shelter services, I forgot to note down the number.
Yes, so even… even those items that are not Council priority projects, anything that's on the work plan, we're reporting on quarterly. And so, that is on the city's website. If you go to.
the city's website and search for work plan. Okay. Okay, we'll make sure we've updated any link. It's not important, but once it's updated, I think, yeah, this is the page I have, but anyway.
Very, very good progress, and then I can see the list of projects, not only the council priorities, but also the operational things, which are also very, very important. So…
My question is, we are just 3 months into the fiscal year, right?
Just less than 2 months in, I think, yes. Just over… just under 2 months.
So, already 40 projects are completed, right? Under 50.
So that's for the prior fiscal year. For this fiscal year that we're… that we just started, I know it's a little confusing because I mentioned there are two council priority projects that were completed in the new fiscal year since July 1.
One of them was completed in July, and one in August. And so, overall, though, we completed 40-plus projects in the last year. Okay. So the question I have is.
remaining, we have about 10 months, give or take, and then with that, do we have capacity? Because March, we will have the Council Priority Workshop again.
So…
I know we will have 3 per council members, that's 21 council projects, like that. So, what do you foresee as the capacity
Yes, I think that's a great question, and that's why, you know, we wanted to remind Council that we do have these 24 ongoing. We want to celebrate success at completing 8 of them. We did have, you know, we… we… gosh, I just…
Can't do math this late, sorry. We did have 32 or 34.
And so, based on our recent history, it could potentially take a few years to work through that backlog, if you will. And so I think that that would likely be a topic of conversation for Council, at your, at your workshop.
Okay, so…
maybe, two per council members, or maybe, or whatever that discussion could be. I think this is a great, is a great question, and, as we…
prepare for the workshop, we're gonna talk a little bit about what limitations or what approaches you can take, I think.
what Sarah pointed out is valid. We're running about 8 or 9 a year, so we essentially treaded water in this past year, so we didn't…
We kind of kept the same. We got 8 done, but we added 7, right? So I think we have to talk about,
you know, how we get ahead of it a little bit. Exactly. We don't want to put more projects, which we know will… might take many, many years. Those are my questions. Once again, excellent work. Thanks.
Thank you, Councilmember. Next is Councilmember Sell.
So we had the steady issues, those study issues, and then, you found, like, bottlenecks, and then we found, don't put so much, work in the front end, so we can have more time for everything else. Are there still any…
You know, things that… Are on the horizon to make the process less
if there's possible more efficiencies or anything like that? Or is it as efficient as it can be? Because I think in that process, also, it was identified that there's certain departments, such as finance, that has to help all of these projects, so then that is a limitation.
Yes, good question. I mean, we're always going to continue looking for efficiencies, and
you know, there may be some efficiencies that we can find. I think the other part of the story that we wanted to convey with this consolidated work plan is that
there is a lot of other work going on, as well as the Council priority projects, and so it's really trying to get, from a staffing perspective, our arms around all of that, and continue to advance as many Council priority projects as possible.
So, we absolutely saved time this year by updating the study issues process. We absolutely, you know, created some efficiency there. And as I mentioned, I mean, we were able to increase above our average. Our average was 6 a year. We completed 8. That is probably going to continue to vary from year to year, because not every council priority project is like the other, and so some of them will take longer, some of them involve capital work that's
gonna be more time consuming. So, I would expect that that number would continue to ebb and flow, even if we are able to find, additional efficiencies.
Okay, and then, sometimes study issues have outreach meetings associated with them, and then sometimes, like.
even me as a council member, I can't keep track of, like, even if I'm interested in a study issue, like, when the outreach meetings happen or stuff like that.
Is there, any thought to… I haven't visited the dashboard recently, but is there any thought to, like, once you've decided, like, you're gonna have an outreach meeting, like, 3 months from now, or, you know, tentatively? Like, you have a tentative agenda for the council thing. I was just wondering if the dashboard could be, like, a…
tentative, like, outreach meeting, like, this month or something. Any thoughts on that?
Yes, I think, I think we, I wouldn't be surprised if we've done that in some limited cases, and we could absolutely consider including that where we already know a date, including that as part of what's on the dashboard. And I would also just remind residents that we have a number of different email listservs that people can sign up for, depending on what projects they're interested in.
And so, if they don't want to just go and continually check back on the dashboard, I would encourage people to sign up for any email list, because typically, if we're having a
larger, longer-term project, we're gonna establish an interest list like that.
So, one question. So, are all of these projects, do they have their own mail list?
Not all of them, not… no, not all of them.
And it might be good on the dashboard to say, you know, here's a link to this webpage. That might be good. And then, the other last thing, last, last thing is, if it goes to commission or council.
And do you know, like, when it might… then the dashboard having a little notation, like.
3 months from now, 4 months from now, tentatively.
Yeah. Yes, we are… we are including that information, yes. Okay, great, thank you.
And, Councilmember, I can… a lot of the projects where they do have a project page, if you're in the dashboard, you can link to the project page, so it's already there.
Thank you. Next up is Councilmember Cisneros.
Yes, thank you so much for updating us, and to all of staff for all this fantastic work, and I'm so glad we have the opportunity to highlight it on a regular basis, and to just kind of talk about where we are generally without having to get into much detail to the actual projects, because we do plenty of that around here.
My question is about… On this slide, when you… when you referenced that…
you know, you continue as, especially for the staff projects, like, continuing post-implementation support for the new CRM system and mobile app.
Or expanding engagement and cultural inclusion programming in the library.
They're, like, making… I'm just thinking, how… what is the criteria for completion on things like that? Like, would there no longer eventually… no support is needed for the app? I can't… that would be nice, but I… I'm being realistic. Or, like, we're done with inclusive programming, for example. So how…
How do you really measure that with programs like that?
Yeah, that's a great question. That's one that we've talked about, as staff, is, you know, how to…
how to determine what gets elevated on this dashboard, what do people care about? I think for something that's a software implementation, like the CRM example, right now we're still on this very high-touch stabilization phase, and so we haven't yet marked that one complete until
That's more on a routine… Operational…
status. So hopefully sometime, you know, in the next several months, that would be showing as complete, but it's really going to depend on how long it takes us to troubleshoot and stabilize and optimize that system.
Your other example of the cultural inclusion programming, that was one that is also highlighted, actually, in our budget document, and so we really minimized the number of those ongoing efforts that we put in the work plan, but we intentionally highlighted that one because it…
It's an area where we were enhancing our service delivery, we were expanding our programming, so there was additional staff effort put into that. We had heard from Council a lot of interest in, in that type of programming around the welcoming community goal, and so we thought that it was of enough public interest and council interest that we wanted to elevate it to the work plan.
I see, that makes total sense, that you would have that as… this is an elevated… an elevated effort for a finite period of time on something we'll work on continually, but for this period, we're…
dedicating that as a project that we're tracking. That makes a lot of sense to me.
Something…
that came up for me was thinking about opportunities to nest and combine projects, and as I was navigating around the dashboard, I noticed
that the dashboard does indicate when a project has been incorporated into another. There were some with the,
the… with homeless services that we're getting combined into the master plan.
But something else I noticed is that those projects are marked as being significantly delayed.
And… I couldn't tell if…
Like, that project was nested into another one, so why is that significantly delayed, or is that completely mapped to the project it was pulled into, if that makes any sense?
Yes, I think I follow the question. So, in general, we are not moving the targets, and I think that was part of the feedback that we heard from Council. We asked staff when they put something on the work plan to establish an initial estimated completion date. Of course, it's an estimate at that point, and you know, there are a variety of different reasons that you can read through, and the projects that are delayed are significantly
delayed about why some of them are in the city's control and some of them are not.
In cases where something gets kind of re-scoped or nested into a different project, that project may have a different timeline, but we're not going to go back and change the target on the original project, so it may end up showing up as significantly delayed, intentionally because we wanted to fold that into the broader conversation.
That's really… that makes a lot of sense. And so, on the dashboard itself, I think it might be helpful to have maybe some kind of asterisk or a little way to notate, like, you may see, because when you… you can actually look, what are all the projects, and what is significantly delayed? What is delayed? What are in all the categories? And it's easy to navigate.
But…
you see a number, and then it's not quite the same, and you're trying to figure that out, so maybe noting, like, if it's been moved into another project, it counts. Just giving a brief version of that explanation, I think.
Because when people are looking at it, I want to give context to when we're saying something is delayed, because that's, you know…
That's a question that people have. And then I just want to say I… I do love the dashboard itself. I think it's easy and intuitive to use. It could use a little bit of work on mobile.
Some of the other… some of the pop-up that we have get in the way, and it can be a little cumbersome. A lot of people access.
the internet primarily through the… I think more than half of people access the internet primarily through a mobile device, so just to keep that in mind, because it's a very useful tool. But overall, this is looking really good, and I'm impressed with all the work that's been done so far.
We're talking about it in detail later.
Great, thank you. And I'll just briefly note, and thank IT for building the dashboard. I think they built it in a couple of months, and we directed them to build it as our first kind of pilot into this space with a tool that we already had.
So, I think if this becomes something that, you know, is a tool that's useful for the city, then there are limitations to the current tool, and so we might need to reevaluate that in the future. Makes total sense.
Thank you. Next up is Vice Mayor Mellinger.
Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, and thank you very much for a great presentation.
A couple of things. I saw that the Asian… update to the historic context statement to include the role of Asian Americans has been significantly delayed. Can you speak to a little bit about what the cause of that delay was, and are we confident about getting through that this year?
I'm gonna look at Director Ryan.
Yes, thank you for the question.
I can see you better now. Just, there was delay in getting started, to get through the purchasing process. The finance staff was particularly hit with a lot of requests for some contracts, and we think we're on track now.
Okay, thank you. Follow-up question to that, if the
You know, obviously, some of the echoing Councilmember Sell's comments, you know, bottleneck removal is important here. If… are we analyzing root causes of delays so that we can identify patterns and areas where we can remove bottlenecks?
I would say, we are probably just at the point with one year's worth of data at this point, where we can kind of start doing that better, and that is part of the intent with the process improvements, so that will be…
a focus going forward. I would say, anecdotally, if you look through the items that are on the significant delay list right now, they are widely variable, but that doesn't mean that patterns won't emerge over time as we have a broader data set.
All right, that would be something that'd be really exciting to hear about, you know, maybe at next year's, Priority Project Workshop, and, next… and or next year's strategic plan update. Okay, if I could… if I could just jump in, there is…
one non-bottleneck that is always a limitation, which is we only have so many council meetings a year, right? So, there is going to be a limitation about how much we can get done in a year, even if I had
Even if we added all the city staff we could to deliver, you know, 7, 8 agenda items of a council meeting.
we couldn't process all of that material, just… so there is an ultimate limitation that we want to… I'm trying to sort of get my arms around right now. We're not there, I'm not saying that's… that's not the limitation, but that's kind of the ceiling of the whole process, is just…
we have…
two meetings, three meetings a month, depending, and we can only take so many agenda items each meeting, so… And that is a very well taken point. I, for one, do not want all of our council meetings going till 2 in the morning. That said, removing bottlenecks
Doesn't just increase capacity, it also increases speed of project delivery.
Which is, in and of itself, valuable.
Okay, a couple other questions. I'm gonna assume that this is intentional. Sidewalk maintenance is not on the work plan. I'm assuming that's just because it's got a… it's just a budget
level increase that's got a 13-year, time horizon on it, and I think that makes sense, but I just wanted to confirm that that's sort of… that's why.
It actually should be added to the dashboard, so as of just this week, we posted an updated dashboard that I think still has some
potential kinks in it, where the seven priority projects were added, but not coded as a council priority project, I just discovered tonight.
So it's on there, but it may not be tagged correctly yet as a Council Priority Project. That is a project that we are going to have a similar discussion to Councilmember Cisneros' question on, is when do we consider that complete?
And so we will be, crossing that bridge likely in the coming fiscal year.
that makes sense, because I don't think it makes sense to have an item on the work plan that's going to hang around for 13 years. Right. That… that doesn't strike me as a… I guess my input on that would be…
When the necessary capital equip… any necessary capital equipment is purchased and any necessary plans are completed, then that would probably be when you… then it's fully operational.
And I think when we have it in the work plan, we're going to report out locations. This is also an area where we recently made some changes to…
the administrative policy on council meetings, which is sort of… there's this little nuance in there where we didn't…
have the ability for staff to give presentations on just sort of informational presentations. So we changed that just this week, and that was one of the motivations was, hey, we'd like to come and give you, hey, here's where we are in sidewalk repairs. I just, for example,
signed an amendment for another $3 million for one of our sidewalk vendors to do another thousand or so locations. So it's… that project is actually moving pretty aggressively, and we need to give you an update, and so that's one of the ways that we'll get you.
get you that information. I'm delighted to hear that. Okay, couple quick ones. Fair Oaks intersection, study issue, I see that that is listed as on track for next summer. Is there an update, a slightly more detailed update on where we are with that?
So that was the signalization of Fair Oaks? Yeah. I… I will get back to Council on that. Let me take that as a follow-up. My understanding is we've led a contract to the consultants, so let me see if it's still going to meet that timeline. Awesome, thank you. It's… yeah.
Because it's been a year, and we haven't had, like, an update, really, beyond the work plan document. Yep. Last thing.
When the last study issue finishes, is there going to be a party?
I'll leave that to the city manager's judgment. All right, thank you all.
Thank you. Next up is Councilmember Chang.
Thank you for the presentation and the update, and staff's flexibility in changing to this new process. I did want to ask about tracking of the Just Do It
projects. I think with the smoke shop one, it moved really fast, and it's not really kind of reflected in this whole process, so it does affect staff workloads. I just wanted, the Just Do It projects incorporated into it, too.
Yeah, I think we… so, one of the things that's significantly delayed on a work plan is an annual report, and I think that's where we're looking to capture a lot of the, operational things that don't necessarily make it to the work plan dashboard, but we want to share with Council
That we've achieved. So we are hoping to… that one was just a straight workload delay, we just couldn't… couldn't surface that, with all the other work going on, so…
We're restarting that, hoping to get something done, for the 25-26 fiscal year, so that you can capture some of those just-do-its, along the way.
if I could just… I think one of the intents, and I don't want to speak on the city manager's behalf, but one of the intents with the Just Do It concept is that these are typically smaller, shorter-term things, and so, if something is going to be completed
with, like, less staff time, the ones that we put on the work plan are,
there's not a specific number, but there are more significant staffing efforts over more than one or two quarters, because we're tracking them every quarter. So if there's things that are, you know, simple, like installing a bench in a new location in a park or something, for example.
that would just be a blip on the work plan, because it would be… it would be created, and then it would be done. So, I think that's part of what goes into right now, what we're, we're trying to have a threshold for what we track on there, versus what we can communicate to you in different ways, but happy to continue
You know, that conversation about making sure that we're getting the information to you that you need.
Yeah, I could see some of them being pretty fast, but some of them could evolve into something more complicated, so that might come up. And on… similar to Councilmember Cisneros.
When it's considered significantly delayed, but some of the, you know, it might be from our feedback that the scope changes a bit, whether that's still considered significantly delayed, or if it's a new scope or project in some form.
I've been calling that still significantly delayed. The idea is not that significantly delayed is a negative thing. It doesn't necessarily mean it's a negative thing. It just means we're tracking to what we thought our original deadline was.
a classic frustration I've had over my career with projects is you say you're on time on a project by just moving the deadline, you know, your anticipated completion time, and now you're back on time again. So I'm trying to avoid that as much as we can.
So that, we have a really clean picture of where we are. There's always…
There's… there can be really good delays, or good reasons for delays.
A simple example that I can just share briefly is…
We have the Orchard Heritage study that we brought to you once, but it's currently significantly delayed. The reason for that is what I'm trying to do is bring you, and this is coming, I think, coming up in October, a decision about the museum expansion first, because that informs the next step on that whole study, so…
That's… there's lots of good reasons, but it's still significantly delayed.
Okay, thank you. I think it'll be helpful to also understand, as we go into the workshop, if we're proposing new projects that might kind of build off current existing projects, how that might be impacted if it's considered significantly delayed in that sense, and how that might affect the timeline.
Thank you.
Thank you. Councilmember Lai.
Thank you. I think my colleagues have covered most of my questions, so thank you so much for that discussion, and thank you to staff for the hard work on
accomplishing all these goals that are important to the city and, the projects that myself and my council colleagues have put forward. I'm personally really happy about the Safe Routes to School revitalization that I put out this year.
The first meeting, is…
tomorrow, I believe, at 4, for Sunnyvale School District. I have a small question about that, actually. I haven't gotten anything about, as a parent, about it.
What communication channels are we using for some of these projects? I understand that a lot of them are opt-in, but especially for new projects, I think that's something that we need a coherent strategy for.
For that, I'd have to get back to you on for that particular item. I'm not sure,
how that was being pushed out, but I know it has been. For the schools, especially, we… I know that our Safe Cross School coordinator was
trying to coordinate directly with the school districts, and then share that information, but I'll get back to Council and take that as a follow-up, so you know that specific one. For other ones, the communication channels are going to vary all over the place for
something like a project on a park where we have a project site, the communications channel is going to be subscribing to that site, and then looking for our public noticing. Yeah, okay, that makes sense, that different…
sorts of projects will have different communication strategies, but, yeah. Thank you.
Thank you, and… Let me just…
go a little bit more on… I think the closed items are always a question for me, and the problem is, you know, and I think it's how you clarify the work plan.
One of which is… if…
For… for things that are delayed, you know.
Council often, when we get to the study session, asks for a lot more than what was initially scoped, and I think being very clear that Council forced you to… forced staff to kind of reevaluate or gave new items to you, I think that's important. But from a complete standpoint.
Many of these… some of these are complete when the project is done.
And some of these are complete at some… and usually it was… from a work plan standpoint, it was usually within that 2-year window.
but not always. And so… so it's kind of interesting from that standpoint that
You have, like, Design Complete, which is kind of a standard sort of thing.
But…
I'll pick out two, you know, two of my favorites, Evelyn Trail and East Channel. Both of them are listed as complete now.
That being said, there's lots… well, one is going into construction, and one is…
final design, or let's say kicking off next design, and both of them will have movement before the end of this fiscal year. So, part of it was scoping when we laid out the work plan
a year and a half ago, approximately. But…
What that kind of… the intermediate go, yes, we've marked it as complete.
That being said, there's more to do, and sometimes more to do in that same two-year window. And so, I don't know how we capture that. I understand, you know, from a goal standpoint, we said, oh, it was complete at this point.
That being said, a lot of them have project pages that say, well, we're here now, and we're past the complete point from a work plan standpoint.
and here's phase… the next phase, or even the phase after the last phase that we said was completed. And I don't know how we capture that the best, but to me, that's…
You know, for these multi-year projects.
and I won't point to, like, a decade-long project, but for some of these that are like, okay, we've done design, you know, we've done outreach, we've done design, we've done bidding.
We picked our… we picked our con… Consultant, whatever, contractor, and now we're complete. And so it's kind of like a five-phase sort of thing for a lot of this, as opposed to increasing a level of service.
But I'm wondering how we capture that, and I'm looking for kind of just feedback.
Yes, no, it's an excellent question. It is also one that we wrestled with, as the staff group, and I think it's one that will continue to evolve.
it's also one that falls into the category of system limitation. So, using Microsoft Power BI, we have some limited options on how we can
how much customization we can do, within the broader framework of the 150 projects and the 5 strategic goals.
I think most of the scenarios you're talking about are largely our capital projects.
And so maybe not all of them, but I would say maybe most of them that have the different, you know, planning, design, construction phases. And we did ask staff at the beginning of the two-year work plan
tell us what key milestones you're targeting in these two years, with the understanding that, in some cases, construction would go beyond the two-year period. And so, in the year ahead, and really when we develop the kind of the next iteration of the work plan, we're going to have to
revisit that. The other thing that we're doing simultaneously is we're just looking at how we report out on capital projects, and so,
you know, I think with new public works leadership, we wanted to get that perspective as well, and so this is an area that could continue to evolve, but definitely aware that there…
is likely a clearer way to report out on those multi-phase projects, and so we'll be evaluating options going forward. Okay, and I appreciate that. I think, you know.
The work plan itself, fantastic in capturing… getting a better idea, and making it easier for residents to figure out what's happening, and not all of them have a website related to them, but with that being said, at least it kind of lays out
where we'll be over a two-year period, and how well we're meeting those targets. So… so I appreciate that, and, you know, definitely.
capital projects are something that, you know, residents normally point to, or ask, I'll say, the most questions of. So I appreciate whatever we can do to figure out what the next entry in this table is, or the next two-year period for a lot of these that, you know, were… they're complete, but now they have a new
end date, and whatever that new end date is. So, looking forward to next year.
That's all my questions, that's all of Council questions.
So, let me go ahead and open up the… Public hearing on the side.
Please submit a speaker card to the city clerk, use your raised hand… use the raised hand feature now, or dial star 9 on your telephone to indicate that you wish to speak. I will call members of the public participating in person first, followed by remote participants. Speakers will have 3 minutes to speak.
I have no speaker cards for this item.
City Clerk, are there any remote speakers wishing to speak on this item?
Yes, Mayor, first up is Henry S. Henry, you've been unmuted, and you have 3 minutes to address the City Council.
Henry Soong: Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Councilmembers. Individual council members has had, heard me discuss, individual sports facilities.
Henry Soong: and decisions before, so tonight I want to step back and ask about the governance framework behind those decisions. So, the project, CO4, the assessment needs for additional sports program facilities, is now identified as a completed
Henry Soong: Council Priority Project. And in a recent conversation with LRS staff, an important distinction was made to me, which is that the outdoor sports assessment is not a binding city policy.
Henry Soong: So, then the next logical question is, where does the assessment end and policy begin?
Henry Soong: Finding demand for specific, you know, user groups or activities, so for example, pickleball, right? It does not establish itself that that means that existing tennis courts should be converted. Nor does finding demand for cricket does not determine which park should receive cricket facility. And these are allocation decisions involving finite public assets, displacement of existing user groups, geographic
Henry Soong: Equity, traffic, and opportunity cost, and permanent land use decisions.
Henry Soong: So, tonight's presentation provides a useful comparison, just by the way of example, take SU Project SU6 as an example, the Hollenbeck, the bike lane projects, and consider those cumulative impacts. If the city were to add, for example, when the LRS earlier this spring contemplated whether or not Sarah Park
Henry Soong: should be able to add pickleball facility, while simultaneously changing transportation capacity on Hollenbeck based on Council's decision from last December. Additional recreation trips, parking demand, bicycle infrastructure, and roadway circulation all converge on the same roadway.
Henry Soong: or it bounds two different council districts. And those decisions cannot be evaluated as if they exist in separate silos. So when CO4 identifies as completed, who actually makes those decisions? Council? Advisory commissions?
Henry Soong: Or is it just… you know, executed by OCM, and then it just trickles down eventually to individual departments.
Henry Soong: And when the dashboard now calls CO4 complete, what exactly does complete mean? Completion of an assessment, whether it's the sports assessment or any other assessment the city undergoes and undertakes, is not an adoption of its findings as policy. Otherwise, non-binding study can be quietly become de facto policy.
Henry Soong: One sport court, one field, one street, one operational decision at a time.
Henry Soong: And without Council ever expressly adopting the allocation principles behind it, nor its explicit approval. So, that is the government gap… governance gap I would urge Council to examine. Thank you.
Thanks.
Mayor, that was the final remote public speaker for this agenda item.
Okay, I'll go ahead and close public comment on this item.
Mr. Kirby, do you have a comment? Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank, Sarah for, the presentation and for
you know, really kind of leading the entire charge to restructure our study issues process, so thank you for that. I want to thank Michelle ZRAI, who also put together the first round of this presentation, so thank you to Michelle, and I want to thank all the directors and
City staff, I know this is kind of a big, huge thanks, but everybody contributes to the, completion of these projects. We have everything in that work plan, including, you know, street resurfacing, and
All kinds of different things that we work on, and I'm just really… I really appreciate the volume of work that… that the city staff, under the leadership of our executive leadership team gets done. So, just wanted to give those thanks while I had a… had a chance to do it.
Thank you, Mr. Kirby, and thanks to all the directors who are online, seeing if questions would come up in their area, so… so thank you. I don't see any other additional questions for…
count from Council, so thank you, I'm sure we'll have
Great discussions when we get to the 2027 workshop, so thank you.
Thank you for your time.
Let us move on.
to… Councilmember reports on activities from Intergovernmental Committee Assignments.
I see none?
Okay, next are non-agenda items and comments. Council?
Councilmember Cisneros?
Yes, thank you. I have a good news announcement to make. Yesterday, Governor Newsom signed into law AB 1421, also known as the Family Friendly City Councils Act.
What this does is it makes it so that
Council, or that the law that
required or would make a council seat vacant if a council member was absent 60 consecutive days unless they request leave from the council and it's granted in a public hearing. That removes that requirement for family leave and protects
council members who may seek that for any reason under California state law.
to absolutely…
receive this leave, and this was very important to me, because this came about because 2 years ago.
I requested, family leave because I was about to have a baby, and I was very fortunate here in Sunnyvale to
I received nothing but support and respect from my colleagues, from city staff, and from the community. However, not everyone in California is as lucky as I am, and no council member should need to consider whether
You know, being denied leave would mean choosing between public service and doing what's best for their family.
And so that's why the San Jose Mercury News wrote about it, and that's why Assemblymember Donna Deese, from the Central Coast authored a piece of legislation. It was the, California Women's Caucus Top Priority Bill.
This year, and received zero no votes in both chambers of our legislature, and…
the overall sentiment was, I cannot believe we are needing to, make this a law, and that
council members across the state of California aren't guaranteed these very basic, privileges, and being denied them affects how people are represented in their communities. So, I'm very proud to have just been whatever small part of this piece of legislation that I believe will make
city councils in California more inclusive and welcoming and family-friendly, going forward, and we need not have public hearings about people's personal medical information and family situations, so…
Thank you all for being so wonderful to me two years ago, and for, also
our legislative advocacy in supporting this bill. So, thank you.
Thank you.
City Manager, do you have any non-agenda items or comments?
Yeah, so I just, I don't… I don't want to bring… bring us down, but I do, I do want to just take a moment to… to share and,
send my condolences. Today, a San Jose City employee, was killed on the job changing a street light, or working on a street light.
And also, a San Jose police officer was shot in an incident.
The police officer is, I believe, in, in the hospital now, but I don't have any more details, but I just wanted to recognize a tough day for our colleagues in San Jose, so thank you.
Thank you very much, City Manager, and please pass on our are…
best wishes, hopefully, going forward to the families of colleagues in San Jose. So, thank you.