Through Radio Sunnyvale, I found out about a new effort to maintain a new Sunnyvale calendar of events.  I know the guy who is organizing and running it, and I’m glad to see him doing it (but I won’t comment more until I’ve actually talked with him about it). So far, it looks promising.  I hope you’ll find it useful, and, more important, I hope you’ll contribute to it!

On ABC-7 News. Welcome back, Otto!

PublicCEO has chosen “Sunnyvale Works!” as its Public Works Project of the Year This recognition is remarkable, and it speaks really well of our City. This was all the work of Gary Luebbers and the City Staff sitting down, thinking creatively, and coming up with a program that has saved the City a lot of capital project money – all while building new sidewalks, fixing up streets, building some 450 new curb cuts, and generally making Sunnyvale a much better place to live and work.

This is one of those “I love my city” moments…

Last night’s Council meeting was pretty interesting. First, we had a presentation by a representative of the San Francisco (Santa Clara?) 49ers about the new stadium. There was a lot of information, and while I (and others) clearly wanted to ask questions and get into the fine details, that wasn’t the right time or place for it.

Following that, there was a presentation from Staff about the City’s procurement process – how the City goes about buying goods and services. Unfortunately, we can’t just send someone down to Office Depot when we run out of paperclips – there are processes to ensure that City money is being spent for the public good. I will point out, however, that it was specifically mentioned that the cheaper the item, the simpler the process is.

We then had a number of residents and other supporters speak on behalf of the Stadium proposal, including former Mayor Jack Walker on behalf of the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce and former Mayor Pat Castillo. Also, Pat Walz presented the Sunnyvale Cool Cities’ positions on this year’s study issues.

Then we got into the agenda. Werner Gans pulled one item to commend the City for getting federal stimulus money for energy-efficient LED street lights. We had to tweak the city’s ordinance on massage parlors, to conform to a new state requirement that state certification be equivalent to local certification. A speaker mentioned that Sunnyvale requires its massage facilities to use same-sex rooms – no couples massages. That was news to me.

We then considered this year’s legislative advocacy positions. I tweaked one of them to address a concern I heard from the League of California Cities about the state potentially raiding us again. But otherwise, it was non-contentious. The issue of Council policy on dropped issue was a little more contentious, as there was disagreement about what best practice was. In the end, Council voted, in effect, to remove the “two ‘defer’s equals ‘drop’” provision and to require dropped issues to wait a year before potentially returning, and then only by Council sponsorship.

Council then selected myself and Vice Mayor Moylan to represent Council on the General Plan Consolidation Committee, with Councilmember Whittum as alternate.

Finally, we adjourned to the Onizuka Redevelopment Agency to decide what the next steps would be. I’m reluctant to (possibly mis-)characterize the discussion, but we voted to move forward with a study of the feasibility of an auto center at Onizuka. It was stated in the discussion that we’re somewhat locked into this right now, and doing the study to possibly determine infeasibility needs to be part of the process right now.

And beside some back-and-forth on other issues, the City Manager mentioned that PublicCEO has recognized “Sunnyvale Works!” as its Public Works Project of the Year. More on this to follow.

I apologize for the delay, but drafting the summary took longer than I thought. The results can be read here.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the survey!

I’m back from three days at the League of California Cities’ New Mayors and Council Members Academy, which was very interesting. It mostly involved taking classes on financial issues, ethics, developing relationships with colleagues and with city staff, turning campaign issues into actual progress, and so on. Then the evenings were spent networking with my counterparts in other cities. Good stuff, and I came away with three prevailing messages, not new, and not surprising, except for the intensity of the messages.

First, these are bad times in California. This was a collection of all of the newly-elected folks from across the state – people who should still be high on their recent victories and not yet brought down to reality by their positions. But it was a pretty somber bunch, and the discussion all focused on the difficult choices that all of us are facing. Every city is looking at service cutbacks, layoffs in some cases, and bankruptcy for a couple of cities. There was even a councilwoman from Vallejo there, and Vallejo was mentioned a number of times during the classes, as the cautionary tale.

Second, the State is the enemy.  This message was hammered into us, over and over.  Having failed to solve its own problems, the State intends to take our revenues, and we have to stop them.  A a general rule, the smaller the governmental body (and its budget), the more efficiently it uses its resources.  The feds are the most inefficient, the State of California is close behind, the County does better, and cities are the best at making the most with the least.  And city governments are the ones that have the most direct effects on your lives – we control public safety, public works, parks, libraries, and the majority of government services that you interact with on a daily basis.  So when the State takes city resources to solve its mess, people lose.  You’re probably going to hear a lot more about this, as the League is sponsoring a ballot initiative to close the State coffer-raiding loopholes that Prop. 1A left open in 2004.

Third, Sunnyvale is a very special place.  I spent a lot of time talking with electeds from other cities, and the conversations always seemed to come back to one of two things – Sunnyvale’s 20-year budget forecasting or Sunnyvale’s public safety model.  I took a lot of pride in talking about the way Sunnyvale does its business, and I was surprised by the number of electeds who had heard about it and wanted to know more.  The speaker for the class on city finances specifically mentioned Sunnyvale’s 20-year budget forecasting when talking about city planning processes.

This looks to be a little bit long, this week, but there’s some good stuff here. First up is a special order of the day to recognize the Sunnyvale Reads program. That’s followed by a presentation from the 49ers on the proposed stadium. Then we have a presentation from the City Manager on the way the City makes its purchases. Then it’s on to general business.

The consent calendar is mostly grants and contracts. First item of General Business involves proposed changes to Sunnyvale’s Municipal Code regarding massage establishments, to bring them into compliance with SB 731, which was just enacted a couple of months ago. Second up is consideration of Sunnyvale’s 2010 priority issues and legislative advocacy positions – those issues which are decided by other entities but which Council determines may have a significant impact on Sunnyvale. Then Council will be taking a second look at its policy regarding “dropped” study issues – just in time for Friday’s annual study and budget issue workshop. Finally, Council will be picking two of its members to serve on the General Plan Consolidation Advisory Committee.

I won’t speculate as to whether or not you’ll find the general business items to be interesting. But the two presentations should be pretty good, and worth tuning in for.

Snippet from the Silicon Valley American Red Cross emailed press release regarding Haiti relief efforts:

To help, people in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley can make a donation to the International Response Fund online or via phone. The public can also help by texting “Haiti” to 90999 to send a $10 donation to the Red Cross, through an effort backed by the U.S. State Department. Funds will go to support Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.

Full information here. I hope people will step up.

Forwarding information about an event. Don Cecil will be attending the SWNA monthly meeting at Washington Park at 7:00 p.m. on Monday the 18th, to discuss the High Speed Rail project and what it may mean to us. Don works for MC2 Public & Government Affairs Consulting and will be working on the HSR EIR. I’ve talked to Don at a couple of HSR events, and he knows his stuff. So it’s a good opportunity to get your HSR questions answered.

Council has a week off, and I’m off to the LCC (League of California Cities) in Sacramento next week, to get trained up as a new councilperson. I also have my first IGR (intergovernmental relations) meeting on Thursday – I’ll be Sunnyvale’s rep on the VTA PAC (Valley Transportation Authority Policy Advisory Committee) for the next year.

My guess is that the LCC training will focus on explaining all of the acronyms you need to know to do the job well…

Anyway, my preview of the 1/26 meeting will probably be a little late – Friday instead of Thursday, since I’ll still be in Sacramento. All’s quiet for a bit, and then things will get busy with the study issues and the budget. Don’t forget to submit your input on the study issues before the 26th.

In neighborhood association news, I attended San Miguel on Monday, I hope to make it to Lakewood Village tonight, and I’m going to try to get to Raynor Park tomorrow. But I’ve got back-to-back meetings before Raynor Park, so that one might be problematic.