6/12/2012 Council Preview

I’m guessing it’ll be a short night for most folks, but there may be a fair bit of public input, so we’ll see.

We start the evening with a closed session involving ongoing litigation.  We then have a study session to discuss the rather disturbing developments regarding Hangar One, and NASA’s surprise decision to declare it surplus property.  Then we have the regular meeting.

The consent calendar is somewhat interesting this week – a grant involving Lawrence Station, a couple of contracts (including one for studying the Stevens Creek Trail alternatives), and a VTA BPAC reappointment.  One item of interest is a reclassification of part of Hendy Avenue from a “local street” to a “collector”.  Then it’s on to the general business.

Item 2 is our annual public hearing on the 2012/2013 budget.  This is the public’s opportunity to let us know what you think about the proposed budget and changes to service levels.  And item 3 is a related item – the public hearing for the lists of fees and charges (library fines, recreation services, and so on).

Item 4 is another similar item – consideration of the water, wastewater, and solid waste rates for the next year.  Staff is proposing increasing water rates by 7%, wastewater rates by 5.5%, and garbage rates by 4%.  We set all three rates based on the actual cost to provide the service, with no profit or excess built into it.  In particular, water rates are going up because the agencies which sell us water (the SFPUC and the SCVWD) are charging us more.  They’re projecting continued water rate increases averaging about 9%/year/agency for the next ten years.  Wastewater rates are somewhat affected by additional required staffing, but mostly by the need for long-term infrastructure replacement.  The garbage increase is due to an increase in the garbage contract, mostly driven by fuel rate increases, but also because people are simply generating less waste.

Item 5 is another annual occurrence – a public hearing for delinquent utility charges to be placed on the tax rolls of the offenders.  Looks like there are only two of them this year.

And the final item involves appointing a Sunnyvale representative to the VTA El Camino Real Bus Rapid Transit Advisory Board.  After last meeting’s decision not to pursue dedicated BRT lanes, our current representative resigned rather than advocate for a city policy while personally opposing it.  So we need to pick a new rep.

That’s about it.

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