04/07/2-15 Council Preview – Leaf Blowers

Note that tonight’s general session will be opened and held in honor of fallen San Jose Police Department Officer Michael Johnson.

Looks like a pretty diverse night.  We start the evening with another closed session to discuss ongoing labor negotiations.  This is followed by an important study session regarding our sidewalk repair program. It will likely include an overview of how we schedule and prioritize our repairs, but the focus will almost certainly be on the budget for sidewalk repair.  This is one area where our 20-year budget doesn’t cover the anticipated cost to maintain the work that we need done.  This has been an ongoing area of concern.

We then go to the general meeting, where we start with two special orders, the first being recognition of National Library Week, the second being recognition of Fair Housing Month.

The consent calendar is relatively small, given our two weeks off.  We’ve got yet another budget modification to add temporary staff to support permitting and approval. The improved economy has increased the need for permitting staff from small home modifications to major projects, and we need more staff to maintain responsive to permitting requests. Since those permits pay for the services they require, this doesn’t affect general fund services. We’ve got yet another tract map. There’s a grant for $973k for improvements to Fair Oaks Park. And there’s a bid for slurry seal services for this year.

Item 2 will be heavily debated – consideration of restrictions on leaf blowers. Staff and the Parks & Rec Commission recommend pursuing public education on best practices.  The Sustainability Commission recommends adopting a ban on leaf blowers.

Item 3 has us returning to complete the earlier issue regarding tandem and stacker parking options.

Item 4 involves updates to three sections of Council Policy.  The changes are all described by staff as “non-substantive”.

Item 5 is ratification of the reappointment of Councilmember Larsson to the Bay Area Water Supply Conservation Agency, the agency that oversees non-SF access to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s water service (Hetch Hetchy) and provides about 49% of Sunnyvale’s water.

And the final item is our consideration of the subcommittee’s recommendations for this year’s Community Event Grants. I believe this is just consideration of this year’s criteria for approving grants, and not the grant recommendations themselves.  But I’m not positive about that.

And that’s it.

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