This is gonna be a fun one.

We start the evening with a study session to review the consultants’ recommendations regarding reusing Onizuka as an auto mall. This includes a 250-page study. I imagine there will be some interesting public input.

No special orders, but we do have a special presentation on the 2010 Census, which should be interesting. I came very close to working for the Census’ GIS division, so I’m always interested by census-related stuff. The consent calendar has a number of contracts (including one with a “reject” recommendation) and some fiscal management items. Then it’s on to general business.

The first item is one that will probably involve a lot of discussion – the City’s response to the grand jury examination of Otto Lee’s interim replacement. The draft response has an “agree”, a couple of “we’ve already taken care of it” or “it’s not likely to happen again”, and a couple of fairly strong “disagree”s, plus a big slap at the Grand Jury at the end for getting a number of basic facts wrong. I imagine there will be a fair bit of public comment, and a number of the councilmembers will probably have extended comments. I’m in a very interesting position on this one, because I’m the only one of the seven who wasn’t on Council when the original decisions were made.

Next item is a planning commission appeal of a proposal to build three homes on Bobolink. This required review because two houses exceed the maximum square footage, and all three exceed the height limitation for a single-story overlay district. So the Planning Commission attached conditions, which the applicant clearly doesn’t like. [Update] – the appeal was filed by a neighbor, not by the applicant. My bad.

After that is considerations of revisions to Council policy regarding Boards and Commissions, specifically regarding Arts Commission membership and the new Sustainability Commission. The proposal is to tweak the membership requirements for the Arts Commission, and to set the requirements and mandate for the Sustainability Commission.

Next is consideration of Sunnyvale’s positions on officers for the League of California Cities Peninsula Division.

Then we adjourn to the Redevelopment Agency, and that’s it. There might be some fireworks, and I imagine the Planning Commission appeal will involve some discussion. We’ll see.

Sorry this is late.  But I was actually on vacation for a change, so deal with it.

We seem to have no closed session or study session this week, so we’re starting with the actual meeting for a change. First up is a special order of the day, proclaiming Lakewood and Cherry Chase elementary schools to be California Distinguished Schools. We have a bunch of consent items, mostly involving Sunnyvale Works! contracts, but also dealing with a sticky issue with public safety buildings, the quarterly investment report, and the first ever memorandum of understanding with the newly-formed Public Safety Managers Association (PSMA). Oh, and we’re actually considering rejecting one contract – we didn’t spec it out properly, so all of the bids we got were much more than we expected.

Item 2 is a biggie – our response to the grand jury report on county employee costs. Staff’s position is that we generally agree with the points they raise, but not with all of their recommendations. I expect this may become a lengthy discussion of the city’s long-term fiscal plan, and it’s one that would really benefit from a lot of public input, so I hope lots of you will show up and speak your minds, whatever you’re thinking.

Item 3 has us possibly taking early positions on state propositions 22, 23, 25, and 26. A couple of them have very direct impact to us, and a couple had interest from individual councilmembers. Again, lots of public input would be really good.

But saying that suggests that there are topics where lots of public input woudn’t be good. Hmmm. Not what I intended.

Item 4 is a continuation of an item from last meeting (and since I’m lazy, I’ll copy-and-paste my description from last meeting’s preview here):

Next up is a request to look into rezoning Spansion property from Industry (IND) to Industrial-to-Residential Medium Density (ITRMED), so the industrial property can be converted to residential. I don’t yet have a sense of this one, although we recently approved doing this to three other parcels in the immediate vicinity with some discussion and little dissent. It’ll all depend on the specifics of this particular one, I’m sure. It’d be nice to hear from some residents in the area to see what they think about this, one way or the other.

Item 4 is the second reading of the ordinance rezoning parts of Peery Park. Hey, what do you know – here’s a topic where public input probably won’t be that important. Go figure…

And that’s it. We’ll see, but I expect item 2 to attract a lot of our attention.

This looks like a short and largely wonkish one.

We start with yet another closed session involving existing litigation. Then we go to open session, where the first item is a presentation from the Public Safety Officers Association to the Muscular Dystrophy Association – their proceeds from their annual “pass the boot” fundraiser.

Then we have a presentation from the 2010 Leadership Sunnyvale class. Every class is required to put together a presentation as part of their commencement, and this year’s class looked at their vision of Sunnyvale 50 years from now. I saw it at the commencement, and it’s a neat presentation, so I’m looking forward to seeing it again.

Then we have the consent calendar, which is almost all contract approval items, except for a second reading of an ordinance.

The first item of general business is a study regarding potential rezoning of certain areas in the Peery Park area to be Places of Assembly. This is largely a wonkish planning item, but it’s apparently one with some dissention, as the Planning Commission split on it.

Next up is a request to look into rezoning Spansion property from Industry (IND) to Industrial-to-Residential Medium Density (ITRMED), so the industrial property can be converted to residential. I don’t yet have a sense of this one, although we recently approved doing this to three other parcels in the immediate vicinity with some discussion and little dissent. It’ll all depend on the specifics of this particular one, I’m sure. It’d be nice to hear from some residents in the area to see what they think about this, one way or the other.

Item 4 is a required public hearing before possibly collecting on three specific delinquent utility bills through the tax roll. I believe this is an annual event, and the only comment I’ll make is that my property isn’t one of the three up for discussion.

Item 5 is a public hearing regarding wastewater charges for properties beyond the city limits, again an annual event.

And that’s it. A pretty straightforward, relatively non-controversial agenda, looks like. Of course, I’m usually wrong when I say that, so we’ll see on Tuesday night.

Back from our long break. This might be a relatively short one, albeit interesting in a couple of places.

First, we have a closed session to discuss one case of potential litigation. We then have a presentation on the Santa Clara County 211 service, and then it’s on to the calendar.

The consent calendar looks fairly pro forma, mostly housekeeping. One item may attract some attention. Former Parks Director Dave Lewis is retiring, and he has a home loan through the city (as do several others), which he is required to make good on within six months of his departure. But at the point of his retirement, his home will still be under water. Dave is asking the city to take the property over, and Staff is recommending that we do this. It’s on the consent calendar because the takeover option is the one that minimizes the fiscal impact to the City, as Staff explains in detail.

Then we have the general business. Item 2 is continuation of the discussion of the directly-elected mayor issue (part 2 of the RTC here). My guess is that this will occupy the bulk of the night’s discussion.

Item 3 is discussion of creating a process for when Council needs to appoint an interim councilmember. This has been on the list of study issues for a while, becoming an issue after Council needed to appoint a replacement for Otto Lee during his reserve duty, and it’s finally coming forward for consideration. This will probably also involve some discussion.

Item 4 is a planning commission item, considerating installation of a monopine at Lockheed, always a fun discussion.

Item 5 is consideration of an agreement for a management contract for the employees’ medical trust, and I need to do a lot more reading before I can make any intelligent comments on this issue.

Item 6 is consideration of changes to improve on the City’s ability to collect on unpaid fines. Currently, we use a collection agency after a certain point, and staff is making the case that there may be a more effective way to collect on long-term problematic cases.

And that’s it. Some items of potential lengthy discussion and a fair bit of housekeeping

I’m not sure what to make of this one.  It may be relatively short, or we may run long with lots of public input, and it’s just hard to predict this one.  [Updated with links now]

Then we have a special order of the day, recognizing July as Parks and Recreation Month.  So go use your local park.

First up is a study session that’s been on the back burner for a while – working to increase the efficiency of Council meetings.  There is a concern that with so many meetings running so late that we’re really not serving the best interests of the city.  Long meetings mean 1) people are much less likely to stay late enough to provide public input, and 2) Councilmembers are less likely to make intelligent decisions late at night.  Plus, we’re just keeping staff there late, after they’ve already put in a full day of work.  So the sense seems to be that we need to make some changes, and we’ll discuss the various options.  Off the top of my head, I’d guess that we’ll talk about having more frequent, shorter meetings, ways to improve individual Councilmembers’ efficiency (and discipline!), better preparedness for meetings by both Council and staff, and any number of other things I’m probably not thinking of.

The consent calendar is mostly the same as usual, although we’re making some changes to the contracts for the City Manager and City Attorney.  There are a number of additional expenses for costs for outside counsel (which is the inevitable result when individuals decide to sue the city).  There’s also approval of a contract to perform additional environmental studies of the proposed Morse Avenue Park site, to determine the extent of some contaminants that were found in ground samples.  Then it’s on to general business.

First up is a resolution declaring Raynor Activity Center surplus land available for long term leases.  This got a lot of the Raynor neighbors worried, but my understanding is it’s more of a pro forma step required before the City can pursue finding a long term resident of the Raynor Center space.  Still, I expect several people will voice their concerns about potential uses of that property, due to its proximity to residences and also due to the current uses which people likely want maintained.

Second up is a potential extension of the moratorium we passed prohibiting medical marijuana facilities.  Again, this isn’t quite what it seems.  We passed a 45-day moratorium, which is all we could do at the time, and we can now extend it up to an additional maximum of 10 months and 15 days.  Staff is asking us to do that, so they have the time to complete their study of the possibilities for more permanent ordinances permitting or denying such facilities in Sunnyvale.

Item 4 is adoption of the 2010-2011 budget, fee schedule, and appropriations.  This will either be quick or not.  I’m hoping that since we had the public hearing at our last meeting, and since we had a lot of discussion about the options, plus actual votes on what to do about the budget supplements and some specifics of the fee schedule, this might go quickly.  But it might not, and there’s no predicting.

The final item is considering awarding of a taxicab franchise.

And then that’s it for the regular meeting.  Then we have to adjourn to the Redevelopment Agency to consider adoption of its budget.

Long or short, the budget has to be finished at this meeting, so we’ll be there until it’s done.

This will be an interesting meeting.  My sense is that the length of the meeting will be determined by the number of people who show up to speak to issues – and we have three issues likely to generate some public input.

We start with a closed session to deal with labor negotiations involving the City Manager and City Attorney. Then we have a study issue that will probably be of interest to many Sunnyvale residents – a staff presentation of their analysis of the high speed rail alternatives that have been drafted by the HSR Authority. Next, we swear in the newly-appointed board and commission members, and then it’s on to the general business.

Another very large consent calendar, consisting of final resolution of several items that were previously voted on by Council. a couple of budget modifications, acquisition of funds for library services from various sources, and contractual stuff. Then comes the public hearings.

Item 2 is the annual hearing on the budget. This is the public’s opportunity to voice their opinions on changes being proposed this year, mostly involving cuts. Public Works and Public Safety bear the bulk of the proposed cuts, but no department is left untouched. That’s the reality of dealing with the worst economic crisis in four generations, unfortunately. Item #3 is the annual review of the city’s fines and fees, part and parcel of the budget process.

Item 4 is consideration of rates for water, wastewater, and garbage. This will certainly generate some interest. But Council is going to be somewhat limited in its options, since the majority of the rate increases are actual cost increases being imposed on the city, such as those coming from the two water districts that serve Sunnyvale. Still, not all of the costs are coming from outside, and Council has some options.

Item 5 is a continuation of last meeting’s discussion about a directly-elected mayor ballot measure. At this point, we need to look into specifics, such as what the ballot measure will say, when the measure would go on the ballot, and so on. A significant talking point will likely be Staff’s statement that a measure on the November 2010 ballot will cost the city an estimated $167,000, while the same measure coinciding with regular Council elections will cost $42,000 (the reason being that it requires the registrar to print a Sunnyvale-only ballot in 2010, while one was already planned and budgeted for for the Council election in 2011).

The final item is the second reading of last meeting’s changes to city codes to align them with the Precise Plan for El Camino. This is here and not on the consent calendar since one councilmember dissented on the original vote.

And that’s about it. Lots of opportunity for people to speak up about the direction that the city will be taking in the near future.

There’s been a lot of discussion about this out there, after an item appeared on the Tentative Council Meeting Agenda Calendar titled “Declare Raynor Activity Center Surplus Property”.  As many of you may recall, Council considered the disposition of this property a couple of years ago, ultimately deciding to retain the property and make it available for long-term leasing after a large number of residents expressed concerns about relinquishing the property.  So the appearance of the above item led many to believe Council will be revisiting this issue and possibly selling the property.  The latest information I have is that this is not the case.  Below is an email from Assistant City Manager (and new Department of Community Services Manager) Robert Walker to a resident on the topic, forwarded with his permission:

I thought I’d offer just a bit of clarification before communications on the attached issue get too far down the road. Folks reading the Tentative Council Agenda Calendar recently might understandably wonder why the City is suddenly talking about the Raynor Activity Center as “surplus” property. I wondered that myself when I first saw a draft Report. Council’s last direction to staff was very clear, and you’ve captured it fairly well below [omitted - ed.]. It had nothing to do with selling Raynor Activity Center, and staff has no intention of pursuing sale of the property. Rather, in accordance with Council direction, staff will be exploring a long-term lease of the facility. The title of the report has now been changed to reflect the fact that we are talking about declaring the site “surplus for the purpose of leasing the site” so that more folks don’t confuse the term surplus with any intention to sell the property. The report will also be moved a bit further out on the calendar in order to give staff more time to review related issues. When Council next considers this issue, however, it will not be to choose a lessee. It will simply be to receive information on the process of leasing a public facility, and to authorize staff to proceed with the next steps in that process.

Without having much information on the topic, my understanding is that this item is mostly a legal requirement we have to go through before making the property available for a long-term lease, and nothing more.

Another long one coming our way.

First up, we have another closed session, this time to do our semiannual employee reviews for the City Manager and City Attorney. We then have two special orders of the day, one for DPS special awards, one to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Fry’s. Then it’s on to the business at hand.

The consent calendar is a mishmash this time out. There are a couple of budget modifications, including a request to increase our outside counsel budget, due to an increase in litigation recently. In short, when people sue us, services suffer – even when the city prevails. Then we have a couple more Sunnyvale Works! contracts and a couple of Council-related issues. Then comes general business.

First item is appointment to boards and commissions. This time out is more significant than others, because we have three openings on the Planning Commission, quite a big change in the make-up of the most significant of Sunnyvale’s commissions. Also of note, the most competitive of the commissions this time is actually the Board of Library Trustees, my old stomping ground. There is one slot open, with six applicants, including the incumbent. Clearly, people are now recognizing that the Library Board is the seat of real power in Sunnyvale…

Second item is emergency consideration of an ordinance establishing a moratorium on medical pot clubs. In short, Staff originally thought that existing ordinances addressed whether or not such facilities are permitted in Sunnyvale. But after a closer look, Staff has decided that the existing ordinances are ambiguous. Add to that that Sunnyvale has been notified of interest by multiple parties in establishing cooperatives, and Staff is now asking for an emergency moratorium until a more permanent position can be established.

Next up is an issue that seems to pop up every several years, consideration of moving to a directly-elected mayor.

Item 5 is consideration of the sidewalk policy for Murphy Street. Murphy is due to be reopened on June 4th, after extensive reworking of the street and sidewalk. This would look at the rules for use of the sidewalk area by businesses and patrons. There’s been a lot of talk recently about closing Murphy to vehicular traffic, but my casual glance at this suggests this possibility will not be addressed as part of this issue. However, I’d suggest that interested people read through this issue anyway, in case I’m wrong.

Item 6 appears to be a wonkish housekeeping issue, involving changing Sunnyvale’s zoning to more closely match the Precise Plan for El Camino. Again, I haven’t read through this yet, but it appears to be saying that Sunnyvale’s zoning (a policy statement) doesn’t quite match the Precise Plan for El Camino (another policy statement), and staff is trying to get the two in sync.

Item 7 involves issuing bonds to raise revenue for capital improvements to Sunnyvale’s water and wastewater infrastructure. I need to do a lot more reading of this before I can explain it any better than this, so I won’t try.

Then we need to adjourn to the Financing Authority, to deal with additional issues related to the possible issuance of water bonds.

And that’s it. However, I do want to call your attention to an important information-only item, an update on the Morse Avenue Park project. In short, while planning for this has progressed, toxics were discovered in the ground from the agricultural days. And the required cleanup will significantly increase the cost of the park, beyond what can be easily accommodated. So the park plan will be returning to Council sometime soon, for either re-approval, delay, or termination of the project.

Other upcoming points of interest. We had the annual budget workshop on Thursday, and I’ll post the results of it as soon as I have time to write it all up (it’s somewhat long, I think). There will be an opportunity for public input on the budget at the June 15th Council meeting. Then Council will be voting on the budget on June 29th.

Staff has put out the proposed operating budget for 2010/2011. I’ve made my first pass over it, and I’ve had my briefing from Staff, but I’ve still got a lot of studying to do. Here’s what the budget process will be.

First up is Thursday’s all-day budget workshop, which will be televised. Staff will go over the budget department-by-department, and Council will have the opportunity to ask questions and comment. I believe there won’t be any opportunity for public input at that time.

Next will be the public hearing on the budget, scheduled for the June 15th Council meeting. We’ll also be taking input at that time on the proposed fees and fines schedule – the comprehensive list of everything that the City charges for its services. That’s when the public will weigh in on their areas of concern, lobby to preserve services, and maybe even suggest alternatives that haven’t been considered.

Finally, we’ll have our actual vote on the budget during the June 29th Council meeting. Again, there will be the opportunity for public input before the vote. But to really make a difference, you should speak up earlier in the process, specifically at the public hearing on the 15th. One of the rules of government advocacy is the sooner you speak, the less inertia opposes you.

This is a very tough budget year, with no easy decisions. At times like this, Sunnyvale benefits from its 20-year budgeting process, and as a result, Staff isn’t proposing the massive layoffs or furloughs that other cities are pursuing. But there are nevertheless some painful cuts being proposed, to some services I hold dear, and there are no longer any sacred cows. Now is the time when we have to decide as a city which services we really value and depend upon, and which ones we have to do without. This is a good time to get involved, speak up, and let us know what matters to you.

First, I apologize for the lateness of this. This week’s meeting is a monster, and I needed a lot of time to read the agenda, which didn’t leave much to write about it…

And it’s a monster for a very big reason. The first item of general business is to ratify a tentative agreement between the City and the Receiver for the downtown property, which, if ratified, will clear the way for the Receiver to sell the project to a developer. This is a significant piece of work that has been in the works for six months, and which has occupied most of the time of the City Manager, the City Attorney, and their respective staffs during that time. Council has additionally been meeting in closed session weekly for the past few months as Staff worked to finalize the agreement.

Anyway, on to business. First up is a closed session to discuss ongoing labor negotiations with the newly-formed Public Safety Managers Association. We then have no less than four closed session reports, followed by recognition of National Public Works Week. We then have an average-sized consent calendar, again mostly involving approving contracts. And then it’s on to business.

First item is RDA-1, the previously-mentioned approval of the modification to the ARDDOPA. There’s no way I can talk about the significance of this or highlight the more important aspects of the modification without potentially hinting at what I may be considering regarding this significant issue. And that would be bad… It’s very involved, and I suggest reading through the highlights at the beginning to see what the issues, concerns and suggestions are. I think it’s no exaggeration to say this vote will be one of the three most important decisions Council makes in the next five years.

Second is consideration of consideration of creating a sustainability commission or committee. It’s not revealing to say this is near and dear to my heart, since I said as much in the multiple televised and otherwise public debates before the election. But there are some surprising and interesting twists in staff’s RTC, which will make for an good discussion, I’m sure. Staff did a particularly good job spelling this one out, I thought.

Item 3 is a required public protest hearing regarding the Downtown Sunnyvale Business Improvement District. Item 4 is a request to change the zoning of 920 De Guigne Drive from industrial to industrial-to-residential low medium density. And then item 5 is a request to lower 1044 East Duane Avenue (ITR)from high density to medium density. The issue with the second one is that the owner and developer of that property believes that the higher density requirement will result in a development that isn’t salable, and that a lower density requirement would allow them to build units with a better chance of forming a successful development.

Item 6 considers an issue that came up with Councilmember Lee’s deployment – considering the process for appointing interim councilmembers. It is pointed out in the RTC that this is really a rare occurrence, since the Charter explicitly prohibits Council from appointing interim members. But in the case of Councilmember Lee’s deployment, federal law governing reservists overrode the Charter and left it to Council to appoint a temporary replacement.

Item 7 determines how Sunnyvale will allocate its CDBG money, through its 2010-15 Consolidated Action Plan and FY 2010-11 Action Plan. This is another significant issue, but it’s honestly the only one I haven’t finished reading up on, and I’ll be getting to it later tonight. Item 8 is an IGR issue – an appointment to the SCCCA Legislative Action Committee.

And finally, item 9 has Council considering taking positions on the June ballot measures. In particular, staff is recommending Council support Prop. 13 as being in the City’s best interests, opposing Prop. 16, as being contrary to the City’s best interests, and taking no position on the others, as they do not affect the City’s interests one way or the other. Of course, “affecting the City’s interests” is something Council usually decides on its own, so we’ll see what ends up happening with this one.

I suspect this is going to be a very, very long meeting, newsworthy for a couple of different reasons.