Jim's Sunnyvale Blog | Former Sunnyvale Mayor Jim Griffith

09/15/2015 Council Preview – Short Term Rentals

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Jim Griffith

Big agenda tonight. We start the evening with no study sessions or closed sessions – first time that’s happened in many months.

The general session starts with a special order of the day recognizing Falls Presention Day. The consent calendar is fairly big – we’ve got three final tract maps to approve and a CalPERS resolution required as part of our MOUs. There’s a proposed rejection of a bid for three fire station exhaust systems – we based our conditions on a similar contract last year, but the bid we received this year was significantly higher, so staff wants to pause and re-evaluate. There’s also a budget modification for studying stormwater handling at the SMaRT Station.

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08/25/2015 Council Preview – Temporary Cold Weather Shelter

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Jim Griffith

Looks like a long and controversial night. We start the evening with a closed session to discuss a possible replacement for the golf course concessionaire. This is followed by a study session to go over an update to our master plan for Sunnyvale’s Clean Water Program (and I honestly know nothing more than that).

The general meeting starts with the swearing in of our newest of boardmembers and commissioners. The consent calendar is pretty varied, including a joint use agreement for developing the East and West Channel trails, acceptance of a public safety grant that gets us traffic enforcement enhancements including LIDAR, an extension of a food waste contract, two grand jury responses, and the second reading of our camping in public space ordinance.

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Sunnyvale Public Lands Act Independent Analysis

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Jim Griffith

In this week’s meeting, Council certified registrar results and placed the Sunnyvale Public Lands Act on the November 2016 ballot in response to a resident petition. The meeting was very useful in educating residents about the actual impacts of the proposed ordinance. For the past several months, the proponents have been circulating both partial information and misinformation about the impact of the proposed ordinance. As such, the City commissioned an independent consultant well-versed in what’s called a “9212 report” to analyze the actual impacts of the initiative. I encourage residents to watch the meeting, but I’ll provide some of the highlights. The consultants made it clear that this proposed ordinance is the most restrictive municipal land use ordinance that they’ve ever encountered anywhere.

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08/11/2015 Council Preview – Sunnyvale Public Lands Act

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Jim Griffith

Relatively simple night. We start with a whole lot of studying, as per usual. First up is a study session to review the recruitment process and brochure for hiring a new City Attorney. You may recall that our current City Attorney, Joan Borger, is retiring at the end of the year. This is followed by a long study session to discuss the various alternatives for design and development of the modernized Civic Center space.

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07/28/2015 Council Preview – Butchers Corner

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Jim Griffith

This is gonna be a long one. We start the evening with a closed session regarding ongoing labor negotiations, followed by another round of board and commission interviews. No presentations or special orders, so we get right to business.

The consent calendar is small but pretty diverse. There’s renewal of the City’s agreement with the Sunnyvale Garden Club. There’s a $250k grant for Sunnyvale Community Services for homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing. There’s a contract for asphalt, which is necessary because our original contractor was unable to deliver as promised. And there’s a second reading of our housing impact fee ordinance.

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