Pretty diverse night. We start the evening with a study session involving non-residential parking. I’m not positive, but I believe we’re looking at the city’s current parking requirements for developers proposing commercial/industrial projects. We then swear in Ken Olevson as our newest Planning Commissioner, followed by (I believe) recognition of this year’s winners of the Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair Association.
FollowAs I’ve blogged here before, the city is actively exploring options for creating a branch library in the north, as well as investigating the possibility of a public/private partnership to replace our aging civic facilities. Both concepts are strictly in the information-gathering phase, to determine if some options are even viable, and to determine what possibilities may exist to solve some pretty massive problems that we face (problems that likely exceed $150 million in capital expenditures – with time pressure attached). The effort to gather some information will take some time before staff can even start developing proposals for residents to view. And if you haven’t heard something recently, that’s because there’s nothing new to hear (meaning I probably haven’t heard anything either).
Sunnyvale Public Safety Officer Holly Lawrence has won the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Family Online Safety Institute, for her pioneering work with Yahoo! to combat cyberbullying. PSO Lawrence worked with PSO Tracy Hern and Yahoo! to develop the School Resource Officer Digital Safety Education Program, and she now trains law enforcement agents from other jurisdictions in how to combat cyberbullying. PSO Lawrence will be receiving the award in Washington, D.C. on November 14th.
This is a wonderful program, and it came about because PSO Lawrence, PSO Hern, and Yahoo! recognized that a problem exists, got their heads together, developed the program, and now work to spread its effectiveness to other cities throughout the country. And those other cities are eager to participate. It’s a real success story that could only happen in Sunnyvale.
Sunnyvale Public Safety Officer Robin Smith and her canine partner Colt took first place in this year’s Witmer-Tyson Police Canine Trial. This is an annual competition where canine teams from across the state compete in trials such as Obedience, Protection, Obstacles, and Search. In addition to Officer Smith’s victory, Officers Pistor (with Koa) and Mutz (with Zac) fared extremely well. Sunnyvale was very well represented in this year’s competition.
I first met Officer Smith when I did a public safety ride-along in 2008, and she played host (about a year before she was assigned to Colt). And I got to meet Colt for the first time during Leadership Sunnyvale on Public Safety Day. So I was thrilled to hear that they won, after taking second place last year.
I’m finally getting caught up. Seems certain WordPress plugins underwent some unexpected and unwanted changes, which broke my blog -> Twitter -> Facebook setup. Sigh. But it looks like things are working now.
We started the evening with a closed session regarding the lawsuit that the Building Industry Association filed against the City of Sunnyvale. Nothing to say, sorry.