Jim's Sunnyvale Blog | Former Sunnyvale Mayor Jim Griffith

10/2/2012 Council Summary – November Positions

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Jim Griffith

Relatively uneventful evening.

We started off with two closed sessions, one involving our City Attorney recruitment, one involving the ongoing labor negotiations with SEA. Not much I can say about either of them, but hopefully soon.

We then went to the open meeting, where we had special orders of the day for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and National Arts and Humanities Month. During public announcements, a member of the public representing the Sunnyvale Democratic Club thanked the City Manager for his service and the Council for recognizing his service last meeting. There was another announcement about the Centennial Teas being held by the Sunnyvale Heritage Museum. We then had a presentation by Acterra. And then it was on to business.

Continue reading →

9/18/2012 Council Summary – Moffett Power, Hoarding

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Jim Griffith

Sorry this is late. I’ve had some other time demands of late.

We started out the evening with two closed session involving ongoing litigation. Nothing I can say here, although “no action was taken, no direction was given”.

Continue reading →

Report Recommends Sunnyvale’s Permitting Practice

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Jim Griffith

The Bay Area Council Economic Institute just issued a report titled “A Regional Economic Assessment of the San Francisco Bay Area”, which is fairly critical of the region’s overall ability to attract business. In particular, it focuses on the lack of competitiveness when it comes to empowering start-ups.

Of particular interest is one specific recommendation that the report makes:

Within jurisdictions, one-stop service centers (such as those in Sunnyvale) should be considered.

You may recall that the President of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce made a similar comment about us just a few months ago. Over the past couple of years, Sunnyvale has rapidly become the envy of the region in its economic development practices. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve chatted with a councilmember from another city who has heard about some company like Apple, Google, or LinkedIn grabbing up office space in Sunnyvale, and who wants to know how we do it.

New City Attorney Selected

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Jim Griffith

We have completed our process and hired a new City Attorney. Effective December 3rd (I believe), Joan Borger will serve as Sunnyvale’s City Attorney. Mrs. Borger comes to us from Fremont, where she currently serves as Assistant City Attorney. Prior to her current job, she was actually the Interim City Attorney between Valerie Armento and David Kahn, landing that job in her capacity as Sunnyvale’s Senior Assistant Attorney.

Welcome to Sunnyvale, Mrs. Borger!

Upcoming Town Hall Meeting

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Jim Griffith

I will be holding my next town hall meeting on Saturday, November 10th at the Lakewood Park meeting room from 3-5 p.m. All are welcome. There’s no specific agenda – I expect I will start out with a brief summary of the budget and the state of the downtown, and then we’ll chat about whatever folks want to chat about. As usual, light refreshments will be served. I hope to see lots of you there!