Looks like another long night.
We start the evening with a closed session regarding reuse of Raynor Center, which should be interesting. I’m hoping to be able to talk about this soon. This is followed by a study session that I really don’t understand – something about looking at and possibly revising Council Policy 5.1.3, which describes Sunnyvale’s commitment to human services. Your guess is as good as mine. Then we go to the general meeting.
The State Legislature is considering a bill that has a significant and direct impact on Sunnyvale services, and it is urgent that Sunnyvale residents speak up, and NOW.
As I’ve explained before, the state robbed us of $140 million in RDA repayments of a loan Sunnyvale made out of its general funds to rebuild our downtown. We’re owed that money, and with the elimination of all RDAs statewide, the state has basically defaulted on their promise to repay us. The legislature is considering a partial fix to this, AB 1585. This bill specifically recognizes RDAs like ours which used its money responsibly and which has been harmed by the state’s action. Were it to be signed into law, we would receive partial payment, about $40 million long-term. And it doesn’t necessarily prevent us from recovering the rest of the money that is owed to us. That’s huge, and obviously VERY important to maintaining our services. AB 1585 has cleared the Assembly and will be going to the Senate in the next few weeks.
Please contact every state senator that you know, explain that the state’s RDA action has robbed Sunnyvale of $140 million that we are owed, and that AB 1585 will do a lot to mitigate the severe damage that has been specifically done to Sunnyvale. Of particular importance are Republican senators, who are more likely to oppose this legislation. Tell them that it is important to you that they act to protect Sunnyvale. In particular, our senator is
Senator Elaine Alquist (representing Sunnyvale, Democrat)
100 Paseo de San Antonio #209
San Jose, CA 95113
Phone: (408) 286-8318 (in the district)
Phone: (916) 651-4013 (Sacramento)
Fax: (916) 324-0283
Please tell Senator Alquist that she needs to defend Sunnyvale against the damage that has been done. And please do so politely and without using terms like “robbed”, since she has been a strong advocate for Sunnyvale’s interests in general. This matters, a lot. It impacts our services very directly, and it’s an attempt to right some of the wrong that the state has done to Sunnyvale. You have the chance to make a difference in a very direct way. Please take the time to speak up.
Wow, this was a long night.
We started the evening with a closed session regarding negotiations with SEA (Sunnyvale Employees Association), the largest of the city’s bargaining units. I can’t say what happened, but I can recap where we stand with the various units, since there have been any number of closed sessions and contract votes in the past few months. As of right now, every unit came back to us and offered the city concessions in exchange for a contract extension, except SEA, and council has now voted to accept all of those concessions. Most of the units’ contracts would have expired this year, including SEA’s. So right now, the other units all have contract extensions good through 2014 or 2015 depending on the unit, and SEA’s contract is about to expire (in July, I believe). That’s simply where we stand.
A little bit last minute, but here it is.
We start the evening with a closed session regarding ongoing negotiations with the Sunnyvale Employees Association, followed by a study session involving potential changes to Sunnyvale’s zoning code regarding mobile home park conversions. Then we get to business.
Sorry for yet another delay. Work has been a bit intense.
We started the evening with two closed sessions, one being discussion about ongoing labor negotiations with the Communications Officers Association (the city employees who do emergency dispatch) , the other involving the Downtown. Then we got on to business.
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