1 CITY COUNCIL ACTIVITY REPORT
Meeting: February 21, 2024
Reporting Councilmember: Vice Mayor J.R. Fruen
Report Activity Dates: 1/31/24 to 2/12/24
Event Date, Title, and Description:
Event 1. Fe
bruary 1, 2024 – Preparatory Session Re: Fee Study – I received a briefing from staff and the city’s consultant for the city’s fee study. The fee study is designed to examine the true and comprehensive cost (inclusive of overhead) for the provision of city services to the public.
The exercise was especially useful as orienta
tion to an otherwise unwieldy document that
allowed for a better and more focused council discussion at the February 6 council meeting.
Event 2. February 2, 2024 – State of the District Address – I attended the Cupertino Union School District’s annual “State of the District Address” made by CU SD Superintendent Stacy Yao. The event began with a site visit to an elementary school (Blue Hills) and a middle school (Kennedy) to see the work of the District in action. Attendees were then returned to the Quinlan Center for the principal address from the Superintendent, which covered everything from current performance metrics in the Dis
trict, to its budget, projected challenges and
opportunities. Based on current projections, the District expects to transition to basic aid funding in the coming year. Though enrollment continues to decline, the decline is less pronounced. Filling attainment gaps created during the pandemic is a key pri ority. All middle schools in the District are expected to win Distinguished School awards this year.
Event 3. February 6, 2024 – ERA Interview – As part of its regular annual work as the city’s auditor, Moss Adams interviewed me regarding the current functioning of the city and ci ty council. I provided feedback and noted areas of potential ongoing risk and upcoming opportunities to contain said risk.
Event 4. February 8, 2024 – Valley Transportation Authority Policy Advisory Committee (VTA PAC) Meeting – I attended this meeting in my capacity as Cupertino’s representative on
City Council Councilmember Activity Report
2 the Committee. We elected a new chair (Yvonne Martinez‐Beltran of Morgan Hill) and vice chair (Raj Chahal of Santa Clara). The Committee recommended that the Board adopt the Monterey Corridor Community‐Based Transportation Plan, and to adopt the VTA Congestion Management Plan Document. We also received an update on the VTA’s Transit‐Oriented Communities (TOC) program, designed to facilitate transit‐oriented development on VTA‐ owned lands, as well as a grant program for cities to engage in similar work. The full agenda is available here.
Event 5. February 8, 2024 – Cities Association of Santa Clara County Board of Directors Meeting & Cities Association of Santa Clara County Joint Powers Authority Board of Directors Meeting – I filled in for Mayor Mohan in my capacity as Vice Mayor and alternate representative to these two bodies. Pursuant to the votes of Santa Clara County cities, the existing unincorporated association (the Cities Association of Santa Clara County) voted to dissolve itself and transfer its assets to the newly formed Cities Association of Santa Clara County Joint Powers Authority. In addition to taking these actions, the newly formed JPA confirmed its calendar for the year, and elected an Executive Board consisting of the unincorporated association’s existing Executive Board: Neysa Fligor of Los Altos, Larry Klein of Sunnyvale, Margaret Abe‐Koga of Mountain View, Hung Wei of Cupertino, and Tina Walia of Saratoga. The Board of Directors took initial discussion on how to develop new by‐laws and voted to delegate initial review and drafting of new by‐laws to the Executive Committee. The agenda documents for the unincorporated association Board meeting are available here. The agenda documents for the newly formed JPA Board meeting are available here.
Event 6. February 12, 2024 – Weekly Meeting with the City Manager – I had my regular weekly meeting with the City Manager to discuss the most recent city council meeting, upcoming meeting agendas, and various city issues of interest.
Event 7. February 12, 2024 – Fremont Union High
School District Community Trustee Area
Districting Committee Information Session – I attended this informational session at Monta Vista High School in my capacity as a member of the CTAD Committee. We debuted a newly reconstructed informational presentation (available here) developed by the Committee for conducting meaningful outreach, and heard feedback from community members in attendance.
All told, approximately 25‐40 attendees joined the meeting at various points of the evening.
Most raised concerns regarding the timing of the District’s outreach and why the District had chosen to make this change to by‐trustee area elections from at‐large elections. The largest concern involved a fear that the move would precipitate the closure of either Lynbrook High School or Monta Vista High School—view that Superintendent Graham Clark and FUHSD Board Members Rosa Kim and Jeff Moe all refuted. As noted by the Superintendent and the Board Members, the District’s enrollment figures are nowhere close to warranting a school closure and enrollment trends are beginning to stabilize. All three further responded to rumors City Council Councilmember Activity Report
3 in the community that the move to by‐trustee area elections would presage a reopening of Sunnyvale High School and the closure of a school in the south of the District. According to the District, the Sunnyvale High School campus is considerably smaller than the District’s operational campuses, would not be large enough to host the full range of programs currently offered at other campuses, and would require tens of millions of dollars of upgrades to be useable. Similarly, they noted, construction of a new, properly sized school campus in northern Sunnyvale would cost upwards of $500,000,000 and would require voter approval of a bond to finance. As a result, neither outcome is realistic or financially sound. All three reaffirmed that there are no plans to close either Lynbrook or Monta Vista (or any other high school, for that matter).