1 CITY COUNCILMEMBER REPORT*
Meeting: Tuesday, May 7, 2024
+for the “Councilmember Reports” agenda item under the “COUNCIL REPORTS” section
Reporting Councilmember: Councilmember Liang Chao
Report Dates: 4/10/24 to 4/29/24
Section 1: Activities by Date (Date, Title, and Description):
NOTE:
● This list does not include internal meetings with staff only, such as prep sessions or meetings with the City Manager.
● This list includes activities to “represent the community I am elected to serve”, “to respond to community needs and complaints,” and “to communicate policies and programs to residents,” among other responsibilities of a City Councilmember.
● Due to my work schedule, I have cut down on the event attendance for ceremonial purposes, especially those I have attended almost every year in the past. Instead, I focus more of my time on constituent services.
2024-04-12 Follow-up to a public comment on April 3 during the first reading of the two hotel projects questioning whether the language used in the Development Agreement “good faith and diligent effort" is sufficient to ensure Cupertino can capture the local portion of the sales/use tax we deserve to get.
- I have since verified that the DA with Apple Park in 2013 did include assertive language to ensure the Sales Tax Localization Plan
is implemented with contractors and
subcontractors. Other cities, like San Jose’s Diridon Station Project, do include assertive language in their DA to capture sales tax.
- Note that this provision does not require purchasing of constructor materials from Cupertino. It merely requires the designation of Cupertino as the site where the construction materials will be used so that the local portion of the sales tax does not go to the County pool or a branch office of a contractor in another city. - This is the section of the DA in question from the two hotel projects on the April 3 Council Agenda.
2 2024-04-12 Follow up to a constituent’s comment questioning the need for yet another Bike - Pedestrian Plan in 2024 when there are already plans completed recently and unfinished projects. - Plans Cupertino has completed so far: 2016 Bike Plan, 2018 Pedestrian Plan, 2023 Local Road Roadway Safety Plan, 2024 Vision Zero Plan.
- Status of all bike path projects and feasibility studies that I can find (likely not complete)
2024-04-20 Stevens Creek County Park Centennial Celebration at the Sycamore Group Site at
Stevens Creek County Park
● “One hundred years ago, on January 24, 1924, Santa Clara County acquired an initial 400 acres near Cupertino with the intent to establish a public park. The park, now known as Stevens Creek County Park, opened to the public later that year, making it the first County park and laying the foundation for the modern-day Santa Clara County Parks system. “
● “In 1935, the Santa Clara Valley Water Conservation District purchased 171.5 acres adjacent to the County’s land to develop a reservoir. The Stevens Creek dam was completed in 1936. Over the years, additional acreage and improvements have been made to Stevens Creek County Park so that visitors can enjoy archery, disc golf, boating, fishing, historic sites, horseshoe tossing, interpretive programs, picnicking, and trails for hiking, bicycling, horseback riding, and nature study.”
2024-04-20 Cupertino Earth and Arbor Day Festival and Tree Planting at the Wilson Park - visited many booths and talked to volunteers at the festival. - used the trail entrance near the Library to enter Regnart Creek Trail and walked to Wilson Park for the annual tree planting. Each year the City Council plants one tree of a different variety, which is natural to our climate.
2024-04-21 The 125th Anniversary of Cupertino Odd Fellow Lodge No. 70 - The reception was accompanied with a Live Hawaiian Band, performed by the lodge
3 members. Then, a formal ceremony was held with speeches providing inspiring historic background of the lodge. At one time, there were only 5 members, but now the membership has grown to 60 members.
2022-04-22 Follow up to a constituent’s concern from 2024 -04-06 questioning why Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) has been filed many months late. - I have verified with staff that Gov. Code 40804 requires “the annual report”, which is ACFR, to be filed within seven months o f the close of the fiscal year, which is June 30. Thus, ACFR should have been finished before Jan. 31 at the latest.
- I looked up the ACFR until 2012 and Cupertino has been filing ACFR around March since 2016.
Yet for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014 and the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013, the ACFR was filed around mid November of the same year, respectively. - For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, all cities around us, except Los Altos, filed their ACFRs by December 2023.
2024-04-22 Visit of a delegation from Coppertino, hosted by the Cupertino-Coppertino Sister City Association.
- The delegation consists of one adult and three high school students. They toured the City Hall, Community Hall and the Library, accompanied by Economic Development Manager and Communication Coordinator, with a visit from a few staff, such as the City Manag er, Senior Planner.
2024-04-22 Follow-up to April 3 public comment questioning whether the refinance of the City’s Debt in 2020 indeed saves $0,5M in annual interest payment. - The Dec. 2023 memo for Cupertino Public Facilities Corporation did mention that “The refinancing resulted in annual savings of approximately half a million dollars for the remaining 10 years of the debt.". Since the public brought up the question again, I submitted some specific questions for the issue on April 10.
- Comprehensive answers were provided from the staff on April 22: Answers to questions, Debt Service Program Payment Schedule from FY 21 -22 Adopted Budget. There is indeed a savings of $0.5M per year.
- Answer: “annual payments around $3.17 million for FY21-FY30, versus the annual payment schedule from FY22 with annual payments around $2.67 million. The difference is a $0.5 million savings per year.” This debt will be paid off by June 2030. - This page from the FY 21 -22 Adopted Budget provides a good history of what properties the city used the debt to purchase. such as Quinlan Center, Sports Center, Blackberry Farm (voter - approved debt), Creekside Park (voter-approved debt) and the construction of the Library and the Community Hall.
4 2024-04-25 Follow up to a public comment at April 16 Council Meeting questioning why the city has $50M sitting in a cash account not earning any interest - The Feb. 27 response from the City Manager to Councilmember Moore confirmed that the City does have around $50M in checking account for operational expenses: “I believe the amount you referenced was around $50M. In short, the amount in question is mainly used to carry out daily city operation. In a simpler analogy, this would be the City's checking account to cover for routine expenses. The goal is to maintain enough liquid funds in this account to ensure invoices are paid in time.”
- The Treasurer’s Quarterly Investment Reports have the balance in checking account, LAIF (interest-earning cash-equivalent account for government agency) or other investment. - I did some research and here are my findings:
- I looked at the Q2 reports, ending December 31 of each year and found that Cupertino typically keeps around 15-20% of the total portfolio in the checking account, since 2016.
Before that, we kept around 2% in checking.
- I sampled a few cities around us for their FY 2023-24 Q2 reports, I found that other cities keep about $2-7M (0.25% to 2% of the entire portfolio) in the checking account.
2024-04-26 Meeting with the developer, Summerhill Homes, with a SB 330 Preliminary Application f or the Staples + Pizza Hut + Dish n’ Dash site for 58 units of 3 -story for -sale townhomes, including 20% middle-income units.
5 Section 2: Committee Assignment
2024-04-24 Santa Clara County Recycle and Waste Reduction Commission (RWRC) meeting (agenda, video)
- California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC) Presentation. - CPSC was formed so local government could have a voice at Sacramento and their board consists of mostly elected city councilmembers. They get funding from other nonprofits and cities, such as Cupertino. They advocate for bills for producer and consumer responsibilities on recycle/reuse of various products, batteries, mattress, needles, carpet, paint, tires, e-waste, pesticide, mercury, used oil, packaging.
- Here are the bills supported by CPSC in 2024, such as AB 2 (Ward) – Recycling: solar photovoltaic modules, SB 707 (Newman) – Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024, Waste management:
propane cylinders: reusable or refillable, and more.
- California currently has 13 Product Stewardship Laws for Producer Responsibility and Consumer Responsibility.
6 - The Presentation gave an overview of recycling programs
- Some programs include financial incentives for recycling, such as paint, mattress, carpet, etc.
7 Section 3: Other Information of Interest to My Constituents:
1. Housing Element Update:
- Highlights: 4,588 units are required for the HE, but the current HE has planned 6,226 units, about 36% more than required.
- By not counting 1,500 units in already approved projects and underestimating the realistic capacity for mixed use projects, Cupertino will upzone more properties than required to meet the RHNA requirements.
- The density (units/acre) of many sites will increase from 20 units/acre to 50 -65 units/acre and some will increase to 65-80 units/acre.
- R1 corner lots will be allowed to develop with R2 standards to allow duplex, triplex or quadruplex. (Every R1 lot already allows up to 3 ADUs due to state laws) - Current Progress:
- The HCD letter on April 10 states “HCD is pleased to find the revised draft housing element meets the statutory requirements of State Housing Element Law (Gov. Code, § 65580 et seq.). However, the housing element cannot be found in substantial compliance until the City has completed necessary rezones to address the shortfall of sites to accommodate the regional housing needs allocation (RHNA).” - The study session for Housing Element was held at the April 16 Council Meeting.
This is the first meeting where a draft of the Housing Element is put on the Council agenda. But unfortunately no answers to Council questions were provided in the supplemental report.
- Here are some questions submitted and some with answers: 15 more questions without answers, questions are corner lots with answers, additional questions from the community wi thout answers.
- Next Step: The final draft of the Housing Element and the zoning ordinance to rezone properties will be on the City Council agenda on May 14, after the April 29 Planning
8 Commission meeting.
2. County’s Affordable Housing Project at Simian Property at the southwest corner of Wolfe Road and I-280.
- The March 28 County memo states “The County of Santa Clara Office of Supportive Housing issued a Request for Offers (RFO) in December 2023 with the goal of identifying a development partner(s) for the County-controlled property located at 10333 N. Wolfe Road, Cupertino (Subject Property), commonly known as the Simian Property.” - “On February 6, 2024, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved an exclusive negotiating agreement with Eden Housing as the selected developer for the Subject Property.“
3. FUHSD By-Trustee-Area Election in November 2024
- On April 24th, the FUHSD Board adopted the final trustee-area map among three recommendations from the CTAD Committee. The final map will be submitted to the Santa Clara County Committee on School District Organization for approval at a public hearing.
- The first by-trustee-area election will be held in November 2024 for Trustee Areas 2 and 5, and then in 2026 for Trustee Areas 1, 3, and 4.
- Comparison of maps and other resources
- Below is an image of the adopted map (Revised Scenario 5) versus the high school attendance boundaries.
- Below is an image of the adopted map (Revised Scenario 5) with major roadways.
9 (Last Activity Report in the April 16, 2024 Council Meeting Agenda.)