1 CITY COUNCILMEMBER REPORT
Meeting: Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Reporting Councilmember: Mayor Liang Chao
Report Dates: 5/14/25 to 6/10/25
● Last Activity Report in the May 20, 2025 Council Meeting Agenda
Section 1: Announcement - Message from the Mayor:
❖ Mayor’s Initiatives and other updates:
➢ Cupertino Stories: You are welcome to email entries to [email protected]. ■ Thank you to Cupertino Science Technology University (CSTU) for managing the project.
They have developed tools to convert audio/video stories to text. ■ The website will be redesigned soon to accept story submissions. ➢ Upcoming: June 18 Community Meeting for Block Leaders and CERT, CARE, ARM volunteers :
An initial meeting to get feedback and discuss strategies to improve the program, engagement and promotion to improve coverage in Cupertino.
➢ Upcoming June 21 International Yoga Day at Wilson Park 9:00-11:00 AM.
Bring your Yoga mat
for some free Yoga lessons and visit booths for health tips.
Registration link for IYD and Free Health Fair - https://forms.gle/4hHpnW7wy6kDapQb8
➢ Past Events:
■ Booth at the Festivals: Thank you for volunteers helping to support the Mayor’s Initiatives Booth at May 9 Live Well Age Well Health Expo at Senior Center. ■ June 8 Dance in the Plaza: The second Dance in the Plaza was held on Saturday June 8.
Thank you for Amazing Taiwan for sponsoring the event. We had a lot of fun. Thank you to the dance leaders from 4 dance groups for leading the dances. Special thanks to the Israeli Dance Group from Sunnyvale Senior Center for bringing their music and dan cers to the event. The third Dance in the Plaza will likely be held in September. Date to be announced later.
■ June 1 Tech Icon: Cupertino Stories of Entrepreneurship was held on Sunday June 1 at Community Hall. Thank you to the two Cupertino entrepreneurs Arun Santhebennur , CEO & Co-Founder of Voicegain & Srini Dharmaji, Head of Product at Airtime. Arun for sharing their stories. Thank you to Chitra Rakesh for hosting this event. ■ May 24 Community Multicultural Juried Art Show at the AAPI Multicultural Festival:
The Cupertino Art Show was well-attended. Families appreciate the opportunities to have an art exhibition alongside professional artists. Check out the submitted art work at your at https://aapicommunityjuriedartshow.artcall.org/
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2 ❖ Monthly Chat with Mayor Community Meetings: These meetings will be generally held on the second Monday at 5pm each month, but it might be moved to other Mondays if needed. The location will rotate so that we cover different businesses each month. ➢ The last Mayor’s Chat was held at Thai Bangkok Cuisine on June 9th at the Stanley Square, across from the U.S. Post Office. We had the monthly chat in a packed room with Acting City Manager Tina Kapoor while we enjoyed samples of Thai appetizers. ➢ The next Monthly Chat with the Mayor will be held on Monday July 14th at 5pm. The location is to be announced later.
❖ FY 2025-26 Budget was adopted at the June 3rd Council meeting. ➢ The FY 2025-26 CIP program and the Community Grant Funding can be found at the May 15 Budget Study session.
➢ Find more information at https://www.cupertino.gov/Your-City/City-Council/City-Work-Program. ❖ Process to Request Certificate of Recognition or Commendation:
➢ To ensure such requests are handled as smoothly and efficiently as possible, the City Manager’s Office has implemented a dedicated process.
➢ We kindly ask that you complete the following form, which will allow Mayor Chao to present a certificate of recognition: https://cupertino.gov/councilmeetingrequest ❖ Proclamations at Council meetings: This year, I plan to follow a tradition upheld by some former Cupertino mayors and other mayors in recognizing organizations or individuals with proclamations during Council meetings. My goal is to honor those who have made consistent and/or significant contributions to Cupertino, with an emphasis on those who are less well-known. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to email me at [email protected].
Proclamations for contributions will generally be presented at the second Council meeting of each month,
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3 while the first meeting will continue to recognize special observances (e.g., awareness months or weeks) as before. You are also welcome to submit suggestions for these recognitions.
Section 2: Committee Assignment
2025-05-16 Attended Santa Clara County Mayors’ Meeting, hosted by San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, at San Jose’s newly constructed Emergency Operations Center. - The San Jose ECO was built with $90M of bond measure funding with the latest technology. - The Fire Chief and FireSafe Council presented.
2025-05-21 Attended the Bi-Monthly Meeting with Commission Chairs - received updates from the Commission Chairs. The 3-bullet-point summary from each commission is published as an info memo.
2025-05-28 Attended West Valley Mayors and Managers Meeting - Updates from each city about emergency preparedness and public safety. 2025-06-03 Santa Clara County Recycle and Waste Reduction Committee Special Meeting ● Receive the Santa Clara County Food Recovery Program’s Annual Report from Joint Venture Silicon Valley (SB 1383 Implementation)
● Accept legislative updates from the California Product Stewardship Council and staff and consider bills to support this legislative session
● Accept enhanced direction on the Recycling and Waste Reduction Commission Budget and Workplan ○ Great overview of the RWRC organization structure and funding sources and 5- year plan
Section 3: 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.
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4 2025-05-15 Attended Santa Clara County Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony, held at Sheriff’s Office Headquarters
● This is an annual event held to remember all of those who died in the line of duty in the past. Fortunately, there hasn’t been any life lost in the past 10-20 years due to the safer practices adopted for policing. 2025-05-17 Attended the annual funding raising of Camp Via West, serving special needs children
● Camp Via West is a little treasure tucked away to provide day camp and also overnight camps for special need children. The fundraiser was attended by many supporters who have donated over many years of their time and financial resources. Ability Path is one of the main partners. 2025-05-18 Gave a speech at TEDxCSTU event (Luma) on how I became an “Accidental Mayor.”
- The speech is titled “Accidental Mayor: From Debugging Chips to Solving City Problems”, where I shared my journey and how I use AI in both coding and policymaking, and concluded with the importance of having a civic roadmap, in addition to professional career. - Here is the slide deck. The speech will be posted on Youtube later 2025-05-18 Attended the Spring Concert by Cupertino Symphonic Band at Sunnyvale Community Center
- The concert was very well attended. There were delicious snacks to encourage donation. There was a wide variety of interesting music and the curator gave great background introduction for each piece of music chosen.
2025-05-19 Virtual interview with 8th grade Lawson Middle School student for this scouting citizenship requirement
- His questions were on infrastructure projects in Cupertino and efforts to be more sustainable and eco - friendly.
2025-05-23 Welcomed the students from Coppertino, Italy for the sister city committee. - I introduced them to some displays in the City Hall. Former Mayor Gilbert Wang introduced the mural wall with Cupertino history.
2025-05-24 Attended AAPI Multicultural Festival at Civic Plaza - This festival is in its 4th year and the third year at Cupertino. There were more booths and more performances. I have not seen many of them before. The Lion Dance at the opening was done by a Vietnamese community group. They encouraged the audience to join some of the dances. - The first Cupertino Art Show was held in the Community Hall at the same time. The two events complimented each other well.
2025-05-24 Attended the performance by many art schools following the teaching of Guru Delhi P.
Sundar Rajan to celebrate his 30 years of services to the community. 2025-05-24 Attended the Once-in-five years’ Alumni Association Meeting of Chiao Tung University - I was invited up the stage to give a speech. I pointed out the importance of speaking up and encouraged everyone to vote or campaign for someone they share the same value with.. 2025-05-25 Welcomed Scout Pack 411 to visit the City Hall with cub scouts and their parents - I invited the scouts to find the first Mayor, the first woman Mayor, the Chinese Mayor etc. I then introduced the gifts from the sister cities in the lobby.
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5 2025-05-25 Attended the opening of the National Chinese Cultural & Athletic Federation (NCCCAF) and the annual showcase of the Long Yun Shaolin Kung Fu Academy (in Fremont), the Descendants of the Dragon - A Martial Arts Spectacle
- Amazing performance, combined drama, dance and Kungfu. 2025-05-29 Meeting with Aloft CEO Dipesh Gupta to explore options - Community members have wondered whether Aloft might be interested in selling their hotel as student housing. I reached out to the CEO in April and he finally responded to meet. - The hotel business has recovered, but not as good as before Covid since many companies are still allowing employees to work from home two to 3 days a week. If the deal is good enough, they are interested in considering options, including selling.\
2025-05-29 Meeting with Vimmerse and Metaport to explore options - Vimmerse has the technology to turn any sill photos to video clips or turn 10 -12 photos into a video story. - Metaport provides an online map, which allows people to submit stories about any site and engage with readers. It is a form of social media with the focus on histories on locations. 2025-05-31 Recording of the TV interview with Cupertino TV Productions Team at their KMTV studio in Mountain View
- It is the second recording. The program will be published later. 2025-05-31 Attended the Anniversary celebration of the Balaji Temple, Milpitas - Many Cupertino residents visit this Temple frequently. 2025-06-01 Attended and spoke at the Tech Icon, Cupertino Stories edition at the Community Hall 2025-06-02 Attended and MC’d the flag raising to declare June the LGPTQ+ Pride Month - The Silicon Valley Gey Men’s Choir sang the national anthem and a few other songs. Many booths and participants attended, including many school board members. 2025-06-07 Attended Torch Lighting Ceremony for the Taiwnese & Chinese American Athletic Tournament Association of the San Francisco Bay Area at TECO, Milpitas - There will be many competitions to be held from now until August, from Tennis, Badminton, Golf, etc. 2025-06-08 The Second Dance in the Plaza, Cupertino Civic Center - 4-5 dance groups who led the community to dance
2025-06-09 Monthly Chat with Mayor at Thai Bangkok, across from the Post Office
Section 4: Information of Interest to My Constituents: (updated on 4/8) ● Builders’ Remedy (BR) Projects (Status of Projects)
★ BR Projects with incomplete application status (pursuant to Government Code Section 65941.1.) ● 20739 Scofield (one block from Faria Elementary School, zoned R1-10): The project will replace one single-family home with 20-unit, 5 story, condominium on 15,004 sqft (0.34 acre) lot
● Vista Heights (near entrance of Linda Vista Park) : The vacant site, zoned RHS, will build 33 units (8 condominiums and 25 single family homes on Councilmember Report City
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6 vacant hillside property of 86.1 acres.
● Upland Way (11841 Upland Way, zoned RHS-70): 6 single family homes, including 2 affordable units, on vacant hillside property of 1.56 acres with average slopes greater than 30%
★ Other active BR projects:
○ Dividend Homes (20085 & 20111 Stevens Creek Blvd), to the east of the Fire Station, on 2.6 acres, zoned R4 and commercial mixed use. The project will replace two existing office buildings with 57 for-sale townhomes., including 12 affordable units. ○ Dividend Homes (20045 & 20065 Stevens Creek Blvd), to the east of the Fire Station, on 1.77 acres, zoned commercial mixed use. The project will replace existing office buildings with 32 for-sale townhomes., including 6 affordable units.
★ Relevant News on the determination of incompleteness for BR projects:
○ “Los Gatos Files Declaratory Relief Action to Resolve Land Use Uncertainty ” (Press Release from the City of Los Gatos)
■ “That section [Gov. Code 65941.1] provides that applicants for land use approvals have 90 days after an initial 180- day deadline to submit any missing information needed to complete a formal application for a so-called “builder’s remedy” housing project. That section further stipulates that if the missing information is not submitted “within the 90 -day period, then the preliminary application shall expire and have no further force or effect.”
■ “In an apparently conflicting reading, in letters dated August 30, 2024 and February 12, 2025, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) stated its view that there is not just one 90 -day period but that successive 90-day periods can run indefinitely . By filing this lawsuit, the Town is acting in good faith so that it will know how to comply with the law and ensure it can continue to serve its residents and property owners, while lawfully processing land use applications.”
★ Other docs:
○ The July 25, 2024 info memo, titled “Scofield Drive SB330 Preliminary Application pursuant to Builder’s Remedy”, has information about proposed BR projects and their review process. ● Other Residential Projects - complete applications submitted, not yet approved:
○ Pizza Hut/Staples/ Fontana's (20770, 20830, 20840, & 20850 Stevens Creek Blvd ). adjacent to the Cupertino Crossroads Shopping Center): on 2.97 acres, zoned commercial mixed use. The project will replace existing retail stores with 59 townhome condominium units across eight, three -story buildings
○ United Furniture (10065 & 10075 Stevens Creek Blvd, across from Vallco), on 2.72 acres, zoned commercial mixed use. The project will replace existing retail stores with 55 townhome condominium units, with 10 ADUs, three-story buildings
○ Stevens Office Center (20813, 20823, 20883 and 20807 Stevens Creek Blvd ), on 6.93 acres, zoned commercial mixed use. The project will replace two office buildings and one retail building with 122 for-sale units (66 small-lot single family and 56 townhomes), including 24 affordable units ○ 20865 McClellan Rd: on 0.99 acres, zoned R3TH. The project will replace one single-family home with 27 townhomes, including 4 affordable units, in three-story buildings ○ Evulich Court (10857, 10867, 10877 & 10887 Linda Vista Dr): on 2.53 acres, zoned R3TH. The project will replace 4 single-family homes with 51 townhomes, including 11 affordable units ● Other Residential Projects - SB 330 preliminary application submitted, but not complete Councilmember Report City
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7 applications:
○ Wolfe Road Housing Project (10333 N. Wolfe Road): 250-300 total units across the 5-acre property. It will be 100% rental apartments. The affordable housing will benefit those making 80% or less of the area median income (AMI).
■ a full report on our Listening Phase at this link.
■ February 12 Community Co-Creation Event at Collins Elementary School ● Other Residential Projects - Revision of already approved projects:
○ Westport Senior Assisted Living Housing (revision submitted): The developer Related has submitted a revision to add more units, reduce retail space, remove the underground garage and request a waiver of Parkland dedication Fee. It is going to the Planning Commission in May ■ Previous approval in 2021 and 2024: Westport (21267 Stevens Creek Blvd) ○ Marina Plaza (10145 N. De Anza Blvd, 10118 Bandley Dr.), on 5.1 acres, zoned commercial and mixed use: The project will add more units, slightly reduce retail space, deliver over smaller for- sale starter homes under 1500 sq. ft. and an outdoor amphitheater. ■ Previous approval in 2022L Marina Plaza.
● License Plate Reader Camera - City-operated or personal ones ★ The Council has adopted the Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Camera program (Resolution 24-094) in order to alert the police when a license plate with previous record is detected. Some cameras are placed at major roads entering Cupertnio.
★ The residents or businesses can connect your home or business surveillance camera with the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. The registration form is at the bottom of this page .
Section 5: Information Access Useful to My Constituents (not updated):
1. Information Memo posted on the City website:
City Council Informational Memos are now available on the City website. The information can be accessed from the City website at cupertino.org/memos and the City Council page. You can also find the page by entering search terms “info memos” at the top of the website. ★ Anyone may use the eNotification signup to receive informational memo updates by email.
★ The info memos are now hosted in the digital archive as all other city records. ★ Click “+” to zoom in.
★ On a laptop:
○ To open the document as PDF, click on the Print icon and then click on “Download & Print”. The downloaded PDF will appear in a new tab for viewing. ○ This does not work on Safari browser on an iPhone.
★ To copy and paste text, you must open it as PDF and then copy & paste from there.
New memos posted, since last report:
● No new info memos published since February 28
● Recordings of Commission Meetings:
Starting in June, commission meetings will be recorded for viewing later, although no Councilmember Report City
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8 teleconferencing to allow remote participation.
- Find the recordings here under each commission.
4. How to Search an agenda item:
A community member showed me a way to search for items on the past city meetings:
● Go to this page: https://cupertino.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx ○ Make sure that “Calendar” is selected from the top row of tabs and the “List View” is selected from the bottom row of tabs.
○ Enter the search term, such as “investment report”. Choose the year or select “All Years”