City Manager’s Office
DATE: October 7, 2026
TO: Council Policy and Procedures Committee
FROM: Kimberly S. Thomas, Deputy City Manager
Paulina Campos, Management Fellow
VIA: Kimbra McCarthy, City Manager
SUBJECT: Update on Council Priority to Update Council Policies, Legislative/Contract Templates, and Other Documents
BACKGROUND
The Fiscal Years 2025-2027 City Council Work Plan prioritized updating Council Policies, legislative/contract templates, and other documents based on staff recommendations and capacity. Staff conducted a comprehensive review of Council Policies and presented a recommended framework for analyzing potential updates to the Council Policy and Procedures Committee (CPPC) on May 6, 2026. The analysis and recommendation focused on three distinct components of the goal: (1) provide a review of all Council Policies, (2) provide information about the latest updates to legislative/contract templates, and (3) provide an update on templates for other documents. Items two and three require no further action based on recent staff work and staff’s recommendations at the May 6, 2026, CPPC meeting. This memorandum focuses on component one - Council Policies.
At the CPPC meeting on May 6, 2026, staff presented the results of a survey sent to Department Heads, Division Heads, and Executive Assistants to gather feedback on Council Policies. Survey respondents identified thirty-three (33) policies for consideration to be updated or rescinded.
Staff created an analysis framework that categorized these policies into three levels of anticipated change: minor, moderate, and major.
CPPC Direction
Following the presentation of the analysis framework, the CPPC provided the following direction:
• Provide a timeline indicating when action is anticipated for each policy under review; • Review policies that have not been updated in many years;
5.2 Update on Council Priority to Update Council Policies, Legislative/Contract Templates, and Other Documents
October 7, 2026
• Present an update at the next CPPC meeting, and updates thereafter until the necessary actions are completed by attaching a copy of the Council Policies Summary Chart to the Routine Council Policy and Procedures Agenda Topics Update provided at each meeting; • Explore adding the Council Policies to the City website using a different method as an alternative to Laserfiche.
• Provide an update from the Community Development Department (CDD) on the review and potential update of the City’s Conditions-of-Approval template.
ANALYSIS
Update on 33 Policies Initially Reviewed
In response to CPPC direction, staff established a timeline for anticipated action on the policies:
Short-Term (2027), Medium-Term (2028), or Long-Term (2029 or later). Staff engaged Department Heads, Division Heads, and Executive Assistants to revisit the previous survey results, affirm previous suggestions or issue new recommendations, and provide estimated timelines for completing each policy update based on staff capacity. Respondents were also asked to review a list of policies that have not been updated since before the year 2000 that were not already flagged in the previous survey.
The summary chart has been updated accordingly, as summarized in Table 1 below and detailed in Attachment 1. Of the 33 policies initially reviewed, three were successfully updated, and five no longer need updating. The basis for not updating these five policies is included below:
Table 1 – Recommendation Updates Since Prior Staff Survey
UPDATES TO PRIOR SURVEY RESULTS
Policy Initial
Survey
Suggestion
Refined
Recommendation
Reason
D-9: Council
Appointee
Performance
Evaluation Process
Update Keep As-Is This policy was recently updated in 2024.
No necessary updates have been
identified.
H-3: Public
Notification Policy
Regarding City -
Owned Park and
Open Space Areas
Update Keep As-Is No current or anticipated issues with this policy because the City hasn't sold any
City-owned park and open space areas.
Staff may revisit the policy in the future.
Update on Council Priority to Update Council Policies,
Legislative/Contract Templates, and Other Documents
October 7, 2026
UPDATES TO PRIOR SURVEY RESULTS
Policy Initial
Survey
Suggestion
Refined
Recommendation
Reason
H-4: Use of City
Plazas
Update Keep As-Is The Community Services Department, the lead user of this policy, does not
recommend updating. The list of Plazas in
the existing policy is accurate, and the
Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan does
not reference Council Policy H-4 or any
updates to it.
K-2: Boards,
Commissions, and
Committees
Update Keep As-Is This policy is already reviewed and
updated regularly. It was last revised on
December 17, 2024. Staff recommends
continuing to update this policy as
needed.
K-21: Sponsorships Update Keep As-Is The Community Services Department, the lead user of this policy, does not
recommend updating it, as it aligns with
best practices and standards.
Of the remaining 25 policies, five were recommended for rescission, and twenty still require updating. As shown in Table 2 below, staff assigned each of these policies a timeline indicating the estimated year in which the policy update or rescission will be presented to the Committee.
Fourteen policies were categorized as Medium-Term (2028), eight as Short-Term (2027), and three as Long-Term (2029 or later).
Table 2 – Anticipated Timeline of Policy Update Completion POLICY UPDATES AND ANTICIPATED TIMELINE*
Short-Term (2027) Medium-Term (2028) Long-Term (2029 or Later) G-2: Referral of Planning and
Land Development Matters by
Santa Clara County
A-8: Service Organization
Funding Policy
D-7: Personnel Rules
G-4: Rengstorff House C-1: Integrated Pest
Management
J-2: Recreation Cost-Recovery
Policy
G-7: Outdoor Merchandise
Display Criteria
D-4: National Guard and
Reserve Services
K-14: Special Events Policy
H-5: Use of City's Facilities D-8: Employer/Employee
Relations
J-1: Issuance of Recreation
Cards
G-1: Williamson Act Contracts
K-5: Public Art and CIP Projects G-6: Administration of Planned Unit Developments
Update on Council Priority to Update Council Policies,
Legislative/Contract Templates, and Other Documents
October 7, 2026
POLICY UPDATES AND ANTICIPATED TIMELINE*
Short-Term (2027) Medium-Term (2028) Long-Term (2029 or Later) K-9: Shoreline Golf Course Club
Association
H-1: Acquisition of Real
Property
K-15: Prioritization of Fees
Received in Lieu of Land
Dedication
H-2: Guidelines for
Implementing Relocation
Assistance Law
H-2A: Displacement Policy for
CDBG Program
H-7: Athletic Field Use Policy
H-8: Commercial Use of City
Parks
H-9: Park Land Acquisition
Policy
K-6: Accepting Gifts to the City
K-11: Display of Flags at City
Facilities
*Timeline subject to change.
Most policies with a short-term time horizon need to be reviewed for likely rescission. Other short-term policy updates focus on minor administrative-level changes. Policies with a mediumterm time horizon require more attention or resources to review. Finally, the policies with longterm time horizons have unique considerations. For example, Policy J-2 (Recreation CostRecovery) has a long-term time horizon because the corresponding action in the Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan is scheduled to occur in three to five years.
Table 3 below summarizes the status and timelines for the 33 reviewed Council Policies.
Table 3 – Staff Responses to Council Policy Update Review
SUMMARY OF COUNCIL POLICIES REVIEW RESPONSES
Total Council Policies Reviewed 33
Departments represented 6
Policies updated since the last survey 3
Policies to rescind 4
Policies to keep as-is 5
Policies to update 20
SUMMARY OF COUNCIL POLICIES TO BE UPDATED BY TIMELINE
Policies to be updated or rescinded in the Short-Term (2027) 8 Policies to be updated or rescinded in the Medium-Term (2028) 13 Policies to be updated or rescinded in the Long-Term (2029 or Later) 3 Update on Council Priority to Update Council Policies,
Legislative/Contract Templates, and Other Documents
October 7, 2026
Updated Policies
As noted above, three (3) policies identified in the initial survey have since been updated:
• A-10: Authorization to Execute City Contracts and Agreements - Exhibit A of Policy A-10 was revised in July 2026. Council approved a major update to the policy language on May 27, 2025.
• A-11: Financial Budgetary Policy – revisions were approved by City Council on June 23, 2026, following review and recommendation by the Council Finance Committee (CFC) on May 20, 2026.
• D-13: Mountain View Employee Homebuyer and Relocation Assistance Program - revisions were approved by City Council on June 23, 2026, following review and recommendation by the CFC on May 20, 2026.
Review of Additional Outdated Policies
Based on Committee feedback, staff compiled a list of all outdated policies (not updated since before the year 2000) (Attachment 2). Department and Division Heads were asked to review this list and indicate which policies, if any, should be updated or rescinded. So far, eight policies have been recommended for updating, and two for rescission. An additional three policies have been recommended by staff to be kept as is. The remaining 10 policies require further review. Policies identified as requiring action will be added to the full list in Attachment 1 and assigned a timeline for completion, which will be presented in the next update.
Staff will also explore uploading Council Policies to the City website as an alternative to Laserfiche to improve accessibility for the public.
CDD Conditions-of-Approval Template
CDD staff have been working on a comprehensive update to the development project conditionsof-approval worksheet for the past several months. The main goals of this effort are to improve clarity, achieve internal consistency, and ensure objectivity within the City’s conditions of approval, particularly for housing development projects.
CDD’s recent efforts have included more than 20 hours of internal working meetings, plus many more hours of individual review and commenting. This has yielded a first round of comprehensive comments on the more than 200+ standard findings and conditions of approval in the Planning Division worksheet. This has, in turn, spurred further research on nearly 50 conditions of approval to confirm their origins and ongoing necessity, as well as to evaluate Update on Council Priority to Update Council Policies,
Legislative/Contract Templates, and Other Documents
October 7, 2026
alignment with current state law. Some immediate updates include deleting several conditions not associated with an objective standard, making text revisions to more directly reflect codified objective standards, adding new findings and conditions for AB 130 projects, and flagging additional tasks that need to be completed to make the worksheet more usable. CDD has also encouraged other departments involved in the development review process to conduct similar reviews as their resources permit, and several have made substantial progress.
CDD estimates completing an update of the conditions-of-approval template in Q1 2027.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the Committee receive this memorandum and support efforts to bring updates to Council Policies as outlined in this memorandum and its attachments in the spring and fall of each year until the necessary updates are completed.
Attachments
1 Council Policies Summary Chart
2 Staff Recommendations on Outdated Policies