City of Santa Clara
Council Policy Manual
ADDING AN ITEM TO THE
AGENDA
PURPOSE The purpose of this Policy is to establish a clear, effective, and easily understood process for members of the City Council and the public to have items, within the jurisdiction of the City Council, placed on the City Council agenda for consideration.
POLICY/
PROCESS
FOR CITY
COUNCIL
MEMBERS
Referral from Members of the City Council in Advance of a Meeting:
After consultation with the City Manager (and/or City Attorney, as appropriate), the Mayor or any individual Councilmember may submit a written request by using the Council Item Request Form to the City Manager’s Office for inclusion of an item on a future City Council agenda. An item may be referred to the City Manager for inclusion on a City Council agenda during a Council meeting by City Council action.
The procedure for written request from the City Council shall be as follows:
1. Members of the City Council shall use the Council Item Request form to submit a written request for inclusion of an item on a future City Council agenda.
2. Prior to submitting a Council Item Request form, the Member shall discuss the proposed request with the City Manager (And/or City Attorney, as appropriate) to determine if City staff’s response does not satisfy the Member’s request, the Member shall submit the Council Item Request form for placement on a future City Council agenda.
3. Once the City Clerk’s Office receives the Council Item Request form, it should immediately be forwarded to the City Manager for placement on an agenda, if possible, within two (2) Council meetings after receipt of the original request by the City Clerk’s Office. All written material (Council Item Request Form and any support material) will be submitted on the agenda in the form substantially provided by the requestor without any staff analysis, including fiscal review, legal review and policy review, until the City Council has had the opportunity to provide the direction to the City Manager.
Referrals from Members of the Council at the Council Meeting If an issue arises during a Council meeting that may require future City Council action a City Council member may also request, through a referral, that such item be agendized for future Council consideration.
Such a request may be considered by the Council following the City of
Santa Clara
The Center of What's Possible
Revised 10/24/2023 CP 030
Resolution No. 23-9278
City of Santa Clara
Council Policy Manual
POLICY/
PROCESS
FOR
COUNCIL
COMMITTEES
POLICY/
PROCESS
FOR
MEMBERS
OF THE
PUBLIC
“Procedure for Handling Requests at the City Council Meeting” set forth below.
Referral from a Council Committee:
Council Committees may request that an item to be considered for inclusion on a future City Council agenda by formal committee action. Any such request shall be submitted to the City Manager in writing. Provided the request is received two (2) days prior to the public release of the City Council agenda packet the item shall be included for consideration at that City Council meeting in accordance with the “Procedure for Handling Requests at the City Council Meeting” set forth below. .
Requests from Members of the Public:
Members of the public may request that an item be added to a City Council Agenda in any of the following ways:
1. Public Presentations: Any member of the public may address the City Council under the “Public Presentations” section of the agenda to make a request of the City Council to add an item to a future meeting. If a member of the public wishes to provide a written petition of their request prior to their appearance at a Council Meeting they may be submitted as follows:
a. Email:
City Council: [email protected]
City Manager: [email protected]
b. MySantaClara App:
santaclaraca.gov/services/make-a-service-request
Note: Written Petitions will not be listed on the City Council agenda, and the member must be present at the meeting to present their request.
2. Individual City Councilmembers: Members of the public may directly petition individual City Councilmembers to request that an item be added to a future Council meeting. The Councilmember may then choose to submit the request through the Council referral process outlined in this Policy, above.
3. City Manager and City Departments: Members of the public may also petition the City Manager or City staff for specific action. The City Manager and/or staff may respond, as appropriate, directly to this request, or direct the member of the public to the other methods of petitioning the City outlined above.
City of
Santa Clara
The Center of What's Possible
Revised 10/24/2023 CP 030
Resolution No. 23-9278
City of Santa Clara
Council Policy Manual
PROCEDURE
FOR HANDLING
REQUESTS AT
THE CITY
COUNCIL
MEETING
1. At the meeting where the request to add an item to a future agenda is heard, Council discussion is limited to whether the item should be added to an agenda and a date, not the merit of the item. Valid considerations that can be discussed include whether the matter is within the City’s jurisdiction, being addressed in some other way, City resource requirements, legality, timing, and prioritization.
2. Council may take the following actions when a request is made:
a. No Action.
b. Refer the request to City staff for further study and a timely report back to Council.
c. Refer the item to a future annual Council Priority Setting session meeting.
d. Placement on a future Council meeting agenda for further consideration or action.
3. At the meeting where the item is first considered, if a majority of the City Council supports further study of the item, then a full staff analysis shall be prepared within thirty (30) days, unless otherwise directed by the City Council. If the request requires more than thirty (30) calendar days to prepare, status updates will be provided to the City Council every sixty (60) days as an informational memo.
References
10/24/2023 Revised, Resolution No. 23-9278
10/27/2020 Revised, Resolution No. 20-8895
Attachments: Council Item Request Form
City of
Santa Clara
The Center of What's Possible
COUNCIL ITEM REQUEST FORM
The Council Item Request Form is for members of the City Council to submit written requests to the City Manager’s Office for inclusion of an item on a future City Council meeting agenda. At the meeting where the initial written request is heard, discussion should be limited to whether the item should be added to an agenda and a date, not the merit of the item. A majority vote of the City Council is required for the item to be added to future Council meeting agenda for action.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Requesting Member of City Council
Contact E-mail
Contact Phone
Today’s Date
WRITTEN REQUEST
I, , hereby request that the following item
be placed on the City of Santa Clara Council and Authorities Concurrent meeting agenda:
Reference: Council Policy 030 – Adding an Item on the Agenda Suds Jain
[email protected]
408-499-2955
6-29-2026
Suds Jain
City of
Santa Clara
The Center of What's Possible
The City of Santa Clara is home to 58 data centers which is only limited by the lack of transmission to supply power current and future data centers. SVP is investing heavily to expand the transmission and distribution to support almost double the data center load.
Recently there has been a lot of opposition Nationwide to building data centers primarily because of Climate impacts and water usage. Some cities have even passed moratoriums on the construction of data centers (Seattle, Denver, Madison, Oklahoma City) In the last update of Santa Clara's Climate Action Plan, the Council mandated that all new data centers be carbon neutral with the ability to purchase offsets or RECs. There was little or no opposition by the data centers and it addressed the climate change impacts from CO2 emissions for the electricity being consumed.
Many of the cities that passed moratoriums were deeply concerned about water usage by data centers for cooling. Many of the newer data centers in Santa Clara have minimal water consumption and serve as models for data centers nationwide. However, Santa Clara does not have an official policy limiting water use by data centers.
I hereby request that Santa Clara create a policy which limits the type of water used by data centers and the quantity of water used by future data centers. There should also be a discussion regarding participation in any future DSGS (Demand Side Grid Support) program by the CAISO or State of California.
For reference, the 2024 EIR for the 2805 Bowers Data Center states: "The BOC could require water when outside air temperatures approach design (89 degrees Fahrenheit) to augment its adiabatic cooling system using evaporative pads on the rooftop air-cooled chillers. The data center would be designed to use up to 0.5 acre-feet per year (AFY) of recycled water via the proposed recycled water pipeline extension, and a potable water connection would be provided as a back-up source to the recycled water system in the interim period." By comparison, A typical single family residence uses 0.3 to 0.5 acre feet of water per year so this 72 MW data center uses less than 2 families of water for cooling.
Resolution No. 23-9278