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Home My WebLink About2021-03-22 City Council Agenda PacketCity Council 1 MATERIALS RELATED TO AN ITEM ON THIS AGENDA SUBMITTED TO THE CITY COUNCIL AFTER DISTRIBUTION OF THE AGENDA PACKET ARE AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC INSPECTION ON THE CITY’S WEB SITE. Monday, March 22, 2021 Special Meeting 5:00 PM Agenda posted according to PAMC Section 2.04.070. Supporting materials are available on the City’s Web site the Thursday 11 days preceding the meeting. ***BY VIRTUAL TELECONFERENCE ONLY*** CLICK HERE TO JOIN Meeting ID: 362 027 238 Phone:1(669)900-6833 Pursuant to the provisions of California Governor’s Executive Order N-29-20, issued on March 17, 2020, to prevent the spread of Covid-19, this meeting will be held by virtual teleconference only, with no physical location. The meeting will be broadcast on Cable TV Channel 26, live on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/cityofpaloalto, and Midpen Media Center at https://midpenmedia.org. Members of the public who wish to participate by computer or phone can find the instructions at the end of this agenda. To ensure participation in a particular item, we suggest calling in or connecting online 15 minutes before the item you wish to speak on. PUBLIC COMMENT Members of the public may speak to agendized items; up to three minutes per speaker, to be determined by the presiding officer. If you wish to address the Council on any issue that is on this agenda, please complete a speaker request card located on the table at the entrance to the Council Chambers, and deliver it to the City Clerk prior to discussion of the item. You are not required to give your name on the speaker card in order to speak to the Council, but it is very helpful. Public comment may be addressed to the full City Council via email at City.Council@cityofpaloalto.org. TIME ESTIMATES Time estimates are provided as part of the Council's effort to manage its time at Council meetings. Listed times are estimates only and are subject to change at any time, including while the meeting is in progress. The Council reserves the right to use more or less time on any item, to change the order of items and/or to continue items to another meeting. Particular items may be heard before or after the time estimated on the agenda. This may occur in order to best manage the time at a meeting or to adapt to the participation of the public. HEARINGS REQUIRED BY LAW Applicants and/or appellants may have up to ten minutes at the outset of the public discussion to make their remarks and up to three minutes for concluding remarks after other members of the public have spoken. Call to Order Special Orders of the Day 5:00-5:15 PM 1.Appointment of a Candidate to an Unfinished Term on the Planning and Transportation Commission Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions Oral Communications 5:15-5:30 PM Members of the public may speak to any item NOT on the agenda. Council reserves the right to limit the duration of Oral Communications period to 30 minutes. REVISED 2 March 22, 2021 MATERIALS RELATED TO AN ITEM ON THIS AGENDA SUBMITTED TO THE CITY COUNCIL AFTER DISTRIBUTION OF THE AGENDA PACKET ARE AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC INSPECTION ON THE CITY’S WEB SITE. Minutes Approval 5:30-5:35 PM 2.Approval of Action Minutes for the March 08, 2021 City Council Meeting City Manager Comments 5:35-5:45 PM Action Items Include: Reports of Committees/Commissions, Ordinances and Resolutions, Public Hearings, Reports of Officials, Unfinished Business and Council Matters. 5:45-7:00 PM 3.855 El Camino Real (20PLN-00252): Adoption of an Ordinance Amending Chapter 18.16 of Title 18 of the Municipal Code to Allow Some Ground Floor Medical Office use With a Commensurate Increase in the Overall Office use Allowed at the Site Subject to Limitations. Environmental Assessment: Exempt From the Provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in Accordance With Guideline Section 15301 (Existing Facilities). Zoning District: CC (Community Commercial) 7:00-8:30 PM 4.Approval of the Revised Community and Economic Recovery Workplan and a Budget Amendment in the General Fund 8:30-9:30 PM 5.Review of and Potential Direction Regarding Planned Fiscal Year 2021 Capital Projects 9:30-10:15 PM 6.Adoption of a Park Improvement Ordinance for Renovations at Ramos Park (Continued From March 8, 2021) 10:15-10:45 PM 7.Colleagues' Memo: Discussion and Adoption of a Resolution Denouncing, Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the City of Palo Alto Council Member Questions, Comments and Announcements Members of the public may not speak to the item(s) Adjournment AMERICANS WITH DISABILITY ACT (ADA) Persons with disabilities who require auxiliary aids or services in using City facilities, services or programs or who would like information on the City’s compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact (650) 329-2550 (Voice) 24 hours in advance. Public Comment Staff Presentation Applicant Presentation Presentation Public Comment Presentation Public Comment Public Comment 3 March 22, 2021 MATERIALS RELATED TO AN ITEM ON THIS AGENDA SUBMITTED TO THE CITY COUNCIL AFTER DISTRIBUTION OF THE AGENDA PACKET ARE AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC INSPECTION ON THE CITY’S WEB SITE. Public Comment Instructions Members of the Public may provide public comments to teleconference meetings via email, teleconference, or by phone. 1.Written public comments may be submitted by email to city.council@cityofpaloalto.org. 2.Spoken public comments using a computer will be accepted through the teleconference meeting. To address the Council, click on the link below to access a Zoom-based meeting. Please read the following instructions carefully. A.You may download the Zoom client or connect to the meeting in- browser. If using your browser, make sure you are using a current, up-to-date browser: Chrome 30+, Firefox 27+, Microsoft Edge 12+, Safari 7+. Certain functionality may be disabled in older browsers including Internet Explorer. B. You may be asked to enter an email address and name. We request that you identify yourself by name as this will be visible online and will be used to notify you that it is your turn to speak. C. When you wish to speak on an Agenda Item, click on “raise hand.” The Clerk will activate and unmute speakers in turn. Speakers will be notified shortly before they are called to speak. D. When called, please limit your remarks to the time limit allotted. E. A timer will be shown on the computer to help keep track of your comments. 3.Spoken public comments using a smart phone will be accepted through the teleconference meeting. To address the Council, download the Zoom application onto your phone from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and enter the Meeting ID below. Please follow the instructions B-E above. 4.Spoken public comments using a phone use the telephone number listed below. When you wish to speak on an agenda item hit *9 on your phone so we know that you wish to speak. You will be asked to provide your first and last name before addressing the Council. You will be advised how long you have to speak. When called please limit your remarks to the agenda item and time limit allotted. CLICK HERE TO JOIN Meeting ID: 362 027 238 Phone:1(669)900-6833 4 March 22, 2021 MATERIALS RELATED TO AN ITEM ON THIS AGENDA SUBMITTED TO THE CITY COUNCIL AFTER DISTRIBUTION OF THE AGENDA PACKET ARE AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC INSPECTION ON THE CITY’S WEB SITE. Additional Information Informational Report Report on Contracts Awarded by the City Manager and Procurement Officer per Palo Alto Municipal Code (PAMC) Section 2.30.710, for the Period of July 2020 Through December 2020 2019 Independent Police Auditor's Report and Supplemental Report From the City Manager Standing Committee Meetings Sp. City/School Liaison Committee Meeting March 25, 2021 Schedule of Meetings Schedule of Meetings Public Letters to Council Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 CITY OF PALO ALTO OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK March 22, 2021 The Honorable City Council Palo Alto, California Appointment of a Candidate to an Unfinished Term on the Planning and Transportation Commission Recommendation Staff recommends City Council vote to appoint one (1) candidate to a position on the Planning and Transportation Commission (PTC) with a partial term ending December 15, 2021. Discussion On January 13, 2021, Staff received a resignation from a Planning and Transportation Commission member whose term expires December 15, 2021. On February 8, 2021, the City Council directed Staff to proceed with a special two-week recruitment for this vacancy, with an application deadline of February 23, 2021. During this recruitment, the Clerk’s Office received two applications. Interviews of the two candidates were held on Wednesday March 10, 2021 and, during the interview, applicant Arthur Keller withdrew his application. In addition, City Clerk Staff contacted previous applicants for the Planning and Transportation Commission to confirm whether they would like to be considered for this open position. The full list of eligible candidates for this position is listed below. Planning and Transportation Commission Vote to appoint one candidate to the PTC with an unfinished term ending December 15, 2021. The candidate to receive at least four votes (required) will be appointed. 1. Bobi Adle 2. Doug Burns 3. Bryna Chang 4. Rebecca Eisenberg 5. Kathy Jordan 6. Kevin Ma 7. Jessica Resmini Copies of the applications are attached to this Staff Report. ATTACHMENTS: • Attachment A: Boards and Commission Applications- PTC Vacancy March 2021 (PDF) Page 2 Department Head: Beth Minor, City Clerk Page 3 Boards and Commission Applications Planning and Transportation Commission Vacancy March 22, 2021 Appointments 1. Bobi Adle 2. Doug Burns 3. Bryna Chang 4. Rebecca Eisenberg 5. Kathy Jordan 6. Kevin Ma 7. Jessica Resmini Please email all completed applications to Jessica.Brettle@CityofPaloAlto.org or City.Clerk@CityofPaloAlto.org City Clerk's Office: 650-329-2571 Planning and Transportation Commission Personal Information (Note: The PTC regularly meets the second and last Wednesdays of the month at 6 PM Name: Bobi J Adle Address: Cell Phone: ( Home / °Office Phone: E-mail: Are you a Palo Alto Resident? Yes ONo Do you have any relatives or members of your household who are employed by the City of P to Alt who are currently serving on the City Council, or who are Commissioners or Board Members? Yes •No Are you available and committed to complete the term applied for? O Yes Q No California state law requires appointed board and commission members to file a detailed disclosure of their financial interests, Fair Political Practices Commission, Conflict of Interest (Form 700). Do you or your spouse have an investment in, or do you or your spouse serve as an officer or director of, a company doing business in Palo Alto which you believe is likely to: 1) engage in business with the City; 2) provide products or services for City projects; or 3) be affected by decisions of the board or commission you are applying for? (Yes ®No Excluding your principal residence, do you or your spouse own real property in Palo Alto? (Yes (i No How did you learn about the vacancy on the Planning and Transportation Commission? ▪ Community Group Daily Post ❑ Email from City Clerk City Website ▪ Palo Alto Weekly Flyer Other: List relevant education, training, experience, certificates of training, licenses, or professional registration: (621 characters) My current position involves logistics and transportation at a large Tech Company. I handle the logistics of 372 locations that feed around 75,000 meals a day pre -pandemic. Bobi J Adle Page 1 Planning &Transportation Commission Employment Present or Last Employer: Occupation: Describe your involvement in community activities, volunteering or with civic organizations: (1311 characters) Page 2 Planning & Transportation Commission Bon Appetite Management Company District Manager I have been a part of Abilities Uniteds program of real world training for their people resulting in learning of skills and usually employment for most who would not have been able to get jobs. I am a very bad juggling clown for Ronald McDonald house cheering up children and struggling parents dealing with illness. The joy from doing this negates my aweful juggling skills. I am a part of a program called Surfers for Autism where we teach kids and adults on the spectrum how to surf as part of a fundraising program. It is a great way to help them learn to push beyond their percieved limits and also a great way to educate. Bobi J Adle 1.What is it about the Planning and Transportation Commission that is compatible with your experience and of specific interest to you, and why? (1449 characters) 2.Please describe an issue that recently came before the Commission that is of particular interest to you and describe why you are interested in it. If you have never been to a Commission meeting you can view an archived video from the Midpen Media Center: LINK (1311 characters) Page 3 Planning & Transportation Commission Parking spaces have been an issue in Palo Alto for a while. Bulding garages and permit parking has been a sticky situation with lots of folks on both sides of it digging in their heels. I want to help mend those fences and help make what the city and its people need a priority. My experience in logistics and transtportation is a big part of what I can bring to the table. I wonder how many people really understand what it takes to make a city as amazing as Palo Alto so special. I have been part of the Greenmeadow Association and was a part of the board there that oversaw community guidelines. I currently live in the Charlston Meadows area and sit on the architectural board for the ovelay. Here we try and work with the homeowners and make sure that zoning laws are adhered to while keeping the classic look of the eichlers intact. It is often tricky managing new owners and red tape with permits but we do a great job keeping the commnity happy and eager. Living in NY for many years public transportation has been a huge part of my life and I understand how important it it to keep the community moving without stagnating the growth. I am an avid bicyclist and want to continue working with the city to make the bike corridors friendly to cars and bicyclists. The changes to Ross road and Charleston have been a dividing issue in the community and I want to be a part of helping out with the communication. Bobi J Adle 3. If appointed, what specific goals would you like to see the Planning and Transportation Commission achieve, and why? How would you suggest accomplishing this?(/587 characters) The Baylands master plan has been one of my personal issues to watch. It is such an important part of our local area and I want to be a part of maintaing it. The El Camino Master Plan is a huge issue and will need a lot of people willing to get together and figure out how best to make it the central part of our community. California avenue is a large focus for me since it has the ability to be such a huge part of our city but is not yet. 4. Planning and Transportation Commission Members work with the documents listed below. If you have experience with any of these documents, please describe that experience. Experience with these documents is not required for selection. (1380 characters) Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan LINK Zoning Code LINK City Charter LINK California Environmental Quality Act LINK El Camino Real Design Guidelines LINK El Camino Real Master Plan Study LINK Area Plans such as the South of Forest Avenue (SOFA) I and II Plans LINK Baylands Master Plan LINK I do not but wish to get involved more. Bobi J Adle Page 4 Planning &Transportation Commission Consent to Publish Personal Information on the City of Palo Alto Website Califomia Government Code Section 6254.21 states, in part, "No state or local agency shall post the home address or telephone number of any elected or appointed official on the Internet without first obtaining the written permission of that individual." This consent form will not be redacted and will be attached to the Application and posted to the City's website. The full code can be read here: LINK Read the code, and check only ONE option below: e 0 I give permission for the City of Palo Alto to post to the City's website the attached Board and Commission Application intact. I have read and understand my rights under Government Code Section 6254.21. I may revoke this permission at any time by providing written notice to the Palo Alto City Clerk. OR I request that the City of Palo Alto redact my home address, phone numbers, and email address from the attached Board and Commission Application prior to posting to the City's website. I am providing the following alternate information and request that they use the following contact information instead. Address: Cell Phone: 0Home / ® Office Phone: E-mail: Signature: (Please type or sign) Bobi J Adle Date: 11/17/2020 Bobi J Adle Ps 5 Planning &Transportation Commission Please email all completed applications to Jessica.Brettle@CityofPaloAlto.org or City.Clerk@CityofPaloAlto.org City Clerk's Office: 650-329-2571 Planning and Transportation Commission Personal Information (Note: The PTC regularly meets the second and last Wednesdays of the month at 6 PM Name: Doug Burns Address: Cell Phone: ® Home / ®Office Phone: E-mail: Are you a Palo Alto Resident? ®Yes No Do you have any relatives or members of your household who are employed by the City of to Alt who are currently serving on the City Council, or who are Commissioners or Board Members? Yes �No Are you available and committed to complete the term applied for? ® Yes ®No California state law requires appointed board and commission members to file a detailed disclosure of their financial interests, Fair Political Practices Commission, Conflict of Interest (Form 700). Do you or your spouse have an investment in, or do you or your spouse serve as an officer or director of, a company doing business in Palo Alto which you believe is likely to: 1) engage in business with the City; 2) provide products or services for City projects; or 3) be affected by decisions of the board or commission you are applying for? ®Yes ®No Excluding your principal residence, do you or your spouse own real property in Palo Alto? ®Yes ®i No How did you learn about the vacancy on the Planning and Transportation Commission? ECommunityGroup Daily Post a Email from City Clerk City Website Palo Alto Weekly Flyer Other: List relevant education, training, experience, certificates of training, licenses, or professional registration: (621 characters) Accounting Degree UCSB Page 1 Doug Burns 0 Planning & Transportation Commission Employment 3UHVHQW RU /DVW (PSOR\HU 2FFXSDWLRQ Describe your involvement in community activities, volunteerLQJ RU ZLWK civic organizations: FKDUDFWHUV 3DJH 3ODQQLQJ 7UDQVSRUWDWLRQ &RPPLVVLRQ member of BPA association member of BPA pathways Committee member of PAN Doug Burns 1.What is it about the Planning and Transportation Commission that is compatible with your experience and of specific interest to you, and why? FKDUDFWHUV 2.Please describe an issue that recently came before the Commission that is of particular interest to you and describe why you are interested in it. If you have never been to a Commission meeting you can view an archiveG YLGHR IURP WKH 0LGSHQ 0HGLD &HQWHU:/,1. FKDUDFWHUV 3DJH 3ODQQLQJ 7UDQVSRUWDWLRQ &RPPLVVLRQ Very interested in the grade separation project and have attended many community and XCAP meetings. Born and raised in Palo Alto. I take a lot of pride in my community and would like to help shape its future. Also worked in Palo Alto for many years. Doug Burns 3.If appointed, what specific goals would you like to see the Planning and Transportation Commission achieve, and why? How would you suggest accomplishing this? FKDUDFWHUV 4.Planning and Transportation Commission Members work with the documents listed below. If \RX KDYH H[SHULHQFH ZLWK DQ\ RI WKHVH GRFXPHQWV SOHDVH GHVFULEH WKDW H[SHULHQFH ([SHULHQFH ZLWK WKHVH GRFXPHQWV LV QRW UHTXLUHG IRU VHOHFWLRQ FKDUDFWHUV 3DOR $OWR &RPSUHKHQVLYH 3ODQ /,1. =RQLQJ &RGH /,1. &LW\ &KDUWHU /,1. &DOLIRUQLD (QYLURQPHQWDO 4XDOLW\ $FW /,1. (O &DPLQR 5HDO 'HVLJQ *XLGHOLQHV /,1. (O &DPLQR 5HDO 0DVWHU 3ODQ 6WXG\/,1. $UHD 3ODQV VXFK DV WKH 6RXWK RI )RUHVW $YHQXH 62)$ , DQG ,, 3ODQV /,1. %D\ODQGV 0DVWHU 3ODQ /,1. 3DJH 3ODQQLQJ 7UDQVSRUWDWLRQ &RPPLVVLRQ Moderate growth and keeping the character of the community. Improved bike/pedestrian pathways. Doug Burns Consent to Publish Personal Information on the City of Palo Alto Website California Government Code Section 6254.21 states, in part, "No state or local agency shall post the home address or telephone number of any elected or appointed official on the Internet without first obtaining the written permission of that individual." This consent form will not be redacted and will be attached to the Application and posted to the City's website. The full code can be read here: LINK Read the code, and check only ONE option below: 0 I give permission for the City of Palo Alto to post to the City's website the attached Board and Commission Application intact. I have read and understand my rights under Government Code Section 6254.21. I may revoke this permission at any time by providing written notice to the Palo Alto City Clerk. OR I request that the City of Palo Alto redact my home address, phone numbers, and email address from the attached Board and Commission Application prior to posting to the City's website. I am providing the following alternate information and request that they use the following contact information instead. Address: Cell Phone: ®Home / 0 Office Phone: E-mail: Signature: (Please type or sign)Doug Burns Date:Nov 7, 2020 Page 5 Doug Burns o Planning & Transportation Commission ease email all completed applications to Jessica.Brettle@CityofPaloAlto.org or City.Clerk@CityofPaloAlto.orc Planning and Transportation Commission Personal Information - Note: The PTC regularly meets the second & last Wednesdays of the month at 6 P.M. Name: Bryna Chang Address: ell Phone: ome ffice Phone: E-mail: Are you a Palo Alto Resident?()YesQNo Do you have any relatives or members of your household who are employed by the City of Palo Alto, who are currently serving on the City Council, or who are Commissioners or Board Members?QYes ®No Are you available and committed to complete the term applied for? ®Yes QNo California state law requires appointed board and commission members to file a detailed disclosure of their financial interests (Fair Political Practices Commission, Conflict of Interest, Form 700). Do you or your spouse have an investment in, or do you or your spouse serve as an officer or director of, a company doing business in Palo Alto which you believe is likely to; 1) engage in business with the City, 2) provide products or services for City projects, or 3) be affected by decisions of the board or commission you are applying for? s QNo Excluding your principal residence, do you or your spouse own real property in Palo Alto? Consent to Publish Personal Information on the City of Palo Alto Website Califomia Government Code Section 6254.21 states, in part, "No state or local agency shall post the home address or telephone number of any elected or appointed official on the Internet without first obtaining the written permission of that individual." This consent form will not be redacted and will be attached to the Application and posted to the City's website. For the full code, review the California Government Code Section 6254.21. Read the code, and check only ONE option below: n I give permission for the City of Palo Alto to post to the City's website the attached Board and J Commission Application intact. I have read and understand my rights under Government Code Section 6254.21. I may revoke this permission at any time by providing written notice to the Palo Alto City Clerk. OR I request that the City of Palo Alto redact my home address, phone numbers, and email address from the attached Board and Commission Application prior to posting to the City's website. I am providing the following alternate information and request that they use the following contact information instead: Address: Cell Phone: °-iome Office Phone: E-mail: Page 1 Planning & Transportation Commission How did you learn about the vacancy on the Planning & Transportation Commission? (Select more than one if applicable) LCommunity Group 0 Daily Post Email from the City City Website -/ Palo Alto Weekly Flyer Other: Parks and Rec Commissioner Jeff Greenfield List relevant education, training, experience, certificates of training, licenses, or professional registration: (621 characters) MBA 2003, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University BS Biology, 1997, Stanford University I have strong skills in strategy, operations, and teamwork. Most recently, I lectured at the Stanford Graduate School of Business on "Innovation and Problem Solving" and "Critical Analytical Thinking." Prior to that, I ran the MBA Program Office at Stanford, where I was responsible for the strategy and operations of one of the top MBA programs in the US; I also spent time directing the Stanford Public Management Program. I have past experience in internet product management and management consulting. Employment Current Employer 4171 Last Employer Employer: Stanford University (Graduate School of Business) Occupation: Lecturer Describe your involvement in community activities, volunteer and civic organizations: (/3// characters) I have been a dedicated volunteer with Palo Alto Schools for many years: - Gunn High School Site Council, 2020 - present - JLS Middle School Site Council, 2018 - present - JLS Middle School PTA Executive Board, VP Community Service, 2019 - present - JLS Middle School PTA Executive Board, VP Membership, 2017-2019 - PAUSD Elementary Report Card/Progress Report Committee, 2013-2015 - Hoover Elementary Site Council Chair, 2012-2013 - Hoover Elementary Site Council, 2011-2013, 2014-2016 - Hoover Elementary Green Team parent leader, 2014-2019 - Hoover Elementary Room Parent, 2010-2019 - Hoover Elementary Project Cornerstone ABC Reader (social emotional learning/anti- bullying), 2014-2018 In addition, I have worked with a number of community organizations: - Silicon Valley Boychoir Board of Directors, 2015 - present (Treasurer, 2018 - present; President 2016 - 2018) - Greenmeadow Community Association swim team head data committee, 2020 - present - Palo Alto Little League team manager/coach, 2014 Page 2 Planning & Transportation Commission 1. What is it about the Planning and Transportation Commission that is compatible with your experience and of specific interest to you, and why? (1449 characters) I have watched Palo Alto change over the last 40 years, in some ways for the better, and in some ways which I wish were different. I grew up here and attended Nixon, JLS, and Gunn. Fourteen years ago, after living in Menlo Park for a few years, my husband and I chose to move back to Palo Alto because we valued the community character and city services that make Palo Alto different from surrounding cities and a wonderful place to live. Since I am rolling off of some of my larger community commitments this spring, I am now hoping to engage more deeply in this city that has given so much to me and my family. Years ago, I first started thinking about transportation and planning in the context of the impact on traffic on our neighborhoods and the ability of our kids to get safely to and from school, especially along Charleston, where as a traffic safety volunteer for Hoover Elementary, I'd witness close calls between kids and commuters on a daily basis. I participated in some of the Charleston corridor planning meetings. I realized our city's population doubled during the day, and learned about the housing/jobs imbalance, something that our city inadvertently created over the course of many years. Because many new developments seem likely to be built in the southern half of Palo Alto, I'm particularly interested in representing south Palo Alto neighborhoods as we work on addressing housing and other issues. 2. Please describe an issue that recently came before the Commission that is of particular interest to you and describe why you are interested in it. If you have never been to a Commission meeting, you can view archived videos from the Midpen Media Center. (1311 characters) One of the biggest issues of interest to me was the discussion of the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan in January. It's exciting to think about transforming the only remaining part of Palo Alto near transit and retail centers that also has large parcels. This part of the city along El Camino needs to be revitalized, and I hope the plan injects energy into a neighborhood that has received so little investment. Done well, it could really improve the quality of life for families currently living in the area, and make a small dent in the housing shortage. That said, there are significant financial hurdles to making the plan what the community wants it to be (park space and affordable housing without increasing office space). I hope we can find some creative solutions that push boundaries a bit with respect to financing, and I hope the city has the will to do it. Second, the issue of allowing medical office use at Town & Country is of urgent interest right now. What the City does now is going to have effects that reverberate for decades to come. We need a more comprehensive solution that can be applied to all retail in Palo Alto that has been affected by the pandemic, rather than a piecemeal approach, and we need it quickly, because landlords are bleeding cash. Page 3 Planning & Transportation Commission 3. If appointed, what specific goals would you like to see the Planning and Transportation Commission achieve, and why? How would you suggest accomplishing this?(1587 characters) 1. To conduct city business fairly and efficiently while incorporating a wider range of voices in Palo Alto. I'm hoping to provide a conduit for the Asian community to get involved, since I have so many relationships from the days I was a Hoover parent (Hoover is over 80% Asian or South Asian). 2. Related to the first issue, I'd like to see greater involvement of families with school -age children in decisions that the PTC makes. These folks are often too busy to pay attention to issues beyond the schools, and yet from talking to them, I know they are interested. Anything that affects Palo Alto also affects the quality of life for Palo Alto families, and yet many times, families are unaware. We can generate awareness by plugging into the Palo Alto Council of PTAs (PTAC). 3. To continue building connections between the City and PAUSD when it comes to planning and transportation. Planning and transportation issues impact our schools, and schools impact our planning and transportation. The simplest example is the school commute, but there are land use questions as well, such as with Cubberley. I'd do this by reaching out to the School Board (I have already been working with Jesse Ladomirak), District Office, and school sites, as appropriate. 4. Planning and Transportation Commission Members work with the documents listed below. If you have experience with any of these documents, please describe that experience. Experience with these documents is not required for selection. (1380 characters) Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan (2017) Zoning Code City Charter California Environmental Quality Act El Camino Real Design Guidelines El Camino Real Master Plan Study (2007) Area Plans such as the South of Forest Avenue (SOFA) I (2000) and II (2003) Plans Baylands Master Plan (2008) With the execption of the Palo Alto Comprehensive plan, I do not have specific experience with any of the above documents other than that I am aware of the existence of all of them. I participated in community surveys leading up to the development of the Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan and have read the entirety of the Comp Plan. Page 4 Planning & Transportation Commission 5. Please confirm that you have read the Boards and Commissions Handbook: ®Yes 0 No Signature: (Please type or sign) Bryna Chang Date: 2/23/2021 Page 5 Planning & Transportation Commission Please email all completed applications to Jessica.Brettle@CityofPaloAlto.org or City.Clerk@CityofPaloAlto.org City Clerk's Office: 650-329-2571 Planning and Transportation Commission Personal Information (Note: The PTC regularly meets the second and last Wednesdays of the month at 6 PM Name: Rebecca Eisenberg Address: Cell Phone: 0 Home / ®Office Phone: E-mail: Are you a Palo Alto Resident? ®Yes ONo Do you have any relatives or members of your household who are employed by the City of to Alt who are currently serving on the City Council, or who are Commissioners or Board Members? Yes �No Are you available and committed to complete the term applied for? ® Yes ®No California state law requires appointed board and commission members to file a detailed disclosure of their financial interests, Fair Political Practices Commission, Conflict of Interest (Form 700). Do you or your spouse have an investment in, or do you or your spouse serve as an officer or director of, a company doing business in Palo Alto which you believe is likely to: 1) engage in business with the City; 2) provide products or services for City projects; or 3) be affected by decisions of the board or commission you are applying for? ®Yes ®No Excluding your principal residence, do you or your spouse own real property in Palo Alto? ®Yes ®i No How did you learn about the vacancy on the Planning and Transportation Commission? ECommunityGroup Daily Post ▪ Email from City Clerk City Website ▪ Palo Alto Weekly Flyer Other: Palo Alto City Council Meeting where you voted on this. List relevant education, training, experience, certificates of training, licenses, or professional registration: (621 characters) JD, Harvard Law School, 1993. Editor, Harvard Law Review. BA, Stanford, Psychology/Decision Science, 1990, Phi Beta Kappa. Member of California Bar and Federal Bar, CD Calif. sworn in Dec 1993. 30 years of legal experience, including: - Senior Counsel, PayPal (IPO, Secondary Offering, - General Counsel, Trulia (1st atty, IPO prep) - GC, Flip Video/Pure Digital (Merger w/Cisco) - GC, Reddit (Spin-off, Re-corp, Re -capitalization) Experience/expertise in: - Land use transactions - Budget oversight - Municipal Finance - Secured transactions - Tax law & policy - Contract negotiation - Ethics Merger w/eBay) Page 1 Rebecca Eisenberg 0 Planning & Transportation Commission Employment 3UHVHQW RU /DVW (PSOR\HU 2FFXSDWLRQ Describe your involvement in community activities, volunteerLQJ RU ZLWK civic organizations: FKDUDFWHUV 3DJH 3ODQQLQJ 7UDQVSRUWDWLRQ &RPPLVVLRQ Private Client Legal Services, Boutique Law Firm Negotiate high-value transactions for execs/entrepreneurs I spent most of 2020 running for City Council. Although I did not win, I am proud that I received almost 8000 votes -- and spent only approx $7000. I believe that money has no place in politics, so tried to live those values. My solid results reflect the time & energy I put into meeting with Palo Alto residents & small business owners, to hear their perspectives & understand their concerns. Rather than hobnob with wealthy donors, I went door to door, ringing doorbells and standing back 6 feet to meet the residents. It was a privilege each time a resident took time to meet me and share their views. Running for office was a humbling experience, and it also reinforced the great impact that our local government officials and their appointed volunteers have on the day to day lives of people in our community. When I visited 801 Alma St., I heard the challenges that many residents face in meeting their subsidized rents. When I spoke with small businesses on University and California Ave, I heard the frustration of seeing their landlords receive pandemic relief funds that did not trickle down to them. When I spoke with seniors at Channing House, I heard their appeals for affordable housing to live near their grandkids. We must do better for our community. I want to serve that worthy goal. Rebecca Eisenberg 1.What is it about the Planning and Transportation Commission that is compatible with your experience and of specific interest to you, and why? FKDUDFWHUV 2.Please describe an issue that recently came before the Commission that is of particular interest to you and describe why you are interested in it. If you have never been to a Commission meeting you can view an archiveG YLGHR IURP WKH 0LGSHQ 0HGLD &HQWHU:/,1. FKDUDFWHUV 3DJH 3ODQQLQJ 7UDQVSRUWDWLRQ &RPPLVVLRQ I continue to be concerned about special treatment afforded Castilleja. According to public records on Palo Alto's website, Castilleja has been in violation of its Conditional Use Permit virtually each year since the CUP was granted in 2000. In 2013, the City of Palo Alto sent a notice to Castilleja that Castilleja needed to comply with its CUP, or else Castilleja's CUP would be revoked and Castilleja would leave its 6+ acres on 55 RH-1 lots in Old Palo Alto. In a letter from Nanci Kauffman, Castilleja promised that it would fully comply by 2018, or else Castilleja would submit to CUP Revocation Hearings. Ms. Kauffman also promised not to apply for an amended CUP until and unless Castilleja complied with its 2000 CUP. Nonetheless, currently the City Council is nearing approval of an amended CUP, even though Castilleja never complied with its 2000 CUP. Also, Castilleja never was charged its full Muni Code penalties of $500/violation/day. This perceived special treatment of Castilleja has harmed our community. Given RHNA requirements, we need all residential land to be used for residential purposes or risk state intrusion under SB35. If Castilleja were to move to a commercially zoned site, it would not need a CUP. Our City must enforce its own laws for our community's best interest. Land is a limited resource, and due to its particular scarcity in Palo Alto, it is extraordinarily valuable. Hence, decisions our City makes regarding land use can carry the financial of a NASDAC IPO. Plus, what we decide today impacts generations to come. The responsibility is heady. I have watched the Planning Commission make decisions that I believe may have been based on incomplete information. For example, some may have approved a housing development without knowing the size of the homes. Other times, they appeared to be unduly influenced by expensive attorneys representing wealthy applicants. Fancy attorneys do not impress me, as I myself am an expensive fancy lawyer and have outperformed the best of them. What I fear the City Council does not recognize is that when it appoints attorneys who represent commercial developers for a living to the PTC, those attorneys often have conflicts of interest. These land use lawyers are bound by ethical rules always to act in the best interest of their clients, which may limit their independence to approve and recommend measures that may disadvantage their client base. For example, they may not be wholly free to approve fees and taxes if those measures could impact clients. Palo Alto deserves Planning Commissioners whose sole duty is to represent the best interest of our community. I pledge to do that, entirely free of conflict. I will stand up for residents and small businesses. Rebecca Eisenberg 3.If appointed, what specific goals would you like to see the Planning and Transportation Commission achieve, and why? How would you suggest accomplishing this? FKDUDFWHUV 4.Planning and Transportation Commission Members work with the documents listed below. If \RX KDYH H[SHULHQFH ZLWK DQ\ RI WKHVH GRFXPHQWV SOHDVH GHVFULEH WKDW H[SHULHQFH ([SHULHQFH ZLWK WKHVH GRFXPHQWV LV QRW UHTXLUHG IRU VHOHFWLRQ FKDUDFWHUV 3DOR $OWR &RPSUHKHQVLYH 3ODQ /,1. =RQLQJ &RGH /,1. &LW\ &KDUWHU /,1. &DOLIRUQLD (QYLURQPHQWDO 4XDOLW\ $FW /,1. (O &DPLQR 5HDO 'HVLJQ *XLGHOLQHV /,1. (O &DPLQR 5HDO 0DVWHU 3ODQ 6WXG\/,1. $UHD 3ODQV VXFK DV WKH 6RXWK RI )RUHVW $YHQXH 62)$ , DQG ,, 3ODQV /,1. %D\ODQGV 0DVWHU 3ODQ /,1. 3DJH 3ODQQLQJ 7UDQVSRUWDWLRQ &RPPLVVLRQ First, I would fill a representation gap by serving as the only renter on an official city Commission that regularly makes decisions that impact renters. Additionally, not only do I rent my family home in Palo Alto, but also my husband and I are landlords. In order to afford our rent in Old Palo Alto, we rent out the home we bought in 2003 in San Francisco. As both a tenant and landlord, my perspective is both valuable and missing on the Commission. Second, in terms of goals, I seek to provide the best, most informed, and least biased advice to the City Council on matters regarding planning and transportation. I have skin in the game in that I live here and my husband and I chose to raise our children here, but that skin does not comprise conflict of interest, because neither my husband (also an attorney) nor I make a living serving commercial developers, homeowners, or any other interest that regularly comes before the Commission. If such a conflict, or a potentially perceived conflict were to arise, I will disclose any/all potential conflicts, and recuse myself when appropriate, erring on the side of recusal in the best interest of the community. As you know, I have applied for the Planning Commission in the past. The most recent time I applied, instead of interviewing during my assigned 15 minutes, I spent the time drawing attention to a problematic perceived conflict of interest on the Commission. I believe that conflicts of interest erode trust, so exposing it was important for the community's interest. This time I will interview instead. Thank you. Having just run for City Council, I often was asked for my opinion on matters that relate to these documents and plans. To do my best work, I carefully read through most of these docs and plans. As an attorney for 3 decades, I am skilled at reading codes and plans. I also recognize, as a veteran negotiator, that every document is subject to multiple interpretations, and the job of an attorney is to interpret source material in most favorable light to my client. In this case, my client is the City. I urge the City Council to consider that when it appoints lawyers who represent commercial developers for a living, it appoints not just those individuals, but also the professional biases that these lawyers are ethically bound to carry with them when they analyze any and all documents. It is virtually impossible to expect a lawyer who is ethically bound to represent a party who negotiates against a city, then to prioritize the interest of the city over that of their client. This ethical bind harms our community. I do NOT represent commercial developers, nor do I represent ANY special interest that comes before the Planning Commission. That means I no longer represent homeowners in their appeals (although both my husband and I have done so in the past), nor do I represent any other interested party. My whole undivided ethical obligation is for the community. Rebecca Eisenberg Consent to Publish Personal Information on the City of Palo Alto Website California Government Code Section 6254.21 states, in part, "No state or local agency shall post the home address or telephone number of any elected or appointed official on the Internet without first obtaining the written permission of that individual." This consent form will not be redacted and will be attached to the Application and posted to the City's website. The full code can be read here: LINK Read the code, and check only ONE option below: e 0 I give permission for the City of Palo Alto to post to the City's website the attached Board and Commission Application intact. I have read and understand my rights under Government Code Section 6254.21. I may revoke this permission at any time by providing written notice to the Palo Alto City Clerk. OR I request that the City of Palo Alto redact my home address, phone numbers, and email address from the attached Board and Commission Application prior to posting to the City's website. I am providing the following alternate information and request that they use the following contact information instead. Address: Cell Phone: 0Home / 0 Office Phone: E-mail: Signature: (Please type or sign)Rebecca Eisenberg Date: 11/17/2020 Page 5 Rebecca Eisenberg o Planning & Transportation Commission ,ity Clerk's Office: 650-329-2571 Planning and Transportation Commission Personal Information (Note: The PTC regularly meets the second and last Wednesdays of the month at 6 PM Name: Kath Jordan Address: Cell Phone Home / Office Phone: E-mail: Are you a Palo Alto Resident? ()Yes rNo Do you have any relatives or members of your household who are employed by the City of P to Alt who are currently serving on the City Council, or who are Commissioners or Board Members? Yes )No Are you available and committed to complete the term applied for? 0Yes 0 No California state law requires appointed board and commission members to file a detailed disclosure of their financial interests, Fair Political Practices Commission, Conflict of Interest (Form 700). Do you or your spouse have an investment in, or do you or your spouse serve as an officer or director of, a company doing business in Palo Alto which you believe is likely to: 1) engage in business with the City; 2) provide products or services for City projects; or 3) be affected by decisions of the board or commission you are applying for? 0Yes 0 No Excluding your principal residence, do you or your spouse own real property in Palo Alto? ()Yes rNo How did you learn about the vacancy on the Planning and Transportation Commission? nCommunity Group Daily Post Email from City Clerk []City Website Palo Alto Weekly []Flyer Other: friend List relevant education, training, experience, certificates of training, licenses, or professional registration: (621 characters) BA Political Science, Stanford University MSM, GSB, Stanford University Project Manager, Tiburon, Inc. Kathy Jordan Page 1 Planning & Transportation Commission Employment Present or Last Employer: Women' s Tennis Association Occupation: Player representative Describe your involvement in community activities, volunteering or with civic organizations: (1311 characters) President, Palo Alto Plaza HOA Member, Parent and Student Advocate, Independent Parents Association Co -Secretary, Palo Alto Council of PTAs Volunteer at Duveneck elementary, Jordan MS and Paly. Kathy Jordan Pia Page 2 ning & Transportation Commission 1. What is it about the Planning and Transportation Commission that is compatible with your experience and of specific interest to you, and why? (1449 characters) I'm very interested in the current debate surrounding housing and transportation. In my view, this debate stems from the housing affordability difficulties in Calfornia, and in Palo Alto itself. As I see it, one camp of housing advocates have been pursuing a vision of retaining urban core job centers served by public transportation as their model, while seeking to encourage the building of market rate and below market rate housing. This camp seeks to accomplish this by incentivizing building dense (market rate) housing near public transportation, serving these core urban job centers. Further, the building of this desired housing would be encourage by reducing or modifying previous important requirements, such as parking, CEQA, zoning or other. At the same time, this camp has also sought to impose requirements on the building of the market rate housing, such as incorporating a required % of below market rate units. Further, these advocates also seem to have generally pursued eliminating single family home zoning as one of their proposals to driving the addition of more housing units. This debate has raged implications, possibl control, and so forth estate here in Palo A on in discussing jobs/housing ratios, their solutions, state policy and central planning, local It's certainly of great interest to me as we own real to, but also in terms of the outlook for the state. 2. Please describe an issue that recently came before the Commission that is of particular interest to you and describe why you are interested in it. If you have never been to a Commission meeting you can view an archived video from the Midpen Media Center: LINK (1311 characters) Certainly the proposed Castilleja expansion project is one what would be of particular interest to me. I am interested because the City has a very difficult role, with quite a controversial project placed before it, one which would disrupt the existing neighborhood and the adjacent main east west artery for quite awhile, while expanding the negotiated use (# of students)of the residing entity, which had previously violated an existing City use permit. This expansion project has proponents and detractors and involves a very valued all girls school, which has many alumni and supporters in the community. The project also proposes a large underground garage, which may have impact underground to neighbors and to the water table. All of these factors make this project one of great interest and of great import to the community. Kathy ordan Psse 3 Y Planning &Transportation Commission 3. If appointed, what specific goals would you like to see the Planning and Transportation Commission achieve, and why? How would you suggest accomplishing this?(1587 characters) My goal would be to make sure the Planning and Transportation commission places respect for private property rights uppermost in any decision making, and, of course, adhering to the zoning code of the City of Palo Alto. As for why --- private property rights are the foundation of our free market society, and the reason that those who have accumulated savings would feel comfortable investing those savings in housing development, in businesses, and in other economic sectors, all of which leads to employement and prosperity. 4. Planning and Transportation Commission Members work with the documents listed below. If you have experience with any of these documents, please describe that experience. Experience with these documents is not required for selection. (1380 characters) Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan LINK Zoning Code LINK City Charter LINK California Environmental Quality Act LINK El Camino Real Design Guidelines LINK El Camino Real Master Plan Study LINK Area Plans such as the South of Forest Avenue (SOFA) 1 and II Plans LINK Baylands Master Plan LINK I have had experience with the Zoning Code -- when building a home in Palo Alto. Page 4 Kathy Jordan Planning & Transportation Commission Consent to Publish Perso al Information on the Ci of Palo Alto Website California Government Cod- Section 6254.21 states, in part, "No state or local agency shall post the home address or telephon- number of any elected or appointed official on the Internet without first obtaining the written permission of that individual." This consent form will not be redacted and will be attached to the Application a d posted to the City's website. The full code can be read he e: LINK Read the code, and check o 0 I give permission for Commission Appli - Section 6254.21. I Alto City Clerk. OR I request that the Cit from the attached B. providing the followi information instead. Address: Cell Phone: CHome / C Offic E-mail: Signature: (Please type or si ly ONE option below: the City of Palo Alto to post to the City's website the attached Board and on intact. I have read and understand my rights under Government Code ay revoke this permission at any time by providing written notice to the Palo of Palo Alto redact my home address, phone numbers, and email address and and Commission Application prior to posting to the City's website. I am g alternate information and request that they use the following contact Phone: )Kathryn Jordan Date:11/10/2o20 ordan Psses KathyY Planning &Transportation Commission Please email all completed applications to Jessica.Brettle@CityofPaloAlto.org or City.Clerk@CityofPaloAlto.org City Clerk's Office: 650-329-2571 Planning and Transportation Commission Personal Information (Note: The PTC regularly meets the second and last Wednesdays of the month at 6 PM Name: Kevin Ma p Address: Cell Phone: ® Home / DOffice Phone: E-mail Are you a Palo Alto Resident? ()Yes ONo Do you have any relatives or members of your household who are employed by the City of to Alt who are currently serving on the City Council, or who are Commissioners or Board Members? Yes UNo Are you available and committed to complete the term applied for? ® Yes ®No California state law requires appointed board and commission members to file a detailed disclosure of their financial interests, Fair Political Practices Commission, Conflict of Interest (Form 700). Do you or your spouse have an investment in, or do you or your spouse serve as an officer or director of, a company doing business in Palo Alto which you believe is likely to: 1) engage in business with the City; 2) provide products or services for City projects; or 3) be affected by decisions of the board or commission you are applying for? ®Yes ® No Excluding your principal residence, do you or your spouse own real property in Palo Alto? ®Yes No How did you learn about the vacancy on the Planning and Transportation Commission? ECommunityGroup Daily Post ❑X Email from City Clerk City Website Palo Alto Weekly Flyer Other: List relevant education, training, experience, certificates of training, licenses, or professional registration: (621 characters) No direct credentials. Was a former multiple -time teaching assistant at Berkeley, where I graduated with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. Page 1 Planning & Transportation Commission Employment 3UHVHQW RU /DVW (PSOR\HU 2FFXSDWLRQ Describe your involvement in community activities, volunteerLQJ RU ZLWK civic organizations: FKDUDFWHUV 3DJH 3ODQQLQJ 7UDQVSRUWDWLRQ &RPPLVVLRQ Rubrik Software Engineer Mitchell Park library volunteer, worked on STEAM programs with children, tech assistance for the nontechnical. Was going to assist on VR efforts until the pandemic hit. Los Altos library volunteer (started since PACL was a bit slow on the volunteer uptake). Assisted with general library assistance before shifting to ESL tutoring. League of Women Voters of Palo Alto member, recently assisted with Pro-Cons presentations Sierra Club - Loma Prieta member. Monitor local Climate Action Plans and land use developments all over the Peninsula. Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto member, assisting with the Green Sanctuary Committee and assisting with A/V work. Block Preparedness Coordinator in Ventura. Also volunteer(ed) at Stanford Health, Foothill Observatory, Stanford’s Code-in-Place program, Code for San Jose, Rapid Response Network, SURJ. 1.What is it about the Planning and Transportation Commission that is compatible with your experience and of specific interest to you, and why? FKDUDFWHUV 2.Please describe an issue that recently came before the Commission that is of particular interest to you and describe why you are interested in it. If you have never been to a Commission meeting you can view an archiveG YLGHR IURP WKH 0LGSHQ 0HGLD &HQWHU:/,1. FKDUDFWHUV 3DJH 3ODQQLQJ 7UDQVSRUWDWLRQ &RPPLVVLRQ There was a recent study session regarding the renter community in Palo Alto. As a renter, I believe the city still has much to do to assist the community, especially when taking the Hotel President history into account. The study session pointed out that 37.48% of our renter population are cost-burdened, and given the patchwork of tenant protections and the current ﬁnancial crisis, that number is bound to go higher or people are unfortunately leaving this community. We should be planning for a city that allows people to be less stressed about keeping their homes. There was also a recent discussion of SB 743 and its shifting of the CEQA transportation metric from Level of Service to Vehicle Miles Traveled. We need to address our system that leads people to drive long-distances, creating environmental impacts. As such, our planning should be prioritizing transit, whether it be focusing on our Caltrain stations as core transit hubs or creating a bus transit network that can reduce trafﬁc and encourage connectivity throughout the city. This, along with better plans on bikeable, walkable infrastructure, should also assist in reducing our internal trafﬁc concerns; this will require better communication with PABAC among others. The Planning and Transportation Commission does the important work of guiding what the city should look like under the Comprehensive Plan; to retain the unique things that make up Palo Alto but also open towards new ideas and change. For housing, we should be creating communities that allow for a full diversity of neighbors, from the service workers that commute from long distances to the children who would like to stay in their hometown. For transportation, we should be creating a community that moves beyond the car-centric paradigm and instead towards a walkable, bikable one with robust transit to allow people to get where they need to be. PTC also has a strong environmental component, given that how people live and work have major environmental impacts. Reducing the amount people drive and allowing the land to better house people will bring the greenhouse gas emission reductions demanded by our own 80x30 goal, if the desire to never see another murky-brown or bright-red sky is not enough. My work with the Sierra Club has been to further progress in the ﬁght for environmental improvements here, as well see with the SCAP. 3.If appointed, what specific goals would you like to see the Planning and Transportation Commission achieve, and why? How would you suggest accomplishing this? FKDUDFWHUV 4.Planning and Transportation Commission Members work with the documents listed below. If \RX KDYH H[SHULHQFH ZLWK DQ\ RI WKHVH GRFXPHQWV SOHDVH GHVFULEH WKDW H[SHULHQFH ([SHULHQFH ZLWK WKHVH GRFXPHQWV LV QRW UHTXLUHG IRU VHOHFWLRQ FKDUDFWHUV 3DOR $OWR &RPSUHKHQVLYH 3ODQ /,1. =RQLQJ &RGH /,1. &LW\ &KDUWHU /,1. &DOLIRUQLD (QYLURQPHQWDO 4XDOLW\ $FW /,1. (O &DPLQR 5HDO 'HVLJQ *XLGHOLQHV /,1. (O &DPLQR 5HDO 0DVWHU 3ODQ 6WXG\/,1. $UHD 3ODQV VXFK DV WKH 6RXWK RI )RUHVW $YHQXH 62)$ , DQG ,, 3ODQV /,1. %D\ODQGV 0DVWHU 3ODQ /,1. 3DJH 3ODQQLQJ 7UDQVSRUWDWLRQ &RPPLVVLRQ I would like to see the Planning and Transportation Commission achieve greater public outreach to hear all voices within the community. This can be done by focusing outreach efforts like meetings or mailing lists to communities that are not heard very often in this space, such as renters, youth, and disadvantaged communities. Note that this outreach is not solely towards them but should add on our current communication efforts. Perhaps this can be tied with assistance from the Center for Deliberative Democracy in order to produce a solution acceptable to many. I am familiar with the City Charter, the Comprehensive Plan, and CEQA, but I will further put in the work to digest and research all of these documents. As a former college teaching assistant, I would like to also boil down these documents to be able to provide others with an accessible way to understand these important documents. Consent to Publish Personal Information on the City of Palo Alto Website California Government Code Section 6254.21 states, in part, "No state or local agency shall post the home address or telephone number of any elected or appointed official on the Internet without first obtaining the written permission of that individual." This consent form will not be redacted and will be attached to the Application and posted to the City's website. The full code can be read here: LINK Read the code, and check only ONE option below: 0 0 I give permission for the City of Palo Alto to post to the City's website the attached Board and Commission Application intact. I have read and understand my rights under Government Code Section 6254.21. I may revoke this permission at any time by providing written notice to the Palo Alto City Clerk. OR I request that the City of Palo Alto redact my home address, phone numbers, and email address from the attached Board and Commission Application prior to posting to the City's website. I am providing the following alternate information and request that they use the following contact information instead. Address: Cell Phone: 0Home / 0 Office Phone: E-mail: Signature: (Please type or sign)jcpain Ma ICI o Date: 10/20/20 Page 5 Planning & Transportation Commission Please email all completed applications to Jessica.Brettle@CityofPaloAlto.org or City.Clerk@CityofPaloAlto.org City Clerk's Office: 650-329-2571 Planning and Transportation Commission Personal Information (Note: The PTC regularly meets the second and last Wednesdays of the month at 6 PM Name: JESSICA RESMINI Address: Cell Phone: ( Home / OOffice Phone: E-mail: Are you a Palo Alto Resident? (Yes ONo Do you have any relatives or members of your household who are employed by the City of Palo Alto, who are currently serving on the City Council, or who are Commissioners or Board Members? QYes No Are you available and committed to complete the term applied for? O Yes Q No California state law requires appointed board and commission members to file a detailed disclosure of their financial interests, Fair Political Practices Commission, Conflict of Interest (Form 700). Do you or your spouse have an investment in, or do you or your spouse serve as an officer or director of, a company doing business in Palo Alto which you believe is likely to: 1) engage in business with the City; 2) provide products or services for City projects; or 3) be affected by decisions of the board or commission you are applying for? ()Yes ®No Excluding your principal residence, do you or your spouse own real property in Palo Alto? ()Yes Qi No How did you learn about the vacancy on the Planning and Transportation Commission? E Community Group Daily Post ❑ Email from City Clerk City Website ▪ Palo Alto Weekly Flyer Other: List relevant education, training, experience, certificates of training, licenses, or professional registration: (621 characters) B.S. Env. Design, University of California, Davis California Licensed Architect LEED Accredited Professional Project Manager of PAUSD Bond Projects Owner, ADU Collective - Resmini Architects, Inc. Page 1 Planning & Transportation Commission Employment 3UHVHQW RU /DVW (PSOR\HU 2FFXSDWLRQ Describe your involvement in community activities, volunteerLQJ RU ZLWK civic organizations: FKDUDFWHUV 3DJH 3ODQQLQJ 7UDQVSRUWDWLRQ &RPPLVVLRQ ADU COLLECTIVE - RESMINI ARCHITECTS, INC ARCHITECT Relevant community volunteer activities: Serving on the ADU task force working with local homeowners, architects, and city staff to implement the State ADU Guidelines. Pro-Bono Design and Archtiectural services. I have provided extensive pro-bono work for Palo Alto Little League on the Middlefield Ballpark redesign. Chair of the Coastside Design Review Committee in San Mateo County. This appointment includes ensuring new development is compatible with coastal communities. In this role, I was able to help many proposals successfully navigate the process while finding common ground with the surrounding community. Guest lecturer at University of California Davis, I taught about the fundamentals of Architecture as it applies to socially responsible and sustainable design. As a board member of the Cuesta La Honda Guild, I helped make critical decisions and policies regarding the water district, recreational facilities and roads for hundreds of homes. Serving as CVC Chair and other local school positions. In our local schools including Ohlone Elementary School & JLS I have held roles such as CVC-Co Chair, member of our Parent Leadership Team and PiE representative. As a Co-Chair of the Core Values Committee at Ohlone Elementary School, our primary focus is facilitating and fostering common goals between parents and staff. 1.What is it about the Planning and Transportation Commission that is compatible with your experience and of specific interest to you, and why? FKDUDFWHUV 2.Please describe an issue that recently came before the Commission that is of particular interest to you and describe why you are interested in it. If you have never been to a Commission meeting you can view an archiveG YLGHR IURP WKH 0LGSHQ 0HGLD &HQWHU: /,1. FKDUDFWHUV 3DJH 3ODQQLQJ 7UDQVSRUWDWLRQ &RPPLVVLRQ As an Architect, I have in depth experience working with zoning regulations, building codes, city departments and managing many complex projects, but I feel my greatest compatible assets to the PTC would be my keen ability to listen, empathize, facilitate a team, speak candidly and explore every option in order to find common ground. On a personal level, our family roots go back to the 1960’s and my personal experience as a resident, parent, renter, landlord and small business owner give me many perspectives to draw from when considering Palo Alto's future. As a result, I feel deeply connected to Palo Alto and my specific interest in PTC is helping shape a future for my children here as those that have gone before us. A couple issues that interest me before the Commission are Below Market Rate Housing, 2nd Unit Dwellings, and the status of the Comprehensive Plan. Given the space, number of people, and the mission of Palo Alto, we are pushing the boundaries in every way. Responsible growth will take a mindset of cooperative synergy where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Affordable housing issues are interesting to me because they are key to preserving a vibrant, youthful and diverse community, where young families come to live, work, and invest in our public education system. The Comprehensive Plan interests me because it’s critical to have defined goals and priorities to examine daily decisions through a greater lens. 3.If appointed, what specific goals would you like to see the Planning and Transportation Commission achieve, and why? How would you suggest accomplishing this?FKDUDFWHUV 4.Planning and Transportation Commission Members work with the documents listed below. If \RXKDYHH[SHULHQFHZLWKDQ\RIWKHVHGRFXPHQWVSOHDVHGHVFULEHWKDWH[SHULHQFH([SHULHQFH ZLWKWKHVHGRFXPHQWVLVQRWUHTXLUHGIRUVHOHFWLRQFKDUDFWHUV 3DOR$OWR&RPSUHKHQVLYH3ODQ/,1. =RQLQJ&RGH/,1. &LW\&KDUWHU/,1. &DOLIRUQLD(QYLURQPHQWDO4XDOLW\$FW/,1. (O&DPLQR5HDO'HVLJQ*XLGHOLQHV/,1. (O&DPLQR5HDO0DVWHU3ODQ6WXG\/,1. $UHD3ODQVVXFKDVWKH6RXWKRI)RUHVW$YHQXH62)$,DQG,,3ODQV/,1. %D\ODQGV0DVWHU3ODQ/,1. 3DJH 3ODQQLQJ 7UDQVSRUWDWLRQ&RPPLVVLRQ I have in-depth experience working with a variety of governing documents throughout many Jurisdictions across Northern California. I’ve read the PA Comp Plan and used the PA zoning code. I am familiar with CEQA. I feel very comfortable navigating such documents as needed. There are many challenges our community will need to wrestle with in the coming years: how to grow and where, how to address the complicated regional pressures we face and how to preserve and enhance the quality of life enjoyed in Palo Alto. My goal while sitting on the PTC would be to find the symbiotic relationship between our cherished neighborhoods and responsible growth. While I understand growth is inevitable, I feel it’s important to preserve the neighborhood character and the small town feel. I don’t think any of these issues are mutually exclusive and I would like to help facilitate the partnership between our community and the policies that shape it, through a listening partnership, by examining data, by considering all the variables and by presenting well thought out options to our City council. Consent to Publish Personal Information on the City of Palo Alto Website Califomia Government Code Section 6254.21 states, in part, "No state or local agency shall post the home address or telephone number of any elected or appointed official on the Internet without first obtaining the written permission of that individual." This consent form will not be redacted and will be attached to the Application and posted to the City's website. The full code can be read here: LINK Read the code, and check only ONE option below: 0 I give permission for the City of Palo Alto to post to the City's website the attached Board and Commission Application intact. I have read and understand my rights under Government Code Section 6254.21. I may revoke this permission at any time by providing written notice to the Palo Alto City Clerk. OR I request that the City of Palo Alto redact my home address, phone numbers, and email address from the attached Board and Commission Application prior to posting to the City's website. I am providing the following alternate information and request that they use the following contact information instead. Address: Cell Phone: ®Home / (7) Office Phone: E-mail: Signature: (Please type or sign) ../ Date: 11-17-20 Page 5 Planning & Transportation Commission COUNTYoF SAN MATEO PLANNING AND BUILDING January 31, 2017 City Council Members City of Palo Alto Sent via Email Dear Council Members: County Government Center 455 County Center, 2nd Floor Redwood City, CA 94063 650-363-4161 T 650-363-4849 F www.planning.smcgov.org SUBJECT: Recommendation in Support of Jessica Resmini for the Palo Alto Planning and Transportation Commission I am writing to provide a strong positive recommendation for Jessica Resmini, who has applied to be a member of the City's Planning and Transportation Commission. Jessica served for 5 years from 2008 to 2013 as the Chair of San Mateo County's Coastside Design Review Committee (CDRC), and I worked with her closely in that capacity. Jessica was a true leader for the CDRC, which is comprised of two architects and residents from the unincorporated communities of Montara, Moss Beach, El Granada and Miramar. Residents of these communities are known for being passionate about the preservation of their community's natural and built environment, and are very vocal, articulate and knowledgeable regarding the County's design review regulations. Jessica presided over the CDRC's monthly meetings with poise and compassion, keeping the often spirited debate over proposed development projects on topic and on time. In particular, Jessica used her architectural training and expertise and knowledge of the regulations to help develop alternatives that both the applicant and community members could agree on, which often resulted in an approved project that satisfied all parties to the greatest extent feasible. I am certain that Jessica would be a valuable addition to your Planning and Transportation Commission, and would be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding Jessica's service on the CDRC. Please feel free to contact me at 650/363-4852 or laozasa(a smcgov.orq. Sincerely, C17,(-/ Lisa Aozasa Deputy Director LAA:aow — LAABB028 WAN.DOCX CITY OF PALO ALTO OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK March 22, 2021 The Honorable City Council Attention: Finance Committee Palo Alto, California Approval of Action Minutes for the March 08, 2021 City Council Meeting. Staff is requesting Council review and approve the attached Action Minutes. ATTACHMENTS: • Attachment A: 03-08-21 CCM DRAFT Action Minutes (DOCX) Department Head: Beth Minor, City Clerk Page 2 CITY OF PALO ALTO CITY COUNCIL DRAFT ACTION MINUTES Page 1 of 3 Special Meeting March 8, 2021 The City Council of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in virtual teleconference at 5:00 P.M. Participating Remotely: Burt, Cormack, DuBois, Filseth, Kou, Stone, Tanaka Absent: Special Orders of the Day 1. Proclamation Honoring Monique LeConge Ziesenhenne on her Retirement. NO ACTION TAKEN. Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions None. Minutes Approval 2. Approval of Action Minutes for the February 22, 2021 City Council Meeting. MOTION: Council Member Kou moved, seconded by Vice Mayor Burt to approve the Action Minutes for the February 22, 2021 City Council Meeting. MOTION PASSED: 7-0 Consent Calendar Council Member Tanaka registered a no vote on Agenda Item Number 4. MOTION: Council Member Kou moved, seconded by Vice Mayor Burt, third by Council Member Stone to pull Agenda Item Number 5 to be heard on a date uncertain. MOTION: Council Member Cormack moved, seconded by Mayor DuBois to approve Agenda Item Numbers 3 and 4. 3. Approval of Contract Number C21178333 With Black & Veatch in an Amount Not-to-Exceed $3,182,960 to Provide Design Services for the DRAFT ACTION MINUTES Page 2 of 3 (Sp.) City Council Meeting Draft Action Minutes: 03/08/2021 Advanced Water Purification System (AWPS) at the Regional Water Quality Control Plant - Wastewater Treatment Fund Capital Improvement Program Project (WQ-19003). 4. Approval of an Exemption to Competitive Solicitation Requirements for Contract Number C14151181 With SAP Public Service, Inc.; and Approval of an Amendment to Contract Number C14151181 With SAP Public Service, Inc. to Extend the Term for Five-years for Maintenance and Support of the ERP System for a Total Not-to-Exceed Amount of $1,586,512 and Approximately $317,300 Annually. 5. Adoption of a Park Improvement Ordinance for Renovations at Ramos Park. MOTION PASSED FOR AGENDA ITEM NUMBER 3: 7-0 MOTION PASSED FOR AGENDA ITEM NUMBER 4: 6-1 Tanaka no Action Items 6. SECOND READING: Temporary Ordinance 5517 Entitled, “Ordinance of the Council of the City of Palo Alto Amending Title 18 (Zoning) of the Palo Alto Municipal Code to Broaden Permissible Uses and Raise Thresholds for Conditional Use Permits (CUP) for Some Land Uses Throughout the City.” Environmental Review: California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Exemption 15061(b)(3) (FIRST READING: December 14, 2020 PASSED: 7-0) (Continued From February 22, 2021). MOTION: Vice Mayor Burt moved, seconded by Mayor DuBois to adopt the attached temporary ordinance with the following exceptions: A. Prohibit allowing nail salons, beauty shops, barber shops, etc . directly on California Avenue street facing; B. On University Avenue, California Avenue, as well as Town and Country, prohibit the expansion of gyms greater than 1,800 square feet, and refer this to Planning and Transportation Commission for additional review; C. Prohibit the expansion of tutoring, schools, and related functions on the main streets of Downtown and California Avenue; D. Allow the change to commercial recreation to go forward, but also direct the Planning and Transportation Commission to look at occupancy for personal services that are commercial recreation; DRAFT ACTION MINUTES Page 3 of 3 (Sp.) City Council Meeting Draft Action Minutes: 03/08/2021 E. Refer to the Planning and Transportation Commission the evaluation of the most appropriate way to define restrictions on dining establishments; F. Prohibit expansion of the permissible medical sizes on the main shopping streets of California Avenue, University Avenue and Midtown Shopping Center. MOTION PASSED: 5-2 Cormack, Tanaka no Council took a break at 7:12 P.M. and returned at 7:18 P.M. 7. PUBLIC HEARING/QUASI JUDICIAL: 1310 Bryant Street (Castilleja): Consideration of Certification of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Applications for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) Amendment to Increase the Student Enrollment up to 540 Students; a Variance to Replace Campus Gross Floor Area; and Architectural Review of Campus Redevelopment. On March 8, 2021, the Council Will Receive Presentations and Public Testimony; the Item Will be Continued to March 15, 2021 for Council Deliberation and Action - No Public Testimony Will be Heard on March 15, 2021. Zone Distri ct: R-1 (10,000). Environmental Review: Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) Published July 30, 2020; Draft EIR Published July 15, 2019. Public Hearing opened at 7:59 P.M. Public Hearing closed at 12:00 A.M. NO ACTION TAKEN. 8. PUBLIC HEARING: Finance Committee Recommends the City Council Approve the Park, Community, and Library Development Impact Fee Justification Study; Approve Adjustments to Park, Community Center, and Library Development Impact Fees; Adopt an Ordinance Updating Park Land In-lieu fees; and Direct Staff to Implement the Impact Fee Updates With the Fiscal Year 2022 Budget. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 12:01 A.M. City of Palo Alto (ID # 11774) City Council Staff Report Report Type: Action Items Meeting Date: 3/22/2021 City of Palo Alto Page 1 Summary Title: 855 El Camino Real: Code Text Amendment to allow Ground Floor Medical Office Use Title: 855 El Camino Real (20PLN -00252): Adoption of an Ordinance Amending Chapter 18.16 of Title 18 of the Municipal Code to Allow Some Ground Floor Medical Of fice use With a Commensurate Increase in the Overall Office use Allowed at the Site Subject to Limitations. Environmental Assessment: Exempt From the Provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in Accordance With Guideline Section 15301 (Existing Facilities). Zoning District: CC (Community Commercial) From: City Manager Lead Department: Planning and Development Services Recommendation Staff recommends that Council take the following actions: 1. Find the ordinance exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in accordance with CEQA Guidelines Section 15301 (existing facilities), and 2. Adopt the attached ordinance to permit limited medical office use on the ground floor at Town & Country Village. Executive Summary Citing a trend in retail storefront vacancies that were exasperated by the pandemic, the owners of Town & Country Village seek a legislative amendment to the City’s zoning code to permit medical office on the ground. Currently prohibited, the owner originally requested 20% of the existing floor area to be converted from retail and retail -like uses to medical office uses. The Planning and Transportation Commission (PTC) in its review reduced the overall percentage of ground floor medical floor area to 15%, limited the size of any one medical office space to 5,000 square feet, and required any new medical use allowed by this ordinance to have an executed lease by the end of 2021 as well as terminate within 10 years. City of Palo Alto Page 2 After the PTCs hearing, the applicant proposed a modific ation to limit ground floor medical floor area to 10% without any restrictions tied to the lease (signing or term). The staff recommendation (and draft ordinance) reflects this latest proposal and limits to the size of any one medical tenant to 5,000 square feet. Staff does not support term limits because it may require the termination of a successful business in 10 years, may be disruptive to residents using those medical services and upfront tenant improvement costs may discourage some tenants from signing a lease that cannot be extended. The City Council in its review of the proposal has wide discretion to support, modify or reject the proposed text amendment as it deems appropriate to advance the Council’s policy interests. Background Town & Country Village was first established in 1953. The site is located at the corner of Embarcadero Road and El Camino Real. There are residential and commercial uses nearby and Palo Alto High School is across the street. The site is zoned Community Commercial (CC District), which is intended to provide a wider variety of goods and services than neighborhood shopping centers. Town & Country Village has 171,980 square feet of floor area in several buildings throu ghout the site, including 150,246 square feet on the ground floor and 21,734 square feet on the second floor. It is permitted to have a maximum of 15% of its floor area dedicated to office space. Presently the entire second floor and a small portion (720 square feet) on the ground floor is office (13%), primarily general office. The existing ground floor retail and retail-like uses are protected from conversion to other uses by the retail preservation ordinance. The applicant is requesting City Council approval for a legislative change to allow medical uses on the ground floor at Town & Country Village to address an increase in storefront vacancies that the owner attributes principally to changing retail shopping behavior, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic. The applicant’s complete explanation is provided in Attachment F. To minimize the number of reported vacancies and support existing retailers, the owner requested 20% (30,049 square feet) of the ground floor area be converted to medical uses. Concerned about the amount of floor area potentially con verting from retail and retail-like uses to medical office, staff recommended the PTC consider up to 15% (22,537 square feet) and a limit of 5,000 square feet for each medical tenant space. This size limit is intended to reinforce the ancillary and supportive role of medical uses to the broader retail environment at Town & Country Village. City of Palo Alto Page 3 The PTC in its review on February 10, 20211 supported (3-2, Commissioners Summa and Lauing) the staff recommendation but added two other criteria: 1) any medical use est ablished by the subject ordinance must terminate within 10 years and, 2) tenant leases must be signed before the end of the 2021 calendar year. The Commission was mixed in its perspective about the vacancies at Town & Country Village, which is why, in part , the additional criteria were added. The two dissenting commissioners expressed a desire for more financial data to support the applicant’s request and a perspective that the site would likely recover after the pandemic. There was a general recognition that once tenant spaces were converted to medical uses it would not return to retail or retail-like uses without the PTC imposed criteria. Additionally, at least one commissioner considered the amendment a permanent solution to address a temporary issue. Concerned about their ability to lease tenant spaces to a medical provider with no opportunity for a lease extension, and because of the sometimes protracted process of getting a tenant to sign a lease before the year’s end, the applicant presented to staff an alternative request to the PTC’s recommendation. This updated request is to covert 10% (15,025 square feet) of the existing ground floor area to medical uses without restriction to when the lease is signed or its term. This was not an option presented to the PTC and therefore, this request does not benefit from their analysis. However, this alternative proposal is supported by staff because it assigns less floor area to medical uses, provides a case study to better understand the relationship between medical uses in a mixed retail environment, and because it does not include the restrictions on tenancy that staff finds problematic. Staff continues to support a 5,000 square foot limit on the size of any individual medical tenant space. To effectuate this change, a text amendment is required to Palo Alto Municipal Code Sections 18.16.050 and 18.16.060(e)(1). The attached ordinance reflects this updated proposal with the tenant space limitation and no lease restrictions. Discussion For the past year, the City Council and City administrators have been navigating a coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter in place policies. The Council has made funds available for impacted businesses, amended municipal regulations to provide more flexibility in support of retailers and restaurants and taken many other initiatives to respond to the pandemic. The Council receives regular updates on the City’s economic and business recovery strategies. On November 9, 2020, the City Council directed staff to work with the PTC to evaluate and propose changes to the City’s municipal regulations that would enable a diverse mix of retail and retail like uses at a citywide or district level in order to curate a strong retail 1 A video of the February 10, 2021 Planning and Transportation Commission Hearing is available at: https://midpenmedia.org/planning-transportation-commission-63-2102021/ City of Palo Alto Page 4 mix. While that discussion with the PTC is expected to begin in April, the subject application has facilitated a closer look at Town & Country Village. The applicant reports as of January 1, 2021 there were 20 vacant retail or retail -like spaces on the ground floor and four vacant second floor office spaces at Town & Country Village for a vacancy rate of 18.6% (approximately 33,000 square feet). For comparison, during the Great Recession, at its peak in 2010, Town & Country Village reports a vacancy rate of 7.8%. Last January, Town & Country Village reports a vacancy rate of 4.1%. This information is provided in Attachment F. A review of Co-Star data (Attachment C) shows vacancy rates for the subject property and other neighborhood and regional shopping areas in the City. While informative, changes in vacancy rates in various shopping areas occur for a variety of reasons, including normal fluctuation, loss of a major tenant, changes in shopping behavior or other reasons. For each area, before the pandemic, vacancy rates were relatively low and spiked again in 2020. However, the vacancy rates expressed in the CoStar data may not reflect the true vacancy rates due to the County’s eviction moratorium, which has been extended through March 31, 2021. Also, some tenants may not have given official notice to property owners and managers about anticipated vacancies and some inventory may not be tracked through CoStar’s database. Through conversations with property owners/developers, staff has attempted to obtain more data regarding current vacancy rates for comparable shopping centers within the City, such as Stanford Shopping Center and Edgewood Plaza Shopping Center. Edgewood Plaza has recently lost three more of their smaller retailers and reports a 10 to 15% vacancy rate. This is slightly higher than shown in the CoStar data. Although this appears to be a lower vacancy rate in comparison to previous years, this is because 50% of the site is occupied by a single retailer (grocer), so the vacancy rate was significantly higher when that retail space was vacant. Edgewood Plaza’s owner, Sandhill Properties, noted that chain stores/businesses as well as some eating and drinking facilities have been able to stay open. However, many of the smaller businesses and traditional retailers have not been able to survive. Stanford would not disclose their specific data on vacancies at the Stanford Shopping Center. However, they indicated that they are generally experiencing fairly low vacancy rates, which is consistent with CoStar data. The low vacancy rate may be attributable to a few reasons. Many of the spaces at Stanford Shopping Center are filled by luxury and/or larger retailers rather than smaller, local retailers or personal service uses. These uses have generally fared better thus far in the pandemic in comparison to smaller businesses or specific uses that were required to close for longer periods (e.g. salons). In addition, staff notes that because many of the businesses surrounding the shopping center are large medical services uses, which have remained open throughout the pandemic, a large customer base for the shopping center has likely continued to utilize services there. City of Palo Alto Page 5 Town & Country on the other hand, had a number of smaller boutique retail stores that have struggled, and personal service uses, which have been required by County mandate to close for longer periods during the pandemic. Further, although food retail and eating and drinking uses have fared better than traditional retail uses in the pandemic, Palo Alto High School students, Stanford students, Downtown office workers, and El Camino Real office tenants have historically provided a key customer base for food services at this site. The shelter -in-place order is currently affecting that customer base. The applicant asserts in the attached project description that pre-pandemic pressure on retail from online sales were already evident at Town & Country Village and that the pandemic exacerbated a precipitous drop in retail occupancy. The owners report that many of their tenants have filed for bankruptcy or defaulted on lease payments and are not expected to re - open. The property owner projects the shopping center will suffer significant financial loss as a result of the pandemic and that another 20,000 square feet of retail and retail-like space is likely to become vacant due to the pandemic and less foot traffic that supports the remaining retailers. From a sales tax perspective, the City’s data shows that the commercial center was generally thriving from calendar years 2016-2019, generating revenue between approximately $600,000 and $640,000 for each of the four years, trending up until 2018 and slightly declining in 2019. However, in calendar year 2020, there is a significant decline. Although data is not available for the fourth quarter, the City’s data shows that between Q1-Q3 the total sales tax revenue from Town & Country Village dropped approximately $260,000. The applicant suggests recent declines in sales volume, pre-pandemic, is attributable to online shopping. To address the increase in vacancies at Town & Country Village, the property owner proposes to introduce medical office uses, which the owner reported as a market sector that is growing and one that can support pedestrian-facing retail environments. The applicant has outlined some examples of the types of medical office use that would occupy these spaces, if allowed, including: membership based primary care practices such as One Medical and Carbon Health; Dental/Braces Services such as Invisalign and Candid; health and wellness services such as Modern Acupuncture and Hyper Wellness; and Medi-Spa services such as Awaken MD. There has been recent discussion at the City Council regarding medical uses and how some can be more oriented toward pedestrian shopping settings. The exact mix and type of medical/retail uses has not been defined and the Council has expressed caution about facilitating medical uses in core retail areas. However, Town & Country Village does offer an opportunity to experience the interplay between retail and retail -like uses with medical and would provide some data in terms of changes to sales volume and sales tax generation as well as vacancy rates. City of Palo Alto Page 6 The updated proposal for 10% of the ground floor area to be used for medical office would support the concept that these uses are ancillary to the primary retail environment and may provide increased foot traffic to support other retailers as well as provide convenient medical services to area residents. Comprehensive Plan & Zoning Compliance Staff has reviewed the request to the City’s Comprehensive Plan and finds it generally consistent with the Community Commercial land use designation as documented in Attachment B. On March 8, 2021, the City Council adopted an ordinance that would allow medical uses in some districts, including the CC District, by right, without the need for a conditional use permit. The proposed ordinance, if approved, combined with the Council’s recent action means the medical uses proposed at Town & Country Village could be administratively approved. The parking requirements for medical office is comparable with, but less than, the requirement for retail – so from a parking perspective, there would not be a requirement for any additional parking. The City’s two office growth restrictions do not ap ply to the subject request. First, the overall citywide restriction in the comprehensive plan does not apply to medical uses. Second, the annual office cap, which limits all types of office to 50,000 square feet a year, does not include Town & Country Village within that boundary. Policy Impacts The subject ordinance introduces new medical office uses on the ground floor at the Town & Country Village. The City Council has been protective of retail and retail-like uses in the City adopting a citywide retail preservation ordinance and making other adjustments to strengthen retail cores. The City Council has also heard from property owners and property managers about the changing nature of retail, retail shopper behavior and the challenges brick and mortar retail establishments face. The Town & Country Village owner has provided information regarding vacancy rates, declining retail sales volumes and the impact to remaining retailers due to the loss of foot traffic over the past several years. The scope of the ordinance is relatively narrow affecting one property. The applicant’s revised proposal for 10% of the existing ground floor area to be dedicated to medical office combined with staff’s recommendation to limit the size of individual medical tenant spaces to 5,000 square feet ensures these uses will not dominate the center. Instead, the medical offices would be ancillary to the primary retail use and may generate additional foot traffic to nearby retailers. Despite the limited scope, if approved, it is unlikely the medical tenant spaces would revert back to retail or retail-like uses. However, the mix of medical with other retail uses could also provide local data on how best to curate a mix of uses that support a diverse retail environment. City of Palo Alto Page 7 Resource Impact The exact impact to the City if the ordinance is approved is unknown, but it is not expected to be significant. In comparison to retail and retail-like uses, medical office uses do not generate year-over-year tax revenue for the City. Therefore, the proposed change in use would result in less sales tax for the City over time (assuming a comparison of occupied retail spaces versus occupied medical office uses). Although the City’s data shows that sales tax revenue at Town & Country Village was not downward trending until 2020, that City’s data represents all revenue from the site, including larger stores such as Trader Joes and CVS. The applicant asserts sales volumes in the Apparel, Home Goods, Skin Care/Cosmetics, Books, Eyewear, and Toys & Nutrition sector has been declining over time and a new medical use would likely occupy one of these vacated locations. Based on the applicant’s original proposal of approximately 30,000 square feet being dedicated to medical, the owner calculated a sales tax reduction of approximately $73,000 annually. With the staff recommendation and 10,000 square feet dedicated to medical office, this figure would be adjusted to approximately $37,000 annually. This calculation does not include any positive gains in sales volume that may be generated as a result of the medical office’s contribution to increased foot traffic to Town & Country Village retailers, which may help off-set some of the lost sales tax revenue. Timeline If approved, the ordinance would become effective on the 31st day following a second reading of the ordinance. Stakeholder Engagement The Palo Alto Municipal Code requires a notice of this public hearing to be published in a local paper and mailed to owners and occupants of property within 600 feet of the subject property at least ten days in advance. Notice of a public hearing for this project was published in the Daily Post on March 12, which is 10 days in advance of the meeting. Postcard mailing occurred on March 8, which is 14 days in advance of the meeting. Public Comments During the Planning Commission hearing, one member of the public provided comment on the proposed project; the same resident provided written comments in addition to the oral comments. The speaker expressed concern that nearby uses, such a s Stanford and Palo Alto High School, which are temporary closed, will re-open, allowing retail businesses at the site to pick up again and noted that the vacancy rate is not that much higher than it has been in the past. The resident expressed that the proposal to allow medical office use would not support retail because it reduces available retail spaces in the City and suggests that the applicant provide reduced rent to allow businesses to remain in operation. City of Palo Alto Page 8 In addition, many members of the public spoke at the November 9 Council study session. As noted, Council discussed the potential for allowing medical office uses to replace retail and retail-like uses on the ground floor throughout Palo Alto. At that hearing, Council heard from members of the public who expressed opposition to these changes as well as from speakers who supported the change. Generally, the following points were made: • Council should not allow professional office, medical and dental, financial services or adult education uses to replace allowed retail uses in core areas • Concern that suspending the retail preservation ordinance could lead to permanent conversions of retail space. Areas that members of the public expressed specific concern about included businesses along El Camino Real in South Palo Alto, California Avenue, and the Downtown (University Avenue) area • Concern that introducing uses other than retail would cause retail rents to increase • Filling vacant spaces would be positive for surrounding uses • Interest in providing flexibility in the types of retail uses • Concerns about retail trends, which will make filling retail spaces difficult Environmental Review The subject project has been assessed in accordance with the authority and criteria contained in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the State CEQA Guidelines, and the environmental regulations of the City. Specifically, the project is exempt from CEQA in accordance with CEQA Guidelines Section 15301 (existing facilities). The proposed ordinance would allow for some of the tenant spaces within a mixed-use commercial center to change to medical office uses. The proposed medical office use would replace existing spaces that were recently occupied by retail or retail like uses, which have similar environmental im pacts to the proposed use. Attachments: Attachment A: Ordinance Amending Ch. 18.16 of Title 18 to Allow Limited Square Footage of Medical Office Uses on the Ground Floor at Town & Country Village (PDF) Attachment B: Comprehensive Plan Consistency (DOCX) Attachment C: CoStar Data (DOCX) Attachment D: Town and Country Site Plan with vacant spaces (PDF) Attachment E: Town and Country Site Plan w Example of 15% Ground Floor Medical Office (PDF) Attachment F: Applicant's Revised Project Description (PDF) *NOT YET APPROVED* 1 0160044_20210310_ay16 Ordinance No. ____ Ordinance of the Council of the City of Palo Alto Amending Chapter 18.16 of Title 18 (Zoning) of the Palo Alto Municipal Code to Allow A Limited Square Footage of Medical Office Uses on the Ground Floor at Town & Country Village The Council of the City of Palo Alto does ORDAIN as follows: SECTION 1. Findings and Declarations. The City Council finds and declares as follows: 1. On December 8, 2020, Ellis Partners, the owner of Town & Country Village, located at 855 El Camino Real, filed a request for a Palo Alto Municipal Code Zoning Text Amendment to allow a limited amount of medical office to be located within ground floor tenant spaces at the shopping center. 2. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Town & Country Village is currently experiencing a vacancy rate of 22.9%, which is 18.3% higher than the vacancy rate in January 2020 and significantly higher than vacancy rates experienced during the Great Recession, which peaked in 2010 at 7.8%. 3. Vacancies in retail environments can result in a domino effect, as reduced foot traffic to the shopping center because of vacancies can lead to additional vacancies. 4. Many of the tenants of Town & Country Village are smaller, independent businesses that have been more heavily impacted by the pandemic-fueled economic downturn. 5. Additional flexibility to allow some medical office uses on the ground floor will enhance the economic vitality of Town & Country Village while producing foot traffic similar to the retail uses currently allowed on the ground floor. SECTION 2. Section 18.16.050 (Office Use Restrictions) of Chapter 18.16 (Community Commercial District) of Title 18 (Zoning) of the Palo Alto Municipal Code is hereby amended to read as follows: 18.16.050 Office Use Restrictions The following restrictions shall apply to office uses: (a) Conversion of Ground Floor Housing and Non-Office Commercial to Office Medical, Professional, and Business offices shall not be located on the ground floor, unless any of the following apply to such offices: (1) Have been continuously in existence in that space since March 19, 2001, and as of such date, were neither non-conforming nor in the process of being amortized pursuant to Chapter 18.30(I); *NOT YET APPROVED* 2 0160044_20210310_ay16 (2) Occupy a space that was not occupied by housing, neighborhood business service, retail services, personal services, eating and drinking services, or automotive service on March 19, 2001 or thereafter; (3) Occupy a space that was vacant on March 19, 2001; (4) Are located in new or remodeled ground floor area built on or after March 19, 2001 if the ground floor area devoted to housing, retail services, eating and drinking services, personal services, and automobile services does not decrease; (5) Are on a site located in an area subject to a specific plan or coordinated area plan, which specifically allows for such ground floor medical, professional, and general business offices; or (6) Are located anywhere in Building E or in the rear 50% of Building C or D of the property at the southeast corner of the intersection of Park Boulevard and California Avenue, as shown on sheet A2 of the plans titled “101 California Avenue Townhouse/Commercial/Office, Palo Alto, CA” by Crosby, Thornton, Marshall Associates, Architects, dated June 14, 1982, revised November 23, 1982, and on file with the Department of Planning and Development Services. (7) For medical offices only, are located anywhere in Town & Country Village, provided that: (A) No individual medical office use shall exceed 5,000 square feet in size. (B) Total medical office uses on the ground floor shall not exceed 15,025 square feet (10%) of the ground floor area. (C) No medical office use shall face directly onto El Camino Real or Embarcadero Road. (D) Such medical offices uses may replace retail or retail-like uses, notwithstanding the retail preservation requirements contained in Section 18.40.180. [. . .] SECTION 3. Section 18.16.060 (Development Standards) of Chapter 18.16 (Community Commercial District) of Title 18 (Zoning) of the Palo Alto Municipal Code is hereby amended to read as follows: 18.16.060 Development Standards [. . .] (e) CC District Shopping Center Floor Area Ratio Regulations (1) The maximum floor area ratio for the Town and Country Village Shopping Center shall be .35 to 1; and office uses at said shopping center shall be limited to 15% 36,579 sf (21.4%) of the floor area of the shopping center existing as of August 1, 1989, including medical office uses further regulated by Section 18.16.050(a)(7). To the extent that Hotel use shall not be included as part of the .35 to 1 maximum floor area ratio, but shall not exceed an additional .25 to 1 floor area ratio, for a maximum site floor area ratio of .60 to 1. [. . .] *NOT YET APPROVED* 3 0160044_20210310_ay16 SECTION 4. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this Ordinance and each and every section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase not declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion of the Ordinance would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional. SECTION 5. The Council finds that this Ordinance is exempt from environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15301 for existing facilities. SECTION 6. This Ordinance shall be effective on the thirty-first date after the date of its adoption. INTRODUCED: PASSED: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTENTIONS: ATTEST: _________________________ ____________________________ City Clerk Mayor APPROVED AS TO FORM: APPROVED: _________________________ ____________________________ Assistant City Attorney Director of Planning and Development Services ATTACHMENT B COMPREHENSIVE PLAN CONSISTENCY TABLE 855 El Camino Real, 20PLN-00291 Comp Plan Goals and Policies How project adheres or does not adhere to Comp Plan The Comprehensive Plan land use designation for the site is community commercial. The Community Commercial land use designation is intended for “larger shopping centers and districts that have a wider variety of good and services than the neighborhood shopping areas. They rely on larger trade areas and include such uses as department stores, bookstores, furniture stores, toy stores, apparel shops, restaurants, theaters and non- retail services such as offices and banks…non- retail uses such as medical and dental offices may also locate in this designation.” The proposal to add some medical office uses to the ground floor would be consistent with this land use designation. Land Use and Community Design Element Policy L-1.1: Maintain and prioritize Palo Alto’s varied residential neighborhoods while sustaining the vitality of its commercial areas and public facilities. The project will allow a more diverse mix of uses to help fill extensive vacancies on the ground floor of the shopping center while still limiting the allowed uses. The project is intended to help sustain the vitality of the Town & Country shopping center. Policy L-1.6: Encourage land uses that address the needs of the community and manage change and development to benefit the community. Although the use of these spaces for retail or retail like uses is more desirable, the project allows a use that is compatible with retail and retail like uses by serving as a draw to existing retail uses at the site while providing neighborhood serving uses. The project allows the property owner to better manage the rapidly changing needs of the center to maintain existing retail businesses. Policy L-4.1: Encourage the upgrading and revitalization of selected Centers in a manner that is compatible with the character of surrounding neighborhoods, without loss of retail and existing small, local businesses. The project would allow conversion of retail and retail like spaces to medical office use. However, these spaces are currently vacant and it is likely that the property owner, similar to many other developers within the area, will continue to have difficulty filling these spaces with similar uses. Allowing some medical office uses on the ground floor will help to create diversity at the center and drawing in customers for existing retail businesses that remain but continue to struggle. Policy L-4.2: Preserve ground-floor retail, limit the displacement of existing retail from neighborhood centers and explore opportunities to expand retail. The project does not preserve ground floor retail and retail like spaces for these uses. However, Town & Country, similar to other retail centers in the City and surrounding areas is experiencing unprecedented vacancy rates and many of these spaces are unlikely to be filled in the foreseeable future due to changing retail trends and lack of predictability with respect to the ongoing pandemic. Allowing a more diverse mix of uses, but still limiting those uses to one that is compatible with retail, will help to preserve the remaining retail spaces by serving as a draw to the center. Policy L-4.5: Support local-serving retail, recognizing that it provides opportunities for local employment, reduced commute times, stronger community connections and neighborhood orientation. Small medical office tenants would still provide neighborhood serving businesses at the center while also serving as a draw to the local community for the local-serving retail at the site. Policy L-4.12: Recognize and preserve Town and Country Village as an attractive retail center serving Palo Altans and residents of the wider region. Future development at this site should preserve its existing amenities, pedestrian scale and architectural character while also improving safe access for bicyclists and pedestrians and increasing the amount of bicycle parking. The project does not include any physical changes to the site and therefore preserves its existing pedestrian scale and architectural character. The diversity in uses will help to retain the commercial center as an attractive retail center by filling vacancies and serving as a draw to the center that will help to maintain the vitality of existing retail uses at the site. Policy L-4.13: In Town and Country Village, encourage a vibrant retail environment and urban greening The project retains a vibrant retail environment at the center. Business and Economic Element Program B5.1.4: Revise zoning and other regulations as needed to encourage the revitalization of aging retail structures and areas. Encourage the preservation of space to accommodate small, independent retail businesses and professional services. Although the project allows conversion of retail or retail like spaces to medical office uses, these medical office uses are general small professional services that are compatible with the existing retail businesses at the site. Therefore the project is consistent with this program. GOAL B-6: Attractive, vibrant retail centers, each with a mix of uses and a distinctive character. Policy B-6.6: Retain Town and County Village as an attractive, local-serving retail center. The project allows for more diversity in the mix of ground floor uses at the site but still retains the majority of the center for retail and retail like uses. The project also limits the additional uses to medical office uses, a use that is still compatible with retail and retail like uses. ATTACHMENT C CoStar Data: Year to Year Vacancy Rates for City of Palo Alto Retail Centers1 Town & Country Village 1 The graphs in this attachment display all available information from CoStar Data; therefore, the availability of historical data and/or projections for a particular site varies. Midtown Shopping Center Edgewood Shopping Center Downtown Vacancy Rate California Avenue Stanford Shopping Center Po p u p #1A 2,267 sf #1C 895 sf #10 1,289 sf #16 889 sf #18 1,790 sf #20 1,754 sf #98 874 sf #405 856 sf #157 1,866 sf #160 690 sf #401 869 sf #109 1,859 sf #108 1,309 sf #107 1,259 sf Po p u p #127 3,622 sf #290 2,145 sf #115 1,530 sf #110 3,256 sf #123 507 sf#40 2,537 sf #36 2,351 sf Po p u p #280 297 sf #13B 879 sf #138 1,750 sf Building 5 2nd Floor Building 4 2nd Floor Building 3 2nd Floor Building 1 2nd Floor #20 1,754 sf #108 1,309 sf #107 1,259 sf #127 3,622 sf #115 1,530 sf Building 5 2nd Floor Building 4 2nd Floor Building 3 2nd Floor Building 1 2nd Floor Example of 15,000 SF #40 2,537 sf #36 2,351 sf Medical Retail Examples TOWN & COUNTRY VILLAGE November 17, 2020, Revised March 2, 2021 Jonathan Lait Director of Planning - City of Palo Alto 250 Hamilton Ave Palo Alto, CA 94301 Dear Mr. Lait: Over the past several years, Town & Country Village has experienced a consistent downturn in gross sales driven by a change in consumer purchasing habits. This has been widely documented by the retail real estate community as consumers prefer to shop on-line, skip the store visit and get free delivery and returns right from their home. In response to these changes in customer preferences, retailers and shopping center owners have been forced to evaluate how they can evolve the customer experiences to capitalize on the continued desire to experience products in person and interact with on-site personnel, which has required them to become more flexible and more creative to provide customers with a reason to shop in brick and mortar stores. Municipalities around the country have also demonstrated an awareness and a concern for this evolving situation and have allowed for additional flexibility within the zoning codes to address new consumer habits. When the COVID-19 Pandemic started, on-line shopping dramatically accelerated and is expected to result in a permanent shift in shopping habits towards on-line purchasing, even after the pandemic subsides. Due to the dramatic impact on retail and restaurant tenants from the COVID-19 Pandemic on top of the more global shift in shopping trends, Town & Country Village has seen a precipitous drop in occupancy and many of our tenants have declared bankruptcy or simply defaulted on their leases and will not re-open. This is despite our best efforts to assist our tenants in any way we can, such as providing outdoor dining within parking areas, enhancing our marketing and promotion efforts and voluntarily abating and/or deferring rent. The duration of these impacts is yet unknown, but it is certain that Town & Country Village will suffer significant financial losses, city tax revenues will be significantly reduced and, if the increasing vacancy trend is not mitigated, the experience for shoppers will be severely changed. As shown on the attached site plan, our pre-COVID vacancy was only 13,212 SF and is now 32,891SF, with an additional 20,465 Sf of retail space considered likely to become vacant due to the continued impact of COVID on retail, including the domino effect caused by reduced foot traffic to the shopping center. As mentioned, these detrimental effects are in part an acceleration of trends that were already occurring before the pandemic. In fact, sales volumes at Town & Country fell by 1.5% between 2017-2018 and have fallen another 6.0% between 2018-2019. Online shopping was already disrupting almost all categories of retail uses and the likes of Amazon have taken a huge toll on the viability of many retailers, as demonstrated in our alarming dataset. Of the 20 merchants that reported downward sales trends, eight have already closed their doors at Town & Country Village and we expect other tenants will either continue to fail, despite our all our efforts noted above. The good news is that market for medical-related tenants is growing, despite the pandemic, and we expect this new component of customer-facing merchandising to grow over the longer term. Examples of the types of medical service uses we would like to be allowed to implement as a convenience to our customers are membership based primary care practices such as One Medical, Carbon Health and Forward, Dental/Braces services such as Invisalign and Candid, health and wellness services such as Modern Acupuncture, Hyper Wellness and B12LOVE and Medi-Spa services such as Awaken MD and Orange Twist. As shown in the attached photographs, the design of these types of tenant spaces are typically geared toward pedestrian-facing retail settings and would be consistent with the character and merchandising mix at Town & County. Additionally, their traffic and parking demand are generally consistent with retail use. However, we are unfortunately unable to take advantage of this growing demand since our zoning use restrictions are outdated and do not reflect the evolution of viable uses for successful shopping centers that provide the community what they need. Specifically, we are limited by our inability to lease ground floor space to Medical Offices and are limited to 15% overall for office uses. Allowing for these types of medical uses would allow Town & Country Village to offer more reasons to visit the property for these needs and to stay and shop for other goods and services in Palo Alto. It will also give us a much better chance of returning this cherished property to its Pre-COVID occupancy levels. We believe that retail and restaurant leasing will face a serious headwind for many years to come as a result of online retail disruption and this current pandemic and we sincerely believe that allowing some level of leasing to Medical Offices in these vacant retail spaces is a key to our efforts to avoid a downward spiral at Town & Country. As such, in December 2020, we requested the following changes to the Palo Alto Planning Code to allow us to implement a more current and vibrant merchandising of Town & Country Village and mitigate the long-term challenges we have in maintaining a fully occupied and thriving shopping environment: • Allow Medical Office uses to occupy up to 20% (30,049sf) of the ground floor at T&C • Increase the sitewide office use to 30% (51,594sf) In the Planning & Transportation Commission staff report for the February 10, 2021, city staff recommended approval of our request, with the adjustment of the Medical Office maximum to 15% and the sitewide office maximum to 25%. At the February 10, 2021 Planning & Transportation Commission hearing, several amendments were made to staff ’s recommendations, including but not limited to: • Imposing a deadline for Medical Office leases of December 31, 2021 • Limiting the occupancy term for Medical Office uses to 10 years We have carefully considered these amendments and assessed their viability and potential impact on our challenging efforts to re-lease Town & Country Village’s growing vacancy. We understand that there is some level of concern that too much ground floor Medical Office use could adversely impact the merchandising mix and the customer experience at the site. As the stewards of this treasured asset since 2005 and hopefully for many decades to come, we want to assure the city and the community that we understand this concern and have no intention of degrading the shopping experience at Town & Country. In fact, our proposal is solely focused on ensuring its relevancy and vibrancy into the future, despite the changing retail landscape. We also understand there is some debate as to whether the vacancy increase at Town & Country is a short-term issue that is solely caused by COVID, and we believe the PTC amendment is largely driven by this incorrect assumption. As discussed above, sales volumes have been dropping at the property since 2017 and dropped 6% between 2018-2019 alone. COVID is only the latest factor in a longer-term trend away from traditional retail demand. E-commerce has been siphoning off sales revenue from retail tenants across the US, and Town & Country is unfortunately no exception. As such, imposing these two restrictive time limits onto our request for limited Medical Office use will not allow us to adequately address these negative long-term trends and will result in ongoing chronic vacancy. Firstly, with regard to the December 31, 2021 deadline, even if this date were extended to allow us one year from the adoption of this ordinance, it would be virtually impossible to draft and execute leases with five to ten Medical Office tenants in that time frame. Many of these tenants are national corporations that have slow and methodical processes for identifying their target markets and for drafting and approving leases for new locations. As stated earlier, this issue and our request is not a temporary pandemic mitigation effort. These trends began before the pandemic and will continue long after is its effects are minimized. Secondly, we are confident that nearly all of the potential Medical Office tenants we would pursue, would reject any lease that required them to vacate their spaces in 10 years with no rights to renew. The cost of building out a typical Medical Office space is more than twice the cost of retail space and thus requires even more lease term to amortize these initial outlays. Furthermore, these businesses rely on the surrounding nei ghborhood to become its trusted, regular clientele. This customer base will take years to develop and potential tenants will not lease space in a location at which they would need to “pull up their stakes” and start over, just when they are beginning to achieve their goals. Given that the current vacancy trend is clearly not just a result of COVID, we feel it is wholly inappropriate to impose these time and term limits. We also feel that with these additional restrictions our efforts to lease to Medical Office users would be entirely unsuccessful and the vacancy trend would only further spiral at Town & Country. With that said, we are eager to find a compromise that might achieve the goals of all stakeholders. Therefore, in recognition of the staff report recommendations and the PTC amendment, we hereby revise our request as follows: • If there are no time limits on when leases are executed and there are no lease term limits imposed, we herewith revise our proposal to 10% of the ground floor (or 15,025sf) for Medical Office and 21.4% sitewide office (or 36,579sf). These limits are half of our original request and are even lower than identified by staff and the PTC amendment • We further commit to NOT locate Medical Office uses in retail suites that face El Camino Real or Embarcadero We feel this compromise would allow us to mitigate our retail vacancy trend while ensuring there is no adverse impact (short or long term) on the shopping experience at Town & Country. Attached sample site plan with both of these limitations imposed. Given that Town & Country Village has its own section in the Palo Alto Zoning Code, that is already much more strict than in other retail areas in Palo Alto and is part of the Community Commercial (CC) zone, which it shares only with Stanford Shopping Center, we think it is appropriate to enact these changes on a localized basis. This will allow Town & Country Village to evolve with the changes in the retail marketplace and give this community treasure the best chance to survive the combined threats of e-commerce and COVID. Below are the relevant code sections that would be modified: 1) Proposed Changes to Section 18.16.040 Section 18.16.040 allows (subject to a Conditional Use Permit) Medical Office uses in the CC Zone (which governs this property and Stanford Shopping Center only), but as noted in the use table, it is subject to regulations in Section 18.16.050, which is excerpted below: 18.16.050 Office Use Restrictions The following restrictions shall apply to office uses: (a) Conversion of Ground Floor Housing and Non-Office Commercial to Office Medical, Professional, and Business offices shall not be located on the ground floor, unless any of the following apply to such offices: (1) Have been continuously in existence in that space since March 19, 2001, and as of such date, were neither non-conforming nor in the process of being amortized pursuant to Chapter 18.30(I); (2) Occupy a space that was not occupied by housing, neighborhood business service, retail services, personal services, eating and drinking services, or automotive service on March 19, 2001 or thereafter; (3) Occupy a space that was vacant on March 19, 2001; (4) Are located in new or remodeled ground floor area built on or after March 19, 2001 if the ground floor area devoted to housing, retail services, eating and drinking services, personal services, and automobile services does not decrease; (5) Are on a site located in an area subject to a specific plan or coordinated area plan, which specifically allows for such ground floor medical, professional, and general business offices; or… Based on our discussion with Amy French, Chief Planning Official, it appears that we are not permitted to utilize former ground floor retail spaces for Medical Office, Professional Office or General Business Office uses. We therefore request a change to the zoning text to allow Medical Office uses to be permitted on ground floors at Town & Country Village, subject to a limitation of 10% of total ground floor area, or 15,025 SF. We understand the historical goal of limiting Medical Office use of ground floor spaces to better activate retail storefronts, especially along public streets like University Avenue. Town & Country storefronts are significantly set back from public right-of-way and therefore, with the additional prohibition of no street frontage Medical Office uses, we believe that the center’s ground floor uses should be given more flexibility. With the unprecedented impacts of COVID-19 and the industry disruption referenced herein, and the fact that new medical uses have emerged that are integrating with retail shopping environments all over the country, it seems that this approach with the 10% limitation would strike the proper balance between the planning goals of the city and allowing this treasured community asset to avoid long-term, dramatic reductions in occupancy. 2) Proposed Changes to Section 18.16.060(e.1) While Professional and General Business Office is a permitted use in the CC Zone, this section limits the percentage of Professional and General Business Office space at the property to 15% of the total floor area, or 25,797 SF. Consistent with the above request to allow up to 10% of the ground floor area to be used for medical uses, we request that the maximum office percentage overall be increased to 21.4%, which would allow for an additional 10,962 SF of space for these uses. The total office space allowed would be 36,759 SF, and since there is 21,734 SF of second floor space, the remaining 15,025 SF would likely be on the ground floor. This represents just 10% of the ground floor area and would therefore be consistent with the requested change in item 1 above. 3) Changes to Section 18.40.180 We understand that changes would be required under the Retail Preservation Ordinance as well (in Section 18.40.180) to allow the above proposed changes to occur. We request that city staff propose the text changes in 18.40.180 to facilitate this request. 4) Potential Financial Impacts We expect these proposed changes would mitigate the dramatic increase in ground floor vacancy and would drive badly needed foot traffic back to Town & Country which would have the effect of increasing retail sales volumes for the tenants that do survive. We believe that over the long term, having a full and vibrant center will produce more retail sales volume even with the Medical Office use component we are requesting. With that said, we understand that these changes might impact sales tax revenue that is important to Palo Alto. Per your request, we have endeavored to calculate the potential magnitude of these impacts on Palo Alto’s sales tax revenue. Using the sales tax revenue from Town & Country reported in the March 8, 2018 City Auditor Report , which we found online, attached to this letter, we calculated the following: • Total Palo Alto Sales Tax Revenue from Town & Country (Annual Average based on 2016 and 2017 reported data): $637,000 • Estimated Portion of Town & Country Sales Associated with In-Line Retail Spaces (excludes Trader Joes, CVS and Restaurants): 27% • Estimated Palo Alto Sales Tax Revenue from Town & Country from In-Line Retail Spaces: $172,000 • Potential Reduction in Sales Tax Revenue to Palo Alto if ALL 15,025 SF of the 66,488 SF In-Line Retail was leased to Medical Office Tenants (15,052 ÷ 66,488 x $172,000): $39,000 It is important to note that this represents a worst-case scenario, in which ALL of the square footage that is given the more flexible use designation is actually converted from retail to medical office. For reference, this potential $39,000 impact would only be an 6.1% reduction in the sales tax revenue associated with Town and Country and approximately 0.5% of total Palo Alto sales tax revenue. It is also worth noting that without the foot traffic generated by these potential new medical uses, we believe many of our remaining retail tenants that are currently generating sales tax will fail or experience significantly reduced sales, resulting in a sales tax revenue reduction of similar or greater magnitude. 5) Recent City Council Resolution As you are aware, the City Council held meetings on September 14, 2020 and November 9, 2020 to consider potential changes to retail zoning ordinances in response to the COVID situation and its impact on the market. Jim Ellis, one of our founding partners addressed the Council at both meetings and explained the dire situation outlined above. As we understand it, the Council passed a motion on November 9, 2020 to: “…quickly evaluate and propose changes to enable Diverse Retail Uses in more retail sites, including, food, medical, educational, financial and other professional office uses citywide or by district…” We believe this Council action is consistent with the above requests. We have active interest from medical-related tenants for our vacant ground floor space and every week is critical to our ability to maintain their interest in Town & Country and in Palo Alto in general. We appreciate your consideration of this revised request and look forward to hearing back from you regarding next steps. Please call me at (415) 373-7706 with any questions on this matter. Best Wishes, Dean Rubinson Director of Development Ellis Partners Attachments Town and Country Retail Vacancy History Year Retail Vacancy % as of January 1 2010 7.8% 2011 3.2% 2012 1.8% 2013 4.6% 2014 0.6% 2015 0.4% 2016 1.4% 2017 2.6% 2018 1.4% 2019 8.2% 2020 4.6% 2021 18.6% Town and Country Village - Vacancy Analysis SUITE NO./TENANT NAME RETAIL OFFICE RESTAURANT TOTAL LEASABLE AREA 1A VACANT 2,267 1B SCANDIA HOME 1,618 1C VACANT 895 3 SALON 18|8 2,092 4 VACANT 84 5 JOIE 1,296 9 POKE LOVE 1,374 10 VACANT 1,289 10A SPROUT 462 11 SPROUT 651 13A UPS 874 13B VACANT 879 14 MARINE LAYER 910 15 ANTOINE'S COOKIE SHOP 852 16 VACANT 889 18 VACANT 1,790 20 VACANT 1,754 20B HOWARD'S SHOES 901 21 ASIAN BOX 903 12 JUNSON ASSETS MANAGEMENT 3,416 Building 1 Subtotal 21,780 3,416 0 25,196 33 LABELLE SALON 1,904 34 DIPTYQUE 606 35 J. MCLAUGHLIN 972 36 VACANT 2,351 37 ATHLETA 3,728 40 VACANT 2,537 42 T&C CLEANERS 1,359 43 MARGARET O'LEARY 1,185 47 IN HER SHOES (COTELAC)1,497 49 LULU'S 773 50 KARA'S CUPCAKES 875 57 SUR LA TABLE 6,824 60 HOWIE'S ARTISAN PIZZA 2,630 63 PAPER SOURCE 3,399 64 RUTI 588 65 GOTT'S ROADSIDE 4,424 67 CHASE 3,077 74 BOOK'S INC.4,040 75 KIRK'S 1,951 77 PEET'S 1,434 82 FOR EYES (DR. BERKOWICZ)720 83 FOR EYES 1,334 70 VACANT 226 74A VACANT 648 Building 2 Subtotal 37,924 720 10,439 49,083 85 JAMBA JUICE 894 88 FILLMORE AND 5TH 1,300 91 FILLMORE & 5TH EXPANSION 1,359 95 LABELLE DAY SPA 4,416 96 LABELLE SALON 926 98 VACANT 874 99 T&C TENNIS 866 102 BRANDY MELVILLE 1,836 103 WILBY OPTICAL 1,235 104 DOUCE FRANCE 1,795 105 COREPOWER YOGA 2,014 107 VACANT 1,259 108 VACANT 1,309 109 VACANT 1,859 401 VACANT 869 405 VACANT 856 410 T&C MGMT 867 Building 3 Subtotal 20,146 2,592 1,795 24,533 138 VACANT 1,750 110 VACANT 3,526 115 VACANT 1,530 116 CVS/PHARMACY 13,278 120 VACANT 826 121 TIN POT 950 123 VACANT 507 125 PREPCUTS 1,760 126 JARBO 1,323 127 VACANT 3,622 130 TELEFERIC BARCELONA 2,884 3,084 135 HUDSON GRACE 840 200 PACIFIC FOUNDATION 1,620 220 HENDERSON STRATEGIC FINANCIAL 271 240 CENTANA MANAGEMENT 1,038 250 PACIFIC FOUNDATION 1,498 260 LUMA PARTNERS 1,422 272 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 486 280 VACANT 297 290 VACANT 2,145 Building 4 Subtotal 29,270 8,777 6,610 44,657 151 THE BAR METHOD 3,186 157 VACANT 1,866 158 SUSHI HOUSE 1,633 160 VACANT 690 161 ROOST & ROAST 1,049 162 NATIONAL CHICKEN (OREN'S HUMMUS)852 307 LEAN IN 2,427 309 TERRADEX 367 311 RMWC 746 316 SECTION PARTNERS 441 317 LEAN IN 668 330 LEAN IN 414 333 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 813 350 BROADREACH CAPITAL PARTNERS 1,074 Building 5 Subtotal 7,643 6,949 1,633 16,224 Trader Joes 12,287 Building 6 Subtotal 12,287 0 0 12,287 TOTAL 129,049 22,454 20,477 171,980 % of TOTAL AREA 75%13%12%100% Ground Floor 150,246 Second Floor 21,734 Total 171,980 Vacant Ground Floor < 5000SF 20.5%35,226 Vacant Ground Floor > 5000SF 0 Vacant Second Floor 2.4%4,167 Total 22.9%39,393 City of Palo Alto (ID # 12111) City Council Staff Report Report Type: Action Items Meeting Date: 3/22/2021 City of Palo Alto Page 1 Summary Title: Update & Direction on Community and Economic Recovery Workplan Title: Approval of Revised Community and Economic Recovery Workplan and Budget Amendment in the General Fund From: City Manager Lead Department: Administrative Services RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends Council approval of the City of Palo Alto’s Community and Economic Recovery (CER) workplan, including the revised recommended prioritized projects contained within the four CER elements: Managing through the pandemic, Community well ness and wellbeing, Focused business support, and City priority initiatives and approval of an amendment to the FY 2021 Budget Appropriation Ordinance in the General Fund by: i) Decreasing the COVID-19 Recovery: Contact Tracing expense appropriation by $50,00 0 and ii) Increasing the COVID-19 Recovery: Business and Communication Support expense appropriation by $50,000. The appropriation action requires a simple majority for approval. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Through several conversations with the City Council in 2020 and 2021, the City has identified several recommended priority projects and work items related to Community and Economic Recovery. At the City Council meeting on January 25, 2021 the initial list of work items was presented for discussion and feedback from t he City Council through City Manager’s Report (CMR) 11967. On January 30, 2021 the City Council held its annual priority setting session, where it affirmed the importance of Community and Economic Recovery and approved three other priorities. Social Justice, Climate Change Protection and Adaptation, and Housing for Social and Economic Balance were the additional priorities approved on January 30, 2021. Each of these new City Council priorities had appeared in some form on the initial Community and Economic Recovery workplan list that was presented on January 25, 2021. Based on City Council feedback at the January 25, 2021 discussion and the establishment of the three additional priorities discussed above, staff has revised the list of CER work items for City Council City of Palo Alto Page 2 consideration. The work plan elements proposed through this report connect to Council priorities, ensure workplan elements directly align with Community and Economic Recovery and are prioritized to ensure organization support and capacity to further these efforts in the coming year and beyond, where anticipated. This represents a highly ambitious workplan that will test the City’s ability to successfully complete the tasks involved. Following up from the City Council direction on January 25, 2021, this report seeks approval of the revised Community and Economic Recovery workplan and further discussion on certain policy areas and projects contained in the workplan. An annotated version of the table presented to the City Council at the January 25, 2021 meeting with the four focus areas and individual work items for each, as well as the additional items added by the City Council in that discussion, is included as attachment A. The updated table visually maps out the changes from the January 25 workplan as it was presented then to this refined list, incorporating Council input and direction. The refined list of individual projects, noted as a through k, are discussed in greater detail in this report as Attachment B. This attachment includes the information originally transmitted for the January 25, 2021 conversation as well as additional context and updates since that meeting. This report does not restate the entirety of the background and context transmitted as part of CMR 11967. It should be noted that the City continues to face budget and financial challenges, contin ued pandemic uncertainties and continues to maintain ongoing essential services to support the Palo Alto community. As the City Council considers the prioritization of items in this report, it should keep in mind that the City continues to provide services with significantly fewer resources and this report provides a prioritization of project focus to assist with limited capacity and resources as a result. Some of the work items detailed in this report will likely require additional resources in order to accomplish them and/or to pursue the next phase of work. BACKGROUND Throughout Fall 2020, the City Council examined strategies for community and economic recovery. The City Council discussed these elements over multiple weeks, including looking at existing efforts such as “Uplift Local,” convening a panel of experts to discuss national and local trends, local revenue levels, what the future of work may look like, and providing initial reactions to staff’s organization of the ongoing workplan for Community and Economic Recovery. As noted, this topic was last presented to the City Council on January 25, 2021 and discussed with the City Council on that evening through City Manager’s Report (CMR) 11967. At that meeting, staff presented the report and discussed the various projects and anticipated work necessary to complete each item. As part of the City Council’s discussion, they added additional projects and directed staff to return with a comprehensive discussion of the projects to inform City of Palo Alto Page 3 implementation of the workplan and next steps, including the prioritization and necessary resource allocation to continue progress. The City Council directed staff to review the additional projects and return with an adjusted plan, the full text of the action is below for re ference: A. Direct Staff to proceed with the City of Palo Alto’s Community and Economic Recovery efforts and prioritized projects, community engagement strategies, and governance framework for future work; and agendize a discussion of the updated workplan based on tonight’s motion B. Direct Staff to bring forward budget adjustments to fund the following projects as part of the FY 2021 Mid-Year Budget Review to be funded from the Stanford University Medical Center (SUMC) Fund and Fiber Funds: i. Building Systems Improvements Project for City Facilities related to COVID-19 ($500,000); ii. Fiber to the Home funding for engagement ($200,000); C. Direct Staff to amend the prioritized Community and Economic Recovery workplan and future budget actions with the following: i. Provide an updated clear comprehensive and dynamic work safety plan; ii. Identify any additional open space projects that are needed in response to the emergency; iii. Initiate and return to Council with recommendations for an updated Foothills fire protection plan and required resources; and iv. Look at how to allocate additional resources to RV parking, unhoused, and childcare In addition, subsequent to that discussion, the City Council has reviewed the current financial status as part of the FY 2022-2031 Long Range Financial Forecast (CMR 11954) and the FY 2021 Mid-Year Budget Review (CMR 11872). Both reports articulated that the difficult work done to balance FY 2021 was necessary and the City continues to face additional gaps in the coming years depending on recovery timeframes and outside factors such as litigation. As such, the City Council provided direction as part of the FY 2021 Mid-Year Budget Review to make the reductions included in the FY 2021 Adopted Operating Budget ongoing based on its direction for financial planning through the Long-Range Financial Forecast. The FY 2021 Adopted Budget included a 11.3 percent reduction in the workforce in the General Fund, as 83 full-time staffing positions (76.50 FTE) were frozen and defunded and 107 part -time positions (26.18 FTE) were frozen and defunded as well. This represents an overall 18 percent reduction-in-force able to deliver services to the community. It is worthy of note that since the discussion held on January 25, COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve with vaccine roll-out including the Johnson and Johnson single-dose vaccine has been approved for use by the FDA; the County of Santa Clara advanced out of the ‘purple’ tier into the ‘red’ tier; eases restrictions on several indoor activities; and, City services continue to City of Palo Alto Page 4 expand as a result of less restrictions and staff is balancing that with continued safety protocols and measures to support visitors and residents. DISCUSSION On January 30, 2021 the City Council adopted four (4) priorities for 2021: 1) Climate change, protection, and adaptation, 2) Housing for social and econom ic balance, 3) Social Justice, and 4) Economic Recovery. As a result, this revised workplan refines the discussion from January 25, 2021 to focus on projects directly related to Community and Economic Recovery. Staff will continue to provide updates for the other City Council priority areas separately. For example, staff has already brought forward and held a Study Session on the Sustainability/Climate Action Plan and expects to bring another discussion in April . In addition, the Policy and Services Committee recently received it’s first quarterly update on the Race and Equity work and discussion of alternative service models for certain calls for service. Lastly, the Council is expected to consider a number of discussions regarding housing in the coming m onths starting in April. This revised plan further elaborates on the recommended prioritized projects across the focus areas: “Manage through the Pandemic,” “Community Wellness and Welfare,” “Focused Business Support,” and “City Priority Initiatives,” and seeks feedback and affirmation from the City Council regarding this prioritization and the resources necessary to accomplish these tasks. As this work continues, staff anticipates providing updates on the various work items to the full City Council and meeting with ad hoc groups and standing committees, as appropriate, to ensure progress can continue to be made. To best facilitate a comprehensive discussion on next steps, the initial list of focus areas and work items, as well as the additional items appr oved by the City Council on January 25, is annotated and detailed in Attachment A to describe the changes from the initial report to this report’s refined list. The chart below provides a summary of the focus areas and specific priority projects recommended within each area first discussed with the City Council in December 2020. Staff has developed these priorities based on the City Council input to date, including Council consensus that this workplan is the highest and most critical priority for 2021. and adjusted to be accomplished in parallel with the City Council priorities identified at their retreat on January 30, 2021. Some funding has been allocated, however, it is expected that additional resources will be necessary for some of these projects, as noted by the “(+$$$)”. City of Palo Alto Page 5 CI T Y C O U N C I L 2 0 2 1 P R I O R I T I E S • Climate change, protection and adaptation: Work continues through the Sustainability/Climate Action Plan (S/CAP) • Housing for social and economic balance: Work continues through the Housing Element and Housing Workplan • Social Justice: Work continues through the City’s 17 Race & Equity initiatives adopted through CMR #11754 with quarterly updates to Policy and Services • Economic Recovery: Community and Economic Recovery (CER) workplan projects outlined below CE R : M a n a g e t h r o u g h t h e Pa n d e m i c a) Maintaining services while managing daily pandemic needs such as testing, contact tracing, exposures, and other tasks necessitated by COVID-19 is currently the highest need of the City. b) Continue high-volume public communications and enhanced community engagement on managing through the COVID-19 pandemic to the City and the Community c) Provide an updated clear comprehensive Workplace Activation Plan (including remote staffing models) ($500k) CE R : Co m m u n i t y We l l n e s s & We l l b e i n g d) Support Community Wellness and Wellbeing through development of a series of community events, presentations, and engagement opportunities e.g. Wellness Wednesdays CE R : F o c u s e d Bu s i n e s s Su p p o r t e) Continue, and further promote, Uplift Local and other retail supportive strategies f) Provide technical support for workplace environmental upgrades to mitigate risks for local businesses g) Refine the scope and breadth of the City’s economic support activities (+$$$) CE R : C i t y P r i o r i t y In i t i a t i v e s h) Further accelerate Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and pursue expanded community engagement ($200k) i) Downtown redesign for cars, pedestrians, and bicycle travelers and visitors ($150k, design work only) j) Exploration of potential ballot measures (+$$$) k) Initiate and return to Council with recommendations for an updated Foothills fire protection plan and required resources Current recommended projects have been prioritized based on both project readiness and short- and long-term impacts. As the Council reviews these projects, resource constraints and resource needs must remain at the forefront and staff recommends approaching each project with a framework to ensure it is measurable and the outcome is defined and achievable. Staffing resources citywide have contracted over 7 percent, and more than 11 percent in the General Fund. This corresponds to an equivalent level of service reductions already implemented throughout the organization and the community. As outlined in the City’s FY 2022 Long Range Financial Forecast, the City will continue to face extreme fiscal pressures in the near term, further limiting resources. City of Palo Alto Page 6 Substantive text describing each work item from CMR 11967hat remains on the revised list of projects is included in Attachment B for the convenience of the councilmembers and the public. It also incorporates the additional work items passed by motion by the City Council for further examination as well as updates and additional information for the original items discussed on January 25. The chart below represents the anticipated level of effort over the next six quarters related to each of the revised recommended work items. Some items have resource needs that are anticipated to taper off as the County, City, and community progress along the state’s ‘Blueprint for a Safer California’, while others have resource needs that may ebb and flow. The darker green represents greater resource intensity, while lighter shades demonstrate lower resource needs. For example, “Continue high-volume public communications and enhanced community engagement” is expected to be resource intensive for COVID communications and community engagement until the summer Council break when it will taper down somewhat before scaling back up for anticipated community engagement. Spring 2021 Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Winter 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 a) Maintaining services while managing daily pandemic needs b) Continue high-volume public communications and enhanced community engagement c) Provide a clear, comprehensive, and dynamic workplace activation plan ($500k) d) Support Community Wellness and Wellbeing through community events e) Continue, and further promote, Uplift local and other retail supportive strategies f) Provide technical support for workplace environmental upgrades to mitigate risks for local g) Refine the scope and breadth of the City's economic support activities (+$$$) h) Further accelerate Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and pursue expanded community engagement ($200k) i) Downtown redesign for cars, pedestrians, bicyclists, and visitors ($150k) j) Exploration of Potential Ballot Measures (+$$$) k) Initiate and return to Council with recommendations for an updated Foothills fire Further detail and information on each of the revised work items can be found in Attachment A, including both the information originally discussed on January 25 and relevant and pertinent updates since that discussion. Enabling actions from City Council to Continue Projects In order to address the resource needs for the work items discussed, as well as to facilitate ongoing progress towards the workplan, staff anticipates returning to City Council on individual topics. Specifics of some of these are outlined in specific projects in Attachment B. This may include appropriation of additional resources such as the approval of funding for consultant resources to aid in refining the scope of the City’s economic support activities that is included in this report. Discussion by the City Council and feedback on these areas would be helpful to City of Palo Alto Page 7 continue progress on these projects, while recognizing that direction to increase levels of effort involved in one area will reduce capacity to complete others. Manage through the Pandemic • Support AB339, with amendments as necessary, to pursue hybrid City Council meetings that are both online and in-person after the City Council’s summer break and once the state is no longer facing the structure provided by the Safer CA Blueprint. Community Wellness and Wellbeing • Support “Wellness Wednesdays” and other community programming efforts Focused Business Support • Engage a consultant to facilitate refinement of the scope of the City’s economic support activities through conversation with the City Council City Priority Initiatives • Support augmenting existing resources to pursue work on items such as potential local ballot measures to meet necessary deadlines, including but not limited to polling, analysis, and outreach services (similar to the resources used on prior local measure initiatives). Not specific to one focus area but universal to all is the need to recruit for necessary staffing for certain projects in key areas of significant vacancies, such as but not limited to communications for Fiber to the Home engagement. Governance Given the breadth and scope of this work and its critical role in shaping Palo Alto over the coming months, the City Council directed staff to return to the full Council with updates and additional direction as needed as work on these elements continue. As resource needs further solidify, necessary additional appropriation actions will also be brought forward for City Council approval to ensure that progress towards completing the tasks described above can be achieved. Updates on various work items will be provided as often as practicable and feasible and may be through several approaches such as verbal comments during the City Manager’s Updates, informational reports to City Council, or study sessions and action items at City Council when necessary. In addition to returning to the City Council for updates, engagement with various ad hoc groups and standing committees (e.g. Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC), Architectural Review Board (ARB), Planning and Transportation Commission (PTC), Finance Committee (FC), and the Policy and Services (P&S) Committee) is also anticipated. Staff will also work to keep the community informed of progress on these work items, as described in greater detail in the Stakeholder Engagement section of this report. STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT City of Palo Alto Page 8 In various discussions the Council identified several areas for specific stakeholder engagement and enhanced community engagement for specific work items outlined above. A desire to cultivate community leaders including Emergency Services Volunteers, and neighborhood leaders to support recovery efforts is a key priority across all elements of the Community and Economic Recovery Strategy. There is also a separate but related County ambassador program underway and staff will continue to connect into this effort as appropriate to support community engagement during the pandemic. Currently, each prioritized work item is expected to include communications and community engagement elements. For example, Community Wellness and Wellbeing work items will include connecting with our local non -profits and arts organizations, building on community resiliency and other management through the pandemic would engage volunteers, and more. Staff is planning roundtable f orums for specific interest areas to allow for two-way communication and feedback on initiatives. Similar to the Race and Equity work, a central hub for information will continue through the City’s website, regular updates to the City Council and the community, and online and virtual engagement platforms will be used to engage and inform. In addition, staff is exploring a community leadership council concept or other venue to engage and tap into the City’s existing neighborhood associations and other engaged groups such as Cool Block neighborhood blocks, Emergency Services Volunteers. Not only would this provide an opportunity to maximize already established groups and networks and further community welfare and wellness. A broader group such as this is both resource intensive and would require increased responsibility on our community networks but may provide a singular place for engaged citizens and community leaders to tap into for information -sharing and an opportunity for those engaged to share with their networks as a way to connect together during this challenging time. Other community engagement tools in development related to this effort includes leveraging the capabilities of the City’s new website, as well as implementing a new online platform for multiway communication, that will support several priorities within the workplan such as the City’s Fiber to the Home priority. These tools will also connect community members to volunteer opportunities, enhanced community engagement options and more. In addition, staff is finalizing plans to re-establish the City’s Town Hall structure, launch neighborhood specific community conversations and continue and expand issue-specific engagement. RESOURCE IMPACT City of Palo Alto Page 9 The City continues to face unprecedent financial constraints. The prudent measures to contain costs in the adoption of the FY 2021 Budget have resulted in significant impacts on service delivery as well as position eliminations, reductions, and freezes. Additionally, the evolving nature of the pandemic has resulted in persistent uncertainty for economic and revenue forecasting, increased resources focused on safety as we balance service delivery during the pandemic, and the City will likely face continued adversity and resource scarcity over the coming years. Because of these circumstances, it is imperative that the City prioritize its ongoing work to ensure that the needs of the community remain met to the extent practicable and possible. The proposed Community and Economic recovery workplan will ser ve as the template for the prioritization of services and programs across the different recovery elements for the foreseeable future, from managing through the pandemic in the short - and medium-terms to focusing the City’s efforts on priority initiatives even through the long-term. To the extent additional resources are identified and need to be appropriated for recovery work items, they will be brought forward to City Council for approval. For example, this item, requests realignment of some of the COVID-19 recovery funding to ensure sufficient funding for the economic support scope work. This is a net zero transaction and requires a simple majority for approval. Through the remainder of FY 2021 and the development of the FY 2022 Budget, staff will continue to look for opportunities to reduce costs to align with available resources while minimizing impacts to the community. However, at this stage of resource scarcity it should be noted that every further reduction will constrain service delivery and limit options for meeting community expectations. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT The action recommended is not a project for the purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act. Attachments: • Attachment A: Community & Economic Recovery Workplan from January 25, 202 1 Annotated List • Attachment B: Community & Economic Recovery Project Updates for March 22, 2021 Attachment A: Annotated List of Work Items Attachment A: Annotated List of Community and Recovery Work Items as originally presented on January 25, 2021 with City Council Additions The table below shows the initial table of four priority areas and individual work items presented to the City Council on January 25, 2021 through CMR 11967. As a result of the discussion on January 25, 2021 and the subsequent City Council priority setting held on January 30, 2021, changes, modifications, and edits to the table were included in this staff report. These changes are detailed in the notes section following the table for each modification. When something presented on January 25 was changed it has been appended with a number corresponding to a specific note following the table. The revised table appears in the body of this City Manager’s Report; this annotated list is presented for ease of tracking and following what was initially presented and what is now recommended. Attachment A: Annotated List of Work Items Table 1. Annotated List of Community and Recovery Work Items a) Maintaining services while managing daily pandemic needs such as testing, contact tracing, exposures, and other tasks necessitated by COVID-19 is currently the highest need of the City b) Continue high-volume public communications and enhanced community engagement on managing through the COVID-19 pandemic to the City and the Community c) Ensure the continued safety of employees and visitors in various City facilities and workspaces1 Co m m u n i t y We l l n e s s & We l l b e i n g d) Support Community Welfare and Wellbeing through development of a series of community events, presentations, and engagement opportunities Support and promote childcare programs2 Provide school-aged youth programs2 Promote adult and senior wellness programs2 Build community emergency resilience2 Fo c u s e d Bu s i n e s s Su p p o r t e) Continue, and further promote, Uplift Local and other retail supportive strategies f) Provide technical support for workplace environmental upgrades to mitigate risks for local businesses g) Advance sustainability and electrification goals (i.e. expand electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure)3 h) Refine the scope and breadth of the City’s economic support activities Ci t y P r i o r i t y In i t i a t i v e s i) Further accelerate Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and pursue expanded community engagement j) Support experiences at Downtown and California Ave and redesign these corridors for cars, pedestrians, and bicycle travelers and visitors4 k) Develop remote work staffing models for delivery of services1 l) Continue progress on the Housing Workplan, with a focus on renter protection and affordable housing construction5 m) Exploration of potential ballot measures *NEW n) Sustainability/Climate Action Plan (S/CAP) *NEW3 Ci t y C o u n c i l Ad d i t i o n s o n 1/ 2 5 o) Provide an updated clear comprehensive and dynamic work safety plan1 p) Identify any additional open space projects that are needed in response to the emergency6 q) Initiate and return to Council with recommendations for an updated Foothills fire protection plan and required resources7 r) Look at how to allocate additional resources to RV parking, unhoused, and childcare8 NOTES: 1 These three items have been consolidated into one new item under the “Manage through the Pandemic” area titled “Provide an updated, clear, comprehensive, and dynamic workplace activation plan” that now encompasses the work for each of these items. 2 These individual sub-categories are no longer displayed on the chart; work on the Community Wellness and Wellbeing priority area is still anticipated to address each sub-category. 3 These two items will now be addressed through the “Climate Change Protection, Adaptation, and Resiliency” City Council priority approved by the City Council on January 30, 2021. 4 This item has been re-titled to “Downtown redesign for cars, pedestrians, bicyclists, and visitors” to better reflect the anticipated work that will focus on redesign options for University Avenue for consideration by the City Council and the Community. 5 This item will now be addressed through the “Housing for Social and Economic Balance” City Council priority approved by the City Council on January 30, 2021. 6 This item is discussed in this report (Attachment B) and will be reported out on through the Community Wellness and Wellbeing priority area in the future. 7 This item is discussed in this report (Attachment B) and will be reported out on through the City Council Priority Initiatives priority area in the future. 8 This item is discussed in this report (Attachment B) and will be reported out on through the “Housing for Economic and Social Balance” City Council priority approved by the City Council on January 30, 2021. Attachment B: Revised Recommended Community and Economic Recovery Plan Focus Areas and Priority Tasks – Updates for March 22, 2021 Revised Recommended Community and Economic Recovery Plan Focus Areas and Priority Tasks Through the four focus areas seen in Table 1 of the main CMR, staff has recommended several work items to focus resources on pursuing concurrently. For each focus area, the work items are described in greater to detail to aid in the prioritization of work and provide context regarding the scope, timeline, anticipated resources necessary to bring them to completion. Given the unprecedented resource constraints the City is facing, it will be necessary to focus resources to ensure measurable identified outcomes are attained and some of the proposed items that surfaced during the conversation with the City Council may not be able to be pursued immediately. Each item on the revised workplan also includes the relevant information from the chart in the main body of the CMR that shows the relative resource intensity through the next six quarters. This attachment also discusses the items added by the City Council on January 25, 2021 that do not appear on the revised recommended workplan for Community and Economic Recovery. Manage through the Pandemic This focus area had the strongest and most significant support from the City Council at the 2021 Priority setting session; staff accordingly recommends that each work item in this focus area continue to be prioritized. The workplan for this focus area includes the following items: a) Maintaining services while managing daily pandemic needs such as testing, contact tracing, exposures, and other tasks necessitated by COVID-19 is currently the highest need of the City This work requires close communication and coordination among the City Manager’s Office, the Office of Emergency Services, Human Resources, and the entirety of the organization. The volume of work required to maintain services and ensure employee and community safety by remaining in alignment with rapidly shifting health orders cannot be overstated. Even though vaccines are now being distributed throughout the country, state, and county, it remains unclear when they will be widely available and administered. As such, the highest priority of the City, as an organization and community, remains the provision and recalibration of services in the face of COVID-19. The City will continue coordination, to the extent practicable and possible, with other levels of government and elected officials. Update for March 22: As discussed above, this work requires extensive coordination throughout the entire City organization and now in partnership with the community as the County advances through the reopening tiers. This item is incredibly high-priority and directly impacts the ongoing community and economic recovery efforts of the organization as efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 continue. As the country, state, county, and city progress through those mitigation efforts, resource needs will likely be able to scale back and be redeployed to other areas such as providing newly allowable services. b) Continue high-volume public communications and enhanced community engagement on managing through the COVID-19 pandemic to the City and the Community This work has required a fully staffed communications team in the City Manager’s Office and the repurposing of staff resources (on average equivalent to approximately one position) from the Library and other departments in order to support the communication and community engagement needed to inform, engage and support the community through these difficult times. This volume of communication has been especially important given the rapidly changing circumstances that the community, businesses and community partners have encountered as a result of the changing Federal guidance, and State and County Public Health directives and restrictions. Guidance from the County evolves constantly, and quickly, and the frequency of the City’s communications has enabled it to convey the revised guidance to the community in a consistent, clear, and timely manner. Some focus areas include generating electronic newsletters, additional blogs on key issues and events, new webpages and websites, flyers, signage and printed materials, newspaper ads, news alerts and news releases, FAQs, and other timely communication to the City Council, community, businesses, and community partners. Other efforts include staffing the Community Support Call Center with redeployed resources. Update for March 22: Spring 2021 Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Winter 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 a) Maintaining services while managing daily pandemic needs Spring 2021 Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Winter 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 b) Continue high-volume public communications and enhanced community engagement Similar to the first item, this work requires a great deal of resources and the redeployment of staff that would otherwise be providing services directly to the community (such as library staff) to assist with functions like the call center. Given the rapidly developing changes and evolutions the County’s public health orders it has been incredibly important to have this function staffed. That importance will likely be maintained, if not increase, as the progress continues through different tiers to ensure consistent communication. As with Item A, it is hoped that resource needs will be able to scale back as efforts to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 are successful and that resources can be redeployed to services for the community. Changes to this area would severely limit the communication efforts between the City and the community and likely increase uncertainty regarding progress through the California Blueprint for a Safer Economy tiers and other efforts to manage public health and public safety. c) Provide a clear, comprehensive, and dynamic Workplace Activation plan Update for March 22: This work item consolidates three items that were discussed on January 25, 2021 with the City Council. It encompasses “Ensure the continued safety of employees and visitors in various City facilities and workspaces”, “Develop Remote Work Staffing Models”, and the City Council direction to staff to “Provide a clear, comprehensive, and dynamic workplace safety plan”. Staff has prepared a comprehensive and dynamic workplace activation plan that will be provided to the City Council under separate cover as an Informational Item. The plan will serve as a “living” document as the return from the pandemic evolves and will be adjusted to align to new health and safety information as it becomes known. The plan provides guidance for key safety issues such as: preparing for facility re-opening, staffing, entry and access points, general space configuration, common areas, elevators, and stairs, restrooms, breakrooms and meals, workstations and desk areas, gathering and meetings, infrastructure inspections, technology, vehicles and building systems such as HVAC and mechanical systems. As part of the mid-year budget discussion held on March 4, 2021, the City Council appropriated $500,000 for Building system improvements to aid in this work. With Santa Clara County’s move to the red tier, this work is now even more important as some community facilities – such as libraries - can now accommodate limited indoor access. Staff will continue to ensure that facilities’ retrofitting and reopening is aligned with community needs and safety considerations. As this work is completed, more facilities should comply Spring 2021 Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Winter 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 c) Provide a clear, comprehensive, and dynamic workplace activation plan ($500k) with operational and safety requirements as the region advances to the ‘next normal’. It is anticipated that some changes to the City facilities, especially City Hall, will evolve along with staffing needs related to other elements and work items described in this report. Examples include developing remote work staffing models and creating a comprehensive and dynamic work safety plan. Community Welfare and Wellbeing d) Support Community Welfare and Wellbeing through development of a series of community events, presentations, and engagement opportunities This work item includes developing a series of opportunities to discuss many of the adapted services available throughout the community providing forums for community engagement and presentations on topics related to health, wellness, and resiliency. This could include presentations by staff, guest speakers, or a panel of experts. Building on past practices of highlighting non-profits throughout the community at a Council meeting and the Library department speaker series, it is expected that this series would provide a reliable frequency of events that enriches the wellness and resilience of the community and highlights the services and its providers available to the community. Specific work items staff will prioritize and include in this series include: o Support and promote childcare programs Staff and the Palo Alto Advisory Committee on Early Care and Education Committee, which is an advisory committee to the City, on issues related to childcare and early learning, have been meeting bi-weekly with local childcare provider since the pandemic began. These meetings have given local providers a much-needed opportunity to get crucial information on County and State guidelines, share their operational struggles and successes, seek advice from other providers, and form a sense of community during these challenging times. Details discussed will then be shared with the community through the City’s communications channels. This work will continue through the short-term as the situation continues to evolve. o Provide school-aged youth programs Both the Community Services and Library Departments continue to provide programming and leadership growth opportunities for school-aged youth and teens. While the format of these program offerings has shifted to a virtual model, the range of programs continues to represent academic, creative, social and athletic interests of Palo Alto youth. Staff continues to develop innovative programs for youth, such as a mindfulness program and opportunities for safe outdoor activities. o Promote adult and senior wellness programs Similar to youth programs, the City continues to provide programming for adults. The Library will continue to develop and provide community read events (Palo Alto Reads, Book to Action, and Silicon Valley Reads) and ESL programming for English language learners. These types of events allow the community to virtually meet, connect together, and discuss important topics as well as learn and interact with each other. Staff will continue to explore ways to promote the City’s programming/services to adults, looking closely at opportunities to form collaborations/outreach with other local groups. o Build community emergency resilience The Office of Emergency Services (OES) continues to coordinate with other agencies and City departments during this ongoing public health emergency. At the same time, the City is preparing for a wide range of other possible threats and hazards; more information on those efforts can be found at www.cityofpaloalto.org/thira. Additionally, the City’s Emergency Services Volunteer (ESV) program continues to grow, providing training to residents, businesses, and other community members. See www.cityofpaloalto.org/emergencyvolunteers for more information on these efforts. Finally, the City is evaluating new technologies to address our evolving budget and personnel constraints, to increase efficiency of identification of, response to, and recovery from various critical incident scenarios. Part of this focus area includes expanding community engagement opportunities for the community to learn and gain tools to be ready for future emergencies and build resiliency, specifically focused on the first few days of an emergency. Update for March 22: Staff is currently developing a Wellness Wednesday series, which will be curated virtual programming hosted by the City the third Wednesday of every month. Planned topics include: an introduction to mindfulness sessions (with an event in March for adults and another in May for teens), earthquake preparedness in April to coincide with California’s earthquake preparedness month, and using creative media for improved wellness. Depending on the topic presenters could include staff or external subject matter experts. The logistical and programming support work can be extensive, and the resource needs are greater when staff presents the materials. When the new City website launces, there will be a comprehensive calendar of community events that can be sorted and filtered to align with the interest of the viewer. The calendar will be kept up to date with events as they are added and serve as a “one-stop” listing of events hosted and sponsored by the City. In addition, these events will be featured on subject specific webpages as filtered calendars to help inform the community. For example, Wellness Wednesdays will be listed on the City’s Be Well webpage here and Race and Equity related events and engagement opportunities will be listed on the City’s Race and Equity webpage, here. Staff are also currently planning a May Fete community-wide event, a Fourth of July celebration, and are exploring smaller events like movies in the park, and drive-in movies or performances to ensure opportunities for community enrichment despite constraints precluding traditional activities. Spring 2021 Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Winter 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 d) Support Community Wellness and Wellbeing through community events Focused Business Support e) Continue, and further promote, Uplift Local and other retail supportive strategies The City will continue to pursue opportunities to promote local businesses through the “Uplift Local” initiative and facilitate communication among key stakeholders to ensure that concerns can be addressed. This may include things like changes to physical infrastructure (i.e. repurposing University and California Avenues) or encouraging support of local businesses. Actions already attributed to this program include fast-tracked permitting processes, opening of car-free streets in both University and California Avenue business cores, and roundtable meetings with the businesses in these areas to have a continuous dialogue on needs, challenges, and adaptations in alignment with changing health order regulations. These actions include permitted outdoor business activities such as restaurants, retail shops, salons, and fitness and a parklet program. Frequent communication, education and support regarding health order requirements and mandates of local businesses will also continue. Staff established a dedicated website to connect the community to local businesses, developed holiday related campaigns, and hosted ongoing monthly check-ins and an ongoing online survey for the community to raise concerns, share input and gain updates on this program and other related City initiatives. Update for March 22: Staff has continued to hold frequent meetings with merchants at two of the city’s commercial cores of Downtown and California Avenue to hear from them regarding concerns and to formulate responses to those concerns. The dedicated website to promote local businesses to the community and visitors has had more than 1,000 unique visitors. In addition to meeting with stakeholders, staff provide focused, one-on-one support for permit applications and resolving issues along Uplift Local streets., Staff also provide timely information and resources to the local business community through e-mail, dedicated digital newsletter and other communication efforts. One outcome of the work with local businesses has been the closure of California Avenue and portions of University Avenue and Ramona to vehicular traffic. The ground-floor businesses of California Avenue were very supportive of closing the streets once outdoor dining was allowed. Downtown businesses had a greater range of preferences; ultimately the closure pattern returned. Spring 2021 Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Winter 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 e) Continue, and further promote, Uplift local and other retail supportive strategies Additionally, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, through partnership with the San Mateo Chamber of Commerce, the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce, and the City of Palo Alto, created the Palo Alto Restaurant Relief Grant program. This program has sponsored more than $250,000 in $10,000 grants to local restaurants. Two webinars were held to help answer questions from prospective applicants, and the application period ran from February 22 through March 8. After reviewing applications to ensure applicants meet the qualifications, these grants will be randomly awarded to qualified applicants and disbursed. More information is available on the City’s webpage dedicated to this program, which can be found here: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/services/public_safety/plans_and_information/coronavirus /reopening_together/restaurant_relief.asp Over the medium and long-term, this work item will have significant overlap with item ‘g’ – Further refine the scope of the City’s economic support activities, which is discussed in greater detail below. f) Provide technical support for workplace environmental upgrades to mitigate risks for local businesses The Utilities Department is currently exploring options for partnering with a contractor that can provide an evaluative service to audit workplace safety of local businesses. This would include examining airflow, air filtration, and other mitigation options for businesses to ensure that they are able to operate while minimizing risk to employees, customers, and visitors. Update for March 22: Staff has identified a vendor that can assist with this work under an existing contract. The vendor is available to begin this work in April and will audit workplace safety through smart technology that can assist with things like air flow, HVAC optimization and the installation of a high efficiency air filtration based on American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air- Conditioning Engineers’ recommendations, temperature, and others. As part of the vendor’s medium size businesses (SMB) Save Program, they will also offer SMB’s efficiency as a service financing option. The program is an off-balance sheet financing solution that allows customers to implement energy efficiency projects with fewer upfront capital expenditures. Once a project is complete the customers make payments solely based on the savings realized within a monthly billing period through an energy service agreement (ESA). The ESA payments then continue until the entire project cost has been paid in full at which point the customer realizes the savings on an ongoing basis. Spring 2021 Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Winter 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 f) Provide technical support for workplace environmental upgrades to mitigate risks for local g) Further refine the scope of the City’s economic support activities Throughout the conversations in the fall of 2020, the City Council expressed interest in revisiting the economic support function of the City of Palo Alto. As the City Council provides greater direction on what this function could entail staff will be able to respond with options for addressing those concerns. A potential first step in this process could be conducting an economic scan of the City to assess the current economic landscape of the City and options to expedite the economic recovery while also addressing community needs. Accomplishing that task will require additional funding for consulting services. Update for March 22: Staff has begun to identify potential vendors that can research, analyze, and refine a potential scope of services for economic support activities. Staff anticipates that vendor presenting to City Council to discuss options for ongoing economic support activities and iterating on the initial scope of services, which can then be used to create a Request for Proposal and engage outside consultant resources to provide the agreed-upon services on an ongoing basis. The ongoing services will be decided through conversation with the City Council and be based both on that conversation as well the availability of outside resources to help provide those services. Depending on the scope of services, the resource needs to provide the services will scale commensurate with the scope. This work would continue through each phase as part of the City’s ongoing work. This CMR includes the appropriation of $50,000 for the initial work to begin. City Priority Initiatives h) Further accelerate Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and pursue expanded community engagement The COVID-19 Pandemic has emphasized the need for a comprehensive Fiber to the Home (FTTH) initiative. Already, staff has accelerated the FTTH business case and fiber expansion plan through a contract amendment with Magellan Advisors (City Manager's Report #11580). The amendment includes development of a business case and high-level design for FTTH, a local broadband market assessment, exploration of public private partnership business models, and community surveys. Preliminary findings and recommendations are scheduled to be completed by Q2 2021. Should Council confirm authorizing this project and the appropriation of $200,000 in additional funding, staff will be developing a new customer engagement platform for community outreach and enhanced communications for FTTH initiative. In addition to providing project updates, the platform will enable community stakeholders and members to provide input on key topics under consideration and enable the City to gauge public sentiment for decision making. This platform will also connect the community together in a Spring 2021 Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Winter 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 g) Refine the scope and breadth of the City's economic support activities (+$$$) new way further enhancing two-way communication on this and other City priorities and services. Communications resources will be needed to further this work; requiring use of authorized budgeted resources including personnel and contracts. In addition, public- private partnership models and partners and/or service providers that the City could engage with to build-out a citywide FTTH. The City is also considering offering a cost-share bundle package of services to residential neighborhoods which includes FTTH, electric undergrounding, and electrification. Project management resources are being explored and additional resources may be needed to ensure successful execution of this major City effort and would be brought back during one of the City’s budget actions. Update for March 22: Magellan, the firm that the City is leveraging for this work, is scheduled to present the FTTH business case and high-level network design to the UAC and Council in April and May respectively. The business case will include a broadband market assessment, cost drivers, risks and rewards, financial models, and deployment approaches. The next major step will be community engagement. Council approved $200,000 appropriation at mid-year for community outreach and enhanced communications for FTTH. The City will partner with Magellan to develop a plan including a web-based customer engagement platform, surveys and focus groups that will assess options for expanding access to affordable high-speed fiber-optic internet service throughout the community. Should Council approve the business case and deployment approach, Magellan will begin a detailed engineering design for FTTH by performing a field walk out of all routes to validate running lines, existing utilities and constructability. i) Downtown Redesign for cars, pedestrians, bicyclists, and visitors The City continues to look at options for supporting the two retail cores on University and California avenue through strategies such as the installation of bollards and other means for car-free streets. Initial work involves examining how the City can redefine and narrow vehicular lanes and provide flexible opening and closing of streets on a trial basis in the short term. Additionally, with Council’s direction to prioritize this, staff would begin a full redesign of the University Avenue streetscape to increase vibrancy by expanding pedestrian and outdoor spaces available for use by visitors and businesses while allowing for flexible opening and closing of reduced vehicular lanes. Spring 2021 Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Winter 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 h) Further accelerate Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and pursue expanded community engagement ($200k) Update for March 22: As part of the mid-year budget action, the City Council appropriated $150,000 of funding in the Capital Fund from the Stanford University Medical Center (SUMC) Expansion Cost Mitigation Fund to establish a project and begin design of options for parklets and other reconfigurable spaces in the retail cores to facilitate car-free streets. In the near-term, staff will evaluate trial basis street configuration changes that could be implemented on a block by block basis on University, potentially allowing weekend or other flexible closures to traffic. Concurrently, staff is preparing a RFP to solicit proposals for design, community engagement, and cost analysis for a larger University Avenue reconfiguration that could be pursued over a timeframe of several years. Retailers, restaurants, and other businesses continue to take advantage of opportunities to conduct business outdoors where the risk of transmitting COVID-19 is lower than indoors. This includes restaurants securing permits for sidewalk dining, dining on closed public streets, and parklet dining. Presently, the City has issued permits for parklets (both at-grade and platform) and encroachment permits for sidewalk and/or street dining. The City Council authorized the City Manager to close certain public streets to vehicular traffic through May 31, 2021. The City Council authorized parklets until September 6, 2021. Staff will return to Council this spring to discuss whether either of the opportunities should be continued. The continuance of these programs intersects with the potential capital improvements that may be proposed. j) Exploration of potential ballot measures *NEW Update for March 22: As discussed with the City Council on January 25, 2021, the City has a range of options available for aiding community and economic recovery. Through the FY 2022 budget process, the City is actively engaging in conversations with the community and stakeholders regarding expenses. These include both services and Capital construction costs. However, another element that could be explored is potential revenue-generating ballot measures. Examples of these could be a revision to the City’s documentary transfer tax to fundraise for affordable housing construction or a business tax. Spring 2021 Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Winter 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 i) Downtown redesign for cars, pedestrians, bicyclists, and visitors ($150k) Spring 2021 Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Winter 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 j) Exploration of Potential Ballot Measures (+$$$) Significant work regarding a potential business tax was underway through the first half of FY 2020 but was de-prioritized in the face of COVID-19. Should the City Council wish to revisit the business tax and/or other potential ballot measures, significant outside resources will be needed to assist in the analysis, stakeholder engagement, and polling for any measure. Furthermore, the sooner that the City Council can “funnel” potential ballot measures into the ones it most wants to pursue, the more effectively and efficiently staff resources can be deployed. Staff anticipates a preliminary conversation with the Finance Committee regarding options for resuming development of a potential business tax and discussing affordable housing needs no later than June 2021. Bundling conversations regarding potential local ballot measures will ensure that the City Council and the community are able to effectively prioritize staff time and resources to pursue ballot measures that are most likely to reach completion and ultimately be decided by voters through the election in June 2022. Items Added by the City Council on January 25 k) Initiate and return to Council with recommendations for an updated Foothills fire protection plan and required resources The Council directed staff specifically to identify improvements to the Foothills Fire Management Plan, capabilities to detect fires and means to notify the public, and coordination and communication among first responder and other assisting agencies – including the use of volunteers and other non-government resources. The City is exploring the creation of a Foothills Fire Early Warning System (FFEWS). The City has gained some experience in the use of advanced sensor technology, artificial intelligence, and remote monitoring services through the Intrusion Detection System (IDS). Leveraging such technology could be a prudent use of limited resources. The City may issue a Request for Information (RFI) to gain more knowledge about the complex technologies and other best practices, many of which are evolving. Staff anticipates returning to Council with more details and potential approaches as this work continues. Identify any additional open space projects that are needed in response to the emergency Open space preserves are experiencing record high visitation due to COVID-19 and the restrictions the pandemic has placed on travel and regular indoor and outdoor group activities. Staff resources have been redeployed to Palo Alto’s Open Space Preserves in response to the increased visitation to assist with more frequent restroom cleanings, increased trash collection, and customer service, parking, and traffic control. Additional resources have been needed to add, and update, signage throughout preserves to advise visitors on best practices for responsibly enjoying open space areas, clearly identify no parking areas, and identify one-way trails. Spring 2021 Summer 2021 Fall 2021 Winter 2021 Spring 2022 Summer 2022 k) Initiate and return to Council with recommendations for an updated Foothills fire protection plan and required resources Foothills Park visitation has been especially high after it opened to the public in December 2020. In response to this increase, and to ensure the safety of park visitors and protection of the natural environment, the City Manager convened a group of Foothills partners to include staff; the City’s nonprofit partners Grassroots Ecology, Friends of Foothills Park, and Environmental Volunteers; members of the Parks and Recreation Commission; Stanford University, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, and the Town of Los Altos Hills. Three working groups were formed to identify needs related to people, the environment, and infrastructure. These groups meet bi-weekly and are working on several initiatives to make the park experience not only more enjoyable and safer for park users, but to ensure impacts to the natural environment are minimized. The Infrastructure Work Group has met twice in early March to walk areas at Foothills that are seeing high usage by pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicles and identify and document needed improvements. Examples of the types of improvements include reducing or eliminating spaces shared by pedestrians and vehicles, clearly identifying trails and walkways, and improving functionality of parking areas. Many of these improvements will be costly so there is a need for near-, mid- and long-term prioritization. The Work Group is exploring ways to involve park users in helping to prioritize these needed improvements. Staff anticipates presenting the results of the Work Group’s efforts at the April Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. Look at how to allocate additional resources to RV parking, unhoused, and childcare On April 5, 2021 the City Council will hear a status report on services for the unhoused. The update will include further details on the City’s Safe Parking program, support services available and other opportunities to support the City’s unhoused and housing insecure members of the Palo Alto community. Community members are encouraged to attend to share their thoughts with the City Council. City of Palo Alto (ID # 12089) City Council Staff Report Report Type: Action Items Meeting Date: 3/22/2021 City of Palo Alto Page 1 Summary Title: FY 2021 CIP Follow Up Title: Review of and Potential Direction Regarding Planned Fiscal Year 2021 Capital Projects From: City Manager Lead Department: Public Works Recommendation Staff recommends that Council review and provide direction on proceeding with Fiscal Year 2021 capital project contracts planned to be approved by the end of June 2021. Background In Spring 2020, Council directed staff to assume a more conservative revenue estimate reflecting a loss of $39 million in General Fund t ax revenues in the development of the Fiscal Year 2021 (CMR # 11315) budget from previously projected levels prior to the onset of the pandemic. As a result of Council’s direction, staff returned with service reductions to prioritize essential services to align expenses with lower revenue estimates. The development of the Fiscal Year 2021 Adopted Budget (CMR #11330) included a detailed review of capital projects against a set of key objectives and criteria for moving forward and ensured that the City continued capital investments in its most critical infrastructure. These objectives included: • reducing carryover funding to “keep-up” spending on essential infrastructure rather than falling behind and requiring new funding sources or levels to “catch-up” in upcoming years; • positioning shovel-ready projects to take advantage of favorable construction market pricing typical of a recession; • minimizing near-term funding of discretionary projects; and • ensuring a steady flow of projects to minimize peaks and valleys in project delivery staffing needs, as this would reduce efficiency and introduce bottlenecks in productivity. These objectives were included in the City Council’s consideration of the City’s Capital budget, which was adopted by the City Council in June 2020. The Fiscal Year 2021 adopted capital budget for the Capital Improvement Fund is $174.4 mi llion, including $102.8 million for the Public Safety Building project (PE-15001) and $71.6 million for all remaining Capital Improvement Fund projects. For comparison, the adopted budget for the Capital Improvement Fund was $86.1 million in Fiscal Year 2020. CITY OF PALO ALTO City of Palo Alto Page 2 Discussion Capital Improvement Program Projects with Contracts Expected in Fiscal Year 2021 On March 1, 2021, as part of the FY 2021 Mid-Year Budget Review, Council discussed the list of Fiscal Year 2021 capital projects that were planned to have con struction or design contracts approved by the end of the fiscal year (CMR #11872). Council asked staff to return with additional information for Council consideration. Attachment A includes the projects previously identified with additional information regarding project status, critical elements and issues, restricted funding sources, time sensitivity, and potential for phasing. Some example photos of existing conditions and issues on projects included in this report are shown in Attachment B. FY 2022 Budget Process and Reappropriations Staff is actively working to develop the Fiscal Year 2022 Proposed Budget which is expected to be released next month and Finance Committee meetings in May. As part of the typical development process for the proposed budget, and in response to Council’s direction regarding potential deferral of capital projects, staff is actively reviewing Fiscal Year 2021 capital project status and funding needs. This review includes updating estimated project costs and developing recommended changes to the projects, including recommendations to reappropriate funding for key investments to FY 2022 or to return funding to the Capital Improvement Fund reserve. Thus far, through this process, staff was able to identify preliminary FY 2021 savings estimated at $2.7 million. Savings is expected to be achieved through closing contracts and deferring non- critical projects or project scope elements. Staff expects this review and the recommended adjustments to be included in the proposed FY 2021-22 budget. Table 1 below provides a preliminary look at the projects that staff expect to bring forward for adjustment to achieve this estimated $2.7 million in savings; existing funding is expected to be recommended to be returned to the Capital Improvement Fund reserve. Not included are projects that will be recommended for reappropriation from FY 2021 to FY 2022. In 2016, staff and the City Council changed the capital budget process and ceased automatic carryforward of unencumbered capital project funds. As a result, reappropriation (movement of appropriated funding between two fiscal years) is required. These are done as part of the annual budget process and included in the proposed, adopted, and year-end clean- up actions for City Council review. City of Palo Alto Page 3 Table 1: Projects with funding in FY 2021 expected to be returned to fund balance CIP # Project Name CIP # Project Name PE-08001 Rinconada Park Improvements PO-10000 Sign Reflectivity Upgrades PE-09003 City Facility Parking Lot Maintenance PO-89003 Sidewalk Repairs PE-12017 City Hall 1st Floor Renovations OS-18001 Pearson Arastradero Preserve Parking Lot Imprv PE-14018 Baylands Boardwalk Improvements PE-18002 High & Bryant Garages Waterproofing Repairs PE-18001 CalTrain Corridor Video Management PE-15007 New Downtown Parking Garage PF-01003 Building Systems Improvements PL-16001 Downtown Mobility & Safety Improvements PF-02022 Facility Interior Finishes To increase transparency and Council’s ability to fully consider the capital budget, staff plans to adjust the typical information provided for the Proposed Capital Budget, which always includes detailed project pages for each capital project (e.g. timeline, scope, major project changes, five years of planned funding, ongoing costs, and compliance with governing plans such as the Comprehensive Plan) to include: - reappropriation amounts specifically called out (not combined in a project total) - supplemental materials that will specifically identify the individual projects and funding amounts proposed for reappropriations in a consolidated form. Staff’s goal with these adjustments is to assist in the Finance Committee’s review of the proposed 5-year capital improvement plan. Resource Impact Funding for the projects discussed in this report has been appropriated in the Fiscal Year 2021 Capital Budget and no additional resources are needed. However, should these projects be delayed or closed, project funding would be adjusted and considered as part of the FY 2022 budget process. Stakeholder Engagement Stakeholder engagement is conducted separately for each project. Environmental Review Each project discussed in this report performs environmental review as part of the project development process. Attachments: • Attachment A - FY 2021 Capital Projects • Attachment B - Photos of Existing Conditions ATTACHMENT A Attachment A - 1 CIP Number Project Title FY 2021 Adjusted Budget Estimated Contract Amount Project Summary Status Critical Elements/Issue Restricted Funds Time Sensitivity** Potential Phasing AC-18001 JMZ Renovation* $2,362,282 Multiple contracts totaling $0.6M This project supports the City’s contributions to the new JMZ and includes a contract for fabrication of exhibits. Bids received / Contract pending Exhibits required for a fully functioning JMZ when reopened. Opening expected during FY 2022. Grant funding and Impact Fee Funds High No PE-08001 Rinconada Park Improvements $2,485,231 $2.0M This project will provide safety, site amenities, playground facilities, irrigation, drainage and ADA accessibility improvements. The planned new restroom has been removed from the scope of work to reduce cost. Ready to bid Safety concerns for uplifted and cracked pathways and 24-year-old playground equipment that need to be replaced. Coordination and connections required between park and new JMZ. Park Improvement Funds (can potentially be switched to general fund funding) High This project is phase 1 of 2 phases. Can potentially be further phased. PE-13011 Charleston / Arastradero Corridor Project $8,046,137 $6.6M This project provides new landscaped median islands, bulb outs, enhanced bike lanes, traffic signal improvements and new street trees for the corridor. Out to bid (bids due on March 30) This phase completes the 2.3 mile corridor project including major intersection work at El Camino Real, Middlefield Road, Louis / Montrose and Fabian Way. The expenditures for this project count toward the maintenance of effort required to receive SB1 funding. No, however does count toward MOE requirement for SB1 funding. High This project is phase 3 of 3 phases. Can potentially be further phased but will increase cost. Attachment A - 2 CIP Number Project Title FY 2021 Adjusted Budget Estimated Contract Amount Project Summary Status Critical Elements/Issue Restricted Funds Time Sensitivity** Potential Phasing PE-15020 Civic Center Waterproofing Study and Repairs $667,056 $0.4M This project will repair the expansion joint on King Plaza and replace the waterproof coatings on the inside of the plaza perimeter planter boxes Finalizing plans Water infiltration at the expansion joint and planter boxes continue to damage the waterproofing membrane and seeps into the Police Building. No High No PE-18004 Fire Station 4 Replacement $950,000 $0.8M This phase of the project will design a replacement Fire Station #4 facility at the corner of Middlefield Road and East Meadow Drive. Ready to award – 4/5 Current FS#4 is operationally and technologically deficient. This will provide a facility built to essential services standards. Design is estimated to take approximately 2 years. SUMC funds Medium Yes. Staff is proposing to complete the design now (approximately 2 years) with construction following. PE-18016 Civic Center Fire Life Safety Upgrades $606,314 $0.6M This project will assess, update, and replace the Civic Center fire alarm system. The fire alarm panels and associated equipment need an upgrade to meet current code requirements. Ready to award -4/5 Work needed to meet current codes. Other improvements at Civic Center were already completed pending this project. Work is easier to complete while Civic Center is mostly empty. No High No PE-20002 City Facilities Assessment & Record Plan $314,800 $0.4-0.5M This project will conduct an assessment of all City facilities, including an Ready to bid Last city-wide facility assessment was done in 2008, building codes No; additional funding is likely to be needed to Medium Yes. Staff is planning to do separate contracts for Attachment A - 3 CIP Number Project Title FY 2021 Adjusted Budget Estimated Contract Amount Project Summary Status Critical Elements/Issue Restricted Funds Time Sensitivity** Potential Phasing Management System electrification assessment in support in support of the City’s “80x30” sustainability goal. have changes dramatically since then. The electrification assessment is supported by the condition assessment to begin planning for City facility electrification. support the electrification assessment. the assessment and record plan management system. PE-21003 Magical Bridge Playground Rubber & Synthetic Turf Resurfacing $404,050 $0.4M This project will replace broken playground elements and replace the rubberized/synthetic turf surfacing in the playground. Finalizing plans Due to high use, portions of accessible playground surfacing have worn out. Large sections of surfacing must be regraded and replaced to maintain safety and accessibility. No High No PE-86070 Street Maintenance $11,616,435 1) $1.1M 2)$2.6M This project includes the annual resurfacing, micro- seal, crack seal and reconstruction of various city streets. Previous contracts awarded for FY 2020 (summer 2020) totaled $6.5M. Contracts for FY 2021 include FY 2021 Streets Preventive Maintenance Project 1)Ready to award – 4/15 2)Out to bid (bids due April 6) Streets in the overlay contract have an average PCI of 44. Streets have been coordinated with Utilities Dept. The expenditures for this project counts toward the maintenance of effort required to receive SB1 funding. SB1, VRF, Measure B and Gas Tax Funding totaling $5.2M High No Attachment A - 4 CIP Number Project Title FY 2021 Adjusted Budget Estimated Contract Amount Project Summary Status Critical Elements/Issue Restricted Funds Time Sensitivity** Potential Phasing and the FY 2021 Street Resurfacing Project (totaling $3.7M) PF-01003 Building Systems Improvement* $452,478 $0.2M This project provides electrical, mechanical, plumbing, structural, and security upgrades for City facilities. This includes a construction contract for the Mitchell Park (two complexes) and Rinconada tennis/pickle ball courts lighting upgrades. Ready to bid Existing lights are difficult to replace and prevent users from using the court in the evenings This would upgrade lights to LED which would reduce energy consumption and maintenance costs. Extensive outreach has been done with the court users to replace the lights. No High No PF-16006 Municipal Service Center Lighting, Mechanical, and Electrical Improvements $6,523,608 $0.2M This project will replace original MSC mechanical, electrical, and lighting systems installed in 1966. Finalizing contract amendment A design contract amendment for additional electrical design work is required to complete the design. Contributions from Refuse, Utilities and Vehicle Replacement Funds Medium Yes. The design contract can be awarded in FY 2021 and the construction can be deferred. PF-17000 Municipal Service Center A, B & C Roof Replacement $2,169,800 $2.0M This project will replace the existing MSC roofs. Ready to bid This project rehabilitates the existing roof system to avoid further deterioration. If this project is postponed, a Contributions from Refuse, Utilities and Vehicle Replacement Funds High No Attachment A - 5 CIP Number Project Title FY 2021 Adjusted Budget Estimated Contract Amount Project Summary Status Critical Elements/Issue Restricted Funds Time Sensitivity** Potential Phasing *Projects with contract amounts anticipated to be under the $250,000 threshold requiring Council approval. ** Time Sensitivity is driven by grant funding deadlines, safety concerns or project coordination. complete roof replacement may be necessary. PG-14000 Ramos Park Improvements* $209,000 $0.2M This project includes safety and accessibility improvements, including replacing the existing park playground, benches, drinking fountains, and resurfacing the basketball court playing surface, as well as installing a new restroom. Finalizing plans Safety and accessibility improvements including replacement of 27- year old playground and surfacing to meet current codes. Park Impact Fees for restroom installation only ($350,000 from CIP PG- 19000). High Yes. The restroom installation can occur in a later phase but is funded by Park Impact Fees. PG-14002 Cameron Park Improvements* $217,900 $0.2M This project will upgrade and renovate safety and accessibility features with a primary focus on the park playground. Finalizing plans Safety and accessibility improvements including replacement of 21- year old wood playground. No High No PL-15002 Downtown Automated Parking Guidance Systems, Access Controls & Revenue Collection Equipment $2,726,860 $2.4M This project includes design and installation of new automated parking guidance systems. Ready to award Provides infrastructure as a means to reduce congestion, minimize air quality impacts and provide live occupancy counts. No Medium Yes. This contract will install systems at 3 of the 4 Downtown garages. 1 Attachment B – Existing Condition Photos PE-08001 Rinconada Park Improvements Attachment B 2 PE-15020 Civic Center Waterproofing Study and Repairs 3 PE-21003 Magical Bridge Playground Rubber & Synthetic Turf Resurfacing 4 PF-01003 Building Systems Improvement – Tennis/Pickleball Court Lighting Upgrades 5 PG-14000 Ramos Park Improvements PG-14002 Cameron Park Improvements City of Palo Alto (ID # 12103) City Council Staff Report Report Type: Action Items Meeting Date: 3/22/2021 City of Palo Alto Page 1 Summary Title: Ramos Park - Park Improvement Ordinance Title: Adoption of a Park Improvement Ordinance for Renovations at Ramos Park (Continued From March 8, 2021) From: City Manager Lead Department: Community Services RECOMMENDATION The Parks and Recreation Commission and Staff recommend that City Council adopt the attached Park Improvement Ordinance (Attachment A) for renovation of the playground and park amenities and installation of a restroom at Ramos Park. BACKGROUND Capital improvement funding of $200,000 for Fiscal Year 2021 was approved by City Council to address park renovation needs at Ramos Park (CIP Project Number PG-14000). The renovation includes infrastructure, accessibility, and maintenance improvements. The existing playground is the main park amenity to be replaced as it has been in use beyond its life expectancy of 15 years. These improvements are anticipated to begin in Summer 2021 with a construction period of 90 days. Additionally, capital improvement funding of $350,000 was approved by City Council to add a restroom to the park (CIP Project Number PG-19000). Installation of a new restroom is anticipated to be in FY 2022, dependent upon the availability of staff to manage the project. PROJECT DESCRIPTION The project primarily focuses on the playground, access, and surrounding park furnishings as diagramed in Exhibit A. (1) Remove and replace existing toddler playground with a playground spanning the age of toddlers through children age five and above; (2) Installation of a new prefabricated restroom building; (3) Expansion of concrete walkway loop path connection; (4) Replace or install site furnishings such as benches, trash receptacles, and drinking fountain; (5) New 42” tall chain link fencing along E. Meadow Drive at the North East City of Palo Alto Page 2 turf area; (6) Addition of new basketball court striping and new basketball hoop at the existing paved area; and (7) Planting of native trees and shrubs. DISCUSSION Two community meetings were held as part of the design review to present the proposed renovation items and receive feedback from the community. An in-person meeting was held on January 29, 2020 and an online virtual meeting was held on August 13, 2020. Additional community input was collected through an online survey, which received input from 198 community members. The response from community members in attendance at the meetings to the proposed renovation plans were positive and supportive. Community input on the design was used to identify the location of the restroom, expand the age-range and type of the playground equipment, develop pathway connections, and to include native habitat plantings. The Ramos Park Renovation Project was also discussed at the February 25, 2020 and August 25, 2020 Park and Recreation Commission (Commission) meetings. The Commission reviewed draft design options, community input, and provided design input. On December 15, 2020 , the Commission unanimously recommended approval of the Park Improvement Ordinance as shown in Attachment A. Dog Park Discussion During the first community meeting several community members in attendance brought up off - leash dogs in the park as a long continuing issue. As a result of that community input, a question was added to the on-line community survey concerning the addition of a fenced dog park within Ramos Park. Of the 198 responses received from the on-line survey, 117 were in favor of adding a dog park to the park to control the off-leash activity while 81 opposed. Per the results of the on-line survey, two dog park options were presented at the second community meeting: one for a fenced in dog park and one for an off-leash pilot program that would designate an open turf area in the park for off-leash use per limited morning and afternoon hours. The community preferred the off-leash dog park option as it had minimal impact on the overall park layout and use, the adjacent neighbors, and cost to implement. At the December 15, 2020 Parks and Recreation Commission meeting, staff recommended and presented an off-leash pilot program for the Commission to consider. After the discussion, the Commission felt that the off-leash pilot program would not ultimately stop the encounter between park users and off-leash dogs, and that the proximity to the program med sports field in the park along with the limited hours of proposed off-leash use times (7am-9am & 5pm-7pm or by dark) did not address the issue of off-leash dogs in the park. The Commission requested staff to further explore a fenced dog park in Ramos Park with the community. The first meeting to discuss a fenced dog park in Ramos Park was held on February 10, 2021. Staff presented a City of Palo Alto Page 3 proposed location and layout for the fenced dog park. The community members attending the meeting were not supportive of a fenced dog park area. Due to the continuing discussion on how to proceed, the dog park was separated from the overall CIP project, as funding would come from the separate Dog Park CIP rather than the Ramos Park Improvement CIP. This would ensure the park renovation items associated with this PIO stayed on schedule without being delayed by the dog park discussion. The dog park could be implemented later without any impact to or from the renovation project. The Parks and Recreation Commission plans on discussing the topic again at a future meeting and will determine at that point if they would like to proceed further with the community outreach on the topic. This current Park Improvement Ordinance being requested for Ramos Park excludes any dog park elements. TIMELINE • Second Reading of Ordinance March 22, 2021 • Project Bidding Spring 2021 • Council Approval of Contract Spring/Summer 2021 • Project Construction Summer 2021 • Project Construction Duration 90 days RESOURCE IMPACT Capital Improvement Projects PG-14000 (Ramos Park Improvements) and PG-19000 (Park Restroom Installation) were approved by City Council for funding in Fiscal Year 2021 for approximately $200,000 and $350,000 respectively. PG-14000 is funded by the City’s General Fund and PG-19000 is funded by Parks Development Impact Fe es. The funding for both CIPs is sufficient to fund the improvements recommended in this report. Excluding the restroom, ongoing operating and maintenance costs are anticipated to be minimal and absorbed by the existing maintenance funding within the annual operating budget. Cleaning and maintenance for the new restroom will cost approximately $10,000 annually and be brought forward as a budget request in future budget cycles. POLICY IMPLICATIONS Staff is advancing this recommendation as reflected in the City’s adopted budget. Council adoption of a Park Improvement Ordinance (PIO) is required before any substantial building, construction, reconstruction, or development begins within City parkland (PAMC Section 22.08.05). Adoption of a PIO is a necessary step in completing park renovations like those described in Staff Report #11976 for Ramos Park, however; this action does not obligate the City to complete all of the project features within a certain timeframe. The project could be delayed or only a portion could be completed. As part of the replacement of the playground, the playground surface at Ramos Park needs to be replaced within the next six months due to age and hardening. The surfacing repairs will cost approximately $15,000. The PIO atta ched to this agenda item is needed for that work to proceed. City of Palo Alto Page 4 This project is consistent with the Parks Master Plan: Goal 2: Enhance the capacity, quality and variety of uses of the existing system of parks, recreation and open space facilities and services. Policy 2.A: Sustain the community’s investment in parks and recreation facilities. Policy 2.E: The City will actively pursue adding park restrooms in parks that are approximately 2 acres or larger, have amenities that encourage visitors to stay in the park, have a high level of use and have no nearby restrooms. This project is also consistent with the City’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan: GOAL L-8: Attractive and safe parks, civic and cultural facilities provided in all neighborhoods and maintained and used in ways that foster and enrich public life. Policy C-3.2: Reinvest in aging facilities to improve their usefulness and appearance. Avoid deferred maintenance of City infrastructure STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Two public outreach meetings were held on January 29, 2020 and August 13, 2020. These meetings were followed by a public survey. Additionally, review of park renovation design was discussed with the Commission at their February 25, 2020 and August 25, 2020 meetings. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW This Project is categorically exempt from CEQA pursuant to Regulations 15301 for Existing Facilities and 15303 for New Construction or Conversion of Small Structures. Attachments: • Attachment A - Ordinance Approving and Adopting a Plan for Facility Improvements at Ramos Park • Exhibit A - Ramos Park Proposed Renovations • Attachment B At Places Memo from 03-08-21 *NOT YET ADOPTED* 1 215_20201130_ts_24 ORDINANCE NO. Ordinance of the Council of the City of Palo Alto Approving and Adopting a Plan for Facility Improvements at Ramos Park The Council of the City of Palo Alto does ORDAIN as follows: SECTION 1. Findings and Improvements. The City Council finds and declares that: (a) Article VIII of the Charter of the City of Palo Alto and section 22.08.005 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code require that, before any substantial building, construction, reconstruction or development is commenced or approved, upon or with respect to any land held by the City for park purposes, the Council shall first cause to be prepared and by ordinance approve and adopt a plan therefor. (b) Ramos Park (the “Park”) is dedicated to park purposes. (See Municipal Code section 22.08.170 et seq.) (c) The City intends to authorize the renovation of various facilities at the Park. (d) The plan of improvements shall comprise as follows: (1) Remove and replace existing toddler playground with a playground spanning the age of toddlers through children age five and above; (2) Installation of a new pre-fabricated restroom building; (3) Expansion of concrete walkway loop path connection; (4) Replace or install site furnishings such as benches, trash receptacles, and drinking fountain; (5) New 42” tall chain link fencing along E. Meadow Drive at the North East turf area; (6) Addition of new basketball court striping and new basketball hoop at the existing paved area; and (7) Planting of native trees and shrubs. (e) Exhibit A depicts the expected implementation of the plan of improvements. (f) The plan of improvements described above is consistent with park, playground, recreation, and conservation purposes. (g) The City Council desires to approve the plan of improvements described above. *NOT YET ADOPTED* 2 215_20201130_ts_24 SECTION 2. The City Council hereby approves the plan of improvements in the Park described in this Ordinance. SECTION 3. The City Council finds that this ordinance falls under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemptions found in Title 14 California Code of Regulations Section 15301 (Existing Facilities) and Section 15303 (New Construction of Small Facilities or Structures). SECTION 4. This ordinance shall be effective on the thirty-first day after the date of its adoption. INTRODUCED: PASSED: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTENTIONS: ATTEST: City Clerk Mayor APPROVED AS TO FORM: APPROVED: Deputy City Attorney City Manager Director of Community Services Director of Public Works *NOT YET ADOPTED* 3 215_20201130_ts_24 Exhibit A (see diagram on following page) Exhibit 'A' ;!_oop Path Extension Restroom 42" Tall Chainlink Fence Ramos Park Renovation Exhibit Exhibit 'A' ;!_oop Path Extension Restroom 42" Tall Chainlink Fence Ramos Park Renovation Exhibit 1 of 1 TO: HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL FROM: ED SHIKADA, CITY MANAGER DATE: MARCH 8, 2021 SUBJECT: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER 5 - TITLE: ADOPTION OF A PARK IMPROVEMENT ORDINANCE FOR RENOVATIONS AT RAMOS PARK Council adoption of a Park Improvement Ordinance (PIO) is required before any substantial building, construction, reconstruction, or development begins within City parkland (PAMC Section 22.08.05). Adoption of a PIO is a necessary step in completing park renovations like those described in Staff Report #11976 for Ramos Park, however; this action does not obligate the City to complete all of the project features within a certain timeframe. The project could be delayed or only a portion could be completed. As part of the replacement of the playground, the playground surface at Ramos Park needs to be replaced within the next six months due to age and hardening. The surfacing repairs will cost approximately $15,000. The PIO attached to this agenda item is needed for that work to proceed. _______________________ _________________________ Ed Shikada Kristen O’Kane City Manager Director, Community Services 5 CITY OF PALO ALTO COUNCIL COLLEAGUES' MEMO March 22, 2021 The Honorable City Council Palo Alto, California Colleagues' Memo: Discussion and Adoption of a Resolution Denouncing, Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the City of Palo Alto Recommendation City Council consideration of a Colleague’s Memo from Council Members DuBois, Kou, and Tanaka requesting the Council adopt the proposed Resolution advancing inclusion and belonging for people of all races, national origins, and ethnicities and gu aranteeing the safety and security of the American people. Goals Advance inclusion and belonging for people of all races, national origins, and ethnicities is critical to guaranteeing the safety and security of the American people. The City of Palo Alto should combat racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and should work to ensure that all members of AAPI communities — no matter their background, the language they speak, or their religious beliefs — are treated with dignity and equity. Background and Discussion During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, inflammatory and xenophobic rhetoric has put Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) persons, families, communities, and businesses at risk. The Federal Government has played a role in furthering these xenophobic sentiments through the actions of political leaders, including references to the COVID-19 pandemic by the geographic location of its origin. Such statements have stoked unfounded fears and perpetuated stigma about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and have contributed to increasing rates of bullying, harassment, and hate crimes against AAPI persons. These actions defied the best practices and guidelines of public health officials and have caused significant harm to AAPI families and communities that must be addressed. Despite these increasing acts of intolerance, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have contributed to making our City and the Bay Area more secure during the COVID-19 pandemic and throughout our history. Page 2 Nationally, an estimated 2 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have served on the front lines of this crisis as healthcare providers, as first responders, and in other essential roles. Resource Impact No resource impacts are anticipated from adoption of the proposed Resolution. ATTACHMENTS: • Attachment A: Draft Resolution (DOCX) Department Head: Beth Minor, City Clerk 20210317 th 0140215 Resolution No. _______ Denouncing, Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the City of Palo Alto R E C I T A L S A. Twenty-three million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders account for seven percent of the Nation’s population in the United States; and B. Over two million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are working on the frontlines of this COVID–19 pandemic in health care, law enforcement, first responde rs, transportation, supermarkets, and other service industries; and C. The use of anti-Asian terminology and rhetoric related to COVID–19, such as the ‘‘Chinese Virus’,” ‘‘Wuhan Virus’,” and ‘‘Kung-flu’’ have perpetuated anti-Asian stigma; and D. Such rhetoric is inaccurate and stigmatizing, tends to incite fear and xenophobia, and may put individuals of Asian ancestry at risk of retaliation and deterrence from accessing resources and services, appearing in public, and expressing their identity; and E. As SARS-CoV2 has spread, numerous Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities have reported AAPIs experiencing microaggressions, racial profiling, hate incidents and, in some cases, hate violence due to fears of COVID-19. NOW, THEREFORE, the Council of the City of Palo Alto RESOLVES as follows: SECTION 1. The City denounces xenophobia and anti-AAPI sentiment and condemns harmful rhetoric and racist acts arising due to the fears of the COVID -19 pandemic. SECTION 2. The City joins cities, counties, and states across the country in affirming its commitment to the safety and well-being of citizens, non-citizens and visitors with ancestry from the Asia Pacific region and in combating racist acts targeting AAPIs. SECTION 3. The City Council encourages community-based organizations, advocacy groups, as well as other appropriate officials and agencies across the county, to partner in the protection of AAPI residents and victims of discrimination and to curb hate acts related to COVID - 19. These partnerships are critical to combating the victimization and blame that have impacted minority groups throughout society. SECTION 4. The City Council urges the local and regional news media to responsibly and vigilantly report incidents involving hate acts, as well as to partner with community-based organizations to highlight AAPI stories and uplift the contributions of AAPI-owned businesses and AAPI-led organizations. / / 20210317 th 0140215 SECTION 5. The City calls upon all counties, cities, and local governments across the United States to adopt similar commitments to reaffirm their solidarity with AAPI communities and commit to combating hate and improving health equity. INTRODUCED AND PASSED: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTENTIONS: ATTEST: APPROVED: City Clerk Mayor APPROVED AS TO FORM: ______________________________ City Attorney City Manager City of Palo Alto (ID # 11978) City Council Staff Report Report Type: Informational Report Meeting Date: 3/22/2021 City of Palo Alto Page 1 Summary Title: Contracts Awarded by the City Manager and Procurement Officer Title: Report on Contracts Awarded by the City Manager and Procurement Officer per Palo Alto Municipal Code (PAMC) Section 2.30.710, for the Period of July 2020 Through December 2 020 From: City Manager Lead Department: Administrative Services Recommendation This is an information report, no action is required. Discussion Palo Alto Municipal Code (PAMC) Section 2.30.710 requires the City Manager to provide a biannual report to Council consisting of contracts awarded by the City Manager, Procurement Officer or other designated employees for: 1) General and professional services in excess of $25,000; and 2) Public works and goods in excess of $85,000. Attachment A (regarding contracts for goods in excess of $85,000) and Attachment B (regarding contracts for services in excess of $25,000) fulfill this PAMC reporting requirement for the period from July 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. The contracts in Attachment A consist of 13 distinct awards for goods, and the contracts in Attachment B consist of 44 distinct awards for a wide range of services. These awards are a core element of the efficient and effective provision of services by the City to our community and reflect extensive coordination and prudent decision-making among operating departments, the Administrative Services Department, the City Attorney's Office, and City Clerk's Office. For informational purposes, Attachment C provides excerpts from the Palo Alto Municipal Code that set forth the authority designated by Council to the Procurement Officer to award and sign contracts (PAMC 2.30.200), City Manager to award and sign contracts (PAMC 2.30.210), City Manager to award and sign emergency contracts (PAMC 2.30.160 and 2.30.210(f)) and City of Palo Alto Page 2 exemptions from competitive solicitation (PAMC 2.30.360 and 2.30.900), as noted for certain contracts listed in Attachments A and B. COVID-19 Public Health Emergency During the six-month period of January 2020 to June 2020, the world began grappling with COVID-19, a global pandemic. The financial implications of this public health emergency are significant, with regional, national and global impacts on economies in response to shelter in place orders required by the State of California and the Count y of Santa Clara and related social distancing restrictions. On March 12, 2020 the City Manager, acting as the Director of Emergency Services, issued a Proclamation of Local Emergency regarding the presence and community spread of COVID-19 in Santa Clara County and our region. On Sunday, March 15, 2020, the City Manager activated the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and since that time, the City has managed the EOC virtually through a cross-functional multi-departmental team. On March 16, 2020, the City Council ratified the Proclamation of Local Emergency. This proclamation of local emergency has continued to be extended. As such, during the period of January 2020 to June 2020, the City entered into emergency contracts. The contracts were reported on City Council Staff Report ID #11488. The period of July 2020 to December 2020, the City did not enter into emergency contracts (defined as contracts for goods or services necessary to protect the public health, safety, and welfare in the event of an emergency) in accordance with the emergency contracting and procurement provisions of the municipal code (PAMC Sections 2.12.060, 2.30.160 and 2.30.210(f)). Attachments: • Attachment A: Material Contracts Awarded by CPO & CM July to December 2020 • Attachment B: Services Contracts Awarded by CPO & CM July to December 2020 • Attachment C: Excerpts from the Palo Alto Municipal Code Goods Contracts Awarded ($85,000 and above) July 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 ATTACHMENT A Contract Award To Award Date Award Amount Bidding Exemption or Number of Bids Sent/Received Description ADVANCED CONTROL SYSTEMS, INC.07/03/2020 133,333.34 2.30.360(d)ACS Products-Year 2 of 3 years ANIXTER POWER 12/31/2020 117,214.24 2.30.360(d)15kV 3 Phas12/14/2e Vacuum Switch (RVAC) GENERAC MOBILE PRODUCTS LLC 12/01/2020 100,223.94 2.30.360(J)Mobile Generator HILL BROTHERS CHEMICAL COMPANY 07/01/2020 100,000.00 10/3 magnesium hydroxide LN CURTIS & SONS 08/04/2020 120,000.00 2.30.360(d)Misc. small tools and Equipment-Year 1 of 3 Years NATIONAL AUTO FLEET GROUP 07/01/2020 167,918.66 2.30.360(k)Ford F220 with Crane NATIONAL AUTO FLEET GROUP 07/31/2020 233,214.15 2.30.360(k)Isuzu FTR Low Pro Cab Box Truck OLIN CHLOR ALKALI PRODUCTS 07/03/2020 118,500.00 92/3 Bulk Sodium Hypochlorite R & B COMPANY 07/22/2020 105,000.00 2.30.360(d)Pipes, Valves, & Fittings- Year 1 of 3 Years THE OKONITE COMPANY 09/09/2020 233,008.73 2.30.900 Cable, AL 1/0 15 kV EPR 220 Mil TMT ENTERPRISES INC 10/15/2020 150,000.00 518/3 Sand Rock Gravel TRAYER ENGINEERING CORP 09/08/2020 225,000.00 2.30.360(d)Submersible Load Switches- Year 3 of 3 Years WESTGEN POWER SOLUTIONS LLC 07/19/2020 198,590.00 72/2 Mobile Solar Generator Attachment A - 1 Service Contracts Awarded ($25,000 and above) July 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 ATTACHMENT B Contract Award To Award Date Award Amount Bidding Exemption or Number of Bids Sent/Received Description BAYSPORT PREVENTIVE MEDICAL GROUP 10/05/2020 44,775.00 2.30.360(i)FY 20 - Testing, Physiology BIBLIOCOMMONS INC.09/01/2020 70,148.00 2.30.360 (d)BiblioCommons - Year 1 of 3 Years BING HUO 11/25/2020 46,000.00 2.30.360(i)modeling associated with Climate Action Plan CARAHSOFT TECHNOLOGY CORP.07/09/2020 83,848.80 2.30.360(j)DocuSign Enterprise Pro & Prem CONCERN:EAP 10/28/2020 35,000.00 3/1 EAP -Year 1 of 3 Years CONRAD & METLITZKY LLP 10/26/2020 25,000.00 2.30.360(g)Legal Services COURTESY CLEANERS & DRAPE INC 08/26/2020 31,200.00 10/2 PD Police Uniform Cleaning Yr CROSS LAND SURVEYING, INC 07/01/2020 50,000.00 2.30.360(i)As-Needed Land Surveying CROWN WORLDWIDE MOVING & STORA 09/22/2020 41,571.79 3/2 move to new JMZ DAVID J POWERS & ASSOCIATES IN 09/22/2020 52,485.00 2.30.360(h)650 Clark Way - IS/MND-Cost Recovery DLT SOLUTIONS LLC 09/30/2020 35,400.50 3/3 AutoCAD Govt Single User DUKE'S ROOT CONTROL, INC.10/15/2020 65,253.70 750/1 Root Foaming Project 2020 DUNCAN WEINBERG GENZER & PEMBR 08/13/2020 60,000.00 2.30.360(g)Professional Legal Services ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ECONO 12/08/2020 25,000.00 2.30.360(i)Electrification cost effectiveness Study ESCI INC 11/23/2020 47,200.00 2.30.360(i)Electrical Safety Training FLYNN RESOURCE CONSULTANTS INC 12/10/2020 49,000.00 2.30.360(i)Consulting Services – CAISO Transmission project GE DIGITAL LLC 12/17/2020 27,621.28 2.30.360 (d)iFIX iClient Run v5.8 GEORGE M HILLS COMPANY INC 08/14/2020 26,000.00 2.30.360(g)Professional legal Services GHD INC 08/24/2020 25,000.00 2.30.360(i)COP Oil Containment Study IOPREDICT INC 12/21/2020 28,577.20 2.30.360(i)Job Recruitment Analysis JACKSON LEWIS PC 07/30/2020 50,000.00 2.30.360(g)Legal Services KOPPL PIPELINE SERVICES INC.09/22/2020 85,000.00 2.30.360(d) Removal of 10" gas- year 1 of 3 years LAW OFFICES OF SUSIE BERLIN 08/12/2020 30,000.00 2.30.360(g)Professional legal services LIQUIVISION TECHNOLOGY INC 08/24/2020 35,090.00 3/3 Tank Cleaning & Inspection LUCKY RAE GOMEZ 09/24/2020 41,001.00 472/1 Middle School Referees; as of 2.18.21, srvcs not used. MAXIM CRANE WORKS, L.P.08/27/2020 50,000.00 8/1 Crane Services- Year 1 of 3 Years MOORE IACOFANO GOLTSMAN INC 12/02/2020 54,135.40 2.30.360(i)Baylands CEQA study NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER INC.12/17/2020 27,000.00 2.30.360(i)Community Survey 2020 NEWDORF LEGAL 07/07/2020 30,000.00 2.30.360(g)Legal Services NIXON PEABODY LLP 07/07/2020 25,000.00 2.30.360(g)Legal Services Cal/OSHA NORTHERN CALIFORNIA POWER AGEN 08/10/2020 50,000.00 2.30.360(i)60kV Breaker Technical Support ATTACHMENT B - 1 Service Contracts Awarded ($25,000 and above) July 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020 ATTACHMENT B NYOTRON USA INC 09/14/2020 49,100.00 3/1 PARANOID Agent Level 4 MDS PALO ALTO HISTORICAL ASSOCIATI 07/13/2020 35,000.00 2.30.360 (i)Professional Services PITNEY BOWES SOFTWARE, INC.12/21/2020 65,287.96 2.30.360 (d)Pitney Bowes Renewal - Year 1 of 2 Years POWERFLEX SYSTEMS INC 10/07/2020 220,000.00 12/1 EV Charger Installation Project RANKIN STOCK HEABERLIN O'NEAL 08/04/2020 25,000.00 2.30.360(g)Professional legal service RANKIN STOCK HEABERLIN O'NEAL 09/15/2020 25,000.00 2.30.360(g)Legal Services TRUE BLUE AUTOMATION SERVICES 12/03/2020 55,412.00 50/11 IFB- Electrical Improvements UNIVERSAL SECURITY COMPANY 12/16/2020 32,829.30 2.30.360(i)Security Services at Magical Bridge VAN DERMYDEN MADDUX LAW CORP 09/02/2020 25,001.00 2.30.360(i)VDM - Work Place Investigation VOX NETWORK SOLUTIONS 12/23/2020 60,800.41 2.30.360 (d)VOX Maintenance - FY21 WBCP INC 08/28/2020 85,000.00 3/1 Recruiting services for the Utilities Department XEROX CORPORATION 10/26/2020 79,200.00 2.30.360(J)City Wide Print Shop Copiers YOUTH COMMUNITY SERVICES 09/30/2020 50,000.00 2.30.360(i)YCS Youth Connectiveness Initiative ATTACHMENT B -2 ATTACHMENT C Excerpts from the Palo Alto Municipal Code Chapter 2.30 – Contracts and Purchasing Procedures 2.30.200 Procurement officer contract award authority. The Procurement Officer may award and sign the following contracts: (a)Public Works Contracts. Public works contracts, where the term does not exceed three years, and the contract price and any price contingency established for change orders, but excluding sales tax or use tax, do not exceed $85,000.00 in the first contract year, and do not exceed the sum of $85,000.00 and any unexpended monies carried forward from a prior contract year, in any subsequent contract year. (b)Contracts for Goods. Contracts to purchase goods, where the term does not exceed three years, and the contract price and any price contingency established for change orders, but excluding sales tax or use tax, do not exceed $85,000.00 in the first year, and do not exceed the sum of $85,000.00and any unexpended monies carried forward from a prior contract year, in any subsequent contract year. (c)General Services Contracts. General services contracts, where the term does not exceed three years, and the contract price and any price contingency established for change orders or additional services, but excluding sales tax or use tax, do not exceed $85,000.00 in the first contract year, and do not exceed $85,000.00 and any unexpended monies carried forward from a prior contract year, in any subsequent contract year. (d)Professional Services Contracts. Professional services contracts, where the term does not exceed three years, and the contract price, and any price contingency established for additional services, but excluding sales tax or use tax, do not exceed the sum of $85,000.00 in the first contract year, and do not exceed the sum of $85,000.00 and any unexpended monies carried forward from a prior contract year, in any subsequent contract year. (e)Software and Hardware Purchase, Licensing, Maintenance and Support Contracts. Notwithstanding Subsection 2.30.200(c), the Procurement Officer may award and sign contracts other than general services agreements, including, without limitation, vendor-based standard form hardware and software purchase and licensing contracts, for the purchase of hardware and software, the licensing of software, and the maintenance and support of hardware and software, where the term of licensing or maintenance and support services does not exceed five years and the contract price, excluding sales tax or use tax, does not exceed $85,000.00 per year in the first contract year and does not exceed the sum of $85,000.00 and any unexpended monies carried forward from a prior contract year, in any subsequent contract year. The contracts referred to herein may include contracts for data storage services, which shall be subject to the city's information security policies, terms, conditions and other requirements established by the chief information officer with the concurrence and approval of the City Attorney. (Ord. 5494 § 9, 2020: Ord. 5387 § 1 (part), 2016: Ord. 4827 § 1 (part), 2004) 2.30.210 City Manager contract award authority. The City Manager may award and sign the following contracts: (a)Public Works Contracts. Public works contracts, where the term does not exceed three years, and the contract price and any price contingency established for change orders, but excluding sales tax or use tax, do not exceed $250,000.00 in the first contract year, and do not exceed the sum of $250,000.00 and any unexpended monies carried forward from a prior contract year, in any subsequent contract year. (b)Contracts for Goods. Contracts to purchase goods, where the term does not exceed three years and the contract price and any contingency established for change orders, but excluding sales tax or use Attachment C - 1 tax, do not exceed $250,000.00 in the first contact year, and do not exceed the sum of $250,000.00 and any unexpended monies carried forward from a prior contract year, in any subsequent contract year. (c)General Services Contracts. Contracts for services associated with the leasing or licensing of personal property other than hardware or software, where the term does not exceed seven years, and the contract price and any price contingency established for change orders, but excluding sales tax or use tax, do not exceed $85,000.00 in the first contract year, and do not exceed the sum of $85,000.00 plus any unexpended monies carried forward from a prior contract year, in any subsequent contract year. (d)Contracts for Studies and Services Related to Private Development. Professional services contracts for: (1) the preparation of environmental assessments or other studies deemed necessary by the director of planning and development services for the processing of applications for private development projects, or (2) inspection and plan review services deemed necessary by the director of planning and development services to evaluate conformity of private development projects with applicable building codes, regardless of the cost or term thereof, provided the applicant for the private development project agrees, in writing, to bear responsibility for the entire contract cost, and the contract does not require the expenditure of city funds in any amount. (e)Rewards. The City Manager may offer and pay rewards where the amount of the reward does not exceed $25,000.00, in accordance with the procedures of Section 2.30.800. (f)Emergency Contracts. The City Manager is authorized to expend city funds for emergency contracts, as defined in Section 2.30.160, without limitation on the contract cost or amount and without following the contract solicitation and award procedures otherwise required by this chapter, provided that any procurement of goods and services obtained during an emergency declared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency shall comply with applicable FEMA Public Assistance Program's procurement orders, rules, regulations, guidelines and control procedures for cost reimbursement purposes. Expenditures made during an emergency must be reported to the Council at the next regular meeting if approval for such expenditures would otherwise have been made by the Council. The City Manager may issue a verbal report to the Council before a written report is delivered. (g)Contracts to Rent, Lease, License, Acquire, Transfer or Purchase Interests in Real Property from Other Parties. Contracts for the rental, leasing, licensing, or purchase by installment interests in real property from other parties for a term of seven years or less, where the contract price does not exceed $85,000.00 per year, or to encumber or transfer any interest in real property from other parties for any term of years. The City Manager may enter into and sign a contract to acquire or purchase an interest in real property, where the contract price does not exceed $85,000.00. (h)Contracts to Rent, Lease, or License City Real Property to Other Parties. The authority granted under this Section is distinct from the authority of the director of community services to grant individuals and groups permits for the exclusive temporary use of buildings and facilities located in, and the areas of, city parks and open spaces, as described in Chapter 22.04 of this municipal code or in the park and open space regulations. The City Manager may award and sign contracts to rent, lease or license city real property to other parties regardless of the price for a term not exceeding three years. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, the City Manager may enter into and sign contracts for the rental, lease or licensing of real property at the Cubberley Community Center for terms of up to five years. (i)Contracts to Provide Municipal Services to other Public Entities or Utilities. A contract to provide municipal services and functions to any other public agency, public utility or other public entity in any amount for a term not exceeding three years, provided the contract is in compliance with all Council- adopted policies covering such contracts. The authority granted herein does not include the authority of the City Manager to add permanent employee positions. (j)Contracts Providing for Indemnity or Risk of Loss. The City Manager, with the concurrence and approval of the City Attorney and the insurance risk manager, may enter into and sign contracts, otherwise within the limits of his or her authority under Section 2.08.140 of this municipal code, that provide for the city or its officers or employees to defend, indemnify, or assume the risk of damage, loss, Attachment C - 2 or liability for, or subrogate to any other contracting party respecting claims, demands, actions, losses or liabilities arising from the city's performance or non-performance under the contract. (k) Wholesale Utility Commodities and Services Contracts. Wholesale utility commodities and services contracts, where the term does not exceed five years and the contract price does not exceed $250,000.00 in any contract year. (l) Software and Hardware Purchase, Licensing, Maintenance and Support Contracts. Notwithstanding Subsection 2.30.210(c), the City Manager may award and sign contracts other than general services agreements, including, without limitation, vendor-based standard form hardware and software purchase and licensing contracts, for the purchase of hardware and software, the licensing of software, and the maintenance and support of hardware and software, where the term of licensing or maintenance and support services does not exceed seven years and the contract price, excluding sales tax or use tax, does not exceed $85,000.00 per year in the first contract or fiscal year and does not exceed the sum of $85,000.00 and any unexpended monies carried forward from a prior fiscal year, in any subsequent contract or fiscal year. The contracts referred to herein may include contracts for data storage services, which shall be subject to the city's information security policies, terms, conditions and other requirements established by the chief information officer with the concurrence and approval of the City Attorney. (m) Other Contracts. All other types of contracts for which the contract term does not exceed three years and the total expenditure by the city does not exceed $85,000.00 in the first contract or fiscal year, and does not exceed the sum of $85,000.00 and any unexpended monies carried forward from a prior fiscal year, in any subsequent contract or fiscal year. (Ord. 5494 §§ 3, 10, 2020: Ord. 5387 § 1 (part), 2016: Ord. 4827 § 1 (part), 2004) *** 2.30.360 Exemptions from competitive solicitation requirements. The following are exemptions from the informal and formal competitive solicitation requirements of this chapter, except as otherwise provided. These exemptions will be narrowly interpreted and applied. The department requesting an exemption shall provide all relevant information supporting the application of the exemption to the Procurement Officer. Based upon this information, the Procurement Officer shall make a recommendation to the City Manager and the City Manager shall determine whether an exemption from the competitive solicitation requirements applies. Nothing herein is intended to preclude the use of competitive solicitations, as practicable. (a) Emergency Contracts, provided that any procurement of goods and services obtained during an emergency declared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency shall comply with applicable FEMA Public Assistance Program's orders, rules, regulations, guidelines and control procedures for cost reimbursement purposes. (b) Whenever solicitations of bids or proposals would for any reason be impracticable, unavailing or impossible, provided that in the case of a public works project, the project is not otherwise required by the charter to be formally bid. These situations are those where solicitations of bids or proposals would not be useful or produce any operational or financial advantage for the city. Situations where solicitations of bids or proposals would be impracticable, unavailing or impossible, include, without limitation, the following: (1) Contract specifications cannot be drawn in a way that would enable more than one vendor, consultant or contractor to meet them; Attachment C - 3 (2) Due to circumstances beyond the control of the city, the time necessary to use the competitive solicitation process, procedures and requirements would result in a substantial economic loss to the city or the substantial interference with a required city operation; (3) Special conditions attached to a grant, donation or gift requires the use of particular goods and/or services. All requests for exemptions under this subsection shall be supported by written documentation (facsimile or electronic mail may be used), approved by the department head and the Procurement Officer. (c) Where competitive bids or requests for proposals have been solicited and no bid or proposal has been received, or where no bid or proposal meeting the requirements of the invitation to bid or request for proposals has been received, provided that, in the case of a public works project, the project is not otherwise required by the charter to be formally bid. (d) Contracts for goods, wholesale commodities and services, general services or professional services available from only one source, where the Procurement Officer has determined, in writing, there is no adequate substitute or equivalent provider. Examples of acceptable sole source acquisitions or purchases may include, without limitation: equipment or services for equipment, for which there is no comparable competitive product or service except that provided by the equipment manufacturer, distributor or dealer; proprietary products sold directly by the manufacturer; a component or replacement part, for which there is no commercially available substitute and which can be obtained only from the manufacturer; goods where there is only one authorized distributor in the area; and goods where compatibility with goods in use by the city is an overriding consideration. All requests for sole source acquisitions or purchases shall be supported by written documentation (facsimile or electronic mail may be used), approved by the office or department head, and forwarded to the Procurement Officer. (e) Contracts for goods where, pursuant to Section 2.30.900, the City Manager has determined that standardization of the supplies, materials or equipment is permissible. (f) Placement of insurance coverage and surety bonds. (g) Legal services contracts, including, without limitation, the services of outside counsel, consultants and other experts needed for litigation, administrative or other legal proceedings. (h) Professional services contracts for private development related studies and services whenever the services are funded wholly by private developers. (i) Professional services contracts, where the estimated total expenditure by the city, regardless of term, does not exceed $50,000.00. (j) Cooperative purchases, with one or more other public agencies or through a cooperative purchasing agency, provided: (i) the services are solicited using methods substantially similar to those required by this chapter, as determined by the Procurement Officer; and (ii) the contract is consistent with the requirements specified in this municipal code. (k) The use of another governmental or public agency's contract or substantially the same contract terms provided: (i) the agency uses a solicitation method substantially similar to the method required by this chapter; (ii) the contract is consistent with the requirements specified in this municipal code; and (iii) the Procurement Officer determines that the city will realize overall value to utilizing the other agency's contract or contract terms compared to the city performing its own solicitation. (l) Contracts with, or solicited on the city's behalf by, Northern California Power Agency, Transmission Agency of Northern California, and Western Area Power Administration to procure wholesale utility commodities and services that meet the requirements of Section 2.30.340(d) or 2.30.360(k). Attachment C - 4 (m) Contracts with Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the California Independent System Operator Corporation for energy transmission services to the extent necessary and expedient to provide for the general health, safety and welfare of the city's utility customers. (n) Contracts with any public agency or governmental body to construct a public work, where the Procurement Officer determines the public agency or governmental body has used methods similar to those required by this chapter to contract for the public work. (o) Contracts with any public utility holding a certificate of public convenience and necessity or any entity holding a cable service or video service franchise pursuant to chapter 2.10 of this municipal code to construct a public works, where such works involves property of such public utility or cable service or video service franchisee and is otherwise of direct concern to both the city and such public utility or cable service or video service franchisee, provided that the project is not otherwise required by the charter to be formally bid. (p) Contracts with private developers to construct public improvements in connection with their development projects, even if the city contributes funds to the improvement project, provided that the projects are not otherwise required by the charter to be formally bid. (q) Projects, where the public work is performed by the city with its own employees. (r) Contracts, where the estimated total expenditure by the city does not exceed $10,000.00. (s) Contracts with entities to procure at wholesale prices utility commodities and services under a city "feed-in tariff" energy program that meets the requirements of Section 2.30.340(c). (t) Professional services contracts in relation to personnel matters for: recruitment consultants, workplace investigations, threat assessments, conflict intervention, and industrial safety. (Ord. 5494 § 21, 2020: Ord. 5387 § 1 (part), 2016: Ord. 5148 § 2, 2012: Ord. 5081 § 1, 2010: Ord. 4827 § 1 (part), 2004) *** 2.30.900 Standardization. Where the City Manager has determined that it is required by the health, safety or welfare of the people or employees of the city, or that significant costs savings have been demonstrated, the standardization of supplies, materials or equipment, including, without limitation, information technology property, for purchase or to be used in a public works project is permitted and the supplies, materials or equipment specifications may specify a single brand or trade name. The City Manager may consider the following factors in determining to standardize on a single brand or trade name: (a) Repair and maintenance costs would be minimized; (b) User personnel training would be facilitated thereby; (c) Supplies or spare parts would be minimized; (d) Modifications to existing equipment would not be necessary; (e) Training of repair and maintenance personnel would be minimized; and (f) Matching existing supplies, materials or equipment is required for proper operation of a function or program. (Ord. 5494 § 40, 2020: Ord. 5387 § 1 (part), 2016: Ord. 4827 § 1 (part), 2004) Attachment C - 5 2.30.160 Emergency contracts. A contract for goods or services necessary to protect the public health, safety, and welfare in the event of an emergency. An emergency means and includes an urgent unforeseen event that threatens life, property, or the general public health, safety and welfare, including, without limitation, an emergency declared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The City Manager is authorized to conclude an emergency exists without further declaration by the Council. (Ord. 5387 § 1 (part), 2016) Attachment C - 6 CITY OF PALO ALTO OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER March 22, 2021 The Honorable City Council Palo Alto, California 2019 Independent Police Auditor's Report and Supplemental Report From the City Manager INTRODUCTION Since approximately 2006, Palo Alto has contracted with an outside firm to act as Independent Police Auditor (IPA). The IPA performs several functions for Palo Alto. First, the IPA provides independent review of PAPD internal affairs investigations, including both investigations of complaints by members of the public and department-initiated investigations that involve a member of the public. Police Department management confers with the IPA periodically as investigations are opened and in process. When the Police Department’s investigation is complete, the IPA conducts a secondary review and assesses “thoroughness, objectivity and appropriateness” of the investigation and disposition. Where appropriate, the IPA provides recommendations for training, procedural adjustments or other follow-up actions. Second, the IPA reviews every deployment of a Taser device and the PAPD’s use of force review of that deployment, regardless of whether a citizen complaint is filed. It should be noted that based on City Council action in November 2020, future IPA reports will include additional categories of operational review, as noted below. In addition, in conjunction with the next written report, City Council will have an opportunity to confer with the IPA at an open-session meeting. Typically, the IPA produces a written public report to the City Manager and City Council twice per year summarizing the IPA’s conclusions and comments. Attached to this memo is the written public report by the IPA for calendar year 2019. All IPA reports issued since 2006 are posted and available on the City’s website, here: www.cityofpaloalto.org/gov/depts/pol/auditor.asp. In addition, for details about other accountability measures within the Police Department, go here: www.cityofpaloalto.org/policeaccountability. PROCESS TO FILE A COMPLAINT The Chief of Police is responsible for overseeing the complaint process. An explanation of the complaint process and a complaint form can be found at: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/gov/depts/pol/report/employee_complaint.asp. Complaints may also be directed to the Independent Police Auditor through the following: Contact: Mr. Mike Gennaco Phone: (323) 412-0334 Email: Michael.gennaco@oirgroup.com Or mail to: OIR Group 1443 E. Washington Blvd., #234 Pasadena, CA 91104 CITY OF PALO ALTO Page 2 IPA REPORT RELEASED FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2019 A contract renewal process resulted in delays in the IPA’s work for a portion of 2019, causing an interruption in the development of the written public report for that year. For that reason, the standard reporting period of twice per year was adjusted and a single report cov ering the full calendar year for 2019 is published for City Council review and public information. Following City Council’s receipt of the 2019 report, the next IPA report will come to the City Council after the City Council summer break, later in 2021. SUPPLEMENTAL REPORTING OF PERSONNEL AND HUMAN RESOURCES INVESTIGATIONS In addition to the IPA report, the City Manager’s Office provides a supplemental reporting of investigations not included in the IPA’s scope of work as of the 2019 IPA contract amendmen t adopted by the City Council. The City Manager’s supplemental reporting includes personnel and Human Resources matters that do not directly involve police activities with the public and are not initiated by members of the public. Personnel and Human Resources matters are defined as workplace conflicts. These matters include, but are not limited to, investigations of human resources and personnel matters regarding sworn officers relating to assignments, evaluations, promotions, demotions and similar issues, and allegations of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. Under State and Federal labor laws, these issues are subject to review by State or Federal agencies set up to provide third party review of labor-related matters in addition to City-administered reviews and potential appeals and grievance procedures. For the current 2019 calendar year reporting period, the City Manager’s Office is reporting one investigation as follows: Supplemental Reporting of Personnel and Human Resources Matters Allegation Allegation Summary Determination* Disparaging remark or conduct Employee made an inappropriate comment during a staff meeting. Supported. * Definitions of “Determination” Terms • Unsupported - the investigation failed to disclose evidence sufficient to prove or disprove the allegation by a preponderance of the evidence. • Supported - the investigation disclosed evidence sufficient to prove the allegations by a preponderance of the evidence. • No finding - the complainant failed to provide necessary information to further the investigation; the complainant failed to cooperate; the incident was reported to the Police Department after the statute of limitations for the Police Department to initiate a disciplinary investigation had expired; the investigation revealed that another agency was involved, and the complaint has been referred to that agency; or the complainant withdrew the complaint. As noted, complaints and investigations of internal personnel and human resources matters are not included in the City’s current independent police auditing program and the OIR (IPA) existing contract. As discussed later in this memo, under the framework of the City Council’s Page 3 adopted priorities on Race and Equity, the Policy and Services Committee will consider if th e IPA’s scope of work should be expanded to include review and reporting of instances involving sworn officer personnel and human resources matters such as the case above. IPA TO REVIEW INFORMAL INQUIRIES In some instances, members of the public make in formal inquiries (called “Informal Inquiry Review” or “IIRs”) that are not filed as formal complaints and do not require a full formal investigation; however, the IIRs are still examined by the Police Department. These matters are typically resolved after review of police records and policies. Informal inquiries may include matters such as misunderstandings or minor issues of discourtesy. Historically, these informal inquiries have not been included in the IPA’s scope of work and as a result were not includ ed in the 2018 IPA reports issued, but were included in the City Manager’s Supplemental Report ing. However, beginning with the attached IPA report for calendar year 2019, and moving forward, these inquiries will be included in the IPA’s review. As a result of the IPA report review, there is no IIR chart listed in this supplemental reporting of calendar year 2019. The attached IPA report includes two IIRs for the reporting period of calendar year 2019. RACE AND EQUITY WORK RELATED TO THE INDEPENDENT POLICE AUDITOR In November 2020, following several months of intensive work on issues related to Race and Equity, the City Council adopted a set of directives (link pages 4-5: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/79566) covering a number of areas, including police policies and practices. Several of the directives are related to the IPA role and contracted scope of work. Those directives and relevant updates are listed here. City Council Direction to Staff Related to Independent Police Auditor City Council Adopted Direction (November 2020) Timeline 1. “Expand IPA scope to include all administrative use of force reports where a baton, chemical agent, Taser, less-lethal projectile, canine, or a firearm is used, and all cases where the subject’s injuries necessitate any treatment beyond minor medical treatment in the field.” Taser deployments are already included in the IPA review and reports. The contract is being amended to include the additional uses of force. The additional uses of force will be included in any IPA report that covers investigations which occurred after January 1, 2021. Contract amendment for consideration by the City Council is anticipated by late Summer 2021. Page 4 2. “IPA to provide an audit workplan to the City Council for approval.” Contract amendment for consideration by the City Council is anticipated by late Summer 2021. This directive is being discussed with the IPA as part of the contract amendment. 3. “Refer to the Policy and Services Committee consideration of IPA oversight of internal complaints regarding misconduct related to harassment, discrimination, or retaliation resulting in city investigation of uniformed officers.” This directive is related to the workplace conflicts/internal complaints which are currently investigated by HR. This item is tentatively scheduled to the Policy and Services Committee in April 2021. 4. “Amend the contract to require the Independent Police Auditor (IPA) to meet with the City Council in open session twice a year with each report” and “Direct Staff to maintain an every six (6) months schedule for IPA reports to City Council containing reviews ready at the time of the report.” Contract amendment for consideration by the City Council is anticipated by late Summer 2021. Staff is coordinating with the IPA to tentatively release their next report in August 2021. 5. For future supplemental memorandums: Direct Staff to include use of force information to the regular Supplemental Report submitted to the City Council as a cover memorandum to each IPA report. The use of force (UOF) information for Jan. 1, 2015 – June 1, 2020 is available online (https://tinyurl.com/4kwwy6xb). The next UOF report will be included in the January 2022 Supplemental Report in order to include a full year of data. For other updates on the timeframes listed above or other Race and Equity work at the City, visit the recent staff report that went to the Policy and Services (P&S) committee on March 9, 2021. Link: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/80509 . ATTACHMENTS: Attachment A: Palo Alto Independent Police Auditors’ (IPA) Report: Review of Investigations Completed in 2019 (PDF) ATTACHMENTS: • Attachment A: Palo Alto Report Confidential Draft 2 25 21 (PDF) Page 5 • Attachment A-Palo Alto Independent Police Auditors Report-Review of Investigations Completed in 2019 (PDF) Department Head: Ed Shikada, City Manager Page 6 1 INDEPENDENT POLICE AUDITORS’ REPORT: Review of Investigations Completed in 2019 Presented to the Honorable City Council City of Palo Alto March 2021 Prepared by: Michael Gennaco and Stephen Connolly Independent Police Auditors for the City of Palo Alto 7142 TRASK AVENUE PLAYA DEL REY, CA 90293 OIRGroup.com Attachment A OR GROUP 2 Introduction This report addresses materials received by the Independent Police Auditor (“IPA”) for review from the second half of 2019. It includes five cases that were investigated by the Palo Alto Police Department (“PAPD”) and completed during that time period. Though our past practice has been to issue reports that cover six months of investigation activity at a time, and though our most recent report addressed the second half of 2018, we have skipped ahead for the simplest of reasons: there were no cases finished by the city during the first portion of the year. The report includes the review of one Taser case and four allegations of misconduct. The Taser incident involved the detention – and ultimately the arrest – of a man who was stopped on his bicycle for traffic violations and quickly became angry with the officer. The Taser activation was brief and oddly effective: though the probes did not penetrate the man’s layered clothes, he did rock back into a seated position and remained there until backup officers arrived, as if deferring to the weapon’s potential as much as its physical effect. While concurring with the Department’s finding that the force was justified and in policy, we note some peripheral issues for consideration. As for the misconduct allegations, they fall into two related categories. All of them originated with complaints from members of the public about how they had been treated during contacts with Department officers, with three of them including allegations of excessive force. However, while two of them were investigated in the traditional way, two were characterized as “Informal Inquiry” matters. This meant that the Department assessed the complaint and found that it was able to reach a resolution regarding its merits without going through a full-scale investigation process (including, most significantly, interviews of witnesses and subjects). Though agencies call it different things, and may follow slightly different protocols, the idea behind the Informal Inquiry approach is one we have seen with other departments. It combines an appropriate deference to “due diligence” and accountability with a recognition that some complaints lend themselves to efficient disposition. This could be because the substance of the complaint, even if true, does not constitute a policy violation or even an individual performance issue; a hypothetical example would be a person who admits to a traffic violation but complains that the Department should have better things to do than writing tickets). Or it could be because there is sufficiently definitive evidence to establish what occurred in the encounter at issue, thus rendering further investigation or interviews unnecessary. Here, both of the complaints at issue pertained to incidents for which there were recordings of what happened, and these were central to the ultimate determination that a more complete workup was not necessary. While we have minor concerns that we discuss below, PAPD’s version of the concept seems like a legitimate approach. We also appreciate the added accountability the Department has imposed on itself by offering the cases for our assessment. 3 Taser Incident The scope of our auditing responsibilities in Palo Alto includes any use of force involving a Taser. This has been the case for several years and is responsive to community concerns about this particular force option. PAPD had one relevant incident in 2019. It involved an adult male whom a PAPD officer spotted while driving on patrol. Factual Overview: The man was on a bicycle on the wrong side of the road, in violation of traffic rules. When the officer initially pulled up alongside the man and made contact from within his vehicle, the man reacted by yelling and pedaling slowly away. This prompted the officer to engage his car lights and make a more earnest effort to detain the man. After a short distance, the cyclist stopped, threw down his bike, and turned toward the officer in obvious anger as the officer got out of his car and approached. A standoff ensued in which the man berated and challenged the officer, who called for backup and removed his Taser from its holster. The officer gave increasingly heated commands for the man to get on the ground; eventually the man bent into a crouched position but refused to comply fully and remained verbally belligerent. Much of his frustration seemed related to a belief that, as an African American, he was being unfairly singled out for “profiling” and harassment. Some seconds later, as the officer moved slightly closer, the man began to lean forward in a way the officer interpreted as aggressive and perhaps the prelude to an assault. This caused him to activate the Taser. The probes hit the man’s outer clothing and appeared to knock him back into a seated position without fully “working” in terms of muscular incapacitation. The Taser did seem to make an impression on the man – if more psychological than physical – and he stayed in place (while maintaining his verbal challenges to the officer) until backup units arrived. The additional officers took the man into custody without significant additional struggle – although his attempts to kick caused them to wrap his legs in a special restraint device. The man was briefly evaluated by medics at the scene; they determined that he had no injuries, which matched the man’s own assertions. He was booked into jail on charges of resisting/obstructing an officer in performance of his duties. Outcome and Analysis: In keeping with established protocols, the Department’s review of the use of force involved several steps. These included a supervisor’s interview with both the subject of the force and the involved officer, a downloading and analysis of the Taser data, written reports from the primary and backup officers, and evaluation of available recordings (including in-car video and body- worn cameras). 4 Unfortunately, while in-car video was helpful, the primary officer’s body camera lens was blocked by his own jacket until after his Taser use– a seemingly foreseeable situation that officers have found ways to avoid. While the problem was acknowledged in the sergeant’s original memo, no remediation of it is cited in the materials. RECOMMENDATION ONE: The Department should address (through documentation and counseling) performance issues that interfere with body- worn camera recordings when they come to the attention of supervisors. The handling sergeant and the reviewing lieutenant ultimately determined that the use of force was justified and in policy. They based this on considerable evidence of the man’s agitated, uncooperative, and hostile state from the outset of the encounter. (It should also be noted that the officer had a valid legal basis for detaining the man.) The Taser activation itself was preceded by warnings (in compliance with policy), short in duration, and responsive to an objectively reasonable threat assessment by the officer. We found this answer to the “bottom line” policy question to be well-supported by available evidence. We also noted some additional issues – some of which the Department addressed as part of its review, and some which we introduce here. Officer Tactics and Communication The officer was alone in dealing with the subject for several minutes before other officers arrived. He did some things commendably well, including calmly and promptly calling for backup. He also controlled his Taser effectively – including turning it off and back on to “re- arm” it if needed after the first activation – and with some measure of restraint. Once the subject had ended up seated, the officer held his position patiently until the additional officers arrived. There were, however, other aspects of officer performance that were more questionable. One of these was the officer’s heated and repeated use of profanity in his exchanges with the subject. The policy prohibiting the use of “obscene, indecent or derogatory” language does contain a relevant exception: for a “deliberate verbal tactic” intended to gain compliance and/or avoid a physical confrontation with an individual who is “non-compliant, hostile, or aggressive.” To the Department’s credit, the sergeant’s report accurately documented the officer’s language, and the lieutenant analyzed the issue in his own memorandum on the incident – and determined that it was consistent with the exception cited above. We find this reasonable in the context of the encounter as it played out, and it did seem as though the officer was in control of his own emotions (as opposed to seeming angry or gratuitously abusive). On the other hand, the recordings raise broader questions about the efficacy of the officer’s verbal approach. He appears to quickly match the subject’s pugnacious demeanor with his own, and makes no attempt to defuse or de-escalate the situation by explaining his own actions or otherwise addressing the man’s anger over being stopped. Once the Taser had been activated and 5 the man was seated on the ground and somewhat neutralized (at least as a physical threat), the officer’s tone shifted into more of a glib condescension. He addressed the (older) man several times as “bro,” for example, which did little to mitigate the man’s resentment or establish a more constructive footing for the interaction. Again, the lieutenant’s memo addresses the issue by recommending a debrief with the involved officer, with a particular focus on approaches to de-escalating “tense encounters.” Assuming that this session actually occurred, this constitutes the sort of “next level” supervisory intervention that we have long advocated, and that is a clear advantage of the more direct and formal involvement of lieutenants in the review process for these incidents. Also puzzling from a tactical perspective was the decision to move closer to the man that seemed to precipitate a reaction from him – and in turn prompted the Taser activation. There is no question that the man was both agitated and verbally belligerent. The officer’s decision to remove the Taser from his holster and give commands for the man to get on the ground seemed justified as well, and he provided clear warnings as guided by policy. Perhaps the goal was to ensure the effectiveness of a Taser deployment that the officer had (reasonably) decided upon before moving in. But it seemed like a specific question worth addressing in the analysis. Investigative Steps A PAPD supervisor did conduct an interview with the subject as to his perceptions of the incident. This did not provide significant insight as to the Taser use – the man’s remarks were rambling and seemed only tenuously related to particulars of the force. However, the man alleged racial bias and lack of probable cause at various points in the interview. And, while patiently accepted during the interview, these claims were not pursued or formally addressed.1 There was nothing malicious about this: the objective evidence did establish a legal basis for the stop, and the sergeant was clearly focused on the force to the exclusion of other issues. But the issue – inherently sensitive and worthy of careful attention – was relevant in the broader sense. The man’s initial anger at being stopped was based at least in part on a perception of racial discrimination, and he chose to amplify this when the sergeant provided the opportunity. Accordingly, some forum for addressing this “complaint” as it emerged in the supervisor’s force interview would have been appropriate, even though that had not been the original purpose behind taking the statement. RECOMMENDATION TWO: The Department should evaluate, investigate as needed, and document its response to racial bias allegations, even when they emerge through avenues outside the traditional complaint system. 1 There was a similar failure to address the racial bias allegation in a complaint investigation discussed below. 6 Impressively, the Department also sent officers to canvas the immediate surroundings for possible witnesses. While this did not yield useful results, it showed creditable due diligence by the responding parties. Misconduct Investigations Case 1: Allegation of Excessive Force After an Initial Consensual Encounter Factual Overview: This complaint came from an individual who was challenging different aspects of his arrest for obstructing/resisting officers in the performance of their duty. The incident in question had begun under circumstances that were later disputed: the complainant was waiting at a bus terminal in the early morning hours and got the attention of an officer who was passing by in his radio car. His intent was either to offer a friendly hello (his version) or to summon the officer (which was the officer’s claimed understanding). The officer parked and approached, and the encounter deteriorated from there. For his part, the man seemed bothered by the officer’s demeanor and aggressive reaction to a pleasant wave; the officer, on the other hand, found the man’s behavior strange and came to believe he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The officer detained the man and called for backup, which further antagonized the complainant. When the second officer arrived, the misunderstanding/confrontation escalated. The man was uncooperative with requests to show his identification, did not comply with other directions, and made aggressive statements and gestures. The officers sought to take physical hold of the man, and later reported that he offered significant resistance, including a punch to the face of the initial officer as well as a persistent struggle once he was taken to the ground.2 A total of five officers were eventually involved in handcuffing him and taking him into custody. The man was eventually charged with four misdemeanor counts, including battery on the officer, in conjunction with the incident. Six months after his arrest, he filed a written complaint with the Department. He also filed a claim with the Palo Alto City Attorney. From these materials, the Department identified two central allegations: that the detention and arrest were unlawful, and that he had been subjected to excessive force in the form of an unwarranted punch to the face that left a “permanent scar.” 2 The body camera footage depicts what was clearly a struggle to get the man in cuffs, but as oftentimes with “hands on” events, the particulars are difficult to discern. 7 Outcome and Analysis: Ultimately, the Department determined that the allegations were unsupported. It took the position that the detention and arrest had been legally justified, and that the man’s claim of a punch – necessary or otherwise – was unfounded. For the most part, we found the complaint investigation to be thorough and thoughtful, and the outcome to be reasonable; as discussed below, some of the investigative resourcefulness was particularly noteworthy. But we also noted a couple of shortcomings in the Department’s approach. Investigative Steps Early in his review, the investigating sergeant attempted to interview the complainant in order to supplement the written complaint with a more detailed version of events. The man was reluctant to cooperate with this process on the advice of his civil lawyer, but they nonetheless ended up speaking on the phone for more than a half hour.3 This made for an odd hybrid: the repeated references to the lawyer made the first part of the conversation cumbersome, as the sergeant attempted to clarify the initial complaint. Then the sergeant persevered with a series of follow-up questions that the man willingly answered, but that seemed out of sync with his stated preferences to follow his lawyer’s advice. While the sergeant drew repeated distinctions between the legal claim and his own responsibilities, and while his intentions seemed much more related to thoroughness than any attempt to “trick” or take advantage of the man, the obvious overlap in issues – particularly with regard to fact- gathering and the significance of the man’s own version – perhaps warranted a revised approach. Ideally, some outreach to the attorney might have been a useful way to bridge the communication gaps, get a more definitive version from the complainant, and ensure that a represented party’s legal rights were being protected.4 Moreover, the man alluded briefly to a security guard witness who had supposedly agreed in a conversation with that lawyer that the actions of the police officers were hard to understand; this would have been an interesting angle to pursue. While attorneys often decline to facilitate the cooperation of their clients in administrative reviews, a better practice would have been to get the lawyer’s contact information and reach out 3He also directed the PAPD supervisor to a YouTube video in which he was informally interviewed about the incident in question and offered his version of events in more detail; the sergeant did watch this as well. 4Our understanding is that criminal charges were also still pending at that point, which heighten the concerns about engagement with represented individuals. 8 to get confirmation of this decision. Doing so would have shown enhanced due diligence at the very least and may have led to a more thorough exploration of events. RECOMMENDATION THREE: When complainants are represented by counsel, the Department should coordinate with that person before proceeding with an interview in pursuing the best available evidence as to what occurred. One important source of information was a third-party witness: a transit system security officer who witnessed the arrest and had himself encountered the complainant prior to the first officer’s arrival.5 The security officer had provided the man with bus directions and found him to be in a cheerful but peculiar mood. He saw the complainant get the officer’s attention and watched the officer approach in a casual manner that seemed a reasonable response to the complainant’s actions. He described the event as shifting in tone when the officer asked for the man’s identification, which clearly provoked him. Though he did not see the man punch the first officer, he did confirm that the man had taken an aggressive physical stance and eventually lunged at the officer; this led to his being taken to the ground. The security guard did not see any of the officers punching the man, justifiably or otherwise, and found them to be controlled and matter of fact in their handling of the incident.6 PAPD’s investigating sergeant also took pains to pursue physical evidence relating to the allegation of a “permanent scar” the man claimed to have received from being punched in the face. This included asking for copies of his medical reports from the jail (which did not make reference to a facial injury), acquiring a copy of his driver’s license photo, and requesting a booking photo from a prior arrest of the complainant in another part of California. These materials were inconclusive. (While the man appeared to have a relevant mark on his face after his arrest, its nature and source were unclear. Nor did any other evidence – including the contemporaneous recorded statements of the man himself – offer corroboration for his claim.) The finding and analysis of them, however, reflect impressive thoroughness on the investigator’s part. 5The investigator was directed toward this witness when inquiring about possible surveillance cameras operated by the transit center. Although the cameras were apparently not operational at the time of the incident, the emergence of the witness was a significant development. Curiously, though, he claimed to have not been previously contacted by the complainant or his lawyer, which leaves an open question about the complainant’s assertions during his interview. 6 This interview, which was quite helpful to PAPD, became somewhat “leading” at times, with the sergeant prompting the security guard as to his recollection of specific actions discernible from the body camera videos. This is not ideal as an investigative practice. But some of it was attributable to the passage of time as being an understandable impediment to complete recollection. 9 The reports from the prior arrest were instructive in other ways as well. They featured allegations of erratic and belligerently uncooperative behavior that were doubly relevant: first as corroboration of the demeanor the officers claimed to have experienced, and second as a counterweight to the complainant’s claim that his initial actions had been a gesture of benign politeness that the officer inexplicably misunderstood. While we are sometimes leery of complainant’s “prior acts” being used to undermine the legitimacy of later assertions – since a spotless history should not be a prerequisite for fair, objective consideration – in this case the earlier police encounter had specific overlaps with the claims at issue here. Additionally, both of the primary officers involved in the arrest were interviewed as subjects pursuant to the complaint investigation – and later arriving officers were treated as witnesses. The initial officer’s body-worn camera shows the initial encounter, tense dialogue, and eventual efforts to subdue the man as additional officers arrived. Unfortunately, though, camera angles and movements make it hard to discern what specifically occurred once the two officers closed distance to take the man to the ground.7 Use of Force Review One gap in the Department’s review process was the lack of a supervisory review of force, or detailed reporting about force from the involved officers. On the contrary, the responding supervisor seemed quick to accept the representations that no force requiring a formal workup had occurred, in spite of the fact that several officers had responded and had been physically involved in handcuffing the man – and in spite of the fact that one of the officers had a visible injury to his eye that he attributed to the suspect’s aggression. The Department’s relevant policy includes several circumstances in which a supervisor’s report is required, and it is true that none of those technically applied in this case. (The subject’s assertions about his facial injury were not made at the time, and he was not cooperative with questioning after his arrest.). Still, the physical effort actions required to subdue the man surely constituted “force” within the Department’s definition, and therefore at least warranted a detailed accounting from involved officers – which is required by a separate policy. Instead, only one officer apparently wrote a report, and his description was both brief and somewhat vague. This one in spite of the fact that, as he wrote, “It took five (5) officers to gain compliance and gain control of his hands and take him into custody.” This lack of conclusive documentation – particularly from the officer whom the subject later alleged to have punched him – was a deficiency in the investigative record of the complaint that should have been avoided at the time of the incident. 7 It was also unfortunate that two of the on-scene officers’ cameras failed to capture the takedown at all, for fairly technical reasons that were explored in a lieutenant’s memo concerning the case. 10 RECOMMENDATION FOUR: The Department should use this case as a forum for assessing whether lower-level force incidents are being appropriately documented by its personnel and assessed by its supervisors. Case 2: Allegation of Excessive Force After Arrest and Handcuffing Factual Overview A PAPD officer observed a female cross the intersection in downtown Palo Alto against traffic and detained her for further investigation. Because the woman appeared unsteady and showed symptoms of intoxication, the officer detained her to conduct an “intoxicated in public” investigation. Based on his observations and the woman’s conduct, he decided to take her into custody, advised her she was under arrest, and handcuffed her. The woman was verbally resistant while the initial officer handcuffed her. Another officer assisted, and the two officers then began to escort her to the police car. At some point as the three were walking, the woman turned and bit the second officer in the upper arm. Observing this action, the initial officer pulled the woman away from the officer and then both officers took her to the ground. The woman struck her face on the sidewalk, causing her nose to bleed. Medical attention was requested on scene, paramedics responded, and the woman was transported to the hospital for further treatment. Later, the woman complained that the officer had arrested her for no reason and had used unnecessary force against her. PAPD conducted an investigation and determined that there was sufficient cause for the arrest and the use of force was within policy. IPA Analysis of Allegations IPA has reviewed the complaint, the investigative materials, and the body-worn camera footage relating to this incident and agree that there was a sufficient basis to effectuate a detention and that the use of force was within policy. However, IPA identified the following issues that are deserving of further discussion: Confusion regarding identification requirement A point of strong contention between the on-scene officers and the woman was whether she was required to obey their instructions to produce identification after she repeatedly rebuffed her entreaties to do so. When the woman advised that she had no reason to provide them with her identification, one of the backup officers said “actually, you do.” When the woman asked why she would have to produce identification, the initial officer told her that when you are detained in the United States, you have to identify yourself. The officers’ statements to the women are actually misstatements of the law in California. While the failure to identify oneself may have further implications in that it will increase the likelihood 11 that an individual will be arrested or even taken to jail because of the heightened suspicion caused when an individual fails to identify oneself, there is no law requiring that a pedestrian who is detained provide identification to an inquiring officer. PAPD should regularly advise its officers about the limits of their authority on this point, as it is frequently a point of confusion among law enforcement. Unprofessional remark by arresting officer Appropriately, a PAPD supervisor responded to the location and conducted an inquiry into the incident. In describing the incident, the initial officer told the supervisor he observed the woman bite his colleague and said: “then we dumped her.” The way in which the officer described his use of force was inconsistent with the professionalism PAPD appropriately expects of its police officers. Even though it was an internal conversation and not made in a mocking or celebratory way, the characterization not only seems callous on its face, but also occurred in a public setting. It is the sort of comment that reflects poorly when the public hears, or when recordings are produced to the public for one reason or another. This description of the use of force incident should have been identified by the supervisor who conducted the investigation as an opportunity for course correction. Activation of Body-Worn Camera in Hospital Setting The initial officer continued to activate his body worn camera as he walked through the hospital, capturing employees and patients as he traveled through the halls to speak with the woman in her hospital room. At one point, the officer asked a supervisor whether he should have his camera activated and was told that police officers were exempt from any privacy concerns. Current PAPD policy regarding activation of body-worn cameras does not provide any guidance to officers regarding this issue. Hospital patients and workers have an expectation of privacy that their activity or conversations will not be tape recorded by police officers unless there is an official reason for doing so. Certainly, it is appropriate to use the taping capability of the body-worn cameras to record an interview in a confined hospital room of an individual who has been subjected to a use of force. But officers should be instructed through policy to minimize their intrusion into hospital space by de-activating their cameras as they walk through the hospital corridors and activate them only when interacting with the interviewee. We have been advised that the local hospital has identified the issue and now routinely advises officers that they should not walk through the corridors with their body-worn cameras activated. Despite this initiative by the hospital, it would be important to align PAPD policy with hospital expectations to ensure privacy concerns are not impacted. RECOMMENDATION FIVE: PAPD officers should regularly advise its officers on the right of individuals not to identify themselves and how they should respond when an individual declines to do so. 12 RECOMMENDATION SIX: PAPD should advise the supervisor who reviewed the body camera footage of this incident about the missed opportunity for course correction regarding the officer’s unprofessional description of his actions. RECOMMENDATION SEVEN: PAPD should counsel the officer about the need to use professionalism in describing any use of force. RECOMMENDATION EIGHT: PAPD should modify its body-worn camera policy to provide further guidance to its officers regarding activation in hospital settings. Case 3: Allegation of Excessive Force During a Pat Down Search Factual Overview A PAPD officer conducted a traffic stop when he noticed that the vehicle had failed to come to a full stop at a stop sign and the car was missing appropriate license plates. After his approach to the vehicle, the officer recognized the driver as having a felony warrant for theft. When asked, the driver provided someone else’s identity. The officer wrote in his arrest report that he placed the driver unhandcuffed in the back of his patrol vehicle for officer safety purposes, because he was going to have the other two occupants exit the vehicle so he could search it incident to an arrest, and there was only one additional officer on-scene. The report indicated that the officer observed multiple sets of clothes with clothing security tags on them in the back seat of the vehicle in plain view. The police officer also wrote that multiple family members of the vehicle occupants arrived on scene and started causing a disturbance. The officer wrote that upon a search of the vehicle, he found more clothes with metal detector clips on them in the backseat of the vehicle. The officer wrote that, believing that the driver was in possession of stolen property, he then conducted a probable cause search of the vehicle’s trunk and discovered additional clothing with clothing security tags on them. The officer wrote that while the driver was in the back of his patrol vehicle, he asked her about the clothes that he had located inside of the car but that she was not under arrest for possessing stolen property. The officer wrote that the driver said she bought the clothes from someone that she knows steals clothes. The officer wrote that he arrested the driver for false impersonation (for providing him with a false identity) and the outstanding warrants. The officer said he asked the driver out of the vehicle and then arrested her. 13 The complainant, who was seated in the front passenger’s seat of the vehicle and was the driver’s sister, prepared a complaint form. She was also interviewed by a supervisor assigned to conduct an inquiry and made the following allegations in writing and/or during the intake interview: • The officer was rude by opening the door after approaching the car. • The officer placed her sister in the rear of his police car without Mirandizing her. • The officer searched the car “for no reason”. • The officers asked them if there were any weapons in the car because they were African American. • The officer left with an arrestee not in handcuffs. According to the supervisor assigned to conduct the inquiry into the allegations, the complainant told her that PAPD could “do what they wanted” with the complaint and that she was satisfied just letting the supervisor know about her feelings regarding the police contact and arrest of her sister. The supervisor concluded that the opening of the door by the officer was understandable considering the facts that the driver did not attempt to roll down her window to speak with him and that there the was obvious damage to the car. The supervisor further determined that placing the arrestee in the back of the patrol car unhandcuffed and without reading a Miranda advisement was a discretionary procedure. The supervisor found no violations of policy with regard to the allegations. IPA Analysis of allegations The officer was rude in opening the car door. A review of the body camera footage shows that as the officer approaches the driver’s side, he politely asks if he can open the driver’s door and then proceeds to do so. There is nothing objectively rude about the officer’s actions. As noted above, the supervisor’s assessment was that the officer’s actions were reasonable since the driver did not attempt to roll down her window to speak with him and the obvious damage to the car door. But these explanations are limited in their persuasiveness. The officer did not ask the driver to roll down her car window, which would seemingly have been a useful intermediary step. (Indeed, later in the encounter, he did ask her to roll down the driver door window and she immediately complied.) Nor did the damage to the car explain why the officer chose to open the driver’s door; the car damage was all on the right side of the vehicle. To reiterate: we did not find the officer’s opening of the driver’s door to be “rude” or inappropriate to the circumstances. But it was inherently more intrusive than a more commonplace traffic stop dialogue through a window, and the supervisor’s justification for the officer’s action is not borne out by the body camera footage. It is imperative that supervisors are accurate when using evidence to account for officer behavior. Ideally, a slightly more nuanced response – and an acknowledgment of possible bases for the complainant’s perceptions – would have occurred here. 14 The officer placed her sister in the rear of his police car without Mirandizing her. The supervisor concluded that the decision of the officer to place the arrestee in the back of the patrol car and not Mirandize her was discretionary. Both assertions are correct. However, the report indicates that, after the sister was detained, the officer then asked her about the clothing and she made an admission. The officer intimated in his police report that since the arrestee had not been arrested at that point, at least with regard to the suspected stolen clothing, he did not need to Mirandize her before asking her about them. At the time of the questioning, the arrestee was clearly not free to leave and arguably under arrest. Even if the preliminary reasons for her arrest were for the felony warrant and failure to correctly identify herself to him, by the time the officer questioned her about the clothing, he had suspicion that the clothing was stolen. If the officer wanted to ask her about the clothing, it would have been better practice to avoid running afoul of Miranda to have advised her of her Miranda rights before questioning her about the clothing. The supervisor should have identified this issue in his review of the allegations. The officer searched the car for no reason. As indicated in the arrest report and borne out by the body-worn camera footage, there was clothing in plain view in the car which had clothing security tags still on the clothing. That observation formed sufficient suspicion for the officer to then search the remainder of the car. When the officer found additional clothing in the back seat with clothing security tags intact, he had sufficient cause to search the trunk of the car. In his inquiry report, however, the supervisor did not address this allegation. Best practice in complaint review requires separate and direct attention for each allegation that is raised, even when the objective facts show that it is unfounded. The officers asked the occupants if there were any weapons in the car because they were African American. There is no evidence that the officer’s on-scene investigation and questioning was racially motivated. However, again, it is imperative that any review of complaint allegations address each of them. While there is actual notation made presumably by PAPD that there was a racial component to the handwritten complaint, the supervisor did not address this allegation in his analysis. He should have. The officer left with an arrestee not in handcuffs. The arresting officers chose not to handcuff the arrestee until they arrived at the police station. Under current PAPD policy, the decision whether to handcuff arrestees is discretionary as stated by the supervisor who conducted the inquiry. Despite the discretion provided officers on whether and when to handcuff individuals who are under arrest, it is our understanding that the Department’s strong preference and presumption is that individuals who are under arrest will be handcuffed, especially if they are to be transported to the station. While we have been advised that the first contact officer is no longer with PAPD, a review of the body camera footage indicates that the decision not to 15 handcuff the arrestee was suggested by the secondary officer. That officer should be briefed on Department expectations. RECOMMENDATION NINE: The supervisor should be briefed about the need to address every allegation raised by a complainant in his review and the need to base any justification for officers’ actions on the evidence available. RECOMMENDATION TEN: The on-scene officer who suggested not handcuffing the arrestee in this case should be briefed on PAPD practice and expectations. Additional Issues Complainant interview not tape-recorded It is standard internal investigative practice to tape record interviews of complainants so that there is the “best record” of what was alleged and the fullest account of the complainant’s narrative. In this case, the supervisor did not tape record the conversation and there is no explanation in the file for why this did not occur. PAPD should devise protocols to ensure that complainant interviews are recorded. RECOMMENDATION ELEVEN: PAPD should devise protocols to ensure that all intake and follow-up interviews of complainants are tape recorded, and if extenuating issues make this not feasible (such as complainants’ refusal to be recorded), there should be documentation explaining this. Use of profanity In his initial encounter with all of the three occupants of the vehicle, the arresting officer is polite and professional. He does not assume a commanding or demeaning presence and uses a tone that effectively keeps tensions low. The officer gives the occupants significant leeway and patiently explains to them why he is doing what he is doing and why he is asking them to do certain things. However, at one point, he tells the arrestee repeatedly “this is bull****” when he believes that she is not telling him the truth. The comment seems both discordant and unnecessary in relation to the overall tone of the encounter. While these remarks were not part of the sister’s complaint, she would likely not have been within earshot of them.8 But the reviewing supervisor presumably would have encountered the comments on the recording and should have identified them as a basis for remediation. 8They occurred outside the patrol car, while the complainant was still inside the subject vehicle. 16 Notification Letter In advising the complainant of the disposition of this matter, PAPD sent a form letter with no information about what the Department did to investigate the complaint. It is an approach common among law enforcement agencies, largely because of confidentiality and efficiency concerns. But the downside to the lack of detail is that it easily contributes to skepticism about the thoroughness of the review and the legitimacy of the outcome. We have seen agencies address this dynamic by providing specific information that personalizes the response and reflects the due diligence that occurred.9 And those departments include language thanking the complainant for engaging and acknowledging the importance of public feedback. We mentioned this issue in our last report – in the context of encouraging PAPD to share its efforts in a case that it had reviewed quite carefully and thoughtfully. Providing additional information will make the process more meaningful to complainants and, given the small volume of cases. RECOMMENDATION TWELVE: Whenever a review of an incident identifies gratuitous profanity being spoken by an officer to a civilian, supervisors should ensure an appropriate remediation. RECOMMENDATION THIRTEEN: PAPD should consider providing more information and context in its closing letters, such as advising the complainant what investigative steps were taken and what sources of information contributed to the Department’s conclusion. Case 4: Allegation of Excessive Force During a Search Incident to an Arrest Factual Overview An officer stopped a vehicle with expired registration. During the investigation, the driver exhibited signs of intoxication. The officer decided to arrest the man for being under the influence of illicit drugs. Just before searching the man incident to this arrest, the officer instructed the individual to spread his legs and when the individual did not immediately comply, used his foot to spread the man’s legs farther apart.10 The man immediately screamed about the action, said that he had been injured and that a pre-existing medical condition had been 9 Clearly, a summary of the allegations and a description of the investigative steps/sources of evidence fall outside the confidentiality restrictions imposed by the Peace Officer’s Bill of Rights. 10 In his police report, the officer described his actions as follows: “While searching [the man] incident to arrest, I asked him to separate and he refused. I lightly moved his left foot with my right foot so I could properly search him. [The man] began to complain of pain and PAFD medics were called to the scene”. 17 aggravated by the officer’s action. As a result of the man’s complaint, he was taken to a local hospital for evaluation and treatment. While on-scene, the man’s level of cooperation with law enforcement went from initially cooperative to argumentative, belligerent, and slow to cooperate as the incident proceeded – especially after the officer asked him questions like: “When was the last time you used?” When the officer asked the man to perform sobriety tests, the man was partially cooperative but indicted that he could not perform some of them due to a pre-existing physical infirmity. After the officer’s action with the foot, the man’s belligerence significantly increased and continued during his time at the hospital, with the man threatening the officer with harm. The District Attorney agreed to file charges against the man for being under the influence of an illicit substance and for possession of an illegal billy club that was discovered in the man’s vehicle during the investigation. Later the man submitted a written complaint alleging that the officer “kicked” his feet apart, causing him injury. The supervisor who was on-scene during the incident endeavored to contact the man to interview him about his complaint, but was unable to locate him despite repeated attempts. The supervisor, who was on scene during the search, did review the body camera footage and the case report; he concluded that the officer’s use of his foot in searching the man was an approved defensive tactic technique and consistent with PAPD policy. IPA Analysis of Allegations Concepts of De-Escalation Recently, PAPD worked in conjunction with the other City stakeholders regarding its policies on use of force. As a result of those conversations, PAPD revised its policies to require a supervisor to “describe any de-escalation techniques employed or an explanation for why such techniques were not feasible”. In addition to revising the policy, PAPD revised its use of force cover sheet to require information regarding the use of de-escalation techniques.11 Since that time, state law now requires police agencies in California to integrate de-escalation concepts in its use of force policies and training. As a result of the new policy, whenever an encounter between police officers and the public results in a complaint about excessive use of force, PAPD will now evaluate the encounter not only in terms of whether the officer’s use of force is consistent with its policies, but also whether the officer’s use of de-escalation practices is also consistent with the new policy. 11 We have also been advised that the Department has also proactively offered to generate a Use of Force report to be submitted to City Council as a cover memorandum with each IPA report. This report will contain information on use of force incidents and will specifically address the use and effectiveness of de - escalation techniques by officers. 18 While this incident pre-dated the recent change in PAPD policy, the concepts of de-escalation have been long featured in PAPD’s training. In this case, the officer indicated that he instructed the suspected intoxicated man to spread his legs further apart. When there was no immediate compliance, he used his foot to “assist” the man, causing the resulting allegations of injury, the need for medical attention, and conflict that escalated over the next several hours. Had the officer been a bit more patient with the man, asked him if he was able to do what the officer was requesting (the man had already complained about a pre-existing medical condition that hampered his ability to complete some of the field tests given to him), and given him more time to either respond or comply, the escalated conflict and the subsequent complaint of excessive force may well have been avoided. Moreover, in this situation, there was time to deploy such a strategy: the man was handcuffed, a back-up officer was on scene, and no significant threat level was presented requiring immediate action. Police departments are recognizing how important consideration of de-escalation approaches prior to resorting to force and how effective deployment of them can work to the benefit of both the civilian and the officer alike. In the spirit of the new policy, PAPD should begin to embrace the de-escalation concepts recently adopted. RECOMMENDATION FOURTEEN: PAPD should counsel the involved officer on how de-escalation efforts should be deployed whenever practicable, using this incident as an example. Systemic Issues: Adding Reporting Component to New De-Escalation Policy We appreciate the swiftness with which PAPD modified its policy in response to community sentiment and impending state law. While the new reviewing requirement noted above will ensure that de-escalation techniques (or the lack thereof) will be considered, we also believe it should be incumbent on the officer who uses force to describe any efforts to de-escalate a situation or why such efforts were not feasible. RECOMMENDATION FIFTEEN: PAPD should devise policy that instructs officers who use force to include a narrative about any attempts to use de-escalation prior to the application of force, and to explain why such options were not feasible if no de-escalation efforts were deployed. 19