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Home My WebLink About2022-06-20 City Council Emails 701-32 DOCUMENTS IN THIS PACKET INCLUDE: LETTERS FROM CITIZENS TO THE MAYOR OR CITY COUNCIL RESPONSES FROM STAFF TO LETTERS FROM CITIZENS ITEMS FROM MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS ITEMS FROM OTHER COMMITTEES AND AGENCIES ITEMS FROM CITY, COUNTY, STATE, AND REGIONAL AGENCIES Prepared for: 06/20/2022 Document dates: 06/13/2022 – 06/20/2022 Note: Documents for every category may not have been received for packet reproduction in a given week. From:Valeri Crespo To:Council, City Subject:SummerHill Homes letter of approval from Jett McCandless Date:Monday, June 20, 2022 10:48:20 AM Attachments:City Councel 6-20-2022.pdf [Some people who received this message don't often get email from karpouskas@icloud.com. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ] CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ June 20, 2022 Honorable Mayor Pat Burt City of Palo Alto 250 Hamilton Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94301 Dear Mayor Burt and Members of the City Council: I am writing to urge your support and approval of the SummerHill Homes proposed residential project at 2850 West Bayshore Road. My family has owned property in Palo Alto for decades and it is generally our investment strategy to retain ownership. The property at 2850 West Bayshore has been in our family since 1977 and we have turned down many offers to purchase the land over the years. However, as Palo Alto property owners we are motivated to sell this time because the conversion of an office building to much -needed new housing for young families in Palo Alto is essential. Palo Alto can do without another one-story office building, but the idea that this land owned by our family will become 48 townhomes for a new generation of families right next to Greer Park is the type of legacy that few people have the chance to realize. SummerHill has been a respectful and responsible partner throughout this process and I am very proud of the final project they will present to you on June 20 for your consideration. I strongly believe this is exactly the type of housing proposed in an ideal location that will add to the vibrancy of Palo Alto without impacting existing residents. Thank you for your consideration of these comments and for your service to the City of Palo Alto. Sincer Jetf McCandless From:Marcy Tivol To:Hillary Miller; Council, City Subject:Palo Alto Puzzle Hunt - for next year Date:Monday, June 20, 2022 11:34:45 AM Attachments:Palo Alto Puzzle Hunt Presentation.pdf Some people who received this message don't often get email from marcy@solvingfun.com. Learn why this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear City Council of Palo Alto, Thank you for partnering with us to host the Palo Alto Puzzle Hunt this May. We had an amazing experience seeing all of the families enjoying the puzzling and exploration of places in Palo Alto. Attached is a slide deck of some of the details and feedback we received. Many requested this become an annual event and we hope there is room in the budget for next year. Please let us know if you have any questions or need any additional information. Our best, Hillary and Marcy -- Happy Solving, www.solvingfun.com This message is intended for the sole use of the individual and entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended addressee, nor authorized to receive for the intended addressee, you are hereby notified that you may not use, copy, disclose or distribute to anyone the message or any information contained in themessage. If you have received this message in error, please immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete the message. Community ﬁnding answers together Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together “This puzzle hunt has been such an amazing experience for my family. We also greatly appreciated the fact that the hunt helped us learn more about this wonderful town we live in; some of the places we never even knew existed til the puzzle hunt brought us there! I hope there will be future iterations of this hunt; we would be all over it!” -Diana C. Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together Puzzle Hunt = Scavenger Hunt + Puzzles ●Collaborate with friends and family to solve puzzles. ●Filled with a variety of wordplay, logic, math, reasoning, and creative thinking. ●Find clues by solving puzzles. ●Clues lead to locations (in person or virtual). ●Put together clues and solve a meta puzzle for ﬁnal answer(s). Solving Fun puzzle pals love to create puzzle hunts for communities and organizations. They bring people together in a fun and unique way to collaborate and use creative thinking. Puzzle hunts are inclusive, open to all ages and all kinds of groups. Puzzle hunts can range from a few hours to sets of puzzles that solvers work on over a series of weeks. Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together Beneﬁts ❏Brings Communities Together ❏New Visitors to Local Landmarks ❏Outdoors ❏Not Schedule Dependent (solvers can solve the puzzles at their own leisure, not competing with other activities) ❏Flexible Locations (organizations can pick whatever locations are important to them) ❏Inclusive: Open to Everyone! Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together “This was a great event! We biked all over the city and even found a few new spots, even though we've lived here for ten years.” -Lucas P. Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together The Palo Alto Puzzle Hunt consisted of 4 weeks of fun: Saturday May 7th-30th, 2022. It was free and ﬁlled with 30+ puzzles for families and friends to solve together. Solvers could do each week individually or do them all. Each puzzle took solvers to a different location in Palo Alto with a metapuzzle at the end. Prizes were awarded for each week and for solving the completed hunt. Palo Alto Puzzle Hunt Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together Sample Puzzles Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together “I had so much fun playing this game with the kids (6&3). Kids seems very into this activity as well and biked / walked to ﬁnd all the clues. I hope this event can come back annually!!!” -Bilson C. Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together Expenses for 2022 ❏Advertising ❏Handouts/Banners (printed by Solving Fun) ❏Signs (clues posted at each location printed by City of Palo Alto) ❏Prizes ($1000 donated from Palo Alto Rec Foundation and $2500 worth of products from Solving Fun) ❏Puzzle Creation (donated by Solving Fun) Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together Participants and Analytics Data Site visits: ●4,364 to solvingfun.com/paloalto ●3,721 visits to weekly puzzle pages Entries: ●142 submissions ●103 completed all 4 weeks & the ﬁnal puzzle ●85 entrants provided feedback (100% positive reviews with 2 suggestions) Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together “Thank you so so much for putting together this incredible hunt. My daughter Leah (age 7) and I looked forward to the puzzles each week, and it took us to places in Palo Alto all over, some of which we knew but many that turned into an adventure. I love puzzles of all kinds, so this was a true joy for our family. We had fun doing them together, but I also got a ton of pleasure thinking, “wow, who put this all together?” My hat is off to you. It was outstanding.” - Kevin M. Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together Where did you hear about the Puzzle Hunt? Word of Mouth (14) 10 Friend 4 Family member Online / News (34) 2 Paloaltoonline.com Online 4 Nextdoor Whatsapp group 5 Facebook - Palo Alto Moms group 3 Facebook 2 Palo Alto Weekly Uplift Newsletter Solving Fun mailing list 9 Puzzle Hunt Calendar (http://puzzlehuntcalendar.com/). 5 school email Around Town (21) Magical Bridge Junior Museum 2 From posters around Palo Alto 1 local library Fairmeadow elementary Signs around town 5 Mitchell Park library banner 2 Lucie Stern 2 Rinconada Park sign Saw a clue at the park with a QR code Gamble Garden clue Event (8) 7 May Fete Parade and learned about it through the website and ﬂiers. May Fete parade webpage Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together “The puzzle hunt was really fun! The puzzles were fun to solve, and the hunt was a great weekend activity that encouraged exercise (I biked to all of the locations). I've been living in Palo Alto for several years now, and the puzzle hunt introduced me to some places I hadn't been to before. I would deﬁnitely do a hunt like this again in the future.” -Aliyeh M. Solving Fun Puzzle Hunt Bringing communities together www.solvingfun.com Thank you, let’s do this again! From:Amie Ashton To:Council, City Subject:Support for 2850 West Bayshore! Date:Monday, June 20, 2022 9:20:53 AM Some people who received this message don't often get email from aashton@gmail.com. Learnwhy this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Honorable City Council, I am writing to voice my support for the proposed 48 residential units (including 7 BMR units) 2850 West Bayshore. My reasons for support are many, and include the following: The project will replace an inefficient, parking-centric, low-density, outdated office building with much-needed housing. The project is all-electric. It includes bicycle and pedestrian safety measures (which will facilitate access to area employers, including those accessible via the new freeway overcrossing). The City will receive over $2 million for much-needed park improvements. It is a short 10- to 15-minute bike ride to California Avenues businesses, transit, and area employers. Additional housing will slow the scary trend of decreasing enrollment that threatens to close neighborhood schools and undermine property values. While I personally would support a project triple this size on this particular lot, I cannot let the opportunity to support even medium-density housing in our City. Please zone for higher density throughout Palo Alto (and in particular near transit stations/centers) to increase housing variety for seniors, for those who do not want a single-family home for sustainability reasons, and for local workers who pollute our air and clog roadways due to long commutes. Thank you for all your efforts to make Palo Alto an even better place to live and work! Amie Ashton From:E Nigenda To:Council, City Subject:2850 West Bayshore Road Date:Monday, June 20, 2022 6:38:49 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear City Council Members, The proposed housing at 2850 West Bayshore Road is on landfill. I hope that the City ensures that this project’s developers are aware of the risks of flooding via sea level and groundwater level rise, sinking and liquefaction at this site and that the developers are required to account for and mitigate these risks for the safety of our future neighbors. San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood is a cautionary tale of these risks. In this case, the developers did build to bedrock but the City's infrastructure is failing and the residents are suing. ‘Unsafe’ and ‘unsightly’: Residents of this S.F. neighborhood sue city over sinking streets and sidewalks. Thank you for your service to our community, Esther Nigenda From:Palo Alto Forward To:Council, City; Planning Commission; HeUpdate; Building Subject:Re: Adoption of an Ordinance Amending Title 8 of the PAMC Date:Saturday, June 18, 2022 2:13:46 PM Attachments:June 18 2022 Letter.pdf CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Hello! Attached is a letter regarding the adoption of an Ordinance Amending Title 8 of the PAMC - we believe the tree protection ordinance expansion in particular conflicts with state law, and makes it more difficult for the city to reach a compliant housing element. Thank you! June 18, 2022 Re: Adoption of an Ordinance Amending Title 8 of the PAMC Dear Palo Alto City Council; Palo Alto Planning and Transportation Committee; Palo Alto Housing Element Working Group; and City Staff: We are writing today to discuss existing and proposed tree ordinances in the context of state housing law. We understand you are in receipt of communications from Mr. Randolph Popp, and he has provided you with remarks from Housing and Community Development (HCD) affirming the supremacy of state housing law in the context of the proposed ADU ordinance. We urge you to take this seriously. HCD is correct. No local ordinance can make an ADU illegal beyond the extent permitted by state law. Going further: this is also true of the existing tree ordinance. It is also true of SB-9 projects. The city should ensure its ordinances are compliant with state housing law in all cases. We believe this is an urgent matter in the context of the Housing Element. As part of the Housing Element, the city must identify and mitigate constraints on development1. The city has not provided any public information on its constraints analysis to-date, but the existing ordinance is a constraint, and the proposed one will be a constraint, if adopted. Even where superseded by state law, such ordinances are still barriers to development because they require delays and costs to override. Tree ordinances impact the Housing Element in three places. The first is the site inventory. The city has 409 specific sites for the housing element to accommodate its RHNA2, and computed realistic capacities based on raw acreage. These realistic capacities do not seem to reflect reductions in developable acreage created by either the existing or proposed tree ordinances. Take, for example, this inventory site at 990 Commercial St: 2 Inventory spreadsheet at paloaltohousingelement.com, dated 4/26/2022 1 https://www.hcd.ca.gov/community-development/housing-element/docs/housing%20element%20complet eness%20checklist.pdf, pg 6 A significant portion of this lot is illegal to develop around the perimeter, and especially at the corner. Note the rock path to see how much depth beyond the setback is reserved for urban canopy. If not for the ordinance, a developer would likely find much of this surface area useful for satisfying the city’s parking requirements. With the ordinance, the effective acreage is reduced below the .79 acres reflected in the site inventory. We support urban canopy, but absent offsetting policies, the city’s inventory must count fewer housing units at sites such as this, to reflect the reduced capacity for development created by the city’s policies. This would require identification of more sites, or higher allowed densities on existing sites in the inventory. We think this site is an example of a site affected by the existing ordinance. This reflects the fact that our members’ groundtruthing reports 3 can not incorporate feedback regarding 3 See past letters from Rob Nielson, Scott O’Neil, and Robert Chun offering site-by-site analysis of the proposed Housing Element inventory. ordinances that did not exist when the groundtruthing was performed. Even so, it illustrates a principle that would apply to any site that is affected by the new ordinance. Second, the city is projecting development of 512 ADU units in its Housing Element 4. This projection is based in part on a historical baseline the city has established for actual ADU production. The current tree protection ordinance is reflected in this baseline, but the one under consideration is not. If the city creates a new constraint on ADU development, its existing projections are invalidated. The city would probably claim that because the proposed ordinance defers to Government Code section 65882 subdivision (e), there is no new constraint. This is false. By shifting the burden of demonstrating a necessity for an exemption with the ordinance to the applicant, the city is making ADU development less economically feasible. The requirement of an arborist report compounds this. The city must study these impacts, and reduce its projected housing yield from ADUs, and/or find offsetting capacity. Third, and taking the above two together: the city must account for its tree protection ordinances in the constraints analysis and policies sections. The city can surely make these policies legal and get to a compliant housing element, but doing this may require offsetting policies if more sites are not identified. For example, the city could adopt a program that gives height, FAR, density, and parking-reduction bonuses proportional to the area required to support urban canopy. The city needs to ensure ordinances -existing and new- are compliant with state housing law. We believe the tree protection ordinance expansion in particular conflicts with state law, and makes it more difficult for the city to reach a compliant housing element. The city should pull the ordinance, rework it to ensure legal compliance, and find ways to offset development impacts to avoid threatening Housing Element compliance and certification. Thank you for your consideration in this matter. Katie Causey Community Engagement Manager on behalf of the Board of Palo Alto Forward 4 Inventory spreadsheet. From:slevy@ccsce.com To:Council, City Cc:Shikada, Ed; Nose, Kiely; Paras, Christine; Charlie Weidanz Subject:I would like to support a new business tax Date:Friday, June 17, 2022 1:16:09 PM Attachments:Business Tax Comparison Summary_Final.pdf Palo Alto Business Tax Comparison Matrix_Final_pdf.pdf CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear Mayor Burt and Council members, I read in the Daily Post that you were sent an analysis by Joint Venture Silicon Valley's research group comparing your proposed tax with those in neighboring cities. I am attaching the files JVSV sent me in case you do not have them. The summary as reported in the Post and as I read the files is that the current proposed tax is way out of line with the burden imposed in most neighboring cities and that the share paid by the largest firms is low in comparison. This builds on the staff report that 80% of the tax will be paid by others than the top five firms. I find that the current proposal does not meet equity or competitiveness goals. Here is what could move me to support a new tax 1) reduce the rate to 60c/ per square foot a year or less. The tax burden for most would still be higher than in neighboring cities. From the JVSV report "Even at the lower rate of $.60/SF, companies would pay between 77% (or approximately four times) and 90% (or approximately 10 times) more in Palo Alto than the average tax paid across all five comparison jurisdictions." 2) Exempt all square footage under 25,000. And remove the aggregation of footage for places like Coupa that have completely independent sites in the city 3) Sunset the tax after five years. If it is a good idea without obvious negative impacts, voters will extend it. 4) Improve the business climate. I am sure the Chamber will provide suggestions. Mine is to allow non retail activities in spaces currently reserved for retail but which have remained vacant for a long time in the face of online shopping and declining offices workers as customers. Work from home is continuing. I am thinking of service businesses but would also consider office IF higher floors have some housing. Finally, it is reasonable to expect firms to economize on space in the face of a tax on space particularly when work from home is an option. Stephen Levy Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy 84 W. Santa Clara Street, Suite 800 • San Jose, California 95113 (669) 223-1331 tel • www.jointventure.org May 18, 2022 Shweta Bhatnagar Senior Director of Government Affairs Stanford University Sent via email: shwetab@stanford.edu Re: Business Tax Comparison Matrix – Select Silicon Valley Jurisdictions Dear Shweta: Attached you will find the agreed-upon deliverables from your custom analysis, along with all applicable methodological notes. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. Appreciatively, Rachel Massaro VP/Director of Research Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies Joint Venture Silicon Valley 84 W. Santa Clara Street, Suite 800 • San Jose, California 95113 (669) 223-1331 tel • www.jointventure.org 2 Business Tax Comparison Matrix Select Silicon Valley Jurisdictions Background Stanford engaged the Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies to conduct a business tax analysis; the goal of the study was to compare the proposed tax structure in Palo Alto to those being implemented in specific nearby jurisdictions. Methodology Stanford provided parameters for the analysis, including the number of employees and square footage for four proxy companies, each representing a business currently located in Palo Alto that would be affected by a business tax across several size categories . In addition to Palo Alto, five comparison jurisdictions were included in the analysis: one with a square footage-based business tax (Cupertino) and four with business taxes based on employee count (Mountain View, Redwood City, San Jose, and Santa Clara).1 Using the inputs provided by Stanford, business taxes were estimated for each proxy company in five jurisdictions. Business tax regulations and algorithms were obtained through the individual jurisdictions’ websites. An average business tax for each proxy company was calculated across the five jurisdictions. A sensitivity analysis for Palo Alto was conducted based on three proposed tax rates which were provided by Stanford. In addition, a reverse - engineered Palo Alto tax rate for each proxy company was calculated based on the average tax paid across the five jurisdictions. A comparison of the maximum business tax escalator currently under consideration in Palo Alto (5% annually) to those in all five additional jurisdictions was conducted with projections in Palo Alto through year 12.2 Assumptions for each proxy company included: ● All employees are full-time. 1 An additional three jurisdictions with business taxes based on gross payroll, gross receipts, or a combination of the two (East Palo Alto, Fremont, and San Francisco) were originally to be included; however, they were ultimately excluded due to the lack of publicly available data necessary for the analysis. 2 Palo Alto is considering an annual escalator based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) with a maximum rate cap of five percent. 84 W. Santa Clara Street, Suite 800 • San Jose, California 95113 (669) 223-1331 tel • www.jointventure.org 3 ● For the Palo Alto estimations, the first 5,000 square feet of total company square footage are exempt (based on Palo Alto City Council directives). ● The companies do not qualify for any other business tax exemptions. For the Palo Alto comparison, the proposed business tax based on square footage was analyzed using three different rates ($.05, $.10, and $.15 per square foot per month). Findings Of the five local jurisdictions included in the business tax comparison, the most common form of business tax is by employee count (four out of five jurisdictions; Cupertino uses an algorithm based on square footage – similar to the tax being considered in Palo Alto). Several jurisdictions have a maximum rate in effect, and Santa Clara has a flat tax (as opposed to an incremental one). Overall, Santa Clara had the lowest business tax for each of the four proxy companies when compared to other jurisdictions, bringing down the averages noted below. The city is currently in the process of revamping its business tax structure, though, and is considering replacing its $500 maximum with a tax based on employee count. Across the five jurisdictions by proxy company, estimated annual business taxes ranged from: Low High Average Proxy Company $500 $396,700 $116,200 1,500,000 SF/3,500 employees $500 $209,200 $69,600 500,000 SF/2,000 employees $460 $26,700 $11,500 100,000 SF/400 employees $100 $2,400 $1,200 25,000 SF/50 employees Three out of four proxy companies (with the exception of the smallest proxy company ) would pay the most taxes in Mountain View3. 3 Mountain View Business License Tax estimates are based on the full tax rate that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2022. 84 W. Santa Clara Street, Suite 800 • San Jose, California 95113 (669) 223-1331 tel • www.jointventure.org 4 Notes: All proxy company inputs are provided by Stanford. First 5,000 SF in Palo Alto are exempt from tax. Mountain View Business License Tax estimates are based on the full tax rate that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2022. Source: Business tax regulations as described on jurisdiction's website. Palo Alto rates provided by Stanford. The following key findings were based on the Palo Alto business tax scenarios using three different annual tax rates ($0.60, $1.20, and $1.80 per square foot per month): ● Even at the lower rate of $.60/SF, companies would pay between 77% (or approximately four times) and 90% (or approximately 10 times) more in Palo Alto than the average tax paid across all five comparison jurisdictions. ● Reverse engineering the business tax rate in Palo Alto to equal the average across the five comparison jurisdictions results in a business tax rate of $0.06/SF/year (for a company with 25,000 SF) to $0.14/SF/year (for a company with 500,000 SF). These rates are significantly less than the annual rates of $.60-$1.80/SF/year currently under consideration in Palo Alto. • As a comparison, a proxy company with 50 employees/25,000 SF would pay approximately $2,400 annually in Redwood City, while in Palo Alto the business would pay between $12,000 to $36,000 - nearly five to 15 times more in annual taxes based on the range of tax rates under consideration in Palo Alto. These estimates reflect the exemption of the first 5,000 SF from the tax and illustrate the additional tax burden that will be placed on Palo Alto’s smaller companies such as start-ups and Main Street businesses. This Excel file contains the following worksheets: Worksheet Details 1 Business Tax Comparison Matrix Comparing the businesses taxes associated with four proxy companies in five jurisdictions and Palo Alto. 2 Annual Increase Comparison and Projections Rate increase comparison and Palo Alto projectiosn to year 12. 3-10 Business Tax Regulations by Jurisdiction Busines tax regulations as described on respective jurisdiction's website. 11 Annotations All methodological notes associated with this analysis Employee Count (EC)3,500 2,000 400 50 Square Footage (SF)1,500,000 500,000 100,000 25,000 Company VMware HP, Inc. JAZZ Pharmaceuticals ARGO AI Cupertino (SF) $11,329 99% $6,129 98% $3,284 94% $1,082 91% Mountain View (EC) $396,695 56% $209,195 30% $26,695 53% $445 96% Redwood City (EC) Max: $5,966 $5,966 99% $5,966 98% $5,966 90% $2,422 80% San Jose (EC) Max: $166,311 $166,311 81% $126,248 57% $20,993 63% $2,174 82% Santa Clara (EC) Max: $500 $500 100% $500 100% $460 99% $100 99% Average business tax paid: $116,160 87% $69,608 77% $11,480 80% $1,244 90% Palo Alto (SF) Annual Rate:% Chg (Avg tax paid) % Chg (Avg tax paid) % Chg (Avg tax paid) % Chg (Avg tax paid) $0.60 $897,000 87% $297,000 77% $57,000 80% $12,000 90% $1.20 $1,794,000 94% $594,000 88% $114,000 90% $24,000 95% $1.80 $2,691,000 96% $891,000 92% $171,000 93% $36,000 97% Estimated annual tax rate to place Palo Alto at the avg. of five comparsion jurisdictions $0.08 $0.14 $0.12 $0.06 Business Taxes by Proxy Company Note: All proxy company inputs are provided by Stanford. First 5,000 sf in Palo Alto are exempt from tax. Source: Business tax regulations as described on jurisdiction's website. Palo Alto rates provided by Stanford. % Chg (Compared to Lowest Palo Alto Rate) % Chg (Compared to Lowest Palo Alto Rate) % Chg (Compared to Lowest Palo Alto Rate) % Chg (Compared to Lowest Palo Alto Rate) Cupertino 1.8% East Palo Alto* 0% Fremont* 0% Mountain View Bay Area CPI Redwood City Bay Area CPI San Francisco* 0% San Jose 1.5% - 3% Santa Clara 0% Palo Alto (CPI/5% maximum) 5% Current Year Year Year Year Year Year Year Year Year Year Year Year Tax Rates 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 $0.60 $0.600 $0.630 $0.662 $0.695 $0.729 $0.766 $0.804 $0.844 $0.886 $0.931 $0.977 $1.026 $1.20 $1.200 $1.260 $1.323 $1.389 $1.459 $1.532 $1.608 $1.689 $1.773 $1.862 $1.955 $2.052 $1.80 $1.800 $1.890 $1.985 $2.084 $2.188 $2.297 $2.412 $2.533 $2.659 $2.792 $2.932 $3.079 Note: Palo Alto 5% rate of annual increase is used as basis for projected increases to year 12. The City of Palo Alto has proposed 5% as a maximum rate. Source: Business tax regulations as descrbed on jurisdiction's website. Palo Alto rates provided by Stanford. Annual Rate of Increase by Jurisdication *Due to lack of gross payroll and gross receipts information for the proxy companies, East Palo Alto, Fremont and San Francisco were not aincluded in the business tax comparison. East Palo Alto business tax is based on gross receipts. In addition, a parcel tax on property owners exists for all commercial space of 25k sf or more. Fremont business tax is based on gross payroll, and San Francisco business tax is based on apprortioned gross receipts. Cupertino Business Tax:Square Footage Tax Source:https://www.cupertino.org/home/showpublisheddocument/3542/637453652200270000 Annual Increase:1.8% Business Tax Specifics: Square Footage Tax Rate 0-5,000 $0.041 5,001-25,000 $0.036 25,001-75,000 $0.031 75,001-100,000 $0.026 100,001-150,000 $0.021 150,001 and above $0.005 Plus: Basic Business License:$155 Proxy Company Square Footage Tax VMWare 1,500,000 $11,329 HP Inc.500,000 $6,129 JAZZ Pharmaceuticals 100,000 $3,284 ARGO AI 25,000 $1,082 East Palo Alto Business Tax:Gross Receipts Source:https://www.ci.east-palo-alto.ca.us/finance/page/east-palo-alto-business-licenses-additional-information Annual Increase:No annual escalator Business Tax Specifics: Annual Gross Receipits:Annual License Fee $0-$999 $50 $1,000-$100,000 $125 $100,001-$250,000 $250 $250,001-$500,000 $500 $500,001-$10,000,000 $1 for each $1,000 of gross receipts $10,000,000 $10,000 plus $.50 for each $1,000 of gross receipts over $10,000,001 Special Parcel Tax on Commercial Space A parcel tax on commerical office space over 25,000 squiare feet at an annual rate $2.50 per square foot. The tax is paid by the owner of the property, unless the owner is exempt from the tax, in which case the tax is owed by the holder of the possessory interest (generally a lessee) unless that person is also exempt from the tax. I Measure HH - passed on Nov. 6, 2018 ballot ading Chapter 3.7 to the Municipal Code: "Commercial Office Space Parcel Tax for Affordable Housing and Job Opportunities." Fremont Business Tax:Gross payroll tax Source:https://www.codepublishing.com/CA/Fremont/#!/Fremont05/Fremont0505.html#5.05.290 Annual Increase:No annual escalator Business Tax Specifics: 5.05.290 Wholesalers, manufacturers, other businesses Every person conducting, carrying on, or managing any business which consists predominantly of selling at retail any goods, wares, merchandise or commodities shall pay an annual business tax of $0.25 for each $1,000 of gross receipts. For purposes of this section, all persons operating a business consisting of retail and/or wholesale sales which operates from a residential district shall pay an annual business tax of $0.30 for each $1,000 of gross receipts. (Ord. 1876 § 2, 6-6-89; Ord. 16-2009 § 7, 7-21-09. 1990 Code § 5-1201.) 5.05.240 Retail sales. (a) Every person conducting, carrying on or managing any business consisting of manufacturing or selling at wholesale any goods or merchandise, maintaining administrative offices with minimal sale of goods, merchandise or services, or providing telephone or telegraph services shall pay an annual business tax of $0.30 for each $1,000 of gross payroll. Mountain View Business Tax:Employee Head Count Source:https://www.mountainview.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=30747 Annual Increase:Bay Area CPI (subject to the approval of City Council) Business Tax Specifics: Effective Oct. 1, 2019 Businesses whose annual gross receipts total $5,001 or more pay the following tax rate: Number of Employees Annual Business License Tax 1 $75 2 to 25 $75+$5/employee for each employee over 1 26 to 50 $195+$10/employee for each employee over 25 51 to 500 $445+$75/employee for each employee over 50 501 to 1,000 $34,195+$100/employee for each employee over 500 employees 1,001 to 5,000 $84,195+$125/employee for each employee over 1,000 5,001 up $584,195+$150/employee for each employee over 5,000 Proxy Company Employees Annual Tax VMWare 3500 $396,695.00 HP Inc.2000 $209,195.00 JAZZ Pharmaceuticals 400 $26,695.00 ARGO AI 50 $445.00 Redwood City Business Tax:Employee Head. Count Source:https://www.redwoodcity.org/departments/administrative-services/finance/taxes-assessments/business-licensing Annual Increase:Bay Area CPI Business Tax Specifics: Effective July 1, 2021 Section 32.152 - Base Tax Rate & Section 32.153 - Incremental Tax Rate Base Tax- for the proxy companies, the annual base tax is $72 plus $47 per owners/partners/full-time employees ($24 per part-time employee). Maximum tax for FY 2021/22:$5,966 Proxy Company Employees Annual Tax Annual Maximum Tax VMWare 3500 $164,572.00 $5,966 HP Inc.2000 $94,072.00 $5,966 JAZZ Pharmaceuticals 400 $18,872.00 $5,966 ARGO AI 50 $2,422.00 San Francisco Business Tax:Gross Receipts apportioned based on payroll (City payroll/Worldwide payroll) Source:https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/san_francisco/latest/sf_business/0-0-0-4745 Annual Increase:None Business Tax Specifics: For the business activities of manufacturing and food services: (A) For tax years 2021 and 2022: 0.088% (e.g., $0.88 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $0 and $1,000,000 0.144% (e.g., $1.44 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $1,000,000.01 and $2,500,000 0.259% (e.g., $2.59 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $2,500,000.01 and $25,000,000 0.665% (e.g., $6.65 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts over $25,000,000 (B) For tax year 2023: 0.131% (e.g., $1.31 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $0 and $1,000,000 0.215% (e.g., $2.15 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $1,000,000.01 and $2,500,000 0.389% (e.g., $3.89 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $2,500,000.01 and $25,000,000 0.665% (e.g., $6.65 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts over $25,000,000 (C) For tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2024: 0.175% (e.g., $1.75 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $0 and $1,000,000 0.287% (e.g., $2.87 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $1,000,000.01 and $2,500,000 0.518% (e.g., $5.18 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $2,500,000.01 and $25,000,000 0.665% (e.g., $6.65 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts over $25,000,000 For the business activity of information: (A) For tax year 2021: 0.56% (e.g., $5.60 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $0 and $1,000,000 0.644% (e.g., $6.44 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $1,000,000.01 and $2,500,000 0.714% (e.g., $7.14 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $2,500,000.01 and $25,000,000 0.784% (e.g., $7.84 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts over $25,000,000 0.573% (e.g., $5.73 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $0 and $1,000,000 0.665% (e.g., $6.65 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $1,000,000.01 and $2,500,000 0.751% (e.g., $7.51 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $2,500,000.01 and $25,000,000 0.832% (e.g., $8.32 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts over $25,000,000 0.579% (e.g., $5.79 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $0 and $1,000,000 0.675% (e.g., $6.75 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $1,000,000.01 and $2,500,000 0.77% (e.g., $7.70 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $2,500,000.01 and $25,000,000 0.855% (e.g., $8.55 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts over $25,000,000 0.585% (e.g., $5.85 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $0 and $1,000,000 0.685% (e.g., $6.85 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $1,000,000.01 and $2,500,000 0.788% (e.g., $7.88 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts between $2,500,000.01 and $25,000,000 0.879% (e.g., $8.79 per $1,000) for taxable gross receipts over $25,000,000 Notes: Note: Information includes producing and distributing information or cultural products; providing the means to transmit or distribute those products; and processing data; it includes business activity described in NAICS code 51. Note: Manufacturing includes the activity of transforming materials, substances or components into new products by mechanical, physical or chemical means; it includes the activity of assembling component parts of manufactured products; it includes business activity described in NAICS codes 31, 32 and 33. Who pays: Persons other than lessors of residential real estate are required to file a return if in the tax year you were engaged in business in San Francisco were not otherwise exempt and you had more than $2,000,000in combined taxable San Francisco gross receipts. What constitutes gross receipts: Gross receipts means the total amounts received or accrued by a person from whatever source derived, including, but not limited to, amounts derived from sales, services, dealings in property, interest, rent, royalties, dividends, licensing fees, other fees, commissions and distributed amounts from other business entities. Gross receipts include but is not limited to all amounts that constitute gross income for federal income tax purposes. Gross receipts, including advance payments, shall be included in a taxpayer's gross receipts at the time such receipts are recognized as gross income for federal income tax reporting purposes. For companies that have gross receipts both inside San Francisco and outside San Francisco, apportionment of global gross receipts is based on the ratio of San Francisco gross payroll to global gross payroll. (C) For tax year 2023 if the Controller certifies under Section 953.10 that the 90% gross receipts threshold has been met for tax year 2023, and for tax year 2024 if the Controller does not certify under Section 953.10 that the 95% gross receipts threshold has been met for tax year 2024: (B) For tax year 2022 and, if the Controller does not certify under Section 953.10 that the 90% gross receipts threshold has been met for tax year 2023, for tax year 2023: (D) For tax year 2024 if the Controller certifies under Section 953.10 that the 95% gross receipts threshold has been met for tax year 2024, and for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2025: San Jose Business Tax:Employee Head Count Source:https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments/finance/business-tax-registration/business-tax-rates Annual Increase:1.5% minimum base tax 3% on incremental brackets 3% on rate cap Business Tax Specifics: Employees Incremental Tax per Employee (effective 7/1/2021) Base Tax: 1 to 2 $206.90 Incremental Tax: 3 to 35 $33.21 Incremental Tax: 36-100 $44.28 Incremental Tax: 101 to 500 $55.35 Incremental Tax: 501+$66.48 Cap $166,311.35 Notes: Proxy Company Employees Annual Tax Annual Maximum Tax VMWare 3500 $225,968 $166,311 HP Inc.2000 $126,248 JAZZ Pharmaceuticals 400 $20,993 ARGO AI 50 $2,174 "Employee" means each and every person engaged in the operation or conduct of any business, whether as owner, member of the owner's family, partner, associate, agent, manager or solicitor, and each and every other person employed or working in such business for a wage, salary, commission or room and board. Incremental tax rates are applicable per employee. As prescribed in San Jose Municipal Code Section 4.76.365, the base tax rate shall be adjusted annually if the cost of living in the City has increased over the preceding base period as shown by the Consumer Price Index (All Urban Consumers for All Items for the San Francisco-Oakland-San José Area) using February to February data; limited to 1.5% per year on the minimum base tax, 3.0% per year on the incremental tax brackets, and 3.0% per year on the cap. Santa Clara Business Tax: Employee Head Count Source:https://www.codepublishing.com/CA/SantaClara/#!/SantaClara03/SantaClara0340.html#3.40.010 Annual Increase:No annual escalator Business Tax Specifics: Flat fee per size category No. of Employees Annual Tax 1 $15 2 $30 6 $70 16 $115 21 $175 26 $225 31 $280 41 $330 56 $380 76 $460 101+ $500 No. of Employees Annual Tax 1 $15 2 to 3 $30 4 to 6 $70 7 to 10 $90 11 to 20 $115 21 to 25 $175 26 to 35 $225 36 to 40 $280 41 to 45 $330 46 to 50 $380 51 to 55 $460 56+ $500 No. of Employees Annual Tax 1 to 3 $15 4 to 20 $45 21 to 30 $65 31 to 50 $100 51 to 75 $135 76 to 100 $175 101 to 125 $225 126 to 175 $280 176 to 225 $330 226 to 300 $380 301 to 400 $460 401+ $500 Notes: Proxy Company Employees Annual Tax Annual Maximum Tax VMWare 3500 $500 $500 HP Inc.2000 $500 JAZZ Pharmaceuticals 400 $460 ARGO AI 50 $100 (b) Professional and Semiprofessional Services. Any person engaged in the business of offering professional or semiprofessional services, as that term is ordinarily and commonly used and understood, and shall include those professions requiring governmental certification or a professional degree, but not limited to the practice or profession of: accounting, administrative support, advertising, analyst, appraiser, architectural services, auditing, chiropractic, consultant (all fields), dentistry, drafting, education, engineering (all fields), finance, law, medicine, mortician, optometry, physical therapist, property management, real estate (broker and agent), research and development, taxidermist, technical support, veterinary and writers shall pay a tax according to Schedule 200; or (c) Manufacturing. Any person engaged in the business of making any article, device, good, or item from raw material, to be sold for wholesale shall pay a business tax according to Schedule 300; or Commercial Employee Head Count Professional Employee Head Count Tax Manufacturing Employee Head Count Unless such business is otherwise specifically taxed by other provisions of this chapter, every business in the city shall pay a tax according to the following classification and rate schedule: (a) Commercial. Any person engaged in the business of offering for sale or selling to the public at wholesale or retail any materials, commodities, goods, wares or merchandise shall pay a tax according to Schedule 100; or Data Sources Stanford and jurisdiction websites Analysis Silicon Valley Institute for Regional Studies Metholdogy Stanford provided proxy company inputs based on employee cuont and square footage. Stanford identified eight local jurisdictions to include in a business tax comparision: Cuptertino, East Palo Alto, Fremont, Montain View, Redwood City, San Francisco, San Jose, and Santa Clara. Four jurisdictions have a business tax based on employee count (Mountain View, Redwood City, San Jose and Santa Clara), one (Cupertino) is based on square footage, and three (East Palo Alto, Fremont and San Francisco) are based on gross payroll or gross receitps or a combination of the two. For jurisdictions with either an employee count or square footage-based forumla for business tax, the proxy company inputs were used to estimate the business tax for each of the four proxy companies based on 2022 dollars. Jurisdictions using either gross payroll or gross receipts inputs were not included in the business tax comparison matrix due to the lack of available public data for the proxy companies. A sensitivity analysis was conducted for Palo Alto based on a range of business tax rates applied to square footage: $.05, $.10 and $.15 per square foot. The average business tax across the five local jurisdications was calculated for each proxy company. Based on the average business tax, a business tax rate was calculated for Palo Alto that would place Palo Alto at the average tax for each proxy company. The annual rate of increase was calculated for Palo Alto to year 12 using the maximum proposed rate of 5%. Annual rates of increase are indicated for each of the seven jurisdications, even those not included in the business tax comparison matrix. Glossary Employee Count The number of full-time workers at a site within the jurisdiction. Square Footage The square footage of space under lease or ownership by a company within the jursidication. Gross Receipts Gross revenue of a company within a jurisdiction prior to the deduction of any expenses or other costs. Gross Payroll Gross payroll including bonuses and other forms of compensation for a company within a jurisdiction. Assumptions This model assumes that all employees are full-time The annual increase in Palo Alto is presumed to be the maximum of 5%. The proxy companies do not qualify for any business tax exemptions in Palo Alto except the first 5,000 sf. Data Sources, Methodological Notes, and Glossary of Terms From:Justine Burt To:Council, City Cc:Shikada, Ed; Kamhi, Philip; Brad Ehikian; Rob George; Shannon Rose; de La Beaujardiere, Cedric; Sebastian Mafla; Star-Lack, Sylvia Subject:letter about business tax Date:Friday, June 17, 2022 12:24:21 PM Attachments:Palo Alto TMA City Council letter about business tax June 17 2022.pdf Some people who received this message don't often get email from justine@paloaltotma.org.Learn why this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear Honorable City Council Members, Please see attached for a letter about the business tax currently being considered by City Council. Cordially, Justine Burt Executive Director, Palo Alto Transportation Management Association justine@paloaltotma.org 855 El Camino Real, #13A-200 Palo Alto, CA 94301 June 17, 2022 City.Council@cityofpaloalto.org Dear Honorable City Council Members, The mission of the Palo Alto Transportation Management Association (TMA) is to reduce single occupancy vehicle trips, traffic congestion, and demand for parking by delivering targeted transportation solutions to the Downtown and California Avenue areas’ diverse range of employers, employees, visitors, and residents. As a local non-profit governed by a board comprised of both residents and local businesses, the TMA takes no position on whether the City of Palo Alto should enact a business tax. However, if the City implements a business tax, the TMA would like the City Council to consider the TMA as a potential recipient of business tax funding in order to benefit the local businesses that would pay this potential tax. Because the TMA serves the business community in Palo Alto, funding the TMA from business tax funds would ensure that the businesses paying the tax would receive services from it. Current TMA programs that support low-income workers have been shown to reduce employee turnover and support the competitiveness and stability of businesses in Downtown and California Ave in a challenging labor market. Ultimately, funding the TMA from a potential business tax benefits all residents by helping workers commute to Palo Alto using green modes that do not congest roads, do not require parking, improve air quality, and reduce noise. In addition, a side benefit of TMA programming is improved employee recruitment and retention, so local businesses can continue to serve residents with experienced workers. These businesses allow for the diverse and exciting street life that Palo Alto residents enjoy. Discussion about this topic at our June 16, 2022 board meeting resulted in the following motion. “The Palo Alto TMA Board of Directors approves the Executive Director sending a letter requesting funding if the business tax is passed. The board is not endorsing the business tax. We recognize that this tax, if passed, will have impacts on businesses. If some revenue from the business tax were used to fund PATMA, this will bring benefits back to businesses. PATMA recognizes the complex funding mechanism that this type of initiative generates. This motion indicates the Board’s desire to collaborate with the Council.” Thank you for your consideration of the TMA for future funding. Sincerely, Justine Burt Executive Director, Palo Alto Transportation Management Association justine@paloaltotma.org From:Reed Schwartz To:Council, City Subject:Letter of Support - 2850 W Bayshore Road Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 4:59:34 PM Attachments:Letter of Support - 2850 W Bayshore Road.pdf Some people who received this message don't often get email from reed@yimbylaw.org. Learn why this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Hi, Attached is a letter in support of the project at 2850 W Bayshore Road. Thanks, -- Reed Schwartz YIMBY Law Intern Wesleyan University '24 YIMBY Law 57 Post St, Suite 908 San Francisco, CA 94104 hello@yimbylaw.org 6/21/2022 Palo Alto City Council 250 Hamilton Ave Palo Alto, CA 94301 city.council@cityofpaloalto.org Via Email Re:2850 W Bayshore Road 21PLN- 00177 Dear Palo Alto City Council, YIMBY Law is a 501(c)3 non-proﬁt corporation,whose mission is to increase the accessibility and aordability of housing in California.YIMBY Law sues municipalities when they fail to comply with state housing laws,including the Housing Accountability Act (HAA).As you know, the City Council has an obligation to abide by all relevant state housing laws when evaluating the above captioned proposal,including the HAA.Should the City fail to follow the law,YIMBY Law will not hesitate to ﬁle suit to ensure that the law is enforced. The project will create 48 three-story townhomes in eight six-unit buildings,with seven units designated as aordable. California Government Code § 65589.5, the Housing Accountability Act, prohibits localities from denying housing development projects that are compliant with the locality’s zoning ordinance or general plan at the time the application was deemed complete, unless the locality can make ﬁndings that the proposed housing development would be a threat to public health and safety. The above captioned proposal is zoning compliant and general plan compliant,therefore,your local agency must approve the application,or else make ﬁndings to the eect that the proposed project would have an adverse impact on public health and safety,as described above.Should the City fail to comply with the law,YIMBY Law will not hesitate to take legal action to ensure that the law is enforced. I am signing this letter both in my capacity as the Executive Director of YIMBY Law,and as a resident of California who is aected by the shortage of housing in our state. Sincerely, 1 Sonja Trauss Executive Director YIMBY Law YIMBY Law, 57 Post Street, Suite 908, San Francisco, CA 94104 2 From:Joanne Price To:Council, City Cc:Shikada, Ed; Gaines, Chantal Subject:Homekey Palo Alto - Updated Design Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 11:26:15 AM Attachments:image001.png HK Palo Alto - 3rd story Rendering.pdf CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear Mayor Burt and City Councilmembers Firstly, we want to thank you again for your continued support of our Homekey Palo Alto project. Much has happened since we last appeared at Council; in April we submitted our schematic design and last month formally appointed our Development Manager, Sares Regis. Responding to all the moving parts relating to this site has been challenging, so we’ve worked closely with staff throughout the process. However, towards the end of this initial design phase it became apparent that the site looked congested (remember 30% of site is dedicated to effectively deliver support services). While waiting for our formal HCD award, we thought it prudent to pause and address this important issue. We believe our latest site plan is responsive to what the City has been articulating. The 3rd story would provide greater flexibility in site configuration creating an improved footprint to facilitate GreenWaste operations while at the same time enhancing the livable environment for our most vulnerable neighbors in our community for years to come. We were privileged to collaborate with the amazing talent at SteelBlue who provided pro bono service and did a stellar job bringing our vision to life on the attached rendering. We remain wholeheartedly committed in supporting the City of Palo Alto achieve a successful Homekey project and would be happy to sit down and walk through these design revisions, noting our Homekey budget remains the same. Please free to reach out to schedule a convenient time to meet in person or over zoom. Sincerely, Joanne Joanne Price | Vice President, Real Estate ph: (650) 685-5880 ext. 199 cell: (415) 632-6530 Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness 181 Constitution Drive | Menlo Park, CA 94025 Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | www.lifemoves.org 74' 04 .42.7 v From:Annette Glanckopf To:PAC; Council, City Cc:Sue Dremann Subject:Midtown Poetry Wall Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 9:23:36 PM Attachments:letter re poetry wall 2021_version 2.docx Letters re the Poetry wall.docx CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. To the Public Art Commission: Speaking on behalf of Midtown, I strongly urge you to reject staff's recommendation to decommission the Midtown Poetry wall and spend the $15-20,00 to repair/restore it. I cannot come to the commission tomorrow, since we will be out of town. I won't repeat the comments in my original letter (attached). It would be a significant loss to Midtown if this UNIQUE art was left to deteriorate more. Since I found out this was on this week's agenda, I shared staff recommendations with Midtown, I have received many letters and comments, as well as a few phone calls, from residents asking Midtown Residents Association to advocate for the repair/restoration. Some of these I have included in a second attached letter. Others have said they planned to write you to urge you to maintain the art. For me, the recommendation of decommissioning the art, is a major blow for Midtown. Our neighborhood is the step child of the city as far as funding. I know the Art Commission doesn't have an unlimited budget, but seriously consider the numerous comments from our residents who love this art which brightens our neighborhood. We strongly recommend that you - the Art Commission - support our request. DO NOT DECOMMISSION our unique and beloved poetry wall. Let's work together to find the money to restore this special mural. Annette Glanckopf - Vice Chair Midtown Residents Association Letters re the Poetry wall Brigid Barton <brigidbartonart@gmail.com> To:Annette Glanckopf Wed, Jun 15 at 10:55 AM Hi Annette—we are in Hawaii and get back late on the 16th, alas. I did write to the PAC and am strongly in favor of restoring the mural. NOTE: BRIGID was on the Art Commission and led the poetry wall competition. She wrote a letter when this first came to the PAC. ----------------------------------------- Alexis Hamilton Green • South of Midtown Thank you for this update! I love the poetry wall! It adds so much to our community. Are they trying to prepare the site for further development and don't want to have things get hung up due to this artwork? 1 Alexis Hamilton Green • South of Midtown Done! Here's my letter: Please make the necessary arrangements to repair and maintain the poetry wall on the old co-op building in Midtown. For one thing, it is a beautiful reminder of the history of the community. For another, it makes what would otherwise be a barren wall something special. We already lost the magic community garden in the back of that parking lot. Please preserve this charming moment if you can. Our city needs art and beauty in the South of Oregon (So-Oh??!!) area as much as we need art on the North side of town. Thank you. Alexis Hamilton St. Michael Drive Palo Alto Maureen Roddy • Midtown That’s a great letter!! I agree. Heidi S. • Leland Manor Thank you for the information Annette. Done. Mary Cambridge • Midtown I like that art installation and the positive Palo Alto message. I hope they restore it all...we all need a little refreshing every so often Karen: Please tell the Public Art Commission to respect Midtown and our art. To: Public Art Commission CC: Elise De Marzo From: Annette Glanckopf, Vice Chair, Midtown Residents Association I feel very strongly that this unique work of art needs to be restored. There is nothing like it in Palo Alto. It is an important part of Midtown’s art history, and to remove it would negate a significant chapter of our history. We recommend that the wall with water problems be fixed, and the mural repainted, as it looks like there is only a portion of the wall with damage. That being said, we would also welcome working with the Art Commission for an additional mural on the wall by Wells Fargo. A Bit of Background In 1997, the Midtown Residents Association (MRA) started to work with the Public Art Commission to install public art in Midtown. Included below is a historical perspective of the installation of 2 of the 5 pieces of Midtown art. All of the pieces of public art were in close collaboration with the Midtown Residents Association and strongly supported by the neighborhood. In 2000, MRA obtained 2 public art grants – one for the Liz Lada mural (“Inner Life of Teenagers”) on the CVS wall and a second for a poetry wall contest. As you can read from the historical perspective, the future of the Coop Market/Walgreens building was not clear, so this effort was put on hold and the Liz Lada mural was implemented first. The original competition for public art for the now Walgreen’s building was a mural that was done by Peter Bartczak. The objective was “The selected artist will be expected to develop a site-specific mural appropriate for the neighborhood that reflects the character and spirit of Midtown.” Peter’s original drawing was About the time “Inner Life of Teenagers” was installed, Walgreens bought the Coop Market building. As Peter’s mural was considered dated, Brigid Barton, then Chair of the Public Art Commission, came up with the idea of a poetry wall (see more below). There was enormous support from the community and as I remember it, we had over 200 contestants who submitted poetry. To paint over this site, with its unique Midtown history, would be devastating to all the folks who worked on the contest, folks who supported the effort, and most of all the artists themselves. Judy Kleinberg, past Mayor and council member, wrote a piece for our newsletter (see below). I have extracted a sentence “public art -- as a reminder of our shared values, heritage and culture”. Please do not destroy what we worked so hard to implement. It is a reminder of a significant period in the Midtown history. It would be a tragedy to remove it. See more about the poets in Sheri Furman’s email. Annette Glanckopf, Vice Chair Midtown Residents Association Historical Perspective “This mural has been a long time in coming and we are so pleased to be here today!” I was reviewing some of my old emails and noted that Midtown started working on this wall in 1997 with Judith Wasserman - Public Art Commissioner. In April of 1998, the Art Commission approved $5,000 for a mural with matching funds. In 1998 Judith and Brigid Barton (Public Art Commissioners) worked to develop an RFP (request for proposal) for a mural for the south wall of the Coop Market building. According to our timeline, the work was to be completed by January of 2001. On June 3rd, 2000 the Public Art Commission selected 2 finalists. They were so impressed with the entries and the enthusiasm of Midtown residents and business owners that Midtown was granted both murals. Shortly after the award, the Coop Market sold the property. As the fate of the site was unknown, the mural for this wall was put on hold. When plans for the building were finally revealed in mid-2001, Village Properties, the building owner, committed to help fund art for this wall. We appreciate their enthusiasm and support for Public Art and for Midtown. Thank you Walgreens/Village Property for taking a risk…which has turned out to be a great success!!! Once Walgreens and Como Esta began moving ahead with their remodeling, we still needed to select appropriate art for the wall. With unflagging, tireless energy and enthusiasm, in 2002 Brigid Barton led the Public Art Commission Competition for a poetry wall on this site. Unending thanks to the Poetry Committee composed of Brigid Barton, Kathryn Dunlevie, poet MaryLee McNeal, and the MRA team of Sylvia Gartner, Sharon Fox and myself. In January of 2003 we read the 100+ entries and selected 35 for the final selection by master poet Elizabeth Biller Chapman (more about Elizabeth, the winners and their poetry in a bit). About this time Brigid left the Commission, and Laura Deem became our key contact with the Commission as we worked through the logistics of site design and preparation for the celebration. And the rest is history… ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Public Art --- What is it good for? Judy Kleinberg, Palo Alto City Council It must have some benefit because the effort to beautify the more mundane features of the urban and suburban landscape has been around since cave dwellers enhanced their rocky surroundings to tell a story and record their culture. If you Google "public art," you'll be rewarded with 281,000 sites that review public art all over the world, from Western Australia to The Hague in the Netherlands. What is it in the human psychology that motivates us to embellish our public surroundings and to enrich and enliven public areas with works of art and sculpture? Certainly some of it is political, such as statues of leaders, whether loved or loathed. And some of it is historical, to memorialize events or to communicate a sense of place. Still other works are for sheer pleasure and fun, or are intellectually provocative and unsettling. Their common denominator is to provide a backdrop to our more common surroundings, forcing us to engage our own intellects, emotions and memories. As Picasso said, "Art is a lie that helps us realize the truth." Repressive societies always seek to control public art and use it as propaganda for the regime's agenda. Free societies are more permissive of the style and message contained in public art for the reason that, although creativity cannot be extinguished in even the most totalitarian society, it is fairly understood that freedom of expression is the lifeblood of the creative spirit. Whether we are interested in public art or like one piece or another, every piece of public art in our community is evidence of our community's respect for the freedom of creativity manifested by each artist, and the freedom of each person viewing the art to experience and appreciate it in his or her own way. And therein lies one of the most enduring values of public art -- as a reminder of our shared values, heritage and culture within the context of the individual's freedom of thought and expression. From:Palo Alto Forward To:Council, City Subject:2850 West Bayshore Support Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 5:41:33 PM Attachments:Support Letter for City Council Meeting June 20 2022 2850 W. Bayshore project review.pdf Some people who received this message don't often get email from palo.alto.fwd@gmail.com. Learn why this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Hello! Attached is a letter of support from Palo Alto Forward on the 2850 West Bayshore Project Thank you! June 15, 2022 Re: 2850 West Bayshore Road, Palo Alto Dear Mayor Burt and Councilmembers, We write in strong support of Summerhill Homes’ development proposal of 48 townhouses (seven of which are Below Market Rate units) at 2850 West Bayshore Road being considered at tonight’s meeting. We encourage the Council to approve the staff’s recommendations in support of the proposed project. In addition to helping meet our housing goals, the construction of 48 townhouses on this site is consistent with the Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan, Zoning Ordinance and the current work of the Housing Element Update. In addition, the development proposal meets two important city objectives with respect to new housing projects: 1)The planned townhomes will be three and four bedrooms, so the seven BMR units will provide affordable housing alternatives for large families. 2)The proposed project replaces office uses with housing. Rejection of this project will raise doubts about the viability of the many commercial sites planned for housing in the site inventory. We would like to point out that the original application for this project was submitted on June 20, and 21, 2021, now one year ago. It has taken far too long for the project to weave its way through the Palo Alto entitlement and approval process. As recommended in the Santa Clara County Grand Jury Report on Housing from December 16, 2021, the city must streamline and expedite the review process for all new housing projects that include Below Market Rate (BMR) units (Recommendations 9a, 9b, 10a, 14). Please allow this project to move forward and allow our city to demonstrate our commitment to creating housing as a priority. Sincerely, Katie Causey Community Engagement Manager of Palo Alto Forward on behalf of the Board of Palo Alto Forward From:Dilma Coleman To:cityattorney@sfcityatty.org; CityManagerOffice@ci.milpitas.ca.gov Cc:Council, City; cmoffice@cityofepa.org Subject:Fwd: Make sense of it. Why Anne CEO 23 & Me(can"t solve issues of former High school classmate.) Add it to Wikipedia their local police in Palo Alto CA+Santa Clara Sheriffs blocked former student of Stanford from gaining personal student records and ac... Date:Tuesday, June 14, 2022 5:40:19 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Dilma Coleman <dhappinessforever@gmail.com> Date: Tue, Jun 14, 2022, 5:37 AM Subject: Make sense of it. Why Anne CEO 23 & Me(can't solve issues of former High school classmate.) Add it to Wikipedia their local police in Palo Alto CA+Santa Clara Sheriffs blocked former student of Stanford from gaining personal student records and access to recovery from domestic violence hate crimes from their groups. Yeah California governor should issue deportation plans for Sergie Brin or quit. To: <police@newark.org>, <police@mountainview.gov> Cc: <ronald.machen@wilmerhale.com>, <tleopold@cohenmilstein.com> Deport Russian born Sergie Brin because wife #1 isn't real can't solve any local issues on subjects of DNA towards Dilma. Wife #2 The registry for Dilma's children was set up destroyed at 23me or whatever issues that Sergie Brin started against the life of Dilma Coleman. The other side effects of the way Anne W. got involved with doing crimes that occurred at the same places that effected the Stanford University soccer goalie Katie Meyers. And accused of being dangerous narcissistic behaviors others such were accused of suicide situations when it's Nicole Shanahan the killer with fentanyl, herorin meth and other drugs. What's the problems at Stanford University campus whereas Nicole Shanahan's infidelity on the rise..why nicole shot Dilma Coleman aka Diva Lee MD JD in the head in 2019. Why the shooting on repeat? Why Jennifer Gates shot Dilma Coleman in the head in 2020. Who is keeps Nicole, Jennifer with outstanding crimes? Michelle Obama shot Dilma Coleman in the head in 2012..who kept the gun hidden? Da Rosen is a serial kleptomaniac sorcerer's for doing sex crimes and racketeering stuff on it. Who killed Laci Rocha Peterson in 2001? Who killed Rapper Nipsey Hussle in Santa Clara county whereas it's over there between Mathilda hotel near Google campus especially with the clothing store on Stevens Creek Blvd near pink Poodle .who Why is Nicole Shanahan cohorts affiliated with Sergie Brin administered drugs onto Diva Lee MD JD aka Dilma Coleman whereas Katie Meyers and other younger girls protected Dilma Coleman whereas they were found with suicidal outcomes. Katie Meyers did not commit suicide. does R&B singer Mariah Carey pays for life moves organization as if she's a slave to the appearance of cocaine cigarettes. Dilma's children + locations for observations of the housing situation for Dilma Coleman aka Diva Lee MD JD(born in Italy). If you need anything else pause it. Identify that Dilma is targeted trapped by those individuals she attended classes at Henry M Gunn High school in Palo Alto CA. Where is the main problems that led Dilma Coleman to be homeless separated from her children when companies like 23&me are designed for locating relatives and reveal ancestry. Why is it that Dilma Coleman aka Diva Lee MD JD was faced with 4-5 sheriffs at Stanford University campus especially when Dilma Coleman had attended the Stanford University college in the past? Dilma Coleman was hit hard by drugs administered to her on campus victimtimized in violent attacks that financial robberies on campus that gave Dilma Coleman a temporary condition of Alzheimer's dementia charectoristics analysis whereas it's over there on the recovery. Dilma a former Optometrist surgeon plastic surgeon ophthalmologist assistant rescue firefighter former law enforcement agents has been targeted trapped in the homeless shelter in Santa Clara County. Dilma's history as a medical neurosurgeon is trapped separated from children she gave birth. Why? Why is it that GHB blackout drugs administered to Dilma Coleman aka Diva Lee MD JD (born in Italy) of course it is not good reasoning especially when Steve Jobs was Dilma's sponsor until age 31. Let's pause. Look at the geographic locations whereas Dilma's God sister Laci Rocha Peterson was trapped by those individuals who plaguerized her journals composed of lottery numbers she picked with her friend Psychic medium hypochondriac empath Dilma Coleman whereas Scott Peterson was trapped targeted accused of Laci Rocha Peterson's murder. What type of devices does NASA have to locate the former Goodyear Blimp that Dilma Coleman had purchased? No Dilma feels trapped by the law enforcement agencies she worked in the past including the geographic locations for observations of the fire department she worked in the past. Locate the truth of what led to the appearance of the way Dilma's friends ex co worker intelligence FBI agents Laura Swartzenberger and Daniel Alfin were assassinated whereas it's over there on the same way Nebraska police detective Luis Herrera was killed. Let's pause on it. Let's do no harm. Why? Why can't local government officials who had ran Dilma Coleman aka Diva Lee MD JD over with the car start paying compensation towards Dilma since they have been employed since their kleptomaniac mental health judge Stephen Manley has targeted trapped and has known Dilma Coleman since her childhood. Why is it that Dilma Coleman is victimtimized always surrounded by individuals racketeering styles of it on the local police community whereas their behaviors are excessive force stalking and no recovery for their hurt they admin to Dilma Coleman. Current examples. Dilma Coleman aka Diva Lee MD JD entered Homefirst homeless shelter in San Jose CA little Orchard in February 2021..had a baby.. between the streets or something like the fairgrounds. A GHB blackout drugs administered and it's not justified where the baby lives because of the bad behaviors of those individuals who participated their workplace (San Jose Conservatory charter school corp employee and students. Plus the behaviors of (Life Moves homeless shelter organization). List the geographic locations whereas Life Moves homeless shelter organization manager Danielle had placed her fingers in Dilma Coleman vagina after Dilma Coleman had sex with Calvin Klein or something like Damon Guitzweiler? What type of hate crime scene analysis should Danielle life moves organization manager be investigated and punished? What type of physical altercations beatings that Danielle had administered to Dilma Coleman was it also financial abuse? Why isn't it safe for Dilma Coleman to talk about what led to the death of Laci Rocha Peterson, Yvette Pena Bakersfield CA women who wasn't killed by Jaime Osuna. Let's pause. Yeah Dilma Coleman aka Diva Lee MD JD graduation from Newark CA middle school..in 1990-1991. What type of environmental issues did Newark CA obtain recently that contributed to the death of Traci Braxton. It was the glue that was administered to Traci Braxton in a drink. Side effects from it or something like drugs were frequently swallow that caused her cancer. Dilma Coleman aka Diva Lee MD JD is always targeted trapped as a transient whereas it's over there on the Cyberattacking cyberbulling stuff racketeering styles of the government officials who participated in the world bank financial crimes that hurt Dilma Coleman. Dilma Coleman aka Diva Lee MD JD was ignored in many courthouse cases whereas a key witness her friends spent time in jail for crimes they didn't have appropriate healthy defense. Crimes rhymes with Grimes and that women's music wasn't sure if it was completely revealed that Dilma has written it down (songwriters)one or them plus more art pieces Grimes claimed was originally started by Dilma Coleman. Alex Rodriguez's met Anne Wojcicki thru Dilma Coleman aka Diva Lee MD JD (born in Italy). What type of investigations is needed for it..whereas Dilma Coleman possibly had child with Alex or was it Derek Jeter who had the child with Dilma Coleman. Anne Christine Massullo (SF judge must have a better courtcase systems for Scott Peterson Whereas the court docs have input on what led to the death of Laci Rocha Peterson words by Dilma Coleman whereas it includes documentation on the way Dilma Coleman was trapped by those individuals who were forced to attack Sergio Mattarella's wife Merisa prior her death). Attachment #4 Freddie was shot because of his heroric efforts to rescue Dilma Coleman when Rapper Nipsey Hussle was shot in similar place 11times or something like that his body dropped from a building prior to it was completely revealed that it was a attack. If Santa Clara DA Jeff Rosen removed evidence in crime scene of herve jean Pierre villachaize who had frequently visited homes near Carlos liquor store near Arletta ave close to Pink Poodle in San Jose CA. Arrest Jeff Rosen for multiple sex crimes plus Volodymeyr Zelenzskyy has targeted trapped Dilma Coleman whereas he used her income that was used by Anna Eshoo (frequently drug addict with cocaine). Best regards Dilma Coleman aka Diva Lee MD JD. A military police should circle the Google buildings point their finger at Sergie Brin and Nicole Shanahan (arrest them)then circle Santa Rita jail...to give a warm welcome to new leadership Yesenia Sanchez...(arrest Former Alameda County Sheriff Greg Aherns)gather up the attention that The current San Quentin Inmate Scott Peterson is innocent. Gather up information about the reality of SF Mayor London Breed's brother Napoleon brown is innocent. Oh dear San Quentin Prison inmate Scott Peterson is innocent. Locate the Italian president Sergio Mattarella block travels to Italy for Palo Alto CA residents whereas those individuals are doing santanic sadistic chants that trapped Scott Peterson with the worst attorney Pat Harris,Mark Geregos plus Attorney Cliff Gardener. Revise the New order that California Governor Gavin Newsom bullied Scott Peterson and Laci Rocha Peterson wasn't killed by Scott Peterson. Arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom and his cohorts affiliated with former San Bernardino county Sheriff Gary Smith. Let's pause. Let's pause on the way San Jose CA PD officer Dejon Packer was killed by Sergie Brin's wife Nicole Shanahan cohorts. From:Nicole Sandkulla To:Council, City Cc:Shikada, Ed Subject:Re: Item 9 Tonight and 6/13/22 TRT Letter Date:Monday, June 13, 2022 4:28:54 PM Attachments:image008.png From SFPUC_Memo_to_file.pdf CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear Mayor Burt and Members of the Council, I am aware that you have received a letter from Mr. Peter Drekmeier today in which he makes several statements regarding BAWSCA and its budget. I would like to offer the following clarifications for your information. Regarding BAWSCA’s operating budget of $4,720,885, which is 1.6% less that its current budget, and the cost of its Bay Delta intervention: For the last two years, the Board has prioritized the use of other available funds, including the General Reserve, to fund any budget increases. The approved 25% assessment increase for FY 2022-23 will enable BAWSCA’s assessments to align with the approved budget. BAWSCA provided the requested public records in 100% accordance with the public records act. This amount was not a surprise and is consistent with theBoard’s understanding of the expenses. The cited $360k for legal costs are since 2019, or an average of $120k/year or 7 cents per residential customer per year. Palo Alto’s total share of this (@7% of BAWSCA’s total cost) is $8.4k per year, or a total of $25.2k. BAWSCA’s responsibility is to ensure a reliable supply of high-quality water at a fair price for the water users it represents. BAWSCA intervened in the Bay Delta litigation in accordance with this responsibility and to ensure that these water users had separate representation in any potential settlement of the lawsuit given that the BAWSCA agencies pay for 2/3rds of any solution, both in money and water. BAWSCA has continued to express support for the objectives of the Bay Delta Plan and a strong desire for a Voluntary Agreement for the Tuolumne River that will provide a reliable water supply for all water users, the fish, and the environment. BAWSCA does not operate the Regional Water System. That is the SFPUC’s responsibility, including meeting all environmental laws. It is SFPUC’s job to evaluate the impact of the Bay Delta Plan on its Regional Water System and its obligations to the Wholesale Customers. It is BAWSCA’s job to make sure those impacts to the water users are addressed and resolved, including commenting on the environmental documents for the Bay Delta Plan about the significance of the water use reductions resulting from the Plan’s implementation would have on the BAWSCA member agencies and their water customers. Regarding the recent information from the SFPUC and its Long-Term Vulnerability Analysis cited in Mr. Drekmeier’s letter: BAWSCA does not believe this information was being “hidden” by the SFPUC. Rather, this information was never finalized for public distribution given the significant uncertainty with the analytical results. Attached is a “Memo to File” prepared by the SFPUC that should accompany the December 2020 memo/presentation from the SFPUC that Mr. Drekmeiercites in his letter to you today. This memo to file, prepared by the SFPUC andits technical consultants, provides the assessment of the analysis that Mr.Drekmeier is referring to and it states: “we decided to abandon the idea due to the extremely large uncertainty bounds on the estimate”; and “If the error bound is too large on the estimate, what good is the estimate itself.” Given the “error bound” identified by the SFPUC’s experts for this analysis, it would be inappropriate for this information to be used at this time for policy level discussions or decision-making purposes. Just because a number can be calculated doesn’t mean that it is a number that should be relied upon. BAWSCA agrees that a robust and scientifically based review and possible update to the Design Drought is important as part of the upcoming decisions the SFPUC will be making about investments in new alternative water supplies. BAWSCA looks forward to discussing what such an review/update looks like with the SFPUC and others. Thank you for your time in reading this email. If I can provide any further information or answer any further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly or through the City Manager’s office. Regards, Nicole Sandkulla _________________________________________Nicole M. SandkullaChief Executive Officer/General Manager Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency 155 Bovet Road, Suite 650 San Mateo, CA 94402 Ph: (650) 349-3000 Cell: (650) 743-6688 EMail: NSandkulla@BAWSCA.org Website: www.BAWSCA.org Memorandum to File Re: Issues that arose during the review of working draft final report and how we agreed to resolve them Issue 1: Error in Upcountry hydrologic models Description: The PRMS hydrologic models for the Tuolumne River show underprediction of annual volume in wet years and overprediction in dry years. The simulated flows do not have distributional properties that mimic those of the observed flows. This is illustrated in the figure below for annual flow volume of the Tuolumne River at La Grange. This discrepancy has repercussions for the Water Available to the City (WAC) and therefore on drought operation in the reservoir system model SFWSM. Resolution: Given the importance of a good reproduction of the WAC for the RWS, UMASS HRG collaborated with SFPUC to correct the PRMS simulations across the Upcountry region. A post- processing model was developed by SFPUC to correct the PRMS daily streamflow. The considered method attends to correct the residual model errors using meteorological indices. More details about the post-processing model, including calibration and validation, are provided in the Technical Report 2 on hydrology. Updated resolution: As shown in the final report, even after the post-processing correction, the PRMS hydrologic model used to simulate the streamflow on the Tuolumne watershed in response to precipitation and temperature overestimates streamflow during dry years. For example, the flow computed at the Tuolumne River at La Grange is overestimated, and therefore San Francisco’s allocation is also overestimated by about 482,000 acre-feet during the drought sequence 1987-1992 (observed is 813,000 acre-feet versus simulated is 1,295,000 acre-feet). This volume of water is significant and is about equal to the volume of rationing that was required by customers during the six-year period, and so overstating the RWS water supply reliability. An effort of re-building and re-calibration of hydrologic models for the Upcountry watersheds is underway by HHWP. Issue 2: Large uncertainty in drought frequency analysis for extreme drought events Description: Droughts, even more than floods, are rare events. As such, long time series are crucial for inferring model parameters to model drought frequency. Three sources of hydrological data are available for this analysis: • 95-year-long historical natural flow at La Grange (1921-2015) • paleo record at La Grange reconstructed from tree rings for the period 900-2012 • 9 representative climate realizations of 50-year long streamflow simulated using PRMS model plus 500 other stochastic realizations using PRMS. For the flow at La Grange, about 100 years of reconstructed historical is available, which is rather small since droughts are rare and last multiple years. For that reason, we attempted to use the tree-ring reconstructed flow record and the simulated flow time series from the LTVA stochastic rainfall simulations. The advantage of the stochastic datasets is that a very long time series of simulated hydrologic flows is available to extract drought events. However, the PRMS hydrologic model used to simulate the streamflow on the Tuolumne watershed in response to precipitation and temperature overestimates streamflow during dry years (see issue 1). The drought events identified in the working draft final report are represented below using the severity (cumulative flow deficit) and duration (number of years). The largest ensemble of drought events is created using the stochastic flow time series from PRMS. Since, the model overestimates flows in dry years, the number of drought events in the figure below is biased and underestimated. The small sample of events with duration greater or equal to 6 years results in large uncertainty bounds around the frequency curve, which means a poor confidence in the frequency estimate (i.e. the return period). This is shown in the working copy of return period estimates of historical drought and the design drought. The uncertainty bounds represent about 100% of the estimated return period, which means that the “real” value could be the estimate divided by 2 or multiplied by 2. Such a large uncertainty bound renders the estimate unusable. If the error is too large, what good is the estimate for. The uncertainty bounds on historical droughts (76-77, 87-92, 2012- 16) are significantly smaller. Resolution: The drought frequency analysis was redone using the post-processed PRMS simulated flows (Issue 1). We found that the estimated frequency curve is sensitive to the considered dataset. Therefore, the estimates for the return period for the historical drought events depends on the chosen dataset for the analysis. We also found that we still had very large uncertainty bounds around the frequency curve (see the following figure). This means that we still have very large uncertainty around the estimated return period of extremely rare drought events. As hypothesized, when reducing the overprediction of flow in dry years using PRMS, the number of drought events increased. More long and very severe drought events were extracted from the stochastic realizations. This is represented in the figure below with more events with duration greater or equal to 6 years and higher severity (cumulative deficit). However, as shown in the previous figure, the large uncertainty bounds around the frequency curve remains, which means a poor confidence in the frequency estimate (i.e. the return period). We updated the return period estimates for severity and duration of historical droughts (figure below) and attempted to extrapolate to the Design Drought. However, we decided to abandon the idea due to the extremely large uncertainty bounds on the estimate (as aforementioned). Even after improving the PRMS hydrologic model outputs with post-processing, we did not carry forward to the final report the return periods for Design Drought, because the extrapolation was extreme for the level of confidence on the frequency curve. If the error bound is too large on the estimate, what good is the estimate itself. However, the error bound is much smaller for the historical droughts and therefore we published these estimates in the report. Updated resolution: The drought frequency analysis can be updated after the hydrologic modeling errors are corrected. Issue 3: Weather generator does not include a model parameter to increase variability of daily rainfall Description: Climate change science discuss the increase variability of daily precipitation, which corresponds to more intense storms. The weather generator daily variability is based on historical daily variability and therefore it will not simulate the effects on increased variability of daily precipitation. This means that the simulated streamflows are also not representative of increased variability of daily precipitation. Resolution: No resolution currently. Adding a parameter for modeling variability of daily precipitation could be done in a later phase. Issue 4: Selection of stochastic realizations for the stress test Description: 9 stochastic realizations of precipitation (plus the historical realization) were used to perform the system stress test. The stochastic realizations were selected to match long-term average and variance of annual precipitation as well as including significantly wet events and significantly dry events. However, we found that drought is more frequent in the historical streamflow record than in the stochastic realizations selected for the stress test. This is mainly due to the hydrologic modeling errors. Resolution: No resolution currently. Since streamflow (or reservoir inflow) is the main input for the SFWSM system model, one could change the selection criteria of realizations and based it on streamflow and use criteria to recreate the historical drought frequency. Issue 4: Small error in Bay Area watershed areas Description: After the publication of the final report, as we were reviewing the Bay Area hydrology models, we noticed a small error in watershed areas between SFPUC NRLMD estimates and the ones used in the model. The difference originates from the delineation of watershed using different digital elevation models. Resolution: Not resolution currently. This correction could happen in a later phase and the hydrologic models would have to be recalibrated. However, the error is fairly small and would likely not affect the overall findings on long-term vulnerability. Issue 5: Include a snowmelt forecast in SFWSM Description: Currently SFWSM uses perfect foresight of the February-to-July snowmelt runoff volume. However, in reality, there is an error in the February-to-July snowmelt runoff volume. This error will likely increase with warming, as more runoff will come from rain instead of snowmelt. Resolution: No resolution currently. From:Rob Nielsen To:Council, City; Planning Commission; HeUpdate; Lait, Jonathan; Wong, Tim Cc:Mathew Reed; housingelements@hcd.ca.gov Subject:Palo Alto housing element: Groundtruthing report for Middlefield Rd north of Oregon Date:Monday, June 13, 2022 1:37:15 PM Attachments:North_Middlefield.pdf CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Here is a groundtruthing report on the Palo Alto housing element covering sites on or near Middlefield Rd nort of Oregon Expressway. Thank you for your time and attention. Best regards, Rob Nielsen Housing element groundtruthing: California Ave and College Terrace, Part 2 June 13, 2022 Dear Palo Alto City Council, Palo Alto Planning and Transportation Committee, Palo Alto Housing Element Working Group, Jonathan Lait, Tim Wong I recently toured proposed sites on Middlefield Road north of Oregon Expressway. As with my report for Middlefield south of Oregon, I also viewed nearby sites within one block. With invaluable assistance from staff, the working group has identified approximately 22 sites in this area accounting for 175 net new units of housing, including 3 sites to support 49 units of much-needed lower-income housing. There is also a 23rd site, a pipeline project of 70 units including 14 lower-income units1. Although this stretch of Middlefield is 2.0 miles long, all of the sites are concentrated in the five blocks (0.4 mi.) between University Ave and Addison Ave. To ensure that the identified housing has a realistic chance of being developed, based on an accurate accounting, we point out several sites with errors or constraints to consider, including parcels with errors in their baseline data. Sites for lower-income housing 652 Homer Av, APN 120-050-08, 15 low-income units 850 Middlefield Road, APN 120-05-011, 15 low-income units 853 Middlefield Road, APN 147-08-049, 19 low-income units 652 Homer Ave 850 Middlefield Road 853 Middlefield Road These nonvacant parcels mainly contain dental offices. In fact, there are 13 parcels in this area that support dental practices, including two dedicated parking lots, and all but one are in the site inventory. These sites are also the only low-income sites in the downtown or near-downtown area that require the purchase of land. (The other sites consist of 106 units on four city-owned surface parking lots as well as 14 units at a faith-based institution on 1140 Cowper St—which may not meet the minimum 0.5-acre “safe harbor” requirement; see Scott O’Neil’s letter of March 30, 2022). Apart from the requirement to provide substantial evidence for each site’s discontinuance of current use, we have one caution to state: density. The nearby pipeline site at 660–680 University2 is the only site thus far that has undergone a pre-screening under the PHZ (Planned Home Zoning) program and has 1 Count of lower-income units from C1_660 University Ave_DOCS.pdf (cityofpaloalto.org). Current inventory uses a larger figure of 20 units. 2 https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/News-Articles/Planning-and-Development-Services/660-University-Avenue proceeded to the application phase.3 It has a density of 135 du/ac and will be able to support 20% below-market rate units, not 100%. And even that requires funds generated from office and retail space within the same project. The three sites shown above, which are upzoned in the site inventory to 30 du/ac, are not directly on University Ave, but three to four blocks away, so land prices will differ. But the same basic economics apply. For more details, see Robert Chun’s letter of April 21, 2022. Small residential sites Of the four small residential sites in this area, all included under the Upzone strategy, two have undercounts of existing residential units: 643 and 727 Webster. Both count two units as one, as shown in these photos. 643 Webster St, front unit 645 Webster, rear unit 727 Webster St, main unit 727 Webster St, rear unit The error rate of 50% based on the current inventory (26 April) is the same as for my California Ave and College Terrace report (#2) of May 27, 2022. I also visited the sites on 730 Webster St and 827 Middlefield Rd. Both have correct data. 3 https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2022/02/17/despite-signs-of-promise-palo-altos-newest-housing-tool- fails-to-deliver Double-counting of parcels The pipeline project at 660–680 University Ave was manually added as a pipeline project and consists of three parcels: 120-03-042, 120-03-042, and 120-03-044. The last of these parcels, which houses dental offices at 680 University Ave and 500 Middlefield Rd, is also included under the Upzone strategy based on an algorithmic screening. Its five units should be removed from the site inventory. Site entanglements The two dedicated parking lot parcels in this area (120-03-046 on Middlefield and 120-03-043 on University) are included along with the separate parcels they support. This should avoid any site entanglements issues. From:Aram James To:Human Relations Commission; City Mgr; Council, City; chuck jagoda; Winter Dellenbach; Shikada, Ed; Planning Commission; Joe Simitian; Vara Ramakrishnan; Lewis. james; sean james; Greg Tanaka Subject:Remembering dad on Father’s Day Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 1:03:27 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ Sent from my iPhone From:Aram James To:Human Relations Commission; Planning Commission; Council, City; Winter Dellenbach; Shikada, Ed; Vara Ramakrishnan; chuck jagoda Subject:Remembering dad on Father’s Day Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 1:00:24 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links.________________________________ Sent from my iPhone From:Tran, Joanna To:Council, City Cc:Executive Leadership Team; ORG - Clerk"s Office; Ramberg, David; Tong, Sunny; Tanner, Rachael; Batchelor, Dean; Boatwright, Tabatha; Rainey, Nathaniel; Dailey, Karla; Swanson, Andrew; Wong, Mike; Nelson, Michelle; Bilir, Lisa; Marshall, Tomm Subject:Council Consent and Action Item Questions for 6/20/2022 CCM Date:Friday, June 17, 2022 4:14:58 PM Attachments:image001.png image003.png image004.png image006.png image007.png image008.png image002.png Dear Mayor and Councilmembers: On behalf of City Manager Ed Shikada, please view the following links for the amended agenda and staff responses to questions from Vice Mayor Kou, Councilmember Dubois, and Councilmember Tanaka regarding Monday night’s Council Meeting: June 20, 2022 Amended Agenda Staff response to Consent Items 3, 8, 11, 12, 13, 16, 19, 21, 24, 25 and Action Item 30 Thank you, Joanna Joanna Tran Executive Assistant to the City Manager Office of the City Manager (650) 329-2105 | joanna.tran@cityofpaloalto.org www.cityofpaloalto.org From:Randy Popp To:Council, City; Stump, Molly Cc:ADU Task Force Subject:Fwd: Changes in the Palo Alto ADU ordinance Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 3:23:05 PM Attachments:image.png image.png Outlook-u41v4gpv.png CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. Members of the Council and Ms. Stump: 1. I know you may believe otherwise but I hope this message clarifies enough to encourage you to delay the adoption of language that HCD is saying directly conflicts with State law. Please review the correspondence with HCD staff below. Their statements indicate they do not support the interpretation you have made. "Even though it appears that the city might disagree, State ADU Law still supersedes a local ordinance. We've talked about the relevant passages before: No other local ordinance, policy, or regulation shall be the basis for the delay or denial of a building permit or a use permit under this subdivision. (Gov. Code Section 65852.2(a)(5)). The local tree ordinance could potentially prohibit ADUs on many properties and would constitute a sort of lot coverage restriction that is prohibited under Government Code Section 65852.2(c) (2)(C)." The cross-referenced language between 18.09.040 and 8.10.050 needs significant modification to be in alignment with State ADU law. 2. In addition, the ordinance as written creates an unnecessarily detailed process requiring a survey of all trees that meet the criteria for an entire property, regardless of the scope of work or relative adjacency. Frankly, this will be a huge windfall for the arborist community. In terms of cost, the complexity required to provide the report, and the process needed to review the outcome, this becomes an example of 'Palo Alto Process' at its worst. If the goal is to prevent damage to a tree near proposed development, simply create language that achieves that. Anything more is inefficient and unwarranted. As evidence, I wanted to share some images lifted using Google Earth Pro. Both are of the same location. The first is a photo taken in 1948 and the second is current day. I think this shows clearly that, in contrast to some of the statements made about how severe the impact of tree removal has been, the canopy has actually increased enormously over the last 70+ years. We are not witnessing an epidemic of tree removals. We should take the time necessary to get this right. Please understand that I am in favor of increased protection but not through the process the current ordinance defines. I urge you to delay adoption until the language can be reasonably refined. Thank you, Randy Randolph Popp A R C H I T E C T 904 High Street Palo Alto, CA 94301 650.427.0026 408.666.6516 mb www.rp-arch.com ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Bernd, Gerlinde@HCD <Gerlinde.Bernd@hcd.ca.gov> Date: Thu, Jun 16, 2022 at 12:34 PM Subject: Re: Changes in the Palo Alto ADU ordinance To: Randy Popp <randy@rp-arch.com> Cc: Zisser, David@HCD <David.Zisser@hcd.ca.gov>, Van Gorder, Mike@hcd.ca.gov <Mike.VanGorder@hcd.ca.gov> Hi Randy, I'm jumping in here for a moment because we've corresponded about the tree issue before. We'll discuss internally how to best address it with the city. Even though it appears that the city might disagree, State ADU Law still supersedes a local ordinance. We've talked about the relevant passages before: No other local ordinance, policy, or regulation shall be the basis for the delay or denial of a building permit or a use permit under this subdivision. (Gov. Code Section 65852.2(a)(5)). The local tree ordinance could potentially prohibit ADUs on many properties and would constitute a sort of lot coverage restriction that is prohibited under Government Code Section 65852.2(c) (2)(C). Thank you for keeping us informed, Gerlinde Bernd Housing & Community Development 2020 W. El Camino Avenue, Suite 500 | Sacramento, CA 95833 Phone: 916.263.5146 From: Randy Popp <randy@rp-arch.com> Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2022 11:30 AM To: Van Gorder, Mike@hcd.ca.gov <Mike.VanGorder@hcd.ca.gov> Cc: Bernd, Gerlinde@HCD <Gerlinde.Bernd@hcd.ca.gov>; Lajoie, Lauren@HCD <Lauren.Lajoie@hcd.ca.gov>; Zisser, David@HCD <David.Zisser@hcd.ca.gov> Subject: Changes in the Palo Alto ADU ordinance Mike, Just wanted to share an update that will go to a second reading on Monday. Palo Alto intends to adopt some new, highly restrictive tree protection language. I spoke at the hearing in an attempt to relay that this seems to conflict with the direction HCD has provided but they did not agree with the interpretation. In 18.09.040 they are changing the language to say that you cannot remove a tree to build an ADU unless it meets the criteria of section 8.10. 8.10.050 describes the allowable reason to remove a tree, other than one which is dead or hazardous, which must be based on a valuation. My understanding was that if a lot cannot accommodate at least an 800 SF ADU, the removal of the tree must be permitted and this cannot be constrained by cost. Further, I might argue that, for other ADUs, the assignment of value to a tree is a subjective analysis and thus does not meet the criteria for ministerial review. This seems problematic on many levels. Here are the proposed edits [cityofpaloalto.org] they intend to adopt. It is Item 27 on the agenda. Best, Randy 8.10.050 REMOVAL OF PROTECTED TREES Randolph Popp A R C H I T E C T 904 High Street Palo Alto, CA 94301 650.427.0026 408.666.6516 mb www.rp-arch.com [rp-arch.com] From:R W To:PAC; Council, City Subject:Midtown Poetry Wall on the Walgreen"s South Wall Date:Tuesday, June 14, 2022 9:11:21 PM Attachments:image.png image.png Some people who received this message don't often get email from regakan@gmail.com. Learnwhy this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. To whom it may concern, When I'm in the midst of shopping dodging cars going the wrong way, it is always a great consolation to look up and see the poetry wall. It's the blessing I need to regain my composure; the reminder of our history. Please don't decommission it; we need its beautiful messages. Thank you for your consideration, Rega Wood, Thomas Dr., Palo Alto , T "Camino del Medio" ;alts Out by Ron LeBlanc b} Sharon Olson From here the road winds down to Mayfield slough. Round up the cows you want to save and leave them standing in this middle field. "Being bw EUzsba� h From:Tran, Joanna To:Council, City Subject:Reminder: Consent Questions Date:Tuesday, June 14, 2022 3:12:38 PM Attachments:image001.png image003.png image004.png image006.png image007.png image008.png image009.png Hello Councilmembers, Friendly reminder to please send me your consent questions for Monday night’s meeting by tomorrow COB. Thank you! Best, Joanna Joanna Tran Executive Assistant to the City Manager Office of the City Manager (650) 329-2105 | joanna.tran@cityofpaloalto.org www.cityofpaloalto.org From:Aram James To:Sean Allen; Raj; Human Relations Commission; Winter Dellenbach; chuck jagoda; Council, City; Joe Simitian; Richard Konda; Sajid Khan; Jay Boyarsky; Vara Ramakrishnan; Jethroe Moore; Jeff Rosen; Greer Stone; Binder, Andrew; Dennis Upton; dennis burns Subject:The Latest in the controversy to demand that Palo Alto have an open and transparent process for the hiring of our next chief Date:Tuesday, June 14, 2022 1:03:02 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ Sent from my iPhone From:E Nigenda To:Council, City Subject:2850 West Bayshore Road Date:Monday, June 20, 2022 6:38:49 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear City Council Members, The proposed housing at 2850 West Bayshore Road is on landfill. I hope that the City ensures that this project’s developers are aware of the risks of flooding via sea level and groundwater level rise, sinking and liquefaction at this site and that the developers are required to account for and mitigate these risks for the safety of our future neighbors. San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood is a cautionary tale of these risks. In this case, the developers did build to bedrock but the City's infrastructure is failing and the residents are suing. ‘Unsafe’ and ‘unsightly’: Residents of this S.F. neighborhood sue city over sinking streets and sidewalks. Thank you for your service to our community, Esther Nigenda From:Keri Wagner To:Council, City Cc:Keri Wagner Subject:Agenda Item 31 Business Tax Date:Monday, June 20, 2022 12:25:29 AM [Some people who received this message don't often get email from keriwagner@gmail.com. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ] CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ Dear City Council Members — Please vote to put the Business Tax on our November ballot. Our city needs this money to fund programs and the big businesses need to pay their fair share to operate in our city. Thank you, Keri Wagner 311 Edlee Ave From:Aram James To:Shikada, Ed; Rebecca Eisenberg; Human Relations Commission; ladoris cordell; Joe Simitian; robert.parham@cityofpaloalto.org; Tannock, Julie; Binder, Andrew; Sean Allen; Perron, Zachary; Council, City; Winter Dellenbach; dennis burns; Dennis Upton; Figueroa, Eric; Bains, Paul; darylsavage@gmail.com; Kaloma Smith; citycouncil@mountainview.gov; chuck jagoda; Greer Stone; Roberta Ahlquist Subject:Palo Alto online 2005 notorious PAPD beating Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 8:47:36 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2005/04/20/da-unsure-if-he-will-retry-police-case Shared via the Google app Sent from my iPhone From:Aram James To:Shikada, Ed; Stump, Molly; Kaloma Smith; darylsavage@gmail.com; Bains, Paul; ladoris cordell; Human Relations Commission; Sean Allen; Council, City; Greer Stone; dennis burns; chuck jagoda; Joe Simitian; Winter Dellenbach; Jeff Rosen; Jay Boyarsky; Josh Becker Subject:Deja vu —same script in 2009 and yet again in 2022 Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 8:38:36 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2009/03/25/palo-altans-want-tough-open-new-police- chief Shared via the Google app Sent from my iPhone From:Rebecca Sanders To:Council, City Subject:Item #31 June 20, 2022 Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 6:17:30 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear Mayor Burt and City Council Members: Please vote to approve putting the business tax on the ballot for this November. We are giving businesses the opportunity to chip in to help support public safety, housing/homelessness and grade separation, things that benefit them too. It's too bad so much misinformation has been flying around about the nature of the tax. I think most residents - once they understand the context of the tax - will be in support of this. The neighbors who were not in favor of it that I have explained it to have changed their tune after talking to me. I think that's a good sign. Thank you. Becky Sanders Ventura Neighborhood From:Tilak Kasturi To:Council, City Subject:Re Agenda Item #31, June 20 Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 6:11:39 PM Some people who received this message don't often get email from tilak283@gmail.com. Learnwhy this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear City Council Members: Please approve putting the business tax on the ballot in November. The tax Council described during last week's meeting is a good start toward including businesses as partners in helping to fund these services that benefit everyone living and working in Palo Alto. Thank you. Tilak Kasturi Ventura Neighborhood -- Tilak Kasturi Cell: 415-269-1146 From:Susan Usman To:Council, City Subject:Agenda Item 31 Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 5:23:25 PM [Some people who received this message don't often get email from susanlusman@gmail.com. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ] CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ Dear Council Members, It seems unfathomable that there is a question of whether or not businesses with offices in Palo Alto should pay business taxes. Of course they should. Why would they be exempt. With the exemption of businesses less than 5000 sq ft, it will not affect small businesses that struggle on many levels. Please put this on the ballot in November! I know it will take much effort to fight the big money behind not having the business tax, but when has doing the right thing been easy. All the high tech companies that have taken up all the retail spaces and the commercial real estate giants need to pay the city to help offset the cost of affordable housing, public safety and rail safety. Ten to twelve cents per sq ft is reasonable and much lower than most cities. Thank you, Susan Usman 965 Elsinore Dr, Palo Alto From:Margaret Heath To:Council, City Subject:Business Tax Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 4:16:43 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear Mayor Burt and Council Members, A Palo Alto business registry and business tax is long overdue. With dismay I have watched business leaders organize and get ahead of the council by rolling out the beginnings of a well funded campaign of disinformation to persuade voters not to support a business tax. No doubt we can expect a surge of full page ads in the local papers along with regular glossy mailers with persuasive reasons why voters shouldn't support a business tax in Palo Alto. However, I hope that you will be able to find a way to address what appears to be the main concerns that people express, even if it means compromising what goes on the ballot and lower revenue. In particular, my guess is that many residents don't want to vote for anything that will further erode and push out Palo Alto's remaining retail and useful services that residents value and patronize on a regular basis. If you can find a way to write a business tax that has the least financial impact on those sectors by either increasing the size of the untaxed square footage and/or a sliding scale that might go a long way to undercutting opposition to a business registry and tax. Prior to Prop 13, Palo Alto's property tax revenue was split approximately 50-50 between business and residential sectors. In the intervening years the share from the business sector has gone down to approximately 25% of property tax revenue, and on a continually declining trajectory. With residents picking up the difference. This alone makes a compelling argument that it is way past time for the commercial property sector to pay a larger share of the costs of running a city by paying a business tax, as other cities do. Sincerely, Margaret Heath 2140 Cornell Street From:PTAC Advocacy To:Council, City Subject:Budget — Comments from Palo Alto PTA Council Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 3:11:55 PM This sender might be impersonating a domain that's associated with your organization. Learn whythis could be a risk CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear City Council: On behalf of the Executive Board of the Palo Alto Council of PTAs, we’d like to convey the following comments regarding the proposed city budget: Inclusion/Equity Related: 1. We support the construction of a family changing room/restroom at Rinconada Pool (FY24 and FY25). Mental Health and Social Services Related: 2. We support the proposed restoration of public library hours and staff. 3. We support the Crisis Response Team that is being added to the Palo Alto Police Department to address mental-health related calls. 4. We respectfully request that Human Services Funding (via HSRAP) be maintained at pandemic-levels (approximately $750k) instead of returning to pre-pandemic levels (approximately $500k) to address the continuing needs that arose or were exposed by the pandemic. 5. We respectfully request Youth Mental Health Funding should be increased by at least $200k to address the trauma that the pandemic has inflicted on our youth population as part of the City Council’s Community Health and Safety Annual Priority. 6. We respectfully request that the City Council reverse the cut of $50,000 to YCS (or another service provider for youth mental health services 7. We respectfully request additional funding for enforcement of Vaping Ordinance, and related social services. 8. We respectfully request funding for gun violence and safety education/awareness and enforcement of safe-storage ordinance Transportation and Safety Related: 9. We support the addition of additional staff to the Palo Alto Police Department for traffic safety, which is important for school drop-off and pickup. 10. We respectfully request money (or staffing) to develop a City Safe System Road Safety Policy. 11. We respectfully request sufficient staffing to support the development of a South Palo Alto Bikeways project (TLDR: City had to return grant money because it lacked staff resources to support this project) On behalf of the PTAC Executive Board, thank you for your time, consideration and your service to our community, and in particular to our kids and families. Steven Lee Vice President of Advocacy Palo Alto Council of PTAs From:Arnout Boelens To:Council, City Cc:Zoeller-Boelens, Nicole Subject:Agenda Item 31: in favor of business tax Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 1:53:10 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear Mayor Burt and City Council members, We are writing to urge you to adopt a resolution to put a Business Tax on the November 2022 ballot. All of the large businesses in Palo Alto put a significant strain on the Palo Alto transportation network, city services, and housing supply. Therefore, it is only fair that they contribute their share and pay a Business Tax. Especially, considering the significant reduction in business travel since the start of the pandemic and the associated decline in tax revenue. Thank you for considering our comments. Kind regards, Nicole, Arnout, & Ava Zoeller Boelens From:Dena Seki To:Council, City Subject:Get Rid of Duncan for RPP Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 1:47:49 PM Some people who received this message don't often get email from denaseki@yahoo.com. Learnwhy this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. For years, one car per address was free for RPP. Why now are you charging everyone for every parking permit? Most of the revenue doesn’t go to the city, it goes to Duncan, right? Their web site is offensively bad, and insulting in asking for documentation that the city already has for our services. I am being asked to provide sensitive documentation to a 3rd party site and I don't even know that their security is better than their terrible web design. Thank you, Resident Dena Seki From:Angela Dellaporta To:Council, City Subject:Agenda Item 31 Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 11:17:04 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear City Council Members, A reasonable tax on big business in Palo Alto (not on small businesses) in Palo Alto will allow the city to address many needs that it is currently unable to attend to. Cities all over the Bay Area use business taxes to give their residents more park space, more trees, and more equitable housing (to name just a few) than Palo Alto is currently able to provide. Why should these assets be unavailable to Palo Alto residents? I want small businesses to thrive, and I want Palo Alto residents to enjoy the many benefits that residents of other cities enjoy, so I support any proposal that will require big businesses to pay a reasonable amount to the city. Thank you, Angela Dellaporta From:slevy@ccsce.com To:Council, City Cc:Lait, Jonathan; Wong, Tim; Shikada, Ed Subject:2850 W Bayshore conversion of office space to housing Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 11:08:56 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear Mayor Burt and Councilmembers, I write in support of Summerhill Homes’ development proposal at 2850 West Bayshore Road. Both the staff and PTC have brought this housing proposal to you with their support. The construction of 48 townhouses on this site is consistent with the Palo Alto Comprehensive Plan, Zoning Ordinance and the current work of the Housing Element Update. In addition, the development proposal meets two important city objectives with respect to new housing projects: The planned townhomes will be three and four bedrooms, so the seven BMR units will provide affordable housing alternatives for larger families. The proposed project replaces office uses with housing . Rejection of this project will raise doubts about the viability of the many commercial sites planned for housing in the site inventory. The proposal is now one year old and has gone through numerous reviews and public hearings. The City has a goal to expedite and simplify the review project. A good first step would be approving this project tonight. Stephen Levy Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy 50+ year resident of Palo Alto From:Roberta Ahlquist To:Council, City Subject:parking permits for residents Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 8:53:04 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear PA Council: Return your parking program back to pre-covid when the first car in the residential area did NOT pay for a permit to park in front of their homes. Why must residents pay to park in front of their homes ? Roberta Ahlquist Walter Bliss From:Loran Harding To:Loran Harding; antonia.tinoco@hsr.ca.gov; alumnipresident@stanford.edu; David Balakian; boardmembers; bearwithme1016@att.net; beachrides; fred beyerlein; Cathy Lewis; Chris Field; Council, City; Doug Vagim; dennisbalakian; dallen1212@gmail.com; Dan Richard; Daniel Zack; eappel@stanford.edu; Scott Wilkinson; Gabriel.Ramirez@fresno.gov; George.Rutherford@ucsf.edu; huidentalsanmateo; hennessy; Irv Weissman; jerry ruopoli; Joel Stiner; kfsndesk; kwalsh@kmaxtv.com; karkazianjewelers@gmail.com; lalws4@gmail.com; leager; mthibodeaux@electriclaboratories.com; Mayor; Mark Standriff; margaret-sasaki@live.com; merazroofinginc@att.net; newsdesk; news@fresnobee.com; nick yovino; russ@topperjewelers.com; Sally Thiessen; sanchezphilip21@gmail.com; tsheehan; terry; VT3126782@gmail.com; vallesR1969@att.net; Steve Wayte Subject:Fwd: Why the House Committee hearings on Jan. 6? Date:Sunday, June 19, 2022 12:15:26 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Date: Sat, Jun 18, 2022 at 5:55 PM Subject: Fwd: Why the House Committee hearings on Jan. 6? To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Date: Sat, Jun 18, 2022 at 4:48 PM Subject: Fwd: Why the House Committee hearings on Jan. 6? To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Doug Vagim <dvagim@gmail.com> Date: Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 11:24 PM Subject: Re: Why the House Committee hearings on Jan. 6? To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Loran: There's truth out there, you just have to look for it, you're not going to find it on legacy news. It is true that Pelosi for the first time in the history of the USA has denied all members of the opposition party who were appointed by the that party's leadership to be a member and or participate in a Congressional committee's proceedings. As to the DOJ limitations compared to that of the Jan 6 committee; the DOJ is must run its investigation under the Federal Rules of Procedure. This would provide all the parties representation by counsel and ability to seek judicial review on points of disagreement. All without it being spotlighted before the worldwide media which is what we're seeing now. Yes, you my share my reply to your message with the others. Doug ------------ On Fri, Jun 17, 2022, 10:31 PM Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> wrote: Saturday, June 18, 2022 Doug- Thanks. Would you mind if I forwarded your email below on to the people I sent mine to, including to you, with my email attached to it again? I just have to have your permission to do that since your outrage at the whole deal is as strong as mine is. I don't want you to be a co-defendant with me when they come to get me. You say things I had forgotten or never knew. I recall now that the Republicans that McCarthy wanted to be on the committee were rejected by Pelosi. I did not know that this is the first time in history that the leader of the opposition was denied having any member on such a committee that he wanted on there- that being a violation of the House' own rules. The DOJ cannot run such a hearing on its own. (third paragraph up from the bottom in your email). They can no doubt gather evidence, but to run a one-sided show trial on national TV I am sure is beyond their power. And due process is just totally absent here. This is really bad. Maybe Congress should censure Pelosi and Shiff for this outrage. The Republicans in Congress are remiss in not denouncing this to the rafters. Trump should fight back harder too. Get some respected constitutional lawyers to weigh in on what is being done here. It reminds me of the Nazi show trials too after July 20, 1944. It is fitting that it does since the Dems in Congress seem to be pretty much behind the Nazi program at the heart of the federal program aimed at white male Americans. That Trump is a white male American makes this new development even more scary. Is this the due process that white American men can expect from now on? L. William Harding ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Doug Vagim <dvagim@gmail.com> Date: Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 7:39 PM Subject: Re: Why the House Committee hearings on Jan. 6? To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Loran: Can you say "Stalin show trial?" The spl House Committee hearings on the events of 6 Jan 2021 is devoid of any opposition from the minority party. That's because Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected all the Rep members selected by the minority leader Kevin McCarthy. This is only time in the history of the US Congress that the leader of the opposition or minority party was denied to have any representation on a committee. It's in violation of the US House of Representatives own rules. But when you run the House like Nancy Pelosi, - as a total authoritarian despot, this is what you get. The two Republican members, who are on the Jan 6 committee, were appointed by Pelosi just because they are "never Trumpers" and don't represent the minority party. Note the committee doesn't refer to either Rep member as the Minority Leader of the committee, which is the regular process for any committee of Congress. If they were appointed by Kevin McCarthy the Republican leader, one of them would be the official Minority leader of the committee. I believe the real intent of this committee is to do the work for the DOJ by creating intent and probable cause against Trump for inciting the riot at the Capitol. What the Dems have cooked up here is in total violation of the due process clause in the Constitution. The Dems want the DOJ to proceed with indictments against Trump and others for cause. The mission of the committee is to hand over to the DOJ a bunch of "airtight allegations" of Trump's wrongdoings. DOJ cannot do this on their own because they're confined by the strict legal procedures and tenets of the criminal judicial process. In other words they can't run their own Stalin type show trial. But they can take the committee's record, findings and criminal referral (guarantee it's coming) to proceed with an action against Trump. This will tie him up for the next few years defending against the fraudulent allegations. All because the Dems don't want him running for president in 2024, and it's as simple as that... Best to you, Doug ---------- On Fri, Jun 17, 2022, 4:29 PM Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> wrote: ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Date: Thu, Jun 16, 2022 at 9:36 PM Subject: Why the House Committee hearings on Jan. 6? To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Friday, June 17, 2022 To all- What is the purpose, the end goal, of these hearings in the House re the Jan. 6, 2021 riot? KCBS interviewed a lawyer and he said there are two goals: 1) To damage the Republicans and, especially, Trump, to guarantee that he never runs for President again. 2) To provide evidence which the DOJ could use to get indictments. One should think of these hearings as sort of like a presentation to a grand jury. In those, evidence against, and only against, the potential indictee is presented. He is not represented or even informed of the proceedings. The presentation to the grand jury is held in secret. But, in this case, no secret presentation. It is broadcast live on national television. So those are why these are being held. I really noticed that after the first hearing on Thursday, June 9, 2022, CBS Television network news had their reporters on a set just YELLING what Trump and Trump's people had done on Jan. 6. NOT "alleged to have done". "THEY DID THIS AND THEY DID THAT!!!!!" On and on, What they DID. That really struck me. None of that has been proven in a court of law. It struck me as bizarre. Is CBS News on the payroll of the Democrats? If someone says under oath that you did something, that makes it true? Usually we have a jury hear those allegations and the jury determines if they are true or not. Oh, and the accused has one or more lawyers presenting evidence to the jury to the affect that the allegations are not, cannot, be true. Now Trump is requesting equal time of the networks. I hope he gets it. Could he sue CBS for defamation? I am sure CBS has good lawyers who approved this presentation by their reporters. Hard to see how it is fair. A committee of Congress holds hearings, hears from lots of people who hate the subject of the hearings, all of it is broadcast live to the world, and the TV networks then have their people recite everything said AS FACT. How is that not actionable? In the late fifties, the McClellen Committee (the Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management) ran a large number of extensive investigations into labor union AND management corruption of pensions, labor racketeering, union busting by company managements. These went on for ~three years (!). RFK played a prominent role, as did JFK. Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters were major targets, but not the only ones. When Mr. Hoffa was testifying, he always had a lawyer at his side and in his ear. So did all of the other hundreds of witnesses. I give the Wikipaedia link below for the McClellen Committee. I read it last night and it is worth reading. The reports of the Committee led to legislation, the Labor- Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, known as the Landrum-Griffen Act, enacted on September 14, 1959. Sen. McClellen's investigations also led to enactment of ERISA in 1974 and to the RICO statute. Are the current hearings aimed at enacting some legislation? They don't seem to be. It is interesting, and very unfortunate for employees, that ERISA laid down rules for company pensions, often the "defined benefit pension plans" of the 50's, 60's and 70's. Initally, ERISA stated that employees vested in these plans after ten years of credited service. Companies then often found it necessary to terminate emplyees after about seven years of service. So, the law was changed to say that employees vested in their company's defined benefit pension plan after five years of service- the current law wrt the rare defined benefit pension plans still offered. Then, in the early 80's, companies started terminating their defined benefit pension plans and offering their employees a lousy 401(k) plan. The companies had gotten good tax treatment for those in suggesting to Congress that Sec. 401(k) be added to the IRC. See the Frontline program "The Retirement Gamble" on YouTube to see how these have worked out for employees. I have never understood how the companies got Congress to enact Sec. 401(k) which allowed them to terminate their wonderful defined benefit pension plans. It upended the entire company pension program of US companies. That was a severe body-blow to American workers. I have turned it over and over in my mind, and I just can't figure out how the companys got it passed. Congress should require that companies in the US restore their defined benefit pension plans. United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management - Wikipedia Are the current show trials re. the January 6 riot providing due process to Mr. Trump and his people? How the committee was constituted seems to have violated the rules of Congress. Any attempt here to influence future jurors? Should the networks spout everything said by witnesses as fact? L. William Harding Fresno, Ca. From:Aram James To:Linda Jolley; Human Relations Commission; chuck jagoda; Winter Dellenbach; Council, City; Sean Allen; epatoday@epatoday.org; bibrauer@aol.com; Roberta Ahlquist Subject:A Father’s Day Letter from dad circa 1963 Date:Saturday, June 18, 2022 10:23:55 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154859312539227&set=a.10152690380089227&type=3 Sent from my iPhone From:Alex Woo To:Council, City Subject:Objection to expanding the tree ordinance Date:Saturday, June 18, 2022 6:10:45 PM Some people who received this message don't often get email from wooalex@gmail.com. Learnwhy this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear City Council, I object to the expansion of the Definition of Protected Trees 8.10.020(l) to non-native trees over 15" DBH. The City of Palo Alto has planted some God Awful Street Trees which don't belong in the local ecosystem and those trees in particular should not be protected trees. By protecting run of the mill landscape trees, the City of Palo Alto just adds another impediment for creating additional housing and addressing the housing imbalance in the SF Peninsula. I have no objections to increasing the list of protected species to the other native trees. Alex Woo 3720 Redwood Cir, Palo Alto, CA 94306 Download Attachment Available until Jul 17, 2022 From:Aram James To:City Mgr; Council, City; Human Relations Commission; Council, City Subject:$265 K for what? Date:Saturday, June 18, 2022 4:04:13 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. FYI: Hi Linda, I’ve submitted a second public records act request to specifically ask for the portion of the $265,000 being spent specifically on the recruitment of the next police chief. I submitted the request to a Tori Anthony the same person who sent the no use more general information for all of her ( Terri Black’s) responsibilities for executive hiring. aram On Jun 18, 2022, at 1:58 PM, Linda Jolley <lindajolley9@yahoo.com> wrote: The little things to the left of my screen I cant read, and I dont have time to search a lot of material. So could you direct me to or give me a description of all the miracles this woman is going to do for the $265K? no rush. On Friday, June 17, 2022, 07:03:57 PM PDT, Aram James <abjpd1@gmail.com> wrote: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/files/assets/public/agendas-minutes- reports/agendas-minutes/city-council-agendas- minutes/2022/20220411/20220411pccsmamended-redacted-linked.pdf Click to Download 20220411pccsmamended-redacted-linked.pdf 0 bytes Sent from my iPhone From:Yahoo Mail.® To:Honky Subject:Pfizer Bombshell exposé’ Date:Saturday, June 18, 2022 3:46:16 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dr Clare Craig exposes how Pfizer twisted their clinical trial data for young children https://rumble.com/v18s66i-bombshell-dr.-clare-craig-exposes-how-pfizer-twisted-their-clinical-trial-d.html The why of it all.... They need your children to vaccinated in order to install a global social credit system. Videos - KAREN KINGSTON They need your children to vaccinated in order to install a global socia... Melissa Ciummei, a financial investor from Northern Ireland, has serious concerns that injection passports will ... Videos - KAREN KINGSTON The Great Reset | Why Does Moderna Hold Patent 10703-789? Why do the COVID-19 vaccines include a 10703-789 Paten... From:Trustburn To:Council, City Subject:City of palo alto has Reviews on Trustburn.com Date:Saturday, June 18, 2022 3:31:01 AM Some people who received this message don't often get email from reviews@trustburn.net. Learnwhy this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. City of palo alto has 10 reviews Reply to reviews & show that you care Responding quickly to your reviews shows your future customers that you value their feedback. Managing your customers' feedback builds trust & increases confidence in your brand. VIEW REVIEWS Read & reply to these reviews Rating 5 | 10 Reviews 952 Review Views (Last 24 Hours) Trustburn This email was sent to city.council@cityofpaloalto.org. You've received the "Reviews" mailing. Extension · Support · Unsubscribe · Privacy policy From:Loran Harding To:Loran Harding; antonia.tinoco@hsr.ca.gov; alumnipresident@stanford.edu; David Balakian; boardmembers; bearwithme1016@att.net; beachrides; fred beyerlein; bballpod; Cathy Lewis; Chris Field; Council, City; Doug Vagim; dennisbalakian; Dan Richard; dallen1212@gmail.com; Daniel Zack; eappel@stanford.edu; Scott Wilkinson; Gabriel.Ramirez@fresno.gov; George.Rutherford@ucsf.edu; huidentalsanmateo; hennessy; Irv Weissman; jerry ruopoli; Joel Stiner; kfsndesk; kwalsh@kmaxtv.com; karkazianjewelers@gmail.com; lalws4@gmail.com; leager; mthibodeaux@electriclaboratories.com; Mayor; Mark Standriff; margaret- sasaki@live.com; merazroofinginc@att.net; newsdesk; news@fresnobee.com; nick yovino; russ@topperjewelers.com; Sally Thiessen; Steve Wayte; tsheehan; terry; VT3126782@gmail.com; vallesR1969@att.net Subject:Fwd: "63 Studebaker Avanti- Wow. People didn"t know. Date:Friday, June 17, 2022 10:51:19 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Date: Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 9:34 PM Subject: Fwd: '63 Studebaker Avanti- Wow. People didn't know. To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Date: Thu, Jun 16, 2022 at 9:41 PM Subject: Fwd: '63 Studebaker Avanti- Wow. People didn't know. To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Date: Thu, Jun 16, 2022 at 3:35 PM Subject: Fwd: '63 Studebaker Avanti- Wow. People didn't know. To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Date: Wed, Jun 15, 2022 at 5:00 PM Subject: Fwd: '63 Studebaker Avanti- Wow. People didn't know. To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Date: Wed, Jun 15, 2022 at 1:28 PM Subject: '63 Studebaker Avanti- Wow. People didn't know. To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Friday, June 17, 2022 To all- Well worth reading. The Avanti. Look how beautiful it was. Only about 4800 built. Lots of great features. Big engine. Gas was $.32 per gallon. Oil was $2 per barrel. Now $107 per barrel. Gas was still $.32 per gallon in 1972. Pick of the Day: 1963 Studebaker Avanti R2 with 1-family ownership (classiccars.com) Some say the first American muscle car was the '49 Olds 88. It's only competition for that title was the Hudson Hornet. My father bought a new 1951 Hudson Hornet. Old Dominion Motors was the dealer in Virginia, I believe. Why the 1949 Oldsmobile 88 was the first muscle car - YouTube The Hudson Hornet was a great car, but consider: No seat belts, no air bags, no head rests to prevent whip-lash in a rear end collision, the steering column was not collapsable, no side guard door beams, a solid steel dashboard with sharp steel points on it probably, No side marker lights, no uniform bumper heights, no "five mile per hour" bumpers. Don't know how collapsable the roof was in a roll-over accident. It was not a hardtop, so maybe decent roll- over protection. No LEDs on the heater and vent-defrost controls as they have now so you can operate them in the dark. No transmission- steering wheel-ignition interlock as an antitheft feature. It was a rolling death wagon in a serious accident. We never had an accident of any kind in ours. Just damn lucky. Needless to say, no pollution controls and it probably handled leaded gasoline since there was no cat-converter to be ruined by leaded gasoline. But then, the above describes the '49 Olds 88 as well, so they were both rolling death wagons. Plenty of people died in them. Tonight, June 17, 2022, KCBS is reporting a head-on collision on Hwy. 92 just east of Half Moon Bay. CHP has it completely shut down in both directions. About a month ago there was a head-on collision on Hwy. 152 just east of Gilroy. Our mighty, wealthy and caring government cannot build 13 miles of freeway east of Gilroy, California. It must be one of the most dangerous stretches of road in the US, if not the world. Governor Newsom, the California legislature, and our Congressional delegation are to blame for that, as is the California Department of Transportation. I have driven it east-bound at midnight in the rain, and that is harrowing. It is a winding, two lane road loaded with 18 wheelers. People in the San Joaquin Valley have no alternative to taking Hwy. 152 over the Pacheco Pass and to Gilroy to get to the southern Bay Area. The alternative would be to drive 60 miles north on 99 or I-5 to take Hwy 580 through the Altamont Pass into the Bay Area, putting them too far north. Then, officials in the City of Los Banos, through which 152 runs, keep adding intersections on 152 in an act of I'm not sure what. The $40 billion+ of weapons we are slowly delivering to Ukraine is supported by most Americans. But some small fraction of that would build a freeway for the 13 miles east of Gilroy, Calif. that is presently the road I describe above. Then politicians wonder why our government is held in near zero esteem by the American people. BTW, people drive from southern California on I-5 to get to the Bay Area. Then, west of Los Banos, they transition onto west-bound Hwy 152. It is good freeway west of Los Banos until one is 13 miles east of and short of Gilroy, and then the road becomes the two lane, winding death trap that should be replaced with a modern freeway. This situation shows the contempt that most elected officials in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. have for the American people. Our solution: kick them out of office until the Gilroy-152 death trap is replaced by a modern freeway. If every victim of this outrage in the Bay Area and in Southern California promises to do that, the dirt will soon be flying east of Gilroy. L. William Harding Fresno, Ca. From:RIP Belove To:Council, City Date:Friday, June 17, 2022 8:55:36 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. call Elizabeth Harley waiting now help Joi infante gaurdian 4096237217 ir7252080609 From:Phoebe Bressack To:Council, City; Stump, Molly Subject:Proposed tree ordinance Date:Friday, June 17, 2022 5:43:17 PM Some people who received this message don't often get email from phoebearch@gmail.com.Learn why this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Members of City Council and Ms. Stump: I have, as the architectural community has, been following the proposed revisions to the Palo Alto tree ordinance. As an architect whose practice is residential and largely remodel/additions, the current ordinance as written has severe impact. Requiring a full tree survey for any work will impose a significant cost burden on small scale projects. Allowing the Planning staff to evaluate scope of work vis a vis tree impacts BEFORE imposing a blanket arborist tree survey requirement recognizes that one size does not fit all projects. In addition, as a former member of the Los Altos Planning Commission I can speak to the waste of time and energy when an ordinance is written in contradiction to state mandates. In the case of ADUs, HCD is all too glad to force the striking of ordinances which do not meet their definition of the mandates. I support the concept of expansion of tree protection. Protecting the city's trees from harm attributable to building projects is a fine goal. But in my opinion the ordinance as proposed has serious flaws that could stand a closer look both by staff and the City Attorney, as well as greater public input before being adopted. Please delay adoption until the language of the ordinance better matches the intent. Thank you. Phoebe Goodman Bressack Bressack and Wasserman Architects c. 415 309 9332 BressackandWasserman.com From:Loran Harding To:Loran Harding; antonia.tinoco@hsr.ca.gov; alumnipresident@stanford.edu; David Balakian; boardmembers; bearwithme1016@att.net; beachrides; fred beyerlein; bballpod; Cathy Lewis; Chris Field; Council, City; Doug Vagim; dennisbalakian; Dan Richard; dallen1212@gmail.com; Daniel Zack; eappel@stanford.edu; Scott Wilkinson; Gabriel.Ramirez@fresno.gov; George.Rutherford@ucsf.edu; huidentalsanmateo; hennessy; Irv Weissman; jerry ruopoli; Joel Stiner; kfsndesk; kwalsh@kmaxtv.com; karkazianjewelers@gmail.com; lalws4@gmail.com; mthibodeaux@electriclaboratories.com; Mayor; Mark Standriff; margaret-sasaki@live.com; newsdesk; news@fresnobee.com; nick yovino; russ@topperjewelers.com; Sally Thiessen; tsheehan; terry; VT3126782@gmail.com; Steve Wayte; leager Subject:Fwd: Why the House Committee hearings on Jan. 6? Date:Friday, June 17, 2022 4:29:51 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Date: Thu, Jun 16, 2022 at 9:36 PM Subject: Why the House Committee hearings on Jan. 6? To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Friday, June 17, 2022 To all- What is the purpose, the end goal, of these hearings in the House re the Jan. 6 insurrection? KCBS interviewed a lawyer and he said there are two goals: 1) To damage the Republicans and, especially, Trump, to guarantee that he never runs for President again. 2) To provide evidence which the DOJ could use to get indictments. One should think of these hearings as sort of like a presentation to a grand jury. In those, evidence against, and only against, the potential indictee is presented. He is not represented or even informed of the proceedings. The presentation to the grand jury is held in secret. But, in this case, no secret presentation. It is broadcast live on national television. So those are why these are being held. I really noticed that after the first hearing last Thursday, June 9, 2022, CBS Television network news had their reporters on a set just YELLING what Trump and Trump's people had done on Jan. 6. NOT alleged to have done. "THEY DID THIS AND THEY DID THAT!!!!!" On and on, What they DID. That really struck me. None of that has been proven in a court of law. It struck me as bizarre. Is CBS News on the payroll of the Democrats? If someone says under oath that you did something, that makes it true? Usually we have a jury hear those allegations and the jury determines if they are true or not. Oh, and the accused has one or more lawyers presenting evidence to the jury to the affect that the allegations are not, cannot, be true. Now Trump is requesting equal time of the networks. I hope he gets it. Could he sue CBS for defamation? I am sure CBS has good lawyers who approved this presentation by their reporters. Hard to see how it is fair. A committee of Congress holds hearings, hears from lots of people who hate the subject of the hearings, all of it is broadcast live to the world, and the TV networks then have their people recite everything said AS FACT. How is that not actionable? L. William Harding Fresno, Ca. From:Tal Samet To:Council, City Subject:Public comments for the June 21 meeting -Urgency ordinance imposing a temporary moratorium Date:Friday, June 17, 2022 3:46:03 PM Some people who received this message don't often get email from talsamet@fb.com. Learn whythis is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Hello, As a residence in Fallen Leaf street I was shocked to learn that our entire proximity is zoned into a ROLM Zone and that there permist to use hazardous Material in such proximity to residential area. We are already suffering from noise and particle solution from the 101. Often times there are foul smells and I complained multiple times without any concrete action. It is the council duty to ensure that the people of Palo Alto has clean air to breathe without unnecessary pollution and smells. Please stop all permits and approval of building permits that entail processing of hazardous material so close to our homes. I will not be able to attend the meeting, however I would to receive a copy of the information presented in the meeting. I also call upon the council to do an environmental survey in our street and remedies all pollution/smells problems that are identified. Thanks, Tal Samet 3272 Fallen Leaf St, Palo Alto From:Mark Hoffberg To:Pat Burt; Council, City Cc:Eggleston, Brad; Luong, Christine; Abendschein, Jonathan; Debbie Mytels; Bret Andersen; Hodge, Bruce; Marshall, Tomm Subject:Menlo Park partners with BlocPower to electrify homes and businesses by 2030 Date:Friday, June 17, 2022 3:25:25 PM Some people who received this message don't often get email from mark.b.hoffberg@gmail.com.Learn why this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Pat, Council Members, all: In case you missed this: https://beta.menlopark.org/News-articles/Sustainability-news/20220615-City-of-Menlo-Park- partners-with-BlocPower-to-electrify-over-10000-homes-and-buildings-by-2030 Best, Mark From:Arlene Goetze To:Representative Anna G. Eshoo; Sara Cody Subject:CBS: FaucI Tests POSITIVE; IOWA BANS VAX Date:Friday, June 17, 2022 11:04:07 AM Some people who received this message don't often get email from photowrite67@yahoo.com.Learn why this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. 1. Iowa Gov Bans COVID VaX Requirement for Students. SEE below 2. Dr. Anthony Fauci tests Positive for COVID-19 2 DR FAUCI TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19 BY MELISSA QUINN , 6/125/22 ON CBS NEWS Washington — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Biden and a leading official in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, has ested positive for COVID-19, the National Institutes of Health announced. The NIH said in a statement that Fauci, 81, is fully vaccinated and has been boosted twice. He is experiencing mild symptoms, and has not recently been in close contact with President Biden or other top government officials, the agency said. Fauci, the director of the National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) since 1984, received his positive result on a rapid antigen test, and will return to work at the NIH when he tests negative, the agency said. The NIH confirmed Fauci is taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid, which has been proven to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death. Fauci has been a key, and at times polarizing, figure in the nation's efforts to combat the pandemic since its start in early 2020, advising both former President Donald Trump and President Biden on the federal response. He managed to avoid contracting COVID-19 until now — more than two years after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. Fauci became a household name throughout the pandemic, appearing frequently alongside Trump during in-person briefings at the White House in the early days of the public health emergency and in online briefings held by Mr. Biden's COVID-19 Response Team after he assumed the presidency. During appearances on Capitol Hill, Fauci sparred often with Republican senators over mitigation efforts including mask-wearing and testing requirements. His increased public profile led to threats and harassment against him and his family, he told a Senate panel in January. In late 2020, a California man was arrested after police in Iowa allegedly found weapons and an apparent hit list, naming Fauci, in his car. A West Virginia man also pleaded guilty last month to sending threatening emails to Fauci and former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins. Now Fauci joins a long line of federal officials who, even though they are vaccinated and boosted, tested positive for COVID-19, including Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and various member U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland tests positive for COVID-19 Garland, 69, is fully vaccinated and boosted. of Mr. Biden's Cabinet. In January, he predicted the highly contagious Omicron variant will "ultimately find just about everybody," but noted Americans who are vaccinated and boosted will do "reasonably well" given that the shots protect against hospitalization and death. Fauci was scheduled to appear with other top federal health officials before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday to provide an update on the federal response to COVID-19. 1. IOWA BANS VAX FOR STUDENTS SThe Courier reported :Colleges, K-12 school districts and daycare centers in Iowa cannot require students and children to be immunized from COVID-19 under legislation signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Kim Reynolds. The bill was among 10 signed into law Tuesday by the governor. Iowa schools, by state law, require eight types of immunizations by age 5. Immunization from COVID-19 will not be added to that list, thanks to House File 2298, which passed the Iowa Legislature mostly on party-line votes, with Republicans supporting the proposal and Democrats opposing.POLITICS FROM CHILDRENSHEALTHDEFENSE. 61522 FORWARDED BY ARLENE GOETZE, NO TOXINS FOR CHILDREN From:Loran Harding To:Loran Harding; antonia.tinoco@hsr.ca.gov; alumnipresident@stanford.edu; David Balakian; boardmembers; bearwithme1016@att.net; beachrides; fred beyerlein; bballpod; Cathy Lewis; Chris Field; Council, City; dennisbalakian; Doug Vagim; dallen1212@gmail.com; Dan Richard; Daniel Zack; Scott Wilkinson; Gabriel.Ramirez@fresno.gov; huidentalsanmateo; hennessy; Irv Weissman; jerry ruopoli; Joel Stiner; kfsndesk; kwalsh@kmaxtv.com; karkazianjewelers@gmail.com; lalws4@gmail.com; leager; Leodies Buchanan; mthibodeaux@electriclaboratories.com; Mayor; Mark Standriff; margaret-sasaki@live.com; merazroofinginc@att.net; newsdesk; news@fresnobee.com; nick yovino; russ@topperjewelers.com; Sally Thiessen; Steve Wayte; VT3126782@gmail.com; vallesR1969@att.net Subject:Fwd: Ed Yardeni today after huge drops 6-16-22 Date:Friday, June 17, 2022 3:23:21 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Date: Thu, Jun 16, 2022 at 5:28 PM Subject: Ed Yardeni today after huge drops 6-16-22 To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Thurs. June 16, 2022 To all- Ed Yardeni today after the big drops today: Who does he think he is, Ed. Yardeni? The interviewer doesn not know the meaning of "sanguine": I don't see there's a lot upside in the market any time soon, says Ed Yardeni - YouTube Here is the former President of the Dallas Fed Bank yesterday, Wed. June 15, 2022. What would he know? He served under Greenspan, Bernanke and Janet Yellen. Now I can't find the interview, and I have tried. He said "We are in for a rough time"- words to that effect. We have every reason to respect his opinion. He was interviewed by one of the Wall St. shows after the 75 basis pt. hike. I find all kinds of thumbnails of him on YouTube and NONE of them have a date on them. Come on, YouTube, can you not put dates on your 20 thumb nails of this gentleman and on all of the rest? I am tracking some great stocks, highly rated, good earnings, decent low-ish multiple, in bus. for more than 5 years. NOT BUYING. TRACKING. All we have to do now is sense the bottom of the market. It may not come until 2023. The Fed is going to have to put the economy through the ringer to kill the inflation. When it is beaten and the Fed starts to relax, you dive back in, buying quality. This whole thing looks like shooting fish in a barrel. After the crash in 1987, Johnny Carson said that in Cairo the stock exchange is housed in a pyramid-shaped building. There, brokers stepped from their windows and slid to their deaths. L. William Harding Fresno, Ca. From:Andrea B Saliba To:PAC Cc:Council, City; Glanckopf, Annette Subject:Midtown Poetry Wall Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 4:34:20 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear Public Art Commission: As a Palo Alto homeowner for 32 years, I am very sorry I cannot be there in person tonight (as I’ve been out of the country for three weeks). I do want you to know that the Midtown Poetry wall is something so DEEPLY near and dear to my heart that I would feel destroyed if it were removed. I believe this is an important piece of public art that represents a time in history when Palo Alto was a bit more innocent. I feel strongly that the nominal amount to restore this beautiful artwork done by community members would be very worthwhile and would cost significantly less than some of the more recent public art projects. Why only invest in new projects? Is our history not worth investment? I would argue that as our community ages, it is very comforting to those of us who have lived here a long time and have seen our city change to keep this significant public artwork alive. My daughter wrote one of these poems when she was in elementary school, during a time when she was incredibly creative and happy. This poem represents a time in our lives that was most innocent and precious to us and is a remnant of that. I also know several of the other poets as well. Please let me know what I can do to help. I am happy to donate to preserving this artwork. Please do restore this artwork! Thank you for your consideration. Andrea Saliba 1268 Martin Ave Palo Alto, CA 94301 (650) 867-5802 Sent from my iPhone Blog | COVID-19 | Racial Justice From:Silicon Valley Community Foundation To:Council, City Subject:Celebrating Juneteenth, welcoming new leadership Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 4:00:30 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious ofopening attachments and clicking on links. 650.450.5400 @ info@siliconvalleycf.org Juneteenth: Nicole Taylor talks philanthropy and community African American Community Service Agency (AACSA) has hosted an annual Juneteenth festival in San Jose for over 40 years. Our CEO, Nicole Taylor, joined in for this year's kick-off brunch. Read the article Welcoming new leadership Edward Wang joined SVCF in May as our new Vice President for Donor Engagement. Edward brings expertise in philanthropy, social innovation and nonprofit management to support SVCF's mission of driving community change in Silicon Valley and beyond. Youth-led organization grows during pandemic Christian Sbragia was a fourth-grader in East Palo Alto when he founded the Cooline Organization so kids in his community would have better options for fun and safe activities. Read the press release How do we end gun violence? In light of recent tragedies, SVCF offers a curated list of organizations whose programs address immediate needs and deal with reversing the tide of gun-inflicted deaths around the country. Faith leaders provide a safety net for mental health patients and their families "If people with mental health challenges can feel welcomed and embraced by their faith communities, the faith communities can improve the outcomes by offering hope, community and ritual.” SVCF celebrates Pride month In the spirit of Pride Month and advancing equity in our region, SVCF encourages you to support these organizations serving LGBTQ+ communities in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Address 2440 West El Camino Real Suite 300 Mountain View, CA 94040 About Silicon Valley Community Foundation is a community catalyst for change. Copyright © 2022 Silicon Valley Community Foundation View in browser | Unsubscribe From:Sylvia Gartner To:Council, City Cc:PAC Subject:FW: Midtown Poetry Wall Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 3:52:52 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. From: Sylvia Gartner <sgartner@ix.netcom.com> Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2022 3:51 PM To: 'pac@cityofpaloalto.org' <pac@cityofpaloalto.org> Subject: Midtown Poetry Wall I was disturbed to hear that your committee has decided to destroy something meaningful to me in Midtown Palo Alto. I was a member of the Midtown Residents Association when the idea of a poetry wall was conceived. The best ones were chosen for this wall. I frequently visit the UPS store in the Midtown Shopping Center and it’s always a pleasure to see these poems. This was a terrific idea by former members of the Public Art Commission. One of the chosen poems was by a child. What better example of the values of our city could there be than public art displaying the talents of residents of the community? I was disgusted to see that, considering all the money regularly wasted by this city, the purse strings suddenly get tightened over a piece of public art! Please reconsider this plan to let the mural deteriorate and then be removed. It is a slap in the fact to residents South of Oregon. As quoted by Annette Glanckopf of our Midtown Residents Association, this makes us feel even more like step-children. Sylvia Gartner Moreno Avenue From:Aram James To:Tannock, Julie; Enberg, Nicholas; robert.parham@cityofpaloalto.org; Human Relations Commission; Council, City; Winter Dellenbach; Figueroa, Eric; Binder, Andrew; Jonsen, Robert; Shikada, Ed; Stump, Molly; Planning Commission; ParkRec Commission; Sean Allen Subject:From The Mercury News e-edition - Everybody plays the fool — some more than others Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 3:27:17 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ I saw this The Mercury News e-edition article on the The Mercury News e-edition app and thought you’d be interested. Everybody plays the fool — some more than others https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?guid=b1693052-6c7d-4ebc-a4f2- 273af144b673&appcode=SAN252&eguid=31132494-910d-423e-8a89-ca2742942c4e&pnum=25# For more great content like this subscribe to the The Mercury News e-edition app here: Sent from my iPhone From:Linda Jolley To:Council, City Cc:AramJames; Rebecca Eisenberg Subject:Tiny homes embraced by Bay Area churches Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 2:58:28 PM Some people who received this message don't often get email from lindajolley9@yahoo.com. Learnwhy this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious ofopening attachments and clicking on links. Council Members - Does Palo Alto want to bring up the rear in helping homeless? Or do we just want to be frontline in making people move their homes every few days? ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Bay Area Morning Report <e-news@email.bayareanewsgroup.com> To: "lindajolley9@yahoo.com" <lindajolley9@yahoo.com> Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2022, 10:01:17 AM PDT Subject: Tiny homes embraced by Bay Area churches Bay Area churches build tiny homes for their homeless neighbors Thursday, June 16, 2022 Tiny homes appear to be the wave of the future when it comes to housing for the homeless, and reporter Marisa Kendall found that Bay Area churches are embracing the trend: Lending new meaning to the phrase “love thy neighbor,” Bay Area churches are turning their parking lots and backyards into sites for tiny homes for the homeless members of their communities. And one local nonprofit has made it its mission to help. Firm Foundation Community Housing has plans in the works for nearly 200 tiny homes across 14 projects, including a six-unit tiny home village in the parking lot of Grace Presbyterian Church in Walnut Creek. Membership has been shrinking since the church bought its large property in 1958, and its congregation has been aging, meaning fewer people drive to worship. “We don’t have expertise in housing or property management, and that’s not something that we as a congregation can take on,” the Rev. Mark Burnham said. “But having these partners who can do it, our contribution can be this space, which is very valuable and which we weren’t using.” Read the full story here. Plus: A talented artist can't escape homelessness Daniel McClenon’s art stops people in their tracks. His drawings become even more poignant when you know how some of them were created: with cheap ballpoint pens and Wite-Out, paid for with the change people toss him, and on pieces of cardboard that double as bedding when he sleeps on the sidewalk outside a Walgreens. McClenon, who grew up in San Jose, has been homeless for years. San Leandro plans to buy motel, convert it to homeless navigation center. Livermore puts $2.4 million toward drug addiction treatment facility for homeless, low-income people. Proposed 1,000-person homeless shelter in Oakland hits resistance. Find more news and features at MercuryNews.com and EastBayTimes.com. ••• And check for your regular Morning Report tomorrow at 7 a.m. Recommended newsletter Sign up The Weekender Your Bay Area guide to concerts, dining, museums, movies and more, delivered just in time to make weekend plans. Bay Area News Group Copyright © 2022 Bay Area News Group. All rights reserved. 75 E. Santa Clara Street, Suite 1100 | San Jose, CA 95113 Unsubscribe From:Aram James To:Sean Allen; Tannock, Julie; Human Relations Commission; Figueroa, Eric; robert.parham@cityofpaloalto.org; Winter Dellenbach; Council, City; Enberg, Nicholas; Perron, Zachary; Binder, Andrew; Planning Commission; ParkRec Commission; Shikada, Ed; Sajid Khan; Raj; mark weiss; Rebecca Eisenberg Subject:Confronting the history of the KKK in Texas Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 1:11:33 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious ofopening attachments and clicking on links. View In Browser Race Deconstructed Join us weekly as we break down the role that race and identity play in US culture, politics and more. Send your feedback to racedeconstructed@cnn.com. by Brandon Tensley CNN The former Ku Klux Klan Klavern No. 101 Auditorium The former Ku Klux Klan Klavern No. 101 Auditorium in Fort Worth, Texas Confronting the history of the KKK in Texas Is it possible to create an impactful center for healing from a former site of White supremacy? For a non-profit based in Fort Worth, Texas, the answer is yes. Founded in 2019, Transform 1012 N. Main Street is attempting to perform a bit of alchemy: Instead of razing a former Ku Klux Klan hall, the organization is converting it into a cultural hub and arts center. The new structure will direct resources toward groups previously targeted by the Klan, including Black, Hispanic, Jewish, Catholic and LGBTQ communities. Almost a century ago, the site was an edifice dedicated to hate. In the next couple years, it’ll provide services for underserved youths and exhibit spaces centered on civil rights, among other things. Or think of it like this: The reimagined area will offer a necessary and joyous haven for those US society has long kept on the fringes, and will be named after Fred Rouse, a Black man who in 1921 was lynched nearby following a union dispute. “I don’t think that there could be another project that would be more meaningful,” 95-year-old Opal Lee, a founding member of the Transform 1012 board, told CNN. Lee’s work with the non-profit harmonizes with her lifelong commitment to racial justice. The activist spent decades campaigning for Juneteenth to become a federally recognized holiday. Her efforts paid off in 2021, when President Joe Biden signed legislation establishing June 19 as Juneteenth National Independence Day. “The climate is right,” Lee added. “People are willing to be a part of doing something about our past—learning from it instead of letting it overwhelm them, and making sure that it doesn’t happen again.” Revisiting the past Close to 100 years ago, 1012 N. Main Street—then 1006 N. Main Street—was the location of the Ku Klux Klan Klavern No. 101 Auditorium. Opened in 1924, the building was destroyed by a fire but swiftly restored in 1925. The 22,000-square-foot hall could hold some 2,000 people, and it was designed to be a space where the klavern—a local unit of the Klan—could practice marches and perform minstrel shows. The auditorium was designed for another purpose, too: to terrorize. At the time, Fort Worth had a large number of Klan members, and the auditorium became the Klan’s headquarters in Texas. The towering building was meant to strike with fear Black, Hispanic and other marginalized residents passing through the city center. The interior of the former Ku Klux Klan Klavern No. 101 Auditorium The interior of the former Ku Klux Klan Klavern No. 101 Auditorium It’s worth remembering that this was, as the historian Linda Gordon lays out in her 2017 book, the era of the second Klan, when the group’s members jettisoned the more covert vigilantism of the past and worked in the open, taking aim at a variety of supposed enemies. “Unlike the first Klan, which operated mainly at night, meeting in hard-to-find locations, the second operated in daylight and organized mass public events. Never a secret organization, it published recruiting ads in newspapers, its members boasted their affiliation and it elected hundreds of its members to public office,” she writes. “Most important, the 1920s Klan’s program was embraced by millions who were not members, possibly even a majority of Americans.” Over the decades, the building was repurposed a number of times. For instance, in 1927, it was sold to the Leonard Brothers Department Store, and by 1929, it was a dance venue. In 1946, the Ellis Pecan Company secured it for use as a warehouse. In 2018, Adam W. McKinney, the co-founder of the Fort Worth-based arts and service organization DNAWORKS, was researching Fred Rouse, a Black butcher whom a White mob lynched near 1012 N. Main Street in 1921, when the dancer learned about the auditorium—that the structure was still standing. From that moment on, McKinney and his fellow DNAWORKS co-founder, Daniel Banks, knew that something had to be done with the building. ‘We need something like this here’ But McKinney and Banks couldn’t do it alone. They met with Carlos Flores, a city councilmember for District 2, where the building sits. “We discussed the needs of his district. We were still relatively new to Fort Worth, so we knew that this couldn’t be a DNAWORKS-only project,” Banks told CNN. “This had to be a citywide project. This had to belong to Fort Worthians. So, we began mapping out potential strong partners for a coalition that would work together to save the building.” Inspired by their previous racial justice work, McKinney and Banks knew that they wanted the project not only to return resources to the communities most affected by the Klan’s activities but also to be led by members of those groups. In 2019, they helped to establish Transform 1012 N. Main Street, whose founding board consists of eight organizations representing the groups the Klan used to attack; Rouse’s grandson is an additional member, representing the family. The non-profit’s aim is to turn the onetime Ku Klux Klan Klavern No. 101 Auditorium into the Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing. “I was born in Mexico, but I was raised in Fort Worth. I grew up just a couple blocks from the building,” said Román Ramírez, the co-director of SOL Ballet Folklórico. “The building is at the entrance of the Northside community, which is a heavily Hispanic community and where our dance company is housed.” He said that when DNAWORKS invited SOL Ballet Folklórico to participate in the project, it felt like fate. “Every time Freddy Cantú—the other co-director—and I would walk or drive by the building, we would say, ‘Just imagine that being a theater,’ because there’s a shortage of theaters in Fort Worth,” Ramírez went on. “Every time we passed the building, it was like, ‘Imagine, imagine, imagine.’ And here we are today. The building’s going to do wonders for Fort Worth.” Sharon Herrera, the executive director and founder of LGBTQ SAVES, which also is part of the Transform 1012 coalition, echoed some of Ramírez’s sentiments, and she underscored how necessary it is for the city to have a kind of haven for queer youths. “I’ve always said that we’re one of the largest cities in the country but don’t have a resource center for LGBTQ youths. And our youths need a home,” she told CNN. “What could be better than a place where all the organizations are accepting and affirming of LGBTQ youths?” Herrera said that she attempted suicide when she was 16 years old, and that she doesn’t want another child to think that suicide is the answer. “That’s why this project is so important to me. It’s not only my organization in this building. Other organizations are going to support LGBTQ youths,” she added. “We need something like this here.” The efforts of Transform 1012 might bring to mind the deeper question of what makes a center for reconciliation or a memorial truly effective. “The people who were negatively affected by a particular event should be involved. If a site reflects the people being honored and their wishes, you’re much more likely to make an impact,” Claire Greenstein, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said last November. “Acknowledging racial injustice and allowing the people who were affected to reclaim a space in a way that reflects their agency and their resistance by amplifying their voices rather than those of the perpetrators—all of that’s hugely meaningful,” she continued. Greenstein was talking about the Echo Project, which is converting the structure that in the 1990s and through the first decade of the 2000s housed “the world’s only Klan museum” into a site of remembrance and healing. But her analysis could easily apply to Transform 1012, too. At a moment when the facts of history are under siege, Transform 1012 seeks a means of confronting the past without necessarily re-inflicting its many traumas. “We want to link arms and repurpose the building,” Banks said. “We believe that the only way to create a truthful society is to shine a light on its dark periods. We can’t ignore them. Sweeping them under the carpet doesn’t make the pain go away. And it doesn’t prevent violence from happening again.” How to get help: In the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1- 800-271-8255. The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide also can provide contact information for crisis centers around the world. Race Deconstructed will take a break next week. But the newsletter will return on June 30. Quote “What Black folks have demanded are structural and systemic changes to the systems in this country that have been harmful and oppressive.” --Amara Enyia, with the Movement for Black Lives, on tone-deaf Juneteenth gestures Juneteenth Juneteenth: June 19 marks the second annual observance of Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Across the country, communities are commemorating the end of slavery in the US and raising awareness about the ongoing struggle for racial equality. Here are ways to celebrate the holiday and support its goals. And at 8pm on June 19, “Juneteenth: A Global Celebration for Freedom” will air live on CNN. Watch the above video to learn more about the holiday. Required Reading ‘A Strange Loop’: It’s the most acclaimed—and frequently surprising— musical of the theatrical season. Here’s a look at how a small musical about a Black queer theater usher became the toast of Broadway. Recognizing Asian American history: President Joe Biden on Monday signed what he described as “long overdue” legislation that could help establish a National Museum of Asian American and Pacific Islander History and Culture. America’s ‘secret war’ in Laos: Relatively few Americans know about the shadow war their country fought alongside the Vietnam War. A new virtual library is looking to change that by shining a light on America’s bombing of Laos from 1964 to 1973 and the damage that remains. The different layers of White supremacy: The recent arrests of 31 people accused of planning to riot near a Pride parade in Idaho make plain the fact that White supremacy has long been bound up with rigid views about gender, masculinity and sexuality. Hate crime charges: The suspect in the racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket faces multiple federal hate crime charges carrying the potential of the death penalty, the US Justice Department said on Wednesday. CNN RACE DECONSTRUCTED You are receiving this newsletter because you're subscribed to Race Deconstructed. No longer want to receive this newsletter? Unsubscribe. Interested in more? See all of our newsletters. Create CNN Account | Listen to CNN Audio | Download the CNN App ® © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc. A WarnerMedia Company. All Rights Reserved. One CNN Center Atlanta, GA 30303 From:Roberta Ahlquist To:Council, City Subject:Fwd: Tiny homes embraced by Bay Area churches Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 12:19:55 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear Council Members: Hee is another idea for you to consider re. building more low-income housing. Tiny Houses! Also, there are many sites for low-income housing still available. When will you ACT in the intersts of our service sector and lower income workers and residents? Sincerely, Roberta Ahlquist From: Roberta Ahlquist <finnroberta@gmail.com> Date: Thu, Jun 16, 2022 at 11:52 AM Subject: Fwd: Tiny homes embraced by Bay Area churches To: Roberta Ahlquist <roberta.ahlquist@sjsu.edu> ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Bay Area Morning Report <e-news@email.bayareanewsgroup.com> Date: Thu, Jun 16, 2022 at 11:02 AM Subject: Tiny homes embraced by Bay Area churches To: <finnroberta@gmail.com> Thursday, June 16, 2022 Bay Area churches build tiny homes for their homeless neighbors Tiny homes appear to be the wave of the future when it comes to housing for the homeless, and reporter Marisa Kendall found that Bay Area churches are embracing the trend: Lending new meaning to the phrase “love thy neighbor,” Bay Area churches are turning their parking lots and backyards into sites for tiny homes for the homeless members of their communities. And one local nonprofit has made it its mission to help. Firm Foundation Community Housing has plans in the works for nearly 200 tiny homes across 14 projects, including a six-unit tiny home village in the parking lot of Grace Presbyterian Church in Walnut Creek. Membership has been shrinking since the church bought its large property in 1958, and its congregation has been aging, meaning fewer people drive to worship. “We don’t have expertise in housing or property management, and that’s not something that we as a congregation can take on,” the Rev. Mark Burnham said. “But having these partners who can do it, our contribution can be this space, which is very valuable and which we weren’t using.” Read the full story here. Plus: A talented artist can't escape homelessness Daniel McClenon’s art stops people in their tracks. His drawings become even more poignant when you know how some of them were created: with cheap ballpoint pens and Wite-Out, paid for with the change people toss him, and on pieces of cardboard that double as bedding when he sleeps on the sidewalk outside a Walgreens. McClenon, who grew up in San Jose, has been homeless for years. San Leandro plans to buy motel, convert it to homeless navigation center. Livermore puts $2.4 million toward drug addiction treatment facility for homeless, low-income people. Proposed 1,000-person homeless shelter in Oakland hits resistance. Find more news and features at MercuryNews.com and EastBayTimes.com. ••• And check for your regular Morning Report tomorrow at 7 a.m. Recommended newsletter The Weekender Your Bay Area guide to concerts, Sign up dining, museums, movies and more, delivered just in time to make weekend plans. Bay Area News Group Copyright © 2022 Bay Area News Group. All rights reserved. 75 E. Santa Clara Street, Suite 1100 | San Jose, CA 95113 Unsubscribe From:slevy@ccsce.com To:Council, City Cc:Shikada, Ed; Nose, Kiely; Paras, Christine Subject:Another company economing on space Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 10:47:49 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Article is below And I read today that Stanford provided you with a report showing comparative tax burdens for neighboring cities. I would like to support a business tax and will soon send you suggestions for a tax I could support. I continue to worry about competitiveness and equity issues and am particularly concerned that daytime workers are critical customers for our small businesses and disincentives will end up hurting not helping the very businesses council wants to help Stephen Levy Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy By Mark Calvey – Senior Reporter, San Francisco Business Times Jun 15, 2022 Block is the largest Bay Area company to embrace a no-HQ strategy, joining Coinbase and Brex. All three companies were once based in San Francisco before the pandemic fueled the embrace of employees working remotely and fully distributed workforces. Block, formerly known as Square, said Wednesday that it’s not renewing the least at its Mid-Market offices in San Francisco that once served as its headquarters. Although Block will continue to have other offices elsewhere in San Francisco, dropping the huge lease that once housed the company’s headquarters could bolster the company’s claim that it’s no longer based in San Francisco, especially if the C-suite and most employees work outside the city, according to tax experts. Large companies based in San Francisco face the city’s administrative office tax. Oakland is preparing to adopt a similar tax as part of a proposed overhaul of that city’s gross receipts tax heading to the November ballot. In San Francisco, large companies shedding their headquarters in the city can avoid San Francisco’s administrative office tax now or in the future. That 2.9% tax on San Francisco payrolls, which includes the Prop. C homeless services levy, affects companies based in the city that meet three conditions: They have more than half of their payroll expense in San Francisco tied to headquarters functions; have more than 1,000 U.S. employees; and have more than $1 billion in revenue. Those wondering who might be next to embrace a no-HQ model may want to keep an eye on Opendoor Technologies Inc. The iBuyer, coping with a housing market slowdown, continues to be based in San Francisco despite giving up its headquarters space in January 2021. Opendoor has long told the Securities and Exchange Commisson that its “principal executive offices” are in Tempe, Arizona. In the embrace of remote work and headquarters relocations, taxes on senior leaders and talent are playing a growing role. “We have been discussing this a lot with our current client base,” John Hayashi, BPM’s managing director in tax, heading the firm’s state and local tax practice, said of client conversations over HQ relocations. He said going without a headquarters altogether hasn't usually been part of the conversation — at least not yet. “Just speaking personally, Silicon Valley businesses — I’ll call it technology — are doing things that are unconventional to those of us who’ve been in the business over a number of years,” Hayashi said of companies pursuing no-HQ strategies. “It doesn’t surprise me, but that’s more so because the tech world is doing things that fit today’s work environment.” On 2022-06-12 20:15, slevy@ccsce.com wrote: -------- Original Message -------- Subject:Twilio economizing on space Date:2022-06-12 20:14 From:slevy@ccsce.com To:City Council Palo Alto <city.council@cityofpaloalto.org> Cc:Ed Shikada <ed.shikada@cityofpaloalto.org>, Kiely Nose <kiely.nose@cityofpaloalto.org> Companies can and are reducing space in reaction to work from home and other factors. A tax on space is an additional incentive to economize on space. I think this should be evaluated and a response deduction made in estimated BT revenues. By Laura Waxmann – Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business Times Jun 7, 2022 Updated Jun 7, 2022, 2:05pm PDT Twilio has radically reduced its physical presence in San Francisco after re-emerging last month as a remote-first company. A spokesperson said Monday that the cloud communications company (NYSE: TWLO) has consolidated multiple San Francisco offices into one location, Rincon Center at 101 Spear St., where it now occupies two floors in redesigned space to promote collaboration. It previously occupied five floors there for a total 241,354 square feet in a lease that runs through 2025. Hudson Pacific Properties owns the two-tower complex. The spokesperson would not confirm how much total office space Twilio commanded in San Francisco, where the company is headquartered, but I've identified at least two other locations where the company had space. It leased a portion of one floor at 375 Beale St., and Twilio-owned Segment occupied 19,000 square feet at 100 California St. in a lease that expired in April. It is unclear whether Twilio has listed the San Francisco space it has given up on the sublease market, though it has done so in other markets. Last week, Twilio said that it will list a portion of its office space in downtown Denver, Colorado. The consolidation follows an announcement posted to the company's website in early May explaining that Twilio will be a "remote first" company. This means that employees have the flexibility to work from home, but can also choose to work from an office. Roughly 72% of Twilio's workforce was hired during the pandemic, and 40% have been hired into fully remote roles, the company said in the post. Twilio initially considered implementing a hybrid work place strategy that would have required employees to return to the office a few days per week and was planning to retrofit its spaces to allow for social distancing. But the ongoing pandemic and feedback from employees nixed those plans, the company said. Twilio conducted a survey that revealed that 88% of its employees felt productive working remotely, and that nearly all — 99%— did not want to return to an office full-time. "What we learned is that Twilio's global workforce has adapted really well to working remotely and that Twilions have discovered that — for most jobs— work isn't something you need to be in the office to do," said Twilio Chief People Officer Christy Lake. Having trouble viewing this email? View it in your web browser TOP NEWS OF THE DAY FDA Advisors Unanimously Endorse Pfizer, Moderna COVID Shots for Infants and Young Kids, Ignore Pleas to ‘First Do No Harm’ From:Arlene Goetze To:info@rokhanna.com; info@kamalaharris.org Subject:FDA Ignores Experts on Baby Shots Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 10:18:17 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. From: Children's Health Defense <team@childrenshealthdefense.org> 6/15/22 FDA Ignores Experts, Votes for COVID Shots for Babies + IOWA Bans Shots for Students The Evidence Is Clear: Healthy Children Simply Don’t Need COVID Vaccines Two Judges Step Down From New York COVID Vaccine Mandates Lawsuit Over Financial Conflicts of Interest, Third Judge Will Stay Canada Suspends COVID Vaccine Mandates for Federal Workers, Domestic Travel WEF’s Top 10 Scary Ideas — And How They Could Affect Your Future Doctors ‘Baffled’ by Deaths of Healthy Young People: ‘This Week’ With Mary + Polly Biden to Unveil Plan for Next Pandemic While Seeking $88 Billion in Funds + More Iowa Governor Bans COVID Vaccine Requirement for Students + More You Make It Possible Children's Health Defense depends on generous donations from our community. Large or small, every donation gets us closer to achieving our goals. Listen to what RFK, Jr. has to say. Become a Member | Donate Now Work for CHD Children's Health Defense | ChildrensHealthDefense.org Our mission is to end childhood health epidemics by working aggressively to eliminate harmful exposures, hold those responsible accountable, and establish safeguards to prevent future harm. Children’s Health Defense 852 Franklin Ave., Suite 511 Franklin Lakes, New Jersey 07417 Contact us Want to change how many emails you receive? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe below. Unsubscribe or Manage Your Preferences Thats Great News Call Us 888-239-5731 That's Great News is not affiliated with PALO ALTO WEEKLY From:Kelly Nolan To:Council, City Subject:Last chance to get your plaque for article: Lifetimes of Achievement. LaDoris Hazzard Cordell Date:Thursday, June 16, 2022 7:45:19 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of openingattachments and clicking on links. ‌ ‌ ‌ No images shown? View online Free inspection ends today Lifetimes of Achievement. LaDoris Hazzard Cordell Dear LaDoris Its already been a few weeks since you had the satisfaction of being featured in the PALO ALTO WEEKLY and a plaque is a great way to keep the feeling of success alive, which is why last week I offered you a free 30 day inspection period for your plaque. I'm sure if you had the actual plaque in your hands you'll want to keep it, so I'd like to send it to you now , with no purchase obligation. If I'm wrong and you don't love it, the risk is all mine, you won't pay a cent and we pay for return of the plaque. However, to ensure you don't miss this offer you need to act today. Enlarge Plaque Image Select Plaque If you're short on time today, just reply to this email and confirm you would like us to send out the plaque for a free no obligation 30 day free inspection and we'll get it dispatched to: 250 Hamilton Ave, Palo Alto, 94301 Article Lifetimes of Achievement. LaDoris Hazzard Cordell Featured LaDoris Cordell, Palo Alto City Council Publication PALO ALTO WEEKLY Published May 06, 2022 UNCONDITIONAL 100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE ON ALL PLAQUES A full refund if you don’t like the plaque. 4.8 Overall Satisfaction Rating Shopper Approved Reviews “It's been wonderful working with the company. They have helped us create a beautiful "Wall of Fame" in our office that gets lots of compliments.” Michael E "I had one of my three plaques damaged during shipping and the customer service that I received to replace the damage plaque was exceptional. The quality of the product was excellent as well. Five stars across the board is not an exaggeration." Paula W "I have been working with Candace for years on many plaques. She is wonderful." Lester M "They were just what I was looking for." Daddy O'Brien's Irish Ice Cream "I've bought over 20 plaques. Excellent pricing and service." Ron See your news on a Plaque That's Great News is not affiliated with PALO ALTO WEEKLY That’s Great News, 900 Northrop Rd., Wallingford, CT 06492. All Rights Reserved. Call Us: 888-239-5731 and reference Customer ID (12054829) Free Inspection T&Cs i) Available on plaque purchases under $400 ii) All orders shipped to Canada must be paid with Credit Card. All Prices are in USD If you don’t want an alert when you’re featured in the press or our offers please unsubscribe to avoid us contacting you again. View email online. {"iid":"35538645","cid":"12054829","oid":"6508697709"} From:Deborah S Rose M.D. To:Council, City Subject:Give us a chance to raise money to protect the poetry wall at Midtown. Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 10:55:21 PM [Some people who received this message don't often get email from drdsrose@stanford.edu. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ] CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ Sent from Deborah Rose From:Stepheny McGraw To:Council, City Subject:Midtown Poetry Wall Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 9:24:31 PM Some people who received this message don't often get email from stepheny@sonic.net. Learnwhy this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. While Midtown has been gaining in its number of residents, it has not gotten much in the way of public art in the past decade. Perhaps that is why we value the art which has marked Midtown over the years and need to keep — and maintain -- art that marks our past. The Poetry Wall, across from Baskin Robbins, showcases poetry created by a young resident, years ago. Please do what is necessary to keep it. Thank you. Stepheny McGraw 3303 Thomas Drive From:Herbert Fischgrund To:PAC Cc:herb fisch; Council, City Subject:Midtown Wall Mural Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 6:23:03 PM [Some people who received this message don't often get email from fischgrundh@gmail.com. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ] CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ The wall mural livens up what is otherwise a drab shopping area. Please preserve it, even if it’s somewhat deteriorated. Herbert Fischgrund 750 Torreya Court Palo Alto, CA 94303 home (650) 493-4440 cell (650) 269-4740 fischgrundh@gmail.com From:Loran Harding To:dennisbalakian; David Balakian; dallen1212@gmail.com; Doug Vagim; Daniel Zack; Mayor; Loran Harding; Cathy Lewis; Council, City; bballpod; Irv Weissman; Scott Wilkinson; George.Rutherford@ucsf.edu; mthibodeaux@electriclaboratories.com; margaret-sasaki@live.com; Dan Richard; Mark Standriff Subject:Fwd: WSJ Wed. June 15, 2022 after Fed .75 rate hike Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 6:05:37 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Date: Wed, Jun 15, 2022 at 5:56 PM Subject: WSJ Wed. June 15, 2022 after Fed .75 rate hike To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Wed. June 15 2022 To all Good WSJ article after Fed hike today. 10 yr. T yld settled at 3.389% today. It was 3.286% in after hours trading today. It was down from 3.482% yesterday, Tuesday. Fed Meeting Live Updates: Interest Rates Raised 0.75 Percentage Point (wsj.com) L. William Harding Fresno, Ca. From:Aram James To:chuck jagoda; Roberta Ahlquist; Raj; peninsula_raging_grannies@yahoo.com; Greer Stone; City Mgr; Council, City; Rebecca Eisenberg; Vara Ramakrishnan; Lait, Jonathan; Joe Simitian; mark weiss; Human Relations Commission; Jethroe Moore; Cecilia Taylor; Betsy Nash; Sean Allen Subject:From The Mercury News e-edition - What it will take to end homelessness in the Bay Area Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 4:52:16 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ I saw this The Mercury News e-edition article on the The Mercury News e-edition app and thought you’d be interested. What it will take to end homelessness in the Bay Area https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?guid=5ed89600-7e1c-4eff-8d5a- 6e88fc2aba2a&appcode=SAN252&eguid=3b3f734b-0bf5-45a1-ad9a-fb1daf72b3e9&pnum=27# For more great content like this subscribe to the The Mercury News e-edition app here: Sent from my iPhone From:Aram James To:chuck jagoda; Council, City; City Mgr Subject:From The Mercury News e-edition - A show of good faith — tiny homes Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 3:57:11 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ I saw this The Mercury News e-edition article on the The Mercury News e-edition app and thought you’d be interested. A show of good faith — tiny homes https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?guid=408511bc-02fe-488a-8ed3- ac1792dfca65&appcode=SAN252&eguid=3b3f734b-0bf5-45a1-ad9a-fb1daf72b3e9&pnum=1# For more great content like this subscribe to the The Mercury News e-edition app here: Sent from my iPhone From:Aram James To:Pat Burt; Roberta Ahlquist; chuck jagoda; City Mgr; Council, City; Lait, Jonathan; Rebecca Eisenberg; Rebecca.Tanner@cityofpaloalto.org; Jethroe Moore; Sean Allen; mark weiss; Stump, Molly; Angie Evans; Vara Ramakrishnan; Binder, Andrew; Human Relations Commission; Betsy Nash; Cecilia Taylor; citycouncil@mountainview.gov; Greer Stone Subject:- A show of good faith — tiny homes Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 3:56:43 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ I saw this The Mercury News e-edition article on the The Mercury News e-edition app and thought you’d be interested. A show of good faith — tiny homes https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?guid=408511bc-02fe-488a-8ed3- ac1792dfca65&appcode=SAN252&eguid=3b3f734b-0bf5-45a1-ad9a-fb1daf72b3e9&pnum=1# For more great content like this subscribe to the The Mercury News e-edition app here: Sent from my iPhone From:Aram James To:Shikada, Ed Cc:Human Relations Commission; Council, City Subject:Open up the hiring process for our next chief to the public ( archive) Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 3:45:25 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10159218897669227&set=a.10152690380089227&type=3 Sent from my iPhone From:Aram James To:Sean Allen; Shikada, Ed; Binder, Andrew; Perron, Zachary; Tannock, Julie; robert.parham@cityofpaloalto.org; Enberg, Nicholas; Human Relations Commission; Council, City; Cecilia Taylor; Betsy Nash; Joe Simitian; Rebecca Eisenberg; mark weiss; Jethroe Moore; Sajid Khan Subject:Opinion: San Jose needs moral alignment of its budget priorities Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 3:18:07 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ FYI: https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/06/14/opinion-san-jose-needs-moral-alignment-of-its-budget-priorities Sent from my iPhone From:chartrand To:PAC Cc:Council, City Subject:Midtown mural Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 12:52:46 PM Some people who received this message don't often get email from chartrand@att.net. Learn why this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Hello, I live on Rosewood Drive, just behind the Midtown shopping center. I understand that the Commission is considering abandoning the poetry murals there. I believe this would be a disservice to our neighborhood. Midtown retail district is an important social & commercial center south of Oregon. It includes the only drug stores in the southern half of the city; they draw loads of people from Old Palo Alto, as well. But it has no public art except the mural. No fountain or sculpture. No colorful nice benches like downtown University Ave. No landscaping, no city street team. No huge project to adorn sidewalks like California Ave. The community garden was plowed under & for years has been a weed-filled empty lot. Now the mural is on the same chopping block. Please reconsider. Re-evaluate other public art projects that have yet to break ground. The mural is here already. Re-visit your perception of Midtown; art is important south of Oregon, too. Our community deserves to receive a portion of the city public art budget. Thank you, Sabra Chartrand 748 Rosewood Dr. Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone From:Vic Befera To:Council, City Subject:What happened to "no"? Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 12:26:16 PM Some people who received this message don't often get email from vicbefera@gmail.com. Learnwhy this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Champagne must have flowed at Castilleja school the night our docile City Council voted to bow to the school’s construction variances, enrollment increases, underground garage in an R- 1 neighborhood, and more demands. My family attended all of the 22 public hearings, and it became evident early on that the Council would eventually side with the school while tossing a few bones to the immediate neighbors and other Palo Alto residents who tried in vain to curtail the vast overreach of this private commercial entity. After 16 years in violation of its previous permit, it's a laugh to think the school will self- govern to meet the Council's flabby conditions. Castilleja has shown a relentless history of obfuscating, finding loopholes, and willfully misinterpreting its conditions for remaining in an R-1 zone. The Council has rewarded their duplicity with pretty much everything the school demanded. Councilmember Eric Filseth zeroed in on the issue when he noted that if a new applicant asked to put this oversized private school on a six-acre lot in the middle of an established residential neighborhood, no question the City Council would have turned this project down. And yet, based on the not-very-persuasive argument "We've been here a long time, and therefore should be able to continue growing as much as we want ..." the Council rolled over. We give high praise to Vice Mayor Lydia Kou for her courageous and enlightened sole dissent. Sincerely, Vic Befera 1404 Bryant Street Palo Alto From:Kelly Nolan To:Council, City Subject:Were you able to see your plaque preview of your press in PALO ALTO WEEKLY? Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 12:20:59 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of openingattachments and clicking on links. Hello LaDoris Hope you were able to view the proof of the plaque below. I’ve made it easier for you to order by loading all your shipping info into the link below. Let me know your color preference; mahogany & gold, black &silver or Lucinda option, Are you okay with the layout? LaDoris, if you have any questions or need any assistance placing an order I'm happy to help. Publication: PALO ALTO WEEKLY Date: May 06, 2022 Subject: Lifetimes of Achievement. LaDoris Hazzard Cordell Price: $219 (wood plaque add $38) Click Here to view your plaque. Shipping is an additional 10% on the above price but I can give you a FREE SHIPPING if you use code BC10. Celebrating your great news, Kind regards, Kelly Nolan Account Manager That’s Great News UNCONDITIONAL 100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE ON ALL PLAQUES A full refund if you don’t like the plaque. 4.8 Overall Satisfaction Rating That's Great News is not affiliated with PALO ALTO WEEKLY Article Lifetimes of Achievement. LaDoris Hazzard Cordell Featured LaDoris Cordell, Palo Alto City Council Published May 06, 2022 View my plaque All orders shipped to Canada must be paid with credit card. All prices are in USD. For any additional questions please call 1-888-715-4900 and reference CustomerID(12054829). All Rights Reserved. We’ll contact you when we see you featured in a press article. If you don’t want an alert when you’re featured in the press or our offers please unsubscribe to avoid us contacting you again. View email online. {"iid":"35538645","cid":"12054829","oid":"6508697709"} From:HEIDI SCHWENK To:PAC Cc:Council, City; City Mgr Subject:Palo Alto Midtown Poetry Murals Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 9:33:08 AM Some people who received this message don't often get email from heidi29@me.com. Learn why this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear Art Commission, Thank you for the thorough analysis of the Midtown Poetry Six Murals in the community mall at 2605 Middlefield Road. It has been an integral part of the Midtown Community. However, the expense of maintaining all six murals seem excessive. Why not choose three murals that show the least amount of reparation needed, which would reduce the maintenance cost and create the ability to maintain three murals for a longer period of time? Sincerely, Heidi Schwenk 760 Northampton Drive Palo Alto, CA 94303 cc: Palo Alto City Council, Palo Alto City Manager From:a hamilton To:PAC Cc:Council, City Subject:Midtown poetry mural Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 8:55:16 AM [Some people who received this message don't often get email from alexishgpr@yahoo.com. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ] CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ Please make the necessary arrangements to repair and maintain the poetry wall on the old co-op building in Midtown. For one thing, it is a beautiful reminder of the history of the community. For another, it makes what would otherwise be a barren wall something special. We already lost the magic community garden in the back of that parking lot. Please preserve this charming moment if you can. Our city needs art and beauty in the South of Oregon (So-Oh??!!) area as much as we need art on the North side of town. Thank you. Alexis Hamilton St. Michael Drive Palo Alto From:Joseph Hirsch Subject:Hi Date:Wednesday, June 15, 2022 8:25:08 AM Some people who received this message don't often get email from jihirschpa@comcast.net. Learnwhy this is important CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. I sent you an email, did you get it? Joe From:Allan Seid To:Channing House Bulletin Board; CHOpinion CHOpinion Subject:Fwd: Museum Date:Tuesday, June 14, 2022 8:14:36 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Subject: Federal Commission to study the establishment of a National Museum on AAPI history in the U.S. Source: CNN.COM 6/13/22; San Jose Mercury 6/14/22 From: Allan Seid Date:6/14/22 https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/13/politics/biden-museum-national-asian-pacific-american-history- act/index.html From:Rebecca Eisenberg To:Council, City; Pat Burt; Tom DuBois tom.dubois@gmail.com; Shikada, Ed; Lydia Kou; Greer Stone; Filseth, Eric (external) Cc:Aram James; Mark Weiss; chris_robell@yahoo.com; Roberta Ahlquist; Curtis Smolar; slevy@ccsce.com Subject:A Regressive Business Tax is Worse than No Business Tax Date:Tuesday, June 14, 2022 1:00:17 AM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautiousof opening attachments and clicking on links. Dear Council Member DuBois, Mayor Burt, Vice Member Kou, and the rest of City Council: The tax measure you propose is regressive, unprecedented, and possibly illegal. It is likely illegal because there is no nexus between the amount of square footage a business rents and its measurable impact on the community and/or public good, which is why no other city has proposed anything like it in more than 20 years.* It is illogical because it makes no sense for a highly profitable business to be exempt from taxation due to the small size of its office. You must recognize how illogical your proposed method of taxation is, given that at every meeting regarding it, you propose and add another "excluded category" (today's category: senior living centers. Does this mean that commercial landlords are possibly not exempt?**). It is inequitable because it continue's Palo Alto's tradition of benefiting the wealthiest few at the expense of all others. Here are some facts I urge you to consider. Many of them directly contract assertions made by some of you and/or staff at tonight's council meeting. 1. The tax measure you propose is REGRESSIVE. As the Daily Post pointed out, as agreed with by economist Stephen Levy, the top 5 largest businesses in Palo Alto will pay only 20% of the tax burden under Palo Alto's current tax proposal. This puts the largest portion of the burden of tax payments on the businesses that can afford it the least -- small and medium sized businesses. Your proposed tax gives unfair advantage to our City's wealthiest and most powerful employers, and completely exempts billionaire landlords like John Shenk. This is an inequitable tax scheme that benefits the wealthiest few at the expense of all others. 2. All of our neighbors successfully proposed PROGRESSIVE taxes: A - East Palo Alto: 5 biggest companies pay 79% of the tax revenue (mostly Amazon.com) (using a parcel tax on commercial landlords - which would work here too!) B - Mountain View: 5 biggest companies pay 77% of tax revenue (mostly Google/Alphabet) (using a headcount tax focusing only on the largest employers - which would work here too!) C - Your faulty proposed tax - 5 biggest companies pay 20% of the tax revenue (using a tenant-based square footage tax, which does not work here or anywhere) No wonder your tax is polling so terribly! 3. The Tax Measure you suppose is illogical and unprecedented: There is no precedent within the past 2 decades for a square footage tax on tenants, and only one precedent older than 2 decades: Cupertino - which notably has been trying to revamp its tax to a headcount tax similar to Mountain View's. No City proposes this tax because your proposed tax makes zero sense. With your tax, a VC firm with a 4000 square foot office and $2 billion in revenues pays NO TAX, while a startup with no revenues and a 30,000 square foot office pays MUCH TAX. How can you possibly justify this inequitable tax scheme? Should Venture Capitalists, Attorneys, Investment Bankers, Financial Managers, and other highly profitable businesses - sometimes with revenues into the billions - be exempted from taxes required to be paid by their struggling portfolio companies simply because the struggling companies occupy large sized offices? HOW? WHY? BAD taxes are not better than no taxes! 4 Your process of endless surveys is flawed and ignores the actual evidence of what a tax needs to look like to pass. ANSWER: PROGRESSIVE TAXES THAT FOCUS ITS IMPACT ON THE LARGEST AND MOST PROFITABLE BUSINESSES AND EMPLOYERS WIN VIRTUALLY EVERY TIME, BY WIDE MARGINS: Ballotpedia lists many (not all) of the recent taxes here: https://ballotpedia.org/Local_business_tax_on_the_ballot There are PROVEN TAX METHODS that work and that pass by wide margins! Most cities use a headcount or payroll tax, and/or a receipts/income tax. WHY DON'T WE DO THAT TOO? Here are examples of 6 Methods of Taxation that make sense and that have succeeded locally: 1 - HEADCOUNT TAX provides accurate accounts of how much impact a company’s employees have on city services including roads: Mountain View - 2018 - passed with 72% 2 - PAYROLL TAX is a more progressive version of headcount tax, ensuring that higher-wealth employers pay a more equitable tax: San Francisco - 2020 - 68% 3 - RECEIPTS TAX ensures that higher revenue companies pay more tax than lower-revenue companies: Daly City - 2018 - 81% 4 - OVERPAID executive tax: taxes companies that pay its top executives more than 100 times the amount it pays its top executives - SF 2020 - 65% 5 - PARCEL TAX ON LARGE COMMERCIAL LANDLORDS - only taxed offices bigger than 25,000: East Palo Alto - 2018 - 80% 6 - LARGE LANDLORD TAX - East Palo Alto - clarifies that it is the owner of the property rather than the tenant, who is enriched by the use of the property 2016 - 78% ** To the contrary of the incorrect statement asserted by Council Member DuBois this evening, every one of these taxes was passed within the past 6 years, with most passed in 2020 or 2018.*** 5. GOOD TAXES WIN! Mayor Burt mentioned that San Francisco has many business taxes. That is TRUE! We also should. Please note that all of SF's taxes are PROGRESSIVE - meaning that the largest and most wealthy companies pay the majority of the tax revenues, unlike Palo Alto's proposed tax. Here is a list of some of SF's taxes and at what margin they were passed: SF - receipts tax for homelessness services - 61% SF - ride share to fund transit -68% SF - overpaid executives tax - 65% SF - sugar soda tax - 63% SF - increase of large company receipts (income) tax - 2020 - 68% (this took the existing tax and increased tax rates for the largest and most profitable companies) 6. Progressive taxes that target the largest businesses do not receive opposition from those businesses. For example, Mountain View's 2018 Google Tax went on the ballot with NO statement of objection from Google. Similarly, Amazon.com did NOT object to the 2018 parcel tax directed at Amazon.com in East Palo Alto. The biggest companies did not oppose paying their fare share! Those taxes have been very successful. 7. You claimed tonight that we have had many opportunities to state our objections - with zero promises that you would consider the objections. CAN YOU PLEASE CONSIDER, ON BEHALF OF OUR COMMUNITY, THAT YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT THIS REGRESSIVE TAX ON TENANTS BASED ON THE SIZE OF THE OFFICES THEY RENT? Doesn't the fact that no one else does it this way, give you even the smallest amount of pause? Do you honestly believe that Palo Alto is truly that qualitatively different from all of our closest neighboring cities? Why do you continue to push this misguided, counterproductive, regressive tax measure, when so many proven alternatives work? Do you truly want a business tax to pass? As to how long some of us have been campaigning for a PROGRESSIVE large- company business tax, may I point you to this 30-second video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9UboCVyP9Q In sum, all we really have to do is tax the 10-20 largest, publicly-traded companies - based on headcount, payroll, income, overpaid exec status and/or a combo of 4 - to solve all of Palo Alto's financial problems, and re-fund services you cut. If we tax them at a slightly higher rate, we could provide universal childcare, healthcare, and housing to every Palo Alto worker and resident. This is low-hanging fruit. Tax ONLY the largest businesses, and use the proceeds to help small businesses and the rest of the community. WHY NOT? If you do nothing else, please consider refraining from calling us who oppose your regressive inequitable tax measure as evil, selfish, self-serving, and part of the exploitative business community. You are failing to connect with a large portion of voters in Palo Alto, who care about EQUITY and are tired of the wealthiest organizations and businesses - such as commercial landlords and exclusive walled- garden private schools like Castilleja - never having to pay their fair share. Your proposed tax, which collects the overwhelming majority of revenues from small and mid-sized businesses, will harm opportunity and equity in our town, and continue to benefit the wealthiest few at the expense of everyone else. And that is why it will LOSE. You don't need an expensive poll to reach that obvious conclusion. People in Palo Alto want a FAIR business tax -- not a broken, unfair business tax like the one you are pushing. Rather than spending so much time and money on pollsters, go talk to human beings directly.**** Or even better - go talk to your colleagues in Mountain View or East Palo Alto, and ask them how they did it. Because they did it - and if you truly wanted to pass a sound business tax, you should be taking notes from our nearby winners. Best, Rebecca Footnotes: * How big of an office a company occupies has no actual connection to any relevant impact on the city - which is why there is noprecedent for it elsewhere (Cupertino's tax is more than 20 years old, and is still distinguishable, not to mention that Cupertino hasbeen trying to change it for years.) Additionally, City Staff and Council continue to confuse the square footage PARCEL tax in EPA,which taxes LANDLORDS, with the absurd tenant-square-foot tax you continue to defend. ** Not to mention, your square footage tax calls attention to internal ambiguities that would make for fantastic lawsuits. E.g: Yourtax measure taxes businesses. Being a landlord is a business. So, in the case where Thoit's rents a commercial office to a startup, doesthe startup and Thoits both get taxed on the square footage of the office space? Why would Thoits be exempt from the tax given thatits business occurs in the same space that the startup's business occurs? Cue the litigation to resolve this. There is a reason no othercity taxes tenants based on square footage. It makes no sense, and it exempts the most impactful, largest, and most profitablebusinesses from paying their fair share and puts an inequitable undue burden on businesses least capable to pay these taxes:small and mid-sized businesses.*** With apologies to Mr. DuBois, who may consider my comment pointing out that he is factually incorrect to be "uncivil" or "rude."Council Member DuBois, with respect, I am unaware of a method to tell you that you are factually incorrect that would not comeacross as uncivil and rude to you. Yet, I did my best. Please don't attack me in a blog for saying this. Thank you in advance. I havefeelings too.**** And don't rudely blow them off - as the Mayor did to a friend of mine last weekend. Office hours should come with some sort ofclarification that the elected official having the office hours will actually allow the resident to have a turn to speak, I think. Rebecca Eisenberg, Esq. Principal & Founder Netskink Positive Impact Investments Private Client Legal Services www.linkedin.com/in/eisenberg rebecca@privateclientlegal.com 415-235-8078 From:Ed Hillard To:Council, City Cc:Peter Drekmeier; Gretchen Subject:BAWSCA rate increases vs. BAWSCA law suit Date:Monday, June 13, 2022 3:14:26 PM [Some people who received this message don't often get email from edhillard@gmail.com. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ] CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links. ________________________________ Dear Mayor Burt and City Council Members, I have been a resident of Palo Alto since 1983 and as far as I can tell have endured several drought related water fee adjustments. Recently BAWSCA has raised water rates to its customers by 25%. I am also aware of BAWSCA’s suit opposing the Bay Delta Plan, a plan supported by the City of Palo Alto. Peter Drekmeier of Toulome River Trust has already made the Council aware of the history behind BAWSCA’s blind adoption in initiating their suit of SFPUC’s misinformation regarding the Bay Delta Plan. As a city resident I am opposed to any rate increases to BAWSCA that in any way help fund its suit against the Bay Delta Plan. As I understand it, in legal fees alone the suit has cost BAWSCA in excess of $350,000. They will have to find that money somewhere; it shouldn’t come from those who are the targets of their suit. In your meeting tonight, June 13, 2022, and in other related decision processes, please deal with BAWSCA’s rate increases to the city with this consideration in mind. Respectfully, Edward Hillard 3048 Greer Road