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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-04-09 Policy & Services Committee Summary MinutesPOLICY AND SERVICES COMMITTEE SUMMARY MINUTES Page 1 of 5 Regular Meeting April 9, 2024 The Policy and Services Committee of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Council Chambers and by virtual teleconference at 7:00 P.M. Present In Person: Kou (Chair), Lythcott-Haims, Tanaka Present Remotely: Absent: Call to Order Council Member Kou called the meeting to order. The clerk called roll with two present. Council Member Tanaka arrived at 7:03 P.M. Action Items 1. Update, Discussion, and Potential Direction Regarding State and Federal Legislation Carly Shelby, Associate, Townsend Public Affairs, provided a legislative update slide presentation. She brought attention four bills seeking which direction the Committee would like to take on them. She noted they are tracking close to 2000 bills for the City. Slides included an overview of the presentation, an overview of the 2024 Legislative Session, an overview of major legislative themes, priority legislation with positions, priority legislation with recommended positions on AB 2485 (Carrillo), SB 1210 (Skinner), SB 903 (Skinner) and SB 915 (Cortese), a state budget update proposal and process and a federal appropriations update. Council Member Lythcott-Haims wanted clarification on the monitoring fees that were mentioned in AB 2430. She inquired why Fire Station #4 made the cut on Federal Appropriations. Ms. Shelby explained a monitoring fee is charged by a city to oversee and ensure that the project has continued affordability of deed-restricted affordable units and 100 percent affordable housing components. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 2 of 5 Regular Policy & Services Meeting Summary Minutes: 04/09/2024 Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton-Gaines remarked that the Federal Earmarks Process needs to show support from the local agency in the sense of an action that has been taken by the elected body and described how Fire Station #4 met that requirement. She invited suggestions for other projects. Council Member Tanaka encouraged support on SB 915, SB 22, SB 905 and SB 1210. He asked about funding for replacement of Chaucer Bridge and stressed that it needed to be a priority. He questioned where the City anticipated losing money from the state and how much funding they get from the state. He asked how much lower the total budget this year for the state was. He inquired if they were trying to get federal money to help pay for grade separations. He asked if there was a plan to rectify the SALT issue. Ms. Shelby explained there were no opportunities for earmarks for funding the Chaucer Bridge Project in this particular cycle but it has been flagged as an item that should be prioritized and they are looking for grant funding opportunities for that project. The key funding pots that affect local governments are still up in the air in terms of their negotiations process so they will not have a clear picture as to how that will directly impact the City until later in the summer. She offered to work with the grants team to get a ballpark number on how much funding they receive from the state. She explained the total budget for the state was not lower. The total spending for last year’s budget was around $360,000,000,000 and this budget proposes a couple tens of billions of dollars below that. She believed the team had applied for a number of grade separation programs. She made a note to check with the team to see the status of those programs. She believed that the House voted on a SALT expansion bill earlier this year that blocked the progression of that bill. Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton-Gaines agreed to share the funding amount received from the state when they could. She assumed the funding from the state was not just grant and she would share when she had a comprehensive answer. Council Member Lythcott-Haims registered her enthusiasm for Senate Bill 1212 and expressed her concern about the extent to which real estate had become an attractive commodity. Council Member Tanaka thought the advantage of having a corporate investment entity was getting the economy as scale. He feared SB 1212 could drive rent up. Council Member Kou agreed with the recommendations on the four bills. She had concerns about embedded language. She wanted to see SB 22 and SB 905 come back to them sooner so they could examine the language. She thought anything that reforms Proposition 47 would be good to move forward on. She wanted to understand why it was in the monitoring list. She asked for clarification about SB 955. She agreed with Council Member Lythcott-Haims about SB 1212. She asked if SB 951, AB 2560, SB 1077 and SB 1092 applied to them around the Bay. She asked how much the bond affecting the Bay Area Housing Financing Authority was. She asked if AB 1657 would be on the November ballot. She thought it would be good to know if this particular one would increase property tax bills with assessments. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 3 of 5 Regular Policy & Services Meeting Summary Minutes: 04/09/2024 Ms. Shelby clarified that these were late-breaking bills they were monitoring to see if they had additional amendments they were anticipating that could potentially change the course of the bill. Given the interest in Prop 47 and retail theft measures, they could take a closer eye at those and bring forward additional policy letters. She provided explanation of SB 955. She commented SB 951, AB 2560, SB 1077 and SB 1092 did not directly impact the City. She stated the regional bond measure was set to be between $10 to $20 billion. She did not have all the details for the funding mechanism but she imagined it would be property related. She offered to get a more detailed analysis of this bond measure. She did not know about AB 1657. She stated Proposition 1 passed by a slimmer margin than its proponents anticipated so there is still negotiations with leadership and within the legislature as to if they want to put a bond in the November ballot and how they will structure it given the reaction from voters in the past session. June 27 is the deadline to place measures on the November ballot. Council Member Tanaka wanted to make a motion to support SB 22 and SB 905. Council Member Kou asked if there is anything they should be concerned about with those bills. Ms. Shelby noted that a lot of the bills that pertain to retail theft prevention have late-breaking developments that they can capture within a more comprehensive analysis. She did not categorize SB 22 as being the leading measure of the pack because of recent developments they had seen. She offered that her staff could provide more information in an updated memo on those measures. Council Member Kou asked Council Member Tanaka to consider letting them monitor those bills a little more. Council Member Tanaka agreed. Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines read some legislative guidelines which will allow them to act on a bill on this topic. She thought having the bills on the monitor list gave them flexibility. Council Member Tanaka asked for explanation of AB 2309. Ms. Shelby explained the bill would allow the city attorney of a charter city to prosecute misdemeanors committed within the city in an attempt to spread the jurisdictional authority across all branches of the legal arm to allow for more collaboration between different legal entities. Council Member Tanaka inquired if the city attorney had a perspective. City Attorney Molly Stump had not viewed the bill in detail and had not discussed it with district attorney staff. This was work done by the district attorney’s office coordinated with the superior court. The city attorney’s responsibility is limited to misdemeanors that are locally adopted. The state level penal code misdemeanors are prosecuted by the district attorney’s office. She advised they are currently not resourced for this. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 4 of 5 Regular Policy & Services Meeting Summary Minutes: 04/09/2024 Council Member Kou mentioned funding is a big matter for them. She asked the lobbyists to continue the work they are doing. She asked them to think about the electric grid expansion and modernization, grade separation, the bridges to mitigate flooding and addressing wildland fires. MOTION: Council Member Lythcott-Haims moved, seconded by Council Member Kou to recommend the City Council adopt a support position on AB 2485 (Carrillo) MOTION PASSED: 3-0 MOTION: Council Member Lythcott-Haims moved, seconded by Council Member Kou to recommend the City Council adopt a support position on SB 903 (Skinner) MOTION PASSED: 3-0 MOTION: Council Member Lythcott-Haims moved, seconded by Council Member Kou to recommend the City Council adopt a support position on SB 915 (Cortese) MOTION PASSED: 3-0 MOTION: Council Member Lythcott-Haims moved, seconded by Council Member Tanaka to move SB 1210 (Skinner) to the Monitor List MOTION PASSED: 3-0 The following bills were added to the Monitor List: AB 1893 Wick AB 2023 Quirk-Silva AB 2503 Lee AB2729 Patterson AB 1333 Ward AB 1868 Friedman AB 2712 Friedman AB 1657 Wicks AB 1789 Quirk-Silva AB 1801 Jackson AB 1813 Alanis AB 1837 Papan AB 1951 Fong AB 1987 Bennett AB 2553 Friedman SB 1951 Fong SB 968 SB 1037 Wiener SB 1159 Dodd SB 1211 Skinner SB 937 SB 960 Wiener SB 1048 Jones SUMMARY MINUTES Page 5 of 5 Regular Policy & Services Meeting Summary Minutes: 04/09/2024 Future Meetings and Agendas Deputy City Manager Cotton-Gaines announced as they are doing work related to the city auditor, they anticipate the next meeting will potentially have some audit reports if the timing lines up. They also have the Council referral related to the Public Art Commission. These items are planned for the May meeting. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:02 P.M.