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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-12-09 City Council Summary MinutesCITY COUNCIL SUMMARY MINUTES Page 1 of 15 Regular Meeting December 9, 2024 The City Council of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Council Chambers and by virtual teleconference at 5:30 P.M. Present In Person: Burt, Kou, Lauing, Lythcott-Haims, Stone, Tanaka, Veenker Councilmember Tanaka Arrived at 5:34 P.M. Present Remotely: None. Absent: None. Call to Order Mayor Stone called the meeting to order. The clerk called roll declaring six were present. Special Orders of the Day 1. Appreciation for Joe Simitian for his Many Years Serving Palo Alto and the Region NO ACTION Mayor Stone read the proclamation. Joe Simitian, County Supervisor, thanked the mayor and Council members for the moment of recognition and spoke about his time in Palo Alto and his hopes for the future for the community. He reported that at his last Board meeting the following day there would be a $3 million allocation he had requested from the Stanford Development funds to supplement the financing for the Charities Housing Project on El Camino. He asked the Council to continue doing what they could to engage the community. Councilmember Veenker recalled Supervisor Simitian’s service to the City. She announced that the city of Palo Alto and various community organizations planned to honor him at a special celebration in the spring. Councilmember Kou expressed her appreciation of Supervisor Simitian’s success and contribution to the community. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 2 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 Vice Mayor Lauing thanked for his service and for being a mentor and leader. Councilmember Lythcott-Haims expressed her gratitude for Supervisor Simitian’s service to the community. Councilmember Burt noted the accomplishments of Supervisor Simitian during his service to the community. Councilmember Tanaka acknowledged Supervisor Simitian’s sacrifices in serving the community. Mayor Stone thanked Supervisor Simitian for his service and mentorship. 2. Proclamation Expressing Appreciation for Roy Clay, Sr. NO ACTION Councilmember Lythcott-Haims read the proclamation. Chris Clay thanked the Council on behalf of his father. Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions Ed Shikada, City Manager, reported there were no changes. Public Comment 1. Loren T. alleged that Police Chief Andrew Binder was refusing to investigate complaints filed by her in April about Lisa Scheff and James Reifschneider refusing to respond to her calls in an attempt to obtain photos containing her father’s body. She further stated she asked the city manager to look into the investigation but he had a conflict of interest. She asked the Council to help her obtain the photos. 2. Natalie N., PhD student conducting research on local politics, announced as her data research was over, she would no longer be attending City Council meetings. She had no findings to report as she had not yet analyzed the data. 3. Tom H., founder and director of a nonprofit trying to improve middle school sports in Palo Alto. He addressed Mayor Stone asking for a response regarding his assistance in his endeavors to improve middle school sports. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 3 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 Council Member Questions, Comments and Announcements Councilmember Veenker reported she had participated in the NCPA commission meeting on behalf of the City on December 5 and the legislation and regulations committee meeting on December 4 for NCPA. They heard a presentation regarding the legislative strategic initiatives NCPA would be focusing on over the next year. Palo Alto and others provided feedback to ensure their priorities align. The Commission meeting took action on various operational contracts on consent followed by action on key items such as a CIP project to harden distribution for fire danger at McKay's Point Diversion Dam. They discussed the 2025 preliminary studies and investigations request, which is for NCPA battery energy storage system sites. There was an election of new executive committee members. Vice Chair James Shepherd would be serving the remainder of the term of the office of the departing chair and NCPA commissioner Mikey Hothi and Christina McKenna were appointed as the new at large executive committee members. A 2025 salary range adjustment was approved based on a 2024 salary study to be phased in over a two-year period. Councilmember Kou described the Creche exhibit at the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints which she had recently toured. She wanted information about updates being provided to residents through public service advisories regarding the Churchill/Alma Street safety work. Councilmember Burt reported that the BCDC Board of Directors approved the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan and provided an overview. He reported that he made a referral to proceed with funding of the tenant improvements needed to have the University Avenue Station House activated at the last VTA board meeting. Councilmember Lythcott-Haims indicated there was a survey on the City’s website for public input regarding the new housing element work being done. The deadline was December 18. She described a program being put on by the Palo Alto Youth Council called the Final Study Cram Slam. She mentioned that the City held an open house to talk about the Overnight Warming Location (OWL) with an explanation of the program. More information could be found on the City website or by texting badweather 888777. Mayor Stone reported having attended the annual Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony the previous Friday. He described having joined a collaboration with Silicon Zombie and the Palo Alto Youth Council the previous week. That could be reviewed on the Silicon Zombie YouTube channel. Study Session 3. Presentation of the 2024 Annual Community Survey Results SUMMARY MINUTES Page 4 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 NO ACTION Lupita Alamos, Assistant to the City Manager, went over highlights and an overview of the 2024 Community Survey. Brandon Barnett, Consultant, provided a slide presentation with the results of the survey including a survey methodology, summary of the response rate and margin of error over time, Polco’s benchmarking database, overview of survey results, comparisons to national benchmarks, comparisons to previous survey year, key findings, quality of life in Palo Alto ratings, other aspects of quality of life, aspects of quality of life by area, top-rated city services, city services by area, lower-rated city services, lower-rated city services by area, service rating changes over time, housing and cost of living, top of mind – changes to the City, top community characteristics, community characteristics by area, top of mind – thing the City does well, government performance, question 8 – demographic subgroup results and a summary of key findings. Councilmember Burt wanted to address an explanation for the drop off in response rate in 2022. He was interested in learning how they compare to other communities in childcare resources. He thought they might dive more deeply into prioritizing responses to downtowns, the development center and traffic enforcement at the retreat. He wanted to understand what mission, purposes and goals had been defined for the development center and for the workforce there. Councilmember Lythcott-Haims inquired if there were thoughts about how to get the participation rate back up above 20 percent. She asked about comparing the random sample results with those who chose to participate. She was interested in a clearer picture on both the cost of housing and someone's socioeconomic status including the mode and mean. Consultant Barnett replied that would be strategized in the future. He explained that survey response rates in general had been going down across the board. He explained the method used to calculate the total number of responses. They would continue to monitor the trend and response rates. To get back to 25 percent, they would increase to 5000 and work on more communication strategies before the survey itself. He indicated they could do a side-by-side comparison of the percent positives from the random sample survey and the opt-in survey. He would look into where the income comparisons were located within the report. Ed Shikada, City Manager, asked for context in how the length of their survey compared to other benchmark cities. Consultant Barnett answered the length of the survey was relatively similar to other cities. They had not found a link between the length of the survey and rate of incompletion. The biggest challenge was getting the residents to start the survey itself. Vice Mayor Lauing wondered if survey fatigue was a factor that needed addressed. He queried what the cost of the survey was. He wondered if it would be better to do this every two years. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 5 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 Ms. Alamos offered to get the cost information. City Manager Shikada indicated it used to be done very two years but three to four years the Council chose to do it more often. He agreed they could go back to every other year. Councilmember Veenker wanted to see if they could amend the satisfaction with the overall direction of the City. She asked for staff’s thoughts on how to break down the utilities. She thought making the community aware of the SCAP 80 by 30 goal was important. City Manager Shikada agreed there could be some conflict among the responses. He believed the utility questions were custom questions the City added to the basic survey to reconcile with other survey work they do. Councilmember Kou wanted to know how the random sampling in each of the neighborhoods was communicated to the public and how it was communicated to be opened to the general public. She queried if they reached out to any of the neighborhood associations. She asked what the intent was for addressing the issues. She suggested looking at doing the survey when there are no other activities going on and taking the investment factor into account. Consultant Barnett remarked there instructions on the postcard, the cover letter for the survey and the reminder postcard in English, Spanish and Chinese. Ms. Alamos explained the survey was advertised through the community newsletter, posted on the website, available at libraries and community facilities and they did almost weekly reminders encouraging the community to participate including extending the survey by a couple of weeks. She stated they could reach out to the neighborhood associations. Councilmember Tanaka associated with the concerns about sidewalk maintenance, the timing or sensors on traffic lights and the development center. He thought they should get rid of the annual survey and go toward a net promoter score. Mayor Stone did not see any explanation for why some City services received a lower rating such as code enforcement. He thought they should continue working on finding a better way to market the mental health care services. Ms. Alamos believed there had been a few high profile code enforcement cases in the past year that may have informed some of the public perceptions. Ms. Alamos provided the cost of the survey which was $31,700. Consent Calendar Council Member Kou requested to pull Agenda Item Number 4. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 6 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 Council Member Tanaka registered a no vote on Agenda Item Number 11. Council Member Kou registered a no vote on Agenda Item Number 4, 12. MOTION: Vice Mayor Lauing moved, seconded by Council Member Veenker to approve Agenda Item Numbers 4-15. MOTION PASSED 5-10: 7-0 MOTION PASSED 4, 12: 6-1, Kou no MOTION PASSED 11: 6-1, Tanaka no Councilmember Kou wished there was an opportunity to speak about and give future direction about Item Number 4. She opined the Santa Clara supervisors and the registrar of voters did a disservice to the one candidate that was put on the next page. Regarding her no vote for Number 12, she could not see spending $20 million to come to a solution that would take the homes of residents. Councilmember Tanaka voted no on Item 11 because he could not agree with the excessive spending on the police building. 4. Adoption of a Resolution Accepting the Statement of Votes and Certificate of Election Results and Declaring the Results of the Consolidated Municipal Election Held on November 5, 2024; and Adoption of an Ordinance Approved by the Voters (Measure D) to Undedicate 0.33 Acres of El Camino Park; CEQA status - the Ordinance is exempt under Pub. Res. Code § 21080(b)(12). 5. Review and Approve the Williamson Act Contract Renewals Within Palo Alto City Limits (2024). 6. Approval of Performing Arts Services Agreements for Public-Private Partnerships Between the City of Palo Alto and TheatreWorks, Palo Alto Players, and West Bay Opera for the use of the Lucie Stern Community Theater until June 30, 2027. CEQA Status - Not a Project. 7. Approval of Construction Contract No. C24192547 with O’Grady Paving, Inc. in the Amount of $2,488,857 and Authorization for the City Manager or Their Designee to Negotiate and Execute Change Orders for Related Additional but Unforeseen Work that May Develop During the Project Up to a Not-to-Exceed Amount of $248,885; and Amendment No. 3 to Contract No. C20176858 with Sandis Civil Engineers in the Amount Not-to-Exceed $59,975 for Construction Administration Services for the Churchill SUMMARY MINUTES Page 7 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 Avenue Enhanced Bikeway Project (PL-14000); CEQA Status – exempt under CEQA Guidelines Section 15301(c) 8. Approval of Professional Services Contract Number C25192694 with A3-Immersive in an Amount Not to Exceed $275,692 for Projection Mapping Production Services for the 2025 Code:ART Interactive Media Public Art Festival for a period of One Year; and Approval of a FY 2025 Budget Amendment in the Public Art Fund; CEQA Status: Exempt under section 15061(b)(3). 9. Approval of Contract Amendment Number 1 to Contract Number C21179976 with TruePoint Solutions, LLC in the Amount of $362,312 through December 31, 2026 to Provide Technical Support of Services Related to the Land Use Management Permitting System (Accela); This Amendment Results in a Revised Total Contract Not-to-Exceed Amount of $1,263,995. CEQA Status: Not a Project. 10. Approval of Contract Amendment Number 3 to Contract Number S19174467 with BuildingEye, Inc. in the Amount of $59,020 through December 31, 2025 to Provide Data Visualization for Building Permits, Planning Entitlements, and Code Enforcement Activities; This Amendment Results in a Revised Total Contract Not-to-Exceed Amount of $412,430. CEQA Status: Not a Project. 11. Approval of 1) Amendment No. 7 to Contract No. C16163034A with Cumming Management Group, Inc. in the amount of $827,418 for Additional Construction Management Services; 2) Increase of Construction Contingency for Contract No. C21178123B with Swinerton Builders in the Amount Not-to-Exceed $3,000,000 for the New Public Safety Building Capital Improvement Program Project (PE- 15001); and 3) Budget Amendment in the Capital Improvement Fund; CEQA - Environmental Impact Report for the New Public Safety Building (Resolution No. 9772) 12. Approval of a Cooperative Agreement between the City of Palo Alto, the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (Caltrain), and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) to Conduct the Preliminary Engineering and Environmental Documentation Phase of the Connecting Palo Alto Grade Separation Projects at Churchill Avenue, Meadow Drive, and Charleston Road Crossings and Allocating $20 million in Grant Funding to this Phase, and authorize the City Manager or their designee to Finalize and Execute the Agreement; CEQA status - CEQA and NEPA review will be conducted as part of this agreement. 13. Improvement Projects Providing Enhancing the Churchill Avenue Railroad At-Grade Crossing 14. Approval of Budget Amendments in the Child Care Trust Fund and General Fund in Support of Expenditures to Support Early Education Providers; CEQA status - Not a Project. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 8 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 15. FIRST READING: Adoption of an Ordinance Approving a Plan for Park Improvements at the City’s Baylands for Santa Clara Valley Water District's Palo Alto Flood Basin Tide Gate Structure Phase 1: Seismic: Retrofit and Rehabilitation Project; Approval of Addendum to the Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Project Prepared by Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCH # 2020090237). City Manager Comments City Manager Shikada provided a slide presentation about the upcoming annual test of the emergency alert system, Council priorities community survey, Planning and Transportation Commission recruitment open now, incentives for replacing home gas appliances and notable tentative upcoming Council items. Councilmember Burt wondered why there were not three openings for the Planning and Transportation Commission recruitment. Mahealani Ah Yun, City Clerk, explained they planned on updating the recruitment to include all three positions. Action Items 16. Receive an Update and Confirm the Preferred Concept Plan for the University Avenue Streetscape Improvements Project (PE-21004) and Direct Staff to Return with a Contract Amendment for Future Phases; CEQA Status – Not a Project Ashwini Kantak, Project Manager, provided a slide presentation with a presentation outline, updates since June 2024 Council meeting and key takeaways from Downtown stakeholders and PA community. Casey Case, Landscape Architect Consultant, joined the presentation with a rendering of a potential example of some of the improvements that could happen along the street, limit of streetscape concept, key streetscape improvements, concept plan of typical section between High and Cowper Streets, concept plan illustrating various streetscape elements, concept plan between High and Emerson Streets, concept plan between Emerson and Ramona Streets, concept plan between Ramona and Bryant Streets, concept plan between Bryant and Florence Streets, concept plan between Florence and Waverley Streets, concept plan Waverley and Kipling Streets, concept plan Kipling and Cowper Streets and streetscape element examples (Burlingame). Project Manager Kantak resumed the presentation with project costs, car and bicycle access, tentative project timeline, immediate next steps and recommendation. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 9 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 Public Comment: 1. Richard H. (Zoom), volunteer board member with the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce, currently serving as vice president, expressed the Chamber’s support of advancing the preferred concept plan before them. They wanted to emphasize implementing as many of the elements as soon as possible as smaller pieces, keeping University Avenue open to vehicular traffic as well as maintaining on-street parking and continuing to invest in cleanliness and safety. 2. Michael F. claimed that the EPA has declared fluoride causes breast cancer in women and colon cancer in men. He recommended everyone view the Christmas display at 3800 Middlefield Road. 3. Martin B. (Zoom) advised that the California Vehicle Code section CVC 22500(n) would be helpful for the proposed remodeling of University Avenue. He suggested adding landscaping or plazas to the 20-foot spaces on every corner Councilmember Burt queried if there was a consideration of having diagonal parking with no parking on the other side and how many spaces would be lost through that approach. He was interested in making sure they looked at traffic flow and what was planned in prioritization on sidewalk repairs as well as other medium-term measures. He asked if sidewalk and ramp improvements would be addressed. Project Manager Kantak replied they were looking at parallel parking concepts for safety reasons. She remarked they had looked at short-term, medium-term and then the long-term. Short-term would be this fiscal year and years two and three would be mid-term. They looked at it through the lens of policies and ordinances, enhanced cleaning and other services and planned capital improvements. Robert Stevens, Engineer, explained the principal rationale from converting from angled to parallel was occupying less street space and allowing more space allocation to the sidewalk. Holly Boyd, Public Works Assistant Director, provided a slide listing some of the projects being implemented in the current CIP plan. She remarked tree wells had been a recent discussion point and typically sidewalks replacement included the curb and gutter and matching the existing tree well. The tree well installation would be a separate process. She stated section 18 of the Palo Alto Muni Code provided a parking design table listing the dimensions for various angle degree in parking. Councilmember Lythcott-Haims agreed with the validity of hearing about the near and medium- term improvements. She wanted more information about the power washing pilot. She wanted a sense of how often they would expect to be engaging the working group going forward. Brad Eggleston, Public Works Director, explained the garage power washing was typically done annually but there had been a couple not done for several years and needed a catch-up SUMMARY MINUTES Page 10 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 cleaning. They intended to keep those as annual cleanings. They were working on the contract implications of making them all manual. He added this was under a new contract from a year ago and they built into that a once in every five-year floor to ceiling deep power washing. He thought the garages being power washed annually stayed looking in pretty good shape. That did not mean they did not do spot cleanings as needed. For approximately the past six months, they had been on a pilot program of power washing the downtown sidewalks twice a month. Project Manager Kantak commented they had expected to engage with the working group once every two months with some special meetings in between as they went into the assessment district conversations where some of the stakeholders would be crucial to the assessment district funding discussions. She anticipated those meetings happening more frequently. Vice Mayor Lauing expressed concern about the number of the stakeholder group and the emphasis on gathering spaces and bulb outs within the model. He did not understand why the presentation did not give the option of looking at bikes on parallel streets. He agreed they should be looking at doing the construction in pieces. He wanted estimates of time and impact on doing it all at once. He wanted information about the funding and if there were constraints because of lack of funding. He thought it seemed they would be putting a cap on parklets. Project Manager Kantak replied the mid-block crossing and the alleyway would be separate projects. Looking at construction in one phase for the streetscape project assumed a single contract. It could be phased in terms of construction in order to avoid closing all of University Avenue for traffic purposes. That detail would be worked out as the construction documents were finished and would be brought back for discussion at a later time. Transportation was looking at Lytton and Hamilton in their Bike and Ped Master Plan as the preferred bike route. Consultant Case explained in a lot of the bulb outs the intention was to do enhanced planting and opportunities to buffer some of the movement of the car from the activity and mobility on the sidewalk. The emphasis on gathering spaces was meant to enhance the opportunities that exist there now. The goal was to help feed economic vitality. City Manager Shikada wanted to ensure that the headline was not general fund. He explained the assessment district was property and property owners and businesses that benefit from the improvements. It could be calculated based on frontage on the street being improved. He pointed out that under state law there was a distinction necessary between the special benefits that accrue to the property owners and general benefits to the public. They were not assuming it would be 100 percent paid for by the adjacent property owners but that there would be a significant portion contributed by the adjacent property owners. Coming up with a calculation of how much each property would need to contribute would be done through the assessment district or an engineer's report. It is a heavily quantitative exercise that takes a year or more to go through the process of identifying the assessments, coming up with the assessments and putting that through an annual collection process. The timing of this assessment district would dovetail the sunset of an existing parking assessment district in the same area toward the end of the decade. He added the cost would come down to the goal of the project. He stated the SUMMARY MINUTES Page 11 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 recommended concept design was flexible to allow parklets. They were limited by the parallel parking spaces. Engineer Stevens mentioned that part of the key purpose was to widen the sidewalks. Councilmember Kou asked if there would be a number of parking regulated on. She thought when a rebuild came around might be an opportunity to look at the codes on University and gave an example of 508 University that was able to provide more sidewalk space. She thought it was important to be clear on the meaning near, mid and long-term. She wondered if it would be possible to just add concrete to the original sidewalk to increase the width. She asked if they had probed with the property and business owners as to whether they were in favor of the assessment for funding. She commented that the success of the project rested on the merchants, property owners and the City working together. Project Manager Kantak explained that the direction from Council was to make sure at least one-third of on-street parking was maintained. It would be a policy decision up to Council if they reach the limit of parklets. The ones representing that interest area on the stakeholder group were supportive of the assessment. As part of that assessment district feasibility analysis effort, there would be closer engagement of all the stakeholders. Assistant Director Boyd indicated just adding concrete to the original sidewalk would not take care of the existing condition of the sidewalk and could introduce drainage issues. Steve Guagliardo, Assistant to the City Manager, stated the folks they had engaged with were willing to continue to engage in these conversations. Once they got through the step of the conceptual approval and moving through the assessment district, the question posed would be the value proposition to them. The owners were very interested in things like the wider sidewalks that encourage economic activation and vibrancy which helped engender their support for the project. Councilmember Veenker mentioned the need to make sure the automated parking guidance system lights were working as intended. She wanted clarification about the permit fees and formation of an assessment district. City Manager Shikada invited reports on those lights when they were observed not to work. Project Manager Kantak explained that even though it was a City project, they were still required to pay for permit review and inspection. Councilmember Tanaka mentioned the smell and cleanliness of City Hall stairwell and garage. He suggested measuring the performance of vendors and replacing them if they were not doing a good job. His biggest concern with the project was the slow timeline and encouraged stepping it up. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 12 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 Mayor Stone agreed with comments about pacing and the outdated sidewalk. He was excited about the possibility of expanding special events and asked how many events currently required a closure of University Avenue. He asked about plans on consolidating the news racks. He was curious what other opportunities might exist to create virtual tours of the downtown and opportunities to create a community competition to leverage the skills of the residents and local students to help develop something like that. Assistant Guagliardo replied a handful of events required closure of University Avenue currently. That was a question posed to the stakeholder group to get a sense of what level of support there may be for what number of events. He responded that there had been a preliminary conversation about how to leverage the Chamber, Palo Alto History Museum and other community partners to raise visibility and see what options there may be there. They would report back to Council on that with future updates. Assistant Director Boyd expressed the City’s commitment to preserving access to these important sources of information. Phase one was completed in September when 62 unused or abandoned news racks were removed. They would not remove any additional news racks that are in use. They were trying to work with the distributors and publishers to fix any broken ones, and confirm ones not in use to get a count and consolidate them. Councilmember Tanaka moved to approve the staff recommendation with the exception of moving the timeframe from the ending of 2029 to 2027. The motion failed due to no second. Councilmember Burt queried if they knew the scale of Burlingame's project, how many blocks it was compared to theirs, what it cost and how it was funded. He suggested getting that information to the Retail Committee. Project Manager Kantak agreed to follow up with that information. Councilmember Kou wanted to suggest including in the TDM measures for when to address additional parking supply when needed and if not she thought it would be prudent to look at. Councilmember Lythcott-Haims opined that was beyond the scope of that particular moment. Councilmember Burt explained the role of the TMA in the district wide has been to provide those TDM measures in the aggregate for that area. He was interested in how they would work to expand the TMA to address parking or mitigate parking needs going forward but he did not think it had to be included in the motion. Vice Mayor Lauing wanted clarification about the design related services amendment. He wanted to see the working group expanded with people who would put in the time and do the votes. Assistant Director Boyd indicated they would scope out pricing after getting direction from Council. There was already funding in the capital project for it. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 13 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 City Manager Shikada added they would come back with a contract amendment. He explained the approach with the stakeholder working group was to keep the group small enough to work through these issues. In the next phase when we they get to more specific design, they would be talking to property owners on every block along the entire stretch and there would be additional engagement beyond the stakeholders that had been identified in the working group. Project Manager Kantak pointed out it was a smaller group but they tried to be as inclusive as possible in terms of the businesses and make sure they had representation. The expectation was for them to go back to their groups to bring feedback to them. MOTION: Council Member Lythcott-Haims moved, seconded by Council Member Burt to: A. Confirm the preferred concept plan for the University Avenue Streetscape Project (PE- 21004); and B. Direct staff to return with a design-related services amendment for Council approval, in order to advance the project; and C. Direct staff to explore additional medium-term measures, including short-term measures, for loading zones on side streets, provisions of tree wells on side streets and University Avenue, and support for historic promotion of the street. MOTION PASSED: 7-0 17. Approval of Amendments to the Employment Agreements between the City of Palo Alto and Council Appointed Officers, specifically the City Manager, City Attorney, and City Clerk. CEQA Status - Not a Project Sandra Blanch, Human Resources Director, explained the California Government Code requires the City Council to publicly take action to approve executive compensation, such as the employment agreements of the Council appointed officers. The amendments were the end result of the City Council's annual performance evaluation process, which started on May 29 in a public meeting discussion and concluded on November 26 with the public debrief reviewing the year's performance evaluation process. At the conclusion of the evaluation process, City Council directed implementation of the amendments to the employment agreements to provide merit increases for City Manager Shikada, City Attorney Stump, and Mahealani Ah Yun. Councilmember Kou queried if this amount had been factored into the fiscal year budget. She had concerns about $12 million shortfall for the upcoming year. Director Blanch answered the additional costs for the Council appointed officer salary increases would be approximately $73,800. It was expected to be funded in each of their respective SUMMARY MINUTES Page 14 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 department for the FY25 current budget. The changes would be incorporated into the development of the FY26 budget. Vice Mayor Lauing mentioned it had been a very rigorous process this year with the CAO committee and the Council. He thought there had been a productive dialogue with each CAO individually in the goals ahead and the accomplishments of the past. He added they had multiple benchmarks from multiple cities for comparable compensation and these fit within those ranges. Councilmember Burt noted they had built into the budget certain assumptions on citywide salary increases. He assumed these would be covered by those assumptions. He asked how much of a surplus above budget they ended with in FY24. He believed they had the funds to cover the projected shortfall in FY26 through the Uncertainty Reserve. They budget in a way that results in having a surplus to put additional funds into capital. That was how they put additional funds into the unfunded employee obligations and to the Uncertainty Reserve. He expected they would continue to have those results at the end of the fiscal years so what looks like a certain deficit going into a year is typically not the case. Kiely Nose, Assistant City Manager, confirmed salary assumptions were already factored into the FY25 and FY26 budget. She believed the FY24 budget surplus was around $8 million above Council’s 18.5 target level for the Budget Stabilization Reserve. Councilmember Veenker thought the conversations that were had in the process of assessing the merit increases were helpful would help in the year going forward and the participation of the three CAOs whose compensation packages were before them. She noted two of the CAOs were deeply experienced and well-known in the region which was a great asset to the city. She mentioned the city manager had been invited to speak at the retreat of the Executive Committee of the Cal Cities Peninsula Division which was an example of the high regard he was held in. Councilmember Tanaka opined giving a 6 percent on performance that he thought was subpar in contrast to a 2.4 percent inflation rate was inappropriate. Councilmember Lythcott-Haims commented she knew the city manager was considered a front runner for the president the International City Manager Association which meant his peers thought he did a good job. MOTION: Council Member Lauing moved, seconded by Council Member Lythcott-Haims to approve and authorize the Mayor to execute the following contract amendments for Council Appointed Officers: 1. Amendment No. 12 to Employment Agreement between the City of Palo Alto and Molly S. Stump (Attachment A); SUMMARY MINUTES Page 15 of 15 City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 12/09/2024 2. Amendment No. 1 to Employment Agreement between the City of Palo Alto and Mahealani Ah Yun (Attachment C). MOTION PASSED: 7-0 MOTION SPLIT FOR THE PURPOSE OF VOTING MOTION: Council Member Lauing moved, seconded by Council Member Lythcott-Haims to approve and authorize the Mayor to execute the following contract amendments for Council Appointed Officer: 3. Amendment No. 6 to Employment Agreement between the City of Palo Alto and Ed Shikada (Attachment B); and MOTION PASSED: 6-1, Tanaka no Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 P.M.