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HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 13925 City of Palo Alto (ID # 13925) Office of the City Clerk City Council CAO Report Meeting Date: 3/14/2022 Report Type: Special Orders of the Day Title: Appointments of Candidates for the Architectural Review Board From: Lesley Milton, City Clerk Recommendation Staff recommends City Council vote to appoint candidates to the following positions on the Architectural Review Board: • One (1) position with a term ending March 31, 2025 • One (1) position with an unexpired term ending March 31, 2024 **A majority vote (4 yes’s) is required to appoint each applicant. Background Boards and Commissions are established as advisory bodies to the City Council, made up of community volunteers that provide essential feedback on matters of importance to the community. The City Clerk’s office advertises and recruits for vacancies, the Council considers the applications, interviews desired candidates, and makes recommendations for appointment for the open positions. Per City Council’s motion on December 13, 2021, the Special Architectural Review Board (ARB) recruitment was initiated to invite more applicants through January 31, 2022: MOTION: Mayor DuBois moved, seconded by Council Member Cormack to: A. Vote tonight for two ARB positions; B. Direct the Clerk to open a new recruitment opening from now until the end of January for the open positions; and C. Request the incumbent to serve the holdover position until recruited. MOTION PASSED: 6-0, Kou absent Another position was added to the one unfilled vacancy due to Board Member Grace Lee’s resignation from the ARB on December 2, 2021. Board Member Lee’s vacancy was unable to be added to the Fall Recruitment at that time per PAMC 2.16.060, which required an advertising period of at least 15 days before vacancies are scheduled to be filled. The appointments at that time were on December 13, 2021. Page 2 Furthermore, Ordinance 5529 (which outlined the new Board, Commissions, and Committees term limits approved by City Council on August 9, 2021) came into effect this past January 1, 2022. The Ordinance states, “Effective January 1, 2022, terms of office due to expire on December 15 of each year shall be extended to expire on March 31 of the following year, and thereafter terms of office shall commence on April 1.” Advertising was updated to include the extended terms. As such, the current vacancies staff is requesting to be filled are: • One (1) position with a term ending March 31, 2025 • One (1) position with an unexpired term ending March 31, 2024 For the Architectural Review Board (ARB) Special Recruitment effort, the City received a total of 13 qualified applications; 7 new applications were submitted during the extended recruitment period and 6 applications were from the previous Fall recruitment. Interviews At the February 14, 2022 City Council meeting, the Council elected to interview the 7 new applicants received during the extended recruitment effort (02-14 ARB Recruitment Report). Their interviews will be conducted on March 11, 2022 at 4 p.m. as a special City Council meeting. Video recordings of the interviews will be made available on our City of Palo Alto YouTube Channel for the public and Council Members who are unable to attend. The 6 applicants from the previous Fall Recruitment have been interviewed on November 16, 2021. A recording of this meeting can be viewed online as well (Interviews Video Link). All applications received for these positions can be accessed online (All ARB Applications Received). City Council will incorporate all interviews into the final selection. Membership Requirements Per PAMC 2.21.010, the Architectural Review Board requires at least 3 of its members to be architects, landscape architects, building designers or other design professionals. Board Members Peter Baltay, David Hirsch, and Osma Thompson are architects. As a result, the current ARB Members fulfill these requirements. Architectural Review Board: Two positions • At least three members must be architects, landscape architects, building designers or other design professionals. (Fulfilled by current members) • No Palo Alto residency requirement (PAMC 2.21.010) • NEWLY RECEIVED APPLICANTS: 1. Yingxi Chen 2. Joao (Johnny) Baptista DaRosa 3. John Kunz 4. Dave Madwed Page 3 5. Alfred J. Mandel 6. Kendra Rosenberg 7. Curtis Smolar • PREVIOUSLY RECEIVED APPLICANTS: 8. Yujin Jeon (Preference of the March 31, 2024 term) 9. Kathryn Jordan 10. Manix Patel 11. Brigham Wilson 12. Jim Xiao 13. Bin Zhou (Resubmitted an updated application) Public Outreach Palo Alto Municipal Code 2.16.060 requires public notification regarding vacancies of the Commissions: “The City Clerk shall exercise their discretion in choosing the method of advertisement that will most effectively reach potential candidates.” Based on the September 14, 2021 Policy & Services Committee meeting report (available here) regarding Board and Commission Member demographics and community representation, the City Clerk’s office expanded recruitment efforts through additional means to “most effectively reach potential candidates.” The Fall 2021 Boards and Commission recruitment invited applications from September 16, 2021 through October 26, 2021 through the new online application process. From that previous recruitment, 6 unselected applicants of the 7 confirmed their continued interest for the 2 vacancies. The Special ARB recruitment invited applications from December 13, 2021 through January 31, 2022. The vacancies were advertised through various methods in partnership with the Communications team. This included paid print advisements in the Palo Alto Weekly and the Daily Post; via the City’s website and social media channels; in physical locations of the Palo Alto Libraries and Community Centers; and distributed by email and through City subscription- based notification lists. To effectively reach architectural professionals, further email outreach was done to 17 local Palo Alto based architect companies and Stanford’s Architectural Design Program. Palo Alto’s Public Works Engineering staff were also notified by email to share the openings to their professional networks, as several are licensed architects. A focused social media engagement was also organized with AIA Silicon Valley.