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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-01-24 City Council Summary MinutesCITY COUNCIL SUMMARY MINUTES Page 1 of 12 Special Meeting January 24, 2026 The City Council of the City of Palo Alto met on this date at Mitchell Park Community Center (El Palo Alto Room) and by virtual teleconference at 9 a.m. Present In Person: Burt, Lauing, Lu, Reckdahl, Stone, Veenker Present Remotely: Lythcott-Haims Absent: Councilmember Lythcott-Haims attended via Just Cause Alternative Teleconference. Call to Order Mayor Veenker called the meeting to order. The clerk called roll declaring all present. 2026 Annual Council Retreat Program 1. Overview and orientation to retreat focus City Council Retreat: Discussion and Selection of the 2026 City Council Priorities and Ad Hoc Committees. CEQA Status -- Not a Project. Ed Shikada, City Manager, introduced Amy Howorth, Affiliated Consultant, Municipal Resources Group, as the facilitator. Ms. Howorth provided a background of experience as a City Council member of Manhattan Beach and ground rules for the meeting. A slide presentation was provided including an overview and orientation to retreat focus, discussion and selection of priorities and methods, discussion of Council ad hoc committees/other, and next steps. Ms. Howorth asked the Councilmembers what has surprised each one the most about being a Councilmember. Councilmember Reckdahl was surprised by the caliber and thoughtfulness of fellow Councilmembers and Staff. Councilmember Lu has been surprised how different collegiality is from campaigning. Mayor Veenker was surprised how much broader the scope of work is in Palo Alto than many neighboring cities. Mayor Stone was surprised by the friendships with council colleagues and the staff and community members and what Council does and does not have control over while learning the levers and nuance of the process and balancing the unintended consequences and competing interests. Councilmember Burt had observed that the relationship between the Utilities Department and the rest of the City is more integrated than it was previously, the breadth of the functions in the City is greater than most appreciate, and how many of Staff are motivated by a real commitment to public service in the community. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 2 of 12 Sp. City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 01/24/2026 Councilmember Lauing was surprised at the pace in which things are executed in the City in relation to the lightning pace of Silicon Valley. Councilmember Lythcott-Haims was surprised at how little she knew about Palo Alto, the volume of work, and that she loves doing the work of local government. Public Comment 1. David S. speaking on behalf of (5): Amy L., Greg W., Ron G., Sarnit R., and Ayla B., talked about the positive impact pickleball courts have on wellness and belonging in the City and encouraged the conversion of tennis courts to increase pickleball capacity. 2. Herb B. suggested disclosing the last calendar year's key goals and performance indicators for evaluating the manager and Council-appointed office at the beginning of the meeting. The best way to evaluate it through the Brown Act. There should never be two members serving together two committees or any other body. Each Councilmember should be chair of one committee and the other vice chair. 3. Donald B. urged Council to maintain affordable housing as the top priority for the coming year and to follow up on potential housing on Parking Lots C and T. 4. Shani K. requested keeping biodiversity in overall goals of sustainability and to ask the PRC to look at ways to integrate biodiversity into parks projects as feasible. 5. Magdalena C. wanted to confirm that Council's vote determined the need to set up a pilot study of a natural grass field and asked that it be made a first quarter, group one objective under Council Priority Climate Action and Adaptation and Natural Environment Protection for 2026. 6. Claire E. asked Council to consider developing a project to reduce microplastic pollution and exposure of the public and environment to forever chemicals through education, development of thresholds for PFAS, and a moratorium on use of plastic grass. 7. Terry H. reported on a study performed by Palo Altans for Sensible Zoning that revealed issues important to citizens: 1) Many citizens feel frustrated by the lack of citizen involvement and residential wishes being ignored by the City government. 2) Issues with Station 4. 3) The City's appointment of a new city attorney this year. 8. Monica W., co-founder of the Palo Alto Pickleball Club, supported the comments made by David S. A team building session for Council was offered. 9. Cedric D. wanted the City to prioritize climate change reduction and adaptation, affordable housing, renaturalization of all creeks including Matadero Creek, adjust state laws to allow tighter control of pesticide use, educating residents on the use of pesticides, promote and educate on integrated pest management strategies for SUMMARY MINUTES Page 3 of 12 Sp. City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 01/24/2026 residents and businesses, focusing on native plants, increase services for the unhoused, and greater dedication to consensus building and processes for the City. A. Discussion and selection of Priorities and methods to prioritize and ensure progress • Key inputs, including Council values, 2025 priorities, and staff draft 2026 objectives • Discussion of terminology and process for selecting priorities • Selection of 2026 priorities B. Discussion of Council ad hoc committees and other strategies to achieve goals C. Next Steps City Manager Shikada provided a slide presentation including an agenda, discussion and selection of priorities and methods, community feedback summary and highlights. Ms. Howorth joined the presentation discussing slides including relationship between values, priorities, and objectives and Council priorities and values. Mayor Veenker provided a draft slide suggesting discussion points. Councilmember Burt used a slide to compare a draft of updates to the Council values created by he and Councilmember Reckdahl with the Mayor's draft. Mayor Veenker suggested the wordsmithing could be deferred to P&S or agendized later to Council. Vice Mayor Stone liked the core value approach and the idea of referring this to P&S for the wordsmithing. Councilmember Lauing asked about the Mayor's reasoning for putting the priorities into the values. Mayor Veenker believed they are enduring and not just one year priorities. The mid - level goals are no longer needed. Councilmember Lauing stated it provides clarity to the public. Councilmember Reckdahl commented if an objective is tied to a value or priority frees them up to have priorities be priorities. When listing priorities, values should be listed at the same time. Mayor Veenker confirmed the objectives do not necessarily have to fit under a priority. Councilmember Lauing suggested looking at fiscal stability with efficient execution around the objectives to deliver services to the residents. Councilmember Burt stated it is possible a priority may be a subfocus from a value. In procedures and protocols, they are called Council values. It was suggested to rename them to ensure they are a reflection of the ongoing City values as affirmed by successive Councils. There is a sense that Staff felt obligated to shoehorn every work plan elements into one of the Council priorities. Mayor Veenker commented they could move on to priorities and talk about categories of priorities and the objectives that living SUMMARY MINUTES Page 4 of 12 Sp. City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 01/24/2026 into them or talk about the proposed objectives and what should be lifted up to priorities. Councilmember Burt observed the meeting should be about priority setting. Ms. Howorth suggested each member give one or two top priorities. Councilmember Lu indicated important priorities to be reducing greenhouse gas emissions; economic development; setting targets about incremental sales tax, transit occupancy tax, or other sorts of revenue; and getting a pro-housing designation from HCD. Councilmember Reckdahl wanted to prioritize operational efficiency, efficiency of service delivery, and making progress on Cal Ave and Ramona. Councilmember Burt wanted to prioritize pursuing climate action, government efficiency, and the Cubberley Project. Councilmember Lauing supported keeping the four priorities on the list and removing Economic Development and Retail if that was the consensus. Vice Mayor Stone preferred to continue the four priorities if that is the will of the Council. If not, focus on economic development and an objective around making Palo Alto a more vibrant, livable community with various community services and engagements and could be traded with promoting safety, wellness, and belonging. Councilmember Lythcott-Haims supported the current four priorities and elevating them as values freeing up room for more specific things at the priorities level. She agreed with Councilmember Lu about getting a pro-housing designation from HCD, cutting it at economic development with specific measures, and adding Cubberley. Mayor Veenker wanted to narrow the priorities for this year to what is urgent without abandoning the current four. The Mayor wanted to add operational efficiency wrapping service delivery and 311 into it. Housing should be elevated as a priority narrowing it to progress on near term and completion of in process housing milestones. Cubberley should be a priority for wellness and belonging. Listing electric utility optimization as a priority would be timely. Economic development is important but a lot of things that fall under that could be put in objective. Ms. Howorth summarized a couple of Council members want to keep the four priorities with maybe adding or getting rid of one. A way to manage that would be to call the priorities goals. Mayor Veenker preferred to stick with priorities. Councilmember Burt wanted to continue with looking at the guiding language that the priority should be unusual and significant attention during the year as opposed to ongoing attention. It will be best to think about the priorities in the way Council procedures directs. Setting housing as a high priority is promising. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 5 of 12 Sp. City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 01/24/2026 Councilmember Lauing found substantial shift confusing and wanted to focus on the difference between a priority and objective. Mayor Veenker remarked the difference between priorities and objectives is in the eye of the beholder and more consensus around that is needed. Mayor Veenker concurred that there should be priorities narrower than the values. City Manager Shikada remarked Council's priorities will impact Staff's ability to deliver on objectives. Vice Mayor Stone inquired how Staff would manage having more priorities added. City Manager Shikada responded everything being discussed is the tip of the iceberg of what Staff does. There is a whole body of work of running an organization, providing the services to the community, providing Staff the training they need, and ensuring that the organization runs. The priorities will communicate to Staff the things that must get done. There is a body of work Staff wants to continue to use the objective structure for the purpose of ensuring Council and community awareness that work is progressing. If those are not priorities, they may be more flexible in terms of timeframes. The values help Staff determine what should be above the waterline. Ms. Howorth stated if priorities are specific, they will reflect a value. Specific priorities will make it easier for Staff to put their focus. Councilmember Burt supported putting electric utility optimization in the objectives. It was noted that operational efficiency captures the intent to create capacity. Councilmember Reckdahl wanted to determine what narrow topics will be given exceptional attention. Number one is operational efficiency or budget. Ms. Howorth asked how the Mayor envisions process. Mayor Veenker had operational efficiency intended to be both organizational and budget and asked if that would give Staff flexibility. City Manager Shikada thought the rub will be what accomplishment is desired. The goal is to make capacity available. That will involve determining the most important work and work that should no longer be continued. It is important this is done in a way that provides visibility for the community. Communication of ongoing discussions as well as opportunity to input will be important. Mayor Veenker suggested seeing if there is consensus around operational efficiency. With regard to housing, the Mayor advised using the term "achieve near-term priority housing milestones" and then get into the objectives as to what those are. There might be consensus enough to call Cubberley a priority but that should be checked. In terms of electric utility, there is a lot going on with the Reliability and Resiliency Strategic Plan. There are a bunch of objectives under this. The whole grid modernization project is overlapping but distinct from the RSP. That adds capacity, reliability, and resiliency. Councilmember Burt preferred the term government efficiency over operational efficiency. The second priority captured the housing intention. The intention with Cubberley is to cross the goal line and wanted to title it differently. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 6 of 12 Sp. City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 01/24/2026 Councilmember Lauing observed Cubberley fits withing the wellness category. Ms. Howorth added the 311 service delivery seemed important. Councilmember Lauing said that fit in the operational efficiency. Councilmember Lu supported government efficiency and near-term priority housing milestones. One framing for the housing priority could be to be in control for the mid -cycle RHNA update. Cubberley could be called something like community spaces or community connections. The fourth one could be economic development. Ms. Howorth suggested getting more granular than putting economic development to help Staff figure out where to focus. Vice Mayor Stone agreed economic development could get more granular. He liked the verbiage of community connections for Cubberley. Mayor Veenker thought Cubberley needs to be named. Councilmember Lythcott-Haims expressed concern with using the term complete for Cubberley. A straw vote was taken with the consensus for making government efficiency the first priority. Mayor Veenker commented economic development felt high and broad and suggested removing it from the list. Councilmember Burt pointed out it is an ongoing core value. Councilmember Lythcott-Haims wanted it reworded to say enhance revenue generating opportunities. Vice Mayor Stone supported that. Councilmember Burt was concerned about the message placing maximizing revenue sends. He supported having objectives in the workplan to enhance revenue but was hesitant to put it as a priority. A straw poll was taken resulting in the removal of economic development from the list for the time being to be revisited. MOTION: Councilmember Reckdahl moved, seconded by Councilmember Burt to set the following as the 2026 Council Priorities: 2026 City Council Priorities: 1. Government Efficiency 2. Achieve Near-term Priority Housing Milestones 3. Cubberley Acquisition and Renovation Funding MOTION PASSED: 7-0 City Manager Shikada indicated that a walkthrough would be provided on the preliminary objectives Staff had identified. The organization was based on the current 2025 priorities. There SUMMARY MINUTES Page 7 of 12 Sp. City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 01/24/2026 would be another look at the objectives following conversation about what might be missing working up to an achievable workplan for the calendar year. Kiely Nose, Assistant City Manager, provided a slide presentation including 2026 possible Council priorities and objectives; Climate Action and Adaptation and Natural Environment Protection group 1; Economic Development and Retail Vibrancy group 1; Implementing Housing Strategies for Social and Economic Balance group 1; and Public Safety, Wellness, and Belonging group 1. Vice Mayor Stone queried if Staff will rework and regroup the objectives. City Manager Shikada replied Staff would drop things that do not need the visibility with Council and add items related to the priorities that have not been listed. Mayor Veenker thought the idea was to give Staff more direction on the objectives. Councilmember Burt suggested ways to categorize if they are fulfilling a core value or priority and improved formatting. Workplan is a better title with projects or objectives within it. Assistant City Manager Nose stated adjustments will be made as the list is developed and organized. Councilmember Burt advised using more clear differentiation in titling the projects and objectives. Number 20 should not be a priority. The one in the vicinity of Matadero is the direction Rail Committee and Council gave. The decision to pursue a second one can be considered in subsequent years. Numbers 31 and 33 are time consuming. Number 34 should include marketing opportunities. Number 38 will be expensive. Number 39 has already had a lot of work, unclear how many dollars are remaining. Number 49 may no longer be a 1 priority as the short-term rental issue seems to have diminished. Number 74 does not qualify to be a project. The goal of 50 electric cooktops is a detail beyond what is needed on 75. SB 79 addresses number 87 and those should be folded together. City Manager Shikada agreed to take that feedback as initial input Staff will refine and bring back to Council. Councilmember Lythcott-Haims felt a lot of work Staff and Retail Committee undertook has not made the cut. Items 83, 84, 86, 87, and 90 should move forward. Assistant City Manager Nose responded some version of this is a consolidation putting it in a more strategic way looking at economic development citywide. Some are associated with limited resources. Activating empty spaces and promoting business growth and expanding are reflected in rows 29 and 30 looking at a more comprehensive retail expansion program supporting the growth with more specific or measurable outcomes such as increasing tax base or job creation for community prosperity. A full blow street design will be a costly endeavor. Row 39 reflects the Car-Free improvements including funding appropriations that would adjust for the Council direction associated with bike and ped calming measures and creating those spaces as well as eliminating friction in order to continue to activate the outdoor space. Councilmember Reckdahl inquired how many of these would have to be cut to make manpower and money for the new projects. City Manager Shikada did not have an immediate number. The process being anticipated will be looking at the new priorities and what would be involved in terms of objectives to determine how that would impact the list. Councilmember Reckdahl SUMMARY MINUTES Page 8 of 12 Sp. City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 01/24/2026 asked how much Staff time number 38 will take. Assistant City Manager Nose remarked that could be done within existing staff resources based on the current plan. Necessary additional funding would be required to bring in a consultant. City Manager Shikada added the initial cost estimate was too high for it to be supported by the businesses recognizing some form of assessment district is expected to be the primary financing mechanism. Staff is finalizing initial value engineering effort. That will require another round of community engagement with businesses to determine whether it is worth proceeding. Councilmember Reckdahl would like a new University Streetscape but it is lower priority than Cal Ave and Ramona. Councilmember Reckdahl inquired if number 41 is mandatory. Jonathan Lait, Director of Planning and Development Services, replied there is not a lot of work anticipated for that item this year. Staff wanted it on the radar as something forthcoming. Councilmember Reckdahl asked how much Staff time is involved in number 71. Director Lait stated this would require a fair amount of Staff resources. City Council has approved a consultant budget for this. It will be brought to the Policy and Services Committee the following week. It has already been funded and fully accounted for in the budget. Councilmember Reckdahl asked how much work it would be to bring back number 87. Director Lait responded numbers 85 and 87 are carryover direction from City Council to prepare the equivalent of coordinated area plans. City Council was interested in accelerating housing opportunities downtown along San Antonio, Cal Ave, and El Camino Real. It cannot be taken on at one time. The ad hoc will explore options for the Downtown Housing Plan and they are doing the San Antonio Plan. It is below the line now because there are not resources to work on it right now. Depending on the direction taken with SB 79, they may not be necessary in the future. It is appropriate for these to be where they are while other initiatives are being worked on. Councilmember Reckdahl queried if adding an entertainment zone to Cal Ave is still in the pipeline and how much Staff time that would take. Assistant City Manager Nose stated Staff is working on that in concert with the City Attorney's office. The bulk of the work was completed last year and now is finalizing the ordinance. Councilmember Reckdahl asked if there are plans to look at hotel zoning. Assistant City Manager Nose replied there are no plans for that. Director Lait remarked that would depend on the scope of what Staff would be asked to do. Hotels are currently incentivized with greater FAR. The clearer City Council is on what incentives to offer for hotels might shorten the amount of work. Councilmember Burt recalled when FAR was increased to 2.0 in 2008, that moved hotels above mixed use, residential, and retain in the same zones and spurred getting 5-10 hotels increasing transit occupancy tax and principal funding for the major capital plan. Now with state mandates, housing has significantly higher FAR than hotels. It was advised to choose an adjustment on FAR without a study. Councilmember Reckdahl observed getting more hotels would help TOT and the community. Director Lait agreed to look into that. It was noted a lot of hotels are seeking parking reductions that align with their appropriate amount. That generates conversation about that threshold. Councilmember Lu thought there could be some tweaks to make the milestones more clear. Items with a major change coming should be kept in group 1 but items that will go on consent or not require much discussion could be bumped to group 2 or removed from the list. The SUMMARY MINUTES Page 9 of 12 Sp. City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 01/24/2026 Natural Grass Athletic Field Pilot could be moved to group 2 and brought back to group 1 once completed. He wanted to see some concrete objective on Pedestrian and Cycling Mode Share. It should be determined whether the 80 by 30 goals should be revisited. On economic development, increasing revenue is a good goal. The first economic development item does a lot of work and asked about the intention of the item. Alex Andrade, Economic Development Manager, explained the essence is to preserve and enhance the Palo Alto business climate. A formal retention and expansion program would serve the City well as well as a business attraction program. It is also inclusive of the real estate brokerage community as well as the development community. Councilmember Lu would like to see some objective that lays out a plan for actual economic development outcomes. Opportunities were discussed on housing. He asked if the item to talk with Stanford out the shopping center and research park was removed on purpose. Director Lait explained it was not something that fit the group 1 or 2 definition. There are conversations ongoing but nothing actionable at the moment. Councilmember Lu wanted a more concrete objective and goal around safe parking or interim housing. Setting a goal of 120 units of safe parking or interim housing in 2026 would be a strong metric driven goal. City Manager Shikada stated Staff will take that into consideration. Vice Mayor Stone hoped to keep item 69 as a tier 1. Item 72 belongs as a tier 1. There could be some discussion as a tier 2 if Staff is confident that would not create a risk that if a synthetic turf field is at end of life it would need to be replaced without having done the pilot program. A better understanding of the end of life of existing synthetic fields timeline would be needed. Advancing quiet zones needs to be included. The Vice Mayor was disappointed in the exclusion of implementing a gas powered leaf blower band citywide. Director Lait explained there has been recent state law changes that limit the sale of combustion engines for landscaping services and it is difficult enforcing the existing leaf blower ban. Efforts are being made to address that and other code enforcement issues. It is a function of Staff resources and capacity. Vice Mayor Stone was fine not continuing the short-term rental ordinance. Pursuing item 86 would raise significant revenue for the City. Vice Mayor Stone asked if item 75 would include incentives for multi -family units. Alan Kurotori, Utilities Director, confirmed that would include multi-family. Council could discuss other rebates. Vice Mayor Stone supported exploring ADU condoization. Government efficiency should include Council member efficiency. A Council member executive assistant for the full Council would be helpful. A half-time person would save time and resources. Councilmember Lauing commented there are several places that required beefing up the specific metric and agreed with the other Council members' comments on climate action area, items 31, 33, 38, 41, 45, 74, and 75. Item 30 should get attention earlier than planned. Clarification was requested on action item 55. Director Lait explained it is approving a new list of housing sites. Consultant services will most likely be required. It ties into the downtown surface parking lots and the City deciding whether to pursue that housing element policy or if additional sites will need to be identified to make up for the decision not to pursue the surface parking lot program in the housing element. Councilmember Lauing supported decisions on having to remove some items. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 10 of 12 Sp. City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 01/24/2026 Councilmember Lythcott-Haims supported Councilmember Lu's idea of a specific goal of 120 housing units being sought to achieve for shelter housing and the Vice Mayor's comment about administrative support. Mayor Veenker agreed with having a dedicated Council administrative support . Exploring the RFP for development of senior affordable downtown housing is important and wanted to hear about the pro-housing designation. Director Lait explained other jurisdictions in the area have received that title from HCD. Staff believes the City to be eligible based on the existing work Council has done. Work has begun preparing an application. It is anticipated that process will be initiated formally soon. There will be a public engagement component and then it will be brought to City Council to seek endorsement before submitting the application. It is expected to be accomplished in the first half of this year. Mayor Veenker wanted to see that set forth as a specific objective. Item 72 should be more specific and kept as priority 1 and suggested adding monitor hybrid turf options to the wording. The Mayor supported electric cooktops education and pilot and advised to include cooking processes. Consideration should be made for reducing microplastic exposure. Councilmember Burt recalled the consideration of having a half-time administrative assistant to serve the Council was addressed in the Clerk's Review and it is in a work plan for the year. Mayor Veenker spoke of the value of having a designated person who could get in efficiencies of redundancies and processes. The ask was for Staff to accelerate it from the work plan. Councilmember Burt did not support that. Councilmember Reckdahl understood why people might want it but was troubled by the optics. Ms. Howorth brought up a slide of advancing specific goals and asked if there were any that could be crossed off for the year, if there were new ones anyone wanted to bring up, and figuring out ad hoc committees for the most efficient use of everybody's time. City Manager Shikada noted the standing Procedures and Protocol direction that the ad hoc committees would sunset unless explicitly continued. Staff has requested to have the committees correlated with the priorities. The Council is the gatekeeper for managing the committee workplans in order to achieve the objectives. Councilmember Lauing opined the work of synthetic turf could come off. The SB 79 Committee should stay and consideration should be made for expanding that to include any other topics. Rail has gotten down to a small number of committee meetings and should be kept at that. Councilmember Burt stated ad hocs are not necessarily a reflection of the priorities. There are two forms of ad hocs. One is the true ad hoc that is not Brown Acted and is for a focused amount. There are others that are ongoing but not listed in the charter as standing committees. They should be differentiated. They are recognized as things that have come up. Some may be correlated to the priorities but others not. What is set as the annual priorities is not the only important stuff that comes up in a year that might need an ad hoc. There is a tension because Staff has a hesitancy to have to do the Staff work to support these. In terms of getting things to the Council that are fleshed out, they have served a real function. SUMMARY MINUTES Page 11 of 12 Sp. City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 01/24/2026 Councilmember Lu thought retail should become economic development. Synthetic turf is properly wound down. Efficiency could be reasonably handled between Finance and Policy and Services. Costs and headcount could go to Finance. Service delivery improvements and optimizing 311 could go to Policy and Services. The odd study session could just go to the full Council. Staff was encouraged to look at Efficiency in terms of problems that need to be solved and things needed from Council. Mayor Veenker commented the ad hocs form a useful purpose and they try to keep them from outliving that purpose. Climate Action and Sustainability has been elevated to a value. That needs to stick around. Cubberley should stick around this year and maybe reconstituting it in some way based on what happens in the November election. Rail meetings have been appropriately adjusted to reflect the current pace of feedback and need. Retail should be rescoped more broadly as economic development looking at some of the issues discussed at the meeting. The Mayor supported the SB 79 and OSV Committees. Turf is done. The Shoreline one is still necessary. No additional ones are needed at this time. City Manager Shikada commented the Valley Water Shoreline was formed in response to a proposal from Valley Water to reallocate funding away from a specific project to another project. Vally Water is taking a different approach. The ad hoc is moot at this point. City Manager Shikada remarked Staff would hope that with the broader title the objectives that had been discussed could be packaged and that would be the charge of the Economic Development Committee to oversee and advance those objectives. Councilmember Lauing wanted Staff to come back with areas that could be pursued and have a discussion about them. Councilmember Lythcott-Haims agreed with the consensus. Oversized Vehicle Regulation needs to be restated as including both the impacts of oversized vehicle dwellers and the services the City is trying to provide them. Chantal Cotton Gaines, Deputy City Manager, understood it was either Oversized Vehicle Ad Hoc or the way Councilmember Lythcott-Haims stated it. Councilmember Lauing remarked it was the former to begin with but could be changed to whatever Council wants. Councilmember Reckdahl mentioned the budget shortfall and the headcount. It would be good for the City Manager to back off and determine where time is being spent and if time is being wasted. It needs to be determined if consultants are being used optimally. Some thought about how AI could help departments could save money. The City auditor could look at whether the management structure is too flat or should be less flat and if City purchases are being done optimally. Assistant City Manager Nose commented the Policy and Services Committee has been reviewing a number of audits that are looking at everything from compliance to performance. Purchases thresholds falls in alignment with government efficiency priority the Committee just reviewed. That assessment found that adjusting the purchasing thresholds up and authorizing SUMMARY MINUTES Page 12 of 12 Sp. City Council Meeting Summary Minutes: 01/24/2026 more work at the Staff level as opposed to the Council level would help with those efficiencies. Staff will bring that forward as part of the upcoming objectives. Mayor Veenker wondered if saying enhance business vibrancy would be focused in a way to generate revenue and share in the proceeds with the community. Vice Mayor Stone supported that language. Councilmember Reckdahl opined adding a fourth one could detract from making progress on the three. MOTION: Mayor Veenker moved, seconded by Vice Mayor Stone to add a fourth Council priority of “Enhance Business Vibrancy.” MOTION PASSED: 5-2, Lauing, Reckdahl no 2026 City Council Priorities: 1. Government Efficiency 2. Achieve Near-term Priority Housing Milestones 3. Cubberley Acquisition and Renovation Funding 4. Enhance Business Vibrancy Ms. Howorth remarked Council made a change to how the process is thought of . The suggestions to enhance the value statements will go back to the P&S Committee. Four discrete priorities were agreed upon with discussion on the objectives presented by Staff. Tweaks and additions were made and Staff will come back with that divided into the new goals or different milestones separated out. She commended the Council members for the work done at the retreat. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 3:05 p.m.