Council Actions Newsletter
City Council Meeting
Watch the April 19, 2022 Meeting (Part 1, Part 2)
City Council Actions:
Ceremonial Matters and Presentations
1. Proclamation Recognizing FUHSD Superintendent Polly Bove
City Council presented a Proclamation to Superintendent Polly Bove upon her retirement, marking decades of service to Fremont Union High School District and to the Cupertino community.
Pictured from left to right: Councilmember Hung Wei; Superintendent Polly Bove; Mayor Darcy Paul; Vice Mayor Liang Chao; Councilmember Kitty Moore; Councilmember Jon Willey
Reports by Council and Staff
2. Councilmembers provided brief reports and announcements on their public activities since the prior regular Council meeting.
3. Councilmembers provided updates on their Committee assignments.
4. City Manager provided City business updates.
5. Council received a Farmers Market update.
Consent Calendar
City Council approved Items 6-8 and 19 as recommended in the Agenda. Council continued Items 10-18 to the May 3 meeting. Council pulled Items 20 and 21 for discussion before approving it as recommended in the Agenda.
9. Consider Accounts Payable for the period ending February 7, 2022
Council moved to create a subcommittee of the Audit Committee members of the Council to examine the monthly Treasurer's Report requirements; and bring that back to the Council at the next regularly scheduled meeting for Items 9-18.
22. Master Funding Agreement between City and MTC
Council did not take any action on this item.
23. United States Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting
Council directed staff to receive proposed Resolution(s) by electronic mail from individual Councilmembers by the end of the day on Friday, April 22 and to bring back the Resolution(s) proposed by Councilmembers at the City Council's May 3 meeting for a determination by the full Council as to which Resolution(s) to submit for consideration at the United States Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting held from June 3 through 6.
Public Hearings
24. Fiscal Year FY 2022-2023 Fee Schedule Update
Council continued this item to the May 3 meeting.
Ordinances and Action Items
25. Internal Audit - Procurement Operational Review Final Report
Following staff presentation and discussion, Council accepted the Procurement Operational Review Final Report, with the modification that Council request the Audit Committee members of the Council to go forward and work with staff and the external auditor to bring forth a list of immediate next steps following this final report.
26. Single-Use Plastics Ordinance (continued from April 5)
Council continued this item to the May 3 meeting.
27. Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Council Goals and Potential City Work Program Items
Council continued this item to a Special Meeting at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 21.
28. Corrections to Current Teen Commission Staggered Term Groups
Council made a motion to interview for four positions in this upcoming cycle and interview for five positions in the subsequent cycle, when the current two-year cycles for the six terms are expired. Council also authorized staff to proceed with the annual recruitment:
- Application deadline of 4:30 p.m. on Friday, July 29; and
- Interview dates beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, August 8 and Tuesday, August 9; and directed staff to draft a resolution based upon Council's motion and bring it back to Council at the time of appointments.
29. Municipal Code Amendments
Council continued this item to the May 3 meeting.
Mayor's Corner with Darcy Paul
Photo credit: Jian Zhen (USPS). City Council joins United States Postal Service officials in rolling out USPS Connect Local in Cupertino on April 18th. Pictured from left to right: Rick Keppeler, USPS Manager; Raj Sanghera, USPS District Manager; Yogi Singal, Postmaster of Cupertino; Mayor Darcy Paul; Vice Mayor Liang Chao; Councilmember Kitty Moore; Councilmember Hung Wei; City Manager Jim Throop; Councilmember Jon Willey
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
This past month has been replete with activities and interconnections. Our Council has worked very hard to make sure that we have a well-evaluated Work Plan for the upcoming fiscal year 2022-2023, which starts on July 1st. We are in the process of prioritizing a number of excellent and worthy projects for Cupertino, and we have worked over the years to ensure that all of the City’s Commissions and Committees are working in synchronization with each other to arrive at a Work Plan. Of course, not everything will get done in one year, as has been the case in our prior years of comprehensive Work Plans.
However, much has gotten done, including delivery of new community meeting rooms in the Cupertino Library which are opening to the public this month. We have also added to Cupertino this past month with the completion of the annexation of the Lawrence-Mitty parcels on our eastern border with San Jose, and this area will be the home of future park space for our City. We are currently in the process of outreach to the community to design this public park space. We have preserved the integrity of our conversations on development, which has resulted in very high-quality projects proceeding following detailed and thorough public-discussion processes. These areas are in fact a very limited slice of deliverables by our City Council that relate to the Work Plan process. And as with any process, we constantly work through challenges, but as opportunities to improve.
Internal systemic infrastructure has at the same time been met with externally-facing outreach efforts which have yielded very optimistic results for Cupertino. A couple of examples of these interconnections are seen in some of the activities of our City Council this past month. As I mentioned in my previous column from last month, we organized in conjunction with CalTrans recently a highway litter clean-up in Cupertino.
Many thanks to our community volunteers who turned out for this morning of safety vests, trash pickers, work gloves, hard hats and removal of litter along the on- and off-ramps along the De Anza Boulevard exit of I-280. It was in fact quite invigorating. I think that while we lead the efforts to do this, it sends a number of great messages. I hope that people think twice about throwing garbage out vehicle windows and are otherwise more careful about litter when these messages are conveyed. At the same time, please write us at citycouncil@cupertino.org if you would like to volunteer with us at a future similar activity. You can also let the Council know whether you’re interested in volunteering for clean-up of the Lawrence-Mitty future park space, as we are partnering with the Santa Clara Valley Water District to hold a clean-up event there on May 21st. I extend a very big thank-you as well to Cupertino Hotel and its Manager Claudio Bono for hosting our volunteer group for breakfast on the morning of our litter clean-up efforts with CalTrans.
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Cupertino volunteers join City Council and CalTrans for a highway litter pick-up event on April 2nd. Pictured from left to right: David Moore; Liana Crabtree; Lisa Warren; Jerry Liu; Debra Nascimento; Vice Mayor Liang Chao; anonymous volunteer; Councilmember Kitty Moore; Mayor Darcy Paul; Councilmember Hung Wei; Muni Madhdhipatla; Steven Scharf; Earl Sherman, CalTrans; Saurabh Sarpal; Councilmember Jon Willey (not pictured: Elango Punniakoti).
As a Board Member of our County’s Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), I was able to watch a presentation by a representative of CalTrans earlier this year, and part of that presentation included a description of a volunteer litter pick-up program coordinated by CalTrans. At the same time, all of us in Cupertino and Santa Clara County are well aware of this issue along our highways. With the support of our full City Council, what we discovered in this activity was that reaching out and continuing the conversation and positive activities is the best resource that we have for dealing with issues.
Another great partnership that City Council supported this past month is with the United States Postal Service. USPS is starting a new service in our area, which in effect allows people and businesses to have same-day reasonably-priced delivery to addresses within our City. Drop-off for this service needs to be by 7:00 a.m. on weekdays at the Cupertino Branch. There is also next-day delivery service, if the mail is dropped off at the Cupertino Branch of the post office by 5:00 p.m., also on weekdays. This is a fantastic service for our residents and businesses, and Council is very pleased that the City is able to work with USPS to bring this service to the public.
These interconnections also create opportunities in other ways. With a re-consideration of delivering this type of service to the community, USPS also has employment opportunities. Please encourage anyone you know who may be interested to look into those opportunities here.
When we build on a foundation of volunteerism and the essentially optimistic spirit of volunteering, I believe what we find is that other opportunities abound no matter where they are. I frequently hear criticisms of public officials. Admittedly, I sometimes share in those sentiments, but I also believe that we need to be fair in our assessments and evaluative with regard to the basis of assertions. What I also know is that on the local level, Cupertino has been working internally as well as externally to strengthen our system and the way we work with each other and to build those connections that help improve our community and the local area. I base these assertions upon having done a good bit of the actual work, working with my colleagues on Council to do that work and working on behalf of the public with our City employees and employees of other public agencies with respect to this work of the public. There are also a number of private-sector and non-profit interests and interfaces to consider, but perhaps those will be the topic of another column.
I forgot to mention as well that we opened up City Hall again, and our Council meetings are now hybrid meetings, both live and with videoconferencing. The whole group at the City of Cupertino has pulled together to deliver that. Have a great rest of your April, and be well.
Sincerely,
Darcy Paul
Mayor
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