It’s the first meeting of the year, which is always a light agenda. The bulk of the agenda is actually on consent, with mostly ceremonial stuff being handled by Council. There are no study sessions, closed sessions, special orders, or presentations. There may be an agenda amendment when we return from the break, but I’m guessing it won’t happen. So the big issue will be the public hearing on this year’s study and budget issues.
The consent calendar is fairly large, mostly cleanup from previous meetings (second readings and the like). There’s a contract for purchasing five new police cruisers to replace ones that are beyond their lifespan, and a janitorial services contract, and the rest is second reading stuff.
Item 2 is election of a new Vice Mayor. Pretty straightforward, four votes or more wins. From memory, there are no public comments for this item, so the Mayor just accepts nominations. Nominees make their case, in nomination order, then voting is done on the nominees again in nomination order.
Item 3 is our annual public hearing on study issues. Residents can speak their minds on what they think we should look at over the next year, either to speak for or against study issues that have already been proposed or to suggest other ones that aren’t on the list. You can always check out the latest status on the proposed 2013 study issues here.
Item 4 looks at this year’s intergovernmental relations (IGR) assignments. Councilmembers represent Sunnyvale on various regional bodies, and this is the time of year where assignments may change, usually at the request of the councilmember holding an assignment. There may be scheduling conflicts, a change in interest, or other factors that could lead to a change. This item was preceded by a study session earlier in the month, where we expressed interest in dropping assignments or picking up new ones, and the RTC reflects the changes that we individually proposed.
And item 5 is seat selection for the new year. The Vice Mayor chooses first and takes the seat to the left or right of the Mayor. Usually it’s Mayor’s right, audience’s left, because of the placement of the speaker lights. The Vice Mayor helps the Mayor track the order in which speaker lights go on, and Mayor’s right affords the best view of them. After that, it’s in seniority order. Expect to see some shuffling, I suspect.
That’s about it.
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