Looks like another long night.
We start the evening with a closed session regarding reuse of Raynor Center, which should be interesting. I’m hoping to be able to talk about this soon. This is followed by a study session that I really don’t understand – something about looking at and possibly revising Council Policy 5.1.3, which describes Sunnyvale’s commitment to human services. Your guess is as good as mine. Then we go to the general meeting.
First up is a fun annual tradition – recognizing the winners of the Annual Fire Safety Poster Contest. Sunnyvale schools hold a citywide competition to see which first through fifth graders can create the best fire safety posters. The top three from each grade are given their award at the council meeting, and then they all get to be photographed in front of a fire rig. Obviously, it takes time to award 15 separate prizes (possibly 18 – I’m not sure if kindergarteners are included).
We then also recognize National Volunteer Week, which ties in with the city’s volunteer recognition event in a couple of weeks (we’re recognizing it now because we don’t have another meeting between now and then). Following this is a presentation from Foothill-De Anza Community College regarding their plans for the Onizuka property. I’m looking forward to that. Then it’s on to the consent calendar, which appears to be grants and contracts.
Item 2 on our agenda is an appeal of a planning commission decision regarding approval of an alcohol permit for a local gas station. But this should be quick, since we were informed that the appellant withdrew his appeal, so the item won’t be discussed. [Update – I’m now told that the applicant withdrew his request for a permit, not the appellant who was opposing the request]
Item 3 involves return of something we previously discussed – possible action regarding Governor Brown’s 12-point Pension Reform proposal. We weren’t able to take any action on it when we discussed this previously, because of the way it was calendared. This time, we can.
Item 4 is a serious one – discussion of the recruitment process for hiring a new city attorney, as well as selecting an interim CA. Our current City Attorney, David Kahn, has announced his intention of leaving his position, and we need to discuss how to replace him.
Item 5 is a bit interesting, changing our municipal codes to permit “back in, head out angle parking”. This is angled parking like we already have, but reversed. Right now, angled parking is “head in, back out”. Apparently, “back in, head out” parking has been proven to be safer, for cars, for pedestrians, for cyclists, you name it. But our code doesn’t permit it, currently.
Item 6 is the second reading of our ordinance to ban smoking in parks other than golf courses.
Item 7 is our annual review of the master work plans for all of the boards and commissions. The various commissions sketch out with staff what they will be doing for the year, to the extent that they can plan in advance.
And finally, item 8 is consideration of taking a position on Measure A, a parcel tax to support the Santa Clara Unified School District (which includes part of Sunnyvale), which is part of a May special election. I don’t know if this was requested or if this was automatic – we do normally calendar an item for possible positions on any election’s ballot measures.
And that’s it. None of the items are that bad, but there are a lot of them, and it’ll probably add up to a long meeting. And since I didn’t win the $640 million on Friday, I’ll be here for the whole thing.
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