CC 06-06-2023 Oral_Written Communications (1)CC 06-06-2023
Written Communications
Oral
Communications
From:Munisekar
To:City Council
Cc:City Clerk; Cupertino City Manager"s Office; Muni
Subject:Cupertino to oppose Senate Bill SB-403.
Date:Friday, June 2, 2023 1:19:13 AM
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Dear Mayor & City Council,
As an active and concerned community member, I would like to request our city to take an
official position objecting Senate Bill SB-403.
This is very important for Indian Americans living in the US as this bill is flawed in lots of
ways. I represent my family of 4 in strongly opposing this bill.
Here is why this bill is flawed in my opinion.
1. SB-403 is trying to introduce the notion of Caste in the California Constitution. The US
is a nation of immigrants; when we came into this great country, we left behind the
baggage from home countries. We don't need to regurgitate the baggage. This law is
trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist in the US.
2. The data presented by Equality Labs to support SB-403 is deeply flawed and biased.
1. Equality Labs claims 25% of Dalits surveyed confirmed verbal abuse, physical
assault and rape. Yet, there is NOT a single case registered anywhere in
California. Where is the proof?
2. They asked people participating in the survey from outside the USA to use Zip
code 95134 to fill out the
survey. https://mailchi.mp/equalitylabs/southasiantownhall-4131209?
e=bea6c6de99
3. The Cisco case being used as a basis for this law got thrown out by the state. The
government tried to assign caste labels to the defendants without any foolproof basis for
determining caste. Since the defendants threatened to sue CRD (Civil Rights Division)
for assigning a caste label and religion to them, the government had to drop the case.
4. If SB-403 passes, there is a real risk of Indian Americans becoming targets of hate crime
and stereotyping as articulated by Santa Clara DA Jeff Rosen.
https://twitter.com/hinduamerican/status/1663987585692172291?
s=46&t=oW45v6QNvcp0MK9rsdQ6lA
5. In 30 years of my existence in this country, I never came across anyone that ever talked
about caste. BTW, my kids don't know what caste they belong to.
6. Equality Labs fabricated this narrative on false data to create a for-profit business for
themselves. Equality labs is NOT a non-profit; it is a money minting machine for
Thenmozhi Sounderrajan. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/equality-labs
7. The best way to get rid of something undesirable is to let it die a natural death; NOT
perpetuate it by constantly reminding people about it. I do not want the government
assigning caste labels to my kids or future generations.
8. ...
I can go on with a limitless list of flaws with this law.
Please protect Indian American rights by officially objecting SB-403 on our behalf.
Thank you.
Muni Madhdhipatla
Cupertino Resident.
From:Donna Austin
To:City Clerk
Subject:Fix the Housing Element Draft
Date:Thursday, May 25, 2023 8:58:00 PM
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City Clerk Kirsten Squarcia,
I am writing out of concern for the current status of the recently released Cupertino housing
element draft, which is clearly incomplete and inconsistent with the extreme housing needs in
Cupertino and the greater bay area. I am optimistic that we can craft an ambitious housing
element, with the visionary abilities of this new city council and ample community feedback.
Failure to do so will result in an extended period of loss of local control and continuous
increases in housing insecurity and homelessness.
To adequately meet the housing needs of our community, I fully support Cupertino for All’s
recommendations to the housing element draft. The organization’s requested changes are as
follows:
1. Site Inventory: Reduce reliance on pipeline projects, expand the number of planned units in
the “heart of the city,” and avoid planning homes that are unlikely to be built. Nearly ⅔ of the
planned inventory is pipeline projects, with roughly 80% of those projects being Vallco and the
Hamptons. The Hamptons in particular is unlikely to actually be built out as 600 units, given no
recent developer interest and recent renovations from Irvine Company. Meanwhile, less than
5% of the inventory is composed of the heart of the city, the main portion of Cupertino, where
most development should be slated.
2. Programs and Policies: Urge staff and consultants to focus on new policies and programs
modeled after other cities’ housing elements–with a framework of the 3 Ps in mind: production
of homes, preservation of existing homes, and protection of renters. Cities like Emeryville and
Mountain View have robust policies for all three of these planks. Cupertino’s current draft
introduces few new policies, instead relying almost entirely on our existing ones, which have
obviously failed to meet our housing needs. Additionally, the draft unnecessarily restricts
proposed policies, such as only limiting parking requirements for SROs and studios, instead of
applying a reduction in parking to all new homes.
3. Needs Analysis: The needs analysis is woefully inadequate for the unique housing context of
Cupertino, with no references to the extreme unmet housing needs of our daytime residents–
instead choosing to focus on those who already can afford to live here. In particular, we see
tremendous housing struggles among De Anza college students, adjunct faculty, teachers, low-
wage workers, non-profit workers, young adults, and seniors. For example, Cupertino severely
lacks in apartments and smaller units that would be ideal for a young professional or
community college student. Additionally, with regard to AFFH, our draft does not provide a
realistic assessment of segregation in our region; we know that Cupertino has one of the
lowest Latino/Latinx populations of surrounding cities–of just 3-4% compared to San Jose’s
30%. As such, one of our intended outcomes should be to bridge this gap and greatly increase
housing opportunities for Latino, Black, and Southeast Asian communities of color.
4. Constraints Analysis: Several constraints appear to be missing, including but not limited to
(1) local control and neighborhood opposition, (2) underutilized land such as dying strip malls,
(3) relatively low surface area for development, (4) state law evasion/loopholes, (5) permit
processing times Additionally, several other state laws are missing that are in need of
compliance like AB 2097 and AB 2011.
5. Community Outreach: While Cupertino has done some community outreach with regard to
the housing element, it does not seem to have actually translated into actual policies or
programs. The purpose of community outreach is to hear from traditionally underserved
communities, so new ideas emerge for how to meet these specific housing needs. Instead,
there are dozens of pages of outreach, with no actual effect on the resulting sites, programs, or
policies. Additionally, much of the feedback critical of Cupertino’s approach to the inventory
appears to be missing. The City must also be honest about its failures in approaching
community outreach, such as the last City Council dismantling the stakeholder engagement
group, or the anti-housing bias within the housing survey.
6. Transit-Oriented Development & mixed use: Cupertino’s housing element draft does not
seem to contain a vision for the built-environment, as it isolates the thousands of planned
homes from a much needed coinciding growth of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, reduced
car use, and vibrant, mixed-use spaces. Instead, it makes few references to transit-oriented
development and even unnecessarily restricts mixed-use. We should be planning our housing
future around the reduction of car reliance and the promotion of our Climate Action Plan 2.0.
7. Timeline: Cupertino is last in the entire county and will no doubt lose local control under the
builder’s remedy. Council should direct its staff and consultant team to focus entirely on more-
or-less redoing the housing element draft as quickly as possible. The community would like to
see an actual timeline and plan of action for achieving an ambitious housing element in a short
period of time.
Donna Austin
primadona1@comcast.net
22283 N De Anza Circle
Cupertino, California 95014
From:Kirsten Squarcia
To:Santosh Rao
Cc:City Clerk; Christopher Jensen; Pamela Wu
Subject:RE: A fresh start.
Date:Monday, May 22, 2023 8:45:22 AM
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Good morning San (Council moved to Bcc),
Your email has been received by the Clerk’s Office and will be included with the written
communications for the June 6 City Council meeting, under written comments for Oral
Communications.
Regards, Kirsten
Kirsten Squarcia
City Clerk
City Manager's Office
KirstenS@cupertino.org
(408) 777-3225
From: Santosh Rao <santo_a_rao@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2023 5:10 AM
To: City Council <CityCouncil@cupertino.org>; Christopher Jensen <ChristopherJ@cupertino.org>;
Pamela Wu <PamelaW@cupertino.org>; Kirsten Squarcia <KirstenS@cupertino.org>
Subject: A fresh start.
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you
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Dear City Clerk,
Please include this as written communication for the next city council.
—————————————-
Dear City Council, Manager Wu, City Attorney Jensen, City Clerk,
Thank you for releasing these mails. Everybody should read them in its entirety.
There are some great shining examples of fighting for residents and working hard on behalf of the
community.
And there are some examples that do make me cringe. It definitely is not free of faults.
For council member Moore,
I would hope you consider not putting historical catch-up or certain types of dry language into
written form. As the corporate world ingrains into their employees, praise in public and critique, if at
all, in private (in person). Email is not a communication form to use ever for critique or harsh dry
language.
Council member Moore, you would do well to note the time tested principles of working with a
team. Command and control is long gone as a style of management or leadership. It takes
relationship building and soft skills these days. Dry prescriptive tones don’t earn trust and respect. If
it’s a style of speak then that is worth reflecting on its effectiveness in influence and if you choose to
retain it is better received in person than in mail. Mail is not a faithful replica of dry tone. It comes
across as authoritative and talking down. Nobody likes to be talked down to.
Then Vice-Mayor Chao shines in many examples as taking the side of residents. Time and time again
she comes across as diligent, sincere, working on behalf of residents.
Yes, everyone has areas of improvement and then Vice-Mayor Chao could reflect on how she could
be more effective with her prioritization, consolidation and reduction in number of different data
items asked of staff about which could be helpful in being even more influential.
For then Vice-Mayor Chao these are areas of improvement that a senior council member or real-
time feedback from the city manager could have helped with coaching and mentoring. It’s not a fatal
flaw that was uncorrectable. If it was, I saw no evidence of attempts to coach and mentor and an
unwillingness or inability to change.
The battles on behalf of residents that then Vice-Mayor Chao fought more than offset the scattered
requests that could have been more optimized and compacted in their multi part and sometimes
excessive asks.
Net net, who was coaching and mentoring. What closed loop feedback was given. What training
existed. What municipal codes or policy manuals existed. What came back from the city manager
as real-time feedback from staff employees to help address right away. What leadership was
shown by fellow council members in trying to coach each other if that is possible.
These are human beings, not perfect by any means. They are not career politicians.
While everything that has happened certainly has a lot of visibility and is further being exacerbated
by sharply polarizing comments from some sections, please know that in the corporate world these
situations happen and are dealt with routinely with real-time feedback, coaching, mentoring,
performance management and not by further dividing teams. Yes, it’s not comparable due to the
attention of media and divided and polarizing comments. However the focus has to be on the
community. Not on further polarization.
We could all use coaching and mentoring. Council members Chao and Moore have strengths that
worked well for specific types of due diligence while hurting in some other areas due to style of
delivery. The diversity of thought and attention to detail is a complement to the overall council. The
improvements could have been coached in and if still not yielding results could be areas of
continued coaching and worst case let the public speak with votes.
Dividing the city with harsh measures such as stripping of committee assignments is not the
answer.
I urge you to re-consider the measures taken. I urge you to heal as a group. We the residents need
healing and unity from you. We do not need divided language. We need healing and unity.
I personally as a resident would love to see you all work together. How can we residents help. Let us
reach out to each other. Cupertino needs you five council members to work together. Set your
differences apart and work together and work with staff while keeping residents first. You work for
the residents. A little empathy for all stakeholders and for staff goes a long way. And that cuts both
ways. Staff demonstrating good faith attempts to listen to feedback from the community and act on
community feedback builds trust.
I hope you will sincerely consider retracting the punitive measures taken and start afresh as one
team and let us the community help any of you with coaching and mentoring if we can.
https://records.cupertino.org/WebLink/DocView.aspx?
id=1024720&dbid=0&repo=CityofCupertino&cr=1
Thanks,
San Rao