RDA 06-10-09APPROVED MINUTES
CUPERTINO REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
C U P S RT I N O Regular Adjourned Meeting
Tuesday, Juno; 10, 2009
CALL TO ORDER
At 4:06 p.m. Mayor Orrin Mahoney called to order the regular adjourned joint meeting of the
City Council and the Redevelopment Agency. The meeting was held in the Council Chamber,
10350 Torre Avenue, Cupertino, California.
ROLL CALL
Council members present: Mayor Orrin Mahoney, Vice-Mayor Kris Wang, and Council
members Dolly Sandoval, Mark Santoro, and Gilbert Wong. Absent: none.
Redevelopment Agency members present: Chairman Orrin Mahoney, Vice-Chair Kris Wang,
and Agency members Dolly Sandoval, Mark Santoro, and Gilbert Wong. Absent: none.
STUDY SESSION
1. Study Session on the proposed 2009/10 Budgets for City Council and the Redevelopment
Agency (continued from June 2). No docurnentation in packet.
City Clerk Kimberly Smith distributed em~rils in support of the School Resource Officers
from Vivian Franklin, Principal of Stevens Creek Elementary School; Lorrie Wernick,
Principal of Regnart Elementary School;l\fancy Wood, Principal of Garden Gate School;
and parent Debbie Anderes.
Administrative Services Director Carol Atwood distributed "2009/10 Budget Study
Session, Council Follow Up Items" which listed questions and requests for information
from Council from May 27 and June 2 Council meetings. She reviewed the documents
and the City Council members discussed them and provided direction to staff as noted
below.
Item 14 proposed an independent website usability assessment and evaluation of the
search functionality, as well as PDF document posting guidelines. Councilman Santoro
asked for more information about cost and availability of a fiber link to the Comcast node
on Imperial Avenue for data and television, not necessarily on the same cable.
During discussion of item 19, regarding, Housing Element costs to date, Council
member Wang suggested that residents be encouraged to sign up for emailed notices, so
that citywide mailings can be gradually shifted from paper to digital. Mayor Mahoney
June 10, 2009 Cupertino Redevelopment Agency Page 2
noted that citywide notices are done as a courtesy to the residents, but the legal notice
requirement is for a certain radius.
Item No. 15 was a letter from Captain 'Gerry Calderone recommending that the City
Council maintain the second School Res~aurce Officer (SRO). Council member Wang
suggested that the schools be asked to p~~y a percentage instead of a fixed amount for
SROs. Atwood agreed it would be wise ~:o add an escalation clause. She said that staff
has asked the school districts if they can cc-ntribute more, but they said they can't commit
at this time because they don't know their budget outcomes.
Item No. 16 was the FY 2009 COPS Expenditure Plan summaries. Council member
Wong asked for a list of which cities 1•iave SROs, and the number, and how those
positions are funded. Later I the evening, further discussion was held about the request
for the number of School Resource Officers in other cities and how those positions are
funded. Council concurred that Council member Kris Wang would survey
representatives of other cities at the next Cities Association meeting, and would report
back to the City Council with that information.
Item No. 20, staff time estimate, referrecl to a traffic study, but that was corrected to
reflect the total cost of staff time for housir-g allocation, estimated at $15,049.
Item No. 21, State Loan/Take Away Impacts and Options, was amended to indicate that
this was a mandated loan to the State of California.
Item No. 22 was a list of Cupertino Ser<~ices provided to the elementary school, high
school, and college districts, including sports field maintenance, etc. for Cupertino Union
School District. The Parks and Recreati~~n Director was asked to provide aggregated
information about how much the City subsidizes the costs of school sports fields and
what sharing arrangements are in place.
Erik Walukiewicz said he was currently the Coordinator of Safety and Operations for the
Fremont Union High School District, and 1-~as worked as an assistant principal and teacher
at Monta Vista High School and as assistant principal at Cupertino High School. He said
that the benefits of the SROs far outweighs the costs, because they increase student safety
and don't pull police officers away from other calls, which could increase response times.
He talked about the valuable relationship; that the SROs have with students, teachers,
and parents. He also noted that Sunnyvale has 4 similar positions, called Neighborhood
Resource Officers, and that the school district does not plan to cut any positions at this
time.
Peter Robinson, Cupertino School Resource Officer, talked about how the responsibilities
of beat deputies and SROs differed. He explained that beat deputies should be the ones
responding to emergencies, such as bank alarms, car crashes, etc., and the SROs take load
of 13 schools off their shoulders. However, the SROs are still sworn deputies and can
respond if there is an alarm call nearby. Tlie SROs have first-hand knowledge of student
personalities and past histories, and get to ]:now parents, grandparents and staff. While at
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the school the SRO may also talk to a student who has been the victim of abuse, talk to
another who is in the Sheriff's Teen Academy, and help a staff member whose car was
vandalized. This sort of work could absor~~ hours of a beat officer's time.
John Sperinde, representing the Cupertino Tennis Club, thanked the Council for the
project underway to upgrade lighting. He explained that this is a lighting improvement
only, not lighting of additional courts, and. there is still a shortage because of the nearly
400 members of the United States Tenni;~ Association (USTA). He asked Council to
consider adding lights to the pool-side courts. Mr. Sperinde mentioned that they had tried
to buy time at DeAnza College but it w;~s too expensive, and asked if the City and
DeAnza College could come to an arrangement to make that more affordable.
Laura Gonzales, Dean of Students at Fremont High School, thanked the City Council for
funding the SRO position. She said the importance is less about programs and more
about personal influence on students' :lives. When students make poor choices,
suspension and citations don't change that behavior, but counseling with the deans and
working with the SROs, parents and students tends to be what ends the conflict. She
noted that if the staff knows the incident involves a resident of Sunnyvale, they call the
Sunnyvale SRO to deal with the problem.
Graham Clark, Principal of Homestead High School, said that each year they do large
community out-reach programs such as Every 15 Minutes and Code Red. The SROs are
invaluable at coordinating those events, which can involve as many as 40 or 50 other
agencies.
Jennifer Griffin, expressed her support fo~° the SROs, and said that positive relations at
the schools result in better behavior by students attending DeAnza College, and can serve
as the first line of defense against gang problems, truancy, graffiti, and theft on campus.
Ms. Griffin also cautioned Council against. requiring residents to maintain the sidewalks,
because if the City stops that maintenance the valuable street trees will be the next to go.
She also thought it was important that legal notices go out on paper, since not all
residents have email.
Council members discussed new items that they might wish to add to the budget,
including the cost for sidewalk repairs. Atwood said that would be analyzed as a part of
the fiscal strategic plan and the results of t}iat study would give the Council a better sense
of their options.
Council members emphasized that, although there was a brief reference at a prior meeting
to the possibility of someday having citizens responsible for sidewalk maintenance, there
was no intention of doing that in the foreseeable future.
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Council concurred that they would like to consider adding these items to the budget, and
asked staff for recommendations on how to fund them:
• City Channel re-cabling - $50,000
• Website search engine - $50,000
• Leadership Cupertino - $12,500
• Dog park (5 options)
• Education/Outreach - $40,000
• Fenced area -additional $40,000
• Major park - $$300,000-$500,000
• Use county property
• Placeholder amount (to be determined)
• Mandated loan to the State of California - $1.358 million (option #1)
• Linda Vista Park water feature - $700,000
• Walklbike to school program
Council members also discussed these items acid concurred that they would remain in the
2009/10 budget as proposed:
• School field maintenance
• Heart of the City General Plan update
• Neighborhood/School Resource Officers (and can schools pay more?)
Council members also discussed these items but in the end there was consensus that they would
not be considered for addition to the 2009/2010 budget:
• Skate park
• Additional tennis court lighting
• Sports court/pool at sports center
• Phase 2 of Stevens Creek Corridor
• Simms property
• Stocklmeier property
• City hall remodel
• Tank house completion
• Stevens Creek Trail to Bay monitoring
• Lawrence Mitty Park additional funding
• Stevens Creek Trail bridge over Union Pacific Railroad
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ADJOURNMENT OF REDEVELOPMENT AIiENCY: RECESS OF CITY COUNCIL
At 6:50 p.m. the Redevelopment Agency meeting adjourned and the City Council meeting
recessed until 7:30 p.m.
Kimberly Smith ecording Secretary
Staff reports, backup materials, and items distributed at the meeting are available for review at
the City Clerk's Office, 777-3223, and also on the Internet at www.cu~ertino.or~. Click on
Online Services, then Watch City Meetings.
Most Redevelopment Agency meetings are shown live on Cable Channe126, and are available at
your convenience on the web site: Visit www.c~apertino.or~ ,then click Online Services and
Watch City Meetings. Videotapes are available at the Cupertino Library, or may be purchased
from the Cupertino City Channel, 777-2364.