CC 06-02-2020 Item No. 17 FY 2020-21 City Work Program_Written Communications1
Cyrah Caburian
From:Govind Tatachari <gtc2k7@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, June 2, 2020 4:33 PM
To:Steven Scharf; Darcy Paul; Liang Chao; Rod Sinks; Jon Robert Willey; Cupertino City Manager's Office;
City Clerk; City Attorney's Office
Subject:Re: Agenda item 20-7311- FY2020-21 Proposed Budget related (1 of 2)
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Honorable Mayor Scharf, Vice Mayor Paul, Council Members Chao, Sinks, and Willey,
and City Manager Feng, City Attorney Minner and City Clerk Squarcia:
In continuation of my enclosed email dated May 19, 2020, here are the remaining points.
4) Expense Management Challenges and Scenarios
As part of the expense management and control
A) Please consider reprioritization and deferment of CIP projects (agenda item #19-6648
dated 6/2/2020) and
B) Please consider reprioritization and deferment of public works projects.
5) Others
To continue to get the level of service, we need to have the operations level City staff that
directly provide City services needed by the public. To manage expenses consider staff
salary cuts across the board so that the City doesn't need to furlough operations level City
staff.
Thank you for your consideration,
Govind Tatachari
Cupertino Resident
On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 6:29 PM Govind Tatachari <gtc2k7@gmail.com> wrote:
Honorable Mayor Scharf, Vice Mayor Paul, Council Members Chao, Sinks, and Willey, and City Manager
Feng, City Attorney Minner and City Clerk Squarcia:
Please include this as part of the public record. (Please ignore the earlier email with the same subject).
I have gone through major points of the 516‐page FY2020‐21 proposed budget at the link (id=27577,
name=FY202021ProposedBudgetwTOC.pdf) in the City council meeting notice.
Thank you City Manager for the cover letter which spells out the fiscal uncertainty due to current outbreak and your
overview organized as Budget balancing strategies (3.2 + .85 + .67 + 1.0 + 0.5 = 6.22 Million), Long‐Term financial
planning, Virtual activities, meetings, and services, and Embracing change and innovation.
2
I wish to thank the City for virtual budget study session (agenda item 20‐7311). Here are some questions and few
suggestions to consider and help with discussions and deliberations, if any.
1) Uncertainty
Our understanding of gravity of outbreak and its potential multiyear occurance, containment strategy requirements
(including SIP) and extent of impact on different businesses and livelihood are quite unknown and evolving.
2) City council, residents and study session
Successive City council with inputs from residents and management have taken decisions to ensure the City continues
to have a solid financial foundation. A one‐hour study session seems insufficient to get inputs from residents and
deliberate on such an important topic.
3) Overall observation
City budget influences City services provided to residents. To help with better understanding and useful discussion, the
council and residents can benefit from a budget presentation that covers multiple scenarios: worst case, projected /
actuals and best case. The rest of this email will assume it.
4) Revenue Management Challenges and Scenarios
W.r. to City’s top three revenue sources have been property, sales, and transient occupancy taxes.
i) Sales tax related ‐ need multiple scenarios
ii) Property tax related (pgs 97‐99)
pg 97 pie‐chart: While it is known that the % breakdown are decided based on certain statutory conditions, a
comparative view of the % breakdown across different cities in Santa Clara county will be very helpful.
iii) Transient occupancy taxes (TOT) related ‐ need multiple scenarios
iv) Encouraging Property improvement
To help stimulate local economy and also help with sustainability and housing goals, can we discuss how the city can
incentivize and increase existing residential property improvements to move towards net‐zero goals and make it more
affordable to add ADUs.
4) Expense Management Challenges and Scenarios (in next email 2 of 2)
5) Others (in next email 2 of 2)
Thank you for your consideration,
Govind Tatachari
Cupertino Resident