LRC 04-17-2020Legislative Review Committee Minutes April 17, 2020
CITY OF CUPERTINO
APPROVED MINUTES
LEGISLATIVE REVIEW COMMITTEE
Friday, April 17, 2020
1:30 PM
SPECIAL MEETING
ROLL CALL
The meeting was called to order at 1:31 p.m.
Present: Mayor Scharf, Councilmember Chao, City Manager Deborah Feng, Assistant to the
City Manager Katy Nomura, County Assessor, Townsend Public Affairs (TPA)
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. Subject: Minutes from March 2, 2020
Recommended Action: Approve minutes from March 2, 2020
Mayor Scharf moved to approve the March 2nd Legislative Review Committee minutes.
Councilmember Chao seconded. The motion carried unanimously.
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
Jennifer Griffin is concerned about AB 1581 and SB 899
PUBLIC COMMENT (including comments on all agenda items)
This item was not conducted as the Chair decided to take public comments on agenda
items when the agenda items were discussed.
AGENDA REVIEW
This item was not conducted
ACTION ITEMS
2. Subject: Legislative Updates
Recommended Action: Receive legislative update and provide input
TPA explains that the legislature is currently not in session since they have been in
recess since mid-March. They are scheduled to return to Sacramento for session on May
4th, but that date was already extended once so it may be pushed back again. Yesterday,
Legislative Review Committee Minutes April 17, 2020
April 16th, was the first legislative hearing on the budget committee regarding the
economic conditions and the spending related to COVID-19. The Assembly is holding
another budget committee meeting hearing on Monday April 20th.
The legislature passed two measures related to COVID response. SB 89 was the major
bill that provided Governor Newsom with $1 billion to use for COVID response
including temporary housing for homeless and PPE. The other bill, SB 117, stated that
schools would continue to receive their normal payments from Prop 98 from the state,
even if the students were not in school.
The legislature is preparing for a very different budget cycle than before due to the
COVID spending needs. The State will not have sufficient revenue to cover the short fall
and it is likely that the rainy-day fund will also not be enough since the State is only
allowed to touch half of those funds in one year. The State will put out their May revise
on or around May 15th, which will most likely be a very streamlined budget that
includes almost no new programs or expansions of existing programs. The State is still
required to post their final budget by June 15th, which will most likely be a place holder
since the State extended the deadline for people to submit their tax payments until July
15th. It will probably take another 2-3 weeks for the State to determine how much
revenue is actually collected. TPA anticipates that there will be many budget trailer bills
towards the end of session to reflect the actual amount of revenue collected.
As far for other bills, TPA expects that the legislature will adjust the legislative schedule
in order to properly conduct hearings. The legislature may forego their summer recess
since the session still needs to adjourn by August 31st, however this is still to be
determined. Once the legislature returns it is safe to say that they will primarily be
focused on COVID response and the budget impacts.
Mayor Scharf asks about AB 828 (Ting) and SB 902 (Wiener). TPA explains that AB 828
deals with moratoriums on evictions due to the COVID impacts to renters. SB 902 is a
housing production bill that is awaiting to be heard by the committees. However, TPA
explains that certain bills may or may not come back since the legislators are being asked
to only focus on their top 3-4 bills. This is still to be determined.
Public Comment:
Jennifer Griffin wants to know what Senator Wiener’s top 4 bills are. TPA believes that
they may be SB 902, SB 917, SB 1138, and SB 939.
3. Subject: Consider adopting a position on H.R. 6467 - the Coronavirus Community
Relief Act
Recommended Action: Adopt a position supporting H.R. 6467 and authorize the
Legislative Review Committee Minutes April 17, 2020
Mayor to send letters of support to the Federal Legislature
Assistant to the City Manager, Katy Nomura, explains that this legislation was
introduced to help provide aid to local governments that are smaller than 500,000
people. This act will provide funding that will provide relief for the COVID efforts as
well as allow funding to be used for economic losses.
Action Taken:
Mayor Scharf makes a motion to adopt a position supporting H.R. 6467 and authorize
the Mayor to send letters of support to the Federal Legislature. Councilmember Chao
seconds. The motion passes unanimously.
4. Subject: Discussion of a letter to the League of California Cities regarding their housing
proposal
Recommended Action: Discuss and decide whether to send a letter to the League of
California Cities regarding their housing proposal
Mayor Scharf explains that the League of California Cities (League) sent a housing
proposal to the State legislature right before SB 50 failed. The Mayor wants to know if
Cupertino should send a letter to the League detailing the reasons why the City
opposes many of the items in their housing proposal. The Mayor is primarily
concerned with the development fees because they are already set at a level to recover
a city’s costs should not be lowered further. He is also concerned with the transit-
oriented development plans, parking requirements, and fourplexes in single family
homes. Mayor Scharf included a draft letter to send to the League which was included
in the meeting materials. Members of the LRC discussed different ways in which the
committee could move forward with a letter from the Mayor, the full Council, or with
input from other cities. Ultimately, they decided to take this discussion to the full
Council.
Public Comment:
Jennifer Griffin is glad that the LRC is discussing this topic.
Action Taken:
Councilmember Chao makes a motion to recommend the Council to send a letter to the
League of California Cities regarding the housing proposal and authorize the Mayor to
draft such a letter with input from the City Manager. The Mayor seconds. The motion
carries unanimously.
FUTURE AGENDA SETTING
Councilmember Chao asks about the City’s budget request and TPA mentioned that
Legislative Review Committee Minutes April 17, 2020
Assemblymember Low submitted the request on behalf of the City. Due to the current
budget environment all member requests are being put on hold. Once the legislature
knows how much revenue is collected in July, then they will reevaluate any member
requests. This topic can be discussed once there is more information on the State budget.
The next meeting will be scheduled once the legislators return to session.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 2:54 p.m.