City of Los Altos to Pay $32K for merchants' and property owners' flowers
Highlights of the Los Altos City Council agenda include a likely decision on the Sorensen project at 40 Main, appointments to the Design Review Commission and the Environmental Commission, as well as paying the tab for the downtown merchants’ gardening.
I. At 6:15 there is a special meeting to go over the Capital Improvements Plan. Here it is. [ the City switched to images of the report. So this is less legible than the usual CIP’s LALAPOLITICO has seen. ]
II. The regular 7:00 pm meeting agenda packet in a single file is here. 3 MB pdf.
III. To get the Sorensen Item please get it from the city website here. Over 20 MB – multi-minute download
IV. To get the Sorensen Item as a pdf from us. Here is is. It’s 14MB pdf.
TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 20110
7:00 P.M. – REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING
City Council Chamber, Los Altos City Hall
One North San Antonio Road, Los Altos, California
ROLL CALL
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
CLOSED SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT SPECIAL PRESENTATION
Presentation from Shelley Wolfe, Executive Director of KMVT Community Television
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA CONSENT CALENDAR
CONSENT CALENDAR
1. Council Minutes
Recommendation to approve the minutes of the May 22, 2012 study session and regular meeting
2. Joint City Council-Los Altos School District Meeting Minutes
Recommendation to approve the minutes of the May 29, 2012 joint meeting with the Los Altos School
District Board of Trustees
Joint City Council-Los Altos School District Meeting Minutes
LALAHPOLITICO: trouble with the City viewer, here is our .pdf of the minutes. It’s mostly names of public speakers and the solution they advocated. Naturally, folks saying BCS should move into Hillview Ctr. were the most numerous.
3. Resolution calling for a General Municipal Election on November 6, 2012
Recommendation to adopt Resolution No. 2012-13 calling for a General Municipal Election to be held on November 6, 2012 for three City Council seats and consolidating said election with Santa Clara County
Resolution calling for a General Municipal Election on November 6, 2012
4. Request for exception to Section 5.08.020 of Los Altos Municipal Code
Recommendation to grant a one-time exception to Section 5.08.020 of the Los Altos Municipal Code regarding leading of animals in commercial, professional and administrative zones as defined in Section
5.08.030(B) and require Carriage De Corriere to indemnify, hold harmless and name the City as an additional insured
LALAHPOLITICO;
A dad wants to provide his daughter a carriage ride to the Los Altos History Museum – where the wedding will take place. This is apparently illegal because it required riding within the boundary of a public place.
Request for exception to Section 5.08.020 of Los Altos Municipal Code
5. Financial Audit Services Selection
Recommendation to authorize the City Manager to execute a contract for financial audit services with Burr, Pilger & Mayer, Inc. (BPM) in an amount not to exceed $40,000 up through year three of the contract
Financial Audit Services Selection
6. Trunk sewer main rehabilitation
Recommendation to award the Base Bid and Add Alternate No. 1 for the Sewer Collection System Upgrade, Project 12-10 and Annual Sewer Main Repair, Project 12-04 to Insituform Technologies, Inc. for $781,339, and authorize the City Manager to execute a contract on behalf of the City
Trunk sewer main rehabilitation
DISCUSSION
7. 40 Main Street
Recommendation to deny a Mitigated Negative Declaration and deny design review and use permit applications per the listed findings
40 Main Street (May take a while to load)
PREMEETING LALAHPOLITICO:
Our post today about this agenda item is here. We present the main part of a letter written by Von Packard as well as selected photos. The full agenda item of 20 MB is here.
This may be the last gasp for the Sorensen project. The grapevine talk is that if the project is stalled again, the Sorensens and their investors may sell. The talk is that the Packard’s are informally fostering a transaction with parties who will do only a minor remodel next door and maintain the Packard view corridor.
8. KMVT request for funding
Recommendation to direct staff regarding KMVT’s request for use of City’s Public, Education and
Government (PEG) funds
PREMEETING LALAHPOLITICO:
The Mountain View public access station is asking the city to donate $65,000 to buy a new switcher. We understand that the City no longer uses KMVT to broadcast City meetings, and instead uses Granicus for web streaming. The city’s annual Granicus contract is a lot less than $65K a year.
9. Webcasting of Los Altos School District Board of Trustees Meetings
Recommendation to direct staff regarding Los Altos School District’s request for Public, Education and Government (PEG) funds to be used to establish webcasting capabilities and first year maintenance costs
Webcasting of Los Altos School District Board of Trustees Meetings
PREMEETING LALAHPOLITICO:
The City deserves kudos for helping LASD increase its transparency. Certainly parents are a time-pressed constituency that will really appreciate being able to see their board in action. Anyone thinking of running for the LASD board in November should expect a lot more close scrutiny than the board has had in the past. Job requirement – thick skin.
10. Downtown beautification efforts
Recommendation to approve Los Altos Village Association’s request for $32,724 from the Downtown
Parking Fund for the downtown flower pot plantings
Downtown beautification efforts
PREMEETING LALAHPOLITICO: Those little annuals downtown are costing over $30K a year. Wow. Is this separate from maintaining the new low-water planting? I don’t like paying for this – it should be assessed to the downtown property owners. That is unless you can show me that the $30K in flowers raises over $30K in INCREMENTAL sales tax?
11. Application of Sewer Rate Inflation Adjustment
Recommendation to adopt Urgency Ordinance No. 2012-385 and introduce and waive first reading of
Ordinance No. 2012-386 adjusting the Sewer Service Charge
Application of Sewer Rate Inflation Adjustment
PREMEETING LALAHPOLITICO:
Fine. Just make it work please.
12. Commission appointments
Recommendation to appoint commissioners to fill vacancies on the Design Review Commission and
Environmental Commission
PREMEETING LALAHPOLITICO:
The DRC has five vacancies. That means most of the 7 people who applied will get on it. What a job. Lording over the plans of your neighbors.
All terms expire in February of 2014 or 2016. The names of applicants are as follows:
Design Review Commission
Seymour Alpert (1 st Preference), David Blockhus, Walter Chapman,Patrick Farrell, Sally Meadows,Steven Wheeler, Sepideh Zoufonoun
Environmental Commission – One Vacancy for an unexpired term to February 2015.
Seymour Alpert (2nd Preference), Peg Champion, Gary Hedden, William Moniz, Charles Pow
13. Meetings of Los Altos City Council, Los Altos School District (LASD) Board of Trustees and Bullis Charter School Board of Directors
Recommendation to discuss the May 29, 2012 joint Council/Board meeting and subsequent meetings ofLASD and Bullis Charter School, and provide direction to staff as needed
Meetings of Los Altos City Council, Los Altos School District (LASD) Board of Trustees and Bullis
Charter School Board of Directors
PREMEETING LALAHPOLITICO:
The link does not go to any minutes for the nearly six hour long meeting between the City Council and LASD. The link is just the agenda – the main topics being Egan traffic safety and the mythical 10th site. The link to the minutes is at Agenda Item 2 above. With the return to litigation between BCS and LASD, Lalahpolitico is interested to hear what council members think of it all now. And what about the meeting with the BCS board?
COUNCIL REPORTS AND DIRECTIONS ON FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS ADJOURNMENT
