January 2008 Meeting Summaries

City Selection Committee:

• MTC: Consented to Dean Chu completing his term which expires February 2011.
• Recycling and Waste Reduction Commission: Appointed Cat Tucker, Gilroy, to the South County Seat (Term expires July 2011) and Kris Wang, Cupertino, to the North County Seat (Term expires April 2010).
• LAFCO: Appointed Al Pinheiro, Gilroy, as the Alternate Representative (Term expires May 2008)
• BAAQMD: Appointed Erin Garner to a new two-year term (Term expires March 2010)
• CSC will hold a meeting in February to review the Policy and consider whether CSC appointed representatives to agencies must be elected officials while serving on boards.

Board of directors:

• Changed the February Board Meeting to Thursday, February 21.
• Approved holding the Joint General Membership/Cities Managers’ Dinner Meeting on March 13. The meeting will be held at Michaels at Shoreline Restaurant in Mountain View.
• President Pinheiro asked and the Board agreed to the following: 1) Focus Board Meetings on topics important to cities.  The Board will choose three topics at the February meeting and then Board members will work in groups to research and present the information to the Board; 2) Have time set aside to discuss Joys and Challenges – Best Practices and things that have gone well in cities and issues that are challenging to cities or council members. Board members can learn from each other; 3) More timely reports from appointees that are representing the Cities Association on regional boards; 4) When adopting consistent standards, include the County in discussions.
• Held discussion on Policy Issues for 2008.  The following issues were identified:
• Creating a countywide uniform streamlined solar permitting process and consistent countywide solar power policies

Currently, solar companies must deal with an array of varying requirements to get a residential or commercial solar installation permitted.  A consistent set of rules countywide would greatly benefit homeowners, businesses, and our efforts to reduce our collective carbon footprint to ease the installation of photovoltaic panels.

• Countywide green building standards

We’ve taken initial steps in 2007 to require LEED silver on public construction and a green “checklist” for private construction.  Now, we should take the next step: as several cities (including San Jose) investigate green building standards on all new private construction, let’s ensure that we’re consistent among the 15 jurisdictions, so builders face a single set of standards.

• Countywide solar assessment to fund solar installation

The City of Berkeley has proposed an innovative financing scheme to promote solar installation on private residences and businesses, by paying for the installation up front with an assessment on the owner’s property.   As we examine Berkeley’s experience with its approach, we should investigate the benefits of doing something similar throughout the county.

• Gang Intervention, Suppression and Prevention

We’ve seen substantial upswings in gang crime and activity throughout San Jose, and other cities are likely seeing a similar trend.   Gang problems cross city lines, and demand regional solutions.

• SUASI grants – coordinate countywide

The Bay Area Super-Urban Area Security Initiative (SUASI) is a federal Department of Homeland Security grant that provides resources for the unique equipment, training, planning, and exercise needs of 35 selected national high threat urban areas. By coordinating throughout the county, we can collectively leverage our investments in disaster and terrorism preparedness much further. 

• Streamline the planning and permitting process: Speeding the Permit and Planning Process-develop an expedited process that is based on additional fees to speed the process.   Homeowners and business owners facing critical development timelines could pay an additional amount for supplemental resources necessary to speed the process along.
• Promote a “Green Power” Challenge
• Promote use of reclaimed water
• Best Practices for reducing water consumption
• Prepayment of PERS and realized savings
• How cities are handling emails
• How cities are handling Public Record Requests
• A cohesive approach to the determination of speed limits
• A clearing house for vendors or a Purchasing Pool to reduce costs of purchased city goods
• ABAG Housing Allocations---study of possible repeal of, or amendments to,  state law that governs housing allocations
• ABAG Allocations – ABAG allocations for housing to be shared county wide-Santa Clara County should work to follow the same approach as San Mateo County, working as a county to meet the overall number, sharing resources from each city to optimize our approach to meeting the number overall.
• Medical Retirement Benefit Packages and Retirement at 55.
• Communications during emergencies with accurate information communicated to the public
• Curtailing Red-Light Running at Intersections
• A Standing Agenda Item will be a Monthly Update on Legislation
• Mayor Pat Mahan announced the Santa Clara City Council would be meeting on Tuesday, January 15, and would be discussing whether to enter exclusive negotiations with the 49ers.  Pat invited everyone to attend the meeting.

• Mayor Larry Klein announced Palo Alto will be hosting the Prologue to the AMGEN Bicycle Tour of California on Sunday, February 17.  Larry invited everyone to attend and announced that after the 2-1/2 mile race, there will be events to promote a healthy life style.
• Dan Furtado reported the ABAG Regional Planning Committee has been discussing disaster preparation and mitigation.  To see the presentation on updating building codes and financial recovery, Dan referred members to the ABAG website, which has a specific reference and documents on the subject:
  www.abag.ca.gov;  Resources Available from Workshop on How to Finance Disaster Recovery and Rebuild After a Disaster