October 2009 Meeting Summary

Board of directors:

§ Carl Guardino, CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Chris Landis, Akeena Solar, announced the upcoming Applied Materials Turkey Trot to take place on November 26, Thanksgiving Day, in downtown San Jose. Carl and Chris encouraged all members to attend and participate, and to also encourage their fellow city council members to attend as well. All proceeds will go to The Children’s Health Initiative, Second Harvest Food Bank, and The Housing Trust.

§ Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, Public Health Officer, Santa Clara County (SCC) Health Department, presented an update on the pandemic H1N1 flu virus that began in April of 2009. The flu has persisted through the summer and we are now experiencing the second phase of the pandemic. Based on hospitalizations, there have been 170 deaths in California and 10 deaths in SCC. Those highest at risk for the H1N1 flu include:

o Ages 6 months – 24 years

o Pregnant women

o People who have underlying chronic conditions, e.g. diabetes, asthma, etc.,

Currently, the SCC Health Department is surveying 20 schools across the county for

frequency of the flu. Currently, there is no plan to close schools. The H1N1 flu can be cured by an anti-viral medication called, “Tamiflu;” there is plenty of it available across the county. The SCC Health Department has signed an agreement with 9 Walgreens to allow people who are uninsured, or of low-income, to receive the medication for free when needed. Regarding vaccines, seasonal flu vaccines will not be available until November due to delay in shipment; the H1N1 flu vaccines have all been purchased by the federal government and will be distributed free of charge. There are two forms: nasal and injections. The nasal form is widely available (14,000 have been given to doctors across SCC). The injection form is expected to be available in late October. Santa Clara Valley Medical Center will be setting up vaccination clinics, funded by the federal government. San Jose Unified School District has recently set up a vaccination clinic as well; if other school districts are interested in doing the same, the Public Health Department can assist with ordering supplies. The website for the Santa Clara County Health Department is currently being updated to be more user friendly and to provide more information regarding the H1N1 flu pandemic and vaccinations.

§ Dan Furtado, Legislative Action Chair, reported on ACA 9 (Huffman), SB 279 (Hancock), and SB 406 (DeSaulnier). The SCCCA board unanimously decided to submit a letter of support for SB 279 urging the Governor to sign it into law since it impacts cities by permitting local government agencies to establish a program allowing property owners to pay for solar system installation and energy efficiency improvements with a long-term assessment on their individual property tax bill.  If it becomes law, it will increase the ability of individual homeowners and property owners to join the green building movement and use alternative energy to ‘green’ their homes. The letter was sent on Friday, October 9^th since Sunday, October 11 was the deadline for the Governor to sign bills.

§ Betsy Shotwell summarized the report released by The Commissions for the 21^st Century Economy Recommendations on Tax Reform and distributed a summary from the League of California Cities. The full report has been posted on the COTCE website at www.cotce.ca.gov. The recommendations include the following:

• Eliminates the state corporation tax and the franchise minimum tax.
• Cuts and restructures the personal income tax (PIT) across all income levels, especially upper tiers.
• Eliminates the state general purpose sales and use tax (SUT) rate.
• Establishes a new Business Net Receipts Tax. This would be applied to services such as food, entertainment, medical, dental, utilities, legal, real estate and housing, and not to government and nonprofit activities – this is controversial.
• Establishes a new Rainy Day Reserve Fund.

The Governor has called a special session of the Legislature to examine the COTCE recommendations. Currently, the proposal has some policy, legal and technical problems and uncertainties. It will probably be revised.

§ Kris Wang updated the board that cities who adopt the Green Building Collaborative Phase II Recommendations need to forward the final ordinances to Raania Mohsen so she can post it on the Cities Association website. Thus far, Morgan Hill, and Saratoga have adopted the Phase II Recommendations. They can be viewed at http://www.sccca.gov/Presentations/Presentation%20Downloads.htm

§ Anthony Eulo, Water Conservation Subcommittee of Water Retailers, Chair, and Jerry De La Piedra from the Santa Clara Valley Water District addressed the board about the importance of conserving water and new state law (AB 1881) requiring cities to update the model water efficient landscape ordinance by January 1, 2010. The Subcommittee of Water Retailers recommends that all cities should actively reach a baseline of certain activities to conserve water, such as enforcing reasonable water waste and modern water-efficient landscape ordinances. Templates for the updated landscape ordinance should be completed by the end of November. For more information, members can contact Jerry De La Piedra at (408) 265-2607. Some of the issues and items discussed by board members included code enforcement through fines, tier pricing, and water recycling.

§ The Nominating Committee 2009 includes Kris Wang, Dave Casas, and Kathleen King. Kris Wang reported the recommendations for the Executive Board 2010:

§ President: David Casas, Los Altos

§ 1^st Vice President: Kathleen King, Saratoga

§ 2^nd Vice President: Sam Liccardo, San Jose

§ Treasurer: Melinda Hamilton, Sunnyvale

§ Legislative Action Chair: Dan Furtado, Campbell

§ Past President: Kris Wang, Cupertino

In November’s meeting, the board will vote to approve the recommendations. Nominations can also be made from the floor.

§ Kris Wang announced that the City Selection Committee will be holding the next meeting on November 12^th to make appointments for January, 2010. The appointments for January will be made in November since there is no meeting scheduled in December (due to the Holiday Party) and in order to give newly appointed commissioners transition time before the initial meetings of the year. There will be four appointments to the following commissions:

• Airport Land Use Commission
• Bay Area Quality Management District
• Local Agency Formation Commission
• Recycling and Waste Reduction Commission

Announcement will be sent and the agenda will be posted on the website by Monday,

October 12^th.

§ CSC Report: John Howe, Sunnyvale, Local Agency Formation Commission Appointee, reported on recent issues being addressed by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). Issues included agricultural mitigation, service reviews e.g. 911 fees, the sewage system between Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills, annexations, etc., John Howe will be terming out at the end of the year. Kris Wang thanked him for his 5-year commitment and contribution to the Commission.

§ Dave Knapp, Cupertino City Manager informed the Board that the Managers will be presenting the pension policy statement/pension reform to the League of CA Cities at the October 15^th division meeting. They are currently working on the talking points for the various audiences (employees, community, union leadership) in collaboration with Chuck Page and Melinda Hamilton. The CMA is consulting with Joint Venture Silicon Valley as they prepare to release their Index, which is a nationally recognized publication that measures the strength of the economy and the health of the community. The CMA continues to address Emergency Ambulance RFP and will address the likelihood of a universal taxi permit for SCC.

§ Betsy Shotwell, San Jose, reported that the Governor has until midnight, Sunday, October 11^th, to sign bills into law and has only signed three thus far. The Big 5 are meeting to discuss water legislation; the governor has announced that he may veto all the water bills. The governor is also not happy about the prison situation. If SB 67 passes, it will clean-up the Prop 1A Securitization. It passed the Assembly but not the Senate due to the Republicans’ opposition to the bill. Senator Maldonado is the only Republican that has supported it. The City of San Jose is heavily lobbying for this bill. The State was able to sell bond money on Wall Street.

Announcements/Joys and Challenges:

· Sunnyvale has three seats up for election.

· Melinda Hamilton has started her own city face book page: Hon. Melinda Hamilton.

· Los Gatos will be having its monthly 2^nd Saturday Festival: music, food, activities, etc.,

· Monday, October 26^th, 11 am, Ribbon Cutting for new Los Gatos Police Station.

· Sam Liccardo reported that the U.S. Secretary of Transportation recognized that SCC was the first county to be a self-funding transit transportation county.

· City of Mountain View is hosting the Healthy Silicon Valley Breakfast on Health Policies, November 6^th, 8 – 10 am, Mountain View City Hall.

· Los Altos will be hosting the Festival of Lights event in downtown, November 29^th, 6 pm.