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11-30-20 Unoffical Minutes and Notes Addendum UNOFFICIAL MINUTES ALL COMMISSIONS Monday, November 30, 2020 SPECIAL MEETING At 6:00 p.m. Assistant City Manager Dianne Thompson convened the Special Joint Meeting of the Cupertino Audit Committee, Bicycle Pedestrian Commission, Fine Arts Commission, Housing Commission, Library Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission, Planning Commission, Public Safety Commission, Sustainability Commission, Teen Commission, and Technology, Information, and Communications Commission. This was a teleconference meeting with no physical location. City Staff Present: Assistant City Manager Dianne Thompson, Assistant to the City Manager Katy Nomura, Management Fellow Astrid Robles, and City Clerk Kirsten Squarcia. All attendees teleconferenced for the meeting. NEW BUSINESS 1. Subject: Consideration of updates to the Commissioner Handbook Recommended Action: Consider and provide input on the following updates to the Commissioner Handbook including simplification and improved readability. Written communications for this item included a staff presentation and emails to City staff. Assistant City Manager Dianne Thompson introduced the item. Management Fellow Astrid Robles gave a presentation. Assistant to the City Manager Katy Nomura answered questions. City Clerk Kirsten Squarcia opened the public comment period and the following people spoke. Staff notes are included in the attached Addendum “Notes and Questions from Nov. 30, 2020 Joint Commissioner Meeting on Commissioner Handbook.” All Commissions Minutes November 30, 2020 Page 2 Housing Commissioner Connie Cunningham. (Submitted written comments). Parks and Recreation Commissioner Gopal Kumarappan Bicycle Pedestrian Commissioner Ilango Ganga Library Commissioner Liana Crabtree. (Submitted written comments). Housing Commissioner Tessa Parish. (Submitted written comments). Planning Commissioner Kitty Moore Parks and Recreation Commissioner Neesha Tambe Library Commissioner Rahul Vasanth Bicycle Pedestrian Commissioner Erik Lindskog Parks and Recreation Commissioner Carol Stanek. (Submitted written comments). City Clerk Kirsten Squarcia read emails on behalf of Audit Committee member Eno Schmidt, Fine Arts Commissioner Sudha Kasamsetty, Public Safety Commissioner Lakshminarasimha Ankireddipally, and Planning Commissioner David Fung. City Clerk Kirsten Squarcia closed the public comment period. City staff received commissioner input on updates to the Commissioner Handbook. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS – None ADJOURNMENT At 6:42 p.m., City Clerk Kirsten Squarcia adjourned the meeting. /s/Kirsten Squarcia________________ Kirsten Squarcia, City Clerk 1 Addendum: Notes and Questions from Nov. 30, 2020 Joint Commissioner Meeting on Commissioner Handbook • Public Comment o None • Discussion o Housing Commissioner Connie Cunningham: (also emailed comments)  Likes • #9 pg. 7 under agendas, very good clarification on future agenda setting • Very good to have an agenda item on staff updates and commissioner activity reports  Concerns • Ethics policy is not dated or signed; how do we know if it is current? o Last sentence on pg. 2 is incomplete from the Ethics Policy, it should be an approved and signed document. • Too many written updates/reports o Pg. 5 under commissions it says periodic written updates at least every 6 months and then there is a 6-month report on pg. 9 under City Work Program, so this is confusing, they are two separate reports, what is actually being requested there? o Having reports aside from the minutes (summary or action) is more unproductive work for commissions and liaisons with little added utility. What is the purpose for the reports, who is the audience, who prepares the reports, are there requirements, I recommend just using the meeting minutes to capture the needed information • Unclear if Council approval is needed for Subcommittees o Pg. 7 under Subcommittees does not mention needing City Council approval for subcommittees. I recall in the past that some didn’t need approval from Council and others did, this section should explain whether Council approval is necessary to create a subcommittee and why.  General comments • There should be training about meeting decorum and how the Chair is supposed to protect commissioners from the public in unruly meetings o Answered: There will be training on meeting decorum in the new year and ethics training o Parks and Recreation Commissioner Gopal Kumarappan  General comments: • Do we have the changes uploaded from the old version to the new version? What are the key points that were changed? o Answered: There aren’t any key points since its an entirely new handbook. 2 • Pg. 7 under subcommittees Does not understand what the Brown Act limitations are in the subcommittee section. Doesn’t understand that section? o Answered: Depending on the subcommittee it may have Brown Act requirements. It is up to the liaison to help guide commissions through that. Depends on whether a subcommittee is ad-hoc, temporary, or ongoing.  Likes: • Thank you for making the handbook easy to read  Concerns • Interacting with the public beyond public comment o Pg. 5 under Chair, how are we supposed to interact with the public beyond public comment because it can be lengthy and we don’t know when to cut people off from talking over their limit, there should be guidelines on how to do this? o Bicycle Pedestrian Commissioner Ilango Ganga  Likes • This document is now concise and easy to read. I appreciate the staff that worked on this document. Thank you.  Concerns • Unclear on eligibility for commissioners o Can we clarify the eligibility criteria? Can a commissioner be part of other commissions, is family member allowed to apply? • Unclear on conflict of interest rules o Are there any specific city rules, aside from FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) rules, that explains what is allowed and not allowed for advisory commissions. It is clear for planning but not for the others • No mention of subcommittees collaborating with another subcommittee or commissions collaborating with other commissions o The subcommittee does not mention what happens with this. There is currently a collaboration with TICC and Bicycle Pedestrian Commission  General Comments • Record all commission meetings since we have the technology now o Library Commissioner Liana Crabtree (also emailed comments)  Likes • Thank you for working diligently on this and making it more user friendly and easy to read  Concerns • Want clarity on subcommittees and Brown Act requirements 3 o What are the conflicts with the Brown Act and when are we subject to those requirements? We never meet in a quorum so I would like to understand what the Brown Act concerns are. • Wants clarity on email requirements o When exactly can I forward an email, to who, and what is the concern if I forward it to myself? o Housing Commissioner Tessa Parish  General Comments • The city clerk description does not include their important role in facilitating emails to and from the public. For transparency, I would like to suggest an archive record request with the keywords used and result so that it is easy to search, this job is important and should be listed in this handbook (not sure this is relevant) • The City Clerk’s actions have legal consequences so any compliance issues should be reviewed by an attorney. • Add the bold to the section talking about commissioners meeting with resident groups and developers: “before and or of interest of the commission” so that commissioners are not limited to only items that are before them during that year. o Planning Commissioner Kitty Moore  Likes • This is great and appreciate the shortened version. The fact that its down to 10 pages is amazing.  Concerns • Subcommittee recommendation #5 is not in the handbook o This refers to the recommendation that there should be a brief description of the top three commission work items on the commission’s webpage. This needs to be explained somewhere but it is adding more work. • Clarity on subcommittee recommendation #30 regarding the City Work Program o What is the timeline for the first draft of the City Work Program and when should commissions and committees be coming up with ideas?  General comments • Can presentations from staff be sent earlier? • Liked the summary table from Rosenberg’s and Roberts rules of order that was presented to Council on 1/21/20. Can this table and Attachment A be linked-in with the other documents? • Palo Alto has a City Council Procedures and Protocols Handbook (50 pages long), City Council should consider adopting something similar, especially the section on how motions are made. 4 o Parks and Recreation Commissioner Neesha Tambe  Likes • This is great, having it shortened is very nice!  General Comments • It would be great to have something where every newly appointed chair can review Rosenberg’s rules of order to help them facilitate meetings. (A onetime video recording for example) • Should have a running list of everything the commission is working on listed on the website instead of just the top three • Post presentations earlier • Regarding filling of vacancies, is it possible that Council appointed alternates are relevant for that Council cycle and if the Council cycle changes, then the alternates should change as well • Amend the section where it says commissioners cannot direct city staff to include “Commission agendas are determined by the Chair or two commissioners and cannot be removed unless its discussed at a meeting” o Library Commissioner Rahul Vasanth  Concerns • Clarification on ad hoc subcommittees o Second sentence in subcommittee section should be removed or more detail should be provided about the difference between the ad hoc subcommittees  Likes • Loved reading this document instead of the 30-page doc, it is a welcome change. o Parks and Recreation Commissioner Carol Stanek  General Comments • Get presentations earlier  Concerns • Too many written reports o What is Council going to do with these? They can just look at our minutes. On pg. 5 under chair responsibilities it says there are periodic written updates at least every 6 months and on pg. 9 under City work program there is another annual report due August 15th, so are the 2 written updates in addition to the August 15th report or is that one considered one of the two written updates? In the past we used to present at least twice to Council at a Council meeting, and it allowed for better interaction. • Fix readability of Future Agenda Setting 5 o Pg. 7 last sentence under Future Agenda Setting should be clarified, too long should be shortened or split into two. o Bicycle Pedestrian Commissioner Erik Lindskog  Concerns • Chair’s responsibility over subcommittees o Can only the Chair appoint subcommittees regardless of what the commissioners want? Can they also appoint who sits on the subcommittee? This seems to go against the spirit of the role of the chair as described in the rest of the handbook, which is to run the meeting and set the agenda.