CC 02-06-2024 Item No. 11 Cessation of Hybrid and Committee Meetings_Written CommunicationsCC 2-06-2024
Item No. 11
Cessation of Hybrid
Commission and Committee
Meetings
Written Communications
From:Chandra Sakthivel
To:City Council
Cc:City Clerk
Subject:Hybrid Meeting for Commission meetings
Date:Monday, February 5, 2024 12:35:43 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you
recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Hello Mayor Sheila and City Council,
One of your goals is public engagement and transparency. It is therefore deeply disappointing
that you have chosen to shut off access to the public via hybrid meetings for the parks and rec
and possibly other commissions.
I request that you let your actions reflect the words that are etched in our city goals around
public engagement and transparency.
Kindly prioritize the immediate resumption for all commission meetings to hybrid access over
zoom including public comment. We do not need professional recordings if cost is the issue.
We can use zoom recordings and have individual commissioners and staff join on zoom while
in person and use zoom video recording.
Please kindly resume hybrid access at the earliest for all commission meetings while limiting
professional video recording if needed.
It is also disappointing that staff chooses to save cost on this item denying public their right to
participation in an accessible way for seniors, young families, youth and teen.
If staff were serious about saving cost, they would close all unfilled reqs today and start to
shut down all consulting studies and spend on consultants followed by trimming our overly
bloated and top heavy administration. Let’s cut headcount in community development,
economic development. Let’s cut headcount in legal and city managers. Why do we need 3
city managers, 5 in legal. Let’s get it down to 1 city manager and 1 legal.
Please, we elect you to be the people’s representatives, not staff’s representatives. Please
restore the public faith in Cupertino commitment to its goals for public engagement annd
transparency by bringing back zoom access to all commission meetings including ability to
offer public comment at the earliest hopefully this week itself.
Thank you in advance for your attention to the above.
Thanks
Chandra
4083069919
From:Santosh Rao
To:City Clerk
Subject:Fw: City council, please reject staff recommendation for agenda item 11 for 02/06 council and restore hybrid
meetings for parks and rec and bike/ped.
Date:Monday, February 5, 2024 12:33:53 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you
recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Dear City Clerk,
Kindly include in written communication for 02/06 council meeting.
Thanks,
Santosh Rao
Begin forwarded message:
On Monday, February 5, 2024, 12:29 PM, Santosh Rao <santo_a_rao@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello Mayor Sheila and City Council,
One of your goals is public engagement and transparency. It is therefore deeply
disappointing that you have chosen to shut off access to the public via hybrid
meetings for the parks and rec and possibly other commissions.
I request that you let your actions reflect the words that are etched in our city
goals around public engagement and transparency.
Kindly prioritize the immediate resumption for all commission meetings to
hybrid access over zoom including public comment. We do not need professional
recordings if cost is the issue. We can use zoom recordings and have individual
commissioners and staff join on zoom while in person and use zoom video
recording.
Please kindly resume hybrid access at the earliest for all commission meetings
while limiting professional video recording if needed.
It is also disappointing that staff chooses to save cost on this item denying public
their right to participation in an accessible way for seniors, young families, youth
and teen.
If staff were serious about saving cost, they would close all unfilled reqs today
and start to shut down all consulting studies and spend on consultants followed by
trimming our overly bloated and top heavy administration. Let’s cut headcount in
community development, economic development. Let’s cut headcount in legal
and city managers. Why do we need 3 city managers, 5 in legal. Let’s get it down
to 1 city manager and 1 legal.
Please, we elect you to be the people’s representatives, not staff’s representatives.
Please restore the public faith in Cupertino commitment to its goals for public
engagement annd transparency by bringing back zoom access to all commission
meetings including ability to offer public comment at the earliest hopefully this
week itself.
Thank you in advance for your attention to the above.
Thanks,
Santosh Rao
From:Peggy Griffin
To:City Council
Cc:City Clerk; Ursula Syrova (she/her)
Subject:2023-02-06 City Council Meeting Agenda Item 11 - Stopping hybrid commission and committee meetings
Date:Sunday, February 4, 2024 10:07:33 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you
recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
PLEASE INCLUDE THIS EMAIL AS PART OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE ABOVE CITY
COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA ITEM.
Dear Mayor Mohan, Council Members and Staff,
I realize the city has a “structural deficient” and there is a need to conserve funds but removing
hybrid meetings
Reduces the ability for the public to participate, especially the younger parents with children
Is a hardship to the disabled and low income residents that have no way to physically attend
meetings or struggle to attend.
Is a hardship to those seniors who no longer drive at night.
Encourages more driving
Increases the need for parking at and near Community Hall
Hybrid meetings are a positive rather than punitive way to encourage the reduction of greenhouse
gases. That said, you are going to do it anyway.
I’d like to point out that if you go back to the “pre-COVID” situation, the Parks and Recreation
meetings SHOULD BE held in Community Hall AND the meetings should be RECORDED! The Park and
Rec meetings video and audio recordings have been available to the public since 2005! That’s
almost 20 years!
REQUEST: YOU, as our representatives, can REQUIRE the Parks and Rec meetings to return to
Community Hall AND that their meetings be recorded both via video and audio to be available to the
public.
YOU can include this requirement as part of the motion. Please do it!
The decisions made by the Parks and Rec Commission directly impact the quality of life of our
residents. As you can see in the attendance, it ebbs and flows based on when the review of a park
or plan appears on the agenda, as do all the other commissions.
PLEASE return the Parks and Rec Commission meetings to Community Hall AND provide the video
and audio recordings to the public.
Sincerely,
Peggy Griffin
From:Jean Bedord
To:City Clerk
Subject:Fwd: Agenda Item #12: Objection to Cessation of Hybrid Commission and Committee Meetings
Date:Sunday, February 4, 2024 9:26:58 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you
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Ooops, I meant Agenda Item #11, not #12.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jean Bedord <Jean@bedord.com>
Date: Sun, Feb 4, 2024 at 4:09 PM
Subject: Agenda Item #12: Objection to Cessation of Hybrid Commission and Committee
Meetings
To: City Council <citycouncil@cupertino.org>, Cupertino City Manager's Office
<manager@cupertino.org>, City Clerk <cityclerk@cupertino.org>, Bill Mitchell
<BillM@cupertino.org>, City Attorney's Office <CityAttorney@cupertino.org>,
<mattm@cupertino.org>
Mayor Mohan, Vice-Mayor Fruen and Councilmembers Chao, Moore and Wei,
I am very disappointed by the staff report which fails to address underlying issues with city
communication with the community identified in my email sent to council for the Dec. 5
council meeting. The report misrepresents the actual viewing of commission meetings, in
particular the Parks and Recreation meetings:
YouTube, Feb. 2, 2023 meeting 86 views vs.11 in staff report
YouTube, Mar. 2, 2023 meeting 68 views vs. 11 in staff report
YouTube, April 6, 2023 meeting 97 views vs. 3 in staff report
YouTube, May 4, 2023 meeting 60 views vs. 1 in staff report
YouTube, June 1, 2023 meeting 78 views vs. 4 in staff report
Leaders in the community are busy people, and often have meeting conflicts which
preclude attending live meetings, or even hybrid meetings so we rely on recordings to
know what is happening with city government. YouTube views of city council meetings are
significantly higher than in-person views for the same reason. The League of Women Voters
posts Zoom recordings of their candidate forums, and have found they reach a much broader
audience than their in-person forums. This is work done by volunteers, so why is it so
difficult and expensive for the city to provide recordings for all commission meetings? These
do not have to be hybrid, but can be video for the major commissions, Planning and Parks and
Recreation, and audio recordings for the other commissions, all posted within a week.
Shouldn't Cupertino city government provide channels for communication which meet
the time constraints of our community? Stale and inadequate minutes preclude
meaningful engagement - recordings are much more accurate instead of being filtered
through staff who may be unfamiliar with the overall context. BTW, this change in policy
does not reflect increased staff time (and costs) to provide discussion minutes, rather than just
action minutes to accompany recordings.
I urge council to return this report to staff, with direction to provide cost-effective
alternatives as outlined in my email that would provide:
* Video recordings for Parks and Recreation Commission, as well as Planning Commission
* Audio recordings for the other commissions.
* Minimum retention period of 8 years (two election cycles) Even better, continue previous
archiving policy for the two commissions plus city council since
2005.https://www.cupertino.org/our-city/videos-on-demand/all-televised-meetings Archives
are important, not just a nuisance for city staff.
Concerned Cupertino resident,
Jean Bedord
Oral Communications: Effectiveness of city
commissions / hybrid meetings, Council Meeting, Dec. 5,
2023
On Mon, Dec 4, 2023 at 2:25 PM Jean Bedord <Jean@bedord.com> wrote:
As the process of filling commissions moves forward, the city council and staff need to
reexamine the role of commissions. Theoretically, they serve as advisory bodies to the city
council, but mechanisms to function in that role are missing. This is not new -- over the
last ten to fifteen years I've heard councilmembers express their frustration with the
commissions, particularly when a commission has "gone off the rails". The monthly
meeting with the mayor is not communication with the entire council, and the rotating
representation from individual commissions means lack of continuity. The Nov. 7 council
meeting Informational Memorandum from City Manager Wu (Item #14) regarding hybrid
commission meetings was inadequate and failed to acknowledge the underlying problematic
communication with commissions.
This lack of communication and effectiveness can be addressed in steps:
* Continue Planning Commission and resume Parks and Recreation meetings video
recordings. The city has been archiving videos for these two commissions plus city
council since 2005.https://www.cupertino.org/our-city/videos-on-demand/all-televised-
meetings This makes sense, since their actions an have impact years beyond individual
commissioners and council members. The Parks and Recreation Master Plan took years to
develop; the housing element covers eight years, and there are other long term projects.
* All other commissions (1) provide a conference call number for residents to call in
during the meeting (Pre-Zoom, I used freeconferencecall.com for committee meetings -
works well for low volume conferencing) and (2) audio record every meeting (this is
already done to ensure minutes are accurate, but the recordings are erased after minutes are
approved, and NOT posted). Post audio recordings on cupertino.legistar.com within 5
days after the meeting.
* Post all commission AND council meeting draft minutes
on cupertino.legistar.com within 5 days after the meeting. Draft minutes are seldom revised,
so not problematic with clear labels. This will improve transparency with the public and
council since they won't have to wait two weeks to three months to find out what actions
were taken. Delayed minutes are useless for effective communication. Replace the draft
minutes with the approved minutes after the next meeting.
* Include the draft minutes for every commission meeting in city council
Informational Items as meetings occur. Council then has time to review the minutes and
provide direction to the staff liaison and the commission prior to the next meeting. If
clarification is needed, councilmembers can listen to the audio recordings.
The next step is to for council to review the objectives of the commissions, and areas
that each commission can contribute value within the scope of the city and council work
plans. Council, with the guidance of the staff liaisons, needs to drive the direction of the
commissions. There has been significant churn on commissions as well as staff in the last 8
years, so there is a lack of institutional knowledge. Some highly qualified commissioners
decide to quit after their first term, feeling that the meetings were a waste of time. Other
strong community members won't apply to commissions for the same reasons, even though
they are otherwise civically engaged.
I urge the council to direct staff to implement these steps effective on January 1, 2024. City
commissions need to be more effective, so they no longer waste resident and staff time.
A concerned resident and former library commissioner,
Jean Bedord