CC 04-16-2024 Item No. 11 Potential service-level reductions for FY 2024-25_Written CommunicationsWritten Communications
CC 04-16-2024
Item No. 11
Potential service-level
reductions for FY 2024-25
From:Heidi Kay Carson
To:City Council; City Clerk
Subject:4/16/2024 Agenda #11: Sidewalks and Trees Should be Maintained by the City
Date:Monday, April 15, 2024 3:29:37 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.
To the Cupertino City Council:
I understand from one of my neighbors that this subject is on the City of Cupertino council
meeting agenda for tomorrow, 4/16/24.
I would like to request that the City of Cupertino please continue to maintain city sidewalks
and city trees. This maintenance work should not be the responsibility of property owners who
not only pay (increasingly high) property tax, but who are in no position to be the best judges
of whether city sidewalks and trees are being adequately maintained.
Maintaining sidewalks and street trees in acceptable condition is a public matter and a matter
of public safety and thus should not be left to the discretion of individual residents.
Sincerely,
Heidi Carson
23647 Black Oak Way, Cupertino, CA 95014
650 868 8108
From:Kay Lau
To:City Council; City Clerk
Subject:4/16/2024 Agenda #11 Sidewalks and Trees should be maintained by City
Date:Monday, April 15, 2024 2:45:19 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.
To the Cupertino City Counsel,
I understand the subject is on the city counsel meeting on 4/16/24. With all the waste that
we have with the city of Cupertino budget, we believe the citizen safety comes first. During
a time that there are skyrocketing cost of living is happening, the last thing the citizens can
deal with is maintaining the sidewalks that may be in desperate need of repair and putting
the onus on the citizens in pure wrong.
Please continue to maintain city sidewalks and city trees. This should not be the
responsibility of property owners (who pay property tax). Having sidewalks and street trees
in acceptable condition is a matter of public safety.
Thanks,
Kay Lau (Cupertino Resident since 1999)
From:Alicia Taam
To:City Council; City Clerk
Cc:ataam@comcast.net
Subject:4/16/2024 Agenda #11 Sidewalks and Trees should be maintained by City
Date:Monday, April 15, 2024 1:58:48 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.
To the Cupertino City Counsel,
It has come to our attention that the City of Cupertino wants property owners to maintain city
sidewalks and city street trees and will be discuss this issue at the 4/16/2024 City Council meeting
agenda #11.
We think that sidewalks and trees are public safety issues that need to be handled by the City. We
believe that this is a really poor policy idea to shift the burden to property owners (who might not do
the work or do a substandard job). This should not be the responsibility of property owners (who
pay property tax). Having sidewalks and street trees in acceptable condition is a matter of public
safety. Instead, the City Counsel should look for other ways to cut government waste. Please
continue to maintain the city sidewalks and city street trees.
Regards,
Greg & Alicia Taam
(408) 882-7557
From:Tom Kritzer
To:City Council; City Clerk
Subject:4/16/2024 Agenda #11 Sidewalks and Trees should be maintained by City
Date:Monday, April 15, 2024 12:44:37 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.
I understand that the city council is considering transferring responsibility for street trees and
sidewalks to home-owners. Those of us who have lived here for a while remember when
home-owners had this responsibility. Because home-owners did a poor job maintaining
trees and walks, and because of the public safety aspects of proper maintenance, the city "took
over" responsibility and tacked notices on all street trees advising home-owners that they were
not to attempt this maintenance. In my opinion, the city has basically neglected this
maintenance. Now that the trees have grown uncontrolled for several years (thanks to the
city's neglect), the responsibility and cost to get trees back in control is being shifted back to
home-owners - the same home-owners who did a poor job before. Further, the home-owners
have no experience or training in the areas of public safety required for such maintenance.
This is difficult to understand and a poorly-thought-out idea.
You can't just keep switching this responsibility back and forth. I understand that the city has
fiscal issues (most of which were brought on by the extremely poor management of the city
council for the past several years), but we now seem to be on a much better path forward with
a more responsible council with better governance in mind. Please don't take us backwards.
Thank you for considering these points.
Tom Kritzer 21785 Hyannisport Dr
From:Michael Laitila
To:City Clerk
Subject:Fwd: Trees and sidewalks
Date:Monday, April 15, 2024 8:11:51 AM
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.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Michael Laitila <muddledthrough@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 8:09 AM
Subject: Trees and sidewalks
To: <citycouncil@cupertino.org>
Please consider not changing the current tree and sidewalk maintenance that the city takes
care of. The city workers do a professional job maintaining these assets. If citizens have the
responsibility of maintaining these it would become a safety issue because many will forego
making repairs needed.
Sincerely,
Michael Laitila
From:Mehrnaz Hada
To:City Council; City Clerk
Subject:4/16/2024 Agenda #11 Sidewalks and Trees should be maintained by City
Date:Sunday, April 14, 2024 11:09:14 AM
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.
To the Cupertino City Counsel, I understand the subject is on the city counsel meeting on
4/16/24. With all the waste that we have with the city of Cupertino budget, we believe the
citizen safety comes first. During a time that there are skyrocketing cost of living is
happening, the last thing the citizens can deal with is maintaining the sidewalks that may be
in desperate need of repair and putting the onus on the citizens in pure wrong.
Please continue to maintain city sidewalks and city trees. This should not be the
responsibility of property owners (who pay property tax). Having sidewalks and street trees
in acceptable condition is a matter of public safety.
Regards,
Mehrnaz Hada
408-718-5863
From:Danessa Techmanski
To:City Clerk; City Council
Subject:City Tree and Sidewalk Maintenance.
Date:Sunday, April 14, 2024 8:30:18 AM
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 Council,
I am deeply concerned about shifting city tree and sidewalk maintenance to our property
owners. Residents may be too busy, unaware, or unable to afford fixing faulty sidewalks or the
trimming of dangerous damaged tree limbs which could be a serious danger to our residents. I
also think that this puts a financial burden on some of our elderly residents who are on tight
fixed incomes, and they are more likely to suffer from a serious injury in the event of a
sidewalk fall.
Please keep tree and sidewalk maintenance as a city service. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Danessa Techmanski
32-Year Cupertino Resident
From:Frank Swanson
To:City Council
Cc:City Clerk
Subject:Council Meeting 4/16/2024 Agenda #11 Maintenance of Sidewalks and Trees
Date:Friday, April 12, 2024 4:12:33 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.
I strongly urge the continued maintenance of our sidewalks
and trees in the median by done by the City of Cupertino.
This is how it has been done for as long as I have lived
here (for over 54 years now). And so we don’t have the
hodgepodge look that other cities have where home/property
owners decide if, what and when to do anything with regard
to maintenance of their street trees and sidewalks. This
maintenance should NOT be the responsibility of property
owners (who pay property taxes). Furthermore, and most
importantly, having our sidewalks and trees maintained by
the City in a uniform, consistent and acceptable condition
is primarily a matter of public safety.
Sincerely,
— Frank & Bev Swanson
10826 Linda Vista Drive
Cupertino, CA. 95014
From:Vaishnavi & Sridhar
To:City Council; City Clerk
Subject:4/16/2024 Agenda #11 Sidewalks and Trees should be maintained by City
Date:Friday, April 12, 2024 2:32:03 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.
To Whomsoever this may concern at the Cupertino City Council,
I am a 20 year resident of Cupertino. I think the sidewalks and trees are public safety
issues that need to be handled by the City. The idea of shifting the burden to property
owners (who might not do the work or do as good of a job) is simply bad policy.
Please continue to maintain city sidewalks and city trees. This should not be the
responsibility of property owners (who pay property tax). Having sidewalks and street trees
in acceptable condition is a matter of public safety.
Sincerely,
Vaishnavi Sridhar
From:Michael Laitila
To:City Clerk
Subject:Street Trees
Date:Friday, April 12, 2024 12:37:08 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 try to keep the maintenance of the Street trees and the sidewalk maintenance in the city
budget. The city has trained professionals to do the maintenance correctly which otherwise
would be a safety concern to all if left to the property owners.
Sincerely,
Michael Laitila
From:Rhoda Fry
To:City Clerk; City Council
Subject:City Council 4/16/2024 item #11 sidewalks and trees
Date:Friday, April 12, 2024 9:10:40 AM
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 Council,
Please continue to maintain city trees and city sidewalks and do not shift this work to property
owners.
City sidewalks and tree-maintenance are a matter of public safety.
Look for other places to save money.
Thanks,
Rhoda Fry
Virus-free.www.avg.com
From:Jennifer Griffin
To:City Clerk
Cc:grenna5000@yahoo.com
Subject:Fwd: City Council Meeting (4/16/24) Item 11, Service Reductions (Trees &Sidewalks)
Date:Wednesday, April 10, 2024 8:22:14 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 the following as Public Comment on Item 11 (Reduction of Services ) in the
Cupertino City Council meeting on 4/16/24. Thank you.
Best regards,
Jennifer Griffin
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: City Council Meeting (4/16/24) Item 11, Service Reductions (Trees &Sidewalks)
From: Jennifer Griffin <grenna5000@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2024, 8:19 PM
To: citycouncil@cupertino.org,cityclerk@cupertino.org
CC: grenna5000@yahoo.com
Dear City Council:
(Please add this to the Public Record for Item Number 11 of the City Council Meeting
On 4/16/24: Especially the city not maintaining street trees or sidewalks).
I am very distressed to see the city of Cupertino actually talking about not maintaining its
Street trees or sidewalks. This is not the type of talk a city of Cupertino's caliber engages in.
This is the type of behavior some poor downtrodden little hamlet would have to stoop to.
My husband has said repeatedly, since the first attempts to not maintain the street trees or
Sidewalks were first proposed to save the library hours some years ago, that a city that
Cannot maintain its street trees or sidewalks should just fold up and go out of business.
A city that cannot maintain its street trees or sidewalks has to be so far gone and so financially
Destitute that the trees and sidewalks would be the last things to go.
I really wonder what priorities the city is thinking of when it would even stoop to
Consider something like this. As a resident of Cupertino I can think of a lot of things
That could be jettisoned before we went after our trees and sidewalks.
The fact that people were talking about getting rid of crossing guards makes me
Wonder at how this list of "get-rid-offs" were arrived at.
Also, I have been really confused about all these "focus group" budget meetings this week.
What is the point of all of these? Are some of these focus groups groups of tree haters
And sidewalk haters who were corralled together into a ten person focus group
So they all could chime out how they hate trees and sidewalks? I don't get it.
When my neighborhood of Rancho Rinconada annexed into Cupertino in 2000
We had beautiful big trees and beautiful sidewalks. The city of Cupertino promised
To maintain our trees and an amount of 50,000 dollars was put aside for tree maintenance
And the city bought a big tree trimming truck with a boom to maintain the trees.
We were the only neighborhood in Cupertino with big trees. We still have big beautiful
Trees and beautiful sidewalks. Public Works and the Tree Crew have done a marvelous job
Maintaining our beautiful big trees and our beautiful sidewalks.
Rancho Rinconada is a virtual garden and paradise and Public Works makes it so. We have
Few parks in our neighborhood, but our big trees and our sidewalks makes it look and
Feel like a park. Our residents and neighbors walk down our sidewalks and under our
Trees and find a great deal of rest and relaxation.
I feel that trying to eliminate our street trees and maintenance of our sidewalks is
Unfairly singling out Rancho Rinconada because we have big trees and lovely sidewalks. I am
Very proud of my neighborhood of big trees and sidewalks which has been a hallmark
Of Rancho Rinconada since it was built in the county of Santa Clara in 1950. My great-aunt
Was an original owner of a house in Rancho Rinconada so I spent a great deal of time
Here as a child and I remember the big trees and the beautiful sidewalks. It was a paradise
Then and it is now. This is in part to the residents who live here and care about Rancho
Rinconada and Public Works who do such good job caring for our neighborhood.
Cupertino made a promise to Rancho Rinconada in 2000 to take care of our trees and
Sidewalks. It has done a wonderful job of keeping its promise. Not maintaining the beautiful
trees
Or beautiful sidewalks in Rancho Rinconada would mean the city had broken its promise
To our beautiful neighborhood of Rancho Rinconada.
Please save our trees and sidewalks and don't break Cupertino's promise to Rancho Rinconada.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Griffin
Rancho Rinconada Resident