05 - May 29, 2025 - May 21, 2025 Mayor's Commission Chair and Vice Chairs MeetingCITY COUNCIL INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM
Date: May 29, 2025
To: Cupertino City Council
From: Serena Tu, Executive Assistant
CC: Tina Kapoor, Acting City Manager
Re: Mayor and Commission Chairs Meeting on May 21, 2025
Background
On May 21, 2025, Mayor Liang Chao hosted the second Mayor and Commission Chairs
Meeting of the year at the Quinlan Community Center. This gathering offered an
opportunity for each Commission Chair to present updates on their commission’s recent
accomplishments, ongoing initiatives, and priorities since the first meeting in March.
Each Chair was allotted three minutes to provide highlights from their commission’s
recent activities. The updates reflected a broad range of topics including the new budget
format, public art policies, transportation and safety planning, housing and public
service funding. The meeting also highlighted community engagement initiatives
related to youth, library, and sustainability programs.
In response to the Mayor’s request, each commission’s three summary bullet points and
updated Commission Chair contact sheet are attached for your reference.
Sustainability Impact
No sustainability impact.
Fiscal Impact
No fiscal impact.
_____________________________________
Prepared by: Serena Tu, Executive Assistant
Reviewed by: Tina Kapoor, Acting City Manager
Approved for Submission by: Tina Kapoor, Acting City Manager
Attachments:
A – May 21, 2025 - Mayor’s Commission Chairs Meeting Summary Bullet Points
B – May 21, 2025 - Mayor’s Commission Chairs and Vice Chairs Contact Sheet
2025 Mayor and Commission Chairs Meeting
Quinlan Community Center, Social Room
10185 N Stelling Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014
MEETING AGENDA
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM
5:00 PM – 5:10 PM
Welcome and Introductions Mayor Chao
5:10 PM – 6:20 PM Commission Chairs Updates
(Three Minutes Each)
All
6:20 PM – 6:30 PM Closing Remarks Mayor Chao
AGENDA ITEMS
Please use this space to include up to three summary bullets highlighting key activities from each
commission.
AUDIT COMMITTEE
• Budget Format Review
ο On the April 28, 2025 Regular A/C meeting, Received the Updated Budget
Format Implementation Plan (IAP);
♣ This was an update of a Draft Budget Format presented previously
to CC in early March.
♣ A collaboration by City Staff and Advisory CPA firm Baker, Tilly.
♣ This version of the IAP made edits and changes in priorities as
recommended by CC including, for example:
• Remove the full financial policies to an appendix.
• Review the architecture and links to OpenGov;
• Set Special Projects Policy as a priority one.
ο A/C deliberated and forwarded to CC for its deliberation which occurred
on May 6, 2025.
• Quarterly Treasurer’s Report
ο On the May 12, 2025 Special A/C meeting, Received the Treasurer’s
Investment Report for the Quarter Ending March 31, 2025.
♣ The Report covers cash balances with Wells Fargo and investment
balances and transactions of the City’s investments with the Local
Agency Investment Fund (LAIF) and Chandler Asset Management.
♣ Covers approximately $300M total in Cash and Investment
balances.
ο A/C deliberated and accepted the Report, which was posted on the City’s
website on May 15, 2025 as a Council Informational Memo.
• Fraud, Waste and Abuse Reporting
ο On the April 28, 2025 Regular A/C meeting, Received from Moss Adams,
the City’s Internal Auditor, the Fraud, Waste and Abuse programs update
including the Hotline Statistics Quarterly Report.
• The hotline and reporting system are for reporting suspected fraud,
waste, and abuse involving City processes or committed by City
employees.
• The City is committed to investigating and resolving cases of fraud,
waste, and abuse promptly.
• You can find more information about the City of Cupertino's Fraud,
Waste, and Abuse Program on the City’s website.
ARTS AND CULTURE COMMISSION
• Arts and Culture Commission met on 5/19/25. We are pleased to have a full 5-
member commission now in 2025.
• We received a presentation from SV-Creates, a well-recognized non-profit with
the mission “to elevate Silicon Valley’s creative culture by building the capacity,
visibility, and accessibility of the arts”. It partners with SCC and with several
cities in the county as a valuable resource for consulting, providing grants and
supporting on all areas of arts.
• Study session to revisit the Municipal Code standards for art in public and
private development, including the standards in the Municipal Code and
developing Art-in-lieu fee policy.
o Our commission is proposing to broaden the use of public art funds to
include art programs like arts shows, grants etc that will benefit and
support Art and Culture in our community. Each commissioner brought
forward 2-3 new ideas that we will discuss further.
o Art-in-lieu policy updated draft will be reviewed in the July meeting of
Arts and Culture Commission.
BICYCLE PEDESTRIAN COMMISSION
• BPC recommended to the Council, Stevens Creek Blvd corridor vision study,
with City maintains final decision on any projects recommended by the study
and reaffirming the City’s commitment to resolution 19-089 that ask for alternate
transit alignment along I-280
• Reviewed the CIP FY2025-26 and 5 Yr plan and no recommendations were made
• Vision Zero Action plan next steps will be reviewed at the May 21 BPC meeting
HOUSING COMMISSION
• New Chair, Connie Cunningham; New Vice Chair, Yuyi He
• Commissioner Ryan Golze resigned on May 14 due to moving out of the Bay
Area. He wants to say that he was thankful for the opportunity to serve on
the Commission. I want to say that we will miss him for all his effective
support in our deliberations. I especially will miss his calm demeanor!
• During the months of February and March the Housing Commissioners
reviewed and scored applications received in response to the FY25-26 NOFA
for the upcoming year of Housing projects and programs. Funding sources
included the Community Development Block Grant, Permanent Local
Housing Allocation, Below Market Rate Affordable Housing Fund, Human
Services Grant, and County District 5 funding. Award categories included
public services to low-income households and affordable housing projects.
• The Housing Commission held a public hearing on March 27, 2025, to receive
presentations from all interested applicants and staff. The Commission gave
its recommendation to the City Council on funding distribution. There were
applicants from ten public service organizations and two affordable housing
projects. The Commission recommendation closely aligned with staff, except
that it gave more priority to the Charities Housing – Mary Ave project. The
City Council met on April 15. The Council increased the amount of funds
from the BMR AHF funds from $1,916,800 to $3,000,000 for Charities Housing
Mary Avenue project for ELI IDD housing. The Council asked the applicant
to consider adding more parking spaces.
• The Commission will meet on May 22, 2025, to approve submittal to HUD the
CDBG 2025-2030 Consolidated Plan (Con Plan) and 2025-2026 Annual Plan.
The plan was developed based upon the funding approval of the City Council
made during their April 15 meeting and the research findings presented
during the December 19 Special Meeting of the Housing Commission, where
commissioners discussed the research findings and development of the Con
Plan.
LIBRARY COMMISSION
• The Library Commission met on April 2 to review the final application for the
Poet Laureate program. We have officially begun the recruitment process for the
2026–2027 term. During the meeting, we also met with the current Poet Laureate,
watched her presentation, and promoted related activities.
• We received an email from a community member requesting extended weekend
hours for the library. This item has been added to the agenda for discussion at
our next meeting in June.
• In May, Library Commissioners attended the Library Volunteer Appreciation
Day to meet and thank all the dedicated library volunteers.
PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION
• Set up a sub-committee to explore how senior citizens can be supported. This is
composed of the Chair Seema Swamy and Commissioner Gopal Kumarappan.
The intention is to speak with the seniors in the Senior Center to understand their
wants and needs and to make recommendations to the City Council.
• We received an update on the Lawrence-Mitty Park development. Work on this is
in progress.
• The staff presented rates and usage of our facilities. They will be looking into
other neighboring cities and comparing how Cupertino’s rates compare,
especially in the disparity between resident and non-resident rates. They will
provide this report to the City Commissioners.
• The Chair presented the reasoning behind the recommendations for allocating
funding to various non-profit organizations that applied for funding to the City
Council.
• The Commissioners wanted to recommend data analytics or record-keeping
software to be made available to the City Staff to enable them to be able to gather
metrics quickly and eliminate the need for manual work. Currently, the staff is
expending time to calculate metrics. For example, the staff currently calculates
the number of usages of the facilities. However, to obtain the number of hours
the facilities were used, they said that they would have to go back and calculate
it. There are several cost-effective software options available that can enable
different metrics to be obtained easily and quickly. With the availability of
appropriate statistics, the City Staff should be able to have greater efficiencies.
PLANNING COMMISSION
• Planning Commission had a public hearing on 04/22 for Westport assisted living
and memory care project. The applicant requested to reduce the previously
approved retail square footage to 4,000 square foot and to eliminate the
underground car park. Applicant clarified that they would continue to provide
the 33 surface parking that was owed to the Westport senior living parcel and 6
surface parking to Taylor Morrison townhomes. Planning Commission passed a
motion 5-0 to recommend to City Council to accept the applicant proposal to
eliminate underground parking but to provide 93 surface parking spots and
further offered to waive the park-in-lieu fees in return for retail being increased
from 4,000 to 8,000 square feet with no additional surface parking requirement
for the added 4,000 square feet retail. PC further required transportation demand
management (TDM) study be done for the Westport employee parking and
adjust parking requirement accordingly per TDM.
• Planning Commission heard the Oversized Parking Ordinance on 04/22/25
presented by city attorney Floy Andrews. The Planning Commission
recommended that the item be continued and to see a revised draft of the
ordinance that increases the distance to be moved to 1 mile after 72 hours.
Further work is needed on how to balance the need to prevent long term
oversized vehicle parking while preserving the ability for Cupertino residents to
own oversized vehicles.
• Planning Commission reviewed the CIP projects for General Plan compliance on
04/22/25.
• On 05/13/25, the Planning Commission had a study session from Placeworx,
consultant working on Residential and Mixed-Use Objective Design Standards
(ODS). The Planning Commission provided input to Placeworx on ODS to ensure
that there would be attention given to facade, aesthetics, privacy, landscaping,
ground floor design including retail design, in addition to setbacks, stepbacks,
max height considerations. In addition, a separate section on townhones was
recommended. The Planning Commission asked for a diverse set of stakeholder
input to be collected and to return at more frequent intervals for input to the
Planning Commission and City Council.
• On 05/13/25 the Planning Commission had a public hearing on the Stevens Creek
Corridor Vision Study. Planning Commission passed a motion to recommend
that city council adopt the study, re-affirmed the recommendation of the bicycle
pedestrian commission that no lane reduction be considered and further added
the following qualifications:
o Prioritize investments in corridor identity and signage projects (seating,
shade trees, median landscaping, corridor signage and other identity and
signage work)
o Prioritize investments in safety, with a focus on technology and
innovation such as adaptive traffic signals, active pedestrian detection, red
light cameras, etc.
o Prioritize cost by limiting the corridor upto Bubb Rd and limiting study of
transit alternatives to grade-separated high-capacity transit.
o Invest in off-corridor bicycle and pedestrian networks such as Lawrence
Mitty and Tamien Innu trails.
PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION
• Public Safety Commission formed a subcommittee to investigate the needs of the
Sheriff’s Office in reducing crime and improving the case clearance rate. The
subcommittee is comprised of Vice Chair Rajaram and Commissioner Begur
• The Commission is prioritizing increased resident engagement, and are
promoting the City’s newsletters (cupertino.gov/enotification). As part of the
focus on engagement, the Sheriff’s Office and City staff gave a presentation about
the Neighborhood Watch program at the May meeting and City staff will discuss
the Block Leader and Citizen Corps programs at upcoming meetings
• Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office and Fire Department continue to report on monthly
data and trends. The Sheriff’s Office reported an overall reduction in crime but
noted an increase in identity theft and fraud
SUSTAINBILITY COMMISSION
• Sustainability Commissioners tabled at Earth & Arbor Day Fest, Farmers Market,
and Cherry Blossom to gather feedback from residents about making homes
more energy efficient. Over 500 survey responses were collected.
• The Commission met on April 17 and voted to recommend a new energy
efficiency policy for medium and large-sized commercial properties.
• We have voted myself, Susan Hansen, as the new Sustainability Commission
Chair and Alex Fung as the Vice Chair for this year.
TEEN COMMISSION
• Teen Commission has received a presentation from the Student Advisory Board
on Education Conference, the Youth Led Organization Cyber for Youth, and a
presentation on Disco at Dusk (an intergenerational event) and Techie Teens (a
program in which teens help seniors with their technical issues).
• Teen Commission also evaluated and approved the application from Cyber for
Youth to receive a Teen Commission Highlight which is a post on City of
Cupertino social media.
• Teen Commissioners have MC’d at the Earth and Arbor Day Festival.
TECHNOLOGY, INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION COMMISSION
• Cyber Security Seminar & Panel Event on Oct 1st
• Investigate use of Robotics Technology in Public Works
• Study Technology used in Public Safety in other Cities.
Mayor and Commissioners Chair and Vice Chair List
Audit Committee
Jonathan Orozco – Liaison
Janet Liang – Commission Admin
Eno Schmidt (ESchmidt@cupertino.gov) – Chair
Sheila Mohan (SMohan@cupertino.gov ) – Vice Chair
Arts & Culture Commission
Gian Martire – Liaison
Lindsay Nelson – Commission Admin
David Wang (dwang@cupertino.gov ) – Chair
Kiran Varshneya Rohra (krohra@cupertino.gov) – Vice Chair
Bicycle Pedestrian Commission
David Stillman – Liaison
Melissa Montez – Commission Admin
Ilango Ganga (IGanga@cupertino.gov) – Chair
Gerhard Eschelbeck (GEshelbeck@cupertino.gov ) – Vice Chair
Housing Commission
Nicky Vu – Liaison
Lindsay Nelson – Commission Admin
Connie Cunningham (CCunningham@cupertino.gov) – Chair
Ryan Golze (RGolze@cupertino.gov ) – Vice Chair
Library Commission
Molly James – Liaison
Jessica Suntay – Commission Admin
Liyan Zhao (lzhao@cupertino.gov ) – Chair
Janki Chokshi (jchokshi@cupertino.gov ) – Vice Chair
Parks & Recreation Commission
Jenny Koverman – Liaison ( Sonya Lee filling in during Jenny's leave)
Jessica Suntay – Commission Admin
Seema Swamy (sswamy@cupertino.gov) – Chair
Claudio Bono (cbono@cupertino.gov ) – Vice Chair
Planning Commission
Piu Ghosh – Liaison
Lindsay Nelson – Commission Admin
Santosh Rao (srao@cupertino.gov ) – Chair
Tracy Kosolcharoen (Tkosolcharoen@cupertino.gov ) – Vice Chair
Public Safety Commission
Marta Drown – Liaison
Melissa Robertson – Commission Admin
Nirmalendu Das (NDas@cupertino.gov) – Chair
Sidharth Rajaram (SRajaram@cupertino.gov ) – Vice Chair
Sustainability Commission
Victoria Morin – Liaison
Jasmin Lu – Commission Admin
Sonali Padgaonkar (spadgaonkar@cupertino.gov) – Chair
Susan Hansen (shansen@cupertino.gov ) – Vice Chair
Teen Commission
Sonya Lee – Liaison
Jessica Suntay – Commission Admin
Shivika Biswari (sbiswari@cupertino.gov) – Chair
Peter Chen– Vice Chair
TICC
Teri Gerhard – Liaison
April DaRosa – Commission Admin
Prabir Mohanty (pmohanty@cupertino.gov) – Chair
Sudeep Kumar (SudKumar@cupertino.gov ) – Vice Chair
2025 Calendar
March 19 In Person/ Quinlan
May 21 In Person/ Quinlan
July 16 In Person/ Quinlan
Sep 17 In Person/ Quinlan
Nov 19 In Person/ Quinlan