City Council Meeting

Watch the November 15, 2022 Meeting (Part 1, Part 2) (Agenda)

City Council Actions:

Ceremonial Matters and Presentations

Proclamation Recognizing November 13 to 19 as United Against Hate Week

Council presented a proclamation recognizing November 13 to 19 as United Against Hate Week. Anthony Rodriguez, Senior Advisor for the Office of Mayor Jesse Arreguin, accepted the proclamation.

Proclamation Recognizing November 26 as Small Business Saturday

Council presented a proclamation recognizing November 26 as Small Business Saturday to the following people who accepted the proclamation on behalf of local businesses serving the community:

Vicky Tsai, DryClean Pro
Efren Flores, Holder's Country Inn
Thalia Swangchaeng, Pineapple Thai
Kishore Muvva, Trinethra Indian Supermarket
Gloria You and Lucas Lyu, Sun Design Center

Certificates Recognizing Silicon Valley Korean School Volunteers

Council presented certificates of appreciation to volunteers of the Silicon Valley Korean School. Volunteers at the Silicon Valley Korean School (SVKS) accepted the certificates.

Postponements and Orders of the Day

Council added Item 24 to the Consent Calendar.

Reports by Council and Staff

Councilmembers provided brief reports and announcements on their public activities since the prior regular Council meeting.

Councilmembers provided updates on their Committee assignments.

Councilmembers provided updates on their Subcommittee assignments.

City Manager provided updates on City business.

Administrative Services Department provided departmental updates.

Consent Calendar

Council approved Items 9-21 on the Consent Calendar as recommended in the Agenda. Council added Item 24 to the Consent Calendar under Postponements and Orders of the Day, which was then pulled for discussion.

City Hall Renovation Project Update

Following staff presentation and discussion, Council took action to:

receive the report of the City Hall Project Subcommittee; and

direct staff to include the City Hall Renovation – including full seismic retrofit, MEP/IT, interior finishes, and layout complete refurbishment, at the level of California Building Code’s structural “Risk Category IV” for approximately $27,500,000, as part of the fiscal year 2023-24 proposed Capital Improvement Program (CIP) project and budget.

Second Reading of Ordinances

Amendments to Implement State Legislation (Senate Bill 9)

City Clerk Kirsten Squarcia read the title of Ordinance No. 22-2246: "An Ordinance of the Cupertino City Council amending chapters 18.20.170, 19.08.030, 19.12.030, 19.12.110, 19.28.040, 19.28.050, 19.28.110, 19.28.150, 19.28.170, 19.40.050, 19.40.060, 19.40.090, and 19.112.060 to adopt standards for ministerial approval of duplexes and lot splits in Single-Family Residential zoning districts."

Council took action to:

read Ordinance No. 22-2246 by title only, and that the City Clerk's reading constitutes the second reading thereof; and

enact Ordinance No. 22-2246.

Ordinances and Action Items

First Quarter Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2022-2023

Following staff presentation and discussion, Council took action to:

accept the City Manager's First Quarter Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2022-2023; and

adopt Resolution No. 22-141 approving Budget Modification #2223-244 increasing appropriations by $1,806,337 and revenues by $920,149.

Mayor's Corner with Darcy Paul

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

We hope that this finds you well this holiday season. With Thanksgiving being this week, we are grateful to report that the City continues to be doing well. We are currently in healthy fiscal shape and we continue to allocate public resources carefully. As a result, we are able to proceed with a number of projects of good benefit to the general public while maintaining competitive compensation and benefits for our City employees. Budgeting for this year, as in past years, has been within projected revenues, and remains so after the first several months of the fiscal year, where our anticipated fund balances have in fact increased.

As we proceed with potentially challenging future times, it is important to note that the practices that brought us to the point that we are at in this moment have involved a constant and honest assessment of our conditions. While not accurately reflected in all quarters for a variety of reasons, our practices and as a result our conditions have resulted in a community that is successful and capable of balancing a divergent array of perspectives in order to produce results that have been consistently improving both process-wise and with regard to outcomes.

This past month, our Council helped to welcome a beloved local business that relocated from San Jose to Cupertino. Holder’s Country Inn restaurant has a great story, where Efren Flores, an employee who started working there at the age of 16, was able to purchase the business several years ago when the prior ownership was intending to close shop. Then this past year a kitchen fire at the restaurant on De Anza Boulevard in San Jose caused the restaurant to close down. A couple of weeks ago, Holder’s held a word-of-mouth opening at 10088 North Wolfe Road in Cupertino, at the location of the former Steins Beer Garden. Our Council decided the following week to conduct a ribbon cutting with Efren, employees of Holder’s, and members of City staff.

We attended the Veterans Day ceremony held at the Sunny View Retirement Community on November 10, where, has been the usual practice, residents sang the various songs of the armed forces and other patriotic tunes while honoring the veterans at the center. We were very happy to be able to return to Sunny View for this annual tradition.

The following day, on November 11, Veterans Day, members of our Council attended the Veterans Day Ceremony in Memorial Park, where we were very happy to see the ceremony begin again following the pandemic. Attendees were able to join us in honoring those who have served in our military to defend and protect our society and freedoms. The ceremony had as a backdrop new fields in Memorial Park after many years of empty ponds.

The work of Council and our community continues. This will be my last column as Mayor, as my term in office ends early next month. As Councilmember Jon Willey, who also ends his term on Council next month, and I bid the City well, we, along with our Council colleagues Vice Mayor Liang Chao, Councilmember Kitty Moore and Councilmember Hung Wei thank you for a wonderful and productive term these past two years. We know that the City has managed to uphold high standards during challenging times. We have navigated our community through the COVID-19 pandemic in a manner that has made us objectively the safest City in the region, instituted policies that made people safer, worked with our peers to do the same, held open and honest discussions, and implemented policies and projects which have made our community an exemplar of successful and functional democracy and fiscal accountability with prospects for a cleaner future with continued fiscal success. My hope as we pass the stewardship of the City to a new group, with some continuity and some new representatives, is that the same standards of honesty and accountability will be carried forward.

Thank you for your kind involvement, and I wish everyone all the best in the future.