Cupertino Matters
- In the News
- UPCOMING – City Council, Wed., Feb. 19, 2025, 6:45 p.m.
- RECAP – Planning Commission, Tues., Feb. 11
- RECAP – City Council, Tues. Feb. 4
February has been a busy month with both Valentine’s Day and multiple Lunar New Year celebrations–good news for restaurant owners!
Cupertino is facing economic headwinds in recovering from its $30 million annual sales tax revenue loss. Hotel occupancy taxes have been a significant contributor to the city budget and two new hotels were approved and provided with permit extensions. But this week, one of those hotels was cancelled, citing poor occupancy in all local hotels as chronicled in the San Jose Spotlight: Cupertino hotel project pulled amid slow hospitality sector. Aloft Hotel, also on De Anza Boulevard, faces the same issues: Cupertino hotel near famed Apple office hub lurches into loan default: Hotel faces foreclosure due to delinquent loan. The Hilton Garden Inn, on Wolfe across from Apple Park faces a financing shortfall, Cupertino hotel owners in extension negotiations as $32M loan deadline looms. Cupertino lacks a Tourism Bureau to capitalize on the popularity of Apple, the plethora of ethnic restaurants, the wineries in Cupertino and Saratoga, our historical assets, the adjacent open space preserves and annual festivals. The upcoming Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup in 2026 provide an opportunity to promote Cupertino.
Additional news stories about Cupertino have included a San Jose Spotlight article about the approval of photovoltaic installations in three city locations: Cupertino city buildings get greener with solar as well as the development of an app for McClellan Ranch Preserve open space: Cupertino app augments reality at nature preserve.
The Mercury News highlighted the decision by the council to allocate $140,000 to reviving the traditional evening fireworks. Cupertino City Council considers bringing back Fourth of July firework show: The 2024 show had been cancelled due to uncertainties in the a multi-million dollar budget deficit. However, returning to the previous fireworks format is unlikely. Times have changed. The school sites are unavailable for a combination of construction, liability insurance and fire safety concerns. Private sites are not available, leaving only city sites which have been deemed unsuitable previously. From fiscal, environmental, and safety concerns, nostalgia aside, does this make sense?
Dysfunction and micromanagement at the city council level return as major concerns. Mayor Chao continues to have time management problems with the council agenda as well as her own mayor’s meetings, when she arrived 20 minutes late for a meeting scheduled for an hour on Mon., Feb. 10. Councilmember Wang attended two council meetings and a closed session remotely due to non-city travel (in contrast councilmember Wei was absent due to medical considerations). At the commission level, there are concerns about the commission appointments, as highlighted in a San Jose Spotlight article Cupertino council majority shifts commission appointments, and reinforced by the selection of first time commissioners as chair and vice-chair of the Planning Commission.
The first workshop on Residential Objective Design Standards was held on Feb. 10 at Community Hall, with about 15 in person and 15 on Zoom. Additional community outreach is planned. The city hosts a webpage that outlines the reasons for developing objective building standards to preserve local building preferences while ensuring compliance with state housing laws. This is likely to be a year-long process, and there will be additional outreach. Community feedback is welcome.
To help Santa Clara County develop a community-wide action plan to become more age-friendly in the next 5 years, readers who are 45 years and older are invited to complete the Age-Friendly Community Survey, developed by AARP, to better understand older residents’ needs in areas such as housing, transportation, health care, and social inclusion. The survey findings help policymakers, planners and others better understand the needs of an aging population, so they can take steps to create policies that can improve livability for all.
For research, past issues back to January 2020 of Cupertino Matters are posted on the website. Encourage your friends who would like to become better informed about our community to subscribe to our email newsletter at CupertinoMatters.org.
UPCOMING – CITY COUNCIL, Wed., Feb. 19, 6:45 p.m., Special Meeting (due to Presidents’ Day holiday)
The Ceremonial Item is Item No. 1, Recognition of The Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cupertino Lodge No. 70 (Cupertino Odd Fellows). Item No. 2 is a Presentation on Mayor’s Initiative(s) regarding Resolution No. 07-103, to be announced at the February 26, 2025 State of the City Address.
Oral Communications from the public on non-agenda items precede the Consent Calendar, which contains six routine items. Members of the public may speak on any or all consent calendar items when the mayor asks for public comment on the Consent Calendar. If an item is pulled from the Consent Calendar, council’s procedural rules require it to be addressed after all regularly scheduled action items, unless council votes to reorder items on the agenda. Members of the public may comment on that item when it is considered.
Item No. 9: Zoning Map Amendment to correct zoning for Priority Housing Site No. 24 in the 6th Cycle Housing Element (Application No.(s): Z-2024-001, EA-2024-001; Applicant: City of Cupertino; APN: 359 13 019; Location: 20865 McClellan Road) This public hearing is to correct a typo to reflect the correct zoning designation per the General Plan which rezones the site from R-3 (the city’s standard lower-to-middle density for stacked apartment building zoning) to R-3/TH, which would also allow townhouses–both at a density of 20 dwelling units per acre. The Planning Commission approved this item on Dec.10 on a 3-2 split vote. The public comment was directed at a separate development application submitted for the site in October proposing 27 townhomes. The alternative for the site is a taller, higher density traditional apartment building. The application utilizes state law to lock in the existing land use rules, thus this rezoning action item itself has no direct impact on the October development application. This rezoning does not “allow” or “disallow” the 27-home project. It merely corrects an error in the zoning code–a condition of ongoing Housing Element compliance.
Item No. 10: Tyler New World Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) replacement (Continued from February 4, 2025 City Council meeting). This consent item was pulled from the previous meeting. Replacement of legacy 2014 software systems is long overdue, particularly in the area of data security and the need to improve staff efficiency. The City’s current Tyler New World ERP no longer meets operational needs, leading to inefficiencies, high maintenance costs, and limited integration with modern technology. The system relies on manual workarounds, frequent repairs, and third-party add-ons, which slow workflows and increase expenses. Additionally, its lack of API support restricts automation and seamless data exchange, creating data silos, inaccuracies, and delays in financial and payroll management. This item proposes allowing a broadly defined request for proposals (RFP) to proceed so that staff may evaluate a range of ERP options.
Item No. 11: Amendments to the Cupertino City Council Procedures Manual. Annually, the council reviews and modifies the procedures manual. At the end of the meeting (10:44 p.m. with an 11:00 cutoff time) on Feb. 4, Mayor Chao provided a laundry list of proposed changes but cut short discussion. The Feb. 4 changes were NOT included in the searchable packet and were not posted in presentations on the city website. Instead, they appeared as written communications from the Mayor. The proposed changes have been incorporated into the redline version of the manual. Many of the changes are minor, but several could significantly impact city operations: (1) allowing anyone to pull agenda consent items could consume significant dais time, (2) allowing council members to submit Public Records Act requests which have to be fulfilled in 10 days even though they may involve significant staff time, (3) removal of commission members must be approved by council, even if they violate objective standards, such as failure to file required conflict of interest disclosure forms and attend security training (which puts the entire city at risk), and (4) removal of limitations on reappointment of council members.
Item No. 12: Appointment of Floy Andrews as City Attorney and approval of contract for City Attorney legal services with Aleshire & Wynder, LLP. City Attorney Chris Jensen has resigned effective Feb. 22, so this is an interim city attorney appointment. The city has previously spent over $400,000 in the course a little over a year with this firm in conjunction with legal disputes over Vallco. The approved budget for the City Attorney’s office is $1,484,229 so engagement of this law firm is likely to significantly increase legal costs for the city.
Item No. 13: Council Reports, (now submitted in written form) are provided by Mayor Chao, Vice-Mayor Kitty Moore, and Councilmembers Fruen and Mohan. Councilmember Wang did not submit a report.
RECAP – Planning Commission, Tues. Feb. 11, 6:45 p.m., Regular Meeting
YouTube: 39 min.
Item No. 2: Election of Planning Commission Chair and Vice Chair. Santosh Rao was elected Chair and Tracy Kosolcharoen was elected Vice-Chair on 3-1 votes with Commissioner Lindskog absent. Both are first time commissioners.
Item No. 3: 2025 Planning Commission meeting schedule. Regular meeting dates were provided. Meetings prior to Thanksgiving and Christmas were cancelled, as well as the August meetings when council is in recess.
RECAP – CITY COUNCIL, Tues. Feb. 4, 6:45 p.m., Regular Meeting
YouTube: Part 1 1 hr. 45 min.; Part 2: 2 hr. 33 min.
Item No. 5: Tyler New World Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) replacement was pulled from the Consent Calendar by Councilmember Ray Wang for additional review, which could have been requested prior to the council meeting instead of having to continue the item to the Feb. 18 council meeting.
Considered out of order: Item No. 10: Award of a design-build contract to Syserco Energy Solutions for $4,339,881 and award a project management and construction management agreement to 4Leaf, Inc. for $225,000 for the Photovoltaic Systems Design and Installation Capital Improvement Programs Project. This item had been before council four times previously, so no new information was presented. Timely approval was necessary to secure grant funding and to grandfather more favorable electrical rates. Per staff evaluation, even without federal support or more favorable rates, the energy savings are significant enough that the project more than pays for itself in reduced costs over its life. After discussion of concerns over financing, this item was approved 3-2 with Wang and Chao voting nay.
Item No.8: Future agenda items requested by City Councilmembers (“TBD List”) (Continued from the January 22, 2025 City Council meeting). Discussion on this item was meandering. Instead of an orderly consideration of the agenda, Mayor Chao made motions which consolidated some items and agendized most of the other items, without taking into consideration the city work plan and budget processes. There were two separate motions. The first to agendize committees passed 3-2 with Mohan and Fruen voting nay. The second motion retained minor items to be agendized, including sound amplification in parks. This passed 4-1 with Fruen voting nay.
Item No. 9: Award a construction contract to Golden Bay Construction in the amount of $1,569,798, approve a first amendment to the design services contract with Pakpour Consulting Group to increase the contract by $96,620 for a total not-to-exceed contract amount of $310,483 and approve a budget modification in the amount of $1,500,000 for the Stevens Creek Boulevard Class IV Bike Lane Project. Previously a consent item pulled by Mayor Chao, this came back as an action item. The project culminates six years of community outreach. Public works was able to obtain $5 million in grants, which would have been endangered by failure to pass the project. Council discussion centered around the relative merits of bollards as opposed to concrete barriers which are safer on high-traffic streets such as Stevens Creek. Mayor Chao argued for adoption of bollards which would have required rebidding the project and losing grant money. Councilmember Ray Wang was accepting of pedestrian/bicycle deaths, despite the city adoption of the Vision Zero Plan, whose express goal is no such deaths. Finally approved 3-2 with Chao and Wang voting nay.
Item No. 11: Study Session for the use of Committed Future Use Reserve one-time funds (Continued from the January 22, 2025 City Council meeting). Starting at 10:25 in the evening, this item digressed into forming a subcommittee with Councilmember Ray Wang and Vice Mayor Kitty Moore to investigate the feasibility of reviving evening fireworks for the 4th of July 2025. The budget would be $140,000. No other fund guidance was provided by the council.
Item No. 12: Study session on revisions to the Cupertino City Council Procedures Manual. Starting at 10:44 p.m., and requiring extension of the council meeting, this item was very rushed. Mayor Chao’s proposed changes were not provided in advance to either the council or the public. Instead they were included in Written Communications posted after 5:00 before the 6:45 regular meeting. The 25 page slide deck shown during the council meeting did not correspond to the Written Communications deck; Mayor Chao cut individual council discussion short. Citing time constraints and the desire to complete proposed changes before the city attorney’s last meeting, Mayor Chao proposed incorporating all of her changes into a redline version for the following council meeting. Motion passed 4-1 with Fruen voting nay.
CUPERTINO COURIER: February 14, 2025
The front page story is entitled Bridge to public service: City Council makes commission, committee appointments. Page 6 is a previously published Mercury News article entitled Council considers bringing back July 4 fireworks show: 2024 event was cancelled due to million-dollar budget deficit. Page 11 is a previously published Mercury News article entitled Grocery chain leases former Sprouts city in Cupertino. Community briefs on page 5 are (1) Commission appointments, and (2) In league with voters. The sole legal notice is a Development Permit Modification to modify the previously approved Westport project (the assisted living building).
CUPERTINO COURIER: February 7, 2025
The front page story is entitled Mayor to deliver State of the City: Feb. 26 speech to illustrate key initiatives and community projects. Community briefs on page 3 are (1) State of the city, (2) Far-reaching talk, and (3) Funding water projects. There are no legal notices.
Warm regards,
Jean Bedord
Cupertino Matters
Publisher and Editor
