Cupertino Matters
- City Manager in the news
- UPCOMING – City Council, 6:45 p.m. Regular, 5:15 p.m. Closed Sessions
- RECAP – CITY COUNCIL, April 29 & May 2, 2025, Closed Sessions
Is this deja vu? Once again, the city has seemingly lost another city manager, due to conflicts with the mayor and city council. Pamela Wu was hired in August of 2022, the 7th manager (3 interim and 4 permanent) in 4 years, from 2018 to 2022. Cupertino Today framed the progression with an article entitled City Council Targets City Manager Pamela Wu with Unprecedented Series of Closed-Door Performance Evaluations followed by another article entitled City Manager Pamela Wu Placed on Administrative Leave. The Mercury News also covered the situation with Cupertino City Manager Pamela Wu placed on leave by City Council: The city did not elaborate on why Pamela Wu was placed on leave, or for how long. The latest article is from San Jose Spotlight entitled Cupertino council places city manager on leave with Pamela Wu’s comments expressing clear confusion as to why. Now the lawyers will surely be talking and the city’s legal costs should be expected to escalate. There are already three potential lawsuits being discussed in today’s closed session and two active ones provoked against the city since this new council took charge.
The bad press continues with the council taking contradictory actions on housing. On May 5, the Foothill DeAnza Community College trustees quickly and unanimously approved the acquisition of McClellan Terrace Apartments and converting them from market rate housing to low income furnished housing for students, faculty, and staff. Such housing, particularly furnished housing, is scarce in Cupertino. The city council has given lip service to improving life for the precarious housing situations, yet Mayor Chao is proposing an emergency ordinance to block the acquisition (Agenda item No. 9). The Foothill-De Anza Community College District is a separate jurisdiction from the city. Why is the city interfering with proactive actions by another jurisdiction?
In the meantime, the Wolfe Road Educator Housing project is progressing, with a new progress report available at https://www.wolferoadhousing.com/ An article in the Mercury News entitled Cupertino housing project is part of a growing trend as expensive Bay Area cities want teachers to live near their schools: A new teacher housing project in Cupertino makes progress summarizes the need.
UPCOMING – CITY COUNCIL, Tues., May 6, 2025, 6:45 p.m. Regular; 6:00 p.m. Closed Session; 5:15 Closed Session
Closed Session: 5:15 p.m.
Item No. 1 Conference with legal counsel – anticipated litigation; California Government Code Sections 54954(c) and 54956.9(e)(1): (3 cases)
Closed Session: 6:00 p.m.
Item No. 1: Conference with Labor Negotiators pursuant to Government Code § 54957.6 (Kristina Alfaro and Christopher Boucher). The city’s two collective bargaining units have regular intervals at which their agreements call for potential changes.
Open Session
Closed Session Report
Ceremonial Items include (Item 2) Recognition of May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, (Item 3) Proclamation to Charities Housing and Silicon Valley at Home in conjunction with May as Affordable Housing Month, and (Item 4) Proclamation to the County of Santa Clara Department of Family and Children’s Services recognizing May as National Foster Care Awareness Month.
Oral Communications from the public on non-agenda items precede the Consent Calendar, which contains four 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: Approval of an Interim Urgency Ordinance Imposing a Moratorium on the Transition of Multiple-Family Use Housing to Student Housing within a One Half Mile Radius of Foothill-De Anza Community College in the City of Cupertino; or approval of a Resolution Encouraging the Building of Newly Constructed Student Housing and Preventing the Conversion of Multiple-Family Use Housing to Student Housing within the City of Cupertino. Mayor Chao added this ordinance to the agenda without the consent of the council, which had approved a study session. The intent is to block the Foothill-De Anza Community College District from buying McClellan Terrace apartments and converting them from market rate housing to low income housing for students. The legality of the proposed ordinance is questionable. Why would council even consider obstructing low income housing desperately needed in Cupertino?
Item No. 10: Approval of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-26 Fee Schedule Update. Annually, the city updates its fee schedules, using FY 2024-25 Consumer Price Index (CPI) the Bay Area Construction Cost Index (CCI), and a cost of living (COLA) factor. The proposed fee increases are estimated to generate approximately $785,483 in additional annual revenue, primarily benefiting the General Fund and which offset the cost of providing the services rendered to the requesting party.
Item No. 11: Public Hearing Pursuant to Government Code Section 3502.3 to Receive a Report on City of Cupertino Vacancies, and Recruitment and Retention Efforts. Public agencies are required to hold a public hearing to address the status of job vacancies in bargaining units prior to the adoption of the upcoming final budget.
Item No. 12: Review future agenda items requested by City Councilmembers (Continued from April 15, 2025). This is a moving target with agenda items revised and new ones added by Mayor Chao without consideration of staff time and ongoing projects.
Item No. 13: Modification to a previously approved Development Permit and Architectural & Site Approval for the Westport Development including, but not limited to, dwelling count and ground floor retail, Park Land Dedication Fees and minor changes to Building 1. (Application No(s): M-2024-003, ASA-2024-003; Applicant(s): Related California (Cascade Zak); Location: 21267 Stevens Creek Boulevard; APN #326-27-048). The Planning Commission spent nearly three hours considering this modification, which addresses the final unbuilt piece of the Westport project at the corner of Mary Avenue and Stevens Creek Boulevard. The project was first approved in 2020, and after review by over 60 lenders, the original plan has to be modified in order to get the project built. The developer, Related, submitted a modified design that (1) increased the number of assisted living units from 123 to 136 units, with no change to the 35 memory units, (2) reduced the retail component from 17,600 square feet to 4,000 square feet, and (3) eliminated the underground parking by 146 stalls, due to the reduction of retail space and reliance on a new state law, AB 2097. San Jose Spotlight summarized the hearing in an article entitled Cupertino development adds homes, shrinks retail space.
The Planning Commission unanimously approved the staff recommendation, with a request to condition the waiving of the parkland dedication fee on the establishment of a TDM (transportation demand management) program for employees and an increase in retail space to 8000 sq. ft. of retail. If the modification is not approved, and the developer is unable to move ahead, the parcel will remain vacant with no shared parking. In addition, the city may find itself in legal trouble with the state, housing advocacy organizations, and the developer.
Item No. 14: Per the Council’s direction, review potential Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) projects to be defunded from the current approved list. These are approved projects which are already in various stages of progress. The city is likely to lose grants and money spent on work in progress. Councilmember Wang aggressively targets bikeway projects and the Bollinger traffic study as well EV parking for the Hopper.
Item No. 15: Introduce an Ordinance amending Municipal Code Section 2.04.010 pertaining to Removal of Closed Session Start Time and Clarification that Meetings Rescheduled Due to Holidays or Elections Retain Regular Meeting Status. This is a housekeeping item. Currently, the Municipal Code sets a fixed start time of 6:00 p.m. for City Council closed sessions held as part of a regular meeting, which is both unnecessary and overly restrictive. Historically, the city has handled this problem by noticing a separate special meeting for closed sessions occurring on the same day as regular council meetings. In addition, the recommendation is to update the Municipal Code to consider meetings moved because of a holiday or a regular Cupertino election be considered regular meetings of the City Council, rather than special meetings
Item No. 16: Council Reports, (now submitted in written form) are provided by Mayor Wang, Vice-Mayor Moore and Councilmembers Fruen, Mohan and Wang.
Item No. 16 Upcoming Draft Agenda Items Report. These are known agenda items for city council. Many items which will appear on future agendas are not scheduled in advance.
RECAP – CITY COUNCIL, Mon., May 2, 2025, 12:15 p.m. Closed Session
Item No. 1 Public employee performance evaluation/discipline; Title: City Manager; California Government Code Sections 54954.5(e) and 54957(b)
RECAP – CITY COUNCIL, Tues., Apr. 29, 2025, 6:00 p.m. Closed Session
Item No. 1: Public employee performance evaluation; Title: City Manager; California Government Code Section 54954.5(e) and 54957(b). This follows a previous closed session on April 3, 2025.
CUPERTINO COURIER: May 2, 2025
The front page and photo on page 5 is entitled Training to fight flames: Midpen rangers and other staff practice essential firefighting skills. Community briefs are (1) Piano concert and (2) Angel Island tour. Page 5 is a previously published Mercury News article entitled Whole foods forced to close: Order comes weeks after health officials found vermin evidence. The sole legal notice is a Public Hearing with Summerhill Homes development application for 20770, 20830 and 20840 Stevens Creek (Pizza Hut, Staples and Fontana restaurant site).
Warm regards,
Jean Bedord
Cupertino Matters
Publisher and Editor
