Cupertino Matters
- Elections and News
- UPCOMING – City Council, June 2,2026, 6:45 p.m.
- RECAP – Planning Commission, Tues., May 26, 2026, 6:45 p.m.
Have you voted? The polls are open until 8 p.m., including the dropboxes and the vote centers. It’s too late to mail ballots, unless hand stamped at the window of a local post office. The League of Women Voters site, Vote 411 provides answers to a variety of voting-related questions. Enter your address to learn more about the races for your address as well as the nearest dropoff box and polling locations.
Next up is the General Election on Nov. 3, 2026, which includes local elections for city council, school boards, and other non-partisan offices as well as state offices. For city council, the nomination period for the 2026 General Municipal Election runs from Monday, July 13, 2026, through Friday, August 7, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. If an incumbent fails to file a Declaration of Candidacy before 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 7, 2026, the period for candidates to file for office, other than incumbents, is extended to Wednesday, August 12, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Councilmembers J.R. Fruen and Sheila Mohan are eligible to run for second terms; Vice Mayor Liang Chao is termed-out and not eligible for an additional term.
June is Pride Month. The city will hold a Pride Flag Raising Ceremony Wednesday, June 10, 2026, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Cupertino Civic Center Plaza,10350 Torre Avenue. The city requests that attendees register in order to ensure adequate seating: https://www.cupertino.gov/Events-directory/Pride-Flag-Raising-Ceremony-2026
UPCOMING – City Council, Tues., June 2, 2026, 6:45 p.m.
Ceremonial Items include (1) a Proclamation recognizing June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month and, (2) a Proclamation recognizing United Nations World Environment Day, June 5, 2026. Oral Communications from the public on off-agenda items then precede the Consent Calendar, which contains eleven routine items. Note that Consent Item No. 12: A resolution calling for a consolidated General Municipal Election on November 3, 2026, to fill three City Council seats and request election services from the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters has details and costs for the upcoming city council election.
Item No. 14: Approval of Fiscal Year 2026-27 renewal of the 1992 Storm Drain Fee (with no increase) and renewal of the 2019 Clean Water and Storm Protection Fee with a 3% increase. This routine authorization of fees covers the cost of administering a required program. The City’s Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program (also known as the Nonpoint Source Program) is mandated by the State of California and United States Environmental Protection Agency regulations implementing the Federal Clean Water Act. To cover these costs, Cupertino relies on two fees (1) the 1992 Storm Drainage Service Charge Fee (1992 Fee) that is $12 per year for a single-family home and (2) 2019 Clean Water and Storm Protection Fee that is approximately $48 per year for an average single family home. The fees must be renewed every year by the City Council and appear on property tax bills. The 2019 Fee can be increased by CPI up to a maximum of 3% in any single year; however, the 1992 Fee has no mechanism to enable an increase.
Item No. 15: Consider a residential project with 27 three-story townhomes, including 5 affordable units, with associated site improvements and condominium map, to replace a commercial office building on a 1.55-acre site. The project utilizes Senate Bill 330 and provisions of State Density Bonus law. (Application No(s): ASA-2025-016, TM-2025-008, & TR-2025-033; Applicant: SummerHill Homes, LLC; Location: 10268 Bandley Drive; APNs: 326-33-097.). This project sits in a neighborhood of aging one-story office buildings, but it is convenient to Target and other public-facing businesses, in addition to transit on De Anza and Stevens Creek Boulevards. The homes are generous in size ranging from 2120 sq. ft. to 2822 sq. ft. and include garages. The project offers 5 deed-restricted affordable homes. Like all recent residential projects, this application relies on the state Density Bonus Law to waive various development standards. Though not included in the Housing Element, the project will count toward fulfilling Cupertino’s 4,588-home RHNA requirement.
Item No. 16 Adoption of a Council Policy regarding Disruptions of Telephonic or Internet Service During Public Meetings under Senate Bill (SB) 707. This item responds to a requirement of new state law (SB 707) for local agencies bound by the Brown Act to establish procedures for allowing a city to continue to hold a meeting if public access to the agency’s virtual meeting platform (like Zoom) is interrupted.
Statewide, the Ralph M. Brown Act requires that, with limited exceptions, all meetings of a legislative body of a local agency be open and accessible to the public, and that all persons be permitted to attend and participate. In 2025, the Legislature adopted Senate Bill 707 (Durazo), which amends the Brown Act. Among the various new requirements under SB 707, all eligible legislative bodies must now offer hybrid meetings (through a two-way phone or video platform). City Council, Commission and Committee meetings, except for the Library Commission, are already and will continue to be conducted in a hybrid format via Zoom.
Given that such platforms sometimes fail, or internet connections can be lost, SB 707 also authorizes local agencies to proceed with their meetings despite such interruptions provided that they adopt specific procedures. SB 707 requires the City to formally adopt that policy on or before July 1, 2026.
The proposed policy follows the prescriptions of SB 707, which requires the legislative body (i.e., the City Council) to take a recess and attempt to restore service for at least one hour. If service cannot be restored within one hour, the City Council, if it wishes to proceed with the meeting, must conduct a roll-call vote confirming that good faith efforts were made and that the public interest in continuing the meeting outweighs the need for remote access.
Notably, SB 707 does not impact a situation where a remote-appearing councilmember relying on traditional teleconferencing rules from the 1980s disconnects. These modifications only impact public access to virtual platforms, not to remote-noticed locations. As such, the adoption of this policy does not respond to the issues presented by Councilmember Wang’s frequent remote appearances and disconnections causing meetings to end early, as called out in the Civil Grand Jury Report: Convenience vs. Compliance: Brown Act risks in Cupertino’s meeting practices
Item No.17: City Manager Report, (submitted in written form).
Item No. 18: Council Reports (submitted in written form) are provided by Mayor Moore, Vice-Mayor Chao, Councilmembers Fruen, and Mohan. Councilmember Wang failed to attend any of his external committee assignments.
Item No. 19 Upcoming Draft Agenda Items Report.
RECAP – Planning Commission, Tues., May 26, 6:45 p.m., Council chambers and Teleconference: C-174 Anand Vihar, Delhi, Delhi 110092, India
YouTube: 1 hr. 18 min. Commissioner Lindskog was remote.
Item No. 2: Capital Improvement Programs Fiscal Year 2026-2027 and Five-year Plan.Review. This was a strange and unnecessary meeting, since the Planning Commission had previously reviewed and approved the CIP programs for compliance with the General Plan. Comments from members of the public centered around approval of the Memorial Park Pickleball Sound Attenuation Project, a $150,000 project which carries a one time cost of less than $3 per resident for a win-win solution for both homeowners and players.
The new projects for this fiscal year are mostly low cost projects with significant benefit to residents:
- Blesch Property Improvements
- Memorial Park Pickleball Sound Attenuation
- Blackberry Farm Golf Course Pro Shop Renovation
- Sports Center Courts Resurfacing.
- Stevens Creek Boulevard/SR 85 (NB) ramp intersection improvements (funded by developer in-lieu fees)
Since this was a study session, no vote was needed, though Chair Kosolcharoen chose to move forward with a motion to recommend approval of the expenditures. The vote was 4-0-1 with Fung absent. This was a bizarre and inconsistent reversal of Commissioner Rao’s previous nay vote on May 28 on compliance with the General Plan.
CUPERTINO COURIER: May 29, 2026
The front page photo and community brief on page 4 are entitled Able to handle the heat: Wildland fire training puts Midpen staff, equipment to the test. The additional community brief is Drawing attention to Monta Vista High School student Billy Liu. There are no legal notices.
Warm regards,
Jean Bedord
Cupertino Matters
Publisher and Editor
