Cupertino Matters
Holiday wishes to all our readers, celebrating not just Christmas but also a host of other holidays. City services will be closed from Wed., December 24, 2025 through Thurs., January 1, 2025 in observance of the Winter Holiday. Offices will be open Friday, January 2, 2026. The first meeting of the city council in the new year will be a special meeting on Jan. 13, followed by the scheduled meeting on Jan. 21, Wednesday, due to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Jan. 20. Cupertino Matters will be on hiatus until council resumes.
As the year closes, readers need to retrieve their ballots from the holiday mail and vote in the runoff election for County Assessor by Dec. 30. There is only one item to decide with just two candidates on the ballot: Neysa Flegor (assistant county assessor) and Rishi Kumar (perennial political candidate). The Mercury News clarified the job of county assessor along with their recommendation: Kumar vs. Fligor: Santa Clara County assessor candidates make final pitches for Dec. 30 runoff: Larry Stone’s resignation creates first open race for the office, responsible for assessing value of 500,000 properties, in 30 years San Jose Inside identified the major issue: Voter Turnout Is Key as SC County Assessor Race Hits Home Stretch.
As mentioned in the previous issue of Cupertino Matters, the city council did its annual reorganization for 2026. The results were “unorthodox” in appointing Kitty Moore as Mayor and Liang Chao, the outgoing Mayor, as Vice-Mayor, a position she has held three times before. The San Jose Spotlight covers the matter in some detail in Cupertino mayor blocks ally from becoming vice mayor.
At the following regular meeting, the City council made a cautious step toward addressing the city hall issues first identified in 2014 and highlighted in the Grand Jury report, “A House Divided: Cupertino City Council and City Staff”. The current city hall is seismically unsafe, and there is a significant risk to the city, both from personnel safety and business continuity standpoints. Staff presented a plan based on using the current city hall footprint, reconfiguring the floor plans, upgrading the infrastructure and non-compliant ADA access. The full renovation is estimated at $54.5 million. As the staff report notes, past estimates understated costs because they did not include large numbers of soft costs. Council authorized $2.5 million for the design phase of full renovation of $54.5 million. The Mercury News summarized the results of the meeting: Facing ‘substantial’ earthquake risk, South Bay city inches toward multimillion-dollar rehaul of City Hall: After years of discussion, Cupertino City Council has set aside money to begin the project.
In school news, the Cupertino Union School District (CUSD) is having a rocky transition from their previous LCCF funding based on student enrollment to Basic Aid funding based on property taxes. Reimbursement rules have changed, and the district faces an unfunded state mandate for Transitional Kindergarten. The board is faced with having to reduce expenditures to reach budget stabilization, as outlined in this Los Altos Online article entitled Cupertino school district looks at budget as layoffs loom. The deficit is outlined in this article: Cupertino Union School District Fiscal Stabilization: The Cupertino Union School District ended Fiscal Year 2024-2025 with a deficit of over $26 million — and the deficit for 2025-2026 is projected to be greater than $11 million.
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.
RECAP – CITY COUNCIL, Tues., Dec. 16, 2025, 6:45 p.m.; 4:30 p.m., Special Meeting
YouTube: 3 hr.52 min.
Special Meeting (closed session) (2 hours) No reportable actions.
Regular Meeting
Item No. 10: United Furniture site. (Application No(s): DP-2024-004, ASA-2024-008, TM-2024-005, & U-2025-004; Applicant(s): Nick Kosla (Toll Brothers); Location: 10075 E. Estates & 19610 Stevens Creek Blvd. (A.P.N.: 369-06-002, -003, -004). Previously, approved 5-0 by the Planning Commission, council recognized the quality of this 55 townhome project, and expressed various, divergent preferences, including a desire for somewhat greater density to meet Housing Element goals. The project complies with the Municipal Code as of the date of the original application before the current Housing Element was enacted. There was also extensive discussion of the garden variety remediation required due to a former dry cleaning establishment. Council ultimately approved 5-0.
Item No. 11: Determine City Hall Improvements project scope and resources, approve budget modification in the amount of $54,000,000 and authorize design-build delivery methods. Council spent about an hour and a half grappling with this long deferred project. The current City Hall is seismically unsafe and the infrastructure has outlived its useful life. Council has been discussing options since 2014, stymied by the price tag of a new structure or renovating an old structure. A complete history is provided in the staff report. The current direction is a complete renovation of the inside, without adding any square footage or parking. The construction cost of any option is high and rising, with a new building priced at $110 million. The price tag on the current stripped down project is $54,371,039. Soft costs, particularly staff and equipment relocation to a temporary site were not accounted for in prior estimates. Proposed financing originates from reserves, and staff was tasked with further refinement of total costs. Finally, the council voted 4-1, with Councilmember Wang voting nay, to authorize the $2.5 million design phase.
CUPERTINO COURIER: Dec. 19, 2025
The front page photo and community brief on page 5 is entitled Restructuring leadership: Cupertino swaps vice mayor and mayor in ‘unorthodox’ move. Additional community briefs are (1) Serve the public, (2) Holiday tote decorating and (3) Freedom readers. There are no legal notices.
Warm regards,
Jean Bedord
Cupertino Matters
Publisher and Editor
