HomeMy Public PortalAbout20170529plCCDOCUMENTS IN THIS PACKET INCLUDE:
LETTERS FROM CITIZENS TO THE
MAYOR OR CITY COUNCIL
RESPONSES FROM STAFF TO LETTERS FROM CITIZENS
ITEMS FROM MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS
ITEMS FROM OTHER COMMITTEES AND AGENCIES
ITEMS FROM CITY, COUNTY, STATE, AND REGIONAL AGENCIES
Preparedfor: 5/29/2017
Document dates: 5/10/2017 - 5/17/2017
Set 1
Note: Documents for every category may not have been received for packet
reproduction in a given week.
701-32
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:00 PM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Catherine Martineau <catherine@canopy.org>
Sent:Monday, May 15, 2017 2:57 PM
To:Council, City
Cc:Passmore, Walter; Lee, Elena; Susan Rosenberg; elise@canopy.org
Subject:Support for the Urban Forest and Understory Chapter of The Comp Plan - One request
Dear Mayor Scharff and Councilmembers,
On behalf of the Canopy board of directors and the entire Canopy community, we’re pleased to express our support for
the Urban Forest chapter of the Natural Environment element of the Comprehensive Plan.
We are pleased that a majority of our comments and edits were incorporated in the chapter.
One repeated request that did not make it (an oversight, I’m sure) is that the urban forest be listed in the second
sentence of the Element’s vision (see below.)
Many thanks,
Catherine
From: Lee, Elena [mailto:Elena.Lee@CityofPaloAlto.org]
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2016 4:30 PM
To: Martineau, Catherine
Cc: Moitra, Chitra; Passmore, Walter; Susan Rosenberg; shani kleinhaus
Subject: RE: For tonight's meeting - Natural Environment Element
Thank you Catherine,
Catherine,
Thank you for your feedback. We did add “urban forest” in, but it was missing in this version for some reason. We will
make sure it is added.
Elena
From: Catherine Martineau [mailto:catherine@canopy.org]
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2016 3:04 PM
To: Lee, Elena
Cc: Moitra, Chitra; Passmore, Walter; Susan Rosenberg; shani kleinhaus
Subject: For tonight's meeting - Natural Environment Element
Dear Elena,
I have reviewed the Natural Element’s latest draft dated 12/13 and am happy to see that Canopy’s edits were
incorporated into this draft.
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:00 PM
2
The only one that I still would like to see is the mention of the urban forest in the second sentence of the Vision, as
follows.
Vision: […] Palo Alto will respect and manage natural resources in a way that sustains the natural environment and protects our
foothills, baylands, creeks, parks, urban forest, wildlife and open space legacy.[…]
I assume this is an oversight since page 2 of the staff report states: “The urban forest has been added to the list of
natural environments to be protected and preserved.” However, if there is a real issue with this, please let me know
what it is wo that I can understand.
Many thanks,
Catherine
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Catherine Martineau
Executive Director
catherine@canopy.org ‐ (650) 964‐6110 ext. 2
Canopy plants and cares for trees where people need them the most.
We bring the life‐giving benefits of trees to the schools, neighborhoods, and
public spaces of the San Francisco Mid‐Peninsula.
HEALTHY TREES, HEALTHY COMMUNITIES www.canopy.org
From: Catherine Martineau [mailto:catherine@canopy.org]
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2016 11:25 AM
To: 'Lee, Elena'
Cc: 'Moitra, Chitra'; 'Passmore, Walter'; Susan Rosenberg (susanpa@sonic.net); 'shani kleinhaus'
Subject: RE: Comprehensive Plan Update
Dear Elena,
I have read the Staff Report for this afternoon’s meeting and the latest Element Draft and am very pleased with the Urban
Forest and Understory section. Canopy thanks the CAC and subcommittee and the Staff for the careful wording of the Urban Forestry policies and programs.
I would still like the following edit that I have asked for on several occasions to be made:
Vision: Palo Alto will respect and manage natural resources in a way that sustains the natural environment and protects our
foothills, baylands, creeks, parks, urban forest, wildlife and open space legacy.
I INSIST! It is important to add urban forest here even though it is mentioned in the following sentence.
Additionally, these are new minor edits resulting mostly from successive corrections:
The end of POLICY N2.2 seems awkwardly stated. Maybe replace the last “and” with “which”:
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:00 PM
3
Recognize the importance of the urban forest as a vital part of the City’s green infrastructure network that contributes to
public health, resiliency, habitat values, appreciation of natural systems and an attractive visual character and which must be protected. [NEW POLICY] [N44]
Program N2.6.1 seems awkwardly stated (one cannot irrigate canopy size targets):
Maintain and irrigate healthy trees and canopy size targets in parks, open space, parking lots, and City rights-of-way, while identifying and replacing unhealthy trees in those areas. [Previous Program N-17] [N52]
Reinsert canopy size targets in Program N2.6.3:
Actively pursue funding for tree planting to increase canopy cover significantly across the city and attain canopy size targets in parks, open space, parking lots, and City rights-of-way. [Previous Program N-18] [N53]
Program N2.9.1
As part of the update of the Tree and Landscape Technical Manual, consider expanding tree protections to include additional mature trees and provide criteria for making site-specific determinations of trees that should be protected.
[NEW PROGRAM] [N61]
Program N2.13.1 Use conventional spelling of “nonprofit.” Also, which objective does the last sentence refer to? Work with local non profits nonprofits to establish tree planting programs that are consistent with the UFMP, and rely on
locally native, resilient species to achieve the objective of 50 percentincreaseachieve canopy cover that is evenly distributed across the City, while avoiding net loss of canopy at the neighborhood level. a focus on locally native, resilient
specieReview existing tree planting guidelines to ensure they achieve this objective. [Previous Program N-19] [N48]
Again, thank you,
Catherine
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Catherine Martineau
Executive Director
catherine@canopy.org ‐ (650) 964‐6110 ext. 2
Canopy plants and cares for trees where people need them the most.
We bring the life‐giving benefits of trees to the schools, neighborhoods, and
public spaces of the San Francisco Mid‐Peninsula.
HEALTHY TREES, HEALTHY COMMUNITIES www.canopy.org
From: Moitra, Chitra [mailto:Chitra.Moitra@CityofPaloAlto.org]
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2016 11:22 AM
To: Moitra, Chitra
Subject: Comprehensive Plan Update
Good Afternoon,
This email serves to inform you of two upcoming meetings on the Comprehensive Plan
Update:
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:00 PM
4
The City Council will be discussing the Draft Land Use and Community Design Element
on Monday, November 28th 2016. The meeting will be held at the City Council
chambers. This item (agenda item #10) is tentatively scheduled to be discussed at 7:45
PM, but is subject to change. At this meeting, staff will introduce the Draft Land Use
Element as recommended by the Citizen Advisory Committee for review by the City
Council. This is intended to be an initial discussion by the City Council because both the
Land Use and the Transportation Elements will return to the Council in early 2017 for a
more detailed discussion.
The meeting materials are located on the city’s website
http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/54761
1. The Comprehensive Plan Update Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) – Natural
Environment Element Subcommittee will be meeting on Wednesday, November 30,
from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the El Camino Real Room in the
Downtown Library (270 Forest Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94301). The Subcommittee will be
discussing the draft Natural Environment Element.
The meeting materials will be available on the project website today afternoon.
(http://www.paloaltocompplan.org/cac/citizens‐advisory‐committee/).
There are many ways to share your ideas:
you can either email your comments to staff (chitra.moitra@cityofpaloalto.org )
send your written copies to the Planning Department (see address in signature line)
Thank you for your continued support in the Comprehensive Plan Update process.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Chitra Moitra
Planner
Planning and Community Environment Department
250 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301
Email: chitra.moitra@cityofpaloalto.org
Join the Discussion on the Comprehensive Plan Update!
http://www.paloaltocompplan.org
Please think of the environment before printing this email – Thank you!
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:04 PM
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Carnahan, David
From:Shani Kleinhaus <shanibirds@gmail.com> on behalf of shani kleinhaus
<shani@scvas.org>
Sent:Monday, May 15, 2017 3:01 PM
To:Council, City
Cc:Mike Ferreira; Alex Von Feldt; James Eggers; Barbara Kelsey; Ralph Schardt; Linda
Ruthruff; Alice Kaufman; Mackenzie Mossing; Claire Eliott; Moitra, Chitra; Gitelman,
Hillary
Subject:Environmental Group Letter Re: Natural Environment Element on tonights Agenda
(item 5) - Creeks and Riparian Areas
Attachments:051517 Group Letter PA CompPlan_Riparian.pdf
Dear Mayor Scharff and Palo Alto Council members,
The Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, the Committee for Green Foothills, Grassroots Ecology and the California Native Plant Society, Santa Clara Valley Chapter have reviewed the Natural Environment element’s proposed policies and programs
for Creeks and Riparian Areas. Please see our comments attached. In these comments, we support a wide riparian setback, and offer comments that could be incorporated into Goal N-3, Policy N-3.3.
Thank you,
Shani Kleinhaus, Ph.D.
Environmental Advocate Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society
22221 McClellan Rd. Cupertino 95014 Tel. (650) 868 2114
shani@scvas.org
`
May 15, 2017
Dear Mayor Scharff and Palo Alto City Council,
Re: Riparian setbacks and proposed Policies and Programs for Creeks and Riparian Areas
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, the Committee for Green Foothills,
Grassroots Ecology and the California Native Plant Society, Santa Clara Valley Chapter have
reviewed the Natural Environment element’s proposed policies and programs for Creeks and
Riparian Areas. Together, our organizations represent thousands of residents in Palo Alto who are
concerned about environmental issues, including impacts to creeks, riparian corridors, native
habitat, and water quality. Furthermore, we support policies and actions that minimize the need to
fortify creek channels with floodwalls or other costly flood reinforcements. We participated
during the development of the Natural element and provided input on many Policies and
Programs, including the protection of streams and Riparian ecosystems, and we are glad many of
our comments were incorporated into the proposed element. We wish to provide the following
comments and suggestions on the proposed Policies and Programs for Creeks and Riparian Areas:
1. We appreciate the City’s efforts to protect creeks and riparian ecosystems and support
implementation of Policy N3.3. We see a need to update the City’s Stream Protection
Ordinance, as the current ordinance is not consistent with the existing or the new
Comprehensive Plan.
2. Stream setbacks: The Guidelines and Standards for Land Use Near Streams - developed by a
collaborative of the District, the County of Santa Clara, all the cities within the County, and other
stakeholders - states as part of its Model Enhanced Practices that the optimal riparian buffer zone
is 40 to 150 feet from the top of bank or the outer drip-line of riparian vegetation. The County of
Santa Clara’s General Plan includes a riparian setback of 150 feet from the top of the bank when
a creek is in its natural state (100 feet if it is not in its natural state). The City of San Jose’s
riparian setback buffer is 100 feet from the outer edge of riparian vegetation. The Valley Habitat
Plan requires setbacks for Category 1 streams of 150 feet outside the urban service area, and 100
feet within the urban service area. All of these policies are based on the principle that
development close to streams imposes adverse impacts to stream ecosystems, and imposes
externalities on city budgets. The Natural Element Program N3.3.1 offers setback protections
along natural creeks in open space and rural areas west of Foothill Expressway. We are
suppo1tive of buffering the creeks from development, and offer:
• We strongly support a 150-ft setback for better protection of ecosystems and reduction
in risk of flooding
• Setbacks should be delineated from 1) top of the bank or 2) the drip-line of riparian
vegetation, whichever is wider.
• Program N3.3.1: The sentence "Single family property is exempt ... " is confusing;
we recommend changing to "Single family property east of Foothill Expressway is
exempt" from setback requirements.
• Please expand the "border of native riparian vegetation" from a minimum of 25 to
30 feet.
We thank you for your consideration,
Shani Kleinhaus, Environmental Advocate
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society
Mike Feneira, Conservation Chair
Sie1rn Club, Loma Piieta Chapter
Alice Kaufinan, Legislative Advocate Linda Ruthruff, Conservation Chair
Committee for Green Foothills California Native Plant Society, Santa Clara
Valley Chapter
Alex Von Feldt, Executive Director
Grassroots Ecology
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 8:15 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Art Liberman <art_liberman@yahoo.com>
Sent:Friday, May 12, 2017 5:57 PM
To:Council, City
Cc:Keene, James
Subject:Eliminate the unnecessary Charleston Arastrdero Corridor Improvement project
Council members:
The Infrastructure Capital Budget is ballooning with addition of new projects (parking
garages, Public Safety Building) and increases in construction cost of previously approved
projects. We can't afford them all, and so the Council needs to review the list of projects,
making some hard decisions and I thin you should eliminate those of lower priority. One
project that I think should be eliminated is the "Charleston/Arastradero Corridor
Improvements ($10.0 million)" plus an additional $5.0 million for "Phase I of the Charleston/Arastradero Corridor reconfiguration," written on page -IV of transmittal
letter http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/57409
I recently heard an engineering review of the current project status. The project plan
includes completely grinding up and repaving the roadway from Gunn to Fabian Way,
replacing existing traffic lights with new traffic lights, replacing sidewalks, etc. It's a
massive, massive undertaking. The engineering project review that I heard goes way
beyond what is described for this project in the budget plan (page 61 of the link
above: "new landscaped median islands, enhanced bike lanes, new street trees and
landscaping, and bulb-outs.") In my view, the rebuilding of the corridor will not improve
traffic flow, nor will it measurably improve the safety of those using it in cars or on bikes.
The roadway surface is currently in good shape, and I feel this project is largely cosmetic.
And if there is to be a grade crossing for rail on Charleston, the roadway would have to be
dug up all over again.
We can't afford everything and given our budgetary limitations, this project is an
extravagance and should be eliminated.
Arthur Liberman
751 Chimalus Drive
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/16/2017 10:13 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Paul <pegrego@sonic.net>
Sent:Tuesday, May 16, 2017 9:41 AM
To:Council, City
Subject:Charleston/Arastradero Corridor Improvements
Dear City Council Members,
We understand that there is an item in the proposed 2018 budget to "reconfigure" the Charleston/Arastradero Corridor,
which is budgeted for at least $10 million. Please remove this item from the budget. It is unnecessary, and a misuse of
city funds which could be better used for other projects. The pavement on Arastradero and Charleston is in pretty good
shape, not nearly as bad as other Palo Alto streets. And re‐landscaping and redoing sidewalks is completely
unnecessary. The only problem with this corridor is the massive traffic backup caused by the lane reductions and
consequent slalom course drivers are forced to navigate.
Regards,
Paul & Martha Gregory
Barron Park neighborhood
Palo Alto
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/16/2017 11:57 AM
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Carnahan, David
From:Jeffrey Lipkin <repjal@att.net>
Sent:Tuesday, May 16, 2017 11:53 AM
To:Council, City
Subject:Parking Permits for Green Acres
It is long overdue for you to establish a parking permit program for residents of Green Acres (Georgia, Hubbart etc.) who
must suffer through getting ticketed for parking violations because you have been too lazy and distracted to establish
such a program. The argument that there are material costs involved is unadulterated horse manure. The cost is trivial
compared to the multimillions you propose for redundant cosmetic fixes to Arastradero/Charleston.
And while you are at it, please explain your total failure to add speed humps to Georgia Avenue at the student cut‐
through. The speed signs are routinely ignored. Stop wasting money on Arastradero if you can’t accomplish this simple
task. Your priorities are delusional.
Jeff Lipkin
650 Georgia Avenue
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/17/2017 12:35 PM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Ruchita Parat <ruchita@yahoo.com>
Sent:Tuesday, May 16, 2017 8:30 PM
To:Council, City
Subject:charleston /arasteradero corridor
Hello,
I have been Green acres II resident for 24 years. I live just 3 houses away from arasterdero.
I want to thank the city for making changes on arasteradero that have slowed down the speeds of cars on that road.
I understand the city plans to spend about $10M on redoing this corridor again for not much return. I feel that is frivolous given the
fact that this money can be spent in solving the train track by making it not in the same level as the road. I have gone through 5-6 suicides
at this train track and it is soo sad and the train track is higher priority.
We trust you will use money as if you had earned it the hard at and hence you will use it where the REturn on Investment is justified.
Thanks RUchita parat
4177 Hubbartt Dr, palo alto
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 8:12 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Jeff Hoel <jeff_hoel@yahoo.com>
Sent:Friday, May 12, 2017 4:04 PM
To:Council, City
Cc:Hoel, Jeff (external); UAC; Dauler, Heather
Subject:ALERT: Wireless Facilities in the Public Right of Way
Council members, Baller Stokes & Lide has published an ALERT (5-page paper): 05-11-17: "Wireless Facilities in the Public Right of Way: Is Your City Ready for a "Deemed Granted" Remedy?" http://www.baller.com/wp-content/uploads/BSL-wireless-facility-Alert-5-11-17-FINAL.pdf?mc cid=b8c2e243c3&mc eid=99443c82f8 Please read it. I think that California's SB 649 is an example of the state legislation the alert is talking about. Thanks. Jeff
------------------- Jeff Hoel 731 Colorado Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94303 -------------------
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 8:11 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Shelly Gordon <sgordon@g2comm.com>
Sent:Friday, May 12, 2017 3:09 PM
To:Council, City
Subject:Anti-idling ordinance proposal for Monday, 5/15 City Council meeting
Attachments:city council - anti-idling mtg letter 0517.docx
Dear Council Members,
In advance of speaking during the Public Comments section of this Monday’s meeting, I’m attaching a letter proposing a
vehicle anti‐idling ordinance for Palo Alto, on behalf of the Sierra Club, Loma Prieta Chapter. Some members have been
briefed on our proposal and consider it worthy of deliberation.
Reducing unnecessary vehicle idling could have a considerable impact on our City’s 80/30 carbon emissions goal.
I hope you’ll take the time to read this document.
Thank you,
Shelly Gordon
Executive Committee
Sierra Club, Loma Prieta Chapter
650 856‐1607 – office
650 248‐6975 – mobile
May 15, 2017
City of Palo Alto City Council
City of Palo Alto City Hall
250 Hamilton Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94301
To: Mayor Scharff, Vice Mayor Kniss, Council Member Dubois, Council Member Filseth, Council Member
Fine, Council Member Holman, Council Member Kou, Council Member Tenaka, Council Member
Wolbach
Cc: Bruce Rienzo, Chairperson, Sierra Club, Loma Prieta Chapter
James Eggers, Director, Sierra Club, Loma Prieta Chapter
Mike Ferreira, Conservation Committee Chair, Sierra Club, Loma Prieta Chapter
Dear Mayor Scharff and City Council Members:
The Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter encourages the Palo Alto City Council to pass a vehicle anti-idling
ordinance prohibiting drivers from idling their engines while parked. The Club recommends the anti-idling
ordinance ban, within Palo Alto City limits, against vehicle idling for longer than 1 minute, to improve air
quality and human health, lower carbon emissions, protect the environment and reduce oil and gas
consumption. The ordinance would pertain to stationary cars, trucks, vans and buses. Vehicles idling at traffic
lights would be exempt.
Until the majority of drivers in Palo Alto have electric vehicles, vehicle idling will remain an issue, as drivers
continue to run their gas powered engines while parked.
Reducing vehicle idling by ordinance would support Palo Alto’s Sustainability & Climate Action (S/CAP) Plan
and the 2030 goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80% below 1990 levels. Right now more than 60% of Palo
Alto’s emissions come from transportation—people driving their vehicles into, out of, and around Palo Alto.
This does not include idling cars.
Anti-idling ordinances already exist throughout the US and can be easily adopted by the Palo Alto City Council.
In Park City, Utah, for example, the ordinance instructs drivers to turn off their engines after 1 minute. The
ordinance functions mainly as an opportunity to educate drivers. Police hand out brochures that explain the
facts about idling which allows them to approach the citizenry in a nonthreatening way. Police officers say it’s
an opportunity to start a conversation.
Schools Hit Hard
High traffic areas in Palo Alto, especially the City’s choice, charter and private schools where parents pick up
their children, should be of utmost concern to City Council. Parents arrive before school lets out and all too
often leave their engines running, exposing their children to the harmful particulate matter polluting the air
they’re breathing.
Several Palo Alto students monitored parents picking up their children at Hoover Elementary school over a
two week period, earlier this year. They counted 162 drivers that were idling for more than 60 seconds;
approximately 40 drivers idled for more than 10 minutes.
Children’s lungs are still developing so they are especially vulnerable to developing health problems when they
are exposed to elevated levels of pollutants. And asthma is the most common chronic illness affecting
children, one of the largest causes of school absences, and one of the 12 leading causes of hospitalization
among children under age 15.
Waste in Carbon, Gas and Money
While seemingly less harmful than moving vehicles, idling vehicles emit more than 40,000 tons of carbon every
day in the US. This equates to $13,444,400 wasted on 3.8 million gallons of fuel.
We urge the City Council to pass an anti-idling ordinance. Adding this ordinance to Palo Alto’s other green
policies, and the S/CAP would also be instructive for other municipalities across California and the U.S., as well
as consumers who would like to see their own municipalities expand their green initiatives.
Sincerely,
Shelly Gordon
Executive Committee
Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 8:19 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Kyle <pikapika2@att.net>
Sent:Sunday, May 14, 2017 8:44 PM
To:Council, City; SAhsing@m-group.us; Architectural Review Board
Subject:Comments on EIR for 744 San Antonio Road proposal
Attachments:744SanAntonioEIRComment.docx
May 14, 2017
Dear City Council, City Planner Ah Sing, and ARB members,
I quite recently learned about the Mariott hotel building project proposed for 744‐750 San Antonio Road. Although it is a
few days past the deadline, thought I would submit my comments regarding the Environmental Impact Report anyway.
Summary of my points:
The proposed setback is much too small for the three to five story buildings in that local area. The
proposed buildings’ height and size greatly exceed that of neighboring structure in that mixed‐use block of San
Antonio Road.
The EIR fails to mention the nearby ‘Castro mound’, a significant archaeological and cultural site of the Ohlone
people.
The EIR makes a claim that the noise impact from the increase in traffic is “not anticipated to increase
substantially.” The document cited as support contains no analysis of noise levels, so the claim is at best
unsupported, at worst, fabricated.
Existing outdoor noise levels at single family residences adjacent to San Antonio Road on San Antonio Drive are
about 70 dB, according to the noise contour map of the Comprehensive Plan. (70 dB is over 31 times louder than
55 dB, the ‘normally acceptable’ outdoor noise level.) San Antonio Drive is one of the few single family
residence area along the primary commercial route from 101 into Palo Alto and neighboring areas. Can the city
study of this noise problem and provide a reasonable mitigation for the single family residences?
I have attached a Word document containing my comments.
Best regards,
Kyle Kashima
San Antonio Drive
3.1.2.2 Impacts to Existing Visual Character
The 24-foot setback is too small for a large complex that starts at a three-story height and rapidly rises
to a five-story height on that part of San Antonio Road. Across from the proposed site, the Greenhouse
residential buildings are only 3-story, setback from San Antonio by at minimum of 75 feet, and shielded
by a sound wall from San Antonio. The proposed Mariott buildings at five-stories and close proximity to
the road would dominate all the buildings in that section of San Antonio and negatively impact the area.
At minimum the plan should be modified to increase the setbacks for the three-story section to match
that of the Greenhouse and to remove or to setback the higher stories even farther.
3.4.2.3 Archaeological or Paleontological Resource Impacts
The EIR failed to mention the nearby historically important ‘Castro Mound’ that was located at the
current site of Google offices at San Antonio Road and Central Expressway (the former Mayfield Mall).
As I understand, it was one of the largest burial sites for the Ohlone people in the area. The EIR should
be amended to accurately reflect this fact and the possibility that the project site could contain artifacts
or remains of importance.
3.6.1.2 Existing Conditions
Geological Setting and Topography: San Antonio Road roughly follows the original path of the San
Antonio Creek, as can be seen on very old maps of the area. Even though the creek was paved over, it
seems likely that the topography still favors channeling water along this route toward the bay. As
evidence of this, several years ago a neighbor of mine on San Antonio Drive had significant problems
capping an overflowing groundwater well.
3.9.1.2 Existing Conditions
Groundwater: The groundwater measurements cited in the EIR were taken in 2015 during the drought. I
am concerned that the estimated levels were not representative and the dewatering part of the project
might require draining a significant amount of groundwater from the San Antonio ‘creek’. I am also
uncertain on the effect the dewatering will have on the groundwater and how this might affect the city-
owned and city-protected Oak trees along San Antonio Drive. The project plan should include steps by
the city to monitor the groundwater levels and mitigate any problems, such as watering the oaks if the
water table drops.
3.11.3 Noise Impacts
The EIR claims that “vehicular traffic generated is not anticipated to increase noise levels substantially”
citing the Hexagon’s Traffic Impact Analysis report of October 11, 2016.
Hexagon’s Traffic Impact Analysis report only analyzes traffic volumes and flows. Their report does not
discuss noise levels anywhere. There is no information in their report that attempts to analyze noise
levels or noise level changes due to changes in the traffic level.
The EIR makes a claim that is unsupported regarding the noise levels.
The EIR states that the current levels of noise for the project site “range from 60 dBA to 70 dBA primarily
as a result of traffic along San Antonio Road” and “The ‘normally acceptable’ outdoor noise level
standard for the nearby residences would be 55 dBA Ldn, and existing ambient levels exceed this
threshold.” The noise levels from San Antonio Road to my nearby single family house on San Antonio
Drive are already high (about 70 dBA according to the Noise Contour map of the Comprehensive Report).
Unlike that of most other Palo Alto roads, San Antonio Road traffic includes heavy commercial vehicles
because this road is the primary commercial route from 101 for Palo Alto, Stanford University, Mountain
View’s retail stores along San Antonio Road, and downtown Los Altos.
Any increase in traffic will raise the approximately 70 dBA outdoor noise to even more unpleasant levels.
For these reasons, I cannot support the project until a proper noise impact study is undertaken and
steps are taken to mitigate the high level of noise along the single family residences of San Antonio Drive.
Comment: The recent (decades)-long-awaited repair of San Antonio Road improved some things.
• When the city removed stone pine trees whose roots uplifted parts of the roadway and repaved
the street, the vibrations and banging from bouncing of cargo semi-trucks and construction
trucks improved.
• When the city raised the medians and planted it with trees and plants, the change deterred the
reckless jaywalkers who would dart across San Antonio Road between the onrushing traffic.
Unfortunately, the repair did little to address the continuing high of outdoor noise.
• The plants in the median provide little, if any, reduction in the noise. There are sizeable gaps
between plants and it is unclear if they would attenuate noise levels even if the gaps were filled
by plants.
• During a community meeting on the San Antonio Road repair, I and several other neighbors
requested a medium height (4’ to 6’) sound wall to be built in the median, but to no avail.
The outdoor noise level along San Antonio Drive remains well above ‘normally acceptable levels’. Years
ago, when Palo Alto designated San Antonio Road as Palo Alto’s principal and primary commercial truck
route the noise levels worsened. When the residential complexes and Hauser School on the southeast
side of San Antonio were built, sound walls were approved by the city, but these same sound walls
reflect noise back across San Antonio Road toward the single family residences on San Antonio Drive.
Goal N-8 of the Comprehensive Plan is to provide an environment that minimizes adverse impacts of
noise. Can the city study the noise problem along San Antonio Drive and provide reasonable options for
the single family residents to mitigate the high level of outdoor noise?
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 8:18 AM
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Carnahan, David
From:Stan Hutchings <stan.hutchings@gmail.com>
Sent:Friday, May 12, 2017 7:21 PM
To:Council, City
Subject:Elon Musk’s underground tunnel project
Here is what Palo Alto needs under Caltrain tracks:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/12/15629754/elon-musk-boring-company-tunnels-watch-first-route-la
Although just a tunnel without the electric sleds would be sufficient. Just wide and tall enough for pedestrian, bike and auto two-way traffic.
Regards,
Stan Hutchings
285 Rinconada Ave, Palo Alto, 94301
cc: PATMA
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/17/2017 12:35 PM
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Carnahan, David
From:Arlene Goetze <photowrite67@yahoo.com>
Sent:Wednesday, May 17, 2017 10:54 AM
To:Dave Cortese; Joe Simitian
Subject:Fluoride exceeds safe amount in SCVWD
Fluoride in water exceeds safe amount
by Arlene Goetze, MA, N Toxins for Children
Dr. Sara Cody, head of SCC Public Health and Dr. Jayanth Kumar, head of CA dental
health, published the chart of fluoride for children in a Sept. 22, 2016 letter sent to some
dental professionals in Santa Clara County.
The ADA chart says:
Babies under 6 months: No fluoride at all. ADA says no fluoride in formula as cause
of stains and pits in half of U.S. teens.
6 mo to 3 yrs: no fluoride when over .3 ppm in tap water in their homes
3 yrs to age 16: no fluoridated water with more than .6 ppm fluoride
SCVWD puts .7 ppm in tap water in 21 zip codes since last December. Fluoride has been
put in most US (possibly some in San Jose) water up to 1.2 ppm until recent changes by
the CDC to .7 ppm.
The letter also tells dental pros that children with fluoridated water in their homes, should
not be given fluoridated supplements for one year. (CA Public Health). At the end of the
year, water in each home should be tested before prescribing supplements again.
(Who can or will test every home for fluoride is unknown.)
FDA stops fluoride supplements
(NB– Last year the FDA warned Kingman in Oregon not to distribute its fluoride
supplements because they contain an 'untested' drug. One suppplement has 2.2
ppm. The FDA has never tested fluorisilicic acid as safe for humans or animals. This type
fluoride pulls lead from joints in water pipes, along with the ammonia already in county
water. Phosphoric acid is added to tap water to deal with the lead.)
There are now 38 zip codes in the county with full or partial fluoride which leaves 25 zip
codes without fluoride. There are 105 zip codes listed for the county. What about these
other 42 zip codes?
SCVWD now reports that it buys fluorisilicic acid (toxic waste of fertilizer) via Brenntag
Pacific in Richman, via Bay Area Consortium (join with other districts for cheaper prices)
via Solvay Chemicals in Houston which buys from Mexico. Exact source in Mexico is not
known. Levels of lead and arsenic are not known.
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/17/2017 12:35 PM
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NIH, after 8 years of study writes that fluoride swallowed in water does not prevent cavities
but does cause fluorosis (stains and pits) in children...highest (60 to 90%) in Hispanic and
African American children.
No agency tells parents to stop giving fluoride to babies in formula under 6 months of age.
NO one tells parents to stop giving tap water to age 16.
No one cares about the children!
When will anyone hold the SCVWater Board responsible for giving 850,000 people an
''untested' drug. 95% of the world does not do this. Only 8 countries fluoridate half of
their populations. Fluorisilicic acid is one of 13 neurotoxins that damage brains.
The Mercury News reports that this fluorosis is caused by opponents of fluoride, not by the
fluoride itself. It public coverage contains many other errors.
By Arlene Goetze, MA, health writer, No toxins for Children, photowrite67@yahoo.com
*Fluoride writer for Tom Lawson McCall, running for Governor of Oregon 1956
*Daughter of Michael Gowinski, filled with fluoride and badly damaged with it as a WWII
worker in Niagara FAlls, 1940s. He suffered 20 years and died young.
* In 1945 I lived in Rochester NY where the Manhattan Project was testing fluoride for
radiation, not cavities. One test by Mr. Fox of the Aluminum industry claimed mice had
fewer cavities with fluoride. Board of Scientists of EPA says there are no scientific tests
proving fluoride in water can prevent cavities.
* Fluoride researcher since 2011 to educate the water district
Mother of 7 and grandmother of 18....at least 5 showing fluoride risks
PLEASE TELL PARENTS TO STOP GIVING THIS FLUORIDE TO BABIES.
Fluoride in toothpaste is sodium fluoride from aluminum. It is a pharmaceutical level
applied topically to teeth which may have some positive results. Not tested by FDA
either. It was essential in processing uranium and plutonium in ABomb. Harvard agrees
with 50 world tests that it lowers IQs and does brain damage in children.
Fluoride in our food and beverages far exceeds that put in water. usdafluorideinfood
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:51 PM
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Carnahan, David
From:Jeff Hoel <jeff_hoel@yahoo.com>
Sent:Monday, May 15, 2017 3:44 PM
To:Council, City
Cc:Hoel, Jeff (external); UAC
Subject:FTTP in Westminster, MD -- progress report
Council members,
Here's a progress report on FTTP in Westminster, MD.
05-10-17: "Update on Westminster's High Profile PPP Network - Community Broadband Bits Podcast 252"
https://muninetworks.org/content/update-westminsters-high-profile-ppp-network-community-broadband-bits-podcast-252 Transcript:
https://muninetworks.org/content/transcript-community-broadband-bits-episode-252
I was especially interested in Dr. Wack's point that Westminster's City Council was pushing staff outside of their comfort zone.
Note that Westminster sought a public-private partnership because it was starting with "nothing." It didn't have a municipal electric utility and it had no experience with fiber. But Palo Alto starts with a municipal electric utility, and it has some experience with fiber.
Thanks.
Jeff
------------------- Jeff Hoel
731 Colorado Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94303
-------------------
###########################################################################
Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 252 Mon, May 15, 2017 | Posted by htrostle
This is the transcript for Episode 252 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. Westminster, Maryland, has developed a public-
private partnership with Ting, and Robert Wack the city council president joins the show to discuss how the project is meeting its goals. Listen to this episode here.
Robert Wack: When he brings clients or vendors or just friends into his office, he sits them down at his desk and says, "Watch this."
And he shows off his gig like it's his new, shiny, red Corvette.
Lisa Gonzalez: This is episode 252 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa Gonzalez. When Christopher was at the Broadband Community's conference in Austin recently, he had the opportunity to check in
with Robert Wack, city council president from Westminster, Maryland. Westminster is a town of about 18,000 people that decided the best way to improve local connectivity for schools, businesses, and residents was to invest in publicly-owned fiber and work with the
private sector partner. In 2015, they began working with ISP Ting. Robert was the leading voice of the initiative. He gives Chris an update on how things are going in Westminster and the two talk about expectations, realities, plans, and challenges. Robert was on the
show way back in 2014 for episode 100, when the project was just getting started. And we've written about Westminster for muninetworks.org as the Community Network has grown. Be sure to check it out. Now here's Christopher with Robert Wack, city
council president from Westminster, Maryland.
Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to the Community Broadband Bits podcast live edition, coming to you live from the Broadband
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Community Summit with Robert Wack, the city council president from Westminster, Maryland. Welcome back to the show, Robert.
Robert Wack: Thanks, Chris. Glad to be here.
Christopher Mitchell: I'm excited to get an update, because I know that things have been going well. I've been following and I don't
think we've talked about this much since maybe we did a podcast talking about the public and private partnership as you were getting it kicked off.
Robert Wack: It was a long time ago. And as you recall, in the fall when we saw each other in Minneapolis, I said, "When are you
gonna ask me to come back and talk about our project?" And you gave me a look and said, "Well when you have numbers, real numbers, to talk about, then we'll have a discussion."
Christopher Mitchell: That sounds more honest than I normally am. So I'm not sure that that happened.
Robert Wack: No, I think we know each other well enough now that you're honest with me. And you were pretty direct.
Christopher Mitchell: Yeah, we've probably have a whole four or five guests lined up at that time and I was feeling pretty good. But
when I have people face-to-face, I love to be able to do the recording here in this very professional studio in my hotel room. So let's just do a quick reminder for people who aren't familiar. If you were just ... If you had a elevator pitch for what you're doing in
Westminster, how would you describe it?
Robert Wack: We're building a community-wide gigabit, broadband network using a unique and innovative public-private partnership model. The fiber is completely owned and built and maintained by the city of Westminster. And our private partner, Ting, likes
### lights
the fiber and installs the equipment and has the customer service relationship with all the residents and businesses.
Christopher Mitchell: Now let me ask you ... Because I know that you pay really close attention to what's happening out there. What
do you think is most unique about your approach?
Robert Wack: Now that I have seen more projects all across the country, our country
### project
is even more remarkable than I originally understood, because we started with nothing. We didn't have municipal utility. We had no native fiber experience or skills within our city employees. Frankly, we didn't know what the heck we were getting ourselves into. But
we knew we wanted to do it. And it's been a very steep learning curve. And had I know back then how hard this was going to be, I'll be honest, I might have had some second thoughts. But we've done it, or we are doing it with considerable success. And the other
thing that's remarkable about our project is our relationship with our partner. Ting is a fabulous company to work with. They've been as interested in creating innovative solutions to this tricky space of, "How do you divvy up the responsibilities of creating a gigabit
fiber network in a community?" But not pushing either partner outside their comfort zone. And they've been great to work with.
Christopher Mitchell: Let me tell you what I think is something that is incredibly unique and I hope continues to get people thinking along these lines. And I'm curious how you react. Your relationships with Ting is, as you alluded to, I think unique in the sense that I
don't that there's another place where that relationship is happening, even where Ting is working with other cities. You divide up the responsibility in the event of an event where you don't have enough money for debt service. If the network is not producing enough
cash, you pay, the city pays a certain amount. Ting pays 100,000 dollars and then you pay the rest potentially. So it actually, for the first 200,000 dollars of overage, splits it down the middle, right? If I'm remembering it correctly.
Robert Wack: Yeah, more or less. Yeah.
Christopher Mitchell: Right. So it's a little bit complicated, but it's something that we haven't seen anywhere else. The thing that I
thought was genius was that Ting pays you, because you own the fiber, and Ting pays you for homes that could connect to the fiber but are not connected to the fiber, thereby giving them an incentive to do a really good job advertising.
Robert Wack: Exactly. And how we got to that is something I've been talking about a lot, but I'm not sure it's catching on. I don't
know if that's my fault or if there's a problem with the idea. But it's thinking about fiber as real estate. So if you think about a shopping mall and you go into a shopping mall and you want to open a yogurt stand, you're gonna pay a base rent. Even if you never make a
penny, you still own the landlord a base rent. Now some real landlord will do interesting things where they will give you a cut, a break
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on your base rent in exchange for a piece of your business. So if some percentage of your profits or your revenues. So we looked at
that. And ours is skewed more heavily toward the performance part. So we get a bigger payment for a lit customer than we do for a pass
### passed
premise. But the pass
### passed
premise is exactly what you said. It's an incentive. It's a base payment to help us cover our debt service, but it also creates a very
powerful incentive for them to get those customers lit. And it also creates an incentive for us to help them get customers lit. And because when we did our research looking at other projects that have failed around the country, that was one of the things, is that there
weren't aligned incentives all the way along the process. So there's incentives aligned during construction, but then the operations part and the customer service part and the subscriber enrollment part, there have to be very concrete, real incentives for both parties to be
working together at each of those stages, even though that thing may be more one party's responsibility than the other. You want them helping each other all along.
Christopher Mitchell: To what extent do you think your successful relationship with Ting comes out of Ting being a really interesting
partner versus the contract that you drew up with them?
Robert Wack: That's a really interesting question, Chris. And I refuse to be drawn into the false dichotomy that you're proposing.
Christopher Mitchell: It was a brilliant contract with the right group.
Robert Wack: This is like choosing between your spouse and your wedding vows or something like that. It's both. And they are a function of each other. We wouldn't have the contract we have without Ting as being the partner that they are. And vice versa. We
wouldn't have Ting as a partner if we weren't willing to be creative with the contract and do innovative things, so I think they're inextricably intertwined. You can't separate them out. But that should be a goal, going into the relationship knowing what both parties
want and then being willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.
Christopher Mitchell: But also then a lesson that one can't just take your contract and say, "We're gonna do it with this group."
Robert Wack: That's correct. That's another lesson from this. As I've gone around the country and looked at other kinds of projects is there's no template. There are some principles. There's some basic concepts about risk-sharing and proper allocation of risk between
the parties, but the devil's in the details. And those are gonna be a function of the unique characteristics of the community, the local government, and the partner and the kind of project, and the community, the features of the community and what's possible and ... So
yeah, every contract, every partnership's gonna be unique. But there are some underlying principles that are common to all of them.
Christopher Mitchell: Let me ask you then, you said you have some doubts as to whether maybe you might not have done it based on how difficult it's been. Well, what has been the most difficult part of this? Because I think from afar, we just see you rolling and
rolling and rolling and it looks like it's working pretty well.
Robert Wack: Yeah, that's a good point. I'm probably ... My perception is skewed because I live it day-to-day. One of the biggest challenges has been we're pushing our municipal employees, particularly the folks at public works, really hard, way far outside their
comfort zone, because fiber stuff is not anything they've done before. And they're doing a great job learning it, but it's a lot to learn. The other piece is just managing the vendors in this space. It's something that's new. We've never contracted with fiber engineers
before. We've never contracted with fiber construction companies before. We don't have that capability, so we are relying totally on them to do the work the way it's supposed to be done in a timely manner under budget. And that's a lot of work managing that. So
we're getting better. But I'd be lying if I said it's been perfect. There have been little snags along the way. And then there's stuff that's out of our control. So for example, the fiber shortage in the last 18 months. It's gotten better, but we had a solid six months where we
couldn't do anything, because we couldn't get fiber. And that was a result of all the other activity around the country. And didn't plan on that, but you had to deal with it. Weather was another thing. And the whole utility locate thing. We are putting such a burden on
our local utility locating company that there are delays sometimes because of that. We ask them to come out and do 100 locates, because we're getting ready to plow through a neighborhood and they can't keep up with us. So little things like that. But they add up.
And so we're behind schedule, not catastrophically so. We're certainly under budget. Our guys have done a great job managing the construction costs. So we're doing really well in that regard. And now our take numbers, our subscriber numbers are really picking up.
So we're very pleased overall.
Christopher Mitchell: Right and so as a refresher for people, you have Comcast and Verizon DSL, those two service providers in the
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area. They haven't done much real investment to keep you current. You partnered with Ting. Ting is rolling out ... You're doing this in
an incremental fashion. About how much of the community has service already?
Robert Wack: We're probably at about 20% of what will ultimately be the total build. The pilot project was pretty small relative to the rest of the city. This first phase that we just lit is about 800 premises. And then this next phase after that is another 1700. So that'll be
completed by the end of this year. So that will end up being about 30%. 30-something percent by the end of this year will be built out. So still early, relatively. But as I've said, we're very pleased with the subscriber take already even in this early stage.
Christopher Mitchell: So what're you seeing?
Robert Wack: North of 30% for the pilot project and then in phase one that just got lit, we're already at 15%. Altogether, then with
those two pieces, it's about 10% of what's been constructed. So not where we want it to be. We want generally to be north of 20% for the whole thing, but the trajectory is in the right direction.
Christopher Mitchell: If I remember correctly, you are obligated to go to the next phase when you hit 20%. So sounds like, I mean if
you're that close that quickly, it sounds like you're doing what you were expecting to do when you were making the plan.
Robert Wack: 20% is kind of a guideline both Ting and we agreed to. But there's wiggle room in the contract that allows both of us to say, "Hey, speed up. Hey, slow down." And so it's a discussion. And again, it goes back to the partnership and the lines of
communication and their efforts and success with their subscriber enrollment and the pre-subscription numbers are sufficient enough to give us confidence to keep moving.
Christopher Mitchell: Just reminds me of the line from Pirates of the Caribbean, if you can remember back to, I don't know, 20 movies
ago when it first came out. It was: "The pirate's code, more of a guideline than-"
Robert Wack: "It's more guideline, love."
Christopher Mitchell: So you are aiming for city-wide for people who are not gonna go back and listen to our original interview. I'll spoil it for them. You're building out city-wide.
Robert Wack: City-wide. That will end up being over 7,000 premises. And then, we're already looking at building beyond the
perimeter of the city. Assuming we have a continued success that we're having now, we'll start looking at ways to finance extending it out to our entire water sewer system, which will end up being about 15,000 premises.
Christopher Mitchell: Wow, that's wonderful. And Carroll County already has some fiber infrastructure, so I hope that helps a little
bit.
Robert Wack: It will, a little. Mostly what's near the city is gonna be all us. But the county's interested in working with us. So.
Christopher Mitchell: When we last spoke, I feel like you already had some early business excitement. You had a business that brought more ... They were coming into your community. They brought more into your community than they expected because of this
infrastructure. Do you have any other exciting stories, anybody stopping you at the grocery store to say, "I can't believe how wonderful this is!"
Robert Wack: Well actually, yes. One of my colleagues on the council ran into somebody at a soccer game or something and it was a
father of a family of four in one of the neighborhoods that we just lit. And this guy almost threw himself weeping into the arms of my colleague saying, "Thank you. You have saved my family, because our internet before was so crappy that the kids were fighting all the
time. I couldn't get work done. My wife works from home. And it was a nightmare. And we got our Ting lit up and for the first time in years, everybody's happy. And we can all do whatever we want: stream movies, download large files. And nobody has a problem and
everybody's happy."
Christopher Mitchell: That reminds me of a story. This is actually something that never gets discussed in public policy, I feel like. That's important, right? That's like a ... And you're a doctor. And this a measurement of quality of life-
Robert Wack: Stress.
Christopher Mitchell: And health. Stress? Yeah.
Robert Wack: Yeah.
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:51 PM
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Christopher Mitchell: There was a family we interviewed in Ammon, Idaho that they were on the city ... They were on the cable
system that the city was building a fiber network to basically offer people good service, because the cable system was so bad. And this is a cable system that's advertising gigabit speeds. But the modems, they keep, people's cable modems, kept cutting out. And so these
people would say every Saturday morning, they'd be woken up by their kids early because they'd be like, "We can't get on the computer. We can't do this. We can't play the games." And as soon as they switched over to the ... They were beta testers on Ammon's
municipal fiber network. And they were just talking about how they got to sleep in on Saturday mornings now.
Robert Wack: Well so along those lines, we have a business locally who's a software development company. And as you may know, in software development, it's usually a distributed process. So they have developers in other countries, all over the United States. And
they're moving big files back and forth all the time to test modules and it's just a part of the process. It's a very iterative process. So he said once they got their gig, that it shortened their development time by days and when he brings clients or vendors or just friends into
his office, he sits them down at his desk and says, "Watch this." And he shows off his gig like it's his shiny, new, red Corvette. Those are his words, "Because this is my shiny, red Corvette. Watch this." And he does a speed test and starts doing stuff and it's made a
significant impact on the efficiency and profitability of his business.
Christopher Mitchell: I believe it. One of the things that I'd like to do is, I think, is not to tell people. To have them sit down and say, "Hey, just go check out some news sites or do something you'd normally do online." And just see how they react and if they notice a
big difference. I suspect they would. They may not notice it immediately, but once you call it to their attention, I would guess that they would just be blown away.
Robert Wack: There's a video out there from our fiber lighting ceremony. And the Ting folks put it together. And there's a short clip
showing a young girl with her phone flipping through some stuff. And that's my daughter. And you look at the smile on her face. She said literally, "This is unbelievable. This blows me away." Because she was flying through stuff on her phone just from the wifi
connection from the gigabit at the place we were. So yeah, it is a mind-blowing experience when you feel it and experience it for yourself.
Christopher Mitchell: So I want to get onto the discussion around what you're actually doing with it in a minute. But first, have we
covered all the nuts and bolts in terms of the numbers that you're seeing and your experiences with the infrastructure stuff?
Robert Wack: Yeah. I mean, so we're a little behind schedule. We are under-budget. And our subscriber numbers are hitting the targets that we're expecting. And we are covering our debt service. That's probably the most important number from the municipal finance
perspective and the replicability of this model, is that this is paying for itself. So this is a 21 million dollar project that, at the end of the day if we stay on track like this, it will not impact city finances by a penny, because the revenues generated by the fiber will pay
for the fiber. And that's a really, really important thing for people to know.
Christopher Mitchell: That's interesting because one of the things that I perhaps falsely remember was that you didn't make a huge deal about that. I mean in some people, they make this whole thing: "Your taxes will not be raised. We are going to build this network
without using a penny of tax payer dollars." I seem to recall ... I know that you live in a more conservative community, but I seem to recall you saying, "This is infrastructure. We're gonna make it work."
Robert Wack: Chris, that's called managing expectations, my friend. So you're right. I did not make a big deal out of that. Because I
didn't know, with a capital K, that that's how it was gonna work out. But now that we have data and it ... That was our intention for it to work out that way, but we weren't gonna lead with that. Because if we didn't deliver of them,
### on that
it would've been a big problem. So yes, we opened with the argument that this is infrastructure and this is our responsibility as
municipal officials to provide this kind of infrastructure, because it's good for our economy. And that's it. But the plan all along was for it to pay for itself. But we weren't gonna lead with that, because we didn't know for sure that that was gonna be the case. That's
politics, baby.
Christopher Mitchell: Well that's successful politics, maybe yeah, not just politics. What's MAGIC?
Robert Wack: MAGIC stands for the Mid-Atlantic Gigabit Innovation Collaboratory. And what MAGIC's mission is, it's an independent non-profit that's building economic development around technology generally and broadband infrastructure specifically.
The thing I'm involved with that's going to leverage our fiber infrastructure and hopefully turn it into jobs and new companies in our community and new investment dollars. As Jason Stambaugh, our former executive director says, it's a magic trick. We turn fiber into
jobs and investment.
Christopher Mitchell: I think this is something I really want to spend a few minutes on. Who are the people that are in the
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Collaboratory?
Robert Wack: Right now, it's a combined effort between MAGIC, our library system, the career and tech center that's part of the
Carroll County Public Schools, the Community Media Center, and the community college and McDaniel College. So we've got all the educational institutions involved. And we do three general categories of things. One, we call tech experiences, which is really just
another way of saying workforce development. We try to draw as many students in as possible into technology programming that gives them new skills, gets them exposed to employers, and hopefully gets them into internships and part-time jobs. The second group
of activities we do are what we call our innovation labs. And these are demonstration projects for different kinds of technology. And that one ... The sort of the flagship of that category is our smart home project, which is tied into the fiber network. And we're doing
some really cool work with telehealth with that. And then the last is sort of the more traditional incubation effort where we are assisting startups with mostly business development kinds of services. We do not have a building. We're not in the real estate business.
We're not leasing cubicles. That, when you're saying incubator, that's typically what people go to right away. "Oh, you got a cool building. Or you've got young people hanging out playing Foosball and--
Christopher Mitchell: Free pop.
Robert Wack: Yeah, right. No, we're not doing that. We're not doing that yet. Maybe some day. When we've got 100 startups that can't
find office space on Main Street, that's a good problem to have. And then we'll do that. But right now, we've got plenty to office space on Main Street, so we're not doing the real estate thing. But we are helping startups.
Christopher Mitchell: If we fast forward five or 10 years, how will you know MAGIC was successful?
Robert Wack: There will be a lot of 20-somethings crowding the bars and cafes on Main Street. There'll be a lot of cool logos visible
from Main Street, because these companies have taken up office space on Main Street. We'll have some splashy announcement about some venture capital group dumped five million dollars into a Westminster, Carroll County-based technology company. But most
importantly, we'll have kids graduating from local and area schools saying, "I'm going to Westminster, because that's here all the cool stuff's happening." And believe it or not, just in the little over a year we've been in operation, we're getting that already.
Christopher Mitchell: No, I believe it. And part of the reason I say that is I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania. Family friends who have
some daughters that recently graduated from college, they love going down to Baltimore. And they drive down to Baltimore for weekends regularly. And the idea that someone would say, "Oh, wow. Like I'm so close to Baltimore. All this culture and cool things
happening. I can live out here in Westminster where all this cool stuff is happening." And it just seems like it's an exciting place to be.
Robert Wack: That's what we're shooting for.
Christopher Mitchell: Lafayette, Louisiana. One of the things that they did was really trying to create jobs locally so that kids will not be leaving. Are you seeing ... Like I mean, what are you seeing from some of the kids that are going through this, because I think this
is one of the main reasons communities build these kinds of networks is to make it exciting for kids to come back. So one thing is the culture and that sort of thing. But what kind of ... The first thing that you mentioned in terms of creating the jobs and that sort of stuff,
it may not be sexy 75-100,000 dollar a year jobs, but what kind of jobs are you talking about there?
Robert Wack: First of all, it's very early in the process. So the positive indicators we're seeing are very small and subtle. But they're real. So we've placed probably about a dozen kids into internships and part-time jobs with local tech companies. You know, some
might say, "Oh that would've happened anyway." Maybe not. Maybe some of these kids would've gone elsewhere or maybe the tech companies would have looked elsewhere for these employees. This is a five to 10 year project of growing these companies and getting
kids placed. In terms of the kinds of jobs, what we've seen so far it's web development. It's software development, coding, some network stuff, cybersecurity. Those are good, reasonably well-paying, white-collar jobs that we want more of in our community. Like
many rural and semi-rural communities, our local economy is skewed heavily toward school system, local government, the hospital, and maybe one or two large manufacturers. If any one of those things has a problem, that's a major negative impact on our local
economy. So we need to have a more diverse local economy with lots of small businesses, because there's a substantial body of economic research that says that net job growth is 60 to 80% of net, new job growth comes from small businesses and entrepreneurs.
So we need more of that. And that's a big part of what we're doing and the fiber infrastructure is a unique asset now that we in this community that will hopefully be an engine for creating those jobs, attracting those entrepreneurs, and getting that net new job growth
that's gonna drive our economy for the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years.
Christopher Mitchell: What is the best unanticipated thing that has happened? Like what is something that came along and just hit you out of the blue? Like when I started thinking about building this fiber optic network and arguing that we should do it, something that
you did not expect to happen that's happened, if there's anything.
Robert Wack: The fiber project has unrolled how I hoped it would unroll. So there haven't been any big surprises there. I guess maybe
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the surprise is that I was right.
Christopher Mitchell: Not used to that?
Robert Wack: No, really the big surprise is with MAGIC. The totally unexpected thing that's been a big engine driver of the success
and rapid growth of MAGIC is I never realized how many technology professionals we already have living in our community that drive into Baltimore and Columbia and Washington DC and northern Virginia. And they're in the car for hours. They hate it. And they
want to do anything they can to help do what we want to do in terms of creating jobs and creating a technology ecosystem in Westminster and Carroll County. So we had this army of volunteers that have been helping us with our programming and projects that
are all really high-skilled technology professionals that want to do this because they see the long-term benefit for their kids and everybody's kids for creating this thing out of nothing for our community.
Christopher Mitchell: Well that's great. And I'm incredibly excited. For people who really want to know, the nuts and bolts, we
covered it in a paper that you can find dealing with public-private partnerships and what we took away in terms of the best parts of the model of Ting of Westminster. So let me just say thank you so much for coming up here and letting us know the update.
Robert Wack: Thanks for having me.
Lisa Gonzalez: That was Christopher with Robert Wack, city council president from Westminster, Maryland, getting caught up on how the network has impacted the community. We have transcripts for this and other Community Broadband Bits podcasts available
at MuniNetworks.org/broadbandbits. Email us at podcasts@MuniNetworks.org with your ideas for the show. Follow Chris on Twitter. His handle is @CommunityNets. Follow muninetworks.org stories on Twitter. The handle is @MuniNetworks. Subscribe to this
podcast and all of the podcasts in the ILSR family on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Never miss out on our original research. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter at ilsr.org. Thank you to Arne Huseby for the song, "Warm Duck Shuffle,"
licensed through Creative Comments and thanks for listening episode 252 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast.
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Carnahan, David
From:Jeff Hoel <jeff_hoel@yahoo.com>
Sent:Monday, May 15, 2017 4:01 PM
To:Council, City
Cc:Hoel, Jeff (external); UAC
Subject:Fw: Great Community Advice and Colorado Update - Broadband Bits Podcast 253
Council members,
I recommend checking out this podcast/transcript.
05-11-17: "Great Community Advice and Colorado Update - Broadband Bits Podcast 253"
https://muninetworks.org/content/great-community-advice-and-colorado-update-broadband-bits-podcast-253 Transcript:
https://muninetworks.org/content/transcript-community-broadband-bits-episode-253
It has some great ideas about how to deploy fiber. * Have a "dig-once" policy.
* Design what you want for municipal FTTP; then you'll know what to build when "dig-once" opportunities arise.
Thanks.
Jeff
-------------------
Jeff Hoel 731 Colorado Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94303 -------------------
##########################################################################
Transcript: Community Broadband Bits Episode 253
Mon, May 15, 2017 | Posted by htrostle
This is the transcript for episode 253 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast. Diane Kruse of NeoConnect joins the show to discuss Colorado's community networks. Listen to this episode here.
Diane Kruse: I think it's reached this critical point where it is absolutely a necessity for municipalities to build out fiber infrastructure.
Lisa Gonzalez: This is Episode 253 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I'm Lisa
Gonzalez. This is a special twofer week. Christopher interviewed several people at the recent Broadband Community Summit in Dallas, and we want to bring you the material while it's still fresh. We'll be back to our regular schedule next week. Diane Kruse and
her consulting firm, NeoConnect, work with communities that are looking for ways to improve local connectivity. In this interview, Diane offers a consultant's perspective on Colorado's restrictive SB 152 and how it has affected local community initiatives to improve
broadband. She shares how her firm approaches working with communities. Each one has unique goals and considerations while making public investment. Chris and Diane discuss some of the changes they’ve seen in both private and public investment and how
it's happening. Learn more about Diane's firm at NeoConnect.us. Now, here's Christopher and Diane Kruse.
Christopher Mitchell: Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits podcast, coming at you live once again -- We're live right now, but it's coming at you from the Broadband Community Summit in Dallas, Texas, 2017. With me today is the president
and CEO of NeoConnect, Diane Kruse. Welcome to the show.
Diane Kruse: Thank you, Chris, it's great to be here.
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Christopher Mitchell: NeoConnect, I know that your firm is located in Colorado. There's tons of things happening in Colorado, but you do things around the country.
Diane Kruse: Yeah, we are a nationwide consulting firm. We work with municipalities and local governments on broadband planning
and implementation. We have projects all over the US, but you are absolutely right. There's a lot of work that’s being done just right in our back yard in Colorado.
Christopher Mitchell: You're about to kick off a number of projects in California. I know that you are involved in Tennessee, several
other southeastern states, but today we're just going to talk about Colorado. First let me just ask you, you had any good bike rides lately?
Diane Kruse: Oh, gosh. We could talk for hours about that. Yes, of course. Living in Glenwood Springs in Colorado, right in the
middle of the mountains, is just the ideal place to go for a bike ride.
Christopher Mitchell: I was talking to someone just the other day. They were talking about a bike ride across America, and I was thinking we could put together an interesting team. I'm really good at flatlands, being from Minnesota. I can go 50, 60 miles with only
a mile of up or down gain.
Diane Kruse: I'll take the mountain passes.
Christopher Mitchell: Right.
Diane Kruse: It's perfect.
Christopher Mitchell: You can do the hard work and I'll just coast along. Colorado, for people who are brand new to the show, this might be a surprise, but for everyone else that’s aware, nearly 100 local governments, which includes almost half the counties, I guess,
and a lot of cities have opted out of a restrictive law in Colorado that says communities basically can't do anything in telecom without authority, without a referendum.
Diane Kruse: Right. Senate Bill 152 is a law that was established in 2005. It was essentially written, I think, at the urging of some of
the larger telephone and cable companies.
Christopher Mitchell: Right. At that time, Qwest was headquartered in Denver, I think.
Diane Kruse: Right.
Christopher Mitchell: That was their territory.
Diane Kruse: Right, and so the law basically states that a local government is restricted in building out telecommunications infrastructure for citizens. The law states that they can build out infrastructure for other government entities as well as quasi-
government entities, schools, hospitals, the medical clinic, libraries, but they are only allowed to build out telecommunications infrastructure to citizens for the service providers to use. Even the service provider piece of that is what the law refers to as
insubstantial compared to government use. Unfortunately, insubstantial is not defined in the law, and so there isn't any indication of what is a large amount for the service provider and what is an insubstantial amount. It also restricts the local governments from
entering into public-private partnerships, which, as you know, is a model that many municipalities use to help solve broadband challenges in their communities.
Christopher Mitchell: Certainly desire to use. I'd love to talk to you about what your definition of that is toward the end of the show.
When we look at a public-private partnership, we're trying to figure out how many there are, but there doesn’t seem to be that many of them when you actually look at a true partnership.
Diane Kruse: About 90 communities, local municipalities, and counties have opted out of this law, and so there is a provision in the
law that states that they could opt out with a 50% majority to opt out of the law and take back local control. In all of the elections that have been held, Longmont was the first. They lost their first election, but then came back strong with a stronger advertising campaign
and it passed. Since then, over 90 communities have held out the election. It has passed with overwhelming support in favor of opting out. On average, the vote has been in the 70 to 75% in favor of opting out, and in some communities like Telluride and Estes Park and
Durango, over 95% of the citizens that voted wanted to opt out of that law. I think what was interesting about that, in hindsight, I think it was originally written to be a barrier to entry for municipalities, and it's actually, I think, served just the opposite result. It's become
this spur of innovation for municipalities to step up and figure out ways of solving some of the broadband challenges that they have in
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their community.
Christopher Mitchell: Right. I think that’s a hundred percent correct. What I find interesting and what I think you're really the right
person to tell us about is what happens next. For people who are watching from the outside, sometimes I talk to people who are following this from afar, people on the East Coast, West Coast, whatever, and they're thinking, "Oh, Colorado, you have so many
communities that have opted out, but I'm not seeing a lot of stories as to what they're doing next." As you know, this is not a vote to establish a Chattanooga or a Longmont style network. This is a vote to reclaim authority to then later make a decision. I guess I'm
curious to know, are there any patterns emerging for what comes next for -- ? Let's start with maybe urban areas and then talk about rural separately.
Diane Kruse: First of all, I think that municipalities that want to solve broadband, that task should not be taken so lightly. It is often a
very costly, capital-intensive endeavor for a municipality to build out, say, a fiber to the home network. As a consultant, one of the things that we have to sift through early on in the process is what is the city's appetite and at what level of investment do they feel
comfortable entering into some type of infrastructure so that it could potentially be leveraged in a public-private partnership or it could potentially be leveraged to bring broadband to homes and businesses. Considering that it's a large capital expense, it should not be
taken so lightly. It does require a lot of review and consideration on the municipality's side. Honestly, it is kind of a weird time in our industry because in larger metropolitan areas, we are seeing the cable companies rolling out DOCSIS 3.1 that is supporting gigabit-
type services. They're also working on another version of DOCSIS that will allow for symmetrical gigabit services. I think, again, we're seeing that happening in mostly large metropolitan areas. That’s where Comcast and Charter and the CenturyLinks of the world,
if you will, are investing in fiber to the home like gigabit-enabled services. In some of the larger urban areas, I think a lot of the municipalities are taking a let's-wait-and-see approach and let's see if the private sector actually does step up. Municipalities in the
metropolitan areas are having a different conversation, and that conversation is how can they build out smart city infrastructure to support the needs of local government.
Christopher Mitchell: Three years ago, if you had told me CenturyLink was really going to invest substantial amounts of money in,
let's just say the top 25, top 30 markets for fiber to the home, larger areas, I probably would have said, "No, I think you're wrong. They're really not going to do that," but they have done that. They’ve been much more aggressive than I would have expected. Now
for a local leader, I think you could have a reaction that says, "Well, we're glad that there's additional investment, but we also feel that even if we have fast cable and if we have some fiber to the home from CenturyLink to some neighborhoods, we still want another
option," because a lot of times, people just naively assume, I think, that these are cities that have nothing or that they're just very poorly served. I think in many cases, they're the average and they're looking for something better.
Diane Kruse: Yeah, I think that happens, too. We should, first of all, say that -- We shouldn’t make the assumption that in every major
metropolitan area they have gigabit-type services, because that isn't happening. That isn't true. Even in the Denver metropolitan area, CenturyLink is not deploying fiber to the home in a very fast fashion. In many parts of, say, the Denver metro area, there are people
that can't get adequate broadband services and maybe even can't get broadband services that meet the minimum definition of 25 mb down and 2 megabit upload.
Christopher Mitchell: Right. I'll readily concede that. I've been more surprised in the Twin Cities and in Seattle and Portland. I may
have just assumed that it was true in Denver, but they may be less aggressive in that region, or I might just be -- It's always hard to tell what's really happening on the ground, because, frankly, government has totally fallen down on keeping accurate statistics, so most of
this is rumor and asking around. Anyway, you were saying?
Diane Kruse: Yeah, so I think how we figure out what's rumor and what's advertising, what's fiber to the press release rather than what's actually happening on the ground, is working directly with the municipalities. You can see what permits are being pulled, and
from that, sit down to understand what each of those companies are doing within that municipality. For example, in the city of Arvada, which is a suburb of Denver, Comcast has stated that it will be one of their first target areas to offer gigabit-type services. We are
seeing that, actually, in the city of Arvada, as they're pulling permits for fiber construction to get fiber out to the neighborhoods, deeper into the neighborhoods. I would like to bring back in the smart city-
Christopher Mitchell: Yes. Yes, go for it right now.
Diane Kruse: -- conversation as it relates to these larger metropolitan areas, because what is happening, what is the conversation, if
you will, is that infrastructure needs to be built, and broadband is one of the components that will be supported on this infrastructure. The reason why many cities are building out fiber and building out more conduit and facilities, I think, is to make their cities more
efficient. They're rolling out traffic management systems. They're rolling out more complex lighting fixture systems. They're putting sensors along every corner of their city to support smart city applications. They're having to build fiber and they're having to put in
facilities and infrastructure, and if they can do it with the private sector, great, but they're going to do it without the private sector as well.
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Christopher Mitchell: I would just add one other use case to that, and I'm curious if you'd react quickly. Don’t feel compelled to. If I
was a city contemplating those kinds of builds right now and I saw this 5G on the horizon having small cells which need to be fiber-connected in many cases, some cities, I think, react to that with, "Oh, man, this is going to be really hard to permit and deal with all
this stuff." If I was looking at it, I'd be thinking, "Wow, that’s another anchor customer for the fiber I'm building out to my city, and this is going to help me justify the cost, to help drive revenues, because whether it's Verizon, Sprint, or AT&T or whatever, I would
love for them to be using my fiber to backhaul to their central location in the city or something like that."
Diane Kruse: Yeah, if they will acquire the fiber from the city, I think it's a great application. I think it's also a great opportunity as this is happening, where small cells are being deployed and fiber is being built to those small cell sites, it's another opportunity for the city
to gain some assets. I think the first thing that a city needs to do is look at a shadow conduit policy or a dig-once policy.
Christopher Mitchell: What is shadow conduit?
Diane Kruse: Shadow conduit is just -- Maybe it's a version of the dig-once policy that any time there is work being done in the right of way by, say, Comcast or CenturyLink or any utility provider, it could be the electric company or it could be a road widening project
or a trail project, any time there's work being done, a shadow conduit needs to be installed at the same time. Then the city would typically only pay for the incremental costs of the conduit, putting the conduit in. It essentially takes the cost of construction down
from, say, $30.00 a foot for new construction down to -- It should be $5.00 to $6.00 a foot to put in an additional conduit while work is being done. As, say, Comcast is upgrading their fiber network and putting fiber out further into the neighborhoods to support their
gigabit-enabled services, as they're laying fiber, they should be putting in shadow conduit on behalf of the city. Then the city could potentially use that as leverage, if you will, for a broadband strategy but also as infrastructure that can support smart city applications.
Christopher Mitchell: As someone who's worked with cities on these sorts of things, let me ask you, people might think Comcast is
going to oppose that, but I actually think that the number-one source of opposition to that in many cases is the Public Works people for the city, who might be saying, "Look, we like to build roads, we maintain this and that. We don’t do conduit. We don’t want to
have to deal with that sort of thing." What do you do, what do you advise your clients when you come across that?
Diane Kruse: Usually, the Public Works Department would not be responsible for laying the conduit, but they would continue to do what they normally do, which is to approve the permit process. I'll take the city of Arvada as an example because we just finished
implementing some rules around shadow conduit. We did get some opposition, honestly, from the Comcast and CenturyLinks, and the existing electric company also pushed back a bit, but we sat down with them and we heard what their concerns were and then we
mitigated those concerns. One concern is that it would slow down the permitting process. We had sat down with the city of Arvada and we mapped out their priority locations and their priority applications for a smart city, and we did a preliminary design of a fiber
network, so we were able to identify priority routes for them. The city of Arvada said that they would not slow down the existing 14-day turnaround to get a permit approved. What they will do when a permit comes in is they verify whether this is a priority route based
upon the design that we put together, and if it is, they will notify the company within three days. Then the permit will still get approved within the 14-day window. It's smart conduit installation. It's not just installing conduit everywhere. There is a strategy
behind it, if you will. One other pushback that the industry had was that it would be a burden to them, and the city agreed that they would pay for all of the incremental financial costs of the shadow conduit and that there would be no burden to the service provider.
Really, ultimately, at the end of the day, it's the contractor that’s doing the work. Comcast is not doing the work and neither is the city. The contractor is doing the work, and it's easy for them to throw in spare conduit.
Christopher Mitchell: Right. No, it's actually, kind of I just -- Having talked with some people who are working often in smaller
communities where they may first approach the network owner and then figure out there's a big bureaucracy they can't navigate, so then they just go to the contractor and be like, "Hey, you want to make an extra couple of bucks?"
Diane Kruse: Right. I think that happens, too.
Christopher Mitchell: Probably some of the cities where they want a permitting and that sort of thing, but sometimes you got to just
get the job done, it seems.
Diane Kruse: You said that, not me. Right?
Christopher Mitchell: Right, right, and you're disagreeing with me. I can tell.
Diane Kruse: That’s okay.
Christopher Mitchell: You answered this, but I really want to just make sure people noticed it. You don’t just throw conduit in the ground. You not only just prioritized it, but you did a layout so that you would know where to put vaults and things like that because-
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Diane Kruse: Exactly.
Christopher Mitchell: Yeah, because if you have this big, long conduit, you need to figure out where you're going to break it to gain
access to it.
Diane Kruse: Yeah, that’s a really good point. I think what the takeaway is often, say, from conferences like this is that a city would just go put in conduit and then three years later when they want to go use it, they can't access it. Yeah. We have done a design so we
know exactly where the vaults are going, we know what size of vaults we want, the specifications of the conduit, and we have the priority routes already identified. That’s in a KNZ
### KMZ
file that the city can use. Any time there's a permit that’s filed, they can easily check that preliminary design to see if it's a priority
route for them.
Christopher Mitchell: Right.
Diane Kruse: It's smart conduit installation.
Christopher Mitchell: Let's look back at the rural issues, then, for much of Colorado, quite rural. Not just rural, but terrifyingly expensive, Rockies rural. What's happening in rural Colorado?
Diane Kruse: I think maybe kind of going back to one of the questions that you had about, gosh, there seems like there were a lot of
communities that have opted out of Senate Bill 152. Why aren't we seeing more projects being installed? I think the reality is that we are seeing more projects installed. Typically, they're done on a regional basis. For example, Region 10 is six counties and 22
communities. All of them have opted out, so they're 30 of the 90 communities that have opted out of Senate Bill 152.
Christopher Mitchell: It's worth noting, Colorado has this history, so when you say Region 10, it's like this group of communities have a history of working together. It's worked out really well for how Colorado is organized and allowed for grass roots leadership. I jut
wanted to put a pin in that quickly, because I don’t know if other states have done this as well, but this is a known thing in Colorado that’s worked well historically.
Diane Kruse: Yeah, it's worked really well. It's a regional council of governments, and they have worked together for a number of
issues around transportation, around economic development, and now around broadband. They are local community leaders that are actively involved in solving their communities' issues and problems and making their communities a better place to live. They work
together as a region to make it happen. There's a lot of synergies that I think have come about from that process. Now, a lot of these communities or regional councils of government are coming together to help solve broadband challenges. There was state funding that
was set aside for regional projects through the Department of Local Affairs. There was $20 million that was set aside for broadband implementation, and so many of these communities leveraged that funding and then further leveraged it perhaps with an economic
development grant or some other form of grant to build out infrastructure. I would say if you look around the state, there's probably 12 regional councils of government that are working together to put in infrastructure, and they're spending money and they're making that
happen. Some of it is DOLA money and some of it is EDA.
Christopher Mitchell: DOLA is the Department of Local Affairs.
Diane Kruse: The Department of Local Affairs in Colorado. Maybe taking the example of Region 10 and what they have done, I mentioned that they are six counties and 17 to 22 communities that make up the membership of Region 10. The size of their territory
is the same size as the state of Vermont, so it's a massively large geographical space.
Christopher Mitchell: I guess if you compressed it to make it all flat, it would probably be even bigger.
Diane Kruse: Yeah, if you pressed it. Absolutely, yes. In the mountains in western Colorado, it's rocky terrain. They are building a middle mile infrastructure that will connect all of their counties and all of the communities with fiber. It was a very expensive project,
but what we were able to put forward was a number of partnerships to reduce the cost of building fiber to all of those communities. At first glance, we were looking at 50 to $75 million to build out fiber to connect the region, and we were able to identify fiber that the
local power companies owned for their skid assistance
### SCADA systems
and power management operations. Then we also identified fiber, long-haul fiber, if you will, that was in place from Tri-State, who's
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the power generation and administration, kind of the wholesale provider of power in the region. We were able to negotiate a
partnership with both Delta-Montrose Electric Association and Tri-State to reduce the cost of just acquiring or providing as an in-kind contribution existing fiber.
Christopher Mitchell: Now if I could just jump in for a second. This is one of those things where I think sometimes people might hear
that and they think, "Wow, I wanted to do that sort of a thing, but my co-op was resistant or they weren't super enthusiastic about it." Now my understanding is Delta-Montrose Electric Association was at first skeptical, not necessarily wanting to -- It took some local
organizing to put pressure on them and to make them understand this would be a good thing to support. This is not something where everyone was just like "Yeah, let's all work together." It was real work-
Diane Kruse: Oh, absolutely.
Christopher Mitchell: -- that had to be done along the way.
Diane Kruse: Yeah, there was real resistance at first because DMEA obviously saw their mission is to provide power to their
constituents, and they didn’t want to get distracted. There was a lot of local organizing and grass roots efforts around the business community coming to the board of directors meeting for DMEA to talk about how important broadband is to the economic
development wellbeing of all of their communities and that they did have a vested interest in making sure that we could retain and keep companies to be based there and also to keep people continuing to live there. To make a long story short, they organized over 70
business people to come to the board of directors meeting for DMEA to encourage them to support the Region 10 project, and they did wholeheartedly. It's a great partnership between DMEA and Region 10 and Tri-State where we took the spend from 50 to 75 million
down to 17 million, and then Region 10 applied for grant funding through the Department of Local Affairs and then leveraged that further with an EDA grant that all told, about $3 million will be spent in a cash contribution to build this 50 to $75 million network.
After Region 10 received their funding, Delta-Montrose Electric Association actually announced that they would be offering last mile solutions and last mile services gigabit to every home with Google-like pricing. They're building that out in Delta and in Montrose
Counties now, and they're also further expanding that footprint on a regional basis. I think that that’s a huge success story, and maybe that’s not something that’s being written about in our industry magazines, but it's a great success story that Colorado has, and I think
it's a good model that could potentially be followed for many of these rural areas that are difficult to serve, is to partner up with the power company to make something happen.
Christopher Mitchell: Yeah, we're excited about that approach and we've done a lot of coverage of different electric co-ops doing that
sort of thing. It's actually kind of interesting, because it answers one of the questions right. You're saying these are 30 communities that have opted out and that was an important part of their organizing. Though the ultimate solution in many ways is actually not
necessarily a municipal solution, but that opting out was kind of a step that took and united them and helped them to make sure they had lots of options to choose from and then ultimately have gone with a solution that is not going to add to my number of municipal
broadband networks on our map.
Diane Kruse: Yeah, exactly. In fact, I would say that one of the things that we do that might be different from our colleagues in the industry is there are so many ways to solve broadband, and one way to solve that is to build a municipal fiber to the home network.
There's a whole bunch of other things that municipalities and counties can do to improve broadband services that may not hit your list,if you will. Maybe that’s one good example. It's not a municipal network, if you will, that is building fiber to the home, but it is a
collaboration of municipalities that have definitely come together to solve broadband challenges. In this case, Region 10 will support an open access system that’s available to anybody, so we've reduced the biggest cost for all of the service providers in the area by
reducing those backhaul costs to almost nothing through the Region 10 network. Then we happen to have a last mile gigabit-provider with Delta-Montrose Electric Association, but I will say that there are a whole bunch of other service providers that are also able to
improve their services in their respective communities because of the middle mile work that Region 10 is doing. That’s one way to solve it. I want to talk about another project that is also a lot of collaboration, and it may not hit your list as well.
Christopher Mitchell: Oh, that’s all right.
Diane Kruse: Jefferson County Schools is a school district that is located in the Denver metropolitan area, and they want to build fiber
to their 155-plus schools. That, too, is a 35 to $50 million project that they did not have funding for. They have hired us to work with the 15 or 16 municipalities that their schools are operating within the city's footprint and to collaborate with the schools to figure out
how we could work together and how we could collaborate so that everyone could get their needs met, get fiber built to key critical anchor institutions, to government offices, get smart city applications in place, and then build fiber to the schools. Sometimes, the
solution is E-rate. In other cases, it might be rural healthcare grants, but in the case that we're finding is very effective in the Denver metropolitan area is Public Safety. Public Safety has their own source of funding that is available to improve safety and their ability to
respond to a crisis.
Christopher Mitchell: Now I'm curious. It gives me a lot of hope to hear that these are working together, because in the past, we've
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always heard criticism that some of these programs are would-be silos,
### programs would be silos,
where if you were going to build one network, it couldn’t share anything with another network, but it sounds like some of that’s been
resolved.
Diane Kruse: Yeah, I think so. I think there was initially some resistance to working together and I think we're all guilty of this, that we're all so busy in our own little worlds and we do work in silos. Our mission, if you will, for that project is to break down the silos
and to get people to work together and to collaborate to make something happen for everybody's benefit. This is turning out to be a great project as well where Jefferson County Public Safety, I think, is interested in putting cameras and high-speed fiber to all of the
schools. It improves their ability to respond to a crisis at the school, and so that’s effective with their mission and their strategy, and it allows the schools to get fiber for enhancing their education experience for the students.
Christopher Mitchell: For people who haven't seen it, we did a video about Ammon, Idaho, where they have developed applications
around specifically making sure that emergency 911 centers are alerted in the even that there's a gunshot in the schools. There's some really interesting work that’s being done. A lot of people are thinking about how not just to have these sort of surveillance cameras
and the high-speed, but how to really make sure that they're integrated well and that you have these different actors talking to each other and coordinating ahead of time.
Diane Kruse: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That’s a great project, and it's a great project to have collaboration. It may not be one that would
hit your municipal fiber list, if you will.
Christopher Mitchell: No, but it'll probably hit our list of communities that build anchor networks and see savings, because I'm guessing that the schools, when this network's all completed, will save a tremendous amount of money. They'll have higher
connectivity to their locations. They’ll probably pay less, and most importantly from my point of view is they’ll have control over future costs. The contracts that come up in three years for whoever they're with, they'd have to re-bid it and they wouldn’t really have
a sense of is our price going to increase by 10%, 30%. Now you have security in budgeting, which I have to think is a big deal for local governments.
Diane Kruse: Oh, it's a huge deal. Absolutely. That’s why I think it's critical that local government own their own networks for
supporting their government needs. Schools need to have their own networks as well to support education. I think those are the trends that we're seeing. Then if that infrastructure can be leveraged to do a public-private partnership for broadband, then that may be a good
strategy to serve the homes and businesses within that community.
Christopher Mitchell: I'm about to go a panel in a little bit, and another person that will be on that panel who's very much an opponent of municipal broadband recently wrote an article in which he said, "This is why we're not seeing more municipal broadband
networks," and the premise being that we're not seeing a lot of growth. You in your experience and having to talk to other consultants, as we finish the interview, what's your top line? Are you seeing growth in municipal investments and working to solve these
problems?
Diane Kruse: I think it's reached this critical point where it is absolutely a necessity for municipalities to build out fiber infrastructure. Now whether they use that to go out to homes and businesses is maybe something that they should carefully study. I think that what
we're seeing is in almost every city, they're building out fiber infrastructure, perhaps to their key anchor institutions and to their schools and libraries or as a way to leverage a public-private partnership for broadband to homes and businesses. I would say it's
happening everywhere, and it's just hit a critical mass that we can't report on every single opportunity. I think in Region 10, that’s a good quantifiable project because they received funding and were implementing it in those partnerships that have been developed. All
over the state I think municipalities are putting in fiber infrastructure to support their anchor institutions and then to use that as a way to put together a strategy for broadband for the homes and businesses.
Christopher Mitchell: Right. I think to some extent we're a victim of our own success, in that if you're not announcing 100 gigabit to
every home for $5.00 a month, the press might be thinking, "Ah, boring," the idea that you're adding a bunch of conduit and fiber and in three to five years, it'll be used and it'll be used in interesting ways. It's not as sexy of a story.
Diane Kruse: Yeah, I think that’s right. I don’t know who your panelist is, but I would have to say that that person is not correct.
We're seeing a lot of municipalities put in infrastructure. Now they may not have a gigabit to the home, municipally owned fiber to the premise strategy, but they may be using a different strategy to improve broadband for their constituents.
Christopher Mitchell: Thank you so much for coming and telling us what's going on in Colorado and I think a real picture as to what
cities are wrestling with around the country.
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 4:12 PM
8
Diane Kruse: You bet. My pleasure. Thank you, Chris.
Lisa Gonzalez: That was Christopher and Diane Kruse, founder and CEO of NeoConnect, talking about municipal broadband deployment. We have transcripts for this and other Community Broadband Bits podcasts available at
MuniNetworks.org/broadbandbits. E-mail us at podcast@MuniNetworks.org with your ideas for the show. Follow Chris on Twitter. His handle is @CommunityNet. Follow MuniNetworks.org stories on Twitter. The handle is @MuniNetworks. Subscribe to this
podcast and all the podcasts in the ILSR family on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Never miss out on our original research. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter at ILSR.org. Thank you to Arne Huseby for the song Warm Duck Shuffle,
licensed through Creative Commons, and thanks for listening to Episode 253 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast.
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 8:10 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Carnahan, David
Sent:Thursday, May 11, 2017 3:06 PM
To:Council, City
Subject:FW: HRC Statement on Inclusion at Council -
Attachments:HRC Letter to Council- Welcoming Community -Final-3-29-17.docx
Council Members,
Former Human Relations Commission Chair Greer Stone read the attached document during Oral Communications at
the 4/17 Council meeting and wanted to share this with you.
David Carnahan, Deputy City Clerk, MPA
O: 650‐329‐2267 | E: david.carnahan@cityofpaloalto.org
To the honorable members of the Palo Alto City Council:
In December 2016 Council unanimously passed a resolution reaffirming Palo Alto’s commitment to
being a “diverse, supportive, inclusive and protective” community. The Palo Alto Human Relations
Commission (HRC) fully supports this resolution and stands ready to assist you in making it a reality for
everyone who lives in, works in, or visits our community.
The HRC’s mission is: “To promote the just and fair treatment of all people in Palo Alto, particularly our
most vulnerable populations. By promoting awareness of issues and enabling conversations that
enhance inclusion, the HRC strives to create a community where civility, respect and responsible actions
are the norm.”
To fulfill this mission we serve in a dual role, both as an advisory body to Council and as the voice of the
community. Given the recent rise of hateful rhetoric across the nation, we are more committed than
ever to bringing that voice to the attention of our City leaders.
Last year we began hosting a multipart forum called Being Different Together that encourages
participants to share their experiences and collaboratively build a nurturing community that respects
individual differences. In January, the HRC co-hosted an Immigrants and Allies forum that addressed the
fears and concerns of undocumented members of our community. We also host an ongoing speaker
series called The Immigrant Experience where community members share their immigration stories at
HRC meetings.
Looking ahead, the HRC plans to host a Service Workers forum later this year to help educate and inform
low-wage workers of their rights. And we continue to seek out human rights-related events and partners
in order to share this information with the community through the City’s Office of Human Services.
We will of course keep Council informed of these community events and hope that some of you will be
able to attend. In addition, the HRC looks forward to receiving your guidance as to how we can best
partner with Council to help ensure Palo Alto remains a safe and welcoming community that we can all
be proud of.
With sincere thanks for your dedication and leadership,
The Palo Alto Human Relations Commission
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 1:47 PM
1
Carnahan, David
From:thomas irpan <thomasirpan@gmail.com>
Sent:Monday, May 15, 2017 12:32 PM
To:Council, City; Sheldon Ah Sing; Architectural Review Board
Cc:Joan Larrabee
Subject:Fwd: Greenhouse II & huge hotels
Attachments:IMG_0395.JPG
To: Mayor, City Council, City Planner, Architectural Review Board.
We agree with our neighbor Joan that the proposed hotels have negative impact to our living environment.
Boutique small hotel might work best for our neighborhood.
Thomas Irpan
Resident of Greenhouse II unit #7
Sent from my iPhone
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City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/16/2017 11:14 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org>
Sent:Tuesday, May 16, 2017 11:07 AM
To:Dan Richard; Daniel Zack; terry; Council, City; Joel Stiner; Doug Vagim; dennisbalakian;
David Balakian; dwalters; Paul Dictos; bretthedrick; beachrides; bballpod; bmcewen;
jboren; kfsndesk; newsdesk; rosenheim@kpix.cbs.com; Mayor; CityManager;
paul.caprioglio; esmeralda.soria@fresno.gov; midge@thebarretts.com; Mark Standriff;
mmt4@pge.com; robert.andersen; Cathy Lewis; fmerlo@wildelectric.net;
firstvp@fresnopoa.org; Raymond Rivas; Gary Turgeon; Greg.Gatzka; steve.hogg;
info@superide1.com; igorstrav .; jerry ruopoli; johnhutson580; kclark; lxcastro93
@yahoo.com; leager; scott.mozier; President; popoff; russ@topperjewelers.com;
richard.wenzel; Steve Wayte; Tranil Thomas; thomas.esqueda@fresno.gov; nick yovino
Subject:Fwd: Stanford: Do aquifer recharge, not big new dams that can overflow
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org> Date: Mon, May 15, 2017 at 12:40 PM Subject: Fwd: Stanford: Do aquifer recharge, not big new dams that can overflow
To: Doug Vagim <dvagim@gmail.com>, thomas.esqueda@fresno.gov, Mayor <mayor@fresno.gov>,
CityManager <citymanager@fresno.gov>, "paul.caprioglio" <paul.caprioglio@fresno.gov>,
esmeralda.soria@fresno.gov
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org>
Date: Mon, May 15, 2017 at 12:36 PM Subject: Stanford: Do aquifer recharge, not big new dams that can overflow To: Loran Harding <loran.harding@stanfordalumni.org>
Tues., May 16, 2017
http://news.stanford.edu/2016/07/21/cost-effective-path-drought-resiliency/
In a four hour series entitled "Tapped Out" re water in the Central Valley, one farmer suggests we build
berms around multi-thousand acre plots, put water on there, and let it perc., the idea proposed by Stanford in the report above. We just let 10 trillion gallons of precious, Sierra run-off flow to the ocean in winter, 2017. Then
the cry continues from water officials that "The aquifer is over-pumped! and has dropped 80 feet under Fresno
over the past 100 years due to over-pumping!! OMG what will we do?. Better quadruple water rates for the
suckers in Fresno", which they have done. Doing that will pay for a huge new surface water treatment plant in
SE Fresno and enable scum-bag Republican developers to build thousands of more homes out there, but the suckers in all of Fresno will pay for it.
This severe Groundwater Sustainability Management Act that was passed in ~2014 will dictate what crops
farmers can grow and seriously control their groundwater pumping. I supported it, but if we stopped sending 10
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/16/2017 11:14 AM
2
trillion gallons down the San Joaquin River in wet years, and put that water on the land in the Central Valley
and used it to recharge the aquifer, most of that would not be necessary!
We HAVE to let huge amounts of water flow to the Delta or it will salt up from intrusion of water from SF
Bay (from San Pablo Bay at its north end), is the cry. Remember, sea level rise is already underway and, and
that with an ice-free planet, it will rise 200 feet. Ultimately, we may have to do this: build a huge dam across
the Golden Gate, just to the east of the GG bridge. One could stand on the bridge, look over the east-
side railing, and look down on the dam. That would save the Bay Area and the Delta from sea level rise. It would turn SF Bay into a fresh-water marsh. The Delta would be saved from salt water intrusion and we could
halt the huge flows of Sierra run-off to the sea, using that water for ag, cities, and environment. That idea is
proposed and shown graphically in a film "The Earth Under Water", which I strongly recommend.
I recommend "Tapped Out", being run on ch. 18.1, PBS, in Fresno. Well worth watching if you have any interest in California water. It is four one-hour programs.
If our elected officials at the City, State and Federal levels just knew, really knew all that was being
presented in "Tapped Out" and in "The Earth Under Water", we would be way ahead. But they don't know 5%
of it. Too busy out shopping, I guess. The bums.
LH
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:44 PM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Chris & Jennifer Steck <angesdeux@sbcglobal.net>
Sent:Monday, May 15, 2017 3:43 PM
To:Council, City; Keene, James; Shikada, Ed
Subject:I'm frustrated
Attachments:IMG_0890.JPG; IMG_0891.JPG; IMG_0892.JPG; IMG_0893.JPG
Jim, Ed, Council Members:
At the bottom of this e-mail I'm attaching the e-mail I sent to Ed and Jim this past March about several issues concerning performance of City services. Essentially I have yet to hear back from anybody at the City about anything except the weed abatement issue. Do
Council members ever respond to these kinds of public concerns to try and better understand what's going on? I'm also including a few photos from this past weekend that clearly illustrate my weed abatement concerns. The cleared area is school property while the
overgrown areas are immediately adjacent City property. Ed, at the end of last month you e-mailed me that the weed abatement in the area would be done by the middle of this month. As you can clearly see it hasn't even begun.
Based on the lack of response I've gotten for quite some time now on just about every item I've brought to the attention of the City
including the ones in the e-mail below, it isn't worth wasting any more of my time trying to get the City to be concerned about issues that either aren't being addressed at all that should be or issues that take forever to be addressed and in reality aren't really
addressed completely in the end anyway. It's quite discouraging for me to think that this is what City services in Palo Alto have come to after all these years.
Chris Steck ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------- Ed:
It's been more than two months now since I last heard from you. It's been more than eight months since my original e-mail to the City on these concerns. I spoke to your admin., Ms Moore, a couple times asking her if anybody from the City ever got back to her to
confirm if the Code required inspections and documentation at City sites we'd been discussing were actually being done. She said nobody from the City ever got back to her. Now I haven't heard from her since in the last few weeks either.
I noticed the PAUSD has already begun their seasonal pro-active weed abatement at Gunn adjacent to City property that hasn't been
abated once yet this season. This is the issue that got this whole discussion started last spring. When or will the City be taking multiple pro-active abatement actions this season in light of all the rain we had this past winter and the problems posed in the area in the past?
Or will it be just the single abatement in July that wiped out so many of the new plantings along the path behind the VA and behind the bike path in back of our house? Those destroyed plantings have yet to be replaced by the City.
I wanted to mention a few other random City related issues that have happened in the last few months I also see as being life-safety
issues that I was/am concerned about the City response to.
Street light outage along the City bike path behind our house...It took a month with me calling once a week for four weeks to report the street lights along the bike path were out leaving the path in total darkness at night until they were finally replaced. I requested a
call back when the work was finally done. Nobody ever called me back or offered an explanation for why it took so long to finally get the job done.
A new set of stop signs were installed over on Los Robles a couple months ago with no additional signage of any sort warning drivers
of the change. After personally seeing several near misses and almost being part of an accident myself where drivers just blew through the new stop signs without even hesitating, I started calling the City trying to figure out who should have been the one to post the
additional warning signs. Using the City website, I left messages for six different individuals or departments who all seemed like they might have had something to do with the issue. I never got a single call back from any of the messages I left. Finally, after searching
some of the City archive records, I came across the City Transportation Department. A live body actually answered the phone and said I'd finally found the right department. He admitted their group was difficult to locate and not well known among other City
departments. He took my information and said he'd have someone call me. A couple days later I indeed got a call indicating that sight had "slipped through the cracks" and hadn't been posted properly. A couple days after that additional signage was posted at the
intersection.
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:44 PM
2
Finally last Saturday morning a fire alarm started going off somewhere in the Stanford industrial park behind our home as my wife
and I were leaving to take a walk through our neighborhood. Took us about an hour to loop back around into the park and decide to try and locate the source of the alarm that was still sounding. Turned out it was an old empty HP building on Hanover right down the
block from Fire Station 2. I called the non-emergency City dispatch number and was told no alarms had been called in for the site. I suggested they might want to roll an engine to investigate. By the time we walked back to our house, we heard the engine leave
Station 2 and pull up to the site of the alarm. The alarm was silenced within the hour. I'd asked to receive a call back with the outcome of the situation but never heard back from anybody.
Let me ask you....are any of my concerns or expectations unreasonable to you? Some of the things we're talking about the City is
required to be doing per Code. Some of the other things to me are life safety issues that just seem to make good sense to address as quickly as possible. Wouldn't you agree? So where do we go from here?
I'm still waiting to hear back. Hopefully I will get a response and one that we can all agree that makes sense given the types of issues we're talking about.
Thanks, Chris
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:30 PM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Lama Rimawi <lrimawi1@gmail.com>
Sent:Monday, May 15, 2017 3:13 PM
To:Council, City; HRC
Subject:immigration proposal for city council agenda
May 13, 2017
Dear Palo Alto City Council Members and Human Relations Commission Members,
We are writing to you to kindly (1) request time on the Council’s Agenda for your May 22nd
meeting to discuss the Resolution below and (2) request that the Council adopt a specific
Resolution (below) covering immigration enforcement.
We represent over 150 Palo Alto residents who are part of the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) People Power grassroots movement. People Power groups have been formed across
the United States. In Santa Clara County alone, we have roughly 1000 members.
Our first priority and concern is immigration, and we are asking that Palo Alto adopt the
ACLU’s “Freedom Cities” model in this regard. This Council and the Palo Alto Police
Department (PAPD) have already taken positive action on this topic, which we appreciate and
support. We were happy to see the Santa Clara County Police Chiefs’ Association press release
sharing our concerns and values. However, we believe it is critical to include a few additional
points.
We are asking the Council to adopt the ACLU Model as part of a Council resolution, and
incorporate the missing points into a revised PAPD policy.
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:30 PM
2
We recently contacted Palo Alto Interim Police Chief Ron Watson, to hold a meeting on the
issues outlined below. In addition, we have requested that the PAPD revise the existing Policy
428 to incorporate the key points missing from the ACLU Model. Chief Watson declined a
meeting, but suggested that we approach the City Council on this matter. Several of the other
Santa Clara County Police Chiefs have met with our sister groups and have expressed strong
support for this initiative. This is a very important topic for our community, and we care about
it on a very personal level within our own city. We appreciate that you have been active on this
topic previously and hope to continue the progress (including Resolution 9653).
To give you an example, Anna (not real name) reported that she feels terrified all the time. She
is a “dreamer” and came here when she was only 2 months old. She is afraid an immigration
truck will come and take her or her parents away. She is working full-time and paying her fair
share of taxes and contributing positively to society. She says that people in her community are
hiding at home because they are afraid to be picked up by ICE. This constant fear is not healthy
for any of our community members and is especially traumatic to children who see their parents
hiding in fear. We must help our community feel safe and make our city a Freedom City.
We respectfully ask the City Council and the Human Relations Commission to meet as whole to
pass the following resolution on an urgent basis. Immigrant rights in our community are at risk.
The city of Palo Alto has already started the process by being a “Safe City,” but these policies
are not enough to give peace of mind to our communities in these uncertain times. We ask that
Palo Alto become a “Freedom City.”
We realize that there may be concerns around Trump’s threats to defund sanctuary cities. This
is a very important concern. Several cities and counties have filed lawsuits against this
Executive Order, challenging its constitutionality on multiple grounds. On April 25th, 2017, “a
federal district court granted an injunction, forbidding the government from taking action to
implement or enforce the Order until further notice. The court found that the Order is likely to
be proven unconstitutional, and so it must be stopped before it causes irreparable harm.” (for
further information, please view this link from PennState Law’s Immigration Legal Resource
Center.)
Now be it resolved that:
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:30 PM
3
#1) The Judicial Warrant Rule: A Palo Alto official, employee or agent shall require a
judicial warrant prior to detaining an individual or in any manner prolonging the
detention of an individual at the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
#2) No Facilitation Rule: A Palo Alto official, employee or agent shall not arrest, detain, or transport an individual solely on the basis of an immigration detainer or other
administrative document issued by ICE or CBP, without a judicial warrant.
#3) Defined Access/Interview Rule: Unless acting pursuant to a court order or a legitimate
law enforcement purpose that is unrelated to the enforcement of a civil immigration law,
no Palo Alto official, employee or agent shall permit ICE or CBP agents access to Palo
Alto facilities or any person in Palo Alto custody for investigative interviews or other
investigative purposes.
#4) Clear Identification Rule: To the extent ICE or CBP has been granted access to Palo Alto facilities, individuals with whom ICE or CBP engages will be notified that they are speaking with ICE or CBP, and ICE or CBP agents shall be required to wear duty jackets
and make their badges visible at all times while in Palo Alto facilities.
#5) Don’t Ask Rule: A Palo Alto official, employee or agent shall not inquire into the
immigration or citizenship status of an individual, except where the inquiry relates to a
legitimate law enforcement purpose that is unrelated to the enforcement of a civil
immigration law, or where required by state or federal law to verify eligibility for a
benefit, service, or license conditioned on verification of certain status.
#6) Privacy Protection Rule: No Palo Alto official, employee or agent shall voluntarily release personally identifiable data or information to ICE or CBP regarding an inmate’s
custody status, release date or home address, or information that may be used to ascertain
an individual’s religion, ethnicity or race, unless for a law enforcement purpose unrelated
to the enforcement of a civil immigration law.
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:30 PM
4
#7) Discriminatory Surveillance Prohibition Rule: No Palo Alto official, employee or agent
shall authorize or engage in the human or technological surveillance of a person or group
based solely or primarily upon a person or group’s actual or perceived religion, ethnicity,
race, or immigration status.
#8) Redress Rule: Any person who alleges a violation of this policy may file a written complaint for investigation with Human Relations Commission.
#9) Fair and Impartial Policing Rule: No Palo Alto official employee or agent shall
interrogate, arrest, detain or take other law enforcement action against an individual
based upon that individual’s perceived race, national origin, religion, language, or
immigration status, unless such personal characteristics have been included in timely,
relevant, credible information from a reliable source, linking a specific individual to a
particular criminal event/activity.
Please help our friends, families and neighbors get redress when abuses and mistakes occur and
help ensure our friends, families, and neighbors are protected from discrimination.
The Trump Administration has asserted, falsely, that if localities do not help advance Trump’s
mass deportation agenda, they are violating federal law. Sanctuary policies do not violate
federal law. The following rule, which is the only applicable federal law in this area, would
help ensure that Palo Alto establishes its clear intent not to violate federal law. While not a
necessary addition, this rule may be a useful complement to the above policies.
1373 Rule: Under 8 U.S.C. § 1373 and 8 U.S.C. § 1644, federal law prohibits Palo Alto official,
employee or agent from imposing limits on maintaining, exchanging, sending, or receiving
information regarding citizenship and immigration status with any Federal, State, or local
government entity. Nothing in Palo Alto policies is intended to violate 8 U.S.C. § 1373 and 8
U.S.C. § 1644.
Please note that in the Kate Steinle case, the judge dismissed the claim against San Francisco
over the “sanctuary city” policy.
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 3:30 PM
5
Again, on April 25th, 2017, a federal district court granted an injunction, forbidding the
government from taking action to implement or enforce Trump’s Executive Order attempting to
defund sanctuary cities until further notice.
For further information or if you have any questions, please contact us at lrimawi1@gmail.com
or kiranfionagaind@gmail.com or you can reach out directly to PeoplePower at
info@peoplepower.org. For information about the progress of PeoplePower efforts in other
Santa Clara County Cities, please contact Liza Turchinsky at liza@turchinsky.com.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Your Palo Alto Constituents
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/16/2017 5:21 PM
1
Carnahan, David
From:herb <herb_borock@hotmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, May 16, 2017 5:20 PM
To:Council, City; Clerk, City; tgodfrey@pausd.org; kdauber@pausd.org;
mcaswell@pausd.org; tcollins@pausd.org; jdibrienza@pausd.org
Cc:Alaee, Khashayar; cmak@pausd.org
Subject:May 18, 2017, City/School Liaison Committee Meeting, Item #4 and Item #6
Herb Borock
P. O. Box 632
Palo Alto, CA 94302
May 16, 2017
Palo Alto City Council Board of Education
250 Hamilton Avenue Palo Alto Unified School District
Palo Alto, CA 94301 25 Churchill Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
ATTN: CITY/SCHOOL LIAISON COMMITTEE
MAY 18, 2017, CITY/SCHOOL LIASION COMMITTEE MEETING
AGENDA ITEM #4: PUBLIC EMPLOYEE HOUSING
AGENDA ITEM #6: CUBBERLEY RFP
Dear City Council and Board of Education:
Senate Bill No. 1413 (Statutes 2016, Chapter 732) approved by Governor
Brown on September 27, 2016, "specifically creates a state policy
supporting housing for teachers and school district employees ... and,
further, permits school districts and developers in receipt of local or
state funds or tax credits designated for affordable rental housing to
restrict occupancy to teachers and school district employees on land owned
by school districts ... " (Here is a link to the adopted bill:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/15-16/bill/sen/sb_1401-
1450/sb 1413 bill 20160927 chaptered.pdf)
Affordable rental housing with occupancy restricted to teachers and school
district employees can be built on the portion of Cubberley owned by the
School District.
The District can contribute to making the housing affordable by setting
the rental rates based on the direct cost of construction plus financing,
while not including in the rent charged any amount for the land itself.
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/16/2017 5:21 PM
2
Thank you for your consideration of these comments.
Sincerely,
Herb Borock
cc: Khashayar Alaee, City Management Analyst
Cathy Mak, School District Chief Business Manager
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/16/2017 11:14 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Barry M Katz <bkatz@stanford.edu>
Sent:Tuesday, May 16, 2017 10:57 AM
To:Council, City
Subject:Message from the City Council Home Page
To the Palo Alto City Council:
I am writing today to request that the City Council initiate regulations to limit parking along Park Blvd., between Page
Mill Road and Lambert Ave., to 4 hours, and to prohibit dwelling in vehicles on the surrounding residential streets. I
believe that this would be a simple, inexpensive way of addressing a problem that, by its very nature, will only get
worse: The presence of vehicle‐dwellers in a given locale signals to others that this is an acceptable practice, and that is
exactly what has been happening.
As a strong advocate for the homeless, I have supported rigorous research leading to effective social policy. But I do not
believe that people who choose to park outsize campers in residential neighborhoods, to use (or not use!!) public
facilities, to run their generators at all hours, and to pay no taxes, should reflexively be accorded special privileges. Their
more‐or‐less permanent presence severely compromises the quality of residential life that the rest of us pay for and
work very hard to maintain.
Large vehicles parked on narrow residential streets such as Birch, Ash, and Orinda are a safety hazard to pedestrians and
cyclists, an environmental hazard, a public nuisance, and constitute unsightly visual blight. And let’s be honest: Their
presence would not be tolerated for one day in Crescent Park, Old Palo Alto, or any of our other gracious and privileged
neighborhoods. Ventura and doubtless other communities are being asked to absorb a problem that is the City’s
responsibility to solve. An adjustment of parking regulations along the lines I have suggested would be an effective
beginning.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Respectfully,
(Dr.) Barry M. Katz
233 Margarita Avenue
650.856‐2022
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 8:12 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Molly Kawahata <mkawahata@gmail.com>
Sent:Friday, May 12, 2017 4:05 PM
To:Council, City
Subject:Opposition to Proposed Hotels on Middlefield and Leghorn in Palo Alto
Mayor and City Council of Palo Alto:
I'm emailing to express my opposition to the two proposed hotels on San Antonio Road between Leghorn and Middlefield Road. This is something that will not be good for the neighborhood or community feel of Palo Alto,
and will be particularly harmful to the environment, which is something many of us are very passionate about
conserving and protecting.
Thank you, Molly Kawahata
384 Calcaterra Place
Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 387-6088
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 8:18 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Annie Yamashita <annie.yamashita@gmail.com>
Sent:Friday, May 12, 2017 6:24 PM
To:Planning Commission
Cc:French, Amy; Council, City; jamespoppy@comcast.net; Keene, James; yamashita shinichi
Subject:Rejection of Castilleja's expansion and constructing underground parking garage
Dear Planning Commission, Date:5/12/17
I would like to propose objection for Castilleja’s expansion. I live across the street
from Castilleja.
This expansion issue has been affecting our lives in Palo Alto, It creates lots of
anxiety, stress and time consuming. It also affects our health. My husband is ill and
needs to have peaceful living environment to recuperate.
To us, we do not see the benefit for school itself and the neighborhood for
constructing a big underground parking garage for economical and practical
reasons. It is difficult to image many years’ construction related noise, traffic, dust,
and trees killing, nature destruction. Our area is RI residential area, but, not for
commercial. I understand the school would like to grow and accept more students.
But, there are many alternatives that school can have. Such as acquire other lands
in Palo Alto, or other nearby cities, etc. Lately, I’ve heard about the similar story
happened in Los Altos. But, eventually, Los Altos City disapproved one of the
school’s expansion in RI neighborhood to preserve and protect the residents and
the environment.
Therefore, I sincerely ask your consideration and your wise and best decision.
Thank you so much for taking your time to read my letter.
Best regards,
Annie Yamashita
305 Kellogg Avenue
Palo Alto
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 8:10 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Keith Ferrell <ferrell.keith@gmail.com>
Sent:Thursday, May 11, 2017 10:41 AM
To:Police; Council, City; City Mgr
Subject:RV's on El Camino
I'm wondering why the city has allowed the long-term parking of RV's along El Camino. On any given day, I
can count close to 30 RV's between University and Park. Most are parked on blocks and have been there for a
month or longer. There are some that have garbage piled up outside or are doing their own home improvement projects on the side of the road.
There is a 72 hour parking policy in the city. Why is this not being enforced? It should not take a resident to
call the city in order for the city to enforce the laws of the city. It has gotten exponentially worse over the past
two years. It is not as if those that drive along El Camino, including the police, parking enforcement, city council members and the city manager are not aware of the issue. So, why is nothing being done to remedy the
issue?
Last year, the city made parking available on the east side of El Camino adjacent to Palo Alto HS. They also
installed No Parking 4pm - 6pm signs so that cars did not clog up the area during rush hour. One quick and easy way to eliminate the RV parking is to eliminate overnight parking on El Camino. No Parking 10pm - 8pm
signs would eliminate the issue.
Several years ago, there was an issue with cars being sold on El Camino. El Camino was lined with cars for
sale along the same stretch. The state put an end to that by making it illegal to sell cars on the state highway.
The RV's are, in addition to an eyesore, but a safety hazard. As was the case in Menlo Park a few week ago,
given that the owners of the RV's are cooking and living in these vehicles, there's a risk of a fire breaking out on
the highway. Also, the residents of these vehicles tend to hang around and in their vehicles all day whcih can
be distracting to passing vehicles. Finally, no one knows who these people are living in these vehicles, most of which are parked directly across the street from Palo Alto High School and its students.
I request that the city enforce the 72-hour parking restrictions for all cars/RV's along El Camino. It should not
take a resident to complain and detail specific license numbers to take care of the issue.
Thanks
Keith Ferrell
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/16/2017 10:35 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Dennis Clark <d-clark@pacbell.net>
Sent:Tuesday, May 16, 2017 10:17 AM
To:Council, City
Subject:San Antonio Road hotels
Please do not allow hotels to be built on San Antonio at Middlefield. Traffic is already horrible on San Antonio ALL DAY
LONG. I have lived nearby for over 30 years and have watched traffic just get worse and worse. These however many
hundred room Marriots will produce gridlock. I understand the need for housing which has made Palo Alto’s traffic bad,
but we don’t need more hotels.
Dennis Clark
4077 Ben Lomond Dr
Palo Alto
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/17/2017 12:35 PM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Sunny Jeon <jeons@stanford.edu>
Sent:Wednesday, May 17, 2017 9:39 AM
To:Council, City
Subject:Stanford Law student question on Palo Alto's Housing Element
Dear Palo Alto Council members,
I hope this finds you well!
I am a first year at Stanford Law School taking a course on local land use law. My fellow students and I are
particularly interested in learning more about Palo Alto's Housing Element for 2015‐2023.
We would appreciate hearing your thoughts on the process and the outcome and incorporating them into a
class presentation. If any of the City Council members have 10‐15 minutes for a brief chat this week, it would
be a privilege to get to speak with you. I am happy to send across more detailed questions in advance.
Warmly,
Sunny Jeon
Stanford Law School, J.D. 2019
(858) 692-7399
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/16/2017 10:13 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Josette Lin <josettelin11@yahoo.com>
Sent:Tuesday, May 16, 2017 7:51 AM
To:Council, City
Subject:Two New Hotels on San Antonio Rd
Mr. Mayor & City Council Members,
We are writing to protest the building of 2 new hotels on San Antonio Rd between Leghorn and Middlefield. Apparently
you do not travel frequently on this stretch of San Antonio Rd. The whole area is already so congested. Having two 5
story hotels will make traffic even worse.
There are already a Hilton and a Marriott close by on El Camino Real. How many hotels does Palo Alto need in this part
of the city?
We urge you to consider VERY carefully and prudently. Please focus on the impact of such an addition.
Thank you for your attention.
Josette Lin
4223 Briarwood Way
Theresa Chin
4288 Briarwood Way
Sent from my iPad
City of Palo Alto | City Clerk's Office | 5/15/2017 8:09 AM
1
Carnahan, David
From:Beatrice Peterson <beatrice.peterson@sbcglobal.net>
Sent:Thursday, May 11, 2017 10:03 AM
To:Council, City
Subject:Weed Abatement
Which department is responsible for weed removal in areas where the the weeds are blocking sidewalks and causing
other possible hazards?
The house on the northwest corner of Middlefield Road and Ashton Avenue and the adjacent creek bridge is totally
overgrown with weeds and ivy.
As a frequent pedestrian I have the opportunity to observe walking hazards and would like to know the best department
to which I can report such sites.
A prompt reply would be appreciated.
Beatrice Peterson
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1-51;,?//2" _ .. _
[ ] Pl~efore Meeting
~eceived at Meeting
6th Annual
Kiwanis Club of Palo Alto
Angel Award
Investing in Our Children
Nomination Form
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Nomination Deadline: Noon, Friday, June 2, 2017
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
The Kiwanis Club of Palo Alto is proud to announce the 6th Annual Kiwanis Angel Award will be
presented October 19, 2017. The Club requests your help in nominating a potential Kiwanis Angel
Award honoree.
Your nomination will assist us in recognizing and acknowledging those who work with exceptional
dedication to make our community the wonderful collection of people it has become.
The honoree will be selected based on his/her efforts that have made a significant positive impact
on youth and children. While residency in Palo Alto is not a requirement, the recipient will be an
individual from the greater Palo Alto area. The honoree's extraordinary service to children may be
in the local area or beyond.
Primary Project I Organization through which the nominee's service is provided:
The nomination should include:
1. A letter exp~!aining the reasons for nomination (one page maximum)
2. Two additional letters of support (not to exceed one page each)
3. Supplementary material (three pages max•mum -not required)
Your Name:~~~~--------------~-~~-------~~
f)Kiwanis
Palo Alto
Kiwanis Club of Palo Alto
P. 0. Box 149
Palo Alto, CA 94302
Email: -----------------
Nomination must be submitted by
Noon, Friday, June 2, 2017
Far more information: Gail Price:
650.814.3308
June Klein: 650.856.2435
june@kleinnet.com
KiwanisAngelAward.org
: ---...... -......... -........ --............ -... -............... ----. -...... -......... -----......... -.......... --... -......... -...... -........ -..... -... --:.. . . . '
Palo Alto will send a fire truck and three
ambulances to our sister city Oaxaca,
Mexico. Covered with hundreds of
postage stamps, we will send a message of
friendship to our sister city of 50 years.
Make your friendship stamp, post the
stamp on the vehicles, and then join a
community picture on May 6th after the
May Fete parade at Heritage Park.
In June after the vehicles complete their
trip to Oaxaca. the vehicles covered with
stamps and our community photo will be
on display in Oaxaca.
COUNCIL MEETING
5/6/yrr
ORecelved Before Meeting
(i;lf{ecelved at Meetln
Make Your OWn Postage Stamp
Draw, color and write to fill in the postage stamp
above. At Heritage park we will have more colors
and supplies to add to your stamp. Write a message
of friendship.
Post The Stamp on The Fire Engine
Put your stamp on the trucks after the parade at
Heritage Park. Or bring the stamps to any of tbe
Palo Alto Fire Department by May 4.
Join A Community Picture
Al 12:30 on May 6 join a community picture with
our fire truck and ambulances covered with stamps.
our Palo Aho fire fighters and the Fire Chief from
Oaxaca.
A DonaUon Helps Even Morel
Oaxaca
Mexico
Each $6 donated sends the four vehicles one·
mile on tlreir journey. $6,000 gets the velricles
to the border, more brings tlte vehicles closer to
Oaxaca.
Donate online at www.nelghborsabroad.org/
firetruck. The tax deductible contribution is to
Neighbors Abroad of Palo Alto, Palo Alto's official
sister city organization. Or donate at the May Fete
event.
Sponsored by Neighbors Abroad of Palo Alto, Ki-
wanis of Palo Alto and Youth Community Service,
the Palo Alto Ari Center and the City of P;ilo Alto.
Please contact info@neighborsabroad.org or see
www.neighborsabro'1d.org/firetruck to learn more.
5,6,7,8
CITY OF
PALO
ALTO
TO: HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: ED SHIKADA, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER/ UTILITIES GENERAL MANAGER
DATE:
SUBJECT:
MAY 18, 2017
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION FOR AGENDA ITEMS 5, 6, 7, AND 8: OVERVIEW OF
DERIVATIVES POLICIES FOR THE ELECTRIC, GAS, AND WATER UTILITIES
This is an informational addendum to assist with discussion of the May 18, 2017 Council Agenda
Item 5, Utility Rate Review and Approval, which includes the following items:
• Agenda Item 6 with Staff Report 7980 titled Utilities Advisory Commission
Recommendation that the City Council Adopt 1) a Resolution Approving the Fiscal Year
2018 Electric Financial Plan, and 2) a Resolution Increasing Electric Rates by Amending the
E-1, E-2, E-2-G, E-4, E-4-G, E-4 TOU, E-7, E-7-G, E-7 TOU and E-14 Rate Schedules.
• Agenda Item 7 with Staff Report 7979 titled Utilities Advisory Commission
Recommendation that the City Council Adopt a Resolution Approving the Fiscal Year 2018
Gas Utility Financial Plan with no Changes ta Distribution Rates
• Agenda Item 8 with Staff Report 8057 titled Follow-up Information on Water Utility Rate
Comparisons
This report is intended to assist with Council deliberations on these items. No additional actions
are recommended in this addendum. It summarizes information related to derivatives1 used to
mitigate rate changes.
Discussion
In response to a suggestion by Councilmember Tanaka at the March 21st Finance Committee
meeting, staff is providing an overview of assessments of the potential for using derivatives as a
hedging mechanism to moderate fluctuations in cost in the purchase of energy commodities. The
1 Derivatives are agreements between two parties to a financial and/or physical transaction at a future date, or an option for one
of the parties to Initiate a transaction. They are typically used by businesses for hedging or risk management purposes. but can be
used by investors for speculative purposes. Prices and quantities may be filced or may be dependent on the condition of an
underlying market or other objectively measurable conditlOn. such as rainfall. Electricity or gas Is a commonly traded physical
product in the electric and gas industries. Typical products include futures ie.g. a contract for physical delivery of gas at a fbced price
at a future date, or a contract for a cash settlement at a future date based on the difference between an agreed-upon price and the
market price for gas on that date) or options (e.g. an option for one party to purchase gas from the other at a future date at a fixed
price in exchange for an up-front payment).
6053954
City of Palo Alto established Energy Risk Management Policies in 2001-02, reflecting a philosophy
of risk limitation and control, with financial health as a high priority. These policies established
formal roles among the City Council, Utilities Advisory Commission, staff-level Risk Oversight
Committee and departments, and within this structure derivatives have been used only in limited
ways for hedging. 2 If Council is interested in pursuing additional instruments, such as financial
derivatives (like weather derivatives), staff would need to examine the expertise, potential legal
and regulatory implications, and internal controls needed to ensure this Is pursued in a prudent
and sustainable manner.
Staff has taken some time to summarize the City's past investigations into the use of derivatives to
manage risk. Generally, the City of Palo Alto has been reticent to use certain types of derivatives to
manage risk due to the potential for high cost and the market risk inherent in such products.
Instead, the City's Council-approved Energy Risk Management Policy3 requires a variety of risk
management tools, including reliance on reserves to "self-insure" against risk, active management
of counterparty credit risk, rates management, and staff adherence to robust internal processes
and procedures. The list of allowed derivatives products is limited.
The City has evaluated a number of derivative products over the years and has each time come to
the conclusion that the risk mitigation achieved by those products is outweighed by the cost.
When establishing the City's hedging program (prior to the California Energy Crisis in 2000-2001)
the City Council and staff preference, now codified in the City's Energy Risk Management Policy,
was for physical as opposed to financial transactions, as reflected in its use of the NAESB (North
American Energy Standards Board) and EEi (Edison Electric Institute) standard contracts and its
decision not to use the ISDA (International Swaps and Derivatives Association) contract, which is
used for purely financial transactions. Numerous cases of municipalities facing significant financial
impacts from using financial derivatives products (generally interest rate swaps) also factored in to
the decision to prohibit use of financial instruments and ISDAs in the City's Energy Risk
Management Policy.
Only products involving physical delivery of energy, capacity, or renewable energy/carbon-related
products are allowed in the City's Energy Risk Management Policy. The most commonly used
products at the City have been fixed price forward gas and electricity purchases and sales to hedge
against market price changes and allow for short term stability in rates. These are still used by the
electric utility, though the utility has only limited market exposure since entering Into more long-
term contracts for renewable energy. From 2001 to 2011 the gas utility used fixed price forward
contracts and capped price contracts to hedge against market movements for the City's residential
and small commercial customers. Large commercial customers had a choice of fixed forward rates
or market-based rates, and with few exceptions eventually moved to market-based rates. The
choice to end this program occurred in 2011, and more detail on that decision can be found in
Staff Report 1992. September 20, 2011.
2 The use of derivatives used for speculation is prohibited by Section D(I) of the City's Energy Risk Management
Policy.
3 http: llwww .c i tyo fpa Joa lto.org/civicax/ filebonk/documcnts/44069
2 of3
The products permitted by the Energy Risk Management Policy that are most similar to the
derivatives products Councilmember Tanaka referenced are physical call options, capped-price
products, and collars (a combination of purchasing a call option for high prices and selling a put
option for low prices, with the premiums for both products offsetting each other). These products
generally protect against market movements rather than weather risk. Evaluation of these
products has generally shown low benefit for the cost involved, when compared to using reserves
to manage short term market shifts.
Weather derivatives are not currently a permitted product in the City's Energy Risk Management
Policy. However, Staff has evaluated these products in the past to manage risk to the electric
utility of hydroelectric variability, with the most in-depth evaluation in 2005. In general the
premiums have been very high, relative to the frequency and magnitude of the potential payout,
so the City has continued its approved strategy of using reserves to manage hydroelectric risk.
Staff is reviewing these strategies and plans to return to the UAC and Finance Committee this fall.
Staff will include an assessment of the current state of the market for weather derivatives as part
ofthis review.
Councilmember Tanaka also asked about the use of weather derivatives for revenue protection
due to load losses during a drought. The consumption changes resulting from droughts are
generally long-term, meaning they do not lend themselves to the use of derivatives, and require
long-term rate changes. In past droughts, consumption has generally not recovered to pre-drought
levels. Water utilities generally rely on reservoirs to avoid having to require demand reductions
during droughts. For example, the SFPUC manages its water supply to require no more than a 20%
reduction in water demand over an eight year serious drought, which was why Palo Alto did not
need to reduce demand as early as some other California cities. Because water utilities use
reservoirs, insurance or derivatives products to protect municipal utilities against revenue loss are
not widely available. This means that buying these products will require working with a seller on a
custom product, which increases risk. When demand reductions are required, staff tries to cushion
the initial impact to the utility's financial position using reserves, but rate increases are eventually
needed because sales tend not return to pre-drought levels. Staff has not investigated using
generic weather derivative products as an alternative to drought rates. However, a one-time
payout from a weather derivative would not eliminate the need to raise rates to account for the
long term sales losses resulting from long term customer consumption changes due to a drought.
~~fa .'
Ed Shikada
General Manager I Assistant City Manager
Utilities Department
3 of3
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
CITY OF
PALO
ALTO
HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
CITY MANAGER
MAY 15, 2017
3
SUBJECT: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER 3-Adoption of a Resolution Summarily Vacating Public
Utility Easement at 144 Kellogg Avenue
Staff requests this item be pulled with a new date to be determined. Staff is still negotiating
with the prope y owner regarding project changes.
, dministrative Services
I of J