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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDecember 3 1 Town of Los Altos Hills Community Relations Committee Special Meeting Minutes Tuesday, December 3, 2019 Council Chambers 1. Roll Call; Committee Membership The meeting was called to order at exactly 7:00 PM by chairman Roy Woolsey, who thanked members for arriving so promptly. Present: Members, Roger Burnell, Karen Emerzian, Nena Price, Roy Woolsey. Associate members, Barbara Cannon, Ron Knapp, Mehda Rishi. 2. Introduction of Members of the Public; Public Comment. Kjell Karlsson, who actively participated in the discussion of various agenda items. 3. Review of Associate Memberships Roy Woolsey reported that he sent a membership e-mail to Dennis Duffy and Michael Schoendorf based on the decisions reached at the last Committee meeting. In response, Dennis sent an e-mail indicating his extensive other obligations and resigning from the Committee, but Michael did not send any acknowledgement or reply. After some discussion, it was moved, seconded and passed unanimously to not renew Michael’s membership in the Committee, but to welcome him to help the Committee and/or attend its meetings. 4. Review and Approval of Prior Committee Meeting Minutes Minutes of the last meeting were approved as distributed in draft form. 5. Review of Prior City Council Meetings. No report. 6. Review of Charges and Duties of the Committee The Committee held an extensive discussion of its charges and duties. The consensus of the Committee was that it was doing a good job welcoming new residents to Town, informing residents through contributions to the “Our Town” newsletter, assisting other committees and helping recruit volunteers for other committees. There was significant discussion of sponsoring events in addition to the annual Town Picnic. Special events mentioned include a TEDx program, tour or musical performance at Foothill College, tour of Stanford University or the new Stanford Medical School, tour of SLAC, and tour of an Amazon Fulfillment Center. Events that the Committee might organize will be discussed further in the next meeting. 7. Possibility of Organizing TEDx Program in Town Mehda Rishi led a discussion of TEDx programs. These are educational, informational programs involving five to eight speakers of 10+ minutes each, with the total program lasting 2+ hours. They are organized in a town or city around some topic of interest, with a maximum attendance of 100 (more can participate by video). After some discussion, it was moved, seconded and passed unanimously requesting Mehda to prepare a detailed presentation to allow the Committee at its next meeting to decide whether to proceed with organizing a TEDx program in Town and coordinating with Council and other committees regarding the program. 8. Report on Recent Town Activities. No report. 9. Recognition for Youth Commission 2 Ron Knapp noted that the Youth Commission performs a great service to the Town, helping with the Town Picnic and other events. There was a consensus in the Committee that it would be nice to recognize current as well as past Youth Commissioners. Input from Sarah Robustelli is needed to help decide the best form of such recognition. It was noted that there is a nice article on the Youth Commission in the current issue of “Our Town,” on the page adjacent to the Town Picnic article. 10. Welcoming of New Residents to Town Roy Woolsey reported that in the last month files for printing of new resident welcoming letter mailing labels were sent to Town Hall for mailing the welcoming letter from Council to the seven new residents in Town for the month of October and six new residents for November, and for mailing of the follow up welcoming letter from the Committee to the 14 new residents in Town for the months of August and September. The current contents of the new resident welcoming packet was reviewed and it was agreed that the packet seemed quite complete and useful, and the only significant omissions were a voter registration form and information about cross-district school enrollment. It was agreed that Roy should find out roughly what percentage of recipients of the newcomer welcoming letter actually get a copy of the packet. 11. Los Altos Hills Town Picnic Roy Woolsey distributed a draft of a report on last June’s Town Picnic. Barbara Cannon will try to get a more detailed report on ice cream from Mansour Moussavian. Roy will try to get a more detailed report on the classic car show from Neal Rayborn. Karen Emerzian will provide some comments on registration. Everyone was invited to submit comments to help with planning for next year’s picnic. Roy discussed details regarding the generation of the nice full-page article on the Town Picnic in the current issue of “Our Town.” It was suggested that since we have e-mail addresses for the Town residents who volunteered to help with the last Town Picnic, we e-mail them to ask them to participate in the survey and request for input contained in that article. Roy will ask Sarah Robustelli if she can e-mail the volunteers, and also prepare a summary of responses from Town residents and circulate that to the Committee just after the holidays so the Committee can use this information to help decide on entertainment for the 2020 Town Picnic. That entertainment might include a comedian or juggler, for variety with entertainment at recent past picnics. 12. Additional Items or Contributions from Committee Members Roy Woolsey announced that we are all invited to the short Council reorganization meeting on December 19, 2019 at 6 PM, which will be followed by a reception where beverages and appetizers hosted by Chef Chu will be served. Barbara Cannon brought up the matter of the new garbage collection contract, where her bill has more than doubled. There was considerable discussion of the matter, and it was agreed that since one of the charges and duties of the Committee is to “encourage communication and participation between residents and Town government,” the matter would be agendized for further discussion at the next Committee meeting. 13. Date for Next Meeting and Adjournment The next Committee meeting will be held on the usual fourth Tuesday of January, which is January 28, 2020, at 7 PM in the Parks and Recreation building. The meeting was adjourned at 8:38 PM. Minutes prepared by Roy Woolsey, December 3, 2019 1 January 27, 2020 FINAL REPORT LOS ALTOS HILLS 2019 TOWN PICNIC The Los Altos Hills Town Picnic was held on Sunday afternoon, June 2, 2019, from 12:30 PM to 4 PM at Purissima Park. A total of 1,774 meal tickets were issued for the picnic; since not everyone in attendance had a meal, but meals were served to the band, police department, car show and Lionel train people, it is estimated that approximately this number of Town residents attended the picnic. Attendance was down somewhat from last year’s 1,840 meal tickets issued. Expenses. Table 1 provides a list of expenses for the Picnic. The actual expenses of $48.112.20 for the 1,774 in attendance is close to the budget of 50,000.00. TABLE 1. TOWN PICNIC 2019 EXPENSES Category Item Description 2017 Actual 2018 Actual 2019 Actual Venue Signs and Map $50.14 $99.18 $17.42 Tent, table, chair, linen rental $8,171.75 $8,629.50 $8,847.50 Set-up supplies $95.80 $627.23 Portable restrooms $222.82 $222.82 $293.56 Shuttle Busses $1,575.00 $1,509.38 $1,509.38 Balloons $299.75 $494.86 $582.06 Public Announcement System $1,500.00 $1,500.00 $1,500.00 Publicity Flier design, printing and mailing $2,082.13 $2,470.11 $2,382.11 Street banners $14.11 Entertainment Music $1,200.00 $900.00 $900.00 Contest Games $131.81 $451.43 $236.99 Model trains $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 (2017 Train) Inflatables $2,755.00 $1,465.00 $1,615.00 Train $785.00 $785.00 Climbing wall (2018 plus air pods) $908.38 $1,295.00 $1,545.00 (2017 Pig Races) Pirate $3,000.00 $1,800.00 $2,300.00 Video Game Theater $675.00 $675.00 $800.00 Pony rides $950.00 $1,250.00 $1,450.00 Petting Zoo $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 Face painting $175.00 $245.00 $350.00 Food Lunches $18,125.25 $18,392.66 $18,649.90 Drinks $1,442.72 $1,521.79 $1,714.70 Ice cream $1,950.00 $2,110.00 $1,800.00 Ice $416.93 $327.75 $239.58 Total $46,341.59 $47,371.71 $48,118.20 Budget $46,000.00 $50,000.00 $50,000.00 2 Recommendations for Next Year. It is recommended that a 2020 event be a picnic similar to this year’s picnic, and that the picnic be held on Sunday afternoon, June 7, 2020, from 12:30 PM to 4:00 PM. Registration Report, by Karen Emerzian The registration process, much like 2018, went very well. In general, things were far more calm (less frantic) than ever before. My volunteers were on time and willing to remain beyond their time slots. New volunteers were trained side by side with the existing folks. I only had one “no show” volunteer. There were very few attendees who had neither pre-registered or brought proof of residency. Nena Price, Barbara Cannon, and Lana Einschlag (who is the CRC member I count on) were tremendous assets. Name tags completion was hit or miss. This is not a new phenomenon. Once an attendee (with or without family) received food tickets, he or she would often disappear into the crowd. Still, nametags are nice to have. No last names ever seem to be included on the name tags, presumably for privacy reasons. For the past couple of years, it seems that the preregistration numbers have been greater than the actual number of people who show up to register and attend the picnic. The reverse used to be true; it used to be that our final number of attendees was greater than the number of registrants, perhaps because there didn’t used to be an easy way to register on line but rather folks mailed in their entries and meal choices, or stopped by Town Hall. It seemed to me and my CRC colleagues that there were fewer attendees this year. The number of tickets given out is not a real measure of all the LAH people who attend the picnic. Comments when I left the booth to get food were really positive -- “Great picnic” from other committee volunteers and from people who stopped by our booth. There were no complaints from the townspeople who attended. Everyone seemed to be upbeat. There is too much food being prepared for the attendees that do come. Despite folks going back for seconds and maybe thirds, near the end of the picnic there are so many people heading for their cars, or their seats with huge packages of foil covered packages of chicken, etc. Quantities could be analyzed with the caterer for next year’s picnic. Barbara noticed that several of the families who checked in at Registration went directly to the food tent and left for their cars carrying their “take out”. One small glitch when we first were setting up: there were no alphabet cards to post for the registration lines. Sarah had her assistant make them up back at Town Hall; this took a fair amount of time and caused some confusion. It won’t happen next year. We had great weather. Hope it’s as good next year. Beverage Report, by Ron Knapp Beer For the third time in 4 years, the beer was obtained from Strike Brewing, 2099 S. 10th St. #30, San Jose, CA 95112, https://www.strikebrewingco.com/. Since the brewer and co-founder, Jenny Lewis, jenny@strikebrewingco.com, has family living in the Los Altos area, she has always given us preferential treatment in supplying the beer for the picnic, with very good pricing (below wholesale cost) and excellent service. The first year we had Strike beer, Jenny helped set up the equipment and serve the beer at the picnic. Every year Strike has loaned us all the equipment, including a professional jockey box and CO2 tank at no additional cost. And we have never been charged any deposit for the kegs, which can 3 range from $50-$100 per keg at most other breweries. But most importantly, everyone has loved the variety and the taste of all the beer. This year, Strike was a little low on inventory, and asked if we could take one keg of six different beers, a departure from the normal 3 varieties of 2 kegs each, which we normally use, in order to have all the beers on tap together. In this case, we switched beers each time we emptied a keg. This was not a big problem since the three IPA’s were very similar. All of the six beer varieties were somewhat premium brews that cost a little more, such that it cost $600 for all the beer compared to $465 we paid last year, but well within our budget, and a lot cheaper than buying through distribution, which would probably cost $1000 or more for six kegs. As in the past, all the kegs were picked up 3 or 4 days before the picnic, and stored in a cool place (in pickup truck inside garage) with 2 kegs on refrigeration inside my 2 kegerators at home. The equipment setup required a couple of minor repairs, including replacement of a rubber check valve in the keg connector, replacing the washer in the CO2 regulator to seal a leak, and tightening the beer faucet on the jockey box. It’s critical to make sure there are no CO2 leaks to prevent running out of gas before the end of the event, which could be a disaster if it occurs earlier. Right at the end of the day, the stainless steel coil inside the jockey box became disconnected with loss of beer pressure. Only when the jockey box filled with beer did we realize what was the problem. It’s fortunate it was at the end of the event, because this is not something that could be fixed without special tools and replacement parts. Suffice it to say, it’s common to have little problems that can lead to complete failure of the beer service. Unless there is someone from the brewery to help at the event, it’s essential to have someone working in the beverage booth that is knowledgeable about beer equipment. In the end, the beer worked out very well, using all but a couple of partial kegs left at the end. Soda Since pre-picnic registration was the same or less than previous years, the same quantities of sodas were purchased again this year. As predictable, the Memorial Day sale at Safeway was in effect the week before the picnic with some of the best pricing of the year, 4 12-packs for $12, or $3 each, on all Coke products. Pepsi was never used after one time years ago many complained there was no Coke. Included were Coke, Diet Coke, and this year Ginger Ale and Diet Ginger Ale, although Sprite and Diet Sprite would have been acceptable. Also included in the sale was A+W Root Beer, for ice cream floats, and also by request over the last couple of years, a variety of La Croix water, also on sale, but little higher price, $3.99/12pk. For kids’ drinks, 40 10-packs of a variety of Capri Sun juice was included, also on sale, $2/10pk. Like last year, I went to the large Safeway in Sunnyvale, which has stacks of soda inventory for the holiday weekend, and gave the beverage manager a list of everything I wanted, for pick up the next day, about 3 days before the picnic. I had them place a shrink wrapped palate of all the beverages in the back of my F-150 pickup truck using their fork lift at the receiving dock. It was a little tricky to have the operator push the palate up to the front of the bed using a second empty palate since the fork lift arms are not long enough. After that, the palate was securely tied on to the truck mounting brackets using industrial strength ratcheting straps. After arriving home, the truck was parked inside the garage to keep the soda cool. Wine Again this year we used Pacific Peak house brand from Total Wine. Excellent value and quality for only $2.47/bottle. The quantity was the same as previous years, 9 cases total, 6 white (Chardonnay) and 3 red (Merlot). Almost all was used except for a few bottles of each, red and white. 4 Table 2. Picnic Beverage Expenses Music Report, by Ron Knapp For the first time this year we had the Kimball Hooker band, a local group that regularly appears at several clubs and outdoor festivals in the area. They play all the best dance music, both classic and the latest popular tunes. Personal friend, Sheri Larot (larot2002@yahoo.com, 408-888-5112), who has contributed to the LAH picnic for several years, is currently managing the booking of the band and was able to get a very attractive rate for their service, $900, well under budget. Sheri was the person who originally recommended Maverick’s catering from her experience having hired them at Intel where she was an executive administrator. Maverick’s has turned out to be a huge success over the past several years. It was noted that there was nothing but superlative comments about the music this year, without any negative objections. As a side note, when Kimball saw how little work effort was required of the audio tech and equipment for the brief announcements made at the intermission, he offered to provide the Los Altos Hills Town Picnic, June 2, 2019 R. Knapp Status date: 9/24/19 Beverage Budget Report Qty CRV@ Tax@ Beer Vendor bought Unit #/unit $/unit $Total 0.05 0.0925 $Subtotal Double IPA Strike Brewing 1 Keg 15g $100.00 $100.00 na $100.00 Run Like Haze IPA Strike Brewing 1 Keg 15g $100.00 $100.00 na $100.00 Haze Delay IPA Strike Brewing 1 Keg 15g $100.00 $100.00 na $100.00 Major Haze Pale Ale Strike Brewing 1 Keg 15g $100.00 $100.00 na $100.00 Screaming Hand Red IPA Strike Brewing 1 Keg 15g $100.00 $100.00 na $100.00 Big Wall Imperial Stout Strike Brewing 1 Keg 15g $100.00 $100.00 na $100.00 Subtotal= $600.00 Soft Drinks Coke Safeway 40 12pk 12 $3.00 480 $120.00 $24.00 $12.96 $156.96 Diet Coke Safeway 16 12pk 12 $3.00 192 $48.00 $9.60 $5.18 $62.78 Ginger Ale Safeway 20 12pk 12 $3.00 240 $60.00 $12.00 $6.48 $78.48 Diet Ginger Ale Safeway 16 12pk 12 $3.00 192 $48.00 $9.60 $5.18 $62.78 A+W Rootbeer Safeway 32 12pk 12 $3.00 384 $96.00 $19.20 $10.37 $125.57 LeCroix, Cran-Raspberry Safeway 8 12pk 12 $3.99 96 $31.92 $4.80 $3.30 $40.02 LeCroix, Lime Safeway 8 case 12 $3.99 96 $31.92 $4.80 $3.30 $40.02 12pks= 156 cans= 1680 $435.84 SubTtl= $46.79 $566.63 Capri Sun, Fruit Punch Safeway 12 case 10 $1.99 120 $23.88 $23.88 Capri Sun, Lemonade Safeway 4 case 10 $1.99 40 $7.96 $7.96 Capri Sun, Pacific Cooler Safeway 8 case 10 $1.99 80 $15.92 $15.92 Capri Sun, Cherry Safeway 16 case 10 $1.99 160 $31.84 $31.84 Total kids drinks 400 $79.60 $79.60 Wine Bottles Pacific Peak Chardonnay Total Wine 72 6 cases per/btl 1 $2.47 72 $177.84 $16.45 $194.29 Pacific Peak Merlot Total Wine 36 3 cases per/btl 1 $2.47 36 $88.92 $8.23 $97.15 108 bottles Subtotal= $291.44 Misc Qty Plastic Cups 9oz TP9 wine CentralCash&Carry 1 case 1000 1000 $96.11 $8.89 $105.00 Plastic Cups 16oz TP16 beer CentralCash&Carry 1 case 1000 1000 $63.64 $5.89 $69.53 Straws, clear 8" jumbo CentralCash&Carry 1 box 500 500 $1.38 $0.13 $1.51 CO2 gas for beer Carbonic Service 1 cylinder $26.00 $26.00 $26.00 Subtotal= $202.03 Discount given for soda order Safeway $25.00 -$25.00 Grand Total $1,714.70 5 same service in the future at a fraction of additional cost. The cost of this service, manned by only a single person, was hundreds of dollars more than the whole band of 5 musicians, including their equipment. At least it’s something to consider, and ask him to quote next year. Ice Cream Report -Order more Pineapple Coconut rather than as many Orange Sherbet. -Order more dish towels -Find pump for chocolate Sauce -Leave to pick up ice cream at 10:30am -Sarah’s Reminder: the check should be available ahead of time to prevent delay Classic Car Show Report, by Neal Rayborn We had 46 cars this year at the picnic, mostly from residents of Los Altos Hills. We anticipate the similar number for 2020. Only recommendations for 2020 would be not to have the helicopter or large emergency trailer that run the risk of raising dust which the classic car owners do not want on their cars. Overall picnic planning Table 3 provides a form listing picnic tasks, with space to enter the person in charge of each task and the task status. This list was used in the several months prior to the picnic for overall planning purposes, and to assure each task required for a successful picnic was staffed and on schedule. It is recommended that such a planning list be used in future years. TABLE 3. LOS ALTOS HILLS TOWN PICNIC SUBCOMMITTEE VOLUNTEER LIST _/__/2019 Subcommittee Subcommittee Chair Status/Comments Picnic proposal and budget Flier content Flier printing/mailing “Our Town” article Town Web Site publicity Publicity banners Date inserts for banners Development of event schedule, thank-you, announcement posters Poster production Coordination/communication with other Town committees Table to promote committees Reminder automated e-mails Program/announcements P A System Pre registration Printed reg lists for on-site reg 6 Alphabet signs for reg tables Registration tables and materials Meal and ice cream tickets Collecting meal tickets for food Signs indicating ice cream flavors Location/layout of events Stick-on name tags and pens Committee name tags/ribbons Newcomer/ 1st timer recognition Entertainer/entertainment Pirate Train from field 2 to field 1 Inflatable games Contest games Prizes for games Pony Rides / petting zoo Face Painting Game/contest announcer Stage and canopy at car show Classic car invites to exhibit Classic car field arrangements Classic car judging Car show awards Coordination of car show awards High School robotics teams Band/musical entertainment Model (Lionel) trains Beer Wine Soft drinks Serving glasses Water from Water District Ice cream/toppings Serving plates, utensils Plastic tablecloths Ice/Ice chests Refrigerator/freezer Balloons Temporary restrooms Restroom cleaning/prep/janitor Contracts for vendors and others 7 Trash/recycle/compost bins Green Waste table/booth Bull horn for game announcing Orange cones for games Easels for event posters Little League arrangements Electrical extension cords Keys for fields and rest rooms Food catering approval and order Final meal count to caterer Fire dept participation in picnic Sheriff participation in picnic Irrigation of fields Shade canopies, stage, table, chair, tablecloth rental Event staff (Volunteer coord.) Setup Cleanup Registration and Attendance History. Table 4 summarizes the registration numbers, food order, and actual attendance for most years of the Town Picnic: TABLE 4. REGISTRATION NUMBERS, FOOD ORDERS AND ATTENDANCE BY YEAR Year Reservations 9 - 10 days Before Event Food Order Placed 9 Days Before Event Reservations 2 - 3 Days Before Event Act. Att. Total Ch H D Veg Total Ch H D Veg Total Ch H D Veg Total 1999 643 457 186 N/A 745 500 225 20 810 575 230 5 700 2000 619 399 160 60 700 450 180 70 755 486 203 66 625* 2001 703 445 211 47 800 500 250 50 871• 521 254 68 750 2002 788 490 219 79 925 550 275 100 940 588 260 92 925† 2003 944 557 299 93 1100 675 425‡ 125 1114 657 344 113 1100 2004 1052§ 651 248 96 1200 750 500§ 150§ 1220§ 730 284 114 1200§ 2005 1169° 706 291 105 1325 800 600° 175° 1437° 870 360 126 1350° 2006 1290 816 376 130 1400 832 600° 190° 1481+ 853 399 158 1475° 2007 1097 652 341 104 1375 815 430 130 1568° 868 428 146 1533° 2008 1189 680 393 116 1485 850 490+250 145+50 1616° 882 481 148 1487 2009 1455 876 430 130 1630 882 490+350 145+80 1884° 1080 541 172 1896 2017 1509 891 438 180 2000 1050 1000 250 1994 1211 552 231 2017 2018 1588 986 445 135 2000 1050 1000 250 1779 1102 508 208 1840 2019 1464 922 413 182 2000 1050 1000 250 1733 1073 493 211 1774 Note that a Picnic was also held in 1998, but only ice cream was served. * Weather was very hot; more no shows than other years. 8 • 28 people did not specify a meal selection. † Ideal weather; less no shows than other years. ‡ Includes 110 additional hot dogs for those who take both chicken and hot dogs. § Includes 45 additional meals for band members, etc.; 175 additional hot dogs and 25 veggie burgers ° Includes 55 additional meals for band, train and police personnel (total of 103 additional meals in 2007 and 2008, including classic car show participants); 220 (250 in 2008 and 350 in 2009) additional hot dogs and 35 (50 in 2008 and 80 in 2009) veggie burgers for those who take these as well as chicken + Town Hall stopped taking reservations early in the morning of the Friday before the picnic; >15 calls came in that day with late reservations, so this total should probably be on the order of 1530. This number includes 55 additional meals for band, train and police personnel. Table 5 lists the actual amounts of food ordered by the Fire Department, taken from the food order invoices, and provided for information as to what the Fire Department does with our order specified in the table above: TABLE 5. ACTUAL FOOD ORDER BY FIRE DEPARTMENT IN FIRST YEARS OF THE PICNIC Year Actual Food Order Placed by Fire Dept. Total Ch H D Veg 1999 782 512 240 30 2000 809 464 240 105 2001 797 512 240 45 2002 929 544 280 105 2003 1112 672 440† 120 2004 1230 768 520† 150† 2005 1325 800 600† 165† 2006 1600 832 600† 180† 2007 1375 815 650† 170† 2008 1485 832 680† 215† 2009 1650 864 800† 192† †Includes extra hot dogs/veggie burgers ordered for those who take both these and chicken.