HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptember 26
1
Town of Los Altos Hills
Community Relations Committee
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Parks and Recreation Building
1. Roll Call; Committee Membership
The meeting was called to order at exactly 7:30 PM by Chairman, Roy Woolsey. Present: Roger
Burnell, Barbara Cannon, Lana Einschlag, Karen Emerzian, Mansour Moussavian, Nena Price, Roy
Woolsey. Associate members: Lew Jamison, Ron Knapp. Town Staff: Sarah Robustelli, Chris Knopf.
Council Liaison: Courtenay Corrigan.
2. Introduction of Any Members of the Public. Kjell Karlsson, who did not comment.
3. Selection of Committee Officers for 2017-2018 Year
Roy Woolsey was selected as chair for the forthcoming year. Lew Jamison was selected as vice
chair, subject to his return to full Committee membership being approved by Council, with a view that
Lew would likely become chair for the following year. Roy said he would continue preparing meeting
minutes, and thanked the Committee members for their confidence in him.
4. Review of Prior Committee Meeting Minutes
The minutes of the June 27, 2017 Committee meeting were approved as drafted.
5. Report on Meeting of Mayor with Standing Committee Chairs
Roy Woolsey reported on the July 17, 2017 meeting with the Mayor and all standing committee
chairs. Attendees seemed quite happy with the Picnic, with no suggestions for changes. Regarding other
activities and events, it was suggested: (1) we coordinate with Sarah Robustelli regarding the events she
organizes, which of course we already do, (2) we support other activities in Town such as the January 1st
pathway walk, and (3) perhaps we might organize some kind of a winter event, around six months away
from the Town Picnic. There was no response to Roy’s suggestion that next spring we might organize an
architectural tour of some Stanford buildings. The consultant the Town hired said that the Town has too
many committees and they take too much staff time, but the Mayor believes that the Committees are the
"life blood" of the Town. Some attendees noted that the Town needs more event space, and that the idea
of a Community Center should be reconsidered. The Mayor discussed his proposal of a separate zip code
for LAH, just as Atherton, Hillsborough, etc., have their own zip codes.
6. Report on September Committee Presentation to Council
Roy Woolsey summarized his eight to ten minute report to the September Council meeting per the
slides that the Committee approved in its last meeting. Council had no event or other recommendations.
7. Review of Prior City Council Meetings
Courtenay Corrigan stated that rather than the Council issuing recommendations for activities the
Committee might organize, she believes the Committee should make proposals to Council on activities
2
the Committee may wish to organize. The Committee should consider its budget for the forthcoming
year, as Council will be working on the Town budget for the year soon.
8. Welcoming of Town Newcomers
Roy Woolsey reported that there were 24 newcomers to Town in June and a total of 20 in July and
August. Roy provided mailing labels for these plus the ten May newcomers to Town Hall for mailing of
the newcomer welcoming letter. Karen Emerzian felt we should review the welcoming letter again, and
that she would like a copy to work on a follow up letter from the Committee. (The current welcoming
letter was later obtained from the City Clerk and distributed to all Committee members.)
Since the newcomer names and addresses are obtained from new starts for garbage collection,
sometimes a new start may actually not be a new resident, so Sarah will have the Town look into having
newcomer letters not delivered to the address on the envelope be returned rather than forwarded.
9. Los Altos Hills Town Picnic
Roy Woolsey stated that he updated the draft Town Picnic report to include comments received at the
last Committee meeting. Ron Knapp and Roger Burnell proposed minor additional edits at the meeting
and the Picnic report was then approved.
Attractions for the next Picnic, on June 3, 2018, were discussed, including a more realistic but more
expensive train and a carnival type vendor that Sarah will explore, and a return of the pirate show which
Roger Burnell will explore. The lead Picnic entertainment will be further considered next month.
Sarah circulated one of 45 blue picnic aprons discussed at the last meeting; these would be useful at
the beverage and ice cream canopy and help all Committee members find each other at the Picnic. Some
of the difficulties of having drawings for newcomers to Town and to the Picnic were discussed, and
Sarah suggested that instead perhaps first timers could receive an e-mail with Picnic “dos and don’ts.”
10. Discussion of Results of Event Survey
Sarah led a discussion of the event survey that was conducted for a week before the Committee’s
report to Council and that asked Town residents which three of the various activities on the last two
slides of the Council presentation they might be interested in. Since there were just 38 respondents, the
Committee agreed that the survey should be kept open for another month and results reviewed in the next
Committee meeting, and that Deborah Padovan should alert other committees to the survey.
11. Nominations for Joint Community Volunteer Service Awards
Roy and Roger described the volunteer service awards that require a nomination form and two letters
of reference by the October 27, 2017 deadline. Courtenay may take the lead on a couple of nominations.
12. Additional Items or Contributions from Committee Members.
Several Committee members spoke highly of the volunteer recognition dinner as being a nice event.
13. Date for Next Meeting and Adjournment
The next meeting will be the fourth Tuesday in October, which is October 24, 2017. The meeting
was adjourned at 8:40 PM.
Minutes prepared by Roy Woolsey, September 29, 2017