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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOctober 27 1 Town of Los Altos Hills Community Relations Committee Teleconferenced Meeting Minutes Tuesday, October 27, 2020 1. Roll Call; Committee Membership The teleconferenced meeting was called to order at 7:03 PM, by chairman Roy Woolsey. Present: Members, Roger Burnell, Lana Einschlag, Karen Emerzian, Roy Woolsey. Associate members, Ron Knapp, Medha Rishi. 2. Introduction of Members of the Public; Public Comment. None. 3. Review and Approval of Prior Committee Meeting Minutes A motion was made by Lana Einschlag, seconded by Roger Burnell and approved unanimously to approve the minutes of the last meeting, as distributed in draft form. 4. Review of Prior City Council Meetings. No report. 5. Report on Recent Town Activities Roy Woolsey gave Sarah Robustelli’s report on a number of Town holiday events: • October 1st the Town launched the Virtual Costume Contest losaltoshills.ca.gov/costumecontest! Divisions include: youth, adult, family and pets, and prizes include a featured in the Town Crier, Westwind Community Barn horseback Riding Lesson, and LAH apparel. • Guess the Pumpkin’s Weight began Friday, October 23rd losaltoshills.ca.gov/pumpkin. The closest three guess will be eligible for fun Town prizes. • Town Fall Photo Scavenger Hunt: losaltoshills.ca.gov/scavengerhunt. Items include visiting Bats on Blue, Giant Pumpkin, and Heritage Farm Display. • Vote for staff Pumpkin Decorated Challenge on Facebook. Staff had the option to decorate a pumpkin on their own time and enter into this festive challenge. The top three with the most likes win. Likes will be counted on Monday, November 2nd at 10:00am. • Joint Community Holiday Video, including the Virtual Barn Lighting as well as replacement for cancelled Festival of Lights parade, on KMVT starting on December 6, 2020 three times per week: Saturday and Sunday at 7 pm, and Wednesdays at 12 noon and available on our Town website. Roy announced results of fire district consolidation measure before the County Board of Supervisors. 6. Welcoming of New Town Residents Roy Woolsey reported that files for printing of new resident welcoming letter mailing labels were sent to Town Hall for mailing the welcoming letter from Council to the 13 new residents in Town for September, and for the follow up letter from the Committee to the 14 new residents in Town for July. 7. Discussion of Possible 2021 Events Ludka Koskova Nesbit sent an e-mail withdrawing her suggestion for a community-building art project; the Committee agreed Roy Woolsey should e-mail Ludka to thank her for her interest and wish her well. Medha led a discussion of a TEDx program. She had prepared a presentation to give to Council, but said that Sarah Robustelli and Michelle Wu were concerned about a lack of resources and personnel to help get the program organized. So the TEDx proposal was put on the “back burner,” and then COVID-19 hit. 2 Several Committee members thought the TEDx presentation should include a list of suggested topics TEDx topics relevant to Los Altos Hills. Possible topics: (1) Land use in LAH and our response to what Sacramento may do to our one-acre zoning. (2) Diversity per Ludka’s concern. (3) Technology issues given our presence in Silicon Valley. (4) Health care since we are so near Stanford. (5) Wildfire and fire protection issues. The Committee agreed to review Medha’s presentation in the next meeting, with a view to scheduling this presentation for a future Council meeting after the first of the year with the new Council. Regarding the possibility of an event at Stanford University or the Stanford Medical Center, Roger Burnell recounted the history of the Committee’s consideration of such an event. Preliminary work had been done and some arrangements were made when it became necessary to postpone the event when a visitor to Stanford from India required postponement. Now there has been more construction ($1B) so there is much more to see. Planning for an event, however, is very difficult during the pandemic. Roger still has his presentation, and can send members a copy, but this is probably not the time to plan public event now, so it would be best to put this matter on hold until next year. Stanford is close enough to LAH that it makes sense to include Stanford in our thinking. Ron wonders if we could come up with ideas for video events. It was noted that as the Community Relations Committee, we should be trying to get people together in person rather than virtually. 8. Los Altos Hills Town Picnic No further action was taken on a 2021 Town Picnic; the Committee will continue consideration of the Town Picnic after the first of the year. 9. Our Town Newsletter Roger Burnell suggested digital version of “Our Town” that might have little video clips of town residents. Ron Knapp noted his draft article about emergency preparation, both for wildfires and civil unrest for last September’s newsletter that was unfortunately not published, and again expressed his concern about timeliness of Town Newsletter. Roger suggested a separate agenda topic, digital Our Town, and will send example of one of his many projects, that should stimulate some thinking about what technology affords us. Regarding the Important Phone Numbers draft: The Sheriff should be listed on very first page to be easy to reach. Ron said the Sheriff much more important than 911 for emergencies in LAH. Karen Emerzian needed urgent care in the evening and noted that places were closed. She said lots of people don’t know that urgent care is not open 24 hours, and hours should be noted in the draft. Committee members will review the draft in order to make any further suggestions. Ron Knapp expressed concern about wildfires, and the lack of help from governmental bodies. He showed his presentation on what individual homeowners could do to save their home if there is a wildfire. A great deal of fire-suppression technology is available that should be more available to homeowners. Ron would like to write an article on what homeowners do to save their houses. The consensus of the Committee was that Ron draft an article for Committee review. Roger suggested brown rather than green colored hose, and noted that fire hydrant code requires 6“ pipe, which will cost a lot more than the hydrant itself. Roy Woolsey will alert Town Hall to this forthcoming article. The day after the meeting the City Clerk responded, “We just did a full article on how to prepare for wildfire. We also push out information on preparation on the Town’s social media accounts regularly. But thank you for the idea.” (Article was in June 2019 “Our Town.) 10. Additional Items or Contributions from Committee Members. None. 11. Date for Next Meeting and Adjournment The Committee agreed to cancel the regular November and December meetings, given their close proximity to holidays, and to hold a special meeting via Zoom at 7 PM on Tuesday, December 1. Karen Emerzian moved, Lana Einschlag seconded and the Committee unanimously agreed to adjourn at 8:28 PM. Minutes prepared by Roy Woolsey, October 29, 2020.