HomeMy WebLinkAboutJune 23
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Town of Los Altos Hills
Community Relations Committee
Teleconferenced Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
1. Roll Call; Committee Membership
After some technical difficulties, the teleconferenced meeting was called to order at 7:18 PM by chairman
Roy Woolsey. Present: Members, Roger Burnell, Lana Einschlag, Karen Emerzian, Nena Price, Roy Woolsey.
Associate member, Ron Knapp. Town Staff: Sarah Robustelli.
2. Introduction of Members of the Public; Public Comment
No members of the public were present.
3. Review and Approval of Prior Committee Meeting Minutes
Minutes of the last meeting, held on May 26, 2020, were unanimously approved as distributed in draft
form.
4. Review of Prior City Council Meetings
Roy Woolsey reported that associate memberships on committees were discussed at the last Council
meeting, but no action was taken. Several other committee chairs signed a letter encouraging postponement of
the matter, and Council felt other issues were higher priority. Sarah said the survey that had been opened for
committee members was closed earlier in the day.
The contract with Alex Atkins to produce the “Our Town” newsletter was extended for two years.
5. Report on Recent Town Activities
Sarah Robustelli reported on a number of Town events:
• A shredding event was held recently from 9 AM to noon, with a great turnout. Another such event will
be scheduled for the fall.
• A brush chipping event was held at Purissima Park.
• The Town cleanup scheduled for this weekend has been postponed. Foothill College is closed so we
don’t have access to parking lot. Karen Emerzian suggested a postponement announcement be sent out
because residents have this event on their calendars.
• A caravan parade from Town Hall is being planned for Independence Day festivities, with thirteen
classic cars, the Fire Department and the Sheriff participating. The route will be Town Hall to Bullis
School, to Robleda Road, to Purissima Road to Arastradero Road and back to Town Hall. This event
will be announced in the Town Crier, which noted that the event will end at Palo Hills Drive and not at
Town Hall. Sarah might have Deborah Padovan e-mail committee chairs to help publicize the event.
• Hopping hounds might be moved to the fall.
• Hoedown will most likely not be taking place this year. Events are being planned that we know will fit
health guidelines.
• COVID-19 testing was held at Town Hall one day recently, sponsored by the County, and over 400
tests were done.
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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 seven new residents in Town for the month of
April and the eight new residents for the month of May, and for mailing of the follow up welcoming letter from
the Committee to the thirteen new residents in Town for the months of February and March.
7. Review of First Draft of Annual Report to Council
Roy Woolsey reported that the Committee is scheduled to give its annual report to Council later in the year,
and if we don't meet during the summer as is normally the case, we should look at the attached draft of the
report now. Roy asked members to particular attention to the last three slides where input is requested from the
Council, and comment on any appropriate changes or additions. Roger Burnell and Nena Price indicated that
they would review the draft and e-mail comments. There were no other comments, but there should be one
more opportunity for final review before presentation to Council.
8. Discussion of Possible 2021 Events
We should plan on the Town Picnic for next year. The budget is there for next year’s Town Picnic.
Regarding other events, Roger Burnell discussed the possibility of a Stanford tour that in addition to the
Campus could include the new Hospital that has just opened. The new hospital could be included that on the
tour map that Roger has already drafted.
9. Discussion of Suggestion of Use of 2020 Town Picnic Funds for Restaurant Vouchers
Sarah Robustelli initiated a discussion of the suggestion made by Gail Solomon to make the budget of
$50,000 for the Town Picnic available to offer meals at local restaurants in an amount not to exceed for each
household. This could be handled by putting out a Request for Proposal for local restaurants willing to
participate and then having the Town issue and distribute vouchers good for a certain time period for residents
to use at these restaurants, for a specific menu or a specific dollar value.
Sarah noted that if many/most Town residents redeemed vouchers it would be substantially more expensive
than the Picnic budget. It was noted that arranging this event could become a logistical nightmare, and that our
Committee should be organizing and encouraging community rather than individual events, so such individual
use of the funds might not be appropriate for our Committee. For these reasons the consensus of the
Committee was not to propose that such vouchers be offered.
Sarah will contact Gil Solomon and inform her of the Committee’s decision.
10. Emergency Preparedness and Neighborhood Network
The Committee held discussion to follow up on last month’s presentation by Captain Denise Gluhan,
Emergency Services Manager of the Los Altos Hills County Fire District, about personal emergency
preparedness and fire preparedness, and her work to reestablish our CERT program. Committee members
expressed concern about preparedness and emergency situation as a result of riots and looting that have taken
place in many areas along with peaceful protests and demonstrations. Ron Knapp noted that in Los Gatos there
were a lot of merchants boarded up, and the main street looked like a war zone. Sarah Robustelli said there was
a peaceful protest in Los Altos. Sarah said Town staff has had some training, even into active shooter training.
There are some protocols in place, and there have been walk throughs with the sheriff.
Sarah said people should sign up for alert SCC and Nixle. If there is a scare, this would be the way to
notify people. Sarah gave the example of the lockdown two years ago at Gardner Bullis School.
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It was agreed that we should propose an article for the next issue of the “Our Town” newsletter that
includes a list of websites, ways to get e-mails or other contacts with emergency information, and what
residents should do in the event of an emergency. Ron and Sarah offered to gather information and then
interested members of the Committee will correspond regarding finishing such an article.
11. Suggestions for Future “Our Town” Newsletter Articles
In addition to the Committee producing an article about how to get information and e-mails on emergency
situations, the next issue of “Our Town” should include information on how the Town is reacting to the health
crisis, including COVID_19 testing. Sarah said this kind of information would likely be covered by the City
Manager in his report in each issue of “Our Town.” Sarah will encourage Carl Cahill to have a little roundup
of what the Town is doing in the next issue.
12. Committee Officer Selection at Next Committee Meeting
Roy Woolsey noted that the Town resolution on Standing Committees specifies new committee officers
should be chosen each year in the first committee meeting after July 1. In our next meeting, we need to choose
new Committee officers, chairperson, vice chair and secretary. Roy encouraged Committee members to be
thinking about taking a turn in one of these Committee officer positions. It was suggested that it would be
useful to have an itemization of the responsibilities of each officer, and Roy said he would prepare and e-mail
such a list to Committee members.
Ron suggested that the Town should try to make it easier to be members of committees and to be officers of
committees, and in this connection perhaps there could be remote and proxy voting for Committee positions,
and perhaps calling in rather than being present is a good idea. Roy said he would e-mail Courtenay and Roger
Spreen about this issue.
13. Additional Items or Contributions from Committee Members. None.
14. Date for Next Meeting and Adjournment
The Committee agreed, as is its custom, to cancel meetings during the summer and to meet next on the
fourth Tuesday of the month in September, which is September 22, 2020, at 7 PM.
Committee members thanked Roger Burnell for arranging the Google Meet teleconferenced meeting.
There were some technical difficulties getting the meeting initiated and some members had difficulty hearing
others speak because of noise, and these issues should be investigated before any future teleconferenced
meetings. At Ron Knapp’s suggestion, Roy will alert Deborah Padovan to these issues.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:33 PM.
Minutes prepared by Roy Woolsey, June 25, 2020