Danessa - State of the City Address Should be Free and on a Weekday Evening

December 31, 2016

Dear Savita,

I hope that you are having a relaxing holiday and a Happy New Year. I wanted to share some ideas with you from a conversation that I had with some fellow residents, most of whom are from Better Cupertino, about how we can get citizens more involved in civic affairs, and also how we can build a better working/trust relationship between residents and our city government. 

One of the ideas that came up was the State of the City Address in March. We kind of polled around via email, and a majority of people said that they had never been able to attend because it was held during the day. Others felt that it was more of a Chamber of Commerce event and not so much for the benefit of the public. It would be nice if residents felt that this was truly for them, and not driven by the Chamber, or Rotary Club.   

The time of the address is another factor. I know that the event is usually a for-fee luncheon that may discourage some of the elderly who cannot afford it, and also the majority of our population who will be working. Shouldn’t it be more accessible to everyone? 

We did look up what other cities were doing and most have their’s on a weekday evening with free admission. Would it be possible to have ours on an evening with coffee and desserts at the end with some open socializing for residents to ask questions and get to know you all better? It could really be a lovely event. 

Please let me know what you think. Thank you so much for your consideration.

Best,

Danessa Techmanski and Members of Better Cupertino

Venkatesh - Request for a free evening State of the City address event

Anyone has the permission to use this email or any part of it.
-------------
From: Venkatesh Nayak
Date: Fri, Dec 30, 2016 at 1:26 PM
Subject: Request for a free evening State of the City address event, 12/30/2016
To: svaidhyanathan@cupertino.org, dpaul@cupertino.org, bchang@cupertino.org, sscharf@cupertino.org, rsinks@cupertino.org
Cc: cityclerk@cupertino.org, manager@cupertino.org

Dear Mayor Vaidhyanathan, Vice Mayor Paul, and Council Members Chang, Scharf, and Sinks:

Please include my letter as part of the public record regarding the schedule and logistics for the 2017 State of the City address.

Please consider hosting the State of the City address in the evening as a free event (no meal) and in a public location. I am familiar that the majority of our neighboring cities do something similar.

Many Cupertinians have inflexible daytime schedules or limited discretionary funds that prevent them from attending a paid, civic function held during the day. Yet, these residents care deeply about their local government and would like to be able to participate events such as the State of the City address.

Thank you for your consideration of my request for the City to host the State of the City address in the evening and in a venue that will not require payment from attendees.

Sincerely,

Venkatesh Nayak

Resident of Cupertino

Phyllis - State of the City Address Should Not be Sponsored by Private Organizations

From: Phyllis Dickstein
To: citycouncil@cupertino.org
Sent: 12/30/2016 11:18:12 A.M. Pacific Standard Time
Subject: State of the City Address

Dear Mayor Vaidyanathan, Vice-Mayor Paul, Councillors Chang, Scharf, Sinks,

I would like to express my concurrence with Liana Crabtree's request below.

I would also like to add (also as part of the public record), that as a matter of principle, the State of the City Address should not be sponsored by private sector organizations such as the Chamber or Rotary, and thus appear to be mainly directed at the business community. Rather, it should be sponsored by the City Council itself, held in a public venue, directed at the citizenry at large (of which the  business community is, of course, a part).

Thank you,

Phyllis Dickstein

------------

Please include my letter as part of the public record regarding the schedule and logistics for the 2017 State of the City address.

Please consider hosting the State of the City address in the evening as a free event (no meal) and in a public location.

Many Cupertinians have inflexible daytime schedules or limited discretionary funds that prevent them from attending a paid, civic function held during the day. Yet, these residents care deeply about their local government and would like to be able to participate events such as the State of the City address.

Thank you for your consideration of my request for the City to host the State of the City address in the evening and in a venue that will not require payment from attendees.

Govind - Proposal: General Plan Advisory Committee

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Govind Tatachari
Date: Tue, Dec 20, 2016 at 5:55 PM
Subject: Proposal: General Plan Advisory Committee
To: citycouncil <citycouncil@cupertino.org>, cityclerk <cityclerk@cupertino.org>, City Attorney's Office <CityAttorney@cupertino.org>

Dear Cupertino council members,

I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate the newly elected council members Rod Sinks and Steven Scharf and the newly elected Mayor Savita Vaidyanathan and Vice-Mayor Darcy Paul.

I wish the new council success in handling of all the upcoming and ongoing governance and planning issues with due diligence and utmost care, foresight and a sense of fair play respecting the concerns of all parties concerned.

The 2016 November election has been historic in many ways at many levels of government. For Cupertino, the election had two Measures on the ballot related to the issues of sensible and sustainable growth and the Vallco Town Center proposal respectively. The Voters rejected both these measures. This in spite of millions of dollars of marketing expense incurred by the Vallco developer and related groups.

These measures represent just two of the many measures which might follow. Both these measures were related to the important issue of General plan and specific land-use decisions.

In view of this, it behoves the new council to attend to the issues of the General plan and land-use choices that Cupertino City is facing. I propose that the new council constitute a General plan advisory committee with a charter to evaluate and advise the council on the goals, projections and allocations related to the 25-year (long-term) General plan, related land-use choices and project proposals.

I believe this will help the City council keep the Citizenry engaged in the Cupertino planning and development activities. It is best that the City advertises this effort and invites a representative percentage (one in thousand) of Cupertino population in this exercise. It is also imperative that most of this committee is made up of ordinary residents. Formation of such a committee of Cupertino residents will also help avoid or reduce the chance of costly initiatives and referendums in the future.

I am unable to attend today's council meeting in person and talk about this proposal as part of the Oral communications. However I request that this email be entered as part of the public input.

Thanking you,

With good wishes and Sincerely,

Govind Tatachari
Cupertino Resident