MVCSP comments on Mountain View advisory body meetings to City Council
Mountain View MVCSP
Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning
817 Montgomery Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
May 5, 2020
Mountain View City Council
City Hall, 500 Castro Street
PO Box 7540
Mountain View, CA 94039-7540
Re: 3.3 COVID-19 Update by City Manager Kimbra McCarthy (Advisory Body meetings)
Dear Mayor Abe-Koga and City Council members:
The Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning (MVCSP) appreciates the opportunity to provide comments on the current status of City Advisory Body meetings. At last week’s Council meeting, Staff discussed the status and prospects for returning the meetings to a regular schedule as soon as possible. We would like to express our support for making this happen. As you know, advisory body work plans for the next fiscal year need to be developed and approved very soon. Beyond this clear need, we believe that advisory bodies can help the City address the current pandemic situation in Mountain View. For example (in no intended order of importance):
Human Relations Commission: Can be instrumental with outreach and service provision to the most vulnerable among us, study emerging needs of vulnerable populations and identify needs gaps, collaborate with the public to gain insight on ideas to rebuild after COVID-19, and provide educational roundtables to bring the public back together.
Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee (B/PAC): Can help address accommodations serving those who are incorporating walking and biking in their physical activities, understanding that proper exercise aids building up defenses against the virus. One temporary accommodation B/PAC could consider is temporarily widening some sidewalks given the fewer number of cars on streets at this time and more people wanting to use sidewalks with adequate social distancing.
Parks and Recreation Commission: Can help address policies around parks services and regulations with sanitary needs and social distancing rules important to consider, and help develop recreational programs that are virtual or provide social distancing
Downtown Committee: Can help address policies around retail operations such as curbside pickups and those affecting sidewalk use, and downtown economic recovery.
Environmental Planning Commission: Can address any development planning that continues through the pandemic period, and ensure developments meet changing needs for affordable housing and other community needs.
Library Board: Can consider materials access during the time the library itself is closed, and plan for access to more digital materials and programming.
Performing Arts Committee: Can consider online access to performing arts programs, and find ways to keep performing arts financially solvent.
Visual Arts Committee: Can consider public art possibilities that help support the needs of our community during this time. As you know, many in the community are taking this on themselves using yard signs and sidewalk drawings. The arts are always a vital tool for positive messaging in our community, and especially during these challenging times.
Senior Advisory Committee: Can help address the needs of seniors as they are largely acknowledged to be a highly vulnerable population during this health crisis, and create better programs to address long term health, food security, and emotional security issues.
Youth Advisory Committee: Can help address youth needs at a time with schools closed and school services unavailable or greatly modified, and help provide connection and community when so many group programs and ceremonies have been canceled.
Rental Housing Committee: Although not considered one of the advisory bodies, it serves a similar purpose. Clearly, with many in the community hard pressed to meet rent expenses or receive rent payments, the work this committee does is as essential as ever.
We understand and appreciate the current strain on Staff resources, but we trust that budgeting Staff time to make this work under the circumstances needs to be part of the temporary arrangement. Note that the advisory bodies themselves can assist with administrative tasks normally handled exclusively by Staff.
We would like to add that we feel the advisory bodies serve at all times an essential purpose in our community as they provide a key link between City Staff and City Council, and the community at large. They also provide significant support to program execution, essentially increasing Staff capacity. Having their operations curtailed at this time is very unfortunate, and we urge you to correct the situation as soon as possible.
Thank you again for the opportunity to comment.
Sincerely,
<mvcsp representative name>
for the Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning
cc:
Kimbra McCarthy, City Manager
Lisa Natusch, City Clerk
About Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning
The Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning is a group of local volunteers dedicated to making Mountain View as beautiful, economically healthy, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian accessible, and affordable as possible. MVCSP member interest and expertise covers areas such as housing, transportation, the environment, the economy, and beyond!
For more information, see http://www.mvcsp.org.
To contact us, send email to mvcsp...@gmail.com.