City Council on 2024-08-27 5:00 PM - SPECIAL MEETING

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Mountain View City Council 41 min 1 speaker 6 agenda items transcribed 3 days ago official recording ↗

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What does the council’s special meeting opening and virtual attendance procedure cover?

Pat Showalter 2:12

I'm gonna call this special meeting of the Mountain View City Council to order. Welcome everyone. Uh this feeding is being conducted with a virtual component. Anyone wishing to address the council virtually may join the meeting online. At um Or by dialing in and entering the webinar number. When the when we announce the item on which you wish to speak, uh please c raise your hand and zoom to um And or uh Or dial nine on your phone. And also if you're wishing to speak tonight, I hope that you have filled out a blue card. If not, now is a good time to do that and please give it to the clerk. Okay. Well, everyone, thank you so much for joining us for our closed session. Um we'll have a closed session announcement and then the city council will welcome public comment on the closed session.

Pat Showalter 3:12

Thank

Unknown 3:13

you. Uh city attorney? Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. Um, there is one item on this evening's closed session agenda. Item two point one is a public employee performance evaluations pursuant to California government code. Section five four nine five seven for council appointees, city clerk, city manager. And city attorney. And I also would like to announce that there will be no closed session report out at the conclusion of the meeting, as no final action will be taken in closed session this evening.

Pat Showalter 3:49

Very good, thank you. All right, before we take public comment, I'd like to read a statement about the Burring Owls. Um, the City of Mountain View remains committed to protecting wildlife, guided by our Burring Owl Preservation Plan, which was adopted in 2012, and our shoreline wildlife management plan, which we just adopted last year. The city is seen as a leading agency that goes above and beyond to increase the population of burring owls and other wildlife in Mountain View. When the city staff biologists went on administrative leave in early July, staff immediately went to work to find contract biological services to provide burrowing owl care. This included coordination, reporting, and monitoring while our employee was out.

Pat Showalter 4:40

It took time to identify the qualified consultants, develop the scope of services, receive and review proposals, and draft agreements. This process has been completed. Agreements are under review and we will and they will be executed soon. It's not the intention of the city to report. the full-time biologist with contract services. Rather, as an interim measure, contract services will provide the monitoring reporting that is typically completed within the shoreline while the full-time biologist is on leave. In the meantime, critical burrowing owl care has continued, including transition of the Borrowing Owls for the overwintering program, feeding, and volunteer projects to maintain and enhance the burrowing owl habitat.

Pat Showalter 5:31

On Saturday, August 10th, city staff coordinated with the Santa Clara Habitat Agency, providing them with immediate access to our the enclosures to transition their brewing owls as part of the juvenile overwintering program. City staff met with Santa Clara County Habitat Agency reps on site to assist, and the agency reps thanked our City staff for the coordination and collaboration and ongoing success of the program at Shoreline. This is consistent with the city's past practice. City staff has been trained by the Shoreline Biologist, and those staff continue to feed the owls in the enclosures for the two weeks after being released, following the city's typical protocol. In the months of August, four volunteer events were held to enhance the habitat within Shoreline.

Pat Showalter 6:24

These events will continue to be scheduled in the future. City staff have temporarily paused projects at Shoreline that would require approval of a biologist until appropriate services are established to ensure our wildlife safety. These projects include maintenance and safety repairs of the landfill infrastructure, which are required to meet our strict regulatory compliance. Once on board, the contract biologists will work with city staff to conduct project evaluations so that needed projects continue in a timely fashion, but that we ensure the safety of our burring owls and our wildlife.