(TENTATIVE) AGENDA – SPECIAL MEETING COUNCIL CONFERENCE ROOM MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013 - 5:30 PM STUDY SESSION 1. Study Session with Senator Jerry Hill CLOSED SESSION 2. Cubberley Community Center CHAMBERS SPECIAL ORDERS OF THE DAY 3. Community Partner Presentation: Palo Alto Players at the Lucie Stern Community Theatre CONSENT 4. Approval of a Stewardship Agreement Between the City of Palo Alto and the Santa Clara County Fire Safe Council (FSC) in the Amount of $50,000 from the Public Works CIP PO-12003 for the Initial Year of Services for Treatment Work Indicated in the Foothill Fire Management Plan (FFMP) 5. Policy and Services Recommendation to Accept the City Auditor’s Office Fiscal Year 2014 Proposed Work Plan and Risk Assessment 6. Policy and Services Recommendation to Accept the Report on the Status of Audit Recommendations (June 2013) 7. Policy and Services Recommendation to Accept the Auditor’s Office Quarterly Report as of June 30, 2013 8. Requesting Authorization to Spend Approved Budget of $107,000 for the Utility SCADA Master Service & Work Station Replacement Project 9. Approval of Annual Report of Williamson Act Contracts Within the City of Palo Alto 10. Adoption of Resolutions Fixing the City of Palo Alto’s Healthcare Premium Costs Under the Public Employees’ Medical and Hospital Care Act (PEMHCA) for Palo Alto’s New Bargaining Units, Palo Alto Police Management Association and Utilities Managers and Professionals Association of Palo Alto 11. Council Direction on Selection of Voting Delegate and Alternate for Upcoming National League of Cities Conference ACTION ITEMS 12. PUBLIC HEARING: PARKING EXEMPTIONS CODE REVIEW: Review and Adoption of: Ordinance of the Council of the City of Palo Alto Amending Chapter 18.52 (Parking and Loading Requirements) of Title 18 (Zoning) of the Palo Alto Municipal Code to Eliminate the “Exempt Floor Area” Parking Exemption as Contained in Sections 18.52.060(a)(2) and 18.52.060(c) of the Palo Alto Municipal Code. Interim Ordinance of the Council of the City of Palo Alto to amend Chapters 18.18, Downtown Commercial (CD) District and 18.52, Parking and Loading Requirements, to Eliminate Certain Parking Exemptions within the Downtown Area. These actions are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) under Section 15061 and 15301 of the CEQA Guidelines 13. PUBLIC HEARING: ADOPTION OF ORDINANCES FOR REVISIONS TO BUILDING CODES: Adoption of Eight Ordinances: (1) Repealing Chapter 16.04 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code and Amending Title 16 to Adopt a New Chapter 16.04, California Building Code, California Historical Building Code, and California Existing Building Code, 2013 Editions, and Local Amendments and Related Findings; (2) Repealing Chapter 16.05 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code and Amending Title 16 to Adopt a New Chapter 16.05, California Mechanical Code, 2013 Edition, and Local Amendments and Related Findings; (3) Adopting a New Chapter 16.06 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code, California Residential Code, 2013 Edition, and Local Amendments and Related Findings; (4) Repealing Chapter 16.08 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code and Amending Title 16 to Adopt a New Chapter 16.08, California Plumbing Code, 2013 Edition, and Local Amendments and Related Findings; (5) Repealing Chapter 16.14 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code and Amending Title 16 to Adopt a New Chapter 16.14, California Green Building Standard Code, 2013 Edition, and Local Amendments and Related Findings; (6) Repealing Chapter 16.16 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code and Amending Title 16 to Adopt a New Chapter 16.16, California Electrical Code, 2013 Edition, and Local Amendments and Related Findings; (7) Repealing Chapter 16.17 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code and Amending Title 16 to Adopt a New Chapter 16.17, California Energy Code, 2013 Edition, and Local Amendments and Related Findings; (8) Repealing Chapter 15.04 of the Palo Alto Municipal Code and Amending Title 15 to Adopt a new Chapter 15.04, California Fire Code, 2013 Edition, and Local Amendments and Related Findings 14. Approval of Contract for the Downtown Development CAP to Dyett & Bhatia Urban & Regional Planners in the Amount Not to Exceed $200,000 (Continued from 10/7/13) STANDING COMMITTEE MEETINGS The Council Appointed Officers Committee will meet in closed session on Wednesday, October 23, 2013 at 2:00 P.M. to discuss: ) City Manager’s Compensation, and 2) City Auditor Recruitment Process.
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Upfront EDUCATION
A ladder for workers on the bottom rung Stipends open community college door for local laborers, housekeepers by Chris Kenrick
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midcareer “failure” for a Palo Alto woman sparked a new trajectory that’s helping local housekeepers, gardeners, waiters and home health aides to go to community college. Elizabeth Weal left the hightech world in her 40s to get a teaching credential, but “was not a success” as a fifth-grade teacher at Garfield Elementary School in Menlo Park. However she quickly found a niche at a school across the street — the Sequoia Adult School — teaching evening classes in English as a Second Language. “These were amazing people, and I got this incredible sense that this is where I belonged,” Weal said in an interview this week. “It was totally the opposite of the fifth graders, who were the children of these people I was enamored with.” Weal fell in love with the work and with her students. Ultimately, she wrote and self-published a series of simple, basic English grammar and writing textbooks after realizing her students needed guidance in their native Spanish and nothing was to be had. Friendships with her students — nearly all of them low-wage workers — then led her to a new step: raising funds to help them take classes in community college. This fall, 69 of them are enrolled at Canada College with small stipends from her recently registered nonprofit, Sequoia Adult School Scholars. “These are people who really have no extra money,” she said. “My idea was that if we can make this free, people would go.” Since most of the students have day jobs, they’re not going to school full-time, just taking a class or two. Weal hopes some of them will complete the ESL
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PALO ALTO CITY COUNCIL CIVIC CENTER, 250 HAMILTON AVENUE BROADCAST LIVE ON KZSU, FM 90.1 CABLECAST LIVE ON GOVERNMENT ACCESS CHANNEL 26 ***************************************** THIS IS A SUMMARY OF COUNCIL AGENDA ITEMS. THE AGENDA WITH COMPLETE TITLES INCLUDING LEGAL DOCUMENTATION CAN BE VIEWED AT THE BELOW WEBPAGE: http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/knowzone/agendas/council.asp
While teaching English as a Second Language, Elizabeth Weal wrote and self-published English grammar textbooks written in Spanish. Now she offers scholarships so her students can attend community college. sequence and work toward a certificate. “One guy is a construction worker going for a certificate in kitchen and bath design,” Weal said. “Another works at the counter at The Cheesecake Factory and wants to be a preschool teacher.” Weal recalled taking her Sequoia ESL students on a field trip to Canada College: “It was a gorgeous campus, and people were walking around with their mouths open — ‘I can go here? This is for me?’ It was a real eye-opening experience.” A grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation provides a part-time adviser at the adult school to help students apply for community college, and Weal’s group offers $64-a-month bus passes or parking passes and help with textbooks. East Palo Alto resident Nely Perez worked full time — often seven days a week — in a Burlingame car wash in her 12 years since arriving from Mexico,
VIDEO: First Person: David Winsberg, East Palo Alto Farmer David Winsberg talks with Lisa Van Dusen about what it’s like to operate one of the last commercial farms in East Palo Alto. Son of a Florida pepper farmer, during his “bachelor days” in 1980, he started Happy Quail Farms. Watch the video by Lisa Van Dusen and Veronica Weber at PaloAltoOnline.com.
where she was a secretary in a law office. While working 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the car wash, Perez said, “I didn’t have time to study. I never attended school, but in January I said, ‘No, I need to prepare. I need to go to school. I like to study.’” Her husband, a construction worker, encouraged her and, with a parking pass and textbooks paid for by Sequoia Adult School Scholars, Perez is taking three English classes at Canada. She wants to be able to help her 8-year-old daughter with her homework. “The only thing I need is somebody with whom I can speak English because at home everybody speaks Spanish,” Perez said. After speaking English all day at work and school, her husband and daughter prefer to speak Spanish at home, she said. Weal continues to sell her $10 textbooks — 11,000 of them so far — through Amazon.com and out of her garage, and she’s no longer losing money. “Obviously I’m not supporting myself in Palo Alto with these books, but more and more the sales are going up,” she said. “I am making money — not a lot of money.” She’s found a market in neighborhood organizations, churches and groups with names like Adelante Mujeres (Forward Women), where ESL classes are taught. “People send in money orders for a book,” she said. “One guy from East Palo Alto came to my house with cash for a book.” Weal stores 1,500 books in her garage and Amazon prints them on demand, which she calls “a pretty unsexy way to print books. “My husband says, ‘Aren’t you sick of packing boxes of books?’ and I say ‘No, I’m incredibly happy to do this.’ “It’s great to be making books that make a difference.” N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@ paweekly.com.