Thank you for your email Ms. Horst. As you know any Councilmember can remove any item from the consent calendar with a simple request at the start of the meeting. We start the consent calendar asking if any council-member wants to remove a consent calendar item. This happens frequently and is not unusual. Vice Mayor Taylor and I met with professional staff late in the day Thursday to go over this agenda. This year as Vice Mayor Taylor is new to the City Council, we are making a concerted effort to make sure we attend calendar setting meetings together. Sometimes that can present potential conflicts with the Brown Act, as we cannot have substantive discussions about every item on the agenda. As that relates to the consent calendar, if an item is on the consent calendar when the agenda is constructed for whatever reason, the fail safe is someone can simply remove it in the meeting, and Vice Mayor Taylor and I avoid having a substantive discussion prior to the meeting, respecting the Brown Act. There was no predetermination nor substantive discussion on the outcome of the Willow Village agenda item, nor any other agenda item. That would be improper. Candidly we were focused on how much time the appeal may require that relates to the trees on El Camino Real. Thank you for your concerns. With kind regards, Ray Mueller (please excuse odd punctuation. my laptop does not always work well with the City's email system.) ________________________________ From: Rachel Horst Sent: Friday, May 10, 2019 12:08:20 PM To: _CCIN Subject: Item E4 on 5/14/19 CC agenda Dear Councilmembers: I attended the study session for Willow Village the other night, which very clearly conveyed the significance of the project and the many open questions remaining in the community. I appreciated the engagement of both the public and each of the Councilmembers. I am fully aware that the EIR is one major step in a long development process, one that began before the study session on May 7. I also understand that the specific action the Council may take on May 14 is to authorize a contract amendment, which some may view as a relatively small step. That said, with three new Councilmembers and a very different context than the one in 2017 or 2018, I believe it would benefit both the Council and the public to take this item off of consent.This can provide more time to interact with staff and clarify their understanding of next steps. I believe we must take every opportunity we have to shed light on this process. Thank you for your consideration. Best, Rachel Received on Sat May 11 2019 - 19:35:22 PDT
