01 Attachment 5 - Public CommentTo: Los Gatos Town Council, meeting of January 14, 2020
Re: Revising Tree Protection Ordinance enforcement
From: Dave Weissman, 1/9/2020
On April 2, 2019, this Town Council approved an 8-lot subdivision for 16100 Greenridge
Terrace. In early September, this 36-acre property was listed on Zillow for $16M. On October
15th, tree protection violations for 17 protected oak trees, were reported to the Town for trees on
Lots 4, 5, and 6. No permits had been obtained and these violations dealt with (1) major branches
(> 4” diameter) being removed, (2) greater than 25% of a tree’s foliage being trimmed and (3)
spikes being used to climb trees. Most trees had more than 1 violation and one tree, #173 on Lot
5, had 2 entire large trunks removed. The obvious aim of this illegal work was to improve the
view of the Valley from the proposed house sites. That goal has been achieved, especially for Lot
5.
On November 11th, the Town sent the owner of this property an “Administrative
Warning” letter and assessed a fine of $300 for all of the infractions. Let me repeat that: 17 trees
were violated without permits of any kind and for a $300 fine, the owner may have increased the
value of just Lot 5 by $50,000 to $100,000. And the $300 can even be written off as the cost of
doing business. Not a bad deal.
I met with staff on January 7th to discuss this situation. Although I believe that there are
numerous aspects of the Tree Protection Ordinance that could be utilized to increase the
effectiveness of this enforcement action, staff does not agree with that. Hence, I request that in
the coming year, the enforcement sections of the Tree Protection Ordinance be revised so that
such illegal actions in the future are actually discouraged. The penalty should be appropriate to
the violation. Had the owners mutilated another 100 trees, their fine would still be only $300.
ATTACHMENT 5
From: Phil Koen
Sent: Thursday, January 9, 2020 10:56 AM
To: Laurel Prevetti ; Arn Andrews
Cc: Jak Van Nada
Subject: Trend Report
Hello Laurel,
Happy New Year to you.
I am reaching out because I intend to send an email to the Council sharing my thoughts
regarding critical priorities for this coming year. I will be sending them the attached financial
schedule.
I wanted to provide this to you in advance so if you are asked by the Council regarding the
accuracy of the schedule you will be in a position to respond. All of the information is from the
2019 CAFR which the Council approved this past month. I will be pointing out the steady
decrease the Town is experiencing in the surplus of tax based revenues over all governmental
expenditures. As you can see for FY 2019 tax based revenues barely exceeded all net
governmental expenditures and the Town has experienced a 72% increase in total net
expenditures since FY 2015. This is a disturbing trend that was not fully discussed at the time
the CAFR was approved. I believe this is important information that the Council should be made
fully aware of.
Thank you.
Phil Koen
Trend Analysis of Excess Tax Revenues 2019 change from 2015
Over Governmental Expenditures 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 $%
Total Governmental Expenditures 34,271 34,417 39,290 41,833 44,236 9,965 29.1%
Less: Program Revenues and Grants 16,485 13,571 12,445 14,236 13,672 (2,813)-17.1%
Net Total Governmental Expenditures 17,786 20,846 26,845 27,597 30,564 12,778 71.8%
Less: All Tax Revenue 25,412 25,519 28,398 28,565 30,682 5,270 20.7%
Excess Tax Revenue over Expenditures 7,626 4,673 1,553 968 118 (7,508)-98.5%
Plus:
Motor Vechicle in Lieu 0 12 14 16 14 14
Investment Earnings 428 698 192 333 1,809 1,381
Miscellaneous/Disposal of Assets 813 598 528 622 2,407 1,594
Net Position 8,867 5,981 2,287 1,939 4,348 (4,519)