An Executive Summary of our letter below to the Town Council.
The staff report for Agenda Item 15 is inaccurate in that it fails to disclose that on November 16, 2023, Staff submitted a November draft of the revised Housing Element to HCD for official review in violation of Government Code Section 65585. We find it hard to understand why Staff would intentionally not disclose this. In our opinion, the lack of transparency and full disclosure has been a consistent theme for the past two Councils led by former mayors’ Rennie and Ristow. They spanned the development of the Housing Element and were the enablers of Town Manager Prevetti. The cumulative effect of this behavior has led to a growing loss of confidence in Staff and the Town’s latest consultant, Veronica Tam, by the public.
The current process needs to be overhauled beginning with the Town Council taking direct control over the development of the Housing Element. For too long the Town Council has delegated its legal responsibility for the development of the Housing Element to Staff and a dizzying number of consultants.
This process has resulted in the Town failing to meet the statutory deadline of Housing Element certification by January 31, 2023; spending of well over $300,000 in consulting fees the submission of 5 draft Housing Elements, all of which have been rejected by HCD. That resulted in the filing of numerous Builder’s Remedy development applications as a result of non-certification, which include a 7 story building on the site of the current post office.
Furthermore, we are concerned that certain members of the Town Council have publicly blamed HCD for the Town’s failure to obtain certification, claiming HCD has “moved the goal posts on us.” We do not subscribe to this view and see this as an attempt to whitewash the process and deflect accountability away from the very body that is accountable – namely our elected Town Council and the Town Staff that works for them. We believe all of this is self-inflicted, as demonstrated by the latest stunt of intentionally violating the public comment requirements of the state Government Code.
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December 16, 2023
RE: Agenda item 15 – Town Council Meeting December 19, 2023
Dear Town Council,
The staff report for Agenda Item 15 is inaccurate in that it fails to disclose that on November 16, 2023
Staff submitted a November draft of the revised Housing Element to HCD for official review in violation
of Government Code Section 65585. We find it hard to understand why Staff would intentionally not
disclose this.
In our opinion, the lack of transparency and full disclosure has been a consistent theme for the past two
years, spanning the development of the Housing Element. The cumulative effect of this behavior has led
to a growing loss of confidence in Staff and the Town’s latest consultant, Veronica Tam, by the public.
The current process needs to be overhauled beginning with the Town Council taking direct control over
the development of the Housing Element. For too long the Town Council has delegated its legal
responsibility for the development of the Housing Element to Staff and a dizzying number of
consultants.
This process has resulted in the Town failing to meet the statutory deadline of Housing Element
certification by January 31, 2023, the spending of over $300,000 in consulting fees, the submission of 5
draft Housing Elements, all of which have been rejected by HCD, and the filing of numerous Builder’s
Remedy development applications as a result of non-certification, which include a 7 story building on
the site of the current post office.
Furthermore, we are concerned that certain members of the Town Council have publicly blamed HCD
for the Town’s failure to obtain certification, claiming HCD has “moved the goal posts on us.” We do not
subscribe to this view and see this as an attempt to whitewash the process and deflect accountability
away from the very body that is accountable – namely our elected Town Council and the Town Staff that
works for them. We believe all of this is self-inflicted, as demonstrated by the latest stunt of
intentionally violating the public comment requirements of Government Code Section 65585 and AB
215. We will now detail what happened.
Legal Background
Government Code Section 65585(b)(3) requires, “For any subsequent draft revision, the local
government shall post the draft revision on its website and shall email a link to the draft revision to all
individuals and organizations that have previously requested notices relating to the local government’s
housing element at least seven days before submitting the draft revision to the department.”
In addition, in every comment letter HCD has provided the Town, they have included a “Public
Participation” paragraph that specifically discussed the importance of public participation in the development
of the Housing Element and noted the requirement of an advance seven-day review period for the public.
The Town and the Town’s consultant, Veronica Tam were fully aware of the Town’s legal obligation under this
government code section and AB 215.
Timeline
- On November 15 , 2023, the Planning Commission reviewed a “matrix” provided by HCD and
augmented by Town Staff and continued the meeting until November 29 th . Staff and the Town
Consultant did not at that time disclose their intention to submit a revised draft of the Housing
Element to HCD the very next day, on November 16. - On November 16, 2023, Staff submitted to HCD a massive re-write of the September draft of the
revised Housing Element that had been submitted to HCD for the mandatory 60-day review
period on October 2, 2023. The cover letter (attachment 1) stated the Town is transmitting a
“draft revised 2023-2031 Housing Element,” and is requesting HCD’s review and feedback, “that
would assist the Town… to bring the Housing Element into a compliance status by or before the
end of the 60-day review period (e.g., December 1, 2023).” No one in the public was aware of
this submission. It is unclear if anyone on the Town Council was aware of this submission. - On November 19, 2023, LGCA wrote a letter to the Town Manager stating that LGCA has been
made aware of the November 16 submission and reminding the Town Manager of Government
Code Section 65585 and attached the government code section. - On November 20, 2023, LGCA received an email from the Town Attorney (attachment 2)
confirming government code section 65585 applies and stated, “Town staff will be contacting
HCD to ask HCD to consider the date of submittal to be November 27th rather than November
17th ”. - On November 20, 2023, LGCA sent an email to the Town Attorney (attachment 2), among other
items, pointing out the importance of the public comment period and the Town’s requirement
to consider the public comments before submitting a draft to HCD. - On November 21, 2023, LGCA received an email from the Town Attorney (attachment 2), now
claiming the November 16th submittal, “was not the Town’s submittal of a revised draft Housing
Element”. The email also stated, “staff had not drafted the revisions at the time of the
November 15 th Planning Commission meeting so the matrix that was provided stated the
revisions were in progress”. Essentially this email claimed that the Staff didn’t know about the
fact that they would be submitting a significant rewrite of the Housing Element the very next
day, so how could they be expected to disclose it to the Planning Commission or the public. This
speaks for itself and illustrates the point regarding the lack of transparency and full disclosure. - On November 21, 2023, LGCA replied to the Town Attorney’s email (attachment 2) pointing out
numerous inconsistencies with the Town Attorney’s email and requested the Town to notify
HCD immediately of the failure to comply with government code section 65580 and to rescind
the November 16th submittal. - On November 28, 2023, the Town transmitted a “resubmittal” of a draft revised 2023-2031
Housing Element. The cover letter stated the Town had complied with government code section
65585 and the “draft housing element was posted November 16th , 2023” on the Town’s website
“consistent with AB 215 requirements”. The Staff dismissed out of hand all comments it had
received from LGCA [and others?] and simply submitted the same draft that was submitted to - HCD on November 16th . The very same draft that the Town Attorney previously claimed in her
- email of November 21 was not a revised draft of the Housing Element.
Conclusion
It is deeply troubling that Staff has failed to disclose these events and be fully transparent in its Staff
Report to the Town Council. Furthermore, we remain concerned Staff does not fully understand the
requirement under Government Code Section 65585. The code requires, “for any subsequent draft
revision,” there is a mandatory a 7-day public review period prior to submitting a draft to HCD. The Staff
seems to draw a distinction between a “formal submittal,” versus some other type of submittal. To be
clear, there is no other type of submittal, and all submittals fall under the purview of Government Code
Section 65585.This Council has a mess on its hands. We truly hope for all our sakes that the Council takes control over
this process going forward, including reviewing, and approving all subsequent Housing Element Drafts
prior to submission to HCD.
At the end of the day, we all want the same goal – a timely certification of the Town’s 2023 – 2031
Housing Element that fully complies with State Housing Element Law.
Los Gatos Community Alliance
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