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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-24-1998 City Council Agenda (2)ti AGENDA. SARATOGA CITY COUNCIL TIME: Tuesday, February 24, 1998 7:00 p.m. PLACE: Adult Care Center, 19655 Allendale Avenue TYPE: Adjourned Regular Meeting /Joint Meeting with Planning Commission and Heritage Preservation Commission 1. Roll Call 7:00 p.m. 2. Report of City Clerk on Posting of Agenda Pursuant to Government Code 54954.2, the agenda for this meeting was properly posted on February 20. The notice of adjournment from the February 18 Council meeting was properly posted on February 19. 3. Oral Communications from the Public on Non- Agendised Items 4. Agenda Items for March 14 Council Retreat, Judy Sweet 7:00 to 7:20 p.m. 5. Presentation by Recreation Cost Recovery Task Force, Nick Streit, Finance Commissioner 7:20 to 8:00 p.m. 6. Joint Meeting with Heritage Commission 8:00 to 8:20 p.m. Status of Heritage Preservation Ordinance revisions (applying same permit review criteria to inventory structures as already applies to designated landmark structures) update on Community Context video Expansion of Heritage Resources Inventory 7. Joint Meeting with Planning Commission 8:20 to 9:30 p.m. Upcoming Measure G Election (Barry Swenson Project) -Adult Entertainment ordinance -Long Range Planning Orchids and Onions Tour Televising Planning Commission Meetings S. Self- Evaluation of Previous Meeting, February 18 9. Agency Assignment Reports Assoc. of Bay Area Governments Chamber of Commerce Board Moran Wolfe ti City Council Agenda 2 County Cities Assn. Leg. Task Force County HCD Policy Committee Emergency Planning Council Hakone Foundation Liaison Joint Venture Silicon Valley KSAR Access TV Board Library Joint Powers Agency N. Cent. Flood Cont. Zone Adv. Bd. Penin. Div., League of Cal. Cities Santa Clara Valley Water Commission Santa Clara County Cities Assn./ City Selection Committee SASCC Liaison Saratoga Business Dev. Council School Liaison Sister City Liaison Solid Waste JPA Valley Transportation Authority Valley Transportation Authority PAC West Valley Sanitation District 10. Other 11. Citisen Recognition 12. Adjournment February 24, 1998 Bogosian Jacobs Moran Bogosian Wolfe Shaw Bogosian Bogosian Wolfe Jacobs Wolfe /Moran Shaw Wolfe Jacobs Shaw Moran Wolfe Shaw Moran In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting, please contact Peter Gonda at 408/868 -1221. Notification 48 hours prior to the meeting will enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to this meeting. [28 CFR 35.102- 35.104 ADA Title II] 1 CITY OF SARATOGA 13777 FRUITVALE AVENUE SARATOGA CA 95070 PHONE 408/868 -1200 FAX (408) 868 -1280 FAX TRANSMISSION DATE: 2/24/98 TO: Gillian Moran, Paul Jacobs, Jim Shaw, Don Wolfe FROM: Betsy Cory DEPARTMENT: City Clerk TOTAL NUMBER OF PAGES SENT: 5 (including cover sheet) Enclosed are two items from Stan Bogosian having to do with tonight's agenda: a newspaper article that might apply to the Council retreat (Item 4) and a letter from the ACLU concerning the Library JPA (Item 9 Council Reports). cc: Larry IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE ALL OF THIS TRANSMISSION, PLEASE CALL: BETSY AT (408) 868 -1269. ti U Qq 0&MZ 13777 FRUITVALE AVENUE SARATOGA, CALIFORNIA 95070 (408) 868 -1200 COI ?NCIL MEMBERS Stan Bogosiao Paul E. Jacobs Gillian Moran Jim Shaw Donald L. Wolfe February 24, 1998 Barbara Conant, Chair Santa Clara County Library District Joint Powers Authority Campbell City Hall 70 North First Street Campbell CA 95008 Dear Ms. Conant: On behalf of the Saratoga City Council, I would like to express our concern regarding Internet access to minors in Santa Clara County libraries. The JPA Internet Task Force will discuss the Library's Internet access policy at the February 26 meeting. I urge you to request that the Task Force continue to investigate alternatives. The present stance allowing unlimited access to minors is satisfactory neither to the Saratoga City Council nor, I believe, to the residents of Saratoga. We take the welfare of our children very seriously. We urge you to continue the study until an appropriate solution which is sensitive to their vulnerability is found. Sin ;ely, G on Wolfe Mayor cc: Susan Fuller Printed on recycled paper. S(s, t o A M E R I C A N C I V I L 1-1 B E R T I E S UNION F O U N D A T 1 0 N O F NORTHERN CALIFORNIA February 20, 1998 Barbara Conant Chair, Santa Clara County Library District Joint Powers Authority Campbell City Hall 70 N. First Street Campbell, CA 95008 r• Fog R66mm TT 2 4f/q y .F,rz" S-tp N 13 o(oo s:r►J Re: Internet Access in Santa Clara County Libraries Dear members of the Joint Powers Authority: It is my understanding that the JPA Internet Task Force will be asking you to reexamine the Library's open access policy" at the JPA's February 26, 1998 meeting. More specifically, I understand that the Task Force may ask'the JPA to authorize limits on the Internet access of minors. Such a request must be rejected as an unconstitutional abridgment of their First Amendment rights. It should also be rejected as a proposal that will short change the intellectual development of the young people who will soon be taking their place as the next generation of leaders in. the community. As discussed in my earlier letter to this body dated October 14, 1998, minors have an independent First Amendment right of access to controversial expression. Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville 422 U.S. 211, 212 -14 (1975); see also Pico v. Board of Education. Island Trees Union Free School District 457 U.S. 853, 872 (1982). That right is not limited to the books, newspapers, magazines, or films in the library; it includes the Internet. Cf. Reno v. ACLU 521 U.S. 138 L. Ed. 2d. 874, 894, 897 (1997) (the Internet, like books and newspapers, is entitled to the highest level of First Amendment protection). 'Just as the library may not confine minors to only those library materials in the children's reading room, it may not prohibit them from using the Internet or limit their access to a bowdlerized version through a software filter. Dick Grosboll, Chabperrmr Luz Buitrago Davis Riemer, Ethan P. Schulman, Michelle Welsh, Virn Chairperrmtt Nancy Pemberton, Tre_arnxr Ann Brick, Edward M. Chen, John M Crew; Margaret C. Crosby, helh M. Evans. Staff Counrvd Alan 1.. Schlosser, Alaneaging At[ornei Cheri Bryant, Development Director Elaine Elinson, Public hifonmtion Director Francisco Lobaco, L ghlathe Dinvor Dorothy M. Ehrlich, F_xauthle Director Stephen V. Bomse, General Canoe! 1663 MISSION S'1'itHET SUITE 46o SAN FRANCISCO CA 94103 TELEPHONE: (4:5)621 -2491 Barbara Conant February 20, 1998 Page 2 The Internet has literally revolutionized not only our ability to communicate but our ability to learn. Its role in the intellectual development of the young is of particular importance. Through the Internet, the Library of Congress, the newspapers of the world, the works of art hung in museums thousands of miles away, are all available to young people in the smallest of communities so long as that community can afford a public library with Internet access. Teenagers can explore controversial issues of the day or issues so personal that they hesitate to discuss them with even their closest friends or the most trusted of adults. They are no longer limited to the collection of their local library. That is, unless a filter has been installed. Those who would install filters do not advocate their use as a means of limiting our youth to only an "approved" body of information or ideas. But that is the inevitable effect of installing filters. The notion that filters can eliminate only harmful matter, as defined by Penal Code Section 313, while leaving protected r material with sexual content uncensored, is a fallacy, as demonstrated by Kern `County's recent experiment with filters. Most software companies will admit, as did the company used by Kern County, that they cannot customize their software to block only those sites that satisfy the legal definition of harmful matter. Indeed, the one software product that touted itself as blocking only those sites meeting the criteria of Miller v. California 413 U.S. 15 (1973) (the Supreme Court case that sets the legal standard for obscenity), was later found to block numerous web sites containing socially important and valued information, including those of the Religious Society of Friends i.e., the Quakers), the American Association of University Women, and the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. The software purchased by Kern County blocked, among others, political sites, such as those advocating drug policy reform and the site of Hate Watch, an organization dedicated to working for tolerance and eliminating bigotry. The web site for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Examiner (http: /www.sfgate.com) was unaccountably blocked by the software program installed in libraries in Loudon County, Virginia. Sites dealing.with topics such as female genital mutilation, contraception or abortion, AIDS prevention, or issues affecting gays- or lesbians are routinely blocked by various filtering programs. A NoTC- NA K600 co Fnrr-tcv A4 t, Jv�T ju6r cuixzonF5vs Barbara Conant February 20, 1998 Page 3 The low paid workers at filtering software companies who make the day -to- day decisions about whether to block a particular site plainly lack the time, the experience, and the knowledge to make the sensitive judgments required in determining whether that site, taken as a whole is so lacking in artistic, literary, scientific, or political value for minors that it constitutes harmful matter. See Penal Code 313. Nor can software companies customize their software to reflect the appropriate statewide standards on which hinge the determination of whether a particular web site appeals to the prurient interest, as required by the Penal Code. Rather, blocking determinations are made based on broad generalizations about the presence of sexual content, not on whether that content constitutes harmful matter, a decision that our Constitution reserves for the courts. The problems are compounded, of course, by the fact that software companies will not disclose the list of sites blocked by their filters. Thus the professional librarians charged with responsibility for the content of their libraries do not even know what material has been excluded. In the end, it is neither up to the government, nor up to a secretive software company selected by the government, to determine the permissible scope of content available to our young people on the Internet. We must not permit a political or ideological agenda presented in the guise of eliminating harmful matter from the Internet to drive decisions about the intellectual growth and freedom of our youth. The Constitution, in extending First Amendment rights to minors, has already made that determination. Very truly yours, Ann Brick Staff Counsel AB:ln cc: Members of the Santa Clara County Library District Joint Powers Authority Ann Ravel, County Counsel SPoKEsnyhv/tw�zccv z //7/9Yr- tr`i i3 Std P,z,J _0 get a..,on s Colleagues air differences, aim for teamwork By Kristina Johnson mit, saying the city should have Staff writer reviewed that issue more carefully A retreat that began with fiery before spending $9 .milhon on :the accusations cooled to a friendly ex- project. change of ideas as Spokane City The state Departrnent of Ecology Council members agreed they need denied a shoreline permit for the to work as a team.. bridge .last month, and the city is Council members spent nearly. six appealing the decision. hours Monday. hashing out topics "We need to come up with some. that ranged from hiring an internal kind of agreement as to how we're auditor to cutting back on the num" going to relate to each other" and the ber of meetings. public, Colliton said. But before they talked about is- "If we're going to throw one an- sues, they discussed how they relate other under the bus, what kind of a to one another and the city "staff. relationship is that said Council Councilman Jeff Colliton fired the 'woman Roberta Greene. "If we're first shot, taking unnamed colleagues going to goon talk radio and lambast to task for airing criticisms of city staff we're the ones pushing employees on, talk shows... morale, into the toilet." I;A t week; Mayor .John Talbott Colhton; Greene and Counc and.Counciiwoman Cher Rodge a womMn'phyHts Holmes ur ed "their discussed their` conCernst`a6ont th colleagues to be'carefd abut what Lincoln Street bridge project on talk`' they say to the public and the media: radio. Both Rodgers and Talbott That prompted responses fi'om� both have criticized city managers over the recently denied state shoreline per connued: Council.M& ��ounCll: V�ill ;,dud foram 3 y gl tS ONM s taff, ontinued from B1 "We've only got one side to look at the side presented by city staff," Talbott said. The topic was tabled until later in the day, when council members agreed to compile information on other city councils that have their own staffs. When talk about how council members communicate came to a close, they turned their attention to Consider .putting a charter amendment before city residents that would give the council more flexibil- ity in how often it meets. The current charter says the council must meet weekly. N Consider putting a charter amendment before residents that would limit to 180 days the length'of time a person has to gather. signa- tures on an initiative petition. There is no time limit now. retreat in April to focus on priorities such as economic development and street improvements. As the retreat came to a close, Greene pressed her colleagues to work on becoming a better team, which prompted vigorous nods from. other council members. "It's easy to articulate differences, but we need to start working on team building around positive things," she said. "It's up to us." After the meeting, Colliton said that while it wasn't exactly a love -in, council members had d` chance to voice a few concerns and reach some consensus. "It was necessary that some 'of those iemarks got aired.. In that regard, it was pretty,constructive," he said. Talbott agreed. We started out a little tense, but.we mellowed out and made some headway he, said. Talbott and Rodgers. "I'm not going to not talk to the press," Rodgers said. "You have to be honest..:. We should be able to disagree and not take it personally." `•`If we've got divisiveness and po- larization in this community, it didn't start in the last two months. It's been :building up for years Talbott said. The mayor used the discussion as a an agenda that included the council's ■Sd to make City Hall public forum, Study ways m the initiative process Y ty and two -year spending plans. more user friendly by moving depart- ments that directly. serve residents Tlie. council informally agreed to: closer• together such neighbor Keep the weekly forum session hood ?servyees. and historic :preserva to 30 minutes, limiting all speakers to tion. five minutes each. If more than six ■Devote .several workshop�,ses people sign up to speak, they will be sions,'to next year s'budget, as as limited to three minutes each continue .ehan n g to a two ear Y s•, t budget cycle t t Stod�t +,ways tp get mare netglt r 9' council`;tnembers +deed ;6orhoods tnvolved:in town.hall mcet,, *AuL;ouncuman.KOU Higgins urg- raluations of city, issues. in ring;, the council agreed 6 another