REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Discussion of Meeting Dates and Adoption of a Resolution Approving the City Council Regular Meeting Calendar for April 2026 Through March 2027
Report
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Sunnyvale Charter Section 611 states that the City Council shall hold regular meetings at least twice each month as determined by ordinance or resolution.
In past years, the Regular Meeting Calendar has attempted to avoid conflicts with City and religious holidays, school recesses and various municipal government related conferences. Often, staff is unable to avoid all conflicts due to multiple conflicts in one month (e.g. elections, Veterans' Day, and Thanksgiving in November) or because there are several dates that are not known at the time of Council's calendar approval (e.g. conference dates, school district holidays). As a result, scheduling conflicts often remain despite best efforts to mitigate them). Attachment 1 outlines next year's meeting schedule under the current practice of attempting to avoid as many known conflicts as possible at the time the schedule is made.
The current practice presents some challenges. It often leads to two or three Council meetings scheduled in consecutive weeks. Holding Council meetings in consecutive weeks does place a burden on staff, Council and the public as meeting preparation and late Council meetings impact individuals' abilities to address their other professional and personal responsibilities. In addition, it provides less predictability for members of the public who are sometimes confused about the schedule. Finally, it presents operational challenges with preparing and reviewing significant volumes of staff reports (approximately 300 per year) for back-to-back meetings, creating significant pinch points in the agenda management workflow.
To address these challenges, staff have prepared a recommended meeting schedule that focuses on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, with a few exceptions to a...
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