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sits with the Council in terms of what that strategic plan says. By endorsing the language in the General Plan, it does not mean the acceptance of the draft strategic plan presented at this meeting. There would be further discussion before final adoption of the strategic plan. Ms. McGovern supported the concept of an Economic Development Strategic Plan, but had some question of its contents. One subject she wanted further review of was the hotel tax. She felt if Pleasanton's tax was lower than surrounding communities, it might encourage large businesses to bring people to Pleasanton because the prices were better. She referred to Goal 4 and expressed her desire for the downtown association to have a website where businesses could offer items for sale or gift certificates. She felt there were many people in the community who shop on the Internet. Under Goal 5, she supported Mr. Brozosky's view that this is a regional issue. There are 56,000 jobs in Pleasanton, does that mean there should be 56,000 households? Mr. Stern responded that the Committee acknowledged that the jobs/housing balance is a regional issue. The Tri-Valley Business Council also acknowledged this by preparing a combined housing element for the Tri-Valley. It was also the consensus of the Committee that every city has to think of housing in the context of economic development in its own right. There are certain sectors of the community and work force that are under represented in Pleasanton; specifically people who have high wage jobs, but not high enough wages to get a single family dwelling in Pleasanton, or who might not want one yet. In addition, there are people who have a single family dwelling, but who no longer want to maintain it, but still want to live in Pleasanton close to amenities. Ms. McGovern wanted more out-of-the-box thinking. She did not think it was possible to build to an affordable community. There were not enough units under the housing cap. She liked the idea of looking at second mortgages, in-lieu fees, and ways to help people to get into housing by making the current housing stock more affordable for them. She also thought more emphasis should be given to rental units. She then referred to Goal 6, Transportation, and agreed with many of the suggestions, especially the ACE train and BART. She disagreed with the extension of Stone ridge Drive. If cars get off the freeway onto Stoneridge, they will just sit in traffic in Pleasanton. She wanted improvements to Highway 84, 1-580 and 1-680 instead. The goal should be to get freeways back to a Level C, where the traffic is moving. Jerry Thorne felt economic vitality was very important to the city and appreciated the efforts of the Committee. He requested ways to measure the progress of the plan and make the results public. He asked what the Committee felt its role was in making the public aware of economic vitality issues? He referred to the issue of debt limit and the public misconceptions of debt limit, bonding, etc. Most people don't know the difference between a general obligation bond and a revenue bond. He felt people would like to hear about those things and he felt the Committee should make the public Joint Workshop City Council/Economic Vitality Committee 9 02/28/06