Santa Clara staff recommend Vision 0 action plan; council debates hiring a senior civil engineer

Nicole Hee, senior civil engineer in the Department of Public Works, presented the city’s first Vision 0 action plan and urged the council to adopt it as a multi‑disciplinary strategy to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries by 2050.

Hee said staff analyzed collisions from 2016 through 2023 and reported 7,934 total collisions in that period, including 51 fatal and 139 severe‑injury crashes — roughly six fatal collisions and 17 severe injuries per year. She told the council that pedestrians and bicyclists accounted for about 7% of crashes but 35% of the fatal and severe‑injury total, and that staff identified a high‑injury network where a disproportionate share of collisions are concentrated. “With this Vision 0 plan, we set a target to end all traffic fatalities and severe injuries on city roadways by 2050,” Hee said.

The plan lays out engineering countermeasures, policy recommendations and programs. Hee said staff estimated program costs across three buckets: capital projects on the high‑injury network, professional services and program activities, and ongoing program support. She reported an estimate of about $1,680,000 for professional services and program activities over the first five years and described a multi‑hundred‑million‑dollar capital‑improvement estimate; the transcript contains inconsistent numeric references to capital totals (both about $93,000,000 and about $350,000,000 are mentioned). Hee said the city will pursue grants — including Safe Streets for All and the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) — and that most capital work would rely on grant and regional funding.

Public commenters and bicycling advocates urged the council to back Vision 0 with more than a plan. Betsy Magus, chair of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, told the council, “If any other city facility had a track record of killing six Santa Clarans every year and severely injuring 17 more, we’d shut that thing down or pour all of our resources into getting it fixed. I need all of you to commit to Vision 0. Don’t just adopt it tonight.” Ken Kratz, a member of the BPAC and the Vision 0 working group, urged adoption as well while suggesting staff reorganization as an alternative to creating a new position.

The staff recommendation included three action alternatives: adopt a resolution approving the Vision 0 action plan in substantially the form presented (alternative 1); authorize the city manager to modify, edit and implement elements of the plan that do not require council approval (alternative 3); and add one senior civil engineer position in Public Works to begin implementation (alternative 4). Hee said the senior engineer would oversee implementation, pursue grant funding and serve as staff liaison to partner agencies.

Council members questioned how the new position would be funded and whether recruiting should begin before the position is budgeted. Hee and Public Works Director Craig Moback said the initial cost could be absorbed by general funds before the new fiscal year and that the position would be included in next year’s budget process; Moback noted the department recently took on about $100 million in bond projects and that an organizational study (Baker Tilly) recommended additional resources. City Manager Grogan told the council that staff will return with additional information about the position and the organization chart during the regular budget cycle and recommended the council move forward on the Vision 0 components of the item even if there is not majority support for the new position tonight.

Member Park moved to adopt the Vision 0 plan (alternative 1) and to authorize the city manager to take actions described in alternative 3, while deferring budget and hiring approvals to the budget process; Park argued the council should explore reorganizing existing staff before approving a new middle‑management hire. The transcript records the motion and subsequent discussion but does not include a recorded roll‑call vote in the provided excerpt.

The council also heard a procedural motion to note and file a stadium budget item (3a). The meeting concluded with a memorial for Marilyn Jo Peterson (d. 02/07/2026).

What’s next: Staff said they will return with budget and organizational details on the proposed senior civil engineer position during the normal budget cycle so the council can act in June; grant pursuit and project‑level funding allocations will return to council on a case‑by‑case basis.