On March 20, 2023, the Redwood City Council held a special meeting for the State of the City address. Council members presented on strategic priorities including housing, homelessness, transportation, children and youth, climate action, and reimagining city services. No public comments were made, and no formal votes were taken.
No consent calendar items were considered.
No public comments were made, either in person or via Zoom.
Each council member introduced themselves, their districts, backgrounds, and motivations for serving. Mayor Jeff G opened the meeting, thanking public works for responding to windstorms. Vice Mayor Espinosa Garnica highlighted her focus on equity and abolitionist beliefs. Councilmember Aguirre emphasized Redwood City's leadership in housing and community partnerships. Councilmember Aiken shared her legal background and commitment to climate action. Councilmember Howard described her long service and work on water transit and housing. Councilmember Martinez Saballos spoke about his roots in the community and desire for inclusive governance. Councilmember Sturkin noted his focus on safe, livable, affordable housing and environmental sustainability.
If I could ask our council member colleagues to join us at the day's, we'll get started shortly. Keep talking for a minute, but we'll take a deep breath and get set, so it's okay. All right. Well, good evening, everyone. I like to call the meeting to order for Monday, March 20th. Tonight's a special city council meeting. It's our state of the city address. So I want to thank you for joining us in person here in council chambers and also online. Um what I'd like to do then is ask our city clerk to call the roll. Good evening. Councilmember Aguirre. Here, Councilmember Aiken. Here, Councilmember Howard. Here, Councilmember Martinez Saballos. Here. Councilmember Sturkin. Here. Vice Mayor Espinosa Garnica here. And Mayor G. Present. Thank you. Thank you, Pamela. Councilmember Howard, may I invite you to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please? Thank you, Councilmember Howard. In the post state of emergency world we live in, I have to do this part about AB2449. We have all council members present, so no one's asking to be excused for either emergency or family. So we'll go on. After that, virtual attendees who have joined us by Zoom will be called after the in-person comments have been given. If you're attending virtually, feel free to raise your hand on Zoom or press star nine if you've joined by phone. Thank you, Mayor G. As mentioned, we will start with our in-person speakers. And I do not have any speaker cards for in-person speakers. I'm looking at our audience just to make sure. All right. Thank you. And so we will turn now to our attendees who have joined us by Zoom. If you wish to make public comment this evening, as Mayor G mentioned, this is the only opportunity for public comment. So we ask that you please raise your hand at this time. Keep your hand raised until you're called. And Mayor G, I do not see any raised hands on Zoom. So that concludes public comment. Thank you, Pamela. Appreciate the help on that. Well, before we begin our state of the city, I want to take a moment and we really want to say thank you to our public work staff for their commitment and dedication. And for the many hours of regular time and overtime spent responding to fallen trees caused by our windstorms last week. Over the past several months, we have experienced things I've never heard about before, atmospheric rivers, causing the ground to be saturated. And then the winds came. And in some places of our country, they call them category one or category two winds, like hurricanes, and trees weren't ready, and they um weren't able to withstand the combination of saturated ground and high winds. From our city manager, our crews worked about 1.30 in the morning, went home and came back and started all over again. That first night or first afternoon, there were about 57 calls for service for fallen trees.