Redwood City Special City Council Meeting - May 19, 2025
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Redwood City Special City Council Meeting - May 19, 2025
The Redwood City Council held a special meeting on May 19, 2025, starting at 6:00 PM. The meeting included community acknowledgments, consent calendar approvals, public hearings on city employment vacancies and cannabis business fees, approval of a successor MOU with the Chief Officers Association, and study sessions on fire and police department operations. All votes were unanimous.
Consent Calendar
- Approved 16 routine items by a single motion (7-0), including an interfund loan of $5 million from the general fund to the park impact fees fund (6A), an investment report (6B), excess insurance renewal (6C), final acceptance of construction improvements at 1410 Valloto Road and 200 Twin Dolphin Drive (6D-6E), speed limit reductions to 15 mph around Hoover Elementary, Kennedy Middle, and Roy Cloud School zones (6F), grant applications (6G), purchase of a tractor-drawn aerial fire truck for up to $1,543,046 (6H), curb ramp and sidewalk repair contract (6I), synthetic turf replacement at Mitchell and Farroaks fields for $2,198,996 (6J), legal services agreement for the Greater Downtown Area Plan (6K), consent to assignment agreement (6L), new classifications of crisis response clinician and payroll supervisor (6M-6N), approval of May 12, 2025 meeting minutes (6O), and claims and checks from May 19 to June 9, 2025 (6P).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Michael Arusa Cruz (in-person): Expressed support for the $5 million park impact fee transfer but urged council to reconsider high park impact fees (over $40,000 per unit for multifamily housing) as they may increase rents and reduce construction. Suggested exploring alternative revenue sources such as bonds or property/business taxes. Noted that "any percentage of zero is unfortunately still zero" if no construction occurs.
- Scott Morton (in-person, President of San Francisco Peninsula Adaptive Miracle League baseball): Spoke in full support of item 6J (Mitchell and Farroaks synthetic turf replacement). Noted the field would serve Miracle League players with disabilities using a buddy system and that the new turf would be safer for wheelchairs and mobility devices. Thanked city staff for support.
- Bill Anderson (written public comment): Expressed wholehearted support for pedestrian hybrid beacons at Upton/Jefferson and Ruby/Jefferson. Voiced concern that reducing Jefferson Avenue to one lane in each direction would push traffic onto side streets via navigation apps. Urged designers not to remove parking from Jefferson.
- Clara Jekyll (written public comment on police department study session): Urged council to prioritize civilian staff for human services and keep the freeze on two sworn officer positions in place, arguing that shifting services to unarmed employees reduces risk of use of force.
Discussion Items
- Item 7A – Public Hearing on Employment Vacancies (AB 2561): HR Director Michelle Katsuyoshi presented vacancy data (citywide vacancy rate 10.4% as of March 24, 2024, below the 20% threshold for additional reporting). Highlighted recruitment/retention efforts and process improvements. Police Officers Association President Eric Otterson presented on police staffing challenges: 8 vacancies, 5 officers in field training, mandatory overtime (65 open shifts in June 2024), 50% increase in emergency response time (from 6:38 to 9:58 minutes since 2000), 58% increase in traffic collisions (2020-2024), and the need for an additional 8 sworn officers over 3 years. He noted 25% of officers live outside the 9-county Bay Area, with a sleep trailer purchased due to officers sleeping in vehicles between shifts.
- Item 7B – Public Hearing on Cannabis Business Permit Fees: Economic Development Manager Amanda Anthony presented proposed fee adjustments reducing total annual costs per cannabis business from $49,129 to $32,496 (a 34% decrease), achieved by shifting program administration to consultant HDL and eliminating certain fees. Written public comments from industry representatives (Charmi Shaw, Kevin Singer, Luis Dawson, Mike Bittar, Josh Lewis) all expressed support for the fee reduction. Council discussed the need for periodic fee reviews and confirmed the fees cover city costs.
- Item 8A – Tentative MOU with Chief Officers Association (COA): HR Director Katsuyoshi presented a 3-year successor MOU (2024-2027) for COA (battalion chiefs, deputy chief, fire marshal). Includes 3% COLA each year, equity adjustments for internal compaction, a $5,000 retention incentive for deputy chief executives, increased uniform reimbursement, removal of Russian and Vietnamese from bilingual pay (consistent with other groups), expanded bereavement leave, and formation of a citywide dental committee.
- Item 9A – Study Session: Fire Department Operations: Fire Chief Baraka Carter presented the department’s ISO Class 1 rating (only in San Mateo County), an average response time of 5:59 (well below county standard of 6:59), and 14,000 annual calls (65-70% EMS). Recommendations from the 2023 Standards of Cover study included adopting clear response time goals, improved turnout, adding an EMS squad (Squad 409) to handle low-acuity calls (successful pilot from Jan-June 2024 improved engine/truck availability), and upgraded data tracking. Future initiatives include a training facility (projected $3.5 million), transition to Community Risk Reduction (funded by Vision 2020 Ignite program), and recruitment strategies. Council members expressed support for Squad 409, discussed balancing traffic calming with emergency response, and encouraged partnerships with the county on low-acuity calls.
- Item 9B – Study Session: Police Department Operations: Police Chief Christina Bell presented the department structure (134 FTEs authorized, 8 sworn and 8 civilian vacancies as of April 2025). Key data: average response time to priority calls was 6:06 in 2024 (dispatch to arrival); traffic collisions increased significantly (auto vs. pedestrian from 48 in 2020 to 91 in 2024; auto vs. bicycle from 24 to 59; DUI from 82 to 136). The 2023 CPSM report made 54 recommendations; 24 completed, 10 in progress, 9 under consideration, 11 not feasible. Highlights include adding 5 Community Service Officers (CSOs) last year, a request for 2 more sworn positions, a non-sworn crime analyst in the recommended budget, continued recruitment, a new substation at Sequoia Station, a reimagined school liaison officer (cost-shared with Sequoia Union High School District and DTEC), and technology initiatives (drones, automated citations, IAPRO, TASER 10 devices, data dashboard). Council discussed prioritizing civilian responses for non-emergency calls, the importance of in-house training, and support for the school liaison officer.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Calendar adopted unanimously (7-0).
- Item 7A (Vacancy Report) : Received the report and closed the public hearing; motion approved unanimously (7-0).
- Item 7B (Cannabis Fee Update) : Resolution adopted unanimously (7-0) updating and adopting cannabis business permit fees and the regulatory fee study.
- Item 8A (COA MOU) : Approved the successor MOU, classification amendments, and budget amendment unanimously (7-0).
- Items 9A and 9B : Study sessions only; no formal action taken. Council feedback to inform future budget and policy decisions.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everybody. It is a little after six, so we're gonna go ahead and get started. Thank you for joining our special city council meeting of May nineteenth, twenty twenty five. We continue to offer in-person and remote options for our city council meetings. The city welcomes public comment on topics within the city's subject matter jurisdiction, and members of the public may provide comments in person during the meeting or by email to public comment at Redwood City dot org as outlined in the agenda. In person speakers must turn in a speaker card to the city clerk at the days to be recognized to speak. Please be sure to indicate the agenda item number which you wish to address. In person speakers will be called in the order in which speaker cards were turned in. And comments that were received via email after public excuse me, after agenda publication through five o'clock today may be read aloud, time permitting, and in any case will be made part of the final meeting record. If there is a high volume of public comment this evening, we may decrease the time allotted for each comment or limit the total time for public comment. Present. So really not following that. That is another process, but following today's traditional Brown Act, and you can see on the agenda the locations as well as who is participating remotely and who is participating in person. Thank you. Thank you for getting us on the same page, City Attorney. I appreciate that. And with that, we'll move on to the Pledge of Allegiance. Council Member Swirkin. Please join us. Thank you, Councilmember Sirkin. We'll move on to item four presentations and acknowledgments, starting with a proclamation recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month. In the month of May, we celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month, a time to recognize the invaluable contributions Jewish Americans have made through their leadership and achievements and the indispensable role they hold in our nation's civic and community life. And I'd like to share a few whereas of the proclamation will be issuing tonight's. Whereas the Jewish American experience is a story of faith, fortitude, and progress. It is a quintessential American experience, one that is connected to the key tenets of American identity, including our nation's commitment to freedom of religion and conscience. Whereas the City of Redwood City recognizes both the continuity of the Jewish people and the intergenerational responsibility we have to heal our community for our children. Whereas during the Jewish American Heritage Month, we honor the Jewish Americans who, inspired by Jewish values and American ideals, have engaged in the ongoing work of forming a more perfect union. Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Elmer Martina Sabaios, Mayor of Redwood City, on behalf of the Redwood City Council and the people of the City of Redwood City do hereby proclaim May 2025 as Jewish American Heritage Month in Redwood City and encourage all people to observe this month in honor of the invaluable contributions Jewish Americans have made to our community and to our country. And now I'd like to invite David Ron, Astrid Riber, and Alan Fisher from Congregation Beth Jacob to share some remarks at the podium. Thank you all for being here. And we want to thank you for honoring the Jewish community and for the proclamation of Jewish American Heritage Month. And for recognizing Temple Beth Jacob to receive your proclamation. And we have over 500 uh families as members of our congregation. And we have been here in the in the community since 1930. So for 95 years we've been in the community. We're actually the first Jewish institution on the peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose. But we we've also had some hard times in the community. We think back to 1979, and the Redwood City Fire Department received a call that our building was on fire. And our building burned down, including our arc that held our sort of handwritten sacred Torahs, and one Torah survived, but the building burned down. But the community and particularly the churches came came to our aid. They came to our rescue. The first congregational church opened up their church so we could continue to operate the activities of our synagogue. They helped us to raise money. Other churches raised money and provided help to our community, and we are forever grateful. We call them Jewish values, but they're really human values. One of them we call them, it's in Hebrew, it's called Tiku no Lam, which means to repair the world. So many people in our congregation are active in organizations such as Faith in Action or Live Live MOOC Shelter. Uh we we we provide um um homes and and jobs and money for um for refugees. We resettle refugees. Um, and we're very active in in organizations such as Second Harvest.
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