I love my community and Redwood City and believe that I am making a difference on our City Council. One of the biggest “compliments” that I was given when I was first elected in 2009 was that I was “pragmatic.” As we work together to address the issues affecting our communities, I bring to the council an ability to make hard, common-sense, and necessary decisions that ensure the City, the County and the region are positioned to move forward better than before. Below are a few of the issues and reasons what I believe are the challenges ahead of us.
Public Safety
The past several years have been very challenging. There have been very different thoughts about the role of public safety. At the end of the day, the most important role of local government is to ensure that when police or fire are called - they are able to respond and to address the emergency at hand. I am a supporter of our police and fire departments and have worked to ensure that they have the tools to respond to 21st century issues, including the use of technology. I supported the deployment of automated license plate readers throughout the city, the acquisition of a drone, the initial installation of security cameras in key public buildings and for a pilot project in our parks. We need to support the men and women on the front line of responding to emergencies with the staff and tools that they need to keep us safe and to respond to the situation at hand.
Fiscal Sustainability
One of the consequences of the pandemic is that it pulled back the curtain on the structural shortcomings of how government is funded. This affects all of us in California: state, county, city, school districts and more. The magnitude of the challenge is such that there is no one solution. It requires a full toolkit of solutions to achieve financial sustainability: modest new revenue sources, some tightening of our belt and economic development. All of these issues and strategies are connected. We cannot tax our way to fiscal sustainability, nor can we cut services to achieve on-going balanced budgets. We need all three strategies to achieve year after year balanced budgets and to preserve city services.
One of the most significant ways to drive economic recovery is through investment in construction. We are slowly obtaining funding for the 101/Woodside Road interchange, however, I am concerned that we may find ourselves chasing construction cost escalation. Regionally there is the downtown Caltrain extension in San Francisco, completion of the electrification of Caltrain, grade separations along the Caltrain corridor, the Dumbarton Rail corridor and more. It has been proven over and over that the fastest way to stimulate the economy and create new jobs is through construction. With the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reductions Act in congress, infrastructure projects such as these can move forward and stimulate the economy in the area.
Public Transportation
I am honored to serve as Vice Chair of SamTrans, the immediate Past-Chair and Director on the Joint Powers Board which oversees the operations of Caltrain, and as the Chair of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) in San Francisco. These leadership positions allow me to work throughout our region on transportation projects that will reduce congestion, reduce pollution and improve the ridership experience.
Caltrain is in fully electrified service, providing more service along the peninsula, is environmentally greener, is quieter with a substantially improved rider experience. SamTrans is committed to replacing our fleet of diesel buses with Zero Emission Buses; both hydrogen fuel cell and battery electric. The TJPA and the City and County of San Francisco are working hard to extend Caltrain from 4th and King all the way downtown to the Salesforce Transit Center (through an underground tunnel). Other major initiatives include reviewing what could the Dumbarton Rail Corridor do to help provide connectivity with the East Bay and a new ferry service at the Port of Redwood City.
We depend on funding partners to help deliver projects as those above. The Caltrain electrification project had none(9) funding partners. This exemplifies the importance of relationships beyond city limits. We will need partners to be able to deliver projects such as 101/84, and proof that we can deliver infrastructure projects of this scale.
Housing
Housing remains a significant issue on the Peninsula. The public health emergency has highlighted the need for affordable, transitional and supportive housing. Regardless of the type of housing: market rate or affordable - the cost of building a unit of housing in the Bay Area averages $800,000 - $1 million/unit. What I bring to the City Council is my experience in project delivery, and construction innovation, with an emphasis on lowering the cost of construction through prefabrication and/or modular construction, including new construction technologies such as CLT (cross laminated timber). The primary goal is to produce housing, reducing cost, speed up construction time and create good jobs.
With regards to the homeless and unhoused, the City has worked in partnership with the County of San Mateo on creating new, transitional and supportive housing in Redwood City. However, Redwood City still has the largest number of unhoused individuals in the County. Redwood City's philosophy is to treat homelessness with compassion, and work to move unhoused individuals into transitional, supportive and permanent housing. Unfortunately, there are some individuals that refuse to accept services. With the implementation of CARES Court in San Mateo County on July 1, and the County's new anti-camping ordinance, it will be interesting to learn if these are effective. Compassion is the foremost right approach, clearing our encampments and moving the homeless from one neighborhood to another is not a solution.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
I have been an advocate for inclusion, and action – not just talk. Redwood City is a minority-majority city, but its workforce as well as who the council appoints to its boards, commissions and committees did not reflect the demographics, or the geographic diversity of the city. The City Council adopted an "Equity Lens" in which we look at all of our decisions, including who is appointed to our Boards, Committees and Commissions (BCC). Today, our BCC's are more diverse and geographically representative of our City than it has ever been!
One on the initiatives that I am most proud of is lowering the age of eligibility to several of our BCC's to 16. In May of 2024, the City Council interviewed over 80 applicants that applied for openings on our BCC's. Twelve of the applicants were high school students. All of the high school applicants were well-spoken, articulate and passionate about civic engagement! The institutional barriers to civic engagement is a barrier to community engagement and infusing diverse viewpoints into the city’s decision-making process. This change is now underway in a deliberate, thoughtful and strategic manner.
Essential City Services in the Shores
Redwood Shores is part of Redwood City. Yet, when it comes to community services, we are often overlooked and forgotten. When I was going to school at Ralston and Carlmont High School, many of my classmates were from Redwood Shores. Redwood Shores residents should not have to remind the City that we have seniors that suffer from food insecurity and would benefit from the lunch program offered to seniors in other Redwood City neighborhoods on the “other side” of the freeway.