Redwood City Council prioritizes 2018 goals

The council’s discussion was also guided by concerns about dwindling city resources.

“Our staff is lean and about to get leaner,” City Manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz said.

In reference to the decline of city resources, Councilman John Seybert added: “Some idea that our sales tax base is going to be what it is is not reading current financial times because that’s not what’s happening right now.”

In an effort to preserve city revenue and prevent staff layoffs, some councilmembers see business retention as a top priority, but there was discussion on what exactly that means.

“I would describe it as economic retention of our tax base,” Seybert said, adding that he wants to prioritize larger businesses, which yield the most sales tax, as opposed to smaller ones.

Councilwoman Janet Borgens also described business retention as a top priority, but focused largely on the importance of small businesses downtown and the growing problem of vacancies. “I don’t want businesses to come and go in Redwood City,” she said.

According to the council’s mid-year update on goals, city staff is forming a Retail Task Force that will begin meeting in March to outline a vision for downtown retail, and is partnering with the Chamber of Commerce to form a small business committee. Several new businesses are slated to open this year, the update states.

Much of the meeting was devoted to enhancing city outreach efforts, not just for business, but all residents. To that end, the council expressed enthusiastic support for bringing back the PACT (Partnership Academy for Community Teamwork) program, which allowed members of the public to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of city departments, including Public Works, Police and Fire.

Mayor Ian Bain celebrated programs like PACT for creating a sense of community as well as a pipeline for city employees.

“As those programs fell by the wayside, you had angst in the community,” Bain said.

Other community outreach goals discussed in the meeting include the creation of new neighborhood associations with regular attendance by councilmembers and the possible inclusion of outside experts and facilitators in community meetings. Councilman Jeff Gee also said he wants to see more city communications translated into Spanish and Mandarin.

The council expressed a desire to make community meetings more specific and focused, especially with respect to housing issues.

“The problem is we tried to do too much at once,” Seybert said, referring to the format of some past forums.

With respect to housing, the council this year aims to address displacement largely by adopting new policies to preserve and increase affordable housing.

But Bain said the public appears to be most interested in protections for renters. On that front, the council will soon take action. It’s slated to vote on two renter protection initiatives, including a minimum lease term ordinance, on March 26.

“Certainly the biggest issue facing our community right now is people losing their homes,” said Councilwoman Shelly Masur.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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