Redwood City maintains public comment restrictions

The guide maintains that the sitting mayor has the discretion to choose whether to allow for public comment. 

Redwood City is only one of three cities in the county that does not allow virtual public comment during its council meetings, limiting them to in-person or via email ahead of meeting time. San Bruno and South San Francisco are the other two.

Virtual participation was first allowed in March 2020, due to the pandemic, and the city maintained the option even after the local emergency order was lifted. However, after abundant “Zoom bombings,” or hate-filled attacks by anonymous speakers, Mayor Jeff Gee suspended the option in September 2023. 

Councilmember Chris Sturken, as well as those making numerous emailed public comments on this item Monday, asked to relook at this policy to promote more accessibility of meetings, however, they did acknowledge the potential threat.  

“When we suspend virtual public comment, we cave to intimidation,” Sturken said. “It’s another form of silencing, we’re silencing ourselves, we’re silencing our community.” 

Considering that Redwood City is one of the outliers in the county in regards to this policy, and there are current processes in place to address harmful rhetoric or hate speech that could be similarly applied to those online, “the net benefit outweighs the risk,” Sturken said. 

The discretion of what comments would be considered inappropriate could potentially be nuanced, City Attorney Veronica Ramirez, said. 

“Merely offensive speech isn’t necessarily out of order,” Ramirez said. “There’s more to what the [mayor] on the spot needs to think about when they are deciding if something is out of order.” 

The city’s governance subcommittee — Gee, Vice Mayor Lissette Espinoza-Garnica and Councilmember Elmer Martínez Saballos — presented the limited modifications. 

Though Espinoza-Garnica said they supported the amendments as presented, they ultimately would support reinstating virtual public comment. 

“I do want to see virtual comment come back,” they said. “I agree with a lot of the comments being made that it increases diversity of opinions, it increases accessibility to those who are homebound or those that have busy schedules.”  

Espinoza-Garnica is up for reelection this November, defending not only their council seat but also their rank in the rotation to be the next mayor.

Sturken motioned to reject the proposal, asking staff to reconsider allowing for virtual public comment, but it ultimately failed with no second. Another motion to accept the revisions as presented was presented and passed unanimously.