Focused on equity, the Redwood City Council voted to establish two committees tasked with city policy oversight and playing an advisory role to the Police Department while also directing staff to develop a grocery store hazard pay ordinance.
“This is truly the important work of the city,” said Councilman Michael Smith during Monday’s virtual City Council meeting. “Given the events of this past year and things that have also happened in our community within the last year I think we really need to be focused on this.”
The city’s new Equity and Social Justice subcommittee and Police Advisory Committee were both developed following national and local demonstrations calling for police reform after the killings of Black Americans last year.
The Equity and Social Justice subcommittee, to which Mayor Diane Howard appointed councilmembers Lissette Espinoza-Garnica, Michael Smith and Diana Reddy, will work directly with the city’s new Equity and Inclusion Officer Brianna Evans.
Councilmembers will help develop and implement the city’s Equity Work Plan. The plan would aim to bring an equity lens to public safety, city services and the community as a whole. Meetings may begin as early as this month and will be as frequent as needed, said staff.
The Police Advisory Committee would be made up of 11 community members. After applications are submitted by the end of March, each councilmember will appoint one person from the group and the remaining four committee members would be appointed by the entire council.
Members appointed by individual councilmembers would serve a two-year term and would be permitted to reapply for additional terms. The other four at-large members would serve four-year terms.
“This is an excellent start,” said Howard. “I said this was going to be a difficult time for us. We’re going to have to examine our conscience and be vulnerable.”
The advisory committee would be allowed to review policing policies and crime data and discuss community concerns related to crime and police interactions. The committee would also receive updates about the multi-agency mental health pilot program and an annual report on personnel complaint processes.
As proposed, Police Chief Dan Mulholland would work directly with the committee in creating a work plan. Greatly concerned by police involvement in the committee, Councilmember Lissette Espinoza-Garnica suggested a staff member from the city manager’s office act as staff liaison instead. Vice-Mayor Giselle Hale and councilmembers Alicia Aguirre and Smith were open to the recommendation.
“I think it would be more equitable,” said Espinoza-Garnica. “I think we’d have a lot more honest responses and a lot more folks being a part of the process that would otherwise be intimidated by working with the chief of police, otherwise intimidated by working with police staff.”
Howard and Reddy both suggested the committee could be a meeting point for police officers and those distrusting of the police.
City Manager Melissa Stevenson-Diaz, recognizing councilmember concerns for committee staffing, noted that the council’s role was in crafting “high-level policy” while deciding staff assignments was her responsibility.
In other business, councilmembers directed staff to develop an urgency ordinance backed by a standard ordinance requiring hazard pay for grocery and drugstore employees. Raised by Espinoza-Garnica, the ordinance would potentially mirror similar legislation recently approved in Daly City, San Mateo and South San Francisco.
Councilman Jeff Gee raised concerns the requirement would harm small business owners, highlighting Chavez Supermarket. Supervisor Warren Slocum also sought to protect the Latino-owned business when a similar measure was brought forward to the Board of Supervisors two weeks ago.
“We haven’t talked about independent grocers,” said Gee. “As much passion that my colleague Espinoza-Garnica brought to her argument, having those workers out of their job is worse than creating and doing the homework to see.”
Staff will do little outreach to business owners but will consider how the ordinance will apply to stores with varying staff sizes, a recommendation made by Smith and supported by others. Stevenson-Diaz said an ordinance could be brought back within a couple of months, given thorough outreach was completed but the council requested a recommendation to come back by the next meeting.
Additionally, the council unanimously adopted an accessory dwelling unit ordinance after multiple previous attempts at striking a compromise over building height limitations. The council ultimately settled on a maximum height of 20 feet for attached and detached ADUs.
The vote brings the city in line with overlapping state laws, assembly bills 68 and 881, which allow for the by-right development of an attached and detached ADU on a single lot. Detached ADUs are allowed to be at least 800 square feet and 16 feet in height with 4-foot side and rear setbacks.
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