What’s the answer?

Terence you are wise with your comment gehani won't be satisfied i tried to reply wu;dn't work. gehani is full of hate he wasn't isn;t allowed in fc together..so is regan thanks for your wise remarks i have responded on journal facebook page.

simple solution is for gehani and regan to stop commenting their hate for a volunteer. gehani tore up next door commenting hate about even he is stil angry he wan't allowed to join fc together regan carries the blame also doesn' live here just participate in hate writing about a town he doesn't live in.any more takeyour gripes elsewhere must be miserable to think that way full of hate.

froomin a resolution to remove a citizen volunteer never a thank you no support for all the volunteer hours a resolution i see no legacey for this council i am appalled froomin wants a resolution to remove a citizen volunteer and what doea that say to other advisory committee members you can be removed witha resloution too bad we can;t pass a removal of this council. with a resoloution

sanjay spreads misinformation leaving out his breaking participated to support the planning commission...no participation from the critics Gehani and regan jus t criticisma.

coming from a fire department famiy plus a san mateo and hillsborough family i realized i could never be a cop. i wuld become always judging guilty serving the san mateo hillsborough cities husband hillsborough retire captain and my uncle retired hillssbough city manager and san mateo city engineer plus tom working hilsborough water seems we hav always eserved in one way or another. good practice..uncle told he he built the aloughs in san mateo i was so surprised ..took me awhiole to rwLIZE THART PLUS WHEN THEY DEVELOPED THE ESTATES HE MADE TH DEVELOPER BUY THE TOWN A FIRE ENGINE LOTS OF HISTORY HERE. e

thanks mark glad you recognize the fc comments these two bring sanjay never mentions how he broke the law telling council members it would behoove them to vote for his buying toritos roberts rules of law never enters his mind as i say 59 years here i will remember that and regen doesn't live in fc yet still writes as if he represents the fc watchdog and recall i will remember just as i remember the teacher trike teachers sending kids home at the gate, my reading the 5th graders a book i had been asked tto cover the class the teacher got mad it was her book. i still remember her being mad i think Evan remembered an article you mom was a member of something in fc? you had anice cnversation with him..i read the comment and noit was anice comment from both oof you. iw it slips my mind. Sanjay had all od next door in an uproar abut Evan like a hate campaign. still does over fc together lots of hate in his heart he love insulting him. he wrote about 5 paprragraphs. i received about 5 well written certificates from the council for serving on the education committee amazes me no council does that ne just criticism. nice to not think that way. .

e

I saw this posted on a Foster City Facebook group by former Mayor Sanjay Gehani. I’m assuming it was emailed to Mark Simon, but thought it worth posting here:

Dear Mr. Simon,

Sanjay Gehani here. Hope you are well!

There is quite a bit to unpack here so I’ll start with this. You know I respect you because I have shared my admiration for your writing style and opinion pieces many times.

I am probably missing the focus of your piece on Mr. Adams, which seems (to me) to focus more on Mr. Adams and less on the 3 Councilmembers who stepped up and stepped in for the community with the comments they made on Monday night.

I don’t believe your piece adequately focused on the Foster City community and our resolve to have every ethnicity treated respectfully.

Instead of making Mr. Adams seem like a victim for having to deal with the consequences of tweeting that Indians in the US should be monitored while sitting as the Chair of the Planning Commission, I believe we all would have been better served if you opined on Foster City’s commitment to our values.

At a minimum, I believe the focus of your piece should have been on Mayor Froomin, Councilmember Kiesel, and Councilmember Jimenez.

All three understood their responsibilities as Councilmembers when placed in a difficult situation. Their comments showcased their respective abilities to “clear the fog” and placed our community above all. Foster City is lucky to have their leadership.

Mayor Froomin should be applauded for bringing this item forward, his succinct and thoughtful comments, and for how he managed the discussion on Monday night.

Councilmember Kiesel should be recognized for many of his comments; however, one clearly stands out. He stated he was committed to thousands of us and not committed to Mr. Adams alone.

Councilmember Jimenez demonstrated leadership and courage on Monday night. She spoke first. Let me tell you something you probably know, Mark. In any discussion from the dais, the weakest Councilmember wants to go last (excluding the Mayor who is managing the discussion). The strongest goes first. The Councilmember who wants to go last wants to hear what all of his or her colleagues have to say first so that they can feel more confident about their comments.

Councilmember Jimenez spoke courageously and highlighted a huge gap in Mr. Adams statements. She reached out to Mr. Adams the morning after the tweet was published. According to her, Mr. Adams claimed the tweet was published as a criticism against someone in our community. Mr. Adams never stated, nor subsequently refuted, Councilmember Jimenez’ statements. He intentionally misled Council and our community. He took credit for introspection and self-awareness. He stated he woke up and couldn’t believe what he had done and deleted the tweet. That was not true. Based on Councilmember Jimenez’ statements, Mr. Adams demonstrated intent with his tweet and defended it many hours later.

Councilmember Jimenez didn’t run from the conversation, she ran through it. That’s what courage and leadership look like.

Most importantly, these 3 Councilmembers should be recognized for casting their votes inline with their comments.

Council had no business opining on whether Mr. Adams was a racist or not or whether he should be forgiven or not. Mr. Adams’ character should not have been the focal point of any Councilmember’s comments.

Councilmembers Hindi and Sullivan focused primarily on Mr. Adams’ character in an effort to sway the Council towards censure because there is no argument against “zero tolerance” for bigoted statements from elected officials nor selected officials on committees operating at the pleasure of Council.

Both claimed to be friends with Mr. Adams. It was clear to me from their comments that their friendship was placed higher than their commitment to zero tolerance for bigoted statements from City Hall. A censure would have been meaningless and would have resulted in many of us feeling like second class citizens in our city.

Councilmember Sullivan’s comments were hard to follow and he wasn’t well prepared. He recommended keeping Mr. Adams on the Planning Commission and not allowing him to speak from the dais. Unfortunately, Mr. Sullivan didn’t speak with the City Attorney about his recommendation before the meeting. His proposal wasn’t a viable option. Two other pieces of feedback for Councilmember Sullivan - stop using the term “you people” and, I’m 99.99% sure of this, no one uses “Afro-American” anymore when referring to African Americans.

Councilmember Hindi spoke for a long time, claimed he felt the pain of racism, and then proceeded to make a series of excuses for his friend and asked Council to “let him in” instead of “leaving him out”. Some of Councilmember Hindi’s excuses for Evan were: we all make mistakes and will continue to, we shouldn’t subscribe to “Cancel Culture”, everyone deserves second chances, and we need training. He even stated that we need a policy for handling these types of situations which was surprising because he voted to repeal the Code of Conduct in December of 2021.

Most concerning for me from Monday night was the votes cast by Councilmembers Hindi and Sullivan did not match their “passionate” statements. Based on what they said, the vote should have been 3-2 for removal. There is a big problem with that. Where is the integrity and commitment to “your” values as a Councilmember? Why not vote your conscience, or at a minimum, vote your comments?

If Mr. Adams truly put the City above all as public servants do, he would have resigned weeks ago before the vote. Had Mr. Adams resigned earlier, he would not have put the Council in the hot seat to make a difficult decision strictly because of his actions. Furthermore, had he resigned earlier, maybe he would not have publicly tried to negotiate with Council at the very last minute to stay on the Planning Commission by offering to give up other positions on committees in exchange for a censure vote.

It is my belief Mr. Adams resigned after the 5-0 vote to muddy the waters years from now. Most people won’t recall the comments from Councilmembers nor the vote. Mr. Adams will be able to say he resigned without lying.

The truth is Mr. Adams didn’t fall on his sword.

The truth is, we, as a community, won’t forget. We won’t let younger generations forget. And, we won’t forget the comments made by Councilmembers on Monday night.

Mr. Adams introduced racial bias as a sitting Planning Commissioner. Council has no option but to support a zero tolerance policy against such statements to ensure the integrity at City Hall is maintained for all of us in Foster City.

Mr. Adams has not been excommunicated from society. He has been removed from the Planning Commission. Mr. Adams can continue to ask for forgiveness and take this time to heal the “disconnect” between his brain and his fingers, which according to him, led to a bigoted tweet.

Mr. Adams has stated he is going to pursue help for his condition. I wish him the best, wholeheartedly.

I will close with a statement I made earlier. Instead of making Mr. Adams seem like a victim for tweeting Indians in the US should be monitored, I believe we all would have been better served if you focused on Foster City’s commitment to our values. In today’s self-centered world where many people stand for nothing and fall for anything, we should be celebrated.

In friendship,

Sanjay Gehani

What about name calling from the dais in Planning Commission meetings as was done in the City of San Mateo? What about removing campaign signs in an election? Too bad San Mateo did not have the leadership to get it's Planning Commissioners in order.

Good piece, Mark.

Personally, I see politics, and more broadly the ability of humans to form communities, as an abstraction of the child/parent bond. That "instinct" lets us form communities that enable individuals to do things they could never do on their own. But it also means we subconsciously expect the community -- and its leaders -- to act as what it's modeled on, good parenting.

Unfortunately, humans being fallible that doesn't always happen. And when it breaks down, watch out! It might help if we recognized our subconscious bias and, when feasible, forgive and forget. Which is a tried-and-true way of keeping communities from blowing apart :).

In any event, there's no problem with the commissioner being canned. Appointments are always at the pleasure of the political body that appointed you, and that can change at any time. If you want a bit more "security", run for office.

Didn't we learn anything from Joe McCarthy?

There really is a simple answer; City Leaders need to be held to a higher standard than residents. Much like a corporate CEO. This is self-inflicted by an ex-Planning Commissioner who called out Councilmembers for their decisions and political party affiliation. Evan Adams ran a Facebook group called “FC Together” that blocked residents and even former Mayor Sanjay Gehani from joining, despite resident complaints to the city attorney. Please do not turn this person into a victim. He caused real pain in the community and no city department can be perceived as having a bias against a certain group of residents or businesses.

Mark - this is one of the main reasons most folks refuse to participate in the political process. Yet, many others get away with it. You point to Trump but let's be honest, by Foster City's standards, as an example, Maxine Waters should have been booted some time ago. Evan simply did not have the political capital to survive. But, what goes around, comes around.

Hi, Mark

Thanks for a thoughtful column. It could elicit some measured responses from DJ readers. Posts that are carefully crafted lest a few errant keystrokes that might put the reader in Evan's position.

Redemption for Evan? Yes, however, that's typically not part of the conversation.