San Mateo is resilient

Following this experience and the onslaught of mostly negative attention it brought, I want to help illuminate some facts and provide a perspective from within our organization. San Mateo, like most Peninsula cities, has a council-manager form of government which means council sets policy direction while the city manager is responsible for implementation and the day-to-day operations of the city.

Our mayor plays an important role, as do the other councilmembers, but let us not forget the hundreds of staff who deliver upon the services that make our city function. Aside from the unusual amount of time we spent in council chambers and the political divisiveness we all wish had been avoided, by all other accounts it was a normal week in San Mateo.

Anyone who drove down a street, visited a park or flushed a toilet in San Mateo interacted with a city service that remained uninterrupted. Public Works staff treated 110 million gallons of wastewater processed from San Mateo and beyond. Our libraries circulated more than 20,000 books and materials, had nearly 6,500 visitors and provided programs to 363 participants including 240 children. We served 1,244 people, including preschoolers, with enrichment and educational programs through Parks and Recreation programs. Staff continued to maintain more than 200 acres of parks and open space, and 23,000 public street trees. The Community Development team issued 83 permits and served 90 customers who came to our City Hall counters. Our Police Department responded day and night to 1,611 calls for service, making sure we are there when people need us most.

And our City Clerk’s Office held three public hearings that cumulatively lasted nearly 18 hours and involved processing, then making publicly available, hundreds of written and live public comments. In short, our staff managed a very difficult process with a high-level of professionalism while continuing to ensure the distraction of a political standoff did not negatively affect any of our services.

Candidly, this hasn’t been easy and I empathize with the staff who felt embarrassed by how things have been characterized by some. This was a very nuanced issue and the technical mechanisms of our governance are impossible to adequately summarize in a 60-second TikTok video or a 280 character tweet. Public participation is critical to effective governance and we all benefit when we take time to become more informed, which is why we provide expert input through administrative reports.

I disagree with those who categorically said the city of San Mateo is in chaos. That is simply not true. Whatever your political beliefs, I want to assure you that the city staff, who I am so proud to work alongside, are continuing to provide for the San Mateo community.

As public administrators, I and our entire staff — particularly our city clerk and city attorney — remain steadfast in our commitment to following our governing rules and procedures. We are responsible for upholding our city laws and providing city services in the community. We are accountable to our City Council members and we help advise them in their service. The councilmembers who represent the community are accountable to the public and there are checks and balances in place. No one councilmember can make decisions alone — it takes three, if not sometimes four, votes to get things done. Anything accomplished at the city requires collaboration and compromise.

There is important work ahead and the only path we have is forward. We all have a role to play in our governance, especially the public. That is why we make information readily available and our processes accessible. I know it’s easy to get wrapped up in sensational headlines, but there’s usually more to the story. San Mateo has survived countless challenges over the last 128 years and we will move forward as we have always done, together.

Drew Corbett has been the San Mateo city manager since late 2018 and served as the city’s director of Emergency Operations during the pandemic.