Redistricting Map Presentation also POSTPONED until Christmas week.
I wanted to make you aware of two big items on the City Council agenda tomorrow night and an event that will take place in early December.
The two agenda items are Item 9B and Consent Calander Item 6B.
Agenda Item 9B.
Council will vote to approve an annual 10% raise for the City Manager and City Attorney, retroactively starting in July 2021.
The staff report states the two pay raises raises total 80K per year.
The new salary figures are as follows.
City Manager $334,250.00
City Attorney $285,067.00
Wildfires, preservation of fire service, and illegal fireworks are big issues in our neighborhood. We work on these issues throughout the year to ensure the safety of our neighborhood, families, and properties. You may have read about our efforts to prevent cuts to the Fire Department earlier this year.
Budget Shortfalls?
Residents voted to approve Measure RR, an increase in sales tax to cover "budget shortfalls" a few years back. At that time, the City claimed the increase in sales tax was necessary to prevent drastic cuts in public safety.
This is why Item 9B is troubling. Many residents feel these raises are out of touch with the needs of our community and excessive.
A petition has been started asking City Council to vote no on item 9B. The petition link is:: https://chng.it/2bSyzPShjD
The second item I'd like to draw your attention to is Item 6B on the Consent Calander.
Item 6B is an item postponing the ARC's scheduled presentation of their recommended District Election maps on December 6, 2021. The new proposed meeting date is December 20, 2021.
The all-volunteer Advisory Redistricting Committee (ARC) has worked with the community and a demographer hired by the city for the past several months to create two new district election maps for City Council to consider. Due to the increase in population in some areas of the city and where current council members reside, both maps have districts with more than one council member in them. I believe one map actually may place two or more in a single district.
ARC Map B ARC Map C2
The Consent Calander reads Item 6B
While it is most probably an oversight, the optics of scheduling a vote to approve an 80K annual pay raise during the week of Thanksgiving AND postponing the ARC's presentation of their recommended District Election Maps until the week of Christmas is not good.
Lastly, on December 6, 2021 Redwood City will have a new Mayor and Vice Mayor. Giselle Hale with be sworn is as our new Mayor and Diana Reddy as Vice Mayor.
Tonight's City Council meeting starts at 6:00 pm and will be held on Zoom.
Here is the information redwoodcity.zoom.us Meeting ID 994 8182 5639.
If you would like to contact City Council on these or any other issue, you can do so at: council@redwoodcity.org
The City of Redwood City Staff Reports for each agenda item above and the related attachments are below.
Agenda Item 9B
Resdistricting: Consent Calander 6B
ARC's Proposed District Election Maps & Data
