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Menlo Park City Council unanimously voted on Tuesday to disband the housing plan’s Community Engagement and Outreach Committee (CEOC) and enlist a community-based organization to take over the group’s work, after several members resigned in frustration due to the limited scope and other dysfunctions of the committee.
Since May 2021, CEOC – a 14-member group made up of residents from the city’s five districts – was tasked to do outreach to local residents, raise awareness about community meetings and encourage people to participate in the city’s process for updating the 2023-2031 Housing Element, a blueprint of the city’s future housing goals that’s mandated by the state. Part of the update also includes a safety and environmental justice component.
The group would not provide input on policy, City Council member Drew Combs previously told The Almanac. This limitation proved to be one of the many grievances committee members soon raised about CEOC.
Nehezi Ollarvia, former vice chair of the committee who resigned, told The Almanac at the time that she felt the group’s sole purpose was to “be a hype man” for the city.
Current and former members said that other issues stemmed from unequal representation across the city’s five districts and feelings of being disrespected by City Council and city staff members.
CEOC members soon jumped ship. Six out of 14 members left the committee, which meant forming a quorum required everyone to be present.
The council recently mulled over the idea of dissolving CEOC or shrinking its size and supported the idea of hiring a community-based organization to take over the group’s outreach work.
But even as that was anticipated, the Tuesday vote didn’t come before council members Ray Mueller and Combs delivered exasperated remarks about the direction of public outreach.
In particular, Mueller and Combs said they were concerned that Mayor Betsy Nash and council member Cecilia Taylor planned to use the community-based organization to conduct significant outreach efforts for District 1 – an area that includes the Belle Haven neighborhood and has the highest population of low-income and Latino residents – while neglecting other districts. The council members pointed out that District 1 won’t see any new homes as part of the Housing Element, while neglecting other districts.
“I’m not objecting to what my colleagues are proposing,” Mueller said. “The thing that just confuses me is: What was the logic around no outreach for the rest of the city?”
Combs added that he couldn’t back such an effort while a developer wants to fast-track a 80-unit project in the Suburban Park neighborhood as soon as the zoning is updated through the Housing Element and yet the city hasn’t conducted outreach to the impacted residents.
“I’m supposed to sit here and rationalize to my constituents that we’re going to do this extensive, sort of bespoke outreach to residents into a part of the city that see no impact, while they’re being completely ignored?” Combs asked.
Taylor clarified that outreach efforts will be citywide, and that an emphasis was placed on District 1 after two resident-members left the outreach committee. In addition, Nash and Taylor stated that outreach to District 1 was crucial as the city approaches the environmental justice and safety component of the Housing Plan.
“It’s not that any one area of the city is getting more attention than the other,” Taylor said. “The fact is, the environmental justice piece was a priority in this area. And so without anybody participating in it, it makes it difficult to actually get the input that’s needed.”
To address Mueller and Combs’ concerns, the city directed staff to bring back proposals for outreach to engage communities with fast-tracked residential projects.
Staff will also amend a contract with M-Group, a third-party city planning agency, to include a community-based organization that will work with previous members of the disbanded outreach committee as well as any community members interested in participating in the Housing Element update process, “particularly from District 1.”
Unfortunately, despite having received objective and factual comments regarding CEOC, Almanac continues to recite Council member Combs’ debunked statement
that the committee’s limited scope (i.e., not policy making) was “one of the many grievances committee members raised about CEOC,” and disregards all the other substantive documented issues raised by the CEOC.
I refer you to the video recording of the June 10th, 2021 CEOC meeting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwFNgx3EonQ&list=PL-Yip1tLfwPS0ztOyt5IZgT6T3EmaY5Vv&index=5. , and many other letters sent to the Council.
Further, only in the upside down world of Menlo Park city government:
1) a community group is designed to be ineffective;
2) the Staff proposes to reduce the next committee’s scope (please see my email https://hiago.app/en/organizations/menlo-park/emails/130186);
2) is then dismantled;
3) is then blamed for the failure; and
4) the same million dollar consulting firm, that along with the Staff, refused to implement any substantial input by the committee, has its contract increase, with the same Staff continuing to lead and select other agencies.
Council Members Mueller and Combs comments regarding Mayor Nash and Council Member Taylor ignoring districts other than District 1, are totally unfounded. Assuming arguendo that Council Members Taylor and Nash we paying more attention to Menlo Park’s most vulnerable communities, that would be a welcome deviation from the pro-big business and developer track record of the City.
Soody Tronson
former member of Menlo Park CEOC
Dear City Council: Please reach out with a new committee or structure to the Suburban Park neighborhood which will be highly effected by the proposed Ravenswood School District Apartment project planned for the former Flood School site. There has been no outreach to our community by either Ravenswood School District or the City of Menlo Park to hear our safety and traffic concerns regarding this large project fast-tracked for our dead-end community. There are real egress and safety issues to be addressed. Thank you kindly for considering my request. -Jill Olson