On Friday, September 29, Mayor Jeff Gee announced temporary modifications to public comment procedures for certain city meetings held on Zoom due to disruptions involving hate speech.
“Many public agencies in our region have seen their meetings disrupted by hate speech in recent weeks. Zoom participants displayed vile comments and images,” said Mayor Gee.
“To ensure that the City can continue to conduct its business in a way that allows all residents to participate, we are modifying our public comment procedures from now until December. We will re-evaluate our procedures in January 2024,” he added.
Public agencies across California have reported hate speech disrupting public meetings. Locally, the communities of Atherton, El Cerrito, Monterey, Pacifica, Sacramento, San Carlos and South San Francisco have reported such incidents in the past 10 days. In response, many are changing their public comment practices.
Effective immediately, the City of Redwood City will welcome public comment at in-person meetings or via email.
Please note that members of the public may view City Council meetings on Zoom, but will not be able to make public comments via Zoom.
If a public comment email is received before 5:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting and the comment relates to an agenda item or is a general public comment on matters under the jurisdiction of the City, it will be read aloud at the City Council meeting.
Public comment messages should be sent to PublicComment@RedwoodCity.org. All public comments are public record.
In a statement, the City of Redwood City said it supports United Against Hate Week, a call to local civic action to stop hate and implicit bias that are a dangerous threat to the safety and civility of our neighborhoods, towns and cities.
United Against Hate Week grew out of a United Against Hate poster campaign created by Bay Area cities in response to white supremacist protests in Berkeley and San Francisco in 2017.
Thus, from November 12 to 18, 2023 is the United Against Hate Week and the events and activities will be published on the city's website. www.RedwoodCity.org/UnitedAgainstHate.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, ayou administeredred by the CaliFornia State Library.
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