This Friday, September 29, Mayor Jeff Gee announced temporary modifications to the public comment procedures for certain city meetings held on Zoom, due to interruptions with hate speech.
?Many public agencies in our region have had their meetings interrupted by hate speech in recent weeks. “Zoom participants displayed vile comments and images,” Mayor Gee said.
?To ensure that the City can continue to conduct its activities in a way that allows all residents to participate, we are modifying our public comment procedures between now and December. "We will reevaluate our procedures in January 2024," he added.
And public agencies across California have reported that hate speech is 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 modifying their public comment practices.
Thus, effective immediately, the City of Redwood City will welcome public comments at in-person meetings or via email.
It should be noted that members of the public can 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 comment from the general public on matters under the jurisdiction of the city, it will be will be read aloud at the City Council meeting.
Public comment messages should be sent to PublicComment@RedwoodCity.org. All public comments are public records.
Through a statement, the city of Redwood City assured that 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.
Stand Up to Hate Week grew out of a Stand Up to Hate poster campaign created by Bay Area Cities in response to white supremacist protests in Berkeley and San Francisco in 2017.
Thus, November 12 to 18, 2023 is United Against Hate Week and events and activities will be published on the city 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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