Honorable members of the Menlo Park City Council:

Standing Citizens' Committees:

During our Saturday "work-shop" December 9th, I indicated that I would
provide greater detail about several recommendations which constituted
my contribution to the general discussions provided by our residents to
the City Council. In a previous email, I outlined in greater detail,
what a re-conceived El Camino Real might look like.

Here, I would like to offer some options for increasing citizen/resident
participation in the political process of Menlo Park. As several of you
in your election campaign made crystal clear, there needs to be far
greater citizen involvement and representation in the City's governance
and decision making. Here is a scheme for operationalizing that
principle.

As I pointed out, the devil is in the details. The suggestions, below,
are only that -- suggestions -- and subject to the thinking and
collective wisdom of the Council and support staff in the
conceptualization and implementation of these committees. Please
consider the ideas offered in this email as "thinking out loud" and not
a definitive outline of the committee structure.

Additional Comment:

After a week of trying to write this email, I find that this is much
harder than I thought. From that perspective, I urge the Council to
create an ad hoc task force of Council members, staff and Menlo Park
citizens charged to conceive and organize the concept of Citizens'
Committees with as many attributes suggested here as feasible. I would
be pleased to suggest a list of resident candidates for such a task
force.

Here, then, is a more fine-grained description of a plan to secure
greater substantive participation by the residents and business people
of Menlo Park; that is, a limited number of citizens' committees.

Commissions and Committees:

These committees would not replace the present Commission structure, nor
be a superfluous and redundant layer of bureaucracy competing with the
Commissions. These Committees would be formed around major issues of
critical concern to the city. In many cases, the driving issue for a
committee may well be a synthesis or meta-level consideration of several
Commission mission statements. While the commissions confront day to
day working and applied problems, the committees would operate as "think
tanks" investigating the underlying and strategic dimensions of problems
that face the city on a continuous basis, and provide the Council and
city staff with analysis and recommendations reflecting the
citizens/voters' point of view.

Some Structural Elements:

These would be standing committees, formed independent of the Council
and the administration, but nonetheless be officially recognized as a
valid and valuable source of information and guidance for both council
and staff. The membership would be large enough so that there would
always be a sufficiently large attendance at monthly (or even weekly, if
the situation warranted) meetings despite possible absences.
Committees would function by researching and accumulating knowledge and
information, prepare short position papers, discuss,negotiate and
recommend to the Council. One good example is the recent budget task
force which considered the city's deficits and its remediation.
(Except that now they would be listened to!)

Neighborhood Participation:

One condition of participation would be all-neighborhoods
representation. That is, the makeup of each committee would include
balanced representation of several residents from each of the
neighborhoods and residential areas of the city. Unlike the
commissions, the number of participants would be considerably larger,
say 12 to 18 members each. Thus, individual absences at one or another
meeting would not inhibit the full discussion of ideas. With such large
groups, sub-groups could be created, ad hoc, to investigate in greater
detail one component or another of the topic under consideration.

City Staff Role:

One salaried staff person, reporting directly to the city manager, but
sworn to uphold complete neutrality and independence, would be the
operations and administration manager of all the committees, with no
control or influence over substance, but tasked only to maintain the
committee process. Meetings would be open and can be attended by
council members,staff and public, but only as spectators, not as
participants. The structure of the organization should not be subject
to Brown Act constraints insofar as these would inhibit the free and
open expression of ideas. In other words, these committees would not
have authority of official government bodies, but only that of groups of
citizens, independent of government, generating and providing ideas,
insights, information and making recommendations to the government of
Menlo Park. (Legal authorities would need to sort this out.)

Alternative Example:

Another example: When Atherton came to the realization that it's train
station was about to be terminated as a Caltrain stop, they formed a
standing committee dedicated to the issue of Caltrain and the rail
corridor. Caltrain has projected a number of growth and development
plans that would threaten the well being of residents and homeowners in
proximity to the corridor. Atherton's committee, which meets monthly,
addresses this and closely related issues. However, like our
commissions, it is subject to the constraints of official government
management. However, it functions effectively with citizens assuming
research tasks and making extensive presentations to each other and
Atherton Council and administration.

Some Citizen Committee Examples:

The City Budget. There was a working task force created to consider the
budget deficit and its remediation. I understand that the
recommendations of that task force were ignored by the Council. That
task force could constitute the core of a Budget Committee and the
findings and recommendations would be provided not only to the Council
and staff, but would be made public through publication as well.

Economic Development. Menlo Park is confronting a sustained budget
deficit and while the budget committee may well consider taxation and
cost reduction, this committee would explore ways of generation revenue
for the city through business development.

The General Plan. Ignored and modified on the spur of the moment, the
General Plan cannot be considered a document carved in stone. It
requires continuous examination in the light of changing city needs.
During the prior Council, the General Plan was challenged, ignored, and
manipulated. Yet, this is the central strategic document governing the
character and direction of Menlo Park. Required by State law, this
document should be enforceable like an ordinance and at the same time be
open to modification as times and circumstances require. In a serious
way, the General Plan is Menlo Park's Constitution.
Ignoring/manipulating our General Plan has imperiled our city.
The residents of Menlo Park should be, on a permanent basis, involved in
the study and necessary modification of this critical document.

Government Oversight and Accountability. It has become a matter of great
concern; that is, the city administration, in its continuity, has ever
greater control over the elected city council. The tail has come to wag
the dog. The city council represents the residents and voters of Menlo
Park. Who does the Administration represent? This committee would be
charged with the responsibility of oversight and accountability of the
administration, since it is we who pay their salaries. Staff reports to
council frequently do not reflect the best interests of residents. That
issue alone is worthy of continuous study and critique.

Urban Infrastructure: Housing, Traffic, Transportation and Urban Mass
Transit. Menlo Park is ever more pressured to undergo dramatic change,
from the suburban, village like character it has enjoyed for many
decades, to greater housing and commercial density,
under-served by urban mass transit, and accessible to developer greed.
Providing a strategic urban development perspective, this committee
could either be a part of the General Plan committee or stand in
distinction to it.

The El Camino Grand Boulevard and Business District. This topic already
has a Peninsula long task force engaged in the study of the entire El
Camino corridor. Menlo Park would be well served to have its own task
force giving continuous guidance to the evolution of the 8000 foot long
central city spine which also separates East from West.

A Business-Roundtable Committee. There is, of course, considerable
overlap in many of these issues. A constant appraisal of the downtown
business center is a key issue of consideration. Yet, it engages the
General Plan, economic development, the El Camino corridor and of course
the city budget. Nontheless, the perspective of this particular standing
committee, made up of both Menlo Park business people as well as
residents, would be both a valuable source of creative energy and a
communications platform heretofore not available.

Respectfully submitted,

Martin Engel

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Martin Engel
1621 Stone Pine Lane
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650:323-1670
martinengel@earthlink.net
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Martin Engel
1621 Stone Pine Lane
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650:323-1670
martinengel@earthlink.net
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