The Indoctrination of First Time Council Members – the Process

It is really hard to watch first-time council members forget the values and positions they supported as candidates. While it is often the case that when someone gets elected for the first time they take a couple months to find their footing, the question becomes what can residents do to help these newly elected individuals remember how they themselves would have viewed some of their actions but for a couple of months earlier.

Just over two years ago, the first member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) was elected to the Redwood City City Council. I remember the excitement around Councilmember Diana Reddy’s win. Driving to an event in Sacramento with a Palo Alto resident, he even mentioned how things were turning around, how Redwood City had just elected an affordable housing advocate. As a resident of Docktown, I was excited but a little nervous. I knew that Docktown would be coming up soon on the agenda and I wanted the newly elected councilmember to be strong and supportive as she had been for the over five years I had known her.

I wasn’t altogether surprised when instead she made it clear to those of us who had met and supported her regularly that she could no longer meet with us. I hoped she would find her legs and that the momentary excitement of winning would die down and she would get to work supporting the initiatives she had supported for a very long time prior to her election. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. According to the agenda packet for this week’s Feb. 22nd 2021 City Council meeting “to date, approximately $15 million has been expended in relocation assistance, and approximately $5 million has been expended to administer and defend the Docktown Plan. Staff is currently developing cost projections and will assess whether a budget amendment is required during FY 2020-21 to fund any additional costs.” Meaning the City is still willfully spending money on evicting residents even though one of the Council’s long term priorities is reducing homelessness and the city councilmember that was elected because she advocated for affordable housing had nothing to say. She has become one of the members of the council and generally votes just like her predecessors might have been expected to vote. She might make some interesting and supportive comments but she will vote in tandem with the group.

Two years later for this past November’s election, another Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidate ran and got elected. This time not so much on a platform of affordable housing but on a platform of if not abolishing then at least defunding the police. Interestingly enough in both cases, the candidates were not leading on election night and slowly clawed their way to the front of the vote tally. While this last election was the first district election, so not all of Redwood City residents voted, there still was a fair amount of excitement given that this second DSA elected council member identifies as “non-binary queer Chicanx.” Sadly, this past week the Redwood City City Council had to give direction to staff regarding support of a budget that maintains a heavy funding of the police department. While newly elected Councilmember Espinoza-Garnica spoke very nicely about how changing budget priorities and reducing funding for the police was a slow process she voted to accept the direction proposed by staff. How does one reconcile that? What happened in the space of three months since the election and the win?

The reality has got to be that individual first-time councilmembers, are put through an indoctrination program that includes being sent to a program to learn how to be a council member. (As an aside, I would think that a more effective process would require understanding that before one runs but sadly this is not a requirement for running.) During the meeting on February 8th, 2021, Councilmember Lisette Espinosa-Garnica revealed that she joined the other first time Councilmember, Michael Smith, in attending the League of California Cities (LCC) Conference for New Council members where as they put it “definitely appreciated the benefits of exposure to the basics….precise plans…. litigation that comes up in government… “) ((https://redwoodcity-ca.granicu... Min 3.06.)

I wonder to what extent these introductory programs make new electeds feel that they can no longer be themselves and vote as they would have months before. Does it include a threat of litigation?

Add to that, pressure from existing Councilmembers on the Redwood City Council to vote in unison and the net results is that regardless of age, racial or sexual identity generally all the councilmembers end up casting unanimous votes even in matters as consequential as a budget. As Vice Mayor Giselle Hale, mentioned during February 22nd’s discussion on the budget, “budgets reflect values.” So, if differences in values do not lead to differences in budget allocation, what is going on??

Moreover, when incoming council members that appear to be different and held different values weeks earlier vote almost the exact same way outgoing council members probably would have, something is not quite what it should be. Residents deserve to know why first-time council members in Redwood City; over and over, end up talking one way but are unwilling or unable to actually vote according to the way they talk!