Keith is Mayor. She approves the City Council agenda prior to it being published.

Why did she approve the lobbyist item being put on the agenda before the City Council meeting, if she was only going to remove the item from the City Council agenda at the meeting?

Looking at the timing of this, it appears the negative Information about this firm did not come to light until after the staff report was written and published. The public is able to review this information at the same time as council.

I applaud the Almanac's editorial. Well done.

The beauty of this incident is that we can see how deep the swamp is. $96k thrown into today's Washington DC wont create a ripple.

Can you imagine the tower of babble created by every city large and small seeking a lobbyist in Washington and Sacramento.

Sadly $96,000 probably is not enough investment to get reasonable ROI. Gotta find a way to break away from old, trite solutions.

Are Menlo Park's core lobbying issues so unique that group effort among Peninsula cities is infeasible?

If Menlo Park wants their interests represented, they need their own lobbyist. If residents don't want to sit in gridlock forever, they need to lobby for Dumbarton Commuter Rail Line funding. Unlike 99.99% of other cities, Menlo Park can work out a public/private partnership when local employers can partner with the city.