Posted by Lynne Bramlett
a resident of Menlo Park: Central Menlo Park
on Oct 22, 2018 at 7:34 pm
Lynne Bramlett is a registered user.

The Mayor's speech should have been postponed until after the Nov 6 election. Holding it shortly before an election gave the two incumbents running for re-election an unfair advantage. These types of addresses should be held at the beginning of the year or well before (or after) an election. You can see my more detailed thoughts in my Oct 17 email to council on the topic.Web Link I first wrote on October 9th Web Link asking that it be postponed and pointing out the problem. However, it went on. Thus my more detailed email to council and senior staff so I could create a record of my concern.

This practice might be considered a violation of California Gov Code 8314 Web Link because city staff were involved in helping to put on what could be considered a form of a campaign activity. The MP practice of holding these speeches during an election season is problematic for many reasons.

Some of our past elections have been very close ones. I'm now thinking that a prior state of the city speech, during an election season, might have influenced the result. The practice favors the incumbents and is unfair. I'd like to see our new Council re-consider the timing of these speeches.

Posted by Crystal K.
a resident of Menlo Park: The Willows
on Oct 23, 2018 at 7:23 pm

The State of the City should be done away with because it's a pompous waste of time, not because it's illegal. Give voters some credit! The "SotC" is a recent invention instigated by Kelly Fergusson, which is an even better reason to cancel it forever.