As long as filseth works for the good of the city and ignores the marching orders he will surely receive from his master from PASZ, there is some hope.
Also,good for the city is Karen Holman finally leaving the council. She accomplished nothing in her 9 years in office and was a constant “no" vote against any progress and change, plus she delayed the building of the bike bridge over 101 ( let's have a design contest and build an iconic bridge).
Fortunately the mayor really has little to do besides carry the title of mayor, so even if he proves to be incompetent it should not effect the city too much.

Since so much is being said about increasing housing being the inevitable occurrence I think the new mayor should be just as eager to improve infrastructure to support the increase in population.

Public transportation, particularly to our schools, would make such a difference to commutes particularly when school is in session. We all know how much easier it is to get around when schools are out.

Power supply and utilities safety are not going to support more residential use. It has been proved that damage to the one route for power to enter Palo Alto can put the city, including Stanford, into darkness for over 12 hours when power was interrupted by a plane crash in EPA. What about our water supply, our sewer system, etc. Can they work efficiently with increased population?

Police, fire, schools, traffic flow, postal delivery, refuse collection, etc. are all affected by increased population. How are they going to be improved?

We seem to have more criminal activity, particularly sexual attacks and muggings in recent weeks. PAPD seem to have been working well to solve these crimes, but crime itself should be something CC spend time thinking about in respect to increased population. Is it getting easier to be the victim of crime as a result of more residential units?

Our town is important to those of us who live here. We are the ones that should be top of the list of priorities to the mayor and CC. I would like to see more evidence that the residents are treated with more respect. We need to have more opportunities for input and more evidence that our input is valued and heard. I may or may not get a response, personal or standard reply on a particular issue, when I email CC. I think we should be made aware of how many emails CC receive and what percentage are pro or con on any particular issue. If I take the trouble to email CC I at least would like to know if I am the only resident with my particular view or one of a large group with similar views. Being ignored is not the way to treat us who are basically the ones they are supposedly representing.

It is time for the mayor and CC to turn a new leaf and be more transparent, more accessible, and more aware of the needs of the residents who live here. I am tired of being treated as an annoyance rather than valued as a Palo Altan.

One change that I would like to see is that the City Manager job should not be considered as decades-long or lifetime role. In the management world, managers tend to get stale after 6-7 years. The CM should be willing to step down after a few years, and the city council should be willing to ask the manager to step down if necessary. (Financially) unbreakable contracts should never be given to the CM. I'm not one of those folks who demands that the coach be fired if the team misses the playoffs, but, at the same time, it should be understood that the CM tenure is limited.

Given that, I think the CC owes it to us taxpayers to make sure that city policies are clear. For example, when it comes to new office developments, the city seems to be pursuing a policy of limiting office space, while, actually not doing it, and, not improving the jobs/housing imbalance, and actually, allowing the jobs/housing imbalance to get worse. Let's address that question directly instead of playing it both ways. The CM has a clear policy to follow, then, we will have a much better idea if the CM is doing a good job.

I wish our new mayor good luck as well.

@Resident, regarding citizen emails to city council: for council meetings I find a link to the agenda and packet at the bottom of this city webpage -- Web Link

At the end of the agenda under "Additional Information" is a link to "Public Letters to Council" -- Web Link is the entry for last Monday 01-07-19 (assuming I've copied a stable url).

Interesting read. Emails are often more extensive than could be conveyed in the 2 or 3 minutes allocated for in-person oral communications at the microphone.

Minor correction--

At the beginning of the third paragraph, 'dearth' means 'lack', so the sentence could say that the city has a dearth of talent and experience because of the vacancies, not a dearth of vacancies.

Its sad when I read some of the comments here.

Thank you Diana for posting about a great leader like Eric Filseth. Wish him all the best. "(portion removed)

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