Dear City Council, My name is Emma Dewey and I'm a resident of Central Menlo Park. I will be unable to attend tonight's city council meeting, so I am emailing in my public comment regarding Agenda Items F1 and F2, about the Climate Action Plan and making institutionalized bias reform a top priority for the city, respectively. I want to start by commending the Council for their dedication to addressing these pressing issues of climate change/environmental justice and policing. With respect to CAP (F1), I urge the Council to accept the resolution, because, as the report outlines, addressing climate change requires bold, immediate action. With respect to the institutionalized bias reform resolution (F2), I would like to address the question of the Facebook money that has thus far only been used for MPPD. The resolution recommends exploring the reallocation of the Facebook money towards other social services. I urge the Council to go beyond exploring -- to COMMIT to reallocating ALL of the Facebook funds away from police. I cannot stress enough how unethical it is to have a private corporation funding a public police force. I noticed in the CAP resolution that many proposed actions were cut from the plan because of the current economic crisis. Filling in CAP's funding holes with the Facebook money seems like a good place to start with reallocation. As the CAP outlines, Belle Haven is particularly susceptible to the negative effects of climate change. I imagine this is exacerbated by Facebook's proximity, which brings in heavy traffic and thus pollutants to the area. Using Facebook money to fund aggressive climate action in Menlo Park, particularly in Belle Haven, would truly go towards the "safety of the community" that the funds were marked for. If Facebook really wanted to invest in the safety of the community, then that money should go towards making it a healthier, more sustainable place to live, rather than more police. We already have at least $2million of unused Facebook funds -- let's start there. I would also like to address a few more issues I see with the institutionalized bias report. Firstly, I believe we should name the issue for what it is: racism. We don't need to tiptoe around this by calling it "bias". Secondly, I do not believe we should be investing more money into police. I believe we should instead focus on the long-term actions the report outlines of completely re-imagining what public safety means in Menlo Park, including reallocating police funds to social services and creating programs such as Eugene, Oregon's CAHOOTS. I urge the Council to commit to this re-imagining, rather than just "exploring." I understand that actions must be taken in the short term as these long term changes are made; however, all efforts should be made so this comes at minimal cost to the city. We do not need to invest in reform if we are ultimately going to create something new. Thank you, Emma Dewey Received on Tue Jul 14 2020 - 15:08:03 PDT
