November 6, 2025
Dear Mayor Combs, Council Members and City Manager
If you are going to pay a consultant an estimated $165,000 dollars, kindly
make sure that consultant doesn’t fall in to the “cookie cutter” trap that
Palo Alto found to be true of the hired consultants.
See today’s AI search results regarding Palo Alto’s experience:
*“Complaints about consultant services in Palo Alto typically involve a
lack of local knowledge, disregard for public input, and a "cookie-cutter"
approach to projects. The city council has expressed frustration with the
quality and cost of consultant work, citing instances where consultant
reports did not adequately reflect local context or recommendations from
residents and boards. For specific issues, residents can use the **PaloAlto311
app* * to
submit service requests or complaints to the city.*
*Common complaints about consultants*
- *Lack of local knowledge:** Consultants are sometimes hired for
projects without sufficient understanding of Palo Altos specific context,
history, or challenges.*
- *Disregard for public input:** Complaints include consultant reports
that appear to ignore recommendations from residents, boards, and the city
council itself.*
- *"Cookie-cutter" solutions:** There are concerns that consultants may
be applying generic, one-size-fits-all recommendations that were developed
for other cities, rather than creating solutions tailored to Palo Altos
unique needs.”*
It seems that at least four members of Menlo Park’s City Council do not
want to trust the majority of voice of the Menlo Park residents they are
suppose to be representing and must use *tax payer’s dollars* for a
consultant. Since the council is insisting on this course of action, we
taxpayers want to make sure this consultant actively engages with us and
spends time in our downtown to better understand our community.
We insist on a *FAIR assessment* of our community, availability to the
consultant, and transparency in the actions set forth by any hired
consultant. This is our hard earned dollars you are throwing away and we
want a say.
Rubye Cervelli
30 year resident and property tax payer
