Dear Mayor and Members of the City Council,
I’m submitting the attached questions in writing rather than during
tonight’s public comment period. They go into more technical and
financial detail than a two- or three-minute oral comment can
responsibly cover, and I’d rather Council and staff have them in a form
that can be read and answered carefully than compressed into something
easy to miss at the podium.
Some of the more technical questions were compiled with the help of AI,
used to work through the volume and specialized nature of the
documentation across the Menlo Park, HCD, and related sources this item
touches, including the multiple drafts of the Housing Element and the
certified copy on the HCD site. That wasn’t done to generate noise or
flood staff with questions for their own sake — it was necessary given
how much material is involved and how specific some of it is. I’ve done
substantial additional checking of my own to verify that what’s in this
list is accurate and genuinely unaddressed in the packet, not an
artifact of the tool. That said, AI does make mistakes, and I can’t rule
out that something here reflects one despite that checking.
I’m submitting the list anyway because, checking aside, the underlying
substance is real: these are gaps in what the packet discloses about the
financial and legal terms of a multi-decade commitment of public land.
I’d also note that City staff may well be using similar tools in their
own evaluation of these proposals, in which case some of what’s here may
already be under consideration — in that case, I’d appreciate knowing
which items that applies to. [Maybe you can have your Claude guy talk to
my Claude guy!]
Thank you for your time and attention to this.
Sincerely,
John Wu
721 Elizabeth Lane
650.274.4151
