Thanks to one volunteer for attending part of the September 17 City Council meeting in person and two more for watching segments online. (The meeting ran from 7 p.m. to midnight — thus the need to split this work into shifts!) We've identified one council candidate who's used this first of three Morning Bun Opportunities/Challenges to share their comments on an agenda item in front of City Council.

Neighborhood Greenways

Here's a video clip of council-candidate Thushan Amarasiriwardena speaking on the Neighborhood Greenways agenda item:

He also submitted a written public comment on Neighborhood Greenways, which can be read in the correspondence attached to the agenda packet (see pages 5-6 of that PDF).

Councilmember Trish Herrera Spencer, who is also a candidate in this upcoming election, had questions and comments extending over the entire Neighborhood Greenways agenda item.

Here is the full video from the city's Legistar website queued up at the beginning of the relevant agenda item:

Or for a faster streaming experience, open the full meeting video on the City of Alameda's Facebook page and advance the video to a timestamp of roughly 3:46:00

Councilmember Herrera Spencer proposed splitting the single topic into two separate votes: one motion regarding the majority of existing Slow Streets and a separate motion specifically regarding the Slow Street on Versailles Ave. She joined all other councilmembers to vote in support of the first motion, and she was the sole "no" vote on the second motion (that is, voting against transitioning Versailles from a Slow Street to a Neighborhood Greenway).

Alameda Food Bank

There were so many people in the Council Chambers for the beginning of the City Council meeting and so many people attempting to speak about the Food Bank during Agenda Item 4 non-agenda public comment period. That item is limited to 15 minutes max. Anyone who didn't make that cut was instead given the choice to wait until Agenda Item 9 for the final round of non-agenda public comment... which didn't come around until about five hours later, at about midnight!

When writing about the lawsuit against the Alameda Food Bank on Sept 14, I thought there might be a chance that the public (including council candidates) could email in comments to be attached to non-agenda public comment item. But I was mistaken. Thanks to the City Clerk for explaining to me the very specific conditions under which someone can email in material to be attached to the non-agenda public comment agenda items. It wasn't until Sept 17 that I posted about this (at the very bottom of that blog post).

So given both the tight constraints on public commenting at the meeting and my previously fuzzy understanding of the rules for non-agenda public comment, let's extend the candidates another opportunity to comment on this topic if they wish to.

I'll email the 3 newcomer candidates to give them each the opportunity to — if they desire — to share written comments regarding the CEQA lawsuit against the Alameda Food Bank. If any candidates take us up on this, we'll publish a second post with those comments.