We've made it to the end of the Morning Bun "challenge"! The same volunteers who have been helping all along have helped to review the full Oct. 15 City Council meeting. Of the three newcomer candidates for City Council, we identified one who put in the effort to make a public comment at this final City Council meeting scheduled before election day.
Climate Action and Resiliency Plan
Thushan Amarasiriwardena gave a live public comment about the Climate Action and Resiliency Plan draft being considered by City Council:
In advance of the meeting, he also sent in an email included in the correspondence packet (see pages 4 - 5 of that PDF).
No other newcomer candidates for City Council made live or emailed public comments on the CARP, nor did they comment on any any other agenda items at the Oct. 15 City Council meeting.
The motivation
Before introducing this series, I had searched Legistar for public comments made by the three newcomer candidates at Alameda City Council, and I found that:
- Michele Pryor gave a public comment at City Council in 2020.
- Greg Boller did not appear in minutes as giving any public comments at City Council.
- Thushan Amarasiriwardena spoke at City Council when being appointed to the Library Commission in 2022 but did not appear in any other meeting minutes as showing up to comment on other agenda items.
Given these slim records, I knew this blog's readers would be eager to hear what these candidates might have to say about the actual topics of business at Alameda City Council (not just the hypotheticals that are discussed at candidate forums).
Also, I've also been personally curious to see: which topics would they pick to comment on? would they speak about specifics, about values, or just about generalities? how they would present themselves to their would-be-future-colleagues on City Council? or would they just skip it all? I didn't share any of these thoughts with the candidates beyond what I publicly posted in the introduction to this series and short invitation emails to each of the three.
The results
All that said, to summarize the results:
- Thushan Amarasiriwardena spoke and emailed in support of Neighborhood Greenways at the Sept 17 City Council meeting
- Michele Pryor immediately took this blog up on the opportunity to provide a written comment regarding the lawsuit against the Alameda Food Bank (since the open public comment period was so constrained at the Sept 17 Council meeting I emailed all three candidates directly to ask if they'd each like to write something to be featured on this blog). Thushan Amarasiriwardena submitted a comment very soon after. Greg Boller submitted a comment about a week later.
- None of the newcomer candidates spoke or emailed into the October 1 City Council meeting.
- Thushan Amarasiriwardena spoke and emailed in support of the Climate Action Resiliency Plan at this Oct. 15 City Council meeting.
Thanks to the candidates who have participated, and thanks to the volunteers who have helped by reviewing meeting video records and correspondence packets!
I'll let readers each assess for yourselves how the three newcomer candidates have utilized this opportunity to demonstrate their skills, values, and goals for Alameda — and decide for yourself how this may influence your two votes for City Council.