Barriers discouraging or preventing access to OUR City Hall and Department staff is anti-democratic, unnecessary and unreasonable.

Palo Alto is low on crime as seen year after year in PAPD and FBI data. To justify this lockout by generating a fear of crime is spurious.

On a recent business trip to a city with relatively high crime, I was at its City Hall for discussions with Planning and Utilities staff. There were no barriers to impede getting my business done.

This is at it should be here, for efficiency and because City Hall is the real and symbolic center of our civic life together.

City Manager’s unilateral decision to create barriers instead of continued openness to our own government should be ended or overturned immediately by City Council.

Reading this article I have to say that allowing the public to roam all over people's working areas is Not the way regular companies go. Most companies use a badge system where the worker's are allowed into the areas of their concern. A badging system let's them into the door to go to work. I am at City Hall about once a month and have no need to go above the ground level. Everything the public needs is on the garage level or ground level. If meeting someone then that is all arranged in designated areas. Any company or organizations that is managing large amounts of financial data need to have a "secure" environment.

What Ms. Diamond describes (nicely, in my opinion) is absurd. I thought it possible that transparency would improve after the former Chief of Police resigned his position. Guess not. Shikada is unaccountable; ditto Stumpf. In effect, this means that their direct reports are essentially unaccountable. So "business as usual" at City Hall is whatever the heck Ed and his team want it to be. Last year they pushed through a business tax and the utility transfer. Then salary increases for others, and now of course them. No doubt some - even many - have earned a bump up. It's the complete lack of accountability that should worry people. I'd suggest that people watch the CC agendas and write CC, but I am no longer sure that sort of attention does any good. But then I remember what happened in Bell, CA. Check it out - BIG scandal over city officials being indicted for giving themselves super high salaries. Couldn't happen here? Anything can happen when accountability is lax.

Agreed this is an absurd situation, esp since the City Manager and City Attorney were just awarded huge raises. Too bad the 26+ comments to the original Diana Diamond blog published November weren't carried over from there because they're worth reading.

Here's the link Web Link

Here's one of my earlier comments that bears repeating since the City Attorney and City Manager were just awarded big raises:

Posted by Online Name, a resident of Embarcadero Oaks/Leland,
on Nov 27, 2023 at 12:37 pm
Online Name is a registered user.

And just think, this was a mere decade ago where our "leaders" spent a fortune on a City Hall "wayfinding" system!

"The ambitious sign program, which is part of a $4.5-million effort to make City Hall more welcoming and inclusive, includes 21 separate signs, including building signs, freestanding signs and direction signs leading people to the Civic Center's underground garage. Among the most visible signs will be a new freestanding monument installed at the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Bryant Street."

Web Link

Maybe it's time to bring back the old "Golden Fleece" awards for absurdly wasteful government spending. Let's hire some more consultants to explore!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So looking forward to our "leaders" pleading poverty again and threatening to deprive us of much-needed services.

I'm not understanding this hysteria about providing employee security. The public is hardly barred from visiting any department--they just need to call an employee to be led up to the office. How is that anti-democratic or non-transparent? Diana Diamond at her usual stirring a nonexistent pot. I guess there is nothing real to complain about.

I'm surprised that the PA Weekly provides a platform for this crap.