I want to thank my council colleagues for your support and confidence. I am humbled and honored to serve as your Vice Mayor. I look forward to supporting Mayor Aguirre as the new mayor of our great city, and working together with the Council.

For me, being a council member is about being a member of a Team of seven, working hard to make Redwood City a great place to live, work, raise a family, and retire. I know that each one of us is committed to preserving and improving our quality of life in our own ways. However, it takes all seven of us working together to make real progress and positive change.

It is that spirit of teamwork and commitment to collaboration that makes me most proud of being a member of this city council. One of the things that I am most proud of is when a member of our community, whether it be our Redwood City community or the greater San Mateo County community, comments on the respectful way in which we lead, listen, disagree, and make decisions. We don’t yell at each other or engage in hurtful behavior because we are the voices of the community at city hall.

We must set the example for respecting your neighbor, finding common ground, listening, and making common sense decisions that are in the best interest of Redwood City. I cannot imagine conducting ourselves any other way.

As a team, we work well together and we get things done. I have appreciated the opportunity to work…

• with Council members Bain and Pierce in looking for solutions to our flooding issues;
• with Council members Pierce and Foust on high speed rail,
• with Council members Foust and Ira on economic development
• with Mayor Aguirre on promoting and celebrating our community’s diversity, and
• with Council member Seybert on Depot Circle, land use and development.

These are just examples of us working together, making Redwood City a better place to live and work.

I would also like to thank the community, which came together on Election Day to support the future of Redwood City by approving Measures I and M to generate critical new revenue for Redwood City’s budget.

Asking our community to help generate new revenue in this economy was not an easy task. The Council laid out a 3-point vision towards achieving financial sustainability: improve how we deliver city services, ask our employee groups to help with increased employee contributions to healthcare and retirements, and finally, some very modest revenue increases.

Working together as a council, with the Chamber, our local businesses and our residents, BOTH Measures I and M were passed with solid voter support. I want to thank my council colleagues, Council member Seybert, the Chamber, our local business community, our employee groups, and our residents for their help and support in passing I and M.

Beyond just passing I and M, I look at the passage of these two measures as more than just a major step towards financial sustainability. I see the support for I and M as a commitment that we as a council need to uphold. We have been entrusted with more of our community’s dollars. For the trust that we have been given, we must act with integrity, trust and confidence and be worthy stewards of our City.

As your Vice Mayor, I pledge to each of you, my council colleagues, our residents and our businesses to continue to lead our community with integrity, trust and confidence. We need to live in the present, but we also need to keep an eye out on the future so that future generations can enjoy the same quality of life and sense of community we cherish about Redwood City today.

— Jeff Gee, Redwood City Vice Mayor