From: Ann Balin
To: Rebecca Sanders
Cc: Council, City; Glanckopf, Annette; Jeff Levinsky; CeCi Kettendorf; Furman, Sheri; Peter Taskovich; Keller, Arthur Subject: Re: PAN"s Comments - City Council Meeting 12/1/2025, Item # 1 Date: Sunday, November 30, 2025 9:05:09 AM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links.
I like this because it conveys directly the issues re: town halls.
Thank you Annette, Jeff and Becky
Sent from my iPhone
On 29 Nov 2025, at 19:18, Rebecca Sanders <[email protected]> wrote:
To: City of Palo Alto Council Members
From: PAN Executive Committee (Ann Balin, Sheri Furman, Annette Glankcopf, Arthur Keller, Ceci Kettendorf, Jeff Levinsky, Becky Sanders, Peter Taskovich) Topic: Town Halls
Agenda: City Council Meeting – December 1, 2025, Item 1
Palo Alto Neighborhoods (PAN) very much support the town halls, but only if a
key problem is fixed, namely the lack of meaningful follow-up. Without that, the town halls will continue to frustrate and anger many residents and be viewed negatively.
To fix this problem, we recommend:
* As items needing follow-up are raised during a town hall meeting, add them to a slide that's being projected on the wall (or flip chart) so people can see their points are being recorded.
* Have the City send weekly emails to attendees with the status of each item until they're all resolved.
In addition to the need for meaningful follow-up, our neighborhood leaders have weighed in on what went right with recent town hall meetings and what needs improvement. We have summarized these points:
First what worked:
1)
PAN working with staff on agendas, neighborhood representation, publicity, etc.
2) Incorporating lessons learned from prior neighborhood town hall meetings
3) City planning with neighborhood representatives for their town halls 4) Post cards sent to each household in designated neighborhoods 5) Neighborhood billboards or lawn signs installed
6) Social time before/after town halls
7) Neighborhood leaders as moderators/hosts
8) Neighborhood taking notes of action items
9) Hybrid approach – allowing people to “Zoom” in as well as attend in person
What didn’t work:
1) Grouping of these neighborhoods together: Greenmeadow, Greendell, Walnut Grove, Fairmeadow, Charleston Meadow, Charleston Garden, Charleston Village, Adobe Meadow, Meadow Park, and Greenhouse.
These neighborhoods were too many and too diverse to be lumped together
2)
City getting back to neighborhoods on action items was uneven 3) Lack of Sand Hill Corridor participation
4) At times we felt there was a bit too much council member “grandstanding,” taking up valuable time in tight agendas 5)
Many presentations lacked neighborhood focus and felt generic 6) Not enough focus time on the specific neighborhood issues. We don’t think we need a big overarching preamble update on what the City is doing in general at these meetings
7)
And please clarify that Palo Alto Foothills, as listed in the staff report, is the Palo Alto Hills neighborhood
Thank you very much for your time and attention to our concerns.
<PAN Feedback on Town Halls Dec 2025.docx>
From: Rebecca Sanders
To: Council, City
Cc: Ann Balin; Glanckopf, Annette; Jeff Levinsky; CeCi Kettendorf; Furman, Sheri; Peter Taskovich; Keller, Arthur Subject: PAN"s Comments - City Council Meeting 12/1/2025, Item # 1 Date: Saturday, November 29, 2025 7:22:43 PM
Attachments: PAN Feedback on Town Halls Dec 2025.docx
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links.
To: City of Palo Alto Council Members
From: PAN Executive Committee (Ann Balin, Sheri Furman, Annette Glankcopf, Arthur Keller, Ceci Kettendorf, Jeff Levinsky, Becky Sanders, Peter Taskovich) Topic: Town Halls
Agenda: City Council Meeting – December 1, 2025, Item 1 Palo Alto Neighborhoods (PAN) very much support the town halls, but only if a key problem is
fixed, namely the lack of meaningful follow-up.
Without that, the town halls will continue to
frustrate and anger many residents and be viewed negatively.
To fix this problem, we recommend:
*
As items needing follow-up are raised during a town hall meeting, add them to a slide that's being projected on the wall (or flip chart) so people can see their points are being recorded. * Have the City send weekly emails to attendees with the status of each item until they're all resolved.
In addition to the need for meaningful follow-up, our neighborhood leaders have weighed in on what went right with recent town hall meetings and what needs improvement. We have summarized these points:
First what worked:
1) PAN working with staff on agendas, neighborhood representation, publicity, etc. 2) Incorporating lessons learned from prior neighborhood town hall meetings 3) City planning with neighborhood representatives for their town halls 4) Post cards sent to each household in designated neighborhoods 5) Neighborhood billboards or lawn signs installed
6) Social time before/after town halls
7) Neighborhood leaders as moderators/hosts
8) Neighborhood taking notes of action items
9) Hybrid approach – allowing people to “Zoom” in as well as attend in person What didn’t work:
1) Grouping of these neighborhoods together: Greenmeadow, Greendell, Walnut Grove, Fairmeadow, Charleston Meadow, Charleston Garden, Charleston Village, Adobe Meadow, Meadow Park, and Greenhouse. These neighborhoods were too many and too diverse to be lumped together
2)
City getting back to neighborhoods on action items was uneven 3) Lack of Sand Hill Corridor participation
4) At times we felt there was a bit too much council member “grandstanding,” taking up valuable time in tight agendas
5)
Many presentations lacked neighborhood focus and felt generic 6) Not enough focus time on the specific neighborhood issues. We don’t think we need a big overarching preamble update on what the City is doing in general at these meetings
7)
And please clarify that Palo Alto Foothills, as listed in the staff report, is the Palo Alto Hills neighborhood
Thank you very much for your time and attention to our concerns.
To: City of Palo Alto Council Members
From: PAN Executive Committee (Ann Balin, Sheri Furman, Annette Glankcopf, Arthur Keller, Ceci Kettendorf, Jeff Levinsky, Becky Sanders, Peter Taskovich) Topic: Town Halls
Agenda: City Council Meeting – December 1, 2025, Item 1
Palo Alto Neighborhoods (PAN) very much support the town halls, but only if a key problem is fixed, namely the lack of meaningful follow-up. Without that, the town halls will continue to frustrate and anger many residents and be viewed negatively.
To fix this problem, we recommend:
* As items needing follow-up are raised during a town hall meeting, add them to a slide that's being projected on the wall (or flip chart) so people can see their points are being recorded. * Have the City send weekly emails to attendees with the status of each item until they're all resolved.
In addition to the need for meaningful follow-up, our neighborhood leaders have weighed in on what went right with recent town hall meetings and what needs improvement. We have summarized these points:
First what worked:
1) PAN working with staff on agendas, neighborhood representation, publicity, etc. 2) Incorporating lessons learned from prior neighborhood town hall meetings 3) City planning with neighborhood representatives for their town halls 4) Post cards sent to each household in designated neighborhoods 5) Neighborhood bill boards or lawn signs installed
6) Social time before/after town halls
7) Neighborhood leaders as moderators/hosts
8) Neighborhood taking notes of action items
9) Hybrid approach – allowing people to “Zoom” in as well as attend in person What didn’t work:
1) Grouping of these neighborhoods together: Greenmeadow, Greendell, Walnut Grove, Fairmeadow, Charleston Meadow, Charleston Garden, Charleston Village, Adobe Meadow, Meadow Park, and Greenhouse. These neighborhoods were too many and too diverse to be lumped together
2) City getting back to neighborhoods on action items was uneven 3) Lack of Sand Hill Corridor participation
4) At times we felt there was a bit too much council member “grandstanding,” taking up valuable time in tight agendas
5) Many presentations lacked neighborhood focus and felt generic 6) Not enough focus time on the specific neighborhood issues. We don’t think we need a big overarching preamble update on what the City is doing in general at these meetings 7) And please clarify that Palo Alto Foothills, as listed in the staff report, is the Palo Alto Hills neighborhood
Thank you very much for your time and attention to our concerns.