BLUE FOLDER ITEM
Blue folder items are additional back up material to administrative reports and/or public comments received after the printing and distribution of the agenda packet for receive and file.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
JANUARY 21, 2025
J.1 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS
• PUBLIC COMMUNICATION
Sara Martin, Tuesday, January 21, 2025, City Council, Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items Hello, I’m Sara Martin, a 22-year resident of district one. I’m speaking tonight to initiate my re-engagement with my local politics, with an intention to advocate for good governance in our community.
The principles of good governance include Transparency, Accountability, Responsiveness to the Public, and Good Faith. It is my hope that my pubic speaking and writings elsewhere might motivate others in our community to also be more active and effective in advocacy for good governance anywhere that is important to them.
As a former teacher and public speaker, and a life-long student of personal inquiry and developing healthy and productive habits of mind, I will be coming to this podium to talk about the principles of good governance. I will raise questions which I hope our elected, appointed and hired public officials, and members of the public will consider and form their own answers based on objective evidence, informed by their unique personal perspective. In addition, I plan to share these messages, with the same intentions and hopes, at other local governmental agencies’ public meetings.
My prior experience in public advocacy with this city has been mixed. In one case, I came to this podium once when I believed the Council and the City had grossly and improperly pursued a course of action which made a family whom I did not know begin to shoulder significant, heavy, hurtful burdens on a daily basis. To the late Mayor Brand, Council’s and the City Public Works Department’s credit the matter was re-opened, a new plan was made, and that family’s life has been made easier, their challenges more bearable, and their feeling of living amongst people who care about them, restored.
Sara Martin, Tuesday, January 21, 2025, City Council, Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items In the other case, I, and others failed utterly over nearly 5 years trying to restore accessible, affordable community sailing after a former Rec & Parks Director sunk it by fiat, with no recourse. Despite talking many times with everyone with responsibility for, or interest in that program, and despite presenting documented evidence of on-going mismanagement and illegality, we were not heard. Others’ private and personal agendas took precedence. That brick wall – no transparency, accountability, responsiveness to the public, or good faith dealings, is poor governance. It has cost the public who could avail themselves of low-cost, accessible sailing, years of access, experience, healthy recreation and enjoyment.
As a fierce advocate for the principles of good governance, I hope to help the public benefit from an environment in which our public agencies are transparent with objectives, priorities, resources and outcomes, accountable to the public for those things, responsive to the public whose needs and best interest, by law they serve, not private special interests, and operate with good faith, not hidden agendas.
Thank you.
Sara Martin
Redondo Beach, District 1
@VelvetBarracuda.bsky.social
Good Governance - saramartin288692.substack.com