Planning Commission Vacancy Incoming
Aiden Ali-Sullivan resigns from the Planning Commission, Chief Matthews is no longer Acting, and Electrifying vehicles is expensive to do.
City Council continues to be on break until the 23rd, but there’s been a sprinkle of news that you all should know. Let’s get into it.
Ali-Sullivan Resigns From Planning Commission
The Planning Commission meeting on the 11th was almost non-existent. The only real items on the agenda were choosing officers and approving a zoning change which was approved without question or comment.
The officer election seemed like it was approved in advance. Commissioner Stevens nominated Commissioner Lowe, who had been Vice Chair. Commissioner Lowe nominated Commissioner Patterson as Vice Chair and, aside from Meyers nominating Goodbody who declined, nobody else stepped up. Finally, Commissioner Lowe nominated Commissioner Goodbody for Secretary, though I’m not sure what that role is as the Bylaws are still MIA as of this writing. Everyone was approved unanimously
But a surprise came from the resignation of Chair Ali-Sullivan, effective at the end of January. Since there won’t be another Planning Commission meeting before February, this was Ali-Sullivan’s last meeting. I had heard rumors about this and had suspected something myself when he missed both meetings in December, but I wasn’t sure it would happen so soon.
Ali-Sullivan had prepared a short speech where he said he joined out of a “desire to give back” to the community. He also stressed that the remaining members had a “unique platform here in Hayward and globally.” Ali-Sullivan had been one of the longest-serving members of the Commission—since 2020—and had put in to be appointed to the City Council, though he lost out to Ray Bonilla Jr.
Commissioner Meyers alluded to a “new opportunity,” though there were no details during the meeting. An official letter of resignation will likely be on the Council’s January 23rd Agenda, so there may be more details in there.
But the real question will be whether or not the position is filled and who the Council will choose. There wasn’t another alternate chosen beyond Meyers, and if there were then the list wouldn’t expire until April. The list was pretty thin though, with the only viable contender left being Kelly Sullivan. She got the most points for her application but didn’t land the interview, so the chances that the seat will remain vacant is high.
New Police Chief Incoming
There’s a new Police Chief in town: the same one we’ve had. Now-Chief Brian Matthews will permanently fill the role he’s been in temporarily since September of 2022. It may surprise some of you that this didn’t show up in any meeting, but hiring the Police Chief is a decision for the City Manager, Kelly McAdoo—the City Council has no say.
However, Matthews was the natural choice having been in that position for a year and a half. In public meetings, he’s been an even presence in the room. Unlike his predecessor, Toney Chaplin, Matthews has been working in Hayward for over 20 years. It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, Matthews undertakes early in his tenure—he’s likely had his hands tied politically, if not administratively, by being in an Acting position.
As for Toney Chaplin, who has been on disability leave since September 2022, I hope he has made a full recovery and enjoys his lucrative retirement at 100% of his highest salary. He will receive payments for the remainder of his and his spouse’s living years, courtesy of the tax paying public.
Tree Removal and Electrifying City Fleet
PG&E needs to install new transmission lines for a data center in the industrial part of town—off of Clawiter. The only hitch is that there are some mature trees in the way that need to be removed. This would usually fall to Caltrans, but they can’t enter into agreements with private entities, like PG&E. The City needs to step in as an intermediary to take the money for the trees and then transfer it to Caltrans.
An interesting note is that 92 is designated a “scenic highway” and also a “Classified Landscaped Freeway” because of the greenery around it. The money from PG&E will go toward adding back landscaping that will maintain the designation. You’ll also see some more big ol’ wires stretched across 92 as you commute home from the peninsula.
The City is also looking to electrify its fleet of non-emergency vehicles. It looks like it will cost about $25,000,000 more than the average annual fleet costs, though the majority of that is because electric vehicles are more expensive to buy than gas vehicles (about $17,000,000 more for the whole fleet). Though insurance and registration costs are also higher, so the annual operating costs will increase by $500,000 per year.
This is good news for the environment, though it would cost a lot less in the long run to have everything closer together so that we didn’t need as many city vehicles. We’ll always need some, for things like animal control and tree mitigation, but a lot of the standard sedans that move people with clipboards could be trimmed if we had a more walkable city.