The Half Moon Bay City Council last week agreed to address a controversial police reform proposal, but even the decision to discuss it at the next meeting was earnestly debated.
A controversial drafted ordinance that would restrict the activities of the San Mateo County Sheriffâs Office in Half Moon Bay has stalled, but city leaders are looking at installing a local police chief that could potentially have some oversight of the law enforcement contract and deputy behavior.
City staff requested at last weekâs City Council meeting that the drafted policy changes, which would restrict how the San Mateo County Sheriffâs deputies enforce the law, deal with altercations and conduct traffic enforcement, be sent to the Public Safety Subcommittee for further review. The Sheriffâs Office and some in City Hall believe that the proposed policy changes arenât possible simply by drafting an ordinance. Instead, the council opted to examine the option of hiring a police chief who could enact some kind of police reform through the Sheriffâs Office.
A group of roughly 60 people Monday tuned into a virtual meeting with law enforcement officials taking questions about policies and police reform in San Mateo County.
The roundtable of panelists included San Mateo County Supervisor Don Horsley, District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe, Half Moon Bay City Councilman Joaquin Jimenez, Sheriff Carlos Bolanos and Capt. Saul Lopez of San Mateo County Sheriffâs Office, and representatives from the offices of state Sen. Josh Becker and Assemblymember Marc Berman.
The 90-minute forum was hosted by La Honda Indivisible, a local chapter of the national political and advocacy group. Co-host Lynnette Vega said the group formed the eventâs questions based on a questionnaire and a template from U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, who sought to gauge the response to reforms of law enforcement procedures.
The family of Sandra Harmon, who was shot and killed by San Mateo County Sheriff’s deputies in Half Moon Bay last year, has filed a lawsuit against San Mateo County,
Portola Valley Neighbors United, incorporated in January 2020 to help our local community preserve and enhance its small, rural open space character, and co-founded by council candidate Mary Hufty, has come out in opposition to the Stanford Wedge project, dubbed [Portola Terrace.
With state mandates that could require the town to build 200 to 300 new housing units in the next decade, the council has also been weighing the concept of adding housing while also preserving Portola Valley s treasured rural character and not creating more wildfire risk in the process. In November, council members Craig Hughes and John Richards penned a letter to the Association of Bay Area Governments following a council discussion on the state Regional Housing Needs Allocation process, stating that the town will remain highly susceptible to wildfires and that it would like to engage on the sensibleness of significant numbers of new homes in high-fire danger areas. They also said that, as the smallest