A project by Laura Melahn, Candidate for Menlo Park District 4 City Council
How decisions were made

Council decisions

Every budget, capital-project, and grant decision the City Council has taken that we have on record, newest first. Expand any item to see what staff recommended, how the Council voted, and the source document.

  1. receive

    Council received the FY 2026-27 Public Budget Workshop

    Details

    Annual public budget workshop. Stephen Stolte (Assistant City Manager), Brittany Mello (Administrative Services Director), Fenny Lei, Adrian Patino, Katie Lee presented. Includes department budgets, council priorities, OpenGov transparency portal navigation. Identifies $703,655 in pending cuts going to June 9 hearing.

  2. receive

    Council received update on 2026 street maintenance projects ($5M cost / $5.2M available funding)

    Details

    Informational update on 2026 street maintenance work: $1.7M 2025-26 Annual Slurry Seal + $1.5M Bay/Pierce Roads + $0.5M SRTS Intersection + $0.3M Sand Hill pavement + $1M Cal Water cost share = $5M against $5.2M available funding (gas tax, construction impact fees, SB-1, General Capital Fund, Measure W).

  3. receive

    Council received status report on Communitywide Electrification grant; staff noted milestone "not realistically achievable"

    Details

    October 2025 status: of the $2.25M first half, ~$677,800 (~30%) spent. Staff stated full first-half expenditure by March 31, 2026 was "not realistically achievable" under current program parameters; under no-change scenario ~$680K would remain unspent. Staff proposed ~$975,000 in new program enhancements (including e-bike, EV, solar rebates) to close the gap.

    Staff report 25-176-CC
  4. receive

    Council received Communitywide Electrification progress report

    Details

    Staff progress report on the home upgrade services program. Precedes the November 2025 status report. Documented program launch dates: soft launch August 28, 2024; full launch San Mateo County + Los Banos November 18, 2024.

  5. receive

    Council received the 5-Year Street Maintenance Plan as informational item

    Details

    Staff presented the rolling 5-year Street Maintenance Plan. Subsequent step: bids advertised for 2024-25 Street Resurfacing and Middle Ave Complete Streets projects.

  6. receive

    City announced UC Berkeley SafeTREC partnership for Santa Cruz Ave / Sand Hill Rd Complete Streets Safety Assessments

    Details

    Partnership with UC Berkeley's Safe Transportation Research and Education Center to conduct Complete Streets Safety Assessments for Santa Cruz Avenue and Sand Hill Road. Both are part of the High Collision Corridor Network — 20% of streets accounting for 93% of fatal and serious injury collisions.

  7. receive

    City notified of $50M FEMA BRIC grant award for SAFER Bay

    Details

    May 2023: City was notified that its grant application had been approved and that $50M had been set aside for the engineering, design and construction of the SAFER Bay Project. FEMA funding will be reimbursed quarterly.

Show source

Decisions come from the council_actions table, each linked to a source document in data_sources. Vote counts and staff recommendations are recorded as published in the staff report or meeting minutes.