Politics & Government
Council Corner: Opportunities to Help Your Community
This week's opinion letter from the City Council comes from Councilmember Charlie Bronitsky.
In my two plus years on the Council, I have found the experience extremely rewarding. The ability to help our City grow and prosper, deal with difficult economic issues and continue to be vibrant is an exciting and rewarding challenge. Many Foster City residents and businesses feel the same and we have an active group of citizen advisory committees that help us look at important issues facing the City. As we undertake some new challenges, new opportunities arise for those interested in helping our City.
We are about to embark on Foster City’s first economic development plan which we have dubbed “Sustainable Foster City.” Part of that plan will be to survey the residents and businesses to find out what our various populations think is best about our City and what it needs. I hope that in the weeks to come when we begin to reach out to the community, that you will help us to get a snapshot of the City and the needs of its residents and businesses. We will need that information so that we can put together a plan that meets those needs and encourages sustainable economic growth in our City.
Another area where we can use your help is in the area of our water supply. Foster City gets its water from the San Francisco PUC’s Hetch Hetchy system. It is some of the cleanest and best tasting water anywhere. The system is currently undergoing a $4.6 billion renovation to make it more reliable in the event of an earthquake or other catastrophe. However, there are those who believe that the Hetch Hetch Valley should be restored to its condition of more than 100 years ago and are currently working on a plan to bring that to the ballot in San Francisco. The problem with that is that a vote in San Francisco leaves 1.7 million of us without a say in this important issue. I believe that it is critical that everyone who uses the Hetch Hetchy system should be part of the decision. This is not a front page issue, but is of critical important to Foster City and many other cities surrounding the Bay. Please take some time to learn more about it and if you can, help us to find a way to give everyone the right to participate in this issue.
Finally, last Monday we met jointly with the San Mateo-Foster City School Board to begin the process of putting together a Superintendent’s Task Force to look at the issue of school overcrowding and advise the District on what can be done. As part of this effort, the School District is allowing the City Council to appoint three members of the Task Force. If this is an area of interest to you, please send us a short letter telling us about you, your background and what you would bring to the process if selected. We will be making the selection at the Council Meeting on April 16, so please do not delay.
These are exciting times for our City and you can get involved and help to build a sustainable and thriving community, don’t miss the chance.
Share your ideas with me by email at cbronitsky@fostercity.org or call me at (650) 286-3504.
About this column: Council Corner features weekly opinion letters from rotating members of the City Council.
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