Hayward Voices Speaker Series Kicks Off

Hayward Voices Kicks Off Sept 7 At Books On B

The Herald is hosting an event you won’t want to miss. Join us at Books On B for a live moderated discussion with Councilmember George Syrop and Bike Hayward’s Alejandro Jasso. We’ll be discussing traffic, safety, and how we can work together to ensure our streets are safe for everyone who lives and moves in Hayward.

HAYWARD VOICES
September 7th, 1:30-3:00pm
Books on B | 1014 B St., Hayward
$10 Tickets: https://igit.me/hayvoz25

Councilmember George Syrop is a City liaison to AC Transit, serves on the Airport and Infrastructure Committee, and will bring insight about the City’s plans for Downtown and what’s possible for the future.

Alejandro Jasso is the founder of Bike Hayward, a cycling advocacy group, and will talk about how Hayward’s development shaped the City, debunk common transit myths, and how we can build a safer and greener city together.

This event is the first in our Hayward Voices speaker series. We’re hoping to bring in-depth discussions and thought-provoking ideas that compliment our community. Given the community’s often vocal interest in Downtown, bicycling, and The Loop, we thought this would be a great way to kick things off.

Tickets for the event are $10, and space is limited. The cost of admission will directly support the work of the Hayward Herald and our goal to provide in-depth, local news coverage to the residents of Hayward. We hope to see you there!

Commissions Start Facing Consequences

During a September 21st meeting, the City Council had their first chance to apply the new Appointed Officials Handbook, which went into effect in March of this year. As we covered back in November, the City Council formed an Ad Hoc Committee to make changes to the Appointed Officials Handbook in response to perceived issues around the Community Services Commission. The Committee was composed of Councilmembers Roche, Bonilla, and Andrews.

Among the many other changes that were implemented, a stringent 75% attendance threshold was added. According to Page 11 of the 2025 Handbook, “According to Resolution 87-323, the City Council will remove or not reappoint any commission or task force member who has failed to attend at least seventy-five percent of all regular meetings held during the period September to June.” This language makes very clear that if attendance drops below 75%, the Commissioner would be removed from their seat.

Who Is Affected By This?

According to a presentation given to the City Council, 10 Commissioners across 5 Commissions had attendance records below 75%, with several between 40 and 60%. One notable name was Planning Commissioner Shay Franco-Clausen who, according to the presentation, only attended 40% of the Planning Commission meetings between September 2024 and June 2025. According to City Clerk Lens, most of the absences were due to medical issues, sick family members, business travel, or work obligations.

Implementing this attendance policy could be an issue for some Commissions, as there were 14 vacancies before the attendance policy is even implemented. The vacancies have, according to some City Council liaisons to the Commissions, made it difficult to even conduct meetings because there aren’t enough people in attendance. Hayward Commissions are a part of the decision-making process for many of the City’s initiatives, and if they are unable to meet it can force the City to skip important resident input or delay the decisions entirely.

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City Clerk Miriam Lens recommended that all Commissioners below 75% attendance be placed on a monitoring list, and, if their attendance does not improve by December, vacate their seats. “I believe this provides fairness and accountability while allowing commissioners experiencing temporary changes an opportunity to continue serving,” she said.

Are We Being Too Harsh?

During deliberation on what to do about the low-attendance Commissioners, the City Council was divided on how strictly to enforce the attendance policy. Surprisingly, the Councilmembers who developed the attendance policy were the most vocal about the attendance standard being too strict.

Councilmember Roche, who was on the Ad Hoc Committee, pushed for a different threshold of 65%. “If you could just get it over 65%,” she said. She recalled her time as a Commissioner and that one year her attendance got below 70%, which triggered a letter being sent to her about it. “That indicated to me that if I wanted to do this again, I would have to get this up,” she said. “I’m kind of looking for finality once you get below a certain threshold.”

Some Councilmembers wanted to be lenient because of circumstances, but work schedules didn’t seem like a good excuse to Mayor Salinas. “I don’t know if their work schedule is going to change in the next month or so,” he said. “If you’re at 40% or 57% because of work related issues, clearly you can’t get to a commission meeting.” Though he expressed a desire for leniency because of health issues.

However, Councilmember Roche countered that she wanted to decide based on numbers over reasons. She explained that some may just say that it’s health when it isn’t. “We got it,” Mayor Salinas said, “75%.” But Councilmember Roche said “I would go below 60%.”

Councilmember Bonilla, also on the Ad Hoc Committee and one of the most vocal about the need for attendance standards, agreed with Councilmember Roche’s idea. “I agree with the recommendation as well,” he said, “to kind of put people on a list and let them know… we would like to see their attendance improve in a short order, otherwise we’re going to declare the seats vacant.” He pushed for anyone under 70% to get a final warning letter.

However, Councilmember Bonilla admitted that the Handbook speaks very clearly about attendance. “If we were following the letter of the Handbook,” he said, “they would essentially be removed from the commission because they didn’t meet the attendance requirements. But, we’re looking at this special dispensation because of these reasons…”

Councilmember Syrop pushed for higher attendance standards at 75%. “70 is a C,” he said. “I can live with a C, but these are important roles and people need to show up for them.” He offered a compromise where all Commissioners at 60% or lower would be removed, and anyone between 61% and 74% would be placed on a monitoring list. “We have to uphold the standards we set because otherwise we’re going to keep having this conversation,” he said.

Councilmember Bonilla continued to defend a more moderated approach, but Mayor Salinas laid out the consequences of chronic absenteeism. “Take the Planning Commission,” he said, “where you have big projects that come across and developers and builders and people come to the Planning Commission expecting a full dais to make decisions. There is a lot at stake.”

Councilmember Roche continued to be resistant to vacating commission seats, regardless of the attendance. She pushed for a letter being sent to all under 75% attendance warning them that if it doesn’t improve to 60% by the end of the year, then they’ll be dropped. Councilmember Bonilla agreed with the plan, but other Councilmembers weren’t convinced that there was any “fuzziness” as Councilmember Roche alleged.

“I’m not comfortable saying below 75%,” she said, “because in the past we all got this little bit of fuzziness… and to me that would be a really hard line if we remove everyone below 75% at this point.” But Acting City Manager, Jayanti Addleman, reiterated the importance of attendance. “[It] has to do with quorum and decision making,” she said. “Every Commission does additional work… there was a lot of notice given to commissioners… I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone.”

This seemed to change Councilmember Bonilla’s mind. “If the Handbook says 75% and we’re talking about some hard line, then we should follow what’s in the handbook,” he said. “I do agree we need to take a very hard line on attendance.” However, he expressed doubt that the standards had been communicated in advance.

But Councilmember Roche insisted that, because there wasn’t a hard line in the past, there shouldn’t be one now. However, Development Services Director Sara Buizer was clear that, at the very least, the Planning Commission absences were a problem. “There’s zero communication,” she said, referring to Commissioner Franco-Clausen’s absences. Ms. Buizer also said that items had to go directly to City Council or resulted in evenly split votes with no recommendations, and at times meetings had to be cancelled because of low attendance.

Councilmember Roche still didn’t like the idea that people could be close to the 75% threshold and just miss it. “I don’t want to remove all those people,” she said. Councilmember Syrop suggested removing all Commissioners below 60%, but wanted 75% as a hard number going forward. “There was no expectation for that,” Councilmember Roche said. “They were told,” Councilmember Syrop countered, “and a lot of them are getting lucky if we do 60%. I just want to be professional about this and not give special treatment to anybody.”

In the end, the City Council agreed—without a vote—that all Commissioners with an attendance rate of 60% or less would be removed and those between 61% and 74% would get a notice to improve their attendance by December or face removal. This meant that five Commissioners were removed, including Planning Commissioner Shay Franco-Clausen.

Filling The Vacant Planning Commission Seat

On August 26th, the City Council held interviews for all the Commissions. Almost 30 people interviewed over the course of several hours to fill the 21 new vacancies.

For those who aren’t familiar with the process, every Summer the City calls for applications to fill any vacancies in the various City Commissions. Those applications are delivered to the City Council, who is tasked with giving each one a thumbs up or thumbs down. The purpose is to whittle down the actual interview schedule—over 50 people initially applied this year—and if any applicant gets at least three Councilmembers to give a thumbs up, they get an interview.

While every Commission is important and does valuable work for the City, for the sake of time we’re going to focus on the Planning Commission. Only three people, out of the more than 14 who applied, made it to the interview stage. Although the interview recording hasn’t been made available at the time of publication—nor did the meeting allow a virtual audience—the applications were publicly accessible at City Hall.

Amir Zand - 4 Votes

Amir Zand is, according to his application, a Middle Eastern man between the age of 46 and 55. He lives in the 94545 zip code, which already has two representatives among the current Planning Commissioners, and is a Civil Engineer at Earth Mechanics. His resume indicated that he has provided extensive technical expertise to engineering projects like wind farms, solar farms, bridges, and other large-scale projects.

There did not appear to be any particular focus on housing, which is much of what comes before the Planning Commission, but his resume and application indicated he was a very well-educated and competent person.

Unfortunately, having only received 4 votes, it is unlikely that he will get the appointment unless he interviews very well.

Amy Nelson-Smith - 6 Votes

Amy Nelson-Smith received a vote from everyone except Mayor Salinas. She identifies as a woman over the age of 56. She is a retired former Office Manager for the Carpenter’s Local 713—she began in 1978. She is also active at the Hayward Area Historical Society and the Sun Gallery, and lives in the 94545 zip code.

Ms. Nelson-Smith served on the Citizens Advisory Commission between 1984-1988, Zoning Adjustment (no location or agency given), and the Economic Development Commission (an old commission that no longer exists). She did not attach a resume, and her entire work experience statement was the following.

I have not attached a resume since I haven’t written one in 40 years. And let’s face it, resumes have changed since the last time I’ve written one. I have worked on political campaigns within the City and have served as treasurer. I understand how the City works and the chain of command.

She further wrote, “I have chaired committees in the past.”

The City Council’s past preference for people who have “done their time” on other Commissions and committees—not to mention political connections with the Carpenter’s Union—may have influenced the number of votes Ms. Nelson-Smith’s application received.

Vasko Yorgov - 6 Votes

Vasko Yorgov also received votes from everyone on the City Council except Mayor Salinas. He is a White man between the age of 26 and 35 and lives in the 94541 zip code which, according to the 2025 Commissions Report, is unrepresented on the Planning Commission (half of the current Commissioners live in 94542, which encompasses the Hayward Highland).

Mr. Yorgov is a Project Developer at Eden Housing and, according to his resume, has been working in the nonprofit housing space since 2019. Due to his extensive experience working in the realm of affordable housing, Mr. Yorgov said he has presented before planning commissions and city councils in the past on his projects, and given feedback on city specific and strategic plans, as well as being involved in design review processes.

“Considering the central importance of housing affordability in the Hayward community,” Mr. Yorgov wrote, “I believe the Commission could benefit from my perspective.” He also pointed out that he could bring a diversity of perspectives to the Commission due to his age—86% of the Planning Commission is aged 46 and up, either Gen X or Baby Boomers. He also showed that he has watched Commission meetings in the past, understands the complicated trade-offs necessary for development, and that he lives, works in, and loves the City.

One of the more interesting things Mr. Yorgov wrote in his application has to do with how tense commission meetings can get. “I have seen the full scale of passion that a project can elicit, from avid support to resentment, and I am comfortable listening to people express their views while holding firm to my principles.” He also mentioned working with homelessness service providers, empathized with unhoused residents, and expressed interest in novel initiatives.

The Council has not revealed who they have chosen for this position, but Mr. Yorgov appears to have submitted a very robust application. If he is able to interview well with the City Council, it seems likely that he will be filling the newly-vacated seat on the Planning Commission.