Article Source: San Mateo County Supervisor Jackie Speier

Jackie's News, December 2025
Thursday, Dec 18, 2025 by Jackie Speier
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Dear Friends,

2025 has been a year of change and transitions. As we are nearing the end, I’m reflecting on the challenges and accomplishments over the months since I was sworn in on January 6th. My actions were guided by my goal to make San Mateo County a better and more affordable place to live.

Be Aware. Prepare.

Earlier this month, Supervisor Mueller and I, along with a large coalition of county and federal partners, cohosted an anti-human trafficking awareness and training event for local leaders and service providers. Next year, the Bay Area will host two major sporting events: the Superbowl and World Cup. Those events will attract million of visitors and it is imperative that our region focus on a heightened and coordinated effort for human trafficking prevention, education, awareness, training and response.

About 250 local elected officials, members of law enforcement, hospitality and transportation workers, and service providers participated in the event and heard from stellar panelists discussing threat assessment and prosecution, awareness campaigns, and prevention and response. Now it’s time for everyone to sign up for relevant trainings before February.

Human Trafficking Training for Law Enforcement, Prosecutors, Medical Professionals, Victim Advocates and others

January 13 – 15, 2026, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Burlingame City Council Chambers

Human Trafficking 101 (Basic) Training for San Mateo County Transportation and Hospitality Workers

January 14, 2026, 1-2 p.m.

January 28, 2026, 10 - 11 a.m.

Virtual

Child Care Crisis

One of the most consequential ways to alleviate our affordability crisis is to address the high cost of childcare. Child care in San Mateo County can often costs up to $3,000 a month per child, forcing some parents out of the workforce or to not to have children. It’s what I call the workforce crisis that starts in the crib.

I hosted a series of four town halls across the county with Supervisor Lisa Gauthier to hear from parents and providers. Their consistent message was child care is too expensive. I am now working on some solutions.

Housing and Health Care

Housing is the single highest expense for most residents. Many people simply can’t afford to rent or buy in San Mateo County. We have to build more affordable units and workforce housing. The county has made progress this year completing 293 affordable units.

In addition, earlier this year I was successful in getting workforce housing inserted into the county’s workplan for the next few years. The county should follow in the path of Stanford, the community college district and local school districts by building housing units on under-utilized county land. Two projects are now in the early stages. One is at the site of the law library in Redwood City and one mixed development of employee workforce housing and affordable housing for the general public is being designed for a Walnut Street site in San Carlos. The county has numerous other opportunities to reduce the cost of living for its own employees and other local governments.  

We have also succeeded in making state-of-the-art healthcare more accessible. On December 12th, we celebrated the completion of a multi-year project modernizing and seismically updating the San Mateo Medical Center Campus. The Medical Center serves as the County’s primary safety-net hospital, caring for residents who are uninsured, underinsured or otherwise unable to access private health systems. In addition to providing outstanding healthcare, it provides dignity to low-income patients. I have deep ties to this hospital because my late husband practiced there as an emergency room physician.

The renovation happened while the hospital operated 24/7, making it a very difficult project. You can read more about the renovation and expansion in this article on the county’s website.


And lastly, the Cordilleras Health Center renovation will be completed next spring. Clients moved into the county-owned facility this January. It provides 117 psychiatric beds with smaller residential structures and a campus center that meets modern standards of care for seriously mentally ill patients.

New Top Cop

I think it’s safe to say that one of the most significant transitions this year took place in the Sheriff’s Office. After a year of legal challenges around the former sheriff, the Board of Supervisors appointed Kenneth Binder as the new San Mateo County Sheriff. He came to us as a 27-year law enforcement veteran and was sworn in on November 12th. The calm and competence he has brought to his department is a welcome change after a year of turmoil.


Throughout my public service career, I’ve always made it my priority to educate and help my constituents. Earlier this year I co-hosted two large events with the county. In partnership with the Emergency Management Department, we welcomed over 400 people to learn about wildfire safety. Firefighters, emergency management and evacuation specialists, insurance experts, and fire survivors spoke about lessons learned from the dramatic fires that raged through Los Angeles in January. With similar terrain here in San Mateo County, all of us need to be prepared.

Smokey Bear, Jackie Speier, Captain Cal

In May, I partnered with Human Resources to host a career fair for job seekers interested in working for the county. I had learned that there were about 600 vacancies in several departments. Some 1,500 people showed up, clearly showing that they were interested in public service and that the county slogan “work with purpose” resonates.




In addition to thechild care town halls, I held general town halls in San Bruno and South San Francisco where constituents shared concerns about the cost of living, in particular the cost of housing and child care, disaster preparedness and local impacts from federal and state budget cuts. I will host more of these next year.

My first action on the board in January was to introduce a code of conduct for the Board of Supervisors. I believe it is a helpful tool to clarify our mission, our values and our principles. We need to treat each other with respect. The public expects nothing less. Most elected bodies have such codes, and I am glad the Board of Supervisors now has one as well.

Goodbyes and Transitions in the County

Assistant County Executive Iliana Rodriguez is leaving the county after 38 years of service. She was instrumental in shaping policies around child support services, safety net services, emergency operations, homelessness, and farmworker housing. I’ve had the great honor to know her and work with her for over 30 years and will miss her guidance, genuineness and grit.

As we say goodbye to Iliana, we welcome familiar faces into new roles. I congratulate Justin Mates and Adam Ely as the new Assistant County Executives and Nicholas Calderon and Rocio Kiryczun as Deputy County Executives. I’m confident they will maintain the outstanding leadership of the CEO’s office.

In my own office, I have to say goodbye to Randy Torrijos who has served as a legislative aide to three supervisors: Mark Church, Dave Pine and me. I’ve been so fortunate to have Randy in my office and treasure his institutional knowledge, kindness, calm demeanor, and sense of humor. I wish him the best for his retirement in which he plans to travel and pursue his passion for trivia and movies, especially superhero movies.

While I am sad about the goodbyes, I am excited about the coming year and am grateful to all of you who’ve given me the opportunity to serve. Among my goals for next year is to move forward with the modernization of the San Mateo Event Center. Our neighboring counties have convention centers that attract thousands of visitors and generate revenue and San Mateo County needs to do the same. I’m very excited that the county is working with an experienced firm that has transformed other cities by developing convention center campuses. This is an amazing opportunity that would make San Mateo a destination.

I will also continue to work on an e-bike ordinance to address the increased numbers of severe injuries hospitals are seeing, especially in young e-bike riders. We will have a study session on this topic in January and I hope you will share your input with the board.

Before I Go…

We need commissioners! The Charter Review Committee reviews the County’s Charter every eight years and makes recommendations to the Board for amendments or revisions. The 2026 Committee will include up to 16 members from all five districts representing community interest groups and organizations, such as cities, schools, labor, business, youth, seniors, LGBTQI+ community, underserved communities, environmental groups, immigrant rights, and voting rights organizations. Serving on the commission is a great way to help shape San Mateo County’s future.

May you have a wonderful holiday season with the people you love. I will see you in the New Year!

All the best,

Jackie