How to show up in San Mateo County
Surveillance is approved by people who hold public meetings any resident can attend. This page lists the bodies that do that in San Mateo County, what we have confirmed about attending each one, and where each publishes its agendas.
We do not publish meeting dates. A schedule we cannot check often enough would eventually send someone to the wrong place on the wrong night. Each body below links to wherever it publishes its own agendas and schedule, and that is the copy to trust.
Countywide
-
San Mateo County Board of Supervisors
Watch this oneThe Sheriff's plate reader policy says public comment is taken at a governing body meeting before any fixed camera goes in, and the 2026 civil grand jury reported it found no camera deployed without that notice and discussion. Those meetings are in this Board's record. We have not read them.
- When
- Tuesdays at 9:00 AM, on a roughly fortnightly schedule.
- Where
- Board Chambers, 1st Floor, 500 County Center, Redwood City, CA 94063
- Remote
- — not confirmed
- Public comment
- A speaker fills in a speaker's slip before the meeting starts and drops it in the speaker's slip box in front of the Clerk's desk. Speakers are customarily held to two minutes, and the Board President can allow more.
- Written comment
- Written material is handed to the Clerk at the meeting, who distributes it to board members and staff. The county does not publish a deadline or an email address for it.
- Who to ask
- Agenda Administrator, 650-363-1802 (checked )
Two different Board Chambers addresses have been circulating in county documents and search results, 400 County Center and 455 County Center, and neither is right. Every Board of Supervisors meeting on the county's own Legistar calendar gives 500 County Center, Chambers, 1st Floor, which is the address used here. The county's Meeting Information Guide describes the comment procedure but carries no street address and no remote participation details, so whether a given meeting can be joined remotely is on that meeting's agenda.
Confirmed ·
What this list does not cover yet
These are the bodies we have confirmed, not every body in the county. San Mateo County has other commissions and committees, and other school and special districts, that we have not documented yet. Several of the county's own committees publish on the same county portal linked above.
Before you go, and after
Civic action
Read what is already on the record for San Mateo County first. A resident who has read the contract changes the room.
What is documented in San Mateo County →Personal protection
Knowing which systems operate near you also tells you where your own choices still matter.
EFF Surveillance Self-Defense ↗