By Linda Taaffe

Council weighs the pros and cons of creating a new set of council guidelines

T he Los Altos City Council is in the process of creating guidelines that would dictate what the mayor could and couldn’t comment on publicly, as part of new set of council norms.

Council members said the intent of such norms is to prevent whoever is serving as mayor from blurring his or her personal opinions with the council’s overall views. Four-of-five council members agreed during a special meeting April 3 to develop the norms. The council further discussed the creation of norms during the regular meeting April 24. Council members Lou Becker and Kris Casto are part of a council subcommittee that will present specific norms for an upcoming vote. The following are excerpts from the April 24 council meeting:

Mayor King Lear: … The conclusion of the council at the other meeting, and correct me if I’m wrong, is that the mayor is generally thought of by the public as representing the council no matter what the mayor says, to the contrary. And because of that … the mayor should have the least freedom to speak of anyone and should only speak on topics that the council has already voted on … If you’re a council member, you have more power than the mayor in the sense of being able to speak in public.

Councilman John Moss: … I think what I would like to see from the mayor is a kind of a representative perspective. In other words, not to use the mayor position as sort of a platform from which your own personal views can be heard to the exclusion of other council members’ views. I think it needs to be more balanced when it’s from the mayor…

Mayor King Lear: So you’re saying if the mayor speaks out with an opinion and is just stating it’s his opinion only, and not the council’s, it’s not adequate.

Councilman Francis La Poll: Unfortunately, that’s true. Even when the mayor says that it is only his or her own opinion, it doesn’t get picked up from the press, and even if it does, it doesn’t get internalized by the reader. And I think that’s why there has been angst in the community because it is believed that one person’s statements end up being the city position. And there’s nothing wrong with a particular position, it’s just that the people feel the decision has already been made because the mayor’s making a statement.

Mayor King Lear: I do agree with the fact that if the mayor, or any council member for that matter, makes a statement to the press … I think it should be generally understood by the public if it is something that hasn’t been voted on, than that person isn’t speaking for the council. ..

Councilman Lou Becker: My real concern about that, as I’ve expressed before, is if one person, not just the mayor, … started writing letters to the newspaper then why shouldn’t another council member do that to clarify their position … and so on. And then we’re really having our council discussion in the newspaper or whatever format we’re using … and that’s what we’re trying to get away from … we’re trying to have the discussion here.

Mayor King Lear: In my own mind, I clearly differentiate that from something where the council is taking initiative, where there are certain leadership roles on the council that may form to do something in the community where there is a desire for some leadership and discussion, frankly. In other words, if council doesn’t discuss it, there may not be anyone else in the community that necessarily has some vision to do what could be done and nothing would be discussed. … I think in that case we’re doing the public a service by aiding the discussion. I’m not sorry for anything I’ve said or done since it helps the public think about it … the basic requirement though, that is absolutely crucial, is that we always respect each other … So as long as we’re not getting into a war but just trying to contribute to the public discussion, I don’t see any problem.

Councilman Francis La Poll: … I believe that there is a sense that we need to be careful when the person is a mayor. I think there’s been a reaction to that perception that indicates that we need to draw a finer distinction … we can use first street as an issue … As a council member, it would very clear that you were taking a position and that that was your position … The mayor has no greater authority … than any other council member. The reason why we are so sensitive to this is everyone of us was elected at large by all of the citizens of the community and none of us wants to relinquish the responsibility or feels that we should in any way compromise our obligation to our constituents to make independent decisions.

Mayor King Lear: I guess my position on this is that rather than have the mayor be the least in terms of vision and leadership, just don’t worry about it and allow the mayor, if they have a great vision, to broaden talk with the public, but constantly remind people that the mayor is just talking for the person … otherwise you end up kind of cheating the public … I mean you can have bad mayors and good mayors … If you have a bad mayor, then they’re going to say a lot of things that are biased … but at least you have the courage to contribute to a public discussion as opposed to being reticent and committee-minded and lacking the courage to actually talk about the issue … I would contend that if I hadn’t been doing the job I’ve been doing, we wouldn’t have a theater option. I was the one who brought that up. … We would have missed that.

Councilman Francis La Poll: I guess I disagree on whether we would have a theater option, and so without getting again into the substance of it, it is important to discuss whether there’s a way to make sure that the mayor has a role … a distinction between advocating your position up here on the (stand) and providing leadership … It’s when you’re outside of this forum I think that the issues arise …

Mayor King Lear: The bottom line on this, I think, the mayor has rights of freedom of speech and unless you set up a norm where you get unanimous agreement … I would not agree to being muzzled. That doesn’t make much sense to set up a policy that violates freedom of speech that you have a difficult time enforcing.

Councilman Francis La Poll: Well the whole point is to have norms that are considered toward the mean/median … If 80 percent of the council says this is the norm, I think that’s appropriate to have it as a norm, and that any member who does something different, and you’re perfectly welcome to speak and obviously have First Amendment rights, then that mayor has to at least understand that they are not going along with the expectations and desires of the rest of the council. … I don’t think what the majority of us are suggesting is unreasonable.

Councilman Lou Becker: … We do need some boundaries so the council works better and works more cohesively…

Councilwoman Kris Casto: … The issue of open government… should be between the five of us here in an open arena. I guess there’s a fine line of when you’re out there as a mayor advocating for a position … We don’t want to close the process or people feeling it’s closed because a person’s advocating such a position before all the information is in.

Mayor King Lear: I made some decisions on this particular issue. Reading the tea leaves, the theater wasn’t going to get much of a chance. That’s just my interpretation … when I looked at the report that they had done, if I had any power, I would have sent them back for them to do over again … there was a lot of inaccuracies and incomplete work on that staff report … even though the analysis was incomplete … there was still a strong recommendation for this hotel or that hotel and nothing else. At that point, I became more active at my own analysis. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps I should have asked the council to push staff harder … Let me describe a subtle problem with (staff) taking a position too early … once the staff takes a position, and this is really subtle, … a standard practice among consultants is not to disagree with staff … They are so habitually used to asking, ‘What is it you want us to prove, and then they go out and do it’ … That is just my interpretation…

City Manager Phil Rose: I just don’t think that’s true of recent consultants we’ve used here. … If it does happen, it’s a subtle thing and it’s not going to directly effect the overall recommendations.

Mayor King Lear: I’m just saying the difficulty of a too early recommendation from staff, it does have an impact on the subsequent fairness/ slant etc. to what you get.

Councilman Lou Becker: … I think that’s what we’re saying, too early of a decision by the mayor in the public causes a problem, too.

Councilman Francis La Poll: The whole point of norms is to set forth expectations … it’s only fair to the fifth council member to know what the rest of the council members are expecting … at least they understand that other people may be resentful or don’t appreciate it. It’s better to have our expectations on the table.