By Linda Taaffe
Los Altos
Voters won’t have to wait until the Nov. 6 election to discover who will fill the two empty seats on the Los Altos City Council. Incumbents John Moss and King Lear were the only candidates to enter the race by the filing deadline last Friday, according to Los Altos City Clerk Carol Scharz.
This is the first time incumbents have remained unchallenged in a Los Altos city council race since 1991, when Marge Bruno, Ted Laliotis and Dave Reeder ran unopposed for reelection.
Both Moss and Lear’s names will appear on the November ballot, though each remain in office for another four-year term, until 2006.
The race for Moss and Lear’s seats comes just weeks after the council’s controversial decision to place a boutique hotel at the city-owned property on the corner of First and Main streets. That decision is still drawing resident criticism and concern.
Theater opponents criticized Lear’s zealous crusade to place a movie theater at the site.
Theater supporters criticized the council for ignoring the community’s pleas for a theater in favor of a more profitable hotel investment.
Lear said he believes that the primary reason no one else stepped forward in the election is because three council seats will be up for election in two years.
Moss said he believes “most people are satisfied with our performance.”
Moss, 59, and Lear, 63, are completing their first four-year term on the council.
They won the four-way race for the two vacant council seats in the 1997 election.
Lear, a retired engineer and a 30-year Los Altos resident, said traffic, preserving neighborhood integrity, maintain downtown’s visibility and updating the city’s General Plan are his top goals.
Moss, an engineer at Agilent Technologies and a 23-year Los Altos resident, said he plans to set down the goals set forth for his current term. These include, establishing and publicizing the city government priorities, slowing the erosion of Los Altos’ small town neighborhood character and improving relations between the city and schools.
