By Elizabeth Cloutman

Los Altos Hills

Following heated controversy over a sudden shift in the pathways committee leadership last month, the Los Altos Hills City Council has voted to adopt several changes to the rules regarding standing town committees.

While council members said the controversy may have been an unpleasant anomaly, they believe the proposed changes will clarify when a committee can select a new chairman, who sets a committee’s agenda and who establishes the dates and times of regular and special committee members.

“This is an unusual case,” Councilman Mike O’Malley said May 2 of the pathways committee election. “You don’t usually see this kind of machination (on committees) … I think the communication stunk here.”

During a special meeting to discuss revisions to the 1981 Master Path Plan map April 17, a majority of the pathways committee voted to change the form of leadership. Committee member DuBose Montgomery added the election to the meeting agenda, apparently without notifying the standing chairwomen or O’Malley, the council liaison to the committee.

The council voted 4-1 last week, with Councilman Bob Fenwick dissenting, to make several amendments to a resolution concerning standing committees:

One amendment spurred by the pathways committee controversy is that a committee could choose to replace a chairman at any meeting. However, if an election comes at any other time than the first meeting in July, a vote by a majority of the standing committee is necessary.

Another resolution amendment states that while a committee sets the agenda, any member is allowed to add items.

To clarify who is allowed to call a special meeting, a third amendment to the resolution on standing committee noted, “Special meetings of a standing committee may be called only by the standing committee chairperson, mayor or city manager and must be called in accordance with the Ralph M. Brown Act.”

A fourth clarification is that the city council must approve the time and place of regular committee meetings.

Because the election of a new chairman and vice chairwoman came at the same time the pathways committee was considering its recommendations on the 1981 Master Path Plan Map, a source of controversy for years, some residents voiced strong objections to the election’s timing at both the April 17 special pathways committee meeting and the regular city council meeting the following day.

Ewald and Summit, who are proponents of preserving the town ordinance that requires some residents to donate land for off-road pathway easements to obtain approval of new construction, have said publicly they believe they were ousted because of their views, which are no longer representative of the majority opinions of the pathways committee. Montgomery and Vice Chairwoman Charlene Geers have stated in the past that they believe donating easements should be voluntary.