By Kami Nyugen

Town Crier Editorial Intern

Los Altos, LAH council members conscientious about fulfilling campaign promises

“And if elected, I promise to … “

For most local council members, the pledges made at campaign time prove easier said than done once on the council.

By and large, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills council members are dedicated and conscientious about conducting the people’s business. Our research shows most work hard at trying to fulfill campaign goals.

It’s not an easy job. Trying to benefit one group of residents tends to offend another. The Los Altos council has supported a pool complex at Rosita Avenue to meet community swimming in Los Altos only to offend the surrounding residents who have fought back with a lawsuit.

Fortunately for us, some do take on the often thankless job. As the filing period begins this week for another election in November, let’s see how our local members have measured up thus far.

Los Altos council

os Altos Mayor Francis La Poll said keeping campaign pledges is the most important aspect in being an elected official because not following through may cause “voters (to) become even more cynical and alienated from their government.” In his two years as mayor of Los Altos, La Poll has reached many of the goals he set for himself.

His priorities include providing a voice for Los Altos families, preserving desirable neighborhood/housing characteristics and focusing on traffic safety, open recreational facilities/open space and city-school cooperation.

To work toward those goals, La Poll said he has such successes as acquiring Rosita Park, building gyms at inermediate schools and creating a youth commission.

There has also been focus on preserving the housing density and the neighborhood characteristics that he said are important to longtime residents as well as newer generations.

To do this, he said, he worked with general plans and housing elements to figure out how to minimize negative impacts that are caused by development.

Another committee he had worked with focuses on bicyclists and pedestrians in an effort to establish a written guideline for the neighborhood to achieve traffic calming and speed reductions on local roads.

In his pledge toward city/school cooperation, La Poll said his work in this area includes cooperation with Los Altos High School during its remodeling period, “cooperative efforts on the playing fields,” the land swap with the school district for placement of the Los Altos School District’s equipment, along the same site as the city’s, and the land space that will be used for the community pool.

“For several years, I carried around my campaign brochure to remind me of my pledges and keep me on track,” he said, “until it became quite dogeared and finally fell apart. Now I keep my brochures in various places … (so that I) am reminded of my commitments.”

Council member King Lear said he has worked hard to achieve the goals he listed during his campaign.

His issues dealt with addressing neighborhood traffic safety concerns, promoting healthy business districts as well as long-term parking solutions in the downtown area, and cooperation with school districts involving open space.

He said he had worked toward organizing committees and task forces to include citizens in helping to solve community problems.

Lear said he had gotten two officers to focus solely on traffic enforcement and to begin radar coverage on Springer Road and the 25 mph zone of El Monte.

Although Lear was involved with improving downtown’s development, which included a boutique multiscreen theater, he said, in the end he “failed.”

“People with self interests won over doing what is best for the community at large,” he said. “One of the problems was the inability of downtown people to imagine a boutique multiscreen theater’s (open only weeknights) succeeding without wiping out downtown with traffic.”

As for work with the school districts, Lear said he is pleased with the land exchange for the Rosita pool site, and that they city is building two gyms, one each for Blach and Egan.

Other issues that he is interested in working on are on hold at the time, he said, because the city cannot afford the costs of improvement.

Those things include better pedestrian and biking paths and upgrading Hillview Community center. He added, “we are at risk of severe impact if (or when) the state takes away some of our revenue to deal with the huge drop in state revenue.”

Three of the five council candidates, Kris Casto, Lou Becker and John Moss, did not respond to Town Crier requests for comment on this story.

Casto has stated as her goals working with youth programs, revising residential design guidelines and adequately funding police services. The council approved revised design guidelines that brought some clarity, but the subject proved too subjective to satisfy everyone. Casto herself favored some housing designs that offered a change of pace. She once remarked, “I think it’s fabulous that the neighborhood isn’t all cookie-cutter designs.”

Becker listed improved public safety, including speed enforcement, and better design guidelines as goals. After a contentious struggle two years ago between city officials and the police department, the council approved a new contract for officers that included a raise and improved retirement package.

The council also hired a new police chief, Don Johnson, and morale has seemingly picked up. Becker’s speed enforcement goals were realized when the city stepped up patrols and changed the speed limit on El Monte Avenue to better target speeders.

Moss listed as goals “keeping and improving Los Altos as a great place to live and raise a family,” and “keeping city government financially sound.” He supported a hotel for the corner of Main and First streets, because the hotel would bring in transient occupancy tax money to fund city services.

“It is very important that (the council) follows through,” said Ron Knecht, who once ran for council and has followed council actions closely. “With my experience with the Los Altos voters, I think they’re interested in who’s following through or not.”

Council Member

Campaign Goals

Status

Mayor Francis La Poll

Better cooperation between city and local school districts.

Executed land swap with Los Altos School District in 2000 for creation of park on Rosita Avenue.

Kris Casto

Enhance programs for youth; improve residential guidelines for housing.

New residential guidelines approved; Rosita park established for baseball and soccer.

John Moss

Keeping Los Altos as a “great place to raise a family”; financially sound city government.

City currently struggling fiscally due to cuts in state budget.

King Lear

Addressing neighborhood traffic; cooperation with school districts on open space.

Radar coverage on Springer Road and El Monte Avenue

Lou Becker

Improve public safety, including speed enforcement; develop better housing design guidelines.

Police dept. back at full staff after a period of turmoil; more officers to catch speeders.

Los Altos Hills council

By Caitlin Looney

In November, two positions on the Los Altos Hills city council will be open. With these new openings come corresponding questions such as: Will Steve Finn run for re-election or will he sit this one out with fellow friend and peer, Toni Casey? Casey and council members Stephen Finn, Emily Cheng, Mike O’Malley, and current Mayor Bob Fenwick all had different, specific priorities but many of the member’s and mayor’s overlapped. Some of the major issues concerning the council members were off-road pathways and the sticky subject of mandatory easements, the stringency of the planning commission, underground utilities and improving recreational facilities and programs for town residents. Casey, Finn and Cheng favor nonvoluntary easements for pathways, which some residents feel would ruin the system. However, the council’s current efforts stand to improve the pathways with the painstaking revision of a paths map and increased commitment toward improving existing pathways.

Town resident and council observer Charlene Geers feels the pathway systems issue has been handled in a positive manner. “We haven’t spent money on pathway improvement until now,” she noted.

Geers feels that the current city council should be commended on their efforts to stay focused on their priorities.

One Casey and Finn goal was to take power away from the planning commission, which had grown subjective and overly regulatory in some residents’ eyes. Their “fast-track” policy, which bypasses the commission if homes meet codes and no one complains, was approved. Today’s commission, with different faces under the new council majority, is arguably less regulatory than previous regimes.

Fenwick, moving toward his campaign goal of underground town utilities, gained council support and helped form a committee to study the action. Drafts were written that discussed different forms of funding including the possible answer of a parcel tax, but no real resolutions have yet been made on the matter. The utilities issue is similar to that of the pathways system concern where much discussion has been made on the issues, plans have been drawn and redrawn, but no real resolution or conclusion has been made.

Cheng realized her campaign goal for improved recreational programs, thanks to the work of several involved residents.

With her support, some recreational programs for youth have been approved during her term by the Parks and Recreation Committee, which she initiated, and she was also avidly involved in the Los Altos Hills 5K run-walk fund-raiser through some of the back-road pathways that the town has to offer.

Although council members have stated their commitment to maintain the character of the Hills, some residents believe that the city council is moving in the exact opposite direction.

Resident Jim Steiner, who ran for council twice, thinks the council is moving too fast and vilifies those who think differently. “She (Toni Casey) talks about the old guard as if we wanted to go back to the way things were in the 1890s,” he said.

“This is a great place to live and we want to see it grow and evolve, too, but just not change completely.”

Other residents, including Geers, are thrilled with the direction the council is heading. ” It’s like night and day,” she said. “There is a huge difference on this council.

“It’s like we’ve been pulled out of the dark ages.”