By Other Voices

By Rick Foreman and Susan Mensinger

The Los Altos City Council recently seems to be operating in a world void of simple common sense and judgment.

First, the Berry Avenue roundabout fiasco - after spending tens of thousands of dollars, countless hours of city staff time and citizen time, the Cityís own consultant declared that there simply was not enough space for a roundabout at Berry Avenue. Shouldnít that have been the first question asked?

A similar, though more complex, situation concerns the approval process of the aquatic complex at Rosita Pool. Contrary to all common sense, the massive 37,000 square foot three-pool, 16 hours per day concept was decided before a site was selected. Given all the environmental intrusions (traffic, parking, noise, lighting, exhaust fumes, etc) proposed for the Rosita site, the only way the city council could justify approval for such a large complex at the Rosita site was to change the environmental standards used in the city’s 1999 Rosita Master Plan to standards that have never been used before in Los Altos and are contrary to the prevailing practices of other municipalities.

Internal Los Altos city staff memos bear out these concerns. A memo dated 1/4/02 identified the problems with the shifting standards in the environmental consultantís report, stating that the report did not have ìadequate supporting data, references, or descriptions to defend their recommendationsî. Yet just two months later the city council seemed untroubled and approved the project over the outspoken objections of virtually all the neighbors. The consequences? The destruction of a quiet residential neighborhood, serious traffic safety issues with the reopened Covington school, financial liability to the city when the pool complex is not self-supporting and yet another potentially costly and embarrassing lawsuit against the city.

Upon completion, the pool complex will be the financial responsibility of Los Altos. The city council deferred to SPLASH, a nonprofit fund raising group dedicated to building a pool complex for Los Altos Masters Swimming, to create a business plan that indicates that the pool complex will be self-supporting. Such a conclusion is contrary to every other municipal pool in the Bay Area. The Business Plan as presented to the city is full of errors and contains no detailed assumptions to support its conclusions.

Again, city staff identified these concerns. A staff memo to the city council dated 5/1/01 stated that cities typically must fund 50-60 percent of the operating costs for a pool and that Los Altos could be responsible for operating shortfalls of $250,000 or more annually. A second memo from the Staff to the city council dated 3/12/02 recognized all the shortcomings of the Business Plan. Yet despite these shortcomings never being adequately addressed, the city council plunged ahead on 3/26/02 and approved the seriously flawed Business Plan. Since then, despite numerous requests from concerned citizens, the city and SPLASH have still not yet provided any detail supporting the Business Plan. Are they afraid that a proper analysis will show that the city’s already stretched budget will have to fund large annual operating shortfalls to the certain detriment of other city programs?

Perhaps the City Council should learn from the recent lessons of corporate America ñ you cannot wish the facts to be the way you want them; the costs to all of us are just too high.

Foreman and Mensinger live in the Los Altos neighborhood that stands to be impacted by the Rosita pool plans.