By Steve Hubbell

Age: 51

Occupation: Engineer

Hubbell’s call for “boring town government” drew laughs from the audience at last Wednesday’s candidates forum, yet it rang true at the same time. He envisions a council that problem-solves, like he does, by “talking to a whole pile of people,” as he put it, and building consensus for solutions to problems. Hubbell said he decided to run for council because of the current debate over the proposed plans for a new town hall. Hubbell, whose home abuts town hall property, said the current plans are too costly and clash with the semirural ambience of Los Altos Hills.

“I thought fast-track (council approval of noncontroversial housing plans by bypassing the planning commission) was OK,” Hubbell said. “Then they lost touch (with the residents).”

Hubbell is concerned about liberal use of town reserves that could make it vulnerable when the town really needs the money, such as in the case of a natural disaster. “They’re hiring people for things they don’t need,” he said, citing the town’s new park and recreation department as an example. “The town survey (done last year) said 57 percent want more open space, but not more parks,” Hubbell said.

He favors the citizens’ open space initiative and calls the council’s initiative “purely politically motivated.” Hubbell also believes in going slow with vacating easements for town pathways. “Once you vacate easements, they’re gone forever,” he said.

Bill Kerns

Age: 47

Occupation: Engineering manager

Kerns, currently on the town planning commission, is concerned with Los Altos Hills “going back in time” to when previous councils were accused of making subjective and arbitrary rulings on housing proposals that did not necessarily reflect town ordinances.

“I want to protect the property rights of homeowners,” Kerns said. “I should pick up a copy of an ordinance and say, ‘This is what I can do.’” His own frustrating experiences with past councils over the building of his controversial hilltop home led to his involvement in the town government.

Kerns considers himself fair-minded, a good listener and “a good compromise builder.” His work on the commission and on the town’s municipal code committee makes him knowledgeable about town laws.

He doesn’t like the competing open space initiatives and wants to merge the two together.

He said the town did not do a good job in getting resident input for building a new town hall. He suggested the town do its own survey and establish a grading moratorium until next April - plenty of time to gather more input.

Kerns believes the current revised pathways map is better than the one done 21 years earlier, and better reflects resident needs with emphasis on on-road paths. Kerns also points to the town’s need for better storm drainage and erosion control, along with better cell phone service and DSL access.

Breene Kerr

Age: 50

Occupation: Marketing executive

Kerr said he’s interested in having a town government “where you don’t have to form a committee of 500 people, spend $25,000 and hire an attorney to get heard.”

He said a resident group opposing designs for a mission-style town hall sent out their own survey to show the town council the wave of sentiment against the current design. “Why didn’t the town send out its own survey?” Kerr asked.

Kerr said he got interested in running for council because of rumors of the sale of town-owned land. He favors the resident-sponsored open space initiative.

He feels he can bring more balance to the council, as well as better listening skills. “I was shocked at the way people were treated (at council meetings),” Kerr said. “People would realize halfway through their speech that it was a waste of time.”

Kerr’s wife, Joan Sherlock, was raised in Los Altos Hills. “I have a good perspective on where the town’s been,” he said.

He said his strengths are “understanding issues, getting down to the major points and explaining them to people.”

The founder of two successful startups, Kerr said his background as a manager can aid the council. He said consensus building is his No. 1 goal.

Janet Vitu

Age: 41

Occupation: Magazine publisher

Vitu is currently chairwoman of the town planning commission. She says she has “tremendous understanding of the issues” through her two years on the commission. Vitu said she wants to continue the current council’s progress in enforcing “unsubjective building rules.” She said she wants to represent the majority opinion in town.

Citing that “infrastructure is an important issue,” Vitu said as a council member, she would focus on less controversial, but important issues such as sewer hookups, better cell phone coverage and storm drainage.

Vitu said the update of a map for the town pathways system is long overdue. She supports the current revised map, but also is in favor of doing updates to the path plan when mistakes or other problems are verified.

On town hall, she is in favor of more resident input in determining the final design. She said a recent mailer by a resident group opposed to the current mission-style design included distortions about the current town hall design proposal.

She’s in favor of a proposal to undergrounding utilities but wants a plan to pay for it that’s acceptable to most residents.

Vitu likes the council-sponsored open space initiative over the citizens’ proposal because it allows voters to change zoning designations before approving open space.

Dean Warshawsky

Five candidates for two seats

Issues: Town pathways, design for new town hall, initiatives to preserve town-owned properties as open space, housing development, infrastructure questions concerning roads, sewers and storm drainage.

Age: 33

Occupation: Technology sales representative

Warshawsky said he bought a home in Los Altos Hills “with the pretense that open space is open space and it stays that way forever.”

But rumors about possible sale of town-owned land spurred his entry into the council race. He supports the residents’ open space intiative to lock up most of the town’s properties as open space.

“My priorities are open space, fiscal accountability and consensus building and compromise,” Warshawsky said.

As potentially the youngest member of the council, Warshawsky said he would represent “the new generation.”

He envisions people on the council “who care about the community and its citizens.”

He cites instances such as the dueling open space initiatives and the furor over designs for a new town hall in which citizens’ input hasn’t been respected.

Warshawsky said in instances where the town laws were not respected, such as the unauthorized demolition of the Winbigler house, the town has not come down hard enough in penalizing the homeowners.

He’s in favor of taking another look at the revised pathways map to correct errors and accounting for the input of the residents.