By Linda Taaffe

Candidate Ron Packard, second from right, watches the polls Nov. 4 during a party at his house. Packard earned the second highest number of votes in the Los Altos City Council race, securing him a four-year term.

Voters elected all newcomers to the Los Altos City Council during last week’s election, leaving a new council majority to tackle economic and downtown development issues on the agenda in upcoming months.

David Casas, Curtis Cole and Ron Packard are scheduled to join second-term councilmen John Moss and King Lear Nov. 25. Casas, a former school board member, captured the most support in last week’s election with 21.98 percent of the votes. Packard, a former Mountain View councilman, came in second with 19.75 percent of the votes; and Curtis Cole secured the third seat with 17.19 percent of the votes after a close battle with incumbent Francis La Poll, who had won 16.18 percent of the votes when the polls closed Nov. 4.

La Poll was the first councilmember to seek a third consecutive term since the city put guidelines in place to limit residents to two consecutive four-year terms in 1978. Voters turned the guideline into law when they overwhelmingly approved a city ordinance to limit council terms in 1999 with a 76 percent majority. The law, however, did not apply to La Poll, who served his first term prior to the change. Only terms served after 1999 fell under the new ordinance.

The council faces a challenging economic picture marked by storefront vacancies, decreased tax revenues and the battle to preserve downtown’s unique character. Moss, next in line for mayor this year, is making “Buying in Los Altos” his theme to encourage more economic growth in the city.

The biggest issues facing the council are the fate of the Rosita pool and the city-owned property on the corner of First and Main streets.

The three-pool complex slated for Rosita Avenue is set to come back to council in 2004 following a court-ordered Environmental Impact Report that neighbors demanded during a lawsuit to stop the project. Casas, Cole and Packard have all said they support a pool project, possibly scaled back.

The council tabled the hotel project slated for the city-owned property on First and Main streets earlier this year until better economic times after failing to strike a lease agreement with developer Roxy Rapp. This council will more than likely be charged with deciding whether to renegotiate with Rapp, sell the property or lease it to another developer.

The city purchased the gateway property in 1995 with the intent to add more downtown parking and improve the city’s appearance.

“The city has been hesitant to envision the property solely as a parking lot,” Casas said while campaigning. “As a potential solution, the city could sell this property and utilize the money to increase parking capacity elsewhere in the downtown, preferably adjacent to our existing parking lots.”

Cole said he sees the development of the property an opportunity to provide quality public parking, especially if done in conjunction with a Safeway property redevelopment as Rapp had proposed.

Packard said the city should proceed forward with Roxy or a comparable developer and negotiate fair terms without being so aggressive as to kill the deal, and use the potential $3 million ground-lease payment exclusively for parking.

Traffic was top priority in each of their political campaigns.