Council liaisons would have voting power

By Lauren McSherry, Town Crier Staff Writer

The Los Altos Hills City Council plans to “strengthen” one of its advisory committees. Earlier this month, the finance and investment committee reported the council had up to $3 million from the general fund to spend on a site for the Bullis Charter School.

The council discussed last Thursday assigning two councilmen as voting members to the committee. Currently, Councilman Jean Mordo, liaison to the committee, cannot vote. The council is expected to adopt the changes at its next meeting.

Councilman Mike O’Malley said he was in favor of the idea given two issues that have come before the council in recent months: the investment of town funds and buying a school site.

Mordo said before his appointment as liaison, the committee met only two to three times a year, but that now it meets nearly every month. The problem lately, however, has been the lack of a quorum.

Longtime committee member Frank Lloyd argued against the changes, saying that having councilmembers on the committee “does not give a fresh viewpoint to the council. I just want to point out you’re giving advice to yourselves if you can vote on committees.”

Earlier this month, Lloyd presented the committee’s report that $3 million could be spent from the town’s coffers.

“If you want to spend it on land for the charter school, you can do so,” Lloyd told the council. “Should we spend it is a different question.”

Mayor Breene Kerr said the council did not ask that question because, “The committee is not a policy-making committee.” But according to the resolution establishing the committee, it “has the general power and duty to render advice and make recommendations to the City Council … on all aspects of its particular sphere of interest.”

The resolution states that the committee can make recommendations not requested by the council if the recommendations are deemed necessary by a majority of the committee members.