Choices for two seats could mean new approach for tackling city issues

Four city council candidates are vying for two seats at city hall.

Voters will have another opportunity to further determine the direction of the Los Altos City Council when they go to the polls Nov. 8. Two seats, vacated by longtime councilmembers John Moss and King Lear, are up for grabs on the five-member board.

Four challengers, none of whom is an incumbent, are running for the seats. Two of them, Randall Hull and Val Carpenter, are active Los Altos volunteers who both serve on the city’s planning commission. Another, Kurt Colehower, a businessman with no previous experience serving on city boards, wants to “give back.” Finally, attorney Chris Croudace was inspired to run based on his opposition to the council’s September decision to approve a three-story, 29-unit condominium project at 5100 El Camino Real.

The issues the city council will face in the months and years ahead are varied and vital.

They range from the question of one or two community pools (or smaller pools) at the Rosita recreation site to the progress on building a boutique hotel downtown, a development that some feel will be a catalyst to downtown revitalization. Adding to those are the perennial issues facing Los Altos, not to mention other similar communities: making the most out of a limited budget, meeting public safety needs, getting a handle on development and providing for basic needs, such as properly functioning sewer lines.

The Town Crier is spotlighting each of the four candidates in this issue including information on their motivation for running, the issues that most concern them and who’s endorsing them. Included in this issue are our endorsements for council (see page 8), which were based on individual, in-person interviews with the candidates.

Residents can meet the candidates at the Los Altos-Mountain View League of Women Voters forum 7 p.m. Oct. 17 at Los Altos City Hall, 1 N. San Antonio Road.