Year of crisis and changes presented challenges, but residents responded
By Town Crier Staff Report,
 Residents come to the aid of Katrina victims with funding and supplies |
The year 2005 tested our ability to adapt to change and respond to crisis. Locally, nationally and globally, our residents proved up to the challenges.
Local residents started the year by helping the tsunami victims of Southeast Asia, then responded handily again when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in late summer. Then residents turned to giving locally as well, through charities such as the Town Crier’s Holiday Fund.
The year 2005 also saw transitions of leadership in many of the community’s high-profile institutions. The Los Altos School District enjoyed a seamless transition from retiring longtime schools chief Marge Gratiot to new superintendent Tim Justus. New Los Altos Police Chief Bob Lacey ably replaced his predecessor, Don Johnson, who left in January to head the Sunnyvale department.
As the year draws to a close, the El Camino Hospital District board is dealing with the impending departure of its CEO, Lee Domanico. Domanico’s leaving capped a turbulent year for the hospital, which endured a lawsuit that threatened its rebuilding program and faced public disclosure questions - most notably over Domanico’s hefty compensation package.
From Los Altos Hills, debate over the impact of the Bullis Charter School continued, while a power struggle emerged over control of programs at Westwind Barn. In Los Altos, development issues such as the Pinewood School expansion and a condominium project at 5100 El Camino Real made headlines.
Political issues also reared their controversial heads, from Los Altos Mayor David Casas’ denouncing the candidacy of school board candidate Francis La Poll to the Los Altos council distancing itself from requests for a Gay Pride Day and supporting Los Altos Hills council efforts to reclaim the Bullis-Purissima School site for the charter school.
Below is a month-by-month account of the people and events that shaped our communities in 2005.
January
• Los Altos Police Chief Don Johnson announced his resignation. The outgoing chief left to fill the top spot at the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety. The Los Altos Police Department appointed Capt. Bob Lacey interim police chief.
• It will cost an additional $50 million to rebuild El Camino Hospital, the hospital district’s board of directors learned. Ken King, vice president for facilities services, said the increases are due mainly to sky-high costs in raw materials such as steel.
• Downtown Los Altos may become more attractive to chain stores. The Los Altos City Council dropped a zoning law restricting large businesses from coming to town without special permission.
• City officials say the council’s certification of the Final Environmental Impact Report legally enables the city to build as much as a three-pool complex as initially proposed at Rosita Park or as little as nothing at the site.
• A new city law will restrict large family child-care centers to one per most city blocks. The Los Altos City Council unanimously agreed to require centers licensed to care for up to 14 children to be at least 1,500 linear feet apart, the equivalent of a typical Los Altos city block and separated by a 500-foot circumference.
February
• The Los Altos Library Endowment and the Santa Clara County Library accepted a $2.8 million bequest from the estate of longtime Los Altos Hills resident Virginia Whipple to support the Los Altos library.
• Los Altos Hills Mayor Mike O’Malley told councilmembers that Hills residents should boycott Los Altos businesses to send a message to the school district about their handling of Bullis Charter School. The comments triggered public outcry, but O’Malley said his remarks were not meant to be taken seriously.
March
• A dispute between a Foothill College student and a professor has become the center of a national controversy. Talk radio, cable TV talk shows, the evening news and bloggers have been abuzz discussing the political implications of a complaint by student Ahmad Al-Qloushi, a member of the college’s Republican club, against political science professor Joseph Woolcock. The student has dropped the complaint, but the professor has since filed a grievance against the student.
• In a move that surprised the audience and his board of directors, El Camino Hospital CEO Lee Domanico revealed his pay structure for 2004 at a board meeting. He stated his base salary is $441,000 with bonuses totaling $174,000.
• A home computer theft led Los Altos police to the largest stash of stolen goods recovered in the department’s history. Police recovered at least 300 items believed to be stolen, valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars, from a warehouse in Redwood City after Detective Scott Sweezey tracked down computers reported stolen from Los Altos to the facility on the 1700 block of Bayshore Road.
• Los Altos may have celebrated its last Gay Pride Day.Following the 2004 controversy, the city council decided to mind its own business when it comes to backing religious, sexual orientation or political issues that don’t involve the city. New guidelines prohibit the council from making proclamations that could specifically promote racial, sexual or religious discrimination or intolerance against a person, organization or event.
• The Los Altos Hills 2004-2005 Master Pathway Map was approved after hundreds of hours of work by the pathways committee. The map shows off-road trails that are part of the city’s 60-mile pathway system, created by city founders as an alternative to sidewalks.
April
• Public attention focused on pedestrian safety and traffic problems in town after a Los Altos resident was struck by a sport utility vehicle as he crossed San Antonio Road at Hawthorne Road. The pedestrian died at the scene.
• The Los Altos Hills City Council authorized city staff to begin the first phase of a five-part project to improve traffic flow and safety on El Monte and Moody roads. The plan includes improving safety at the cloverleaf interchange of Interstate 280 on El Monte.
• The Los Altos City Council gave the Valley Transportation Authority a thumbs-down on a proposal to permanently raise sales taxes another half cent to cover project shortfalls. The council also recommended that funding already approved for BART through Measure A in 2000 be removed from the board’s Long-term Capital Investment Program until a feasible alternative is developed.
May
• Tim L. Justus, with 16 years’ experience heading elementary districts, will take over from Marge Gratiot when she retires at the end of June after 18 years as superintendent of the 4,300-student Los Altos School District. Justus led the 2,800-student Rincon Valley Union Elementary School District in Santa Rosa for the past seven years.
• Voters approved a ballot measure to extend the current parcel tax another 10 years, maintaining status quo at the nine district libraries, including two in Los Altos. The libraries had faced a 20 percent reduction in operational costs at the end of the month.
• The Los Altos City Council rejected a proposal that would have allowed Pinewood School, a longtime fixture in Costello Acres, to increase its enrollment and expand its lower campus on Fremont Avenue farther into the neighborhood, an area recognized for its large lots and rural character.
June
• A national survey ranked Los Altos the No. 1 family-friendly city in the greater Bay Area. The NeighborhoodScout Special Report said Los Altos had the highest overall combination of attributes parents and researchers repeatedly cite as important in defining the optimal places for families and children: the quality of public schools, safety from crime, the proportion of families with children, residents’ education levels, homeownership levels and the number of single-family homes.
• The Los Altos-Mountain View area League of Women Voters led a formal request, supported by several prominent area doctors, for the district board of directors to conduct the hospital’s business - and communicate with the public - more openly.
• Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Kevin A. McKenney decided to bring to trial Aaron Katz’s lawsuit challenging voter passage of 2003’s Measure D, which authorizes $148 million in bonds for construction of a new 325-bed hospital facility. The decision to go to trial means certain delay, at least until next spring, before the hospital can break ground on construction.
• A county Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate elections for three school district parcel taxes and a 2003 bond measure for rebuilding El Camino Hospital. Kevin A. McKenney tossed out a case filed by Saratoga resident Aaron Katz, who contends he should have been allowed to vote in the districts because he owns property in them. McKenney rejected the case against the El Camino Hospital District, Mountain View-Whisman School District and two other county school districts based on “deficiencies” in Katz’s arguments. Katz plans to appeal.
• More than 100 Los Altos Hills residents, local politicians and community leaders turned out in a light drizzle for the dedication of the city’s new town hall.
• Los Altos School District said farewell to Superintendent Marge Gratiot and welcomed a historic first for its budget: District teachers will contribute toward the cost of their benefits package - 5 percent of the total for 2005-2006. Teachers agreed once again to forgo a cost-of-living increase.
July
• Muggles, squibs and wizards celebrated the long-awaited release of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” in downtown Los Altos. Fans turned Main Street into Hogwarts Central in anticipation of the book, which went on sale at the stroke of midnight.
• Longtime policeman Bob Lacey was appointed police chief after 25 years working as a deputy, sergeant and captain for the Los Altos Police Department. Lacey had been serving as interim police chief since January when Don Johnson left Los Altos to fill a position in Sunnyvale.
August
• After a nearly 50-year delay, the Foothill-De Anza Community College District voted to demolish the century-old Griffin House, once the home of Willard Griffin, a founder of Del Monte Packing. The brown-shingled, dormered house sits at the foot of the hill near the entrance to Foothill College.
• The newly rebuilt Antiochian Orthodox Church of the Redeemer in Los Altos Hills reopened its doors to its congregation after being destroyed by an unknown arsonist in 2002. At the time of the blaze, some believed it was the result of a hate crime because the Christian congregation is primarily of Middle-Eastern or Arab-American descent. Its 200 parishioners, led by the Rev. Samer Youssef, continued services under a canvas tarp in the courtyard next to the building’s remains during reconstruction.
• After a year tied up in court, Los Altos got the go-ahead for a community swimming pool project at Rosita Park. Santa Clara County Judge Leslie Nichols ruled in the city’s favor after a group of residents sued over unresolved traffic and noise concerns related to the proposed project.
• The need for more housing outweighed resident opposition to a three-story condominium project planned for El Camino Real. The Los Altos City Council approved the project despite opposition from approximately 580 residents who petitioned against the 29-unit project. The issue culminated with a lawsuit filed in November by a group of residents opposed to the project.
• Officials from the Palo Alto Area Chapter of the American Red Cross jumped into action in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, training and sending volunteers to New Orleans and other devastated Gulf Coast areas. It was the largest mobilization of resources in the Red Cross’ history for a single natural disaster.
September
• Four men suspected of belonging to an organized crime ring from South America escaped with what police called one of the largest jewelry grabs in Los Altos history. The men allegedly stole an estimated $300,000 in jewelry from a traveling salesman staying at the Marriott Courtyard Hotel on El Camino Real. The robbery shared similarities commonly associated with what law enforcement officials call the South American Theft Groups, prompting the Federal Bureau of Investigation to join Los Altos police in the investigation.
• The long court battle between Bullis Charter School supporters and the Los Altos School District ended in the Santa Clara County Superior Court when a judge ruled that the district complied fully with state laws in leasing the Egan camp school rather than Bullis-Purissima Elementary School to the charter school. Charter school supporters would prefer to have the school located in Los Altos Hills, preferably on the former elementary school campus.
• A machete-wielding man who was shot and injured by an officer in unincorporated Los Altos made for some shocking news. The 23-year-old landscaper allegedly attacked three people in a rampage that began when he bit off part of his co-worker’s ear and assaulted him with a machete. The man allegedly attacked an 80-year-old woman with the butt of the machete, striking her head and back, and struck a 66-year-old bicyclist on the back with his machete as she rode through an intersection on Belvoir Drive.
October
• The Los Altos Hills City Council spent $97,067 on its yearlong lawsuit against the Los Altos School District before dropping it in October. The town claimed the district needed a conditional-use permit to operate private preschools at the former Bullis-Purissima Elementary School site, zoned for only public, not private, education. The district asserted that it did not have to comply with local zoning ordinances, according to state educational code.
• Los Altos officials approved several measures to calm local traffic, raising the speed limit on Springer Road in an unconventional attempt to slow down motorists and planning a flashing pedestrian walkway at Pepper Drive and San Antonio Road. Increasing the posted Springer speed limit from 25 mph to 30 mph ensured that traffic tickets, previously thrown out of court, would stick.
• As the full impact of the Gulf-region hurricanes and the Pakistani earthquake played out, local charities braced for a dip in donations on the eve of the holiday fund-raising season. The Red Cross and the Community Services Agency of Mountain View, as well as other local charities, reported tight times approaching Thanksgiving and Christmas.
• The Los Altos City Council brought claims of overreaction when it approved a conduct code that enables the city to use the strictest penalties allowed against those who disrupt meetings. An outburst could bring misdemeanor charges and a jail sentence of up to six months.
• The Los Altos Hills City Council unanimously voted to support a “land swap” with Bullis Charter School, using proceeds from the sale of a town-owned 1.7-acre property on Page Mill Road toward purchasing a campus in town for the charter school. The Charter School Foundation expects private donations to allow the charter school to purchase a larger parcel than the narrow and steeply sloped site.
• The Los Altos City Council outsourced the question of the city’s million-dollar swimming pool plans to a private contractor. The operational and financial impacts of one pool versus two pools have been hotly debated issues since neighbors sued the city in 2003. The contractor’s report is expected in January.
November
• Los Altos’ long-awaited sewer master plan calls for $68 million in improvements over the next 20 years, a cost that will reach residents through incremental fee increases. The improvements suggested in the plan include replacing thousands of feet of degraded pipe, removing root blockages and documenting problem areas. The plan concluded that while the system performance was good, incidences of stoppages and overflows are worse than average compared with cities of similar size.
• Two high-profile parents with moderate agendas - Val Carpenter and Kurt Colehower - claimed two open seats in the race for council in November’s election, The two, sworn in Dec. 6, shared two positions in their campaigns - protecting Los Altos’ small-town charm and promoting local business interests.
• Voters elected MBAs Mark Goines, David Pefley and David Luskin to open seats on the Los Altos School District board in a hotly contested race. In the next two years, the board must decide the future of the district’s only expansion site, renewal of the district’s parcel tax allotment - 20 percent of its budget - and the shape of future school enrollment boundaries.
• The Santa Clara County Central Fire Protection District has proposed charging Los Altos and Los Altos Hills approximately $2.6 million more for fire services, a 66 percent increase over previous years. The increase may drain city funds from other community projects such as the Rosita Pool plan.
December
• Los Altos city officials are looking into adopting new ethics standards to discourage planning commissioners and councilmembers from making real estate investments while serving in public positions. The new standards could also discourage elected and appointed officials from serving on boards for organizations, such as non-profits, charities and business associations, that have financial interests with the city.
• A group of residents opposed to the three-story condominium project approved for El Camino Real is suing the city of Los Altos. The group alleged the city violated zoning regulations that should have provided a larger buffer between residential neighbors and the proposed 29-unit complex near Distel Drive.
• El Camino Hospital’s CEO of five years, Lee Domanico, resigned and said he is leaving to head Legacy Health System in Portland, Ore. It comprises five hospitals, a full-service research facility, a hospice agency and a range of clinics.
