By Kathleen Acuff

It’s back to the drawing board for the remaining appointment to the Los Altos Planning Commission.

Concerned that their private exchanges of opinion on the matter might have violated state law on open meetings, city councilmembers declined last week to award the commission’s empty seat to the Los Altos resident who had won the most votes from them at their previous meeting.

The council reversed its Feb. 14 decision to appoint Rob Fagen to the commission after staff recounted the votes and found a tie between Fagen and Ken Girdley - and after Girdley pointed out that Fagen, a Mora Drive resident, lives in an unincorporated area with a Los Altos address.

Fagen said he learned he was disqualified on the evening of the council meeting. He said he noted on his application that he thought he might live in the county and also mentioned that to at least one councilmember but thought the city would check his address.

“I totally understand,” he said. “It makes sense to have people who live in the city to make decisions about the city.”

Before the council’s unanimous Feb. 28 vote to start over, Mayor Ron Packard said he feared councilmembers might violate the Brown Act if they appointed Girdley without directing staff to re-advertise the vacancy and contact the other candidates to find out whether they are still interested in serving.

“I got a call from the Republican chairman of the county in support of one of the two (candidates tied for the position) … and unsolicited e-mail from councilmembers that came close to violating the Brown Act,” Packard said in the open meeting. “I feel very nervous about the process. If our good friend Gerry Madea decided to challenge it and went to the DA, I’m afraid he’d say he (Madea) had a case.”

Madea, a self-styled “council watchdog,” was in the front row of the council chambers.

Girdley, vice chairman of the Historical Commission, told the council he brought both the math error and Fagen’s ineligibility to the city’s attention.

Asking to be appointed immediately, he told councilmembers, “It has been a very, very stressful two weeks for me, as you all know because I’ve contacted each and every one of you.”

The council will most likely vote at a regular meeting in April to fill the commission seat Val Carpenter vacated when she was elected to the council in November. The appointments of Kenneth Lorell and Kathryn Uhlir and the reappointments of Randall Hull and Phoebe Bressack stand.

Also in the previous meeting, the council appointed Dennis Potter to the Parks, Arts and Recreation Committee and reappointed Bill Crook, Curt Riffle and Kurt Ayers to the Traffic Commission, all for four-year terms. The council appointed Harriet Girdley to the Historical Commission for a one-year term.