City of Los Altos Community Development Director Jon Biggs, in his column “Nothing misleading about city’s revised ADU regulations” (“Other Voices,” Nov. 14), claims the recent ordinance changes proposed by city staff and approved by the city council were “in response to recently adopted state legislation” and “followed several public meetings held by the city council.” That is completely contrary to the facts and the city’s own records and transcripts.

At a recent meeting, Kim Cranston of Los Altos Forward shared some numbers from the recent election. Per his research, 82.9 percent of registered voters in Los Altos participated in the election, a higher percentage than in Mountain View, Campbell, Sunnyvale or San Mateo. (Direct comparisons were only possible in cities where there were city-specific measures on the ballot.) Fantastic!

Per Cranston’s research, Los Altos has a track record of high voter participation. In the November 2016 election, the town hit 90 percent participation, and in the previous midterm election in 2014 managed 64.5 percent, outranking its neighboring communities’ participation rates in both years.

I don’t have any empirical evidence to bolster this observation, but it certainly feels palpable to me that there has been a subtly thunderous shift in the ethos of Silicon Valley.

Comments deemed ‘demeaning’

In my long career in human resources management, I observed that successful companies had many common core values. One of these was how employees and managers should communicate with each other.

The phrase “praise in public, admonish in private” describes one of these values.

City streets don’t need additional night lights

In a letter to the editor, a citizen injured in a fall while walking at night blames the city’s poor street lighting (“Poor lighting poses public-safety danger,” Dec. 19).

Excuse me? Darkness at night comes with living on Earth.

Mordo’s service benefited LA Library

Jean Mordo has served as a council member for Los Altos and Los Altos Hills during the last 15 years. His service has been characterized by energy, intellect and a desire to continually move forward. His knowledge of public financing and how local governments operate have made his contributions both effective and reality based.

In particular, I want to recognize Jean’s work on behalf of the Los Altos Library and libraries in general. He has served both of our cities as representative to the Santa Clara County Joint Powers Authority (JPA) that administers the county library system. He also has represented each of the cities on the North County Library Authority (NCLA), a body that supports our Los Altos Library. As a member of the JPA, he was instrumental in having over $2 million left to the Los Altos Library by the Virginia Whipple and the Corinne Oberlin estates moved to local control from the county library district. Jean has been a strong advocate for Los Altos and the Hills on the JPA.