Listen to four citizens object to the Civic Center Plan (Los Altos Community Center Master Plan) and the voter “education” process including the mailing of a no-content brochure. They question the project cost, the “tricky” discussion and approval process, and the use of electoral consultants among other things. These four individuals stayed past 9 pm on December 13 to make their 3 minutes of remarks — exercising their First Amendment rights.
You can see the brochure for yourself on this page.
Lou Cartalano of Sunshine Drive estimates a potential “$800 parcel tax.” (Jim’s estimate is based on the parcel tax only covering the interest payments. An internal analysis by Los Altos Politico staff put the parcel tax closer to $1,600 when repayment of the principal balance ($140 to 175M) is included.)
Robin Chapman of Los Altos suggests that the existing Hillview Community Center, “could be brought up to code for $7 million. We are paying to be lobbied by our own city government [with this brochure].”
For Jerry Medea of Carnation Court, the brochure is “for a sophomoric population…has no content… is a total waste of time and money.”
Jim Jolly of Panchita Way says because of economic bad times for seniors, “defer the plan” till interest income goes up and personal taxes are down.
TechTalk: You may need to download Microsoft Silverlight plugin for your browser on a PC or Mac. The Microsoft Silverlight streaming plug-in in not available for iOS or Android devices. (The city of Los Altos could pay extra to the Granicus, the video service provider, to make this streaming available for the mobile devices preferred by its busy, time-pressed citizens.)
