Los Altos Election 2014 – Countervailing Factions

Here is a short guide and recent history of some of the most active “north” Los Altos politics factions.  In city politics, these include Los Altos Forward and Friends of Los Altos. In north Los Altos public school politics, these include Huttlinger Alliance for Education and EachStudentCounts.org. There are smaller formal and informal factions that promote public spending for a new library, a new theater, and a new pool. All are piling on to influence the Los Altos Election 2014 outcomes.

 

UPDATE: SEPT. 30, 2014. Friends of Los Altos.org maintenance of  their recently acquire LANN.org is weak.  The load time for those archive pages is now 1 to 2 minutes.  Please bring the archive into a better hosting situation. Pleez.

 

DOWNTOWN LOS ALTOS – biz vs. residents?

City of Los Altos politics is mainly about zoning, traffic and occasionally new taxes. Key city stakeholders in order of their  level of “civic engagement” are downtown property and business owners, downtown residents, the other owner/operators in commercial zones scattered down along Foothill Expressway and El Camino, and then finally the rest of us suburban residents –the tail that does not wag the dog.  If you are not directly impacted by  a proposed change, you probably don’t even know it is being considered.

Los Altos Forward – “vibrancy and sustainability’

Not quite a decade old, the core of this group is a subset of downtown property owners, business owners, and some downtown triangle condo residents.  It educates the community about “vibrancy and sustainability.”  That means the retail foot traffic and sales taxes could increase if zoning were changed to permit more and denser commericial and housing construction. Proponents argue this would benefit schools improving economic sustainability.  Residentialists who prefer a more bustling town, more bike lanes, more sidewalks have also joined this group to promote vibrancy and “green” sustainability.”

The group has helped sponsor the pop-up “greens” or parklettes on closed downtown streets, interesting free seminars by Fred Kent about “place-making” and also about “traffic calming” approaches which enourage biking and walking.  First Fridays — when downtown shops stay open late once a month — are the brainchild of Los Altos Forward. Pasarelle Investments and Kim Cranston are a couple of key backers.

The group is incorporated as 501c3 and cannot engage in any political advocacy, only education. Their website here.

Friends of Los Altos – “pretty much the way it is now”

A few months ago, in reaction to the growing media drumbeat for “vibrancy” created by Los Altos Forward activities, a small group of former Los Altos City Council members formed a countervailing group to cancel the “noise from special interets in town.”  Their aim is to keep the Main and State streets area “downtown pretty much the way it is now” while allowing development around the peripherial streets of the downtown triangle.  For this group vibrancy is a code word for inapproriate development not in keeping with the historic charm of Los Altos. Key backers are Ron Packard, David Casas, Val Carpenter and Lou Becker.

Over the years the Historical commission has designated quite a few buildings on Main Street as historic resources for preservation, not because they are beautiful, but because something historic happened there.

Some of the founders have a strong relationship with our Los Altos Historical Commission. Over the years the commission has designated quite a few buildings on Main Street as historic resources for preservation.  Although not beautiful, they are a place where something important happened or someone important lived or worked,  and that means they are preserved. It also tends to make it uneconomic for the neighbors of  these historic buildings to be redeveloped. Hence, most of Main Street will stay pretty much the way it is now, except for new paint, new awnings, refreshed small signage, new flowers and some business turnover.

One exception is the block of Main at San Antonio.  In 2012 Casas, Carpenter,  Packard and two other council members oked the design and construction of the large hotel built in a European historical style at 1 Main. Today Ron Packard is part of a separate group of citizens who are promoting a plan for a multi-story parking structure next to Safeway downtown and a new “commericial assessement district” which would pay for half the cost.

LANN has been a publishing platform where Current and Ex- Los Altos city council members and planning commissioners could write commentary about commercial projects, residential projects, and even sage reporting on LASD.

Only a few weeks ago, FOLA merged the 20-year-old Los Altos Neighborhood Network into its organization. LANN or as it was known then – the Homeowners League was started in the 1990’s to fight McMansion residential redevelopment, especially any two-story new or remodeled homes. It crafted and advocated for the original One Story Overlay zoning ordinance, and for several amendments through the years designed to make it easier to establish an overlay and keep it in place.  The newsletter was originally one of the ways used to alert neighbors of an impending two-story design in their area, but in its later years became a platform where Los Altos city council members and planning commissioners could write commentary about commercial projects, residential projects, and even sage reporting on LASD.

http://lannonline.org/current-issue/article-archive/5-schools/913-simple-math-lasd

The group is incorporated as 501c4 and has made candidate endorsements for 2014 and has posted candidates’ questionnaires. Their website here.

 

Taxpayer Groups

There is a long history of Los Altos property tax payer groups who spring into action when there is a new bond or parcel tax proposal.  To my knowledge the principles involved with these are not active at the moment. In 2012 they were preparing to launch a No on the $80M Phase I Civic Center bond committee.  It was unnecessary, because the City’s bond survey of likely voters showed inadequate support, and city council shelved the plan. However the zoning for the development of a civic center remains in place. Today the City working towards a plan for a more modest $20M bond which might be ready for a 2015 or 2016 election.

Los Altos Hills Residents and “Downtown”

City of Los Altos Hills and also unincorporated county home owners  find that downtown Los Altos is their closest shopping destination.  Many think of  Los Altos as their downtown. They think of the Santa Clara County-run Los Altos Library as their library (it is, they do pay for it) and of the Hillview Community Center as their recreation department (it isn’t, they don’t pay for it yet!). Unfortunately for Los Altos Hills residents, they can’t vote for or run for City of Los Altos Government positions. Quite a few downtown Los Altos commericial property owners actually reside outside of Los Altos in Los Altos Hills and other more farflung locales.

 

 

 

GROWING OUR EQUITABLE SCHOOL FACILITIES – new land or not

My focus here is only on Los Altos School District politics.* Until recently, school politics news has mainly revolved around the litigation between the District and the Bullis Charter and also around the annual struggle over the District’s legal obligation to provide more and more facilities to the fast-growing charter (how many portables, how much yard).  The District’s curriculum changes,  union contracts and state funding gyrations are important as well, but few citizens are engaged with those details unless they are directly impacted.

The school issue du jour is the $150M Measure N bond election. If there are more facilities, there will be a bigger pie to share and less squabbling.

Deserving better? Or privatizers? Or Mountain View’s problem?

The public charter school students but also the North of El Camino (NEC)  Mountain View students are seen by some as deserving more equitable public school facilities in LASD.  On the other hand, some say the charter’s existence is a “privatization threat” to the “civic institution of the public schools” and in spite of the Prop 39 law, the school should go get its own facilities. Some say that NEC growth is caused by City of Mountain View and should be dealt with by that City.

At the present time, the public charter students are housed 100% in portables, whereas the worst case among the other public schools is around 30-40% in portables.  The NEC students commute farther than other non-charter students because there is no “neighborhood” school near them. This twin-headed predicament – charter growth and NEC growth  –  is now being dubbed “enrollment growth.”  A $150M bond – Measure N – will go before the the voters this November. Spending that money is billed as as solution for “enrollment growth” and for making some improvements on existing campuses as well.

This twin-headed predicament – charter growth and NEC growth  –  is now being dubbed “enrollment growth.”

 

 

 Pro District / Measure N Believers

 

Huttlinger Alliance for Education

This group was formed over two years ago with the dual missions of augmenting Los Altos School District’s litigation resources and its public relations resources.  A key  aim was to spend more on litigation in order to ultimately end litigation between Los Altos School District and Bullis Charter. The two sides have entered a 5-year facilities agreement and dropped all open cases, and perhaps HAE action was part of that outcome.  Much as the countervailing group — EachStudentCount.org —  is perceived as an appendage of the Bullis Charter board, so too Huttlinger is perceived as an appendage of the LASD board.

 

Named after E.O. Huttlinger, HAE’s naming seems ironic.  E.O. may have been among the first to litigate AGAINST the Los Altos School District (In 1977 he opposed the closing of Covington Junior High,  the spending of almost $1million on new construction at Egan and Blach,  and he spearheaded a lawsuit to stop it). In a nutshell, Huttlinger fought to “not close a neighborhood school.”  A number of the HAE founders do live in the current Covington Elementary attendance area.

 

Besides the history of amicus litigation in BCS vs LASD,  HAE also has sent out  PR mailers to the community and cultivated the Los Altos Town Crier to express its point of view in its articles.  HAE made candidate endorsements for Los Altos School District in 2012 and spent to campaign for its preferred candidates who were also endorsed by the unions like the SEIU.  HAE sponsored an interesting public seminar on the history of the spending on litigation by Los Altos School District and Bullis Charter.

 

Champions for “not closing a neighborhood school,” the HAE organization itself is currently active in financing Yes on Measure N ads in the Los Altos Town Crier (Sept. 17, page 21). Some leaders and members of HAE, as individuals, have endorsed the official Yes on Measure N effort.  Their website.

Excellentlosaltosschools.org

This is the official  YES on Measure N political committee.  Los Altos School District itself writes all the YES on N material that appears in the ballot. But except for ballot creation which includes the the Pro arguments and the rebuttal to the Con arguments — the District may not engage in any political advocacy.  However, it can do what is called education. The Yes on N site points to a Los Altos School District page which houses the district’s educational documents about the planning efforts so far of three different  parent/citizen committees.  http://www.lasdschools.org/District/6687-Enrollment-Growth-Information.html.  Their website.

 

Measure N Doubters/ Naysayers

Each Student Counts.org

This group was formed early this spring as a countervailing response to HAE’s escalating “public relations” activity.  Much as HAE is perceived as an appendage of Los Altos School District, so too ESC.org is perceived as an appendage of BCS.

 ESC.org is perceived as an appendage of BCS.

At its debut on the scene, Each Student Counts used “facts and figures” to try to counter HAE’s educational amplification of  “perceptions” about the charter – “all  the students are from Los Altos Hills, etc.”  Now after the 5-year agreement, ESC.org website has changed focus. It is critical of Los Altos School District planning for the Measure N and lack of transparency.  The group says it does favor raising and spending $150 million in new taxes if it will actually be used to build two new schools – one for NEC and one for the charter. The group argues that there is not enough planning by LASD to assure the funds will not be spent on existing campuses instead.

The group says it does favor raising and spending $150 million in new taxes if it will actually be used to build two new schools

Each Student Counts has been running half page ads in the Los Altos Town Crier for two or 3 months now asking readers to question the LASD board about an issue or criticism the ad raises. It has gained news coverage in the Mountain View Voice. Their Website.

Each Student Counts has been running half page ads in the Los Altos Town Crier for two or 3 months, with one infographic asking readers to “ask the LASD trustees” about it…

Nolasdbond.com

This is the website of the official No on Measure N political committee which prepared the No arguments in the official ballot.  There are a fair number of Mountain View residents of the NEC area who are behind the No effort.  Two of the principals of Each Student Counts are part of this loose coalition and have signed the ballot rebuttal. The Noladbond.com website has collected every critical argument against the bond I have ever heard.

 

It is a coalition of people with assorted reasons to vote no on the bond: because it may use eminent domain in Mountain View; because Los Altos School District has mismanaged bonds in the past; because Los Altos School District is mismanaging now; because there are other costless solutions for accommodating growth; because of no senior exemption; because our school property taxes are already too high… [ Save Local Area Parks SLAP people have NOT joined, believeing last minute additions to the ballot language protects their interests at Rosita Park and MacKensie Park. ]   Their website.

 

Mountain View Los Altos High School District

Lalahpolitico is not personally acquainted with the issues or the numerous candidates running for board trustee.  Apparently there is parental concern that there are no teachers or curriculum for the “middle” student.  The courses, texts and teachers of “regular” courses are too easy.  On the other hand, the Advanced Placement courses and teachers are said to be excellent.  But the texts are too hard the the homework too heavy for the “middle” student.  The fact that there are a lot of candidates running for school board suggests there are deep currents of dissatisfaction.

 

Other School Districts

A large portion of south Los Altos is served by the Cupertino Union School District and attends Montclarie elementary and Fremont High School. Lalahpolitico is not acquainted with the issues or candidates.

LALAHPOLITICO CONCLUSION:  Non-partisan is what?

Lalahpolitico has written this little compendium because she is exasperated when factions claim they represent “ THE community, ” the “silent majority,” the “prevailing perceptions,” etc.  Actually most factions are expressing minority points of view, minority interests.

But who can know real  the size of a particular faction till there is a survey or a vote? Some factions try to peruade us that we are the only ones who don’t get it, don’t believe it, don’t feel it, don’t know it. Sadly, some interests try to abridge the speech of the countervailing faction through whisper campaigns and anonymous ad hominem personal attacks. And although I believe in majority rule, decisions taken should try to minimize losses to minorities. All viewpoints should be aired and heard.

Any one person or group which claims to be non-partisan should give space to and accept the legitimacy of both pro and con opinions. To promote either pro or con, omitting the opposing point of view is the very definition of partisanship. Please vote by Nov. 4

 

Footnotes:

Read a bit about E.O. Huttlinger, the first Huttlinger, a real person.  http://law.justia.com/cases/california/calapp3d/69/22.html

*[The city of Los Altos residents are served by public schools of the Cupertino Union District, the Los Altos School District and the Mountain View – Los Altos High School District. Los Altos School District consituents include residents living in areas of Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and the unincorporated county.]