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Publication Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2002

Voter Guide: Menlo Park council majority at stake

By Pam Smith

Almanac Staff Writer

The Menlo Park City Council majority hangs in the balance November 5, as voters choose who will fill three seats on the five-member body.

For the last four years, the council has been largely perceived as having a distinct majority. Votes often come out 4-1 or 3-2, with Mayor Steve Schmidt, and Council members Mary Jo Borak and Paul Collacchi typically aligning on one side of an issue, and Councilman Nicholas Jellins on the other, sometimes joined by Councilman Chuck Kinney.

Mr. Schmidt and Ms. Borak are vacating their seats, and Mr. Jellins is running for re-election.

Three candidates -- attorney Mr. Jellins, full-time mother and volunteer Lee Duboc and retired marketing executive Mickie Winkler -- say that a vote for them is a vote against the status quo of the current council majority, which Ms. Winkler called "a stop-everything council." The three candidates have coordinated some volunteer efforts, fundraising and literature, as well as running individual campaigns.

Three other contenders, whom the above opponents generally paint with the same colors as the council majority -- landscape architect Bill Halleck, real estate project manager David Speer, and environmental engineer Toni Stein -- say their qualifications and positions are distinct from the current council members', though Mr. Schmidt, Ms. Borak and Mr. Collacchi have supported their campaigns. They've coordinated some volunteer efforts, but not fundraising and literature.

Eric Kinney, a financial advisor and Councilman Chuck Kinney's son, said he turned down the opportunity to run on a slate because he wanted to be independent, and "won't fit one shoe on every project." He and his father disagree on many political issues, he said, pointing out that the elder Kinney is a registered Republican, while the younger is a former Democrat now registered as nonpartisan.

The eighth candidate on the ballot, Michael Meyer, said he no longer wishes to run for council, because he doesn't want to siphon votes from Mr. Jellins, Ms. Duboc or Ms. Winkler. He recently became treasurer of their candidate-controlled committee, the Menlo Park Neighborhood Association.
Their stories

Incumbent Nicholas Jellins said people have the power and the obligation to serve their community, and that his four years of council experience make him particularly able to serve.

He's running to give the larger community and the Belle Haven neighborhood a voice they haven't had under the current council, said Mr. Jellins, a nearly 14-year resident of the city who lives near Hillview Middle School. He has three children, up to 13 years old.

He's learned a lot, but there is still unfinished business, said Mr. Jellins. He also anticipates taking more of a leadership role than in his first term, he said, adding that his current colleagues, whom he calls "obstructionist," have stymied his efforts thus far.

"Critical issues" include fiscal accountability, the health and vitality of businesses, and giving voice to new home buyers, he said. The business community needs some "TLC," said Mr. Jellins, adding that the city's zoning laws are anything but friendly to them. He suggested creating a city staff position in charge of attracting businesses the city might desire, for revenue, low traffic impacts, or other reasons.

Eric Kinney said his background in economics and communications makes him "fit perfectly into what the council's lacking right now.

"I bring fresh ideas to the table," he said.

To enhance communications, he would help neighborhoods create their own Web pages, like neighborhood forums, and link them to those of other neighborhoods and the city, he said. He also hopes to better include Menlo Park's growing Hispanic and Latino population, because he speaks Spanish fluently, he said. If a topic especially affects a certain neighborhood, council meetings should be held there, even if it means they can't be televised, he added.

Mr. Kinney also said he'd spearhead "non-traditional" ways to fund city projects, such as forming a foundation to pursue private funds and donations. He'd also look to assign the city's redevelopment agency to recruit local-serving, revenue-generating businesses, he said. "I think that we've alienated a lot of our business community."

As the youngest candidate, with a 6-year-old daughter, he also hopes to get more young families interested in city government, he added.

Planning Commissioner Bill Halleck grew up in a political family -- his grandfather was a majority and minority leader in the Congress, and his father was a superior court judge in Washington, D.C.

The Linfield Oaks resident said he has "a tremendous amount of experience" to offer, including expertise in urban planning and environmental issues, and experience working with community groups, city officials, and staff in Menlo Park and San Jose, where he works as a landscape architect for the city.

The 13-year resident of Menlo Park served on the Environmental Quality Commission, as well as the predecessor to the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority, before he became a planning commissioner. The City Council unanimously reappointed him to a second term earlier this year. He has a teenager who goes to Menlo-Atherton High School.

Willows resident David Speer , a real estate property manager for the Alameda County government, said he thinks most issues Menlo Park will face in the coming years will be land-use decisions. His development experience in the public and private sectors uniquely suit him to bring economic vitality without sacrificing small-town character, he said.

Mr. Speer also cites his civic experience in his previous city, Pleasanton, and since moving here three years ago. In Menlo Park, he served on the council-appointed Residential Review Task Force. That citizen task force offered mixed input on how to change the city's home-design laws for single-family properties.

In Pleasanton, Mr. Speer served on a housing subcommittee to update the city's general plan, and also sat on a committee to control and limit development on the nearby ridgelands, he said.

This election is the second for Toni Stein , a 7-year resident of Menlo Park who came in fifth in a hair-raising 1998 campaign. Early counts indicated she had won a seat, but she ultimately fell 100 votes short of Mr. Jellins' total.

Her motivation, "to serve the people of Menlo Park," is the same this time around, she said, but her qualifications are not. "I feel that I'm more informed on the issues through my experience, and more connected to leaders in the region," said the west Menlo Park resident.

Since 1998, the environmental engineer has held positions on two San Mateo County bodies -- one for traffic and air quality, the other for solid waste. She also served for three years on a hearing board for the region's air quality management district.

She's more vested now in making Menlo Park a family-oriented community, because she has two preschoolers, she added.

Housing Commissioner Mickie Winkler said she started the campaign interviewing people to run alongside Mr. Jellins and Ms. Duboc. "When no one else came forth, I did," she said. "One reason ... is because I was not pleased at the direction this city was going in.

"I've been active in the community as a housing commissioner, I'm pretty politically savvy, and I'm very concerned about Menlo Park," said Ms. Winkler, a nine-year resident of the city who lives in the Willows. One of her ideas is to form a commission-type body, with representatives chosen by every neighborhood, to discuss issues such as schools and traffic, she said. Another is assigning a city staff person to build and maintain relationships with the business community, she said.

Ms. Winkler recently resigned her position as vice-chair of a local political group, the Menlo Community Association (MCA), that campaigned for candidate Christina Angell-Atchison in 2000. This summer the group informally campaigned and mobilized residents to oppose many of the proposed changes to the city's rules for reviewing single-family home designs.

She describes herself as "a big-time bike rider," and has taught conversational English with her husband in Russia, China, Thailand and Turkey. Her children are grown.

Parks & Recreation Commissioner Lee Duboc , a 15-year resident of Menlo Park, said the city needs to restore common sense to City Council decisions. Menlo Park needs a council that listens to residents, spends wisely, and makes policy based on as much community input and information as possible, she said.

"I just really feel I have a pulse of what's going on in Menlo Park," and a lot of hands-on experience, said the west Menlo Park resident. In nearly 10 combined years on the parks commission, she worked on the city's master plan for recreation and cultural facilities, the early-1990s Belle Haven needs assessment, and a joint-use playing field agreement between the city and local school districts, among other things, she said.

Her three children -- the youngest is still at Menlo-Atherton High School -- went to a mix of public and private schools in the area, and she's worked diligently as a frequent volunteer for the public school system, she said. Her efforts have been partly or wholly responsible for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for schools, she said, including as a member of the board for the Menlo Park/Atherton Education Foundation.
Residential design

One of the hot issues in town involves a proposal to change the way the city reviews home designs on single-family lots. At the heart of the matter is balancing the rights of someone who wants to build or add onto a home, and the rights of neighbors concerned about privacy, sunlight, peace and quiet, and neighborhood character or aesthetics.

The current proposal would redefine which projects are scrutinized; revise the process through which they're judged; and apply a new combination of regulations to control, and design guidelines to "guide," size, shape and style. Two-story or second-story construction plans, or those for one-story homes that cover more than 35 percent of a lot, would be new triggers for discretionary review under the current proposal. Neighborhoods could exempt themselves from some of the design guidelines (but not the regulations) through a process of petitions and votes.

"I think we need rules, not guidelines," to make sure the review process is predictable and easy to administrate, said Ms. Duboc. Contiguous neighbors should be included in a review process for two-story or large one-story designs to address privacy concerns, she said, but the city shouldn't indulge people who just don't like the look of a home. The city should also allow bigger second stories than what's on the table now, in consideration of expanding families, she said. (Though the current proposal doesn't limit second-floor area, if it exceeds 35 percent of a building's maximum floor area it would automatically face a higher level of review.)

Mr. Halleck said he supports some changes to the current laws so homes don't end up impacting neighbors' property values, but the process needs to be "clear and concise" so buyers know what they're getting into. He is interested in protecting neighbors' sunlight access, and likes the idea of sending designs that approach the maximum floor area straight to the Planning Commission, he said. Developers tend to push that limit more than homeowners, he said.

Mr. Jellins said the proposal is "still vastly more burdensome than we need." He is more concerned with the rights of homeowners and contiguous neighbors than "neighborhood character," he said. He'd aim to impose as little as possible on property owners in order to preserve the privacy and protection of immediate neighbors, he said, then allow neighborhoods to adopt more restrictive measures if they want.

Mr. Kinney said the proposal is too extensive, and needs to be simplified. He supports the idea of design guidelines to aid in review, and "I want to take out discretion as much as possible," he said.

Mr. Speer supports much of the current proposal, but thinks that all single-family homes, not just the two-story and largest one-story homes, should be subject to design guidelines and neighbors' comments, he said. The regulations and design guidelines should address concerns such as privacy, space between homes, noise and lighting, but not aesthetics, he said. "You can't outlaw ugliness."

Ms. Stein said the current regulations generally work, but should be applied to all single-family lots. For neighborhoods more concerned about development, it seems reasonable to let them adopt more stringent rules specific to their area, she said. She supports the concepts of offering low-impact projects a fast-track review, and adopting design guidelines to help architects and reviewers. She suggested the city come up with four or five "tiers" with varying degrees of restrictions, to make that process relatively easy.

Ms. Winkler said the city needs a new zoning ordinance, but the current "Frankenstein" proposal is not the way to go. She thinks it favors one-story homes over more resource-efficient two-story homes, punishing people with small lots, she said. She advocates limiting design guidelines to "objective measurements" so property owners know up front if they'll get fast-tracked approval from city staff, or if they'll have to face the Planning Commission, she said.
Traffic

Traffic issues in Menlo Park are often divisive and emotional, as evidenced by disputes over whether to widen Sand Hill Road, whether to use traffic-calming measures on Santa Cruz Avenue, and how to implement "Safe Routes to School."

Mr. Halleck, an avid bicyclist, said he would promote getting out of single-occupancy vehicles by supporting shuttle services and regional express busses, and electrification of the railroad. But "I know that the majority does not want to get out of their car," and he knows that many people have to drive, he said. The Santa Cruz Avenue traffic-calming project was poorly executed, but such ideas aren't always bad -- many people think speed bumps and tables have helped his Linfield Oaks neighborhood, said Mr. Halleck. "They have to be wanted, warranted, and safe," and should be "the least amount that is the most effective," he said. He would evaluate plans, go to task force meetings, and meet with schools and the community on such projects, he said.

Ms. Stein said she would make ongoing efforts to address traffic congestion, not just act at the whim of neighborhoods. The best way to do that is increase regional infrastructure, she said, for example, by upgrading Caltrain and promoting "grade separations" -- all of the candidates said they favor putting roads over or under the Caltrain tracks, rather than across them. She's in favor of neighborhoods with consensus putting a speed bump here or there, but such measures should take a global view, not be done piecemeal, she said. To that end, the city has to notify not just the people along that street, but also the people on streets where traffic would likely seek an alternative route, she said.

Primarily, the city needs to keep traffic moving on the arterials, said Ms. Duboc. She advocates "more police enforcement and less traffic-calming," though she'd be open to the latter if a neighborhood had a good reason for it, she said. On such projects, she'd be the mom on the street eyeballing what would work for bikes and cars, she said.

Mr. Kinney, a triathlete, said he's all for encouraging alternative (to cars) modes of transportation, and the city needs to feed traffic onto arteries. He'd like to explore opening up El Camino Real by restricting its parking during rush hour. As for Santa Cruz Avenue, he'd look closely at how the city describes such projects in public notices, he said. "Calling it a resurfacing program was probably not a good moniker to put on it."

Ms. Winkler, too, said the city should keep traffic flowing on main arteries to keep it out of neighborhoods. She would lobby San Mateo County, now considering a streetscape plan for the Alameda de las Pulgas, to keep traffic flowing there, she said. She also advocates no parking on El Camino during rush hours. "I think the changes on Santa Cruz were initiated without a big mandate from the community," said Ms. Winkler, adding that she would have done more to ask people what they wanted.

Mr. Jellins prefers "traffic enforcement over traffic furniture, especially on arterials," he said. When he approved the Santa Cruz traffic-calming project in 2001, he said, "The motivating factor in my mind was the attraction of a safer place for pedestrians and bicyclists," and he had his eye on ultimately installing sidewalks. "I had no idea it would create ... such dangerous conflict," but that became apparent as soon as he saw it taking shape on the street, he said. Some of his council colleagues were more reluctant to acknowledge that it was a bad idea, he said. In the future, he'd have city staff evaluate what was suggested by the city's consultant, and he'd encourage greater public participation in the design process, he said.

The Willows neighborhood is suffering from cut-through traffic, especially due to office developments in East Palo Alto, said Mr. Speer. He suggested that engineering approaches such as speed humps or dead ends might help, and that a council subcommittee work with neighboring cities on joint traffic issues. On Santa Cruz Avenue, he would have looked at the design and asked common-sense questions, he said. Enforcement is a short-term, high-demand, spot solution, and for the amount of revenue the city gets from citations, it would be difficult to make up added salaries, he said.
Parks, child-care

The candidates are mixed in their views of how to use 160-acre Bayfront Park in the future, and how to proceed with plans to build a $6.7 million child-care center at the site of the city's old police station.

The child-care center is undergoing construction drawings, and currently expected to break ground this spring. Park commissioners, including Ms. Duboc, and some residents have this year criticized the amount being spent, while many families say the project's been approved through a long process and is long overdue. It would require an estimated $5 million in general funds, and $1.7 million of the first $13.2 million in proceeds from Measure T, a $38 million bond measure.

Mr. Jellins has voted with the rest of the council to move the child-care project to its current stage. Earlier this year he suggested looking at the budget to see if it could be built for less, and he remains open to that, he said. But in any case, he is committed to a new center at the Burgess location and the construction timeline, he said.

Ms. Duboc, who was on the steering committee that campaigned for Measure T, cited limited resources and competing demands for other projects as reasons to evaluate the proposal's economics as soon as possible, to see if there is a more efficient way to meet broader child-care needs. At a minimum, she'd like to see the budget reduced to the $6 million advertised in the Measure T campaign, she said. The difference doesn't sound like much, but could renovate a whole playing field, she said.

"If you have a good project in the works, don't stop it," said Mr. Halleck, who along with Ms. Stein and the rest of the Planning Commission voted to approve the architectural control for the design. "This is a top priority to me."

"I don't see any indications that there needs to be an audit" of the project, said Ms. Stein. She wouldn't try to stop someone from pursuing an audit, she added, as long as it were done without delaying construction.

Mr. Kinney said he supports moving ahead with the project as scheduled, but he'd like to allocate staff time to look for private contributors, or other people who might pay to use the facility on evenings or weekends. "We can be smart about this, or we can just write a blank check," he said.

Giving the city's limited resources and a wish not to shut other projects out, Ms. Winkler said, the city is committing too much money to serve too few children with the child-care center. Prudent questions should have been asked before; now, she'd like to find a timely alternative, she said.

"I'm very much in support of [the] project, but I will look for ways to save money," said Mr. Speer, as he does when managing real estate projects.

Bayfront Park, 160 acres of open space atop a closed landfill, is costing the city $445,000 a year, to manage environmental impacts from the closed landfill and operate the park. The special fund that pays those costs is expected to run out around 2005. The city is looking for ways to cover the costs, and is expected to reopen debate about changing the park's use.

"We have a sports field dearth in our city," said Ms. Duboc, adding that no matter how much the city spends on existing fields, they won't remain in good condition unless the stock is increased. For such an expensive park, the city should be getting more use, she said. The only other development she'd likely consider is a golf driving range for revenue; otherwise she'd use general funds or explore joint-use agreements with user groups, she said.

"I would be inclined to support active recreation uses," said Mr. Jellins, who has pushed the council to consider it. He'd consider using general funds to cover costs only after exhausting other sources of revenue, he said.

Mr. Halleck said Bayfront Park is impractical for playing fields because much of Menlo Park is cut off from it by rush hour traffic, the city can't even pay for the park in its current state, and constructing and maintaining fields would add significant costs. As for future uses, he thinks it's appropriate to keep it as open space, or perhaps add a dog park.

Ms. Stein agrees that playing fields aren't the best use for Bayfront Park, because it doesn't solve the revenue problem, she said. She'd like to find "something that can co-exist with what we do have but provide some income," such as a specialty recycling center or desalination unit, she said.

Ms. Winkler said Bayfront Park is underutilized: "Sometimes I'm the only person there, and at the other extreme, there are two people there." She'd like to see active uses added, such as playing fields or perhaps a nine-hole golf course for a local youth golf program, she said. She'd be open to delving into the city's general fund to cover some costs "if the city's enjoying it," she said.

Bayfront Park is best used as open space, said Mr. Speer, because of the methane gas emitted from the landfill, and limited access to the city. He might look for community programs like nature classes to raise revenue there, and would be open to other development on a case-by-case basis, he said.

Mr. Kinney said multiuse fields might be a good idea, but noted they won't bring in enough money. He's open to hearing about a golf course or driving range, but doesn't think he'd favor it for environmental reasons, he said.
Rezoning industrial area

The City Council is also headed toward changing the zoning laws for a 457-acre general industrial area, known as the M-2 district, which houses roughly 400 businesses, amid overwhelming negative outcry from the Chamber of Commerce, the area's business and property owners, and many nearby residents. The vocal supporters so far include some council members and planning commissioners, and a relatively small number of residents citywide.

Proponents of the rezoning say the city can increase sales-tax revenues and minimize traffic growth and housing demand by further restricting office development, and encouraging landlords to maintain or develop manufacturing, warehouse, distribution, and research-and-development facilities instead.

Opponents say the city's revenues, as well as landlords and business owners, may be hurt by the changes. They question the city's fiscal and traffic studies, its assumptions about the real estate market and demand for different uses, and its public outreach process.

Ms. Stein, who dissented when the Planning Commission recommended the proposal, said it suggests industrial and office park uses that don't have much application in the city anymore. "All we've done is try to codify what we have there now. That's not very forward-thinking," she said. The city needs to assess what people need there now, perhaps more office if it comes with a mix of housing, restaurants, food, and local services, she said. The fiscal analysis doesn't take everything into account, she added, so it's not clear if the changes would result in more revenue.

"I do support most of what's presented," said Mr. Speer. But like Ms. Stein, he said, he thinks the city needs to look at including other uses besides office and industrial. Unlike Ms. Stein, he thinks getting rid of the use permit process is one of the proposal's strengths, because that process hinders people's ability to lease their property, he said. The City Council started requiring use permits for new construction or structural alterations in 1999, after the office-development explosion.

Mr. Jellins said the "goals are laudible" and the proposal may or may not be correct, but he has such problems with the process -- public and analytical -- that he's skeptical of the solution. He'd advocate a different approach: have the council get the goals straight, then explore what uses are likely and realistic to address those goals, and finally, get feedback from residential neighborhoods, he said.

"I don't have enough information," said Ms. Duboc. "I don't think anyone does." She advocates slowing the process down during the economic lull for further study, and to see what other cities are zoning for.

"I think that we need to scrap what we've got and take a realistic, holistic look at this area," said Ms. Winkler. She would like to know more about what uses are realistic given the real-estate market, she said. "You can zone for British royalty, but it doesn't mean they're going to come," she's said more than once on the campaign trail.

Mr. Kinney said the area needs to be addressed, but he agrees with a lot of the criticism. He thinks there's been a lot of misinformation, that businesses need more flexibility than the proposal allows, and that the city needs more time to come to come to a consensus vision for the M-2 area. "With the downturn in the economy right now we've got a little more time to play with this one," he said. He'd like to include ideas like a car dealership or a hotel in the discussion, he said. The council has discussed addressing such ideas in a separate phase.

Mr. Halleck said he would support the proposed changes, but added, "it's not a do-or-die for me." He joined the Planning Commission majority in supporting the proposal with some modifications. It's important to manage traffic impacts and get revenue for the city, by making sure boom times don't dictate development and quality-of-life issues like traffic, he said. He also noted the current glut of vacant office space.
Affordable housing

The city spent more than two years working on an idea to partner with a developer to build a parking garage and about 30 housing units for community workers such as teachers, police and firemen in downtown Menlo Park, on Oak Grove Avenue. The council voted 3-2 in February to essentially kill the proposal, due to the cost of the parking garage, which the city would have paid for, and outcry from downtown merchants who feared impacts to their businesses, especially during construction. Councilmen Kinney and Jellins dissented, and Mr. Kinney expressed shortly thereafter that while other opportunities to increase affordable housing were real, "I believe [they] are light years away from making any meaningful contributions."

"Affordable housing will never be sexy, or popular," but the city is obligated to create it, said Mr. Jellins. The city has to give incentives to developers to create high-density housing, he said, suggesting that the slice of land between the Caltrain tracks and El Camino Real is ripe for rezoning. The problem with Oak Grove was one of sequencing, he said. The council should commit to build downtown parking first, to get buy-in from merchants, he said. The city would need merchants' help to finance the parking facility, and might have to offer them higher density for their commercial properties in return, he said.

Ms. Stein said "the only way we can do it in my mind is increasing density" and changing the floor areas allowed at very specific sites, especially very close to downtown, such as Roble Avenue, she said. Once the city zones for higher density, the free market will dictate lower per-unit prices, she said. "I don't think that we're in the capacity to subsidize the magnitude of these projects," she said.

Mr. Kinney advocates high-density development for public service employees in some areas, and would also require developers to sell more of a project's units below market rate, he said. He also thinks the city should rezone selective areas for higher-density housing, he said.

Mr. Halleck said the city has an obligation to create housing for teachers, police and such, but that neighborhoods will say "no way" to any proposal. The self-proclaimed environmentalist said it's critical to maintain open space and parks, but he'd look at any opportunities for higher-density projects near transportation corridors like Caltrain. He'd particularly look for creative ways to help developers help the cause, he said, and would be open to considering the Oak Grove project, though he's not sure if he would support it.

Mr. Speer said increased density won't solve the problem. He advocates switching some office areas to residential zoning, noting that office space creates jobs and housing demand. He also thinks a bond measure could be a good way to add funds to the city's below-market-rate housing program, he said.

Ms. Winkler said the city can't house all public-service workers, but "I think we can do our part to step forward in that direction." To get buy-in on the Oak Grove housing project, the city should build some parking structures first, said the housing commissioner. The city should also pre-zone some areas for higher-density housing or mixed-use and review it for environmental issues before a project is proposed, to make it more developer-ready and attractive, she said. The city could also better market the need for having public-service workers nearby, she said.

The city relies too much on Belle Haven for affordable-housing sites, and needs to be sensitive that people there don't want their neighborhood to be a depository for all of the high-density housing, said Ms. Duboc. She advocates giving developers incentive to build more housing near mass transit and stores, and in strong school districts. El Camino Real might be a good place for mixed retail-housing projects, because neighborhood objection would likely be low there, she said. If there were a good plan on the table and the traffic impacts were acceptable, she added, "then I would say we have a community need that outweighs neighborhood complaints."