LETTERS LETTERS (March 23, 2005)

M-A robotics team needs help for tournament

Editor:

The Robotics Club at Menlo-Atherton High School recently won a regional competition in Sacramento and is now invited to the national meet in Atlanta.

The team is busy trying to raise money to send all the members, plus pay the $5,000 entrance fee. The club is asking local philanthropic organizations like the Lions Club, Kiwanis and Rotary to help in this worthwhile cause.

The robotics team hopes that individuals in our community would help financially also. These young members will be our future engineers and come from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Please contact Sue Fitch at 323-4938, to help or for more information.

Margaret Carney

Claremont Way, Menlo Park

Unfair attack on Kelly Fergusson's child care

Editor:

I attended last week's Menlo Park City Council meeting, where discussion centered on the day care center renovation and violation of the Brown Act by a task force studying the issue.

Because of the city's fiscal crisis, I am in agreement with the council majority about downsizing the plans for the child care center. I attended the meeting, however, because I was troubled to hear about violations of the Brown Act. It confirmed other accounts I'd heard of behind-closed-doors decisions made by certain members of the council.

I was dismayed to hear those involved downplay the seriousness of the concerns, and in turn assail council member Kelly Fergusson because she had called attention to the violation.

Then I witnessed an obviously orchestrated attack on Ms. Fergusson, in which speaker after speaker brought up the identical, and ludicrous assertion that Ms. Fergusson should recuse herself from voting on the issue because her child attended the center.

Does this imply that council members who use the other city services should not vote on those matters? Should those who use the library not vote on library issues? Should those council members who have family members who swim not vote on swimming pool renovations? I guess this also means none of the council members should be allowed to vote on any future renovations to City Hall, since each one of them would benefit from having nicer facilities.

Instead of reacting with hysteria and recriminations to the concerns of Menlo Park citizens about conducting closed meetings and having back door agendas, I would like to see council members address them as the serious matters they are. If they can't remedy these perceptions, I can assure them that the Menlo Park voters will remedy them at the polls next election.

Diane Walter, Mills Court, Menlo Park

Task force meetings illegal, secret

Editor:

Contrary to recent e-mails and letters, the Brown Act violation by the Menlo Park Child Care Task Force was far more than a mere noticing problem. The meetings were illegal and secret. Consider the facts:

** The Legal: The meetings violated the law because agendas were not posted prior to the meeting; no notice of the meetings date, time, or location was posted; No public comment was taken.

** The spirit: Council member Lee Duboc specifically requested that task force discussions be kept within the task force and that members not talk to the press.

** The reality: No member of the public ever attended a task force meeting. Because they were not in attendance, no member of the public ever disputed the many questionable assumptions used by task force members in reaching their conclusions.

The above are all things that the district attorney and/or court would consider if it were asked to consider the violation. The fact that public participation could have changed the task force's conclusions is a simple test that would certainly have significant influence with a court or district attorney.

Heyward Robinson

White Oak Drive, Menlo Park

Appreciated article on Dr. Beekley

Editor:

Thanks for the great article by Marjorie Mader and excellent pictures by Dr. Sarah Beekley in last week's Almanac.

It blew my mind and made me feel part of her work. She is an extraordinary representative of this wonderful area and Kaiser. We are so lucky to have such fine people for neighbors.

Thanks again.

Phyllis Blum Quilter

Portola Valley

Lighted crosswalk for Middlefield recommended

Editor:

Waiting for an opportunity to cross Middlefield Road can be dangerous, long and frustrating. I have been living in Lindenwood in Atherton for 10 years, and being only 14, waiting for an open space in traffic so that I can get my younger brothers safely across the street can be very scary. There are cars rushing right by, sometimes not even noticing the pedestrians longing to cross the street.

Recently, I was delighted to see a crosswalk installed on Watkins. I have noted that at night, riding in a car, I can barely see pedestrians crossing Middlefield. I have seen lights on a crosswalk in Burlingame that make it very easy for drivers and passengers to see that there are people crossing the street.

If we had some way to create these on Middlefield crosswalks, I would feel a lot safer as a pedestrian and a passenger in a car.

Mikaela Wapman

James Avenue, Atherton

A response to planning official on La Loma remodel

Editor:

Menlo Park Planning Commissioner Lorie Sinnott trivializes our (Larry and Judi Morrill) opposition to the 30 La Loma variance in her March 9 letter.

We have never opposed a second story addition, per se, and fully accept that we would see it wherever it is placed. We -- and the many neighbors -- contend that the addition should comply with the zoning ordinance. If not, it should have minimal impact on adjacent neighbors.

The proposed addition is not a minor infraction. It is uphill, looms over our back yard with nine windows, and encroaches 9.5 feet into the required 20-foot setback. It effectively shifts the economic burden from the applicant to us. It costs the applicant less than an addition that complies with setback requirements, while devaluing our property by $140,000 (Realtors' estimate).

Ms. Sinnott states that a property owner's right to development should not depend on "neighbor sensitivity." Clearly, she sees neighbor opposition as just a nuisance that delays property development. Historically, variances simply have not been granted when neighbors object, and when there is a design choice (e.g., a centrally located second story) that doesn't require a variance.

Part of the Planning Commission's job is to protect adjacent properties. Before their vote to deny this variance, five of the seven commissioners came to our yard to see the situation first hand. Ms. Sinnott did not, and it was disquieting that while this vote was pending, she accepted the applicant's money and endorsement in her run for City Council. She insists that the applicant has an unfettered right to this variance. We disagree.

Larry and Judi Morrill

Bellair Way, Menlo Park

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