Atherton’s new mayor lays out his vision

New Atherton mayor Rick DeGolia’s vision for the coming year includes a new civic center that creates all its own energy and a free high-speed fiber Internet system for the whole town.

Mr. DeGolia was unanimously selected by members of Atherton’s City Council as their new mayor on Wednesday night, Dec. 17. Elizabeth Lewis was named vice mayor, also by unanimous vote.

Mr. DeGolia also said he is so committed to listening to the town’s residents that he will have lunch with all comers every Tuesday in the town’s council chambers.

The Tuesday lunches, Mr. DeGolia said, will be bring-your-own brown bag, from noon to 2 p.m. in the town’s council chambers at 94 Ashfield Road. The lunches, he said, will help him meet one of his goals for the year, “encouraging the conversations with you that I feel like we need to have.”

“I want to increase resident awareness, communication and engagement with the town,” Mr. DeGolia said.

Among the issues that need to be discussed, he said, are how the town’s police department can keep all its vacancies filled; road safety, especially on El Camino Real; and high-speed rail and Caltrain electrification. “There’s an issue of significant construction that we experience throughout Atherton and how to manage the noise, traffic, and proximity of ever-larger houses on our property lines,” he said.

Mr. DeGolia said he also wants to hear how residents want to prioritize the projects laid out in several recently adopted master plans. The master plans — for a new civic center, for bicycle and pedestrian routes, for the town’s drainage system and (not yet completed) for Holbrook-Palmer Park — contain far more projects than the town has money to pay for.

Another of Mr. DeGolia’s goals for the year might help make communicating with residents easier. The town’s six-month-old Technology Committee wants to improve Internet and cellular services in Atherton, Mr. DeGolia said. Serving on the committee are, in addition to Mr. DeGolia, Councilman Bill Widmer, “technology savvy residents,” and technology specialists from each private and public school in town.

Mr. DeGolia said he and the committee hope to figure out a way to use the pool of property taxes set aside for the library to help provide a free basic fiber Internet system for the town. He envisions a “public-private partnership,” with the library paying an annual fee to subsidize the fiber system.

“This is still in the conceptual stage,” Mr. DeGolia said, but he hopes to bring “a concrete proposal” to the town during his year as mayor.

Other priorities listed by the mayor include:

● A continued commitment to the town’s fiscal health and investment in infrastructure. “I believe that we should continue to limit our operating expenses,” and pay down long-term liabilities, he said.

● Continue work on the town’s new civic center. “I am extremely excited by the civic center project,” he said. “It will improve Atherton by dramatically creating a pedestrian-friendly center to our town, where people can gather and celebrate our history and what is special about the town of Atherton.” Mr. DeGolia said he hopes the complex will be able to generate all the energy it consumes, making it the “first net-zero civic center in California.”