Issue date: April 08, 1998
By JENNIFER DESAI
Atherton's City Council will meet this week to review a proposal from a group of residents who are trying to find a home in Atherton for Police Chief Steve Cader.
The special meeting starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 8, at the council chambers, 94 Ashfield Road.
The committee, formed after Mayor Malcolm Dudley suggested the need for a such a group, wants to move a house in Palo Alto, which its owners plan to tear down, to town land in back of Atherton's administration building and police station.
Under the proposal, the town would pay $135,000 to refurbish the three-bedroom house, which has about 3,000 square feet of floor space, and its present owners, Anthony and Kathleen Hughes, would foot the $60,000 bill to move it.
The house -- which will otherwise be razed in 30 days -- would be parked on the town land on Fair Oaks Lane until the council determines whether to move it to Holbrook-Palmer Park or leave it on Fair Oaks.
Chief Cader may need a home soon because he faces eviction from his present Atherton residence, which he is renting, and where he lives with his wife and two children. The landlord wants to sell the house, but Chief Cader is fighting the eviction in court, claiming a lease agreement allows him to stay there through November.
There is no provision in Mr. Cader's contract requiring that he live in the town, City Manager Don Guluzzy said.
Some residents, however, including members of the committee, think it's a good idea. But living in Atherton on Chief Cader's salary of $89,000 a year is "impossible," said Steven Goldby, a member of the residents committee.
One member of the committee, Royanne Florence, said she was "mystified" by a suggestion that the Palo Alto house be moved to Atherton's Holbrook-Palmer Park. She noted that the council just rejected a proposal to move the historic Watkins-Cartan house to the park.
For his part, Mayor Dudley -- who recommended that the Watkins-Cartan house be used to house the chief at a March 3 meeting -- remains optimistic. "If you don't succeed the first time, try again," he said. "This Palo Alto house became available just at the right time. I guess it's meant to be."
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