Menlo Park mayor cites road-repair shortfall Menlo Park mayor cites road-repair shortfall (December 10, 2003)

** Councilwoman Lee Duboc takes mayor's gavel for a year.

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

With a year of budget challenges ahead, newly chosen Menlo Park mayor Lee Duboc last week urged her City Council colleagues to focus on the crucial infrastructure needs of the community.

"In order to keep our city's road system at the current level of maintenance, we will need to spend about $3 million a year on standard maintenance. Right now we spend around $300,000 a year," she said at the December 2 council meeting just after the unanimous council vote to appoint her mayor for the coming year.

But the choices won't be easy, she said: "We do not want to become a city of increased fees to our already over-burdened citizens and draconian service cuts."

During her speech, Ms. Duboc also championed streamlining the commercial permit process to keep and entice businesses, attracting a supermarket to the Belle Haven area, and finding more space for athletic fields.

Despite the difficult times expected for 2004, the transfer of mayoral power went smoothly, with all four council members present supporting Ms. Duboc to succeed Nicholas Jellins as mayor. Paul Collacchi was out of town.

Mickie Winkler unanimously got the nod for mayor pro tempore, who fills in for the mayor when the mayor is absent.

Much has been made of the perceived majority-minority divide on the City Council that grew out of the November 2002 election, and indeed the council did split 3-2 several times during 2003, perhaps most visibly on one of the most contentious issues in the city: streamlining the approval process for building and renovating single-family homes.

While Mr. Jellins, Ms. Duboc and Ms. Winkler voted in favor of the plan, Mr. Collacchi and Chuck Kinney opted against it, criticizing it as opening the door for more oversized housing. The finalized version of the plan is tentatively set to come back to the council on December 16.

In his last speech as mayor last week, Mr. Jellins looked back over 2003 and disputed the notion of a political divide on the council, saying: "We all had a say, we all contributed our piece, and we all had respect for each other's views. ... We refrained from playing politics."

He also listed several actions that he saw as major city accomplishments in the last year, including the new home-building ordinance, the renovation work in progress at Burgess Park, passing a budget without laying off any city staff and hiring a business development manager.

Longtime resident Harry Harrison gave kudos to Mr. Jellins' work as mayor, saying he "ran a good business and a good shop."

Ms. Winkler also praised Mr. Jellins after the meeting, saying he had worked hard to build consensus among the council members.
Goals for 2004

After the meeting, when asked if he agreed that the council avoided politics this year, Mr. Kinney said he would have liked to have seen more dialogue among council members before decisions were made on difficult issues such as the home-building rules.

He said he was aware that he was perceived as a minority council member, but added that the situation wasn't always that cut-and-dried. Sometimes, he said, he had voted with so-called majority members.

"You try to be mature, and you move on," he said. "When I step down, someone will replace me. It's all for the good of the city."

With his term up next year, Mr. Kinney said he hadn't yet decided whether he would run for the council again. He added that he had supported Ms. Duboc for mayor because he wanted to return to following the council rotation policy.

Ms. Winkler, the new mayor pro tem, said one of her goals in the coming year was to thoroughly track the new home-building rules to see how successful they are. She also said that in light of the budget challenges it might be worth looking into a major restructuring of city government, although she said she didn't yet have details.

She also said she wanted to make sure that Menlo Park's interests are well-represented in Measure A, the countywide half-cent sales tax for transportation projects that expires in 2008. Many officials are seeking to renew it.
Following policy

By choosing Ms. Duboc, as expected, the council resumed a mayoral rotation policy in place since 1993. Under that policy, the council picks a person each year who has been on the council at least a year but has not yet served as mayor.

Only Ms. Duboc and Ms. Winkler fell into that category. In addition, Ms. Duboc served as mayor pro tempore in 2003, and the mayor pro tem is generally seen as next in line for mayor.

The quick transition was a departure from last year, when the policy called for Chuck Kinney to become mayor, since Ms. Duboc and Ms. Winkler were newly elected and Mr. Kinney had served as mayor the longest ago. Instead, Ms. Duboc, Ms. Winkler and Mr. Jellins supported Mr. Jellins, with only the other two voting for Mr. Kinney.

Being mayor is chiefly ceremonial; the mayor chairs council meetings and helps create city agendas, but his or her votes do not carry any extra weight.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.