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Publication Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Real revolution? It's been a year since the 'new majority' swept the 2002 Menlo Park City Council election. What's different?
Real revolution? It's been a year since the 'new majority' swept the 2002 Menlo Park City Council election. What's different?
(January 21, 2004) By Rebecca Wallace
Almanac Staff Writer
Menlo Park did not have a City Council election in 2002.
It had a sea change. A transformation. A changing of the guard.
At least, that's what many council-watchers -- and some council members -- said after the November contest that swept in three candidates who had run as a slate: Lee Duboc, Mickie Winkler and incumbent Nicholas Jellins.
The election, Ms. Duboc said after the results were in, was a "mini-revolution."
Many said the three constituted a "new majority" on the five-member council as they were sworn in in December 2002 to join Councilmen Chuck Kinney and Paul Collacchi. Council incumbents Steve Schmidt and Mary Jo Borak had declined to run again, and the victors beat out fellow candidates Toni Stein, David Speer, Bill Halleck and Eric Kinney.
The winners had not been shy during election season about how they felt. Cartoons on campaign fliers for the Duboc-Jellins-Winkler slate depicted their opponents and some incumbent council members as blank-faced blockheads who didn't listen to residents.
On another flier, the members of the slate laid out their "Ideas & Goals" in red and white, covering many of the hot-button issues hitting Menlo Park in recent years.
After slamming a new set of rules governing home-building and major remodels for creating a costly and overly discretionary approval process, the three promised a fair and simple new plan. And after complaining that the dominant forces in power ignored business needs, the candidates promised to support local businesses.
Other stated goals included building the Burgess Child Care Center, creating a citywide traffic plan, and including a combination of athletic fields and open space in Bayfront Park.
More than a year after the so-called revolution, have the successful candidates of 2002 kept their promises? And what has changed on the council and in Menlo Park?
Indeed, the council has addressed several of the key "Ideas & Goals." Some are concrete, easy to cross off a to-do list.
Last week, for example, the council gave final approval to the promised new set of home-building rules, which had been strongly championed by Ms. Winkler for months. While critics fear that the plan could pave the way for more oversized housing, Ms. Winkler and her supporters say the rules will make the process fairer and easier to navigate.
(Opponents of the new rules have launched a signature-collection drive in hopes of getting them repealed.)
The council also took a major step toward creating a citywide traffic plan by agreeing in November to hire a consultant to craft it.
But the goal of building the Burgess Child Care Center bit the dust in November when Ms. Duboc, Mr. Jellins and Ms. Winkler voted to scrap the plan in favor of putting child care programs in the to-be-renovated old police building and a modular unit.
With still other objectives, you'd be more hard-pressed to say definitively that they had been achieved. For example, this one stated in the same red-and-white flier put out by Ms. Duboc, Mr. Jellins and Ms. Winkler: "We will promote positive relations between business and residents. ... We will ensure the vitality of our downtown by encouraging the location and retention of businesses that meet the needs of local residents."
Truly majority-minority?
In any democracy, the temptation to oversimplify can be dangerous. It's not so easy to describe any body of elected officials as having a "majority" and a "minority," because one never knows how the votes will fall into place.
Since the 2002 election, the Menlo Park City Council has often acted unanimously, as it did in April to approve stop signs and speed humps to help control speeding traffic in the Willows neighborhood. (Another of the "Ideas & Goals" was to "control speeding throughout the city.")
Other 5-0 votes last year included the June decision to pass a city budget for fiscal year 2003-04 that included deep cuts but avoided layoffs.
Other times, any combination of council members could throw in their lots together. For example, in the September decision to pursue an existing plan to build a 25-meter pool at Burgess Park rather than accept community help to put in a 50-meter facility, Ms. Duboc, Ms. Winkler and Mr. Collacchi voted yes, while Mr. Jellins and Mr. Kinney dissented.
Some object strongly to the notion of two factions on the council, such as Mr. Jellins, who snapped at a reporter for using the term "council majority," accusing her of being biased.
"There's no council majority or minority. We act as a council," he said acidly.
But the record shows that the Duboc-Jellins-Winkler combination has been a driving force on several major issues since the election.
Regarding the new home-building rules, which brought crowds out in force to City Council meetings and sparked scores of resident emails, Ms. Duboc, Mr. Jellins, and Ms. Winkler supported the plan, while Mr. Kinney and Mr. Collacchi opposed it.
The same 3-2 split took place in the vote to dump the plan to build the Burgess Child Care Center. Dissenting along with Mr. Kinney, Mr. Collacchi said at the time, "I thought we had a commitment to voters."
The vote drew sharp criticism from former Menlo Park Mayor Steve Schmidt, who said, "During the campaign, they (the Duboc-Jellins-Winkler slate) said they supported it and made all these nice statements to the children's center parents. Then they reneged on their promises."
When asked last week whether she and the other members of her campaign slate had met their stated child-care center goal, Ms. Duboc defended her vote, saying: "I think that plan (to build the center) just got way out of hand, especially in light of the budget. It's highly responsible and common-sense government to come up with a more affordable alternative."
Responding to the same question, Mr. Jellins said there is a difference between "campaign pronouncements" made by individual candidates and what the council collectively states as key objectives.
Of building the child care center, he said, "That was not a council goal."
Sometimes the new composition of the council kept things from happening.
Ms. Duboc cited Middle Avenue as an example. Before the 2002 election, the council had been looking at a number of options for improving safety there, including reducing the speed limit and adding traffic-calming devices on Middle similar to the ill-fated concrete structures on Santa Cruz Avenue, which caused an outcry and were removed last year.
"There were other people on the previous council who would have put those (the traffic-calming devices on Middle) in. When we had the new majority, it wasn't talked about any more," Ms. Duboc said.
The council also split 3-2 with Ms. Duboc, Mr. Jellins and Ms. Winkler on one side on a variety of other issues, including making an appointment to the Planning Commission and deciding to table indefinitely a motion to support the Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District's expansion to the Coastside.
"It seems as though there's someone (from the three) driving each issue. More than I've ever seen at any council, the others just fall in line," Mr. Collacchi observed.
Helping business
Behind wire fencing, the structures and pumps of the Chevron service station at El Camino Real and Oak Grove Avenue take shape like heavy figures emerging from the ground.
When the gas starts flowing through the pumps again, though, that doesn't mean the disruption of the construction project will be over. Customers who had to go elsewhere may have found a new favorite gas station. So David Johnson, the city's new business development manager, has been working with owner John Conway to help the station be successful when it reopens.
"Our real goal is to get the business open in a way that helps him retrieve the customers," Mr. Johnson said. "Will he have any sort of promotion on gas price? How's he going to attract people?"
Mindful that thriving businesses mean more sales tax revenue for city services, Mr. Johnson added, "The sooner we can get John pumping the number of gallons he pumped before, the sooner the city's going to see it."
Many local business owners have long urged Menlo Park officials to hire a city business development manager. Critical of what they saw as an unfriendly atmosphere for business interests, they envisioned someone who would serve as a liaison with city officials and help them succeed in such ways as streamlining the use-permit process.
Last year, that hope became reality with the hiring of Mr. Johnson, a former senior management analyst with the city of Sunnyvale, at the annual salary of $88,708.
Ms. Winkler said this move was a key component in her slate's campaign goals of supporting local businesses and promoting a positive business climate.
"We've just begun in that direction," she said.
Since the 2002 election, the city has also hosted a forum on the state of the area economy, as well as several roundtable meetings where local business people swapped ideas for improving the economic climate in Menlo Park.
In addition, a plan to restrict the types and amount of office space that could be expanded or developed in parts of the M-2 industrial area on the east side of town fell by the wayside. The proposal had drawn much public opposition, and after the 2002 election the new council never took it up again.
Several local business people say they're thrilled with these actions.
"They've made great strides," Mark Flegel, owner of Flegel's Home Furnishings in downtown Menlo Park, said of the council.
Of Mr. Johnson, Mr. Flegel said, "He's looking at what the city needs to do to ... make contact with companies and speed up the application process for them to get in, so the city itself is not a stumbling block for businesses to locate here."
Mr. Conway concurred, saying Mr. Johnson has been "a big asset" in helping him prepare for his Chevron station's reopening. "They are listening, and doing all right as far as I'm concerned," he said of the council.
Opinions are divided on how dramatically Menlo Park's permit process for businesses should be revamped. At this point, Mr. Johnson said he is looking at several possibilities for change, but would not elaborate.
Planning commissioner Patti Fry said the process does hold room for improvement. For example, she said, a biotech firm seeking approval to have hazardous materials on site must follow a particularly complicated path.
She cautioned, though, that any improvements should not go too far.
"It's important that we have a friendly place for businesses," she said. "But some people have said they're afraid that streamlining means laissez-faire, removing rules rather than trying to make rules and processes more efficient and effective."
Perhaps just as important as making the process efficient, Menlo Park developer David Bohannon said, is giving businesses the personal touch.
A few years ago, one of Mr. Bohannon's tenants sought to build a chemical laboratory but had a great deal of trouble getting through the approval process in Menlo Park, Mr. Bohannon said, emphasizing that no staff member on that project still works for the city.
"Someone in Santa Clara heard about this deal and called the president of this company, saying, 'We heard you're having trouble with Menlo Park. We'd like you to come to Santa Clara. We have every single department head in our city ready to meet with you,'" Mr. Bohannon recalled.
"He (the president) went down there and they rolled the red carpet out. They said, 'Here's the permitting process; we'll hold your hand,'" Mr. Bohannon said. "I was toast."
Regarding Santa Clara's success with the red-carpet approach, Mr. Bohannon added, "Having a guy like Dave Johnson suggests that that might be more possible."
The 'loyal' opposition?
Even though many say the election of '02 moved Councilman Paul Collacchi from the majority to the minority, it hasn't been all bad, he said recently.
Actually, he said: "I breathed a sigh of relief the day after the election. I just felt like a great responsibility had been lifted off my shoulders."
He added: "There's a difference between having to be the policy-maker who's responsible and being the loyal opposition. Ultimately with the majority you have the responsibility to deliver the bacon."
That's not to say that everything's been rosy. Like some other residents, Mr. Collacchi and Mr. Kinney both say they're concerned about the council's increasing tendency to have discussions centered on one motion, rather than having more free-flowing talks spanning a range of opinions.
Both Mr. Jellins, who was mayor in 2003 and 2001, and Ms. Duboc, who became mayor in December, say they purposely structure discussion around a council motion to keep interchanges efficient and the meeting flowing well.
"People want the council to act. They don't want to see us just sitting there yammering on and meeting until 2 in the morning," Ms. Duboc said.
But some are worried that alternative viewpoints are getting quashed.
For example, David Speer, a council-watcher and unsuccessful candidate in the 2002 election, said that during the meetings on the new home-building rules both Mr. Collacchi and Mr. Kinney were dissuaded from bringing up issues that did not directly relate to the discussion at hand, including the history of the ordinance and the concept of neighborhood "character."
"It doesn't appear they're seeking or considering alternate viewpoints. They don't look for opportunities to build consensus," Mr. Speer said of Ms. Duboc, Mr. Jellins and Ms. Winkler.
Mr. Kinney agreed that he felt frustrated by the motion-centered approach. If a council member is not in favor of the motion, he said, "You're kind of fighting against it, instead of working together to come up with something."
In response, Ms. Duboc said: "I think issues are adequately discussed at the council level. When someone's upset and they don't like the way the vote's going down, they'll always say there wasn't enough discussion."
Other accusations of squeezing out alternative viewpoints also erupted over some of the city's "business-friendly" actions since the 2002 election.
For instance, the city's first business roundtable meeting was originally planned as a closed City Hall affair only for some council members and select business people. This enraged many residents who weren't invited and said they had the right to join the discussion on improving Menlo Park's business climate. The city ultimately decided to open the event to the public.
In addition, a reception for two finalists for the business development manager was also held at City Hall but was deemed invite-only. While several members of the public -- including important business owners -- were invited, the rest of the public, along with the press, was not welcome.
Clogged wheels of change
While votes can be counted in minutes, Rome wasn't revamped in a day. It certainly would be too soon to pass sweeping judgment on the success of this council, or any of its members, at this point.
In addition, many people asked about the progress of the council in the past year presented one more caveat: it's particularly difficult to make widespread alterations to a city when the wheels of change are clogged by an economic recession.
"In the past 14 months since the election, we have faced significant economic challenges that have influenced to a greater extent than social factors how we set our goals," Mr. Jellins said.
Resident Reg Rice, who supported the Duboc-Jellins-Winkler slate, agreed. Although there has been no concrete action on one of his main desires, building parking structures downtown, he said he feels that this council is much more open to discussing it and realizes that it's limited by financial constraints.
Even on topics where the council has taken action, the true effects may not be seen for some time due to the recession.
No matter how broad-based a new set of home-building rules is, people may not be able to afford to build or drastically remodel a home. Every effort to boost sales tax revenues may be of little effect on people who have lost their jobs and can't afford to shop. And it's hard to gauge the success of a traffic-management plan when a slump means there simply isn't as much traffic.
"Regardless of who populated any city council last year, everyone was severely limited by the financial situation," Mr. Collacchi said. "So long as that is the dominant force, it's going to be very difficult to detect the policies of any council."
Have they delivered?
These are some of the major goals listed by Lee Duboc, Nicholas Jellins and Mickie Winkler in their campaign literature during the 2002 Menlo Park City Council race.
** GOAL: "Encourage sensible home improvements by supporting a fair and hassle-free residential zoning ordinance that restricts out-of-scale housing while respecting the basic rights of homeowners." ACTION: Last week, the council gave final approval to a new set of rules designed to make it easier for people building and remodeling homes to navigate the process. Critics say the plan could open the door to more oversized homes and are working to get the rules repealed. Vote: 3-2, with Duboc, Jellins and Winkler in favor and Collacchi and Kinney dissenting.
** GOAL: "Support local businesses." ACTION: The council has held a forum on the state of the area economy and hired a city business development manager to help retain and attract local firms and merchants. City Hall has also hosted several roundtable meetings where local business people swapped ideas for improving the economic climate in Menlo Park.
** GOAL: "Support quality, affordable child care and build the Burgess Child Care Center." ACTION: The council voted in October not to build the planned new $6 million children's center, but instead to remodel the old police building and put child care there and in a modular unit. Vote: 3-2, with Duboc, Jellins and Winkler in favor and Collacchi and Kinney dissenting.
** GOAL: "Move swiftly to develop and implement a comprehensive, city-wide traffic plan." ACTION: In November, the council agreed to have a consultant create a plan at a cost of $35,850. The plan also included a requirement that vehicles must flow smoothly on larger streets to minimize cut-through traffic on smaller roads. Vote: 4-0, with Duboc, Jellins, Winkler and Collacchi in favor and Kinney abstaining.
** GOAL: "Ensure a careful review of zoning and uses for the M-2." ACTION: The previous council had been looking into restricting the types and amount of office space that could be expanded or developed in parts of the M-2 industrial area on the east side of town. The proposal drew much public opposition, and after the 2002 election the council never took it up again.
** GOAL: "Include a mix of playfields and open space at Bayfront Park." ACTION: During the next six months, the council is expected to review several proposals from companies to develop athletic facilities at the park, for such sports as golf, soccer and Little League baseball.
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