Irate over child-care center, Menlo commissioner quits Irate over child-care center, Menlo commissioner quits (May 19, 2004)

By Rebecca Wallace
Almanac Staff Writer

Accusing the three so-called "majority" members of the Menlo Park City Council of turning a deaf ear to differing viewpoints, resident Nancy Travers abruptly resigned from the city's Parks and Recreation Commission last week.

Mayor Lee Duboc and council members Nicholas Jellins and Mickie Winkler, she said, often ignore dissenting opinions in favor of more limited discussion at meetings. But the main hot-button drawing Ms. Travers' ire was the triumvirate's vote not to pursue building a new child-care center, a project she says council members promised to residents during the 2002 campaign.

The council voted 3-2 on April 27 to move ahead with remodeling the old police building at an estimated cost of $3.6 million, rather than getting bids on the $6.15 million new center. Ms. Duboc voiced concerns about the new center's cost during tough budget times, while Paul Collacchi and Chuck Kinney dissented.

But Ms. Travers and other residents, many of them parents, have said they voted for the $38 million Measure T bond initiative in 2001 because they expected its funds to finance a new center.

"My voice is not one they (the three council members) want to hear and since that is the case I frankly have better things to do with my time," Ms. Travers wrote in the May 13 e-mail announcing her resignation. She had served since October 2002 and had about two-and-a-half years left in her term.

Ms. Travers also served on the task force that reviewed child-care options in Menlo Park. She said she had not talked to members of the council before resigning, saying it would have been a waste of time.

While Ms. Duboc, Mr. Jellins and Ms. Winkler have split on issues, they have voted together on several important topics, including supporting a controversial set of home-building rules when their colleagues voted no. The three also put out campaign materials as a slate.

Ms. Winkler, though, said she is careful to weigh the opinions of a wide variety of residents. For example, while all the residents present on April 27 spoke against using the police building for child care, Ms. Winkler said she had heard from other residents who didn't like the design of the new child-care center.

"Anybody who calls me and wants to talk to me about anything gets my attention," she said. At the meetings, she said: "We see the same people over and over again. I think there are a lot of viewpoints that you don't see at the council meetings."

Ms. Winkler added that she had been told during the campaign that the old police station was not a viable option for child care and only learned otherwise after taking office.

Regarding Ms. Travers' resignation, Ms. Winkler said she was "surprised," adding, "I thought she was on board with the remodel plan."

Officials expect to go out for bids on the remodel in April 2005, once design development and review are completed. The center is expected to include space for 164 children in 9,000 square feet, while the planned new 13,700-square-foot center would have served 180 youngsters.

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