A response to attack on A response to attack on (July 21, 2004)Menlo council majority

By Raymond "Dee" Tolles, Ted Sorensen, Frank Tucker and Sue Kayton

This column is in response to last week's guest opinion written by Mary Jo Borak, Jack Morris and Steve Schmidt. Their opinion column misrepresented actions of the current City Council, in an attempt to discredit our current elected representatives. This column sets the record straight.

Accusation: Our current council is being fiscally irresponsible by spending $2 million to repair potholes in city streets.

Facts: During the decade of leadership by past councils headed by former mayor Steve Schmidt and other like-minded council members, the basic maintenance of our city streets was deemed unnecessary, so they budgeted merely $300,000 a year for street maintenance. Instead, failed and expensive traffic-calming projects were constructed on our badly pot-holed streets, while former mayor Schmidt and Mary Jo Borak urged the city to spend over $2 million on an unwanted bike tunnel. Now that we have a council that is listening to the majority of our citizens, it has budgeted $2 million for long-overdue street repair. It's much cheaper (and far safer) to fix potholes now when they're small, rather than wait until they get larger.

Accusation: Jellins, Duboc and Winkler deprived Chuck Kinney of his rightful turn as mayor.

Fact: The City Council elects the mayor by majority vote. The mayor pro-tem usually wins this election, but not always. After the most recent council election, Mr. Jellins was elected mayor, instead of mayor pro-tem Kinney. A few years previously, Mr. Kinney himself voted against mayor pro-tem Bernie Valencia's election to mayor, because he realized the importance of having a mayor in agreement with the majority of the council.

Accusation: The City Council majority derailed construction of the new child-care center.

Fact: In the face of the city's projected budget deficit and due to serious design flaws with the proposed new building, the council, acting on the advice of a well-respected nonprofit child-care firm, decided to remodel the old police building, rather than build a new child-care center, to provide the same top-notch level of service to the children, but at a much lower cost.

Accusation: The City Council has cut services for Belle Haven and the free shuttle service.

Fact: The City Council has cut the budget for all city departments due to the current fiscal crisis, but there have been no cuts in services in Belle Haven or to the shuttle, which continues running the same schedule. All information-related services that were handled by the shuttle employee who retired have been taken over by other shuttle employees. By re-organizing recreation services city-wide, the council hopes to increase services to the Belle Haven community.

Accusation: The City Council majority rescinded the 915 residential zoning ordinance (the "old" council's ordinance).

Fact: The voters of Menlo Park elected the new City Council majority primarily based on two issues -- the 915 ordinance and Santa Cruz Avenue traffic barriers. The old council was in favor of both, but the majority of the citizens were not. The new council majority rescinded 915, in accordance with the wishes of the electorate. Since then, the council has also rescinded the 926 ordinance and will shortly be appointing a citizens committee to replace the current residential zoning ordinance, which everyone agrees is severely flawed.

Our current City Council majority (Jellins, Duboc and Winkler) is fiscally responsible, and is responsive to the wishes of the citizens who elected them. They are not attempting to impose a private agenda on the city, but instead are controlling spending and providing citizens with the highest level of service possible within the city's limited budget.

Dee Tolles and Ted Sorensen are former Menlo Park council members. Sue Kayton and Frank Tucker are Menlo Park residents.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.