Atherton: Campaign effort pays off as parcel tax passes easily Atherton: Campaign effort pays off as parcel tax passes easily (June 15, 2005)

By Andrea Gemmet

Almanac Staff Writer

Was it the tireless campaigning? The catchy orange signs? The low voter turnout?

Whatever the case, Measure W, a five-year renewal of Atherton's annual parcel tax, passed handily with slightly more than 80 percent of the vote on a special June 7 ballot.

The parcel tax, which costs most Atherton homeowners $750 a year, is used to fund town services, such as the police department, and capital projects such as road repair and drainage work.

Measure W is identical to the parcel tax measure the town currently has in place that expires June 30, except it runs for five years rather than four years. The parcel tax adds about $1.8 million to Atherton's coffers annually, and is divided between the operating and capital improvement budgets.

Just under 42 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the election, with 1,776 yes-votes and 443 no-votes, according to the final election results from the San Mateo County Election's Office. Measure W required a two-thirds yes-vote in order to pass.

It was a marked contrast to the town's last parcel tax renewal, Measure O, which stunned town officials last November with a resounding failure. Its defeat was chalked up to a lack of campaigning, complacency by the City Council, and confusion and fatigue on the part of voters, who faced a long ballot in a presidential election.

The difference in voter turnout between the two elections was substantial. For Measure W, a total of 1,619 votes were cast, less than half the votes cast on Measure O in the November 2004 election.

"This is a good victory for everyone," said Philip Lively, who co-chaired the Yes on W campaign. "We were hoping for a win, but 80 percent will do nicely."

Mr. Lively credited early campaigning that targeted Atherton's many absentee voters as key to the campaign's success.

"This time it was better organized, by precincts," he said. "We had excellent precinct captains who were very, very organized, and every one of (the precincts) won."
Opposition

Besides the active citizen campaign to pass Measure W, the election was characterized by a lack of organized opposition. No one contributed rebuttal statements for the sample ballot, and no opposition campaign committee registered with the town of Atherton.

However, that didn't stop a last-minute postcard from arriving in Atherton mailboxes the day before the election.

The bright yellow postcards entitled "Atherton needs your NO VOTE" exhorted residents to vote against the tax and were signed by the Vote NO Committee. It made several charges about the cost of the town's police department, saying the City Council "neglected" to get bids to provide police services "through other avenues," and that the town's officer-to-resident ratio is double that of Menlo Park, Redwood City and Palo Alto.

Councilman Charles Marsala said that Atherton officials did investigate outsourcing the police dispatch service, and found that there would be no cost savings.

"Instead of using population ratios, the proper comparison is the number of calls," Mr. Marsala said.

The number of calls that officers respond to are about the same for Menlo Park and Atherton, he said. Atherton's police force is half as big as Menlo Park's and handles approximately half as many calls as Menlo Park, he said.

Acting City Clerk Linda Kelly said that the town received no campaign-finance filings from the Vote NO Committee. State elections law requires campaign committees raising or spending more than $1,000 to file financial statements, but town officials have no way of knowing how much was spent on the postcards, she said.

The town is not responsible for launching an investigation, she said, but citizens may file a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission. A spokesman for the FPPC would neither confirm nor deny whether a complaint had been made or an investigation launched.
Capital budget

"The parcel tax provides for 10 percent of our operating budget and 40 percent of our capital improvement budget," said City Manager Jim Robinson.

The passage of the parcel tax allows the town to draft a capital improvement program for the next five years, he said.

"It'll help us plan for capital improvements in the future, which allows us to get them done before costs escalate any further than they already have," he said.

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