A discussion by the Menlo Park City Council about the Belle Haven summer school program prompted some harsh criticism during the City Council’s June 13 meeting.
Councilman Andy Cohen — who often calls for improving programs in the predominantly low-income Belle Haven neighborhood — lashed out at city staff and Mayor Nicholas Jellins during discussion of the community’s summer school program.
Michael Taylor, the city’s acting community services director, said to simplify the program’s scheduling, parents will no longer be able to enroll their children in the program part time. Instead, children must be enrolled for the full eight-week program at the full price.
Mr. Taylor’s decision sparked several e-mails to the City Council, including messages from parent Angel Dodson, who said the change in policy will force her child out of the program for financial reasons.
Mr. Taylor said exceptions — such as hourly rates for parents whose children attended classes part time — were made last year, but scheduling such exceptions disrupts the program. He said parents were sent notices of the policy change several months in advance.
Parents from the Belle Haven neighborhood said exceptions have consistently been made in previous years to accommodate low-income families, and they received no notice.
The program, based at Beechwood School near the Onetta Harris Community Center, serves 71 children from four school districts.
“Fed up”
When Mr. Taylor said scheduling part-time students in the program is difficult, Mr. Cohen replied, “I flat out do not believe you.”City Manager David Boesch asked Mr. Cohen to respect Mr. Taylor’s explanation, but Mr. Cohen said Mr. Boesch was “completely out of line.”
Mr. Cohen said Mr. Taylor’s action goes directly against a conscious decision made by the council when setting the city’s budget — no cuts to Belle Haven programs.
“I thought this council agreed to leave Belle Haven programs as they were,” Mr. Cohen said.
Mayor Nicholas Jellins asked Mr. Cohen to “show respect” to staff, but Mr. Cohen turned his criticism toward the mayor, calling him “impolite, abusive, manipulative and Machiavellian.”
After the discussion, Mr. Cohen walked out of the council chambers, delaying consideration of a proposal by Stanford University to build a hotel and office complex off Sand Hill Road.
Mr. Cohen needed to be present for a quorum of council members, and returned to the meeting after being contacted by City Attorney Bill McClure.
After the meeting, Mr. Cohen said he was frustrated with staff before the meeting even started.
“The council said no change in Belle Haven, and now they’re whitewashing it. It just irritated me,” he said.
He added that he is “fed up” with Mayor Jellins.
Mayor Jellins said he’s talked to Mr. Cohen since the meeting, and they’ve reached “a mutual understanding.”
