The ideal of a vibrant community spirit is very much alive in Portola Valley, with some 120 residents currently signed up for 16 commissions and committees. Many of these citizens meet regularly to talk about site planning and home design, emergency preparedness and the burying of utilities, street traffic and hiking trails.
But a cherished companion ideal — an intentionally small town staff aided by volunteers willing to take on tasks normally done by staff — has been fading and may be further diluted by expectations of new residents, demands on new facilities and the increasing complexity of life as we know it.
Town Administrator Angela Howard cited several problem areas in discussing staffing with the Town Council on Oct. 24, later elaborating to the Almanac on some of her points.
• At Town Hall, receptionist duties fall to whoever has an office near the front counter or happens to be walking by. It is a situation in which it is “impossible to work without interruption,” one staff member said.
• Maintaining the 36 miles of trails in town is one duty for the recreation facilities coordinator, but he spends most of his time maintaining and scheduling playing fields that are now more heavily used for longer seasons after their recent upgrading.
• The town’s two technology consultants, one in Foster City and the other in Santa Cruz, are available only for fixing problems — stalled computers, non-functioning e-mail, incompatible software — but no one is looking at key issues such as routine maintenance and the viability of the system as a whole.
The council is weighing a proposal by Ms. Howard to add a receptionist to the 13-person staff. The town may also hire someone to coordinate efforts to locally address global warming. That decision could come after trying the position out with a consultant for a year or so.
A receptionist, a sustainability coordinator, and 20 hours of help monthly from a technology consultant could relieve the stress, Ms. Howard said.
Workdays for the three-person planning staff are becoming more complicated with larger projects, new ordinances and a growing list of green-building concerns.
Currently, there are about 400 open building permits in a town of 1,600 households, Ms. Howard said. Staff visits to residences to elaborate on the nuances of a fence placement or a setback are “a Nordstrom level of customer service” not found in many communities, she said.
“We’ve always done that and I think that that’s the kind of service that we are expected to give,” she said. “It’s a discussion that the council needs to have — about the expectations of the community and whether the staff is meeting them.”
“Five years from now, this conversation may need to be had again,” she added. “It is a floating target,” she told the Almanac. “It’s a changing world. You sometimes have to re-evaluate the staff you have.”
The council didn’t raise substantial objections to Ms. Howard’s case, though Councilman Steve Toben said he would have preferred a more quantitative analysis.
Small town roots
Back in 1964 with a town staff of four, when storms blocked Portola Valley trails with fallen branches or poison oak invaded a right-of-way, the prevailing do-it-yourself ethic meant a Trails Committee member would haul out a chain saw or herbicide to fix the problem.
Mayor Ted Driscoll, now in his 14th year on the council, recalled a meeting at which such voluntary efforts were formally discouraged.
“What had happened was that (the volunteers) had aged to the point where they were a danger to themselves as well as to others,” he told the council. “It was a difficult thing to do because a lot of people really wanted to be out there.”
The world has changed. For one thing, liability concerns have redefined committees’ roles to advisory, Councilman Ed Davis said. And, he added, the characters and talents of the old generation may not be reflected in the new one, including the willingness to get one’s hands dirty.
“People have very busy lives,” Ms. Howard remarked.
