The current Menlo Park City Council members have repeatedly pledged to listen to what city commissioners and the general public have to say about issues confronting the city.
But that mindset flew out the window at last week’s council meeting, as Mayor Kelly Fergusson and Councilman Heyward Robinson denied the chairperson of the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission the chance to criticize the council’s interest in negotiating to buy the Park Theatre.
Council members Fergusson and Robinson have since e-mailed their apologies to the parks commissioners, saying commission chair Paula Maurano should have been able to address the council without interruption.
Ms. Maurano, on behalf of a unanimous parks commission, went before the council on Oct. 30 to urge council members to halt all efforts to buy the 60-year-old El Camino Real theater for $2.2 million and lease it to a development entity owned by resident Andy Duncan.
A council subcommittee of Mr. Robinson and Richard Cline has since rejected Mr. Duncan’s proposal, which included plans to restore the theater and turn it into a dance studio for the Menlo Park Academy of Dance.
Ms. Maurano said the commission saw “no public benefit” in moving forward with Mr. Duncan’s plan, and commissioners decided the city has more important projects to focus its efforts on — primarily the construction of a new gym and a new recreation center.
But once Ms. Maurano started to say why the city should drop Mr. Duncan’s plan, Mayor Fergusson interrupted, and said the commission didn’t have enough information to make such a recommendation.
“I think your commission is making judgments without the full set of facts,” Mayor Fergusson said.
Councilman Robinson, a former parks commissioner, also chimed in. “It’s entirely inappropriate for the Parks and Recreation Commission to be telling us how we should be voting on the Park Theatre,” he said.
A wide-eyed Ms. Maurano said she simply wanted to state the commission’s recommendations (discussed and voted on at a special meeting earlier that evening) for the public record, but Ms. Fergusson and Mr. Robinson never gave her the chance.
“I was very taken aback by the reaction, and I’m still sort of flabbergasted,” said Ms. Maurano the day after the meeting. “To go spend this kind of money would be completely inappropriate, given that we have more important priorities that need funding.”
Councilman John Boyle said it was “disappointing” that Ms. Maurano didn’t get to speak.
Councilman Andy Cohen remained silent during the meeting, and told the Almanac he “didn’t want to get into a catfight” with Mayor Fergusson and Mr. Robinson, but he didn’t approve of the exchange. “I think it’s a mistake to invite people to come address the council, and then shoot them down,” he said.
Councilman Cline, also a former parks commissioner, said Ms. Maurano “probably should have been able” to speak, although he didn’t make that point during the meeting. Instead, he said the community has turned the theater debate into “political gamesmanship.”
Deja vu?
Ms. Maurano said part of the reason she went before the council was to say that parks commissioners felt ignored in the Park Theater debate.
She said any staff time and public funds that go toward the theater could be spent on other recreation projects, and the commission should weigh in on a proposal that uses public dollars to help a business that competes with city dance programs. Arts issues have fallen under the parks commission’s purview since the Arts Commission dissolved in 2004.
Ms. Maurano isn’t the first commissioner to feel left out of the loop — Councilmen Robinson and Cline, when parks commissioners, said the commission should have been consulted more frequently regarding efforts to build a golf course and playing fields at Bayfront Park, and to privatize the city’s aquatics center. Both council members’ election campaigns emphasized a commitment to further involve commissioners in key issues.
Different funds
Mayor Fergusson and Mr. Robinson said the parks commission doesn’t have a say in the Park Theatre debate because any funds put toward the theater would be taken from the city’s reserves, and would not have impacted funding for other city services, including recreation facilities.
“Like a lot of members of the community, [Ms. Maurano] doesn’t understand the difference between the capital we might spend on the Park Theatre in a public/private partnership, and the operating funds… [for] other things we subsidize,” Mr. Robinson said at the meeting.
