After chiding the current Menlo Park City Council for mismanaging the city’s budget and embracing costly, slow-moving studies, challenger Rick Ciardella seemed to back off those claims at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters on Wednesday, Oct. 22.
Council candidates Ciardella, Andy Cohen and Kelly Fergusson answered questions from the audience of about 30 people at the event, hosted and moderated by the League of Women Voters and held at the council chambers in the Civic Center.
The questions touched on development and zoning issues in the city’s downtown and industrial areas, the city’s finances, environmental concerns, and the issue of east-west connectivity across El Camino Real, among other topics. The candidates were allotted one minute to address each subject, with no follow-up questions.
Mr. Ciardella — challenging incumbents Cohen and Fergusson for one of two open council seats — pointed to his experience as a landscape architect and a small business owner, saying that the skills he has acquired in the private sector would inform his decisions in the arenas of city planning and budget management.
The criticisms he has leveled at the current council over the last few weeks did not surface during the forum, for the most part. Mr. Ciardella said he approved of the council’s “visioning” study of the downtown area and El Camino Real, which he derides as a costly, ineffective technique on his Web site.
He also said at the forum that he supports the council’s decision to transfer $9.2 million from the reserve to fund post-retirement benefits for city employees, though he lists on his Web site the resulting reduction in the reserve among several “disconcerting” fiscal decisions.
Mr. Ciardella did not return calls asking him to comment on the apparent discrepancy between his comments at the forum and his previous statements.
He said that he approved of many of the council’s actions, including its leadership on environmental issues, though he urged the city to give incentives to green builders.
Mr. Cohen emphasized his commitment to public safety, and his efforts to involve as many people as possible in the process of city planning. To support his bid, he pointed to the transparency of the downtown “visioning” process, public meetings he has held around the city since taking over as mayor, and initiatives he has spearheaded to improve communication between the council and city staff.
In one of the night’s few direct confrontations, Mr. Cohen disagreed with Mr. Ciardella’s call for more “fill-in”
tenants along El Camino Real, comparable to Palo Alto or Redwood City. He noted that Menlo Park is smaller than those cities, and argued that the council should work to preserve the city’s unique character.
Ms. Fergusson said that she played a crucial role in altering the tone of discussion on the council, steering it away from the divisiveness of past years and allowing for a wide range of opinion. She highlighted her involvement in environmental initiatives, and pointed to her efforts to make it safer and easier for children to walk or bike to school.
Ms. Fergusson called land-use planning the most important issue facing the city. She cited the recent addition of Tesla Motors to El Camino Real as a sign that the city had taken steps to revamp the downtown area, and underscored the need for clear guidelines in residential planning.
The forum will be broadcast several times on Channel 27 in the days leading up to the election. It will also be available online through the Palo Alto-based Media Center’s Web site, at tinyurl.com/mpforum.
