T ★ V O T E R G U D E

Transcription

VOTER ★
GU DE
★ 14
★2 0
CITY COUNCIL 20 | ENDORSEMENTS 30
OCTOBER 17, 2014 VOLUME 22, NO. 38
www.MountainViewOnline.com
650.964.6300
MOVIES | 38
Council seeks higher
affordable housing fees
GOOGLE TO PAY LION’S SHARE OF DEVELOPER FEES
UNDER COUNCIL PLAN
By Daniel DeBolt
expected to be Google offices for
as many as 20,000 new employees.
Using $35 million in such fees,
he City Council took a step
towards addressing the and $61 million in state and fedcity’s shortage of afford- eral funds that have since been
able housing on Tuesday night by heavily cut, the city has built 351
beginning the process for shift- affordable homes in the last 10
ing more of the cost for afford- years for working people, seniors,
able housing programs onto families and people with disreal estate developers, especially abilities. The new fees may still
fall far short of meeting demand
office developers.
“We’re having something of for affordable housing — studies
a building boom right now, by the city of San Francisco and
we should take advantage of University of California at Berkethat,” said council member Ronit ley say several low-wage jobs are
created for every
Bryant during the
tech job in Silicon
study session. “I’m
Valley.
interested in raising
‘We’re having
Council memall of these fees.”
ber Margaret AbeCouncil members
ended up directing something of a Koga expressed
concern that chargcity staff to begin
study and public building boom ing the cost to
housing developers
outreach to raise
right now.’
would add to the
three of the four
already high price of
types of affordCOUNCILMEMBER
housing in the city.
able housing fees,
RONIT BRYANT
“We really have to
including a big
be mindful of how
jump for the fee on
much we’re going
office development,
to add to the price
from the current $5
to $10 a square foot to $20 to $25 of housing by adding fees,” she
a square foot of new office. Apart- said. Developers are not going to
ment developers could soon pay absorb the fee, she said.
Others said the high demand
an $15 a square foot — up from
$10 — towards affordable hous- for housing is setting the price of
ing, while ownership housing homes, not the cost of developdevelopers could see their afford- ment.
Abe-Koga said it made more
able housing fees raised from 3
percent of a new home’s value to sense to raise the fee on office
4 percent. Projects classified as development, since office job
hotel, retail and entertainment growth is the main factor behind
the city’s high housing prices. A
weren’t favored for an increase.
A $20 per square-foot fee on 2012 “nexus study” said the city
office development could mean could justify raising the fee on
$68 million in affordable housing office development as high as
funds just from the 3.4 million $59.31 a square foot, but council
square feet of office slated for members ended up favoring
development by companies in the something closer to Palo Alto’s
North Bayshore office park alone $19.31 a square foot, the highest
in the coming years. Nearly all of any nearby city, according to a
of the development in the area is city staff report.
T
MICHELLE LE
Castrol Elementary students participate in the all-school walk-a-thon on Friday, Oct. 10. A proposal
to split the school between its traditional and bilingual immersion programs is being considered.
District may split Castro into two schools
TASK FORCE RECOMMENDS DUAL IMMERSION, TRADITIONAL
PROGRAM BECOME SEPARATE SCHOOLS
By Kevin Forestieri
C
astro Elementary school,
home of the Dual
Immersion program,
may be splitting in half. At the
Oct. 9 Mountain View Whis-
man school board meeting,
the Castro Restructuring Task
Force recommended that the
district create two schools on
the Castro campus: one for the
Dual Immersion program, and
one for the traditional school
program.
Some district parents voiced
concerns over the two-school
solution, saying it could fragment the Castro community
See CASTRO SCHOOLS, page 12
Candidates challenged
on ‘rent stabilization’
By Daniel DeBolt
A
ll nine candidates for
Mountain View City
Council were put on the
spot last week during a candidate
forum held by church leaders who
want the City Council to pass a
“rent stabilization” ordinance to
put an end to the dramatic rent
increases that are forcing many
out of Mountain View.
INSIDE
Candidates came to the event
Friday evening at Trinity United
Methodist Church, not knowing
its format, and were asked to sit
in front of the stage for a presentation. The event was sponsored
by Peninsula Interfaith Action.
“Fear is not dignity,” said Saint
Anthanasius church member
Phil Cosby during the event he
helped host with Day Worker
Center director Maria Marro-
quin and others. “When you are
afraid of rent increases, that is
not dignity. Stability is dignity.
Homeowners can plan about
their future housing costs” but
renters can’t unless there’s a law
that limits rent increases.
A list of cities with ordinances
that limit rent hikes was presented, including San Jose, Los
See HOUSING FOURM, page 26
VIEWPOINT 30 | WEEKEND 33 | GOINGS ON 39 | MARKETPLACE 40 | REAL ESTATE 42
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Voices
A R O U N D
Vote For
Matichak
T O W N
Mountain View City Council
Asked in downtown Mountain View. Photos and interviews
by Madeleine Gerson and Natalia Nazarova.
Where were you the day of the
Loma Prieta earthquake?
“I remember the freeway over at
Oakland had collapsed. It was
the World Series at Candlestick
Park.”
Gary Carter, San Jose
Lisa
The only candidate
endorsed by all 3 outgoing
Councilmembers
Qualified to Lead
5th year on Environmental Planning Commission (EPC)
Founding President Wagon Wheel Neighborhood Assn.
15-year resident (8 as renter, 7 as condo owner in N. Whisman)
CERT certified since 2008
Master of Business Administration (MBA), UCLA
Over 25 years in the high tech and IT security industries
Ad
name
Support our neighborhoods and enhance the quality of
Key Priorities
life for our diverse mix of residents
Advocate for high-quality housing that is affordable
Add parks and open space in our increasingly urban City
Maintain Mountain View as a financially strong City
www.LisaForCouncil.com
Good For Your Neighborhood
“A friend of mine had just
been reviewing earthquake
procedures. She told us to get
under the desks, so we got under
the desks. My brother’s house,
up in the Santa Cruz mountains,
was broken into three pieces. “
Endorsements (partial list)
Margaret Abe-Koga, Ronit Bryant, and Jac Siegel
Former Mayors and Current City Councilmembers
Nick Galiotto, Laura Macias, and Matt Pear
Former Mayors and City Councilmembers
M.V. Police Officers Association
M.V. Professional Firefighters
Chamber of Commerce M.V.
Nancy Swayne, Redwood City
South Bay Labor Council
Steve Rasmussen (Milk Pail)
Laura Brown, Robert Chang
Chris Dateo, Thida Cornes
Robert Cox, Jessica Gandhi
Paul Lansky, Maria Marroquin
Joe Mitchner, Jamil Shaikh
Bob Weaver, Helen Wolter
Paid for by Matichak for City Council 2014 FPPC# 1366232
“I was playing tennis in
Burlingame. At first, I did not
know what what happening.
I recognized that cars were
moving off the street and I
started seeing things falling off
buildings.”
Barry Canty, Half Moon Bay
Smiles Dental Care
“I remember sitting in my car by
the train tracks and seeing the
traffic lights swinging back and
forth.”
Andy Gelman, Mountain View
“My son, who was 7 years
old, was at soccer practice. He
climbed a fence and jumped
down from it, and the earth
started shaking. My son thought
he was the one who caused the
quake.”
Lori Romá, Los Altos
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Have
H
Have aa question
question
ti for
fforV
Voices
Voices
i A
Around
AroundTown?
Town? E-mail
Email itit to
to editor@mv-voice.com
editor@mv-voice.com
October 17, 2014 Q Mountain View Voice Q MountainViewOnline.com Q
3
LocalNews
I am running for re-election as a Trustee on the Mountain View Los Altos High School
District Board of Education. My wife and I are 23 year Mountain View residents with a
recent MVLA graduate and two current students.
JOE
MITCHNER
During my seven years an MVLA Trustee, I have spent time on all MVLA campuses, reviewed
HighI School
Board
academic data, and carefully studied MVLA
District budgets.
have visited
classrooms, and met
with
parents,
student,
have spent
time
o
My wife
and I are
23 yearI Mountain
View
residents
with a recent MVLA graduate and two current
students. I am excited about our District’s successes and our students’ achievements:
I am excited about our District’s positive momentum, and proud of the achievement of our
x Rising
levels
of academic achievement
(API
increases 10 consecutive years)
students.
Recent
accomplishments
and trends
include:
x
x
x
Narrowing Achievement Gap (API gap narrowing 8 consecutive years)
Increasing college-readiness (96% attend college and 75% are UC-eligible)
Los Altos & Mountain View High Schools rank in the top 1% nationally (Newsweek)
QCRIMEBRIEFS
HOME-INVASION ROBBERY
Police are searching for two suspects who tied up a resident and
robbed his home in Mountain View on Oct. 8.
The two suspects, described as two African American males,
entered the home on San Marcos Circle between 10:30 a.m. and
noon on Oct. 8. The suspects tied up the victim, a 24-year-old
Mountain View man, and stole a cell phone and cash from the
residence.
Police searched the neighborhood and surrounding areas, but
See CRIME BRIEFS, page 10
x Rising to:
levels of academic achievement (API increases 10 consecutive years)
I am committed
x
x
x
x
xx
xx
x
Narrowing Achievement Gap (API gap narrowing 8 consecutive years)
Improving academic achievement for ALL students.
Solid fiscal position (careful and conservative planning during economic downturn)
Ensuring that financial plans are responsible and sustainable.
IncreasingSTEM
college-readiness
(96%
college
and 75%
UC-eligible)
Expanding
course offerings,
andattend
integrating
technology
in are
student
learning.
Introduction
of and
many
new classes
andthe
programs,
whichofserve
a wide range of
Providing
classes
programs
that meet
evolving needs
our students.
students,support
with varying
academic
interests
and abilities. students and families.
Increasing
programs
and outreach
to under-represented
Endorsements: County Supervisor: Joe Simitian; Mountain View Councilmembers: Chris
Clark, John McAlister, Ronit Bryant, Mike Kasperzak, Margaret Abe-Koga, Jac Siegel; Los Altos
Councilmember: Jeannie Bruins; Former Los Altos Councilmembers: Jim Thurber, Curtis
Cole, Ron Packard, David Casas, Lou Becker; Ret./Former MVLA Trustees: Judy Hannemann,
Julia Rosenberg, Dave Williams; Foothill-DeAnza Trustee: Laura Casas; MVWSD Trustees:
Ellen Wheeler, Christopher Chiang; Former MVWSD Trustees: Rose Filicetti, Steve Olson,
Gloria Higgins; LASD Trustee: Steve Taglio; Friends of Los Altos; Mountain View Voice; MVLA
District Teachers Association; Community Members: Bruce Barsi, Laura Blakely, Lara Daetz,
Greg & Michelle De La Ossa, Kim Gavenman, Ross Heitkamp, Nelson & Robin Iwai, Bruce &
Twana Karney, Randy Kenyon, Gail Lee, Lisa Matichak, Page McDonald & Tim Millet, Mike
& Marla Mulkey, Mike & Leane Reelfs, Jere Schaefer, Elena Shea, Jerry & Ann Sorensen,
Deborah & Rod Spencley, Kathy Thibodeaux, Emily Thurber, Scott Vermeer (partial list)
I would be honored to receive your vote on November 4th.
www.votejoemitchner.com
Paid for by Joe Mitchner for MVLA School Board 2014 FPPC#1369919
QPOLICELOG
AUTO BURGLARY
1500 block Shoreline Blvd., 10/8
2400 block Charleston Rd., 10/8
1 block Amphitheatre Pkwy., 10/13
600 block Rainbow Dr., 10/14
BATTERY
400 block Moffett Blvd., 10/11
100 block Bryant St., 10/13
200 block San Antonio Cir., 10/13
600 block Showers Dr., 10/14
COMMERCIAL BURGLARY
500 block N. Rengstorff Av., 10/11
2500 block California St., 10/11
200 block Castro St., 10/13
2100 block Latham St., 10/13
2200 block Showers Dr., 10/13
GRAND THEFT
1600 block Villa St., 10/8
1200 block Terra Bella Av., 10/12
100 block Permanente Way, 10/13
RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY
500 block Chesley Av., 10/10
STOLEN VEHICLE
700 block Continental Cir., 10/10
600 block Sylvan Av., 10/12
800 block E. Dana St., 10/13
VANDALISM
2500 block Saffron Way, 10/13
400 block National Av., 10/14
QCORRECTIONS
Q In last week’s story on campaign finances, the Voice incorrectly
reported Jim Neal’s fundraising total to be shy of $1,000. It is
actually $3,920, including a $2809.03 loan from himself. And Lisa
Matichak did not receive a contribution of $400 from the Cuesta
Park Neighborhood Association; that was how much she paid for
an ad in the association’s newsletter.
Q In last week’s editorial endorsements in the El Camino Healthcare District election, the Voice erroneously said that Dr. Peter
Fung works as a program director for El Camino Hospital. In
fact, Fung works as an independent contractor for the hospital as
the director of its stroke program.
The Girls’ Middle School
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THE CLIMATE CONVERSATION YOU
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however, developing new techniques and technologies to deal with global
problems is at the heart of what Stanford and Silicon Valley do best. Join
moderator Lesley Stahl and a panel of global leaders to address what may
be the most compelling issue of our time.
Friday, October 24, 2014
Maples Pavilion, Stanford University
9:30 a.m. President’s Welcome / 10 a.m. Roundtable
Free and open to the public.
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IGNITING THE SPARK
OF KNOWLEDGE AND
SELF-DISCOVERY
LocalNews
MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE
Q CITY COUNCIL UPDATES
Q COMMUNITY
Q FEATURES
Mountain View OKs
$10.30 minimum wage
COUNCIL’S GOAL IS TO RAISE WAGE TO $15 BY 2018
By Daniel DeBolt
I
n a dramatic meeting Thursday evening, Mountain View’s
City Council approved a new
minimum wage law based on
San Jose’s, increasing the city’s
minimum wage to $10.30 an hour
starting July 1, 2015, and made it
a goal to hit $15 an hour by 2018.
The council chambers was
packed with people pushing the
council to adopt a higher wage
than San Jose’s. There were few
opponents — developer Don
Bahl told the council not to be
“touchy feely” and sympathize too
much with the stories of the city’s
working poor, and representatives
of two downtown restaurants,
including Xahn, expressed con-
cerns about being able to make
a profit unless tipped employees
were exempted.
Over 50 people attended a
rally to “raise the wage” before
the meeting in Civic Center
plaza, and nearly everyone in the
crowded room stood up when
asked if they supported a higher
wage, some holding signs saying
“We stand with you.”
Despite the unusually large
amount of support for a wage
approaching $15 an hour, council members were hesitant to go
above the $10.30 the San Jose’s
wage is expected to hit next year.
“I’m willing to go beyond what
San Jose has done but it’s imporSee MINIMUM WAGE, page 6
MICHELLE LE
Ruth Robertson, center, sings at a rally alongside fellow members of the Raging Grannies and
community activist Elena Pacheco (far right) at a rally outside City Hall to increase the minimum wage in
Mountain View on Oct. 9.
Teachers reach tentative agreement on salaries
DETAILS OF THE DEAL NOT RELEASED UNTIL RATIFICATION BY TEACHER UNION
By Kevin Forestieri
T
he Mountain View Whisman School District
and the teachers’ union
reached an agreement on Oct.
8 following a two-week impasse
after salary talks stalled, according to a joint statement released
on Oct. 9.
The Mountain View Educators
Association and the district were
back at the negotiation table on
Oct. 8 after school board members, in a closed-session meeting,
expressed interest in continuing
contract negotiations. The board
also authorized a new salary
increase proposal.
Superintendent Craig Goldman said district negotiators
reached and union representatives exchanged offers and were
able to come to an agreement
within a few hours.
“I think the settlement reflects
the interests of both parties,”
Goldman said.
President Jonathan Pharazyn
of the Mountain View Educators
Association said both sides made
compromises to reach the agreement.
“We didn’t get everything we
wanted, but we got some of what
we wanted,” Pharazyn said.
The agreement still needs to
be ratified by the educators association before it can come to the
board for approval on Nov. 6.
The teachers’ union will meet on
Oct. 20 to decide whether to ratify the agreement. Both Pharazyn
and Goldman said they were
confident it will be ratified.
Until that meeting, details on
the agreement will not released.
Goldman said he thinks both
the two parties have built a
“foundation for productive negotiations in future years” after
the recent talks and tentative
salary agreement. Pharazyn said
it remains to be seen whether
negotiations will play out differently next spring.
If the agreement is ratified and
approved by the board, Pharazyn
said, the union’s focus will likely
shift towards concerns over the
implementation of Common
Core curriculum and growing
class size.
The salary agreement for the
2014-15 school year could mean
the end of over a month of contention between the district and
its teaching staff over teacher
compensation, which sparked a
huge outpouring of support by
parents, teachers and community members who have flooded
the room at every board meeting
since Sept. 4.
Teachers at the board meetings
demanded salaries be raised so
they are competitive with comparable school districts in the
county, and said that the cost
of living in the Bay Area eats up
most — or all — of their paychecks.
The Mountain View Educators
See TEACHER SALARY, page 19
Fung outspends Abe-Koga, Reeder in health care district race
SPENDING SPILLS OVER $10,000 FOR TWO OF THREE CANDIDATES
By Kevin Forestieri
C
ampaign financing by the
three candidates for the
El Camino Healthcare
District’s two seats is a study in
contrasts, according to reports
filed Oct. 6.
Candidate and current Mountain View City Council member
Margaret Abe-Koga reported
funding her campaign entirely
through monetary contributions.
The reports cover campaign
fundraising and spending for the
period ending
Sept. 30.
Candidate
and practicing neurologist
Peter Fung, on
the other hand,
paid for most
Peter
of his campaign
Fung
through loans
he made to his own campaign.
While Abe-Koga garnered thousands of dollars from Mountain
View firefighters, incumbent
David Reeder received most of
Margaret
Abe-Koga
David
Reeder
his contribution from anesthesiologists.
All three candidates reporting
having at least $20,000 in their
campaign accounts by the end
of September, but spending varied considerably. Fung reported
spending $18,778, Abe-Koga had
spent $9,737 and Reeder spent
$7,204. On campaign expenditures, Abe-Koga and Reeder
spent the bulk of their money on
campaign advertisements and
printing costs. Fung reported
spending more than $6,000 campaign consultant services.
Margaret Abe-Koga
Margaret Abe-Koga was the
first candidate to announce her
run for the health care district
board, and her finances followed suit. She received a total
of $26,973 as of Sept. 30, but had
raised most of that money —
about $18,500 — by June 30. She
started receiving contributions
as early as April 16, when Gary
Kremen, Match.com CEO and
candidate for the Santa Clara
Valley Water District board, contributed $1,000 to her campaign.
Top contributors to Abe-Koga
See HEALTH CARE, page 15
5
LocalNews
MINIMUM WAGE
Continued from page 5
tant we do it in a fair and prudent manner,” said Mayor Chris
Clark, who pointed out that the
city had conducted only one
outreach meeting and needed
to reach out to more businesses.
“The right way is to build a coalition like Mayor Murray did” in
Seattle, which has approved a
complex $15-an-hour ordinance.
“I see us taking the first step and
saying, ‘We’re willing to help lead
on this.’”
Clark said he thinks there’s a
desire for similar ordinances in
neighboring cities.
Council members first indi-
cated their interest in raising the
wage on May 2, with members
John Inks and John McAlister
opposed.
McAlister owns Mountain
View’s Baskin Robbins, which
isn’t a conflict of interest, according to City Attorney Jannie
Quinn, though some residents
clearly felt otherwise and shouted
at him, “Recuse yourself.”
Members voted 6-1 in favor of
the increase to $10.30, with the
goal of working towards $15 an
hour in 2018 in collaboration with
local businesses and other cities.
Council member Mike Kasperzak suggested a name for the
effort:”$15 by ‘18.”
Member John Inks was
MICHELLE LE
Ryan holds up a sign supporting a higher minimum wage in Mountain
View at last Thursday’s rally.
6
opposed to both the increase
and moving towards $15 an hour,
claiming that most people work
minimum wage jobs only temporarily.
Under the new law, the city’s
minimum wage would increase
every January 1 based on inflation. The amount of the raise will
be announced every October.
When it was clear that the
council wasn’t going to do more
than copy San Jose’s minimum
wage law, many people appeared
to leave the meeting in protest,
or at least, frustration. One audience member told the council
they were acting out of fear.
“I can’t afford to live on what
I’m making now — right now,
I’m homeless,” said Mountain
View Walmart employee Pam
Ramos during the rally. She said
many of her coworkers are on
food stamps and work two jobs.
Other workers who spoke
included Posh Bagel employee
Guadalupe Garcia, who said she
works three $12 an hour jobs and
still can’t afford rent in Mountain
View, and Google janitor Braulia
Flores, a who said her fellow janitors start at $11 an hour, which is
“very, very low to work at company so wealthy.”
“The reality is that there is a
new norm,” said Scott Myers Lipton, the San Jose State University
sociology instructor whose class
proposed the San Jose’s minimum wage law. “Ten dollars was
great when few were advocating
for a minimum wage increase.
Today, people are zooming past
San Jose. I humbly ask you to do
so as well. Matching San Jose is
not visionary, matching Richmond or Seattle is.”
There was no support on the
council for a motion by member
Margaret Abe-Koga to automatically increase the minimum wage
by $1 a year so as to reach $15 by
2019. That would have bumped up
annual pay for a full-time worker
by about $10,000 a year, going
from $20,800 a year before taxes
(at $10 an hour, 40 hours a week)
to $31,200 (at $15 an hour).
The council instead approved
a motion proposed by City Manager Dan Rich, to “make it a goal
of the City Council to get to a $15
an hour minimum wage by the
year 2018, working in cooperation
with our neighboring cities and
regional organizations as well as
get input from the community,
and staff will return to council no
later than April on where the issue
is regionally an get direction on
how to proceed,” Rich said.
It was noted by city staff and
council members that Sunnyale’s
City Council is voting on a wage
increase on Oct. 14 and that 13 of
15 Palo Alto City Council candidates support a higher minimum
wage in Palo Alto.
‘This is as close
to consensus as it
gets on any
political issue.’
MEGHAN FRALEY
“I hope they move forward
quickly because this is what
people want,” said campaign
organizer Meghan Fraley after
the meeting. “This is as close to
consensus as it gets on any political issue.”
The lack of opposition to the
wage increase has been unusual
for something with such wide
impacts. The city’s plastic bag
ban drew many more opponents
to city meetings. During a public
input meeting on the proposed
ordinance, no one spoke against
it. The California Restaurant
Association’s Javier Gonzalez
spoke against the raise to $10.30
on Thursday, noting that the
state has already approved a
25 percent raise of the old $8
minimum wage to $10 an hour
in 2016. He said the raise would
cause “a very challenging wage
compression between the front
end and back of the house,” for
restaurants, hinting that it would
drive up wages for other restau-
rant employees, not just wait staff
on minimum wage.
Advocates had said they hoped
the lack of opposition was due to
reports that San Jose’s economy,
and downtown restaurant industry, has been thriving since its
2012 increase to $10 an hour.
Council member Mike Kasperzak said he didn’t want a “hodgepodge” of different wage ordinances in various cities. He asked
Ken Jacobs, chair of U.C. Berkeley’s Center for Labor research
and education, to describe the
best method for solving “pragmatic issues” of a small business
owner who does work in several
different cities in the county.
Jacobs described the situation
at Valley Fair mall in San Jose
where most of the mall is in
San Jose and a small part is in
Santa Clara, which didn’t raise
the minimum wage. “Employers
who didn’t raise the wage started
losing workers,” Jacobs said, adding that those employers had to
provide some other benefits to
retain workers. He said when one
city raises its minimum wage it
causes a “race to the top” between
cities and employers. He said it
was similar to how cities impose
different taxes on businesses.
“Cities do this on daily basis on
a wide range of regulations. The
best outcome would be if cities
get together and move in the
same direction,” he said.
Jacobs also noted that workers
who make just above minimum
wage will also benefit from the
increase. “People right at and
above the minimum wage also
tend to get a raise to maintain
some wage differential,” Jacobs
said.
Leaders of Mountain View
non-profits also spoke in favor
of significant wage raise: Tom
Myers of the Community Services Agency and Monique Kane of
the Community Health Awareness Council (CHAC). CHAC
provides free and low cost counseling to residents.
“The children of the working
Continued on next page
LocalNews
Sunnyvale matches MV wage hike
this will have to happen on a
city by city level.”
“Several members of the
council emphasized the importance of consistency among cities in the region for minimum
wage,” said Sunnyvale communications officer Jennifer Garnett in an email, adding that
the vote was 6-1 for both the
boost to $10.30 next year and
to set a goal of $15 by 2018, with
council member Dave Whittum
opposed.
The state’s minimum wage is
$9 an hour and will go to $10 in
2016.
V
Council OKs housing loan to city clerk
By Madeleine Gerson
O
Continued from previous page
poor in Mountain View suffer a
great deal emotionally,” Kane said.
Because parents are working
multiple jobs to pay escalating
rents, Kane said, “(Children) are
lonely, they are depressed. It probably takes away a child’s chance
to be with their parents, and
they miss out on the positive role
models they could have. Kids are
ostracized socially, which make
them depressed even more.”
“The parents care that they do
well but they have no time to help
because they are working all the
time. Children are raising children in our community,” she said.
“A child sleeps on the living room
floor and mom has four roommates. The TV is on until late. Is
it any wonder this child comes to
school exhausted? There’s a lot of
poverty and it’s really hurting out
children. I hope you can lead and
go to $15 an hour.”
The California Apartment
Association might seem an unexpected ally to the working poor,
but on Thursday CAA’s Joshua
Howard supported the increase.
He recalled the experience of one
of the landlords he represents
when San Jose passed its wage
increase. “He could tell difference in his residents’ quality of
life and their outlook on life,
"
Leadership
St. Nicholas Catholic School
Kindergarten Open House
Sunday, October 26, 2014
1:30-3:30 p.m.
All Grades (K-8) Open House
Sunday, January 25, 2015
1:30-3:30 p.m.
All Prospective Families Welcome
" Learn About Our Curriculum and
Social and Emotional Programs
" Meet Our Faculty & Community
" Tour Our Beautiful 17 Acre Campus
"
"
"
A National Blue Ribbon School
WASC and WCEA Accredited
ho
la s
C a t h ol
ic
h o ol
Last year, the City Council
approved raises for its appointees, the city manager, city clerk
and city attorney. Brewerís salary was raised from $127,205 to
$132,344.
Council Member Jac Siegel
made a motion to approve the
loan, which was passed by a vote
of 7-0.
Brewer served as Santa Cruz
City Clerk until June 2010, when
she was appointed to the city
clerk position in Mountain View.
Email Madeleine Gerson
at mgerson@mv-voice.com
Community
Sc
n Tuesday, Oct. 14,
Mountain View City
Council voted unanimously to provide City Clerk
Lorrie Brewer with a loan of
$143,000 to purchase a mobile
home in the city of Mountain
View as her primary residence.
Under a housing and relocation
assistance program for council appointees and department
heads, loans of up to $180,000 can
be approved by the City Council
for housing. So far, other than
Brewer, three council appointees
and two department heads have
used the assistance program.
Jim Neal, a City Council candidate, spoke at the council
meeting against the loan and the
message it will send to people in
the lower and middle classes.
ìIt will look like you are doing
favors for yourselves while you
arenít willing to do favors for
others,î said Neal, who objected
to the city’s income restrictions
in its relocation program for
residents who are displaced from
rental housing.
"
Faith
ic
L
ast week Mountain View
City Council members said
they hoped Sunnyvale and
other nearby cities would join
them in raising the minimum
wage to $15 an hour by 2018, and
now Sunnyvale appears to be
doing its part.
On Tuesday evening the
Sunnyvale City Council voted
to approve a $10.30 minimum
wage that will go into effect on
Jan. 1, six months before the
same wage takes effect in Mountain View, and joined Mountain
View’s council in setting a goal
of raising it to $15 by 2018.
Advocates of raising the wage
in Mountain View attended the
Sunnyvale meeting and were
enthusiastic about the outcome.
“Hopefully we will join forces as well with Palo Alto and
Cupertino in moving forward
quickly so that we can indeed
see a raise to $15 by 2018 or
sooner,” said Meghan Fraley,
a leader of the effort in Mountain View. “The best outcome
would be for this to be a
regional solution. Ultimately
though, we can’t forget that
S t. N
By Daniel DeBolt
12816 El Monte Road " Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
650.941.4056 " www.StNicholasLAH.com
e
e
r
F
Composting Classes
Mountain View
Community Center Auditorium
201 S. Rengstorff Ave.
Saturday morning class 10AM – Noon
October 18
Please pre-register for classes by going to
www.ReduceWaste.org/Classes
or call 408-918-4640
Compost Bins for sale – $55.00
MICHELLE LE
Dominic Ware, center, holds hands with members of OurWalmart as
participants of the minimum wage rally close their eyes and imagine
what life would be like if they could afford healthcare and housing.
they would pay rent on the first
of the month. If it worked in San
Jose, it will work here as well. We
don’t oppose the idea of raising
the minimum wage. Ideally, we
don’t have piecemeal legislation
(in different cities).
“What better way to help so
many so quickly in our entire
city and than raising the minimum wage?” said Mike Fischetti,
one of several residents to say a
significant increase to the minimum age was a moral obligation
of the council. He called the
council’s move towards $15 an
hour a “great victory.”
“I hear stories of people who can
barely pay the rent of buy food,”
said Foothill-DeAnza Community College District board member Laura Casas. “I would like our
working people to get bonuses
like the ones my husband used to
get just for doing math correctly.
They need to be part of the economy. If you put that extra money
in their pocket, they are going to
help the economy in the long run,
that is capitalism.”
Email Daniel DeBolt at
ddebolt@mv-voice.com
Learn about:
• Turning leaves, grass & kitchen scraps
into rich compost
• What can go into your pile
• How to tell when the compost is ready
• How to use compost
• Types of compost bins, including
worm bin
bins
R
E
D
U
C
E
R
E
U
S
E
R
E
C
Y
C
L
E
7
LocalNews
All about the budget
SCHOOL DISTRICT ADMINISTRATORS BREAK DOWN
BUDGET FOLLOWING TEACHER PAY IMPASSE
By Kevin Forestieri
C
lass was back in session at
the Oct. 9 Mountain View
Whisman School District
board meeting, as members of
the community filled the room
for a special budget meeting to
try to understand how their local
school district funds teachers,
programs and other expenses.
The meeting was called following a stalemate over teacher
salaries, when the teachers union
declared they had reached an
impasse with the school district
over teacher compensation. The
teachers union wanted a “cost
of living” salary increase of 7
percent this year — more than
double the 3.25 percent offered
by the district.
The situation has since cooled
off after both parties met for
negotiations again on Oct. 8 and
came to a tentative agreement on
salaries. No details on the agreement have yet been released.
Still, issue raised a number of budget-related questions
about what the district can
8
afford to pay its teaching staff
while remaining fiscally solvent.
Teachers and community members alike also raised concerns
over the district’s large, $24 million reserve — more than half of
which is designated for economic
uncertainty.
The issues galvanized the public enough that the district was
able to get a full audience to sit
down and muse over the 201314 year-end unaudited budget
actuals, hold the packed handout sideways to read pie charts
on district sources of revenue,
and ask questions on what these
numbers mean for the future.
“On the left side, the pieces
of the pie that are sitting out
from the Pac-Man face are the
restricted (funds),” said Terese
McNamee, chief business officer
for the district, as she explained
a graph that broke down district
revenue.
The “Pac-Man” face, in this
case, is the district funding considered to be “operating revenue,”
and is the portion of money that
can be used to pay for ongoing
expenses — a relevant piece of the
teacher salary discussion. That
money does not include things
like parcel taxes, which McNamee
said were instrumental in offsetting a drop in operating revenue
and helped sustain programs that
would’ve been otherwise cut during the recession.
McNamee also explained budget projections for the future,
which shows expenses outpacing
revenues as early as the 201516 school year, as the district
continues to spend more on
programs for students in the low
socioeconomic status and English-language learners groups,
and more on school supplies and
support to prepare for Common
Core state curriculum standards.
McNamee said the possibility
of dipping into the reserves in
future years is not a troubling
prospect, but the district needs to
be mindful and avoid situations
where programs need to be cut in
order to pay the bills.
“I think it’s an annual conversation of looking at where we’re
at and what’s coming at us so
that we can make sure that over
an extended period of time we’re
in good shape,” McNamee said.
The district’s reserves, excluding restricted reserves, ends up
at $14.3 million — 31 percent
of the district’s annual budget.
McNamee said the recommended reserves for economic uncertainty is up to 25 percent, the
reason being that the state has
cut as much as 14.5 percent of the
district’s funding in a single year,
and the district needs to be ready
to compensate for that shortfall.
Public comments
scrutinize budget
After the number-heavy presentation, parents and teachers
asked questions mostly related to
salaries and reserves — the hotbutton issues that were brought
up last month when the teachers union criticized the school
district for more than tripling its
reserves in the last five years.
One person asked McNamee
why the district continues to
maintain a high level of reserves
for “economic uncertainty” when
the dollar amount of reserves
didn’t even decrease during the
recession in 2008 and 2009.
“If you didn’t spend (the
reserves) then, what makes you
think you’ll spend them in the
future?” he said. “Are you holding reserves against an event
that’s more severe than the 2008
downturn?”
McNamee said that federal
stimulus money kept the district
afloat during the recession years
and “more than offset” the loss
in state funds. Parcel taxes and
donations also helped keep the
district from tapping into the
reserves. Many other districts,
she said, were not so fortunate
and didn’t have those outside
sources of funding. Keeping
a healthy reserve is “vital” in
recession years where there isn’t
a budget windfall, she said.
When asked why the unrestricted reserves were about 6
percent above the recommended
25 percent of the annual budget
last year, McNamee said 2013-14
was an anomaly, and that a new
funding formula gave the district
significantly more money than
what they were expecting. Budget projections expect that number to decrease from 31 percent
to 14.3 percent by the 2016-17
school year.
One woman in the audience
said she would like to see the
expenses broken down even
further to see how much money
is going into administrative salaries, rather than just certificated
versus classified salaries.
“I think that would be helpful.
There’s a lot of confusion going
on between certificated (and)
administrative, and I think it
would clear up some questions,”
she said.
Email Kevin Forestieri
at kforestieri@mv-voice.com
LENNY
SIEGEL
FOR CITY COUNCIL
2014
Mountain View
The jobs-housing imbalance is threatening
our quality of life, diversity, and natural
environment. Housing is scarce and
^qi^glbo^'MkZ_Û\blbg\k^ZlbgèrbfiZllZ[e^'
Earlier this year Lenny Siegel formed the
Campaign for a Balanced Mountain View.
A^ble^Z]bg`ma^Ûàm_hk3
IkZ\mb\Zeebfbmlhgabà&m^\a
employment growth.
>qiZg]bg`hnkahnlbg`lniier%
building new walkable, livable,
multi-story neighborhoods, complete
with neighborhood schools, in locations
such as North Bayshore and the San
Antonio area.
>qiZg]^][êhp&fZkd^mZg]_ng]bg`
requirements to make housing more
affordable for low-income people.
<hffngbmreZg]mknlmlmhfZd^bm^Zlb^k
for middle-income people to break into the
ownership market.
:lmk^g`ma^g^]eh\ZemkZglbmlrlm^f%
particularly between the North Bayshore
area and both Downtown Mountain View
and the San Antonio area.
LENNY SIEGEL has lived in Mountain View
for 42 years as a renter and homeowner.
He is a professional environmental
advocate known nationally for his ability
to bring together representatives of people
and organizations with diverse interests
and backgrounds to solve common problems.
Locally, he has a long record of
\hffngbmre^Z]^klabi3
Lbg\^ma^^Zker*21)lE^ggraZle^]
community oversight of toxic cleanup in
Mountain View and at Moffett Field. For
mablphkd%N'L'>I:ZpZk]^]abfbmlgZmbhgZe
Superfund Citizen of the Year Award in 2011.
In 2005 he convened the Save Hangar
One Committee to preserve and restore the
FhngmZbgOb^pZk^Zl^ghkfhnlablmhkb\
landmark.
In 2001 he spearheaded the campaign to
clean up and restore the Moffett wetlands.
Bg*22/E^ggre^]ma^ÛàmZ`Zbglmfb]]e^&h_&
ma^&gbàm
Zbk\Zk`hÜbàmlZmFh__^mm?bê]'
Bgma^*20)la^l^ko^]hgma^>gobkhgf^gmZe
IeZggbg`<hffbllbhgZg]ma^=hpgmhpg
Revitalization Committee, and he
participated in the Central City planning
effort that preserved Old Mountain View,
where he lives.
A vote for Lenny Siegel is a vote for a more
balanced, sustainable Mountain View.
To endorse, donate, request a yard sign,
volunteer, or simply join the Lenny for
<hng\be^&fZbeeblm%`hmh3
ammi3((ppp'E^ggrLb^`ê_hk<hng\be'g^m
Lenny Siegel for Mountain View Council 2014
Box 391072, Mountain View, CA 94041
FZkmbg@hkÛgdê%Mk^Zlnk^k
?II<*,/12++
P^[3ammi3((ppp'E^ggrLb^`ê_hk<hng\be'g^m
?Z\^[hhd3?Z\^[hhd'\hf(E^ggrLb^`ê_hk<hng\be
Endorsements
Matt Allen, Former Mayor
Elaine Astrue
Susan Barkan
David Bell
Dorothy Bender
Madeline Bernard
Bill Berry
Kathleen & Serge Bonte
Charles Bransi
John Brazil
Ed Brennan
Erin Brigham
Joan Brodovsky
Barry Burr
Jan Carey, Former School Board Member
Cliff Chambers
Steve Chandler
Chris Chiang, School Board Member
Mark Christenson
Wren Clark
Michael Closson
Betsy Collard, Former School Board Member
Diana Collins
Eileen Denue
Libby Dresel
Frederic Duperrault
Bruce England
Marie Evitt
Evolve California
Rose Filicetti, Former School Board Member
Mike Fischetti
Meghan Fraley
Judith Gable
Robert Glick
EYjlaf?gjÚfc]d
Carrielynn & David Haedtler
Cynthia Hanson
Alison Hicks
Jeremy Hoffman
Roy Hong
Jane Horton
Vladimir Ivanovic
Greg & Linda Kannall
Haley Kannall
Lucas Kannall
Bruce Karney
Robert Kirby
Helen Landsman
Bonnie Laster
Mike Laster
League of Conservation Voters
Erin Lee
Barbara Leeds
Vincent Leone
Sally Lieber, Former Assemblywoman and Mayor
Job Lopez
Joan MacDonald, Former School Board Member
Wally MacDonald
Susie Mader
Aldona Majorek
Bonnie Malouf
Maria Marroquin
Alice Martineau
Julia Miller, VC, El Camino Hospital Healthcare District
Anthony Moor
Nancy Morimoto
Mountain View Voters for Housing Diversity
Debbie Mytels
Gail Nyhan
David Offen
Ravit Ortiz
Sherry Palacios
Palo Alto Daily Post
Richard Pasetto
Greg Perry, Former Vice-Mayor
David Pilling
Gil Porat
Carolyn Purcell
Lucia Ramirez
Carol & Keating Rhoads
Jan & Karen Rivers
Karen Saltzman
Jose D. Sanchez
Jim Schwartz
Kathy & Michael Sherman
Ron Shipper
Art & Liz Siegel
Abe Siegel-Rivers
Misha Siegel-Rivers
Peggy Simon
Kim Smith-Nilsson
Emy & Jim Thurber
Diane Turner
Elna Tymes
Sylvia Villasenor
Pam & Ruth Walton-Carranza
Michelle Watson
Bob Wenzlau
Alan Whitaker
Marilyn Winkleby
Josh Wolf
Sarah Woodhall
9
Inspirations
a guide to the spiritual community
LOS ALTOS LUTHERAN
Bringing God’s Love and Hope to All
Children’s Nursery
10:00 a.m. Worship
10:10 Sunday School
11:15 a.m. Fellowship
Pastor David K. Bonde
Outreach Pastor Gary Berkland
460 South El Monte (at Cuesta)
650-948-3012
www.losaltoslutheran.org
LocalNews
Young filmmakers inspire African film fest
WEEKEND FESTIVAL CELEBRATES FIFTH YEAR IN MOUNTAIN VIEW
To include your
Church in
Inspirations
Please call
Blanca Yoc
at 650-223-6596
or email
byoc@paweekly.com
MOUNTAIN VIEW CENTRAL SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH
Sabbath School: 9:30 a.m.
Saturday Services: Worship 10:45 a.m.
Wednesday Study Groups: 10-11 a.m.
Pastor Kenny Fraser, B.A.M. DIV
1425 Springer Rd., Mtn. View - Office Hrs. M-F 9am-1pm
www.mtviewda.adventistfaith.org Phone: 650-967-2189
END OF THE
SEASON SALE
UP TO 50% OFF
By Madeleine Gerson
F
or the fifth year, the Community School of Music and
Arts will play host to the
Silicon Valley African Film Festival from Friday, Oct. 7 to Sunday,
Oct. 19. SVAFF is the only film
festival in California which presents films exclusively produced by
African filmmakers.
Over the duration of the weekend festival, 25 films will be presented, there will be an “African
Women in Technology” forum,
an art exhibition, a youth forum,
and several performances.
When the event was founded
five years ago, one of the goals
was to provide a greater understanding of African culture and
heritage, according to event
director Chike C. Nwoffiah, who
came to the United States from
Nigeria in 1989.
Nwoffiah said the film festival
uses performing arts as a window
into the real Africa.
“The entire festival weekend
has been designed to offer
unique social and artistic
visions from around the African continent that will engage
our audience in thought-provoking dialogue,” he said.
SVAFF is presented by Oriki
Theatre and some of this year’s
featured films include “Gold is
Here” from Ghana, “A Culture
of Silence” from Sierra Leone,
“Horizon Beautiful” from Ethiopia, “Soko Sonka” from Kenya,
and “B’ella” from Malawi.
Nwoffiah said young filmmakers provided the inspiration
behind the founding of the Silicon Valley African Film Festival.
“I began to find amazing work
filmed by really young people.
I said to myself. ‘Wow ... If we
could create a platform for the
filmmakers, then we are getting
the story from the mouth of the
storyteller to the public,’” Nwoffiah said.
Every year, the event attracts a
diverse audience of international
visitors, Silicon Valley technology executives, cinema buffs,
academics, government officials
and a variety of community supporters, he said.
There will be several additions
to the film festival this year,
including a visual arts exhibition
by 21 year-old Nigerian-Canadi-
Expires 10/31/14
QCRIMEBRIEFS
were not able to locate the suspects. Witnesses saw
a dark, four-door sedan in the area at the time of
the robbery, which could be related to the robbery.
The victim was not injured in the incident.
Police encourage anyone with information about
the case to call 650-903-6395 and refer to case number 14-5325. Anonymous tips can be sent to 274637
—include MVTips in the body of the message
HIT-AND-RUN ARREST
terrapatio.com
Mountain View Store
1064 W. El Camino Real
(Located between Castro St. &
Shoreline on El Camino)
10 - 6 Everyday
650.969.2200
10
an artist Kosi Nnebe on themes
of beauty and identity.
“For me, art has always been
a tool of self-discovery and has
truly forced me to re-imagine
the manner in which I perceive
myself and the world around
me,” Nnebe said.
This will be the first year that
the Stanford a cappella group
Talisman will be performing.
There will also be a red carpet
reception and opening ceremony
on Fri., Oct. 17 and closing awards
ceremony on Sun., Oct. 19.
“We will have a couple of
surprises to celebrate the fifth
anniversary that we will reveal,”
said Nwoffiah.
A one-day pass to the festival is $25, and a two-day pass
costs $35, with $5 discounts for
students and seniors. Opening
night ceremonies are free with a
pass, or $15 to attend without a
pass. For the schedule and more
information about the Silicon
Valley African Film Festival at
CSMA, located at 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View, go to
svaff.org.
Email Madeleine Gerson
at mgerson@mv-voice.com
Police arrested a Sunnyvale man Sunday in connection with a hit and run following a major traffic
collision in Mountain View on Friday, Oct. 10.
The driver, identified as 26-year-old Jonathan
Castillo, was allegedly involved in the two-vehicle collision on California Street and Chiquita
Avenue that occurred shortly before 9 p.m. on
Sunday, Oct. 10. Police found two vehicles that
were damaged, including one overturned vehicle.
The incident is still under investigation, but it
appears the suspect vehicle struck the overturned
blue vehicle, according to Shino Tanaka of the
Mountain View Police Department.
Two people were transported to a local hospital for non-life threatening injuries, and police
continued to search for Castillo, who had left the
scene on foot and was seen walking down Chiquita Avenue.
Using information from witnesses at the scene,
police were able to locate and identify Castillo
and arrest him on Sunday, Oct. 12, on charges of
felony hit and run. Castillo was booked into San
Jose Main Jail.
CONCERT SCUFFLE
Police arrested a 48-year-old Stockton man at
the Snoop Dogg concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre on Oct. 10 after the man allegedly got in
an argument, pushed his daughter and tried to
prevent her from contacting 911.
Police responded to a disturbance at the lawn
area of the venue where the man, identified as
David Martinez, was allegedly intoxicated and
arguing with his girlfriend, a 47-year-old Stockton woman, according to Sgt. Saul Jaeger of the
Mountain View Police Department. When Martinez’ daughter stepped in and started to call 911,
Martinez pushed her several times and tried to
take the phone away, according to police.
Martinez was arrested for battery and preventing a person from summoning 911, and was
booked into San Jose Main Jail.
—Kevin Forestieri
FATAL MOTORCYCLE CRASH
A Campbell man was killed Thursday, Oct. 9,
while riding his motorcycle on northbound state
Highway 85 in Mountain View when he collided
with a minivan in front of him, a California Highway Patrol official said.
Larry Gene Baughman, 62, was riding just south
of El Camino Real shortly after 11:15 a.m. Thursday on a 2012 Honda motorcycle when traffic
slowed in front of him, according to the CHP.
Baughman collided with the back of a 2005
Toyota Minivan driven by a Cupertino resident.
He was transported to Stanford Hospital, where he
died of injuries sustained in the collision, according to the CHP.
Drugs and alcohol do not appear to have been
factors in this collision, CHP officials said.
Any witnesses to this collision are asked to call
Officer Marc Thomas at (650) 369-6261.
—Bay City News Service
Let’s
Talk
University Health Care Advantage
Advancing Health with Trusted Care.
Many factors go into choosing a Medicare Advantage
Plan that’s right for you—from your health and lifestyle to
personal financial considerations. University Health Care
Advantage (UHCA) offers Santa Clara County residents
an integrated and seamless health care experience from
world-class Stanford Medicine and its affiliated provider
network.
For more information, please contact:
We offer all the coverage of Original Medicare plus
additional features and benefits. From routine check-ups
to complex care, with UHCA you get:
University Health Care Advantage (UHCA) has a contract
with Medicare to offer an HMO plan. You must reside in
Santa Clara County, California to enroll. Enrollment in
the University Health Care Advantage plan depends on
contract renewal.
• Advanced clinical care, research and technology
• Access to over 200 primary care physicians and
over 2100 specialists
• Preferred dental and vision coverage
• Member Care Specialists for one-on-one guidance
• MyHealth—Secure, anytime online access to your
health information and appointments.*
1-855-996-UHCA (8422)
www.UHCAmedicare.org
Enrollment runs October 15–December 7, 2014
The benefit information provided is a brief summary, not
a complete description of benefits. For more information,
contact UHCA. Benefits, formulary, pharmacy network, provider
network, premium and/or copayments/coinsurance may
change on January 1 of each year. Other providers are
available in our network. This information is available for
free in other languages.
To speak with a UHCA representative, please call
1-855-996-UHCA (8422)/TTY Users: 711, 8am–8pm,
seven days a week.
*Where available.
H2986_MM_054 Accepted 2015
11
LocalNews
CASTRO SCHOOL
and create a segregated campus
where one half is almost entirely
composed of low-income and
English-language learner students.
Students in the bilingual Dual
Immersion program receive
instruction in both Spanish and
English, with the goal of having
students become proficient in
both languages. As a choice program, it draws district students
from outside of Castro’s attendance boundaries.
The recommendation came
after hundreds of hours of study
sessions, focus groups and soliciting opinions from parents and
teachers at Castro to figure out
how to improve instruction and
performance in the Dual Immersion program and the traditional
program at the school.
And performance is a problem,
according to Marcela Simoes
de Carvalho, assistant principal
at Castro elementary. De Carvalho said some people might
wonder why Castro needs to be
restructured when the school’s
performance, as measured by the
we stand for
JYLH[P]L
PUKLWLUKLU[
JYP[PJHS[OPURPUN
Do You?
Join Us
Open House
Sunday, October 19
9 am - 1 pm
Information Night
Tuesday, November 18
7 pm
Academic Performance Index,
has improved in the last five years.
Castro Elementary reports
tests scores for both programs
combined, de Carvalho said,
giving a perception to the public,
and the state, that Castro is one
school with no differentiation
between programs for student
achievement. The reality is that
students in the traditional program are lagging behind students in the Dual Immersion
program by a large margin.
A report by the task force
shows that 67 percent of Dual
Immersion students scored
“proficient” in English and language arts, but only 32 percent
of students in the traditional
program did. Similarly, 54 percent of traditional program
students were proficient in math
compared to 85 percent in Dual
Immersion.
There is a big demographic
divide between the two programs as well. Alejandro Quezada, a Dual Immersion teacher
at Castro, said 90 percent of the
students in the traditional program are both English-language
learners and from families classified as “low socioeconomic
status,” compared to 45 percent
English-language learners and
40 percent low socioeconomic
status for students in the Dual
Immersion.
“That’s what we’re trying to
overcome here,” Quezada said.
“We have two very unique programs and we’ve been, for years,
trying to address these two very
unique programs in a very similar way.”
Members of the task force concluded that a separate school for
the traditional program students
would help to overcome the “persistent and wide” achievement
gap better than trying to meet
the needs of two very different
instructional programs at the
same time.
Superintendent Craig Goldman said the task force has gone
through a comprehensive process,
and that it’s important for the
community to weigh in. He said
the recommendation makes a lot
of sense given the two programs
already operate separately and
have two different sets of students.
Goldman said the change
‘Education is not
only grades, but
also the experience
of growing up in
a rich, inclusive
and accepting
environment.’
LIGIA SAKEDO
could also mean a greater focus
of supplemental funds intended
to help low-income and minority students, which make up a
large majority of the traditional
program.
“These funds are spread across
the school right now, even for
students not deemed ‘targeted’
kids,” Goldman said.
Kristen Julien, a second-grade
teacher at Castro, read a letter to
the board on behalf of a group
of teachers who supported the
COLLABORATIVE LEADER.
YOUTH ADVOCATE.
COMMITTED TO:
t Transparent and inclusive governance
t Effective stewardship of the public’s dollars
t Growing programs that support the success of
our most vulnerable students
t Parent Leadership and Positive School Climate
Dana BUNNETT
MVLA HIGH SCHOOL
DISTRICT BOARD
Endorsed by:
5IF.7-"%JTUSJDU5FBDIFST"TTPDJBUJPOt-B3B[B3PVOEUBCMFt
4BOUB$MBSB$PVOUZ%FNPDSBUJD1BSUZt%"8/
Paid for by Dana Bunnett for Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District
Governing Board 2014. FPPC # 1371127
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12
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two-school proposal. She said
the teachers, in researching the
different options to restructure
Castro, became “acutely” aware
of what they had been feeling all
along: that the school-wide compromises and concessions trying
to accommodate both programs
prevented the school from focusing on on each program’s most
pressing needs and goals.
“We are confident that implementing the comprehensive,
detailed and research-based programs outlined by the restructuring task force will enable us to
make significant progress in academic achievement and parent
involvement in both programs,”
Julien said.
Included in the task force
report was a quote from Castro
parents involved in the process
that stated “academic success is
the most important and all the
other things are extra.”
That mentality concerned Castro parent David Kessens, who
told the board he agrees that
something needs to be done,
but felt the composition and the
nature of the task force was too
narrowly focused on academics.
“You get statements like, ‘Yeah,
the academics is the only thing
that counts,’” Kessens said. “And
that isn’t really true.”
Kessens questioned whether
the task force put enough thought
into the financial costs associated
with operating two schools on
the same campus. He said even
if Measure G funds would help
with initial construction, the
district has to look at on-going
costs for running a separate
administrative staff, and possible
increases in maintenance costs.
“That money could’ve been
spent on children. It could’ve
been spent on intervention programs. It could’ve been spent
on things that actually directly
benefit the children as opposed
to overhead,” Kessens said.
Another Castro parent, Ligia
Salcedo, urged the board not to
segregate Castro and create one
school with more than 80 percent
of the students are low-income
Hispanic students.
“Education is not only grades,
but also the experience of growing
up in a rich, inclusive and accepting environment,” Salcedo said.
Salcedo said the task force
recommends the two-school
solution, but has yet to present
an educational plan tailored to
help the low-income Hispanic
children at Castro and improve
their proficiency in English. She
said the emphasis is all focused
on under-performing students
in the traditional program, but
makes no mention of the students struggling in the Dual
Immersion program.
Castro Parent Daniel Tunelang
said he is worried that splitting
Castro into two schools could
LocalNews
further institutionalize a kind
of segregation based on ethnicity and socioeconomic status.
Tunkalong said this is already
going on to some extent between
the traditional program and
the Dual Immersion program,
but separating Castro into two
schools would make it worse.
“I don’t think the outcomes can
ever be the same if we have that
separation,” Tunkalong said.
Task force input and
inclusion
The 14-member Castro
Restructuring Task Force started
meeting in March of this year,
and included Castro parents,
teachers, principal and assistant
principal, as well as district
administrators. The goal of the
task force was to find a way to
restructure Castro in a way that
improves instruction and narrows the achievement gap.
Sarah Livnat, a parent at Castro
and member of the task force,
said members did two major
“reach outs” to the community.
The first was an initial survey to
solicit feedback from Castro parents about what was going well at
the school and what they would
like to see improved.
The second was a focus group
that included two randomly
selected parents from each class-
MICHELLE LE
Castro students are rewarded with a spritz of water during the “Castro Walks Because Castro Rocks” walka-thon fundraiser on Oct. 10.
opportunity for every parent
to contribute to that process,”
Livnat said. “It was very good
for us to hear feedback from
parents, specifically those that
tend not to be very vocal.”
To help facilitate the discussion and give parents a more
room at Castro. The task force
would run through the problems
related to student achievement
as well as some of the potential
solutions.
“(We) really tried to solicit
from the parents their concerns,
their questions, and had an
tangible understanding of what
problems face Castro Elementary students, parents on the
task force moved stacks of boxes
to represent the charts and test
results to show the slow progress
of the school and the persisting
achievement gap.
The task force looked at four
different restructuring options.
The first two options were one
school with two programs —
similar to what exists — or two
schools, each housing one of the
two programs. The third option
was to have two separate schools
and move one of those schools
to another district site, and the
fourth was to convert Castro
into an “all Dual Immersion”
school and have families desiring a traditional school program
transfer to another school.
The latter two options were
rejected for a swath of reasons,
including what didn’t work in
the district over a decade ago.
De Carvalho said the district
tried to split Castro onto two
different campuses when she
joined the school district 18
years ago. At the time, she said,
district leadership tried to move
“primary language program”
classes from Castro to Landels
Elementary school and transfer
Castro students to the new location — incidentally at the same
time as class size reductions. It
didn’t gain enough traction.
“What ending up happening is
it started fizzling out,” Carvalho
said. “Choice was important to
parents, and being close to their
neighborhood school is important.”
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LocalNews
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include the Mountain View Firefighters IAFF 1965, a local firefighter association, which contributed $4,000; $1,000 from the
Democratic Activists for Women
Now organization; $1,000 from
the Evan Low for Assembly 2014
campaign committee; and $500
from the Northern California
Carpenters Regional Council.
Abe-Koga paid over $4,500 for
campaign printing services to
Pacific Printing in San Jose.
When Abe-Koga dropped her
bid for the Santa Clara County
Board of Supervisors in 2012, she
still had some funds remaining
from that campaign. Abe-Koga
said she has since transferred
that money to a committee called
“Margaret Abe-Koga for Supervisor 2016” in order to hold onto the
funds, but told the Voice that she
has no intention for running for
supervisor in 2016 if she is elected
to the El Camino Healthcare District. She said she intends to serve
on the health care district board
for the entire four-year term.
Peter Fung
Peter Fung contributed $24,000
in loans to his own campaign,
accounting for over 80 percent
of his total contributions and
bringing his total amount raised
to $28,375. Other contributors
include: $1,000 from retired Los
Altos Hills resident Beatrice
Hom; and donations of between
$100 to $250 from 12 physicians
who work with El Camino Hospital, including eight anesthesiologists from Fidere Anesthesia
Consultants Inc.
Fung spent $5,505 on cam-
was spent on newspaper ads and
printing campaign materials.
Reeder raised over $20,000
in monetary contributions as
of Sept. 30, and made $2,000
in loans to his campaign. A
lion’s share of the contributions
Reeder reported came from physicians with Fidere Anesthesia
Consultants, Inc., a group of
anesthesiologists who practice
All three candidates reporting having
at least $20,000 in their campaign
accounts by the end of September.
paign signs from Cogs Signs in
Modesto, and $6,279 in campaign consulting costs with
Meridian Pacific, a firm that
specializes in political consulting and public affairs. He also
reported spending $3,000 on
filing fees with the registrar of
voters, and $1,672 on advertisements in local newspapers.
David Reeder
Incumbent David Reeder
reported spending the least of
the three candidates, with total
expenditures of a little more
than $7,200. Most of the money
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at El Camino Hospital. Reeder’s
campaign received 34 contributions of $250 each from physicians with the group, with some
physicians donating more than
once, for a total of $8,500.
Other contributions to Reeder’s
campaign included: $1,000 from
Edward Taft, a retired Los Altos
Hills resident and philanthropist;
and $500 from Munjal Shah, a
member of the El Camino Hospital foundation board and founder
of the health company Health
Equity Labs.
VOTE FOR
• Currently serving as Environmental
Planning Commissioner
• 27 years at Hewlett-Packard , extensive
international experience; then owned
Consulting Business
• Graduate, Leadership Mountain View; LMV Advisory
Committee Chair
• YMCA Advisory Board Member and past El Camino
Branch Board Member
• El Camino Hospital Foundation’s H2H Grants
Committee, Co-Lead
• Information Systems Management degree from USF
• Distinguished Service Award ,
YMCA
(1'256(0(176
Having raised a family in
Mountain View for over
45 years, I have seen
the community change
in many ways. Mountain
View is a great city that
serves as a role model
in innovative thinking
and management and I
want to ensure we maintain that
leadership role. My top priorities are:
1. Work to achieve attainable housing
and balanced growth
2. Expand infrastructure to support safe
bicycle and pedestrian modes of
transportation
3. Attain water conservation
4. Encourage civic engagement for all
residents
Anna Eshoo, U.S. Congresswoman
Margaret Abe-Koga, Mountain View
Councilmember
Jerry Hill, California State Senator
Rich Gordon, California State Assembly
Matt Pear, Former Mountain View Mayor
Art Takahara, Former Mountain View Mayor
Evan Low, Campbell City Councilmember
Liz Kniss, Palo Alto Vice-Mayor
Sidney Espinosa, Former Palo Alto Mayor
Santa Clara County Democratic Party
Sierra Club
Mountain View Professional Firefighters
South Bay Labor Council, COPE
Silicon Valley Asia Pacific American
Democratic Club
California Apartment Association, Tri-County
Division
Bob Burns, Former Mountain View Fire Chief
Aila Malik, Chief Strategic Officer, Fresh Lifelines
for Youth (FLY)
Gay Krause, Chairperson Mtn. View/Los Altos/Los
Altos Hills Challenge Team
Gianluca & Chiara Pecora, Mtn. View Residents
Peggy Franczyk, Mountain View Resident
Jean Yeh, Former President, American Cancer
Society, CA
Vote #7 on November 4th for
Community, Commitment, Capriles!
Paid for and authorized by Margaret Capriles for City Council 2014 (FPPC ID#1345372)
15
An Optimized Life
Thursday, October 23, 2014
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Ken DeLeon is Silicon Valley’s top Realtor and consistently ranks in
the top of our nation. Additionally, Ken is a motivational speaker
who has given keynote speeches to thousands while sharing the stage
with Tony Robbins and others. At this seminar, Ken will share three
tragedies that nearly took his life, and the many invaluable lessons
he learned during his recoveries. Whether beating cancer, recovering
from a horrific accident that made national news, or learning powerful
lessons from his sister’s suicide, Ken has used tragedy as a springboard
to greater wisdom and self-confidence, creating the life he wants to
live. Ken does not fear death, only mediocrity. He looks forward to
sharing his inspiration and drive with the seminar audience. Ken
is amazingly thankful for all that Silicon Valley has given him. In
addition to donating over $100,000 to local schools this year, Ken
hopes this seminar, like his talks at local schools, will give back to
the community he loves so much. Please come to learn more about
how Ken accomplishes his goals and achieves an exceptional life.
Palo Alto Hills
Golf & Country Club
Palo Alto Hills Golf & Country Club,
Grand Ballroom
3000 Alexis Drive, Palo Alto
To RSVP, please contact Mary Ellen Wetlesen at
650.543.8514
6 5 0 . 4 8 8 . 7 3 2 5 | i n f o @ d e l e o n r e a l t y. c o m | w w w. d e l e o n r e a l t y. c o m | C a l B R E # 0 1 9 0 3 2 2 4
16
0LGGOHÀHOG5RDG3DOR$OWR
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This 3 bedroom and 2 bath home with a spacious study is 1,576 sq. ft.
(per county) on a 7,457 sq. ft. lot (per City of Palo Alto). Plus, a sunroom
of approximately 200 sq. ft. New paint inside and out, Carrara porcelain
tiles, recently updated master bath, and 2-car garage. Smartly designed
kitchen blends beauty with functionality, featuring sleek cabinets,
countertop seating, oversized apron sink, garden window, and great
appliances, which include a Bosch dishwasher, Thermador 5-burner
cooktop, Zephyr island hood, Liebherr side-by-side refrigeratorfreezer, and Bosch wall oven and microwave. Attractive and water
efficient landscaping surrounds the home, including mature citrus
trees, a raised planting bed, and a fruit-studded persimmon tree. In
close proximity to Mitchell Park, Mitchell Park Library, Charleston
Shopping Center, shops and restaurants in Midtown Palo Alto, and
top schools. Fairmeadow Elementary (API 953), JLS Middle (API
943), and Gunn High (API 917) (buyer to verify enrollment).
For video tour & more photos, please visit:
w w w . 3 5 5 6 Middle fie ld.c o m
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Good for the Community.
THE CITY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT
Funding Available
Fiscal Year 2015-16
CDBG and HOME Funding for
Public Service Programs and Capital Projects
The City of Mountain View is currently accepting
applications for federal Community Development Block
Grant (CDBG) and Home Investment Partnership (HOME)
funds. The funds will be awarded in April 2015 and
distributed during Fiscal Year 2015-16 (July 1, 2015 through
June 30, 2016). The City anticipates that approximately
$600,000 in CDBG and $250,000 in HOME funds will be
available.
,SPNPISL(J[P]P[PLZ!7\ISPJZLY]PJLWYVNYHTZHɈVYKHISL
housing activities and community
WYVQLJ[ZILULÄ[[PUNSV^PUJVTL
individuals, households, and areas.
Applications Due: Friday, November 14, 2014 at 5:00 p.m.
Where to Obtain an Application:
࠮+VÛSVHKP[MYVT[OL*P[`»Z^LIZP[LH[http://www.
mountainview.gov, under the Community DevelopmentNeighborhoods and Housing-CDBG and HOME Programs
links.
࠮*HSS[OL*P[`»Z5LPNOIVYOVVKZ+P]PZPVUH[ "VY
࠮7PJR\WHWWSPJH[PVUZPU[OL*VTT\UP[`+L]LSVWTLU[
Department at City Hall, 500 Castro Street, Mountain
View, CA.
For more information contact:
Regina Adams, Senior Planner
18
Phone (650) 903-6049
E-mail regina.adams@mountainview.gov
LocalNews
QA&E BRIEFS
SILICON VALLEY: THE
LURE AND THE LEGENDS
It wasn’t so long ago that the
Santa Clara Valley was known as
the “Valley of Heart’s Delight:”
a fertile region where orchards
of flowering trees stretched
from the rolling hills of the
west to the San Francisco Bay
in the east. The story of how
and why it became the epicenter
of a technological revolution is
the subject of a new exhibition
opening Saturday, Oct. 18 at the
Los Altos History Museum (51
South San Antonio Road, Los
Altos).
Through
photographs,
ephemera, anecdotes and video
interviews, “Silicon Valley: The
Lure & the Legends” presents the factors that led to the
transformation of the region,
and the key players who made
it happen. From the inventor
of the microprocessor to the
founders of Google, Apple, Intel
and Adobe, the exhibit takes a
look at the visionaries behind
the companies as well as other
forces at play: the brainpower of
Stanford University, the draw of
year-round sunshine, corporate
culture, venture capital and
“cowboy capitalism” — the attitude that there is always more
money to be made.
The exhibition runs through
April 19. The museum is open
Thursday through Sunday, noon
to 4 pm. Admission is free. To
learn more, go to tinyurl.com/
ps74nx3 or call 650-948-9427.
TEACHER SALARY
Association declared impasse
on Sept. 24 when the district
offered a 3.25 percent “cost of
living” salary increase, a quarter of a percent higher than
its original proposal and well
below the 7 percent the teachers’ union sought.
The discussion over whether
the district could handle a
teacher salary increase of that
size prompted some teachers and parents to question
whether the district needed to
maintain a $24 million reserve
fund, equal to about 42 percent
of the annual budget.
The district held a special
informational meeting on Oct.
9, an hour before the regularly
scheduled board meeting, on
the district’s finances. The
meeting included a presentation by Terese McNamee, chief
financial officer for the district, on school district income,
expenses and reserve funds.
the king’s academ y
CHRIST-CENTERED COLLEGE PREPARATORY
*UNIORAND3ENIOR(IGH3CHOOLs'RADES
OPENHOUSE
Saturday,
Saturday,
October 25
December 6
11:00 A.M.
Support Mountain View
Voice’s print and online
coverage of our
community.
SCHEDULE A SCHOOL TOUR OR STUDENT SHADOW TODAY!
Contact Michele Duncan, Admissions Director
408.481.9900 x4222 or admissions@tka.org
562 N. Britton Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94085
(Near Fair Oaks and Hwy 101)
WWWTKAORGs ACSI AND WASC ACCREDITATION
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MountainView
JU
ST
OP
E
EN
11:00 A.M.
D
HIGH SCHOOL ONE-ACT
PLAY FESTIVAL
No, it’s not just a song by
Michael Jackson; PYT stands for
Peninsula Youth Theatre. Now
in its 22nd year, PYT is launching a new endeavor to encourage budding theater directors.
The Inaugural High School
One-Act Play Festival debuts on
Friday, Oct. 24 at the Mountain
View Center for the Performing Arts (500 Castro St.). The
evening features two short plays
produced, directed and acted by
high school students. And don’t
be fooled: these are no theater
lightweights. For their first-ever
festival, these young thespians
have chosen to pair Jean Paul
Sartre’s groundbreaking existential drama “No Exit” of 1944
with a contemporary one-act:
Michael Niederman’s “Every
Man.” Both scripts call for this
young cast tot tackle big themes:
love, death, sin and abandonment.
Tickets are just $10. Don’t be
late: The curtain rises at 7:30
p.m. For tickets or more information, go to pytnet.org or call
650-903-6000.
— Elizabeth Schwyzer
Stanford Health Center
at Los Altos
Stanford Primary Care specializes in you.
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online at stanfordhealthcare.org/primarycare.
Stanford Health Center at Los Altos
960 N. San Antonio Road, Suite 101
Los Altos, CA 94022
19
VoterGuide
Voter guide: City Council
NINE CANDIDATES VIE FOR THREE COUNCIL SEATS;
HOUSING POLICIES HINGE ON COUNCIL ELECTION
By Daniel DeBolt
O
ne of the most important City Council elections in decades will
take place on Nov. 4 when voters
will pick three candidates to
replace outgoing council members Jac Siegel, Ronit Bryant and
Margaret Abe-Koga.
More so than in any other
election in the last decade, the
issue taking center stage in this
election has been about how to
preserve housing affordability
amidst booming job growth.
Each candidate says it’s a top
priority, but they differ in their
solutions. All of the candidates
say that increasing housing
supply and restricting office
growth will contain prices, but
only five support a significant
change in course for the city by
building a new neighborhood
around Google headquarters
with as many as 5,000 homes.
It’s a move Google, the Chamber
of Commerce and a growing
number of residents support, but
a slim majority of the current
council, including all three outgoing members, have opposed.
Other key issues this year
include how to address growing traffic and the need for new
transportation systems and bike
infrastructure. Some candidates
are more willing than others to
embrace bike boulevards, narrower streets to make way for
bike lanes, and dedicated bus
lanes. The need for rent control
and a $15 minimum wage have
also been hot topics, and are
addressed in the following candidate stories. The candidates
are listed in the same order as
they are on the ballot.
VOTER ★
GU DE
★ 14
★2 0
cil.
Showalter says she “throughly
enjoyed” being on the city’s
planning commission for nine
years, where she helped champion the city’s original belowmarket-rate housing ordinance,
which subsidizes affordable
housing projects with fees on
market-rate development.
“The problem I have most
passion about is really the housing issue,” she says. In 2012, she
helped lobby council members
to approve housing around
Google headquarters in North
Bayshore, to no avail. Now she
hopes to approve it herself as a
council member. She says she
wants to create a better balance
between jobs and housing in
order to reduce commuter traffic and meet the city’s goals to
fight climate change.
As a bicyclist she expressed
awareness of existing efforts to
improve bike infrastructure and
stood out by saying she supported a “pilot program” to see how
residents would like California
Street with a lane removed in
each direction to calm traffic
and encourage bike riding.
Showalter has lived in Mountain View for 30 years, has two
grown kids and lives with her
husband in Waverly Park, where
they own a home. She has been
endorsed by the Chamber of
Commerce, the Sierra Club,
county Supervisor Joe Simitian
and Carl Guardino of the Silicon
Valley Leadership Group.
votepatshowalter.com
PAT SHOWALTER
Pat Showalter’s unique passion
for policy detail
was evident to
her when she
first joined the
city’s planning
commission in
the early 1990s
and she found
herself enjoy- Pat Showalter
ing a long and
technical environmental impact
report. “I thought, Patricia, what
is wrong with you? You’re reading an EIR and having so much
fun.”
Showalter works as civil
engineer with the Santa Clara
Valley Water District and says
her expertise in reading technical environmental documents
would be valuable on the coun20
MERCEDES SALEM
Candidate Mercedes Salem
is a new face in local politics,
a family law attorney who has
experience working in tech and
as an aid to Congress members
on Capitol Hill. She says she
aims to represent middle-class
families and immigrants as the
only foreign-born candidate in
a city with over 8,000 foreignborn registered voters. She is
Iranian and speaks fluent Farsi.
“The biggest problem we have
in Mountain View is livability
and that encompasses a multitude of things,” Salem said. “All
we do in life is work so we can
have better lives and our kids
can have better lives, but that’s
not happening anymore.”
Though she acknowledges the
city’s housing shortage, Salem
opposes housing in North Bayshore, “We have a massive jobshousing imbalance,” Salem said.
“I don’t believe housing in North
Bayshore is the answer. There
aren’t enough services to support a community as it stands”
and businesses there are struggling because Google and other
employers provide “everything
from soup to nuts.” She says the
East Whisman area is better for
housing, and would like to see
the 3.4 million square feet of
office slated for North Bayshore
cut in half.
Salem has a unique interest
among the candidates in helping
working families through
city services,
such as better
summer programs for kids
from families who can’t
afford summer
Mercedes
camp or speSalem
cial summer
classes, calling such programs
“a huge relief — it means a lot.
There’s so many things we can
do to ease the pain for them.”
When it comes to the city
budget, she said, “I don’t believe
in cutting pensions, salaries or
health benefits for workers. The
city works because workers do.”
Salem is a renter in the Sylvan Park area and has lived in
Mountain View for four years.
She is endorsed by the local
chapter of the Democratic party,
Congressman Mike Honda, and
former mayors Laura Macias,
Jac Siegel and Sally Lieber,
among others. She holds an
anthropology degree and a law
degree from Santa Clara University.
votemercedes.nationbuilder.com
LENNY SIEGEL
Of all the candidates, Lenny
Siegel is the most familiar to
residents, having been involved
in Mountain
View
civic
life since the
1970s and early
1980s, when he
ran for City
Council three
times, led two
failed efforts to Lenny Siegel
institute rent
control, and helped lead efforts
to address toxics left behind by
early tech companies — which
turned into a decades-long
career as director of Mountain View’s Center for Public Environmental Oversight.
His expertise in environmental
work is sought by communities
around the country.
“I have a history of getting
people from diverse perspectives and backgrounds to work
together,” says Siegel, who also
led the fight to keep air cargo
traffic out of Moffett Field and
to save Hangar One. “We don’t
always agree but we maintain
dialogue.”
Siegel is also a known lefty
who has opposed America’s
wars since he was a member of
Students for a Democratic Society at Stanford. He often rides a
bike to get where he’s going and
says anyone making decisions
on bike infrastructure should do
the same.
The problem Siegel is most
passionate about fixing is the
city’s jobs-housing imbalance,
which he’s been fighting since
the start of the year as the founding leader of the Campaign for a
Balanced Mountain View. Siegel
has been organizing residents
to support at least 5,000 new
homes in North Bayshore and to
build housing instead of office
in the San Antonio shopping
center area, which he says is
one of the few places in the city
where a lot of housing could be
built. He has often called for
new family friendly neighborhoods with schools.
Siegel said he would consider
but not necessarily favor road
diets, like the one proposed for
California Street to reduce car
lanes and allow buffered bike
lanes. “Philosophically I believe
in enticing people out of cars,
not forcing them out of cars. A
lot of people, they don’t really
have that option.”
Among his endorsements are
community organizers who say
Siegel can be trusted, such as
Job Lopez, the co-founder of
the Mountain View Day Worker
Center who wrote a letter to
the Voice in support of Siegel;
and former mayor and state
Assembly member Sally Lieber,
who notes that Siegel’s ability
to listen has helped him work
“on some of the toughest issues
facing our community.” Siegel is
married and lives in Old Mountain View.
lennysiegelforcouncil.net
KEN ROSENBERG
Ken Rosenberg is financial
adviser for Morgan Stanley. He
came to the city in 1997, and got
his introduction to local politics
as an active member of the Old
Mountain View Neighborhood
Association. He’s been a member of the Human Relations
Commission since 2011 and a
board member of the Chamber
of Commerce. He organized
the city’s “Civility Roundtable”
discussions on such issues as
immigration and gun control.
He’s married, with a daughter
and a son.
“I am passionate about open
communication, open dialogue,
and (engaging in) collective
decision making as much as
possible,” Rosenberg says, adding that having an ideology
doesn’t fit well with the job of
council member. “Everybody
will attest that when I’m the
person in charge of a meeting,
I don’t allow the meeting to go
forward without everyone getting a chance to speak.”
Rosenberg has earned
endorsements from a wide
swath of the community, including local police, landlords, the
Chamber of Commerce, housing advocates and city and
county elected officials.
His priorities include advocating for adequate housing
growth, building new infrastructure to reduce traffic, and
preserving the city’s character
while making it more vibrant.
As a member
of the Campaign for a Balanced Mountain
View,
along with candidates Greg
Unangst and
Lenny Siegel,
Ken Rosenberg
Rosenberg says
he has “tremendous commitment” to seeing housing being constructed
in Mountain View, especially
in the North Bayshore and East
Whisman areas. “Housing near
work seems like a solidly, fundamentally, good idea,” Rosenberg
said. In North Bayshore that
means “swapping out commercial or office space and not
encroaching on wetlands.”
Unlike some other candidates,
Rosenberg doesn’t take a clear
position on what sort of transit
systems the city needs, but says
it is a priority to figure it out as
a way to reduce the amount of
housing that might need to be
built for all the jobs expected to
come to the city. He disagrees
with the position taken by
the Campaign for a Balanced
Mountain View about prioritizing housing in the San Antonio
precise plan area, saying that not
putting jobs near train and bus
lines would be a wasted opportunity.
At the start of the year Rosenberg lamented the loss of city
Human Relations Commissioner Nilda Santiago because rent
increases forced her to move
away. “I don’t know if there’s
equity or fairness in capitalism,
but capitalism is rearing its ugly
head right now, and it’s really
affecting people,” he said.
Rosenberg expressed excitement about maintaining the
city’s healthy budget reserves
and AAA bond rating. He said
VoterGuide
he wouldn’t have approved housing or office on the city’s Moffett
Gateway site, and would have
gone with hotel development
instead to generate the most lease
revenue while relieving some
pressure on the housing market.
He would also support a look at
narrowing California Street to
three lanes to calm traffic and
allow buffered bike lanes.
mountainviewken.com
GREG UNANGST
“The housing situation is
one of the primary reasons I
got involved in this — I think
we’re jeopardizing the future of
our younger generation,” says
Greg Unangst,
a retired aerospace engineer
who served
as an Army
colonel during
the Vietnam
War, for which
he received a Greg Unangst
Purple Heart
and Bronze Star. He’s lived in
Mountain View since 1998.
“High tech workers are starting to say they can’t afford to
live here either — something is
very wrong,” he says. His own
daughter, who has a good job
with the Department of Veterans Affairs, can’t afford to relocate to work in the Palo Alto
office as much as she would like
to, he says.
Unangst is the only candidate who is advocating for rent
control, or what he calls “rent
stabilization.”
Unangst has a passion for
bicycle and pedestrian mobility, is chair of the city’s bike
and pedestrian advisory committee, and has been the city’s
most vocal proponent of a bike
boulevard along Latham and
Church streets.
When
the
committee
expressed interest in buffered
bike lanes on California Street,
he said, “city staff recommended against it because they
didn’t know how to clean the
streets with that there.” His
thought: “Maybe you should
call Portland — they’ve had
that for some time and they’ve
figured it out. That’s the mentality we’ve been dealing with.”
Unangst strongly supports
housing in North Bayshore and
is a member of the Campaign
for a Balanced Mountain View,
which has called for 5,000
homes there, considered to be
enough to support a neighborhood grocery store. At one time
he was opposed to the idea, but
has since spoken out strongly
in favor if it. “I really didn’t
understand the magnitude of
the housing problem,” he says.
More housing there is necessary if the city is to meet its
emission reduction goals under
AB32, he says. “Half the carbon
generated by the city of Mountain View is by cars and trucks,”
including many commuters, he
says. To get a regional perspective on the problem, Unangst
got involved with the NonProfit Housing Associations’
Housing Advocacy Network.
He doesn’t want a cap on
office growth, but instead
favors replacing some amount
of office slated for North Bayshore with housing. “I get the
sense people want Google and
LinkedIn to stay, but we’re
being punished by prosperity,”
he says. He’s also got an affinity for Google’s driverless car
technology, which he says has
promise for use in automated
transit systems.
“I definitely enjoy working
as part of a team,” Unangst
says. “I’m also used to working in bureaucracies. I listen
to what people are saying, and
why.” When it comes to the city
budget, he says he doesn’t favor
across-the-board cuts, calling it
the “easy way” out.
In 2012, Unangst became a
board member of the Friends
of the Stevens Creek Trail and
the Moffett Field Restoration
Advisory Board, where he made
an unlikely friend in Lenny Siegel, who led protests against the
Vietnam War while Unangst
was serving in the Army in
Vietnam.
Unangst graduated from West
Point military academy and got
an MBA from the Wharton
Business School. He lives with
his wife in a townhouse they
own north of the Monta Loma
neighborhood. He’s raised two
kids and worked as an engineering manager for 33 years,
most recently at Lockheed
Martin.
So far, Unangst has not
taken any campaign contributions and has loaned his
campaign $21,000 to “side-step
any appearance of a conflict of
interest.” His endorsement list
is also relatively short, though
he is endorsed by Mountain
View Voters for Housing Diversity, which has also endorsed
Ken Rosenberg and Lenny Siegel.
unangst2014.com
JIM NEAL
After becoming involved in
local politics to oppose bans
on smoking and plastic bags,
Jim Neal is making his second
run for council; he has refined
his brand of
moderate libertarian individualism
while speaking
at and attending numerous
council meetings.
Jim Neal
“The number
one priority has to be affordable housing; it’s something
I’ve been talking about for well
over a year,” he said. “Too much
office is being approved and it
is exacerbating the problem of
rents increasing.”
He is the only candidate to
express concerns about increases to the minimum wage and its
impacts to businesses like Ava’s
downtown market. He opposes
the congestion pricing that
might be used to charge rushhour drivers going to and from
North Bayshore, saying it is a
“regressive tax” that “definitely
hurts small businesses and poor
people more.”
Neal’s libertarian bent seems
to not be quite as strong as
current member John Inks. He
mentioned that at one point
the city wasn’t getting a fair
exchange in community benefits, which Inks often opposes,
for the proposed density of the
Prometheus apartment project replacing the old Western
Appliance building. He also
says of potentially privatizing
some city services, “I don’t
think that’s a good idea — that
would mean displacing a lot of
the current workers.”
He’s also concerned that
“smaller businesses are being
forced out by redevelopment,”
such as the Milk Pail market and
the Rose Market.
Neal says he didn’t seek
campaign contributions and
endorsements for a reason, but
did get the endorsement of
former mayor Tom Means, the
owners of the Sports Page bar,
and resident Linda Curtis. Neal
is a renter who lives with his
wife in Old Mountain View. He
works as an IT administrator at
U.C. Berkeley.
electneal.org/
MARGARET CAPRILES
Margaret Capriles nearly won
a council seat in 2012 and has
served on the city’s planning
commission since then.
“The most pressing problem
in Mountain View right now
is housing and
transportation.
I think they all
go together,”
Capriles says.
“We have many
folks that can’t
live in MounMargaret
tain
View
Capriles
because the
price of housing is so high.”
She says she wants to know if
residents want to cut in half the
3.4 million square feet of office
space slated for North Bayshore
— so there would be 10,000 new
jobs instead of 20,000 or so —
to reduce the demand and the
price of housing. “If employees
cannot even afford to live here
and they want to live here, we
See CITY COUNCIL, page 23
Greg Coladonato
FOR MV SCHOOL BOARD
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• Update our 5-year-old facilities plan, and develop
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• Establish new initiatives to address the fact that
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1910 W. El Camino Real Ste E, Mountain View • 650.967.2968
E: info@bikramyogamountainview.com
http://www.bikramyogamountainview.com
Current Chair of the MVWSD Measure
G Citizen’s Bond Oversight Committee
Current Chair of the City of Mountain View
Human Relations Commission
MBA in Analytical Methods for Management
from Wharton School at U. Penn
Parent of 2 current district students,
in kindergarten and 2nd grade at Stevenson
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VoterGuide
CITY COUNCIL
have a problem.”
Capriles opposes a big contribution to the city’s housing stock
by building a new neighborhood in North Bayshore with
thousands of new homes. “The
reason for that is several: There’s
no public transportation near
the North Bayshore area, which
has a really heavy traffic problem already, and there are not
services out there.”
Capriles said she supports road
diets to “continue to improve the
bike and pedestrian routes and
give people alternatives to get
people out of their cars and make
sure it is practical.”
She is a retired data analyst for
Hewlett Packard, and she touts a
“pro-business background” and
ability to listen well. Capriles
is also proud of her relationship with labor and says she
strongly supports prevailing
wages on city projects. She has
been endorsed by the South Bay
Labor Council, the Sierra Club
and the California Apartment
Association, which represents
landlords.
She owns a home in the
Waverly Park neighborhood
with her husband, Bob.
margaretcapriles.com
LISA MATICHAK
Lisa Matichak is a tech executive who became involved in
city government seven years
ago by rallying opposition to a
housing project
on the Hetch
Hetchy aqueduct behind
her home.
She has made
her positions
on development known Lisa Matichak
over the last
five years she has served as a
planning commissioner, voting
against including housing in
North Bayshore. Matichak, who
is endorsed by outgoing council
members who also oppose housing in North Bayshore, cites
most of the same reasoning:
struggling retail near Google,
the need for a a new school
on expensive land, a lack of
transportation, and potential
impacts to wildlife. She says East
Whisman is a better place for
housing, pointing to a smaller
Google property at 700 East
Middlefield Road that could be
rezoned for residential development.
“The biggest challenge we are
facing is the quality of life for
residents,” Matichak says. “I do
believe we want to retain the
character of Mountain View.”
With 2,500 housing units in
the pipeline, “if we are looking
to add homes more quickly, it
could happen more quickly in
the Whisman area,” she says.
Adding park space is a top priority for her, and she indicates
a desire to continue outgoing
member Jac Siegel’s legacy of
advocating for the inclusion
of park space in developments.
She says she is interested in
major regional transportation
infrastructure so people can
commute from farther away. “I
would love it if we had BART on
the Peninsula.”
Matichak is a founding member of the Wagon Wheel Neighborhood Association. She touts
her 25 years of work experience
in high tech. “A lot of things
you can bring from a business
perspective you can apply to a
government perspective.”
Her key endorsements
include the Sierra Club, the
Chamber of Commerce, Mountain View firefighters, and former mayor Laura Macias.
lisaforcouncil.com
ELLEN KAMEI
Ellen Kamei joined the city’s
planning commission in late
2012 and has quickly forged many
ties in the community, garnering a long list of endorsements,
including nearly every local state
and federal legislator and county Supervisor Joe Simitian, for
whom she works as a policy aide.
Kamei says her top priority
is balancing the preservation
of Mountain View’s character
with increased job growth. But
that doesn’t mean she supports
housing in North Bayshore. “I
don’t think that there’s enough
services to support residential.
I also don’t think there’s the
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transportation infrastructure
necessary to create a vibrant
neighborhood.” She adds that
the land is too expensive for
affordable homes.
Kamei tends to seek the middle ground on issues, sometimes
making her position hard to
discern. She is a renter who says
rent control is
a “noble idea,”
but also says
she isn’t supporting it, saying it is “not a
panacea.”
When asked
what
she was
Ellen Kamei
most passionate about, she said, “It’s hard to
choose just one. Something I am
passionate about is the transportation issues we have in Mountain View.” She’s already begun
talking to county transportation
officials about dedicated bus lanes
in Mountain View, something no
other candidate has supported.
Kamei is clear about wanting better bike and pedestrian
infrastructure. “I love the idea
of complete streets,” she says,
with activated ground-f loor
retail and “protected bike lanes
so people feel safe on bicycles.”
Another top priority is fiscal
discipline, and she says she’d
like to see the city request more
feedback on its budget decisions
through its new Open City Hall
website feature.
Kamei is a third-generation
Mountain View resident. Her
family first came to Mountain
View 70 years ago and eventually ran a plant nursery, which
later moved to Morgan Hill,
where she grew up. Kenzo Court
is named after her grandfather.
She recently returned to rent a
home near Moffett Boulevard
and Middlfield Road.
democracy.com/ellenkamei
Elect Ken Rosenberg
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5DFKHO*URVVPDQ, Former Chair,
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3KLOLS3DOPHU, Trustee,
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VoterGuide
LEADERSHIP, ACADEMICS, CHARACTER & SERVICE
P RESCHOOL
E LEMENTARY
M IDDLE
SCHOOL
SCHOOL
Voter Guide: Santa Clara Valley
Water District
WATER DISTRICT CANDIDATES FOCUS ON DROUGHT, FLOODING
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T
he winner in the race
for a single seat at the
Santa Clara Valley Water
District will take on major challenges if elected to represent
District 7 this November. He will
face a deepening drought and
lingering problems with downstream flooding when the rains
do come.
The two candidates, incumbent and board Vice Chairman
Brian Schmidt and challenger
Gary Kremen are seeking the
seat that largely covers the north
county, includes the cities of
Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los
Altos and Los Gatos. And they
have very different styles when
it comes to tackling the major
issues.
Schmidt, an environmental
attorney who has served on the
board since 2010, takes a detailed
approach that favors collaboration; he has represented the district on flooding issues at the San
Francisquito Creek Joint Powers
Authority and is on the district’s
Water Conservation Ad Hoc
Committee, which drafted the
district’s response to the drought.
Kremen, board president of the
Purissima Hills Water District
in Los Altos Hills and a Silicon
Valley entrepreneur, prefers an
aggressive tack that would use
political influence to rise above
foot-dragging bureaucracies to
get the problems solved.
Their campaign spending
also reflects their approaches.
Schmidt has spent modestly,
garnering $13,000 in campaign
funds and spending only about
$8,000; Kremen has amassed a
war chest of more than $280,000,
most of it self-funded.
The candidates sat down for
interviews and shared their
views about their experience and
approaches to district problems.
Brian Schmidt
A Mountain View resident,
Schmidt has spent 15 years working on environmental and cleanwater issues. He said he has tried
to make the board more transparent since his 2010 election.
He made the motion to change
board meetings from mornings
to evenings so that more of the
public could attend. And he supported cutting the board’s pay,
reversing a 2008 pay increase.
The pay cut passed on the second
vote, 4-3.
In keeping with his strong
opinions about environmental cleanup, he supported the
treatment and removal of toxic
VOTER ★
GU DE
★ 14
★2 0
mercury from Jacques Gulch, a
former gold-mining site in the
south county identified by state
and federal agencies as a major
source of mercury contamination for San Francisco Bay and
the Guadalupe River Watershed.
During his term, the board
succeeded in getting Measure
B passed with 74 percent voter
approval. The parcel tax is estimated to bring in $548 million
by 2028 for flood control, seismic retrofitting for the Anderson Dam and environmental
improvements. The district will
use some funding, combined
with other sources, to contribute
about $28 million toward the
San Francisquito Creek floodreduction project. Measure B
funds will also
go toward levee
r e p l a c e m e n t Brian Schmidt
and repair and
wetland restoration in Shoreline
Park in Mountain View.
Staff at the Regional Water
Quality Control Board, which
must grant the permits to begin
the San Francisquito project,
have so far rejected the plan.
Schmidt has represented the
water district on the matter and
drafted responses to try to bring
the impasse to a conclusion. But
he is measured in how aggressively the district can attack the
problem on its own. The San
Francisquito Creek Joint Powers
Authority is the lead agency on
the project, and the water district
is a member, along with three cities in Santa Clara and San Mateo
counties.
Schmidt said he believes negotiation is still possible with the
regional water board, and he
doesn’t yet support political
arm-twisting, unlike Kremen.
He is working to investigate
whatever is bothering the water
board staff, he said.
But he is not shy about criticizing the water board. In response
to an Aug. 23 news story about
Palo Alto officials blasting the
water board’s inaction, Schmidt
wrote: “I find it incomprehensible
that the regional board is showing such a poor understanding of
hydrology as to think we could
proceed right away with a project
that protects East Palo Alto while
failing to do construction along
the Palo Alto golf course area.
This would change the flooding
pattern to increase impacts in
Palo Alto and therefore required
new environmental review and
many other delays, including
forcing yet another permit application to the Regional Board.”
Schmidt said he is happy
to have his work in the district judged, in significant part
because of his work as part of the
Joint Powers Authority and on
the creek.
“I hustled to get environmental
support for a broad compromise
that included extensive funding
for San Francisquito Creek,” he
said of his work on Measure B.
Schmidt was at City Hall last
year when the Mountain View
City Council considered — and
approved — the plans for a flood
detention basin at McKelvey
park. Schmidt was there with
water district engineer Afshin
Rouhani to urge the city council
to accept the plans, which he
said would help keep hundreds
of property owners from paying
$1,200 in flood insurance costs
each year. Plans for another
basin at Cuesta Annex proved
extremely controversial and were
ultimately dropped.
Schmidt said the project was
an important step towards getting some 2,720 Mountain View
residents out of a flood zone, but
that the district in general spends
too much time, and money, on
planning and design. Half of the
whole project’s costs, he said, will
likely be spent before construction begins.
Schmidt said he was instrumental in drafting a waterdistrict plan to deal with the
drought.
“I led a change before the
drought that increased conservation rebates. I later wrote the
memo that doubled many of
our water-conservation rebates,
which quintupled the response
for lawn replacement. We’re
vastly expanding recycled water,
and I’m advocating treatment of
wastewater to drinkable levels
— a new, drought-proof water
supply,” he said.
The board approved a countywide, water-use reduction target
of 20 percent of 2013 water usage,
and Schmidt supported two
years of water storage, which he
said puts the district in a good
position.
But the district’s 2013 carryover and 2014 allocations of
state water are currently frozen
to protect the Delta, leaving three
water districts that depend on
that banked water without that
VoterGuide
source, according to water-board
documents.
The water district is now developing the California Aqueduct
Reverse Flow project to ensure
the water in its storage bank is
available for treatment plants and
to prevent groundwater depletion.
Gary Kremen
The Match.com founder has
garnered considerable notice for
his run, as much for his sizable
self-funding of his campaign as
for his stand on the issues. But
Kremen is clear that he wants
to see major change in how the
water district does business.
Board president of the
6,400-customer Purissima Hills
Water District, a water retailer
in Los Altos Hills, Kremen touts
his experience as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur as one of the
reasons he’d be an asset to the
board.
Kremen is chairman of WaterSmart Software, a tech company
that creates water-meter software
used by many city utilities. A
leak-detection company he was
involved in was recently bought
by Badger Meter, he said.
“It’s all part of a broader platform that I’ve been doing in sustainability in the last 10 years,” he
said.
Kremen also started Clean
Power Finance, the largest company in the U.S. in solar financing.
“What I like to do is do big
things that move the needle in
sustainability, and I think this
water district kind of needs to
get off the old 1920s model and
needs innovation,” he said.
If elected, he said he would take
on a California State Water Project tax he says is unfair to Palo
Alto, Mountain View and Los
Altos residents, who receive most
of their water from the Hetch
Hetchy water system through
the San Francisco Public Utilities
Commission and not through
the state. Only Mountain View’s
water — 10 percent of it — comes
from state sources.
“The water-district board gets
the money from the State Water
Project, and the district as a
whole gets the benefit but not us
as a member of the district,” he
said.
Kremen said he would work to
get more conservation funds for
districts that use Hetch Hetchy
or remove the tax entirely from
Hetch Hetchy districts. The
water district could get increased
water-recycling money and use
it to put in gray-water systems
in homes, and it could receive
water-conservation dollars to
extend some of the recycled
water across Foothill Expressway
into areas of Palo Alto and Los
Altos Hills, he said.
Schmidt has characterized
Kremen’s solutions as unrealistic. The other six board members
would not vote for a tax exemption or increased funding to help
the north county district, he said.
But Kremen said they might
do “some horsetrading,” albeit
within the confines of the Brown
Act.
“People had some needs that
were not being met,” he said
of discussions he has had with
board members.
Building coalitions on a
regional level will be key to
getting things accomplished,
and the water
district should
be using its
clout, he said.
He pointed to
the district’s
handling of
the Regional
Water Quality Gary Kremen
Control Board,
which recently denied permits
for the San Francisquito Creek
flood-control project.
“The water district is the one
with some good money. They
have discretionary money, and
they have their own lobbyist in
Sacramento. They touch a lot of
people in politics more than other people do,” he said. “We may
need to use the water district’s
political muscle and money to do
a legislative end-run around this
issue.”
The Regional Water Quality
Control Board might need to be
defunded from looking at the
San Francisquito issue or their
regulatory purview might need
to move someplace else, he said.
“The water district has not
spearheaded doing that. I would
take it away from (the Regional
Board) if they don’t move,” he
said.
Kremen has criticized the
water district’s handling of the
Permanente Creek Flood Protection Project in Mountain
View, which proposed four
flood detention basins at Cuesta
Park Annex, Blach Intermediate
School, McKelvey park and Rancho San Antonio. The plan faced
stiff opposition from residents
who did not want their parks
turned into flood basins, and
frustrated City Council members
when water district hydrologists
redid the calculations and determined they never needed a basin
at Cuesta Park Annex in the first
place.
Kremen said the proposed
Cuesta Park Annex flood basin
was a “debacle” and that the district failed to listen to the local
community. He said it has also
been a wasteful project, and that
the district has spent $20 million
prior to construction because of
all the delays and redesigns.
Kremen is also critical of the
See WATER DISTRICT, page 28
Saint Simon
Parish School
OPEN HOUSE
Thurs, November 6, 2014
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
10:30 AM Preschool Presentation
11:00 AM Middle School Presentation
11:30 AM Kindergarten Presentation
Guided Tours 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
650-968-9952 school.stsimon.org
1840 Grant Road, Los Altos, CA 94024
No Appointment Necessary
Located at the intersection of Foothill Expressway and Grant Road
COME TO A COMMUNITY FORUM!
Are you a resident, service provider, business owner or housing
professional in Mountain View? Join the Discussion!
2015 – 2020 Consolidated Plan
Please join the City of Mountain View for a Community Forum hosted by the Human Relations
Commission to help identify and prioritize affordable housing, homeless and community
improvement needsÛiÀÌiiÝÌwÛiÞi>ÀÃ°We want to hear from you!
Why is this important to you?
/i
ÌÞvÕÌ>6iÜÀiViÛi`viìÀ>vÕ`ÃÌÛiÃÌV>VÕÌiÃ°How should
these funds be spent? Your input will help City leaders priortize spending for important
ÃiÀÛViÃ>`VÕÌÞ«ÀÛiiÌÃ°
How can you participate?
Please join us!
Thursday, October 23rd
È\ÎäÌn\Îä«
Mountain View City Hall
xää
>ÃÌÀ-ÌÀiiÌ]Ó`yÀ
Plaza Conference Room
ÕÌ>6iÜ]
Ƃ{ä{£
£°
iÌÕÀÌiÀ>VÌÛi
ÕÌÞÀÕ
Ó°/>iÕÀÃÀÌiÃÕÀÛiÞ\
}Ã\ÌÌ«Ã\ÉÉÜÜÜ°ÃÕÀÛiÞiÞ°VÉÃÉ-
Ú
,i}>Ú-ÕÀÛiÞ
Ã«>\ÌÌ«Ã\ÉÉiÃ°ÃÕÀÛiÞiÞ°VÉÃÉ-
Ú
,i}>Ú-ÕÀÛiÞÚ-«>Ã
,ivÀiÃiÌÃÜLi«ÀÛì`°
Visit www.mountainview.gov/ to learn more.
7iÜ«ÀÛìÀi>Ã>Li>VV`>ÌÃÌÜ>À`ÌiVÕÃv>«>ÀÌV«>ÌÃ°7iii`>Ìi>ÃÌwÛiLÕÃiÃÃ`>ÞÃÌ>VV`>Ìi
requests fora lnguage interpretation, translation and/or disability-related assistance. Please contact Jamillah Jordan at (510) 845-7549 or
jamillahj@migcom.com to request assistance.
25
LocalNews
HOUSING FORUM
Gatos, San Francisco, Oakland,
Hayward, East Palo Alto and
Berkeley. “All of these cities have
given dignity to their renters,
why not also in Mountain View?”
he said.
Cosby dissected the candidates’ arguments against rent
control, as reported by the Voice
last month. Most of the candidates favor a long-term solution:
more residential zoning and
slowing down office growth to
relieve pressure on the housing
market. But “renters have a shortterm problem — many will soon
be gone,” Cosby said.
“I don’t think the candidates
should be the only people up here,”
said candidate Ken Rosenberg.
“Landlords should be up here
answering why they are choosing
to increase rent too much.”
Most candidates explained
why they aren’t pushing for rent
control, to the dismay of many
in the audience, most of whom
raised their hands when asked if
they wanted “rent stabilization”
to be studied by city staff.
Candidate Greg Unangst, a
retired Army colonel and retired
aerospace engineer who owns a
town home, was the only candidate open to studying rent
stabilization.
“I’m the only candidate who
has been advocating rent stabilization,” Unangst said. As he’s
knocked on doors for his campaign, he has noticed that “you
can tell the difference in people
that own and people that rent.
People that own are concerned
about congestion, and where
Mountain View is going, but
renters are scared. They don’t
know when another rent increase
is coming or how much the rent
increase is going to be.”
“I am living with fear every day
that I will not be able to pay the
rent for next month,” said a single
mother of two girls, who spoke
to the crowd. “I am living with a
fear of needing to leave this place
because my daughters were born
here. They grew up here and they
go to school here. Whenever they
go to school I have peace of mind
of knowing they are in a secure
community.”
Lupita Garcia said she pays
$500 to share a living room and
may have to move to “Los Banos
or Merced to be able to live and
not have to work three jobs just
to live in the area. I never thought
Mountain View would get to this
point.”
“I have protection under Prop.
13 as a homeowner,” Unangst
said. “There’s no protection for
the renters, and I don’t think
that’s fair.”
Rosenberg had a different view.
“We’re focusing on the wrong
issue when we focus on rent control,” he said.
Rosenberg, who has called
himself a housing advocate and
supports building a new neighborhood in North Bayshore to
help meet local demand for housing, said the city could use up to
$10 million in affordable housing
funds to help renters “today”
instead of building costly affordable housing projects. He didn’t
say exactly how it could be used.
Some big landlords have said
that “as a policy they aren’t
willing to raise rents more than
10 percent a year,” Rosenberg
said. “Organizations like the
California Apartment Association (which represents landlords)
should be encouraging everyone
to adopt that type of policy.”
Candidate Pat Showalter had
a similar comment: “We need
to get the California Apartment
Association to actually police its
members and also police people
that aren’t its members. In their
literature they claim they do this.
But I don’t see much evidence to
that effect.”
Cosby later questioned the
comment about relying on the
CAA to police its member land-
lords. The group also lobbies
state and local government on
behalf of landlords.
“Why would you want to
give the CAA — a group that
nobody elects — power over
non-member landlords and not
do that democratically through
the city?” Cosby said.
As one of the leaders of the
efforts to bring rent control to
Mountain View in the late 1970s
and early 1980s — and who lost
three bids for a council seat in
those days — candidate Lenny
Siegel said he didn’t intend to
make rent control a campaign
issue this time around.
“I learned the difficulties to
pass such measures,” Siegel said.
“Big landlords spent a hundred
to one against us to defeat our
measure. The renters who signed
petition had to move because of
rent increases before we had the
election.”
He noted that despite rent control in some cities, landlords can
still evict tenants to raise rents,
though it’s harder in some cities
than others.
“I would probably agree to
study it if people as a community
came forward and asked for it,”
Siegel said. But now, he said his
priority, as leader of the Campaign for Balanced Mountain
View, is to “bring people together
to make sure we deal with supply
and demand, which is causing
the problem in the first place.”
Cosby addressed concerns
from candidates that a rent control ballot measure would be an
impossible political battle. “The
Mountain View City Council
could pass rent stabilization and
avoid that fight,” Cosby said.
According to a questionnaire
the candidates filled out before
the event, nearly all of the
candidates said they had been
“undecided” about whether they
want city staff to “research
rent stabilization for Mountain
View.” Unangst said he “strongly
agreed,” while Lisa Matichak and
Pat Showalter said they “strongly
disagree.”
In interviews with the Voice,
candidates Rosenberg and Margaret Capriles spoke clearly
against rent control.
“I didn’t want to support
rent control because I thought
it wasn’t politically possible,”
Showalter said. “People suffering
need to be helped with things we
can do quickly. Things that take
many, many years aren’t really
going to help them. I think we
can do quite a bit with increasing
(housing) supply.”
The three renters in the race —
Jim Neal, Mercedes Salem and
Ellen Kamei — didn’t push for
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LocalNews
rent control.
“I believe in property rights,
but if we are going to have a conversation about rent control, let’s
have it,” Salem said. “As council
it’s our duty to be the voice of
people we represent.”
She advocated for the creation
of a “rent support group or organization,” which sounded similar
to some landlord-tenant mediation services already provided by
Project Sentinel and the financial
aid provided by the Community
Services Agency. She called it “ a
place you can go in neediest of
needy times to get support for
rent” and financial support for
utility bills. It would have “an
advocacy component, someone
who can fight for you” when it
is “between yourself and your
landlord.”
She encouraged tenants to try
to negotiate their rents downward, something she said she has
done for herself.
Neal told the crowd that there
is “no quick fix” to the problem.
“I know what that kind of hardship is like,” he said, adding that
he once survived on bread and
peanut butter for three weeks. “I
know it’s very difficult. There is
no quick fix. What we need is a
long-term fix and one long-term
fix is to ensure jobs and housing
are in balance. Another fix is
education.”
If you learn to do something
nobody else can do, “you can
write your own ticket. Get the
skills you need, that will be the
thing nobody can take away from
you,” he said.
Kamei and Matichak avoided
commenting on rent control, but
expressed their sympathy.
“I spend over 50 percent of my
income on rent,” Kamei said.
“It was tough to hear women
speak about their situations,”
Matichak said, adding that she
had talked to some smaller landlords who don’t want to raise
rents dramatically.
As to fears that rent control
would lead to “slummy” neighborhoods, as candidate Capriles
has said, Cosby noted that landlords could still be allowed to
recover maintenance costs under
a rent stabilization ordinance,
and landlords are required to
maintain their properties under
state law anyway. Even without
rent controls, some landlords
“are raising rents and do no
upgrades on the property,”
Unangst said.
V
Candidates comment
on $15 minimum wage goal
By Danie DeBolt
I
t may fall on three new City
Council members to carry
on the current council’s goal
of working towards a $15 an
hour minimum wage by 2018,
as outgoing members Margaret
Abe-Koga, Jac Siegel and Ronit
Bryant were among the biggest proponents of the raise. In
a candidate forum organized
by Peninsula Interfaith Action
Friday, Oct. 10, the nine candidates were asked to react to the
council’s goal to raise the city’s
minimum wage past the $10.30
approved last week.
Margaret Capriles
“I would make sure we abide
by that promise that we want
to hit $15 an hour by 2018. It’s
extremely important we adhere
to that guideline council has
adopted.”
Ken Rosenberg
“I think $15 an hour should
have been last night’s decision.”
Ellen Kamei
“I’m happy council voted
to raise the minimum wage
last night. I would definitely
approve $15 for 2018. A single
person needs to be making
$35,000 just to be able to meet
their basic needs.”
Lenny Siegel
“We need to move to $15 as
soon as practical.”
Greg Unangst
“Fifteen dollars an hour is
possibly a conservative goal for
2018. If we have a spate of inflation we may fall behind.”
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“I’m really proud of them
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Mercedes Salem
“I actually tried to coordinate
to try to be there last night
(there was another candidate
forum scheduled during the
council’s discussion). I’ve gone
to the City Council to speak on
the living wage/prevailing wage
issue which I think is incredibly
important also.”
Jim Neal
“Putting the minimum wage
up to $15 an hour in a short
period of time would create
shock. Education — that is
going to be key to your life.
There is never going to be a
minimum wage that will make
you rich, pay your mortgage or
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LocalNews
FREE COMMUNITY EVENT
PRESENTED BY THE SARATOGA SENIOR CENTER
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10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
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water district’s approach to the
drought. Despite 2012’s Measure
B funding, the district hasn’t
started upgrading Anderson and
Calero dams.
“In the event it rains, we can’t
even store all the rainwater
because the water district has
not fixed its dams” for seismic
safety, he said, as it is required
to do by the state Division of
Safety of Dams. The district
cannot keep the water higher
than 20 feet below the dam
crest until the repairs are made,
he added.
Kremen also called the water
exchange, the one that involves
banked water and the Delta, “a
debacle.”
“Instead of focusing on local
or regional water storage, the
stored water at Semitropic
Water Storage Bank is near
Bakersfield, hundreds of miles
away from us. This water is
critical because the Santa Clara
Valley district depends on the
Semitropic water for 25 percent
of its treated water,” he said.
But Schmidt said that assertion is misleading, saying that
in the majority of years, 5
percent or less of the district’s
water supply comes from the
groundwater bank.
“When we established the
Semitropic account 20 years
ago, we knew there were limitations on its availability but
that it was still valuable. For
example, we withdrew quite a
bit of that water last year and
transferred it to local storage as
part of general preparations for
scarcity,” Schmidt said.
Barring some disaster, the
district will get the Semitropic
water in November, Schmidt
said.
If elected, Kremen would
focus on additional stormwater
capture with groundwater percolation, regional recycling and
reuse, recharging groundwater
basins and desalination, he said.
He added that he would
also focus on eliminating fiscal waste and abuse within
the district, especially holding
board members and the CEO
accountable.
—Kevin Forestieri
contributed to this report
Email Sue Dremann at
sdremann@paweekly.com and
Kevin Forestieri at kforestieri@
mv-voice.com
Today’s local news
and hot picks
www.elcaminohospital.org
28
WATER DISTRICT
www.sascc.org
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Viewpoint
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QEDITORIAL
THE OPINION OF THE VOICE
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Q S TA F F
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Voice endorsements: City Council
W
ith three termed-out members making way for three newcomers on the Mountain View City Council, nine residents
are vying for the seats, all recognizing the city’s serious
housing, traffic and roadway safety problems, and each committed
to working toward resolving those problems
Of the nine, we feel that four candidates have the strongest skills
and ideas to help tackle the tough issues facing the city. High on the
list of those challenges needing creative solutions — and a sense of
urgency in addressing — is the extreme jobs-to-housing imbalance
that has led to skyrocketing housing costs, forcing far too many
residents from the city already,
and continuing to threaten hundreds of others facing double-digit
rent increases as housing demand
grows.
In this race to fill the posts being
vacated by Margaret Abe-Koga,
Ronit Bryant and Jac Siegel, the
Voice is endorsing Pat Showalter,
Lenny Siegel and Ken Rosenberg
as the three candidates with the
strongest leadership experience, and broadest support among community members and regional leaders.
A fourth candidate, Greg Unangst, is also a credible candidate
whose commitment to dig in and help find solutions to the housing
crisis is impressive — one of the key reasons he entered the race, he
says. The chair of the city’s bike and pedestrian advisory committee,
he also wants the city to create more effective infrastructure to support bicycling, walking and transit.
From all the indications we’ve seen, Unangst has strong skills in
working effectively with others, but doesn’t appear to have the extensive leadership experience or the deep-rooted community support
of the other three candidates we have singled out for endorsement.
Those candidates are:
VOTER ★
GU DE
★ 14
★2 0
PAT SHOWALTER
A former planning commissioner for nine years, Showalter is
a civil engineer. She is the water resources manager for the Santa
Clara Valley Water District, and believes, as we do, that her technical
expertise would be an asset on the council. “As a civil engineer I have
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Member, Mountain View
Chamber of Commerce
QWHAT’S YOUR VIEW?
All views must include a home address
and contact phone number. Published letters
will also appear on the web site,
www.MountainViewOnline.com, and occasionally on the Town Square forum.
Town Square forum
Post your views on Town Square at
Email
your views to
letters@MV-Voice.com. Indicate if
letter is to be published.
Mail
to: Editor
Mountain View Voice,
P.O. Box 405
Mountain View, CA 94042-0405
Call
the Viewpoint desk at 223-6528
30
specialized in water resources engineering my whole career, especially
environmental restoration work,” she says.
She supports efforts to rezone portions of the city to create a better balance between office and housing growth. Other goals include
improving safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, and initiating measures to protect the environment and prepare for the impacts of
climate change.
Showalter has worked on a number of regional efforts, including
serving on the Santa Clara County League of Conservation Voters board for 14 years. She’s been active in the League of Women
Voters for more than a decade, and
spearheaded a recent League forum
on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
She believes in a regional approach
to solving many of the problems,
including housing, faced by Peninsula residents. “I think a lot of problems we have in Mountain View, they
don’t stop at our border,” she told the
Voice.
QLETTERS
VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY
CANDIDATE
CLARIFICATION
This is in response to the
“Voice Endorsement for local
races” in the Oct. 10 issue of the
Mountain View Voice, page 22.
My passion in quality health
care for the district and vision
for an efficient transparent board
were well described by Kevin
Forestieri. Thank you.
While you seemed impressed
with my ideas and goals, your
reason for not endorsing me to
your readers was simply “because
Fung works for the hospital.”
This statement is untrue. I am
an independent physician and
have my own practice — I am
not an employee of the hospital.
I do serve as the medical director of the stroke program at El
Camino, and as indicated in an
earlier article of Aug. 1 in your
newspaper, (Forestieri) accurately reported: “if elected, Dr.
Fung said he would leave his role
as director of the stroke center
and focus his time and energy on
the board.”
I look forward to your correcting the misleading statement in
the Oct. 10 editorial article. This
is not fair to your readers.
Additionally, there was also no
mention of the benefits of having
a local independent practicing
physician on the district board,
See LETTERS, page 31
LENNY SIEGEL
This is Siegel’s fourth try for a council seat — his earlier attempts
were in the 1970s and the early 1980s. His involvement in the community has continued through the years, including a stint on the city’s
planning commission. More recent efforts have included leading
the charge to save Hangar One at Moffett Field and, as the director
of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight, spearheaded the
community’s push to clean up toxic TCE pollution left by early chip
makers in northeastern Mountain View.
Earlier this year, Siegel founded the Campaign for a Balanced
Mountain View, an organization that attempts to educate residents
about the city’s increasing jobs-housing imbalance. He says that since
the 1970s, council members have been irresponsible in allowing large
amounts of office and industrial development without zoning for
adequate housing growth in the city, driving up competition and
demand for a limited number of homes, and pushing workers into
longer commutes.
See ENDORSEMENTS, page 31
ViewPoint
LETTERS
one who can provide insightful
understanding of health care
delivery locally and hospital
operation. As Dr. Patricia Einarson, the only medical doctor
on the district board at present,
exits, such medical expertise
and oversights will no longer be
available. (Dr. Einarson is well
regarded as the person deserving
the most credit for the improvement of the board’s governance,
structure and transparency.)
Your choice of endorsement of
a candidate purely because she is
a “resident of Mountain View”
is simply superficial. I hope
the newspaper does not treat
non-Mountain View El Camino
Healthcare District residents/
readers any less favorably.
Dr. Peter C. Fung
Los Altos
AUDITOR NEEDED TO
MONITOR TAX SPENDING
It seems to me that City Council candidates in Mountain View
are sidestepping major policy
issues that the city is facing.
Google has purchased 10 percent of the city (land value) and is
by far the largest single taxpayer
in the city. It appears Google is
about to buy 10 percent of Redwood City — and to take over
federal land at Moffett Field.
The City Council is the board
of directors of the Shoreline
Regional Park Community —
where most of Google’s property tax money goes — and
past councils have misspent or
given away a huge portion of that
approximately $40 million annual property tax money(mostly to
schools) instead of addressing
problems caused by Google’s
rapid growth: traffic, water costs,
housing costs, gentrification, etc.
The city needs a full-time,
independent city auditor.
Donald Letcher
North Rengstorff Avenue
WHY THE CHANGE OF
DIRECTION?
Based on the strong community outcry to address our jobshousing imbalance, this summer
the council indicated its willingness to modify the San Antonio
precise plan to both limit new
office development and make
sure that new housing would keep
pace with new office. City staff
worked to put caps and phasing
mechanisms into the precise plan
to achieve these goals.
That was basically all eliminated during the recent study
session. I can only wonder what
happened between the two public
meetings, but I do note that the
outcome of the study session
changes were very favorable to
Merlone Geier’s original Phase II
plans. Hmm...
Nancy Morimoto
Whits Road
NO ON MEASURE A
In one of your Oct. 10 editorials, you recommend a “yes” vote
on Measure A, which would raise
the base “salary” of City Council
members from $600 to $1,000
per month. You claim such an
increase “may make it possible
for more working people” to run.
The truth is that council members already receive far more
than a base salary — including
lavish benefits otherwise limited
to full-time city employees, various perks, political power and
the opportunity for business
contacts, political appointments
and sometimes higher office.
Currently, nine candidates are
running for three seats on the
City Council. An extra $400/
month would not have netted a
10th candidate.
Placing Measure A on the ballot was a waste of money. Voting
for it would be a further waste of
money.
Valerie Harris
View Street
YES ON MEASURE A
Mountain View voters have the
opportunity this election to set
a realistic level of compensation
for members of the City Council.
The current amount was adopted
in 1984, but is only worth $210
today due to inflation. Said
another way, if the wage had
increased with inflation, the
council salary would be almost
$1,200 today. And unlike other
cities, only the voters can set the
compensation for the council in
Mountain View.
The City Council in Fremont
just approved an increase in
salary to $1,970. The Palo Alto
City Council is considering a
$1,000 salary and the Sunnyvale
City Council receives $2,194.
Given the amount of work our
City Council members do, the
responsibility they have, and the
time they commit, it is time to
set a more realistic salary, and
increase the amount to $1,000 by
voting yes on Measure A.
Jamil Shaikh
Villa Street
CHAMBER’S VIEW ON
COUNCIL RACE
In the 16 of years I have lived in
Mountain View, many elections
have come and gone. Rarely have
we had one as important as this
year’s.
While other cities and towns
strive to recover from the recession, our community has seen
the benefits of innovation, technology and growth. With this
growth comes many critical
issues such as skyrocketing rents,
housing shortages and traffic
congestion.
This November, we will elect
three new members to the City
Council. We need candidates
who will support our small businesses and working families
as we plan for the future. The
Chamber of Commerce - Mountain View gets it, and they’ve
thrown their support behind
four strong candidates vying
for the council: Ken Rosenberg,
Ellen Kamei, Pat Showalter and
Lisa Matichak. These people
have demonstrated leadership
in different areas and we would
be fortunate to have them on the
City Council.
Cynthia Greaves
Board chair, Chamber of
Commerce - Mountain View
ENDORSEMENTS
A self-described organizer for
peace and for economic, social,
and environmental justice, Siegel
knows how to work effectively
with people to get things done,
and has the list of accomplishments to prove that. It’s time
for Siegel to be given a chance
to apply his problem-solving
and leadership skills to the City
Council.
KEN ROSENBERG
Rosenberg has served on the
Human Relations Commission,
including as chair, since 2011.
During his tenure he organized
what’s know as the Civility
Roundtable Discussion Series,
an impressive project designed
to get people together to discuss
matters of mutual interest and
Fresh news
delivered
daily
concern. He says he is “passionate about open communication,
open dialogue,” and collective
decision making whenever possible. He calls himself an “active
listener,” a welcome quality in
elected officials.
He’s also a member of the
Campaign for a Balance Mountain View, and says he has a “tremendous commitment” to more
housing in the city. He supports
moderate- to high-density housing in the North Bayshore area
and near job hubs in general, and
is a strong advocate of building
better transportation infrastructure to reduce gridlock on local
roadways.
His leadership posts have
included serving as chair of the
Old Mountain View Neighborhood Association, the Mountain
View Downtown Committee and
the Mountain View Chamber of
Commerce board.
Today’s local news
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WHEELER A GOOD CHOICE
FOR SCHOOL BOARD
I would like to applaud the
Voice for its endorsement of Ellen
Wheeler as a candidate for the
MVWSD School Board. As you
rightly point out, Ellen’s leadership is is grounded in her many
years of walking in our shoes —
as teacher, parent, and volunteer
— as well as her formal service
on the board.
Anyone who talks with her for
just five minutes will be amazed
at her dedication. She is continually renewing her energy for education by attending workshops
and networking with other education professionals but always
finds time to see what’s really
going on at our schools by volunteering, attending PTA meetings,
the list goes on.
The board has faced some
complex issues in recent weeks
but I have been comforted in
knowing that Ellen has been
there to represent what is best for
the children in our district and
hope the community will see the
wisdom in re-electing her.
Lisa Whitfield
MVWSD parent, volunteer
San Pierre Way
Support
Mountain View Voice’s print and
online coverage of our community.
Join today: SupportLocalJournalism.
org/MountainView
PUBLIC NOTICE
MOUNTAIN VIEW
WHISMAN SCHOOL DISTRICT
APPLICATION FOR CITIZENS’ OVERSIGHT
COMMITTEE
The Board of Trustees of the Mountain View Whisman School District is seeking qualified, interested individuals to serve on a committee of community leaders which will serve as the independent
Citizens’ Oversight Committee (“COC”) for the implementation of
the District’s Measure G school facilities bond program.
On June 5, 2012, voters residing in the Mountain View Whisman
School District passed Measure G, which is a $198 million bond
measure that authorizes funding for needed repairs, upgrades, and
new construction projects for the District’s schools. After a bond
authorized under Proposition 39 is passed, state law requires that
the Mountain View Whisman School District Board of Trustees appoint a Citizens’ Oversight Committee to work with the District.
The Committee responsibilities include: informing the public regarding the District’s expenditure of bond proceeds, ensuring bond
proceeds are expended only for the purposes set forth in Measure
G, and presenting an annual report to the Board of Trustees on their
conclusions regarding the expenditure of Measure G proceeds.
If you wish to serve on this important committee, please review
the committee by-laws for more information about the committee’s role and responsibilities and complete the application from the
COC website at http://www.mvwsd.org/citizens-oversight-committee. Completed applications should be sent or faxed to the Chief
Business Officer of the Mountain View Whisman School District
by 4:00 PM on Wednesday, October 22, 2014.
31
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