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E-Mail Bulletin #12 - 22 October 2002
- Status of Citizens' Initiative
- Council-Sponsored Initiative
- Comparison of Initiatives
- Endorsers
- Fundraising
- Town-Wide Mailing
- Letter to the Editor
Status of Citizens' Initiative:
On Tuesday, October 22nd, at 5 PM we expect to receive the Title and Summary for our LAH Open Space Initiative from the Town Attorney. The Town is taking the full 15 days to put this together, though we requested an earlier release because our original filing had been on October 1st.After submitting the initiative on October 1st, a resident pointed out an error on the Town-owned properties map at an "open space coffee". This map had left off a two-acre parcel on Byrne Park Lane, which is an entrance to Byrne Preserve and beginning of the Artemas Ginzton Trail. Although correcting this cost us some time, we felt fortunate that the error was discovered early on, and a re-examination of the map turned up a couple of other minor changes that we were able to take care of at the same time. The corrected initiative was resubmitted six days later on Monday, October 7th.
Usually a Town Attorney is more cooperative and would be willing to write the Title and Ballot Summary sooner rather than later - having had the initiative in the Town's possession for a week already and the draft two weeks earlier than that. Despite the lack of cooperation our initiative will move forward after Tuesday to publication of the legal notice in the Los Altos Town Crier. To view the actual text of our initiative click on http://www.lahopenspace.com/Initiative.htm
Council-Sponsored Initiative:
Councilman O'Malley was on vacation in New York when the competing Town-sponsored initiative was announced at the October 3rd meeting. He was unaware that Mayor Bob Fenwick and Councilmember Casey had asked the Town Attorney to put together a competing initiative.The Town's Attorney then spent time creating the competing initiative to accomplish the goals of the Council majority - an initiative that might look good at first glance but one that "forgot to include much of the true substance of the final LAHOS Initiative"-- our attorney's words. To view the text of the comment letter sent by our attorney to the Town Council, click on http://www.lahopenspace.com/AttorneyLetter.html
At the October 17th meeting, the Council directed the Town Clerk to send out a notice to residents regarding the Council-Sponsored Initiative on open space. More time and taxpayer money being wasted!
At the October 16th League of Women Voters Candidates Night, it became apparent why the 3-member Council (the Toni Casey majority) rushed through their competing initiative. Both Council candidates Janet Vitu and Bill Kerns endorsed the Council-sponsored initiative. This was not altogether unexpected. So, the lines are drawn. Dean Warshawsky and Breene Kerr, both involved from the start with the Citizens' Initiative, have pledged to work towards adoption of our initiative if they are elected. Janet Vitu and Bill Kerns instead wrap themselves in the Council's Initiative, and in so doing, claim that they support open space. Don't be fooled!
Comparison of the Two Initiatives:
If the Council's Initiative were to pass (in a special election) it would actually permit Town-sponsored development on some important open space and public recreation lands -- Edith Park, Rhus Ridge Properties, Juan Prado Mesa Preserve, and Murietta Ridge. That's because the Council's Initiative locks in the 1975 designations of "residential" and "private recreation" on these lands. In the case of Westwind Community Barn, the "private recreation" designation would be locked in - allowing for the possible leasing of the Barn (after all - that wouldn't be selling it!) to some third-party operator for purposes of "private recreation" -- thereby destroying its public and community use just as effectively as if it had been sold.Only the Citizens' Initiative locks in the proper designations. You can go to our webpage and click on http://www.lahopenspace.com to see exactly which designations will apply under the Council's Initiative and which designations will apply under the Citizens' Initiative.
Amending the General Plan to specify these properties and their land-use designations is the legal and proper way to proceed. If you hear the opposition discussing the possibility of residents voting on each designa- tion, be clear that an initiative vote is either up or down, and were the Town Council itself to attempt to make these changes on its own, any future Council could change these again. Only with the Citizens' Initiative would the proper designations be "locked in" by amending the General Plan, and these protective designations, as spelled out in our initiative, could not then be changed again without a vote of the people.
Endorsers:
Just e-mail couperus@mindspring.com and we'll be happy to list you as an endorser of our initiative. The current list of endorsers can be found on the home page of our website.
Fundraising:
We really want to thank those who dug deep to help us. We are delighted to be able to tell you that right now we have just enough to cover our our September legal bill and the upcoming town-wide mailing. This easily accounts for most (if not quite all) the total expenses we expect to incur. When and if we need to top up our account to handle the last few expenses (e.g. required legal advertisements in newspapers, maybe more attorneys fees if we need to more work done because of a competing initiative) we'll ask for help again.But right now there is a more critical need for people to help the campaigns of the two candidates, Dean and Breene.
Should these two candidates win the election on November 5th, we won't be worrying about a competing initiative. If you can help these two worthy and honest candidates, here are their websites: www.deanforcouncil.com and www.breene@bkp.org.
Town-Wide Mailing:
If you are available to help us on Tuesday, October 22 - 5:30 to 7:30 PM, please call Nancy at 941-4808.
Letter to the Editor:
In response to the article about the two open space initiatives in the Los Altos Town Crier, a letter to the editor was submitted. Since we don't know whether or not the Town Crier will choose to print this letter, a few relevant excerpts follow:Letter submitted October 17, 2002
"The citizens' version of the LAH Open Space Initiative clarifies that IT IS a General Plan Amendment. It re-adopts some existing General Plan designations and amends others where appropriate.By contrast, the Council's version of the initiative tries to do this by ordinance, a method that has already been found invalid by the California Supreme Court. It's very likely this mechanism was chosen to avoid the requirement for an Environmental Impact Report, which a General Plan Amendment would demand. This in turn would have prevented the Council majority from rushing out their competing initiative to confuse the voters."
"So, we question our Mayor's motivation in thrusting upon the residents a competing open space initiative that is inferior to the Citizens' Initiative and that actually threatens open space by retaining designations that allow residential development."
"We are also puzzled by Mayor Fenwick's claim in the same article that the Town may hold its measure over until November 2003. The Town's official measure states clearly that it will be submitted to the voters at the next general or special election occurring at least 88 days from October 3, 2002, whichever comes first.
A ballot initiative was put together with broad citizen input and support. To then accuse those who did this of playing God, shows a basic unfamiliarity with the concept of democracy. We expect better from our council members."
E-mail distribution list:
If you have friends or neighbors in Los Altos Hills who would like to be placed on this e-mail information list, please have them contact either Nancy Couperus at couperus@mindspring.com or Val Metcalfe at metcalfes@worldnet.att.net