Los Altos Hills Open Space
	"Value Beyond Price..."
	Dedicated to protecting our open space assets for the future

E-Mail Bulletin #17 - 27 November 2002

• The Good News
• One Final Day to Sign
• The Bad News

The Good News:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL -- and thanks to all who have contributed in so many ways to the success of our LAH Open Space Initiative Campaign!

We've collected over 1,200 signatures. The legal requirement to qualify for the ballot is 822. We set a goal of 1,100 to give us a safety margin, and now we've exceeded that to give ourselves a full 50% cushion. We'll be submitting the petitions to the City Clerk on Monday, December 2nd. Karen Jost, our new City Clerk will in turn bring the petitions to the Santa Clara Registrar of Voters for verification.

One Final Day to Sign:

Friday, November 28th, the day after Thanksgiving, will be our last day of signature gathering.

This will be an opportunity for students or others returning home for the holiday to support their "home town."

You will find us at the Town Hall Parking Lot between 10 and 2 PM on Friday. Don't forget!

The Bad News:

Our attorney's bill for October is $9,300. We have just over $2,000 in our combined funds (LAH Open Space & Santa Clara Audubon Society).

How Did This Happen? Here's the answer in chronological order.

1. The first thing that the Town Attorney did during the review process was to challenge our initiative on the grounds that it might impair "essential government functions." Our attorney researched and returned a 5-page memorandum demonstrating that our initiative did not unreason- ably intrude upon the Town's essential land use or financial functions.

2. The Town's staff provided our attorney with a map of Town-owned properties that left off a 2-acre parcel that was part of Byrne Preserve. We didn't catch the error until 5 days after filing our initiative. The map had to be redone and the initiative resubmitted all over again.

3. Two days after submitting our open space initiative on October 3rd, the Council (with only 3 members of the Council present - Casey, Fenwick, Cheng) voted to submit their own initiative to the voters. We asked our attorney to respond, pointing out the flaws in the Council-sponsored initiative. This was yet another unanticipated expense.

4. The Town's Attorney waited until the very last day of the 15 days allowed to submit his official Title and Summary. A normal Title is less than a dozen words; his was 70. The Title and Summary combined are supposed to be under 500 words. The Town Attorney's was well over this and included the diagram comparing land use designations. This, combined with the excessively long Title and Summary made our attorney's work to draft the petition extremely difficult and resulted in an over-sized document that only left space for three signatures per page, was very costly and required many hours of work to produce.

5. We had planned for a town-wide postcard mailing. When the Council initiative was brought forward we needed to respond. Two mailings came out - one which we helped finance from the Committee for Green Foothills & Santa Clara Audubon Society - and the other from us, showing residents the differences between the two initiatives.

   Steve Finn then sent out an inflammatory letter to residents trying to scare the neighbors around Westwind Barn by implying that soccer fields could be permitted with a Public Recreation designation on Westwind Barn. We sent another mailing out in response.

All of the above contributed to unexpected extra costs and our present financial situation. We hate to ask for additional donations. We can "buy" some time with our attorney; however, eventually we need to pay our bill. If you can help out at all, here is the information once again on how to donate.

And, thanks once again for all the encouragement, the hours spent helping with signature gathering, the coffees, the donations, the letters to the editor, and all of the many other ways you gave in support of this cause. It was uplifting and renewed everyone's spirit! Now, with signatures well in hand, its going to happen!

If you would like to make a donation, you can write a check made payable to "LAH Open Space".

Contributions above $250 can be tax-deductible if you wish. The Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society can accept donations on our behalf which are then tax-deductible. Instead of making your check out to LAH Open Space, for these larger donations ($250 or more) just make your check out to Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. In either case, then mail the check to:

Nancy Couperus
13680 Page Mill Road
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022

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