Over the weekend I was asked to send out a letter and recruit other co-signers to respond to a Press Release of the
Town which is a letter from Mayor Widmer regarding the APOA-PAC.
During
my eight years on the council, I worked with the Atherton Police on
numerous issues including Home Emergency Diaster Response, Citizens
Diaster Training, School Safety, and Drug Prevention programs. I respect
their work. However Pension Reform is a must and the APOA web site
states they have put Pension Reform on the table. I started
working with the California League of Cities in 2006 on the need for
Pension Reform-for more information on either of these topics visit http://www.charlesmarsala.com/.
Please
advise me if you are
interested in co-signing this request to council as there is an interest
to do printed version of the letter. You can also forward the request
to the city manager.
The Mayor was authorized to
write a "High Level" letter to residents by the council responding to a recent
letter the Atherton Police PAC have sent out regarding the possible Outsourcing of the
Police by the Council and the APOA-PAC endorsement of Elizabeth Lewis and Cary Wiest for
City Council. Council Members Widmer, McKeithen, and Dobbie are supporting Denise Kupperman and Greg Conlon.
The
Mayor's letter was not reviewed by the full council, nor was the
funding of the mailing discussed. A review by the full council might
have resulted in a different letter.
Residents
have emailed me that the Mayor's letter does not accurately portray the situation and clarifying response
is warranted. Perhaps I was asked to write the response as the most
recent former council member, my position that both sides work together
to solve the defined benefit pension problem, someone who has worked
with the four candidates for years and believes all four candidates will
work hard for Atherton, and someone familiar with the issues.
The mayor's letter opens that the APOA-PAC made
several assertions that misrepresent the facts but does not list
them. I do not see how this statement will lead to both sides working
together.
The Mayor's letter states:
"The City Council has not, held any discussions at any Council meeting regarding plans or potential plans to outsource our police department services. Police officers have not been laid off from the Atherton Police Department. The current 5-year contract expires on September 30, 2013. Formal negotiations on that contract have not yet begun.
The
Mayor has also released a You Tube Video stating he wants to Sunset the
Parcel Tax in 2014. He does not state how the $1.8M in lost funding
will be replaced.
I did some research and found the APOA-PAC web site: www.athertonpolice.com/Pac
has a differing opinion of the current situation and supports its
position with video tapes of Finance Committee meetings, charts, and
other evidence. For instance the APOA-PAC states that concessions
-including a two tier retirement plan- have been offered to the council
with no response; that officers have retired but new officers have not
been recruited - thus overall staffing has been
reduced. The School Resource Officer position is
now not filled.
When I
campaigned for city council in 2000, it was to fill the School Resource
Officer position which not filled due to budget cuts in 2000 after the
defeat of the Parcel Tax. The SRO position is a proactive means to
reduce crime in the schools.
Here
are some of the "High Level" issues and clarifying questions we believe
the council and individual council members should address in a press
release.
Dear Mayor and/or Council members separately,
Please provide us with a high level Press Release of the
following:
The finances of Atherton. Is the budget balanced?
Advise us of how much unfunded pension debt Atherton has and
the plan to pay for it.
If you plan as a council or as individuals to sunset the Parcel Tax in 2014 please advise us.
How will you fund Police Services in the future?
Do you plan to advocate switching to a Charter City and having Real Estate Transfer Taxes?
When do you foresee placing outsourcing the police to a public vote?
In the future would you reduce to either 2 or 1 the number of council members required to place an
item on the agenda, this will give the residents greater ability to express their view points.
Has the Atherton Police offered any salary and benefit concessions "formally or informally" to any council member or committee or to the council in closed sessions?
Has
Police staffing been reduced from other methods besides layoffs, such as retirement?
Please
respect the right to Freedom of Speech of the APOA-PAC and the
Athertonians Yahoo Users
Group. Rather then seek to discredit these groups by claiming they make
"False and Misleading" Statements,--- create agenda items in the evening
for residents to advise you how they feel, have dialog on the
controversial topics, and work together to resolve the challenges and
opportunities Atherton faces.
It has
been stated that the Library in the Park will be built
without any additional taxpayer dollars, yet funds for a traffic
light on Middlefield and a turn lane on El Camino Real will be needed.
Are there other expenses that have yet to be reported to the residents?
The Library fund has $5M and the Library is expected to cost more than
$6M, will additional taxpayer dollars be needed to complete the project?
Mr. Marsala -- And you thought you had retired from the council...oh well. Thank you for continuing to care and to be involved. We moved here from 30+ years in Palo Alto several years ago. In Palo Alto I served on the school board, but not the council, for eight years. I believed then - and I believe today - that honesty and transparency are absolute requisites of community leaders, and I am troubled that the Atherton council may not be living up to those essential attributes of effective representatives. I have a strong position on the Atherton Police Department - KEEP IT! You have lived here much longer than I; I don't need to give you examples or cite reasons. However, it is true that defined benefit retirement plan funding is an issue for all employers, especially public ones, and it is an issue that must be faced and addressed in a reasoned, public, and cooperative fashion. It seems to me, without being privy to all the communications, formal and informal, that the APOA has been willing to do this but has been stonewalled by the current council majority, one reason why we have contributed to the APOA-PAC and the campaigns of Lewis and Wiest. A two-tier retirement plan would be a good step although the devil always is in the details. Of course we should have an SRO-duh! Of course, we should support renewal of the parcel tax; it's not like our friends and neighbors cannot afford it. As to agendizing items for public council discussion, I had no idea it apparently takes a majority; that's nonsense. Any one elected council member should have that right. Here in Atherton we all have our own little private enclaves, and we like it that way. Unfortunately, that leads to a disregard for - and disinterest in - local governance. Our council does not represent the talent that resides in this town because most of us do not care enough to be involved. Thank you for being an exception.
ReplyDeleteDon
Thanks, Charles, for continuing to be a “checks and balances” watchdog for our community! It will be interesting to see what changes come about after this election…
ReplyDeleteMike
Dear Charles;
ReplyDeleteThe questions you would ask of the Council seem legitimate and warranted, and I would co-sign a letter asking the questions listed in your e-mail of today.
Gail Whelan
I am very interested and agree with the pointed out issues to be clarified. I have not received the letter stated from the Mayor or the Youtube so this is all new to me. I appreciate your email and disappointed that I have not been informed of the issues you have presented. Thank you. Please send me any information you have. Who do you support whom you think will be in sink with your points. I have been very disappointed in our Council and Mayor to hear our thoughts.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Mary
Charles:
ReplyDeleteI hate seeing our city so divided, and feel the council must work together. But the need for pension reform, and/or a two-tier pension system is crystal clear. I confess that I found the language you quote in Mayor Widmer’s letter beyond distressing. While not actually counterfactual, the clear intent is to mislead our citizens.
I am certainly potentially willing to co-sign a letter to council
Keith
Dear Charles,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your continuing extra efforts to strengthen the Atherton Council.
I'll gratefully co-sign the response to the Press Release.
Scott
Hello Charles,
ReplyDeleteI, and I suspect my wife, support your message and am willing to co-sign your letter.
Mark
Good request.
ReplyDeleteGood luck in getting a response from a group that considers Atherton to be its little fiefdom.
Jeff
Co-signers as of 11:00am
ReplyDeleteFormer Mayors:
Jim Janz
Malcolm Dudley
Residents:
Don Way
Sylvie Way
Gail Whelan
Sherman Hall III
Scott Feamster
Mary Madden
Michael David
Jeff Cunningham
Mark Flegal
Mark Balestra
Kathleen Balestra
Mindy Perez Rubio
Jon Venverloh
Paul Tonelli
Keith Wollenberg
All,
ReplyDeleteFor a request that was posted at 9pm to have 20 co-signers by noon reflects a high level of support. We still want more!!!
Thanks to everyone who is giving comments on the issue.
Should the Mayor wish to provide answers to the questions, he could post those answers on this blog.
Assuming you want your letter to include the questions you post above, I will sign it.
ReplyDelete- Jenny Redo
I attended the council meeting, and spoke to item #22, concerning a council response to the police communication. I left that meeting believing that the council had decided to have the mayor write a press release, not write a letter to the community. I felt it would be important to write a letter to the community that supported the police action, explaining the reasons that led to the issuance of their correspondence. There were important factors which indicated the possibility that the police department would be outsourced. The council had already fired most non-police personnel, they had significantly reduced the number of sworn officers, the finance committee discussed the subject of police outsourcing with the San Carlos city manager (where they had already outsourced their police department) and the interim city manager, Mr. Danielson, had presented a draft budget that vastly overstated the size of the budget deficit as a way of justifying firing most of the town's staff.
ReplyDeleteMy feeling is that we should write a letter to the community pointing out our support for the police, and our concern that the council letter to the community will cause confusion and many questions. It is my opinion that the council letter does not recognize the very valid reasons for the police department's concerns and action. The police department letter was an attempt to alert the community to the very real possibility that the department could be outsourced, just as the town outsourced most of our non police personnel. The point of the police department's letter was to inform the community about the important history and factors which caused concern for the police. It was their concern for the safety of our community.
The town in recent years has not shown support for our town's dedicated staff, and in fact has fired a majority of our dedicated staff, including members who had worked for the town for 20 or more years. The premise for justifying these firings was based upon a faulty financial analysis. The town's treatment of our staff lead to the departure of our most senior staff leadership including city managers, assistant city manger, public works director, building official, etc. As a result we have lost many of our most outstanding staff.
Charles - Sylvie's comments on the Mayor's letter...
ReplyDelete1. Unsigned. Is he representing the entire Council?
2. How about informal or sub-committee discussions? I do not believe there
have been no communications.
3. Incomplete budget information - how about comparing staffing and response rates to last year, not half a decade ago.
And we could go on....
Today I received the (unnamed) Mayor's letter/release dated October 18. Aside from the typos, it was unimpressive. Atherton easily can and should do better.
ReplyDeleteHe also acted like he was representing the entire council. Who sends an anonymous letter???
My wife's comment... What we need to do,
1. Force these people into the open to act honestly and transparently
2. Find candidates to run in 2014
4. Get involved (a Palo Alto but not an Atherton trait)
Don