Citizen Disenfranchisement

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="3" width=205 BGCOLOR="#66CCFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="132" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 24 WIDTH="22"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="22" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="22"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="22" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="20"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="20" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="14"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="14" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="28"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="28" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Issues Challenges"><U><B>LAH ISSUES & CHALLENGES</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Open Space in LAH"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899000000.png" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Open Space</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="New Town Hall"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899000000.png" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">New Town Hall</B></U></A></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b70118cc990000.png" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Disenfranchised in Los Altos Hills</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Underground Utilities"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899000000.png" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Underground Utilities</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Winbigler House"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899000000.png" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Winbigler house</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id9.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pathways"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899000000.png" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Pathways</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id10.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Special Interest Actions"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b7011899000000.png" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Special Interest Council Actions</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Los Altos Hills, California"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b70118ffffff00.png" HEIGHT="19" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Return to Home Page</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#66CCFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> Disenfranchisement in Los Altos Hills</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=420 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>In March 2000, when Emily Cheng's election, by the slimmest of margins, gave Toni Casey a Council majority, democratic representation in Los Altos Hills suffered a major setback. Although Ms. Casey has always proclaimed that she supports open communications with the citizens plus attentive, courteous  and responsive government, she has proceeded to disenfranchise half of the town's citizens.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>She has done this by purging the town commissions and committees of all members who hold views other than hers. </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>In particular, she purged the Pathways Committee, the Safety Committee, the Finance Committee, and most importantly, the Planning Commission. </B></FONT><B>These are all important commissions/committees that provide input to the Council in their respective areas of expertise. Rather than working with citizens who hold diverse views to assure broad citizen input on all issues, she chose to choke off all opposing views. This renders a community consensus impossible. Small wonder the town meetings are so contentious!</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>We now have a Pathways Committee, supposedly devoted to promoting and developing pathways, chaired and populated by people who hate off-road pathways and who want to destroy them.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The evidence of this disenfranchisement is very clear. We have had three very contentious "Town Hall" meetings on pathways in which pathway easements are scheduled to be vacated over the objections of many citizens. This is being done in spite of solid evidence that the pathways map upon which the decisions are being made contain serious errors and omissions. Why the haste? Why is the Council unwilling to work with citizen groups to achieve a workable compromise?  (See the </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#009933" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id9.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pathways"><U><B>Pathways</B></U></A></FONT><B> page of this web site.)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Disenfranchisement is also evidenced by the formation of the LAH Watchdog group proposing a more modest Town Hall, threatening to conduct a recall if their opinions are not heard and considered. (See the </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#009933" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="New Town Hall"><U><B>New Town Hall</B></U></A></FONT><B> page of this web site.) </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Further disenfranchisement evidence is found in the formation of the Los Altos Hills Open Space Initiative group. Council actions in June 2002 clearly indicated that the Council was preparing to sell some or all of the town-owned open space and recreational land. Rather than work with the citizens group to achieve a mutually acceptable result, the Council chose to submit their own initiative version to the voters. (See the</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#66CC33" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#009933" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Open Space in LAH"><U><B>Open Space in LAH</B></U></A></FONT><B> page of this web site.)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A third citizens group is already organizing to challenge the Council's action if the Council votes to eliminate actual off road paths and/or critical planned pathways. T</B><B>hree simultaneous citizen groups must be a record for any community, and clearly proves that the current Council is not listening to their citizens.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The above situations define the most egregious failure of the Casey/Fenwick Council: the failure to accept citizen input and the failure to work with citizen groups to achieve results acceptable to all.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Los Altos Hills urgently needs a balanced approach to town government, one that listens and responds to all citizens. </B><B>Two candidates, </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Breene Kerr</B></FONT><B> and </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Dean Warshawsky </B></FONT><B>have pledged  to accomplish this.</B><B> The two Civic Association candidates (Vitu and Kerns) are running on the "accomplishments" of the Casey Council and they have pledged to continue the present method of operation.</B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=10 BGCOLOR="#66CCFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=10 BGCOLOR="#66CCFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>