From the Opinion Pleasanton Assignment Editor…In future issues look for stories on: A call to City Hall for details on the number and cost of consultants on the payroll… What prevents Stoneridge going through to El Charro? Trees to twigs…

Why is the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce
so invisible in Pleasanton politics?

The Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce all but disappeared from the Pleasanton political scene when the Pleasanton City Council was dominated by the three to two eco-extremist voting block beginning in the late 80’s. So why are they not more visible today when that voting block is much more fluid?

The 90’s were roaring in Pleasanton. Mixers seemed more appropriate than political action. But what has the inaction of the Chamber wrought?

Former Mayor Ben Tarver and his Dreamteam (which included current Mayor Tom Pico) steamrolled candidates friendly to business. In gaining and firmly holding onto the reigns of power, the Dreamteam and its successors packed city commissions, committees and task forces with like-minded citizens. Put into play was a decade of candidates who prefer foxes and Red-Legged Frogs to people; subsidized housing to free-market housing and traffic to roads.

Homebuilders make up a large part of the Chamber. It was their ox that got repeatedly gored by Mr. Tarver, Mr. Pico and company. So why did the Chamber go it alone against the Dreamteams? Why did they not enlist their business counterparts in the Chamber? Why did they not organize credible campaigns targeting Dreamteamers?

Maybe the Chamber and the homebuilders preferred to build $1million homes preferred by the eco-extremist elites. Maybe the status quo was in their best economic interest. Homeowners who can afford $1 million homes can spend more in Pleasanton’s restaurants and retail sector.

What about the rest of Pleasanton? The Pleasanton workforce can use an inventory of more reasonably priced homes. Roads for faster and safer cross-town travel would have been planning for today and tomorrow. A mass-transit center on the Bernal property means transportation infrastructure to meet future needs for us and our neighbors who must pass through town to Walnut Creek and San Jose. A transit village—ALA Dublin and other progressive cities—means people living near convenient transportation, shopping and civic facilities. City Hall and other city facilities on Bernal means that valuable land in downtown can be developed to ease parking and traffic gridlock and pay for the new city facilities.

These concepts are not foreign to former Chambers. Members with big ideas advanced projects. They even buck the trends and advanced projects clearly in the sites of the Dreamteams. We have city parks and gyms on school grounds because Chamber members stuck their necks out. We have Hacienda Business Park because Chamber members fought the good fight against the no-growthers. We have a first-class hospital convenient to the entire Tri-Valley because Chamber members saw that a hospital is good for the community and good for business.

We have no business leaders who want to do the heavy lifting that the City Council should be doing. While the council reacts--and mostly to development issues—no one has stepped forward to say, “this is a good idea and it is good for the entire community.” Maybe the Chamber should consider filling this void.

News Opinion

Do you care how many trees there are in Pleasanton? Do you care enough to spend $200,000 for consultants to count them? Or, do you only care how many are missing from Bernal Avenue and what size the replacements might be?

OpinionPleasanton has been trying, over the course of its short history, to determine from City of Pleasanton budget documents how much money is devoted to consultants. It seems that no project, plan, committee or task force operates without consultants attached like Velcro. The task is daunting in that the city cannot provide an overall figure.

OpinionPleasanton is confident that the research will illustrate that money, a great deal of money, is wasted on consultants and studies for projects predetermined for the scrap heap.

At this moment, as near as can be determined, the Happy Valley golf course is in at about $3 million for studies and consultants alone. The Bernal Avenue project task force has its own consultants. The Bernal Avenue community park study has a separate consultant. Mayor Tom Pico’s “East Side” study will, no doubt, have its own. The Downtown plan has its own. The study of the West Las Positas Boulevard/I-680 interchange has one. Opinion Pleasanton hopes to illustrate that the city manager and her staff, at the direction of the mayor and city council, is charged with studying issues to death no matter the cost. Each of those projects or studies involves “growth” and therefore is approached negatively by the eco-extremists who hold sway on the council.

They have done magnificently. The golf course study is four years old. The Bernal study is about ten years old in its current phase (25 years old in total). The West Las Positas Boulevard interchange study is 25 years old and four years old in its current phase. The “East Side” study has been demanded for more than eight years when the last home builder had his approved plan successfully referended. The Downtown plan is two years old. The senior assisted living facility plan is six years old. When the city manager says smugly that Pleasanton takes a little longer to get things done—the clear implication is that Pleasanton gets them done correctly. Is it right that it takes four years to study a golf course whose main purpose is not golf but to shut off home building? Is it right to further study Pleasanton’s east side just to shut down IKEA and other proposals.

The council and staff also look to studies and consultants even for the less controversial and sometime inconsequential issues. On September 18, 2001, the City Council voted to spend $199,100 for a consultant to count city-owned trees and to produce a computer software program for those trees so that we could manage tree maintenance.

Opinion Pleasanton considers this profligate spending.

The economy that made profligate spending possible has slowed down to a small roar. It is time for Mr. Pico, a CPA, and the council to put the breaks on studies and consultants to count trees and such and to redirect their energies to providing a business-building economic climate that makes an IKEA feel welcome.

Mayor Pico’s abstinence gives some pregnant pause

Mayor Tom Pico owns a Victorian home/office downtown and as a consequence has consistently removed himself from discussions and voting on downtown issues. Mr. Pico perceives that his Victorian home/office ownership is a blanket conflict.

There certainly are issues relating to Mr. Pico’s Victorian home/office that would cause a conflict of interest. Council imminent domain or condemnation of his property are two of those issues. Council tax breaks for certain kinds of historic preservation, or redevelopment might be others. Voting on his own zoning and use questions surely would put the mayor in conflict.

Beyond those specifics, Mr. Pico has no blanket conflict and should participate in downtown discussions and votes.

Using the mayor’s logic, he should abstain from all Bernal votes. There is little doubt that the Bernal Avenue development will enhance downtown and thus add value to the Mr. Pico’s property. In the abstract, Mr. Pico should abstain from all development votes. Adding value to the entire city benefits him with added value to his Victorian office/work space.

Almost no one disagrees that downtown is the heart of Pleasanton. As such, downtown planning and development take on greater importance than most other planning and development issues. Pleasanton is about to adopt a new downtown plan and it appears without the participation of the mayor.

Vice Mayor Sharrell Michelotti, who owns downtown residential rental property, looks at downtown issues on a case-by-case basis, as it should be.

In the final analysis, Pleasanton needs a full-time mayor and council. The people expect all five members to discuss the issues of the day, especially those that are at the very heart of Pleasanton’s future.

It is easy to suspect that Mr. Pico’s motivation is purely political. Several key precincts, vital to election and re-election to the council, are in downtown. If he is silent on downtown issues, he maintains his favorables there. He takes no political shrapnel from decisions that may go against downtown interests. His potential opponents on the council get the spotlight. Later, if the plans work out, he can take credit since he sits in the mayor’s chair. If they do not, he simply throws up his hands and says that he could not participate and that the council made a bad decision for which he receives absolution.

 

Quick Opinion

 

More Fallout Over Measure D

Cities were recently asked to contribute funds to "administer" Measure D. Now Measure D has become the stumbling block for the construction of PG & E substations and transmission lines for the delivery of electricity to the Tri-Valley cities of Dublin, Livermore and Pleasanton. The administrative law judge hearing the PUC application has concluded that since Measure D passed and the likelihood is nil that North Livermore would be developed with as many as 12,000 new houses, no substation there is needed. Her decision is about as wrong-headed as the passage of Measure D itself.

Pleasanton and its neighbors need energy and new transmission lines. The need will not diminish. In fact, demand is likely to grow. Eliminating one of PG & E's requested substations simply means that the process will have to be revisited in the near future when demand again outstrips supply. The unintended consequence is a more expensive land acquisition, permit and construction process.

In short, Measure D continues to cost ratepayers and taxpayers.

The Pleasanton City Council Is A Full-Time Job

Councilman Matt Campbell's Spring Break and summer vacations are fine for a schoolteacher. For members of the Pleasanton City Council they are a distraction. In Pleasanton, since the dreamteams, no meeting agenda is benign. Consent calendar items can and often do take on gigantic proportions. Being prepared and on the job is critical. Discussions and decisions (if they can ever be reached) need full council attention.

Vice Mayor Sharrell Michelotti has set the standard for council members. Her vacations have been planned around city business. He vacations have been cut short because of city business. Her family, like most families with public servants, has been shortchanged because of city business.

We are hoping that Mr. Campbell's two vacations were long planned and that if he didn't follow through he would have forfeited deposits, etc. If that wasn't the case, he should look to Mrs. Michelotti's for guidance. Mayor Tom Pico feels that meeting attendance is so important that he refuses to vote on issues that he may have missed while taking time away from his council duties.

When back on the dais, Mr. Campbell should be prepared. His on-the-job training should have been completed many months ago. The McDonalds issue is a clear example of Mr. Campbell's lack of preparedness. Though eventually approved, Mr. Campbell held up the McDonalds development proposal because he was hoping for a more appropriate gateway to Pleasanton on Stanley Boulevard. Had he been prepared he would have know that Stanley passes by planned and approved automotive uses and by mini storage, not to mention gravel mines and railroad lines. Had he been prepared he would have known that the McDonalds franchisee has been a major contributor to local causes and efforts. Those uses do not present a grand Pleasanton entrance. McDonalds will certainly be an improvement and certainly no worse and it is on land appropriately zoned. Mr. Campbell should have also considered other notable Pleasanton gateways. Visible from I-580 and I-680 is the DSRSD sewer plant.

Some have suggested that Mr. Campbell's disagreement with the McDonalds application might have been rooted in anti fast food/anti corporate attitudes and not gateways. In either case he should have been better prepared.

If he is not up-to-speed he should hire a tutor (though politically incorrect, former Mayor Ken Mercer might again be available). At the very least, Mr. Campbell might assign himself some homework.

Deep Croak

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E-mail Letters

 

We know that you are out there...

Thank you for all of your words of encouragement. We would, however, like to see those words in e-mails and faxes for publication. We’d like to let like-minded readers know that there is a silent majority out there that cares about the direction of our beloved city.