Palo Alto High School students cross the Caltrain tracks at Churchill Avenue in Palo Alto on March 9, 2015. A citizens group is urging the city to tunnel or trench the rail tracks below Churchill as part of a citywide project to separate rail from other modes of travel. (Bay Area News Group file)
Palo Alto’s wealth, bucolic neighborhoods and proximity to Stanford University make it the envy of Bay Area cities. But for all its advantages, the city faces significant financial, housing and public safety challenges.
The City Council, led by councilmen Eric Filseth and Tom DuBois, has made strides during the past two years to get the city’s pension obligations under control. But that investment, coupled with the pandemic, forced the city to make budget cuts to its Police Department that need to be restored. Meanwhile, the council has struggled to decide how best to meet its state-mandated housing goals while maintaining the charm of its downtown and tree-lined neighborhoods.
And Palo Alto residents want to see progress eliminating the dangerous Caltrain grade crossings that run alongside Alma Street — a danger that will be magnified as Caltrain’s electrification project increases the number of trains running through Palo Alto.
Filseth and Dubois are termed out. Councilwoman Alison Cormack decided not to run for a second term. Seven candidates are vying for the three open seats. We recommend Ed Lauing, Julie Lythcott-Haims and Vicki Veenker to voters in the Nov. 8 election.
Ed Lauing
Lauing is the most experienced of the candidates. He has also built a well-deserved reputation for being able to bring people together on challenging issues. Lauing is the chair of the Planning and Transportation Commission and previously served on the Parks and Recreation Commission. He is co-chair of the housing working group, which is developing Palo Alto’s plan to meet the state’s housing quota. He is a strong advocate for offering greater incentives to developers to increase the city’s affordable housing stock.
We recommended Lauing when he ran for the City Council in 2020, believing his business experience running startups would help the city work through its financial issues. In a race featuring 10 candidates for four open seats, he finished fifth.
Lauing strongly supports Measures K and L to help the city restore cuts to its public-safety budget. Measure K would institute a business tax in Palo Alto. Measure L would enable the city to resume revenue transfers from the city’s natural gas utility to the general fund.
Julie Lythcott-Haims
Lythcott-Haims may be a political newcomer, but she is very well-versed on Palo Alto’s financial and housing issues.
She is a Harvard-educated lawyer who spent 10 years as Stanford University’s dean of freshmen students. Lythcott-Haims has written three books, including two on adulthood. She has served on a dozen non-profit boards, including the Palo Alto Community Fund, Palo Alto YWCA of the Mid-Peninsula, Partners in Education and Community Working Group.
She cites affordable housing as her highest priority, advocating for a return of the days when Palo Alto led the state in building affordable housing. She calls the failure to provide housing for teachers, seniors, young families and workers a “reflection of our values.”
Vicki Veenker
Veenker is a smart, knowledgeable patent attorney and mediator with strong people skills, which could be a major plus on a council that has had a hard time reaching compromises on major issues. She has served as a mediator for the federal courts and the International Trade Commission for 16 years.
She established the now defunct Women’s Professional Soccer league and has served as board president of the Silicon Valley Law Foundation, which offers free legal services to low-income clients.
She acknowledges that Palo Alto is moving forward with sites to build additional affordable housing but says that the city needs to provide greater subsidies to developers to make projects financially feasible. Veenker also advocates identifying city-owned downtown parking lots where affordable housing could be built, eliminating the need for builders to buy land.
She backs the business tax on the November ballot to help restore city services and demonstrates a solid understanding of the city’s finances.
Veenker ran a strong campaign for state Assembly in 2016 but lost to Mark Berman.
The remaining four candidates are Lisa Forssell, Doria Summa, Alex Comsa and Brian Hamachek.
Forssell and Summa are also solid candidates. Forssell is an Apple design studio producer who is chair of the Palo Alto Utilities Advisory Committee and has served for three years on the city’s budget subcommittee. Summa is retired after working in the movie industry. She is vice chair of the Planning and Transportation Commission and a longtime volunteer for a wide array of community organizations.
Comsa, a realtor and small-business owner, understands land use issues but does not have any commission experience and was fuzzy on financial issues. Hamachek is a software engineer who needs additional experience on the city’s boards and commissions before being ready to serve on the City Council.
Lauing, Lythcott-Haims and Veenker are the standouts in the race. They are the best candidates to help the council address the housing and financial issues that a city with the wealth of Palo Alto should be solving at a faster pace. We recommend them to voters in the Nov. 8 election.
Originally published at Mercury News Editorial Board