Mossar, Fazzino, Kniss, Schneider, Eakins, Ojakian win council race

Few surprises in the race for five four-year seats and one two-year seat

Four incumbents and two newcomers were elected to the Palo Alto City Council on Tuesday night. The message voters gave was clear: Experience in city politics counts.

The two newcomers are Planning Commissioner Vic Ojakian who finished third, receiving 9,483 votes to win one of five four-year seats available.

Meanwhile, transportation advocate Dena Mossar won in her head-to-head race with challenger Duf Sundheim for a two-year seat on the council. Mossar received 7,028 votes (50.6 percent) to Sundheim's 5,838 votes (42 percent).

In the race for the four-year seats, the winners in order of votes received were: Incumbent Gary Fazzino with 12,101 votes (19.1 percent), Incumbent Liz Kniss with 10,872 votes (17.1 percent), Ojakian (15 percent), Incumbent Sandy Eakins with 9,042 votes (14.3 percent) and Micki Schneider 8,861 votes (14 percent).

Vice Mayor Ron Andersen and Council member Jean McCown did not run for reelection and are retiring after their terms expire in December.

"It was one of the great experiences of my life," said Sundheim, 44, a business attorney, of his campaign. Initial returns reflecting absentee ballot counts showed Sundheim and Mossar nearly tied, but as more precincts were counted Mossar pulled ahead.

Ed Power, a perennial candidate who withdrew from the race for the two-year seat on Oct. 16 received 7.5 percent. In withdrawing, Power had asked his supporters to vote for Sundheim.

Sundheim said if he had his campaign to run over again he would have started early on trying to gain support from the Palo Alto "inner circle" instead of relying on his solid base of friends and colleagues. He has not ruled out the possibility of running again in two years, saying his constituency is "the average person or the person who is not part of the inner circle."

As a newly elected council member, Mossar said her priority would be transportation issues. She said she is interested in "some of the concepts that are in Measure M and applying them to land-use issues in the future." She is also interested in economic diversity. "There are a lot of people in this town who moved here 20 years ago and they could never come here today," she said.

The two-year seat was vacated last January by Joe Simitian who left to become a Santa Clara County supervisor. Eakins was appointed earlier this year to fill that position, but she chose to run for a four-year seat this fall.

Eric Bloom, 31, a computer training consultant finished sixth with 4,032 votes (6.4 percent) of the vote. Andy Freedman received 3,425 votes (5.4 percent) and Tru Love finished last with 2,708 votes (4.3 percent). Trina Lovercheck, who withdrew from the race Sept. 22, received 2,899 votes (4.6 percent).

"I'm not Dick Nixon. Palo Alto will have me to kick around for a long time," said Bloom of whether he may run again. He probably won't take the Planning Commission route to get there though, calling it "too plain boring."

"The Planning Commission represents the council and the city and the way they think right now," Bloom said. "We need people to challenge that." Bloom also vowed to pursue his idea of district-based elections.

Effective Jan. 1, 1998, City Council candidates will receive a $600 monthly stipend for their work. The change was made last summer and is the first pay raise they have received since 1980.

Voter turnout for the Palo Alto election was high. Over 48 percent of registered voters cast ballots on Tuesday for a total of 18,090 citizens.

--Elisabeth Traugott