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Councilman John Barton announced Tuesday night that his unpaid lecturer position at Stanford University may turn into something more, so he plans to begin recusing himself on Stanford issues.
“I’m not ready to talk about it” because the situation hasn’t been finalized, Barton said.
He expects to know more “relatively soon.”
Barton has long maintained that his position as an unpaid architectural-design lecturer at Stanford does not constitute a conflict of interest — an opinion he said has been checked by at least five government attorneys.
But his teaching affiliation was cited as a key reason his colleagues picked Peter Drekmeier rather than Barton as vice mayor at its Jan. 7 meeting.
“It just seems very important that we avoid that perception since Stanford is going to be a very important part of the next year,” Councilwoman Yoriko Kishimoto said that night — referring to major proposed expansions of the Stanford Medical Center/hospitals and the Stanford Shopping Center.
In addition, City Manager Frank Benest also previously lectured for no pay at Stanford, a position he resigned from in January 2007 under council-level criticism for creating an appearance of a conflict due to his position as chief negotiator for the city on the Stanford projects.
Barton was elected to the council in 2006. He previously served on the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education.
Aren’t the real reasons that Yoriko opposed having Barton a vice-mayor twofold:
1) When Drekmeier becomes mayor next year we will have had 3 mayors in a row whose sole focus is climate change
2) Yoriko is, in general, opposed to anything that Stanford wants to do (remember her complaining that re-building the foot ball stadium may cause too much traffic on Embarcadero Road and her comparing having to deal with the Stanford expansion to having to swallow a bowling ball). Drekmeier is also a noted Stanford basher and this will assure that someone like minded will be mayor next year.
How ridiculous can you get, NSF?
Did you read about Barton’s conflicts? He interprets conflict of interest in the narrowest possible way. Money, money, money. Of course he has a conflict of interest and finally he recognizes it, after everyone else does.
Get real–as ridiculous as I want (according to you).
Go back and read the article and and then read what I wrote. Barton decide to recuse himself on Stanford matters. He was passed over for the vice-mayor position–he did not remove himself from consideration for the vice-mayor position.
According to the article he was passed over for vice-mayor position becuase of that (“But his teaching affiliation was cited as a key reason his colleagues picked Peter Drekmeier rather than Barton as vice mayor at its Jan. 7 meeting.”)
I suggest that the reasons he was passed over are different than stated in the article.
Just remember that Yoriko always manipulates to get her way–remember her comments about postponing the vote last year for an environmental commission that outraged the council and now we have a new entity created that is very similar. She knows how to play the system for her own personal benefit
> She knows how to play the system for her own personal benefit.
Definitely. She will receive over $250K in life-time health care benefits. Last year, she approved a resolution for another bicycle bridge over Highway 101 because “I will be able to get to Ming’s more easily” (or words to that effect).
The sooner she is off the Council the better for Palo Alto.
You are very manipulative changing the subject.
This thread is about Barton and about conflicts of interest.
> This thread is about Barton and about conflicts of interest.
Conflicts of interest involve all of the Council.
Get real–and about why he was passed over for vice mayor.
I offered another opinion as to why he was passed over. Just because the Weekly publishes an article with quotations from city officials, does not make it the gospel truth.
In a free society, other opinions and criticism of elected officals are part of our basic rights–except maybe in Palo Alto or in Get Rael’s world
Wow, Get Real and Not so fast have way too much time on their hands…
I thought the real conflict of interest reason dealt more with his wife and not Stanford. Isn’t his wife one of the long time high density apartment and BMR unit and builders in this area?
Barton doen’t need the money, he married into money.
I can’t find his name in the directory at Stanford, maybe he is occasional lecturer for enrichment courses.
I thought it was funny that he mentioned Stanford, but maybe he finally found a regular full time job.