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Palo Alto Online

A straight-shooter without apologies

by Bill D'Agostino

As a child, Mayor Dena Mossar's parents drove her around California, where she saw vast expanses of wilderness -- green acres that are now developed.

Her fondest, yet bittersweet, memory is visiting the Mineral King parkland near Sequoia.

"I remember it when there was a one lane narrow logging road," she said of the land that is now developed.

Those experiences propelled her to a lifetime of environmental activism, a pursuit that eventually led her to the Palo Alto City Council six years ago. This year, she is one of four incumbents running for re-election.

On the council, she has been one of the strongest environmental voices. She has also been one of the most controversial members. She led the effort to get a local nonprofit to purchase -- and temporarily hold onto -- 10-acres in the Arastradero Preserve that was threatened by development.

Mossar once boasted the nickname "that nutty environmentalist," for picking up garbage in the streets, erecting a bat house in her backyard (the house still exists but no bat has ever taken up residence) and hanging her laundry out to dry, rather than using an electric dryer.

Another of her early nicknames was the "angry neighbor." She got that moniker after organizing a four-year effort to shut down an auto body shop near her house that spewed foul-smelling fumes.

"We were all being poisoned to death," she said. "That was a dramatic moment in our lives."

Despite her background in neighborhood activism, Mossar has angered a number of city residents with her words and actions. She has stated publicly that the council needs to consider more than neighborhood interests, more than the "neighborhood agenda."

"Dena has been distant and her conduct as mayor has ticked off a number of people," said Doug Moran, the president of the Barron Park Neighborhood Association.

Supporters attribute the strong dislike she has engendered to her blunt, straight-shooting nature. "She doesn't suffer fools lightly, as the saying goes," said Councilman Jim Burch, one of her campaign co-chairs.

If neighborhood associations and other opponents want to defeat Mossar, they'll have to fight hard. Just ask Duf Sundheim. In Mossar's first campaign in November 1996, she defeated Sundheim, now the head of the state's Republican Party, despite the fact he raised more money.

During the last year, Mossar has also been critical of three councilwomen who ask lots of (often repetitive, she said) questions during meeting. They have slowed development in the city by preventing the council from voting, she said.

"We need to make decisions. We need to understand when we have enough information to make decisions," Mossar said. "If you're going to try to be perfect at the policy center, you can never set policy because this profession is very elusive. There's always some little piece of information that is not yet available."

One new idea for fixing that is enacting a rule preventing council members from talking for more than five minutes on an issue without approval from their colleagues.

The 57-year-old mayor was born in Pasadena, but left the state to go to college at Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich.

She left graduate school in New York after only one year and drove cross-country with a friend. She landed in Palo Alto and never left. Her first job here was "stinky" -- running a blueprint copying machine.

"It had ammonia in it and it smelled horrible," she said.

When she first ran for council in the 1980s, she was employed as a dressmaker, which was noted in headlines during that failed campaign. Today, her only job is being a councilwoman, although in the past she has worked for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Stanford University and Bank of America.

In the past year, Mossar has wanted to restructure the city government to save money in the midst of a tough economic situation. She and Vice Mayor Bern Beecham asked for a complete audit of the city's Community Services Department, the city's largest division. It is responsible for the city's recreation, parks, libraries, art centers, museums and theatres.

Mossar has also tried to educate an increasingly development-phobic community about the benefits of new housing, not only to the environment but also to the city's fiscal health and social welfare.

"I don't want to see us become a town that is a town only for the wealthy and very exclusive. We've never been that town," she said.

Not surprisingly, Mossar is a strong supporter of 800 High St., a 61 unit condo complex on the November ballot, because it is located near mass transit.

Prior to attaining a council seat for the first time in November 1996, she was involved in city issues in numerous ways, including starting a shuttle for special events that eventually morphed into the much-praised citywide shuttle.

As mayor, she also began "Shop Palo Alto," a campaign to get people to spend their money locally so the taxes continue to help local schools and governments.

"We're going to have to work smarter and we're going to have to provide new sources of revenue," she said, noting that "in the past we've been able to rely on our innate wealth. I think those days are gone. I think we have a different set of problems ahead of us."

E-mail Bill D'Agostino at bdagostino@paweekly.com