Around Town Around Town (July 07, 2004)

BUDGET CHUCKLES ... The Palo Alto City Council's discussion of the budget produced more than its fair share of humorous moments last week. First, homeless advocate and council-watcher Norman Carroll dragged in a bag of garbage he found in a supposedly faulty recycling container. "None of this is recyclable," Carroll complained, before stepping outside to throw away the stinky trash in a proper fashion. Later, as City Manager Frank Benest explained the city's stagnant financial state, he offhandedly noted that the city's revenues topped when he stepped into the CEO-like job in April 2000, and has been declining ever since. Before the council could think about that too much, Benest calmly tried to reassure them. "Actually, you need your best generals in times of retreat," he quipped. Later, the elected officials pondered what the majority opinion was in a 2 to 2 vote. Councilwoman Judy Kleinberg explained that she thought the winning selection was her no vote, even though the council's Finance Committee had split evenly on a proposal by Councilman Vic Ojakian to place a maximum and a minimum on the size of the city's reserves. The council compromised, only adding a minimum to the financial stockpile. It's a good thing there wasn't a tie when Kleinberg ran for council last year, or we know now that she would have claimed victory. Perhaps everything could be explained by the fact that Councilman Jack Morton was teleconferencing from the "Sunflower State." That produced its own logistical challenge, though, since any place a council member is attending a meeting from needs to be publicly accessible. As a result, anyone who wanted to could have gone to the "White Inc. Shed, North Main Street (across from the swimming pool), Syracuse, Kansas" to be a part of the council meeting, according to the official agenda. Throughout the meeting, Morton's voice chimed in like a voice of God, albeit one that audibly sighed a lot, especially when Councilwoman Hillary Freeman floated her ideas for reforming the budget. "I don't understand why we do this last-minute micromanaging of the budget," Morton said about Freeman's failed proposal to transfer $500,000 from IT support to the city's storm drains. There was no council meeting this week, giving one and all a chance to rest their cheeks.

LIBRARY MEETING .. Flying books? Telepathic librarians? Electronic monkeys that read to children? Palo Alto's Library Advisory Commission and Library Director Paula Simpson will be hosting a community meeting next week, asking for suggestions about the future of Palo Alto's libraries. The Thursday, July 8 meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. inside the Mitchell Park Library at 3700 Middlefield Road.

NEW DIRECTOR NAMED . . . The Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula in Menlo Park has named Peter Fortenbaugh as its new executive director. He replaces Jacqueline Glaster, who retired after 14 years. Fortenbaugh has served as the club's operations director the last two years. Glaster will remain involved as a consultant. "I love this organization and have personally invested over a decade of work to nurture its growth as a center for youth development," Glaster said. The club has grown to a $3.7 million annual operation with more than 2,000 members. The gym at the club's Menlo Park facility will be remained for her in a July 22 ceremony.

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