January 19, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

No average Joe

by Sue Dremann

Look at a high school yearbook picture of newly elected state Sen. Joe Simitian, and one sees a serious, dark haired young man in dark framed spectacles. Or a smiling Joe in a paisley tie sitting on the back of a toy store hippopotamus, flashing a peace sign and promising a "hassle no more!" student government.

At 14, Simitian kicked off his first political campaign for student body president on a platform to reform Palo Alto High School's stringent rules of hair length.

With barely a whisker on his chin, Simitian had the audacity to go before the school board and successfully demand reform -- unprecedented for someone so young, according to former Palo Alto mayor Gary Fazzino, one of Simitian's closest friends.

His ability to stand before authority and get results is emblematic of Simitian's political career. Ambitious, insistent, indefatigable and independent, Simitian's drive and willingness to take an unpopular stand infuriates some colleagues and energizes others.

"When Joe has a project, it happens. He has a demeanor and presence that make it hard to say no to him," Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss said.

Many say Simitian is a driven man, propelled not only by ambition but by the adversity of his young life. He talks little about his past, but it is reflected in his political life.

Simitian had a troubled home life. His parents divorced when he was less than a year old. He lived with his single mom in Massachusetts until the age of 14, when his parents engaged in a bitter custody battle.

The early trauma still reads on his face. His upper lip stiffened and his eyes stared off into the room as he talked about the ordeal.

"I spent 48 hours in juvenile hall in Santa Clara County for a 'status offense' -- my only crime was as a minor caught up in a custody hassle," he said. "That's where they put you when they didn't know what else to do with you, in with kids who were there for burglary and assault. The lawyers seemed to be the ones calling all of the shots."

"Everyone has their adverse side. His adverse side drives him - drives his choices in politics -- that's an important thing," said Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss, who has known Simitian since their days on the Palo Alto school board in 1985.

"(The divorce) was the reason why he was involved in legal reform that benefited kids who had to deal with the impact of divorces. He wanted to create an environment for kids who would have a stable environment," Fazzino said.

Simitian said his mother, a teacher, was paid less because she was a woman, and they both suffered because of the inequity. "One day she couldn't pay the dental bill, so she left teaching and became a computer programmer."

There, inequities again surfaced. "I saw (what it was like for) a woman working in a male-dominated place," he said.

He moved in with his father Saren in 1967, a free thinker and popular social studies teacher at Palo Alto High School. "He spent part of the year with each parent. He tried to make the situation as positive as he could," Fazzino said. "He realized he could make changes in his relationships. He felt he could influence the environment and people around him.

"It characterized his public career and his relationship with his friends."

Simitian admitted his childhood experiences helped determine his future course.

"I think some of those experiences made me realize the power of government. "I had a passion for biographies as a kid. Because we had a modest household at the time, I read a lot. I was reading about the individuals who made a difference," he said.

Hoping to make a difference himself, Simitian has concentrated on such issues as kids, education, housing, elder abuse prevention and the environment.

He has lived in Palo Alto for 37 years, where his home on Rhodes Drive became politics central in his early days. He has seen the city change from a more economically diverse community to one that threatened to eliminate the poor and disabled from its demographic, he said.

As a city councilman, he championed the development of Alma Place, which provided 106 housing units for the very poor by trading land in the foothills for valuable urban property within Palo Alto. It was the first of its kind. He went on to champion a slew of other low-income housing projects for the low-income elderly, homeless and developmentally disabled.

"I was trying to maintain economic opportunity. What to others looks like a housing or land-use issue, to me, it's opportunity," Simitian said. "It goes back to the issue to maintain some level of economic diversity. ...I wanted to make sure other people had the same chances in Palo Alto I had."

He also regards education as "our most valuable tool for economic advancement." As an assemblyman, he got the state to re-appropriate $1.3 million in federal funds to the Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto. And he joined forces with retired state Sen. Byron Sher to fight off the state's siphoning of $220 million from basic-aid school districts.

He also got $40 million to equalize under-funded school districts statewide. Under that law, by 2006-7, every school in the state will be funded at the 90th percentile.

Simitian took full advantage of education himself, receiving a masters degree in International Policy Studies at Stanford, a masters degree in city planning and law degree at Berkeley.

He breezed through law school at Berkeley's Boalt Hall, barely attending classes. His absences were so notorious, "a classmate put a cardboard cut-out of him in his seat," Fazzino said.

Simitian's formal political education began with two stints on the Palo Alto school district board, becoming its president. At 23, he was the youngest person to upset an incumbent for a school board seat.

But his willingness to take unpopular stands soon got him into trouble, nearly derailing his political career when he supported closing Gunn High School.

"It was the most important political lesson of my life. If you have two high schools in one community, you don't close it. You'll get 50 percent of the community angry at you," said Kniss, who served on the school board with Simitian.

"The perception was that he would be the top vote-getter in the 1987 race, but Joe was in trouble. Two absolute unknowns came out of the mist. I think he won by 179 votes," she added.

"I think (it was) one of his darkest times in political life. ...He felt really hurt by the community," Kniss said.

Simitian reflected on the consequences of his risk-taking. "Pretty much everyone's been mad at me," he said. But he has learned not to personalize differences.

Case in point: the Stanford general use permit. In 1992, environmentalists wanted to stave off development in the Stanford foothills. Stanford wanted a 25-year building moratorium, but Simitian pressed for 99 years, prompting some to accuse him of political grandstanding. The university excoriated him for his stand, colleagues said.

Many, in fact, believe the rift between the university and Simitian has yet to heal. At least one person within Stanford is said to have threatened to destroy his political career. Asked to verify the rumor, Simitian grew pensive: "One thing I learned early on. It's not personal, or shouldn't be. ...You learn. Sometimes I keep pushing when I've been well-advised to let it go. Too often people succumb to the temptation to personalize it."

How Simitian built himself into a powerhouse has as much to do with his prowess as a self-promoter as his record.

"Joe's motto is 'do good work and tell people about it.' He always says people won't know unless you tell them about it, and he makes sure people know about it," Kniss said.

Simitian isn't one to pass up a golden political opportunity. Kniss recalled she had worked since 1989 on the council to secure the 77-acre Arastradero property as open space. In 1992, as a council member, Simitian came along and "proposed it as his own idea. He got the five votes she was unable to secure.

"I was so angry, and didn't talk to him for a couple of months," Kniss said. "It didn't occur to him to not take someone else's proposal -- for which I'd been highly criticized -- and use it as his own."

Kniss and Simitian worked out their differences. "We never had the problem again," she said.

"He's able to do outrageous things and people forgive him. People say they won't endorse him, but when he's up for election they have short memories," Kniss added.

But his success isn't based on smoke and mirrors. In four years as a state assemblyman, he got 41 bills signed into law. "He is one of the five or six smartest people in Sacramento," state Controller Steve Westly said.

One key to Simitian's success is his meticulous preparation. He makes sure he is educated on every side of an issue, colleagues said. He demonstrated that thoughtful approach when his staff checked the background of the Weekly's reporter before his interview.

"Joe is more likely to get things signed into law because he works 'bipartisanly.' Some people here are ideologues, but they don't get much done. Joe is someone who's there to fix things and to make a difference," Westly said.

Simitian's bipartisan approach ruffled feathers when he joined forces on stage with Republican Steve Poizner during the contentious November campaign for his old state Assembly seat. Democratic candidate Ira Ruskin was running for the seat at the same time, and many Democrats thought Simitian acted inappropriately, according to Fazzino.

He had endorsed Ruskin, but was drumming up support for changing the school parcel tax law from a 62 percent requirement for passage to 55 percent.

Simitian said he already had Ruskin's support for the new law, but felt he needed legitimate Republican backing if it had a chance to succeed.

"Poizner agreed to support it, he had other Republicans join," Fazzino said.

Simitian also remains at heart a home-town boy. Palo Alto school board president, City Council member, mayor, and county supervisor -- his local history is long.

The close community contact he's built over the years -- his sidewalk office hours, his "there oughta be a law" contest, bumping into constituents at the deli counter in what he called a "very up close and personal level of government," -- have bought Simitian "trust that is increasingly rare," he said.

At the post-election thank you party he and wife Mary Hughes -- a political consultant -- threw for supporters of his senatorial campaign, 500 guests ranging from politicos to people who put up signs in their front yards lunched at the catered buffet, sipping champagne at Lucie Stern Community Center.

Simitian took up the microphone to an impromptu drum roll by a backing jazz band. His eyes shone and he looked relaxed. Mary beamed at his side. "My hope is by the quality of the work I do over the next four years, you'll know how truly grateful I really am," he said.

Retired Palo Alto teachers who stumped for Simitian -- some with canes -- sang his praises.

"He is the most pro-child, pro-education person coming out of this area. He is remarkably innovative and gifted," Diane Rolfe, a teacher for 34 years said. 'I've known lots of politicians. He's a unifier. He gets things done in a polarized world."

E-mail Staff Writer Sue Dremann at sdremann@paweekly.com.

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