Publication Date: Friday, June 17, 2005
News Digest
News Digest
(June 17, 2005)
Council won't talk about term limits
An evenly split Palo Alto City Council decided not to revisit the two-term limit on councilmembers Monday.
Mayor Jim Burch and Councilmembers Yoriko Kishimoto and Vic Ojakian had proposed in a colleagues' memo that the topic of extending the limit to three terms be put on a future agenda for discussion.
The trio said that term limits "may deprive our city of a continuity and depth of experience valuable in running this complex and vital organization during difficult and demanding times."
Palo Alto residents voted the current limit into place in 1991. Amending the city's charter would require another vote, and Burch was hoping to put it on November's ballot.
Due to term limits, Ojakian and Councilmember Dena Mossar are ineligible to run again this fall. Three other seats are up for grabs.
Councilmember LaDoris Cordell urged the council not to consider the term-limit issue without two other governance questions: reducing the size of the nine-member council and directly electing a mayor. They are all "interrelated," she noted.
Councilmember Bern Beecham also opposed the idea, saying that there didn't appear to be a public outcry for the change. Without popular support, an amendment would be difficult to pass, he noted.
Vice Mayor Judy Kleinberg also considered extending the limit a bad notion. "There's a lot to be said for fresh ideas. The flip side of continuity is stagnation."
But Ojakian recalled the challenges of working on a mostly neophyte council.
"The last time that happened was extremely difficult," he said.
The council ultimately split on whether to consider the item, with Councilmembers Hillary Freeman, Cordell, Kleinberg and Beecham voting no, and Mossar absent. The split vote meant that the motion failed.
An attempt to put the item on the council's consent calendar at a future date -- when Mossar would be back -- also failed.
-- Jocelyn Dong
Superintendent of Ravenswood school district resigns
After only one year, LaDawn Law has resigned from her post as superintendent of the Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto. The Board of Education unanimously accepted her resignation at its regular meeting Wednesday night. Member M.F. Chester Palesoo was absent.
Circumstances surrounding Law's decision are vague, and she could not be reached for comment Thursday. Law's executive assistant Tonya Swearingen, however, said Law will likely finish out the month as head of the district. She said staff have not been told who to report to thereafter, but it could be Assistant Superintendent Maria De La Vega.
Law, 60, was hired as district superintendent one year ago at a starting annual salary of $165,000 with a possible $20,000 increase at the end of her first year. She had planned to focus on improving reading programs and test scores.
Ravenswood serves about 4,500 students in kindergarten through eighth-grades from East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park. Law took over for Floyd Gonella, who had been serving as interim superintendent since 2003 when former head administrator Charlie Mae Knight resigned in a flurry of conflict-of-interest legal battles.
"I wanted to go to a district that has some challenges, and I've worked in urban districts before," Law said when she started the position. "I believe all children can learn. The children in Ravenswood are just as capable as children anywhere else."
-- Alexandria Rocha
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