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Sticking with his plans to devote 2008 to “taking care of business,” Mayor Larry Klein concentrated on Palo Alto’s four priorities in his State of the City address Monday.
Maintaining a “sustainable budget” remains a critical goal, Klein said in his 7:20 p.m. speech, which except for some ad libs was posted simultaneously on Palo Alto Online.
A sustainable budget is achievable if city leaders concentrate on economic development, continue to boost the city’s efficiency and institute a long-talked-about business license tax, such as most other cities have, Klein said.
He then called for support for an $80 million library bond measure and public-safety building, which he said the City Council has decided should be funded through existing or enhanced city revenues.
The 40-year-old police headquarters “is a disaster waiting to happen” and is out-of-compliance with current laws.
“It’s something that’s not a want,” Klein said. “It’s an absolute need.”
Improvements at Mitchell Park, Main and Downtown libraries are also key projects that need public support, Klein said.
Community leaders are ready to launch an “energetic and resourceful” campaign to pass an $80-million bond measure to pay for the library upgrades.
“I hope you will join them and me,” Klein said.
A third council priority, environmental protection to combat climate change, demands the attention of every resident, Klein said.
“We have a moral obligation to lead on this absolutely vital issue,” he said. “All of us need to participate,” he said.
During Earth Month, from March 23 to April 26, Klein said he plans to lead the community by going on a “low-carbon diet” in an effort to reduce the city’s carbon emissions by 10 percent, a higher goal than previously adopted by the council.
“I urge every resident to join us tonight to take that pledge for a cleaner, greener Palo Alto,” Klein said.
Finally, the city is focused on boosting “civic engagement” this year, Klein said.
“I’ve been frankly amazed by the overwhelmingly positive reaction we have received” for adopting that as a city priority, Klein said.
“That may be due to everybody defining it in a different way,” he cautioned.
For Klein, civic engagement centers on community building, with the community taking a leading role.
To help, the city should re-create a Leadership Palo Alto program (a year-long community and leadership course) such as that created in 1987-88 and suspended in 2003 due to budget imbalances after it became Leadership Midpeninsula.
Palo Alto should also consider adopting a 311 phone line, which would be similar to 911 but provide comprehensive information about the city and be a method for receiving feedback.
In addition, the city needs to admit its new Web site is “not a success,” Klein said.
In its place, it needs an interactive site, built with the talents of the community’s many technology whizzes, he said.
The city also needs to encourage citizen involvement aggressively, Klein said.
“So I say, let’s seek them out and value their input,” Klein said.
Klein’s focused remarks won the approval of his colleagues and other Palo Alto leaders, who came to City Hall to take part in a tradition of the mayor giving a State of the City address that Klein began 19 years ago, when he was mayor in 1989.
“I love Larry’s consistency,” Vice Mayor Peter Drekmeier said following the speech. He said Klein said the city was going to focus on four priorities, and he’s sticking with the plan.
“He put things into context — not just where we’ve come from, but also where we’re going,” he said.
Councilman Greg Schmid said Klein’s speech grounded the city’s day-to-day issues into a more comprehensive context.
Councilman Sid Espinosa said by focusing on the four priorities, the speech represented the goals of the entire council, not just Klein’s personal interests — a departure from some addresses that introduced new initiatives.
“I think this year’s mayor was speaking for everybody,” Espinosa said.
Klein clearly laid out challenges facing the city, but also provided steps to address them “in a positive, can-do way,” Councilman Pat Burt said.
Councilman Jack Morton lauded Klein for emphasizing the importance of the library bond measure.
“This is the year of the libraries,” Morton said.
Councilwoman Yoriko Kishimoto said she was looking forward to the community’s “low-carbon diet.”
“Every single resident and (business) owner has to take responsibility,” she said.
Former Mayor Gary Fazzino, who said he has seen each of the 19 State of the City addresses, called Klein’s speech “pragmatic,” an approach Palo Alto mayors have favored during tough times.
Klein said he never expected 19 years ago that he would ever give a second State of the City speech, but he said he fully intends to listen to such a speech 19 years from now, in 2027.
“I expect the mayor will thanks us — for the city’s sound financial footing, the public-safety building and library system, the steps we took to help avoid a global-warming catastrophe and for the ongoing sense of community, which makes us all proud to call ourselves Palo Altans.”
Based on our mayor’s comments, I plan to INCREASE my carbon footprint this coming year.
That sounds very responsible…
Danny–as responsible as our city leaders are spending our money and dealing with city-related issues.
If our city leaders want things from us, they need to reciprocate and start addressing issues of concern. the big increase in greenhouse gasses come from the Larry kleins of the world
I appreciate the Mayor’s speech, it is focused and clear and I agree with most of what he says. I disagree that “. . . Mitchell Park Library is just the wrong size.” We need another branch library in South Palo Alto and an improved Mitchell Park Library, not a huge Mitchell Park Library. I agree with his ideas about climate protection, but we also need water protection. Our abuse, pollution, misplacement, displacement and just mismanagement of water is actually one of the causes of climate change.
As we have polluted the world’s surface water, we are taking water from the ground, from ground water or from wilderness or from watersheds, and we’re moving it where we want it to be (to water big cities that then dump it into the ocean), we don’t return it to the watershed, or we pave over what’s called water-retentive lands, so we don’t have the hydrologic cycle able to fulfill its responsibility and bring water back.
We shouldn’t put all our water eggs in the basket of cleaning up dirty water, instead of conservation, instead of protecting water at its source. It’s now popular to talk about cleaning up water after it’s been polluted. And there’s huge amounts of money to be made. We have to have public control, public transparency and public accountability.
Mayor Klein, please add water protection to your climate protection goal and say no to dense housing in Palo Alto. Say yes to incremental, slow housing growth.
BCF – It isn’t our city leaders that want us to reduce greenhouse gasses, it’s the planet itself and the population. To say you will increase your carbon footprint this year is a slap in the face of the other people who share this world with you as well as the planet itself. You’re thinknig is too narrow — what each of does effects more than just Palo Alto. As someone who wants to see this planet thrive rather than decay and future generations survive rather than suffer, I’d appreciate if you tried to reduce your carbon footprint. My guess, though, is that you don’t care much about the planet’s wellfare or future generations.
Danny–you do have your nerve, I will give you that.
Everyone must be in lockstep with your way of thinking. Your comments are a slap in the face to individual freedoms and thought.
I do care about the planet’s welfare or future generations. However I do not need to be told what to do by self-serving politicians who are only interested in getting their names in newspaper articles. Nor do I need to be lectured by their acolytes.
If Klein and the rest of the city council are serious about this issue, then let them take real steps–ban cars in Palo Alto, get rid of busses, limit electricity usage in the city etc.
Lecturing us to go on a “low-carbon diet” looks really catchy in the newspaper, however it does little to really address the problem. Also it takes away from the council’s supposed role of dealing with city issues.
Much of the global warming emanating from PA, due to hot air from local politicians, could be prevented by gagging our “city leaders”.
BCF – Thanks for the compliment. Having nerve is certainly a lot better than not having it. Seems to me your battle is with politicians and “being told what to do” rather than global warming and the planet’s welfare. Individual freedom is wonderful of course, but not when one person’s individual freedom (smoking cigarettes, for example) leads to pain and suffering for others. The trick is finding the balance between personal freedoms and what’s good for society. You have a “personal freedom” to cheat on your wife (it isn’t against the law), but does that mean it’s the right thing to do? No one can stop you if you want to increase your carbon footprint and cause more damage to an already damaged planet. But I’d be woe to understand the logic behind it — there’s no benefit other than to stick your tongue out at the politicians you so dislike. The benefits for decreasing your carbon footprint, however, are much more tangible.
Global warming is caused by changes in the sun’s activities that lead to increased levels of CO2 being released from the natural environment. CO2 emissions due to human activities ammount to less than 5% of the total, and therefore cannot influence warming.
This is what the most credible climate change scientists claim. However, because of politics and the general scientific ignorance of the society at large, these scienist’s data and conclusions are almost never heard in the media.
Klein and others should focus their efforts on problems that are not beyond their intellectual capacities and that will actually provide some real benefits, like fixing potholes, etc. It is time for them to stop chasing windmills for publicity purposes and start taking care of this city’s business.
Otherwise, I will be voting against the mayor and the current City Council members the next time around. We need some true public servants, not prancing frauds and cheap showmen.