You must be joking.

Mitchell Park and Main Library still unfinished.

Baylands Interpretive Center and Boardwalk closed due to poor state of repair.

Why?

Whoa, whoa. If this is for the public, hold half the meetings on the other side of town because in case you hadn't noticed, it's a nightmare getting to meetings in cross-town traffic.

During the Maybell rezoning, they gave themselves $2 million for this cosmetic surgery and change. Now it's another $2 million?

What of the import of affordable housing that Council said we so desperately needed when the project at issue was really a developer residential zoning busting on over half the property, but now that they could save the real housing of over 400 existing Palo Altans in the same neighborhood, it's all, Let them eat cake?

What of the priority of the safety building, which they said we needed so badly, they were going to let Jay Paul shoehorn in how many hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space on a property already built to the max under law? Oh, that's right, we're so broke, they gave us a tax proposal we can vote on. In the meantime, it's new drapes and a golf course and fake outreach with expensive consultants! (don't get me wrong, I think we should improve the golf course, but it's the kind if thing you first do a drive for corporate sponsorship over).

If they want us to feel more welcome, tools to allow better democratic participation remotely and in real time are far more needed. After all, to many of us, the Council chambers are quite opulent compared to the old fixers more of us live in than the places that make Chambers seem in need of a facelift. I'm guessing that's most of this Let Them Eat Cake Council.

Most of us would feel more welcome if they would actually listen rather than making so much effort to just give the appearance of it. (See Doug Moran's blog and his great posts on this topic.) That they could do for free.

It would be great if the City Auditor would take on the project of verifying that the bids accecpted by the City for all of this construction were actually well-crafted bids.

This whole idea of low-balling the bid process, then driving up the costs with unexpected change orders that could have been detected by top notch plan checking, but wasn't due to any number of The-City-knows-best reasons.

Even if the City Auditor had to outsource the work, it really needs to be done. There is far too much money on the table, and clearly far too little management in the Tower.

First things first!! And FIRST things are the Baylands disintegrating boardwalk and the decrepit Interpretive Center. Please. And please do it now.

Renovated City Hall brought to you by the same folks that are responsible for:

The Still Unexplained Mitchell Park Fiasco
The Four Year and Counting Disappearance of the El Camino Softball/Soccer Complex (taken out of commission to use as dirt pile).

Why doesn't our City ever talk about the management of these projects????

Don't forget the golf course dirt fiasco. That one is costing us $100K per month and no end it sight.

$4.5 million renovation of City Hall,...> For starters.
When has the city ever lived up to its estimates?

The Council Chambers was redesigned at the behest of then Councilwoman Kniss. The light color impractical carpets was her choice. Curious whether she is also influential in the current EXPENSIVE makeover. Our own Martha Stewart has lavish and expensive tastes.
Council Chambers is fine, just needs improved public's microphone.

So we have affordable housing in the guise of a mobile home park, but it's being bulldozed because the residents there need a few more million to be able to buy it from the owner. And the baylands infrastructure is falling apart. And lots of other pressing issues, but NO! Millions need to be spent on upgrading city hall! THAT's what's more important!

We need a city council who can prioritize things better than this one does!

@ IPO,

I got even more PO'd when I realized the City co-owns a luxury home with our former City manager, someone who doesn't even work for the City anymore, and sees that as a worthwhile expense, but not co-owning a multi-acre community of low-income Palo Altans.

There's always money for what they want but never any money when it comes to priorities of the people.

The Council and staff are on their own power trip. Unmet needs important
to the character and livability of the City and neighborhoods are ignored and the Council spends money on its own projects and then congratulates itself for good government. The Nov elections are approaching.

This City Council has tin ears. Rearranging the deck chairs before they are voted out of office.

$4.5M when we still don't have a new police station? What are they thinking? They are thinking that no one would ever vote for a bond or tax hike for redoing city hall but they will for a police station. We need new council members!

This is just another Jim Keene project to make him feel more like a tech CEO with a new cool space to hold secret meetings with developers. He already spent a fortune on redecorating the 7th floor of city hall, took a big raise for himself and accepted another $50,000 in his 401k this year all while he continues to make cuts in police officer staffing and salaries. What a waste of money as crime continues to grow in our neighborhoods. Transparency is open meetings and inclusion not glass conference rooms with the doors still closed to the public.

Are these people on a SPEND OPM kick?

City Hall is NOT falling down around their ears (that don't even listen).

If City Hall is crowded, it is because of bureaucratic bloat. The city limits are stable. Have been for decades.

Finish the ongoing projects. Repair the infrastructure that has been ignored/postponed too long.

3-5-12 Price tag was $1.289M Web Link

5-14-13 "During the initial project meetings with WMB, it became apparent that the first floor renovation would need to be even broader in scope to achieve a more open government atmosphere to encourage public participation and convey transparency."
Web Link

What a crock! I guess they think glass walls is what the law means by transparency. They better read the Grand Jury report again. Web Link

Can the Council 2014.

The Planning Dept too.

[Post removed.]

Any idea when the two libraries will be finished? I want a tax rebate for denial of services.

Any idea when the traffic light study of the timing of the light at Paly and Town & Country will be done? It's only been 8.5 years. No need to rush. The exhaust fumes are oh-so-green.

And we really need to give a bonus to the Transportation Dept. genius who came up with the sign "New Traffic Pattern" at the Middlefield/Oregon intersection.

The city council and the planning commission have their priorities totally screwed up! [Portion removed.]

4.5mm but only 2.7mm in construction? Does not make sense

I'd say a management "makeover" is in order.

"...with a digital media art display on a large wall..."

Ga-ga over gew-gaws again.

There's nothing wrong with the existing facilities. In fact they are quite nice. Change some lighting, buy some flowers... otherwise this is a huge waste of taxpayer $$$!

City manager, Keene, thinks that Palo Alto City Hall was built at the very worst time in Palo Alto's history.....NO, the worst time in history for the city of Palo Alto is now, with a totally incompetent city manager, planning department and city council. Vote the bums out in November! Keene and the Planning Department need to be fired, too. It's time for the citizens of Palo Alto to demand a clean sweep at city hall.

Just what the City of Palo Alto needs, a "...renovation of the lobby, with a digital media art display on a large wall near a new glass-walled meeting room." Yes, definitely, can't get along without that!!!

So glad I don't live in Palo Alto! If I lived there, I would be camped out on the City Hall steps, protesting this wasteful, frivilous upgrade.

This does not speak at all well of the City. Again, so glad I don't live in Palo Alto!!!

TO PALO ALTO RESIDENTS: THIS IS YOUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS YOUR CITY FATHERS ARE WASTING. WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?!? PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!

It's time to clean house and install true representatives. The sole purpose of these public servants is to be good stewards of our Palo Alto, with "responsible overseeing and protection of what's considered worth caring for and preserving" .... and certainly not masking it to appear that way. As importantly, the unfocused leadership needs to find their way back when making such grandiose decisions, especially when not adhering to the essence of preserving the unique character of this town, taking us further off course towards what they think is being done in all other typical big cities. We don't need big thinkers....bigger hasn't necessarily been better in our case (look at zoning and its unwelcomed creations). To take back our city, it requires sensible leadership, capable of acknowledging our past to better formulate the future regarding 'modernizing' of this unique and priceless community. Our city is unlike any other on the map, so why wouldn't it require unique attention for solutions. It's out of control with each misfit decision paving the way for the next one, making it even more difficult to get back on track. Hopefully, residents will recognize the long term consequences and come around to change that in November!

I hate to rain on your parade, but Main Library is still on schedule. It had an 18 month time frame and only 12 months have passed. The landscaping between the library and art center has been completed before the Clay and Glass Festival. The Children's Library was finished on time and on budget. I can't say about the Downtown and College Terrace libraries, but I didn't hear anything negative about them.

@Judith,
Maybe you need to read the article, you seem to be commenting on something else. The outrage above is mostly in regards to this Let Them Eat Cake City Council's priorites for spending, in particular, the ever increasing millions they want to spend on making City Hall even nicer, when the Baylands Interpretive Center is falling apart, etc. Per your points, the Children's library renovation, for example, came from a budget many years ago long before this Council. (And didnt we citizens tax ourselves extra to pay for that with a special measure?)

I fully support a different and resident-centered city council this November.
While I agree with most of the comments above about misplaced priorities,
if such money is spent for the sake of transparency and inclusion, I'd like to see these improvements:

A real-time comments board (large enough to read) on the wall in the city council chambers so citizens (present and remote) can participate during council meetings. It would be interesting if these could be mapped.

and

Seating flexibility with ergonomic design (and electric plugs) so the public is not physically punished with back pain for attending city council meetings, and can get some work done while waiting for an item to emerge from the agenda...

While they're at it, why not replace that 1920s-era timer on the lectern with something more befitting the "head/heart/soul of silicon valley" and actually informative?

As a former City employee, I think the City Hall lobby and council chambers are perfectly adequate. Sure, as others have said the council chambers could use some audio/visual equipment upgrades but certainly not a wholesale makeover. I suspect the main purpose of this project is to satisfy the City Manager's ego.

No Prevailing Wage requirement again?! This ought to be lovely. The city only received one bid. We're just attracting the best contractors by not requiring it......Right?