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Palo Alto Online

Council squabbles leave many unimpressed

by Bill D'Agostino

Pria Graves was a loser in the 2001 Palo Alto City Council election, but she now feels like a winner.

"I'm glad I didn't get elected two years ago," Graves said. "That's the honest truth. I'm really glad I'm not part of that!

"I'm flabbergasted that we seem to be having this problem," Graves said of often-hostile council meetings. "We seem to spend a lot more times calling names and pointing fingers than getting work done."

Like others who follow the council, Graves, a longtime representative of the College Terrace neighborhood, has theories for the breakdown in council behavior. Among her hypotheses is that term limits, approved in 1992, allowed candidates with little experience to get elected.

Many on one side of the Palo Alto-political fence also blame (usually in private, "off the record" conversations) Councilwoman Nancy Lytle for beginning the current downslide in political discourse. A former city planning official, Lytle -- who is up for re-election this year -- is often accused of breaking agreements with other parties and "blindsiding" the council with behind-the-scenes maneuverings.

A prime example was when she tried to place a media center site on the agenda of the joint City-School Liaison Committee that were clearly -- in the minds of school board members -- school issues only. Her insistent efforts to force the matter onto the agenda -- and have supporters show up to talk anyway when it wasn't put on the agenda -- led to a walk-out of school officials, who refused to rejoin the group as long as she was chair, or even a member.

"That just undermines trust and undermines a willingness to work with people on future issues," said Mark Sabin, a former president of the board of the Chamber of Commerce who also ran unsuccessfully for the council in 2001.

"This is one reason why I have a real difficulty supporting Nancy Lytle, even though I think she's real bright and passionate"

But many Lytle supporters believe she has been made a scapegoat for political reasons.

"People who are pointing fingers should clean house themselves," said Karen Kang, a marketing consultant and longtime adviser to Lytle. "Nancy is one of the most principled people I know. Perhaps it's been difficult for her because she hasn't really fought back, because she knows for the most part she's in the right."

It's politics, plain and simple, Kang added. The goal is "to distract people from the issues because Nancy has the backing from the community" when it comes to core issues facing the city.

Several events in recent years have fueled the perception the council does not get along.

The two largest flaps may have been (1) when Councilman Jack Morton wrote a memo in November 2002 accusing five colleagues -- including Lytle -- of violating state open-government laws and (2) when the council was ridiculed in the national press for trying to "legislate body language" -- relating to a set of behavior protocols some attribute to Lytle's actions.

Lytle's supporters say it Morton who acted unethically in accusing Lytle and two council allies Hillary Freeman and Yoriko Kishimoto of "crimes" in his memo, making claims that were eventually rebuffed by the district attorney. The DA did warn that Lytle and others came "dangerously close" to violating the law by meeting in small study groups.

Morton said he has a file of never-released memos criticizing his colleagues on other grounds. "I have a number of them that I've used to console myself after the craziness" that surfaces in the meetings, he said.

When the council began developing a "code of conduct" last year, the goal was to alleviate tension among members. But when an Associated Press story loosely interpreted a verbal example of the non-binding rules and reported that the council was trying to ban "frowning and eye-rolling," the council was ridiculed world-wide.

To help voters get an "unbiased" opinion about potential council members' styles, the Palo Altans for Government Effectiveness (PAGE) group is planning to distribute "report cards" of candidates on such topics as leadership ability, ability to work with colleagues and political courage.

"All too often, you hear people say you should vote on the issues," said Larry Klein, a former mayor who helped form PAGE. "Actually I don't think voters vote that way, and I don't think they should."

Klein admits such an analysis can never be completely unbiased. "Of course they (the grades) are subjective, but so is voting."

But most Palo Altans don't follow the council closely. Brief interviews in mid-September showed that many residents had no knowledge whatever about the primary governing body of the city. The unofficial sampling indicated that the few residents who do think about the council are unhappy with their civic leaders' behavior.

"It's so beneath Palo Alto," said Jamie, a Palo Alto mother -- and voter -- visiting Mitchell Park Library. She declined to give her last name after giving the council a scathing review.

Does she have any opinions on individual council members? "The only one that stands out is Nancy Lytle," she said. "I'm not impressed."

Some council-watchers also believe that, regardless of who gets elected or tossed off, things are not likely to get better anytime soon.

"I'm not overly enthusiastic about the field," Graves said.

E-mail Bill D'Agostino at bdagostino@paweekly.com.