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Published on 08/18/1997 All articles from this issue

Four file for 2 Los Altos council seats

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

By the Aug. 13 deadline, four Los Altos residents filed as candidates for the two seats on the city council that will be decided during the Nov. 4 election: King Lear, John Moss, Steven Smiley and incumbent Patricia Williams.

A fifth, Kenneth Wood, took out candidate papers but did not file them. He said he intends to run in the next council election.

Council members Bob Gray and Williams each are completing their first four-year term. Gray is not running for re-election.

Lear, 59, has lived in Los Altos for 26 years, according to his candidate's statement. A 1960 Stanford graduate, he works as an intelligence analyst/engineer with TRW/ESL.

His goals for council include: maintaining existing neighborhood density; cooperating with schools; addressing neighborhood traffic; establishing a fire services oversight committee; and developing a solution for downtown parking, he said in his candidate's statement.

Moss, 55, has lived in Los Altos for 23 years. A 1964 Princeton graduate, he works as a marketing program manager, according to his candidate's statement.

He has just completed two four-year terms on the Los Altos School Board.

He served as president in 1993, "helping a good district become one of the nation's best," he said in his candidate's statement.

Moss said he believes "our city government sometimes seems off the track."

He cites his school board experience as a qualification to lead improvement in the community's interests in education, youth development, personal safety, neighborhood preservation, traffic reduction, fields and parks.

Smiley, 36, has lived in Los Altos for seven years. A 1984 graduate of Eastern Illinois University, he has also earned a master's of business administration and a law degree. He said he plans to take the bar exam in February 1998.

He works as an aerospace engineer with Space Systems/Loral.

He sees three challenges facing the council, he said, in his candidate's statement: the 401 Rosita site, the future of Moffett Field and downtown parking. He cites his "ability to coordinate teamwork" as a skill he would bring to the council.

Williams, 54, the one incumbent in the field of four, served as mayor of Los Altos in 1995-96, while on the city council.

Williams, a business owner, earned a doctorate degree in organizational management in 1977 from the University of Northern Colorado.

Before being elected to council, Williams served on the planning commission from 1987 to 1992.

According to her candidate's statement, Williams will work toward a cooperative effort with the school districts; will work with neighborhoods on traffic calming measures; will support a business environment that provides a vital tax base; and will support "our basic values as a single-family residential city."

The city council has adopted voluntary campaign spending limits of $100 per person to a candidate; and a spending limit per campaign of $12,000.