Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 06/22/1998 All articles from this issue

New city manager looks ahead to diverse issues

printer friendly version

By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Town Crier Staff Writer

From the window in his office at city hall, Phil Rose looks out over apricot orchards. Not the usual view from an office window.

But not an unusual view for the new city manager of Los Altos who worked summers as a high school kid picking 'cots in San Jose.

His goals then were to earn an MBA, go to law school and bicycle through Europe.

He's done the first two.

"At this point, I look back and think, 'maybe I should have bicycled through Europe,'" said the 49-year-old who plays serious tennis and enjoys an occasional three- to four-hour bike ride.

In an interview last Thursday, this tall, high-energy fellow with the engaging smile and ready handshake, shared what he sees ahead for Los Altos.

There are issues, "lots of them," he said, and they are "very diverse. That's one of the things that drew me to city government. In business, you have a product. Here there are a lot of products and services."

And he seems energized just talking about them.

First, he mentioned downtown.

The city-owned property at First and Main streets is an entry-point to downtown, and possibly "relates to more parking."

That led him to note "parking in general," as an issue.

Another is "maintaining a diversity of shops" in the downtown. "Maybe there's not much the city can do," he said, "but it must keep thinking about it. I don't want a single-item downtown."

Also, he thinks about "how to maintain downtown facilities, like street lights and the parking plazas. This could be an issue, a desire for a higher level of maintenance. We do a good job with the annual flowers at key locations.

"But I've had merchants tell me about street lights out and not getting replaced. How often should we sweep the parking lots to present the best image we can? There's a host of issues - very detail-oriented."

Second, Rose discussed what he called "the whole basic-service levels issue."

To consider service levels, the council has hired a consultant to look at the public works department, as part of its policy to systematically review city departments.

The review of public works will help people understand service levels, Rose said, by "going through and looking at what we're doing" and suggest areas to "drop out what's not important."

Third, Rose said there are "neighborhood issues." One centers around the current task-force review of the residential design guidelines.

"It's property rights vs. neighborhoods," Rose said. "How to build neighborhoods we like but still allow people to develop their property."

Another neighborhood issue focuses on traffic. "We have a big impact here," he said.

A citizen task force just completed a four-month look at traffic concerns in the city. Its final report, presented to the city council June 23, requested four additional police officers who would be doing traffic enforcement exclusively.

The council will be considering this issue at a study session July 13.

Except for a three-year period as city manager in Placerville, from 1995-1998, Rose has lived in Silicon Valley, the last 18 years in Los Altos.

He earned a bachelor's and master's degree in business administration from San Jose State University. He has a law degree from Lincoln University, but has not practiced law, he said.

He began in city government as a student intern in Mountain View where he worked his way up to be deputy city manager.

He left in 1989, spent some years in commercial real estate, and then took the job in Placerville.

But he kept his house in Los Altos and commuted weekends to his family here, living in an apartment in Placerville.

His wife Patti is a psychologist with the Cupertino Union School District. Their daughter Allison, 21, is a senior at the University of Arizona. Daughter Courtney, 18, just graduated from Mountain View High School.

The folks in Placerville didn't want to lose Rose. Jim Webb, publisher of the local newspaper, said Rose is "an action person and gets along very well with staff and council."