We have mixed feelings about the recently publicized "success" of conflict resolution efforts that have apparently bridged gaps in communication between Los Altos city staff, planning commissioners and the city council.
On one hand, we're encouraged and relieved to know the animosity between appointed board members and staff that triggered Gloria Bauer's dismissal in 1997 is no longer an issue. Bauer was forced out by the Los Altos City Council after she lost her temper at a meeting over her frustration with the alleged achingly slow process by which staff was providing information to the commission.
On the other hand, we still think, as we did a year ago when the council considered facilitators, that it's unnecessary to spend $6,800 for an outside consultant to solve an in-house management problem. While we understand the need to get a professional who is open-mined and not familiar to the players, we'd like to think there was a less expensive alternative. The city chose to bypass the free-of-charge offerings of the Los Altos Mediation Program to hire the Oakland-based Snider and Associates.
Snider did its job. As a result, city staffers, planning commissioners and city council members are holding quarterly meetings to iron out differences and get a better understanding of where each side is coming from.
In the year since the Bauer firing, we've seen an improvement in communication, first under interim city manager Bill Zaner, and now under new city manager Phil Rose. Too bad neither of these officials were here at the beginning of this conflict management process. With their fresh approaches, perhaps an equally effective, and less expensive, alternative could have been undertaken.