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Published on 10/26/1998 All articles from this issue

Candidates, supporters behaving badly

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Editorial

Due to our publication schedule, this editorial was written prior to the election. Election results will be featured in next week's Town Crier.

We're sorry to report that, despite talk of codes of ethics and League of Women Voters monitoring, we have yet to see the smoke clear after yet another contentious campaign for Los Altos Hills town council.

The war of rhetoric over off-road pathways and housing development raged, with two distinct sides, controlled growth vs. easing town bureaucracy, not willing to give any ground. Herein lies the problem: too many involved in this election adopted an "us vs. them" approach and divided the town instead of uniting it.

Supporters of controlled growth, backing candidates Dot Schreiner and Jim Steiner, painted the other candidates, Toni Casey and Steve Finn, as pro-growth conspirators, out to destroy building guidelines, dismantle the planning commission and take apart the pathways system. Casey and Finn supporters described the other candidates as stodgy ruralists, and told tale after tale of intimidated home builders at the mercy of ruthless planning commissioners.

Then there are the candidates themselves. Casey and Finn spent plenty sending out mailer after mailer, allegedly testimonials from home builders who have been wronged by the town. They called for taking the design review process away from the planning commission, a reckless suggestion that, from our point of view, takes away a needed checks-and-balance process. They were also irresponsible in calling for the undergrounding of utilities (which in reality, could cost residents millions - that's some assessment district!).

Casey was far too political in this town election for her own good. She blasted Steiner for a violation of a campaign code of ethics after the League of Women Voters noted Steiner could not factually support his statement that Casey and Finn were for "anything goes" in housing development. But Casey was warned by the state's Fair Political Practices Commission after she admitted to authorizing negative mailers in her 1994 campaign against Barbara Tryon. She spoke about the need for term limits on the council, then put Measure Y, a kind of "faux" term limits initiative, on the ballot, that specifically fits her circumstances: a council member seeking a third term, but not serving more than two consecutive terms. Please.

Finn put his foot in his mouth when, intentional or not, he made age an issue. He suggested to us, and to visitors at a candidates forum that he represented younger career people with families instead of "just retired people."

We appreciated Steiner's honesty and his platform. But he didn't do himself any favors when he used his opening statement time at a candidates' forum to complain about the Los Altos Hills Civic Association, the group sponsoring two such forums this year. He may be justified in calling the association a political action group, but he would have been better off just sticking to the issues, as Schreiner did.

The major town issue of public vs. private streets was hardly addressed during the campaign. Also barely noted were town budgets and capital improvements, water supply and cable television. What happened to these issues?

We hope the two candidates elected to council prove themselves more worthy than was exhibited during the campaign. This "us vs. them" mentality has got to stop.