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Published on 11/02/1998 All articles from this issue

Meet the new Los Altos mayor: Lou Becker scheduled to become new LA mayor

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Town Crier Staff Writer

The word "courteous" keeps coming up when people describe Los Altos City Councilman Lou Becker.

"He's direct, to the point," said fellow councilman King Lear. "But he remains friendly and courteous."

Mayor Kris Casto agrees.

"He listens, he works hard. And the amount of courtesy and respect he shows," Casto said.

Becker, a councilman since 1995, was scheduled to become mayor of Los Altos at the city council meeting last night.

"We have a team," Becker said in an interview last week at his home. "It's not a one-man government."

He said he likes the idea of the one-year term for mayor because it "makes you restart." And he believes one year can made a difference, "if you have a cohesive council."

He believes Los Altos has such a council.

Becker, 64, was born and grew up in Iowa, where his father was a carpenter. He earned degrees from the University of Iowa. Not long after he married Elizabeth 37 years ago, they moved to Los Altos in 1964. They have one son, Steve, 29.

Becker is "the kind of guy who's really serious about quality of life issues," said councilman John Moss. "He wants Los Altos to remain a wonderful place to live and to make it better."

In 1976 Becker and a partner founded a company that he sold in 1997. He remains with the firm as vice president and general manager of Vertex Antenna Systems and as vice president of operations for another company that is part of Vertex.

"He will be a good mayor," Moss said, "using his many years of business management skills on behalf of the city."

Becker sees several issues facing the council in the year ahead.

First is "working something out with the schools regarding recreation." He calls it "the gymnasium issue, an issue we need to make some progress in."

Also on his list is a next step with the city-owned 401 Rosita property, which he calls "a fields question. We don't have the money to develop it as we want. But we do have the money for open spaces and soccer fields."

Becker said he's "very impressed" with the outside-consultant review of the public works department and "would like to do an independent review of another department." Maybe the planning department, he said, considering questions like "Is it properly staffed? Is it properly organized?"

Another task for the council is to "bring the vision and the general plan" together, he said.

Last week Becker attended the first joint meeting with Mountain View regarding day workers and how to help them find their way to the day worker center so they are not hanging out on the streets. He said this issue "needs a lot of effort."

Becker would also like to see the city make progress in its use of technology; and he sees the council dealing with the review of the residential design guidelines once the task force completes its work and makes recommendations.

"How difficult that problem is," he said. "You don't want to stop remodels. Without them a neighborhood goes down." But he knows first hand about issues of compatibility and how some remodels or construction just don't fit.

It happened to him and to his street in the early 1990s.

Plans were coming that neighbors didn't like. "The process was not particularly open to the neighborhood," Becker said. "We had a hard time getting through to people. But eventually we had quite an impact."

And that's how he came to run for city council in 1995. Before then he had never been involved in city government. But after his neighborhood's experience, "people began asking me to run."

He did. And when his term as mayor is up in a year, so is his first four-year term on the council.

He isn't sure if he will run again.

"I enjoy doing the work. I've seen rewards. But I have to ask myself if I have the time."

For now, this gentleman known for his courtesy is ready to be mayor.

"I don't have stress management," he said. "I don't need it. You work better if you just relax and work."

And he will.