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Published on 06/09/1999 All articles from this issue

Phil Rose blossoms as leader

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Town Crier Staff Writer

City manager begins second year with high praise from peers

City budget: a new process

Probably the biggest effort of Phil's first year has been to reorganize how the city's budget is presented and the way it is reviewed.

The final budget, to be voted on later this month, will include input from city staff, the city council and a blue-ribbon citizen committee. The committee was so named because of the quality and diversity of the 29 residents who applied for it. Mayor Lou Becker was so impressed, he told the council, with the qualifications of the applicants, he appointed all to the committee. This is a first to have these three groups - staff, council, citizens - participate, to this degree, in the budget preparation.

For several months Rose has worked with city department heads to create three documents: a presentation of current income and expenses with a "status quo" budget for 1999-00 and 2000-01; a booklet outlining "alternative service levels," areas where new staff could provide more city services; and a five-year look at proposed capital improvements.

"I'm quite impressed with the new process he did with getting department heads involved," Moss said.

Rose said, "one of the things I'm trying to do is get department heads to review each other's budgets and consider them in a city-wide perspective."

The resulting three-document product included the city staff's "best estimate of what needs to be done in the community," Rose said.

Then the council spent three study sessions reviewing the documents, "going page by page," Casto said. They prioritized the capital projects, additional staffing options and weeded out "non-starter" ideas.

From there, the documents went to a 29-member citizen blue-ribbon committee, which held its first meeting May 27.

The documents were "the best I've ever seen in Los Altos," said Bob Grimm, chairman of the blue ribbon committee and a retired Hewlett-Packard Company executive.

He described the booklets as "thorough. It takes a lot of work to have a lot of department heads give input and for it to be cohesive," he said. Grimm said he can see the capitol improvement booklet being used "year after year."

Councilman La Poll said the budget documents are "user friendly" with a "description of the project and alternative funding sources. It is useful, too, for us to prioritize and be able to budget," he said.

Staff review: a new step

Just as Rose has expanded involvement in the city's budget process, he is also enlarging staff input for performance evaluation to include "two levels of review," he said.

Currently, a staff person sets objectives and has them reviewed by the person's manager. Rose will be adding a another step of review, "so there is a common understanding and a fit within the overall goals of the organization," Rose said.

With this additional step, the manager's supervisor will also "sign off" on the goals and objectives.

Rose said he sees this as a way for city staff to develop within the organization.

It's also a way of "more closely relating an individual's goals and objectives with the organization's goals and objectives," Rose said.

This new process will create "a common understanding between three levels," Rose said, instead of two, as before.

City issues: a new year

People are talking. And it's all good. As Phil Rose begins his second year this week as city manager of Los Altos, council members are crowing.

"We continue to be glad we found Phil," said Mayor pro tem John Moss. "He's a team builder," said Mayor Lou Becker.

"I have only positive thoughts about Phil's performance," said Councilman Francis La Poll. "He's open and approachable," said Councilwoman Kris Casto.

"I felt good about it then," said Councilman King Lear of the council decision a year ago to hire Rose. "I feel great about it now."

Rose agrees it's "a great fit" for him in Los Altos. The city is "not too big, not too small, but small enough to get to know people."

And he has.

"He's out in the community meeting people," Lear said. "He answers his own phone."

Last July at the Los Altos Arts & Wine Festival, Rose and his wife Patti volunteered and staffed a booth with Casto. "Patti and I knew so many people, and we could introduce them to Phil," Casto said.

The reason Patti knew so many more people than Phil is that, although the couple has lived in Los Altos for 19 years, Phil was working in city government in Mountain View where he moved up to be deputy city manager. He left in 1989 for some experience in commercial real estate. Then for three years he was city manager of Placerville.

During that time, Phil lived in an apartment in Placerville during the week and drove home to Los Altos for weekends. "There was never any continuity" in their lives, Patti said, during this time. He and Patti followed daughter Courtney's volleyball games and "it was pretty hectic," Phil said.

In a way, the move to city manager in Los Altos was a coming home.

"One of the reasons we've lived in Los Altos so long is it was important to me to have a family life balanced against my career," Phil said.

He and Patti have two daughters, Allyson, 22, and Courtney, 19, who grew up going through Los Altos schools. Patti is a school psychologist with the Cupertino Union School District, a job she has had since 1989. Before that she worked for the San Jose Unified School District. The Roses have had compelling reasons to stay put. Over the years, they have put down roots in Los Altos.

"Some say city managers are nomads," Phil said, "and it affects their family. I'm not interested in having that lifestyle. It's important to have a good family life."

In their living room, a crystal Waterford cache-pot shares pride-of-place on the coffee table with a fabric-covered photo album, titled "Italy" in patchwork letters.

The Roses love Italy. Their daughters made the album for them after a trip there two years ago.

City council members loved it that the Roses already lived in Los Altos, that they were longtime residents. This is where they "chose to live," Casto said, not just because Phil's job brought him here.

A year ago, when he first began in Los Altos, Rose cited several issues facing the city: downtown, including "parking in general," as well as maintaining a "diversity of shops."

He talked of city hall service levels and staffing and of neighborhood issues, like residential design guidelines and traffic.

Now, "Those issues are all still important," he said. "Parking is always an issue in a successful downtown."

And some of those issues have become more specific, "as I've gotten into the job." He mentioned traffic engineering and communications.

But looking ahead, he sees other items coming to the foreground, such as "joint use of school sites," especially regarding ball fields. "How much can we afford?" He said the new budget process is a way for city direction on that issue.

Rose said he wants the city "to be customer oriented."

But growing activities create competing forces for staff time.

"We have a high activity in building and planning," he said, "and we need to provide customer service at the same time - we have limited staff to deal with that." Rose said he has submitted a proposal to the council regarding a new position.

"The council is considering it," he said.

Another challenge on the horizon is development of the city-owned downtown corner at First and Main streets, Rose said. City staff will be reviewing the eight proposals for the corner.

Reflecting on his first year, it's been "great," he said. "It's been everything I've expected it to be. I'm enjoying my job."

And people are enjoying Rose.

"He's open," Grimm said. "That's so important in government. People get nervous if things are decided behind closed doors."

Becker said Rose is good at "bringing people together without letting division take place."

Becker's one-word description of Rose is "fairness, a very commendable trait. He has so many people to satisfy - people applying for a permit, who want it yesterday; the staff and the council. He keeps things focused on the objective, a subtle skill," Becker said.

Casto said it "takes a special person to do public service and walk through it with grace."

She said Phil Rose does just that.