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Published on 08/04/1999 All articles from this issue

Los Altos welcomes new city finance director

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

Starla Jerome-Robinson, the new finance director for the city of Los Altos, likes city government.

"The reason I'm in love with local government is that it's the most responsive level we have," she said.

"If you have an issue, you can come down and talk to somebody. It's difficult for people to even visualize going to Sacramento or Washington, D.C."

Jerome-Robinson, 44, began her new job July 5.

It's a benefit coming to the job "after the adoption of the budget," she said. The city's fiscal year began July 1. Now she has the time to familiarize herself with it "and how the council perceives it," she said.

"For me a budget always identifies a community's priorities," she said. In Los Altos she sees "an emphasis on distribution" of city resources.

For instance, public safety is well supported, and "the police department is intact," she said. She also sees a "recreation department functioning in a way that is valuable to the community."

Jerome-Robinson is no stranger to the wider community. She has lived in Menlo Park since 1982 with her husband and two children, 10 and 8. For the past three years she has been finance director for Atherton.

Her husband, Peter Robinson, a Los Altos Hills native, has a structural engineering company in South San Francisco. Living in Menlo Park has allowed them to split the commute, she said.

Jerome-Robinson earned a bachelor's degree in political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1977, with an emphasis on urban studies. She also studied accounting.

One of the aspects that drew Jerome-Robinson to Los Altos, she said, is it's a city that tries to balance its values. "They honor their past, acknowledging what the area was," she said.

But at the same time, she said, the city works to "improve the quality of life, but not change for the sake of change." The challenge for the city, she said, is to provide "high quality of service with limited resources."

Jerome-Robinson knew her predecessor, Sherry Lambach, who died a year ago at age 54, after more than 30 years with the city. "I can only hope to live up to the legacy she left," Jerome-Robinson said.