Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
Eric Brooks, in training to be a dispatcher for the Los Altos Police Department, works in the department's communications center last week. If the proposed utility-user tax increase is approved, some funds will go to having two dispatchers on duty at the same time, which police say would provide needed help during busy times.
Special to the Town Crier
Los Altos to vote on raising utility-user tax next month
Public safety
More 911 dispatchers is at the top of the list for Councilwoman Kris Casto.
That job, she said, "It's tough, it's a struggle, it's 24/7 (24 hours, seven days a week)." Plus, "I want to keep dispatch local."
Right now all 911 calls in the city of Los Altos go through the police department. If it's a fire or medical emergency, the dispatcher has a one-button transfer to county communications, which then dispatches a fire engine or ambulance.
But first the dispatcher must answer the call. At the same time they may need to make an outgoing call - as in the case of the recent suicide call - or answer other lines.
Like a "prowler call," Enberg said. "It's a scary thing to have a prowler in the yard. You keep (the resident) on the line, you keep them apprised - 'there's an officer pulling up,' so they're not startled. We don't let them answer the door until we let them know it's the officer at the door."
Meanwhile, other calls could be coming in of a "fire, burglary or a child choking," Carlton said.
There's also the question of offering relief to the dispatcher. To do that, an officer on patrol comes in off the street to staff 911.
"Where do you want the officer - in the center answering? Or out in the community responding?" Carlton asked.
Councilman Francis La Poll would like "better traffic management than we have now." Currently there are two motorcycle traffic officers, who are funded by a grant. Residents had grown increasingly upset by increased traffic and speedsters screaming down their streets.
The council made traffic calming its top priority. And thanks to a grant, the city was able to add two traffic officers with motorcycles. And they have made a difference.
"I get letters thanking us for slowing down traffic, thank-yous for giving tickets, for giving their kids tickets," Carlton said.
A third motorcycle traffic officer is scheduled to begin soon.
But it all ends Dec. 31, 2000, when the grant runs out for the two and the city funding ends for the third.
Funds from the utility-user tax increase could allow the traffic officers to continue indefinitely.
Maintenance
"People would like a better level of service than we're providing," Becker said. He would like the city to offer better street maintenance, better preventive maintenance for city buildings, better landscaping in street meridians.
"These are things we are not addressing well today because of limited money," he said.
An independent audit of the city's public works department indicated that "we don't meet minimum standards in the areas of street engineering and maintenance," officials said.
Maintenance is a tough sell, though, because with streets and parks, "some (needs) the citizens can see, others you can't see. You can't see the deterioration of the streets from year to year," Rose said.
"We don't want a situation down the line with the citizens saying, 'Why didn't you tell us?'" Rose said.
For street maintenance, "a lot of time it's just cracks in the road. But the worst thing," Rose said, "is the cracking and not sealing." Then water can get under the road and cause potholes.
And people want their potholes fixed.
This year, even with the infusion of capital from county Measure A and B money, the city is able to work on 11 miles of the 120 miles of streets in town. Then, "You've got to maintain what you've put in," Rose said.
Recreation
Audrey Bates and Eric Brooks probably don't consider themselves heroes. But there's one family in town that owes its son's life to them.
Bates, a 911 dispatcher with the Los Altos Police Department, was working on a recent evening, training Brooks, 23, when a suicide call came in.
"Eric kept him on the line," Bates said. The young man "was (driving) on the freeway, on a cell phone. I called San Jose and CHP. He finally agreed to pull over." Through the efforts of Bates and Brooks, help was waiting for him when he did.
Fortunately, the two of them were working together that night. "If you were by yourself, you would have had to put him on hold to answer another call," Bates said, or have had to make outgoing calls to bring help to the possible victim.
With a suicide, "You can't hang up. You might lose them," said Jeanne Shaffer-Enberg, manager of records and communications at the police department.
"I was glad Audrey was here, and I wasn't alone," Brooks said between calls during a recent interview in the communications center.
Usually only one dispatcher is on duty because that's what the city budget funds. Six people work 12-hour shifts, 24 hours, seven days a week.
That worries city staff and council members. "It's a critical issue," said Police Chief Lucy Carlton. "One person cannot handle multiple calls simultaneously."
Mayor Lou Becker calls it the "weak link" in the city's ability to provide for public safety.
But things may change. In November residents will have a chance to vote on whether or not they want a higher level of service from the city.
That's what the proposed increase in the utility-user tax, from 3.5 to 6.25 percent, is all about.
The concept grew from a city process that "began by looking at the things we haven't been doing because we couldn't afford them," said City Manager Phil Rose.
The city staff spent months early in 1999 compiling reports on areas they saw needing more resources. They knew what people were asking for, and they didn't have the resources to provide.
In June the staff compilations went to a 29-member citizen committee that prioritized the list. From there the city council further refined the options.
The result: a proposed increase in the utility-user tax to provide more city services. The cost would be about $100 per household per year and could generate about $1.1 million to add to the city's annual operating income.
This would fund three areas: maintenance, for city buildings, streets and street landscaping; recreation, for facility construction, park land acquisition and an after-school youth program; and public safety, for 911 staffing, traffic officers and traffic engineering.
Parents have been telling the city council for years that Los Altos needs more recreation facilities, especially an indoor gym.
"Per capita, we have one-third the parks as Sunnyvale," La Poll said. He'd like to see a recreation facility.
Casto wants to increase the city's recreation program and its opportunities for youth. She'd also like a skate park in town.
Since the city bought the 5.5-acre former St. William School site at 401 Rosita Ave., some residents have called for an indoor sports facility. But the city does not have the funds to build one there or anywhere else.
The city has done the studies, worked with the citizen focus groups, has concepts and plans. Now it needs the money. Whether it builds a gym at Rosita Park or works with the Los Altos School District to expand the gyms at Blach and Egan junior highs, the money is not there.
"It's no longer a time when the city generates revenue through raising property tax," Rose said.
Increased public safety, maintenance and public safety - "These are the needs of the city," Rose said.
"These things are not icing on the cake," Casto said. "We've chosen to be a residential community, we've chosen not to have any big-box stores (that generate sales tax revenue). I like the ambiance without all the stores. But we have to be partners with our residents," she said.
"A lot of people in town want a higher level of service," La Poll said. And through the vote on the proposed utility-user tax increase, "The public can decide the level of service it wants. It may resolve that we're a low-service city."
Not everyone thinks the proposed tax increase is the way to go. City council candidate Ron Knecht calls it a "reflexive, unnecessary and destructive tax increase. There are no important unmet needs requiring a tax increase," he said.
Council candidate Noah Mesel also opposes the proposed utility-user tax increase. "Tax utilities on luxuries like cell phones," he said, or cable TV. But he does not think residents should pay additional taxes "on basic water, gas and electric and phone services."
He would like the city to "expedite appropriate redevelopment of certain depressed economic areas" in the city, and that would "generate additional tax revenue."
Some see a new hotel in town as a way to generate additional city revenue. And it could. But a hotel on El Camino Real was discussed as a possible revenue generator when the city's utility tax was under consideration in 1986, officials said.
The city council and the citizen blue-ribbon committee consider a utility-user tax increase to be broad-based. It does not place the burden of these services solely on any segment of the community, officials said.
"This tax is pay-as-you-go," Casto said. "It's not borrowing against future generations." And it is reviewed every year.
In July 1988, the utility-use tax was reduced from 3.5 percent to 2.9 percent where it stayed until 1993. Then the full impact of state funds taken from cities was felt, and it was raised again to the 3.5 percent.
A utility-user tax is an effort to establish locally controlled revenue, officials said.
The staff, the citizen committee and the city council have identified areas they think need attention.
"We're trying to tell the citizens these are our high priorities," Rose said.
Now is the chance for the citizens to tell the city what they want.
The city has prepared a brochure that answers "Frequently Asked Questions about Measures H & I," the utility-user tax ballot measures. It is available at city hall.
For more information, call campaign chairman King Lear at 967-8885.