The Los Altos City Council repealed an eleventh-hour emergency action on Dec. 14 that it had passed last month. The emergency action required the city manager to seek council approval before filling any vacant position in the city work force. Now the city has the go-ahead to hire an economic development coordinator - a position local business owners say could revitalize downtown.
"I think an economic coordinator is important for a town of our size in the Bay Area," said Councilwoman Kris Casto. "I don't see how we can get from square one to square two if we don't have (one)."
The council Nov. 22 put a freeze on a list of 17 city positions included in this year's budget, in order to "prioritize things again" after the failure of Measure I, which would have provided additional revenues through an increased utility tax.
That decision left the business community fuming. Interviews to fill the position of economic development coordinator, which has been vacant since October 1997, were underway when the council approved the hiring freeze.
"Sales tax is flat. There's a lot of vacancies downtown," said Penny Lave, a member of the Los Altos Planning Commission. "Businesses can't do it on their own."
Councilman King Lear, who proposed the hiring freeze, said the purpose of the action was to enable the council to look at vacant positions and prioritize which they should fill and which they should not without having to lay off existing employees.
"We're not against business," he said. "Measure I didn't pass. We don't have the money ... what do we do?"
The council reversed its decision after criticism from the business community.
"We should fill all these that were scheduled a year ago," Casto said. "That's what we told voters we were going to do."
The city has budgeted $76,000 for salary benefits and resources for the position that would serve half-time as an economic coordinator and the other half as a management analyst.
The lift on the freeze will enable the city to fill the following positions in addition to economic coordinator: three police officers; two communications officers; recreation supervisor; associate civil engineer; associate planner; three maintenance staff members; two office assistants; fleet facilitator; a child-care aide; and history house museum curator.