Los Gatos Weekly-Times The more things change, the more they stay the same By Alastair Dallas The civilized world is not coming to an end. The recent discord on the Monte Sereno City Council, of which I am not qualified to comment, is nothing new. Allow me to remind the gentle reader of some of our shared history. The tale begins in 1906, when capitalist R. P. Doolan arrived from San Francisco. Doolan ran for Los Gatos Town Council in 1908. He lost, despite investing in a huge May Day gala and reaping the associated publicity. He demanded a recount. During these years, the issue was Prohibition, something called "local option," in which voters could proscribe the sale of liquor within the town limits. (Nationwide Prohibition was not the law until 1919.) Many local merchants felt that prohibiting liquor would dry up business. Even though local option passed in July 1906, saloons continued to serve drinks. The council sold three liquor licenses for $1,000 a year each and rejected an effort in 1908 to put their right to sell licenses to a popular vote. (A famous corruption trial was ongoing in San Francisco during these years, just as the impeachment issue enthralls Washington today.) One of the loudest opponents of the actions of the Town Council was a lawyer named Harley Hardinge. Hardinge posted political signs on his house on E. Main Street and hectored the council at every opportunity. In the election of April 11, 1910, voters were asked to choose three of four candidates. Mayor Daniel Page Simons (whose house at the corner of Simons Way and Los Gatos Boulevard still exists) and Councilman F. M. Derrickson stood with newcomers Doolan and George Turner. When the votes were counted, Simons and Turner were elected, but Doolan tied with Derrickson. Fraud was charged. Marshall Shore arrested the Town Clerk at one point, and the matter ended up in Superior Court. Doolan took his seat on May 31, 1910. George Turner was chosen as mayor, and the council gave itself the right to grant liquor licenses in June. Then Mr. Simons died, requiring full attendance by the others for a quorum. After a quarrel in council in April, 1911, both Turner and Doolan refused to attend further meetings. When Doolan returned to San Francisco in August, the newspaper asked "How long will Los Gatos be hampered by the unbridled audacity of two [councilmembers]?" The dispute simmered into 1912, when the issue of building a Town Hall dominated. Attorney Hardinge was opposed, vociferously as usual. In those days, the Town Council met in a simple one-story wood storefront built by former councilman and town founder Herman Sund in 1891, about where the Recreation Dept. is today. In August 1912, Mr. Doolan moved that the town request $10,000 from the voters for a proper Town Hall. Hardinge distributed leaflets charging that the council was acting illegally, but the voters approved the bond in September. The actual land and construction costs totaled almost $12,500. In March 1913, the council resolved to request Doolan's resignation for "neglect of duties," but he defended himself, and his attendance improved. In 1913: PG&E began serving the town; an electric interurban railway connected us with San Jose, and there was not one paved street in town. Three days before Christmas, the first council meeting was held in the new Town Hall. (The hall was located on what is now the library's lawn, and its destruction in 1965 was, of course, controversial.) When Los Gatos was approximately 40 years old, as Monte Sereno is now, another debate divided the council. While the town engineer recommended paving the Almond Grove neighborhood with Portland Cement, the Durite Company of San Jose argued persuasively for its asphalt product. Mayor Green rejected a popular petition for asphalt as being "in defiance of our policy." The result was that the incoming and outgoing mayors--Arch Bell and George Green, respectively--had to stand for a recall election in May 1928. They both won decisively, suggesting that the voters wanted concrete, but the opposition countered with lawsuits and injunctions. In his book The History of Los Gatos, Dr. George Bruntz tells these stories almost as if they were unrelated. The pattern emerged only when I arranged them in chronological order in the course of doing research for a book I'm writing. It seems to me that vocal, strenuous, nearly underhanded opposition to the group in power is not only to be expected from time to time, it strengthens our democratic institutions. John W. Gardner, founder of Common Cause, observed that "History never looks like history when you are living through it. It always looks confusing and messy, and it always feels uncomfortable." Today, Los Gatos establishments serve liquor; we have an award-winning civic center; the streets of Almond Grove are paved with concrete, and Councilman Green went on to serve a total of 20 uninterrupted years. We have some open issues, but many disagreements have been mellowed if not resolved by the passage of time. Few remember the friction and personalities involved in conflicts that once seemed to divide the town. Recent events in Monte Sereno may stir emotions and raise concerns, but they are not new. Alastair Dallas is a student of town history, currently researching Los Gatos Observed, due later in 1999, which will describe the town's architecture, history and points of interest. He can be reached at 395-6767 or adallas@infospect.com. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 20, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.