Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Gambord calls hiring outside facilitator a frivolous expense

By Jeff Kearns

Monte Sereno Councilmember Joel Gambord, a frequent critic of city spending, has a new target: an independent facilitator the council agreed to hire for its March 21 goal-setting session.

Gambord addressed Mayor Suzanne Jackson during the oral communications portion of the March 10 meeting, reading from a prepared statement: "Gordon [Knight] and I believe that to go forward spending $3,000 of taxpayer money for a facilitator to literally hold our hands at a one-day meeting is a most extravagantly unnecessary expense. We need to stop this nonsense and get down to work," he said.

Councilmembers voted on the matter on Feb. 17, appropriating $3,000 to hire the facilitator. Gambord and Knight both cast nay votes.

Gambord pressed to have the matter reconsidered and placed on the agenda that same night, which is legal only in emergency situations. Because it was an emergency vote, a 4-1 majority would have been necessary to place the item on the agenda, but Jackson and Dorothea Bamford voted not to add the item to the agenda. It will be agendized for the next council meeting.

"I think we discussed this thoroughly last time," Bamford said. "We already went through this, and I don't want to discuss it again."

Gambord said he was wary of the facilitator, Barnett Pearce, after he called Gambord to set up an interview at the councilmember's home. Pearce works with government and business groups nationwide, including the city of Cupertino.

"He came highly recommended," City Manager Gay Strand said.

"I'm uncomfortable with the notion of people coming into my home to ask questions. Why should I submit myself to questioning by strangers?" Gambord said.

Jackson said the interviews were designed for the facilitator to familiarize himself with the participants in the goal-setting session.

Jackson insisted that hiring a facilitator to moderate the discussion is the best thing to do because it would allow all councilmembers to bring out their own ideas, and ensure that some ideas are not suppressed and others pushed forward.

The mayor said she thought the expense was absolutely justified. "City money is there to make sure that city officials are better able to do their jobs," she said. She also criticized Gambord's push to spend $30,000 on new landscaping for City Hall, which she called "a waste of money."

Jackson later said in phone interview that she was concerned that councilmembers discussed the issue of hiring the facilitator, which was not on the agenda for that meeting, instead of whether or not it would be appropriate to add the item to that night's agenda.

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