Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Editorials

The art of persuasion

IT'S HARD TO KNOW what to make of last week's Town Council meeting. Carol Ann Weber read aloud her commentary that appeared the next day in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times. In that piece, she accused Mayor Randy Attaway of telling her that her opposition to Measure C could cost her a reappointment to the Trails and Bikeways Committee.

Was Weber genuinely intimidated and fearful that her continuation on the Trails and Bikeways Committee might result in retribution to the committee? Or was it a grandstand play by those intent on making the battle over the utility-users tax the first volley in the contest for the two council seats that will be up for grabs in the November election?

Egon Jensen, who chaired the successful No on Measure C campaign and who has suggested he will run for one of the two council seats, was in the audience to side with Weber in taking Attaway to task.

Steve Blanton, who opposed his colleagues on the council in his high-profile campaign to defeat Measure C , was quick to suggest "an investigation by the sheriff's department or the district attorney's office."

Was this high drama or melodrama?

And what of Attaway's role? Did he actually say out loud what for most in political life would be an unuttered given--if you don't support me, I won't support you? Did he threaten Weber, as she claims, or did he simply try to convince her to support the utility tax?

It did seem a bit disingenuous of Weber not to mention in her Op/Ed piece that the conversation she had with Attaway took place by phone last fall, before he was appointed mayor. The mayor in a nose-to-nose confrontation with a committee member conjures up a much more intimidating image, one that Weber's Op/Ed piece tacitly suggested.

Certainly, pressure tactics are not the highest expression of the art of democracy. On the other hand, elected officials must be free to express their preferences to appointees and to practice the art of politics and persuasion.

If there really are those in the community who fear they can't speak up, shouldn't the matter be brought to the council for a public airing? And wouldn't that have seemed much less politically motivated than asking the district attorney to investigate?

Speaking with one voice

WITH THE FUR FLYING at last week's council meeting, it is remarkable that all five councilmembers rose above the fray and agreed to sign a letter to the community (opposite page) to underscore the importance of the downtown streetscape plan.

In asking for broad participation in the approval process, the council is saying loud and clear that the revitalization of downtown is critical to the community's vitality.

If there are concerns about the design of the plan, the time to air them is now, at the public workshop and at the public hearing.

The streetscape plan is a blueprint that will allow the project to be completed piecemeal without looking as if it were thrown together haphazardly as money became available.

The council is to be congratulated for standing together for the good of the town.