New council member: Fred Hawkes

Heritage commissioner is chosen from field of nine

By Nathan R. Huff

The Monte Sereno City Council welcomed heritage commissioner Fred Hawkes into the fold on April 13, appointing him to the council seat vacated by Joel Gambord. Hawkes was selected from nine candidates, and will serve the seven months remaining in Gambord's term. He can then run for re-election in November.

The appointment of Monte Sereno's newest council member--a process everyone expected to be as much fun as having teeth pulled--ended up being fairly uneventful. Hawkes, a former small business owner and engineer, was the clear winner, despite what all council members acknowledged was a strong field of hopefuls.

"I'm delighted at the opportunity to serve," the 27-year resident of Monte Sereno said following his appointment. "With such an impressive slate of candidates, it's very humbling." Hawkes replaces Gambord, who left the council three-and-a half years into his first term to move to the Monterey Bay area.

The council let each candidate give a short speech before grilling the applicants with a set of five questions. Council members then ranked each of the seven candidates who showed up for the interviews on a one to five scale for their answers to each of the questions.

Out of a possible 100 total points, Hawkes received 92.1, 15 more than the second runner-up, former open space committee member John M. Cummins. Kyle Lanza, a 1996 council candidate, finished a close third and Dr. Mac Marland rounded out the top four. A number of the applicants indicated that they intend to run for the two or three open seats in the coming election, a preview of what will be a major council shake-up in November.

Candidates were asked what they felt the three most important issues were in Monte Sereno, what they would do if the city received an unexpected windfall, one thing they hoped to accomplish over the next seven months, what their greatest strengths were and how Monte Sereno should protect its rural character.

Most applicants said they wanted to see the city continue on its current path. Hawkes offered a unique answer to the question of maintaining rural character, saying, "I'm not sure [Monte Sereno] has a rural character anymore."

Hawkes, who pushed council members to reconsider the city's relatively powerless historic preservation code at the April 4 council meeting, said he also hoped to see a dialogue on open-space issues in Monte Sereno. A recent attempt to establish a permanent open-space committee and a list of possible public open-space sites went down in flames, as residents packed council chambers to argue such a list would lower property values.

"I'm intrigued by the open-space idea," Hawkes said during his questioning. "I feel the issue needs to be discussed in a more dispassionate way."

Hawkes, a grandfather of two Daves Avenue Elementary School students, said he ended up in Monte Sereno by accident. He and his wife were looking for a high school with "the least dope problem" for their two sons. They settled on Los Gatos High, and have been in the area ever since.

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