By Dale Bryant
At times, last week's candidate forum for Town Council hopefuls seemed more like a course in Philosophy IA, with Jan Hutchins reading quotes from famous men on the subject of democracy and college professor Frank Jones quibbling over semantics and questioning the validity of queries from the audience.
Although Jones and Hutchins are perceived to be on opposite poles in this campaign, both hung their hats on "paradigm shifts" as the best way to ensure a sunny future for Los Gatos.
Their differences became apparent when they began to define the kind of changing paradigm each envisions.
Jones wants local government run the way industry leaders run their manufacturing plants. "We need a mindset that we can and will solve problems without continuing to go back and ask for more resources," he said. "That's how they do it in industry."
Hutchins called for participatory government with much more citizen involvement, using the Internet to ease two-way communications. He said the problem with most proposed solutions to government's problems is that you still end up with the same government. He likened it to solving the old problem of bloodletting: When you stay within the same paradigm, he argued, you decide there's a problem with bloodletting, so you cut the size of the bloodletting department, replace the bloodletter or demand accountability from the bloodletters. "In the end, you still have bloodletters," he said.
While the two newcomers talked about paradigms, political veterans Linda Lubeck, the incumbent, and Egon Jensen, who served on the council and as mayor in the 1960s, came to the forum armed with facts and figures.
Lubeck, deflecting the Measure C flack that has dogged her throughout the campaign, rattled off a list of statistics intended to show that the current council has streamlined and spent wisely. Among her statistics: In 1992, when she was first elected to the council, there were 180 town employees, and the operating budget was $12.5 million. In 1996-97, she said, there are 152 employees and an operating budget of $13.7 million.
Underscoring the shift in revenue sources, she said that four years ago, the town received 24 percent (about $3 million) of its revenue from property taxes and 29 percent ($3.75 million) from sales tax; in the 1996-97 projected budget, the town will get 19 percent ($2.6 million) from property taxes and 34 percent ($4.7 million) from sales tax.
She also said that, in 1992, total town expenses, including capital-improvement funds, were $17.5 million, while this year, the same expenses are $17.3 million. Lubeck pointed out that Joint Venture Silicon Valley had presented the town with an award to recognize its successful efforts at streamlining.
Jensen argued that there is much more streamlining that could be done, and he pointed at what he called Los Gatos's "gold-plated, diamond-studded police budget." He claims state records show that in a comparison to 17 California cities with populations of 25,000 to 35,000, Los Gatans ranked fourth highest--with Beverly Hills the highest--in amount per capita for their police budget. He said Los Gatos's police budget is the highest in Northern California for cities of comparable size.
Jensen called the Planning Department cumbersome. "We don't have efficiency or accountability in the Planning Department," he said. And he attacked the town's in-lieu parking plan, which he said collects money from businesses for upkeep rather than funding new parking spaces.
Both Jensen and Jones accused the town of creating a climate unfriendly to business and said that, if elected, they will get rid of some of the regulations that make it difficult for businesses to come to Los Gatos.
"We should make it easier to let people do what they want to do," Jones said in his summation. "We need to simplify regulations and streamline the planning process. That will help business, which will help our tax base."
Lubeck used the forum to clear the air about charges that she and the rest of the council illegally approved the utility tax without a vote of the people. "Our decision to approve a utility tax was based on several appellate court decisions that invalidated Proposition 62. It wasn't until after we'd approved the tax that the state Supreme Court decision validated the proposition."
Utility-tax foe Jensen pointed to the town's sewer system--some of which is 100 years old--as a "catastrophe waiting to happen." It's so bad, he said, that bringing it up to speed might even require a bond issue. Lubeck countered that the town currently is photographing the system to see how bad the problems are.
At one point, Lubeck, responding to Jones' accusation of mismanagement, defended the staff's ability to manage only to have Jones bellow: "I meant the council mismanaged."
When Jensen and Jones criticized the council for reducing library hours and cutting out one ranger, Lubeck said it wasn't the council that made those decisions, but staff.
"At budget time," she said, "all the managers sit down as a team and decide what each department is willing to give up to stay within the budget. The library offered to give up the hours, and the Parks Department offered to give up a ranger."
In the end, candidates all agreed that greater participation by the citizenry was critical for the council to make decisions that reflect how the community really feels.
The forum, which attracted a sprinkling of Los Gatans but fell far short of packing the Council Chambers, was sponsored by the Los Gatos-Saratoga-Monte Sereno branch of the League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 30, 1996.
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