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News Briefs
Interim station permit pending
Saratoga Fire District officials said last week they were nearing an agreement with the city on a use permit for a temporary station on the former Contempo Realty property along Highway 9.
The district owns the property and had planned to convert the small existing building there for use while a new station was being constructed at the corner of Saratoga Avenue and Highway 9. The permit for the temporary station was held up in September, along with plans for the new station, by the city council.
As general plans for a new Village public safety center move forward, and the fire district gears up to build a new station within the safety center blueprint, discussions surrounding the temporary station have picked up again.
Fire Chief Ernie Kraule said last week that the Saratoga Community Development Department had backed off a requirement that the temporary facility be seismically retrofitted, a demand Kraule saw as costly.
City is shifting its lobbying efforts
Last week, the city introduced a new grassroots coordinator from the Sacramento lobbying organization, the League of California Cities, to assist Saratoga in communicating local concerns to state representatives.
Rebecca Elliot, who served as the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors' public affairs director for the last five years, will be Saratoga's grassroots coordinator.
Elliot, who will represent governments from San Francisco to Gilroy, said Feb. 20 that the grassroots program is part of a new league initiative to push Sacramento policymakers to leave control of many governmental affairs at a local level.
On the same evening that Elliot was introduced, the three city council members present advocated for an end to the city's contract with legislative consultant Gonsalves & Son, the Sacramento lobbyist firm that worked for the city over the past two years.
Council members said allowing Elliot to handle lobbying efforts might make more economic sense for the city. City officials said Gonsalves & Son charges the city $3,000 per month, while the league has increased annual dues to about $3,400.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
