Saratoga News


Harry Peacock: a lightning rod?	Stan Bogosian: civilized approach	Jim Shaw: fireworks didn't happen

Why is it so quiet at City Hall?

Some credit a new civility and openness

By Sarah Lombardo

A peacefulness has taken over Saratoga's political landscape in recent months. Few, if any, angry letters from residents are waiting in councilmembers' mailboxes at City Hall or on the letters page of the newspaper. By contrast, this time last year the newspaper and council meetings were rife with residents' accusations of a council run amok, overspending, and the doling out of bad advice from the City Manager's office in preparation for the upcoming elections.

After the elections, which saw "change advocates" Jim Shaw and Stan Bogosian seated on the council, and incumbent Councilwoman Ann Marie Burger ousted, some speculated that the campaign fireworks would make their way into City Hall, and politics in Saratoga, not especially known for its peacefulness, would continue to be dramatic.

But it hasn't.

"Our council has been determined to be very civil to one another," Saratoga Mayor Gillian Moran said, expressing sentiments echoed in recent months by Shaw and Bogosian. "I try to go for a minimum of posturing and a maximum of efficiency," she added.

Though some theories surrounding the quiet at City Hall have included the change in the makeup of the council and the firing--by a unanimous vote of the City Council--of former City Manager Harry Peacock, Moran said she chalks it up to an effort on the part of the city to listen to residents, which some complained last year the council never did.

"I think that both the interim city manager and [I] have spent a lot of time engaged in the look-and-listen approach in that we are very careful about learning enough about an issue before deciding on it," Moran said. "Many people have told me they feel listened to."

Interim City Manager Larry Perlin said he credited the budget crisis.

"After the defeat of the utility-users' tax, we were able to assess our financial situation, and I think that tended to pull the community together," Perlin said. "If you think back, it could have been a very divisive task, but in reality it turned out to be a very cooperative, collaborative, team-oriented approach to how we worked through that."

Perlin said the budget hearings also pulled people from different sides of other issues together for a common cause, and now that the budget hearings are over and the budget is adopted, residents are reluctant to go back to a less-than-peaceful political scene.

Vic Monia, who tried to lead an ousting of Peacock in 1991, said he only partially credited the recent calm climate to Peacock's removal and the attentiveness of the council. Instead, he said, the peacefulness can largely be attributed to an election that happened even before last year's council elections: the Measure G election in March 1996.

"What really polarizes groups or neighborhoods? Development in their neighborhood ... when someone is going to be threatened with change in their neighborhood," he said. "Measure G has taken out the land speculators' being able to intensify the land-use for more than it was intended."

Monia said the overwhelming victory of Measure G last year sent a message to developers that it was going to be tougher to build in Saratoga, unless the city's general plan was followed.

"Measure G also sent a signal to those who want to be in a position of authority and power in town that people are not interested in constant change," he said. "But particularly to the development community, it said you cannot get a special change or variance by just obtaining three votes on the council or commission. You're going to have to come directly to [the voters]. And the development community sees this as very hard."

Although Perlin conceded that Measure G's passage and the election of measure supporters Shaw and Bogosian could have quieted those residents pushing for such changes, he said he thought Measure G had very little to do with the calming of City Hall.

"I don't think you can say that between March and November things were quiet and tranquil," Perlin said.

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