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Kirk Cruikshank (left) of Saratoga School, and Matt Weber, a fourth-grade teacher at Argonaut, listen to panelists discussing the shortage of affordable housing.
The Year in Review 2000
October - December 2000
By Kara Chambers
October
The Mountain Winery contracted with the concert promoter Bill Graham Presents for its concert series. According to winery president, Nancy Bussani, Bill Graham's financial offer was the best, but money was only one of the deciding factors. Most importantly, the promoter would give the winery more control over marketing and operations, as well as the right to choose the artists, Bussani said. The four owners of the winery chose Bill Graham over the nonprofit, Saratoga-based Villa Montalvo, which had managed the winery's summer series for the past four seasons.
In a Sept. 11 ruling that said the West Valley-Mission Community College District had the right to exempt itself from Saratoga's zoning regulations, a superior court judge gave West Valley College in Saratoga the right to develop a football stadium. The decision upset city officials and Saratoga neighbors of the college, since the district had promised the city it would not develop a stadium at West Valley College in the 1960s, when the city approved a use permit for the college. According to the opponents, a stadium would only bring traffic and noise to the city. According to the college district's attorney, any changes to the current track and football field would be modest ones.
Charles Hackett, the owner of the property behind the Saratoga fire station that the district wanted through eminent domain to use as a temporary station while the new one was constructed, filed a motion to delay the eminent domain trial from Nov. 6 to an unspecified time, to determine whether there would be a merger between the SFD and the county department. At issue was the question of whether Hackett's property would be superfluous if the two departments merged, which was what the union firefighters were promoting. A judge denied the motion.
Eight sheriff's officers went undercover at Wildwood Park and arrested 17 people--mostly minors-over two nights--for violations ranging from possession of alcohol and tobacco to urinating in public. The sheriff's were partly responding to an officer-involved shooting at the park, which took place in September, and partly to neighbors' complaints about people hanging out in the park after closing.
The planning commission approved Our Lady of Fatima Villa's proposal for an assisted living facility at its site on Saratoga-Los Gatos Road. The approval allowed Our Lady of Fatima--which was serving only as an 85-bed, nonprofit skilled nursing facility for the elderly--to add assisted-living units to its skilled nursing ones. The proposal entailed demolishing part of the site, adding on to it and renovating it. The reason for the change was the increase in demand for assisted living space in the Saratoga area and a decrease in the need for nursing homes, said CEO and president of Our Lady of Fatima, Preston Wisner. The proposal was supposed to provide a middle step between independent living and a higher level of medical care, Wisner said.
Teachers, parents and Saratoga residents got together for a rally on the teacher housing crisis in the Silicon Valley at Saratoga High School, since skyrocketing housing costs had been driving teachers away. At the rally, three young teachers who teach in Saratoga told of their troubles with housing and then a committee was formed to further study the housing crisis.
The council voted unanimously to support a new lease for the Hakone Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Hakone Gardens, one of the only authentic 16th century Japanese gardens in North America. The gardens are located in the city. The new lease requires the city to fix up the gardens and then turn them over the foundation in good condition.
Gardiner Park on Harleigh Drive in Saratoga was renovated with new playground equipment. The parks and recreation commission funded the project with park development funds.
The community at large chose the site and building design for the new Saratoga Community Library. At meetings with the public, city commissioners and the library's architect, an on-grade parking lot and a one-story structure was settled on.
November
Members of the public began questioning the Saratoga Fire District about its practices and decisions concerning both the eminent domain case the SFD was involved in and the level-of-service study that the district commissioned. A small but vocal group of residents, sympathetic to the union firefighters' wish that the SFD merge with the county fire department, showed up at both an SFD commissioners' meeting and a Saratoga Good Government Group meeting to voice their concerns.
Incumbents Ann Waltonsmith and Stan Bogosian beat newcomer Chuck Page in a three-way race for two council seats in the Nov. 7 election. Bogosian and Waltonsmith, who ran as a slate, garnered a respective 35. 1 and 34.2 percent of the vote. Page finished with 30.6 percent. Measure G sailed to lopsided victory the same night, with 73.6 percent of Saratogans saying they opposed allowing residential developments in the town's commercial zones.
Increasing mail loads, combined with the valleywide problem of employee retention, led to the mail arriving later and later in the day. Saratoga Postmaster Rick Araujo said election propaganda, combined with additional holiday mail, was leading to increased workloads for carriers. Araujo said the Saratoga Post Office was desperate to fill positions, but with uniform postal wages across the country, attracting and retaining workers is especially difficult in the Silicon Valley.
The council, moving forward on its plans for short-term improvements to the city's community and senior centers, approved the purchase of one portable and 5-year leases for two others, to be used by the preschool, the senior center and the community center.
The third draft of the SFD's level-of-service study was released to the district. It made recommendations on how the SFD could be improved and also compared the SFD with Hillsborough, Woodside and Rancho Santa Fe fire departments. It included some statistics on the county department, but made no recommendations on whether or not a contract would be a good idea.
The SFD took out a full-page advertisement in the Saratoga News, which, according to the chief of the county fire department, Douglas Sporleder, demonized the county department and made the department look inept. According to SFD Chief Ernie Kraule, the ad was a chance for the SFD to tell its side of the story.
The Saratoga Public Safety Commission voted 6-0 at its meeting on Nov. 9, to form a task force--at least comprised of members of the public and city of Saratoga representatives--to study the merits of the arguments on both sides of the issue--the union firefighters' side and the SFD administration's side. When three members of the public showed up to speak about their concerns with the SFD at an October council meeting, the council referred the matter to the public safety commission for fact-finding, which placed it on their agenda.
After listening to an hour of testimony on Nov. 9, from residents, firefighters, commissioners and the chiefs from both fire departments, the commission decided that Commissioner Hugh Hexamer would head the task force, figure out who will serve on it and bring the task force's findings back to the commission. At some point, the commission will report back to the council with a recommendation. Still, the city does not have any power over the SFD commission, which controls itself.
The SFD had its day in court on Nov. 13, when a judge ruled that the district had the right to claim eminent domain over a vacant property, located at 20473 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road in back of the fire station, which the district plans to use as a temporary station when the current one is under construction.
The architects for Saratoga's expanded and renovated library unveiled their building and landscape plans at a meeting aimed at gathering public input. The plans added 30,000-square-feet and 165 parking spaces. Groundbreaking for the project, funded by a $15 million bond measure passed in March, was scheduled for August 2001.
December
Members of Saratoga school's transportation task force met to discuss ways to alleviate traffic congestion near the city's schools. While the city pursued the law enforcement angle--approving an increase in the number of sheriff deputies patrolling traffic--Saratoga Union School District Superintendent Mary Gardner worked with the district to reinstate busing and encourage carpooling.
The Saratoga Fire District agreed to ask the chief of the Santa Clara County Fire Department for an estimate of what a contract with the district would cost. Fire district board Chairman Robert Egan said the contract, which union firefighters have been pressing for, would have to ensure a similar level of service as provided by the SFD.
The city council vowed to appeal a county Superior Court ruling that said West Valley College was not subject to the city's authority when it came to land use issues. The ruling, in essence, allowed the community college to proceed with its plans to develop an athletic stadium on campus even though Saratoga's city zoning law prohibits stadiums.
Saratoga's community development Director James Walgren resigned, announcing he was taking a new job as planning director in Los Altos. Walgren, who was hired as an assistant planner in Saratoga right out of college, said the Los Altos job offered him a chance to work in a full-service city, as opposed to Saratoga, which is 99 percent residential.
The Saratoga City Council elected Vice Mayor John Mehaffey as the city's new mayor and Councilman Nick Streit as the new vice mayor. Mehaffey promised to continue working on his 1998 campaign promise to "provide the long-term view" on the council and to encourage citizen participation in city government.
2000: The Year in Review
January - March 2000
April - June 2000
July - September 2000
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
