By KATHERINE PETERSEN
The Sunnyvale City Council approved unanimously Sept. 10 a process for selecting members to a community advisory committee to study alternative uses for Moffett Federal Airfield.
Both Sunnyvale and Mountain View, which have collaborated on Moffett issues in the past, will name nine members to the committee. A 19th member will be selected by the Santa Clara County Cities Association.
The council defined categories for five of its nine committee members and will select the remaining four positions at large. The committee will include a small business representative to be chosen by the Chamber of Commerce, a representative from the Alliance for a New Moffett Field, a representative from Communities Organized to Save Moffett Complex, a Sunnyvale City Council member and a representative from a large industrial user of Moffett such as Lockheed or TRW. The council stipulated that all representative must be registered Sunnyvale voters.
"I'm encouraged about the process and am looking forward to seeing some talented community members who are interested, conscientious and willing to give time and energy to looking at alternative uses for the future of Moffett Federal Airfield. Their options will not be limited to proposals in NASA's comprehensive use plan, such as air cargo, but must stay within the facility's current status as a federal facility," said Councilmember Pat Vorreiter.
The committee may discover alternatives that NASA hasn't considered that might be realistic, she said.
While the council majority felt a councilmember should sit on the committee, Vorreiter said the spot on the committee should be filled by a fifth community member, since the council already has the opportunity to review the recommendations made by the committee. The council still has time to make the necessary changes in the committee.
"I felt the committee should be completely community-based and community-generated, but the majority felt that a councilmember should sit on the committee," she said.
The council also decided that all committee meetings will be taped and shown on KSUN, TCI cable channel 18, which could cost between $20,000 and $30,000 depending on the length and number of meetings, said David Vossbrink, Sunnyvale's Community Relations Officer.
"We weighed the cost against the value to educating the community. We wouldn't be encouraging people to participate in viewing the meetings if they weren't taped," Vorreiter said. Sunnyvale is hoping Mountain View will also choose to show the meetings on cable and pick up half the cost.
The council will make the four at-large appointments no later than Nov. 1. Applications for a position on the committee must be submitted by Oct. 4. More information on the applying for the committee cay be obtained by calling the city's Moffett hot line at 737-4900.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, September 18, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.