Despite pledging after last month’s policing town hall to discuss reaction to input from the community at the next council meeting, the Los Altos City Council punted the item during its meeting Tuesday (Aug. 25) and rescheduled it for its next meeting Sept. 8.
The town hall drew more than 150 participants and nearly 50 public speakers, most of whom addressed changes they would like to see regarding policing in Los Altos in the wake of the several instances of police brutality nationwide. This week, the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wis., has sparked further unrest and calls for action around the country.
In a city report, City Manager Chris Jordan and Police Chief Andy Galea expressed a willingness to consider actions that some in the community urged the city to take, including eliminating school resource officers, redistributing certain tasks currently assigned to police such as mental health calls to other departments and establishing an independent ethics hotline to investigate complaints against police.
Jordan and Galea said they are reaching out to administrators at local schools to discuss the effectiveness of SROs and alternative methods that might work better. They also suggested surveying parents on the matter.
“The Chief and City Manager would support terminating the program should the results of this input indicate that the community and school administration are not supportive of continuing it,” Jordan and Galea wrote in a joint statement.
The council members, who are expected to provide direction to city staff on the issues, did not take up the item.
Treehouse controversy
Instead, the council spent more than two hours discussing an appeal of the Design Review Commission’s approval of a two-story house on Mount Hamilton Avenue. After a break, they decided not to start a discussion on policing given the late hour, and spent the remaining time debating the merits of whether a treehouse built on Arroyo Road was too big for a play structure and should instead be classified as an accessory structure. The meeting finished well past midnight.
“I’m sure there are many more important things to be speaking about tonight, particularly in light of the pandemic and the issues the city is facing,” said Richard Heley, the resident who built the treehouse.
Fifteen members of the public commented on the structure, with some neighbors complaining about how the treehouse invades their privacy. One neighbor had a slideshow with sketched measurements and pictures taken from a ladder, indicating that he believes the treehouse has a direct line of view into his living room.
The council decided that the treehouse is an accessory structure, and that the residents – who built the structure for their kids – should work to fit it within the city’s regulations for such developments.
Work to be done
In addition to the policing town hall discussion, other items noted on the agenda were delayed to future meetings. An item on preserving open space at the Los Altos Civic Center was pushed back for the second straight meeting. And a face-mask ordinance that has been on the agenda since May was again not discussed, pushed to Sept. 22.
The council has four scheduled meetings remaining before the end of the term, and discussion has yet to finish on a number of other key items, including an updated ADU ordinance, reach codes and the status of the downtown Open Streets program that will expire at the end of September. Prior to Tuesday, the council had not held a meeting since July 14, the longest gap between meetings so far this year. Typically, meetings are held every other week.
Councilwoman Jeannie Bruins, who is termed-out in November, expressed concern during the meeting over the frequent delaying of items and the work that remains prior to the end of the term.
“We’re coming up to the end of terms here and we keep kicking the can down the road,” Bruins said. “I don’t think we’re doing the city’s business at this rate.”
Mayor Jan Pepper, who is also termed-out, responded to Bruins by saying she would try to run tighter meetings.
“I would suggest we try to get the city’s business done by trying to be more concise on comments, speaking once on each item and not interrupting each other constantly,” Pepper said.
