Stan Mok was appointed mayor of Los Altos Hills at the Dec. 14 council meeting. Mok was elected to the council in 2020 and served as vice mayor in 2023. The following is a question-and-answer interview with the Town Crier.
Q: Tell us a little about yourself – how many years have you lived in Los Altos Hills. What brought you to town?What made you decide to volunteer for the city and ultimately run for council?
A:I was born in Carmel to a Chinese immigrant family. My parents were part of a group of pioneers in the early 1980’s Bay Area chrysanthemum flower growing industry. America at that time was known to Chinese immigrants as the mountain of gold.
As my parents worked long hours under difficult situations, they set the stage for my most basic life lessons. In my most formative years, one lesson learned was that a good education was necessary to get ahead in “Gold Mountain.”Another lesson was to learn to love your work whatever it might turn out to be, and lastly to always do right by others.
My parents bought a home in Milpitas around the early 1970s. At that time, there was a term called redlining, where Chinese were not able to buy a house anywhere in town. The schools were different back in the ‘70s, as college prep was not considered a necessity by many folks in redlined neighborhoods.
I made a decision to move to Los Altos Hills because I believed that the school system stood out as exceptional and that the system was going to serve my children well. I wanted to provide my future generations independence through a good educational system.
LAH has given me so much through the years, I was grateful to the town for being the incredible place that it has been. It was my turn to give back to LAH with whatever skills and experience I had developed through the years. Those skills included financial analysis and portfolio investment management for wealthy individuals in my own boutique firm for the past 27 years.
My volunteer time included time served on the Finance and Investment Committee for thirteen years preceding the pandemic. My specialty was retirement plans and my efforts were instrumental in helping to fund LAH’s CalPERS obligations.
Q: What do you see as the current state of the town – what’s the good, and not-so-good news?
A:LAH is in a financially favorable position. Our fixed obligation in CalPERS retirement funding is around 85 percent. Our other post-employment benefits (OPEB) accounts are fully funded. In spite of extra monies spent on law enforcement, security patrols, and land use consultants our deficit this year will be acceptable. LAH maintains balances on its accounts which will generate higher interest income to the city than in the last 15 years. Great news.
Our roads are in excellent condition and our fire evacuation routes have been improved. We survived 13 atmospheric storms and overcame blackouts and flooding. This is exceptional news.
LAH is working to reduce its carbon footprint. The LAH electric fleet has grown, as well as the number of charging stations. Heat pumps will shortly heat and cool our city chambers. Electric battery backup systems are being installed and should be fully functional shortly. The entirety of LAH city hall will be converted to heat pumps at some point shortly.As a city, LAH is doing its part in reducing its carbon footprint.
We are working on high-speed internet access and have had success in several areas. Alternatives have been reviewed for the more remote areas. This is work in progress.
The housing element, although certified, needs to be reviewed on an ongoing basis to monitor progress in meeting our state mandates. Progress has been acceptable thus far.
The bad is that the status quo in town has changed. Staff who have been with us for a long time have decided to retire or move on to other cities. Our former staff were the forward face of LAH for many years and we will sorely miss those who have left us.
LAH has welcomed several new staff members and the city is currently fully staffed with the exception of one shared staff member. This is an opportunity to welcome new perspectives.
Q: What do you see as the city’s top 3 priorities this year?
A. Emergency response safety for our residents.This includes law enforcement, fire, storm, and earthquake responses. We are reviewing what technology can do to help us with disaster recovery. This includes technology drones and sensors.
Security against burglaries and robberies: We must secure ourselves against the rise in criminal activities.
Monitoring and adjusting to the mandated housing laws will be both challenging and rewarding. LAH must be on top of all the issues to shape our town going forward.
Q: How do you see your role as mayor?
A:After three years on council, I have a good understanding on how things work.
I believe that improving processes in our city will make LAH an ideal place to raise a family, to have a retirement, and a great place to live.
Mayors may dictate to constituents what they want or they may take input from all parties involved and lead according to what consensus is. I will lead by listening to each side, finding consensus, making the required decision, and then following through.
My emphasis is on community building. LAH is a small community, with large lots, and the opportunities to get together to know each other as neighbors is of great importance to me.The Parks and Recreation Committee has its hands full with bimonthly events.
Q: Resident safety seemed to be a major issue last year with the increase in burglaries. Do you think the town can do more to make residents feel safer?
A:Absolutely. The town has significantly increased its budget for additional law enforcement.This increase is in addition to adding security patrols and automated license plate readers (ALPRs). We have also added detectives and a successful neighborhood watch program. New technology will help.LAH is more of a town than a city, and we are all working on this issue together.
Q: How do you feel about the current relationships between the council, staff, committees and residents?
A:The council has respect for each other and have treated each other with civility. I am truly amazed at the work that we get done. And yes, councilmembers are volunteers as well.
LAH is now fully staffed. Since some are new, we are learning to collaboratively work with each other. For those staffers who have been with LAH for a while, thank you for your hard work. LAH is making headway with staff, council, and residents as we all seek to be in line with each other. Just to be clear, LAH needs also to be aware of workloads and not unduly tax our staffers.
We need to get to a point where all volunteers feel that their contributions are noteworthy, whether in time or money. The opportunity to give back to your community is well worth the time and effort.Friendships develop, things get done, and a sense of elevated self-worth and happiness may be in one’s future if volunteering is in the cards for our residents. To be clear, the more you give, the more you receive back in return.
Staff and council are working to be in tune with committees. We are working on this, and this too is a process.Both staff and council must come to consensus. Coming out of the pandemic, the town has nearly doubled its building permits. More building permits is great for the town, but the workload has increased.There are many opportunities to improve communications and reduce staff stress in spite of higher workloads.
Q: What is your position on the state housing mandates?
A:Out of the 900 new laws passed last year, there have been 59 new housing laws. That is far too many, leaving local control diminished and city councils across the state powerless to help solve individual city problems. Many of these new laws have been imposed on smaller towns, and should not have been since once size does not fit all.LAH has its unique set of housing issues, different from other cities.LAH should be able to address our own issues.
Just to be clear, many of these new state mandates are not funded.If the federal government would pay for some of the affordable housing, we would be better off. If the state would offer tax incentives for the buildout of infrastructure in redevelopment areas, we would be better off. If there is the option for individual investors to invest in special economic redevelopment zones, cities would not have to borrow money to build affordable housing.
The housing issue is really not about providing housing, it’s about providing affordable housing.California will lose younger residents to other states if this problem is not solved.
If California does not provide affordable housing, it will lose population. If we lose population, the tax base becomes smaller and austerity measures will need to be instituted.
Some have argued that universal income could be a solution for some.This may be the case since oftentimes a small amount of money would make a difference between going cash flow negative on a bad month and cash break positive on another. Universal income could mean housing dignity to many people in need.
Money is needed to separately house people impacted by substance abuse and alcoholism. Additional monies are needed to provide for ongoing mental health in addition to housing.
Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to know about Stan Mok?
A:I believe I am an underdog.Given limited resources, and some knowledge on how things work, I can show determination and resilience to show that being an underdog does not define one’s potential. I advocate for those who are marginalized and I embrace my journey through my experiences and how I have overcome challenges.
I believe that we all have limited resources and must conserve those resources for the best outcome.
To exemplify, when the Los Altos School District decided to close LAH based Bullis Purissima in mid-2002, I became a founder of the Bullis Charter School in late 2002. This gave students a choice of a charter school or a LASD school in Los Altos and LAH. Gardner Bullis remains open in LAH and is the sole public elementary school in town. Bullis Charter remains open today as well, with over 1,000 students. I believe that the Bullis Charter School has improved students’ school experiences markedly and has provided an excellent alternative to other district schools. The Charter School provides more for less.
Q: Will you have office hours?
A:Yes, on a regular basis.The days and times for regular office hours will be the first Monday each month at 11 a.m. in the Duxbury Room, LAH Town Hall.In the meantime, I can be reached at [email protected].Happy New Year!
