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Volume 14, Number 1 Poll Workers Needed for March 5 Primary Background on Proposed By-Law Amendments Can't We All Just Get Along? Ten years ago the videotaped beating of Rodney King started a chain of events that led to the acquittal of the policemen who beat him, the LA riots, and his famous quote that I've used as the title of this column. As Mountain View enters its centennial year with its new mayor facing a recall campaign, its old mayor awaiting trial, and some very divisive Council and School Board meetings fresh in the minds of those who follow such things, it's a plea worth pondering.
I think one reason why the tone of local politics has deteriorated is that we don't spend enough time talking to others and learning about their perceptions. We've started to "shoot first, ask questions later." Because we don't take the time to gather information by talking to neighbors or reading the papers, we're caught by surprise when something happens that affects our lives. Because our awareness came late, we may over-react with an angry letter to The Voice or a 3-minute rant at a Council meeting. A thoughtful and well-informed friend told me recently that he's been embarrassed by things he's said at Council meetings based on information, gathered from just one or two people, that he later learned was incorrect or just half the picture. "More listening, less talking" could be his New Year's resolution. I'd like to offer two bits of advice to those who want to make Mountain However, there is one time when it does make sense to write to local officials. Thank you notes, they tell me, are always appreciated. Send e-mail to chair@omvna.org or write me at 833 Bush St., MV 94041. Poll Workers Needed for March 5 Primary Want to earn a little money, meet your neighbors and help your community? Spend a day by working at your local polling place. The Registrar of Voters needs your help at the polls for the Primary Election on March 5. They also need some bilingual poll workers. Also, the deadline to register to vote on March 5 is February 15. You can register online or by calling the Registrar of Voters to receive registration materials by mail. In addition to the primary election for the 22nd State Assembly District, voters in Mountain View will decide the fate of Measure N (Home Depot). If you are interested, call: On December 21, 2001, three Preliminary Seismic Hazard Zone Maps were released by the California Department of Conservation identifying several South Bay cities which are susceptible to liquefaction during a large earthquake. The preliminary Mountain View Seismic Hazard Zone map shows that portions of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale are susceptible to liquefaction. The portion of Old Mountain View Neighborhood north of Dana Street and south of Evelyn falls in the liquefaction zone. Homes in that area would most likely need seismic assessment disclosures in real estate contracts as well as additional seismic retrofits. The map can be found on the Department of Conservation Web site at the following URL: http://www.conservation.ca.gov/dmg/shezp. Recycling Recycling In case you missed it in the last couple issues of the View publications, there have been some changes in plastics-recycling procedures in Mountain View. The new procedures are much easier to follow: If it's a narrow-necked bottle, #1 through #7, stick it in the curbside-pickup container along with the bottles and cans. Yes, you heard correctly--#1 through #7. Examples of such plastic bottles are those that came with water, soda, milk, ketchup, shampoo, or detergent in them. All you have to do before recycling is rinse them out if they need it. If the plastic container doesn't have a narrow neck, for example if it held yogurt, margarine, salad, or tofu, or if it's a plastic bag, it needs to be rinsed and then stowed somewhere for an occasional trip to Foothill Disposal Recycling Center or the SMARTStation. Before you go, you might want to ask your neighbor if he/she has a contribution, too. The reason for this major distinction based on shape, rather than type of plastic, relates to the manufacturing process, and therefore the demanufacturing process. The shape (which generally correlates with the thickness) is much more significant in materials-processing than is the type of plastic. Background on Proposed By-Law Amendments Nine proposed amendments to OMVNA's by-laws will be voted on at the Jan. 26 meeting. Each amendment will be voted on separately. In order to pass, two-thirds of those voting must approve it. The proposals were moved and seconded at the October 14 General Meeting and printed in our previous Newsletter. Here is a brief explanation of why each proposal was made. You can read the complete text of the proposals at the omvna.org website or in the Dec. 2001 Newsletter.
2. This proposal creates a new way to remove a Steering Committee member if he or she knowingly breaches OMVNA's by-laws and loses the confidence of 6 or more of the 8 members of the Steering Committee. The intention is to provide a method for removal that is faster and less embarrassing to the individual than the current method which requires a hearing and a secret vote at a General Meeting. The amendment does not repeal the existing process, it just adds another approach. It is worth noting that no Steering Committee member has ever been removed, nor is such an action under consideration by the current Steering Committee. 3. This proposal makes three changes. First, it explicitly gives Steering Committee members the right to resign before the end of their term. It then expands the pool of individuals who can be appointed to a Steering Committee vacancy. At present, only the two At Large officers can be appointed to fill vacancies, and there is no mechanism to fill an At Large position if one or both become vacant. Under this proposal, any OMVNA member willing to take on the job can be appointed to a Steering Committee role. Finally, it says that the Vice Chair automatically becomes Chair if that office becomes vacant. This is what most people expected would happen, but it was not spelled out in the by-laws. 4. This proposal basically says that Steering Committee members must attend at least half the meetings. If they miss 3 out of 4, they "shall be considered to have tendered his or her resignation." If there were extenuating circumstances, such as illness or business travel, the Steering Committee could vote to not accept the resignation. But if the Committee member has lost interest in attending meetings, this amendment, along with #4, would create a mechanism for replacing him or her prior to the next annual election. Sadly, the Committee does have recent experience with members who rarely attended meetings. If this amendment had been in effect in the past, it might have been applied 2 or 3 times in the past few years. The amendment also defines coming 15 minutes late or leaving early (after less than an hour) as absences. 5. This proposal changes the requirement for the Newsletter to carry "reports of Steering Committee and General meeting actions" to something that we think is of more interest to the Newsletter's readers, namely that "All official actions and decisions of OMVNA or its Steering Committee shall be reported in the Newsletter." For several years we have posted Meeting Minutes to our web site for those who wish to read them, but we don't believe many people are interested. So, this proposal will let us keep the Newsletter focused on only the most pertinent and interesting actions of the Steering Committee and give us room in the Newsletter to cover other topics of local interest. 6. During the past few years it has become increasingly difficult to find people willing to be Steering Committee officers. Our existing by-laws are incompatible with the sad reality that we cannot always present a slate of 8 nominees 30 or more days in advance of the election. Therefore, this amendment creates some breathing room for the Nominating Committee by allowing them, if necessary, to search for willing candidates right up to the day of the election. Because nominations from the floor have always been allowed at the election meeting itself, this amendment falls in the category of "technical clean-up." 7. The existing language says that if no one is elected to an office, the current officer continues to hold the position for another year. The amendment says that all terms are one year in length. If no one is elected to an office, it be-comes vacant when the one-year term expires. 8. This amendment covers OMVNA's financial affairs, and makes several changes so that the by-laws conform to what we actually do. For example, we have never had a petty cash fund or an official budget, and we have always managed our checking account so that only one signature was required on the checks. 9. This changes the timing of our annual election from "Fall" to "September or October" to make it clear that the election must be held before officers' terms expire on Oct. 31. It also removes language regarding the election of subcommittee chairs to conform to the longstanding practice of appointing them. OMVNA has only one permanent subcommittee: the CERT Committee chaired by Donnie Foster. City Councilwoman and neighborhood resident Sally Lieber was selected on January 8 by her Council colleagues to serve as Mountain View's mayor for 2002. She and her husband Dave Phillips live on Sierra Avenue. Sally was elected to the City Council in Nov. 1998. She is currently running for the Democratic Primary nomination as 22nd State Assemblywoman district. The last neighborhood resident to serve as Mayor was Rosemary Stasek in 2000. Rosemary is also contending for the Democratic Assembly nomination. Our current Assemblywoman is Elaine White Alquist. Mike Kasperzak was unanimously selected as Vice-Mayor for 2002. CERT Jumpstarts Training On Saturday, Jan 12 our OMVNA Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) trained 22 people who expressed interest in learning more about helping the community during emergencies. Lynn Brown, the Director of Mountain View's Office of Emergency Services and Donnie Foster, new Chairman of OMVNA CERT presented the class. Topics discussed were critical elements of emergency response (incident command, safety and security, search and rescue, communications, first aid, damage assessment, and sheltering). In addition, specific steps, forms and helpful hints to organize our neighborhood were discussed. Two guides were given to participants. The Neighborhood Guide talks about family and neighborhood preparedness, first aid, and specifics to deal with major disasters. The second, the Coordinator's Guide, gives step-by-step instructions on inviting, organizing, planning, and operating with our neighbors. Thirteen people agreed to begin to organize their neighborhood, and you may hear from them soon. Feedback from participants was positive and participants especially enjoyed the technical details presented by Lynn Brown, who also offers an expanded 8-week course 2 or 3 times a year. We still need many more volunteers. If you have time and interest, we will be setting up another class soon. Please send your name your Donnie_Foster@tenacityu.com, or call 888-606-6085 to be added to the list for the next training. Lynn Brown may be contacted at lynn.brown@ci.mtnview.ca.us or c/o Fire Department, 1000 Villa Street, Mountain View, CA, 94041-1294 Phone: 650 903-6365. 40 Year OMV Resident Dies By Maarten Korringa Paul Bruce Patterson, known to almost everyone as "Pat" died on December 19, 2001. He and his wife Helen have been residents of Old Mountain View for over 40 years. A longtime Mason, Pat served as a leader in DeMolay, the Masonic organization for young men. Many Mountain View High School youths were nudged away from potential "bad influences" by Pat's youth programs. Pat and Helen Patterson interacted with many of their Mercy Street neighbors. Pat helped fix bikes. He was an avid fisherman, always willing to provide tips to the novice. He loved showing off his model trains. Three neighborhood children became part of Patterson's extended family and were treated just like family. Born in Hillsboro, Illinois, in 1919, Pat Patterson's first career was in the U. S. Navy. He enlisted in 1939 and was a chief petty officer and a highly skilled aviation mechanic. He served during both World War II and the Korean War. In 1957, Pat was transferred to Moffett Field, and he, his wife, Helen, and their two boys moved to Mountain View. In 1958, shortly after Pat and Helen moved to Mountain View, new homes became available; they purchased a new home at the south end of Mercy Street and lived there ever since. Much of the neighborhood was still orchard, and Landels School was under construction. This development was built on land formerly owned by the McCarty family and dubbed Los Ninos ("The Children") subdivision. Some of the streets in the neighborhood, like Eldora Drive, are named after the McCarty children. After his retirement from the Navy in 1959, Pat turned his mechanical skills from aviation to automotive. For years Pat was part owner of Ken and Jay's Garage, located initially on the corner of Castro and El Camino. The painting above the checkout desk in the library shows the garage at the El Camino location. The business later moved to Moffett Blvd., adjacent to the Adobe Building. Pat also worked at Lockheed as the lead mechanic preparing experimental Army off-road vehicles for testing at the Aberdeen Proving rounds in Maryland. After Lockheed, Pat worked for his friend Herb Eaton maintaining Minton's fleet of vehicles. Pat's home garage still resembled an auto parts store more than a suburban garage. In recent years, Pat frequented Stevens Creek Trail, always gregarious and willing to share a conversation with visitors.
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Last updated: 2/04/02