League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 6, 2007 Election
	Dan Dykwel Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Palo Alto

The questions were prepared by the the League of Women Voters of Palo Alto and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. In light of the city of Palo Alto's budget deficit, how do you propose to increase city revenues and promote efficiency in city operations?

We need to be more proactive in recruiting businesses to Palo Alto, explore incentives, and help streamline the permitting process to make it easier to start a business in Palo Alto. We must also listen to the needs of our existing businesses to retain them. I will work with the council and Stanford on the proposed shopping center expansion.

The city needs to tie expense decisions to measurable benchmarks to ensure that funds are spent on essential and valuable services.

2. How would you propose to meet Palo Alto's requirements for housing, existing and potential retail, future infrastructure, and city services?

The suggested housing targets are goals and we must manage our approach in a measured way, creating a sustainable level of development that can be supported without straining our infrastructure, facilities, services, schools and open space. We need to provide additional funds for infrastructure improvements and replacement and tax revenues alone may not be sufficient. We will need to ask our residents to approve bonds for the libraries and public safety building. Retail tax revenue is critical to sustaining the level of services we enjoy so I will advocate for existing retail and carefully examine new retail opportunities to ensure that potential negative impacts to the city are minimized.

3. Does Palo Alto have an obligation to consider regional needs with respect to a growing population, increasing diversity, and the importance of economic opportunity? If so, what proposals and plans would you support?

I believe it would be to our advantage to take a more regional approach to many of the issues that are common to our neighboring cities. At a minimum, we can share ideas, reduce redundancies, improve efficiencies, and share resources.

With respect to accommodating the growing population, every citizen has an obligation to do their part to reduce global warming. We must wisely decide the most pragmatic approach to additional housing on a regional basis to reduce our carbon footprint and impact on the environment.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates in this race must limit their answers to 300 words total so that a paper Voters Guide may be published by LWV Palo Alto. After 8 p.m. on Sept. 12 word limits will no longer apply. Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 16, 2007 18:10
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