League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 3, 2009 Election
	Karen C. Holman 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 economic down turn and possibly reduced income for the city in future years, how do you propose to both balance the budget and meet the cities desires for quality services ?

Short-term budgets have to match long-term goals. There is opportunity in being more creative and proactive in retaining existing and attracting new retail uses. The retail permit process needs to be overhauled to coordinate approvals, expediting occupancy. Continued encouragement of hotels will add income to the City. The City needs to demonstrate that it has identified and eliminated duplication, waste, and inefficiencies. To get public support, these need to be addressed before raising taxes or cutting services. Ongoing union negotiations must result in an understanding that both the City and the unions benefit from sustainable budgets. Possibilities also may exist with regard to additional public-private partnerships to provide services to the community.

2. An updated Comprehensive Plan is due to be approved in 2010. What changes if any should be made to the Plan and why?

We need to zone for what we want, and the Comprehensive Plan is the strategic guiding document. Our current Plan is essentially a good one, but we need to better align our decisions with it. Appropriate changes would address the housing density, types of housing, appropriate location, impacts on schools, proximity to services, locations for new retail and possible location of new neighborhood center/s.

3. The Baylands Master Plan guides land use east of Route 101. Several land use changes are currently being proposed relating to composting, recycling, parkland, airport needs, and hotel development. What land uses do you think desirable and what uses are incompatible in the Baylands?

The Baylands is a recognized treasure. As a Planning Commissioner, I was a leading advocate for prioritizing completion of the recent Plan. Any development needs to be low profile, sensitively address its setting, and be a low traffic generator to be compatible. Both Parks and Recreation and Planning Commission found that the compost operation was inconsistent with the Plan. The airport is an existing low profile use that provides benefits including to Stanford Hospital and local business and could be a vital resource in case of a disaster. A hotel could bring revenue to the City, and the City Auditor determined that the airport should be profitable.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League. LWV Palo Alto is using Smart Voter information to publish a paper Voters Guide. Therefore, word limits apply to some of the sections. Contact Veronica Tincher <vtincher@yahoo.com> if you misplaced the instruction sheet with the word limits which was mailed to you. Your answers will be taken from Smart Voter at 8 p.m., September 18 and will be published in the Voters Guide. After that date, you are free to enter more information according to the Smart Voter guidelines.

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

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 20, 2009 13:10
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