The Grand Oak Room at the Los Altos Community Center was filled with community members holding “Buzzword” Bingo Sheets on Sept. 25, at the Los Altos City Council Candidates Forum. Audience members listened to four of the five candidates running for three open seats.

The forum was moderated by former Mountain View mayor Mike Kasperzak and questions were asked by a panel of newspaper editors from the area: Myesha Phukan and Carter Nishi of the MVHS Oracle, Milan Grbovic and Dorie Xie of the LAHS Talon, and Bruce Barton of the Los Altos Town Crier.

The current council is composed of five members: Jonathan Weinberg, Pete Dailey, Neysa Fligor, Sally Meadows, and Lynette Lee Eng; Mayor Weinberg and councilmember Meadows’ terms are expiring this year. Both are seeking reelection.

The three other candidates running for a council position are Ibrahim Bashir, Larry Lang, and Eric Steinle. Meadows was unable to attend due to a case of sciatica and instead sent a pre-recorded introduction video.

The following article includes information compiled from the forum, the candidate’s campaign websites, and interviews with the candidates.

CANDIDATE INTRODUCTIONS

Ibrahim Bashir

Bashir said he moved to Los Altos about a decade ago, bought a home, and is raising three children attending Los Altos schools.

“I’ve tried to be a part of the fabric of this community in every which way as a volunteer,” Bashir said. “I think I’ve exhausted all the volunteering capacities that a person can do and I think it’s time for me to actually put my foot forward and go for a more official role.”

He said he has been on the technology committee at Covington Elementary, where his children attend, coached track at the Los Altos School District Junior Olympics, and been the chair for the Los Altos Library Commission. He said he plans to apply his background from the business and technology industry into his position on the council and bring more diversity of experience as well as creative problem solving.

Bashir said he has visited over 2000 homes canvassing and plans to reach almost 10,000. He said his priorities are defined by the residents he has visited; more affordable housing through executing the housing element, public safety by upgrading emergency response facilities, and taking action against climate change by streamlining the process for installing heat pumps and solar panels and rebate claims.

“My real goal is while I’m in the prime of my life and the prime of my career, I want to give and serve,” Bashir said.

See more at https://www.bashirforlosaltos.com/.

Larry Lang

Lang studied engineering at Duke and Stanford before moving to California to join Cisco, according to his website. He has led several startups, served as chair of the Los Altos Historical Commission and his term as the President of the Los Altos History Museum ended this year. He said he has raised three daughters in Los Altos, who attended local schools, and now work in California. After selling his tech company, he said he found himself with more time and plans to invest it into improving the city.

“It’s not just the meetings, it’s listening to people,” Lang said. “It’s learning what’s going on out there [and] hearing all the different sides of it.”

Lang’s priorities according to his website are safety and preparedness, especially for pedestrians and bicyclists, development of infrastructure and environment, and increasing community and belonging, bringing about diversity.

See more at https://www.losaltoslarry.org/.

Sally Meadows

Meadows, in her pre-recorded video, said she has spent the past 15 years dedicated to supporting the community through volunteer and board leadership roles. She has served on El Camino Healthcare’s Community Advisory Council, two City commissions, and the Los Altos Rotary Club. She has also been a council member since 2020 and served as the mayor of Los Altos for the 2022-23 term. 

She said she hopes to promote collaborative governance to meet the city’s goals. She describes herself as a forward-looking and empathetic leader, committed to listening respectfully, keeping an open mind, and continuing to work together to keep Los Altos a vibrant, safe, and inclusive community.

See more at https://www.sallyforlosaltos.com/.

Eric Steinle 

Steinle said he has been involved in the community since 2008 and has held positions on the Los Altos Library and Planning Commission and will continue to serve as the chair of the planning commission. He said he is a lawyer by trade and is aware of the complexity of laws and has been the president of his Homeowners Association for 14 years.

He also said that he attends every city council meeting and reviews the issues beforehand.

“I’m there at the beginning and I’m there until the very end even if it’s two in the morning,” Steinle said.

He said he is passionate about solving problems and hopes to promote the health, safety, and welfare of the people of Los Altos in a way that fits them best by “[finding] Los Altos solutions to Los Altos problems.”

See more at https://eric4losaltos2024.com/.

Jonathan Weinberg

Weinberg has served as a council member since 2020 and is the current mayor. He has lived in Los Altos for most of his life and also has a background in law. In his remarks, he highlighted his accomplishments as a council member, including a plan to develop more affordable housing, creating policies designed to make Los Altos carbon neutral by 2035, and passing a balanced budget on time with a projected $3 million surplus.

He said his top three priorities are securing funding for a new police station, bringing much needed improvements to the city’s parks and libraries, and to ensure that children and their caregivers have safe routes to school.

“I love this community, it’s really been a delight to represent you for the last four years, and I truly ask for your support so I can do it for another four,” Weinberg said.

See more at https://www.weinbergforcouncil.com/. 

SKILLS 

In the first round of questions, Bashir said his background is building products for people, including working on the Kindle and Twitter.

“I have expertise in getting a bunch of people who maybe don’t even agree or see eye to eye from different disciplines to march forward altogether in alignment toward a strategic goal,” Bashir said. 

He said he would bring long range strategic planning and disciplined execution to meet goals.

Lang, another former businessman, said that running the city is different from being in charge of a business, in terms of pace and needs. He highlighted attentively listening to others and acknowledged the importance of different perspectives to solving an issue.

Weinberg said that as part of the council, he has both adopted plans and policies and worked to implement them, including an updated housing element, in which the council rewrote over half of the existing zoning code. He argued that he has experience as a councilmember and has a history of making progress.

Steinle said he has a “strange ability to put things together, to form patterns and view how things are connected.” He said this ability will help him deal with issues and put together different ideas.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

All candidates stressed the importance of building new affordable housing. Some candidates used examples of teachers, firefighters, and police officers being priced out to argue for more development of affordable housing units.

Steinle said affordable housing falls under the jurisdiction of the planning commission, which he chairs, but said that they have not received a development project proposal in two years. He said streamlining the process of pitching and approving new developments would be a priority and would in turn lead to more affordable units being built. 

Weinberg said California has an undeniable housing crisis and Los Altos “needs more affordable housing up and down the socioeconomic stratum.” He said he has proudly voted to pass the new housing element and programs designed to promote the development of more below market rate housing. He said the city has more to do and should proactively look for developers and work to develop many more below market rate housing units.

Lang highlighted the importance of community education around affordable housing and said that people need to understand why it’s necessary, using the example of teachers being “priced out” of the area and commuting long distances to school.

“You can particularly see when people get sad is when they realize they have a school teacher that they love that has to move away because of the housing crisis,” Lang said. “That’s the sort of thing that motivates people to not view this as something they want to resent but something they want to get behind and really support.”

Bashir built off of Lang’s point and offered an anecdote describing how the parking lot of Covington Elementary at 5:30 AM is empty except for school teachers commuting from Gilroy, Alameda, and further. He said the housing element is a great blueprint but the next step is to execute it and make sure builders have enough incentives to build.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Pedestrian safety, community preparedness, and the refurbishment or replacement of first-responder infrastructure were key issues candidates highlighted in the second round.

Steinle said that as a person who commutes by walking, he is “fully in favor of sidewalks and street lights.” He said the planning commision is also in the process of updating the Safety Element and encouraged community members to attend meetings about these issues.

Lang said the city can work on incorporating more directed lighting onto commonly used paths to keep people safe at night without “[turning] the city into some sort of prison yard.”

Weinberg said he was weighing public safety and environmental concerns, referencing a dark skies ordinance, which he supports.

He also said he voted with the council majority to approve the construction of a brand new emergency operations center, and advocated for the removal of dead foliage to combat potential wildfires. He hopes to replace the foliage with native plant species as they are more fire resistant. 

Bashir used Saratoga, which has a similar “rural characteristic,” as an example of using other cities’ past experiences to inform decision  making. He said part of public safety is also educating students and community members about wearing reflective clothing, using flashlights, and more preventative measures.

Bashir said he wants to designate someone on city staff to full-time emergency preparedness and response coordination. He also said building affordable housing to move first responders closer was important, and said the average Los Altos police officer lives almost 50 miles away from the city.

COMMUNITY INPUT

Candidates were asked how they were going to solicit community input and ensure they take into account public opinion before making decisions.

“It is the job of the council to act as a kind of a megaphone and receiver,” Steinle said.

He said the city can use technology more effectively, including increasing Sunday afternoon Zoom calls where community members can call in, ask questions, discuss, and learn.

Lang emphasized the importance of making himself available outside of city council meetings, especially reaching out to those with differing opinions to grab a coffee and talk through the issues.

Weinberg said that the city needs to have more events to solicit public opinion. He encouraged community members to reach out through the council members emails and phone numbers posted online about whatever concerns or issues matter to them.

“We want to hear from you, because your opinions are critical,” Weinberg said.

Bashir said he has been doing a lot of door to door canvassing, asking for input from thousands of residents. He said hundreds of residents have felt the need for more frequent and more diversity of communication, which he said is “hundreds too many for [his] taste.” He also wants to explore more options of input through tech, hoping to set up a simple hotline or website where people can file issues and tickets. 

The general election will be held on Nov. 5. Vote by mail ballots were sent out to Los Altos residents on Oct. 7.