League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 8, 2005 Election
	Larry Klein Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Palo Alto

Questions & Answers

1. What specific steps would you support to balance the financial needs of the city with a changing regional business climate and potential effects on the quality of life in the area?

Reduce expenses--

-Reduce the number of managers the City has. A Clinton administration study recommends a ratio of government employees to a manager of 15 to 1. Palo Alto's ratio is at best 7 to 1.

- Employee benefits (retirement and medical insurance) for non-public safety employees are much higher than in the private sector. Through harder bargaining with the union, these expenses have to be contained.

--Eliminate the City's public relations staff. For over 100 years Palo Alto managed without a PR program. Only in recent years has the City established such a program. It's unnecessary.

Increase Revenues--

-Increase the hotel tax from 10 % to 12% which is what, at minimum, all of our neighboring jurisdictions charge.

-Greater efforts to persuade companies to designate Palo Alto as sales tax situs for business to business transactions.

- Creative solutions to retain auto dealerships in town.

2. What are your priorities with regard to the balance of neighborhood issues and the broader needs of all Palo Alto?

The broader needs of the community must always be paramount but the concerns of the neighborhoods most affected by a project or issue should be given careful consideration and greater weight than those of other areas.

3. Where do you stand on the goal of retaining socio-economic diversity in Palo Alto, and if you support that goal, what steps would you take to achieve it?

I support socio-economic diversity in Palo Alto. I'm proud that our area is probably the most democratic in the world. Our ability to increase economic diversity is limited by the seemingly insatiable demand for Palo Alto housing and the resulting high prices. However, we can do more to bring diverse groups in to the life of our community. In particular, I intend to reach out to our large but under-represented Asian-American community to increase their numbers on our boards and commissions.

To the extent that we have available and appropriate land, I also support the development of affordable housing.