League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 3, 2009 Election
	Brian Steen 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 ?

1. Evaluate recent revenue losses and analyze which may be reinstated.
2. Aggressively seek new business tenants for vacant business properties.
3. Utilize retirement attrition to reduce work force.
4. Hold wage and benefit package increases to bare minimum

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

1. Palo Alto will need to increase transit-oriented residential development will be important in meeting state-mandated regional sustainability plans.
2. The 2010 amendment should assess impacts and costs associated with High Speed Rail and Cal Train improvements.
3. Water efficiency standards should apply to residential as well as commercial projects.

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?

1. I support reconfiguring the existing composting operation, to close when the landfill operation ends in 2011, co-locating it with the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
2. Budget allocations should be made to reclaim and restore parkland acreage now used for composting.
3.. I believe local composting is favorable to trucking materials to Sunnyvale or other more distant locations, because of additional fuel use and associated air pollution.

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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 17, 2009 11:59
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