Moving Menlo Park Forward

By Lee Duboc

In Menlo Park's City Council election this November, you will make a critical choice.

Lee Duboc and Mickie Winkler are running as incumbents and seek your continued support. John Boyle, businessman and Menlo Park Transportation Commissioner, adds fresh perspective and vision to their experience. If elected, we pledge to:

1. Keep the momentum going. We have 6 new projects in the works for El Camino Real, and, for the first time in decades, new construction on Santa Cruz Ave. -- and best of all -- a new hotel complex at 280 and Sand Hill Road that will ultimately net Menlo Park $1.9 Million a year in revenue. Traffic improvements including elimination of traffic impediments on Santa Cruz Ave., improved traffic signal timing on El Camino, and widening, at last, of Sand Hill Road. Outreach to ALL of Menlo Park (not just the vocal minority) to ensure we move forward in ways that best serve the whole city. Ours has been, and will continue to be, the most open city government ever.

2. Pursue sports fields at Bayfront Park if the voters approve the advisory ballot measure (J). Now that a technical engineering firm has established the viability of full-sized sports fields at Bayfront Park and confirmed the lack of viable alternative sites, the City Council has created an advisory ballot measure (J) asking whether you favor the idea of building play fields on a small portion (10%) of Bayfront Park. With your support, we'll move to the next stage which will include lots of planning, review, and approval cycles before any construction begins. Because certain funds are set aside explicitly for parks and recreation, we will not have to use any additional money from our city's General Fund. If Menlo Park approves Measure J we need a City Council who will take the non-binding vote forward, not one that will obstruct the voters' choice or bog it down with another 20 years of study.

3.Ensure fiscal responsibility. Through prudent fiscal management, we were able to minimize Menlo Park's deficit spending during a period following the dot com bust when sales tax revenues were cut in half -- without compromising our life style. But the deficit isn't licked. We plan to continue to redue it by: Finding efficiencies through open, competitive bidding for city contracts such as we were doing with child care at Burgess Park; making timely, tough decisions when and where needed, e.g., by creating a public/private partnership at Burgess Pool, saving Menlo Park an estimated $415,000 annually; growing revenue through business development and new projects like the Sand Hill Road hotel, and continuing to reverse the business-unfriendly reputation of Menlo Park.