Now you’re talking | P.16
APRIL 9, 2010 VOLUME 18, NO. 14
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MountainViewOnline.com
Council gets lowdown on $1 million in new fees AMONG THE PROPOSED CHANGES, $600,000 SOUGHT THROUGH HIGHER RECREATION DUES The city hopes to patch the rest of the deficit with $1 milountain View City lion in employee compensation Council members had cost cuts and $2 million in other the “not pleasant” task budget cuts, including the elimof examining a range of pro- ination of 24 filled employee posed fee hikes on city services positions. Tuesday night, with a goal of Some council members finding $1 million in new city expressed frustration at havrevenue. ing to “nickel To help fix and dime” the a projected $4 to fix “People are using public million budget the city buddeficit this year get, including Shoreline Park in the city’s $88 Mike Kaspermillion general zak, who called completely free. fund, the city it unpleasant. That seems will likely be Council memasking those bers say they unusual to me.” who use city have t heir services to pay hands largely LAURA MACIAS more for them. tied this year City staffers in terms of cuthave proposed ting the city’s dozens of new fees or fee hikes fastest-growing expense: unionfor construction-related per- contracted cost-of-living adjustmits, heritage tree removal, use ments, health care costs and of the city’s performing arts pensions for city employees, center and $600,000 in various which altogether are rising by recreation fees. about $4 million a year. All told, the proposed fees Going against recommendacould provide $900,000 to $1.2 tions from city staffers, council million in new general fund members voted 5-2 to have the revenue annually if approved in See COUNCIL, page 9 the city budget in June. By Daniel DeBolt
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MICHELLE LE
Rose and Dozer wait in their cells for potential adoptees at Palo Alto Animal Services.
Pets flood local shelters in hard times ‘BROKEN FAMILIES’ FORCED TO GIVE UP THEIR ANIMAL FRIENDS
By Daniel DeBolt
A
s superintendent of Palo Alto Animal Services, Sandi Stadler has a unique perspective on how the recession is hurting Peninsula residents. More than ever before, Stadler said, people are abandoning their pets at the shelter on East
TALES
RECESSION TALES This story is part of a series exploring ways the recession has affected Mountain View and its residents
Palo Alto. The reason is clearly economic: Before the recession it happened only about once a month, she said, but now it’s a weekly occurrence. “It has not been unusual this year for us to have a house full of pets,” brought in, she said — such as when two cats and
Bayshore Road, which serves Mountain View, Los Altos and
See RECESSION, page 6
Student survey reveals culture of stress HALF OF LOS ALTOS HIGH KIDS CAN’T SLEEP; MOST SAY THEY’RE BURNED OUT By Kelsey Mesher
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os Altos High School senior Sarah Loebner had pulled an all-nighter to finish her senior class project, a research paper and presentation every student must pass in order to graduate. When she got to class, it seemed like she was the only one who had
been so pressed for time: “How is everyone else on top of this?” she wondered. Loebner’s final report was 18 pages — three pages longer than necessary. She was concerned that if she didn’t pass, she would not graduate, though she has already been accepted at several competitive universities. By the end of it all, she said, she hated her topic: She had written about happi-
ness. Students at Los Altos High School are some of the highestachieving in the nation. And while most will go on to attend a junior college or four-year university, a survey of students taken by fellow students last spring indicates that success has a price: too much See STRESS, page 11 MICHELLE LE
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