Bland Italian food, and lots of it WEEKEND | P.16
FEBRUARY 11, 2011 VOLUME 19, NO. 6
650.964.6300
INSIDE: WEEKEND | PAGE 16
MountainViewOnline.com
City gives up $13.6 million for local school districts PARENTS CALLED FOR CITY TO FREE UP PROPERTY TAX REVENUE COLLECTED BY SHORELINE COMMUNITY By Daniel DeBolt
the 2011-10 and 2012-13 fiscal he City Council pleased years, while high school disthe parents who packed trict would receive $1.9 million the council chambers on annually. Tuesday by supporting a proThe deal provides less than posal that will give $13.6 mil- the $5.9 million a year the lion in Shoreline property tax cash-strapped MVWSD would revenue to the city’s schools over receive if the Shoreline Comthree years. munity were to go away, which is The council’s support was what some parents would like to unanimous for the proposal, see. The Shoreline Community with Tom Means absent. The is a special tax district estabmeeting was a study session, lished in 1969 that has paid for which means that formal deci- the creation and maintenance sion will be made later. But of Shoreline Park and the surparents, the large majority of rounding business district. It whom supported the deal in a uses nearly all of the property show of hands, were elated after taxes from companies there, the meeting. including Google and Microsoft, The deal, which that would othprovides funding erwise be shared based on comwith schools. plicated formula ‘This is government A group of involving propparents had been at its best.’ erty values, will organizing the provide an esti“Share ShoreMAYOR JAC SIEGEL mated $8.2 milline” campaign lion over three since last March fiscal years to when Mountain the Mountain View Whisman View Whisman District, said officials told the Voice that it finance director Patty Kong. could benefit from a share of That improves on a previous Shoreline taxes because it had deal which gave the elementary been classified as a basic aid school district $450,00 a year district by the state, making it from the Shoreline Commu- dependent on local property tax nity tax district. Similarly, the revenue. Previously, the district Mountain View-Los Altos High received per-pupil funding from School District will receive an the state. estimated $5.4 million over Parents thanked the city and three years, replacing its previ- local businesses for all the help ous $450,000 in annual Shore- they’ve given schools so far, and line funding. some even praised the city for The payments would begin being cautious with the deal. before July with a payment of Jim Pollart, who spoke for a $2.3 million for Mountain View group of parents who organized Whisman and a payment of themselves around the issue, $1.6 million to the high school encouraged speakers on the district. The Mountain View topic “to model good behavior” Whisman district would then See SHORELINE, page 8 receive $3 million annually in
T MICHELLE LE
Caltrain passengers hustle to board the train as it stops at Mountain View’s San Antonio station on Feb. 7. Caltrain is proposing to cut service to San Antonio and six other stations.
VTA plan could stanch Caltrain cuts AGENCY MAY TAKE ON LARGER SHARE OF FUNDING TO KEEP LOCAL SERVICE By Daniel DeBolt
W
ith Caltrain considering eliminating half of the Peninsula’s train service to fix a $30 million deficit, VTA general manager Michael Burns has some proposals to keep Caltrain on track until more permanent funding can be found. In a Feb. 2 memo to the board of the Valley Transportation Authority Board, Burns says the VTA is now in a financial position that allows it to pay the $7.1 million it owes to SamTrans in a previous deal to purchase the land Caltrain tracks sit on. If SamTrans agrees to use that money for Cal-
train, it would keep San Francisco and Santa Clara County’s transit agencies from drastically cutting back their own proportional level of Caltrain funding. Doing so would reduce the train service’s projected deficit from $30 million to only $14 million, Burns said. The above proposal alone would be enough to “allow Caltrain to retain much of its current service in the short term,” Burns writes. But he also says funds to prop up Caltrain service should be taken from other delayed Caltrain projects: electrification, which has been delayed along with high speed rail through the Peninsula, and $5.5 million for the Dumbar-
ton Rail project. The Dumbarton Rail project is something “the region cannot afford at this time,” Burns writes, but using the $5.5 million may pose legal issues. The VTA is also considering the possibility of taking on a larger share of Caltrain’s operating costs in exchange for saving service to Santa Clara County. At the VTA board meeting last Thursday, “the full board was pretty much in consensus that Caltrain is a priority for us,” said VTA board chair Margaret Abe-Koga, who is also a Mountain View City Council member. See CALTRAIN, page 7
Jury has tough decision in Carbajal case By Nick Veronin
A
s theVoice was going to press Wednesday afternoon, Pedro Carbajal — the Mountain View man accused of sexually assaulting and molesting three of his young nieces — was awaiting a verdict from a jury that began deliberations shortly before noon on Tuesday, Feb. 8. It was uncomfortably warm in
INSIDE
the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Griffin M. J. Bonini on Monday, Feb. 7, as the lawyers for the prosecution and defense laid out their closing arguments — both of them coming to equally unsettling conclusions about the events that led up to the accusations of rape and molestation facing the man who co-founded and coached in the Amigos League, a
soccer program for at-risk youth. Dan Fehderau, deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County, maintained that Carbajal was guilty of all the charges against him — including two counts of sexual assault on a child; two counts engaging in a lewd and lascivious act on a child by force See CARBAJAL, page 10
GOINGS ON 19 | MARKETPLACE 20 | MOVIES 18 | REAL ESTATE 23 | VIEWPOINT 12