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Mountain View Art & Wine event guide AUGUST 29, 2014 VOLUME 22, NO. 31
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MOVIES | 21
Council race: phone survey raises questions By Daniel DeBolt
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COURTESY MIKE ICHIKAWA/EL CAMINO HOSPITAL
Richard Harris holds up an artificial aortic valve, made of a metallic alloy and cow artery tissue, at El Camino Hospital where the device was the subject of a clinical trial.
Heart surgery evolves at El Camino REUNION HIGHLIGHTS NEW TECH IN ‘TRIAL’ PHASE By Kevin Forestieri
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ospitals are looking at new ways to treat heart disease, and a new, minimally invasive procedure is being tested as a possible alternative to open-heart surgery. El Camino Hospital is one of four hospitals in California
to take part in clinical trials for a new heart-valve replacement procedure, and so far the results have been encouraging, hospital officials said. The medical procedure is called the CoreValve System, designed by Medtronic to treat patients with aortic stenosis — a common heart disease
caused when the aortic valve narrows and fails to open and close properly. Aortic stenosis can lead to heart failure and increases the risk of sudden cardiac arrest. In the procedure, an artificial valve is inserted through one of See HEART SURGERY, page 10
Council candidate Unangst’s ballot designation challenged STATE LAW SAYS HE CAN’T CALL HIMSELF A “RETIRED LIEUTENANT COLONEL” By Daniel DeBolt
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Mountain View City Council candidate is going to have to change his ballot designation after being challenged over his use of the title “retired lieutenant colonel” on the November ballot. The city clerk upheld the challenge mounted by John Schaeffer after “investigation and extensive research.”
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“Mr. Unangst will have to choose another ballot designation or not have one at all,” said City Clerk Lorrie Brewer in an email. The challenge is not because there’s anything false about Unangst’s story of leading troops in Vietnam and being honored with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal. “That was my rank at the time of my retirement from the military in 1996 after 10 years
of active duty and 18 years in the (Army) reserves,” Unangst explained in an email. “Evidently, state law requires a retired candidate to use their most recent employment on a ballot.” The law means that Unangst now plans to call himself a “retired aerospace engineer” as he retired from Lockeed Martin in 2011. “I have no idea who John Schaeffer is, where he lives, or what motivated him to file this
VIEWPOINT 17 | GOINGS ON 22 | MARKETPLACE 23 | REAL ESTATE 25
ountain View voters are being surveyed about how they might vote in the November City Council election, prompting questions about who is gathering such information and how it will be used. The phone surveys have become a topic of discussion around town, with some people contacting the Voice to say that they find the surveys “disturbing” and an intrusion. According to emails forwarded to the Voice, one recent survey asks a number of questions about development issues in Mountain View and whether the interviewee might vote for a candidate who was supported by a union or had advocated for rent control, among other things. “The whole thing left me wondering who is funding this,” said resident Alison Hicks. Hicks, who participated in the survey, said many of the questions seemed relatively “normal” until there were a number of questions that seemed to be focused on candidate Lenny Siegel, a housing advocate and leader of the Campaign for a Balanced Mountain challenge,” said Unangst. Shaeffer tipped the Voice to the issue, later describing himself as “just a concerned watchdog who knows the election has high stakes. We have nine great candidates and it’s important they all follow the rules.” Unangst said the state law seems unfair. He points to a section of federal law that seems contradictory: “A retired officer of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps may bear the title and wear the uniform of his retired grade.” City Attorney Jannie Quinn was not available for comment by press time about her analysis of state and federal laws. City spokesperson Shonda Ran-
View. Siegel lead two unsuccessful campaigns to establish rent control in Mountain View in the late 1970s and early 1980s, says he generally supports unions and was once a member of the radical group Students for a Democratic Society while protesting the Vietnam war as a student at Stanford University — all were subject of questions asked in the survey. “It really stood out that he had been singled out to find a way to disparage him in some way,” Hicks said of Siegel. When asked to comment, Siegel said he suspects some group is preparing an attack ad against him, possibly a landlord or developer. He said Merlone Geier would be the “logical suspicion” as Siegel pushed to have offices towers replaced with housing in Merlone Geier’s San Antonio shopping center development. A Merlone Geier representative denied the accusation. “Merlone Geier Partners has not hired any firm to do any polling in the Mountain View area,” Ron Heckman, Merlone Geier’s public relations manager, told the Voice via email. See PHONE SURVEY, page 11
son confirmed that a state law was preventing Unangst’s chosen ballot designation. “The successful challenge Greg Unangst sets a horrible precedent for all retired veterans in California,” Unangst said. “If this is the case, then any veteran who retires from the military, whether active or reserve, and then works in another occupation cannot then use their military rank on a ballot in California.” See UNANGST, page 16