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GENERAL EXCELLENCE
WEEKEND | 21
California Newspaper Publishers Association
NOVEMBER 11, 2016 VOLUME 24, NO. 42
www.MountainViewOnline.com
650.964.6300
MOVIES | 26
More fireworks in Mountain View Whisman boardroom SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER TELLS SUPERINTENDENT TO STOP TALKING AND SIT DOWN By Kevin Forestieri
T MICHELLE LE
DAY OF THE DEAD Arturo Noriega, a student advisor, paints faces for a Dia de los Muertos celebration at The View teen center on Nov. 4. Students from Crittenden and Graham middle schools’ afterschool programs decorated sugar skulls and had their own faces decorated in the tradition of Mexico’s “calavera catrina” for Day of the Dead, an annual festival to honor the dear departed. See more photos on page 14.
Earthquake upgrades made easier CHANGES WOULD ENABLE PROPERTY OWNERS TO FIX SOFT-STORY BUILDINGS By Kevin Forestieri
M
ountain View could become more earthquake-ready, after the city’s Environmental Planning Commission voted unanimously last week to clear the way for seismic upgrades to aging structures at high risk of collapse. Mountain View is home to roughly 100 to 125 multi-family residential buildings that have what’s called a “soft story” design — upper floors are held up by a structurally weak ground floor that’s typically left open on one or more sides for parking and commercial uses. These buildings are vulnerable to the lateral back-and-forth movement of an earthquake and
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are at risk of “pancaking” if the first floor collapses, according to assistant city planner Diana Pancholi. “When (the buildings) collapse, they do risk the lives of those who reside in them, and in the case of an earthquake, it will leave many families homeless,” Pancholi said. But when landlords interested in making safety upgrades approach the city, they hit a brick wall. That’s because the city bars property owners from making “structural modifications,” including seismic retrofits, to nonconforming structures or buildings with a nonconforming use — meaning they were legal at the time but do not meet current regulations. Because the
city’s soft-story apartments were built several decades ago, many of them fall under this category and cannot get the quick-fix needed to improve earthquake safety. Potential fixes for soft-story buildings include installing new interior or exterior walls, adding thick, 9-inch support columns and adding steel framing at specific locations on the ground floor. The concern is that these kinds of changes could butt up against the city’s zoning regulations by increasing the floor area ratio (FAR) of the building and reducing required parking spaces. At the Nov. 2 Environmental See SAFETY UPGRADES, page 12
VIEWPOINT 19 | GOINGS ON 27 | MARKETPLACE 28 | REAL ESTATE 30
hings got ugly at the Mountain View Whisman School District’s board meeting, when a tense argument between trustee Steve Nelson and the superintendent led to a confrontational back-and-forth over how the district office handles public records requests. The problem started in April, when Nelson sent the district office an elaborate and complicated public records request for math-relat- Steve Nelson ed documents going back to 2014. The request yielded 5,000 pages of results, which had to be pruned down to 3,500 pages over three months, taking up between 35 and 40 staff hours, before it was sent to Nelson. Since receiving the reams of paper, Nelson has come out swinging, calling the district’s administration “inept and (in) need of further training on Public Records Act compliance,” and calling the massive stack of documents “junk” and mostly useless. Nelson brought his argument — and his 2-foot stack of paper — to the Nov. 4 board meeting, accusing district staff of failing to
communicate with him to narrow the request. At the meeting, Nelson accused the district of failing to adhere to state laws requiring it to assist him in making a “focused and effective request.” Superintendent Ayindé Rudolph fired back, arguing that the district’s obligation is to fulfill the request, not to interpret Ayindé Rudolph what he was looking for, and suggested that Nelson’s broad request was the root of the problem. Over 90 percent of the district’s Public Records Act requests this year were addressed within two weeks, with the exception of Nelson’s, he said. Nelson argued that there was no effort on the district’s part to try to narrow the request, an assertion that Rudolph contested, sparking a back-and-forth with raised voices on who said what via email, and when it was said. Nelson demanded that Rudolph stop interjecting during his tirade. “Could you please not interrupt me, Dr. Rudolph, or I’m going to start yelling at you,” Nelson said. “Take a seat.” See NELSON, page 6
ELECTION RESULTS Due to this week’s Veterans Day holiday, the Voice went to press before the Nov. 8 election results were available. Go online to mv-voice.com for the Voice’s full coverage of local election results.