Sunday May 4

The city's election shift shows thrift

Editorial

We support the Los Altos City Council's decision to move municipal elections to even-numbered years to cut costs, even if in doing so council members would extend their own terms by a year without the voters' blessing.

For the sake of frugality, we hope the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors will approve the proposal.

Because Los Altos' local elections currently are on an odd-year schedule, the city has fewer jurisdictions with which to share balloting costs and usually gets lower turnouts rates than cities with even-year elections.

City council races during even-year presidential and gubernatorial elections should attract more voters, and allow Los Altos to share election costs with more jurisdictions, which Mayor Val Carpenter said will save city taxpayers between $65,000 to $105,000 per year. The concept is sound - overall.

Ideally, the city would have addressed the odd-year problem sooner and then allowed voters to choose council members for special five-year terms beginning with the last election in 2007. That could have avoided the scenario of politicians giving themselves an extra year in office that they didn't earn at the polls, and it would have sidestepped questions about the council members' motives.

Under the council's proposal, Carpenter's term now would end in 2010, as would Council Member Lou Becker's. Council Members Ron Packard, David Casas and Megan Satterlee would see their terms extended into 2012. Satterlee dissented in the 4-1 vote to extend the terms

The savings from the rescheduled elections represent a significant sum for a city budget of around $25 million a year, Carpenter said. She makes a compelling case that the money could be better spent on things such as paving roads and stressed the savings start sooner under the council-approved plan.

Ultimately the council's proposal will save tax dollars, which is why we support it.