City sets new dates for California Avenue Tree Planting Process

Since when is a Red Maple not a shade tree???

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jennie: Your statement about what's happening on October 5 at the City Council meeting is incorrect. That's when the City Manager is going to present a report about what went wrong in the Public Works department.

Mr. Keene also told the Council last Monday that he was directing staff to meet with stakeholders (which does include residents) to come up with a plan for moving forward.

But don't take my word for it. Come to the Cal Ave Farmers' market on Sunday 9/27, where there will be an info table where two hapless Public Works employees will attempt to answer your questions about how we got into this mess and what the next steps might be.

Resident, Evergreen Park: I quoted the Daily Post which wrote that at the Council Meeting on October 5th staff "will ask Council to take action on a number of items including selecting replacement trees and process changes to insure this cannot happen again".

I take that to mean what it says that selecting replacement trees will take place on October 5th.

"I quoted the Daily Post"

Well that explains where you went wrong.

Below is a direct quote from the City's press release dated 9/26/09

"October 5, City staff will return to City Council and respond to Council’s request for action on a number of items including street tree selection."

Me. Keene should not be in a position to ask the city council to do anything. Mr. Keene should have been unemployed by now and sending out resumes.

bike2work-red maple is not a shade tree because for a bunch of months each year it's as bare as a shaved poodle and would make Cal. Ave. look like strip mall in Fargo during winter.

Short term the community needs to have major input into decsions about California Avenue. Sort, medium and longer term there needs to be structural reform at City Hall.

There has to be adult supervision of the City bureaucrats. This may require a charter amendment to replace the weak mayor strong manager government with a strong mayor directly elected by the people who can then effectiely supervise a structurally weak city manager.

Pulbic Work itself needs to be re-structured. The Public Works Director and his Assistant Director who approved the clearcut then obfuscated their roles and the reasons for the decision need to be relieved of their duties as soon as possible and replaced by smart, effectivess, inclusive, sincere, honest management.

Ken says above: "red maple is not a shade tree because for a bunch of months each year it's as bare as a shaved poodle and would make Cal. Ave. look like strip mall in Fargo during winter."

sheer poetry ...and oh, so true.

Palo Alto Weekly: please be sure to report on exactly what the city council decides on Mon. 10/5. We need to know if it is worth going to a meeting on 10/8. I don't want to sit around and just hear people complaining if we cannot affect the outcome.

I had the privilege to work for the City of Palo Alto for seven years. During that time I worked closely with Palo Alto Public Works Department Engineering Division staff and the Public Works Director.

Every member of the Public Works staff, from Director Glenn Roberts and Deputy Director Mike Sartor to all the staff engineers were always conscientious and highly professional people. They always did their best for the Palo Alto community. They were wonderful people to work with on any and all projects.

While it has been four years since I worked with Glenn, Mike, Woojae, and the other fine people who work in Public Works Engineering, I am certain that they are all the same capable, honorable people I knew during my tenure as Chief Transportation Official.

I do not wish to make any comments in this forum about the trees, streetscape, or street design issues on California Avenue. I do not know any details about what did or did not happen to date regarding this project. However, I would ask everyone in this forum to kindly remember that as humans we all make mistakes in our lives. I know with a humbled certainty that I have done so.

I am confident that my friends and former colleagues in the Palo Alto Public Works Department, after all is said and done, will make the California Avenue project a success for the community they work so hard to serve.

But Mr. Kott, you ARE making a comment about the clear-cut debacle on California Avenue, by saying "we as humans all make mistakes in our lives." You are implying that this was an accidental mistake. I personally do not believe human error had anything to do with this; those 63 mature oak trees were cut in light-speed haste, before the community could intervene. I believe this was the unfolding of an agenda, and was intended to circumvent the public's resistance to such costly, outrageous "beautification" plans.

Mr. Kott, you are absolutely correct in saying that we all make mistakes, but mistakes on this level must have consequences, or there is never an incentive for anybody to avoid them. The person who signed the work authorization was told that the project had not received final approval and no work can be authorized before the proper process has been completed, yet he went ahead and signed the work order. Assuming that no criminal activity (a bribe for example) has been involved, this person still must lose his job, and frankly, everybody above him.

In organizations like the City of Palo Alto sometimes a subordinate makes a mistake because he or she is ordered to make the mistake by a superior.

When a Public Works senior employee is told not to sign the work order until the appropriate authorization and review procedures have been completed and then promptly goes ahead and signs the order anyway, resulting in the contractor sending his crews over the next day and cutting down 63 trees at nearly the speed of light, I get very suspicious. Call me paranoid, but if that employee isn't investigated by the city auditor, if not the police, this entire city government will become a sad joke.

"October 5, City staff will return to City Council and respond to Council’s request for action on a number of items including street tree selection."

This may be a little off topic but will the conversion from a four-lane street to a two-lane street be discussed as well? Are there plans for a bike lane? If they are going to make changes to a street that was perfectly fine to begin with shouldn't they at least be for the better?

OneLessCar: If you agree that reducing Charleston from four to two lanes and the proposed Arastradero Road changes from four to two lanes is a good idea, then you'll like the proposed changes to California Avenue. They are about to reduce the number of lanes from four to two and supposedly increase the parking.

Nowhere do I see any consequence happening for Public Works fiasco. If I, private citizen, chain sawed a city tree-not only would I have to replace it but I would be fined. Yet, the council just needs to say they're sorry? And WE get to PAY for the replacement trees? I don't get this.
Where is the anger towards the city's approval process regarding a non-essential project of this scope? These are frugal and cost cutting times. The trees that were there to begin with were OK-why should the tax payers be made to pay?

Debra is right about the unreasonableness of imposing this cost on the taxpayers. The senior ranking employee who was aware of and approved the tree action should pay for the new trees.