On the City Budget: In this economy, we are all 'sharing the pain.' To solve our City's $10 million budget deficit, a fair municipal  'share the pain' approach is: one-third comes from passage of the business license tax this November; one-third comes from reducing the number of City employees; and the remaining one-third comes from a 5% reduction in the total compensation paid to our staff, both union and non-union. City Manager Jim Keene has done his part by voluntarily reducing his own compensation by 5%.

On the Environment: Palo Alto continues to lead on environmental issues with last year's adoption of one of the first mandatory Green Building ordinances in the country. Next term I plan to work on additional measures that reduce our carbon footprint, such as reducing energy use in existing residential and commercial buildings, and improving and expanding our bike lane system.

On Quality of Life: Palo Alto can accommodate only limited growth in its residential and commercial properties; our schools are nearing capacity yet ABAG wants us to expand our housing stock by 10% over the next seven years. I am opposed to this ABAG plan and will continue my work to keep Palo Alto's growth at a level that preserves our quality of life. High Speed Rail, if built right, will be beneficial. But an above-grade HSR would create a 20 to 40-foot high wall right through Palo Alto which would be a disaster for our community. I will continue to work against this HSR proposal.