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Palo Alto city attorney to step down Gary Baum to retire from city service on Oct. 31 by Gennady Sheyner
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alo Alto City Attorney Gary Baum will retire from government service in October to pursue a career in private practice and spend more time on pro bono work, the city announced Thursday morning.
Baum, who became the city’s chief legal adviser in July 2004 and earned nearly $240,000 in 2009, will step down Oct. 31, the city announced. In recent years, Baum has won multiple awards for his pro bono
work on behalf of victims of domestic violence. But he has also faced criticism from several members of the City Council, most notably Mayor Pat Burt and Councilman Larry Klein. The city attorney is one of four positions appointed by the council, the others being the city manager, city clerk and city auditor. “I have been honored to serve as Palo Alto’s city attorney and am proud of the work that my staff and I
have done on behalf of the City over these past six years,� Baum stated in an announcement issued Thursday. “My tenure has been an incredible opportunity for me to serve the City and its residents; however, now I’m ready to pursue my interest in tackling municipal law in a different format, either by joining a law firm or starting my own practice.� He also said he was “pleased to leave on a high note, knowing that
the City Attorney’s Office is left in the capable hands of this professional staff.� In the announcement, Baum is credited with cutting costs, assembling a capable legal staff and assisting the city in resolving “many legal problems.� City Manager James Keene called Baum a “dedicated public servant� (continued on page 9)
PUBLIC SAFETY
Cities may share dispatchers Officials from Palo Alto, Mountain View and Los Altos to discuss sharing public-safety resources by Gennady Sheyner
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Veronica Weber
Cyclists ride along downtown Palo Alto’s University Avenue past Lytton Plaza on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Downtown merchants’ group in disarray Palo Alto Downtown Business & Professionals Association ousts president, vows to hold more downtown events by Gennady Sheyner
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hen the Palo Alto City Council established the Downtown Business Improvement District in 2004, city officials envisioned the new assessment district as a tool to nur-
ture existing businesses, support new ones and enhance the variety of commerce around University Avenue. Today, the organization that oversees the district and charges
the roughly 750 merchants in the district between $50 and $500 in annual assessments has no leadership and little accountability. Several downtown merchants said they haven’t seen any “business improvements� in downtown in years, and one of the group’s own board members told the Weekly that the group no longer represents the interests of local businesspeople. “It’s designed to be a bureaucracy, not to represent business people,� said Abraham Khalil, owner of A.K. Insurance Services and board member at the Palo Alto Business and Professionals Association, which has a 2010-11 budget of $131,390. “If it doesn’t represent
business people, it shouldn’t exist.� Khalil joined the board last year and said he has become disenchanted with how little say board members have in organization decisions. On May 21, four days after the Palo Alto City Council voted to keep the assessment district in place for another year, two members of the board’s executive committee ousted the group’s president and executive director, Sherry Bijan, who had led the organization since 2006. Khalil said the other nine board members had no input in the decision, which seemed to have been made behind the scenes. (continued on page 6)
ean budget times are prompting Palo Alto to take a fresh look at sharing dispatch services with public-safety departments in surrounding cities, including Los Altos and Mountain View, City Manager James Keene has told the Weekly. But merging fire departments is not an option that is expected to be on the agenda. “We want to talk about whatever opportunities there are for sharing services, but it’s safe to say that this is not a meeting to talk about consolidation,� Keene said. The same is true relating to the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, he said. Keene said Palo Alto already has multiple facilities that provide regional services, including the city’s Animal Shelter and the Regional Water Quality Treatment Plant near the baylands. In the next few weeks, Keene is scheduled to meet with city managers of Mountain View and Los Altos to talk about other cost-sharing opportunities, particularly those relating to public safety. Dispatch services could provide one such opportunity, Keene said. Palo Alto already has mutual-aid agreements with surrounding cities, and police and fire departments around the region have made an effort to use compatible communications technology. “What we’ve done already in the region is to start to move to a standardized technological platform among the different public-safety (continued on page 9)
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