Upfront
Labor
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the union had ample opportunity over the past year to weigh in on the issue, which was the subject of numerous public hearings before the council voted on it last month. “The City was under no obligation to meet and confer over a Charter amendment on interest arbitration,” Stump wrote. “And even if there was an obligation, the Union waived its rights by sitting on the sidelines in the face of repeated notice that the Charter amendment to repeal interest arbitration was under active consideration.” She asks the board to decline the union’s request “because there is no cause to believe an unfair labor practice has been committed and the injunctive relief that Local 1319 seeks is neither just nor proper.” The union, in its complaint, also seeks an order from the labor-relations board requiring the city to reimburse the union for “all monetary losses and/or financial expenses borne or incurred by” the union that it would
not have borne or incurred but for the city’s “unlawful conduct.” Stump countered that the union had no problem spending election money last year, when it spearheaded a measure to freeze staffing levels in the Fire Department and require the city to hold an election before it could reduce staff or close fire stations. Measure R lost by a roughly 3-1 margin. “Now, just one year later, Local 1319 complains that an election campaign is an overwhelming burden,” Stump wrote. “PERB, the Superior Court and the voters of Palo Alto could be forgiven for concluding that Local 1319’s views on the value and burdens of election campaigns appear to shift depending on whether the ballot measure in question advances their interests.” Palo Alto voters adopted the binding-arbitration ordinance in 1978 in recognition of the fact that publicsafety unions, unlike other workers, can’t legally strike. Palo Alto is one of 22 charter cities in California that has such a provision. Vallejo and Stockton voters recently repealed their cities’ respective binding-arbitration provi-
sion, and San Luis Obispo voters are scheduled to consider doing the same on Aug. 30. In Palo Alto, the City Council majority has consistently maintained that the binding-arbitration requirement is undemocratic because it empowers an unelected panel to make decisions that could significantly impact the city budget. Councilwoman Karen Holman and councilmen Greg Scharff, Pat Burt, Greg Schmid and Larry Klein have all criticized the requirement over the past year, though Klein supported modifying the provision rather than scrapping it altogether. At the July 18 meeting, Vice Mayor Yiaway Yeh pro-
vided the crucial swing vote to bring the repeal to the voters. This week, the council voted to direct Mayor Sid Espinosa to appoint a committee of four council members to write and undersign a ballot argument in favor of the repeal. But the council delayed passage of a companion ordinance that would have required the city and all of its unions to seek mediation during labor disputes. The mediation requirement could be waived only if both sides choose to do so. The council on Monday decided not to pass the ordinance in order to give labor groups more time to review the proposal. Stump wrote in a memo to the
council that although the union’s request is belated, the city “welcomes labor’s input on the proposed mediation program. “The ordinance is not scheduled (to) go into effect until December 2011, at the earliest, so there is sufficient time to accommodate a meaningful exchange with IAFF as well as any other labor group that is interested in exploring the matter further,” Stump wrote. The council is scheduled to consider the mediation ordinance in September. N Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner can be emailed at gsheyner@paweekly. com.
Jobs
disruptive way to do things. “We’ve got to double down on those advantages and use them for growth.” Doerr cited the example of local education entrepreneur Salman Khan, whose online, nonprofit Khan Academy has delivered more than 67 million free lessons to users from around the globe. While the United States does pretty well in information technology, it’s falling behind in biotechnology, Doerr said. “Those industries were invented here, but now, to get trials done, the regulations are hard. The companies I back are testing in Europe, and the government can do a lot about that.” In green technologies, thanks to the Recovery Act and the U.S. Department of Energy’s investmentoriented ARPA-E program, America gets a “C” rather than a “D” or an “F,” Doerr said. Government has a role in developing and growing a sustainable cleanenergy market, he said. “When California says, ‘We want
30 percent of our energy to be renewable by 2020,’ that creates market demand. “When the administration gathers automakers and signs them up for a 54.5 mph strategy, that’s a huge change as contrasted to the assisted suicide which was basically the legislative strategy in Michigan,” Doerr said. Panelists agreed on the need for major education reforms. Right now, “we’re not investing for the future,” Sandberg said. “We graduate only 70 percent of our kids from high school — that’s too little. Of those who graduate, only 30 percent can do college-level work.” And less than one-third of America’s degrees are in the critical fields of science, technology, engineering and math, as opposed to more than 50 percent in China, she said. “Engineers are the new currency,” Doerr said. “We need them now. “We’ve got to find ways to get kids who’ve decided they want to become engineers to see it through to the end.” Technology will transform education to such an extent that, “20 years from now, we’ll look back at someone lecturing to a class and say, ‘That’s so antiquated,” said Hastings. The Netflix founder and chairman formerly chaired California’s State Board of Education and is a major education philanthropist. Transformation of education will come not from rule-bound school districts but from entrepreneurs around the world, including Khan and others, he said. “Every student should be learning on their own, at their own pace with their own virtual instructor,” Hastings said, citing companies such as Headsprout and DreamBox Learning, in which he has a stake. “We need every kid in Brazil, in China, in India to get a good education, because that’s going to increase the world GDP. “A hundred years ago, very few people went to high school. If you look at the last couple hundred years, the spread of education has been phenomenal, so I’m pretty uniformly optimistic.” Tuesday’s panel was held in partnership with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, TechNet and the National Venture Capital Association. It was moderated by Wired Magazine Editor Chris Anderson. N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.
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to remain in the United States, Facebook was prepared to relocate him and his entire team abroad. “At Facebook we have 86 people held up in the visa process right now,” she said. “If we can’t keep them here, we’ll move them, and all the ancillary jobs, elsewhere.” The “know-no-bounds, risk-taking attitude” of entrepreneurs — combined with great universities and risk capital — is a uniquely American asset, said Doerr, whose venture successes have included Google, Amazon, Intuit, Sun, Compaq, Cypress Macromedia and Symantec. “They do more than anyone thinks possible with less than anyone thinks possible and they surprise us all the time, whether in technology, neighborhoods, education or social entrepreneurs,” Doerr said. “What looks like risk to me, or perhaps to others, doesn’t look like risk to them — it’s the obvious new
CityView A round-up of
Palo Alto government action this week
City Council (Aug. 1)
iPads: The council voted to switch from paper packets to iPads or other digital devices. Yes: Burt, Espinosa, Holman, Schmid, Shepherd No: Klein, Yeh Absent: Price, Scharff Arastradero: The council voted to extend the Arastradero Road traffic-calming project until next June. Yes: Burt, Espinosa, Holman, Klein, Schmid, Shepherd, Yeh Absent: Price, Scharff
Architectural Review Board (Aug. 4)
Antennas: The board reviewed a proposal from AT&T for a proposed Distributed Antenna System (DAS) that would collocate antennas at nine existing utility poles within the city. The board did not vote on the project and asked AT&T to make further aesthetic enhancements. Action: None
LET’S DISCUSS: Read the latest local news headlines and talk about the issues at Town Square at PaloAltoOnline.com
Public Agenda A preview of Palo Alto government meetings next week CITY COUNCIL ... The council has no meetings scheduled this week. INFRASTRUCTURE BLUE RIBBON COMMISSION ... The commission plans to continue its discussion of the city’s infrastructure backlog and consider ways to pay for the items on the list. The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 11, in Lucie Stern Community Center (1305 Middlefield Road).
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