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Schools wary of grand jury’s bond advice By Nick Veronin
often “rationalized with speculative assumptions about rising he Santa Clara County real estate values.” Civil Grand Jury is calling In reality, the report said, real for local school districts to estate prices do not always rise in adopt self-policing policies that accordance with projections, and would limit the use of capital in some cases, school districts appreciation bonds, which the end up kicking the can down the grand jury found can potentially road on repayment for decades, be abused by districts. allowing interest to compound to While the local high school more than four times the amount district formally borrowed. agreed with the Although legreport’s findings, islation is cur‘We believe that rently pending district officials said they would not would under the right which comply with the place limits on jury’s recommen- circumstances that the way districts dations to adopt a can use CABs, new policy, as leg- CABS can be used the grand jury islation is currently report recomresponsibly.’ pending to limit mended that the potential abuse districts also CRAIG GOLDMAN, of capital appreadopt policies SUPERINTENDENT ciation bonds. The pledging that local elementary they will not and middle school district for- issue abusive CABs, before the mally disagreed with both the law — Assembly Bill 182 —has a grand jury’s findings and recom- chance to pass. mendation to adopt a policy. Craig Goldman, superintendent With capital appreciation of the Mountain View Whisman bonds, or CABs, both the prin- School District acknowledged cipal and interest payments of that CABs have been abused by the bond are deferred — allow- some districts in the past, but he ing districts to tell taxpayers that disagreed with the language of the they won’t have to worry about report’s official finding that CABs repaying the debt for many years. are “inevitably” damaging. According to the grand jury report, released in May, CABs are See BONDS, page 13
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COURTESY BOB STENZ
A tipped-over cement truck is righted on Middlefield Road Saturday.
Driver dies in cement truck accident By Gennady Sheyner
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man died on Middlefield Road on Saturday morning, Aug. 24, after an accident that caused the cement truck he was driving to topple onto its side, Palo Alto police said. The victim, later identified by
the Santa Clara County medical examiner’s office as Leonard Lawrence Acosta, a 58-yearold San Jose resident, was the sole occupant of the truck that police found tipped over on its side shortly after 5 a.m. on the 4200 block of Middlefield, just south of San Antonio Road near
the Mountain View border. Fire Department personnel pronounced the driver dead at the scene, according to the police. No other vehicles were involved and no other people See TRUCK ACCIDENT, page 9
Stolen puppy gets returned SMALL DOG REUNITED WITH OWNER AFTER BEING TAKEN FROM CAR By Nick Veronin
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puppy that was taken from a locked vehicle in Mountain View on Saturday was returned after reports circulated in the media and online, police said. Uso, a 9-week-old Chiweenie/pit bull mix, was turned in Sunday, Aug. 25, to the police department in good shape, police said via the department’s Facebook page. The dog was taken from a car in the 1300 block of Villa Street sometime between 2:30 p.m. and 2:44 p.m. on Aug. 24, according to Shino Tanaka, social media and community coordinator with the MVPD.
Investigators said it appeared that the perpetrator pushed an already cracked window down, reached in and pulled the dog out. While the return appears to have been triggered by reports in local media and on social media web sites, Tanaka said police aren’t sure why the dog was taken in the first place. Tanaka said that some of the people commenting on the MVPD’s Facebook post speculated that the dog may have been taken from the car by someone who felt the animal was being treated cruelly, as temperatures over the weekend reached the mid- to high-70s. However, that was
just speculation. If anyone ever has reason to believe that an animal is being abused, Tanaka said they may anonymously call the MVPD and report it at 650-9036344. “Don’t take it upon yourself to act,” Tanaka said. “We’re always happy to respond.” The puppy certainly seemed happy, as did the officers at the station who got a chance to interact with the dog before returning it to its owner on Sunday. “There was a lot of tail wagging and kissing going on in the station,” according to the MVPD Facebook post. —Bay City News Service contributed to this report
COURTESY MOUNTAIN VIEW POLICE DEPARTMENT
A puppy named Uso was taken from a locked car, but returned safely to police a day later. August 30, 2013 ■ Mountain View Voice ■ MountainViewOnline.com ■
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