The stage is set.
Eight Livonians are running for four available seats on city council. The spots currently held by Jim Jolly, Laura Toy, Cathy White and Rob Donovic are all up for grabs. White is term-limited and cannot run this cycle, so at least one seat will change hands.
Eight candidates is not enough to force a primary election, so voters will only head to polls in November to vote for council. Candidates have until Friday afternoon to withdraw.
Hometown Life asked candidates why they re hoping to serve the public in the council chambers. Here s what each had to say:
A nation watches: Britons pay their respects to Prince Philip from home, the pub and even at sea after mourners were asked to stay away from funeral due to Covid rules
Social distancing measures mean Britons were told to stay away from Prince Philip s funeral in Windsor today
Instead, many decorated their living rooms and homes to pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh this afternoon
Britons took to social media to share photos of their set-ups as they said farewell ahead of today s funeral
Housing discussion should be transparent
The Feb. 17 Town Crier article “‘A lot of damage done’: Council members spar over dubious housing report” shows how little progress we are making in improving transparency in city government.
This issue has been a major priority for Los Altos residents in both city council and city staff actions.
One of the most important issues facing all California cities is new state requirements under the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process that would require additional housing to be built. For Los Altos, this would mean an additional 20% of new housing would be needed.
Congratulations to Lynette Lee Eng and Anita Enander for presenting basic information on this complex issue at the last city council meeting. This information will lead to open community discussions on a subject that will impact all of us.
Livonia Police Chief Curtis Caid is optimistic of what embedding two social workers into the department would mean. I am confident this is going to be a great program for our community, he said. I think this will also be a program others will seek out for their community.
Caid says he s been working to add mental health and crisis experts to the Livonia Police Department, a program now proposed through a partnership with Hegira Health, for years and he hopes to see that idea come to fruition. The social workers would co-respond with officers to crisis situations, respond alone in secure situations and follow-up with those who need it.
What will we tell kids about pandemic?
I have been thinking a lot about how our young people will judge us when they look back on how we responded to this pandemic.
Will they ask if we knew in our hearts that many of them were suffering in isolation, but we needed to wait and see the data to prove it?
Will we tell them it was so hard that we couldn’t figure out how to safely get them back with their peers in the classroom for a year – or more?
Will they ask why we could reopen a restaurant or hair salon but not a school classroom?