MEET MY SECOND LIFE Virtual and Real Worlds Intersect on Internet Page 18

Palo 6°Ê888]Ê ÕLiÀÊÓnÊUÊ7iìÃ`>Þ]ÊÕÞÊÓÎ]ÊÓään N xäZ Alto City may seek business tax Page 3 www.PaloAltoOnline.com MEET MY SECOND LIFE Virtual and real worlds intersect on Internet page 18 Talk about the news at Town Square, www.PaloAltoOnline.com NUpfront City, Children’s Theatre director reach agreement Page 3 NAt School Web startup aims to streamline parenting Page 22 NSports Unlikely champion in Bank of the West Page 24 apr.com It's just one click to a complete list of virtually all homes for sale in the Bay Area. LOS ALTOS Amazing home with an enormous yard and great floor plan. Four large bedrooms upstairs along with an office/ den. Downstairs is a second private suite perfect for guest or au pair. Large cooks kitchen. $2,749,000 PALO ALTO Beautifully remodeled penthouse condominium in downtown with views. Newly designed kitchen with new cabinets, granite slab counter tops and stainless steel appliances. 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Remodeled kitchen with granite. $998,000 apr.com | PALO ALTO OFFICE 578 University Avenue 650.323.1111 APR COUNTIES | Santa Clara | San Mateo | San Francisco | Alameda | Contra Costa | Monterey | Santa Cruz Page 2ÊUÊ7iìÃ`>Þ]ÊÕÞÊÓÎ]ÊÓäänÊUÊ*>ÊÌÊ7iiÞ UpfrontLocal news, information and analysis Briggs to retire, stay on as adviser till ’09 Longtime theater director waives right to pay as part of the settlement. the city and Briggs will have any Briggs and other theater staff mem- He said it was particularly im- disagreements about the property. bers. to challenge or sue city portant that Briggs have the oppor- Through the agreement, both the “We are absolutely overjoyed at by Becky Trout tunity to retire after 47 years as an city and Briggs avoid admitting they this news and delighted that Pat’s employee in good standing. did anything wrong, Parsons said. long ordeal is finally over,” spokes- ongtime Children’s Theatre interests of the Children’s Theatre “Pat is very pleased with this res- “This is just a reasonable resolu- man Ralph King said Monday. Director Pat Briggs, 72, will are best served by my retirement olution,” he said. tion for the situation given the total- Confidential discussions have L retire Aug. 1 and then return and assistance with the transition “There’s still a lot of spunk and ity of the facts,” he said. been underway for several weeks, as a contracted “advising artistic to a new direction,” Briggs said in fight in the gal, but the months and As an artistic director, Briggs several sources have confirmed. director” for six months, City Man- a statement. months have just worn her down. will receive $50 an hour, an ap- The Weekly first reported on Palo ager Frank Benest announced in a The city never finalized Briggs’ She would not be returning to the proximation of her current salary, Alto Online that an agreement was press release Monday afternoon. termination, which was thought to same theater she left in January,” Parsons said. in the works on July 10. Benest acknowledged the past have begun June 30. Instead, she is Parsons said. By signing the agreement Mon- Briggs and three other theater months have been “difficult” for serving a 30-day suspension with- The agreement also stipulates that day, Briggs waives the right to chal- staff members had been under in- all involved. out pay. Briggs will not be able to work, or lenge the city’s decision to termi- vestigation for suspected “financial “Now that we’ve reached a mutu- Briggs will also pay the city volunteer, at the theater following nate her and to sue the city for the crimes,” including embezzlement, ally acceptable agreement, we can $15,000 “for any and all overpay- Jan. 31, 2009. damages or distress caused by the since a weekend burglary occurred begin the healing process,” Benest ments or double reimbursements Briggs accepts that and under- 11-month criminal investigation, at the theater in June 2007. But the said in a release. “I have confidence made to her by the city,” the agree- stands it can be changed in the future which began following a burglary Santa Clara County District At- that everyone can put aside their dif- ment states. if the city desires, Parsons said. at the theater in June 2007. torney’s office announced May ferences and work towards ensuring Briggs’ attorney, Jon Parsons, The agreement also states the city She also waives her right to sue 15 that the case was too complex the continued success of our beloved said the $15,000 was a “very dis- will return Briggs’ personal proper- the city for age discrimination. and flawed to prosecute further or institution, the Children’s Theatre.” puted number.” ty, some of which was taken by the The deal also pleased the nonprof- present to a jury. “Following the loss of Michael Parsons said he and Briggs believe police during searches of the the- it Friends of the Palo Alto Children’s Briggs’ termination inflamed an Litfin and the strain and disruption the amount Briggs owes the city is ater, storage lockers and her home. Theatre, which has been decrying of the last seven months, I think the “nowhere near that,” but she agreed Parsons said he does not expect the investigation and treatment of VÌÕi`ÊÊ«>}iÊ7) LAND USE Palo Alto VA plans big expansion Center to rehabilitate the blind will be largest in VA system by Sue Dremann $750 million reconstruction crease in the last 11 years,” Nietup- project is underway at the ski said. A Veterans Affairs Palo Alto The VA Palo Alto Health Care Health Care System in Palo Alto. System as a whole includes inpatient The redevelopment work in- facilities at Palo Alto, Livermore cludes a 375,000-square-foot and Menlo Park, though construc- ambulatory-care/research center; tion will be focused in Palo Alto. >ÀiiÊ ÕV >À` a 93,000-square-foot polytrau- The system — which also in- ma rehabilitation center; a new cludes six outpatient clinics in San 64,000-square-foot Western Blind Jose, Capitola, Monterey, Stockton, Rehabilitation Center; an 80-bed, Modesto and Sonora — treated 80,000-square-foot acute psychi- 745,000 outpatients in 2007, up atric inpatient facility; a 32,000- from 494,000 in 1997, according to Shoe fetish Alexandra Yesian, 16, stacks boxes holding nearly 150 pairs of shoes, which she do- square-foot rehabilitation research Nietupski. nated last week to the Ecumenical Hunger Program in East Palo Alto. Dubbing her charity effort “Got and development bone-and-joint The Palo Alto projects are part of Extra Shoes?” Alexandra has been collecting shoes from friends, neighbors and strangers for more center; and a 20,000-square-foot a nationwide upgrade of facilities than a month. For the full story on Got Extra Shoes? go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com. central plant and generator facili- serving veterans. In July 1999, a ties and 600-stall parking structure General Accounting Office (GAO) and helipad. study found the Veterans Adminis- of the annual $5.2 million that a A new emergency department tration was diverting a million dol- BUSINESS new police headquarters is expect- opened on July 14. lars a day — or $3.6 billion during ed to cost over the next 30 years, The projects will consolidate a decade — from veterans’ health according to Lalo Perez, the city’s services that are currently scat- care to maintain unneeded or un- City seeks tax administrative services director. tered around the 93-acre Palo Alto used facilities. The major corporations in Stan- campus and will also replace aging The average age of the Veteran ford Research Park — such as buildings that became structurally Affairs’ 4,900 buildings is more to raise revenues Hewlett-Packard Co. and Lock- deficient after the 1989 Loma Pri- than 50 years, and the need to re- Palo Alto tax could target major firms heed Martin — pay relatively low eta earthquake, according to Jason duce vacant space and unneeded property and sales taxes and would Nietupski, facilities manager for the buildings has been the focus of sev- and fund police building, supporters say be appropriate targets of such a tax, Palo Alto VA. eral reports by the GAO. by Arden Pennell according to former City Council The Palo Alto center has seen a “This approach to facilities man- member Bern Beecham, who orig- marked growth in its number of pa- agement means the dollars once n need of money for a new $80 is moving forward with consider- inated the tax idea. tients over the past decade. wasted on old and vacant buildings million public-safety building ation of a business tax. But the business community “In 1997, we treated 24,051 pa- can be used to enhance services in I that voters seemed unwilling A business tax could generate tients; in 2007, that number hit to pay for, the City of Palo Alto between $1 million to $2.5 million VÌÕi`ÊÊ«>}iÊ5) 49,370. That’s a 100-percent in- VÌÕi`ÊÊ«>}iÊ5) *>ÊÌÊ7iiÞÊUÊ7iìÃ`>Þ]ÊÕÞÊÓÎ]ÊÓäänÊU Page 3 $5.#!.#$/"3/. *2 703 HIGH STREET, PALO ALTO, CA 94302 Duncan C. Dobson, Jr., 61, of Harbor Springs, MI, and a native St. (650) 326-8210 Louisan, died on July 17, 2008 from lung cancer. Husband of the former PUBLISHER Our William S. Johnson Lucy Blayney; father of Duncan C. Dobson, III and Lindsey Dobson EDITORIAL Madden; brother of Sally Dobson Danforth; son of the late Mr.

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