Backlash Over City's Business License Crack-Down Diving Into Ocean
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A family 1st Place GENERAL affair EXCELLENCE WEEKEND | 20 California Newspaper Publishers Association JUNE 3, 2016 VOLUME 24, NO. 19 www.MountainViewOnline.com 650.964.6300 MOVIES | 25 Backlash over city’s business license crack-down By Mark Noack Johnston-Tyler said. “They’re telling me that if I send an mazon, the online retail email or answer my phone at giant, sells truckloads home then I owe them a busi- Aof goods every day in ness tax — that’s insane!” Mountain View, yet the com- The dispute erupted last pany apparently doesn’t have a month when Johnston-Tyler city business license. A fleet of was contacted by HdL Com- Uber drivers chauffeur custom- panies, a municipal-consulting ers around Mountain View, yet firm based in Los Angeles that company also has no busi- County. HdL was hired by Mountain View last year to per- MICHELLE LE ness license on file. Airbnb and Leslie Carillo-Lorenzo earned a spot on a scientific research vessel, where she will spend part of her Alphabet — both worth billions form a business-license audit, summer break. The junior at Mountain View High School is a member of the school’s robotics team. of dollars — evidently also tracking down unlicensed busi- operate without having paid the nesses and pressuring them to city’s modest annual license fee. come into compliance. Under That backdrop might help the deal, the city doesn’t pay Diving into ocean exploration explain why a recent Mountain HdL directly for the work, but View push to get more unli- the firm is entitled to keep 35 TEEN SELECTED TO HELP EXPLORE IN NAUTILUS RESEARCH VESSEL censed businesses into compli- percent of any new business fees ance ended up sparking a bit of they helped capture. By Kevin Forestieri below sea level. And as the vessel ing about deep-sea explora- a backlash. Some small busi- HdL first contacted Johnston- heads south to California this tion and riding aboard one of nesses caught up in the sweep Tyler last month in a letter he Exploration Vessel summer, a Mountain View High the most prominent and well- have criticized the city’s con- questionnaire asking about (EV) Nautilus has been School student will join the crew. known research vessels travel- tract auditors for claiming they her Santa Clara counseling Tpacing up and down the Leslie Carrillo-Lorenzo, a ing the world. need to abide by rules that go firm. Johnston-Tyler says she waters of the Pacific Northwest junior, was fishing her way The 64-meter has been a key unnoticed by big corporations. answered the questions honest- for the past month, giving sci- through internship and sum- tool for scientific exploration, Perhaps the best example of the ly, explaining she worked some- entists a peek into unexplored mer programs when an unusual city’s scatter-shot enforcement: times from home but didn’t see ocean depths thousands of feet opportunity stood out — learn- See NAUTILUS, page 14 the company hired by Mountain clients there or claim her home View to perform a citywide busi- office as a tax deduction. Her ness-license audit is itself lacking firm was already paying about a local business license. $300 each year in Santa Clara A Mountain View resident business taxes, she explained. LASD parcel tax raises questions last week flagged some of the A few days later, an HdL inconsistencies in the Moun- representative called Johnston- over charter school equity tain View’s business-license Tyler up and said that since her enforcement after city contrac- home was being used for busi- TAX RENEWAL COULD ALLOW BULLIS CHARTER SCHOOL tors began pressuring her to ness, she was obligated to get a get a license for her consulting business license. STUDENTS TO BENEFIT FROM LOCAL REVENUE company that is based in Santa Johnston-Tyler complained to By Kevin Forestieri ought to be spread out among cel tax revenue — because they Clara. Jan Johnston-Tyler said city officials, and the city attor- all the students in the district — attend Bullis. That’s because that her refusal is a matter of ney later responded by pointing ver the next two months, including the kids attending the both parcel taxes that the Los principle, and not about the $31 her to a section of the city’s the Los Altos School local charter school. Altos School District relies on for cost of a business license. She municipal code, which states ODistrict will be ham- In a letter to the Voice last funding do not have any word- says city contractors were try- that anyone who conducts busi- mering out details for a parcel month, Bullis Charter School’s ing that guarantees the charter ing to claim she had to obtain ness within Mountain View tax renewal slated to be on the board chairman, John Phelps school will get a piece of the pie. a Mountain View business must pay the city’s fees. This November ballot. And although wrote that parents, students and “Every public school student license because she occasionally code section clearly states this school board members have yet staff at the charter school are an living in Los Altos should benefit telecommutes from home. She requirement should be applied to talk about what the measure integral part of the Los Altos from the revenues generation by blasted the treatment as being to all businesses, regardless of will look like, there is a looming Community, but are missing out like a “shakedown.” question on whether the funds on a key funding source — par- See PARCEL TAX, page 12 “This really pisses me off,” See BUSINESS LICENSE, page 18 INSIDE VIEWPOINT 19 | GOINGS ON 27 | MARKETPLACE 28 | REAL ESTATE 30 JUDY SHERI CINDY BOGARD-TANIGAMI BOGARD-HUGHES BOGARD-O’GORMAN 650. 207. 2111 650.279.4003 650.924.8365 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] CalBRE# 00298975 CalBRE# 01060012 CalBRE# 01918407 ConsultantsInRealEstate.com Ranked in the Top 100 Nationwide by the Wall Street Journal for the 7th Consecutive Year. 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