Palo 6°Ê888]Ê ÕLiÀÊ{ÓÊUÊÕÞÊÓä]ÊÓä£ÓÊN xäZ Alto City workers to pay more for pensions Page 3 www.PaloAltoOnline.com trying to get a league ahead Pacific Art League reinvents itself for the future Page 20 Connoisseurs Guide inside this issue Title Pages 11 Spectrum 18 Eating Out 25 ShopTalk 26 Movies 27 NArts Fascinating rhythms at Menlo Hub Page 23 NSports Gunn grads hold Paly polo hopes Page 29 NHome Time to tour bountiful, delicious gardens Page 33 Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital is devoted exclusively to expectant She’ll pick mothers and children. s&ULLYINTEGRATED/"ANDNEWBORN her birthday. SERVICESUNDERONEROOF s.ATIONALLYRECOGNIZEDMATERNAL FETAL MEDICINESPECIALIST You pick her s3UPPORTFORYOURPERSONALBIRTHPLAN s.EWLYRENOVATEDPOST PARTUMROOMS s#LASSESANDVIDEOSFOR birthplace. PARENTS GRANDPARENTS ANDSIBLINGS To learn more about the benefits of giving birth at Packard Children’s, call (650) 497-8000 or visit deliver.lpch.org. Page 2ÊUÊÕÞÊÓä]ÊÓä£ÓÊUÊ*>ÊÌÊ7iiÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*>Ì"i°V UpfrontLocal news, information and analysis City workers to foot larger share of pension costs City of Palo Alto set to approve agreement with largest labor union Monday afternoon by Gennady Sheyner steeply rising costs of pension and health to put in place cost sharing programs insti- medical plan. The allowance would drop from mployees in Palo Alto’s largest labor care benefits — obligations that have helped tuting employee contributions to medical and $820 to $284. union will have to start paying a greater lead Vallejo, Stockton and, most recently, San pension plans,” the report from Kathryn Shen, The SEIU workers will also now be re- E share of the city’s pension and health Bernadino into bankruptcy. In Palo Alto, the the city’s Human Resources Director, states. quired to pick up the full employee portion care costs under a new contract that the City council plans to hold a broad public discus- “This contract makes progress toward meet- of the city’s contribution to the California Council is scheduled to adopt Monday night. sion in September to consider ways to reduce ing the City’s goals in both areas.” Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalP- The proposed contract, which the city made these costs. The new contract, which the SEIU voted ERS), which administers pension plans for public Wednesday afternoon, would apply to According to a new report from the Human to ratify on July 17, increases the employees’ the city. The city had traditionally picked up the 580 full-time employees represented by Services Department, the city’s medical costs share of health care costs from the current the full employee share, though that changed the Service Employees International Union, have more than doubled and pension costs level of about 6 percent to 10 percent of to- in 2009, when the workers began paying 5.75 Local 521 — about half the city’s workforce. have tripled in the last decade, exceeding the tal premium costs. The city’s recent contracts percent of the pension contribution. With the These employees were the first to accept ben- city’s revenue growth. with police and firefighter unions resulted in new contract, employees will have to pay the efit cuts in 2009, when the council first started “The City cannot continue to absorb all in- similar concessions from public-safety em- full share of CalPERS’ “employee contribu- making structural changes to employee con- creases in future years and has been negotiat- ployees. At the same time, the city will drasti- tion” — which ranges between 7 percent and tracts. ing with all bargaining units since 2009 to cally reduce the monthly allowance it gives to The changes are meant to address the make permanent, on-going structural change employees who don’t participate in the city’s (continued on page 6) HEALTH ELECTION 2012 Hungry in the City Council summertime to lose its two Stanford physician takes youngest members action after patients say they Yeh, Espinosa decline don’t get enough to eat to seek second terms by Chris Kenrick by Gennady Sheyner orried about rising hunger among he race for four seats on the Palo Alto her patients, a Stanford University City Council further opened up this week W pediatrician has launched a summer T after Mayor Yiaway Yeh announced that food program at an East Palo Alto school. he would not seek a second term. Lisa Chamberlain, an assistant professor of Yeh, who this year became the second- pediatrics who has practiced medicine at the youngest mayor in Palo Alto’s history, made Ravenswood Family Health Center in East his announcement just days after his friend Palo Alto since 2004, said a growing number and mayoral predecessor, Sid Espinosa, said of patients have been answering “no” to the Sierra Duren he would not run again. Both Yeh and Espino- standard question asked of all: “At the end sa joined the council in 2007. Councilmen Pat of the month, do you have enough money for Burt and Greg Schmid were also elected that food and rent?” year, and both have said they intend to seek “I’ve heard it over and over,” said Chamber- Volunteers Yajaira Garcia, left, and Pip Sanders stack sandwich boxes for families in need fresh terms on the nine-member council. lain, who said the uptick began in 2009. during the Summer Food Program at the Cesar Chavez Academy in East Palo Alto. The The announcements by Yeh and Espinosa One patient, with a nursing 6-week-old on her program is run by Lisa Chamberlain, a Stanford University pediatrician. could create opportunities for new candidates lap and her 3-year-old sitting in the exam room, to jump into the race. The city’s most recent told Chamberlain: “I’m hungry right now.” herself in the back room of the Ecumenical identify families most in need. council elections, in 2009, attracted 14 candi- “I know this family really well,” Chamber- Hunger Program’s turkey distribution, spread- “We know who our homeless families are, dates, only one of whom (Larry Klein) was an lain said. “Her husband is a day laborer, and ing the food out across more boxes so there who our foster families are, who’s in need,” incumbent. he hadn’t found work. They’re hardworking. would be enough to go around for the people said Woods, who volunteers with the lunchtime So far, only two new candidates have opted “As pediatricians, we’ve never seen a time of lined up outside. food distribution following her mornings of su- to enter the race. Former Mayor Liz Kniss, who more material deprivation for children. I’ve never “Then some people started coming back pervising summer school at Cesar Chavez. is concluding her final term on the Santa Clara had so many patients telling me they’re hungry. with their turkeys to ask for help cooking The summer school, which offers an aca- County Board of Supervisors, announced her “We’ve never had this many people, nation- them because they were living in their cars. demic and enrichment program to 290 stu- decision to run in January. She served as mayor ally, on food stamps. It’s happening, and it’s We realized we should have had pre-cooked dents, also serves its own federally funded in 1994 and in 2000. really profound.” options,” she said. free-and-reduced-price lunch to enrolled stu- Kniss was first elected to the Board of Super- About 45 million people — nearly one in Over the December holidays Chamberlain dents. visors in 2000 and was re-elected in 2004 and seven U.S. residents — received food stamps began thinking ahead to summer when the Ninety percent of Ravenswood’s 3,000 stu- 2008. Despite her more than decade-long hia- in 2011, a 70 percent increase from 2007, ac- federal school lunch program, which supplies dents meet income guidelines for the federal tus from the council, she has remained a famil- cording to the Congressional Budget Office. free or reduced-price lunches to the 3,000 K-8 breakfast and lunch program. iar figure at City Hall, updating the council on About 70,427 schoolchildren in Santa Clara students in the Ravenswood City School Dis- But Chamberlain and Woods stressed that the various regional issues, most notably Caltrain. County and another 21,590 in San Mateo trict students, would go on break. Stanford program focuses on whole families. Kniss has twice served as president of the County qualify for the federally subsidized She consulted with the school district before “I can’t feed the children and not their par- Board of Supervisors (most recently in 2010) school breakfast and lunch program. deciding to seek funds for summer food, rais- ents,” Chamberlain said. and has chaired various committees focused To qualify, a family of four may earn up to ing enough to distribute about 600 packaged Each weekday at noon, a truck from ven- on health and land-use policies. $29,965 for free lunches and up to $42,643 for lunches a day in the cafeteria at the K-8 Ce- dor Revolution Foods delivers 600 prepack- She also encouraged the city last year to reduced-price school breakfasts and lunches sar Chavez Academy. She raised funds from aged lunches that include a healthy sandwich switch the council elections from odd to even for their children. Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford —turkey and cheese, ham and cheese, peanut years to save money and spur greater voter par- Ravenswood Family Health Center has University Medical Center, Stanford Univer- butter and jelly or chicken salad — and a fresh ticipation. The council put Measure E on the worked with the Ecumenical Hunger Program sity and three anonymous local donors.