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Mayor’s Award event shows gratitude
Gratitude is an important trait for the success of both individuals and organizations. Julie Testa’s suggestion to forgo the Mayor’s Award event is petty. The Mayor’s Award event held each year shows gratitude to the hundreds of Pleasanton taxpayers who aid city staff.
It also honors past recipients of the Mayor’s Award. These people are the ones on whose shoulders we all stand. It was not considered excessive last year when the previous mayor was in office and councilmembers Julie Testa and Jeff Nibert were aware of the city’s finances and still proceeded to spend almost $35,000 on this luncheon without question.
Matthew Gray’s statement that the “New council majority has zero credibility” is preposterous. The new council majority should be commended for its transparent and inclusive method of fixing the budget problem they inherited.
We must get serious about government efficiency. The city of Pleasanton must stop shopping at the Consultant Candy Store. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on consultants to place the sales tax increase on the ballot. Many thousands of dollars are spent each year on an executive coach for the administrators. Many thousands are spent on consultants for the development of the current budget.
The City of Pleasanton does not have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem.
— Jan Batcheller
A ridiculous taxpayer-funded party
The new Pleasanton City Council majority approved an $11,500 taxpayer-funded party at Callippe Preserve Golf Course during the March 18 meeting.
This decision is particularly ridiculous given Pleasanton’s proposed deficit. A committee is currently considering deep cuts — including shutting down the Dolores Bengtson Aquatic Center, altering library hours, and cutting programs for the mentally ill and unhoused in our community.
As a previous writer opined, with such serious budget concerns, scaling down the annual Mayor’s Award celebration should have indeed been a no-brainer. Vice Mayor Nibert and Councilmember Testa suggested a modest $500 ceremony with a certificate of recognition, drinks and cookies at City Hall. Yet, instead of choosing this responsible alternative, the council majority opted for a more expensive option.
As a previous invitee to many of these dinners, I can say that I would feel odd eating dinner at the golf course when I knew important services to the community were in the cross hairs for elimination. I served the community as public service-not because I desired a rubber-chicken dinner and a chocolate bar party favor.
Mayor Balch, who was instrumental in torpedoing Measure PP, should have been the person suggesting the cheapest alternative-not voting for a more expensive option and wasting staff time looking for a “sponsor”.
— Laura Danielson
Mountain bikers took over Sierra Club
Mountain bikers in the San Francisco Bay Area think that the Sierra Club has influence over our East Bay Regional Park District. For some reason, the chapter’s executive committee allowed them to take over the East Bay Public Lands Committee, which the mountain bikers thought would put them into position to persuade the park district to open more trails to mountain bikes.
Actually, the Sierra Club’s mountain biking policy is a policy of no policy! It says that mountain biking is acceptable if the land manager says it is. Of course, it’s not!
Mountain biking destroys wildlife habitat, causes horrendous injuries and deaths, and drives hikers and equestrians off the trails and out of the parks — in other words, it’s incompatible with the Sierra Club’s mission.
The club’s policy is also invalid because it was created by an undemocratic procedure: REI sponsored a conference in Park City, Utah in 1994 from which anyone opposed to mountain biking (such as me) was excluded. It resulted in that disastrous mountain biking policy.
— Mike Vandeman
Our library is at risk — take action!
The Pleasanton Library is more than just a building — it is a vital hub for learning, connection and opportunity. Yet, the city is proposing a drastic reduction in library hours from 62 to 40 per week, including two full days, a change that would severely limit access for thousands of residents who rely on this essential resource.
Think about the high school students who depend on the library’s welcoming study spaces in the evening, the families who gather for storytime and enrichment programs throughout the week, and the remote workers who benefit from the library’s internet connection and other technology. Tutors meet with students, adult learners take the next step in their education and job seekers find the tools they need to build a better future.
How do you use the library? What will you miss?
A great city invests in its people. Closing the doors of our library two days a week means shutting out those who need it most. I urge the City Council to stand with its residents and protect our library’s current hours of operation.
Pleasanton residents, now is the time to act. Contact your City Council members, attend the City Council meeting on Tuesday (April 8) and make your voices heard. Together, we can ensure our library remains open and accessible for all.
— Lori Carducci
Missing two inconvenient facts
Matthew Gray’s letter published March 28, 2025 asks why Pleasanton “voters should be forced to pay for a party at a golf course”.
Mr. Gray hides two inconvenient facts. First, this “party” is how the city recognizes and thanks residents who volunteer hundreds of hours of their time each year to serve on commissions, committees and in other critical ways to supplement the work of city staff and City Council.
Second, when Mayor Brown held her “party” in April 2024, everything was already known about our looming budget issues. The city had already tested two versions of the planned Measure PP ballot measure language to see which one polled better.
Despite this, Mayor Brown and the prior City Council went ahead with the $35,000 Mayor’s Award Dinner. Economizing was not a concern to Mayor Brown or councilmembers Testa and Nibert.
This year the city staff proposed a dramatically less expensive version that was estimated to cost $11,500. The City Council approved that amount on March 18. I understand that the city has already reduced that number to about $8,000. There also may be some sponsorship money to further reduce the cost. Councilmember Eicher also suggested that council members forego some of their stipend money to cover the balance.
While Mr. Gray wants to eliminate any meaningful recognition for the many volunteers in Pleasanton, I am pretty sure his pay as a city employee has not been reduced by a penny.
— Doug Miller, chair, No on Measure PP Campaign
Tesla owner and Tesla protestor
I am a Tesla owner and an active participant in the weekly Boycott Tesla protest in Dublin. My driving a Tesla is not an endorsement of the actions of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, particularly his alarming intrusion into the functions of our government.
The nationwide protests against Tesla are not attacks on the cars or their owners. Instead, they are a peaceful and necessary response to Mr. Musk’s ambition to dismantle essential aspects of the U.S. government.
As a private individual, unqualified for public service, lacking understanding of our governmental structures and unvetted by the Senate, Mr. Musk’s influence in eliminating government agencies, defunding vital programs, and unjustifiably laying off thousands of federal employees is deeply concerning and, I believe, an overreach of power.
The consequences of these assumed actions are already being felt by our most vulnerable citizens, children, veterans, seniors and individuals with disabilities. Our elderly neighbors who rely on Meals on Wheels are now living with the fear that their next meal might be their last.
Having significantly benefited from government support himself, it is particularly galling to witness Mr. Musk state that all U.S. government aid funds and grants are “wasteful and fraudulent”. In total, Tesla has reportedly accepted an estimated $2.5 billion in government assistance (i.e. from us, the American taxpayers).
There is something fundamentally wrong in witnessing the wealthiest individual on the planet cutting the very life support systems that our most vulnerable populations depend upon. My participation in the Boycott Tesla protest is a stand against this overreach and a demand for accountability.
— Isabel Gomez
Stealing your power
Governor Newsom hamstrung the CA rooftop-solar industry because those small businesses were cutting into the profits of PG&E. That big-utilities company has donated millions to him. He’s let them get away with murder.
Now they want him to break your contract that you entered while installing rooftop solar. It wasn’t enough that his cronies in the California Public Utilities Commission slashed the incentives for all private solar installed after April 2023. They’re coming for those lucky ones who added photovoltaic cells before that date. You have an agreement that allows you to stay on net metering for 20 years, giving you a reasonable deal selling energy back to the grid. PG&E hates that.
While the PG&E monopoly jacks up its rates to funnel more money into the pockets of its CEO, shareholders and bought politicians, it blames homeowners with rooftop solar for those increases in pricing. Push back against this false narrative. Join the Solar Rights Alliance and call your California legislators. Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan has had our back and championed legislation to reverse the damage done to rooftop solar. Newsom vetoed it. Thank her and also tell our new Senator McNerney where you stand.
Studies have shown we will need both distributed solar and centralized, industrial solar to meet our needs in the 21st century. What we don’t need is a corporation willing to ruin half the solution and burn Californians alive for one more good quarterly earnings. March with the Utility Justice Campaign April 24 in Sacramento, demanding accountability from Newsom and utilities that are owned by and beholden to the public.
— Alan Marling
Why I dislike them
I am often asked by conservative friends on Facebook, “why do you hate Donald Trump so much?” Here is what I tell them…
My dislike for the man actually dovetails almost identically with my disdain for his primary donor. I disliked Trump when he was a pro-choice New York Democrat. Similarly, I disliked Elon Musk when he was a liberal environmentalist. The fact that both switched parties has nothing to do with my loathing for them and it has everything to do with it.
Both men illustrate a complete void in the qualities that I look for in leadership. Yes, they are both lacking in a moral or an ideological compass, making them unworthy of the public trust. Worse, they are utterly bereft of empathy, compassion, and even the more modest commodity of sympathy.
While their privilege makes them unable to relate to common men and women, their absence of emotional maturity makes it impossible for them to even conceive of helping other people. Who knows if I have policy differences with either of them; that ranks much further down the list.
This is why I dislike them.
— Rick Altman
I whole-heartedly agree with Laura; if I were invited to a taxpayer funded party knowing our city was in a drastic deficit, I’d feel wildly uncomfortable attending. It’s a nice gesture to recognize volunteers, but shouldn’t be a priority when we’re considering making drastic budget cuts.
Pleasanton residents should volunteer because it benefits our city and its residents, not for a free lunch. The city could easily recognize volunteers in another way – perhaps an email to all residents thanking such volunteers.