Editorial Editorial (May 07, 2004)

Saluting our mayors

Meeting together last month for the first and possibly their only reunion, seven of Pleasanton's eight living former mayors joined Mayor Tom Pico for a night of reminiscing about their service as mayors and members of the City Council dating back to the late 1960s. And what a time they had as Pleasanton moved from an agricultural and gravel mining community of 2,000 residents toward the thriving, prosperous city of 68,000 today, a city that will reach build-out in a few short years with about 28,000 homes and apartments and a population projected at under 80,000. Along the way, these mayors and the City Councils they sat on shaped what has become modern-day Pleasanton, a financially secure city with excellent fire and police protection, quality schools, architecturally distinctive residential neighborhoods and carefully integrated retail centers and office parks.

Sponsored by the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society, which operates the Museum On Main Street, the reunion was billed as "The Lighter Side of Pleasanton Politics." And while they talked about cat leash ordinances and horse riding bans on Main Street, the mayors also paid tribute to the late bank executive Warren Harding, who died last year at the age of 83. Mr. Harding was elected to the City Council in 1960 and served as mayor from 1960-1962 and again from 1966-1968. He is credited with gaining approval of the city's first General Plan, a land use document that has guided the careful and cautious development of Pleasanton ever since. Updated every few years, the General Plan has kept tall buildings out of Pleasanton, limiting heights to five stories in business parks along the freeways. It has preserved our historic downtown, provided for major sports parks while calling for smaller, family focused parks in neighborhoods, established a street system that serves the community while barring an inter-city thoroughfare such as the Peninsula's El Camino Real.

In supporting this plan and participating in its updates, the mayors also paved the way for major development opportunities, from Stoneridge Shopping Center to Hacienda Business Park and others. When a sewage capacity crisis threatened these projects in the early 1970s, they moved quickly to recognize that sewage, like water, requires a regional approach, and those in office closed the 1920s-era sewage disposal plant on Sunol Boulevard and merged with a regional system that is now the Dublin San Ramon Services District. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and into the 21st Century, the former mayors and council members have stayed close to the community and its government as Pico carried through on many of their visions, including acquiring city ownership and municipal control over much of the long-coveted Bernal property that San Francisco sought to develop.

That's why we proudly joined with the nearly 200 mostly long-term Pleasanton residents who applauded the eight mayors for their years of public service: Mayor Pico, elected to the top post in 2000 and now stepping down this year; Bob Pearson,1973-74; Floyd Mori, 1974-75; Ed Kinney, 1975-76; Bob Philcox, 1976-78; Ken Mercer, 1978-79, 1981-82, 1984, 1986-92; Frank Brandes, 1979-80 and 1985-86; and Bob Butler, 1980-82.

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