Letter to the Editor: No Trust in Los Gatos Government

I don’t believe there was overt cronyism in the approval of the new gun shop. 

Some are suggesting this because of the Los Gatos Monte Sereno police officer's involvement in the business. But it gives me pause when I think of the bias that went on under former Los Gatos Community Development Director Wendie Rooney and her boss, Los Gatos Town Manager Greg Larson.

Rooney and Larson have had too much discretion when it comes to allowing what kinds of shops in town. It requires an expensive permit process to get some businesses approved in Los Gatos. Yet they allowed the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce to occupy a new location without this expensive permit. Now that’s overt cronyism, and is not allowed according to our ordinances.

They did the same thing for a national phone company franchise store. Also they misled the Los Gatos Town Council into believing that the upstairs of the Los Gatos Theater was legal space for a new bar in order for it not to have to pay for additional parking spaces.

Then a prominent builder with political connections was not fined for scraping a 19th-century cottage to build a new home. Yet a similar, less egregious issue around the corner, cost the homeowner a fine of more than $60,000. Hmm.

Finally they got the town involved in a lawsuit (which they lost) for allowing the Netflix project to cut corners while not doing the same for the North 40 project. All this last year, alone.

The eight years that Mr. Larson has been in charge of our town I have seen too much behind-the-scenes decision-making without public prevue. No wonder there isn't any trust in government.