Ristow, Rennie and Moore Need to Resign

Los Gatos Data Source:

The Town Council (TC) in 2021 and 2022 was controlled by a voting block of three people – Ristow, Rennie and Sayoc – Moore took over for Sayoc in 2023..  They were the majority and acted as a voting block. They controlled every decision regarding the drafting and timing of the Housing Element.

In 2022 Rennie was Mayor and Ristow Vice Mayor. They determined the legislative agenda along with Town Manager Prevetti. Instead of focusing on drafting a compliant Housing Element, which had a statutory deadline of January 31, 2023, they chose to draft a new 2040 General Plan and Land Use Element (which ultimately the TC repealed) which didn’t have any deadline. They wasted more than two years working on the wrong elements.  No other jurisdiction in Santa Clara County did this. Not one.

The TC and the Planning Commission were warned in a letter to the Planning Commission written in early 2022 by a top land use attorney retained by the LGCA that if the Town failed to adopt a compliant Housing Element by January 31, 2023 there were severe penalties, including the Builders Remedy. They simply ignored the legal warning. Worse, up to October 2022, the Town incorrectly believed the legal deadline for adopting a compliant Housing Element was May 31, 2023 not January 31, 2023. This was documented in an October 13, 2022 Staff Report to the Town Council. How Staff remotely thought this was true given the Housing Element legislation defies comprehension. 100 days before the statutory deadline, the Town finally submitted a preliminary draft to the State for review. It must be pointed out that the Town Council did not review nor comment on the Draft prior to it being submitted to the State. There was no oversight at all. This decision was totally controlled by the Town Mayor – Rob Rennie – since he alone set the Council agenda.

The State took their legally required 90 days to review the draft and submitted to the Town on January 12, 2023 a 12 page comment letter informing the Town the preliminary draft did not comply with State Law and required numerous changes to comply with State law. So, 19 days before the statutory deadline the Town first learns that the preliminary draft is totally and completely inadequate. Does that remotely sound like a well planned effort to address a very significant legal requirement?

This was a monumental failure of leadership by Rennie, Ristow, Moore, Sayoc and Prevetti. There was no delay because Rennie, Ristow and Sayoc were trying to accommodate the Council members in the minority.  Nothing like that remotely happened. The inconvenient fact is those in charge blew it. This could have and should have been avoided if Rennie, Ristow, Sayoc (replaced by Moore in 2023) and Prevetti had competently done the job they were hired to do. They failed us, failed our kids and failed every resident that lives here.  They will tell you it was the States fault – but the state would not impose any penalties had the Town developed a compliant Housing Element by 1/31/23.

Prevetti didn’t what to be around for the mess that now has to be handled by the new town manager.  Sayoc left in 2022.  Now Rennie, Ristow and Moore need to duck out just like she did.  Councilmembers Ristow, Rennie and Moore need to resign and hang their heads in shame!  They have ruined the future of this beautiful town with virtually no chance to recover. Save us the cost of a recall.

There is a ton of data and I purposefully did not overload you with all of it. There are some changes that can be made and it may improve these numbers somewhat.  But other building will continue at the same time, so the net affect will still be ugly, smoggy, crowed and a lot less pleasant place to live with the potential of more than 34,000 daily car trips added to the roads.  Ask Ristow, Rennie and Moore how they’re handling traffic today, and how they plan to add 34,000 more cars daily in the future.

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