Palo Alto: Pool of council candidates swells to 12

Yet another person has pulled nomination papers to run for Palo Alto City Council, bringing the total to 12 since mid-July.

Wayne Douglass obtained the forms from City Clerk Donna Grider on Tuesday. He endorsed last year's Measure D, which sought public approval for a 60-unit apartment complex for low-income seniors and 12 single-family homes at Maybell and Clemo avenues. It was ultimately defeated by grassroots citizens group that said the project was too dense.

Five of the nine council seats are up for grabs Nov. 4. Incumbents Karen Holman, Greg Scharff and Nancy Shepherd have all pulled papers, but Gail Price has said she is not interested in running again. Larry Klein, meanwhile, is leaving office after serving the maximum number of terms.

Others who have obtained the forms include former Gunn High School teacher John Karl Fredrich, retired Boeing engineer Seelam Reddy, downtown resident Richard Wendorf and panhandler Victor Frost.

Eric Filseth and Tom DuBois, who have aligned themselves with the residentialist movement that seeks to put the brakes on development, have also pulled papers. They are running as a slate with Holman.

Rounding out the group of would-be council members are real estate agent Lydia Kou and concert promoter Mark Weiss. Kou has ties to Palo Altans for Sensible Zoning, which opposed Measure D, and Weiss has been critical of planned community zoning, which allows developers to build bigger projects as long as they provide certain public benefits.

Meanwhile, a potential 13th candidate, Claude Ezran, announced this week that he will not seek office.

"A simple analysis of the new competitive landscape shows that running against three incumbents, with the abundance of campaign volunteers, funding, endorsements and support that incumbency usually provides, and also three candidates, who are running together as a team and have behind them, even before the start of the race, the formidable campaign organization that, against most odds, defeated Measure D, would have been a close to impossible task for an independent candidate like myself," Ezran, the founder of World Music Day, said in an email.

The period to pull papers opened on July 14 and will close on Aug. 8 if all eligible incumbents opt to run again. Otherwise, the deadline to turn in the forms will be extended to Aug. 13 for non-incumbents.

Nomination papers must be signed by 25 registered voters, according to the city's election guide. The cost to file is $25 but the fee is waived if a person collects 100 valid signatures.

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Palo Alto: Pool of council candidates swells to 12