Why would anyone honestly support such a bad deal for Mountain View?

When will the FPPC reach their decision? Before Oct. 16?

McAlister says this is a non issue motivated by the charter school. Why does this matter? Does he think the site somehow will be bad for the charter school? Is he intending that the vote should hurt the charter school? If it's such a good site for a school, why would the charter school mind using it? Does not putting any sort of a cap on how many kids LASD can dump on the one site have any effect on the charter schools reception of the idea? Would they object to using it if it were a regular LASD school site with average 480 kids?

Now as to conflict of interest, the city attorney is thinking too narrowly. What's the market value of the site that the preschool is renting? The city of Los Altos is discussing $260,000 per year for a similar site. Stepping Stones pays $25K per year. If you're getting a subsidy like this from LASD, narrow definitions aside, doesn't it create a perception of a vote having been bought and prepaid for? When does a conflict move over to being a bribe used to buy political favors?

Some things to note about the various leases made by LASD. The Stepping Stones lease is the only lease not made to a non-profit. Stepping Stones is a for-profit business. The tenant which the city of Los Altos wants to charge $260,000 is also a non profit which has leases from LASD as well. If Stepping Stones were a non-profit, then this quid pro quo would not be so strong. But McAlister gets a share of the profits of Stepping Stones, so he directly benefits from any cost savings in rent by the preschool.

It's pretty bad.

Hmm, numbers do not lie. The broader Los altos and MV community need the facts. Stepping stones is a Private pre school on Public land. The city of Los Altos is discussing $260,000 per year for a similar site. Stepping Stones pays $25K per year. If you're getting a subsidy like this from LASD, narrow definitions aside, doesn't it create a perception of a vote having been bought and prepaid for? When does a conflict move over to being a bribe used to buy political favors?

Mountain View Councilman McAlister used to run his campaign on the slogan "Residents First." Too bad he has seemly decided to have switched to My Pocketbook First. Or is that now Los Altos School Board & Superintendent First? Too bad.