By Miranda Simon
PALO ALTO - Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson’s committee assignments range from Commerce, Science and Transportation to Foreign Relations, but 22 per cent of the bills he sponsors have more to do with the interests of his top campaign contributor – real estate.

Eight of the 36 bills Isakson sponsored were related to real estate, which used to be his field of business before he was sworn into the Senate in 2004.

Isakson receives $535,980 from the Real Estate industry, making him the fifth recipient of Real Estate funds in the Senate, according to the watchdog Maplight.org.

“He served on our board of directors, so we have a long standing relationship with the senator,” said Scott Reiter, political director of the National Association of Realtors. “He has understands our issues – He used to be a realtor, you know that?”

As part of the stimulus bill approved in February of 2009, Congress created an $8,000 tax credit for individual first-time homebuyers which was expanded at the end of 2009.

It allows home buyers until May of 2010 to have a home contract in place to qualify for the credit and raised the income caps from $75,000 to $125,000 for singles and from $150,000 to $225,000 for married couples.

The National Association of Realtors said this bill helped generate 350,000 home sales this year. But as inventories decreased, realtors started looking to stimulate homeowners to upgrade to a higher-priced home.

The new law addressed this need as well, making most current homeowners eligible for a tax credit of up to $6,500 for buying a second home after the primary home had been occupied for at least five years. The second home would be a replacement of the first.

But Sen. Isakson’s version of the amendment to extend tax credit for homebuyers was much more radical.

The amendment, which was unanimously approved by the senate in Feb. 2009, would raise the credit amount to $15,000 and remove the income restrictions entirely.

It would also strike out the requirement that the beneficiary of the tax break has to be a “first-time homebuyer of a principal residence,’’ replacing it with ‘‘an individual who purchases a principal residence.”

In a Feb. 4 press statement issued by his office, the amendment to the stimulus bill was described as “a direct tax credit to any homebuyer who purchases any home.”

Media contacts from both his Georgia and Washington office were not available to clarify why Isakson’s amendment had less defined restrictions than the tax credit extension finally passed by the administration.

A spokesperson from his Georgia Senate office said the the credit had not been raised to $15,000 in the final bill because “the democrats wouldn’t pass it,” but said she didn’t have the specific details on the amendment.

Isakson has been involved in real estate since 1967, when he opened Northside Realty, now one of Georgia’s largest real estate brokerage companies in Cobb County.

In a Jan. 14 meeting of the Cobb Association of Realtors, Senator Isakson explained the tax credit extension to real estate agents.

“It was important for us to have him there because he was one of the main authors of the homeowner tax credit,” said Carol Moson, an Atlanta agent for Re/Max realty, who was present at the meeting.

She said the tax credit extension, because it enabled homeowners to buy a second home in replacement of the first, was very beneficial to the real estate industry, “it addresses a stagnation in the real estate market,” she said.

Middle price homes were not attractive to buyers, she said, but thanks to the tax credit extension, people got an incentive to buy a second home at a middle price point.

She said that the real estate market had few new homes in their inventories now, so she was not concerned about Sen. Isakson’s statement at the Cobb Association of Realtors meeting that the homebuyer tax credit would not be extended again.

“We now need new construction,” she said.

When questioned about why Isakson receives such a strong backing from real estate agencies, she said, “He is a huge advocate of private ownership. It is important for homeowners to know that they have a representative in congress.”

Scott Reiter said realtors look to Isakson for advice because of his expertise in the industry and said that sponsoring bills within committees is not as important in the Senate as it is at a representative level.

Isakson has been called the media’s attention previously for swaying his votes or sponsorship of bills towards his campaign contributors. In 2007, he opposed a bill that would force Home Depot, a major contributor, to build shacks for immigrant employees.

The senator is up for reelection in Nov. 2010. It seems he will continue to receive backing from the real estate sector, and that is no small feat: the National Association of Realtors is number three in the Center for Responsive Politics’ list of top all time campaign donors.

By Miranda Simon

STANFORD - When Hillary Clinton visited a young women’s college in Saudi Arabia this February, journalists expected a rerun of U.S. envoy Karen Hughes’ 2005 debacle. The settings were strikingly similar: a group of college women garbed in black abayas, anticipating the latest dictum on how Americans perceive the situation of women in Saudi Arabia and hope things will change.
Karen Hughes’ visit had been carefully choreographed: the city, Jidda, is considered one of the most liberal areas in Saudi Arabia, and Hughes was believed to be particularly “careful.” But when she said she hoped women would be able to fully participate in society and drive, she met considerable resistance.
Clinton struck some of the same chords, but when it was the women’s turn on the microphone, they sidetracked the topic completely.
The students asked many interesting questions: why the United States was putting so much pressure on Iran not to make a nuclear bomb and why Israel has them, among others. But the next day’s headlines were along the lines of “As Saudi Women Meet Clinton, No Talk of Rights,” or “Female Saudi Students Meet Clinton but Miss a Cue.”
The news was the absence of the expected story, instead of the event itself – as if there were an inextricable link between the mention of Saudi women and women’s rights that cannot be severed even when the scenario unfolds otherwise.
Diplomats, politicians and journalists alike carry a cultural baggage that is impossible to leave at the border. For many westerners, the place of women in the Middle East has become a salient symbol of a culture clash.
“They can’t say they’re against Islam and that’s why they zero in on women,” says Guity Nashat, professor at the University of Illinois and author of many books on women and Islam, “It’s not because they feel sorry for them.”
Nashat, who has a Masters’ degree in Journalism from Columbia University, says that when newspapers place considerable importance on the question of women’s rights in Islamic countries, they inevitably create an illusion that the issue is more widespread than it is.
“One of my professors used to say that if a journalist stays in a country for two days he or she can write a story easily. If they stay a month, it becomes harder for them to write because they start to see how complex it is and how much more they need to know.”
“Journalists should strive to get both sides,” says Aleena Syed, Vice President of Stanford’s Muslim Student’s Awareness Network. “They sometimes stop at the one woman who is unhappy. If they talked to different women, it would make for more interesting journalism.”
Journalists should, many argue, be allowed to denounce practices they find unsavory, like child marriages in Saudi Arabia, for example. There is, after all, no such thing as completely objective journalism. But Nashat believes opinion should stick to the editorial pages.
Nashat says that the western image of backwardness associated with Islam is heavily based on what we hear from Afghanistan, “in last year’s Iranian election, women were visible, aggressive and prominent. But people don’t go past the burqa.”
Maureen Dowd wrote an op-ed column in last Sunday’s New York Times, in which she asked a few educated Saudi women how they “could acquiesce in their own subordination,” but then goes on to realize that, as a Catholic woman, she was doing the same thing.”
She makes reference to the present scandals in the Catholic church. For a journalist that is usually blatant in her distaste for what she sees as a mistreatment of women in the Middle East, she makes a suprising statement.
“I too belonged to an inbred and wealthy men’s club cloistered behind walls and disdaining modernity,” she says.
Aleena Syed was born in the United States but has Pakistani origins. She has that modern multicultural syndrome of not fully belonging anywhere. She believes there should be room for social commentary in journalism, as long as there is respect for religion.
“When I go to Pakistan, I sometimes find it difficult not to voice what I believe is wrong,” she says. But when she’s in the U.S., she perceives other kinds of female subjection.
“From an outsider’s point of view, wouldn’t beauty pageants be a form of subordination too?”

College baseball. Minor leagues. Then what?

By Erin Beresini

Chris O’Riordan was a threat.

Five-feet 9-inches tall and 165 pounds, the brown-haired, blue-eyed kid from San Diego could hit—anything.

Because of this ability, the college freshman had a chance to walk on to Stanford University’s baseball team in 1999. That bothered J.D. Willcox, a pitcher Stanford recruited from Virginia, and several other recruits who realized a walk-on like O’Riordan could snatch away their playing time.

In fact, for the first few weeks of practice, the recruits had to worry about two O’Riordans: Chris and his twin brother, Jason. The recruits were relieved when Jason decided to focus on academics.

“Everybody assumes that if you’re not recruited and you’re not a scholarship player, then you’re not going to have a chance to play,” said Mark Marquess, head coach of Stanford’s baseball team. “Chris beat somebody out that was on scholarship and was highly recruited and took his job away.”

O’Riordan was third in line to play second base his sophomore year. When the top two guys began to struggle, O’Riordan stepped up.

In a February game against Florida State, O’Riordan struck a pinch-hit home run in the 10th inning to secure Stanford’s 8-6 victory. He started every game after that.

“I had to pinch myself to make sure it was happening,” said his brother Jason, who listened to the Florida game on the radio.

That year, O’Riordan won the Jack Sheppard Memorial Award, given to the player with the highest batting average. O’Riordan hit .366.

“At Stanford, it was like nothing could go wrong. It was like a fairy tale,” said Cindy O’Riordan, Chris’s mom. She and her husband, Bill, hardly missed a game once O’Riordan started playing.

Cindy remembers students coming up to her squealing, “Oh my God! You’re Chris O’Riordan’s mom!”

“I felt like I had a rock star” for a son, Cindy said.

O’Riordan earned All-American honors his junior and senior years and was named Stanford’s most valuable player in 2001.

In 2002, Willcox called O’Riordan, who was sitting in class, with exciting news: the Texas Rangers organization had drafted O’Riordan in the eighth round of the first-year player draft.

O’Riordan thought becoming a professional baseball player was “awesome.”

“It was fun to get a paycheck to play baseball,” he said. “And the ultimate dream, which was to be a big leaguer, was in striking distance.”

O’Riordan trained hard in the off-season, doing sprints and heavy lifting to make himself stronger for the next season. But during this training, he started to feel a grinding pain in his right knee. It hurt so badly that O’Riodan had to spend the first half of the 2003 season in rehab.

After coming back to play the second half of the season for the Clinton Lumberkings, O’Riordan still had lingering knee issues. Doctors diagnosed him with patellofemoral syndrome, a problem that occurs when the cartilage under the kneecap softens, causing pain.

The team physician recommended surgery. O’Riodan’s dad, who is an emergency room doctor, told his son the choice to undergo surgery or not was up to him. But if Bill were in his son’s situation, he said, he would not get surgery. A different knee problem had ended Bill’s collegiate football and baseball careers at the University of Colorado more than 40 years ago.

“It was the first time where it seemed like nobody had an answer for him,” said Willcox, who is now one of O’Riordan’s closest friends. “From the outside, it seemed like he lived a charmed life, but a lot of it had to do with incredibly hard work and a rare focus.”

At 23 years old, O’Riordan’s hard work in the off-season had put him in a difficult situation.

Desperate to play again without knee trouble, O’Riordan decided to undergo surgery.

His knee never worked the same.

“It was an issue for an extended period of time,” said Jason. “It was a roller coaster ride. I didn’t think it would be serious—I thought it would just be fixed, and he would be as good as new.”

O’Riordan spent both the 2004 and 2005 seasons rehabbing his knee after surgery.

“It was devastating,” said Cindy. “It was most devastating to hear the pain in his voice” while he could not play.

“Because I’d had a great first few seasons and felt like things were looking up, I just felt a lot of emotions. I felt like I was wasting my time, that it wasn’t fair,” said O’Riordan. He credits his faith with getting him through those two seasons.

“I think it was a test from God,” said O’Riordan. “Things weren’t going really well like they had always gone before. It really did force me to think hard about what I believe as far as my Christian faith goes.”

It also forced O’Riordan to think about life after baseball.

“I think it’s the best thing that ever happened to him,” said Marquess, “to get his career in the minor leagues over with and get on to the real things.”

But before O’Riordan got on to the real things, like applying to business school, he had the opportunity to play one more professional baseball season.

In 2006, after two years of physical therapy, 26-year old O’Riordan was ready to play again. He signed with his hometown team, the San Diego Padres, and went to train with high-A class team, the Lake Elsinore Storm.

One day toward the end of the season, the Storm was scheduled to play in Petco Park after the Padres—the team O’Riordan had cheered for with his family when O’Riordan was a little boy dreaming of the big leagues.

O’Riordan’s family was in the stands for what would be one of his last professional games. His mom, dad, grandparents, and enough friends to make a dozen-person O’Riordan cheering squad watched him play.

O’Riordan scored the game’s winning run.

“At that point, I pretty much knew I was done,” said O’Riordan. “It was really cool to get to go out on a good note.”

After his final professional season, O’Riordan dedicated himself to “real things” like working at a litigation consulting firm so he could apply to business school.

He is now a first-year student in Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

“I’m very proud of Chris O’Riordan,” said Marquess. His story “proves that if you have the skill and the dedication, you can be successful”—at anything.

Plastics manufacturers successfully stymied Palo Alto from enforcing its plastic bag ban, after settling a lawsuit that will restrict the mandate until the city conducts further research on the impact of plastic and paper bags.

Stephen Joseph, a representative for savetheplasticbag.com, comprised of plastic industry executives, filed the lawsuit because Palo Alto did not conduct an environmental impact report before imposing the Mar. 16 ordinance.

As part of the settlement, only four large grocery stores are barred from using plastic bags until a complete EIR.

“We did an initial study, but there are no plans right now on doing a full EIR,” Deputy City Attorney Amy Bartell said.

Savetheplasticbag.com claims plastic bags are unfairly targeted, and are actually less environmentally detrimental than paper bags. The organization sued several California cities trying to impose a plastic bag ban, including San Diego, Santa Monica, Oakland and most recently San Jose.

On Feb. 20, 2009, Joseph won a lawsuit against the City of Manhattan Beach because they lacked an EIR. As a result, the city rescinded their plastic bag ban but is appealing the Los Angeles Superior Court decision.

Joseph also filed a formal complaint on Sept. 18, 2009 with the City of San Jose, even though it is conducting the most comprehensive EIR in California. If the ordinance passes, it would be the biggest city in the U.S. to ban plastic bags. Findings in San Jose’s EIR, to be completed by March, will assist other cities in adopting their bans. After feedback, the city estimates to pass the law by January 2011.

A Marin County resident, Joseph believes the public is misinformed on plastic’s effects, and adamantly tries to convince his liberal neighbors that paper bags are clogging landfills.

“When a paper bag degrades, CO2 and methane are released into the atmosphere, but plastic doesn’t release any chemicals,” Joseph said.

Whether plastic or paper is more environmentally detrimental is debatable, due to a myriad of factors from raw materials used to transportation and recyclability. However, most towns are worried about litter. Plastic can take centuries to decompose, compared to about a year for paper.

“Plastic bags end up in the creeks and harm wildlife,” Bartell said.

Bay Area residents discard 3.8 of the 19 billion plastic bags used every year in California, according to Save The Bay, a regional environmental organization. On Sept. 19, 2008, Coastal Cleanup Day, volunteers collected 15,000 plastic bags from ten Bay Area locations.

“We estimate about one million plastic bags end up in the Bay each year,” Jessica Castelli, Save The Bay Communications Director, said.

Millions of plastic bags eventually float to the middle of the Pacific Ocean to join an island of trash twice the size of Texas, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

“Cleaning up the mess poses an enormous array of challenges, but a few things are dead-certain: To start the cleanup, we have to stop generating so much ocean-bound waste, and California can lead the way,” Dan Jacobson, Environment California Legislative Director said in a Jan. 14 press release. Environment California is calling for Gov. Schwarzenegger to impose a consumer plastic bag fee at grocery stores.
Joseph hopes city and state officials will encourage reusable bags instead of solely banning plastic. He wants Sacramento to arbitrate between environmentalists and industry executives to pass uniform legislation throughout the state.

By Frankie Freeman

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb 18, 2010 -- Just weeks after his acquittal from a four-year probe by the Department of Justice over possible ethics violations, Representative Alan B Mollohan’s (D-WV) principles are in doubt once more. Last quarter, ending December 31 2009, Mollohan received substantial campaign donations from agencies with which he has personal and real estate ties.

Several tenants of the congressman’s Alan B Mollohan Innovation Center, a large office complex that was built in 1996 and features, among other things, a large bronze bust of Mollohan in the lobby, have significant financial associations with the congressman, both directly and through lobbying firms.

Information technology firm Information Manufacturing Corp and security corporation ManTech International Corp both rent office space at the Mollohan Innovation Center. They also both appear in the list of Mollohan’s top ten campaign donors of 2009/2010, having contributed $9,600 and $7,900 this year respectively. In return, Mollohan has directed generous earmarks to the companies, including $84 million to IMC between 2000 and 2008.

Another link between many of the center’s tenants and Mollohan can be found in lobbying firm Robinson International, another prominent donor to Mollohan’s campaign. Randall West, a Robinson International lobbyist, has represented Mollohan in the past and currently lobbies for several firms based at the Mollohan Innovation Center. Four of West’s prominent clients – Azimuth Inc, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, as well as IMC, - are among Mollohan’s top career donors. This year alone, Boeing contributed $8,000 to Mollohan’s campaign. Over the years, employees of Robinson International are reported to have added $34,000 to Mollohan’s campaign coffers. West denies that his lobbying relationship with Mollohan poses any ethical problems.

This isn’t the first time that Mollohan’s financial dealings have come under scrutiny. In February 2006, the National Legal and Policy Center filed a complaint against Mollohan, alleging misrepresentation of assets on the congressman’s financial disclosure forms. According to the NLPC, Mollohan failed to correctly disclose assets belonging to him and his wife, which increased from $562,000 in 2000 to $6.3 million in 2004. In addition, Mollohan was investigated for $250 million in earmark funding for non-profits in West Virginia run by close associates.

Although the charges, which Mollohan described as “a politically-motivated assault” on his character, were later dropped, the investigation prompted Mollohan to step down from the House Ethics Committee.

Mollohan’s press office could not be reached for comment on the congressman’s latest campaign finance controversy, despite repeated phone calls.

Mollohan faces Democrat R.J. Smith and Republicans David McKinley, Cindy Hall, Randy Smith, Daniel Scott Swisher, Patricia VanGilder Levenson, Thomas Stark, Sarah Minear and Mac Warner in the 2010 Democratic Primary in May.

By Frankie Freeman

PALO ALTO, Calif., February 2, 2010 -- Palo Alto City Council announced Saturday its decision to make the $3.5 billion redevelopment of the Stanford Hospital and Clinics complex a priority for 2010. The proposal comes after years of delays and periods of tension between council members and Stanford University.

“It is the hope of the council,” said Palo Alto Vice Mayor Sidney Espinosa, “that we will get through the majority of work that needs to be done in moving toward the commencement of building this year.

“The majority of council members are very excited to see the Stanford project moving to fruition.”

A long-awaited Environmental Impact Report is expected in the fall, after which the final building plans are expected to move forward.

However, the delayed production of council’s EIR has caused frustration for some.

“Our greatest obstacle has been to get the local process moved forward in a timely manner,” said executive director of public affairs for Stanford Hospitals and Clinics Shelley Hebert. “We have been making every effort to be understanding, but things have a way of lagging behind.”

One key factor in the report’s delay was the decision, by Stanford, to discard plans to extend the Stanford Shopping Center – a project that had originally been proposed as a joint venture to the redevelopment of the hospital.

“The shopping center project was becoming a distraction to the important issue of the hospital,” said Hebert.

However, since information about the shopping center project was already included in the draft EIR, large sections of data had to be removed, causing unexpected delays in the document’s production and an estimated cost of $2.6 million.

Hebert claims that these revisions took longer than necessary.

“In our view, “[the alterations to] the EIR could have been handled much more expeditiously,” she said.

Palo Alto Deputy City Manager Steve Emslie disagrees, citing the complicated nature of the document’s changes.

“It did take some time to pull out all of the references and analysis of the shopping center, and we used a lot of very sophisticated modeling to predict, for example, traffic impact – we use our own computer model that needed to be recalibrated again because of the shopping center – and that all takes a very long time.”

However, in a project that concerns disaster aversion, time is valuable.

“If we had a major earthquake tomorrow, people would be looking to Stanford Hospital as a place to rely on,” said Hebert. “However, right now, we just don’t have the capacity and several of our structures are simply unsafe.”

Has the recent tragedy in Haiti highlighted the urgency of such a project?

“I think it certainly has driven home the value of high code standards and the importance of having buildings that can withstand earthquakes,” said Emslie. “Our last major earthquake was in 1989 and it’s these kind of worldwide events that bring home the fact that we are in a very vulnerable area.”

“It will be interesting to see the extent to which the events in Haiti affect public opinion,” said Hebert. “People might be asking, ‘What would happen here if…?’”

By Erin Beresini

Palo Alto—California Assemblywoman Audra Strickland (R-Moorpark) received $13,300 in campaign contributions from tobacco companies in the 2008 election. Since then, Strickland has routinely voted in favor of the tobacco companies’ interests on several assembly bills.

She is not alone, however; every Republican assemblymember on both the health and appropriations committees received campaign donations from tobacco companies in 2008. (see Tables 1 & 2) And every one of these members voted with Strickland on proposed bills concerning tobacco.

Assemblyman Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) introduced a bill a year ago that would have banned smoking on the campuses of acute care hospitals. The bill passed the assembly health committee 13 to four last April. Four of the six Republicans on the health committee cast the ‘no’ votes; Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher (R-San Diego) and Assemblyman Bill Emmerson (R-Redlands) abstained from voting.

“I’m assuming it’s a party line vote,” said Samuel Chung, Assemblywoman Strickland’s capitol director. “All the Republicans vote one way and all of the Democrats vote the other way.” Chung said if the Pulse needed the reasons why Strickland voted the way she did, the Pulse could use reasons given by other Republican offices because, he said, they must be the same.

Steve Johnson, District Director for Assemblyman Anthony Adams (R-Hesperia), said that the vote on Assembly Bill 574 was a party line vote.

An aide for Assemblyman Gaines (R-Roseville), who wished to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak about Gaines’ past votes, also said it was a party line vote.

He said the Republicans in the health committee opposed the bill because they believed hospitals already have the authority to ban smoking on their campuses. Republicans also opposed the bill, he said, because it did not include “an enforcement mechanism,” and because the state could not enforce these rules on privately owned hospitals, operated on private property.

“There are already pretty stringent smoking laws in this state. This bill started getting nitpicky. That’s the rationale behind the opposition,” Gaines’ aide said.

Audra Strickland’s husband, California State Senator Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks), also voted against the bill. Tobacco companies directly contributed $17,050 to his 2008 senate campaign, according to followthemoney.org.

“As a general policy, tobacco companies will donate to the party in charge,” said Brian Dennert, political blogger for the Ventura County Star. Tobacco companies “usually favor Republicans because they often agree on policy”—Republicans generally do not vote to raise taxes, like tobacco taxes—“but will also go for Democrats because they’re the party in charge,” he said.

One of the 12 Democrats on the assembly health committee, Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina Carter (D-Rialto) also received campaign contributions totaling $9,200 from tobacco companies in 2008. However, she voted in favor of Assembly Bill 574.

Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) is chair of the assembly’s health committee. One of his aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for Jones, said Jones is an “anti-cancer advocate.” Therefore, he said, it is clear that Jones would not look favorably upon members of the health committee receiving money from tobacco companies.

Both the state assembly and senate passed Assembly Bill 574 in August 2009, but Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed it. He said hospitals already have the power to restrict smoking on their campuses if they so choose.

In a similar example, Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Montebello) introduced a bill in February 2009 that would have revised the legal definition of “tobacco products” to include any products made of or containing tobacco other than cigarettes. By extending the definition of tobacco products, the state government would be able to charge a cigarette and tobacco products surtax for these products. This surtax is currently 41.11 percent and is paid by tobacco distributors.

Audra Strickland voted against the bill last May, as did every other Republican on the assembly appropriations committee. The bill died in February 2010 after the assembly took no further action following the appropriations committee vote.

Audra Strickland’s campaign finance strategies have been questioned in the past. In 2004, Ventura County prosecutors investigated a citizen complaint that Audra and Tony Strickland paid over $138,000 of campaign money to their own personal businesses.

In December 2009, the Fair Political Practices Commission said Audra Strickland failed to report a gift of “concert tickets from Pechanga Band of Luiseño Mission Indians valued at $89.50.” The commission regulates campaign finance in California.

Dennert does not believe politicians like Strickland will turn down money from tobacco companies or vote against the tobacco companies’ interests anytime soon.

“These are career politicians who will always be running in elections,” Dennert said. “If they turn their back on the tobacco companies, the companies will never support them again.”

Table 1: California’s Health Committee Members
This table shows which health committee members received campaign contributions from tobacco companies in the 2008 election.
All campaign finance information from followthemoney.org.

Democrats $ from tobacco
Dave Jones (chair) 0
Tom Ammiano 0
Marty Block 0
Wilmer Amina Carter $9, 200
Hector De la Torre 0
Kevin de Leon 0
Isadore Hall III 0
Ed Hernandez 0
Mary Hayashi 0
Bonnie Lowenthal 0
Pedro Nava 0
Manuel Perez 0
Mary Salas 0

Republicans $ from tobacco
Nathan Fletcher (vice chair) $11,800
Anthony Adams $9,200
Connie Conway $3, 600
Bill Emmerson $20,025
Ted Gaines $11,500
Audra Strickland $13,300

Table 2: Republican Appropriations Committee Members
This table shows which appropriations committee members received campaign contributions from tobacco companies in the 2008 election.
Democrats $ from tobacco
Kevin de Leon (chair) 0
Tom Ammiano 0
Charles M. Calderon $9,200
*Joe Coto $7,200
Mike Davis 0
*Felipe Fuentes 0
Isadore Hall III 0
John A. Perez $3,600
Nancy Skinner 0
Jose Solorio $7,200
Tom Torlakson 0

Republicans $ from tobacco
*Connie Conway (vice chair) $3,600
**Mike Duvall $8,200
Diane Harkey $8,200
Jeff Miller $3,600
Jim Nielsen $8,700
Audra Strickland $13,300
*Was not on Appropriations Committee when AB689 (tobacco products bill) was voted on.
**Resigned in July 2009 following a sex scandal.

By David Carini

Palo Alto’s stricter green development codes may drive some commercial construction projects elsewhere.

The California Green Building Standard Code went into effect Jan. 1, requiring developers to use 50 percent less landscape water and reduce building energy consumption by 15 percent.

However, Palo Alto imposed an additional 15 percent energy efficiency requirement on commercial buildings over 5,000 square feet, to achieve LEED Silver. LEED is a government rating system on standards for environmentally sustainable construction.

“The main impact is that you’re going to have to buy more expensive rooftop [heating and air conditioning] equipment,” Bill Russell, senior project manager at Vance Brown Builders, said. “It’s an extra 20 percent compared to traditional equipment.”

For a small office building, about 30,000 square feet, the additional costs may be as much as $40,000, according to Russell.

“If you’re a company like Google, building a massive campus, you would definitely be thinking about these extra costs,” Russell said.

Warming and cooling a building account for most its energy use. The new state law requires heating and air conditionings units in new and remodeled buildings to leak no more than 6 and 15 percent, respectively. California measures energy consumption through its Home Energy Rating System. A state certified HERS consultant verifies a building’s leaks using a fog machine through the air ducts.

“Six percent is a huge reduction. Most buildings leak about 20 to 25 percent,” HERS Consultant Miles Hancock said. “It’s doable though, I just tested a house that leaked less than 1 percent.”

Hancock, who owns Energy Design Group and conducts energy audits throughout the Bay Area, charges about $600 to test a home. It usually takes a couple of hours to fix duct and window leaks. Older homes leak as much as 60 percent because builders used duct tape as an insulant.

But many contractors now use duct mastic, a more effective water-based malleable sealant. It has a life span of about 50 years, compared to 15 for tape, but securing the average home air system with mastic costs roughly $3,000 more.

Compensating for higher materials costs, Palo Alto provides several incentives for green construction, such as rebates for buying Energy Star appliances. However, the refunds are insufficient in offsetting upfront green compliance costs, according to the city planning department.

Currently, there are 75 green building projects in Palo Alto. The city will hire three or four new inspectors to enforce the law and help construction and architecture firms’ transition. It will fine owners $500 per diem if a structure doesn’t meet energy requirements.

Kristin Tarineh, Palo Alto sustainability-associate planner and the only city green inspector, said these new development requirements are part of Palo Alto’s commitment to help the state reduce emissions by 2020 to 1990 levels, as mandated by Assembly Bill 32. Palo Alto, San Francisco, Berkeley and Marin County are the only municipalities in the state to impose tougher green building standards for private buildings.

“This is how we can improve the environment and decrease green house gases,” she said.

So far, Palo Alto’s appeal seems to trump the stringent energy requirements. Tesla Motors, an electric car manufacturer, decided to renovate a 350,000 square foot building on Deer Creek Road for its new production facility opening this fall.

“Palo Alto is an environmental leader and one of the most attractive locations for offices, so the city can impose the extra 15%,” Russell said.

In 2011, the rule will also apply to new homes in the city. Some mixed use units, consisting of commercial and residential, and historic buildings may apply for exemption.

A multimedia story about Stanford's Meyer Library and seismic retrofitting.

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