BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor
This is a story that will leave your head shaking it’s so unbelievable. Palo Alto Councilwoman Julie Lythcott-Haims says she wants the city to furnish her with an intern.
Only two months ago, it came out that she had an affair with a female undergrad half her age while she was a dean at Stanford. When the young woman’s mother complained to the school, Lythcott-Haims stepped down from the high-level job.
Lythcott-Haims hid the reason for her resignation until the former undergrad decided to go public and write an online essay about their affair.
Now Lythcott-Haims should be avoiding situations that put her in contact with young people. In fact, after the scandal broke, she resigned from three committees that were associated with youth and Stanford. She probably did so in order to quiet those asking for her resignation.
Giving her a city intern is asking for trouble.
Even if she keeps her hands to herself, the intern could make up a story to implicate her — and who would people believe?
And what parent would allow their child to intern at the city knowing they might get assigned to Lythcott-Haims?
Lythcott-Haims didn’t commit a crime when she was dean; the undergrad was old enough to consent. But when you reach your 50s, and you have any sense of decency, you don’t have affairs with people in their teens or 20s.
Editor Dave Price’s column appears on Mondays in the Daily Posi.
It’s a dumb idea anyway. City council people don’t have so much on their plate they need their own staff. Most actually can read their weekly packet, if they choose. Deeper Policy research? That’s what the Boards and Commissions do. To get around the Brown Act? Unlikely to work. More bandwidth to shmooze with ideological activists and special interests? Probably would end up mostly that, but is there really a citywide shortage there?
There’s only one councilmember in the last couple decades who’s used interns, and they don’t seem to have made him more effective …
Yep
And if the city provides a young intern and something untowardly happens who is going to be sued? Answer, the City of Palo Alto and any staff or council members who facilitated and allowed it to happen. Deep pockets.
Why does she want an intern? Is she too lazy to do her job? If she doesn’t have time for her position, she should resign.
I agree that putting any young person near her is a disaster.