After a rough-and-tumble campaign, Measure J was winning in returns posted Wednesday morning, with 7,083 (51.32%) in favor and 6,718 (48.68%) against.
Measure J was City Council’s response to residents who said something needed to be done to the Cubberley Community Center, the former high school at 4000 Middlefield Road, which was showing signs of deterioration.
Behind closed doors, City Council negotiated to buy 7 acres of the 35-acre Cubberley campus for $65.5 million from the Palo Alto Unified School District. The deal was contingent on council passing a new tax to pay for the purchase. The city already owns 8 acres of the site.
Initial polling shows residents wouldn’t approve the tax by the customary two-thirds threshold necessary for a bond measure. So council decided to make it a sales tax that would not be committed for any particular use. As a general tax, only a simple majority was necessary to pass the tax.
When council decided to put Measure J on the ballot, residents questioned why council had agreed to pay $65.5 million. The answer was that the school district, then led by superintendent Don Austin, claimed it had been offered $90 million for the 7 acres.
The Post asked the school district for any documents verifying the $90 million offer. But the district said the discussion was entirely verbal and there were no documents available. The school district paid Austin $596,802 to resign in February.
City leaders said they decided to offer $65.5 million after receiving appraisals of the 7 acres in 2024.
When the Post asked to see the appraisal, council initially refused to provide the documents. Then in early October, when voting was beginning, the city issued a statement saying the appraised price was between $43.6 and $60.2 million, and that with inflation, the top price would have increased to the $65 million the city had agreed to pay the school district.
As pressure grew for full disclosure, council voted 7-0 on Oct. 13 to release the actual appraisals. The appraisals showed that the appraiser’s first estimate was $60.2 million. Then the city asked the appraiser to consider more comparable properties, and the second appraisal came in at $43.6 million.
Meanwhile, the school district acknowledged doesn’t have a plan for spending $65.5 million from selling seven acres at the Cubberley Community Center to the city of Palo Alto.
The school district was supposed to have a plan by March 30, according to an agreement with the city, but the work stalled during a leadership transition, Superintendent Jason Glass said in an email to the Post in August.
Oddly, the city’s ballot question for Measure J didn’t mention the land purchase. Instead, it was titled “City of Palo Alto Community Safety/Services Measure.”
Another thing that rankled voters was that Measure J has no expiration date. The tax would continue to be collected after the land was purchased and Cubberley was renovated. The lack of a sunset date was one of the reasons why former councilwoman Lydia Kou came out against Measure J. She was criticized by others currently on the council including Pat Burt and Julie Lythcott-Haims.
Controversy dogged Measure J right up until Election Day. The city put up a Yes-on-J banner on the Embarcadero Road overpass, which seemed to conflict with the city’s ban on political signs on city property.
“Allowing a massive political sign to hang by the week on public property is an outrage,” Measure J opponent Jeanne Fleming said. “But given the way the city has cheated at every turn with Measure J, I’m just glad there’s not a ‘Yes on J’ banner draped across City Hall.”
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