BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Los Altos City Council candidate Larry Lang says he might not like all of the laws imposed on cities by the state and federal government, but he’s not interested in fighting them as a city.
“We’re not Sparta. We’re not a city state. We’re set up by the state, and we have to obey state law,” Lang said in an interview.
Lang said he wants to avoid “quixotic” lawsuits like the two filed against the city by AT&T and Verizon in 2019.
AT&T and Verizon challenged council’s rules for new cell facilities, saying they ran afoul of FCC regulations.
The cases settled after Los Altos backed off its rules, allowing cell facilities to get built in residential neighborhoods.
Improving cell service in downtown Los Altos is now a city priority. Lang filed a California Public Records Act request and found the city spent $1.6 million fighting the lawsuits.
“Your job as a city council person is not to prove your legal machismo,” Lang said in an interview. “Your job is to look at the available alternatives and use your best judgment to be a good steward of the resources that the city has entrusted you with, and not go down a path where, for example, we waste $1.6 million on legal fees and end up with nothing but substandard mobile coverage.”
Lang, 60, said his experience working at Cisco and launching startups in the mobile industry will help him address cell coverage.
He said the best way to push back on undesirable state laws is to reach out to Assemblyman Marc Berman and state Sen. Josh Becker.
“That’s as an individual, but if I were on council, you have to look at what the actual courses of action available to you are,” he said.
Lang has concerns about switching from citywide elections to by-district elections in 2026, prompted by the threat of a lawsuit from Malibu attorney Kevin Shenkman invoking the California Voting Rights Act.
Lang said he lives in the north side of Los Altos but has been spending a lot of time walking on the south side for his campaign.
After the city is divided into five districts, candidates are more likely to stay in their neighborhoods to get votes, Lang said.
But while Lang might not like the switch, he said he wouldn’t try to fight a losing legal battle against Shenkman.
Lang said he would also follow the city’s 2023-2031 Housing Element, a state-mandated plan for building 1,958 homes that has riled up residents. Lang grew up in Madison, N.J., and moved to Los Altos around 25 years ago with his wife, Katherine. They had three daughters who went to Saint Nicholas School and Saint Francis High School.
Lang got involved with the city through the Historical Commission in 2016. He was a commissioner for eight years, and in 2018 joined the board of the Los Altos History Museum, a nonprofit that manages an apricot orchard at the civic center.
Lang said he’s excited to see new trees get drip irrigation and that the orchard looks better than it has in decades.
Lang is endorsed by nine former mayors.
Good to see some cogent thinking from a potential politician.