BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto City Council tonight (Oct. 5) picked a replacement for a planning commissioner who was accused of trying to get special treatment at a tow yard.
Council voted 6-1 to have business owner Tom Siegel complete the remaining three-and-a-half years on former Commissioner Forest Olaf Peterson’s term.
The city investigated Peterson after his daughter’s car was towed from a city parking garage on Jan. 5.
At the tow yard, Peterson allegedly identified himself as a planning commissioner repeatedly and asked for a discount.
“When the requested discount was not granted, Mr. Peterson became rude and made statements suggesting that he could ‘change the rules’in the future to benefit himself,” the tow yard owner said in an email to the city.
Four council members — Vicki Veenker, Greer Stone, George Lu and Julie Lythcott-Haims — voted to re-appoint Peterson to a four-year term on April 13.
Councilmen Pat Burt, Ed Lauing and Keith Reckdahl voted for Siegel instead.
The city released the tow yard owner’s complaint on July 9. Peterson resigned on Aug. 9, the day before council was scheduled to vote on removing him.
Siegel applied for a second time, and the vote wasn’t as close this time around.
Only Lythcott-Haims voted for someone else: Christopher Kao, a software engineer at General Motors who was on the East Palo Alto Planning Commission.
Siegel worked at Google for 15 years and then founded TrustLab, a small tech company developing online safety tools. He has an MBA from Stanford and was on the school district’s bond oversight committee from 2018 to 2024.
Council also picked four members of the Parks and Recreation Commission: incumbents Bing Wei and Shani Kleinhaus, and newcomers Marc Shoenen and Virgina Ruiz Albacete.
For the Human Relations Commission, council was split 4-3 to pick Haylea Hannah over Ellen Bob.
Burt, Lu, Stone and Lythcott-Haims voted for Hannah. Lauing, Reckdahl and Veenker voted for Bob.
Be the first to comment