Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show March 28 2013

Now we’re nearly down to the last quarter of President JOHN’s hand-waving term, and there’s still so much fun to share!  Cheerily greeting us today were LINA BROYDO, LOUIS BORREL, TOM POWERS, and HARRY PRICE while Photographer RANDY GARD captured it all for posterity.

The duet of BONNIE BURDETT and HARN SOPER led us in their own version of “You Are My Sunshine”, since it was such a beautiful day to be “Proud to be a Rotarian”. (You can pick up a “proud” bumper sticker from the badge table.)

TOM POWERS warned us he was going to mention “God”, (though this does make one wonder what has become of our country founded for religious freedom). His Easter advice was to fall in love, primarily with God.

STEVE POMEROY and FRANK ELMER were recognized for their service as Sergeants-At-Arms service and KAREN GREGURAS for cashiering today.

Rotarians with guests included RON STEFANI, ALLAN VARNI, PP MONA ARMISTEAD, ABBY AHRENS, PP SAM PESNER, and PP BOB ADAMS. It’s nice to see family members at our meetings, as well as the CFO of El Camino Hospital, a hard working volunteer for Books for Haiti, and local business folks.

Pres JOHN announced with a flourish that this is the 25th anniversary of Women in Rotary, which was the theme of last weekend’s District Conference in Napa. PP DICK HENNING and PP SAM PESNER recognized each female member of our club with a handsome 25th anniversary pin.  DICK gave a historical perspective beginning with the Sept. 23, 1986 California Supreme Court’s decision that Rotary must admit women. Shortly after that, DICK sponsored Foothill College Instructor ELIZABETH BARKLEY who was approved for LARC membership on November 18, 1986. Then on May 5, 1987 the US Supreme Court ruled that Rotary International must not discriminate against female membership, so women were finally allowed to join in Rotary service all over the world.

Let us not forget the contributions of our own women LARC presidents (starting with the most recent) MONA ARMISTEAD, TRACIE MURRAY, MARLENE COWAN, CYNTHIA LUEDTKE, MARY PROCHNOW, GINNY LEAR, MARGE BRUNO, and our Past District Governor CAROLYN SCHUETZ. (That’s 7 women LARC presidents in the 18 years since 1995).
 
Paul Harris donors continued to be recognized by PP WYATT ALLEN. Their generosity is what fuels Rotary projects worldwide. Today we honored:

• CAROL GARSTEN
• RICK GLAZE
• PAUL SCHUTZ
• BEVERLY TUCKER
• BILL MOISON
• and JOHN SYLVESTER’s two offspring

• ANNE ARJANI
• JOHN BOGART
• KENDRA GJERSETH
• CLYDE NOEL
• DAVE SNOW
• RON STEFANI

• VAL CARPENTER
• JERRY MOISON
• BUD OLIVER

A two minute vocational “elevator speech” was modeled by PP STEVE ANDERSON (in a bit over 2 minutes) as he expressed how much he had enjoyed the personal friendships developed with his optometry patients over his 43 year career.  He concluded, “I’m not going to try talking you into becoming an optometrist, but it’s a great profession! His buddy PP MEL KAHN felt “constrained to make a comment,” said Pres. JOHN with a smile.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
PEN KENDRA GJERSETH reminded all that the non-eater fee will be raised to $10  beginning April 1, and the lunch fee will stay at $20.

TOM POWERS invited all to the satellite LARC meeting at 8:00 am, next Tuesday. Reservations should be made on the LARC website (www.losaltosrotary.org)

PAT GRAY encouraged us to visit the Fine Art Show’s Facebook page and to “share” it.
JERRY MOISON announced that only 2 community grant applications have been received, though the deadline is April 1. Looks like our hard-earned Art Show funds may not be exhausted this year unless applications arrive online today, Monday.

CAROL GARSTEN circulated a sign-up sheet for greeter duties and encouraged us to pick up bumper stickers.

ALLAN VARNI reminds us to buy raffle tickets, $20 for 5 tickets, with proceeds supporting the SOPUDEP School in Haiti.

FRANK ELMER needs each member to check their Art Show jobs and initial each if OK or cross out if a change is needed.

PP MONA ARMISTEAD announced that the Los Altos/ Mountain View Challenge Team received the Spark award at the Project Cornerstone awards breakfast on Thursday morning at the Santa Clara Convention Center. This prestigious award is given to a city or organization that does outstanding work to promote programs for youth, creating a model for others to emulate. Project Cornerstone, under the auspices of the YMCA of Silicon Valley is the organization that sponsors the Developmental Assets programs, such as Los Altos Community Values Youth initiative, sponsored by Rotary and the Community Foundation and endorsed by many other partners.

Each year the MVLA Challenge Team holds a Champions for Youth breakfast. PP ROY LAVE has been selected to receive the Champion for Youth award this year, based on his many years of promoting youth projects. The awards breakfast will be at Michael's at Shoreline on Wednesday, May 8, at 7:00 AM.

PP SAM HARDING briefly described a program organized by PDG ARLEY MARLEY which is training 72 high school juniors in the process of running a business.

DAVID SMITH thanked all who participated in the Encore! event last Saturday and relayed the advice of 99 year old Olympic athlete who said he never looks back, but always looks forward. Sounds like good advice, since it got him 99 healthy years!

DONNA VERNA reminds us to submit the important Art Show sponsorship forms and checks. All should remember to spread the word about our Fine Art in the Park Show on the weekend following Mother’s Day, May 18 and 19. We need widespread attendance.

Finemaster CYNTHIA LUEDTKE donned bunny ears and handed over ears to ESTER NG and BONNIE BURDETT who became her duck bucket “Ester-Bonnie Team”. Very clever! She fished a golden egg out of her basket for PE and Birthday Boy, JACK KELLY, and he paid according to the number of candies inside (How many were there?). Other candy “prizes” were paid by HARRY PRICE (for a “hare-brained question”), FRANK ELMER, JANE REED, and DAVE SNOW.

Rotaract rocks! Over 60 supporters of CAP were crowded into Federico’s Tapas Bar and out onto the sidewalk in Union City to support LARAP’s project on March 28. All the Rotaract Clubs (young professionals and college students) of District 5170 have adopted Child AIDS Prevention this year as their international project, and they brought friends and family to their fundraiser. The Rotaract Club of Greater Fremont had collected nice raffle prizes, including a Warrior’s jersey signed by Stephen Curry. Thanks to all the LARC Rotarians who purchased raffle tickets to support this CAP fundraiser. Our own PP MARY PROCHNOW’s donation won the first prize of the evening: a day of services offered by Rotaract President-Elect Shreya Jani.

PP MARLENE and COETA attended the event and received offers to present the CAP program at various Rotary meetings and even to help staff our Fine Art Show. In addition to being a great opportunity to meet the Rotaracters, all funds raised will return to LARAP for Child AIDS Prevention

PROGRAM:

Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone
Some of the opportunities and the dramatic inequities that exist in today’s property markets were clarified by Larry Stone, longtime Santa Clara County Assessor when he spoke to the Rotary Club of Los Altos on March 21, 2013. Elected four times to four year terms as County Assessor, Stone has seen the rise and fall of each property sector and experienced the effects of Proposition 13 on our local economy. Larry Stone is also a longtime member of the Rotary Club of San Jose.
Evaluating the current status of each property type, Stone was happy to announce, “The Silicon Valley apartment market is on fire!” Although only 19% of the state’s population lives in the Bay Area, 35% of California’s job growth is located here.

The single family market has also caught fire in recent months, although 27% of family residences and 53% of condominiums are still assessed below their purchase price; Stone expects to see a reduction in the number of these “under water” properties. Fortunately for Town Crier readers, values of residential properties in “high-end areas like Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Cupertino, South Sunnyvale, Los Gatos and Saratoga” are increasing, for excellent schools are the one predictable indicator of stable or increasing market values, according to Assessor Stone.

Commercial space is doing very well, and Silicon Valley had the “third highest increase in office rents last year, trailing only San Francisco and New York.” Stone is bullish on the industrial market, as he believes that US manufacturing is in a period of modest resurgence. However, the hospitality industry has always been the most sensitive to economic changes. As corporate travel budgets improve with the economy, he expects the hotel industry will also improve, except where video and teleconferencing provide an acceptable alternative to travel.

Unfortunately, retail is the one sector that “may never fully recover” according to Stone, because it was extremely overbuilt. On-line shopping is now growing at over twice the rate of in-store sales, with an accelerating trend.

Since R & D rents in Silicon Valley often follow the NASDAQ, the current rising stock market gives him hope that “Silicon Valley is on the path toward solid recovery.” In fact, Stone went so far as to say “I believe we are rising from the depths of the bottom of the worst economic decline in my lifetime.”

The Assessor also discussed the history and unexpected consequences of Proposition 13, passed overwhelmingly in June 1978. The query he explored was, “Proposition 13, 35 Years Later: Is It Working?” In his opinion, Prop 13 has created as many problems for first-time home buyers as it has solved for senior citizens, for it has led to 16 amendments to the State Constitution that grant special property tax relief or benefits. Most importantly, it has “shifted fiscal authority to the state, while leaving local government with the responsibilities.”

The result is a “convoluted school funding system” that has reduced California to 47th rank in K-12 school funding.

The salient example of inequities he discussed concerned two homeowners with similar residences on the same street who receive the same public services for their property taxes. However the new homeowner can pay as much as ten times the property tax of the homeowner who has owned a comparable property for many years. This seems “inherently un-American” to Stone, as it does to many new homeowners.

Prop 13 limited both the allowable rate of increase of assessed values, and the tax rate. California property taxes are held at 1% of a property’s taxable value (plus bonds and special assessments), but, the assessed value cannot increase more than 2% per year, unless there is a change in ownership or new construction. Because the market value of a property has increased at a far greater rate than the assessed value, the disparity between market and assessed values has widened. So the longer a property is held, the greater the tax benefit. Prop 13 provided the same property tax relief to commercial and industrial property owners as to homeowners, but major corporations weren’t being taxed out of their facilities. Back in 1978, residential and commercial property owners shared the tax burden equally.

But now the total property tax burden has shifted from commercial property owners to homeowners; in fact, last year homeowners and renters paid 68% of Santa Clara County’s property taxes. A number of other significant changes have followed in the wake of Prop 13, resulting in reduced tax revenues which then led to a decrease in government services.

Stone’s department sends out assessment notices before the tax bills are mailed in October so property owners have an opportunity to appeal their assessed value between July 2 and September 15. Santa Clara County is one of only ten counties among California’s 58 counties which notifies property owners of their assessed value before the tax bills are mailed. This reduces waste in revising bills and allows property owners time to organize their appeals.

Stone suggested that one proposal for reversing the negative consequences of Prop 13 might be a split property tax roll which would establish a tax process for residential properties that is different from commercial properties which should be reassessed to market value every one or two years. Though there may be many ways to reform the system, none of them are perfect, according to Stone. “All of them create winners and losers.”

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

Tomi Ryba - "El Camino Hospital Today"
Tomi Ryba is President and CEO of El Camino Hospital in Mountain View.  Since its opening in 1961, the hospital received national recognition for several pioneering programs in the areas of information technology, cardiac treatment, radiation oncology, maternity, and genomics. 
 
Before joining the organization in the fall of 2011, Ms. Ryba served as President of United Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota.  She also served on the Red Cross Board, the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, and as a trustee for St. Catherine University.  Ms. Ryba was also Chief Operating Officer at UCSF Medical Center.  She also helped lead a $100 million turnaround in operations and a $1.5 billion expansion project at the hospital's San Francisco Mission Bay Campus. 
 
The San Francisco Business Times recognized Ms. Ryba as one of the Most Influential Women in San Francisco in 2007 and 2008.  Other executive positions include President of St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, California, and Chief Operating Officer of Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. 
 
Ms. Ryba received her master's degree in health administration from Chapman University in Orange, California and a bachelor's degree from University of California, Riverside.