Palo Alto Council votes tonight on removing commissioner Peterson.

The Palo Alto City Council will vote Monday, Aug. 10, on whether to remove Planning and Transportation Commissioner Forest Peterson, turning a seven-month-old towing dispute into the city's most contentious governance fight of the summer.

Peterson, 49, a Stanford researcher, faces removal after allegedly invoking his commissioner title to seek a discount at a Redwood City tow yard on Jan. 6. The tow yard owner filed a complaint saying Peterson suggested he could "change the rules" and claimed connections to Palo Alto police. Peterson paid $494 to retrieve his daughter's 1994 Ford Mustang.

The city hired attorney Madeline Buitelaar of Oppenheimer Investigations Group to investigate. Her report, delivered to the council April 7, cost up to $50,000 but remains secret. The city classified it as attorney-client privileged. City Manager Ed Shikada told Peterson in an April 14 letter that the investigation "does not make any conclusions regarding violation of law or City policy."

Despite the report, the council voted 4-3 on April 13 to reappoint Peterson. Mayor Vicki Veenker, Vice Mayor Greer Stone and council members George Lu and Julie Lythcott-Haims voted yes. Council members Pat Burt, Ed Lauing and Keith Reckdahl voted for an alternative candidate.

As of Aug. 7, five of those seven members want Peterson gone or the report released. Veenker, Stone and Lauing placed the removal hearing on the Monday, Aug. 10, agenda on Aug. 7. Burt and Reckdahl issued a separate memo Aug. 5 calling for the report to be made public.

"If you refuse to release the report, then it may look like we're trying to hide something," Reckdahl told the Palo Alto Daily Post in an interview published Aug. 7.

Peterson says it's about housing, not a tow yard

Peterson told Palo Alto Online the real fight is over the city's pro-housing direction. Nine developers filed proposals for 384 housing units near Caltrain stations during a two-week window before Palo Alto's local SB 79 restrictions took effect July 16. A seven-story, 98-unit apartment building at 2181 Park Boulevard, within a quarter mile of the California Avenue Caltrain stop, is among the latest proposals.

"I don't think there's any mystery that since I've been on the commission, more affordable housing has been approved in Palo Alto than in the previous 10 years," Peterson said. "I think I have a big target on me, especially when we just had SB 79. I'm not someone who sees that as a bad thing."

The council split on Peterson tracks with its broader housing divide. The four members who reappointed him in April have generally supported SB 79 development; the three who opposed him have been more skeptical of the building wave near transit stations.

What happens next

Removal requires a simple majority. The hearing is the council's first item of business after summer recess, and a decision is expected by the end of the Aug. 10 meeting.