It's not surprising that city department managers are leaving the city when Menlo Park is not competitive enough with salaries and the cost of living is so high. It's only a matter of time until other city employees start taking note and leave for other cities with a more competitive package. I couldn't imagine having to commute four hours round trip for my job!

I write this as someone who has grown up in the community since 1976 when my parents moved to Portola Valley and been employed in many of the local school districts since 1990. The unprecedented growth, coupled with the lack of transportation options along the peninsula is tightening the noose on those who live and commute to our wonderful part of the world. How is it that all along the 101 corridor I can see crane after crane, building more and more "SmartGrowth apartments, without the accompanying "SmartGrowth" transit infrastructure included in the picture? I pity anyone who lives more than 10 miles from their workplace if they live on the peninsula because of the horrendous traffic. It is time to call for a moratorium on new construction of apartments countywide until we can figure out the transit issues. It may be impossible but what about getting a large boring machine and just drilling under El Camino from the Milbrae Bart all the way to San Jose? How about fast tracking the Dumbarton Rail? Not a week goes by where I don't think - "Man, I love this place but I've gotta find a new gig because the traffic is nuts!" We are sowing the seeds of our economic demise. I would NEVER encourage any new company to move to the peninsula because of the traffic. Now that Menlo Park has lost 4 of its city staffers - perhaps more cities will see that we are cooking the Golden Goose by not addressing traffic concerns in a realistic manner. A 4 hour commute? You couldn't pay me enough!

Just admit it Mr. McIntyre, you can't even keep the employees that YOU hired. Be a man (ha!) and admit your failures. I don't buy the "high cost of living" argument. I don't see evidence of such high turnover at this level from surrounding communities like Palo Alto, Redwood City, etc. Really, YOU are the problem.

Just admit it, Mr. McIntyre, you can't even retain the employees that YOU hired. You obviously are not "man" enough to admit your failures. I don't buy this "high cost of living" argument as a reason for attrition, as I don't see this turnover rate at this level of administration from surrounding cities like Palo Alto and Redwood City.

But wait, there's more!

One of the Finance Department staffers is also leaving for another city.

This comes at a terrible time. At this point in August, when the fiscal year closed 6/30 and a new year began 7/1, finance staff should be working on three major tasks:

Closing the books on 2014-2015; conducting the annual audit; preparing the annual CAFR. At this point staff, and the replacements, have little depth if any to handle these yearly requirements in addition to the ongoing repetitive tasks.

Council: you need these reports.

When four top administrators leave it's usually due to conflicts and or dissatisfaction with the boss. Have exit interviews been conducted and is by outside unbiased HR experts selected by an outside counsel? Exit interviews conducted by the city manager and his remaining crew are worthless

Please look harder and don't just raise salaries to unjustifiable rates as a knee-jerk reaction. There are plenty of us who live here who make but a fraction of the 150-250k these public jobs pay. We also pay for our own retirements though 401k plans etc .. and do not rely on pensions at the expense of taxpayers and future residents and employees. I echo the sentiments of others who are not buying the cost of living arguments for these high paying jobs. Please reserve those arguments for low and middle income service employees etc .. who are truly being priced out of the Peninsula.

Where is mayor Catherine Carlton? Why hasn't she issued any statements regarding city management being in complete disarray? Where is the leadership? Catherine, can you please show some leadership skills...please. Have you investigated what is happening? Can you give us any assurances that everything is okay? Do you have anything to say about this at all?

Compensation is very rarely the primary reason employees seek new jobs. It can be a factor. However a positive work environment, management that is trusted, a common sense of direction, opportunities for growth are far, far more important factors. Attention needs focused on each of those factors.

The city council needs to get in gear and figure out what's going on, and then do something about it rather than just sit back and let the city continue on auto-pilot in a downward spiral. They made the ill-advised decision to renew McIntyre's contract. Now they need to hold his feet to the fire or push him out asap.

Cost of living and long commutes are very common reasons for people to look for different jobs. Schools in SF are short 47 teachers for the same reason.

When the cost of housing rises this fast, the solution is to build more. There's lots of space by the Caltrain station - downtown Menlo is a lot of one story buildings, and the Specific Plan envisions those redeveloped with retail on the ground floor and apartments on top. Let developers build studios instead of two-bedrooms and we make affordable housing for the young and old who are least able to pay the high housing costs and also don't have a lot of kids.

@ Bob I agree that more housing will help. You need to understand that what the Specific Plan envisioned and what it allows are two very different things. The Plan allows a lot more office development than formerly. It allows more office than the ratio of office to other kinds of development. Office development is more lucrative to developers. So Menlo Park is literally losing retail/restaurants in the Plan area, and far more office is getting developed than housing units.
The Plan should be tweaked to allow less office, at least at the Bonus level, and to allow more housing density as you suggest. In this economy, that's the only way more housing will get built and retail isn't lost. Once a particular type of building is constructed, it is very expensive to change it to a different type. The Plan needs modified.

The problem is Alex McIntyre. Losing this human resources director is addition by subtraction. She was not qualified for her job. If u don't have the commitment to move a little closer to your job when you make 150k per year- that's on her. But, let's be honest. She was a puppet to the master who pretends to be a city manager.

All 4 who have left were his people. How much $$ is the city spending on the latest round of consultants and executive search firms to hire the replacements. The amount of money wasted on consultants in Alex's is a waste of city resources that needs to be shown the light of day to the public. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been wasted on projects that if you had a leader who was bold and unafraid to make his decisions could have saved the residents a lot of money.

City council - step up admit your mistake and fire him.

" You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation. And that's really the most important." ..which pretty much sums up Alex's ability to retain staff. He can hire all he wants, but they're not going to stick around. It's not about the money, it's about the workplace culture he's created here at the City of Menlo Park.