MROSD buys a million-dollar shack, and not everyone is happy

There’s been some controversy over a 4 to 3 vote by MROSD to buy an acre and half with a "rundown mountain cabin" adjacent to its land in Los Gatos.  The idea is that it will improve parking and access as well as provide a place for MROSD’s local ranger to live.  Those voting against thought it might not be such a hot idea to spend $1 million of the District’s $15 million budget on the dump when there might be cheaper solutions to the access problem and the rest of the cash could be spent on . . . open space.

According to the Mercury News story, one board member "fretted" during the meeting over whether this would become a public relations disaster.

"This is just unfathomable," said Terry Gossett, a Moss Beach engineer and member of the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association. "It is a misuse of the funds from taxpayers. It is being used to take care of their own instead of the public, who are the customers."

The article fails to mention that Gossett’s an implacable foe of the District in any event.  It’s not clear that he’d prefer to spend that money buying larger tracts from private landowners on the Coastside.