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THURSDAY, May 21, 2026
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from $9.9 to $11.6 to $13.2 to $14.3 million over the last four years. Fire Chief Geo Blackshire was secThe city of Palo Alto had eight emFire Capt. Matthew Goglio was last 1,443 employees last year. That’s up ond with $481,876 in pay last year, plus ployees make over $400,000 last year — more than double the year before — year’s highest paid employee, with over from $167.4 million to 1,432 employ- benefits. He cashed out $163,468 in unand saw its first employee make over half his pay coming from overtime. He ees in 2024 and $148 million to 1,315 used vacation or sick time and retired made $513,739 last year and made employees in 2023. on Oct. 31. $500,000, pay records show. Last year, the consumer price index Blackshire sued the city on Jan. 7 for The number of employees in the $1.7 million in total pay from 2022 to $300,000 club also continues to rough- 2025, plus a pension and benefits, pay rose 2.7%. Palo Alto’s total pay, mean- allegedly denying him a 3% premium while, rose by 7.8%. for having an EMT certification since ly double each year — from three in records show. [See PAY, page 27] The city paid $180.6 million to Overtime also keeps climbing — 2020 to 65 last year, pay records show.
INSIDE: List of top earners
BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT Daily Post Staff Writer
THE UPDATE Dow +645.47 Nasdaq +399.65 Oil +0.55 50,009.35 26,270.36 98.81 Gold 4,538.20 +2.90 NY COMEX futures courtesy of Mish Int’l (650) 324-9110
Pickleball pitted against kids BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT Daily Post Staff Writer
LAYOFFS BEGIN: Yesterday marked the beginning of Meta’s massive layoffs of some 8,000 employees worldwide. Employees were encouraged to work from home.
The Palo Alto Pickleball Club’s insatiable quest for more courts is upsetting tennis players, park visitors and disabled children who don’t like the noise. The club is asking the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission on Tuesday to convert two tennis courts at Mitchell Park into eight pickleball courts. Olenka Villarreal, founder and CEO of the Magical Bridge Foundation, said the Magical Bridge Playground for disabled kids is supposed to be “a sanctuary” at Mitchell Park. But pickleball has significantly changed that experience with its sharp, repetitive sound that carries far beyond the courts, and families have [See PICKLEBALL, page 26]
CASTRO INCITED: Federal prosecutors have announced charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro in the 1996 downing of civilian planes operated by Miami-based exiles. Castro was Cuba’s defense minister at the time. The charges included murder and destruction of an airplane. SPACE X IPO: Elon Musk announced plans yesterday for one of the biggest sales of stock to the public ever for his space company that is currently losing billions of dollars. A filing yesterday shows his SpaceX lost $2.6 billion from operations last year on $18.7 billion in revenue.
PICKLEBALLERS play at Mitchell Park in this Post file photo.
Downtown may get new businesses
Why do we advance HARVARD CAPS A’S: Faculty $200,000? BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ members at Harvard University have
voted to cap the number of A’s they Visitors of Menlo Park’s Santa Cruz award to undergrads to try to reduce Avenue are tired of fancy restaurants “grade inflation.” The policy limits A’s and empty buildings and would like to to 20% of the letter grades in a course. see businesses like yoga studios, animal While there is a limit on A’s, there is [See THE UPDATE, page 4] clinics and spaces for family activities. Daily Post Staff Writer
Windy Hill Property Ventures Co-Founder Tod Spieker said the downtown has a retail vacancy problem because the zoning is too restrictive. Many businesses want to come to downtown, but in a lot of cases, their uses aren’t allowed, Spieker told the
Menlo Park Planning Commission on Monday. He wanted the commission to OK plans for a new animal clinic in his building at 870 Santa Cruz Ave. and to allow more types of businesses along Santa Cruz. Commissioners agreed to [See DOWNTOWN, page 26]
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