Click on right here for a whole record of our election suggestions.
Over the previous 4 years, the Santa Clara Metropolis Council has begun to noticeably handle the town’s finances deficit and extract itself from pricey authorized battles with the 49ers over Levi’s Stadium.
The query for voters on Nov. 5 is whether or not they need to proceed shifting ahead or regress to the times, simply 4 years in the past, when Mayor Lisa Gillmor managed the council.
We suggest shifting ahead. And for that we advise voters again Harbir Bhatia in District 1 and reelect Kevin Park in District 4 and Suds Jain in District 5. We make no suggestion within the District 6 election, wherein Anthony Becker is searching for one other time period.
Sadly, most, however not all, candidates divide into two camps: These backed by Gillmor and the Santa Clara Police Officers’ Affiliation, and people underwritten by the 49ers by way of impartial expenditures the candidates can’t direct.
To regain management of the seven-member council, Gillmor and her allies would want to win three of the 4 races on the poll. The 49ers, after spending practically $10 million on the 2020 and 2022 elections mixed, are spending hundreds of thousands once more this 12 months making an attempt to dam a Gillmor resurgence.
The crew’s spending not solely taints good candidates involved concerning the huge sums of cash, it additionally tilts the electoral enjoying discipline.
That mentioned, we share the 49ers’ frustration with Gillmor for related and different causes. It was Gillmor who resisted a 2018 courtroom order that Santa Clara adjust to the California Voting Rights Act by switching from an at-large voting system to elections in six districts. The ensuing foolhardy litigation value metropolis taxpayers greater than $3.7 million in authorized charges.
In the meantime, throughout Gillmor’s first mayoral time period, as police officer salaries soared, the town racked up a projected $33 million annual finances deficit. Since Gillmor misplaced majority management in 2020, the brand new council, working by way of the pandemic, has lowered that shortfall to about $8 million yearly.
The brand new council has additionally authorized curfew extensions for 5 weeknight live shows a 12 months at Levi’s Stadium, bringing the town hundreds of thousands in income. And Santa Clara has properly settled pricey litigation with the 49ers over administration of Levi’s Stadium and reimbursement for public security prices.
Voters ought to proceed to help this kind of fiscal stability and rational decision-making.
District 1 – Harbir Bhatia
Harbir Bhatia, the CEO of the Silicon Valley Central Chamber of Commerce, is making her second council bid. 4 years in the past, she misplaced to incumbent Kathy Watanabe, Gillmor’s solely present ally on the council.
This 12 months, with the seat open as a result of Watanabe is termed out, Bhatia stays the perfect candidate. In 2020, we known as her “one of the vital spectacular council candidates in Santa Clara in years.” That’s nonetheless the case.
She has a grasp’s diploma in engineering administration from Santa Clara College and an extended resume of group contributions, together with former president of the Santa Clara Library Basis board, former vice chair of the town’s Cultural Fee and former deputy board member of Joint Enterprise Silicon Valley.
Bhatia has a strong understanding of metropolis points, noting accurately that Santa Clara is affected by monetary and planning selections from years previous. With higher planning, she says, the town can have a sustainable and higher future.
The opposite candidates within the race are Satish Chandra, a enterprise analytics supervisor and member of the town’s Constitution Evaluation Committee, and Albert Gonzalez, a member of the Santa Clara Unified College District board.
Chandra, the Gillmor-backed candidate, is sad concerning the lack of collaboration on the council however then ranges deceptive claims about his opponents not signing an ethics pledge.
Gonzalez appears to be working a minimal marketing campaign, elevating little cash on his personal and missing a useful web site as of this writing. He’s apparently banking on help from labor teams and impartial spending by the 49ers to get him throughout the purpose line.
District 4 – Kevin Park
It is a rematch of the 2020 election when Kevin Park unseated Teresa O’Neill, who had served for eight years and had voted in lockstep with Gillmor.
Park, a mechanical engineer who has labored for an extended record of tech corporations, ran 4 years in the past with a promise to rein within the metropolis’s spending on useless lawsuits. He has introduced a fiscally pragmatic method, recognizing that the town must do a greater job of planning for and pre-funding the town’s services and infrastructure.
Though the town guidelines restrict council members to 2 phrases, that didn’t start till 2016. So O’Neill, who served from 2012-20, can search one other time period. However her arguments about restoring a greater monetary order make little sense when one considers that the present council has considerably lowered the annual working deficit since she left workplace.
District 5 – Suds Jain
Suds Jain, an MIT-trained engineer, has demonstrated throughout his first time period on the Metropolis Council a deep understanding of the monetary particulars of the town.
Santa Clara, he notes, is extraordinarily lucky to have such a powerful job base, with much more employees coming in every day than stay within the metropolis. The ensuing tax profit must be an ideal asset, however the metropolis had been mismanaging its public funds, he explains. That’s what he and his council colleagues have begun to repair.
Jain has confirmed a considerate chief not simply on the Metropolis Council but additionally on his regional board assignments, together with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. It helps clarify his broad and politically numerous base of help all through Silicon Valley.
His opponent, David Kertes, a gross sales and advertising govt, has no public workplace expertise. A Gillmor-camp candidate, he, too, ranges deceptive claims about his opponents’ not signing an ethics pledge.
District 6 – No suggestion
The legal trial of incumbent Councilmember Anthony Becker for leaking a confidential civil grand jury report is now scheduled to start with jury choice on Oct. 28, the week earlier than Election Day. However that hasn’t stopped him from searching for reelection.
Becker, a twice-failed candidate for mayor, deserves a presumption of innocence in his legal trial. However that doesn’t imply that he deserves reelection. Even the 49ers, who beforehand made lavish impartial expenditures on his behalf, have jumped ship.
The crew’s candidate this time is George Guerra, a telecom supervisor and former Parks and Recreation Fee member. Like Gonzalez in District 1, Guerra appears to be working a minimal marketing campaign and hoping the 49ers’ cash will do the job.
The third candidate, Kelly Cox, is an assistant dean at Santa Clara College’s College of Engineering. It’s an administrative, not educational, publish. Cox additionally served a time period on the town’s Parks and Recreation Fee.
The Gillmor-backed candidate within the race, Cox struggled to reply a query about how property taxes work and made incorrect claims concerning the metropolis’s proposed infrastructure bond on the Nov. 5 poll.
For various causes, not one of the three candidates deserves a suggestion.
