Candidate for
Council Member, 3; City of San Jose; Council District 3

During the last twenty-five years, Manny Diaz has worked improving the quality of life for many of our San Jose residents. As the son of a single mother who raised five children, he learned the value and dignity of hard work and to be a role model for his siblings to pursue an education. Manny was the first in his family to graduate from college (Bachelor of Science engineering degree from SF State University).

In his early professional career as an engineer, Manny realized that many young people were caught in the cycle of poverty. At that moment, Manny decided to dedicate himself to helping young people succeed academically and socially. He co-founded a non-profit professional group (SHPE) dedicated towards the advancement of young people pursuing science and engineering careers.

He began a career in public service as a San Jose Planning Commissioner from 1986-1993 and also worked as an affordable housing development manager for a local non-profit community service agency. As a Planning Commissioner, Manny led the efforts for the San Jose Jackson-Taylor neighborhood revitalization strategy plan which preserved the subject neighborhood and created more affordable quality housing.

Elected to the San Jose City Council in 1994 (as a representative for East San Jose), Manny focused on issues of neighborhood revitalization for many of our neglected neighborhoods. He also proposed building a strong partnership between the City of San Jose and the 19 school districts in San Jose to provide quality educational/youth services (including more homework centers and recreational facilities).

Manny has long championed more affordable housing for working families and seniors throughout San Jose and he has been an advocate for creating more public open space and preserving the hillsides. He has been a strong backer for the revitalization of downtown San Jose and a promoter of more cultural/art events and programs. In 1997, he co-chaired a city-wide community task force to expand San Jose's main library and branch libraries to provide more library services especially in central/east San Jose.

His commitment and track record in addressing issues effecting District 3 residents is outstanding. In the late 1990s, through his advocacy efforts, the San Jose Redevelopment Agency began to focus more in our neighborhoods and the "Strong Neighborhood Initiative (SNI) was created. His support for the SNIs has benefited many District 3 neighborhoods like Guadalupe Washington, Northside, Delmas Park, Greater Gardner Coalition, Five Wounds Brookwood Terrace, Market Almaden, 13th Street, Spartan Keyes, and University Neighborhoods Coalition" to name a few.

Manny also supported efforts in improving the Roosevelt neighborhood park and community center( $3 million dollars from California State Parks and recreation Dept.), preserving affordable housing at Rancho Verde (approx. $ 100 million dollars property owner conversion), providing redevelopment funds to reconstruct Horace Mann school, increasing community clean-ups, neighborhood preservation, supporting our downtown business community, and authored legislation to preserve San Jose Medical Center etc.

He successfully co-authored legislation on the San Jose City Council to approve a "living wage" ordinance that resulted in many local workers improving their standard of living. Manny also served as a board member of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority from 1995 to 2000. His efforts to increase mass transit services to central/east San Jose communities were successful. His final and most proud achievement on the San Jose City Council was working towards providing tobacco settlement city health funds for affordable health care services for thousands of poor children in our community.

In November 2000, Manny Diaz was elected to the California State Assembly and re-elected in 2002. He worked hard to represent the communities of central/east San Jose until November 2004.

As a state lawmaker, Manny wrote and passed laws that focused on San Jose's most pressing issues: improving our public schools so that every child can succeed academically and socially, access to affordable health care and housing, developing strong and safe neighborhoods, supporting efforts to revitalize downtown San Jose, fighting to save our downtown hospital (San Jose Medical Center), and providing leadership on mass transit services and improvements for traffic congestion relief and traffic calming measures to make our streets safer and more pedestrian-friendly.

Manny also led efforts to hold state government more accountable in their procurement practices to protect hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer's money in major IT state investments. As an elected official, he has consistently supported reform efforts for more government disclosure and public access and inclusion with community. This included campaign finance reform and community participation requirements for major land use proposals.

Manny was honored as Legislator of the Year by the San Jose Chapter of ACORN for his work in creating more affordable housing opportunities and championing efforts in protecting San Jose redevelopment funds from State budget raids. Also, Manny was honored by the California Association of Nonprofits (CAN) and received the 2003 Public Policy Excellence Award for his tireless work to support non-profit organizations. During the state's annual general fund budget process, Manny championed efforts to maintain state funding support for San Jose community-based groups providing the following services: child care, job training and placement, homecare, legal assistance, housing assistance, youth services, immigrant services and senior nutritional programs.

He has also received Legislator of the Year awards from the Professional Engineers in California Government and the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC) Legislator for the San Jose Chapter for 2002. He also earned a 100% voting record from the Children's Advocacy Institute, the Congress of California seniors, and a 95% voting record from the California League of Conservation Voters.

Manny Diaz, his wife Sandra Avila-Diaz live in downtown San Jose. He has three grown children: Lito, Raquel and Marcos.