Answers to Questions from the Morgan Hill Times

By Marby Lee

These questions were asked of all City Council candidates by the Morgan Hill Times and were limited to 250 words. The Times will be publishing the answers during their election coverage, which will begin in October.

What will you do to reduce the budget deficit? I'd like to try a "bottom up" or "zero-based" approach to evaluate the city budget for areas where we could find additional savings, or at a minimum identify the true costs of operating the City. In particular, I'll look closely at consultants' fees to see if there are ways that those moneys could be better spent.

I would continue to look at our budget to see what other areas may not have been considered in previous reviews of the budget. My gut feeling is that there is a substantial portion of the budget that is spent on consultants that could be better spent directly to the benefit of residents of Morgan Hill.

The responsibility of government first and foremost is public safety and infrastructure. When you spend RDA money to build recreation facilities that must be maintained with General Fund money, and not increase the street staffing of the Police Dept as our population grows, you are essentially putting recreation before public safety, and this is not wise stewardship of the public's tax dollars.

What will you do to legislate more regionally, to include issues affecting neighboring communities such as San Martin? I am elected to serve the residents of Morgan Hill, logically therefore, what I vote on only applies to the residents of Morgan Hill. Where the interests of Morgan Hill and other communities, such as San Martin, align, I will work with their representatives to establish policies which are mutually beneficial, but first and foremost, I will be acting in the best interest of Morgan Hill.

What are your views on downtown Morgan Hill housing and business development controls? To the extent that these controls act in concert to bring new residents and new businesses to Downtown, they're fine. However, I'm concerned that the development approval process has become so complex and expensive that it deters rather than encourages new development, particularly business development. I'd also prefer to see the Downtown housing unit allotment be a part of the 250 annually allowed units, rather than an addition to that limit.

What are the top three issues in your campaign platform?

• Balance the city budget
• Revitalize Downtown
• Increase staffing for public safety