League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 3, 2009 Election
	Penny M. Kelly Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Sunnyvale; Seat 3

The questions were prepared by the the League of Women Voters of Cupertino/Sunnyvale and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What experience related to city government would you bring to the City Council?

I am a leader. I bring innovative thinking and refuse to accept the answers "Because we've always done it that way and Because they say we have to do it that way." We are a country of individuals who have always challenged the status quo.

During my 15 year career at Intel I managed worldwide programs working with over 4000 people across many countries and cultures. I started with a budget of $3 million for one program and, over seven years, added two more programs, many more services and reduced my budget by almost 1/3.

Recently I went into business for myself where I learned the real value of a dollar and the cost to operate in a recession. I became the leader of my neighborhood association and acted as a liaison between neighbors and the city to launch the first parking permit program in Sunnyvale.

I am an 18 year resident of Sunnyvale, a consumer of Sunnyvale services, a volunteer in many organizations and have stepped up in leadership roles in our Chamber of Commerce, San Jose Chamber of Commerce and many other organizations.

2. What concerns are of particular importance to the city and how would you address them?

One of the largest problems facing our city is a lack of communication both internally and externally. Often people are not informed of changes that affect them or information is hard to find. Residents are treated disrespectfully when addressing city council. Their concerns and observations are dismissed. Some may not come forward because they think it is futile to speak out. We need to empower our neighborhood associations and give their concerns and recommendations the weight they deserve. We can increase the push of information by connecting to the email hubs the neighborhood associations have already built. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. We do need to reach out to those who do not have email and do more than posting notices at the Senior Center or within a few feet of an affected area.

Sustainability is another concern of our residents. Our city council does a great job of committing to sustainability and a poor job of planning for it. We've committed to reducing our carbon footprint and increasing our park space. But the actions that follow don't support these commitments. Increased density, selling off land that was supposed to be used to expand parklands, tearing down buildings to create new (creating landfill) when existing buildings are empty, promoting bond measures that will cripple residents with taxes and filling our schools to overflowing does not create a sustainable environment. Every time we set a goal, we should hold every future decision up to that goal and ask ourselves, "Does this decision support or undermine this goal?"

Our spending is out of line with our revenue. Many Americans are having to learn to live without credit and live within their means. This is not true of our city. We've just seen a $30M increase in our budget to pay for city salaries. We have less people but are paying them more. City services have been cut to pay for these increases. We need leaders who understand what it's like to live on a fixed income and understand our residents don't have bottomless pockets.

3. What solutions do you propose to complete the Downtown Project?

The current city council did exactly what was done in the past and it failed again. Selecting a single source for this project has not worked. Allowing the single source to try to do everything at once has not worked. There is one portion of the project for which there was a tenant, the movie theater. Had that been done first, we would have some revenue coming in for the project. Had the Town and Country been left, we would have revenue coming in from the many businesses that were thriving there.

At this point I suggest selecting a portion of the project and completing it. Then take the next block and work on it after the first block is filled and revenue is generated to help with funding. To relate it to a Silicon Valley analogy, it's like writing software. You decide what you must have for the initial release, then you build on it for Version 2, Version 3, and so on. But you must get Version 1 built and delivered to recoup the costs and generate revenue for subsequent versions.

Yes, the project has suffered because of the current economy, but other cities have delivered similar projects that opened this year. They did it by scaling back the initial delivery and looking at which retailers would be willing to come into those areas. They've also looked for business outside of the norm such as as churches and schools.

Because this is a local mall with no immediate freeway access, I would favor talking to outlet retailers. There is no outlet mall in this area and this would draw patrons from the surrounding cities.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 8, 2009 16:30
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