Morgan Hill Times Mayoral Questionnaire

By Marby Lee

Answers to questions posed by the Morgan Hill Times Editorial Board

What are your top priorities? Overall, it is to restore faith and trust in how our local government works. When thinking about it, instead of one particular program or initiative, this is what I kept coming back to. It is convincing residents that their voice matters, so when we ask for public input, we do receive it, and receive it from more people than we normally do. The thing I most hear from people as I walk door to door and meet them is that they don't feel their voice is being heard. So there is not one specific project, but the overriding feeling from the public that their opinion matters and won't be ignored or dismissed.

What programs and/or services would you cut to balance the budget or save and how would you pay for them? I think we have to look at services that affect all residents, and concentrate our efforts and dollars on those, while looking at budget dollars that only benefit a small portion of the population. We need to look at our retirement and benefit programs, as they are not sustainable long-term. I think we need to look at budget dollars that go to the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Association, as they stated they were looking at 5 year plans to wean themselves off City money, and we are in year

This will not solve all the problems, but this is how we need to start looking at our budget. Public safety is an area which I would increase + we have shown, with the foot patrols in Downtown on the weekends, that more police on the street DO help reduce the incidents we see, but the challenge is to find a way to fund it. We have saved senior services at the Rec Center for this year, but need to find a way to keep those in future years.

Explain your approach to negotiating with employee unions? I think we have to be very forthright in future negotiations that the wage, benefit, and retirement system we currently have is not sustainable for the long term health of our city. We have been fortunate that we have been able to re-negotiate the current contracts, but in future contracts we need to look at different ways to administrate these areas. Ideas are moving to a defined contribution retirement plan and looking at the employee's contribution to healthcare costs.

Do you support a two-tier retirement system? Yes + this is essential to the long term financial health of the city.

How do you feel about RDA-financed downtown development plans, including the fate of the vacant Granada Theater building? I think at this point, we have identified and purchased properties in the Downtown, and now need to act on those parcels we've assembled. Before we purchase any other properties, we need to complete what we have started. As for the Granada, I respect and appreciate the plan brought forth by Save the Granada, but I couldn't see how it would work for the long term, say, 20 or 30 years. If there were an entity that was a for-profit that could show that it could make it work long term that would be a different story. For the past several years, no for-profit group has come forward.

How should the city address planning and developing in other parts of the city, such as the Southeast Quad? As we know, currently the SE Quadrant is not in the city limits. We need to remember that what we do affects the landowner's rights of what they can and cannot do with their property. Some of the things we have imposed and may impose will affect if and how those landowners are able to develop the land, if they choose to do so.

What is the city's role, if any, in working with the school district? I think we have common interests in working for the betterment of all of Morgan Hill. With the budget situation that both the city and school district are in, we need to try to ways to work together more than we currently do. I think we need to meet more often as group than we currently do, and talk frankly about the challenges we are facing and how to deal with them rather than an opportunity to pat ourselves on the back and exchange goals. Our previous meetings accomplished very little and we need to convene a workshop setting with topics determined beforehand, and use that time to work through them and find solutions.

In light of the Cinco de Mayo incident at LOHS, what steps would you take, if any, to improve race relations? This question assumes that we, as a City, have the resources to deal with race relations issues, and also assumes that it is a role of City government. The role of our local government is to ensure the safety of our residents, not to tell them how or what to think. It also assumes that any actions I or the Council would take would change minds or mindsets, and I don't see what actions could do that without offending one group or another.

What are your plans, if any, to attract new businesses to Morgan Hill? Part of the challenge of attracting new business to Morgan Hill is that for many retailers, we don't have the number of households that they look for in order to open a new store. With our growth control measure, that will always be a challenge. What I think will encourage businesses to locate here is to streamline the processes needed to bring them to town, to not make them jump through hoops when attempting to come here. I think also we need to think about the kind of businesses that residents leave Morgan Hill to shop at, that don't replicate those that are already here or in the vicinity, and work to show them what is special about Morgan Hill.

What prompted you to run? I felt that residents needed a candidate with a different perspective than what we have had for the past 10-15 years, who also had experience on the Council. From my conversations with residents, they are frustrated and feel that either their voice is not heard, or don't bother to make their opinion heard because it has been ignored in the past. I want to hear what residents think and make sure that is reflected in what we do in government. I think the fact that while I have the experience of 4 years on the Council and how it works, I have not been on it or any other commission long-term and still am independent in my thinking, not necessarily accepting all the information that is given to me. I ask a lot of questions of what is presented so I can see all sides of the issues.

Do you think changes are needed to the city's speaker policy and council meetings, and if so what changes would you make? I think that the policies are fine as they are, but I think fair and even implementation is what needs to be addressed.