Questions and Answers

By Steve Tate

My answers to 17 frequently asked questions.

It is an honor to serve as Mayor. I enjoy it and believe that I am very good at it. My accomplishments and experience as mayor, Council member and businessman; my knowledge of Morgan Hill; and my interpersonal skills give me the confidence to expect that Morgan Hill will continue to benefit from my leadership; that we can make our great community even better.

2. What is the most important issue facing our City?

The recession and its impact on our budget. It is essential that we maintain our sustainable budget strategy to assure the future financial well-being of the community. It will likely mean making even more tough decisions on cutting services to the community and doing things even more efficiently in the future. We have a great staff that has met all the financial challenges they have faced with a positive, can-do attitude; and I am confident that we will weather this financial storm and emerge even stronger.

3. If elected, what will you do differently over the next two years?

As the recession deepened, we found ourselves keeping a very close eye on finances and now that we see our reserves reaching the minimum level, we will need to stay right on top of our financial situation.

My experience has taught me the value of having regional partnerships and being able to influence issues of concern to Morgan Hill at the regional level. I have built a large network of elected officials in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties as well as State Assembly, State Senate and Congressional electeds and staff. I will be continuing to build Morgan Hill's regional influence.

One of the things I like most about this job is the variety of issues and different topics that come up, there is always a fresh challenge to take on and we have quite a few on the horizon. I am eager to take them on!

4. How do you intend to control City costs?

We must continue our tried and true method for this + our Sustainable Budget Strategy. We do frequent updates to a five-year projection of income and use them to set, or adjust if necessary, our budget. Judicious use of reserves has been employed and there is a mechanism to assure we don't over use them to create a deficit.

We also have a prioritization process to make cuts when they become necessary, so that we only cut the lower priority services in terms of what our residents expect.

5. How about police costs? Is the Sheriff an option?

The Council determined not to pursue contracting police services to the Sheriff at this time. The City Manager is recruiting a new Chief and we will have one on board by year-end.

The Council is putting an intense focus on the outcomes we need to achieve in the public safety arena. We will focus our limited resources on achieving those outcomes. We are also looking into "VIP" + Volunteer in Policing programs that would alleviate our officers of some of their heavy administrative burden.

6. How will you deal with City employee pensions that may become impossible to provide?

Pension reform is one of the issues that has to be addressed regionally, and that is happening. Some jurisdictions have gone to a two-tier system recently, which is really encouraging and we are definitely looking at following suit. Any action we take on our own could encourage our great employees to "seek greener pastures", which is why it needs to be done in concert with others.

There are also some very creative proposals for addressing current employee pensions that need to be explored further in concert with the State retirement system, and that is also ongoing now. We need to assure that whatever solutions we employ are fair and as equitable as possible for our employees while at the same time assuring that they alleviate the City of an unsustainable financial burden.

7. How will you get staff to accept changes and still be positive when dealing with residents?

We have outstanding staff that understand the importance of customer service and also understand the realities of the recession. We work closely with our staff through our employee bargaining units so that when changes need to be made, our employees are part of the process and "own" them, so changes are not mandated by management.

8. How will you reduce the price of City services? What City fees will you reduce to attract business?

Most City services and activities are "priced" to recover costs, so to remain fiscally sound, we cannot reduce them. We do review them regularly and adjust them up or down as necessary.

City fees levied on new or expanding businesses are different, we can look at special circumstances and the economic impact businesses may have and adjust fees if there is sufficient justification. Business attraction or expansion is definitely a priority; we need to be flexible and as accommodating as we can afford to be to encourage it.

9. What specifically are you going to do to make private sector job creation in Morgan Hill possible?

We have comprehensive strategies to retain, attract or help businesses expand. Morgan Hill is being extensively advertised as "business friendly" in the San Jose Business Journal, producing good results. Recently relocated businesses like Pinnacle Manufacturing, Del Monaco Foods and Lin Engineering are willing and excited to provide positive testimonials about what a great place this is to do business.

We also work jointly with our Chamber and Downtown Association on programs to attract new business. And we are exploring programs to potentially target specific green energy-type businesses to town. I am very open to other ideas and suggestions to expand our business and job population her in Morgan Hill, it can really help our long term financial well being.

10. What specifically are you going to do to make private sector job creation in Morgan Hill possible?

We have a comprehensive economic strategy to retain existing businesses, help existing businesses expand and attract new businesses. In the latter category we are advertising in the San Jose Business Journal and seeing good results. Also, recently relocated businesses like Pinnacle Manufacturing, Del Monaco Foods and Lin Engineering are eager to provide positive testimonials about what a great place Morgan Hill is to do business.

We also work in partnership with our Chamber and Downtown Association on programs to aggressively market Morgan Hill in order to attract new businesses. We are also exploring programs to target specific green energy-type businesses to town.

11. How will Morgan Hill be better with your leadership for the next two years?

Working with the Morgan Hill Unified School District on items of mutual concern is important. I have been a member of a City/School Liaison Committee with School Board representatives for several years. I have very good relationships with many of the Board members and with the superintendent and his deputies. As mayor, I will reach out more strongly, not only to the School District, but also to other regional organizations to strengthen bonds with them, enhancing partnerships and solving problems collaboratively. The entire City Council needs to be involved in these efforts.

12. What separates you from the other candidates?

It is important, and needs to be done in a suitable manner, meaning it must be acceptable to our residents and conducive to achieving our vision for Morgan Hill. The big, big box retail stores do not belong in Morgan Hill, and we need to be quite prudent about how many car dealers we allow, and where we locate them.

We must exhaust economic means to balance our budget before looking to tax increases. But we also can't be overly optimistic about what we can get through economic development, and when additional services appear to be justified, we should not hesitate to ask voters if they are willing to fund them, as we are for police staffing on the November ballot.

13. How should the city accomplish its economic development strategy?

It is being done effectively now. Two city council members serve on an economic development subcommittee that is constantly reviewing and updating our strategy, and is bringing important economic development policy issues to the entire council. The city has a partnership with the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce that is producing results in business attraction and retention. Several of our Business Assistance and Housing Services staff also serve as ombudsmen for the city, helping businesses that want to locate or expand here. There are effective mechanisms in place to accomplish the city's economic development objectives; it will take some patience and perseverance.

14. The operations and maintenance costs for our community facilities (Community Center, Aquatics Center, Centennial Recreation Center and Outdoor Recreation Center) are paid for in part by the general fund. Doesn't this take away from our ability to fund more public safety?

We spend 83% of our discretionary general fund budget on public safety, and only 8% on recreation. Our recreation and community services staff is doing an outstanding job of minimizing the general fund subsidy of these facilities, providing very high quality services to our community. We achieved the community's "vision" for these facilities as it was conceived in the mid-90's and I believe they exceed our expectations in their contribution to our quality of life. And they indirectly impact public safety by creating positive alternative activities.

That said, I also agree that public safety is very important and that we need to avoid burdening our general fund any further for non-public safety oriented reasons. So I will not support any further burden to the General Fund caused by RDA capital projects.

15. Do you think the general public in Morgan Hill is involved enough in helping guide our local public policy?

No. I would really like to find ways that would engage more of our residents to make their voices heard on many of the issues we face. The "community conversations" of two years ago were successful, and we had two recent town hall meetings to get input on public safety funding that were also well received, but attended by very few people.

We do conduct statistically valid polling periodically and that is very valuable, but too expensive to do more regularly. And polling does not allow dialog, which I think is very valuable. I find the dialogs I have while campaigning to be extremely valuable in providing ideas and validating or refuting our policy directions. We will continue to seek out new and different approaches to achieve more public engagement.

16. Do you support the growth control we have with Measure C?

Yes, growth control started in 1977 when sewers were at capacity, schools were on double session and other infrastructure was also severely taxed. Measure E, followed by Measure P were both adopted via the initiative process, the voters indicating strongly that they favored the targeted population and competitive approach to housing allocations. I chaired a committee in 2003/2004 which recommended extension of Measure P with some updates and revisions. The update, Measure C, was passed overwhelmingly by voters in 2004. Our residents support growth control and it has served us very well for many years.

We are continuing to fine-tune Measure C to meet current conditions. The current ballot measure to exempt downtown mixed use development will enable achievement of our downtown plan/vision by allowing projects to be completed in whole rather that by phases, which is impractical. And it will not change Measure C's 48,000 target population for 2020.

17. Why would you be a good mayor?

I love Morgan Hill; it is a very special place. Living here, I have grown increasingly attached to and involved in this wonderful community. My community knowledge and experience, coupled with my leadership skills prepared me for the ultimate leadership role in Morgan Hill, and I believe I have performed it very well over the past two years. I am excited and eager to continue serving a mayor.