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The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.
See below for questions on
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Click on a name for candidate information. See also more information about this contest.
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1. What experience related to city government would you bring to the City Council?
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Answer from Maria Alice Pan:
I have experience engaging City Hall on affordable housing-related issues. I have spoken before
the City Council and the Housing Commission. I gave feedback at an Onizuka Redevelopment Agency
meeting regarding the selection of the developer for the proposed affordable housing projects.
In addition, I have spoken before the Planning Commission regarding the downtown design and the
Library Board of Trustees regarding the limited word processing computer resources at the time.
I will bring to the City Council the understanding that individuals who come forward to speak,
have first-hand experience of the situation at hand. They are also speaking for many others who do
not come forward. These testimonies must be weighed in when rendering decisions affecting the community.
My experience with government began while I was young. My father was a civil servant working in the
Taiwan Foreign Ministry (State Department). I had the opportunity to study at American primary
schools when my father's post was in San Francisco. I grew up in the Richmond District, 1963-67.
Answer from Fred Fowler:
I have many years of experience in both the public and private sectors. I served on the Sunnyvale City Council for eight years, and I have served on the boards of more than a dozen not for profit and community benefit organizations. I am the Vice President for I/T and also the CIO of The Coast Distribution System, inc, which is one of the San Jose Mercury News's "Silicon Valley 150" corporations. I have also served three terms as the President of the Lakewood Village Neighborhood Association.
Answer from Tara Martin-Milius:
For more than a decade, I have been a leader of the Neighborhood Association. In that role, I not only did the business of the neighborhood, but also liaised with the City on issues of importance to the neighbors. Things like speaking before the Planning Commission, appeal hearings, and City Council on many issues. Especially when we disagreed with the ITR (industrial to Residential) plan to convert the 7+ acres on Duane Court to high density residential--not even mixed use--we lost all our little businesses.
To become more familiar and more effective in working with the City, I took all the City Skills courses to become more familiar with exactly how the City is structured and works. Topics ranged from budgets to Robert's Rules of Order, and everything else relevant to working with the City.
When there were openings, I also applied for and was accepted as an Arts Commissioner, then became Vice Chair of the Arts Commission. This, of course, provided and even closer relationship with the inner workings of the City, Staff, and City Council.
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2. What concerns are of particular importance to the city and how would you address them?
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Answer from Tara Martin-Milius:
Getting the structural deficit fixed is first--all other things flow from the budget. To do that we need to encourage businesses to open in our business parks and our downtown. Enhanced business-to-business transactions and retail sales taxes are direct revenue to the City.
Tied to the budget is the downtown, which has been a challenge for about 11 years. Downtown needs to get finished to have the retail so that we have the tax revenue to close budget gaps. We need to have our downtown be a preferred shopping and social gathering place. That creates community, helps businesses, spends dollars supporting our own City.
The downturn in the economy caused some deferred maintenance to our streets and sidewalks. The decision has now been made to bring them back up to 80% to keep the useful life of the streets to over 50 years instead of 30 years. The sidewalks are critical for all those who walk, and particularly to our children and seniors.
We all need to be able to "drink the water and breathe the air" in our whole region, so the environment, and environmental concerns need to be addressed and enhanced. Go green and greener for health, well being, and jobs!
Answer from Maria Alice Pan:
The Budget
Sunnyvale has two sources of revenue that are loan
repayments. Solid waste or Smart Station
repayments from the City of Mountain View and Palo Alto. These repayments are ending in fiscal year
2022-23 and the city will be losing 4.7 million dollars per year thereafter.
The other source is the Redevelopment Agency loan repayment which will be ending in fiscal year
2027-28. The City will then be losing a net 9 million dollars per year also.
At the same time in FY 2027-28, the budget stabilization fund, a reserve account that the city
uses to balance the budget, will be exhausted. In fact, the 2.1 million dollars in service
cuts enacted this year was made to extend the life of the stabilization fund from depleting in FY 2021-22.
The budget stabilization fund is being drawn down due to structural deficits in the General Fund
and in the dissolved Community Recreation Fund. A structural deficit is a condition in
which a reserve account must be regularly drawn in order to balance the fund's budget.
(Community recreation has been combined with Library services and folded into the General Fund.
The other component of the orginal recreation fund, tennis and golf, is now an independent enterprise
fund which is forecasted for a structural deficit in FY 2012-13.)
For fiscal year 2011-12, 82% of the General Fund, a fund for essential government services, is
budgeted for employee compensation.
Average annual salary increases are 4.1% for public safety employees and 2.6% for all other employees.
The direction of Sunnyvale's budget based on the 20-year planning projections is certain to result in
reduced level and quality of services.
We must address the employee compensation behemoth through pension reform and other
adjustments to salary formulas. A two-tier pension system has been implemented and it will
take at least twenty years for the final first tier employees to retire.
The next generation depends on us to lay the foundation of a city with adequate services for
them to live. Likewise, ourselves who will become elderly, senior or middle-aged adults, will
need city services and support.
Reference:
http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/Departments/Finance/BudgetDocuments.aspx
Answer from Fred Fowler:
The City of Sunnyvale needs to get "back to basics". In years past Sunnyvale used a number of innovative practices that made it quite successful and even famous. Books have been written about Sunnyvale, it's "performance based management" system and its 20 year budgeting horizon. Lately, many of those practices have eroded away. I want to be an advocate for bringing the best of those practices back into use.
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3. How would you balance the needs of the City as a whole with groups’ interests?
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Answer from Maria Alice Pan:
The Downtown
Since AMP, American Mall Properties went bankrupt in 2002, two other succeeding developers,
Fourth Quarter and RREEF/Sandhill, defaulted in 2006 and 2009 respectively.
Sunnyvale is a city with a diverse population. Many residents did not want an urbanite downtown
taking the character out of the community.
The downtown design needs to reflect the multi-culturalness of the community. I will work for the
parking and street infrastructure to be completed first by the next developer, so that we will never
have an earthquake-type scene next to Macy's of an incomplete parking garage.
Answer from Tara Martin-Milius:
I am a great believer in working for win-win solutions to challenging issues. Most of the time there are ways to get most of the outcomes for all parties involved. If for some reason a win-win is not achievable, then compromise can be a possible option. Try for the least-worst outcome for all.
Answer from Fred Fowler:
Everyone in Sunnyvale deserves a safe, well maintained and comfortable neighborhood environment in which to live and work. In those rare circumstances where the needs of different groups conflict, I would attempt to balance those needs so that the "pain" is spread evenly and no group feels like either the "winner" or the "loser".
Responses to questions asked of each candidate
are reproduced as submitted to the League.
Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.
The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.
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League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
