League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 8, 2011 Election
	Maria Alice Pan Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Sunnyvale; Seat 7

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County 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 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.

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

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

3. How would you balance the needs of the City as a whole with groups’ interests?

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.

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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: November 6, 2011 13:53
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