Candidate for
Council Member; City of San Jose; Council District 4

Kansen Chu is a San Jose City Councilmember, representing District 4, which encompasses the communities of Berryessa, Alviso, and North San Jose. Elected in June 2007, Councilmember Chu is the first Chinese American to serve on the distinguished body. Testament to his dedication to the District 4 residents, he was re-elected without opposition to a four-year term in June 2008. Councilmember Chu initiated landmark legislation to require citywide green building standards, mandate the installation of automatic heart defibrillators across San Jose, and was instrumental in the adoption of the largest municipality in the Country to ban plastic bags.

Councilmember Chu is a member of the City's Neighborhood Services and Education Committee and City's Public Safety, Finance, and Strategic Support Committee and serves as the Council liaison to the Airport Commission, Human Rights Commission, and Small Business Commission. He is also a member of the County's Recycling Waste Reduction Commission, League of California Cities, and the Association of Bay Area Governments. In addition, Councilmember Chu also served as the Chair of the North San Jose Neighborhoods Planning Taskforce, a Council appointed body formed in July 2007 to address the growth of 32,000 residential units in North San Jose.

In 2002, Kansen Chu was elected to the Berryessa Union School Board. As a school boardmember, he championed stronger curriculums, better education materials, and improved public access to school board meetings.

Kansen's dedication to our community is reflected in his many community activities and civic services. He served on the Berryessa Union School Board for 5 years, Santa Clara Valley Metro YMCA, Vietnamese Voluntary Foundation, Shin Shin Education Foundation, and Advisory Board of Californians for Justice. Kansen has also served on the Santa Clara County Mental Health Board, Private Industry Council under Job Training Partnership Act, Neighborhood Accountability Board of Berryessa, the KNTV Channel 11 Community Board, Asian Law Alliance, and many other advisory commissions and boards. In 2006, Kansen was selected by Building Peaceful Families (BPF) as a Top Community Dad and most recently, in 2011 was inducted into the Silicon Valley Fatherhood Hall of Fame. He continues to serve on the board of Vision New America, dedicated to advancing youth involvement in civics and government.

Born in Taiwan, Kansen moved to the United States in 1976. Professionally, Kansen has a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Cal State Northridge, and worked as a Microdiagnostics Microprogrammer at IBM for 18 years. Kansen and Daisy have been married for 35 years and they have two children, Ann and Walt.