League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Santa Clara County, CA June 3, 2014 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Council Member; City of San Jose; Council District 3

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 Experience, Budget, City concerns, Balancing interests, Campaign financing Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. What experience related to city government would you bring to the City Council? Answer from Raul Peralez: My passion for my community has led me to being involved in my neighborhood in many different capacities. As a police officer, I engage with my community on a daily basis and hear first hand their concerns. This experience is what has led me to want to run for office; I believe we need to undo the damage done by previous city leaders and make San José the safest big city in the nation once again. I have also understood the importance of keeping our youth engaged through my experience as an alternative education substitute teacher in Santa Clara County. Witnessing youth taking the wrong path has led me to understand the importance of having good role models in our community. Thus, I have been engaged in connecting Big Brothers, Big Sisters with our police and fire departments. I have also personally been a Big brother for over 4 years. Additionally, I have experience advocating for local community resources as the elected Vice President of the Rosemary Gardens Neighborhood Association. Lastly, as a Commissioner and recently elected Vice Chair with the Santa Clara County Human Relations Commission, I have conducted meetings under Roberts Rules and advocated in front of County Supervisors for policies that allow all of our residents to contribute fully in their community. I can list many more experiences that make me a great candidate for city council, but I believe my best asset is my passion for my community. All other skills can be learned, but my passion cannot be substituted with any other experience. I am running for office because I believe my community deserves better and I know I can bring the changes we need. I bring the fresh perspective we need to change the direction the city has led us on. As a councilmember, I will be committed to the voices in the community and ensure everyone can have a voice in the decision making process. Answer from John H. Hosmon: I am the elected treasurer and promoted to financial chief of a the private ambulance union covering America coast-to-coast. As both an officer and union steward, I deal with contract language, bargaining with the company, and dealing with a board of directors who have different views, visions, and personalities. I bring balance and fairness to these endeavors. I will do the same representing my community on city council. Answer from Kathy Yamada Sutherland: I am the candidate who has experience working with city government as a resident, business owner and public policy advisor. As a resident, I was elected to the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative Project Area Committee in an election that covered 1/3 of the city. SNI taught neighborhood leaders how to navigate city processes, advocate for our neighborhoods, and gave us the opportunity to develop personal relationships with city employees. As a neighborhood leader, I co-chaired the 2003 Diridon/Arena Strategic Plan. I know how to balance the need for future development against concerns about how it will change our current way of life. Based upon neighborhood concerns regarding impacts of dense development in the Delmas Park neighborhood, I lead my neighborhood to advocate for the creation of the Lake House historic district and a new residential permit parking area. These were creative and pro-active ways to protect our neighborhood against the impacts of future dense development. I owned my own business, managed a neighborhood business association and served as policy analyst for economic development for Councilmember Pyle. I know first-hand not only how difficult it can be to work with the City, but also how to remove roadblocks and get businesses open. It was my responsibility to oversee the opening of the first Whole Foods in San José. I understand how city government works for residents and business owners, and the role of Councilmembers as public policy leaders. I have been a neighborhood leader and advocate in District 3 for decades. City staff comes and goes. Neighborhood leaders hold the knowledge about what happened in the past, why it happened, what has already been done, what was promised and how to best move forward together. My unique experiences working with City Hall enable me to hit the ground running and be an effective Councilmember from day one. 2. San Jose budget difficulties have resulted in unprecedented cuts to staff and services. How will you deal with coming shortfalls? Restoring some of the City services? And, if you think the City needs additional resources, what are your ideas for increasing revenues? Answer from John H. Hosmon: We will restore the city services as our economy rebounds. I also believe in a culture change within our city. I look forward to working with all sections of our city and creating a fresh vision and outlook for public service. I have worked my entire adult life in public service and am the person to lead this charge. To create increasing revenues, we need to encourage and support our business, large and small. Answer from Raul Peralez: I believe addressing the issue of public safety can save the city a lot of money and bring more revenue. Due to the lack of public safety we have been experiencing, local businesses are fleeing the city, and we are unable to attract new ones. We must restore public trust in the city and realize legal pension savings by addressing Measure B's flawed effects. We have spent way too much money on litigation and have yet to see savings to our budget. It is time to negotiate with our employees, have some real savings and move forward in addressing public safety. We also must look into how we are investing our pension funds. Recently it has been reported that the city of San José has pension funds that are underperforming to the tune of over $90 million dollars. Lastly, we must generate some new revenue into our public services and I would support a sales tax measure to help generate these funds. Answer from Kathy Yamada Sutherland: San José does not provide adequate city services to our residents or businesses. We cannot continue to rely on cutting services to balance our city budget. We cannot continue to rely on reducing employee pay and benefits to balance the city budget if we want to keep and attract top quality employees to fill essential city positions throughout our city and especially in in our police, planning, and water pollution control departments. As a city we collect only $260 per resident in property and sales taxes, while other cities that are employment centers like Palo Alto ($742), Santa Clara ($524) and Mountain View ($408) collect much more. San José has a critical jobs/housing imbalance with only .84 jobs per resident. On the other hand, Palo Alto with 3.11 jobs per resident, collects almost 3 times the amount of property and sales taxes when compared to San José. As residents we deserve and need adequate city services like libraries that are open more than four days a week, a variety of community center programs, well maintained parks, and reliable and timely responses from police and fire departments. Our jobs/housing imbalance increases our need to provide city services and limits our ability to generate adequate city funds. Our long term goal must be to increase the number of good paying jobs in San José to improve our revenue. However, this cannot be done overnight and something must be done now. The City Manager's Fiscal Reform plan approved in May of 2011 had essentially three parts + 1) reduce employee costs through pay cuts and pension reform, 2) privatize non-essential city jobs, 3) increase revenue. The third part has not yet been done. It is time to ask our residents if they would support a sale tax increase of ˝ of a percent for a term of 5 to 7 years which would most likely generate an additional $60 million. A short term sales tax increase of this size would allow us to bring back essential city services that have been cut too hard like library and community center hours, code enforcement officers and park rangers, and to begin doing the work to repair our crumbling roads. 3. What concerns are of particular importance to the city and how would you address them? Answer from John H. Hosmon: We need to address our public safety system. Both the deployment model we have, and a change in the demand side of the equation. The days of utilizing our public safety for everything and anything while sending out our most precious and expensive resources will not be sustainable over the long term. Answer from Raul Peralez: Public Safety is the top concern for San José. We have moved from being the safest big city in the nation to one combating a rising amount of crime every day. This has in turn affected our ability to create new revenue, as businesses are fleeing our city. I witness our public safety issues every night at work and I know our city can do a better job at addressing the safety of their residents. I will focus on shifting this pattern from day one. Additionally, the lack of leadership has pushed our community towards a distrust of local government. If elected, I will work on restoring this trust by cultivating communication between residents and city council. I understand that community involvement is vital to the success of the city, and I will ensure residents feel confident that their voices are being heard. Another pressing issue for our city is our growing homeless population. We need to take ownership of these residents and work together with the county and other agencies to develop real long-term solutions. Focusing on Housing First models that have been successful across the nation and allocating the funds to these types of programs will be the direction I intend to lead our city. Answer from Kathy Yamada Sutherland: I believe that there are two key areas of importance San José must focus on: job creation/business development and public safety. San José must continue to focus on attracting businesses which will lead to the creation of good paying local jobs. We must learn from our successes with major corporations and work to improve our support of our small and medium size businesses. I believe we now have the opportunity to direct staff to improve our services to the small and medium size businesses that decide they want to place their future in San José. Delays and conflicting information cost money. We need to remember that when small and medium size business owners decide they want to invest their future in San José, they are putting their personal finances and future in our hands. Everyone will agree that San José must hire more police officers. To me, public safety also includes code enforcement officers, park rangers and our community partners in the Mayor's Gang Prevention Task Force. We must bring back funding for these programs. How safe you feel is determined by what you see when you leave your front door. Trash, abandoned cars, broken windows, unkempt buildings make communities feel unsafe. These are areas best addressed by code enforcement officers. Park Rangers are tasked with keeping our parks and trails clean and safe. We must bring them back to give everyone in District 3 access to a safe and clean park or trail. San José has the nationally recognized Mayor's Gang Prevention Task Force which works with community partners to provide opportunities to our at risk students. Our fiscal crisis dramatically reduced funding for these partners. We must restore funding so we can support organizations that help our youngest residents succeed and thrive. 4. How would you balance the needs of the City as a whole while also addressing needs of your district as well as those of special groups? Answer from John H. Hosmon: Delegation would be a tool I would use to balance the needs of our city and district. My ego is not so big as to demand I handle everything. It is about embracing and empowering the people and groups who have the knowledge and experience in solving our problems and moving our city forward. Answer from Kathy Yamada Sutherland: San José is the 10th largest city in the nation with 10 unique council districts with many different needs. We live in the most complex district in the city. As the heart of San José, we are the Downtown district, center of the arts and business community, home to what will be the largest transit center on the west coast, and our residents live in luxury high rise apartments, single family homes and are homeless in our parks and along our trails. There are many different and often competing areas of need within the City as a whole, but also within the District 3 community. The relationships I have developed during my years of volunteering and working with residents citywide, combined with my experience working with all other council districts as a Chief of Staff give me a deep understanding of the city as a whole. All councilmembers make decisions on issues within and outside of their own districts and I will use my existing relationships with residents, businesses and city staff to find solutions that build consensus and create win-win solutions for the unique needs of our district. To address needs and solve problems you need to understand the system you are working in. I understand how the system works. I will be elected by voters who live in District 3 to represent them and I will work tirelessly to make real changes that improve the heart of San José. Councilmembers who represent our district need to see and understand the "big picture". It cannot be said enough that we are the most complex district in San José and the depth and breadth of my experiences give me the background to be an effective leader for you on day one. Everyone who has an issue they care deeply about is a special group. Balancing needs requires careful listening and looking for creative solutions with the goal of doing what is best for District 3 and San José. Answer from Raul Peralez: The priorities of district 3 residents speak to the priorities of our city as a whole. One of the things that I love about living here is that we have a very diverse community, a quality that is also present in our city and county in general. Public safety, public transportation, economic security and affordable housing are all issues common to our city as a whole. I will be sure to listen to the needs of residents of district 3 while assessing the needs of the city as a whole. I understand that the role of public officials is to respond and represent the needs of the community they represent, and that's what I intend to do if elected to council. 5. How much money do you expect to raise/spend on your race, and how will you assure voters that financial contributions will not affect your decisions/positions should you be elected? Answer from Kathy Yamada Sutherland: My budget for the June primary is $80,000. When I decided to run for City Council, I realized that fundraising would be an integral part of the campaign. As pointed out in the March 25, 2014 article in the Mercury News regarding fundraising "a lot of her contributors were seniors, a key voting block in any election." My deep ties in the greater District 3 community and city of San José give me the strength to run as an experienced, independent candidate who will advocate for neighborhoods and work with everyone to make policy decisions that are in the best interests of San José. I have shown that I can raise money without special interest groups. Residents, businesses, developers, and employees all have an interest in making sure their voices are heard at City Hall. Regardless of any contribution history, my door will be open to all. There are many complex and challenging decisions that must be made on any given Tuesday. I will always listen to all sides of an issue, ask questions and make decision based upon what is best for District 3 and San José. Answer from John H. Hosmon: I have done more with less my entire life. I have a strong moral compass and am proud of the donors to my campaign. However, most know me very well and understand they are buying into, "Believing in San Jose" and not into a special interest. Answer from Raul Peralez: I intend to raise about $100,000 for the campaign. As a life-long resident of San José, I grew up in a middle class immigrant family and that instilled working class values in me. I do not come from a political family, nor was I selected by any particular special interest to run for office. I am here listed as a candidate because, through my different experiences, I have developed a passion to serve and represent my community. I am from, live and work in San José. The future of my community represents my future. I am running for council because, as a resident, I see the need for change. I will bring the fresh perspective our city needs, and this is why I have so many residents, friends and family members who believe so much in me that they decided to fund my campaign. Over half of my campaign funds are under $100 and the majority of all my contributions come from individual donors. They are the voice I will represent as a council member, and I have made this clear to all my funders. I do not worry about balancing donors with the needs of voters because my values are what will drive my policy decisions in city hall. Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. Please answer each question in no more than 400 words. Direct references to opponents are not permitted. The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.