League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 4, 2014 Election
	Darcy Paul Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Cupertino

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 am currently the Chair of the Cupertino Parks and Recreation Commission, where I have served for seven years. In that time, we have helped to open four parks, and I am dedicated to ensuring that city services improve for all residents, especially in areas that are currently park deficient. I am also this year's Board President of the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce. I joined the Board of the Chamber in 2010 when I started my business in Cupertino. At the time, both the economy and the organization were in need of revitalization. By focusing efforts on supporting the infrastructure of our economy, which is small businesses, I have been able to help lead a strong recovery in Cupertino. We are doing well, Chamber membership is up significantly for the first time in many years, and we are delivering meaningful activities and services to the community. Still, there is much work to be done to ensure that we continue not just to prosper, but to thrive in a sustainable fashion. I want to bring these experiences to City Council so that we can all keep succeeding.

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

I am most concerned about the quality of our dialog. We need to be honest with and civil with each other. If for no other reason, then these aspects of our community conversation are important because, first, when we are honest, then at least we understand where the issues are and we can go about solving the right problems, and second, when we are civil, we foster a sense of community rather than trigger a tendency to be defensive and angry with each other. And so, I would bring a style of public dialog designed to get things done.

Having canvassed thousands of voters across Cupertino during my campaign, I have heard a number of concerns. Many residents are concerned about our schools and improving the quality of their children's education. Development continues to be a strong concern with many residents. I believe that we need to listen to and act upon residential concerns while balancing out the need to provide adequate housing options for our growing elderly population, and for the growing number of people who work here yet have to commute farther and farther from our area due to lack of affordable options. It is neither socially responsible nor environmentally sound to ignore these needs. We should identify areas and designs that are suitable to meet our needs and the preferences of residents, and work to promote those projects.

We need to be fair and efficient in our government. Being unfair alienates capable people and destroys opportunities. Being inefficient spirals us into debt. There are always ways to improve on both counts, and while we do a reasonably good job here in Cupertino, we can always work to make each other better. From a structural standpoint, I would like to emphasize our support for small businesses, as well as fair and equal access to city services while I'm on Council. I support measures to improve our schools and libraries, and believe that we should not be shortchanged with respect to financial allocations just because our students study more and perform better on tests; this is the kind of skewed logic that results in more widespread future inequities that cut off opportunities, ultimately, for everyone.

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

I would balance them by listening to and acting upon public input. The needs of Cupertino as a whole are not defined by outside interests. At the same time, the needs of Cupertino as a whole are also not defined by the loudest residents. I think that we need to elect public officials who have a track record of listening to public input in a fair and open manner, and acting upon it in a way that is faithful to the spirit of public sentiment while considering the overall needs. This is an especially difficult task because oftentimes the concerns are exclusively grounded in a sense of entitlement, on both sides of a given issue. This is why I believe it's necessary to foster an honest and civil dialog, and to work for a community that has sound underlying structures so that we are put into a position of making choices as reflective as possible of community sentiment while being able to live peacefully with the idea that not everyone gets everything that they want all of the time. But I believe that, as a public official elected by residents, the job of a city council member is to convey residential sentiment through action, dialog, and votes.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. The answer to each question should be limited to 400 words. Direct references to opponents are not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 24, 2014 07:34
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