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The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of the Eden Area and asked of all candidates for this office.
See below for questions on
Top priority,
Long-term vision,
Schools
Click on a name for candidate information. See also more information about this contest.
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1. What is the single most pressing problem facing the City in the next 24 months and how would you work with your elected colleagues to solve it?
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Answer from Barbara Halliday:
Balancing our budget, recovering from the loss of redevelopment funding, and putting the city on more stable fiscal footing will continue to dominate our agenda for the next two years and beyond. We have already made great progress in reducing staff costs, without significantly impacting city services, by getting our employee bargaining groups to grant mid-contract concessions that constitute real structural benefits to our budget. Employees throughout the organization, including City Council members and top managers, have agreed to forgo contracted salary increases and contribute more toward current and retiree benefits, including health care. We have also reorganized and streamlined our operations to make them more efficient. Attracting quality, tax-producing economic development will also help. With these and other efforts, we are making it through the current recession, but we have a long way to go to address long-term liabilities for promised retiree pensions and medical benefits and to build funds for future renovation and replacement of infrastructure and facilities. I will support sticking to our plan, carefully monitoring revenues and expenses, and making prudent choices that best address the city's priorities.
Answer from Francisco Zermeņo:
Having a Vibrant Economy is the single most pressing problem, because without it, we will not be able to provide a Safe, Clean, and Green Hayward for our Residents. Once elected, I will continue doing what I have been for the last 12 years (first as a Planning Commissioner, and the last four, as a City Councilman): visiting our present businesses, large or small to help them grow their business, attracting new businesses into the whole of our City, working on our City being more business friendly, working with our Hayward Chamber of Commerce, and maintaining the presence and effectiveness of our Latino Business Roundtable, which I founded in 2004 and still lead.
Answer from Al Mendall:
The most pressing problem facing the City of Hayward is the budget deficit. If we don't solve that, then all of our other priorities (safety, cleanliness, economic growth, jobs, etc.) will all suffer.
The citizen's of Hayward already passed at tax increase of $14 million per year, that cuts the deficit in half. The remaining balance needs to come from spending cuts. Since 85% of the City's spending is employee costs,that means, unfortunately, asking our employee groups for concessions.
We must negotiate in good faith, be honest with each other, listen to each other, and hammer out an agreement that all sides can accept. No one is happy about this situation, but it is a reality we have to deal with.
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2. What is your vision of Hayward ten years from now as it relates to residential growth and business development?
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Answer from Al Mendall:
I envision a great deal of re-development, both business and residential, in the flatlands of Hayward. We need more places to shop in town. We need more entertainment options in town. And we need to bring more good jobs to town.
In order to achieve that, we need to do two things. We need to make Hayward more physically attractive, by cleaning up the graffiti, the garbage, and the blight. And, we need to make it easier start a business or develop property in Hayward.
The City has a reputation of being unfriendly to business; we need to change that. We need to make Hayward a welcoming City to the businesses that we all want.
Answer from Barbara Halliday:
I see a thriving downtown with successful shops, restaurants and entertainment venues, enhanced by a new library, a hotel and conference center at the north end of Foothill Blvd., and possibly a new performing arts center. The downtown and the South Hayward BART area will be surrounded by compact residential communities within easy walking distance of neighborhood-serving businesses. Building on our current nucleus of research & development, medical technology firms and food-related producers, our industrial area will be populated by businesses with good-paying jobs that use clean, non-polluting energy generated by solar installations on rooftops throughout the city. Neighborhood schools will be supported by community volunteers to help children learn, and the city will have new recreational and entertainment opportunities for youth. Trees being planted now throughout the city will enhance our urban forest, and attractive gateways at key entrances to Hayward will welcome visitors for shopping and cultural experiences, such as the new museum being created by the Hayward Area Historical Society and our award-winning mural program. We can achieve this vision by sticking to our plans and priorities to make Hayward safer, cleaner, and greener.
Answer from Francisco Zermeņo:
Hayward is in the cusp of greatness. Since we don't have a tourist attraction such as snow, marina, grapes, mission, zoo, water or amusement park, we will have created various niches for making our City a Destination one. The various possibilities for which I will work are: a unique mural program, an urban forest status, a diversity center, a blues center, a top notch bustling small city flavor downtown, an improved Southland Mall (the largest in the East Bay), all complemented with adequate housing for our residents, and developed businesses.
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3. Good schools are important for a city's economic growth and well-being. What is the most effective way the City can partner with the school district to improve the academic performance and perception of our schools?
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Answer from Barbara Halliday:
I would like to see the current Homework Support Center now operating in our two libraries and at Longwood Elementary School be expanded throughout the city and augmented by other similar programs run by faith-based and non-profit groups, including affordable housing developments. I have been a volunteer for the past two years at the city's program, and it is clear that our children want to learn but just need some individual attention that our teachers, facing ever-increasing numbers of students in class, can't always provide. Beyond that, we need to make sure that we provide a supportive environment for children and youth, with plenty of playgrounds, recreational facilities and cultural programs, along with healthy food programs such as The Kids Breakfast Club, that will help make them more attentive and receptive in the classroom. Getting the whole community involved in helping our school-aged children will give Hayward a reputation as a city that cares about kids and education.
Answer from Francisco Zermeņo:
The best way would be a larger, stronger collaboration of the educational institutions present in our City, from HUSD and Chabot, to Cal State Hayward and Life Chiropractic and Heald Business Colleges. This collaborative also would have as members 2 representatives from H.A.R.D., 2 City Council members and 2 Chamber of Commerce members. Their mission would be to work in unison for the betterment of the educational program gearing for our students first.
Answer from Al Mendall:
As a parent of school-aged children, this issue is especially important to me. Hayward needs a parent of young children on the City Council.
Good schools are critical to Hayward's long-term success. We all need to work together and be part of the solution. The City has no direct control over the schools, but we can partner with the school district on safety issues, construction of new schools, and after school programs.
The City can also help by providing things for our young-people to do after school. Our teens do not have safe and inviting places to go for fun in Hayward. Just ask a teen...they will tell you. We need to create clusters of private businesses (movie theaters, bowling alleys, pizza parlors, ice cream shops, etc.) that give our teens a safe and inviting place to gather with their friends after school. The cluster is important because the businesses will support each other and most teens can't drive.
Responses to questions asked of each candidate
are reproduced as submitted to the League.
Candidates' statements are presented as
submitted. 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.
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League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
