Candidate for
Council Member; City of Fremont

Fremont has been my home for 27 years. As a Fremont Planning Commissioner, I participated in developing the General Plan 2030, supported businesses and affordable housing, protected our city's scenic hills, and helped revitalize our historic districts.

Currently, I have the honor to serve as:

• Chair, Ohlone College Foundation
• President and CEO of Indo-Americans for Better Community, an organization that has donated over $500,000 to local charities such as Abode Services, Fremont Senior Center, Life ElderCare, Meals on Wheels, Kidango and others
• Board Member Life ElderCare and Salvation Army
• Vice-Chair Ohlone College Bond Oversight Committee.

My well-rounded perspective, in combination with tenure on multiple governing bodies including 8 years on Fremont Planning Commission, affords me a strong understanding of how local government works. As your voice and your City Councilmember, I will be committed and work:

1. To address unfunded liability and to improve public safety by providing more resources to Fremont Police and Fire. I firmly believe that safe neighborhoods are essential for maintaining a good quality of life and great schools. Thriving communities are reliant upon the invaluable efforts of their Police and Fire Departments. I strongly support both Fire and Police, and will work to provide them more resources.

2. To support businesses and make Fremont more business friendly. Talking to people around Fremont, I have gotten the impression that many feel Fremont is not small business friendly. Personally, I know we can do a better job. By enhancing communication between the city and small businesses, along with implementing business friendly policies, we will attract great businesses to Fremont. I have no conflicts of interest in directly dealing with business and bringing them to our great city. Fremont leadership must be realistic about what businesses need are.

The following is an excerpt from an interview I gave to Tri-City Voice in 2004 (Tri-City Voice, June 22- July 6, 2004 publication):

"TCV: What is your vision for Fremont? What do you think of creating a downtown?

Dr. Sharma: We need a central businesses district, a downtown. We better think very seriously about what we want there. That will only happen if we know who's going to shop there - Fremont residents. At city hall we can say what we want, but the talk of the street is the talk of the town.

I have spoken to people about the need for a good theater. They [city council] said that they're going to work on it and bring it in CBD. Have we talked to the people who are going to put the project in Fremont? Where they want to put it? How about Pacific Commons? I talked to the Catellus people and they said that the city had instructed them not to entertain that idea, because they wanted to think about it for the central business district. I don't know who they have talked to but if such a business is not interested in the central business and Catellus is not going to entertain that idea, then we are never going to have a nice theater in Fremont.

This is the same issue with the WalMart location. I thought a better location was off Stevenson. It's not that I didn't want WalMart in Fremont; it's that I didn't want Walmart where traffic is an issue. The argument that business knows best what to do is only partially true. If more than fifty percent of businesses close within five years of startup, more than fifty percent of the time, businesses are not correct.

We have [historic] districts that we can facilitate. I see no reason why the city can't work on both simultaneously. There is no way to say we're going to develop area A and not worry about area B because eventually area A is connected to area B."

A movie theater and WalMart are now at the locations I proposed in 2004. I have a clear vision for Fremont and a realistic and effective plan to implement it.

3. To bring jobs to Fremont. Fremont needs to do more outreach through our economic development department to bring more Biotech, Green tech and high technology jobs to Fremont. To do this we need an elected official, like myself, who has biomedical background and is committed to bring jobs to Fremont and will dedicate the time and effort to do so.

4. To protect open space and parklands. I have worked to preserve our scenic hills and parklands in many ways, especially as a Fremont Planning Commissioner. I am an outdoor person who values our open space, parklands, and scenic hills. I hike on Mission Peak and I have been a marathon runner for 25 years. I care about the environment and will make sure we address traffic and quality of life issues before approving any development projects.

5. To support our school district. Fremont has some of the best schools - not only in the state, but in the country, as well. As your representative and Coucilmember, I will do all I can to keep our schools at the top and to prioritize our students and teachers. I believe that there should be more frequent meetings between the city leadership and the school board to improve meaningful communication. The school board is responsible for taking care of our children and should be informed about the development and city planning in our neighborhoods. Additionally, they should be encouraged to actively participate in such decisions, many of which affect our school system.

6. To provide quality affordable housing. I will work to create more affordable housing. City leadership also has the role of helping our community understand what the definition of affordable housing is. When we create or help people buy housing in Fremont, we do so for those fellow community members who have families and permanent jobs that support our fine city. Affordable housing is not equivalent to bringing a "bad element" into the community. I believe that many Fremont city employees living outside of Fremont don't prefer to do so; instead, we haven't made the effort to encourage them to live in Fremont and we haven't helped make it possible for them to do so. The city should work to create housing that can be made affordable for firefighters, police officers, teachers, and other city employees. Other communities have done this very successfully. One solution is to use city-owned land to develop an affordable housing component for city employees. This development can be restricted to city employees, and housing would be offered at market prices determined by city employees.

7. To bring city hall to our neighborhoods through community meetings. I am the people's candidate. I believe in communication and implementation. I will work hard to bring city hall to each neighborhood to improve communication and trust in the city government. This is very important for Fremont, as we will need local support and revenue to improve our public safety.

8. To provide the best city services per dollar spent. I will work to make sure we provide best services for each dollar we spent. Any successful businesses consistently analyze their business to optimize operations and stay profitable. We have to do the same thing at the city level. As your Councilmember, I will work to evaluate how we're spending our dollars at every level.