November 1, 2006

Countdown to Election Day

Cindy Chavez: Working collaboratively

By Ali Abdollahi
Times Staff

Editor’s note: The Times newspapers’ editorial board recently interviewed mayoral candidates Cindy Chavez and Chuck Reed asking each a variety of questions about issues affecting the city, along with a few individualized questions dealing with issues that have arisen during their campaigns. The Times endorsement will appear in next week’s Almaden Times.

San Jose mayoral candidate and current Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez has spent almost two decades working for various organizations in South Bay politics. After earning a degree in political science from San Jose State University, Chavez became a budget and policy aide for the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. She later served as the staff director for the South Bay Labor Council, before being elected to the San Jose City Council in 1998. In 2002, she ran unopposed for re-election, and was named vice mayor during that second term.

Chavez decided to run for elected office after a violent incident in her neighborhood threatened the safety of her family. “I made a decision to run for office because, literally, someone shot my house, and could have killed my husband. I decided to clean up my neighborhood instead of moving out,” said Chavez.

Cindy Chavez

She claims that local government is a perfect fit for her, because it allows her the benefit of being able to see the positive changes she affects in her community. Chavez touts her governing style as “collaborative,” and said that, as mayor, she would maintain the quality of life for residents and continued growth for the city of San Jose.

Chavez lives in the Naglee Park neighborhood of downtown San Jose with her husband, Mike Potter, and their5-year-old son Brennan.

Q&A
Infrastructure: A recent article in the San Jose Mercury rated San Jose’s roads among the worst in the state. If elected mayor, what will you do to improve the condition of San Jose’s roadways?

I think that any of us who drive in San Jose know that the roads are in terrible condition. One of our challenges is that we’ve had a lack of resources coming from the state, and also coming from the federal government, in part because of tough budget times. Now, we’ll get back some of that Prop 42 money, and we also have money coming from the sate to improve roadways. So we will be able to start to get to work on them.

But here’s our primary challenge: We have a deficit need of almost $175 million in roadway repairs. What I would like the city to do is look at our one-time funding pot, that we often spend for other construction activities, and agree to dedicate a percentage of that money every year to improve roads. What is challenging about that issue is that there is a debate between what is “one-time,” and therefore appropriate for capital use, versus “on-going” money, and therefore more appropriate for operations use.

Safety: Even though San Jose is considered the second-safest big city in the country, we still have a problem with gangs and crime in general. How will you deal with this issue as mayor?

San Jose needs to continue to be the safest big city in the country. And people need to feel safe, not just have the title of safest big city. What that means is that we need to expand the work we’re doing, particularly for the prevention of children getting into gangs. One way to do that is to expand a pot of money to be able to address those issues directly, and that money is money that we use for prevention, intervention, and some suppression. As it relates to prevention and intervention, it is much more cost-effective, and long-term will create a much safer community if we invest more resources in those programs. We’re good at what we do, but we could always be better.

Gangs are not a problem that afflicts one part of the city, and I think that the Gang Task Force needs to be expanded to be far more inclusive of all parts of San Jose. Because if we’re serious about prevention and intervention, we have to look citywide, and I think that’s different than what we’re doing now.

Arts bailouts: What is your position on saving the Repertory Theater? Should more time have been taken to study the allocation of funds from the nearly $34 million surplus?

Let me focus on the allocation of the $34 million. That money, for the most part, is not a surplus. It is money that came from savings that we were not expecting. But given the fact that we still are operating in a deficit, it’s not necessarily a surplus. I appreciate very much that we put almost $7 million back into reserves.

Regarding the (Repertory Theatre), the arts are very important to the future of San Jose. They’re important in two ways. One, from a high quality of life, and creating opportunities for people to enjoy where they live, and be in love with this city. Whether that’s the (Repertory Theatre), the Children’s Musical Theatre, the opera, or the jazz festival.

It is also an opportunity, from an economic development perspective, to help San Jose maintain its competitive edge in a global economy. One of the reasons that San Jose is so unique is that it is innovative and creative. And each of those groups have some education component that our schools rely on, because they don’t have arts programming anymore. So it’s important that we invest appropriate resources into the arts. I think our bigger challenge is how we, as a city, do a better job of managing and monitoring all contracts.

Media access: Mayor Gonzalez has had a contentious with the press. How can you avoid this negative relationship, and how do you intend to offer more transparency as mayor?

One thing I think I would like to do is, once a month, have an open session with the press. Not related to a press conference, but just an hour-and-a-half where we sit around, and everybody comes in who wants to, and I don’t know your questions, but we just talk, and (the press) ask me what (they) want to know is going on. It feels to me that would be a more respectful way of creating openness and transparency.

Community centers, parks and libraries: The city is opening parks, community centers and libraries that it cannot afford to maintain. How do intend to rectify this problem?

We need to identify a funding source, long term, for maintenance. Let me share with you my idea. Right now the city gets construction and conveyance taxes that we can use to build and maintain parks. We use a portion of that money now for maintenance. I think that we could use a greater portion of that for maintenance than we use today. And it may take a change in state law, or a vote of the people. If it does, I think most people, because its not a new tax—literally we would be reapportioning money that we get now—would be supportive of getting their parks and libraries, and all of those things maintained.

Here’s where I think we have an opportunity with the vote on the PDO/PIO tax. Prior to measures O and P, we didn’t have capital money to build parks and libraries, with the exception of the park dedication fees that we received from developers. The problem with that was that any time there was any loose change, people would snatch it up and spend it on construction of new facilities. And what we need to do now is pull ourselves back, use O and P, and some part of the Construction and Conveyance Tax, and all of the PDO/PIO fees, for construction, and then take a bigger portion of that Construction and Conveyance Tax, and use it toward maintenance.

The city of San Jose must, over the next 15-20 years, invest in open space parks. We have fundamentally got to retrofit San Jose with green space, which is why I’m so focused on that capital money staying in one pot, and making sure I have the maintenance money to maintain the parks, which we need.

Large-scale development: What is your plan, if elected mayor, for Evergreen and Coyote Valley development? Both you and Chuck Reed say you prefer to start with business, and then develop housing, so how many jobs should be in place before housing begins? What solutions do you propose to eliminate the traffic congestion we already have in Evergreen?

We just did a study session on Evergreen, and what was interesting to learn was how far the plan had come along. And even though I think there are still big differences in the community, everybody’s had a chance to evaluate them fully. So by the time it comes to the Council, the Council will have a clear menu of options to choose from.

What is critical in Evergreen is that it is a beautiful community, and that any addition of housing maintains and focuses on a high quality of life, and that the land use plans focus on parks and open space, the relationships to the schools, and also traffic and transportation.

The other challenge with Evergreen is that what is most imperative, not just for the future developments, but also for the current people who live out there, is how (Highway) 101 is going to be upgraded. Both financially, how will that occur, and over what time period.

In Coyote Valley, it does have to be job-driven. The triggers that would be considered for Coyote Valley need to be considered as part of the general planning process. The importance of that is that even Evergreen, North San Jose, Coyote Valley, everything will be reconsidered as part of the general plan, because then you’ll have a more complete picture of what you’re doing relating to housing, and jobs, and all of those things citywide.

Regarding Indian Tribe donations, although the money was donated to the United Democratic Committee, did an amount of $55,000 appear in your campaign account around that time, then was it transfered out a few days after it was brought to the attention of the media?

This is an example of Mr. Reed shooting first and asking questions later. I learned of that contribution from a literally hysterical e-mail alert that came from his campaign that someone forwarded to us. As soon as I learned about that money, because of the appearance, I requested that the Democratic Party remove it and return it. In addition to that, I offered Mr. Reed an opportunity to co-sign that letter with me, so that we could both say we don’t want to have gaming money in our community, period, no matter how it was going to be spent. He declined to do that.

Did the money ever go into your account?

No, he was just directly dishonest. I saw a tape of the press conference, and he said that I received that money, and that was inaccurate. I was disappointed that he chose that tact, because it’s the reason people hate politics. And here’s the bottom line, and this is something else that Councilmember Reed knows well, and that is that there can be no Indian Gaming in urban areas. If he had chosen to do his research in a thorough and thoughtful way, he would have responded differently. Now, on the taxpayer money that Mr. Reed chose to use to make himself look good to nonprofits in our community, I did homework before I brought that forward, and my expectation is that he would do the same.

There is a contentious relationship between you and the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. If elected, what will you do to assure business leaders that your labor ties will not affect your decisions on the city council?

First of all, I have been endorsed and I am supported by many business leaders in the community. I think the idea that labor and business are on different ends of the spectrum when it comes to economic development and the future of the Valley is very old fashioned. If we want the city of San Jose to be the best place in the world to start and grow a business and have the highest quality of life of any large city in the country, then we have to figure out how to work together.

Also, I will remind everyone that when we became the 10th largest city in the country, it was in part because Detroit got smaller. And Detroit, 70 years ago, was the technological capital of the world. And we can learn from their mistakes, and one of them is that we’ve got to work together. I think the mayor of the city has to be able to work with all of the city, not just part of it.

Your opponent has made many references to the Gonzales-Chavez regime. First, how can you distance yourself from Gonzales to San Jose voters? Second, how will your governance differ from the present mayor?

First, I believe that Mr. Reed has chosen the tactic of tying Mayor Gonzales and I together because he doesn’t have his own record to run on, so he’s not willing to put his record of accomplishments against my record of accomplishments. I think it’s a cheap political trick, and I think its too bad he chose that tactic. I want to use one example: He has attacked me for being involved in (the NorCal scandal), and he has yet to apologize to me even after the independent investigator and the grand jury showed that I had no involvement in it at all. When (the council) investigated, censured the mayor, and asked him to resign, I was the vice mayor of the city of San Jose, and I led on all three of those issues. My highest obligation is to the residents of this city, and I understand that.

And let me answer the question about the governance differences. I think anybody who watches the council or knows any of us, understands there is a vast difference between me and Councilmember Reed, and between me and Mayor Gonzales. Ironically, Mayor Gonzales tends to work alone and so does Councilmember Reed. Mayor Gonzales tends to come up with ideas and then sort of spring them on people, so does Councilmember Reed. I am collaborative, open, and someone who really likes to get work done. My style is completely different. Even the council meetings are different when I run them.

Seven council members had a choice between three people running for mayor. They see us and work with us all the time, and they have endorsed me. Our entire congressional delegation, our entire assembly delegation, and in fact both Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer have endorsed me, and I think that’s because my work with them has produced outcomes.

If you become mayor, what are your ambitions beyond that office?

I have enjoyed public service more than I ever imagined I would. Part of the reason for that is that I can go not too far away, and I can see where we had a terrible shooting, and now we have a beautiful park. That we rallied the community around, and we were able to get that park built. And so, the feeling of knowing that you’re making real change in real people’s lives in real time is so thrilling to me, that I love it.

I chose to run for mayor because it is the only level of government, in my opinion, that you can roll your sleeves up and make change. You can turn unsafe streets into safe streets. And I just don’t think after being mayor of San Jose that I’m going to want to do anything different than stay committed to this community in some way.