Candidate for
Council Member; City of San Bruno

San Bruno is experiencing good economic activity now with the Crossing, the Shops at Tanforan recently opened, and developers' interest in other parts of the city, thanks to careful redevelopment. As a councilman, I want to keep that momentum going for San Bruno's future growth and economic development. I will continue working to improve our business climate, making our business areas attractive and inviting, while preserving our neighborhoods, keeping our streets clean and safe for all to enjoy.

Important issues that I want to start with include:

• I want to get cars off of the lawns and debris out from in front of houses and apartments by making it a top priority for code enforcement. Our city is great. Our neighborhoods are nice. But we still have people parking their cars on their lawn or leaving auto parts or appliances piled up in front of their houses and apartments. Its not fair to those who live close by and it detracts from our neighborhoods.

• I want to get the debris out from behind the stores on San Mateo Ave. This not only looks bad, it also smells and attracts rodents. Its a health issue. And when shoppers have to park in our public lots, the first thing they see is the back of these businesses. It is not attractive or inviting. It hurts business. I want to work with the businesses to help improve this. For those who don't want to comply, code enforcement will be utilized. Code enforcement is a good tool but over the years, focus on it has not remained constant. I want to make sure we have a consistent, sustained effort here.

• I want to stop the proliferation of unlicensed vendors in our city. From the women selling flowers on San Mateo Avenue or in front of the banks and the guys selling tacos and burritos from their carts, to the traveling salesman who sell calculators, pen sets, and luggage door to door and along the Avenue. These vendors come from outside of our city, from Hayward, San Jose, Redwood City, San Francisco .... and put back no tax dollars into our city. Most do not have the required business licenses or permits. They compete directly with our established businesses who pay rent, are chamber members, and pay taxes here. Even the ice cream vendors in the park on the weekend compete directly with our local school groups and teams trying to raise money at the concession stand. Unpermitted food vendors pose a potential health risk, also. We must check vendors and require them to get the proper licenses and permits, or not allow them in our town. I want to review and possibly modify what should be allowed in our city, also.

• We have a lot of great businesses in San Bruno, run by responsible business people. Being on the chamber and having lived in town for so long I have met a lot of them. But some businesses operating near residential areas are impacting our neighborhoods with employee parking, littering, noise, and test driving of cars. I want to have businesses adopt a "good neighbor" policy to minimize impacts to neighborhoods. We need to have a policy they abide by, maybe have a rating system or a list so residents and consumers know which businesses choose to comply with basic "good neighbor" standards. It wont cost them anything but if they comply and are respectful of their neigbors, it will improve life for those who live nearby.

• I want to make restoring police and fire department budgets a top priority. Police and fire departments operating underfunded puts residents at risk. When our economy grows and revenues increase, my first priority is to build the police and fire budgets back up. The fire department, to reduce its budget, agreed to about 100 cross-staffing days a year. This keeps both stations open but not fully manned. This is a risk I'm not willing to take. The police department also took cuts and I want to build up their budget so they can get back the patrol officers they cut and be able to pay their officers enough to retain quality personnel. I want our citizens to be safe in their homes and in their community.