The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.     See below for questions on Experience, Concerns, Balancing Needs

Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest.

Answer from Frederick J. "FRED" Clegg:

My first experience with city government was a card/magazine shop near the end of my street on Rayanna. I visited the City Council and voiced my opinion on the objection to this shop. The license was not renewed.

I have served the City for eight years as Parks and Recreation Commissioner.I worked with City manager and staff and worked with City Council to promote recreation and leisure activities for the future of Santa Clara. The Skate Park, Creek Trial, Soccer Park, and Ulistic Natural Area were some of the proven results.

I represented the City in over nine Park Conventions throughout the United States in my eight years.

I received a first hand knowledge of the Police Department as a graduate of the Citizens Police academy. All departments were visited with expectations from each conveyed to each student.

Answer from Joe Kornder:

I have worked in education for 40 years - much of that as a principal and associate superintendent - responsible for many projects and circumstances in which the community played a part. I have managed budgets in the millions of dollars, overseen major facility projects from planning stages to completion, and led planning efforts scores of times that have all led to successful outcomes. I am familiar with hundreds of key people in the city and will be able to tap into neighborhood and citywilde issues and concerns easily. I am well prepared to be part of the Council.

Answer from Brian P. Lowery:

The qualifications I bring to Santa Clara City Government are that I have owned and operated a successful small business for over 12 years and during this time, have made many business contacts with companies that operate within our city. I understand the basic structures that define the operations of these businesses and can therefore relate very well to their concerns. It is extremely important that a Council member be a person who can draw from a business background because commerce is the necessary ingredient to the vitality of our city. From this business experience, I will provide for a positive business climate between city government and local businesses.

The second important quality that I can bring to city government is that I was personally involved with all aspects of the complete remodel of our home in Santa Clara. From this experience, I acquired a complete understanding of the building process and its relationship with the city Planning department and therefore will be able to relate to the individual who wishes to either build or remodel their home, or the developer who wishes to build homes on a larger scale. From my engineering background I will be able to understand and deal with the complex issues facing construction on a much larger scale within the city.

The third quality that I bring to city government is that I have traveled often to many different parts of our world and therefore am open to the diversity of cultures that exist here in Santa Clara. I can speak to the people of Santa Clara in the languages of Spanish, French and Japanese and that is important because there is a certain rapport that exists between a council member who has the capacity to speak to a citizen in his/her own native language.

Finally, I have worked on several political campaigns in the recent past, and by doing so, gained a certain appreciation of the political process that will enable me to successfully deal with public processes that will invariably be political in nature.

Answer from Frederick J. "FRED" Clegg:

I would like to address the concerns for the citizens on the North side of Santa Clara. We are currently the fastest growing in population and in business for Santa Clara. Promises have been made and broken for this part of the City for years. The citizens of this part of the City are treated like stepchildren.

We must keep in the City's mind the unfulfilled promises. There has never been a member of city council who lives on the Northside. It took over 15 years to finally get the promised shopping center with a major grocery store. The patrol by police has now been stepped up with a much-needed auxiliary police station now in existence. The promise of sidewalks five years ago for safety is slowly being implemented. The new library has been pushed to the side during budget cuts.

Answer from Brian P. Lowery:

There are four principal concerns that the city of Santa Clara is currently facing: creating a environment for our businesses both large and small that allows them to thrive and prosper, finding ways to create a housing environment that is affordable for our children and for those who wish to come and live here, creating an environment for our senior citizens that allows them to live out their lives both comfortably and affordably, creating a 'downtown region' which is attractive to both citizens and visitors alike, and rejuvenation of its existing neighborhoods.

As a council member, I will meet with leaders of businesses both large and small in Santa Clara and learn from what the city needs to do to make them more competitive. I will seek to determine firsthand whether or not any problems exist that might force them to effectively operate in our city. In return, I will ask them to do more of their corporate business at our local Convention center and to participate in an `Adopt a Schools Program' that would involve them giving excess or used equipment back to a school and allowing students to spend time at their company learning about the different operations of the business.

Housing that costs between 700 and 800 thousand dollars is not affordable. The average median income for a family in the city of Santa Clara is $81,717, which does not qualify for the purchase of a three-bedroom home in any location. The high cost of housing is forcing our businesses to leave our city and our workers, both public and private, to live elsewhere. It is not enough to ask developers to build more homes here because that has not dropped the prices down; in fact, it has only forced prices to rise due to the scarcity of land. As a council member, I will attempt to work with the city manager to find ways to offer financial programs to first time homebuyers, city employees and teachers. I will also work with non-profit entities such as Habitat for Humanity as another avenue for creating affordable homes.

The quality of life for our senior citizens is rapidly diminishing as a result of the high cost of living and the dramatic changes in life style; utility rates are rising, as are medicine costs and their children are not around to help them perform the most rudimentary of tasks. As a council member I will work with the Senior Citizens Advisory committee to explore ways of improving their lives with the city resources made available to them. I will work with activists in the neighborhoods of Santa Clara to find ways to help them, by visiting with them, doing small tasks like mowing their lawns, making sure they are taking their medicine, and making sure that someone in their family is checking up on them. These are simple tasks to be sure, but it must start from somewhere.

As a council member, I will work hard to promote a vision for a downtown area. One only need look back in Santa Clara's history to see what a downtown area should look like. The citizens of Santa Clara do not need a strip mall for a downtown area with condominiums and townhouses and the like. We need a downtown at Franklin Square that the residents of the old quad and the senior citizens can walk to. Many residents come from the outlying areas and visit the Farmer's Market on Saturday, so it is not a big stretch to put the downtown area there. As a council member, I will try to get businesses to come to this area, businesses such as either a Starbucks or a Trader Joe's and additionally, shops that will be attractive to the female shoppers of Santa Clara. It might even be nice, if somehow, we could get a small movie house, similar to the one in Palo Alto. I know that these ideas may seem far-fetched, but if we work together, you and I can make it happen.

The older neighborhoods of Santa Clara have been grossly neglected in favor of the new projects that have been taking place in the North Side of Santa Clara. These older neighborhoods should be rejuvenated because these citizens pay property taxes too. As a council member, I will work with the city to make sure that all required infrastructure projects are being completed. In addition, I will work with concerned neighbors in the many neighborhoods of Santa Clara to develop neighborhood watch programs and self-help programs that empower them to make their neighborhood a place they like to live. I will setup a website where concerned neighbors can leave messages of concern.

Answer from Joe Kornder:

The redevelopment of downtown area - that huge effort is moving forward with a conceptual plan in place and with further opportunities for citizens to reflect and provide input waiting to occlur. For my part I will be especially concerned about traffic and parking impacts and solutions and the selection of viable retail and comemrcial involvement in the area.

Budget - we have balanced the city budget for the past 4 lyears, but only by transferring reserves into the working capital budget. We must reverse the depletion of the reserves and work hard to restore it to appropriate levels.

Answer from Brian P. Lowery:

The budget for the city of Santa Clara is $500 million dollars this past year. This means that in order for the city to maintain its current operations, it must be able to raise the equivalent sum from sales, property, and local business taxes. This is not going to be an easy task by any stretch of the imagination year in and year out. The attempt by the city to continue on its path of rampant high-density housing is not the panacea for drawing sufficient revenues to meet its budget. Housing costs only grow exponentially because of the enormous associated infrastructure costs: there will be a higher demand for electricity, water, a greater need for public safety officers, teachers, and stores. Additionally, there is no guarantee that either the state or the county will return in sufficient quantity, the property tax that the city should deserve for building all these units, thus putting further strain on present and future budgets. The city of Santa Clara must learn to do a better job managing growth. By using all of its available land for housing, there is very little left over for businesses and even less for its citizens. And this is a very serious issue.

As a candidate for city council, I am not taking a single campaign contribution from any source because I wish to fight for what is right first for the average citizen who has lived here and made this city what it is today and secondly, for what is right for the city. As a Council Member, I will fight for managed growth, a growth that is sustainable based on measured statistics from what can be objectively obtained from tax revenues. It is the right thing to do for our citizens and our city.

Answer from Frederick J. "FRED" Clegg:

To balance any priority a healthy budget with monies must be available. The City passed a 5 year plan that projects revenues and shortfalls. I have negotiated multy million dollor contracts in my business contacts. I believe now is the time to further reach out to other Cities and form joint venture to bid out common goods/products. Use innovative measures to bring business back to our City. Offer a cost savings program on energy to lure business to want to move and stay in Santa Clara. I will vote NO on measure B. Our elected officials were voted into office to make decisions about the balanced budget of our city. This balance could be changed by an outside arbitrator if measure B passes. The five year plan could go out the window with necessary projects cut to pay any new awards to Fire/Police from arbitrator. A proper managed budget policy has the opportunity to balance many groups interests. groups

Answer from Joe Kornder:

Any city is a gathering or collection of groups, of neighborhoods, of organizations, of pockets of individuals with common needs and issues - all of these brought together by geography and hopefully some allegiance to the city as a whole. It falls to the city government to respond appropriately to each group's needs and still make sure that that response protects and is responsive to citywide goals and efforts. If citywide efforts conflict with individuial groups' needs or interests, then we as elected officials must work with both entities to make sure the final outcome is not detrimental to either and is as close to a win-win solution as we can get.

The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.