League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Santa Clara County, CA November 4, 2008 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Mayor; City of Morgan Hill

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, Important Concerns, Balance Needs Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. What experience related to city government would you bring to the City Council? Answer from Steve Tate: Seventeen years as Planning Commissioner, Council member and mayor. 2. What concerns are of particular importance to the city and how would you address them? Answer from Steve Tate: We are a growing community and though we are very safe today, we are concerned about the future. Measure G on the ballot would implement a utility tax to increase police staffing. Should it not pass, we will need to really work hard to find alternate approaches to enhance our protection in the future. We also need a third fire station in town, and must come up with a concrete plan to staff it. We are working on a regional approach that may provide the answer, if it does not work out, we must get very creative to solve this need as well. The downtown is an area of intense focus for the city as we implement our five-year plan to make it truly spectacular! The real concern here is just to keep the plan on track and within the planned cost parameters. Financing our services is always a concern, we have successfully implemented a sustainable budget strategy and must keep our focus on maintaining it and being creative when our needs exceed our means. With hard work and diligence, we must keep our budgets in balance as we hae the past few years. 3. How would you balance the needs of the City as a whole with groups' interests? Answer from Steve Tate: The needs of the City as a whole trump the interests of any group. What I find is that by working with "special" interest groups and educating them on the overall interests of the city, we can almost always find ways to meet at least some of their needs without hirting the city. It is just education and building consensus. Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League. The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.