May 4, 2006

ELECTION ‘06

The reformer speaks

Mayoral candidate Chuck Reed touts his voting record and reform plans

By Daniel DeBolt
Staff Writer

Editor’s note: The Times newspapers editorial board interviewed the five major mayoral candidates. The interviews appear
in the order that they took place. The interviews appeared in the April 27 issue with David Pandori, May 4 with Michael Mulcahy, May 11 issue with Cindy Chavez, and May 19 with Dave Cortese. The Times endorsement will appear in the June 1 issue.

Chuck Reed’s Midwestern values set him apart from the rest of the pack in the highly contested San Jose mayoral race. His campaign message is plain-spoken and straight to the point: “Tell the truth. Keep your word. Be responsible for your actions. Follow the law,” it reads on his campaign literature.

Reed grew up in a small town in Kansas, where he started working at an early age. He won placement in the Air Force Academy where he learned leadership skills. His daughter, Kim is now an Air Force fighter pilot while his son, a recent college grad from Santa Clara University, is working to stop nuclear proliferation. “One blows things up and one tries to keep things from being blown up,” he laughs.

Reed started wearing his trademark red, white and blue necktie on Sept. 11, 2001. He said he wears it in honor of his daughter and others serving in the U.S. military. “It’s the least I could do. Anyone who has a son or daughter serving in the military knows that when they ask you to do something symbolic like that for them you do it.”

While Reed may not have the support of community associations in the volume of his opponents, he does have the support of police organizations, the republican women’s associations, and a realtors association. When he was reelected to his post as District 4 councilmember in 2002 he received 86 percent of the votes.

Reed likes to point to his voting record on the council as proof that he always tries to do the right thing fiscally and ethically, even though it may be unpopular. There are three major decisions where he voted to stop actions that ended up costing the city a total of $194 million. His opponents Dave Cortese and Cindy Chavez both voted in support of these costly actions, while Reed says he smartly opposed them. One was using eminent domain on the Tropicana Shopping Center, another was stopping the county from building a concert hall at the fairgrounds. Both actions ended up costing the city a total of $44 million in legal fees and damages. Reed also supported cheaper alternatives to the new city hall that would have saved $150 million. Both Cortese and Chavez supported the new city hall.

Reed lives in the Berryessa neighborhood of San Jose with his wife Paula, an oncology nurse for a cancer center.

For more information on Chuck Reed visit www.chuckreed.com

Q and A

Cost of living/budget

Many Silicon Valley workers are leaving the area because of the high cost of living. What can be done to make more affordable housing available in this area?

Our area is very productive per labor unit, but the cost of living is very high. That goes into the equation of whether the next new thing will be invented here. When we talk to CEO’s the cost of housing is very high on their list of concerns. High density housing on transit corridors is really the only way.

Related to that is what we are doing in North San Jose. The 25,000 or so housing units that will likely be built out there in the next decade or so will be higher density and in a price range affordable to young workers. And building along the transit corridor makes it cheaper to live here because you won’t depend on your car as much.

How can we attract more jobs to San Jose?

The key thing is to make sure our driving industries can stay here and grow here. If the driving industries stop innovating eventually all the other jobs that revolve around them won’t be created.

Photos by Jeff Frazee

When I first got into office I started talking to CEO’s and property management people. I found that there were businesses that wanted to grow but couldn’t because they couldn’t afford more dirt and weren’t allowed to build up on their property. Ebay would have left San Jose if not for their ability to build up on their land. BEA Systems was within two weeks of leaving - we eventually made a deal with them.

Silicon Valley’s best days are ahead of it I think.
There is a concern that the process for opening up a small business in San Jose is too arduous. Should this process be streamlined? If so, how?

It is too arduous and unfortunately we hear too many stories about this. As a city we are in the way. It’s not an easy thing to fix. When I was chairman of the Chamber of Commerce we were concerned how long it took to get tenant improvement permits. It used to take 60 to 90 days, now it takes a number of hours. We have to make sure we don’t have multiple inspectors on a project that make people start over. What we have to have is aggregate data and performance measures, not just anecdotal evidence of this problem. We want 90 percent of the people to be happy.

One of the things I want to do is have regular performance hearings by the council. I want to get the council out of saying ‘go and report back in a year’ but looking at the things we’ve directed staff to do and see if we fixed it.

In the face of the city’s budget problems how would you allocate funds differently?

Well first you’ve got to not waste what you have. The money you spend on a car race cannot be spent on community centers - it’s gone. The money we spent on the county can’t be spent on the strong neighborhoods initiative. The money we spent on the new city hall is gone. When you start taking those things out of the budget, it affects everything. I don’t think we should have paid for the car race; it should have paid for itself. It was a lot of fun, but just too much money. I’m not saying it wasn’t good, just a choice between spending $4 million for cars or for crossing guards.

What can be done about the loss of our community centers and their staff?

In the short run probably not much. I like the idea of bringing in community groups. I don’t like the idea of taking them out of service but that really is the situation. As we built out these projects, the parks and recreation department need more money to operate them. We hope to continue to operate them with community groups.

Transportation

Should BART be brought to San Jose? If so, what can be done to prevent it from taking funding from other projects in neighborhoods it won’t serve?

I think BART should come to San Jose. I view that as something we have to do for the future. We have infrastructure today that was built years ago and in the 30 year view it makes a lot of sense but in the short run it’s difficult. I think it should come all the way through San Jose, not just to Fremont or Berryessa. It’s interesting that so many support BART and so few want to ride it. The voters have said they want it.

How do we keep it from taking over projects? That depends on how we budget. I don’t support the new Measure A sales tax for a couple of reasons. There’s no guarantee the money will go to BART or other projects. I was always cautious how government uses the bait and switch technique to fund other projects. I’ve seen the pressure officials bear in funding important projects. I would have supported a properly structured quarter cent sales tax for transportation only.

What can be done to mitigate the major traffic problems there could be with future developments and an expanding city population?

On North First Street with the new development plan we have $500 million in improvements that have to be funded by the developers themselves. You have to do the same thing in Evergreen or Coyote Valley. In Coyote if we build 25,000 houses and no jobs that is a big mistake. You need to take advantage of the reverse commute by having jobs in the south and housing in the north. I don’t think you can describe the Evergreen development as smart growth because it’s just houses and more houses. I think converting the industrial land in that area is a big mistake.

Development

Recent decisions about Coyote Valley development have lead to the project being criticized as another example of urban sprawl. What would constitute acceptable triggers before building homes in Coyote Valley? How many jobs should there be first?

I think the real question isn’t about the plan, but should we give up the open space, will we have the jobs and when is the right time? I certainly don’t want to get the housing without the jobs. I think the financing is the easy part. We can pay for the operating costs for whatever goes to Coyote Valley but the question of when, is the big question.

What can be done to make sure Coyote Valley development isn’t detrimental to other neighborhoods in San Jose by draining city resources? Should developers be responsible for a percentage of infrastructure improvements?

I think developers should be responsible for the entire infrastructure; otherwise you do drain other neighborhoods. We know from some of the latest reports that in 30 years everything works out great. In the short run it needs financing but I think that can be done. The Coyote Valley homeowners will pay for it, ultimately. That’s okay—that’s the concept.

With plans for continued housing growth in the Evergreen area, how will you, as mayor, ensure that any negative impacts on traffic, schools and city services will be minimized for Evergreen residents? How will you balance the interests of the local residents versus the interests of developers?

According to the planning that has been so far you can take care of some of the traffic impact at the freeways, but little can be done about the stoplight to stoplight traffic on the surface streets. It’s sort of planning by auction. If you put enough things on the table we want, we’ll put up with this. That’s what has been put to the community. The industrial part is important to minimize those trips. Five thousand units will develop 50,000 car trips a day. Getting onto the freeway will be better but the backup will be moved back to the surface streets. A lot of those streets are as wide as they can get.

Crime/police

Although San Jose has a low crime rate compared to other cities it still has a gang problem. What do you intend to do regarding gangs?

This is a problem we cannot let get away from us. There is a tipping point. Once it crosses it’s hard to get it back. Prevention and suppression are important. The police are only good at suppression. We have to collaborate with community organizations who can talk to the kids and get them engaged in things that are better than the gangs. When the police are doing their part the worst of the worst are off the streets and the rest can be rehabilitated.

I have supported the funding that’s come out of the general fund for prevention programs. For every kid there is something, all these little pieces, like tattoo removal.

The city paid $1.8 million for the police shooting of Bich Cau Thi Tran. Can expensive tragedies like these be prevented? If so, how?

The specifics of the Tran case - I don’t think there was anything that could have prevented it under the circumstances. From everything that I’ve heard from people who were there, the officer made the only decision he could. We train our officers to do certain things and he did it. We learn from every shooting. Some of the things we learned were that we need more support for people with mental health problems and we have to train our officers to recognize a situation and do something different.

The other piece is to give the officer whatever tools they may need. I don’t know if tasers would have been useful. We have equipped all of our officers with tasers and I support that. We have people that are alive today that have been tasered that would have been shot. But it can’t be used as a substitute for talking to people. There are cultural and language barriers that officers need training in. The chief has started a training program to make sure we are training them properly.

Sports

Citizens throughout the city complain they don’t have enough sports fields, especially in Almaden where citizens have spent years trying to build fields for their kids. How would you address this issue?

Well, I think we should have built the soccer fields in South Almaden. I supported that. I think that was a good project in a good place for good reasons. We don’t have enough sports fields. We have a couple of places where we have the capital dollars but not the operating dollars. I’d like to see more use of capital dollars in a way that will save operating dollars, such as using field turf instead of grass so fields last longer and don’t need expensive maintenance. If we can do these projects in collaboration with the school districts, that is the best. We did that twice in my district.

If elected mayor, will you continue the city’s pursuit of bringing Major League Baseball, namely the Oakland A’s, to San Jose? If so, how will you go about doing this, considering that the San Francisco Giants have territorial rights to San Jose? Should the city spend money to buy land for a park before the territorial rights issue is resolved?

I will continue to work on it. I think it’s important. Ultimately the voters will make the choice. They have to understand how we would pay for it before they vote for it. I don’t support taking money out of the general fund away from kids who want to play baseball. I think we can be creative on the capital side by creating financing districts as they have in other cities.

I don’t think voters would be willing to pass a tax unless it was only on people going to the ballgame. The territorial rights issue is probably the least of our worries because Major League Baseball is all about money. They know if it came to San Jose it would be positive for the league. Four hundred million to $500 million for a stadium? That’s tough. The mayor’s job is to find a way to do it.

The land around the Caltrain Station is being land banked. If the voters think you are tricking them they won’t vote for it. You can’t put it to the voters without doing an environmental review of the project. We are within the law, doing the right thing. We are acquiring the land, and if we never build a stadium it will be a great place for housing.

If elected mayor, will one of your goals be to bring Major League Soccer back to San Jose? If so, will the city of San Jose be able to provide the new team with a new soccer-specific stadium, as previously asked for by the owners of the San Jose Earthquakes?

That’s a similar problem. Nobody wanted to pay for the $5 million losses anymore; we didn’t want to take it out of the general fund so they moved. If we can get an owner willing to pay we may be able to get a project going maybe in conjunction with San Jose State. If they are talking about an $80 million facility paying for the operating costs will be tough. I think it’s great, I was a season ticket holder. But I wouldn’t have been willing to pay another $200 per seat to cover the costs.

City Hall

There seems to be an anti city hall feeling brewing during this election following events such as the Nor Cal garbage deal scandal and the late notice given before subsidizing the Grand Prix. What, specifically, must be done to get the community to trust city hall again?

I think we need a new mayor, a new vice mayor and a new, permanent city manager. We need a new mayor that is honest, dedicated to fiscal responsibility and open government. That will be a vast change from what we have now. Once you have that you can start to get the public’s trust back.

The Mercury News requested information on the San Jose Grand Prix after the council voted for the $4 million subsidy. The information given to the Mercury News had pages with information blacked out. When is it right to keep information from the public?

There are very few circumstances when it is okay. The deliberative process we have used has been abused to keep people from being embarrassed. I want to err on the side of giving the information out. The essential problem is if the elected officials don’t want it to happen, the city staff will figure it out. That’s what happened regarding the car race. There really is rarely a good reason to keep information secret.

The Sunshine law proposals currently don’t have any provisions for enforcement. Should a Sunshine law be enforced through fines or censure or dismissal of those who violate it?

All of the above. All of those tools should be available. We either need a commission or to bring the requests to the council.

Mayor Gonzales has proposed that city elections be publicly funded, a policy some other cities have adopted. Do you think this would be an appropriate policy for San Jose?

If we could get it in place for this election I might have supported it, now that I’m seeing how much time it takes to raise the money! I’m very cautious about the law of unintended consequences. How do we control the budget? There are some loose ends on that. There are a lot of problems and I’ve never seen a model that will work for San Jose, but we’ll wait and see.

How would you go about selecting and working with a new city manager?

The first thing is getting the council to agree on the job description, to figure out whether we’ll have a city manage like Del Borgsdorf, who worked for the mayor’s office, or someone like Les White who seems good so far. Having clarity of vision is important. Once we have a council in agreement about the kind of person we want then we can engage in a recruiting process rather than letting the mayor do it. The life of a city manager is tenuous - any given Tuesday, six votes and you’re gone. Having council support is critical.

Your campaign

What political party do you affiliate with?

Democrat. Been a Democrat since I was 12 years old and John F. Kennedy was president. He was strong on defense, strong on civil rights, strong on public service. There are many things I don’t agree with on the national level but I’m stubborn. Harry Truman was one of my favorites.

Who is endorsing your campaign and of those endorsements which is the most important to you?

The Deputy Sheriff’s Association is probably the most important. The Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, California Apartment Association of the Tri County Region, and the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs (COPS). Those are the four major endorsements. There is also the Association of Republican Women, Vietnamese American Republican Council of Northern California.

In the past have you proven you have the management skills necessary to lead a group and the skills necessary to convince other council members to vote with you to get things done in city hall?

I spent four years in an Air Force Academy Leadership Laboratory. I managed a law firm. On the council, having not been a member of the labor caucus or the mayor’s team it’s difficult getting things done. But there are some significant things I did. I gave professional staff the idea we could change the restriction to two stories on North First Street. Once the professional staff bought into it I got the mayor into it and took it to the council to get the budgeting work to make that happen.

The privatization of the convention center and the theaters through Team San Jose was something I started and it seems successful so far. The management did not like the change. Expenses are down and we’re beginning to see the growth in our hotel taxes. The mayor has the power of the agenda and the power of the pulpit. I pushed for a long time for disclosure of fundraising because when Terry Gregory was shaking down Costco and Wal-Mart reporting that wasn’t required. I took advantage of the opportunity of the public pressure to get there. The mayor can do these things even without the help of the labor council.

How does your campaign deal with lobbyist contributions?

Depends on what you mean by lobbyists. Problem is, in San Jose most lobbyists aren’t registered. Many don’t have to register, such as labor people, because the loopholes are so big. I have accepted contributions because I don’t think they are the problem. The problem is the elected officials who require lobbyists for people to do business with them.

San Jose is the largest city in the Bay Area, though most people still refer to the area as the San Francisco Bay Area. What specifically needs to be done to “put us on the map” so to speak? What big projects would you pursue? What is your vision for San Jose?

San Jose needs to be the Capitol of Silicon Valley, the best place to start and grow a business. If we’re the world’s capitol of innovation, we don’t need to be the capitol of anything else. I have no desire to chase the image of other cities. The best days of Silicon Valley are ahead of us. If we are the capitol of Silicon Valley everything else is secondary. Major League Baseball is just a nice thing to have. I’m going to continue to make sure startups are here and continue to innovate here.

And finally….Why do you want to be mayor?

I’m running for mayor because I want San Jose to be the best place in the world to work and live and raise a family. I want to make sure we as city continue to work on those elements.

I don’t think the city has been well served by the Gonzales - Chavez administration. Anytime you have three independent investigations, two grand jury investigations and the censure of a councilmember and mayor in a little over a year, you’ve got some troubles. I want to be mayor to fix those problems, that’s job number one for the new mayor. I want to move on to improve our neighborhoods, fix our schools, and finish rebuilding the downtown; all the things I’ve been working on for 25 years.