League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 7, 2006 Election
	Art Maurice Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member, 6; City of San Jose; Council District 6

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of San Jose/Santa Clara in partnership with the San Jose Mercury News and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. There are proposals to add 30,000 houses and more office space in North San Jose, thousands more homes in Evergreen and to build a new community in the Coyote Valley. There has been no in-depth study of how these plans will affect one another or services throughout the city. Should San Jose complete a thorough, public review of its general plan for growth before approving any more major development plans? Silicon Valley needs more housing, but San Jose needs more jobs to strengthen its tax base. How would you balance those conflicting pressures?

A thorough, public review of San Jose's general plan is needed but we can't put everything on hold while we do this. San Jose is in a precarious position because it needs more housing but if you compare San Jose to the other cities in Silicon Valley you'll see that the business to housing ratio is higher, thus other cities have a higher tax base. With that in mind San Jose has to bring in more businesses. Whether it is at North San Jose, Evergreen or Coyote Valley we need to keep San Jose growing. The real question may be, do we need to develop all three areas at once? Considering our budget and the general plan it would be prudent to develop one area at a time.

2. San Jose has a council/manager form of government. Over the past few years the balance of power has shifted toward the mayor and there are some elected officials who support this stronger role for the mayor. Should San Jose move to a strong-mayor form of government or have a strong professional administrator? What kind of city manager will you look for?

Strong leadership is what's needed. San Jose needs both a strong mayor and a strong city manager. The power shift occurred because the mayor was stronger than the city manager. We need a mayor who has a vision of what San Jose should be and a city manager who can make it happen. It works best when the two work in conjunction but the city manager needs to step up when the mayor is driving too hard.

3. Safety often includes services such as homework centers and code enforcement for neighborhoods, but the city budget now being prepared could cut much needed services. If there is no other source of funds to maintain safety-related centers and gang prevention, would you consider reducing the funds going to support the police and fire departments? Can the growing costs of police and for pensions be covered without depleting funds for other community service in the future?

With the annexation of the unincorporated areas of district 6 the police and fire departments will need more funding. These are services that we can't live without and it would be dangerous to stretch them too thin. Homework centers and code enforcement are also important but there are ways we can save the city money. When I was president of our neighborhood association I got a call from code enforcement about an elderly man who's backyard ivy was growing over his fence into the neighbor's yard. This man did not have the money to hire someone and he had an oxygen tank for breathing so he couldn't do it himself. After doing some research and making a couple calls I found a Boy Scout group that needed a merit badge. It was a win-win-win situation. A win for the elderly man, a win for the Boy Scouts and a win for San Jose. A lot of problems can be solved this way if San Jose would just do its homework. As your councilman I would make my office my homework center.

4. Money to maintain and operate the city’s public facilities such as parks and libraries is in shorter and shorter supply. So while new or expanded community centers have been proposed previously, the city is looking at closing or privatizing up to 30 existing centers it cannot afford to operate. Should the city re-examine its plans to add parks and other public facilities? Are there services the city could cut to find money for these highly valued ones?

I got an email from a homeowner, in district 6, who bought a town home next to a beautiful park only to find the city didn't have the funds to maintain it. It got to the point where the neighbors got together and cleaned the park themselves out of frustration. It is a waste of resources to build something beautiful and not maintain it. Before the city makes any cuts it should look into sharing facilities. We have three struggling theaters; the San Jose Repertory Theater, the Mexican Heritage Corp. and the American Musical Theater of San Jose. Do we really need three theaters? Is it possible for them to share one? Yes sharing is tough and it puts a lot of strain on the theater groups but it is better than nothing.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 13, 2006 11:10
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