League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA June 5, 2007 Election
	Hon Thi Lien Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member, 4; City of San Jose; Council District 4

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?

"All land use decisions are about jobs and housing. Any land we use for housing is lost to jobs forever."

We need to slow down our industrial land conversions and only do them while reviewing all land conversions once a year. We have converted 1,400 acres in the last 16 years. That is selling out our future and our tax base.

"I feel very strongly that we must not allow any zoning changes in Coyote Valley until a full general plan review is done."

This review should restate our commitment to job triggers which must be met before any housing is allowed.

Coyote Valley is our industrial reserve for many years in the future. Housing in Coyote will put a drain on existing services including police, fire and other neighborhood services. That is why we should not allow new housing until we are sure they will not be a drain on the level of service of our existing neighborhoods.

"No industrial conversions should be allowed in Evergreen until they are reviewed in a full general plan review."

The traffic impacts on the surrounding areas must also be taken into consideration and any mitigation fees generated by the project must be used for all surrounding areas impacted.

"North San Jose, with 4000 acres of industrial land, is the backbone of our economic development."

This tax base, along with other industrial land in Coyote, Evergreen, and Edenvale must be protected for future generations.

The North First Street Vision 2030 plan is a great concept to provide jobs and housing but it could have been done in a more inclusive manner. It has already proven that some companies that were planning on moving out of the area are now staying and growing here. However, this plan is in need of some improvement as the projects move forward. We need more parks and open space, community centers or libraries. The developers need to address the needs of the local school districts to be able to deal with the increased number of students. The design of the project must take into consideration the existing neighborhoods. New housing should not be allowed at the detriment of the existing neighborhoods.

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?

We should keep the strong professional administrator form of government. The city manager must be committed to an open and honest form of government. He/she must also be willing to speak up if there is undue pressure being placed upon him or his staff. Unfortunately, I believe this decision will be made before the June 5th election.

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?

"Public safety is a city's number one responsibility to its residents."

Our children deserve to be safe in their schools and in their neighborhoods. We must fully fund providing crossing guards in all schools that need them and our truancy abatement program. This will help make our schools safer, keep our students in the classroom thus increasing their ability to succeed, and help protect our homes and neighborhoods against afternoon burglaries and vandalism.

We need additional police and firefighters. The time it takes for them to respond when a resident calls for help in an emergency continues to get longer. We do not have enough officers to investigate burglaries and those crime rates are growing. Gangs, of all types, are becoming a major problem. We need to be more proactive. I believe the city should allocate additional funding for the Mayor's Gang Task Force. If we do not address these problems now, we will likely lose our status as the safest big city in America.

The police chief is asking for 500+ new officers over the next 5 years. I am not sure how we can afford this but we need to start adding new police to make sure we are no longer slipping behind.

The future projected budget shortfalls take into consideration staffing the new fire stations we need to build. We have the capital improvement funds to build them but not the operating dollars to staff them. When budget priorities in those years are made, adding firefighters should be one of our top priorities.

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?

As in the previous questions, we must look to increase revenues without raising taxes. The best way to do that is to make starting a business in San Jose easier and making it easier for existing business to get bigger here. The revenues from these businesses will make more money available to ensure we can can add parks and community centers.

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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: May 8, 2007 14:37
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