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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,
Budget,
City concerns,
Balancing interests,
Campaign financing
Click on a name for candidate information. See also more information about this contest.
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1. What experience related to city government would you bring to the City Council?
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Answer from Tam Nguyen:
As attorney representing working families I share their frustration with city bureaucracy, redundancy, inefficiency and waste. Last year I represented 2 residents facing investigation by the City Election Commission, and I discovered exposed the weaknesses of the ordinance and its unfair implementation. As former member of Mayor's McEnery commission, I worked to bring the city to the people.
Answer from Van Le:
By serving as a trustee on one of San Jose's largest school district boards, working in the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, owning my own business and committing to various community projects ranging from all over San Jose, I am enabled to work directly with all community groups to better the quality of life including businesses, schools, neighborhood groups, non-profits, and community based organizations.
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2. San Jose budget difficulties have resulted in unprecedented cuts to staff and services. How will you deal with coming shortfalls? Restoring some of the City services? And, if you think the City needs additional resources, what are your ideas for increasing revenues?
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Answer from Tam Nguyen:
San Jose chose to pay shooting victims' families instead of training officers to shoot less and use disarming skills. We can cut waste and save money by smart coordination of services, agencies and reduce redtapes. Raising revenues by taxes (general/sales) or surtaxes (construction, developments) should be used as last resort.
Answer from Van Le:
The city must focus its efforts on one mission. If we are to make San Jose the preferred destination for commerce that must be our focus and everything else must follow. If it is our intent for San Jose to become a large bedroom community, then that must be our focus. We must choose. The immediate need is to restore the confidence in public safety. The leadership required to operate a fully staffed organization may not be the type of leadership we need moving forward. Let not spend more money, let us correctly spend the money we have. The emphasis is to move away from effectiveness (doing the right thing), in most cases, to efficiency (doing things right). By definition, commerce will increase once safety becomes less of a concern.
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3. What concerns are of particular importance to the city and how would you address them?
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Answer from Van Le:
Most concerns of the city, including having enough officers on the streets, street repair, library hours, and traffic management point back to the cities limited financial resources. As pension began to take a larger portion of city budget, voters passed pension reforms measures to stop the trend. We are now dealing with the unintended consequences of pension reform and must quickly strike a balance between the interests of labor, the interests of the public and the long-term financial stability of the city. There are only two ways to achieve this goal: increase city revenue or reduce city expenses. The only way to increase city revenue is to make the city more attractive to outside business interests. The only way to reduce our costs is to make the city more efficient and effective at is core services and begin to question services that are not core to the city. This may require the rewrite of labor MOU's or a major restructure of the city but these are changes that need to made.
Answer from Tam Nguyen:
Lack of participation / communication with residents. The city should move quickly to digitization and become more accessible to the pubic. Next: The inequality and growing poverty is my deep concern. The homelessness is victim of vicious economic cycle, we should prevent them through job training, counseling and assistance before people become homeless. Throwing money at them is not a solution
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4. How would you balance the needs of the City as a whole while also addressing needs of your district as well as those of special groups?
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Answer from Tam Nguyen:
My district needs should be my top concern within the balance of city-wide needs. The city council format and structure help prevent unfair or unbalanced apportionment of city resources. The large portion of city budget is for critical services for the entire city.
Answer from Van Le:
In most cases, the city's most critical services are the highest priority for District 7. This includes the safety of the public, the condition of core city infrastructure such as streets and roads, and the continued availability and accessibility of public resources such as libraries and parks. District 7 has its own unique needs that must be recognized such as it cultural diversity, it central location in the city and related traffic concerns, its unique public safety issues including gangs, prostitution and human trafficking that must be addressed specifically.
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5. How much money do you expect to raise/spend on your race, and how will you assure voters that financial contributions will not affect your decisions/positions should you be elected?
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Answer from Tam Nguyen:
I have raised $45,000 which is more than that I need to campaign and I'm doing very well with my voters. Direct phone-banking results show that 50% voters support my candidacy.
Answer from Van Le:
My goal is to raise $80k for this council campaign. There are many special interests that are willing to provide significant contribution to my campaign if agree to support their specific causes. Sometimes the support is in the form of a written agreement. My campaign has a policy not to accept money from any organization that attempts to bias my decisions in a direction that are not in the specific interest of District 7 or the general long-term interests of the city.
Responses to questions asked of each candidate
are reproduced as submitted to the League.
Candidates' statements are presented as
submitted. Please answer each question in no more than 400 words.
Direct references to opponents are not permitted.
The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.
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League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
