League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 4, 2014 Election
	Rishi Kumar Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Saratoga

The questions were prepared by the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What experience related to city government would you bring to the City Council?

I have a proven track record of independent, common sense thinking, bringing people together, listening and collaborating to make something good happen. I have demonstrated consistently that when I take up a cause, I am committed to working hard, preparing, gathering data, listening to various perspectives/sides and making prudent decisions that works for our Saratoga. My involvement in Saratoga started with my own neighborhood and encompassed AYSO Soccer, Chamber of Commerce, Senior Center, our schools, Boy Scouts, Saratoga's Got Talent, open mic, founding/hosting celebrations, events and more.

I have a proven track record of envisioning and launching initiatives, adopting a framework and building a process to execute and make it succeed. For example, I have launched and initiated many new programs with the purpose of building a unified connected community, and collaborating to address needs within our community. That experience and success will prove useful on the council.

I have a track record of working for our community. When I see an issue, it is hard for me to NOT work to address it. Whether it is raising money for the Senior center via Saratoga's Got Talent, or providing the opportunity for our youth to be empowered via talent shows/bi weekly open mics, or engaging our Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of Saratoga for a Saratoga creek cleanup initiative, or founding the Saratoga Lego Robotics Club to encourage the love of math, robotics and programming for our middle school and high school kids. But there is more.

When there was a break-in that occurred in my neighborhood, I launched the Neighborhood Watch program, the Neighborhood Preparedness program along with an annual block party. When we saw a string of break-ins in the community, I launched the SAFE SARATOGA focus group to create safety awareness. When I observed our businesses hurting, I launched an open mic at Blue Rock Shoot in Saratoga downtown to bring in net new foot traffic into the village. I initiated a meeting with Roku (a Saratoga media box company) proposing a Roku retail store in downtown - that would an anchor store that Saratoga downtown needs, and also increase the tax base for our city. Yes, I believe in rolling up my sleeves, getting to work and making a positive contribution - whether in my high-tech job as General Manager of a cloud services venture, or as Saratoga's community worker.

With my experience and learning on the Planning Commission, and all the volunteering as a community/neighborhood leader, I will work to enhance the quality of our lives. As part of my corporate role at IBM, Cisco and now at Imaginea Technologies, I have worked on leading teams with large budgets and getting stuff done. I have worked extensively with Saratoga Public Works in our neighborhood projects. I have been an involved Saratoga Chamber of Commerce member. I have supported the Chamber's social media strategy and also being involved in ensuring the success with Chamber sponsored events such as Celebrate Saratoga, Farmers Market, Saratoga Wine Stroll and Holiday Party, Christmas Karaoke. I have also met our businesses across the 5 commercial districts of Saratoga to understand the business climate of our community, and what is working or not working.

My professional experience, my community work that cuts across various spectrums within Saratoga, track record of working to address Saratoga's issues, coupled with the planning commission experience uniquely qualifies me for specific city governance challenges, policy making and land Details and Position use decisions. Details and Position Papers at http://www.rishikumar.com/campaign-charter.html

2. What concerns are of particular importance to the city and how would you address them?

The most important issue in Saratoga is making choices that will KEEP SARATOGA GREAT, which is largely hinged upon the enhancement of quality of life for our families. We are a family oriented city, and our offerings and challenges lineup with this core value. On the council, I will continue to enhance that quality of life for all Saratogans, based upon their input, ideas, our understanding of our community, while building a framework of active community engagement.

My five point action plan on the city council is completely aligned with enhancing the quality of life for all Saratogans #1 Enhance Saratoga's quality of life, nurture a thriving family oriented community, a vibrant commercial district, offerings for our youth as well as seniors. #2 Be your strong voice to address quality of life issues, such as highway 85 noise/pollution, petty thefts/home break-ins and high density housing #3 Enhance and optimize city services for all our citizens; increase "customer satisfaction" #4 Actively engage citizens via partnerships and outreach programs creating strong synergies #5 Listen and then act; actively solicit and incorporate citizen feedback into decisions.

What contributes to our quality of life is fast efficient city services for our citizens, a vibrant thriving commercial district, safe neighborhoods with minimal break-ins, a laid-back semi-rural ambiance, protecting our trees, a well maintained park and trails system, and streets that mostly have free flowing traffic, and quiet neighborhoods. We like to maintain a family conducive environment, happy, contented, relaxed lives, raise smart, happy, successful kids and provide the right opportunities for them to thrive and grow. We have a fairly large senior population and we like to address their needs in the community - along with the needs of the young families that are trickling into Saratoga.

I have a track record of working for our citizens to enhance our quality of life. When I see an issue, it is hard for me to NOT work to address it. Whether it is raising money for the Senior center via Saratoga's Got Talent, or launching the Safe Saratoga Focus Group, or getting involved in the chamber efforts to revitalize our businesses, or running an open mic in downtown (4th year now) to drive new foot traffic to our village, or providing the opportunity for our youth to be empowered via talent shows/bi weekly open mics, or Saratoga creek cleanup, or the Saratoga Lego Robotics Club that I founded.

When there was a break-in that occurred in my neighborhood, I launched the Neighborhood Watch program, the Neighborhood Preparedness program along with an annual block party. When we saw a string of break-ins in the community, I recently launched the SAFE SARATOGA focus group to create safety awareness. When I observed our businesses hurting, I launched an open mic at Blue Rock Shoot in Saratoga downtown to bring in net new foot traffic into the village. I initiated a meeting with Roku (a Saratoga media-box company) proposing a Roku retail store in downtown - that would an anchor store that Saratoga downtown needs. Yes, I believe in rolling up my sleeves, getting to work and making a positive contribution - whether in my high-tech job as General Manager of a cloud services venture, or as Saratoga's community worker.

I have been involved in our city volunteering passionately, finding time for this purpose, juggling a young family and a high-tech job. I have also worked to enhance the civic engagement model, informed, collaborated and brought our community together, always encouraging the process of dialogue. While doing so, I encouraged the democratic process of open decision making, educating our citizens with the facts to help make choices. I will continue doing that on the council.

It is our amazing citizens of Saratoga that make our community so special. Firstly, the folks who made some well thought out choices almost sixty years ago when our city was founded, that set us for the path of success. There are many who have brought their leadership and volunteerism to bear to make Saratoga such a special city. I have met folks who have lived here for decades; their love and almost reverence for our city is so very perceptible and real. There is so much energy that I notice with our seniors, a fire in their belly to do their best for Saratoga. How could we not embrace that model, it is the inevitable. Our current seniors made the right choices, and we are benefiting. To continue making the right choices, and teaming with our citizens, listening to them, bringing our energy, dedication and volunteering passion is what I seek to bring to the city council.

I want to continue to make smart choices that works for our citizens, take pride in our city, our homes, our schools ensure that our community is always prosperous and successful! I will listen to our citizens and make prudent choices for Saratoga, that will keep Saratoga thriving, successful and an even more exciting, desired community for all of bay area. That will be an accomplishment that will mean a lot to me personally!

Details and Position Papers at http://www.rishikumar.com/campaign-charter.html

3. How would you balance the needs of the City as a whole with groups' interests?

I have a history of working with various groups, and carving out a win-win that serves the interest of Saratoga, seeing the big picture, applying the vision to make something good happen. This is clearly demonstrated by the hundreds of endorsements from Saratoga's community leaders that cuts across so many Saratoga groups and organizations.

Our City of Saratoga is a thriving, successful community. I have tremendously enjoyed the volunteering for this city that I love. Being part of the council, continues the volunteering but now provides me an additional opportunity; an opportunity to listen, develop vision, leverage the leadership, energy and innovation to benefit our community - to make a difference and "Keep Saratoga Great". That is exactly what I want to do and the reasons I am running.

It is a simple idea of keeping Saratoga great. But how do we do that? The most important issue in Saratoga is the enhancement of quality of life that is centered on our families. We are a family oriented minimal service city, and our offerings and challenges lineup with this core value. As long as we go back to this basic premise, with which our city was founded, we will end up making smart choices that will keep Saratoga thriving and successful.

I want to continue to make these smart choices that works for our citizens, take pride in our city, our homes, our schools ensure that our community is always prosperous and successful! Details and Position Papers at http://www.rishikumar.com/campaign-charter.html

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. The answer to each question should be limited to 400 words. Direct references to opponents are not permitted.

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

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 22, 2014 21:19
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