November 1, 2006

Five candidates vie for District 6 City Council seat

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Five men are running to fill the District 6 City Council seat being vacated by Ken Yeager, who was elected in the June primary to represent District 4 for the Santa Clara County Board of supervisors.

The candidates are as varied as their priorities, although they all agree on the importance of the position and its affects on District 6. Three of the candidates, Steve Tedesco, Pierluigi Oliverio and Jim Spence were born and raised in San Jose. All five are willing and eager to step into Yeager’s shoes.

Art Maurice

Because the Times has chosen not to endorse a candidate, we felt the next best thing is to present each along with his ideas as to what and how he will perform if elected. (An article on the panel discussion held at the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association’s October general meeting can be found on page 6). They will be presented in alphabetical order.

Art Maurice was born in Barre, Vt. and attended Kansas State University, graduating with a degree in electrical engineering. After graduation, he moved to San Jose where he worked as an engineer and now holds a job as a technical recruiter. A resident of the Cory neighborhood, he is a past president and current treasurer of that association and in his free time is a member of Toastmeisters and KT Talkers. Currently the G3 Area Governor, he teaches gymnastics at Airborne Gym.

“I’ve been active in my community, starting out as the president of my [condo-townhouse] homeowners association during the 1989 earthquake. Since then I’ve moved on to work with the Cory Neighborhood Associ-ation where I won the Good Neighbor award in 2004. After all the hard work I’ve put into the community, the next step is the city council,” Maurice said.

His main priorities are to work together with the communities and their leaders to understand the issues and provide a solution; working with schools to make them better and safer for students and working with industry to maintain the steady growth of San Jose while holding onto Silicon Valley’s technical edge.

Maurice aims to build dialogue between the various neighborhoods in District 6, and to find out what each wants and needs and then work to enable them to get what they can.

Three areas, he said, stand out where further service is necessary; parks, traffic congestion and lighting. “I know how to do these things and get them implemented and talk to people. As council member, I will prioritize, talk with people to set up a strategy and follow through on that strategy.”

In talking with Yeager and current city council members, he said his goal is to partner with the people [in his district] as well as with city council members to help San Jose as a whole.

Clark Williams

Maurice is endorsed by a number upwards of 45 people including many from the Cory Neighborhood Association as well as from his fellow workers.

Pierluigi Oliverio grew up in Willow Glen and attended neighborhood and public schools including Booksin Elementary, Hoover Middle and Willow Glen High School. He has received “multiple degrees” from San Jose State University and speaks Spanish and Italian fluently. He currently works as an environmental software executive but has also taught school and put himself through college.

His top three priorities are neighborhood services, economic development and to strengthen neighborhood schools.

“I’m concerned about the city,” he told the Times. “They have missed opportunities to do things for citizens.” He is especially critical of the litigation over the county fairground’s theater, and the ensuing $22 million the city is paying to the county at the same time it is having trouble paying for park maintenance and running community centers.

He doesn’t see the need “to build facilities only to close them due to lack of operating funds.” One of the things he stresses is the need to build more parks as the city’s economy grows.

Since he has taken no money from lobbyists or the chamber, he can work with both, he says. “My money [for his campaign] comes from my neighbors. I’d rather be supported by constituents instead of people who want to buy my votes.”

He sees himself as a political outsider who is not in the debt of any particular special interest. “I am ready to go in and find creative solutions to balancing the budget. I will find new ways to use staff more effectively, re-engineer administrative tasks and establish a complete line-item budget for the council's review and adoption,” he said.

Oliverio has an idea of streamlining calls, questions and problems. “I’d like to set up software to streamline the status of an issue or calls to my office. This would allow the council [or at least District 6] the option of tracking accountability and the amount of time it takes to solve the problem. The software would allow us to track requests when they come into the office. I would be happy to share it with all the council members. It’s also cost efficient. I would be able to do it on my own council budget.”

That method of streamlining also would be beneficial to the city’s economy. He says by using more technology the city could eliminate waste and inefficiency. He sees police and fire as essential services that would be the last to be cut from the budget. In addition, he suggests that city should continue to fund after school programs and code enforcement.

He does not like the current mini-mayor system, believing that a council member must balance priorities within the district, but work for the city as a whole.

Steve Tedesco

Oliverio has been involved in a number of community activities including WGNA, Next Door Solutions Battered Women's Shelter, San Jose’s Anti-Litter Program, San Jose Downtown Association, Joint Venture Silicon Valley Council on Tax & Fiscal Policy, Neighborhood Tree Planting and a number of business related groups.

His endorsements include the San Jose Mercury News as well as a couple of community newspapers and more than 200 friends and neighbors in District 6.

Jim Spence has been active in Districts 6 and 9 for more than 30 years. In 2000, he ran for the city council, coming in third. He has since worked as a staff member for John Diquisto in District 9 before he was termed out. Before that Spence served on the police force, retiring as a sergeant. He is a small businessman and has served as a director and vice president for WGNA and a director for Silicon Valley Crimestoppers.

Born and raised in San Jose, “basically in Willow Glen, I have a grasp on how we got here and know what can and can’t be done,” he said. As a police officer, he has worked on gang intervention and on traffic calling. He’s also taught police officers technology and computers.

His top priorities are integrity, land use and housing for families and children. He says while a lot of people are worried about roads and traffic, the District 6 council member should also be concerned with staffing levels at the Station 6 fire house as well as airport noise and helping the Willow Glen business district compete for dollars with Valley Fair and Santana Row.

“I think it’s important that a council member has the experience with the entire district so that when problems happen, he knows the history of what’s been done and he can afford to look for a solution in new areas,” he said.
He also thinks it’s important to work on “one project at a time for a successful solution.”

Spence noted that “there are lots of good things going on in District 6, but there also are difficult problems. I will help find the solutions to those difficult problems. You have to think outside the box,” he said. “Right now it’s a money issue. You get the economy going and things will get done.”

Pierluigi Oliverio

Spence is endorsed by the San Jose Police Officers Association and the San Jose Firefighters Association as well as the Association of Retired Police and Firefighters. Other endorsements include the California Apart-ment Association-Tri County, former council member John Diquisto, retired Police Chief Tom Wheatly and Milpitas Vice Mayor Armando Gomez

Steve Tedesco currently is serving as executive director of the Boys and Girls Clubs. He has been quite active both in his work and serving the community in the past 30 years, currently as a San Jose Airport commissioner. He also has worked as the president and CEO of the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce and as a trustee to the Campbell Union High School District board.

Born in San Jose, he grew up and attended public schools including Moorpark Elementary School, Monroe Middle School, Del Mar High School and San Jose State University. He was elected student body president at his elementary and high schools.

His priorities as council member are to work on neighborhood issues, traffic congestion and neighborhood services. In addition, he hopes to restore fiscal responsibility and ethical integrity to city government; improve city services by prioritizing economic development and strengthening review of development proposals to improve traffic.

“The actual job of a council member is to represent the 90,000 people of District 6,” he said, “as well as set the direction for the entire city.”

However, the first important step, he says, is to hire a new city manager. “We have to get back to the manager form of government.” He does not like the mini-mayor system.

In addition, the city needs more money, he said. “For us to get more of what we want [as citizens], we need to build up our tax base. That can be done without raising taxes by increasing jobs and hosting a more successful business environment. We have a jobs/housing imbalance. We need to do a better job of getting more jobs here.”

Once those additional jobs have been created and the economy gets better, then the city won’t have to worry about how to fund park maintenance, he said.

Tedesco has a large number of endorsements by constituents as well as from former San Jose mayors Frank Fiscalini, Ron James and Shirley Lewis; former Campbell mayors Don Burr, Rusty Hammer and Mike Kotowski as well as former Assembly member Jim Cunneen; State Senator Joe Simitian; and Susie Wilson, former member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Several business and community organizations, as well as the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce support him.

Clark Williams is a social worker and a non-profit executive management consultant. Born and raised in Wisconsin, he earned his BA from the University of Wisconsin and his master’s from the New York University School of Social Work. After his move to San Jose, he has worked as a clinical social worker, chief executive officer of a women’s healthcare non-profit and as a healthcare program manager with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department.

Jim Spence

Williams also has worked with a number of volunteer organizations including the city’s Appeals Hearing Board, as vice president of the North Willow Glen Neighborhood Association, as a member of San Jose’s Project Diversity, the Citizen Watchdog Committee for Measure B Transportation Improvement Program and for the Measure F Citizen’s Bond oversight Committee for the San Jose Unified School District.

“If elected, I will place an emphasis on neighborhood and constituent services, as well as restore faith in city government and ensure smart growth to protect our neighborhoods.”

His strengths, he says, come from his years as a social worker and neighborhood leader. “I know the character of my neighborhood, and I can bring that perspective to the city council. As a social worker I need to bring fixes to solve systemic problems. That’s what I do in my professional career. I am trained to be a problem solver. Just because it’s difficult, doesn’t mean it can’t be done,” he said.

Williams also has a number of endorsements from elected officials, organizations, neighborhood and education leaders, city and county boards and commissioners as well as a long list of individuals. Ken Yeager, Forrest Williams and Madison Nguyen from the San Jose City Council support him, as do Sally Lieber and John Laird from the state Assembly. County Assessor Larry Stone and former and current Santa Clara City Council members John McLemore, Aldyth Parle and Jamie McLeod, respectively have endorsed him. Also lending him support are Vice Mayor Otto Lee of Sunnyvale and Laura Macias, council member from Mountain View.

Williams also received several endorsements from organizations and from District 6 neighborhood association leaders from Cory, Willow Glen, North Willow Glen, Burbank/Del Monte, the Rose Garden and Shasta-Hanchett associations. In addition, he has garnered endorsements from trustees from various officials at area school districts including SJUSD and the West Valley-Mission Community College District.