December 1, 2006

District 6 run-off candidate still in question

San Jose chooses new mayor

By Carol Rosen
Editor

While one District 6 candidate—Pier-luigi Oliverio—has been chosen for a March runoff, the second remains a contest between Steve Tedesco with 4,929 votes and Clark Williams with 4,883, a difference of only 46 votes as of Monday, Nov. 20.

District 6 run-off candidate Pierluigi Oliverio and his campaign manager Denelle Fedor enjoy the festivities at Reed’s headquarters. Photo by Diego Abeloos

The count of all the votes, including all of the provisional and absentee ballots, was expected to be complete at press time on Monday, Nov. 27, but vote verification will take another week or two.

The contest was expected to go to the wire with four of the candidates—Oliverio, Tedesco, Williams and Jim Spence—coming up too close to call in the days before the Nov. 7 election. The votes separating Tedesco, Williams and Spence were farther apart following the election with Tedesco at 4,720, Williams at 4,660 and Spence at 4,429. A fifth candidate, Art Maurice, garnered 820 votes while Brad Imamura—who dropped out of the race earlier in the season—came up with 579 votes.

Oliverio was the surprise candidate. Born and reared in Willow Glen, he was unknown before last June when incumbent Ken Yeager won the District 4 County supervisor seat.

While campaigning, he pointed out he was a political outsider and refused to take money from anyone other than a friend or neighbor.

In addition, the software executive wants to streamline City Hall with software.

“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,” he said.

Tedesco also was born and raised in San Jose. During the campaign, he cited his priorities as working 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.

Pat Dando, Dennis Fong, Chuck Reed, Jose Mendoza and Polly Kam celebrate Reed’s victory. Fong is co-owner of the Tropicana Shopping Center and Mendoza owns San Jose Men’s Wear at the Tropicana. While on the council, Dando and Reed were the only members not to vote to take over the shopping center by eminent domain. Photo by Julie Davis Berry

“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.”

Williams hails from Wisconsin. He says his strengths 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.

While the District 6 seat will remain vacant until the run-off election, the City Council at its Nov. 21 meeting unanimously passed a recommendation for interim office staff to be appointed for Districts 4 and 6 until members are elected to those seats. The mayor’s office will oversee the two districts’ operations including “land use, constituent services, personnel and budget issues. The resolution passed unanimously.

A new mayor
Despite all the hoopla, allegations, mudslinging and speeches, it all came down to one thing on election night—the votes. When the counting was finished, it was Chuck Reed who won the race by about 32,000 votes and nearly 20 percentage points.

Cindy Chavez conceded the race to her campaign workers around midnight, when it was obvious the lead that Reed had built during the absentee ballots was too strong to conquer. She told them that she had already congratulated Reed and planned to do everything possible to help him. The two are scheduled to meet later this week to discuss things.

It was a hard-fought race on both sides, but the theme of Election Day 2006 throughout the country appeared to be change. Chavez appeared unable to detach herself completely from the Gonzales’ administration and its sticky problems with the garbage scandal, the Grand Prix and the indictment of Ron Gonzales on bribery and conspiracy charges.

“We went up against the machine and we won,” Reed told supporters in his acceptance speech. “We were outspent 2-1 and we won! I want to thank the people of San Jose for focusing on issues. I want to thank the Vietnamese community for being some of my most enthusiastic supporters,” he said

Starting early
Reed started his mayor-elect duties the following morning with a meeting with City Manager Les White to discuss “a long list of things we need to get done,” he said.

His next job is to put together a transition team, which former Mayor Tom McHenry has agreed to work on since he has “been there, done that and already has the T-shirt,” Reed said.

About a week later, he announced his three-member transition team; Deputy City Manager Deanna Santana and senior advisor Victor Ajlouny, who also served on the mayor-elect’s campaign staff, joined McEnery. The three are responsible for developing a full transition team consisting of leaders from a broad range of professional, community and academic backgrounds.

Candidate support
Besides Reed and his family, campaign workers and various supporters attended the campaign bash to share the glory. Among them were three of the five mayoral primary candidates, two of which, David Pandori and Michael Mulcahy, threw their support to Reed after the primary.

District 8 Councilman Dave Cortese, who also was on the June ballot for mayor but did not support either candidate, said of Reed that “he’s a candidate that speaks to parents with kids in school and [to] retirees. It is obvious that the whole anti-corrupt message is the number-one issue with voters. He stayed on point, which was important.”

There have been some rumors that Reed might choose Cortese as vice mayor. When asked if he would like to be vice mayor, Cortese said, “I’m looking forward to working with Chuck as mayor. If an opportunity came up to gain additional leadership on the council I would welcome that, but it is up to a vote from the entire council. Of course the mayor can help sway that opinion to a certain degree.”

Pandori also expressed his pleasure. “I’m happy for Chuck. He’s a stand-up guy. It’s great to not only see a good person triumph, but that it doesn’t depend on glamour or big money…I hope to help Chuck in any way I can. Of course, I am still working at the district attorney’s office,” he said in response to a question about serving on the mayor’s gang task force.

Pat Dando, former vice mayor and current president and CEO of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, also was pleased by the Reed victory. “This is pretty exciting,” she said. “I think Chuck will make a great mayor. He’s a decent person.”

Cindy Chavez takes the podium early in the evening to thank her campaign workers and supporters. Surrounding her on stage are a number of dignitaries, former and current office holders and her family. Among them are: former mayors Janet Gray Hayes and Susan Hammer, City council members Judy Chirco, Madison Nguyen and Forrest Williams, Assemblyman Joe Simitian, Parks Commissioner Helen Chapman as well as Rod Diridon Sr., Jaime McLeod, Wally Sandoval and Amy Dean as well as her husband Mike Potter. Photo by Carol Rosen

Crowded event
Meanwhile, the Chavez event read like a Who’s Who of city Democrats. Besides a large number of city council members, including Forrest Williams, Madison Nguyen, Nora Campos, Judy Chirco and Ken Yeager, former San Jose mayors Janet Gray Hayes and Susan Hammer and former councilwoman Charlotte Powers attended as well as Congressman Mike Honda. Assemblyman Joe Simitian and various other civil servants: Wally Sandoval, Amy Dean, Jamie McLeod, Rod Diridon Sr. and Helen Chapman.

In spite of early returns indicating a large gap in Reed’s favor, the mood at the party was upbeat and most people expected the margin to narrow as the votes came in. “It’s too close to call right now,” said Chirco, “we’re facing the early absentee ballots, it should narrow as today’s ballots come in.”

Williams added that he too thought the race would be close. He had spent the day getting out the vote and walking the precincts for Chavez. “We can’t stop and not take risks,” he said about his choice for mayor. “Everyday people have to live in this valley too.”

As the clock neared midnight and Chavez’ votes still lagged, she said, “I can wait it out all night. What pleases me is that we are far behind and the room is still packed with smiling people.”

Future plans?
The vice mayor isn’t planning to take much time off either. After a few days, she plans to get all her projects in order, make sure the transition with newly elected District 3 Councilmember Sam Licardo goes smoothly and finish out her term.

As for the future, “I know there are many, many ways to serve the city of San Jose, and I plan to find them,” she told the Times.