League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 7, 2006 Election
	Chuck Reed Answers Questions Candidate for Mayor; City of San Jose

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?

The North San Jose Development Plan is the best example of smart growth. We have plans for approximately 25 million square feet of new industrial space and 25,000 new housing units. I have been a leader in promoting smart growth in both the community and on the city council. I started this planning effort and have taken a leadership role to ensure its success.

We need to finish the North San Jose Development Plan to support the driving industries in San Jose. When we can get the driving industries to stay here and expand their businesses here, they will create the jobs and that will bring back city revenues.

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?

San Jose needs a city manager to be a professional administrator to run the day-to-day operations of the city. The mayor needs to be a leader, a collaborator and a coach. Under the current city charter, the mayor shouldn't be a dictator or the boss. The mayor and the council set the course for the City, and turn it over to the manager and the professional staff for implementation.

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?

The city can maintain its police and fire departments without cutting other city services if city funds are spent more wisely. I voted against the $4 million race car subsidy for that reason. I also voted against the new $499-million city hall and proposed alternatives that would have saved $150 million. This would have meant millions less per year depleted from the general fund which could have been used for neighborhood services.

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?

Before cutting services, the City needs to find partners to help maintain and operate our parks and public facilities. The city also needs to fix its revenue problems. The key to bringing back the lost revenue from when the boom went bust is getting the jobs back that we lost. We have to make San Jose the best place in the world for entrepreneurs from anywhere in the world to start and grow a business so that we get back the jobs and revenues we lost in the bust so we can fund city services. To accomplish that the city government must first do three things:
- Do no harm with new taxes, regulations or eminent domain.
- Get out of the way so businesses can start and grow easily.
- Do its job in delivering services and infrastructure.

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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: October 29, 2006 14:32
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