League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Alameda County, CA November 2, 2010 Election
	Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Council Member; City of Fremont

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Fremont, Newark, and Union City and asked of all candidates for this office.     See below for questions on Goals Click on a name for candidate information.   See also more information about this contest. 1. How would you accomplish your three stated goals with the current budget constraints? Answer from Vinnie Bacon: Stimulate Local Economy- We need to accelerate our economy by streamlining the permitting process and treating businesses as partners rather than adversaries. Fremont's industrial and business areas should be preserved for living wage jobs. Support Our Schools- Many of the development decisions made by our City Council hurt our schools finances leaving them over-crowded and under-funded. The City Council must work more closely with the School Board and consider how their decisions impact our schools. Adequately Fund Public Safety - Under our current City Council, police and fire services have been drastically reduced to the point where police can not even respond to unverified burglar alarms. We need a fee-based system like other cities have successfully used to allow our police department to reverse this policy. Develop Quality Neighborhoods - Our current Council has been approving development that drains our historic retail areas and discourages pedestrian-friendly development. Many smaller cities like Pleasanton, Sunnyvale and Mountain View have worked to make their commercial districts into attractive areas that are a source of pride and tax revenue. Answer from Kathryn Rhyu "Kathy" McDonald: I believe Fremont is a city with the potential to be the envy of the Bay Area. The changes I propose are not things we can buy. They are cultural changes and changes in process. They are about working with our human resources to become more customer friendly, at every level of interface. These cultural changes, and corresponding process changes will have NO negative budgetary impacts, or added tax burden. I propose a redirection of some of our city spending from overhead, administration, consulting, studies, etc. to increase headcounts in areas where employees provide services to/for our citizens. Especially in areas where we increase code enforcement, citations for parking and minor traffic violations, etc. we should realize a net gain to the City. No new taxes will be created to provide more services to the citizens of Fremont. Streamlining processes and simplifying systems is cost neutral, and the results should help to grow our economy, creating a net increase in business tax, sales tax, and even property tax revenues. Again, a cultural change has no cost impact. Fiscal responsibility is a matter of oversight from the City Council. More careful review of spending, budgets and a cost/benefit read from City Council, has no cost to the City. Requiring our City staff to become more efficient, to more aggressively negotiate contracts, cutting non-essential spending, paying our debts, and laying the groundwork for increased efficiencies in our future can all be done within the existing framework. My goals do not require additional tax funding. Answer from Vladimir Rodriguez: 1. No need to touch the budget to end Developers lobbyists from city affairs. 2. Yes, scrutinize the budget and find those hidden revenues the city has been finding whenever voter do not pass tax initiatives. 3. No need to balance the budget to establish new laws banning elected officials from getting re elected more than once. Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League. Answers must not refer directly or indirectly to another candidate. The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. Candidates who did not respond are not listed on this page.