League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 2, 2010 Election
	Rob Means Answers Questions Candidate for Mayor; City of Milpitas

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?

As a keen observer of local politics for nearly 20 years, I am familiar with the financial, legal, environmental, structural and public safety issues confronting the City.

Ten years on the Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Commission taught me the relationship between city staff, commissioners and on-the-ground projects.

This knowledge and experience helped me:
- get the ball rolling for the planning and construction of creekside trails in Milpitas.
- put the Yosemite/Curtis crossing of the railroad tracks (near the Great Mall) on the Bicycle Master Plan, Trails Master Plan, and Mid-Town Plan.

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

Balance the Budget - through revenue increases, not cuts in service and infrastructure maintenance.

1. Tax what we don't want and subsidize what we do want.

2. Pollution fees, e. g. place a fee on diesel engines and fuel because diesel exhaust contains 40 known carcinogens, small particulate matter (PM2.5) that induces and worsens asthma and other lung diseases, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) that harm the environment and people's health.

3. Marijuana Tax (like San Jose and Oakland).

4. Support creation of a state bank that could save the state $5B annually and citizens even more.

5. Work for a single-payer health care system to reduce employee health costs by over $1M/year.

6. Work to restore majority rule on taxation policies (vote YES on Prop. 21). Keep the good and fix the bad in Prop. 13

Greening of Milpitas

1. Encourage energy efficiency and production. For example, adopt the Milpitas Post's recommendation to implement a solar-electric program. Require developers to build "green".

2. Continue to maintain and expand our urban forest while reducing the amount of water-intensive lawns.

3. Pursue the proposal to install a PRT "ferry" over the railroad tracks.

4. Join over 1000 cities (and every city in the county except Monte Sereno) that have signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Follow San Jose's lead by adopting many of their Green Vision Goals and employing a Sustainability Coordinator.

5. Extend the Hetch-Hetchy linear park and bike/pedestrian trail into Fremont.

Election Reform

1. Public financing of campaigns has enabled many public officials to be accountable to voters instead of to big money contributors. It levels the playing field for qualified candidates without access to developer contributions. The graph shows the percent of Arizona races decided by special-interest money before Clean Money (1998) and after (2002).

2. Instant Runoff Voting (aka IRV, preferential voting, and ranked-choice voting) strengthens democracy. Implemented in over 300 American cities (including San Francisco), IRV has reduced negative campaigning and ensured that the winners of elections best reflect the will of the voters.

For more details, visit http://www.meansfordemocracy.com/

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

City governments are created and maintained to protect the commons upon which we all depend: clean water, sewage and waste disposal, roads, telecommunications access, fire and police protection. Other government agencies protect our food quality, public education, public health, air traffic safety, energy supplies, etc.

We are all in this together. And we all do better when we ALL do better. Those groups that don't understand this fact of political life are like an organ in the body that thinks it is most important or that it can survive without support from the other body parts. Hearts stop working when the lungs and blood stop delivering oxygen.

When these principles are accepted, conflicts can be resolved to the benefit of our general welfare - even during difficult times like we face now.

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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. Answers must not refer directly or indirectly to another candidate.

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

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 5, 2010 10:56
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