A candidate forum at Santa Clara’s Portuguese Hall showcased local candidates, sussing out their positions on a variety of community issues.
The S.E.S. Portuguese Hall, 1375 Lafayette St., hosted both police chief candidates, all the city council candidates and three of the four city clerk candidates Oct. 17. In addition to opening and closing statements, candidates addressed several questions in turn.
Among the council candidates, emphasis on the council harmony pervaded many of the comments. The 49ers’ influence also popped up at regular intervals.
Police Chief
First up were Cory Morgan and Mario Brasil, the candidates for police chief.
Training, budget management and public engagement were among the most pressing matters both police chief candidates addressed.
Morgan said improving the police team, its training and its technology are his top priorities.
“The more realistic setting we can put our cops in during training, the better they will be able to handle any chaos they face in the street,” he said. “The better prepared they are, the better results they are going to have when those instances happen, those critical sensitive instances.”
Brasil echoed some of these sentiments, adding that recruitment and retention are major issues he would like to correct. Adding more diversity to the police department is also a matter that needs addressing, he said.
Both men drew attention to the department’s unfilled positions, calling for a more robust effort to fill those positions. Further, both men said increasing public transparency is a priority, saying they would reinstate the police blotter.
“Everybody loves to be in the know, and whatever we can do to enhance that,” Brasil said.
More patrol hours will help police address issues of homelessness, substance abuse and mental illness, Brasil said.
Morgan said a proposed clawing back a law that decriminalizes theft below $950 is a critical piece of keeping Santa Clara safe.
Santa Clara City Clerk
City clerk candidates Bob O’Keefe, Paul Tacci and Steve Kelly were up next. The court city clerk candidate, Poornima Gopi, was unavailable.
All the candidates agreed that the elected city clerk needs to work more with the assistant city clerk to provide the best service to residents, something they said has been lacking with City Clerk Hosam Haggag.
Ensuring free and fair elections was a frequent talking point.
“It is so important that everyone’s voice is heard, everyone’s vote is counted,” Tacci said. “There should be no one that is deciding that one vote is more important than the other.”
Voter outreach also came up several times.
O’Keefe said he would increase voter awareness by ensuring the office is “nonpartisan” and “community oriented.”
Bringing back a city-sponsored candidate forum is a priority, Kelly said. He also said he would connect with students exiting high school and religious groups to increase voter participation.
Tacci vowed to “meet voters where they are” by sending mailers or leveraging technology to communicate in the way voters prefer.
Council Candidates
Much of the discourse around the council race revolved around the idea of leadership and the best way to get city business done and avoid a financial quagmire.
“We have a lot more complexities than ever before,” District 1 candidate Harbir Bhatia said. “Our community is growing very quickly, but we need someone who understands how to critically analyze what’s in front of us and be objective to find the right answer.”
Many candidates — in particular District 4 candidate Teresa O’Neill, District 6 candidate Kelly Cox, District 5 candidate David Kertes and District 1 candidate Satish Chandra — saw council strife as the biggest impediment to city business.
“The tone of discussion and debate in our community has changed, and that’s been driven by a lot of what’s happened with our city council the past few years,” O’Neill said. “It has gotten very contentious. [It] seems like the focus has been lost on putting the residents first, putting residents always first and our needs and making sure that’s what we’re focused on.”
Kertes echoed those sentiments, adding repeatedly that the city needs more corporate partnerships.
“We are kind of a laughing stock, and it shouldn’t be,” Kertes said. “We need to get this council working together and be corporate friendly again, so we get more companies coming in here to get the tax dollars as well to help us as we continue to grow.”
Incumbents Council Member Kevin Park (District 4), Vice Mayor Anthony Becker (District 6) and Council Member Suds Jain (District 5) focused on the accomplishments of the council despite some of the divisiveness.
They pointed to several council victories over the past four years. Among those are the passing of budgets, reducing the city deficit, replenishing reserves, the proposed infrastructure bond measure, an increased attention to so-called “affordable” housing, homelessness and ironing out details of various specific plans.
“I suggest you go take a tour of our creeks. Walk through there. You will see homeless people living in tents, and they actually have jobs,” Becker said. “They go to work, and they come home. That is not the quality of life for people. Quality of life is having a place where people can live and people can afford.”
Every council candidate evaded a question as to how they would establish what city services are “essential” if faced with another situation such as the coronavirus pandemic, where city revenue diminished. All candidates said they would maintain police funding, but nobody specified what they would put on the chopping block.
Only Becker pointed to what he called “top-heavy” salaries as something that would be a problem in such a crisis.
A couple candidates, District 6 candidate George Guerra and District 1 candidate Albert Gonzalez, said the city should be looking for additional revenue sources during such times.
The divide between candidates who believe the biggest problem on the council is its disharmony and those who saw other matters as more pressing became more evident as the forum progressed.
Cox bemoaned council members focusing on who supported the construction of Levi’s Stadium.
“Entering into a public position is about taking accountability for what came before you too. So, anybody who would sit on this dais and say ‘it’s not my fault; I didn’t do it,’ that is a passive aggressive and very pathetic stance,” Cox said. “We are responsible for correcting egregious acts that came before us, 100% of the time.”
But others said understanding past actions allows council members to govern better in the future.
“We can’t go back. We can’t go back to deficits. We can’t go back to lawsuits. We can’t go back to poor management,” Becker said. “We have to go forward.”
You can watch the full candidate forum on YouTube.
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