Incumbents say current council works together in positive way
By Cody Kraatz
Sunnyvale City Council members seeking re-election on Nov. 6 are supporting each other and feeling safe, while their challengers are running low-budget, door-to-door campaigns and saying they can turn the city in a different direction.
Whether a new direction is where voters want to go is the question.
The challengers say the current council made mistakes on the town center redevelopment, approved development away from transit corridors, mismanaged the city's finances, failed to stop a rise in crime and does not provide enough parks or street maintenance.
They say the Mary Avenue extension over Highway 101 and State Route 237 is outdated and should be scrapped for fresh alternatives.
The incumbents largely agree that the Mary Avenue plan should be re-evaluated and many in the community say that the town center project, long a contentious issue, is now on the right track.
Odd-year elections tend to favor incumbents because fewer people are expected to vote, and no incumbents are termed out.
"It's a different type of race this year because you've got incumbents, and usually when you've got a lot of incumbents you've got a much lower-key race," said Pat Castillo, a former Sunnyvale mayor and councilwoman, and now treasurer and board member of SUNPAC, a political action committee representing Sunnyvale businesses.
She and her group endorsed the incumbents and gave $2,500 to each of their campaigns, as well as $2,500 to support Measure B, a $108 million bond to build a new Sunnyvale Public Library.
"This council appears to have worked very well together," she said. With Sunnyvale's history on contentious council races, and councils that were highly divisive, some question whether the challengers could cooperate with the rest of the council if they are elected.
Supporters of the council point to two fliers circulated by Tim Risch, a former councilman and vice mayor, and his wife, Yolanda, as a hint of contention that could lead to greater controversy before election day.
The Risches are backing the challengers (Mayor Otto Lee is unopposed), claiming the council supports a poor fiscal policy. Tim Risch lost re-election bids to Melinda Hamilton, now facing attorney Pat Meyering for seat 7, in 2003, and in 2005 to Vice Mayor Tony Spitaleri.
In one flier, Tim Risch cites taxes to pay for the library that are hundreds of dollars higher than what the city stated in the impartial analysis. He says the city's assumptions are too optimistic.
Dave Whittum, challenging incumbent Dean Chu for seat 4, has been distributing this flier, and library bond supporters have told him that much of the information is inaccurate and will reflect poorly on him.
Barbara Fukumoto, a leader in the Sunnyvale Cool Cities Team, a Sierra Club global warming group, also confronted Whittum after the Oct. 2 forum on what he calls his "agnostic" climate change position. She also said that Whittum and Meyering's "overly aggressive" and critical styles are a turnoff.
Yolanda Risch is also passing out a flier detailing the current council's absences and late arrivals to meetings. Many say the chart is misleading because it does not explain the reasons for the absences, many of which were excused.
"I think it's been used as something of hit piece to people who are running for office right now," said Lee, who has teleconferenced and missed meetings because of personal, city and U.S. Naval Reserve travel.
Campaign financing
By the numbers, the incumbents come out ahead. Candidates reported on Sept. 22 their fundraising totals since July 1.
Hamilton has $22,365 on hand after raising $4,575 and loaning herself another $5,000. Meyering has $167 after raising $275 in three cash contributions, loaning himself $340 and spending $447.
Chu has $26,202 on hand after raising $9,649, much of it from business and development interests.
Meanwhile, Whittum has been walking door-to-door on the weekends and talking with voters. He has $300 to spend after collecting $286 in small donations, loaning himself $1,000 and spending about $1,000 on campaign materials.
Incumbent Ron Swegles, opposed by Sunnyvale Arts Commissioner Dixie Carney for seat 6, has the largest war chest with $27,248 after raising $7,648 from local businesses, developers and Sunnyvale Rotary connections. Carney did not report her fundraising efforts but has pledged to spend no more than $1,000.
Jim Griffith, an organizer of Yes on B and the Sunnyvale Board of Library Trustees chair, made donations to several of the incumbents.
"I've seen them cast difficult votes, and I've been really impressed by the thoughtfulness that they bring to the job," he said of Chu and Hamilton by e-mail. "Then I looked at their challengers, and they both struck me as combative, inexperienced and very negative people."
Public financing
Castillo of SUNPAC represents some of the developers working in Sunnyvale Money gets the message out, she said.
"It's an ear. You get your phone call answered in a more timely fashion," she said. "Nobody gets a commitment to a vote."
However, the council will reconsider the concept of public campaign financing early next year. Whittum and Meyering regularly point out that their opponents take donations from developers, implying that this influences their decisions.
The Public Safety Officers Association, is backing the incumbents, as is the Sunnyvale Employees Association, The incumbents have lists of endorsements from public officials and groups, but the challengers are not focused on endorsements, choosing to do their campaigning voter by voter on the city's streets.
Visit www.smartvoter.org/ca/scl for more information about the Nov. 6 election.
Ron & Gail
