On the campaign trail, Pyle stressed accountability, transparency and unity. During an exclusive interview with the Almaden Resident last week, Pyle showed how she would keep those promises by laying out a string of initiatives she will champion over the next 100 days.

Pyle surprised nearly everyone in District 10 last November when she won a seat on the San Jose City Council. It was her third crack at the seat, and she was pegged as the underdog in the run-off election. During her campaign, Pyle sought the support of the many ethnic communities within District 10, which were often left on the political sidelines during previous elections.

When Pyle's chief of staff, Ana Maria Rosato, learned that the new Almaden Branch Library needed money for books, Rosato approached leaders in District 10's ethnic communities about fundraising to create collections in their respective native languages: Amharic, Chinese, Farsi, Korean, Indian and more, when the new library opens.

Almaden Valley resident Matt Kamkar, active in the local Iranian-American community, has pledged to raise $10,000 for the library, said Rosato. She said the Assyrian community has also promised money.

Another of the immediate changes Pyle wants to make is to give Blossom Valley, the rarely spoken of stepchild of District 10, the same attention as Almaden Valley.

"I want to invite all the neighborhood groups to form an advisory council," said Pyle, suggesting the groups could meet at Almaden's new library and community center, where she also hopes to stage events showcasing talent drawn from District 10.

Children also play a vital role in Pyle's future plans. Pyle's office intends to organize district-wide youth events. Spelling bees and summer job fairs for teens may also unite the community in a budget-conscious way, thanks to sponsors like Costco.

The summer job fair will include instruction on how to interview, write résumés and "dress for success" while trying to land summer jobs. At the end of the workshop each teen gets a graduation certificate that they'll need to show when applying for work.

Finally, Pyle wants her constituents to know what's going on in the district and to be able tell her what they think. She launched a new District 10 website in March to display district news and also showcase its residents. Next month, for instance, the website will honor National Senior Month by posting photos and life stories submitted by senior citizens.

Pyle says her staff tries to answer every phone call and email within 24 hours. "So far we've come pretty close," said Pyle. "I called one woman back at 6 p.m. and was apologizing for calling so late. But she was amazed that I had actually called her."

City-level changes

Most of Pyle's first set of initiatives revolves around those district-based public projects. But she's also tinkering behind the scenes with how city hall handles the public's business.

She's starting with an effort to change how the city keeps and disposes of public records.

Pat Dando, Pyle's predecessor, purged district files upon leaving office, robbing Pyle of historical context on controversial issues such as the McKean Road sports complex and the on-going coyote problem within Villas of Almaden.

Other city council members have said starting with an empty office is something of a tradition at San Jose City Hall. At least five of the current crop of 10 council members was left a mere handful of files by the previous office holder. "I think that's deplorable," Pyle said. "That's a 50 percent loss of institutional memories over eight years."

Her chief of staff agreed. "Records drawn up on city time with city money by city employees are public records," said Rosato. "You don't take those with you."

Pyle plans to ensure that never happens again. "In the very near future" she will propose a city ordinance that requires outgoing council members to leave all records behind. Her staff has researched records retention policies from San Francisco to South Carolina to find the best language for drafting San Jose's policy.

In addition to keeping future council members informed about what their predecessors were up to, Pyle also wants to make the council better informed about current issues.

When she was a teacher, Pyle hated late homework. Now, she said, late reports get in the way of doing her job.

During the Feb. 15 council meeting, Pyle said she looked down at the dais and saw a memo that city staff delivered to the council right before the meeting began. It discussed the Salvation Army's plan to build a community center on 12 acres of a city-owned golf course.

Given the late report, she refused to vote on the item. "I said, 'I abstain,' " said Pyle.

City Attorney Rick Doyle told Pyle that council members are not allowed to abstain.

"So I said, 'I absent myself,' " Pyle said, noting that a council member could leave the room during a vote.

Pyle dealt with late reports in a similar fashion while serving on Evergreen College's board of trustees. Pyle said the board twice received reports at the start of meetings and both times the board abstained from voting. That seemed to solve the problem, she said, as the reports were never late again.

The San Jose City Council has traditionally been more forgiving regarding late memos and staff reports. According to City Clerk Lee Price, the council's Rules Committee now reviews any agenda items for which memos or staff reports have not been distributed three working days before the council meeting.

Other cities, like Oakland, however, demand that reports be delivered to the council up to 14 days before the meeting. Pyle wants to establish a similar deadline for San Jose. "We want to be as informed as possible," she said. "We can't do that if we don't have proper notice."

Sports fields, coyotes

Pyle didn't start her term with an entirely happy constituency. Two thorny issues remain from Dando's tenure: the shortage of youth athletic fields in Almaden Valley and coyote encroachment into neighborhoods.

The sports field shortage may be the easier issue to tackle. Pyle said she believes she may be able to pull off a miracle soon by solving District 10's shortage without breaching the South Almaden Valley Urban Reserve in a way that threatens environmental resources.

Part of the solution lies in Coyote Valley, where the city is planning a 17-field youth soccer complex. This complex is expected to open in 2006 and Pyle wants three of those fields for her constituents.

Pyle is keeping the other piece of her sports fields solution a secret at this time, but she says, "It'll make everyone happy."

Controversy erupted last year over a proposed sports complex within the urban reserve on McKean Road. Environmental impact reports for the McKean Road complex showed that, among other serious problems, the project's water demands could damage the groundwater supply that residents of the reserve rely upon.

The private nonprofit Almaden Youth Association lobbied for the McKean road sports complex and, with Dando's support, convinced the city council to amend the city's General Plan, the first step necessary in building the fields.

The coyote issue may be tougher to solve since it requires cooperation between the city of San Jose and Santa Clara County. The two entities spent last year sniping at each other over issues like competing music halls and the sports complex.

"It's like two sides of the family not talking to each other," said Pyle of the battling governments.

Villas of Almaden residents complained that a pack of coyotes was killing pets and showing aggressive behavior toward humans.

In October, the San Jose City Council twice refused the request of Villas residents to overturn the city's ban on the use of padded-leghold traps.

Wildlife experts testified that trapping the coyotes would only exacerbate the problem, as new packs would move into the neighborhood and breed. The experts further pointed out that the Villas management trapped coyotes two years ago, only to see the problem return.

The city council did take some steps toward resolving the problem, unanimously passing a ban against feeding certain types of wildlife.

The ban, however, created a tangle of problems between the city and the county. Villas management asked Santa Clara County Vector Control to trap the pack of five coyotes with legal neck snares. The county refused, stating that it feared baited traps would violate the city's ban on feeding wildlife.

Pyle stepped in by drafting an amendment to the ban that explicitly allows baited traps. On Jan. 25 the council approved the change.

She also met last month with county supervisors Don Gage and Jim Beall to discuss the issue. "We've had this silly back-and-forth," said Pyle. The parties seem to agree that a combination of public education and prevention could go a long way towards settling the problem.

Beyond council service

Pyle's first 100 days also surprised her, as she discovered life as a councilwoman is more hectic than expected. She said she's working just as hard as she did while campaigning. "I thought it would be a little less, but the hours are the same," she said. "It's a seven-days-a-week, 24-hours-a-day job. I have steroid-scale attendance at events."

The atmosphere at city hall is also not what she expected.

"I'd hoped for collegiality. Council members, however, keep mostly to themselves on the sixth floor," Pyle said, attributing some of the distance between council members to fear of violating the Brown Act, a law that dictates elected officials refrain from discussing issues in private that they will have to vote on during public meetings.

Pyle says she intends to run for reelection in four years. But she's already thought about what she wants to do eight years down the road when she leaves politics behind.

That doesn't mean she'll be idle in retirement, though.

"I want to learn Mandarin," Pyle said. "Do you have any idea how many people speak Mandarin? I want to talk to all of them!" She also hopes to write children's books she describs describes as "Nancy Drew meets history."