Almaden Resident

Cover Story

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Recognizing Education: Nancy Pyle (front) gave a speech at Williams Elementary School to honor teacher Tracy Cressio last month. Keeping close to residents in her district is key, Pyle says. Pyle ran for council in 2004 to 'shake things up a bit.'

Pyle's Perspectives

Councilwoman Nancy Pyle reflects on her first year in office

By Monica Heger

San Jose City Councilwoman Nancy Pyle has one year of city hall life under her belt and is ready to tackle more. A former schoolteacher and 20-year resident of Almaden Valley, Pyle said she ran for city council in 2004 because she wanted to "shake things up a bit."

"I've always been interested in leadership," Pyle said. "I've been an activist in the community for a very long time, and I'm interested in the way things work and making them run efficiently."

What Pyle didn't count on during her first year in office was having to vote on whether to censure the mayor, take over the lead on one of San Jose's most aggressive development plans and serve in city hall during a period fraught with public suspicion.

The Norcal garbage scandal broke last year, followed by what many considered a hasty vote to give a $4 million subsidy to the Grand Prix. Now, the council is looking at another tough budget year.

Pyle recently sat down one-on-one with the Almaden Resident to talk about serving on city council during a rough year and her vision of San Jose's future.

Tough Decisions

Resident: What was the biggest challenge you faced during your first year on city council?

Pyle: Trying to learn as much as I could about the job, finding out where everything is and how to juxtapose that with getting things done. The first year is the toughest because you are getting to know everything and you still have to be efficient.

Resident: What was the most difficult vote you had to cast and why?

Pyle: Votes on the budget were the toughest because I could see the faces of the people we were going to be affecting, and I knew the negative impact [the cuts] were going to have on the community. Last year we had a $65 million deficit. This year it's $35 million. As you compound that year after year, the budget cuts become more extreme because there's so much less to cut. This year I'm spending more time looking for potential revenue streams.

Resident: Why did you support subsidizing the Grand Prix?

Pyle: The council unanimously decided to pursue economic development activities in the sports and entertainment fields. We also unanimously approved the Grand Prix last year because of the opportunities it presented to generate income for our city. Direct attendee spending is estimated at $23.1 million. Applying a multiplier effect to represent how this money expands into San Jose's economy brings total estimated attendee spending to $41.6 million.

Resident: What about your vote to increase salary raises for council appointees?

Pyle: Our appointees did not receive raises when other employees did, and we need to retain the best and brightest if we are to cotinue to be a great City. Collectively, these raises add up to less than $56,000 a year. This amount is not going to solve a $35.8 million deficit.

Transparency

Transparency seems to be the new buzzword at city hall these days. Ever since the Norcal deal, the censure of the mayor and the Grand Prix vote, council members have sought to distance themselves from this closed-door method of government, including passing a lobbyist ordinance requiring stricter disclosure requirements. Pyle recently proposed sunshine laws to make government more accessible to the public by including things such as requiring the council agenda to be posted the Wednesday before the council meeting and requiring two weeks' notice if there is an item that needs $1 million or more in funding.

Resident: In regard to transparency, what is your biggest priority in the coming year?

Pyle: The four of us [Pyle, Judy Chirco, Linda LeZotte and Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez] have come up with what we call sunshine reforms that let the sun shine in and make our government more transparent, coming from the standpoint of, 'What do we do about late notices?' I've had papers delivered [to me] on the day we're supposed to vote on them, and there have been times when we've looked absolutely silly with the votes we came up with because there's been too little preparation by the staff and not enough time for public review.

Resident: The Brown Act and Proposition 59 aim to make government more transparent. How is your sunshine law different, or how does it strengthen the Brown Act and Proposition 59?

Pyle: "Strengthen" is the key word. The Brown Act and Prop. 59 lay a good foundation, but I feel the city should hold itself to a higher standard.

Resident: Councilman Chuck Reed and the Mercury News and League of Women Voters also proposed reforms. Why did you vote against Reed's memo, which included all of these?

Pyle: My reforms included many of the items discussed by council member Reed, League of Women Voters and the Mercury News. I was not supportive of his memo because it lacked community input, and many of the items in his memo had already been before the council numerous times.

Soccer fields

Building soccer fields in Almaden Valley has been a contentious issue for several years now. A complex was originally proposed on a site off McKean Road that is owned by the San Jose Unified School District. But the South Almaden Valley Urban Reserve sued the city to stop the project from going forward because of environmental concerns. When a second 33-acre site off Harry Road, owned by IBM, was proposed, neighbors, who did not want a soccer field in their back yard protested.

Resident: Where are the sports fields?

Pyle declined to comment on the future of soccer in Almaden Valley or disclose any other possible sites, saying the city attorney asked her not to talk about the soccer issue because of the lawsuit.

Coyote Valley

Coyote Valley, the last vestige of open space in San Jose, is undergoing a major development plan that includes building 25,000 homes and creating 50,000 jobs on 3,700 acres in north and mid-Coyote Valley. Under the plan, there would be 3,500 acres in south Coyote Valley to serve as a greenbelt between San Jose and Morgan Hill. Following the censure of Mayor Ron Gonzales, Pyle assumed his role as co-chair of the task force, along with councilman Forrest Williams.

Resident: What is your role as co-chair on the task force?

Pyle: One, it's to help work with the meetings, and two, to stay as informed as I can possibly be so I know how all this is going to fit together.

Resident: An environmentalist was originally included on the task force but recently resigned for personal reasons. Have you replaced Terry Watt, the environmentalist on the task force?

Pyle: Not yet. The person we came up with has a health problem and was not able to accept.

Resident: What are the biggest concerns regarding the development of Coyote Valley?

Pyle: The transportation issue is a biggie. There's some concern that people from Coyote Valley will come up the back way--Bailey to McKean to Almaden Expressway. I think people are afraid that's going to become more of a thoroughfare and spill onto Almaden Expressway. If anything, it should decrease it. I've done my own little stints going down to meetings. The only people I see who go that way are IBM-ers. If we do the proper job that we say we're going to do, transportation is either going to stay put, because that's where the jobs are, or it will be southbound, or they'll be on the train, because we've just got to get a stop there. I think, if anything, traffic problems will be alleviated; at least, that is one of my goals.

The second issue is that people think once you start developing Coyote Valley, then boom, we're going to develop the south Almaden Valley urban reserve. But the urban reserve has its own set of triggers.

Resident: Especially if the development in north and mid-Coyote Valley is successful, there would be economic benefits for developing south Coyote Valley [the greenbelt] as well. Has the possibility of developing south Coyote been discussed, and what is your position on it?

Pyle: South Coyote Valley will not be developed. South Coyote Valley is included only to determine financing and other mechanisms to protect this as a permanent greenbelt. I am 100 percent committed to protecting South Coyote Valley as a greenbelt.

Resident: Given that there are four developers on the Coyote Valley task force, as well as landowners who are all eager to see development move forward, there must be a tremendous amount of pressure to develop homes before the jobs are there. Are the developers pushing for houses before industry, and what is your position on housing before industry?

Pyle: I would honestly say that the task force, thus far, has been focused on transportation and affordable housing. In my view the developers are not pushing for houses before jobs. This would diminish the reason for planning Coyote Valley, and I would not be supportive.

Disaster Preparedness

Resident: During the State of the City address, Mayor Ron Gonzales honored you for your work on disaster preparedness. What programs are you working on regarding disaster preparedness?

Pyle: What I'm trying to do is get a matrix going so that whatever the emergency is, people know exactly what to do. I like what San Francisco has done with its website (www.72hour.org), and I'm trying to compare with other cities to see how we can do this the most efficiently.

Coming Year

Among the highlights Pyle looks forward to in the coming year is the grand opening of the Almaden library and community center, for which she has helped facilitate fundraising. It is scheduled to open May 13.