The Campbell Reporter

News

City council incumbents hope voters return them to office

By Koren Temple

This is the first of two parts, which will profile all five candidates running for Campbell City Council in the November elections.

--editor

Labor Day is the traditional kickoff for many candidates to begin their campaigning in earnest. In Campbell, with three council seats up for election and five candidates vying for the job, those running have shifted into high gear. The five candidates running for office are incumbents Jane Kennedy and Dan Furtado, and three who have never held a council seat, Tom Francois, Evan Low and Margie Mitchell.

Both Kennedy and Furtado want to maintain Campbell's small-town feel while still embracing change. Their goals and vision for Campbell in the next few years involve completing ongoing projects and maintaining the high level of services in the community.

Campbell's vice mayor, Furtado, 62, is a Campbell native. He was elected to the city council during a special interim election in 1996 after serving on the Campbell Civic Improvement Commission for more than 10 years.

He was re-elected in 1998 and 2002 and was appointed mayor, serving in that capacity in 1999.

He has a doctorate in pharmacology and a master's degree in public administration. He works part-time at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Furtado wants to help the city provide a balance of services, which include the maintenance of parks, recreational facilities, streets and sidewalks. He said serving another term as city councilman will enable him to accomplish these goals, as well as attract new businesses in the area.

"I think we have to be open to change and development to a degree," Furtado said. "A town isn't just a place to live; it should be a place to get your goods and services. We have to encourage business."

Encouraging business means having a well-identified downtown area, Furtado said. He would like to see a sense of fluidity between the historical downtown area and the Pruneyard Shopping Center.

"I would like to see some redevelopment along that corridor," Furtado said. "I think preserving it and improving it is the way to go."

He would also like to improve traffic light synchronization in the downtown area and would like to see a better, seamless transportation system throughout the valley. Improving the availability of affordable housing is also important, Furtado said, because without it the city is less attractive.

"We want to encourage people of all economic, social and ethnic groups to live in the area," Furtado said. "I'd like to see us promote greater diversity in terms of residents and programs we provide."

Furtado acknowledges maintaining city programs will be a juggling act with a budget deficit, but he would identify various state and federal sources for grant funding to help maintain city service.

"Our goal is to build our infrastructure back up so we can maintain our reputation for good public works services," he said.

As the Joint Powers Authority vice chairman for the Santa Clara County Library system, Furtado wants to continue working with other cities to improve the library system. He was behind Measure A and has pushed for the library needs-assessment study that is currently under way.

Furtado has also worked to provide a licensed paramedic on every medical call in Campbell. This has made it easier for emergency services to communicate with one another and to exchange data easily.

"The thing I like to take away from job is getting the satisfaction in seeing projects completed and working with people in a positive way to do that," Furtado said.

Kennedy, 64, has been a Campbell resident since 1972. She served as mayor in 2000 and 2005, and was elected in 1998 to the council after serving 16 years on the Campbell Planning Commission. She was re-elected to the city council in 2002.

Kennedy, who has a bookkeeping and tax planning business in downtown Campbell, helped start the Campbell chapter of Women in Business for the Chamber of Commerce and served as one of its directors.

She said while it is important for the downtown to become livelier, she doesn't want to the city to be built out.

"I still want to see us kept as a community that we live and work and play in," Kennedy said, "but I still want to bring people in from light rail to come see what Campbell offers."

Kennedy has worked to improve the city's fiscal solvency. She has helped expand police and city services, worked with the school boards to help fund after-school programs, and worked on the completion of the city's General Plan update, and with housing-assistance provisions.

One of her biggest projects was serving as chairwoman and vicechair woman of the Vasona Light Rail Project Advisory Board for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. She helped negotiate the funding and building for the light rail extension through Campbell and neighboring communities.

"When light rail finally did come down and I got to ride in on it, that was the best day. I call it my train," Kennedy said.

She plans to continue educating the public on the benefits of using the light rail and other public transportation.

"Being Californians, we are born and raised on bikes and cars," she said. "Until you can educate people to the benefit of mass transit, you're not going to get people out of their cars."

In addition to her other roles, she is a founding member of the Silicon Valley Animal Control Authority Joint Powers Board.

The organization is planning to build a new animal control shelter that will benefit Campbell and the communities of Monte Sereno and Santa Clara.

Kennedy said even though the city had to cut $3.9 million from its budget, she hopes Campbell will still address the needs of the library, refurbish the Orchard City banquet room at the community center and spruce up older sections in the city.

She said in order to do that, the city will need to maintain a stable budget.

"We've frozen a number of positions where people have left and we have not rehired," Kennedy said. "If we stay on this course, we'll be fine. We have a very good reserve account."

Both Kennedy and Furtado have the same vision when it comes to maintaining Campbell's unique small-town feel.

They believe that achieving these goals and objectives works through open dialogue with their constituency.

"I really believe we have always done things very ethically in this city," Kennedy said. "Those are guidelines we have always used, and we are ahead of other cities in adopting a code of ethics."