The Cupertino Courier


Sandra James	Steven Haze	Andrea Harris	John Statton	Don Burnett

Decisions, Decisions

Five aim for City Council--there's only room for three

The Cupertino City Council campaign is like a game of musical chairs. When the election music stops, five of your neighbors hope to take a seat--but two will be left standing.

Over the past several weeks, The Cupertino Courier has printed articles to help you decide who you want in those seats next month. The articles have focused on the candidates' backgrounds, their ideas about our city's growth, opinions about cultural diversity and concerns about the economic health of Cupertino.

If you missed our election coverage to date, all of the articles can be accessed on the Internet at http://www.cupertino.net/.

Today, we've allowed each of the candidates some space to tell you once more why they are best-qualified for the job. Here they are, appearing in random order.

Sandra James

You elected me in 1989 as your representative to the Cupertino Union School District Board of Education. During my first four-year term, we hired a new superintendent, cut $3 million from the general fund budget due to declining state revenues and still maintained the quality of education we have come to expect from our Cupertino Union School District.

Again in 1993, you showed your support by re-electing me for another four years. In 1994, many of you worked with me as I chaired the district's successful campaign to pass Measure A, which raised $71 million to renovate our 23 schools. We should all be proud of this community's effort, which resulted in an overwhelming 80.8 percent passing vote.

As my second term ended, many of you encouraged me to look toward municipal government and the natural transference of my experience, knowledge and skills to run for the Cupertino City Council.

As your representative voice, I bring experience and a reputation as a fair and honest elected official valuing integrity and hard work, who studies the issues intently, making decisions that best represent the needs and desires of the whole community:

*President, Cupertino Union School District Board; trustee, eight years
*Chair, Measure A, raised $71 million for improved school facilities
*Vice chair, Cupertino Parks and Recreation Commission
*Chair, City of Cupertino Teen Task Force
*DeAnza College Library Commission
*Little League board, Cupertino Rotary, Chamber of Commerce
*Santa Clara County Sheriff's Community Academy, graduate
*City of Cupertino Crest Award, 1996 Recipient

Clear stands on important local issues

An educator, personnel consultant, environmentalist, parent and resident of Cupertino for more than 30 years, whose diverse interests, talents and values mirror those which make our city and its residents unique, I support:

*Expanding our library and senior center;
*Responsible use of remaining buildable land;
*Immediate attention to "monster" or multiple homes on neighborhood lots;
*Parks and open space to enhance our quality of life;
*Strong business for economic health;
*Revitalization of Vallco Fashion Park;
*Consensus process which brings us to closure on the Diocese
property;
*Building successful partnerships to manage limited public funds;
*and revisiting issues such as traffic volume and patterns.

Proud of the record I've achieved

I believe many of the issues facing us will be regional in nature; i.e. transportation and the environment. Being an experienced leader with established relationships across regions, levels of government and enterprises will be an asset to this community and enable me to be effective from the very day I am seated as a City Councilmember.

Please study the candidates and the issues. My last eight years representing this community are a matter of public record. My accomplishments, of which I am extremely proud, are a matter of public record. After a thorough review of my qualifications, I hope you will again entrust me with your vote. Remember--your vote is a personal and valuable vehicle by which to express your goals and aspirations and greatly impact the quality of life in your community.

You determine the future of this city

Please cast your vote for Sandra James for Cupertino City Council, but most importantly don't forget to exercise your right and privilege to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Steven Haze

Many times when elections roll around, critical issues begin to resurface. Growth, traffic, quality of schools and parks, taxes and the quality of government services begin to frame the debate between Cupertino City Council candidates. These are indeed very important issues. Unfortunately, one issue is never discussed as strongly, and that is leadership. On Tuesday, Nov. 4, each of us will again be asking the same question: Which of the candidates is best qualified to serve in office for the next four years as our elected representative?

Fortunately, for this election we will be able to vote on Measure C, which will legally limit councilmembers to a maximum of two consecutive elected terms of four years each and a maximum of 10 years and 354 days in office. I support Measure C as a way to introduce new representatives from our neighborhoods who will carry with them into office energy, enthusiasm and, most importantly, new ideas--new ways in which to look at old problems. I myself have more than 24 proposals that I believe will lead to improving our community.

Many of you may not know Steve Haze by name. However, most of you would know what I have done to better our community--if only I can get my message out directly to you.

My wife, Diane, and I have lived in Cupertino for 19 years. For more than 15 years I have been involved as an activist concerned about our neighborhoods: too much urban growth, traffic that spills into our neighborhoods; the lack of citizen access to government--and sometimes a lack of responsiveness by our elected officials to real problems that affect real people like you and me, as well as our families.

In order to let you become better acquainted with myself as a candidate, I have established a Web site at www.NeighborhoodsFirst.com. I hope this will better assist you in determining my qualifications to serve as your elected representative. It provides information on who I am, what I have done and, more importantly, what I will do if elected to the council.

I have also provided a list of friends and neighbors that know who Steve is--by actions, not just words. These are individuals who have worked with me over the years in business or have worked over many years to make Cupertino a better community for all residents. People like you and me who believe that Cupertino is a wonderful community and would like to keep it that way. Just take a moment to call them and ask them what they know: ask them where I stand on the hard issues, and finally, ask them what I have done to help friends and neighbors--and our community.

Reno and Anna DiBono, 725-0604; TV and Esther Huang, 257-2810; Warren and Elvira Dunn, 252-0681; Bill and Doris Sung, 741-0385; Daryl and Soo Bradford, 984-1896.

Finally, when you have spoken to them--I encourage you to contact me directly to discuss your concerns--or share your ideas on how to improve our community for all of us.

Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to share my thoughts with you, and please remember, the most important action that you can take on Tuesday, Nov. 4, is to exercise your right to vote.

Andrea Harris

My 86-year-old mother-in-law moved to Mendocino earlier this year. A lovely little house came up for rent across the street from her daughter, and she gave up the Bay Area rat race to spend her days sewing by the sea. After she was settled in, she decided her three kitchen knives needed sharpening and called the local hardware store to see about getting them honed. The hardware store actually has a service where they bring a cart out to the house to do the knives there, but because she thought the price was a little high, mom got in her car and drove to Fort Bragg, about seven miles up the road. There she found a hardware store on the main drag and took her knives to the man at the front counter, telling him what she needed. He sent her over to the paint counter with instructions to tell the fellow there to do the sharpening. The young man at the paint counter looked at her knives and then went off behind a partition to get a sharpener. He then spent the next 20 minutes chatting with her and honing her knives. When he gave her back the knives, she asked what she owed him. "You don't owe us anything," he said. "We don't sharpen knives here." End of story.

I would like to tell you that if you elect me to the City Council, you will get that kind of incredible service and consideration from me. I don't know if I can actually commit to personally honing your knives. But I will tell you that I believe in our town of 40,000 we can give a great deal of special service, that one person does matter, and that individual needs can be accommodated. When residents come to the Planning Commission, which I chair this year, their requests are seriously and individually considered, and I, for one, believe that the reason we have a public process is to let the public input influence the outcome. So that is what you will get from me in terms of personal service. Which is not to say I will be with you 100 percent of the time, but hopefully close to 80 percent.

As to my issues, there are three. First is development. I think we are building our buildings too high, too wide and too close to the street and to each other. These practices cause traffic problems, school crowding, loss of privacy and reduction in property values. They also restrict our views of the hills.

My second issue is the rejuvenation of our retail businesses. Most of us are sad about the loss of A Clean Well Lighted Place, REI, Any Mountain, Supercrown Books and others, and the downgrading of Vallco. San Jose managed to turn Valley Fair, the Pruneyard, Westgate, and El Paseo back into thriving centers. We can restore the health of our retail infrastructure as well, and we should make it an immediate priority.

Lastly, I feel that our reserve at $30,000,000, or 1 1/2 times our annual budget, is too high, and that we need to make a plan for those funds. My priorities are more library hours, and a larger library and senior center. If we don't need all that money, we could cap the utility tax or do a one-time rebate. It is possible for taxes to go down.

So these are my platforms and why you should vote for me, Andrea Harris, on Nov. 4. I am hard-working, intelligent and well prepared. Furthermore, I know the issues, and I get things done. My performance on the Planning Commission is valid evidence of these commitments. Your issues are my issues, and your voice will be heard.

John Statton

Your vote matters in this election. As a Cupertino resident, you have a strong stake in the future of our community. That is why I hope you will agree with my goals for our city and include me as one of your selections for our council. My campaign is aimed at:

Controlling growth and traffic

Growth should leave our town more livable, not lower-quality. Cupertino is essentially built out, and we cannot accommodate any massive increases in office or housing development. Our neighborhoods are being crowded by 1.2 million square feet of recently approved new housing, and this construction brings a corresponding increase in local traffic and crowded schools. Privacy and balance are lost when monster houses are built on small lots. We need to slow growth down so it can be more thoughtfully incorporated into our community.

Building strong neighborhoods

Strong neighborhoods are made of people who are friends and acquaintances, not strangers. It is important for our city to support local school excellence, the Fourth of July fireworks, the citywide garage sale and youth sports; to encourage volunteerism and help neighbors organize for disaster-preparedness and local crime watch programs. I believe the city is right to direct special attention to cultural diversity and support the ongoing efforts to help each of us get to know our neighbors better.

Open space, environmental stewardship

A key civic value is caring about our local environment. I was part of the team that kept Blackberry Farm as a community park rather than a subdivision. Environmental stewardship issues that I support include working to reduce traffic on local streets; protecting our hillsides from development; encouraging bicycling and alternative transportation; and preserving open space and building a linear park along the railroad.

Increasing sales-tax revenues so we don't pay more taxes and fees

I have the experience to wisely manage our city's economic development. Since only a small part of our property taxes goes to City Hall, Cupertino is dependent on healthy sales-tax revenues from local businesses. I will work to revitalize Vallco and upgrade local shopping so we can keep sales-tax dollars in town by giving people a reason to shop Cupertino.

Improving our library and senior center

A measure of a community's quality is how it takes care of its youth and seniors. Our library and senior center are both overcrowded and require updating to meet the growing needs of our friends and neighbors. Our city is building a $31 million reserve when our general fund budget is only $22 million. I say it is time to set a prudent level of reserves, use the surplus to improve these community assets or give the excess back to the taxpayers.

Work at Apple Computer brought me to Cupertino more than 10 years ago, and serving as Chamber of Commerce executive director has given me the opportunity for Cupertino community service ever since. Under my leadership, the Chamber is a focal point for supporting our community. We played big roles in bringing back the Fourth of July fireworks and creating the first Chinese New Year celebration. We've partnered with the city to improve local economic development and increase city revenues. I've enjoyed being part of the important role our local business community plays. However, after the election, I'm leaving the Chamber to work in intellectual property law.

I will bring community experience, independent thinking, strong management and entrepreneurial ideas to the council. I need your vote to help me achieve the goals I have outlined. If you would like a copy of my brochure or have any questions or ideas, please call me at 725-0157. By working together, we make Cupertino a great city to call home.

Don Burnett

I believe that good neighborhoods make good cities. However, modern life is constantly pulling us from our homes to widely scattered jobs and recreations. This makes it much more difficult to participate in neighborhood activities and to gain the resulting feeling of being rooted in a place, of belonging to a group of people sharing interests.

As a result, the challenge to involve people in neighborhood activities is greater than ever. If people are to invest their precious time in neighborhood activities, the reasons must be compelling. Fortunately there are many such reasons, and I would like to talk about some of them.

The most compelling reason is to improve our security. We need to feel safe to have good lives. Security from crime, and particularly from burglaries, is a deeply felt need.

Experience has shown that the best way to achieve this is for neighbors to know and care about each other (and to feel confident in dialing 911 when suspicious activities are observed).

Fenced enclave-type developments provide privacy at a cost. When neighbors are fenced off, it becomes easier for criminals to conceal their activities. This problem makes it important to be aware.

Collaborative neighborhood activities are a great way to foster improved awareness. The Neighborhood Watch program sponsored by the sheriff's office provides a convenient way to help this happen.

Neighborhood organization to meet the effects of a natural disaster is another good reason for neighbor-to-neighbor support here in "Earthquake Country." The ability to care for injured and frightened people and their pets can be increased enormously through a relatively small collective investment in time and money by neighbors.

Property damage can also be minimized through preparedness. Cupertino has an excellent disaster-preparedness program provided through the Central Fire District that makes it much easier to get ready for "The Big One."

The list of neighborly benefits is as long as the number of ways in which we can help one another. We are social creatures destined to be happiest when doing things together that mean something to us. The neighborhood is an ideal unit for this.

Organized neighborhoods have an easier time making their voices heard when the need arises to "fight City Hall." This is good. City leaders need to hear more from the "grassroots" of our community.

Aggressive traffic within neighborhoods is a citywide problem. There are proven ways of alleviating this, and I hope we can work as a community to try some of them.

I believe that Cupertino government can do more to help neighborhoods come together, and I will work for this. For example, we have regained the ability to have block parties by encouraging the Association of Bay Area Governments to find us a source of insurance and providing city funding to pay for it. Similarly, I hope we can find a way to make it easier to find meeting places for neighborhood groups.

Government, whatever its faults, is the foundation of our wonderful, dynamic modern civilization. It is our collective task to make it do the best job possible of maximizing our quality of life. I'd like to continue to work to accomplish this as a member of the City Council for four more years.

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