Rose Garden Resident
News
Big shoes to fill, but six run for Yeager's District 6 seat
By Alicia Upano
When San Jose City Councilman Ken Yeager was elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, it created a hole in District 6. Now six candidates are vying for his seat in the November election.
San Jose District 6 includes the Willow Glen and Rose Garden neighborhoods. The candidates are Jim Spence, Steve Tedesco, Clark Williams, Brad Imamura, Art Maurice and Pierluigi Oliverio.
The two individuals with the most votes will advance to a March 6 runoff, unless one candidate receives more than 50 percent in November. The new councilman will serve the remaining two years of Yeager's term and be eligible to run for two four-year terms.
Brad Imamura
Brad Imamura may have just entered the political limelight, but he has been hard at work behind the scenes for decades.
Imamura worked for Santa Clara County for nine years as a real estate appraiser and environmental-health specialist. In his 21 years with San Jose, he's been a hazardous materials inspector, a property manager at the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport, a code enforcement officer for 10 years and a planning analyst for nearly three years. Imamura is currently a real property agent for the city and deals with eminent domain concerns and the acquisition of land for new fire and police substations.
As a volunteer, he has been a Little League coach, twice president of the Municipal Employees Federation, and appointed to the Federated City Employees' Retirement System Board by the city council, where he served for 12 years.
"I've been serving the community whether they knew it or not. I know city hall. I know it more than any other of the candidates, the operations, what works and doesn't work," Imamura says. "I go there every day."
A San Jose native, 52-year-old Imamura and his family have lived in District 6 for more than 20 years. Imamura lives in the Hamann Park neighborhood, where the issues include park maintenance and traffic concerns caused by nearby Interstate 880 and Westfield Valley Fair Shopping Center.
Districtwide, Imamura said cut-through traffic, high-density developments, property rights and proper code enforcement are the main issues. In Willow Glen and Rose Garden, Imamura supports residents' desires to maintain their historic homes and neighborhood.
In terms of development, Imamura wants to see a balance among jobs, housing, parks and schools.
Imamura would also like to see smart business growth in the Burbank/Del Monte neighborhood.
One of the main tenets of Imamura's platform is fiscal responsibility.
If elected, Imamura said he would support the open government reforms the city is implementing.
Art Maurice
Art Maurice is the greenest man on the District 6 ballot. Not that the technical recruiter lacks leadership experience, he's just environmentally friendly.
Maurice, 44, commutes to work with an electric vehicle and returns to his Cory neighborhood home to enjoy solar-powered electricity. His interest in alternative energies includes solar power, wind technology, biofuels and hybrid cars. As San Jose residents continue to pay high prices for gasoline and with home electricity bills on the rise, Maurice wants to see San Jose get a piece of the alternative energy market.
"I think people do want alternative energy. If San Jose takes the lead, I think the people will springboard off of it," Maurice said.
Maurice sees these clean technologies as a business venture for the city. San Jose, with fewer jobs than there are residents, has been making strides to attract companies to the city. Companies could provide jobs for residents, and tax revenue for the city, he said.
Although Maurice has made his home in District 6, his hometown is Barre, Vt. Maurice attended Kansas State University and moved to Silicon Valley in 1986. He bought a condo in Santa Clara and became the homeowners association president in 1988.
In 1994, Maurice bought a home in the Cory neighborhood and joined the Cory Neighborhood Association a year after it formed in 2002. He was immediately elected president, a post he's held for two years. With Maurice at the helm, the Cory Neighborhood Association received San Jose's Good Neighbor Award in 2004.
Like Imamura, Maurice's neighborhood butts up against Valley Fair. As association president, Maurice has worked closely with businesses, neighbors and the city to abate traffic issues.
He would like to see more favorable developments come into the district, pointing to Whole Foods Market on The Alameda and Trader Joe's in the San Jose Market Center. Both these businesses have long been on the wish list of the District 6 residents.
If elected, he would like to meet with District 6 neighborhood leaders monthly to open communication between the city and the community.
