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District 6 council candidate Tedesco 'corrects' his opponent's résumè

By Eli Segall

Leading up to the Nov. 7 election, the race to replace outgoing San Jose City Councilman Ken Yeager was amicable. The six candidates joked around at neighborhood forums, shunned negative attacks and kept the campaign trail clean.

That all ended Jan. 29, when the two District 6 runoff candidates, Pierluigi Oliverio and Steve Tedesco, took questions from a packed audience at Cory Elementary School.

"Every time Tedesco had the microphone in his hand, he had something negative to say," said Cory Neighborhood Association member Cari Hays. "It was this continuous jabbing, like poking a bruise over and over again."

Throughout the night, Tedesco, 53, repeatedly called his opponent a "slightly misleading" candidate. He disputed Oliverio's title as campaign manager of a 1994 bond measure, mocked his interest in technology and claimed he joined the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association only after he had entered the council race.

Oliverio, a 36-year-old software executive, offered rebuttals but refrained from counterattacks.

The forum was not the first time Tedesco, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Silicon Valley, has questioned Oliverio's credentials. His campaign volunteers have been handing out a "Compare the Candidates" sheet. In it, Tedesco lists 25 examples of his own employment and volunteer experiences; Oliverio is said to have no background in community leadership, youth activities or public safety, according to the flier.

Tedesco, who has spent his entire career in the nonprofit sector and belongs to more than a dozen civic groups, defended the flier and his remarks at Cory.

"This campaign is as much about issues as it is about our résumés and track records," he said. "It's not negativity, and it's not jabbing; I'm trying to come up with corrections for slightly misleading statements."

Oliverio described Tedesco's flier as inaccurate and dismissed his comments entirely.

"When people go negative, it's because they're desperate," Oliverio said bluntly.

Oliverio and Tedesco discussed half a dozen local issues and agreed on almost all of them. Both want the city to purchase the 17-acre BAREC site on Winchester Boulevard and either keep it as open space or convert it to parkland. Both aim to increase the number of after-school programs, and each intends to work to attract more businesses to San Jose.

The District 6 city council seat became available after Yeager's election in June to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. He was sworn into that seat in December.

The runoff election will be held March 6.