The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Candidates for council hold forum

By Natasha Collins

City Council candidates met in an open forum Oct. 2 to present their platforms and answer questions from residents.

Candidates talked about their experience and qualifications and where they stood on the issues of affordable housing, working with other cities and the influence residents would have on their votes. Candidates Michael Szymanski, Julia Miller, Fred Fowler, Jim Roberts and Joe Martin participated in the forum. Candidate Kayvan Navai was unable to attend.

While acknowledging that many residents don't favor more high-density housing, Szymanski said it's the only way to make housing more affordable in Sunnyvale. The city should also rework the way in which below-market-rate housing is distributed, he said.

"Many city employees are not able to afford housing here, and the below-market-rate priority should go to them," he added. "If they work in the city, take pride in the city, they should be able to live in the city."

But Roberts said below-market-rate units and other subsidized projects are not the answer to the housing problem.

"Subsidies are not free," he said. "The developer has to make up the cost somewhere, and it is the middle and upper- middle class that are paying for it."

To bring down housing costs, the city should look at costly requirements placed on developers, Roberts said.

Miller characterized Sunnyvale as a "stand-alone city" that doesn't have the same problems as surrounding communities, such as monetary hardships and lack of some services.

"Other cities may be jealous of how well [Sunnyvale] is doing," Miller said.

Martin said Sunnyvale is in a leadership position among other nearby communities.

"We are a very efficient city that is run more like a well-oiled corporation," Martin said. "Our problems are not the same as other cities so sometimes we cannot relate to other cities."

Roberts is "scared to death" of regional approaches to managing growth and worries that cities like San Jose could end up telling Sunnyvale what development projects to approve.

"We need to make sure to express our positions to our neighboring cities," he said. "It would be great if we could arm-wrestle to see who wins, but we just can't do that."

But many problems cannot be solved without the cooperation of surrounding cities, Fowler said. "Clearly the differences between our communities can cause conflict," he said. "A system must be formed to help lessen the conflict."

All the candidates agreed that input from the community is very important to the council's decision-making process.

"Thomas Jefferson said it is the responsibility of an elected official to represent the people who elected him," Martin said. "By having people talk at council meetings, they may bring up a point of view we didn't consider."

Szymanski said it has been his experience as a planning commissioner that community input may effect the commission's decisions.

"Sometimes you read a packet on a project and it sounds great. But then you get the community coming in saying 'Did you consider this?' or 'Did you think of that?', and you start to see another perspective," he said. "Citizen input is absolutely critical, but people must understand we must look at the impact on the entire community and not just the person's neighborhood or pocket of the city."

A second candidates' forum is scheduled for Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. at the Sunnyvale Council Chambers.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, October 8, 1997.
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