With the San Jose District 3 particular election lower than two months away, candidates within the crowded area to interchange disgraced former Councilmember Omar Torres have begun to roll out their coverage platforms in hopes of profitable the help of voters.
At a discussion board hosted by the San Jose Downtown Affiliation and the San Jose Chamber of Commerce Wednesday, public security, the homelessness disaster, and housing growth remained among the many prime priorities for the 5 candidates who participated within the occasion.
“As I’ve been knocking on doors talking with voters, it’s clear that many folks in our community have lost trust in their local government, and rightfully so,” mentioned Anthony Tordillos, an engineer and metropolis planning commissioner operating for the seat. “Housing is still much too expensive. Too many of our neighbors are living on the streets without shelter. Too many of our small businesses are struggling, and too many folks don’t feel safe in their own city.”
Tordillos, Gabby Chavez-Lopez, Irene Smith, Matthew Quevedo and Adam Duran participated in Wednesday’s discussion board, which is the primary of a number of to happen over the approaching weeks. Phillip Dolan and Tyrone Wade — the 2 different candidates that certified to seem on the poll — didn’t participate within the occasion.
San Jose will maintain a particular election on April 8 in hopes of crowning a everlasting consultant for its downtown after Torres resigned in November as a consequence of youngster molestation expenses. Nonetheless, if not one of the candidates surpass the 50% threshold, a runoff between the 2 highest vote-getters will happen on June 24.
Late final month, the Metropolis Council appointed engineer and businessman Carl Salas to briefly fill the District 3 seat till a winner of the election emerges.
Smith — a professional tem choose and former longtime IBM worker who misplaced to Torres within the 2022 basic election — has centered her coverage platform round larger, less expensive homelessness options, fiscal accountability, pro-business incentives and bettering resident enter.
She mentioned the town has put itself at a drawback by having too many core companies and applications as a substitute of creating choices based mostly on a extra outlined precedence listing.
“This becomes a problem because we lack focus and we lack efficiency, and that all boils down to the budget and to the question about how we jump start downtown and make businesses work,” Smith mentioned. “When we don’t focus on what our core services are … our quality of life is going to suffer.”
Chavez-Lopez, the CEO of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, mentioned that as a working mom elevating her son within the district, she thinks about security “every waking hour of my day.”
Chavez-Lopez mentioned due to the varied inhabitants within the metropolis, a multi-prong method is required to handle the town’s housing and homelessness points. She added that the town lacks the assets and experience to adequately handle homelessness and as a substitute must assume creatively and collaboratively with the county and different companies about options, pointing to the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s willingness to supply land for interim housing for instance.
“It’s time to get innovative, and it’s in times like this that we need to really step up and think differently and move differently because we can’t expect (to keep) doing the same thing and to get different results,” Chavez-Lopez mentioned.
Quevedo, the deputy chief of workers for San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, mentioned the problems surrounding homelessness and public security have been round for many years however that sturdy management is required to push a coverage agenda that delivers affect.
He famous that the town wants to rent an extra 500 law enforcement officials to workers the division absolutely. With out doing so, the town will proceed to overlook its objective of responding to requires service.
As for addressing homelessness, he mentioned he was in lockstep with Mahan and the town’s housing division, who’ve explored what it will take to construct out the shelter system in an effort to finish unsheltered homelessness. They’ve additionally requested the Metropolis Council to contemplate a coverage change on Measure E funds that may enable better flexibility to make use of these {dollars} on interim housing options versus inexpensive housing developments.
“The reason we’ve been stuck on a lot of this malaise is because of the politics that distracts us from issues that a charter city government cannot do,” Quevedo mentioned. “We need to accelerate the pace, and we need that majority pushing for interim housing solutions to get people off the streets faster.”
Duran, a retired regulation enforcement and corrections officer, provided essentially the most distinct reply for addressing homelessness by noting how a lot the state has spent on options with out making a dent in the issue.
“The root of the problem is we need rehabilitation centers,” Duran mentioned. “We need to have mental health facilities open up again. Housing a person in addiction to me and not getting to the root is the antithesis of compassion.”
Smith mentioned she agreed with the mayor’s method, together with redirecting Measure E funds, and has proposed bigger, congregate shelters like these present in different U.S. cities as a faster, less expensive various to getting residents off the streets.
“We are playing whack-a-mole with misery and homelessness, and we need to stop fiddling with the edges of the toggle and face it head-on,” Smith mentioned.
Noting the query requested to voters, Chavez-Lopez and Tordillos didn’t agree with a everlasting shift of Measure E {dollars}.
Tordillos recalled a dialog with a homeless resident who had stayed in an interim shelter earlier than unsuccessfully making use of for inexpensive housing as a result of scarcity. Tordillos mentioned the individual was kicked out of the shelter and again onto the streets, which put him in a worse place than the place he began.
“I think it is important that we balance investments in immediate solutions to shelter, or unhoused people, while also making sure that we are building our affordable housing capacity over time,” Tordillos mentioned. “I also think that this is really an issue of voter trust. When voters voted on Measure E, they were voting on a combination of affordable housing and homelessness prevention, and it’s critical we maintain that promise.”
