Core Priorities

Every candidate supports public safety, responsible growth, and a balanced budget. The difference is whether those promises come with measurable targets, enforceable dates, and clear accountability. Three core qualities govern effective local leadership: judgment to make hard decisions, trust to tell residents the truth, and compromise to build the majority required to deliver results.

1

Public Safety

Assuring Police Resources
  • Full Staffing: Fully fund the police department to maintain optimal staffing levels while eliminating the high cost of overtime. Pay enough to retain officers to reduce turnover.
Fixing Beach Traffic & Gridlock

On peak summer days, non-local cut-through traffic paralyzes residential streets, blocking emergency access.

  • Act with Urgency: Enact an urgency ordinance under Government Code § 36937 to authorize the Town to implement temporary road closures, turn restrictions, and local-only access rules on Town roadways during peak traffic surges.
  • On-the-Ground Traffic Control: Station traffic control personnel at choke points before traffic backups occur, tracking response delays and publishing operational days in advance.
  • Partner with Navigation Apps (Waze, Google Maps, Apple Maps): Geofence local neighborhoods and redirect non-local transit back to major corridors.
Addressing Wildfire Threat
  • Evacuation Plan: Fully implement the Los Gatos / Monte Sereno Evacuation Plan so it operates as an active capability rather than a dormant document.
  • Clear Evacuation Corridors: Maintain roadside clearance along all 31 miles of public roadway in the fire zone. Assign highest priority to key evacuation routes.
  • Harden Homes: Free home assessments for high-risk zones and create financial assistance programs to help vulnerable community members protect their homes.
  • Invest to Protect: Establish a dedicated annual funding pipeline ($2.5M–$3.0M) to invest in protection from the threat of wildfire.
Enhancing School Safety
  • Emergency Evacuation: Explicitly integrate Los Gatos High School into Town evacuation protocols and drills.
  • Reduce School Drop-Off Traffic: Evaluate designated off-site student drop-off locations around town combined with shuttle options to significantly reduce parent drop-off traffic around the high school.
  • East Main Street Chaos: Partner with the High School to consider and implement additional safety measures on East Main Street to address the after-school rush and nighttime events held on a dimly lit East Main Street.
2

Los Gatos Housing — Local Control

When the Town missed the State-mandated 6th Cycle Housing Element certification deadline in 2023, it exposed us to a 526-day window of state-imposed “Builder’s Remedy” applications. This led to proposed high-rise developments ranging from 4 to 13 stories, bypassing local zoning.

Ensuring Housing Element Compliance
  • Adopt the 7th Cycle Housing Element: Los Gatos will not miss a statutory state deadline again. Losing control resulted in 15 Builder’s Remedy applications from 2023 to mid-2024. We will not miss another statutory deadline again.
  • Strict Schedule Tracking / Quarterly Progress Reports: Develop a public schedule adopted by Council to meet the January 31, 2031 deadline. Publish quarterly progress reports outlining any schedule variances along with corrective action.
  • Citizen Advisory Committee: Appoint a diverse advisory body representing neighborhood preservationists, housing advocates, seniors, renters, business owners, and wildfire-zone residents. Publish dissenting viewpoints and consensus recommendations.
Preserving Our Character & Challenging Builder’s Remedy Development
  • Holding the Line: As a Planning Commissioner, I give every project a fair and lawful hearing. However, state-imposed Builder’s Remedy severely limits local control. My job—on the Commission or on Town Council—is to hold developers strictly to the letter of the law and defend the unique character and charm of Los Gatos.
  • Comprehensive Environmental & Impact Review: Require environmental studies covering historic resources, tree canopies, traffic, evacuation risks, and cumulative impacts across adjacent projects.
3

Fiscal & Capital Responsibility

The Town’s current rate of spending is growing at twice the rate of our revenues. This trajectory is unsustainable. In the current fiscal year, expenses are $2.4 million higher than revenues.

Committing to Fiscal Responsibility (Day-to-Day Operations)
  • Adopt Government Finance Officers Association Standards: They require recurring operational costs to be covered strictly by recurring operational revenues.
  • Disciplined Expenditure Growth: Keep expense growth below revenue growth, slowing non-essential spending before examining core safety services.
  • Pension Liabilities: Implement a fixed payment schedule to systematically pay down unfunded CalPERS liabilities and minimize compound interest costs.
  • No New Taxes Without Control: Exhaust internal operational efficiencies and cost controls before asking taxpayers for new revenue or parcel taxes.
Committing to Capital Responsibility (Long-Term Assets & Infrastructure)
  • Fully Funded Capital Plans: Ensure every project in our Capital Improvement Plan carries a verified, realistic funding source and delivery timeline, rather than listing unfunded projects as active commitments.
  • Infrastructure Asset Management: Properly planning, funding, and maintaining physical assets—fixing roads and potholes, stormwater systems, public buildings, and emergency facilities.

Guiding Commitments

  • I will not promise to stop every Builder’s Remedy project. Some are protected by state law. Saying otherwise wastes the leverage we actually have.
  • I will not promise that no tax will ever be needed. I promise not to support spending until growth is under control, and to show you the numbers either way.
  • I will not promise the new Highway 17 interchange. It must be tied to addressing gridlocked beach traffic. Also, funding depends on VTA, Caltrans, and federal money we do not control. The Town’s share is still unknown.
  • I will not promise to solve problems the Town has neither the authority nor the money to solve. Knowing which those are, and saying so, is most of the job.