• 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.

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

• Act with Urgency: Declare a state of emergency or enact an urgency ordinance (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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Adopt the 7th Cycle Housing Element: Los Gatos will not miss the statutory state deadline again. Losing control resulted in 15 Builder’s Remedy applications from 2023 to mid-2024. The result, we now have building projects ranging from 40 to 130 feet high when our local standard has a maximum height of 35 feet!
• 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.

• 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 addressing traffic, evacuation risks, and cumulative impacts across adjacent projects.

• 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.

• 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.