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Over the past four years, the Santa Clara City Council has begun to seriously address the city’s budget deficit and extract itself from costly legal battles with the 49ers over Levi’s Stadium.
The question for voters on Nov. 5 is whether they want to continue moving forward or regress to the days, just four years ago, when Mayor Lisa Gillmor controlled the council.
We recommend moving forward. And for that we suggest voters back Harbir Bhatia in District 1 and reelect Kevin Park in District 4 and Suds Jain in District 5. We make no recommendation in the District 6 election, in which Anthony Becker is seeking another term.
Sadly, most, but not all, candidates divide into two camps: Those backed by Gillmor and the Santa Clara Police Officers’ Association, and those underwritten by the 49ers through independent expenditures the candidates cannot direct.
To regain control of the seven-member council, Gillmor and her allies would need to win three of the four races on the ballot. The 49ers, after spending nearly $10 million on the 2020 and 2022 elections combined, are spending millions again this year trying to block a Gillmor resurgence.
The team’s spending not only taints good candidates concerned about the vast sums of money, it also tilts the electoral playing field.
That said, we share the 49ers’ frustration with Gillmor for similar and other reasons. It was Gillmor who resisted a 2018 court order that Santa Clara comply with the California Voting Rights Act by switching from an at-large voting system to elections in six districts. The resulting foolhardy litigation cost city taxpayers more than $3.7 million in legal fees.
Meanwhile, during Gillmor’s first mayoral term, as police officer salaries soared, the city racked up a projected $33 million annual budget deficit. Since Gillmor lost majority control in 2020, the new council, working through the pandemic, has reduced that shortfall to about $8 million annually.
The new council has also approved curfew extensions for five weeknight concerts a year at Levi’s Stadium, bringing the city millions in revenue. And Santa Clara has wisely settled costly litigation with the 49ers over management of Levi’s Stadium and reimbursement for public safety costs.
Voters should continue to support this sort of fiscal stability and rational decision-making.
District 1 – Harbir Bhatia
Harbir Bhatia, the CEO of the Silicon Valley Central Chamber of Commerce, is making her second council bid. Four years ago, she lost to incumbent Kathy Watanabe, Gillmor’s only current ally on the council.
This year, with the seat open because Watanabe is termed out, Bhatia remains the best candidate. In 2020, we called her “one of the most impressive council candidates in Santa Clara in years.” That’s still the case.
She has a master’s degree in engineering management from Santa Clara University and a long resume of community contributions, including former president of the Santa Clara Library Foundation board, former vice chair of the city’s Cultural Commission and former deputy board member of Joint Venture Silicon Valley.
Bhatia has a solid understanding of city issues, noting correctly that Santa Clara is suffering from financial and planning decisions from years past. With better planning, she says, the city can have a sustainable and better future.
The other candidates in the race are Satish Chandra, a business analytics manager and member of the city’s Charter Review Committee, and Albert Gonzalez, a member of the Santa Clara Unified School District board.
Chandra, the Gillmor-backed candidate, is unhappy about the lack of collaboration on the council but then levels misleading claims about his opponents not signing an ethics pledge.
Gonzalez seems to be running a minimal campaign, raising little money on his own and lacking a functional website as of this writing. He’s apparently banking on support from labor groups and independent spending by the 49ers to get him across the goal line.
District 4 – Kevin Park
This is a rematch of the 2020 election when Kevin Park unseated Teresa O’Neill, who had served for eight years and had voted in lockstep with Gillmor.
Park, a mechanical engineer who has worked for a long list of tech companies, ran four years ago with a promise to rein in the city’s spending on needless lawsuits. He has brought a fiscally pragmatic approach, recognizing that the city needs to do a better job of planning for and pre-funding the city’s facilities and infrastructure.
Although the city rules limit council members to two terms, that didn’t begin until 2016. So O’Neill, who served from 2012-20, can seek another term. But her arguments about restoring a better financial order make little sense when one considers that the current council has significantly reduced the annual operating deficit since she left office.
District 5 – Suds Jain
Suds Jain, an MIT-trained engineer, has demonstrated during his first term on the City Council a deep understanding of the financial details of the city.
Santa Clara, he notes, is extremely fortunate to have such a strong job base, with far more workers coming in each day than live in the city. The resulting tax benefit should be a great asset, but the city had been mismanaging its public funds, he explains. That’s what he and his council colleagues have begun to fix.
Jain has proven a thoughtful leader not just on the City Council but also on his regional board assignments, including the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. It helps explain his broad and politically diverse base of support throughout Silicon Valley.
His opponent, David Kertes, a sales and marketing executive, has no public office experience. A Gillmor-camp candidate, he, too, levels misleading claims about his opponents’ not signing an ethics pledge.
District 6 – No recommendation
The criminal trial of incumbent Councilmember Anthony Becker for leaking a confidential civil grand jury report is now scheduled to begin with jury selection on Oct. 28, the week before Election Day. But that hasn’t stopped him from seeking reelection.
Becker, a twice-failed candidate for mayor, deserves a presumption of innocence in his criminal trial. But that doesn’t mean that he deserves reelection. Even the 49ers, who previously made lavish independent expenditures on his behalf, have jumped ship.
The team’s candidate this time is George Guerra, a telecom manager and former Parks and Recreation Commission member. Like Gonzalez in District 1, Guerra seems to be running a minimal campaign and hoping the 49ers’ money will do the job.
The third candidate, Kelly Cox, is an assistant dean at Santa Clara University’s School of Engineering. It’s an administrative, not academic, post. Cox also served a term on the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission.
The Gillmor-backed candidate in the race, Cox struggled to answer a question about how property taxes work and made incorrect claims about the city’s proposed infrastructure bond on the Nov. 5 ballot.
For different reasons, none of the three candidates merits a recommendation.
