Fact Checking Candidate’s Mailers

 Fact Checking Candidate’s Mailers  Politics  No Responses »
Oct 262014
 

For the last few weeks, we’ve been inundated with mailers from all sorts of candidates.  Those running for City Council don’t make too many claims, limiting themselves to listing their resume, saying a few platitudes and maybe having a banal quote or two from some elected official, often one voters have never heard of.   The candidates for Mayor who’ve served in the City Council, however, need to make the case of what they’ve been doing for the last four to eight years.  But are they being honest with their claims? I decided to check it out.

Diana Souza

False Claims:

In her mailer, Souza claims that several buildings were “approved and accomplished under Diana’s leadership.”  Most of these are discussed under “questionable claims” below, but it’s patently false that the 9th grade campus and Grocery Outlet were “approved and accomplished” under her leadership.  The 9th grade campus was built entirely with School District funds.  The City demanded that some aesthetic changes be made to the outside of the building and paid for these changes.  The City also partnered with the District to build the school’s gymnasium, paing part of the cost and in return having the district make it available for City purposes.   The City Council voted against having Grocery Outlet move into the downtown property which is being developed as “The Village”.  Grocery Outlet then found another property that was zoned for grocery stores and opened there.

In the “Parents for Progress” paid slate mailer, Souza claims to have provided money to complete the  new health clinic, championed after-school programs, safe routes to schools, school resource officers and crossing guards.”  However, the  The City Council did not provide any money to complete the new health clinic.  Rather, they provided a loan to the School District, at a higher interest that they were receiving from investing those funds, so that the District could buy the building.  Souza has never championed after-school programs and these, indeed, were cut while she was in the Council.  At the last City Council meeting, Souza argued that the School District, and not the City, should pay for school resource officers; she has also voted to cut crossing guards.

Questionable Claims:

In the “Parents for Progress” paid slate mailer, Souza claims to have “been good for both our school districts, funding joint projects.” However, Souza has often spoken out against the City providing any funds to the School District, even to maintain facilities used exclusively for the City.  Indeed, her animosity to the school has been so great that the San Leandro Teachers Association, who supported Corina Lopez when she ran against Pauline Cutter due to their own animosity to Cutter, has endorsed Cutter for Mayor.

In her mailer, Souza claims that under her leadership several buildings were approved and accomplished.  However, while she approved them by voting for them, she did nothing to “accomplish” them.

Souza also takes credit for many “accomplishments” that are questionable at best. The Council “added resource officers” but Souza now favors making the School District pay for them.  The Council might have increased city programs for youth, but only to cut them later.  The Council may have expanded shuttle programs, but she has voted and/or spoken against the Links shuttle since she was elected.  The Council had historically funded crossing guards, only to cut them in 2010, and then restore them but only after the School District agreed to share the costs.  As far as I know, there are no neighborhood police beats – at least not any visible ones around here -, but if there are, they would be because of the Police Chief, not anything that Souza has done.  She might have voted to adopt transit oriented development plans, the same ones which the Council used to block Grocery Outlet form using the former Albertson’s site, but these have fallen apart, which is why “The Village” was able to be constructed.

Souza has not brought new shopping and dining opportunities to town, unless she means she did so by approving Village Marketplace, which will feature a fast food burger joint. And if she brought back the Cherry Festival and the Tree lighting (Sausage & Suds is not funded by the City) before Cutter joined the Council, it was only to cut them again, as neither took place in 2010.

Her only role in the other accomplishments she lists was to vote for them.

Empty Promises: Souza has a long list of things we need to do. However, she’s been in the Council for 8 years without fulfilling them.

I e-mailed Diana Souza to ask for clarification on these claims, but did not hear back.

Pauline Cutter:

Questionable Claims: In one of her mailers, Cutter claims to have “lobbied Justice Department officials in Washington, DC for additional public safety resources.” However, the law enforcement funds that the City has obtained came in the form of competitive grants based on objective criteria.  Cutter also claims that San Leandro just received federal funding for four more officers, however the COPS grant is only for $500K, which will cover less than the cost of one police officer for four years. The City wants the School District to pay the $1.7 million needed for the three other officers.

Under “Record of Accomplishments,”  Cutter claims to have hired new police officers; however, the funds came from the COPS grant the City obtained before Cutter was in the Council.  When I e-mailed her about it, Cutter said she found the funds to continue funding the police officers after the grant expired.   Her claim to have opened Kaiser Hospital seems also unfounded, as the hospital was well under way to being built before Cutter joined the Council. Upon e-mailing her, Cutter responded that the Council fast-tracked Kaiser and it opened before it was originally scheduled to.

Empty Promises: Cutter promises she “will continue to enhance our quality of life by attracting quality retail and dining options to San Leandro.”  However, she has not been able to accomplish that in the last four years, and she has not outlined a plan as to how she will do this. She also voted to sell the former Albertson’s property to developer David Irmer, assuring that only chain stores would be present in the new “Village Marketplace”.

Dax Choksi: Common Sense Choice for Fremont School Board

 Dax Choksi: Common Sense Choice for Fremont School Board  Politics, Schools  No Responses »
Oct 232014
 

Dax Choksi

My last written recommendation for this election goes to Dax Choksi who is running for Fremont City Council.  This is based on his answers to the questionnaire I sent to him.  The Fremont School Board was mired in controversy earlier this year after they approved a sex education textbook that was too graphic for some puritanical parents, though it had the overwhelming support of health education teachers.  The Board voted to go back and use the previous textbook, which contained inaccurate information.

Dax is an involved parent in Fremont schools and a man with common sense.

1) What do you think is the biggest challenge facing your School District and how would you tackle it?

The following are the biggest challenges for the Fremont Unified School District:

* Facilities – our facilities are in dire need of repair and upgrade. In several schools the infrastructure is not adequate to provide an environment where students can thrive and receive education effectively. In addition to this, we have schools with huge waiting lists and this problem is persisting.

* Overcrowding – the class sizes are under pressure. This is not going to be an easy problem to solve but I would work to constantly strive to reduce the class sizes.

* Technology – We need to work to bring Fremont schools to the 21st century. Thy are currently lacking in several technology areas including computers, desktops and communication devices.

* Academics – We need to work on successful implementation of common core and ensure that there is equity in education.

2) Do you believe there are systemic problems with racial/sexual/gender-based or other discrimination in your district’s schools? How would you tackle them?

* I do not believe that there is a systemic problem with racial/sexual/gender discrimination. However, the problem could exist without a lot of people knowing about it. We need to take steps to ensure that this is prevented proactively:

* I would prevent this by continuing to enforce the existing regulations prohibiting discrimination and recommend disciplinary action against any person who is found to be violating the regulation.

* I would also seek to educate the youth about the negative impact of discrimination and how it could create a severe blow to the self-confidence of the victim of this injustice.

3) Do you support school dress codes? Specify.

We live in a democratic country thereby providing the right to people to dress as they please. However, there are certain guidelines essential in a school environment to ensure that there is no provocative dressing and the that the dressing adheres to a certain common decorum. There are existing dress code guidelines in FUSD and I would ensure that the guidelines are enforced in all the schools without exceptions.

4) What’s your position on the controversy over the health education books thought to be too risque by some?

I am strongly in favor of the textbook. I believe our first and foremost responsibility is to protect our youth. We can only do so by educating them. If we don’t educate them, we are leaving them ignorant and vulnerable to getting false/erroneous information from secondary unreliable sources. In the interest of the well being of our youth, I strongly support the book.

5) Do you believe religious texts, practices or songs should be part of the school’s curricula? If yes, please specify how.

No. Religion has no place in the school curricula. I believe in separation of church and state
—
See also: David Bonaccorsi & Raj Salwan best Choices for City Council

See Marga’s 2014 Voter Guide for recommendations on propositions and other local endorsements.

School Board Tables Vote on Spending $1.7 million To Put Police in Schools

 School Board Tables Vote on Spending $1.7 million To Put Police in Schools  Police, Schools  1 Response »
Oct 222014
 

policeschoolThe following are tweets from last night’s San Leandro School Board meeting, made by parent Mia Ousley  (@Mia4Council), who is currently running for City Council District 5. The SLPD applied for a $500K COPS grant to put four resource officers in San Leandro schools. In return, the district would have to pay $1.7 million dollars, and cut programs accordingly. In addition to the people quoted below, several other parents and several teachers/counselors/nurses also spoke out against accepting the grant. The student trustee – who does not get a vote – did so as well. Only Board members Diana Prola and Ron Carey spoke in favor (but see comment below). 

Any parent who is concerned about using education money to fund police officers and/or has an opinion on what educational programs should be cut/not restored in order to pay for them, should speak out at the Nov. 18th School Board meeting and e-mail the Board.

For more information please e-mail School Board member Mike Katz-Lacabe: mkatz@slusd.us

Tweets from the School Board meeting

Evelyn Gonzalez approves of School Resource Officers, just asks for city to foot most of the bill.

Jessica Sievert – Mom of kindergardener, our work is to help change trajectory of at-risk youth so we don’t need police in schools.
Feels district is being forced to pay, district’s hand is being twisted. Feels politically inappropriate way to allocate money.
Any funding for students should not be pulled from other education resources to fund this.

Cynthia Chandler — Letter from district said Bancroft so deficient that parents have right to transfer out of district, so why spend money on police rather than on getting resources needed in classrooms and for teachers.

Liz Torres – 3 kids in 3rd, 6th, and 12th grade. We need safety and resources in schools, not more police.
$1.69 million should go to programs that uplift and inspire our children and prevent violence, not react to it.
Policing campuses is wrong direction and is misuse of our funds. After-school programs are what we need more of, what helps kids.

[School Board Trustee] Mike Katz-Lacabe – We have 1.8 nurses for 8800 students, this will prevent us from restoring cuts made in the past.
Doesn’t want to establish a precedent for the district funding SROs, outstanding Cathy Pickard notwithstanding.
Yet to see data showing SROs increase safety. Anecdotes are not evidence.
How many of our students get arrested instead of receiving school discipline  and what is their racial make-up? We (the school board) should NOT approve this grant.

[Mia Ousley‘s]  own statement — do not accept this grant because: (1) $$ needed for counselors, after-school programs, supplies, etc. – not police
(2) Hiring police to do job of counselors is harmful to students, and expensive to district.
(3) $1.7 million over 4 years is $106,250/year/officer . . . seems we’re paying MOST of their cost, not just some.
(4) Police shouldn’t help run student groups or after school programs, as the grant requires.
(5) Adding police to schools sends message that we expect kids to get into trouble.
(6) District should instead be teaching non-violent communication, implementing restorative justice, and hiring trained counselors.
And finally (7) It’s shameful this issue didn’t come before parents BEFORE SLPD applied for grant & BEFORE City Council voted on it.

Motion tabled ’til Nov. 18 meeting. Board President [Lance James] wants to give supporters a chance for public input to counter tonight’s public speakers.
Trustee Diana Prola only one to vote NO on tabling, saying “We need to have the cojones to vote the way we think.”
My opponent for City Council [Corina Lopez] was the only Trustee not to speak on the issue at all; perhaps she didn’t want to say anything controversial?

Tweets from Last Mayor & City Council Candidate Forum

 Tweets from Last Mayor & City Council Candidate Forum  Politics  No Responses »
Oct 202014
 

candidateforumThe Hayward Demos held a candidate forum for San Leandro Mayoral and City Council candidates on Thursday, Oct. 17th.  All candidates, except for Leah Hall, were present. They answered questions from the audience.  The following are tweets from the forum sent by Mike Katz-Lacabe.  Because Mike is a candidate for District 1, he was unable to tweet during that part of the forum.

 

DISTRICT 3

San Leandro Dist. 3 candidates Victor Aguilar & Allen Schoenfeld against armored assault vehicle. Lee Thomas wants more info and justification.
Lee Thomas disagreed with warrant-less searches of houses includes in chickens/bees ordinance.
Aguilar & Schoenfeld against red light cameras approved by City Council.
All San Leandro Dist 3 candidates support keeping San Leandro Hospital open – Schoenfeld says to clap for Mia Ousley: helped keep it open.
None of the San Leandro Dist. 3 candidates mentioned the $3 million the City has allocated to help keep San Leandro Hospital open.
Lack of questions for San Leandro Dist 3 candidates leads to an early wrap-up.
Thomas says he has the experience to be on City Council. Schoenfeld makes the case for common sense.

DISTRICT 5

Leah Hall only San Leandro Dist. 5 candidate not present at candidate forum.
Mia Ousley opposes San Leandro acquiring armored assault vehicle. Corina Lopez supports/compares to safety vest.
Corina Lopez opposes rent control. Mia Ousley says no need now, but gentrification may necessitate a future review.
San Leandro Dist 5 candidate supports the development at the Marina. Says environment must be protected. Opposes dredging.
San Leandro Dist 5 candidates supports Adventure Playground and small boats at Marina.
San Leandro Dist 5 candidate Lopez says oversight committee has say in Measure HH funds. Mia Ousley: City Council can spend how it wants
San Leandro Dist 5 candidate Lopez: opposed raising Chinese flag at City Hall. Mia Ousley opposed elimination of full council minutes.

MAYOR

San Leandro mayoral Dan Dillman: You have 2 choices: two City Council members with 12 years of experience between them or an outsider.
Dillman is first to mention ebola at tonight’s candidate forum. Says we need to stop the fear.
San Leandro mayoral candidate Diana Souza: avoids answering question on raising Chinese flag. Supports armored assault vehicle for SLPD
San Leandro mayoral candidate Pauline Cutter: opposed raising Chinese flag; sounds supportive of armored assault vehicle for SLPD
San Leandro mayoral candidates on being a full time Mayor: Dillman: Yes; Cutter: Yes; Souza: avoids answering question directly.
Asked whether they supported funding San Leandro Hospital, Cutter said she supported it. Souza avoided answering the question.

San Leandro City Council D3 Candidate Victor Aguilar Answers Questions

 San Leandro City Council D3 Candidate Victor Aguilar Answers Questions  Politics  No Responses »
Oct 192014
 
Victor Aguilar

Victor Aguilar

In order to better get to know the candidates for San Leandro offices, I sent out a questionnaire with questions provided by San Leandro residents and relevant to San Leandro. These are Victor Aguilar’s answers.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

1- Do you have a website, Facebook Smart Voter page with more information about you and your platform?

My Facebook page can be found at www.facebook.com/victoraguilarforsanleandrocitycouncil

2- What is your political philosophy?

My political philosophy is to protect our environment, provide quality public safety, support a strong positive relationship between the City, and schools, place San Leandro on a substantial foundation for fiscal responsibility, promote economic development, create jobs and housing opportunities, and transform San Leandro into a center for innovation.

3- How do you evaluate when to stick by your principles and when to compromise?

There’s a saying, “that’s not the point, it’s the principle”, I stand by principle. I do what’s right. I compromise when principle is questionable and not concrete.

4- How often have you attended City Council meetings in the last year and what, if any, issues have you spoken out about in such meetings?

I have attended many City council meeting. I’ve checked out the Rent Review meeting and met Mia Ousley. I have not spoken out at any City Council meetings.

GOOD GOVERNANCE

5- The San Leandro City Council is no longer producing full minutes of its meetings, and instead produces an audio/video recording and a record of its votes (but not comments/discussions). Would you restore full minutes?

I am a firm believer that all meetings should be recorded. Just like a deposition, the City Council needs to be documents. I would restore full minutes.

6- Do you support a sunshine ordinance in San Leandro? Be specific as to terms.

I support a sunshine ordinance. I believe that the city needs to be informed as to the decisions that are being made by our city manager and officials.

7- Do you believe the City Council should censure Vice-Mayor Benny Lee for lobbying the Oakland City Council against renewing its $1Billion garbage contract with Waste Management? San Leandro collects $500K in taxes annually from WM’s transfer station.

Members of the city council need to remember what the principle is and when to compromise. I believe that the Vice-Mayor Benny Lee should be reprimanded.

REVENUE

8- What’s your position on measure HH?

I support Measure HH. I think the 30 year life is steep. This measure will help the aid public programs and revitalize San Leandro.

9- Do you support continuing or making permanent the business license fee holiday for new businesses? Why or why not?

In order to attract business in San Leandro I support the business license fee holiday for new business. This is attractive to bring business to our vibrant city. We need to make sure that we are attracting the right businesses for our community.

10- Do you support pension reform in San Leandro? Be specific.

I support pension reform. We as taxpayers should not have to pay.

11- What are your plans for increasing revenue and/or cutting costs in San Leandro? Be specific.

My plan to increase revenue is the bring in the Tech Campus and revitalize the Marina. As for cutting costs, we need to address the police armored vehicle. This is going to be expensive to maintain.

12- San Leandro is about to lose millions of dollars in taxes and development fees, due to Waste Management losing its garbage contract with the City of Oakland. What would you have done to prevent that situation from occurring and what will you do in the future to support San Leandro businesses?

I want to make the right choice for our community and support any local business. I would have made sure that the decision that we are making as a city is approved by our council before speaking on behalf of San Leandro. I fully support San Leandro businesses, especially Waste Management.

13- San Leandro has invested on creating a fiber loop and is trying to market itself to high tech manufacturing. What would you do to promote these efforts?

I support LIT San Leandro http://litsanleandro.com/ We need to attract a new generation of business. This is the age we live in and what better place that to promote San Leandro to house these tech companies within our fiber optic loop. I would work with our Chief Innovator to help promote these efforts.

DEVELOPMENT

14- What are your thoughts on redevelopment in general? What should the City do to spruce up downtown and the South part of town?

I support redevelopment. We need to make sure that San Leandro is pedestrian, bicycle and commuter friendly. The City is on the right track towards sprucing up downtown, we need to do a better job on attracting quality businesses and limit monopolization. The South part of town needs a facelift. We need to bring back life into our industrial are and fix our streets.

15- What are your plans for the development of the Marina? If they include dredging, who should pay for it? Be specific as to what you will work to see happen.

Since the Federal funding has ended and San Leandro has vied to get funds, out dredging option seems bleak. I will work to revitalize the Marina to make it a vibrant attractive and money generating spot. We also need to make sure that we are considerate of our environment.

16- What type of affordable housing requirements do you support for new developments?

We need to make sure that local housing authorities offer rents affordable to low-income households. I support various types of new housing developments.

17- How should the City and the School District collaborate regarding any new housing developments?

The city and the school district need to work closely to mitigate the future of school enrollment. We need to make sure that we closely look at how new developments will impact our schools for San Leandro and San Lorenzo Unified.

18- What is your specific plan for repairing streets and sidewalks in San Leandro?

We need to address the street and sidewalk situation, specifically the streets. San Leandro has the worst streets in the county. I will ensure that partial funds from Measure HH (if passed) will be used to fix our streets in conjunction with Measure BB.

19- Global warming threatens to raise sea levels. What should the City be doing to help prevent rising bay waters from damaging property?

We need to education our community about global warming. This is a national issue and needs to be addressed at a local level.

20- What’s your position on a “tree preservation ordinance”? Please be specific as to any ordinance that you would support.

Our environment is not getting any better. We need all the trees that we can get in San Leandro. Trees produce oxygen and we need that to sustain us. I think the city need to plant more trees. I think that the tree preservation ordinance is valid and I support it, specifically Section 5-2-200 of the San Leandro Municipal Code states that it is unlawful for any person other than the City or its contractors to remove, prune, injure or destroy a City street tree.

21- Should the City offer incentives to encourage property owners to install solar systems or other alternative energy sources? Be specific.

We need a GREEN San Leandro. The city needs to encourage property owners to install solar systems and/or other alternative energy sources. I would love to install solar panels on my house, but the reality is they’re too expensive and quite frankly I can’t afford to install without some sort of incentive.

22- What will you do to make San Leandro friendlier for pedestrians and cyclists?

I support measure BB. If this measure passes it will make San Leandro a friendlier place for pedestrians and cyclist. http://www.yesonbb.org/

SURVEILLANCE & LAW ENFORCEMENT

23- What’s your position on red light cameras and why?

I oppose red light cameras. I am also opposed to the non San Leandro business that runs these cameras.

24- What is your position on public/police operated public surveillance cameras?

This is a violation of our 4th amendment right. I oppose public surveillance and police cameras.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment
I support private surveillance that monitor private property.

25- SLPD operates several mobile and static license place readers which photograph millions of license plates and cars. Do you support an ordinance that will restrict how long these records are kept and who they are shared with? Be specific as to terms.

I will support an ordinance that will restrict the time that this information is withheld and archived. Again, this is a violation of our fourth amendment right. Not only do the readers capture license plate info, but it records the public.

26- How would you tackle the increasing militarization of the SLPD? Do you believe that the SLPD should continue to operate its SWAT team?

I oppose the militarization of police, but I do believe in a SWAT team. This team is specialized in confronting heavily armed criminals; performing hostage rescue and counter-terrorism operations; high risk arrests; and entering armored or barricaded buildings.

27- What are your public safety priorities?

My public safety priorities are to keep San Leandro safe. I believe that a neighborhood watch is a great and free way to monitor our communities. I also believe in adding a few more police officers to our force if our budget allows.

28- When the City Council passed an ordinance allowing citizens to keep bees with a permit, it provided that in order to get that permit citizens had to agree to waive their 4th amendment right to warrantless searches of their properties. What’s your position on this type of requirements? What will you do specifically with the requirement in the “chicken & bee” ordinance?

The chicken and bee ordinance is set in place to monitor those that want to turn their backyard into an urban barnyard. We need to make sure that our neighbors are not being disturbed. I believe that we have to plan for the worst and have a plan in place that will prevent an abundance of animals residing in one space. I belive there needs to be a warrant for a search. I don’t believe in warrant less searches. All searches have to be valid with probable cause.

SOCIAL WELFARE

29- What do you think are the City’s responsibilities vis a vis ensuring that everyone in San Leandro has access to food, housing, health care and other necessities of life? How will you meet such responsibilities?

San Leandro needs to be a proponent in taking care of our community. We need to make sure that we have programs to help aid our community and the local, state and federal level. I belive that we need to make information about such programs are availiable to the community as a source. I will make sure that this information is available and accessible for our constituents.

30- How should the Council promote community health in San Leandro?

San Leandro needs to work with health care organization to promote health screenings and/or free examinations at little or no cost to our community. The welfare of community is my concern. We need a happy and healthy San Leandro.

31- Will you support an ordinance to increase the minimum wage in San Leandro? If so, to what amount.

I would support an ordinance for a living wage.

32- Do you support reducing development fees, zoning entitlements and construction permits in order to make housing more affordable?

I believe we need to make an exception in the aspect and reduce permits, zoning entitlements and construction permits. We need more affordable housing in San Leandro. We need to give businesses like this a break.

33- What should San Leandro do to aid its homeless population?

Homelessness is an issue with every city. San Leandro needs to provide aid to those that need assistance. We need to provide a program that helps those get back on their feet.

34- Do you support an ordinance that would stabilize rents and impose just cause requirement for evictions? Be specific as to what proposals you would support/oppose.

I would impose an ordinance to stabilize rents. I will not impose a just cause requirement for eviction.

35- What’s your position on having medical marijuana dispensaries in San Leandro?

I am PRO medical marijuana and support the dispensary. Just like prescription drugs, I am a firm believer that our constituents should have easy access to their medication.

BONUS Question

If you are elected, will you vote to stop the SLPD from obtaining an armored vehicle?

I do not support militarization of police and do not support a military type armored vehicle. If this vehicle’s purpose is going to be use as a military type vehicle, I will oppose this. I believe in protecting our city, but not with a military tank style vehicle. We also need to understand the operating costs.

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