The homegrown advocate for working families The homegrown advocate for working families (February 15, 2002)

Rod Diridon, Jr. hopes to make life better for working families Rod Diridon, Jr. hopes to make life better for working families (February 15, 2002)

By Bill D'Agostino

Rod Diridon, Jr. may have grown up in a political family - his dad, Rod Sr., is a former Santa Clara County Supervisor - but it wasn't until he spent a week while he was in college volunteering at a camp for high risk kids that he began to see the link between the political and the personal.

"I started to understand how those kids' parents didn't have the time to spend with them because they were forced to work two jobs to be able to pay the bills," Diridon, 32, said. "At the same time, their schools weren't as well funded because they came from areas that aren't as wealthy."

"I always understood that what my dad did was important to people but I never understood how it directly affected people until I went and spent some time with those kids," Diridon added.

After graduating from San Jose State with a B.A. in political science in 1993, Diridon worked on Anna Eshoo's campaign for congress. He also spent a year as a substitute teacher before working for six years in public affairs for the 3Com Corporation.

In November of 1996 Diridon won a seat on the city council in Santa Clara. He was reelected in 2000. Over the course of the last 6 years, he has also served on the board of directors for KTEH public television, the Santa Clara University Board of Fellows and the San Jose Symphony. Bonding with schools

Diridon said one of his greatest successes since being elected to the council was co-chairing a $145 million bond measure that funded new science buildings and performing arts centers - as well as other projects - for city high schools.

Diridon, who is single, said he was proud to help create the new facilities for his friends' kids. "I don't have kids, I'm not married," he said, "but I know I'm going to have kids some day and they're probably going to go to those high schools."

Education is one of the key issues for Diridon, whose mother was a teacher when he was young.

He described the state's standardized testing program and API school rating index as "totally dysfunctional" since "we have tests that don't mesh with the curriculum that don't necessarily mesh with the books [schools] are required to buy ... That's an extreme problem to me. I will make sure we follow through and be sure that we align those tests for the entire curriculum."

Another problem with the API, Diridon added, is that it does not incorporate socioeconomic indicators. Not doing so, he said, will ensure that the schools most in need of good teachers won't be able to keep them, and also won't be able to provide after-school programs. Build up not out

In his quest to help working families, Diridon also aims to create a better quality of life by adding housing and mass transit to the area. "We want to build up so we don't have to build out, so we can protect the green land," he said.

In his time in Santa Clara, the council approved about 4,800 units of housing, 600 of them "affordable," including one project which Diridon called "the only true teacher affordable housing project in the state of California ... that's something I talked about when I ran for office."

One of the biggest ways the Assembly can help local jurisdictions develop more affordable housing, Diridon said, is by reauthorizing redevelopment agencies - which allow cities to retain tax revenue that would normally go to the state - to provide funding for housing.

Another important step for the state, Diridon said, is to give local jurisdictions control over what kind of housing they will zone for and to help them create and advance local will for affordable, high density housing. Fair share goals

"A local community knows better what's suited for to their community than somebody in Sacramento does. I don't pretend that I'm going to go to Sacramento and dictate to Santa Clara or Sunnyvale or Mountain View or Cupertino what they have to do," Diridon said. "What I will say is that these are important to me as policy goals and I would like to see you do this."

As for transportation, Diridon said he "will fight to make sure we get out fair share of transportation dollars here. From a purely equity standpoint, if we are going to drive California's economy ... we need public transportation and we need the state of California to pick up their part."

Getting high-speed rail built to run from Los Angeles to San Francisco is also a high priority for Diridon who said he endorsed, volunteered in favor of, and fundraised for measures A and B in 1996 and measure A in 2000 - measures that helped build mass transit in the bay area.

Diridon said he didn't know much about how the state could help Mountain View and Sunnyvale push for a more advantageous Moffett Field redevelopment plan, but said that he is concerned about the toxic contamination at the site. Campaign finance reformer

Among his proudest accomplishments in Santa Clara, Diridon said, was the passage of a campaign finance reform measure that he pushed, which now limits contributions to $500 per individual donor for council races in the city.

"My goals are to make people's lives better here. I was born and raised in this community. I will get married and raise a family here. Someday they will probably plant me here. So I'm going to be here for the long haul."

"This is where I'm going to be," he added, "so I'm going to make it be the best place I can."