The controversial activist for those in need The controversial activist for those in need (February 15, 2002)

Sally Lieber wants to represent those who can't represent themselves Sally Lieber wants to represent those who can't represent themselves (February 15, 2002)

By Bill D'Agostino

"There are a lot of people out there who just don't eat and people don't know about it," Mountain View Mayor Sally Lieber said.

For four years on the City council, Lieber has been working to better the lives of the poor and the disadvantaged, such as the elderly living in mobile home parks and Latino day workers who lost their job-placement center last October.

Lieber _ who described herself as being from the democratic wing of the democratic party at a recent debate _ hopes to bring a sense of political activism and equality into the state assembly.
Growing up

"I always noticed the politics of gender differences even when I was little," Lieber recalled.

Because she wasn't a good student in high school, Lieber _ who was born and raised in Detroit, Mich. _ didn't see herself getting a college degree. As a result, she spent more than 10 years as a trade worker, hanging wallpaper. After moving to California in 1985, she attended night school for six years at City College of San Francisco.

When Lieber, 40, and her husband Dave Phillips _ who works as the director of product management for Force 10 Networks _ moved down the peninsula, she began attending Foothill College, where she got involved in student politics.

After a year at Foothill, Lieber transferred to Stanford where she studied public policy and said wrestled the school administration for "respect and basic rights for their students. It's not a big priority there."

That experience, Lieber said, "really taught me a lot about the skills you need to fight a giant bureaucracy."

In 1997 she ran for city council in Mountain View. She became mayor in January. She has also served as the President of the Mid-Peninsula YWCA Board and as Chair of the Santa Clara County Children's Shelter Advisory Committee.
Controversy from the start

Almost immediately upon taking the reigns as a City Council member, Lieber became a contentious figure by supporting a socially responsible investment policy, ensuring that the city will not invest in cigarettes and gun companies.

Although some were upset at Lieber for targeting cigarettes and guns, she said that her rationale was "they are two products when used as designed injure and kill people."

As a council member, she has tried to work with the city to bring cooperation between city government and local schools, working to increase after-school possibilities for low-income students.

As a member of the state assembly, Lieber wants to bring more attention to students who perform the worst and typically get the least funds. "One of the things that I've noticed is that it's a paradox that the greater the children's needs are, the less they get."

Teachers in remedial education programs, for instance, are paid less than teachers in the mainstream K-though-12 education system, and they don't get the same cost of living salary increase that most public teachers get.

The state should give out their education funds more equitably (giving closer to the same per-student dollar amount for each type of school), teachers need to be paid more, the legislature needs to audit the state contracts more closely, and schools need more freedom from bureaucracy to do what they feel they need to do to serve their students, Lieber said.

As for the API _ the state's mandatory standardized test-based rating index that in-part determines a school's funding for the year _ Lieber believes that it is important to align the test, curriculum and student textbooks, which currently study and measure different things.

Additionally, Lieber said the test "should have some immediate benefit for students" so that it becomes a diagnostic tool for them, rather than something that's just used for administrators.

Lieber wants the state to give communities benefits for linking housing and transit and encouraging mass transit riders. "If the state adopts incentives for counties where all of the transit agencies work together in a very cooperate way, it's going to benefit Santa Clara County first."
Green goals

Known as a labor activist, Lieber also wants to help the state enact green building standards for future state buildings and schools.

"If all of the major building in Santa Clara county used cool roof technology, there would be huge savings," she said. She is also currently working with Sustainable Mountain View, an environmental group in the city, to get a measure in passed to apply green building standards to city buildings.

High speed rail is also going to be important for Santa Clara county to help relieve congestion at the local airports, Lieber said, if the environmental and habitat issues can be addressed successfully.

As for the future of Moffett Field redevelopment, Lieber _ who was president of the Alliance for a New Moffett Field _ hopes to lobby to help make the massive development more friendly to the neighboring cities. "The proposed location for the housing is on a flood area of the bay wetlands," she said.

Much of the funding for the project will come from a state bond measure which will have to go through the assembly first, and Lieber said that "if certain conditions can be attached to the state funding, the more the better."
Proudest moments

Her work advocating for day workers has been her proudest accomplishment as a council member, even though as of yet the workers don't have a new center to procure work.

"As a result of the journey, we have people talking about what kind of a community they want to have and we have workers coming in and advocating for themselves and talking about their own lives in a very essential way," Lieber said.

When asked why she has been so controversial _ Lieber is currently the subject of a recall campaign, believed to be the first of a council member in city history _ she responded, "I'm an activist and there are some folks around who don't like that ... I really feel like if I haven't done something meaningful that fixes a situation that is essentially broken or creates some advanced planning for the future, I'm not really doing anything."