Women eye council seats Women eye council seats (December 12, 2003)

With departure of Stasek and Zoglin, some see need for feminine voice

By Julie O'Shea

The Mountain City Council race is still a year away, but names of potential candidates for the four open seats have already started to surface. And the top priority for some seems to make sure the governing body doesn't become an all-men's club.

While Matt Pear and Nick Galiotto have both said they will seek re-election next fall, Rosemary Stasek and Mary Lou Zoglin -- currently the only two women on the council - - will be termed out in November 2004.

"That is one of the key points," said Rosiland Bivings, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat in 1992 and 2002 and plans to run again next year. "We are losing the only two women on council. I think it's important to have a variety (of different people on the council)."

Few other women have announced definite plans to run for the seven-member council, saying that November is too far away to nail down a decision now. However, many acknowledge that they don't want to see an all-male city council either.

Margaret Abe-Koga, a city human relations commissioner who also sits on the Santa Clara County Board of Education, said she, too, is concerned that there could be no women on council come 2005. This, she said, is one of the main reasons why she is seriously considering running for a seat.

"I haven't ruled it out," Abe-Koga said. "November -- I still look at it as a long way away.

"People have encouraged me to run for council," she added. "I like being in elected office more than I thought I would."

Laura Macias, who was appointed to the Environmental Planning Commission in 2002 and previously served on the Parks and Recreation Commission, said she is eyeing a 2004 council run for the exact same reasons that have Bivings and Abe-Koga worried.

And Stephanie Schaaf, a member of the Sierra Club who has applied unsuccessfully to several city commissions, said she is "definitely" worried about not having a woman's voice on the council. But Schaaf said she still has not decided whether she'd run for a council seat.

"I really want to make Mountain View a better place," Schaaf said.

Although 15 percent of the people polled on her Web site think Georgy Russell, Mountain View's hometown gubernatorial candidate, should run for the city council, Russell said she's still not made up her mind yet.

As for the potential male candidates, Nathan Hagan, who is in Leadership Mountain View, has been the only one so far to step forward with definite plans to run in 2004.

Bruce Karney, who lost the two-year seat to Galiotto last year, said he doesn't have plans to campaign for a seat, but he added, "I'm not saying I won't." Karney was one of the last candidates to file his election papers in the 2002 race.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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