Candidates kick off campaign Candidates kick off campaign (August 27, 2004)

Council hopefuls stress business at Chamber forum

By David Herbert

The six candidates running for Mountain View City Council gathered last week at City Hall for a candidate forum, where they detailed their positions on housing, taxes, transit and commerce.

The Mountain View Chamber of Commerce and the Tri-County Apartment Association sponsored the Aug. 19 event, which featured incumbents Matt Pear and Nick Galiotto and newcomers Margaret Abe-Koga, Laura Macias, Tom Means and Stephanie Schaaf.

The eclectic mix of candidates participating in the first public forum of the election season, are vying for four open council seats in the non-partisan race. During the question-and-answer session co-sponsored by the chamber, an organization that represents about 600 member businesses, all of the candidates were careful to toe a pro-business line.

Asked whether she would support tax hikes on local companies, Macias said, "I'm not anxious to increase fees; small businesses are the lifeblood of the community."

Pear, the city's current mayor, concurred, adding: "If we become too expensive as a town, people will move. Raising fees is not a viable alternative." The other candidates expressed similar positions.

All of the candidates also emphasized the need to stay in close contact with local businesses to find new ways to facilitate commerce.

In courting the support of the event's other co-sponsor, the Tri-County Apartment Association, candidates also offered proposals to solve the city's housing shortage and make prices affordable.

The question of how to address the city's housing crunch elicited a variety of responses. Pear, who said he facilitated dialogue between developers and residents about plans for medium- to high-density housing at the Mayfield site in the Monta Loma neighborhood, charged that the city's role is to increase supply.

Means, however, added that low-density, more expensive housing might also be effective in relieving some of the housing pressure. The new owner of a pricier home might be abandoning a cheaper residence elsewhere in town, he said.

On the issue of rent control, the group was also split, with some, including Schaaf and Abe-Koga, considering rent control as a viable policy for helping Mountain View's mobile home dwellers cope with the rising costs of renting their lots.

But others, including Means, who is currently an economics professor at San Jose State University, opposed rent control entirely. "You're asking an economist what he thinks of price controls?" he said to the chuckling audience.

Both sponsors of the event will endorse candidates next month. The Chamber of Commerce circulated a questionnaire among the candidates and will meet with each of them individually before announcing its picks on Sept. 1.

The Tri-County Apartment Association will endorse four candidates in the first two weeks of September. According to the group's spokesperson, Jeffrey Dennison, they will "look for people involved in the community and who have a good vision for community development."

E-mail David Herbert at dherbert@mv-voice.com

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