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It’s still a month before candidates can pick up their nomination papers, but Margaret Abe-Koga is already booting up her campaign for a seat on the El Camino Hospital Healthcare District board.
Two seats on the district board are up for grabs this year. Both David Reeder and Patricia Einarson have terms that expire in December 2014, and while Reeder has not announced whether he will run for re-election, Einarson announced at a board meeting that she will leave the board when her term ends.
Abe-Koga has been on the Mountain View City Council since 2006, and served as vice mayor in 2008 and mayor in 2009. She’s served in public office in Mountain View since 2000, starting as a a member of the Human Relations Commission. She has also served as various roles on the county Board of Education, as well as the vice-chair of the Valley Transportation Authority.
As a council member, Abe-Koga worked on the city’s general plan update and in 2010, the council recognized Abe-Koga for building “health and wellness initiatives to promote healthy living in a healthy community,” according to a resolution of appreciation she received. Her campaign website says that she helped institute health and wellness programs for city employees and the greater community.
During her time on the Local Area Formation Commission, or LAFCo, Abe-Koga said she and the commission worked as an oversight body for the El Camino Healthcare District that put out a “service review” for district improvements. She said at that time, there was a lot of confusion between the healthcare district and the hospital, which has its own hospital board made up of the same members as the district board. The healthcare district didn’t even have its own website, which further added to the confusion.
Abe-Koga recommended that the district become more transparent in its actions, better explain to the public what the taxpayer-funded healthcare district does and where its money goes.
Abe-Koga said since the recommendation, the district has done a good job alleviating the problems, but the board has to keep improving its accessibility and transparency.
“I think it’s important to be accessible and listen to what people have to say, and provide services that reflect the needs of the community,” Abe-Koga said.
Abe-Koga will have a campaign kickoff event Sunday, June 22, at 2 p.m. at Stein’s Beer Garden with State Sen. Jerry Hill and Assemblyman Rich Gordon.
Here’s a good campaign blerb she can use:
“If you’re happy with how the Council has changed MV over the past few years, wait until you see what I can do to your hospital!”
Margaret Abe Koga is an intelligent and compassionate woman, and is not afraid to make decisions based on her deep and comprehensive understanding of issues rather than fads and fashions. She is an excellent candidate. Thank you Margaret for running.
Margaret Abe Koga is a “Career Politician”.
Given the hospital district’s recent labor struggles, the article really should mention that Abe-Koga is heavily supported by organized labor.
A reasonable view is that SBLC is trying to get a hospital board more likely to agree to union demands during future labor disputes.
It certainly isn’t about whether the board has a web site.
Thank You, Margaret for running… you will bring a lot of experience and knowledge to the board.
Thanks Greg. I don’t want to see our hospital crippled by unsustainable union demands.
Will she hold two positions or have to give up present seat in MV?
Some career politicians will run for any office they think they can land and seek appointment to any number of boards and commissions. Look how high Leland Yee got.
Career politicians never seem to go away – until they go to prison.
Gee… what a surprise…. Sally Leiber, and others… City Council as a sspringboard to higher office…
God Gosh Sakes…. enjoy your brief days in the sun and let others move in…
Your vision is seen by all….
Bye George
Career politicians will run for whatever position is available.
Career politicians will run for any available seat. They need to sit. They can’t stand to be out of office.
I wish there were more career politicians with integrity and heart and brain like Abe Koga.
I would much liefer have an experienced hand like Jerry Brown or Margaret run for office than a neophyte like Schwarzenegger who has no idea what he’s doing (and as a consequence gets nothing done for 8 years).
Career politician?! How about calling her a dedicated public servant instead? Who would dedicate the time, heart, and energy and subjecting themselves to public ridicule and make $600/month but some one who really cares about Mountain View and is willing to work hard hot it. You may not agree with all of Margaret’s opinions,but she and all of our Councilmembers deserve our respect and gratitude.
Good Luck Margaret in your campaign for El Camino district board. Thanks for your service to Mountain View.
Do we have a report on where this person gets her campaign financing? She always seems to out spend her opponents so obviously she has the backing of some group or groups and I would think those groups would expect something in return. This is how it works at every level of government, and the longer the career politicians stay in office, the more adept they become at playing this game of getting money, then returning favors, getting more money for the next “career” position.
Yes, exactly WHO is footing the bill for all those fanc y signs she always comes up with. I keep hearing about her dedicated service on the council, then I read how a surprising number of people are FED UP with the city council and its decisions
I say if you have a cancer cell, do not let it infect other areas of the body.
We will not be beholden to certain groups just because Margaret chooses to take lots of money from them to support their causes.
I say its time for fresh people and fresh ideas. Margaret sits on one of the most unpopular councils in recent history, now she wants to take the same to our hospitals?!?! Uh-uh. Its time for some fresh air in this town.
Politicians generally want to scare off any competition and run unopposed.
Scare off any other potential candidates and win by default. That is the plan.
Well, the skeptics were right. The hospital seat just looks like a springboard to a higher position. Abe-Koga has already filed to run for Supervisor in 2016 and did so after announcing her campaign.
It’s a public filing. Go to sccvote.org. Click on Candidate and Measures. Choose FPPC Filing and look under the Public Access Portal. Supervisor 2016 only leaves 2 years of a 4 year term at El Camino Healthcare. At least we know priorities.
Abe-Koga has NO interest in serving on her post for longer than the “get acquainted period”
I’m going to vote for someone who wants THIS job, not just a place holder while she works on her 2016 campaign.
I will not support her.
Also, if anyone thinks she can serve competently while ALSO running a campaign for a DIFFERENT position, all during her first year on the job, is delusional.
We do not need distracted, focused on something else types on our district board.
Would you hire any candidate for a complicated job if you knew they were already making plans for another job in one year’s time? You would if you wanted your business to fail.
Abe-Goga is quite literally, by exact definition, a Career Politician. What good will she do on the board if her stay will only be one year and during that year she’ll be increasingly focused on her next career position? Job hopping, never doing anything but tryig to further her political career.
Time to stop this behavior NOW. It is time Margaret found a new career where the tax payers do not foot the bill.
I’ve known MAK for years and have found her to be a dedicated public servant. But I’ve also known that she is interested in the career path of a politician. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with that (after all, it’s generally a thankless task and one where you receive more arrows than roses). But it’s her disingenuous choices that are concerning me.
Word is that the Voice’s Townsquare isn’t particularly well followed. I think if most people knew that she has already filed papers to run for another office, they might think twice about voting for her now. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
I suppose the only other thing to do is to write a letter to the printed version of the voice and get it published there…where thousands more people will read it.
Nonetheless, she has lost my vote for not being honest about her intentions.
Wow! I was going to give her the benefit of doubt, but after looking at the filings, it is clear she has no true interest in doing anything at the hospital board, but run up expense accounts while she waits for the Supervisor election.
I remember vividly during my council candidacy listening to her repeatedly utter the words, “I am not a career politician”.
Anyone that would vote her on to the hospital board is a fool.
“When Abe-Koga dropped her bid for the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in 2012, she still had some funds remaining from that campaign. Abe-Koga said she has since transferred that money to a committee called “Margaret Abe-Koga for Supervisor 2016″ in order to hold onto the funds, but told the Voice that she has no intention for running for supervisor in 2016 if she is elected to the El Camino Healthcare District. She said she intends to serve on the health care district board for the entire four-year term.”
Are we going to place bets on her running for supervisor? May be a moot point if people discover her duplicity.