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Margaret Abe-Koga, Jac Siegel and Ronit Bryant have won re-election to the City Council, batting back a trio of newcomers and accusations that they were not doing enough to balance the city’s budget.

With all precincts reporting, Margaret Abe-Koga sat on top with 26.5 percent of the vote, followed by Mayor Ronit Bryant with 22.5 percent and Vice Mayor Jac Siegel defending the last open seat with 20.7 percent. Google software engineer Daniel Waylonis appeared to be the biggest threat to incumbents with 13 percent of the vote, followed by longtime resident Greg David with 10.4 percent and Google ad sales rep Aaron Jabbari with 6.7 percent.

Siegel said he was encouraged by a “solid 10 percent lead” incumbents held in early results posted at 8 p.m. The gap eventually closed to 8 percent.

“I predict that it will wind up this way,” said Siegel, who gathered with supporters in a room at the back of Don Giovanni’s restaurant. Council member Tom Means agreed. “It’s no big surprise” that the incumbents will win, he said.

The three incumbents were ranked in the same order by voters in 2006.

The challengers “didn’t have a comprehensive vision, and we already know what the incumbents are capable of,” said downtown resident Hugh Donagher, who watched the results from Margaret Abe-Koga’s gathering at the Tied House. The results are “as expected,” he said.

Though they appeared to be losing, the three challengers were in good spirits at a gathering at David’s house, where he’s fashioned a mini German beer garden in his front yard.

In numerous debates, David, Jabbari and Waylonis challenged the incumbents’ decisions in regard to the city’s budget and union contracts, the Minton’s housing project and what to do with the city’s money-losing golf course. But all of the challengers are relative newcomers to the political scene and not one had served on a city commission, a common prerequisite to being a council member.

“We presented them with a really legitimate challenge,” David said. “We got them to address issues they wouldn’t have been comfortable talking about.”

Waylonis said reading news about the city’s budget problems was the reason he decided to run. Both he and David both called for the city to compensate its employees at the same level private industry does for similar jobs. Jabbari joined them in calling for privatization of the city’s golf course, which lost $800,000 last year.

The City Council race and more local election results are online.

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4 Comments

  1. “We presented them with a really legitimate challenge,” David said. “We got them to address issues they wouldn’t have been comfortable talking about.”
    NICE! Let’s see if it worked!
    Thanks to Greg, Daniel and Aaron for opening the eyes of our council a little wider.
    Best,
    Brian David

  2. Dan Waylonis came on top of the 3 challengers and not too far from Siegel. I would say that’s a pretty good result for a $500 campaign

    Dan, please don’t give up, you’ll get them next time, your message resonates with the voters, we need fiscal sanity in MV and someone to control the unions before the average police officer / fire fighter clears the $300,000/ year mark and bankrupt the city which is likely to happen within 5 years with a guaranteed 5% a year raise

    Margaret Abe-Koga 8,106 / 26.52%

    Ronit Bryant () 6,893 / 22.55%

    Jac Siegel () 6,338 / 20.73%

    Daniel Brian Waylonis 3,993 / 13.06%

    Greg David 3,183 / 10.41%

    Aaron Jabbari 2,055 / 6.72%

  3. The challengers might want to try putting in some time serving their community in other ways, thereby building a track record. All three incumbents spent time serving on boards and commissions, learning about city governance, before making runs at council. In this way they demonstrated what they stand for, and build a record of accomplishment before asking the voters to elect them to council. Nonprofit service is another way they can build records of achievement and show their commitment and concern for the community.

  5. “Thanks to Greg, Daniel and Aaron for opening the eyes of our council a little wider. ”

    ———————-

    You’re kidding, right? The issues “raised” by the challengers were issues already in existence before they began their campaigns. This very forum played host to many of these issues before these 3 became candidates.

    Its easy to poke a stick at an existing organization when you have no skin in the game, nor an appreciation for all sides of an issue that need to be considered when you have the responsibility of a City Council member. Yelling from the side lines that we need change doesn’t make one visionary.

    That said, I hope to see some of the challengers back in the political scene, once they gain some experience in dealing with City issues.

  6. I am glad to see that the voters across the city as a whole paid little attention to the complaints of a few loud Old Mountain View residents over the Council votes on the Minton’s project. The fact that the order of votes for the 3 incumbents this year was the same as in 2006, with Jac Siegel lowest of the 3, is an indication that the Old Mountain View neighbors’ complaints were little more than a tempest in a teapot.

  7. I agree with the comments from “Resident” above saying that “The challengers might want to try putting in some time serving their community in other ways, thereby building a track record.”

    In addition, I think they should take a look at what endorsements really are in a town like Mountain View. These are not people “in the pocket” of the Council members. These are people that the Council members have talked to, listened to, and gotten to know. That is old-fashioned friendly, professional behavior. It is not political back dealing.

    Add a few years of life experience, some community work in our town, and some community building, and I think you may get it….
    Next Time.

  8. Anyone who wanted to avoid 3/4 of the population deserves to lose. A nice experiment, but it shows how arrogant the young really are. Next election maybe? remember we had electronic ballot fail after one attempt, that was a poor experiment also but then 1/4 of the population were not voting back then to recall that.

  9. As expected. Except for the compensation issue, the challengers never bothered to learn about city issues. I attended 3 forums and it was obvious. It’s tough but not impossible to knock off incumbents. Takes hard work and none of these three were willing to put in the effort.

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