California State AssemblyCandidate for District 24

During my 16 years in elected public service, I have built a strong environmental record.  First, I have taken a leadership role on implementing smart growth and been a staunch advocate of creating more housing, affordable and market rate, along transit corridors, focusing on infill development at much higher densities.  Housing near jobs has multiple positive environmental impacts, can reduce commute lengths and thus reduce transportation related missions. 

I have also been a strong advocate of local policies addressing climate change, and in Mountain View we have done significant planning for sea level rise.  During my four terms on the Mountain View City Council for example, we have fully embraced sustainability and climate action planning.  I have supported these efforts and we have recently adopted a new Climate Action Plan, Climate Action Roadmap, a municipal set of climate action strategies as well as one for the community.  Locally, Mountain View has included solar in new governmental projects, streamlined solar permitting, has adopted a new PACE program, and is aggressively implementing our climate action plan.  In fact, most new office construction in Mountain View is being developed to LEED Platinum standards.  I have also led the effort to preserve and create more park space and open space in Mountain View.  

 Additionally, as a Boardmember of the Institute for Local Government, I have led the effort to ensure that the Beacon Award program rewards local municipalities that implement positive environmental changes.  As a member of the Bay Area Water Conservation and Supply Agency, I have advocated for water saving measures and worked through the non-profit sector to educate smaller localities on how to adapt gray water systems to improve water recycling.  

I support and have endorsed the Disclose Act, and as Mayor, introduced and passed a City Resolution supporting The Move To Amend, a National effort to overturn Citizens United.  Furthermore I have supported local efforts to reduce the influence of money in politics.  Mountain View has a voluntery spending cap which is widely used by candidates and we recently passed sweeping efforts aimed at transparency and disclosure for independent expenditures, including a menu of enforcement options.

The amount of money that is spent on elections shocks the conscience.  However, First Amendment rights must also be observed.  I believe volutnery efforts to control spending, coupled with incentives, as we do in Mountain View could be quite successful.  I also believe the State should further explore the possibility of publicly funded elections.

As a City Councilman in Mountain View, not only did I support being the first City in Santa Clara county to increase the minimum wage by ordinance, I helped lead the successful fight to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018 shortly thereafter, making Mountain View the first city in Santa Clara County to enact such a measure.

As a member of the Mountain View City Council, I only supported Structurally Balanced Budgets.  We avoided wholesale layoffs during the recession and during economic expansions we avoided the temptation of adding long term costs.

I will take these lessons to Sacramento.  I support the Governor's rainy day fund and believe it should be supplemented.  While nobody knows when the next recession will come, every day gets the State one day closer, and we need to be prepared.

Additionally, The State and local governments need to bring our revenue and tax systems into the 21st Century.  Our sales tax is based on face-to-face product sales, but more and more commerce is avoiding sales tax through online sales, downloads and the like.  The State is losing significant revenues to online sales.  The State sales tax should be based on a growing segment of the economy.

Finally, although arguably a transportation issue, our transportation system funding is based on gasoline sales tax, which is declining as cars become more fuel efficient and more and more electric vehicles hit the road.  I support further examination of Vehicle Miles Traveled as a means of paying for our roads.

California, and the Bay Area in particular, finds itself in the midst of a catastrophic affordable housing crisis.  There can be little doubt that housing costs, especially in the Bay Area, have reached levels that are unaffordable to many.  Our friends, family and neighbors find themselves not simply priced out of neighborhoods but priced out of entire cities and counties.  Young people are being hit especially hard.  Renters and new home buyers are well aware of the problem, but even long time home owners find themselves asking: "Could I buy my house today?" or "Will my children be able to afford living in the same community they grew up in?" 

Unfortunately, the answer to both of these question is no.  Housing has become so expensive that long-time residents have had to move away, leaving friends and family behind. Yet, many of these same people still work in the communities they once lived in and now have to spend hours driving to and from work.  This worsens traffic, reduces the quality of life for those who have to commute, and significantly increases carbon emissions.  It is also having profound economic impacts on businesses throughout the State who find it difficult if not impossible to recruit employees to California out of fear that they will not be able to afford housing.   

As an Assemblyman, I will support legislation and measures that:

• Create incentives for local governments to create more affordable housing within their communities;
• Develop incentives for developers and investors who build more affordable housing and transit-oriented development.
• Enable more creative and effective regional planning and governance across the state to deal with transportation and affordable housing issues.  
• Create funds for public-private partnerships that enable the development of affordable housing.
• Increase the California Low Income Housing Tax Credit.
• Establish a state housing trust fund to develop affordable housing.
• Codify the California Supreme Court’s recent decision affirming the constitutionality of inclusionary housing ordinances.  
• Ensure that affordable housing is integrated into larger housing developments in order to ensure diversity and inclusivity.  
• Encourage the development of more rental housing.  

The importance of transportation policy cannot be underestimated.  It is intrinsically linked to both our economy and our environment as well as quality of life.  Without good transportation infrastructure and services in place and active government investment, our economy, environment, and quality of life overall suffer.  

As a State Assemblyman, I will support measures that:

• Make our roadways more efficient including development of multi-modal transit corridors to include freeway lanes, mass transit rail, dedicated bus lanes, and bike paths.
• Improve and expand our commuter and inner urban heavy rail systems.
• Update the gas tax and other transportation revenues to ensure that our transportation system has the financial resources necessary to maintain and improve our roads, bridges, highways, rail and aviation corridors to ensure that Californians can move quickly, efficiently and safely throughout the State.
• Complete the high speed rail project and ensure that it links all major population centers of California.
• High Speed Rail will enable CalTrain to electrify its system, which, once completed, will greatly increase the capacity and efficiency of CalTrain – taking more people off our roads and freeways.
• I support the Dumbarton Rail Corridor study that is examining the reopening of the Dumbarton Rail line with capacity for Bus Rapid Transit, bike and pedestrian access relieving traffic pressure in the Menlo Park and East Palo Alto communities from Dumbarton Bridge traffic.
• Give local communities more resources to develop alternative transportation networks such as people movers and personal rapid transit systems.

My Transportation Record:

Although there is often a great outcry for solutions to traffic problems at the local level, local governments are often extremely limited in enacting transportation policies. Under my leadership, Mountain View instituted innovative policies designed to relieve the city’s traffic problems.

These solutions included:

• Requiring the city’s largest employers to reduce employee single occupant car trips, and shift employees to mass transit and shuttles, and set strict “trip caps” as a pre-condition to the issuance of building permits to expand.
• Implementing innovative parking models to reduce local congestion and making parking easier to find.
• Rewarding developers for building pedestrian friendly mix-used developments near light rail that encouraged usage of the city’s light rail system.