City of SunnyvaleCandidate for Mayor

The current plans are to spend $280 million for an elaborate new city hall, demolition of the existing city hall, and an add-on to the existing public safety building.  Of that $280 million, $150 million will be borrowed incurring $93 million in interest. 

Total cost will be $373 million (= $130 million "cash on hand" + $150 million debt + $93 million interest on that debt.).

Most buildings in Sunnyvale’s Civic Center are pretty solid.  The few that will not be worth maintaining over the long term can be replaced relatively inexpensively by adding on to the existing city hall as is planned for the public safety building.  Instead the current plans are to build a huge new building and tear down two perfectly solid city office buildings.  This is totally unnecessary.

In addition, with “work from home” possibly the wave of the future, we might not need as much space for employees.  We should wait a year before making a decision both to see how city revenues are impacted and what our space needs are after “work from home” policies solidify.

I am for adding on to the public safety building now because it is a small part of the plans, not costing much money, and we won’t need to go into debt for it.

I favor holding off on further decisions on city hall space considerations until we have more clarity on the economy, and greater understanding of our space needs.  If debt is incurred, it means that any cost over-runs that occur during the project will need to be borrowed.  This will add even more interest to the debt, further reducing money available to provide services to the public.

Sunnyvale's population has been decreasing for a few years now.  With more people leaving to "work from home" in other cities and even other states, revenues and service needs will decrease.  We may not need, or be able to afford more office space.  With city revenues projected to decrease for the next 4 years, this is not the time to go into debt, or spend such a huge amount on a new luxurious city hall, or tear down a perfectly good old city hall.

It is time to rethink this extravagance.

Please see more at: https://www.mikegoldman4mayor.org/civic-center

Currently the area known as Moffett Park (near Moffett Field) is zoned industrial.  There is a move to zone it for housing.  This is a terrible idea.  The area is former marshland that has been used as landfill.  It will be one of the first areas inundated by Sea Level Rise (SLR).  When it does, it will back up sewers so the flood will be contaminated, groundwater percolating up will bring with it toxic chemicals buried for over 100 years.

By 2050 it will be at least 1 ft. of sea level rise (66% probability) according to California State documents.  With the periodic high tides ("King Tides") and storm surge this will result in 4 feet deep flooding.  The flood waters will be salty and contaminated with sewer waste.  Rising groundwater will bring buried toxins to the surface.  Any cars parked will be ruined.  The flooding will reach parts of highway 237.

By 2100 Sea Level Rise will flooding depth with storm surge will be roughly 7 feet deep.  It will reach well past parts of 237 in Sunnyvale into mobile home parks.according to California State documents.  With the periodic high tides ("King Tides").  

Since there are many, many California state documents predicting the areas and time periods for flooding, anyone who loses their home and possessions will have every good reason to sue Sunnyvale for zoning for housing where they shouldn't.  Settling those lawsuits, and cleaning up the contaminated mess that the flooding will leave will be very, very expensive.  Taxes will need to be raised, or city services cut, or both.

For more information and supporting documents, please see: https://www.mikegoldman4mayor.org/global-warming

Please vote for me by November 3rd, 2020 so I can prevent an expensive disaster which can be easily avoided.

Sunnyvale’s population was 131,826 in 2000, but after the "dot-com" bubble burst, population declined about 4% and with it housing prices and property values.  After reaching a low point in 2004, ppulation grew for about 15, but started to decline about two years ago.  From the 2017 peak through 2019 our population has declined roughly 1%.  Sunnyvale's population decline may be much greater as people decide they can “work from home" in much less expensive environments. 

This has also been true of neighboring cities such as San Jose, Palo Alto, Cupertino and other cities in California.

Sunnyvale’s current budget projects a decline in general fund revenues of about 20% over the next two years. From its current  $207 million, it is projected to decline to about $182 million in two years before it starts rising again.  These are essentially educated guesses.  It could be better, or worse.  With population decline, we may very well see a reduction in property values, sales taxes, and with it a reduction in city revenues.

This will require significant belt tightening.  I will try to preserve jobs, and maintain services.  Public Safety staff will become more important as homelessness and domestic violence from financial stress increase. 

We need to keep up not only public safety staff but also their work hours – unlike Los Angeles where everyone is required to take a 10% unpaid work furlough.

I will work to preserve essential services.  I was the only one to oppose a cut to the Public Safety funding this budget cycle.

Please vote for me by November 3rd so I can work to keep Sunnyvale's finances in good shape so we can preserve services and avoid dangerous cuts to public safety.