When I ran for City Council four years ago, I made a commitment towards maintaining our high quality of life by working to ensure an effective and accountable local government that:
- Promotes economic development
- Delivers comprehensive human services
- Furthers sustainable and equitable growth
- Preserves our neighborhoods' character
- Encourages civic participation
I am proud to have been a part of the numerous accomplishments made in all of these areas in the last four years:
Scrutinizing and passing fiscally sound budgets
Despite some of the most difficult economic times we've faced in California, I have worked with my fellow council members to pass balanced budgets each of the last four years while maintaining healthy reserves. We've continued to receive an AAA credit rating, only one of a handful of cities in California, an accomplishment achieved each year since 2001.
The last year has been our most challenging budget, with difficult decisions made to close a budget deficit. To ensure decisions that were in line with the community's needs and concerns, I, along with several of my colleagues, advocated for extensive public outreach efforts to inform the community of the budget process and gain as much input as possible. I worked with city employees and my colleagues to find ways to enhance revenue, maximize efficiencies and contain growing costs.
Fostering growth of our local economy
I've worked to support our existing businesses and reached out to recruit new ones, knowing that businesses are the engine to our economic health and growth. Last year as Mayor, along with the Chamber of Commerce, I helped open over 15 new businesses in Mountain View. These ranged from small businesses, such as Windows and Beyond, to high-technology companies, such as Announce Media, and childcare facilities such as Little Prodigy and Wonder Years.
My colleagues and I also worked to streamline our development and permitting processes, which enhances our efforts to communicate with our businesses through our Economic Development Department. Last year as Mayor, I personally conducted 25 visits to corporations, startups and small businesses. I met with downtown businesses such as Boutique 4 and Chez TJ, and high tech companies such as Ribbit and Trialpay to get a firsthand view of what businesses need from our city government and to establish a direct line for these businesses to city services.
Building and maintaining strong relationships with our Chamber of Commerce and the downtown Central Business Association of our downtown are priorities for me, and will continue to be in the future. Working with these groups, I've supported investments in infrastructure that support our businesses, such as the downtown parking structure, landscaping, and signage. I will continue my efforts to bring in a local grocery store to the downtown, and leverage our city’s relationship with major business partners, such as Google to shape the development of the east Bayshore corridor through the development of housing, economic commercial development and transportation improvements.
Protecting core services of fire, public safety and emergency response to keep our neighborhoods safe
Public safety is a core service that city government provides to its residents and businesses, and I have spent extensive time researching the issues around these fields, gaining a firsthand view of the inner-workings of our fire, police and emergency medical response/paramedic departments. After participating in police ride alongs, live fire burn trainings, and visiting our County Emergency Medical Services department, I have a deeper understanding of the needs and challenges these essential units face in protecting our residents.
As a result, I worked hard to reinstate the building of a permanent Fire Station #5, and to secure the continuation of our very successful Police Activities League by funding a permanent Executive Director position. I've supported the establishment of a Fire Education Coordinator position, and the replacement of our entire Fire Fleet.
As Mountain View's representative to the County Emergency Preparedness Council last year, I was proud to help launch the SCC Alert system, a County-wide effort where Cities can notify their residents and businesses about emergencies and instructions on how to proceed in such events.
Mountain View has one of the strongest CERT (Citizen Emergency Response Training) programs in the County and has been a model for other cities, including in providing the provision of multi-lingual access to this program in several languages such as Spanish and Chinese. Mountain View is fortunate to have top notch Fire, and Police and Emergency Response Departments that serve and protect our community at the highest level.
Expanding our offering of human services especially for our youth, families and seniors
As chair of the Council Youth Services Subcommittee and in collaboration with our school districts, I've worked with my colleagues to enhance our offerings of positive and constructive activities for youth, focusing on middle schoolers and freshmen/sophomores in high school. We now offer longer hours at our community gyms, more special events for teens such as dodgeball and airband tournaments, and homework centers.
We've explored the possibility of a Teen Center and have included that concept in a Master Plan we are formulating for Rengstorff Park.
Replicating a program that I participated in as a high school student in San Mateo, we held the first Youth in Government Day program for middle school students where the students held a mock City Council meeting.
We are also in the process of updating our Youth Action Plan so that we have a new roadmap for providing quality services to our youth.
For seniors, I supported the initiation of a Senior Advisory Task Force which conducted a survey of senior needs. The results showed housing and transportation as top concerns for seniors in Mountain View, and consequently, I've supported an emphasis of housing for seniors in the General Plan Update and rerouting Bus Line #34 to provide better access to the Senior Center.
Protecting open space, our neighborhoods' character and our quality of life while promoting sustainable growth
One of my specific commitments to the community when I first ran for City Council was to initiate a General Plan Update of the document that is 16 years old. I am proud to report that we are in the last year of the update process which will serve as the blueprint for our community on land use decisions for the next 20 years.
I supported the advancement of an Environmental Sustainability Initiative and an Action Plan to make City operations more green, and to encourage the community to do the same. As a member of the City Council Environmental Sustainability Committee, I've helped to shape the Action Plan and to set the direction and monitor its progress. As Mayor last year, I led our City to sign onto the Bay Area Climate Compact, the first small city to do so.
Understanding that health and wellness are keys to any community, I was able to help secure a grant from The Health Trust of Santa Clara County to fund the inclusion of a health element within our General Plan Update. The health element will provide policies and guidelines for land use decisions that will further a built environment which promotes healthy living in Mountain View. We also held I also initiated our first MoVe to Wellness health and wellness festival in partnership with local health providers and non-profit organizations.
As a member of the Policy Advisory Committee of the VTA and now as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors, I've worked hard to secure Mountain View's fair share of transportation funding for projects, such as the Stevens Creek Trail, road and highway improvements, the pedestrian master plan, and the regional bike share program. I also continue to work to protect the provision of adequate levels of bus and light rail service for Mountain View residents.
Seeking opportunities to build affordable housing with non-profit partners and offer other affordable housing strategies
As a member of the Silicon Valley Housing Trust Board of Directors, I've been able to represent Mountain View's needs in regards to affordable housing. The City of Mountain View invests in the Housing Trust yearly, and we have seen the return on investment many times more than our contributed amount. The Housing Trust has helped to fund programs such as the Efficiency Studios Project in the San Antonio area, the Paulson Place Affordable Senior Apartment complex renovations and additions, and we anticipate an investment towards the downtown family affordable housing project that is moving forward.
Given the benefits of enabling city employees be able to reside in our community, especially our public safety personnel and emergency first responders, I pressed for a housing assistance program that would offer low-interest loans for down payments to our employees to our employees. The program went into effect at the beginning of this year.
Heightening the understanding and appreciation for diversity and encouraging civic involvement
It is of utmost importance that we listen to our residents when setting policy. To that end, I supported the addition of a Senior Advisory Board to our cadre of boards and commissions and elevated the Youth Advisory Group to Committee status so the members could add to their realm of responsibilities, the advising of the City Council on policy related matters. We formed a Citizens Task Force on Environmental Sustainability which formulated a document identifying recommendations that could be undertaken by the overall local community, including our City government, non-profit organizations, and private residents and businesses.
For major significant City endeavors such as the General Plan Update, the budget process in these challenging times as well as major development projects, we engaged in unprecedented community outreach meetings to ensure inclusiveness in the process.
As Mayor last year, I conducted weekly "Chat with MAK" neighborhood office hours at a local coffee house so that anyone could come and "chat" with me on any issues of concern. These sessions proved to be invaluable in gaining the pulse of the community, and they were extremely enjoyable moments during my time as Mayor.
One of the strengths of Mountain View is the diversity of the community. As Mayor last year, I issued proclamations to commemorate the various months as designated by the Federal Government such as Women's History Month, Black History Month, and Hispanic Heritage Month as well as holding our first every Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Celebration.