By Khalida Sarwari
Cupertino voters re-elected Mayor Gilbert Wong for a second term and a high-tech executive for his first term on the city council, according to preliminary election results Tuesday night.
Wong, 44, a small business owner who was first elected to the council in 2007, received 22 percent of the vote, according to unofficial figures.
Rod Sinks garnered 20 percent, narrowly defeating Marty Miller, Cupertino’s planning commissioner, by 331 votes.
Wong’s priorities are to balance and manage the city’s growth, attract new businesses, and reduce traffic congestion around schools.
Sinks said he sees “tremendous opportunity” in Apple’s plan to build a 3.1-million-square-foot campus in Cupertino. He also favors a shift from residential to retail development, citing that while residential projects are more lucrative to developers because of the high quality of Cupertino’s schools, they also place pressure on those schools.
Sinks is interested in creating a stronger partnership between the city and its schools, bringing companies focused on innovation to Cupertino, and ensuring that the Lehigh Southwest Cement Plant is complying with air, water, and land protection laws.
Voters also passed an initiative to increase the hotel tax from 10 to 12 percent. The city estimates that the revenue generated annually from the tax increase will be around $450,000.
Measure C passed with nearly 83 percent of the vote.
