Five candidates vie for three open seats on the Saratoga City Council

By Khalida Sarwari

Regardless of who wins a spot on the Saratoga City Council next month, residents can rest easy knowing they’ve elected capable and strong candidates, who have considered the challenges in their city and are ready to tackle them head on.

The Nov. 4 election will bring about a major shuffle on the Saratoga City Council with the departure of council members Chuck Page and Jill Hunter and Mayor Emily Lo’s re-election bid. In addition to Lo, four other candidates are vying for these three council seats, all for four-year terms.

MARY-LYNNE BERNALD

Mary-Lynne Bernald, who currently chairs Saratoga’s planning commission, would bring a wealth of experience to the position.

Bernald’s first of three stints on the planning commission was in 1996. In the span of 18 years she has been involved in six General Plan updates, supported applications that brought the farmers market, tasting rooms and outdoor music to downtown Saratoga, researched and reviewed various city ordinances and guidelines, design review applications, conditional use permits, annexations, subdivisions and capital improvement projects. She said this experience has given her in-depth knowledge and appreciation for the intricacies involved in local government service.

“I feel I’m uniquely experienced in understanding all the parts of Saratoga: the community, the staff and how the city commissions and council work,” Bernald added.

For the 36-year resident of Saratoga, preserving the city’s character, providing a positive climate for vibrant commercial centers and maintaining high-quality and cost-effective services for residents are key.

If elected, Bernald said she would work toward creating a more vibrant, family-friendly downtown by attracting new anchor businesses to the Village. To do this, she has proposed streamlining the approval process and exploring new options to improve parking issues. She said she would also ensure that public works projects do not disrupt local business foot traffic, and increase efforts to support retailers and restaurants, the Chamber of Commerce and venues such as Montalvo and the Mountain Winery.

Maintaining the city’s impressive safety record is also a priority for Bernald. She said she supported the council’s decision to expand coverage by law enforcement in and around the schools and along the major arterials where most accidents tend to occur.

Bernald sees traffic as the biggest issue for Saratoga within the next five years.

“It’s a huge issue that we’re going to have to keep paying attention to, not only from growth in the city but also from any changes that may occur from VTA changes to Highway 85,” she said.

As a planning commissioner, Bernald said, she has worked diligently to locate prospective higher-density housing in appropriate areas of the city. She said she would remain vigilant in protecting Saratoga’s character and attempting to change the formula ABAG uses in allocating units to cities.

“I appreciate the fact that our seniors are able to stay in Saratoga in the more affordable units,” Bernald said. “It would be nice if we were able to provide housing for our teachers and our police and fireman. I’m certainly hoping that the housing element we just passed will provide opportunities for them.”

Bernald said she wholeheartedly supports the concept of deed-restricted second units.

“They are an ideal way to build low-income housing in Saratoga,” she said. “They fit the character of Saratoga and supply needed units in our community. They can meet the needs of three-generation families or be rented to low income individuals.”

Bernald believes it is essential for the city to keep an eye on the Highway 85 project in case of any changes that would create more noise, smog and light pollution and congestion on local roads. It is also important for the city to maintain pressure on the Valley Transportation Authority to adhere to the original agreement that was made with Saratoga, she said.

Bernald previously served as a member of the Saratoga Library expansion committee as well as on the “Yes on Measures A and B” campaign, or library bond measure initiative.

She received a degree in political science from the University of Colorado.

JOHN CHEN

John Chen is a 12-year Saratoga resident and data center engineer for Raptr, a Mountain View-based social network for video gamers.

This is Chen’s first time running for any political office, and he said he was inspired to do so after regularly attending and speaking out at workshops and meetings on the Highway 85 issue. A new face in the political arena, Chen said what he lacks in experience, he’ll make up for with a unique perspective and active participation as a resident. As an IT engineer Chen said he receives input from co-workers daily about what is and isn’t working and must explain the condition of the office network and show empathy with whatever problem his co-workers are having. He said he also pushes for new projects and improvements with shoestring budgets.

Furthermore, Chen said he makes it a point to educate himself by attending VTA meetings, writing letters to the VTA and speaking in front of the board.

“All I can promise to voters is that I would do the homework,” he said. “I’d work hard and serve them as well as I could.”

Chen has been an outspoken opponent of the Highway 85 project, appearing at many council and VTA meetings to suggest alternatives. He is of the opinion that the median should be preserved for future mass transit.

“The West Valley communities can’t let VTA throw it away on cars,” Chen said. “VTA’s plans for additional lanes doesn’t actually solve any congestion and returns too little revenue back to the county.”

Chen said that if elected, he’d prioritize the protection of the town and downtown from unwanted development, although he would be open to holding community workshops to solicit the opinion of city residents on how much development they want. He said he would look for ways to improve Saratoga’s air quality and offer more walking and bike paths.

“Joe’s Trail should have an asphalt bike lane to make it less damaging on bike tires,” he said. “Prospect Road should have wider bike lanes.”

Making the downtown more attractive to increase traffic and improving the quality of life for residents is also important to Chen. He wants to expand senior shuttle routes and put in place a direct bus route to Caltrain and light rail.

His ideas for boosting traffic in downtown is to place an anchor tenant, utilize Wildwood Park more often for events and offer additional Friday and Saturday night events.

He said he would seek to build bridges between neighborhoods and sub-communities and reduce stress and create happiness for residents.

Like the other candidates, Chen is against affordable housing unless it benefits seniors. He supports the building of additional units for seniors.

“Senior housing is low-impact, since most are retired or semi-retired and don’t generate the car traffic that working people and students do,” he said.

The most pressing issues for Saratoga down the line, Chen said, are sure to be development pressures in various areas of the city, including Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, Prospect Avenue, the Lawrence Triangle, Quito Road and the downtown, and reducing freeway noise from 85.

Chen graduated from UC-Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in computer science.

RISHI KUMAR

Rishi Kumar is the founder of the local nonprofit Saratoga Cares Foundation, which puts on Saratoga’s Got Talent, an annual talent show that raises money for various causes in the community, focusing on those that benefit seniors and children. He has said that the driving force behind his decision to run for city council is the late Susie Nagpal, a Saratoga councilwoman who died from lung cancer in 2010 and with whom Kumar served on the planning commission.

Kumar has stated that he is running to continue Nagpal’s mission. His priorities include enhancing Saratoga’s quality of life, promoting a family-focused commercial district and addressing issues that impact Saratoga’s quality of life. Examples of those issues are Highway 85, petty thefts, home break-ins and high-density housing.

As a council member, he said he would seek a better community engagement model between the city and residents. That means finding innovative ways to inform and notify residents about upcoming city projects. Kumar suggested posting signs in the project area with a brief description and a link to a website with additional information, distributing surveys to gather the community’s feedback, and hosting town hall meetings at the community center on a regular basis to discuss larger issues.

There are many services that can be optimized to better serve residents, Kumar said. Applying for any kind of permit from the city is one he would tackle. In order to apply for a sound or tree permit, for example, residents have to fill out the application form, write a check and then drop the form off at city hall. This can be a major inconvenience for some families where both partners work, Kumar said. Providing the capability to not only submit the form but pay the permit fee online is a time-saving measure that could improve the quality of life for Saratogans, Kumar said. “That’s an example of how we can optimize city services.”

Kumar’s ideas for boosting the vibrancy of downtown is to offer family style restaurants, such as pizza and burger spots “where families can go have a quick meal and not spend $200,” and creating a mobile app that displays all the restaurant offerings and bike trails in the city.

As someone who can hear the roar of traffic on Highway 85 from his back yard, to say that Kumar feels strongly about the project would be an understatement. He’s already given some thought to how he would relieve the noise and dust pollution from the highway.

“There is a simple approach; we have to put a layer of rubberized asphalt over the concrete,” he said. “This is a proven fact that it decreases noise by at least 30 percent if not more.”

He is just as passionate about high-density housing, the other hot-button issue in Saratoga. Kumar has proposed working with the Association of Bay Area Governments to reform the allocation process before the next housing element cycle. He called the assignment of 439 affordable housing units by ABAG “overkill” for Saratoga.

“The one thing I’m in support of is housing for seniors,” he said. “We need to provide them an option to live in a townhome or apartment facility geared to seniors.”

Kumar works as a general manager at Imaginea Technologies and is a member of the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce.

He is a graduate of the University of Mumbai, where he received his bachelor’s degree in engineering, and the University of Connecticut, where he earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

EMILY LO

Mayor Emily Lo will be running for re-election to build on the progress she’s made in her first four years on the council.

The second Asian woman ever to be appointed mayor in the city’s history (Aileen Kao was the first), Lo has been a member of the council since 2010. She believes her experience serving on the council and regional agencies gives her a unique edge.

“I think my experience will be very important and valuable when it comes to mentoring new leadership, because I have gone through this path and I think I have some new thoughts on how to bring new city council members up to speed,” she said.

A small business owner by trade, Lo understands the importance of business vitality, especially in downtown Saratoga. Though she believes the city has made progress with efforts such as the Blaney Plaza pedestrian safety improvement project, she said more could be done to boost business in the area. For starters, the city could streamline the procedure for business applications, she suggested.

Among Lo’s priorities are upholding Saratoga’s quality of life and fiscally strong city government, continuing to build a vibrant community, supporting business vitality and maintaining the city’s stellar public safety record. Also on her agenda is maintaining the infrastructure of Saratoga’s roads.

“It’s not something that’s romantic and sexy–you’re talking about roads–but during the course of my four years, we’ve heard from the residents about the conditions of the roads,” she said.

If elected, she said she would advocate for increasing the budget for improving and maintaining roads, because the system the city has in place isn’t as efficient as it could be.

On the topic of affordable housing, Lo said she would explore an alternative to the state’s affordable housing mandate by leveraging her experience to build a groundwork for a more comprehensive approach for built-out cities such as Saratoga, one that would integrate jobs, housing and transportation.

“There should be a way to fulfill the state requirement with the least impact on our neighborhoods and our city’s character,” Lo said.

Highway 85 has been another hot topic for the city this year. Lo’s strategy is to continue to monitor the project as it progresses and seek noise and pollution mitigation measures.

In the next five years, emergency preparedness and maintaining a safe and green city will be key, according to Lo. She is also passionate about assimilating the nearly 1,000 new families that have moved into the city over the last three years. She plans to do that by outreaching to them through social media and at workshops and community events.

“I think it’s important to engage these new families, because Saratoga is very family-oriented,” she said. “We really want them to be at home in Saratoga, to be a part of the community and consider Saratoga home.”

Lo serves as vice-chair of the Santa Clara County Library District Joint Power Authority and on the board of the Cities Association of Santa Clara County and the Hakone Foundation.

She is a graduate of the American missionary school in Hong Kong.

YAN ZHAO

Yan Zhao is one of two planning commissioners seeking a seat on the council.

Zhao brings eight years of experience on the planning commission, including one year as chair. Before the conclusion of her term in April, she contributed to the update of the land use, housing, circulation, open space, conservation, safety and noise elements of the General Plan. She also helped the commission review major annexation projects and create the new design review criteria for wireless telecommunication facilities. Zhao was also instrumental in updating the city’s residential design review handbook, which was more than three decades old.

In addition to her planning commission duties, Zhao works as a sales engineer at Linear Technology. She said her experience with both big corporations and startups has taught her the importance of listening to people, working with people with different backgrounds, focusing on issues and trying to find solutions collectively.

She first ran for council in 2010. This time around, Zhao said she wants to focus on maintaining Saratoga’s small town character and promoting economic development in Saratoga’s commercial centers. One idea she has is to address the parking issue in downtown Saratoga.

“We have 470 parking spaces in the Village, but some are not well utilized,” she said. “I will look at measures to make people more aware of where the parking is.”

Furthermore, she said if elected she would assemble a task force comprised of residents and business owners to gather their input about what needs to be done to revitalize downtown.

Zhao is interested in exploring the possibility of putting in a satellite office in a commercial area near the peripherals of the city where people can work remotely.

“I think this is something that will help our residents and reduce traffic,” she said.

Zhao also supports the implementation of innovative services for seniors, and active collaboration with Santa Clara County Social Service agencies and nonprofits to provide additional needed services. Over 35 percent of the population are seniors, according to Zhao. She wants to do something to address this demographic’s need for public transportation.

“If we can assess what kind of services our seniors need and evaluate what kind of services our city can provide, definitely we can tap into other resources to help our seniors,” she said. “We can work with Uber to help our seniors. It’s an aging city, so one day we will all need this kind of service.”

In the same vein, Zhao indicated that she is pro-affordable housing as long as it benefits seniors. While conceding that cities are limited in what they can do, Zhao’s solution is to plan for this type of housing near major streets and work with regional transportation agencies to expand public transit options.

“We have to take responsibility but the number has to be reasonable, has to make sense for our community,” she said.

Zhhao has served as a student art chair on the Saratoga Rotary art show for the past three years and as a board member and treasurer on the Saratoga Elementary School parent-teacher association board.

She graduated from UC-Berkeley with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science, and Santa Clara University, where she received a master’s in electrical engineering.

Candidate forum

A candidate forum for the Saratoga City Council and Saratoga Union School District board of trustees will be held at 7 p.m. on Oct. 21 at the Saratoga Civic Theater.The forum is sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Southwest Santa Clara Valley and will be televised live on KSAR. Attendees will have an opportunity to meet the candidates and ask them questions.

JOHN CHEN

Age 52• Married to Jenny for 18 years
1 daughter in high school, 1 son in middle school
Data center engineer at Raptr, a Mountain View-based social network for video gamers

“I pledge to serve the city of Saratoga by preserving our quality of life, home values, excellent schools, safe neighborhoods and fiscal responsibility.”

chen4saratoga.org

MARY-LYNNE BERNALD