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Hayward’s municipal authorities made it via the pandemic with a mix of employee concessions, federal bailout cash and tapping reserves that metropolis officers had correctly maintained within the years earlier than.
However the metropolis isn’t out of the woods. Not by a protracted shot.
Town doesn’t benefit from the sturdy tax base of, say, close by Fremont. Because the pandemic-relief cash runs out, Hayward can be left spending more cash than it’s taking in and draining nearly all of its reserves over the following 5 years.
In the meantime, the town continues to endure from a shortfall of greater than $500 million in its employee pension and retiree well being plans — a staggering debt equal to greater than 5 years of worker salaries. It’s like a monstrous bank card invoice for taxpayers with funds that considerably erode the power to spend cash on wanted public companies.
It’s towards that backdrop that two of the seven Hayward Metropolis Council members can be changed within the Nov. 8 election and a 3rd seat can be crammed within the months that comply with.
For the upcoming balloting, voters ought to elect Planning Commissioners Dan Goldstein and Julie Roche, the one decisions within the eight-candidate discipline who convey metropolis authorities expertise and an understanding of Hayward’s monetary challenges.
Hayward has an elected mayor and 6 council members chosen citywide. Goldstein and Roche are operating for the seats being vacated by Aisha Wahab, who's vying for state Senate, and Sara Lamnin, who will transfer over to the individually elected Hayward Space Recreation and Park District.
A 3rd council seat will come open after the election when incumbent Councilman Mark Salinas turns into the following mayor, a publish for which he's operating unopposed. It will likely be as much as the brand new council to determine whether or not to fill that emptiness or name a particular election to let voters determine.
Goldstein is a cyber safety skilled who has labored within the tech business for greater than 30 years. He has served on the Planning Fee since 2015 and beforehand served on the town’s Normal Plan Activity Pressure. Roche is an legal professional who practices household regulation. She has been a planning commissioner since 2019.
Goldstein and Roche each acknowledge the robust fiscal selections that lie forward within the subsequent few years and that they're more likely to must make decisions between slicing jobs or slicing salaries. Neither desires to lose extra employees, nor do they need to hurt morale of those that have already sacrificed throughout the pandemic.
Goldstein known as it “one of many hardest selections we’re going to face on council.” Roche says she has talked to present council members concerning the challenges they’ve confronted when confronted with the identical tradeoffs. The excellent news is that they each appear as much as the duty and respect the cautious balancing that can be required.
One of many different six candidates, Sunita Rupan, a small-business proprietor, didn't reply to a number of makes an attempt to achieve her. The opposite candidates embody Sherman Lewis, who served on the BART board from 1992-96 and is a retired Cal State East Bay professor, and Tom Ferreira, an emergency room technician who ran unsuccessfully for the Metropolis Council in 2018 and 2020. Neither made a compelling case for his or her candidacies.
The opposite three candidates are George Syrop, a member of the town’s Group Companies Fee, a product designer and an advocate of publicly run banks; Amal Issa, who works for a basis that helps group faculties and college students to enhance academic outcomes; and Michael Lema, an electrician and previously an gear technician for the U.S. Marines who, of the trio, was essentially the most considerate about and ready on metropolis points. All three want extra strong foundations in metropolis authorities however might be key leaders in Hayward’s future.
Within the meantime, the present council should get a grip on metropolis funds so it doesn’t tie the palms of the following era of leaders with much more debt.