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The 80,000 residents of Milpitas deserve higher governance than they obtain from their Metropolis Council.
For years, the town has been stricken by political infighting. Most lately, the fixed verbal battles between Mayor Wealthy Tran and Metropolis Councilwoman Karina Dominguez have hampered the town’s potential to make progress on the important problems with reasonably priced housing and homelessness.
In March, throughout a heated dialogue over an reasonably priced housing challenge, Tran threatened to censure Dominguez. She, in flip, accused him of bullying and instructed a San Jose Highlight
reporter that she wished cameras put in exterior councilmembers’ workplaces to guard her from the “yelling behind the scenes.” Extra lately, in September they jousted over Tran’s hard-line assist for an ordinance designed to sluggish homelessness by limiting people from sleeping and organising tents in public areas from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Dominguez referred to as the method “excessive” and in a grossly inaccurate and inappropriate remark mentioned it “frankly jogs my memory of Nazis.”
Tran is termed out after serving three two-year stints as mayor. Two of the 4 Metropolis Council seats are additionally contested.
Milpitas voters ought to elect Councilwoman Carmen Montano as mayor and Hon Lien and Dipak Aswasthi to the Metropolis Council. They provide the most effective hope to finish the bickering and supply the expertise and data to make progress on the town’s most urgent points..
Mayor
Six candidates are working for mayor. None comes near matching Montano’s political expertise. Along with being on the Metropolis Council, she has served on the Planning Fee, Parks and Recreation Fee and two phrases on the Milpitas Unified College District Board of Trustees.
Montano has a historical past of being the “grownup within the room” wherever she serves. Milpitas may gain advantage from her quiet, collaborative method to engaged on points.
Montano desires Milpitas to enhance its homeless challenges by making a housing navigation heart modeled after Fremont’s program. She advocates pushing builders tougher for terribly low-income housing. She additionally desires to raise widening the Calaveras Boulevard bridge as a transportation precedence. The clogged avenue utilized by commuters to attach with Interstates 680 and 880 has plagued Milpitas for years.
The opposite mayoral candidates embody Dominguez, Ola Robert Hassan, Voltaire Montemayor, Franco Perez and Councilman Anthony Phan.
Dominguez and Phan are the 2 strongest options within the race. Dominguez is educated, however her fixed battles with Tran and her ties to labor give us pause. Phan was solely 22 when he was elected to the council. He, too, is educated and passionate on points. However the FPPC in Could fined him $15,000 for a number of campaign-related violations. Earlier this yr, Phan did not acknowledge the moral misconduct of registering an internet site utilizing Montano’s identify after which utilizing it to redirect net customers to his marketing campaign.
Perez is a political newcomer who's the founder and president of Franco Cellular Properties, giving him nice perception on reasonably priced housing points. However he must change into higher knowledgeable on a wider vary of points earlier than serving in workplace. Hassan and Montemayor have run for workplace in previous years however shouldn't have the monetary or political assist to be severe contenders.
Metropolis Council
Hon Lien is the standout candidate within the area of seven candidates. She is serving her second time period on the Milpitas Unified board and has been a member of the Milpitas Planning Fee and the Public Security and Emergency Preparedness Fee. Her data of Milpitas’ monetary and housing challenges surpasses the opposite candidates, and she or he has a fame of working effectively with others, which might be a welcome addition to the Metropolis Council.
Dipak Aswasthi is a member of the Planning Fee and owns a mini-market in Milpitas. He has additionally served on the town’s Financial Improvement and Commerce Fee. His enterprise background is a plus, as is his data of Milpitas’ monetary points. He desires to make use of his expertise to assist small companies which have been harm by the pandemic, which he says may drive up revenues and probably allow the town so as to add to its police pressure.
Garry Barbadillo and Demetress Morris are the most effective choices of the remaining 5 candidates. Barbadillo beforehand served a time period on the Metropolis Council earlier than dropping his bid for re-election in 2018. Morris is a member of the Planning Fee, however she, for instance, didn’t know whether or not Milpitas has a projected surplus or deficit.
Milpitas Unified board member Michael Tsai has super experience on transportation and housing points. However his combative nature — he was censured by the board earlier this yr in a unanimous vote — ought to eradicate him from consideration. Juliette Gomez reveals promise as a candidate, however she, too, had but to do her homework on Milpitas’ monetary and housing points. Isaac Stringer has a robust background on housing points, however he doesn't have the monetary or political assist to run a severe marketing campaign.