Greater than $400,000 in marketing campaign cash has been raised to date on this 12 months’s Livermore mayoral election, most of it to assist a realtor with no earlier political expertise.
Former Mayor John Marchand is working for the place towards Mony Nop, who's backed by an curiosity group targeted on derailing an reasonably priced housing challenge that has already been authorised.
In 2021, the Livermore Metropolis Council unanimously voted to approve plans to construct 130 flats for low-income households on a downtown website. In Might, the council approved the sale of the land, which was designated for reasonably priced housing in 2007, to nonprofit builders Eden Housing.
Some influential Livermore residents and enterprise folks have created variously named teams to attempt to cease the sale and construct a park instead of the housing challenge, together with Transfer Eden Housing and Save Livermore Downtown.
The teams have proposed shifting the reasonably priced housing elsewhere however the transfer would face important obstacles, together with authorized charges. Town would additionally must reimburse the reasonably priced housing fund, buy an alternate website, and pay for the design and upkeep of the proposed park.
The teams have additionally petitioned for a referendum on the land sale. Nevertheless, the town legal professional asserted that the sale was an administrative motion, quite than a legislative one, and can't be challenged by a referendum.
The teams have filed quite a lot of lawsuits towards the town over the challenge. Eight totally different judges have dominated towards Transfer Eden Housing and Save Livermore Downtown at each the superior and appellate courtroom ranges.
Take Again Livermore
A brand new group known as Take Again Livermore was created this 12 months to oppose the election of Marchand, in addition to the election of council candidates Evan Branning and Mel Chiong.
Take Again Livermore has obtained almost $150,000 in contributions to date, and in response to marketing campaign filings, the group has obtained three totally different $49,500 donations from native newspaper writer Joan Seppala, her husband Lynn Seppala, and native resident Jean King.
Seppala, founding father of The Unbiased weekly newspaper, is an govt of the Livermore Valley Performing Arts Middle, which oversees the Bankhead Theater positioned subsequent to the Eden Housing challenge website. King can also be on the humanities board.
All three have contributed 1000's of dollars to the teams opposing the Eden Housing challenge and to assist or oppose metropolis council candidates in earlier races.
As well as, Lynna Lam, the Cambodian founding father of the nonprofit Khmer Buddhist Basis, has contributed $150,000 to a different group known as Mates Supporting Mony Nop. Nop’s personal marketing campaign, Mony for Mayor 2022, has raised greater than $66,300, taking the overall quantity of contributions raised to assist Nop to over $364,800, in comparison with Marchand’s $51,400.
In an interview, Nop stated that he was not conscious of any donations to his direct marketing campaign from Seppala.
“My relationship with Joan is that now we have crossed paths many instances as philanthropists. That’s all there may be. We’re not shut buddies. It simply so occurs that we need to see extra open area within the city,” he stated.
“There are a bunch of impartial expenditure committees on the market which can be doing various things, however by regulation we can't coordinate with them. We don’t discuss these issues. We now have our personal marketing campaign to run.”
‘Different points’
Nop was born in Cambodia and moved to the U.S. as a baby.
“I spent the primary six years of my life within the Killing Fields of Cambodia with no working water or electrical energy. I ate bugs each evening to outlive. We ended up in refugee camps for the following 5 years in Thailand, and in 1983 we got permission to come back to the U.S.,” he stated.
Nop ultimately ended up in Stockton. He grew to become a police officer and was employed to work in Livermore in 1995.
“It modified my life. The folks of Livermore have given me a life that I ought to have by no means had, and that’s why I need to run,” he stated.
The 50-year-old doesn't have political expertise however stated he believes his work as a enterprise proprietor and co-founder of the Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance have given him the instruments to be mayor.
“When you consider working a enterprise, you consider the funds, personnel, planning, execution, enterprise tendencies; similar factor as working a metropolis,” he stated.
When requested his ideas on the Eden Housing challenge, Nop stated that he believes the following Metropolis Council ought to have been allowed to make the choice on the land sale. If elected, he wish to meet with the town legal professional and employees to debate the challenge.
“The aim is to carry all of the events collectively and try our authorized and monetary obligations after which work out the very best win-win resolution for the neighborhood,” Nop stated.
“It doesn’t matter what anyone desires. What issues is the implications to the town. If it’s going to bankrupt the town to maneuver the challenge, why would we do such a factor?
“There are different points that matter. For instance, lots of people I’ve spoken to need a new grocery retailer. We additionally want to verify our metropolis is secure. This election isn’t Joan’s election. It’s about management and illustration.”
‘Management expertise’
Marchand served as mayor from 2011 to 2020 earlier than having to take a two-year break as a result of metropolis’s term-limit guidelines. Now eligible for an additional time period, the 69-year-old determined to run once more after studying that the present Mayor Bob Woerner needed to step down due to well being points.
“I’m working to present the general public the chance to vote for somebody with management expertise,” Marchand stated.
“We’re going to district elections for the primary time, and there might be two new members of the council which have by no means served in elected workplace. As a result of our present mayor shouldn't be re-running, that units up the chance that we’ll have a council majority with no expertise of working a metropolis. There must be some path.”
Marchand labored as a consuming water high quality chemist for greater than 30 years earlier than becoming a member of the board of the Zone 7 Water Company.
Throughout his time as mayor, the council authorised three new parks for the town, authorised new parking areas, and purchased over 50 new items of public artwork.
“We obtained an amazing quantity finished whereas I used to be mayor. Within the final ballot that we did earlier than I left workplace, 92% of respondents stated that Livermore was an amazing place to dwell,” he stated.
Marchand is in favor of the Eden Housing challenge, saying: “Reasonably priced housing funds have been used to buy the positioning, and state regulation requires that reasonably priced housing be included in our downtown. Town created the authorised plan based mostly on important public enter.”
Other than shifting the town’s downtown plans ahead, he would additionally deal with housing safety and public security if elected.
“This neighborhood wants to come back collectively and it must heal. We’ve gotten to a spot the place info don’t matter. This small, very well-funded group continues to roil the neighborhood, and all of us have to work collectively to maintain Livermore an amazing place to dwell.”