Joel Liu

Thank you for the opportunity. I'm Joel Liu, I'm running for president city council District 3. I'm an engineer, with a PHD in electrical engineering. I started to work in Pleasanton in 2008. Anda few years later, our family choose to call Pleasanton home because of its safety and great schools. I have always been passionate about volunteering and giving back to the community. I currently serve as the chair of the committee on energy and the environment for our city and I'm also a Tri-Valley representative at the community advisory committee at EBCE. I was a recently honored to receive one of the eight volunteerism awards from my employer among 90,000 global employees. As a father of two school age children, I care a lot about the safety and sustainability My top priority is Public Safety. Support for our First Responders is essential, including our alternate mental health program. I support the furthering environmental sustainability and the collaboration with our partners, including the school district and Zone 7. As an engineering manager I have led a multi-million dollar businesses and managed large budget. I will use my professional experience to make certain the city stays on a fiscally sustainable path. As your council member, I will work hard to enhance our small town atmosphere. To learn more about me please visit votejoelliu.com. Thank you.

Jeffery Nibert

Thank you to the Pleasanton Weekly for staging this forum. My name is Jeff Nibert, running for City Council in District 1. The residents of Pleasanton deserve to have a Council member dedicated to their best interests based on being a longtime contributing resident of Pleasanton. I've lived on my street in Pleasanton for 35 years with my wife and raised three kids together, who all graduated from Pleasanton schools. I now serve on the Planning Commission. The residents of Pleasanton deserve a council member who has experience in managing multi-million-dollar budgets. As an engineer and professional project manager at large companies my entire career, I have that experience. Most of all, the residents of Pleasanton deserve a council member who has demonstrated a true volunteer heart and dedication. As a longtime volunteer with youth, civic, church, and professional organizations, I take to heart the public service values of being solution-centered, a great teammate, respect for others, listening to concerns, and serving the citizens of Pleasanton. What I will do is have a laser focus on the priorities of the citizens of Pleasanton and on solving the challenges before us. There are many, and we will do it with gusto and pride and "stick-to-it-tive-ness". What will I not do? I will not run for higher office. I will not accept donations from builders and developers, because it is important to be independent when it comes to considering building projects. I will not bring someone else's agenda to the city council. As a planning commissioner and city council member, my only bosses are the residents of Pleasanton. Thank you very much. Please visit my website at votejeffnibert.com.

Julie Testa

Good evening, and thank you to the Pleasanton Weekly for hosting this forum. My name is Julie Testa and I am seeking a second term in the newly created District 3. My first term, as city council member was a historic one due to the pandemic and many ways that all levels of government had to pivot in the face of safety and public health. Through the Challenges posed by covid-19, the Pleasanton city council still advanced many important projects and programs. The rebuilt Fire Station 3 which will be completed next month. The Downtown parking corridor will soon be completed and add another 81 parking spaces to downtown, and through it all, Pleasanton emerged from the global shutdown in a fiscally strong position. I'm very pleased that our city council, by an unanimous vote passed an initiative that I championed: a pilot alternative response program. It provides our stellar police Pleasanton Police Department with a new tool, two licensed mental health clinicians to respond to designated calls for service. The program provides support to our officers and is a win-win for everyone involved. Do you know that 94 percent of residents say Pleasanton is an excellent or good place to live? In a second term as your Pleasanton city council member, I will continue to prioritize residents interests over special interests, preserve Pleasanton's historic downtown and small town character and excellent liveability, promote and support public safety resources, promote clean, water conservation. And finally, I will push back on state-required, excessive housing mandates. I have 30 years plus experience and commitment to advocating for residents and businesses of Pleasanton. I have worked hard and I would appreciate your vote.

Dean Wallace

Thank you to the Pleasanton weekly for hosting us tonight. My name is Dean Wallace. And I'm running to bring a forward-looking perspective to the Pleasanton city council, that of someone who's lived in the Tri-Valley for over 20 years. I went to high school and graduated from high school here in the Tri-Valley, and came back after college to live close to family. I understand firsthand the challenges that are facing our young Working Families and young professionals. This is the first year that Pleasanton is going to district-based elections and district One is full of some of Pleasanton's most vibrant businesses and communities. It's home to Hacienda Business Park and StoneRidge Mall. It's home to both our Bart stations and its home to many of our parks and Open Spaces. District one is also the most generationally socioeconomically and ethnically diverse District in our city. It's home to many of our immigrant families. I myself am an immigrant. I was born in Dublin, Ireland and moved here with my father who is Irish and my mother who is Mexican and I was very proud to become a citizen of this country in 2011 and I love the fact that my community is so diverse. It is also the most generationally diverse District in Our city. It's home to many of our most well-established single-family neighborhoods and also many of our largest apartment communities in Pleasanton. in fact, 25% of Pleasanton is renters, I myself am a renter Who aspires to be a homeowner someday. I bring with me over a decade of experience working for local elected officials On many of the most important and pressing issues facing our community. And if elected I pledged to work closely with our residents listening to them, and working to improve and maintain our high quality of life, Preserve Public Safety, continue the strong partnership between our schools and our city, promote economic vitality, and to preserve a fiscally responsible budget. And I'd be honored to earn your vote to do that On the city council, my website is www.deanwallace.com. Thank you.

Jamie Yee

Yes, thanks to the Pleasanton weekly and also, I guess Roberta Gonzales' production company. Yes, I can't think what it's called, but this is new for us. So thank you for for participating. I am Jamie Yee, resident of council District 3, and you may remember me from my time serving as a trustee on the Pleasanton Unified School District for 12 years from 2008 to 2020. I represented the school district on the city's economic Vitality commission from 2013 to 2020. I'm currently a Member of the Civic Arts commission and co-chair of the Tri-Valley chapter of the Asian Pacific Islander American public affairs Association. We can all agree that housing, safe and healthy, drinking water and Public Safety are our priorities but I also believe that protecting Pleasanton's quality of life, supporting Public Safety efforts collaboration and partnership with the school district, maintaining fiscal sustainability, and balancing modern city needs while safeguarding the character of Main Street are Equally important. I'm uniquely qualified because of my previous board governance experience in providing oversight of a public entity. I will ask the tough questions, engage in open minded, civil transparent discussion, and consider the community's needs and desires before voting. I've held many volunteer positions, including many PTA leadership roles that led to eight years on the State Board. I was appointed to the California Department of education's Environmental literacy task force and represented the school district as a try Valley ROP board member. In 2007 I was recognized as the California State Assembly, woman of the year for my advocacy efforts for School nurses and school health services. I'm a very a native whose parents moved to Pleasanton in 1969, And I graduated from Foothill as a senior class president. professionally I'm employed by the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, and I bring that public health perspective. I'm looking forward to tonight's questions and answers, and thank you again to the Pleasanton weekly for hosting this event.

Jeffery Nibert

Well, thank you very much for the question. I truly appreciate it. We all agree That more affordable housing is needed in Pleasanton. I support increased development of affordable housing in places where it's appropriate and makes sense. The city has already been successful with affordable housing and we will do more. as a planning Commissioner, we are planning for it right now. But there's a bad bill that my opponents boss wrote that is at the governor's desk. it's called AB-2011. It will expand the kind of thing that's happening on Harrison Street to retail and Commercial zones. AB 2011 strips away local expertise and standard processes. Developers will be able to just check off the boxes and the city must give them a permit. No Planning Commission review, no city council review, and no public engagement. not all cities are built the same or plan the same. These one-size-fits-all laws will provide No, support from the state for infrastructure. We need our retail and commercial zones. The businesses in them create jobs and provide revenues that the city relies on to provide services and create amenities. by replacing commercial zones with residential housing It creates critical local Revenue loss. with this bill there is no way for the city to intervene to mitigate the economic loss. Retail and commercial zones are supposed to include our current and hopeful future restaurant and small business owners. Ab 2011, undermines our housing element that we are in the middle of creating. if developers can simply build in retail and Commercial zones that are unsuitable for housing, why are we as a city doing all this planning work? It'll be a mess. It's a bad bill. It was written by my opponents boss and the difference between us could not be starker.

Julie Testa

I'm very concerned. I share Jeff Nibert's candidate Nibert's concerns about the state overreach in our community. We, in our last RHNA cycle, we actually built 370 affordable housing units. So Pleasanton is doing their share. in fact, Pleasanton build a higher percentage of our affordable housing than any other city in Alameda County percentage-wise, and yet everybody can achieve their, their market rate. we built three hundred percent of our market rate housing. But even being the top producer top percentage of our RHNA requirement we still didn't come close to meeting our affordable housing goals. The state housing numbers are unrealistic. They've been proven to be false. There was a State Legislative audit that proved that they're false and we must push back on the state. I think working Toward our affordable housing goals is imperative and the state has to help us with the funding because we've been set up to fail. They know, we do not have the 1.5 billion dollars in subsidy that would be required to build our, our RHNA affordable housing requirements.

Dean Wallace

Thank you for the question. I want to start off by saying one thing, my boss, While, I am proud to work for her, she is not on the ballot. I also want to say that when asked about what they think the top issue that this city council must address in a recent survey done by the city of Pleasanton. The number one thing that the people of Pleasanton said in that survey was something about the lack of affordable housing options and the cost of housing here in Pleasanton. And in that same survey, the amount of people who said that the cost of housing in Pleasanton was a serious or very serious concern was 70% that same survey said that those who think that the cost of living and the lack of affordable, housing options for our workers that was at 50%. Those who say, there's too much development here in Pleasanton, that was only 29 percent. I think this city council needs to have more of a focus on increasing affordable housing here in Pleasanton. I live in the Stoneridge Mall, which is sorry. I live across from the Stoneridge Mall which is one of the top locations that this city has identified in the housing element plan on which to build housing and so, I want to make sure that it's done, right. And right, for me means three things. First, It means that we look closely at the environmental impact report So, that whatever is done, there is done in a way that is sustainable according to our traffic and infrastructure needs. Two, that we engage the residents of District 1, in a way, that makes sure that they are supportive of whatever goes in there. And three, it is done in a way that... [Note: moderator cuts Wallace off at this point due to time]
I just want to complete what I was saying earlier. The third thing that I think is very important when it comes to approaching housing, especially in District 1, and the city, is making sure that we have a balanced approach across the entire city. In a recent city council meeting, a sitting member of the city council suggested increasing the number of housing units that go into the Stoneridge Mall site. I don't think that's a right approach. I think we have to have a balanced approach in which the entire city shares in the burden of housing so that no one district is meant or made to take all the housing needs for our city. So if elected, primary focus of mine will be making sure that we have a balanced and equitable approach to sharing the burden of housing across the city.

Jamie Yee

Yes. Housing is definitely an issue in our community and one of the things that I hear over and over again, is I really hope that my kids can afford to move back here so I don't have to move away somewhere to see grandchildren. I think it's really important for us to focus about that because this community is the way that it is because of so many generations that have been able to live here. it's really given our community that character that we all love so much, So I think the council really needs to balance, what is required by the state at our desire to have more affordable housing. And I really believe that if we have a functional Council that can work together, we can figure out ways to make that happen. We do live under SB 35, that says that we have to retain local control or the state will retain local control, but it does kind of penalize communities that are blocking Building their housing so that developers get to streamline their process and not have to go through the normal approval processes, which is a little bit problematic for us, so we need to pay attention to that, so we don't have, So we're not losing our local control. Workforce housing is something that I've been a huge advocate for, for many, many years. being on the school board, it was painfully obvious to us that teachers could not live in our community, So, Workforce housing is definitely something that this Council needs to look at. Thank you.

Joel Liu

Thank you for the question. Housing is very critical issue in our city and we, we have seen the Mandat from the state and we are required to build, almost 6,000 housing unit. And the city council is, has a gone through the review of the housing unit and submitted the plan, as I understand, And right now is under the EIR, environmental impact review, and for us, we need to continue to go this route, we need to continue to plan, and we needed to advocate for local control. We cannot have a sacramental to to do to develop a bill like sb 35 and too too get rid of our local controls. we can not they have high-rise a five-story building without the parking. And also we need a housing for our workforce for our teachers and firefighters.

The Stoneridge Mall is looking at, revitalization. It is the, it would be a graceful and welcome area to create a transit-oriented village, where there would be a walkability, it is a great opportunity to put more, Well, it has really very little housing or none there right now and it would be a graceful blend of with the intersect of the freeway There, five eighty six eighty It's got good access to to transportation, as well as the BART stations. So, we're looking right now, there's a project being in development for 480 units and we see that as just the beginning of 1400 or more

Julie Testa

I think that they need to work in tandem. I'm very supportive of our businesses and especially our, the heart of our community which is downtown. And I think that our CAP 2.0 already is looking at reductions of GHG throughout the community and I don't think it's an either or. Of course we're going to encourage our businesses and revitalization and/or vitalize. We had such a wonderful revitalization from covid with our outdoor dining and our Park. Our downtown is is more exciting than it's been in years and we want to continue to go toward that, but it's certainly not an either/or. We're going to do both.

Dean Wallace

So, I want to start out by saying, as all residents of Pleasanton feel, I really love the character and charm of our downtown. I went on dates in high school in downtown Pleasanton And I used to study and read at Tully's before it became Pete's. So, my affinity for downtown has been long-standing. I think the city has some great programs in place that have been helping to support and Revitalize our downtown: Weekends on Main, the parklet programs, all those things I am fully supported of. I think there are areas that we can improve though. I think we can look into doing more for pedestrian, bike safty downtown, and across the city. I think we could also look at doing more to solve the never ending saga that is parking in downtown, so that no one has to constantly worry about whether or not they can park in that Bank of America parking spot. But I also think that when it comes to downtown, we need To look at revitalizing it in this way. I think we need to be promoting and inviting more small businesses to do business in downtown Pleasanton. And I think, right now that the council is a little bit over doing the micromanaging of our downtown. we have this active floor, use policy in which there's a lot being done to measure where desks and tables and what sold in a small business. I would like to see us pull back from that and instead fill those empty storefronts in our downtown.

Jamie Yee

Well, I think that we need to do it with a balanced approach, but I do think we need to keep in mind that for small businesses, which make up a lot of our business owners in in Pleasanton is that they're faced with, you know, rising cost of goods and services and that makes it difficult for them to stay competitive. We need to keep that in mind. We also need to keep in mind that it's very difficult for our businesses to attract and retain a adequate Workforce. And small businesses are also facing tax increases and Regulatory fees, state and local that are really difficult for our small businesses. So we need to keep that in mind as we move forward and plan and balance things. So, you know, if we wanted to make some new ordinance, you know about something environmental that they had to do. You know, we really need to keep in mind that they already have a lot of these, these stresses on them already. So I think we need to look at things, you know, in a all the way around picture and not just you know, one side and just only environmental and it's got all work together. But really we need to keep in mind what the small businesses are facing every day to stay competitive and stay in business, because they're very, very much a part of our Vibrant Community and definitely needed their part of what makes Pleasanton Pleasanton.

Joel Liu

Thank you for the question downtown is the heart of our small town play Tintin and I pledged to maintain our our small tongue style and keep our downtown vibrant for the conversation part. As the chair of the committee for energy and environment we have developed a greater Plan called a cap 2.0. And in the plan, we also promote Energy Efficiency, I believe that we can save the resource. We can also continue to keep our business Vettel in our city and for the business aside, myself is an engineer. But I have the experience and manage a multimillion-dollar business and the projects and I'm very strong supporter to the local business. I want to see our business to strive and actually 60 Percentile for the visit City Revenue come from our small business. I want them to thrive and to grow. And as an engineer, I always deal with a trade-off and balance the conservation, balance the business and that's what we do every day as an engineer. I believe I'm uniquely qualified a from my engineering background and the business background to address this issue and the to make sure work present and continue to strive. Thank you.

Jeffery Nibert

Thank you for the question. I am so proud of our downtown. It really is the heart of our city. Pleasanton residents rely on it, for dining, for shopping for entertainment and for socializing. My wife and I enjoy outdoor dining. There we enjoy the vibrant shopping and the retail sector. It's truly, as a vibrant part of our city. Does that mean? It can't be improved? Of course, not. There are improvements. That can be made. When it comes to the needs of businesses downtown, I don't you it as an either/or question as against the needs of climates action and preservation. I think both can be achieved and they can be achieved in harmony. With regard to the sustainability and viability of downtown. Of course there are things that can be done to improve the experience downtown and we should do it there a number of items and capital improvement projects that are on the books on the drawing board, they should be done with regard to the actual ground floor use policy. I was on the Planning Commission. I supported the recent ordinance establishing the actual ground floor use policy to establish 100% use. The policy as it now stands does not require extensive measurements. It got rid of the need for extensive measurements. It's to encourage foot traffic downtown. Thank you.

Dean Wallace

Thank you for that question. I think this is one of the most important questions that we're going to face this election cycle. When it comes to PFAS or the forever chemicals that are seeping into our water supply, there's a lot of uncertainty and anxiety understandably around this issue. You know, as you mentioned, the state and federal governments are currently looking at the most recent research on PFAS and coming up with new regulations and standards for what is an acceptable level of PFAS in our drinking water. And as you said, the city recently put a pause on its plans and I think that given all the uncertainties that currently exists around what an acceptable level is, what the cost will be, what's currently in the water, I think that pause was a good thing. I think that we have to, as a city, continue to work closely with our partners in the region and in the water space, including Zone 7 and DSRSD. I support looking into all the possible solutions to this problem which includes blending of water, greater treatment of water, or further, or looking for new supplies of water. But I think the North Star in all of this and what I want to emphasize is that we must as a city ensure that we have a safe reliable and sustainable supply of drinking water for the residents in Pleasanton. Thank you.

Jamie Yee

I think the pause was a good idea only because my experience in making really tough decisions has to do with making sure that you have enough data. And I feel we're at a place right now where there's just not enough known about it and all the different options aren't really brought forward yet. And I think that the city council needs to support the staff of the city to really prioritize and be able to do the work that they need to do to come up with some recommendations and be able to do the research and all of that takes staff time and we need to prioritize the water issue and and let some other things, slides, that the staff has the adequate time to bring recommendations. But I think that, you know, Zone 7 is our water authority, and we should be looking closer to them. I know that in the past that wasn't always a great relationship between the city and zone seven, but I think that it has to be. Zone Seven is our water authority. We need to have a good relationship there and we really need to make sure that we're looking at data before we make any real decisions. And I think that that is still to come, but the pause was a good idea.

Joel Liu

Thank you for the question. We all want the safe water. As a councilmember getting safe water is my top priority. In Pleasanton, the water issue is a little bit complicated. We have aging wells and we have the drought, and we needed to work with our partners and to deal with the PFAS issue. For this complicated issue there is an engineering part; there is also a business part. Engineering part is, this is a new issue. What technology we needed to choose? Buisness part is, does it make business sense? As a PhD in engineering and worked on water treatment project on the electrical side before, I believe what I'm well qualified to understand that the technical part. And as a leader who has managed the multi-million dollar projects and the business, I believe I'm qualified to understand the business part also. I agree with the current Council. We should pause. We need to pause and the think what to do. And there are many things for us to think and I'm qualified to help the council to decide the best option for our resident to get the safe water. Thank you.

Jeffery Nibert

Thank you. As an engineer and a project management professional I have a perspective on this that comes from managing many such large projects in the past. As a project manager, you need to consider a number of things when managing a project. Cost is certainly one of them. Schedule, resources, and the scope of the project. It's appropriate when planning for a project that when you scope things out, when you are deciding what to do, you learn the risks and the response plans that you intend to have for those risks, you plan out what you intend to do in the case of any of those risk materializing. In this case, we had concerns that the staff identified as with regard to the cost of the program: the capital cost as well as operation and maintenance costs. The concern about resources that the new treatment and well rehab system would require in the future. Concerns about regulations and future regulations that could impose additional requirements on the system. So I support the decision of the council to take a pause right now and take a look at what the alternatives are, the regional water quality supply alternatives. In the meantime, the treatment option remains the plan of record. It's still a viable option and it's one that I would support if it is indeed selected. I do have concerns about water quality reliability from Zone 7.

Julie Testa

Well, I'm so glad that everyone agrees that we made a good decision. It was a hard decision though because we do know that the acceptable levels will be different very soon and just because the identified levels are different doesn't change the risk that is currently involved in the water that has the PFAS. There should be no PFAS in our water. It's a man-made chemical. It doesn't, there should be zero. And I think that the acceptable levels are going to continue to go down because there really should be none. But there's an urgency because we shut down one well and we know that with the change of levels we're almost certainly going to be shutting down the other wells. We do have short-term options, and that would be to purchase water, more water, instead of just 80 percent of our water from Zone 7 we will be purchasing more of it. So while I think the pause was necessary, we should look at our options. There's also an urgency so I believe we're going to be talking about this again, very soon. Thank you.

Jamie Yee

This is a tough question to answer in just in the time we have. Let's see. I really feel that I'll start with the Chiefs Oversight, I guess it's called the Citizen Advisory. I think it's a good idea to have an Advisory board that the chief gets to have some residents meet with them on a regular basis because I really, in my experience with people, they sometimes don't understand really the role of the police department and what their job is of the individual officers. So, I think any time, where community members can meet with the police chief and further understand their role why they're doing things they're doing, it really helps the greater community to understand and embrace their role and support their role. It's really, you know, I guess I got that question asked me "do I believe that there should be an oversight Committee in addition to the Chiefs advisory," and I really feel that might be a little bit too micromanaging. You need to be kind of an expert at some things to be able to provide oversight. So I'm not really sure what that would look like and what that would mean. I would need to really understand what is expected of that particular committee, if it were to take place, but I do think that anytime community members can have a deeper understanding of law enforcement's role it's a good idea.

Joel Liu

Thank you for the question. Public safety is my number one priority in my platform. There are two fold in this equation. Exhibit of military like equipment. I think we definitely should allow the police officer to have the right to exhibit a military like equipment and we need a have them or to educate the public to know that that is a safe haven and when they need it and that's the safe place to go to. And at the second part of the question is about police oversight committee. I don't think our Police Department need police oversight committee. Our city council is elected to represent the constitute in Pleasanton, to represent the people and oversee the safety operation, which includes police department. And, on top of that, our police officers are all professionals and who they are following the policies and procedures the city council has a placed. I do not see the need of [an] oversight committee. Thank you.

Jeffery Nibert

Thank you very much for the question. In regard to community policing, I am so proud of the efforts that our police department and our police professionals have made in terms of getting out there among the public and establishing relations to improve, not only the image, but to convey to people the good work that is being done. In all that I have heard and understood about the police department they act extremely professionally in many, many, if not almost all situations. In regard to school resource officers, 75 percent of parents say that school resource officer are good thing. I've talked to students in high schools themselves who welcome the school resource officers, and that that type of community policing is very fine and good. I understand the concern about possible glorifying of equipment that might look like military style equipment, but I want kids to know that with our police department responding to emergencies that this is what help will look like. They need to know that when responses materialize that these are the professionals and the good people and they know what that will look like. The effectiveness of the Police Chief's Advisory Board is something that I have heard very good things about. They've gone to monthly meetings now as I understand it and it's good.

Julie Testa

Okay. Does everyone know that crime is trending downward in Pleasanton, significantly? It went down significantly during covid for obvious reasons, but it's still trending downward even as we rebound from covid. So, the, you know, we're so fortunate to have such a great community and such a great Police Department. The CAB is not oversight. Right now, the city council is oversight and I'm appreciative of that because prior to about a year ago there was no oversight of our police department, which I don't think is okay. Even a great department requires, should have oversight, so I take it seriously. I think that the bill of AB 481 that required the city council to oversee approving the military equipment is a significant and good responsibility, but I don't think the city council should be the oversight. I do believe that we need a professional oversight body and it should be an independent auditor. There are other cities that use independent auditor, and it gives community members a place to turn when there's a concern.

Dean Wallace

Thank you for the question. Like the overwhelming majority of residents of Pleasanton, I think our Police Department is doing an excellent job. If elected, I pledge to preserve funding for our Public Safety and SROs. I think our city and police department is clearly in good hands, capable hands. When I look to questions of whether or not there should be more oversight of anybody or in this case, the police department, what I'd want to ask is there evidence of a need for it. As it stands now, I don't think Pleasanton has that need for greater oversight. You look around at other cities in the Bay Area, Antioch for example, a need is clearly come in the city of Antioch. And I want to say that I'll be the first to call for more oversight or greater reporting should anything come up that shows that there is a need. As it stands right now, I don't see that need. When it comes to the community policing, something I'm very supportive of. I also support making sure that our police department has all the tools and equipment they need in the training like bias training and descalation techniques, and making sure that mental health crisies have the appropriate response. Those are all things I think that our Police Department is doing a very good job of handling. And I want to be as supportive as possible of our police department and our chief, if elected to the city council, thank you.

So, it's a little bit confusing to me, because I've seen things that are maybe different so maybe I'm looking at the wrong thing. But I would like to point out that there was a survey that was done last fall FM3 research, and the question to the residents was: "What do you think the most serious issue facing residents of Pleasanton that you would like to see the government do something about?" And crime was number one. And it was up, the perception of our residents, was up 10%. So there's some imbalance here of crime is going down, but people are feeling like it's not. So I just wanted to raise that as an issue that we need to look into a little bit more.

Crime is definitely down. I do have this, the most current statistics from our department. Property crime is down significantly, not just since 2019, but pre-covid. But, you know, going back to 2017 our property crimes were significantly higher than they currently are, and they continue to trend downwards. And violent crime, homicide, rape, robbery, fortunately, we don't have a lot of that. Everything has trended down. There's a small increase in aggravated assault that is within the margin of error. So, even that the overall statistics for violent crime in Pleasanton is a serious downward trend.

Joel Liu

Thank you for the question. I saw the [artist rendering picture of] the five-story building. It almost [breaks my heart]. It is in my district. Imagine you are the next door neighbor. You have one single family house and the next one is going to build a 5-story housing and there is no parking. How do you feel? That's what I feel. I just don't think that project is sitting in the right place in Pleasanton. We do need a housing for teachers, firefighters, and many other working families. But the location of that housing is wrong and is mandated, kind of, by SB 35. I talked with our city manager and it seems to me there are not much options. But we really needed to do is we needed to have more local control. We cannot have a Sacramento to let us to take all our control away. Our city is well planned, planned for generations. And we cannot have this kind of housing and we need to work with our legislators and the voice out and work with them to get a solution. Thank you.

Jeffery Nibert

Thank you very much for the question. You know, working as a planning commissioner, I see our hard-working staff in the planning department in the community development department. They do so much work, so much good work for the city, often behind the scenes, and they rarely get recognized. They are very capable of doing the work to implement standard processes and to make sure that permit conditions are complied with. The state has taken that local expertise away from Pleasanton. Our expertise cannot be applied to things like the Harrison Street project. I spoke a little bit about this in the earlier answer to AB 2011. These are the type of bills that my opponent's boss goes wild over. Bill after bill after bill. Taking away local control. Stripping away local expertise. That monstrosity at Harrison street should never be built. Of course, it probably will. All they have to do is check the boxes at the planning department. They get their permit, they can go ahead and build it. No worries about parking. No worries about towering over their neighbors. This is more appropriate at another location. There are other places in Pleasanton where we could use that type of housing. This is not it.

Julie Testa

So absolutely, it's the wrong place. In another part of the community, in Hacienda a five story would not be so devastating. This, you absolutely. If you haven't seen the artist renderings, it towers over its closest property, which is a cute little one storey Bungalow. And there's two story apartments across the street. And so if it was a two story or even a three-story it wouldn't be offensive, but this five-story and zero parking in our already burdened parking burdened downtown. I have been working to say we're going to work with our legislators. We've been doing that. We write letters lots and lots of letters to the legislators. They're ignored. We need to do more. When SB 9 threatened, in fact, ended ended single-family zoning throughout the state, ended single-family zoning throughout the state, your neighbor can now do a four-plex or 6 Plex under SB 9. 250 cities came together and a letter was sent to the legislature and Governor saying "please don't do this" and they did it anyway. The governor signed it the next day. We have to do more and I have been working with a group Coalition of other electeds to do exactly that. We have alternatives. We have things we can do to fight back, but our city has to fight back.

Dean Wallace

Thank you for the question. I want to start off by saying that I've also seen the renderings of the site and plan project on Harrison Street. I want to say that if I had a decision to make over whether or not I think that fits there I would say no. But I do want to lay out a few things about about prop 35 -- SB 35, which is the bill we're talking about here. SB 35 was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in 2017. That's five years ago. So, to answer the second part of your question, the city now has had five years to take the steps needed so that a project like Harrison Street wouldn't happen in the first place. In SB35, there is a provision that says, if City meets there. [Note: PW footage cuts out the remainder of Candidate Wallace's response. I have reached out to Candidate Wallace to ask for the remainder of his response. If you have any information, please reach out to me at pleasanton@btor.me]

Jamie Yee

I won't repeat a lot of what Candidate Wallace has said because I agree with a lot of it, but SB 35, that we're living under right now, penalizes the cities who didn't really do their job. You know we had the five years to come up with the numbers and the plan and that didn't happen, so the city actually gave up its local control. They had it and they could have had it, but they gave it up because they didn't have the right numbers. And so then now we're hit with streamlining. And it really is properties that are near, I think, a half a mile within public transportation. I think that if our city wanted to do anything to amend this bill, it would be getting a provision, maybe, that public transportation had to be ongoing. It's right next to the ACE Train which doesn't really run all the time except just for commuters. So if you were living there without a car, how would you get to where you needed to go if it was non commute times. So to me, that's the part that seems a little bit silly and that would be the change that I would like to look into. But I think that our our city council over the past five years gave up the local control and it is really unfortunate. I live near the downtown and I really don't want to see it. But I do question if anybody will rent it, given that there is no parking. So remains to be seen. Thank you.

Okay, the city is one of four hundred and eighty cities in the state of California. I already said earlier, we built, Pleasanton built 370 affordable units in our last cycle. We were better, percentage-wise, of achieving our lowest affordability, better than any other city in Alameda County percentage-wise. And I can support that with the housing, the state's own numbers. Only 29 cities out of the entire state, 480, actually were able to meet their affordable housing goals, only 29 across the state. And those were cities that were so small that they had tiny, tiny little numbers. We did not. We have been set up to fail. All cities are being set up to fail with these mandates because they want the ministerial and the streamlining so we give the keys to the city to our developers.

It's a neat little trick that councilmember Testa does there when she says that we met our affordable housing goals, more than most cities in the state, because she's using percentage as a way of measuring that. When it comes to building affordable housing in this city, the city has failed. And it has failed according to the residents of Pleasanton, because building more affordable housing for our residents is the top concern when the city of Pleasanton asked our residents what were their top concerns. And the cost of affordable housing, even just affordable, is insanely high. I pay 2500 dollars a month right now to rent a one-bedroom in this city. The city has failed to build affordable housing and to just point to a percentage of a small number of units that's not saying much of anything.

Jeffery Nibert

Thank you very much for the question. I really appreciate it. You're correct. The Stoneridge Mall framework will significantly affect the area in which I live in, District 1. This, the new Stoneridge Mall offers a chance to reimagine a whole new community, to reimagine the whole area, not only with the mall, but around the mall. It's an opportunity for our city and our residents to come together and decide what we want to see, what we want to envision, what we want to build there. The vision that I have is of a regional attraction that can exemplify open space, can emphasize high-quality housing, that offers a great opportunity for green grass, for walkability, for sustainability. If you look at some of the other developments that our city consultants referred to in the city council meeting the last time, the examples given are beautiful examples, are beautiful developments that I think we can be proud of as a city. Upscale development. Outdoor restaurants could be a very beautiful amenity. We must be careful that we don't piecemeal a solution for the Stoneridge area framework. It needs to be a comprehensive plan that takes into account all of the stakeholders that live there and adjacent. The environmental impacts and other impacts must be studied well and must be addressed. Traffic, water, air quality, they all need to be mitigated and or eliminated in whatever plan we come up with. What the framework is will guide the future conceptual and actual designs. So, thank you.

Julie Testa

I do think it's a wonderful opportunity for reinvestment in our mall.Revitalization, we need to to revitalize it. The developer of the mall, the owner of the mall has been asking for years to make changes. He had a plan that had come before us pre covid that he then paused during covid, and it's unlikely that he will want to go through forward with that same plan because it was a theater and Whole Foods-type grocery store. But you know, post pandemic a theater is probably not something someone is going to invest in at this point, so we're waiting to see what comes back. But it is a wonderful opportunity to have a walkable, residential, mixed use village. It's a very exciting opportunity and that, who I think it was candidate Wallace suggested that it was just wanting to dump housing, in one area. You know, that's the whole thing about plan development right? We wouldn't take them all and and put it in the middle of downtown. There are areas where some development is appropriate and others not. So I will leave it there. I think it's just a wonderful opportunity and I'm looking forward to seeing what is brought forward.

Dean Wallace

Thank you for the question. This is a question that I'm really excited to answer because when I was thinking about whether or not I wanted to do this and run for this seat, looking ahead at the fact that the city council was going to be charting many of the elements that will be the future of Pleasanton is why I decided to run and Stoneridge Mall is at the heart of that. I do think it's a exciting opportunity for this city to do something that's new and exciting and vibrant, that's mixed use right next to the BART station and transit options. I want to make sure that whatever is done there is done right, which is why I say I'm worried about putting too much or overloading our infrastructure and traffic needs by putting too much housing there, but I do think it's an exciting opportunity to have a planed space that is, as many people have already said, exciting with retail and open space. That also gets a lot of community benefits, maybe a community space and park in that area, and, like was mentioned, the reason the Stoneridge site needs a framework planning process is there are four different owners of the Stoneridge Mall site. So it's bringing those owners together, all the different stakeholders, making sure that we don't have sort of a hodgepodge development there and that it is comprehensive, but it's an exciting opportunity, and like I said before, I want to make sure that the environmental impact report is looked at closely so that we don't overload our infrastructure needs. I also make sure that the community is engaged throughout this process so that whatever gets built there is something that they can support. And I also want to make sure that there's a balanced approach. So it is a very exciting opportunity. If you look at city center and what's that has done for San Ramon, I would love to see something like that done at the Stoneridge Mall site. And it's an extra exciting for me because, like I said earlier, I live right across from Stoneridge Mall, so I'd be able to visit there on a regular basis.

Jamie Yee

Well, I remember when Stoneridge Mall had its grand opening. Shows long I've been around. So it's really sad to me to see how it looks now, a little bit sad. And so I'm looking forward to the revitalization of the Stoneridge Mall area. And I do agree that the framework is really, really important because we need to have continuity between all four of the owners. I think it's also really important to consider what is there because Stoneridge mall brought in a lot of our sales tax revenue, so it's really important that it's planned in such a way that we maximize the amount of sales tax that we can receive from the mall. It's one of our money makers. And if we want to continue to fund all of the amenities that we want in our city, fund our police, and our fire, and our city staff well into the future we need to be focused on our revenues and sales taxes as a huge part of that. So however that gets developed, you need to make sure that we've got good sales tax revenue coming out of the mall. I would like to see some really nice bike paths, you know, so people in town could actually ride their bikes to the mall and not have to use a car, and I think that would be a really great add. But we have so many great examples around the Bay Area of centers that, you know, we all go to and we have to drive far away to, you know, Broadway Plaza, and Santana Row, and now the City Centre. And, you know, if you've been to Europe, a lot of the greatest shopping areas are right near the public transportation, and that's where the shopping has grown from. So I think we have a lot of opportunity, but I would like the our engagement that the city has with this project to be really true and authentic for the citizens. Often times there's too much of a "check the box. What do you think about this plan?" And I really think that the city should invest in some sort of, simulation tool that I've seen used in other cities, kind of like SimCity. So, a lot of community members can really get engaged, get involved, and do a simulation of what the framework would could look like, And I think that'd be super fun.

Joel Liu

Thank you for the question. The current situation is which the pandemic and with the online shopping, the sales revenue is dropping at the Stoneridge Mall and I believe we are losing some anchor business and I think the first part of the question is everyone probably agree. We need a rethink. We need a reimagine. We need a plan ahead. What we want to do at Stoneridge mall, that part of the city, and to me that's not only a challenge, that's also opportunity. Whenever we are facing this kind of opportunity it's probably happened once in many years, and that's a great opportunity for us to rethink and rethink for our city, for our resident. As an engineer and buisnessman, I handle this kind of opportunity all the time. And to me at the city, as a city council member, I don't have a preset agenda and I don't have any special interest, and what I will do is I will listen to you. I will listen to all the residents in that area, I will listen to all the residents in Pleasanton. I think it's not the "we" design how the Stoneridge Mall looks like, the new Stoneridge Mall look like. It is you and everyone in Pleasanton to develop that. And I want to read a sentence in my website. No matter the issue at hand, my guiding principle will be to listen and collaborate. Listen to you and your concerns, collaborate with your local leaders, and experts in our community to find the best solution for Pleasanton. We hired a consulting firm to to do a framework for us and we want to listen more from you and I think we have the great resource to plan a great opportunity for our bright future. Thank you.

Julie Testa

You know, I think what's important about the CAP plan is that the city really embrace and walk the walk not just talk the talk because we have not - on the same night that the we were approving, that I approved the CAP 2.0, [I] voted in favor of it of course, we were approving a fleet of vehicles, a fleet of carbon emission vehicles and I questioned why we hadn't looked into, as the CAP plan says we should do, into hybrid or electric vehicles for our fleet vehicles because there were highly rated alternatives that were hybrid. And so that's one of many examples, I've heard from different members of our climate committee is that the City really needs to do a better job of integrating the CAP in our plan, not just expected of our residents and our businesses, but that we need to lead by example. So I think it's a very good plan. We can-- we should always try to achieve more, the state's pushing us to to do more, but I do think it's a really good goal and we need to lead by example.

Dean Wallace

Thank you for the question. I think that when we look at some of the challenges we're facing right now, when it comes to the drought and starting to worry about whether or not we're going to have enough water to meet our needs now and into the future or you look at the heat wave we all just went through in the past week, you see the need for why we need to take action when it comes to climate. I think that the CAP 2.0 plan is an excellent plan and a starting point. I think it's incumbent upon the city to see that through. I think one thing when you watch recent meetings of Commissions and the City Council when it comes to talking about housing element plan, the Stoneridge framework, or the trail master plan, I think one thing that the city needs to do a little bit better job of is bringing them all together and telling residents and also City staff how they play on one another, making sure that there's references to the CAP plan in the housing element plan. For example, I think there could be a better utilization of all the different plans and how they interact done by the city. I also like seeing that we do have things like the trail master plan. I think there are areas where our city can be doing more to encourage more pedestrian traffic more bike lane traffic, putting in protected bike lanes when you can, upgrading our trails to make sure that they can sustain the traffic that they need to have when they're used in different ways, and I also think that we need to do a better job of seeing through some of the plans when it comes to trails or working with East Bay Regional Park District on some of the different plans they have. We can be a better Regional partner with our various Special Districts so that the plans that are in and subject to their jurisdiction interact in a way that makes sense for Pleasanton and meets our climate action goals

Jamie Yee

I work for the government and we do a lot of plans and there's a lot of time and energy that goes into, you know, everybody's sitting around paying consultants to come up with plans and every time I'm always the one in the room that says: "While this plan is great, but how is it going to be implemented? How are people going to know about it? How are people going to put it into their daily work or their daily lives?" So, you know, I'd like to see an addition to the plan that that's not just action, but implementation and that I think we can get somewhere and then we can tweak it as we go to see if we need to do more, which I'm guessing we probably need to do more. You know, I'd really like to, I just really envisioned more people having drought friendly front yards. I just I look around and we're just looking at dead grass now, and wouldn't it be nicer to see drought plants rather than dead grass? But I would really like to see more and more action in the implementation, not just an action plan

Joel Liu

I'm one of the main contributors to Climate Action Plan 2.0. I would like to use this opportunity to really thank the City Staffs, to thank our committee members, to thank the community members who participated in this process. We took about the two years to work with a consulting firm and the many people in our community to develop the this plan. This plan is for our future, for our next generation. I believe what we have done our best and we got it approved by the city council and the next step is we needed to find ways and to locate the budget and to really execute the plan. We can have as many plans and without execution we still plan is still plan, and that is one of the reason why I'm running. I'm not only running for the public safety, but also for the sustainability and I wanted to be in the Council and the to help the city implement this plan and the to make our city continue to be sustainable.

Jeffery Nibert

Thank you very much for the question. You know, when I hear the amount of effort that citizens of Pleasanton put in, that committee members, commission members and staff have put in, I'm thrilled that they came up with the CAP 2.0. I read much of it a few weeks ago. It's a very good document. It has lots in it and it's very wide-ranging. Could it do more? Yeah, there are things it could do more of. Does it go far enough to safeguard our children's futures? I think it has lots of actions that the city can follow up on and they should be measured and monitored to be sure they're followed up on. One of the concerns that I have in regard to the greenhouse gases. It's a follow-up on Julie Testa's comments earlier. Our city recently purchased a fleet of vehicles, of carbon-based vehicles. We could have purchased EV vehicles, of course, you know, electric vehicles, but the cost is of course, higher. We're dealing with budget, constraints. It's a matter of choices. The city is facing problems with HPAC in a number of its City facilities such as the Aquatic Park. Instead of just replacing HPAC with in-kind equipment, you, we could upgrade and have equipment that is more climate-friendly. It's like buying a furnace. You have a choice of saying 80% efficient furnace, or you can spend more money and get a 97%. Well, 97%, you know, would accomplish a lot of the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the city must take a forward acting approach in order to spend the money and determine where the funds are going to come from.

Dean Wallace

Thank you for the question. I think that, you know, like most residents of Pleasanton, I'm also concerned about traffic and traffic congestion on our local streets. I commute to and from Oakland most days to get to work and I'm always kind of looking at my Waze program and trying to decide if I should take the back streets today or stay on the freeway. I think that there are creative solutions that our city can look at doing. One of the things that comes to mind is working with our schools and other partners in the area when it comes to high traffic times and seeing if we could do something about when students are picked up... and when they're let off of school. I also think we could, you know, promote things like ride-sharing and seeing if we could have programs where parents work together to make sure that we alleviate some of the congestion there. And like I said earlier, one of my priorities have elected is to make Pleasanton even more pedestrian and bike friendly and putting in protected bike lanes on our major thoroughfares so that, you know, rather than worrying about whether or not it's safe to take a bike to go to Trader Joe's or wherever it is in the middle of the day, that our biking community and people who want to use bikes can feel safe doing that. I also think that when it comes to West Las Positas Boulevard I would like to see the city act sooner and quicker on the plans that were in there. I think that when it comes to making it a priority on our budget, for me, it would be one of the top priorities. West Las Positas Boulevard is the southern portion of my district, district 1, and doing all we can to alleviate traffic concerns there would be a top priority for me especially when it comes to decisions around our budget.

Jamie Yee

Alright, another big question for not that much time. I think that school traffic is something that, you know, we on the school board always were trying to deal with to get people out of their cars to do you know, the walking school bus, to do more carpooling. It's a really difficult thing to do in this community but I think it's not impossible. I think that it's going to take the whole Community telling people why they need to not drive so much to get their kids to and from school. One of the things that always concerns me is the idling. You know, when people are waiting to do the pickup the idling creates more problems with our air quality, that's always been a concern for me. But I think the main traffic issue is really a regional issue. I think a lot of the cut-through traffic and the traffic coming in and out of Pleasanton is happening because so many people are moving further out and having to commute this direction and so it's giving us a lot of congestion. So it really needs to be a regional effort if we want to deal with the traffic, that's on the freeway. In town traffic, you know, I think like candidate Wallace is saying more bike pads. We're going to see more people be interested in those electric bikes, so we need to be able to have bike paths and places that people can ride those so they can get to and from and that will get people out of their cars and really reduce a lot of the traffic and it will be way easier to park. So yes, this is definitely an issue that the city council should take up at some point and really have a plan for it. I would really support that.

Joel Liu

Thank you for the question regarding the traffic. We are talking about school-related traffics and talk about the cut-through traffics, and the for school related traffic one of my campaign priority is a strengthening the City at School District's partnership. There are many things that we can work together, and for the the school related traffic on that can be one of the things we work together, which the school and we can work together to think some method and innovative ways to improve the situation. And for cut-through traffic I think on the pandemic has a changed the working habit. Many people work remotely and they don't have to have a long commute from a Stockton and all the way to Silicon Valley area. That helped us a little bit on the highway side, but it doesn't mean that the traffic will not come back. I think we will have to find innovative ways. I'm coming from an engineering background and I see that there are computer apps and sometimes encourage and motivate people to carpool together and we can reduce the number of cars on the street. So there are many things we can think outside of the box to address the traffic issues. Thank you.

Jeffery Nibert

Thank you very much for the question. Yeah, as a matter of public safety, it gratifies me that Pleasanton residents take such a great concern about the matters of safety around our public schools and the safety of our kids having to contend with traffic. It's a major concern of mine as well. Traffic needs to be a condition that is a topic for all new development in the city. The West Los Positas Improvement project is on the board. It's on the plan for construction in the future. As a member of the bicycle, not only a member but the the vice chair of the Bicycle, Pedestrian, Trails committee I know that the improvement project is being combined with the bicycle and pedestrian trail lane addition to West Las Positas, so that is going to be a great Improvement. Once that happens, it's a matter of of funding and make sure we have the resources necessary to do that. There are number of grant applications that are in process. You know, I pledge, with regard to West Las Positas, the very topic of the question cut through traffic, especially if the West Las Positas 680 interchange were ever to be built it would tremendously impact cut-through traffic. We'd have much, much more traffic exiting from 680 onto West Las Positas and transiting through the city to the east. Because this is in my district, I pledge to oppose any construction on that West Las Positas 680 Interchange. I know the Caltrans is the owner of the land. It's ultimately their decision, but there are things that as a city we can do to prevent that kind of cut through traffic from making things even worse.

Julie Testa

Okay, alright, you stole some of the things I was going to share Jeff, good job. So I'll start with the schools. One of the things that concerns me is our schools have always had an enrollment concerns. Even with with covid, it took a worldwide pandemic to actually finally have the decline in enrollment that the school district had been planning for, for a long time. But even with that, it only brought school enrollment down to a level that is below what their increased levels were, but still they're above what our enrollment levels are identified in our Pleasanton general plan. And so with 20% with RHNA, the state is mandating a 20% increase in our housing over the next eight years, there's going to be residential increase and increase students, but the school district still does not, they didn't build the promised Elementary School that had been committed to on the previous bond that we passed. They don't have any plans to build any additional elementary schools or middle schools. There's some talk about a creative high school, but the reason that it's so important right now they're asking that all of their land be rezoned for housing, all of their vacant land be rezoned for housing at a time that we're increasing by 20% of our housing stock. That cross traffic would be caused by that, because this school is full and so the students there have to travel across town, that's the longterm planning that we should be doing and avoiding.

Jamie Yee

You know, I have 12 years of experience on a public governance board. All of it wasn't always super functional, so I know what it's like to be on a board when things are not a majority, I also know what it's like to be on a majority, so I know the feeling of when things are going great and when things are not. And when things aren't going great the community loses confidence in that body, work doesn't get done, and in the case of our city, in this past year our city manager has left, the city clerk has left, the director of HR has left, and the Director of Finance has left. So there clearly is something going on with the council that all of these very good professional staff of ours have moved on. I think that it's really important that this is this is kind of something that is hard to do or understand unless you're actually in the seat. There's no real training to know how to navigate a situation of being on a dysfunctional board or how you would get to those votes, but I guess the question is how would you get there, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication and probably a lot of offline conversations to build those relationships to come to some common ground. You know, not everybody is going to get along and that's what's wonderful about democracy. It's having those conversations and coming to a compromise to come up with the best solution. But a lot of people um right now on the council can't have those conversations, so the conversations need to happen to be able to make the good decisions. I would really work hard to ensure that that would happen. It's a very big responsibility ability and I have a lot of experience with it.

Joel Liu

Thank you for the question. I talked, I met and talked with the new city manager, Jerry. We had a very good conversation and I saw his resume and I know he has worked in the city for many years and I have a full confidence on him to lead our city and as a committee member for the committee on energy and environment I have worked with many staff. All the worker relationships are very positive and I enjoy the working with them. I'm aware and I have watched the many City Council meetings, I'm aware that the council is often divided in recent key topics and I come from a background I don't have any special interest, I don't have any special agent, I come from a long volunteer activity and I love the Community I love to give back to the community. what I want to do I want to build a cohesive community and I want to listen to everyone and try to find the common ground and I believe with that we will be more easier to find a solution best for our community, for our city, and get all the people agree with each other. And for the second part of the question, um, can you quickly repeat the second part, sorry. [Moderator: your District priorities]. Oh, my district priority, I think district election is a new thing. We are all learning about it. I think we should put Pleasanton first. Thank you.

Jeffery Nibert

Well thank you very much, I appreciate the question. I too had a meeting with our new city manager Jerry Bowden. Let me tell you, he is a delight to talk to, to learn from. I have full confidence based on my meeting with him and the capabilities and his vision for the future of the city. The priorities for my district, if they were not to align with what's best for the entire community, of course as a council member I would represent the entire city, but also be cognizant of the needs and desires of people in my district. I think part of the approach I would take goes back to the public service values that I mentioned before of being solution centered and being a great teammate, respect for others, listening and serving with a volunteer heart. Highly effective people, one of the uh values of highly effective people according to Stephen Covey is go for win-win and that would be something that I would do. The key to Solutions will be public engagements, regular involvement with City staff outside experts, and the council. And of course substantial follow through to reach agreements and to make sure that actions get done. So to encourage rigorous debates on the council and when fellow council members and to go for uh unanimous decisions I think the same type of thinking would apply. As someone who espouses the values of public service I think it's incumbent upon people to put in the extra mile, putting the extra effort to try to achieve solutions that the vast majority can be satisfied with.

Julie Testa

Respectful and open-minded is what every council member should bring to the council discussions, the debates, but making unanimous votes and compromising what someone believes I don't think is what we should be looking at doing. I can think of a couple of examples where I was the one on a 4-1 vote, and I really believed my position was valid and relevant and I don't think unanimous is what people should be going for. As long as everyone is listening, willing to, there have been other decisions where I thought I would be going one direction but after listening to the discussion and debate I voted in a different manner because I took into consideration what my colleague said. So I'm a little confused by um I think for someone I would not have a lot of respect for someone who compromises their integrity in their vote. As long as you're open-minded, genuinely trying to understand both or all perspectives I think that's what we should all be going for. As far as the council majority it shifts. Well, there tends to be alignment on some issues. Often we've had votes where it's shifted and it's not the same people thinking the same. As far as the overall Pleasanton, I've already been on the council where we looked at Pleasanton as a whole and I'm disappointed by the districts but I've committed and we've all committed to looking at the overall best interest of Pleasanton. I will only say one more thing and that is I will ask candidate Yee how many superintendents she went through on her time on the school board.

Dean Wallace

Thank you for the question. To start off with my answer to this one, a lot has been said about my current boss, I want to make clear what my current role is. I am not in fact a legislative staffer for my boss. I'm her district director and my history of work for candidates including Congressman Eric Swalwell our current candidate has been either serving as a field director for them on their campaigns or in this case the district director for my current boss. And in approaching those jobs, key to it is building teams to knock on doors and talk to voters or building teams to help constituents in our districts. And, when it comes to my work for the assembly member I work for, managing her district office means managing teammates who have to interact in many ways with constituents who a lot of times come to us upset about something they're dealing with or they come to us wanting to find a solution and have no idea how to find it. So we work hard to get those constituents the help they need and to show them the ways we can help them and then, you know, if we show empathy and we're collaboratively with them and listen to them we get things done. So I think that I would bring that experience of working collaboratively with folks to get to solutions if elected. I also want to say that you know, when it comes to the city council if you watch the past year of decisions there have been a lot of decisions made by this council in which residents didn't feel that they were appropriately communicated with. A few of them that come to mind is the decision whether or not to have Donlon field on the housing element plan, the decision on where the water recycling plant station was placed, and more recently the city serve situation. I think all these are indicative of a failure of both leadership and communication by our current Council and if elected I want to help rectify those situations.

Jamie Yee

Okay, this has been fun. I know. It's a sick, kind of fun, but it's fun. So I'd like to start by saying, you know, what do you red-winged blackbirds and tall curbs on Main Street, for the horse carriages and the first traffic lights in Pleasanton all have in common? These are some of the many things that I remember since my parents moved us here from Berkeley in 1969. Change does happen. I've been reflecting about all the changes and the growth over the years. I wonder what it would've been like if the council the city council 50 years ago had a housing cap and didn't approve any housing. Today we would not have Pleasanton Meadows, Val Vista, Birdland, Del Prado, and the Valley Trails neighborhood. Today, these are many of the neighborhoods people choose to move to and to attend our high quality education programs. I encourage residents of Pleasanton to get involved and engaged to help shape the future of Pleasanton. Smart and planned growth is important to the financial future and the quality life we all do really value. We need reasonable discussions for reasonable solutions. I envision Pleasantons continued success through measured growth, sustainable financial resources. Our city will be safe and secure through its fire and police departments, and it will be a city where children will also want to live and raise their families. We will enjoy maintained -- well-maintained city spaces, thriving businesses, clean and safe water, and increase community engagement and involvement. The character of Main Street still remains iconic, and the Museum on Main receives more community support to be able to do more education to our residents to help them learn about our past so they'll be able to move into the future without fear. I have a proven track record of 12 years in public governance and oversight of 160 million plus budget setting policy, hiring, and had the pleasure of supervising the PUSD superintendents and experience working with and collaboratively with the PUSD staff. I have a deep understanding of our community, experience with constituent engagement, and understanding of labor negotiations and the role of a city council member. I plan to live here in Pleasanton for the rest of my life. And all the decisions made by the city council will affect me and my family for the rest of my days. I'm deeply and truly invested. I have the courage and dedication to keep this city on track. Should I be fortunate enough to be elected to this city council I would be the first Asian American woman to be elected since the city became a city in 1894. The last person of color on the city council was Floyd Murray, which was 1972 to 1975. That was 47 years ago. Our community is now 37 percent Asian and its time to balance the representation of our community. District 3, I would be honored to have your vote. And please visit my website, jamieyee.com. Thank you,

Dean Wallace

Thank you again to the Pleasanton weekly for hosting us tonight. You know, when I was first deciding whether or not I wanted to do this, whether or not I wanted to run for Pleasanton city council, I met with people who I respect admire and who care about me and what I tell them is, if I do this, I do run for City Council, I want to change the tone of the housing discussion here in Pleasanton. And, these being people who love and care about me, their response, usually was something like: "Dean, I don't think it's a good idea to talk about housing in Pleasanton." And, while these folks meant well, and wanted the best for me, I am running because I want to change the tone of the housing discussion here in Pleasanton, because I don't think it's okay that we're failing so many of our young people here in Pleasanton, and I don't think it's okay that some people take the position that our graduates of Amador and Village and Foothill of tomorrow will just have to come to terms with the fact that they won't be able to come back here to Pleasanton in the future, that they won't be able to call Pleasanton their home again in the future because they can't afford to live here. But, as I've been running my campaign, I've seen reasons for hope. As I mentioned earlier, the city of Pleasanton recently did a survey in which they asked the residents of Pleasanton "What is the one issue you want to see the city of Pleasanton, this city council, do something about?" And number one, on that list was the lack of affordable housing options in Pleasanton and the cost of housing in Pleasanton. And I have hope, because when I knock on doors and talk to parents of younger children who are in our schools who moved here for the schools and who took out a 1.5 or two million dollar mortgage on their home and probably used the entire life savings for the down payment on the home. They're worried about whether their kids will be able to live in the future. Or I talk to parents of kids who moved away to Portland or Austin or Seattle, they tell me they lament the fact that their kids can't live here anymore because they can't afford to live here. And when I go to events and I talk about housing, what I've been enjoying is when people come up to me afterwards and say, in varying degrees of whispers, "Dean no I agree with you on housing." So, I am running to change the tone on housing here in Pleasanton, and I do believe that our city needs to be doing much more to promote affordable housing and build more housing here in Pleasanton, especially workforce housing for our teachers and first Responders and younger workers in a way that makes sense for Pleasanton and fits our communities character and charm. And in a way that is supported by our infrastructure and traffic needs. And also in a way that protects and preserves our neighborhoods' public safety. And it would be an honor if I could earn your vote to work on doing just that as a member of the Pleasanton City Council. Thank you.

Julie Testa

Pleasanton is a beautiful place for all and a wonderful place for children to grow and flourish which is why many of us were drawn here. I raised my family in Pleasanton and have been active in the community for more than 30 years, advocating for schools and supporting families. I have worked to balance infrastructure, water, schools, roads, and service with housing, growth, and development through statewide advocacy. Harrison Street, a five-story in the middle of our downtown with zero parking, is only the beginning. It is the first. We've identified there are many other sites in Downtown that could follow and completely changing what we love about the heart of Pleasanton. But it's not just that. When I get a phone call from a supporter, very agitated, very upset, saying "Julie, why didn't I get a postcard? How did this happen with?" And I'm trying to understand what they're upset about. And they said: "A truck pulled out in front of my house and a crane lifted a house off of it and dropped it in my neighbor's backyard where I had, only hours earlier, sunlight and privacy. Now, I have a 16-foot wall of an ADU." That's what local control is being moved. We've always allowed ADUs, but we would have, in the past had the opportunity for that house, that was dropped in someone's backyard, to come before Planning Commission and then City Council and we could have said: "You can do the ADU, because we certainly allowed ADUs, but it has to be done in a way that doesn't have that impact on your neighbor." Do you know that a truck can pull in front of your neighbor's house and they can drop a house in their front yard? Do you understand what has happened and how things have changed? When we hear about the need for affordability. That is a, those are economic factors. That is not something that supply and demand and dropping houses on someone's front yard is going to cure. What we need to do, we need our legislators to be creating laws that take on the real issue and those are economic issues because they all know that the laws that they're passing in Sacramento that allow a house to drop in your neighbor's front yard or your other neighbor to build a four-plex or six-plex and instead of the one house that was there, or as my, dear friend, Mary Reading, lives three houses down from the Harrison project, she is now going to have, where there was one lovely house with a picket fence in the Rose Garden for the last 50 years, there's going to be a monolithic project with no parking that absolutely will cost us a fortune in trying to mitigate the traffic, the parking impacts that will be caused by that. And by the way, the city absolutely looked at everything that we could possibly look at to work with the developer to do something different and they just weren't, it wasn't possible. We really did try. So we need to really look at what our options as a city are. This isn't a lack of desire to build housing. We did three hundred percent of our market rate housing in the last cycle. We need to have local control and decision-making on how that's done.

Jeffery Nibert

Thank you very much. Thank you to the Pleasanton Weekly again for staging the forum. I am running for City Council in District 1 which encompasses Northwest Pleasanton. To summarize my priorities they are: 1) the utmost in public safety and emergency preparedness, support of our police and fire departments, and other professionals that are responsible for Public Safety in our city is paramount. Smart growth. Growth must be measured, as the city has been doing and has done great job of in the past, and provide housing for our children, ur teachers and our city workers. We must do a better job of creating affordable housing. We have done in the past, the city has the capability, they can do in the future. We've accomplished such previous projects as [conjugate Gardens and sunflower Hill]. The City of San Ramon recently, as publishing the Pleasanton Weekly, I believe accomplished a development of 123 senior living units. We could do the same. There's no reason why Pleasanton can't move forward in areas such as affordable housing, and to do it in ways that are planned and fit in with the character of Pleasanton. Also safe drinking water coming out of our taps. All residents expect our drinking water was coming into our sink to be safe. We as a city must ensure that our drinking water meets all applicable regulatory standards, especially with regards to PFAS. If we need to build a treatment facility and we have the wells, it costs forty six million dollars as has been proposed and that the evaluations of alternatives show that that is borne out, then, in working with the council, the city staff, and experts, perhaps that's the opportunity and the option that is chosen. If it is getting other Regional water quality supplies from Zone 7, again, having studied all the options and alternatives if that works out and it's the smart thing to do then that option should be chosen. And I think the plan of record of the treatment facility and the well rehab is technically sound and we just need to make sure that as a project, it meets all of our objectives and will deliver final result that is in keeping with the deliverables that Pleasanton requires. Restaurants and retail in our historic downtown are critical to keeping a vibrant destination for dining, shopping, entertainments, and socializing. It is vital that we do what we can to increase foot traffic to enhance the retail environment and to attract other businesses to locate downtown. We need to improve the experience of being downtown. We need to improve cultural amenities. These are things that can be done. Also the Stoneridge Mall area will be reimagined through the new framework and the following conceptual designs and other plans that will occur after that. We have opportunities for new amenities, with all of our residents to enjoy, all while preventing or mitigating adverse impacts that inevitably will arise in the consideration of all of the factors.

Joel Liu

Yeah. Thanks to Ginam Jeremy and all the staff of the Pleasanton Weekly for hosting all the candidates in the room tonight. And then also, I would like to thank our fellow candidate for your willingness to serve. Thank you all for the all our audience in the room and the, our audience online spending the last of two hours or two here, listening to us and the world is changing Pleasanton. Is changing will humbly. Well, change often brings a wonderful opportunities in my view for your this election. We are not only looking for elected our next city leaders. We should also think of forward to relax, our next Generation leaders. My family have called a pleasant home for almost a decade. We lived here long enough to know how much we enjoyed our small towns Dell. And the charm of our historical downtown. I pledged to maintain our small town style and keep our historical downtown vibrant. In the meantime, I'm well off to over 10,000 new residents, who moved into president and between 2010 and 2020. If elected I am bringing you perspective to the city council tonight, we discussed and debated, several most Didn't do and the complicated issues which we are facing here in Pleasanton. You have heard afar me that my priorities are Public Safety sustainability, fiscal stability and the strengthening City scoop partnership. One thing, which differentiate myself from my fellow candidates, is my experience. I'm an engineer which a PhD in electrical engineering. I have a managed Ultimatum dollar projects, and the businesses. And I'm passionate about volunteering and giving back to our community. I'm a detective. I'm have a track record of a success. I'm hopeful and I'm optimistic, I listened to everyone and I can work with everyone. I have a real-world business experience that I will bring to have some presentations future challenges and as a father of four, To school age Kate. I will be always thinking about my case and your case Wendy batting City policies for safe and the system do Pleasanton. I mean borst the by almost a half of our local elected officials and running a Grassroots campaign. I humbly ask for your vote in November to learn more about me and my campaign, please visit my campaign website. VoteJoelLiu.com I will be very honored to have your vote. Thank you. And give you a name.