The eight candidates for three Cupertino City Council seats meet voters again at noon Wednesday, Oct. 14, at the Quinlan Community Center, after a first in-person forum last week that turned mostly on housing.
At the Oct. 7 forum at the Cupertino Senior Center, organized by San Jose Spotlight and the League of Women Voters of Cupertino-Sunnyvale, about 70 residents heard the field split along lines that have defined the neighboring city's politics for years, Stanford's Peninsula Press reported Monday.
Three of the five seats are on the Nov. 3 ballot, enough to tip the balance between the two camps.
Two slates and two independents
Council member J.R. Fruen, the only incumbent running, is on the pro-growth Cupertino Together slate with planning commissioner Seema Sharma Lindskog and former Cupertino Chamber president John Tang. Tracy Kosolcharoen, Gopal Kumarappan and Santosh Rao run as preservationists with the support of council members Liang Chao and Ray Wang. Mark Fantozzi and J.Z. Wang are not aligned with either group.
Housing
The state requires Cupertino to plan for 4,588 new homes by 2031, and the city is behind, according to the report. Rao, a former Planning Commission chair, called the target "a false goal" and said the council needs members who will defend local control.
Fruen said zoning enough capacity is a legal requirement the city is already working through and that Cupertino should work with state and county agencies as partners.
Six of the eight rejected higher-density housing in neighborhoods now zoned for single-family homes. Fruen said he is against big apartment complexes in outlying areas, while J.Z. Wang did not answer directly. Kumarappan, who chairs the Parks and Recreation Commission, said he would protect the character of single-family areas.
Budget
Candidates were also asked how to close a deficit expected in the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2027. The city lost a large stream of sales tax revenue tied to Apple after state auditors found it had been improperly allocated, and last month approved a new Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office contract that raises law enforcement costs 34% a year, Peninsula Press reported.
Lindskog said the current council has "done a terrible job" and called for a plan to broaden the tax base. Kosolcharoen, who chairs the Planning Commission, called the council's work "excellent," citing new auditing efforts and a revived Economic Development Committee, and said office and retail vacancy rates of 3.2% and 2% show the local economy is healthy.
On the environment, Tang said cleanup at the Permanente Cement Plant, where demolition began in July, must not leave nearby residents worse off in the short term, and that the city has to work with the county to make sure the plan is enforced.
Fantozzi, a structural engineer who sued the city in May to stop a 51-home project near his home that he says sits in a high fire-risk area, said the city can help by advising on building materials and landscaping in that area.
Sources
peninsulapress.com
