Five candidates will answer questions on issues impacting South Valley
By Marty Cheek
South Valley voters will get an opportunity to learn about the five candidates seeking the District 1 seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
The forum will be held 7 p.m. April 13 at the Morgan Hill City Council Chambers. It will also be streamed online. It is organized by Leadership Morgan Hill, the Morgan Hill branch of the American Association of University Women, and the city of Morgan Hill.
The event will allow residents to ask questions of candidates running in the June 7 primary election to replace Mike Wasserman for the supervisor seat he has held since 2010. Wasserman is termed out at the end of 2022.
Candidates who plan to attend the forum are San Jose City Councilmember Sylvia Arenas, Morgan Hill Mayor Rich Constantine, San Jose resident and case manager at LifeSTEPS Denelle Fedor, former San Jose Councilmember Johnny Khamis, and Santa Clara Board of Education trustee Claudia Rossi.
The District 1 race is considered one of the most contested local campaigns. Last year, the Board of Supervisors voted to approve a newly drawn District 1 during a contentious redistricting process. District 1 includes all of South Valley and now includes San Jose neighborhoods Evergreen and Silver Creek in the Silicon Valley area. The redrawing enabled Arenas to run for District 1. The district no longer encompasses Almaden Valley or Los Gatos.
The redrawing of District 1 gives Arenas, Fedor and Khamis, as South San Jose-based candidates, an advantage because it placed two out of every three District 1 residents in San Jose.
Former Morgan Hill mayor Steve Tate proposed the idea of the forum to provide South Valley residents with a way to get to know the candidates and learn how they hope to lead the county district if elected. He encourages residents to submit questions to [email protected].
“The local politics is where it’s at, as far as I’m concerned,” Tate said. “I think it’s an extremely important race in terms of getting someone in there who has the background and experience as far as showing their capabilities of getting things done.”
Tate noted he won’t be involved in the forum because he has publicly endorsed Khamis
Leadership Morgan Hill program facilitator Sheila Murphy will ask candidates the questions at the forum, Tate said. This is the first time the leadership training nonprofit has held an election forum.
“I want to advertise that Leadership is not just a class but we’re getting into other kind of leadership roles as well,” Tate said.
He encourages people to come to the forum early and talk to the candidates and hang around after to learn more about them.
The San Martin Neighborhood Alliance organized a Jan. 27 Zoom-based forum. A recording can be viewed on YouTube. The candidates in the June 7 primary race who attended that forum were Rich Constantine, Johnny Khamis, and Claudia Rossi.
Sylvia Arenas, a San Jose city councilmember who announced in early January she intends to run, sent an email to that forum’s organizers an hour before the event stating she declined to attend. She never responded to an email from Morgan Hill Life asking for her reason for not participating.
Fedor is a former political staffer and case manager who announced in early February she was entering the race for District 1.
A south San Jose resident, she works as a case manager at LifeSTEPS, a federally-funded nonprofit in San Jose that provides affordable and supportive housing assistance to residents. In 2012, she ran in the race and lost for the District 10 San Jose City Council seat.
Questions expected to be asked at the April 13 forum include local issue concerns such as the high-speed rail project, affordable housing, protecting the rural environment, local crime, trash dumping, water safety, St. Louise Hospital, the San Martin Airport, and homeless encampments.
