Mayor Rich Constantine considering entering race, has yet to make a decision
By Robert Airoldi
Former Councilmember Larry Carr just entered the race for Morgan Hill mayor, joining Gilroy Chamber of Commerce CEO Mark Turner who filed papers in August on his intention to seek the position in the Nov. 8 election.
Rich Constantine is considering running as the incumbent but the current mayor has not committed to seeking re-election. After ending an unsuccessful bid for the District 1 Santa Clara County Supervisor seat in the June 7 election, he said he will take “a little time off” to get to know his family again before making his decision to run.
Carr served for 20 years on the Morgan Hill City Council from 2000 to 2020 as well as four years as a trustee on the Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education from 1996 to 2000.
While Turner, 61, has never held public office, he said his experience as a pastor and CEO of the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce give him the skills to lead the city.
“It’s all about relationship building, people skills and working through problems,” Turner said. “The ability to bring people together on opposite sides of issues and work out ways to move forward.”
He played a big role in getting Sharks Ice to re-engage with the city of Gilroy. That’s through relationships he developed that helped secure the deal. The Gilroy City Council last week approved a term sheet to begin negotiations.
“Bringing people together to the middle is important skill as a mayor,” he said.
Turner was born in Southern California and raised in San Jose. After graduating from high school, he graduated from the Faith Bible Institute and later became pastor at South Valley Community Church. He and his wife, Sue, have lived in Morgan Hill for 30 years and raised their three girls in the community.
“During this time, I’ve seen Morgan Hill go through a lot of changes — some good, some not so good,” he said. “During the past several years I’ve become concerned about the direction the city council is going.”
One of his main concerns he sees is leaders are not listening to their constituents.
As I talk to people, their main concern is that they don’t feel like they have a voice,” he said. “People just want to be heard.”
It’s possible to listen to people and still disagree with them, he said, but ignoring peoples’ concerns will lead in a direction not necessarily in the community’s best interest.
Turner said if elected he would think practically through problems and avoid pitfalls such as ignoring information presented by staff and experts and not listening to the opinions of residents, referring to the recent leadership problems the city council faced with the redistricting map lawsuit and downtown lane reduction issues.
“I will be one who will listen to residents and take legal advice from the city’s experts,” he said.
Turner said his No. 1 priority is public safety and wants to increase staffing and ensure well-trained personnel for the benefit of the community. The question is how to achieve that, he said.
“It all goes back to tourism and economic development,” he said. “We need to be strategic about what types of businesses we attract and creating regional tourism that captures those overnight stays that help create a robust tax base.”
Working with Visit Morgan Hill, the Chamber of Commerce, and the city’s Economic Development Department can help generate a plan that works, he said.
“We have a great downtown, the sports and aquatic centers and the Wine Trail,” he said. “I’ve learned collaboration and strategic partnerships working as a pastor and the CEO of the chamber that can bring people together and create a strong local economy.”
It’s time for new leadership and to move forward, he said.
“I’m not looking to move on,” he said. “I’m looking to serve my hometown. This is not a steppingstone. I’m committed to this community.”
Larry Carr
A lifelong Morgan Hill resident, Carr, 53, has extensive government experience and has worked for Albertsons Companies as the corporate director of state and local government relations for nearly five years. He decided to run in May after talking to people in town.
“People kept coming all the time saying, ‘Hey, would you really take a serious look at this, Larry? We’re really interested in you taking a look at you running for mayor. We have a lot of concerns about the current direction of our city and the leadership and we think you would do a great job.’”
A major concern raised to him is that the city of Morgan Hill is not moving forward in a thoughtful way. “We have great city staff,” he said. “The leadership in City Hall are the best in the business. And repeatedly I see some of their advice ignored and members of the council voting completely away from staff recommendations. If we’re going to have the best professional staff on our team, we need to start figuring out how to work with them and how to take advantage of their professional recommendations. We need leadership in order to do that.”
Carr said one reason he is running for mayor is he believes residents are not being heard. He wants to get to the root cause of the negativity on social media regarding the city of Morgan Hill and its leadership.
“Why do people feel like they’re not heard?” he asked. “To me, it all goes back to trust, and whether we trust our government or not. And we need to rebuild that trust in our city council.”
He said he knows making changes in the city’s culture is not going to be easy.
“It’s going to take a lot of work and civic engagement (to build back that trust),” he said. “What it’s going to take is actually doing the hard work of listening to people, bringing people into the fold, instead of feeling like we’re fighting with people all the time. It’s disappointing to see citizens of Morgan Hill feel like they need to go out and collect signatures to put an issue on the ballot to change positions that the council has made.”
Carr said he has the support of many people in the community, including his family and his longtime partner, Barbara Ristrim.
He grew up in Morgan Hill, attended local public schools including P.A. Walsh Elementary School, and graduated from Live Oak High School.
“I’m a Morgan Hill kid,” he said. “I was lucky to grow up and be a part of this community. My parents instilled public service values in my brother and me from the time we were young, and that’s part of who I am. So, I’m going to get engaged. Morgan Hill is home. It’s a place that Barbara and I love. It’s a place we’re a part of and we’re going to make it the best community it can be.”
