Gordon Siebert responds to questions

The Morgan Hill Times gave each city council candidate a slate
of 12 questions. Here are the answers from Gordon Siebert.
The Morgan Hill Times gave each city council candidate a slate of 12 questions. Here are the answers from Gordon Siebert.

1. What leadership qualities can you bring to the dais if elected?

My colleagues have called me “The Bridge” since I am good at bringing people of different backgrounds and opinions together. Council members who I worked with noted my creativity, problem-solving and analytical skills.

1. What are your top priorities?

Maintaining fiscal discipline while retaining the ability to wisely invest money for our future and preserving Morgan Hill’s quality of life by making Downtown more successful and vibrant, preserving community policing, and fostering economic growth while maintaining housing quality through managed residential growth.

1. What programs and/or services would you cut or save to balance the budget and how would you pay for them?

I hope that further cuts can be avoided and would seek to enhance police services by assuring that General Funded administrative services are fully reimbursed by utility and special programs funds. However, if cuts must be made we need to look at those changes where short-term reductions would not have long term adverse impacts, such as reduced parks maintenance, possibly partially replaced with volunteer efforts, which I did in 1991 through 1995.

1. Explain your approach to negotiating with employee unions?

I have successfully negotiated police and fire contracts when I was a city manager by building trust through open dialogue, fact-sharing, listening to labor’s demands and desires and seeking solutions that are respectful yet within the City’s financial ability.

1. Do you support a two-tier retirement system?

I do not favor its use at this time, as a two tier system would not save much in the short-term since it relies on hiring new employees. However, I would work with City staff to review long-range projections and consider benefit as well as salary costs in the review. This is but one of a number of possible ways to match the growth in City costs with available revenues, a task that must be done to preserve the City’s ability to deliver services.

1. How do you feel about RDA-financed downtown development plans, including the fate of the vacant Granada Theater building?

The RDA is a powerful tool to help assist private businesses in developing a successful, vibrant Downtown as a destination for residents and visitors. Investments early in the cycle of development are expected to return large dividends to repay their cost in the long run. I would like to preserve elements such as the façade of the Granada to retain its connection to Morgan Hill, but my experience with historic preservation with an old, seismically deficient structure is that it would be better to replace the old building by encouraging private development to build a multi-screen movie house in Downtown.

1. How should the city address planning and developing in other parts of the city, such as the Southeast Quad?

Good land use planning has been a valuable aid to making Morgan Hill such a desirable city. Factors such as setting limits on the rate of residential growth, allotting building permits through a competitive process and requiring diversity in housing locations and types have each contributed to Morgan Hill’s attractiveness. Growth of commercial and job-producing developments is also necessary in order to balance local employment opportunities with available housing. The City’s role is to guide and assist private development and land owners while balancing community needs and concerns about traffic and other environmental impacts.

Areas with undeveloped land such as the Southeast Quadrangle need to be as carefully planned as the current city has been, to create a balance of housing and commercial/industrial development. The Southeast Quad has several advantages, including its freeway frontage, that can enhance the types of viable commercial development that will contribute jobs, tax revenues to finance needed public services and shopping opportunities for Morgan Hill residents and visitors from outside our community.

1. What is the city’s role, if any, in working with the school district?

Schools are vital to our community as they educate our children to become productive and able to take on adult responsibilities. The city should use its resources to cooperate with the MHUSD and with private schools to the extent allowed to assist them in their mission. For example, when I worked with the MHUSD, they reoriented El Toro School’s driveway off busy Main Avenue onto a side street that was built by the City, thus enhancing student safety. Other opportunities include shared maintenance and use of school play fields and cooperative use of the utility and school bus maintenance yards.

1. In light of the Cinco de Mayo incident at LOHS, what steps would you take, if any, to improve race relations?

The City should encourage the School District to establish curriculum that teaches respect for different cultures. It could also encourage after-school programs such as peer-to-peer counseling to assist students in working with their fellow students. As a member of the community, I have attended meetings at various houses of worship and with different community groups in order to listen to diverse ideas and to better understand needs of various segments of our community. As a Council member, I will continue to listen to a broad range of residents and would use my visibility to promote understanding between all peoples in the community.

1. What are your plans, if any, to attract new businesses to Morgan Hill?

Before embarking on any efforts to attract new businesses, the City needs to reach out to its existing businesses and determine if there are any actions which it can take to retain and encourage growth of those businesses which are currently providing employment. Following that effort, I would work with my colleagues to identify tactics to improve the City’s attractiveness to businesses, such as training all City staff in the value of assisting prospective businesses, assuring that the City has up-to-date information to share with interested businesses and participating in meetings with visiting business persons to demonstrate the Council’s commitment to assist businesses in locating in Morgan Hill.

1. What prompted you to run?

I consider myself fortunate to be able to live in such a beautiful, friendly, pleasant community and I would like to offer my many years of public and business experience to serve my fellow residents in helping to lead the city and manage its various enterprises, ranging from utilities to recreation to redevelopment. I want to offer a positive alternative to any candidates who are running because they are angry with past City actions and see the Council position as one to use to correct a past grievance.

1. Do you think changes are needed to the city’s speaker policy and council meetings, and if so what changes would you make?

No, I don’t see that changes need to be made although I would encourage a policy that affords ample but respectful speaker input.