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Candidates for elected city and school board positions squared off in recent days at two forums sponsored by local organizations.
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On Sept. 29, the Morgan Hill chapter of the American Association of University Women conducted a question-and-answer session for each of three groups of candidates—mayor, city council and Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Trustees—at the council meeting chambers.
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Then on Monday, Oct. 3, the Chamber of Commerce hosted two panels for the mayoral and council candidates at the Community Playhouse. This forum pointedly focused on economic development and city budget-related questions—issues on which the candidates clashed repeatedly.
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Full videos of both forums—each of which lasted several hours—are available for public access on the internet.
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Early voting starts Oct. 11, and election day is Nov. 8.
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Running for mayor are Joseph Carrillo, Kirk Bertolet and incumbent Steve Tate. Vying for two seats on the city council are incumbents Larry Carr and Marilyn Librers, as well as Mario Banuelos, Armando Benavides and Rene Spring.
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In the MHUSD race, six candidates are running for seats in three different trustee areas. In Trustee Area 5, incumbent Tom Arnett is challenged by Angelica Diaz. In Area 7, four-year Trustee Rick Badillo is opposed by newcomers Albert Beltran Jr. and Mary Patterson. In Trustee Area 6, where incumbent Bob Benevento did not seek re-election, first-time candidate Teresa Murillo is running unopposed.
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Murillo did not attend the AAUW forum and declined to take part in any of the candidate question-answer opportunities, including one featured by the Times.
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Countering claims
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At the Oct. 3 Chamber forum, candidates were asked about a number of issues related to jobs, business attraction, the minimum wage, the city budget and more.
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Carr, in his closing statement at the Oct. 3 forum, expressed his frustration with what he said are questionable claims made by his challengers throughout the evening.
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Without naming the challengers who made these claims, Carr told the audience, “You’ve heard lots of numbers tonight. I’m not sure where these numbers are coming from. We don’t finance ongoing expenses with impact fees. Morgan Hill has a voter approved process for (residential growth control); we have not abandoned or changed the voter-approved process.”
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Earlier in the evening, Benavides, a local attorney, said the incumbents and the current council have “missed the ball” when it comes to city finances. He said the city has about $107 million in reserves across all city funds, and perhaps some of this could be used to take care of a roughly $20 million backlog in funding for roads and infrastructure maintenance and repairs.
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While he classified the latter number as a “deficit” during the forum, Benavides acknowledged afterwards that the city operates with a balanced budget. However, that’s only because it finances some expenditures with a portion of reserves.
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“Even though we have a balanced budget, it’s because we’re tapping into reserves,” said Benavides. “We still have (about) $16 million in the general fund reserve—we could certainly use that for infrastructure repairs.”
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Carr said at the Oct. 3 forum that the general fund reserve is intended for more dire needs for public services, if such emergencies ever arise. Furthermore, although the city has numerous funds, each with a reserve, officials cannot shift this money among funds according to a combination of state laws and city guidelines, Carr argued.
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Benavides added during the forum that he would not have approved the city’s recent two-year operating budget because it doesn’t include enough funding for infrastructure. He is also running on a platform of slowing the growth in Morgan Hill.
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City staff and elected officials have argued for several years that they don’t enough funds from regular revenue sources to get caught up with roads maintenance and repairs. The council attempted to put a local revenue measure on the ballot earlier this year, but was discouraged by public opinion polling that showed the voters wouldn’t go for it.
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Banuelos, a retired City of San Jose employee, agreed with the incumbents that Morgan Hill has a tight budget.
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In response to the question of whether he would support more taxes for road repairs and maintenance, he said, “We have to educate the public that our budget is pretty lean, and we’ve got to pay for” the backlog of road and infrastructure expenses.
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Spring, an advocate of “responsible growth,” said the city’s budget cannot continue to survive on developers’ fees paid through Morgan Hill’s growth control system. For example, these funds pay for a significant portion of the city’s parks maintenance budget.
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Although he commented during the forum these funds include impact fees, Carr and Tate said that’s wrong and the city is not legally permitted to use impact fees for ongoing expenditures.
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After the forum, Assistant City Manager Leslie Little clarified that the development related funds financing parks maintenance are voluntarily contributed to the city’s “parks fund,” which pays for parks repairs and maintenance. Developers can contribute to this fund as one way to gain points through Morgan Hill’s residential allotment competition system, which is up for voter renewal on the Nov. 8 ballot as Measure S.
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“Developers can make a pledge to the parks fund, but these are not impact fees,” said Little, who added that developers fund about 80 percent of the city’s parks maintenance expenses this way.
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Spring later added that relying on developers’ funds in this way is not sustainable. During the forum he called himself “the original” candidate when it comes to slowing down the city’s growth, and other candidates have “pretty much copied” his platform. As a planning commissioner, he noted, he has been pushing for a 1-percent annual growth rate since February, but the rate proposed in Measure S is notably faster than that.
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Banuelos touted his insight gained from serving on the General Plan Advisory Committee and the growth control working group as a qualification for office. “Without Measure S, there is no control of growth,” Banuelos said.
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Should Morgan Hill recruit from neighbors?
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Librers and Carr clashed on the question of whether the city should continue to honor its unofficial pact, among economic development directors within the Silicon Valley Economic Development Association, not to try to recruit businesses already established in neighboring cities.
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Librers said she was unaware of this pact, and the fact that Morgan Hill was part of it, until just a few days before the Oct. 3 forum. She said she is “not in favor” of this agreement. She pointed to her experiences promoting Morgan Hill on various trips to China as a place to do business.
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“I’ve been meeting with business owners (in China) and telling them how much land we have for industrial use,” Librers said.
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Carr said he supports the non-compete pact with other cities, which arose as a “response to the fiscalization of land use.” He argued that Morgan Hill is part of a regional economy in Silicon Valley, and one community’s success benefits others within the region.
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Mayoral candidates were also asked about the economic development pact with other cities.
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Bertolet said he is against such an agreement, and continued to rail against it after the forum. “This question actually raises more questions than answers. Why would Morgan Hill, or any city, make an agreement…to not attract business to its city?” Bertolet read from prepared remarks Oct. 3. Candidates were given the questions in advance for the Chamber forum.
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Bertolet later called the agreement a form of “social engineering” that dictates where people should work and live within the region.
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Tate supports the non-compete pact with other cities, and argued that communities shouldn’t be encouraged to “steal” from each other. Furthermore, he added that retaining existing businesses is more effective at job creation than recruiting established businesses from other cities because they often expand if they like where they are.
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Carrillo, a media production company owner, joined Tate and some of the council candidates in his support of a local tax for infrastructure and other city services. “There should be a local tax on the ballot. It makes the city self sustaining.”
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When asked what are some recent council decisions he would do differently, Carrillo said he would have supported the “complete streets” experiment on Monterey Road through the downtown last year as a permanent configuration. Doing so would make the downtown more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly, he said.
School board candidates keep it cordial
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Five candidates vying for two trustee area seats on the MHUSD board of education were up close and personal with a room filled with local voters Sept. 29 as the the Morgan Hill chapter of the AAUW hosted its annual candidates forum.
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Nov. 8 will mark the inaugural year for MHUSD’s trustee area election system where residents can only vote for candidates in races that are within their residential boundaries. Previously, MHUSD used an at-large format where every resident voted for any candidate regardless of location. Trustee area designations can be located on the district website, mhusd.org.
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The five candidates present Sept. 29 inside the City Council chambers introduced themselves to the community, answered a variety of education-based questions and showcased themselves to the voters.
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Arnett, an education researcher who visits different classrooms throughout the country, has a focus of bringing innovative programs to the district to individualize education for students with different needs, interests and learning styles. A father of three, Arnett won office in a two-candidate, at-large election in June.
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Badillo, a construction manager and lifelong Morgan Hill resident, let parents know that he’s in their corner and has been for the last four years as a school board trustee. A military veteran, Badillo has two children attending Morgan Hill schools.
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Beltran, an internal audit specialist with San Jose Unified School District, has the support of the local teachers union and plans to hold the district leadership accountable in everything they do. The south San Jose resident has strong family ties in Morgan Hill as well as two young children approaching school age.
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Diaz, a Live Oak High School alumna and director of a county-wide health care consortium, wants each student to find their own pathway to success. Also endorsed by Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers, Diaz is mother to a 2-year-old and 4-month-old.
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Patterson, a nonprofit director who has worked with many community leaders in various initiatives over the years, wants every child to succeed and have positive experiences throughout their schooling in Morgan Hill. An active school site volunteer throughout her children’s ongoing education in MHUSD school, the south San Jose resident’s endorsements include State Senator Jim Bell and Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate.
Full videos of recent candidate forums are available on the web. The video of the Sept. 29 AAUW candidate forum, which was co-sponsored by the Morgan Hill Times and Morgan Hill Life, is available at youtube.com/watch?v=tKFiz-71Cvc, or by searching on youtube.com for “AAUW Morgan Hill forum.” The video is found on Morgan Hill Access Television’s youtube channel. A video of the Oct. 3 Chamber forum, which featured candidates for the city council and mayor’s race, will be available on the Chamber’s website, morganhill.org, by Friday, Oct. 7.
