With two city council seats on the Nov. 7 ballot, five
candidates are campaigning for your vote: incumbent Greg Sellers
and challengers Marby Lee, Alex Kennett, Al Tervalon and Chris
Borello. We urge Morgan Hill voters to choose Kennett and
Sellers.
Among the four newcomers running for two open seats on the Morgan hill City Council, Alex Kennett clearly has the most experience. A director on the county’s Open Space Authority board, he has a strong environmental and regional perspective.
He opposes eminent domain and has been a critic of the expensive community conversations the city recently held. Kennett has a long record of community service in the city, serving on the Chamber of Commerce board and as president of the volunteer group that’s responsible for the city’s annual Fourth of July celebration. A member of the board of the Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network, he has in-depth knowledge on regional issues that impact Morgan Hill. Kennett will make a valuable contribution as a member of Morgan Hill City Council.
Greg Sellers is seeking his third term as a member of the council, which gives him in-depth experience on the city budget and operations, but also gives us some concern about entrenched City Hall thinking. But Sellers, who was raised in this community, knows it well. He understands what makes Morgan Hill unique, has worked to preserve the city’s character while allowing for growth, and speaks about the important role that recreation services can play in reducing the need for expensive police services. Sellers has listened to and heeded the community’s well-founded objections to eminent domain. He deserves another term on the Morgan Hill City Council.
It was difficult for us to pass over Chris Borello, who is young, enthusiastic, and well informed about the issues facing our community. As a Realtor, he brings a strong property rights perspective to the eminent domain issues that are a hot-button issue in this race. He has a no-nonsense approach to budget matters that could stand to be seasoned with understanding the role the city’s recreation programs can play in preventing crime. We’d like to encourage him to run again, and in the meantime, would also like to see him bring his expertise and an open mind to a city commission.
We salute candidates Al Tervalon and Marby Lee for participating in the race and highlighting issues important to them.
To Tervalon, we advise having specific, concrete ideas for achieving his goals beyond the “identify ways” answers he is providing voters now. Voters need to know what they’re getting in a candidate, so that kind of research needs to be done before asking voters for their support, not after.
Lee left us concerned that she has broad knowledge of issues affecting Morgan Hill, but that her knowledge is not very deep. Identifying the problems is a lot easier than presenting detailed, specific, achievable solutions. Voters deserve both.
This Nov. 7, we urge Morgan Hill residents to choose Kennett and Sellers for City Council.
