Council candidates square off

I find it very interesting that the two new candidates who are running find it very easy to criticize what they know little to nothing about. It's ironic that Doug Burr is finding fault with the City's planning history yet he has only attended perhaps ONE Planning Commission meeting in his whole time in San Ramon. I don't recall EVER seeing Jim Brady at any Planning Commission meeting in my 9 years on the Commission. I sure hope that San Ramon voters don't forget what happened the last time we elected people with no civic experience to our Council.

Bob,

Yes, I wonder why candidates feel they can jump right into the City Council without serving on any committees or commissions first.

Brady never even heard of the San Ramon Observer, so he couldn't know much about what was happening in San Ramon over the last 8 years. I had readers who agreed with me and readers who didn't. But for residents who complained that the city wasn't open enough, I tried to fill that gap with the Observer.

I thought it was interesting that Brady said the city should make it easier for residents to get permits for rainwater harvesting systems. As far as I know, I'm the first and only person to have a rainwater harvesting system in San Ramon. It didn't need any permits.

Bob, please contact me. I'd like to talk to you about the Planning Commission.

Roz

It's great to see new faces wanting to give their time and fresh ideas to our city. I thought Doug Burr was the stronger of the two non-incumbants. Personally I'd like to see more newcomers wanting to get involved and fewer incumbants occupying council seats year after year. A thousand thank you's to the incumbants for their years of excellent service, but my feeling is at least one of them should step aside and let a new voice on the council. We will still have 4 other very experienced council members

Thanks Roz!! I agree with you and I sent you an email. We should get together on 10/27. The place for newcomers to cut their teeth is on a committee or commission. I spent a couple years on the old Public Safety Advisory Task Force and then the Committee when it was changed. I spent 4 years on Parks, before I was appointed to Planning. I also graduated from Leadership San Ramon.

Mr. Burr was advocating doing traffic planning by the seat of his pants, and I know the ruckus he caused with our Transportation staff who tried to help him as best they could. He would not listen to reason, logic or follow process. Do we want this type of hardheadedness in a Council member? I'm not even sure if he attended a Transportation Advisory Committee meeting or has an awareness of our Traffic Calming Program?

Mr. Brady, who I have never met, is more than likely well meaning and of reasonable intelligence. Again, the place to start is in the trenches, not at the dais. I mean, do we want our medical students learning on live patients?

Bob, this is San Ramon. It's a suburb. It's not New York City. This is local politics and City Council IS the bottom. We will never attract talent from the private sector with your attitude. Hopefully you are in the minority. We will soon see!

No, it's not San Ramon and I'm not sure where you came up with Bob equating San Ramon to NYC.

The problem with Mr. Burr is that we've already been down this road several years ago with 3 self-serving council members with no experience in city government. We don't need to repeat the mess they created. Reading Mr Burr's website, he still doesn't "get it." Speed limits cannot arbitrarily be set. Stop signs can not be posted on a whim. Some of his claims are ludicrous - Monarch Drive does not have homes and parks lining the street, the Dougherty Valley development was okay but Tassajara is not, etc. We don't need to go down this road again with councilmembers who make it up as they go along because they don't know better.

SR Veteran, I don't mind attracting talent from the private sector, in fact I'm all for it. Let me know when you see some!! We don't need people with cavalier attitudes about process and the legal process. You don't get a stop sign anywhere you want it just because you want one. The prior City Council would do that very thing, and you see the results of that on Alcosta. If the Council is the bottom, what's above it, speaking of Local Politics of course

Also, San Ramon will be a city of over 90,000 at build out. Not quite NYC but not the little bedroom community it was at incorporation. I think our citizens know enough to elect people who are serious about the job and not just people to decide one day just to try it out to see how it fits.

Bob, Roz, SJO, et all,
Agreed, we have not logged the hours of attendance at local meetings, stripe our backs if you must. Why? Speaking for myself I have been directly involved investing long hours on complex infrasturcture and technology projects locally, regionally and nationally. All of which have positively impacted our local community. This I would offer, qualifies as significant experience.

My sole obective is to provide straight up, insight and thoughtful contibution to our city government. Don't missunderstand, I fully respect the time the incumbants have committed over the years. Respectfully, I will state that I have a broad base of leadership and solid decision making experience that, takes me out of any 'newbee' category I assure you. Energy, desire, positive attitude, yes! Defensiveness? No. I see that as a complete waste of energy.

If elected will there be a ton or work ahead, without a doubt. Am I up for it? Absolutely. Quick snap decisions, absolutely no way.

San Ramon residents are very bright, and most refreshingly, will soon make this decision. My innovative insight I believe is a very comparable match to residents view point. If given the opportunity, I am confident my experience will be a major asset to our residents, city council and the bright future of San Ramon.

Kind Regards,
Jim Brady

Jim, I appreciate your answers, and your decision to run for Council. I know the commitment that entails and sometimes you feel like you should have been committed for making the decision in the first place!!

Let me try to explain to you my point of view. This perspective has been honed by years of work for the City. You haven't done the homework, fought the battles or made the sacrifices the current Council has, in fact, even that I have or anyone else who has given up of their time to serve our City on one of the committee's or commission's.

Every one of the Council has broad based professional leadership experience, as do most if not all of the dedicated volunteers who serve our City. This is only a differentiator in your own mind.

And when I say attend meetings, perhaps I wasn't clear. I always valued the honest input of citizens at all our meetings. Sometimes I agreed and sometimes I didn't. But at least these people found the time out of their busy schedules to participate in the process. It's just now, when you have a brass ring to grab, that you feel it's time for you to participate. Frankly, that say's more about your commitment to San Ramon, then your decision to run. Deciding to run is easy, it's making a difference that's hard.

I AM VOTING FOR JIM BRADY AND DOUG BURR. IT'S TIME FOR CHANGE. PERIOD!!!!!!!!!

CC TIMES ENDORCES BRADY AND BURR!!! FINALLY, THEY GOT IT RIGHT. CONGRATS TO THE CANDIDATES. BEST OF LUCK ON TUESDAY. HOPE THE VOTERS READ THE PAPER AND FOLLOW THE ENDORCEMENT.

I figured it out..........Bob is worried he will lose his job if Burr and Brady win. How self-serving is that?

SR Resident, even if Burr and Brady were to win election, there is still a majority on the Council that are 'right' thinking. We have weathered the storm of a toxic majority on the Council and no one "lost their jobs" that I am aware of.

So stop tossing things out you know nothing about.

Bob,

I recall a lot of people losing or leaving their jobs when the "toxic majority" was in power. First they canned City Manager Herb Moniz. Then they demoted most of the other managers, forcing several to retire or move to another city. There was so much turnover in city staff, it started looking like the House of Pancakes!

And San Ramon Resident, you figured out nothing. If you don't know the facts, don't pretend to understand them. Bob resigned from his volunteer job for family reasons. The election of Burr and/or Brady would not have changed the 3 years he had remaining on his term.

Roz

Roz, I know we lost many of our professional staff, but we didn't lose anyone on Commissions or Committee's. They left us alone.