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The two District 4 City Council candidates showed voters at a public forum last week how divided their priorities were when it came to certain issues in their district, the city’s finances and the status quo of how things are being run.
Pleasanton Planning Commission Chairperson Matt Gaidos and his fellow Planning Commissioner Vivek Mohan participated in the forum on Sept. 5 alongside the two District 2 candidates.
Each council candidate gave their opening remarks as to why they were the best fit for the job and responded to a handful of questions posed by moderators Gina Channell Wilcox and Jeremy Walsh of the Pleasanton Weekly. A nearly packed room of residents listened to the two council members go back and forth on topics including housing, water, the local economy and the city’s budget.
Mohan said as a first-generation immigrant who has called Pleasanton his home for the past 12 years and who has been on the city’s Housing and Planning commissions, he wants what is best for the city in order to maintain the quality of living.
But as he has gone around to speak with residents after announcing his candidacy, he has seen that a lot of the issues that were raised during the election cycle two years ago — things like water, public safety and fiscal spending — have not changed, which is why he wants to be that change.
“Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results,” Mohan said. “We need to actually fix the process (and) we need to put the accountability where it’s due.”
Gaidos, a Pleasanton native who has lived in the city almost his whole life and who has spent the last 16 years working as a prosecutor for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, was more measured in that he said he was “not the person who is going to sit here and tell you what I think is going to make you vote for me.”
He didn’t talk about what the current council is doing right or wrong and instead focused on what his goals are if he is elected: holding criminals accountable, addressing the PFAS issue in the groundwater and using his experience to address other issues that come up one at a time.
“You ask me (about) a problem and how to fix it, I’m going to be the first one to tell you how I’m going to do it,” Gaidos said. “Experience and local ties matter.”
While Gaidos and Mohan have similar intentions to improve issues at the city, there were several issues discussed during the Sept. 5 forum where the two did not see eye to eye.
The first major one was regarding the current City Council’s decision to place a half-cent sales tax increase measure on the November ballot.
Gaidos said he hopes residents are first and foremost informed about the topic and pointed out how the city has never asked for such a revenue measure and how other cities in the Bay Area are doing the same this election year.
He said raising taxes isn’t something that he wants to do but that he will be voting in favor of Measure PP to ensure the city’s financial future.
“Raising my taxes isn’t something that I like to do or I want to do,” Gaidos said. “But I ask you to compare the amenities … that we have in Pleasanton and what it would mean for us to be able to continue keeping our reserves and make your own informed decision.”
Mohan also mentioned that ensuring the city maintains its budget reserves is important, but he said the public does not have to be the city’s ATM.
He said he vehemently opposes the tax increase not just because he doesn’t like paying more taxes, but because he believes the city has not spent enough time looking for other solutions that would help make taxpayers’ lives easier.
“Insurance rates are going up, water rates are going up and if you look everywhere, the citizens are being asked to do more, pay more,” Mohan said. “California has one of the highest tax rates in the country. How much more do you want from us?
He said he believes the city can still find ways to cut costs and that as a person who has run several organizations in the past which have been in similar financial struggles, he said he doesn’t believe the city needs to be asking for an increase in its sales tax.
Mohan made it a point several times during the forum that several issues are being regurgitated during this election cycle that were not addressed since the last cycle two years ago.
One example he gave was with the forever chemicals — commonly known as PFAS — in the city’s groundwater basin. Mohan said the topic has been a big issue for the last four years and wondered why nothing substantive has been done.
He also criticized the council majority’s decision to increase the city’s water rates and said he was disappointed with how the city engaged with the community during those several months last year. He said there needs to be more transparency moving forward when it comes to those types of decisions.
Gaidos on the other hand, said the city — and even himself personally — have been working hard on addressing the problem. He said he has been sitting down with engineers and geologists as recent as the week of the forum to discuss these contamination issues.
He said while the city is working on the issue, he still believes that it continues to be a top priority that he would like to tackle if he is elected to the council.
When it came to promoting economic development and vibrancy, the two candidates had several ideas but both had similar ideas of looking at attracting more businesses to come to Pleasanton by analyzing what, if any, restrictions there are — especially in the city’s Downtown Specific Plan — for potential businesses on Main Street.
As for public safety, Gaidos said as someone who spends countless hours in court as a prosecutor he wants to be the voice of the council to close the gap with the DA’s office so criminals are held accountable. For Mohan, the emphasis for public safety was in supporting Pleasanton police officers who have told him they are leaving due to better pay and because they don’t feel respected by the city and those in city hall.
One of the most notable topics for Pleasanton’s southeastern District 4 in particular that the two candidates brought up were PG&E power outages.
Gaidos said that while the city has been doing a good job in addressing those issues with the utility company, he has spoken with neighbors who have told him they have gone without power for several days at a time. He said if elected, he promises to be loud if he hears about constituents going through those issues.
Mohan also said that those blackouts, which as he noted happen a lot during summer, are an important topic for him and are not a “first-world problem” — referring to a descriptor Gaidos used earlier in the forum.
See the candidates’ responses to all questions in the forum video on the Pleasanton Weekly’s YouTube page. The District 4 position is wide open this year as the current seat-holder, Jack Balch, is running for mayor instead of reelection to a regular council seat.
Editor’s note: A prior version of this story inadequately paraphrased Matt Gaidos’ comment about his mindset on soliciting votes. His quote during the forum was that he is “not the person who is going to sit here and tell you what I think is going to make you vote for me.” The Pleasanton Weekly regrets the error.
