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The race for the District 2 City Council seat could have reached a tipping point for many Pleasanton residents last week as the two candidates shared their views on issues like water, economic vitality and, more notably, the proposed half-cent sales tax revenue measure that will be on the November ballot.
Incumbent Councilmember Valerie Arkin, who was first elected at-large to the council in 2020, is running against retired Pleasanton Police Capt. Craig Eicher, who also served as the city’s interim police chief during a six-month stint between 2019 and 2020.
The two participated in a public forum where, in front of a nearly packed room at City Hall on Sept. 5, they gave opening remarks as to why they are the best choice for the job and responded to a number of questions that were generated by Pleasanton Weekly moderators Gina Channell Wilcox and Jeremy Walsh and from the public.
Arkin said during her opener that during her time on the council, she helped balance the city’s budget while preserving essential services for all residents, implemented policies for safe drinking water and has done much more for the city’s economy and overall quality of life.
She also pointed to her dedication to transparency, to building consensus on the dais and to the Pleasanton Unified School District for which she served as a board trustee for 12 years.
“I have the experience, knowledge, background and education and I know how to collaborate to get things done,” Arkin said. “I’m the most qualified candidate with a record of proven leadership.”
Eicher said as a new councilmember, if elected he would strive to maintain some of the historical values and practices that make Pleasanton a great community while also navigating the challenges the city is facing today and in the future.
“I’d like to promote stability and affordability for residents and business alike by ensuring the city operates within a balanced budget and minimizes the need for additional tax burdens,” Eicher said.
He also said that given his long history with law enforcement, he plans on maintaining a robust police presence and supporting the police department as it continues to deal with a staffing shortage in order to ensure better response times and the public’s safety.
Arkin said that when it came to public safety, she knew all Pleasanton residents want a safe community — she referred to a recent community survey where 93% of residents surveyed said they feel very safe or safe, which is also a lower number compared to 2017 when 98% of respondents said that.
She said that she supports some oversight of the Pleasanton Police Department like the semiannual updates the council receives from the department and that she was proud of her contribution on the council that worked to establish both the school resource officer and alternative response unit programs.
However, Eicher said he does not think the city is what it used to be when it comes to safety. He pointed out the increases in homicides and violent crimes over recent years and how stores now have to lock up certain items due to increases in burglaries.
He criticized the city for allowing the PPD to be understaffed for the past four years and said it should not have taken the city this long to address that problem.
But the major issue where the two candidates for Pleasanton’s northeast District 2 contrasted in opinions the most was the current council’s decision to place a sales tax revenue measure on the November ballot
Eicher said he is opposed to Measure PP because he believes the city should focus on finding other solutions to balance the budget. He said it isn’t fair that the city is asking residents to pay more taxes during a time of inflation before it looks internally to reduce unnecessary spending.
“When I look at what the spending looks like in the budget, (the city’s) budget looks fine,” Eicher said. “It’s the addition of all the new capital expenditures … that are increasing the cost of the budget.”
He said the city could have also looked at using the city’s Section 115 Pension Trust Fund reserves to help the city’s finances and that moving forward, it should look at other ways to meet its budgetary needs.
Arkin, who was part of the council majority who supported placing the revenue measure on the ballot, said she believes the city needs to pass Measure PP because the lasting impacts from the cuts that would occur if the half-cent sales tax doesn’t increase will be significant.
“We have a $13 million-a-year structural deficit that is projected for the next eight years,” Arkin said.
“We have already cut $2.5 million out of our budget,” she added. “Can we cut more, of course we can, and we will to balance our budget because we have to … but those impacts will be felt by the community.
She said not passing the revenue measure will affect businesses, downtown and residents’ overall quality of life as the city looks for services and other departments to make cuts.
Arkin also argued against Eicher’s suggestion to use pension reserves saying the Section 115 fund is an investment fund that the city shouldn’t use all at once.
Water quality and supply was another topic that resonated as a top priority for both candidates.
Arkin said while she did vote against the recent water rates increase, it is nice to see the city’s water enterprise fund reserves getting replenished so that the city can continue to focus on analyzing two potential new wells alongside the Zone 7 Water Agency as a way to address the PFAS — also known as forever chemicals — in the region’s groundwater basin.
Eicher on the other hand said that those efforts should have happened years ago when the city first found out about the contaminated groundwater in 2019.
He also criticized the city’s economic vibrancy saying that it has gone down in the past few years and said the city needs to be asking what barriers there are to see why businesses are not coming to the city.
Like his opponent, Eicher also touched on the Stoneridge Shopping Center redevelopment plans to include housing and said that project needs to move forward — both candidates said the mall redevelopment plans will have a big part in helping the economy, if the mall owners can work together to get the framework completed.
But the two candidates near the end did find common ground when asked if there were any specific issues they felt were most important in their district. Instead of calling any single issue out, they both noted how if they are elected, they will work on representing the entire city because any issues felt in District 2, are most likely being felt throughout Pleasanton.
On the topic of housing, Eicher promoted the idea of appropriate development locations — especially when it comes to building in District 2, which is mostly residential — and creating affordable housing for teachers and first responders so they can live where they work.
Arkin also said that affordable housing is a top priority for her and criticized developers who get out of building affordable housing by paying in-lieu fees that basically allow them to pay the city out of building those types of housing units.
See the candidates’ responses to all questions in the forum video on the Pleasanton Weekly’s YouTube page.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly described the depth of oversight incumbent Valerie Arkin supported for the City Council to have over the Pleasanton Police Department. Arkin said she supported some level of oversight such as semiannual updates from the department to the council. An update was also made to fix a typo in a direct quote from Arkin on her “record of proven leadership”. The Pleasanton Weekly regrets the errors.
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