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Former Pleasanton school board trustee and longtime resident Jamie Yee is seeking election to represent District 3 on the Pleasanton City Council.
“This is where I live,” Yee told the Weekly. “I’m not moving … so I’m very much invested in making sure that it’s a great place to live until I die, and even after that.”
If elected, Yee would succeed current council member Julie Testa, who is terming out this year.
Yee is a Bay Area native who moved to Pleasanton from Berkeley in her youth, attending Alisal Elementary and the old Pleasanton Elementary before graduating from Foothill High School.
She previously ran for the same District 3 seat in 2022 — which covers the southwestern portion of the city — but lost to Testa.
From 2008 to 2020, Yee served on the Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees where she said she dealt with difficult budget cuts and discussions that came out of the Great Recession. She said having that experience makes her more than qualified for dealing with similar financial discussions — and many other topics — at the City Council.
She has also more recently served on the city’s Civic Arts Commission and was a founding board member of the Pleasanton Parent Teacher Association Council.
Having served on PUSD’s governance board, Yee said she understands the importance of transparency and accountability. That’s why, she said she plans on being a representative for the people of District 3 who will ask difficult questions and make sure the needs and desires of her constituents are met.
“That’s your role, as a council member: it’s to reflect back the desires and the needs of the community,” Yee said. “I’m someone who firmly believes in making decisions that are the right decisions and not the decisions to stay elected.”
She also said she wants to move away from the “check-the-box” mentality she has been seeing at city committees and that, if elected, she plans on advocating for as much public input for projects and decisions as possible.
She noted how in her current job at the Alameda County Health Department — where she has worked for the past 18 years — the county takes public input and community engagement very seriously, which is something she would like to see more of in Pleasanton.
Some of Yee’s other campaign priorities include strengthening the city’s local economy and vitality by figuring out ways to activate various parts of Pleasanton that could generate revenue, like the Stoneridge Shopping Center. She said by finding out ways to generate more sales tax with the businesses that are already in the city, they can begin to improve its overall financial situation.
And she said that starts with working more closely with developers.
“I certainly would like to help be more inviting, be more open, be more collaborative and give that vibe of ‘Hey we’re here to work together,’ ” Yee said.
Yee’s other priorities include maintaining property value by focusing on not just the schools, which she noted are an important factor when talking about property value, but also amenities like the city’s parks and streets, which are all also key reasons why people move to Pleasanton. Housing is another important topic to Yee, who wants to see her children move back to Pleasanton but acknowledges how expensive the housing market is right now.
She also said with City Manager Gerry Beaudin’s apparent exit from Pleasanton — he is poised to take on a new job as the top official in the city of Alameda pending a council vote there — and with the fact that most of the current Pleasanton City Council members are fairly new to the job, she sees her bid for District 3 as a good chance to resetÂ
“Being a new council member and having a new city manager at the same time just makes me feel like, what a great refresh for the city,” Yee said.
To learn more about Yee’s campaign, visit her website at www.jamieyee.com.
