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The race for the District 1 seat on the Pleasanton City Council pits a former council member with decades of public-service experience against a longtime business executive and former congressional candidate who says he’s looking to shake things up.
Former City Council member Kathy Narum and local entrepreneur Vin Kruttiventi faced off in a Sept. 29 forum hosted by the Weekly that drew a standing-room-only audience to the City Council Chambers at the Pleasanton Civic Center; it was also livestreamed. Narum and Kruttiventi are seeking to replace Jeff Nibert on the dais, representing northwest Pleasanton.
Kruttiventi is a local entrepreneur who founded the Vinay Kruttiventi Foundation, an organization that supports businesses and companies.
He cited the stalled housing development plans at Stoneridge Shopping Center, and the mall’s overall vitality, as a key issue for the city.
“Stoneridge is our biggest opportunity,” Kruttiventi said.
The City Council in January 2023 approved a policy framework for redeveloping the shopping center and surrounding area into a mixed-use property. The city policy document initially allocated just over 1,100 housing units across the site and included proposals to reimagine the area to be more integrated, well-connected and vibrant, with new amenities.
However, very little progress has been made since, apart from the council approving an extension of the development agreement between the city and mall property owners in 2024, and a Danville-based real-estate company purchasing the former Nordstrom building and a large surface parking lot earlier this year.
Kruttiventi said the City Council needs to do more to get the mall owners together and present an update on the redevelopment plans because, if the site is developed, it could result in more housing for younger people, new entertainment and restaurants that will all generate revenue for the city.
More importantly, he said, it would give a reason for people — not just Pleasanton residents — to go to the mall, which he said has lost its appeal over the years.
“Stoneridge, unfortunately, has turned into a flea market,” Kruttiventi said, referring to the departure of a lot of major stores. “I really want to see that … succeed because that used to be an economic engine.”
Kruttiventi also said it was important to address the vacancies at the Hacienda Business Park and in downtown Pleasanton by working with business leaders in the community to bring regional offices to the area, as well as by working to promote existing businesses.
Kruttiventi said those are all tied to his larger goal for Pleasanton, which is boosting its existing economic drivers in the business sector to address the city’s ongoing structural budget deficit. He cited that as his No. 1 priority.
He said he is a reluctant supporter of Measure HH, the city’s proposed hotel tax rate increase measure on the ballot this November, noting that bringing in more businesses and major companies and building more housing for various income levels should be the city’s main focus as it seeks to solve its ongoing economic woes. Pleasanton continues to project an approximate $10 million deficit annually over the next several years and previously estimated about $63 million in general fund needs to maintain its assets.
“We should be looking at the big picture,” Kruttiventi said. “We should be focused on the only thing that matters to us: increase our revenue base.”
He said if the city does not make that a top priority, it will end up like other cities that have gone bankrupt.
He said his fresh perspective would be an asset to the council.
“Experience got us here. It’s the qualifications that’s going to take us from this point to where we want to be,” Kruttiventi said. “Term limits are there for a reason and I am that fresh ideas candidate who’s going to stand up and deliver for you.”
However, Narum said it’s her extensive experience in civic affairs that makes her the best candidate for the seat. She previously sat on the council from 2013 to 2022; city law prevents council members from serving more than two consecutive four-year terms. She was appointed to fill an interim vacancy on the Zone 7 Water Agency Board of Directors in 2023 and then won a full four-year term in the November 2024 election.
Narum said she knows what the job entails and what it will take to address the city’s many challenges.
“Throughout my service, I’ve brought my engineering background and family business know-how to the conversation to better drive results for all of us,” Narum said. “I understand what it takes to balance budgets, negotiate contracts and manage employees while dealing with all the ways that government can be both helpful and burdensome.”
Narum mostly concurred on building more entry-level and affordable housing; addressing the Stoneridge redevelopment delays; and making it easier for businesses to open in Pleasanton.
For Stoneridge, Narum said apart from pushing mall owners to mobilize on redevelopment efforts, she wanted to see more studies about what kind of shops people would really like at the mall.
On economic development, Narum said the Hacienda Business Park vacancy rate is going down as park and business leaders continue cold calling prospective tenants. She also credited the city for beefing up its Community and Economic Development Department with a new assistant director.
She expressed a more positive outlook on Measure HH, saying that while the revenue won’t be a lot, the $2.8 million annually that the tax would generate by the end of 2028 is a good start toward addressing the city’s budget challenges. She also said that the hotel tax, if approved, is just one of many new revenue streams that have not been included in the budget deficit projections.
Both Kruttiventi and Narum agreed that, when it comes to public safety, the city needs to take a look at the number of first responders available as Pleasanton continues to grow.
Regarding water safety and reliability, Kruttiventi said he understands Pleasanton’s ongoing struggles with addressing the discovery of PFAS, otherwise known as forever chemicals, in several of the city’s groundwater wells, and recent water rate increases intended to stabilize the city’s water enterprise fund, which pays for the city’s water supply and distribution system. However, he said residents deserve predictability and stable rates.
He said he hopes the two new groundwater wells that Zone 7 and the city are working on will alleviate some of this stress that he said residents who are on fixed incomes are experiencing.
Narum said as someone who is currently serving on the Zone 7 board, water safety and reliability is very important to her and her campaign. She spent most of her allotted response time to this question going over the entire timeline of the city’s groundwater wells being closed as well as all of the actions the city and the water agency took to get them to where they are now in the design and construction phases of the two new groundwater wells.
During her closing remarks, Narum listed a slew of local first responder unions, city leaders and state politicians, like Sen. Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton), who have endorsed her because of what they know she will bring to the dais.
“They endorsed me for District 1 because they trust me to be an accessible, serious and focused leader,” Narum said during the forum. “One who will help bring our community together to solve these problems, not play the blame game.”
She added that she has no aspirations for higher political office. Kruttiventi in 2024 ran unsuccessfully for the Tri-Valley’s Congressional District 14 and finished third in the June primary for Congressional District 13 in the San Joaquin Valley.
To hear the candidates’ full answers to all questions, watch the video of the forum embedded in this story below or on the Pleasanton Weekly’s YouTube page.
Respectfully disagree with PleasantonRez. I live in District 1. I want someone who is truly committed to Pleasanton. Narum has the experience to help move us forward. Vin may be a great guy, but he doesn’t know anything about Pleasanton and, in my opinion, appears to be seeking power. He has been running for a national seat, first against Swalwell and then in the Central Valley, where a Trump Republican may have a better chance. He claims he’ll use his business skills to bring in new business, but no single councilmember has that control. He’s applying for the wrong job. It is also interesting that Brett Martinez, running for the PUSD School Board, ran Vin’s congressional campaign in the Central Valley. Brett attended the City Council debate, but skipped his own.
Respectful disagreement is awesome! We need more of it. I’m not sure why you think Vin is not committed to Pleasanton. He has raised his family in Pleasanton, has children in the PUSD, founded and sold a company headquartered in Pleasanton, has founded a charitable organization that largely serves Pleasanton. This brings jobs and taxes to our town. This seems pretty committed to Pleasanton.
Kathy’s family owned business (a few strip malls that I don’t believe she was part of the founding or growing, but has inherited) is in Iowa. She claims publicly to be very hands on with this business now…so what happens if things go sideways?
(Portion removed because of speculation and false information.)
A city is not a profit and loss enterprise and pretending it oversimplifies the real work of governing.
Businesses exist to maximize profit. Cities exist to serve people — all people — whether they generate revenue or not. A business can choose its customers; Pleasanton cannot choose its residents. We must maintain parks that don’t pay for themselves, repair roads that generate no profit, and support seniors, youth, and families because that’s what a community does. Efficiency matters, but equity matters more.
Running a city requires transparency, public process, environmental review, long term planning, and accountability. A CEO can make decisions behind closed doors. A council member cannot. Government isn’t slow because it’s incompetent; it’s slow because it must be fair.
In District 1, we have candidates with very different histories. One has run multiple times without being elected and is heavily spending this cycle. The other has served Pleasanton for more than a decade and consistently earned voter support. Those facts speak for themselves, but the deeper issue is the philosophy of governance.
Pleasanton isn’t a corporation. It’s a community. We don’t need profit driven thinking; we need public minded leadership. Government shouldn’t be run like a business — it should be run like a responsibility.
To move Pleasanton in the correct direction we need kathy Narum on the city council. Zone 7 recruited her to sit on their board, she was then elected for the new term.
Kathy has that knowledge and experience.
Kruittivinti has none of it.