City Councilman Steve Brozosky said Wednesday that he will run against Mayor Jennifer Hosterman in the Nov. 7 election for the city’s top post.
Elected four years ago, Brozosky chose not to seek re-election to a second term in order to campaign for mayor. Council members can serve two four-year terms where as the city’s mayor is elected every two years, with an eight-year term limit in that position.
His decision also opens a vacant seat on the City Council. Councilman Jerry Thorne, elected to the council last June in a special election, is expected to announce that he will seek re-election later this month. Planning Commissioner Brian Arkin and businessman Dan Faustina, who also ran for the council seat Thorne won, have indicated that they will try again in November.
Hosterman announced last week that she will seek re-election, saying that there were a number of issues she wanted to continue tackling in a second term. Among those, traffic was a number one concern.
“Solving some of our traffic problems is also a top priority for me, too,” Brozosky said, “but there are many more issues that I want to address.”
“I will also focus on efficiencies in government and how we spend our public money, both internally and in the community,” he added. “I also want to improve the way that we as a city deal with businesses so that businesses can be productive and profitable in our city.”
Brozosky said he made the decision to seek the mayor’s post after talking to friends and business and civic associates.
“A lot of people have asked me to run,” he said. “These are all different people from different groups, all strongly encouraging me to run for mayor.”
He said some in the business community have been irritated by the time it takes to obtain expansion and construction permits in Pleasanton, and by a process that Brozosky said can result in costly delays. He wants that to change and would work with city staff to streamline the permitting process, even doing away with the need for structured condition use permits for more simple operating permits, such as opening a dance studio.
He cited the number of hours by both applicants and the Planning Commission recently over public hearings that were required for conditional use permits to keep a few chickens in the backyards of homes.
“That was a complete waste of time, and it’s also an example where we made changes to simplify those kinds of requests,” Brozosky said.
As vice mayor last year, Brozosky said he had a chance to “learn the ropes” and now believes he is the best qualified to be mayor of Pleasanton.
Another priority as mayor, Brozosky said, would be to complete work on the General Plan update, which is now in its third year of review and drafts.
“This work seems to be much like the commercials for the Eveready Battery,” Brozosky said. “It just keeps going and going! And it’s tiring for all of us and confusing for the public.”
He wants to hold day-long workshop sessions and public hearings on Saturdays to both speed up the process and to allow for ongoing reports and reviews. Currently, the council holds workshop sessions with the Planning Commission and other commissions once or twice a month for two to three hours at a time.
“At each of these meetings, we often go over part of what was said and done at the last one,” he said. “We sort of regurgitate all the same stuff each time.”
Brozosky, who is 44, lives on Brozosky Way in the Vineyard Corridor with his wife Annie, who is the manager of the Pleasanton Spa. They have two daughters: Robin, 19, a sophomore at UC Santa Barbara, and Richelle, 13, who is in the eighth grade at Pleasanton Middle School.
Brozosky has lived in Pleasanton since 1982 and owns and operates Government Outreach, a firm that provides software programs and monitors local government efficiency and service response. The cities of San Ramon and Tracy and the Livermore Airport are among the firm’s clients.
