Pleasanton Councilwoman Cindy McGovern, the longest serving elected official in Pleasanton, announced Tuesday night that she will run for mayor in the Nov. 2 municipal election in a bid to unseat Mayor Jennifer Hosterman.
At the same time, Karla Brown, a local Realtor and an ally of McGovern, pulled papers Tuesday to run for the City Council. She is the first to challenge two incumbents on the council who are also seeking re-election: Cheryl Cook-Kallio and Jerry Thorne.
Hosterman earlier announced her intention to seek re-election to a fourth—and final—term as mayor. First elected to the City Council in 2002, she was elected mayor in 2004, succeeding Mayor Tom Pico, who chose not to seek re-election. In that election, she defeated mayoral candidate and former Councilwoman Kay Ayala. In both 2006 and 2008, Hosterman defeated mayoral candidate Steve Brozosky, who also had served on the council.
Because of term limits in Pleasanton, mayors must run every two years for two-year terms, but can only serve a total of eight years. Council members serve for four years but also have a total term limit of eight years.
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In an interview after Tuesday night's 2-1/2-hour-long City Council meeting, McGovern, who served 10 years on the Pleasanton school board, said friends have been asking her for years to seek the mayor's post.
"I kept saying no, but now I have some concerns about the way things are going," she said. "One of them was when our citizens were sued over their effort to hold a referendum on Oak Grove. The city clerk and city attorney also were sued but our council chose not to appeal that case. I think we should have appealed."
McGovern added: "I also was upset when our residents put a hillside and ridgeland protection initiative on the ballot, something that had been called for in the General Plan for 11 years but nothing had been done about it. (The majority of) our council did not support that initiative. In fact, they put a competing initiative on the ballot. I thought that wasn't something that should be done. They should have let the public's initiative go to a vote."
"I'm also concerned over the loss of our housing cap and about the financial situation facing our city and the state," McGovern said. "I believe I can bring something to the table to help improve these situations."
McGovern, a retired cardiac and intensive care nurse, has lived here for more than three decades. She was a trustee on the Pleasanton Unified School District board from 1993-2003 and served on the Tri-Valley Transportation Triangle Policy Advisory Committee from 2005-2007.
