|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
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.
.
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.
Excellent!! I could not think of a better team to carry out the will of the people and protect the right for initiatives and referendums. The voting is clear. Even with 1/2 a million dollars, the voters could not be swayed. We don’t want Jennifer, Jerry or Cheryl and they don’t want their rich off-shore special interest land developers either.
Cindy McGovern: 60 year old angry Tea Party members love her!
YAY, Cindy!!
BOO! What a joke. I hope she gets defeated in a big way. She does not deserve the mayor’s position. She does NOT represent the majority of Pleasanton residents. Cindy and her team of ignorant supporters are going down!!!
Ken Mercer for Mayor!!!!
She absolutely represents the will of the people Nimrod, or furdog, whatever. That’s the whole point. She wants our initiatives heeded. More often than not, the traitorous officials desire the exact opposite of the voters, as was shown in the ridgeline protection and housing cap votes, votes where a true majority of Pleasanton residents showed up, not 25% like in the special elections for parcel tax increases. Go McGovern! And for those who like to make fun of older people like Fell did and so many loser libs, just know that most in the older generation can kick your ass. My grandfather easily could. I wanna see Epic Beard Man beat down some of you limpwristed, young, liberal pantywaists
I just hope this doesn’t develop into name calling and bickering by supporters. While we each can feel strong emotions to our chosen canidate we need to realize that others are allowed to feel differently. None of these canidates are “the big bad wolf”. It is sad when Pleasanton citizens fall into partisian politics and let it poison the waters of our great little town. While I haven’t agreed with everything our Council has done, they aren’t ‘bad’ people; and sometimes a change in direction is a good reminder of that. Personally, I have liked what Mr. Thorne & Ms Cook-Kallio have stood for. Ms McGovern and Ms Hosterman have differing viewpoints and styles, but I admire them both. I also know little about Ms. Brown. I will be watching The Weekly for a good piece on where each stands on Pleasanton issues – especially the “affordable housing” question.
McGovern is running again? I guess this is the only elected office in Pleasanton she has not run for. While I am not a Hosterman fan, McGovern represents the liberal left and I will not vote for her!
McGovern in no way appears to represent the liberal left. In local government, the libs want more than anything to develop. They want developments for low income minorities especially. No, if McGovern were a Libby she would desire to end the Pleasanton housing cap. Fell was more on point. She’s appears to be a tea partier. GOOD! Tea party candidates best serve the community at a local level. There they can keep our towns safe from over-development and crime.
Is there ANYONE CONSERVATIVE who will run against our leftist Mayor?
We need a Chris Christie-type of government official for Pleasanton, not to mention all of America !!!
Liz,
Well said. Let’s remember that Gunslinger is some guy from outside of Pleasanton.
Who the heck is Karla Brown? I’m not sure I like the idea of some realtor on the city council. It sounds like she might put the interests of the real estate industry before the interests of Pleasanton. What is next? Is Cindy McGovern going to drag out a used car salesman to run for council too?
Would have thought the challenger would be Matt Sullivan. I suppose he is just too leftist and divisive to beat Mayor Hosterman. Ms. McGovern is a leftist, just not in your face like Mr. Sullivan. And then there is Mayor Hosterman. She, too, leans left but has recently struck a middle-of-the-road pose on several key issues voters in Pleasanton support and the radical left opposes with their normal vitriol and lawsuits.
Hey Fell ~ Don’t worry about a Realtor running for Mayor. The way the real estate market is going, there isn’t much one Realtor/Mayor can do about putting the real estate industry in front of what’s best for the city. What’s next? Lab employees putting science first, teachers putting schools first, police officers putting the police first… it doesn’t really matter what line of work the candidate is in as long as they are smart, dedicated and qualified.
This is good news. Cindy will lose and we can put a smarter, more well balanced person in her council position.
Community of Character—yeah right. Let the nastiness begin!!
Fantastic! It is very important to Pleasanton to get rid of the recycled Berkeley hippie that is our current Mayor.
As I’ve posted here before, we need Pleasantonians on council and not these hick/aging hippy P-Towners we currently have. The majority of Pleasantonians see our town as an upscale community. These P-Towners see it as West Tracy. Were it up to the various combinations of council and mayor we’d have our ridge lines shaved down and filled with houses (just like Dublin and Fremont) we’d have a huge water park in the middle of town (just like Concord and Manteca) and a Home Depot in the middle of town (just like…well no one because not even Dublin, Manteca, Tracy, etc. would be dumb enough to put a big box store in the middle of their towns, miles away from freeways.)
A good way to vet these candidates would be to ask them, “If you had to leave Pleasanton, what would be your first two choices of other nearby communities to live in?” If they respond with Danville, Alamo, Los Gatos, Palo Alto, etc…they are a Pleasantonian. If they respond Tracy, Manteca, Dublin, Patterson, Lathrop, etc…they are a P-Towner and you should find another candidate for whom to vote.
If you moved here after about 1995, you paid way too much to live here to risk having these rubes in charge of the future of our community any longer.
LET’S TAKE BACK PLEASANTON!!!!!!!
Cindy is the absolute best choice to go after the Mayor and her cabal of cronies…Thorne & Cook Calio…
Can ayone make a montage of the Mayor’s red faced tirades and I don’t know how this council thingy system works bloopers…. Can we get that sleazy County guy on it too??
We can post it on U-Tube… I bet we’d get a million hits….
But on a more serious note…..
The choice in this election is very clear! Hosterman, Thorne, and Cook-Calio are trying to do away with Pleasanton’s growth limits and trying to destroy Pleasanton as we know it forever!
Pleasanton is The Jewel of the Eastbay and we need to protect it..
The Measure D vote should tell you something… Hosterman, Thorne, and Cook-Calio were bending over backwards to get the Developer free reign in our beautiful hillsides. The voters stopped it cold….
Cook-Calio said in the PW the day after the vote, the NO voters are very short sighted and don’t know what they are doing. Wow! that’s a great attitude!! But more scary, she said in effect her group have BIGGER FISH TO FRY, like doing away with Pleasanton’s building limits… Please check for yourselves…
I think that wraps up the choices to be made this November….
I hope everyone gets ALL the facts and votes their conscious!!
Take care and God Bless Pleasanton!
Ahhhhhhh, election season is already in the air. I can just smell the political turmoil beginning to brew.
Hey if it weren’t for politics, religion & sports there would be nothing left for civilized people to argue about over drinks.
Your humble conservative, catholic, 49er fan. Nosy.
YES!! CINDY MCGOVERN FOR MAYOR!! You’ve got my vote!!!
I agree with ‘here we go again’. In an ideal world it would not be Jennifer ! However, she is the only choice I could possibly make between these two ! Cindy is nice. She is NO way ever a tea partier, and is most definitely a liberal. She can ‘cover’ herself with small groups. But, the scary part is she functions on emotions…she doesn’t really ‘FIT’ anywhere on either side. Of course Mayor must be NON-partisan. We
do know she crusades for all public unions ! ! She is no conservative. She forgets she’s SUPPOSE to work for US ! She’s all over the map….but sadly, that’s just it… she’s always on the WRONG side of whatever issue it is. That makes her really dangerous. Her meltdown at the meeting a week or two ago, demonstrated how she is emotionally, stubborn as a mule, all emotion, little logic….not for the good of the whole CITY of Pleasanton ! She believes she has some sort of devine knowledge of ‘what’s good for US’…that’s what makes her so dangerous…more like a dictator, with a soft voice !..the worst kind ! don’t be fooled
I agree with Spike — Bring back Ken Mercer (or somebody like him)..!! I bought my home three decades ago in a “City of Planned Progress”, not a City of No Progress.
Cindy McGovern is the best choice for the City of Pleasanton. Vote for Cindy and ask for what you, the people of Pleasanton want, she will listen!!
I don’t know yet if Cindy McGovern is the best choice for Pleasanton. She often focuses too much on things that are trivial and loses sight of the bigger picture. Barry criticizes Hosterman for the “red-faced” outburst yet McGovern has had her own public emotional episodes, crying essentially. But it is good to see her run. I think she has a better chance against Hosterman than Sullivan would and I’d not doubt it if McGovern and Sullivan didn’t meet up and discuss that very thing.
Cindy was part of negotiating the settlement for the Urban Habitat lawsuit. How can it be a positive that she has concerns about eliminating the housing cap when she was part of the negotiations? Don’t you think all of the City council might have concerns but recognize the fiscal implications of continuting to negotiate?
And i don’t understand just lumping thorne in with hosterman and cook kalio. he didn’t go with them to not allow rebutal arguments for measure d and he recently tried to find a compromise on the staples ranch hearing only to be attacked by sullivan. he also didn’t actively campaign for measure d, at least that i saw, once the vote was taken to put it on the june ballot.
My concern with cindy is that she votes no on everything. Does that mean if she were elected Mayor that everything would come to a halt–that isn’t what i think is in the best interest of the city.
Pull the minutes. Jerry explained that he had taken his own poll and that the people want. And the ones he talked to supported Oak Grove. And those that did not, he convinced them that Oak Grove was the better choice. How can he really take a survey from his barca lounger. Sorry – I have never seen him out in public and I doubt he is shopping at Safeway for his family.
Jerry rarely asked an intelligent question of staff. He almost always votes the way of the Mayor and Cheryl. Sorry – no different.
Furdog, you’re obviously a newer resident to our Community of Character. Cindy McGovern represents the reasons why my husband and I moved to Pleasanton 39 years ago. Cindy is a person of integrity, who is tuned in to the people of Pleasanton. She will represent what she understands to be the majority opinion, even if it should happen that YOU are part of that majority.
I can’t wait to get my “Cindy McGovern for Mayor” front yard sign!
Will be interesting to see where the campaign $$ come from…
Do you suppose the Lin’s will contribute to Ms. McGovern’s campaign???:)
Kay Ayala’s mouthpiece is finally stepping up? McGovern hasn’t had a thought of her own since she’s been on the council, she’s Ayala’s puppet. Ayala got spanked by Ms. Hosterman the last time she ran for mayor and she knows it will happen again, so she talks her shill McGovern into running. I guess that’s what friends are for.
Although I am not a Hosterman fan and I don’t have any reason to question McGovern’s integrity, any candidate that support no growth – no development at all (housing cap), protect the hills (a gross exaggeration) are not good for Pleasanton…
Dominic,
Can you expand upon why such a position is not good for Pleasanton? I have my own answer but want to read yours.
PAT – I’m actually a 36 year resident of Pleasanton. I went to school with Cindy’s children. I know her very well….thanks!
She is OPPOSED TO STONERIDGE DRIVE EXTENSION which is ABSURD!!! That is a must. Anyone in their right mind can recognize that Stoneridge Drive needs to be extended. The road was built to be expanded…hello??? Look at the improvements and how the road was built.
The whole McGovern/Ayala camp can go celebrate their victory on Oak Grove. That was another huge mistake. How do you let a 500 acre park get defeated over 51 homes? What a joke…..
I love the smell of Politics in the morning! It smells like Freedom!
Cindy is the answer!
Let’s go get ’em!
LET’S TAKE BACK PLEASANTON!
Get rid of HOSS!
Wow – what a a disappointment. I did want to have Hosterman removed from office but there is no way I could vote for McGovern.
Isn’t there someone else I can choose?
Bosco!
Sarah Palin….. We could use a Momma Grizzly here in P-Town!
Palin is a hockey mom. Hosterman is a soccer mom. There’s your candidate!
No, I want that Grizzly woman! she probably knows how to run a City Council meeting..
Is there an age limit for posting? the only reason I ask is that some of the posts are so childish. I’d ask the same of the level of education requirement. Surely there are a few fifth graders posting here;
“Kay Ayala’s mouthpiece is finally stepping up? McGovern hasn’t had a thought of her own since she’s been on the council, she’s Ayala’s puppet. Ayala got spanked by Ms. Hosterman the last time she ran for mayor and she knows it will happen again, so she talks her shill McGovern into running. I guess that’s what friends are for.”
Ms. McGovern knows that it takes time to think through all of the variables of a good project. She does her homework. How long would it take to clean up a bad project? Hasn’t Pleasanton paid enough legal fees for bad decisions? Take it slow and keep plugging along. I would rather take the extra time and approve a good project than rush a bad one. The majority of 3 need to take responsibility for the rush on Staples. The CLC is 1 year behind because the 3 man council did not order the amended EIR and now they are back peddling because it is their fault for the wasted delays – NOT Cindy’s.
I’m confused about where the candidates stand on the issues…is there somewhere I can go to look that up? (i.e. housing cap, development, traffic solutions, affordable housing, solutions to school issues).
Why would anyone object to Cindy McGovern running for mayor? Furdog, what’s your beef? Is she not liberal enough?
Our mayor must understand the importance of balancing what is takes to have a strong local economy in addition to having qualitative programatic interests. Unfortunately McGovern was on the School Board that decided to waste $ 4,000,000.00 in a lawsuit over the Neil Elementary School that a business person would know could never be successful. This eliminates my vote for her as a Mayor where leadership is needed at a historic time when the economy is in peril.
Oh, to the person who asked who is Karla Brown. She is the realtor who lives in the hillsides who teamed up with Kay Ayala to fight Oak Grove because she didnt want to have to see any other houses near her. And they turned it around to make the general public think they were actually saving ridgelines by voting No on Measure D. The ultimate NIMBY who now has a fleeting taste of importance and power.